evolution

Hello again, and welcome to this, the sixty-second edition of the RINO Sightings, a weekly blog carnival consisting of the collected thoughts of the Raging RINOs, a blogging coalition made up of conservatives, libertarians (and some liberals) who are sick of politics as usual and are advocating for something new.

RINO, of course, stands not for its usual meaning (Republicans In Name Only) but for Republicans and Independents Not Overdosed (on party Kool-aid).

Now that you know the scoop, you should know this: We’re pretty grouchy this week. This is the third time that the RINOs have stomped by evolution, and the last time it happened I titled my round-up “dark days“. The world hasn’t improved much in that month and a half.

Is there any hope for a unity among people who enjoy freedom? Not likely. But there might be a place to start — an international body consisting solely of democratic nations which and promoting democracy and individual liberty to rival the U.N., which meets none of those criteria. Judith Weiss of Kesher Talk was all over it; she has links, audio, and more in a three-part series that covers a New York symposium on the subject that was held on 11 September. It’s worth considering — but here’s your challenge: name ten nations outside the United States that both are democratic and champion individual liberty (and thus ruling out the wet-noodle European-style “social democracies”). I can’t.

Speaking of New York, here’s a happy thought: Set the over/under on “years until New York City is the target of a terrorist nuclear attack” at 10, and then take the “under”. That’s what Mark Coffey of Decision ‘08 says one Harvard analyst — and a lot of other reasonable people — are doing:

…[M]y best judgment is that based on current trends, a nuclear terrorist attack on the United States is more likely than not in the decade ahead. Developments in Iraq, Iran, and North Korea leave Americans more vulnerable to a nuclear 9/11 today than we were five years ago. Former Defense Secretary William Perry has said that he thinks that I underestimate the risk. In the judgment of most people in the national security community, including former Sen. Sam Nunn, the risk of a terrorist detonating a nuclear bomb on U.S. soil is higher today than was the risk of nuclear war at the most dangerous moments in the Cold War. Reviewing the evidence, Warren Buffett, the world’s most successful investor and a legendary oddsmaker in pricing insurance policies for unlikely but catastrophic events like earthquakes, has concluded: “It’s inevitable. I don’t see any way that it won’t happen.”

A friend of mine said recently that he thought Western civilization — at least that which is based on democracy, individualism, and freedom — has about ten years left. If this happens, he’ll be right.

Related to New York, 9/11, and terrorist plots is Islamic fundamentalism; that has been on panoramic, 360-degree display in the past week, owing to the Pope’s recent remarks. The foriegn minister of Pakistan, noted bastion of religious tolerance and freedom, says of the Pope: “Anyone who describes Islam as a religion as intolerant encourages violence.” Got it? The Pope made bands of Islamist militants murder a nun in Somalia. Dane Gunderson of DANEgerus rounds up the complete insanity that has ensued since.

How about a double-shot of the Pope? Allan at the Politechnical Institute asks,

The Pope’s statement about Islam could be easily discredited as he is not Muslim. However, by some of the ummah responding to the Pope’s allegations about violence in Islam with riots only proves the point. It would be far better for Islam if some Muslims would grow a thicker skin.

After all, since when does the Pope speak for Islam?

True enough, but when you understand the goals of the Islamists — eradication of non-adherents and the establishment of a pan-Islamic nation under oppressive sharia law — it makes a twisted sort of sense. Values considered to be “Christian” are violated as a matter of routine in Western media and art with very little notice. Yet nowhere in the West, where the various flavors of Christianity are prevalent, is there violence outside the occasional unique incident (something I wrote about a long time ago). The reason is that most countries where Christianity is prevalent are (or in the case of Western Europe, “were”) successful societies, and there is no need for violence in order to seek redress for one’s grievances. Indeed, most Westerners these days will twist themselves into impossible pretzel shapes to avoid “giving offense”, and in some places the “freedom from offense” (which I do not believe exists) has been codified. Societies where Islam is prevalent are almost all dysfunctional, where the only outlet allowed citizens is to blame the West (and in fact, that is encouraged as a matter of policy). When reasonable adherents of Islam step up and demand successful societies from their leaders, they will find that their (legitimate, non-violent) faith receives more respect and trust.

