sic semper tyrannis

To get a sense of the truly mad world of Islamists and their thoughts, just consider this al jazeera segment as translated by MEMRI. It’s a “debate” between Arab-American Psychiatrist Wafa Sultan and a rather interesting specimen, an Egyptian Islamist named Tal’at Rmeih.

The first sense one gets is being seated at the Mad Hatter’s tea party. Nothing seems to make any sense. The American is attempting to be logical; the Islamist is being…well, insane would be an insult to those who suffer from a mental disease.

Here’s just a small sample:

Tal’at Rmeih: “There is a gang that controls [the West], and you are not allowed to criticize Israel or the Holocaust. Anyone who criticized the Holocaust was placed on trial. Noam Chomsky wrote one line about the Holocaust in a book, and the book was recalled from the market. Bernard Lewis – that great philosopher – said something about the Holocaust and was placed on trial.[…]

“What did the American president say to the U.S. forces sent to the Philippines? He gave them two orders: ‘Kill all people above the age of ten, and convert [the rest] to Christianity.’”

Guess the Islamist isn’t much for actual history.  The Philippines having been Christianized in the late 16th through late 17th centuries by Spain, with the result that the Philippines are today the only majority Christian (approximately 85%) nation in Asia .  But, one must assume that this was also an American-Zionist plot…

Even an insane maggot gets something right some of the time. Bernard Lewis is, indeed, a “great philosopher,” if by that we mean an expert in the Islamic world and its interactions with the West. Having read a few of Professor Lewis’ books, I’d say that the maggot has not. Don’t think an Islamist would much appreciate the professor’s clarity on Islam and its violence and failures.

The “debate,” taken as a whole, is disjointed at best. These two people are from different moral universes. One, the American, believing in freedom of conscience. The other, the Islamist, apparently believing that the only good infidel is a converted (to Islam) or dead infidel.

The single word that comes to mind is “mad.” As in “mad as a hatter.” This might be funny if it were not for the apparent fact that there are many, many millions of Arabs and other Muslims who believe this kind of insane chatter. And, worse than just believing it, they act on it. By, among other things, bombing yeshiva students in Jerusalem.

Well spoken, Susan. Susan Rice, foreign policy adviser to Obama, damns him with faint praise. From this video, the key sentences:

“Clinton hasn’t had to answer the phone at three o’clock in the morning and yet she attacked Barack Obama for not being ready. They’re both not ready to have that 3 a.m. phone call.”

I’ve a feeling we’ll be seeing this in the general election campaign ahead.

There remains a tendency on the part of some conservatives to pine for the days of that perfect member of the tribe. I refer, of course, to Saint Ronnie. A leading member of the conservative word industry, Brent Bozell, writes in today’s WaPo Outlook section the shocking news that John McCain…wait for it…wait for it…is not Ronald Reagan.

McCain’s sins, according to Bozell, are legion. McCain is not a doctrinaire conservative; he’s wobbly on abortion; he’s wobbly on taxes; he’s wobbly on immigration. On the positive side, here’s what Bozell would have a President McCain stand for:

The federal government is out of control. Conservatives don’t want to hear talk about “reining in the growth of government.” Those are empty words. McCain needs to call for the elimination of entire sectors of the federal leviathan. He should pledge to turn back to the states that which is their responsibility and which comes under their authority. We want to see how he will deregulate the private sector and how he will once again unleash the economic might of the United States. He should champion private retirement accounts and health savings accounts.

McCain should place the left on notice — now — that if elected, he will not tolerate congressional obstructionism of his nominations to the federal judiciary.

Our culture is decaying from within, and most Republicans have been shamefully AWOL on this issue. McCain could begin a national conversation about parents, not the state, taking responsibility for their children and their communities. He should call on the entertainment industry to stop polluting America’s youth with its videos and its music and on the Internet. We wait to hear him call for the United States to honor the sanctity of life, the sanctity of marriage and family, and to return God to the public square.

I think I’m a conservative; at least I agree in principle with every single item that Bozell writes. And let me say that I loved Ronald Reagan; voted for him twice; would love to have seen his clone running this year.

But that’s not the world as we find it. Among other things, conservatives must be realists. The most “real” thing that we are now faced with is world-wide Islamofascism. Armed to the teeth; attacking us every which way it can. Does Brent Bozell honestly believe that putting up the perfect conservative candidate, and thereby losing the 2008 election, will be good, or bad, for the United States of America?

That’s the only question that matters right now. Not ideological purity. John McCain will be the best able to take that phone call at 3am. Not Hillary. Not Obama.