Author’s note: This is the third of a three part essay dealing with Islamic terrorism and what can be expected regarding Islam’s ultimate fate. These articles are written in memoriam of the 9-11 atrocity’s tenth anniversary and are dedicated to the 3,000 innocent Americans who were murdered on that fateful day.

How will it end?

Short answer ― The Muslim holocaust.

There is a proverb whose thread is found both in Aesop and the Bible. It reads:

“The clay pot should keep its distance from the iron kettle.”

Instead of keeping its distance, Islam has cozened its way into Western civilization and, parading under false colors as an alleged religion, it flies a counterfeit Liberal standard of interfaith Multiculturalism. Besotted with its own temporary successes and newfound “purity” ― through a recent reformation leaving it even more violent, intolerant, misogynistic and puritanical ― Islam is in the process of infiltrating Western civilization to an unprecedented degree. However, in this respect, it is the non-industrial Islamic clay pot that is getting too close to the militarily advanced Western iron kettle.

A Talmudic variation of this fable provides a different perspective: “If a pot falls upon a stone, woe to the pot; if a stone falls upon a pot, woe to the pot; either way, woe to the pot” (Esther Rabbah, 7:10). For Islam’s clay pot, violence is the stone. As Islam continues to embrace terrorism it is eagerly drawn to that stone with a dangerous degree of impetus. In its love of death and martyrdom, Islam puts the stone in precipitous motion, which just as often falls upon the heads of Muslims themselves.

In either case ― much as with so-called Islamic martyrdom ― Islam imprudently brings itself into proximity with danger and eventually this will prove its own undoing. Suffused with delusions of adequacy, Muslims think nothing of constantly antagonizing Western powers who long ago perfected industrialized warfare to an extent that Islam can only dream of, despite its supremacist fantasies.

Like a candle that sputters and flares, Islam casts outsized shadows which too many in the West mistake for genuine military potency. The exact opposite is true and it is only by using the asymmetrical warfare of terrorism that Islam holds any sway. It is a schoolyard bully writ large and every bit as cowardly. The brittleness of Islamic doctrine is too often confused with strength and its fanaticism taken for authority.

In a recent Berlin speech, Swiss Member of Parliament, Oskar Freysinger, noted that, “Islam is only as strong as we are weak.” One glimpse of how Islam remains almost entirely reliant upon Political Correctness to drive its Western agenda reveals that this parasitic entity’s success wholly depends upon the frailty of a civilization debilitated by Multiculturalism and self-doubt. This is underscored both by the physical compulsion and violence that lies beneath so much of Islamic doctrine and the fact that no nation in history has ever voluntarily adopted Islam without an application of force being involved.

Politician Barrack Obama epitomizes the danger that Liberals pose to Islam. Not only do they appease and cower before Islamic bullying but Liberalism also infantilizes Muslim men through the soft racism of lowered expectations. Thus enabled by such hollow victories, Islam is capable of duping itself into believing its own propaganda; a perilous mistake at the best of times and often fatal in a time of conflict.

Little do Liberals understand how they will be among the first who go to the wall should Islam prevail. Nor, in their haste to disarm the world, do they understand that such military ineptitude on their part will see them left with few responses other than nuclear Armageddon when confronted by WMD terrorist strikes. Through appeasement and facilitation, Liberals are Islam’s most dangerous “friends”.

This same Politically Correct doctrine has seen ineffectual campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq that have cost the multinational coalition on the order of two trillion dollars, with America shouldering a lopsided $1.36 trillion share of the burden. That is the cost of keeping in check just two of some fifty Muslim majority countries. Subduing the other four dozen Islamic nations represents at least another staggering $96 trillion dollars of expenditure and countless more military casualties. No single nation or combination of international economies can possibly afford this sort of expenditure.

This inordinate cost of conventional war needed to obtain even a modicum of peace is, perhaps, the grimmest thing about Islam’s future. As the mask slips and “radical” or “fundamentalist” Islam are revealed to be mainstream and fully compatible with regularly accepted Islamic doctrine, Total War ― something Muslims continue to boast of declaring against the West ― looms evermore probable. However, the economic factors alone point directly away from conventional war.

Truth be told, in the absence of that $96 trillion dollars, there is only unconventional warfare left as a survival option. Nuclear weapons represent the sole existing and cost-effective way of managing hostilities with some 1.6 billion people. Like a proverbial trout in the milk pail, this one simple fact is difficult to ignore. Basic economics dooms perpetually hostile Islam to utter annihilation.

Any expectation of Islam pacifying, moderating or reforming itself must be dismissed out of hand. Islam has already undergone a recent reformation from which it emerged as an even more intolerant, more violent, more puritanical and more misogynistic creed. Those Muslims who do seek any pacification or sincere moderation of Islam’s violent doctrine are usually put to death by more devout believers.

Lending some much needed perspective to this nettlesome debacle is a quick estimate of the death toll that reasonably could be expected if Islam somehow managed to take over the world. Here are several, admittedly, rough estimates of what to anticipate from the establishment of a global caliphate.

1.) Extermination of all Jews:
Some 13.5 million people, world-wide would most likely die at the hands of their Muslim oppressors.

2.) Execution of all homosexuals:
We will use what some call a “wildly exaggerated figure” for the sake of including the bisexual and transgender community plus other sexual deviants who would all be put to death under shari’a. Therefore, some 10% of the world’s population or 600 million people would fall into this category.

The remaining factors that follow are much more difficult to quantify.

3.) Armed resistance to Muslim encroachment:
It’s safe to say that nearly everyone in the counterjihad movement would perish fighting a Muslim attempt to overrun America or Europe. Worldwide, the numbers would most likely exceed that of the Jews. We’ll place it at a meager 100 million.

4.) Women denied access to medical care:
This is a huge number because, under Islamic law, women would only be able to be seen by female doctors—an exceedingly small fraction of this world’s medical practitioners. We’ll use the figure for global female cancer mortality rates as an example of how reduced early intervention would escalate avoidable deaths, especially among women. That figure amounts to more than 3 million per year.

5.) Liquidation of political prisoners:
Toss in another 10 million dead. Remember, Islam has many enemies, be they perceived or real.

6.) Execution of those who refuse to convert:
We shall use the world’s population of Catholics as a figure representing those who would adamantly refuse to convert or cooperate and be put to death instead. While the number would likely be much higher, this figure approaches over 1 billion.

We now have a total of 1.726 billion people who would die within the first year or so of Islam establishing its global caliphate. This figure is larger than the world’s Muslim population. Millions more would die each year due to Islam’s heavy-handed shari’a law and its excessive demand for capital punishment. Women would keep dying in droves due to the unavailability of female doctors. Emerging homosexuals would be killed as with many other deviants; be they political, religious or otherwise.

Concealed in all this is a small yet meaningful number of so-called “honor killings” that typically involve young Muslim girls or wives who ― through premarital sexual activity or inappropriate dalliances ― have disgraced their families and are put to death for it, typically by their own family members. In a global caliphate, over one million of these murders per year would not be an unexpected figure. Do not think for one moment that Western women would magically be immune from this stricture. Imams and Islamic mutaween (“morals police”) would cheerfully put to death any youthful or adult offenders regardless of their race or belief.

Hidden even deeper in these figures is a calculation which will probably fail to evoke much sympathy amongst knowledgeable Westerners; yet, humanity demands that it be recognized. Should the global Islamic caliphate arrive, there also would be countless more Muslim deaths, just as there are today throughout the MME (Muslim Middle East); except for now these executions would proceed briskly, unfettered by any condemnation from the world community that they, at least marginally, receive today. Rape victims being given lashes or stoned to death and other appalling injustices would flourish.

