Men’s Prayers Finally Answered And Every Man’s Dream Come True

Men’s prayers finally answered.

Scientists are developing a pill which could boost women’s libido and reduce their appetite.

The hormone-releasing pill has so far only been given to female monkeys and shrews who displayed more mating behaviour and ate less.

The team from the Medical Research Council’s Human Reproduction Unit in Edinburgh believe a human version could be available within a decade.

But a psychologist said low-libido was usually caused by relationship issues.

Up to 40% of women are thought to experience a lack of sex drive at some point in their lives.

‘Rump presentation’

The Edinburgh team, led by Professor Robert Millar, have been looking at the properties Type 2 Gonadotrophin-releasing hormone.

When it was given to monkeys, they displayed mating behaviour such as tongue-flicking and eyebrow-raising to the males, while female shrews displayed their feelings via “rump presentation and tail wagging”.

When couples come to me and they are not having sex, the last thing they want to do is examine their relationship Lesley Perman-Kerr, psychologist

But the animals also ate around a third less food than they normally would.

Professor Millar hopes to achieve a similar rise in libido and fall in appetite in a pill for women.

He told the Scotland on Sunday newspaper: “This hormone is distributed in the brain in areas that we suspect affect reproductive behaviour.

“It is considered a major pharmaceutical endeavour to address the area of libido.

“So the next stage is to produce a drug that simulates the actions of this hormone.

“It is most likely that we will do it in partnership with a pharmaceutical firm. It could be available to women within the next 10 years.”

He said it may also be possible to develop a pill which worked for men, but he has so far not carried out any tests on male animals.

But psychologist Lesley Perman-Kerr said relationship problems usually had a psychological, rather than a biological, basis.

“Some women have problems specific to libido.

“But often if they go off sex, it’s more to do with their relationship than their level of libido.

“When couples come to me and they are not having sex, the last thing they want to do is examine their relationship.

“They want to believe that it’s nothing to do with their relationship.”

Religion, Politics, SC&A And The BBC

Later today, SC&A will participate on the BBC World Service program, World Have Your Say. The program is unique in that the content is dictated by listeners (the Program can be heard here).

The principal topic of today’s show will revolve around the goings on in Turkey and the ‘mass demonstrations over the weekend to protest at the prospect of presidential candidate Abdullah Gul getting the job. They’ve talked of preserving ‘the inseparable principles of democracy and secularism”. Abdullah Gul is Muslim and the AK party he represents has close ties with Islam.’

From there, the discussion will expand into a general discussion of religion and politics.

We are republishing our post of 26 January, 2007, that caught the BBC’s attention.

What is about about religion that scares so many people? The vast majority of people who express their faith, do so quietly and usually within a community of like minded believers. They, like most Americans, hold the concept of ‘live and let live,’ dear. Most Americans do not impose their belief on others nor do they support those who do.

Nevertheless, there seems to be a deliberate attempt to lump all believers together, regardless of their affiliation. We talk about the ‘moderate’ right, or the ‘moderate’ left, but when we talk about religious people the word ‘moderate’ is never spoken or implied. Religious people, it is assumed, are, well, religious. Enough said.

Religious people, as we noted, are for the most part, perfectly happy to live life in happy obscurity. Unfortunately, all too often religious people are dragged into political debate, or they are excluded from political debate, simply because they are religious. Faith seems to infuriate some people. The faiths, beliefs and believers that are shared and so familiar to most Americans are often subject to fierce criticism, ridicule and even vicious attack.

Of course, not all not all faiths are treated in the same way. Religious beliefs that are out of the mainstream of those that originate in far away places, or beliefs that are to be regarded as suggestive only, are fine.

Why is there such a disparity in how adherents to different faiths are treated?

The answer lies in the kind of demands and expectations our faith, beliefs and fellow believers make upon us . Real faith demands morality, not just from the individual, but from an entire community as well. Faith demands sacrifice. Friday, Saturday or Sunday prayer instead of Friday, Saturday or Sunday sports or shopping. Real faith demands that charity, given on a regular basis, without the need to be prodded by guilt or by images of disaster.

Religions are not measured by what they destroy, but rather, by what they build. Religions are not measured by how many they kill in God’s name, but rather by how many they save in God’s name. Religions are not measured by who they hate in God’s name, but rather, they are measured by how many they extend their arms in acceptance, in His name.

Those non believers or those who claim to be believers, who profess hatred toward God or others in His name, reject the notion that there is something more important than the self. They reject the notions of responsibilities, accountability and a living up to higher expectations. They reject the notion of a higher self with moral obligations. They want to be free of obligation and expectation.

The confrontation between believers and non believers is really a battle for the soul. That battle is not so much about belief in God as it is about the human conscience. There are plenty of non believers that believe that we are more than just animals, concerned only with our own pleasure and needs and thus understand the significance of human responsibility and accountability.

In fact, the battle for the soul of an individual or a nation is a battle that scares a lot of people, because if there is even the possibility of a soul, everything changes.

The atheist says, “I don’t believe in God.” In truth, people of faith don’t believe in the God the atheists reject, either.

Non believers cringe at the words ‘Fear of God‘ and other similar expressions. They only see fear as a negative expression- the fear of the powerful intimidating the weak. They rightly understand that ‘fear,’ as they understand it, is a negative expression. They use that expression, as a mantra- because without it, the argument weakens.

What many non believers do not admit is that fear is not always a negative human emotion. Often, fear can be a positive expression. For example, when an athlete faces his opponent or a when a public speaker first faces an audience, the nervous fears they experiences can lead to heightened awareness. All his or her senses are at a heightened level. Any and all of the skills and capabilities they have worked so hard to achieve, can be called upon in an instant. In fact, every one of us knows the kind of fear that can brings out the best in us.

The right expression and description of a believer’s relationship with God is ‘Awe.’ When we stand and behold the magnificence of nature, we are in awe. When we gaze upon an artist’s work that talks to us, we are in awe. There is music, sounds created out of thin air, that make us cry or can evoke memories, for decades. That too, inspires awe.

In fact, the awe we experience is a manifestation of human dignity. We see and understand ourselves to be a part of a greater scheme. We understand ourselves to be a part of the masterpiece that is Creation. We- each of us, have a starring role in the play of life- Creation. It is an unfolding drama, comedy and musical- with our best efforts and intentions a part of the script. We are not meant to ad lib our way through life. We are obligated and meant to make Creation an even more magnificent expression that It is, and we each of us have lead role in doing just that.

It is clear that when standing in Awe of God, we recognize what the gift of life means.

When we acknowledge the gift of life, we acknowledge that we have a purpose. We may not understand or even clearly understand our purpose, but we don’t have to, any more than we have to clearly understand nuclear physics or organic chemistry. We know they are there and they impact our lives. That is enough.

It is man’s objective to seek- it is a natural instinct. It is what we look for that to a very large extent, defines us. It is our charge to discover and celebrate, not our basest selves, but rather, that part of us that is as majestic as anything in nature or art. We are charged to take center stage in God’s creation. We seek the majesty that is in each of us- we seek to know our own soul.

It is not easy. It is not easy at all. We must acknowledge that even if we are to take center stage, we share that stage with everyone else- and sometimes, that may go against our very nature. It is then that we must put in that performance of a lifetime. Like the athletes that play beyond their capabilities in that last game, we must reach inside to our souls, to pull from within the very best of ourselves, especially when it seems the odds are stacked against us.

Sometimes, center stage can be a very scary place- and that is why so many people fear having a soul.

All gardens need tending. If we can remove the weeds in life- those things that restrain, contain us and hinder our growth, we will grow. When we refuse distort the reality we know exists so that our selfish needs are sated, and when we choose to remove the doubts and fears that hold us back, we will thrive.

We may indeed, be small in the eyes of history and Creation. That doesn’t mean we can’t be great.

‘Good Little Nazis’

Rosa Brooks of the Los Angeles Times and poster child for irrelevant leftist drivel masquerading as informed ‘thought,’ has left yet another stain on paper.

In 9/11 was bad, but…, she posits the notion that ‘The attacks were appalling, but they don’t pose the threat politicians make them out to be.‘ That’s right. In BrooksWorld, the events of 9/11 were a distraction, with political overtones.

Brooks goes on:

Every year, we also lose millions of Americans to preventable accidents and disease. We’re more likely to die on the road than as a result of Al Qaeda’s machinations. Annually, we lose some 43,000 people to auto accidents. For the grieving families, that’s 43,000 deaths too many. But, although we surely could reduce auto fatalities if we chose to make it our top national priority, the Bush administration has yet to announce a “War on Highway Deaths.”

Why wasn’t a War on Highway Deaths a priority of the Clinton Administration?

If terror isn’t such a big deal, why did Bill Clinton work so hard to kill Osama bin Laden? Why expend American energies on such an irrelevant concern? Why was Richard Clarke so critical of the CIA efforts to kill Bin Laden, if he wasn’t such a threat?

Clarke was insistent that Clinton had

put in place the plans and programs that allowed America to respond to the big attacks when they did come, sweeping away the political barriers to action.

Is it possible that terrorism on our shores might be a bit more important than Rosa Brooks says it is?

In BrooksWorld, deceit is the order of the day- responding to terror on our shores, she says, is a political expression.

After 9/11, the Republican line was that all future terror attacks on U.S. soil must be prevented at any cost.

If terror weren’t such a big deal, why is Hillary Clinton defending her husband’s record on terror

I think my husband did a great job in demonstrating that Democrats are not going to take these attacks

The former president won’t even hear of anyone criticizing his administration for being soft on terror. The former president said he

“left a comprehensive anti-terror strategy” for the Bush administration.

The former president also insisted that he came close to killing bin Laden and noted that his administration took the threat of terrorism more seriously than the Bush administration did before the September 11, 2001, attacks.

Shouldn’t that admission be enough to taint the Clinton administration forever in BrooksWorld?

Does Rosa Brooks believe that there is an ‘appropriate’ body count type benchmark that must be reached before we take terror on our shores seriously?

This morning, Dr Sanity has posted The Postmodern Psychological Landscape And The Battle Between Guilt And Shame, one the best pieces on the post modernism and leftist ideology you will read this year. She discusses multiculturalism, moral equivalence and cultural relativism, that Alice in Wonderland rabbit hole that is the entry portal to BrooksWorld. In discussing the terror mindset and the western response of which Rosa Brooks is so dismissive, Dr Sanity’s insights are hard to ignore- unless of course, you live in BrooksWorld.

…this toxic interaction will not produce peace in our time; but, on the contrary will inevitably lead to more war and even more death and destruction than is now able to be imagined. Because, these Islamic fanatics–who do not let reason or life interfere with their jihad; who abide by no treaties, follow no rules, and scorn the very values upon which western civilization is founded will not be appeased and will use the postmodern lunacy very well to their advantage against us.

We could have lived with them they did not insist that we must submit, become what they are, or die. But they have defined the groundrules (or the non-rules) of this conflict; and eventually, we will have to meet them at their level–or they will win. They have set the psychological landscape of this war, and the political left in our own country and around the world has done all it possibly can to ensure that those committed to our destruction have the advantage and that we must operate under a vicious, self-imposed handicap.

Rosa Brooks has a clear agenda, one that desperately must deny and obfuscate reality. This denial would be irrelevant and comical, if the stakes weren’t so high. Brooks isn’t satisfied in putting her own future on the line, as is her right. She is insisting that we all follow suit. She wants us to be exactly what she is- ‘good little Nazi,’ following ‘ideological orders.’

In The Apes In Tuxedos And Hypocrites At The LA Times, we noted how truth and reality are toxic in BrooksWorld. We concluded by noting that

Until such time as Ms Brooks and her ilk take the initiative and reclaim the kind journalism that is not so beholden to an ideology, or a committed to an agenda at the cost of truth, journalists will remain marginalized and not trusted, as polls continue to show.

