In Iran, the oppression campaign against those deemed “unholy” has been going on for quite some time.

First, they hanged the gays…

And now, according to the NY Times, they are going after women, labor leaders, the press, and educators.

Iran is in the throes of one of its most ferocious crackdowns on dissent in years, with the government focusing on labor leaders, universities, the press, women’s rights advocates, a former nuclear negotiator and Iranian-Americans, three of whom have been in prison for more than six weeks.

Some analysts describe it as a “cultural revolution,” an attempt to roll back the clock to the time of the 1979 revolution, when the newly formed Islamic Republic combined religious zeal and anti-imperialist rhetoric to try to assert itself as a regional leader.

Equally noteworthy is how little has been permitted to be discussed in the Iranian news media. Instead, attention has been strategically focused on Mr. Ahmadinejad’s political enemies, like the former president, Mohammad Khatami, and the controversy over whether he violated Islamic morals by deliberately shaking hands with an unfamiliar woman after he gave a speech in Rome.

Michelle Malkin has much more, including photos like this one of masked policemen with machetes rounding up those dressed in Western-style clothes.

 Masked Muslim moral police force a man wearing clothes deemed un-Islamic
to suck on a plastic container Iranians use to wash their bottoms.

Now folks…. where’s the Human Rights Campaign?  They should be wailing against the Islamic law crackdown in Iran?  I mean they are so quick to jump on any trumped up gay or abortion issue in the USA that crosses the newswire.   So just how is it that when women’s rights advocates (I have to assume at least ONE is a lesbian) in Iran are being rounded up…. that the HRC is silent?

Where are the liberal bloggers?  Hellooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo?

Where are all of the other so-called American “liberals” who were so quick to believe the false stories of the Koran being flushed down a Gitmo toilet?   WHERE… ARE… THEY???

In fact, I’m wondering just how long will it take before Michael Moore, Jim McDermott, Nancy Pelosi, Cindy Sheehan and Jesse Jackson show up in Tehran to support President Ahmadinejad and blame the crackdown on President Bush?

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

I have been traveling a lot the past few weeks and I’ve come to the conclusion that US Airways is completely falling apart. And I’m not the only one. Over the past two weeks alone, I’ve heard story-after-story of massively delayed flights, lost luggage, rude US Airways employees — it seems to have gotten worse since their infamous computer meltdown this past March.

So, since I’m doing a lot of flying this week… I am proud to declare this “How Bad Does US Airways Suck Week.” Starting with my flight today…

Our scheduled flight departure time was 4:00pm with arrival in Charlotte at 5:55 pm.

ACTUAL departure time from gate in Ft. Lauderdale:5:45pm. ACTUAL arrival time at gate in Charlotte: 7:30 pm.

Net loss of my time from flight delay: 1 hour, 30 minutes.

Additional wait time for luggage: 30 minutes.

Total time taken from my life today from US Airways: 2 hours!!

At the end of “How Bad Does US Airways Suck Week”… I’ll be calculating my “lost life time” and sending US Airways a bill for that time.

And all of you get to watch!!

-Bruce (GayPatriot….written via mobilephone while waiting for luggage at Charlotte-Douglas Airport)

Well it is about friggin time…

The U.S. House of Representatives voted on Friday to prohibit any aid to Saudi Arabia as lawmakers accused the close ally of religious intolerance and bankrolling terrorist organizations.

The prohibition, reflecting persistent tensions with the kingdom after the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001, was attached to a foreign aid funding bill for next year that has not yet been debated by the Senate.

It also faces a veto threat from the White House because of an unrelated provision.

A spokesman for the Saudi embassy in Washington declined to comment on the legislation.

In the past three years, Congress has passed bills to stop the relatively small amount of U.S. aid to Saudi Arabia, only to see the Bush administration circumvent the prohibitions.

Now, lawmakers are trying to close loopholes so that no more U.S. aid can be sent to the world’s leading petroleum exporter.

“By cutting off aid and closing the loophole we send a clear message to the Saudi Arabian government that they must be a true ally in advancing peace in the Middle East,” said Rep. Anthony Weiner, a New York Democrat.

According to supporters of the legislation, the United States provided $2.5 million to Riyadh in 2005 and 2006.

One of Michelle Malkin’s commenters asks a very sensible question, too (which I will paraphrase):  “Why do we give any foreign aid to a country drowning in oil?”

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

**WELCOME TIM BLAIR READERS!** 

Would you believe that a North Carolina State Representative drives a Ferrari convertible?  A picture is worth a thousand words.

