As Old as the Garden of Eden

Street sexual harassment in India is a phenomenon India’s women are intimately familiar with, though foreign women —- since they spend most of their time in enclaves and very little time on the street — escape being grabbed, patted, pinched, or stroked.

Laura Neuhas is a visitor to Bangalore who decided to add her voice to a group which started last year to publicize the ubiquity of this practice, to counter the attacks, and, when possible, to bring whatever perpetrators they can find to justice:

“People run up and grab my butt, my breast and brush against me purposely,” Neuhaus says. “It happens so fast.”

“I will be walking with my boyfriends and it makes no difference. After that I go through post-traumatic stress. You are so angry and humiliated,” she says. “There is no one to talk to.”

When she says “people,” she means men, of course. The group she has joined, Blank Noise, calls this practice of public humiliation “Eve teasing,” which The Middle East Times calls “a euphemism in India for the sexual harassment or molestation of women.”

Eve-teasing. That’s a good name for a behavior that is probably hard-wired genetically, and controlled only by the strictures of established mores in any given culture. Evidently the controls on such behaviors are eroding in the face of the growing societal pressures on men and women in India.

In India, this problem is exacerbated by a number of conditions, the first being the general contempt with which women are regarded:

In India’s male-dominated society, 16 cases of various types of violence against women are reported every hour, according to the National Crime Records Bureau. More than 18,000 rape cases are reported against women every year.

Some 8,800 women are killed in India every year in dowry disputes, the bureau reported.

India is currently mulling laws to combat sexual harassment.

[These figures seem pathetically small, given the population of India: 1,096,221,674. If our Indian readers have more reliable statistics, Gates of Vienna will be glad to post them.].

Not only are women regularly harassed in public, killed in private, and subject to a higher suicide rate than men, there are limited ways to fight back:

Jasmeen Patheja, the 26-year-old founder of Blank Noise, says that she started the outfit in the high-tech city to encourage a public debate on eve teasing.

“This group encourages women to open up and question the harassment on the streets,” Patheja says. “In India your family or your peer group dismisses the topic of Eve teasing. A vast number of women choose not to question it.

“We are in an environment where every girl has to protect herself in a public space. Women are made to feel that they are asking for it.”

The group holds silent demonstrations on the streets of Bangalore, holding posters and banners reading “Y R U LOOKING AT ME.”

So far, retributive violence is not being suggested, except in the comments section of the blog at the Blank Noise Project ( One can only guess what would be the response in say, Texas, if women were regularly subjected to this kind of harassment).

In addition to the omnipresent misogyny in India, and the stress put on women via dowries in marriage, there is a crucial problem that India must address if this corrosive issue is going to be resolved. Behavior is driven by many factors, and in this case, one can guess that part of the pressure behind the harassment is the growing scarcity of women to begin with. The demographics in India break down as follows:

Sex ratio —

		at birth:		1.05 male(s)/female
		under 15 years:		1.06 male(s)/female
		15-64 years:		1.07 male(s)/female
		65 years and over:		1.03 male(s)/female
		total population:		1.07 male(s)/female (2000 est.)

Notice that the ratio of men increases as children age. Evidently the mortality rate for girls increases with age. Compare the above to US demographics:

Sex ratio—

		at birth:		1.05 males/female
		under 15 years:		1.05 males/female
		15-64 years:		1 male/female
		65 years and over:		0.72 male/female
		total population:		0.97 male/female (2005)

In other words, it’s safer to be female in the US than it is in India.

The Times of India reported recently of a sting operation that snagged a number of female doctors who were practicing female foeticide in private clinics in India. It’s amazing to realize that female doctors would willingly collude in worsening the conditions for girl children in their country, but it’s been a long time since we’ve expected the medical profession to be in the vanguard upholding the cultural safeguards in our own country. Why should we expect Indian doctors to be any different? At any rate, the news report does not make clear what India’s legal code has to say about gender-specific abortions. Certainly abortion itself is legal, so parsing it along gender lines might be difficult to prosecute.

Which brings us back to the beginning of the story. Men in India target women on the street for a very physical kind of sexual harassment. Women are beginning to fight back, however tentatively. Meanwhile, many men are doomed to life without a helpmeet… unless, that is, they can rent one for awhile:

…prompted by a shortage of eligible single women, some poverty-stricken husbands in western India have gone to the extent of renting out their wives to other men on a monthly rate.

The local newspaper the Times of India reports that one man allowed his farm laborer wife, and mother of two, to stay with her boss for 8,000 rupees (175 dollars) a month. Many poor families and middlemen have also cashed in on the shortage of women by selling off their daughters to men in Gujarat, one of India’s wealthiest states.

The brokers dealing in the trade reportedly make up to 200,000 ($4,436) rupees a month from finding and selling wives to single men.

The paper doesn’t bother reporting the rates of female foeticide, infanticide, or dowry deaths. Just a typical MSM story: “prompted by a shortage of… women…” without bothering to tell you how the shortage occurred.

India is well known for the brilliance of its mathematicians. Goes to show you that intelligence has nothing to do with this, since individual decisions to kill girl babies continue to tunnel through the foundations on which a secure society rests, rotting it out from underneath.

China, another country known for the intelligence and industry of its populace, is equally well known for its female infanticide and the burgeoning population of single males with no hope of marriage or family. In fact, its demographics are even more depressing:

Sex ratio:

		at birth:		1.12 male(s)/female
		under 15 years:		1.13 male(s)/female
		15-64 years:		1.06 male(s)/female
		65 years and over:		0.91 male(s)/female
		total population:		1.06 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

There doesn’t seem to be a solution on the horizon for either country. At least not one a humane person wants to contemplate. However, it would be well to contemplate the outcome for the world when the two countries in the world with the largest populations have millions of extra males to deal with. A recent study shows the effects of marriage and parenting on male testosterone levels:

A man’s testosterone levels drop significantly when he holds an infant. Even holding a baby doll can decrease levels of the male virility hormone.

Married men, whether fathers or not, have markedly lower testosterone levels than single males, according to one of the first studies of how the hormone changes when men marry and become fathers. Results of the study, done by a team of Harvard University anthropologists, increase our knowledge of human biology and may have implications for so-called “male menopause.”

Researchers have long suspected that levels of the hormone largely responsible for fighting, competing, and mating decrease when men settle down and start a family. Other studies have shown that testosterone begins to decline shortly after marriage, but surges upward when unions end in divorce.

