Victor Davis Hanson

 

... "Why, then, have Democrats lost the working class — especially white, lower-middle-class voters?
There are several obvious reasons.

"For one, high-profile progressives are largely rich, and their relatively small numbers live in a gentrified cocoon. Politicians, academics, media personalities, celebrities, and other Democratic-aligned professionals had just the sort of academic brands or technological, linguistic, cultural, and service skills that were well-compensated during the transition to globalism.

"Their out-of-touch privilege, however, led to agendas — radical green politics, hyper-feminism, transgender advocacy, forced multiculturalism, open borders — that were not principle concerns of the struggling working classes. A techie in Silicon Valley, an actor in Hollywood, a trial lawyer in Washington, or a professor at Yale had the income to afford the steeper taxes and higher housing, energy, and college costs that were the natural dividends of their own political agendas." ...

The hysteria over Sarah Palin’s gaffes in comparison to the more frequent lapses of Joe Biden was due to cultural bias. Palin was ridiculed as an ill-informed, working-class Alaskan mom. Good ol’ Biden earned a smile as an occasionally too candid East Coast liberal.

Baloney Detector

How the media educated me this week

Andrée Seu Peterson

 

... "Paragraph 2 could go in any direction at this point. It could situate the killings in the context of the ongoing murderous rampages in the Middle East. It could say the “why” is because Islam is a bunch of thugs bent on the destruction of Western civilization.

"But this is not in fact what the remainder of paragraph 2 says. It says that “the French satirical magazine … has a controversial history of depicting Mohammed often in an unfavorable light, which has angered many Muslims around the world.”
Oh dear, what an awkward situation. CNN has ferreted out the enemy—and the enemy is us!
...
 "The CNN article goes on for many paragraphs, most of them a remedial education in the religious scruples of Islam, the better to help you and me not be so darned offensive in the future. That way we will not bring more trouble on ourselves."

 Political Satire and Censorship in the Middle East

Skeptikai 

... "Indeed, the threats towards satirists is never greater than in the Middle East. In 1993, two Indian editors were given two years in prison and 500 lashes for printing the American comic strip “B.C.” in the Arab News. The rationale was that they were questioning the existence of God, which demanded harsh punishment. Luckily, intense international pressure ended in a pardon for the editors, but this case exemplifies the level of risk Arabs are dealing with when they print satire." ...

Related:   Top 10 Stand-up Comedians Who Joke About Muslims/Islam (With Videos!)

Ostracized by Cowardly West, Charlie Hebdo Faced the Islamists Alone

But first, read this: Oh, CANADA! Christian man sentenced to one year in jail for speaking out against Islam   

Ezra Levant video here

 "Je Suis Charlie," you say? Not when it mattered.

 

  Cartoons added by TD

PJ Media  "We’ll have to forgive what’s left of the staff at the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo if they don’t take much comfort from the ostentatious displays of sympathy and support from their colleagues in the Western media today, and from the similarly defiant words of Western political leaders. For the hysterical reaction of mainstream Western media outlets and politicians to the publication of cartoons mocking Mohammed — first by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten and then by Charlie Hebdo – set the stage for Wednesday’s atrocity."...

"Reporting on the 2005 Jyllands-Posten affair, the New York Times condemned what it called “callous and feeble cartoons, cooked up as a provocation by a conservative newspaper.” When the Charlie Hebdo offices were firebombed in 2011, Time’s Bruce Crumley blamed the magazine for bringing the attack upon itself.

 

"Western politicians were equally obliging to the extremists. In 2012 in the aftermath of the Benghazi attack, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney criticized Charlie Hebdo for publishing its latest cartoons.

 "A week later President Obama clearly had the magazine in mind, as well as the filmmaker responsible for Innocence of Muslims, when he made his speech to the United Nations in which he proclaimed: “The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam.” He also uttered the requisite platitudes about violence never being justified. Unfortunately, once you’ve acknowledged on a global stage that a group of people with a long track record of violence and mayhem has an issue about which they should justifiably be angry, you can’t expect to successfully dictate how they should seek redress."

 

...
 "The Associated Press claimed its policy was to “refrain from moving deliberately provocative images,” a policy which, it was quickly pointed out, hasn’t prevented it from selling photos of Andres Serrano’s Piss Christ.
"Those organizations that bothered to offer an excuse fell back on the “offense” line, but it hardly needs saying that they’ve never felt compelled to extend the same courtesy to Christians or Jews."

