Wicked Witch of Publishing Swaps Broomstick for Semi-Automatic. Christmas List Includes Hair-Raising Thrillers by Samuel Huntington, Bernard Lewis, Daniel Pipes, Robert Spencer and Mark Steyn — and Ammo.
For three years my friend Gilbert (a retired physician and, he would be the first to agree, an intellectual) has been emailing me article after article about “the terrorists.” His belief is that the only good terrorist is a dead terrorist and that there is no such thing as a Muslim who isn’t a terrorist. I used to resist the implied syllogism, suggesting he was overreacting. (Should I mention here that he is Jewish?)
Now, I’m a true believer, halleluiah, and it ain’t in Islam.
Where’s my gun?
I’m wondering whatever happened to that 410 shotgun with which I used to shoot skeet on Lone Tree Hill in New Canaan, Connecticut with my father and his friends and my brothers when I was a little girl. I can shoot. Oh, yes, I can. Thank goodness.
Documentary “Obsession” on Fox News Network Causes Wicked Witch to Click Over to National Rifle Association (NRA) Website.
Yes, I saw “Obsession.” I was one of the 2.5 million comfy, cozy Americans sitting in front of his or her big-screen TV, whiling away the evening when I got my peek into the inside world of Muslim extremists. My God. (And I mean MY God, not the prophet, Mohammed.) Little kids in Muslim countries were not reciting their ABC’s in this documentary. Those weren’t Nazis goose stepping around, but they sure looked and sounded like the ones you see in vintage news clips. If you missed seeing the documentary in its entirety, at least go to the online Fox News site and watch excerpts. (You have to get past the 18-second commercial, but the snippet from Obsession is worth the wait.)
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,226482,00.html
Those videos of the jets hitting the Twin Towers remind me of the footage of the Japanese kamikaze pilots on “World at War,” the documentary series that my father, a ship’s doctor on the USS Alabama during WWII, watched religiously. He knew all about kamikaze pilots.
9/11 Truth Documentary About Controlled Demolition of World Trade Center Complex sends Wicked Witch of Publishing Running to Bookstore. What do the Twin Towers, Seven Sisters, and Louisiana State Office Buildings Have in Common? They were buildings destroyed on purpose
The link below was sent to me last week. It shows what may be (and I wondered about it at the time) the detonation of strategically placed explosives AFTER the planes struck the Twin Towers. You have to stay tuned for about 20-minutes into this 1 hr 30 minute film while the narrator describes the structure of the towers and talks to the viewer about how impossible it would be for the two jets or the fuel in the jets to bring down the Twin Towers. Impossible! You even get to hear a fire fighter’s last words as he assesses the situation as being contained. Then BAM! The towers implode and descend in an orderly fashion to the ground, just like the buildings you’ve seen go down when they’ve been carefully razed. If you haven’t already seen this video, “9/11 Mysteries,” get ready….
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6708190071483512003&q=%22911+mysteries%22
Want to do a little comparison viewing of detonations? See the Seven Sisters in Chicago detonated:What do the Twin Towers, Seven Sisters, and Louisiana State Office Buildings Have in Common? They were buildings destroyed on purpose The link below was sent to me last week. It shows what may be (and I wondered about it at the time) the detonation of strategically placed explosives AFTER the planes struck the Twin Towers. You have to stay tuned for about 20-minutes into this 1 hr 30 minute film while the narrator describes the structure of the towers and talks to the viewer about how impossible it would be for the two jets or the fuel in the jets to bring down the Twin Towers . Impossible! You even get to hear a fire fighter’s last words as he assesses the situation as being contained. Then BAM! The towers implode and descend in an orderly fashion to the ground, just like the buildings you’ve seen go down when they’ve been carefully razed. If you haven’t already seen this video, “9/11 Mysteries,” get ready…. Want to do a little comparison viewing of detonations? See the Seven Sisters in Chicago detonated:
http://www.detroityes.com/industry/01a-sevensisdetonate.htm
and Louisiana State office buildings collapse just like the Twin Towers:
http://www.implosionworld.com/boelnrbftp.htm
You actually see the buildings fall at these Web sites!
Where Were You When…?
I know where I was when JFK was murdered (still in school), when John Lennon died (new to New York City), when the first attack on the World Trade Center took place (working two buildings away), and when the second attack on the World Trade Center brought the Twin Towers crashing down (Halsey Island in Lake Hopatcong, NJ, wildly whipping the rabbit ears around on my ancient B&W TV, trying to get some decent reception high in “lake country” 1000 feet above sea level so I could hear AND see what was going on back in the city. When the towers came down, I SCREAMED and SCREAMED!
Did I know anyone in the World Trade Center? Yes. Thank God this habitually late person was late again getting to work. Was I stunned at how rapidly the US Armed Forces were deployed to every bridge and tunnel near the city? Yes. I was on my way to Connecticut within minutes of watching the Twin Towers collapse. Never in my entire life had I seen so many military men and women clearly “in place” to stop the next attack. Never had it occurred to me that I could die driving across the Tappan Zee Bridge on the way to my brother and sister-in-law’s house in Connecticut or that it was conceivable that a massive wall of water could greet me halfway through the Lincoln tunnel on the way into the city. No, I am not the same Pollyanna I was on September 10th, 2001, but it has taken far too long for me to become aware of the hot breath of people with a different “world view” breathing down my personal neck and the neck of people whom I love.
