Learning To Love The Bomb And Other Iranian Cultural Oddities

The latest Sanity Squad podcast is up.

As soon as the transcript is translated into Farsi, the mullahs will go into a state catatonic shock. The kaffir therapists of the Sanity Squad see right through the deceit and dysfunction that have become the hallmarks of the current Iranian regime.

This week, we discuss the much talked about Benny Morris essay, This Holocaust Will be Different, published in the Jerusalem Post.

The Iranian regime that is seeking nuclear weapons is the same regime that has enlisted ‘40,000 trained suicide bombers‘, ready to attack American, British and western interests. It is safe to say that a regime that would encourage, solicit, train and glorify 40,000 suicide bombers to attack civilian targets, among others, would have no trouble justifying the use of nuclear weapons. Like delusional religious fanatics everywhere, the Iranian mullahs believe that they alone are entitled for God.

This week, Dr Sanity, Neo-necon, Shrinkwrapped and ourselves are a bit more somber than usual. Our discussion is serious, thoughtful and relevant.

By way of background, we discussed the matter more fully in our post, Another Perfect Storm.

State Of Reality On Immigration

Most of this post was originally published on 17 May, 2006. Inasmuch as the President will discuss the issue of illegal immigration in his State of the Union address, we thought you might benefit from being better informed, for a change.

The time has come once more for SC&A to unload.

We don’t care who we insult or who takes offense. Unlike the other brilliant therapists who regularly blog, we are dead and thus don’t give a rats ass about what you think. Further, we are smarter than you, better looking than you and the object of desire of many fabulous and good looking women. For you whiny, metro-sexual and sensitive bastards out there, we concede you look very nice in your pink shirt, yellow paisley tie and dress flip-flops with tassels

Onwards.

Let’s get real about immigration. The same cheap ass bigotry that is on display today in much of the right wing blogosphere, predates you. That’s right- your high minded bigotry, couched as ‘concern,’ is nothing new.

When the Irish Catholics came off the boat in New York, escaping from famine and certain death, high minded Americans beat the crap out of them because the freakin’ Catholic papist evil bastards were going to ruin the country.

When the Italians and the Jews got off the boat in New York, there were those who met them at the docks and welcomed them with baseball bats- literally. Why? Because the damn Jews and even more papist evil bastard Italians were going to ruin America. Later migrations of other ethnic groups were met with similar experiences. If the welcome in New York wasn’t enough, that human flotsam that boarded trains to middle America had it even worse. There was no ‘neighborhood,’ there was not much of an immigrant community to find refuge. Immigrants to these shores faced hatred and bigotry that was unimaginable. Some of this fine and caring ‘immigrant aid societies’ sold children into servitude in the Midwest (Norman Rockwell never got around to painting pictures of Italian and Irish kids being beaten and worked like farm animals), to never again see their parents. There are countless, similar stories, but they are irrelevant. The only saving grace this country had is the truth that Europeans were even crueler and in other parts of the world, the kafir was treated even worse.

Incredibly, immigrants survived despite the bigotry of many of this country’s citizens. Now, pay attention lefties and stop touching yourselves. You’re as racist and bigoted as anyone else- more so, actually. We’ll get to your sorry and miserable asses later. As for the Hispanics reading this, stick around- you too, are in need of a reality check.

Here’s the deal- Hispanic immigrants aren’t going to ruin America. You know why? Because they come here as ‘wretched refuse.’ They have no other place to go. They see the buffet and smorgasbord of possibilities and are willing to work for their share. They have crossed mountains and deserts because they have a dream- they are not broken people or failures. America has always attracted those with a fire in their bellies. That has always been the American way. Now, pay attention because we are going to repeat ourselves because you sorry ass morons didn’t pay attention the first time.

We wrote of an experience we had in Europe, a place we know well.

…He then went on to ask me why we thought Europeans were so anti American. We gave him an answer that to this day, defines a good part of our view of European anti Americanism. We went on to explain. Europeans, we said, dislike Americans because, in a short period of human history, went on to surpass Europe in being the center of global influence. What was even worse, was that America was built by European ‘garbage’ as we put it. He started to object, but we immediately interrupted.

We went on to explain that a century ago, Europe was only too happy to rid itself of the ‘wretched refuse’ and ‘teeming masses’. The European elite and intellectuals thought that once rid of the annoying and newly demanding ‘unwashed’ peasant class, Europe would once again regain it’s rightful place as the center of the moral and political world, and thus preserve the imperialist relationships they had established, if not formally, then by necessity. Through benevolent noblesse oblige, Europe would assume control the economic and political fate of the ‘lesser’ nations. Without masses of lower classes, now demanding equitable political participation, Europe’s destiny would be assured. America, that upstart, would be relegated to it’s proper position- that of being subservient to Europe, no more than a source of cheap raw materials for what must be the dominant European economic model. He was intrigued.