HopeNChange  ..."Unfortunately, a disturbing number of national and international news sources are actually attacking the victims - saying that the cartoonists "should have known better" than to deliberately provoke radical Islam's "mad dogs."  But that misses the important point which the satirists at Charlie Hebdo died making: it's a big freaking problem to have mad dogs taking over your streets and cities." ...

Free health care for the masses! Er...wait...what? Down with Obamacare!

College Insurrection    "These Harvard professors were all for Obamacare when they thought other people would be affected by it and pay for it.

"Now that it’s at their doorstep? Not so much.

"Robert Pear of the New York Times:" ...

Harvard Ideas on Health Care Hit Home, Hard

 ... "Members of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the heart of the 378-year-old university, voted overwhelmingly in November to oppose changes that would require them and thousands of other Harvard employees to pay more for health care. The university says the increases are in part a result of the Obama administration’s Affordable Care Act, which many Harvard professors championed.

"The faculty vote came too late to stop the cost increases from taking effect this month, and the anger on campus remains focused on questions that are agitating many workplaces: How should the burden of health costs be shared by employers and employees? If employees have to bear more of the cost, will they skimp on medically necessary care, curtail the use of less valuable services, or both?" ...

'Hacktivist' group Anonymous says it will avenge Charlie Hebdo attacks by shutting down jihadist websites

The Telegraph

.inquisitr.com/

"Hacker group Anonymous have released a video and a statement via Twitter condemning the attacks on Charlie Hebdo, in which 12 people, including eight journalists, were murdered.

The video description says that it is "a message for al-Qaeda, the Islamic State and other terrorists", and was uploaded to the group's Belgian account.

"In the clip, a figure wearing the group's symbolic Guy Fawkes mask is seated in front of a desk with the hashtag #OpCharlieHebdo - which stands for Operation Charlie Hebdo - featured on screen.

"The figure, whose voice is obscured says: "We are declaring war against you, the terrorists."

They add that the group will track down and close all accounts on social networks related to terrorists in order to avenge those who have been killed.

The video is watchable if you speak French

Speaking of which:  Boko Haram Massacres 2000 in Attack  BBC is reporting:

Nigeria’s militant Islamists have carried out a second attack on the key north-eastern town of Baga, an official has told the BBC.

Boko Haram fighters burnt down almost the entire town on Wednesday, after over-running a military base on Saturday, Musa Alhaji Bukar said.
Bodies lay strewn on Baga’s streets, amid fears that some 2,000 people had been killed in the raids, he added.

No, We Are Not All Charlie Hebdo/ The Timid Generation

Meet the victims slaughtered by Muslim savages in the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attack in Paris

By Richard Miniter in Forbes
 ... "Yes, the signs are everywhere online and in public protests: “Je Suis Charlie” and “Nous Sommes Tous Charlie.” But we are not all Charlie.

"Some of us are actually the well-intentioned, highly responsible enemies of Charlie Hebdo. Charlie’s enemies include the Financial Times, the New York Times, the Associated Press and many other major news outlets.

"The murder of the French cartoonists was made possible by the same “common sense” that once made the hijackings on September 11 attacks possible—just cooperate, avoid offending the extremists and everything will be fine.
 
"In both cases, real safety lies in collective, unified action. When passengers resist, hijackings stop. If every newspaper and news web site reprinted the cartoons, the jihadists would see that their actions are futile and only fuel the spread of the images they abhor.

"Yet the mainstream media is still playing the compliant passenger." ...

Article via the Ben Ferguson Show

 

Obama bows again and again and again.l

Victor Davis Hanson UPDATE: The Timid Generation  "Try to imagine Franklin Roosevelt or Ronald Reagan caving in to North Korea."
... "The present generation may be the most abjectly cowardly cohort in memory. When the Sony Corporation was victimized by North Korean–sponsored hackers upset over Sony’s new movie The Interview, it caved and withdrew the film. The Obama administration so far has offered no real support. Instead it blamed Sony for its appeasement. By joint inaction both Sony and the United States government sent the message that foreign dictators can determine what Americans see or read, as long as their targets are private citizens. "

Bowing to world leaders, grovelling over a little-seen movie, Honoring Mohammad at the UN, apologizing to the world for America being America, rolling over for the Castros to name just a few humiliations. This government is an international embarrassment as are those who voted it into office twice.  TD

http://www.amnation.com/vfr/archives/014799.html

Krauthammer: Raise the gas tax. A lot.

