ISRAEL - IRAN - SYRIA - HAMAS - HEZBOLLAH - WWWIII?

Correct etiquette dictates that if someone receives a birthday gift, one should say and feel gratitude, regardless if the recipient is aware that the gift giver obtained a personal satisfaction for being such a nice person (to give the gift).

Am I correct that the context of your reply above ("That post is beneath contempt") includes the fact that Britain is trying, ever so hard, to make nice to the continent, that for centuries were adversaries of Brittania?

Believe it or not, there are Americans, that are not Jewish, that are not Germanophiles. American families did not just lose loved ones in WWII to the Japanese aggression.

Perhaps, if you close your eyes and think of the V-2's raining down on London, and the Yanks that stood by Britain in WWII, one might just wonder if some Americans have a better historical memory than some others?

While I do not wish to throw all Muslims into the same box here--I have Muslim neighbors who I really enjoy and appreciate a lot--it is true that Europe seems to be attracting a growing population of a strain of more radical Muslims who are beginning to press for privileges based on their religion and ideology. I think the UK in particular may is seeing its unique culture eroded in ways that do not contribute to a cohesive and homogenous society. I once took comfort in the old maxim "There will always be an England". Should Islam gain the majority there, however, would they be as accommodating to non-Muslims as the non-Muslims have been to them? Would England really still be England?

Somehow I think many Europeans might find a large militant Muslim minority or possibly majority to be an unsatisfactory situation and they might begin to think the Jews who just wanted to be able to live their lives in peace were pretty okay.

You love Jews and Muslims; how wonderful!

Foofie- the reason that McTag said the post is beneath contempt is that he thinks that History began when Obama was elected. Anti-Semitism is alive and, unfortunately, flourishing. Having traveled Europe for many years on business in the past, I can assure you of this. Although the government of Germany has passed laws to show how tolerant they are now, there are still many Germans who will still slyly show thier dislike for Israel.

Posters like Herr Hinteler do not fool me when the express support for the fanatic Hamas which would wipe out every Jew in Israel if they could.

McTag is unaware that the USA has always stood against totalitarianism.
First, the National Socialists under Hitler, the Fascists behind Mussolini and the rabidly Nationalistic Japanese threatened our freedoms.

Then, as many in the USA had predicted in the thirties, we were faced with the monstrous challenge from the Communists.

During all of this, Israel has been steadfastly on the side of the USA. The truth is, of course, that Israel is the only Democratic Country in the Middle East.

I can't help but snicker when I read of some Socialist dunderheads defending the fanatic Muslims who will beat women in the streets,submit them to all sorts of human indignities and then excoriate the right for attempting to put an end to the murder of babies.

They really should make up their minds. Are they for or against women's rights throughout the world?

Churchill,as you may recall, was four square against Communism. I am sure that he would privately comment that we, in the USA, are hell bent on the road towards totalitarianism under a President who was an acolyte of Saul Alinsky when he was a community Organizer.

If you are truly interested in the roots of World War II, McTag, you may want to pick up a wonderful book written by Amity Shales, an expert in Economics, who shows that FDR was hell bent on the road to Socialism to "fix' the depression and when it could not be fixed?

War was the answer. Of course, there were multiple factors involved in the decision to go to war but the economy of the USA was one of them.

Roosevelt had a horrendous Unemployment rate. The major reason that the Unemployment Rate did not abate( even by 1937) was that the entrepreneurs saw that Roosevelt was their enemy who wanted to tax them into extinction, SO THE PEOPLE WHO COULD HAVE OPENED FACTORIES AND BUSINESSES BASICALLY SHUT DOWN.

Eruope is suffering from the dread disease of Socialism. We may be in the first stages at this time. But, as is clear in Nimh's Socialist Paradise of Hungary, NO country in Europe can continue its Socialistic Welfare programs for long. The non working population is growing in Europe and government in some countries allocates more than half of their budgets to socialist welfare programs.

I don't think you are fully aware of this, McTag.

Foofie wrote:

But, if there is a God, he might be giving the Europeans today a group of Semites that they will really enjoy, since they did not seem to appreciate those Semites that harken back to Moses. Perhaps, a divine joke on the Europeans?

end of quote

Very Apt and correct.

I am sure, foofie, that you are aware that the Muslim population in Europe is growing rapidly. There may come a time when the French, as well as other European Nations will have regulations that ALL women must wear head coverings. This, and other rules dictated by a majority Muslim legislature, will show the Anti-Semitic Europeans that they were much better served by the Einsteins of Europe than by modern day Muslim fanatics.

Even if the above came to pass, I do not believe the collective European ego would allow any European country to admit it did anything incorrectly. Europe seems to have the trait of not liking to admit it did anything wrong/incorrect, in my opinion. A feminine trait, perhaps.

