Today being Memorial Day, I pause to think about the men and women throughout time that have put their lives on the line to defend this country. I point to the fact that I was born in 1966 coupled with sheer dumb luck as reasons I never had to fight in a war. As The Replacements sang in "Bastards Of Young" about Generation X, "...we got no wars to name us." Generation X was far too young to be drafted to go to Vietnam, of course. After Vietnam, the draft was abolished although I personally spent plenty of time worrying about it being reinstated when I was in high school. I was convinced a war with Russia was going to break out any day. You saw Red Dawn, right?Now, I don't want to come across as some kind of chickenhawk, because I never had to fight. And, I pray to God that my children will never have to live through the hell of war. I have the utmost respect, however, for those individuals that have had to fight to defend this country throughout the generations. It's because of their sacrifice that we all have the freedom to live life as we do in this country. This blog is a perfect (yet, minor) example of this freedom. I can write what I want to write, and criticize the government, President, laws, etc. as I see fit without worrying about repercussions (other than comments from you, the readers!). We have friends who are living in China right now, and all of their e-mails and blog are censored. Think about that.
This country has fought off many adversaries throughout time. Nazi Germany and Communist Russia are recent examples, although we were lucky never to engage in a military conflict with Russia. Today's adversary, is a different beast than in the past, however. Yesterday's enemies had armies, flags and a "homeland." You could point to them on a map. Today's adversary is more of an "idea." Today's adversary is a radical element of Islam that has somehow taken root and grown larger and very dangerous over time. They have no flags. They have no base country. They simply share a common hatred for the West and our way of life. And, possibly most frightening, they target civilians and they don't mind dying for "their cause." Personally, this makes me miss Communist Russia. Radical Islam, I fear, will be something that we, and our children (and children's children) will have to deal with in our lifetimes.
But, don't take my word for it. Please do me a favor and take the time to read the following article written for Vanity Fair by Christopher Hitchens. Hitchens is an author and long time resident of England. He grew up in the Finsbury Park neighborhood of London, which has experienced some changes in the last decade. As I wrote last week, this is an issue that much of Europe has completely ignored. As always, I'd like to know what you think.
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/06/hitchens200706
Peace,
Jeff
8 comments:
hitchens is a rare breed, indeed. a liberal who still supports the iraq war. he is spot on and understands what is at stake here. the "multi-culti" folks are signing their own death warrents when they align themselves with islam. some of the very causes that the left supports, such as abortion and gay rights, are offenses punishable by death under sharia law. multi-culti folks hold hands and sing the old coke theme, and wish we could all just get along. pure and simple, they hate the culture of the west, and won't stop until every last vestige of our culture is destroyed. guilt over too many white guys sharing power, gulit over slavery and colonialism, etc, etc. you name it, they grieve over it. some folks say europe killed itself when they committed the atrocities of the holocaust. I don't really disagree with that line of thinking. read the book " while europe slept" if you really want to know what happened. I just think the west is too tired to beat this thing. we also refuse to believe that it could really happen here. europe is the canary in the coal mine, people. wake up america, before it is too late.
Yup, there always has been, and always will be dangerous elements in this country, and in other free countries like Great Britain. In part, that's the price of the freedom we enjoy....it doesn't always come cheaply or safely.
Not sure entirely what to do about dangerous domestic elements like that. It's already illegal to blow up planes and kill people, so we can't just legislate away what they want to do, so I have zero idea of what to do about domestic elements like that, short of radical immigration reform, but we like our cheap labor too much to give that up. Even that wouldn't fix much, I fear.
Internationally, it's a problem for the US as well. Jeff, you hit it right on the head when you described radical Islam as a different beast than we had to deal with in the past.
Unfortunately, we're trying to fight it as though it weren't any different. Send in the armed forces to kick ass on an overmatched dictator, with no post-war planning may have worked before, but that wasn't the solution this time, and won't be in the future, either.
Yes, America does need to wake up before it's too late. Oh well, we're far too busy watching American Idol to give a rip about anything else, so screw it.
