Libertyblog

“Our Culture Is Better”

Dutch pol Geert Wilders compares the West with the rest:

"We believe that -- ‘we’ means the political elite -- that all cultures are equal," he says. "I believe this is the biggest disease today facing Europe. . . . We should wake up and tell ourselves: You’re not a xenophobe, you’re not a racist, you’re not a crazy guy if you say, ‘My culture is better than yours.’ A culture based on Christianity, Judaism, humanism is better. Look at how we treat women, look at how we treat apostates, look at how we go with the separation of church and state. I can give you 500 examples why our culture is better."

Damned straight, Skippy.

Operational Security and the Internet

It’s not just strategic secrets the New York Times is capable of compromising, but tactical ones as well:

I wonder if it occurred to Keith Bradsher that his extremely precise, minute-by-minute accounts of the locations of the security forces trying to free the hostages in the Chabad House in Mumbai provided very useful tactical information for any terrorist who might be reading it. E.g., "Fri, 28 Nov 2008 03:32:15: At least five commandos are on the rooftop balcony of Nariman House, trying to look over the row of small red flowerpots at the side of the building." Who benefits from knowing that information in real time, other than the terrorists?

Great Global Warming Myths ...

... from little acorns grow.

How to Deal With Jihadists

First, shoot back.

A Confederacy of Dunces

So I’m doing a little channel surfing when ESPN presents its take on NY Giants’ receiver Plaxico Burress shooting himself in the leg. Naturally, I pause, expecting a reasonably high hilarity factor.

But it came from an unexpected source. Reporter Sal Paolantonio informed viewers that the wound wasn’t all that serious, taking special note of Burress’s missing his "carotid artery."

Well, unless Burress had his head up his ass—a distinct possibility under the circumstances, I suppose—it would have been pretty difficult to hit the carotid, which runs up the side of the neck. The femoral is the artery running down the leg.

Lying Zombie

A journalist engages in some fantasy-based revisionism on Rathergate. The Power Line guys are all over it.

A Waste of Money in New York

With what exactly would cops charge those who stampeded the Wal-Mart employee should they track them down? Assault? Here’s the built-in defense: Had I not kept charging forward, I’d have been stampeded myself. No mens rea in sight.

That’s what makes it a stampede, morons.

Unsportsmanlike Conduct

I almost posted yesterday about the woman who engaged in some bathroom hanky-panky with a stranger at a college football game. The married mother of three got drunk and got busy with a younger man in the handicapped stall of a men’s room, providing a glimmer of entertainment to onlookers bored with a 55-0 blowout (no pun intended, oddly).

The obligatory photograph:

The woman later said the incident ruined her life, making her the object of ridicule and terminating her employment. (I’d imagine the sex would have to be awfully good to balance that out.)

Still, I was going to congratulate the woman for not taking the coward’s way out and making a phony rape accusation. I would have been writing too soon:

While police say a high-profile indecent conduct case in the Minneapolis Metrodome Saturday is closed, a Carroll woman involved in it told the Daily Times Herald she believes she was a victim of foul play rather than a willing collaborator.

Lois K. Feldman, 38, of Carroll, and Ross M. Walsh, 26, of Linden, were ticketed for indecent conduct after they were reportedly caught engaging in sexual activity in a Metrodome men’s restroom handicapped stall during the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers game with the Iowa Hawkeyes. More than a dozen people in the restroom were cheering Feldman and Walsh by the time authorities arrived, a University of Minnesota Police report says.

Feldman acknowledged drinking heavily before the game and says she doesn’t remember being in the bathroom.

"I would never ever do that," Feldman said. "My kids are my life. I go to church every Sunday."

Information obtained in police reports and during an interview with University of Minnesota Police Chief Greg Hestness revealed no suggestion or evidence that the incident was anything but consensual on the part of both Walsh and Feldman.

But Feldman tells the Daily Times Herald she may have been drugged or otherwise victimized.

"Everybody thinks something got put in my drink," Feldman said.

She offers no further details as to how that might have happened or who may have been involved.

"Right, and that’s what my attorney and I are working on," Feldman said.

Ugh.

Bonus quiz question: What character from a famous movie and TV series is suggested by this incident? (Via Drudge.)

Waste of Money in Britain

See if you can spot the failed logic in this:

Drunk women who stagger about in high heels are to be protected - at public expense - from twisting their ankles.

They will be handed flip-flops to wear by police outside nightclubs as they wend their way home.

The scheme is part of a £30,000 drive by police and councillors to prevent ‘alcohol-related harm’.

It has been prompted by fears that women wearing stilettos or similar footwear could tumble over.

Officials also claim that female revellers are at risk of cutting the soles of their feet by walking barefoot.

The flip-flops will be given to anyone whose footwear is ‘uncomfortable, inappropriate or soiled’ and will be paid for with a Home Office grant.

In my experience, drunken women wearing stiletto heels have no problem securing a ride home from men who find their footwear selection promising and their inebriation ... helpful. (Via NRO Corner.)

Think Globally, Attack Locally

Mark Steyn looks at the Bombay attacks:

All jihad is local: If rockets are fired at Israel, it’s a failure to settle the Palestinian question. If an NHS doctor drives a flaming Cherokee into the check-in desk at Glasgow Airport, it must be Tony Blair’s foreign policy. The Jerusalem Post’s headline writer poses the question:

Homegrown Terror Or International Jihad?

False choice. The answer is: Homegrown terror in the service of international jihad. Clearly, India has had a Muslim problem to one degree or another in the 60 years since partition, but increasingly those locally driven grievances have been absorbed within the global pan-Islamic ideology. What strikes you, as the dust clears in Bombay, is that one assault provided an umbrella for manifestations of almost every strain of Muslim grievance.

There’s the local element - the fatal shooting of the city’s anti-terror squad, and other prominent officials. There’s the crusader element - the targeting of British and American passport holders. There’s the Jew-hating element - the Munich massacre nesting within the more general carnage.

And there are the more ironic nuances of jihad: British subjects were to be found not just among the victims but among the perpetrators.

To pose the question as that Jerusalem Post headline is to miss the point. Moreover, the global ideologues correctly see our determination to attribute every attack to purely local phenomena unconnected to any bigger picture as a sign of weakness.