John McCain wants to send more American troops into Iraq . Jeez, I don’t want anyone to get hurt or die. I want the friggin’ United Nations to stop the featherbedding and mealy mouthing and get off its sanctimonious fat ass. Since the likelihood of that happening is as remote as the possibility of having a rational conversation with an Islamic militant, I say, send every American soldier over there right now and put a stop to this mayhem. Let the Iraqis who want to protest for peace come out safely and show themselves in numbers. Give them safe passage.
“Global” Manifest Destiny? Are They Kidding?
No, they are NOT kidding.
I, who am a Pollyanna at heart, always optimistic, always thinking that if you do the right thing everything will fall into place, have had a change of heart. (Can you tell?) Rebuild Iraq? Turn on the lights? Create jobs? Bring in the Port O Potties? Teach skills? Immunize and inoculate? Preach tolerance? Put a chicken in every pot? I don’t think so. People can’t leave their homes—if they still have them— for fear of death.
On a sleepless night about a week ago, I heard Salman Rushdie talk about his latest book, Shalimar the Clown, and then answer questions about “the terrorists.” Ok, Mr. Rushdie. I’m plenty terrified, too.
Are there really over 100 autonomous pockets of volcanic terrorism spewing molten lava around the globe right now? Where else will other sleeper cells awaken?
One friend, not Gilbert, suggests giving all Muslims a lie-detector test. Wrong answer? Good bye.
Another friend, still not Gilbert, suggests those wishing to colonize Earth should be given a one-way ticket to another planet. Feel free, in other words, colonize away, just not here.
Stop the light reading!
May I suggest that you put down those hot-off-the-press New York Times Best Sellers like Lisey’s Story by Stephen King, For One More Day by Mitch Albom, The Collectors by David Baldacci, Act of Treason by Vince Flynn, The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama, The Innocent Man by John Grisham, Culture War by Bill O’Reilly and read something more important right now?
How about picking up the following hair-raising, life-and-death nonfiction thrillers or putting them on your holiday gift list for every friend you’ve got who doesn’t deserve a lump of coal in his stocking.
And last, but not least:
By Mark Steyn
America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It.
Just the titles of these books should make you pick up a divining rod and try and locate those old bomb shelters.
Books, Guns and Ammo for the Holidays!
In New York City you cannot carry an unlicensed gun, and if they catch you with one, uh oh. Sound of prison cell door closing. Being armed and dangerous is the prerogative of the B&E crowd, carjackers, bank robbers, muggers and deranged lovers. Naturally, I would never carry an unlicensed gun in the city. But that doesn’t mean the Wicked Witch’s Christmas list hasn’t taken a 180 from wanting a new pointy hat and a copper cauldron to a new shelf of books, a white dove, ammo and a semi-automatic.
I don’t want to wait until I see the “whites of their eyes.”
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing ™: If you are thinking about contacting the Wicked Witch to get help with an oft-rejected book proposal, now’s the time! Editors will be finishing up their 2007 budgets in December and looking for new books to fill their quotas in January and February. (Yes, they have quotas!) Click over to Get Published and take another look at my 4-Step Get Published Program!
November 20th, 2006 at 5:20 pm
I have such distain for the UN and such respect for the much-maligned US Ambassador to the UN, John R. Bolton.
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing ™: Through the Millennium Declaration, the United Nations has made “putting people at the center of everything we do” its guiding motto for the 21st Century. Don’t ya just love it?
November 20th, 2006 at 6:13 pm
The Freudian typo on your promotional email should have tipped me off — “Wicked Witch Swamps…” No
question. Swamped and overboard. Swim for shore with all your might, WW. Cling tight to your inflatable broom. Filter out bloggorhea (especially sites reviewed as “a bit extreme,” yet recommended), fear-mongering and conspiracexploitation books. Brew up a nice cup of chamomile and spend a quiet evening away from the screens, watching, say, the Food Network. Take a break; you may be arousing dangerous emotions, even “distain.”
Send you my manuscript? In your present state of mind? I think not.
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing ™: Crikey! The Witch can’t proofread! Good thing she only sent that version of her email to about 450,000 people! Last month she had shoe-in for shoo-in! Tsk. Tsk.
November 20th, 2006 at 6:14 pm
Linking up:
Petrona
Booksinq
November 21st, 2006 at 12:33 am
I don’t know why I find this a curious post for Her Wickedness. “Where’s my gun?” I can appreciate such zeal and am compelled to conclude some of it is tongue in cheek. I am, after all, a bit dense in catching on, but do know extremism on one end foments extremism on the other and leaves nothing in the middle but smoldering ruins. It’s history, I guess. Maybe we should have dropped The Bomb on North Korea in 1952 after all, or sent Iran back into the Stone Age in 1979. Whatever choice we make, the world never changes. To paraphrase Golda Meier, folks need to love their kids more than they hate the current enemy, which changes by the decade.
One thing for sure, Her Wickedness is always interesting!
November 21st, 2006 at 7:03 am
My Goodness!
Have we finally figured it out? And all this time, I was afraid to mention politics because all New Yawkers are bleeding heart liberals.
I’m glad to hear that ya’ll are dusting off your 410’s.
November 21st, 2006 at 7:05 am
http://americanthinker.com/articles.php?article_id=6056
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing ™: Richard is sending us to “The American Thinker” and an article titled “Primer on Islamic Imperialism” by Greg Richards, November 20, 2006.
