Iran and the Bomb: A Nightmare Returns

Varifrank reminds us of what it was like to live through the Cold War years ... and feels strangely nostalgic. Go read it at the link.

Search Hit of the Day

Someone in the State Department at IP address 169.253.4.21, visiting Dreams Into Lightning at 2:35AM Eastern Time on April 12, 2006, wants to know:

when will the us strike iran

Heh. As if I'd tell you! Nice try, State geeks.

(Don't worry, Condi, I still love you.)

New Blog: Creative Destruction

Quiet as it's kept, there's a terrific new blog in the 'sphere. Creative Destruction is a very exciting, across-the-political-spectrum group blog. It's now on my list of "daily reads". That's all I'm going to say ... just go check out Creative Destruction.

Neocon Rabbi

The Jewish Week: Confessions of a Neocon Rabbi

Confessions Of A Neocon Rabbi
Bruce Dollin
Thirty years of being a registered Democrat came to an end this week and I thought it prudent to pause a moment to reflect.

It has been a slow and uncomfortable transformation for this pulpit rabbi, preaching each week to an overwhelmingly liberal congregation. I haven’t come out of the closet to them — yet. I thought I would take a risk with all of you first, as you live halfway across the country from my hometown. I have heard that most Jews in New York City tend to the left as well.

My Democratic credentials are solid. I hated the Vietnam War, voted Carter twice, Dukakis once, Clinton twice and was aghast when W was the choice of the Supreme Court. I have never voted for a Republican candidate for Congress and only recently voted for a Republican governor. ...

So why the switch? It started with my co-religionist, Monica Lewinsky, who was cavorting with our president in the White House. When I spoke out from the pulpit against immoral sex and the importance of marital fidelity the following Rosh HaShanah, some of my liberal congregants complained to me about having to listen to my politics from the bima; they wanted me to speak more about Judaism. ...

... I had no idea who George W was until he became my president. I didn’t know what he was made of until 9-11, when I was impressed with his firm and comforting response.

From him I heard that we Americans (and Jews) had real enemies in the world and had better start taking them seriously. Some of the young, Jewish neocons like William Kristol and Paul Wolfowitz, who the left were calling a “kabal,” were encouraging armed intervention to bring democracy to the world. On campus, professors were saying that these Jewish neocons were pushing our country to war to help Israel — and therefore, presumably, for the wrong reasons.

But I heard W and the neocons saying, “Bring the fight to the bad guys, so they can never again bring it to us,” which is just what Israel has been saying about its enemies for six decades.

Having been a pacifist at one time, I felt strange cheering on our troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. Some on the left were saying Bush lied to us about Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction. For me, Saddam and every tyrant in the world is a weapon of mass destruction and therefore must be removed.

“But there are other tyrants in the world who we have not attacked,” say my liberal congregants.

“Not yet,” I reply. “Tyranny anywhere in the world is a threat to freedom everywhere in the world. Tyranny is against God’s will and it must be eradicated from the face of the earth.” [my emphasis - aa]

Go read it all at the link. This quote, though, is magnificent ...

My friend Ted Haggart, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, told me once that in the end of days, Jesus may come walking down Ben Yehuda Street, “and you Jews will have to make some theological adjustments.”

“Well, that’s no problem for me,” I told him.

When Jesus comes again, Ted and I will have a long talk about theology.

Wafa Sultan: Website

Did you know that Wafa Sultan keeps a website? It's called An-Naqed / The Critic, and millions of thanks to Neo for spotlighting it. Here's an excerpt from a lengthy, but well worth reading, article by Amit Ghate:

In reacting to the Islamists’ ongoing cartoon Jihad, most commentators have focused on the issue of free speech. This is natural, and necessary, since eradication of free speech is the most immediate risk; and certainly without free speech there can be no defending other values. Nevertheless it is also vital to take a step back and to view the events as part of a larger pattern, a pattern which poses a grave threat to our core Western values and system of government –- and to their primary consequence and beneficiary: the free individual.

To see why, and to appreciate what we stand to lose, we must begin by understanding what is meant by “Western”. Let us be clear that “Western” refers to a set of ideas -- it is not a racial or ethnic epithet. Anyone can embrace the ideas, just as anyone can reject them, regardless of his race, country of birth, or upbringing. Thus we can speak of Japan and Hong Kong having adopted “Western” principles as accurately as we can speak of Canada having done so.