They will remain apes in tuxedos.

And goose stepping, like all good little leftists.

By the way, Rosa, the ‘appalling’ but not so bad terror attacks cost us plenty, as a nation and society. Of course that doesn’t matter in BrooksWorld- and never will.

Meltdown At Hog Hollow

Hog Hollow, MS- (MHNN)- The Mental Health News Network has learned that Dr Pat Santy, the highly regarded former NASA flight surgeon courted by Democrat candidates for the White House for a top job, will shakeup the campaign by demanding those candidates respond truthfully to the latest Iraq war poll numbers.

The most recent polls indicate that the American support for the war in Iraq is solid, and that most Americans are against mandated troop withdrawals and actually support and agree with the President in viewing Iraq as a critical front on the war on terror.

Dr Sanity, renowned organic waste in space elimination specialist and co-developer of the Deep Space Diaper (whose effectiveness was highlighted terrestrially by Lisa Nowak), was outraged as the very same Democrat candidates that are courting her are misrepresenting the facts. Speaking at a private, invitation only gathering of southern Democrat leaders in Hog Hollow, MS, Santy chided James Carville in his own ancestral back yard. Her remarks, preceding the the closing ceremonial BBQ, upset overall wearing Howard Dean, the DNC chairman. He said that demands that political protocol be obviated in favor of honesty by Democrat politicians was an

“…absolute outrage. I just want to scream every time someone says something like that.”

After regaining his composure, Dean told MHNN that the release of certain information about Dean’s tenure as Vermont governor has been a source of great stress. He said that his record as an environmentalist has been ‘misunderstood’ and that his support for the use record levels of pesticide and chemical use in that state was a desperate cry for attention from Rachel Carson.

Despite the departure of many small farmers from Vermont and the closing of many family farms on his watch and by his deliberate refusal to support family farms in Vermont, Dean told CNN that

The destruction of the middle class and the widening gap between the rich and poor is being played out right before our eyes with the concentration of the agriculture industry.

When asked by MHNN about his track record, Dean said our questions proved his point:

The American voters do not want the truth. They do not want their candidates to really represent their interests . American voters want their candidates to ’stick it to the other guy.’

Dean also questioned the timing of the latest criticisms.

‘If it weren’t for that fat bastard Al Gore’ and his phony carbon offset scams, and John Edward’s obsession with hair cuts (ed- Edwards is also a major stockholder in Hairclub for Men and plantation like estate in North Carolina, replete with plantation like staff), he said Santy’s criticism would be meaningless. The DNC chairmen said that the crop of useful idiots under command was the ‘best ever,’ and that ‘they would march into sewers and happily drink,’ if he asked them to.

Santy responded to Dean’s remark with characteristic outrage.

I know organic waste. I’m an expert on organic waste. I am familiar with organic waste from all parts of the world. Let me tell you that Howard Dean and the Democrats are among the finest organic waste specimens anywhere.

She went on to say that

As a psychiatrist, I know that behavior is predictable and follows patterns. The obsessions of Howard and his platoons of useful idiots are indicative of toilet training gone relativist wild. They want to be applauded for trying to make it on time, and being sorry for ‘accidents,’ and that intending to crap in the bowl, is as good as crapping in the bowl, and why are we so obsessed with toilet training? It isn’t as if porcelain is natural, right?

These *****rs make me puke.

Santy went on to say that ‘playing with numbers is never defensible.’

No one ever hears the truth about Hungarians. Did you know that virtually all Hungarians are toilet trained? That’s something else the Democrats omit.

How about the ‘Delaweenians’? Did you know that people from that state hate to be called ‘Delaweenians’, and the only reason no one says anything about that is because Joe Biden, senator from that great state, believes that by victimizing his fellow citizens, he can bring home even more pork, out sympathy for the ‘Delaweenians’?

Do you know why we haven’t we heard from a single Democrat candidate that Sheryl Crowe’s idea of using a single sheet of toilet paper is a bad idea? Because the candidates all want you to believe that not only do they approve of the idea, they are humbly doing their bit for the environment. THAT’S ASSININE.

Think about this. Do you want to shake hands with a candidate who wants you to believe he uses a single sheet of TP? Would you allow your baby to be kissed by a candidate that uses a single sheet of TP and who would publicly disparage you for using disposable diapers?

These *****rs make make me puke.

Despite her harsh criticisms, none of the candidates or Democrat party officials would disparage Dr Santy, believing that doing so would be political suicide. Barack Obama issued this statement:

Pat Santy is a phenomenon. Her Carnival Of The Insanities is a must read. She’s reaches inside more people that Tim Russert or that ‘girly man,’ George Stephanopoulous. Even the New York Sunday Times can wait.’

Obama was referring to Santy’s Carnival Of The Insanities, a Sunday blog post read around the world, by influential people everywhere.

Not to be outdone, Hillary Clinton responded by saying that

Pat Santy is an example to us all. While my opponent refers to girly men, let me take this opportunity to blame the vast right wing conspiracy for my southern accent and for my daughter’s first job out of college that nets her a six figure income. Let me also say I have no idea how those FBI files got into my desk in my study at in the White House and that my $100,000 profit made with the help of a lawyer friend representing a large Arkansas company that changed the state of our finances, was purely coincidental. Any suggestion otherwise really hurts my feelings and might result in the use of private detectives and political dirty tricks operatives to harass, intimidate of threaten the enemies that are so bent on hurting me.

Howard Dean was somewhat more cryptic.

In the spirit of openness and honesty, my feelings will be made clear at a later date. Dean cited ‘executive privilege.’

“We don’t do this enough, God. Let’s talk again, soon. Next time, I’ll call you.”

Have you ever wondered how a conversation with God might go?

Here’s an opportunity to eavesdrop- God called.

The Third Rail Of Palestinian Failure

This post is the 5th and last in a series. Here are links to parts one, two ,three and four.

These posts may also be accessed from the sidebar, under ‘Pages.’

For American lawmakers of either party, tinkering with Social Security has long been considered the ‘third rail’ of American politics, a kind of kiss of death for any politician with higher aspirations.

Talk of renouncing violence is the ‘third rail’ of Palestinian lawmakers. For them, such talk is political suicide. Such talk is also considered traitorous and contrary to religious dogma.

Yesterday, we noted that to challenge the significance and importance of Palestinian violence and terror has the kind of ramifications that can come back and bite. Questioning the status quo can upend a very dysfunctional culture.

Suicide bombers and terrorists are glorified. Parents are regaled as almost equal to the shahid, for having raised and encouraged a child to go off to his death, murdering as many non members of the group as possible. Those parents become elevated in status and morality, precisely because their child embraced the immorality of indiscriminate murder. The prestige bestowed (and thus the dysfunction) is so great that many other parents harbor wishes for the same recognition. They are willing to sacrifice their own children. It is not uncommon to hear the refrain that ‘we love death,’ not because of the finality of death but rather, because of the desperate belief that in death will come a kind of relief. The restrictive bonds of life under tyranny (Palestinians and the Arab world are well aware of who their leaders are) will be broken- a new, more pure ‘life’ awaits them on the other side. Even talk of sexual pleasures unavailable in conservative Arab societies, can be talked about within a religious context. A teenager, consumed with own sexuality- and feeling guilty about that obsession- often sees his own shahada as a kind of redemption in addition to the skewed religious and moral expressions he or she was taught to believe.

The shahid and his or her family have to believe that. They cannot question those who define the afterlife, because to question that would be too painful. They understand that the ideologues that encourage young men and women to their deaths are corrupt. They understand that those ideologues define religion in any way that best suits their needs at any given time…

To question the basis of Palestinian shahada (martyrdom) is to question the predicates and foundation of the group.

Nevertheless, one Palestinian notable addressed the culture of violence directly.

In October 2006 Ghazi Hamad, publisher of an influential newspaper and Hamas spokesman and senior advisor to the Hamas government, plainly asked if violence and a culture of death have become a disease or bacteria that has infected the Palestinians.

Hamad’s argument was simple. What kind of future could a society have if violence is a legitimate form of expression and exchange? He broke a taboo by speaking of violence in Palestinian homes, streets, neighborhoods and between clans. He went on to make very clear that the pervasive culture of violence could not sustain a future Palestinian society and the rejection of violence was the obligation of every Palestinian.

We have surrendered to it until it has become the master and is obeyed everywhere – in the house, the neighborhood, the family, the clan, the faction, and the university.

…violence has taken away the language of brotherhood and replaced it with arms.. It has stolen our unity and divided us into two camps, or three, or ten.”

“Shouldn’t we be ashamed of this ugly behavior which scandalizes us before our people and before the world?” he asked.

Hamad addressed issue which both the Palestinian and western media furiously avoid. The Haaretz article noted that Hamad wrote that 175 Palestinians had been killed by “Palestinian gunfire” since the beginning of the year. Understand that the figure of 175 Palestinians killed in a few months by other Palestinians reflects only the number of deaths reported. The majority of killings go unreported, for fear of reprisal. It is also true the ongoing killing fields as the ‘Intrafadah,’ assigns the body count of the number of Palestinians killed by other Palestinians, to victims killed by the Israelis.

Factor in Palestinian body count inflation and the number of victims of the ‘Intrafadah,‘ a whole new perspective of the conflict emerges.

We want to disown this disease, this cancer, which has damaged our brains, and paralyzed our hearts.

The Palestinian addiction to violence and the resistance to change may very well be a deliberate attempt by Palestinian leaders to repress the reality they know is true- and one they are afraid Palestinians will demand.

The Palestinians, as a group and as a society, have failed. Unlike other Arabs in the region, they live in close proximity to a vibrant and free society. They know and see the benefits of what living in a free society means. They also know to acknowledge Israel’s successes, they have to acknowledge their own failures. Culturally, that is too high a price to pay.

The cycle of violence is not simply destined to perpetuate itself- the cycle of violence is reinforced and ever escalating. Dysfunctional behaviors that were unknown or unheard before have become commonplace.The self destructive behavior of the Palestinians comes about as the result of the integration of exaggerated love and exaggerated hate into a fused single exaggerated emotion. What distinguishes the two becomes no more than a blurred idea. Thus, violence directed at each other is a appropriate as violence directed at the Israelis.

This kind diseased thinking is not just about violence. Even the wildest conspiracy theories, widely welcomed and accepted, become a reflection of a dysfunctional defense mechanism and absurdity. As Arab religious and political leaders whip crowds into a wild frenzy, warning of ‘Jewish plots’ to control the world, these same religious and political leaders have no trouble promising that ‘Muslims all over the world will work together to control the world’ and that the ‘flag of Islam will fly over the White House’ and the British Parliament. Those who resist will be destroyed.

These kinds of projections are used by religious and political leaders to control and feed the fantasy with the intoxication of absolute power. In their world, the non Muslim must not only submit, but he must be in a subjugated and terrorized. He must be in a constant state of fear of the believers power. The idea is intoxicating- it is directed at some of the most failed and broken cultures and societies in history.

There is a difference between backward societies and failed ones. Backward societies are unaware of the possibilities in front of them. Failed societies have squandered the opportunities that have been afforded them. Failed societies can recover, but only if they reject the ideologies that led them to fail in the first place. That kind of redemption will not come easily in a culture where

To admit one’s flaws and mistakes, to correct and repent is inconceivable…

To acknowledge one’s shortcomings before first blaming others would bring deep shame and dishonor not only to the individual but to his or her entire family…If the mistake is a cultural taboo, one’s reputation may be scarred for life and the perpetrator might end up brutally punished.

The society that births terrorists or supporters of terror, is one that encourages the narcissism of the self as paramount- more important even, than adding the self to the fabric of the well being and elevation of the entire community. It is the beliefs and feelings of the individual, or a group of individual with similar ideologies, that counts. The ‘collective’ of a community with diverse thoughts and ideas are rejected, for fear of being unable to control the community.

