elbertcounty.net

"Just the facts M'am, Just the facts." -- Sgt. Joe Friday

You are here: Home / Archives for Insanity

“South Park” is hilarious, right?

By

The veiled threats against the Comedy Central show’s creators should be taken very seriously. Islamists seek to replace the rule of law with that of commanding right and forbidding wrong.

By Ayaan Hirsi Ali

‘South Park” is hilarious, right? Not any more.

Last week, Zachary Adam Chesser—a 20-year-old Muslim convert who now goes by the name Abu Talhah Al-Amrikee—posted a warning on the Web site RevolutionMuslim.com following the 200th episode of the show on Comedy Central. The episode, which trotted out many celebrities the show has previously satirized, also “featured” the Prophet Muhammad: He was heard once from within a U-Haul truck and a second time from inside a bear costume.

For this apparent blasphemy, Mr. Amrikee warned that co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone “will probably end up” like Theo van Gogh. Van Gogh, readers will remember, was the Dutch filmmaker who was brutally murdered in 2004 on the streets of Amsterdam. He was killed for producing “Submission,” a film that criticized the subordinate role of women in Islam, with me.

There has been some debate about whether Mr. Stone and Mr. Parker should view the Web posting as a direct threat. Here’s Mr. Amrikee’s perspective: “It’s not a threat, but it really is a likely outcome,” he told Foxnews.com. “They’re going to be basically on a list in the back of the minds of a large number of Muslims. It’s just the reality.” He’s also published the home and office addresses of Messrs. Stone and Parker, as well as images of Van Gogh’s body.

According to First Amendment experts, technically speaking this posting does not constitute a threat. And general opinion seems to be that even if this posting was intended as a threat, Mr. Amrikee and his ilk are merely fringe extremists who are disgruntled with U.S. foreign policy; their “outrage” merits little attention.

This raises the question: How much harm can an Islamist fringe group do in a free society? The answer is a lot.

Mohammed Bouyeri, a Dutch-Moroccan Muslim first thought to have been a minor character in radical circles, killed Theo van Gogh. Only during the investigation did it emerge that he was the ringleader of the Hofstad Group, a terrorist organization that was being monitored by the Dutch Secret Service.

The story was very similar in the case of the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. The cartoons, drawn by Kurt Westergaard, were published in September 2005 to little notice but exploded five months later into an international drama complete with riots and flag-burnings. The man behind this campaign of outrage was an Egyptian-born radical imam named Ahmed Abu-Laban.

Prior to this conflagration, Mr. Abu-Laban was seen as a marginal figure. Yet his campaign ended up costing Denmark businesses an estimated $170 million in the spring of 2006. And this doesn’t include the cost of rebuilding destroyed property and protecting the cartoonists.

So how worried should the creators of “South Park” be about the “marginal figures” who now threaten them? Very. In essence, Mr. Amrikee’s posting is an informal fatwa. Here’s how it works:

There is a basic principle in Islamic scripture—unknown to most not-so-observant Muslims and most non-Muslims—called “commanding right and forbidding wrong.” It obligates Muslim males to police behavior seen to be wrong and personally deal out the appropriate punishment as stated in scripture. In its mildest form, devout people give friendly advice to abstain from wrongdoing. Less mild is the practice whereby Afghan men feel empowered to beat women who are not veiled.

By publicizing the supposed sins of Messrs. Stone and Parker, Mr. Amrikee undoubtedly believes he is fulfilling his duty to command right and forbid wrong. His message is not just an opinion. It will appeal to like-minded individuals who, even though they are a minority, are a large and random enough group to carry out the divine punishment. The best illustration of this was demonstrated by the Somali man who broke into Mr. Westergaard’s home in January carrying an axe and a knife.

Any Muslim, male or female, who knows about the “offense” may decide to perform the duty of killing those who insult the prophet. So what can be done to help Mr. Parker and Mr. Stone?

