Conservatives deal with facts and reach conclusions; liberals have conclusions and sell them as facts.
I went to the doctor yesterday for an ear infection and discovered that I have high blood pressure. The doctor’s not treating the problem yet, in case my blood pressure was spiked from my ear pain. I certainly hope that’s transitory pain is the reason. In two months, we’ll check again and see
Continue readingLet me preface this by saying that I have a super-smart, really well-informed cousin. He’s the one who used to be a prison chaplain and, based upon that experience, came up with a profound insight that I use over and over (most recently regarding the terrible beheading murder in Oklahoma):
Continue readingAs I read the headlines lately, I have this peculiar sense of deja vu. I already pointed out that, back in 2009, a conversation I had with a liberal doctor fairly accurately predicted how Obamacare would play out (although even I didn’t foresee the exchange collapse, perhaps because no one
Continue readingIt seems that the absolute savagery in Syria is causing a few Arabs to revisit whether Israel and the Jews are really their enemies. I doubt a tipping point will happen any time soon, but maybe what’s going on in Syria is, for Arabs and Muslims, the equivalent of being
Continue readingThese posts are completely unrelated. They both came through my inbox, though, and both intrigued me. The first is from David Swindle, explaining why he hates Game of Thrones. I couldn’t agree more, both with the comment from “Recovering Lutheran” that David quotes at the top of his post and
Continue readingThe only problem I have with this video is the narrator’s voice. It grates on me. Otherwise, I think the video says things that need to be said, and I hope it gets lots of air play: And while we’re on the subject, the Washington Examiner, in its sterling multipart
Continue readingFirst of all, it appears that the suspicions I voiced yesterday about the film that started it all are, if not true, at least headed in the right direction. Poynter has a post detailing all the peculiarities about the film — the lies, the misdirection, and the purpose behind it
Continue reading“Honor” cultures are incredibly hierarchical. You’re either up or you’re down. And you’re always down if you let your honor go unavenged. Worse than that, if you’re down, you deserve all the abuse and violence that can be heaped upon you. Honor cultures value people higher in the food chain,
Continue readingIsrael Matzav found a post in which two Arab-American women explain how horribly Israel treated them, when it questioned them at Ben Gurion and then deported them from Israel. Interestingly, although the young women complain mightily about their treatment at Israel’s hands, they never do state explicitly that they harbor
Continue readingYou realize this means war! When I was growing up, we socialized with a lot of Arabs — from Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Syria, etc. I don’t know why that was possible back then — if we were anomalies or if, back in the 1970s, the hatreds of the Middle East
Continue readingYears ago, I read in an Efraim Karsh book something to the effect that the Arab honor culture is actually a shame culture. That is, in America, honor is a personal standard, one by which we measure ourselves. Arab honor, however, is a public face one presents to the world.
Continue readingWouldn’t you like to have lunch with this guy? [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1N1zhUm84w[/youtube]
Continue readingBill Whittle narrates this clear summation of 20th and 21st century relations between Arabs and Jews in the Middle East. It does not reflect well on the Arabs: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7ByJb7QQ9U[/youtube]
Continue readingMy daughter is taking a required class at high school: “world cultures.” My first instinct was to scoff, since I prefer a more classical curriculum, but as I thought about it, I decided it is a very good idea. That is, of course, assuming it’s taught correctly. I’m inclined to
Continue readingMy husband and I discussed the concept of stereotypes with the kids. What we were trying to get through to them is that it’s wrong to take ideas about a group, even if those ideas are complimentary or accurate, and to assume that they apply to an individual. The mere
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