November 21st, 2006 at 7:06 am
I was quite surprised to learn that a woman who does a blog about books chooses to get her information
about Muslims from TV, not books — and a reductive, specious, right wing TV station at that. There are plenty of books out there that offer a much more intelligent, balanced, and thorough analysis of Islam and its relationship with the rest of the world. You could start with Temptations from the West by Pankaj Mishra, which has been doing fairly well on Amazon — not OJ-well, but you know what I mean.
Sure, it requires more time than watching a 1-hour screed on the despicable Fox network, but isn’t that what reading and arming yourself (with information) is all about?
November 21st, 2006 at 10:06 am
Anonymous of 21/11/2006:07:06am–
In your rush to defend the “moderate” Muslims (where are they, by the way?) you are providing cover for the hundreds of millions of mainstream Muslims who want to kill you, me, and the Contrarian. These are not radicals. They are not militants. They are the regular people on the streets.
I see you are indignant about TV as a source of information. Until you read the Koran itself, your indignation is as much the reactionary product of hand-grenade naivete (it takes awhile to go off after the pin is pulled) as the Contrarian’s. [Note from WW of P: “Huh?”] Here is a Koranic quote, which, as you already know, is perfect and infallible in every syllable, to get you started:
We [believers] shall let them [all non-Muslims] live a while, and then shall drag them to the scourge of the Fire. (2:126)
If the power and prestige of the United States mean anything to you at all, then you must embrace the simple human truth that most Muslims believe what they say they believe.
If the power and prestige of the US are secondary considerations to you, then you have failed to grasp the first rudiment of current geopolitics: The US is the sole guarantor of global security. Europe will not come to our aid, because, as has happened in each major wave of Muslim invasion since 600 CE, they will already be paralysed by small-scale wars of mission effort. Kissyface appeasement with the Muslim world will not spread peace. It will spread militancy.
See also:
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~rs143/reconque.jpg
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~rs143/map5.jpg
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~rs143/map6.jpg
November 21st, 2006 at 10:32 am
Dear Lynne,
Dave Newton is right, brew up a cup of chamomile and stay away from the propaganda for a few days.
Skint
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing ™: Thanks, Skint, for the advice! I’m not much of a tea drinker, but there’s probably some chamomile in there somewhere!
November 21st, 2006 at 11:53 am
Here’s one I didn’t see you mention.
Robert Spencer wrote “The Truth About Mohammed…the world’s most intolerant religion”.
If enough people speak up, maybe our western society would get the drift! The bleeding heart liberals who think we can just say, “Peace!” and everyone will go home and be content to play with their own toys are sadly misjudging the virilent behavior of these terrorists.
The goal of that religion is not to live peaceably with the rest of the world and other religions. Their goal is to subvert the world for Allah, at all costs!
November 21st, 2006 at 6:31 pm
Wicked Witch:
I absolutely agree! We must speak out. We must open our eyes and forget about letting someone else define
and paraphrase for us, but take a a big bite and chew (read that think) for ourselves. A recent and unofficial poll of college students in a sleepy Southern town revealed sheer apathy for terrorism and no working knowledge of Iraq. I was appalled.
Gina
November 22nd, 2006 at 3:54 am
I’m not claiming to know what all Muslims believe or think, but I don’t think all Muslims are terrorists or want the US destroyed. I’ve seen documentaries and read about people in other countries talking about how they hate Americans, want all Americans dead and they teach their children to believe this way. But I’ve known some Muslims who never made me suspicious, even ate in one’s restaurant, and had no reason to feel threatened.
As for pointing out verses in the Koran to show what Muslims believe, I think Muslims are like Christians: Some interpret their religious texts one way, others another, and others still another. The Bible has some violent text in it, too.
November 22nd, 2006 at 8:30 am
Jen, yes, the Bible has some violent scenes in it, but it does not teach us to be violent. It does teach us to be kind to one another, tender, loving and forgiving one another. As in the story of the Good Samaritan. That story means to love those of different races and creeds. The Koran teaches death to Christians and Jews. There is a huge difference.
Islam, when adhered to literally, is a religion which strips women of dignity and individualism; separates man from reason and compassion; and usurps civil authority. It creates slavery rather than freedom. It is not pleasant and peaceful.
November 22nd, 2006 at 11:32 am
Sorry Jen, I have to agree completely with Gina.
I have been doing street ministry for many years. Part of that ministry is to understand what the other religions believe. I have read the Koran from cover to cover. Yes there are passages in there about Jesus being a prophet, and followers of Jesus being the “people of the Book”.
But outside of those small caveats are a miriad of of verses calling for the death of the “infidels”. To inspect multiple other verses, infidels are defined as anyone who does not believe in Allah.
Nowhere in the new Testament (which is the covenant we are in) does God…or Jesus call for the death of “nonbelievers”. It calls for loving God, another, and living as peaceably as you can with others.
Just like in Christianity where we have half-butted christians who have no clue what the Bible really says, there are also half-butted Muslims who have no clue what the Koran says.
Example: You want to know why there is no possibility that there will ever be peace in Israel….Because before the Jews were given back their land by the UN Treaty of 1948, the Muslims had consecrated that land to Allah. They lost the land to the Jews. THE KORAN SAYS: Any thing or land that belongs to Allah always belongs to Allah, and if the Muslims don’t fight to the death to reclaim it, Allah will send them to HELL!
Sad to say, but the terrorists are actually the zealots of their religion…and they really KNOW what their Koran says!
November 22nd, 2006 at 2:19 pm
Dear Bonnie:
Robert Spencer doesn’t read Arabic and derives his supposedly authoritative knowledge of islam from secondary sources. His “politically Incorrect Guide to Islam” is published by Regnery, a publisher that only publishes books advocating the hard right-wing political agenda.
