| GREG-STRANGE.COM |
"If you haven't found something strange during the
day, it hasn't been much of a day." -- John A. Wheeler
day, it hasn't been much of a day." -- John A. Wheeler
PROVIDING SUBSTANTIVE COMMENTARY ON THE
PEOPLE, POLITICS, EVENTS AND ABSURDITIES OF
OUR TIME. SERVED UP WITH ACERBIC WIT, YOU
SHOULD FIND IT QUITE SATISFYING.
PEOPLE, POLITICS, EVENTS AND ABSURDITIES OF
OUR TIME. SERVED UP WITH ACERBIC WIT, YOU
SHOULD FIND IT QUITE SATISFYING.
Seeing The Light
I don’t generally like to be gratuitously self-congratulatory
or to inject hackneyed clichés into my columns, but for today
I'm suspending the rules long enough to say I told you so and
better late than never. Elaboration on that, however, should be
prefaced with the good news: Tony Blair has seen the light! He
gets it. He recognizes multiculturalism gone wild when he sees
it and he’s bound and determined to do something about it
because he doesn’t want to see Western civilization idiotically
destroy itself.
“Multiculturalism gone wild” might be an expression that
reeks of absurdity given the images it conjures up of a certain
videotape hawked on late night tv. But when imams are being
allowed in the name of multiculturalism and tolerance to
preach jihad to the rafters of British mosques and bug-eyed
Muslim radicals are screeching the same on London street
corners, how is the message any less blatant or unambiguous
than that being conveyed by those uninhibited “Girls Gone
Wild” yanking up their shirts for the cameras? One is
obviously about sexual titillation and the other is obviously
about terroristic titillation. When it comes to either, no one
can reasonably say they don’t understand what’s going on.
So, rather than continue to ignore the obvious, the previous
doing of which got them 7/7, 7/21 and a host of other troubles,
including shooting to death an innocent Brazilian man in a
tube station, the Brits have decided to clean house. In a
monthly news conference, Blair said, “Let no one be in any
doubt, the rules are changing. People cannot come here and
abuse our tolerance and good nature. Do not meddle in
extremism. If you do, you will go back out.”
He also said it was “not a right” to come to Britain and for
those that do, they should “share the values that support the
British way of life.”
He also revealed that there will be a new legal power in
Britain that will be able to shut down a place of worship that is
used for “fomenting terrorism.”
The bottom line is, there will be no more blatant indecent
exposure in Britain when it comes to radical Islam. If you
don't keep your shirt pulled down, so to speak, you’re outta
there.
Of course, they still have a bit of a sticky wicket when it
comes to what to do with radicalized second and third
generation Muslims who have been brainwashed into thinking
they are aggrieved and who are not legally deportable since
they were born and raised in Britain. But Blair’s measures are
a start and it should help to cut off the cancer of extremist
jihadist preaching that seems to inspire the young and
disaffected.
So what did I mean when I said I told you so at the
beginning? Simply that in a recent column I had commented
that Britain’s problem boiled down to its “recent dalliance with
extreme multiculturalism which allowed Islamic
fundamentalists to infiltrate the country while the happy-
headed gurus of diversity and tolerance sat around
congratulating themselves for their extraordinary
enlightenment.
“One suspects that after the events of the last few weeks, the
attitude of most Britons is, if this is enlightenment, you can
have it--just give us our country back. And do something about
all the tinhorn, terror-inciting ayatollahs that have set up their
little shops of horrors in London and elsewhere, having
despicably taken advantage of British hospitality.”
In another column on the same topic, I also said that
“enlightened tolerance does not require the toleration of
extreme intolerance, which is what constitutes radical Islam.
Unfortunately, the high priests of multiculturalism don’t get
that, or at least they didn’t before 7/7. Whether their
heretofore impervious minds will change post-7/7 remains to
be seen . . .”
Well, Blair’s certainly has and that’s a good thing.
About the same time Blair was announcing the new policies,
al-Jazeera was premiering the latest videographic
communication of al-Qaida deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri
from his hiding place threatening more destruction in London
and elsewhere. It got the usual boffo ratings on all the news
channels for a couple of days before making its way to the shelf
where they stash used videotapes of standard issue jihadi
boilerplate.
I don’t want to say that the style of language Zawahri used
was laughably stereotypical, but it sounded like dialogue from
some B-grade 1950s desert swashbuckler, like “Son of Ali Baba”
with Tony Curtis. I mean, we are talking b-a-a-a-d, man.
Here's a sampling:
“Blair has brought destruction upon you, to the center of
London, and he will have more of it, Allah willing. Oh, the
peoples of the Crusader coalition, we have offered you, at least,
to stop your aggression against the Muslims. The lion of Islam,
the mujaheed Sheik Osama bin Laden, may Allah protect him,
has offered you a truce, so you will leave the lands of Islam.
Did Sheik Osama bin Laden not tell you that you could not
dream of security before . . . all the infidel armies leave the land
of Muhammad? But you have made rivers of blood in our
countries, so we blew up volcanoes of wrath in your countries.”
“Volcanoes of wrath?” Who writes this anachronistic
twaddle? It’s all so goofily tenth century. Honestly, if we can’t
prevail over these turbaned primitives, the world might very
well be in for another dark age. That may sound extreme or
even absurd, but in an age of loose nukes and a significant
portion of the West being too self-loathing and apologetic to
put up a serious fight against obvious evil, anything is possible.