In the broadest and most essentialized sense, the term “Western” denotes a set of fundamental ideas first discovered and adopted by the ancient Greeks. It was they who, for the first time in history, challenged the age-old notion that only the life of a society’s rulers and/or priests was important -- to instead assert that every man’s life is of crucial value. It was they who turned their focus from an obsession with death and the after-life -- to instead seek success and joy in this life. It was they who dispensed with all-encompassing superstition and from cowering before the supernatural –- to instead assert that the world was knowable, that no question was off-limits, and that the questioning mind was among the most revered of attributes. Finally, and as a consequence of all the others, it was they who cast away the resignation of living as unhappy subjects in an unknowable world -- to instead realize that with freedom to live, happiness on earth was possible for every man. ...

The unique relationship existing between each man and his government cannot be overemphasized: in the West, and only in the West, government exists for the sake of each individual, not vice versa. As Lincoln put it so famously: ours is a “government of the people, by the people, for the people”.

Yet though government exists for the sake of each man, its proper implementation involves having each individual delegate his use of retaliatory force to the government, which then acts as his agent to protect his rights. Thus in civilized nations, the government is the sole legitimate wielder of force, and its central charge -- and solemn obligation -- is to wield that force when (and only when) necessary to protect its citizens in the exercise of their legal rights.

The benefits of this system are manifold. ...

It would therefore be of the highest treason for a government to abandon any law-abiding citizen who comes under attack. In fact failing to protect an individual would be beyond treason: it would essentially reverse and betray 2,500 years of Western development. It would be tantamount to taking the individual, whose life and happiness is for the first time important, stripping him of all his defenses, and then offering him up to any mindless brute or savage to skin alive as he pleased.

And yet, in the past few decades, this is exactly what Western governments have done repeatedly. If it is not stopped soon, Western, i.e. civil and peaceful, society will break down -– and we will return to the primitive state of gang rule and utter contempt for the individual which currently exists in the entire non-Westernized world.

To understand the pattern of failures, and to see how it must be broken, it is important to survey the relevant historical events of the past 25 years or so. For though the faltering of Western governments could be decried since the end of World War II, and even more so with the events in Korea and Vietnam, a watershed of sorts began with our response to the rise of fundamentalist Islamic nations and their self-proclaimed hatred and hostility towards the West and all things Western.

The pattern began in 1979 when the newly empowered supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini, took power. ...

The historical pattern is clear and consistent. For twenty five plus years, Islamists have isolated and targeted Western citizens around the world with impunity, and have succeeded in fostering fear in most citizens. They have effectively used a divide and conquer strategy, with little or no opposition. The pattern must be broken immediately.

To see how, imagine a neo-Nazi state arising and declaring to Western nations: “We have no quarrel with you, we just want to exterminate the Jews who reside within your borders.” The proper response would of course be: “if you want to harm our law-abiding citizens, you DO have a quarrel with us, in fact you have a war, for no one may threaten our citizens without threatening our nation as a whole.” Similar reasoning extends from a segment of the population to a single individual citizen. If a nation threatens one citizen, it threatens the nation, and we must do everything in our power, including going to war if necessary, to eradicate the threat. Otherwise there is no point for individuals to delegate their use of force to the state, and every enemy will employ a “divide and conquer” tactic to eliminate us one citizen at a time. ...

Go read it all at the link ... oh, and pay a visit to Amit Ghate and Rob Tarr/

Drama Queen

The Religious Policeman responds to an e-mail.

What would a Blogger's life be like, without hate mail? So it was really nice to get this one from "queen.oman@gmail.com". (Slightly edited with my "delete thingy" - I can be a bit of a prude)

F*CK U PIG BURN IN HELL

ENJOY UR LIFE TEMPORARLY BUT REMEMBER ABOVE UR F*CKING HEAD THERE'S A GOD WHO SEES AND HEAR WUT UR F*CKING EYES CAN'T SEE AND WUT UR F*CKING EARS CAN'T HEAR
STAY IN UR DARKNESS
I'LL ENJOY WATCHING U BURN IN NAR JAHANNAM SON OF A BITCH WHO DIDN'T KNOW HOW TO RAISE U RIGHT

Queen, that's really kind of you, but could I just point out one or two things?

