Modern Americans have been relieved of the need to succeed at anything in order to obtain what they want. Well I'm not American but I think that the manner in which Socialism has been inculcated into the minds of Europeans from a very early age (maybe it has even become a genetic variant :-) ) has bred this new class of Active Pacifists. Just reading comments in various blogs one gets the impression that in the main the writers are calling on others to do the lifting.

Now after reading that article the thing that comes to mind is that being called up do do national Service was a great leveler. Your boys are brighter than you think. It was only after "descending" from the campus that one entered the real world to mess at the bottom along with the plumbers, the messenger "boys", the operational side and face off with "academics" who entered through the window in the tower, that one got to rounding off one's education. "I suspect a General Petraeus would make a better leader than any of our current political class" Now is about time to introduce a SATS for politicians!

from the NYT quote: "but laments the unhappy realities that have caused the younger generation of Professors to be more pragmatic and less ideological." Not so much mind bending drugs these days to distort one's lucidity? Let's face it some of those baby boomers in academia have proved the statistical correlation between drugs and psychosis. As for the media who have always covered for those people in the their ivory towers, it is not easy seeing more pragmatic beings on blogs taking apart their hallucinations and exposing the Ward Churchills and their ilk. ""The number one reason that people cancel the L.A. Times is, they tell us, they don't have enough time to read the paper that we give them every day," Stanton said. "We're going to be more picky about the stories we choose to write long and a lot more picky about the ones we write shorter."" The correct reason is that many of us are sick and tired of wasting our money on rubbish. We expect facts and honesty from the media and instead we are being fed their agenda.

SW, You wrote: "First, as one who watches and comments from a distance, I remain dependent on the global MSM to operate as my perceptual apparatus." You also don't seem to pay attention to the behaviour of the Europeans and your State Department in this game of perception. The Israelis must be pretty tired of talking to Rice and her European associates about their situation only to see time after time the acquiescence to Arab "mis-behaviour". So what if in three months 900 rockets, not counting the mortars, were fired into Sderot only to see the US supplying some $150 million to Abbas and his PA who have done nothing except act against the "roadmap". Part of the weapons supplied by the US to the PA in past year have ended up in Hamas' arms. Twice Tenet and the CIA trained a Palestinian security force (once under Clinton and again under Bush) only to have them partake in terrorist activities. I can understand the Israeli attitude. What point is there when no matter what they or do or say has no effect whatsoever on their so called friends, let alone the MSM. The Arabs have used the "Palestinians" as a weapon of attrition, since 48, against Israel and it seems that the Europeans have gone along with that. The US for all its talk about about Israel's security has done nothing to try and stop the rockets: not talking to Egypt about its "blind eye" to the Gaza border from 2000, to reducing the flow of money from Western interests to Hamas. The US knows full well, from the time of Arafat, of the cooperation between the various groups but has done nothing to help stop them in the interest of the "Quartet's" roadmap. Rice is an abject failure and to some of us seems to be pursuing Baker's "realist" policy. Obviously the US has a lot of clout over Israeli policy so trying to maintain Egypt fiel to Washington's whims comes at the cost of Israelis in Sderot, and no doubt in the propaganda department as well.

J. Peden, I agree with you that Derfner is not rational. His also displays the behaviour of a coward waiting for Mummy to say yes to whatever needs to be done, and waiting for the applause for being such a good boy. I cannot say that "he does not have the courage of his convictions" because he has no convictions until "the neighbours" Ok them.

Deja vu? It seems from some of the reactions here I'm being reminded of the reaction to Summers' questioning the lack of women in mathematics and physics at Harvard. IMHO, Mr. Johnson is way too fragile for real dialogue. And he has betrayed many people like us, who read more into his principles than were ever there to begin with. It's sad, but it doesn't affect Europe, SD, or Vlaams Belang. They think many Americans are deeply ignorant of European history and culture. Charles is prima facie evidence for that belief. A cultural ambassador he's not. This does not rebut the facts brought to light.

Ymarsakar said: "Israel accepted those ceasefires. The US did not threaten Israel with nuclear weapons or threats of invasion if they kept on fighting." Believe that if you want to, but the big stick was sanctions, economic sanctions. You need to read about Mr. Realist Henry Kissinger and company. Free speech seems not to be for Jews to express an opinion otherwise they're told to beat it. And meanwhile all that history that the Jews contributed to in building the USA, from the time of New Amsterdam, that is worth nothing in the minds of some as they seek to silence unwelcome facts. Funny how people like Marianna resort to the dual loyalty bit when it comes to Jewish people. Where is she when the Muslims in the States openly declare that Islam comes first? Why is it that some people find Jews, especially right wing Jews intimidating?

"There can be no solution to the Middle East's problems until the Arabs learn that only they can find a solution to their shame and the solution lies within them." But unfortunately they have a culture of some 1400 years to overcome.

