Today's been a wasted day. I've been battling the flu all week and it's finally caught up with me. Tuesday started with a fever and it's dwiddled down to a very annoying sinus infection/cough/sore throat. Grrr.
I braved work but have been knocked out since 8pm last night. In the meantime, I've gotten up sporadically to read this blog, the news, think about things to write about, and vomit. I went outside for all of 15 minutes and in seeing all the tan, gorgeous bodies on 8th avenue I thought it would be best for me to go back home...I belong in a hefty bag under crumpled laundry and cigarette butts.
In reading the news, though, and seeing the escalating violence between Israel and Lebanon, and reading about the G8 Summit and about the UN's unanimous resolution against North Korea's missile program, all I can do is wish this very nasty cold on our world's leaders. If all of them were afflicted with the same gut-wrenching, head-throbbing, chills and insomnia I've had for the past few days I'd bet you my bottom-dollar that half of our conflicts would be resolved. It would be nice if Jong-il, Bush, Olmert and the people from Hizbollah all climbed into a huge bed with down comforters and some Thera-flu for a Golden Girls marathon. I bet you that more would be accomplished in this setting than in any old get-together in St. Petersburg.
8 comments:
Heh. You children probably don't remember Flanders & Swann, the British satirical comedy revue team from the 50s & 60s. Flanders was the writing talent, Swann the composer and pianist, and they both sang. One song they did was "In The Bath," about the simple pleasures of taking a long hot soak in the tub. To wit:
Oh, I find much simple pleasure when I've had a tiring day, In the bath, In the bath
Where the noise of gently sponging seems to blend with my top A, In the bath, In the bath
To the skirl of pipes vibrating in the boiler room below, I sing a pot pourri of all the songs I used to know, And the water thunders in and gurgles down the overflow, In the bath, In the bath
Pronounced, "bahhth" by the way. We're English please. And then at the end it gets political. (Remember, this is the 50s)
I can see the one salvation of the poor old human race, In the bath, In the bath
Let the nations of the world all meet together, face to face, In the bath, In the bath
To meet with Ike and Khrushchev, and all those other chaps. MacMillan - my Count Monty - then we'll get some peace perhaps. Provided Swann and Flanders get the end without the taps, In the bath!! In the bath!!
There should be another verse there somewhere about other delights to be found in the tub with the bathroom door firmly closed. But F&S didn't go there. (Or at least didn't sing about it.)
Hot. Thanks for the 50s throwback, JL.
I have a really good idea of how to end a lot of the trouble the world is having with terrorists. Start calling them terrorists. And start treating them like the enemy they so forcefully define themselves as.
Thanks to people like Noam Chomsky - who recently praised Hezbollah, or Michael Moore who thinks the terrorists who murder civilians are "freedom fighters," there has become a host of western apologists for the indiscriminately murderous, fundamentalist Islamists who seek to destroy the very liberalism that protects them.
It seems a host of extreme leftists can see no moral difference between a country defending itself (Israel) and the terrorist organizations whose sole raison d'etre is to moblize their radical proxies by killing Jews and eliminating an entire country. Apparently, 8 dead Israeli soldiers, two kidnapped soldiers, and a storm of missiles launched into Haifa is not provocation enough. Here we go with the normal EU condemnation...not of the terrorist activity that provoked the counteroffensive, but of Israel.
Call a terrorist a terrorist. Treat a terrorist like an enemy. It's so simple, only a radical, extreme left, intellectual mind can screw it up.
Berdo:
I completely agree. But I will go one step further.
Terror is a TACTIC. We are not fighting a "war on terror." No, we are fighting a war against Islamofacism. The sooner that is acknowledged, the better.
Miss R:
I completely, 100% agree. Political correctness is the rotting core of objectivity. It IS a war on Islamofascism - something some people are too scared to say. What's more, the vast majority of the muslim world is on our side.
Berdo:
I have to disagree about the vast majority of the Muslim world. I used to think that - until I became exposed to the vast majority of the Muslim world, through the magic of the internet, and hate mongering friends.
I now see that the vast majority of the Muslim world suffers from A.P.U., and their silence in the face of Islamofacism is akin to the silence of Germans to Hitler during WWII.
http://egyptiansandmonkey.blogspot.com/2005/01/7-rules-of-apu.html
This does not mean that all Muslims are terrorists, or even that Islam is an inherently bad religion. No, it merely means that modern Islam needs to go through a reformation, because the sad and politically incorrect truth is found in the Seven Rules of APU - linked to above.
Miss R:
I see your point - but a few nuggets to consider:
I find it hard to take a canvass of the general Muslim world's opinions (which would seem to invalidate my original post at least as much as yours). The vast majority of the Muslim world lives under radical theocracies that allow no freedom of assembly, religion or press. Restrictions to websites or to any views of the world outside of a self-serving, state-approved fiction is strictly monitored. Saudi Arabia is among the worst violators of this.
Christopher Hitchens mentioned in a debate recently that before the removal of Sadaam Hussein, those trying to distribute a leaflet were "lavishly killed" - as well as their families. You think people can express what they really think - or even their desire for a dissenting opinion - in an environment like that? That's just Iraq. Try the PA. Or Iran. Or Syria. Go to memri.org and find out what passes for "news" about Americans and Jews.
The problem is not with Islam. It is with the EU and the UN and all the intellectualist, elitist institutions that both condescend to America by having us take care of the problems they know need taking care of and then criticizing everything we've done after it's been completed. And condescending to the Arab world - by repeatedly suggesting that there is no standard that they believe the Arab world can live up to.
People like Mary Robinson are a complete disgrace to their calling. She's provided nothing more than a bully pulpit for third world countries to continue their rampant anti-semitism (Durban) and has taken to the podium to decry the human rights abuses of....the US and Israel. The moral equivalency of her stance is so disgusting, it's difficult to articulate, but such is the nature of the West's way of handling the viscious dicatatorships that hold the Muslim world hostage in violent police-states. Appease them. Criticize the US and Israel. What an amazing world.
Berdo:
I 100% agree with you re: the way Western nations approach the problem of Islamofacism, but I disagree with you re: your stance on Muslims.
Let me say, I used to agree with you, except I have become exposed to Muslims in the US/Canada/western nations...
And they generally are accepting of terror and do not speak out against Islamofacism.
Your reasoning explains why Muslims in oppressive nations don't speak out. It does not explain why Muslims in Western nations are so silent, or in the case of organizations such as CAIR and MCBUK are often shills for terrorists.
Not every Muslims is a terrorist and there are some brilliant, funny, and truly amazing Muslims - seen at places such as saudijeans.org, sandmonkey.org, and bigpharoah.com. But they increasingly appear to be the exception to the rule.
I am deeply troubled beyond words about this reality.
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