South Park and Cartoon Jihad

I do not watch television, and I don't think I miss much, but I've heard good things about the animated cartoon "South Park", with its clever, biting satire, so I do wish I had the chance to watch it streamed on the Web, or buy individual episodes for download. Apparently, the latest episode ridiculed the sheepishness of the West when confronted with (possibility of) a threat of violence from an angry mob of Moslems. The Political Pit Bull posted a clip from the episode - do go see it - and it is, indeed, very funny (and, at the same time, very depressing, because it's so true...) [Hat tip: Michelle Malkin]

In this clip, the townsfolk of South Park are panicking, because a popular show ("Family Guy") is planning to show the famous "Mohammed cartoons" that so outraged Moslems. Fearing that their Muslim neighbors might riot, they ask the mayor of South Park what to do. An invited university professor offers this solution: bring a few truckloads of sand and have the townsfolk bury their heads in it. That way they won't be accused of watching the offending cartoons, and the rioting Moslems may leave them alone.

A lone voice protests, "We should all display these cartoons, to show that we're united in defense of our freedom of speech, and that we will not be intimidated by the threat of violence. Otherwise, we believe in the freedom of speech, but are not willing to defend it." (I'm quoting from memory, so the words used might have been different, but I think I captured the gist.) After a moment of meaning-laden silence, someone from the crowd responds: "I like the sand idea better. Seems easier." The crowd agrees.

It truly is a sorry state of affairs if cartoonists are the ones standing up for the value we seemingly hold so dear, while politicians, the mainstream media, businesses, even academia, are eager to bury their heads in sand and offer platitudes about "sensitivity".

Stuck in a time warp

What is with these bumper stickers, "Gore for President" or "Al Gore 2004" (and variations thereof)? I see quite a few of them around in the liberal Ann Arbor. What is this, a "Groundhog Day"? (Remember that 1993 movie with Bill Murray, in which he had to re-live the same day over and over again?) It's 2006, people! The election is over. (Bush won, by the way. This time by the popular vote as well.)

Ironically, the most famous outfit of the Livid Left is called MoveOn. (Yes, that's the one that held a contest of anti-Bush propaganda, in which at least one of the submitted ads equated Bush with Hitler. How original.) I hope they mean it as a reminder to themselves, because, apparently, that's one of the things the Left is not capable of doing.

There is also this yard sign that appears here and there: "Impeach Bush". That one never fails to bring a smile to my face. Yes, the President of the United States will be removed from office on the request of a few morons who put a yard sign. Why don't they add other, easy-to-fulfill wishes alongside that one? Like: "End Winter. Start Summer.", or "Free plastic surgery for every American!", or "Keep Heaven for Democrats only."

Payback time

Whoever came up with this is a freakin' genius:



If I get a request to donate to the RNC, this is what I'm going to send.

Leader of the Free World?

Didn't it fill you with pride, when, during the murderous riots in Muslim countries, spurred by a few, rather tame Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet of the so-called "Religion of Peace", our President and Leader of the Free World, George W. Bush sharply denounced the violence perpetrated by the rioting Moslems and often directed at innocent Christians, and then announced that the United States would continue to stand firmly on the side of the tiny and brave Denmark, as free speech is one of the values America holds most dear?

Only... it did not happen this way. The President, ever so brave, denounced... the cartoonists. I felt ashamed and betrayed. I voted for him in 2003 (due, to some extent, to the lack of alternatives. I could not possibly consider John Kerry), giving him the benefit of the doubt. Yes, I even admired how he kept outmaneuvering the UN, the Democrats, the Livid Left who considered him an idiot (at their peril). Now, whatever trust I had, evaporated in the aftermath of this shameful display of dhimmitude. His subsequent advocacy of amnesty (by any other name) to the illegal immigrants pushed me over the edge. I no longer trust or respect the President.

Creeping amnesty, creeping sharia...

Diana West has an excellent piece in The Washington Times [hat tip: Michelle Malkin], which she ends with:

"It all begins to make sense, in a leftist, anti-American, open-borders coalition sort of way.
My question: Why does George W. Bush seem to have signed onto this coalition? "

It is my question as well. Why, indeed?

Chutzpah

If you thought, like I did, that the extremely lenient attitude of Americans towards illegal immigrants would be met with at least some grattitue from the latter, the events of the last couple of weeks must have been quite a disappointment. Not only have tens (hundreds, by some accounts) of thousands of the illegales taken to the streets in massive demontrations demanding an amnesty - apparently, without any fear of being rounded up and deported - but their arrogance and contempt for their host country was mind boggling.

