Quote of the Day

IT COULD be argued that since Ahmadinejad’s central message failed to register on his Western audiences that his visit to America was a failure. The fact that no media organs felt it necessary to analyze what he was talking about could be seen as a clear sign that no one is interested in buying what he is selling. But this is a dangerous argument, for it misses a basic truth.
 
Ahmadinejad is not interested in convincing the US government or even the majority of Americans to convert to Islam. He is interested in convincing adherents of totalitarian Islam and potential converts to the cause that they are on the winning side. He is interested in demoralizing foes of totalitarian Islam within the Islamic world and so causing them to give up any thoughts of struggle. In this goal he is no different from any of his Sunni counterparts in Saudi Arabia, al-Qaida, the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas or their sister organizations throughout the Islamic world and indeed throughout the West.
 
[. . .]
 
The thing of it is that aside from blind narcissism, there is a reason that the West ignores the dangers facing it. The Western media ignored Ahmadinejad’s message, just as it has insistently ignored the messages of bin Laden and Fatah throughout the years, because Westerners have a hard time believing that anyone would want to abide by the Islamic world view which denies mankind’s desire for freedom.
 
But no matter how ugly an ideology is, in the absence of real competition it gains adherents and power. The only way to ensure that jihadists’ demonic views are defeated is by stridently defending and upholding the fundamental principles on which the Free World is based. And the West hasn’t even begun to take up this challenge.
 
As a result, it has handed its enemies two victories already. It has demoralized its potential allies in the Islamic world, and it has failed to rally its own people to defend themselves.
 
In spite of what the West would like to believe, Ahmadinejad and his allies from Ramallah to Waziristan, from Gaza to Kandahar to Baghdad, are not negotiating. They are fighting. Rather than ignore them or seek to find nonexistent common ground, we must defeat them – first and foremost on the battleground of ideas.

Caroline Glick

Key Lime Pie, Part One

This is the first of a two part series. Part two is here. Click any photo for larger.

Before I begin this two part series about Key Lime Pie, I must first and foremost give a tip of the hat to the inspiration for this recipe, Steve H. His original blog post and recipe can be found here and I basically followed it to the number. There are a couple of minor variations, and I took some photos of the process. So lets begin.

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Defenseless Enemies Are Fun

Dr. Jack Wheeler reveals how the recent Israeli raid on Syria has provoked near-panic in Syria and Iran, by the simple fact that the Israeli aircraft breezed right through Syria’s supposed state-of-the-art air-defense net without raising the least alarm to their presence.

In game theory, demonstrating you can do something like penetrate another’s defenses can have as much effect as actually doing so in open conflict. The Israelis pulled a similar trick when they chased the PLO out of Lebanon. Then too, the Syrians had created a state-of-the-art Soviet air-defense net in southern Lebanon and Israel wrecked it within a few hours. That event not only stunned the Arab despots but the Soviets as well. They well understood that if the Israelis could waltz through their air defenses then the Americans could as well. At that point, all ideas of provoking any kind of conventional conflict with the West got swept off the table.

The Israeli invasion of Lebanon helped marginalize those within the Soviet Union who sought a violent solution to their increasing problems, and helped pave the way for Gorbachev. I suppose it is too much to ask that one little raid should provoke such major changes in the Arab world, but history has turned on stranger things.