IS IT JUST ME ....

Sheikh "Rashid Ahmad

Reuters is reporting from Islamabad that the Pakistani government remains unhappy with Newsweek.  Well, don't feel pregnant, Pakistan.  But Pakistani Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad pushes things just a bit with his statement that we need to work harder at understanding the sensitivities of the Islamic people.  He says "The apology and retraction are not enough.  "They (Newsweek) should understand the sentiments of Muslims and think 101 times before publishing news which hurt feelings of Muslims."

Sorry, pal.  I'm not buying it.  I getting just a bit beyond the point where I'm all bent out of shape trying to understand Islamic sensitivities.  If there is something about your religion that should make me feel badly about poor Muslims getting their feelings hurt, you had better get it out there on the table now.  All I see is a religion that seems to take great pleasure in passing condemnations and "death sentences" on various people around the world for all sorts of meaningless infractions of some great system of Islamic law. 

I'm just not going to get all worked up worrying about the sensitivities of devotees of a religion that will stone a woman to death for adultery, while letting the man go unpunished.

Sensitivity would not be the word to describe how I feel about a religion that is in some way involved in more than 95% of the actual shooting conflicts and wars around the world.

Muslims shoot school children in the back!  Remember Chechnya?  They brag about bombs in schools in Israel!  Tell me again about how I need to be sensitive?

The daughter of a devout Muslim gets violently raped.  The devout Muslim takes a knife and, in front of the entire family, cuts his daughter's throat because she has dishonored her family .... by being a rape victim.  Yeah, sport.  Let me just pour out my sensitivities to this practitioner of the religion of peace.

There's a school on fire outside Riyadh.  It's a girls school.  The girls are trying to escape!  But wait!  Their faces aren't covered!  It's the Islamic defenders of the faith to the rescue!  They block the doors to keep the young Muslim girls from escaping ... from a burning building.  The dignity of the great and wonderful religion of peace must be protected, even if young women burn to death!  Yeah ... my respect for your sensitivities is on the way.

Those insurgents who are killing innocent civilians in Iraq?  The suicide bombers in their cars and trucks?  Haven't you heard?  Most of them are from Saudi Arabia.  They're crossing borders to kill innocent women and children because they don't like the idea of people being able to chose those who will rule them.  I'm feeling so sensitive to that. 

Tell you what:  When you stop killing your own daughters; when you stop trying to lock young girls into burning buildings; when you eschew shooting school children in the back; and when I can look in a newspaper and read that Muslims are NOT involved in one way or another in revolts, insurrections and hot wars around the world --- and when you're not working so hard to kill American civilians --- and when you start to show some tolerance and respect for the world's other religions .. then maybe I'll feel a bit more worm and fuzzy toward your incredible religion of peace.

AND CONDI GETS IT WRONG

Secretary of State Condi Rice had something to say about those false reports of desecration of the Koran.  Rice says "Disrespect for the holy Koran is something the United States will never tolerate." 

Sorry, Madame Secretary, but there is something a bit unnerving about your statement.  If the violent world that is the Islamic religion is, in fact, based on the words of the Koran, than disrespect has been duly earned.  We enjoy freedoms in this country, and that includes the freedom to "disrespect," as you put it, the Islamic religion and it's holy book.

Oh, and on this burning issue of disrespect for the Koran.  Here's something I lifted from James Taranto's Best of the Web column from yesterday:

In fairness to Rice, she presumably was referring to government policy, not the actions or opinions of private individuals. Still, by way of comparison, recall that three years ago Palestinian Arab terrorists occupied the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Priests reported that "gunmen tore up Bibles for toilet paper," according to the Daily Camera of Boulder, Colo. The Chicago Tribune noted after the siege that "altars had been turned into cooking and eating tables, a sacrilege to the religious faithful."

Christians in the U.S. responded by declining to riot and refraining from killing anyone. They had the same response 15 or so years ago when the National Endowment for the Arts was subsidizing the scatological desecration of a crucifix and other Christian symbols. This should also put to rest the oft-heard calumny that America's "religious right" is somehow a Christian equivalent of our jihadi enemies.

Well said, Mr. T.

MEANWHILE ... BACK WITH THE POOR, POOR PITIFUL "PALESTINIANS"

Last night Fox News had a quote from some Palestinian cleric.  Sorry, can't remember his name.  Sheikh Abba Dabba Do, or something like that.  Sheikh Ibrahim Mudairis, the peace-loving sheikh says that "The Jews are the cancer spreading all over the world...the Jews are a virus like AIDS hitting human kind...Jews are responsible for all wars and conflicts....Do not ask what Germany did to the Jews but what the Jews did to Germany. Through the Zionist movement the Jews incited many nations to start economic war against Germany and boycotted it...True, the Germans killed and burnt Jews but the Jews exaggerate the numbers to gain propaganda advantages and sympathy..."  OK friends, all together now ... let's engage in one mass expression of all the sensitivity we feel for Sheikh Mudairis. 

