Germans are Ubermenschen and Frogs are Untermenschen.

I wonder how much press this will get in the states.

Germans are the most intelligent people in Europe, well ahead of the British (in eighth place) and the French (15th), according to a new study by Northern Ireland's University of Ulster, The Times reported Monday.

I wonder if the German stats include Jews, Gypsies, Homosexuals, etc.

Then again, this analysis would prove Americans to be the smartest in the world.

He ascribes the differences between British and French intelligence levels to the results of military conflict. He described it as "a hitherto unrecognised law of history" that "the side with the higher IQ normally wins, unless they are hugely outnumbered, as Germany was after 1942", The Times reported.

Posted by: Tanker at 08:33 AM | Comments (23)
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Damnit.

Surely Allah must be on his side, as he does not look very fleet of foot.

Thanks to Craig.

Posted by: Ace at 12:27 PM | Comments (26)
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He's scheduled to be beheaded by a fanatic mob shortly after his release.

Posted by: Ace at 12:23 PM | Comments (12)
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Mark Steyn: If the suras of the Koran permit, you must acquit:

[Hamza's attorney] Mr. Fitzgerald opened the case for the defense by arguing, according to The Daily Telegraph, that "Hamza was urging his followers not to murder British people but to fight in holy wars where Muslims were being killed in Afghanistan, Algeria, Bosnia, Kosovo and Palestine." Asked if he had ever intended to urge or incite murder, Hamza replied: "In the context of murder, no. In the context of fighting, yes."

Hmm. Mr. Hamza wants to see a caliph installed in Downing Street and to have Muslims "control the whole Earth."

And, of course, wanting Muslims to control the whole Earth is not against the law, nor, as his counsel argued, is advocating the more robust methods of bringing it about. As The Times of London reported:

"Edward Fitzgerald, QC, for the defense, said that Abu Hamza's interpretation of the Koran was that it imposed an obligation on Muslims to do jihad and fight in the defense of their religion. He said that the Crown case against the former imam of Finsbury Park Mosque was 'simplistic in the extreme.' He added: 'It is said he was preaching murder, but he was actually preaching from the Koran itself.'"

WELL, IT'S ingenious, and, though Mr. Hamza was sadly found guilty, who's to say it won't work for the next A-list jihadi? If Koran permit, you must acquit. To convict would be multiculturally disrespectful. If the holy book of the religion of peace recommends killing infidels, who are we to judge?

Indeed, much of the developed world seems to have already internalized that rationale: Islamic mobs riot, loot, burn embassies and kill people around the world, and the fury of Western elites is reserved for those hapless Danish cartoonists for being so "insensitive."

He contrasts this with the trial of Nick Griffin, leader of the right-wing "racist" (I don't know if it is or isn't) British National Party, who stands accused of inciting hatred for, among other things, stating, before the British subway bombing, that most likely Muslims would bomb England and most likely the culprits would turn out to be second-generation Pakistani Muslims from near where he was speaking. (It turned out: the culprits WERE second-generation Pakistani Muslims from very near where he was speaking at the time (Leeds); the judge informed the jury that factual accuracy was no defense against the charge of "hate.")

Thanks to Craig, who also sends this link to "It's in the Koran," a fun little ditty about murder, terrorism, rape, and Death Cultism. It's got a great beat and you can blow yourself up to it.

But Mark Steyn isn't done yet. Another great column, this one about the Afghani Muslim-turned-Christian about to be put to death for apostacy:

Fate conspires to remind us what this war is really about: civilizational confidence. And so history repeats itself: first the farce of the Danish cartoons, and now the tragedy - a man on trial for his life in post-Taliban Afghanistan because he has committed the crime of converting to Christianity.

The cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad were deeply offensive to Muslims, and so thousands protested around the world in the usual restrained manner - rioting, torching, killing, etc.

The impending execution of Abdul Rahman for embracing Christianity is, of course, offensive to Westerners, and so around the world we reacted equally violently by issuing blood-curdling threats like that made by State Department spokesman Sean McCormack: "Freedom of worship is an important element of any democracy," he said. "And these are issues as Afghan democracy matures that they are going to have to deal with increasingly."

The immediate problem for Abdul Rahman is whether he'll get the chance to "mature" along with Afghan democracy. The president, the Canadian prime minister and the Australian prime minister have all made statements of concern about his fate, and it seems clear that Afghanistan's dapper leader, Hamid Karzai, would like to resolve this issue before his fledgling democracy gets a reputation as just another barbarous Islamist sewer state. There's talk of various artful compromises, such as Rahman being declared unfit to stand trial by reason of insanity on the grounds that (I'm no Islamic jurist so I'm paraphrasing here) anyone who converts from Islam to Christianity must, ipso facto, be nuts.

