Daniel Greenfield

Who are the Real Bigots?

Over the last year, every time the media sensed that it might be on the losing side of an argument, it began shouting "Bigot". When ObamaCare and the Big Bailouts began floundering in the polls and meeting up with populist protests, the media began running stories accusing the protesters of being bigots, while claiming that "Socialist" was actually a racial slur. Now the media and its political agenda is once again on the wrong side of the American people over the Ground Zero Mosque, and once again the media is playing the bigotry card.

American Nuclear Deterrence in the Second Nuclear Age

Many foreign policy experts have dismissed Obama's START treaty with Russia and his prattle about a world without nuclear weapons as a post-cold war sideshow, a way to register something resembling a foreign policy accomplishment, 20 years after this kind of thing was relevant. And while that's not entirely inaccurate, it ignores the real need for nuclear deterrence.

Why the Left Hates Democracy

Democratic governments derive their legitimacy from popular support in direct elections. Non-Democratic governments derive their legitimacy from a "special duty" to protect the country as embodied by a particular racial or economic group, in accordance with a set of overriding values.

Obama Akbar

The media is all worked up over a poll that shows the majority of Americans don't think Obama is a Christians and nearly a 1/4 of Americans think that Obama is a Muslim. Naturally the "mainstream" conservative blogs are embarrassed by these results. Politico is calling it a new Birtherism. Left unasked is the question of why people might think that.

First They Came for the Terrorists

It's a testament to the intelligence level of liberals that they prefer nursery rhymes to ideas. Whether it's Auden's "Those to whom evil is done, Do Evil in Return" (a verse from a Communist poet partially justifying Hitler's invasion of Poland, that he later disavowed) or "What Would Gandhi Do?" (give up and hope his enemies felt bad while cutting off his head) or the most famous nursery rhyme of them all, "First they came for the Communists."

Who is Really Politicizing Ground Zero?

After crunching the numbers and realizing that backing a mosque near Ground Zero, plays to average Americans about as well as flag burning on 4th of July, the Dems have emerged with a new talking point. The Republicans are "politicizing" Ground Zero. Thanks to the exposure of Jornolist, we've already seen how liberal media pundits and Democratic campaign strategists collaborate to develop and distribute talking points in response to a setback. Now we're seeing the same thing at work as Time's Mark Halperin goes around promoting the "politicizing Ground Zero" talking point. It's already been picked up by Senator Robert Menendez and Governor Christie, who worked to help Hamas linked Imam, Mohammad Qatanani, stay in America.

Just the Facts, Imam

Just the facts, Imam. A Muslim terrorist attack damaged a building, allowing Muslims to pick it up for a fraction of the price, in order to build a mosque on the spot. Some people might say that sort of thing is tacky. A little like coming by to make an offer on the house, after your cousin murdered the entire family who lived there. Sure, you might claim that you're not responsible, but it just doesn't look good. Especially once you start paling around with your cousin, and suggesting that maybe he was just misunderstood. And maybe that family brought it on themselves.

The Towers of Barbarism

The Saudis have unveiled a plan to define Mecca as the center of the world by building a giant clock tower in Mecca. The Bin Laden group's Royal Mecca Clock Tower which reads "In the Name of Allah", aims to replace GMT time, with "Mecca Time". The Royal Mecca Clock Tower, which looks like something you expect to pass on the way to Disneyland, like Dubai's Burj Tower, or its world islands are pathetic attempts to buy the facade of civilization with petrodollars.

Islam Means the End of Religious Freedom

At an Iftar dinner in the White House, Barack Hussein Obama proclaimed that he supports the building of the Ground Zero mosque as part of his "unshakable commitment to religious freedom". Which of course sounds very noble and good, until you ask a single question, Where is the religious freedom in the Muslim world?

Alvin Greene, Charlie Rangel, Maxine Waters and other strange creatures

With Alvin Greene indicted on obscenity charges, Rangel and Maxine Waters facing high profile ethics charges, this is not the best time ever to be a Democrat. Or so you would think.

It’s Not the Hasbara, It’s the Reality

Hasbara or Pro-Israel PR has become the great obsession of Pro-Israel activists and the Israeli government. One article calls for Israel to spend as much effort on communicating its message, as it does on its defense budget. Another castigates the many failures of Israeli diplomats in getting their message across. Still another features Frank Luntz who has been brought to tell Israeli leaders that they need to use kinder and gentler language to win the debate. Stop saying "security" and start saying "protecting innocent life", and everything will be well. Except of course it won't. Because the problem is not in the message, it's in the reality.

