sisu

"When faith is devoid of reason"

"If we all don't stand up to Islam together, we all go down," writes Amazonian Culture Warrior Atlas re "left-wing" Dutch MP Geert Wilders's much-censored film short "Fitna," now enjoying top billing in the blogosphere. "This is a great film and I will tell you why," says Atlas. "It is powerful and succinct. There is no editorial, no opinion. Just Islam. There are the violent acts of war by Islam and the Koranic verses that call for them." Images above and below are screen shots from the film. Tchaikovsky's haunting "Arabian Dance" -- based upon a Georgian lullaby -- is woven in and out of the soundtrack, with its images of mayhem and carnage, to ironic effect. YouTube recording of the music here.

"He focuses on reason precisely to show that when faith is devoid of reason, the result is a fundamentalist approach that is not true to the essence of that tradition," says Francesco Cesareo, president of Assumption College in Worcester, in a brief but excellent Boston Globe interview whose headline says a mouthful about what's wrong with the Globe and other MSM big mouths:

On closer look, a more complex pope.

Nearly three years since white smoke was seen coming out of the Sistine Chapel stovepipe, and the Globe and fellow travelers are just getting around to taking a "closer look"? If they'd been paying attention, they could have gotten a sense of the arc of his Papacy the very day before his election to the Throne of Peter back in April of 2005, when we wrote:

"In his homily Monday morning, [Cardinal] Ratzinger -- powerful Vatican official from Germany often mentioned as a leading candidate to become the next pope -- spoke in unusually blunt terms against 'a dictatorship of relativism' -- the ideology that there are no absolute truths," reports FOXNews:

"We are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as for certain and which has as its highest goal one's own ego and one's own desires."

Whether or not you're a Catholic, the Cardinal's words ring true on a fundamental human level. "True joy" can come only from striving towards a goal higher than "one's own ego and one's own desires."

You probably caught the MSMs usual misunderstanding of all things Papa Ratzi, this time the Pope's baptism of Allam, a Muslim-born convert who is one of Italy's most famous and controversial journalists, on Easter eve last weekend. You convert, you die!!! We were particularly enchanted by a piece -- can't find the source, but it comes with the territory -- that called Benedict XVI to task for saying something that might offend Osama Bin Laden.

It took Time only seven months to get wind of what Papa Ratzi was up to, as we wrote in November of 2006:

"Suddenly, when he speaks, the whole world listens," gushes a breathless Time Mag, enthralled with its belated discovery of Papa Ratzi, the Pope who loves cats and Mozart. Long before Cardinal Ratzinger became Benedict XVI, the great student of history and human nature was warning the West of the gathering Eurabian storm. But only when Time notices the "hard-knuckle intellect with a taste for blunt talk and interreligious confrontation" is this voice in the wilderness "suddenly" heard. 

This angry litttle guy from Geert Wilders' piece called to mind the RIGHT Reverend Jeremiah Wright, until recently the right-hand man of the man who would be Leader of the Free World. That type of oratory is SO yesterday. Unbelievable that modrin folks buy into it.

That's what comes of gazing at one's navel 24/7.

How sad to think of the worst impulses of our species being promoted, big time, by the tribalistic proselytizers of the "religion of peace."

Fortunately, just as the Jihadists use the internet tools developed by their betters to promulgate their message of hatred and fear of the other, the internet becomes the vehicle of deliverance of Geert Wilders's message of wisdom and truth.

We both giggled at the unexpected pleasure

"With salt piles like this, who needs the Grand Canyon? Early rays transform [the saltpiles] across the street into a natural wonder," we captioned this image of the view from our front porch two winters back.

'Been working most of the day on something we're not at liberty to blog about yet. Without revealing its purpose, we'll provocatively quote from the document we wrote this morning:

I would like to offer the perspective of a photographer/writer/blogger who has lived diagonally across the street from this evocative and ever-changing landscape for nearly 30 years. Always in search of "beauty in unexpected places," I've found [the working waterfront across the street] to be a motherlode of visually stunning and thought-provoking imagery through the seasons, grist for my photographic eye and politically philosophical tongue.

To illustrate my viewpoint, I've selected a few images and accompanying text from my blog, sisu.

