And the Captain Louis Renault award goes to...

.

... Reuters!


How's that Arab Spring working out?

After months of reassuring secularist critics, Islamist politicians in Tunisia and Egypt have begun to lay down markers about how Muslim their states should be - and first signs show they want more religion than previously admitted.

Islamist parties swept the first free elections in both countries in recent months after campaigns that stressed their readiness to work with the secularists they struggled with in the Arab Spring revolts against decades-long dictatorships.

With political deadlines looming, a key Tunisian party in the constituent assembly and the head of Egypt's influential Muslim Brotherhood both made statements this week revealing a stronger emphasis on Islam in government.

Popular List, the party tasked with writing Tunisia's new constitution, announced on Monday its draft called Islam "the principle source of legislation" - a phrase denoting laws based on the sharia moral and legal code.

On Tuesday, Egyptian Brotherhood leader Mohamed Badie said his group wanted a president with "an Islamic background." That term is vague, but not as vague as the conciliatory "consensus candidate" talk heard from most parties until now.

Secularists in both countries warned voters against trusting the Islamists and these subtle changes could have come straight from a secularist playbook on how Islamists would gradually insert more religion into the political and legal systems.

(italics, ours)


Reuters is shocked... shocked that previous moderate signals from various Islamist factions would take a turn for the Sharia.

It's eerily similar to their reporting (along with the rest of the American press) on bad economic news... unexpectedly!

And subtle changes? Let's call it for what it is gang... minority groups from women and Christians to gays and adulturers (alleged or otherwise) are screwed now more than ever.

How it is that Reuters seems to be taken off-guard by these as-predictable-as-the-Sun-rises-in-the-East developments is beyond us.

.

Not adding up

Hmmm... For a Justice Department that has been hot in the pants to try suspected terrorists in federal courts, this would represent a departure of sorts as the person allegedly responsible for the shooting death of Army Private William Long, Abdulhakim Mujad Muhammad, a self-admitted radicalized Muslim, will be tried in state court in Arkansas.

Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad insists he is an Islamic radical, has confessed to killing an Army soldier and wounding another at a Little Rock recruiting station two years ago, and wants to be tried on terrorism charges in federal court.

But in an unusual twist, state prosecutors, with the blessing of the federal government, are treating him like a common American criminal and trying him in state court next week on capital murder charges.

Either way, Muhammad could become the first person sentenced to death in the U.S. for an act of terrorism — even if that is not the charge — since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Muhammad, 24, born Carlos Bledsoe in Memphis, Tenn., has a profile that is now familiar in home-grown terrorism cases. He converted to Islam at age 20 at a Tennessee mosque, changed his name and traveled to the Middle East.

In 2008, he was arrested in Yemen for overstaying his visa and holding false Somali papers. His father said he became radicalized in a Yemeni jail after mixing with other prisoners there.

Six months after Muhammad returned to the U.S., he allegedly drove his black Ford Sport Trac truck to the military recruiting station. Inside the vehicle were a rifle, scope, laser sight, silencer and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. He allegedly fired several rounds before fleeing.

His father is alleging a cover-up by the feds as they blew it by letting him back into this country but it is not clear from the article whether or not Muhammad was on any terror watch list.

This all remains highly curious: To our knowledge, this slaying represents the first time a uniformed serviceman has been assassinated on U.S. soil at a federal installation by a self-admitted radical Islamist. Sounds kind of terrorist-y to us, yet the feds don't want anything to do with this.

What do you all think is going on here?

Our take: Remember how the administration was tripping all over themselves in order to issue a somber statement in the immediate aftermath of the shooting death of Dr. George Tiller, an abortion doctor a couple years back? Yet shortly after that, the shooting death of Private William Long, allegedly at the hands of Muhammad, illicited a belated and lame statement from the White House that did not even appear on the White House's official website as did the Tiller statement. The White House had seen fit to handle that situation in that manner for the shooting death of an individual in the direct chain of command of the Commander-in-Chief.

