Isaac Schrödinger

Mein Kampf

I started reading a book yesterday, and on page 44 found this:

...When eventually he came to power there was no book which deserved more careful study from the rulers, political and military, of the Allied Powers. All was there -- the programme of German resurrection, the technique of party propaganda; the plan for combating Marxism; the concept of a National-Socialist State; the rightful position of Germany at the summit of the world. Here was the new Koran of faith and war: turgid, verbose, shapeless, but pregnant with its message.
[emphasis mine]

That's on page 44 of the Gathering Storm by Winston S. Churchill, published by the Folio Society. Churchill's warnings are timeless.

Question: Does this mean that the Gathering Storm will be banned or altered to appease the many sensitive, and of course innocent, Muslims in Britain? After all comparing the holy book of Islam, the words of Allah Himself, to Hitler's agenda is very hateful.

U of T Disgrace

Some minorities are more equal than others. U of T would never allow a lecture, let alone a week, on the topic of the Arab genocidal war against Israel. However, Israeli Aparthied Week is kosher. University of Toronto has completely lost it's moral compass assuming it had one.

Whine

Muslims are tortured and their rights are violated in modern AmeriKKKa. Why, oh why, are Muslims treated in such a beastly manner in Bushchimpler's "free" America? Maybe, just maybe, because of this.

Dreadful

I am from the government and I want to help.

I had a conversation with a Canadian (socialist) friend once who supported the ban of smoking in every restaurant and pub. I told him that the decision to ban smoking or not should be left to the owners of the restaurants and pubs. I myself get a headache from cigarette smoke but I wouldn't force an owner of private property to ban a legal activity on his/her premises.

My friend replied: people have a right to eat without being bothered by cigarette smoke. Hunh. The more I talk to socialists, the more I realize that they have little to no respect for a person's right to his/her private property.

Update: The point made in the comment accepted. It is, however, strange that the modern socialists pound on about various rights and new rights are created out of thin air like the right to eat without being bothered by cigarette smoke. Instead, in the process they disregard one of the most basic rights: to manage one's property legally as one wishes. That's the surreal part; the supposed defenders of human/worker rights not caring at all about property rights. In essense creating the tools for more government power which as we all know leads to utopia. See USSR, pre-1979 China, Cuba, Syria, etc.

Mr. Kors was right. There won't be an After Socialism.

What Antisemitism?

The stunning call to ban all Jewish groups raised concerns of persistent anti-Semitism in Russia. ...

Gee, ya think. Via LFG.

Echoing anti-Semitic tracts of the Czarist era, the letter’s authors accuse Jews of working against the interests of the countries where they live and of monopolizing power worldwide. They say the United States “has become an instrument for achieving the global aims of Judaism.”

The ghost of Stalin lives:

...Jewish theaters and publishing agencies were exterminated, Committee members were arrested and shot, and a fierce state-wide anti-Semitic campaign began. Attacks in the press, persecution at work places — no method was too low. The famous “killer doctor” trials were the final strike against the Soviet Jewry, when a number of high-profile doctors were absurdly accused of conspiring to murder top government officials.

Moore Sadness

No Oscar for you.

Michael Moore's anti-Bush documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11," which the director had positioned as a best-picture contender, did not receive any Oscar nominations.

Superman of the World

Smash "apologizes" for American "liberation" of various nations. Example:

We apologize to all the people in Afghanistan for putting an end to the Taliban regime. We now understand that you preferred to use your soccer stadiums for public executions, rather than, well, soccer.

Ego Inflation

A couple of hours ago, someone translated a page from my blog. That's beyond cool.

Female Terrorists

Islamists are branching out to the weaker sex:

A female militant must also "be content with what is strictly necessary, sending televisions and air conditioners to be burned."

This reminded me of a sermon in Karachi, Pakistan. This must have been over 12 years ago. My uncle practically had to drag me to the Friday prayers but before the prayers in the mosque, the imam would give an inane sermon. I remember that for the umpteenth time, the imam went on a tangent and started blaming TVs and satellite dishes for the powerlessness of the Muslims. If only we could cleanse ourselves of these infidel devices and the evil TV programs, then we'll be pure and Allah would hand us power on a silver platter. Of course, my unasked question was how could the black and white TV, with 3 miserable channels, in our home cause so much havoc?

Al Qaeda's concept of emancipation does not extend to "the promiscuity of Arab television stations," SISDE's analysis added. Al Khansa considers "as a form of prostitution the presence of female announcers without burqas on the Saudi television network Al-Ekhbariya."

