But it's not all doom and gloom.
In fact, in some sense, things must actually be getter better and better every day!
Because really, this was all going on all the time, more or less, since the 1970s in the modern day...and ever since the 7th century in a broader view.
But since 9/11, some people have started to notice.
And more and more notice every day.
The process seems agonizingly slow.
And it is.
Especially as time is no longer on our side in the age of nuclear weapons.
But communications are moving at such a rapid pace and the cumulative effect is actually exponential, that eventually a "knee" is reached in the curve and it eventually shifts from looking rather flat to shooting upward.
The cartoon incident even must have opened the eyes of many a cafe liberal who isn't really a dedicated marxist but has always felt strongly opposed to censorship and first amendment rights. They may still abhor Bush but suddenly muslims aren't all just sweet cuddly misunderstood quaint exotics.
The alliance of the Left with mohammedism has so many contradictions that it cannot long endure. In fact, its crumbling may split some of the Left off with it! Look at the bipartisanship created over the Dubious Dubai ports deal!
My impression from surfing the web for 4 years is that not only are the ranks of the anti-idiotarians growing every day, but many of the ones who have had their eyes opened long ago are now fully ready for total war.
As Victor Hanson would point out, that's a very serious development, for not only do we have a Button to push to unleash ten-thousand artificial suns, but as a republic, we -- meaning literally you and me -- actually have one three-hundred-millionth of a finger personally on that Button.
Power to the People.
Heh. Now I'm actually nostalgic for the days when we had 30,000. Ten thousand (with a third in mothballs) hardly seems like enough now, does it? I mean, we need to have something left over to keep the Red Chinese in line before the weapons labs crank up enough replacements, don't we?
Anyway, enough rambling, here are some minor but inspiring examples of people drawing the line against muslim passive-aggressive whining.
First from Greece:
Muslims in Athens wait for city's first mosqueNow there's an amazing amount of plain speaking!
...
A mosque has long been planned for the estimated 150,000 Muslims living in Athens but has been held up over objections from the powerful Orthodox Church, and the public.
Studded with minarets two centuries ago, Athens has not had a functioning mosque since the end of Ottoman rule in the early 1800s.
...
A site was chosen 21 miles outside the city after the Orthodox Church expressed displeasure over the prospect of a minaret rising on the Athens skyline. But construction in the town of Paiania, near the international airport, never began.
NOT IN OUR TOWN
Incensed by the project, the town's residents built a large wooden cross on the land allocated for the mosque. A small Orthodox chapel has also appeared on the site.
Paiania Mayor Paraskevas Papakostopoulos said residents are angry that the site is on a hill, meaning the mosque will be visible from afar and seen by visitors flying into the airport.
"It spoils the religious and cultural character of our region, as well as all of Greece," he said. "It's not pleasant to enter a country and the first thing you see is a mosque."
...
"Our residents look at it as a foreign object in their area, that is being forced on them without anyone asking their opinion," he said.
The Orthodox Church, which had long opposed the mosque, has recently softened its stance. But although it gave its approval to the mosque, it still opposes the cultural center.
It says recent attacks by suspected militants in European capitals have fueled its concerns that the Islamic center may incite fundamentalism.
And I can't find a free link, but in today's Wall Street Journal, it told of how literally tearful wailing demands by muslim groups -- along with obligatory veiled threats of dangers to "peace" -- failed to prevent the staging of a play by Voltaire that depicts Mohammed as a fanatic who uses religion to mask a criminal enterprise. Daniel Pipes has a summary:
In 1994, the city government of Geneva organized the performance of all of Voltaire's theatre plays to celebrate the famous freethinker's 300th birthday. However, the Muslim community (not Islamists, but state-subsidized cultural foundations) objected to the staging by director Hervé Loichemol of Voltaire's play, first staged in 1742, Mahomet, ou le fanatisme, an attack on religious intolerance based on the Muslim biography of Muhammad in which he orders the murder of his critics. The city government withdrew funding for the play and no one dared come forward in response to Loichemol's plea for private sponsorship, so the performance was cancelled.There is more at that Pipes link of examples of Europe finding some spine. I also liked this one:
And here is the update: Eleven years later, Loichemol finally staged a production of Mahomet, ou le fanatisme. It was a reading on Dec. 8 in Saint-Genis-Pouilly, a French town near Geneva, where the mayor, Hubert Bertrand, provided police protection. In response to a Muslim spokesman's protest at a reception before the theatrical event, Bertrand asserted that "Freedom of speech is important, it is a critical part of laïcité." Loichemol was more angry: "You have no right to come here and tell us what we do or do not have the right to produce in the theater." After the performance began, one car and several trash cans were set on fire, which the mayor condemned as unacceptable.
France's national anthem, La Marseillaise, must by law now be sung and its history learned in primary schools throughout the country.The tide turns, person by person, day after day.
