FoxNews reports:: Wildfires Claim First Firefighter, Continue to Roar.
UPDATE: Some concern has been expressed to us that this cartoon might be intended to make fun of the wildfire's victims. Just in case anyone else gets that impression, we want to make clear that we are not in any way trying to belittle this tragedy (or what may prove to be an arsonist’s atrocity). Just the opposite, our aim was to show some sympathy for the victims by pointing out the sad irony that a geographical area known for one type of natural disaster should be stricken by another. Our thoughts are with those who have lost so much as well as with the brave people fighting the blaze.
From Reuters (beware of their scare quotes): Syria: Red Cross Attack Harmed Iraqi Interests.
DAMASCUS (Reuters) -- Syria condemned as "terrorism" Wednesday a deadly suicide attack on the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Baghdad this week, saying such attacks harmed the Iraqi people's interests."Syria strongly condemns the destructive attack on the ICRC offices in Baghdad," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Bushra Kanafani said in remarks run by the official SANA news agency.
"Such operations that target innocent life and humanitarian and international organizations, severely harm the interests of the Iraqi people. They are terrorist acts," she said.
The attack on the ICRC was one of four suicide missions that killed 35 people and wounded 230 Monday in Baghdad's bloodiest day since Saddam Hussein was overthrown.
A U.S. general has said one attacker captured alive in an attempted suicide bombing on a police station on that day was carrying a Syrian passport.[Emphasis added]
President Bush has blamed violence in Iraq on members of Saddam's ousted Baath party and foreign "terrorists," and has said he expects Syria and Iran to enforce border controls to stop infiltrators.
Washington has accused the Damascus government of turning a blind eye to militants crossing into Iraq. Syria has also long been on the State Department's list of states that support terrorism.
From FoxNews last week: Rumsfeld Memo to Inner Circle
[In the War of Terrorism] My impression is that we have not yet made truly bold moves, although we have have made many sensible, logical moves in the right direction, but are they enough?
We agree with the Secretary of Defense. Bold moves are needed, namely a focus on stopping Iran's sponsorship of Islamic terrorism. We're grateful that there is someone in the administration who is willing to say so.
Earlier this week, InstaPundit noted that International A.N.S.W.E.R. has organized yet another "anti-war" protest for this weekend. This is the same group that in late-September 2001 protested against going to war in Afghanistan -- while the ruins of the World Trade Center still smoldered.
The protests will most likely get plenty of media coverage, so it's important to keep in mind the following: Contrary to what they proclaim, most of the protesters are not against war. They are against America waging a war of self-defense. They are against Israel waging a war of self-defense. They are against free nations waging a war against the sworn enemies of freedom. But they are not against the war that is being waged on America by militant Islamic fundamentalists.
You will not see signs that say "DOWN WITH IRANIAN THEOCRACY" or "STOP THE PALESTINIAN SLAUGHTER OF JEWISH CHILDREN ON BUSES" or "DICTATORS LIE, MILLIONS DIE." What you will see is the vilification of America for civilian deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan and a total evasion of the fact that those deaths are the fault of the fascists who initiated or threatened to initiate force against us (not to mention the violence they visited directly upon their own people).
Though the Islamists and the "anti-war" protesters may have their differences, they are united by one thing: a common hatred of America.
InstaPundit also pointed to an article that takes an in-depth look at the organizers of these protests (Behind the Placards) and noted that a group called Protest Warrior is staging a counter protest.
This cartoon was created in September 2002 and is in our book, Black & White World.
AP reports today: Iran Turns Over Nuclear Documents to U.N. .
Iran on Thursday turned over to the U.N. nuclear agency documents on its past atomic energy activities, but the dossier apparently did not include the origin of traces of weapons-grade uranium found in the country.
Reuters reports: North Korea Says U.S. Security Offer Laughable.
From YahooNews (AFP) yesterday: Bush rebukes Mahathir over "divisive" remarks.
We're very glad to see President Bush's criticism, but Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's anti-semitism is nothing new. This 1997 report from an organization called the Jewish World Congress cataloged Matathir's anti-semitic comments, going as far back as his 1970 book, The Malay Dilemma, in which he wrote that "the Jews for example are not merely hook-nosed, but understand money instinctively."
And as recently as last month, Mahathir said he suspected the Asian financial crisis might have risen from a Jewish "agenda", saying Jews "are not happy to see the Muslims progress."
Mahathir has promised to retire at the end of this month after running the Southeast Asian nation for 22 years. Good riddance.
(Hat tip RajanR)
From Slate: Wesley Clark's Patriot Act by Chris Suellentrop.
From FoxNews: Democrats Battle for Heart of Clark Campaign.
