A hodgepodge of interesting stuff I’ve tripped over in the past 24 hours or so…
First, scripture. Several passages in Isaiah struck forcibly me in my reading this morning, seeming highly germane to various aspects the current environment. Make of them what you will.
Their land is filled with silver and gold, and there is no end to their treasures; their land is filled with horses, and there is no end to their chariots. [cars?] Their land is filled with idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their own fingers have made. [consumer culture?] So man is humbled, and each one is brought low [job loss?]– do not forgive them! Enter into the rock and hide in the dust from before the terror of the Lord , and from the splendor of his majesty. The haughty looks of man shall be brought low, and the lofty pride of men shall be humbled, and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day. For the Lord of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up–and it shall be brought low.
For behold, the Lord God of hosts is taking away from Jerusalem and from Judah support and supply…
And I will make boys their princes, and infants shall rule over them. And the people will oppress one another, every one his fellow and every one his neighbor; the youth will be insolent to the elder, and the despised to the honorable.
…because their speech and their deeds are against the Lord, defying his glorious presence… the look on their faces bears witness against them; they proclaim their sin like Sodom; they do not hide it. Woe to them! For they have brought evil on themselves.
…infants are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, your guides mislead you and they have swallowed up the course of your paths.
Second, don’t miss this timeless post Dr. Sanity wrote back in April in which she lays out a ‘tight’ but comprehensive framework for understanding why the left is in league with the Islamists when their ideologies are otherwise utterly opposed. Those who have read ‘Life of Pi’, hoping the tiger might be tamed — or, at least, eat them last — will understand where she is coming from.
If the left understands anything, it is that in order for their ideology and its promised utopia to be born, they must thoroughly destroy America and undermine everything America stands for in the world. Once that has been accomplished, then their way is clear. Of course, they truly believe they will be able to control the Islamist genie they have encouraged, appeased and enabled along the way. That’s why they are so nonchalant about terrorism and the threat of Islamic jihad. First, they see themselves on the same side politically; and second, they believe they won’t have any trouble stopping the Jihad once they are in power. What’s the big deal? They also intend to roll back the rising seas, stop global warming, and heal the planet, after all.
(Her posts are always worth reading, but her custom-made chart detailing the metasticis of socialist ideology is worth the link-trip all by itself).
Third, (and regular readers know that never means ‘finally’), Robert Spencer posts a lengthy essay by ‘Fjordman’ debunking the widespread and persistent false claims BHO re-told or made up about Islam and science in Cairo last week.
Perhaps Muslims had some decent calligraphy, and a few of their scholars made contributions to algebra, but apart from that it [the speech's claims] are almost total nonsense. The magnetic compass was invented by the Chinese, and possibly by Europeans independently. Printing of books, too, was invented by the Chinese, and was stubbornly and persistently rejected by Muslims for a thousand years or more due to Islamic religious resistance. They liked the Chinese invention of gunpowder a lot more.
The bizarre dhimmi behavior continues. They were discussing bomb threats made against Air France two weeks ago, but not mentioning they were from Islamists. A jihad attack is all part of the narrative the Western countries are desperate to avoid.
Historically speaking, this whole (about) ten year-old phenomenon of the collective victims struggling mightily to avoid noticing, much less offending, those sworn to destroy the victims, is unprecedented. You may reply that is all part of dhimmi behavior. Only partly true. Historically dhimmi behavior was by the lessers, the subjugated, toward the Muslim overlords. The peculiarity here is that the much more powerful society is refusing to defend itself, thus creating an entirely new type of dhimmi behavior.
[Quick thought from a long-week-tired mind: In the world's terms, we (the USA) are clearly more powerful. In spiritual terms however, they regard us as weak, even according to our own founding faith and I think they are probably right.
Fortunately, despite our atrophied, Laodicean churches (a socio-cultural Christianity drained of its substance and nearly indistinguishable from paganism), our Lord is infinitely stronger than theirs (whom, we must remember, He created in the first place). -ed.]
By: El Gallo on June 12, 2009
at 1:08 am