The Presidential Pulpit
One of the things Presidents routinely teach is religion. Take Ramadan. Most people in America never heard of it until it became fashionable to celebrate it. What is it? Why part of the great American tradition of freedom and tolerance. The President said in his Ramadan message.
This year, Ramadan holds special meaning for those citizens in the Middle East and North Africa who are courageously achieving democracy and self-determination and for those who are still struggling to achieve their universal rights. The United States continues to stand with those who seek the chance to decide their own destiny, to live free from fear and violence, and to practice their faith freely. Here in the United States, Ramadan reminds us that Islam is part of the fabric of our Nation, and that—from public service to business, from healthcare and science to the arts—Muslim Americans help strengthen our country and enrich our lives.– Barack Obama’s Ramadan message
But news stories from Saudi Arabia depict an altogether different observance. In KSA, it is observe Ramadan or else.
RIYADH: Saudi authorities warned non-Muslim expatriates on Friday, the first day of Ramzan, not to eat, drink, or smoke in public until the end of the Muslim holy month’s sunrise-to-sunset fast or face expulsion.
The interior ministry of the oil-rich kingdom called on expatriates to “show consideration for feelings of Muslims” and “preserve the sacred Islamic rituals.” Otherwise, a ministry statement said, Saudi authorities will cancel violators’ work contracts and expel them.
Will the Real Ramadan stand up?
It’s a confusing state of affairs. How is a person to understand which is authentic? Does he listen to the imam in the mosque or the scholar-author of a book? Or to President Obama?
Here are approaches to solving the problem of understanding what Ramadan is and determining the proper attitude toward it
Approaches:
1. Quit trying to understand it. There is no “real” Ramadan. Like every other idea in the world, Ramadan is observed differently, depending on the cultural heritage of the host country. Hence Ramadan in America “is part of the fabric of our Nation”, but in Saudi Arabia it is part of the fabric of that nation, and denotes something completely different.
2. President Obama is right. Saudi Arabia does not understand Islam and is practicing an unrepresentative and heretical variant of the religion of peace.
3. President Obama does not understand Islam. After all Saudi Arabia was where Islam started. They should understand it if anyone does. President Obama is talking through his hat.
4. The atheists of America were right when they argued that President Obama was wrong to offer prayers for the victims of the Aurora, Colorado shooting massacre. The best thing any politician can do in in time of a national tragedy is make vague references to being upset. Otherwise they will traumatize atheists by offering condolences with even the slightest religious connotations. The atheists argue they are “excluded”.
“By the very act of praying, that’s a message of exclusion,” he continued. “If I’m a public official, I think I’m going to look around in the morning and conclude that, ‘hey, this religion thing is just too hot to handle, I should stay away from it in my official capacity.’”
5. The atheists of America by advocating non-praying are imposing an atheistic view upon the public space, effectively excluding the deists. Since someone is bound to be “excluded” whether you pray or you don’t Presidents should just stick to whatever traditions are already widely observed and go through them like the Queen of England goes through her ceremonial duties, in the hopes that if they do nothing unusual nobody will notice.
6. All religions and non-religions are perpetually at war, because the ideas of mankind have been at daggers drawn since the beginning of history. There has never been a peace, only a truce between them that is occasionally observed. Therefore belief systems will always square off like the Dead Rabbits and the Bowery Boys at the Five Points. Presidents are not neutral in belief systems. The only thing that counts is which side they are on.
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This Ramadan message is a perfect example of why so many love Obambus.
Atheists are as religious as anyone else, they’re just angry at God. And the ideas that men fight over are the ideas of men, not the Word from which all arises and which dictates reality.
As for what is true, the best course of action is always to listen to the President and conclude the opposite.
Mr. Fernandez please, why use what appear to be a worst case scenario (or pretty close to it, at least to many believers) to imply that all atheists are ___________. In a sense, it sounds a bit like Mr. President on Ramadan.
As a non believer, I believe (there!) that people can and will and should worship in their own non violent, non coercive way. If a public official or private person, for that matter, wishes to go public with a statement including such beliefs, so be it. Otherwise, the next silenced one may be you.
And I do understand that you are not advocating silencing, and are just illustrating a point.
Islam is NOT a part of my fabric.
Islam is in the same niche I place the Aztec religion.
The POTUS has no reason what so ever to observe or remark on any religious event.
Especially Islam.
I sense that there is mockery afoot here. 8)
In the sense that the Constitution’s First Amendment guarantees, among other things, the free to practice of religion, the President or any other individual, is free to speak their mind about religion.
Religion had one collection of perceptions to the Founders who wrote and promoted the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Islam was not unknown to these men, as Thomas Jefferson educated himself on the problems of Islam. Our modern perceptions may be somewhat different, colored as they are by the better intellectuals of our day. Sure.
And then there were the extreme and sometimes violent and bloody forms of secularism in the world at that time, such as the French revolution. Of course that wouldn’t happen today. Millions of aborted children in the last 40 years.
Sure.
I trust that the KSA, as home to Mecca and Medina would know about the true practice of Islam. I think that Obama keeps his true beliefs to himself, whatever they truly are. Because he is still a bit of the Riddle of the Sphinx when it comes to what he truly believes. 20 years in Rev. Wright’s Church, and what does he believe? Raised for part of his life by a Muslim step-father and living in a Muslim country, and what does he believe?
I personally believe that the President believes in nothing except himself and wielding power, which would be consistent with being the Leftist that he is. He says what he says to advance the cause of his continuing ability to wield power. But that’s just me, speaking from one of the back pews of America. Clinging bitterly to my guns, Bible and cold beer in the basement fridge.
Not in the pulpit.
Actually, some more conservative Islamic governments have, in the past, tried to suppress Ramadan because it had become an excuse to drink and party all night and afterwards to sleep and be idle all day.
“…Here in the United States, Ramadan reminds us that Islam is part of the fabric of our Nation…”
*racks brain, trying to think of Islam as part of the fabric of our nation, part of our history and our distant past* Ah-ha! Thought of an instance!
“From the halls of Montezuma, to the shores of Tripoli…”
Well, you can’t get more woven into the fabric of our nation than the Marine Corps Hymn, can you?
In honor of Ramadan, I took a nice healthy dump this morning. I wanted to show my appreciation for the Fabric of this Nation.
or maybe it was the Fiber.
Religion: Just shut up and practice. Some day you might get it right.
“All religions and non-religions are perpetually at war, because the ideas of mankind have been at daggers drawn since the beginning of history.”
You have offended both sides by implying equivalency, and that they may even deserve each other. This is okay, however the best way to offend them is just to ignore them.
I could actually support a message like Buraq’s if he and his sick leftist friends wanted to forcefully neuter Islam of it’s Satanic Verses across the globe. But they don’t. This is just another ruse by Buraq to promote notions that undermine our Constitution and our right to freedom of worship.
Wretchard’s coy “Will the Real Ramadan stand up?” begs the issue. Ramadan is to be practiced as the Islamists say, according to the Islamic teachings in most parts of the world or Islamists will do very bad things to you as a heretic. Buraq’s Muslim lite Unitarian anything goes tude doesn’t cut it in places other than the US where free speech is not protected. Buraq knows this and that is why he is promoting Ramadan. It is the same ol destabilizing commie, alinsyite chaos thing.