From YahooNews (AP): Gaza Strip Blast Kills Three Americans. This story from Wednesday was displaced within hours by the "Defense Drops Bombshell" in the Kobe Bryant hearing story (words from an actual FoxNews headline). When news this relevant to the War on Terrorism is so easily shoved aside for celebrity sex scandal news, it's unlikely that telling tid-bits like the following will ever make headlines:
A team of U.S. investigators who photographed the charred sports utility vehicle was pelted with rocks by about a dozen Palestinian youths as about 200 Palestinians looked on.As the angry crowd chanted "Allahu Akbar" -- "God is great" -- the Americans rushed back into their cars, surrounded by nervous Palestinian security officers with rifles raised. Palestinian police beat some people in the crowd while pushing the spectators back, and the cars sped away under a hail of stones.
The Palestinian Authorities have arrested three over U.S. convoy attack. But Little Green Footballs featured a Palestinian Authority cartoon that places blame for the blast on Jews.
CNN reported Monday: Islamic nations cite U.S. 'threat'.
The host of the world's largest summit of Islamic nations has denounced the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq and Israel's treatment of Palestinians, saying they represented a threat to "the very survival" of the worldwide Muslim community."We are gathered here at a time characterized by great challenges confronting the Muslim Ummah (community)," Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said. "The threats of unilateralism, globalization and terrorism, the precarious situation in the Middle East and the uncertain future of Iraq ... have only served to threaten our very survival." Syed Hamid was speaking at the opening of the foreign ministers meeting of the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) [...]
UPDATE: Jews rule the world: Mahathir (Via Little Green Footballs).
JEWS rule the world, getting others to fight and die for them, but will not be able to defeat the world's 1.3 billion Muslims, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has told a major Islamic summit."The Europeans killed six million Jews out of 12 million. But today the Jews rule this world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them," Mahathir said, adding, "1.3 billion Muslims cannot be defeated by a few million Jews." [...]
[Mahathir called] on Muslims to match their studies of religion with attention to science and mathematics because "we need guns and rockets, bombs and warplanes, tanks and warships for our defence".
This was apparently a reference to what he sees as a broader assault on Muslims by the Western world in the guise of the war on terrorism. He said enemies of Islam "attack and kill us, invade our lands, bring down our governments".
CNN reports: Mahathir attack on Jews condemned
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Jonathan Peled told CNN Israel is still studying the statement, but that "we deeply regret and reject the statement made by Prime Minister Mahathir. [...] We find it especially discomfiting that at a time like this instead of calling for peace and reconciliation among peoples and nations there are statement fueling further hatred and misunderstanding. It comes as no surprise that in a summit like this there is a search for the lowest common denominator among the members, which is Israeli bashing."
AP reports: Rush Limbaugh Admits Painkiller Addiction and Transcript of Rush Limbaugh's Comments.
CNN reported this weekend: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says Columbus was "worse than Hitler" and American Indians attack Columbus Day as "racist" and call Columbus "the first transatlantic slave trader".
We created this cover illustration for the October issue of The Intellectual Activist. The cover article contains excerpts from a new book by Thomas A. Bowden. Mr. Bowden recently spoke about The Enemies of Christopher Columbus at the George Mason University Objectivist Club. Here is how the event and the book were described:
In decades past, Columbus Day was an occasion to honor the courageous explorer who discovered America, and to rejoice in the spread of Western civilization across a savage wilderness. In recent years, however, the advocates of multiculturalism and "political correctness" have succeeded in portraying Columbus and the Europeans who followed him to the New World as brutal conquerors whose genocidal assault destroyed a pristine Indian paradise. As a result, Columbus Day has become an occasion for protests by Indians, vandalism of Columbus statues, and an incessant drumbeat of guilt and apology, especially in the public schools.In his book, "The Enemies of Christopher Columbus", Thomas A. Bowden discusses and refutes a variety of "politically correct" criticisms of Christopher Columbus and the civilization that he brought with him to a new continent. Columbus Day, he maintains, should call forth a celebration of the core values of Western civilization -- reason, science, technology, progress, capitalism, individual rights, law, and the selfish pursuit of individual happiness here on earth -- at a time when such a celebration is desperately needed, to defend those great values against assault by America's declared enemies.
Here is an excerpt from the book:
Savagery and civilization cannot co-exist in the same geographical area. Civilized people must be able to depend on their neighbors to understand and obey the principles of individual rights as expressed in written laws that define land boundaries, enforce contracts, and protect personal property. Primitive peoples, who have not yet reached the concept of a universal moral law governing all human beings as individuals, cannot act on such principles or be relied upon to obey such laws. Lacking the ability to rule their lives by reason, savages inevitably succumb to a whole range of non-rational influences -- such as fear, superstition, drug-induced hallucinations, hatred of outsiders, revenge, or lust for conquest -- that propel them onto the warpath at unpredictable intervals. The Europeans, in establishing their settlements in the New World, found themselves enmeshed in precisely this conflict between civilization and barbarism. Hence they confronted a fundamental choice: to marshal their superior powers and displace the Indians, or else turn around and sail home.In that context, the European immigrants had an absolute right to settle America and displace the Indians -- by force when necessary. However, to the extent that individual Indians (such as Pocahontas, who married an Englishman) were capable of grasping and abiding by the principles of civilized behavior, they should have been permitted and encouraged to become full citizens with full rights.
The Enemies of Christopher Columbus is available for purchase at The Paper Tiger.
