sisu

All about me

"In Shi'ite Islam, Muslim males can take temporary wives for periods ranging from a few hours to several decades," writes Robert Spencer of Dhimmi Watch. Isn't that special?

In Iran, Khadijeh Shahla Jahed, the temporary wife of soccer star Nasser Mohammad Khani, is likely to be executed for murdering Khani's wife, Laleh Saharkhizan. This Telegraph story (thanks to jonascot) calls Khadija the "mistress" of Nasser, but way down in the story we discover that that is not quite what she was.

Temporary wife? That's right. In Islam Unveiled I discuss this phenomenon, which Shi'ites defend as founded upon the Qur'an and a command of Muhammad. Iranian men can enter into marriage with women for a specified period: a week, a month, or just a weekend or a single night. "Temporary wives" proliferate in holy cities where lonely seminarians congregate.

As we've wondered recently here and here about Western moral relativists, how can these men live with themselves? Also, why are women so stupid?

Update: "It's being seen as completely confessional, totally honest, the whole story," Ms. Hendra said. "It's not the whole story. By not saying anything, I felt I was being complicit in it. This book is an erasing of what happened to me. I want people to understand these things don't go away."

In the new best-selling book Father Joe, Tony Hendra recounts his 40-year friendship with a wise Benedictine monk whom he credits with salvaging his soul and enabling him to accept God's love. Throughout the book Mr. Hendra, a noted satirist, appears unstinting in his contrition, exhuming his recurrent failings as a husband and father and his wayward indulgences in alcohol and drugs.

But when Jessica Hendra, his 39-year-old daughter from his first marriage, read the book recently, her reaction was stunned anger. Unmentioned in the narrative, she said, is the far darker story of how her father sexually molested her when she was a child and consistently discounted the devastating effect on her.

Once again, how can these men live with themselves? When you think of these gals that are used as props in the men's fantasies and then discarded, you have to wonder. These are not honorable men.

Talking down to a head of state goeth before a fall

Re that condescending Brokaw interview with Iraq's new Prime Minister Iyad Allawi (a "standup guy" in GW's book), who told the scandalized chronicler of "The Greatest Generation" that Saddam's reign provided a "natural partner" to terrorism (previous post), Charles Johnson's post about the story -- "The Media Are the Enemy" -- has brought forth 223 lizardoid (reader) comments so far. Lots of fun to read, especially having just come off Andrew Sullivan's link to KoolAid-drinking New York Times' readers' all-five-stars-all-the-time "reviews" of "Fahrenheit 9/11". If you have time for only one lizardoid comment, this would be it, from XenoLlama:

Urge. To. Not. Ever. Watch. NBC. Again. Rising.

Wait. Already done that. Still, is it just me or was Brokeall talking down to a head of state? A shame it wasnt Saddam still . . . he'd be lucky to get out of there alive.

Update: Also fell head over heels for this lizardoid comment from Patrick:

Wha wha whatttt? But Mikey Moore said there's no connection between Saddam and terrorists! He promised! I waaaaant my money back.

Telling it like it is

"The sacrifices your sons and daughters made for our liberation will never be forgotten," full-page Iraqi-America Freedom Alliance ad in USA Today

The fledgling Iraqi-America Freedom Alliance is a project of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies in partnership with fifteen Iraqi and American organizations. Its mission statement:

IAFA is coalition of Americans and Iraqis committed to fostering goodwill between our nations and winning the war on terror. IAFA will provide Americans a fuller picture of Iraq and give voice to some of the many Iraqis grateful for their newfound freedom.

Their website is a clearinghouse for stories, opinions, facts and figures mostly overlooked or sidelined by a mainstream media whose narrative for Iraq has been unrelentingly negative. Before lending them our support, we checked out their parent organization, Defense of Democracies and liked what we found, from the top down:

Steve Forbes, Jack Kemp and Dr. Jeane J. Kirkpatrick make up the Board, and advisors run the political spectrum from Gore's former Campaign Manager Donna Brazile, through DINO Sen. Zell Miller to one of our favorite voices from the right, pundit Charles Krauthammer. Foundation president is Clifford D. May, former RNC Director of Communications for the Republican National Committee, and Wall Street Journal contributor Claudia Rosett is a fellow. Check out the full roster here.

"The IAFA plans to spur goodwill exchanges between Iraq and the US and currently sponsors the speaking tour of the seven men who received prosthetic replacements for the hands chopped off during Saddam's reign of terror," notes Ed of Captain's Quarters, where we found this item.

And speaking of that above-mentioned mainstream media whose narrative for Iraq has been unrelentingly negative, Captain Ed is taking no prisoners. Where the real story of Iraq is concerned, Emperor Tom (Brokaw) is wearing no clothes. Ed quotes from a Brokaw interview with the new Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, who told him that Saddam's reign provided a "natural partner" to terrorism:

Brokaw: Prime minister, I’m surprised that you would make the connection between 9/11 and the war in Iraq. The 9/11 commission in America says there is no evidence of a collaborative relationship between Saddam Hussein and those terrorists of al-Qaida.

Allawi: No. I believe very strongly that Saddam had relations with al-Qaida. And these relations started in Sudan.

Jolly good, old sport!

Just stumbled onto this fab photo sequence we had missed over at Michael King's Ramblings' Journal.

Compare GW's note from Condi, with his handwritten "Let Freedom reign!" (scroll down), with Allah's version of Kerry's response to a similar note from Terry McAuliffe.

