Shariah: What's The Problem?

I've had friends who came from broken homes who enlisted in the armed forces. They hoped the discipline there would help them to become men. I’ve had friends who became drug addicts – for the same reason. Drug addiction imposes a discipline on lives that are without.

Liberalism often seems attractive because liberals are good at imposing rules - rules that give structure to minds that lack the confidence to decide. The same applies to tea party followers.

The latter does not seem to be enough largely, because of the absence of consequences. Following the rules or breaking them is all the same. In fact, breaking them appears to assign some special status. The overall result is often confusing and arbitrary.

What about shariah? Is it really so bad as all of us are led to believe? I know, most of us recoil from it as we would from enlisting or succumbing to drug addiction. We hate the thought of early morning drills and dirty needles. We hate being labeled this or that. We have this image of ourselves as free men and women, unfettered by habit or convention.

Someone once said that “Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose.” It’s true in a way. Shariah gives you plenty of timelines and obligations. It kind of takes away all that pesky guilt that most of us are dragging around with us. It’s a legitimate response to doubt; a way of living within relatively safe confines where everything is written in stone. It’s also stifling. It kills curiosity and initiative. It minimizes risk. It makes it harder to fail and also impossible to succeed. In this, communism and shariah are one and the same.

Why do so many of us shy away from shariah while, at the same time, embracing socialism, the armed services, political parties – or even drug addiction? I understand that the pictures we’re shown of stonings, public hangings, slit throats, and severed limbs leave us gasping. This is all very frightening to us – flesh and blood consequences. Why, we don’t even remember where the meat we eat comes from anymore.

Shariah is not like that. The overwhelming majority of people who practice shariah are people just like us – like liberals, tea parties members, those who choose careers in the armed services or drug addiction. My grandmother used to say that the soup is never so hot when it’s eaten as when it was cooked.

So, what’s the problem? Why do we fear it? Why do we instinctively recoil from it? If others accept it, why can't we? Is our ego getting in the way of just letting go?

I’ll tell you outright why you should be concerned. All these movements that are sweeping the globe and are targeting America specifically have one thing in common. They seek to overthrow capitalism. Say, you have a skill or talent. Say, you can act, dance, sing, play football, lead a service-based organization; run a store; build a house... Perhaps you’re good with numbers or words. Maybe you’ve learned how to heal, teach, or offer advice - and that’s how you make your money. All that will mean nothing if those coordinating these left-wing and Islamic groups get their way. There will still be wealth and money. There will still be value. But value will be based on protection: You will pay for protection; or, people will pay you according to your ability to protect them. It’ll be a brutal world; a world without certainty that can change in a heart beat. It’ll be 'dog eat dog' – the way it always has been before America came along.

That in a nutshell is our challenge – a challenge made infinitely more daunting because roughly half our nation resides in the opposing camp while the other half remains ignorant of the threat. I can safely say that the next two years will determine the outcome. As it stands, either shariah or socialism has taken the lead. Both are pretty much the same. Pray that the nation wakes up in the meantime and freedom prevails.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Mitch Daniels Misspeaks

‘Error code’ for what? I must have missed this. But I’m sure he must have said something to offend either the Right or the Left. If it’s the Right, redemption is still possible. If it’s the Left, he’s cooked. The very gates of hell will open up out of that shoe box (with the pot in it) of his.

It troubles me that Mitch Daniels felt compelled to walk anything back. It shows that his primary aim is to appeal to voters. Haven’t we had enough of that: politicians speaking out of both sides of their mouths, saying one thing to one audience and another thing to another; and walking it back both times. Who really knows what they intend?

I, for one, would have more respect for Obama if he were to come right out and say it; that his plan is to topple representative governance along with capitalism and impose shariah on the American people; and that, in addition, he wants to push Israel into the sea and murder every Jew on the face of the earth, instead of comparing himself to every past American president who happens to have - at one time or other - caught America’s imagination.