GALLOWAY TRIES TO CHANGE THE SUBJECT

George Galloway

ABU GHRAIB

The "abuse" which took place at Abu Ghraib is almost two years old.  Yet, it still persists in the headlines.  George Galloway mentioned it yesterday in his testimony in front of the Senate.   A reservist just got 6 months in prison for her role in the scandal.  Will the story now go away?

Of course not.  The media has decided that the Abu Ghraib prison scandal must always remain on the agenda for the entire rest of the Bush administration.  Mentions of Abu Ghraib must be worked into every major news story, as they were when Ronald Reagan passed away last year and when the Pope died.  All Abu Ghraib, all the time.

The Abu Ghraib whistleblower just received the John F. Kennedy Profile In Courage award the other day.  This resulted in even more Abu Ghraib coverage.  In the future, if you pay close attention to the mainstream media, you'll see them work mentions of the "notorious" Baghdad prison into their daily discourse.

Remember the template...anything that embarrasses the Military, the United States or the Bush Administration must be reported as often as possible, and Abu Ghraib is no exception.
 

THE "HATE AMERICA" ATMOSPHERE AT THE CANNES FILM FESTIVAL

Yup, that seems to be the story coming from France.  The big stories about the films that slam America; films that paint America as the source of all troubles and problems in the world.  They're even claiming that the newest Star Wars movie contains anti-American messages.

Remember, please, some recent polls of European opinion.  By overwhelming margins Europeans want a weaker United States.  They see their new European Union as the next great world economic, social and perhaps military superpower.  This is a dream that cannot be realized so long as America remains strong.  This might be why so many Europeans get so upset when America shows strength while their own countries show weakness.  Consider also the European welfare state.  Americans continue to enjoy a better standard of living than Europeans, even poor Americans.  The average American classified by our government as "living in poverty" enjoys a standard of living equal to that of the average European ... not the average poor European, the average European.  This just should not be!  Not with the grand and exalted European welfare society!  When you believe that you have the corner on compassion and goodness, yet the other guy still wins .. it's going to build resentment.  You're seeing much of that resentment in Cannes.

THE SHOWDOWN BEGINS TODAY

Yup .. .the showdown on filibusters.  Pricilla Owens will be first out of the gate.  The Democrats will filibuster.  Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid says that the idea that a majority vote should be enough to confirm a judicial nominee is a "power grab."  You know, somehow I think that an effort of a minority to stop a confirmation is more of a power grab than is a plan to just let the vote happen and the majority carry the day.  At any rate, starting today we find out whether or not the Republicans in the Senate have any stones.  My guess is that the Democrats will win this one, and the power will shift.

REDNECK SCRAP BOOK

Even rednecks need to shop...off to the strip mall! View the rest of the redneck scrap book.

READING ASSIGNMENTS

Here's government education at work.  More than 150 student body presidents from college campuses around the country have signed a petition against any private Social Security accounts.  Please, God, tell me that these are not the leaders of tomorrow. 

Here's a transcript of yesterday's press briefing with Scott McClellan, featuring his tussle with a Bush-bashing leftist reporter.

Newsweek is not the only media outlet bashing the Military...Michelle Malkin says the entire media is doing it.  But these days, we have the Internet to refute the lies.

The bad news continues this week for Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean. This time he's being attacked by Al Sharpton, who complains that blacks are being excluded.

Newsweek is now in the same boat that CBS News was after they aired the forged Bush National Guard documents.  Their Bush-bashing liberal bias has them in trouble. Only this time, people died. Barrett Kalellis has more.

How many other times has Newsweek run poorly sourced stories that criticize the Bush administration?  Rich Lowry says too many to count, but this latest error is telling.

The mainstream media is defending the Newsweek debacle with all they've got, and that includes reporters who insist the original story is really true.  The Media Research Center reports.

At least Dan Rather's phony reporting on Bush's National Guard service didn't get anybody killed.  Thomas Sowell says what is even more appalling is how the mainstream media is circling the wagons around Newsweek.

The parallels between Rathergate and the Newsweek reporting are so striking, it bears a closer examination.  Brent Bozell breaks down the biased reporting of the two.

Walter E. Williams details a new scam by which the Gimme Generation rips off the system.  The latest?  Protecting your assets should you require nursing home care.

President Bush's trade bill promoting free trade with Central America (also known as CAFTA) is about to be defeated in Congress.  Tony Blankley says protectionism is starting to creep back in.

A new book explores why women have orgasms.

Morning Sickness: Pit bulls and goats are not appropriate playmates.

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