Part of that agenda is the current nonsense about “islamofacism.” The military-industrial complex and their political supporters were plunged into mourning by the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Cold War. They must have bogeymen to justify keeping our economy on a permanent war footing. What better way to do this than to try to convince everyone that billions of muslims are all on the verge of beheading us while we sleep in our beds.
November 22nd, 2006 at 7:18 pm
Peter:
I don’t think most conservatives would agree with your characterization of the Pew Research Center survey, linked to above, (funded by the same Pew Charitable Trusts that fund Frontline on PBS) as part of the military-industrial complex, or as advocacy of the hard right-wing political agenda. Most of the conservative opinion I’ve ever heard about Pew is that they’re pinko-crypto-commies. Whatever that is.
There are peace loving Muslims, but they are outnumbered several hundred million to several tens of millions. Which should we not be worried about? Look at the borders of today’s Muslim world in an atlas, from the west African coast to Indonesia, and from Georgia to Chad to the Hindu Kush and find me one that is not rent with religiously motivated conflict. OK; Ghana and Togo, sure. Nice places to visit, but…
Counter-aware-or-ists argue that more Americans die each year from hitting deer with their cars than die from terror attacks. I’ll stipulate it’s true. The part of the argument that’s never filled in is how that kind of statistical non sequitor motivates a reasonable person to advocate that we should strip New York City of its security budget and spend it to improve front bumpers on minivans instead. You live in Manhattan, Mr. Winkler? DC?
How does it follow that threats to our national security are bogeymen? Did all the suicide bombers move to the Emirates and take up needlepoint? Or is all that money, maybe, effectively thwarting attacks?
November 22nd, 2006 at 9:25 pm
Oh gosh. This all misses the point. There are people who kill. They all love joining clubs, and I don’t care if they’re Christians, Muslims or members of the local Moose Lodge.
To quote Austin Cline, “German Christians supported the Nazis because they believed Adolf Hitler was a gift to the German people from God.” But what does that tell us? Nothing. I don’t know if Jeffrey Dahlmer was a Baptist, Scientologist or atheist, but somehow he seemed fine with his eating disorder.
Throughout history, everyone’s club seems to take a turn at using the power drills to make a point (no pun intended).
So we all write books and call one another killers–and go on killing. Yeah, we all want to jump on the self-righteous band wagon. But here’s a quote from Plato that speaks to us all, regardless of religion: “MANKIND CENSURE INJUSTICE FEARING THEY MAY BE THE VICTIMS OF IT, AND NOT BECAUSE THEY SHRINK FROM COMMITTING IT.”
Worth remembering when you censure someone.
November 22nd, 2006 at 10:21 pm
Dear Peter:
Your statement, “What better way to do this than to try to convince everyone that billions of muslims are all on the verge of beheading us while we sleep in our beds. reminds me of a day in September…September 11th to be exact. No I wasn’t in bed, I has just sat down in front of my TV with a cup of coffee to watch the morning news. And no, they didn’t as you so eloquently said…behead me, but they did ram several planes into real estate in my state and two others.
We were not in Afghanistan at the time, nor were we in Iraq.
Three thousand or so innocent civilians who had nothing more on their minds than getting through their work day were slaughtered for no other reason than, the terrorists were of the mindset that if they killed the infidels they would go to be with Allah and get 70 virgin brides.
My only consolation Mr. Winkler is that one second after they passed over, they found out they were wrong. This happened in my state, less than 350 miles from my home, and I lost multiple friends.
I can only hope that you remain as charitable in your thoughts to such an obvious threat when they come to your city, or plane-bomb your buildings and kill your friends and family.
And you need not retort that this was the sins of a few, not the many. That so called few are of a radical faction that contain millions and their goal to wipe the USA and Israel off the face of the map.
And as for your original “…death by beheading..” that is happening on a daily basis right now, even as I type this…in the Sudan. Northern Muslims are beheading southern christian Sudanese by the thousands for refusing to convert to Islam.
But then again, as well read as you are Mr. Winkler, I’m sure you realize that every country that has been subjugated by radical Islam has been conquered by mass beheadings for failure to convert.
November 23rd, 2006 at 9:23 am
Andrew:
You are absolutely correct. And Plato would agree that when a suicide bomber straps on the explosive vest, she expels herself from the family of humanity. So, for the sake of Plato’s Ethics and Republic, complete your Platonic thought experiment:
If the United States had perfect weapons, who would we kill? If the weapons worked without fail, cost nothing, had infinite capacity and range, had no fallout, no danger to bystanders or property, and made vaporize, painlessly, instantly anyone the Government of the US wanted,
- who would we kill?
- How many would die?
- For what purpose?
- When would it end?
Now, if Bin Laden or Muqtada Al’Sadr, or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had the same perfect weapons,
- Who would they kill?
- How many would die?
- For what purpose?
- When would it end?
Having thought that through, to which killer’s club would you prefer to belong? Which would you prefer to defend? Not in some imaginary future world, but today, with the world as is?
Finally, no discussion of religion in United States foreign policy would be complete without:
End Of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation, both by Sam Harris,
and
Imperial Hubris by Anonymous, now known to be Michael Scheuer, CIA chief of the Bin Laden squad prior to 9/11, and whose foreign policy predictions have been proven specifically accurate for 12 straight years, but to whom no one in the White House is yet listening.
