Imagine a Chechen whose leadership of secret GRU units earned had earned him the highest award the Russian government could bestow; then double crossing the Kremlin and going over to the other side. What might happen? That man, Sulim Yamadayev, was shot in a luxury hotel in Dubai according to the New York Times as part of a campaign of assassination that is being waged against Chechen insurgents wherever they might be, their deaths coming with the full approval of Russia. Those who have recently died include Yamadayev’s two brothers. Sulim himself ran, but as events in the Gulf proved he did not run far enough.
Sulim B. Yamadayev was a former general in Chechnya and foe of the republic’s Kremlin-backed president. He was killed in the Persian Gulf emirate of Dubai on March 30, 2009, in what appeared to be an assassination, the police said. He was 36.
The attack evoked others on Chechens, in Russia and abroad, who ran afoul of President Ramzan A. Kadyrov. The Kremlin has invested Mr. Kadyrov with almost unchecked authority in a bid to return stability to Chechnya after nearly a decade of bloody war and political turmoil. With Moscow’s blessing, Mr. Kadyrov has created a personality cult and imposed his own interpretation of Islamic morality in Chechnya, whose population is predominately Muslim.
Although Kadyrov might concern himself with the correct interpretation of Islam in Chechnya, the message sent to Yamadayev was From Russia With Love. The parallels with fiction don’t end there. The AFP reports that Yamadayev was shot by a Man With a Golden Gun.
The killer fired three bullets from a gold-plated gun at the victim’s chest as Sulim Yamadayev climbed from his car in the private car park beneath his luxury residence in Dubai. … The March 28 murder was the latest apparent contract-killing in an extraordinary trail of blood leading from Chechnya that already stretched to Istanbul, Moscow and Vienna. And now the bustling emirate.
Yamadayev was the fifth person to be murdered in recent months seen as an opponent of Ramzan Kadyrov, the Kremlin-appointed president of Chechnya, a mainly Muslim region of Russia’s southern fringe that fought two wars with Moscow.
President Ramzan Kadyrov is himself a former Chechen rebel and rose to power shortly after he had turned 30. He’s a colorful sort of gentleman who runs horses in the Melbourne cup and owns a stable of thoroughbreds in Dubai when he’s not ruling on Islamic morality. Kadyrov wears a million dollar wristwatch and his personal sidearm, perhaps not so coincidentally, is a gold plated automatic pistol. Despite these refinements some Australian academics feel a little uneasy about letting the Chechen President run his horses a proper club, observing that it constitutes a “moral dilemma. If Kim Jong-il applies to have a horse run next time, what should we do?”
Why, approve it. So long as the applicants aren’t from Israel or America, it’s all right. But if anyone who killed Yamadayev were suspected to hail from from the Jewish state or America oceans of ink would be spilled and the international human rights crowd would be howling for blood. Since the suspects are not it’s hardly likely to cause a ripple. In fact, the AFP notes that it’s like Yamadayev didn’t die at all. “Bizarrely, the Russian foreign ministry said that the Dubai authorities have still not informed them of Yamadayev’s death, although the press has reported Tamin saying he was buried earlier this month.” But why tell them, since they already know?
The Washington Post notes the absence of publicity surrounding these hits. Jackson Diehl writes that while the Dubai police have been even handed, stories of hits by Russia on Islamic rebels just have no legs. They’re below the fold.
To his credit, police chief Tamim tried to subject Russia to the same treatment he has given Israel. At a press conference last April, he named the author of the crime as Adam Delimkhanov, a Kadyrov associate who is a member of the Russian parliament, and said he would ask Interpol for his arrest. It is, he said, “Russia’s responsibility in front of the world to control these killers from Chechnya.”
The difference, of course, is that the audience for a story about a Russian-sponsored assassination in Dubai is nothing like that for an Israeli hit. Relatively few stories were written about the Yamadayev case; there were no angry editorials in the Financial Times. Perhaps it’s needless to say that Delimkhanov and the other suspects identified by Dubai have not been arrested or extradited. As Shmuel Rosner summed it up in a dispatch for Slate: “The consequences for the assassins? None at all. For the Chechen government? None. For the deputy prime minister? None. For Dubai-Russian relations? None.”
It’s a fact that Western armies and intelligences agencies are held to different standards than those of the rest of the world. This means that for the foreseeable future, the use proxies will be increasingly necessary to carry out operations. Caught between the Scylla of preventing attacks on their constituents and the Charybdis of maintaining their carefully manicured images, politicians may simply opt for cut-outs to perform electorally impermissible acts at acceptable PR costs. Political correctness has made decency an operational burden. Israel is a democracy it simply can’t do for reasons of frank military necessity what Chechnya might do on a whim. America’s laws mean that terrorists who recognize no law must given the the benefit of every due process, and more so to remove every suspicion they’re not getting their “rights”. There are some things they can’t do which their opponents can.
Political correctness, which has already driven open debate on subjects like race, education and healthcare underground and substituted coded speech in its place, will increasingly substitute hypocrisy for morality in international affairs without reducing the brutality of the battlefield by one whit. But perhaps its purpose is to craft an asymmetric battlefield, not reduce its savagery. The terrible struggle will continue, each side playing by a different set of behavioral rules. To even things up, a reliance on proxies and combat drones plus the increasing use of euphemism and subterfuge are likely to be used to meet the touchy-feely requirements of the 21st century. The other side, with fewer material resources, will retain the advantage of being able to operate unapologetically. Ian Fleming who created the character of James Bond, described his first mission of his fictional hero as that of discrediting an enemy agent protected by the Press by the Rube Goldberg method of bankrupting him at the Casino Royale. James Bond may have had his Bentley, wholewheat toast, Tiptree “Little Scarlet” strawberry jam and china egg cups, but he could never do anything directly; and it was always his foes who had the advantage of terror, useful in the hard places of the world. And 007 would have lost too, even at the Casino Royale simply because things had to be just so. Strangely enough, one reason why the intellectuals of the West find their enemies so attractive is that they are so brutal. It’s the audacity that bewitches them.
It was extraordinary to hear the third voice. The hour’s ritual had only demanded a duologue against the horrible noise of the torture. Bond’s dimmed senses hardly took it in. Then suddenly he was half-way back to consciousness. He found he could see and hear again. He could hear the dead silence after the one quiet word from the doorway. He could see Le Chiffre’s head slowly come up and the expression of blank astonishment, of innocent amazement, slowly give way to fear. ‘Shtop,’ had said the voice, quietly. Bond heard slow steps approaching behind his chair. ‘Dhrop it,’ said the voice. Bond saw Le Chiffre’s hand open obediently and the knife fall with a clatter to the floor. He tried desperately to read into Le Chiffre’s face what was happening behind him, but all he saw was blind incomprehension and terror. Le Chiffre’s mouth worked, but only a high-pitched ‘eek’ came from it. His heavy cheeks trembled as he tried to collect enough saliva in his mouth to say something, ask something. His hands fluttered vaguely in his lap. One of them made a slight movement towards his pocket, but instantly fell back. His round staring eyes had lowered for a split second and Bond guessed there was a gun trained on him. There was a moment’s silence. ‘SMERSH.’ The word came almost with a sigh. It came with a downward cadence as if nothing else had to be said. It was the final explanation. The last word of all.
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it is rather because we weren’t interested in Chechenian nor in Russian “inner” businesses, so far we weren’t involved into their quarrels
wretchard:
Why expect honesty in war? Has it not been said that truth is war’s first casualty?
SMERSH was a very real organization stemming from the Stalin-Beria era of the USSR. It was virtually autonomous and could decide whom to assassinate on its own. Bringing it under control and making it a mere department of KGB
took a significant amount of bloodshed.