NC  State Rep. Larry Womble (D-Forsyth Co.) has either come into some serious money, or he needs to answer some questions.  The first one is:  how does a public servant earning $14,000 a year on my tax money afford a $200,000 car?  The second is, what kind of money does a “former educator” earn in the state of North Carolina?  I want in on that gig.

Here’s some more about the story….

Looking at Womble’s 2007 financial disclosure report, [right-click, then "save as" if you have problems viewing it] it shows his only sources of income are from rental property of a condo (of which he has a mortgage), his legislative salary (approx. $13,000), social security, and his retirement from the State of NC as an educator and assistant principal.

According to the statement and Forysth County Tax Records, he also owns four properties in Forsyth County, with assessed values ranging from $17,200 to $107,200.

I’m not saying it’s not possible, but it certainly raises questions as to how a career government employee can afford a quarter-million dollar car.

So his car cost more than his most expensive home?!?!

Interestingly, Rep. Womble is the same legislator who wants North Carolina to apologize for slavery.  More interestingly, he has sponsored legislation to raise the pay of General Assembly Members to $20,000.   Well no wonder!

He certainly takes the term “limosine liberal” to a whole new level!

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Despite near silence from the MSM this week, General Petraeus has launched the long-anticipated surge battle campaign.

Here’s an official update from CentCom:

MAHMUDIYAH, Iraq – A joint operation geared toward curbing terrorist activity southwest of Baghdad is yielding results almost immediately.
Operation Commando Eagle, a mix of helicopter-borne air assaults and Humvee-mounted movements, included Soldiers from several battalions of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) out of Fort Drum, N.Y., and the 4th Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division.
The operation, which began today, targeted a series of houses which local citizens indicated were being used by al-Qaeda cells to intimidate them and launch attacks against Iraqi and Coalition Forces.

And here is today’s dispatch from embedded blogger Michael Yon. 

The first day of operation Arrowhead Ripper was intense. The Army is giving full access to the battlefield, and while on base full access to the TOC (HQ) which means I see the raw truth on the ground, and as it feeds through the TOC. They are hiding nothing. Or if they are, it’s in plain view. (Special operations notwithstanding.) A reporter can see as much as he or she can stand.

The combat has only just begun, and media has now figured out this is serious business. During the morning brief (June 20th), Major Robbie Parke mentioned that CNN, TIME, Reuters and some others, are trying to get out here now. Problem is space. Looks like Gordon and I are mostly alone for now. Others are said to be in Baqubah, but if they are here, they are missing some of the most important parts, and if they were at the important commander’s meetings, I would have seen them. 

The enemy in Baqubah is as good as any in Iraq, and better than most. That’s saying a lot. But our guys have been systematically trapping them, and have foiled some big traps set for our guys. I don’t want to say much more about that, but our guys are seriously outsmarting them. Big fights are ahead and we will take serious losses probably, but al Qaeda, unless they find a way to escape, are about to be slaughtered. Nobody is dropping leaflets asking them to surrender. Our guys want to kill them, and that’s the plan.A positive indicator on the 19th and the 20th is that most local people apparently are happy that al Qaeda is being trapped and killed. Civilians are pointing out IEDs and enemy fighters, so that’s not working so well for al Qaeda. Clearly, I cannot do a census, but that says something about the locals.

If you read Michael regularly you know that he is 100% reader-supported.  Please consider a donation.

Confederate Yankee reports that in the past 48 hours, more than 40 al Qaeda terrorists (including a Libyan) have been killed, more than 100 have been captured in these and other on-going operations, and tons of munitions have been captured or destroyed in weapons caches. 

Americans, be proud of your military today.  We are finally taking the fight to Al-Qaeda in Iraq.  Our servicemen and women are laying down their lives this week to ensure we keep the battles of World War III overseas, and not in our streets.

God Bless America.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

I nearly fell off my chair reading this from Jonah Goldberg at The Corner….

As several readers have noted, South Carolina is shaping up to be party central. You’ve got coke dealing Republican treasurers and daredevil rooftop fornicators falling from the sky. No wonder everyone wants to cover the South Carolina primary.

Hey, we are only 2 miles north of the SC border.  Perhaps we should rent out the house for a Conservative SC Primary Party?!?

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Given the happenings in Massachusetts and New York this past week, I had expected to blog more today on gay marriage. But, then again, I had expected to blog last week on the eHarmony lawsuit. For each story has much to do with the current situation of gays in America — and in our political system.

