Friend of Western Civ: Michael Crichton

I've long been a fan of Michael Crichton, a famous popular author known for sci-fi novels like "The Andromeda Strain" and "Jurassic Park." He is also the creator of the famous TV show "ER". But now my admiration of him has clicked up a few more notches thanks to a recent interview on The Daily Ablution blog.

Excerpt:

BURGESS: What is the most serious threat facing our civilisation?

CRICHTON: Loss of classical liberal values in those western societies that embraced them.

England was the first modern state, the first superpower, the first nation to deal with moral issues around the world, and the first nation to install the benefits of what we might now loosely term a liberal society. I mean that in the 19th century sense of liberalism. That notion of liberalism was also present in America, but made it to the Continent only in a pale and limited form. It is a wonderful social conception that must be vigilantly guarded. It is not shared by other nations in the world. Nor is it shared by many citizens in English-speaking countries. Peculiarly, many of our most educated citizens are least sympathetic to classical liberal ideals. Indeed the term 'liberalism' in the modern day has come to imply a constellation of attitudes that John Stuart Mill would not recognize as liberal at all. Nor would, say, John F. Kennedy recognize them as liberal. Kennedy's conception of liberalism was simultaneously more tolerant and more tough-minded: tolerant about varieties of behavior within the society, and tough-minded toward threats to a tolerant society from without.

That's all gone, now. Today there is far too much sensitivity within societies, and too little hard-nosed recognition of threats from without. We are inclined to be intolerant of speech by our friends and neighbors, and tolerant of beheadings, rape, and homophobia in distant lands.

This makes no sense. But here we are.

SOURCE: The Daily Ablution: 28 MARCH 2007: Seven Answers From ...

HAT TIP: Planet Gore

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: How Not to Get Your Ass Kicked by the Police

Though Western Civ. might be dead, it's still a good idea to follow this simple advice from Chris Rock when dealing with the Police (you "YOUTHS" in Paris, please pay special attention...)

WARNING: Not for the easily offended, as Chris Rock makes liberal use of adult adjectives.



HAT TIP: Free Republic

MORE PROOF THAT WESTERN CIVILIZATION IS DEAD

Even more proof that Western Civilization is now as dead as Anna Nicole Smith: an actual news story from the Associated Press reprinted in full:

Clashes erupt at Paris' Gare du Nord (the main Paris train station)

PARIS - Riot police firing tear gas and brandishing batons clashed Tuesday with bands of youths who shattered windows and looted shops at a major Paris train station, and officials said seven people were arrested.

Officers and police dogs charged at groups of marauding youths, some of them wearing hoods, who mingled with commuters and travelers at the Gare du Nord — one of Paris' most important transport hubs.

Some of the youths threw trash cans and other objects at the officers, who responded by firing tear gas.

One woman was evacuated by paramedics for inhalation of tear gas.

The clashes began in midafternoon, and forced the closure of the station's subway and commuter lines for several hours. The station's long-distance rail hub and Eurostar terminal, which is attached to the subway station, remained open throughout.

They started after a man without a Metro ticket punched two inspectors during a routine ticket check, said officials from Paris' RATP public transport authority. Youths also attacked the inspectors and later turned on police patrolling the station, officials said.

"The inspectors were hit with projectiles, as were the officers who came to assist them," said Luc Poignant, an official for the Force Ouvriere police union.

A standoff ensued between officers and some 100 youths.

SOURCE: Associated Press: 27 MARCH 2007: Clashes erupt at Paris' Gare du Nord

Just a bunch of "youths?" So is that how kids get their kicks in France, TERRORIZING commuters and passengers in the main Paris train station?

Does anyone reading this think these dudes were nothing more than a bunch of YOUTHS with no political or religious affiliation of any kind?

Could those youths possible be Muslims who have been TERRORIZING France and Paris for several years now?

Naaahhhh, couldn't be....

UPDATE:

Video of the riot from YouTube (in French, of course...)



Guess what? They weren't right wingers....

UPDATE 2:

A Special Report about this incident is now on Pajamas Media.

Excerpt:

Signs that the times are changing—24 hours after the punk jihad riots, the media delivered a profile of the “kid” whose arrest sparked 8 hours of mayhem in the bowels of the Gare du Nord.

The “kid” is one Angelo H. He is, it turns out, 32 years old, an illegal Congolese immigrant, and subject to a deportation order 1993.

The “kid” has been in trouble since he came to France at the age of ten—twenty-two registered condemnations for violent incidents and many that went unreported.

The cops initially went to arrest a little cheater and found they had bagged a hardened criminal. Instead of paying for a ticket like millions of law-abiding passengers Angelo H. jumped the turnstile and was, exceptionally, arrested. In a matter of seconds he had head-butted—or slapped—one of the RATP agents. When the agents wrestled him to the ground, Angelo screamed bloody murder, a small crowd gathered in protest against the agents’ brutality. And the call to battle rang out.

