November 2005 Archives

Do not miss these important posts at The Daily Ablution concerning a Muslim Brotherhood document called "The Project." It's like a Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, except...it looks like this one's real.

The Project, Part I
The Project, Part II

(via LGF)

The video of yesterday's Dershowitz/Chomsky debate at Harvard (see this post, and don't miss the comments thread) is now available at the Harvard site. Do check it out.

Update: To find the video, look for:

Click on "Forum Video"

A: When you accept it on behalf of someone else.

Far be it for me to begrudge someone else cheaper home heating oil, I could use some myself (though none of this batch is going to me), but this strikes me as fraught with ethical issues. Will William Delahunt be able to express a trustworthy opinion on South American strongman Hugo Chavez while Chavez is helping Delahunt bring home the bacon?

OpinionJournal: Oil for Friends - Hugo Chávez repays his Congressional amigo

Nothing like being beholden to an anti-American demagogue. At least we pay Saudi Arabia full price to spread hatred of us. No one owes anyone anything.

I'm not exactly sure why this is a scandal. Maybe it's because the slant (there is no allegation of non-factual material) is designed to help us succeed..

CNN: Report: U.S. buys positive press in Iraq

Uh, yeah, but those were with the domestic press. Since when is it such a big hairy deal for the US Government to try to influence forgeign opinion. I thought that's what we were supposed to be doing. Hell, I thought that was part of the CIA's job. Whether this particular project is wise or short-sighted is another matter. It hardly seems scandalous. Of course, now that it's front page news...that sort of calls in to question its future effectiveness.

The only scary thing is that a former executive of Voice of America thinks it's a bad thing for the USA to be utilizing all possible venues to get our message out. Sheesh.

Claudia Rosett, in a Pajamas Media "Special Report," helps sound the warning bells on the UN and the internet (and just about anything else, frankly):

La Rosett: Whose internet is it anyway?

*shiver*

If this sounds too far-fetched to you, you're not nearly cynical enough.

Arutz 7: Tree-Cutting "Libel" - Once Again, Jews Stand Accused

They've caught a couple of the guys involved in that brazen act of vandalism caught on tape late last week. ("Vandalism" doesn't seem to really cover it, does it, since this was a violent act as well.) Looks like they are, indeed, members of a "Black Muslim" group, though not the Nation of Islam.

CNN: Two held after taped store vandalism

CNN: Iraq bomber 'was Belgian woman'

I wonder how such a person, someone with a life in the West, would have ended up doing such a thing. It's almost as though she were...indoctrinate or something. That, or perhaps she won some sort of contest.

It looks like an episode of Frontline, or maybe any run of the mill documentary...but you very quickly realize it's something sinister. A lovely list of authorities the interviewees refer to...Faurisson, Leuchter, Zundel...the Holocaust is all a Zionist lie.

And thus the lie is given to the idea that anti-Zionism has nothing to do with anti-Semitism. 99% of the time the two are absolutely inextricable in practice, even if not in theory.

Here's TV from a country that's officially at peace with Israel.

MEMRI TV: Holocaust Denial on Egyptian Nile TV

The last contest I entered was to win front row tickets to The Nutcracker.

May this contest winner be the recipient of an all expenses paid trip to Club GTMO, that or a free Hellfire Missile up the (probably Dorito-enhanced) rump.

MEMRI: Islamist Website Design Contest: Winner Fires Missiles at U.S. Army Base in Iraq

Iran is trying to aquire as much space tech as possible before the world catches up with its nuclear machinations and cuts it all off. I'm not sure I would worry so much if I were they. Iran with an effective space program shouldn't be making anyone happy. I wonder what the current state of anti-satellite technology is.

Iran snaps up space technology

While Western intellectuals sit about debating reasonable solution amongst reasonable people, there is a legitimate question as to how many people there are on the other side with the same reasonable goals.

JPost: The phantom Arab moderate

[Hat Tip: Andrew Bostom]

Someone call Noam Chomsky! They're manufacturing consent! (Or is that dissent?)

These are the employees of a serious and influential world-spanning media outlet.

MEMRI TV: Al-Jazeera TV Staff in Ramallah in Anti-Bush Demonstration: Down with Fascist America

John Rosenthal explains.

[Update 11/30/05: The video is now up.]

I didn't get a ticket to the debate, but here is the page where you can watch the live video feed. It starts at 19:00 Eastern. BYOB.

Update: I'm bumping this up to the top. The feed is live now. Very nice quality.

Final wrap-up: OK, I did a sort-of live blog which I've shuffled off into the extended entry. I found it very difficult to type and quip and still listen, so mostly I didn't.

Dershowitz fans will enjoy this, so give it a listen/watch when the video is up on the archive. He's aggressive and ready, occasionally delving more into the ad hominem than Chomsky (one of the expressions he likes to repeat is "Planet Chomsky," which I enjoyed but have to admit was getting personal), but overall driving the debate and responding extremely well. Chomsky is getting old. He's quieter and more tentative. Not as impressive a presence or voice. Classic Chomsky, he speaks like he writes, referring constantly to sources, "serious scholars," and things which "everyone knows" while waiving his hand. You can almost see the little footnote marks floating over his head. Dershowitz, of course, challenges the audience to do as Professor Chomsky says and check his sources.

It would be an interesting excercise, if there is a transcript posted, or someone wants to slog through the video, actually doing just that. Chomsky is called by a member of the audience during the question and answer period on his characterization of the work of one of the audience member's friends, for instance.

The audience, what could be heard on the audio, was a bit louder on the Chomsky side, although both had their fans and there was some hissing but I'm not sure at who.

Unquestionably, Dershowitz came out looking like the forward thinker, the one desiring peace and willing to self-criticize. Chomsky is, to put it bluntly, stuck on stupid and has been for decades. The man is genetically incapable of doing anything other than villifying Israel and the United States. Everything is their fault -- from the war in '48 to the failure of Taba -- their actions always without context or justification. Trying to get a forward looking, "OK, so where do we go from here" statement out of him is like pulling teeth. He just won't do it. He can't concede a thing. (He seems to think the Geneva Accord was OK, though.)

As I said earlier, you might check out the video yourself when it appears. In the meantime, check out Natan Sharansky's video on the same page (scroll down to February 10).

My only slightly cleaned up live notes are in the extended entry. You might take a look to get a taste of whether you want to watch or not.

JPost: EU: Hamas must recognize Israel

Daveed Gartenstein-Ross quotes Rushdie's Wikipedia entry:

It really wasn't that long ago, and the threat to free speech, even in the West, from Islamic radicalism is still with us. Gartenstein-Ross examines the issue in his newest Weekly Standard piece, The Freedoms We Fight For - The unheralded Islamist assault on free speech:

I thought this was a pretty cool picture.

I'm thinking even I wouldn't get sea-sick on that thing.

The hi-res version is pretty neat.

Pieter Dorsman catches M. DeVillepin in an "it depends on what is is" moment, or is this redefining "sexual relations?"

Anyway, in an interview with Christiane Amanpour:

Those weren't riots, they were a wardrobe malfunction! No, this is not a Monty Python sketch.

I'll grant him one thing that has stuck out at me concerning the French riots -- they have been remarkable for the fact that no one was actually killed.

More (and serious) commentary here.

As usual, the unwillingness to define "terrorism," or, more specifically, the refusal of the Palestinians and their Arab/Muslim allies to give up and exception for themselves from any such definition has resulted in the mooting of yet another international summit.

LA Times: European-Mediterranean Summit Ends With a Murmur

Proof positive that when you hear someone "condemn terrorism in all its manifestations" -- a favorite trope of groups like the Council on American-Islamic Relations -- it means nothing. Absolutely nothing. They used it here as the only way to get an agreement on something no one could agree on, so they decided to say something that sounds credible to the completely credulous, but in actual fact is stripped of any substance.

Of, course, some will blame this problem -- and the fact that it would seem that something's coming between an agreement by Europe and the Arabs -- on, who else, Israel, rather than on the simple fact that the Palestinians and their Arab/Muslim allies support the worst activities of the Palestinian terror groups. They are addicted to it.

Of course, someone already did place such blame. Beware of open microphones:

There were some mixed signs in the post-mortem, however:

In other words, payoffs, not progress next time, s'il vous plait.

(via WorldwideStandard)

The American Enterprise Institute has a list of them with answers, here.

Joe Lieberman must be a pariah in party circles these days.

Op Journal: Our Troops Must Stay - America can't abandon 27 million Iraqis to 10,000 terrorists.

Here is a lengthy report on the growing nexus between terror groups and organized (or disorganized) crime:

USNews: Paying for Terror - How jihadist groups are using organized-crime tactics--and profits--to finance attacks on targets around the globe

(Hat Tip: Mal)

First there was the Haaretz interview. Then, following threats and legal intimidation, there was the Haaretz story that Alain Finkielkraut had recanted and apologized for what he said.

But today, writing in the NY Sun, Hillel Halkin says the French Philosopher didn't actually recant, but merely weasled about a bit and had his "apology" accepted, and that it was really a smear by Haaretz to say he had withdrawn his words. Here's Halkin in a piece worth reading in full for the rest:

Finkielkraut's Plain Talk On Race

To the wider issue:

As one emailer tells me:

"I listened to a two hour interview on French culture last night. Everyone rambled. Not good."

Banagor takes the Finkielkraut recantation to heart. Warning! Rant Ahead! Europe, the Whore

Following both threats of death and legal sanction, French Philosopher Alain Finkielkraut has recanted his statements made in the remarkable interview he gave to the Ha'aretz newspaper.

French philosopher Alain Finkielkraut apologizes after death threats

Looks like much of Europe isn't ready to have a serious conversation with itself yet.

[via PeakTalk]

This article in Ha'aretz reviews the work of Dr. Yitzhak Reiter, who will be releasing a book entitled From Jerusalem to Mecca and Back - the Muslim Rallying Around Jerusalem which collects the massive amount of Arab/Muslim denial regarding Jewish connections to Jerusalem and the presence of a significant Temple there. This is not a fringe issue, but represents part of the ideological war against Israel, Judaism and common scholarly standards, as well as a showcase of Islam's inability to play well with others.

Worth checking out.

In the beginning was Al-Aqsa

Sub-Head: 'Good field, no hit'

Who says there are no Jewish athletes? The American Jewish Historical Society has several choices of baseball card sets featuring 142 players plus 55 more in the 2006 update. Prices range from $36 for the update to $500 for the gold-foil, numbered limited edition full (up to 2003) set.

I'm sure one of the cards will be of one of my favorite ballplayers -- the eccentric and brilliant Moe Berg.

Berg was backup catcher for most of his Major League career, finishing it out with a few years in Boston as a player and then a coach.