Would it be fair to posit that the Feds might've taken more of an active role in the prosecution of this case if the assailant were part of say, a white-supremacist and/or extreme "anti-government" group who had specifically targeted an FBI or ATF agent? We think it's entirely fair to conjecture in this manner because the radicalization of American citizens by Islamists is not a narrative this administration wants to deal with or confront as they would be forced to do so if they took the lead in prosecuting this as a terrorism case.

What are we missing? Please re-direct if you think we are off-base.

Dandy is as dandy does

No quarter is spared when this man levels his sights on you...

As a lad in Charleston, I at first chafed whenever Mama would squire me to my weekly instructions at Miss Buelah Fontaine's Palmetto Street Finishing Academy for Young Gentlemen. "Oh, Mama, must I?" I would plead. "I would much rather fish and hoop-roll and play mumblety-peg with the other boys." But Mama - God rest her overbearing memory - remained insistent, for she knew that under the stern tutelage of Miss Fontaine her son would grow into a true Carolina Gentleman, deft in the social graces and ready to ascend the ladder of societal respectability.

The evidence of time has, I hope, proven Mama's wisdom. With every thwack of Miss Buela's corrective switch, I soon learned the fine art of gentlemanliness; the Windsor knot, the four-in-hand, the gracious bow, the waltz, entering one's name on a dance card, the proper way to hold one's refreshments. By my 16th birthday I was ready to make my society debut at the 1971 Charleston Boy's Cotillion. Oh, how Mama and Miss Buelah beamed with matronly pride as I promenaded across the ballroom floor with my escort (and second cousin once removed) Miss Blanche Dwerryhouse. I like to think Daddy would have beamed at my dashing waltz too, had he not been delayed by an emergency prior engagement that magical Charleston evening.

More of Iowahawk doing what he do, here.



Our own thoughts on Lindsey Graham's pathetically-qualified "defense" of free speech can be found here.

And speaking of freedom...

Shahbaz Bhatti, the Pakistan government's only Christian minister (he was Roman Catholic) was assassinated while on his way to work in Islamabad on Wednesday. Bhatti was in the process of pushing for the reform of harsh blasphemy laws that impose the death penalty for insulting Islam.

Earlier this year, Punjab province Governor Salman Taseer, a liberal Muslim was killed by a bodyguard who said he was angry that the politician opposed the blasphemy laws.

Bhatti remained single not wanting his wife and children to suffer for what he believed - he was fully aware of what potentially lay in store for him as the video below which was made four months ago will show.

In an interview he did while in Canada in February, this is what he said about this potentiality:

“I have been told by pro-Taliban religious extremists that if I will continue to speak against the blasphemy law, I will be beheaded.” But he said his faith gave him strength.

“As a Christian, I believe Jesus is my strength. He has given me a power and wisdom and motivation to serve suffering humanity. I follow the principles of my conscience, and I am ready to die and sacrifice my life for the principles I believe,”

So sure was Bhatti of his fate that he left instructions with friends to send this video to media outlets should he die at the hands of those opposed to him and his ideals.

This is what we are fighting for?

An Afghan physiotherapist will be executed within three days for converting to Christianity.

Said Musa, 45, has been held for eight months in a Kabul prison were he claims he has been tortured and sexually abused by inmates and guards.

Mr Musa, who lost his left leg in a landmine explosion in the 1990s, has worked for the Red Cross for 15 years and helps to treat fellow amputees.

He was arrested in May last year as he attempted to seek asylum at the German embassy following a crackdown on Christians within Afghanistan.
He claims he was visited by a judge who told him he would be hanged within days unless he converted back to Islam.
But he remains defiant and said he would be willing to die for his faith.

He told the Sunday Times: 'My body is theirs to do what they want with.
'Only God can decide if my spirit goes to hell.'

Defence lawyers have refused to represent him, while others have dropped the case after receiving death threats.

Mr Musa was arrested after a TV station showed western men baptising Afghans during secret ceremonies.