So what will India and China and any other large misogynist country or culture do with all those excess men?

Can you say “cannon fodder”?

What We Stand For

In yesterday’s post I wrote about a vile anti-Semitic cartoon that was published in the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet and discussed in Vårt Land. At the time I had no translation of the Norse in Vårt Land, but Gates of Vienna is very fortunate that Zonka, who is Danish, can also translate Norse. Here is his version of the Vårt Land piece, with his editorial comments shown in italicized square brackets:

Bold Assault [Rudely transgressing boundaries of decent behavior]

The reactions were severe after Monday’s edition of Dagbladet published a cartoon of Israel’s prime minister as a Nazi commander.

“I have never seen anything like this in Norwegian newspapers. This is a bold assault,” says To Øyvind Westbye, leader of Bergen KrFU [Kristelig Folkepartis Ungdom — Christian People’s Party Youth Organization] to Bergens Tidende.

Shooting a Jew

The cartoon in Dagbladet portraying Israel’s PM Ehud Olmert as a Nazi commander in Auschwitz is taken from the movie Schindler’s List, where the commander walks out to the balcony and shoots a random Jew.

“I have seen such cartoons in extreme Arabic newspapers, but Norwegian newspapers have restrained themselves from bringing such comparisons,” says Westbye.

“Not over the line”

The editor of Norge Idag [Norway Today], Finn Jarle Sæle, tells Bergens Tidende that he sees the cartoon as anti-Semitic.

Cartoonist Finn Graff doesn’t think that he crossed the line:

“It’s a little rude, but this is what I stand for”, says Graff to Bergens Tidende.

“A little bit rude”???

I suppose the Holocaust was an “unfortunate faux pas”? World War Two was maybe a “minor dust-up”? The Black Plague was “a slight fever”?

So this is what he stands for. Well, why should we stand for it?

I’m not talking about censorship. I’m talking about vilifying, ostracizing, snubbing, insulting, denigrating, ridiculing, and holding up to public opprobrium people who hold such disgusting views.

Make your opinion known. Boycott the papers in which the works of such people appear. Light a fire under the feet of their editors to make their jobs less secure. Help take away the comfortable sinecures they have enjoyed for so long in the hitherto impregnable redoubt of the Mainstream Media.

If people like this don’t represent us, then their voices should be drowned out by the opposition.

After all, what do we stand for?


Zonka has sent some more material for Gates of Vienna, which we’ll be posting eventually.

Everybody make sure to tell Zonka that he is one righteous Viking dude.

Prairie Dogs

Israel’s offensive against Hizbullah in Lebanon has applied a dose of smoke to the anti-Semitic prairie dog colony, and little rodent heads are starting to poke up out of their holes.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad thinks he has seen one peeking out in Germany — now what ever gave him the idea to look for Jew-haters there?

According to Deutsche Welle:

Two months after sending US President Bush a letter, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has written Angela Merkel a letter requesting aid in solving the Palestinian problem and dealing with Zionism.

[…]

“It’s all related to Germany and how we have to find a solution to the Palestinian problems and Zionism and so on. It’s rather weird,” said the official who saw the letter on Thursday.

[…]

The German official who read the letter said it was an “extremely touchy” subject, and added that the government did not yet know if or how it would respond. “There are a lot of propaganda phrases about Israel and the Jews in it.”

It’s hard to tell exactly how much anti-Semitism there is in Germany, since the country tries to discourage its public expression with strict laws against Holocaust denial. The protesters who staged the recent pro-Hizbullah demonstrations in Berlin were mainly composed of Lebanese, Palestinians and Turks. But there is widespread opposition in Germany to Israel’s current offensive, so there’s no telling how soon the silhouette of the German prairie dog will appear against the sky.

In other European countries the old pastime is becoming part of the mainstream. Just about everyone has seen the photo of the Spanish prime minister in a kaffiyah, but he’s not the only Spaniard suffering from Pali-envy: traditional anti-Semitism is staging a comeback in Spain. According to YNet, anti-Semitism is the latest leftist trend:

Although many experts had foretold of the imminent disappearing of European Jews, nobody expected such a virulent explosion of anti-Semitism in Spain, not even under a Leftist government.

The first signal came on Monday, 5 December, when during a dinner with the Benarroch family, Zapatero and wife began claiming what Vidal Quadras, member of the European Parliament, described on the radio as “a tirade of anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism”.

[…]

By the moment the Benarroch couple had left the table to express their regrets, Zapatero was explaining his lack of surprise about the Holocaust: according to the people present, Zapatero claimed to understand the Nazis.

[…]

The recent clashes with Hizbullah… have promoted the longest and hardest diatribes against Israel, forcing Zapatero to lose a cover for what it was long known in Spanish politics: His hate towards Israel, Jews and Zionism.

In the third day of such rants, before a gathering of the Socialist Youth Movement and a day before a demonstration against Israel, Zapatero showed at last his true colours: At the closing of the meeting he let the teenagers take pictures of him wearing a Palestinian kaffiyah.

After Los Reyes Católicos drove the Moors from Spain in 1492, they expelled the Jews, too. The Moors are back, but is it time to get rid of the Jews again? Some Spanish Jews think so:

The commotion caused in the Spanish Jewish community seems to be huge, especially taking in count that after some months of anxiety after his election, some Jews were feeling somewhat safe in Spain. Not anymore.

Some people were trying to alert the international community about what was boiling in Spain, but neither the OSCE nor the EUMC ever listened, preferring contacts with anti-Israeli NGOs based on the idea that anti-Semitism has to do with Arabs. Now the Spanish Jews are to pay the price for the international community’s inaction, once more.

And Spain is not the only country in Europe where Jew-hatred is outing itself. Last week a Norwegian newspaper saw fit to publish an obnoxious political cartoon. Here’s a summary of the story in Brussels Journal (the image is a scan of the Dagbladet page from Vårt Land):

…the cartoonist Finn Graff published an anti-Israeli cartoon in the popular Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet. The cartoon shows Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as a Nazi commander in the concentration camp of Auschwitz. The scene comes from the movie Schindler’s List, in which the commander shoots down a random Jew from his balcony. For the sake of clarity: Finn Graff is the same cartoonist who declared only half a year ago that he would not draw a cartoon about Muhammad out of fear and “respect.” Apparently he has no problems with his fear, nor does he need to show any respect when he can insult Jews or Israel, or Christians for that matter.