1. In the West, "Queen" is slang for a gay, usually one who is a bit aging and past their prime. Now I don't have any problem with gays, even ones who have seen better days, so if that's the lifestyle you want to choose for yourself then that's OK with me, but you're not going to be able to offend me that way.

2. I think the God up there has seen and heard it all ...

Go to the link to read the rest. Oh, and just so you know: the fanhood is mutual.

New Blog: Eight Drunken Immortals

Please welcome Marian to the blogosphere. She is a personal friend of mine going back a few years, and her blog is Eight Drunken Immortals. (I'm guessing here, but I think the title might be a reference to Shaolin Kung Fu ... I know she's very into that.)

Who's Marian, you ask?

I am a liberal's worst nightmare: a conservative, gay, transgender woman who believes in free speech, free markets and free thought. I believe that we are in a war against barbarian forces that mean to destroy the whole of Western Civilization and I mean for this blog to be one more wall against these ravening hordes.

Really, what more do you need to know? Go check out Eight Drunken Immortals.

Zeyad Needs Your Help

As you probably know by now, the legendary Iraqi blogger Zeyad of Heling Iraq has been admitted to the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism. W00t!

It's still gonna cost money, though. That's where you and I come in. Zeyad has put up a PayPal button and I strongly urge you to make use of it just as soon as your own finances will allow you to do so. Drilling teeth in Baghdad is an honorable way to make a living, but don't you think Zeyad is ready for something more?

Help get John's website banned!

This is unconscionable. The august Government of Pakistan, in its great wisdom, has seen fit to ban the website Plus Ultra for carrying insulting images and cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. Clearly this affront to the dignity of Islam must be punished.

But why has Pervez Musharraf failed to ban John Sobieski's blog, Mo Parody? This is an outrage. Is not Mo Parody at least as offensive as Plus Ultra? Is it not at least as deserving as the Imperial Government of Pakistan's official censure? Then let the Government of Pakistan act justly and ban Mo Parody as well.

(After all, why should Plus Ultra get all the traffic?)

Dreams Into Lightning calls upon the Government of Pakistan to do the right thing. Surely banning should not be a privilege reserved for the elite few.

Tegan Wagner's Rapists Get Time, Finger

Via Rico at Plus Ultra, Australian rape victim Tegan Wagner had some thoughts for her attackers:

WITH a smile and a raised middle finger, gang rape victim Tegan Wagner yesterday stared down her attackers and uttered the words she has been waiting four long years to say.

"See ya, guys. Have a nice life. Enjoy prison."

As they were ushered out of the NSW Supreme Court to the cells below, rapist brothers MSK and MAK returned Ms Wager's greeting with an uncomfortable grin of their own.

MSK also mouthed the words, "I'm sorry", but was met with a curt, "F--- you mate, go to hell" from his 18-year-old victim.

For Ms Wagner, her gesture brought as much closure as the jail sentences just passed, which will keep her main attacker behind bars until 2024. ...

The specifics of the case, in which the defendants are identified only by their initials:

Ms Wagner was just 14 when she was raped by the Pakistani brothers after being plied with alcohol at their Ashfield home in June 2002. She had gone there with friends who knew the pair, but she had never met them before that night.

MSK, 27, and MAK, 26, are currently serving long sentences for the rapes of two other girls.

Yesterday, Justice Peter Hidden extended their time behind bars for their attacks on Ms Wagner and, in the case of MSK, the rape of a 13-year-old girl a month later.

Significantly, the Australian court rejected the claim that the defendants' responsibility was diminished because their Muslim background left them ill-prepared to deal with women in a civilized manner:

Justice Hidden yesterday rejected claims by MSK that the rapes occurred because of his cultural background.

In evidence to the court, MSK claimed women were perceived differently in the small, fiercely Muslim Pakistan village where he grew up and that Australian women were considered morally loose.

"The effect of his evidence was, he saw both victims as promiscuous and believed they had no right to repel his sexual advances," the judge said.

"(But) he must have had sufficient exposure to the Australian way of life to be aware the place occupied by women in the traditional culture of his area of origin is far removed from our social norms.

"He can have been in no doubt that to treat those two young women in the manner he did was utterly unacceptable."

rape
Australia

Update

Okay, it's late, it's Saturday night, I just got off a shift at work and I gotta go back tomorrow morning (yeah, Sunday) ... but we've got to get some posts up.

