The Wasteland

Passing observation…

To me “oldies” refers to Purcell, Palestrina and des Prez. Contemporary music after Duke Ellington mostly… isn’t. Music that is. Yeh, there are some truly remarkable exceptions–including a few in rock music. But on the whole the latter part of the 20th Century anno domini was a musical wasteland–especially in the “serious” music category, IMO. And it’s not gotten much better in the first decade of the 21st Century. Still even the worst music can perform a useful function, serving as very good bad examples. Unfortunately, it seems the moral decline in our country (and generally in the Western world) is matched or even overmatched by a decline in musical perception among the masses.

Jose Ortega y Gasset’s “mass man” strikes again…


Writing in 1930 or so, Ortega y Gasset said, “The characteristic of the hour is that the commonplace mind, knowing itself to be commonplace, has the assurance to proclaim the rights of the commonplace and to impose them wherever it will.” And it is even more so today, as the lowest common denominator in morality, in knowledge and in reasoning yields us such nightmares as crap rap and Barack Hussein Obama… Ortega y Gasset’s observations echo the reasons the Founders did NOT structure the United States as a democracy. And yes, I do certainly believe that crap “music” and crappy government are related in a society that has come to think of itself as democratic.

Quote of the Month…

…maybe demi-decade:

The problem in the next four years will be not just that the president of the United States serially does not tell the truth. Instead, the real crisis in our brave new relativist world will be that those who demonstrate that he is untruthful will themselves be accused of lying.–Victor Davis Hanson

Borrowed Thoughts

From Odd Hours, by Dean Koontz:

If evil geniuses are so rare, why do so many bad people get away with so many crimes against their fellow citizens and, when they become leaders of nations, against humanity?

Edmund Burke provided the answer in 1795: The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

I would only add this, It is also essential that good men and women not be educated and [that they] be propagandized into believing that real evil is a myth and that all malevolent behavior is merely the result of a broken family’s or failed society’s shortcomings, amenable to cure by counseling and by the application of new economic theory.

Seems like I ought to be getting a “Well, duh” from readers…

How to Deal With Islamic Terrorism

Be more terrible than the terrorists. Seriously. It is literally the only thing that has stopped Muslim aggression in the past, so why does The 0! seem to think he can lie to us saying, essentially, all we need to do is beat ourselves over the head and shoulders, wear sackcloth and ashes and cry Woe! for the terrible wrongs we have committed on Muslims by… not submitting to Islam*. Then we can all sit around a campfire singing Kum Ba Yah Allah.

*feh* Although Kipling’s lil tale below does not specifically deal with a response to terrorism (the dead subaltern was after all an active duty soldier in in an area of conflict, not a civilian non-combatant), but it does illustrate the proper method of communicating with brutal savages.

The Grave of the Hundred Head
–Rudyard Kipling

There’s a widow in sleepy Chester
Who weeps for her only son;
There’s a grave on the Pabeng River,
A grave that the Burmans shun,
And there’s Subadar Prag Tewarri
Who tells how the work was done.

A Snider squibbed in the jungle,
Somebody laughed and fled,
And the men of the First Shikaris
Picked up their Subaltern dead,
With a big blue mark in his forehead
And the back blown out of his head.

Subadar Prag Tewarri,
Jemadar Hira Lal,
Took command of the party,
Twenty rifles in all,
Marched them down to the river
As the day was beginning to fall.

They buried the boy by the river,
A blanket over his face–
They wept for their dead Lieutenant,
The men of an alien race–
They made a samadh in his honor,
A mark for his resting-place.

For they swore by the Holy Water,
They swore by the salt they ate,
That the soul of Lieutenant Eshmitt Sahib
Should go to his God in state;
With fifty file of Burman
To open him Heaven’s gate.

The men of the First Shikaris
Marched till the break of day,
Till they came to the rebel village,
The village of Pabengmay–
A jingal covered the clearing,
Calthrops hampered the way.

Subadar Prag Tewarri,
Bidding them load with ball,
Halted a dozen rifles
Under the village wall;
Sent out a flanking-party
With Jemadar Hira Lal.

