Don Singleton

Friday, March 07, 2008

U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions Are Down

Reason Magazine reported A new report by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says that American greenhouse gas emissions have fallen.... One futher note: At the Heartland Institute's International Conference on Climate Change earlier this week, economist Richard Rahn from the Institute for Global Economic Growth asserted that higher fuel prices are already encouraging dramatic innovations in energy production and storage.

It must be all of that Global Cooling news. Now if we can just prevent Congress from destroying the economy with Global Waring hysteria.

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Neither Candidate Ready for 3 a.m. Call

The Caucus reported As Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton prepares for an afternoon news conference here in Washington, where she is to be surrounded by “military officers,” her campaign has put up a YouTube moment that you can bet will be replayed over and over.

In it, Susan Rice, a foreign policy adviser to Senator Barack Obama, discusses the foreign policy credentials of both Democrats against the tableau of Mrs. Clinton’s 3 a.m. phone call advertisement about who would be best prepared for an international crisis. (While your children are safely asleep.)

“Clinton hasn’t had to answer the phone at three o’clock in the morning

Except to wonder where Bill was

and yet she attacked Barack Obama for not being ready,'’ Ms. Rice said. “They’re both not ready to have that 3 a.m. phone call.”

Hat tip Sister Toldjah

Tal'at Rmeih vs Wafa Sultan

MEMRI reported (video here) The following are excerpts from a debate between Arab-American psychiatrist Wafa Sultan and Egytian Islamist Tal'at Rmeih, which aired on Al-Jazeera on March 4, 2008.
[…]
Wafa Sultan: The Danish cartoons have managed to break down the first brick in the wall of that prison, and to open up a window, through which the sunrays enter, after a lengthy darkness. The Danish newspaper exercised its freedom of speech. Liberties are the holiest thing in the West, and nothing is more important. But if Islam were not the way it is, those cartoons would never have appeared.
[…]
Tal'at Rmeih: "God help me. First, Islam is too great to be harmed by the publisher of the cartoon,

Then why did all of the Muslims riot and wy were the artists's lives threatened?

or by that woman who is talking over there.

Then why did Al Jazeera apologize.

The truth is that everything she said is 100% false, I'm sad to say. It seems to me that the American and Zionist intelligence agencies have begun to produce people who are hostile to their own nation."
[…]
Moderator: "Don’t you think that you are treating the viewers like fools? You present some trivial reactions as barbaric. Have you forgotten that the country in which you live destroyed Iraq in its entirety, killing 1.5 million Iraqis and driving five million out of their homes?

Taqqiyah alert: Both numbers are very exaggerated, and many in Iraq now blame Islamic Clerics, and now reject Islam

Didn't you see the dozens of children annihilated in Gaza, in a holocaust, as Israel itself admits?

That was a translation error by Reuters.

When a man blows himself up, he becomes a terrorist, but when you annihilate an entire people, whole countries, it is considered a humanitarian act?! Who are you kidding?"
[…]
Wafa Sultan: "Why are they upset about what is going on in Gaza, while the Koran says to them: 'They shall kill and be killed.' So here they are – killing and being killed. What's wrong with that?"

A very good point

Tal'at Rmeih: "Leave the Koran out of it. If you want to talk politics, go ahead."

Moderator: "I beg you to stick to politics. He talked only about politics."

Wafa Sultan: "Dr. Faysal, you know that you cannot separate Islam from politics. Islam is not a religion, but politics.

Precisely.

You must let me express my views the way I want. When you called me, you didn't say I was not allowed to discuss Islam or the Koran. Islam says to them that they will 'kill or be killed', and here they are—killing and being killed. So what's wrong with that? They want to be martyred and to meet their black-eyed virgins, and Israel is merely helping them get what they want. What's wrong with that? If you want to change the course of events, you must reexamine your terrorist teachings, you must recognize and respect the right of the other to live, you must teach your children love, peace, coexistence, and productive work. When you do that, the world will respect you, will consider you in a better light, and will draw you in a better light."

And parents need to love their children, more tha they hate someone else.

Moderator: "Can you denounce the Zionist massacres in Gaza? That's a simple question. Do you have the courage to do so?"

Wafa Sultan: "I can denounce the Palestinians and the Israelis alike. Hamas chose this path, and you have to pay the price for your choices. When you decide you want peace – I am sure that Israel wants peace, but as long as you keep reciting those teachings, which are full of hatred, rancor, and terrorism, you will be unable to make peace with others. You must recognize and respect Israel's right to live. You must teach your children love, peace, and coexistence. Only then will there be peace."

