TONY AND TOYNBEE
Tony Blankley, the erudite editorial editor of The Washington Times, certainly knows his Toynbee. I can attest to this, with all 12 volumes of Arnold Toynbee’s masterwork, A Study of History, residing on my bookshelf. Toynbee studied the rise and fall of entire civilizations rather than individual countries or ethnic groups. His model for the success and failure of civilizations was challenge-and-response. Those that rose to a challenge flourished, while those that didn’t failed. Tony, however - who is both my neighbor and friend of long standing - focuses on one of the most fascinating yet little understood insights of Toynbee’s model: that without challenges, a successful civilization will stagnate and culturally implode. In other words, Western Civilization will die unless there is a challenge to it. Islam, the whole civilization or culture of Islam with Jihadism as its most extreme manifestation, has become that challenge. “In the strangest possible irony,” writes Tony in his new book, Jihadism is giving the West a “chance to regain its faith in itself.”
Chapter Nine: MALINALI’S PRAYER
Chapter Nine: Malinali’s Prayer When Malinali finished her story, Cortez spoke to her directly. She had learned enough Spanish to mostly understand him. “Doña Marina, you know now that I am a man, and not this Mesheeka god, yes?” She nodded. “Yet the Mesheeka king does not think I am a man just like him - he believes instead that I could actually be one of his gods?” She nodded again. Cortez crossed himself. He looked at Aguilar. “These Mesheeka are stranger and more evil than I thought possible, Jeronimo. Their religion is the worship of Satan himself, the gods they worship are devils - except for one god, this Quetzacoatl, who preaches good not evil. And it is him they are afraid of, it is him they have somehow confused with me. What is it they are afraid of?” Aguilar shrugged. Cortez’s dark eyes shifted to Malinali.
BENEDICT SHOULDN’T SURPRISE YOU
This week, the Catholic World News leaked word of an “Instruction” to be issued by the Vatican next month banning the admission of homosexuals to Catholic seminaries. This will come as no surprise to you, as you learned in To The Point last April this was coming in The De-Homosexualization of the Catholic Church . Approved by Pope Benedict XVI three weeks ago, the Instruction argues that: “homosexual men should not be admitted to seminaries even if they are celibate, because their condition suggests a serious personality disorder which detracts from their ability to serve” the Church.
MOSLEM HATE CRIMES
This past Sunday, September 11, Palestinian mobs torched and destroyed four synagogues left behind by Israel in the evacuated Gaza strip. The Palestinian Authority (PA) police did nothing to intervene, while the PA President - Mahmoud Abbas (aka Abu Mazen) - justified the violence as the people “expressing their emotions.” The torching of houses of worship, just like the lootings, beatings and home burnings carried out against a Christian Arab town near Ramallah at the beginning of this month by Palestinians shouting “Allahhu Akbar” (God is Great) as the PA police stood by, bode ill for peace in the Middle East. Religious hatred inspired by Jihadi Islam is clearly no local matter. It is part of a broad conflict unfolding between radical Islam on the one hand and Christianity, Judaism, the Bahai faith, and Buddhism on the other.
WHO’S NEXT?
Now that Bush has utterly outfoxed the Dems on his first Supreme Court nomination - John Roberts is a done deal for Chief Justice - everyone inside the Beltway is handicapping his next choice. He has confided in no one, including me. Maybe Laura knows, but she’s only given hints. Those hints and everything else points to a feminine direction. The next nominee, replacing Sandra Day O’Connor, almost has to be a woman.It could be Priscilla Owen, it could be Edith Jones, but I am crossing my fingers for Janice Rogers Brown.
NERVOUS IN MECCA
It was certainly no coincidence that on the 4th anniversary of 9/11 last Sunday, front page headlines appeared in the nation’s newspapers entitled Pentagon Revises Nuclear Strike Plan . It was a public shot across the Jihadi Terrorists’ bow, meant to make them and folks in Mecca nervous. You know why, since you read Mad in Mecca in To The Point back in October, 2004, and George Bush and the Sword of Damocles: Why There Hasn’t Been Another 9/11 last January. It’s the clearest sign yet that Mecca is being held as a nuclear hostage.