Our side got a significant break into how SMERSH worked and whom the key personnel were
when an imprisoned Jewish playwright heard
conversation about killing an unnamed American actor. Word was passed out of the gulag, deductions made and the intended target, John Wayne, and a friend took the assassins into their personal custody, and drove them to a remote area. There Duke and friend applied some enhanced interrogation techniques before turning the perps over to the FBI. There they babbled everything they knew to avoid being returned to the Worker’s Paradise.
Assassination does not always work—-or yield the desired results.
The Cold War was based on two Western main objectives. One was to prevent the outbreak of a worldwide nuclear war. The other was to oppose the USSR wherever and whenever, as described by the Admiral in the film “The Bridges of Toko Ri.” So we did move and countermove with the communists, from the deepest depths of the ocean to the seas of the Moon.
The problem with this approach is that the communists were always willing to go further. A Smith and Wesson beats a royal flush. But a Stalin tank beats a truckload of Smith and Wessons. Despite winning most of the covert war we were losing the one that counted. That is, until Ronald Reagan, who decided to just get the damn thing over with. An M1A1 Abrams with some A-10’s overhead beats a boatload of Stalin tanks, or T-55′s or T-62′s or T-72′s. Game, set, match and we got ya’ covered Ivan.
The two main objectives in the current war are to not admit there is a war and to put on good show of fighting it without upsetting anyone. The trial of KSM in NYC is designed to say to the Right “We are too opposing these guys!” and to the Left “There, there, ACLU, you ARE important and we DO care about your feelings!”
The old saying was that after WWIII was fought with nukes that WWIV would be fought with clubs and brickbats. Instead, WWIV is being fought with lawyers and that will mean that WWV will be fought with nukes.
Israel, the US, Britain all have a shame gene. It comes with an understanding of eventual accountability. This accountability provides for Limits. The godless are not so handicapped. If there is no accountability, there are no Limits. It serves no purpose to call the Russians or the Chinese or the NoKos to account because they dont believe it makes a $hit. They do what they gotta (or want) to do.
The mullahs in Iran are the same, except that they are of the belief that they are so chosen of allah that they can do what they will to defend allah. Allah is a poor deity that needs to use people to defend him by killing an maiming other innocent people even those who believe in it.
The Chicago Gang(tm) isnt so very different. Note that their current willingness to sacrifice their majority in Congress for the control of the American healthcare system. They could give a damn less about this congress or that congresscritter. What they are after is control of the population. Once that is achieved, its only a matter of time before they eventually return to power.
If America and Israel were as hard case as some would have us believe, the world would be a much quieter place.
Totally OT:
The World’s Largest Airplane Graveyard in High Resolution, Now On Google Maps
What is acceptable depends on who does it. That’s what liberals believe and why there is no rule of law.
America’s laws mean that terrorists who recognize no law must given the the benefit of every due process, and more so to remove every suspicion they’re not getting their “rights”.
Well, that turns out not to be the case.
We do have the mechanism of a presidential finding that can license the CIA to do what must be done, for the good of the state. We certainly have Predators that can fire at a dirty napkin, within a certain protocol. It’s very Bugs Bunny really, you dress up, put on your spectacles and white gloves, carefully examine and measure, think deep thoughts, then pull out a sledgehammer and whack whatever needs whacking.
Terrorists must be given their rights, only when Obama (or somebody like him) wants to stick it to his domestic political foes. The moment we take the terrorists seriously, we carpet bomb his home town, whether he’s there or not. If we want to be realistic about things, let’s *be* realistic.
Please excuse the long post, but this speach by Gert Wilders is so compelling I wanted every one in the BC to get a chance to read it.
Below is the text of Geert Wilders’ address today in the House of Lords, where, at the invitation of Baronness Cox and Lord Pearson, both members of United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), he showed his film Fitna.
Thank you. It is great to be back in London. And it is great that this time, I got to see more of this wonderful city than just the detention centre at Heathrow Airport.
Today I stand before you, in this extraordinary place. Indeed, this is a sacred place. This is, as Malcolm always says, the mother of all Parliaments, I am deeply humbled to have the opportunity to speak before you.
Thank you Lord Pearson and Lady Cox for your invitation and showing my film ‘Fitna’. Thank you my friends for inviting me.
I first have great news. Last Wednesday city council elections were held in the Netherlands. And for the first time my party, the Freedom Party, took part in these local elections. We participated in two cities. In Almere, one of the largest Dutch cities. And in The Hague, the third largest city; home of the government, the parliament and the queen. And, we did great! In one fell swoop my party became the largest party in Almere and the second largest party in The Hague. Great news for the Freedom Party and even better news for the people of these two beautiful cities.
And I have more good news. Two weeks ago the Dutch government collapsed. In June we will have parliamentary elections. And the future for the Freedom Party looks great. According to some polls we will become the largest party in the Netherlands. I want to be modest, but who knows, I might even be Prime Minister in a few months time!
Ladies and gentlemen, not far from here stands a statue of the greatest Prime Minister your country ever had. And I would like to quote him here today: “Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. No stronger retrograde force exists in the World. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step (…) the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome.” These words are from none other than Winston Churchill wrote this in his book ‘The River War’ from 1899.
Churchill was right.
Ladies and gentlemen, I don’t have a problem and my party does not have a problem with Muslims as such. There are many moderate Muslims. The majority of Muslims are law-abiding citizens and want to live a peaceful life as you and I do. I know that. That is why I always make a clear distinction between the people, the Muslims, and the ideology, between Islam and Muslims. There are many moderate Muslims, but there is no such thing as a moderate Islam.
Islam strives for world domination. The Quran commands Muslims to exercise jihad. The Quran commands Muslims to establish shariah law. The Quran commands Muslims to impose Islam on the entire world.
As former Turkish Prime Minister Erbakan said: “The whole of Europe will become Islamic. We will conquer Rome”. End of quote.
Libyan dictator Gaddafi said: “There are tens of millions of Muslims in the European continent today and their number is on the increase. This is the clear indication that the European continent will be converted into Islam. Europe will one day soon be a Muslim continent”. End of quote. Indeed, for once in his life, Gaddafi was telling the truth. Because, remember: mass immigration and demographics is destiny!
Islam is merely not a religion, it is mainly a totalitarian ideology. Islam wants to dominate all aspects of life, from the cradle to the grave. Shariah law is a law that controls every detail of life in a Islamic society. From civic- and family law to criminal law. It determines how one should eat, dress and even use the toilet. Oppression of women is good, drinking alcohol is bad.
I believe that Islam is not compatible with our Western way of life. Islam is a threat to Western values. The equality of men and women, the equality of homosexuals and heterosexuals, the separation of church and state, freedom of speech, they are all under pressure because of islamization. Ladies and gentlemen: Islam and freedom, Islam and democracy are not compatible. It are opposite values.
No wonder that Winston Churchill called Adolf Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’ “the new Quran of faith and war, turgid, verbose, shapeless, bur pregnant with its message”. As you know, Churchill made this comparison, between the Koran and Mein Kampf, in his book ‘The Second World War’, a master piece, for which, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature. Churchill’s comparison of the Quran and ‘Mein Kampf’ is absolutely spot on. The core of the Quran is the call to jihad. Jihad means a lot of things and is Arabic for battle. Kampf is German for battle. Jihad and kampf mean exactly the same.
Islam means submission, there cannot be any mistake about its goal. That’s a given. The question is whether we in Europe and you in Britain, with your glorious past, will submit or stand firm for your heritage.
We see Islam taking off in the West at an incredible pace. Europe is Islamizing rapidly. A lot of European cities have enormous Islamic concentrations. Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels and Berlin are just a few examples. In some parts of these cities, Islamic regulations are already being enforced. Women’s rights are being destroyed. Burqa’s, headscarves, polygamy, female genital mutilation, honour-killings. Women have to go to separate swimming-classes, don’t get a handshake. In many European cities there is already apartheid. Jews, in an increasing number, are leaving Europe.
