The American Spectator

Crusader| 12.23.08 @ 1:16PM

Come on Philip, they are just "radicals" who've "hijacked" a "religion of peace," doncha know? They just need to have their grienvances heard! If Israel and America would stop oppressing all muslims around the world we could all live in peace and sing kumbaya around the campfire, doncha know?

Isn't this pretty much what our own media, academia, and gubmint tell us? So it MUST be true, right?

WendyG| 12.23.08 @ 1:17PM

And these cowardly killers always wear masks. Evil personified.

Roy| 12.23.08 @ 2:13PM

Get with the program. Kumbaya contains the word "lord" and refers to someone praying. We're going to have to sing the Sesame Street theme song.

Jeremiah| 12.23.08 @ 2:28PM

Crusader and WendyG --

Nothing you write shows the least bit of knowledge about this topic.

You need to get out more. Turn off Fox News and stop pretending you can understand the Middle East by glancing at a few photographs!

Gawd. What a couple of maroons!

Crusader| 12.23.08 @ 2:39PM

Jeremiah, go back to the kids' table, adults are talking.

You are an effing head in the sand idiot, kook, mentally challenged lefty, and you DARE to personally attack me? I usually don't mind, but do NOT presume to think you know what I know about islam. Do NOT presume to think my opinions are driven by a picture or whatever stereotype you have of someone on the right. Unlike you freaking moronic, America-loathing, freedom-hating, bend-over-and-take-it-from-the-nearest-terrorist lefty kook, I base my opinions on facts and history (real, not your kooky left revisionist stuff).

Man there is nothing I would like better than to take the jack-a$$ jeremiahs of the world and put them in a big room with some effing islamist terrorists so they can have a whack at "diplomacy" and see if it really works as well in practice with these barbarians as it does in their warped-minded theories.

Effing idiot kook lefties.

Karin| 12.23.08 @ 2:40PM

Jeremiah--
Nothing you wrote was the least bit coherent. "Get out more, get a life" etc. is not an edifying arguement. Do you have a can't-fail strategy for the middle east?

John| 12.23.08 @ 3:02PM

Liar.
They are members of the religion of peace practising their secular faith.
Like 9-11 it is a plot laid by the evil jooooos.
Obviously Mr Klein is a zionazi spreading propaganda.
PS lefties - this is called "sarcasm" -like "politics of hope" or "change you can believe in"

Jeremiah| 12.23.08 @ 4:23PM

Karin --
Since you were good enough to suggest an actual exchange of ideas, I'll respond.
Do I have a "can't-fail strategy" for the Middle East?
Of course not. I would argue, however, that posting pictures of people in masks and suggesting that those pictures are an argument is foolish and ignorant.
Violence in the Middle East is fueled by dozens of incredibly complicated and virtually intractable conflicts among Muslims themselves and between Muslims and Israel. American media accounts do very little to help, since they invariably simply the issues, but with a little effort it is possible to get some kind of idea what's going on over there.

1. The Palestinians have legitimate grievances. If you don't understand this, you don't understand the region or what's going on there.

2. Terrorism is not somehow a part of Arabic DNA. It is an ugly, deeply destructive cultural phenomenon. But it is not the doing of the devil or God. It is a human response to humiliation and perceived betrayal that can be understood and prevented.

tyjyt| 12.23.08 @ 5:44PM

this posting had no value whatsoever

Ran| 12.23.08 @ 8:11PM

Jerry has just proven to us that RSM's criticism of him as being a 'troll' is accurate by the very definition of 'troll' he'd offered RSM [elsewhere] in his defense. He's "marooned" himself. Hoisted, own petard, all that.

His condescending "Since you were good enough to suggest an actual exchange of ideas, I'll respond" crap after a stupid ad-hominem... part of the normal M.O. It's one thing to err, it's quite another to exchange one's credibility for a totally witless and arrogant insult.

"It is a human response to humiliation and perceived betrayal that can be understood and prevented." Right. Freakin' irony, that is.

Jeremiah| 12.23.08 @ 9:09PM

Ran --

My point is that terrorism is not some mysterious, supernatural force of ultimate evil.

It's an extremely ugly and destructive response to what the people who practice it consider intolerable domination by an overwhelming adversary.

It's a tool, and as such, it can be a) understood, and, therefore, b) prevented.