What makes Berg most interesting, of course, was his brilliant mind and encyclopedic knowledge on a variety of subjects. He spoke (probably in excess of) seven languages, including fluent Japanese and German, making him a valuable commodity for the US Government during the Second World War and the years leading up to it. This backup catcher famously accompanied the likes of Gehrig and Ruth as part of an American All-Star team to Japan in the 1930's -- where he went off alone to photograph the Tokyo sky line. He also attended a lecture in Zurich during the War given by Werner Heisenberg with the purpose of assessing Germany's closeness to aquiring an atomic bomb. That just scratches the surface of Berg's enigmatic activities (sometimes exagerated).

Here are some links with more info on Berg:

ESPN Classic: Moe Berg: Catcher and spy
Jewish Virtual Library: Moe Berg
Wikipedia Entry
Nova: Atomic Spies

The best biography of Berg was the one that appeared a few years ago: The Catcher Was a Spy : The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg

A very hard-hitting essay by Norwegian blogger, Fjordman. Read it in full.

Fjordman: Are Muslims the Jews of Today?

[See original for imbedded links. Hat Tip: Emailers]

MEMRI TV: Iraqi Sunni Imam Tells of Tortures and Calls on Iraqis to Slaughter American Soldiers for the Muslim Holiday

A couple things here. First, the bad guys are listening to the Democrats. Second, do you think anyone at al-Jazeera told this guy he shouldn't say such things? They seemed to be having a pretty good time letting him go on and on. Yet if George Bush were to have discussed bombing that station -- at a time when there were serious allegations that al Jazeera reporters were paying people to cause trouble -- he'd be the bad guy.

This article sheds a bit more light on the Magen David Adom controversy with regard to the question of whether or not the actual Star of David symbol is going to be recognized. Sounds like it will...uh, sort of. I'm left with one question. I see that any organization, including the Red Cross or Crescent, may use the diamond in addition or in lieu of their regular symbols. It appears, though, that the Star by itself can only be used inside Israel. In other words, it is still not going to be on an equal footing with the others...almost, but not quite. I think. Not sure. Anyway...

JPost: MDA to sign deal with Palestinian Red Crescent

This Syrian film festival features no Israeli films ('Impossible!"), which makes sense considering the country its being held in and the fact that man it's being held in honor of was a believer in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

Syrian film festival features American films

Gaza's largest open-air prison -- its zoo -- was the victim of an unusual grand-theft two weeks ago.

Report: Gunmen steal lion, two parrots from Gaza zoo

They sure showed him. Must have been a collaborator.

[Note: This post, a reflection on the New York launch of Pajamas nee Open Source Media, is a consolidation of the original six-part essay into one, easily-linkable piece. Links to the original six pieces are given in the end of the essay. -S]

Ask not on whom the Joke is… the Joke is on Us

Everyone writes with an audience in mind. To some extent, what we write says something about what we think of that audience: Are we condescending? Demagogic? Demanding? Generous? Some of the above?

Bloggers, especially the political bloggers who form the core of the new Pajamas Open Source Media, got their start by writing to an imagined audience that wanted to hear what they had to say even if, initially, they had no idea how large an audience that might be (and any expert in the MSM would have told them to forget about it). Above all they broke the matrix of MSM mimetic desire, the now suffocating arrogance of the gatekeepers of public discourse, those who get repeat parts in the public discussion, those who adhere to the powerful, if invisible, consensus as to what the “public” wants (entertainment, lifestyle issues, national news, all packaged professionally) and what they need (images that encourage respect for other cultures, that do not give fodder for right-wing warmongering).

Not kidding.

Here's a great walk-through of the issue of torture and the McCain amendment that's well worth reading in full.

Charles Krauthammer: The Truth about Torture

[Hat Tip: Mal]

Washington Times: Colleges see anti-Semitism rise

[Hat Tip: Andrew Bostom]

According to this article at Fjordman's blog, the Danish Film Institute would be willing in principle to allocate public funds to the production of Hirsi Ali's Muslim 'Life of Brian' -- should she decide to write it.

Fjordman: Film about Muhammed Welcome in Denmark

[Hat Tip: Andrew Bostom]

A completely new look at Natural Law from Hizbullah Philosopher-in-Chief, Hassan Nasrallah:

JPost: Nasrallah: 'It is our natural right to capture IDF soldiers'

This is an AP report report with multiple uses of the word "terrorist" -- clearly a use of the Jerusalem Post editorial pen.

Update: An emailer writes: "Nasrallah is just making explicit the notion of Dar al Harb, where ALL in this domain are are "muba'a" licit, including non-combatants, but certainly soldiers...These doctrines ARE important because they are alive, unfortunately, and ignoring or denying their existence does nothing but perpetuate their existence..."

Watch the video of a group of "well dressed thugs" (Nation of Islam or a spin-off?) brazenly vandalize a liquor store on camera. I really feel for the store clerk and his family who were cowering in the back room.

Well-Dressed Gang Terrorizes Oakland Liquor Stores

Also, Arab-Owned Liquor Stores Attacked In Oakland

(via LGF)

David Brog writes a timely piece (because I've been mulling this issue for days now) in OpinionJournal concerning the puzzling decision of ADL to pick Christian Fundamentalism and Church/State separation as this year's most pressing issue: Biting the Hand - Why is the ADL going after evangelical Christians? Of all the threats the Jewish community has facing it, this is what the ADL chooses to focus on at this time?

It's been nagging at me especially since seeing Marc Levin's pathetic film, Protocols of Zion (see here, here and here) and taking note of his failed efforts to pin modern (and ancient) anti-Semitism on American Evangelicals. Sorry, but these people are not out problem. There are other much more serious threats out there.

It's not that we don't need to continue to pay attention to Church/State issues, we do, but this is where the ADL things we need to shine the spotlight? Come on.

The fact is, it's about the dough. Most American Jews, and thus most of ADL's donation base, live in liberal echo chambers where their formative prioritizing experience remains having had to sing Christmas Carols in their fifth grade chorus. Horrifying as that experience may have been, we have bigger problems facing us now, and it's time for some of the big Jewish groups to face them, and stop antagonizing unnecessarily the people who should be our natural allies.

Brog:

If the Jewish groups still need to turn to anti-Christian scare-mongering for cash, it's because they themselves haven't been doing a proper job in educating our people on current events. So in that way it becomes an ongoing cycle of irrelevency -- the big orgs pander for cash by harping on the wrong issues, thereby blowing those out of proportion but ensuring they have to continue to do so in order to keep the cash flowing.

This is the difference between reaction and leadership, and leadership is totally absent.

I'll have to hand it to these leftist activists, they do in fact bring the sides together, although not always in the way they intend.

Arutz7: Hevron Arabs Ask Jews For Help in Banishing Leftist Activists

Andrew Bostum tackles the popular misconceptions of an idyllic Andalusia and a tolerant Turkish Millet System. As usual with Bostom's work, it is detailed and layered with primary source material.

Eurabia’s Morass Elicits Mythical “Solutions”

Hope renews for alter kockers the world over. Fruit may yet sprout from some very old seed.

National Geographic: 2,000-Year-Old Seed Sprouts, Sapling Is Thriving

There is an interesting issue here, and it's one which the article notes -- the degree to which Congress can and should dictate and make itself felt in foreign policy issues.

JPost: US Congress works to ban Hamas

Have a great one!

These six fine fellows wandered through my yard yesterday. Boy were they playing with fire:

In other related news, the inventor of one of my favorite foods, Stove Top Stuffing, has died.

Widely linked but worth one more.

US pressures UN to condemn Hizbullah

Love that guy. That's just the type of thing we were hoping for from him.

The torture of this is that Bolton could have too much success and actually make the UN into a credible organization. That is, however, a far off fear. The organization is systemically flawed and one man/nation may make for some small victories, but never completely turn the ship. Every decision, position and pronouncement will continue to be a case unto itself. Good on 'im for this one.

[Previous: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5]

NB: This was written the day after the launch. Notes added today in [].

Working hypotheses: Whither the Blogosphere and OSM?

So what's the bottom line? What's happening in the blogosphere and its first "portal" OSM?

How about some working hypotheses? (Feel free to offer others.)

Working hypothesis 1: The launch was a goof easily forgivable since it brought so many great minds together and the planners deserve the benefit of the doubt. Getting MSMers to show their colors was not really a high priority: it's not like the blogosphere needed further demonstrations of their "lack of curiosity," and was only embarrassing to the MSMers invited (if they noticed). The choices made for panels represent a dangerous tendency to "cash in" the power acquired from slaying the Rather dragon, and an over-eagerness to get a place at the MSM table. To raise the money, the organizers had to compromise, shed their maverick appearance, put on suits and ties - not Charles! - and get with the program. This long-term trend is towards OSM as a gatekeeper of bloggers wanting to go mainstream, rather than a portal.

Working hypothesis 2: The blogosphere will not let them get away with it, and the OSM organizers will, like the bloggers they are, and not the MSMers they are flirting with, admit the mistake, hopefully with humor [and grace], and pull back. [I am delighted to report that this is already the case.] The blogosphere is only in its infancy. (Before coming, I asked my students how many read blogs. Only two out of forty. It was like my asking who had emails in 1995. Within a couple of years I imagine they all will.) OSM will become the first, but only one of several portals that link the two dramatically different worlds of the blogosphere and the MSM. Neither, eventually, will be able to do without the other. But neither should they merge.

Just had a good time checking out all the creativity in the blogs nominated in the "Best Blog Design" category of the 2005 Weblog Awards. There are lots of really creative designs out there (and a lot of people who should not have nominated themselves). I wonder how many of those were designed by the blogger, and how many by a pro?

In relation to the post below, Hirsi Ali: I'd like to make a Muslim 'Life of Brian', there is, oddly enough, a current-events connection to controversial films about the life of Mohammed (could there be any other kind?).

In fact, Moustapha Akkad, recently killed in the Jordan terror bombings and who the press most prominently described as the Hollywood producer of the Halloween series of movies, was also the director of a 1976 film called The Message. The film's production was problematic, to say the least, and was also the cause of a major 1977 Washington D.C. hostage and murder incident:

Here is another view of the hostage incident.

Something else about Moustapha Akkad not mentioned in the Boston Globe's AP obituary, he was a believer in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion:

Ayaan Hirsi Ali really knows how to stir it:

Also:

I believe she is referring to the article, In A Ruined Country: How Yasir Arafat destroyed Palestine, the only full-text version of which I could still find is here.

[Hat Tip: Andrew Bostom]

Michael Barone:

[via One Fine Jay]

Omar blogging from Iraq on timing:

This all seems correct to me and has, as far as everything I've ever heard, been the plan all along. Get the Iraqi government running, let the engine warm a bit, train an Iraqi Army and police as fast as logically practicable, and let them take over as we cycle down. That's what makes the latest Democrat attacks such transparent opportunism, and at the risk of our troop's morale and lives as they encourage the terrorists to believe they are effective. They're not, but in order to score political points, the local loyal opposition is helping to make them look that way.