The narcissistic self is never progressive. It fears the future (what it cannot control) and regressive, wanting and encouraging only it’s own ideologies, beliefs and value systems. This is not unlike the Catholic Church when it struggled and wrestled with science. The narcissist, like the Church at the time, fights bitterly to maintain control over ideas and beliefs, stifling opposition at will.

Narcissistic and ‘progressive’ ideologies are predicated on the belief that others cannot think for themselves. The indoctrination by progressives and narcissists does not allow for the natural urge of humans to reach accommodation and allow for self expression. Even before the progressive/narcissist forces his ideology, he must force his control if he is to maintain power.

The Palestinians- and other narcissist/progressives, have a long road before them.

The Wednesday Weekly Whacky Award Goes To

It’s Thursday, and that means the SC&A Academy of Extremely Peculiar Pathologies, is pleased to announce the winners of the Weekly Wednesday Whackjob Awards, commonly referred to as the ‘Whacky’s.’

First, some fine print: nominations will open each week until 10:00 PM, EST (After the broadcast of House, M.D.).

That’s it for the fine print.

The Judging Committee at the SC&A Institute are pleased to announce that this week’s variety and assortment of fools are a particularly amusing group of whack jobs.

OK, on with this week’s show, broadcast from the finely appointed showrooms of humanerestraints.com (a Disney company). This years selection of restraints are made from the finest leather, highlighted with Corinthian chrome cinctures.

A ‘Whacky‘ has been been awarded this week in each of the following categories:

The Thorazine Shuffle and Dance Award, each week to the politician who dances and shuffles without actually addressing reality or answering a question. Once again, the award is presented to presented to House Leader Nancy Pelosi, member in good standing of the House Select Committee Of Most Corrupt Legislators, for lecturing the President on ethics.

Ms Pelosi, whose foreign policy faux pas were excoriated by anyone with an IQ over 11, is not satisfied to have her credibility only impugned when it comes to diplomacy abroad. It is now clear that her intention is to be just as credible in domestic matters. Harry Reid is on the plan in the hope that his support for Ms Pelosi will result in yet more pork for his cronies back home.

The Thomas Szasz Psychotherapy Award, presented each week to the biggest idiot therapist is awarded week to a psychiatric patient, Tristano Ajmone.

First, a few words from his manifesto:

“Facing psychiatry you have to fight even to simply survive. Those who have experienced the ritual tortures of today’s psychiatry know how hard it is to survive — not only physically, but also mentally — psychiatry’s torments and its masked cruelty. Ritual menticide is no longer an Orwellian circumstance of the famous novel 1984, it’s the institutional routine of today’s mental health system. The famous words «anything you say can be used against you» are today more relevant to the psychiatric psychopolice — which has the right to revoke citizens’ freedom in an arbitrary and systematic way — than it is to ordinary police forces.”

And just who is this expert?

I have spent several consecutive years in Italian psychiatric institutes, from OPGs (Ospedali Psichiatrici Giudiziari — Judiciary Psychiatric Hospitals: Psychiatric Prisons) to private clinics and «therapeutic» communities (Italian euphemisms for psychiatric facilities differ from the English ones). Even though my psychiatric journey is tied to a judiciary measure, it’s a misfortune that could happen to anyone… it could even happen to you!

I have met men who were locked up in OPGs only because deemed «socially dangerous». The «crimes» that brought them in those facilities are often hasty acts resulting from inner-despair situations. Having been deprived of the right to defend themselves in court, because discredited by psychiatrist who branded them «incapable of intending and willing» (Italian insanity defense cornerstone formula), these people soon found themselves locked up in a ghastly, atrocious reality — places and situations that cannot but exacerbate the original sufferance that brought them there…

I have seen my Muslim brothers tied to restraint beds, deprived of their right to perform the five obligatory daily prayers.

(The fact that they may have been stark raving mad and dangerous to themselves or others, is apparently of no consequence to Mr Ajmone)

Paging Dr Sanity, paging Shrinkwrapped, paging Neo, paging Gagdad Bob and Petey…

The Valium Award, presented to the dullard of the week goes to Billyboy, author of The Most Boring Weblog In The World. Here is s sampling of fresh and scintillating content:

I am moving in two days and everything mostly is packed, the new house is clean and only a 5 minute drive from the place I am at now and we are ready…

I got really really sick of that Pussycat Dolls song “Don’t you wish your girlfriend was hot like me” or whatever it is called. Finally the series is over and Asia is the new Pussycat Doll. If you compare the show to American Idol you have to notice how interesting the characters are especially when they have cat fights. I watched for the T and A but in the end I was a little disappointed with the whole idea….who cares about joining a stripper band?

Anyway there is apparently going to be another season…

My highlight of the show when they were told that it was supposed to look artistic when they dance not slutty, and in the next scene they were dancing in windows at a strip club.

Well just as promised by the passport guy I just received my Canadian passport in the mail today and it only took four weeks.

There seems to be a lot of hype about the length of time that it takes to get a passport but when I went a few weeks ago it took a couple of hours in line to get my application in and it would have been even faster if I would have filled out the passport application online…

Riveting stuff. Kind of cool too, in a dull way.

The Trojan Award is presented each week to the person we wish had never been born. This weeks winner is the girl who believed the guy that told her,

I told this girl that I had surgery done, and they used cheetah blood for a transfusion, and now I could run really fast, and she believed it completely.

The girl has announced her desire for children. The State Legislature has been called into emergency session to revisit the issue of forced sterilization.

The NutriSystem “I’m Not So disgusting to My Spouse Anymore” Award, given to the biggest loser of the week, goes to the guy who effectively used the pickup line,

“Somebody must have beat the hell outta you with a pretty bat”

Publishers are reporting a large decline in the sale of poetry titles.

The Haldol Honor, awarded each week to the person or persons most out of touch with reality, either on or off medication goes to Roger Bean.

A man was held Wednesday on charges that he performed dental work on customers without a license in his “filthy” garage, authorities said. Roger Bean, 60, was arrested Tuesday and held on $6,000 bond.

Bean performed denture fittings and made false teeth in his garage, charging just $200 for a full set of dentures, a procedure that typically costs more than $2,000, authorities said. But he was not licensed to practice in Florida.

Palm Beach County Sheriff’s detective Don Zumpano said there were “health risks with operating this type of facility outside of your house,” adding that Bean’s workspace was “filthy.”

Neighbors and clients, however, praised Bean for saving them thousands of dollars.

Ron St. Mary, 73, head of the neighborhood crime watch, said Bean is no criminal.

“He’s helping the old people who don’t have a few dollars,” he said. “I think the world of him.”

It was not immediately clear if Bean had an attorney.

The entire Bean clan are dedicated to the frugal living lifestyle. Brother Norman Bean is a self taught neuro-surgeon working out of Johnny-on-the-Spot.

The Methamphetamine Medal, awarded each week to the most hyper, histrionic, hysterical, spaced out documented behavior goes to mechanic Robert Steinwirt.

It’s Dog Day Afternoon – the Austrian version. A man has been jailed after robbing a bank to pay for a breast operation for his transvestite lover.

It’s reported that car mechanic Robert Steinwirt, 29, was caught just hours after he handed over the 7,000 pounds he had robbed from the bank in Grinzens, Austria, to a plastic surgeon who he hoped would perform the op on his transvestite lover.

The surgeon reportedly called police because he was suspicious that the mechanic wanted to pay him so much money in cash up front for the operation.

Steinwert has been sentenced to six years in prison.

In the 1975 film Dog Day Afternoon, Al Pacino plays a man who robs a bank to finance his lover’s gender reassignment surgery. The movie was based on a real-life robbery, committed by John Wojtowicz in Brooklyn in 1972.

The Viagra Statuette, awarded to the wimpiest metro sexuals, goes to Matthew Dow, a man who believed he is making a difference.

A US carpenter in Maine is branching out from his normal trade of tables and cabinets after being asked to make a coffin for a pet.

Matthew Dow is now selling his pet coffins through pet stores and veterinary clinics, and can provide grieving pet owners with coffins in four sizes, ranging from £50 to £200.

At the moment each coffin is custom-made, but Mr Dow is hoping to be able to build up a stock so the satin-lined coffins can be available as soon as they are needed.

The ECT Battery Award, presented to the most shocking news story of the week, goes to the woman who swallowed her pride and announced to the world her child’s mediocrity- as well as her own lack of common sense.

British firefighters said on Wednesday they had come to a boy’s rescue after he got a toilet seat stuck on his head.

The toddler, aged two-and-a-half, and his mother walked into a fire station in Braintree, Essex, Tuesday saying the boy had put his head through a small trainer seat for the toilet and now could not remove it.

“His mum had tried to get it over his head but couldn’t budge it so she walked him down here and asked us to have a look at it and we went to work and we managed to get it off in no time,” firefighter Chris Cox said.

“We simply put some dish washing liquid on his head and ears and it slid off nice as pie.”

He said the boy had been “very brave” and “toddled away as happy as can be” after his ordeal ended.

The child went home and promptly went to play with the bidet. While at the fire station, the mom who discovered the lubricating properties of soap, also discovered that Ramen noodles in a Styrofoam cup need not be emptied into a pot for cooking.

Finally, The HRT (Hormone Replacement Therapy) Prize awarded weekly to the loudest and most inconsequential feminist drivel the SC&A jury can find. This week’s winner is Amanda Marcotte (of whom we had higher expectations!)

In a previous installment of “Are Wingnuts Aware Of How They Don’t Conceal Their Psychosexual Issues Well?”, we found wingnut Ace of Spades assuming outright that if a series of women give up wanting to fuck him after trying him out for about a week, it’s because they have a problem and probably don’t like sex..

Because I’m prone to speculation, I suggested that men, especially sexist pigs, who find themselves in a situation where women routinely taste the goods and opt out may, just may, be a tad selfish in bed to the point where there’s no point in sleeping with them. But see, my explanation for the situation can safely be written off as just more evidence that there’s nothing wrong with sexist pigs, just something wrong with the entire half of the human race called “women”. Which is to say, I could only be saying that out of feminazi man-hatred…

The funny thing is that in a general sense, I agree with Ace—fear of putting your face in the pussy and contempt for the idea that your female partner should have fun in the sack are not signs that a guy is gay, but usually better signs that he’s sexually immature and sexist.

(and all women ought to love going on a guy- and if she doesn’t, she’ s immature and sexist- a point with SC&A agree….)

Amanda, Ace was kidding.

Now while we’re on the topic of crazy, be sure to visit Dr Sanity’s Carnival Of The Insanities for more bizarre, arcane, insane and incredible examples of what can be found in the whackosphere, blogosphere, MSM and NASA. As a world class expert on organic waste disposal in space, Dr Sanity’s voice is well regarded.

Nancy Pelosi Talking About Ethics? ETHICS?

Nancy Pelosi believes that President Bush should sign the ‘Retreat From Iraq And Screw The Consequences’ bill, passed by the House and Senate.

Nancy Pelosi is the last person on Capital Hill to be talking about ethics.

If Ms Pelosi were so concerned with ethics, she would have investigated Senator Diane  Feinstein and her husband, a Pentagon contractor that was awarded contracts that Ms Feinstein approved and oversaw, including a single contract for $600 million, with a potential of additional revenues that would bring the total contract value up to $3.1 billion dollars.

Instead, Ms Pelosi and her fellow Democrats obsess over Dick Cheney, who has long severed ties all ties with Halliburton.

If Nancy Pelosi were so concerned with ethics, she would have investigated Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, whose only demonstrated expertise is in the area of corruption.

