Althouse: "In the absence of cultural confidence at home, we are sending the message that the bedrock principles..."

April 4, 2011

"In the absence of cultural confidence at home, we are sending the message that the bedrock principles..."

"... of free, pluralist societies will bend and crumble in a vain race to keep up with the ever touchier sensitivities of the perpetually aggrieved."

55 comments:

Chase said...: Well said!

Our American culture is superior. Damn Straight.

The article you cite also says this:
You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows.You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours.; 4/4/11, 12:44 PM
traditionalguy said...: Steyn is willing to speak out. He reminds me of Sarah Palin on that score. Graham's perpetually sorry attitude is so weak that no one cares what he says anyway.; 4/4/11, 12:49 PM
Chase said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 4/4/11, 12:51 PM
Chase said...: As someone who has had relatives die (actually ruthless slaughter would be a better description) at the hands of terrorists who claim a "cultural victomhood", I can stand and say that there is no place on earth superior to the United States of America. All cultures are not equal. The story of man is the effort to break away from the repression of caste and tribal societies, from dictatorial governments. Anyone who tells you any other culture is superior to the freedoms and liberties of the United States - the ONE country that makes similar cultures to ours around the world even possible - is deluded from the guilt of receiving such treasures so freely or is jealous of and greedy for same.; 4/4/11, 12:53 PM
The Drill SGT said...: oh the horror, both Steyn and Chase beat me to the use of my favorite Napier multicultural quote :(; 4/4/11, 12:54 PM
Phil 314 said...: I'm happy with a Big Tent

And I'm satisfied with Sen. Graham in that tent. (Scott Brown, too)

(But if the party true believers are unhappy with that attitude, I'm ok with being a registered independent.); 4/4/11, 1:09 PM
KCFleming said...: Time to admit that multiculturalism is not only an abject failure, it is a dangerous practice, leading one to reject the superior and progressive culture for that of the murderous and intolerant barbarians, just so as not to offend the barbarian.

I say the hell with the barbarians.; 4/4/11, 1:10 PM
Automatic_Wing said...: To say that Lindsey Graham is a douchenozzle would be an insult to douchenozzles everywhere.; 4/4/11, 1:17 PM
Joe said...: (The Crypto Jew)

And I'm satisfied with Sen. Graham in that tent. (Scott Brown, too)
(But if the party true believers are unhappy with that attitude, I'm ok with being a registered independent.)

So the Big Tent doesn’t believe in the FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS established by the Constitution…OK, please leave and go back to being an “Independent” because this True Believer/Bitter Clinger/Rightwing Extremist would rather NOT have you participate in the GOP.

Tell me, IF Pat Robertson had said this, or something about how it was perfectly OK to burn a Q’uran, would you, as an Independent, been Ok with that, too, or is it only when ‘squishes” speak, about more Conservative/Christian elements, that your “independence” is disturbed?; 4/4/11, 1:18 PM
JAL said...: Often I see one of Pogo's pithy posts during the weekday, I laugh to myself, thinking "If his patients (parents?) only knew what he does back at his desk ..." ;-)

Love the Napier quote. Lived in India, so have a sense of the Other. The Brits were not the worst thing to happen to that continent by any means.; 4/4/11, 1:35 PM
Scott M said...: My brain went off like a tuning fork when I read that headline. Extremely elegant way of saying liberal guilt will slowly do us in, just like the death-by-a-thousand-cuts crowd foresaw.; 4/4/11, 1:37 PM
Scott M said...: I say the hell with the barbarians.

Say what you will. They're at the gates.

(sorry...had to do it); 4/4/11, 1:39 PM
Scott M said...: JAL,

Read "The Peshwar Lancers" by SM Stirling. It describes an alternate India in which the British, for natural disaster reason (ie, asteroid strike) have to basically abandon Great Britain and exodus nearly en masse to India. The culture that results, described as the antogonists/protagonists some 40-80 years later, is extremely interesting.; 4/4/11, 1:42 PM
KCFleming said...: @JAL

Heh.
I try not to talk about The Suicide of the West during interviews about migraines and vertigo and the next colonoscopy.; 4/4/11, 1:46 PM
Famous Original Mike said...: Amen, Mr Steyn. Amen.; 4/4/11, 1:47 PM
The Drill SGT said...: "The Peshwar Lancers"

LOL,

"Teaching again that thousand year old lession. To Run from a Lancer is Death!"