As you undoubtedly all know, better then I do, also in your country the mass immigration and islamization has rapidly increased. This has put an enormous pressure on your British society. Look what is happening in for example Birmingham, Leeds, Bradford and here in London. British politicians who have forgotten about Winston Churchill have now taken the path of least resistance. They have given up. They have given in.
Last year, my party has requested the Dutch government to make a cost-benefit analysis of the mass immigration. But the government refused to give us an answer. Why? Because it is afraid of the truth. The signs are not good. A Dutch weekly magazine – Elsevier – calculated costs to exceed 200 billion Euros. Last year alone, they came with an amount of 13 billion Euros. More calculations have been made in Europe: According to the Danish national bank, every Danish immigrant from an Islamic country is costing the Danish state more than 300 thousand Euros. You see the same in Norway and France. The conclusion that can be drawn from this: Europe is getting more impoverished by the day. More impoverished thanks to mass immigration. More impoverished thanks to demographics. And the leftists are thrilled.
I don’t know whether it is true, but in several British newspapers I read that Labour opened the door to mass immigration in a deliberate policy to change the social structures of the UK. Andrew Neather, a former government advisor and speech writer for Tony Blair and Jack Straw, said the aim of Labour’s immigration strategy was, and I quote, to “rub the Right’s nose in diversity and render their arguments out of date”. If this is true, this is symptomatic of the Left.
Ladies and gentlemen, make no mistake: The left is facilitating islamization. Leftists, liberals, are cheering for every new shariah bank being created, for every new shariah mortgage, for every new islamic school, for every new shariah court. Leftists consider Islam as being equal to our own culture. Shariah law or democracy? Islam or freedom? It doesn’t really matter to them. But it does matter to us. The entire leftist elite is guilty of practising cultural relativism. Universities, churches, trade unions, the media, politicians. They are all betraying our hard-won liberties.
Why I ask myself, why have the Leftists and liberals stopped to fight for them? Once the Leftists stood on the barricades for women’s rights. But where are they today? Where are they in 2010? They are looking the other way. Because they are addicted to cultural relativism and dependent on the Muslim vote. They are dependent on mass-immigration.
Thank heavens Jacqui Smith isn’t in office anymore. It was a victory for free speech that a UK judge brushed aside her decision to refuse me entry to your country last year. I hope that the judges in my home country are at least as wise and will acquit me of all charges, later this year in the Netherlands.
Unfortunately, so far they have not done so well. For they do not want to hear the truth about Islam, nor are they interested to hear the opinion of top class legal experts in the field of freedom of expression. Last month in a preliminary session the Court refused fifteen of the eighteen expert-witnesses I had requested to be summoned.
Only three expert witnesses are allowed to be heard. Fortunately, my dear friend and heroic American psychiatrist dr. Wafa Sultan is one of them. But their testimony will be heard behind closed doors. Apparently the truth about Islam must not be told in public, the truth about Islam must remain secret.
Ladies and gentlemen, I’m being prosecuted for my political beliefs. We know political prosecution to exist in countries in the Middle East, like Iran and Saudi-Arabia, but never in Europe, never in the Netherlands.
I’m being prosecuted for comparing the Quran to ‘Mein Kampf’. Ridiculous. I wonder if Britain will ever put the beliefs of Winston Churchill on trial… Ladies and gentlemen, the political trial that is held against me has to stop.
But it is not all about me, not about Geert Wilders. Free speech is under attack. Let me give you a few other examples. As you perhaps know, one of my heroes, the Italian author Oriana Fallaci had to live in fear of extradition to Switzerland because of her anti-Islam book ‘The Rage and the Pride’. The Dutch cartoonist Nekschot was arrested in his home in Amsterdam by 10 police men because of his anti-Islam drawings. Here in Britain, the American author Rachel Ehrenfeld was sued by a Saudi businessman for defamation. In the Netherlands Ayaan Hirsi Ali and in Australia two Christian pastors were sued. I could go on and on. Ladies and gentlemen, all throughout the West freedom loving people are facing this ongoing ‘legal jihad’. This is Islamic ‘lawfare’. And, ladies and gentlemen, not long ago the Danish cartoonist Westergaard was almost assassinated for his cartoons.
Ladies and gentlemen, we should defend the right to freedom of speech. With all our strength. With all our might. Free speech is the most important of our many liberties. Free speech is the cornerstone of our modern societies. Freedom of speech is the breath of our democracy, without freedom of speech our way of life our freedom will be gone.
I believe it is our obligation to preserve the inheritance of the brave young soldiers that stormed the beaches of Normandy. That liberated Europe from tyranny. These heroes cannot have died for nothing. It is our obligation to defend freedom of speech. As George Orwell said: “If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear”.
Ladies and gentlemen, I believe in another policy, it is time for change. We must make haste. We can’t wait any longer. Time is running out. If I may quote one of my favourite American presidents: Ronald Reagan once said: “We need to act today, to preserve tomorrow”. That is why I propose the following measures, I only mention a few, in order to preserve our freedom:
First, we will have to defend freedom of speech. It is the most important of our liberties. In Europe and certainly in the Netherlands, we need something like the American First Amendment.
Second, we will have to end and get rid of cultural relativism. To the cultural relativists, the shariah socialists, I proudly say: Our Western culture is far superior to the Islamic culture. Don’t be affraid to say it. You are not a racist when you say that our own culture is better.
Third, we will have to stop mass immigration from Islamic countries. Because more Islam means less freedom.
Fourth, we will have to expel criminal immigrants and, following denaturalisation, we will have to expel criminals with a dual nationality. And there are many of them in my country.
Fifth, we will have to forbid the construction of new mosques. There is enough Islam in Europe. Especially since Christians in Turkey, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan and Indonesia are mistreated, there should be a mosque building-stop in the West.
And last but not least, we will have to get rid of all those so-called leaders. I said it before: Fewer Chamberlains, more Churchills. Let’s elect real leaders.
Ladies and gentlemen. To the previous generation, that of my parents, the word ‘London’ is synonymous with hope and freedom. When my country was occupied by the national-socialists the BBC offered a daily glimpse of hope in my country, in the darkness of Nazi tyranny. Millions of my fellow country men listened to it, underground. The words ‘This is London’ were a symbol for a better world coming soon.
What will be broadcasted forty years from now? Will it still be “This is London”? Or will it be “This is Londonistan”? Will it bring us hope? Or will it signal the values of Mecca and Medina? Will Britain offer submission or perseverance? Freedom or slavery? The choice is yours. And in the Netherlands the choice is ours.
Ladies and gentlemen, we will never apologize for being free. We will and should never give in. And, indeed, as one of your former leaders said: We will never surrender.
Freedom must prevail, and freedom will prevail.
Thank you very much.
Wretchard,
Typo on the first sentence:
“…units earned had earned him…”
Please delete this comment.
Dubai has eclipsed Monaco as “a sunny place for shady people.” Getting your guests killed has got to be bad for business, unless it is your business. Welcome to Murdersville.
Marie Claude,
we weren’t interested in Chechenian nor in Russian “inner” businesses
We have tried that attitude before.
How horrible, fantastic, incredible it is that we should be digging trenches and trying on gas-masks here because of a quarrel in a far away country between people of whom we know nothing
- Neville Chamberlain
How did that work out for France?
herb,
Allah is a poor deity that needs to use people to defend him
That is because Allah is not a true diety, in the same category as YHWH or Buddah or Bramah or Zeus or Odin etc. were for healthy members of their respective societies. Allah remains the frozen projection of the dementia of Muhammad. It is so structured that adherents have to enter into his pathologies of theft, violence, child abuse and deceit.
