Meeting Of Moderate Muslims Cancelled Due to Lack of Interest

Asked and Answered
Many ask, Is there something about Islam that leads inexorably to violence, terrorism and subjugation of women?

The question arises because fanatical Muslims so often seem to murder in the name of God, from the 2004 Madrid train bombing that killed 191 people to the murder of hostages at a cafe in Sydney, Australia, last month. (Nicholas Kristof, New York Times, 1/8/2015)

Yes, that horrible Madrid train bombing and the Sydney cafe shooting. Were there other incidents where fanatical Muslims "seemed" to murder in the name of Islam? Kristof does not say, but we were sure there were others, some even worse. 

So we googled it. 

At the top of the list was an event that happened in 2001 wherein some Muslims "seemed" to hijack several planes, crash them into buildings and kill 3000 Americans.  That was probably the worst one. But there were others including Army base shootings, various attacks on embassies, assorted beheadings, etc. 

Maybe Kristof is saving those for a latter column?


Squares
Lawyers for abortion clinics squared off with Texas state attorneys in a federal appeals court here on Wednesday, arguing over the constitutionality of stringent abortion clinic rules that would force more than half the remaining abortion providers in Texas to close. (New York Times, 1/8/2015)

Liberals want to regulate every aspect of your life: taxing your soda, banning plastic bags, forcing you to buy health insurance, etc. There is no regulation they will not consider...unless it affects your God-given right to have an abortion, wherever and whenever you want.


Life during Wartime
Past some point, it is feckless to call these events “incidents.” They are acts in a war. The people committing them think so and they say so. Why don’t we?
...
One may assume that many, if not most, of the thousands in Paris’s streets over the Hebdo massacre believed in 2013 that Edward Snowden was a hero for stealing software from the U.S. National Security Agency, the world’s primary surveillance instrument for identifying terrorists before they kill.

Here we have two symbolic and broadly embraced beliefs about the West’s posture toward the reality of fundamentalist Islamic terror—that Edward Snowden is a hero and “I am Charlie.” They are incompatible. (Daniel Henninger, Wall Street Journal, 1/8/2015)

The best commentary we read on the attack on Charlie Hebdo by Muslim extremists. 

Forward in the Queue

It's Back
“Republicans have turned the floor of the House into the battleground for their relentless war on women’s health care and freedoms,” said Representative Steve Israel of New York, the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “Every time they launch another extreme attack against women’s rights, they lose more ground with women voters.” (New York Times, 1/21/2014)

Loyal readers know that RedStateVT has been wondering what happened to the Republican War on Women. Well this being an election year, Democrats have dusted off this gem just in time. Just a reminder of the horrible things that Republicans want to do to punish women:

- They want to deny a woman's right to an abortion after 5 months. (Just doing the math, that is 55% into a normal term of pregnancy.)

- They want to insist that a doctor performing abortions have admitting privileges at a local hospital.

- They want to abolish partial birth abortion wherein the baby's life is terminated as it is being delivered. 

Instead of running scared on the issue of abortion, Republicans should force Democrats to defend it.


Own It
In fact, three out of four Americans killed in Afghanistan have died under Barack Obama’s command. That’s ownership enough. (Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post, 1/16/2014)

A fact unknown by Americans because a directive issued by the Democrat party forbade the non-Fox media from reporting casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan when Obama became president. 


The Peril
America's most worrisome problem may not be the failed takeover of our healthcare system. It may not be our languishing economy or even the massive federal debt hanging over future generations. As dangerous as these problems are, perhaps more perilous is just how far our nation has fallen in the eyes of our allies and the lack of caution our feckless foreign policy inspires in our adversaries. (Pete du Pont, Wall Street Journal, 1/21/2014)

Exactly the point, that RedStateVT has long made. Many of Obama's domestic blunders can eventually be undone or mitigated. The havoc he wreaks in foreign policy, however, has long-lasting consequences. Anti-democratic forces are emboldened, people die, and the world is a more dangerous place. 

Witness:

Mr. Obama boxed himself in with his vow to stop Iran from achieving nuclear breakout on his watch. He doesn't want his promise tested. And in return for a generous payment, Ayatollah Khamenei might well find it worthwhile not to flaunt any nuclear progress during Mr. Obama's remaining 36 months. Iran would likely be getting paid for a time-out it would have taken anyway. After all, in the past three decades, when have the mullahs felt more confident and secure in the face of external threats than they do right now? (Holman W. Jenkins, Jr., Wall Street Journal, 1/21/2014)


High Times
Mr. Obama is now the President, not a stoned teenager riffing with his Choom Gang, and he might have set a better example. Parents trying to teach their kids to make better choices than getting high are at a disadvantage when the person in charge of upholding the law says breaking the law is no big deal. (Wall Street Journal, 1/21/2014)

Why Obama would risk talking about legalizing marijuana given his own inglorious, smoke-filled high school years is certainly a subject that demands deeper scrutiny. He is either feeling very confident or very reckless. His message to America's teenagers is apparently as follows: dope should be legal, but don't smoke dope. Makes perfect sense....

Meanwhile, Vermont Progressive Senator David Zuckerman introduces a bill to legalize marijuana. He takes his cue from Governor Peter Shumlin who is already on record in support, at the same time that he decries opiate addiction in the state. Makes perfect sense....