Someone decided that the Vietnam legacy has worked well for the Democrat Party and they need a renewal for the 21st Century -- the Vietnamization of Iraq.

Don't let them. The plan is still on.

I meant to note that I finished John Bradley's, Saudi Arabia Exposed: Inside a Kingdom in Crisis last week. Bradley is the erstwhile editor of Arab News, Saudi Arabia's major English language paper.

The book is a short, good read, that attempts and largely succeeds in giving the reader a more magnified look inside a usually monochromaticly portrayed country. To put it in pictures, if this map is the view of Saudi Arabia most people have, then this map represents the version of the Kingdom that Bradley presents - variegated, with internal borders, different, regionally distinct, and far more tenuously held together and less homogeneous than most outsiders choose to believe.

The book weighs in at a short 215 pages, but there's very little filler here. The chapter describing the practice -- surprisingly overt and widespread practice -- of homosexuality within the Kingdom is worth the cover price.

Any highly sex-segregated society (Bradley mentions prison and shipboard life as examples) is likely to develop such phenomenon, with the attendant and necessary rationalizations to overcome the cognitive dissonance involved -- it's not homosexuality, it's about power, and men being men, etc... Besides, "Ain't nobody's business but our own..." In some ways, gays are more liberated than straights, as two men holding hands and engaging in light kissing in public is perfectly acceptable, while a man and a woman may never engage in such behaviors.

In fact, the image of the KSA that emerges is of a nation under the tremendous pressure of cognitive dissonance, and the resulting mental strains and questionable behaviors that emerge while trying to keep the whole together and sane. If countries were people, we'd be giving this one a wide berth, maybe even isolating it so it doesn't become a danger to itself or others while slipping its daily Prozac through the slot in the door, but countries are not people, and we're going to have to find a way to deal with this one's pathologies and somehow mainstream it.

Hat tip to Mal for the pointer to this must-read interview with French philosopher, Alain Finkielkraut. There's too much here for a decent excerpt, so check out the whole thing.

Haaretz: What sort of Frenchmen are they?

A church grows in Qatar:

Qatar Opens Doors to First Church in 14 Centuries

You may remember London's School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) as a hotbed of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish activity. [See previous posts here, here, here and here, for instance.]

I thought it would be worthwhile to re-post this recent email that's been circulating that describes a more positive present at the school. It's written by Gavin Gross, Chair of the SOAS Jewish Society, and who's name appears in some of the entries above. Gross, btw, has been nominated for an "Islamophobia" award by something called the Islamic Human Rights Commission."

Says Gross:

I wouldn't vote for anyone in that silly contest. It just gives it credibility. In any case, here is Gavin's description of what's been going on at SOAS. This should give some hope to people who feel they are laboring against an unstoppable rising tide. Yes, it is sad that the mere fact that having a credentialled diplomat to speak without disruption should be considered a victory...but that's where we are on many campuses today, unfortunately:

Damn, just found out my name didn't come up in the lottery for tickets. That would have been good. I knew I should have entered under a couple of different email addresses. Oh well.

[Previous: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4]

NB: This was written, the day after the launch, before the recent (and welcome) change back to PJMedia.

What Were They Thinking?

Okay it’s easy to make fun of the MSM, what about OSM?

As Roger Simon put it, “what a day of juitjisui – we invite them, give them a place, and they illustrate what we’ve been saying along.”

Is this read a brave face on a miscalculation? Or triumph of the Art of War?

Inviting them seems more like a positioning move than a trick to get themselves to reveal what idiotarians they are. This was, a number of people sagely explained to me, “reaching out to the MSM” by giving them a place in the process whereby PJ Media sheds its maverick garb and attempts to establish itself as a portal from the blogosphere to the MSM.

Okay… but who is inviting whom? The MSMers clearly don’t get what’s going on; and hopefully the people driving OSM won’t forget what’s going on.

“Don’t forget who gave you your prominence,” I said to one of the suited young Turks in OSM at the cocktail party, “don’t forget it is independent thinkers who form your most precious audience and took these blogger stars from obscurity to celebrity.”

“No one is forgetting that,” he replied. (Was that a defensive response? Working hypothesis…)

“Well the opening round, with all the MSM people showing us how little they understood, rather than featuring the bloggers and exploring the future, wasn’t very promising.” I said, choosing the role of gadfly rather than pressing the flesh and looking for a way in with this gatekeeper of OSM.

“We put a lot of effort into this event,” he replied (firming up the working hypothesis).

“That doesn’t mean you necessarily made the right choices.”

“You’re freaking me out here,” he said, leaving me. (Maybe one shouldn’t criticize people on their launch day.)

I guess I can’t count on a call from him to join in planning new projects.

Fortunately, Charles, in a similar conversation, was far less thin-skinned.

According to MEMRI, another group from the Presbyterian Church (USA) has travelled to Lebanon and "interfaced" with Hizbullah.

Seems some folks have learned very little from events of a year ago.

A group of 9/11 victim's families also visited Hizbullah (see the same link), which is unfortunate, but there's no word of them saying anything like this.

Very good piece by Roya Hakakian in last Sunday's Washington Post...

A Demonizing Call - This Time, Bashing Israel May Backfire

Tony Badran brings his knowledge of Lebanese politics to bear on the recent back and forth between Hizbullah and Israel:

I'm likely going to attend my 20th High School reunion this Saturday. Five years ago I was dragged along by a fellow classmate who I still have contact with and ended up having a surprisingly good time. There were people there that I was genuinely happy to see, and then there were people who I genuinely had no idea who they were. Maybe I should bring my yearbook with me this time. Nah, that won't work.

Anyway, do you attend your reunions?

Michael Yon's latest from Iraq, a photo essay.

Lots of good stuff in this post on the BBC impartiality review at Adloyada, including an examination of the often bandied-about Israeli-Palestinian body count statistics.

Hizballah decides to stir the pot, kidnap some Israeli soldiers and get people killed (it only ended up being their own people this time, fortunately):

11 Israelis injured, at least 4 Hezbollah gunmen killed in failed kidnap attempt

So Israel hits back:

Israeli Warplanes Hit Targets in Lebanon

Like that Hezbollah fired "toward" the border business? They only fired toward it, not beyond it, just sort of in that direction dontcha know.

Update: Here's the story of the single Israeli soldier responsible for Hezbollah's body count: Paratrooper sniper becomes hero

Richard Clarke and the Iraq/al Qaeda connection:

Byron York: Remember -- please remember -- ‘Boogie to Baghdad’

More details in the article. You just can't have too many reminders of this stuff.

(via Judith Apter Klinghoffer)

By now we've all learned that just because something is labeled a "documentary," and contains real film footage of scenes featuring amateur actors, that doesn't mean it isn't a bunch of tendentious bull-crap, right? I mean, we've seen Michael Moore win an Oscar, and we've all been over to The Second Draft.

Honest Reporting warns of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's recently aired film on Israeli checkpoints:

CBC's "Checkpoint": A Barrier to Understanding

Honestly, I think that last statistic is just about all you need to know.

Martin Kramer on the upcoming Academic Intifada:

[Previous: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3]

Who’s in Which Century/Millennium?

At first I didn’t quite get it. Everyone I talked to who blogged was uniformly interesting, no matter how much we might not agree on some matters. Independent thinkers all, combining nicely two difficult traits – assertiveness and modesty. What a delight. It really was a convention of the people who, at the emperor’s parade, would have been unashamed to ask embarrassing questions. And as I contrasted the quality of conversation in the halls with the panel discussions, I realized that I was walking through liminal terrain, between the two-dimensional, colorblind paradigms of the 20th century, and the emerging stereoscopic color-rich vision that begins to emerge from the blogs.

Want to know what’s going on in France? Check out Belmont Club, Brussels Journal, or Jihad Watch. They leave MSM coverage in the dust. Red pill or blue pill? How do you want to reality test? Read them both, all, by all means. What's really happening? We won't know until later, in the meantime, without the blogs, we would have very little idea that there's more to this than what the MSM report.

A discussion later on about one of the more colorful of the bloggers having been “on the bus” with Ken Kesey, reminded me of a story Tom Wolfe tells in Electric Koolaid Acid Test about when Kesey first took acid as part of hospital experiments conducted in the 1950s, shortly after its discovery. Some were given the drug, some a placebo. Within a short while, it was obvious who got the acid and who got the placebo. Within a short while in any given conversation, it was clear who was in the 21st century, and who in the 20th. How stimulating to talk with OSM bloggers. How familiar the holding actions and resistances of those who, weighed down with the baggage of political correctness, still have a reflexive confidence in the MSM.

All this became clear in a random conversation with a photographer who came to see one of his friends attending the launch. We were at the bar later that evening, talking about the MSM and the blogosphere, and I remarked that the difference in coverage of the French Intifada was stark, with the blogosphere on it from night one, and the MSM waiting till the end of week 1 before mentioning it in the back pages.

“Not true,” he insisted. “The pictures were up at a newswire services the first day.”

[Part 1, Part 2]

Keynote: Preaching to the Great Unwashed

But the best was for after lunch. Glenn Reynolds (a.k.a InstaPundit) introduced keynote Judith Miller. Why Judith Miller? Why not Glenn Reynolds (whose book “An Army of Davids : How Markets and Technology Empower Ordinary People to Beat Big Media, Big Government, and Other Goliaths” with a scheduled date release of March 2006 is already a best-seller at Amazon)? Like Elizabeth Hayt in the first panel, she admits she doesn’t blog, she only really found out about them when she was in prison and didn’t have internet access, and actually, she admitted later in the discussion as she entertained the suggestion that she really should blog, she finds the prospect quite “terrifying.”

“Let me tell you the five commandments of journalism.”

Huh?!? What does she think she’s doing?

Call me a glutton for punishment, but I went and saw that movie, Protocols of Zion, again tonight. I figured it might be worth it to see it with one more audience, especially when there was to be a discussion following with Charles Jacobs of The David Project.

Very few people were in attendence. The talk was therefore intimate, but most of those who chose to air their reactions seemed to share my feelings about the film, and the evening pretty well cemented the negative feelings I came away with the first two times. Here are my previous posts: Part 1, Part 2.

[BTW, I have audio of the discussion I can post if there's any interest.]

Here is another promising-looking interfaith website dedicated to fighting the trend of divestment among Christian Protestant denominations, with particular attention to the PC(USA):

Faiths for Fairness

This is a two-parter by Andrew Bostom in The American Thinker.

The Legacy of Jihad in Historical Palestine (Part I)

The Legacy of Jihad in Historial Palestine (Part II)

Dense with fact and quotation, as always.

