<< FIRE SALE ~ MAIN ~ MYTH MARKETED >>

MOMENT OF CLARITY CONTINUES

Lance Morrow’s post-9/11 Time essay:

The worst times, as we see, separate the civilized of the world from the uncivilized. This is the moment of clarity. Let the civilized toughen up, and let the uncivilized take their chances in the game they started.

Read the whole thing, again. Among the civilised who toughened up was Glasgow’s John Smeaton, now celebrated in New York:

A baggage handler hailed as a hero after helping police subdue an attacker at Scotland’s Glasgow Airport is being honored in New York for his actions ...

“Our members are thrilled at the opportunity of meeting a modern Scottish hero,” American-Scottish Foundation president Alan Bain said, according to Britain’s Press Association.

“Our organization has always highlighted the best qualities of Scots and Scots Americans, and John Smeaton captured the hearts of the world with his show of bravery.”

The lunatic jihadi Smeaton tackled subsequently died of self-inflicted burns. As Lance wrote: “Let the uncivilized take their chances.”

Posted by Tim B. on 09/12/2007 at 10:57 AM
  1. I am beinging to believe that the answer is to errect a “cordon sanitaire” and let the uncivilized rot in their Sharia paradises.

    Posted by Room 237 on 2007 09 12 at 11:15 AM • permalink

  2. The lunatic jihadi Smeaton tackled…


    Tackled? Didn’t he kick him so that his ‘nads met his thyroid gland?

    Posted by ErnieG on 2007 09 12 at 11:17 AM • permalink

  3. I’ve been a fan of Morrow’s essays for decades.
    Rummaging through some old files and papers, I found a collection of yellowed clippings of his pieces from Time mag.  So I sat down and read them again then and there, and found them as meditative and insightful as when they were written, nearly 25 years on.

    Surely a mark of quality.

    Posted by Olrence on 2007 09 12 at 12:09 PM • permalink

  4. Good words to live by, if only the civilized will open their ears.

    Posted by RebeccaH on 2007 09 12 at 12:28 PM • permalink

  5. I was about to observe that Morrow’s 6 years too late with those comments—and then I saw the dateline. Bravo for his clear thinking, then and now.

    Posted by Forbes on 2007 09 12 at 12:34 PM • permalink

  6. Excellent link and a good read. As timely now as it was then.

    Posted by paco on 2007 09 12 at 12:48 PM • permalink

  7. Compare with this infantile mewling from the Canadian PM.

    Posted by paco on 2007 09 12 at 12:54 PM • permalink

  8. FWIW
    This is PM Harper’s speech to Parliament in Canberra.

    ... if I can get you to a top-level ice hockey game, you will see why you should never again propose that I watch cricket.

    Cheers

    Posted by J.M. Heinrichs on 2007 09 12 at 04:03 PM • permalink

  9. From the department of two birds with one stone.

    Posted by paco on 2007 09 12 at 04:20 PM • permalink

  10. I’m confused. Are wishy-washy PC surrender monkey Dems civilised, uncivilised, or ...

    Posted by blogstrop on 2007 09 12 at 04:58 PM • permalink

  11. #10: They’re chimps that have learned to use simple tools.

    Posted by paco on 2007 09 12 at 05:28 PM • permalink

  12. Se also this by Debra Burlingame on Guantanamo Bay Lawyers:

    It is one thing to take these cases in order to achieve the proper balance between due process concerns and unprecedented national security issues. It is another to hire PR and marketing consultants to create image makeovers for suspected al Qaeda financiers, foot soldiers, weapons trainers and bomb makers, all of which is financed by millions of dollars from a foreign country enmeshed in the anti-American, anti-Israel elements of Middle East politics.

    Although a few mistakes were made when some of the Guantanamo detainees were taken into custody in the fog of war, others were indisputably captured with AK-47s still smoking in their hands. Any one of those who have been properly classified in Combat Status Review Tribunals as an unlawful enemy combatant could be the next Mohamed Atta or Hani Hanjour, who, if captured in the summer of 2001, would have been described by these lawyers as a quiet engineering student from Hamburg and a nice Saudi kid who dreams of learning to fly.