Tal'at Rmeih: "Allah be praised, we have an identity and a culture."

And your culture is one that prefers death.

Wafa Sultan: "How can someone who believes in killing people who do not pray possibly criticize liberties in the West? This is a farce. What past is he defending? Is he defending the invasions and lootings?"

Tal'at Rmeih: "I am defending the past of the Islamic nation, which was the beacon of knowledge for the entire world…"

Wafa Sultan: "…polygamy, beheadings, chopping of heads and feet on alternate sides, accusing people of heresy, and drinking camel urine, as a cure for all ailments – is this the past he is defending?"

Tal'at Rmeih: "No, I am defending a magnificent past of a magnificent nation, which was the cradle of knowledge and civilization, at a time when the most that people in the West could do was to catch a rabbit and scurry back to their caves.

And the west progressed to where it is now the cradle of knowledge and civilization, while the Muslims just live in their caves, and can't even catch a rabbit.

This nation has made the greatest contribution to civilization and humanity. Our religion is not complete without recognition of other religions. We are the ones who have called for tolerance and respect for religions."

Only we see that in Islamic countries only Islam is really respected, and other faiths are suppressed as they are "tolerated". Would Muslims be willing to be considered as second-class citizens in the West, and would they be willing to pay the Jizya

Al Jazeera reported Al Jazeera has apologised for "offensive" remarks made by a guest during a live debate about the reprinting of cartoons in Denmark said to insult Prophet Muhammad. In a statement on Wednesday, Al Jazeera expressed its "deepest apologies" for comments made by Wafa Sultan, a Syrian-born US-based academic, which "offended Islam".

Did Al Jazeera also apologize for statements made by its own moderator as well as Tal'at Rmeih that were offensive to Jews and Christians?

Neptunus Lex blogged The final paragraphs seem to demonstrate that one of the debaters is looking towards the future while the other is living in the past. Al Jazeera - which had the temerity to carry the interview live - is forced to apologize for having done so. Thus, progress.

End gridlock

David Brooks wrote inNew York Times Barack Obama had a theory. It was that the voters are tired of the partisan paralysis of the past 20 years. The theory was that if Obama could inspire a grass-roots movement with a new kind of leadership, he could ride it to the White House and end gridlock in Washington. Obama has built his entire campaign on this theory. He’s run against negativity and cheap-shot campaigning. He’s claimed that there’s an “awakening” in this country — people “hungry for a different kind of politics.”

It was a very good theory. But it needs to be ridden by someone in the center. Someone like John McCain. If a centrist Democrat had jumped on that horse he could have ridden it too. He would have caught flack from his left wing, just as John McCain has caught flack from conservatives on his right wing. But Obama is the most liberal senator in the Democratic party. You don't end gridlock by trying to make either the extreme left wing OR the extreme right wing dominant.

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Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Fitna Movie

Adnkronos reported The European Commission has warned all its offices around the world that the release of an upcoming Dutch film criticising the Koran could spark violent protest by Muslims.... In an interview earlier this month with Italian daily La Stampa, Wilders called the Koran a 'fascist' book and said European culture was "clearly superior" to "stunted Islamic culture."

He is rightm but will European countries have the strength to defend their own culture, which includes freedom of seech, against the threat of violence

Wilders said it was certainly possible he might be killed like Dutch film director Van Theo van Gogh, murdered by a Dutch-Moroccan jihadist in 2004, after he made a short film slamming Muslim women's treatment under Islam.

Reuters reported An anti-Koran film made by a Dutch politician is tantamount to propagating the politics of hate and xenophobia and cannot be justified, Pakistan said on Wednesday.

Most movie critics wait to see a movie before reviewing it. The propagation of hate is being done by Muslims who issue threats without ever seeing the film. Do they realize their culture is so depraved that any presentation of it would be offensive to them.

Anti-immigration member of the Dutch parliament Geert Wilders has given few details about the content of his film "Fitna", in which he intends to present his views about the Koran, the Muslim holy book which in the past he has called to be banned.

FOXNews On Monday, Afghan Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta told reporters during a visit to Denmark that he respected differences in cultures, but suggested Danish newspapers abused freedom of expression when they reprinted the cartoons three weeks ago.