In my previous post on the suicide bomber film Paradise Now, regarding the disturbing cultural baggage the film brings with it and its place in the culture wars, there was some controversy over whether the criticism of the director's motives was fair or not.

I think this interview with the director translated from the German at David's Medienkritik removes all possible doubt:

My apologies to David for lifting the whole quote (see his entry for more), but I don't wanta word to be missed. This director and the product he made is propaganda for suicide terror. Package it all you want. Furrow your brow, take an extra breath, speak in solemn, measured tones with all the nuance you want. I don't see how it could be viewed any differently.

Jane Novak has the Yemeni government up all night staring at the ceiling. Great work!

[Part I is here.]

Second Panel: Which Century are We in?

The middle panel was good, although much of the discussion revolved around the kind of sport’s thinking that Charles had deplored in his opening comments. It does not help to think in terms of liberal, conservative, right, left, the two teams that you try to “balance” in order to be “fair” or “objective.” And yet the panel had been stacked to give us those 20th century notions center stage, especially with David Corn and John Podhoretz (author of Bush Country : How George W. Bush Became the First Great Leader of the 21st Century---While Driving Liberals Insane) who started going at each other before we even heard from Claudia Rosett. Much reworking of the old debates about objectivity and facts vs. opinion and partisanship, about the difference between gumshoeing (what the best of the MSM claims to do – gathering facts) and thumbsucking (what the worst of the blogosphere thrives on – ruminating narcissism). Richard Fernandez of Belmont Club illustrated the sterling quality of the best bloggers, ferociously smart, modest of demeanor, thinking about the question he’s been asked, speaking in paragraphs.

This week, Time Magazine is running a profile on a 'moderate' American Muslim leader named Mohamed Magid:

An American Imam - Moderate Muslim clerics in the U.S. tend to their faithful -- and help the FBI fight terrorists

It's not a bad idea to read it in full. The article focuses on Imam Magid's efforts -- typical amongst religious shepherds -- to handle the balancing act of respecting tradition while dealing with his co-religionists' need to move and exist in a modern society. The other thing highlighted here is Magid's open door policy with respect to American law enforcement -- particularly the FBI.

Magid apparently had sufficient concern after the appearance of the article to issue a statement on his web site that attempts to clarify a few things. Among other matters, he notes:

In case, however, one may have missed the point, the following Fatwa appeared posted on the email list of a group of folks currently very interested in assuring the world that they have nothing whatsoever to do with extremism (the mailing list is now hosted by the local Muslim American Society -- possibly as a result of some previous embarrassing postings), and directly in response to the Time article listed above. It is the Fatwa issued by Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammad in March of 2004 and was posted, BTW, by an individual who apparently teaches martial arts to young Muslim men.

Who is Omar Bakri Muhammad?

The Fatwa is entitled "Allying with the Disbelievers" and the posting states in part:

Do all of the subscribers to the list subscribe also to the message of this ominous Fatwa? Undoubtedly, no! Has anyone posted to distance themselves from or sanction the person who did post this? Not that I've seen (and it is dated for Thursday evening).

(The text of the entire posting as it appeared on the mailing list is in the extended entry.)

[Update: Related, and also in the extended entry. Freedom House's survey, "Saudi Publications on Hate Ideology Fill American Mosques," found that Imam Magid's Mosque was one of those where such publications were found. Hat Tip to Andrew Bostom for the pointer.]

Interesting article on the potential for peace through either bi-lateral or multi-lateral land and population deals. I think the author is slightly optimistic that there is anyone on the Arab side with the political clout or even the honest interest in giving up even an inch past the 1949 borders, even with something received in return. Also, the Arab-Israeli towns most often named as potentially being ceded to a Palestinian State have no interest in being part of anything having to do with the PA -- for what should be obvious reasons, all lip-service to Palestinian solidarity aside. Also, many (but not all) would rather have their cake and eat it too, by enjoying the prosperity of the Jewish State while subverting it from within.

On the Israeli side, the return of so-called "Arab" East Jerusalem is a non-starter for an awful lot of people.

TNR: Trading Land For Peace - Swap Meet

Obviously, I'm generally a fairly hard-core free-speech advocate. I do wonder if places like Austria, with a special history on certain subjects don't have good reason for their laws. Holocaust denier David Irving has been arrested in Austria for plying his trade:

SFGate: Historian Charged With Denying Holocaust

He is likely to spend a week in jail to start:

BBC: Irving faces week in Austria cell

[Update: Thanks to Andrew Bostom for noting that I forgot to include the link to the Oren speech (now corrected). Doh!

Also, be sure to check out Dr. Bostom's article in FrontPage from a year ago, John Quincy Adams Knew Jihad. It's full of interesting stuff.]

Here is an excellent (and lengthy) lecture on the early involvement of America in the Middle East by noted scholar Michael Oren. Worth reading in full. (Although I think he shorts fellow Massachusetts man John Adams who long -- and mostly in vain -- argued for America to build up the "wooden walls" of a fleet. Instead, Jefferson gets all the glory. As usual.)

The Middle East and the Making of the United States, 1776 to 1815

Palestinian Media Watch: PA: US gave nod to kill Arafat

Palestinian Media Watch: PA libel: Israel deliberately addicts PA kids to drugs

What changed? Opportunity. How short are our memories?

Expansion: Back in the day when I was a good Democrat, I listened to the guys and gals you'll see in this video. I listened. Leading up to the latest war, I rushed to read Ken Pollack's book, The Gathering Storm (another guy who turned face when it wasn't his political patrons taking action), I heard and listened attentively to the oh-so-sincere sounding utterances you will see in this video from Democrat representatives who appeared on the cable shows and made it sound like the effort against Saddam was going to be a bi-partisan effort, and even more, that there was urgency for action. But I was deceived! Not by George Bush, but by the political opportunist jelly-fish you can see in this video. That's why I resent the Democrats. They turned on me. They deceived me. Not George Bush. Not George Bush. Now that we're there, we need to finish the job and draw down in a logical manner -- when the Iraqis can handle it. That's what the plan has always been anyway. The World will be a better place for it.

Writing in The American Thinker:

Somehow I feel it's overly optimistic to think so. I'm late on this, but the story seems well worth noting here.

Washington Times: Amity with Israel opens WTO door

It might have appeared a bit more "amicable" had Saudi Arabia had their own amicable statement to make, rather than a grudging silence. Perhaps they were afraid of what the pundits back home might say. Nevertheless, if this is a first step in holding an Arab country to the same international standards everyone else is expected to live up to, that's a positive step.

The indispensible CAMERA writes about their experience with Israeli (left-oriented) newspaper Ha'aretz. In response to a CAMERA request for a correction to columnist Amira Hass's use of the term "Jewish-only" to refer to West Bank roads...

Arab-Israeli Jerusalem Post reporter Khaled Abu Toameh was in Boston last night but I was unable to see him speak. Fortunately, he was in Philadelphia the night before and Lynn B. has written a report from the event.

The journalist returns

If there's one thing I enjoy, it's a good Chomsky deconstruction. John-Paul Pagano has written a good one riffing on this Guardian interview with the good professor. This is Kamm-esque material. Pagano concentrates here on Chomsky's minimization of the Russian pogroms of the late nineteen/early twentieth centuries.

Airbrushing Anti-Semitism

NE Republican is disgusted. Can't say as I blame him. I've been noticing the pattern for over two years now.

The news web site Watching America has taken reader feedback to heart and done a bit of a site re-design.

About the site:

If you haven't taken a look at Watching America in awhile (and, I'm sorry to say I hadn't), it might be worth a click.

Further on the issue (sonic booms) behind the post below, Just how big is Israel anyway?, Scholars for Peace in the Middle East has circulated the following statement (I'm clipping the names since I'm not sure about the final list):

Ask not on whom the Joke is… the Joke is on Us

Everyone writes with an audience in mind. To some extent, what we write says something about what we think of that audience: Are we condescending? Demagogic? Demanding? Generous? Some of the above?

Bloggers, especially the political bloggers who form the core of the new Pajamas Open Source Media, got their start by writing to an imagined audience that wanted to hear what they had to say even if, initially, they had no idea how large an audience that might be (and any expert in the MSM would have told them to forget about it). Above all they broke the matrix of MSM mimetic desire, the now suffocating arrogance of the gatekeepers of public discourse, those who get repeat parts in the public discussion, those who adhere to the powerful, if invisible, consensus as to what the “public” wants (entertainment, lifestyle issues, national news, all packaged professionally) and what they need (images that encourage respect for other cultures, that do not give fodder for right-wing warmongering).

I once read about a fish that is programmed to follow the fish in front of it, so that they all follow each other and the whole school moves in a kind of Brownian motion. But when experimenters took one fish and pithed the part of the brain that made it follow other fish, it swam off in any direction and drew in its wake the rest of the school. Although far from pithed, or random motion, the bloggers who form the core of PJMedia’s initial launch group, and those who follow them, are not random swimmers followed by mimetic idiot(arians). They are mavericks followed by independent thinkers, and they do break out of the Brownian motion of the MSM. No phenomenon illustrates better the workings of the invisible hand in the market place of ideas, than the sudden, stunning, and salutary rise to the top of the blogosphere of such independent minds as Richard Fernandez, Glenn Reynolds, Charles Johnson, Roger Simon… ah, the list could go on forever.

So going to the launch of PJMedia promised to be a delightful experience. It was like going to a convention of people, all of whom, were they at the procession where the emperor paraded naked, would have said – indeed they have said – “Daddy, why is the emperor naked?”

Former FBI Director Louis Freeh looks at Able Danger:

An Incomplete Investigation - Why did the 9/11 Commission ignore "Able Danger"?

Here are a couple of data points as we try to help those blind men describe that elephant known as the French riots.

CSM: Not all Muslims want to integrate

And:

TNR: Why The French Forgot How To Assimilate - The Shorn Identity

Update: Make it a trio:

Time: What the Uprising Generation Wants by Charles Krauthammer

Recently, our friend and United Church of Christ member Dexter Van Zile was blocked from attending a (partially) UCC-sponsored divestment event on behalf of Sabeel.

Here's Dexter:

Rounding Up the Usual Suspects, Preaching to the Hating Converted

Gerard Baker in the Times of London, You don't have to be an amnesiac to be a Democrat, buddy, but it helps:

I wonder.

OK, I've been out of the loop for a few days, but apparently the earth has continued to spin even while I was blowing chunks in a bathroom in the Portland Square Hotel.

Apparently, Bob Woodward has now stepped forward with information that would tend to undermine the case against Scooter Libby? Anyway, Michael Barone lays out a lot of the story, with links to background, here:

What Bob Woodward knew

(Hat Tip: Mike)

The Guardian seems to think it's pretty large. In an article about the Israeli use of sonic booms to annoy people in Gaza (the article, true to form, doesn't give much space for the Israeli reasoning, but to be honest it sounds like a fairly dubious practice), Palestinians hit by sonic boom air raids, the paper notes:

Hundreds of kilometres? Talk about Greater Israel.