I would equally welcome any politician who would step forward (now) and declare his or her intention to stop Obama in his tracks. It’s not just about overturning Obamacare, reducing taxes, or soothing any other single-issue voters’ concern. It’s the whole ball of wax: energy, education, the economy, race relations, foreign policy, etc. - all of which feed into the mix of anti-Americanism in one way or another.

At least, this way we would know where we stand and we would not waste 99% of our time and energy debating each point separately to no conclusion.

Right now, I personally see no solution other than letting Obama have exactly what he wants - reduce our nation to the likes of Zimbabwe or North Korea - and watch if our population will not at some point rise up and hold the whole bunch of them responsible. Let them throw us in prisons; let them place an imam on every street corner, armed with a knife to slit our throats; let them take our children and keep them hostage in their madrassas; let them hold public hangings, floggings, stoning, and amputations; and make attendance mandatory. Let them demand our money and property and make them communal. Let them rape and defile our women. Let them do all these things and more and watch for the point at which the NYT and all the alphabet broadcasters decide to turn against them so that we can finally stand united against the onslaught that continues to rage against us. Change always comes from within.

Am hoping for the day when we will once again can see patriotic movies being made and hear patriotic songs sung. How much will it take to turn us around?

As long as we listen to guys the likes of Daniels and Gingrich with maple-flavored oatmeal dripping from their lips as they speak; I’d say, we still have a long way to go.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Doorstop

There’s a door in our hallway that naturally closes. It has to be kept open with a doorstop - in our case, an antique Chinese casting of small dog.

I remember back around the time when Benazir Bhutto was assassinated, Pakistan was regarded as ours, to do with as we wished. We had been conducting drone strikes (inside Pakistan) as a part of our effort in Afghanistan. Pakistan had been voicing its objections, but our foreign policy experts chose to continue with the strikes anyway because, they reasoned, Pakistan couldn’t do much about it. We essentially viewed it as a failed and deeply divided state - the lesser half, heavily dependent on U.S. foreign aid. Since then, Pakistan has made strides in coming together - and not necessarily in our favor.

The Ray Davis affair shows that things have changed significantly; that Pakistan is now asserting itself in a way it has never done before. It doesn’t do to declare any nation a failed state simply because we happen not to like it. And , yes, we do not like the Taliban; and, yes, we do not like AQ; and, yes, we do not like Islamic extremism; shariah; and, yes, we do not like people who do not like us and pray daily for their god to hasten our demise.

At some point, Pakistan had to chose between itself and us. It has chosen itself. The Ray Davis affair has brought the rift between us into sharp focus. Surely, we have offered untold sums to settle the matter quietly. And, while this might have worked in the past, it’s not working now. The people of Pakistan see America as a hated intruder; as interloper; as propping up illegitimate and corrupt governments that only serve to oppress to undermine their true desires.

The rulers of Pakistan have had to go along with the people’s wishes in order to remain in power. Another factor is the money we’ve been doling out. It doesn’t buy as much as it used to. Even the lowliest Pakistani citizen senses that America’s power is waning; that it will no longer do to try to keep themselves warm in the fading glow of dying embers.

On the other hand, Islam is on the rise. In order to survive, it has become necessary to throw in with Islam which appears to have even the once great America shaking in it’s boots.

Hanging the bastard publicly will serve as yet another signal that America’s days in the region are essentially over.

Things have indeed changed since Obama took power in America. Some would argue it was inevitable; that the door had been torn from its hinges long ago (translation: Bush). And now the doorstop has been discarded as well.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

The Invention Of the Wheel

It’s nice watching the young people enjoying themselves; celebrating the invention of the wheel. We, of course, having been around long enough to have made a few turns ourselves, know that it doesn’t necessarily last. Still, it’s good seeing the joy, the enthusiasm; and the young'uns' capacity for hope and (dare I say it?) change.

