Moderate Moslems -Reality or Fantasy?

A "moderate Muslim" can be very simply defined as a Muslim who doesn't have a testimony of the actual content in the Koran. Moderate Muslims, if they exist, are a lot like secular Jews -Muslim in tradition only.

I remain hopeful, but at the same time worried, about the number and the influence of these so-called moderates to mitigate the avowed goals and purposes of the extremist Muslims.

Make no mistake about it, extremist Muslims, the world over, want you and me to either convert, or to die. That’s the unvarnished truth. Only such a sober, clear-eyed understanding is reasonable. The utter inaction on the part of the so-called "moderates" to control and/or eliminate the extremists remains a very serious concern. In fact, the mainstream moderate Muslims seem to be either taking a direct role in the terrorism directed against us, or, at best, they are complicit in this terrorism by their lack of action to put a stop to it. Suffice it to say, there is much that could be done by so-called “moderate” Muslims in states such as Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Indonesia, and elsewhere, to round up and eliminate the terrorists. To date, we see precious little being done by "moderate" Muslims to improve things. Much more is being said of course, but there seems to be two versions of every statement by them on the subject: One in English for foreign consumption, and one in Arabic for domestic consumption. Neither version seems ever to contain a really strong, effective repudiation of the Muslim terrorists. There is little doubt that if they really wanted to, the Muslims themselves could eliminate the terrorists in their midst. The almost complete dearth of denunciation of the terrorists by Muslim leaders unfortunately speaks volumes especially when coupled with the complete lack of action on their part. They seem somehow afraid to take on these thugs -or worse- they sympathize with them.

Until and unless actual strong actions are taken by the mainstream Muslims against the terrorists, I'm afraid I will remain unconvinced by their mere words. Talk is cheap -and there has been precious little effective talk by moderates. Deeds are much more important. There has been almost no action by Muslims to put an end to terrorism. And that's scary.

At this point I usually get a spate of “well you’re just an anti-Muslim bigot” reaction. I am not against any religion: Muslim, Christian, Atheist, Shinto, Buddhist, or whatever, as long as they don’t hold, as a tenet of their faith, that it is God’s will for them to kill me and my family. When they begin to profess that particular brand of religion, and worse, begin to put that belief in to action, I must oppose them. Every thinking person in the world should oppose ANY religion who has as an article of faith, the killing of non-believers.

It’s a tough world out there. The sooner we wake up to that fact, the safer we’ll all be.

Mainstream Media -They Report, They Decide

No news will be shown, it seems, unless it’s bad news for the US. And not only bad news, but news that highlights the mainstream media’s obsession with anti-Bush, anti-America bias. It has become painfully obvious that if it’s good news for the US effort in Iraq, they just won’t run with it. This has been noticed and documented by Power Line:

If the Fallujah campaign had been long and difficult, and had given rise to many casualties, the hysteria in the media would have been unrestrained. Instead, however, the Fallujah campaign was one of the most stunning successes in the history of urban warfare. Consequently, it has dropped off the media radar screen. Newspaper attention immediately turned, not to the important strategic advantages of depriving the terrorists of their home base, or to the horrifying discoveries of torture and murder chambers, the "Iraq al Qaeda" headquarters, or vast quantities of munitions that have been captured in Fallujah, but to: 1) video footage of a Marine shooting a wounded terrorist, and 2) terrorist attacks in other parts of Iraq. The point of the latter coverage is not subtle; the reader is intended to conclude that the battle of Fallujah has been futile.

The goal of the MSM is to subvert the upcoming elections in Iraq. They clearly favor the insurgents/terrorists. It’s painfully obvious to anyone who is willing to apply even a modicum of objectivity. If it is bad news, or even something that could be construed to be bad news for the US or the Iraqi interim government, it gets maximum exposure. It’s disgusting.

At the same time, actual evidence of real atrocities by French soldiers in the Ivory Coast gets no coverage at all except in the bloggosphere. The sooner the has-been media assumes their proper place on the ash heap of history, the better.

Have They no Shame?

It is entirely shameful for the leftist press and pundits in this country to assist international terrorism by blowing all out of proportion the incident involving the elimination of a single terrorist by a young American soldier. He was only doing his duty. He was killing terrorists. That is what he was trained to do and why he is there. President Bush was just re-elected in part, because he promised the American people he would kill terrorists. And now some want to prosecute a Marine for doing so? It's an outrage!

The rules of engagement in the war against terrorists are not very well defined or understood. The recent neutralizing of an Iraqi terrorist in a Fallujah mosque which was being used as a bunker by the Iraqi terrorists is a prime example of how little is known, even by the American press.