(With a hat tip to my emailer and Joe Katzman's comment here.)

On Saudi TV:

#926 - Saudi Professor Ahmad bin Rashed bin Said on UN Resolution to Commemorate the Holocaust: UN Resolutions Are Not Sacred

MEMRI points to two previous appearances in their archives by the good professor: Saudi Professor Ahmad bin Rashed Criticizes Arab Media for Lack of Support of Suicide Bombers and MEMRI TV Monitor Project - Special Coverage of the Saudi Counter-Terrorism Conference and Jihad on Saudi TV

Yes, indeed. Got off the train this afternoon and crashed on the couch for a few hours until I felt the urge to face the computer screen again just now.

Once again, email has piled way up while I wasn't paying attention, so please be patient (How do the big bloggers keep up with it?). I am anxious to get back to regular subject blogging and paying attention to my inbox. Bear with me, and do feel free to keep the pointers or whatever else coming in in the mean time.

I had a great time and would have had a better time had I not gotten sick after the lunch/launch yesterday. Something didn't sit right -- whether it was the Rainbow Room food, the bug I guess my five-year-old had a day or two before (she was throwing up her food for two days so this is the most likely explanation), or maybe that cheeseburger wasn't as good as I thought it was, but I started feeling ill very shortly after the lunch. Tried to nap before the cocktail party at 6, but it didn't help. I threw up a couple of times (good old finger down the throat action to move things along) and took some Pepto, thought I was feeling better, headed back over to the W Hotel for the cocktail party where I lasted about five minutes before I couldn't take it anymore, staggered back to my own hotel and spent the rest of the night ralphing up the contents of my stomach. Big Apple, thou art my chum bucket!! I must have looked like death warmed over while I was at the party, and I know I stood around like a zombie for the few minutes I was there.

SO! Big, major-league apologies to the many, many bloggers I wanted to hang with but ended up shorting last night. I hope we have a chance to do it again some time, which I'm sure we will.

As I said, the launch was interesting. First of all, it's just fun to have this little hobby turn into something that would take me to New York, and to the 65th floor at 30 Rock. That right there is something. I took the pictures below when I first arrived -- just a couple of shots in the reception room where breakfast was being served and one out the window. This is the first time I figured I could take a couple of digital pics then whip out the laptop and sit in a corner without looking like a nerd.

After the breakfast we filed in to the main room where the official launch happened. No need to go into detail -- speeches, a peak at the portal site...people seem to have reacted negatively to the first panel discussion -- on fashion. I didn't have a problem with it. If part of this thing is about the business of blogging, then showing it's about more than politics is absolutely a part of it. The only thing I didn't care for was "The Manolo" showing up via a phone link -- a gimic that didn't work.

I enjoyed the next panel that involved a discussion on blogging and included Larry Kudlow, John Podhoretz, David Corn, Claudia Rosett and Belmont Club's Richard Fernandez. My one criticism here is that here we have this new venture to showcase the power and competence of the blogosphere and the only pure blogger they put on the panel was Fernandez -- 1 out of 5.

Lunch was next -- the less said about that the better -- and Judy Miller spoke and took questions as did Senator Cornyn (via satellite).

Anawho...lots of folks were there and have blogged about it -- go, thee, and search if interested. You can start here on the OSM portal page.

There has been much commentary already, of course. Just a word on that. Yes, there are many legitimate questions still to ask and answer, but most of the criticism has struck me as pretty unimpressive...pretty petty. Everyone's got an opinion in the blogosphere, of course. Some is honest reaction, and some has an agenda. Clearly, the OSM folks have rubbed a few people the wrong way on their way to getting to this point, and some of the more strident negativity is clearly the personal masquerading as honest criticism -- some are up front about their personal issues and agenda and some aren't -- and then of course there are the Lefty Inquisitors and the LGF stalkers. That's most of what I've run across, frankly.

A few reactions: The OSM site: Thought it was pretty blah at first, but as I look at it more it's growing on me a bit. We'll have to see how it develops and gets used. I like the stark look, and...it'll all be about the content anyway. BTW, here is OSM's statement on the name issue.

OSM has funding to the tune of $3.5 million and a full-time staff including marketing people. I haven't talked to a single person, not a one, from Charles and Roger, to the pros on the Editorial Board and on down to the bloggers like me at the bottom who don't understand that OSM is a work in progress. No one expected to show up yesterday and have the whole thing laid out and in final form, "Here! Here are your answers to the future of the blogosphere! 42!." The people who grasped this and are along for the ride and maybe hoping to influence where it takes us joined up. The people who needed to have final answers and an explicit vision of the future laid out for them didn't. I spoke to the ad guy (who's really, really tall, btw) who told me that everything is still developing, and that their investor(s?) understand that this is a process that's going to have to play out in years, not weeks, and certainly not in a single afternoon. That's good to hear.

As an individual blogger, you take your roll of the dice and see how it turns out. Personally, I have absolutely nothing to lose, nor do my readers, nor does anyone else. I've already gotten my money's worth.

One thing I did realize was how fortunate I was to get picked to be part of this thing and be featured on their site so soon, especially as I'm far from one of the big fish. I was told that one of the reasons they pared the initial membership down was due to technical/manpower/time issues -- it just takes too much effort to get so many blogs set up that they had to start with a smaller number than they originally intended. It takes as much time and resources to set me up as it does Instapundit, for instance. That's what I was told, anyway, and I didn't press it. My advice to bloggers who aren't in at this time but want to be, just hang in there and keep doing what you're doing. I'd bet there will be another "draft." I suppose you don't run the one risk there is for someone like me -- that if OSM goes in the tank, they may be able to say, "Solomonia? Wasn't he part of that OSM thing? Ha Ha." /Nelson voice

A lot of people have talked about creating some sort of interface between the MSM and the bloggers, but these guys are the first ones to actually do it in a big, real way. Their Editorial Board is an impressive lineup (to me). My only fear is that those MSM-types aren't just brought on as window-dressing, but actually feel they have a part to play in making this work. If they do, I think there could be something pretty impressive here, if not, well there's more than one way to skin a cat I guess.

My best moment came when I met Lisa Ramachi on Tuesday night and she told me that Solomonia was one of Steven Vincent's favoite sites ("Steven loved your site"). If there hadn't been people around I woulda lost it. That was worth the trip. Shaking hands with all these cool people who's sites I see was worth it. Bowing to the porcelain god all night was not worth it, but that's another issue.

Once again, it was a real pleasure meeting all those other bloggers and blog fans too numerous to name. Maybe we can do it again next year, or sooner.

Tomorrow it's back to your regularly scheduled blogging. I think if there's one thing non-bloggers hate to read, it's blog posts about blogging.

Update: Wow, reading some more of people's accounts of the day, I can't believe how many people I missed meeting at the party. Bummer.

(My first pics, anyway)

This is the...most modest...room I've stayed in since that week in Hong Kong (and I shoulda shared a more expensive room then with the blond I met on the airplane -- but that's another story).

Sounds like the Big Wigs are over at the W Hotel. Wonder how much that place is a night. I bet they won't wake up all itchy tomorrow.

Think I'll wander down to the hotel lounge and befriend a young, lonely newlywed who's husband isn't showing her enough attention in this foreign land. Oops. This isn't a foreign land and there is no hotel lounge.

Train travel, BTW, was not unpleasant. The microwaved cheeseburger I had in the snack car was far better than expected.

Got a few emails to respond to (and pointers to...point to). Just hang in there, K?

Think I'll go out for a stroll 'round Times Square.

Update, Wednesday morning: Quick update before a shower heading out to the events. Allow me to name drop. First of all, I did a bunch of walking about and just orienting myself (also bought some shoe polish - exciting). Managed to hook up for dinner with Pieter Dorsman of PeakTalk who was a pleasure to meet. After dinner, we met with Roger Simon, Charles Johnson, Glenn Reynolds, Gerard Van Der Leun, Judith, Neo-neocon, Ed Driscoll, Jill Stewart, Magnus Kempe and Tom Troja of Open Source Media (Yes! That's the new name.), Pamela, David Corn, Cathy Seipp, Andrew Breitbart, Lisa Ramachi-Vincent, Stephen Green, Richard Landes and Pedro of SecondDraft, and, oh no, there was one other fellow who's name I can't remember, and I sure hope I didn't outright forget anyone. Had drinks in the lobby of the W Hotel...stayed up a bit later than I intended. Didn't get a chance to really speak with Pamela, Stephen, Andrew or Cathy...hopefully today.

Off to the shower.

Upcoming blogging will be spotty for a day or two as I pack up the Solomonia assets and head to the Pajamas Media launch event in New York City on Wednesday. Questions I have as I go: What will the new name of PJ Media be (that's something they're planning on announcing)? What other bloggers will I offend when I meet them and it's clear I'm not familiar with every post they've written in the past year (or maybe even with their blog at all -- bloggers are undoubtedly an egotistical bunch)?

Yes, I will be packing the laptop and the digital camera.

Even Norman Finkelstein's mother thought the US was worse than the Nazis. From Finkelstein's ogoing self-retrospective:

50,000+ dead Americans would tend to indicate something less than defenselessness. Read on for an interesting look at the case study of Finkelstein's thought processes.

(Hat Tip: Steven Plaut)

Sen. Clinton: I support W. Bank fence, PA must fight terrorism

Dennis Prager has Five questions non-Muslims would like answered.

I'm not sure he's right about #2. I'd be willing to bet there have been some Dhimmi Christians that have been involved in more than just talk like Hannan Ashrawi.

James M. Wall, senior contributing editor at The Christian Century, is on the stump for divestment again.

Mr. Wall was previously featured here after referring to Hamas and Hezbollah as "Muslim nongovernmental groups" and assuring us that "...suicide bombing is anathema to Islam..." to which I quipped, "That certainly is a relief. Now if someone would only explain that to Hamas and Hezbollah."

Wall and The Christian Century have their own page at CAMERA.

In his latest piece, entitled, Divestment, Wall takes aim at our friend Dexter Van Zile and tries to white-wash the divestment movement, and Sabeel's place in it:

Fortunately, Dexter can speak for himself on this, and states in part:

Chirac now has his police officers pissed off.

Telegraph: French police turn on Chirac as officer jailed

(via Jihad Watch)

This dog clearly has sharing issues.

(Hat Tip: Bouncer)

Anyone notice that, unless I missed it, there hasn't been a Palestine Solidarity Movement Conference this year for the first time in several years? See here for a report on last year's hate-fest at Duke.

Maybe the glare of the spotlight has finally driven them back into the shadows.

