With each passing day, I find myself more and more perplexed by those who claim to love Israel and yet align themselves with the political left. This day is no exception. From Grand Moff Texan over at DailyKos:

Israel is not my problem. Unlike these fringe radicals on the right who put another country first, I can go entire days without thinking about Israel at all. I'm interested in my own contry's priorities, and those are enough of a mess. The US no longer needs Israel to force a Soviet Union that doesn't exist anymore to exhaust itself in the region. The Cold War utility of Israel has been defunct for over a decade, but the think tank hacks who justified it for a generation (largely by calling everyone "anti-semites") didn't want to have to get real jobs. So why is it that the US, and by extension American academics, have to go on supporting a policy that even Israel is abandoning? Because that's the way we discipline intellectuals in the USSA. Much of the American right is still bogged down in the habits of self-deception they cultivated during the Cold War. They have created the "War on Terror" to keep themselves in power.

So, America should be a "fairweather friend" to its closest allies, to cynically use them when it suits America's interests and then drop 'em like hot rocks when they "outlive their usefulness"? Realpolitik, indeed... more...

Posted by: Kos_Irhabi at 09:04 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Michelle is pretty miffed at Wonkette. Let the hair fly. Since I'm deaf from liberals whining about our comments, It feels good to stick a thumb in their eye. I dunno Michelle looks quick and wire like. Probably knows martial arts too, Oh wait I take that back

Update cat vs Dog. Wonkette is all "males" now. I still think Michelle can take em.

Posted by: Howie at 11:31 AM | Comments (65) | Add Comment
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IÂ’m torn that two of my favorite bloggers are in a bit of a spat. On one side we have Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch. The other half is Dean Esmay of Deansworld. Dean is upset that Robert spends so much effort projecting a negative image of Islam. He thinks Robert is creating more problems than he solves. Robert is understandably standing his ground. The amazing part is neither seems read each other very much. Both are on the same side so to speak but have very different styles.

The subject of the discussion is more than relevant to The Jawa Report. We also engage in exposing the ideology of the terrorists. We also try and make as much fun of them as we can and have a good time doing it. Occasionally people get upset with us too. ItÂ’s a very difficult balance to take it to the ideology of terror and Islamic oppression and not upset at least some of the people Dean speaks of. more...

Posted by: Howie at 09:10 AM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
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So what gives? This doesnÂ’t seem to fit the Spirit of the blogosphere, in fact itÂ’s the exact opposite.

Polipundit via Lorie Byrd's blog Byrddroppings : "From now on, every blogger at PoliPundit.com will either agree with me completely on the immigration issue, or not blog at PoliPundit.com."

Posted by: Howie at 08:35 AM | Comments (12) | Add Comment
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I've had panic attacks.

For some reason, although I know what's causing it, I swear I'm having a heart attack.

The root cause is my screwed up shoulder and back. If I move a certain way, or do a certain thing, it causes pain in my chest muscles.

Since my left shoulder is a constant source of misery to me, thanks to chronic tendinitis, the combination of of chest pains with left arm pain triggers the attack.

I haven't seen a doctor about it, nor even mentioned it to anybody but my wife until now. Mainly because the first couple of times it happened, I ended up realizing that I really wasn't having a heart attack, and that it was my screwy left shoulder causing the pain.

Maybe it will help me by telling you about it. Writing about it seemed to have helped Ace.

I still get the pain in the chest, and in the left arm, and the first thought in my head is "heart attack!" Which, of course, causes the heart to start racing. And the brain to start irrationalizing. I must be a mild case, though, I can usually talk myself out of it.

I will always get great mirth out of a group of people who will lambast a Conservative for ingesting a legal substance, be it Klonopin, alcohol, or nicotine, but will defend to the death a meth addict who robs and murders.

Maybe they should be reminded that Liberalism is a mental disorder, and far more people suffer from it than those who have panic attacks.

Then again, like they would give a crap anyway.

Posted by: Vinnie at 10:49 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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Six Meat Buffet is down/up/flakey this AM. ? Related

Updated: Gordon Says "Never flakey!" Now they are cooking with gas!

Posted by: Howie at 10:59 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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I'm not sure at what point Jeff Goldstein became the whipping boy for the Left. Whatever he's doing, I'm jealous.

Exhibit A: Atrios' plan for a progressive tomorrow, when not advocating tax hikes and a return to paper ballots, includes this ditty: Imprison Jeff Goldstein for crimes against humanity for his neverending stupidity

Ouch, calling Jeff stupid. Neener, neener, neerner, Jeff is stupid and I is so smart.