The men of the First Shikaris
Shouted and smote and slew,
Turning the grinning jingal
On to the howling crew.
The Jemadar’s flanking-party
Butchered the folk who flew.

Long was the morn of slaughter,
Long was the list of slain,
Five score heads were taken,
Five score heads and twain;
And the men of the First Shikaris
Went back to their grave again,

Each man bearing a basket
Red as his palms that day,
Red as the blazing village–
The village of Pabengmay,
And the “drip-drip-drip” from the baskets
Reddened the grass by the way.

They made a pile of their trophies
High as a tall man’s chin,
Head upon head distorted,
Set in a sightless grin,
Anger and pain and terror
Stamped on the smoke-scorched skin.

Subadar Prag Tewarri
Put the head of the Boh
On the top of the mound of triumph,
The head of his son below,
With the sword and the peacock-banner
That the world might behold and know.

Thus the samadh was perfect,
Thus was the lesson plain
Of the wrath of the First Shikaris–
The price of a white man slain;
And the men of the First Shikaris
Went back into camp again.

Then a silence came to the river,
A hush fell over the shore,
And Bohs that were brave departed,
And Sniders squibbed no more;
For the Burmans said
That a kullah’s head
Must be paid for with heads five score.

There’s a widow in sleepy Chester
Who weeps for her only son;
There’s a grave on the Pabeng River,
A grave that the Burmans shun,
And there’s Subadar Prag Tewarri
Who tells how the work was done.

Although, come to think of it, Kipling was a piker. 1,000-to-1 seems about right to me. Personally, I’d check off on a “monument” of radioactive glass in what was once Mecca big enough to see from the moon. Seems about right to me in return for a millennium and a half of Muslim terrorism. But then, I don’t have that kind of decision making power. Unfortunately. And fortunately, I’m not some raghead splodeydope willing to cut short my stay on this veil of tears to take out non-combatants (although, if one is a believer in the word of Mohamed, one MUST be a combatant, so… )


Trackposted to Rosemary’s Thoughts, Nuke Gingrich, Allie is Wired, Woman Honor Thyself, Right Truth, The World According to Carl, DragonLady’s World, The Pink Flamingo, Leaning Straight Up, , Right Voices, and Gone Hollywood, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.


Continue reading “How to Deal With Islamic Terrorism”

Professor 0!

Ralph Peters’ droll deconstruction of The 0!’s Middle East Tour is a not-to-be-missed piece of worthwhile snark. A sample:

Churches and synagogues are about to open in Saudi Arabia. Since “Islam has a proud tradition of tolerance” and there are “over 1,200 mosques within our borders,” I can’t wait for the first Baptist hymn-sing in Riyadh. Sign me up!

Behind closed doors with Saudi King Abdullah, our president must’ve mentioned the many hundreds of churches and synagogues that thrived on the Arabian Peninsula during the Prophet’s lifetime. Muslims zealots destroyed them. Time to get the bin Laden family’s construction firm on the job re-building!

And stoning converts who leave Islam to death is a no-no, right?

Yep. “Islam has a proud tradition of tolerance” MHWA. When flying pigs poop on The Black Stone of the Kaaba…

And don’t miss this priceless dissing of the “Islamic contributions to civilization” myth:

Islam’s been the source of real progress. Like “calligraphy.” Medieval Islam’s ballyhooed contributions actually were due to Greek-speaking Christians (including slaves) employed as court officials, to Armenian architects and Jewish physicians. But, yeah, Arabs had really good penmanship.