Mind you, this isn't going down in some outlying province of Afghanistan under the control of an Islamist warlord rather in the Afghan capitol where one might think that the mayor of Kabul, Hamid Karzai, might be able to influence a more desirable outcome.

Nation-building is a bitch but since we're doing the heavy lifting over there, we don't think it would be too much to request of our hosts that they might possibly respect some of the most basic of basic human rights and not being put to death for one's religion might be an appropriate and entirely relevant jumping off point considering the time table Mr. Musa is apparently willing to eschew.

We know that it may sound a little too 1st amendment-y for some but since we are ready to throw out the old in the name of "democratic reforms" in Egypt, what's our excuse for inaction here?

As we are spilling American blood in Afghanistan in order to fashion a reliable ally that doesn't harbor terrorists, we've a tough time coming to terms with who exactly are the good and bad guys and for what principles we are willing to look the other way.

And this was supposed to be the good war.

Everybody draw Mohammed Day

We totally forgot... we're playing catch up.


Relax, jihadists. You all and you're bass-ackwards and intolerant 8th century anti-liberal, anti-semetic, sexist and homophobic ways aren't in our cross-hairs today, it's so-called champions of free speech of the West like Comedy Central and now Apple that fold like a cheap lawn chair when it comes to "the religion of peace".

In what is sure to raise a ruckus, comedian / filmmaker / app developer Emery Emery recorded a phone call with an Apple App Store rep when his iSlam Muhammad app was pulled from the App Store after one day. The highly entertaining conversation in its entirety can be heard by watching the "video" above.

iSlam Muhammad apparently depicted images of the prophet Muhammad (forbidden by Islam) and outlined disturbing passages from the Qur'an. It's surprisingly similar to BibleThumper, a Christian-bashing app that remains in the App Store.

Just a couple of days ago, we blogged about Apple denying an app for a Congressional candidate that simply stated Henry Waxman's voting record. And now this. Pathetic.

If, in the name of equality, Apple also pulls BibleThumper that's only exacerbating the problem as Apple will give tacit approval to the notion that any criticism of any religion is off limits. Of course, Apple is certainly free to do what it wants just as are the consumers.

The older we get, the more stridently free speech we become. We're not sure whether this is a reaction to what we see as increasing restrictions on speech or, to borrow a favorable phrase used for pols in D.C. who drift leftward over time, "growing in office". Probably a little of both.


H/T: Hot Air

Charm.... Offensive?

The woman pictured at left was crowned Miss USA on Sunday night. Rima Fakih, happens to be Muslim and of Lebanese descent. She is believed to be the first immigrant and Muslim to win this award.

She apparently butchered a few of the questions during the Please convince us you are not a complete nit-wit portion of the pageant and tripped in her evening gown so does this represent a sop to political correctness or a blow for cultural assimilation?

We're leaning towards the latter because is a little license in order to win the hearts and minds of young moderate Muslim males (and females?) a bad thing?







It sure as hell wasn't FDR, Chester Nimitz or Omar Bradley our troops, sailors and Marines had posted in their quarters.





Rita! They were fighting for you!


P.S. For whatever it's worth, Fakih is from Dearborn, Michigan which represents one of the largest concentrations of Arabs in the country. From what we understand, these folks are pretty assimilated as it is. Because nothing says assimilation like partying for a weekend with a Dearborn strip club owner named "Billy" Said as we did many years ago here in San Diego. And that's all we're going to say about that.

Ft. Hood

Some old news we are gettin caught up on:

The Obama administration said Tuesday it would provide more information to Congress about the Fort Hood shootings but continued to defy a subpoena request for witness statements and other documents.

After days of negotiations, the Pentagon and Justice Department informed a Senate committee that they would not comply with congressional subpoenas to share investigative records from the Nov. 5 shootings at Fort Hood, Tex., which killed 13 people. The agencies said that divulging the material could jeopardize their prosecution of Army Maj. Nidal M. Hasan, the accused gunman.