    How we deal with alien enemy combatants goes to the essence of the debate between those who see terrorism as a series of criminal acts that should be litigated in the justice system, one attack at a time, and those who see it as a global war where the “criminal paradigm” is no more effective against militant Islamists whose chief tactic is mass murder than indictments would have been in stopping Hitler’s march across Europe. Michael Ratner and the lawyers in the Gitmo bar have expressly stated that the habeas corpus lawsuits are a tactic to prevent the U.S. military from doing its job. He has bragged that “The litigation is brutal [for the United States]  . . . You can’t run an interrogation . . . with attorneys.” No, you can’t. Lawyers can literally get us killed.

    There’s more ...

    Posted by blogstrop on 2007 09 12 at 05:30 PM • permalink

  13. Thanks Paco - that two birds link shows a pleasing productivity increase.
    In another raid an Iraqi terrorist detonated his suicide belt during an attack killing himself and a fellow terrorist.
    A cyanide capsule or simple bullet to the head would be less messy!

    Posted by blogstrop on 2007 09 12 at 05:49 PM • permalink

  14. #9, Paco, gotta be a Rove setup.

    Posted by Latino on 2007 09 12 at 06:45 PM • permalink

  15. #9 As General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker were testifying in front of Congress yesterday about Iran seeking to “create a Hezbollah-like force” in Iraq, US forces killed an Iranian Intelligence officer in a raid in Samarra.
    US forces also killed an Al Qaeda leader in the same raid!

    I question the timing.  [/Defeatocrat]

    Posted by RebeccaH on 2007 09 12 at 06:52 PM • permalink

  16. Rebecca

    Been meaning to ask…How ya feelin’ lady?

    Posted by El Cid on 2007 09 12 at 07:00 PM • permalink

  17. #12 Allowing lawyers to subvert the truth and transform the Constitution into a lethal weapon in the hands of our enemies—while casting themselves as patriots—makes a mockery of the sacrifices made by true patriots like Mike Spann.

    Articles like that make me absolutely crazy.  Michael Ratner and Tom Wilner are traitors to the core.

    Posted by RebeccaH on 2007 09 12 at 07:05 PM • permalink

  18. El Cid, you’re kind to ask.  I’m still kickin’, as you can see.  Some aspects of life have been curtailed, but as they say, when one door shuts, another opens.  I’ll keep rattling doorknobs as long as I can.  :)

    Posted by RebeccaH on 2007 09 12 at 07:07 PM • permalink

  19. O/T:
    Auntie and other public institutions continue their Left Wing electioneering onslaught on the Fed Govt:

    Workers ‘losing 30pc of earnings’ under WorkChoices

    Auntie’s Radio National Life Matters*, traditionally mum’s kitchen sink issues program, is immediately into the Federal political leadership issue, FFS:
    Leaders/power politics/contrasting State Labor Premiers’ successors vs the Liberal Prime Ministership ...

    *Screed:
    Life Matters is a unique daily interview program about social change and day-to-day life. Richard Aedy talks with the main people behind our social policies—from workplace reform to education, health, family relationships, and social change. Specialist producers monitor developments in these fields to bring you the most up-to-date information, as well as personal stories which will move and inspire you.

    Life Matters’ perspective is from the ground up. It’s practical and down to earth, and offers regular opportunities for listeners to contribute their opinions and ideas on the big social debates.

    Posted by egg_ on 2007 09 12 at 07:19 PM • permalink

  20. #7 Paco -I think you are being a bit harsh on Harper.
     
    Mum and I went to see him (retirees need to fill a cold Canberra day with something), and I thought his address was well crafted with some good points about the Canadian appointed, not elected, Senate, and some good words in support of JoHo. Remember Harper is the Conservative PM in a minority government, in a once great country where moonbattery, already on a large scale, is on the increase, and where the libs have held power for most of the past century. He hangs on by the finger tips.  I don’t hold it against him if he throws away a bit of bullshit about the “global village” for home consumption. If he can win a majority, you may well see a different, real persona.