The first step is for them to consult with experts on how to stay safe. Even though living with protection, as I do now in Washington, D.C., curtails some of your freedom, it is better than risking the worst.

Much depends on how far the U.S. government is prepared to contribute to their protection. According to the Danish government, protecting Mr. Westergaard costs the taxpayers $3.9 million, excluding technical operating equipment. That’s a tall order at a time of intense fiscal pressure.

One way of reducing the cost is to organize a solidarity campaign. The entertainment business, especially Hollywood, is one of the wealthiest and most powerful industries in the world. Following the example of Jon Stewart, who used the first segment of his April 22 show to defend “South Park,” producers, actors, writers, musicians and other entertainers could lead such an effort.

Another idea is to do stories of Muhammad where his image is shown as much as possible. These stories do not have to be negative or insulting, they just need to spread the risk. The aim is to confront hypersensitive Muslims with more targets than they can possibly contend with.

Another important advantage of such a campaign is to accustom Muslims to the kind of treatment that the followers of other religions have long been used to. After the “South Park” episode in question there was no threatening response from Buddhists, Christians and Jews—to say nothing of Tom Cruise and Barbra Streisand fans—all of whom had far more reason to be offended than Muslims.

Islamists seek to replace the rule of law with that of commanding right and forbidding wrong. With over a billion and a half people calling Muhammad their moral guide, it is imperative that we examine the consequences of his guidance, starting with the notion that those who depict his image or criticize his teachings should be punished.

In “South Park,” this tyrannical rule is cleverly needled when Tom Cruise asks the question: How come Muhammad is the only celebrity protected from ridicule? Now we know why.

the ends of politics

By

The path led through the camp entrance bearing the inscription “Arbeit macht frei” (work will make you free). The over-dimensional motto on the roof of the maintenance building announced: “There is a path to freedom. Its milestones are obedience, honesty, cleanliness, sobriety, hard work, discipline, sacrifice, truthfulness and love of thy fatherland.”
Arbeit macht freiPerimeter fenceDepiction of beatingBeating tableDachau gas chamberDachau crematorium
———————————————————————————————
Dachau is a mirror into the dark part of each of our souls we wish we did not have.  Everyone should see it, know it’s there, and know what the most civilized of people are capable of doing given the right circumstances.

islam insanity defense

By

 

Atty: Fort Hood suspect may use insanity defense

Nov 23 09:41 PM US/Eastern

By ANGELA K. BROWN
Associated Press Writer

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) – An Army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 people during an attack on his Texas post will likely plead not guilty to the charges against him and may use an insanity defense at his military trial, his attorney said Monday.

Islam and the insanity defense – now there’s a reach.

the partial truth and nothing but the partial truth

By

“When one is contending with an ideological regime, the line that must be held absolutely to the end is to reject, without discussion, the description of reality set forth by this regime.  As soon as one puts one’s fingers in the gears and admits this description includes a “partial truth”–for example, that there are Aryans and non-Aryans, and that a “Jewish problem” therefore exists–one is lost.  The will now obeys only a distorted intelligence.  It remains only to beg the “Aryans” to resolve this “problem” in a “humane” manner.  In the world of ideology, the “partial truth” that holds seductive power is the very site of falsification and what is most false.  This rule holds true for all ideology, and particularly for communist ideology.  As soon as people accepted a description that divided reality between socialism and capitalism, they could only beg the two “camps” to obey the general principles of morality–even if this meant granting superiority, in principle, to the first for its having done away with “exploitation.”

“The No, the refusal to discuss, must be set forth from the first moment.  If it is not, one loses one’s sense of the false logic that occurs with the second step, which is introduced by therefore.  The Treaty of Versailles humiliated Germany: therefore it is necessary to take a certain measure in order to solve the Jewish problem, therefore. . . .Until, by an imperceptible drift, one arrives at the Final Solution.  Workers are exploited: therefore there must be a revolution, therefore. . .etc.  We must flee the “partial truth,” because this truth, however indisputable in appearance, is already embedded in a system of insane logic.”