But really, Peters give Islam too much credit and touched on just a tad of the “contributions” Islamic culture is falsely credited with. BTW, Medieval European illuminated manuscripts are far more beautiful than Arabian penmanship. Hands down. It’s not that Islamic culture hasn’t tried over the centuries. It really has. Ideas stolen from the best of conquered and enslaved people, debased and hoarded for silly uses or used to falsely demonstrate Muslim superiority abound. But hey! Don’t let me rain on the myths. After paging through the thousands of hits of propaganda you’d get on Google, it’d take someone of more than average intellectual stamina to look for the truth… (Not me. I was introduced thirty-eight years ago to a genuine scholar–a Lebanese gentleman who, though he had multiple doctorates recognized in his own country was starting over again in the US ed system *spit*–who gave me a few pointers on where to look–all before the web. Took months of library searches, in what free time a po’ student could wrangle, to verify his astounding revelations… So, don’t expect me to do your homework for you :-))

Evidence That “Moderate Muslims” Cannot Exist

Found here, all it takes is one paragraph to prove definitively that moderate Muslims cannot exist, only true believers, subjugated “believers” who practice Islam from fear, soi disant “moderates” practicing so-called “holy deception” of infidels, and heretics. I repeat: If this has any correlation to the real world (and it does), then there can truly be no “moderate” Muslims:

CORRECT DEFINITION OF A MODERATE MUSLIM
AL Aqidah ALTahawiyya

TAHAWI’S STATEMENT OF ISLAMIC DOCTRINE (AL-`AQIDA AL-TAHAWIYYA):

In the Name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate Praise be to Allah, Lord of all the worlds.

The great scholar Hujjat al-lslam Abu Ja’far al-Warraq al-Tahawi al-Misri, may Allah have mercy on him, said: This is a presentation of the beliefs of Ahl al-Sunna wa al-Jama`a, according to the school of the jurists of this religion, Abu Hanifa al-Nu`man ibn Thabit al-Kufi, Abu Yusuf Ya`qub ibn Ibrahim al-Ansari and Abu `Abdullah Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Shaybani, may Allah be pleased with them all, and what they believe regarding the fundamentals of the religion and their faith in the Lord of the worlds…

…The Qur’an is the word of Allah. It came from Him as speech without it being possible to say how. He sent it down on His Messenger as revelation. The believers accept it, as absolute truth. They are certain that it is, in truth, the word of Allah. It is not created as is the speech of human beings, and anyone who hears it and claims that it is human speech has become an unbeliever. Allah warns him and censures him and threatens him with Fire when He says, Exalted is He: “I will burn him in the Fire.” (al-Muddaththir 74:26) When Allah threatens with the Fire those who say “This is just human speech” (74:25) we know for certain that it is the speech of the Creator of mankind and that it is totally unlike the speech of mankind.

Now, if you have a stomach strong enough, go read the “holy books” of Islam. The Koran alone is FULL of “absolute truth” enjoining Muslims to kill or enslave unbelievers in their cult and FULL of blessings promised for those who do so. If it is the teaching of Islam (and it is) that the Koran is “absolute truth” then Muslims who are in any way, shape, fashion or form in agreement with the Koran support–by direct action or inaction–the murder, rape, pillage, torture and subjugation the Koran dictates as the fate of unbelievers at the hand of those who are Muslims. Those who are not in agreement with the Koran but still claim to be Muslims are, of course, heretics.

The fact that the Koran itself claims the position of “absolute truth” makes it pretty black and white, folks: “moderate” Islam is a lie. All Muslims are either true believers who actively support following Mohamed’s own practice and teachings of mass murder, rape, pillage, torture and subjugation of unbelievers or submitting in fear to Islam or soi disant “moderates” practicing so-called “holy deception” of infidels or heretics falsely claiming to still practice Islam when they would have to sanitize Mohamed past recognition and delete 70% of their so-called holy books’ “absolute truth” in order to achieve their moderation of Islam (destroying the thing to create something civilized that falsely goes by the same name).

OTOH, anyone throughout history who has suggested that Christians engage in the normative behavior of the life and teachings of Mohamed has had to do so in direct contradiction to the life and teachings of Jesus. To put it another way, anyone claiming to be a Muslim who lives a life of peace and does not seek to force others to believe as he does is a heretic, whereas anyone claiming to be a Christian who lives a life of peace and does not seek to force others to believe as he does is orthodox.