What is freedom of expression if you can't express your feelings. And if reprinting one artoon is bad, then what about the Saudi, Pakistani, Afgan, etc press that frequently run cartoons and arrticles offensive to Jews and Christians.

Spanta said freedom of speech should be used to promote "equality and peace between nations" and to exchange information.

Or to say things that need to be said.

"Freedom of speech must not be used to make a billion Muslims cry," he said.

Those poor babies. Will they cry hen a carton is publised, or a movie is shown, even if they never see the cartoon or the movie?

Young Iraqis Doubting Clerics

New York Times reported After almost five years of war, many young people in Iraq, exhausted by constant firsthand exposure to the violence of religious extremism, say they have grown disillusioned with religious leaders and skeptical of the faith that they preach.... “I hate Islam and all the clerics because they limit our freedom every day and their instruction became heavy over us,” said Sara, a high school student in Basra. “Most of the girls in my high school hate that Islamic people control the authority because they don’t deserve to be rulers.” Atheer, a 19-year-old from a poor, heavily Shiite neighborhood in southern Baghdad, said: “The religion men are liars. Young people don’t believe them. Guys my age are not interested in religion anymore.”

I hope the Islamists don't kill them for apostacy

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Female Bloggers

Following a meeting at CPAC with Liz Mair, a blogger who is now the Republican National Committee’s eCampaign Communications Director, John Hawkins interviews five successful female bloggers (Ericka Andersen, Pamela Geller from Atlas Shrugs, Rachel Lucas, Michelle Malkin., and Amanda Carpenter) on the issue of gender in the blogosphere. Check it out. Now that Ed Morrissey is no longer at Captain's Quarters, I had one less site to visit on my daily rounds (I already was going to Hot Air), so now I have some new places to visit. Byt how did he miss Greta Perry (also here)?

Tea-pot worshipping

Ananova reported A woman has been jailed in Malaysia for joining a "tea-pot worshipping" cult. Kamariah Ali, a 57 year old former teacher, was arrested in 2005 when the government of the Muslim majority country demolished the two storey high sacred tea pot of the Sky Kingdom cult. For the sect, which emphasised ecumenical dialogue between religions, the tea pot symbolized the purity of water and "love pouring from heaven".

That makes almost a much sense as a religion that would have a God who sent his only son to die for the sins of mankind, so that they might have eternal life, would then send an angel to tell a drunken child molester that he should create a religion that called for the subjection of those that accepted his Son and those that had a Compact with God, and that the members of this new "religion" could never leave it, but that the only way to be sure to get into Paradise was to kill a lot of other people.

But in Malaysia, despite constitutional guarantees of freedom of worship, born Muslims such as Mrs Ali are forbidden from converting to other religions.

Not even tea-pot worshiping?

Global Warming

Jay Tea said on Wizbang The more I hear about global warming, the more I think it's to climatology as astrology is to astronomy. It has more traits of a religion than a science.... It requires "true belief," and "heresy!" is a fair description of the reactions of the true believers.

A little while ago, I asked two very simple questions that, I believe, cut to the core of the global warming argument. I never got an adequate answer, so I'm going to repeat them:

1) It seems that every single meteorological or climatological event is cited as evidence of global warming -- warmer winters, colder winters, strong hurricane seasons, mild hurricane seasons, droughts, massive rains, and absolutely nothing at all. What sort of event would the global warming advocates recognize as contradicting the theory of global warming?

They will not accept any evidence contradicting the theory of global warming. It is like someone wanting to leave Islam. It is not permitted.

2) If the earth is, indeed, getting warmer and that is a crisis, what would be the "normal" temperature of the earth? What is this magic "stable point" where everything will be just fine and dandy?

Until I hear some answers to those questions, I'll stand by Glenn Reynolds: "I'll believe it's a crisis when those who say it's a crisis start acting like it's a crisis."

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The "Campaign to Defend America" is a 501c4 issue-advocacy group (which does not have to reveal where it gets its money, unlike 527 groups), and they are running this ad against McCain, costing more than $1,000,000

It is flatly wrong. McCain is nowhere near like Bush. Bush made some mistakes, particularly the last couple of years, but I wish McCain was more like Bush.

Favoritism

Lee Cowan, the NBC reporter assigned to the campaign was quoted on New York Times as saying “Even in the conversations we have as colleagues, there is a sense of trying especially hard not to drink the Kool-Aid,” Mr. Cowan added. “It’s so rapturous, everything around him. All these huge rallies.”