Simply put, Iraqis don’t follow any of the rules of war. They use women and children as shields. They execute innocent hostages, women included. They use religious edifices as armories and pill boxes. They commit suicide attacks against the Allied forces and against Iraqi police forces. It isn’t that easy.

In any war, during the heat of action, wounded soldiers are frequently shot. The reality of war is that it is hardly ever convenient to call off the fighting while stretcher bearers carry off the wounded.

The young marine in question encountered several terrorists who had recently been trying to kill him. He saw one of them playing dead. Playing dead is a ruse used frequently by terrorists to get unsuspecting marines to approach in order to kill them. The marine eliminated the threat and moved on.

The marines in Iraq appear to be fighting two enemies in this action: The terrorists and the leftist press. We must support them against both.

Election Post Mortem

The fantasy:

Now that the American people have spoken, all sides of the great debate are willing to put aside all differences to make this country as successful as possible. It’s a noble American tradition that sets us apart from strife-torn third world countries where, if elections are held at all, they are often followed by a failure of the losing side to accept the outcome. In fact, these countries are often crippled by endless revolutions. The losing side in any election will almost always take action against the prevailing side. The actions they resort to include claims of election fraud, threats of secession, up to and including armed insurrections. In America we don’t do that–

The reality:

–The failure of much of the left to accept the will expressed by the American people in this most recent election resembles, to a frightening degree, the antics of a third world country.– We seem to be in grave danger of becoming a banana republic.

We hear the silly cries of election fraud. We are assaulted by overblown threats of secession. We are assured by the left that the president’s agenda will be thwarted via the filibuster and the activist judge. All of this seems to be motivated completely by an enormous, irrational animus against the president. And there doesn’t seem to be any rational explanation for it. This president has gone out of his way to placate the left. His education bill, agricultural spending bill, illegal immigrant policy all closely resemble those proposed by the most liberal representatives of the left, yet nonetheless, he gets no credit for huge, –some on the right say too huge– spending on these programs. He is instead showered by the left with ceaseless derision, scorn and ridicule.

How can this rabid, unreasonable, wild-eyed hatred for George W. Bush be explained? How is it that if these same liberal proposals had been enacted by Teddy Kennedy, the left would have found them acceptable, noble and just?

When you strip it all away, Bush hatred appears to all come down to one thing: religion. The fact that George W. Bush openly professes to be a practicing Christian just drives the left blinking, blind, crazy! The fact that he admits to praying to God for guidance in his major decisions causes otherwise rational people to literally foam at the mouth. How dare he believe that God influences the affairs of men! The fact that the majority of Americans share his feelings about God, kindness and good works seems to be the hardest reality of all to swallow for these secular leftists.

Any yet, this country remains overwhelmingly religious. Predominantly Christian, but with a significant portion of Jews, Moslems, Buddhists and other sects who, while they differ wildly in doctrine, all share one belief: They all believe God wants us, as individuals, to live good lives, to do good to our fellow men, to make the world a better place. They also believe in evil– that there is in the world a dark side that is bent on the destruction of all that is good, decent, praiseworthy. These two opposite forces --good and evil– have been debated endlessly by all the world’s religious philosophers for thousands of years.

But the secular left look upon “doing good” as largely a governmental mandate instead of an individual duty. To them compulsory charity is the ideal. The more government can compel you, by force of law, to give your wealth over to them, for redistribution according to their notion of what is just, the better. And of course the left wing elites look upon themselves as best suited to be the ones who make the decisions as to who gets what from the government. After all, they are so much smarter.

The religious among us will allow a “higher authority” (God) to proscribe certain self-destructive behavior which would impede our ability to do good. We will do good and avoid doing evil because we want to follow God. We will avoid “bad” behavior because we don’t want to offend God.

The secular left rejects any “rules” set down by “God” which would prohibit them from doing anything they want to do. They claim the right to do whatever they please. They think allowing God or religion to govern any aspect of their activities takes away their freedom.

Religions speak of the dual nature of mankind. Christians specify the “light of Christ” or our “better nature” to describe our good side. Conversely our “carnal nature” or the “natural man” in us describes the evil tendencies that we all seem to possess. Christians look at religious regulation not as a deprivation of freedom, but rather as a template that allows our better nature to dominate our carnal nature. Therefore, when followed, religious teaching and regulation foment joyous living. “Wickedness never was happiness” said the prophet. Religious people who seriously follow the dictates of their religion find that to be uniformly true. Rebelling against your religious traditions, may bring a temporary feeling of euphoria, but will never result in any long-term happiness.

Secular leftists don’t ever seem to be happy. This is the single most likely cause of their rabid, irrational hatred of George W. Bush, and their hatred of all professing religious people. That these religious people are so obviously happy with life drives the miserable left crazy. They can’t stand it. They think it somehow smug and wrong of president Bush to be smiling and enjoying his life, –while they are miserable! How dare he!