    After all, both your President and our PM, both separately and together have been partaking in some ritual worship at the altar of gorebal wormenising….because they know, politically, they have to throw a bone to the morons

    Doesn’t mean they believe in it, mate

    Cheers
    RodC

    Posted by Rod C on 2007 09 12 at 07:23 PM • permalink

  21. I’ll keep rattling doorknobs as long as I can.  :)

    Excellent. There’s a hell of a lotta’ doorknobs to rattle out there. Keep on, keepin’ on.

    to bad about the womens rugby league stuff, I know you’ll miss it…lol.

    Posted by El Cid on 2007 09 12 at 07:29 PM • permalink

  22. to bad about the womens rugby league stuff, I know you’ll miss it…lol.

    Yes, and I’m not allowed to pick fights in bars, either.  But one must adjust gracefully, I suppose.

    Posted by RebeccaH on 2007 09 12 at 07:51 PM • permalink

  23. #20 Rod C: You’re probably right. There are actually some good things in the speech. But the “global village” bit was part of a sentence in which the PM seemed to be throwing a bone to the “root cause” school of terrorism, a phrase which was strangely out of kilter with the rest of his comments.

    Posted by paco on 2007 09 12 at 07:55 PM • permalink

  24. O/T Speaking of lying media..

    Scott Beau-Chump.

    With a headline like this how could the article be biased?
    “US troops who criticised Iraq war strategy killed in Baghdad”

    Unless Im mistaken this is an out and out lie as well
    “There was also speculation they could face severe penalties for being so openly critical of the war. Another US soldier, Private Scott Beauchamp, who wrote a shocking account in New Republic magazine about a soldier treating a piece of a child’s skull as a souvenir, had his mobile phone and laptop confiscated.”

    Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2007 09 12 at 08:00 PM • permalink

  25. Yes, and I’m not allowed to pick fights in bars, either.  But one must adjust gracefully, I suppose.

    Nahhhh, you can pick ‘em…just let Mr. H and the boys finish ‘em…:)

    Posted by El Cid on 2007 09 12 at 08:09 PM • permalink

  26. RebeccaH talks of timing issues.  Well let’s try this one.

    Putin sticks a knife in the back of democracy.

    A spokesman then announces that Putinstan has just detonated some mother of a big bomb.

    That same day a Senate Panel on Rendering America Defenseless as quick as it can voted to reduce funding on a missile defense project for Europe.

    Time that.

    Posted by yojimbo on 2007 09 12 at 08:11 PM • permalink

  27. A policy of focused brutality does not come easily to a self-conscious, self-indulgent, contradictory, diverse, humane nation with a short attention span. America needs to relearn a lost discipline, self-confident relentlessness

    Unfortuantely the left is not 5th column, but rather a deluded abetter.

    It’s incredible how the left spout the “historical” nature of their cause, without having an iota of understanding of history.

    Supposing the left/islamo-fascist coalition won, who’d you think would triumph over the other? Let’s see?

    The left has been in business, oh, say 200 years, raling against the civilization the has brought the greatest benefit to humanity EVER.

    And the muslims, declaring war on the rest of the world 1400 years ago, are still at it, raging against all civilization.

    The leftists will be beheaded before they even organized the train timetable to the gulags.

    Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2007 09 12 at 08:34 PM • permalink

  28. #22 rebecca, Why can’t you pick fights in bars? As a lady, you have an advantage over blokes as they aren’t allowed to hit ladies.

    Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2007 09 12 at 08:37 PM • permalink

  29. I forget where I read it, but its a very true statement.

    Pray that truly good men never decide that you need to die.  Evil men will taunt you.  They desire power over all things, and they will take the opportunity to lord it over you, delaying the moment when they finally strike.  This gives you an opportunity to escape.  When a truly good man decides that you must die, he will just kill you.  Quickly and efficiently.  If truly good men decide you must die, you will die.

    The uncivilized world is making the civilized world come to this decision point.  Once it does, it will not go well for those we decide must die.

    Posted by MikeTheLibrarian on 2007 09 12 at 08:47 PM • permalink

  30. #7 Paco.

    I must say something, although I cannot defend the drivel emanating from Harper’s lips these days.

    The problem is, he has a minority government and the “civil service”, and other pillars of the establishment, is stuffed with Liberal Party hacks.

    Unlike the US, when a “government” changes, the bureaucracy doesn’t. Canada has a similar probem today as it has historically had.