My other favorite scene was the attack by terrorists on the scientists in Kasmir. The narrator sees the surprise in the eyes of the terrorists, when swamped by a mob wielding sword canes, clubs and a betel juiced spitoon. She ponders, "what else could one expect when men of the martial caste see women and children attacked?"

indeed; 4/4/11, 1:48 PM
Scott M said...: indeed

Along those lines, check out the libertarian utopian, "Probability Broach" and how they felt about something like that.; 4/4/11, 1:52 PM
Peter V. Bella said...: Burn American flags OK. Burn presidents or other prominent people in effigy perfect. Free expression at its purest and finest.

Burn a Quran and congress, the President, the Moslems, and others what to throw out the constitution.

Free speech and free press are just that. Free. No member of government should advocate otherwise with paying severe
a price.; 4/4/11, 1:53 PM
Trooper York said...: Is Lindsey Graham a former law student?; 4/4/11, 2:01 PM
Unknown said...: Lindsey Graham is the RINO's RINO, and, as Steyn notes, like all Lefties, among the biggest racists of them all.; 4/4/11, 2:02 PM
DADvocate said...: willing to trade core liberties for a quiet life

It's more that Graham, et al are eager to use any excuse to increase their power and rob us of our liberties. Greed for power is worse than monetary greed.; 4/4/11, 2:41 PM
traditionalguy said...: The trouble with Graham and his best friend McCain has been that they expect to do better when talking about the same nonsense as the "Make Believe Media" is talking about. They mistake that for taking a middle of the road position, while they are really agreeing with the most extremist propaganda of the Dems and trying to take actions that will make it come true. No wonder an anaytical thinker like Steyn living in the real world despises that tripe.; 4/4/11, 2:48 PM
former law student said...: the bedrock principles..."
"... of free, pluralist societies will bend and crumble in a vain race to keep up with the ever touchier sensitivities of the perpetually aggrieved."

So the "perpetually aggrieved" here are not Rush Limbaugh dittoheads as I had first thought.; 4/4/11, 2:59 PM
J said...: Stuttaford's reply was fairly reasonable (though some, if not many consider Jones' stupid act a bit more serious than merely a "faux pas," etc--possibly criminal). Steyn on the other hand is another whining fratboy MBA type who should be byatch slapped; 4/4/11, 3:00 PM
former law student said...: So the Big Tent doesn’t believe in the FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS established by the Constitution

Another misguided soul who doesn't know the source of our fundamental rights. Hint: it is not the Consitution.

The Constitution acknowledges (some of) our rights, it defines some, it enumerates them, but it surely does not establish them.; 4/4/11, 3:01 PM
Joe said...: (The Crypto Jew)

Another misguided soul who doesn't know the source of our fundamental rights. Hint: it is not the Consitution.

I can’t believe you’re going to come out and admit that Yhwh is the source of our rights , FLS…I wouldn’t have thought a Liberal could make so bold a claim.; 4/4/11, 3:05 PM
Automatic_Wing said...: So the "perpetually aggrieved" here are not Rush Limbaugh dittoheads as I had first thought.

Easy to see how you'd be confused since dittoheads are notorious for overrunning UN compounds and beheading the workers whenever some liberal dickwad desecrates a Limbaugh transcript. And don't forget how US Senators go on TV and denounce the liberal transcript-burners, blaming them for the massacres and threatening to curtail everyone's free speech rights just to placate the crazed adherents of El Rushbo.

That happens all the time, yep.; 4/4/11, 3:19 PM
former law student said...: Perpetually feeling resentment at [the perception of] having been unfairly treated describes dittoheads quite well.; 4/4/11, 3:26 PM
Revenant said...: Am I wrong in remembering that FLS used to occasionally post because he had an opinion he wanted to share, or an observation he wanted to make? They weren't usually worth reading, but they were at least honestly made. It seems like all he ever does these days is try to provoke an angry response from the other regulars.

Maybe he was always like that, and I'm just misremembering.; 4/4/11, 3:27 PM
Joe said...: (The Crypto Jew)

Perpetually feeling resentment at [the perception of] having been unfairly treated describes dittoheads quite well.

Or Code Pink or members of the Wisconsin Education Association….; 4/4/11, 3:28 PM
Scott M said...: Perpetually feeling resentment at [the perception of] having been unfairly treated describes dittoheads quite well.