As we follow the news here at Solomonia, one of the recurring themes we rail against is the mainstreaming of certain "bad ideas." One of the foremost of these bad ideas is terror, and specifically suicide terror -- from morally-destitute MSM descriptions of "militants" stripped of their true descriptor as "terrorists," to college professors influencing young minds with a moral nihilism that sets the world of right and wrong topsy-turvy.

"The Right" in America has been known in recent years for recognizing something that's come to be called "the Culture War." This is generally recognized as the creeping degeneration of traditional cultural values -- in the case of the American Right these values would most often show up as fidelity, chastity, sobriety, piety, the work ethic, in-tact families, etc...mostly in the realm of entertainment.

Members of the American Left -- and I count myself as having been among them -- are known to scoff at such concerns as overblown and born more of over-religiosity than common sense.

But let me see if I can draw the sides together, at least on one issue, or at least if not draw them together, help them see over the wall at each other with the help of something.

You see, what I really do here very often is fight that Culture War. I tend not to post over-much on the issues I enumerated above, being something of a Libertarian or "South Park" conservative (although I respect the conservatives who do worry more about these things), but my constant railing against the media's inability to call a terrorist a terrorist, and international institutions' inability to unequivocally condemn the same...it's all our little role in the Culture War. It stems from my fear, my horror at the possibility that terrorism, and specifically suicide terror should become part of the mainstream of rational choices people may choose to make.

For instance, there is no question that a factor in the French rioting has been the European press's glorification and justification of Arab street violence and suicide terror against Israelis. They are now reaping what they have sown in both the massive violence that has now been turned against them, and their own limp "we must understand the motives of the perpetrators" response.

The Arab world is now being swept with an epidemic of suicide murder that absolutely stems from their own glorification of the same when it was directed against others, and which, by making it acceptable, they are now reaping the bitter spoils of.

It starts with words. It starts with a society understanding certain behaviors and choices, which in many, many peoples' minds is a very short hop to acceptance. And once the door is open, you can never control who or what walks through. Once you invite the vampire over the threshold, he's there to stay.

I've posted about the new film Paradise Now previously. See here, here and here. The film which humanizes the suicide bombers, which questions not whether Israelis are bad, but how bad, and not whether they are evil or not, but merely which of them and how they ought to be killed, and which was made by an Israeli who calls himself a Palestinian, has now won and been nominated for multiple awards.

Reading admiring reviews like that presented at MSNBC, Suicide Bombers Are People, Too, one can be forgiven for reacting with shock and alarm. What, exactly, are we allowing into our body politic? What is it, exactly, that's now considered part of the acceptable discourse? What have we done? We should be able to see where it leads. The fact that the director presents his work with appropriate hand-wringing and a posture of concern changes nothing with regard to this film's meaning and effect -- in fact, it contributes to the damage, as it gives the false impression that even the well-meaning and reasonable can understand and present the horrible...they make the unthinkable palatable.

If you're one of those on the Left who's never had much sympathy for the Right's concern with morality and the creeping destruction of societal mores in the media, but you read this blog and others like it and are at least on the same page with regard to what we have to say about terrorism, perhaps you can grasp the concept now, at least on this.

Let me be the first to welcome you to the Culture Wars. You've been drafted.

I thought that's how he got into trouble in the first place. /badump bump

Palestinian Arabs are still in denial about the death of the Dear Leader, and some are calling for more investigation:

PA seeks new probe of Arafat's death

It may come as some surprise, but I'm all for another investigation. As long as all the medical records, the test results ... everything ... are on the public record and non-moonbat American and Israeli doctors and investigators are involved I'm all for it.

Here's a prediction. Nothing, absolutely nothing will stop some people from continuing to insist things like his having been poisoned via laser beam, but at least the rational masses will have something to go on to separate ourselves, and themselves, from the rest. Without a public record, there is nothing for Arabs willing and ready to argue for the common sense to use to do so. Secrecy fosters conspiracy. The trouble is that some have a vested interest in keeping it that way.

The World Health Organization is still trying to get a handle on the fresh polio outbreak that's occured since 2003.

WHO: Polio gone in 10 African countries - Several infected countries linked to boycott

The President's Veteran's Day speech is here.

Michelle Malkin has my feelings down here:

Ayup.

I subscribe to CNN alerts, so every day I get multiple emails based on keyword -- "Iraq" being one of them. For months I've been getting emails on story after story contributing to the "Bush lied" meme -- Stuff like (making these up), 'Ex-official says He Warned no WMD,' or 'Leaked Documents Show CIA Warned of Chaos.' Today, for instance, there's this: Prewar CIA report doubted claim that al Qaeda sought WMD in Iraq. Never, ever, ever have I seen, 'Documents Back Administration's Claims on Terrorists,' or 'Transcript throws doubt on Reid and Kennedy's claims.'

In other words, the press is never doing to do it for them. The administration needs to force them to by going out and making noise -- lots of noise. It still may not help, but they have been very late.

Update: Callimachus analyses the coverage of the speech and comes out with some predictable results.

Israeli21c: Weizmann Institute chosen world's top university for life scientists

JPost: Palestinian Affairs: Of faded memory?

The article indicates that it's Arafat's legacy of a dead, conflicted society that Abbas now has to deal with that leads Palestinian Arabs looking backward with nostalgia. Life was much better when it was mostly Israelis under the gun.

Not all see it that way:

Update: Emailer Joseph T. Major writes:

Yet, by a strange and amazing coincidence, a World War One vet lives here in Louisville. Even stranger and more amazing, I am related to him in a fashion -- his mother's second husband was a cousin of mine.

Herewith Robley A. Rex of Kentucky, World War One veteran, Veterans' Hospital Volunteer, a Hundred and Four Years old and living at home:

Here's an entry in the Senate record about him, although they get his name and age wrong. (He couldn't have been 91 in 2002 or he would have been very, very young to have served in WW1).

All the best to Mr. Rex on this day and after!

=Original Post=

The veterans of World War I are fading away. There are thought to be less than 50 still living.

Ever fewer, WWI veterans mark the Armistice of 1918

Some veterans are still coming home:

Airmen Missing from World War II Identified

Here's a fawning interview in Haaretz with well-known pubic public intellectual, Avram Noam Chomsky:

Master mind

Read it if you like, or just channel in your mind one of the seven thousand other uncritical interviews Chomsky has given over the years. Nothing new here.

Where would Chomsky live if not the United States? Why, Israel, of course.

Like I said. Psycho-pathology.

Have you heard the latest outrage here in Massachusetts? I guess when Mitt Romney was being introduced before a speech yesterday...nevermind, read it for yourself...

Boston Globe: Romney rips SJC's justices on values

Too bad he felt the need to back down. We all know how tolerant of dissenting views Massachusetts liberals are...particularly Messrs. Kennedy and Kerry.

On to the news that matters...

On this Veteran's Day.

"The American Way" by Norman Rockwell

Quoted by the indispensible Tony Badram at Across the Bay:

Following a private discussion between Martin Indyk and Bashar Assad, Indyk reports that Assad admitted to him:

Now, Tony of course includes this as part of a larger, more erudite discussion, but perhaps we regular folk could be forgiven for getting hung up on this point. The press had a mighty good time reporting old news about how George Bush supposedly told a bunch of Palestinians that he invaded Iraq because God told him to do it (or some similar nonsense), but I haven't heard a word about this. Here's the President (Dictator) of Syria admitting he's been supporting the terrorists and killing our guys and...narry a peep.

And if Pat Robertson were to speculate about taking this guy out, he'd be the villain.

Here's an article on the divestment backlash within the Presbyterian Church (USA). The anti-divestment advocates in the piece sound pretty optimistic about their chances of getting divestment overturned at the next annual meeting, but I really wonder...it's the quick "feel good" vote to say "yay" in response to "phased, selective" divestment, and it must be very difficult to contact and educate every person who shows up to vote...even if a majority of members oppose divestment.

As a side note, here is another inter-faith group working against divestment noted in the article: Faiths for Fairness

Churches: Wrestling With Divesting

Here.

Steyn:

It’s the demography, stupid

Thought this was good:

(Hat Tip: Mal)

The PA can't control its security forces, and it can't control its Foreign Ministry.

JPost: Abbas told that PA security to collapse

Further:

Kaddoumi, of course, has long made his real political goals clear.

A USA Today columnist with a few threats for the West. Give us what we want, or else...

In French riots, a lesson for Europe By Souhelia Al-Jadda

Disgusting newspeak. I don't recall Rosa Parks or her fellow strivers for social justice torching any buses.

Not a complete surprise given the background of the author:

Mosaic used to carry Hizballah's Al-Manar TV before the federal government forced them to stop. They've often defended themselves for bringing the "news" broadcasts of totalitarian states to American TV screens without comment by claiming they're just bringing in a different, less heard perspective. Well here's to keeping the Middle East's perspective in the Middle East.

Whether there is an aspect of justifiable social outrage in these riots or not, what we have here is a clear instance of the terminology of Civil Rights being co-opted for nefarious purposes -- in this case, if you feel the government isn't giving you what you want, go out and burn down the neighborhood...that's more than a bit beyond "civil disobedience."

Meryl notes that the terrorist responsible for both Bali bombings blew himself up today. Good riddance.

Finished reading Tammy Bruce's, The Death of Right and Wrong today. I enjoyed it very much. If you're one of those "classical liberals" who feels that the Democratic Party has left you and that important social action groups that once did good work have shifted to a disturbingly radical place, you'll enjoy this book, too.

JPost: Archaeologists decry Wakf 'renovation'

A previous post with a link to video from under the mount itself is here.

A wonderful post on the competition amongst various historical "narratives" at Adloyada, in which the author tells a touching annecdote, and debunks some quotations currently making the rounds. I agree with it all. Don't miss it.

Fences separate people, rather than bringing them together. Peace, understanding and salving grievance are the long term answers to violence - not walls.

No, I have not been dragged off by the pod-people (yet).

Al-Ahram: Sharm fence, sharp controversy:

A 100% negative view of Jews has not saved Jordan from terrorist attack on Jordan's 9/11 (9th of November). The Fascists (or are they Nihilists?) have taken their battle against the government of Jordan to the only target they seem capable of fighting -- the people.

Suicide bombers hit three Amman hotels, at least 57 killed

Speaking of postive ads, Move America Forward has three new pro-troop radio spots posted at their site.

If you want to get a solidly pro-troop, pro-Iraq War viewpoint into the MSM, you have to pay for it yourself, and the "loyal opposition" is doing everything possible to undermine the war effort with The Wrong Argument, at the Wrong Place, at the Wrong Time.

Kurdistan. Watch the first video for a special thank you.

As a side note, this is the type of advertising Israel should be running on a regular basis for public relations -- simple tourist ads.

Not the one you think, of course. All the wishing in the world doesn't a government make -- law and order, a civil society and administration...education, business...registering the ownership of land...that's a government. Slogans don't make a state.