Islam is more than a religion; it is a military/political/ religious belief system that would destroy our Constitutional Republic in a New York second if it could. As such, it must be handled differently than other religions under our Constitutional framework, and restricted in it’s worship. If such an idea offends you, you should know we already do that. Honor Killings and murderous Jihad are not protected religious expression in the country. Not yet at least. We just haven’t been fully explicit about it.
The logical problem is that everything except the most vapid statement excludes its logical opposite. “Freedom is good” is exclusionary to Nazis other authoritarian belief systems. When you assert one thing, you have excluded its negation.
That everyone should have an opinion is unavoidable. What is perhaps avoidable, or at least seen as illegitimate until recently, is that the government apparatus should be used to promote one opinion over the other. Leviathan should not take sides.
One exception might be public policy as formulated by the people’s representatives who are presumably voted into office. The enacted law is effectively the only Gospel or Koran of the secular state. What is not contrary to law is none of its business.
This is the difficulty with a Presidency where “stories” and “teaching moments” are made into an essential part of governance. It makes the President the preacher in chief, or imam in chief, if you belief Islam is part of the American fabric, in addition to being CIC. Instead of putting in a full day carrying out the laws and defending the country, the President performs the invidious role of talking about what some may say he has no business talking about in the first place.
Of course, both the atheists and the deists may to realize by now that a kind of nebulous state religion has in fact arisen under the term Political Correctness. That official wisdom officially espouses Gaia, abortion, LGBT marriages, critical race theory and its own peculiar doctrine of Original American Sin and other teachings.
As to whether I have used what appears “to be a worst case scenario (or pretty close to it, at least to many believers) to imply that all atheists are ___)”, the question is who are the atheists?
Are they like the Muslims, some of whose Ramadan is “part of the American fabric” and some of who will beat you if you don’t observe it? You see the difficulty. Not all atheists are alike any more than all Catholics are identical.
I’d argue that both or all kinds of atheists and deists including all kinds of Muslims and Christians, are alike excluded by the de facto establishment of the PC church. We pray to Gaia every day, and sacrifice infants to Moloch every minute and pay for it with government funds, but few notice because it’s all ‘secular’.
Maybe this is the consequence of government grown too big. It is now so large its bulk squeezes into every interstice. Mayor Bloomberg is up to banning big gulp softdrinks. President Obama is pronouncing on the Ramadan. What about the Jains? Or the Zoroastrians? Don’t they deserve a Presidential mention too?
We pray to Gaia every day, and sacrifice infants to Moloch every minute and pay for it with government funds, but few notice because it’s all ‘secular’.
Now therein lies the germ of a play. Something along the lines of “The Crucible” – for anyone who cares to write it.
sm @ 7: *racks brain, trying to think of Islam as part of the fabric of our nation, part of our history and our distant past* Ah-ha! Thought of an instance! “From the halls of Montezuma, to the shores of Tripoli…” Well, you can’t get more woven into the fabric of our nation than the Marine Corps Hymn, can you?
+100
Perfect.
I think we should shift the focus away from words. There is the tendency to regard certain words as coextensive with ideas. Hence if the words “God” or “Creator” or “prayer” are used it assumed to be about religion. If those words are absent it is assumed to be secular.
You could conclude that if the bad old words were purged from the public square, if there are no more references to the Ten Commandments in the courthouses, then yippee, we are free from established religion!
Are we? Or are we only free of the words?
Those who remember the heyday or “liberation theology” will remember how it was a boom industry to restate Marxism in conventional Christian terminology to make it appear that secular was religious. Indeed there are many Christian sects today which are to all intents and purposes completely secular. Rowan Williams is sometimes accused of being nothing more than a Marxist in a cassock.
On the other extreme are atheisms which are nothing but deisms. Exhibit A is Communism. Communism is officially an atheism. But in practice it was a complete religion. It has achieved by another route what the “liberation theologians” did in their sphere. It has created a heretical and murderous branch of Judaeo-Christianity masquerading as a secular state.
They changed the label and we thought the contents of the box reflected the truth. What if they lied?
But let’s forget about words for a moment and go back to some basics.
Are you freer today than in years past? Are you more comfortable pursuing transcendence or meaning or money or whatever it is that men pursue?
Or are you now guarded in your speech? Even about pursuing a bigger income because after all you should feel guilty if you succeed in making a pile, since somehow You Never Walk Alone. Do you find yourself adding an obligatory note of disparagement whenever you talk about the things that you value most? Do you lie rather than speak your mind because you might be sued, reviled or portrayed as a bad man in a broadway play, as someone who testified against gay marriage was recently threatened with?
Because if the latter experience dominates then what you may be feeling, no matter what you have been told is the onset of an orthodox vapor; a gas though shorn of its odor by clever chemists is toxic nonetheless. It’s tendrils are suffocating freedom. You feel it, but no it can’t be true. They say it is a shower, and the words never lie.
I think we should judge our freedom of belief not by measuring word counts of forbidden terms in the public sphere, but whether we have in the Founders words, retained the ability to pursue our happiness without a Cathechism from Leviathan.
Is Ramadan part of the fabric of American Life? Maybe and maybe not. But the President has no real official business asserting that it is. It might to some be just a wonderful holiday. But to others it may be something else. We should be free to draw our own conclusions.
12. wretchard
“Of course, both the atheists and the deists may to realize by now that a kind of nebulous state religion has in fact arisen under the term Political Correctness. That official wisdom officially espouses Gaia, abortion, LGBT marriages, critical race theory and its own peculiar doctrine of Original American Sin and other teachings.”
I just call it the Religious Left.
W @ 12: “Instead of putting in a full day carrying out the laws and defending the country, the President performs the invidious role of talking about what some may say he has no business talking about in the first place.”
But Wretchard … when the Big O actually put in a full day in the Oval Office (as he did recently), it made the evening news. Literally!
Anyway, the only thing that Obumble cares about is bitterly clinging on to power. By issuing a Ramadan greeting, he may be helping to tie down the Islamic-American vote (and tie up some illegal foreign Islamic campaign contributions), but he is also reminding many other Americans why they don’t trust him. Is it a gain for Soetero? A wash? A loss? Time will tell.
Meanwhile, there are larger forces at work in all societies, Islamic as well as others. Ramadan was once a full-bore version of Lent. Now, as ben h @ 6 notes, it has developed into a month-long party. Similarly, the once-shapeless solid black burka has been evolving in the hands of ever-wealthier Muslim women. Now there are rather sexy figure-flattering finely tailored versions, decorated with gold & silver threads, and (increasingly) with tasteful swatches of bright colors. The wearers may be devout Muslims and good Arabs — but first of all they are women!
Are you freer today than in years past? Are you more comfortable pursuing the transcendence or the meaning or whatever it is that men pursue?
Or are you now guarded in your speech? Do you find yourself adding an obligatory note of disparagement whenever you talk about the things that you value most?
Wretchard, implicit in these questions is the only essential one, to wit: Will you be governed by your own conscience, or be held a slave to the desires, demands, or dictates of others?