"Thinking about the demographics of my neighborhood, once dominated by Poles but now heavily Latino, I'm intrigued with the presence of a significant number of Muslims, who come together to worship on Fridays in the local Roca and then disperse mysteriously to their veiled -- to me -- lives in this city that has seen wave after wave of immigrants working their way on up," we wrote:

How might . . . [local] cultural- and/or ethnic-themed seasonal events . . . enhance the lives of such newcomers, encouraging them to join the mainstream of their adopted land?

"As the bulk carrier 'Ince Atlantic' out of Istanbul unloads its cargo . . . across the street, the sun's early rays alchemize salt to pure gold," went the caption to our January 2005 post "And when I looked the salt had turned to gold."

We pass local female Muslims in various degrees of coverage daily during walkies and took hope from an encounter just yesterday when a Somali or perhaps Yemeni woman staring grimly across our field of vision towards her friends across the street suddenly let down her mask and smiled at us warmly when we took a chance while crossing the street to look into her eyes and offer a friendly "Hello." We both giggled at the unexpected pleasure. The gals from Somalia and other African countries typically delight us with the vibrant colors and textures of their costumes -- often tied behind rather than in front of the neck. Others, all clad in black on the hottest summer day, remind us that men throughout history have often attempted to puff up their importance by jackbooting women, and women have all too often complied.

"Roaming freely once again in the wild"

"The first phase of a major plan to release the Arabian Oryx back into the wild began here on Monday with the release of a herd of 29 antelopes" attended by General Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, according to a March 3 news item at Abu Dhabi's Environment Agency Website. "The project, dubbed as the largest release programme in the region, will see 100 herd of the Arabian Oryx roaming freely once again in the wild." Classified as endangered by the USDI, a number of the dwindling herd had been taken from the wild and brought to the US in 1962, where they "served as the foundation of an international breeding effort and for reintroductions into the wild." (Environment Agency-Abu Dhabi photo)

"Iraq's challenge is to get the liberals to see you like an endangered species," writes blogger Peter Kay in the comments of Iraq the Model's Omar Faydil's latest, urgent, commonsensical PJM post lamenting the Democrats' defeatism on all things Iraq. "I don't pretend to hold 'The Solution' to the dilemma faced by the Iraqis as our Democratic leadership waves the white flag," writes Kay, but:

I will ask, however, that perhaps if the Iraqi people themselves wrote letters to our US congressmen and demonstrated in the streets of Iraq to have the Americans STAY AND HELP, there MAY be a chance that the American public would get a sense that we are wanted in Iraq.

Right now the liberal media has trumpeted the case that no one wants us in Iraq, including the Iraqis.

Liberals, as short-sighted as they are, will fight like crazy for any animal on the endangered species list out of their "compassion."

Iraq's challenge is to get the liberals to see you like an endangered species. You need to appeal to their liberal side. Show them how women's rights are so incredibly abused under Islamic extremism. Give them a cause to rally around. Show them how Iraq will be like Darfur and soon you'll see George Clooney appealing to the President to "stop the slaughter" in Iraq.

As of March 2007, "the Environment Agency-Abu Dhabi’s (EAD) plan to reintroduce the graceful Arabian Oryx (Oryx leucoryx) back into its natural habitats, after 40 years of extinction, is now well underway." (Environment Agency-Abu Dhabi photo)

We love the way Peter Kay's mind works. But let's say Harry and Nancy & Company were to receive a flood of emails and letters from all the Omars in Iraq declaring their support for an allied victory in Iraq. Would it make any difference? Probably not, since liberal "compassion" seems to have a blind spot when it comes to anything that might make George Bush or the United States look good.

Arabian Oryxes grow up. Too bad the Democratic leadership doesn't. (Environment Agency-Abu Dhabi photo)

"An exaltation of adolescence"

"They are like bookends. They will bring you many years of pleasure" said a veterinarian's assistant at Chelsea Animal Clinic years ago in Tiny and Baby's kittenhood, predicting the blessing the Chelsea Grays would be upon us. Above, Tiny (foreground) and Baby await the magic words: "Want your suppers?"