Fjordman has reported on the extent of anti-Semitism in Sweden. France has its own problems with anti-Semitism, with North African “youths” in the vanguard. French Jews have been emigrating to Israel in record numbers. Expect more and more prominent voices on the Left in these countries to join the chorus as the campaigns against Hamas and Hizbullah continue.

It seems that Mr. Ahmadinejad might want to address a plenum of the European Union to solicit their advice — no need to stop with just Germany.

Danish commenters here at Gates of Vienna assure us that Denmark is an exception, that anti-Semitism there is rare and enjoys no social approval.

If they’re right, the Danish prairie dog may be the only one in Europe to stay resolutely in its burrow.


Hat tip for YNet article: Carl in Jerusalem.

Hat tip for cartoon: Tom Pechinski.

Are We Lumberjacks?

Last night, while looking through the referrals on our sitemeter, Dymphna and I discovered a blog we’d never seen before. It’s called “Are We Lumberjacks?”, and we were so taken with it that we immediately added it to our blogroll.

Lumberjack a is very witty fellow, and we just kept scrolling through his posts, chuckling and guffawing. A couple of snippets — from today’s post:

The Dissident Frogman reports that a member of the French parliament is calling for military action against Israel.

…it irresistibly brings to mind the famous taunt “you and what army?”

And here’s another one, concerning the infamous Cindy Sheehan Celebrity Fast:

I joined the hunger strike by accident yesterday. I’m pretty sure curried chicken is allowed so long as you don’t use too much garam masala or salt. Tonight I’ll see if I can’t make my own pork loin smoothie.

A lot of his gags are visual or depend on the context of the images, so we really recommend a visit to Are We Lumberjacks?

As a side effect, he hijacks the punctuation in every sentence that mentions him.

Trinidad’s Sheikh of Jihad is Out on Bail Again

The notorious insurrectionary sheikh, Yasin Abu Bakr, is out on bail again in Trinidad. According to Tuesday’s edition of Caribbean Net News:

Trinidad’s Muslimeen leader, 64-year-old Imam Yasin Abu Bakr, after spending almost eight months in jail on charges of sedition, has been granted bail in the sum of TT$400,000.

Bail was granted by Port of Spain high court judge, Justice Herbert Volney after lawyers for Bakr argued their client had a critical health condition and therefore could run the risk of dying if he was made to continue to endure prison conditions.

He had been kept at the state’s maximum security prison in Arouca, east Trinidad. Justice Volney agreed that the Muslimeen leader should be released on medical grounds.

Supporters who greeted their leader said they were thankful to Allah for his release. Imam Bakr faces five counts of sedition and incitement arising out of an EID holiday presentation he made in November last year at his St James Mucurapo Mosque.

This week’s release is a reprise of last year’s events. The photo above was taken in March 2005, when the sheikh was released on bail after the government failed to convict him on a charge of conspiracy to murder.

His earlier brush with incarceration has apparently not convinced him to mend his ways:

It is alleged that at his Mucurapo Mosque during an Eid-ul-Fitr sermon on November 4 last year, Bakr threatened to use violence against the Muslim community in Trinidad, saying there will be a war if rich Muslims did not pay zakaat (a religious tax), which is required by all Muslims and said to be one of the five pillars of Islam - a tax collected to help the poor.

Notice that this was an intramural conflict among Muslims in Trinidad, and seems to involve an element of class warfare. Or maybe just a shakedown operation gone wrong…?

Sheikh Abu Bakr has a history of political violence in Trinidad:

Bakr was also the leader of a failed coup attempt in 1990 in Trinidad. He, together 113 others of his organization, stormed the country’s Parliament and held the then Prime Minister, Arthur N.R. Robinson and other government ministers hostage at gun point for several days. Robinson was also shot and wounded. At least one government minister died during the insurrection.

So now Abu Bakr is enjoying the pleasures of liberty again. I hope Trinidad’s domestic counter-terrorism units are keeping a close eye on him.


Hat tip: Uncle Pavian.

Cry ‘God for Harry, England, and Saint George!’

Dhimmitude casts its long evening shadows over the Church of England. It has been doing so for quite some time now. Soon there will be only darkness and the ruins.

The latest attempt to lay their necks on the cutting stone, comes from the movement to dethrone St. George. If the clergy has its way, St. George will be banished to mythology's rooms, where, with St. Christopher, he will come to rest.

More in keeping with historical reality — though hardly a rallying cry for manly self-defense — is St. Alban, a Christian martyr from early 4th century Hertfordshire. St. Alban is famous for having his head cut off and for being dead before Mohammed was even dreamed of. Thus is he being touted as a replacement for the beloved image of St. George, the dragon slayer, the emblem of the Crusaders, and a bright red embarrasment for dhimmis in the UK.

The clerisy have trotted forth all their good reasons as to why St. George must go and St. Alban must take his place:

…the Church of England is considering rejecting England’s patron saint St George on the grounds that his image is too warlike and may offend Muslims.

Clergy have started a campaign to replace George with St Alban, a Christian martyr in Roman Britain.

The scheme, to be considered by the Church’s parliament, the General Synod, has met a cautious but sympathetic response from senior bishops.

[…]

The proposal has been put forward by the Rev Philip Chester, vicar of St Matthew’s, Westminster, who has called the use of St George as patron saint ‘dotty’.

His call for a change is based on the lack of firm historical evidence that George — said to be a Roman general from the 4th century AD who was put to death by Emperor Diocletian for professing Christianity — ever existed.

He said: ‘We are sure St Alban is a real figure. What’s more, he lived in this country.’

Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams indicated support for an upgrade for Alban, although he is said to be cautious about relegation for George.

He told the Sunday Times: ‘I think St Alban is irreplaceable in the history of English Christianity. Perhaps we ought to raise his profile because it’s the beginning of the church in this country with martyrdom, wisdom and courage.’

Well, at least we know how the Archbishop got to his present place of umm, eminence. It certainly wasn’t for emulating Saint George.

The new fellow, Alban, has a yellow cross, laid diagonally on the flag’s blue field. Does “yellow” have the same connotation across the pond that it does in the US? One can only hope not. As for the concern that George's "image is too warlike and may offend Muslims..."? My heavens, we can't have that. Perhaps the red cross on its field of white could be saved for burials, say for the victims of terrorists dissidents in the next train bombing.

