“Don’t expect the media to make a big deal of it,” writes Rand Simberg about the passing of an artist who devoted much of  theatrical career to challenging Communism.

Although Vaclev Havel stood up for artistic freedom and defended the political systems which allowed for freedom of expression, he never achieved the accolades as did many with fewer accomplishments and a smaller vision.  He was, as Simberg put it,

. . . the wrong kind of dissenter, being too American for Europe. The fact that he never won a Peace Prize, while Yasser Arafat and Barack Obama did, says something very fundamental about the corruption and uselessness of that once-honorable achievement.

(Via Insapundit.)  Why do so many on the left so often champion those voices dissenting not just the systems which oppressed them, but also the Western ideals which promote the very idea of dissent?

Bruce Bawer thinks we need more leaders like Havel.   More on this great man, anon.  Much more.

*from Western intellectuals.

On Monday, realizing that nearly 500 e-mails had accumulated in my blog and personal e-mail accounts, I started wading through them, going through nearly 200 e-mails.  I did catch a few personal ones I missed, but most (fortunately!) were just links to (or summaries of) news and opinion pieces which I mostly skimmed over.

A number caught my eye, including this one from the globe-trotting Jamie Kirchick:

The subtitle struck me even more than the title, “The political legacy of opposition to apartheid has devolved into hostility toward the West — and sympathy for anyone else engaged in ‘anti-imperial struggle’”. It’s almost as if that statement defines many facets of American liberalism — and other left-wing ideologies — particularly since the Civil Rights movement.

All too many on the left saw segregation not as an ugly stain on a noble experiment, but instead as a defining aspect of America. In opposing that heinous system, many became hostile toward the United States and, by extension, the West. Their animosity is often furthered by the way the legacy of the Civil Rights’ movement is taught on college campi. Western civilization, our teachers tell us, is fundamentally hostile to “the other.”

No wonder some left-wing outfits show support for the ostensible representatives of other oppressed groups, even when those representatives are themselves hostile to those supposedly represented by the groups themselves. Witness Codepink. Or “Queers for Palestine.”

All too few (alas!) recognize that Dr. King drew on the very best of the Western tradition in crafting his (successful) movement to end segregation, frequently citing, in his speeches, our country’s founding documents and national hymns and regularly referencing Scripture and lessons drawn from his education in Christian theology.

Seven months ago today, Khaled Abu Toamah described the plight of women living in the Hamas-controlled Gaza strip:

Since Hamas seized full control over the Gaza Strip in 2007, Palestinian women have been deprived of many of basic rights, such as strolling along the beach alone or smoking in public. Under Hamas, female lawyers are not allowed to appear in court unless they are wearing the hijab.

They are also barred from going to male hairdressers. A woman who is seen in public with a man is often stopped by Hamas policemen and questioned about the nature of the relationship between them.

Women in the Gaza Strip who have dared to participate in public political and social events have been repeatedly harassed by the Hamas government. As a result, many of them have been forced to stay at home out of fear for their lives.

Yet, over on Codepink’s website, we find this:

Why is this women’s organization so concerned about how the nation in the Middle East which provides the fewest restrictions on women because of their gender treats a flotilla providing supplies to an enclave run by terrorists who treat women as third-class citizens?

Guess these folks are so opposed to “U.S. funded wars and occupations,” as they bill it, that the enemy of their enemy is their friend even if said “friend” restricts women from participating in civil society.

Reading Glenn’s report of efforts to stop the Gaza Flotilla, I started wondering if those do-gooders eager to help those suffering under the Islamicist tyranny in Gaza had organized such aquatic caravans to provide relief to those suffering under similar regimes in Syria, Iran and Libya or in such impoverished places like Somalia.

I’m on the west coast on business and last night at about 8pm Pacific time, I was getting frantic texts from home: “Obama will be giving a major national security speech from the solemnness of The White House at 10:30pm. Very weird, especially for this President who prefers cheering audiences as much as his TelePrompTer.

