The CounterJihad Summit in today's Podcast

In tonight's podcast, Siggy and Gates of Vienna join us to talk about the CounterJihad summit.

The call-in number is (646) 652-2639, and there's also chat.
Join us at 9PM Eastern!

Tonight at 9PM: The Modoggie Cartoons

In tonight's prime-time Blog Talk Radio podcast, our monthly roundtable with Siggy of Sigmund, Carl and Alfred and Dymphna and Baron Bodissey of Gates of Vienna will discuss al-Qaeda's $150,000 bounty on Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks.

Please join us!

Newspapers finally report on the new cartoon protests, a month after Gates of Vienna

The Telegraph has a story today on the current cartoon protests:

Fears grew of a new confrontation over images deemed blasphemous by Muslims as Pakistan joined Iran in protest over a sketch by a Swedish artist portraying the prophet Mohammed as a dog.

Pakistan's foreign ministry said it had summoned the Swedish charge d'affaires to condemn "in the strongest terms, the publication of an offensive and blasphemous sketch of the Holy Prophet".

The move adds to a chorus of criticism over the series of drawings, by artist Lars Vilks, one of which was published earlier this month by a regional Swedish newspaper.

Lars Vilks's website (link in Swedish) has all the offensive and blasphemous drawings.

What I find interesting is not the protests, which of course are expected, but that it's taken this long for the papers to get around to it.

Gates of Vienna has been covering the Moondoggie story since July 23, including the cartoons, more recently here.

Baron Bodissey and Dymphna were my podcast guests last Monday. Next Monday at noon Siggy and I will be talking about work in the USA and in the EU. Don't miss it.

Today's podcast. the Dissident Frogman explains it all, and today's items

UPDATE
You can listen to today's podcast here

In today's Blog Talk Radio podcast, it's time for Fausta's Blog Talk Radio monthly roundtable with Dymphna and and Baron Bodissey of Gates of Vienna and Siggy. Today we'll be discussing the SIOE's proposed demonstration on September 11 in Brussels.

Please join us at noon Eastern. The call-in number is (646) 652-2639.
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Liars outdoing liars: Huffington Post ups Iraqi deaths past 1 million
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Via Linda, The Dissident Frogman has an educational video.
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Via Larwyn,
Ten Worst Branding Decisions of All-Time
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Obama's not welcome among this crowd.

I don't expect he'd be welcome with open arms in Pakistan, either.
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Elvira's still at it, as expected.
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King/Drew Medical Center: Reparations Paid Back In Blood
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As I mentioned yesterday, The Official Berkeley Breathed Website announced,

Note to Opus readers: The Opus strips for August 26 and September 2 have been withheld from publication by a large number of client newspapers across the country, including Opus's host paper The Washington Post."

Salon has the strip in question.
Atlas Shrugs, Linda, Q&O, SCSU and Captain Ed have commentary.

How do you spell dhimmitude?

Culture, or civilization? Sarko, and today's items

Culture, or civilization?
How to Distinguish Your Friends From the Barbarians (h/t Larwyn)

I attempt to draw a distinction between "culture" and "civilization," the former being local and contingent, the latter nonlocal and universal. A culture can be good or evil, depending upon how civilized it is.

"Civilization" is an archetype that, by its very nature, can never be fully attained on earth. It is the perfection and the totality to which this or that culture -- to the extent that it is healthy -- orients itself. In a sense, you might say that it is analogous to Augustine's distinction between the "City of Man" and "City of God." Evolution and progress can only occur in light of the "movement" toward civilization, which is why "progressives" are so curiously named, since their ideology specifically eliminates the possibility of objective progress toward this nonlocal telos.

One of my many objections to leftism is that it eliminates the idea of civilization and replaces it with culture. Multiculturalism explicitly maintains that various cultures are uniquely beautiful and valuable, and that there are no objective standards -- i.e., civilization -- by which we may judge them. Thus, because of this metaphysical pathology at the heart of leftism, it is not possible for them to notice, for example, that Israel is civilized and that it is surrounded by savages. To any civilized person, this observation is a banality of the first rank, but one of the most pernicious effects of leftist political correctness is that it outlaws civilization, generally equating it with "racism" or some other form of oppression.

Go read the rest.
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The Brits are Voting with their feet,

Britain is facing a mass exodus of people looking to escape the crime and grime of modern living. The country’s biggest foreign visa consultancy firm has revealed that applications have soared in the last seven months by 80 per cent to almost 4,000 a week. Ten years ago the figure was just 300 a week.