If you accept the least charitable explanation of the origin of Judaism, with Abraham having a psychotic episode similar to Muhammed’s there is nothing in the structure of the religion or the authority given to the example of any individual that forces a person into accepting immoral or destructive behavior.
wretchard,
It’s the audacity that bewitches them
Now that the people have been suckered into buying even The Audacity of Hope and discovered that upon examination it is box of Chicago rubbish and broken truncheons they may become less predictable. People hate to have their fantasies destroyed. It makes them cranky.
SIGINTEL,
That should have been done with a link and a synopsis. It is our host’s bandwidth. Good luck to the UKIP.
Thanks, Sigintel.
I mean seriously folks, how about this Obama fellow? He’s spent seven entire hours discussing the healthcare issue with Republicans. Who could ask for anything more? Say something once, why say it again, uh-uh-uh-uh-uh, uh-uh-uh-UH-uh.
This Obama fellow is exceedingly impressed with himself or am I mistaken. And now, I’d like to introduce you to a very dear friend of mine, …
–
Sorry, but his clueless blathering just seems to call for a string of cliches and hallucinations in return.
It has been part of the cultural norm in the West for generations that the bad guys always have the initiative. We are “too good” to fight back, and therefore we are always desperately countering the enemy’s moves after the fact rather than putting direct pressure on them.
Only reacting after the fact, and only to a degree that will not put pressure on the aggressor to stop or to withdraw from his latest gain has been our policy from 1952-1980 and 1988- 9/11/2001. From early 2003, if not sooner, the American Left in coordination with the Left worldwide returned to the policy of “not hurting the enemy”. For the American government itself, that did not take effect until after the Surge; and since January 2009 it is again official policy. We are back to hoping that the enemy will not hurt us too much, and hoping that we will not offend them too much by existing.
After all, the Failed Communist States and the Islamists will actually hurt or kill their enemies. It is a not totally irrational partial response to fear them. Who fears, really, that the West will hurt them for their actions, at least at the State level, including States who enable Islamic terrorism.
There is a domestic corollary in the West that explains the lack of press coverage of the Yamadayev assassination.
If you are in the media, and you offend the Russian government, the Chinese government, etc.; they may well kill you. People, and especially writers and reporters, disappear or die from obvious murder at the hands of those governments. And it is done, even in the West, with absolute impunity and without even public notice.
Similarly, especially in Europe but also here; if you offend the Islamist enemy you are likely to be murdered, or directly threatened with such, riots will break out in the streets, etc. And the government will not react. They fear offending the enemy and becoming a target themselves. Better to pre-emptively yield. It perhaps is best exemplified by the Dutch government withdrawing protection from members of its Parliament who are the subject of Islamist death threats, but it also is seen in Britain with their hands-off attitude towards illegal Muslim immigrants who openly threaten violence against the state and people of Britain, and the Swedish yielding of control of some cities to Islamists where violence against Swedes, especially women, has become the norm [Malmo comes to mind, but it is not the only one], and the French tolerance of their “Sensitive Urban Zones” where French law does not run, and Sharia law does. Appended is a list of the 700+ ZONES URBAINES SENSIBLES. Note for the record and to anticipate a certain reaction; this link and list is official and comes from the French government, not from the hated Anglo-Saxons. In fact, the “Anglo” part of the Anglo-Saxons have openly incorporated Sharia law and courts as an alternative to British/EU law for Muslims in Britain.
http://i.ville.gouv.fr/divbib/doc/chercherZUS.htm
Why the willing submission to threats? Because the Islamists will kill you, burn your property, and riot while the forces of the West fear to act even in self defense. If you are a member of the media [and this includes the state media] can you believe the Islamists/Russians/Chinese, etc. will carry out their threats? Yes, because there is a track record. Can you believe that your society and/or your government will protect you from those threats? No, because of the track record. In fact, the most likely result would be for the government to turn against you to attempt to appease those making the threats.
Lest I be accused of picking unduly on the Europeans in this case; let us look at the United States. The immediate reaction, literally within seconds, of the first news breaking of a violent attack here is an official statement by the FBI and Homeland Security that it is NOT a terrorist or terrorist related attack. This is before anyone could have any possible knowledge of what is actually happening. Once the news comes out, no matter what the Islamic connection or specific actions and statements of the terrorist(s) during and after the attack; there is government denial of any Islamic or terrorist connection. The only ones where they have been willing to entertain the possibility of terrorism in recent years have been the plane flight into the IRS building and the shooting at the Pentagon Metro station a few days ago. They are trying to make it out as Conservative terrorism, but are stymied by the fact that in the first case the pilot was a staunch Obama supporter, and Obamacare supporter, and he may or may not have been screwed by the IRS. In the second case, he was a Leftist who believed the evil American government staged the attacks on 9/11, hated the military, and hated the Patriot Act [which hatred was Leftist theology until Buraq Hussein Obama renewed it a week or so ago].
The government and the media in the West do not fear Conservatives, Christians, or Jews. They know from experience that there will be no push back; legal, financial,political, or physical for any attacks. As INSTAPUNDIT pointed out a day or so ago; there was more violence at this week’s University of Wisconsin protests of a tuition increase [for non-American readers, UW-Madison is in competition with CU-Boulder and U Cal-Berkely as the successor to Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow] than by the entire TEA Party movement to date.
They know that in this country, the same dynamic as in Europe holds. If they attack, or even say something mildly critical of Islamic terrorists, any aspect of the Left, or any aspect of the government; they will be vilified, lose the “social cachet” of being part of the official media, lose their cushy careers, and depending on who they mention they might possibly be physically attacked. And they will not receive any protection from any source.
Politicians believe that they are safe in targeting Conservatives, Christians, and Jews [openly or tacitly] because not only will there be no pushback, but of late they are acting like they need not fear elections ever again.
Until Conservatives, Christians, and Jews can instill some level of countervailing fear at some level; the media and the government are going to continue to use them as their punching bag in their reporting and assigning of blame for the woes of the world, while delibrately ignoring any real threats.
Subotai Bahadur
Subotai, I blame all those miserable Hollywood-produced westerns and cop shows from the 1950′s in which the designated hero invariably refused to go for his gun until the BAD GUY had already drawn and fired a shot.
Ah, well, it’s part of a deeply-rooted list of insane and contradictory beliefs I call the “Catechism of the Delusional.”
Part of that catechism is the firmly held belief that the United States government (when controlled by evil conservatives) is the ONLY government in the universe that has ever devoted its blood and treasure to subverting the government and society of its adversaries.
Try to show how the Communist International organized over a century ago became COMINTERN and spent most of the 20th century surreptitiously recruiting, training, and placing agents back in their own countries to assist the growth of communism.
There is no document you can cite that a true believer will not dismiss. Most liberals will categorize you as a hopeless yahoo for making any such claim, or for mentioning Stalin’s well-documented murder of millions of Ukrainians in the 1920′s and 30′s collectivization programs.
Likewise for any claims that the Qur’an tells the faithful that it is perfectly acceptable behavior for a Muslim to lie to and cheat the infidel, much less execute the apostate, or put the infidel to the sword to advance Dar-al-Islam into the precincts of Dar-al-Harb.
As Samuel Clemens liked to say, you might as well try to bully the comets out of their courses.
Seemingly, Life itself will have to provide the nudge to get such idiots to recognize their error.
Many insects emerge from the egg as a worm or caterpillar – a soft-fleshed critter with minimal equipment beyond an efficient mouth, vague eyes and locomotory bits, and rudimentary breathing and excretory apparatus. The infant form eats. And eats and grows fat. And eats and grows fatter. When there is enough food stored in the now distended body, the caterpillar finds or makes a protective hidey-hole, and becomes a pupa.