Mr Ethics, Harry Reid (who happily took money from Jack Abrahamoff, then denied it, then admitted it, and then refused to return the money) is backing what promises to be one of Nevada’s largest real estate development proposals. In fact, Mr Reid wanted the feds to part with valuable federal lands for nothing. When that came to light, the developer (a good friend of Mr Reid’s)- without a peep- agreed to pay ten million dollars for the land.

In fact, the developer and Mr Reid have ties that go back a long way. The developer/lobbyist, Harvey Whittemore, is a longtime friend and financial backer of Harry Reid. Of course, lawyers are always the front people for deal of this magnitude. ‘Leif Reid, who is Whittemore’s personal lawyer, has represented the developer throughout the Coyote Springs project, including in negotiations with federal officials.’ What a good daddy.

To put things in perspective, the size of the deal must be appreciated. The Coyote Springs Valley project calls for ‘as many as 159,000 homes, 16 golf courses and a full complement of stores and service facilities. At nearly 43,000 acres, Coyote Springs covers almost twice as much space as the next-largest development in a state famous for out-sized building projects. ‘ The project has been referred to as being of ‘historic proportions.’

We noted in Culture Of Corruption And Playing In The Mud that

The Empress Dowager of the Democrats, Nancy Pelosi, is fond of accusing her Republican counterparts of harboring a ‘culture of corruption.’ Her Majesty has a short memory. Notwithstanding her self righteous call, The Emperor Dowager is rather fond of corruption. As Minority House Leader, Ms Pelosi has often spoken of lobbying reform and ethical issues. She has stated she would like to see a ban on House members accepting gifts from lobbyists.

What Ms Pelosi does not want to remember is that in 1995 she voted against a provision “to prohibit registered lobbyists from giving gifts to members, officers, or employees of the House and Senate.” The Empress Dowager wasn’t alone. She was joined by Steny Hoyer, the then number two Democrat in the House. That ‘culture of corruption’ is clearly very addictive to Ms Pelosi and others in her party.

Just how addictive that culture of corruption is becomes quite clear with a bit of hindsight.

In speaking of the Abrahamoff scandal and other improprieties, John Boehner noted Ms Pelosi’s hypocrisy:

“When I hear Democratic Party leaders throwing around terms like ‘culture of corruption,’ I have to think: ‘You oughta know.’
“Yes, Republicans are outraged by the actions of Jack Abramoff. But we’re outraged, in part, because our standards are higher than the standards that were held by the Democratic majority we replaced after 1994. We are repulsed at Abramoff and his crimes, in part, because they remind us of the corruption we uprooted and stamped out when we took the majority away from the Democrats a decade ago.

“Minority Leader Pelosi, who has served in Congress since 1987 and was part of the last Democratic majority, should recall that corruption well. It wasn’t that long ago that gifts and personal loans from S&L interests to a Democratic committee chairman, made in hopes of winning favorable treatment from regulators, resulted in a half-trillion dollar scandal and a $125 billion tab for the American taxpayer. Nor was it that long ago that the Democratic chairman of the House Administration Committee stood idly by while drugs were being dealt from the House Post Office, hundreds of Members of Congress were bouncing checks and floating themselves zero-interest loans from the House Bank, and lobbyists were being given assigned parking spots on the Capitol grounds. Nor was it that long ago that the Democratic chairman of the Ways & Means Committee was trading taxpayer-purchased stamps for personal cash, leading to his conviction and jail time in 1993.

“An honorable majority responds to its stumbles with contrition, reform, and an effort to fix that which is broken. This is precisely the path Speaker Hastert and Chairman Dreier have charted for our majority in recent days. I applaud the Speaker for his leadership, and challenge Minority Leader Pelosi to join Republicans in our effort to change the way Congress works.”

So much for the Empress Dowager’s credibility as a beacon of morality and ethics.
See this, too.

The Promise

This post is the 4th in a series. Here are links to parts one, two and three. The 5th and final article in this series will be published tomorrow.

These posts may also be accessed from the sidebar, under ‘Pages.’

How does political and/or ideological indoctrination work? Surprisingly, the process is fairly simple. Wilfrid Bion explained the process:

The child (or even adult) is taught that he is part something much bigger than him or herself. The individual is taught that because of that affiliation, the are very special, and expression of narcissism that celebrates the self (an expression of which is necessary component of every healthy individual) is frowned upon. It is because of that affiliation with the group, they are loved.

Those outside the group are rejected at best and hated and reviled at worst. This is not hard to grasp: Within the group, there is love. Non members or members of different groups are ignored or rejected- they are outsiders. If and when those outsiders reject the group or cling to their own group, they become hated.

It bears remembering that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

When the ‘love’ offered by the group by virtue of attachment to that group is so strong, so to is the hate proffered by that group, directed at outsiders. The group leaders control the ‘volume’ of hate. The closer group leaders control their followers, the more they focus that hate on the chosen ‘others.’

What we see in the Middle East are members of a group so desirous of love (worthiness) and attention, that they make a deliberate choice to opt out of the rules that define civilized society. They refuse to deal with or even interact with non members. This is no small matter or self imposed isolation. Human progress of every single type has it’s origins in the interaction we have with each other. By deliberately choosing to not participate in an honest exchange with others, or by believing that forced or coerced interactions (i.e., believing that forced religious conversions denote religious embrace) are the equivalent of real exchanges, many in the Arab world separate themselves from the reality, even as they perceive that their forced interactions place them center stage, or in a position to dictate reality. The Cartoon Riots are an example of that. In the end, free speech in the west will not simply disappear (notwithstanding shrill cries to the opposite).

In any event, as the individual withdraws from reality into the fantasy love/respect the group offers, the stage is set for the terrorist and (even more importantly) the terrorist supporter. The hate fueled by the group nurtures envy (“what they have is rightfully ours”) and sadism (we will punish them for their evil. We are the righteous ones”).

That level of intense hate is matched only the level of intense love (and therefore ‘worthiness’) bestowed by the group. Death becomes an expression of fidelity to the group. Murder and killing on behalf of the group bestows an ultimate morality in the absence of any kind of morality (“of course we can justify the murder of innocents and civilians) of the group.

From an early age, Palestinians are taught that martyrdom is the ultimate expression of fidelity to the group and the ultimate expression of the elevated self. Terror and murder are the vehicles in which one can achieve fulfillment as a Muslim, Palestinian and as an individual. Terror and murder are celebrated. When a suicide bomber completes his deed, there are celebrations in the local mosque. His or her actions elevate the rest of the congregation. It is as if there were a competition among churches as to which might provide the most saints.

These expressions are not only religious in nature. Schools, media and entertainment reinforce the message. There is a whole subculture that reinforces that culture, not unlike American gang culture. Gang members are willing to die for their ‘colors.’ A kind of code of ethics (religion) permeates the culture and there is an entire subculture of entertainment and art that feeds and glorifies that culture.

Suicide bombers and terrorists are glorified. Parents are regaled as almost equal to the shahid, for having raised and encouraged a child to go off to his death, murdering as many non members of the group as possible. Those parents become elevated in status and morality, precisely because their child embraced the immorality of indiscriminate murder. The prestige bestowed (and thus the dysfunction) is so great that many other parents harbor wishes for the same recognition. They are willing to sacrifice their own children. It is not uncommon to hear the refrain that ‘we love death,’ not because of the finality of death but rather, because of the desperate belief that in death will come a kind of relief. The restrictive bonds of life under tyranny (Palestinians and the Arab world are well aware of who their leaders are) will be broken- a new, more pure ‘life’ awaits them on the other side. Even talk of sexual pleasures unavailable in conservative Arab societies, can be talked about within a religious context. A teenager, consumed with own sexuality- and feeling guilty about that obsession- often sees his own shahada as a kind of redemption in addition to the skewed religious and moral expressions he or she was taught to believe.

The shahid and his or her family have to believe that. They cannot question those who define the afterlife, because to question that would be too painful. They understand that the ideologues that encourage young men and women to their deaths are corrupt. They understand that those ideolgues define religion in any way that best suits their needs at any given time. They understand that deceit is as much part of the ideology as is religion (“Jews never had a Temple. The Bible is forged. Jesus was really a Muslim”).

To question the basis of Palestinian shahada (martyrdom) is to question the predicates and foundation of the group.

That is why Muslim apostates are reviled and feared in their community and not simply ignored. One who leaves the group, knows the group. The non member is hated because he is a non member, and perceived to reject the group without knowing the group (“Come learn about Islam, get to know us. We are not as we seems”) The apostate is reviled because he refuses to accept the ‘love’ (worthiness) of a flawed and murderous ideology. The apostate thinks for himself, a cardinal sin in the Arab world. There is a reason the quality of education in the Arab world is so abysmal. An educated citizen thinks for himself and does not need to rely on the group to do that for him. An educated citizen finds his own self worth, in his community and beyond. The Arab citizen cannot compete outside his own environment. He sheltered by deliberately imposed ignorance. This is not his fault. Arabs are the greatest victims of their own leadership.

To be clear, not all Palestinians or Arabs are enamored with the ‘love’ of Islam and Arab societies bestows upon their culture and society. There are other voices that reject the ideologies that have served to degenerate and subjugate Islam and the Arab world.

Nonie Darwish is one of them. The daughter of a decorated ‘guerrilla’ fighter, she acknowledges that all she was taught was wrong. More importantly, she finds something more distressing than the hate. In discussing Arab culture and societal norms, she notes

To admit one’s flaws and mistakes, to correct and repent is inconceivable…

To acknowledge one’s shortcomings before first blaming others would bring deep shame and dishonor not only to the individual but to his or her entire family…If the mistake is a cultural taboo, one’s reputation may be scarred for life and the perpetrator might end up brutally punished.

This is the kind of environment that allows for and justifies ‘honor killings.’ This is also how many young women are recruited into terror. If they are thought to have shamed the family, an act of terror serves as act of redemption for their family as well as themselves. The higher ‘morality’ of indiscriminate killing of innocents makes up for their transgressions.

This highlights another reality. In Arab cultures, there is no real reward or recognition for loving the sanctity of life. Those who profess a desire for real peace, non violence, less corruption and less oppression are considered reformers.

In societies and cultures where violence is often seen after religious services (unique in the Abrahamic faiths). little emphasis is placed on self improvement, the betterment of society (the ‘real jihad,’ we are told) or humility. Rather, worshipers are whipped into a murderous frenzy directed at non members. Each week, the hate is elevated.

These realities have brought Arab nations to their knees. Repression, oppression, terror, genocide and hate flourish. Entire populations are groomed to know only hopelessness, and not hope. There are failed economies, failed civil infrastructures and failed educational infrastructures. A child born in the Arab world today has little hope of achieving success on his own. There is little in the way of opportunities or a way out if the bleakness. There is no bright future to look forward to.

The only promise and guarantee that child can count on, is being taught to hate.

‘Genetic Waste Of Time’ And Other School Curiosities

Via the always thoughtful,  insightful and irrepressible  Mamacita, author of Weekly Scheiss, the blog that must be read, comes this letter of resignation, written by ‘an employee of an institution of higher education.’ 

The letter speaks for itself. There is no need for additional commentary.

Mr Baker,

As an employee of an institution of higher education, I have a few very basic expectations. Chief among these is that my direct superiors have an intellect that ranges above the common ground squirrel. After your consistent and annoying harassment of myself and my co-workers during the commission of our duties, I can only surmise that you are one of the few true genetic wastes of our time. Asking me, a network administrator, to explain every little nuance of everything I do each time you happen to stroll into my office is not only a waste of time, but also a waste of precious oxygen. I was hired because I know about Unix, and you were apparently hired to provide amusement to myself and other employees, who watch you vainly attempt to understand the concept of “cut and paste” for the hundredth time.