Charles Krauthammer

" ...some in Congress are talking about a 10- or 20-cent hike in the federal tax to use for infrastructure spending. Right idea, wrong policy. The hike should not be 10 cents but $1. And the proceeds should not be spent by, or even entrusted to, the government. They should be immediately and entirely returned to the consumer by means of a cut in the Social Security tax."

 "The average American buys about 12 gallons of gas a week. Washington would be soaking him for $12 in extra taxes. Washington should therefore simultaneously reduce everyone’s FICA tax by $12 a week. Thus the average driver is left harmless. He receives a $12-per-week FICA bonus that he can spend on gasoline if he wants — or anything else. If he chooses to drive less, it puts money in his pocket. (The unemployed would have the $12 added to their unemployment insurance; the elderly, to their Social Security check.)"

“Whoever insults the profit of Islam must be killed!”. All others are fair game.

Breaking: Charlie Hebdo suspected terrorists barricade themselves inside warehouse with hostage as suspected cop-killer storms Paris deli: reports "Charlie Hebdo massacre suspects Said Kouachi, 34, and Cherif Kouachi, 32, stormed into a warehouse near Charles de Gaulle airport and took a man hostage. Meanwhile, Amedy Coulibaly, the gunman accused of killing a Paris cop on Thursday, killed two people and took multiple hostages inside a kosher deli Friday. Coulibaly threatened to kill his hostages if the 1,500 cops standing off with the Kouachi brothers let the two walk away, French media reported."  Workplace violence in Paris.

The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) sometimes chose to forgive those who had insulted him, and sometimes he ordered that they should be executed, if that served a greater purpose. But now his forgiveness is impossible because he is dead, so the execution of the one who insults him remains the right of Allaah, His Messenger and the believers, and the one who deserves to be executed cannot be let off, so the punishment must be carried out. Al-Saarim al-Maslool, 2/438

 And Allaah knows best.

Megyn Kelly: Mark Steyn Blasts Ny Times For Not Showing Muhammad Cartoon. Mark Steyn Kelly File

Having dealt with Islamic terror for decades, Israel expressed condolences to the French public following the massacre in Paris on Wednesday
... "Netanyahu stressed that the threat posed by Islamic terror was an international problem. “The attacks of radical Islam* know no boundaries – these are international attacks and the response has to be international. The terrorists want to destroy our freedoms and our civilization. And therefore, all the free countries and all the civilized societies have to band together to fight this scourge.' ”
*This is how the Israelis address radical Islam: not as "activists" nor "militants". They call them as they are: r-a-d-i-c-a-l I-s-l-a-m.

You Can't Understand ISIS If You Don't Know the History of Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia

The Huffington Post

... "Abd al-Wahhab demanded conformity -- a conformity that was to be demonstrated in physical and tangible ways. He argued that all Muslims must individually pledge their allegiance to a single Muslim leader (a Caliph, if there were one). Those who would not conform to this view should be killed, their wives and daughters violated, and their possessions confiscated, he wrote. The list of apostates meriting death included the Shiite, Sufis and other Muslim denominations, whom Abd al-Wahhab did not consider to be Muslim at all." ...

UPDATE, Jan 9th: Why Do the Media Refer to ‘the Prophet Mohammed’?

"The title implies a particular view of a historical figure." 

NRO

... "It is no surprise that one does not hear “Jesus the Christ,” or some such variation, in the media. Unlike “Caesar Augustus” or “King David,” which report facts (Augustus was Caesar, David was king), whether Jesus was the foretold Christ is a matter of religious belief, and most reporters are keen to steer clear of that debate. When it comes to Mohammed, though, media sources implicitly side with those who accept that he was, in fact, “the Prophet.” That is not to say that they agree; they simply do not argue. Is that because contesting the claims of Christianity is primetime-television sport, while contesting the claims of Islam is taking one’s life in one’s hands? Perhaps that explains why CNN editorial director Richard Griffiths, explaining that his network would not show the Charlie Hebdo cartoons, referred simply to “the Prophet,” dropping the apparently redundant “Mohammed.' ” ...