I still believe that undue credit has been given the internet. They’re saying now that social networks were largely responsible for Egypt’s revolution. I tend to doubt it for reasons I have given previously. I think that the overriding factor that has apparently sent the whole world for a toss is America turning its back on whatever everyone assumed were its global responsibilities. Obama has made it clear that he no longer intends to play by the old rules (which in and of itself has arguably amounted to no more than containment).

Anyone, in a position of power, has known for years that we were about to run out of canning jars; that the putrid brews we’ve allowed to fester have long since turned toxic and the tops were about to blow; that that day was never far off. All the more important to have a leader who has our best interests in mind to help steer, inform and inspire us as we stumble across the rocky parts.

Unfortunately, here in America, just the opposite has happened. I hope to God someone has been plotting all along to emerge soon with something even a trifle more compelling than shariah and/or communism.

Being There

It has been duly noted that once again we seem to be on the wrong side of things. We’re supporting a rag-tag army of assorted leftists and Islamic radicals, and throwing Mubarak - a U.S. ally - under the bus (so to speak); that, for all our efforts to help lift the Egyptian people out of the tyranny of what essentially amounts to (we are told) U.S.-sponsored poverty, we are inadvertently abandoning them to another kind of tyranny - one of Islamic fundamentalism which would likely put Israel - another so-called U.S. ally - at risk, as well as the Suez Canal, a major shipping lane (primarily for oil) which is likely to affect even Europe - more U.S. ‘allies’ - adversely.

Nobody asks why the people of the Middle East are in perpetual poverty, despite untold billions pumped in by the West (for oil). Nobody asks why conditions for Muslims in India continue to be markedly worse than they are for Hindus (and others), despite government efforts to give them every possible advantage.

Perhaps we haven’t exactly thought it through all that well; perhaps we haven’t considered all the implications of embracing shariah and treating it on par with what our own sacred texts espouse. Perhaps we thought that by siding with a seemingly ‘popular’ movement all else would fall into place; and we would be loved as we’ve never been loved before.

Such miscalculations are easy to make. Carter miscalculated Iran and we’re still paying the price. They still hate us. But he meant well. At least, we think he did.

We’re also giving Obama the benefit of the doubt in the current situation. We seem to have forgotten his stance on the Iranian popular uprising a year or two ago. We seem to have forgotten his stance when Honduras went through its constitutional travail, as well as so much else that has been plaguing us domestically since this man assumed power. We’ve refused to connect the dots.

I still remember as a child, the seemingly endless wait at restaurants for the waitress to bring our food was made tolerable by the table mats I was given. The ‘connect-the-dots’ game was always a part of it. The game was relatively easy. The dots were always numbered; and I knew my numbers. I knew what order they came in. Yet, I would always hesitate to start, trying to predict before-hand what figure would ultimately emerge.

Today, connecting-the-dots seems to have become a lost art. While it’s true that the dots are no longer numbered, they are self-explanatory nonetheless. We have been reading the newspapers, after all. We can remember what has happened previously and in what order it happened. We have seen enough of it to know what is likely to happen next - and afterwards…

Still, we act like every day is a new day. All events are random and unexpected. Obama has been in office two years - and unpleasant things have happened and are continuing to happen. Where is all this ‘hope and change’ thing taking us?

While all our problems have been attributed to Obama’s inexperience (including, of course, his constant hectoring of Israel to mind its ways), a pattern seems to be emerging.

Heads of state are beginning to notice and draw conclusions. While we gnash our teeth, seemingly finding ourselves at the mercy of unrelated events, our enemies are beginning to take liberties. Our friends are beginning to distance themselves. Our economy is going to the dogs. Our ‘fixes’ only seem to be making things worse. And throughout it all, our government media tells us that all is hunky-dory; that we are doing just fine; and that the light at the other end of the tunnel is straight ahead (under the inspired leadership of Imam Obama).

Things are falling apart. Despite removing ‘mother’ and ‘father’ terminology from U.S. passport applications and replacing it with gender neutral verbiage (‘parent one’ and ‘parent two‘), junior Obama is finding that it still takes either Mom or Dad to drive the fambly (sic) sedan.