Alain Besancon

the leftist experience

By

[T]he moral destruction of communism was worse because the confusion between common morality and communist morality remains deep rooted.  With the latter hiding behind the former, it is parasitical and polluting, using common morality to spread its contagion.  Here is a recent example: in the discussions that followed the publication of The Black Book of Communism, an editorial writer at the French communist newspaper L’Humanite’ announced on television that 85 million deaths did not in any way tarnish the communist ideal.  They represented only a very unfortunate deviation.  After Auschwitz, he continued, one can no longer be a Nazi, but one can remain a communist after the Soviet camps.  This man, who spoke in good conscience, did not realize at all that he had just articulated his own most fatal condemnation.  He could not see that the communist idea had so perverted the principles of reality and morality that it could indeed outlive 85 million corpses, whereas the Nazi idea had succombed under its dead.  He thought he had spoken as a great and decent man, idealistic and uncompromising, without realizing that he had uttered a monstrosity.  Communism is more perverse than Nazism because it does not ask man consciously to take the moral step of the criminal, and because it uses the spirit of justice and goodness that abounds throughout the earth to spread evil over all the earth.  Each communist experience begins anew in innocence.

Alain Besancon, A Century of Horrors, 2007.

American leftists will ridicule their comparison to communists, however, in moral relativity, in masking harmful policies under good intentions, and in denial over their policies’ historical failures, leftists and communists are a distinction without a difference. [Read more…]

contrived continuity

By

The psychological state of the militant is distinguished by his fanatical investment in the system.  This central vision reorganizes his entire intellectual and perceptual field, all the way to the periphery.  Language is transformed: it is no longer used to communicate or express, but to conceal a contrived continuity between the system and reality.  Ideological language is charged with the magical role of forcing reality to conform to a particular vision of the world.  It is a liturgical language for which every utterance points to its speaker’s adherence to the system, and it summons the interlocutor to adhere as well.  Code words thus constitute threats and figures of power.It is not possible to remain intelligent under the spell of ideology.

The most obvious sign that ideological insanity is artificial is that it is reversible: when the pressure ceases and circumstances change, one gets out all at once, as if from a dream.  But it is a waking dream–one that does not block motility and maintains a certain apparently rational coherence.  Outside the affected area, which is the superior part of the mind in a healthy person–the part that articulates religion, philosophy, and the “governing ideas of reason,” as Kant would say–the comprehensive functions seem intact but focused on and enslaved by the surreal object.  When one wakes, one’s mind is empty; one’s life and knowledge must be entirely relearned.

Alain Besancon, A Century of Horrors, 2007.

The Republican mistake of the 2008 election was to embrace a portion of the left’s ideological insanity to bring in moderates, which ended up ratcheting the debate to the left.  Whoever concluded that Republicans could score by giving the ball to the opposition should be fired. [Read more…]

“Ayers-Dohrn Paradox”

By

But we ran smack dab into what I call the Ayers-Dohrn Paradox, which is:
Ayers and Dohrn gained fame as violent revolutionaries willing to commit murder and other terrorist acts in order to overthrow the United States. For that, they were greatly worshipped by the far left. Now, in their sunset years, they’re trying to re-cast themselves as “respectable” left-wing professors with “reasonable” opinions, who have long ago sworn off violence. And so, at these events, neither of them ever mentions their violent heyday, except rarely in passing. Instead, they focus exclusively on their current obsessions: Introducing Marxist thought into schools, and closing down the prison system. However, almost no one who goes to see Ayers and Dohrn gives a damn about hearing monotonous lectures on these particular topics: instead, their fans idolize them because of their violent revolutionary past. So at these events, the audience (as in this case) is full of far-far-far-left radicals who came in order to hear overheated revolutionary rhetoric. But instead, what they get is a boring professorial monologue. If Ayers and Dohrn were nothing more than your run-of-the-mill leftist professors, no one would go to their appearances. They’re coasting on their violent reputation, while at the same time trying to distance themselves from it. And that is the Ayers-Dohrn Paradox.