Tony Blair has the right idea, as does George W. Bush. Will
the rest of the West face reality or continue to commit slow
civilizational suicide in the name of multiculturalism gone
wild?
I don’t generally like to be gratuitously self-congratulatory
or to inject hackneyed clichés into my columns, but for today
I'm suspending the rules long enough to say I told you so and
better late than never. Elaboration on that, however, should be
prefaced with the good news: Tony Blair has seen the light! He
gets it. He recognizes multiculturalism gone wild when he sees
it and he’s bound and determined to do something about it
because he doesn’t want to see Western civilization idiotically
destroy itself.
“Multiculturalism gone wild” might be an expression that
reeks of absurdity given the images it conjures up of a certain
videotape hawked on late night tv. But when imams are being
allowed in the name of multiculturalism and tolerance to
preach jihad to the rafters of British mosques and bug-eyed
Muslim radicals are screeching the same on London street
corners, how is the message any less blatant or unambiguous
than that being conveyed by those uninhibited “Girls Gone
Wild” yanking up their shirts for the cameras? One is
obviously about sexual titillation and the other is obviously
about terroristic titillation. When it comes to either, no one
can reasonably say they don’t understand what’s going on.
So, rather than continue to ignore the obvious, the previous
doing of which got them 7/7, 7/21 and a host of other troubles,
including shooting to death an innocent Brazilian man in a
tube station, the Brits have decided to clean house. In a
monthly news conference, Blair said, “Let no one be in any
doubt, the rules are changing. People cannot come here and
abuse our tolerance and good nature. Do not meddle in
extremism. If you do, you will go back out.”
He also said it was “not a right” to come to Britain and for
those that do, they should “share the values that support the
British way of life.”
He also revealed that there will be a new legal power in
Britain that will be able to shut down a place of worship that is
used for “fomenting terrorism.”
The bottom line is, there will be no more blatant indecent
exposure in Britain when it comes to radical Islam. If you
don't keep your shirt pulled down, so to speak, you’re outta
there.
Of course, they still have a bit of a sticky wicket when it
comes to what to do with radicalized second and third
generation Muslims who have been brainwashed into thinking
they are aggrieved and who are not legally deportable since
they were born and raised in Britain. But Blair’s measures are
a start and it should help to cut off the cancer of extremist
jihadist preaching that seems to inspire the young and
disaffected.
So what did I mean when I said I told you so at the
beginning? Simply that in a recent column I had commented
that Britain’s problem boiled down to its “recent dalliance with
extreme multiculturalism which allowed Islamic
fundamentalists to infiltrate the country while the happy-
headed gurus of diversity and tolerance sat around
congratulating themselves for their extraordinary
enlightenment.
“One suspects that after the events of the last few weeks, the
attitude of most Britons is, if this is enlightenment, you can
have it--just give us our country back. And do something about
all the tinhorn, terror-inciting ayatollahs that have set up their
little shops of horrors in London and elsewhere, having
despicably taken advantage of British hospitality.”
In another column on the same topic, I also said that
“enlightened tolerance does not require the toleration of
extreme intolerance, which is what constitutes radical Islam.
Unfortunately, the high priests of multiculturalism don’t get
that, or at least they didn’t before 7/7. Whether their
heretofore impervious minds will change post-7/7 remains to
be seen . . .”
Well, Blair’s certainly has and that’s a good thing.
About the same time Blair was announcing the new policies,
al-Jazeera was premiering the latest videographic
communication of al-Qaida deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri
from his hiding place threatening more destruction in London
and elsewhere. It got the usual boffo ratings on all the news
channels for a couple of days before making its way to the shelf
where they stash used videotapes of standard issue jihadi
boilerplate.
I don’t want to say that the style of language Zawahri used
was laughably stereotypical, but it sounded like dialogue from
some B-grade 1950s desert swashbuckler, like “Son of Ali Baba”
with Tony Curtis. I mean, we are talking b-a-a-a-d, man.
Here's a sampling:
“Blair has brought destruction upon you, to the center of
London, and he will have more of it, Allah willing. Oh, the
peoples of the Crusader coalition, we have offered you, at least,
to stop your aggression against the Muslims. The lion of Islam,
the mujaheed Sheik Osama bin Laden, may Allah protect him,
has offered you a truce, so you will leave the lands of Islam.
Did Sheik Osama bin Laden not tell you that you could not
dream of security before . . . all the infidel armies leave the land
of Muhammad? But you have made rivers of blood in our
countries, so we blew up volcanoes of wrath in your countries.”
“Volcanoes of wrath?” Who writes this anachronistic
twaddle? It’s all so goofily tenth century. Honestly, if we can’t
prevail over these turbaned primitives, the world might very
well be in for another dark age. That may sound extreme or
even absurd, but in an age of loose nukes and a significant
portion of the West being too self-loathing and apologetic to
put up a serious fight against obvious evil, anything is possible.
Tony Blair has the right idea, as does George W. Bush. Will
the rest of the West face reality or continue to commit slow
civilizational suicide in the name of multiculturalism gone
wild?