But, today after receiving an e-mail from a blog I enjoy, Davids MedienKritik-Online, which offers perhaps the best coverage of the anti-American bias in the European media, it struck me not only how that bias contributed to Europeans’ twisted views of our great nation abroad, but also how similar the attitudes of the European media elite were to attitudes I experienced in Europe approximately twenty years ago when I lived in (then-West) Germany and France. That good blog offers a must-see short two-part video report “on anti-Americanism in European media.”

In my post on the run-up to the French presidential election (won by the unashamedly pro-American Nicolas Sarkozy), I noted that while the “young French intellectuals . . . looked down on America . . ., young French professionals” were fascinated by America, “eager to learn” more about our nation and to associate with Americans. They looked up to the United States and wished their land were more like ours.

It was the élites who scorned us, often based on false images of — and inaccurate information about — our land. The report on Davids MedienKritik confirms that things haven’t much changed in Old Europe. As I learned about the latest European coverage of our homeland, it was as if I was hearing repeated the conversations I had had with European intellectuals and students from universities and secondary schools across the western sections of the continent.

One German high school student, while berating the United States for its involvement in Central America, heralded (à la Michael Moore) Cuba for its excellent health care system and vibrant economy. At least he acknowledged the political repression, but remarked that economic and social progress was more important than freedom. Without even touching his contention that Cuba had a sound economy, I commented that a German living fifty years previously could have used the same argument to justify the Nazi regime. That silenced him. And it stunned me he hadn’t made the connection until I brought it up.

Not long after my encounter with that young (and actually rather fetching) German (at the youth hostel in Perpignan), I met another German (not nearly as fetching) at the youth hostel in Verona. Stunned to learn my nationality after hearing me speak German, he naturally assumed that an American who could communicate in four languages would not have a very high opinion of the then-incumbent American president, Ronald Wilson Reagan.

(more…)

Thanks to my co-blogger in crime Dan for forwarding me this column from the Jerusalem Post.  (Dan, I’m surprised you didn’t take a crack at it first!)

It is a completely devastating and, most importantly, factual assessment of how Jimmy Carter can arguably be considered the “Father of the Iranian Revolution.”  Brilliant!

The Left in America is screaming to high heaven that the mess we are in in Iraq and the war on terrorism has been caused by the right-wing and that George W. Bush, the so-called “dim-witted cowboy,” has created the entire mess.

The truth is the entire nightmare can be traced back to the liberal democratic policies of the leftist Jimmy Carter, who created a firestorm that destabilized our greatest ally in the Muslim world, the shah of Iran, in favor of a religious fanatic, the ayatollah Khomeini. 

Let’s look at the results of Carter’s misguided liberal policies: the Islamic Revolution in Iran; the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (Carter’s response was to boycott the 1980 Moscow Olympics); the birth of Osama bin Laden’s terrorist organization; the Iran-Iraq War, which cost the lives of millions dead and wounded; and yes, the present war on terrorism and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

When Carter entered the political fray in 1976, America was still riding the liberal wave of anti-Vietnam War emotion. Carter asked for an in-depth report on Iran even before he assumed the reins of government and was persuaded that the shah was not fit to rule Iran. 1976 was a banner year for pacifism: Carter was elected president, Bill Clinton became attorney-general of Arkansas, and Albert Gore won a place in the Tennessee House of Representatives.

In his anti-war pacifism, Carter never got it that Khomeini, a cleric exiled to Najaf in Iraq from 1965-1978, was preparing Iran for revolution. Proclaiming “the West killed God and wants us to bury him,” Khomeini’s weapon of choice was not the sword but the media.

The bottom line: Carter believed then and still does now is that evil really does not exist; people are basically good; America should embrace the perpetrators and castigate the victims.

Trust me, if we didn’t try to be “pithy” here I would have cut/pasted the whole article.  It is a damning indictment of Jimmy Carter as the sellout of America that he was (and still is). 

Jimmy Carter yesterday labeled President Bush’s policy of sidelining Hamas (a terrorist group) as “criminal.”  Yet it is Carter’s criminal legacy that has left thousands of Americans dead in its wake since 1979.

Is it too late for Americans to demand a War Criminals trial for President Carter for creating the mess we are in today?

How about simply charging him with treason?

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Given my ambivalence to the recent vote in the Bay State blocking a referendum on a state constitutional amendment barring gay marriage, some readers seem to think I favor having the people of the several states vote on this important issue. But, as those who have taken the time to actually read my posts on gay marriage well know, I believe state legislatures, rather than the courts, should decide their requirements for marriage in their respective states.