The Pentagon did budge in other areas, however, saying it had agreed to give the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs access to Hasan's personnel file, as well as part of an Army report that scrutinized why superiors failed to intervene in Hasan's career as an Army psychiatrist, despite signs of his religious radicalization and shortcomings as a soldier.

Charge us with oversimplifying the matter in order to make a point, if you will, but what's the big deal here? Hasan, who was known to have had communications with a radical Yemeni cleric, murdered 13 of his fellow soldiers in the name of Islamic jihad at Ft. Hood. Hasan's blatant outward signs that he could possibly go rogue were routinely ignored by his superiors yet he was given the equivalent of public schooling social promotions by these same superiors for fear of crossing the boundaries of political correctness. This ia all public knowledge.

End of story. Beyond what we know already, what exactly is it that these subpoenas are going to reveal?

A few thoughts on the Times Square bomb plot

In keeping with this administration's efforts to downplay the threat of jihadist-inspired terrorism we note that we keep being reminded that the Times Square bombing attempt was "amateurish" in nature. Had it detonated would it still have been amateurish? An "amateurish"-ly planned bombing scheme that does succeed would still be a "bomb detonating in Times Square" by which no one would've given a damn whether or not it was amateurish.

Betsy's Page has a nice round-up of some rather curious reactions (or call them talking points, if you are so inclined) to the bomb plot in its immediate wake (before the arrest of the suspect) and even given the benefit of hindsight there is an odd tone to them that now seem patently ridiculous.

And imagine the disappointment at MSNBC that the unidentified "white man" in his 40s who was suspected of being the bomber is a U.S. citizen of Pakistani descent (Well, whattya know? Right on cue Contessa Brewer of MSNBC is like, totally bummed that the suspect may harbor some extremist views. Consistency!*)

And to think that Frank Rich won't be taking the week off afterall because "the column that writes itself" fizzled out just like the contents inside that Nissan Pathfinder.

Not to worry Franky-baby. You can always fall back on writing about the violence at Tea Party rallys.


* We started working this post yesterday and came up with the MSNBC hypothetical before we were alerted to Brewer's hand-wringing.

Quote of the day

but I have a question: How come we're supposed to draw (on the basis of no evidence), a connection between conservatism and terrorism, conservative ideology and terrorism? Where is that connection? Yet we are told we must reject, despite tons of evidence, the connection between Islamist ideology and terrorism. So we can't call Islamist fundamentalists "terrorists." We can't even use the word. But we can have ex-presidents and current presidents running around trying to associate conservatives with nonexistent terrorism at peaceful tea parties. Somebody needs to explain this to me.

On a somewhat related note with respect to stereotypes and media templates...



"I'm scared of the President because he is white. What does Keith Olberman have to say about that?"


H/T: NRO and Reason.tv

Not your Dad's Amnesty International

Amnesty International has always leaned lefty but they did have some shining moments. Leading the charge to end apartheid in South Africa is a prominent example that comes to mind. But "leaning lefty" might be considered in some quarters to be a tad different than "supporting jihadists". Crazy, we know.

Former Gitmo detainee Moazzam Begg is a committed jihadist and unabashed supporter of the Taliban. (See this Weekly Standard essay by Tom Joscelyn, which collects other Begg links.) In the fashion of CAIR — a creation of the Muslim Brotherhood formed to support its causes, such as Hamas, in the camouflage of a "civil rights" organization — Begg shrewdly realized he could win fawning admirers and allies on the Left by posing as a human rights activist. So he formed a group in Britain, Cageprisoners, which claims to be a civil rights organization whle promoting the Islamist agenda — and aligning with such other anti-American jihadist terrorists as would-be Christmas bomber Umar Abdulmutallab and Anwar al-Awlaki (an imam to some of the 9/11 hijackers and an inspiration to both Abdulmutallab and Fort Hood mass-murderer Nidal Hasan).

Claim they are a civil rights organization? Why didn't the Klan ever think of that?