Exhibit B: Thesaurus Rex calls Jeff an asshole. To show in said argument that Jeff is, indeed, an asshole, Rex points readers to Jeff's ode to Klonopin.

Because nothing says asshole more than drug humor.

Exhibit C: Jane Hamsher's diatribe against Jeff, which, to be honest, starts out incoherent and then, well, just goes downhill from there.

I'm sooo smart because I know reallity, while Jeff is sooo dumb because he swallowed the Bush-Rove pill.

Collectively, the three posts add up to a total waste of time. They are no more nor less than a bunch of tired cliches mixed with insults.

So, why did I waste my time reading them? Just to let Jeff know that somebody out here has his back.

Now go give Jeff some cash and tell him that Rusty sent you.

Posted by: Rusty at 05:41 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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My money is on Christopher. Remember my Hitchens rule, odd no, even Yes. Juan I read now and then but after a while he comes off as one of those oh my holy brain academic stereotypes.

Updated 05/04: Hitchens eats Cole for breakfast!

Radioblogger :Hewit to Hitchens: Why don't you tell people what's going on here?

It's a blog war. Well, some of your listeners may know of Professor Cole of the University of Michigan. He is acclaimed, at least by himself, expert on matters Shiia, particularly, and he also says he's fluent in Arabic, Persian and Urdu. And for all I know, he is. But he's 10th rate, and he's a sordid apologist for Islamist terrorism, and for Islamist terrorist regimes. And I've been on his case for a while......Professor Juan Cole does not know what he is talking about, in any language.

Cole responds with a left jab narrowly missing Hitchens: Hitchens not Drunk, Only an Asinine Thief

Posted by: Howie at 08:26 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Michelle Malkin has a complete rundown of blogs affected by this AMÂ’s DDOS attack.

Also AaronÂ’s cc is down again.

Previous Jawa Report coverage here and here.

Posted by: Howie at 01:27 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Pajamahadeen Indeed(note: Captain's Qarters is back up!).

Freedomdogs :Frank J from IMAO and I want to try to steal a march on the port side of the blogosphere. We want to proudly usurp their insulting jargon and turn it against them, and have a little fun while we do it. We'd like to fully embrace the moniker "101st Fighting Keyboardists" and the chicken hawk as our mascot.

When we looked into it, it turns out that the chicken hawk is a pretty impressive predator. ItÂ’s the largest of its family. This species vigorously defends its territory, getting even more aggressive when the conditions get harshest. It adapts to all climates. Most impressively, it feeds on chickens, mice, and rats.

Posted by: Howie at 09:30 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Aarons cc is back online this morning. Remember he had been down about five days after being attacked twice.

Aaron: I'm back!

Posted by: Howie at 04:20 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Gee, bitch and moan at 3 in the morning and look what it gets you:

Oh, ye of little faith and reading comprehension skills. I never mentioned the video, only these facts, which remain the same.
http:/(no link whoring for you! -Vinnie)
Jill Carroll's an extremist. And you apparently have a problem with premature articulation. Next time, read first.
You got something wrong, though. More than thirty seconds in a room with you, and I think I'd have to kill you.
Debbie Schlussel

"Premature articulation." Ha-ha, coming from someone who couldn't get laid at a Chippendale's convention with a purseful of Benjamins. Plus, I'd be dead by my own hand 29 seconds before you got around to it, spanky. Especially if you showed up without those 800 lbs of makeup that disguises your fugliness.

I heart friends:

Beth

Misha

Don Surber

Florida Cracker

Decision '08

Middle Earth Journal

Frankly, I'm relieved that Debbie Schlussel wants to kill me. After all, she'd probably mistake a water gun for a real one.

Now can I get a real fatwa please?

Posted by: Vinnie at 07:00 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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I've heard of grasping at straws, but this is ridiculous.

Okay, so, Jill Carrol arranges her own kidnapping with her Islamist buddies, hangs out with them for three months, gnawing on falafel and gettin' funky with that down home Ashura thang, you know, chips dips chains and whips. Or she realizes the Sunni really does rise in the East, and bows down whenever the hell Achmed says it's time, because, well, she left her watch back in the room. Or maybe she just likes Kurds with her whey.

Well, then, she says this:

I want to be judged as a journalist, not as a hostage. I remain as committed as ever to fairness and accuracy _ to discovering the truth _ and so I will not engage in polemics. But let me be clear: I abhor all who kidnap and murder civilians, and my captors are clearly guilty of both crimes.