And now it seems that at least one state is showing respect for its citizens by doing just that. Yesterday, the New York State Assembly, by a vote of 85-61, approved a measure allowing the Empire State to recognize same-sex marriages.

This is the first serious vote on gay marriage in any state legislature. You see, I discount the significance of most actions by the Legislature in my adopted home state, given how beholden California legislators are to special interests. Though had they voted on gay marriage before the citizens of the Golden State passed Proposition 22 banning recognition of same-sex marriages, I would have taken their actions seriously.

New York’s legislators show how it’s done. If California legislators had respect for their citizens, they would put a measure on the state ballot to repeal Proposition 22. Each member of the 150-seat New York Assembly now has put his position on state recognition of same-sex marriage on record. And the various members must now answer to their constituents for their stands.

It’s nice to see that, instead of bypassing the democratic process, advocates of gay marriage have instead sought to turn to the elected legislature. the body responsible for enacting — and amending — laws. So, despite the bellyaching (at the time) of the gay groups, something good did come of the finding of New York’s Court of Appeals (the Empire State’s highest court) last year that that gay marriage is not allowed under state law.”

Commenting on that ruling a year ago, I wrote:

I’m not as upset by this decision as are many gay activists and organizations. I believe they have picked the wrong fora to make their case for gay marriage. They should be going to legislatures instead of courts. . . . the option still remains for advocates of gay marriage to make their case before the legislature — and the people to whom the elected legislators are responsible. 

I’m delighted that advocates of gay marriage exercised the legislative option. Extending the benefits of marriage to same-sex couples is a significant step. And it should not be made by a handful of judges who do not answer to the citizens.

While the quality of the debate in the New York Assembly seems to have been as lame as the general debate on gay marriage, this is how democracy works. While it’s unfortunate that it took a court decision to get gay marriage advocates to turn to this messy process, I’m delighted that they’re finally looking to the legislatures. Let us hope, that in the future, they will seek to turn to these elected bodies rather than courts as they advance their agenda.

- B. Daniel Blatt (GayPatriotWest@aol.com)

Except for the people who are deliberately mean and hateful, seeking to harm others — and those who are inconsiderate, indifferent to the feelings of others, I find opportunists to be the most irritating sort of human being. They don’t seem to believe in anything but their own advancement.

No wonder I was never a great fan of former President Clinton — or his wife. Each Clinton seems to shift his* position, not because of what he* feels in his heart, but what he believes is most likely to further his election. While many gay activists can’t seem to contain themselves at the mere mention of the former president’s name, he showed that he preferred political expediency to helping gay people. Gay people bore the brunt of that Democrat’s opportunism.

When it helped him to have gay support (in the three-way 1992 election), he promised to repeal the ban on gays in the military. When he realized repealing the ban could cost him politically, he signed “Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell” into law, making it impossible for his successors to do what his predecessors (and he) could have done, repeal that ridiculous regulation with the stroke of a pen.

Yesterday, another political opportunist made headlines. New York City’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg, twice elected as a Republican, “left the Republican Party and become unaffiliated in what many believe could be a step toward entering the 2008 race for president.” The Mayor hadn’t been a Republican very long, having switched in 2001 “his lifelong Democratic registration to avoid a crowded primary.”

Just another opportunist, becoming a Republican in order to bypass the Democratic primary. And now leaving the party as he contemplates a presidential bid, knowing he wouldn’t have a prayer in the GOP’s presidential primary, given the presence of his more accomplished predecessor.

Some people, ever eager to blame everything on Bush, seem to think his departure has something to do with the president’s “betrayal of conservatism.”** Except that, as Robbie, who tipped me off to that silly statement, noted Bloomberg hasn’t been much of a conservative. And he doesn’t seem to be leading the charge for fiscal prudence, either as Mayor of New York or in his prospective presidential bid.

Nope, Michael Bloomberg is a political opportunist plain and simple. (As Robbie puts it, “Should” Bloomberg run for president, “his leaving the party will mirror the purpose of his original joining – pure political expediency.” So, there’s not much of a story to his second change of partisan affiliation since George W. Bush became president. Except that he may be trying to succeed that man in that office.

*****

* this pronoun is grammatically correct.

**This blogger agrees that the President hasn’t been all that conservative.

The American people once again need to step up and rebuke the political and chattering class in Washington, DC.   But you need to take action NOW to stop the Senate Amnesty For Illegal Invaders Act of 2007.

Send a FAX to your Senator NOW via NumbersUSA to urge them to VOTE NO on the entire Amnesty legislation.