I think that DrSanity understands it better: http://drsanity.blogspot.com/2007/05/masters-of-universe.html "This time around we are not deality with a simple megalomaniac like a Hitler or a Saddam; we are dealing with a megalomaniacal religion, whose members march in goose(allah?)-step to thousands of petty little punks like Sheik Ahmad Bahr." To be a Muslim one must follow the Qur'an, Hadith and Sira; if not one is an apostate! In Syria the ruling sect is the Alawite, but in Pakistan they are considered apostates and suffer similar consequences as Christians and Hindu do at the hands of the true Muslims. Finding the illusive moderates in sufficient numbers is like looking for Wally.

When Jews celebrate Passover how many of them understand freedom in all its senses? In my surfing I came across this media story in South Africa, on the first day where they report: http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=6&click_id=79&art_id=nw20070403100759490C527995&newslett=1&em=3202a6a20070403ah "South Africa's Springbok rugby squad faces the threat of having their passports confiscated unless more black players are picked for this year's World Cup, media reported on Tuesday." How many people can see themselves as being "enslaved" to a political whim, in this case of affirmative action, which forces a selection for the national team on population percentages and not on ability or merit?

"Soros, who denies his Jewish roots and has never minimized his animus toward Israel, has tremendous influence on the left side of the Democratic party. " Dissecting Leftism has a post "Jewish Leftism" http://dissectleft.blogspot.com/2007/03/jewish-leftism-i-am-great-admirer-of.html which does not distinguish between the usual liberal and the Shamir/Jöran Jermas, Atzmon types which is unfortunate given their extremism. Here is a Swedish link explaining a bit more about Shamir to be used in context with his PSC " Israeli writer is Swedish anti-Semite " http://www.searchlightmagazine.com/index.php?link=template&story=6

When you write "This equality typically includes a repudiation of religious Judaism ..." doesn't this fit exactly with "imagines he has inoculated himself against the nearly ubiquitous anti-Semitism" because of the stereotypical image of the Jew? In other words isn't the Jewish Leftist in his actions trying to not appear Jewish? Emanuele Ottolenghi discusses a a Jewish group http://www.commentarymagazine.com/contentions/index.php/ottolenghi/270#more-270 "Readers may recall the debate over the creation of Independent Jewish Voices, a new network of “independent” Jews in the UK. IJV’s manifesto is first and foremost a political document, lacking any real connection to the religious sensibilities and needs of Jews. A testament to this is the fact that the group’s second public outing took place Friday at the City Circle, a new Muslim organization whose aims are: ......."

"After searching in vain for "eleutheria" in my dictionary, ..." Greek, obviously :-), for Liberty.

It's not just the "Israeli Greenhouses" that were destroyed but also the industrial areas set up at the various border crossings after the Oslo accord was signed. Israeli entrepreneurs dismantled factories in Israel and moved machines and equipment to the new sites to provide work for the Palestinians. This was not appreciated by the terrorist groups who shot up and bombed the factories, forcing them to close down thus keeping the Gazan worker under the thumb of Hamas and UNWRA "social services"! http://www.intelligence.org.il/eng/tr/erez_1_04.htm One must realise that some of the female suicide bombers were to be killed in honour killings and were made an offer .... One particularly ugly bit of depravity: http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=25382 " Her terrorist lover armed her with the necessary explosives and instructions, and her husband drove her to the location of her crime and death." There is truly something terribly wrong with that society.

"... played a clip of John Murtha opining that once American troops are out of Iraq, peace will descend upon that Nation and al Qaeda will disappear." The guy is surely ignorant of happenings elsewhere. The Chinese executed an Islamic extremist this past week. Muslim violence against Buddhists in Thailand, Hindus in India, against Christians in Nigeria and other parts of Africa; will all that just disappear with the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq? The Egyptian Muslims set fire to Christian Copt shops and businesses this week and the British continue rounding up extremist Muslims. Isn't there a SAT for would be Congressmen and Senators? :-)

DC said: "Iran is highly secular, and multicultural (persian /islam clash for example is still alive) ..." Where on earth do you get that? Iran is Highly Islamic, Shiite Islam; obviously tou are aware that the state is under sharia law wielded by the Mullahs. That's why the Bahaii Muslim faith has its most beautiful temple in beautiful gardens situated in Haifa in Israel. The Jewish community that remains cannot have anything written in Hebrew, their schools are managed by Muslims and other assorted impositions to the multicultural existence. As to an earlier comment of yours; if the extremist Muslims are so few in number then they certainly get around to be able to kill more than 2000 Buddhists in Thailand in the past two years, 10s of thousands of Hindus in India, thousands of Christians and other infidels in Indonesia especially those Indonesians of Chinese descent, the Phillipines and other Asian countries. China is the latest to have its Muslim problem come to light. And no excuse there for America or Israel to be blamed.

