Nicholas Kristoff has an essay on the girls kidnapped by Islamists in Nigeria:
Kristoff's essay is generally laudable, although he slips into execrable political correctness. To wit:
There should be a major coordinated international effort to find the girls and to hold those who kidnapped them responsible. Like the search for the Malaysian airline, magnified ten times. There won't be, though, because the world is like Brandeis University, and won't tolerate even a wisp of honesty about Islam.
Please pray for the girls that they may return unharmed to their families.
‘Bring Back Our Girls’Where is the outrage about this atrocity, especially from the Muslim community? This is one of the most distressing things about Islam today-- not merely that it is disproportionately involved in terrorism, but that even Muslims who have no personal connection to radical Islamists usually remain silent about the atrocities.
Kristoff's essay is generally laudable, although he slips into execrable political correctness. To wit:
The attack in Nigeria is part of a global backlash against girls’ education by extremists. The Pakistani Taliban shot Malala Yousafzai in the head at age 15 because she advocated for girls’ education. Extremists threw acid in the faces of girls walking to school in Afghanistan. And in Nigeria, militantsdestroyed 50 schools last year alone...
Northern Nigeria is a deeply conservative area, and if the schoolgirls are recovered, it may be difficult for them to marry because of suspicions that they are no longer virgins.The terrorist kidnappers were Islamists, not "extremists", and Northern Nigeria is Islamic, not "deeply conservative" (one doubts Northern Nigerians have memorial portraits of Ronald Reagan in their living rooms). There's nothing "conservative' about kidnapping and murdering schoolgirls. But there is a lot Islamic about it-- in fact, virtually all of the atrocities committed against young girls simply because they are getting an education is committed by Muslims, not conservatives (you can see the headline "Conservatives Hijack Another Airliner").
There should be a major coordinated international effort to find the girls and to hold those who kidnapped them responsible. Like the search for the Malaysian airline, magnified ten times. There won't be, though, because the world is like Brandeis University, and won't tolerate even a wisp of honesty about Islam.
Please pray for the girls that they may return unharmed to their families.
"Northern Nigeria is Islamic, not 'deeply conservative' (one doubts Northern Nigerians have memorial portraits of Ronald Reagan in their living rooms)"
ReplyDeleteLOL. Conservatives are generally averse to change, unless it's change back to the conditions prevailing in a previous golden age. In Egnor's case, the '50s, before the oral contraceptive pill, before Roe versus Wade, before affirmative action, before decriminalisation of homosexuality...
The Islamic terrorists are conservative, because they want to keep women under subjugation.
"Conservatives are generally adverse to change"
DeleteRight. I support Obama, want to keep Obamacare intact, love Affirmative Action, high taxes, big government.
What a stupid thing to say.
Michael, perhaps you ought to consult a dictionary. Mine defines a conservative as "a person who is averse to change and holds to traditional values and attitudes, typically in relation to politics."
DeleteWhat does you dictionary say? I am curious.
Hoo
Wow Egnor, that’s arguably the dumbest thing you have ever said. The term conservative has the word “conserve” built right into it.
Delete-KW
Egnor,
DeleteI realise you've got difficulties in reading comprehension, but I did write that conservatives are generally averse to change, unless it's change back to conditions prevailing at a previous golden time.
In your case, back to a time before Obamacare. I forgot to add that to your '50s ideals. I could have added McCarthy's witch hunt too.
@Hoo,
DeleteMichael? I didn't comment about this subject.
bachfiend, here's a quote for you: All change isn't growth, just as all movement isn't forward. In retrospect, McCarthy's "witch hunt" wasn't a bad idea. As can be readily observed, this country is being overrun by a bunch of communists destroying everything in sight, from socialized healthcare to thought crime purging in the workforce, from affirmative action whiners who predicate everything on the color of their skin to homosexual fascists suing people for not kowtowing to their unconstitutional demands.
Everyone has freedom of speech ...so long as they agree with the current political agenda. Everyone has freedom of association ...so long as their workforce meets the multicultural standards of the state. Everyone has freedom of religion ...until they step outside of the confines of their homes and churches. Etc. Communists (such as yourself) mean to impose mass conformity through redistribution schemes, unconstitutional laws, judicial fiat, social-political manipulation and overbearing regulations. Political brainwashing of youths in public schools and universities. Threats, slander and bullying. Race-baiting and double standards. Newspeak and mass surveillance. All are communist tactics designed to divide us from within and undermine our Constitutional rights.
You people whine and moan about how your precious feelings are hurt, about how offended you are over something, almost always over trivial stupidity. Nevermind that there's real suffering going on in the world, such as the subject matter of Egnor's post. But no. It's all about you bunch of whiners, it's all about the way you feel, it's all about what YOU want. Self-centered, conceited and immature to a T. Let's turn the tables: what about the feelings and rights of those whom you wish to attack and silence? What about them? And what of all the political bullshit about soldiers "fighting for freedom"? WHO'S FREEDOM?
