Archive for July 19, 2010

Silence in the Library revisited

Posted: July 19, 2010 by datechguy in doctor who
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I wasn’t a big fan of Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead when they first came out, There were many better episodes that season.

But with Series 5 behind us the pair of them take on a whole new meaning and Alex Kingston’s performance looks both better and more poignant. Kingston’s River Song has (along with Arthur Darvill’s Rory) have been an incredible addition to the show. Darvill’s character is the geek that so many of us who watch the show are. Song’s character transforms the Doctor into the Geek for us to identify with.

I hope Kingston stays a while, she adds an incredible dimension to the series that we haven’t seen since Romana.

Kingston current performances combined with Stephen Moffat has really raised the series. They are so good they even make two year old episodes better.

Sarah Palin: The Truth Spoken aloud drives liberals nuts

Posted: July 19, 2010 by datechguy in internet/free speech, opinion/news
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The reason why this memeorandum thread has so much action is the absolute apoplexy.

Sarah Palin has the courage to bluntly say what everyone knows, but the left wants to pretend isn’t true.

A Mosque could be built anywhere on the subway line to have easy access, building it near ground zero is a deliberate attempt of Islam to assert power. Every radical Islamist worldwide will see it as a sign of submission, particularly when the towers have not been rebuilt. Pretending otherwise is a delusion of the type we’ve talked about before.

Yet Sarah Palin comes right out and says it. Not only is the uncomfortable truth expressed but it is expressed by the one the left hates most of all. That is why it has driven this “Patrick” and others totally nuts.

Tell you what guys. Let’s take a national poll of Americans and see if they think a Mosque at or near Ground Zero is a good idea. If you want your guys to run on that be my guest. You might manage to win Berkley, SF and Cambridge and I stress the “might”.

I wonder if Bloomberg’s aide would be willing to call the Saudi’s racist since they will not allow a Christian Church in their country. I wonder if that aide would call the Palestinians racist because they insist on an Judenrein Gaza? I think not. This is an example of the “courage” of cowards.

The days when the denial of reality pays off are rapidly dying.

Update: An update via Atlas on Islam in general. A must read.

The most important story of the day is not what you would expect:

Posted: July 19, 2010 by datechguy in internet/free speech, opinion/news
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It is this bit from Commentary that links to this interview in the Jerusalem Post all emphasis mine:

The best of the best. We had 35 people in the room: 20 of them were non-Jewish, 15 were Jewish. And I didn’t tell anyone who was which. And I’d recruited them by telling them “we’re going to talk about Iraq, Iran and the Middle East,” not telling them that the real focus was Israel.

Got them all into the room. It was so crowded that we had kids sitting on the floor. But that added to the intensity. They felt like they were in a dorm room. And within 10 minutes, the non-Jews started with “the war crimes of Israel,” with “the Jewish lobby,” with “the Jews have a lot more power and influence” – stuff that’s borderline anti-Jewish.

And guess what? Did the Jewish kids at the best schools in America, did they stand up for themselves? Did they challenge the assertions? They didn’t say sh*t. And in that group was the leader of the Israeli caucus at Harvard. It took him 49 minutes of this before he responded to anything.

The group is over. It’s a three-hour group. I then say, “Who’s Jewish, who isn’t?” At that point some of the Jewish kids got a little outraged. I dismiss all the non-Jewish kids.

And the Jewish kids are there. And they’re now ticked at me for doing this, you know, “Why have you segregated us?” I said, “I’m Frank Luntz and I’m Jewish, and I’ve been working on this now for 10 years, and you all didn’t say sh*t.”

And it all dawned on them: If they won’t say it to their classmates, who they know, who will they stand up for Israel to? Two of the women in the group started to cry. I got the whole thing on tape. The guys are like, “Oh my God, I didn’t speak up, I can’t believe I let this happen.” And they’re all looking at each other with horrible embarrassment and guilt like you wouldn’t believe.

And I take this tape down, this little DVD, to the Jewish community and I say, “This is what we’ve done – or not done.” It’s not just giving them the facts. It is also teaching them how to say it, when to say it, when to crack a joke, when to acknowledge someone else’s points, when not to be argumentative or judgmental.