I don’t think that is going to happen anytime soon.

Dysfunctional Middle Eastern societies, you say? Jane Novak of Armies of Liberation has been a tireless chronicler of the dysfunctional society in Yemen, and she reports on the indictments of three Yemeni-Americans for illegally selling military technology and equipment to the (dictatorial) Yemeni government.

The dysfunction sharia brings wherever it goes may soon be coming to Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia. An old friend and longtime reader of the big e, Pigilito of Pigilito says…, fills us in on radicalism in the Aceh province of Indonesia, which is struggling to maintain cohesion as a result.

Now it’s time to talk about those other issues which seem to have led to irreconcilable differences in our society.

Right now, there is no bigger irreconcilable difference than the war in Iraq, which may be described as “going well” by only the most ardent Bush cheerleader. Another friend of evolution, TPD’s Commissar, spots a piece in the Washington Post by Bill Kristol and Rich Lowry that calls for more troops in the region. They say:

“The territory over which we fight is among the most strategically important in the world. Victory will place the most dangerous regime on the planet, Iran’s fascist theocracy, in serious peril. Defeat will leave that same regime inestimably strengthened.”

The Commissar responds:

I gotta holler “Bullshit!” This is mission creep of the first order. Think about the consequences of defining the mission in Iraq this way. Such a mission requires no other success in Iraq, beyond our troops being there, supplied and not driven out. As long as we can have some number of troops, sitting in tolerably secure bases, dodging IEDs, and moving around in armored columns, regardless of what else is happening (good or bad) in Iraq, then some could claim, “Aha, but we are holding the line against the mullahs in Iran.” Sorry. That’s a new game; that’s a different game. That is not what we signed up for.

No, it’s not. Be sure you read the comments to this one.

Let’s move now from the former caretaker of the Raging RINOs to the new one: Digger is talking about that precious freedom from offense. Nowhere is it taken to more ridiculous extremes than when it involves discussions, debates, and crude humor regarding ethnicity on college campuses. Just go read Digger’s post.

Another issue which has become a partisan nightmare is the fate of the city of New Orleans, flooded badly in a hurricane a year ago. Bloodspite of Techography went walking through the streets of New Orleans with his camera to see how the city was doing.

Not enough division in society for you? You can even segregate your dates based on politics. I’ve been told that dating me is painful, but Eric Scheie of Classical Values (my readership of his blog actually predates the Raging RINOs) has discovered that I’m not the only one.

We’ll end with a couple of folks who see a silver lining. Gary the Ex-Donk liked what he saw from the President’s 9/11 speech (I wasn’t impressed, but I may have been biased by all the things I’m disgusted with the man over), and new-to-me Raging RINO Miriam tells us the story of how she became an “Ex-Donk” herself.

Finally, a Raging RINO comes along to offer a distraction. No doubt those regular evolution readers among you have been following the saga of my grill (and how it is illegal for me to operate it on my own deck), and you know that I’m a passable cook with enough recipes to have a running cooking feature (with a forthcoming addition) on evolution called top of the food chain. Well, Rachel Sawyer of Tinkerty-tonk — whose sole comment to me on current events was “Richard Armitage is a shit” — relates her experiences with Julia Child’s magnum opus titled Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Being more indoctrinated to the cuisine of Kansas City (grilling and barbecue), I imagine I’ll have to check that out.

That’s all for now — the sixty-third edition is one week from today at Tinkerty-tonk, the home of one of my fellow TPD rabble-rousers. And turn those frowns upside-down.

UPDATE: As if he could detect all of the glum feelings, Larry Bernard comes back from his break to tell us all to buck up.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 18th, 2006 at 08:00 and is filed under Raging RINOs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.