Archive for January 17, 2011

Sudan and Tunisa two changes in government

Posted: January 17, 2011 by datechguy in opinion/news
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The referendum in Sudan is over and the vote is independence:

International observers gave south Sudan’s independence referendum their seal of approval on Monday and said a vote for secession was now “virtually certain” in their first official judgment on the poll.

Early results from last week’s plebiscite suggest people from Sudan’s oil-producing south overwhelming voted to split away from the north after decades of civil war.

Might be a tad premature to say independence but this is now the best shot for the Christians in Southern Sudan to enjoy a modicum of peace.

If they manage to pull it off I would not be surprised to see Christians who are being slain elsewhere on the continent to head in that direction.

Meanwhile in Tunisia although there is violence Michael Totten thinks there is a real shot for shot for Democracy:

Unlike in war-torn Afghanistan or fanatical Saudi Arabia, Tunisian democracy is a real possibility. It’s a bit unlikely as it’s only one possible option of many, but it could happen. Mebazaa himself is now promising, perhaps even sincerely, “a better political life which will include democracy, plurality and active participation for all the children of Tunis.”

I’ve spent time in more than a dozen Muslim countries, eight of them Arab, and Tunisia is — or at least was before this month when things fell apart — one of the most advanced and stable. The majority of its citizens belong to a well-educated middle class, the infrastructure seems no worse than Europe’s, and a high percentage of women in the cities have discarded the veil and the headscarf and dress like Europeans. The latter may sound like a small thing, but in a Muslim country, it visually indicates how much women’s rights have advanced. The overwhelming majority live near the coast in cosmopolitan cities that have traded and been in cultural contact with Europeans for millennia. It’s not a Western country, but it fully belongs to the Mediterranean region and is oriented more toward the West than most Arab countries.

Beirut was once a cosmopolitanism place too. This will be a real test, can an Islamic country when removing a dictator create a state that has freedoms that other Islamic states avoid, or will it become a place where Sharia is either officially or unofficially enforced?

These two stories are going to tell us an awful lot. Let’s make sure we pay attention.

Blair and Surber on civility

Posted: January 17, 2011 by datechguy in internet/free speech
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Tim Blair has a must read post today about how obsession, comparing the “Jewish conspiracy” fetishes in the Arab world with the Palin obsession of the left, it skewers all the right people and closes thus:

If Palin’s “extreme rhetoric” causes murders, perhaps we should be keeping an eye on media leftists, for they seem most taken by the popular Alaskan grandmother and Facebook pundit. Bizarrely, they also imagine that others – including 22-year-old drug-sucking gamer burnouts like Loughner – follow her with similar obsession.

More likely is that Loughner was simply a goon with a gun. Meanwhile, the broader case remains unexamined. If the “extreme rhetoric” of Palin and others leads to greater violence, we should see that reflected in homicide statistics. But the murder rate in the US keeps falling, according to the Washington Post last May: “For the third consecutive year, violent crime has declined in the United States, including a 7.2 per cent reduction in homicides.”

I blame Sarah Palin.

Meanwhile on our side of the Pacific Don Surber is mad as hell and isn’t going to take it anymore:

For two years now, I have been called ignorant, racist, angry and violent by the left. The very foul-mouthed protesters of Bush dare to now label my words as “hate speech.”

Last week, the left quickly blamed the right for the national tragedy of a shooting spree by a madman who never watched Fox News, never listened to Rush Limbaugh and likely did not know who Sarah Palin is.

Fortunately, the American public rejected out of hand that idiotic notion that the right was responsible.

Rather than apologize, the left wants to change the tone of the political debate.

The left suddenly wants civil discourse.

Bite me.

Don’t hold back Don tell me what you really think.

Meanwhile on the left we see the civility used when jealous of being unable to match the hits of a single law professor in Tennessee.

The myths of the left will likely continue but as facts continue to come out watch the mask continue to slip.

Cuba, Christians and Haiti the world keeps turning

Posted: January 17, 2011 by datechguy in opinion/news
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If you followed the blogs you likely didn’t think that anything else was going on except for blaming Sarah Palin for Arizona but there are a few things going on that you should know:

Item: Europe continues it’s post Christian Path:

If you think Pope Benedict XVI and other Christian denominations are lying about how Europe is secularizing, as well as shunning specifically Christianity, this should be proof.

The three million copies of the 2011-2012 school calendar published by the European Union has omitted Christian holidays, while continuing to note important Jewish and Muslim celebrations.

While Christian holidays such as Christmas and Easter are missing from the calendar’s pages, days commemorating “Sikh Baisakhi-Day, the Jewish Yom Kippur holiday, the Muslim holiday Aid-el-Kebir,” remain in place,”

Europe is still stung by Anti-Semitic slaughter and Muslims are the fastest growing population in the area so they can’t be offended. Christians, who cares.