And then came the words I had longed to hear for nearly 10 years: Osama bin Laden is dead.

I began to cry as I thought of the thousands incinerated, slaughtered, and fell to their deaths on Sept. 11, 2001.

My heart goes to the family of our close friend — Joe Ferguson — who died when Flight 77 slammed into the side of the Pentagon that bright blue September morning. I hope they will have some sense of closure. The War isn’t over, but the AQ Commander In Chief has been defeated in battle.

My hearty thanks goes to our intelligence and defense communities. A big thanks to President Obama, CIA Director Panetta and SecDef Robert Gates for what appears to be a rare coordinated intel/military ops that worked flawlessly.

Finally, nothing can express my grief and sadness toward the families of 9/11 victims and to those families who gave our nation their sons and daughters in the first round of the Global War on Islamic Terror.

GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!!!!!!

You’ve got to wonder at our mainstream media, eager to report the shenanigans of a crackpot preacher with a congregation of about 50 families.  Had the media not made an international celebrity out of Terry Jones, few people outside of the neighborhood surrounding his “Dove World Outreach Center” in Gainesville, Florida would have known this publicity-hungry former hotel manager was going to burn a Koran.

And now that he has carried out this juvenile stunt, we’ve seen murder and mayhem in Afghanistan:

Stirred up by a trio of angry mullahs who urged them to avenge the burning of a Koran at Florida church [sic], thousands of protesters overran the compound of the United Nations in this northern Afghan city, killing at least 12 people, Afghan and United Nations officials said…

Unable to find Americans on whom to vent their anger, the mob turned instead on the next-best symbol of Western intrusion — the nearby United Nations headquarters. “Some of our colleagues were just hunted down,” said a spokesman for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, Kieran Dwyer, confirming that the attack.

Via Daily Caller via Instapundit.)  And “Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.)” has told “CBS’s Bob Schieffer . . . that some members of Congress were considering some kind of action in response to the Florida Quran burning that  sparked a murderous riot at a United Nations complex in Afghanistan and other mayhem.”

“People,” Doug Powers quips, “were murdered in Afghanistan and members of Congress are pondering how to clamp down on somebody who burned a book in Florida. Now that’sproblem solving, DC-style.”

What is it about our political and cultural “elite” that they have to pin the blame for a murderous rampage on the antics of self-promoting Christian rogue. It’s as if, they believe, that the worlds ills stem from the actions and attitudes of white Christian males, the very aspects of their culture rejected by the politically correct.

American Christians must be to blame; the foreign other is always blameless. (more…)

I guess real Hope & Change for The Gays comes at the expense of everyone in the Obama Family.

Prime Minister Raila Odinga has ordered a nationwide crackdown on homosexuals in Kenya.

Mr Odinga on Sunday said that police should arrest anyone found engaging in such behaviours and take appropriate legal action against them.

“We will not tolerate such behaviours in the country. The constitution is very clear on this issue and men or women found engaging in homosexuality will not be spared,” Mr Odinga said.

“Any man found engaging in sexual activities with another man should be arrested. Even women found engaging in sexual activities will be arrested,” the premier warned.

Speaking at a public rally at the Kamukunji grounds in his Nairobi’s Kibera constituency on Sunday afternoon, the Prime Minister cited the recent population census results which put the ratio of men to women equal and wondered why people should engage in homosexuality.

“This [homosexual] kind of behaviours will not be tolerated in this country. Men or women found engaging in those acts deserve to be arrested and will be arrested,” he told a hilarious crowd.

Jim at GatewayPundit reports:

While visiting Kenya as a guest of the government Obama campaigned with opposition leader socialist Raila Odinga, who claims he is Obama’s cousin.

Don’t expect any of the American Gay Leftist Lickspittles to protest this Obama family state-sponsored action.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

UPDATE:  I just found this post that is nearly a year old.  It still seems to fit (even MORE so now, perhaps). 