Gita Sahgal, head of Amensty International's "gender unit" finally went public after years of internal protesting of AI's support of Begg. For doing so, Sahgal was reprimanded and suspended. And in case there was any misunderstanding as to AI's reasons for suspending Sahgal, AI HMFIC and Secretary-General Claudio Cordone issued a letter in defense of AI's collaboration with Begg and Cageprisoners.

In the letter, Cordone states AI's position outright: advocacy of "jihad in self defence" is not antithetical to human rights. That Islamists reserve unto themselves the right to determine when Islam is, as they put it, "under siege," and when, therefore, forcible jihad is justified, is plainly of no concern — only actions America's self-defense are worthy of condemnation.

Never mind the fact that these jihadists would sooner blow themselves up in a crowded marketplace (or, more conveniently, convince someone else to do it) to advance the cause of sharia law than look at you, we're sure these jihadist's and AI's respective treatment of women, gays and minorities is an irony that is not lost on you.

Perhaps, it's not nearly as ironic now as it once was.


Exit question: Is it law that an organization possessing a position called Secretary-General must also be completely dysfunctional and counter-productive?

Obesity is killing Americans

Finally. Here is the opening paragraphs of a news article titled “E-mails suggested Fort Hood suspect subpar for Army” which shines a light on just exactly what it was that caused poor Nidal Hasan to snap and kill 13 of his colleagues at Ft. Hood:

Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, charged in the Fort Hood shootings, was too fat and "chronically" unprofessional during his psychiatric training, according to internal e-mails exchanged by his superiors.

The communications are the latest in a series of early signs that showed officers had reason to suspend Maj. Hasan's training, and perhaps re-evaluate his suitability as a military physician, but failed to do so.

That Hasan being an out-of-shape schlub was the reason for him killing those people at Ft. Hood rather than being an outright jihadist will come as a big of a surprise to us as it will to you. We all reserve the right, though, to be smarter than we were before.

No wonder there is a growing demand for healthier eating all around.

For many, a night out at the movies would not be complete without the sound of popcorn and chocolate wrappers from the stalls. One of the most powerful studio bosses in Hollywood, however, would like to see cinemas selling healthier snacks.

Michael Lynton, chairman and chief executive of Sony Pictures, says that audiences would be better off nibbling on granola bars, fruit salad, yogurt and vegetable crudités with dips. “I can almost imagine the Romans eating popcorn and drinking Coke at the Colosseum 2,000 years ago,” he told a convention of cinema owners in Las Vegas. “But by bringing healthier snacks into your concession stands you would be helping our country meet an urgent public health need.”

Preventing a rash of cineplex massacres is reason enough for us to buy into eschewing the popcorn in favor of organically-grown arugula.

If only Hasan’s superiors had enforced better eating and exercise habits for him, we might have been able to avoid that unseemly occurrence.

So, how are we coming along with that war on terror thingy?

Let’s look at some recent developments with respect to the war on terror and see if we can gage by some degree or another if we really are serious about fighting terror.

Back in December, Homeland Secretary, Janet Napolitano said that the Christmas crotch bomber was not part of a larger terrorist plot to which we replied:

Oh, really?

Every single jihadist on the face of this planet be they trained and funded by or affiliated with Hamas, AQ, Hezbollah, the Taliban… even if they are “lone wolves”… whoever, is part of “a larger terrorist plot.”

That larger terrorist plot is called Islamic extremism and every single one of its minions is unified in its hatred for the West and its institutions and belief systems and are fatally committed to its destruction including all who live within it who are not found to be in sufficient compliance to Sharia law.

But if Napolitano and the other powers that be can’t quite grasp that concept, other detained terrorists who have since been able to lawyer-up are making the distinction a little bit easier.

A Tennessee man accused of killing a soldier outside a Little Rock, Ark., military recruiting station last year has asked a judge to change his plea to guilty, claiming for the first time that he is affiliated with a Yemen-based affiliate of Al Qaeda.

