Free Republic

Julia Gorin discusses the WSJ's James Taranto's gingerly distaste for Dutch freedom warrior Geert Wilders, and related matters: Over the weekend, Robert Spencer called out Wall St. Journal drone James Taranto on his cynicism about the intentions of the man who is most adamant about preserving Western civilization, Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders. Specifically, as Spencer points out, Taranto finds Wilders’ views on Islam “problematic” and isn’t sure whether or not Geert Wilders is simply an "anti-Islamic provocateur." To which Spencer replies, “It is a pity that Taranto would characterize speaking accurately about how Muslims use Islamic texts and teachings to...

Let’s not mince words. It was a teenager who pumped three bullets into Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, 53, at the entrance to the offices of Agos, the bilingual Armenian-Turkish weekly newspaper he founded in 1996. But Dink’s execution is a direct consequence of the policies of the Turkish government concerning the Armenian Genocide, and what Amnesty International terms "a pattern of judicial harassment against him for peacefully expressing his dissenting opinion."For more than nine decades, successive Turkish governments have denied that Ottoman Turks carried out a systematic – nearly successful – genocidal plan to exterminate Armenians. The official Turkish position...

Last night, The Stiletto went to see "Screamers," a powerful and moving documentary that asks why genocides keep occurring – from the 1915-1917 near-annihilation of Armenians by Ottoman Turks (warning: graphic images) to today’s ethnic cleansing in Darfur. You can watch the trailer here.The title of the documentary is meant to refer to those who don’t silently stand by as genocides are unfolding, notably Harvard Professor Samantha Power, author of "A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide" (2002). Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, assassinated 10 days ago in Istanbul by a Turkish nationalist sympathizer, is also interviewed.The film...

The Los Angeles Times describes a series of mostly lefty documentaries being financed by philanthropists – filmanthropists – who "have deep pockets and issue-driven agendas. Rather than make high-class dramas that might carry some mild social message, these producers are turning out full-blown advocacy movies."The paper notes that, "in the eight months since Al Gore's global-warming wake-up call, ‘An Inconvenient Truth,’ was released, the documentary film marketplace has exploded" and that these filmanthropists want to "shine a spotlight on social injustices, or government malfeasance, and even to recast history in the service of human uplift and national reconciliation."Among the documentaries...

The United States government continues to remain silent on free speech restrictions in Turkey – most notably, what the European Union has called the "infamous" Article 301 of the Penal Code. Under Article 301, more than 60 fiction and non-fiction writers have been prosecuted for "denigrating Turkishness" – typically, for acknowledging the Armenian Genocide.Turkish novelist and Novel Laureate Orhan Pamuk was prosecuted under Article 301 because he told a Swiss magazine, "Thirty thousand Kurds and a million Armenians were killed in these lands and nobody but me dares to talk about it." Another Turkish novelist, Elif ªafak, was also tried...

The Stiletto had a lot on her plate these past few days – the Libby case, global warming, Ann Coulter, the appeals court ruling that gun ownership does not require militia membership – so this irrational and insensitive WaPo op-ed piece on H.R. 106 by columnist Jackson Diehl got back burnered. If revenge is a dish best eaten cold, The Stiletto is now ready to dig in.A nonbinding resolution, H.R. 106, was introduced by Adam Schiff (D-CA) on January 30, 2007 ("Affitrmation of the United States Record on the Armenian Genocide Resolution"). The resolution: calls upon the President to ensure...

More than 1,400 Turks spent New Year’s Eve - also the first day of the Muslim feast Eid al-Adha (or Eid ul Adha; for some unfathomable reason, no two Muslims can agree on a standardized spelling for anything) - in hospital ERs after stabbing or otherwise injuring their hands and legs while sacrificing thousands of cows, sheep, goats and bulls. Four of the injured were crushed by the weight of large animals falling on them; three others suffered fatal heart attacks. The rite is meant to commemorate G-d having provided a ram for Abraham to sacrifice in place of his...

The Stiletto wondered about James Taranto’s stance on the Armenian Genocide ... today he outed himself as a genocide denier in a stunningly hypocritical article replete with intellectual dishonesty and moral cowardice. About the new law passed by the French parliament that makes it a crime to deny that the Turks tried to wipe the Armenians off the face of the earth in 1915 (to do so is punishable by a year’s imprisonment and a €45,000 fine - the same as for denying the Nazi Holocaust - Taranto writes: "We have no opinion on whether the events of 1915 constitute...

The Wall Street Journal Online has been posting video interviews with its reporters and editorial staff on the events of the day. In this one, "Edwards Campaign Continues," (under the Opinion tab, in case the balky Brightcove link doesn’t load properly) OpinionJournal.com editor James Taranto explains that John Edwards’ decision to continue his presidential quest after wife, Elizabeth, learned that her cancer has metastasized is impractical and not well-thought out because they may both be in denial. The 3:41 interview ends with an Easter egg-like surprise: After Taranto notes that the couple "is human after all," host Ed Crane praises...

When The Stiletto was watching Hannity & Colmes the other day, one of the segments concerned the hateful, hysterical blog comments by posters lamenting the failure of the Taliban suicide bomber who reportedly tried to assassinate Vice President Dick Cheney outside the Bagram air force base in Afghanistan.Citing New York Congressman Charles Rangel’s 2005 remark that the Iraq War “is just as bad as the 6 million Jews being killed” and Boston Globe columnist Ellen Goodman’s comparison of global warming denial to Holocaust denial, one of the guest pundits denounced the over-the-top propensity of the far left to equate people...