If you realize you are drinking the KoolAid, but can't resist because it is so rapturous, maybe you need to ask your assignment editor for a different assignment, maybe something covering the local dog show.

Betsy Newmark blogged Gee, when you have to talk about not drinking the Kool-Aid and use the word rapturous, you've identified a problem.

Jake Tapper blogged Um ... If you need to try hard not to drink the Obama Kool-Aid, you are in the wrong business.

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Clinton hints at shared ticket

Yahoo! News reported Hillary Rodham Clinton, fresh off a campaign-saving comeback, hinted Wednesday at the possibility of sharing the Democratic presidential ticket with Barack Obama — with her at the top.

Obama says it is 'premature to talk about a joint ticket, but he would have to be a fool to take that. He would be in third place in the administration, behind Bill, and in a job that really is not worth a bucket of warm spit.

Obama played down his losses, stressing that he still holds the lead in number of delegates.

Things look good for November

Things look good for November. Since Limbaugh got Republicans to bring Hillary back from near death he should be able to get them to rally around McCain in November.

Meanwhile have you heard the recording of the Obama and Clinton lawyers arguing in front of the press. It was Hillarious.

The Hildabeast survives

New York Times reported Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton defeated Senator Barack Obama in the Ohio and Texas primaries on Tuesday, ending a string of defeats and allowing her to soldier on in a Democratic presidential nomination race that now seems unlikely to end any time soon. Mrs. Clinton also won Rhode Island, while Mr. Obama won in Vermont.

Is Vermont still a part of the US? I heard they were going to secede and join Canada. But maybe they heard about the long waits for their free health care, and decided to stay here.

But the results mean that Mrs. Clinton won the two states she most needed to keep her candidacy alive. Her victory in Texas was razor thin and came early Wednesday morning after most Americans had gone to bed. But by winning decisively in Ohio earlier in the night, Mrs. Clinton was able to deliver a televised victory speech in time for the late-night news. And the result there allowed her to cast Tuesday as the beginning of a comeback even though she stood a good chance of gaining no ground against Mr. Obama in the hunt for delegates.

She is not worried about elected delegates. She wants to be in a position to make a case to the Super Delegates that they should back her over Obama, regardless of whether he has more elected delegates than she does, and she does not care what the people that voted for Obama think. She is foolish enough to think she can smash the Obamamessiah and that they will accept her as his replacement, and adore her like they do him.

Jonathan Alter from Newsweek complains about Hillary’s Math Problem - Forget tonight. She could win 16 straight and still lose.

It all depends on the Super Delegates.

CNN worries Did Limbaugh influence Democratic race? ... Early exit polling shows 10 percent of the voters in Ohio's Democratic Primary identified themselves as Republican, along with 22 percent who said they were independents. It was the same story in Texas: 10 percent of the voters in the Democratic primary identified themselves as Republican, along with 25 percent who said they were independents.

CNN has good reason to worry, because this means Limbaugh may be able to get Conservatives to back McCain in the General Election.

David Weigel of trumpets Paul Triumphs, Clinton Endures, Mike Huckabee Splatters Against the Wall.

A catchy title, but most of the piece is just about Paul retaining his seat in Congress. So what?

Ed Morrissey blogged A funny thing happened on the way to Obama’s coronation, however — suddenly people started treating him as a candidate rather than a secular messiah, and Obama displayed a surprising glass jaw.

Now he faces an unexpected stumble, losing three of four primaries after a string of victories that should have convinced people the primaries were over. He has to fight a two-front war while both Hillary and John McCain work in parallel to derail him:
Even before the polls opened, campaign officials were dreading an outcome that would keep Clinton (D-N.Y.) in the race at least through the Pennsylvania primary on April 22. Those seven weeks will cost Obama at least $10 million, and possibly much more, campaign aides say, as he battles a rejuvenated Clinton who will have every incentive to try to force him into a major mistake.
... So what’s changed? Hillary Clinton decided to go negative over the past two weeks. Everyone expected her to do it, but no one knew it would be as effective as it has been. Many analysts wrote it off as a desperation tactic, and that had some truth to it; if she had been winning some of the states in February, she likely wouldn’t have risked it. However, Obama has some glaring deficiencies, and Hillary’s team has managed to highlight them without alienating voters, who generally like Obama.

