Obama Flunks Islam 101 or...More Deception By Design

I found a great many posts around the web over the past few days. Hard to pick a favorite, but I think I have to call it for Gateway Pundit's Student of History" Barack Obama Flunks Islam 101. We are all familiar with Obama's oft-used transition: "One I thing I know is...." Well, this time he begins by saying "As a student of history...I also know civilisation's debt to Islam." In Obama's history book Muslim nation's are attributed with "paving the way for Europe's Renaissance and Enlightenment." Writing pens and printing methods, architectural arches, quelling the spread of diseases, and get this, exploring the "possibilities" of religious tolerance - all among the magnificent contributions of Islam. Now, to get the rest of the story go to Gateway Pundit. Really, you must read this. You'll be glad you did and then come back here for more.

Barack Obama in Cairo

Here's some other excellent finds. Enjoy! Norma at Collecting My Thoughts has some thoughts about the $250 stimulus payment that is being doled out in the month of May. Read what she plans to do with hers, and why. Reaganite Republican Resistance has posted a dynamic column by Pat Buchanan, about Dick Cheney, that you will want to read along with RRR commentary. Dick Cheney is the hope of Conservatism at this moment in history, and if you think that is a strange way to look at Dick Cheney, I see him as the one man who was there, knows the truth from the inside-out and is willing to talk about it. Do the Right Thing has an editorial, My Take on Sotomayor. Some very good thoughts here with history to back it up. Remember Daniel Hannen, the writer, journalist and the Conservative MEP for South East England - as well as Prime Minister Gordon Brown's nemesis? Mr. Hannen blogs at the TelegraphUK online. He has a very interesting article about Iceland and their consideration of joining the EU - which Hannen is begging them not to do. This quote is from a November 1, 2008 post.

Simply by existing as a prosperous and independent nation, you aroused envy. If 300,000 people living on a frozen scrap of tundra could outperform the EU, the whole European project was undermined. Your success might even encourage existing member states to copy you. There is nothing Eurocrats would like more than to swallow you whole.

Here's a few snippets from the current post on Iceland's plight - EU drools at the prospect of swallowing Iceland:

It's dark in Reykjavík at this time of year, and the temper matches the season. So gloomy are Icelanders, so shocked at their sudden fall, that they are considering membership of the EU. The EU knows an opportunity when it sees one. Its leaders understand that, for an essentially prosperous and well-governed country such as Iceland, membership can only be the result of despair. Icelanders, like all Northern peoples, are prone to moodiness. When they shake off their current depression, they will see that the EU is no solution.

IsraPundit addresses that confounding issue of American Jews who consider any Israeli move to keep and protect their territory and their population as an extremist view:

In referring to Mr. Netanyahu’s government as right wing, American critics misstate his personal history and his political evolution. It is certainly true that Netanyahu is not a dove and is not willing to engage in further negotiations and concessions that will endanger Israel at a critical point in her history. And it is likewise true that he is vocal in his criticism of the Palestinians’ refusal to fulfill even their de minis obligations to cease engaging in incitement, to recognize Israel’s right to exist, and to disavow terrorism. But these positions do not make him a far right extremist, and don’t even place him at the same end of the political spectrum as Avigdor Lieberman. Rather, they put him squarely in the Israeli mainstream.

American Jewish liberals routinely call for dialogue with the Palestinians out of some twisted concept of fairness. However, they are blind to the rejectionism that permeates the Arab street and Islamic thought, and their instincts are colored by an insipid ideology that on some level accepts the canard that Israel is a colonial power. Just as Mr. Obama travels the world apologizing for American arrogance, these voices blame Israel for the dysfunction in the Arab world. Moreover, in the spirit of “dialogue” they tolerate those who denounce Zionism as an ideology tinged with bigotry and racism, while refusing to criticize Arab antisemitism. These voices have lost sight of the Israeli electorate’s clear rejection of unrequited dialogue as naïve, dangerous and untenable.

Still, when Israelis have the temerity to question the wisdom of a two-state solution, reject the demand to cease building “settlements” in historically Jewish areas, or refuse to make further concessions in the absence of any reciprocity, liberals label them “right wingers” in order to marginalize them and influence Jewish America to reject them.

Most American Jews are liberal Democrats and have a natural revulsion to anything deemed “right wing,” regardless of whether the label fits. This behavioral response is deeply ingrained, and begs the question whether it is an expression of deeply held (albeit misguided) beliefs, or simply a perverse ghetto mentality that restrains Jews from freely lobbying for their own interests.

Please read the entire IsraPundit article. Among my friends, the question of American Jews and their continued support of liberality, and their refusal to shore up their Israeli brothers is a never ending topic of conversation and confusion. A fine Jewish blogger once told me that American Jews have always been Democrats and will always be Democrats. This article seems to see substance in that viewpoint. Simply Jews has a piece...well, yes, it's a report that involves a skinless cadaver, a museum, a lingering piece of genitalia, an intriguing tattoo and a sobbing woman. Grizzly Groundswell is producing an online magazine, and what a publication it is. View the latest issue of Temerity Magazine here. While it is chock-full of fine articles, I especially liked Our Constitution on the Barn Wall by Eric Daniel Brown on page 44. Photo credit: Ben Curtis/Associated Press