Thanks to Zomblog

change that defies belief

By

Surreal Spending
The House is poised to take a final vote on the compromise $800-billion spending bill on, appropriately, Friday the 13th, with the Senate likely to follow soon after.

In my 36 years in Washington, I have never seen such a surreal environment, with hundreds of billions of dollars in borrowed taxpayer money being spent without committee hearings or even meaningful public debate over the thousands of new and expanded programs the bill funds. [Read more…]

Muslim strategic goal in America

By

“4- Understanding the role of the Muslim Brother in North America:

The process of settlement is a “Civilization-Jihadist Process” with all the word means. The Ikhwan must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and “sabotaging” its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God’s religion is made victorious over all other religions. Without this level of understanding, we are not up to this challenge and have not prepared ourselves for Jihad yet. It is a Muslim’s destiny to perform Jihad and work wherever he is and wherever he lands until the final hour comes, and there is no escape from that destiny except for those who chose to slack.”

An Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Brotherhood in North America (English translation begins on page 15.)

Deprogramming

By

Great article, great analysis, right on the money.To make a long story short, whether the context is local, statewide or national, regarding left/right issues and races, the left’s polemics have become surreal.  They’ve lost track of their own hyperbole.  They no longer distinguish between a hyperbolic rant and a reasonable argument incorporating factual cause and effect.  They’ve been consumed by cult philosophies based in Marxism.  I don’t think this is a close call.  They’ve pretty much gone over the edge.

This is a deep problem manifesting itself in hundreds of ways.  It developed over generations and spans many intertwined disciplines.  From my observations of other cults, I don’t believe you can deprogram this degree of sophisticated brainwashing at the fully developed end of the spectrum.  True indoctrinated believers have sophisticated defenses and devices to ward off challenges that could destabilize the world views they serve.  For example, the fact that socialism has never worked is no reason to question its’ validity.  They say it hasn’t been done right yet, many are versed in what went wrong in each case, and all are sure that next time they’ll get it right.  Apparently, Robert Owens’ “united social” experiment of 1825 has proven a little more difficult to implement than originally thought.

Collectively, leftist true believers account for an incredible quantity of raw brain power and IQ.  So long as they remain devoted to their cult, however, their ability to advance real human capacity and efficacy–the human condition–is handicapped. Meanwhile, the need for the balance of humanity to figure out our collective survival, prosperity and advancement, goes on.

Does this indicate a strategy?  Maybe so.  Maybe you have to engage the cult at a more fundamental level.  In other words, don’t argue the broad thesis.  Don’t argue conclusions that threaten them and raise their defenses.  Argue the precepts and basics.  Stay on the facts and perhaps let the conclusions take care of themselves.  Let them find their own conclusions.  You may as well since they won’t allow themselves to comprehend or accept any conclusions that originate outside of the cult anyway.

Morning November 8, 2008

Voter’s Remorse

By

Early VotingThis Wednesday November 5th, the Elbert County Mental Health Union will offer free group grief counseling sessions for victim’s of voter’s remorse.  The American Psychiatrics Guild raised the alarm over a month ago that Voter’s Remorse would become a serious public health concern as early voters began to discover their mistake of choosing candidates too soon.  Grief counselors will be standing by to discuss any concerns victim’s might have and to provide education materials to promote future responsible voting.  Free electroshock therapy will be available for manic partisans who bring their own extension cords.

Thomas Jefferson

"It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself."

Aristotle

"Only an armed people can be truly free. Only an unarmed people can ever be enslaved."

Karl Popper

“A theory which is not refutable by any conceivable event is nonscientific. Irrefutability is not a virtue of a theory (as people often think) but a vice.”