BTW, Anonymous, who are the "multi-cultis", and are they truly aligned with radical Islam? Yeah, I know plenty of the types I think you're talking about, believe me, but I don't think any of them are aligned with radical Islam. Sure, they're arrogant windbags, but beyond that I've felt that the evil Multi-cultis are just a figment of the imaginations of Limbaugh, O'Reilly, Coulter, etc, who always need someone to be angry about to justify their rants that earn them their millions. They publicize a few fucknozzles like Ward Churchill and the like, and bam, there's your model for the evil multi-cultis that are going to destroy our way of life.
Hey Neil and Anonymous- thanks for the comments. I wish I had some answers on this, too. My main point is that parts of Europe, such as London, are ignoring, if not appeasing, this radical element. I have no problems with immigrants, if they want to move to free countries in search of a better life for their family. That is what my (our) ancestors did. The United States was largely built by immigrants. I do not understand the ones who come here and call for our destruction, however. Dissention (which can be very healthy)I can see, but not calls for utter destruction.
By the way, Neil, fucknozzle is an outstanding word. Never heard it, but I may use it in the future.
Keep the comments coming!
neil-here is a good article from a great website. I find that "gates of vienna" is a pretty depressing blog, but ignoring the whole problem won't make it go away. this is going to be the seminal issue of out lives, so the more we know now, the better off we will be once the difficult choices present themselves
http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/2007/05/destroying-our-culture.html
interesting posts here. neil, you want to know who the multi-culti people are. they are all around you. they work her at the state of minnesota and decide that an easter bunny cannot be on your desk. they want to remove god from our pledge. they won't allow patriotic songs at my child's school. they say that a test to be a firefighter is "culturely biased". they don't publish the danish cartoons because they don't want to "offend". they provide forums all the time, however, for people who do offend, and actually give aid and comfort to the enemy. they work at big newspapers whose bylines are picked up by smaller newspapers, and attempt to set policy based on their bias. they sneer at people who actually profess love of country and fly the flag. they are everywhere neil. certainly hoards more than when I was growing up.
Jeff,
Fucknozzle is indeed a good word, and you may use it as you wish. Asshat is also appropriate under similar conditions.
Gina,
Interesting post as well...allow me to comment point by point:
I don't work for the state as you do, so I'll have to take your word about Easter Bunnies being banned. I can guess the horror. Actually, I can't. I'm of Jewish heritage, so was never into the Easter Bunny, so I can't pretend to imagine. The persecution must be endless.
"They want to remove God from the pledge." Yeah, some asshat out in San Francisco sued about that a few years ago...again making us secularists look like a bunch of dingbats. It was thrown out, if I recall. However, I don't happen to think God is so weak that him being removed from the pledge of allegiance would damage anything, nor do I think public schools have any responsibility to have God in any official school business. Private schools, homeschools, churches, and family should fill that need nicely. (You do realize that the word God was added to the pledge of allegiance in the '50s in part to separate us from the godless commies, and we seemed to manage OK before without it.)
"They won't allow patriotic songs at my child's school." If that's the only reason for not allowing a song at a school, I agree, that's stupid.
"They say that a test to be a firefighter is "culturely biased." I know nothing about this, nor about the parts of the test they claim are culturally biased, so I'll leave this one alone.
"they don't publish the danish cartoons because they don't want to "offend". I'm on your side here, the cartoons should have been published.
"and actually give aid and comfort to the enemy." I'm sure some people do give aid and comfort to the enemy, but that phrase is thrown out all too often by those on the far right looking to demonize those who would criticize policies of their own country. (Heaven forbid!) Sorry, I'm not going along with that just because you say so.
Anyway, it's getting late, and I need to get back to planning the War on Christmas with my multi-culti buddies.
Cheers....
alcohol maybe? wisconsin perhaps?
All three men were drinking in their mobile home in the 1200 block of Paseo Derecho around 10 p.m. Sunday, when the two cousins began arguing over who was older.
One of the cousins grabbed a pitchfork, and when the uncle stepped between his nephews, he was stabbed in the arm.
rico's analysis:
it seems to me that two cousins should be able to settle an argument over who is older without it resulting in a pitchfork incident. then again, i doubt these dudes had valid driver's licenses to flash for their respective birthday bona fides.
I don't know.
"I'm older than you!"
Them's fightin' words.
Jeff
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