However crude the above projections are, they do not even account for a world suddenly stripped of many modern technologies considered haram (“forbidden”) by Islam. A sharp drop in agricultural productivity, reduction in medical services ― as noted above ― along with the elimination of food supplies derived from haram animals, such as pigs (including rennet, gelatin, whey and alcohol), would see mass starvations and medically preventable deaths soar upwards. These are just a bare few examples of the unknown death toll that would accompany an Islamic caliphate. Unimaginable as it may seem, imposition of global shari’a could result in the death of up to half this world’s population.

None of this deals with the tremendous loss of Western and world heritage in the form of buildings, monuments, paintings, sculptures, books and priceless documents that would be heaped upon bonfires or pulverized into rubble. The Magna Carta, America’s Constitution plus innumerable other ephemera would go up in smoke. Notre Dame’s fabulous Rose Window would follow the Bamiyan Buddhas into oblivion. They would be just the start of unparalleled and inconceivable vandalism on a global scale.

Rarely, if ever ― even among counterjihad fora ― is there any mention of either the massive death toll or the loss of heritage that would accompany global shari’a law. There remains, especially in the larger public, an almost intentional ignorance of these two devastating potentials. Eventually, in the face of so much stark evidence, it becomes difficult to deny that there exists the will not to believe.

This will not to believe carries its own loathsome price tag. Recent events in Norway show that long before Muslims manage to demographically displace native Europeans there will begin a serious backlash against the Multiculturalists who have imposed this lethal burden upon the West. It is rather doubtful that American and European culture will go quietly into the Politically Correct Islamic night.

Ironically, as Muslims continue to financially drain the West ― through exorbitant military campaigns, increased security measures, petroleum sales and abuse of social benefits in host countries ― they only increase the eventual appeal of cost effective measures that will be required to subdue Islam. There will also come a time when Western nations begin to recoil at the prospect of sending any more soldiers to die for the sake of letting Muslims erect yet another shari’a government and terrorist production facility.

Complicating all of this is how the concept of military deterrence is essentially nonfunctional as regards Islam. A culture that glorifies and worships death is more than difficult to deter. For every bit that the West shrinks from waging Total War, the necessity of posing an existential threat to Islam only increases. When it comes to the ineffectuality of deterrence, no better example exists that of modern day Iran. The ramifications of Ahmadinejad’s tutelage under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini pose some serious issues. Recall Khomeini’s words during his 1980 speech in Qom, the Shi’ite spiritual hub:

We do not worship Iran, we worship Allah. For patriotism is another name for paganism. I say let this land burn. I say let this land [Iran] go up in smoke, provided Islam emerges triumphant in the rest of the world.

When Ahmadinejad threatens to “wipe Israel off the map” it is with the implicit knowledge that Iran, as a country, may perish as a result. In effect, he is turning his entire nation into a gigantic suicide bomber. Neither is this the end of it. Iran’s reckless pursuit of genocide against the Jews could precipitate the Muslim holocaust all by itself. Little known to most people is Israel’s Samson Option. If true, the Jewish state has quietly informed its Arab neighbors that a single WMD strike against Israel will result in the entire MME (Muslim Middle East) being incinerated in nuclear plasma. Hundreds of fusion warheads along with newly acquired Dolphin class submarines and cruise missiles back this up.

There is cold comfort in this for Israel but it also has quite worrisome implications for the West. At a recent pan-Arab conference Saudi Arabia’s king essentially told Ahmadinejad to “sit down and shut up” with his genocidal ravings before the entire MME is annihilated. Should he take this admonishment to heart, then the question is beggared as to who else might be targeted for an Iranian nuclear strike.

It bears mentioning how simple statistics indicate that, beyond a certain as yet undetermined number of Islamic nuclear warheads, there emerges a non-zero probability that one or more of them will fall into terrorist hands. Keeping that in mind, America ― better known to Iranians as “The Great Satan” ― suddenly materializes as a grim alternative target to Israel. What’s more, the Obama administration’s abject appeasement of Islam can only have strengthened Muslim perceptions that the United States lacks sufficient political will to respond in kind should it experience a nuclear terrorist attack.

As noted earlier, Obama and most of his cabinet have little to no military experience. With their being so unlettered in war fighting doctrine, could it not be possible that these appeasers might abruptly discover ― after repeated military budget cuts ― that massive nuclear retaliation was their sole playing card? Again, pro-disarmament Liberals rate as the most dangerous kind of “friends” that Islam could have.

Repulsive in the extreme is how truly avoidable this looming Muslim holocaust really is. A far less costly program of “wetwork” style targeted assassinations directed at the top echelons of Islam’s clerical, political, scholastic and financial aristocracy could see global jihad quickly screech to a grinding halt. Information hoarding is a way of life in the MME and even more so with terrorist leaders. Break enough strands in their networks and they will no longer function. A useful side effect of such a program would be to create numerous power vacuums that would draw violent contenders like moths to a candle’s flame. Subsequent infighting might even match the original fallout with equally fruitful results.

As noted in Part II of this essay, Islam has “unhappy ending” written all over it. Belmont Club’s Richard Fernandez (Wretchard), was one of the first to note this in his 2003 magnum opus, “The Three Conjectures”:

The most startling result of this analysis is that a catastrophic outcome for Islam is guaranteed whether America retaliates or not. Even if the President decided to let all Americans die to expiate their historical guilt, why would Islamic terrorists stop after that? They would move on to Europe and Asia until finally China, Russia, Japan, India or Israel, none of them squeamish, wrote -1 x 10^9 in the final right hand column. They too would be prisoners of the same dynamic, and they too have weapons of mass destruction.

It is more than safe to say that an industrially and militarily unlettered Islam is not going to take over the world using such a feeble tool as terrorism. As was also noted in Part II, Islam is assembling too many enemies too fast and that pace far outstrips any ability of theirs to perfect the mass production of intricate nuclear weapons nor muster fighting forces of even marginal proficiency. Chronic overreach is a hallmark of Islam and its habit of poking at the Western nuclear dragon with its terrorist pointed wooden stick bodes especially unwell for Muslims everywhere.

Fernandez goes on to observe:

Long before 3,000 New Yorkers died on September 11, Iraq and Iran killed 500,000 Muslims between them. The greatest threat to Muslims is radical Islam; and the greatest threat of all is a radical Islam armed with weapons of mass destruction.

Remember that for eight long years, Iran and Iraq fought to a bloody stalemate using chemical weapons and even ten year-old boys as human minesweepers. Less conservative estimates cite up to a million Muslim fatalities with both nations sending the flower of their youth into an insatiable meat grinder. Now, consider how America rolled up Iraq’s sidewalks in two weeks. This is the “reality gap” confronting Islam and its delusory vision of world domination. No such thing will ever happen.

Given that the global caliphate is forever out of reach, whither Islam? What of its obsessive quest for global supremacy? Handily, Israel provides us with a micro synopsis of the macro global problem. Imagine a tiny nation like Costa Rica routinely beating America’s military posterior like a cheap dime store drum. That is the equivalent of Israel defeating the combined military might of Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon. Please remember that, in Arab culture, humiliation is worse than death. Abandoning conventional warfare in favor of terrorism, the Arab nations intentionally selected a strategy of low-intensity conflict whose upper limit would not trigger direct intervention by the global community.

Thus was tiny Israel left alone to defend itself against continuous terrorist attacks the like of which no other nation on earth save, perhaps, India has had to endure. What of the much vaunted peace negotiations; the Oslo “Road Map” and so forth? What about the “land for peace” concessions that Israel has so often made in the pursuit of a negotiated settlement?