On the other hand, this "moderate" compromise solution is being rejected by leading theologians. "We will not allow God to be humiliated. This man must die," says Abdul Raoulf of the nation's principal Muslim body, the Afghan Ulama Council. "Cut off his head! We will call on the people to pull him into pieces so there's nothing left." Needless to say, Imam Raoulf is one of Afghanistan's leading "moderate" clerics.

The multiculturalists cut radical, murderous Islamism a lot of slack because it is, after all, "their culture." And yet they are harsh critics of America and the contingent of tough-guys in Britain. If Islamists are to be excused for rioting, killing, maiming, and raping because it's "their culture," are we in the West not also to be excused for wanting to hang or shoot these psychopaths because that, too, is part of "our culture"?

It seems only some cultures' traditions are worth such respect.

Steyn hits on this with a dynamite quote:

In a more culturally confident age, the British in India were faced with the practice of "suttee" - the tradition of burning widows on the funeral pyres of their husbands. Gen. Sir Charles Napier was impeccably multicultural:

"You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: When men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks, and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours."

Count me as a born-again, fire-breathing Napierite.

Thanks to DDG for the latter tip.

Posted by: Ace at 11:30 AM | Comments (55)
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But not killers.

The city will begin regularly inspecting electrical lines and junction boxes in an effort to eradicate stray voltage hazards like those that have killed several dogs, Mayor Thomas M. Menino said yesterday.

Starting this month, city departments -- including public works, transportation, and fire -- will begin a program of inspections that aims to survey a third of the city's electrical lines each year, adding up to a complete inspection of the city's electrical infrastructure every three years. The inspection schedule is based on recommendations issued by a city-appointed task force on electrical safety in July.

The city is also replacing metal housings on Boston's 30,000 traffic light control boxes with fiberglass covers, which don't conduct electricity.

Stray voltage has killed three dogs since 2000, including a 1-year-old boxer that was electrocuted in March while being walked by his 13-year-old owner. It also became an issue in the mayoral campaign when challenger Maura A. Hennigan accused Menino of neglecting the city.

Menino yesterday portrayed the program as an example of quick action by the city.

''When the issue of stray voltage was brought to the city's attention, we immediately took action," Menino said in a statement.

Quick action. "We immediately took action."

The first dog was electrified in 2000, and there have been two other since.

Inspections will begin "later this month."

Liberal government. Is there anything it can't do?

Thanks to cutaway.

Posted by: Ace at 10:44 AM | Comments (26)
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That's how I'll always know Ben Domenech-- as "The Nech," a heroic leader in the mold of Jeff Gannon. True enough, I never heard of him before last week, and my initial post about him got his name wrong (Domensch, I think I wrote, or something), but I know now that he was my hero and the entire conservative movement has been set back decades because they got "The Nech."

The top Imam, as it were, of the entire right-wing conspiracy jihad.

"The Nech" more or less has admitted his plagiarism now, after denying it for a day. I'd like to say "The Nech" manned up or took his lumps courageously, but really, he didn't. He admitted this stuff because, well, it was simply no longer deniable.

Which isn't the worst sin imaginable. I've got to tell you, if I were suddenly given a plum position at the Washington Post, and then had decade-old misdeeds revealed that threatened not just my new gig but the entire trajectory of my career, I can't say I'd immediately 'fess up either. I think I'd lie. I'm a more or less honest person but that's what people do when confronted with sins they'd thought hidden-- they lie.

Which isn't to excuse him. He still plagiarized, and then lied about it. That's bad. I'm just saying it's understandable, as many sins are. "Understandable" doesn't mean "excusable." Just that we're all humans with failings.

Right Wing Nuthouse has a long piece on this which is worth reading. He quotes Jeff Goldstein a lot, who's always worth reading.

If you don't have time for Right Wing Nuthouse's entire post, just "The Nech's" account of the Capitol Building shooting, and RWN's praise of that writing. Then skip down to the update.

Say it ain't so, "The Nech." Say it ain't so.

Oh, wait, he already did.

First Gannon, now "The Nech." I'm not sure I have the strength to carry on.

Thanks to Allah.

Posted by: Ace at 10:36 AM | Comments (55)
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Donald Rumsfeld pauses briefly to kill a reporter with a ballpoint pen.

Lazy Sunday Open Thread.

Posted by: LauraW. at 06:17 AM | Comments (100)
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The New York Times reports on the new dawn of the dead in books, films, games, and pop culture generally.

