Daniel Greenfield

Debunking 6 Myths About Anders Breivik

1. Anders Behring Breivik was a Fundamentalist Christian Breivik described himself as not a religious person and mentions praying only once. His plans leading up to the attacks involved multiple visits to prostitutes. In one section of his manifesto he clarifies what he means by Christian.

Anders Behring Breivik and the High Cost of Muslim Immigration

There is very little to be gained from a study of Anders Behring Breivik. He was a loner who was alienated from the society he lived in, suffered from depression, played violent video games, used steroids, listened to angry music and was of above average intelligence. This profile describes half the spree shooters in the last two decades, right down to the Columbine Massacre. It is not Breivik's politics that make him significant. He was an outsider who despised society and escaped into romantic fantasies of omnipotence fed by video games and popular culture. Breivik cultivated a detached attitude toward the people around him and was obsessed with violent exercises of his masculinity. All this is common to killers of all political stripes and of no political affiliation whatsoever.

Every Man a Trillionaire

It's summer in the city. The sidewalks are melting, the ice cream is dripping and the liberal assault on Black Republicans is being ladled on thick and heavy. Whether it's Congressman West being lambasted for telling off Debbie Downer, or Herman Cain under fire for asking some real questions about Islam-- this seems like the Bash Black Republicans Week to end them all.

Edge of the Spending New Frontier

The debt ceiling debate is less about spending than it is about the purpose of government. Under the impact of an economic recession, the train of the Great Society is approaching the edge of the New Frontier. Both sides are still trying to work out a New Deal, but another cuts and spending formula is not the solution. What we need is a serious and earnest discussion about why we are compulsively spending money. A cocaine addict who runs out of money doesn't have a spending problem, he has a drug problem. Telling him to cut back on how much money he spends on cocaine, or to shop around for cheaper cocaine isn't the solution. It's not about how much he's spending, but about why. The problem isn't in the math, it's in the mindset.

Outraged Protest Tours - The Tourism Package for Leftists Who Hate Israel

- Satire The Gaza flotilla and the flytilla may have been failures, but they were also missed opportunities for Israel. It's no secret that a portion of Israel's tourist trade comes from "Protest Tourism." From philosophy students and poetry PhD's who want a chance to visit the Holy Land, throw some rocks at a soldier and have their pictures taken with AK-47 wielding terrorists. And it's time that the Israeli tourist industry took their business seriously. Rather than profiling them and giving them the heave ho at the airport, why not develop special tourism packages catering to their needs. Happily one company, Outraged Protest Tours is already on it. By the first quarter of 2012, Outraged Protest Tours expects to be able to offer angry entitled brats a choice of three tour packages in Israel.

The End of Afghanistan

It's no coincidence that some of the most explosive Taliban violence coincides with the first phase of withdrawal from Afghanistan. The successful attacks on top Afghan officials are about more than just Taliban boldness and their need to establish credit for driving us out, but also about changing loyalties. Obama has made it clear that Karzai has no future, and that means that a growing realignment is happening in Afghanistan. With two sides to choose from, one that is on the way out, and one that is on the way in, a new tide of support is flowing away from the American backed government and to the Taliban.

Is Obama Our Gorbachev?

He was a youthful leader with a law degree elected on the promise of reforms that would revitalize a world power trapped in the economic doldrums by its bureaucracy and huge debt. His approach of international engagement attempted to break through his country's global isolation by forging new ties and treaties with old enemies. And faced with a troubled war in Afghanistan, he authorized a temporary troop surge and counterinsurgency strategy, followed by a phased withdrawal shortly thereafter. Who was he?

No Red Lines for the Left

Every society has its red lines. Areas that are off limits. Behaviors that are unacceptable. Lines that should not be crossed. And the left has progressively dismantled the red lines that constrain it, while seizing control of the infrastructure that marks out a society's red lines. By controlling that cultural infrastructure, the left can insure that all of a society's remaining standards are double standards.

Sometimes the Bear Gets You

Belgium's Burqa Ban kicks off on July 23rd. July 4th would have been nice, but you can't expect the Belgians to observe an American holiday. Australia might be next. The Pastafarians of Australia have been making their voices heard. They are still only a minority, but their souffle is rising. Of course the warnings are coming that there will be violence. Islamic leaders call a Burqa Ban "Un-Australian". Because what's more Australian than a Burqa, except maybe Mexican food or drowning witches.