[via Jason's BLOG]

Tell it to the marines

"A short list of those for whom successful Iraqi sovereignty is not such good news would include: the radical Islamist world, terrorists, al-Qaida, Michael Moore, George Soros, John F. Kerry, moveon.org and the Democratic Party," writes Kathleen Parker at Townhall:

Bush overthrew a brutal dictatorship; arrested and detained Saddam Hussein, soon to be handed over to Iraqi courts; killed the tyrant's murderous sons; restored or invented infrastructure while safeguarding Iraq's oil wells; and created and installed a new provisional government in just over a year following 13 chaotic months of insurgent attacks, with little international support and daily assaults by the media and the far left, while apparently preventing new terror attacks on American soil.

But he's got to go. Why? Well, because he's a Republican.

Oh, and for that short list, Kathleen, don't forget the Times and the Post and their red-state devotees, as Marine Corps Reservist Eric M. Johnson explains:

Iraq veterans often say they are confused by American news coverage, because their experience differs so greatly from what journalists report. Soldiers and Marines point to the slow, steady progress in almost all areas of Iraqi life and wonder why they don’t get much notice -- or in many cases, any notice at all.

Part of the explanation is Rajiv Chandrasekaran, the Baghdad bureau chief for the . He spent most of his career on the metro and technology beats, and has only four years of foreign reporting, two of which are in Iraq. The 31-year-old now runs a news operation that can literally change the world, heading a bureau that is the source for much of the news out of Iraq.

The Post's reporting is delivered intravenously into the bloodstream of Official Washington, and thus a front-page article out of Iraq can have major repercussions in policy-making.

This effect is magnified because of the Post's influence on what other news organizations report. While its national clout lags behind the New York Times, many reporters look to the Post for cues on how to approach a story. The Post interprets events, and the herd of independent minds bleat their approval and start tapping on their keyboards with their hooves.

Chandrasekaran's crew generates a relentlessly negative stream of articles from Iraq -- and if there are no events to report, they resort to man-on-the-street interviews and cobble together a story from that.

[via Lucianne]

"That's more dignified"

"I'm so glad no one tried to 'outreach' me," writes La Shawn Barber re "The King's" latest TV appearance (darn, we missed it):

My main man Michael King's on "Hannity & Colmes" live! The topic is lack of "diversity" in the Kerry campaign and lack of outreach to blacks by Republicans. Whatever. I came to political conservatism on my own. I suggest Republicans not go after blacks as a group, but appeal to them as individuals. That's more dignified.

Amen.

The loss of "a couple of large skyscrapers"

"Had things been different, she is the kind of woman who might be one of my best friends. Instead, I'm dating her husband," writes Right Thinking Girl in what one of her readers, Kitty Litter, dubs "A Two Hanky Read":

The fight against terrorism isn't just happening in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other parts of the world. It's still happening here at home, in places like Virginia and New York City. It's being waged in the 3,000 families who aren't finished grieving over their loved ones and who will never be finished grieving. It's being waged every time a wife wakes up to the crying baby who will never know his father, and every time a man wakes up in a cold sweat dreaming that his wife jumped to avoid being burned alive. The war on terror isn't some make believe idea. It's real. And I say this as somebody who knows firsthand just how real it is.

Yes. We're tearing up, too, and you should go and -- as they say -- read the whole thing. Thanks to Rob A of Fine? Why Fine? for posting about it as a response to the soul-deaf spoutings of Aussie columnist Phillip Adams, who mocks George Bush and America for overreacting to the loss of "a couple of large skyscrapers."

Keep your gin up

"If there were facts to debate I'd be happy to oblige . . . until 'Feed my Maw' Moore uses an actual fact in his 'fatumentaries.' I'll stick to poking fun at his waddles and waddles of liberated chins," writes Moxie:

In case you were wondering, it's still okay to make fat jokes. I mean the Moore himself called Americans stupid. These same stupid Americans paid well-earned cash to see his tripe (and oh-lord the economy is SO bad that they haven't eaten for weeks but have the dough to see fatty's mockumentary). Some ignorant intellectuals call it a film or documentary. But those people are French.

His ignorance goes well with a dirty ketel one martini. With four olives. One for each roll of fat around his left ankle.

We'll drink to that (Beefeater, straight up with an olive).

Two for the price of one!

"You can get your Marc Jacobs designer tee shirt at Friends of Hillary for only a $555 contribution, plus tax. And, each shirt comes with a specially-produced 'I  Hillary' tag sewn inside."

Order forms are now up at Senator Hillary's re-election account website, Friends of Hillary, and you get two for the price of one! Hillary's latest words of wisdom on the front, her husband -- you remember -- Bill's off-white words on the back:

Marc Jacobs -- top international clothing designer and proud New Yorker -- has designed a special edition "Hillary Pinko Tee" expressing her own "pretty-in-pink" tax-and-spend philosophy exclusively for the Senator and her friends!

"If ever there was a sound bite the Republicans could add to their Kerry 'voted for it before I voted against it,' 'not my SUV, it's the family's,' 'ribbons, not medals' repertoire, this is it, comments soundfury re the junior New York Senator's latest soundbite:

Headlining an appearance with other Democratic women senators on behalf of Sen. Barbara Boxer, who is up for re-election this year, Hillary Clinton told several hundred supporters -- some of whom had ponied up as much as $10,000 to attend -- to expect to lose some of the tax cuts passed by President Bush if Democrats win the White House and control of Congress.

"Many of you are well enough off that ... the tax cuts may have helped you," Sen. Clinton said. "We're saying that for America to get back on track, we're probably going to cut that short and not give it to you. We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good."

It's just the latest in Hillary's 24/7 Pink Offensive.  We guess it depends upon what your definition of "the common good" is.

[via InstaPundit]

Men who want crops without plowing up the ground

Stopped in our tracks by this awesome quotation posted by Cry Freedom (found him in our Site Meter stats):

The whole history of the progress of human liberty shows that all concessions yet made to her august claims have been born of earnest struggle. If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters

Frederick Douglass (1818-1895)

We've never before heard a more eloquent argument against welfare.