As Dave would say: It's old. I wrote about the durable dead and the zombie renaissance a couple of years ago. Although the New York Times piece makes a big deal out of the symbolism of the zombie -- for social decay and collapse, etc. -- no one goes to see movies for the symbolism. That's a discuss-it-later-over-beer-for-five-minutes issue. Zombies are popular, first and foremost, because they're not very interesting.

As Griffin Dunne said in An American Werewolf In London, "You ever talk to a corpse? They're boring!"

Zombies are, essentially, uninteresting monsters. They're scary monsters, to be sure -- make-up effects that realistically simulate the ravages of post-mortem degeneration make them the most gruesome of creatures -- but they're not terribly interesting. They're simple, they're undifferentiated, they're a mob of shambling idiots without personality or charisma.

And this is the strength of the zombie film. Because the monsters themselves aren't compelling as characters, the zombie film forces the writers and directors to put the emphasis on the really interesting stuff in any movie-- actual human characters and human interaction.

Zombies provide the threat, the pressure-cooker of dire circumstances, but the actual interest in zombie movies is all about personal interactions and group politics in extreme situations. The movies have zombies in them, but human beings are the actual stars.

Whereas vampire movies tend to be about how kewl vampires are.

Also related: readers debated the fast vs. slow zombie question -- retro or turbo? -- here.

Posted by: Ace at 06:46 PM | Comments (90)
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Drip, drip, drip:

A new study from the Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, Virginia, paints quite a different picture [than John Murtha's claim of no connection between Iraq and terrorism]. According to captured documents cited in the study and first reported in THE WEEKLY STANDARD in January, the former Iraqi regime was training non-Iraqi Arabs in terrorist techniques.

Beginning in 1994, the Fedayeen Saddam opened its own paramilitary training camps for volunteers, graduating more than 7,200 "good men racing full with courage and enthusiasm" in the first year. Beginning in 1998, these camps began hosting "Arab volunteers from Egypt, Palestine, Jordan, 'the Gulf,' and Syria." It is not clear from available evidence where all of these non-Iraqi volunteers who were "sacrificing for the cause" went to ply their newfound skills. Before the summer of 2002, most volunteers went home upon the completion of training. But these camps were humming with frenzied activity in the months immediately prior to the war. As late as January 2003, the volunteers participated in a special training event called the "Heroes Attack." This training event was designed in part to prepare regional Fedayeen Saddam commands to "obstruct the enemy from achieving his goal and to support keeping peace and stability in the province."

Some of this training came under the auspices of the Iraqi Intelligence Service's "Division 27," which, according to the study, "supplied the Fedayeen Saddam with silencers, equipment for booby-trapping vehicles, [and] special training on the use of certain explosive timers. The only apparent use for all of this Division 27 equipment was to conduct commando or terrorist operations."

Perhaps those terrorists were only being trained for an insurgency operation against American-led troops? Nope:

Among the documents released last week was a translation of a three-page Iraqi Intelligence memo regarding a wave of attacks to be conducted by the Saddam Fedayeen.... The undated document was apparently prepared in response to orders given on May 5, 1999.

According to those orders, the Fedayeen Saddam was "to start planning from now on to perform special operations (assassinations/bombings) for the centers and the traitor symbols in the fields of (London/Iran/self-ruled areas) and for coordination with the Intelligence service to secure deliveries, accommodations, and target guidance." The execution of the plan would take place in several steps. After the IIS selected 50 "fedayeen martyrs," they were to receive training at an IIS school. Those who passed the tests would be assigned targets. "The first ten will work in the European field (London). The second ten will be working in the Iranian field. The third will be working in the self-ruled field."

I don't care much about Iran, and we've always known Saddam was terrorizing the Kurds (which is what I imagine the "self-ruled field" refers to), but he was planning terrorist operations in London. With terrorists trained by the IIS.

Contained? "In his box"? He seems to have had an awful lot of room in that box.

Thanks to Jack Straw.

Posted by: Ace at 03:54 PM | Comments (48)
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"There is no state with a democracy except Libya on the whole planet,"

Proof that the Middle East still hasn't really grasped onto the meaning of the word 'democracy.'

Libya's Jamahiriyah system, under which Libyans can air their views at "people's congresses," is genuine democracy, said Gaddafi...

"People's congresses." Nice. The people can 'air their views.' That kicks the shit out of this whole voting thing we got going over here.

"Countries like the United States, India, China, the Russian Federation, are in bad need of this Jamahiriyah system," he said. "This is a savior to them."

Awwww! You had the commies right up until the word 'savior.' Still a good try, Colonel.

Nice frock, too. You always strike just the right note.

Posted by: LauraW. at 03:32 PM | Comments (25)
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