In fact the Muslim population is growing rapidly in Europe and elsewhere. Those who don't see any problem at all with Muslims gaining control of the world's major governments can rest on their laurels for that could very well be the way it is going to be:

And don't forget the Catholics, the Atheists, the Lutherans, the Baptists, the ...

Don't forget the Hindus, Buddhists, and Communists.

Walter Hinteler wrote:
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And don't forget the Catholics, the Atheists, the Lutherans, the Baptists, the ...
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Huh?

Walter Hinteler either does not really live in Europe or he is blind to what is happening.

Here is what Herr Hinteler obviously does not know or does not wish to admit.

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Take, for instance, this new book of Steyn's, America Alone, just released this week in paperback. In the chapter subtly titled "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse," Steyn finally states outright just exactly what he foresees in Europe's near future.

"How bad is it going to get in Europe?" he asks darkly, before answering even more darkly yet. "As bad as it can get - as in societal collapse, fascist revivalism, and then the long Eurabian night, not over the entire Continent but over significant parts of it. And those countries that manage to escape the darkness will do so only after violent convulsions of their own."

So why does Steyn believe that the majority of Europe is going to descend into this long, dark night? Well, in short (and this should come as no surprise) - Islam. But, as Steyn is quick to point out, while one oughtn't to downplay the role of Islam, Islam isn't so much a cause as a consequence.

To illustrate his point, Steyn quotes a Canadian journalist who writes: "secularism is precisely what created the Euro spiritual/moral vacuum in which Islamism has rushed headlong." Or, as he says elsewhere, addressing the issue of abortion and the West's general moral decay, "In their bizarre prioritization of 'a woman's right to choose,' feminists have helped ensure that European women will end their days in a culture that doesn't accord women the right to choose anything. Non-Muslim females in heavily Muslims neighborhoods in France now wear headscarves while out on the streets."

Hence, in order to understand the current crisis of civilization, one must understand not only the impending threat (Islam), but also the underlying root cause that has allowed the threat to become a threat in the first place (secularism). Steyn brilliantly accomplishes both of these tasks in this book.

Steyn frames the central argument of America Alone (that Europe is heading towards civilisational suicide, that Islam is well on its way to global domination, and that America is the nation at this period in history that is best equipped to save Western civilisation) in terms of what he calls "the central equation in human development: the intersection of demography and will." The life and future of a society is almost entirely dependent on these two factors; in terms of demography, whoever has the manpower is going to have a lot going for them as far as world domination is concerned; and, in terms of will, whoever has the stronger and more sustained will to spread their civilisation is going to be practically unstoppable.

In the first case (demography), the obvious point, of course, is that the West isn't having any babies, while Muslims are; and, in terms of the second (will), Steyn points out that most of those in the West who would be able to have the babies if only they stopped popping the pill or using rubber aren't much more than babies themselves; as such, they aren't exactly prepared to engage a rapidly expanding, world-domination-bent civilisation in any sort of sustained global conflict. They'd rather play with their toys.

While the argument that the West isn't having any babies, while Muslims are, is old hat to most of us, up to this point the real urgency of the crisis hasn't been brought home in its full force. Fortunately one of the most unique talents that Steyn has is to present innumerable statistics to his readers, and somehow to manage to make the numbers really, really interesting. The demographic picture that Steyn deftly paints in America Alone, by juxtaposing and commenting on endless statistics, is much more devastating, and much more difficult to refute, than any of us have grasped until now.

By this point the doubting Thomases out there may be thinking (and rightly) that books with the sort of apocalyptic theses that Steyn ardently defends in America Alone have a pretty constant habit of devolving into nothing more than crude fear-mongering and sweeping overgeneralizations. But throughout America Alone Steyn avoids this dangerous pitfall not only by a generous display of his shrewd sense of humor, but also by the use of the full extent of his self-educated Western mind, which brings to the table an immense quantity of historical, political, religious, and artistic knowledge (there is also, of course, the added bonus of Steyn's being right).

Because of his unusual historical sense, Steyn knows full well that this battle of the wills between the West and Islam began way before 9/11, and is much deeper than a passing argument about America's foreign policy. It is a conflict that sits at the very core of the human person and of reality - it comes down to the deepest questions of who we, as human beings, are, and what the truth is, if anything.

As Steyn writes, "At the heart of multiculturalism is a lie: that all cultures are equally 'valid.' To accept that proposition means denying reality - the reality of any objective measure of human freedom, societal health, and global population movement." The West has abandoned the notion of an objective truth, and without that it is left helpless, utterly exposed to the force of any competing civilisation that believes it is in possession of the truth.

Certainly what many readers (especially Democrats and foreigners) won't appreciate about Steyn is his arguably over-the-top Americanist position. He really does argue that it is America's turn to save the world; and he really does think that America can do it.