Continue reading “Evidence That “Moderate Muslims” Cannot Exist”

Now, I Wouldn’t Go This Far, But…

I saw an anonymous comment at CPSIA – Comments & Observations and felt a twinge of agreement:

“I think we need to update the dat[a] on lethal dosages for lead and other toxins by force feeding them to congress until they all die. We will then have useful data, and end the harmful effect of congress.”

While I wouldn’t go that far, I do feel that Congress might find a collective interview with Dr. Tarr and Mr. Fether to be enlightening…


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We Don’t Need an Open Racist on the SCOTUS

I’ve heard all the bluster about the 0!’s nomination of Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. Believes judges “make policy”–the Constitution says that’s the job of the legislature–believes discrimination against whites is “justice” and etc. All that is moot in the face of her membership in the latino (no, I will NOT capitalize “latino”–not when using the word in reference to La Raza) KKK, La Raza. No one–and I do mean NO ONE–who is a member of that organization or in any way, shape, fashion or form supports it belongs in office, on the bench or in the employ of ANY government agency able to affect policy in any way.

Sotomayor: racist bigot. That’s enough to disqualify her. I’d as soon have an open member of the Nazi party or a KKK member as anyone associated with La Raza. There’s no substantive difference among the three, IMO.


Trackposted to The Pink Flamingo, Rosemary’s Thoughts, Gulf Coast Hurricane Tracker, and DragonLady’s World, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

10th Amendment News

From Texas governor, Rick Perry:

“I believe that our federal government has become oppressive in its size, its intrusion into the lives of our citizens, and its interference with the affairs of our state. That is why I am here today to express my unwavering support for efforts all across our country to reaffirm the states’ rights affirmed by the Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. I believe that returning to the letter and spirit of the U.S. Constitution and its essential 10th Amendment will free our state from undue regulations, and ultimately strengthen our Union.

“…Millions of Texans are tired of Washington, DC trying to come down here to tell us how to run Texas.”

He’d better be carefull. While 33 States so far have either begun considering or have already passed bills or resolutions affirming the proper role of the fedgov as limited by the 10th Amendment, who knows what the fedgov may do? Lincoln set the bar when he called out federal troops to disband the Maryland legislature and arrest Maryland legislators for not offering resounding support for his intention of going to war with the Southern States. And the DHS has issued a “report” that, among other things,

“…defines ‘rightwing extremism in the United States’ as including not just racist or hate groups, but also groups that reject federal authority in favor of state or local authority.”

Hmm, seems like the Texas legislature (as well as the legislatures of the 32 other States that have either passed or are considering passing legislation affirming limits on fedgov power, as per the 10th Amendment) would qualify as “right wing extremist groups” under the new report from DHS.

Understanding the Difference between Muslim Terrorists and “Plain Old Muslims”

[Another in a series of “worth reposting” screeds from days of yore ;-)]


Charles Brumbelow, in an email published in Jerry Pournelle’s Chaos Maor Mail points to an Opinion Journal (WSJ) snippet listed under, “The Religion That Dare Not Speak Its Name,” that touches on a subject that’s too difficult for “nuanced” thinkers to resolve easily, but which seems pretty darned simple to me:

There is a genuine problem here of choosing language that distinguishes between Muslim terrorists and plain old Muslims. But circumlocutions designed to avoid acknowledging the former’s Islamic nature cannot possibly help clarify matters.

Let me help “clarify matters” a bit.

“Plain old Muslims” claim the Koran (choose your own trendy spelling) is their literal guide to a holy life.

Islamic terrorists claim the Koran (choose your own trendy spelling) is their literal guide to a holy life.

“Plain old Muslims” revere Mohammed and view his life and teachings (of which the Koran, Hadith, etc,) as worthy of emulation in all of life.

Islamic terrorists revere Mohammed and view his life and teachings (of which the Koran, Hadith, etc,) as worthy of emulation in all of life.

Now, THE distinction: Islamic terrorists honestly, forthrightly and openly seek to actually emulate the bloody Butcher of Medina, while “Plain old Muslims” are either just not all that serious about actually following Mohammed or are living lives of lies, decieving the Dar al Harb.

There. Now you know the single most significant difference between “Plain old Muslims” and Islamic terrorists.


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