Few people understand that any sort of “negotiated peace” with Israel would serve to unravel the entire Islamic Arab consciousness. Reaching even the least sort of peace agreement would be a frank admission that jihad had failed. Furthermore, any recognition of a Jewish state would contravene the genocidal doctrine that is a cornerstone of Islam. Acceptance of Israel’s continued existence contradicts Islamic canon on so many levels that any such thing is unimaginable.

Piled on top of this is Israel’s continuous string of military victories against often overwhelming Arab forces. How then to explain that away without an indisputable annihilation of Israel tucked under their Islamic belt? Deprived of any concrete proof that Islam actually can prevail against the eternally hated Jew, please do not begin to imagine that there will be any near term cessation of hostilities, if ever.

Thus we are presented with the micro model of global terrorism. Withdrawal, surrender, in fact, peace of any sort with Islam is simply out of the question. In reality, Islam offers nothing that remotely resembles an actual “peace treaty”. Instead, there is only hudna, a temporarily cessation of hostilities that is specifically designed to permit Muslims the rearming needed to then break that “truce” at their convenience. Whither Israel … whither the global community where Islam is concerned.

So long as the West does not pose an existential threat to Islam’s continued presence on earth, there will be no accommodation of any sort. This is the bottom line. That degree of political will is sorely lacking in the West and, even if it existed, there is little likelihood that anyone involved would appreciate how any such pact with the unbelievers would be broken at the first instant of advantage for Islam.

Islam has always demanded to be paid in its own bloody coin. Violence is the only tender it recognizes and all other currency is scorned as a coward’s coinage. Hudna, taqiyya and kitman all assure that there is no hope of an honorably negotiated peace. Islam wants no such thing. Global domination is its imperative and any re-scripting of those priorities is simply out of the question.

Hardest of all to remember is that this has been Islam’s central doctrine from the very beginning of its existence. The West’s opposition or threat to Muslims has no bearing on why Islam wages its barbarous terrorism against us. The hammer of violence remains Islam’s only tool and we are all nails in its sight. Islam has already determined how it will end. It is merely a matter of survival for the West and to let Islam’s chips fall where they may. Muslims will forever be cannon fodder for Islam’s eternal jihad. Until they realize this and rebel for once and all time against their warlord masters nothing will ever change.

Remember … as always; Islam wouldn’t have it any other way.

That is how it will end.

Part I: “When Will it End?”

Part II: “Why Will it End?”

Indonesia: Halal Sex

(h/t: Winds of Jihad)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Uploaded by france24english on Jul 25, 2011
INDONESIA : Hallal sex. Saudi men travel to Indonesia for sex tourism. And so they don’t break any religious laws: they marry the prostitute for a day or two…

From Newstime (NZ):

“France 24 TV goes undercover in Indonesia to explore a bizarre trend in the country’s sex tourism industry. A growing number of Saudi Arabian men are temporarily marrying according to Quran Chapter 4 Verse 24 “… agree Mutually (to vary it), …” (Mu’ta marriage 4:24, temporary) Indonesian prostitutes to have sex with so that they don’t technically engage in non-marital sex. Therefore, in their opinion, their sexual relations with a prostitute are religiously lawful.”

According to Wikipedia…

Nikāḥ al-Mutʿah (Arabic: نكاح المتعة‎ “marriage for pleasure”), is an extremely controversial fixed-term marriage system in Shi’a Islam, rejected in Sunni Islam. The duration of this type of marriage is fixed at its inception and is then automatically dissolved upon completion of its term. The marriage is contractual and is subject to renewal. Financial payments may be made between the couple, usually with the male paying the female mahr or dower.

It’s All About the Rupiah and the Rial:

Despite the fact that both Saudi Arabia and Indonesia are both Sunni Muslim countries, when there is money to be made from sex tourism, the supposedly Shi’ite-only practice of Mut’ah is considered halal nonetheless. Go figure.

Mut’ah is a ‘rial’ moneymaker for the imams in Shi’ite Iran:

Winds of Jihad: ‘Muta’, Temporary marriage or legalized prostitution

Holy Shiite! Pious pilgrimage just got more exciting at Imam Reza’s shrine in Iran, where for a reasonable fee (see price list below) a mullah can join any eager pilgrim in holy matrimony of “temporary marriage” with his choice of a lovely, fully hijabed, and properly veiled prostitute for a period between 5 hours to 10 days. Pedophiles welcome: girls as young as 12 years of age are standing by. Not to worry, the mullahs got them covered: all “temps” under 14 must show a written consent from their fathers or male guardians (no doubt on advice from the recently fired, now freelancing ACORN specialists).

We are not making this up…

Ayatollah Khomeini’s ‘temporary marriage’ to a four-year-old girl

Khomeini Sexually Assaulting Crying and screaming 4 year old Girl – with parental consent

Click here to view the embedded video.

Uploaded by blogspotKitmanTV on Sep 6, 2010

More about Khomeini´s sick teachings on marriage and child molestation: http://kitmantv.blogspot.com/2010/09/latest-from-kitman-tv-on-youtube.html

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, The Supreme Leader of Iran, the Shia Grand Ayatollah, 1979-89 said in his official statements:

“A man can quench his sexual lusts with a child as young as a baby. However, he should not penetrate. Sodomizing the baby is halal (allowed by sharia). If the man penetrates and damages the child, then he should be responsible for her subsistence all her life. This girl, however, does not count as one of his four permanent wives. The man will not be eligible to marry the girl’s sister. It is better for a girl to marry when her menstruation starts, and at her husband’s house rather than her father’s home. Any father marrying his daughter so young will have a permanent place in heaven.”

Speechless…

Also see:

• NewStatesman: Ziauddin Sardar: Will you marry me – temporarily? Note: This is a truly creepy article by a Muslim who thinks these temporary marriages are a great idea. He contends that males are obligated to care for the offspring of these sexual unions. But as the next article indicates, it doesn’t work out that way in real life.
• She Found Prostitution Among Iran’s Holy Men
• References for Trafficking and Prostitution in Iran

From the 1389 Blog Mailbox:

BlackbootJacks: Interview with Dr. Laina Farhat-Holzman

Dr. Laina Farhat-Holzman is a writer and historian who formerly taught World History and Islamic Civilization at Golden Gate University in San Francisco, where she was also Executive Director of the San Francisco United Nations Association and was a frequent speaker for the World Affairs Council and the Commonwealth Club.

She has been a 26-year observer of the Islamic Revolution in Iran and has been charting the growth of fanatical radicalized Islam around the world. Both as a columnist for local newspapers and in scholarly papers given at academic conferences and published in the Comparative Civilizations Review, she has warned of the danger to democratic societies from a rising tide of fundamentalist/political religions.

The September 11, 2001 attack on America has increased the demand for her columns and as a lecturer. A book completed just before the attack, God’s Law or Man’s Law: The Fundamentalist Challenge to Secular Rule, has been published, and is going into its second edition.

Dr. Farhat-Holzman has lived in Iran twice: the first time when married to an Iranian student who was doing his graduate research in his home country. She was witness to Iran’s accelerated attempt at modernizing during the reign of the last Pahlavi shah.

Her second residence there was fifteen years later, during the period leading up to the Islamic Revolution. She was the cross-cultural expert on a project that involved a number of US defense firms, US intelligence agencies, and the Iranian Air Force. Her perspective on radicalized Islam is a combination of domestic experience, professional experience, and her background as a historian.