That is the point. During the 30’s people just couldn’t let themselves believe what was coming for Jews. This denial allowed it to happen. Right now that same denial is going on. Evelyn Gordon bottom lines it:

But it’s also a travesty because it shouldn’t be hard for any Jewish leftist to explain why Israel, for all its flaws, is still a far better example of the left’s one-time values, such as freedom, democracy, tolerance, and human rights, than any of its enemies. As Israel’s first Bedouin diplomat, Ishmael Khaldi, said in explaining why he chose to represent a country that allegedly oppresses his fellow Muslim Arabs, “We’re a multicultural, multilingual, multireligious country and I’m happy and proud to be part of it.”

I’m sorry if liberals in general and liberal Jews in particular are unable, unwilling or too afraid to stand up for Israel then they had better beware, because radical Islam and its followers don’t just say “death to Israel” they say “death to Jews” and if Israel disappears tomorrow you and your children (and not me since I’m not even slightly Jewish) are the ones who are going to pay the price. And when that price is paid and the yellow star is once again on your chest (if you’re lucky that is) you will be echoing the guys in the group from above said:

I can’t believe I let this happen!

And if you think that is an exaggeration, try to walk through a Muslim neighborhood in England or Canada carrying an Israeli flag or wearing a big blue star of David if you dare.

Memorandum thread here.

Update: Stacy handles this in depth emphasis mine.

As with global warming, so too with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The three-decade ascendancy of the Edward Said cult in Mideast studies has poisoned the academic well to such a degree that one can scarcely find an “expert” on the subject who is not tainted by it. Meanwhile, the veterans of the ’60s New Left have penetrated organized liberalism to such a degree that, vis-à-vis the Middle East, the Democratic Party is now more aligned with Sirhan Sirhan than with RFK.

Reality is going to catch up with you it you don’t deal with it first.

Tom Friedman makes a great point but misses an important one…

Posted: July 19, 2010 by datechguy in internet/free speech, media
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Friedman makes a couple of good points concerning the Octavia Nasr firing in his column today:

Augustus Richard Norton, of Boston University, a Shiite expert, said this about Fadlallah, whom he knew: “He argued that women should have equal opportunities to men and be well educated. He even argued that women have a right to hit their husband back because it was not appropriate for a spouse to be beaten by their husbands. He was not afraid to speak about sexuality, and he even once gave [a mosque sermon] about sexual urges and female masturbation. It was common to find young people who followed his writings all over the region.” Indeed, Nasr later explained that her tweet about Fadlallah was because he took a “contrarian and pioneering stand among Shia clerics on women’s rights.”

Remember this is an islamic cleric in Lebanon, after reading several books on woman’s repression in Islamic we need a lot more of this, second good point:

Ghaddar said she came to understand that “only figures like Fadlallah could change the status quo. People who position themselves as anti-Hezbollah, critics of resistance, or atheists, will rarely be heard within the Shia community, because people will not listen to them. … Fadlallah on the other hand could reach out to the people because he was one of them. … People like him, if strengthened, can bring about real change. He is one of those rare people whom Hezbollah and the Iranian leadership feared … because people liked him and respected him.”

These are both legitimate things to consider about the guy (If he was Stacy McCain he would have also played the “My God she is Hot“ card) as is the point that only someone on the team will be listened to.

However you miss the most important point. He was in favor of dead Jews, LOTS of them. Regardless of the other stuff he was still a terrorist. Defending and supporting him is like defending Albert Speer. You can make any amount of excuses you want, he’s still a Nazi. I’ve mentioned this type of thing before:

It’s like saying Tessio is a scoundrel and Clemenza is not. They’re all friggen Mafia! They are by definition all scoundrels.

Or to put it even better consider this exchange from the Classic movie The Great Escape. Where the C.O. points out the risks of such a plan to the med:

Ramsey: I have to point out one thing to you, Roger. No matter how unsatisfactory this camp may be, the high command have left us in the hands of the Luftwaffe, not the Gestapo and the SS.

Bartlett: Look, sir, you talk about the high command of the Luftwaffe, then the SS and the Gestapo. To me they’re the same. We’re fighting the bloody lot. There’s only one way to put it, sir. They are the common enemies of everyone who believes in freedom.

That’s is the critical point and Friedman misses it. They are the common enemy. There was no nuance here. If she said the same thing about a Bin Ladin deputy would we even have to ask if she should be fired?

Update: memeorandum thread here.

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