FAKE WINDOWS PATCH IS A WINDOWS KILLER
We had a genuine worm outbreak two weeks ago, but this week's top threat is a fake patch for it called a phish (pronounced ‘fish.’) What is a phish? Here’s a short definition: Phishing is a type of a social engineering scam, which attempts to gain your bank details, usually by presenting you with a form that looks identical to a popular bank's website. Most phishing attacks are quick hacks, but some put some effort into their programming. One such example is a phony “Windows update” known as Downloader.EJD. It's a Trojan horse program that uses an updated version of an old trick,a false Microsoft security patch. Here's how to protect yourself from it.
FRONTPAGE MAGAZINE INTERVIEW OF JACK WHEELER
[Last week, Frontpage Magazine published an interview with Jack Wheeler, conducted by managing editor Dr. Jamie Glazov . Here is the entire interview.] FP: Dr. Wheeler, welcome to Frontpage Interview. Wheeler: It is a pleasure to be with you, Jamie. FP: We are in a war against Islamic Jihadism. Define your view of the enemy. Who are the Jihadists and what do they really want? Do you see Islamism as being a cousin of Fascism and Communism? Wheeler: You just made the right start. We are not in a war on “terrorism” and the enemy is not “terrorists,” but as you say, Islamic Jihadism. We should call this The War on Jihadism. The crux understanding of Jihadism, or Moslem Terrorism, is that it is a form of envious rage. All three of the great barbarisms of modern times have been pathologies of envy. Nazism, preaching race-envy toward “rich exploitative Jews”; Communism preaching class-envy toward “rich exploitative capitalists”; Jihadism preaching culture-envy toward “rich exploitative America/Israel/the West.” A clear example is the Nazi-type hatred Arabs have for Israel. The root cause of the Arab-Israeli conflict is envy. The Jews created a civilization out of the wilderness and a garden out of the desert, while the Arabs - even with their centibillions of petrodollars -- continued to mire themselves in medieval tyranny and poverty.
Chapter Eight: MALINCHE
Chapter Eight: MalincheAguilar found Malinali cowering in the lee of large sand dune. Perspiration was pouring off her, her chest was heaving with rapid breaths, and her eyes were glazed with panic and terror. “Doña Marina!” he cried, “What is wrong?!” He got a wet cloth and patted her brow. Her eyes slowly focused on him. Finally, she stammered “I… must talk… to Captain Cortez…”Aguilar was startled. Nonetheless, he said he would relay her request. A few moments later he returned and beckoned, bringing her to the Captain’s tent. Cortez was sitting in his chair and looked up at her. Malinali stood still, legs quivering, desperately trying to subdue her breathing and her emotions. Cortez quickly saw the girl was abjectly terrified. He motioned for Aguilar to bring her a drink of water.“Doña Marina,” said Aguilar, “What is it that you wish to speak of to the Captain?”Malinali closed her eyes to listen to her father’s voice. “Ixkakuk!” she heard her father say, “a true queen is always in command of her feelings and fears!” As she opened her eyes, Cortez saw her transformed into a different person. Instead of a shaking slave girl scared out of her wits, suddenly standing before him was a regally erect woman of extraordinary beauty, poise, and calm. A woman who looked directly into his eyes as she said to Aguilar:“I must ask Captain Cortez if he is a man or a god.”
SOROS CAN’T COUNTER CAMPUS CONSERVATIVES
News media reports from meetings organized by billionaire George Soros say he and some rich allies are now funding groups intended to counter the efforts on college campuses of conservative educational organizations such as the Leadership Institute (LI). Although Soros and his allies hope through their spending to increase the effectiveness of the left on campus, I do not fear that activities they bankroll will significantly increase the left's campus influence. Nor can Soros stop the growth of campus conservative activities.