Meanwhile, back in present-day reality, these pronouncements about St. George’s flag are being widely and loudly ignored by some. As the increasingly marginalized Church prepares to abandon its centuries’ old warriors' flag, the new faith communities — professional sports — have picked up the pennant and are running the field with it. This, despite official refusal have St. George's cross fly from public buildings on what was formerly his feast day (April 23rd). But never mind. The establishment's disdain for St. George the dragon slayer is irrelevant. He lives on in popular culture, despite the frowning elitists’ attempts to ban him from public view:

But it [the Church’s stand] clashes with the increasing popularity of the saint and his flag in England. The World Cup brought out millions of St George crosses as the symbol became increasingly mainstream and less frequently dismissed as a badge favoured only by far-Right political activists.

So you see, it’s like this: for some, there is still a sacred space, upon a green sward —

…And you, good yeoman,
Whose limbs were made in England, show us here
The mettle of your pasture; let us swear
That you are worth your breeding; which I doubt not;
For there is none of you so mean and base,
That hath not noble lustre in your eyes.
I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game’s afoot:
Follow your spirit, and upon this charge
Cry ‘God for Harry, England, and Saint George!’

— King Henry V, Act 3, Scene I           

Hat tip: Enchiridion Militis


UPDATE: a fitting quote from Roncesvalles’ blog

At orphaned altars, demons dwell.
(Ernst Jünger)

The United Notions

Thanks to Apollon Zamp for the idea for this graphic.


The United Notions is the successor to the —

League of Notions

I’m here sitting in the wreck of Europe
With a map of Europe
Spread out in a hall of Versailles
And every single nationality and principality
have come for a piece of the pie

I’m sitting in the wreck of Europe
With a map of Europe
And the lines and the borders are gone
We’ve got to do this jigsaw puzzle
It’s an awful muddle
But somehow we’ve got to go on

Lawrence of Arabia is waiting in the wings
He’s got some Arab sheikhs and kings
And we’re in debt to them somehow
Lawrence of Arabia has got this perfect vision
Gonna sell him down the river
There’s no time for him now

I think I’m gonna take a piece of Russia
And a Piece of Germany
And give them to Poland again
I’ll put together Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia
And hope that is how they’ll remain

Then I’ll take a bit of Turkey
Then a lot of Turkey
This is all quite a heady affair
There’s Persia and Iraq to pick up
And there’s Churchill’s hiccup
And we can’t leave it up in the air

Woodrow Wilson waves his fourteen points around
And says “The time to act is now
Won’t get this opportunity again”
Woodrow Wilson has his fourteen points
But Clemenceau turns to Lloyd George
And says “You know that
God himself had only ten”

Today I’m carried by a league of notions
(It’s a league of notions)
By a league of notions
I don’t think I quite understand
(I don’t think I understand)
I only know from this commotion
(From this commotion)
There’s a chance that we could turn
The world in the palm of our hands
(We can turn the world in the palm of our hands)

Voices in the corridors of power
Candles burning hour by hour
Still you know that to the victors go the spoils
Such a great responsibility to make it fair
And there must be some reparations now
And don’t forget the oil

Today I’m carried by a league of notions
(It’s a league of notions)
By a league of notions
I don’t think I quite understand
(I don’t think I understand)
I only know from this commotion
(From this commotion)
There’s a chance that we could turn
The world in the palm of our hands
(We can turn the world in the palm of our hands)

Pax vobiscum
Wo-Oh, Pax vobiscum

— Al Stewart, from Between the Wars

Big Brother Flexes His Muscles in India

Gates of Vienna hasn’t written on the 7/11 Mumbai bombings just yet. Though intensely interested in the struggle against Great Jihad on the subcontinent, I know so little about the background to the bombings that I don’t feel qualified to write on the topic. I have kept up with The Hindustan Times, noting that the ISI seems to be behind the atrocity (no surprise there), and have continued to absorb information about it.

Then over this past weekend I read in a blog somewhere the alarming news that Indian ISPs were blocking access to blogspot and other blog-hosting sites, using 7/11 as a pretext. In one of Monday’s posts, our regular Indian commenter Ik left the following note:

Sorry for the OT Baron, You won’t be getting bloggers from India now.

India blocks Blogger, TypeAd and Geocities blogs and websites

Post 7/11, Govt targets ‘extreme’ websites, bloggers on the blink

The government of India is using 7/11 as an excuse to block all blogs specifically nationalist blogs. Note that you can still access all jihadi and communist web sites from India.

This is exactly as predicted by the earlier Fjordman article — Soft Totalitarianism moving to Hard Totalitarianism as the Congress Party and the leftists/communists lose control over the news cycle and propaganda.

From Ik’s first link, Moneycontrol:

The Indian Government has issued an order to all Indian ISPs for a ban on various blogging sites. While no official release has been made on this front, the reasons being attributed to this ban range from it being a preventive measure to stop sleeper terrorist cells from accessing instructions contained in blogs, to a new measure to try and control the spread of information through blogs. The order was issued by Department of Telecommunications (DoT). The known list of blocked domains is *.blogspot.com, *.typepad.com and geocities.com/*.

It leads me to wonder if this is a case of ISPs overreacting, which would not be the first. Three years ago, they had rather zealously blocked groups.yahoo.com in a similar manner when all they wanted to actually do was to block a particular group. As of now most of the large ISPs have already complied with the DoT order and a large population of Indian bloggers has been cut off from their own blogs. Keep checking back here, as we will post more news on this story whenever available.

And from The Indian Express:

The fast-growing community of online bloggers has borne the brunt of the government’s decision to block some 20 websites in a post-Mumbai show of force. Some of the websites that have been blocked are Dalitstan.org, Clickatell.com, Hinduhumanrights.org and Hinduunity.com.

But the most harried Internet users were the bloggers, who couldn’t access Blogspot.com, Typepad.com or Geocities.com pages. Sources in ISPs in Delhi as well as Mumbai confirmed that the one blog government has asked them to block is Princesskimberly.blogspot.com.

It seems the order posed technical problems, resulting in a blanket ban on all blogs. ‘‘You cannot block a single page on blogspot.com, which is why all of them are getting blocked,’’ said Neha Viswanathan, Regional Editor, South Asia, Globalvoicesonline.org from London.