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We Are Building a Religion

As we go back and forth and speculate about what might yet happen (in Egypt), we should go straight to the horse’s mouth. Let’s ask our president directly what it is that he wants to happen. And while we’re at it, let’s ask him straight out what he has in mind for the U.S. Let’s ask him to explain why he is doing what, and what he is hoping to accomplish by doing so. And let’s pretend to believe what he says.

By the way, there’s a great opinion column in the WSJ this morning (Feb. 1) by Bret Stephens entitled “Being Mubarak”. It takes an interesting slant, speculating that the old fox (Mubarak) may yet have some tricks up his sleeve.

It is what it is (and has been for some 30 odd years). There was a reason for why we supported Egypt and, I might add, Israel. With the election of Obama, those reasons have eroded. We turn our backs to both - and things happen. Read Caroline Glick’s column in the JPOST today. What we (in the West) define as ‘success’ is not defined as ‘success’ among Islamists (or communists). Our metrics are not valid there. Any attempt at such comparison may be regarded as ‘category error‘.

What if the revolution succeeds? What if the dominos fall, one by one; and an Islamic Caliphate emerges - one that is hostile to the West? And there is a genocide? Would it end with the destruction of Israel? Maybe so. Or would it gather steam and push into Europe? By the way, would Europe be capable of defending itself?

What if it were found that the American president actively participated in engineering the revolution in the Middle East by withdrawing key supports; manipulating food prices world-wide; deliberately crashing economies by way of monetary policy; supporting radical elements in the name of ‘social justice’? Would we be spared the indignity of shariah? Would he? Not likely. Traitors are universally despised, even under the minimal discipline of chaos.

The twelfth imam is likely to credit his own and pay scant attention to the welfare of foreign accomplices.

In any case, it’ll be the Atlantic that will shield us from the worst of it. Having allowed ourselves to come to this point, however, will haunt us into eternity. We will spend the rest of our lives apologizing, wearing sack cloth, wailing, and tearing our hair. No more arrogance; no more illusions of ‘American exceptionalism‘. We’ll have to rebuild slowly and painfully; our civilization will re-emerge, (this time) stripped of excess and bravado. We’ll have to harden ourselves to the hurled scorn of the betrayed, and forever suffer the weight of insurmountable guilt.

Only the Germans currently have a sense of it. They have been blessed with every attribute that would facilitate achieving unparalleled success; but, at the same time, they know they have forever forfeited their chance at enduring greatness.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Cowering In Egypt

Egypt is in the grip of a classic revolution. It begins with chaos and ends in tyranny. This is not to say that Mubarak represented anything other than tyranny. He knew that it was the only way he could keep his country together - that is, to keep it from descending into the even deeper hell of Tehran’s sadistic hordes. In his particular neighborhood, Mubarak knew, he was essentially spitting into the wind. Not much use in pretending that he would not eventually succumb either to death by natural causes or to go down swinging. He held up his end as long as he could.

When the Left decided to join up with the Muslim Brotherhood, he knew it was over. When the West - and, especially, the United States - turned its back on Israel, he knew it was twice finished. He sent his successor son and his family to safety. He himself would stay and fight and, if need be, go down with the ship.

Not much help from Obama who would pepper his stammering response to the chaos with “the people” to the point where it became embarrassing to listen.

In the past, the U.S. could always be counted on to intervene. It was Mubarak’s reward for making peace with Israel. With Obama’s rise to power, the contract became null and void. Mubarak would have to go it alone.

The plague haunting the world remains anti-Semitism. It’s what unites all the players in the Middle East. Once it became apparent that no one would be spared, the faint-hearted veered to the dark side. Israel was declared a pariah nation and even the West would follow suit.

Israel reminds of an Islamic woman who has sinned. Her fate is determined by shariah. They will want to dig a pit for her. And the bloodlust of their god will be satisfied (now that the secularists have also joined in the clamor).

