Where people would ponder what it was about Australia or the Aussie women that drove the poor Lebanese immigrants to their heinous acts. If they had committed the same crime in Pakistan, they would be strung up for their actions.
"He is Muslim, he is flying and he has a gun and it's close to 11 of September," Uggla said. "That makes people draw quick conclusions."
Yeah, but suppose those quick conclusions are right? And all the while you have the idiot director of the Swedish National Security Police, Margareta Linderoth, trying to spin this away as not connected to terrorism. Look to Little Green Footballs for the scoop, and read through the copious comments to get a feel for what this guy was really up to. But the fact that he was trying to board a plane with a concealed weapon around the anniversary of 09/11/01 is all coincidence. Really it is. No, really.
2:29:54 PM
Our friends, the Germans
So the Germans won't hand over information important to the Moussaoui case because 4 of the 6 charges against him possibly carry the death penalty. Doesn't witholding information pertinant to a murder investigation make you an accessory to the crime? Maybe German Chancellor Schroeder will need a new job after this next round of elections. But, since criticizing the US is a favorite German blog pasttime, Schroeder may actually be strengthening his chances of re-election.
2:18:46 PM
That "sense of restraint" thing should run both ways
Here is a story discussing the death of 4 Palestinians trying to cut their way through a fence around a graveyard. This brings the Palestinian death toll for the week to 11, including civilians and children. From the article:
Senior Israeli officials apologized for the loss of civilian lives, while Palestinians and some Israelis charged the army has lost its sense of restraint in its drive to crush the Palestinian uprising.
Of course, there is no recognition by the Palestinians that their previous lack of restraint might have anything to do with the situation.
As I said yesterday, it will be a really bad development for the Palestinians if the Israelis are so tired of Jews dying in random acts of terroist violence that they choose to go after military targets with no regard for the civilian population being used as human shields. Certainly the terrorists know what the Israeli rules of engagement are, why else to they surround themselves with innocent civilians. How long do you think the civilians will let the terrorists stick around when they realize that the Israelis are not as discriminating as they once were?
12:15:10 PM
Organizations like this
supporting the right to bear arms must cause the Brady folks and the left some consternation. How can you paint gun owners as right wing ultra-conservative lunatic rednecks when the Pink Pistols are ready to lock and load on your ass? (And don't piss the Geeks off, either)
11:47:25 AM
Chris Patton Idiocy Watch
Wonderful to see how a non-elected official in the EU thinks that giving billions in aid to the PA helps counter "chaos and anarchy". Mr. Patton, of course, loves to bash the US almost as much as he loves to bash the Israelis.
11:37:24 AM
Another offering from the MCJ
So I follow a link from the Rottie to read something I like at the MLC. While there, I find this response to people protesting everything and anything having to do with the US at the WSSD. Ain't it grand how the blogosphere works. And Emily should be happy with the fact that some of these people marching against the US undoubtedly belong to those NGO's that were presented the "bullshit award" by people actually in a position to see how much real help (or how little help, it appears) was being provided.
11:31:19 AM
September 11th in NYC
I have to attend a conference in NYC over the September 11th observance. I fly in on the 10th, and stay through the week-end. I have a little trepidation about the trip, but feel I need to go to the conference as I would have done if 9/11/01 had never happened.
Others also have fear and trepidation as the 1 year anniversary approaches. The Arab News reports that there is a significant amount of fear among the Muslim community in America that they will be targeted and attacked on the anniversary. I just don't see this happening. There weren't widespread outbreaks of anti-Muslim violence immediatly after 9/11, so why should there be on the 1 year anniversary? Of course CAIR, the Center for Arab-Islamic Relations (you remember them, the guys of the bogus Sharon War Crimes Poll who pulled the results down after most respondents voted "NO" and then tried to blame it on hackers?), wants you to believe that fully 87% of all American Muslims have been the target of some type of horrible discrimination at the hands of us evil, Jew Loving Americans since the Islamofanatics flew planes into our buildings.
Update from the MCJ: If all American Muslims felt the same as those reported in this BBC article, there would be absolutely nothing of US residing Muslims to worry about.
11:26:17 AM
Oooooohhhhhhh Yeah
This is why I spend so many weekends in the lab.
(well this, and the fact that I may not get tenure if I don't get my fat non-canadian ass in gear)
10:24:55 AM
Favorite term for Palestinian Murder Bombers:
Splodeydopes
10:22:26 AM
Remember, students, 9/11 is nobody's fault, except possibly ours, of course.....
This column by George Wills has the NEA all up in arms. The National Education Association has a lesson plan for dealing with the events of September 11, 2001, and they tend to center primarily around stressing that no one is to blame for what happened. This analysis by the Fordham Foundation is none too complmentary of the NEA recommendations, in essence calling it well-intentioned but naive and altruistic. Why did the Fordham Foundation feel the need to respond to the NEA's "blame nobody and pretend everything is right in the world" approach? In their own words:
Why is such advice needed? The short, unpleasant answer is because so much nonsense is circulating in the education world that we felt obliged to offer some sort of alternative, an objective rendering from the perspective of first-rate thinkers, scholars, analysts and educators who share our discomfort with what is fast becoming the conventional wisdom in education-land.
That discomfort began to build soon after September 11, 2001, as we observed the curricular and pedagogical advice that many of the profession's countless organizations were supplying to their members. Simply stated, that advice was long on multiculturalism, feelings, relativism and tolerance but short on history, civics and patriotism. This, regrettably, is also true of subsequent ruminations from some high-status educators and academics. And it's surging once again as the painful "anniversary" date, 9/11/02, approaches.
Go to the website and read the entire thing. Be sure and download the PDF file, which contains the full text of the HTML rendered version.
The New York Times also has an article dealing with the controversey. Read the comments of a Mr. Newberry, who helped draft the lesson plan, on what he perceives drives the opposition. He blames everything on the "far right" and calls anyone who disagrees with the NEA's position bigots. So much for that ultratolerant position of the NEA. We can forgive a group of Muslin fanatics killing 3,000 innocent Americans. We can even draft a lesson plan dealing with how America is reaping what it has sown (also see the comments on how America helped create Israel, and how that might make the Muslims "feel"). But anyone who disagrees with the form or substance of our lesson plan is a racist. Academia continues to move further and further away from what the "average" American believes. And that's the point, really. The "Academic Left" scorns everything they consider average in American life.