I guess each of us has to make that determination. And maybe there is no one answer applicable to everyone for all time. Except, the advice that Shakespeare wrote back when still seems useful today: To thine own self be true.
@Josh
I believe that a way to annoy a Marine is to tell him that the tune to the Marine Corps Hymn was written by a Frenchman, Offenbach.
http://www.thefabricofourlives.com/
Is Ramadan part of the fabric of American Life? Maybe and maybe not. But the President has no real official business asserting that it is.
At least he was careful not to violate the trademark. But hey, no need to take anything out of the mouth of POTUS as official policy, why should this be any more serious than his pardoning a turkey on Thanksgiving? Politicians say the darnedest things.
The offensive or bizarre point in this case was its UNOFFICIAL nature, something he chose to say to enhance his image (!?!?), but really, once you vote a guy named Barack Hussein Obama into the white house, are you really gonna complain when he says something nice about Ramadan?
–
ob @ 19: I believe that a way to annoy a Marine is to tell him that the tune to the Marine Corps Hymn was written by a Frenchman, Offenbach.
Could have been worse, could have been God Save The Queen.
[insert here some words about how for many reasons it's not a good idea to go around annoying Marines in any case]
What Josh said. Sgt Mom, your tab is on me tonight.
Islam claims to be the religion of peace yet carries out the most horrendous mass murders imaginable. So action shows that to Muslims the peace of the grave is an essential part of their religion. Christisns might be worse. For over 7 centuries, the Catholic Church practiced torture and murder as a component of their doctrine;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inquisition
The Catholics here will take this as a verbal assault on their religion. It isn’t, it’s just history. Maybe. The last torture/murder was in 1860. The bureaucracy of the inquisition still exists today. That means tomorrow the Pope could wake up with a hangover and a fat ugly choir boy next to him and order the heresy trials to restart. He would no doubt get put in the dock at Brussels.
Religious wars are among the worst. Killing for God brings out the worst in humans. Yet humans are religious animals. Even atheists believe. They just believe in nothing.
Full disclosure. I’m an agnostic – skeptic. That means there is a god only god is to large and complex to know and that ALL religions are con jobs that separate the fools from their hard earned ducats for the betterment of the priests.
This allows me to find amusement in the antics of Seculars ( secularism, as Wretchard points out, is as much a religion as Islam) and Zelots alike.
Barack Hussein Obama, whose very name bespeaks his inner core beliefs, has reminded us again of the great influence Islam has had on the culture and dynamism of the United States.
There are some facts so little known
That schoolboys never learn
That Islam truly can be shown
To help us make the turn
From agriculture to the mills
When factories galore
Took turbaned children from the hills
To work the fact’ry floor
And after that when Orville flew
We should be told, at least
How Islam partnered in the crew
By having him face East
In World War 2 our armies sped
At speeds some were surprised
So fast that as the Nazis fled
They cried, “They’re Mecca-nized!”
Yes Islam’s influence is great
And adding to the drama
For them we named a Southern state
And called it Ali Bama
Whoever said that “don’t judge” has morphed into “don’t think” well and truly diagnosed the modern malady. Multiculturalism is a suicide pact for the host society.
Whoever said that “don’t judge” has morphed into “don’t think” well and truly diagnosed the modern malady.
If you conclude anything substantial or make a serious judgement about anything, you are exclusionary by definition. If you prefer to be an atheist or agnostic or a Maronite or a Druze then you are doing so in preference to the alternatives. That could be “hurtful” but it can’t be helped.
Once it was the custom that you didn’t mention religion at the dinner table because people were expected to have strong preferences that were irreconcilable. But the modern solution — the PC solution — is that no one is supposed to have strong preferences about anything. You can “celebrate” anything at all in anyone’s face.
The secret to maintaining a civil society is separating the public and private sphere. Otherwise you either have to homogenize everything — as in Saudi Arabia — or to trivialize everything: the vision of everyone gathered on a hilltop singing “I’d like to buy the world a Coke”.
Modern “multiculturalism” is in fact a kind of monoculture. It can only survive if we all agree to treat every one of our beliefs as equally worthless, in a kind of unthinking kumbaya culture. Of course, this works against people who are in fact prepared to consider their own beliefs negotiable. Hence any belief system with the slightest give in it retreats endlessly before the belief systems that are completely intractable.
The logical end state of multiculturalism is a one dominated by the single most aggressive and fanatical belief system. Why this happens is easy to see. If you can convince liberal Europeans to be “tolerant”, i.e. not to defend their traditional values but leave it to fanatical ideologies to similarly restrain themselves then eventually the extremes drive out the middle.
This is in fact what you see.
Rather than become more “secular” many Western societies are in fact becoming more religious, except that many of these ascendant religions are now “nontraditonal” ones like environmentalism or Islam. Rather than becoming more tolerant they are paralyzed with speech codes and the misnamed “hate” laws. Rather than being a melting pot, they give rise to ethnic politics.
And that is because we’ve all been taken in by the words. The words are in fact lies. They disguise the reality of Religious Establishment, Censorship and Balkanization simply by calling them Secularization, Tolerance and Multiculturalism.
Today you are going to be mostly correct if you simply invert the given title of an ideology. “Sustainability” means subsidies. Green Energy means Blackouts. Racial equality means racial supremacy. Opportunity means regulation. Hope means you’re screwed. Change means the same old, same old.
Which is why it is unclear what I should make of the President’s teaching on Islam. I know many kindly Muslims and have had the misfortune of meeting some not so kindly, but I am not sure Barack Obama is competent to characterize either category.
Which Islam is it?
Do you believe me or you own lying eyes?
I think that Ralph Peters is correct. If there are to be bad times ahead, then people of faith will be best positioned to survive them (Peters doesn’t necessarily see this as a good thing). Those that refuse to sacrifice to Moloch, own the future.
I read in some history or another that by 66 AD, the Jews comprised about 15% of the population of the Eastern Mediterranean. The problem is that they made their move too soon. If they had waited one or two more generations (coincidentally, about the time of the 2nd Jewish revolt), then they would have won almost by forfeit. The Greeks and other gentiles would have kept killing their babies and and the Jews would have kept treasuring theirs.
Patience can be a virtue in a struggle.
So many words and thoughts boil down to that the Religious and the Political are interchangeable.
The spiritual (as in a “truly” religious nature being expressed by some here) only exists with in the individual. There is a differentiation. One person is spiritual, two become Religious/Political.
Or maybe “it” exists only in words.
Sirius’ comments on our sacrificing to Moloch and worshipping Gaia are prescient.
Islam is part of the fabric of American life. This is one of the most absurd things the guy in White House has ever said–a contender for his biggest lie, or the most uninformed comment he’s ever made, and the competition for those prizes is great.
There is more food sold in Muslim countries during the month of Ramadan–the month of fasting–than in any other month of the year.
Ramadan pre-dated the coming of Mohammed, as did pilgrimages to Mecca.
BO was raised as Muslim, and he still resonates with it. But as he grew up he learned the religion of Marxism. And that is what his formal beliefs are. He joined Rev Wrights church, but that was for cynical political purposes. But, in his heart of hearts, he worships no one and nothing but himself.