I was electrified to learn years after my biology classes of four decades ago that within the original caterpillar were embedded islands of tiny dormant cells – “histoblasts” – which become active only in the pupal stage. These convert the stored food and the autolysed (or “histolyzed”) cells from the caterpillar, and begin to build the totally new structures of the adult critter within the protection of the pupal covering. (Strictly speaking, this is true for the fully-metamorphosing holometabolous* insects such as Diptera, Lepidoptera, Neuroptera, and Coleoptera… but it’s a system that accounts for a pretty darn huge portion of life on Earth.)
When you think of it, that is not so foreign a concept – within the human body throughout infancy and adolescence, cells die on cue to allow for bones and other tissues to grow in response to stress and need.
Whoa… sounds like a eugenic progressivist societal analogy trying to break through here…
Well, seriously, a lot of liberals could fit the initial description of the soft squishy critter with all organ systems rudimentary except for a mouth apt to the teat…
* search on the term “holometabolism”
BC’ers may remember
pictures from the Russo-Georgian War of BMP’s spray painted with grafitti and the Cyrillic word BOCTOK. That was Sulim Yamadayev’s VOSTOK Battalion of former Chechen guerrillas who went over to the Russians.
It’s not hard to imagine Sulim double crossing the Kremlin and going over to the other side. He had switched sides before.
Mad Fiddler,
Life
itselfhimself will have to provide the nudge to get such idiots to recognize their errorFIFY
Oh yeah sure. Why do I always have to get saddled with the job?
///sarc
Something from Geert Wilders statement made me think, what with the duplicity in Dubai and the movement to turn the West to unproven “Green” energy while bankrupting our banks through immigration and a twisted sense of obligation, our untapped oil will be there for the taking by the ones left standing. Only a little twisted, I think, but the price of a bbl of the stuff seems to be bandied about like the argument of what size of government is most efficient at taking money out of citizens pockets. Most all the “Greenies” I know are devoted fans of the Palestinians, believe the Goldstone report and think Israel should be removed from the Middle East as a punishment for stealing Arab land. What makes president Obama’s stated diplomatic goals any different?
Sigintel, there was no business before the house of lords today, I would be grateful for a link. Perhaps this was a part of International Womens rights day (March 8th) hearings 3/4 or 3/5 sponsored by the Human right committee of the house of lords.
A motion was debated on Thursday and on Friday, but I cannot find any links or news of Mr. Wilders presentation to the House of Lords.
@19
Regarding Geert Wilders’ speech.
http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/archives/013511.html
“and the French tolerance of their “Sensitive Urban Zones” where French law does not run, and Sharia law does. Appended is a list of the 700+ ZONES URBAINES SENSIBLES. Note for the record and to anticipate a certain reaction LMAO ; this link and list is official and comes from the French government, not from the hated Anglo-Saxons. In fact, the “Anglo” part of the Anglo-Saxons have openly incorporated Sharia law and courts as an alternative to British/EU law for Muslims in Britain.”
Ah, Subotai,you couldn’t avoid it ! probably it took you a while to look for your link, that doen’t mean anything BTW ! I could do the same for your cities… but I’m not in the mood for it !
Though if you want to tell me that these cities obbey to shariah and or to whatever islamist pressions, you’re wrong !
You’re such a skilled policeman,that pasts quite some times on the net, you should know that the very islamists make their proselythism and insidious propaganda through the net now, not quite in the suburbs, that are ghettos for poors immigrants, be them Chineses, Viets, Kurds, Iraki, Afghani, Polish, Romanian, Bulgarian, Maghrebin Subsharians… and Portugese. The whole lot isn’t all muslim, and the youngs don’t care of religions, they just care to make trouble (10% of them)as idle rebels, also because drugs traffics are their main life earning ! uh, like in America, seen on TV
I understand that you want to prove me that you’re right, but it doesn’t convice me though ! you’re expressing an opinion that is spread among certain blogs, that worship the total war against islam, but these persons have no real contact with reality, they even haven’t seen a muslim, apart on TV !
Now about Geert Wilders, his crusade is a bit exagerated, I guess he is manipulated too, he repeats the very same slogans as I can read on these blogs too, a bet, he get paid by the same persons ! and certainly he doesn’t represent our reality ! If he wants to set Holland in fire, I don’t care, I have enough to deal with my country. Once, on this blog there was a post about dying for our principles and or for our beliefs, it appears that the muslims are men and women too, and that they react like any other humans, therefore they would die for their beliefs and or principles too.
here is a copy of my comment on a german blog about carricatures
I still remember when movies, or photos, that carricaturated Jesus Christ, the associations of traditional catholics made a “reféré” in tribunal to forbid their diffusions too, and courts accorded them that.
Now, if these carricatures were on persons or countries, or policies, I don’t think that the reactions would have been so violent, beliefs, principles are the main motive for what persons would fight and die.
So I think that they didn’t bring more matter in the war against terrorism, but provocation.
Generally you don’t convince popuplations that have a strong tie to their beliefs in mocking at their object of devotion, but mocking at their behaviour is rather more effective, ie Molière parodies of religious hypocrits…
It has been so effective that being called a “tartuffe” doesn’t generate a mob empathy, but rather some irony.
So measure is what we should consider when beliefs, principles are considered
this is why, in France, the european state the less subjugated to muslims, (ie our laic laws, anti-veil law, and soon anti burqa law), we take Danish cartons as gratuitous provocations, Geert Wilders as a clown, but that doesn’t mean that we would forbid them to talk, we are Voltaire patry too, we defends their right to talk, even if we don’t agree with what these persons say, except, for racist purposes and incitation to hate, that are severely condamned in court.
Now, some of our papers edited the carricatures they were tried by muslim associations, the papers won the trial in appeal !
so my dear Subotai, forget us, try to be more objective, we aren’t Holland nor UK, we don’t allow communautarism, but colbertian rules, tout le monde, il est français, tout le mone, il parle français !
Marie Claude,
The fact is that in designated locations in France the normal judicial and law enforcement agents of the State did not operate. If you want to challenge the statement by Subotai Bahadur then something with more substance than a blanket denial is needed. Any person who goes into those places has effectively placed themselves beyond the protection of the Republic and entered a foreign country. An American learns of that and naturally, based on our history, considers that those places are in a state of rebellion.
When Lincoln used the Militia Act of 1795 he declared that in designated areas the power of the Federal Marshals to execute the orders of the courts had been blocked. Most occasions in US history where the power of the national government has been used domestically it has been phrased in such terms. This applies to situations where some of may or may not support the original intent of the order or the methods used. For example in both the cases of the use of federalized National Guard troops to integrate the Little Rock schools, where the local authority used forces under his command to defy the government until those same forces were placed under Federal control, and in the case of the siege of the Branch Davidian compound at Waco, where it would probably have been possible to avoid the confrontation, by a militarized ATF team the stated intent was to see that normal judicial orders and procedures would be enforced.
Saying “it does not mean anything” is not an argument. Neither is a statement that you could find similar situations for our cities. There have been occasions where politicians have frustrated legal proceedings to avoid a confrontation and you will find many here who will not only acknowledge those cases but deplore them and seek to eliminate those accommodations with criminals who threaten the public peace and liberty. In New York City there was the case in 1972 when Charles Rangel had the police removed from a Mosque where an officer was killed. The difference between your position and ours is that we do not defend such conditions. We want to change them. You can do better.
It is one thing for the government to walk down the middle of the street and majestically ignore what is happening. It is quite another for the government to announce that it has withdrawn its right to walk down that street.
This relates to my idea that America needs a “Civil Rebellion” law to deal with cases like widespread illegal immigration within a defined geographical area.
To be blogged under the title “No Go Zones.”
LOTM
We have tried that attitude before.