The Indian order was issued on July 13, sources in the Ministry of Telecom confirmed, though the Computer Emergency Response Team (India), part of a global cyber-security network set up three years ago, did not announce the bans officially.

Only sources in several ISPs such as Spectranet and Airtel confirmed that they had received the site-blocking order. R Grewal, a spokesperson for Spectranet confirmed: ‘‘We received a list of over 20 websites to block from the Department of Telecom, and this (Blogspot.com) was one of them.’’

Apparently, all the websites blocked are said to express “extreme religious views.”

MTNL officials said they were handed a 22-page document detailing the sites to block a month ago. “It came from the National Informatics Centre (NIC). It was the first time that they had done something of this nature,’’ says RH Sharma, sub-divisional engineer for MTNL in Delhi.

Government sources confirmed late in the evening that some websites have been blocked based on police reports that they were fuelling hatred. They denied that the Mumbai blasts had anything to do with censorship and that security checks on the blocked sites were on since before the terrorist attacks.

But the ban hasn’t been a complete success: later on Monday Gates of Vienna started receiving referrals from Bharat Rakshak, an Indian Defense portal, on whose forums I often lurk and occasionally comment. Contributor Mihir had posted the following:

Carl in Jerusalem is live-blogging the situation as it unfolds.

Hat tip — Gates of Vienna

All links have been “anonymoused” because of the blocking of blogger by ISPs in India

If you look at the links to Carl and Gates of Vienna, you’ll notice that the domain is “anonymouse.org” and the URLs for the forbidden blogs are thus concealed from Big Brother’s robots. Three days after the Wall of Silence went up, India was already getting messages through it.

Desipundit is the place I go to see what’s happening on the Indian blogs. Sure enough, they had a sticky post at the top of their blog reporting on the effects of the ban and asking readers to send in more information. Bloggers were already forming consortiums and had created a Public Wiki to pool information about how to get around the ban (the anonymouse strategy was one of those mentioned). Below is a snapshot of the complete post from sometime yesterday; it has probably been updated since then. I’ve included all the links so you can explore the wealth of the Indian blogosphere:

Is Blogspot.com being blocked by some ISPs in India? While it’s highly unlikely, and maybe some local servers are down. (Do they have local servers?) — Mridula says

Now I know I am speculating but it makes me very very irritated to think that our government might be playing some hanky panky with blog sites? The other possibility is that Blogger messed it up only in India? I would love it if it is the second possibility but I think there is a very slim chance of that. I can only hope that there is an innocent explanation to it.

If you are in India, can you please head over here, and just tell me if you can access Blogspot.com and what ISP you are on?

Update#1: Amit at Digital Inspiration has a [partial] list of Indian ISPs that seem to be blocking Blogspot and offers several solutions to get around the block.

We are waiting on news to confirm if it indeed was a Ministry of Communications directive that made these ISPs block the site. Let us know if you find out either way.

Update#2: Abi calls up one of the ISP call centres. IF you cannot access blogspot or typepad domain (despite your connection being robust etc.) please go here and add details regarding your ISP and their contact details.

A very comprehensive guide on how you can go about seeking information under the Right to Information Act, including a draft letter you can send off to the Public Information Officer for the Department of IT here.

Saket writes about the Indian Government doing a Big Brother. Shivam posts on his experience — calling up a government official. Dina shares the mail she wrote to CERT-IN and her ISP. It appears that some ISPs have also blocked Typepad.com and Geocities.com.

Update#3: Things are picking up fast now, a Bloggers Collective has been formed to tackle this issue, and the email discussion can be followed on the web. A Public Wiki has also been created to collate the information on the issue. Readers are requested to add to it.

Update# 4: There is a word from sources that mainstream media will be soon picking up on the issue. Shivam Vij does a rediff article on the issue. BoingBoing has pickes up the issue. So does Mercury News Blog. And by the way, you can also digg it (1, 2, 3).

Other international and popular blogger who have written about it are Michelle Malkin, Wayne Porter, Sean Sirrine, and Jon Lebkowsky. Anna at Sepia Mutiny blogs about the issue and keep a watch on the comments thread. I am sure some dimwits (already one present) will be harping on appropriateness of the government’s actions.

Update#5: Dhoomketu writes an open letter to DoT (yup! on Blogspot) thanking them for showing that Livejournal and Wordpress are insignificant blog platforms.

Web Pro News picks up the story.

After the Blogspot ban, what’s next in the ‘to ban’ list to “save” us from terror?

Ethan Zuckerman sadly says that India has joined an ‘elite’ club; something we could have done without. Vijay Rao seems to suggest that the block is enforced only in cities and rural internet connectivity seems to be fine.

Update#6: More MSM stories are trickling in: Indian Express, Hindustan Times, Financial Express, The Blog Herald, The Economic Times, Business Standard, DNA, NDTV, The Times of India, CNN-IBN[1], CNN-IBN[2], Mid-Day[generic], Rediff[2], Host Review, and New Statesman, New York Times.

Greatbong lists important lessons learnt from the ban on Blogspot.

Slashdot has the story with an unfortunate headline that I never thought I would read.

Update# 7: Amit Varma at Guardian’s Comment is Free says “this move by the government is just an attempt to appear to be doing something, and displays their ineptness.”

Because fighting government censorship is hard, we need a moment to lighten up and laugh a little [hat tip: Ammani].

It’s inspiring to read through the information on Desipundit; it opens a window on all those dedicated and intelligent people in India who are determined to preserve their free speech. Since India has wealth of technical talent, including computer engineers, programmers, web developers, and hackers, it’s doubtful that their government can suppress them for long.

We’re fortunate that so many people in India blog in English, so that we can drop in and see what’s going on.

The Chinese government imposes even more severe repression on the internet, with the active collaboration of Google and Yahoo. But the Chinese blogosphere is less easily accessible to us in the West — I wonder if the ever-resourceful Chinese are as successful at circumventing Big Brother as are their counterparts in India?

Of Hate Mail and the Hymen Industry

Gates of Vienna doesn’t get much hate mail, so it’s always a thrill to open up a screed that drools down the page. Take this snippet from an epistle in today’s mailbag:

Put simply, I say to you, that you are ignorant, racist, Zionist bastards. My initial quarrel is with your perception of the religion of Islam. As Americans you no doubt have the utmost contempt for anyone who chooses to go against you [sic] screwed up, Nazi culture and live their own way of life. Many or most Americans, in my experience, claim not to be racist since they do not jusdge [sic] based on racial differences. I put it to you that you do, however, discriminate based upon religion and culture. Just because a woman decides to protect her modesty she is being crushed by the ideals of men? Surely if men had their way, and theirs alone, women would go around wearing very little at all.