It applies to just about every group of people I can name. Sometimes it actually happens, most times it is just perception.

As soon as the day-to-day realists in HR departments all over the country can stop operating around "protected classes" of people, we'll all be better off. Even you, FLS.; 4/4/11, 3:29 PM
Terrye said...: Well, there is a lot of this perpetually aggrieved stuff to go around..I like Steyn but in some ways he too is perpetually aggrieved.

I don't think we should have laws against burning Korans, but at the same time where has everyone's common sense gone? I mean come on, what does this prove? Weird pastor burns Koran, extremists go crazy and kill people. It is not as if we could not see how this was going to end.

I think the truth is Jones and the Taliban both got what they wanted.; 4/4/11, 3:48 PM
Terrye said...: Chase:

Yes, that is true...however, the Brits spent many years in India...they did not decide it was for not and run off as soon as the locals did something barbaric or strange. They hung in there.

And so far as I know there were not a lot of people back in Britain making a point of picking fights with Hindus from thousands of miles away.; 4/4/11, 3:51 PM
Known Unknown said...: If only he didn't sound like Harry Bentley, I could listen to Steyn more often.; 4/4/11, 4:15 PM
Scott M said...: If only he didn't sound like Harry Bentley

He sounds like a furry old car?; 4/4/11, 4:19 PM
Greg said...: Whoa! This Charles Napier guy is awesome!

http://adventuresinnerdliness.blogspot.com/2008/09/watched-old-star-trek-episode-yesterday.html; 4/4/11, 4:27 PM
The Crack Emcee said...: Lindsey is a girl's name. That's not a diss on girls.

Just sayin'.; 4/4/11, 4:46 PM
Terrye said...: The Crack Emcee:

I don't think Graham is a girl, in fact he is one of the few members of Congress who actually owns and knows how to use a firearm..he is just so single minded when it comes to the military that he goes off the deep end sometimes.

I think that it is ridiculous to try and interfere with the first amendment rights of Americans because of something like this...but I also think that Jones could care less if people get hurt.

No one comes out of this looking good. Not really.; 4/4/11, 4:59 PM
former law student said...: Sorry, rev, sometimes I just get cranky, and forget there are many people of good will commenting here.; 4/4/11, 5:40 PM
The Crack Emcee said...: Terrye,

I think that Jones could care less if people get hurt.

He shouldn't have to. I say we burn a Koran every day until Middle Eastern Muslims get it through their heads they can't intimidate us. We're Americans, and soldiers are over there to fight to protect our freedoms - not so we can or will cower.

It's really very simple.; 4/4/11, 5:45 PM
former law student said...: I say we burn a Koran every day until Middle Eastern Muslims get it through their heads they can't intimidate us.

Picture of Crack MC:

http://img2.moonbuggy.org/imgstore
/internet-tough-guy.jpg; 4/4/11, 6:05 PM
Hoosier Daddy said...: Weird pastor burns Koran, extremists go crazy and kill people. It is not as if we could not see how this was going to end.

How could we know how it would end when we're constantly told that the extremists are only a teeny tiny, minority of the peace loving followers of the religion of peace?

Is it possible that when some obscure Florida pastor gets a call from the Sec of Defense begging him not to burn a Koran or Gen. Pretreus says it will endanger our troops its because they realize the fanatics compromise a much larger percentage of the followers of the religion of pieces?; 4/4/11, 6:29 PM
Big Mike said...: Obviously, "perpetually aggrieved" is the key phrase, isn't it? If someone's going to hate you no matter what you do, isn't it better to stand for something that's good and honorable?; 4/4/11, 6:40 PM
former law student said...: "Das war ein Vorspiel nur, dort wo man
Bucher verbrennt, verbrennt man auch am Ende Menschen." Heinrich Heine, Almansor 1820; 4/4/11, 6:54 PM
Revenant said...: I mean come on, what does this prove? Weird pastor burns Koran, extremists go crazy and kill people. It is not as if we could not see how this was going to end.

The problem is that while our common sense tells us that most Muslim nations are barbaric, nobody in power -- not politicians, not academia, not the news or entertainment media -- will publicly admit it. They all pretend there is no real problem here.