November 23rd, 2006 at 10:05 am
Please read:
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
IT NEVER ENDS–A Rant Before Thanksgiving at: http://drsanity.blogspot.com/
November 23rd, 2006 at 10:54 am
Thanks for the link Richard. Dr. Sanity is right on!
I especially love the line, “Even psychiatrists realize that you are not paranoid if they really are out to get you–and a significant number of the followers of Islam really really want to kill us.”
LOL…that is going to be my new mantra!
November 23rd, 2006 at 1:38 pm
Your Lastofadyingbreededness makes good points. I’m a bit reminded of the arguments in the War Room in “Doctor Strangelove or How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.” The beauty of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) was that no one wanted to play with their killing toys because they would be repayed in kind. Today, however, doors are opening by which people can kill large numbers of people–and we could lose a city and not know who to go after.
Fortunately, egos being what they are–and much like serial killers–folks just do so awfully love announcing “they done it.” So far, I must note. When they wipe out a city and don’t step up, then we really have to worry–who do we kill in return?
Don’t misunderstand me–I do worry about the danger to our country, particularly now that all our troops are overseas chasing shadows. And I do agree that the menace in the middle east is frightning. It WILL hit us again at home far more severely than 9/11. They’re working on it as we talk, and they’re not working on it in Iraq.
My key point is that it’s man’s basic nature to kill when he wants something badly enough–power being at the historic top of the list. The team with the highest score right now is the one wearing ski masks. But yes, I maintain affiliation is important. The main thing I guess I was trying to say was that, whether it’s “Workers of the World Unite,” “Lebensraum,” “Manifest Destiny” or “Alahu Akhbar,” there are always more people who prefer to shoot than talk.
My theory is perhaps all wet, but I’m satisfied that if it wasn’t Islam, the lads in the fashionable ski masks would find another “sponsor” behind which to hide. I’ll grant that there’s a major cultural difference behind the violence, but their claim to religion is just a facade. They’d use Elmer Fudd if they needed to.
And in a hundred years, who will be killing who and how? We’ll never be at a loss for targets. But yes–I’m not so wound up in my philosphy that al Qaeda doesn’t scare me. This century.
Excellent points, really. But I regret that the answer to your question is–it will never end.
November 23rd, 2006 at 2:53 pm
Yeah…and the only good indian is a dead indian. Oops, wrong millenium.
Can’t believe so many here buy into that FOX/ultra right propaganda. You all know going after Bin Laden was right. You all know this quest was abandoned to go after another country for no reason other than “we can.” You all watched shock and awe on tv, how a country was destroyed, how its culture looted, its people promised a better life. Never happened. You all know the quagmire there now, the reason ALL who live there, not just Bin Laden’s terrorists are willing to fight and die. You all go on torturing the prisoners. You all go on letting rights and freedoms evaporate. I don’t want to live in a country where people think as you do. It shames me.
Freedom of speech has always been enshrined. You had yours; this is mine.
November 24th, 2006 at 3:12 am
Well Lilly,
I’m very sorry that we shame you, and I pray that you find a wonderful new country to live in where people don’t think like we do, and then you won’t have to be ashamed.
November 24th, 2006 at 2:04 pm
Interesting, Bonnie, how you fail to address any of my other comments about the facts of things, yet you jump on the “don’t like it, go away” bandwagon so typical of the closed-minded.
I think of it this way: I don’t want to live in a country of bigots. Yet the bigots tell me to leave. Where does that leave America?
I’m ever hopeful that some form of enlightenment will bring our country back to its former glory. Am I whistling in the dark? Yeah, as long as there’s a FOX network to skew the truth and incite fear.
Thanks for the fun. I’m done now.
November 24th, 2006 at 6:03 pm
I’m also sorry that you feel like I’m ignoring your other comments…let’s take a stab at it, since you asked.
Let’s start with the “…ultra right propaganda…” To which ultra right are you referring, the economic conservatives, or the social conservatives? And of that group, to which faction are you referring… the evangelical voters, the homosexuals, the feminists, the Jews, or the African-Americans?
Or are you talking about the ultra right propaganda machine that supported our President who has vetoed [embryonic] stem cell research, or signed a ban on partial-birth abortions, or has been the most consistent pro-life president in our history, or has twice he supported the marriage protection amendment, or has given us two absolutely wonderful justices on the Supreme Court.
May be your talking about the ultra right propaganda machine that freed Iraq from Saddam Hussein after he killed at least a million people, murdering them in cold blood. There are also several hunded thousand Kurds that would to testify to the atrocities that Saddam did to them, including testing nerve gas on entire villages.
And then let’s take a look at your position on the war.
If you know your history and go back to World War II, people, in this present time, have been very critical of [President Franklin] Roosevelt for not responding earlier to the Holocaust that was going on. In fact he was tone-deaf to that misery, just like you would like our country to be to the million people who were tortured and murdered by Saddam.
And why, because of people like you and others, in the USA that we should mind our own business and let those people handle their own problems. There are 6 million dead Jews to attest to that way of thinking.
We were not in Afghanistan or Iraq when we were attacked on 9/11, and as a result of prevailing Islamic jihad, U.S. sovereignty is in danger. Wake up and smell the coffee…they AREN”T going to go away just becuase you want to play nice!
But then again I remember all the liberals who were blaming the President for being in Iraq because of the oil. Funny how that rhetoric all but disappeared when gas prices rose to $3 a gallon.