Yes, the Islamic definition of a prostitute: a woman who doesn't look like a dementor.

Asia in 20 Years

A long but interesting article on Power and Population in Asia:

Pakistan/Russia. The most radical and dramatic shift in the relative population weight between major countries in the region, however, involves Pakistan and Russia. In 1975, Russia’s population was nearly twice as large as Pakistan’s (134 million vs. 70 million). By 2025, under medium variant projections, the situation will be virtually reversed: Pakistan will be just over twice as populous as Russia (250 million vs. 124 million).

This jumped out at me. In 20 years, Pakistan will have twice the population of Russia. This is incredible considering the relative physical size of the two countries; Russia spans 12 time zones whereas Pakistan is only in one.

Mr. Prager, Part Three

Mr. Prager writes Part Three in a series of columns defending Judeo-Christian values. It was written almost a week ago and I unfortunately missed it.

Did those non-Jews in Europe who risked their lives to save a Jew during the Holocaust act on the dictates of reason? In a lifetime of studying those rescuers' motives, I have never come across a single instance of an individual who saved Jews because of reason. In fact, it was irrational for any non-Jews to risk their lives to save Jews.

...the belief in reason alone is itself based on an irrational belief -- that people are basically good. You have to believe that people are basically good in order to believe that human reason will necessarily lead to moral conclusions.

History is littered with the ruins of nations because of the evil few. I certainly would not want to live in a Godless world.

...if you want a quick evaluation of where godless reason leads, look at the irrationality and moral confusion that permeate the embodiment of reason without God -- your local university.

Sadly, that's true at my university as well.

Doh Robber

Another doofus embraces the dark side of the Force.

Anti-Freedom

Finally, the Islamist scum is cornered and spills the beans. The Islamists don't hate the West for what it has done to them, they hate it for what it represents: freedom. Liberty represents the complete antithesis of their ideology. Nobody in their right minds would freely subject themselves to these neo-Taliban. So, the only way they can have power is by destroying every other ideology in their midst. Which nation most represents the West? Which country stands between the Islamists and another Holocaust? Which power stands between them and their wet dreams?

The United States of America. They must fight the US; for with the US present, they can't usurp power. As long as the Americans stay strong, the Islamists will lose a battle after another till the day comes when democracy will flourish in Iran and Saudi Arabia. World War IV will end then.

Nothing Wrong with Socialism

From LFG:

“We ain’t never resolved nothing through an election.” This drew loud, sustained applause. Nothing to get worked up about, I thought; just a leftist speaker spouting lunacy. But today it seemed particularly bad. It wasn’t just that I was missing what might be lovely canapés (or perhaps spring rolls being brought about on trays with delectable dipping sauce); rather, it was the thought that the speaker was dismissing something that Afghanis of all ages had recently risked their lives to participate in, something Iraq’s insurgents view as so transformative that they are murdering scores of Iraqis to prevent it. No, what I needed to counter this speaker was not a Democrat like me who might argue that elections were, in fact, important. What I needed was a Republican like Arnold who would walk up to him and punch him in the face.

Whoa.

The Anti-American BBC

The Orwellian BBC:

In Harris and Paxman's telling, Western civilization was the Frankenstein that produced the monster Saddam. And not only was the West to blame for creating Saddam; but the history that Harris and Paxman relate is one of the monster repeatedly outsmarting his creator, rendering his creator impotent to stop him.

As the months wore on into the autumn and winter of 2002-03, however, and it became clearer that Bush was making essentially the same argument that Paxman and Harris were making but that Bush was using it to build a case for war, it rapidly became less an anti-Western argument and more a pro-Western one. Even worse, it became a blatantly pro-American and pro-George Bush argument. Anti-Western feeling may be rampant at the BBC, but it pales beside the BBC's anti-American feeling. And so, virtually overnight and without missing a beat, the BBC and the media in general became corrosive skeptics on the subject of Saddam Hussein and current stockpiles of WMDs.

Read the whole damning post. Link via Instapundit.

Just Giddy

Jan. 24 = Miserable:

"You know its cold, when you go into a fridge to warm up," said Tony from Toronto.

Heh, funny it's -9°C here as well. I have experienced lows of -40°C in Canada and highs of 51°C in Saudi Arabia. One can still go outside in the brutal winter here but there's no compromise with an inferno.