One of the purposes of Gandhi's original campaign of resistance to British occupation was to provoke British atrocities by refusing to play ball. He knew that innocent people would get hurt; he told them as much. But it had to be done, because so long as the Indians were willing to humbly submit to the British, and refuse to exercise their rights, the British could pretend they were benevolent rulers.

Similarly, so long as we limit our own free speech, we can allow the Muslim world to continue claiming it is not culturally psychotic. But why should we be co-conspirators in that?; 4/4/11, 7:20 PM
Humperdink said...: "Das war ein Vorspiel nur, dort wo man
Bucher verbrennt, verbrennt man auch am Ende Menschen." Heinrich Heine, Almansor 1820

Count me as impressed.; 4/4/11, 7:27 PM
Humperdink said...: My top two favorite writers: Mark Sreyn and James Taranto.; 4/4/11, 7:30 PM
Cedarford said...: Lindsey Graham is "The Great" John McCain's toady boy. Next to McCain, no Republican has a deeper lust for being approved of by the NY Times editorial board.

Toady boy is just a hack defense lawyer. That he worked rear echelon for the military legal system makes him no more "honorable" than the standard NYC shyster.

Citizens of South Carolina would be well rid of this neocon and lapdog of McCain and the Sulzberger Family at the earliest possible opportunity.; 4/4/11, 7:39 PM
Chef Mojo said...: @fls:

There's a vast difference between a government banning and/or burning books, and an individual exercising his right of free expression by burning a book in order to create a demonstration of example.

While catchy, Heine doesn't quite apply here.; 4/4/11, 7:47 PM
Hoosier Daddy said...: While catchy, Heine doesn't quite apply here.

Well it does to the extent that a book was burned and a bunch of humans were killed as a result.

Not sure if that is the concept FLS was trying to convey. I think he just likes playing the contrarian.; 4/4/11, 7:56 PM
Paco Wové said...: "[FLS] just likes playing the contrarian."

Somebody gave him a copy of Sophistry for Dummies for his birthday, and he's just working his way through it.

When he finishes, he might be worth reading again.; 4/4/11, 8:07 PM
The Crack Emcee said...: FLS,

I bet I was in more fights before I got out of elementary school then you've had in your life. And the I started a good run because I liked it. I served in the military, was a boxer representing my ship, and have a stab wound in my back from a gang fight and one in my leg from a brawl with several guys who, lets just say, resorted to desperate measures because I was going through an Errol Flynn faze. I know I've mentioned that out of the 20 guys I grew up with, there are 4 of us left and that ain't because I'm a pushover.

I won't tell you all I've done to people but there's a German who no longer has an eye.

I an't trying to say I'm billy badass - there's always somebody bigger and I've learned that the hard way - but I'm willing, FLS, and that alone matters more than all the guys lifting weights in the world.

My pictures are online, so you can see whose talking. Where's yours, big mouth?; 4/4/11, 8:20 PM
The Crack Emcee said...: Oh, and FLS, my military service?

The majority of it was spent in the Persian Gulf during the Iranian Hostage crisis. (1979-83)

How about you, hotshot - or are you just talking shit on subjects you know nothing about?; 4/4/11, 8:27 PM
Cedarford said...: Phil 3:14 said...
I'm happy with a Big Tent

And I'm satisfied with Sen. Graham in that tent. (Scott Brown, too)

================
A big tent belief, which I support, presumes that to build a national ticket you need someone who matches their constuency's values - better than some clone of some ideal stalwart ideologue of a Party Base far remote from the candidate's own electorate.

Lindsey in many ways is as out of step with S Carolina voters as Max Cleland was in Georgia. He is a little man, a worshipful jock-sniffer of McCain and his supreme Idol, David Petraeus.
If McCain ever replaced M Jordan in the underwear commericials - Lindsey would be the grovelling fawning fan swearing he is wearing McCain's underwear.

S Carolina can do better than him. Next time, I hope there is a Primary challenge - just no unelectable "spunky 'n cute if clueless" Christine O'Donnells or Sharron Angles the "Base" foists on the voters. (I didn't think it was possible that Nevadans could hate anybody more than Harry Reid and his sons...then Republican beyond right wing true believers gave us Angle.); 4/4/11, 8:34 PM
Kirk Parker said...: "The Brits were not the worst thing to happen to that continent by any means"

Dude, that's the understatement of the day/week/month/year!; 4/4/11, 11:25 PM