 

How disturbing to watch the groveling done by the American President and the Secretary of State.
Networks Ignore Obama’s Shaky Footing on Publishing Depictions of Muhammad



... "After airing a clip of the President speaking in the Oval Office from Wednesday about the importance of “freedom of expression,” Henry noted how: “Yet in an address to the U.N. General assembly, just days after the Benghazi terror attacks in 2012, the President was not quite as aggressive.”
"A soundbite of the President’s speech in 2012 was then shown, during which he blamed the Benghazi terrorist attack on, in the words of Henry, “an anti-Muhammad video' ”

UPDATE: Liberal Bill Maher blasts liberal ‘pussy nation’ for being afraid to insult Islam
 " ... Bill Maher pointed out on Jimmy Kimmel Live last night, yet liberals refuse to say yesterday’s attacks in France were committed by “Muslim terrorists.” Maher begged the audience to “turn towards the truth” and called out the hypocrisy of liberals who would express outrage if Catholics committed similar atrocities." ...

MORE ANTI-ISLAM RANTS FROM BILL MAHER:

‘Je suis Charlie’ (‘I am Charlie’)

 UK Daily News

 

"Paris Terror Suspect Shown in 2005 Film."

Youtube

 "Chérif Kouachi, one of the suspects in the Charlie Hebdo shootings in Paris, appeared in a 2005 investigative documentary about jihadism that aired on French television."

 Charlie Hebdo staff vow to print 1m copies as French media support grows ... "Surviving staff members of Charlie Hebdo have vowed to publish the satirical weekly next Wednesday, despite the murder of most of its senior journalists – with a much larger than usual print run of 1m copies. ....



 Muslims fear backlash after Charlie Hebdo deaths as Islamic sites attacked  "Imams condemn Paris gunmen as ‘barbarians’ but fear stigmatisation could mean they ‘pay a price for the atrocity’ "...

 

... "On Thursday a delegation of about 20 imams from France’s Muslim federations visited the Charlie Hebdo offices in the 11th arrondissement of Paris and fiercely condemned the gunmen who killed 12 people, including 10 of the magazine’s staff and two police officers." ...

 Time to Meet Your Local Imam   "The President of Egypt is challenging Imams to denounce the “genocide of non-Muslims” like that carried out by the Muslim Brotherhood around the world."
 ...
"It is time to meet your local Imam and demand that he answers these same questions:

• Do you believe that jihad is a holy obligation for all Muslims?
• Do you renounce the “mindset” of jihad, conquest, and genocide of the world’s non-Muslims?
• Do you believe the time is right for a “religious revolution,” as stated by the President of Egypt at the “Vatican of Islam”?

Saudi Blogger To Be Publicly Flogged For Insulting Islam   ... "10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes will be publicly flogged for the first time after Friday prayers outside a mosque in the Red Sea coastal city of Jiddah" ...

The courageous media on the Paris terrorism

 

Wow: International Business Times Runs Piece Blaming Paris Attack On Israel…

 

Islamic State Radio Praises Charlie Hebdo Jihadists As “Heroes”… 

MSNBC: Falwell Suing Hustler Same As Jihadists Slaughtering Charlie Hebdo Cartoonists… 
 

USA Today Runs Piece From Radical Islamist Anjem Choudary: People Know Consequences Of Insulting Muhammad 

Contrary to popular misconception, Islam does not mean peace but rather means submission to the commands of Allah alone. Therefore, Muslims do not believe in the concept of freedom of expression, as their speech and actions are determined by divine revelation and not based on people’s desires.

Bloomberg: Don’t Judge Immigrants by Charlie Hebdo Massacre; 9/11 Terrorists Were Just ‘Visitors’

Steyn: ‘Pansy-ified’ Western Media Step Up or Face Self-Censorship

“[T]he fact they won’t show you them after people have been killed for them, shows that we’re actually retreating, the media, which congratulates itself on its bravery as one of the most tedious institutions for handing out awards for its bravery — far more than firemen or soldiers do, the fact they didn’t even have the courage to show these cartoons after they became a news story is why these brave men at Charlie Hebdo had to bear the burden almost single-handed. And what the New York Daily News did is absolutely disgraceful and dishonors the dead.”