Mark Steyn was recently a target of some people who couldn't bring themselves to allow the facts of life to get in their way. It's easy to believe that the average third worlder is just like the average American, European, East Asian or Israeli. We respect non-violent protest, why shouldn't the same work in the streets of Khartoum, Baghdad or Riyad? Aside from the fact that there seems to be a surplus of people there who have a pernicious habit of inflicting violence upon peaceful protestors.
I suppose I am most intolerant of people like this because of the fact that they are convinced that they are so worldly, so educated, when in fact they are not. In that vein, it's only fitting that they would not even known that one of their favorite alleged archetypes of pacifism, Gandhi, was no peacenik, rather, he actually advocated violence (even systematic violence) as a means to an end. "Violcen never solves anything?" Gandhi wouldn't have agreed with you, as his own writings show:
I do believe that where there is only a choice between cowardice and violence I would advise violence. Thus when my eldest son asked me what he should have done, had he been present when I was almost fatally assaulted in 1908, whether he should have run away and seen me killed or whether he should have used his physical force which he could and wanted to use, and defended me, I told him that it was his duty to defend me even by using violence. Hence it was that I took part in the Boer War, the so called Zulu rebellion and the late war. Hence also do I advocate training in arms for those who believe in the method of violence. I would rather have India resort to arms in order to defend her honor than that she should in a cowardly manner become or remain a helpless witness to her own dishonor.
Gandhi was not a moron. He would not have advocated "non-violence" toward the mujahadeen who today actively seek to maim and murder innocent Indian civilians. Non-violence is a way to rebuke a civilized opponent by reaching out to what they know are universal standards of civilization and morality. However, it has no real effect in general on tribalist barbarians whose culture celebrates the death and mutilation of non-combatants as an act of piety.
What these "peaceniks" advocate is not peaceful, loving pacificism, but nihilistic, suicidal refusal to use violence to defend others. That is cowardly, not brave. It makes me wonder how they would react if a group of them saw two or three men taking turns gangraping a young woman. Would they kick the crap out of the hooldlums? I don't think it is at all a foregone conclusion that they would be able to bring themselves to defend the rape victim. Cowardice just works like that.
**UPDATE**: Speaking of Britain, and being in the same general subject area, I think this is worth mentioning. A mob of black young men in Britain chased down a black A-level student and stabbed him to death, while their little whores stood off in the background chanting "kill him, kill him." No doubt a self-esteem issue; they just couldn't bear the thought of one of their own actually succeeding rather than being predatory, tribalist trash. I could go on and on about this sort of law and order problem in Britain, citing examples of the government practically wooing the criminal element, but I would want to slit my wrists before I had gotten an hour into finding examples to cite. Crimes like this are all too common, but God forbid you have a bloody wind chime that is somewhat loud and annoying. Why that is an intolerable affront to your fellow man that the British state cannot tolerate.
Fred Thompson Kicks Gandhi's Ass
Just as tough as he appears to be in the movies and on TV, Thompson doesn't go in for easy victories by knocking down straw men.
I'm afraid Fred Thompson disagrees with you on Gandhi.
You're correct. So many are of the "war is never the answer" crowd. I doubt they've ever raised their fist in anger or self defense in their lives. Maby that's why some that know me refer to me as a neanderthal. I won't hesitate to defend myself, or someone else, when needed.
And one of my favorite quotes by Ghandi,
The reason why non-violent protest worked against the British is because the British are a moral people. What shames good people only enboldens evil people.
The only ones who will end up being like the Neanderthal are those who will not defend themselves. They're the ones who will be wiped out at the hands of those who are more aggressive than they are.
And yes, abe, I quite agree about the British. The reality of the situation was that if they were like other imperial powers, they would have simply wiped out Gandhi and his followers.
I’ve got an Amazon gift certificate burning holes in my pocket,
and I want to get the most bang for my buck.
Enter the Secret Amazon Web Pages:
http://tinyurl.com/38sojf
This is where you’re going to find the "latest sales, rebates, and limited-time offers" from
Amazon, and you can score some pretty deep discounts if you’re a savvy shopper.
Next, there’s the special Sale link. This is open every Friday, and ONLY on Fridays.
You can find the same good discounts here as you would in hidden Deals, although some
Fridays you can really get lucky and make off like an Amazon bandit - I’ve seen discounts
there as low as 75% off sticker price.
Doesn't want to work for me. Using WP 2.3 and trying to import it in EE 1.60
I do get the page with all the text, but it when I try to import it in EE it says there are no 'exported posts' (or osmething like that).
It might have to do with the fact that WP 2.3 doesn't have all the tables the older versions have, but I'm not sure on how to fix it.
Any help would be greatly appriciated.
Added to put in the following:
This is an error I noticed in the output:
WordPress database error: [ Table 'bookieb_blog.wp_post2cat' doesn't exist]
select category_id from wp_post2cat where post_id = 22;
Hmmm, that would be the problem right there. I have only tested this on WP 1.6-2.2. I haven't tested it on WP 2.3. Now that I know it is broken, I'll get to looking at it when I have time. I can't imagine that much changed in the database schema.