Take the very worst personal and leadership traits of these Presidents:

Combine the Socialist, statist and world-view philosophy of this one:

And add the big-spending ways of this one:

And you get this big mess:

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Ben Howe confronts a Progressive protesting the “Restoring Honor” rally yesterday.  Funny how the event was at the Lincoln Memorial…. but the misguided protestor was lamely hanging out by himself at the Washington Monument.  Heh.

This  is three minutes of pure fun as Ben rips this guy apart and demonstrates the sheer lack of principles of the Progressive movement.  At the end, the poor fool stammers and shouts “Well, you’re a RACIST and an IDIOT.”  Yup, when their intellectual argument breaks down after three minutes — Progressives pull the race card out as their last gasp of hope. 

This is why I don’t associate with the Gay Left — straight, gay or whatever — this protestor exemplifies the Progressive movement; and the Gay Rights crowd are a keystone of the American Progressive movement.

It IS all about redistribution of wealth.  But that isn’t “social justice” folks; it’s Marxist-Communism.

UPDATE: Ben Howe will be my guest tomorrow night on my BlogTalkRadio show, “GayPatriot’s America” at 8:30PM Eastern Time.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Speculating about the media’s (and Hollywood’s) double standard in responding to anti-Semitic tirades from Hollywood bigwigs, Jeff Jacoby concludes:

Gibson and Stone are both guilty of indulging in rank anti-Semitism (for which both promptly “apologized’’), but only Gibson was buried under a newsroom avalanche of outrage and disgust. What explains that glaring difference? Surely the media don’t think Jew-baiting is intolerable only when it comes from a right-wing Christian like Gibson. Surely they wouldn’t overlook Stone’s noxious rant just because he is a pluperfect left-wing activist.

(Via Instapundit.)  And as Glenn might say, read the whole thing.

Jacoby’s right, but there’s more to it than that Gibson represents a dying breed, the anti-Semitic “right-wing Christian,” Oliver Stone embodies a certain breed of self-styled intellectuals, always present, but now increasing in number, in our culture:  the left-winger who includes Jews in their list of people responsible for world problems.

There are, alas, all too many folks like Oliver Stone who see all the world’s problems as products of Western hegemony.   They cuddle up to tin pot tyrants, looking away from their failing economies and dismal human rights record and see only problems in the societies of which they themselves are products.

It’s almost as if they have so internalized our culture’s laudable tradition of self-criticism, that they believe only our culture merits criticism.

On Monday, in the Wall Street Journal’s Political Diary (available by subscription), Mary Anastasia O’Grady wrote about how Oliver Stone’s film South of the Border, “which lauds Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chávez as the nation’s messiah, has flopped spectacularly in, of all places, Venezuela”

To be fair, the film is about more than Mr. Chávez. It also praises the region’s latest crop of left-wing authoritarians, from Bolivia’s Evo Morales, Ecuador’s Rafael Correa, Brazil’s Lula da Silva and Mr. Stone’s favorite Latin bad boy, Fidel Castro. In Mr. Stone’s mind, however, none is more unjustly maligned than Mr. Chávez. The director pulls no punches in his admiration for the Bolivarian bully. “I think he is an extremely dynamic and charismatic figure,” he told the press last year. “He is open and good-hearted, as well as a fascinating personality.”

And this got me wondering why so many liberals in America’s cultural élite, particularly self-described intellectuals. have become so fascinated with despotic rulers like Chávez and Castro.  (I doubt their views would change if they talked to some of the refugees from those tyrannical paradises, including a number of gay people of my acquaintance.)

For such cultural élitists, a critique of Western society has become admiration for, if not adoration of, its enemies, no matter how diabolical their ideas or record (in office).  These tyrants may preside over systems far worse than those the élite criticize, but so long as they oppose such systems, they are (to the élite at least) by definition, worthy of adulation.

——–

*and other demagogues.

Thomas Sowell, one of our time’s great political thinkers, has a chilling piece up today. 

When Adolf Hitler was building up the Nazi movement in the 1920s, leading up to his taking power in the 1930s, he deliberately sought to activate people who did not normally pay much attention to politics.