In a letter to the judge presiding over his case, the accused killer, Abdulhakim Muhammad, calls himself a soldier in Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and calls the shooting “a Jihadi Attack” in retribution for the killing of Muslims by American troops.

If your memory is a little hazy on the above, don’t be alarmed because this incident which involved the assassination of one Private William Long and the injury of one of Long’s colleagues at the hands of an obvious Islamic jihadist back in June of last year has been effectively swept under the carpet as the Commander-in-Chief who couldn’t get out of his way fast enough to condemn the murder of abortionist, Dr. George Tiller, has still failed to make a single comment regarding the murder of an idividual in his chain of command.

And for some news from a more recent event; from Time Magazine:

The U.S. military's just-released report into the Fort Hood shootings spends 86 pages detailing various slipups by Army officers but not once mentions Major Nidal Hasan by name or even discusses whether the killings may have had anything to do with the suspect's view of his Muslim faith. And as Congress opens two days of hearings on Wednesday into the Pentagon probe of the Nov. 5 attack that left 13 dead, lawmakers want explanations for that omission.

(John Lehman, a member of the 9/11 commission and Navy Secretary during the Reagan Administration, says a reluctance to cause offense by citing Hasan's view of his Muslim faith and the U.S. military's activities in Muslim countries as a possible trigger for his alleged rampage reflects a problem that has gotten worse in the 40 years that Lehman has spent in and around the U.S. military. The Pentagon report's silence on Islamic extremism "shows you how deeply entrenched the values of political correctness have become," he told TIME on Tuesday. "It's definitely getting worse, and is now so ingrained that people no longer smirk when it happens."

The apparent lack of curiosity into what allegedly drove Hasan to kill isn't in keeping with the military's ethos; it's a remarkable omission for the U.S. armed forces, whose young officers are often ordered to read Sun Tzu's The Art of War with its command to know your enemy. In midcareer, they study the contrast between capabilities and intentions, which is why they aren't afraid of a British nuclear weapon but do fear the prospect of Iran getting one.

(italics, ours)

And this from USA Today:

In the wake of a mass shooting allegedly by a military psychiatrist, the Army's top doctor acknowledged his service needs to improve how it manages medical officers, including using more candor in reviewing their officers' performance.

But Lt. Gen. Eric Schoomaker, the Army surgeon general, told USA TODAY there's no evidence his staff "could have predicted" that Maj. Nidal Hasan, the man accused of killing 13 people at Fort Hood in Texas, "could have become a mass murderer."

(italics, ours)

Because nothing says inactionable intelligence like having a business card that says, “servant of Allah”, a shoddy record of medical performance and inappropriate discussion of his Muslim faith at work, email exchanges with a radical Yemeni cleric and reportedly shouting “Allah Akbar” while he was shooting up Ft. Hood.

Missing all that is one thing. To perpetuate that incompetence once you’ve been caught with your pants down, though, is entirely another and because of that this jack-ass Schoomaker ought to be relieved of his command immediately.

OK. So there you have it. Looks like we’re pretty much on our own and dependent upon the likes of citizen-heros like Todd Beamer and the Flying Dutchman in our fight against Islamic jihad.

We're in the best of hands.

Then again, what would one expect from the curator of the “man-made disaster” paradigm?

Homeland Security Secretary, Janet Napolitano, is taking quite a bit of grief for a quote she made regarding the Christmas bomber, that being “the system worked”. She later walked that back saying she was being taken out of context and that indeed the system did not work.

But here’s what she said that really puzzled us.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says there is no indication that the man who attempted to destroy an airliner in Detroit on Christmas Day is part of a larger terrorist plot.

Oh, really?

Every single jihadist on the face of this planet be they trained and funded by or affiliated with Hamas, AQ, Hezbollah, the Taliban… even if they are “lone wolves”… whoever, is part of “a larger terrorist plot.”