"There is nothing quite like being a teenager outside at night in a forbidden place. Your mere presence is transgressive: an exaltation of adolescence," writes Nick Paumgarten in a totally awesome New Yorker article brought to our attention by the Tuckman himself, who happened to read the thing in a waiting room this afternoon. We would never dream of reading -- let alone subscribing to -- the New Yorker these days unless directed there by someone we trust, having given up the ghost to its all-too-PC editorial stance decades ago, but this one's got our let-freedom-ring juices flowing:

Regardless, midnight rambles can be magical -- giant elms casting strange shadows, the night playing tricks as you prowl the grounds or slip into the woods.The next morning, the head-master and some other administrators asked whether Deerfield could help him in any way. "Interesting you should ask," he replied. "I'm thinking of replicating Deerfield in Jordan. What do you think?"

"'Prep school': the phrase, taking its place next to 'country club' and 'trust fund,' curdles in the egalitarian mind," notes Paumgarten, who launches into an outsider's perception of the prep school as anything but:

New England boarding schools are often considered fortresses of exclusion, perpetuators of stratification and snobbery. In Abdullah's view, however, Deerfield was a diverse place. "It's that atmosphere that he wants to duplicate," Vella said. "Where race, color, and financial status don't matter." That's a funny thing to say about a prep school, but Abdullah felt that Deerfield's secular curriculum; its emphasis on critical thinking, camaraderie, tolerance, and sacrifice; and its commitment to the well-rounded boy (and, later, girl) were key elements in the creation of leaders -- especially those comfortable with the ways of the West, not least its college-admissions offices and its network of business and government grandees. Leaders, and therefore Deerfields, were what he felt his country and region needed.

Jordan, a creation of the British after the First World War, has no natural resources to speak of -- no oil or gas, and very little water. To survive, it must devise other ways of seeming indispensable. Traditionally, as a neighbor or claimant to disputed territories, it has employed diplomatic guile to attract support, and it has long cultivated an educated populace; its greatest asset may be its so-called "intellectual capital," its expatriates -- "the workforce in the Gulf, the doctors, the engineers, the airline pilots," as the King put it. He has made education and technology top priorities, and he intends King's Academy, as his Jordanian Deerfield facsimile came to be called, to be a showcase for both. It is scheduled to open in September, 2007.

"Where race, color, and financial status don't matter." That's where we have always lived, but Dr. Joy Bliss of Maggie's Farm asks most provocatively:

What if the part of human nature which wants paternalism, or maternalism, in the State is sometimes, or often, stronger than the part that wants freedom and self-determination?

An absolute must read, with lots of important links, including our own "What's wrong with the utopianist left world view." Perhaps projecting our own optimism re the potential within human nature to embrace life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, we fantasized the introduction of baseball to Iraq. You remember how the Japanese fell in love with America's national sport in the wake of their WW II defeat. Then, last week, Japan's super-star pitcher, Daisuke Matsuzaka, agreed to come to Boston. How about those Sox?

Update: And how about those animals? Steve's Friday Ark # 117 has 'em all, with and without backbones. The more exclusive Carnival of the Cats at House of Chaos has only felidae. Both are indispensable.

"Worse than evil is invisibility"

"Worse than evil is invisibility," writes Shelby Steele, putting his finger on what makes Islamofascist leaders like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad tick. Above at a press conference in Tehran last spring with a mural of his totemic animals --  "peace doves" -- projecting that "aura" he would later experience at the UN, the Iraqi President calls for the destruction of Israel as a "fake regime." (Kheirkhah photo)

"The dark achievement of bin Laden, Nasrallah and Ahmadinejad, names we know only because of their association to menace, is that they have used menace to make their people visible in the world, to bring them back into the scheme of history," writes Shelby Steele in an Opinion Journal essay, arguing that "America has gone to war not against Islam but against menace as a formula for power":

And yet the end of the Cold War has made these wars between the West and the Third World inevitable. When the world was clearly divided between the free West and the communist East, Third World countries could play the ingénue by offering their alignment to the most generous suitor. At the center of a market in alignment, they could extract financial support and enjoy a sense of importance.

But after the Cold War, these countries suddenly became crones without appeal or leverage in the West. And it was out of this sense of invisibility, this feeling of having fallen out of history, that certain Middle Eastern countries found a way to play the ingénue once again. They would not compete with or seduce the West; they would menace it.