Once it was the custom that you didn’t mention religion at the dinner table because people were expected to have strong preferences that were irreconcilable. But the modern solution — the PC solution — is that no one is supposed to have strong preferences about anything. You can “celebrate” anything at all in anyone’s face.
That’s very good.
On second thought, I need to ruminate on it some.
On third thought, I will offer a counterexample.
My first thought is that it is politeness itself which is obsolete today, you should expect to be tested at the dinner table and insulted if you do not hold the proper views, that is if you’re at the dinner table of your typical modern leftards.
In which case you ARE expected to hold strong beliefs, even if one of those beliefs is that you should deny that you hold any beliefs, you just hold to the obvious and revealed truth and of COURSE you reject with extreme prejudice (and as much arrogant condescension as you can muster) those who don’t have their minds right.
And you are NOT expected to keep your mouth shut, if you find that your dinner guests are, y’know, conservative or something. Maybe you don’t have to stick the fish fork in their eyes, but you might want to recork the good wine and skip dessert.
Wretchard #34:
That might be the most clear and direct thing you have ever written, my friend. And that is saying quite a lot.
Essentially no one in the USA had ever heard of Ramadan until we became directly militarily involved with fighting Muslims. Then there arose all this concern as to whether it was Okay to shoot at them during their precious holiday. During WWII we used to stage specific attacks because it was Hitler’s birthday or the anniversary of Pearl Harbor attack. And our enemies did likewise, on Christmas or the 4th of July or whatever. Now we have to invert our approach and make sure that we do not insult our enemies before during or after we blow them up
About 3% of America is Muslim. So Ramadan isn’t as popular as Cinco De Mayo, but it will be noticed.
Remember that Saudi Arabia is Wahhabist – not very tolerant at all. As you move away from KSA, you generally find less Wahhabism and more tolerance. Sunni’s make up 85% of Islam, and apart from Iran and a few other enclaves of Shiias, the Arabian peninsula is Sunni.
My point is that we shouldn’t make too much about what goes on in KSA – it’s not the majority of Islam.
And why Obama decided to acknowledge the start of Ramadan is beyond me.
The world will be a better place when Islam has been destroyed.
dla
The VAST bulk of American imams are Wahhabists — funded directly/indirectly by the King of KSA.
Wake up.
Outside of America and KSA the Wahhabist faction is always a minority — BUT it’s the minority that’s leading the jihad.
Witness the fact that BHO, himself, was indoctrinated by a Wahhabist imam.
And NOW you know why BHO HAD to acknowledge the start of Ramadan.
Blert @ 34: “And NOW you know why BHO HAD to acknowledge the start of Ramadan.”
Barry has earned my total contempt. Nevertheless, we have to observe facts. Presidents whose middle name was not Hussein have issued similar greetings.
http://2001-2009.state.gov/p/nea/rls/rm/15012.htm
President George W. Bush
Released by the Office of the Press Secretary, the White House
Washington, DC
November 5, 2002
I send greetings to Muslims in the United States and around the world as you observe the holy month of Ramadan.
Islam is a peace-loving faith that is practiced by more than one billion people, including millions of American Muslims. These proud citizens contribute to the diversity that makes our country strong, and the United States is grateful for the friendship and support of many Muslim Nations that are vital partners in the global coalition to fight against terrorism.
The Qur’an teaches that Ramadan is a time for fasting, prayer, worship, and contemplation. Muslims observe this month by renewing their dedication to caring for those in need, doing good deeds, and strengthening family and community ties. These actions reflect many of the values that Muslims share with people of other faiths across our Nation and around the world, including courage, compassion, and service.
America remains committed to freedom, justice, and opportunity for all people. During this season of reverence and examination, we continue to work together for a future of peace, tolerance, and understanding.
Laura joins me in sending our best wishes for a blessed time. May you be well during Ramadan and throughout the coming year.
GEORGE W. BUSH
It just sounds so awkward to me. It just feels forced like someone who cannot attend the wedding but sends best wishes.
It always seems that way to me when he talks to religion. Like he is just mouthing the words.
Some Talib who will probably miss this Ramadan…0bama Administration officials unavailable for comment.
k @ 35: Presidents whose middle name was not Hussein have issued similar greetings.
Yah, and set the precedent by making determinations to curtail military operations for the duration, not to mention not targeting mosques except under the most extreme provocations, and maybe not even then, and emphasizing how “we are not at war with Islam”, without even considering the converse, etc etc etc.
But then, presidents whose middle name was not Hussein also decided we should retaliate against Iraq and Afghanistan after 9/11, when another president might have decided something else, that is another primary target. A certain president whose middle name was not Hussein was well-known to have family business ties to the Saudis personally and in his father’s generation yada yada yada, or who knows, just mebbe things might have gone differently. I will always respect what that certain president did, and he did so I believe knowing what it would cost him but that it was (overall) the right thing to do, and (overall) he got’r done. BUT … old story already. Anyway, a little Ramadamadingdong statement is the least of things, under the circumstances, and that president tended to overdo the Christian charity thing on many occassions, for maybe both the best and worst of reasons.
/overposted
Muslim Americans may enrich our lives and strengthen our country, but Islam is is decidedly not part of the fabric of our nation.
I stand corrected, SgtMom. Good one!
I think a President should lead. He should lead by practicing his own religion, and not be shy advocating why he believes what he believes on moral terms. He should keep mute about other religions, and at most, wish those of other faiths well without particularly “honoring” their specific, non-traditional or non-American holidays.
I think a President should show tremendous reserve in honoring anything about a religion which actively advocates and practices atrocities such as abuse of women and children, beheading, rape, buggering, slavery, murdering of civilian innocents, and where 80% to 90% of average Muslims heartily support these atrocities, even if they won’t commit the deed themselves. When “American” Muslims support any and every Muslim deed mentioned above, I say, they are not Americans. They do not deserve the “life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness” of American tradition, when they liberally support denying these to non-Muslims.
This is not bellicose conjecture. This is first hand observation backed by a bit of Web surveying. When I speak to a “Palestinian-American” (or any average Muslim) who cannot breath a word of condemnation of a bus bombing in Bulgaria, or the murder of an angelic little Jewish girl in France, without hurrying to present the litany of alleged crimes by the tiny state of Israel as justification, I have a very difficult time wishing them a “happy Ramadan”.
I’d rather wish them a warm and comfy eternity in hell, along with all their “blessed” martyr’s. To justify Islamic evil is to be evil. However, “the God who is there” is not Allah, and ultimately, He will deal with the perps …
As far as Obama is concerned, I made the mistake in my opening paragraph about “President should lead …”..
Sometimes I tell people, “Thank God I’m an atheist!” that shakes them up, until they get the joke, if they ever do.
As far as Ramadan goes, the Saudis know their stuff. Fast during the day and go for it after sunset.
Thomas Jefferson studied Islam and he also battled the Barbary Pirates, another devout crew of the followers of Islam. They did not reform until the got their butts kicked about. Well not really reformed…
Just some random associations with Ramadan. Great observance.