A Nation of Living Constitutions

"Today, people are more persuaded than ever that they have perfect freedom, yet they have brought their freedom to us and laid it humbly at our feet." --The Grand Inquisitor Freedom doesn't grow on trees. It exists by virtue of independence from the powers that might take that freedom away. Since there is no such thing as perfect freedom, and we must all live under one form of authority or another, rights exist to fence out authority from the space allotted to freedom. Rights create an artificial form of freedom through a covenant with the authorities. The more leverage the citizens have over the authorities, the more they can prevent those rights from being trampled upon.

Is Islam’s Problem a Lack of Modernity?

In response to the Islamic terrorist attacks that murdered 76 people in Uganda, Barack Hussein Obama delivered the usual homily about Islam being a great religion, and Islamic terrorism being the work of a small handful of extremists who reject modernity. And while many people have stood up to take issue with the false claim that only a small minority of Muslims view terrorism as legitimate, fewer have tackled the underlying premise behind this liberal critique of Islam, which claims that it is a lack of modernity that is the problem.

There’s Only So Many Ways Obama Can Spin Failure

During the 2008 election, the media sold Obama on two key points, repairing the economy, and bringing new focus and ideas into the war in Afghanistan. As the summer of 2010 fades, it's painfully clear that Obama has failed completely in both areas.

The Muslim Hijacking of Ground Zero

Islam doesn't just hijack planes, it hijacks the things that mean something to people. The great cities of the world are littered with relics of the Muslim occupation of their sacred places. Jerusalem, Delhi, Constantinople and Alexandria all testify to the Muslim predilection for taking over other people's sacred places, and turning them into mosques. It wasn't enough for Muslims to conquer Jerusalem and subjugate its inhabitants. No, they also had to take the holiest place in Judaism and build a mosque on top of it. Similarly it wasn't enough for them to conquer and rename Constantinople, they also had to turn the Hagia Sophia into a mosque. These are not exceptions to the rule. In Asia, the Middle East and Europe, there are numberless examples of the same thing.

The Pain in Spain Falls Mainly on US Taxpayers

While millions of Americans cut back on what they can spend on their vacation, Michelle Obama is concluding her last vacation with a new vacation trip along with 40 guests to Spain billed at a cost of 300,000 dollars a day. If Michelle Obama wants to go for a swim, an entire beach in Spain must be closed. Considering her busy working scheduleof appearing on talk shows and then appearing on magazine covers, I think we can all agree that nine vacations is very modest. And the real tab gets much higher when you consider how many of the other unstated expenses are being picked up by "friends", which is usually a fancy way of saying people who expect favors in return, again, at taxpayer expense.

Religion of Peace

Words are tricky things. Virtually every tyrant, no matter how bloody, has talked about his plans for conquest in terms of "peace". For example in 1939, Nazi Germany and the USSR signed a declaration in which they described their conquest of Poland as creating "a sure foundation for a lasting peace in Eastern Europe". The same year that Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, he delivered a speech at the Amman Summit in which he insisted that; "the Arabs seek peace and justice throughout the world". And how can one argue with peace?

Albion and Israel - In the Same Boat, or Running Aground

The British press is naturally outraged that Shimon Peres dared suggest that the British political establishment was pro-Arab and anti-Israel, and that MP's cowardly courted Muslim votes first. Peres has already been forced to apologize for his understatement. And an understatement it is, coming in the same week when British PM David Cameron visited Turkey, a Muslim country that has over 10,000 political prisoners, and continues to occupy Cyprus-- yet his only mention of human rights was to condemn Israel for defending itself against a Turkish provocation.

Group A and Group B

Suppose we have two groups. Group A believes that women are human beings, just like men are, and that they should be equal partners in their society. Group B believes that women were created by the devil to tempt men, that they have no human rights, and that they must be used to have as many children as possible. If Group A and B live in different parts of the world, each region will develop in a way that reflects their different ways of life.

Congress of Children

Obama and the Democrats are still running the country, but they're swiftly passing the point of no return with the public. They still wield power, but without public support, their power comes without any legitimacy attached. The media has been ignoring that sticking point for a while, but no matter what the Jornolist folks thought, the media doesn't actually control elections.