But this frustration and misery is entirely predictable by those who understand the joy and peace religion brings. Since the left is relying on the arm of man for everything, they are frequently disappointed. They engage in a never-ending pursuit of obliging others to support their particular secular notion of what is “good” for mankind. They think nothing of imposing laws to force others to “donate” to the favored leftist causes, yet very often are very unwilling to give generously themselves to any real charities. They are engaged endlessly and fruitlessly in the pursuit of carnal pleasure via drugs and immorality. Yet, in the end, they only find bitterness, despair and unhappiness. You can see it all around you: wickedness will never result in true happiness. Those who seek the freedom of carnal pursuits to find joy are certain to reap only bitterness in the end no matter how much they delude themselves along the way. What’s worse is that even the most dissolute among them retains in them what Christians call the “light of Christ”. They are pricked by the subconscious knowledge that their wicked behavior is wrong. They know in their heart of hearts that they shouldn’t be doing what they are doing, and it plagues and torments them.

Thus, since the left is not by nature and inclination happy, they hate –and envy– anyone who is happy. George W. Bush is happy. He embodies all the things they have failed to be. And they hate him for it.

The immature blathering about secession, and vote fraud in the wake of this election will fade quickly from the scene because of it’s ridiculous nature. The struggle between good and evil however will not fade away. There will always be a mighty battle between these two forces. Those who understand this must remain eternally vigilant lest we be overcome by the leftist secular notion that “evil” doesn’t really exist. That notion is, in and of itself, is a pure manifestation that evil does indeed exist. Evil would be only too happy to have us believe otherwise. We must be willing to fight against evil, and to understand the unhappiness of those who allow themselves to be swept up in it. The future of our nation demands nothing less on our part. It is our patriotic duty.

Kerry’s Hoards –Just can’t take “NO” for an Answer

John F. Kerry, belatedly and reluctantly, showed some good sense on the day after he was rejected by the American people. He knew he had no choice other than to “concede” if he wished to retain any credibility in his remaining years in the senate. He remains enough of a political animal to sense that evident fact.

While Bush supporters like Hugh Hewitt, Michael Medved are waxing very conciliatory, and gracious in victory, Kerry’s minions are another matter. Some of them, such as those in the MSM are just stunned. Others seem perfectly willing to hang on to the fraudulent notion that somehow, Bush stole the election. “There are none so blind as those who will not see” so the old proverb goes, and this bunch of self-deluded “whackos” are in very great need of a seeing-eye dog named –reality! They somehow seem comfortable with the notion that hundreds of mostly democrat poll workers in dozens of precincts all over Ohio and Florida blithely looked the other way while evil Bush operatives removed, spoiled, discarded and otherwise invalidated thousands of Kerry votes. They even have it that Kerry’s 10,000 lawyers somehow caved under the spell of Karl Rove and backed away from claiming what was rightfully Kerry’s. Of course, this is all nonsense. All the garbage about pregnant chads, hanging chads, disenfranchised African-American voters, uncounted provisional ballots, etc. is pure bunk. And Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and perhaps the blindest of them all, Greg Palast know it very well. Their goal is to keep the “coalition of the wild-eyed” all lathered up. That way they hope to give cover to the Democrats' continued obstruction of Bush-nominated judges, income tax reform, much needed tort reform, Social Security reform, etc. If you believe the Bush victory was “stolen”, well then, it’s OK to sabotage all of his agenda goes their thinking.

The actual unintended consequence of this foolishness however is likely to further weaken the already badly fading Democratic party. Zell Miller tried to spell it all out for them at the RNC convention. Hopefully they will continue to ignore his warning. Then we can have Republicans elected for years into the future. Come to think of it –Go Crazies! (Republicans need the help)

Kerry –Classless to the End.

John F. Kerry didn’t learn anything from the beating he just took. He still remains the same elitist, effete snob that he has been his entire life. The American people soundly rejected him both in the popular vote and the electoral vote, yet he arrogantly refused to acknowledge his loss like a gentleman, and instead sent out his lap-dog trial lawyer, John Edwards, to defiantly intimate that he intended to “make sure every vote counts.” He threatened illicit legal action against the very American people who just rejected him, in a childish, vain hope of tinkering enough with the election to give himself an edge. Never mind that under any scenario, even remotely feasible, the math would not give him a victory in Ohio, he still chose to deny George Bush and his supporters their well deserved late-night election celebration. He just doesn’t get it! He’s out of touch!

Hugh Hewitt has it absolutely right. Pete Coors has class. John F. Kerry does not. Here’s hoping he will just go away.