    Except, this time, the familly is Pierre Paladeau, Maurice Strong, Bob somebody (oh, yeah, Bob Ray), Chretian, Paul Martin and, most importantly every one related to the familly that owns Power Corp, the Desmarais familly

    Note that Maurice Strong is part of this evil empire, and he is hiding in China to avoid legal action as he is a thieving, self-promoting socialist Mao wannabe.

    Ok, so I guess you must sense my drift here :-)

    Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2007 09 12 at 08:51 PM • permalink

  31. #30 Ah, I feel better now.

    To the Barbie!

    Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2007 09 12 at 08:53 PM • permalink

  32. #2 I didn’t know Smeaton was a lunatic jihadi.

    Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2007 09 12 at 09:02 PM • permalink

  33. #29 Mike….If truly good men decide you must die , you will die . That reminds me of a religious man I heard on TV years ago. he was a combat infantryman during WW11. He recalled the carnage he and his fellows visited on a german city. While he deplored what they were forced to do , he understood that sometimes the world needs “righteous killers”.

    Posted by greene on 2007 09 12 at 09:16 PM • permalink

  34. re.33….. I think the gentleman was making the point that quakers and other non violent people of faith, for all their good points , could not have stopped the nazis.

    Posted by greene on 2007 09 12 at 09:19 PM • permalink

  35. #2 ErnieG

    Tackled? Didn’t he kick him so that his ‘nads met his thyroid gland?

    That was some other bloke. An older man, perhaps a taxi driver? Can’t be arsed googling it. IIRC, he hurt his foot so badly he had to go to hospital.

    Posted by flying pigs over mecca on 2007 09 12 at 09:23 PM • permalink

  36. #28 As a lady, you have an advantage over blokes as they aren’t allowed to hit ladies.

    Ah, but other ladies are allowed.

    The truth is, though, just about anybody could wipe the floor with me, unless we’re hurling words at each other.  And even then, I have to be having a good day.

    Posted by RebeccaH on 2007 09 12 at 09:26 PM • permalink

  37. “Ah, but other ladies are allowed.”

    Great, I’m sensing hair pulling and blouse denial strategies here.  Maybe we can get this up on Ebay or that video site thing.  Who needs that car stuff.

    Posted by yojimbo on 2007 09 12 at 09:39 PM • permalink

  38. #29
    I’ve often said, over the last six years, that people have not seen the USA really angry since 1945.  Even now we are not angry, despite the provocation of 9/11 (which is a bit of a surprise).  Muslims, especially Arabs and Iranians, had better pray to Allah that they do not provoke us into becoming really angry once more.  More importantly, they had better act so as not to make us angry like that.

    If the American response to 9/11 had been measured by my anger that day, Kandahar, Tikrit, and Tripoli in Libya would have been piles of radioactive rubble by noon on 9/12.  And those would have been the warning shots.

    Posted by Michael Lonie on 2007 09 12 at 10:01 PM • permalink

  39. #18, RebeccaH “Rattling Doorknobs”

    What an excellent title for your long-awaited autobiography!

    Posted by carpefraise on 2007 09 12 at 10:02 PM • permalink

  40. #30: Good heavens, man! It sounds more devious and inscrutable than the Sublime Porte. Continuing the analogy, can’t some of that lot simply be strangled with a bowstring?

    Posted by paco on 2007 09 12 at 10:12 PM • permalink

  41. And Smeato is blogging from New York.

    Posted by saint on 2007 09 12 at 10:19 PM • permalink

  42. #41 - John Smeaton is the fookin’ dogs bollocks. Hope he never has to buy a drink again.

    Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2007 09 12 at 10:28 PM • permalink

  43. Michael Lonie

    And those would have been the warning shots.

    Mecca and Medina would have been my first two choices. Get these mad missing link people all stirred up and seething…hopefully what or whomever was left would gather at some spot, or spots to plan…then all over. say like Damascus, Cairo, Tehran or Islamabad. If lucky…all four….glass…well not Islamabad, not much sand.

    Then on to Indonesia. Feed what would be left, to mad dogs….ARE you taking notes, Meeja Watch?

    Let Allah sort out the Sunni, from Shia, the Wahabbis from the Whahappeneds

    Quite possible, why I’m not in charge.