Meantime, in a rare and stunning move, House Republicans discovered a backbone today…

Immigration Reform Caucus Chairman Brian Bilbray (R-CA) joined Congressman Peter T. King (R-NY), Ranking Member of the Committee on Homeland Security, and Congressman Lamar Smith (R-TX), Ranking Member of the Judiciary Committee, to unveil two new border security and immigration initiatives—a comprehensive border security and immigration reform bill as well as a resolution calling for full enforcement of all current immigration laws. The two new measures represent a strong ‘Security First-No Amnesty’ alternative to the Kennedy-Bush Senate Amnesty bill.

“We decided to take action today rather than wait for the Senate to pass an amnesty bill the American people clearly do not want,” Bilbray said. “There is no reason why Congress shouldn’t take immediate action to secure our borders, strengthen our immigration laws, implement true interior enforcement and establish a working employer verification system.”

The Secure Borders FIRST (For Integrity, Reform, Safety and anti-Terrorism) Act of 2007 will mandate operational control of all our borders and ensure better enforcement of current U.S. immigration laws.

Hallelujah!

Whatever you do on Wednesday and Thursday, take time out to get involved in the future of your nation.  Call your United States Senators and tell him or her to VOTE NO on the Senate Immigration bill.  No Amendments!  No Passage!

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Apparently orthodoxy is out and heterodoxy is in favor within the Episcopal Church (ECUSA):

Shortly after noon on Fridays, the Rev. Ann Holmes Redding ties on a black headscarf, preparing to pray with her Muslim group on First Hill.

On Sunday mornings, Redding puts on the white collar of an Episcopal priest.

She does both, she says, because she’s Christian and Muslim.

Redding, who until recently was director of faith formation at St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral, has been a priest for more than 20 years. Now she’s ready to tell people that, for the last 15 months, she’s also been a Muslim — drawn to the faith after an introduction to Islamic prayers left her profoundly moved.

Her announcement has provoked surprise and bewilderment in many, raising an obvious question: How can someone be both a Christian and a Muslim..?

She says she felt an inexplicable call to become Muslim, and to surrender to God — the meaning of the word “Islam.”

“It wasn’t about intellect,” she said. “All I know is the calling of my heart to Islam was very much something about my identity and who I am supposed to be.

“I could not not be a Muslim…”

Redding’s bishop, the Rt. Rev. Vincent Warner, says he accepts Redding as an Episcopal priest and a Muslim, and that he finds the interfaith possibilities exciting. (Seattle Times)

The good vicar contradicts and blasphemes the central tenet of two religions, now that’s ambition! This babe is going places!

Levity aside, this news story is a good example of why the ECUSA is having so many problems right now. The elevation of Gene Robinson, divorced cleric with a gay partner, to the episcopate was only the spark that lit the powderkeg which has been building in that denomination for many years. This has been a persistent problem in recent years among Episcopalians, where priests have openly apostasized only to be supported by their bishops (this latest episode isn’t the first). It doesn’t matter whether one is an Episcopalian or not (I myself am Catholic), but it should be noted that homosexuality isn’t the sole reason conservatives in the ECUSA are bolting. If the church one belongs to isn’t going to remain true to the historic Creeds of one’s faith it is understandable why those who still do may get a tad antsy. Disagreements over sexuality pale in comparison. There is much to criticize conservative Episcopalians for (their alliance with Akinola for starters), but no one should be blinded to the fact that the impending split in that denomination is about far more than just “anti-gay” sentiment.

Hat tip: Ace of Spades

– John (Average Gay Joe)

The more I think about the reaction of the gay groups toward the vote last Thursday in Massachusetts blocking a popular vote on a state constitutional amendment on gay marriage, the more disturbed — deeply disturbed — I become by their rhetoric and attitudes. They are gloating about denying the citizens of the Bay State an opportunity to vote on this important issue.

To be sure, I don’t believe the people need to vote on such matters. Had each House of the Massachusetts General Court (i.e., the Commonwealth’s state legislature) debated gay marriage, then passed legislation extending the definition of this ancient institution to include same-sex couples, I would have heralded the decision as I did the vote two years ago in the Connecticut General Assembly recognizing same-sex civil unions in the Nutmeg State.

What disturbs me is the rhetoric of the gay groups. They act as if Massachusetts were about to put people’s rights up to a vote. And yet the issue was not whether or not gay individuals could live freely with the partner of their choosing in the Bay State and call themselves married (if they so choose), but whether or not the commonwealth would recognize those individuals as married. It was not an issue of basic rights or fundamental freedoms, but, I repeat, of the gender composition of couples the state chose to privilege.