How horrible, fantastic, incredible it is that we should be digging trenches and trying on gas-masks here because of a quarrel in a far away country between people of whom we know nothing
- Neville Chamberlain
How did that work out for France?
uh did you get involved in Chechenia war ? ah may be you’re a Humans Rights activist !
So far you didn’t show off like you were one ! but rather an anti Russian ranter, and not particurlarly a muslims lover, be them Chechens, that didn’t represent your main worry, but rather your fear !
and Putin (the american friend at these times) was crushing these barbaric muslim bigots
Now, I find irrelevant your assimilation of the Chechenia war with our trenches war, you perfectly know that the western Europe under American rules wasn’t concerned by what the eastern side of the wall was doing, except when dissidents were jailed and or killed, cuz that were some good exemples for the purpose of demonising the bear.
Besides most of the western journalists didn’t cover this war, except those that had human rights concerns, generally from the left parties !
uh, were you among them ?
Ol right, my purpose wasn’t well developped, but it nonentheless represents the global western attitude of the era.
While all the journalists covered/cover the ME conflicts, that interfereed in our private life, with the reports on TV, with our suburbs riots (yes Subotai, some supported one belligerents faction there), so difficult to avoid lines, images that come from this hot atlas point !
and if you want me to bring back the real motivations why America came into WW1 (or WW2), I still have links in archives, besides I have already brought them once or twice !
Now I’m sure you don’t need that I recall the whole story, you just wanted to be gratuitous mean to me !
he fact is that in designated locations in France the normal judicial and law enforcement agents of the State did not operate. If you want to challenge the statement by Subotai Bahadur then something with more substance than a blanket denial is needed. Any person who goes into those places has effectively placed themselves beyond the protection of the Republic and entered a foreign country. An American learns of that and naturally, based on our history, considers that those places are in a state of rebellion.
yeah, and you know better than us ! ridicule !
sure if you’re referring to Amerca’s rules ! but we ain’t America, and no objective coverages were made, all what I could read was that we are EURABIA, and the top funniest weirness was the Effel Tower behing the title “EURABIA”
#21 Marie Claude:
Actually that link and others, were already stored away handy from a project I did a couple of years ago dealing with the Islamic problem in France. And the problem is not all “Car-b-ques”. I suspect that you would not be pleased with the conclusions and recommended course of action from that project, so I will not burden you with it.
you’re expressing an opinion that is spread among certain blogs, that worship the total war against islam, but these persons have no real contact with reality, they even haven’t seen a muslim, apart on TV !
It is less a “worship of total war against Islam” than a realization that a significant fraction of Islam is engaged in total war against us, with the active support of many of the uninvolved and the happy acceptance of the fact by the rest. The “moderate Muslims” of fable are just that. They are as non-existent worldwide as the mythical “conservative Democrat” is in our own country.
As for not “not having seen a Muslim, apart from TV”; I have dealt with Muslim radicals on a daily basis in my past career, at least for several years after 9/11. Which you may or may not believe as you choose. As you may or may not choose to believe it when I say that if you go back in my personnel files, you will find a formal commendation based on something that I found in my state, which I was able to put together with a friend [also a Peace Officer in another state] not long after 9/11; which we gave to the FBI. The Muslim on my end of it was snatched up by the FBI within 12 hours of my first report. Further this deponent can not say.
Now about Geert Wilders, his crusade is a bit exagerated, I guess he is manipulated too, he repeats the very same slogans as I can read on these blogs too, a bet, he get paid by the same persons !
I rather suspect that those read on “these blogs too” are not getting paid, or paying. I know that in my case and I further suspect in the case of my fellow commenters here and elsewhere [and the blog owners themselves too] that no one is getting paid, or paying. My concern, and those whose writings I know, is the preservation of the freedom and sovereignty of our nation, our people, and by extension of other free peoples from what we recognize as a threat to our existence.
However, just as you can make assumptions as to what you believe is our motivation, we can make our own assumptions as to yours. And each one of our assumptions carry a similar weight in the larger scheme of things.
And the Great Blue Sky Tengri Nor knows the truth of the matter and will reveal it in the fullness of time.
Now, just for the record, I am not avoiding any further exchanges; but I have to go 10-7 until Sunday night as we will be travelling across the state for a family gathering, leaving in a few minutes. I will be back Sunday.
Subotai Bahadur
Wretchard, I could not agree more with your general diagnosis and disagree more with your conclusion.
The West does not want to fight against Islam and Jihad, and PC/Diversity rules the roots, because fighting would empower ordinary men AGAINST: high-powered elites, women, non-Whites, and gays. That’s it.
A general fight against Islam would mean destroying the complex internal caste system designed to keep ordinary men down and exalt the high powered elite ones. It would put aside the preference for non-Whites over White men, and women over men. It would destroy all of that because power would flow to the grunt military man on the ground, the check in clerk summarily removing a Muslim man like Mohammed Atta from flying, free of fear of lawsuits and criminal charges, and a massive military machine and domestic police service that punishes Jihadi Muslims (and the population that backs them) abroad and rigidly controls Muslims at home (making it clear they are tolerated in only small numbers and only if they abjure the heart of Islam, which is Jihad).
Tom Brady once explained Sexual Harassment, and note just WHO Robert Smigel makes fun of. Not the doofus ordinary guy played by Fred Armisen (though he gets in some ribs). Rather it is the women with outrageous double standards. This is the heart of the PC system and WHY women broadly support it.
BUT … it is a security bubble like the financial mortgage bubble, the Icelandic banking bubble, the the dot-com bubble, the commercial real estate bubble in the 1980′s, the Japanese bubble of the 1980′s, the China bubble of today.
There is no way cut-outs, deniable renditions, drone attacks, ACLU-approved civil trials, and all that can deal with the global phenomena of Muslim men denied family formation through polygamy turning to Jihad by a working-middle class-wealthy lifestyle. There are simply too many of them, with too much advantages of Bombay style attacks, drones of their own, nukes, chemical, and other WMDs. Technology and growing wealth in the Muslim world evened the playing field. Even disorganized folks can kill millions of Westerners if they have the will and get lucky. Being so many, eventually they WILL get lucky.
And the Bubble Will Burst.
What will take its place will NOT be the status quo ante. Rather, you will see what is already happening in Europe under the loss of money for the Welfare state. That is nationalism, ethnic pride and identity, as the fundamental organizing principle for society. Women may form the basis for PC/Diversity support now, but when faced with utter destruction, will quickly abandon it (and its basis of filtering out all but the most Tom Brady like men) for SECURITY.
Evidence of this bubble is Obama’s Friday night dump of data, as usual, with his determination to vastly reduce the US nuclear stockpile and make policy such that America will not use nukes in any situation, to pursue fully the NPT. It is the first step onto full nuclear disarmament, his response to Iran’s nuking up. Most women support this (indeed female support for nuclear disarmanent by most polls significantly outweighs that of male support). Because disarmement makes it easy to control the Fred Armisens, who become third class office drones, against the Tom Bradys.
Like ski slopes inside Dubai hotels, this is a classic bubble feature.
OT
Here is where I briefly stated my “Civil Rebellion” concept. Some may find it worth getting a debate started. The idea came to me almost 20 years ago when the Washington Heights neighborhood in New York exploded in violence when the police tried to control the drug trafficking and illegal parking, that blocked fire trucks, by illegal aliens from the Dominican Republic.
for those that think that we are naive, and in deny, I recommand you to read this whole article (this was previously on “Foreign Policy” magazine). We haven’t waited for you to watch for islamists terrorism.
The muslim population that live in our country is for 95% pacifist, terrorists usely come from abroad, Maghreb, but also London, or Germany, since UK protected t’em from our investigations.