May we present…

Dr. Laina Farhat-Holzman

ITF:

Welcome Dr Farhat-Holzman to the Infidel Task Force and thank you for taking the time to chat with us. You come with major credentials and I’m sure the readers will enjoy this column

Dr. Farhat-Holzman:

I am delighted to have found you—and been found by you!

ITF:

When someone hears about a woman living in Iran, the images that immediately spring to mind are of Sally Field in the movie: “Not Without My Daughter”. Tell us please how you were introduced to Iran.

Dr. Farhat-Holzman:

I met my Iranian husband at UCLA, and in graduate school, he received a Ford Foundation Grant to study Persian Court Music (an ancient and lovely tradition that was rapidly disappearing). We spent two years in Iran, living with his family and giving birth to our first child.

His family, being old aristocracy, was nothing like the terrible family of the young woman in “Not Without My Daughter.” My experience was during the post World War II period when the young Shah finally roused himself to engage in modernization projects (something his father had done as the first modernizer after centuries of decay). My then husband’s family were patriotic, eager to see Iran get out from under the thrall of Islam, and they welcomed me—their educated and curious American daughter-in-law. Adding to my luck: I had an amazing and unique mother-in-law who was vibrant, beautiful, and wise, and we took to each other and were friends until her premature death right after the Islamic Revolution.

My experience was very different from that of the Sally Field character who went to Iran at the wrong time and into the worst kind of family—pious merchant class people.

And years after my marriage ended, I was sent to Iran on a project that involved cross-cultural training—and this was during a period that the revolution was brewing. I did try to notify my Congressman at the time and the State Department Iran Chair, but I was not believed. I was being politically incorrect, it seems…

Read the rest HERE or HERE.

Originally published on 2.0: The Blogmocracy

Guests at Minnesota’s oldest hotel could request a cuddly cat for the night

My husband and I stayed at the famous Anderson House Hotel in Wabasha, Minnesota a few years ago. The female tabby we chose spent most of the night cuddling with my husband. But I didn’t mind. The room was picturesque and the food at the restaurant was good.

Petside.com blog post from November 29, 2007:
Wanted: Friendly, Warm, Affectionate Ambassador for Minnesota Cat House

Arnold…How may I help you?

Okay…I know it’s a family website. But it’s not what you think. So shame on you!

Actually, The Historic Anderson House in Wabasha, Minnesota is, according to innkeeper Teresa Smith, the state’s only legal “cat house.” And for a very good reason. The staff of the 151 year-old bed-and-breakfast includes five friendly felines who, upon request, will come to your room evenings, warm your bed, and keep you company. What’s more, the hotel provides a litter box, toys, and food with each “kitty-to-go.” Most guests reserve a cat with their room, Smith says, and many put their dibs in early to ensure their favorite will be available. Poor souls with allergies can request a no-cat room.

Read the rest.

A casualty of the Obamaconomy

I recently looked up the hotel’s website and was disappointed to find that the domain name was being “parked.” It turns out that the famous landmark hotel that had been established in 1856, had failed to survive the Obama administration. At least all of the cats who once provided companship for the guests still have homes.

Anderson House, Minnesota’s oldest hotel, closes

Last Update: March 23, 2009 – 7:19 PM
By: Kerry Westenberg

A voice-mail message at the storied hotel in Wabasha starts out with a promising welcome.

Then comes a sigh, and these words, “We are sad to say that due to the bad economics that are going on, the Historic Anderson House has had to close its doors.”

Until it stopped operating Thursday, the Anderson House had been the longest running inn in the state. It was built in 1856 when Wabasha was a bustling Mississippi River town.
…
The building is on the National Register of Historic Places, but may be more famous for its collection of cats that guests could bring into their rooms for the night.
…
Fancher said that the more than dozen cats that resided at the hotel have been adopted by friends and former employees.

Read the rest.

Also see:

• Strange Travels: Get a Cat with Your Room at Minnesota’s Anderson House
• Visit Americanaville: The Historic Anderson House in Wabasha, Minnesota
• Wikipedia: Historic Anderson House Hotel

By 1389

Marriott workcenter computers block another conservative blog

This thread in Blogmocracy tells the story:

The Osprey 139 | July 6, 2010 00:45

Hey Rodan and Savage. I was up in Flagstaff for the last two days. Tried to access the Blogmocracy from the Marriott I was staying at. Their workcenter computers have an interface/filter controlling web access called ìUniguestî. When I tried to access the site it told me it was blocked due to ìwhite supremacistî content.

I smell the minions of Chucky.

I did a little digging…

Uniguest website

1035 Acorn Drive
Nashville, TN 37210
p: 800.467.1218
f: 615.777.5500

Email service and support

Uniguest Email Contact Form

Here’s what I wrote:

I understand that your Uniguest software, which is being used by the Marriott hotels, is blocking http://www.theblogmocracy.com as a “white supremacist” site.

For one thing, this is completely untrue; there is nothing white supremacist about that site. Socialists and pro-jihadists all too often attack sites that aim to expose their activities by flagging them as “white supremacist” or “racist”, even when the site has nothing to do with race.

And furthermore, what business is it of yours if somebody wants to look at a white supremacist website? I sometimes check websites belonging to those who oppose me in the political sphere, merely to see what they are up to.

Please whitelist http://www.theblogmocracy.com so that anyone can access it from any of your systems.

That’s right: Air France to begin study of inflight cell phone use.

But don’t get too excited. The test will run for just six months, only within Europe, and only on the Airbus A-318. And the experience will be just as regimented and micromanaged as everything else having to do with air travel in the twenty-first century:

During the first three months of the study, passengers will be allowed only to send text messages and e-mails. But during the second three months (originally the study was scheduled to last a year), passengers will be allowed to make voice calls. According to Wi-Fi Net News, calls can only be made above 10,000 feet and depending on passenger feedback, cabin crew can disable the service at any time. As you may expect, the satellite calls will be $2.50 per minute. Also, passengers will not know they’re flying on the test aircraft until after they board.

Hmmm…wonder what would happen if a flight attendant were to overhear a passenger using a cell phone to complain to someone about the airline, the plane, or the flight crew?

Also see:

• Air France and OnAir launch World’s First In-Flight Mobile Phone Service on Board International Flights

• Cell phones on planes: Part three

  Since cell phone towers don’t reach thousands of feet into the air the cellular signals will be converted into satellite communications that will vault into space and then connect to a ground network.

• Computerworld: Why cell phones are still grounded

This just in (1/8/08):

How a backseat driver could bring terror to new Dreamliner

The technology used by the new generation of aircraft is now so advanced that aviation officials fear that terrorists could use it to fly the plane.>

Aviation regulators have refused to certify Boeing’s new 787 Dreamliner passenger jet until it redesigns its computer system to protect against such an event, The Times has learnt.

The Federal Aviation Authority is concerned that terrorists could use the Dreamliner’s in-flight internet system to connect to “systems critical to the safety and maintenance of the aircraft”.

In a report released last week, the FAA said that Boeing had left the pilots’ computers open to attack by connecting the Dreamliner’s entertainment system to the pilots’ controls.

A hacker with a computer and some IT training potentially could hijack the system from his seat.

New U.S. TSA rules take effect New Year’s Day 2008

In a nutshell: You will no longer be able to pack spare batteries in checked baggage, but, within limits, you will be allowed to pack spare batteries in carry-on baggage. Most lithium batteries for consumer electronic devices such as laptops and video cameras will meet the restrictions. But large, professional-grade batteries may exceed the limits; if you have any doubts, call the manufacturer before you pack your devices for travel.