JPost: PA unable to prevent Gaza land theft

Always remember the many friends of decency and fairness among the mainline Protestant churches, in spite of the wrong-headedness of many in the upper hierarchy -- even the Anglican Church, which has been one of the worst offenders. Here's a piece by an Anglican couple written back in May.

An Anglican Response To The Anglican Peace And Jutice Network (APJN) Report

And don't neglect to visit Anglicans for Israel.

Last Thursday, I attended a talk by Dr. Andrew Bostom on the occasion of the launch of his new book, The Legacy of Jihad: Islamic Holy War and the Fate of Non-Muslims. Clocking in at just under 700 pages, The Legacy of Jihad: Islamic Holy War and the Fate of Non-Muslims may have been sub-titled, "Everything you always wanted to know about Jihad but were afraid someone would take a 700 page book to tell you." (A very handsome volume, by the way.)

Seriously, there's a lot here, and Bostom has done an enormous amount of research and really knows his stuff, as he amply demonstrated both during his talk and after, where I and several others were privileged to join him for dinner and drinks. What's better, he picked up the tab! I'll love his book forever.

I'd do a full-bore book review, but with the length of the book and my reading speed, it could be awhile.

Now, here's where you, the Solomonia reader, come in. Dr. Bostom has generously offered to do an interview for this blog and you can help me out. I suggested that a sort of "10 questions" (or thereabout) format might be a good way to do it, and I would like to throw this out to you all. Please suggest some questions for Dr. Bostom on Jihad -- history, meaning, current reality. You can either leave a comment or email me (solomon =at= solomonia =dot= com). I'll take your suggestions into account in creating the list of questions.

With all the names, dates and extensive quotes that essays on this area of history can tend to this can be a very dry and inaccessible subject, so don't be afraid to suggest very simple questions that only require a short answer, which I will encourage Dr. Bostom to try to stay to. I think it's important to try to get as many people as possible to read at least something on this very important subject.

So, what would you like to know about the history of Jihad?

More info: Here is a link to Dr. Bostom's Red State interview. Here is a link to Dr. Bostom's web site.

Official conversions of the Indian group known as the Bnei Menashe have been stopped, following objections by the new Indian government.

JPost: Bnei Menashe conversions halted

But that's not what's really interesting here. There are disappointing signals here for those of us hoping for stronger India/Israel ties.

Further:

Matthias Kuntzel, now a regular poster at the already excellent Transatlantic Intelligencer Blog, conveys his thoughts on the way to protest Iran's consulate in Hamburg, Germany.

A Sense Of Foreboding: German Reactions to Ahmadinejad

Reflect on the rest. I expect the feeling is common in many, many locations.

Back in June, I reported on the Boston for Israel rally at City Hall Plaza I had attended. Prominent in the report was my revulsion at the screaming protesters who were there, yelling epithets in the faces of the elderly people and families with small children as they entered the event. I really believe you have to be sick in the head to behave this way (I truly hope no pro-Israel friend of mine would visit a family-oriented Palestinian event and behave as those people did).

According to the links provided in this Jewish Russian Telegraph post, one of the vocal performers there that day was a physician in Family Medicine no less, Lana Habash.

According to the JRTelegraph post, Habash is one of the leaders of a radical group known as the New England Committee to Defend Palestine, OnePalestine.org, a group that not only organized the "protest" that day in June ("This is a social justice issue for the freedom of the Palestinian people," said Lana Habash, 36, of Somerville. "We're here to protest people celebrating racism, apartheid and genocide."), but, interestingly enough and according to this post by Jon Haber, is now dominating the Somerville Divestment Project:

NECDP's latest? They think that Ahmadinejad's call for the destruction of Israel is just peachy:

"...Bringing an end to the racist state of "Israel" and ending the American and British invasion and occupation of Iraq are the only solutions that will bring justice to this region."

While 'Some ideas are so absurd that only an intellectual could believe them,' I suppose it takes someone with a physician's credentials to advocate for genocide and still masquerade for Human Rights.

In fact, I wonder if Dr. Habash is a member of Physicians for Human Rights?

Here's that post at the JR Telegraph again: From Somerville to Ramallah, endorsements of Iran's genocidal policy

Andrew Ian Dodge of Dodgeblogium fame has a band...Growing Old Disgracefully. Well their EP is just about ready for purchase, and you can listen to a sample song, Cry Freedom, here. It's good!

Always entertaining to read Martin Kramer taking down his "colleagues" in Middle East studies. This time it's Rashid Khalidi claiming in an interview published in something called Radical History Review, which, despite its name and avowed political slant, an emailer assures me is a legitimately serious academic journal.

Anyway, Kramer brings out some interesting statistics as he takes his whacks at the Khalidi pinata.

DoD: Operation Steel Curtain Continues Through Third Day of Fighting

The Department of Defense has an Avian Flu page up here.

Via LGF, don't miss IDF Dave's latest photo essay, Tulkarm Summer 2005. While you're there, check out his other pages. For some reason, I'm partial to this one.

Anyone who's raised kids is in constant awe of how perceptive and quick they are. Our daughter is constantly amazing my wife and I by coming up with something -- a sound, a new word, a pose -- that has us looking at each other and wondering, "Where the heck did that come from." Then we realize it was from some video tape only watched once that managed to leave some little impression that comes out sometimes days or weeks later.

In Iran, this is what the children see.

MEMRI TV: Palestinian Children Clash with an Israeli Soldier in an Iranian Animated Movie

You think this aired during "safe harbor?"

Previous Iranian kids' cartoons here.

I guess it's a matter of better late than never to post now about the protest of the execrable Rachel Corrie Cantata (see previous posts here and here) held a week ago in London.

See photos of the disappointingly small protest here (via Marathon Pundit), balanced somewhat by Adloyada's report that attendance at the performance was only around 300 in a hall that holds 1400.

How has it taken me so long to realize this? The Left is driven by an Honor-Shame paradigm, while the Center and Right are more Guilt oriented -- at least as far as the "I didn't do it" choice goes. That's why so many of us on the Right get so exasperated arguing the facts with the Left, while they spend what seems like such an otherwise inexplicable amount of time and energy caring what other people (Europeans, the Arab Street) think of us (and why they're so sympathetic to Arab "humiliation").

OK, perhaps a bit overstated, but that's what reading this review (note the ending) of Jaqueline Rose's new anti-Zionist book, The Question of Zion, brought to mind. The book is drawing rave reviews in Britain (surprise!), but not in The Weekly Standard.

What Zionism Is Not - The many ways the Jewish state is misunderstood by Benjamin Balint

Good lord. Spare us too much intimacy.

Aksa Brigades endorse Iran's call to eliminate Israel

Well that's nice. The PA is doing apologetics for Al Aqsa.

And then there's this:

I visit a lot of pro-Israel events and cover a lot of happenings on the anti-Semitism front, but as I've mentioned before, I'm not a religious Jew myself and tend not to cover religious news for its own sake, but this lengthy piece in The Boston Globe Magazine about the revitalization of the old Vilna Shul and the injection of youth back into Boston's Jewish Community is worth taking a look at.

Boston's Jewish Renaissance

One of the problems I have with blogging is that if I sit and think about my reaction to an article or an issue too long, I often end up going back and forth so much that I start to see it from both sides and the passion goes out of me...and that doesn't make for very interesting writing. Sometimes I end up not posting at all.

Tonight I went to the Coolidge Corner Theater and watched Protocols of Zion for a second time, this time with a much larger (packed house) audience and a question and answer session with Director Marc Levin. I wanted to see if my initial negative reaction (initial review at the links) would remain, what it might be like with a different audience, and also if my thoughts would change with what I heard from the director from his own mouth.

I'll say that perhaps some of my distaste for the film was blunted...a bit. Certainly as the movie started and during the initial...I dunno...twenty minutes or so, I actually thought I was too cruel in my review. The fact that this audience was a bit more quiet, and there wasn't as much inappropriate giggling (something I had a very negative reaction to) as there was the first time I saw the film helped I think. Then he hits The Passion stuff and from there my distate grew back again.

I still say Levin makes a very hypocritical sleight of hand move -- certainly unwittingly, though. One of the dangers of the Protocols and the Passion is that the Jews of today should be held responsible for the killing of Christ -- that is, that Shmuely down the street should be persecuted and pogromed for what the Sanhedrin did two-thousand years ago. Levin addresses that issue. But then he turns around and does exactly the same thing to the Evangelical Christians. He seems to desperately want them to take responsibility for what Christians in the past have done to Jews (and that at a time when there were no Evangelical Christians), and prevent them from having the enjoyment of their religious story -- Christ and Him Crucified. I can't help feeling that no matter how many times the Christians he speaks to tell him they understand the awful truth of Christian history and are laboring to make sure it never happens again, he just doesn't want to believe that they really mean it. (That's quite a Jewish "thing" -- 'You say you like me, but do you really like me? Really? I don't know. Do you really, really?')

Here is the audio from the question and answer session (Right Click, Save As...). He's a pretty articulate guy. Apparently they'll be using this for the DVD extras, so here's a sneak-bonus for you all.

See? There I go again. I softened toward the film, but still end up going off negative. I'm really not always like that.

A recent BBC report by Hugh Schofield actually shows some awareness of the role of the media in pouring oil on the fire.

And from the BBC no less. Is something happening over there? When will it occur to them that they've poured this oil on the Palestinian Intifada for decades?

Richard

And here's Steyn (Hat Tip: Mal):

Mark Steyn: Wake up, Europe, you've a war on your hands

Reading the whole thing, one must be.

Excellent Jeff Jacoby today in the Globe. He hits all the right notes. Here's the start:

A war of values, not religion

Jacoby then goes on to quote approvingly from blog-friend Robert Spencer -- always good to see. Don't miss this one.

Daniel Jonah Goldhagen: Iran Bares 'Genocidal Intent'

Goldhagen's is one of the better essays I've read on this.

John Rosenthal in the quarterly edition of his Transatlantic Intelligencer has an excellent article dissecting French hate-crimes statistics. Not surprisingly, he finds that the press, and even Israel's Prime Minister, vastly underreported anti-Jewish crime...and inflated some other. I think I had read this before but it was behind a pay portion of John's site which appears to be free now.

Really worth reading and bookmarking (Lots of other great stuff there as well).

Beyond the Numbers Games: A Closer Look at the Statistics on Anti-Semitism and “Islamophobia” in France

Lynn B. has some very interesting reminders concerning the Rabin legacy -- stuff I'm sure has become lost in the fog of the past few years. I certainly had forgotten (if I ever knew).

For instance, Rabin said:

There's more.

Always good to see increased cooperation between Israel and India -- two nations that should have a strong natural affinity.

