Category Archives: The War

Cosmic chess

Posted on September 19, 2006 | Comments Off on Cosmic chess

Did the Pope intend what his words would do, drive the rent-a-mobs to the street, because, suggests the Anchoress, he was playing cosmic chess, making a supernatural challenge to their Islamist masters, as one believer to another, to reconsider their actions and put down their swords?

"According to the Associated Press, as she lay dying, Sr. Leonella Sgorbati followed the example of her lord, murmuring, ‘I forgive, I forgive…’ about her murderers. That is an action of grace; it is supernatural in origin. Her death will have repercussions throughout the world, as will the Pope’s speech – as will any attempt on his life – and none of it will reflect well on Islam, which may finally be forced to look within to identify its enemies."

Via Instapundit 

Comments Off on Cosmic chess

Posted in The War

Tagged , , ,

Souls that live on

Posted on September 18, 2006 | Comments Off on Souls that live on

Somehow, I managed to miss the death Friday of the fiery Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci, 77, but Victor Davis Hanson does her obit proud, and brings in the Pope’s recent problem as well.

"So long may you run, Ms. Fallaci, you who by now have learned that, yes, there is a soul, and, yes, yours was indeed saved for eternity if only for its singular courage and honesty alone. And dear Pope: clarify, contextualize, express sorrow over the wrong interpretation of your remarks, but please don’t apologize for the Truth—not now, not ever."

Comments Off on Souls that live on

Posted in Obituaries, The War

Tagged , , , ,

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells

Posted on September 17, 2006 | Comments Off on Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…

Israeli "Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said on Sunday that the world may have as little as ‘A few months’ to avoid a nuclear Iran and called for sanctions."

Meanwhile, back at the ranch… the search is on for a nuclear terrorist…

UPDATE  Other analysts, with some expertise, like Austin Bay, still think the Mullah’s first nuke is at least 12 to 18 months away. 

Comments Off on Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells

Posted in The War

Tagged , , , ,

Educated fanatics

Posted on September 15, 2006 | Comments Off on Educated fanatics

A NYTimes report on a Harvard and RAND study on terrorists and education which finds the former have more than you might think of the latter.

"These terrorists are not desperately poor uneducated people from the Middle East. A surprisingly large share of them have college and even graduate degrees. Increasingly, they seem to be from Britain, like the shoe bomber Richard C. Reid and most of the suspects in the London Underground bombings and the liquid explosives plot."

But as Wretchard points out, the article never gets around to answering its own initial question, as to why this might be so. Could be a case of a secularist journalist trying (and failing) to understand the religious. Jihadis, after all, are holy warriors in it for G-d, not hatred per se. 

Comments Off on Educated fanatics

Posted in The War

Tagged , , , , , ,

They’re at it again

Posted on September 15, 2006 | Comments Off on They’re at it again

20060915Pope-Pakistan04.jpg

The Religion of Peace is at it again, looking for all the world like a religion of war, or at least hair-trigger protest and perpetual grievance. Last time it was cartoons, this time it’s the Pope.

"The furore over comments made by Pope Benedict about the Islamic concept of Holy War continues to grow. Today British Muslims joined in, fiercely criticising his remarks."

Here’s the Pope unfiltered, in the complete transcript, only a fraction (two sentences) of which are about jihad, not that protestors likely have read it. Read it yourself. 

UPDATE Great selection of links at Instapundit on this subject, including arguments that the Pope shouldn’t have apologized, but ought to have shown more guts in the face of this nonsense. And another post saying he hasn’t actually apologized and has them where he wants them, or something. Otherwise, he might as well stop talking about why Catholicism is preferable to other religions. He does that, doesn’t he? All religious leaders do, don’t they? The Islamic ones certainly do, the terrorists among them telling us to convert or else. 

The Palestinians fire bombed the doors of a few churches in the West Bank and Gaza.

My favorite line is from Instapundit: How long would (the MSM) put up with Baptist rage?

Although, really, showingcasing the latest Muslim rent-a-mob isn’t putting up with the Islamists but revealing them for what they are–childish and prone to manipulation. 

For a laugh, see the First Annual Muslim Protest Awards. 

Comments Off on They’re at it again

Posted in The War

Tagged , ,

Going to the dogs (and cats)

Posted on September 13, 2006 | Comments Off on Going to the dogs (and cats)

Saudi-Arabia_wa1.jpg

What is this building, really, in Riyadh? The eye of the needle from the line about how the rich man can’t get into God’s kingdom? (Matthew 19:24) How ironic. And look at the smog.

Times are becoming tense in the Saudi sandbox, where the Muttawa, the Saudi religious police (oppression Democrats can only dream of) have banned the sale of cats and dogs as infectiously Western. Snoopy the Goon, one of the fabled Elders of Zion, finds that women may also be banned from prayers in the vicinity of the sacred black cube in Mecca. Gender discrimination, sure. But cats?

Comments Off on Going to the dogs (and cats)

Posted in The War

Tagged , ,

Never forget

Posted on September 11, 2006 | Comments Off on Never forget

Melissa Doi, 32, spent more than twenty minutes on the phone with a 911 operator from the 83rd floor of the south tower.

She told the dispatcher: "I’m going to die, aren’t I? Please God, it’s so hot, I’m burning up." 

UPDATE I didn’t participate in the blogosphere effort to profile the WTC dead. Google lead me to Melissa. But this mil blogger chose her as part of the program, and did a memorable job.

"She loved her mother so much that she bought a condo in the Bronx large enough for both of them to live in together. She and her mother were leaving for a trip to Italy on that Friday, the 14th…"

Comments Off on Never forget

Posted in Blogosphere, The War

Tagged , , ,