One must realise that the Palestinians have never been master of their actions but have been controlled by the Arab League all these years. That they are paranoid no doubt stems from what they have been taught from the time they are born, having been force fed, like geese, the Qur'an, Sira and Hadith with all the hatred for non Muslims and the dream for Islam to totally control the world, but in this latest act of violent protest I see semblances of the Danish toons saga to incite the masses to Intimidate the infidel. Everywhere they use this tactic and everywhere the infidel backs down. After all the years they know that Israel does not behave like themselves otherwise it would already have destroyed their mosque way back in 67. I don't think King Abdallah of Jordan is paranoid but his verbal attack on Israel because of the Mughrabi dig while seeming to fit the pattern is just acting. Having imbibed the Qur'an's Taqyia from their mother's milk they are today a culture of liars who are incapable of seeing how they descend into the basest hypocrisy. When pondering the Middle East one should know that the Baath political system did model itself on Hitler's National Socialism and apparently Hitler did consider Islam as more suitable for his Reich: "“Hitler usually concluded this historical speculation by remarking, ‘You see, it’s been our misfortune to have the wrong religion. Why didn’t we have the religion of the Japanese, who regard sacrifice for the Fatherland as the highest good? The Mohammedan religion too would have been much more compatible to us than Christianity. Why did it have to be Christianity with its meekness and flabbiness….”5 (A. Speer, Inside the Third Reich, pp. 142-143) "

Would you include those Jews like Chomsky, Judt et al as part of the Lynch Mob, along with the MSM? "When hundreds of angry, fearful people are swept up in the irrational tide of hatred that leads to lynchings, there is no way to reason with them." This seems to cover the behaviour of the above. There is no way to reason with them or to excuse the MSM, today, after so many instances of "sloppy", "lazy" reporting as other than malicious reporting. They have an Agenda! Backspin's report on Sky TV is an example: http://backspin.typepad.com/backspin/2007/02/blurring_the_bl.html

"The jews were alien, destructive, racially bonded, outside western civilization ..." Yes, all those assimilated German Jews for example? GaryK, You should have included the continuing killing of Buddhists in Southern Thailand by Muslims, the killings in Indonesia, in Nigeria, Darfur - Southern Sudan etc., otherwise people will get the idea that it is just a Jewish - Muslim thing.

"(remember how "successful" it was with N Korea?)." Now had Clinton not permitted Carter to get away with his meddling the N Koreans would not have been given the latitude to carry on their deception, with even more contempt because of all those US$ that made up the carrot. North Korea was not isolated. The UN, the Europeans, Russians and Chinese, have seen to it that Iran has reached its present state with N Korea, apart from Pakistan's Khan, supplying some technology and material for the bomb, and the delivery system.

"If our society is in moral peril, the amount of stomach-turning violence that we think is just fine to put on screen is by any sane measure a major aspect of that decline." Am I permitted to see this as analogous to the Coliseum spectacles during the "Decline and Fall" of Rome?

One of the first things that I saw claimed by Carter was that Christians and Muslims were around in Judea and Samaria since Roman times. Now Mohammad only came into existence circa 570 AD/CE and only made Medina a holy city around 620 AD/CE. While there would have been some Christians there also would have been plenty of Jews, but certainly no Muslims. There were also no Arabs, in today's sense of the word. There were Jewish tribes down south and at the time of Mohammad Mecca was Jewish until he obliterated the "infidels". As for: " The Palestinians have been saddled with corrupt thugs as their rulers, some freely chosen in open elections, yet they prefer to believe that their victim-hood is not in any way of their own making. " I suppose we could split hairs and blame Baker and co., for helping the Arab League bring Arafat out of "retirement" in Tunisia and back into the political arena in the late 80s. What a mess the realists made; how many died, how much was destroyed and how much was stolen by that act!

"Dr. Sanity examines the recent incident on a US Airways flight in which a number of Muslim Imams made a loud public show of praying on the plane and were subsequently removed by the authorities. " Correct me if I'm mistaken, but didn't an airline have some religious Jew or Jews removed from a flight, a month or so ago, because their praying upset some of the passengers? As to the Lebanese situation: "[As an aside, we will soon see if Syria's assassination of Pierre Gemayel in Lebanon was an overreach or an accurate and shrewd recognition that the West has already surrendered.]" Didn't Baker's intimation to seek Syrian help in Iraq supply a "nuanced" Green Light that Syrian objectives in Lebanon could proceed apace?

"The Fifth column at home works overtime to make sure that our MSM keep the unfortunate facts as obscure as possible." I think that it is a mistake to separate the two as it seems to me that the MSM is part of the Fifth Column and doesn't need any managing. The cartoon in DR. Sanity's post today " HOW TO GET PRESS COVERAGE OF THE BOOMING ECONOMY " seems to be analogous to the sort of press coverage the Israelis get, and then get blamed for their lousy image.

" 1. It condemns over a billion people to poverty, ignorance, and misery. 2. Eventually they will decide they want to break out and they will then come after us just as they are now. " As for '1.' those who are in the west seem to have made a choice for ignorance and misery going by the manner in which they conduct themselves. As for '2.'if I may use the current situation in Europe as an example; it seems to show the choice made by those who "broke out". They are already coming "after us". Forcing sharia law on the "multiculti" European population. Where ever possible they are forcing confrontation through intimidation. Any possible excuse is used. Jack Straw's request to see the face of the Muslim woman interviewing him, the Pope's remarks, Bush's remarks on fascists, you name it. Those Danish cartoons, for example, only made the Muslim streets months after appearing in Denmark because of three extra and false cartoons. As for quarantine; the question is how to get them back to where they came from so as not to fight them in your own backyard.