Now this would have been a stronger essay had he made his opening salvo into a separate paragraph of one eye-catching sentence. Those ad feminemae would have stood taller had they been forced to fire from their own little fortified island at the beginning. As it is though, the subsequent verbiage buries his virile first statement beneath a veritable waterfall of spittled rage and thus peters out. So to speak.

Such a shame they quit teaching children how to write. The Headmistress would never let one of her pupils get away with this kind of essay. Come to think of it, neither would Sister Benignus, not even in her dotage.

So, Mr. Hate Email, a C+ for you — and I’m being kind, at that. You lost points for making one paragraph out of divers thoughts and subjects. In addition, the “you” in front of “screwed up, Nazi culture” would make more syntactical sense as “your screwed up, etc.” Lastly, I’m not certain your ultimate jibe in this paragraph doesn’t tend toward the lewd and lascivious, mentioning as it does scantily-clad women. However, despite the pedestrian style of your screed, we’ll give you the benefit of the doubt there, since you so nicely lead into the real subject of this post, which is hymens — a subject vital to the non-Zionists among us, mostly for reasons of health and safety.

Several weeks ago Planck’s Constant had post up entitled “Why There Are Only 72 Virgins in Heaven.” The title alone intrigued me, given all those thousands of virgin martyrs, men and women, that the Catholic Church is carrying on the books even now. Hmm…were we thinking of the same heavenly space here?

As it turned out, we weren’t. Planck’s Constant had found an MSM article, “Young Muslim women in Europe go to extremes to be virgins — again.” (see his site for the link). This “news” featured the usual MSM victim-seeking missiles, of which the following is an example:

Chastity can exact a painful price from young Muslim women, forced into lies or surgery to go to the marriage bed as virgins. Hymen repair, fake virginity certificates and other deceptions, said to be commonplace in some Muslim countries, are practiced in France and elsewhere in Europe, where Muslim girls are more emancipated but still live under rigid codes of family honor.

Such ploys have saved many a young woman from scorn and worse. But they also clash with the more liberal social mores of France and Europe, where some decry it as an attack on human rights.

Oh, for pity’s sake. Over here in America, with our screwed up Nazi culture, any Muslim woman can sneak into a doctor’s office on her lunch hour and quicker than you can say “laser”, why, zap! hymen restored. Not only that, but she can put it on her credit card or sign up for one of their usurious loan schemes.

Check these sites out, or google your own under “hymen rejuvenation”:

You could try Women’s Liberty Health Care. Here, they lay it on the line—

We perform expert hymen repair surgery (hymenoplasty, hymenorrhaphy) or restoration of the hymenal ring in our clean, comfortable, ultra-modern private OB/GYN office.

The hymenal ring normally gets disrupted after a woman has had sexual intercourse or even after strenuous physical activity or tampon use. Sometimes, for cultural or other personal reasons (for example, an upcoming marriage), a woman would like to restore a more intact, tighter hymenal ring.…( let’s call it what it is, why don’t we? “A life-saving procedure.” Cultural reasons, indeed! How discreet of you, doctor.)

Using a special surgical technique, we can repair and tighten the hymen to a more intact, virgin-like state in most patients. Because of a wide variation among hymenal and vaginal states, we customize the surgery to the individual needs and expectations of the patient, as are discussed during the required pre-surgical consultation and thorough gynecological examination. In most cases, the surgery is virtually undetectable after complete healing, and patients are very pleased with our final results.

My favorite reassurance comes from The Laser Vaginal Rejuvenation Institute of Michigan. Michigan has a very large Muslim population so it is reassuring that they also have a number of Rejuvenation sites. Handy.

Hymenoplasty (reconstruction of the hymen) can repair the hymen as if nothing ever occurred. The Laser Vaginal Rejuvenation Institute is sensitive to the needs of women from all cultures that embrace these particular issues because of cultural, social, or religious reasons.

Now tell me, exactly which “… cultures embrace these particular issues because of cultural, social, or religious reasons”? Name three.

By the way, the “complete healing” mentioned above takes some time, so be sure to schedule your appointment well ahead of the wedding date.

In-laws are not the only hazards of marriage. In some cultures.

Double Duty Ketch Up: Watcher's posts July 7 and July 14

Two weeks in one swell foop here, folks. It means I'm out of the Watcher's clutches for the moment. Well, until Friday at least, when I start procrastinating again...the countdown hasn't even started yet and I can hear the clock ticking. And yes I do indeed procrastinate.

It's not my fault though: I was born late. More than ten days overdue, in fact. So I should get a ten-day handicap on everything, right? When I am made Queen, all of us late babies will get the appropriate handicaps. I haven't decided if the preemies get double or nothing yet. They ought to get something for being in such a rush to get here.

The July 7th winner for the Council was The Wild, Wild West(ern Europe),Gates of Vienna's essay on crime rates in the US and Europe.

Tne non-council winner was Outside the Beltway’s fisking of the Declaration of Independence. The interesting conceit was to blog the event as though Mr. Joyner were there -- and it worked.

All the rest, preserved for posterity, can be viewed here, at the Watcher’s Place.


The July 14th Council winner was Rightwing Nuthouse for his essay Bleeding Iraq, in which Rick Moran notes "there is no denying the fact that at the moment, Iraq is bleeding. And only resoluteness on the part of the government will be able to staunch the flow of blood that is making the lives of ordinary Iraqis a nightmare..." Amen.

First place for the non-council posts was Singing Out of the Flock, by Iraq the Model. His money quote? that there is a new sophistication in the average Iraqi's political discernments. Go see.

The Watcher has everything set up. Click here.

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Note that I haven't put up the second place winners. That's because there is an interesting phenomenon going on in the Council voting: a very wide point spread, so that last week, for instance, five council members tied for third place. And the week before, there were five ties for second place. Very strange.

I asked an old hand why they thought this was happening. He opined that being on the Council tended to improved one's writing skills so that choosing an outright winner is becoming less easy.

Click on the Watcher's links for the two weeks and see what I mean.