So let's get started ...

Provocation and Violence: FrontPage vs. FrontPage

Symposium: To Rape an Unveiled Woman

A Muslim rape epidemic in sweeping over Europe -- and over many other nations host to immigrants from the Islamic world. The direct connection between the rapes and Islam is irrefutable, as Muslims are significantly overrepresented among convicted rapists and rape suspects. The Muslim perpetrators themselves boast that their crime is justified since their victims were, among other things, not properly veiled.

What is the psychology here? What is the significance of this epidemic? And how do we face it when our own feminists, with a few exceptions, are deafingly silent about it?

David Yeagley

Members of the Duke University Lacrosse team may have abused a black party girl, but, without any proof or trial, the Duke Lacrosse team was punished by the university, suspended from further games.

Symposium: To Rape an Unveiled Woman

Peter Raddaz let’s begin with you.

A man sees a woman and she is not veiled. He thinks to himself: “Oh, I must rape her now.”

No matter how much I try to figure this out, I can’t. What’s the mindset here? If a person is upset that a woman is not veiled, it implies he wants some kind of supposed “morality.” But if he is thirsting for purity, how does perpetrating a violent sexual atrocity against the “immoral” one fit into moralizing her and the rest of society – and himself?

Raddatz: Your questions concerning mindset and morals put us right into the middle of the problem. They are the terms any culture's collective psychology is basing on. In the case of prevailing orthodox Islam we are faced with a deep division between the sexes. With Allah's unlimited ruling license the males are entitled to be the masters of the females. The Koranic order says that the man has to "go to the woman" whenever he likes, to "enjoy her however he likes", and to discipline her in case she develops her own ideas like sexual self-determination.

David Yeagley

The reports say the woman is a divorced, 27-year-old “mother” of two, attending North Carolina Central University. She is not a person of note, and is said to do exotic dancing as a side job to pick up extra cash.

Symposium: To Rape an Unveiled Woman

FP: Thank you Dr. Raddatz. Dr. Eussner?

Eussner: Thank you, Jamie. I agree with Peter: The survival and expansion of Islam worldwide is the main goal of Islam since its invention by Mohammed. In this respect, the history of Islamic conquest is self-explanatory. The other aspect is the lack of appreciation for the individual as such. For both, men and women, it is true, that there are no individual rights, but for women it is even worse.

It may sound harsh, but the distinction between "fertilizing" and "punishing" a woman is evident. On the one hand you have sexuality as a tool serving the expansion of Islam, and on the other hand there is sexuality as a weapon against disobedient and non-Muslim women, both categorized as "unbelievers". Against them jihad is the duty, and what to do with women "conquered" in jihad, this may be read in the Qur'an: they become slaves to be used by the victors.

David Yeagley

If a rape occurred, it is inexcusable, regardless of the race of the victim or perpetrators. However, all the indications raise serious questions about this situation – and the racial hyperventilating makes the case even muddier.

So, that black woman said, “No,” eh? First, she’s in a profession where she’s expected to do tricks for clients.

Symposium: To Rape an Unveiled Woman

FP: Thank you Dr. Eussner. Mr. Rehov, your turn.

Rehov: There are very few observations that I can add to Dr Eussner’s and Dr Raddatz’s surveys on both the cultural and religious seeds of the phenomenon, although there is a personal dimension that I would like to explore.

Of course, in a cultural environment where women are undermined, not to say considered as second rate citizens or even dangerous to the dominant male, the temptation to rape as a result to “ provocation “ is great. Female “provocation” in the Muslim society is usually a definition for the mildest behavior. Smiling, singing, talking, being alone for one minute in the same room as the rapist, having answered a question in an inappropriate way, wearing clothes which are not strictly in obedience with what is locally considered as the Muslim rules, all of these innocent behaviors are seen as a misconduct authorizing “revenge.”

David Yeagley (in comments)

The woman went there to "turn'em on." That's what she's getting paid for. That she would three times RETURN, when she had every reason to fear, shows excessively poor judgement on her part. She was literally asking for it, for whatever happened anyway.

Yeagley has stated that he condemns rape. Well and good. But what was it, then, that the young woman was "asking for"? Violence? Assault? Robbery? Humiliation? Yeagley doesn't say, but he's sure that she was asking for "whatever happened".


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