Even then, it wouldn’t have mattered if Obama had handled the negative campaigning with any kind of aplomb. Instead, his campaign made a serious unforced error over NAFTA and essentially got caught in a series of lies over their outreach to Canadian diplomats. That undermined Obama’s political integrity, his greatest asset. He also got caught up in the expected media feast of the Tony Rezko trial, an opporunity for the press to look a little more like journalists than hagiographers.

And how did Obama react? He blew up during a Texas press conference heavily attended by Chicago journalists. He stormed off after only eight questions regarding the contacts between his campaign and Canadian diplomats over NAFTA and the Rezko trial. The national press had already been grumbling about his insularity, and Obama gave them an excuse to write reams of material about it, Rezko, and the NAFTA dance.

In short, Obama has exposed himself as a seriously inexperienced and flawed candidate. He hasn’t really been tested until now, and the glass jaw he showed in the first few days of the real bout must have the party establishment worried about a lengthy battle against either Hillary or McCain. Against both, he may soon flounder — and that slim lead in pledged delegates will not present much of an obstacle to bypassing him in Denver.

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Korans in Toilet

MyFox New York reported A former Pace University student who twice threw copies of the Koran into a toilet

The only problem I see with throwing a Koran in the toilet is that it would very likely plug up the pipes, and do you have any idea what plumbers charge?

at the school after disputes with Muslims pleaded guilty Monday to disorderly conduct in connection with the incidents.

At least he is no longer charged with a hate crime, which is a felony punishable by up to four years in prison. But what would he have faced if he threw a Bible in the toilet? Robert Spencer suggests Probably he would have gotten some kind of award from the Pace Art Department.

Stanislav Shmulevich, 24, pleaded guilty as part of a deal in which he must do 300 hours of community service. He has completed about 80 hours of the service at a hospital, his lawyer said.

In Israel he might have gotten a two-year sentence like Tatiana did for this:

Shmulevich, of Brooklyn, admitted he tossed the Muslim holy books into toilets at Pace on Oct. 13, 2006, and Nov. 21, 2006. A criminal complaint says the Koran that was recovered in the October incident "was covered in feces."

In both cases, a teacher found the books in a men's room on the second floor of the school's main building in lower Manhattan. Muslims consider the Koran a sacred writing that contains the direct word of God,

Christians feel the same way about the Bible, but we are civilized enough not to riot, set fires, or kill people when it happens,

and desecrating it is seen as an offense against God.

Then why not let God deal with it?

Ask Tough Questions? Yes, They Can!

Dana Milbank wrote inWashington Post It took many months and the mockery of "Saturday Night Live" to make it happen, but the lumbering beast that is the press corps finally roused itself from its slumber Monday and greeted Barack Obama with a menacing growl. The day before primaries in Ohio and Texas that could effectively seal the Democratic presidential nomination for him, a smiling Obama strode out to a news conference at a veterans facility here. But the grin was quickly replaced by the surprised look of a man bitten by his own dog.

It was not because Saturday Night Live made a mockery of them, or that they suddenly realized th questions needed to be asked, but because they feared Hillary would be pushed out, and then they would not have a campaign to cover. And the press loves a campaign. And just as it was a shock to Clinton that her coronation turned into a campaign, Obama is now seeing his coronation turned into a challenge as well, and he is equally unprepared for it.

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Will Clinton pull out?

A few weeks ago Bill Clinton said Hillary had to win both Texas and Ohio to stay in the race. As Obamamania has increased that has looked a lot less likely, and many were saying leading Dems would pressure her to withdraw. Jonathan Chait said

for Clinton to pull ahead, she will need to win 57% of the remaining pledged delegates... which would mean getting at least 213 delegates to Obama's 161 -- a 52 delegate advantage. If they net anything below 52 delegates, they fall even further behind.

and Ben Smith said

it is clear that narrow popular vote wins in Texas and Ohio will do very little to improve their nearly impossible path to the nomination. If they do not win Texas and Ohio by healthy double digit margins – and they led by healthy double digit margins as recently as two weeks ago - they will be facing almost impossible odds to reverse the delegate math.

While the Clintons gamely continue to try to move the goal posts, at some point there has to be a reckoning. It is a very simple question – what is their path to secure the nomination? No amount of spin can change the math. We look forward to their tortured answers on Wednesday morning.

The Clinton campaign has insisted that this is a race about delegates. And we agree. The tale of March 4th is not who wins what states but where the delegate battle stands after all the delegate yield for all four of these contests have been allocated.