But, what makes Steyn's argument particularly interesting is that he isn't a Bible belt, gun-toting, war-mongering, city-on-a-hill sort of Proddie. In fact, Steyn isn't even American, which makes it kind of hard to describe him as your typical raging Americanist. He's a Canadian citizen who spends a lot of his time living in England, has a house in New Hampshire, and who occasionally hops over to the Middle East to see how things are going. Whatever way you look at it, that gives the man a unique perspective. And from that perspective Steyn has come to see that America, while not perfect, is the only place with enough sane people left, with a high enough birthrate, enough fire power, and enough will-power and cultural pride to put a stop to the spread of Islam and to jump-start Western civilisation's flatlining heart. And heck, he just might be right.

Herr Hinteler is quick to point out US shortcomings but he rarely comments on German foibles:

Note-quote-

| The Who's who of Islampbobia can be found on the list of invitees for the Pro Kohn's conference in Cologne Germany. Jean-Marie Le Pen of France, Austria’s Heinz-Christian Strache, and Belgium’s Filip Dewinter. They are back. Islampbhibia Inc congregates in Cologne Germany. They are meeting in Germany for the perpetuation of the 4th Reich. Provoking an emotional populace is a full time industry. Islamphobia Inc. is meeting in Cologne Germany to chart out strategies to malign and misconstrue the teachings of Islam. A similar meeting took place in 1097 which led to the beginnings of the Crusades in 1098. A similar meeting took place in 1491 which led to the Spanish Inquisition. The same meeting took place in 1492 which led to the begriming of colonialism of Muslim lands. A similar meeting met in 1936 to define a strategy for the extermination of the other children of Abraham-The Jews.

OIC slams anti-Islam congress in Germany Arab News

JEDDAH: The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) has expressed serious concerns about reports that an far right group is holding an anti-Islam conference in the German city of Cologne in September.

A spokesman for the OIC’s Islamophobia Observatory in Jeddah said in a statement issued yesterday that the proposed conference was aimed at arousing anti-Muslim sentiments in Europe and that it would pose a threat to inter-communal peace and harmony in society.

The right-wing extremist group Pro Koln is organizing the event on Sept. 19-20, with the aim of issuing a declaration against the purported “Islami-fication” of Europe.

The meeting is expected to be attended by some of the most inflammatory names in European race politics, including Jean-Marie Le Pen of France, Austria’s Heinz-Christian Strache, and Belgium’s Filip Dewinter.

The organizers of the conference are motivated by racial hatred and xenophobia, said the OIC spokesman.

“The OIC hopes that all segments of society in Germany and other parts of Europe will come out strongly against the holding of such a conference, and reject the proponents of hatred and racism,” he said in the statement.

Various international groups have condemned Pro Koln for organizing the conference and called for public initiatives to confront efforts to spread the right-wing propaganda against people of other ethnic or religious groups.

The arguments here, inasmuch as I have been able to follow them in all their weird and wonderful illogic, prejudice, and passion seem to be that
a) Europe is going to be over-run by Islam because there is a vacuum here powerless to prevent it, and
b) the forces of the extreme right are massing to combat islamification of Europe.

This is plainly nonsense. No country has ever addressed its past in the way modern Germany has, to correct so far as is possible the mistakes and crimes of the Nazi dictatorship, and to make reparations therefor.

Oversimplified, McTag.

First of all, you must make up your mind as to whether you believe that the demographics of Europe will lead to Islamic predominance in population.

The numbers are available.

Secondly, you must make up your mind as to whether you think that the representatives in the countries of Europe thirty and forty years from now will not produce legislation which will enshrine Muslim religious practices and culture throughout Europe.

Thirdly, it is not the forces of the EXTREME right as you put it, it will be the forces of decent and hard working people like the French who had to put up with the recent Muslim destruction and chaos caused by Muslim hooligans.

If you can produce evidence to show that will not happen, I would be most appeciative.

But I can tell you that the demographics in the USA which made for massive Afro-American and Latino votes( most of whom cannot read an editorial page) has shifted the politics to free market capitalism to Socialism.

Whether or not you think that is a good idea is up to you.

This is a big issue, much covered in right-wing publications here ( I refer in particular to The Spectator, which I often buy. Mark Steyn is a contributor, btw)

I don't think we can do much about demographics, even if we can slow immigration. But this is the history of humankind. (Plenty WASPS did not like Irish immigration into the USA, then the Christians tried to prevent the Jews of northern Europe getting established there. It seems to be part of life's rich tapestry)

There are encouraging signs here though, that moderate muslims are finally waking up to the threat posed to all of islamic fundamentalism in our midst (home-grown bombers and the like), and to do something about it. It is arguable imo that some muslim cultural practices (by no means all, but a few) would not necessarily be a retrograde step for us here in Britain.

I totally agree; Germany, of all the countries who have been responsible for many bad actions have acknowledged their wrongs like no other.