Such people were a valuable addition to his political base, since they were particularly susceptible to Hitler’s rhetoric and had far less basis for questioning his assumptions or his conclusions.

“Useful idiots” was the term supposedly coined by V.I. Lenin to describe similarly unthinking supporters of his dictatorship in the Soviet Union.

Put differently, a democracy needs informed citizens if it is to thrive, or ultimately even survive.

In our times, American democracy is being dismantled, piece by piece, before our very eyes by the current administration in Washington, and few people seem to be concerned about it.

The president’s poll numbers are going down because increasing numbers of people disagree with particular policies of his, but the damage being done to the fundamental structure of this nation goes far beyond particular counterproductive policies.

With vastly expanded powers of government available at the discretion of politicians and bureaucrats, private individuals and organizations can be forced into accepting the imposition of powers that were never granted to the government by the Constitution.

If you believe that the end justifies the means, then you don’t believe in constitutional government.

That last bolded statement is so simple and true.

When it comes to Sowell’s question though, I believe the answer to it is: “We are already there.”  I think the next few weeks, especially events toward the end of the year, will show if Americans want to give up 200 years of our Constititutional experiment and drift into a dark age of tyranny.

Last summer I asked readers “Is The US In A Low Grade Civil War?”   I stated seven reasons why I thought so:

1. There is a clear distinction between those who want a more authoritarian/socialist nation versus those who want to preserve the capitalist/democratic America we live in.
2. There is a clear distinction between those who understand the principles and guidance and importance of the representative legislative process versus those who hide behind the Constitution as an excuse to create laws from the bench.
3. There is a clear distinction between those who favor strong national security vs. those who want a borderless, global government.
4. There is a clear distinction between those who hold US Constitutional principles dear (1st, 2nd, 10th Amendments in particular) and those who are ignorant or want to subvert those principles.
5. There is a clear distinction between those who want to maintain a sensible fiscal policy versus those statists in Washington who spend our tax money with reckless abandon.
6. There is a clear distinction between those who see themselves as Americans first versus those who want to segregate themselves into communities and ignore the national identity.
7. Despite his promises, surveys show that Americans have elected one of the most divisive Presidents [Obama] since Richard Nixon.

These factors have gotten worse, not better in the course of the year.  You know it when you talk to friends and relatives.  I can feel the tension everywhere: airports, supermarkets, office complexes.  Those who don’t are Unicornists or aren’t paying attention.

I pray I am wrong and that the resolution to these severe conflicts happens in November at the ballot box.  I don’t think it will.  This will be a long hot summer for the United States of America and future generations will mark the year 2010 for its historical inflection point.  For that, I have no doubt.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

In one of the most ostrich-in-the-sand dissent in American history, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer articulates how liberals live in their own fantasy world.  The case decided today by a 6-3 majority (thank God!) “upheld the constitutionality of a federal law that makes it illegal to teach members of a foreign terrorist group how to use peaceful means to pursue political goals.”  This was part of the USA Patriot Act.

Here is what Justice Breyer said in his from-the-bench-audible dissent (via SCOTUSblog):

Breyer’s opinion argued that the majority’s requirement for “coordination” of speech activity with a terrorist group was not a limitation in any real sense.  “There is no practical way,” he wrote, “to organize classes for a group (say, wishing to learn about human rights law) without ‘coordination.’ “  Moreover, the dissent said, the Court had accepted the government argument that even support for a group’s peaceful aims could help “legitimate” that group, and thus further its violent acts, too.  “Once one accepts this argument, there is no natural stopping place,” Breyer concluded.

Breyer was joined in the dissent by (not surprisingly) Justices Ginsberg and Sotomayor.

Further, Breyer wrote/spoke:

Breyer said that the majority’s broad reading of the statute raises “grave” doubt about its constitutionality.

“… I would read the statute as criminalizing First-Amendment-protected pure speech and association only when the defendant knows or intends that those activities will assist the organization’s unlawful terrorist actions,” Justice Breyer wrote.