And I REPEAT, the NET is their favorite battles field (propaganda) and or their modus of communication. I’m aware of a few, that I follow and contradict when they don’t ban me.
http://tinyurl.com/yzxkwhb
“Like most European countries, France favors a judicial approach over the U.S.-style “war on terror”. But the French blend of aggressive prosecution, specialized investigators, and intrusive law enforcement is unique in Europe. And though the policy has gone through trial and error, the early warning helped fashion what has proven to be a fairly successful – though controversial- counterterrorist response.”
A golden arm, a golden gun
See how it glitters in the sun
A quiet word, a leisured smile
And you’ll be gone a good long while
Dubai’s the place if you must go
With luck you’ll win or place or show
The towers, sand and cool gulf breeze
Again with luck a life of ease
But if you’ve crossed those Russian gents
They’ll track you down, hang the expense
A golden arm, a golden gun
See how it glitters in the sun
Marie Claude,
That was a proper response. Please keep approaching us that way.
Walt,
Harry Saltzman and Cubby Broccoli should have hired you rather than Don Black to do the lyrics.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJMj4sw7fNs
Did Iam Fleming intend the title to be a play off of the 1955 movie The Man with the Golden Arm?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGnpJ_KdqZE
Has anybody else noticed that the hidebound old Soviet/Russian military was promoting aggressive men to flag rank (Generals) in their tender youth when they were still in their 30s? When is the last time the US did that? The last time the British did it was Enoch Powell in WW-II.
To be blogged under the title “Talent Shows.”
I would be remiss if I didn’t post this:
On the Anniversary of the fall of the Alamo – “Why We Fight”
For Texans the three videos are Red Meat and the article is golden.
For the rest of you…well, take it anyway you want but remember that Texas Is a whole other country and that we are all proud to be Texans.
If you ever get to Texas please do yourself a big favor and visit the Alamo. You won’t be sorry.
God Bless Texas
Papa Ray
LoTM(30);
“Has anybody else noticed that the hidebound old Soviet/Russian military was promoting aggressive men to flag rank (Generals) in their tender youth when they were still in their 30s? When is the last time the US did that?”
At least as late as WW2: James Gavin, IIRC, was the youngest U.S. general at 37.
Hardly competes, though, with Galush Pennypacker, who was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General in the Union Army at the age of 20 on Feb. 18, 1865.
steveH/32
Galusha Pennypacker was a Philly guy and a Medal Of Honor winner. There is a large park in Philadelphia, Pennypack Park, where my wife and I used to take our kids. Of course, when it rained we made them wear their galushas.
Papa Ray:
I visited the Alamo once, in 1988. I was TDY to Brooks AFB and one weekend went down to the River Walk.
I had not planned to visit the Alamo, but after strolling along the river for a while I noted a map that showed it was not far away. And I had already paid to park the car for all day and figured I would get my money’s worth.
It’s a powerful place. I was born and raised in South Carolina, where some of the damage the Union artillery did can still be seen on the statehouse, so battlegrounds are hardly new to me.
But I have never felt like that in a place in my life. I did not want to go inside but felt I had to. When I saw that one of the men who fought and died there came from SC, then it the spirit of the place really took hold.
I knew I had to get out of there before I just lost it. I managed to get outside and walked away, being very careful not to look back.
It is a very powerful place.
OT, but I don’t think anyone will object.
New Wikio rankings are out and The Belmont Club is one of the top 100 politics blogs, number 73 in fact.
Congratulations Wretchard! Still, I think you do deserve a higher ranking than that
But really, what hope is there for us if the Huffington Post is still number one and Think Progress is number three? Someone should do a blog post about that.
Any boy child adorned with the moniker “Galush Pennypacker” is going to be either everybody’s biatch or the meanest bastard in town. His parents should be jailed for child abuse.
RWE; Papa Ray; Buddy Larsen, trangbang, others:
Distinguished Texas Aggie has passed. General James Hollingsworth, known as Danger 79er
was age 91.
Legend Control said that when he was Deputy CG of 1st Infantry Division, he originated the line “If you are going to be one, be a big red one.” I am mighty grateful that we had him.
With apologies for the double post:
The Bondian aspect, golden gun
Reveals the fiendish clever fun
The Russkies have when playing out their games
We’ll very soon discover that
The next assassin used a hat
Like Odd Job tried to use on dapper James
Or how about the laser beam
A Dr No or Blofeld scheme?
Or maybe someone else who tried the deed
But Bond would even up the score
With romps with his Pussy Galore
Then when the plot got thick he’d intercede
But Bond was fiction, this was real
It had a kind of final feel
The Russkies don’t forget and don’t forgive
You cross those babies and you’re dead
In a garage or in your bed
When bought you stay if you expect to live
Papa Ray; RWE;
Be informed that the 1st Battalion, 141st Infantry, Army National Guard is currently serving in Iraq. This unit is also known also known as “The 1st Texas Regiment”.
Its Regimental Colors have numerous Battle Streamers. One of these is a simple white streamer with the red letters “THE ALAMO”.
That is a mighty impressive weight to carry into harm’s way, now isn’t it?
sgi,
The Belmont Club is one of the top 100 politics blogs
Concur, thank for the info. Congratulations to wretchard and my gratitude to all who volunteer to make this worth everyone’s time and effort. Places like this are as fragile as a bubble in a stormy sea. So for that matter is life.
herb,
Any boy child adorned with the moniker “Galush Pennypacker” …
You are correct. When did we become a nation of people so homogenized and conformist that all of our names sound like the random aliases used by background characters in cheap television shows? Maybe if the public was used to a little spice in their politicians then they wouldn’t have gotten so excited over someone like BHO, who brought nothing to the table but an exotic name. Richard Milhouse Nixon had the most interesting middle name since John Quincy Adams but other than that and maybe Ulysses Grant or Millard Fillmore they sound like like a dull lot.
There was a time when names, even Anglo-Saxon names, had character. There was one member of The English Commonwealth Parliament before Cromwell took power who rejoiced in the name of Praise-God Barebone. Now that sounds like a name for a Calvinist to be reckoned with.
To be blogged under the title “Belmont Club in the Top 100.”
Papa Ray @ 31:
Thanks for that. Might wake someone up but not our visitor from the EU, I dare say.
That is gospel.
Visited when a pup. What just killed me as I was raised on the lore and history of the SW is that I found the Alamo totally restored and air conditioned. Huh? That is just wrong. I am one who would want to see the ramparts and climb them. I have a set of 16th century Spanish bronze stirrups given to me by the Director of The Museum of NM when I was young.
BTW, I am about to become a Texan. Moving to the DFW area in a week to start a new job the following Monday. ‘Battle Command’ will work to sell the house and follow as soon as possible.
LOTM
merci papa
Regarding Huffington Post being the most popular blog, I would be interested to see total readership calculated separately for left- and right-oriented categories within the top 100.
Is it the case that there are a few dominant left blogs but many on the right? It would be characteristic of the leftist mentality to gravitate to the single “in” blog. Does anyone know whether the above calculation has been done?
Actually to get a good idea of the relative strengths of left and right in the blogosphere, it would be necessary to weight each blog’s readership number by a measure of its position on the political spectrum, to get a weighted average of left v. right.
Congratulatins, Ragnar!
here’s the obligatory Lyle Lovett clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMhaehb5AnE
Just saw a good article giving the reasons why Texas has the highest domestic inflow of population of any state today – 848,000 in the last decade. This is a different number than total population growth – compare to California which stayed about flat in population over the last decade but did so by losing 1.5 million citizens and replacing them with 1.5 million foreign immigrants. (Not in this article, but most of those who left have gone to Nevada, Arizona, and Texas, and Texas has by far the best economy of all of them)
Also, not in this article, but while the nation showed a net loss of 36,000 jobs last month, Texas showed a gain of 30,000. You won’t see the MSM play that up much, doesn’t fit the narrative. They think our taxes are too low to create any jobs.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Low-tax-Texas-beats-big-government-California-86681467.html
bonus track – my favorite lovett song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNmnzwGT4Ic&NR=1&feature=fvwp
one of the few songs that will bring tears to my eyes, not for the song itself, but for the thought of the long faded voices I still hear on the wind when it blows.