The Permanent Muslim Civil War

What the misreading of the Arab Spring as a revolutionary wave of democracy, rather than an explosion of existing tensions and longstanding civil wars, points to most is how thoroughly the 21st century Middle East expert has unlearned everything that his 19th century predecessor knew about the Muslim world. The 19th century expert understood the Muslim world as essentially unchanging, seething with revolts and dynastic struggles, but still shackled to the chains of its cultural and moral limitations. But the 21st century expert insists on a progressive version of history, in which humanity is always moving upward. Where each event, good or bad, is a phase in historical development.

The Warsaw Ghetto with an Internet Cafe

There are two visions for Israel now. One is the old vision, the one that the left and the right once agreed upon. A nation with agriculture and industry, its capital in Jerusalem, its army and a new generation of settlers standing watch on the frontier.

Maskophobia, Murderphobia and Bombphobia

Even as Australia was banning the veil, New Zealand was caught in a scandal over the veil after the Saudi consulate complained when two of their masked slaves were refused access to a Kiwi bus. But the two bus drivers dodged accusations of Islamophobia by claiming that they instead suffer from Maskphobia. Maskphobia being the fear of people wearing masks. While liberal New Zealand newspaper writers are ridiculing it as a dodge, it's actually a far more honest position than condemning every concern about Islam as Islamophobia. Few people are concerned about Islam because it is a five letter word or foreign. They are concerned about it, because it has a habit of murdering their kind of people. The kind who don't attend mosques, wear veils or bow to a desert deity who commanded his followers to subjugate all infidels. The proper term for this concern is Murderphobia.

A Disparity in Power is Not a Disparity in Morals

A disparity in power is not a disparity in morals. This truth is the dynamite under the edifice of the left which insists that the poor are more moral than the rich and that a nation's moral worth can be measured in inverse proportion to its per capita income. The debate is not merely one of wealth. It is less about the morality of wealth, than about the moral cost of assuming that to be poor or deprived is to be good.

Government of Sociopaths

It's politically risky to raise taxes. It's politically risky to cut spending. The one thing that isn't politically risky to do is go deeper and deeper into debt. Whatever agreement evolves or devolves out of congress it will likely allow Republicans to satisfy their base by cutting spending a little, allow Democrats to satisfy their base by raising taxes a little, and kick the ball down the road by going deeper into debt. The real subject of this is not Medicare or the Stimulus plan-- it's long term thinking.

Hell Has a New Resident and Mexico Has a New Hero

Everyone has a budget and debt problem. Even terrorists.

The Palestinian Authority is facing a budget crisis. It has reached its borrowing limit and has a 585 million dollar deficit... Back in 2007, 7.4 billion dollars was pledged to keep the terrorist edifice of the Authority running. The PA claimed that it needed 3.9 billion for budgetary shortfalls alone.

In America the economy isn't so hot... but it's actually not so bad in the terrorist state that your tax money is funding.

China’s Second Great Leap Forward

The People's Republic of China's first Great Leap Forward thrust it forward at the cost of some 40 million lives. And while its Second Great Leap Forward appears to come at a smaller cost in lives, it may prove to be equally fragile. The saving grace of the PRC economy has been the willingness of Western companies to use it as a cheap labor market. Capitalism accomplished what Communism could not, giving its industrialization focus. But beneath that China is still a Party oligarchy which is stuck thinking in terms of giant projects and major goals. The New China is on its Second Great Leap Forward and still trapped in Mao's legacy.

The Jewish Vote

Every election season brings another round of predictable essays about the Jewish vote. Variations of these essays have been going round and round for decades without getting anywhere. So let's begin by demystifying the Jewish vote.

The Last Refuge of Liberty

When Madame Roland, the moderate French Republican, was a prisoner in the hands of the radicals, she wrote; "Oh my friends. Heaven grant that you may reach the United States-- that last refuge of liberty-- in safety!" Two-hundred years later, her "last refuge of liberty" is under siege by the same power hungry fanatics who turned the French Revolution into a reign of terror. The modern Western republics were born out of military or political revolutions against a hereditary nobility.

Why Do We Still Celebrate the 4th of July?

What do we celebrate when we celebrate the Fourth of July? Is it the independence from being ruled by an out-of-touch government thousands of miles away, taxed at their pleasure, and told to be grateful for it?

Cowboys vs Superheroes

To walk into a movie theater today is to notice one obvious thing. Aside from the inflated ticket prices, and the resort to gimmicks such as 3D by a film industry unable to compete with newer more immersive forms of entertainment, is that a genre which hardly existed 50-60 years ago dominates the box office, and a genre which was omnipresent then, is all but absent now. The Western, once the defining American myth and its most potent international export, has all but vanished. Occasional remakes such as 3:10 to Yuma or True Grit surface, and are gone. In their place is the superhero spectacle. A genre which has become America's new chief cultural export.