Firstly, this idea of Muslim or Islamic “moderates.” To qualify for this moniker the bar has been set so low as to be essentially worthless. You can fund and abet and hide “fundamentalists” but as long as you don’t publicly say you support them or do the acts of violence yourself you are “moderate.” You can believe that Muslims had nothing to do with 9-11 and be “moderate.” And so on ad infinitum. The idea of an Islamic moderate is so far removed from we normally consider moderate to mean in the West it is a joke.

Now, Muslim liberals...yeah I think we can deal with them and even though I think their religion is despicable I can accept that as people they’ve managed a series of justifications and rationalizations to allow them to still be “Muslim” and yet be a rather tolerant, civilized person. I can respect that up to the degree that they unreservedly denounce the others and help defeat them actively. I think the vast majority is in between. They like to see the Muslims fight and kill and assert their will. They like seeing Westerners humbled, beheaded and murdered, same with Jews. They just don’t want to make the effort or take the risk to do it themselves.

I also support introspection, but as JohnReb said, lets also show some perspective.

And this idea that fighting terrorism creates terrorists. Yeah, the same way that fighting the Wehrmacht created more Nazis and more German soldiers...cause it did...for a while. Then you kill enough of them and demonstrate to the rest it isn’t such a good thing to be a Nazi anymore. Sura of the Sword. Read the Koran. Read the Hadiths.  They already have all the justification they need.

I guess I just wonder why we in the U.S. are supposed to worry so much about how the world percieves us because of our government’s actions, but moderate Muslims are justified in basically ignoring the actions of their extremist mosque-mates?  I hear these two disparate ideas often coming from the same people, both here and in the real world.  As somebody I respectfully disagree with once said, “parity my ass”.

August 18th, 2007
Rudolph W. Giuliani’s Tall Tale About 93% False

“About”? I thought the Thinkers had thinking down pat. It is nice to see them doing such worthwhile things:

A complete record of Mr. Giuliani’s exposure to the site is not available for the chaotic six days after the attack, when he was a frequent visitor. But an exhaustively detailed account from his mayoral archive, revised after the events to account for last-minute changes on scheduled stops, does exist for the period of Sept. 17 to Dec. 16, 2001. It shows he was there for a total of 29 hours in those three months, often for short periods or to visit locations adjacent to the rubble. In that same period, many rescue and recovery workers put in daily 12-hour shifts.

The logs illuminate in minute detail what it was like to be mayor of a damaged city seeking to regain its footing after the attacks. The more than 600 pages include unscheduled stops and time blocked out for events with his children.

The 29 hours Mr. Giuliani spent at ground zero involved 41 appearances, mostly to give tours to other officials and foreign dignitaries. Many entries include meetings away from the site before the tour. For instance, the schedule included 30 minutes on Nov. 15, 2001, for President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, but Mr. Putin’s tour of ground zero was widely reported to have lasted 13 minutes.

Giuliani was in the smoke but he didn’t inhale.