We are in Iraq. It is a mess. And I can guarantee that the Democrats don’t have a solution either. I just hope that terrorists don’t attack a city near you, or kill any of your relatives in their quest to rid the world of the “infidels” which, by the way, you are one, unless your muslim.
Oh, and let’s get your facts straight! I wished you happy hunting for a new homeland. I did not tell you to leave, because of course you wouldn’t…this is the only country on the planet that let’s you get have the freedoms and rights that you so flippantly dismiss for others!
November 24th, 2006 at 7:21 pm
Glen Beck has a very insightful program on tonight. “Exposed: The extremist agenda”.
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing ™: Thanks, Steve! I’ll watch it! There’s quite a bit of info about it on the Internet.
November 25th, 2006 at 11:55 am
Lilly:
I am happy to have you here, in the US, and am happy that the WW of P is allowing us to have this slow-motion conversation. I hope you read on, as I am eager to read more from you.
The original post, above, plugs 21 books, and as far as I can tell, only one of them is from a FOX employee (Bill O’Riley’s). Let’s widen the field of conversation.
I am especially interested in your intention with the use of the term “bigot,” because I presume that you may possess some conceptual payload for this word of which I am ignorant.
For example, melanin content was for centuries the only measurable sorting mechanism for determining whether your life in the US would be characterized by brutal, durable poverty possibly ending in an abrupt neck snap under a remote tree branch, or by, at worst, relative prosperity. Melanin is not a predictor of anything other than a person’s complexion. Yet, melanin, alone, was used as the basis of a systematic programme of oppression, discrimination, brutality, and pillage. To justify these crimes on a non-existent, because non-measurable, basis of melanin concentration, is one example of what I would call bigoted.
The case with Islam is not non-measurable. Self-identification as a Muslim increases the probability that a person believes suicide bombing is an acceptable means for defense of their faith by 73%. Not their home, family or property — their faith. If Wal*Mart were to endorse the exclusive use of “Happy Hannukah” as a greeting in their stores, would you endorse suicide bombings of Wal*Mart stores by Christians?
That the Pan Am Lockerbie mass murder, the Trade Center ‘93 attack, the USS Cole, the US African embassy bombings, and a litany of post-9/11 attacks against US interests were committed by Muslims is not a matter of Fox News opinion or conjecture. As I say above, the Pew trusts are not part of the conservative anything.
Nor would it be helpful for our conversation to conclude that I am keen to single out 73% of Muslims from all other potential terrorists on moral grounds. The butcher’s bill from the non-Muslim terror roster (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam, Basque separatists E.T.A., the Greek domestic group November 17, our own US spike of radical Patriotisticism from 1993-1999 which claims, among other things, Oklahoma City, and which never really died out altogether) is abominable as well. But, Lilly, unless you can personally claim to use no petroleum products (own no petro-powered combustion engine, use no petro-generated electricity — is your computer running on a solar generator? — and eat no petro-transported foods), then your own choices for forms of consumption force you to concede, or at least stipulate, that petro energy is a vital US geopolitical interest and will remain so for decades, even if we were to start a wholesale switch to non-petro-dependent energy immediately. In practical terms, even if a Manhattan Project scale effort started today, the inter-dependence of global markets would slow the attained pace of energy migration to a rate that would permit current economic measures to remain stable. Consider this during any gift-season shopping you may do.
That interest, which is vital not only to the US, but to the entire Northern Hemisphere, is the sole weight-bearing column of global security. The US guarantees that column alone, in practical terms. Without secure access to the oil fields of the Middle East, largely Muslim Africa, and largely Muslim Central Asia, the entire Northern Hemisphere would look like post-Katrina New Orleans in about one year. Bicycle and horse cops cannot maintain law and order on a national scale.
The LTTEs, ETAs, Real IRAs, and McVeighs of our current world do not threaten global security.
Let’s set aside the more specific debate about the current administration until a later volley of posts. I stipulate your implication that decision making at the highest level is currently deeply wrongheaded. But, as of today, that critique is of limited practical value for our conversation about long-term attitudes toward Islam. For example: JFK never gets blamed for Viet Nam, either, but he approved the coup d’etat which locked US involvement into a non-refundable commitment. I don’t think JFK was a bigot against yellow people. Viet Nam was but one in a long catalog of Cold War engagements from which the indomitable US emerged the sole victor. JFK, LBJ, Nixon, Ford, Carter and Reagan, were bigoted, perhaps, against Communists, in some way that you can help me with.
Regardless of the decisions, or the decision maker, at the top of the US Government, I think the WW of P was talking about how to define attitudes toward a new, historical form of hostile foe: globally franchised, Muslim-membership-required, mass-murder groups.
I am against. Lilly?
November 25th, 2006 at 3:24 pm
Good God, what the hell is this? I read this blog for insight on publishing and the book industry. If I wanted to read paranoid right-wing screeds, I’d be checking out the Fox News site.
Has anybody stopped to think about the second deadliest terrorist attack of the 20th century? No, I’m not talking about the previous attempt on the WTC, I’m talking about the destruction of the Murrah building in Oklahoma City, and, oh yeah, that wasn’t by Muslims at all but by a common garden variety white religious fanatic. And you think the Bible doesn’t promote violence and degradation of women? Check out your Old Testament, specifically Leviticus (the whole reason the religious right hates gays in the first place). Sure, WW, you’re going to get paranoid if you’re reading books from ultra-right Bernard Lewis and father-to-the-right-than-Joe-McCarthy Regnery Publishing. Try something from the other end of the ideological perspective. They make sense too.
