Thursday, November 03, 2005

Laying it on With a Steamshovel

 
On October 25th the State Department hosted an annual event honoring the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. It was the kind of affair that one would expect, a celebration of brotherhood, tolerance, international fellowship, etc.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made some remarks to the assembled guests:
     We in America also know that Muslims, like people of all faiths and people of no faith at all, possess certain basic rights that arise from our equal human dignity. Among these are the right to live without oppression, the right to worship without persecution, and the right to think and speak and assemble without wrongful retribution.
Ladies and gentlemen, these are not American rights or Western rights. They are human rights, unanimously desired and universally deserved. Muslims freely exercise their rights as American citizens and Muslims have claimed their rights throughout Northern Africa and Western Europe and Central Asia and Southeast Asia.
So far, so good. She is echoing President Bush here, emphasizing the centrality and universality of basic human rights.

But, Madame Secretary, did you have to lay it on so thick?
     So, on behalf of all the men and women of the State Department, thank you for honoring us with your presence this evening. Thank you for what you do every day as people of a great faith, of one of the world’s great religions, of a religion of peace and love. Thank you for spending this important holiday evening with us. Ramadan Kareem.
Islam is no longer simply the Religion of Peace; it has been promoted to the Reigion of Peace and Love.

This, while Muslims are:
  ·  burning down the suburbs of Paris;
  ·  beheading schoolgirls in Indonesia;
  ·  blowing up innocent civilians in Israel;
  ·  torching kindergartens in Denmark;
  ·  beating up Africans in Britain;
  ·  committing genocide in Sudan;
  ·  demanding the destruction of Israel and the United States in Iran;
  ·  and beheading teachers in Thailand.

Is it too much to ask that our leaders — even those who pace the lofty carpeted halls of the State Department — refrain from such embarrassing excesses of rhetoric? Couldn’t they make do with the usual after-dinner boilerplate, something like “I am honored to have with me such distinguished guests…”?

One of my unenviable tasks, both online and in the real world, is to defend President Bush’s foreign policy. There are many people to my left and right who believe that the Bush administration is bought and paid for by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

And, thanks to little oratorical flourishes like this, the contrary position gets harder and harder to defend.

7 comments:

Dymphna said...

Yeah...Always on Watch says that the Judiciary Committee cancelled its hearings (scheduled for Oct 25th)-- the subject of which was to be Saudi terrorism...

I've changed my mind: Bush holding hands with a Saud is, no matter how I squint at that picture, disgusting...another bit o' laying it on with a steam shovel.

airforcewife said...

Every time I re-read the "Peace and Love" comment I get stuck with endless sixties folk music on a continuous loop in my head.

Thomas von der Trave said...

As the song goes: "What's so funny 'bout Peace, Love and Understanding?"

Oh, Orwell, you underestimated the power of Newspeak. If Islam is the Religion of Peace and Love, then we should really all love Big Allah. And his last, perfect, inimitable servant, Mahomet.

Here's my jizya, baas.

Thomas von der Trave said...

Oh, and Baron, I hate to say it, but if you study the Bush family history as opposed to just the vita of our current president, the notion that someone has been bought and paid for by the masters of the Magick Kingdom becomes tortuously difficult to refute.

Baron Bodissey said...

Cato (elder) -- no kidding. But I think you'll find that every administration since WW2 has had the same problem...

Thomas von der Trave said...

That may well be true, Baron, and I didn't mean to suggest that the Bush crowd is any more sinister than the rest. Had there been the Kennedy dynasty that Joe Sr. envisioned, who knows what we'd be saying about them. (The semi-permanent Kennedy rule in Mass. is bad enough.)

Getting back to the article that precipitated Dymphna's comment, I find it telling that Dr. Rice's comments began with: “[I]n the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Muslim nations extended some of the most generous offers of support that we received.”

Yes, excepting the Israeli aid that was turned down because it might offend Muslims to see us getting help from the Zionists.

Retch.

goesh said...

Alternatives to oil anyone? 1 bushel of corn yields 2.7 gallons of ethanol. They are starting to sell gas that is 85% ethonol 15% petrol based. A friend from N. Dakota sent me a clipping from a local newspaper. The stuff was selling for 1.79 while super unleaded was selling for 2.49 a gallon. The average corn production statistic in the US is 145 bu. per acre. That yields 391.5 gallons of ethanol. All the gluten and corn oil can still be sold/used. One section of land, 640 acres would produce 250,560 gallons of ethanol. That is a patch of land 1 mile by one mile. Factor in the mileage hybrid cars can get and the potential is mind-boggling. Too bad the oil conglomerates and arabs would lose their obscene profit margins if this ever got going. Until then, the gulf arabs can tell the West to eat fecal matter and most will have to open their mouthes and prepare to swallow.

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