It’s too bad too many gay marriage advocates refuse to acknowledge the meritorious arguments of certain gay marriage opponents, instead choosing to portray them as troglodytes who wish to stand athwart history blocking progress. For many of those opponents offer strong defenses of the institution of marriage to which gay marriage advocates should take heed (as Jonathan Rauch has if marriage is an institution important enough that we should extend its privileges to same-sex couples.

(more…)

So I am 99 % sure that at about 9am this morning, GOP Presidential candidate Duncan Hunter walked by me.

I was walking in Terminal C of Charlotte-Douglas Airport on my way to a departing flight.

I am pretty sure it was him as I’m very good at remembering faces (just not names!) And Rep. Hunter impressed me during the last GOP debate.

So that’s how my week begins…

-Bruce (GayPatriot… via mobilephone)

Yesterday, while at the gym, I was amused to see an episode of the Chris Matthews Show, amused because while he had a panel representing ostensibly diverse political points of views, the panelists spent the entire show (at least the part I watched) effectively calling the President of the United States a failure.

As I watched, I wondered (yet again) if I would have become more critical of the president earlier in his term had his opponents not been so determined to prove him wrong in all his endeavors, including accusing him of being dishonest and delighting in the politics of personal destruction. While the president has made many mistakes (notably his refusal to shift strategy in Iraq until after Republicans lost Congress last fall and his insistence on passing a “comprehensive” immigration bill), he does not, as one liberal pundit claims, specialize in “big lies and smear tactics”

That said, it seems his adversaries in the Democratic Party and the MSM do engage in tactics which may not quite be smears, certainly are similar. Despite ample evidence to the contrary, the pundits’ panel yesterday was pretty much convinced that the “surge” would not succeed.

Not only that. They lay the blame for the current turmoil in Gaza on the President. At various points in the program, they labeleled his Mid-East as benign and malign neglect. They seemed to forget that the latest Palestinian intifada began in September of 2000, before Bush’s election — and after then-Palestinian leader rejected an offer brokered by President Clinton giving his people nearly everything they requested — including statehood.

It seems the default position of these pundits is to blame President Bush. Perhaps they portray him as the author of all the world’s ills because he has been (by and large) and unapologetic defender of the values of the West. And all too many in the MSM have adopted the attitude (probably picked up in college, given the dominant ideology of all too many American universities) that if there’s a problem in the world, the West is to blame.

Just look at some of the coverage of the current situation in Gaza where one group of Palestinian Arab terrorists has been busy killing off an (only moderately) less militant faction. The pundits yesterday on Matthews’ program seemed to think it was all Bush’s fault.

Melanie Phillips, in a must-read piece* on her blog, notes that not only has the BBC apologized “for calling Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, its capital).” it has also been busy “been blaming the carnage in Gaza upon…Israel.” She wonders if reporters and pundits form British media can even see things as they are because “Their minds are simply programmed to a lie, and everything is seen through the prism of that lie.” She concludes, “Our quisling media are doing the filthy work of the enemies of the free world for them.” It is truly as she puts it, “beyond belief.” Just read the whole thing!

Maybe we need someone to revise the words of the Oscar-nominated song from “South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut” to make it the MSM’s theme song: “Blame Western Civ.”

******

Via Michael Totten via Instapundit.

That Gay Conservative linked me this morning to a great piece on Gay Pride on Reality Mugged Me. It’s particularly impressive that Nate Nelson who offered these intelligent insights is only 23 years old. I dare say we have a lot to expect from him.

Perhaps it’s his Buckeye background.

Like yours truly (an Ohio native), Nate skipped out on Pride this year. Nate is similarly “ambivalent toward the whole gay pride extravaganza.” I passed on Pride two years ago as well, penning a post where I wrote: “I’ve always wondered about term ‘Pride.’ I mean, I’m not proud to be gay. Nor am I ashamed to be gay. I just am gay.”

In a similar vein, Nate writes:

I am not proud. I am proud to be the man I am, a gay man, a gay American man, a gay American man in the Republican Party. But I am not proud to be a part of the gay community. I am not proud to say that the gay community’s leaders are employing intimidation tactics and anti-democratic strategies in my name. I am not proud that our leaders are destroying lives for the gain of their political allies. I am not proud that our leaders would rather work through an ideologically driven oligarchy than through a democratic legislature. I am not proud that our leaders seem remarkably like the authoritarian bogeymen in Warsaw and Moscow.