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France/ Sarkozy so far
The new French president is popular. He is a genuine friend of the United States (and Israel). The real tests are yet to come.:

In foreign matters, he garnered several successes in less than three months. One, his initiative for a new European governance, two years after the popular rejection of the so-called European Constitution both in France and the Netherlands, is genuine and impressive. A second success, the release of five Bulgarian nurses and one Palestinian doctor held in Libya for eight years, has been fraught with criticism and suspicion. According to some critics, his special envoy to Libya – who happened to be his wife, Cecilia – stole the show from an European Union diplomatic team that had been working about the issue for months. According to other critics, the six State prisoners have been traded for a far-reaching arms and technology contract that will provide dictator Muammar Kadhafi with a new strategic edge in the Mediterreanean.

Did you listen to GoV and SC&A yet?

In last Monday's podcast Gates of Vienna's Dymphna and Baron Bodissey, Siggy and I discussed immigration,

Baron Bodissey: "We have a problem that law is not enforced, and our president and our own administration have made wanting to enforce the law a symptom of bigotry, racism, and unkindness and lack of compassion"

We also discussed France's nuclear deal with Libya, the EU, and anti-Americanism, and you must listen to the rest of the podcast. As a follow-up, during the week Sigmund Carl and Alfred posted about a Gates of Vienna's commenter on the subject of the EU's constituion.

It is a privilege to have these conversations with Dymphna, Siggy and the Baron, and I look forward to having one of these podcasts every month.

On a related subject, Siggy once said,

For every prayer that is extended our way when most needed, there are an equal numbers of prayers that we must extend because those prayers are needed.

Dymphna is recovering from shoulder surgery and I invite all my visitors to pray for her speedy and complete recovery.

Next Monday, August 6 my guest will be the excellent Captain Ed Morrissey


I have been reading daily Captain's Quarters for years and it was a real thrill to meet Ed last March (that's my hand over his shoulder). Ed's the podfather of BTR political podcasts and it's a real pleasure to talk to him. Don't miss the podcast Monday at noon Eastern time.

The forest from the trees, and Fred

In yesterday's post, My neighbor and Fred I ridiculed the rumors that have come out in the media (specifially the press) about Fred Thompson, and I said taht if you listen to all that garbage you end up thinking that,

He's a gun-toting womanizing twice-married gay guy who is loved by his children and liked by attractive women lawyer -who might have lobbied on abortion sixteen years ago -Senator movie star on horseback.

There is one thing, however, that I didn't know about but that is a serious issue with some of us, namely, Fred's hiring of Spencer Abraham as his campaign manager.

Dymphna has a great post explaining why this is

a fatal mistake for anyone concerned with the infiltration of this country by Islamists.

Abraham is an apologist for Isalmists. Follow Dymphna's links and you'll see that.

So while we are all looking at the forest of cosmetic accusations, we are missing the trees. Take a few minutes and go though the links at Right Truth.

What you don't know does matter.

Lybia, France, the EU and the Middle East

Siggy of Sigmund Carl and Alfred, and Dymphna and Baron Bodissey of Gates of Vienna and I just completed today's podcast. I'll be blogging more about it later, but for now, please listen.

Harry Potter, shoes, The Carnival, and tomorrow on BTR

UPDATED
Check out the Blogathon!
Since a family member is away and took with him HP7, last evening I went and bought another copy. Blogging will be light until I finish the book (halfway there).

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The subject of shoes proved popular in the It'll Never Happen post. Here's my latest purchase - mine are black patent:

Comfortable, goes well with slacks and skirts, and on sale.
(Let's hope Amazon doesn't show the HP book link instead of the shoes! Here's the direct link)
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Tomorrow July 30 at noon (EDT), my guests will be Baron Bodissey and Dymphna of Gates of Vienna, along with Siggy. We will be discussing Hazelton, Gates of Vienna's new calendar, and Sarkozy's visit to Libya.

My first BTR show with GoV and SC&A was fascinating and very popular, and I'm sure this one will be, too.
Please join us!

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Dr. Sanity has the Carnival of the Insanities

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UPDATEAlabama Improper is having a Blogathon for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Please visit.

Tasteless, Tacky And Crude

says Siggy, of the video that Gates of Vienna received and posted.

Dymphna, Baron Bodissey, and Siggy were my podcast guests a month ago. They'll be my guests next Monday, July 2 at noon.

We'll discuss this and other developments.

Today on Blog Talk Radio: Gates of Vienna and Sigmund, Carl and Alfred

On today's podcast: Dymphna and Baron Bodissey of Gates of Vienna join my co-host Siggy and I today at noon, EDT.

What does this have to do with Memorial Day? Tune in to find out!

Update You can listen to the archived podcast here
Dymphna and Baron Bodissey talked about The Center for Vigilant Freedom. I'm adding the link to my blogroll.

Jimmy, the worst president ever, and today's items

Investor's Business Daily has Profiles in Incompetence: a 10-part series on the worst president in American history
Part one: Look who's talking
Go and read all of them.