I married an Indonesian so I’ve been attached to all things Muslim, and one of the most irritating things about Islam is Ramadan. I had a gut-laugh over the question, “Will the real Ramadan please stand up?” Your typical Muslim has a vague idea about when it starts, and then when it starts he has a vague idea about when it ends. I’m told the Muslims were pioneers in astronomy because of this very question about the timing of Ramadan. So, astronomy, at least, is an Islamic pursuit, and observatories are safe from the horde of jihadists. And we now have a space program dedicated to Muslim outreach. So maybe we’ve got an “in”.
Obama can kiss up to Islam as long as he wants and you won’t hear a peep from the secular humanists. Their outrage is reserved for all things Christian. They are yet Stalinists, mindless Borgs who truck the universe on autopilot to proselytize the virtues of their dead god. Just read the three versions of the humanist manifesto, all of which stink of the diktats from Party Central. The buried motive is to upend the norms of Western Civilization, and that means to erode Christendom. Islam is actually an ally towards this end. There is no hypocrisy revering Ramadan while spouting derision on western Pennsylvanians who stubornly cling to their guns and Bibles. None at all. Rather, there is unity in both actions.
I just had one of those bizarro experiences of spending the day with a bunch of “Queers for Palestine” who valorize Islam (about which they are pig-ignorant) because the moslems hate America and Christians. They even did a “sufi dance.” Which, of course, had bugger-all to do with sufism. Hell, men and women were even touching each other: the outrage.
None of these Pod People know, or care, about queers being savagely tortured and killed in the “palestinian territories”; none, including the Jews, know or care that Arab gays flee to Tel Aviv because the Jews are humane to them whereas their fellow Arabs will kill them.
They’re all barking mad, in my opinion.
Old Salt — AMEN. You said it, mister!
2012 Brussels Declaration
via Gates of Vienna
To Safeguard Individual Liberties and Human Rights
International Conference for Free Speech and Human Rights
To Preserve Free Speech, Civil Liberties, Human Rights and Democracy, against all efforts to injure and usurp those universal principles, we call upon leaders in all nations to support this 2012 Brussels Declaration to Safeguard Individual Liberties and Human Rights:
Reasserting that Human rights and liberties are universal, individual, equal, inalienable, and self-evident irrespective of philosophical, cultural or religious considerations, as a matter of long-held principle;
Considering that any honest defender of Democracy has the right and the duty to uphold and defend free speech, civil liberties and human rights;
Affirming the irrefutable fact that sharia law as articulated and applied is incompatible with and destructive to free speech, civil liberties and human rights and as such is incompatible with the fundamental principles of democracy (as stated in the 13 Feb 2003 judgment of the ECHR);
Acknowledging that the declaration known as “Cairo Declaration of Human Right in Islam” also commonly referred to as the “Cairo Declaration” curtails all human rights under sharia law and sharia normative behavior restrictions (CDHRI Articles 22, 23, 24)on the pretense that “All human beings form one family whose members are united by their subordination to Allah”(CDHRI Article 1);
Observing that the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), being the creator of Cairo Declaration and its current main proponent has, by its continuous and single-minded activity, proven to be the principal international politico-religious organization working to restrict free speech, civil liberties and human rights and to enforce sharia in the world;
Asserting that any official endorsement or promotion of the Cairo Declaration or any cooperation with OIC that leads, by the test of consequences, to more enforcement of sharia anywhere in the world identifies its perpetrator as an active opponent of Democracy, freedom of speech, civil liberties and human rights;
Noting that such an identification renders illegitimate any attempt by the perpetrator to discuss or negotiate matters involving freedom of speech, civil liberties and human rights in any local, national or international forums;
The signatories solemnly require of their governments and civil society:
1) To commence a process, to be known as the Brussels Process, to implement the content of this declaration through education and policy initiatives at all levels of government and sectors of civil society, in order to safeguard the future liberties and rights of our nations and our children, so that all members of the human family may prosper as free individuals.
2) To decline any invitation to participate in any local, national or international forum to discuss civil liberties, free speech or human rights, if the organizers – individual persons or organizations – are known proponents of the Cairo Declaration or societal sharia enforcement unless the negotiated or discussed topic is a transition of their codification and implementation of human rights to the UNDHR definitions and away from the Cairo Declaration definitions…
BARACK Obama wears David Beckham’s tight-fitting boxers.
…includes pic of mock-up
Mock it up, folks.
Becks sent the US president a box of around 50 pairs after learning Obama AND wife Michelle were big fans of his underwear range.
The footie ace — who models the pants he designed himself — found out the Obamas were fans after meeting them in Washington earlier this year.
A source close to the White House said yesterday: “David promised to send a box of his undies to the President — and Michelle has insisted that her husband wears them!”
Becks, 37 — whose briefs are part of a range made by H & M — is also a big hit with Obama’s daughter’s Malia, 14, and Sasha, 11.
The girls are big fans of the dad of four and have signed posters of him on their walls. The source added: “Michelle and the kids think he’s a real hunk.
“They all made an effort to meet him when he went to Washington and also hung out with him at a basketball final in LA. In their eyes, the fact their dad is pals with him is good for Barack’s standing.”
The presidential seal of approval was revealed by former Man U and England star Becks’s LA Galaxy team boss Tim Leiweke.
He said: “The President’s kids know all about David.
“When they came to the LA Lakers basketball final with Boston they weren’t excited until they figured out the Galaxy players were there. All the kids asked was, ‘Where’s Beckham?’ That’s all they wanted to know about.”
—
Back in the day, my sis had a framed pic of Steve Garvey in Dodger Blue Briefs.
Is Ramadan part of the fabric of American Life? Maybe and maybe not. But the President has no real official business asserting that it is….
….We should be free to draw our own conclusions.
Indeed. And if our nation’s Confabulator-in-Chief declares that it is, then the conclusions one draws ought to be crystal clear.
Which is why it is unclear what I should make of the President’s teaching on Islam.
Heh….
(Though I believe that with the coming food shortages coming down the pike, our CIC is letting everyone know—Joseph style?—that hard times are ahead and that Ramadan WILL BECOME part of the fabric of American life….)
File under: Our Own Private Ramadan
Beverly at 44:
I remember reading “Why I An Not a Muslim” by Ibn Warraq. There he corroborates what the English adventurer Sir Richard Francis Burton said back in the 19th century said about Islam–that it is extremely homosexual.
Our military in Iraq have found the same.
I know it is odd–officially, Islam is very much opposed to homosexuality and certainly the whole Gay movement sort of thing. But in actuality, homosexuality dominates the culture in ways it would take a number of volumes to describe.
Of course, the Wahhabis of the Hanbali school of jurisprudence will see you killed as quickly as it can be arranged, should you try to support “Gay rights” in a Muslim country.
BTW, you can download Burton’s adventures in Egypt and his Haj to Mecca from The Gutenberg Project. Absolutely incredible, all of it. A brilliant insight into the Muslim Arab culture. http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/b#a898
I’m sure President O has never heard of Sir Richard Francis Burton.
An Préachán
RWE at 31:
Indeed, Wretchard at 24 is excellent. Let me repost a couple of his paras, because they illuminate our “Curse of Babel” situation, where what all our cultural honchos are saying is just so much gobbledygook.