Don’t Lose Your Batteries to Airport Security!

By Gary Krakow, TheStreet.com – 12/29/2007 10:34 AM EST

If you’re one of the millions of airline travelers who carry spare lithium laptop, cell phone and camera batteries with you, listen up: The government has some new rules which go into effect on New Year’s Day.

Fortunately, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is not worried about the batteries installed in your devices, be it an iPhone or laptop. Those are safe to bring along with you on the plane in your carry-on bag.

But the TSA is worried about loose, spare batteries. These are batteries with uncovered electrical contacts, which, if touched by other metal objects could cause an explosion and fire during a flight. So, the agency wants to make sure that any spare lithium batteries you take with you on your flight meet its new standards.

From the DOT Safe Travel site:

Effective January 1, 2008, the following rules apply to the spare lithium batteries you carry with you in case the battery in a device runs low:

• Spare batteries are the batteries you carry separately from the devices they power. When batteries are installed in a device, they are not considered spare batteries.
• You may not pack a spare lithium battery in your checked baggage
• You may bring spare lithium batteries with you in carry-on baggage – see our spare battery tips and how-to sections to find out how to pack spare batteries safely!
• Even though we recommend carrying your devices with you in carry-on baggage as well, if you must bring one in checked baggage, you may check it with the batteries installed.

The following quantity limits apply to both your spare and installed batteries. The limits are expressed in grams of “equivalent lithium content.” 8 grams of equivalent lithium content is approximately 100 watt-hours. 25 grams is approximately 300 watt-hours:

• Under the new rules, you can bring batteries with up to 8-gram equivalent lithium content. All lithium ion batteries in cell phones are below 8 gram equivalent lithium content. Nearly all laptop computers also are below this quantity threshold.
• You can also bring up to two spare batteries with an aggregate equivalent lithium content of up to 25 grams, in addition to any batteries that fall below the 8-gram threshold. Examples of two types of lithium ion batteries with equivalent lithium content over 8 grams but below 25 are shown below.
• For a lithium metal battery, whether installed in a device or carried as a spare, the limit on lithium content is 2 grams of lithium metal per battery.
• Almost all consumer-type lithium metal batteries are below 2 grams of lithium metal. But if you are unsure, contact the manufacturer!

Click here for more information and useful photos.

(Updated 11/20/07, 11/24/07, 12/25/07)
You might know the answer to these questions:

Is the Pentagon bureaucracy on your side?

You think so? Then why does the Pentagon get its advice from a flagrant bigot who refuses to appear on a panel of speakers with an Israeli?

National Review: Academic Freedom?

Yesterday, the University of Delaware asked Asaf Romirowsky to step down from an academic panel at the University of Delaware because another panelist, University of Delaware political scientist Muqtedar Khan, didn’t want to share the podium with anyone who served in the Israeli Defense Forces.

If Khan was just an academic, that would be one thing. But he also straddles the policy world: Khan is a a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, and a Pentagon consultant. According to an e-mail he sent to the University, he gave a workshop at the Pentagon yesterday afternoon.

Is the Department of Justice on your side?

You think so? Then why did the DOJ botch the first Holy Land Foundation (HLF) trial so thoroughly? True, there’s going to be another trial, but why couldn’t they have gotten their ducks in a row to do it right the first time?

• Bad News for Holy Land defendants
• Second HLF Trial Could Bring Changes
• A Hung Jury in the Holy Land Foundation Case
• The Holy Land Foundation: Misinformation about Material Support

Is the VA on your side?

You think so? Then why did they censor the text used in the flag folding ceremony for veterans in national cemeteries, in response to an anonymous complaint that was clearly motivated by anti-Semitism?

Holy War at our National Cemeteries

CW31 (cbs13.com) in California reports that, the traditional flag-folding recitation has been banned at national cemeteries due to a complaint filed at the Riverside National Cemetery. The complaint was apparently specific to the 11th fold of the ceremony, which honors Hebrew soldiers, Kings David and Solomon, and gives tribute to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

VA contact information

Is Wal-Mart on your side?

You think so? Just because of their “falling prices”/”everyday low prices”? How do you expect to afford even those “low prices” when all of the jobs have been sucked out of the US and exported to places like China?

The Wal-Mart You Don’t Know

Steve Dobbins has been bearing the brunt of that switch. He’s president and CEO of Carolina Mills, a 75-year-old North Carolina company that supplies thread, yarn, and textile finishing to apparel makers–half of which supply Wal-Mart. Carolina Mills grew steadily until 2000. But in the past three years, as its customers have gone either overseas or out of business, it has shrunk from 17 factories to 7, and from 2,600 employees to 1,200. Dobbins’s customers have begun to face imported clothing sold so cheaply to Wal-Mart that they could not compete even if they paid their workers nothing.

Here’s the comment I wrote for this article (I fixed a few typos and tweaked the formatting to make it work for this blog, because the comment form accompanying the article did not allow HTML):

I used to shop at Wal-Mart, back in their “Buy American” days. I stopped when I noticed that the good brands disappeared and the quality of everything in the store began getting worse and worse.

In essence, Wal-Mart is forcing their suppliers to outsource everything overseas, to destroy whatever reputation for quality they once had, and to become dependent on Wal-Mart. Then Wal-Mart makes the relationship unprofitable.

Here`s the solution:

1. Never buy anything at Wal-Mart [or, for that matter, Sam's Club].

   If you`re so broke that you can`t afford anything better, then go to a flea market or a second-hand store, or do without. How much clutter do you really need, anyway?

   For the holidays, give your child one good toy, or a good book or game, from somewhere else, not five pieces of cheap, breakable, poorly-designed garbage from Wal-Mart.

2. If you`re a supplier, don`t start doing business with Wal-Mart. Find ways to survive and prosper without getting sucked into their system.

3. If you`re a journalist of any type, report more stories like this about what Wal-Mart is doing to America`s manufacturing base, communities, employment prospects, and reputation for quality.

   Expose the abysmal quality of the outsourced rubbish that American firms are importing from places such as China, partly or wholly in response to pressure from Wal-Mart. The lead paint fiasco is only the beginning.

   There are a lot more scandals if you want to look for them. Follow the money! Just for starters: Look at political contributions. Look at where their employees are getting their health care.

   Finally, please stop comparing Wal-Mart to companies such as A&P that maintained a reputation for quality during the era when they were able to out-compete other companies.

   Remember: If cost is your only consideration, everything turns into a race to the bottom. You will eventually end up spending all your money on a lot of junk, none of which would be worth the price even if it were free!

Also see:

• Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price
• Wal-Mart Disses Jesus
• Essay by Wendell Berry in Orion magazine

Is the FBI on your side?

You think so? Then why do they refuse to acknowledge jihadist terrorism when they see it?

FBI Downplays Another Terrorist Attack Aimed at Homestead AFB in Florida

Sleep safe tonight. Your children might just be getting their education from a mentally ill Muslim who is on the FBI’s Terrorist Watch List… There are just so many things wrong with this, I don’t even know where to start!

FBI: Teacher who attacked base guards was suicidal, not terrorist

The Associated Press – Jacksonville.com

. . .

Ahmad’s mother said the first-year teacher at Miami Central High School is mentally ill and had recently been in a mental institution, where officials reported he tried killing himself.

Oh, and by the way: If you happen to live in Miami, you just might want to ask what (if any) background checks are being done on prospective teachers!

(Added 11/7/2007) And what about this?

LGF: FBI’s Latest Outreach Outrage

Again the US government reaches out to the wrong people: FBI’s Latest Outreach Outrage.