Exactly the point we've been making here for years, with reference to Dr. Peter F. Rowbotham's 1992 essay "The importance of being noticed" [Full article available here -- scroll down]. As Rowbotham wrote:

We search for honor in favored venues and in chosen social institutions. We avoid those places and those social groupings which inhibit our search, which do not advance, and may even set back, our moral careers. As Harre (1980) has pointed out:

"Recent studies of adolescence have shown many young people to have an almost obsessive interest and preoccupation with the maintenance of dignity and the careful scanning of the social environment for occasions and acts of possible humiliation."

And as we commented in one of many posts on the subject:

In this context, the unorthodox bonding rituals of, for example, Hell's Angels and British soccer fans -- and now the deadly rituals of adolescent jihadi recruits -- may be seen as examples of a "system of honor that is an alternative to mainstream moral orders."

"And they are greatly loved for this," writes Steele of the princes of darkness who call us the Great Satan. "If their achievements follow from evil rather than from good, this is a small thing. Worse than evil is invisibility." As for the Great Satan himself, he asks rhetorically:

Could it be that our enemies are really paper tigers made formidable by our unceasing ambivalence? And could it be that the greater good is in both the idea and the reality of American victory?

Yes. And that is why, as Jedd Babbin wrote at Real Clear Politics yesterday, "Rumsfeld will be smiling when he takes his leave."

Vote daily now through December 15 for sisu in the 2006 Weblog Awards HERE!

Update: At the invitation of Jay of Stop the ACLU, we're linking and trackbacking to his Weekend Free For All. Jay's a top competitor for the same award we're campaigning for, "Best of the Top 250 Blogs" in the TTLB Blogosphere Ecosystem. Jay is a "Higher Being" at #7, while we are a "Large Mammal," #232 at the moment. But what the hey? We shamelessly headlined one of our recent posts "What Britney's Crotch Did To My Stats," after all, and the site meter is still soaring.  Ann Althouse linked to said post this morning, and now we're enjoying a pleasant Annalanche on top of the Crotchalanche. Be sure to check out Ann's fascinating discussion -- with graphic links -- of the vagina dentata.

Update II: The estimable Professor Bainbridge puts in a good word:

Sissy Willis' post of that title manages to be both thoughtful and funny, as well as offering links to some must read news and blog items.

Technorati tags: weblog awards, althouse, britney, spears, crotch

"I want another chiquita to go with me"

While human familiars focus on the evil that men do, Baby Cakes focusses on the noodle that Tuck dangles before him.

"Hey, let's go," emails sub rosa blogpal Miss Kelly, who, with Sol of Solomonia, lit a fire of late under the local media to go after some shady terrorist supporters in our midst here in the Greater Boston area. The Jewish Advocate explains:

Two Bostonians [that would be Miss Kelly and Sol] expanded the debate on immigration rights to the Web last week as they created an online petition in support of the recent arrests of local Muslim leaders. Imams Hafiz Muhammed Masood of the Islamic Center of New England in Sharon and Hafiz Abdul Hannan of the Islamic Society of Greater Lowell in Chelmsford, along with Masood’s 24-year-old son, Hassan, were released on bail from the Plymouth County House of Correction last Tuesday. The Pakistan natives were among 33 individuals taken into custody around the country as part of an ongoing investigation into a visa fraud scheme.

"The petition simply supports the ICE [Customs Enforcement] officials for doing their job and enforcing the law," notes Miss Kelly. "Naturally, we are accused of fostering Islamophobia."

This morning the Chelsea Grays were out on their tethers in the side yard before dawn. When we went out at one point to check on things, Tiny appeared to be eating something. As we drew close, we realized she had dispatched a tiny mouse and was about to wolf it down, tail first. It's nature's way, of course, but given our delicate sensibilities, we wrested the poor victim from the jaws and laid it to rest in the garbage container under the sink. Both Tiny and Baby rewarded us with Miss Moppet "where did the mouse go" looks.

Now the heroic Miss Kelly beckons us to leave our cozy nest and go forth tomorrow evening to bear witness at something called ". . . and Justice for All: New immigration laws and civil rights in America," brought to you by the Muslim American Society - Boston Chapter, who appear to have learned one thing big time about this great nation of ours: We are a litigious society. Would that they had learned a little more about the shining city upon a hill and a lot less about the suit-happy lawyer community down in the ditch. So it goes. Here's what we emailed Miss Kelly:

Oh, I couldn't. I'm the stay-at-home type. I will be with you in spirit . . . Is Sol going with you, I hope?