‘Rather than become more “secular” many Western societies are in fact becoming more religious, except that many of these ascendant religions are now “nontraditonal” ones like environmentalism or Islam. Rather than becoming more tolerant they are paralyzed with speech codes and the misnamed “hate” laws. Rather than being a melting pot, they give rise to ethnic politics.’
HAS there ever been anything so misnamed as the “hate” laws? Maybe “Pro-Choice” but it’d be a horse race between them. A woman has an abortion precisely because she feels she has NO choice but to do it–just as those who sacrificed to Moloch felt the same.
‘And that is because we’ve all been taken in by the words. The words are in fact lies. They disguise the reality of Religious Establishment, Censorship and Balkanization simply by calling them Secularization, Tolerance and Multiculturalism.’
In this culture, we’re choking on lies. But I’ll memorize this para verbatim–it’s a perfect expression of the reality.
‘Today you are going to be mostly correct if you simply invert the given title of an ideology. “Sustainability” means subsidies. Green Energy means Blackouts. Racial equality means racial supremacy. Opportunity means regulation. Hope means you’re screwed. Change means the same old, same old.”‘
Again one to engrave on the hard-drive.
But speaking it to an Obama–would he even remotely comprehend what you were saying? Obama and so many of our cultural elites are so in the grip of “The Curse of Babel” that when they hear us speak, they’re like the old uncle in “The Magician’s Nephew”, when he heard the animals talk.
I have this fantasy of some reporter doing such “plain-talking” as above to Obama–video-taped, closeups and all. It’ll never happen, but it would be great to see Bam’s face, wouldn’t it?
An Préachán
Stoicheion at 21:
Check out the book: “Those Terrible Middle Ages!: Debunking the Myths”, by Regine Pernoud. An enlightening read, to be sure.
I had a copy that I gave to a gorgeous blonde who said she had left the Church and became an atheist. Don’t know if it helped her at all, but I never got it back.
An Préachán
“The atheists of America by advocating non-praying are imposing an atheistic view upon the public space, effectively excluding the deists… someone is bound to be “excluded” whether you pray or you don’t…”
Richard, I think this point needs to be shouted from the rooftops, because a new orthodoxy is being imposed in the name of pluralism. We are sold on “secularism” as a neutral position, but the second you’re not looking secularism means that some ideas are allowed and others are not. If all ideas or policies that have their roots in religion are impermissible for that reason in the public sphere, then what we have is not state neutrality toward all religions and none, but de facto atheism as official policy. I would be fine with the sort of secularism that is true neutrality, but alas not all fundamentalists are religious.
#21. stoicheion
If we apply your same reductionist reasoning to the United States, which is a mere 200 years or so old, to arrive at the Truth then the Howard Zinn crowd wins the day. The Founding Documents, the most Venerable Constitution, treated black people as less than a full person, half the country thought slavery was not only OK but God’s Way. Then we have the massacre at Wounded Knee, the concentration camps called Indian Reservations, which are still with us today…and on and on.
That would pretty much make Barack Obama and Eric Holder courageous folk heroes, doncha’ think?
On the other hand, perhaps life and history are a bit more complex.
Wretchard #12:
Homosexual activists criticize President Reagan because he did not make a speech and express his concern about AIDS, or at least not soon enough. This was even mentioned in the HBO movie, “The Band Played On.”
If the president don’t say it, it ain’t real. If he don’t say it, he’s dissing you and your cause. Bill Clinton even made a special speech about a rock said to be from Mars.
Remember, though, that these are people who reject Federalism. They want to only have to go talk to Someone in DC and get their problem fixed, their interests special served. The long march through local, city, county, state, and lower level Federal institutions is to be avoided, because it’s too much work – and it probably won’t work anyway.
RWE
Hey Mom, No Tail!
Was reading this article about a B-52 that lost almost it’s entire vertical stab in low altitude testing and managed to land.
Lots of talk about rollers over the Rockies etc, but clear down at the bottom is this:
Buzz One Four’s massive tail, standing four stories tall, was wrenched off the B-52 in violent turbulence, landing miles from the bomber’s crash site in Maryland in 1964
On January 13, 1964, an Air Force mission flown by the 484th Bomb Wing (BW) from Westover, callsign “Buzz One Four,” experienced excessive turbulence in very bad weather.
The pilot, Major Thomas W. McCormick, changed altitudes from 30,000 ft. to 29,000 ft. and then to 33,000 ft. trying to get out of the high jet stream winds, which at times were smoking along at 167 mph. Finally, the tail was ripped off from the superstructure near Cumberland, Maryland. McCormick ordered his crew to bail out. Only McCormick and his copilot, Robert C. Peedin survived. McCormick, shown in this photo stepping into a Maryland State Police car following his rescue, had to spend the night huddled in the frigid mountains of western Maryland.
—
How do commercial aircraft manage to virtually never have this problem?
We here in the U.S. have a wonderful political and social experiment in progress. To demonstrate our liberal views and tolerance I think we should experiment with Shira Law on a limited basis to see how it would work out on a larger scale throughout the U.S. We could begin by instituting this in our more open minded communities, say in California, perhaps in San Francisco.
56. j byrnes:
Why think small? Start with the State!
The Two top jobs belong to MoonBeam and former SF district attorney for San Francisco, Kamala Harris “the female Barack Obama,” now State AG:
Harris was born in Oakland, California. She is the daughter of a Tamil mother, Dr. Shyamala Gopalan—a breast cancer specialist who immigrated to the United States from Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India in 1960[8]—and a Jamaican American father, Stanford University economics professor Donald Harris.[9] She has one younger sister, Maya Harris. While the Harris sisters grew up in a household that blended Hindu and Baptist teachings,[10] she is currently a practicing Baptist.[11]
Harris is opposed to the death penalty but has said that she would review each case individually.[30] Her position was tested in April 2004, when SFPD Officer Isaac Espinoza was murdered in the Bayview district. Harris announced that she would not seek the death penalty for the man accused of his killing.
The decision evoked protests from the San Francisco Police Officers Association, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, and others.
The defense had argued that Hill thought Espinoza was a member of a rival gang and that the murder was not premeditated. Hill was given the maximum sentence for the conviction, life without the possibility of parole.[32]
Harris’s position against the death penalty was tested again in the case of Edwin Ramos, an illegal immigrant and alleged MS-13 gang member who was accused of murdering Tony Bologna and his sons Michael and Matthew.[21] On September 10, 2009, Harris announced she would seek life in prison without the possibility of parole rather than the death penalty in the Ramos case.[33]
Tony Bologna, 49, and his sons headed home from an afternoon family barbecue in Fairfield a bit early Sunday so the father could get some sleep. Before midnight, he had to be at his job at a San Mateo grocery store, where he was the night-shift supervisor.
It was 3 p.m., and Bologna was nearly home when he was forced to stop, facing south, on narrow Congdon Street in the Excelsior district.
When he did that, he blocked the path of a car that was trying to turn north onto Congdon from Maynard Street, police said Monday.
The driver stared him down. Bologna soon put his Honda Civic into reverse to try to let the other car go by.