We went on to explain further. Europe, we said, never got over the fact that, unleashed, those ‘wretched refuse’ and ‘huddled masses’- their very own- went on to build success not only for themselves, but for their adopted country as well. We said that these unwanted masses of people understood what the elite and intellectuals of Europe never understood for themselves– that given the opportunity, they were perfectly able to fend for themselves, succeed and even excel. Thus, the European ‘refuse’ become proud and worthy pillars in the community. Their worth and contributions to the American mosaic was far more than what the Europeans had exploited them for. Europe had made a mistake by sending off it’s most abundant natural resource, it’s own sons and daughters. All had been willing to work- and then some, had they been given the chance. Europe had squandered it’s best and most precious resource- a population ready to do it’s best, in exchange for equal opportunity.

Here’s the reality horse pill- Hispanic immigrants are no different than European immigrants. Yes, they want to have neighborhood grocery stores that stock food from home and they want to have dry cleaners that explain the spot removal process to them in their own language. So what? In New York, there are dry cleaners who speak Chinese, others who speak Italian and still others that will unload invectives in Yiddish. Spanish speaking dry cleaners will not sink the ocean liner that is America. Besides, as that Hispanic grows out of the neighborhood- and into your four cubits- the kid behind the counter will be going to night school, studying engineering, or law. Be nice- you might need his services one day.

Hispanics also want to educate their kids and build a future for their families. They want to get educated and build businesses. Worried about crime? Well, the Irish ‘westies’ were not much different than the Italian mob- and they weren’t much different from the Jewish gangsters. They were crooks, all of them and for the most part, got what they deserved. That didn’t stop those immigrant communities from growing, assimilating and making spectacular contributions to the American tapestry.

Here’s another unspoken secret. In their drive to become ‘good Americans,’ most immigrants have always been ashamed of their criminal classes- and in fact, they went out of their way to be better than average. They had something to prove. That’s why Irish beat cops beat the crap out of little red headed boys that stole apples. The cop didn’t really care about the kids. He cared that the kid’s mother and family would be shamed. The Irish weren’t all shanty, you know. Italian family females were more formidable than most weapons of mass destruction. There was an mother, grandmother, aunt or cousin to keep you in line- and they didn’t have to be related to you. Success in Little Italy was a community event. Jewish immigrant parents made sure it was understood that primary education ended with a Bachelor’s degree. A graduate degree was OK, but a doctorate was preferable. If you weren’t so inclined, that was OK, too. It didn’t matter if mama died a few years early, of grief.

There are mothers, fathers and children in the Hispanic community that have Irish, Italian and Jewish traits. For those of you who are wondering why I didn’t mention Greeks or Bolivians, be assured that you are idiots.

The lefties are as much racist and bigoted as those on the right and maybe even more- they just pretend they aren’t. They don’t care about helping people or doing the right thing. If they did, they would not be so anxious to see Iraq disintegrate in chaos and death- in fact, they care about people so much, they can hardly wait for that to happen. Why? Because dead Iraqis, raped Iraqis and butchered Kurds aren’t as important as ‘getting Bush.’ Shut up, lefty that’s what it’s about- and everybody knows it.

If the left gave a damn about our nations security, there would be, as The Anchoress once noted, serious discussions with serious people. Here we are, in a post 9/11 world and ‘BusHitler!’ is thought to be considered opinion. Here we are in a post 9/11 world and mainstream media treats an absolute whack job like Cindy Sheehan as if she were relevant to any serious discussion, anywhere.

If the left really gave a damn, they would have addressed issues of poverty and education in minority communities, decades ago. Instead, the left have been the principal reason why black Americans are still on the plantation- a plantation built and funded by ‘caring’ lefties. The left has usurped the drive, ambitions and dreams of ghettos overflowing with black Americans and they don’t give a damn. (The left cares for Black Americans as much as they cared about Africans slaughtered in Rwanda. In their eyes, BusHitler is more important than the ongoing rape and murder in Darfur.) Why? Because ghettos and ‘guvamint cheeez‘ buy easy votes, that’s why. The left supports teacher unions that refuse to allow teachers to be tested for subject competency. That’s right- who cares if poor, minority kids can read. In fact, it’s better if they can’t. Don’t turn your nose up like that- it is that simple. Why do you suppose there is a knee jerk reaction to any black preacher or leader that publicly says welfare is a bad thing? Why do you suppose there is a knee jerk reaction when a black preacher or minister rails against teenage pregnancy? What is so conservative about that? Why do you suppose some black teachers have to fight to teach responsibility and accountability in classrooms?