Besides the Israelis, the secularists will also be losers. They confuse secularism with a total ban of religion. They think that this would help them escape the twin burdens of guilt and duty, not realizing that these, in the hands of men, would become even more oppressive and arbitrary. They further delude themselves in that their 'secular humanism' is much different from religion. It is as crude and intolerant as Islam itself. And its high priests are every bit as extreme as the most radical jihadist.

If you want true 'secular humanism', you need only look to India where it is not unusual for an extremely competent high-tech worker to stop at a temple on his way home to circumambulate the idol of his choosing (always keeping it to the right of him) three times before receiving the priest’s blessing and be sent on his way; or, a humble rickshaw driver inviting his priest to bless his brand new vehicle; or the bus driver stopping at a temple to have his upcoming journey blessed… Religion is woven into daily life. No one mocks it. No one feels slighted. No one is cursed, even if they choose to shun ritual.

The Muslim Brotherhood is not like that. They insist on shariah (for everyone). Atheists are not like that. They insist on religious ritual being hid under a bushel. Communists are not like that. They ban any religion, not understanding the concept of ‘giving unto Caesar…’

Islam is not celebrated for being enlightened or tolerant. It is fear that spreads it. It gives off the illusion of power. Who can resist cowering before madmen after the doors of the asylum are thrown wide open and it becomes no longer possible to avoid them?

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Death Rattle

It seems to me that there’s some degree of ventriloquism involved here. The ‘death rattle’ of the Euro is really the death rattle of the dollar. It’s all linked. We go down, (and) they go down first. Capitalism is the global economy. It amounts to what communists and Islamists have been screaming about all along: American imperialism.

It all suddenly hangs in the balance. If the dollar fails, capitalism has failed. Standing in the wings, ready to take over, are communism or shariah. We say capitalism equals freedom when, in truth, it’s just another ‘ism’ like any other, and (communists and Islamists believe) totally interchangeable.

Link our political reality to the implosion of capitalism and, again, you see failure all down the line. The only alternative that remains is communism and (to a lesser extent) shariah. These will fight it out in due time. As for now, these are joined at the hip in their effort to destroy the West - or, at the very least, enjoy watching as the West destroys itself.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

The Worm Has Turned

Conventional wisdom has it that every election hinges on pocketbook issues. The standard measure of a party on Election Day has always been JOBS. Since Obama’s election the worm has turned. Midterm elections will be primarily about Islam.

With the benefit of hindsight, we now know that 9/11 was a watershed moment in modern American history. It began a cascade of events that gave us our first Muslim(-leaning) president.

Obama’s views on how our nation should be run are more in accordance with shariah than what has come to be known as American tradition. The people of America have figured it out. At this point, the economy could do a completer turn-around between now and election day, and Democrats would still be defeated because the electorate views it as a referendum on Obama’s term in office.

The mosque controversy in New York and the holy book burning talk have served to focus attention on our government’s inability to handle the Islamic threat. Existential threats trump pocketbook issues. And while Islam’s belligerent and insulting behavior toward us is routinely ignored by our leadership, it is not lost on the people. They are beginning to demand that we pull up our socks and handle it.

Preaching tolerance and turning the other cheek has been deemed a failure. Also, increasingly, we see our enemy gaining strength. Iran is about to go nuclear. Our nation’s policy of ’changing hearts and minds’ has not worked.

It’s now coming down to the wire. We’ve run out of time. We need to hold moderate Muslims responsible for their silence. A society can be broken, but will never change, when pushed from the outside. Change must come from within. We need to get (what we are told is the great majority of moderate) Muslims to root out and turn against extremism within their ranks. Up till now they’ve been perfectly happy to go along with it. We need to incentivize them to do otherwise.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Meet The New Boss; Same As The Old Boss

We tend to measure history in segments - epochs; eras; ages; periods - each, distinct in the metrics it generated. We tend to assign specific dates to these. Though, it is doubtful that people living at the time of the change(-over) fully appreciated that the old was being shunted aside and a new was just beginning.

