We're the Military and Airpower Guys of Jonah Goldberg of National Review Online + a stray we found wandering around looking lost. All original material JHD, BHD, JR, WT, and KA 2003-2007 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/02/editorial_decisions.html Sun, 03 Aug 2008 17:10:41 Z Movable Type 4.12 en Copyright 2008 http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification The lesson from the Cold War is: If you give in to totalitarian impulses once, new demands follow. The West prevailed in the Cold War because we stood by our fundamental values and did not appease totalitarian tyrants. -Flemming Rose Re-read that: If you give in to totalitarian impulses once, new demands follow. The West prevailed in the Cold War because we stood by our fundamental values and did not appease totalitarian tyrants. It's also the lesson of 1939. Let's examine two looks at editorial responsibility, an issue of interest around here what with L'Affaire Schlussel, etc. Flemming Rose... http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/02/editorial_decisions.html http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/02/editorial_decisions.html Tue, 21 Feb 2006 07:42:17 -0600 Castle Argghhh!: Number one in Google for the Cathedral in Riyadh. Just one more entry in a mighty impressive list of firsts. Uhhhhh--okay, the list itself is impressive although the items are kinda *not*... But they *are* firsts. http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/02/editorial_decisions.html#comment-41184 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/02/editorial_decisions.html#comment-41184 Tue, 21 Feb 2006 20:37:56 -0600 The rules are not being applied evenly by the media and they know it. Neither did they apply the rules evenly in the seventies and eighties when we were nose to nose with the Soviet Union before it imploded. Which leads to all kinds of interesting conclusions...]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/02/editorial_decisions.html#comment-41130 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/02/editorial_decisions.html#comment-41130 Tue, 21 Feb 2006 10:40:54 -0600 Exactly. That is the lesson. Once an idea or icon is considered above question, without critique or even ridicule, it becomes a tool of oppression. I have seen depictions of the star of david, drawn by Muslims, with flames around it or blood on it or any number of depictions that are insulting and yet, we have yet to have rabbinical students burning down mosques. Nazi symbols are painted on synogogues, tombstones and musoleums, yet there are no massive marches demanding death to race haters. The difference between the cartoons that the Nazis drew about Jews and the current Mohammed cartoons is that the Nazi cartoons depicted Jews as monkies, inferior humans (just as they drew images of the slavs and various other "subhumans") and was directed at the people, not the ideas or the religion, and were accompanied by articles about the threat of mixed blood, purity of Aryans, the destruction of Europe at the hands of the sub humans and direct language insisting that people NOT try to understand or associate with Jews, but should shun them. Later came the more egregious context of rounding them up, deporting them or killing them. There has yet to be an article of the same nature in any legitimate media. The difference from then and now was also that, even before the "final solution" Jews were an extreme minority in Germany and other European nations as well as around the world. That cannot be said for Muslims. The difference is, Jews we being rounded up by the thousands and transported to concentration camps for no reason other than they were Jews. there they were made to be slave laborers, could not practice their religion, certainly no one was concerned about their dietary needs and they were often arbitrarily killed in mass exterminations. All without even a mock trial. No such thing for the Muslim populations in Europe declaring themselves "victims" of hate. Criminals and terrorists are picked up, taken to regular prison with all other criminals, given special treatement for their dietary and religious needs, afforded a trial and defense at the expense of the states if they cannot afford it and I know of none that have been sentenced to death for planning the murder of hundres if not thousands, much less been subject to mass murder. This exercise was strictly an exercise to suppress discussion of the violent, extremist tendencies of a chunk of the Muslim population, which, by their own institutions give its adherents about 80% "conservative" which provides support, moral, material and monetary, to the "extremists" who not only plan murder but are the same who protest with signs that proclaim "death" for the unbelievers. I never saw a Jew or Christian (whom I would consider either) hold up such a sign (besides Rev. Phelps and he has about 20 followers and anybody who calls themselves "Christian" actively denounces his ignorance and claim to being a follower of Christ. I don't like the representations of Christ as an icon dipped in crud or swimming in urine, but I won't kill anyone for it because that person cannot touch me or my faith. I will say that the most insulted I've been was hearing the term "Christian Fundamentalists" over and over again. It used to be that folks with strong Christian leanings would be called "evangelical", but they switched to the word "Fundamentalists" to scare people, make it sound much more exciting because people, particularly the media, knows how to sell an idea and that idea is that Christian "fundamentalists" can be equated with Islamic "fundamentalists". Yet, no Christian "fundamentalists" has been down to CNN trying to blow it up. There in lies the difference. Challenge the views of a Christian about Jesus as a real man, stories from the bible, historical references, insist G_d does not exist, odds are you will walk away without much but an exchange of views or maybe a few umkind words. NO death or dismemberment. I'd like some folks to recognize that matter when trying to create fire in America about Christians. On the same hand, we have studies such as Freedom House, which shows that the spread of wahabist doctrine, which includes shunning people as inferior and convincing people to go on "jihad", etc, barely garner's a whisper from the media and that is even months after it comes out when a Senator finally brings it up in a meeting. The rules are not being applied evenly by the media and they know it. http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/02/editorial_decisions.html#comment-41129 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/02/editorial_decisions.html#comment-41129 Tue, 21 Feb 2006 10:15:51 -0600