Ask Mamacita about schools and kids. She has plenty to say. She’s spent decades in the classroom and has impacted more lives, intimately, than the Pope. She fights your impaired and TV induced coma kids (you don’t parent because it’s so stressful) and she fights a school system and school board that serve as vehicle for providing VIP welfare- a county expense account. Show us a parent who is truly concerned about educating their children and you’ll find an adult insulted that that they would be paid for doing what they are supposed to do. Why the hell are school board members paid? Do teachers who buy supplies and spend hours after school tutoring kids, get extra money? What about those textbook publishers kickbacks and perks? Think any of that is passed around by school board members?

Now, a word to any fathead, loudmouth Hispanics (fortunately, a minority) reading this: You aren’t special, you aren’t important and neither California or Texas will be ceded back to Mexico. You can be just as stupid, racist and obnoxious as anyone else. Just because some little anglo bimbo named Tiffany is impressed with your ability to recite nursery rhymes in Spanish and pass it it off as literature, is irrelevant. You are average, in every sense of the word. Your machismo means nothing to most of us. One more thing- Che Gueverra was not a hero. He was an evil, sick bastard and the whole world knows it.

If you choose, you can work and make a life for yourselves and your families. You have the opportunity to add to the American tapestry. As is the case with most immigrants, you can adopt America and American values into your hearts. If you choose not to, that’s OK, too, because in a generation or two, your kids will be Americans, no matter how hard you try to ignore or prevent that.

It is true you came here illegally- just like millions before you. That said, it is your misfortune to live in a era of computers in a post 9/11 world. Blame Osama, not us for taking an interest in our borders. We may not throw you out, but we will control our borders. Too bad if you aren’t happy with that, but frankly, your happiness is not guaranteed in this country, and in fact, most of us don’t really care if you are happy or not. Deal with it. Play by the rules, do what the government asks and do it legally. If you do, you will get your shot. No, you will not be given immediate citizenship and the right to vote. Why? Because in America, those are things you earn. Vote illegally and we’ll send your ass back- and no one will care how sorry you are or how many tears you shed. Piss on us and we’ll crap on you.

No matter how many Hispanic illegal aliens are here, America will not become Mexico. Every town has computers, decent police forces and fair judges, unlike the places you came from. Play by the rules. If you don’t, screw you.

Just because you are here illegally does not mean anyone in your family has the ‘right‘ to be here illegally. Americans have a right to control their borders. If your relatives want to join you, see the American consul in Front Chihuahua and apply for a visa like everyone else. Do you really believe that waving American flags at a demonstration makes you American? Do you really believe that Americans do not understand the issues and the con job you are engaging in?

We have more to say, but as it is, this post is too long. Our next post will address those of you that aren’t happy the President of the United States isn’t responding to your selfish and narcissistic needs.We can only hope you’ve learned something. It’s a long shot, we know, but we are Americans- and we are an optimistic lot.

The State Of Those Who Would Lead Us

The relevance of the State of the Union address depends a lot on the man who delivers it. It also depends on how the event is reported.

Some presidents are men of character and leadership. Others are men who sought power and fame. For better or worse, the man in the Oval Office is mistakenly perceived as the leader of the free world. In truth, that man is a temporary custodian and no more.

The media have become part of a very broken process. They are no more an honest broker of the news any more than Jimmy Carter is an honest broker when it comes to the Middle East. There is no room for neutrality , observation and analysis. The media no longer attempts to hide their partisanship or agenda. They are in effect, of the same ilk as the ’scholars’ that gathered in Tehran for the ‘Holocaust Conference.’ The truth is irrelevant as far as they are concerned. When caught red-handed the media, in the end, shrug off their own deceit- but never before vilifying the poor souls that dared expose their fraud.

As in the Middle East, honest brokers are an extinct species.

As Dr Sanity noted in Narcissism And The Politics Of Personal Destruction,

That the needs of the nation, or the people they serve, might be different from their own; or that doing the right thing is often different from doing the popular thing, are foreign and dangerous concepts. The only reality they know–or care about–is the one inside themselves.

Gagdad Bob, in It’s Getting Better All The Time (Or less Or Worser, Anyway), points out the primitive and simplistic ideologies that have come to define much of the world we live in. Hypocrisy abounds:

…In other words, for the same reason feminists are silent about the horrors of female treatment in the Islamic world (and hypocritically despise the world’s greatest liberator of Muslim women, George Bush), liberals in general do not judge people of the past. They pass over in silence the systematic homosexual abuse of boys in Ancient Greece, or the horrific adolescent initiation rituals of primitive cultures, or the ceaseless and sadistic warfare of so many native American tribes. Of course, the only exception they make is for barbarism perpetrated by Christians, such as the witch trials. That they judge, even though it was a relatively time-limited and proscribed aberration. Or they judge the West’s involvement in the slave trade, ignoring the much wider involvement of Arabs and Africans themselves, who had no regard for human life and no opposition to slavery at all. Frankly, it wouldn’t have occurred to Africans that it was problematic. That requires Christianity or Judaism.