Monica Showalter, editorial writer for IBD, was one of my podcast guests. You can listen to the podcast here
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Who's feeding Cuba, you ask?
The US:

Cuba expects to sign deals worth $150 million with American food producers at talks starting on Monday that point to sustained U.S. interest in the Cuban market despite political hurdles.
...
One U.S. farm state delegation after another has gone to Havana this year to pitch sales of wheat, corn, beans, peas, lentils, chicken and other products needed by communist Cuba to feed its people.
...
U.S. sales to Cuba are allowed on a cash-only basis under an exception to the embargo enforced against Castro's leftist government since 1962. Despite the hostility between Washington and Havana, [US] exports have totaled $1.55 billion since 2001.

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Sigmund, Carl and Alfred has an excellent post on Memorial Day And The Mirror Of Hope,

Americans talk about freedom so passionately because we are passionate about that great ideal.

Freedom is the foundation of our beliefs. Because of freedom we free to choose the things we believe in, without fear of violence or repercussion. Freedom is the only ideology that wants to make the world a better place, a place where each and every one of us can author our own destiny- and do so without without stripping others of their rights. In a free society, we are free to exercise free will. We can choose to believe in God or we can exercise that free will and choose not to believe in God. In a free society, God takes care of His affairs. In a society that isn't free, the tyranny du jour takes it upon itself to handle God's affairs for Him.

The fight for freedom has not been easy. It never is. There are those that see the cost of freedom and want us to abandon the citizens of nations that so desperately need liberation from tyranny. It is tempting indeed to walk away, in the myopic and absurd belief that we would be forever extricating ourselves from a problem.

You must read the rest. You can also vote for it at Real Clear Politics

Siggy has been my podcast guest three times and tomorrow he'll co-host with me as we welcome Gates of Vienna's Dymphna and Baron Bodissey.

If you didn't listen to Siggy's reading of School Daze, go back and listen. This was my inagural podcast and it certainly was "starting with the right foot".
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Barcepundit (who was also my podcast guest - is there a pattern here?) has a this hypothetical letter from a newspaper editor to a cartoonist.
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My neighbor TigerHawk has Operation Hero Miles: Donate your frequent flier miles to injured soldiers and their families. Here's how.
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The Carnival's not up yet, but here's the link all the same up - go check it out:


I'll be posting about last night's podcast later today.

The disquieting creeping-up of European censorship

Last March I posted that the French Constitutional Council had approved a law that could lead to creation of a parallel judicial system controlling the publication of information on the Internet, effectively banning journalists from reporting violence. At that time, the French government proposed

a certification system for Web sites, blog hosters, mobile-phone operators and Internet service providers, identifying them as government-approved sources of information if they adhere to certain rules.

One of the reasons I post on France is that, where France leads, Europe follows.

Well, today Baron Bodissey posts about censorship in Finland, The proposed law, however, is much more far-reaching and included IM and IRC, and includes the hiring of moderators censors to monitor it all.

The items in italics are the replies by Finnish State Prosecutor Mika Illman on the proposed law:

Hiring an adequate number of moderators would become mandatory, as it already is mandatory for a network publication to have an editor, who is responsible for controlling the journalistic work.
...
3. How does your suggestion take IRC and instant messages into account?

The principle is the same. The administrator would have a duty to monitor the discussion and in due time to take action against clearly illegal material. This is no stronger obligation than the one TV or radio broadcaster has in the case of live broadcast.

Who would pay for all this and how it would be done two of the many unasked questions.

Couldn't happen here, you say? Here in the USA, broadcast radio is trying to censor internet radio. Little Miss Attila explains why you should support H.R. 2060.

Update: And then, there's using the Fairness Doctrine As Political Intimidation

In preparation for the 2008 elections, Democrats in Congress are trying to intimidate radio and TV broadcasters into including more Democrat views into their programs.

They are trying to resurrect an antiquated Federal Communications Commission regulation, the Fairness Doctrine, to require that opposing sides be presented to arguments. The Fairness Doctrine emerged at a time of very few radio, then TV, stations. Although in 1969 the Supreme Court upheld its constitutionality, in 1974 the Supreme Court did conclude the Doctrine "inescapably dampens the vigor and limits the variety of public debate", and in 1984 that a scarcity of airwaves argument was by then flawed as a multitude of stations emerged and were expected. In 1985 the FCC ceased to support a Fairness Doctrine, and formally scrapped it in 1987. The number of radio stations has doubled since 1970, the former three networks’ TV stations are now challenged by over 500 alternatives, and the Internet carries a wide-diversity of views.

At root of the current push by Democrats is, as conservative columnist Geoge Will observed, "The illiberals' transparent, and often proclaimed, objective is to silence talk radio." Why? "By trying to again empower the government to regulate broadcasting, illiberals reveal their lack of confidence in their ability to compete in the marketplace of ideas, and their disdain for consumer sovereignty - and hence for the public."

Read evert word.