July 1914

Israel’s Prime Minister addressed the Knesset today about the situation in Lebanon and beyond. The Washington Times reports:

“There are moments in the life of any nation where it stares reality in the face and says ‘enough,’ “ said Mr. Olmert in his first address to parliament since the fighting began. “So I say to everyone: ‘Enough.’ Israel will not be held hostage to a terrorist gang, nor a terrorist authority.”

The prime minister said he would operate with “all the force” against Hezbollah, an Islamist militant group based in Lebanon, and Hamas, which is holding an Israeli soldier captive in the Gaza Strip. He described the groups as “subcontractors” for an Iranian-Syrian “axis of evil” that exports state-sponsored terrorism.

In the last day or two some commentators, perhaps impatient with the measured pace of unfolding events, have expressed doubt that Israel is willing to go the distance in this war. In particular, they wondered if it would balk at a ground assault into Lebanon.

The Prime Minister’s speech indicates otherwise. “All the force” can only mean the dirty and dangerous task of hunting Hizbullah terrorists down and pulling them out of all their rabbit holes in South Lebanon.

The strategic logic for the ground assault requires major operations in the Bekaa Valley, Hizbullah’s stronghold and armory. In order to neutralize the Bekaa, the terrorists’ supply routes and logistical support from Syria must be interdicted. Wretchard and Chester agree that this may make an Israeli attack on Syrian territory necessary. Bashar Assad, if he is truly dedicated to sitting this one out, might pull all his assets back from the border and ignore what’s going on. But, since saving face is of utmost political importance in the Arab world, he might not.

Then we have this interesting tidbit from YNet (hat tip: Carl in Jerusalem):

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki was sent to Damascus to urge Hizbullah to curb rocket attacks against Israel and to release two Israel Defense Forces soldiers captured a week ago in order to avoid further escalations, a London-based Arabic daily reported.

Al-Sharq al-Awsat reported that a European country warned Iran that Israel is ready for a confrontation with Syria, which recently signed a defense alliance with Iran.

The alliance stipulates that Iran would send arms and troops to back Syria should Damascus be attacked.

Iran was also warned that Israel is determined to crush Hizbullah’s infrastructure and liquidate its leadership.

The report, which was based on leaks by an Iranian presidential aide, said Iran is worried by criticism waged against Hizbullah by an array of Lebanese politicians like Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, Druze leader Walid Jumblatt and Saad Hariri, son of slain former prime minister Rafik Hariri.

Interestingly enough, this seems to be a fight the Arabs want to keep inside the family: Carl reports that Al-Sharq left this story out of their English-language version.

Just to make the situation even more interesting, Spook86 points out that the infidel tourists currently being evacuated by sea from Lebanon may prove to be an irresistible target for Hizbullah’s artillery on the Lebanese coast. Especially the Americans — how could any dedicated mujahid forego the opportunity of blowing up a boatload of Americans?

One big question is whether there truly exists a chain of command running from Tehran through Damascus and the Bekaa to the Hizbullah units on the front lines. Iran and Syria are Hizbullah’s patrons, but do the terrorists really take orders from Damascus and Tehran?

Everything may go smoothly. The Israelis may destroy Hizbullah’s offensive capabilities, hold Syria at bay, and clear a buffer zone in South Lebanon. The UN could broker a cease-fire deal that saves face for everybody, and delegate a multinational force to keep the terrorists away from southern Lebanon. Then the West, with deep-pockets Uncle Sugar leading the way, can shower Lebanon with billions of dollars in development aid to rebuild all the infrastructure destroyed in the war.

It might go that way, but I’m not betting on it just yet.

It’s mid-July, 1914. The Archduke Franz Ferdinand has been buried. Gavrilo Princip is in custody. Austria is mobilizing. The Kaiser rages and seethes. The Serbs are defiant, and Russia seems dangerously oblivious. Everything is up in the air.

What will happen next?

An Unfortunate Choice of Words?

Tonight’s story on CNN was interesting for more than one reason.

First of all, it’s notable that the UN is pressuring the Lebanese government to do something:

Lebanon’s government should play a role to bring peace to the nation which has been crippled by violence between Israel and Hezbollah, said the chief of a United Nations delegation in Beirut on Monday.

The head of the delegation, Vijay Nambier, spoke with Lebanon’s parliament speaker and prime minister, and said more diplomacy is needed to come up with a solution to the conflict, which has entered its sixth day.

So the UN has apparently given up on browbeating the Zionist Entity over the current crisis, and has sent an envoy to scold the Lebanese instead. Maybe it’s because the Great Satan, for once, has refused to twist Israel’s arm behind the scenes in order to force it to accept some “compromise”.

Then there’s this:

Hezbollah guerrillas sparked the crisis last week when they crossed from southern Lebanon into Israel in a raid that killed three Israeli soldiers and led to the kidnapping of two others.

A clear statement about the responsibility of Hizbullah for the conflict! Are we sure this is CNN?

The article goes on to describe the high stakes for Lebanon in the unfolding war. It seems clear, accurate, and mostly free of spin; very unusual for CNN.

But here’s what really made me sit up and take notice:

“We have made many efforts to improve the situation, and our teams have discussed these issues with the Lebanese government, and we will continue to discuss these suggestions and ideas, and we will come back to Lebanon to develop and explore these ideas further,” Nambier said.

“And of course, we should spend more diplomatic work to reach a final solution, and the parties should know that the consequences of failure are great, and time is critical, and there should be creative solutions to end these crises.” [emphasis added]

A Freudian slip, perhaps? Or should we call it a Hitlerian slip?

Not quite the solution I expected…

Dan Riehl Notices the New Music

Yesterday, I mentioned the new Saudi song that everyone in the Middle East seems to be humming.

Dan Riehl has taken further and broader notice of those choosing to sing harmony in this catchy new tune:

The Arabs, led by Saudi Arabia, have condemned Hezbollah. A decade ago the only reports we’d be seeing would include pictures of mobs in the Arab Street shouting “Death to Israel”. As tragic and possibly far from over is the current conflict, there has been movement in what amounts to glacial forces over the last decade and since we invaded Iraq.

The only hope that ever existed for bringing down the state infrastructures behind the world’s worst terrorist organizations (Iran and Syria) had to start with driving a wedge into the Middle East — a region that has been more monolithic in its pro-terrorist, anti-American and anti-Israeli rhetoric than any other over the last fifty years.

