Low Earth Orbit

Excellent question

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Former Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar on Friday defended Pope Benedict XVI’s comments about Islam, saying the pontiff had no need to apologise and asking why Muslims never did, according to newspaper reports published on Saturday.

“Why do we always have to say sorry and they never do?� Mr Aznar told a conference in the United States.

“It is interesting to note that while a lot of people in the world are asking the pope to apologise for his speech, I have never heard a Muslim say sorry for having conquered Spain and occupying it for eight centuries.�

This is precisely the kind of response the West should be making to Islam. It highlights the essential contradiction at the heart of the Caliphascist effort to use the West’s decency against it, which is that the West rates better on that scale than Islam.

Speaking truth from power

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The Howard Government’s multicultural spokesman, Andrew Robb, yesterday told an audience of 100 imams who address Australia’s mosques that these were tough times requiring great personal resolve. Mr Robb also called on them to shun a victim mentality that branded any criticism as discrimination.

“We live in a world of terrorism where evil acts are being regularly perpetrated in the name of your faith,” Mr Robb said at the Sydney conference.

“And because it is your faith that is being invoked as justification for these evil acts, it is your problem.

“You can’t wish it away, or ignore it, just because it has been caused by others.

“Instead, speak up and condemn terrorism, defend your role in the way of life that we all share here in Australia.”

I can’t believe that such a statement wouldn’t turn out to be very popular on the American Street as well, but apparently our political class has a very different opinion.

RINO perfidity watch

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The President campaigns for Lincoln Chafee, and by way of thanks Chafee is trying to kill the Bolton nomination

One might still argue that on the whole, Chafee is still better than the Democratic Party candidate would likely be in his place had Chafee lost the primary, but let us not pretend that defending RINOs is without cost.

NewD irection for the Democratic Party

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[…] there was a problem. Democrats have had more “New Directions” recently than MapQuest.

Among the party’s campaign slogans this year: “Culture of Corruption,” “Culture of Cronyism,” “Do-Nothing Congress,” “Rubber-Stamp Congress,” “Together, We Can Do Better,” “Together, America Can Do Better” and, most recently, “Six for ‘06.”

For those keeping score at home, Democrats arrived at “New Direction” yesterday by downgrading one of the “Six for ‘06” issues (health care) and upgrading three others (honesty, civility and fiscal discipline), for a total of eight items on the contents page.

By contrast, Republicans have settled on a single, unofficial slogan, which essentially says: Vote Democrat and Die.

— Dana Milbank

See a spin doctor if this slogan lasts more than 4 hours

— Jim Hu

I can't keep up

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Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said he is ready to begin talks with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to advance peace efforts, and Abbas responded that he is ready for an unconditional meeting.

I was going to joke “They should invite UK Prime Minister Tony Blair to complete the circle of the walking politically dead” but while I was digging up a cite I discovered that this happened while Blair was visiting Abbas. Ouch, that’s a nasty gobsmacking by reality. I need to crank up the satire to 11 apparently. Now, there are some who take this seriously but won’t this make Clinton’s signing of the Kyoto Protocol look effective in comparison?

Ambulance chasing

The controversy over the ‘Ambulance Incident’ in the Israeli invasion of Lebanon.

I won’t go with “open and shut” on the faked side. I will say, strongly, that Zombie has by far the stronger weight of evidence. It’s striking that most of the attempted refutations by Old Media end up making Zombie’s case better, not weaker (such as the constantly changing story of the actual attack).

I especially liked Tim Blair’s recounting of the story as reported by Martin Chulov of The Australian in which this ace reporter, entrusted with verifying the story, manages to not notice that the confirmation contradicts the original story in many significant details. That’s not mendacity — if Chulov were really part of a hoax, wouldn’t he still notice that discrepancy and cover it up? There is really only one undeniable conclusion one can draw and it’s that Chulov is not suffering from malice.

Focusing on what's important

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Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe is calling for an emergency debate on the direction Canada’s foreign policy is taking — including whether Ottawa should pull its troops from Afghanistan.

He said there’s a growing feeling among Quebeckers that Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper is moving in lockstep with U.S. President George W. Bush on foreign policy, from Israel to Afghanistan.

“I think they have more and more the impression that Harper is taking the same alignment that Bush is taking, and they are firmly against that,” Mr. Duceppe said in an interview as the death toll of Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan reached 32.

Note the real problem — aligning with the USA on foreign policy. The actual details, consequences and benefits? Trivia!

Gunning for the camera hogs

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