Wow, that's some anti-American sentiment right there. That's right up there with ole Giuliana Srgena. Nay, dare I say it? That is downright....Nazi propaganda.

If you want to be judged as a journalist, ok, well, I think you suck at it. If you wanted fairness and accuracy, you would have gone out like Ralph Peters did and rode with the troops. You didn't, you rode with your translator, and now he's dead and you're an ex-hostage.

But I'm going to judge you as a hostage, despite your plea. You did what you needed to do with a gun to your head. You said what you said, and wrote what you wrote, under duress. You wore the hijab as ordered, you conductecd yourself in the manner which was prescribed for you.

Not because you're some inane leftard moonbat (although you may be, but, that's irrelevant) but because you wanted to live. And the desire to live overpowers everything we do in the course of our days. Even, yes, our basic ideology.

5 minutes with Schlussel in my basement, and I'd have her singing the praises of Stalin. It's just that simple.

Could you see the blog titles on that one? "Schlussel endorses Stalin." "Schlussel embraces Marxism." "Schlussel says: Lenin, not such a bad guy after all."

Frankly, I'm sick and tired of people sitting behind a computer trying to divine the intuitions of someone thousands of miles away. People who do it like Schlussel does it are no different that buzzards circling a decaying corpse.

BTW, I just have to wonder if Schlussel would have even bothered to post anything if Jill Carrol's headless body had appeared on a Baghdad street one day.

We at the Jawa Report do, and always will, hope for the release of all hostages held by Islamofascistpricks. Better to celebrate the release of one Giuliana than to lament 10 Nick Bergs.

F.E.T.E.

Posted by: Vinnie at 03:13 AM | Comments (21) | Add Comment
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1 Nope. Don't buy it for a second. Anyone who isn't a complete idiot can tell which way the wind is blowing. If she wants to sell that book/movie deal, she's gotta have a sympathetic market. Call me a cynic, but cynic is the opposite of sucker.

Posted by: Improbulus Maximus at April 02, 2006 07:32 AM (0yYS2)

2 Oh, ye of little faith and reading comprehension skills. I never mentioned the video, only these facts, which remain the same. http://www.debbieschlussel.com/archives/2006/04/premature_artic.html Jill Carroll's an extremist. And you apparently have a problem with premature articulation. Next time, read first. You got something wrong, though. More than thirty seconds in a room with you, and I think I'd have to kill you. Debbie Schlussel

Posted by: Debbie Schlussel at April 02, 2006 01:04 PM (Awh+P)

3 Uh, actually Jill Carroll DID travel with U.S. troops as a journalist for a month. The captain of the company was even quoted by the CSM shortly after her release and he spoke pretty well of her. BTW, how many of you have actually read her articles? I'm sure some of you have, but I only detect a moderately liberal slant. And no, she did not portray Iraqi officials in a necessarily favorable light nor did she paint the insurrection in glowing terms. Suffering civilians appeared to be the burr in her saddle.

Posted by: David at April 02, 2006 01:24 PM (wZLWV)

4 Nothing that anybody says while a gang of fanatical thugs stand behind them sharpening their scimitars counts for anything at all. When your head is about to roll you tend to co-operate. Jill Carroll may well be an extremist (she's a journalist after all), but she did what 99.999% of people would have done in those circumstances. Including Brave Debbie Schlussel.

Posted by: Martin at April 02, 2006 01:30 PM (7T22U)

5 You got something wrong, though. More than thirty seconds in a room with you, and I think I'd have to kill you. With what? The exploding Silicone Implants Of Doom? Or would you grab a trowel and remove the makeup. That would scare the piss out of me. Sounds threatening, maybe I need to hire a lawyer.

Posted by: Vinnie at April 02, 2006 02:08 PM (/qy9A)

6 Wow Vinnie. That saggy titted, sow faced shithead Schlussel just threatened to kill you. I would pass that little tidbit on to the FBI. Oh wait, she gives regular freebie blow jobs to the FBI so they probably wonÂ’t arrest her. Anyway, I sure that was a warning not a threat. I suspect she meant that if she were in a room for more than thirty seconds with you, the stench emanating from her crotch would kill you.