And her reply:

Maybe, but the men and women are separated, men upstairs and women and kids downstairs. So I want another chiquita to go with me.

Our reposte:

Wait a sec. Shouldn't the women and children be upstairs? What goes on here?

"Yes, at many mosques the women look down from a balcony, but not in Chelmsford," writes Miss K:

I went there once before.  It's actually very annoying downstairs, because the kids are running around, very loud, you can barely hear the speaker.

You just can't go anywhere these days.

Turkey's moment to shine

The photography (above) at CNN was superb, but the coverage of the early hours of Pope Benedict's historic visit to Turkey at EWTN soared above CNNs facile on-air coverage in terms of both historical context and objective assessment (natch). That pure white, double-breasted, floor-length camel-hair (?) overcoat is to die for.

Behold, I tell you a mystery . . .

We're watching today's events in Turkey unfold on EWTN (Evengelical Eternal World Television Network -- thanks for the correction, Ruth Anne) early morning here in Chelsea-by-the-Sea. Before switching channels, we checked in with Fox News and CNN, who were covering the Pope's historic visit to the predominantly Muslim country sporadically. CNNs on-the-scene correspondent summed up the MSMs grasp -- or non grasp -- of the gravity of the situation when she observed that had Papa Ratzi not made that memorably misread statement about Islam and violence at Regensburg last fall, no one would have been paying much attention. Little does she realize the irony of her words. Forgive them, Lord, for they know not what they do. Meanwhile, from EWTN, a rumor that Papa Ratzi has reversed his stand on Turkey's entry into the EU . . . What if it were so? Would that be the miracle to totally disarm the enemy? A little background about what Turkey wants, from Hugh Hope at the WSJ:

Rudyard Kipling's old saying that "East is East and West is West" -- or its modern incarnation, "the clash of civilizations" -- is not the right paradigm for Turkey, which feels increasingly confident as part of both. The West is now all over the East and the East is firmly camped in the West. Indeed, Turkey's republican founder Kemal Atatürk believed that the "East is East" idea was fostered by Western powers to justify clinging to power over their former colonial subjects.

You'd have to be better informed than the average American or else subscribe to Google's list for news about Pope Benedict XVI to know what we just learned this morning about those flag-waving Pope-haters that have been all over the MSM of late. Ever heard of Turkey's "Happiness party"? We hadn't, either:

The Happiness Party has no representation in the Turkish national legislature even though it has become a stronger force in Turkish politics in recent years. To that extant the visit of Pope Benedict could be seen as a litmus test for the party. If planned protests are not as popular - as their weekend demonstration - as had originally been hyped, that could be a sign that the population at large is rejecting the Happiness Party's radical platform, which in turn could be a positive sign for EU observers.

Interestingly, "Prime Minister Erdogan was once a member of the Happiness Party, but broke with it to form the currently ruling Justice and Development party." Given Turkey's westophilic history in the last period of time -- if accurately portrayed in that WSJ essay -- we'd say without knowing much beyond this morning's reading and listening/viewing that this is Turkey's moment to shine. You go, whirl.

Update: According to Reuters, "Pope Benedict backed Ankara's EU entry bid and said Islam was a religion of peace on Tuesday, according to Turkey's prime minister, in a bid to soothe rows over his views in the mostly Muslim state."

We still don't get this "religion of peace" shtick, but the EU entry-bid thing sounds promising.

Update II: The Anchoress reads poetry into our screenshot of Benedict XVI in his awesome, full-length white coat descending to Turkish soil after touchdown Thursday morning (above):

I am in love with this picture of Benedict disembarking from his plane, which Sissy Willis captured. He looks like The Man in White (even White Hair!) Come to Dodge City! I like the fact that the picture is a little fuzzy and the face is indistinct. I like the way it emphasizes that the man, Joseph Ratzinger, is not the focus here and not recognizable . . . all that is recognizable is “The Vicar of Christ.” Sissy also points out that Benedict is now encouraging Turkey’s admission into the EU, which -- like Sissy -- I think is a good thing and long overdue.

Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini.

"Though the cause of evil prosper . . ."

"Hi, guys. We're Piccolo and Fiona, John Paul II's bosom pigeons," goes the script of the Vatican's message of suffering and redemption embodied in a visually stunning Disneyesque animated life of Karol Józef Wojtyła available on DVD. Compare and contrast the Vatican's message to the younger generation with that of the Palestinians ["Seek death for Allah (Shahada)"]. Discuss.