As reported in the Detroit Free Press (see: Detroit’s FBI chief: Violence extremism cuts across religions), two top FBI officials from that office “spoke to about 50 Muslims inside the Islamic Organization of North America, or Tanzeem-e-Islami.” The Free Press described the organization as merely “a Sunni mosque with a primarily Pakistani congregation” and tells us that the meeting was nothing more than “part of an effort by the FBI to reach out to Muslims and other communities.”

As everyone, especially the FBI, should know by now, the IANA is an Islamist pressure group.

(Added 11/20/2007) And this?

Terror on the Tarmac

If the FBI wants the support of the American people when it comes to fighting terror in the skies, it needs to treat them with respect. Annie Jacobsen has the harrowing tale of what happened when a Good Samaritan was transformed into a terror suspect. Required reading for Thanksgiving travelers.

In a nutshell, an innocent traveler saw someone exhibiting bizarre behavior on an airliner. He reported what he saw, but then, the FBI hauled him in as the suspect. The FBI eventually let him go and considers the matter “resolved.” Naturally, since he’s pro-American and not a jihadist, the ACLU is uninterested in helping him recover damages. Of course, there’s no word on what happened to the person who actually was behaving strangely on the plane.

• Former Employee of CIA and FBI Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy, Unauthorized Computer Access and Naturalization Fraud
• Jihad Jane’s “State” of Bliss
• Hizballah’s Penetration of the FBI, CIA
• Illegal immigrant FBI/CIA agent married to State Dept employee who held sensitive posts in Middle East embassies

Oh, and by the way, how many more enemy moles are working at the FBI, the CIA, or the State Department?

(Added 11/24/2007) This many more?

Homeland Insecurity: Is U.S. gov’t infested with terrorist moles?

Intelligence official: ‘FBI might as well put out a sign – Double agents wanted’
Posted: November 20, 2007
9:35 p.m. Eastern

Thanks to lax background checks, even after 9/11, the Hezbollah spy who managed to obtain sensitive jobs at the FBI and CIA is not the first terrorist supporter to infiltrate the U.S. government.

An alleged al-Qaida operative also infiltrated the Environmental Protection Agency, according to federal investigators and court documents obtained by WND.

The case, details of which are revealed here for the first time, involves Waheeda Tehseen, a Pakistani national who obtained a sensitive position with the EPA in Washington as a toxicologist even though she was not a U.S. citizen.

Like the Lebanese national suspected of passing secrets to Hezbollah, Tehseen lied about her citizenship on her government application, a falsehood that the government failed – in both cases – to catch in its security background investigation.

You probably won’t know the answer to this question:

Are Serbs, and Serbian-Americans, on your side?

You think not? Especially after everything that’s happened in the past sixty years?

Think again!

It may surprise you to know that, even now, Orthodox Christian Serbian-Americans pray every Sunday in church for America’s government and armed forces. Serbs, in Serbia and elsewhere, are waiting for Americans to come to their senses about jihadism in the Balkans and elsewhere, preferably before it’s too late to avoid widespread destruction to what’s left of the civilized world!

Download this book – FREE of charge – and read the other articles that follow.

Shameful Betrayal of General Draza Mihailovich, Hero of Two World Wars

Free book available in PDF format, courtesy of Andy Wilcoxson:

Gen. Mihailovic’s only crime was resisting the twin evils of Hitler’s fascism and Stalin’s communism.

. . .

“Because the book is out of print and the publisher went out of business more than 50 years ago copies of it are hard to come by, so I scanned my copy, and through the magic of the Internet you can download your own copy of the book in PDF format by right clicking this link and selecting “Save Target As” (please note file is 137 MB).”

. . .

General Mihailovich fell seventeen months after the so-called “liberation” of Yugoslavia. Reports from Belgrade on March 24th, 1946, announced his capture under puzzling circumstances on March 13th, 1946. His trial before a Communist military court began on June 10th, 1946. He was “sentenced” to death on July 15th, 1946, and murdered on July 17th, 1946.

General Mihailovich is no more. He has departed this world convinced that he was abandoned by the Allies. The voices that were raised abroad in his defence were not allowed to reach him and he died without the satisfaction of knowing that in the opinion of many he died an innocent man and a great soldier.

General Mihailovich is no more, but the legends of his heroic deeds are becoming more and more popular and they live in the hearts of the people.

General Mihailovich is no more. He has departed this world. Those who have murdered him have not only perpetrated a crime, they have also committed a grave mistake, for democratic public opinion is well aware of General Mihailovich’s merits.

General Mihailovich is no more. The last words of this great patriot were concise and poignant. He said:

“I strove for much, I undertook much, but the gales of the world have carried away both me and my work.”

But wait, there’s more!

• Kosovo, Serbia’s Cross to Bear: Serbia pays 100,000 US$ each day for Kosovo’s debt, even though it gets no revenue from the province.
• Who restarted the Cold War? If there was ever a case of pot calling the kettle black! The article explains how Russia offered its friendship and the Clinton and Bush Administrations ruthlessly abused it. But it’s not too late to change the situation for the better.
• New Information and Key Trends Regarding Islamic Extremist Groups in the Balkans: About the insanity of US foreign policy in the Balkans, in which the Clinton Administration fought against the Christian Serbs, on behalf of Bosnian and Albanian Muslims – including those who were, and still are, the local branches of al Qaeda in the Balkans. The Bush Administration has done nothing to reverse this failed policy, and Hillary Clinton would only worsen it.
• Dissecting the UN Debacle in Kosovo
• Capt. Lance Peter Sijan, USAF
• COUNTERTERRORIST BLOG SWARM WANTED!
• Petition to Demand Investigation of UN Bribery Scandal
• It takes a mighty big person to repent these days!

Technorati : Bosnia, CIA, China, FBI, Kosovo, MSM corruption, Serbia, U.S. law, counterterrorism, disaster preparedness, ecoterrorism, enemy propaganda, jihadism, military, political correctness
Del.icio.us : Bosnia, CIA, China, FBI, Kosovo, MSM corruption, Serbia, U.S. law, counterterrorism, disaster preparedness, ecoterrorism, enemy propaganda, jihadism, military, political correctness
Ice Rocket : Bosnia, CIA, China, FBI, Kosovo, MSM corruption, Serbia, U.S. law, counterterrorism, disaster preparedness, ecoterrorism, enemy propaganda, jihadism, military, political correctness

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…To visit these other sites!

Antijihadist 24×7: We need a break, but we never get to take one.

Are you a blogger? Do you suffer from blogger burnout?

• Blogging: Worse than transfats? has a funny PSA on what to do about it!
• Here is the original, low-res version of this comical, yet oddly true-to-life, e-pamphlet. It appeared on the nonist, which is a beautifully designed art/photo/history site. But if you’re afraid of spiders, the nonist blog post for 9/15/07 is about a giant spider web!
• Also see Are You a Blogaholic?

Hungry for inspiration?

• Read Miracle in Lebanon – High Holidays with Aish, and you’ll see some of the reasons why we have so much respect for Israel and for the Jewish people. It’s an amazing story.

Just plain hungry?

• The Fresh Loaf is a huge website all about bread and baking. Yum! They have a news aggregator, bread baking lessons, all sorts of things. Their email address is at the very bottom of their webpage.
• Hmmm…that gives me an idea. Since The Fresh Loaf is a news aggregator, would any of you readers like to write to The Fresh Loaf and tell them about the problems with SonicWALL censorware on the Panera Bread WiFi?

Into geography? The Northwest Passage may exist after all.

• The explorers of old searched for centuries to find the fabled Northwest Passage from Europe to Asia by water. They never found it, because no such passage existed at that time. But that’s about to change.