Now these three are insane because they trust that a terrorist organization will separate funds, advice and other material goods from their advocacy arm.  WTF?  This on the face of it is sheer madness.  If an organization is deemed a terror group by The State Department — the quickest way to receive humanitarian aid is to STOP and RENOUNCE TERROR ACTIVITIES.  Then the US will take you off the list, and the bleeding heart liberals can give you all the damn advocacy support you want.

So the three dissenters either think coordination is okay for the safety of We, The People… or they think that terror groups will put up firewalls in their Terror, Inc. operations.  Either conclusion is completely devoid from reality.

Luckily, Chief Justice Roberts brings sanity (and the majority vote) with his opinion:

Roberts quoted a congressional finding in support of his broad reading of the statute: “[F]oreign organizations that engage in terrorist activity are so tainted by their criminal conduct that any contribution to such an organization facilitates that conduct.”

DUH.

I am finding it increasingly hard to debate and discuss with Progressive Liberals who live in a world that solely exists in their mind and Starbuck-dotted neighborhoods. 

Unicorns are not an effective anti-terror strategy.  What is truly frightening is that three members of SCOTUS, the President and the Congressional leadership all are Unicornists.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

So, this morning as I’m scanning the news before heading out for some pool time with a niece and nephew, chanced upon an article that was almost balanced on the political theater of anti-Israel activists, including a number with ties to terrorist organizations.  The AP did note the allegations (actually more than allegations) that the ships included men eager to, um, well, provoke the Israelis to violent action:

Israel’s prime minister claimed Sunday that the Turkish activists who battled Israeli naval commandos in a deadly clash last week had prepared for the fight ahead of time — boarding the ship separately from other passengers after they organized and equipped themselves.

Without the slightest trace of irony, AP writer Joseph Federman reports that one of the organizers of the political stunt, er, flotilla, “Huwaida Arraf [is] a leader of the Free Gaza Movement”.  Free Gaza Movement, huh?  Hasn’t Gaza been free of Israeli occupation for five years now?  

Now, Israeli may prevent arms from reaching the terrorist-run enclave, but, they do allow humanitarian assistance in.  If Mr. Arraf favors a Free Gaza, shouldn’t he be registering opposition not to Israel, but to Hamas, the terrorist organization which runs the enclave?

But, Mr. Arraf’s operation has nothing to do with freeing Gaza, but instead with waging a propaganda campaign against Israel, or, as Roger Simon put it in a must-read peace on the Helen Thomas kerfuffle, it’s all about blaming the Jews.  We are, alas, entering a new era of anti-Semitism.

And the folks who hate the Jews tend not to have a high opinion of homosexuals.

The world, Jennifer Rubin, observes has “gone mad,” with the purveyors of proper opinion siding with the enemies of civilization (you know, enemies of those tolerant of religious and sexual difference).  ”If,” this sage blogress writes, “we cannot recognize the enemy, we cannot defeat him. And if we prevent clear-eyed allies from doing so, we lose allies, our moral standing, and the war on our civilization.”

It seems now that it’s better to blame the Jews than to make a stand for civilization.

Let me close by reiterating the point that this flotilla has nothing to do with humanitarian aid and everything to do with political theater.  As the indispensable Charles Krauthammer reminds us: (more…)

Protesters were waiting for Israel’s Deputy Ambassador to Britain Talya Lador-Fresher outside a lecture hall at the University of Manchester

. . . but this did not deter her from entering as planned. Immediately upon her exit, the protesters lunged at the diplomat, prompting security guards to whisk her back into the hall. Following a consultation on the site, it was decided to escort her out of the premises in a police car.

The deputy ambassador was removed from the hall and into the police vehicle. However, this did not block the protesters, who surrounded the car and climbed on the hood, trying to break the windshield.

Have we ever seen Tea Party protesters so gang up on a spokesman for or defender of the Obama Administration?  Climbing aboard a police vehicle and trying to smash its windshield?