Most people are simply riding a wave. As they are riding along with it, they are unaware that the wave is moving. It is up to historians to look back and see that the wave has indeed moved and how the shoreline was altered by it.

When future historians look back on us they will mark Barack Hussein Obama’s election as the end of an era and the beginning of a new one. When we cast our ballots in ‘08, few of us realized just how much was at stake. Historians will mark that election day in November as the beginning of America’s sudden and stunning decline; as, up until then, America had been the most influential nation among nations. It would soon become clear that America was no longer prepared to protect its interests or borders. This seemingly voluntary draw-down would reverberate around the world. We don’t know yet for sure, but one direct consequence of this particular American election might yet lead to WWIII - a war we would likely lose and make us subservient to an alien culture.

The wave of promises that hoisted the banner of the Obamanation over the land would prove to be illusory. Disappointment, culminating in unrest, would provide the opening for a heretofore hidden agenda to be implemented - one, that no American in his right mind would have voted for had he kept himself informed.

Obama and the media are still lying. They’re still promising the metrics of traditional American prosperity. When in fact they should be saying distinctly for all to hear, ‘We are working hard to make every American a ward of the State. Everyone will be adequately provided for according to his or her need. Everyone will be expected to contribute according to his or her ability. Everyone will be equal, (except some will be more equal than others). Shariah will constitute the law of the land.’

Sound extreme? I don’t think so. Take the time to attend some classes at your local college or university. Go out and see a movie. Read the newspaper once in a while and see what’s happening. Go to church on Sunday. Listen to modern pop songs; listen to Spanish language radio stations or to those that play rap songs that cater to blacks. Know what passes itself off as mainstream these days.

It’s not enough to keep the dial glued to conservative talk radio - or even NPR. There’s a wave gathering out there that demands a chicken for every pot and a car for every garage once ‘THE (ubiquitous) MAN’ has been defeated. POTUS knows this. He is riding the wave, securely tucked in its curl. The wave cannot be stopped by logic or simple political calculation. In the absence of a similar wave generated to counter it, it will rush forward, never stopping until it has reached the ends of the earth.

What nobody seems to get is that 'THE (defeated) MAN' will have been dragged out to sea by sheer exhaustion; that it is always easier to topple than to build and maintain; that 'THE (new and improved) MAN' will again come from men; and that again no one (but a few) will be happy with the new arrangement.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

POTUS Is Trying His Best

Obama is a big supporter of unions. This is hardly surprising in view of the fact that unions poured untold sums into his campaign. Now they expect something in return. POTUS is trying his best.

What no one seems to realize is that what you do to one, you’re also doing to the other. Favoring the union at the expense of all others will end up bankrupting both. Obama’s vision in this regard is extremely near-sighted. I think he feels that if he can fake it through the next election cycle, he’s home free.

From what I hear - as is the case in the country in general - there’s a split between the rank-and-file and the leadership. The former see their fortunes waning while seeing their leaders supporting policies they themselves oppose. Union membership, where it applies, is mandated; as is the withholding of union dues and all the rest.

Union members understand that if their salaries and benefit packages end up bankrupting the nation, they will find themselves out on the streets as well. At the same time, if their signed contracts are forced into renegotiation, a basic premise of American commerce begins to erode. If existing contracts can not be enforced, who will even bother to sign? Might as well have mob rule (which depends on how many knee caps can be broken), or shariah.

The point is, we’re still pretending that any of this can be saved, when we should be checking our survival equipment. To keep this illusion of ‘plenty’ going will from now on require an ever more intricate complex of smoke and mirrors. The time is long passed for simple solutions.

