Letters to the Editor
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@Elephantman
Other than "Muslim extremism" (which I think is actually a more pejorative term than "Islamofacsism") is there any greater, more real, more unpredictable and more active threat to world stability right now?
Certainly the neoconservatives are a greater threat to world stability than the much more poorly armed and funded "islamofascists".
For one thing, their economic policies are so criminally wrong-headed that they risk a worldwide recession if the dollar tanks. They've already ensured that the US will NEVER get out of debt.
For another thing, they are loudly proclaiming their desire right now to unilaterally attack Iran, possibly with nuclear weapons.
For yet another thing, they have seized more power in the US government than any previous administration, at least back to FDR.
What more do you need to see?
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This is pure gold "Salon"...
The greatest threat
That's very easy to figure out. American Republican Christoconservatism/fascism alligned with American neconservatism, is by far the greatest threat to the world. Islamic terrorism, while very unpleasant, doesn't pose an existential threat to any western country. As a matter of fact, they have failed to topple even one Arab or Islamic regime. The lunacy of US based conservatism, highly aggressive and itching for miltary confrontations, fused with Rapture lunacy and imperial hallucinations and equipped with a vast nuclear arsenal, is a clear and present danger to the world.
-- pantanal
No, Islamic terrorism is no threat, unless you happen to live in the United States, Israel, Russia, Spain, England, Lebanon or Bali, and just as long as you are not a moderate, freedom-loving Muslim in Iran, Syria, or the Palestinian territories.
Leave it to the Salon leadership to pronounce the United States as a worse threat than, or the cause of, any of the atrocities that have occurred in recent years in the name of what should only be referred to as Islamofacsism.
Panatanal, for the sake of the Democrat party, I certainly hope that if there had been a President Gore on September 11, 2001, that he would have given an order to shoot down any hijacked airliner that threatened Washington, D.C., and that he also would have ordered U.S. armed forces to lay waste to the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. But for the sake of the Republican party, I hope that your answer to that question is, "No, a hypothetical President Gore wouldn't have done any of those things. He would have called an international peace and reconciliation conference. In, say, Kyoto, Japan."
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@HeavyG
I can't really believe I am coming to the defense of Double-A but her comment regarding the use of the blackened goggles on Padilla might have had some basis in truth.
She is old enough to remember (as am I) that one of our POW's held by North Vietnam was paraded out in front of the cameras once to basically tell everyone how well they were being treated but at the same time he did in fact use his eyelids to blink out the word torture in Morse code. As I recall, his captors later gave him another severe beating after they found out about what he did.
So that may have been in her mind when she made that statement.
That man was Jeremiah Denton, a real hero of Vietnam.
Althouse's comment was a slap in his face: she is essentially saying that she approves of the fact that Viet Cong torture techniques are being used by our government, but also that if knowledge of this might be leaked to the public by a blinking Padilla, we have to prevent that to keep our secret torture program going.
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@Elephantman
Maybe Gore would have caught bin Laden, instead of dicking around killing people in Iraq for oil money.
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@nabalzbbfr
Nothing to fear from offending Islamofascists
Only in the lalaland of left-wing bloggers. Tell that to the family of Theo van Gogh.
That was a sad incident that does not support your nutty case.
I love how the entire neocon platform consists of trying to get others to be as piss-scared as they are.
Good luck with that, guys.
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One if by land, two if by sea
While Kirchick and his ilk are riding around on their high horses screaming "The Muslims are coming! The Muslims are coming!", they fail to see the real threat to their liberties occurring right under their noses-- the rise of a very determined anti-constitutional Christian Dominionist movement here at home.
Sleight of hand works for Penn & Teller, but methinks the American people are smarter than that when the same misdirection is foisted on them to justify a new round of profits for the military-industrioil complex.
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They miss the commies
I think that the right wingers simply need a 'bad guy' and cannot survive emotionally if they don't have one.
The end of the Cold War left them floundering for a new enemy that they could use to defend outlandish actions by their political leaders 'to keep them safe".
I do not understand how even marginally educated Americans could fear Muslims taking over our nation, enforcing Sharia law etc.
What is sad, is that while they scream that we all must fear this ridiculous notion, they work to change our constitution to make it fit with their religious beliefs.
Right wing authoritarians are strange creatures, no matter how much I read about them, I cannot possibly understand HOW they could think the way they do.
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nabalzbbfr
You're committing a logical fallacy known as Proof By Example. The fact that a man was murdered by a religious lunatic for his artistic speech does is not proof that all people who share said religion are murderous lunatics, and it certainly isn't compelling evidence of a statistically significant risk of murder-by-violent-jihadi compared to other violent causes of death--event among all Dutch filmmakers, let alone the entire global population. But thanks for the hysterical, cowardly, racist fearmongering just the same.
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PC
So, with characters like Donohue, Beck, et al around, why is "PC" still only considered liberal?
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Blind
It's outrageous that the people cheering on the campaign that caused the death of maybe a million Iraqis are whining about Islamofascism.
-- pantanal
is a very big part of the authoritarian mindset. Not sure why it seems to be required conditioning, but it is. Whining seems to be important too.
-- Wabanatta_3
It is this "mindset" that enables the authoritarians to ignore the suffering of others. In truth, its biblical in scope. The wingers are the Pharisees Jesus mocked and criticized in numerous parables.