In your case, Lynne, the right has sold you a hot steaming cup of fear, and you’ve decided to go get some more without applying some principles of critical thinking to the mix. Lynne, you know I defend you tirelessly, but this kind of thing makes me want to delete you from my feed list. So could we talk about, you know, the industry again? And please leave the politics to political bloggers?
Frazer
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing ™: Hi, Frazer. True, I am not a political pundit. Nor do I wish to be perceived as one. Also, I’m not about to perch on a rooftop and start shooting Muslims, as one commentor suggested. (Though come to think of it, I can think of a few people I might like to get in the crosshairs, but they are not Muslims!) The publishing ”insight” proffered here is that there are books we could and should be reading besides those found on the current best-seller list. Important books about a pressing subject. As a handseller at Park Road Books, what books do you carry about the subject of militant Muslims that you would recommend? And…how are they selling?
November 25th, 2006 at 4:28 pm
Dear Bonnie:
“But then again I remember all the liberals who were blaming the President for being in Iraq because of the oil. Funny how that rhetoric all but disappeared when gas prices rose to $3 a gallon.”
In one of his last campaign appearances before the recent election, your beloved President Bush, who believes, as you do, that a nonsentient blob of cells takes precedence over an adult suffering the ravages of a chronic disease, having failed to persuade most Americans with his constantly changing rationales for remaining in Iraq, exhorted his audience that we can’t leave Iraq and leave the oil resources in the hands of the “terrorists”.
Never mind the fact that our own military acknowledgees that non-Iraqis constitute about only 5% of those perpretrating violence. It is the Shiite and Sunnis, all Iraqis, who are engaged in a civil war to determine the control of THEIR country.
What is significant is that you have President Bush himself ratifying the view that Iraq’s oil reserves are central to our involvement there. President Bush. Not a liberal.
November 25th, 2006 at 9:13 pm
I have to confess I’m confused by your blog this time.
First, you seem to be promoting two arguments. One being how evil Muslims are, the other about how the State of New York doesn’t allow you to carry a gun. What does one have to do with the other? Are you about to embark on a one woman killing spree against anyone who follows the religion of Islam? You appear to be promoting genecide? Against Muslims? Or perhaps against anyone who doesn’t embrace the ‘values’ of the US.
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing ™: I’m saying heads-up and study-up. Also, I am happy to display the jackets of any books visitors might recommend.
November 25th, 2006 at 10:40 pm
I’m sorry Peter.
I would answer you but that would take the debate off onto a whole new tangent.
The subject here is terrorism and it militant Islamic connections.
November 26th, 2006 at 5:59 pm
Some interesting statistics:
http://www.religioustolerance.org/isl_numb.htm
Salman Rushdie estimates that 10-15% Muslims are of the militant kind.
Yeow! That’s a lot of people with a bad attitude toward everyone, but themselves.
November 26th, 2006 at 9:20 pm
And if anyone knows, Salman Rushdie ought to be the one! LOL…the Islamic militants perpetually have a hit contracted on that poor man!
All it would take is two or three suitcase nukes to turn this country into a veritable wasteland. The only thing that is protecting us now is the diligence of of our own Homeland Security.
November 27th, 2006 at 3:35 pm
lastofadyingbreed….Lovely statistics. Enough to keep all bigots busy, well, bigotting. This is 2006, for heaven’s sake. Innocent Iraquis are dying. At weddings, at religious gatherings. Not because they want to. Their life is evey bit as important as yours and mine. You can believe what you want, say what you want. I prefer to care that people of any race or religion are dying needlessly. I especially care that young American soldiers are dying needlessly and no one seems to give a damn. But that’s me. One voice. And now I’m going back to my writing.
November 28th, 2006 at 4:27 pm
What the heck prompted you to post something like this? You’ve opened the floor for ignorance and muslim-bashing. Trust me, the only people who make comments like this are the people who don’t know muslims. I am married to a muslim man from Turkey. My children, though born here, are half Turkish. If they’d been born in Turkey they would be muslim. They’d still be the same children. Yes, I understand that Turkey is a modern country and secular in many of their views, but still–to classify “ALL” muslims or any other group of people in any way is simple ignorance. What you have started on this forum and what you have allowed to escalate would be condemned if you were talking about people of differing skin colors. But because you’re focusing on people you know nothing about it is somehow acceptable? How can you critisize a supposedly intolerant group of people when you are practicing that very intolerance? Be glad you were born in America. But stop turning your noses up at those who were not. All muslims are not “bad.” All American’s are not “good.” Judge people individually. And please, stop spreading hate.
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing ™: When I refer to Muslim (with a capital “M,” I am referring to an “adherent of Islam” of the militant variety. The books I (and others) mention in this posting are listed here to inform and educate. You cannot always judge people individually because people are not always what they appear to be.
November 28th, 2006 at 5:33 pm
In reference to the “Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing”
I understand what you may have thought you were promoting, but given the discussion that has ensued, I’d think you’d be more cautious next time. Because of beliefs like this, Muslims (with a capital “M” or not) are being harmed and killed in THIS country. These people could be MY children. And shame on anyone who allows and instigates a discussion such as this in a time where ignorance is still so widespread that people are being killed simply for their nationality. This discussion has had virtually nothing to do with books and to imply otherwise is simply not true. Yes, I feel passionately about this. You would as well if you were me. My husband is a secular Muslim who hasn’t even seen the inside of a mosque in years, except for when his mother died a few months ago. Yet people on this site have classified all Muslims as extremists–allowing that sort of behavior and thought to be perpetuated on this site puts my children and millions of other Muslim children living in this country at risk. THINK before you spread your views. Until now, I have enjoyed and respected your views and your blog.