In a roundabout way, both Dr Sanity and Gagdad Bob are highlighting the distinctions in how we have come to perceive the differences between leadership, power and fame- and how those differences are made interchangeable.

The State of the Union address delivered tonight by the President of the United States, George W Bush, will be no different than the States of the Union addresses delivered by his predecessors. He will outline the progress we have made and he will address where we, a a nation, have fallen short. What will be different is how his message will received, in this country and abroad. The agendized media, as one wise person has noted, have already written their ‘analysis’ and response- because they have to. In a world where image has become substance, perception is everything.

We recently wrote,

We have noted that the Bush administration policy of wanting to bring democracy to the Middle East is a good one. There is no rational argument against that policy, period. To base criticism of the President on his belief that peoples living under tyrannies would not be better off in the long run, under free governments, is absurd. Those who espouse such views are essentially irrelevant to any discussion.

It is also clear that we may need to revisit the plans of this administration’s implementation of policies that would free those under the boot of oppression. That reexamination in no way negates the validity of the policies or doctrines that hold freedom and liberty in higher regard than tyranny and oppression.

The media and those in opposition want us to leave Iraq now, because they understand that in the end, the Bush administration’s policies of wanting to bring freedom to the region will be seen as a worthwhile effort and one to be emulated. The media and virulent objectors to this administration’s policies know they will be held to account for their perfidy.

Leadership is a matter of character. A very few of us are leaders- most of us are not. That is not to say that everybody endowed with the characteristics of leadership make good leaders. The ability to lead effectively is a learned skill, in the same way that simply being mechanically inclined does not mean one is a qualified engineer. To lead effectively is to understand many concepts and ideas, and in a free society, leadership to understand how to implement those ideas that will benefit society and steer a clear course into a more promising future.

Power is a tool. Like most tools, there is a right way and a wrong way to use that tool. In the right hands, power wielded wisely is a tool that can create ideas and freedoms that are timeless. In the wrong hands, power destroys far more than it creates. In the worst of hands, power kills indiscriminately.

Fame is a yoke, a millstone around the neck of whomever is unfortunate enough to have been cursed by it. Ask any athlete or star of scree and stage- they have a love-hate relationship with fame. At times, they love the attention. At other times, they hate it and yearn for the anonymity they once so carelessly disregarded.

Americans are uniquely fortunate in whom they can look to as examples of true leaders. We have no further to go than the signers of the Declaration of Independence.

Those men sequestered themselves in a room in Philadelphia and assumed a role unequaled in history, anywhere else. They assumed their roles of leadership, and they used the power they were each granted for the short time and specific purpose they were together. Those men did not create and produce a document. Those men, in that time and place, created a society and culture, however imperfect, that the world had not seen.

Their ideas touched a chord with people everywhere, and continue to do so. Those ideas were so powerful that the greatest nation on this earth was built, brick by brick, by the wretched refuse cast away to these shores. Those ideas were so powerful that to this day, freedom and democracy remain first and foremost in the minds, if not on the lips, of oppressed people everywhere. Only those that seek to exert malevolent power over others fear and loathe the idea of freedom.

Of those great men in Philadelphia, those leaders that seeded the great society and culture that are uniquely America, over half died penniless. They assumed their roles not out of a desire for power or a desire for fame. Indeed, most of us could not even name half the signers of the Constitution.

Leaders are measured by their achievements on behalf of their nation or people, not on the size of their personalities.

It is true some leaders are larger than life, but in fact, that is usually the case when a nation or people are in crisis. Winston Churchill comes immediately to mind. His singular greatness came to represent the heroic ‘nation of shopkeepers’ that would fight evil to the last man, rather than bow to evil. That said, that larger than life leader was perfectly content to spend his last years in anonymity, away from the center stage of politics.

Most great leaders are rather ordinary men who step up and lead the nation, out of a conviction and commitment to the good of the nation. Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln were reluctant leaders, who wanted nothing more than to do the right thing and go home. Lincoln led a nation divided, driven only by the ideas drafted in a room in Philadelphia. Harry Truman left office, with no fanfare or entourage, and made his way to the Washington train station with his beloved Bess, to go home. The man that helped end the second World War took a taxi to the train station. Mr Truman was have no residual power, and there was no fame.

Some of our leaders, no longer in office, seek to exert overt power and chase fame. Others are content to work in more quiet ways. Each contribute and each have chosen to pursue meaningful agendas.

Time will judge the greatness of each of those leaders.