Morning Report: February 10, 2006

Iranian solidarity demo in DC. Via Doctor Zin, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions calls for solidarity with the striking bus drivers in Tehran, Iran: 'ICFTU Department of Trade Union Rights joined the global labor movement in calling for the release of more than 500 Iranian bus drivers and invited members of the Iranian-American community in Washington DC to join the AFL-CIO, the Solidarity Center and the DC Metro Labor Council in a solidarity demonstration with striking bus drivers in Iran, February 15, 2006.' (Doctor Zin)

Journalists as citizens. Armed Liberal at Winds of Change has a fascinating post on the roles of journalists, citizens, and those (like Michael Yon) who cross over the boundaries. (Winds of Change)

Southeast Asian officials: terrorist backed out of West Coast plot. Sean Young at AP, via Yahoo, reports: 'A Malaysian recruited by al-Qaida to pilot a plane in a second wave of Sept. 11-style attacks on the United States pulled out after observing the carnage of the 2001 assaults, Southeast Asian officials said Friday. ... The plan never appeared close to the stage where it could be put into execution. Scores of arrests in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks severely curtailed al-Qaida and its Southeast Asian affiliate, Jemaah Islamiyah.' Full article at the link. (AP)

news
February 11, 2006
terrorism

Cinnamon Stillwell on Danish Cartoons - and More

Cinnamon Stillwell (originally of ChronWatch fame, now writing from the belly of the beast) has an outstanding column on the Denmark cartoon affair. Go to the link to read it, but here's a splendid quote:

How did this double standard arise? The answer is multiculturalism. Not the multiculturalism of different cultures living side by side, but the ideology that renders all cultures equal and therefore none worthy of condemnation. Such moral equivalence allows for the most backward traditions to flourish, even when they are destructive to the society as a whole. When democratic societies find themselves dominated by intolerant cultures to which they have given sanctuary, everyone's freedom is put at risk.

Multiculturalism also has the effect of erasing any unifying culture or nationality in favor of a collection of balkanized groups with nothing in common. ...

Go read it all.
Denmark
cartoons
Cinnamon Stillwell

BBC Admits Misinforming Public

Can you stand one more post on those damn cartoons? I know, I'm sick of this business already, too. But look, it's The Belmont Club we're talking here.

So to begin with, the BBC admitted (scroll to bottom) that it was "caught out" by a picture of a pig alleged to be one of the cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed, and "for a time showed film of this in Gaza ..."

In Gaza?!?

Now here's Wretchard:

This is going to rank right up there with the fake Koran-flushing story which got people killed in Afghanistan. No one has a right to expect perfection from the media. Like intelligence agencies, which they resemble in some respects, the media sometimes gets things wrong. But I'd argue that some publications have a dangerous tendency to believe stories like "right-wing Danish publication portrays Mohammed as pig" because they want to believe it. This phenomenon is called bias and bias is dangerous not because it predisposes one to a wrong set of opinions but to the wrong set of facts.

Ironically, if the BBC had published the cartoons it would inevitably have discovered that the pig picture was not part of the Jyllands-Posten cartoon set. But instead of presenting the dry facts it substituted hearsay and for days the world was inflamed over a set of images described only at second-hand; wrongly described at that and imagining the worst about what were actually a very mild set of drawings. This violent debate occurred precisely because organizations like the BBC, whose job it was to present the facts, failed signally in their duty.

Emphasis in original. Go read the rest at the link.

Michael Totten: Good Press for Lebanon Goes Down the Tubes

Michael Totten has some first-hand observations about Lebanon:

I will say, however, that I am extremely dismayed by the despicable behavior of the Lebanese mob that rampaged in one of Beirut's finest neighborhoods over a freakin' cartoon published months ago in a Danish newspaper.

My mother took one look at that Achrafieh neighborhood and said "This could be San Franscisco" when she visited me in November.

"Don't be fooled by that," I told her. At the time I worried my response might have been unfair to Lebanon, but apparently that wasn't the case. It should be noted, however, that the people who live in that neighborhood had nothing to do with this. Most of today's mobsters don't even live in the city at all. They appear to be poorly educated reactionaries bussed in from Tripoli and Hezbollahland.

Beirut, once again, looks like yet another Middle Eastern Fallujah. It isn't, but the photos...these are not pretty to look at. All the good press I have been giving this country for the past year was destroyed today by goons who would surely be happier living in Saudi or Syria.

Read it all at the post, and don't forget to bookmark Michael J. Totten's Middle East Journal.


cartoons
riots
Lebanon

Those cartoons, etc.

It should be blindingly obvious to all concerned, at this point, that all the craziness about the Mohammed cartoons has nothing to do with cartoons and everything to do with the regimes in Syria and Iran trying desperately to get out of the richly deserved ass-kicking they know is coming their way. Personally I think we will be at war with both Iran and Syria before the end of March. I guess we'll have to wait and find out if I'm right or wrong.

An American Hero

Via Winds of Change:

This is a slide show that shows a Lakota Sioux wake and ceremony for a Marine that was killed in Iraq. It shows you the integration of 2 cultures and the specific Sioux culture. Native Americans have the highest per capita service than any other ethnic group. We are only less than 1% of the total US population.

Native Americans do not typically allow photography at traditional ceremonial events; this is why I am sending this to you. You may never be able to see this again.

There are a couple photos with Cpl. Brett Lundstrom’s body in the coffin, so please review before you show any one else.

Rocky Mountain Daily News: Cpl. Brett Lundstrom, USMC

Roundup: Denmark, Mohammed cartoons, and Muslim riots

Okay, with a little bit of luck I'll be able to get through this without my Rock-Solid Operating System (TM) giving me another spinning beachball or unexpected quit. Grrrr. (When is Vista coming out?)