Michael,
DeleteEgnor's first name is 'Michael'. Not everyone is as egotistical as you.
It was an innocent mistake, and besides, I wasn't addressing you, bachfiend.
DeleteBecause I stand on principle, I'm now a egotist. Go figure.
Of course Muslims in these stories are conservative. They are fighting to maintain traditional norms and against progress just like conservatives everywhere.
ReplyDelete-KW
After we get the precise meaning of "conservative" titrated to perfect linguistic equilibrium, it might be interesting to address the point of the post.
ReplyDeleteEgnnor's points:
(1) the "professional journalists" have censored the word Islamist
(WASHINGTON, D.C., 4/5/13) -- The nation's largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization today said the decision by The Associated Press (AP) to revise its Stylebook reference to the term "Islamist" is a "step in the right direction." Late last year, the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) approached AP about modifying the reference...
--- CAIR website
and (2) the level of coverage of the kidnapping of these girls, a horrific Islamist act on a continent infested with horrific Islamist acts (e.g., the clitorectomy rates for young girls) as compared with CNN's wall-to-wall 24/7 "coverage" of the Malaysian airline disappearance
[Don] Lemon asked former U.S. Department of Transportation Inspector General Mary Schiavo, with a Serious Journalism look on his face, if maybe there was some merit to tweeted questions about the Bermuda Triangle, Lost, The Twilight Zone, or the airliner maybe vanishing into a black hole.
--- Wonkette
One of the most amusing tropes exhibited by internet trolls is the incessant focus on the precision of minutiae. They they show up like little piggies at a trough to do this when there is really nothing left to say that doesn't condemn them, but simply can't abide not disagreeing about something.
I apologize for using the word "clitorectomy" in the above comment. That term implies a medical intervention. A better way of saying it would be the "sexual mutilation of young girls".
DeleteDisagreement, trolls?
“One of the most amusing tropes exhibited by internet trolls is the incessant focus on the precision of minutiae”
DeleteThis coming from the man who has a hard time letting go of a months old spell checker error in one of my comments. King Troll.
-KW
Confusion of the words "strait" and "straight" is not a spell checker error, SAILOR.
DeleteAnd I encourage you to recall that I have always clearly stated the reasons I like this comment section... it provides me with daily opportunities to give back to trolls the exact same medicine they dish out but dislike swallowing. I find it mildly entertaining and have done so for several years.
So quit whining, sailor boy. Straiten up.
Senile old fart,
Delete'Clitorectomy' is a perfectly good word to describe the horror that's performed on these girls. 'Sexual mutilation of young girls' isn't adequate, since it would be similar to describing circumcision of babies as being 'sexual mutilation of young boys'.
'Islamic terrorists' is the preferred term for these criminals. And what they are doing is criminal.
Anyway. I wouldn't have commented if Egnor hadn't had one of his senior moments in thinking that 'conservative' only applies to those who worship the memory of Ronald Reagan. 'Hero worship' generally being a trait of conservatives, not liberals.
No, it is not equivalent to removal of the foreskin, and you should know that, doctor.
Delete[Islamic female gential mutilation] include[s] removal of all or part of the clitoris and clitoral hood; all or part of the clitoris and inner labia; and in its most severe form (infibulation) all or part of the inner and outer labia and the closure of the vagina.
--- Wiki: Female Genital Mutilation
bach:
DeleteThis gets me to thinking about all of those conservatives in the 1980's who wanted to Soviet Union to go on forever unchanged, and all the conservatives who want Roe v Wade to remain the law of the land, and who are so upset that Lois Lerner was let go at the IRS (we're soooo addicted to the past!).
And all the Progressives who want to change Affirmative Action and get rid of Obamacare and want to break the strangle-hold of the mainstream media on journalism.
Orwell, call your office.
"Conservative-Progressive" terminology is quite useful, no?
I guess it's useful if you pick and choose bad things, and call people who support them "conservatives".
"Conservative" hero worship.
Delete:-D
You're really grasping at straws, Egnor. Anti-abortion conservatives wanted to undo the changes brought in by Roe v Wade and revert to the previous situation. That's precisely what conservative means.
DeleteHoo
Senile old fart,
Delete'Similar to' does not mean the same as 'equivalent to'. Perhaps you can find a YouTube video which explains the difference? It is a nuanced difference, though. Nuances aren't something understood readily by conservatives, who like to see the world in black or white instead of shades of grey.
"Nuanced", bilgeful the bolshevik?
Delete"Eet ees a nuanced deeference, bwana, ze deeference between the cutting off of ze Happy Button and perhaps ze sewing up of ze nookie, and ze reemoval of the foreskin."
Get a life, bilgeful. Obviously, you haven't had much interaction with women. I've suspected as much for quite a while.
Senile old fart,
DeleteYou are the nuanced one, aren't you, grandpa?