Haaretz: Pakistani daily: India to buy IAI drones in 220 million dollar deal

Maybe the first...if it is a church. And no, it does not sound as though evil oppressor Jewish Archaeologists are bulldozing it.

Haaretz: Archaeologists say may have found oldest church

I'm a day late, but I'd be remiss not to mention the large PRO-Israel demonstration in Rome, Italy on Thursday. (via Meryl Yourish)

YNet: Italians rally for Israel

Although Foreign Minister Fini did not attend, he did officially condemn Iran:

Haaretz: Fini urges global backing of Israel, condemns Iran

Say, that reminds me of a certain former Iraqi dictator now being put on trial by his own people.

Dr. Zin has a round-up of links.

Kofi wants to assure us that the United Nations isn't really a threat to the internet. Somehow, my concerns are not assuaged. Interesting that the head of the UN is at pains to distance the UN from any real role in the project. He knows skepticism in the UN's ability to handle...anything -- once merely a province of the extreme Right -- is now in the mainstream of American thought. Even he has to make his case by assuring us that the UN will be little more than a facilitator. Anything more and the red flags fly. That's good news, indeed. No role at all would be even better news.

Washington Post: The U.N. Isn't a Threat to the Net by Kofi Annan

Ah yes, "Wireless access" as the next addition to the list of universal Human Rights. I can't wait.

As a credit where it's due addendum, congrats to Kofi for cancelling his Iran trip.

One of the authors of this Boston Globe editorial entitled, The lessons of Nuremberg, is a director and founder of something called Facing History and Ourselves. Funny thing. I'm ready about Rwanda, I'm reading about Sudan...there's some Yugoslavia in there...Mr. Pinochet makes an appearance...

There's one three-letter word that a reader might reasonably assume to be a natural to put in an appearance in an article about Nuremberg. You don't even have to go into history for the word to appear. There are, even today, criminals committing atrocities against these people. Thing is, you don't much hear the human rights and justice community getting exercised over crimes against modern-day J-E-W-S -- like say, pointing out the obvious fact that leaders of groups like Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah should stand trial for their crimes.

Boston Globe: The lessons of Nuremberg by Martha Minow and Margot Stern Strom

Wow. Chalk this one up to the power of goal-setting. It's good to have a purpose.

Michigan Dad Loses 230 Pounds to Enlist in Army

In Mein Kampf, dictated by Adolph Hitler to Rudolph Hess during his 18 month imprisonment after his failed coup against the German Republic, a detailed plan for a future greater Germany was laid out. Included were plans for overcoming the limitations on the German military mandated by the Treaty of Versailles, a plan to dismember neighboring countries to expand the borders of Germany, the elimination of Jews from German territory, and the establishment of German hegemony over all of Europe.

When Hitler achieved political dominance, he promptly began the process of implementing those plans laid out in his book. The world, and in particular Europe, chose to view Mein Kampf as propaganda, meant to further Hitler's political career. His rearmament program was ignored. The militarization of the Rhineland was ignored. The increasing segregation and marginalization of German Jews was ignored. His demands for the partition of Czechoslovakia, and the subsequent loss of that countries independence, were agreed to in a policy of appeasement. It took the outright invasion of Poland, with the assistance of the Soviet Union, before democratic Europe woke to the perils of a Nazi Germany. The most surprising aspect of this sequence of events is that so many people in positions of authority did not seem to be aware of the coming storm. Hitler had written exactly what he was going to do, yet the elite of Europe were surprised when he did it.

A recent policy statement from Iran's new president should be a stark warning to all clear thinking people in the world, but in particular, to Europe and the United States. Israel, due to its history, already understands the sequence of events which even now is unfolding.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made a major policy speech in honor of Jerusalem Day, one of the closing commemorations of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. This speech was essentially a foreign policy speech, outlining some very specific goals of the government of Iran. Ahmadinejad had some very interesting things to say about the future course of Iran's relations with other nations, as well as how the government views other Muslims.

Not surprisingly, the speech contained the expected screeds against Israel, Zionism, and Jews. What were new were the very specific threats against Israel, the United States, and those member states of the United Nations who voted to establish a Jewish state after World War II. And just what did the president of Iran say? Let's take a look.

I don't think the Boston Globe quite "gets" the Oil For Food program.

The real Oil for Food scandal has never much interested the Globe. After all, why actually report on a scandal that tends to demonstrate the enormous fallibility of one of the Left's sacred cows -- the United Nations? But "big corporations?" Now the Globe mentions the term.

Speaking of OFF, one of the prime-movers behind keeping the scandal in the public eye, Claudia Rosett, is featured today at the Pajamas Media site.

I heard this interview.

Boston Globe: Healey's immigration stumble by Scot Lehigh

Kerry Healey was exactly right, Tom Reilly was exactly wrong and the Boston Globe is horribly, painfully predictable.

Reilly kept talking about "immigrants." They're ILLEGAL immigrants. Tom Reilly kept repeating, like the good little Massachusetts liberal demagogue he is, "Where's your compassion?" He did it in this smarmy, "I'm oh so concerned" tone, too. Over and over.

I have a question. Where's the compassion for THE BELEAGUERED MASSACHUSETTS TAX PAYER Mr. Attorney General? Huh? Why are we giving subsidies of ANY amount to illegal residents? They want to go to college? Good! Pay the full rate. Where's the compassion for ME, MY wallet and the family that relies on it?

Why is the Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts out on the stump for law breakers? Why is he out campaigning for legislative issues at all? Oh yeah, he wants to run for Governor, I forgot. This one plays well to the Globe's limousine liberal constituency -- it's only a few more dollars, it's "compassionate." Never mind the disrespect for the law, never mind it's always another dollar here, another dollar there.

Where's the goddamn compassion for the law-abiding tax-paying family that only has a single child because that's all they can afford? Where's the compassion for me?!

Sometimes I think the Commies have it right. We could use a good tax-payer's revolution. Maybe they'll have it when they get to see Tommy-boy's name on the ballot.

Other than that I don't have a strong opinion on the subject.

Here's a powerful anti-divestment piece in the Dartmouth(!) student paper. What are they feeding these Ivy kids these days?

The Hypocrisy of Protestantism

Daveed Gartenstein-Ross on legislating the criticism of religion:

Weekly Standard: Legislating Religious Correctness

Clearly, the far-ranging lawsuit by the Islamic Society of Boston is an attempt to impose a strangle-hold on legitimate discussion and criticism by hoping courts will create their own de facto/de jure religious vilification law. Whether or not they have any solid basis in law, and it appears this one does not, SLAPP suits like this cannot help but chill discussion among people afraid of having to front money to lawyers just to exercise their constitutional rights.

Coming Anarchy has a couple of good food-for-thought posts on the uses and limits of War Crimes agreements. See: On War Crimes; or, “What makes it immoral if you lose but not if you win?” and then: On War Crimes Part II; or “The Americans have you on their list!”. Be sure to check out the comments. (My thoughts are there.)

Robert McNamara is a haunted man.

PC(USA) member Will Spotts points to several articles indicating that Presbyterian delegations are touring the Middle East, and points to one article that "describes a meeting with Sheikh Nabil Qaouk, Hezbollah’s commander for the south. This Presbyterian delegation “expressed opposition to the Republican Party in the U.S.,” and promised, “to maintain efforts toward the establishment of peace in the region” says Will.

Spotts has several good questions. Among them: "The question naturally arises, has there been yet another PC(USA) delegation meeting with Hezbollah leaders? Did it consist of national representatives or representatives of a particular presbytery? Who authorized such a meeting?..."

A surprisingly friendly profile of Ariel Sharon in the Washington Post by Richard Cohen:

The Warrior Behind the Plow

(Hat Tip: Mike)

Iran sure does have an odd view of the concept of "children's programming."

MEMRI TV:Children Drive Cruel Israeli Soldiers Away Using Eggplant Grenades in an Iranian Animated Movie

I think you can learn a lot about a society by what they feel it's important to teach their kids.

Update: Good lord. I missed this one from yesterday. Much, much worse. I keep imagining my five-year-old sitting fixed on this in front of the television. Diseased minds created this. Sick, sick, sick.

As I mentioned in a previous post, last Sunday evening I got a sneak-peak at a new film that will be playing at the Boston Jewish Film Festival called Protocols of Zion -- a documentary examining the infamous forgery.

[Warning: If you haven't seen the film and intend to, it may be better if you stopped reading here. Bookmark this page, then go see the movie and come back and read what I wrote. Tell me if I've got it anywhere close to how you felt.]

The film's star and director, Marc Levin, travels the country interviewing subjects and tracking down some of the places The Protocols have worked their way into. The interviews are engaging, and Levin finds a terrific cross-section of people to get on the record -- from Palestinian American street kids in Jersey, to street vendors in New York, to Rabbis, Pastors and Church and Temple congregants. Even mid-western Nazis and anti-Semites make their appearances here.

Levin's interview style is appealing. He converses with his subjects, almost never arguing. No matter what they say, he let's them say it and allows the viewer to take it in. As a viewer, I like to hear what the subject has to say without too much interference on the part of the filmmaker. Levin has a lot of faith in the viewer. Maybe too much faith. While I found his style enjoyable, this brings with it its own issues as we'll see shortly.

Production values are good. This may be a low-budget format, but the feel of the production does not reflect that. The sound and visuals are clear and well cut. The pace holds the interest.

That's the good part. Now the rest.

Where to begin? Let's put it this way. If I were Shaun Walker of the Nazi National Alliance, or professional anti-Semite Frank Weltner of JewWatch.com, both prominently featured in the film, I'd be purchasing extra copies of the DVD to include with my Christmas cards. In 90 minutes, director Frank Levin does almost nothing to discredit them, in fact, he not only manages to pass on the message of the Protocols, but confirms many of the things about Jews that the racists despise us for.

This sounds like an activism success story.

JTA: As Iran calls to destroy Israel, new look at 'holiday' with same goal

OK, I'm jaded. The UN actually voted unanimously to 'declare January 27th as the new annual international day to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust' and here I am, remembering various UN condemnations of 'terrorism,' skeptical that they really mean it.

JPost: UN unanimously adopts international Holocaust Day

Although the vote was unanimous, perhaps the spirit was not:

Hmmm...where have we heard that before.

Is one of the major black-marks on the record of the International Committee of the Red Cross about to come to an end?

Globes Online: Magen David Adom to join Red Cross in December

The Islamic Society of Boston, the folks bringing us the new Boston Mosque, are suing everyone in sight, perhaps even the David Project's plumber. Be careful if you clean any Zionist crappers, you too may be served.

Boston Globe: Islamic Society expands libel suit

Here is The David Project's statement (Full statement at the link.):

Of course this represents a perfect time to go back through the archives and do a run-down of all the various allegations against the ISB and the Mosque project. That'll take a bit more time than I have at the moment, though.