Days later, I’m still waiting (not so anxioulsy, becuase I got tired of turning blue in the face, like my mom said I would) for an angry response from the feminists of the US, or anywhere in the world…

I guess that begs the question:

If an Islamic Cleric makes a horribly sexist and clearly misogynic speech and no feminists respond, is it then acceptable to agree with him?

Side note: He also dissed all men, who, as someone on one of the blogs commented, could be looked at as no more than leg humping morons, who cannot resist their animal desires.

But…this story has “legs,” and adds an interesting twist:

Sheik al Hilaly says he won’t quit.

Another side note: Note the caption on the picture for the article. I’d say the media’b’Allah are in their glory, once again, misrepresenting reality.

So, the man who thinks so little of women as to call them uncovered meat, tools of Satan, and wouild be run out of Washingotn, DC, tarred, feathered and torched (if, and only if, he was a Republican) for comments far less extreme, thinks he’s on the right track.

Now, take a look throught the window of an Islamic leaders mind, and, realize he is in Australia, not in the US, or a Middle Easertn country:

After midday prayers today, the sheik was besieged by a group of reporters who asked him whether he would bow to demands and quit.

The Islamic clergyman smiled and shook his head, saying in English: “After we clean the world of the White House first.”

Note the captilization. Note there isn’t a “White House” thingy in Australia, but, yep, you guessed it, in the US. So, it’s really all about the US.

Clue for the liberals/Democrats/anti-war crowd: Go ahead, get your “Man” (which may include HIllary) in the “White House” and see if the Sheik changes his rhetoric. He didn’t say: “After we clean the world of the George Bush first,” which would have rendered an entirely different meaning to the conflict.

But then, they just hate George Bush, too, and it’s not just for Muslim Clerics anymore!

Trackbacked at: Point Five, Church and State, Woman, Honor Thyself, Right Wing Nation, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns

From the The Canton Rep:

CANTON – When 1st Lt. Aaron Seesan died in combat on May 22, 2005, in Iraq, his parents did not know he had written a prescient poem, “Eulogy of the Common Soldier,” as a high-school senior six years earlier.
[…]

Here is the poem:

EULOGY OF THE COMMON SOLDIER

All mortal beings, which God brought forth, die the same
Man is not exempt
All will inevitably end as the dust from whence we came
It matters not of age
Do not mourn me if I should fall in a foreign land
Think this of my passing
In a far-off field a finer soil mixed with the foreign sand
A dust that is American
A dust that laughed, cried, and loved as an American
On this plot there shall be
A little piece of America, a patch for the free man
Which no oppressor can take
From this soil grows grass shimmering a little greener
Brilliant emerald ramparts
A Breeze whisping White Poppies with scent a little sweeter
Flowers towards heaven
Mourn not my terrible death but celebrate my cause in life
Viewed noble or not
I would have sacrificed and gave all that I had to give
Not to make man good
But only to let the good man live.

— Aaron Seesan

H/T: Old War Dogs

Ralph Peters has an editorial in the New York Post today, titled “SECRETS FOR SALE – CHEAP AND BY BOTH POLITICAL PARTIES.”

In the piece, he wonders if there is such a thing as honor:

After more than two decades in the intelligence world, I know a few secrets. Some would merit brief, trumped-up headlines. But keeping those secrets is a matter of honor.
[…]
What happened to honor? Among our elected and appointed officials? A sense of honor still prevails within our military and among hundreds of thousands of government employees. Honor still prevails in much of our community life. Many Americans beyond the Beltway maintain a strong sense of personal and professional honor.

But honor’s dead in Washington. And at “leading” universities (where patriotism, too, is beneath contempt). And in the media. Honor isn’t hip. It’s as pathetic as a powder-blue, polyester leisure suit.

He makes an interesting point: It’s politics, politics, and oh, yeah, politics. (Side note: and the ACLU wants to wipe the display or teaching of the Ten Commandments off the face of the planet…Why?)

A few months back, I was given a speech by William Bennett named “Does Honor Have a Future?” He gave it to the Naval Academy Mmidshipmen in Nov, 1997.

I think it’s worth your time to read those fine words, and consider where society and the practice of “honor” are headed.

I found this speech when a friend gave me a small reprint of it in a booklet that he thought I had loaned to him. It wasn’t me, but I told him I’d like to read it myself. It’s a good topic for the times and a well done speech. Given by William Bennett, the former Secretary of Education and now well known talk show host, it was addressed to the Midshipmen of the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD, November 24th, 1997.

It is a bit strange to me that a well-worn former government employee and sometimes philosopher like myself should be asked to address this assemblage on matters of ethics and honor, right and wrong, on the question, “Does Honor Have a Future?” But as Sir Thomas said, “Ladies and gentlemen, I give you these times.”