The stray dogs on Chennai’s Breezy Beach observe a different drummer. They pay no attention to humans, or to the dogs belonging to humans. They pay attention only to themselves. They exist in a parallel universe which one is privileged only to observe. The American public too must prepare for the inevitable break with its leadership. They will not be brutal as the French were in the aftermath of their revolution. They’ll be content to watch their self-proclaimed elite masters spin off into irrelevancy - a pod, crammed with polls, news media and professorial types, all jettisoned from the mother ship to tumble out into deep space has-been.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

A Cry From Hell

“Where did we come from?” I add, Where are we going? Both questions are entirely legitimate. Both require a modestly broader view to understand and formulate a response. Not only are we shutting the door on the physical universe, but we’re closing our eyes also to time (history). I’m not even talking ancient history. I’m talking just three years ago. Who would have thought then that we would have a Marxist Muslim president running the country (into the ground)? (Yes, I said it!!!) So when Mr. Doakes says he didn’t vote for Obama, I am compelled to ask, Who the hell did?!

Just yesterday I was sent a video of Muslims stoning a young girl to death. There were roughly a dozen young men eagerly participating. The rest were busy taking videos. It reminded me of the beating death of Abelino, the Ecuadorian dishwasher, in a wealthy suburban enclave on the Jersey side of New York City, which was also video taped. At the time I thought this the height of depravity.

I have since altered my view somewhat. The video that was sent me was so graphic, it literally turned my stomach. No human being on earth could have committed so serious a crime as to deserve the punishment that this (what looked like a) 14-year old was subjected to. And yet, no one decries it. No one condemns it. Abu Ghraib was the big story in the headlines day after day during the Bush presidency - American prison guards draping women’s underwear over accused terrorist’s heads. Then there was the relatively gentle art of waterboarding. And now there are tomes of restrictions our soldiers have to deal with about how to treat the enemy. It’s no wonder that so many of our own have been dying needlessly, snared by endless regulation demanding tea and sympathy - on the battlefield no less.

True gratuitous brutality is routinely ignored. Every adherent to the Muslim faith should be outraged and condemn the stoning of women in the name of their god. Yet, they are silent. In fact, they demand that all nations adopt shariah. Where are the women’s groups? Where are is Amnesty International? Where is our president? Where is every human being who still manages to maintain a shred of conscience to draw a line in the sand and say this cannot be tolerated in the 21st Century? Where is the UN?

Everyone participating in such a stoning should be hunted down and hauled off to The Hague for prosecution and punishment. Otherwise the phrase 'crimes against humanity' rings empty as a bell. But nothing of the sort ever happens. Instead, the men wearing the white hats are condemned to suffer death by a thousand cuts while the brutality of shariah advances even to desecrate the sacred cemetery of 3000 killed on 9/11.

Still, we watch as our enemy advances - and we say nothing. In fact we encourage his advance. We condemn ourselves instead of him. In another three years, we will look around and see the stain of slowly bled goats spreading on American soil, and we will ask ourselves, How has it come to this? We will read increasingly about honor killings, beheadings and shariah based banking, and we will ask again...

Now is the time to stop it. Just as Barack Hussein Obama should never have been elected senator.

I’ve altered my view of those who video tape such Islamic horrors as the stoning of women, the deliberate amputation of healthy limbs, and public execution in the market square. Rather than a gratuitous wallowing in blood, I now see it as a cry from hell - a warning. “This is how it is here,” they desperately try to tell us. “Please don’t let it happen there. Even if hell on earth is here, we can still maintain the hope that we can escape it. If the whole world should be consumed by this sort of savagery, there will be no where left to run; nothing to do but to strap on a suicide belt in the hope of saving as many as possible from the inhumanity of this, our most shameful experience."

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Hop-Off

And so has the United States of America been dead now for a number of years, particularly since 9/11. Obama’s election to the highest office in the land simply amounted to the pronouncement of Last Rites.

I have always been keenly interested in foreign affairs. My interest in the Far East has been constant since high school. It was sparked in part by George Harrison’s ‘Wonderwall’ album. Then, when I had a chance to actually participate in an Indian student exchange program in college, I literally leapt at the opportunity.

On returning home, I found nobody was particularly interested in the stories of my experiences there. Most only had some vague notion of what lay beyond America’s borders. And that much was entirely understandable.