  What we call “global warming” is part of a natural cycle, and it isn’t all bad. This article, Northwest Passage Ice Shrinks to New Low, explains that melting of the Arctic ice pack will soon allow ships to make the passage during the summer. It will also open up a potentially oil-rich region for exploration.

  When that happens, be prepared for a showdown here in the US. You can expect that left-wing environmentalists will render aid and comfort to the jihadists by doing all they can to stop any exploration for oil that could lessen our dependence on sources in the Middle East.

Still keeping up on the counterterrorist beat…

• “Jihad by Telecommute” shows evidence that e-jihadis are becoming more active all the time. Fortunately, the authorities are beginning to catch them. You can help by reporting anything suspicious that you see or hear.
• Key Lockerbie witness admits to perjury – I wonder whether we will ever get to the bottom of this.
• Michelle Malkin gives us an update on the Goose Creek pipe bomb boys, Yousef Megahed and Ahmed Mohamed, who were caught with explosives near a South Carolina naval base. Visit her site and find out what their bizarre plot was all about!
• Good news: The DHS is investigating ways to strengthen bridges against attack.

• Evil jihadist “allies” that the US and EU inherited from Bill and Hillary Clinton: This article offers massive evidence that the Albanian KLA/UCK – not the Serbs – were responsible for the tide of Kosovo refugees during the 1999 NATO bombardment. The KLA has used many names for itself, but it continues to be a savage jihadist/narcoterrorist mob that is also the local branch of al Qaeda.

Need something to write about for your own blog?

• 1389 Message Blog is 1389′s other blog. It’s a place where 1389 puts links to interesting articles and news stories, both for future reference and for everyone’s use. Raid those links to your heart’s content!

Freedom of speech in the blogosphere

• If you are uncomfortable with the use of the word evil, be advised that there is a difference between good and evil. The attack on September 11, 2001, was, and is, evil. It is not “hate speech” to label evildoers and evil deeds for what they are.

  Society can survive only as long as enough people know good from evil and protect that which is good. We are not motivated by hatred, but by love for the Lord and for all His creation, especially our family, home, neighbors, friends, and country. Refusing to recognize evil when you encounter it will only leave you defenseless against it.

• Why do we have to explain such a simple thing? By choosing to go up against jihadists, we have made some enemies, exactly as we expected would happen. Our adversaries are trying to shut down access to this blog, and other antijihadist/counterterrorist blogs, by falsely reporting it to content-filtering or “censorware” vendors as containing “hate/racism/violence”. This sharply reduces the number of places from which our audience can access our sites.

  But if you look at 1389 Blog, you will find that there is no hate speech on this blog. No trash talk. No incitement to violence. No mention of anything pertaining to racial issues. No ad hominem attacks. No bloody pictures. Comments are moderated, and we don’t even allow swear words.

  Any site that does not go along with the prevailing left-wing “political correctness” – especially sites that expose jihadist acivities – is at risk for the same type of de facto censorship. Follow this category link to keep track of our efforts to preserve freedom of speech in the blogosphere.

Technorati : Goose Creek, Homeland Security, Israel, PSA, Panera Bread, SonicWALL, blacklisting of antijihadists, climate change, cyberjihadism, e-jihadisblogging, energy, food, geography, humor, incident tracking, sites we like
Del.icio.us : Goose Creek, Homeland Security, Israel, PSA, Panera Bread, SonicWALL, blacklisting of antijihadists, climate change, cyberjihadism, e-jihadisblogging, energy, food, geography, humor, incident tracking, sites we like
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For rolling updates on this topic:
Stop Blog Censorship!

• Looks as though we may have won this battle!
  See this comment!
• Other blogs still being blocked:
  Blog censorship update: August 31, 2007
• For Round 2 of Panera Bread vs. Foehammer’s Anvil, see
  You’ll be surprised to hear why Panera Bread and SonicWALL blacklisted Foehammer’s Anvil!

What do you mean, I can’t read Foehammer’s Anvil at Panera Bread?

To our amazement and disgust, some of us have recently discovered that access to legitimate news and political sites – especially antijihadist sites, including Foehammer’s Anvil and Jihad Watch – is being blocked at many WiFi sites, workplaces, schools, government buildings, and other locations. This blacklisting is done automatically by content-control software, also known as “censorware.”

In Jenn Sierra’s article, Are Anti-Jihadist Sites Blocked where you Work, Study, or use Wi-Fi?, she mentioned that she was forbidden to access Foehammer’s Anvil from the supposedly “unlimited” WiFi at Panera Bread.

How do they set up this “censorware”?

Generally, an outside company is in charge of setting up the “censorware”. Depending on how it is set up, the censorware will block everything that falls into certain broad categories – not just blatant pornography, but anything having to do with sexuality, drugs, tobacco, alcohol, weapons, and violence. All too often, it also excludes anything “politically incorrect” that someone might conceivably classify as “bigotry” or “hate speech.” In other words, it locks out a huge range of sites offering news and views that are vital to effective participation in American society.

Unless someone knows how, and is willing, to loosen those restrictions, adult voters and taxpayers will find themselves treated like small children who cannot be trusted to make up their own minds. Forget about enjoying a broader range of political news and opinion than what the mainstream media conglomerates deign to provide. If you’re traveling, or if you are located where you have no other way to get to the Internet, you’re out of luck.

Political speech – especially “unpopular” political speech, or speech that makes some people uneasy – is exactly the type of speech that our Founders most wanted to protect. It’s also the type of speech that is most often shut down by the current wave of “political correctness”.

The coffeehouse has a venerable tradition as a place for reading and sharing newspapers, for socializing, and for exchanging news and ideas. Attempts to suppress this freedom of expression took the form of closing the coffeehouses or of prohibiting coffee itself, which proved largely futile. Nowadays, we rely on the Internet café to meet the same needs in a slightly different way. Too bad that the technology itself, which potentially lets us share information, exercise our freedoms, and express our creativity, is being misused to narrow the range of ideas that we are allowed to debate.

Where is this censorship going to end? There’s already a scarcity of printed news that addresses the issues of jihadism or the dangers to our freedom and our way of life posed by the growing Islamization of the U.S. And neither television news, nor our elective officials, even acknowledge that there might be a problem.

Food for thought: If we did have a newspaper that covered those topics, do you suppose someone would complain if we were to take it into a Panera Bread store to read while we’re eating? What would our response be if someone did raise a fuss? Just askin’…

If you’ve visited this blog before, or if you’ve already met 1389 elsewhere on the Web, you’ll know that I’ve never been afraid to “stir the pot” whenever it needs to be stirred. Nobody has attempted to shut down 1389 Blog, probably because it hasn’t built up a big enough audience yet. Even so, this issue affects all of us, bloggers and readers alike. Keep in mind that the blogs you like to read won’t be able to survive if it becomes too easy to stop their readers from seeing the blogs!

So here’s what to do:

Contact Panera Bread at:

Ronald M. Shaich, Chairman and CEO
Panera Bread
6710 Clayton Road
Richmond Heights, MO 63117
Tel: (314) 633-7100
Fax: (314) 633-7200

Email contact form

Investor Relations:
800-301-5566, ext. 6500
investor@panerabread.com

Contact SonicWALL, Inc. at:

Matt Medeiros, President and CEO
SonicWALL, Inc.
1143 Borregas Avenue
Sunnyvale, CA 94089-1306
USA

P +1 888.557.6642
P +1 408.745.9600
F +1 408.745.9300

Email contact form

“What else can I do?”