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing ™: Cathy, I am really glad to have you weigh in on this subject, particularly because you have a unique perspective as a woman/wife/mother who is married to a muslim (small “m”). I’m just sorry you didn’t weigh in earlier! I try and print all emails as long as they are not libelous or nasty ad hominem attacks.
November 28th, 2006 at 9:59 pm
I appreciate your reply–sorry if I came across too harshly. As an American myself, I can admit that I might feel differently if I were not married to a Muslim. It’s given me a unique perspective and having kids that are American and LOOK American, but who are actually half Turkish and therefore could be Muslim has sort of forced me to look at things differently.
Anyway–I do respect people’s right to free speech–the debate just caught me off guard. And you’re right, it’s with a big “M”–just my bad grammar mistake.
Thanks again for your reply.
November 29th, 2006 at 11:35 am
Cathy…I know many “secular” Muslims like your husband…I referenced this kind of Christian…and Muslim…in my second post to this thread. Secular Muslims are not the problem here…”ALL” Muslims are not the problem here.
Just like in Christianity where you find the fanatics, who during the Crusades thought it was fine to kill in the name of Christ. Now we find fanatic Muslims who are hellbent on killing in the name of Allah.
We got past the Crusades…mainly because there wasn’t a lot of worldwide damage they could inflict on horses with spears and swords. But now we have the “fanatical” element of Islam that can literally destroy this world and this country in their quest to rid the world of infidels.
And let’s make no mistake about it. As citizens of the USA, you, your husband, and your children are at just as much risk from these people as any other color American. When the World Trade Centers fell I will bet you a dollar to a dougnut that there were a lot of Muslims who also died that day.
In Iraq right now, it has degraded to basically civil war…That is Sunni Muslims killing Shite Muslims, because of a difference in religious phylosophy. That is Muslim insurgents…mostly from other countries…killing Iraqi Muslims for trying to live in a democratic society.
If there were more level-headed Muslims that spoke out against the fanatical factions there might be less of a problem with other people appearing to blame all Muslims. But I don’t see the ground swell of Muslim public opinion trying to divert, subvert, or generally squash, what is clearly a global problem.
November 29th, 2006 at 7:03 pm
Here’s what I think: After watching one religious group murder another over their beliefs, Religion is the root of all
evil. I honestly don’t see the difference between any of the fundamentalist religious sects, be they Christian, Jewish or Muslim. They all need to reign themselves in and stop killing those who don’t share their version of a higher being and stop threatening Hell and Damnation to those of us who don’t believe exactly as they do.
As a Christian, I believe that Jesus would weep for what is, supposedly, being done in his name.
Y’all gotta STOP and remember the Golden Rule!!
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing ™: Amen to that, but try selling the Golden Rule to someone who considers you an infidel whose head must roll.
November 30th, 2006 at 10:53 am
Lilly!
Many thanks for your reply. I agree with your sentiment. Every needless human death in our global economy is a waste of potential prosperity for all to whom that person is connected. Each Iraqi death perpetuates an imperative for vendetta which takes the deceased’s whole family & social network farther from a peaceful, stable condition in which foreign & domestic investors would be willing to place their confidence.
Each American death in any of our current overseas conflicts is a horrible waste as well, but I think those who are still sticking with this rare and, yes, wobbly-off-mission thread were hoping for less of a gnashing of teeth conversation, which influences no one’s thinking and leaves us nothing to talk about, and more of a books-inspired talk about how attitudes can be formed toward a threat to global security that far too many voting taxpayers fail to take seriously.
The first step we could take together away from both shrill and dismissive is to read words as if they meant what they say. I find no indictments, above, of “all” Muslims, and no one here knows cathy, or you, personally. cathy’s husband, to me, is the evocation of some words on a screen that she puts there, and I have no reason to disbelieve her when she says he’s a good man.
That quotidian discussion, though, does not change the facts of our national security and foreign policy conversation, about which the above mentioned reading is but a small sample: Islam is the common requirement among mass-murder franchises who threaten global security.
I do find several posts above where people who read books are trying to apply what they’ve read to the task of parsing out the mass-murder franchisees, who require Muslim membership, from all followers of Islam. I also find several crucial unaddressed questions, the most timely of which is “where is the broad-based internally-generated Muslim condemnation of terror tactics?” Even the under-reported Open Letter to His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI signed by 38 Islamic authorities, fails to condemn violence, and defines “jihad” to include the use of “force” when necessary, whenever that is. In other words, the Grand Muftis of Turkey, Egypt, Russia, Syria, Kosovo, Bosnia and Uzbekistan, are leaving an open doctrinal loophole for terrorists as recently as October 12th.
To your points, Lilly and cathy, I also find no advance of the discussion based on geopolitical interest; no national security-oriented acknowledgement of the centrality of religion and energy to our current foreign policy (the unifying theme of those 21 books that started all this).
One very excellent thinker who is actually writing about attainable, sustainable solutions to these issues, which involve nothing that could be construed as Abrahamist-bashing, is:
The Natural Advantage of Nations: Business Opportunities, Innovation and Governance in the 21st Century
who discusses several refreshingly industry-minded and economically rigorous energy migration tactics which could be adopted immediately, at:
http://www.rmi.org/
I sign off, still hopeful to think together, and still standing by.