Referring to terrorists as "evildoers" and trying to scare people with provocative photographs of masked missile toting demons does not help anything.

And yes -- I was impressed that Karin at least asked for an argument. I was responding to the initial piece that didn't make one, and to subsequent posts that didn't either.

Ever since the 1930s I'd guess it's been a pretty mild and harmless thing to call someone a "maroon."

Now if I haven't hoisted myself on my own petard or made my own quietus with a bare bodkin or anything else of the kind, I'll sign off and enjoy my terrorist-sympathizing Satanic condom-dispensing Sarah Palin-hating anti-American pro-UN latte, along with a little evening pornography and petition-signing.

ruth| 12.24.08 @ 12:06AM

Wow! Both Good Cop Jeremiah, Bad Cop Jeremiah on display on the same thread.

Frank Burns| 12.24.08 @ 9:28AM

Remember the old saying, a picture's worth a thousand words (providing it hasn't been retouched by AP, Reuters, etc).

I've been to the middle east as a visitor, just long enough to get a taste of what they're really like. They absolutely hate us with a venom you can't imagine; they literally tried to murder my brother because he was dumb enough to go outside wearing a cross around his neck; they went berserk. Americans are too prissy, always looking for something to be "offended" by while ignoring the real threats around them.

Jeremiah| 12.24.08 @ 10:42AM

Frank --
Old sayings have their place, but at times we have to stop and rethink matters. "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink" is a saying, but how really does that help us understand a complex and incredibly dangerous problem like terrorism?

The fact is that a picture is NOT worth a thousand words. A thousand words aren't even worth that much anymore. People have gotten too dumb. In Europe people listen to newscasts that feature stories from around the world. They can find the countries on the map they hope to bomb one day, unlike us.
We need a national Thousand Words project to at least get our voters reading at a sixth grade level before they consign to flames the entirety of the Muslim nations.

CRusader| 12.24.08 @ 10:57AM

Man its funny, jackass-amiah has a problem with voters who read at a "sixth grade level...consigning to flames the entirety of the muslim world."

Again, problem with the American Left is they project their own faults, fears, and prejudices onto the folks on the right. Jackass-amiah, it si voters on the left who consistently demonstrate ignorance, not the right.

See, when I read the koran I take ol' muhammed at his word, based on the actions I observe his followers committing. You are a typical kook leftist moral relativist who refuses to acknowledge and define the problem, but instead still want to try to find the "real reasons" islamic nutjobs do what they do. My suggestion, read the koran, siras, and hadiths. That would be a good start.

ruth| 12.24.08 @ 11:40AM

Jeremiah's sentiments represent Obama's--that's why I didn't want him to be elected. Appeasement never works, never will.

Jeremiah| 12.24.08 @ 11:44AM

Crusader --

Basing American foreign policy on a medieval Arabic scripture is hardly my idea of smart.

In case you haven't noticed, there's a billion Muslims in the world. Our government estimates radical Islamic terrorist groups to number at around 100,000. I'm no mathematician, but we're talking small, small percentages here.

You also overlook the incredible damage that constant fighting does a democracy.

Wars require a government to deceive its people and spend horrendous amounts of money, diverting tax dollars from productive spending (infrastructure and education, say) to spending that is not husbanded in any way and creates no value.

After Viet Nam our nation experienced the worst economic recession it had seen since the Depression.

Now, we are once again facing the cost of wars against nameless enemies on the other side of the globe.

On the other hand, we see successes in detecting and preventing terrorist attacks and capture or killing terrorists.

How do we achieve those successes?

Naturally, from good police work. Detectives, forensic accountants, sting operations, and so on. That's what's keeping us safe. All this nonsense about a "war on terror," which is the ultimate stupidity, is just propaganda to get people like you to vote Republican.

Read The Leaning Tower if you want to learn something about what it's actually like to defeat terrorists.

Jeremiah| 12.24.08 @ 11:45AM

Apologies to Wright:

The LOOMING Tower, not The Leaning Tower. Eggnog.

ruth| 12.24.08 @ 12:37PM

Jeremiah, another Christmas passes since 9/11 and we haven't been attacked--that's 7 1/2 years of success. Let's see if your liberal policies work as well. Time will tell. Until then you are just another liberal gasbag spewing hot air.