• Pass the link to this article along to your family and friends.
  • Ask them to contact Panera Bread and SonicWALL.
• Find out whether these sites are blocked where you work, study, or use WiFi:
  • Foehammer’s Anvil
  • The Religion of Peace
  • Jihad Watch
  • The Jawa Report
  • Any other antijihadist sites that you want to access.
• If antijihadist websites are blocked:
  • Try to find out what type of censorware or content filtering system is blocking your access.
• Here are two quick ways to pass this information along to us:
  • Click here to post a comment on Foehammer’s Anvil
  • Click here to use the Contact Us form on this website
• Bookmark this link for rolling updates:
  Stop Blog Censorship!

More Information:

• Related Articles on 1389 Blog
• Related Articles on Fort Hard Knox Blog
• Related Articles on Foehammer’s Anvil
• Jihad Watch: Banned in Chicago!
• Jihad Watch banning update
• MIT Student Association for Freedom of Expression (SAFE)
• Politech: Declan McCullagh’s politics and technology site
• Electronic Frontier Foundation
• Peacefire
• J.S. Bach’s Coffee Cantata

Subscribe to 1389 Blog!

Technorati : Bury Brigade, Digg, Foehammer s Anvil, Ft. Hard Knox, Islam, Jihad Watch, Jim Sutter, Panera Bread, Religion of Peace, SonicWALL, blacklisting of antijihadists, blog swarm, blogging, censorship, censorware, counterterrorism, cyberjihadism, e-jihadis, jihadis, jihadism, political correctness
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I practically never post anything to this blog about myself and my day-to-day experiences. After all, this blog is not about me! But this time, I’m making an exception, simply because, on my travels, I recently witnessed an odd series of events, and those events raised questions that need to be answered. I liveblogged these events on Twitter, along with more mundane details of the journey.

Event #1: Last Friday, northbound through rural Georgia on I-75, we were caught in an unexpected traffic jam. The slowdown turned out to be a “gaper’s block” caused by a roadside vehicle fire. When we got to the scene, we saw a motorhome that had burned all the way down to the chassis. We saw no other damaged vehicles, nor anything else indicating why the motorhome had burned.

Event #2: That same day, just a few hours later, we were westbound on I-24 through the mountains of Tennessee, when, once again, traffic came to a complete halt. When the traffic flow started up again, all motorists were herded onto the left shoulder, while a hazmat response vehicle sped by with its siren screaming. This time, we saw a truck cab that had burned all the way down to its chassis. Some liquid, probably fuel, had spilled onto the pavement. Little remained of the truck cab, but the remainder of the rig appeared undamaged. Here again, it was not apparent what had caused the fire.

Event #3: While I was still pondering the odds of having seen two roadside fires involving large vehicles on the same day, traffic stopped again, just up the road on I-24 in the mountains of Tennessee. Sure enough, we could see clouds of smoke in the distance. When we finally went past the scene, we saw two active grass fires, with firefighters working on putting them out. At one of the fires, I saw a large rectangular area of burned grass. It appeared that a burned vehicle, the size of a truck, bus, or motorhome, had just been removed.

Was this a coincidence, or something else? I discussed this with someone else who shares my interest in counterterrorism and tracking unusual events. He said that fires like these are strictly local news, and that if they don’t take place near a city or town, they might not be reported at all. Even when they do make the local news, it’s very unlikely that anybody would put them all together and report on the fact that an unusual number of vehicle fires happened on the same day. These three fires might well have been a coincidence, but we have too little data to draw that or any other conclusion.

On the other hand, what if it wasn’t a coincidence? If a group of people wanted to cause havoc and destruction, and to have a good chance of getting away with it, what might they do? We’ve all been led to expect an apocalyptic attack one or more major cities, which would make the national news and launch an immediate manhunt. But what if they were to sabotage and burn dozens, or hundreds, of vehicles in rural areas instead? How would anybody connect the dots?

Since then, I’ve been searching for any mention of these fires in the local news, to no avail. As of this writing, I’ve yet to find any news story that I can associate with the date and location of these particular fires. That’s frustrating, but it tells me that we can’t rely on the mainstream media, or official sources, to recognize these dots, much less connect them!

This is where citizen journalism comes in, which means you and me. Use whatever tools are available to do the job. If you don’t have a video camera or a camera phone, at least get a phone with web browsing and text messaging capability, so that you can transmit the details of what you encountered.

How would a database or wiki help? The task of “connecting the dots” would be much easier if we had a database or wiki that everyone could use for reporting unusual events and local-scale disasters, and that everyone could search to find patterns and causes of events. In order to be useful, this would have to be a large-scale project that takes in and organizes detailed data from all over the U.S. It would take plenty of resources to start up such a database or wiki on a server that could handle the traffic, to launch and promote the project, and to sign up enough participants to give the project a good start. This is not a one-person job; clearly, it would take more funds and more time than I presently have at my disposal. Nonetheless, this is my proposal for the future, and if enough other people are interested, we could get it done!

For now, we can improvise by using the “blogosphere” itself as our database. If you witness anything unusual, regardless of whether or not you think it is terrorism-related, just blog about it and then pass the information along to others. If possible, set up your blog so that you can make blog posts from your mobile device. Even if all you have is a forum membership somewhere, a Twitter account, or a MySpace page, use it as a vehicle for recording what you saw! After awhile, the search engines on the Web will find these blog posts, and anyone will be able to use them to look for patterns in unusual events. Using even the simplest blogging or microblogging system will get your data out into the world where good use can eventually be made of it.

Tech tip: Did you know that you can claim your Twitter account as a blog on Technorati?
It’s very easy to do. It will make your tweets searchable and it will give you more of a presence on Technorati.

On Digg, I posted a comment to elaborate further on what this database or wiki should contain:

If you can find an interactive, real-time map of disasters, please let me know. But I’m looking for records of disasters on a local scale, that are never posted anywhere but the local news – or are not posted to any media at all. And I’m also looking for a repository of data that goes back into the past, to make it easier to search for patterns over time.

Noteworthy things to track include the following:

• Disease outbreaks in humans, animals, and plants
• Unusual numbers of, or disappearances of, wildlife (such as the recent bee dieoff)
• Power outages, Internet and phone service outages, and other infrastructure failures (such as the recent bridge collapse) whether there were casualties or not

The vast majority of these things will result from natural causes or human error, and not from terrorism. Nonetheless, knowing about those other causes could potentially save many lives also.

Update – August 16, 2007:

Here’s a link to a very disturbing incident. I have no further information about this, and do not know whether there is any connection between this new incident and the ones that I noticed previously. In this instance, the news story implies gang activity.

Bomb blows up truck, owner inside

I found out about this incident by using this resource:

Global Terrorism Incident Map: Here are the Links and Contact Info

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We’ve all been told that we can’t use a cellphone on an airliner because it would interfere with aviation electronics, or perhaps with cellular towers on the ground. To put it bluntly, both of those excuses are hogwash.

This Computerworld article points out that any technical issues associated with cellphones could be resolved easily enough, and explains why it has been more convenient and more profitable for the airlines, the cellular carriers, and the government to keep the ban in effect.

Too bad they can’t be honest enough to admit that they might consider dropping the ban – just as soon as they can figure out a way to extract enough money from us to make it worth their while.

As an ironic, and only slightly off-topic, footnote, the TSA has lost 100,000 employee records. Oops…

Also see:

• FCC: In-flight cell phone ban to continue (4/3/2007)
• Air France to allow cell phone use on planes?

Technorati : TSA, U.S. law, airlines, airport, cellular, corruption, government regulation, mobile web
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