Sorry State of Europe

Britain: ...British Muslims are to boycott this week’s commemoration of the liberation of Auschwitz because they claim it is not racially inclusive and does not commemorate the victims of the Palestinian conflict.

France: as many as 15% of schoolteachers have experienced problems teaching children about the Holocaust, primarily because many Muslim students are unwilling to listen to stories about Jewish suffering.

And as mentioned before:

Germany: in the land where it all started, a majority of people are "sick" of being reminded of the Holocaust - and also believe the Israelis are conducting their own "war of extermination" against the Palestinians.

Go read the entire post at Daimnation!

Ouch

Zarqawi's gettin' no respek.

Lovely

Ladies and gentlemen, the First Family.

RIP Parveen B.

Parveen Babi, one of the most beautiful actresses in Bollywood, has passed away. I'll remember her most for her brief role in the blockbuster Amar Akbar Anthony.

Link via Instapundit.

Eeevil Americans

A Muslim gets massacred in Iraq by the infidel Americans. His mother suffers as well.

Update: The US is creating more terrorists:

Hasaan's self-taped performance was never meant for public consumption, but soon it would be spread across US military computer networks, and later the Internet. The incident so traumatized Hassan that it would be an entire week until he could muster the nerve to slap his mother.

Today Hassan, reborn as "Mohammed al-Vader,"  has formed his own splinter cell to violently resist American occupation, and offers an apocryphal warning.

"Don't be too proud of this technological terror you've constructed, occupiers," he says darkly. "The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Force."

Bwahahaha.

Rematch

Three years ago, I watched my favorite team, the Pittsburgh Steelers, get pummeled by the Patriots juggernaut in the AFC Championship title game. Today, Brady will assert his supremacy or it'll be sweet sweet revenge for the Steelers. Posting will be a little light.

Looks like the Eagles are going to the Super Bowl.

Update: NE on the board with a 3.

Update: NE touchdown, now at 10. Steelers still at nil. Now, Steelers at 3.

Update: NE 17-3. Damn it.

Update: NE just won the Super Bowl. NE 24-3.

Update: Final score NE:PIT::41:27. The Eagles won't be able to stop Brady and NE in the Super Bowl.

Sick

Of course, what Israel is doing to the Palestinians is no different to what the Nazis did to the Jews. That about sums up the present sorry state of Germany.

Nordic Confusion

Via Michelle Malkin, lost in translation:

President Bush's "Hook 'em, 'horns"' salute got lost in translation in Norway, where shocked people interpreted his hand gesture during his inauguration as a salute to Satan.

Bwahahaha.

Heavy Discussion

Now, this is the type of informative and educational stuff one doesn't get to read in Saudi Arabia.

Bad Boycott

Look at these greedy capitalists who just can't stop spending their filthy money for one damn day. Pigs. Hey, nice lookin' bat there in the first pic. Ahem, PIGS.

Depressed Frogs

Moore sadness. I feel so sorry for them. Not.

On the Other Side

ABC News goes ahead with it's sleazy coverage of the Bush inauguration.

It's All Government Money

Tim Worstall links to a Guardian article which treats tax cuts as government spending. I've never understood this type of thinking.

The government takes as much money as it pleases and then distributes it to the population in whatever manner it wishes. I've read that the government providing tax cuts is a scheme to buy votes! Wow, the government redistributing income is compassionate whereas cutting taxes is bribing people, mmkay. Economics: leave it to the pros.

Brutal

Right now, because of the wind chill, it's -25 deg. C. It's gonna drop to a cozy -33 deg. C by tonight. I wanted to do grocery shopping today but that's out of the question now since I walk to the store and back. Tomorrow afternoon will be a warm -20 deg. C, so I'll try then.

Update: I went with my friend to the store in -30 deg. C. Lord have mercy. When we were finished, we called for a cab and found out that the waiting time was 2 hours. So, we dragged the cart to our place. We made it back without any serious injuries; all praise be to Allah.

Liberty for the Iraqis

It is never wrong to be on the side of freedom. Americans should be proud of this achievement.

A Genius in his Field

This guy specialized in mathematics and physics. I'll give him a pass on economics. It is kinda ego boosting to know that I understand something that Einstein didn't. Economics: leave it to the pros.

Most Disturbing

An unusual convert to the dark side.

Speaking of Huge

Smokin'. I think a kidney will cover it.