Posted by: Ranger 6 at April 02, 2006 03:33 PM (o+/cZ)

7 Debbie Schlussel - Definitely, we should "call the fbi" on her - as she threatened to do to me. . The beeatch thinks that anyone who disagrees with her on anything should be in jail. Bwaaaahahahahaha

Posted by: Beth Donovan at April 02, 2006 04:10 PM (9FPYz)

8 Really, why aren't you on medication? You're the right's version of the unhinged moonbat. Quit pretending to be right of center--you are an embarrassment, distressingly like Fred Phelps. We're all tired of your deranged, negative bloviating. Is there ANYTHING you actually support? While I will note there are profound areas of disagreement between my views and many who post here... I applaud the intellectual honesty of those who call out the purveyors of manufactured outrage. It shows me there is reason to hope we will finally stop gravitating towards the extremist poles and lobbing grenades at each other. Nobody's going to have any "reading comprehension" problems with that crack. Goddamned nutcase. I will forego the obvious jokes that such comments call to mind... I have never heard of Debbie Schlussel. However, a couple minutes on her site and it is clear she is a low frequency in the echo chamber ...seeking to till the same fields where Malkin and Coulter run wild ... she isn't worth commenting on further. On to a more substative matter: Vinnie and I see eye to eye on virtually nothing... so the areas of agreement are notable. The point he makes, which is particularly worth noting by those on the left, is the fact that most American soldiers see their mission as protecting Americans...without regard for race, sex, religion or creed. As I have noted before, it was the US Army that found evidence of death squads operating in the Interior Ministry basement. It was Maj. General Joseph Peterson who provided the first official confirmation that death squads are operating within the Iraqi police force. I believe there is a material distinction between the leadership of Gen. Petraeus and Gen. Peterson, as significant as the difference between Westmoreland and Abrams. Unfortunately, I think it is too late to change the reality on the ground...things have spun so far out of control over the last year and a half. However, the point worth remembering...especially as reports of torture and abuse continue to build... those who participate or condone such behavior deserve to be punished. Those who have the courage to reveal or rebuke such behavior deserve our support. Remember, the only reason we even heard about Abu Gharib was a young sargeant from a small town in Maryland knew this was not what he was there to do. He and his family have paid dearly for that. They have been the victims of harassment in their community. They have been shunned by friends and neighbors. Their property has been vandalized, and they now reside in protective military custody at an undisclosed location. On May 16th 2005, he received a John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award, recognizing his bravery in uncovering the abuse at Abu Ghraib. That is the kind of soldier that Americans should be proud of. They are a clear concrete example of why I am so opposed to the present administration. The policy makers of this administration are not worthy of the men and women who serve them.

Posted by: 8ackgr0und N015e at April 02, 2006 04:11 PM (K5Ko+)

9 Oh wait, she gives regular freebie blow jobs to the FBI so they probably wonÂ’t arrest her. Freebie blow jobs? Who would ever do that?

Posted by: Feisty at April 02, 2006 05:38 PM (HYxlu)

10 Debbie Does The Blogosphere strikes again. It's reactionary feces flinging idiots like her that makes me want to give up blogging and politics completely. Vinnie, do us all a favor and use amend the post with basil's handy link redirect trick. I hate to think of Debbie getting off on the referrals from My Pet Jawa. (Sorry for any visual images that might have produced. Feel free to poke out your mind's eye now.)

Posted by: Janette at April 02, 2006 05:44 PM (OcgcA)

11 Schlussel's a pathetic propagandist. She keeps using words like "documented" to mean "in a previous post I vaguely inferred". She uses racist nicknames for white United States attorneys she doesn't like. She throws out words like "Islamist", simply flaunting her ignorance of what that ideology is or means. You're smart to disassociate yourself from such a wack-job.

Posted by: Dan Hartung at April 02, 2006 06:12 PM (WVHXm)

12 Hah, I'm using Basil's redirect link for her too. LOL.

Posted by: Donnah at April 02, 2006 08:13 PM (1q3hZ)

13 Wow Debbie Schlussel you threatened the life of one of my friends (Vinnie) who is also my Blog brother. Debbie you are totally fucked up! I knew that before but this confirms it even more. OH and Debbie, you are the perfect example of a woman that ONLY got ahead in her career because of HEAD if you get my drift! In other words girls that work on the street have more class then you have in one of your fake eyelashes. You are truly pathetic!

Posted by: Wild Thing at April 02, 2006 09:24 PM (tj1zH)

14 As a chef (a person who gets paid to cook things and must continually suffer white collar retards explaining to me earnestly that they would be a great chef) Feisty I feel your pain, but for some folks it's more of a hobby than a profession.