It’s a good piece where this young man reflects on the events of the day and notes those gay people about whom he is proud. Rather than compromise his words by paraphrasing them in this post, just check out his blog and read the whole thing!

****

I apologize for losing the comments when I accidently deleted this post. I don’t know if there’s a way to get them back. And there were some good ones.

In my previous post, I noted how, in Greek mythology, the goddess Athena helps guide that culture’s heroes, serving as a model of the feminine influence young men need in order to “fulfill their role as responsible adults.” In The Iliad, she restrains Achilles who, in his anger, wishes to kill his fellow Greek Agamemnon, telling her strapping favorite that she comes to “check” his rage, promising him that if he holds back, “one day glittering gifts will lie before you,/three times over to pay for all his outrage.”

With this action, the gray-eyed goddess demonstrates two of the qualities she seeks to instill in her male favorites: restraint and strategic thinking. For it often seems that without such feminine influence, we men might be more inclined to focus on the present without considering the long-term consequences of our actions. Had Achilles fulfilled his desire to kill Agamemnon, a civil war would likely have broken out among the Greeks, preventing them from accomplishing their (and Athena’s) ultimate goal — defeating Troy. His restraint in the crisis at hand will lead to his glory later in the conflict.

In his rage, Achilles lost sight of the real goal. And it’s not merely in our martial endeavors where we men have difficulty restraining ourselves. It’s also in our sexual pursuits. Too often, we want to gratify our immediate urge for carnal pleasure without considering the long-term consequences of our actions.

For all too long, I was swayed by the arguments of my fellow gay men (including nearly all my gay male friends) that it was okay to “hook up” for casual sex. But, then I began to wonder if my occasional hookups compromised my chances to find what I was ultimately seeking — a long-term monogamous relationship with one man. I resolved that it would serve me better to ignore their advice. And that has not always been easy. For the appeal of the carnal is strong, particularly among us men.

Only in thinking about what I really wanted — and calling to mind the subject of my dissertation — was I able to hold myself back. Once again, this is not an issue of judgment, but of my own personal choice. If others have different goals, it is not for me to decide how they should meet them.

It’s how I came to realize of the importance of Athena — and the principles she represents — to the conversation on gay marriage. For traditional marriage is based upon uniting individuals of different genders, with the woman usually serving as the force of restraint, preventing the man from straying. The issue for gay man becomes how to incorporate the qualities that women bring to marriage to unions which lack a female presence.

With their high regard for that often armor-clad Olympian, the Greeks recognized that a female force was often necessary to help civilize men. Perhaps, we gay men who do not seek to connect with a woman in our romantic (and sexual) lives can, by understanding how Athena served Greek men, find a means to bring those qualities into our lives that women have traditionally brought to marriage.

(more…)

Disgraced Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong (D) will resign regardless of the decision of the North Carolina State Bar Association as to his future.

“It has become increasingly apparent during the course of this week, in some ways that it may not have been before, that my presence as the district attorney in Durham is not furthering the cause of justice,” Nifong said. “It is not fair that the people of my community to be representing by someone who is not held in high esteem by either the members of the community or members of the profession.

“It does not contribute to the cause of justice in Durham for me to serve as the sitting district attorney for every time I walk into the courtroom [there are] people pointing a finger at me and saying there’s the guy in the Duke Lacrosse case.”

Duke University President Richard Brodhead had the following reaction to Nifong’s announcement today:

“Mr. Nifong brought great harm to these Duke students and their families, to the Durham community, and to Duke University and all who care about it. Even though his decision to resign comes under threat of sanctions by the North Carolina State Bar, I welcome it. It sets the stage for a healing process to which we all are committed.”

However, on April 6, 2006, Brodhead seemed to forget about “innocent until proven guilty” when it came to the Duke students maliciously accused of rape.

Brodhead should be the next to resign. 

But closely far behind should be all 88 members of the Duke faculty who engaged in the most hysterical, race-baiting and disgusting efforts to convict the Duke players and the University itself in the public domain.  Here’s a sample of the so-called Group of 88′s “Listening Statement.”

We are listening to our students. We’re also listening to the Durham community, to Duke staff, and to each other.  Regardless of the results of the police investigation, what is apparent everyday now is the anger and fear of many students who know themselves to be objects of racism and sexism, who see illuminated in this moment’s extraordinary spotlight what they live with everyday. They know that it isn‘t just Duke, it isn‘t everybody, and it isn‘t just individuals making this disaster.