Update: Eric provides this link. Drool. You can get the Big One at a low low price of $2,999. Add the cheap Nvidia graphics card at $599, and you're all set. Hmm, I think I can manage without the two kidneys.

Poor Billy

Virginia links to a picture of Bill Gates; and John Paczkowski asks for captions. The one that made me lmao:

"... I'm waiting for your call. Dial 1-800-LONGHORN, now."

Precious Lies

The Diplomad makes a top 10 list.

6) Fidel Castro may be a dictator but Cuba has high social indicators. The first part of this is right, but high social indicators? Highest rate of suicide in Latin America. Highest rate of people leaving the country and risking their life in the process. To the extent that there may be high literacy it's a legacy from the Cuba of the 1950s which had a higher standard of living than Spain and Italy and all but two Latin American countries. Now it's a basket case.

#10 cracked me up.

MSM in the Arab World

Thursday and Friday constitute the weekend in much of the Muslim world. Athena uses that time to blog up a storm. Today, she provides excerpts from her research project:

Blogger “Ali” from Iraq the Model writes on June 15, 2004, “I’ve decided long ago not to trust what these people say and what the media shows me. I’ve decided not to even watch Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabyia. I decide to love and trust the others and not to allow small events committed by few ignorant to shape my views about a whole nation. No my friends, I refuse to be trapped in this momentary dark picture that's far from convincing and that's not just because I'm an Iraqi, it's because I can't let anyone tell me what to believe in.” He continues, “a reporter from one of the Arab satellite channels…gathered a bunch of teenagers, handed each one of them 20US $ and gave them some pictures of Saddam. He then asked them to shout and dance and made a great report out of it…Such perspective seems to be valid as it comes from such a source, and I’m quoting this today because I think that what happened yesterday doesn’t differ much from what happened in Fallujah and most of the ugly scenes the media was so keen to show us”.

This is the current state of Arab media. Sadly, most Muslims trust it. I know from experience. Many Muslims don't believe the Western media because they think that it is biased in favor of the West (essentially the Americans, believe it or not). Of course, the thought doesn't occur to them that the government controlled media in the Arab world may not be the gold standard of objectivity.

Paper Lives

Nice perspective from Instapundit on the longevity of paper. Neal Stephenson makes an appearance and talks about his research which was on 300-350 years old paper. I wonder what media we'll have 30 years from now, let alone 300.

JWR Goodness

Thomas Sowell:

Many people are unaware that the money that is taken out of their paychecks for Social Security is not   —   repeat, not   —   being put aside to pay for their retirement. That money is paying for people who are retired right now, and anything that is left over is being spent by politicians in Washington for anything from farm subsidies to Congressional junkets.

Social Security, by any other name, is a mess not only in the US but in many other countries as well. It would be better to be honest now and do something about it rather than 2 or 3 decades later. Sowell continues:

If I tell the bank that I can't afford to make the mortgage payment because my income is not as high as I thought it would be, they are going to throw me out in the street and take the house.

But no matter how much money you have paid into Social Security over the years, and no matter what you were promised when you paid it, the government always has the option to pay you back only what future politicians decide they can afford, given all the other things they might prefer to spend the money on.

Bingo. This is the best reason to have personal accounts.

Victor Davis Hanson on illegal immigration:

In response to the tired rhetoric, perhaps it is better to envision illegal immigration from Mexico not as a question of divisive politics, but of collective morality. Is it ethical for the Mexican government to export annually 1 million to 2 million of its unwanted citizens to avoid long-overdue reform   —   hoping to free itself of dissidents and earn $12 billion in subsidies from its poorest abroad? No wonder Mexico talks of the problem in terms of U.S. imperialism in lieu of its own cynicism.

Mexican politicians milk anti-Americanism for all it's worth. Read the full column as VDH asks some hard questions of us.

James Lileks brings, much needed, humor to the gender debate:

People still persist in this gender-neutral nonsense? They give a boy a Barbie, hoping it will awaken long-buried nurturing instincts. "After he's learned how to coordinate her outfits, we can introduce little Skyler to the Easy-Bake Oven, and cure some hemp." And so forth, until he graduates with a degree in education and peace studies and takes a teaching job ... that would otherwise have gone to a woman. Hmm. Well, fine; by then our daughter will be either a structural engineer or a jackhammer operator. It'll all work out.

It always does.

Sophisticated Europeans

These guys get paid for this.