She may well lose one or both, but in a new Washington Post-ABC News poll we see If Clinton Wins in Ohio or Texas, Most Democrats Want Her to Stay in the Race: Two-thirds of Democrats say a victory in either Ohio or Texas would be reason enough for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) to keep her historic bid for the party's presidential nomination alive

Actually I believe that even if she loses both (or actually all four) of the races today she will keep going. She is that desperate to get the nomination, and she realizes that Obama has not been seriously confronted o aything but his ability to blow smoke in people's faces and get them enthusiastic about concepts like Hope and Change, and that when they realize what he hopes to do, and how little he has thought through what changes he will make, he will fall faster than the meteoric rate that he rose, and regardless of how many delegates he has now, they will be unlikely to feel that way in August. Whether they will want to turn to Hillary in August is a good question, because the Democratic party has realized what Conservatives have known for years about the ruthlessness of the Clintons, but she will think they have no other place to go, so she will keep her campaign alive.

Monday, March 03, 2008

Florida Do-Over

Bloomberg reported Florida Governor Charlie Crist said he'd support a repeat of the Democratic presidential primary so the state's delegates can be counted at the party's national convention.

He probably does not want a repeat of the 2000 election which went to the Florida AND US Supreme court.

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said he's open to the possibility. Primary elections are paid for by a state's taxpayers, so the offer from Crist, a Republican, is "very helpful" because money is an issue, Dean said.

Since the Democratic Party caused the problem, with their rules, is the Democratic Party willing to pay the cost of the new election?

Sunday, March 02, 2008

Dutch fireworks safety ad

Dutch fireworks safety ad humorously features a spoof Islamist terrorist group have been criticized as insensitive and depicting a negative stereotype of the Muslim community

Maybe if there had not been 10656 terrorist attacks since 9/11 people would not keep thinking of these stereotypes.

.

Hat tip JihadPress

Worse than Holocaust

Jerusalem Post reported Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas labeled Israel's actions to counter the constant firing of rockets into the Gaza Strip "worse than the Holocaust."

Why, because it was against Arabs?

Abbas said that Israel's response to the continuous bombardment of western Negev towns by Palestinian terrorists was too severe,

All the Gazans have to to is stop firing the rockets, and the puishment strikes will stop.

saying that its operations which have left at least 80 Palestinians dead on Saturday were unacceptable retaliation to the firing of rockets.

What would be an acceptable retaliation? What if Gaza wanted to live in peac with its neighbor Israel, and Israel fired rockets into Gaza randomly on a daily basis?

The Fatah head was not the only Palestinian leader to be associating the military maneuvers with the Holocaust - exiled Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal described the operations as "the real Holocaust" on Saturday afternoon.

Same talking points.

"Israeli actions in Gaza since Wednesday is the real Holocaust," Mashaal told reporters in Damascus, where he lives in exile. He accused Israel of "exaggerating the Holocaust and using it to blackmail the world."

Let's see. 80 compared to 6 million. I can see where you might be confused. But remember the Jews were not firing rockets daily into Nazi cities hoping to kill anyone they could.

TigerHawk blogged The entire idea behind deterrance is that the retaliation for an attack might well be out of proportion to the attack itself. One would think that the reason for this is obvious, but it seems lost on the Palestinians and their sympathizers.

If law or morality or God were to require that retaliation for an attack be commensurate with the attack itself, then attackers would essentially dictate the force that could be used against them. The attacker could then calmly decide whether it was more able or willing to absorb losses than the defender and structure the attack accordingly, all with the comfort of knowing in advance that law, morality, or God would not allow the defender to inflict losses that the attacker was not able or willing to sustain.

In other words, if the attacker can control the extent of the retaliation against him, he will not be deterred from attacking in the first place. Effective deterrance requires that the attacker not be able to predict the losses he will suffer in retaliation. A prospective attacker will only be deterred if he know that there is at least the possibility of massive retaliation out of proportion with the original attack. This is why, for example, Dwight Eisenhower loudly declared that any nuclear attack on the United States, no matter how limited, would be met with massive, unconditional, and total retaliation. Anything less might not have deterred such an attack in the first place.

So, the next time you hear some fool bleating witlessly about the Israelis -- or anybody else -- responding to an attack "disproportionately," take the time to point out to them that the morality they propose would result in more war rather than less.

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