    Posted by El Cid on 2007 09 12 at 10:33 PM • permalink

  44. OH, I should add, not that I’m angry or anything BUT these vile missing links must earn their place at the peaceful world table….come into the 21st century, or may the 21st century, be their last.

    Still lurking, Meeja Watch?

    Posted by El Cid on 2007 09 12 at 10:43 PM • permalink

  45. Slightly off topic: OBL video is referring to Afghanistan war when real and voice over with contemporary references. All recent references are completely stylistically different: contemporary language use, non-allegorical, too over-done to impress the time of recording. OBL never moves his lips with contemporary references.

    Posted by captain on 2007 09 13 at 03:06 AM • permalink

  46. #43 El CId

    NOT DAMASCUS! Well, not all of it.

    It has a very large Christian population but IIRC they are concentrated in the northern half of the city.

    Just flatten the muslim towns and ask Tel Aviv why the hell they have not re-established the ancient Christian kingdom of Syria yet.

    MarkL
    Canberra

    Posted by MarkL on 2007 09 13 at 07:32 AM • permalink

  47. Heathen often look to the European Front of WW2 when judging the sum total of American “righteous anger”.

    To really get a picture of how hard, relentless, merciless, brutal, violent and remorseless Americans can be when facing an enemy that has “made it personal”, study up on the Pacific Island Campaigns.

    Much is available on the innernets, for those uneducated in the area but wanting to see how deep The Hard goes in the American Soul, suggested subjects for googling:

    Tarawa
    Guadalcanal
    Peleliu
    Saipan
    Tinian
    The Aleutian Islands
    Iwo Jima
    Okinawa

    That’s a starter list.

    For anyone wanting an idea of the full ferocity of our Aussie allies, ask em for the details on what was probably the most heroic defensive operation of the war. Iirc, it was in New Guinea.


    Pacific War Timeline has more places and events listed.

    Just because some have grown soft beyond weakness and stupid beyond idiocy, it’s not very safe to assume that all have.

    That same iron is still there in enough hearts and spines. We aint gonna lose this fight. The only thing undecided is how many of the vermin will die before we decide to call it done.

    Do a bit of digging. See if you can find the numbers of dead jihadi since the fall of Baghdad. Hint: It aint a small number.

    Posted by Grimmy on 2007 09 13 at 01:33 PM • permalink

  48. #47 A very good book, published 10 years back, on land combat in the Pacific War

    Touched by Fire, by Eric Bergerud

    Posted by Rod C on 2007 09 13 at 05:01 PM • permalink

  49. #26 Yojimbo

    In your hypothetical scenario .......What is the problem with the US Congress not funding a missile defence shield for Europe?  Surely these people, who have been bludging off the US taxpayer for 3 generations, can pay for it if they want it.

    Why should Uncle Sam?

    Posted by Rod C on 2007 09 13 at 05:09 PM • permalink

  50. #30, wimpyC;

    Unlike the US, when a “government” changes, the bureaucracy doesn’t.

    Other than perhaps a top veneer, ours doesn’t change either.

    Sort of like the Chinese bureaucrats that quietly continued working through different dynasties, in the end swallowing each in turn.

    Posted by steveH on 2007 09 13 at 06:38 PM • permalink

  51. Why hasn’t this evil Anglo-Celtic savage been charged with assault on a helpless victim still traumatised by his colonial experience??

    Posted by Rod C on 2007 09 13 at 08:29 PM • permalink

  52. When a great power is faced with a terrorist enemy, it has to win – fast and decisively. It has to identify the leaders, remove them silently and ruthlessly, shred their infrastructure and thus deny them the kind of victories that encourage civilian supporters to think their cause is a going concern.

    Who said that?

    Posted by blogstrop on 2007 09 14 at 07:18 AM • permalink

  53. Page 1 of 1 pages

Commenting is not available in this weblog entry.

Members:
Login | Register | Member List

Please note: you must use a real email address to register. You will be sent an account activation email. Clicking on the url in the email will automatically activate your account. Until you do so your account will be held in the "pending" list and you won't be able to log in. All accounts that are "pending" for more than one week will be deleted.