That larger terrorist plot is called Islamic extremism and every single one of its minions is unified in its hatred for the West and its institutions and belief systems and are fatally committed to its destruction including all who live within it who are not found to be in sufficient compliance to Sharia law.

That Napolitano apparently fails to grasp this concept is, unfortunately, not shocking nor shocking enough combined with the frightening ease by which Abdulmutallab boarded the plane does not give us the warm fuzzies regarding our commitment to stopping airborne terror plots.

Today's threat level brought to you by the color...

Yesterday while I was lying in the burn ward getting my crotch bandages changed, I had a chance to catch the air disaster movie marathon on TCM. The lineup included "Zero Hour," "The High and the Mighty," "Skyjacked," and "Airport '75." For all their campy fun and unintentional laughs, those corny old films really serve as a grim reminder how the whole in-flight terror experience has gone completely downhill since the jet set golden years of the 50's, 60's and 70's.

What happened to all those pretty stewardesses and polite, well dressed infidels, screaming as the plane plummeted to the ground? Time was, a suicide mission to explode an international jumbo jet was an event full of glamor and excitement; but now it seems to be a endless series of delays, hassles, pushy jerks and third-degree testicular chemical burns. And don't even get me started on the crappy airline food.

More of Umar's random thoughts on Holiday air travel here.




And this from Hitch'

It was reported over the weekend that in the aftermath of the Detroit fiasco, no official decision was made about whether to raise the designated "threat level" from orange. Orange! Could this possibly be because it would be panicky and ridiculous to change it to red and really, really absurd to lower it to yellow? But isn't it just as preposterous (and revealing), immediately after a known Muslim extremist has waltzed through every flimsy barrier, to leave it just where it was the day before?

What terrorist attack were they watching?

Big Media continues its deplorable air-brushing of the jihadist terrorist attack at Ft. Hood and with it hasten the demise of its credibility. The below is from Time, a couple of days ago:

Hasan was a walking contradiction: the counselor who himself needed counseling; the proud soldier who did not want to fight, at least not against fellow Muslims; the man who could not find a sufficiently modest and pious wife through his mosque’s matchmaking machinery but who frequented the local strip club. A man supposedly so afraid of deployment that he launched a war of his own from which he clearly did not expect to return alive. “Everyone is asking why this happened,” said Hasan’s family in a formal statement, “and the answer is that we simply do not know.” (See pictures of the aftermath of the Fort Hood shootings.)

But if this is the new face of terrorism in America, we need better facial-recognition software. Hasan’s motives were mixed enough that everyone with an agenda could find markers in the trail he left. For those inclined to see soldiers as victims, he was a symptom of an overstretched military, whose soldiers return from their third and fourth deployments pouring out such pain that it scars their therapists as well.

(emphasis, ours)

And then there was this:

What drives a man to not only did what he did last week at Fort Hood but also to rent a $300/month apartment that was bare but for the essential necessities.
Afterall, Hasan was a well-compensated major in the Army drawing special pay as a psychiatrist so could it be that Hasan was not only rejecting the material comfitures of the West but also its customs as dictated through the millennia, codified in Talmudic law that was inherently hostile to Hasan’s world-view?

And one could imagine the humiliation when the simple act of getting one’s “Soldier of Allah” business card printed out becomes an out-of-pocket expense rather than a re-imburseable. Do-it-yourself business cards with the perforated edges, no less. Indignity heaped upon indignity.

We suppose that having a complete disorder, secondary post-traumatic stress disorder, fabricated from thin air for the occaison of the Ft. Hood incident might be cause for some baggage-carrying of its own – of course, not that Hasan could’ve possibly known at the time he would have his very own “twinkie defense” disorder. However, simply not knowing doesn’t rule out the possibility of Hasan’s own existential sense of dread – that the newly-minted SPTSD had selected him for this cruel fate.

Never mind that there has never been a counselor, psychologist or psychiatrist in recorded history to behave in such a rash manner, there is always the first time. And doesn’t this speak to the unspeakable horrors of the two wars in which this country is engaged that the stories brought back by the soldiers Hasan was treating and attempting to help was cause for this extreme case of “compassion fatigue”?