So, do you think we might get a media narrative about the violence of anti-Israel protesters?  And hear some criticism of this angry extremists from our talking heads, you know, like the hectoring we hear about the Tea Parties?

UPDATE: Obama rudely points his finger at Canada’s PM, but bows to ChiComs.  What’s wrong with this guy?  Does our President have any understanding at all of history or any sense of loyalty or protocol?  Does Obama, as Roger L. Simon has suggested lately, have some mental health issues?

Oh wait… bowing to Communists — maybe Obama DOES have a sense of loyalty…

=========

Why does Obama hate being the American President so much?

The Global Warming Hoax Of The Century continues to crumble…

More trouble looms for the IPCC. The body may need to revise statements made in its Fourth Assessment Report on hurricanes and global warming.  A statistical analysis of the raw data shows that the claims that global hurricane activity has increased cannot be supported.

Les Hatton once fixed weather models at the Met Office. Having studied Maths at Cambridge, he completed his PhD as metereologist: his PhD was the study of tornadoes and waterspouts. He’s a fellow of the Royal Meterological Society, currently teaches at the University of Kingston, and is well known in the software engineering community – his studies include critical systems analysis.

Hatton has released what he describes as an ‘A-level’ statistical analysis, which tests six IPCC statements against raw data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric (NOAA) Administration.  He’s published all the raw data and invites criticism, but warns he is neither “a warmist nor a denialist”, but a scientist.

Hatton performed a z-test statistical analysis of the period 1999-2009 against 1946-2009 to test the six conclusions. He also ran the data ending with what the IPCC had available in 2007. He found that North Atlantic hurricane activity increased significantly, but the increase was counterbalanced by diminished activity in the East Pacific, where hurricane-strength storms are 50 per cent more prevalent. The West Pacific showed no significant change. Overall, the declines balance the increases.

“When you average the number of storms and their strength, it almost exactly balances.” This isn’t indicative of an increase in atmospheric energy manifesting itself in storms.

I’d like nothing more than to see Al Gore charged with fraud by an international tribunal…. or economic crimes against humanity.  Either one that lands him in jail the quickest.  Maybe a Saudi jail??

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

UPDATE (from Dan): So, where are the global warmists left to be discredited? They’ve been hiding the decline (in temperatures), exaggerating the melting of Himalayan glaciers and the devastation of the Amazon rain forest and now they’ve been doctoring data about hurricanes. Wonder if they made any predictions about tornadoes.

If almost seems a certainty that if a public figure veers off into America-bashing conspiracy theories, he’s soon going to start apologizing for our enemies.  Usually, such apologetics focus on run-of-the-mill despots like Daniel Ortega, Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro, but occasionally spills over into full-blown defenses of Communism and even Islamofascism.

Rarely, however, have such self-haters shown sympathy for Adolf Hitler.

Until now.

According to a smart young writer, the ”man who immortalized Che Guevara is off to set the record straight and correct the right-wing’s misinformation campaign about Hitler“:

In a new documentary series titled “Secret History of America,” Stoned says, “I’ve been able to walk in Stalin’s shoes and Hitler’s shoes to understand their point of view. We’re going to educate our minds and liberalize them and broaden them.”

Most of us know the man my nephew called Stoned as filmmaker/conspiracy theorist Oliver Stone.  So, if we, as Stone claims, “can’t judge people as only ‘bad’ or ‘good,’” guess that lets W off the hook?

Right, so even as the Left accuses George W. Bush of killing one million Iraqis in his illegal war for oil, Bush has done nothing wrong. It’s all… America’s?… fault.

Surely, Stone’s next project will be to walk in Bush and Cheney’s shoes and understand their point of view.  So, if you do want to educate your own minds, take a gander at my nephew’s column, it’s well worth your time.

Despite the Obama Administration’s efforts to cover up the ongoing war against America by Islamists, the Muslim terrorists are obviously undeterred in their plans to carry out war against our homeland.