First, there were the Mexican Flags, outnumbering the American ones. The message clearly was: we came from another country, to which we remain loyal, and we have every intention of staying in your country, whether you like it or not. (How is this different from an invasion?) Then, there were Mexican flags placed on the flagpoles in front of schools, sometimes together with the American flag hanging upside down as an act of mockery. (Ironically, an upside-down flag is a signal of distress. The demonstrators inadvertently signalled to us that our country is in trouble...)

There were signs that proclaimed, "This is stolen land", or: "My ancestors were here before your ancestors" - a disturbing indication that at least some in the crowd fantacised about "re-conquering" the parts of the United States that belonged to Mexico before 1847...

There was, of course, the customary spitting on police. The police that in most other countries in the world would see this as an oportunity to arrest and deport a large number of the demonstrators. Then, there was Rudy Rios, a coach and, get this: English-as-a-second-language teacher in Chavez High School, who copied (on the schools equipment, at the American taxpayer's expense) and distributed a flyer that read:

"We gots 2 stay together and protest against the new law that wants 2 be passed against all immigrants. We gots 2 show the U.S. that they aint (expletive) with out us (sic)," [Hat tip: James Taranto.]

I can't quite decide whether this is tragic or funny, that a semi-literate moron teaches "English" and, most likely, contempt for the United States, to the the kids of illegal immigrants. I guess a little bit of both.

Angry and depressed

I haven't been so angry and depressed since the weeks following September 11, 2001. I'm starting to lose faith in democracy. Watching the clowns in the US Congress trying to shove the amnesty for illegal immigrants down our collective throat is a sorry spectacle. Why are they doing this? I can't figure that out. It's hard to imagine that this is just to gain a few measly "Latino" votes. Did they look at the polls and decided that, hey, since Congress is one of the most disdained institutions in America, what do they have to lose? Let's show these disdainful Americans that we can still spite them and pass a law that may, in the long term, destroy this country, and there is nothing they can do to stop us! I don't get it, I really don't. Nothing sensible comes to mind.

I'm an immigrant myself and have nothing against immigration. If this country needs millions of low-skilled workers to do the jobs that Americans allegedly don't want to do - by all means, bring them in. There are millions all over the world, who would gladly accept an invitation to come and work in America. But why reward those that broke the law to come here? One of the great things about democracy is that it is - presumably - based on the rule of law, rather than a whim of a dictator and his cronies. But what if our democratically elected "representatives" make a mockery of our laws? You are not supposed to sneak accross our borders and stay in this country however long you please, get a job, send your kids to school at our expense - but if you do, we will not only make it easy for you by not asking too many questions, but will eventually give you an expedited path to citizenship. And those suckers who wait for months and years to go through the legal, bureaucratic channels in order to emigrate to the US - well, screw them! Hell, some even say that there is nothing wrong with people from Mexico breaking our laws - after all they are Mexicans, and these are American laws - get it? - so why should they be obligated to obey them?

Oh, the myriad of ways logic and truth are getting twisted in this "debate" about illegal immigration! We're told, for example, that the illegal immigrants pay more in taxes that they get back in services. How is this possible? These people are here illegally, afraid (presumably) to be discovered, but they fill out tax returns?? What the hell for? And with what - fake social security numbers? Besides, most of them make so little that they wouldn't pay any taxes anyway. Oh, maybe their employers pay taxes on their behalf, like the 7.5 percent of the Social Security tax? Again: with fake SS numbers?? They can get busted and fined by the INS, so why would they risk getting discovered? I'm certain that most of them pay their illegal employees under the table, often below the minimum wage (another thing they would rather keep hidden from the authorities) - no tax witholdings. Pretending that it is otherwise is as stupid as the question on the tax forms that asks you to report income obtained through illegal means. How many drug dealers do you think will avail themselves of the "opportunity" to declare income from selling dope?

Or the other ruse, that the illegals take the jobs Americans don't want to do. Sure, not at the wages being offered, which, unless you share a rented room with five other men and eat regularly in charitable soup kitchens, you won't survive on. And why are the wages so low? Because the availability of dirt-cheap labor of the illegals keeps them down. So if you're a low-skilled American worker looking for a job, you can go screw yourself - your elected "representatives" don't give a rat's ass. (You probably don't vote anyway.)

We're told that it would be impossible to send the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants back to where they came from. And why not, pray tell? Nobody's proposing packing them in train cars and tranporting them en masse to Mexico (or wherever). All that's required is to start enforcing the damn laws, like making it difficult and costly for employers to hire undocumented workers. At the same time, opening a way for people to apply for work permits in the US, but only from within their country of origin, and awarding those permits fairly and expeditiously. Nobody would have to deport the illegal immigrants - I predict that most of them would rush back to their home countries and apply for those permits.