You will never understand computers. Something as incredibly simple as binary still gives you too many options. You will also never understand why people hate you, but I am going to try and explain it to you, even though I am sure this will be just as effective as telling you what an IP is. Your shiny new iMac has more personality than you ever will. You walk around the building all day, shiftlessly looking for fault in others. You have a sharp dressed useless look about you that may have worked for your interview, but now that you actually have responsibility, you pawn it off on overworked staff, hoping their talent will cover for your glaring ineptitude. In a world of managerial evolution, you are the blue-green algae that everyone else eats and laughs at. Managers like you are a sad proof of the Dilbert principle.

Seeing as this situation is unlikely to change without you getting a full frontal lobotomy reversal, I am forced to tender my resignation, however I have a few parting thoughts.

• When someone calls you in reference to employment, it is illegal to give me a bad recommendation. The most you can say to hurt me is “I prefer not to comment.” I will have friends randomly call you over the next couple of years to keep you honest, because I know you would be unable to do it on your own.

• I have all the passwords to every account on the system, and I know every password you have used for the last five years. If you decide to get cute, I am going to publish your “favourites list”, which I conveniently saved when you made me “back up” your useless files. I do believe that terms like “Lolita” are not usually viewed favourably by the administration.

• When you borrowed the digital camera to “take pictures of your mothers b-day”, you neglected to mention that you were going to take pictures of yourself in the mirror nude. Then you forgot to erase them like the techno-moron you really are. Suffice it to say I have never seen such odd acts with a ketchup bottle, but I assure you that those have been copied and kept in safe places pending the authoring of a glowing letter of recommendation. (Try to use a spell check please, I hate having to correct your mistakes.)

Thank you for your time, and I expect the letter of recommendation on my desk by 8:00 am tomorrow.

One word of this to anybody, and all of your little twisted repugnant obsessions will be open to the public. Never **** with your systems administrators, because they know what you do with all your free time.

Sincerely,

[Name Omitted]

The Poison

Robert Avrech, the author of Seraphic Secret, recently remarked that

Israel is the only country in the world whose legitimacy is called into question by the so-called intellegencia. In truth, Iraq, Jordan, Libya, Saudia Arabia, Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, and almost every Arab state in the region is an artificial creation of the great colonial powers. These Arab states were created by British, French and German diplomats who carelessly drew lines on maps thus throwing together a fatal brew of populations that were to clash for generations in bloody religious, clan, tribal, border and state warfare.

What is it about Israel that enrages so many people? It is clear to even the most vociferous of Israel’s critics that there nations with far more egregious behavior and far more openly racist and bigoted track records than that tiny nation. Further, if you listened closely the mostly bizarre nature of the charges leveled against Israel, a listener might be led to conclude that only democracies can be guilty of the most heinous crimes. Israel’s neighbors, an alumnus of the most repressive regimes on earth, are always portrayed as victims. They are always the embodiment of noble, no matter how degenerate and dysfunctional the regime.

Democracies like Israel by their nature try to find a way to negotiate the evil that can come from the individul against society, as well as the evil that originates from the unchecked society against individuals and individual liberty.

The totalitarian Islamic societies that surround Israel do not rein in either type of evil. The individual is encouraged by society- for the sake of society or the sake of religion- to channel rage, hatred and homicidal impulses toward the non believer. This has the net effect of destroying both the individual and eliminating individuality, lifting all restraint on actions taken in the name of society or in the name of religion. Thus, both the individual and society become psychopathic.

It would be easy to say that antisemitism is at the root of the anti Israel sentiments, but that is untrue. Many espousing that sentiment are liberal or leftist Jews and others with an impeccable track record of standing at the fore for social justice, racial equality and defenders of human rights (none of that applies to most Arabs or Muslims. They have a clearly antisemitic agenda, that is very much the ‘mother’s milk’ of the region, taught from a very early age. Many believe that by aligning themselves with leftists, that agenda will either be ignored or adopted by the leftist movement).

There is something about Israel that enrages the left- and that something has to do with having to engage evil on a daily basis. The Israelis must deal with an evil that is real, evident and clearly defined. For the left, evil can not exist because the recognition of evil forces societies and cultures to set boundaries and limitations. Even more, evil helps to define culture and communal behavior. If there is no evil, the individual and the individual’s needs and wants are of paramount concern. If there is evil, then the community and the needs of the community are of concern. The needs of the individual are subjugated. For the narcissistic individual, this is a catastrophe of the highest order, and that is why for the narcissistic leftists, the only evil they can acknowledge is the evil that places the welfare pf the community or state over the welfare of the individual.

In the case of Israel, that must be done every single day. To not put the safety and well being of the community at the fore would result in disaster. This is not hard to understand. Promises of rape, slaughter and destruction are ingrained into a culture, reinforced daily.

We noted yesterday in Temptations And Choices that from a cultural standpoint, destruction of Satan, the tempter, is a cultural imperative. Rather than grow and strengthen oneself by resisting temptation, one must destroy temptation.

…The tempted cannot simply resist the temptations- they must destroy the tempter so that they might not succumb. They do not see that resisting temptation is more powerful than destroying that temptation. The justification of destroying temptation, as opposed to simply resisting comes from the elevation of the tempter…

That is how we end up with indiscriminate murder and the justification and elevation of evil…

All non Muslims are fair game, as are all Muslims who are ‘not on the program.’

The left too, finds comfort in this kind of ideology. By elevating the tempter, i.e., differing ideologies, into a kind of bogeyman, the justification of the elimination or of asserting dominion over that bogeyman becomes clear.

The entire raison d’etre of Islamic fundamentalism is not only to reject and destroy the temptation, but to destroy Satan himself. The entire justification for the rabid ideology to remove American troops from the Gulf region, is to cleanse the region of Satan’s temptations. Western dress, attitudes towards women even western values are a threat. Even if the Americans are mostly invisible in the area, the fact that they are ‘tempters,’ poisons the holy land of the Arabs. Terror attacks against them and even civilians who work in region (forced to live in armed compounds for their own protection) can therefore be justified.

The idea that ‘tempters’ and Satan must be destroyed is played out every day in the Middle East. Westerners are targeted for violence and kidnapped in Egypt and elsewhere and Jews, the ever reliable standby, are targeted with regularity

All these behaviors are first and foremost the manifestation of the denial personal temptations (“You can’t get me. You have no power over me. I will get you first”). More these kinds of behaviors are clear reflections of the projection that must be displaced onto others. Their own ‘darker side’ becomes visible. The need to degrade others and to label them (women are whores, Jews are Nazis, etc. Ever present is the notion that Jews and Christians are sons of ‘apes and pigs.’

The need for this kind of projection over the years have mirrored the escalating and real failures in the Arab world. The dysfunctional pathologies have not just been left untreated. They have been encouraged and fed with the intoxicants of wild deceit. As a result, we have what is now a furious frenzy, one in which women and children are enlisted as terrorists and suicide bombers. Wherever there are ‘tempters,’ women and children are encouraged to blow themselves up. Restaurants, hotels and buses filled with everyday people leading everyday lives, are targeted.

All the while, men who deliberately go out and kill the tempters in a display of great piety, readily admit that the temptations of a heaven with 72 black eyed virgins as a motivator for their terrorist acts. The idea of limitless and boundless sex is now a good enough reason to kill.

One might believe that the fundamentalists are motivated by religious zeal alone, but that is deceptive. The fundamentalist movements are also out to garner as much political power as they can. They do this by maintaining an ‘Islamic state.’ Other non religious states employ terror groups, wrapped in the flag of Islamic ideologies, as their proxies. Syria, led by the Allawite Assad clan is a perfect example. They are decidedly non religious (in fact, it took an act of the Syrian Parliament to have Allawite sect considered as ‘Muslim’) but have nevertheless been staunch supporters of Hizbollah and Hamas, two terror organizations that are ostensibly religious in nature.

Rather than attack Israel, Jews or westerners in general, the pattern of Arab leaders who support the fundamentalists has been lifted from the gangster play book. Fund the terror, hire the killer and look into the cameras and say, ‘My hands are clean.’ It isn’t that the tyrants are even remotely interested in the religious ideologies of the terrorists. The sole purpose of Syria’s Assad in supporting ‘religious’ terror is to maintain his grip on power. As long as he and other leaders in the region support the fundamentalists, they will ‘watch each other’s back.’

So much for the morality of religious fundamentalists.

Religion also provides camouflage. By focusing on faith and hate of Israel, attention is drawn away from the economic, social, educational and societal failures. Israel is the only target that can be safely attacked without the fear of repercussion.

In the Palestinian Authority, the worth of political parties are measured by how many Jews the various factions have killed. Invariably, it is the political entity in ‘power’ that can make that proud claim. The ascendancy of Hamas over the PLO at the polls had more to do with corruption than of killing and terror. The Hamas movement promised an even harder line against Israel, with no recognition of Israel or even peace talks. They promised more killings and more terror, with ‘honest government’ as a bonus.

As a result of the Hamas win over the PLO, the Husseini clan (from which Arafat hailed and the largest and most powerful) have struggled to maintain their power and privileges. Now, they are seeking ‘real’ relations with Israel so as to regain power. They have little choice. Hamas is gunning for them.

Swiss psychologist Arno Gruen, noted that the source of manifested aggression and real destructiveness has it’s origins in culture and not in the individual. Everything that reinforces the fragmentation and disenfranchisement of our personality feeds the creation, nurture and elevation of our destructive drives. Truth, justice and morality have little to do with the cultivation of a culture and society for whom hate is the oxygen of their existence.

In a religious, cultural and societal environment that advocates terror and violence, the personality of the terrorist becomes as broken and as fragmented as that of the society and culture that birthed him. The terrorist is merely the reflection of the world he knows.

The brokenness of the society, culture and individual are blind to even the most basic building blocks of civilized man’s most universal moral codes. In fact, those building blocks are no longer present. In societies and cultures that are so broken, primal and murderous behavior takes over and becomes dominant.

Every ‘end of the world’ film focuses on a broken society where bestial instincts run rampant. Y2K alarmists gathered supplies and weapons in preparation for the demise of civilization. In fact, the ‘moral’ and ‘religious’ instruction that have become the defining characteristic of fundamentalists, terror regimes, organizations and those who support them, are anything but moral or an expression of sanctity. The societies and cultures that have adopted these ideologies are murderous and cruel. They espouse a pornographic morality of excess, that focuses on and encourages moral dysfunction.

Religious ‘leader’ Ibrahim Mdaires:

Allah has tormented us with the people most hostile to the believers’ –the Jews…

With the establishment of the State of Israel, the entire Islamic nation was lost,
because Israel is a cancer spreading through the body of the Islamic nation, and because Jews are a virus resembling AIDS, from which the entire world suffers…

You will find that the Jews are behind all the civil strife in this world. The Jews are behind the suffering of the nations…Listen to the Prophet Muhammad, who tells you about the evil end that awaits Jews. The stones and trees will want the Muslims to finish off every Jew…We have ruled the world before, and by Allah, the day will come when we rule the world again.

The words of Mdaires are drivel, of course. What is relevant is that the kind of evil he espouses in a post Holocaust world, can find root in societies, cultures and individuals that have been oppressed and feel inferior and impotent. The cultural rejection and resentment towards reality are the cauldron that cooks the stew of dysfunction.

There is no desire for peace or accommodation. The Arab world, influenced by the fundamentalists, desires to be both victim and victimizer. They at once see themselves as tormented and passive, and in the same breath, declare their wild desire to be tormentors and inflict all kinds of punishment. As long as there is a single Jew left, they are justified in their primal desires. Religious authorities indoctrinate entire populations with hate and fundamentalism, knowing full well that these citizens, frustrated by their own impotence, will react to their exhortations with an almost sexually driven kind of frenzy that releases pent up emotions in the form of murderous rage, sadism and the urge to dominate.

The need to hate is not about hate, per se. The more one hates, the more one wants to destroy. Hate the Jews enough and you will want to destroy them. Hate the west enough and you will want to destroy that, too.

