Barbarians in the Streets

A violence prone-minority with a bad attitude and no sense of humor. Yep. Seems like you've met the Muslims before... (thx Talya for this perfect description)

Yes, the humorless Muslims are back and protesting in a city near you. Not only in the nascent pan-Islamic caliphate, but in London, England. That darn YouTube video seems to really be getting under their skin. Ten thousand Muslims descended on Google's office in London as part of a lead up to a "million-strong march in Hyde Park" to demand a ban of the video.

We shouldn't be too surprised. We know that Muslims have no sense of humor and expect the rest of us to play along with their lack of understanding of basic human rights. Free speech is still free speech whether it offends them or not.

The best part of this protest is that they call on other religions - Jewish and Christians - to join in a call for civility.

"Organisations like Google are key players and have to take responsibility for civility. You can't just say it doesn't matter that it's freedom of speech. It's anarchy."

Sheikh Siddiqui, a barrister from Nuneaton, said he wanted to form a coalition with the Church of England, Catholics, Jewish groups, Trade Unions and even Conservatives to encourage their ranks to join his "campaign for civility".

"We want everyone in society to recognise these people are wrecking our fragile global society. We want the Church, the Synod, Jewish groups and establishment figures involved," he said.

It's a bad joke. Muslims calling on other religious groups that are regularly terrorized in Muslim countries. Christians are murdered and churches are burned all over the Islamic world. Jews, as well, are a hated minority - terrorized and murdered regularly - with the Muslim hope of complete annihilation.

The Muslims are not to be underestimated - they are flexing their muscles in the streets of London. They are testing the limits of a liberal democracy - in the country that gave the world the Magna Carta and John Locke - by calling for limits on freedom of speech, but at the same time using that same freedom to march by thousands in the streets attempting to impose their 7th century sensibilities onto our modern world with the implicit threat of violence.

Self-employed businessman Ahmed Nasar said he was worried the video could lead to violence in Britain in the same way as it had abroad. "If you push people too far," he said, "You will turn the peaceful elements into violence."

The western world is under siege in the name of tolerance and "civility". To accept limits on free speech simply because that speech offends a particular group - to self censor due to fear - is where we are headed by not countering this march. In essence, we are destroying our own freedoms in order to avoid conflict - but unfortunately acquiescence is appeasement. Rather than bringing peace, we are bringing conflict by not making it clear that our western freedoms are not negotiable.

Barbarians are in the streets. Where is Charles Martel?

Vice-Presidential Debate Impressions

I call the debate a tie. Vice President Joe Biden is a good debater, but Representative Paul Ryan definitely held his own. Joe Biden seemed to find just about everything Ryan said funny. Some have been saying that it's a nervous tic, or just a way to be condescending. I agree with the latter. Many on the left do not debate ideas - perhaps they are unable to - they would rather mock them and belittle those who hold them. I was not surprised by Biden's antics, but wish Ryan would have called him out on them. Ryan was too polite, too deferential to Biden.

The economy is in the toilet, but only took 10 minutes worth of debate time. Why bother with discussion about a 16 trillion dollar debt or the death of Social Security/Medicare/Medicaid for those of us under 40? Do we really expect them to exist when we get old enough to need them?

The question about their personal beliefs about abortion was a waste of time. Who cares? Law of the land is Roe v. Wade, and even if that Supreme Court case were to be overturned, it does not make abortion illegal in the United States - let's repeat that - it does not make abortion illegal. It does kick the abortion question back to the states where it belongs. Each state would make their own decisions about the abortion rights. Don't worry, California and New York will always have abortion - and if you're really stressed about it - just come to Canada, where there are no - let's repeat that - no limits on abortion.

After the debate I caught a couple comments by others - A.B. Stoddard made a good point about the debate. It won't change anything, but it will make the Democrats feel better, especially after President Obama's pathetic attempt at the first presidential debate. I have to agree, no one expected much from this debate other than tuning in to see how Ryan was going to do and to see how far Biden was going to shove his foot down his throat.

Another comment I heard was from Chris Matthews - a "brilliant" political analyst. He said that people care more about abortion than about Benghazi. If this is true, then I'm scared. Four Americans, one of them an ambassador to Libya, were murdered in a terrorist attack on 9/11 in Benghazi, Libya. First, the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton came on television to condemn the supposed anti-Islam video that caused the riot that supposedly got out of control that killed those four men - then condemned the murders. But even that condemnation (if you can call it that) was weak - no anger, no passion - that Americans were murdered in cold blood. Never mind that there was no riot - and the fact that the administration took weeks to actually call it "terrorism", since that word doesn't readily exist in their vocabulary - that those in Benghazi asked for more security and didn't get any... the Middle East is quickly becoming a Muslim Brotherhood fraternity and the Obama administration has the audacity to proclaim that since they killed Osama Bin Ladin all is well with the world.

It's scary to think that anyone may actually believe that the world is a safer place to live in since Barack Obama took charge. The fact that four Americans were murdered with no serious repercussions proves to the world, and the Muslim terrorist world in particular, that we are weak - that our representatives can be attacked and murdered at will. And if our diplomats - who are supposed to have special immunity - are open to attack, what does that say for Americans traveling abroad?  The Obama administration's foreign policy has been a disaster, not just for the immediate future - but for the next generation or two.

Im looking forward to the next Presidential debate. I will say that the highlight of the last one was the question about the proper role of government. Obama babbled on about something, darned if I know what it was - and Mitt Romney clearly pointed to the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Excellent.