And what do we make of these times? These are good times and bad times. We all know that there have been troubling, and even terrible, incidents here at the United States Naval Academy and other academies as well. While we should be bothered by these incidents, we should also be bothered by the superficial, flawed analysis these events have sometimes received. Most of these bottom on the limp excuse that the academy simply reflects more general changes in society. It goes something like this: “There are problems like these problems everywhere – so why not here? The Academy is just a reflection of the larger society.” To which I would respond: No, it is not. Whether we are talking about Annapolis, West Point , or Colorado Springs, you are supposed to be different – and in some important ways, you are supposed to be better. It is a wise man who said that when a man enters military life, he enters a higher form of civilization.

Former Assistant Secretary of the Army Sara Lister, who called the U.S. Marines “extremists,” did not sufficiently grasp the point. But, thank goodness, many others Americans do.

Read the rest of this entry »

I found the below article via a Daily Read Board entry by Yankee Sailor.

Here it is.

Peachy!

“Durbin Offers Vets Apology for Remarks
Email this Story

Jun 25, 11:12 PM (ET)

By JAN DENNIS

PEORIA, Ill. (AP) – U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin apologized to war veterans Saturday for his remarks earlier this month comparing interrogators at an American-run prison camp in Cuba to Nazis and other historically infamous regimes.”

I guess Dick Durbin thinks we fell off the cabbage truck yesterday, but does anyone else notice something completely disingenuous here?

“”I think when you’ve done something hurtful to people you have to stand up and say I’m sorry,” Durbin said at a Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Peoria, five days after he apologized for the comments on the Senate floor.”

Clue for Senator Durbin: You got that right, but what you got wrong is:

(Oh how I wish Sam Kinison was here right now and I could record him saying this)

“WRONG PLACE, WRONG TIME, SENATOR DURBIN!”

Maybe Sneator Durbin should have listened more closely to the words spoken in the 2004 Presidential Campaign….

Why did you go to the VFW in Illinois to apoligize? Did you say anything on the floor of the Senate about how Americans service members in WWII, Korea, Vietnam or GWI acted like Nazis, or did I really miss the “revised and extended comments” you guys always make and pretend like you said something on the floor of the Senate Chamber, when you really never said it to any audience?

(Back to Sam Kinison initaion)

“IT WAS THE MEN AND WOMEN AT GTMO YOU INSULTED AND THEY ARE IN GTMO, HAVING FECES THROWN AT THEM, WITH TERRORISTS THREATENING TO KILL THEM AND THEIR FAMILIES, WHILE YOU HAVE A BEER WITH PEOPLE YOU DIDN’T INSULT!”

I’d really like to know, after all the “trips” you have taken on my tax dollars, Senator Durbin, why you couldn’t pick up the phone and ask for the United States Air Force to pick you up and fly you to Camp X-Ray, so you could humble yourself before the men and women who have shown remarkable restraint, unlike you, in the performance of their duties? You know they would have done that for you, despite their personal feelings. Our Air Force, like their Army MP counterparts at GTMO are professionals.

“Initially, Durbin refused to apologize, but he relented as the firestorm over his remarks continued.”

Yep, and so for my Kinisonion “WRONG TIME!” comment. Five days later? Did your staff sheild you from the reality of what the outcome of your actions on the Senate Floor, or did you plan to have it simmer in the public view for this long, to make sure it’s toxicity saturated deep enough?

“Durbin received a standing ovation from most of the crowd after his speech Saturday. Charlie Brimm, 55, said Durbin’s comments upset veterans, but most think his apologies are sincere.

“It took a pretty big man to come up in front of a veterans group after the comments he made just a week or so before,” said Brimm, a former state VFW commander and Army veteran of the Vietnam War.”

Open comment to Mr. Charlie Brimm:

Thank you for your service to our nation, but please do not accept what is not yours to take credit for. I think it took a lesser man to come before you, than to stand in the very presence of those he defamed before the world. By your acknowledgement of his “apology,” you give Senator Durbin a false seal of approval he will use to excuse his egregious behavior. You, sir, have been used for his political gain. I think you would have done more service to this country, to compliment your past service, by holding your applause and directing a comment to the speaker such as this:

“We veterans here in Peoria cannot accept this apology. It is not our place to do so. We were not there, we did not have a hand in the situation of which you spoke of on the floor of the Senate. We do know where the people are who are owed your words in person. They are our brothers and sisters in arms, across the ages, connected by the common experience of service to this country while wearing the uniform of the Armed Forces. Those who you have spoken ill of are stationed at Camp X-Ray, Gauntanamo Bay, Cuba. Go there and stand in their presence and apologize.”

Clue for the clueless: If you wrong someone, go to them and make amends. Surrogates are not acceptable if you are sincere. If you are using surrogates, then it’s clear what your motivation has been…