Posted by: Jake Jacobsen at April 02, 2006 11:02 PM (X2ChO)

15 Since Debbie Schlussel keeps asking people to apologize to her I decided to step up just so she could see how it's done: http://www.debbieschlussel.com/archives/2006/04/premature_artic.html#comments

Posted by: Jon Swift at April 03, 2006 03:09 AM (fNQUw)

16 Dear Debs, You are clueles. Completely clueless. You couldn't get a clue if we doused you in clue musk and set you to dancing the clue mating dance in a field of horny clues. STFU, would ya? LindaSoG

Posted by: LindaSoG at April 03, 2006 05:27 AM (TET2s)

17 To bad the cunt didn't get the Nick Berg treatment...

Posted by: juandos at April 03, 2006 06:14 AM (2bfAx)

18 Announcing the Bimbo Schlussel Blogroll! Tell everybody you can!

Posted by: rightwingprof at April 03, 2006 09:05 AM (hj1Wx)

19 I think I misunderstood the Carrol story, thinking she had made those statements _after_ being rescued, and safely outside of Iraq. Usually what a hostage says while having been a hostage seems to me to be suspect; if they confirm the stories once they are safe & sound, that's different.

Posted by: h0mi at April 03, 2006 04:42 PM (zpJBl)

20 The whole thing with Jill Carrol seemed strange from the start. The people who "captured" her wanted women prisoners released. We released several women and then we heard nothing from her. Then several weeks later after the "deadline" we heard from her again. This time she was seen alone crying but, she only said that we must do what the people holding her said. She never said what that was!! What did these people want in return for her release? So she was released. I saw her when she was released and she looked great next to most that are/were being held. She said that her captures never threatened to hit her but, they held guns to her head while she was making those statements? There were no guns anywhere near her in those videos. I have seen others make statements that are captured, like the ones that have their heads cut off, and they have men standing next to them holding guns to their heads. Today, I saw Jill when she came home to see her family and I wondered when she had time to get red highlights in her hair. I know that most people wouldn't care about that after they were held by brutal animals like those who take Americans in Iraq. I know a thing or two about the war in Iraq and the people that do this sort of thing and I can't understand why these people would pass up the chance to use this person to get everything they want. Why is it that no one has heard of this group? Why did they just let her go? The only thing that "they" got was the release of some women. I am glad that Jill is home with her family and safe but, I can't help wondering if maybe Jill made this whole thing up just to make a story or try and free some women because she doesn't like the war. That would be horrible and the worst kind of journalism I have ever seen. Something someone should spend many years in jail for doing. I really hope I am wrong. I want to believe that this whole thing really was true. I hope that the men and women in the military didn't spend countless hours looking for her for no reason. Until I have proof I am going to wonder.

Posted by: scooterbell at April 04, 2006 12:31 AM (rZTWE)

21 Vinnie, to put it in as few words as I possibly can: you're a prick. You're the kind of limp-wristed dweeb that used to get the hell beat out himself in highschool. Yeah, actually, I do think Debbie could bitch-slap you around the parking lot. I know I could.

Posted by: Tanker at April 05, 2006 08:50 AM (6G6z9)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

*Non-pirate talk version below

Matey, d'ye burn to carry the light of reason to the benighted libby masses at their own internet ports o' call? Have ye held yer fire and sheathed yer cutlass, knowin' that ye'd be swarmed by mindless moonbats chanting the Bushitlerburton mantra? Ye bin waitin' fer a better day.

Yarr, yer day is here.

Just sign on to The Pirate Fleet and ye be guaranteed t'have stout mates at yer back.

The The Pirate Fleet will give ye yer targets and a crew o' fellow buccaneers to guard yer flanks whilst ye board the fat galleons o' the Leftie merchant fleet. All set up by email sose the lefties won't see yer comin'.

Go here ter read The Pirate's Code and sign up.

Bloggers - d'ye wants ter hoist the Jolly Roger an' set sail with The Pirate Armada? Email me ter get this icon ter display on yer site and be added ter the The Pirate Armada blogroll.

* The Pirate Fleet will be a fun way to post on liberal sites, knowing that you have a few friends along to back you up. After you join the Fleet you'll be offered the chance to go on planned "raids", organized via email, with a group of like-minded fellow "pirates".

Bloggers can sign on to support the Fleet by joining The Pirate Armada and displaying the icon and blogroll. You're also encouraged to organize your own raids, as long as everyone follows The Pirate's Code.

Posted by: Bluto at 01:43 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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Here.