SPIEGEL ONLINE is reporting that Bush has an image problem internationally, particularly in nations like Germany. Hmmm...I wonder if the never ending stereotypes and bias in the form of stories like the one in the Sueddeutsche have anything to do with that...

Nooo.

Link via the Blogfather.

Obvious

The CIA provides the not-so-secret analysis about the EU's future.

As a result of the increased immigration needed, the report predicts that Europe’s Muslim population is set to increase from around 13% today to between 22% and 37% of the population by 2025, potentially triggering tensions.

That's an understatement.

Coulter Gets This Right

I agree with Ann Coulter on this:

They’re specifically engaging in racist attacks on her [Dr. Rice]: ‘Oh yeah, not up to the job. She’s not competent. She’s a dummy.’ Bush, they tell us, is dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb. He is the puppet and the puppet master is Dick Cheney, or it’s Donald Rumsfeld and he’s just being run around by these wily neocons. But when it comes to Condoleezza Rice, she’s the puppet of the dumb guy—that’s how dumb she is."

Link via Daimnation!

Moore Sad

Daimnation!, the best Canadian blog like ever:

Moore has obviously fallen for the media- and government-created "culture of fear" he decried in Bowling for Columbine.  How sad.  (By "sad", I mean, "hilarious".)

Me is sooo sad. :)

Update: This is just deelish. Yum. WARNING: Not kosher.

W Reloaded

President Bush, today:

“Renewed in our strength - tested, but not weary - we are ready for the greatest achievements in the history of freedom."

May we succeed profoundly.

NUTS

Liberalism in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia? WTF?

It is officially a crime in the KSA to criticize the king and his family. Pick up any newspaper in KSA, and you'll see columns condemning the USA, the West, Israel but not a bad word is written regarding the Saudi government. Women are beaten by the Mutaween (the religious police) if they don't cover themselves from head to toe. Oh, yeah, by the way, only Muslims are allowed to enter Mecca. If you're Jewish, then you're barred from entering the demented country. Wow, Saudi Arabia is just bursting with liberalism.

Memo to MSM: Enough with the auto-fellatio when it comes to Islamists. Report the facts, damn it.

Less Violence...Today

Why does Reuters employ hacks? Don't answer that, it's a rhetorical question.

The March of Liberty

Pej:

...this resolve to "make the world anew" is the primal motivation behind the inauguration of an American President. It was nicely captured and eloquently advocated in the President's speech. Let us hope that words have power--in Tehran, in Moscow, in Beijing, in Damascus, in Cairo, in Tripoli, and in all other places where people must silently suffer the precise opposite of the conditions we in the United States have been privileged to enjoy.

Ditto.

After Socialism

An extremely powerful column by Alan Charles Kors, 'Can There Be an "After Socialism"?':

The cognitive behavior of Western intellectuals faced with the accomplishments of their own society, on the one hand, and with the socialist ideal and then the socialist reality, on the other, takes one's breath away. In the midst of unparalleled social mobility in the West, they cry "caste." In a society of munificent goods and services, they cry either "poverty" or "consumerism." In a society of ever richer, more varied, more productive, more self-defined, and more satisfying lives, they cry "alienation." In a society that has liberated women, racial minorities, religious minorities, and gays and lesbians to an extent that no one could have dreamed possible just fifty years ago, they cry "oppression." In a society of boundless private charity, they cry "avarice." In a society in which hundreds of millions have been free riders upon the risk, knowledge, and capital of others, they decry the "exploitation" of the free riders. In a society that broke, on behalf of merit, the seemingly eternal chains of station by birth, they cry "injustice." In the names of fantasy worlds and mystical perfections, they have closed themselves to the Western, liberal miracle of individual rights, individual responsibility, merit, and human satisfaction. Like Marx, they put words like "liberty" in quotation marks when these refer to the West….

Perhaps, the biggest problem with the young liberals today is that they almost always compare the US to a mythical perfect society. They, then, condemn the US when it doesn't match up. Ironically, they have nothing but effusive praise for the likes of Lenin, Castro and Che. After living, and on many occasions having long ideological discussions, with a ultra-liberal friend, one of the last statements he made was, 'there is nothing wrong with socialism.'

I fear that there won't be any After Socialism.

Body Count

The death toll from the earthquake and tsunami is approaching a quarter million.

4 More Years

Not as good as 'Good to be in D.C.' but still worth watching: JibJab's Second Term. Don't Bill and Hillary make a lovely couple. Via Polipundit.