Posts Tagged ‘reality’

I’ve got to say I’m really torn on the Rifqa business…

Posted: September 21, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news
Tags: , ,

…and the events of the last month haven’t made me less torn.

There are many basic things here, all are important and none of it makes this easy:

A parents right to raise their children as they see fit.

The right to practice Religion without fear.

The long history of Honor Killing in Islam

The fact that this particular Christian sect seems shall we say, odd

If they are able to take the kid because they don’t like a religion then it is a precedent that can be used on other religions that can be a disaster.

If they return her and these people ARE fundamentalists this girl is likely dead.

I feel for the parents if they are telling the truth, in one sense, no matter what happens, they lose, if they lose custody, they lose, if they gain custody, their girl doesn’t trust them, so they lose.

I feel for Rifaq no matter what, if she is wrong than she is being used and her life is unlikly to be normal, if she is not then she is obliged to live in fear even IF she wins her case. After all the various fatwa’s linked by Pam Geller don’t specify the family has to kill her, any believing Muslim can.

And it’s a WHOLE lot easier to kill a single girl once the publicity has died down that it is to fire off a bomb, and her eye makes it a whole lot harder to hide her from potential assassins, from heavy duty radicals to devout fundamentalist members of her extended family back home coming here to “restore family honor.”

There is only one solution as far as I can see, here is what I would do:

Many times in the courts people accused are allowed to be tried as adults. I think Rifqa has to be given adult status 10 months early and allowed to make her own decision. I really don’t like this but I can’t see a better solution. It’s a horrible precedent as I’ve said but that’s where the situation leaves me.

All of this breast beating comes down the one simple fact that prevents this from being a simple custody case. It is the elephant in the room that we ignore officially:

Radical Islamic fundamentalism is NOT compatible with Western Civilization in general and American democracy in particular.

There are no two ways around it. This is the source for the war on terror, the problems in England and Europe and the whole kit and caboodle. Why is this simple truth not voiced officially? Likely because of a second basic truth.

There is absolutely no constitutional way to address this issue. Furthermore any amendment or extra constitutional method to get around it will damage America worse than the problem itself.

So what can we do? Since the only acceptable solution is reform of Islam and that has to be done within Islam. We can only do what we can.

Aggressively enforce existing law.

Be vigilant in cases of suspected terror.

Closely watch groups that preach it in the same way we keep an eye on the Klan and the Militia movement

Fight Islamic terror abroad using every and give aid to those that encourage reform

And when we have tough cases like this, handle them on a case by case basis.

You can’t argue with the numbers

Posted: September 21, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news, war
Tags: , , ,

In a mostly self serving story at the Washington post (despite the title) worrying about an Israeli strike on Iran, Jackson Diehl reports an important truth:

Between April 2001 and the end of 2008, 4,246 rockets and 4,180 mortar shells were fired into Israel from Gaza, killing 14 Israelis, wounding more than 400 and making life in southern Israel intolerable. During what was supposed to be a cease-fire during the last half of 2008, 362 rockets and shells landed. Meanwhile, between late 2000 and the end of 2008, Israeli forces killed some 3,000 Gazans.

Since April there have been just over two dozen rocket and mortar strikes — or less than on many single days before the war. No one has been seriously injured, and life in the Israeli town of Sderot and the area around it has returned almost to normal. Israeli attacks in Gaza have almost ceased, too: Since the end of the mini-war, 29 Palestinians, two of whom were civilians, have been killed by Israeli action.

These are basic facts and those facts add up to lives saved on both sides of the fence and more importantly regular lives that can be lived by real people.

This is why we who stand with Israel are proud of it and will continue to do so…

(unless they decide to do something really nasty like support Glen Beck or Rush Limbaugh, Honorary Lizardoid then maybe Israel too can be proudly banned from lgf. It’s the last piece of the puzzle that the bloggers at lgf watch are waiting for before setting up their accounts.

Update: A Good sign Charles is still hitting the Saudi’s over Israel.

You mean the Saudis lied when they said they would stop participating in the Arab League boycott of Israel? Shocka!

As long as he keeps a grip on some reality there’s still hope and the LGF watch people will remain disapointed. Pollyanna lives!

What really matters

Posted: September 21, 2009 by datechguy in oddities
Tags: , , , , , , , ,

On a day where this blog has talked a lot about being proudly banned by little green footballs for daring to defend Rush Limbaugh, Honorary Lizardoid last night. , leave it to James Carville of all people to remind us of what really counts.

My wife and I actually saw it yesterday and it made us both smile, it certainly put being proudly banned by lgf for daring to defend Rush Limbaugh, Honorary Lizardoid in perspective…

…but I’m going to keep tweaking Chucky about it anyway. At least until he puts up a post specifically removing Rush’s Honorary Lizardoid status.

A smart reporter would ask this question of Ahmadinejad

Posted: September 21, 2009 by datechguy in internet/free speech, opinion/news
Tags: , , ,

As you might know I’m a big fan of Jay Nordlinger, I met him at the National Review Boston event during the 2004 convention and shared a table with him.

4 weeks ago during the Lockerbie disgrace he reminded us of an interesting quote from Saif al-Islam al-Gaddafi, (Gaddafi’s son) at the Davos summit in 2005.

So he says, “It is incorrect to deny the Holocaust.” And why? Because it was the Russians who liberated Auschwitz. We learned about these horrors from the Russians—”not from the Zionists, not from the New York Times,” but from the Red Army. “So, if Arabs deny this, it is incorrect.”

The World Economic Forum official who is with us says, “On that conciliatory note, we must adjourn.”

Amazing: that an admission that the Holocaust occurred—because the Red Army has said so—should be “conciliatory.” But, in our bizarre world, it is.

As you might remember Russia has been deeply involved in aiding and abetting Iran these days.

I think if a reporter decided to ask the question: “You state that the Holocaust is a lie but the Russians say their troops liberated Auschwitz on January 27th 1945 and state categorically that it took place. Are they lying?” the answer would be an interesting piece of news.

Update: It’s stuff like this that explains why it should be asked.

Older Entries
Newer Entries