"Though the cause of evil prosper, yet the truth alone is strong," goes James R. Lowell's "Once to Every Man and Nation," often quoted here. This morning two stories in the news exemplify -- one as beacon, the other as black hole -- the choice for all of us "’twixt that darkness and that light." First the beacon:

"They disagree on many points. But they also criticize those Muslims who want to impose, with violence, 'utopian dreams in which the end justifies the means,'” reports www.chiesa in "The Regensburg Effect: The Open Letter from 38 Muslims to the Pope":

One month after his lecture at the University of Regensburg, Benedict XVI received an “open letter” signed by 38 Muslim personalities from various countries and of different outlooks, which discusses point by point the views on Islam expressed by the pope in that lecture . . .

“We must state that the murder on September 17th of an innocent Catholic nun in Somalia -- and any other similar acts of wanton individual violence -- 'in reaction to' the lecture at the University of Regensburg, is completely un-Islamic, and we totally condemn such acts.”

The authors of the letter appreciate Benedict XVI’s desire for dialogue and take very seriously his theses. “Applaud” pope's “efforts to oppose the dominance of positivism and materialism in human life,” while contest him on other points, adding their reasons for their opposition.

Take that, ye of so little faith in the deep and abiding wisdom of this pope, those of our fellow citizens who dismissed the invitation to dialogue of his Regensburg lecture as the naive maunderings of a fool out of his depth.

"He inhabits an intellectually rigorous and emotionally rich world of faith and ritual we will never know," we wrote of Papa Ratzi during the cartoon wars last winter. Likewise the world of his predecessor, John Paul II, gorgeously portrayed in the animated version of his life now available on DVD.

Now the dark hole "In the strife of truth with falsehood, for the good or evil side" in the news today:

"With its Al Manar television station launched in 1991, the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah has pioneered the use of mass media as a weapon," write Mark Dubowitz and Jonathan Snow in today's Opinion Journal:

It uses the broadcaster to recruit suicide bombers, raise money for terrorist operations, conduct pre-attack surveillance and incite violence. This fall, the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas is poised to follow in Hezbollah's footsteps.

Until now, Hamas's Al Aqsa television has been broadcast only within the Gaza Strip. But this month it will begin satellite distribution via the Nilesat satellite, the Palestinian News Agency (Ramattan) reported in August. This would allow Hamas to spread its message of hatred across the Middle East, North Africa and most of Europe . . .

Children are specifically targeted. Hamas produces radio and television shows and publishes an online magazine geared at preteens. A recent issue of the magazine opens with a cartoon of a smiling child riding a rocket while the previous issue glorified suicide bombers and other "martyrs" in cartoons and poetry.

You've heard of cartoon wars, but now from the light side come two white doves (photo at top) with a message "intended to appeal particularly to children," created by animation producer and director Jose Luis Lopez-Guardia in collaboration with the Vatican Television Center:

A cartoon version of the life of Pope John Paul II, telling the story of his life and death in animated form, is to be released on DVD by the Vatican.

The film, subtitled The Friend of All Humanity, will be the first cartoon account of a Pope's life.

Producer Lope-Guardia wins our heart and mind with his rationale:

"There are two reasons why this film was so important for me -- it was a tribute to Pope John Paul, and also for my mother, who adored him," he said.

He said he chose a pair of pink-beaked doves, Piccolo and Fiona, to narrate the story as Pope John Paul II was so often photographed surrounded by them.

"His life story is so serious, grave and even sad that I needed some funny characters to appeal to children and to lighten the story," he explained.

Maybe it's time to go out and purchase a DVD player. We were totally smitten by the beauty of the trailer to the John Paul II cartoon.

"This one-of-a-kind production reveals the untold story and the human side of John Paul II . . . [who] was the driving force behind great social and political changes, and his papacy had far-reaching effects on the history of humanity," says the voiceover in the trailer at "The Friend of All Humanity" website. Beautiful stuff, highly recommended.