Item: Iraq continues its own “post Christian era” that being more of a Post Christian being alive” era: (warning very graphic photos of slaughter)

This Assyrian Catholic church was taken over by jihadis, and during the course of the several hours during which they controlled the church, the insurgents killed many of the worshippers, until the Iraqi army forces finally stormed the building.

I have been viewing reports from survivors of the massacre, posted on YouTube (here, here and here). From these, and earlier published reports (e.g. here), a picture emerges of the jihadis as religiously motivated people who engaged their victims in theological conversations about Islam, and justified their actions based on the Islamic sharia.

And the fun for Christians continues in Pakistan too:

A day after the two got into an argument, the Muslim woman walked out onto the street and started shouting that her sister-in-law had abused the Holy Prophet (pbuh).

A short while later, a group of men forced their way into the house and started slapping the Christian woman, said another of her brothers.

“Other men and women from the neighbourhood started gathering at the house too and they beat up my sister and mother. They were the only people in the house,” he added.

A participant in the beating said that the women’s faces were blackened, and that they were made to wear necklaces of shoes and paraded around the locality on donkeys to humiliate them. The women denied blaspheming and repeatedly touched their feet, seeking mercy, he added.

I’m sure feminists in the west will make strong objections to this kind of thing someday before I die. Of course when they do the shock will likely kill me.
Item: Don’t call him a socialist but Obama is trying to bail out the Castro’s in Cuba.

A senior Obama official told The Miami Herald the much-expected move to expand cultural, religious and educational travel to Cuba is part of the administration’s continuing “effort to support the Cuban people’s desire to freely determine their own future.

President Barack Obama is also restoring the amount of money ($2,000) that can be sent to nonfamily members to the level they were at during part of the Clinton and Bush administrations.

As Val Prieto said Cuba’s #1 export is people generating money to send back. This is getting very little notice outside of Babalu Blog, but now you know about it.

Item: In the middle of a post whose real point is faith The Anchoress informs us the UN shows how it’s (not) done in Haiti:

The UN complied. As it turns out, the local aid organizations took the free food that came in from all over the world and were not selling it; they were hoarding it in order to sell it. But the people, for the most part, had no money to buy it with. The Haitian government is so corrupt and I’m sure they’re in cahoots with the local distribution organizations. Someone will get rich off the backs of the poor, and many will die for someone else’s greed.

The day that actual honest people are in charge in Haiti it will be a gift from God.

The world keeps turning no matter what we’re focusing on.

Morning Joe: “Eric Fuller? Fuller? Is he the guy who sells brushes?”

Posted: January 17, 2011 by datechguy in internet/free speech, media
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As you might recall Morning Joe went so over the top at the start of Friday’s show than I turned it off and watched the stooges all morning.

When the Eric Fuller statement came out and the left jumped all over it I was sure he would be the lead story on Monday, that was until he decided to publicly threaten a tea party person during the taping of ABC’s town hall on the Tuscon shootings.

Now I’m not a news director but I’d think that the irony of a shooting victim of Jared Zeitgeist Longhner threatening a tea party member, being arrested and involuntarily committed might actually be a story of interest that might bring discussion.

It would be interesting to see how they deal with this story, wouldn’t it? They have dealt with it all right. They’ve dealt it right out of the deck.

I have not seen a single mention of the event, not even a one liner in the base news segment. I’ve been watching since 6:04 and not a peep. Not a word.

Does anyone actually believe that if the roles had been reversed and the tea party person had been arrested it would have been the top story? How can these people actually justify this omission and is there anyone other than naive old me who expected better of them, that is actually surprised?

Let’s not pretend that the MSM is populated by “journalists” The MSM’s making Eric Fuller an unperson proves that it is now only populated by “journolist“.

Update: Nope not a word although I missed the “what have we learned today” segment but an inclusion there would be pretty lame. I’ve learned that MSNBC would rather protect their niche market than report news. I’ve also learned that Joe Scarborough was damn lucky not to be there to get a part of the blame today. Finally i’ve learned that an Instalanche is a great way to start the day. If you are a Glenn Reynolds fan who missed him on my show Saturday Night you can listen to it here. If you are one of those national advertisers that Glenn said is missing out on the 50,000 watts of my radio show, the ad rates are here.

Update 2: 24 hours later Way too early with Willie Geist discovers Eric Fuller reporting his apology. Will that rehabilitate him enough to make him the poster boy for the “blame the tea party” left? We will see.

Update 3: At least one reader was unclear on who Fuller was. This link explains it.

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