Couple hate and the tempter, and there is no middle ground. Destruction is the only option- unless of course, there is a cost to the destruction. When confronted with accountability and responsibility, the need to confront and destroy lessens and the need for compromise and accommodation increases. Lebanon’s Hizbollah faction understands that truth. Notwithstanding their ‘clear victory’ that left south Lebanon in a cloud of cement dust and Beirut stunned when the Lebanese government failed to rein in the terror group, Nasrallah and Hizbollah has been remarkably restrained in taking on Israel again. In fact, they are lying, very, very low, licking the wounds of their ‘victory.’ The combination of their religious and political bravado has been muted. They were held accountable for their actions and words.

Hizbollah, Hamas and all Middle Eastern fundamentalists have proved the point that when religion is mixed with politics, the results will always end in extremism.

It is religious extremism that will defeat the tempter and religious hate that demands the destruction of the non believer. The enemy, defined as any unbeliever, can and must be persecuted. Aggression is the appropriate and necessary response, required by god and country. If those efforts fail, the believer is humiliated and imbued with guilt- and that only serves to serve as the justification for more aggression.

Every civilized society has strict limits on the appropriate expression of rage and anger. Most religions too, limit and restrict manifestations of anger and hate. Nevertheless, fundamentalist (and even not so fundamentalist) Islamic expressions serve as an acceptable and sanctioned outlet for violence and rage- especially whe that anger and rage are directed at non believers.

We wrote,

The creation of the State Of Israel could not be explained away, denied or hidden. As far the Arab world was concerned, the establishment of the Jewish state, in their neighborhood and on their watch, was indeed a catastrophic event. In fact, it was cataclysmic, because Israel was undeniable evidence that the rise and domination of the Islamic world, led by the Arabs was indeed over. Notwithstanding Arab failures for over a thousand years, the establishment of Israel was a truth that not even the Arab world could deny. That catastrophe worsened as Israel ascended into the first world and they fell even further behind. In the same way that Da Vinci and Galileo were to stun the church with scientific truths, Israel stunned the Arab world with the successes that could only serve to highlight a millennium of Arab failure and darkness. The divine law, given by God Himself, that gave Muslims dominion over all mankind was upended- and by Jews, no less. The magnitude of the event cannot be understated.

Fundamentalist Islamic ideologues do not recognize any kind of internal conflict. Their problems are all the result of external influences- Tempters, non believers, etc.

Denial, displacement, and projection are necessary defenses and necessary for identity. These defenses also serve to cut off and eliminate any connection a believer might have with the moral building blocks of a civilized society. Their entire being and identity is framed by primal aggression and the unrestrained, cruel and irresponsible behavior of childhood. Nazi ideologies of social manipulation, live on.

Now, we have come full circle. Robert Avrech’s remarks and focus on his blog are more than a political comment. They are a significant social analysis that perfectly describes the need by the left to be inclusive of some of the most dysfunctional and failed regimes and their ideologues, in history. The only way we can be inclusive is if we agree to drink from the same poison. Avrech’s position is clear. No matter how well meaning the left might be, he would no more acquiesce to society drinking the hemlock any more than he would feed the poison to his own child.

Islamic fundamentalism, as opposed to Islamic terror, has hurt western culture, because we have refused to marginalize and reject the ideology. There is the mistaken belief that we can negotiate our way out of trouble. In doing so, we are drinking from the cup of poison. While we can negotiate with societies that share our values, we are sorely mistaken if we believe we can negotiate with cultures and societies bent on our elimination.

We will not cease to be the tempters and we will not cease to be the cause of Arab world failures, no matter how much we drink from the cup of poison. In the end, the poison will kill us.

For an excellent look at psychological defense mechanisms and how ideologies and culture play a role in those mechanisms, see Dr Sanity’s Symptom Or Adaptation? It is a must read and analysis of how contrived defense mechanisms can undermine cultures and the individual, using much of the Islamic world as an example.

“It’s the culture, stupid”

The latest Sanity Squad podcast is up.

This week’s topic is will leave you with more questions than answers.

Neo, Dr Sanity, Shrinkwrapped and ourselves look at the sequence of tragic events that led to the Virginia Tech massacre.

Could anything have really be done to prevent the tragedy? Truth be told, probably not.

In the end, sometimes bad things happen. There are bad people out there. Sometimes they are ill, sometimes they are evil and sometimes there are some people with profound character flaws.

Gun control won’t change any of that.

More laws won’t prevent bad things from happening. Parents will abuse children. Husbands will abuse wives. Mothers will kill their own children.

Here’s a hint: When society and culture change, so do people. What was unthinkable a few years ago is now commonplace.

Consider this: Just because children are sexualized and grow up a lot faster nawadays, doesn’t mean children aren’t children. It does mean that children are being forced to cope with issues and challenges that weren’t even on the radar for most of us. It also means that a generation of kids have grown up with tremendous pressure- and not everyone can cope. To be a kid nowadays is to talk about bitches, hos and blowjobs. When school is out, there is Desperate Housewives and hip hop on the ipod.Well, in the end, we reap what we sow.

It’s the culture, stupid.

This week’s podcast will make you think.

Not So Smart Women

Via John Ray’s always thought provoking Dissecting Leftism, comes this interesting item, sure to cause debate.

“A third of women graduates will never have children, research has concluded. The number of highly educated women who are starting families has plummeted in the past decade, according to findings that provide the most detailed insight yet into education and fertility. While some women are making a conscious decision not to have children, others are simply leaving it too late after taking years to build their careers, buy a home and find the right partner. Graduates who do become mothers are having fewer children, and later. If the low birth rate trend continues, then the eventual rate of childlessness among graduates now aged in their twenties is likely to be even higher than a third”.

As Ray notes “It takes an intellectual to be really stupid .”

Ray expands on the theme of stupid with the following offerings:

EU proposal to bring Sharia divorce law to Europe: “A European Union proposal that would allow the laws of non-EU countries to be applicable in divorce cases ran into fierce opposition from Sweden on Thursday. Liberal Sweden strongly resists the plan, which it says could force EU member states to dissolve marriages on the basis of foreign law, including traditional Islamic law, or Sharia. “It is not acceptable that the planned rules would lead to Swedish courts having to apply foreign law,” a Swedish diplomat told reporters at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg. Germany is pushing for new rules under which international couples, prior to marriage, would be able to set out in a contract which country’s laws will reign in a divorce court.”

Over-Taxed Canadians: “Taxes are eating into Canadians’ incomes more than ever, costing the average family more than food, clothing and housing combined, suggests a new survey. …The average Canadian family earned $63,001 in 2006 and paid taxes equalling $28,311, almost 45 per cent of its income, while spending 35.6 per cent of its income on food, clothing and housing. According to the institute, 45 years ago that same family earned $5,000 and paid $1,675, or 33.5 per cent of its total income, in taxes. In 1961, the average family spent 56.5 per cent of its income on the necessities of life.

Yup, thats’ progress for you.

Temptations And Choices

As Islam was going through it’s turbulent formative stages, there was much violence and killings directed at early religious figures. The most significant event was the murder of Ali, son in law of Mohammed. This single event was to have violent and repercussions that have lasted to this day. Ali’s death led to a huge schism between early Muslims. There were those who considered Ali to be the rightful ‘heir to the throne’ and as such, the rightful successor to Mohammed, and there are those who refused the idea of that kind of succession. Followers of Ali morphed into the Shiites, while the majority of Muslims became the Sunnis.

The Sunni gave persecuted the Shiites, referring to them as non believers or a corrupter of Islam. Within the Sunni Islamic world, the Shiites are considered a sect, a breakaway group that has forsaken Islam.

Both groups have developed ideologies that have persecuted Jews and Christians, an ideology that originated not so much as a religious expression, but rather, as a way of dealing with feelings of inferiority and fears of illegitimacy. By displacing those fears on others (all non believers), they believe they show their dominance over them and at the same time, they are ‘fulfilling God’s will.’ The highest form of that displacement results in the destruction of all their enemies, and thus, they will be seen as most ‘worthy in God’s eyes.

In fact, in order to understand and comprehend Arab conflicts with the west (Non Arab Islamic conflicts are for the most part, very different), one has to understand the nature and history of the ever increasing and escalating Muslim conflicts with each other.

Each culture and society defines conflict differently. What may be grievous offenses in one culture are mere sights in others. Cultures also can be diffrentiated in how they deal with conflict. Some cultures demand violence and confrontation, others insist on negotiation  and accommodation.

In all cases however, conflict is a mirror that reflects a comparison between the players, one in which the true character of those players and conflict emerges.

The genesis of all consuming and blind cultural and societal hatred are the symptoms of wounded pride and perceived insult. Once that pot starts to boil, that enveloping rage boils over into a self hatred, because that rage only serves to highlight an inability to maintain self control- and that inability to maintain self control cannot help but be compared with societies and cultures that can and do maintain that self control.

As long as cultures and societies remain relatively isolated, those comparisons meant little, because most societies and cultures were unaware of what was going on ‘outside.’ Reality was their existential four cubits. Over the last two hundred years, that was to change dramatically. As technology, travel, trade and political/economic exchanges developed, the isolation of backward Arab societies (in relation to western cultures) from the rest of the world was to come to an end.

The exposure to the western ideas, politics, technology and economic successes posed a direct challenge to a more backward Arab world. By any standard of measurement, they were found to be lacking. It was in how the Arabs responded to the new world and new ideas that was to determine their future. Rather than achieve similar successes for themselves, successes that would reflect their unique identity and culture, the Arab world believed that by imitating western culture, they would advance. This was to be a complete failure and utter failure. The Arab has fallen even farther behind.

In the meantime, the attempt to imitate the west has had the expected backlash. Religious ideologues have determined that even the effort to move into the 21st century, is a threat and an affront to God. Real Muslim glory can only be achieved by looking back, not forward. A new Caliphate (one that will punish and subordinate non Muslims), strict and inflexible, is the vehicle that will bring happiness and fulfillment to the ummah.

The movement to restore Islam to it’s former glory is the clear ideology of Whabbism, a belief that spiritual ‘rededication’ meant the purification of Muslims- and that purification and Islamic religious and cultural renewal was to embrace the notion that non Muslim ideologies were to be rejected and scorned.

Western and non Muslims ideologies are held responsible for the decline of the Muslim empire. It is the non Muslims that have humiliated the Arab world. It is the non Muslims that have exploited the Arabs and it is the non Muslims that have oppressed Islam. Non Muslims are guilty of keeping the Arab world from their rightful place of leadership, dominance and prestige. As we noted yesterday, the establishment of a successful Jewish state in a tiny corner of the Middle East is a direct affront to the Arab world. Al the spinning and dancing in the world cannot change the truth that

The creation of the State Of Israel could not be explained away, denied or hidden. As far the Arab world was concerned, the establishment of the Jewish state, in their neighborhood and on their watch, was indeed a catastrophic event. In fact, it was cataclysmic, because Israel was undeniable evidence that the rise and domination of the Islamic world, led by the Arabs was indeed over. Notwithstanding Arab failures for over a thousand years, the establishment of Israel was a truth that not even the Arab world could deny. That catastrophe worsened as Israel ascended into the first world and they fell even further behind. In the same way that Da Vinci and Galileo were to stun the church with scientific truths, Israel stunned the Arab world with the successes that could only serve to highlight a millennium of Arab failure and darkness. The divine law, given by God Himself, that gave Muslims dominion over all mankind was upended- and by Jews, no less. The magnitude of the event cannot be understated.

Israel not only reflects Arab failure, she also reflects the successes 0f western ideologies and western predicates for success. The Arabs would have you believe that the rejection of western successes are justified by saying they are rejecting the western culture and values that are anathema to Muslims. They cannot explain the successes of Muslim societies in Singapore and Malaysia. Those nations succeeded because they achieved their own successes on their own terms. They did not imitate or attempt to define themselves  by western cultural expressions.