Almost instantly Angelo became a thirteen year-old boy whose arms were fractured by the cruel agents (shades of Mohamed al Dura). Then a pregnant woman was added to the list of victims of police brutality. All that was missing was “the infidels set fire to the mosque.”

SOURCE: PajamasMedia: 29 MARCH 2007: Eternal Youth: Punk Jihad Riots at Gare du Nord

WESTERN CIVILIZATION NOW OFFICIALLY DEAD.

ABSOLUTE PROOF that Western Civilization is now dead and burried: "The View"

Watch this video, and listen to the ABSOLUTE CRAP that is spewing forth from the mouth of Rosie O'Donnell, and notice how the studio audience is egging her on:



Fire can't melt STEEL????? That has got to be the STUPIDEST, most ignorant thing I've heard on TV, and I've heard alot...

But that using the word terrorist to describe terrorists is PROPAGANDA? That takes the cake...I could go on, but why bother...

I NOW DECLARE WESTERN CIVILIZATION OFFICIALLY DEAD.

What a shame.... I'm saddened that we allow that kind of crap onto the airwaves, I really am....

HAT TIP: Little Green Footballs

"How Modern Liberals Think"

This is a MUST WATCH video. Hat tip: Little Green Footballs.

How to win in Iraq

The following article in the Opinion Journal is a MUST READ: "How to Win in Iraq. And how to lose. "

Excerpt:

To the student of counterinsurgency warfare, the war in Iraq has reached a critical but dismally familiar stage.

On the one hand, events in that country have taken a more hopeful direction in recent months. Operations in the city of Najaf in January presaged a more effective burden-sharing between American and Iraqi troops than in the past. The opening moves of the so-called surge in Baghdad, involving increased American patrols and the steady addition of more than 21,000 ground troops, have begun to sweep Shiite militias from the streets, while their leader, Moqtada al-Sadr, has gone to ground. Above all, the appointment of Lt. Gen. David Petraeus, the author of the U.S. Army's latest counterinsurgency field manual, as commander of American ground forces in Iraq bespeaks the Pentagon's conviction that what we need to confront the Iraq insurgency is not more high-tech firepower but the time-tested methods of unconventional or "fourth generation" warfare.

In Washington, on the other hand, among the nation's political class, the growing consensus is that the war in Iraq is not only not winnable but as good as lost--Rep. Henry Waxman of California, for one, has proclaimed that the war is lost. Politicians who initially backed the effort, like Democratic Sens. Hillary Clinton and Joseph Biden, and Republican Reps. Walter Jones and Tom Davis, have been busily backing away or out, insisting that Iraq has descended into civil war and that Americans are helpless to shape events militarily. A growing number, like Rep. John Murtha, even suggest that the American presence is making matters worse. The Democratic Party has devoted much internal discussion to whether and how to restrict the President's ability to carry out even the present counterinsurgency effort.

SOURCE: OpinionJournal: 29 MARCH 2007: How To Win in Iraq

Phil Spector on trial for MURDER???? Who knew?

Oh how the mighty have fallen...

Pop music legendary producer PHIL SPECTOR is on trial in the UK for having murdered a woman.

Here an excerpt from the Daily Mail:

"Spector, creator of the Wall of Sound which featured in innumerable Sixties pop classics, arrived at the Los Angeles Superior Court with wife Rachelle, 26, whom he married last year.

"He is about to go on trial four years after a B-movie actress was shot to death in the foyer of his castle-like home.

"Jurors will be asked to decide if Spector was responsible for the death of Lana Clarkson, who was shot in the face on February 3.

"They will consider conflicting evidence about what happened before police found Miss Clarkson, 40, slumped dead in a chair. The star of Roger Corman's cult film Barbarian Queen was working as a hostess at an establishment known as the House of Blues when she went home with Spector that night."

SOURCE: The Daily Mail: 19 MARCH 2007: Jury search in Phil Spector murder trial to begin

Ted Koppel Tells Shocking Truth About Iraq and War on Terror

This is one blog article (from Newsbusters) that's worth reading: Ted Koppel Tells Shocking Truth About Iraq and War on Terror. The article concerns a conversation that Ted Koppel had with Tim Russert on Meet the Press.

Excerpt:

Koppel: I made a little note here of something that Ambassador Khalilzad said to you [Tim Russert] a moment ago. He said, “The region will not be stable until Iraq is stabilized.” It’s the one thing nobody talks about. Everyone is concerned about the United States being in the middle of a civil war inside Iraq. But they forget about the fact that if U.S. troops were to pull out of Iraq, that civil war could become a regional war between Sunnis and Shia. And the region, just in case anyone has forgotten, is the Persian Gulf, where we get most of our oil, and, I’ve talked about this before, natural gas. So, the idea of pulling out of there and letting the region, letting the national civil war expand into a regional civil war, something the United States cannot allow to happen.