[I didn't cross-post that here because the person referred to in the post has already threated a lawsuit against one blogger and to report another to the FBI. For what I don't know. Rusty's trying to relax and doesn't need that aggravation. Plus, I'm no angel when it comes to insensitivity, but, more often than not, mine is directed at people who want to kill me and those that support them. And if I ever say anything that you think is way over the line like that, I would expect to be beaten over the head as bad as she is getting it. For an excellent roundup of the background of the kerfuffle, Beth has it.]

Posted by: Vinnie at 05:18 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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Bill from INDC has a great post on strategy in winning the war against terror. He's right. Yes, you heard me, he's 100% right. It doesn't mean that my earlier post on Islam as the root ideology which we are fighting is wrong, but only that as a matter of strategy, it is irrelevant.

Muslims are not children. They are adults. As such, they understand that, as I stated in my previous post:

Alliances are relationsips based on mutual interests.

To think of an ally as a friend is to misunderstand the basis of a relationship. Indeed, much political theory has been devoted to arguing that nations cannot have friends, only allies. This is the core of most modern international relations theory, as I understand it, which is rooted in one branch or another of realism.

Neocons, in my view, are just another branch of realism which see the long term interests of the United States being tied to the state of freedom in other countries. So the term "ally" should be a term familiar to them.

Posted by: Rusty at 04:28 PM | Comments (12) | Add Comment
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I disagree with Sigmund, Carl, and Alfred. Denying the Holocaust is lunacy, but it should not be a crime. If one were to put people in jail for denying the 'truth', our jails would be full of Elvis spotters. Just because the truth that they deny is so disgusting and evil, does not give government the right to outlaw the telling of lies.

Besides, what government do you trust enough to decide the difference between 'opinion' and 'truth'?

Update: More from Wretchard:

But laws establishing "official truth" create categories of the Unmentionable into which subjects like the Jihad, feminism, abortion and Global Warming -- all the assertions, half-truths and humbug of the world -- will presently seek refuge.

Posted by: Rusty at 11:58 AM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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No, I'm not a conservative and neither is Glenn Reynolds. I'm a neo-libertarian. It's kind of like being a conservative, only we dig the notion of legal pimps and hoes. And it's kind of like being a libertarian, only we really dig our military. Is that clear?

UPDATE: Neither is Stephen Green. And a response for the poli sci geeks who secretly dwell among us.

UPDATE II: More political science geekiness, but true. more...

Posted by: Rusty at 08:14 AM | Comments (14) | Add Comment
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I actually disagree with Danny on this one. Intentionally offending people is often (but not always) legitimate discourse. Especially during times of war. I would suggest readers recall all of those wonderful Bugs Bunny cartoons vilifying the Japs and Germans during WWII. For some odd reason we hold the conflicting idea that these intentionally offensive cartoons were somehow wrong, yet killing those who were lampooned was ok.

And speaking of Bugs Bunny: What do you think the wascally wabbit said in order to get his fatwa, depicted below? more...

Posted by: Rusty at 08:34 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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UPDATE: Rusty responds. Scroll down for my responses.
UPDATE 2: Demosophist responds to a few things, in that Italian font.
UPDATE 3: Rusty back at ya!

I started out tapping out a comment to Rusty's post on this topic, but it grew to the point that I decided to publish it as a separate essayette. Rusty graciously establishes the empirical parameters of this thesis, but I don't think they necessarily address the issue:

If one were really interested in seeing whether or not there is a relationship between Islam and liberalism, I would suggest the following. In fact, I dare any one to run the following analysis.

Hypothesis: there is a strong correlation between the percent of a nation's population that is Muslim and the extent to which that country's population is free in the liberal sense of the word.

Null Hypothesis: there is no relationship between the percent of a nation's population that is Muslim and the extent to which that country's population is free in the liberal sense of the word.

Plot a simple OLS regression model with the two variables. The first variable would simply be % Muslim. The second variable would be the Freedom House numbers. Since the Freedom House Numbers are coded negatively the following results should be found.....

If we are agreed that the above is a moderately fair way of empircally testing the relationship between Islam and tyranny, then the gauntlet has been thrown. I personally do not have the time to run the numbers, but perhaps some enterprising blogger with moderate experience using SPSS would like to give it a go?

The problem with this method is that, while it's a reasonable way of testing the relationship between Islam and political freedom, that's not the research question that's being considered. more...

Posted by: Demosophist at 03:02 PM | Comments (15) | Add Comment
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