But it is a disaster nonetheless.

These students are shouting and whispering about what happened to this young woman and to themselves.

. . .We want the absence of terror. But we don’t really know what that means . . . We can’t think. That’s why we’re so silent; we can’t think about what’s on the other side of this. Terror robs you of language and you need language for the healing to begin.

Unfortunately these days, America’s universities rarely do the right thing and show accountability.  One can only hope there would be 89 more resignations following Nifong’s.  It would be true justice.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

In her column this morning on OpinionJournal, Peggy Noonan shows (once again) that she gets it on immigration and demonstrates through her wise words (yet again) why she is the Athena of political punditry. I noted last week how she called the bill “a big and indecipherable mess” and favored dividing it up into smaller bills, with one securing the border to be considered first.

This week, she’s back on her game (when is she not on her game?), first making this wise observation about the “American mood” on immigration: “Anti-immigration and for the immigrant. Against the abstract and for the particular.” This American Athena gets her homeland.

And she loves that homeland and is, like her humble servant, eager to integrate immigrants into our culture, but reiterates that we must first secure the border:

We should close the border, pause, absorb what we have, and set ourselves to “patriating” the newcomers who are here. The young of AmeriCorps might help teach them English. Those reaching retirement age, who happen to be the last people in America who were taught and know American history, could help them learn the story of our country. We could, as a nation, set our minds to this.

Exactly.

Not only does she gets America, but, like the real Athena, who restrained Achilles from rash action in The Iliad and helps guide nearly all the Greek heroes, understands that young men must learn to control their passions. Observing the Puerto Rican Day Parade in the Big Apple, she observed two young men behaving badly and comments:

We’re going to have to work on that young man, on both of them.

But we always have to work on young men, don’t we?

And so she writes truly in the spirit of her divine namesake, understanding that we have to work on young men. For, as I will attempt to show in my dissertation, the Greeks understood (primarily through the gray-eyed goddess) that young men need feminine guidance in order to fulfill their role as responsible adults. With the anecdote in her column today, Peggy follows in the footsteps of that armor-clad Olympian. A woman recognizing the needs of young men.

Don’t take my word for it, just read the whole thing!

- B. Daniel Blatt (GayPatriotWest@aol.com)

UPDATE: Charles Krauthammer (whom I believe Bruce or I once called the Apollo of political punditry) offers a perspective on immigration nearly identical to Peggy’s. He notes that only one provision of the immigration bill garners “unanimous support: stronger border enforcement.” He concludes with a point that echoes one Peggy made two weeks ago:

Comprehensive immigration reform has simply too many contentious provisions to command a majority of Congress or the country. We all agree on enforcement, don’t we? So let’s do it. Make it simple. And do it now. Once our borders come visibly under control, everything else will become doable. Including amnesty.

Now that I’ve whet your appetite just read the whole thing, especially as he makes a great case for a border fence.

The Weekly Standard has a full accounting of the charge of “incompetence” by Senate “Leader” Harry Reid against Generals Pace and Petraeus. 

Fortunately, Bob Geiger has produced what he claims is a verbatim quote of the senator’s original remarks:

“I guess the president, uh, he’s gotten rid of Pace because he could not get him confirmed here in the Senate… Pace is also a yes-man for the president and I told him to his face, I laid it out to him last time he came to see me, I told him what an incompetent man I thought he was.”

So, now it turns out that Reid did, in fact, call Pace “incompetent,” despite the denials of all the bloggers linked above, and Reid’s own non-denial denial. Not only that, Reid claimed that he called Pace a “yes-man” and “incompetent” to his face. He claimed he questioned the man’s competence AND his integrity. He might as well have slapped him across the face with a white glove! How could none of these bloggers have thought such a claim newsworthy? So which is worse: the unbelievably small chance that Reid did actually say those things to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, or that he lied about doing so in a pander to lefty bloggers.

The lefty bloggers, for their part, have shown themselves to be totally inept. They failed to report the comments, then they denied Reid ever made them while making their own unsubstantiated allegations, and now they defend the comments as irrelevant–and without even the slightest doubt as to their validity. Which is worse?

Indeed, which is worse?  The lefty bloggers have no sense of what is right, good or honest anymore.  They hound an 18-year old mercilessly about his sexual preference…. but stage a blogosphere-wide cover-up to protect their inept Senate Democrat “Leader” Harry Reid.  How Taliban-esque.

Oh, and Ian…. you’ll have to take off your Veil of Reid Apologism now.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)