In any event, in the Arab world, any expression of western ideas, ideologies or beliefs are deemed ’satanic.’  The choice of imagery and words are no accident.

Bernard Lewis noted that in the Islamic world, the principal functions of Satan is to assume the role of ‘tempter.’ Arab religious expression defines the ‘tempter’ as offering democracy, technology, freedom for women, sexuality without religious constrictions, education and success, material and emotional.

Those straight-jacket that have ‘kept the Arabs down,’ have naturally resulted in resentment in the Arab world. The religion induced euphoria can only result in the realization that the promise is unfulfilled. As prayers go unanswered, crushing disappointment becomes hate. Western temptations elicit hate and then greed. Everybody wants a piece of the pie- now. They don’t want to work for it. They want to take it, because that is their right. It is in the taking that pride can be restored and disappointmet can be obviated. It matters little who gets hurt in the process.

In the Arab world, pride can be regained not by excelling or achieving, but rather, by destroying…

Greed and envy are organisms that cannot exist without each other. Greed that cannot be immediately sated leads to obsessive envy. Also true is that envy ferments and results in the intoxicating beverage that results in the lust that is greed, and the cycle from which there is little chance of escape, begins.

Frenzy begets the lust, which begets the frustration and rage, which begets the need for revenge. The cycle then repeats. The process results in a merry go round of conflicting emotion. The individual feels superior, then inferior. He believes that he is of stature and then he becomes invisible and irrelevant.

It is for these reasons that the successes of Jews and Christians and the establishment of Israel have been traumatic for Arabs. Their entire world was upended. The successes of the ‘other’ only served to highlight their own profound failures. It became clear for all to see that the Arabs were now the dhimmi, the second class citizens. Even worse than that, the Arabs were ignored. Every Arab understood that without oil, Arabs would be relegated irrelevance- mostly by their doing.  They understood that blaming the ‘other’ or blaming colonialism was no more than a shell game, designed to deceive no one but themselves.

The Arabs are engaged in a schizophrenic battle of monumental proportions. Moderates recognize that the western ‘temptations’ can offer redemption and success on their own terms (by achieving and not imitating) . Fundamentalists are determined to destroy the ‘temptor,’ Satan, embodied by America, Israel, Jews and Christians.

The tempted cannot simply resist the temptations- they must destroy the temptor so that they might not succumb. hey do not see that resisting temptation is powerful than destroying that temptation. The justification of destroying temptation, as opposed to simply resisting comes from the elevation of the temptor. Christians are the agents of Satan, Jews are pigs, non Muslim women are ‘uncovered meat’ and whores that defile family and community. All non Muslims are fair game, as are all Muslims who are ‘not on the program.’

That is how we end up with indiscriminate murder and the justification and elevation of evil.

We noted,

In their world, heroes kill. In ours, heroes save lives.

In their world, heroes are mass murderers… In our world, heroes come to liberate and give life.

What shame there must be in the Arab world…

The contrast in how heroes are defined cannot be more clear or crisp. That contrast also helps to defines the the chasm of differences between cultures.

The Arab world will have to find it’s own redemption. It it doesn’t, it will implode and cause untold damage.

A Sobering Thought That Shamed Us

Everybody remembers the name of Johnny Walker Lindh.

In a recent conversation with Dr Sanity, the question arose: Could we remember the name of the CIA agent that was killed at the time of Lindh’s capture? Sadly, we could not.

We had to look it up.

Dr Sanity and ourselves came to the realization that there is something very wrong- and very sad about that.

It turns out that this piece of garbage, John Walker Lindh (and make no mistake, that is exactly what he is), wants out of prison.

TigerHawk noted that

…reports that John Walker Lindh thinks he got a raw deal — twenty years of hard time — compared to similarly situated Westerners who put in their time at Gitmo and then received much lighter sentences from the military…

As for Lindh, let’s not go all gooey. The guy ran guns for the Taliban. Even if he did not participate in action against the United States, he was a combatant for a regime that overtly gave sanctuary to al Qaeda, which had declared war on the United States in 1998. No religious belief can justify that. Who are we kidding? The guy may have been “confused,” but he was “confused” in a really bad way.

The CIA agent who was killed by Lindh’s comrades left a wife and son.

It is said that ‘the apple doesn’t fall from the tree,’ and that is true.

Johnny Walker Lindh’s father has done nothing but lie in his efforts to portray his son as a ‘victim’ and ‘misunderstood.’

See this website.

The piece of garbage that is Johnny Walker Lindh, knew of 9/11 plot and did nothing.

He knew of the uprising and revolt that was take the life of an American who chose to defend his nation- and even more importantly, a husband and father- and said nothing.

We are ashamed that we knew the name of Johnny Walker Lindh, but could not recall the name of the hero that gave his life for our freedom.

For more, see My Pet Jawa.

Talking The Talk

 

The following list of phrases and their definitions might help you understand the mysterious language of science and medicine. These special phrases are also applicable to anyone reading a Ph.D. dissertation or academic paper:

“IT HAS LONG BEEN KNOWN”…

I didn’t look up the original reference.

“A DEFINITE TREND IS EVIDENT”…

These data are practically meaningless.

“WHILE IT HAS NOT BEEN POSSIBLE TO PROVIDE DEFINITE ANSWERS TO THE QUESTIONS”…

An unsuccessful experiment, but I still hope to get it published.

“THREE OF THE SAMPLES WERE CHOSEN FOR DETAILED STUDY”…

The other results didn’t make any sense.

“TYPICAL RESULTS ARE SHOWN”…

This is the prettiest graph.

“IN MY EXPERIENCE”…

Once

“IN CASE AFTER CASE”…

Twice

“IN A SERIES OF CASES”…

Thrice

“IT IS BELIEVED THAT”…

I think.

“IT IS GENERALLY BELIEVED THAT”…

A couple of others think so, too.

“CORRECT WITHIN AN ORDER OF MAGNITUDE”…

Wrong.

“ACCORDING TO STATISTICAL ANALYSIS”…

Rumor has it.

“A STATISTICALLY-ORIENTED PROJECTION OF THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THESE FINDINGS”…

A wild guess.

“A CAREFUL ANALYSIS OF OBTAINABLE DATA”…

Three pages of notes were obliterated when I knocked over a glass of soda.

“IT IS CLEAR THAT MUCH ADDITIONAL WORK WILL BE REQUIRED BEFORE A COMPLETE UNDERSTANDING OF THIS PHENOMENON OCCURS”…

I don’t understand it.

“AFTER ADDITIONAL STUDY BY MY COLLEAGUES”…

They don’t understand it either.

“THANKS ARE DUE TO JOE BLOTZ FOR ASSISTANCE WITH THE EXPERIMENT AND TO CINDY ADAMS FOR VALUABLE DISCUSSIONS”…

Mr. Blotz did the work and Ms. Adams did me.

“A HIGHLY SIGNIFICANT AREA FOR EXPLORATORY STUDY”…

A totally useless topic selected by my committee.

“IT IS HOPED THAT THIS STUDY WILL STIMULATE FURTHER INVESTIGATION IN THIS FIELD”…

I quit.

 

 

Birth Of A Nation, A Garden Blooms

Tomorrow, April 24, Israel will celebrate her own Independence Day. As the celebrations began this evening, a look at what Israel means, where she came from and where she is going, can just the mirror we need to look into.

That tiny nation, the only real democracy in the Middle East, will celebrate the event as she always has- under the threat of existential violence. Her detractors and persecutors, unable to vanquish this generation of Jews who fight back, have engaged in the largest and most profound racist, bigoted and hateful propaganda war in the history of mankind. There is no technology that has not been employed in the dissemination of hate. Before every child graduates primary, middle or high school, he or she is inculcated with not only hate, but the notion that hate is not sufficient. The message that Jews must be violently exterminated is universal in the Arab world.

Those societies and cultures for whom that kind of hate in anathema, often find themselves targeted by association with similar racism, bigotry and violence. The threat of violence envelopes these nations, in the same way poison gas envelopes it’s victims, choking the life from once robust democracies.

While western nations are threatened by violence, Israel lives with that violence every day.

The State of Israel was not born because there were no ‘taxation without representation’ issues. The State of Israel was not formed out of a desire to break free from colonialist empires. Nor was the State of Israel born out of a desire to create a singular Utopia. Israel was created because the ancestral Jewish homeland would be a refuge for Jews and more than anything else, the notion that the Jews might find a refuge is what has fueled Arab world rage. See this.

The idea of a refuge implies that Jews would not be subject to Arab Muslims. In the same way that Indian society has a caste system deeply embedded in it’s culture, with it’s own caste of ‘untouchables,’ so too do Arab societies have a caste system that makes second class citizens, i.e., non Muslims tolerated, but never accepted. That ‘tolerance’ allowed for a culture and society to see itself as superior. The notion of equality between Muslims and non Muslims, to this day, remains incomprehensible in the Arab world.

This is no small matter. Irrespective of a non Muslim’s achievement, status, education, political or even social standing, every Muslim was superior to the non Muslim. Every Muslim could abuse any non Muslim as he saw fit, and for the most part escaped serious consequence. Leaders of failed Muslim nations and failed, backward societies needed to have their populations feel superior to something or some group, anywhere. It was always in their best interests to cultivate the weeds they would refer to as a garden.

That tiny nation was born because of technology. The mass of killing Jews, every bigoted tyrant’s dream, became a reality. Discriminating against Jews became or killing Jews became the perfect weapon of tyrants, bigots and those dysfunctional leaders that would suppress a nation. Why? Because antisemitism is the vitamin of choice for despots, guaranteed to provide longevity for failed regimes tyrannies. Tyrants always make lots of populist promises. They will ‘deliver’ their nation from the clutches of evil, they say. They will restore the once great status of a people long in decline. They will restore greatness. They will fight the ‘oppressor,’ those responsible for victimizing the people. Entire populations and societies, long failed and long oppressed, want to believe the leader. They want to be anointed with greatness. They believe it is their due.

The promises made by those tyrants around the world and throughout history have proved to be intoxicating. Whole populations want to blame someone else for their problems. The Jews have been the perfect victim, small in number and visible examples of hard work, study and fidelity to faith, family and community. Israel’s Arab neighbors were no different. The persecution of Jews in their own nations, where the community of Jews has often predated Islam is long and time honored tradition.

What the Arab world could not abide was a level playing field. Persecuting the small minority of Jews in their own countries and declaring themselves as heroes, was something a in which persecuted and oppressed Arabs might find comfort, by way of venting pent up rage.

Fighting Jews on a level playing field, was something else entirely. In a culture where shame is the dominant and underlying motivator, humiliation at the hands of Jews became intolerable. In every single field of endeavor, from the classrooms to the battlefields, the Jews have outperformed their Arab cousins in a way that is clear and decisive. As we have often noted, the only Arab world class achievement has been in the arena of Jew hatred.

The creation of the State Of Israel could not be explained away, denied or hidden. As far the Arab world was concerned, the establishment of the Jewish state, in their neighborhood and on their watch, was indeed a catastrophic event. In fact, it was cataclysmic, because Israel was undeniable evidence that the rise and domination of the Islamic world, led by the Arabs was indeed over. Notwithstanding Arab failures for over a thousand years, the establishment of Israel was a truth that not even the Arab world could deny. That catastrophe worsened as Israel ascended into the first world and they fell even further behind. In the same way that Da Vinci and Galileo were to stun the church with scientific truths, Israel stunned the Arab world with the successes that could only serve to highlight a millennium of Arab failure and darkness. The divine law, given by God Himself, that gave Muslims dominion over all mankind was upended- and by Jews, no less. The magnitude of the event cannot be understated.

