Soccer Dad: Watchers of weasels 9/21/06

September 21, 2006

Watchers of weasels 9/21/06

Council nominations are in, voting is taking place. Here are the entries for the other members of the watcher's council.

AbbaGav looks at how Muslim anger grows over Pope�s remarks :

But, aside from the fact that the statement is basically true -- Muhammad did spread the faith by sword, but apologists speaking to modern Western listeners hasten to obscure the interpretation of the Koran's positon on such jihad == Perhaps none of the quoted spokesmen wanted to come out and object to this phrase explicitly right now, trying to somehow claim Islam does no such thing, because they recognize it would be a pretty hard sell. Aside from the growing worldwide popularity of the Jihad brand right now, and public claims of Islam fighting to create a global Islamic world under a single ruling Caliphate, they would also have to compete with the recent forced videotaped conversion of two kidnapped Fox reporters in Gaza; although, technically, in the case of the Fox reporters Islam was spread at gunpoint not by sword.

Done with Mirrors tells the stories of contractors and rebuilding in Iraq but 'You'll Never Know What We Did':

In the U.S., because of the nature of the news business, chances are you only see a story about, say, Lithuania, if something goes catastrophically wrong there. A plane crashes, people die, an epidemic breaks out, whatever. Most of us realize it doesn't mean Lithuania is a land of perpetual tragedy. We understand there is probably pretty much like here on most days, with nothing big to report.

But Iraq in 2006 is not Lithuania or Nepal or Argentina. Its condition and progress are essential features of our national political landscape. Its future is bound up with ours. We need to know more about it than we've been told, and the media is more than a passive observer. The Lithuania rules shouldn't apply in Iraq. But they did.

The Education Wonks quotes from an article recounting the way that a school district stifled expression:

The 17-year-old Lincoln Park resident put the shirt on Monday morning and headed to school -- where he was quickly sent to the office and suspended for three days for violating the school's dress code.

He was one of at least seven students sent home for wearing shirts featuring patriotic images and messages. It comes less than a week after three siblings were suspended for wearing shirts emblazoned with the First Amendment, despite warnings, and a week after more than 200 students were sent home on the first day of school for violating the district's dress code -- which bans apparel with writing or pictures.

Gates of Vienna tells us That Was Not a �Blunder.� It�s Just An Excuse to Kill Infidels
:

The MSM pontificating is also boringly predictable. Does any sane person care what The New York Times has to say on this issue? The tropes trotted out by the usual suspects have become so familiar by now that we can recite the jabber right along with these talking/writing heads. They have all the depth and breadth of a Gilligan�s Island episode, and none of these �journalists� ever step out of character, or say anything surprising. Like teenagers who have seen every episode of Gilligan umpteen times, we can recite the MSM litany right along with them � though perhaps with less evident glee than they evince when some event generates orchestrated crises, giving them the opportunity to�to pontificate. In fact, if the ability to pontificate were the only requirement for the job, we�d have been saying �Pope Dan Rather� a long, long time ago.

The Glittering Eye continues his investigation of American policy towards the Middle East and finds that it's Not arbitrary or inconsistent:

I understand that this sketch is a gross oversimplification of a very complicated history. There are scores of vital considerations I haven�t addressed: the domestic political considerations that have influenced our policy with respect to Israel since before the country existed and the Soviet Union�s thorough infiltration of governments in the region (read the Mitrokhin archives), just to name two. But my main point is that our policy with respect to the region is not arbitrary or inconsistent, it�s completely understandable,and that we�ve arrived at the point at which we are now as the result of a process that began with a predisposition to isolationism and has become progressively more involved as less intrusive approaches have failed.

Joshua Pundit presents President Bush's and President Ahamadinejad's UN speeches as competing playlists. , A sample:

`Love and Happiness' `........................`Psychotic Reaction'

(guess which is which.) Thanks also to JoshuaPundit for his very kind words about me.

Rhymes with Right recounts that Benedict Quotes Fourteenth Century Emperor -- Muslims Enraged:

Jihad, for all the recent attempts of Muslims to deny and disguise the truth, is a part of Islam and has been since the days of Muhammad. Furhtermore, it is not merely a peaceful internal struggle for conformity with the will Allah. Jihad is and always has been the use of warfare to defend and spread Islam. If you doubt that, read the Quran and scholarly histories of the Islamic world. Indeed, jihad was the method used to wipe out the historically Christian cultures of much of what is today considered to be "the Muslim World" -- places like Israel, Syria, Egypt, Turkey, and North Africa. They became Muslim through the use of the sword -- jihad.

Right Wing Nuthouse confronts THE POPE�S DILEMMA:

Why then did the Pontiff break with the past and throw down the gauntlet at radical Isamists? The dilemma for the Pope as well as the West has always been a question of whether or not to engage the fanatics by challenging them or try and address their grievances and appease them. Has the Pope finally decided to cast his lot with those who seek to challenge the extremists? It would appear that the Pope has done so and on a plane that he seems uniquely suited to occupy; bringing his considerable intellectual gifts and moral authority to bear in an effort to encourage moderates to step forward and work with him to marginalize the terrorists.

Shrinkwrapped writes of Pope Benedict, Islam, and Reason:

Pope Benedict's remarks, an invitation to reasoned discourse with Islam, very much involved the Christian struggle to bring faith and reason into a synthesis. Without faith, irrationality will find its expression through the most intellectualized and rationalized avenues. Yet faith devoid of rationality can be an even more effective avenue for the expression of the irrational. The history of the Church and the persecution of infidels throughout history has not been denied by Pope Benedict but used as an illustrative model for bringing rationality and faith into accord.

Socratic Rhythm Method considers Where the New York Times is coming from:

The Vatican criticized Israel for attacking Hezbollah, and supported the non-publication of the Mohammed cartoons, but it also stubbornly refuses to come to its senses on abortion and gay marriage, won't let Africans use condoms, urges objectively moral behavior and sorts people into those who get an eternal reward and those who don't. If it had a bumbling crony heading up its emergency management arm and Satan as its attorney general, it would be nearly as bad as the Bush White House. As quickly as the Times is likely to take the side of insulted Muslims, the offense being committed by the Church calls for an editorial.

The Sundries Shack writes A Letter to Eugene Robinson. :

That�s the advantage you have when you choose to change the question in the debate. Unfortunately, that�s not the debate that�s going on between Congress and the White House. There is no question whatsoever that torture is wrong - make no mistake about that. There is, however, an enormous question about how we will choose to define torture. That is where the root of the entire debate over what you so ominously label �the program� lies. Quite simply, the President wants Congress to tell us, decisively, what torture is, isntead of leaving it hidden in subjective terms like �cruel� and �inhumane�. See, we all believe we know what those things mean, but I bet that if you took a quick walk through your newsroom there and ask folks what those words mean, you�d get as many definitions of those words as you have people.

Please check out the many wonderful non-council nominations this week too. This week's most blogged about issue is the Pope's speech and the reaction to it.

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