SOURCE: Newsbusters: 11 MARCH 2007: Ted Koppel Tells Shocking Truth About Iraq and War on Terror

Friend of Western Civ: Rush Limbaugh (Noble Peace Prize Nominee)

No one in recent memory has done more for the advancement of Western Civilization than Rush Limbaugh. But sadly, while Rush has tremendous influence, he does not have any political power, as he freely admits.

The conservative movement wants to preserve Western Civilization, and even see it grow and prosper, while the liberals are doing what they can to overthrow it in favor of some sort of godless totalitarian utopia where everyone will have free health care, and pay an 85% tax rate.

Rush, boastfully but very accurately listed his accomplishments on today's radio program, and also rightly criticizes conservative politicians. You can see a partial transcript of his remarks on the World Net Daily web site: WorldNetDaily: Rush Limbaugh: 'What more do you people want?'

Excerpt:

In 1988, this country was a conservative wasteland. Our president was leaving. We had CNN. We had ABC, NBC, CBS. We had the New York Times, the Washington Post, the news magazines, and that was it. Here I came, storming onto the scene! Look what's happened since. I gave you a Republican Congress in 1994 for the first time in 40 years. What were you doing before I came along? I gave you a Republican Senate. I gave you a Republican president in 2000 and again in 2004.

What more do you want? Obviously what I have given you is not enough. I have spawned an entire conservative cable news network. I have spawned an entire New Media from blogs to talk shows. There are people who have failed in television and radio and stand-up comedy who are now going into radio. Everybody from Whoopi Goldberg to you name it, thinks they have to go into radio in order to have impact and make a difference – and why is that? It is because of me. There is an entire alternative media now that people are able to rally to and get alternative news from, spawned by me. Is it my fault the Republicans who won the House in '94 didn't know what to do to keep it? Is it my fault a number of you Republicans wanted to "teach Republicans a lesson" last November and voted for a bunch of Democrats or didn't go out and vote for Republicans?

Source: World Net Daily: 7 MARCH 2007: 'Rush Limbaugh: What more do you people want?'

A Book I Need to Buy

This woman has been getting a lot of attention lately, and deservedly so. Ali is, in fact, an infidel and an atheist, and if I were raised in the culture she was, I would be too.

Check it out at Amazon.com.

Friend of Western Civ: Tom Blumer

Tom Blumer over at BizzyBlog v.2 has a couple of excellent posts as to how Global Warming really has become a religion.

First read: Weekend Question 1: Did You Know That the Global Warming Debate Is Over?

Then read his latest: Globaloney and Globalarmism: Consensus, Conschmensus

HAT TIP: Anchoress

Friend of Western Civ: Iowahawk

While Al Gore may be Western Civ Public Enemy #1, the carbon spewing mad man of the blog-o-sphere, Iowahawk, is certainly the #1 Friend of Western Civilization.

But Iowahawk seems to have gotten that Old Time Ecological Religion, and in his latest post, he urges us planet destroying sinners to repent for our selfish acts.

Excerpt:

Are you concerned that your profligate personal lifestyle is harming the environment? Losing sleep over the long-term ecological damage resulting from those greenhouse gases constantly emitted by your family, your cars, your pets, and your shrubbery? Do you want to become carbon-neutral, but just don't know how?

Well rejoice, sinner! Carbon atonement is no longer the exclusive preserve of the Malibu set -- with the Iowahawk EcoPals Network! This unique new system lets you, the average Joe planet rapist, cleanse your tortured psyche of the stain of enviro-guilt for as little as $9.95 per year! If enough of you follow this simple three step program, we can save the world for our children -- who will soon be frolicking with healthy polar bears atop Earth's reforested glaciers. Act now before it's too late!

Source: Iowahawk: 27 FEBRUARY 2007: Repent, Sinners!

How Gore's massive energy consumption saves the world

Long time enemy of Western Civilization, Al Gore (who on the list of enemies is No. 1 by a wide margin), gets justly ridiculed in this latest Mark Steyn column in the Sun-Times: How Gore's massive energy consumption saves the world.

Excerpt:

The Eco-Messiah [Al Gore] sternly talks up the old Nazi comparisons: What we're facing is an "ecological Holocaust, and "the evidence of an ecological Kristallnacht is as clear as the sound of glass shattering in Berlin." That 221,000 kilowatt-hours might suggest that, if this is the ecological Holocaust, Gore's pad is Auschwitz. But, as his spokesperson would no doubt argue, when you're faced with ecological Holocausts and ecological Kristallnachts, sometimes the only way to bring it to an end is with an ecological Hiroshima. The Gore electric bill is the eco-atom bomb: You have to light up the world in order to save it.

Source: Chicago Sun-Times; "How Gore's massive energy consumption saves the world"; March 4, 2007