41. RagnarD: COngratulations!
I lived in Houston for 7 years and other than being stinkin’ hot half the year, Texas is a great place. People are friendly, proud of their state, and believe that it is a land of opportunity. Not a lot of whiny tree-huggers around if you avoid the Peoples’ Republic of Austin.
Just remember the words I once saw on a bumper sticker there: “I don’t give a damn how you did it up North!”
ragnarD
Welcome to Texas. Just remember that being a Texan is not just coming here but to adopt this wonderful and unique state as your own.
On Being from Texas…….
When you’re from Texas, people that you meet ask you questions like,
“Do you have any cows?” “Do you have horses?”
“Bet you got a bunch of guns, eh?”
They all want to know if you’ve been to Southfork.
They watched Dallas.
Have you ever looked at a map of the world? Look at Texas with me just
for a second. That picture, with the Panhandle and the Gulf Coast, and the Red River and the Rio Grande is as much a part of you as anything ever will be. As soon as anyone anywhere in the world looks at it they know what it is. It’s Texas.
Pick any kid off the street in Japan and draw him a
picture of Texas in the dirt and he’ll know what it is.
What happens if I show you a picture of any other state?
You’ll get it maybe after a second, but who else would?
Even if you do, does it ever stir any feelings in you?
In every man, woman and child on this little rock the
Good Lord put us on, there is a person who wishes just once
he could be a real live Texan and get up on a horse or ride in a pickup.
There is some bit of Texas in everyone.
Did you ever hear anyone in a bar go,
“Wow…so you’re from Iowa?
Cool, tell me about it?” Do you know why?
Because there’s no place like Texas.
Texas is the Alamo. Texas is 183 men standing in a church, facing
thousands of Mexican nationals, fighting for freedom, who had the chance to walk out and save themselves, but stayed instead to fight and die for the cause of freedom.
We send our kids to schools named William B. Travis and
James Bowie and David Crockett and do you know why?
Because those men saw a line in the sand and they
decided to cross it and be heroes.
John Wayne paid to do the movie himself.
That is the Spirit of Texas.
Texas is Sam Houston capturing Santa Ana at San Jacinto.
Texas is June tenth and Texas Independence Day.
Texas is huge forests of Piney Woods like the
Davy Crockett National Forest.
Texas is breathtaking mountains in Big Bend.
Texas is shiny skyscrapers in Houston and Dallas.
Texas is world record bass from places like Lake Fork.
Texas is Mexican food like nowhere in the world, even Mexico.
Texas is the Fort Worth Stockyards and the Bass Hall.
Texas is larger-than-life legends like Willie Nelson and Buddy Holly,
Earl Campbell and Nolan Ryan, Denton Cooley and Michael DeBakey, Sam Rayburn, George Bush, and George W. Bush.
Texas is great companies like Dell Computer and Compaq.
Texas is huge herds of cattle and miles of crops.
Texas is ocean beaches, deserts, lakes and rivers, mountains and
prairies, and modern cities.
WHEN WE CAME ON…
Texas was its own country. The Republic of Texas.
Every time I think of that I tear up.
It makes you proud to be a Texan!
If you are a REAL TEXAN, …
1. You measure distance in minutes.
2. You’ve had to switch from “heat” to “A/C” in the same day.
3. Stores don’t have bags; they have sacks.
4. Stores don’t have shopping carts; they have buggies.
5. You see a car running in the parking lot at the store with no one in
it no matter what time of the year.
6. You use “fix” as a verb. Example: I am fixin’ to go to the store.
7. All the festivals across the state are named after a fruit,
vegetable, flower, or animal.
8. You install security lights on your house and
garage and leave both unlocked.
9. You carry jumper cables in your car … for your OWN car.
10. You know what “cow tipping” and “snipe-hunting” are.
11. You only own four spices: salt, pepper, ketchup, and Tabasco.
12. You think everyone from a bigger city has an accent.
13. You think sexy lingerie is a tee shirt and boxer shorts.
14. The local papers covers national and international news on one page
but requires 6 pages for football and hockey.
15. You think that the first day of deer season is a national holiday.
16. You know which leaves make good toilet paper.
17. You find 90 degrees F “a little warm,”
18. You know all four seasons:
Almost Summer, Summer, Still Summer, and Christmas.
19. You know whether another Texan is from southern, middle, or
northern Texas as soon as they open their mouth.
20. There is a Dairy Queen in every town with
a population of 500 or more.
21. Going to Wal-Mart is a favorite past-time known
as “goin wal-martin” or off to “Wally World”
22. You describe the first cool snap
(below 70 degrees) as good chili weather.
23. A carbonated soft drink isn’t a soda, cola, or pop … it’s a Coke, regardless of brand or flavor.
24. You understand these jokes and forward them to your friends no
matter where they live in case they are planning to visit.
A wise man once said, “Never ask a man where he’s from;
if he’s from Texas, he WILL tell you.
If not, there’s no need to embarrass him!”…
Author Unknown but definitely a Texan.
Papa Ray
P.S. wws South Texas Girl is one of my Favorites. Thanks for the link.
God Bless Texas (and all the californianuts and yankee transplants)…May they adopt their new State and have undying love for Texas, and her ways.
edit: I have to tell this little story. One of the guys with Big Blue was transfered to where I work in Texas and he told me this. He said “When I got to Texas almost everybody I met on the highways raised their finger as they passed. I had stuff on the top of my car so I thought they were telling me that something was loose or falling off. I stopped several times. I came to find out from you and other guys that they were just being neighborly and saying hi. I had never seen that before up in New York.”
True story.
41. RagnarD: and Papa Ray @ 47:
I was privileged to live in Texas for eleven years and in my work I traveled the entire state. I’ve seen more of it than most Texans who live there their entire lives. There is no other place quite like it, and if it wasn’t for family obligations I’d move back in a heartbeat.
After you’ve settled in you may find you’re ready to carry the same bumper stickers on your car I had on mine: “Texan By Choice” and “I wasn’t born in Texas but I got here as quick as I could!”
Papa Ray #31: “If you ever get to Texas please do yourself a big favor and visit the Alamo. You won’t be sorry.”
I was just there for the first time on Feb. 24th.
It is not just a tourist trap; it is hallowed ground, a shrine to the memory of the men who died there, men whose bodies were burned on the spot in a funeral pyre, men who knew there are things worse than death. Thank God Texans still reverently treasure this place. Long live Texas and the spirit of the Alamo!
Before my visit, I really did not know many details of the story. For instance, I’d never heard of John McGregor, the Alamo piper. There are McGregors in my family tree. It’s neat to think he may be a distant ancestor.
Used to live way north of Amarillo. We measured distance in six packs. And were always on the lookout for that ol giant armadillo.
The Alamo is holy ground. Bought and paid for.
It is known in Texas, but not elsewhere, how many Mexicans fought for Texan independence.
See, for example, Juan Seguin.
uh, the Frenchs, dhimmies ?
http://tempsreel.nouvelobs.com/actualites/societe/20100308.OBS9141/un_quick_halal_envahi_par_des_jeunes_identitaires.html pigs revolution
the Rebeynes, (in Lyon language: revolts) are manifesting with with a pig mask in a Quick, where only halal food was available (some of the Quicks serve halal food where muslims are more numerous, but it’s contrary to our constitution and our laws, Quick is french financed and shouldn’t discrimminate acording to religions beliefs)