Posted on 02/28/2006 5:35:59 PM PST by Former Military Chick
Greeting, fellow Americans. I have some serious news for you about the war against the terrorists, the war we are fighting to protect our liberties and our Constitution against Islamic totalitarianism. We're losing, big time. I don't mean we're losing in Iraq, where our brave men and women are fighting well in difficult conditions and with the home grown doubters at their heels. Nor in Afghanistan, where our men and women in uniform are also fighting brilliantly.
No, we are losing our freedom here at home, and in a particularly nasty way. It has to do with those cartoons mocking Mohammed that were published in a Danish publication and have excited riots and burnings across the Moslem world and fear and terror in Europe.
The problem here is that some students at the University of Illinois' student newspaper thought -- with some reason -- that the cartoons are newsworthy. They published six of them along with a written statement of why the cartoons were offensive. A few Moslem students complained, which surely is their right. The university officials stepped in and the student editors were essentially fired. Yes, because a student publication might cause offense. Imagine that.
That's on top of the fact that despite these cartoons being huge news, not one major paper has reprinted them. Not the fearless Washington Post, not the thorough Wall Street Journal, not any major newspaper of record that I know of. Nor have any of the major networks shown them, as far as I know.
So here's where we are: we have a first amendment guaranteeing freedom of speech and separation of church and state. That means so-called artists can make art of a crucifix soaking in urine and of holy Christian images made of animal dung and no one can stop them. That means bookstores of brick and on-line can sell Mein Kampf and the vilest writings of Hitler's lackeys. These horrible excrescences are protected and the media screams bloody murder if anyone tries to protect the sacred in Christianity and Judaism from the most putrid attacks.
But the media censors itself about the cartoons mocking the prophet of a religion many of whose adherents want to destroy our country and our way of life. We will fight to the death to protect the artists who create Piss Christ, but we'll also fight to the death to protect the feelings of the people who hate us and kill our children. We have surrendered our free expression to people who are at war with us. They kill us in the name of a religion and we bow and scrape to that religion while letting people dump on Christianity and Judaism.
There's a word for this, beyond the words Stockholm Syndrome and the words Political Correctness. The word is cowardice. Or maybe an even shorter word: defeat. Wake up, America. This is serious.
Ben Stein PING!!
Ben Stein always surprises me with how well he "gets it!"
thanks for posting... great article... it is pretty common knowledge at FR I believe but maybe others will listen to Ben Stein
Yes Ben. We know. However, there really doesn't seem to be that many really all that worried about it.
He writes well and he gets it, but in this column there isn't a single new thought expressed that I didn't see here at FR a couple of weeks ago.
His audience is different, though, so I'm glad to see he wrote this.
Thanks, good post.
It does not get any better than this. Ben's right on the money.
He does get it. I wish he would write more often. He is so gifted, I guess we will have to savor the nugget's he does share.
But, it doesn't hurt to let him know how much his writings mean to us. :)
Go Ben!!!
Political correctness is going to be the death of western civilization.
He's absolutely right. If anyone want to understand more about how he's right they should read; The Losing Battle With Islam, by David Selbourne, New York: Prometheus Books, 2005.
Thank you for the ping.
It’s easy to be tough about nothing. The press corps that noisily champions “the public’s right to know” about a minor hunting accident simultaneously assures the public that they’ve no need to see these Danish cartoons that have caused riots, arson and death around the world. On CNN, out of “sensitivity” to Islam, they show the cartoons but with the Prophet’s face pixilated so that he looks as if Cheney’s ventilated him with birdshot and it turned puffy and gangrenous. C’mon, guys, these are interesting times. Anyone can unload the umpteenth round of blanks into the bulletproof Chimpy Hallibushitler, but why not take a shot at something that matters?
He is appreciated and respected on Free Republic. Ben is a generous, honest and very patriotic American.
You know -- one other person I enjoy when he's "on" is Neil Cavuto. LOL
Ben tells it like it is. Thanks for posting FMChick.
a reiteration on how far we as a country still have to go in the fight against political correctness
Stein goes right to the heart of the matter. God Bless him.
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