Thursday, March 20, 2008

"I never knew she cared"

Robert Spencer finds errors in Benazir Bhutto's book Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy, and the West.

No contest

Robert Tracinski on Obama's speech-
''In a contest between a man who sat in the pews Sunday after Sunday while his pastor bad-mouthed America, versus a war hero who endured torture for his country, no one on the right will even regard this as a choice.''

Friday, March 7, 2008

Indian cricket team disses environment

Has the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) never heard of global warming? Or do they not care?
The (Indian)team landed in Mumbai at around 10.30 a.m. The players were scheduled to fly to Delhi in a chartered flight. From the airport, they will be taken to the Inter Continental Hotel from where they will be brought to the Kotla for the function.
source


So all that CO2 goes into the atmosphere to satisfy a national ego-trip. In fact if the world takes global warming seriously then there might not be any Indian victories over Australia in Australia -there won't even be any matches between the two (unless the Indian team decides to take a sailing ship to Australia)-
The warnings come from Associate Professor Damon Honnery and Dr Patrick Moriarty ...
"The car is doomed,” Associate Professor Honnery says. “Ultimately, we are going to have to move to a decentralised society where most people need to travel far less. People are going to have to fundamentally change the way they think about travel and make much more use of non-motorised travel such as cycling and walking."
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Dr Moriarty said big reductions in air travel were also needed. “An overseas trip might become a once in a life time experience rather than an annual event,” he said.

Imagine that -only one series against Australia in a lifetime might be allowed in the new green future. Imagine the drama then!

(emphasis mine)

Whatever happened to calling spade a spade?

The trouble with the tyranny of politicallycorrectspeak is that the a journalists' job is no longer to describe the world as it is.He is under intense pressure to right by all the 'right' concerns -racism, environment, community-cohesion, 'Islamophobia', global warming and other innumerable causes and concerns whose rightness a typical mainstream mediaperson takes for granted.

There are so many concerns to look out for that the media is filled with journalists who can't report straight.

Charles Johnson cuts to the chase-
If you’ve wondered why so many mainstream media stories about Islamic issues omit important details and draw spurious morally equivalent conclusions, wonder no more. They’re doing it on purpose.

This was apparently released by the Society of Professional Journalists shortly after the 9/11 attacks: Guidelines for Countering Racial, Ethnic and Religious Profiling.
On Oct. 6 at its National Convention in Seattle, the Society of Professional Journalists passed a resolution urging members and fellow journalists to take steps against racial profiling in their coverage of the war on terrorism and to reaffirm their commitment to:

— Use language that is informative and not inflammatory;

Portray Muslims, Arabs and Middle Eastern and South Asian Americans in the richness of their diverse experiences;
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Visual images

Seek out people from a variety of ethnic and religious backgrounds when photographing Americans mourning those lost in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

— Seek out people from a variety of ethnic and religious backgrounds when photographing rescue and other public service workers and military personnel.
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— Use photos and features to demystify veils, turbans and other cultural articles and customs.

Stories

Seek out and include Arabs and Arab Americans, Muslims, South Asians and men and women of Middle Eastern descent in all stories about the war, not just those about Arab and Muslim communities or racial profiling.

— Cover the victims of harassment, murder and other hate crimes as thoroughly as you cover the victims of overt terrorist attacks.

Make an extra effort to include olive-complexioned and darker men and women, Sikhs, Muslims and devout religious people of all types in arts, business, society columns and all other news and feature coverage, not just stories about the crisis.

— Seek out experts on military strategies, public safety, diplomacy, economics and other pertinent topics who run the spectrum of race, class, gender and geography.

When writing about terrorism, remember to include white supremacist, radical anti-abortionists and other groups with a history of such activity.
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— When describing Islam, keep in mind there are large populations of Muslims around the world, including in Africa, Asia, Canada, Europe, India and the United States. Distinguish between various Muslim states; do not lump them together as in constructions such as “the fury of the Muslim world.”

— Avoid using word combinations such as “Islamic terrorist” or “Muslim extremist” that are misleading because they link whole religions to criminal activity. Be specific: Alternate choices, depending on context, include “Al Qaeda terrorists” or, to describe the broad range of groups involved in Islamic politics, “political Islamists.” Do not use religious characterizations as shorthand when geographic, political, socioeconomic or other distinctions might be more accurate.

— Avoid using terms such as “jihad” unless you are certain of their precise meaning and include the context when they are used in quotations. The basic meaning of “jihad” is to exert oneself for the good of Islam and to better oneself.

— Consult the Library of Congress guide for transliteration of Arabic names and Muslim or Arab words to the Roman alphabet. Use spellings preferred by the American Muslim Council, including “Muhammad,” “Quran,” and “Makkah,” not “Mecca.”

— Regularly seek out a variety of perspectives for your opinion pieces. Check your coverage against the five Maynard Institute for Journalism Education fault lines of race and ethnicity, class, geography, gender and generation.
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Notice that among the suggestions there is not one about reporting facts as they are and no more or no less.
Read the whole thing.
(emphasis mine)

From the LNC quotes corner

"Tragedy is a small price to pay for bowing to trendy leftist talking points ."
-Paul Mirengoff

Finally, some courage from the artist community

Matamoros-America’s First anti-Jihadist Comic Book Hero

Looking forward to getting my hands on this-"Matamoros - the first comic book focusing on the U.S. military’s fight against radical Islamists."

As long as the moral dunces who rule us don't decide to ban it in order to again appease the eternal lovers of peace and harmony.

Saturday, March 1, 2008

Another good reason to buy the "300" DVD-Sudhir Mishra hates the film

Sudhir Mishra hates 300

There are good reasons to watch "300"-
Spartacus and Ben-Hur, 300 is about bravery, freedom, honor, and country. These are universal themes. But universal themes that will offend liberals(i.e. leftists -ed) because they’re not defended in a PC fashion.
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It’s impossible not to compare the enemy in 300 to the current Islamofascists. The Persians are ruled by a theocracy; a king, Xerxes, who looks like a Culture Club refugee, fancies himself a god, and demands to be worshipped. The Persian ambition is to conquer those willing to convert, and butcher those who refuse. To convert some, Xerxes promises them paradise — especially a lot of hot women. Maybe not seventy-two. Certainly not virgins. But it’s all pretty familiar.
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But story is everything. And the biggest reason 300’s successful is because its central story is exciting and well plotted.
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I’ve no doubt critics (I don’t read them until I post my own review) are calling 300 old-fashioned, and worse. But they’re wrong. After forty years of liberal rule in Hollywood it is nihilism that’s old-fashioned. It is moral relativism that is tired. It is political correctness, the always-noble people of color, the always-evil white guy, and the metrosexual that is cliched. A film with a clear divide between good and evil is something new. A film that celebrates patriotism, heroism, sacrifice, freedom, and honor is something revolutionary. In 1955 300 would be old-fashioned. In 2007 it makes a counter-culture statement as strong as Easy Rider in its day.

(emphasis mine)
(go read the whole wonderful review of 300 by Dirty Harry)


Now there is another good reason to go buy that "300" DVD-
trendy leftist director Sudhir Mishra hates it.

Update- to be fair to Mishra, he is the writer of one the best Indian comedy films Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro and I thought his Yeh Woh Manzil To Nahin was interesting. His only recent film I have seen was Chameli, which I found predictable and pretentiously yawn inducing.

Also to his credit, he defends the right of others to show 'offensive' films. If only other leftists were like that.