At the same time, India’s newspapers featured stories about America prominently on the front page of every edition. In many cases, Indians were better informed about what was going on here than we ourselves were. The reverse was hardly the case. We here in America seldom heard about what was going on in the rest of the world. True, there was some occasional dismissive mention about folks starving in India (which, by the way, was never quite accurate). When news about India did happen to receive attention in the American media, it was treated as big news at home (in India). Good news; bad news - it hardly mattered, was celebrated locally as if some glass ceiling had finally been shattered.

Now, hardly a day goes by without mention of world affairs. We hang on every word uttered by Osama bin Laden and others. We carefully follow the vagaries of China and carefully calculate any implications as to how these might affect us. They’ve hit the big time - Hollywood; Rambo, Jay-Zee! They’ve passed the audition; they’re now demanding their place in the spotlight. They’ve learned to manipulate us; to make us dance; hurt; squeal.

All this has happened in direct correlation to our having lost confidence in ourselves. We’ve chosen to be victims and clowns. We’ve chosen hand wringing and whining over leadership. “We’re bad! We’re bad! We apologize” - for what? We don’t rightly know.

In Iran, presently, there’s a case in which an accused and convicted man is awaiting a medical procedure that will paralyze him. We no longer dare to speak out against such brutality. Nor do we speak out against stoning; genital mutilation and a whole host of other unholy acts that should be repugnant to us. All our “Save Darfur” banners have come down since George W. Bush has left office.

We’ve abandoned our principles, our liberties, our honor, our faith, our courage, our senses - without which we cannot continue to stand. We have allowed ourselves to be overrun from within and without. We will submit to shariah and anything else that may come our way. The mosque at Ground Zero is a perfect example of how far we‘ve fallen. Does mayor Bloomberg realize that it will be off-limits to non-Muslims? - especially women? Maybe he thinks it’s no big deal; that it’ll just add a stop along the CitySights hop-on, hop-off tour - much like St. Patrick’s.

On the Flooding in Pakistan

Now that the world’s only superpower has been sufficiently hobbled to the wild cheers of it’s enemies, these self-same enemies are lamenting that they themselves are going down. Where are all the others to help? China? Russia? Venezuela? Brazil?

Predictably, America still bears much of the blame: not enough aid, expertise, outpouring, generosity, etc. In addition, it’s America’s fault that so much rain has fallen in the first place. It’s all a trick by the Great Satan to punish Muslims. It’s been proven and widely flaunted by the Americans themselves, after all; that ‘global warming’ causes such catastrophes and that America is first and foremost responsible for ‘global warming‘. All the more reason to double down on the ‘Great Satan’, to bring him to his knees and rid the world of this singular evil.

No doubt, this is the template by which the next crop of mosque sermons will be written. At least, in America, a man - a brother - has now come to power; a man who has been the first from that nation to acknowledge that eight years of Bush’s policies - indeed, the whole history of America’s shameful rise on the backs of the poor - has been instrumental in bringing us to this sad point. Israel, that shining abomination (on the hill) - by the grace of this singularly enlightened individual - can now no longer expect the West’s illicit support for its shameful insistence on maintaining its heathen stain on the sacred land of the faithful.

He (Obama) has come out in favor of building a holy mosque, near Ground Zero no less; which is destined to rise much faster, much higher, than the star-struck replacement for what has been brought down and reduced to ash in the name of Allah. Our flag, our minaret(s), will point proudly skyward on the day of the tenth anniversary of our heroic victory over capitalist blight - thanks to the ceaseless efforts of the enlightened one. The mean remnant of unbelievers will fail to stop our progress in bringing to the world shariah by which we will then proceed to cleanse all mankind of its sin.

As for our dead and dying, we grieve as is natural. It is Allah’s will. They are the martyrs who in both large and small ways have sacrificed (or are in the process of sacrificing) their existence for the greater glory of Islam - the only true religion. For even as we die our quiet deaths, America’s fall will reverberate around the world and usher in righteousness.

Allah Akbar!