Truespeak

I don't know how everybody else does it, but as a blogger who posts only once a day, I spend a good portion of my free time planning each day's post. I begin by finding a topic that interests me and then I try to organize my thoughts into a coherent polemic. Needless to say, some are more coherent than others. As I began this day, I was planning to write about the Sunday smackdown endured by RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman as he was thrown to the dogs in Karl Rove's defense. But then my daily paper arrived.

As I've said before, my hometown is extremely conservative. The county I live in is dominated by Republicans and has been for many many years. So it's no wonder that my local paper often publishes editorials from the nuttiest of the wingnut-o-sphere of journalism. One of these crazies is Diana West. According to the byline printed in my paper, she writes for the Washington Moonie Times, which should explain a lot. However, I read her every week because I'm always amazed by her disconnect from reality. Tonight's vomitous screed was a real gem.

Without it -- without its fanatics who believe all civilizations are the same -- the engine that projects Islam into the unprotected heart of Western civilization would stall and fail. It's as simple as that. To live among the believers -- the multiculturalists -- is to watch the assault, the jihad, take place un-repulsed by our suicidal societies. These societies are not doomed to submit; rather, they are eager to do so in the name of a masochistic brand of tolerance that, short of drastic measures, is surely terminal.
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Body bags, burn masks and prosthetics are no better protections than make-believe. But these are our weapons, according to the powers that be. These, and an array of high-tech scopes and scanners designed to identify retinas and fingerprints, to detect explosives and metals -- ultimately, I presume, as we whisk through the automatic supermarket door. How strange, though, that even as we devise new ways to see inside ourselves to our most elemental components, we also prevent ourselves from looking full-face at the danger to our way of life posed by Islam.


Notice I didn't say "Islamists." Or "Islamofascists." Or "fundamentalist extremists." I've tried out such terms in the past, but I've come to find them artificial and confusing, and maybe purposefully so, because in their imprecision I think they allow us all to give a wide berth to a great problem: the gross incompatibility of Islam -- the religious force that shrinks freedom even as it "moderately" enables or "extremistly" advances jihad -- with the West.
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In not discussing the roots of terror in Islam itself, in not learning about them, the multicultural clergy that shepherds our elites prevents us from having to do anything about them.

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, here, but the way I understand this is that Ms. West is claiming that the problems we are facing are a direct result of our country not discriminating enough against Muslims. Correct? Now maybe it's just me, but I would think that one could easily argue that the problems we are facing today have been fueled by the words and actions of intolerant crazies like Ms. West, herself.

Ms. West attempts to justify her bigotry by making the claim that terror has it's roots in Islam. While those that attacked us on 9/11 do indeed claim the Islamic ground, we have to remember that the vast majority of that religion does not support or condone the actions of al Qaeda. Just as the KKK and the Nazi regime claimed to be grounded in Christianity, they did not speak for everyone who shared their creed. I wonder how Ms. West would like to be judged based upon the actions of the KKK? I would hope that she would be repulsed by the notion. I stress HOPE, because after reading this article, I'm left to wonder.

If you're as offended as I am by Ms. West's intolerant rhetoric I encourage you to contact her. Be polite, but be clear that views like hers can not be tolerated. Because in the words of John Mellencamp: "Bigotry and hatred are enemies to us all".

Diana West
dianawest@verizon.net

General switchboard:
(202) 636-3000

Mailing Address:
Washington Times
3600 New York Ave NE
Washington, DC 20002-1947