re: "These things happen for a reason"

Lemuel Calhoon at Hillbilly White Trash ("Commenting about politics, religion, firearms, food, Celtic music, beer, science fiction and the Asheville Vortex. Home of the Hillbilly Ecosystem.") is experiencing some existential-level cognitive dissonance. And with good reason.

Money quote(s):

"America went to war with two nations in response to Islamic terrorism and we have killed or captured most of the top leadership of al Qaeda, including bin Laden himself. However our failure to identify the nature of the problem (which is nothing more or less than Islam itself) and our suicidal fealty to the culturally lethal ideologies of multiculturalism and political correctness have rendered us almost defenseless against this kind of home grown jihad and seriously hampered our ability to deal with the problem on an international level.

Right after Sept. 11 president Bush hosted Islamic religious leaders at the White House to prove that the US was not at war with Islam. Then it came out that most of those imams were tied to terrorism in some way. TSA screeners at airports are told not to pay any special attention to people who look Arab/Middle Eastern for fear of being accused of profiling."

Islam's problem seems to be either that it never underwent a reformation (which might have shifted it from its medieval moorings) or that the reformation it has undergone took it in the wrong (from Western perspective) direction.

I understand that Pres. Bush took pains to emphasize that the West, and the U.S. specifically, was not at war with Islam so as to head-off initiating the sort of Huntingtonian "clash of civilizations" that Osama Bin Ladin dreamed of waging. Not playing into what Al-Qaida wanted is a pretty good argument for Bush's policy there, whatever else you may think of the former president.

As for TSA screening guidance.... from a security perspective, you don't want to necessarily exempt non-Arabs/Middle Eastern persons from security screenings since that sort of loophole creates a security vulnerability that just begs to be taken advantage of.

But that doesn't seem to be how things are actually done; TSA gives the appearance of being more afraid of CAIR's press releases than is healthy or helpful. Going out of the way to avoid paying attention to the patterns and indicators of likely terrorists is a losing proposition and indicates a lack of courage of conviction.

That's a recipe of losing the larger war.

"Christian and Jewish clergy must be banned from the 9/11 memorial service at Ground Zero but a building ruined by wreckage from one of the 9/11 planes (making it as much a part of Ground Zero as the WTC site) must be torn down so that a giant Islamic Victory Mosque can be built.

The United States has helped to bring about regime change in Egypt and Libya (actually going to war in Libya's case) to replace governments that were bad but not currently supporting Jihad terrorism with far worse governments that are connected with organizations like the Muslim Brotherhood and al Qaeda.

The United States and Western Europe (that part of the world once known as Christendom) has seemingly lost faith in itself. In its value to the world. It is very likely too late for Europe but not for the US. That is if we screw up our courage and face facts and take appropriate action."


8/28

re: "Cain survives"

Lemuel Calhoon at Hillbilly White Trash ("Commenting about politics, religion, firearms, food, Celtic music, beer, science fiction and the Asheville Vortex. Home of the Hillbilly Ecosystem.") shared his analysis of the Herman Cain presidential candidacy (and why it had to be stopped).

Money quote(s):

"In the fever swamps of liberal/progressive thought supporting Cain is absolute
proof positive that one is a racist!"

This came up recently in a Facebook discussion I was party to: bolstering his Dem. talking points about how bigoted Republicans are, a fellow commenter pre-emptively stated that Cain and Steele don't make the Republicans not racist.

(Personally, I can take-or-leave Steele; as a former Maryland resident CAA is about as impressed with the (relatively) conservative credentials of Md. politicians as he is with those from Massachutsetts. Now, Rep. West on the other hand....)

"This makes him a mortal enemy (as all conservatives are) to the political left,
but because he is black he occupies a place of extraordinary vilification in
that by his very existence, he disproves the left's narrative of American life."

And that must not be allowed to stand.

Mr. Calhoon concluded:

"This is to the Democrat party what sunlight is to a vampire. If even 20% of
black Americans voted Republican the Democrats would never win a presidential
election and would win damn few congressional contests.

Democrats know this and they are desperate to keep blacks in their place.It is
also why they are so desperate to open America's borders and get amnesty for the
millions of Mexicans illegally in this country. They need a replacement
minority that can be controlled in the event that the black population (or even
a large minority of it) wises up and realizes that the white liberals they have
been voting for are responsible for much of their misery and the black "leaders"
they have been trusting have in fact sold them out.

This is the essence of the furor to destroy Herman Cain as it was the driving force behind the
attempt to destroy Clarence Thomas. It is why every black conservative who
dares to step forward and declare him or herself is attacked is attacked and
smeared.

This is why the Chicago machine bestirred itself to vomit out a
small parade of women who were willing to falsely claim that Mr. Cain "harassed"
them. This is why Republicans have been unwilling to play along and boot him
out of the race. We know that they are trying to play us and we ain't going
along."

11/11

re: "We should stand up for what we believe"

Lemuel Calhoon at Hillbilly White Trash ("Commenting about politics, religion, firearms, food, Celtic music, beer, science fiction and the Asheville Vortex. Home of the Hillbilly Ecosystem.") joins others in proposing to ignore Art. VI, Sec. 3, of the U.S. Constitution.

Money quote(s):

"I think that answering those questions from a conservative perspective would help rather than hurt a candidate."

Maybe. Perhaps CAA is still hearing echoes of R.A. Heinlein's warnings against theocratic tendencies in America, a la Nehemiah Scudder. Still, the American (and Western) blindspot about religions is being exploited as a vulnerability by our enemies, both within and without. Like other Constitutional freedoms, there must be limitations (i.e., no sacrificing virgins to the volcano god, &tc.); it's can't be absolute.

"The left is attempting not so much to drive God from the public square (they don't believe in God so as far as they are concerned He isn't there to begin with) but to drive people of faith from participation in the public life of the nation. It is time that religious people fought back by openly and unapologetically acknowledging their faith."

Governmental acquiescence of kind of institutional atheism is not turning out to be any sort of improvement, since it leaves the door open for those who are willing, able, and adept at manipulating that vacuity with a stunningly ingenuous duplicity.

"Leftist elites who show their contempt for America's religious heritage are also showing their contempt for ordinary Americans. A candidate who calls the elites on that contempt will find themselves backed by a substantial majority of the American people."

Fair enough. Elitist contempt, and the counter-reacting Tea and Pirate parties here and in Europe, will contest (and settle) this divide politically.

re: "Are the "Birthers" right?"

Lemuel Calhoun at Hillbilly White Trash ("Commenting about politics, religion, firearms, food, Celtic music, beer, science fiction and the Asheville Vortex.") comments on the speculation.

Money quote(s):

"I haven't gotten involved in the great "where was Obama born" brouhaha for one reason. That nothing can be PROVEN and that means that as far as the American electorate is concerned it doesn't exist. That kind of speculation only gets you labeled as a wako, a "birther" no more sane than the "truthers" who maintain that 9/11 was an "inside job"."

"There does seem to be more here than the ravings of conspiracy loons."

&

"I could give you a certified birth certificate proving that I was born in Rutherford County, North Carolina.

Anyone reading this who was born in the USA could do the same.

So why can't Obama?"