"The mirage towards which you are driving your people's sons"

To Osama's number two Ayman al-Zawahiri (right) -- blinded by his hatred of all things Western -- Pope Benedict is a "charlatan," while to Soumaya Ghannoushi (left) -- an aljazeera.net columnist "currently completing a doctorate thesis on the medieval origins of the Orientalist discourse" -- her vision distorted with postmodern fairy dust -- "The Pope's response to the anger his statements sparked in the Muslim world was more offensive than the statements themselves. He apologised not for what he said, but for Muslims' failure to grasp the intended meaning . . . Islam is still perceived as the other, the embodiment of evil."

"Why don't you tell them how many million citizens of America and its allies you intend to kill in search of the imaginary victory and in breathless pursuit of the mirage towards which you are driving your people's sons in order to increase your profits?" taunts the psychologically damaged Ayman al-Zawahiri, projecting his own demons onto the Leader of the Free World in a video posted yesterday on the internet and released by the Virginia-based IntelCenter. According to David Asman on FoxNews, Zawahiri's hysterical outburst kept the Dow from ending at an all-time high this afternoon. Darn. That would have been such a nice end-of-quarter thing, not to mention Neil Cavuto's promised graphics extravaganza when the all-time high does occur:

Aljazeera reports that Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda's number two, in a new video message has called US President George Bush a liar who had failed in his war against al-Qaeda.

Oooh. Ayman reads the New York Times. What a big boy. But one thing the angry old gynophobe missed that's telling. He speaks of "your people's sons" but not of our daughters. Like his hero Sayyid Qutb -- whom he called "the most prominent theoretician of the fundamentalist movements" -- Ayman has always had a woman problem (She made me do it, Lord). As we wrote a couple of years back:

Remarkable how the misogynist fantasies of a couple of dystopic guys like Mussa Sadr Al-Sadr and Ayman Zawahiri can infect entire generations of muslim youngsters in much the same way that Nazi and marxist ideologies infected everyday folk in the last century.

No question Ayman has a way with words:

Bush, O failure and liar, why don't you be courageous for once and confront your people and tell them the truth about your losses in Iraq and Afghanistan.

We guess that passes for tough talk in some circles. Nancy Pelosi, listen up. Predictably, Zawahiri has nothing good to say about the Holy Father -- the Pope who loves cats and Mozart -- either:

Al-Zawahiri also called Pope Benedict a "charlatan" because of his remarks on Islam.

"This charlatan accused Islam of being incompatible with rationality while forgetting that his own Christianity is unacceptable to a sensible mind."

Uh, huh. Same old same old. I'll kill you if you call me a killer. If you haven't already -- we know Ayman hasn't and never will as it might disrupt his self-affirming cognitive dissonance -- be sure to read Lee Harris's deeply satisfying take on what Papa Ratzi is really up to in his "Socrates or Muhammad?" at The Weekly Standard [via Miss Kelly]. Our awesome nephew/godson, a professor of philosophy whose first book -- Rousseau's Theory of Freedom -- we blogged here, comments on Harris's thesis:

I'm not sure what would be left of organized religion if its adherents seriously engaged in "self-critical examination of their own beliefs," but it's nice anyway to see the Pope coming out on the side of reason and argumentation. If the Pope is joining forces with the spirit of Socrates against fundamentalist Islam, then I guess it's true that my enemy's enemy is my friend.

Echoes of Oriana Fallaci's "If an atheist and a pope can think the same things, there must be something true." One final thought on the bottomless pit of Islamofascist hypersensitivity to perceived insults. There may be a light at the end of the Eurabian tunnel, and it may have something to do with Mozart. You probably heard the story about Berlin's Deutsche Opera company's decision the other day to preemptively deschedule Mozart's opera "Idomeneo," trendily staged -- to the disgust of at least one Mozart purist -- with the severed heads of Poseidon, Jesus, Buddha and you know who [pbuh] -- because of dhimmitudinous fears of Islamist reprisals. Now it turns out German opera lovers are just saying no:

Wolfgang Schäuble, interior minister and the country's top security official, said on Wednesday that 30 government and Muslim representatives, meeting in Berlin to launch a three-year dialogue forum, had "spoken out unanimously" that the opera should be performed as scheduled in November . . .

The support offered to the opera by the German-Islam Conference, the dialogue forum established on Wednesday and set to run for at least two years, showed that Muslim groups in Germany rejected extremism and supported artistic freedom, Mr Schäuble said.