“The driver started giving Tony dirty looks, so Tony drove back,” said Lt. Mike Stasko, who heads the police homicide detail and coached youth basketball with Bologna. “The man drove alongside him and started shooting.
“If Tony never backed up, they would still be nose to nose,” Stasko said, drawing a map and showing how the two cars had been facing each other, each unable to pass. “He backed up to let the guy complete the turn. (The gunman) opened fire without saying anything.”
Father of 4, sons innocent victims of road rage – SFGate
“San Francisco sends fewer people to jail per arrest than other counties throughout the state. The San Francisco DA’s incarceration rates are among the lowest in the entire state of California—fully 10 times lower than in San Diego County, for example. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, “roughly 4 of every 100 arrests result in prison terms in San Francisco, compared with 12.8 out of 100 in Alameda County, 14.4 of 100 in Sacramento County, 21 of 100 in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, 26.6 of 100 in Fresno County, 38.7 of 100 in Los Angeles County and 41 of 100 in San Diego County.”
“Kamala Harris, the “Female Obama,” Wins Primary for California Attorney General”. Daily Beast.
—
Then there’s The Guv:
His thinking seems little changed from the window into his psyche he offered in the 1975 commencement at the University of Santa Clara – the Jesuit school he had attended for a year before joining the seminary. In part of that speech, Brown reached back to the Father Teilhard de Chardin who, he said:
“…saw that there was an evolution of the mind as well as the body. The evolution of the spirit was bringing the divergence of this planet together, not only the nuclear problems, the problem of learning to live with people who are very different, the problem of one generation accepting the different lifestyle, of accepting one another.
I think we can very well think of the philosophy that all diversity is being converged toward a greater unit.
That’s the way I see things and it won’t be done unless each one of us can do this for ourselves so that together we can do what none of us can do separately.”
Brown’s first guru was not Baba Ram Dass, who published “Be Here Now” in 1971, but his forerunner — Ignatius — who told Jerry and all the other would-be keepers of the flame and sword from the 16th Century onward:
“Age quod agis” –
“Do what you are doing.”
Doug #55:
I recall the incident with the B-52 that lost its vertical tail tail over the Rockies. It flew around for some time. I was told that the secretaries at Tinker AFB had trouble transcribing the tapes of the radio discussions because of all the profanity.
As to why it does not happen very often with airliners (although it did in 2001)
1. The B-52 was the first very large jet aircraft with a configuration similar to most airliners. I recall sitting down at a drawing of a B-52 part I was working on and discovering it was dated before I was born. The B-52 paved the way. A bit earlier than the 52 was the Comet airliner – which suffered serious structural failures and had to be redesigned.
2. Airliners do not try to do what B-52′s do. They do not do low level pentrations or abrupt manuevers designed to throw off intercepts. A B-52 pilot I knew described how he was intercepted by two ROK F-5′s. He turned inside them, got on their tails and they could not shake him except by diving steeply away. On another occasion he outmanuevered an F-14 and his tail gunner scored a simulated kill of the fighter, after which they scored a simulated nuclear kill of a US Navy carrier battle group.
An Préachán:
The “Thousand Nights and Night” translated by Sir Burton are the tales told by a slave girl, Shahrazad, to the sheik. Her survival is predicated on keeping the sheik entertained each and every night.
I have the complete volumes of the translations for the Burton Club (#620/1000) from around 1885. The lithographs are worth the admission price. I have not read them all but a goodly portion in the past.
I am positive the pResident has never heard of the “Thousand Nights…” nor understands more about real Musselman culture than he gleaned from a Disney cartoon. The tales are tales of high cruelty and debasement.
Obama just exposes his lack of brains to any and all.
Thanks, RWE:
It said six hours before landing:
They sent up a KC-135 as communications center.
(After an F-100 to check out the “tail”)
Moved jet fuel back to make up for weight of tail, put down rear landing gear for added stability, lots of other stuff, engineers decided to go light on the flaps on landing, higher speed, etc.
When front gear came down, it yawed a bit, but they were home!
It said they had at least 3 catastrophic Comet incidents which
tanked Britain as a supplier of Jet Aircraft.
Wasn’t 2001 THE LAST US MAJOR TO GO DOWN IN OVER A DECADE?
Unbelieveable!
Now get back to “Age quod agis”
(previous comment)
I’m a little ticked off at Uhbama’s being so solicitous to Muslims, because he doesn’t give proportional or even equal time to other faiths.
I’m too tired to fact check, but I think there are about the same number of Jews in America as Muslims (about 5 million), so why doesn’t Lord Smug make similar glowing comments on Jewish or Christian holidays?
From a list floating around the internet, which sounds about correct but may be a bit outdated:
The world Muslim population is approximately 1.6 billion, about 23% of the total.
They have received the following Nobel Prizes:
Literature:
1988 – Najib Mahfooz
Peace:
1978 – Mohamed Anwar El-Sadat
1990 – Elias James Corey
1994 – Yaser Arafat:
1999 – Ahmed Zewai
Economics: none
Physics:
1979 Abdus Salam
Medicine:
1960 – Peter Brian Medawar
1998 – Ferid Mourad
Total: 8
The world Jewish population is approximately 13.3 million, about 0.2% of the world’s population.