Killing them with kindness, indeed….

Of course, the last was from us and though we are in no way attempting to make light of what happened at Ft. Hood last week, the urge to justly mock and lampoon Big Media for their head-in-the-sand approach to covering this was irresistable.

We welcome contributions of your own and depending on the response we get, we will liberate offerings from the comment section to the front page as updates.

Relatively anonymous religious fanatic assassin had him some more plans

The Arkansas man accused of killing an Army recruiter and wounding another had used the popular Google Maps application to investigate recruiting centers in at least five states, as well as Jewish institutions, a day-care center, a post office and a Baptist Church, according to a report issued Tuesday evening by the Department of Homeland Security, ABC News has learned.

Recruiting centers in New York, Atlanta, Louisville and Philadelphia were on a list of possible targets, based on evidence found in the home of the suspect, Muslim-convert Abdulhakim Muhammed, according to the report.

The report was prepared based on the evidence seized in a search of Muhammed's home that included information indicating that he had used Google maps to investigate various locations.

In other news today, guess who still doesn't have a statement up at their website regarding the killing of Private William Long at the hands of this jihadist after falling all over itself to release a statement regarding the murder of abortion doctor, George Tiller?

It's all a matter of perspective

As Europe's grasp on Western civilization continues to slip away there are specific instances that become defining moments in illustrating just how far along this process has devolved. KT has the low down on one such instance, here.

Questions left begging (UPDATED)

(UPDATE #1):Just when we are falling all over ourselves with praise for the guy, he goes and pulls something like this.

We apparently have a statement from the White House regarding the religiously-motivated assassination of Private William Long. It reads as follows:

“I am deeply saddened by this senseless act of violence against two brave young soldiers who were doing their part to strengthen our armed forces and keep our country safe. I would like to wish Quinton Ezeagwula a speedy recovery, and to offer my condolences and prayers to William Long’s family as they mourn the loss of their son.”

Thank god the wait is over... there are a couple of problems with this situation, however.

First, we have yet to see the above statement at the White House.gov web site under “statements and releases” where the statement regarding the murder of Dr. George Tiller resides.

Secondly, is the language. Tiller’s murder left the President “shocked and outraged” but Long’s merely “saddened”. And Tiller’s death is rightly called a “murder” by the President, yet Long’s death is placed in the “loss” category…. like freaking baseball standings.

Semantics, you say? “Words have meaning”, or so we have been told.

Solving the banking crisis, getting the economy back on its feet and navigating the country’s way through a hostile climate abroad is tough, difficult, complex stuff. This ain’t.

This is about as simple as you can get and yet the guy still manages to completely botch it.

This one is in the category of the "worst idea ever" although that particular "worst idea ever" is still #1. "A" for effort, though, sir.



There is an old adage about being in a house of ill repute with currency adorned with the busts of dead U.S. Presidents overflowing one’s pockets and yet that person still not being able to fulfill the terms of the commonly-understood house contract that would apply perfectly to our President.

(here endeth this sorry, sad-sack update)




We know this is going to sound like gotcha politics, though it is not meant to be. Could the fact that President Obama has not expressed his shock and outrage of the murder of Private William Long at the hands of an Islamic extremist have anything to do with the fact that he’s attempting to make nice with the Islamic world in the Middle East right now?

We reiterate what we said before – murder is wrong - so how is it then that one religiously-motivated assassination warrants an immediate response from the White House yet another religiously-motivated assassination does not?

For a man who did his best to downplay any connections to Islam during the campaign (a subject which we refuse to address) and who tried to bolster his credibility with the military, this omission is, at best, tone deaf and at worst, a disgustingly shameless planned negligence

Sir, may we remind you that you had no official connection to George Tiller yet you are William Long’s Commander-in-Chief. It is incumbent upon you to respond accordingly.

We'll be standing by.