The current news may be tragic, as it is, after all, news of war — but, so far, depressing it is not. If current positions by the majority of nations hold, we have crossed the ultimate Rubicon that needed to be crossed in order to finally bring peace to one of the most troubled regions of the world.

Not just Egypt, but now, through their rhetoric and led by Saudi Arabia, the majority of Arab nations have indicated a willingness to peacefully co-exist with a secure Israel. There hasn’t been so profound a shift, or moment in contemporary world events since the tearing down of the Berlin Wall.

Current headlines should give us pause, as no one really wants a war to take place; but there’s more reason for optimism in today’s news from the Middle East, then there is rationale for being depressed.

Why even President Bush has joined in the singing, adding a needed tenor to the chorus. Here’s his solo part, as reported by Agence France Presse:

US President George W. Bush, caught on an open microphone at a summit here, said Monday that a key to defusing the Middle East crisis was for “Hezbollah to stop doing this s**t.”

“What they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this s**t, and it’s over,” Bush told British Prime Minister Tony Blair at a leaders’ lunch at the Group of Eight industrial countries gathering here.

The president was on camera but apparently unaware that his words were being captured by a microphone.

AFP adds, as an aside, that “It was unclear who ‘they’ were.” But that’s a journalist for you…always the last person in the room to get it. And note that AFP has to repeat the President’s bon mot, just in case you missed it the first time. Whoowee - there goes that crazy Christian using bad language…obviously a hypocrite, right?

Back in the late ’80s or early ’90s Saffire, the Uppity Blues Women did a song titled How Can I Miss You When I Can’t Get You to Leave? Seems to me that Lebanon must be singing this one to Hizbollah by now - in fact, the real, true patriotic Lebanese have been singing it for years, but Hizbollah is deaf from all the rockets they’ve fired. Well, they were tone deaf to begin with anyway.

Atlas Shrugged has a video clip from Fox as the President gives forth this wisdom to Tony Blair. Unfortunately, he’s eating a roll at the time, so the audio isn’t clear, and Fox bleeped it to boot. However, you can hear one of the Fox news anchors cheering Bush on for his statement.

Barbara Bush probably had her hands full trying to train George not to talk with food in his mouth. On the other hand, do you recall the exchange between Bess Truman and the press, when they complained about President Truman’s “rough” talk? Bess parried by telling them it took her years to teach him to say “manure.” I doubt Laura’s working on that one, though. Sometimes you just have to call a spade a spade, and sometimes you have to shovel what’s filling up the stall.

One thing is for sure: President Bush isn’t looking for a pony in the midst of the steaming piles that Hizbullah and Hamas have created.


Hat tip: Pundita

A Matter of Proportion

The “D” word came up again today in the news. This time it was the Lebanese prime minister who said it.

According to Brunei Direct:

Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora told CNN’s “Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer” that the Israeli attack had opened “the gates of hell” with what he called a disproportionate response to Hezbollah’s Wednesday raid. [emphasis added]

The whole business has driven me to create a new graphic for the occasion.

The idea of a “disproportionate response” from Israel has been floating around a lot lately. Try using Google News to search for “disproportionate Israel Lebanon”, and you can click through the resulting links until your arm is crippled from carpal tunnel syndrome. The EU, the French, and the British left-wing press are all prominent proponents of the concept, but UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, the Capo of the World Mafia, has been the most notable. The first instance I noticed was Kofi Annan’s initial response to the crisis on July 13th:

I condemn all actions which target civilians, or which unduly endanger them due to their disproportionate or indiscriminate character. I would like to remind the parties that under the law of armed conflict, attacks must not be directed against civilian objects. In particular, they have an obligation to exercise precaution and to respect the proportionality principle in all military operations so as to prevent unnecessary suffering among the civilian population. I call on all parties to adhere to their obligations under international humanitarian law and international agreements. [emphasis added]

If you could cut through all the Kofi-speak to the heart of the matter, what do you think would be a “proportionate” response to the provocations Israel has endured? Do the Israelis have to fire Qassam rockets into Gaza at Hamas? Do Jewish kids have to strap on bomb belts and blow themselves up in Ramallah?

Do Israeli commanders have to get on the phone to UN headquarters and clear their orders with the General Assembly before having their subordinates carry them out?

“So what do you think, Kofi — can we use a 1000-kilo bomb to take out this particular missile launcher? No? Artillery shells only? Right-o; will do.”

As someone recently said, it’s like a bank robbery — when the call comes in that three men are robbing a bank, then the cops can only send in three patrolmen to stop them.

Or imagine that you’re woken up in the middle of the night by a burglar in the living room. You grab your twelve-gauge and creep down the stairs very quietly. But when you flip on the light and surprise the burglar, he’s armed with only a knife! What do you do? Why, you drop the shotgun, rush to the kitchen, and rummage through the drawers for a knife. And not just any knife — it has to be no longer or sharper than the one the burglar has!

Of course, if you’re a British householder, you don’t have the shotgun to grab in the first place. Not only that, you can’t pick up a knife of any size to confront the thief with; otherwise you could end up in court on serious charges yourself. No, all you can do is sit down on the couch and say, “Help yourself, mate. Can I get you a cup of tea?”

Come to think of it, the UN prescription sounds like modern British law writ large, scaled up to resolve international conflicts. Lie down, be non-threatening, let the thugs take whatever they want, and wait for the coppers in the blue helmets to arrive. If they ever do. And, when they do arrive, prepare to be cited for human rights violations if you failed to provide your enemies with the proper handicapped accommodations.

I say, “To hell with all that! Bring on the Disproportionate Response!”

As an American, I recognize my constitutional right to take whatever measures are necessary to protect myself, my family, and my home. If someone comes after my wife and child, tearing him limb from limb would not be disproportionate. If I showed mercy, and subdued him by other means, that would be my prerogative. But I am in no way required to.

It’s the same for Israel. Personally, I think the Israelis have shown remarkable restraint in the face of intolerable provocation. They not only bend over backwards — and take extra casualties — to avoid hurting civilians, they rush the enemy wounded to Israeli hospitals and give them the best treatment Western medicine can provide.

Based on what’s been done to them, they’d be justified in clearing Lebanon and Gaza of people and paving both places over. They haven’t; but that’s their prerogative.

I don’t think Israel’s enemies have seen even the beginnings of “disproportionate”.


Steal the graphics for your sidebar! Fight back against Kofi-speak!

And thanks to Naval Air Station Lemoore for the fist-and-lightning-bolt graphic.