City of Brass gets out the soapbox with this magnificent post: There is no insult to Islam.

"Islam is infinite. They can burn the Qur'an, or insult the Prophet SAW, or outlaw the hijab. But they can never erase the delicate calligraphy of Deen upon the muslim's soul. Our religion is infinitely greater than the sum of their scorn, and as such we have no opinion on their insults as they matter, in the end, not even the tinest whit."

INDC Journal: Those Mohammed Cartoons

The right is full of people that like to boil down the complexities of the war against Islamic radicalism into a much simpler fight than it is, paradoxically agitating for a war of civilizations by continually maligning an entire religion, while ostensibly claiming support for neoconservative policies that attempt to strategically diminish Islamic radicalism by democratizing the larger Muslim world, effectively turning them against the radicals in their midst. Which is why, whenever Islamic radicalism raises its ugly head, you get several hundred right-wing pundits mocking President Bush's description of Islam as a "religion of peace" in the headlines of their blog posts, like a pack of chortling magpies apparently unable to recognize that it is not in our nation's or President's interest to attack an entire religion of a billion people, but rather quite the opposite, in service of the strategic foreign policy aim of ushering the greater Islamic world into a pluralistic 21st Century. Talk the walk, and all.

Red State: On Cartoons and Conservatives

This could have been what some people call 'a teachable moment,' in fact, were it not for the perplexing responses by the American right, even from usually-reliable conservatives. People like Michelle Malkin, who can usally be counted on to expect a certain amount of dignity and respect in our culture, are waving around the cartoons like they're wonderful things to see, while not showing much recognition of how hateful they really are. She's not alone, either. I just single her out because I read her site every day.

I understand the logic, and the reasons, for this 'blogburst,' but I think the enthusiasm is misplaced. We can celebrate freedom without holding up the worst of it as an example. We can even go farther than that, and condemn trash when we see it, while we mutter to ourselves that tolerating it is the price of freedom.

We can show solidarity with the Danes, in support for western values, without endorsing and integrating the 'art' at issue. These cheap scribbles, drawn up by a smirking 'artist' for the shock value, aren't worth the paper they were printed on. I think it'd do us more good if we remembered that in discussing this issue.

As appealing as it is, we can't fall into the trap of supporting the enemy of our enemy. The fact that the radical Islamists don't like these cartoons, doesn't imply that these cartoons are something that should be celebrated. If we want to celebrate somebody, how about paying tribute to Theo Van Gogh and Hirsi Ali, for making more honest portrayals of the worst of Islam, without slamming the whole, varied Islamic tradition in the process?

Hugh Hewitt: A Decent Respect for the Opinions of Humankind

The cartoons were in bad taste, an unnecessary affront to many of the 1.3 billion Muslims in the world, just as Joel Stein affronted the military, the families and friends of the military, and as Toles did the same to the wounded, and their families, friends and admirers. Of course each of them had the absolute right to publish their screed, and the Danish (and now Norwegian) governments must reply to demands that these papers be punished with a steely refusal to be dictated to as to their culture of free expression and the protection of the vulgar and the stupid.

But don't cheer the vulgar and the stupid.

There are hundreds of thousands of American troops deployed in Iraq, Afghanistan and across the globe among Muslim peoples who they are trying to befriend. The jihadists like nothing more than evidence that these troops represent a West intent on a new crusade and a new domination of Muslims. Idiot cartoonists make our troops' jobs more difficult, and the jihadists' mission easier.

Aziz at Dean's World: Jesus H. Christ!

I have many observations on it, but the only two that really matters are 1. that people are free to do what they want, and 2. actions have consequences. What few commentators on the topic seem to appreciate is how these two facts form a feedback loop.

You can print, say, or draw whatever you want. Just don't be surprised when - and let's frankly admit this - the people you are deliberately trying to provoke conclude that you're a complete jafi. A jafi, whose soaring rhetoric about freedom and respect for Islam and the sacredness of the cause to bring liberty to the middle east as a grand antidote for tyranny and oppression, just came off looking a lot less sincere. A lot less.

Go to the links, all of them, for the complete posts.

Mohammed cartoons
Denmark
cartoons
Islam

Viking Observer

Dreams Into Lightning welcomes the too-long-overlooked Viking Observer to the blogroll. Go visit VO's main page for the latest on the Danish Mohammed cartoon controversy ... and please bear this post in mind as you scroll down past some of the right-wing cartoons.

Viking Observer
Denmark
cartoons
Islam

Buy Danish!

Fighting my way through the blur of a Carlsberg-induced hangover, I've got to put in a few words for the "Buy Danish" movement. History News Network has some ideas:

Danish Havarti cheese

Carlsberg and Tuborg Beers.

Arla owns White Clover Dairy, a Wisconsin company so buy that brand. It comes under White Clover and Holland Farm.

Danish Crown hams ( DAK (sold at Sam clubs)... baby back ribs, because they come from Denmark.

You shop online at The Danish Foodshop and Danish Deli Foods.

You can also buy gorgious Danish porcelain and LEGO for the kids.

Go to the link for more details and more links. Denmark has refused to apologize for the cartoons, and that's as it should be.

UPDATE: Please see Comments for more ideas. And of course, go to the link.

buy danish

Great Danes

Especially in light of this earlier post, it's only fair that I take note of the great courage shown by both the government of Denmark and the Danish people in the face of intimidation from radical islamists.

For starters, buy Danish!


Denmark
cartoons
Islam

Update

Change of plans ... that post on social issues is on hold for a while, because I can't skip covering Iran events and the Denmark/cartoons business.

Update

Morning Report may be going on vacation for a while due to personal obligations. Also I'm planning some topical posts on gender, feminism, liberalism, gay issues, and current politics. Stay tuned.