Airliner attack fails over Detroit; Northwest Ohioans on board witness incident - T0ledo Blade (h/t – Amanda Carpenter)

A Northwest Airlines passenger from Nigeria who said he was acting on al-Qaeda’s instructions set off an explosive device Friday in a failed terrorist attack on the plane as it was preparing to land in Detroit, federal officials said.

 Flight 253 had 278 passengers aboard, including northwest Ohio residents who saw the incident.

The flight was 20 minutes from the airport when what sounded like a firecracker exploded, witnesses said.  One passenger jumped over others and tried to subdue the man. Shortly afterward, the suspect was taken to a front-row seat with leg burns.  One U.S. intelligence official said the explosive device was a mix of powder and liquid that failed to fully detonate.

The White House said it believed it was an attempted act of terrorism, and stricter security measures were imposed on airline travel. Those measures were not specified.  A Northwest Airlines passenger from Nigeria who said he was acting on al-Qaeda’s instructions set off an explosive device Friday in a failed terrorist attack on the plane as it was preparing to land in Detroit, federal officials said.

 Flight 253 had 278 passengers aboard, including northwest Ohio residents who saw the incident.

 The flight was 20 minutes from the airport when what sounded like a firecracker exploded, witnesses said.

One passenger jumped over others and tried to subdue the man. Shortly afterward, the suspect was taken to a front-row seat with leg burns.

One U.S. intelligence official said the explosive device was a mix of powder and liquid that failed to fully detonate.

The White House said it believed it was an attempted act of terrorism, and stricter security measures were imposed on airline travel. Those measures were not specified.

First let me point out one simple fact:  While nearly all levels of the US government seem paralyzed to do anything lately, we have more evidence of the American public — specifically this one passenger — who will do what it takes to protect his nation. 

Moving forward I believe Congress should look into our Homeland Security practices immediately.  There are many questions that Gestapo Janet has to answer for.  Is she too consumed on cracking down on “right-wing extremists” that she dropped the ball on a worldwide war declared on this nation?  Did the Obama Adminstration take its eye off the ball in 2009 while trying to ram healthcare reform down our throats?  Has Obama spent too much time focusing on Afghanistan, and not enough time on Yemen — where there increasing reports of Iran-sponsored al-Qaeda groups gaining strength?

We all know that Senator Obama would have asked Congress to investigate the Bush Administration under reverse circumstances had this airline attack happened two years ago.  So I hope Barry’s 2008 so-far empty pledge of transparency will at least be honored when it comes to protecting American citizens.

We stayed safe on our homeland for seven years after the 9/11 attacks.  The American public demands to know why there has been one successful terror attack (Ft. Hood), and one that nearly happened yesterday under the watch of our new President.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

It seems every now and again this idea for (what seems to be) a brilliant post on Climategate flashes across my mind and then fades before I have a chance to write it down or otherwise record it.  

When I try to recall those thoughts or call them up by reading other thoughtful posts on this scandal of considerable consequence (and apparent media ignorance), all that comes up are two notions, both which may perhaps be a brilliant insights, but the first is definitely not my own.  It is something I have read on a number of conservative blogs and heard from other thoughtful conservative individuals–and may even have read in an intelligent conservative column or two (or three). 

Basically, it boils down to this:  they’ve been doctoring the data on global warming because they need it to be so.  First, if private industry has created this problem, then it becomes to easier for them to demand increased government control over our society, giving greater power to a certain “anointed” class (which must needs include them). And second, it makes it easier to be critical of our species, particularly that part of our species which resides in the industrialized West or otherwise contributes to the civilization of the West.  

If I do have anything original to offer, it might be about that second point, though I’m pretty sure I’m not the first to raise it.

There is a fascinating irony to the attitude under consideration in that second point.  The very notion of self-criticism is a a key aspect of Western civilization.  And yet, some have taken it to an extreme.  It’s not just some problems that can be attributed to our society, our culture, our civilization, our species, but every major problem must needs be one of human design.  Some have taken a key aspect of Western civilization to indict that very civilization (and, in other fields of endeavor, to blame the West while excusing the rest even when their crimes are far worse). (more…)