In a shame culture, the success of the other only deepens the sense of failure and humiliation. In most cultures, in order to overcome a sense of shame, huge efforts are expended to correct and then exceed and excel.

In the Arab world, pride can be regained not by excelling or achieving, but rather, by destroying. If the source of humiliation is no longer visible, then the humiliation no longer exists. No matter the cost to the society, culture, individual or community, destruction is preferable to achievement. Why? Because in order to achieve, you have to fail before you find the formula for success. That is the price of achievement- decades, and sometimes a lifetime of hard work. That is a formula that remains a mystery to most Arabs in the Middle East. They believe they are entitled to the successes that elude them.

Christians, Buddhists, Hindus and others had asserted their own dominion and authority and that had long been a source of resentment for Muslim populations. With the creation of the State of Israel, a nation destined from it’s very inception to succeed, was the final outrage. While there were billions of Christians, Buddhists and Hindus, there were only a few smoldering Jews. That the Arab world could nor defeat a broken people on a level playing field was more than they could bear.

What was contempt for Jews- and all non Muslims- became an irrational and narcissistic fury on the part of Arab individual, religious and nationalistic/political identity.

The floodgates of self destructive behaviors, ideologies and religious expressions were opened. The genies were let out of their bottles, never again to be recorked under current Arab cultural norms. There are some things that cannot be fixed.

Arafat, Saddam, Osama, Al Qaeda, Hamas, Hizbollah, et al, are examples of leaders, regimes and organizations that have exploited the cultural failures of the Arab world. As a result, we have seen an explosion of terror, 9/11, violence against civilians, racism, and hate become a part of Arab world reality.

With the help of dysfunctional and shrewd tyrants, Arab world shame has been converted and directed into hate. Rather than be ashamed of economic, educational, social and cultural failures, the Arab world has instead chosen to be be humiliated by an enemy they cannot vanquish in any field of endeavor. They have chosen victim status, and in doing so, they have chosen the rage that blinds them to their failure and the road of salvation they must travel if they are to ever emerge as a viable culture and society . See Shrinkwrapped’s Pity The Poor Anti Semite.

The creation of the State of Israel was also a post war balm to a world still in shock. Israel was to represent hopes and dreams, not just of a burned people, but of a world that had just extinguished the conflagration that had consumed 50 million souls. Israel was to be proof that victims of hate might embody hopes and dreams of world that had just gone mad.

Their neighbors are still harboring dreams of darkness and hate that darkened the world.

We writing of the recent tragic events at the Virginia Tech campus that

A quick survey of all the Arab world news outlets (up to the time of this writing) that have reported on the Virginia Tech massacre, have one curious omission in common. Despite the world wide coverage of the Holocaust survivor’s heroism in saving the lives of many students, not a single Arab world news source has reported on that reality.

In their world, heroes kill. In ours, heroes save lives. In their world, heroes are mass murderers (“we’ll finish what Hitler started”) . In our world, heroes come to liberate and give life.

What shame there must be in the Arab world when it is necessary to deliberately avoid the reality of a Jewish hero who saves lives- because that heroism and expression of universal humanity can only shame them by way of comparison. Contrast professor Professor Liviu Librescu with the ‘heroes’ who strap suicide vests on mentally disabled teenagers or the ‘heroes’ who kept 14 girls locked in a school engulfed in flames and allowed them to burn to death.

The contrast in how heroes are defined cannot be more clear or crisp. That contrast also helps to defines the the chasm of differences between cultures.

Our heroes liberate, theirs enslave. We celebrate Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln. They celebrate Assad, Saddam and turn a blind eye to butchers in Sudan and the slave traders in Mauritania.

Dr Sanity, in This Says It All, quotes VDH on the relationship between the Palestinians, Saddam and the west.

Nothing was more evident of the moral impoverishment of the Palestinians than their collective lamentation over the fate of this mass killer of the Kurds and Arabs. We gave the Palestinian Authority hundreds of millions of dollars for housing, schools, and security and they hate us; Saddam gave them a few thousand dollars as bounty for suicide murderers and they loved him.

As Israel celebrates her Independence Day, it bears remembering that nation marks not only an anniversary of time, but one of commitment to the ideals of freedom, democracy and the commitment to the elevation of man, even in the darkest corners of the world.

Understanding Women

In our never ending quest to defy nature and Darwin and make you smarter, slimmer and give you the hope that there is life after being with the spouse from hell, SC&A present the following insightful correspondence.

The following was written by a consumer of ‘women’s products.’

Dear Mr. Thatcher,

I have been a loyal user of your Always maxi pads for over 20 years and I appreciate many of their features. Why, without the LeakGuard Core(tm) or Dri-Weave(tm) absorbency, I’d probably never go horseback riding or salsa dancing, and I’d certainly steer clear of running up and down the beach in tight, white shorts. But my favorite feature has to be your revolutionary Flexi-Wings. Kudos on being the only company smart enough to realize how crucial it is that maxi pads be aerodynamic. I can’t tell you how safe and secure I feel each month knowing there’s a little F-16 in my pants.

Have you ever had a menstrual period, Mr. Thatcher? Ever suffered from “the curse”? I’m guessing you haven’t. Well, my “time of the month” is starting right now. As I type, I can already feel hormonal forces violently surging through my body. Just a few minutes from now, my body will adjust and I’ll be transformed into what my husband likes to call “an inbred hillbilly with knife skills.” Isn’t the human body amazing?

As brand manager in the feminine-hygiene division, you’ve no doubt seen quite a bit of research on what exactly happens during your customers’ monthly visits from Aunt Flo. Therefore, you must know about the bloating, puffiness, and cramping we endure, and about our intense mood swings, crying jags, and out-of-control behavior. You surely realize it’s a tough time for most women. In fact, only last week, my friend Jennifer fought the violent urge to shove her boyfriend’s boys into a George Foreman Grill just because he told her he thought Grey’s Anatomy was written by drunken chimps. Crazy! The point is, sir, all you people must realize that America is just crawling with homicidal maniacs in Capri pants. Which brings me to the reason for my letter.

Last month, while in the throes of cramping so painful I wanted to reach inside my body and yank out my uterus, I opened an Always maxi-pad, and there, printed on the adhesive backing, were these words: “Have a Happy Period.”

Are you freaking kidding me?

What I mean is, does any part of your tiny middle-manager brain really think happiness-actual smiling, laughing happiness-is possible during a menstrual period? Did anything mentioned above sound the least bit pleasurable? Well, did it, James? FYI, unless you’re some kind of sick S&M freak girl, there will never be anything “happy” about a day in which you have to jack yourself up on Motrin and Kahlua and lock yourself in your house just so you don’t march down to the local Walgreen’s armed with a hunting rifle and a sketchy plan to end your life in a blaze of glory. For the love of God, pull your head out, man. If you just have to slap a moronic message on a maxi pad, wouldn’t it make more sense to say something that’s actually pertinent, like “Put Down the Hammer” or “Vehicular Manslaughter Is Wrong”? Or are you just picking on us?

Sir, please inform your accounting department that, effective immediately, there will be an $8 drop in monthly profits, for I have chosen to take my maxi-pad business elsewhere. And though I will certainly miss your Flex-Wings, I will not for one minute miss your brand of condescending “BS”. And that’s a promise I will keep. Always.

Best,

Wendi Aarons
Austin, TX

Political Appointments

New York, (MHNN)- Hillary Clinton’s revelation yesterday that she would appoint her husband, former president Bill Clinton as ‘Ambassador to the World,’ charged with ‘repairing America’s image abroad,’ caused a political firestorm within both political parties. There were the expected expressions of support and outrage, as well a substantial bipartisan reticence to make any comment at all.

Slipping below the radar were presidential candidate Clinton’s other remarks.

The Senator from New York also announced that she intended to appoint the Reverend Al Sharpton as Ambassador to Israel, citing his decades of experience in dealing with the Jewish community.

When contacted, Senator Clinton’s office also informed MHNN (Mental Health News Network) that other future Clinton appointments will include former intern Monica Lewinsky, who will be tapped as acting liaison for the dry cleaning and kneepad industries. Marc Rich will offered the top job at the IRS. He will also head up a task force investigating investor compliance division as well as another committee that will examine Wall Street investor ethics.

Other political postings will include Charlie Trie, Johnny Chung, John Huang and Eric Wynn, who is under consideration for the top post at the Securities and Exchange Commission. Senator Clinton’s spokesperson also noted that Bernard Nussbaum was being considered for Chief White House Counsel or Attorney General.

Other renowned figures being considered for top jobs include Al Gore, who would work closely with a Clinton administration as a top DNC fund raising official as well as a her administration’s unofficial liaison to the Buddhist community.

Pat Santy, former NASA psychiatrist and organic waste specialist is being considered for the Surgeon General position.

Santy has made clear that if selected, her first 100 days would include mental health screenings for all Members of Congress and Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (California) Justices.

In a what is being hailed as a refreshing change from ‘business as usual,’ Clinton campaign officials are hoping that Santy’s program of ‘real education, real schools and real teachers,‘ will draw large numbers of undecided and even registered Republican voters will cross party lines and offer support.

Teacher union officials are outraged. Speaking off the record, they say they are being betrayed. For years, teacher unions and their millions of unqualified members have thrown their support behind Democrat candidates, based an an unwritten agreement that the Democrat party would never back calls for teacher competency and literacy. Santy has made clear that teacher competency affects the national health of the nation, and as such, she has promised to go to court if the Department of Education attempts to impede her efforts.

Santy has also said that electricity is ‘nothing to fear.’ She believes that ECT technology in the classroom is more effective and useful than teacher aides. In addition, Dr Sanity is a strong proponent of a concealed weapons permit as a most effective forms of preventative health care. Such permits she believes, have the potential to cut heath care costs dramatically. She cited the recent events at Virginia Tech as an example. In her usual caring, sensitive and compassionate manner, and taking into account various political sensitives, she remarked that

Had someone pulled a licensed piece and shot that motherfucker dead, or even in the balls, health care costs would have been reduced because their would have been far fewer victims and the nation would not have been subjected to the incessant drone of ‘Go Hokies!’

The appointment to the Office of the Surgeon General would accord Santy, a former Air Force Flight Surgeon, a US Navy appointment to the rank of Rear Admiral. Sources close to Santy say while she is considering the appointment, she is reluctant to accept the post. Those sources say that Santy believes the Air Force baby blue uniforms are more flattering.

For more on why Dr Sanity is being courted by candidates on both sides of the political landscape, read Carnival Of The Insanities, her weekly must read compendium of insight, analysis and horse sense, comprehensible to even the most out of touch and failed politicians that Americans call their representatives.

The Transformation Begins

The transformation from perpetrator to victim has begun.

SEOUL, South Korea – Cho Seung-Hui was a worry to his family because he did not speak much as a child, and after the family emigrated to the United States doctors thought he might be autistic, relatives in South Korea said Thursday.

Family members said there were even concerns the boy might be mute.

The South Korean student killed 32 people and himself at Virginia Tech on Monday, the deadliest school shooting in modern U.S. history.

Former classmates said as a schoolboy in the United States, Cho’s speech problems and shyness made him a target for bullying and ridicule.

“From the beginning, he wouldn’t answer me,” Kim Yang-soon, Cho’s great aunt, said in an interview with AP Television News on Thursday. “(He) didn’t talk. Normally sons and mothers talk. There was none of that for them. He was very cold,” she added

“When they went to the United States, they told them it was autism,” said Kim, 85, adding that the family had constant worries about Cho…

“Among the 32 killed were bright students who could have contributed greatly to society, and it’s a big loss for all of us,” the cardinal said. “As a South Korean, I can’t help feeling apologetic about how a Korean man caused such a shocking incident.”

There is no root cause that excuses violence. By focusing on everything but the acts of violence and the personal responsibility of the perpetrator of that violence, we encourage and justify future acts of violence.