Friday, August 05, 2005

Growing a Pair

 
There is encouraging news this morning from the UK: apparently Prime Minister Tony Blair has developed the masculine equipment necessary to swim against the PC current. According to the article in The Guardian,
     Tony Blair today announced new measures to deport religious extremists who incite hatred.
The prime minister said the government was launching a one-month consultation on new grounds for excluding and deporting people from the United Kingdom. They would include fostering hatred, advocating violence to further a person’s beliefs or justifying or validating such violence.
“Let no one be in any doubt that the rules of the game are changing,” Mr Blair said.
One can only hope that Mr. Blair’s anatomical improvement can somehow spread to President Bush. Look at the changes he is proposing:
    
  • New anti-terrorism legislation in the autumn, to include an offence of condoning or glorifying terrorism anywhere, not just in the UK
  • Automatic refusal of asylum for anyone who has participated in terrorism or has anything to do with it anywhere
  • The addition of the Hizb ut-Tahrir and al-Muhajiroun Islamist organisations to the list of prohibited groups
  • A consultation over powers to order the closure of a place of worship which is used as a centre for fomenting extremism
  • Consultation with Muslim leaders about drawing up a list of those not suitable to preach who will be excluded from Britain
Admittedly, outlawing Hizb ut-Tahrir at this point is locking the barn door after the horse of jihad has been stolen. Still, we’ll take what we can get.

Is it really possible that the long reign of Political Correctness may be finally coming to a close? Mr. Blair gives us reason to hope:
     Mr Blair was asked if it was wise to run the risk of alienating the Muslim communities by “cracking down” with new legislation and falling into the trap al-Qaida had set for western governments.
“This is the balance that we have got to strike,” Mr Blair replied. “And I think people are well able to see between tough measures to drive out extremists and measures aimed at the Muslim community as a whole.”
Significantly, Mr. Blair said:
    “Such action in the past has been controversial. Each tightening of the law has met fierce opposition. But, for obvious reasons, the mood now is different. Over the past two weeks, intensive meetings across government have taken place to set a comprehensive framework for action in dealing with the terrorist threat in Britain.”
The ominous implication is that America will not arrive at the same common-sensical point until we suffer another terror attack, one large enough to jolt us as Britain was jolted on 7/7.

Note to President Bush: Another al-Qaeda attack is coming. It is only a matter of time. Do you really have to wait for the bloodstained sidewalks and the heaps of teddy bears and flowers and the candlelight vigils and the solemn memorial services before you exercise the kind of leadership that Tony Blair did today?

6 comments:

Always On Watch said...

I am sorry to be saying this, but I fear that another devastating attack here in the United States will be required for Anerica to wake up. Worse yet, I'm afraid that one more attack won't be the call to alarm. Tony Blair's recent blunt statement is a good start in the right direction.

Right now, CAIR is busy interfering with the free exchange of ideas at WMAL Radio in Washington, D.C. Just the mention of 'taqiyya' (The term wasn't used by Geoff Metcalf, but the idea was) was enough to launch another of CAIR's get-the-moderator-reprimanded-or-fired campaigns. If CAIR is successful in this latest attempt, is the Internet next?

At a site where I put up a posting today, along came a Muslim convert; his blogger profile has the CAIR logo on it. If anyone is interested, visit
www.socialsense.blogspot.com to see what "Abu" said.

Baron Bodissey said...

If the FEC regulates the blogs, and "political advocacy" is equated with monetary contributions, you can bet that anything that offends CAIR will become "campaign speech" which will then be regulated away.

But some of us are taking the pledge not to obey the FEC. They'll take away my blog when they pry it out of my cold dead hands, hmm?

Redneck Texan said...

How long have you been waiting to hear these words come out of a western political leaders mouth.

This marks a Rubicon in the war on terror...I hope.

I think the rank & file civilized human beings are tired of pretending this is not a holy war. The preponderance of daily evidence has exposed the undeniable truth to anyone with an open mind or that does not have an agenda that denial furthers.

If Tony follows through on his promises he will go down as one of the greatest political leaders of his time IMO. He appears to be turning his back on the liberal ideology that empowered him when the fundamental fallacy of universal religious tolerance and pretentious multi-cultural idealism has been exposed as being a policy that facilities further victimization of our free society.

But sadly every day that passes without another attack in Britain will give the left's media another opportunity to chip away at this newfound common sense approach to Britain's security. And after all that's all Blair is proposing. All these new policy goals, which I applaud, are are measures to increase Britain's domestic security situation but not necessarily making the world in general any safer if the ultimate penalty he is proposing is ceremonial deportation of a few of Allah's overt agitators.

Deportation, especially when coupled with agreements to the destination country that the deportee will not be punished there, does nothing for the big picture but give the enemy's of the west a safe staging area to plan their next attack, which in their mind will be even more justified then. It does nothing to increase the safety of Britain's citizens abroad....or ours.

What would China do if faced with the same threat to domestic security Britain and rest of the Anglosphere is facing? China does not have a terrorist problem...why do you figure that is Baron?

Baron Bodissey said...

Redneck, notice that China is using the opportunity of the "war on terror" to crack down on any domestic groups it thinks are dangerous to the regime. The Falun Gong people then become "terrorists". I've read that the Uighurs are suffering from this, since they are Muslims as well as a dangerous minority group.

airforcewife said...

Unfortunately for America, any country that is NOT America can get away with far more draconion measures than we can. We get screams about panties on people's heads... Spain has prevented further terrorism by resorting to some forms of "questioning" outright BANNED by the United States.

No one calls them on it, though, they are considered "enlightened."

Anonymous said...

I am in agreement with Always on Watch, that another attack will be what it takes. It could be a subway-style, or some version of Gerard Van Der Leun's nightmare that he is posting. The comments to it make for scary reading as well.

If our leadership doesn't get it's own pair, and solid brass besides, clamp down on sedition, including the MSM, seal the borders, and act like leaders, when the worst happens, they will see the people do for them what they wouldn't do themselves. The problem is that vigilantes are never as precise as officials. They may get the job done but the "collateral damage" in dead innocents will be much higher.

Just as a general comment, it seems like Republican presidents do far better overseas than at home, and the current one is no exception.