And The Ayn Rand Institute released an op-ed by Michael Berliner: On Columbus Day, Celebrate Western Civilization, Not Multiculturalism.
Columbus should be honored, for in so doing, we honor Western civilization. But the critics do not want to bestow such honor, because their real goal is to denigrate the values of Western civilization and to glorify the primitivism, mysticism, and collectivism embodied in the tribal cultures of American Indians. They decry the glorification of the West as "cultural imperialism" and "Eurocentrism." We should, they claim, replace our reverence for Western civilization with multi-culturalism, which regards all cultures (including vicious tyrannies) as morally equal. In fact, they aren't. Some cultures are better than others: a free society is better than slavery; reason is better than brute force as a way to deal with other men; productivity is better than stagnation. In fact, Western civilization stands for man at his best.
This cartoon originally appeared at The Intellectual Activist almost a month ago when Mahmoud Abbas resigned as Palestinian Prime Minister. The cartoon is quickly being overtaken by events. Little Green Footballs noted this week that, not only is it being reported that Yasser Arafat has stomach cancer, but his replacement Prime Minster Ahmed Qureia has suggested that he too may resign.
As I noted on Monday, we have a third new t-shirt design. Pictured above is the "Weapons of Crass Obstruction" t-shirt (click here for ordering info). Doug Weinberg at ThoseShirts.com was inspired by recent battles in the Judiciary Committee. Doug writes: "As the Bush Administration pursues aggressive new strategies to win the War on Terror, the shrill voices of Ted Kennedy, Tom Daschle, and their fellow Democrats offer nothing but bitter partisanship, judiciary filibusters, and the continuation of failed policies of the past. Let's remove these hazardous and obsolete weapons from Washington."
If you haven't already, be sure to check out all of the Cox & Forkum t-shirts at Doug's Web site.
From AP: Syria Considers Amending Resolution.
Unfortunately we have the same disgusting moral equivalence coming from the Bush Administration that was displayed in the "road map" to peace.
Syria is considering amending its resolution that seeks U.N. condemnation for Israeli air strikes on its soil after many countries, including the United States, called for more balance. ... The United States renewed its warning that it might block any draft that did not condemn the suicide bombing in Haifa.
"More balance"? I'm sure the Taliban and Al Qaeda would like us to take a "more balanced" approach to dealing with them.
In an effort to raise consciousness throughout the world and, at the same time, make money drawing funny pictures, Cox & Forkum is proud to introduce new t-shirts designs.
Pictured above is the "Bring 'Em On, Allah" t-shirt (click here for ordering info). America's enemy, the enemy of modern civilization everywhere, is militant Islam. If our government isn't willing to say that, we figured we might as well let Uncle Sam.
Pictured below is the "Axis of Evil" t-shirt (click here for ordering info). This is an editorial cartoon from April originally titled "Your Attention Please." In pursuing America's self-defense, it's good to remember that the only "peace process" understood by tyrants is the threat of military force backed up with a willingness to use it, preemptively if necessary. For those wondering why Syria and Cuba are included in the Axis of Evil, read this.
(On a current news note, after yet another Palestinian terrorist atrocity, we're glad to see that Israel is starting to deal with Syria the way America should be, and without groveling to the U.N. about it. Syrian President Bashar Assad is again feeling the heat. Israel is also to be commended for fingering the Islamist Tyranny of Iran as the funding source for the terrorists. Hopefully certain Iranian nuclear facilities are next on Israel's target list, because they certainly don't appear to be on America's list.)
We'll post the third t-shirt tomorrow or later this week.
Our thanks goes to Doug Weinberg at ThoseShirts.com for all his work in making these t-shirts available.
We hope you like our shirts enough to buy a few for yourself. But if not, don't forget the leftists in your life who would be deeply, deeply moved to receive our shirts as gifts.
FoxNews reports: CIA Leak Probe Likely to Spread to Other Agencies.
Also worth reading:
• Robert Novak's The CIA Leak
• James Taranto's Is She Covert?
Moments after lifting the stoning sentence of a young female adulterer, a Sharia court sentenced a Nigerian man to death by stoning for sodomy.
A spokesman for the court, Bala Ahmed, said Babaji had been sentenced after having confessed to sexually molesting [three] minors at different times over the past year, contrary to the Islamic law, or Sharia, in force in the state. [...]The boys, whose ages were not given, said they had been lured into having sex with the man with an offer of 50 naira (about 30 US cents), according to the court official. ... They were each sentenced to receive 50 lashes of the cane for accepting the money.
Meanwhile, in other news: Nigeria launches a satellite into space.
A Nigerian satellite blasted into orbit Saturday aboard a Russian rocket, propelling one of the poorest nations on earth into space for the first time. [...]On Earth, Nigeria is struggling to provide 132 million citizens with clean water, basic health services and education.
Most villages outside state capitals have no running water or electricity, 70 percent of the country's roads are dirt tracks, and more than 30 percent of the population is illiterate. Per capita income is about $290, and less than 1 percent have telephones, according to the World Bank.