We happened to surf into a performance of Mozart's "Mass in C Minor" -- "taped live at the Knight’s Hall in Wolfegg, Germany" -- in the wee hours on Eternal World Television Network (EWTN) this morning. It brought to mind William Congreve's oft-misquoted quotable quote:

Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast,
To soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak.

Is it true, as Darul Ifta of Ask the Imam says, that "music has been condemned strongly in the Qur'aan and Hadith"? Could that be the key to what's wrong with these people?

The American Hiroshima?

We may have been a little ahead of the curve, but here's how we captioned this photo in the spring of 2004 in our apocalyptic post "1099 and all that": "Crusaders surrounded by Saladin's army, October 2, 1187 (Second Crusade), etching by Gustave Dore (left) and 'Little Boy' mushroom cloud over Hiroshima, August 6, 1945."

"The IDEAL date for the Mother of All Terrorist Acts would be October 2," we blogged two years back:

Saladin recaptured Jerusalem on October 2, 1187, after 88 years of Crusader rule. The name Salah ad Din means "Light of the Faith," "Righteousness of the Faith" or "Weapon of the Faith," and through the ages Saladin has been an inspiration for Muslims in many respects.

Now comes Graham Allison in "The ongoing failure of imagination" at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists [via Milt's File], citing the final report of the 9/11 Commission and admonishing us that "the major conclusion of [the Commission] deserves repetition. The principal failure to act to prevent the September 11 attack was a 'failure of imagination'":

A similar failure of imagination leads many today to discount the risk of a nuclear 9/11 . . .

The negative economic repercussions would reverberate well beyond the developed world. As U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has warned, "Were a nuclear terrorist attack to occur, it would cause not only widespread death and destruction, but would stagger the world economy and thrust tens of millions of people into dire poverty."

How does one assess the probability of an unprecedented event that could have catastrophic consequences? Since there is no established methodology, the soundest way to proceed is to ask and answer the core questions: who, what, where, when, and how?

We'll take a quick look at the answer to the first of Allison's questions -- "Who could be planning a nuclear terrorist attack?" -- and then urge you to read the whole thing and move on [gak, that phrase] to "1099 and all that":

Al Qaeda remains a formidable enemy with clear nuclear ambitions. In 1998, Osama bin Laden declared that he considered obtaining weapons of mass destruction "a religious duty." According to the final report of the 9/11 Commission, "Al Qaeda has tried to acquire or make nuclear weapons for at least 10 years . . . and continues to pursue its strategic goal of obtaining a nuclear capability."

"Just because Osama is paranoid doesn't mean the infidel isn't out to get him," we captioned our Photoshopped image of the bearded wonder (above) two years back, when we predicted October 2 as the date for the next mega attack on our shores from the followers of the Religion of Peace.™

Now on to the conspiracy theory du jour [via Beth of My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy]:

Urgent news from Abu Dawood, the newly appointed commander of the al Qaeda forces in Afghanistan:

* Final preparations have been made for the American Hiroshima, a major attack on the U. S.

* Muslims living in the United States should leave the country without further warning.

* The attack will be commandeered by Adnan el Shukrijumah (“Jaffer Tayyer” or “Jafer the Pilot”), a naturalized American citizen, who was raised in Brooklyn and educated in southern Florida.

And from Gateway Pundit:

From Pakistan comes news that Adnan G. El Shukrijumah has successfully smuggled nuclear material across the US and is planning an attack on the United States during the holy month of Ramadan which begins on September 24th.

"Mir also said that bin Laden has assigned a man named Adnan Al-Shukri Juma (above photo) to carry out a new attack within the US which is intended to be larger than the 11 September, 2001 attacks," according to adnkronosinternational [via clarity & resolve, via My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy]. "According to Mir, Adnan Jumaa has smuggled explosives and nuclear materials into the US through the Mexican border over the last two years and is hiding somewhere in America where the FBI has not been able to locate him."

There's even a Chelsea connection:

Boston Street Gang M-13 Cited as "true terror threat" linked to Al Qaeda & Adnan Shukrijumah -- Street gangs helping to smuggle terrorists from Mexico into the US . . .

One of the two men, Elmer "Tiger" Tejada, 24, who had been deported after being convicted of a slew of crimes, including attempted murder charges for hurling a machete at Chelsea cops, was busted in Lynn on New Year's Day. Tejada is described as "an original MS-13 member" from East Boston, sources said.

Proxy wars, anyone?