They have received the following Nobel Prizes:
Literature:
1910 – Paul Heyse
1927 – Henri Bergson
1958 – Boris Pasternak
1966 – Shmuel Yosef Agnon
1966 – Nelly Sachs
1976 – Saul Bellow
1978 – Isaac Bashevis Singer
1981 – Elias Canetti
1987 – Joseph Brodsky
1991 – Nadine Gordimer World
Peace:
1911 – Alfred Fried
1911 – Tobias Michael Carel Asser
1968 – Rene Cassin
1973 – Henry Kissinger
1978 – Menachem Begin
1986 – Elie Wiesel
1994 – Shimon Peres
1994 – Yitzhak Rabin
Physics:
1905 – Adolph Von Baeyer
1906 – Henri Moissan
1907 – Albert Abraham Michelson
1908 – Gabriel Lippmann
1910 – Otto Wallach
1915 – Richard Willstaetter
1918 – Fritz Haber
1921 – Albert Einstein
1922 – Niels Bohr
1925 – James Franck
1925 – Gustav Hertz
1943 – Gustav Stern
1943 – George Charles de Hevesy
1944 – Isidor Issac Rabi
1952 – Felix Bloch
1954 – Max Born
1958 – Igor Tamm
1959 – Emilio Segre
1960 – Donald A. Glaser
1961 – Robert Hofstadter
1961 – Melvin Calvin
1962 – Lev Davidovich Landau
1962 – Max Ferdinand Perutz
1965 – Richard Phillips Feynman
1965 – Julian Schwinger
1969 – Murray Gell-Mann
1971 – Dennis Gabor
1972 – William Howard Stein
1973 – Brian David Josephson
1975 – Benjamin Mottleson
1976 – Burton Richter
1977 – Ilya Prigogine
1978 – Arno Allan Penzias
1978 – Peter L Kapitza
1979 – Stephen Weinberg
1979 – Sheldon Glashow
1979 – Herbert Charles Brown
1980 – Paul Berg
1980 – Walter Gilbert
1981 – Roald Hoffmann
1982 – Aaron Klug
1985 – Albert A. Hauptman
1985 – Jerome Karle
1986 – Dudley R. Herschbach
1988 – Robert Huber
1988 – Leon Lederman
1988 – Melvin Schwartz
1988 – Jack Steinberger
1989 – Sidney Altman
1990 – Jerome Friedman
1992 – Rudolph Marcus
1995 – Martin Perl
2000 – Alan J. Heeger
Economics:
1970 – Paul Anthony Samuelson
1971 – Simon Kuznets
1972 – Kenneth Joseph Arrow
1975 – Leonid Kantorovich
1976 – Milton Friedman
1978 – Herbert A. Simon
1980 – Lawrence Robert Klein
1985 – Franco Modigliani
1987 – Robert M. Solow
1990 – Harry Markowitz
1990 – Merton Miller
1992 – Gary Becker
1993 – Robert Fogel
Medicine:
1908 – Elie Metchnikoff
1908 – Paul Erlich
1914 – Robert Barany
1922 – Otto Meyerhof
1930 – Karl Landsteiner
1931 – Otto Warburg
1936 – Otto Loewi
1944 – Joseph Erlanger
1944 – Herbert Spencer Gasser
1945 – Ernst Boris Chain
1946 – Hermann Joseph Muller
1950 – Tadeus Reichstein
1952 – Selman Abraham Waksman
1953 – Hans Krebs
1953 – Fritz Albert Lipmann
1958 – Joshua Lederberg
1959 – Arthur Kornberg
1964 – Konrad Bloch
1965 – Francois Jacob
1965 – Andre Lwoff
1967 – George Wald
1968 – Marshall W. Nirenberg
1969 – Salvador Luria
1970 – Julius Axelrod
1970 – Sir Bernard Katz
1972 – Gerald Maurice Edelman
1975 – Howard Martin Temin
1976 – Baruch S. Blumberg
1977 – Roselyn Sussman Yalow
1978 – Daniel Nathans
1980 – Baruj Benacerraf
1984 – Cesar Milstein
1985 – Michael Stuart Brown
1985 – Joseph L. Goldstein
1986 – Stanley Cohen [& Rita Levi-Montalcini]
1988 – Gertrude Elion
1989 – Harold Varmus
1991 – Erwin Neher
1991 – Bert Sakmann
1993 – Richard J. Roberts
1993 – Phillip Sharp
1994 – Alfred Gilman
1995 – Edward B. Lewis
1996- Lu Rose Iacovino
Total: 129
Fields Prize, the highest award for achievement mathematics:
Muslims – none
Jews – 15, or 23% of all winners
1936 – Jesse Douglas
1950 – Laurent Schwartz
1958 – Klaus Roth
1966 – Saul Cohen
1966 – Alexander Grothendieck
1970 – Alan Baker
1978 – Charles Fefferman
1978 – Gregori Margulis
1986 – Michael Freedman
1990 – Vladimir Drinfeld
1990 – Edward Witten
1994 – Efim Zelmanov
2006 – Grigori Perelman
2006 – Wendelin Werner
2010 – Elon Lindenstrauss
I don’t like putting people into groups and I abhor group politics, but Uhbama started it. I’d like it better if the Precedent would praise those who accomplish something worthwhile rather than be a PR agent for groups who are on the take, or who hate America, or borrowing from Churchill, have much to be modest about.
The guy is one big pile of platitudes and lies, slightly altered for the occasion to pander to the audience of the moment, and I don’t believe he believes in anything but his Marxist utopian pipe dreams, and that only as long as he can be in charge and wallow in the perks and applause.
Mad King Ludwig busted the budget too, but at least he left some beautiful castles.
Responding to Doug at his #55,
It’s a small pebble in the avalanche of ideas in this comment stream, but oddly, I think I made a reference some weeks back to JAL flight #123, the Japanese Air Lines 747 that in 1985 lost its rudder and redundant hydraulic systems 12 minutes after takeoff from Haneda Airport (Tokyo) while climbing to cruising altitude.
The airplane was doomed from that moment; all the brave pilot and copilot could do was mitigate the disaster at best. The plane continued to fly for 32 minutes, with the crew trying to control the aircraft by varying engine thrust. The crash resulted in the deaths of 520 crew and passengers.
My little bit of reading on this on a couple of occasions indicated that NO CREW attempting to land the plane in any simulator has ever done so; they all crashed much sooner than did the actual crew, who kept the plane aloft by the only mode of control available with all hydraulic systems destroyed.
Looking at the picture of that B-52 with no vertical tail stabilizer, I am amazed to think the pilot and co-pilot managed to bring it back to its base and land. But it may be that the hydraulics for their control surfaces were not lost, which would have given them greater control…
Still, it is astounding.
Cowboy #43
“Obama can kiss up to Islam as long as he wants and you won’t hear a peep from the secular humanists. Their outrage is reserved for all things Christian.”
This cannot be stated often enough. Bigotry against all but the most exsanguinated and emasculated forms of Christianity is one of the bedrock principles of leftists. Not “religion” but Christianity, specifically.
By defining any form of devout Christianity as the greatest possible evil, leftists create a pole, a foundation, from which they can construct the rest of their philosophy and worldview. Thus, anything which threatens the view that Christians represent the very definition of evil undermines the entire edifice of their crappy little narrative, creates a cognitive dissonance that they are unable to resolve, and pushes them beyond their intellectual capacities to form a synthesis and move on.
As such, leftists will go through whichever pseudointellectual contortions are required to maintain Christians in their position of the greatest possible evil in the universe. A Christian bloviating about his religion MUST be viewed as more evil than a Muslim committing torture or murder. Africans performing genital mutilations on girls are “controversial” whereas televangelists MUST be an existential threat to the human race.
Or the entire left narrative has its foundation ripped from underneath itself.
And this will simply not do.
Fiddler,
Pretty sure they had hydraulics,
…and 6 hours of engineers fiddling with figures on the ground, no doubt the stimulus for much of the profanity mentioned by RWE, I’m guessing mostly coming from the pilot.
Didn’t one small boy in the rear of the 747 survive when it smashed into the woods?
Think of that astounding over a decade accident free record, though, what with the hundreds of thousands of take offs, flights, and landings year after year after year.
That many people backing their cars out of garages that many times is bound to produce a significant number of deaths each year.
—
Hmm, article says 4 survivors, not what I remembered, but 7 oh is approaching…
“It was established that seven years earlier the Boeing 747, Registration: JA8119, had been involved in a tail scrape during landing. The rear pressure bulkhead had been repaired at Osaka by Boeing Engineers. It was discovered that the pressure bulkhead had been incorrectly mended with the doubler plate not extending across the whole repair, thus a single line of rivets carried the loads.
On the 12th August 1985 at 24,000ft 18:24 local time, the seam failed in the bulkhead, causing the bulkhead to blow out, creating an overpressure in the tail severing the four sets of hyraulic control lines and blowing part of the tail section off. “
If you’re still here, RWE, I’m guessing better detection of high-altitude turbulence also might be a factor these days?
My hat is off for W., for the courage to state the Moloch horror. Not all of His people are lost in swarms of religious nothingisms… 8]