Culture War: November 2004 Archives

Free Dominion finally got the picture up of the President sharing a big Texas grin as he gives us the thumb's up...

Sports Illustrated wants your vote for Sportsman of the Year, and one of the candidates is Pat Tillman, the football player who gave up millions of dollars to enlist in the Army. As you recall, he was killed fighting murderous thugs in Afghanistan earlier this year.

I don't really pay much attention to sports, so I can't say much about the other candidates. But it seems to me that the heart of sportsmanship is realizing that no matter how important the game might be, it's just a game. That's why you treat your opponent fairly, you don't cheat, you act with dignity...and sometimes, you walk away for something more important.

If you have a moment, vote Pat Tillman for Sportsman of the Year. He's the second picture from the bottom.

"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:13)

(Thanks to Grig at FreeDominion.ca)

Addiction to porn destroying lives, Senate told - link via Drudge

Mary Anne Layden, co-director of a sexual trauma program at the University of Pennsylvania, said pornography's effect on the brain mirrors addiction to heroin or crack cocaine. She told of one patient, a business executive, who arrived at his office at 9 a.m. each day, logged onto Internet porn sites, and didn't log off until 5 p.m.

A friend of mine is a divorced mother of a 17 year old. She tells me she keeps track of what her son is doing on the internet with the computer in his room. "I don't mind him looking at porn as long as it's not too sick," she said.

That's a real problem. I explained to her what the probable effects of a habit of pornography begun during such formative years. How is he going to view women if he looks at porn all day? As sexual objects for his own gratification. Do you think he's going to be able to be chaste when he's dating if he spends a good chunk of time watching porn every day? Do you think he'll have a long-term, loving marriage with a woman if all he's focused on is sexual gratification. Do you think he'll want to get married at all or just shack up while it's convenient and expedient?

She wasn't willing to consider any of the potential effects of his budding porn habit. I think she was afraid to confront him about it, perhaps she didn't even see anything wrong with it. But that's just one kind of victim of pornography. The "performers" themselves are also victims, probably the worst victims. I know the Old Oligarch has posted on this in the past but I can't find any links on his site. O-O, if you're reading, post a link if you will.

The Times of London doesn't seem to be terribly sympathetic to the beleagured insurgents of Fallujah.

THE last hours of the mujahidin are terrifying. With the city they once ruled with the absolute authority of medieval caliphs now overrun by American and Iraqi troops, they have to keep moving. To pause even for a few minutes can mean instant death from an unseen enemy. A group of 15 fighters dressed in black and carrying an array of weapons ducked into a two-storey house in war-torn southern Fallujah yesterday morning. Their movement was picked up by an unmanned spy plane that beamed back live footage to a control centre on the edge of the city. Within minutes, an airstrike was called and the house disappeared in a giant plume of grey smoke.

From a house across the road, the explosion flushed out another group of guerrillas. Deafened by the blast, they stumbled out into the street, formed a ragged line and started off on the marathon to postpone their deaths, the drone dogging their every step.

Like the Psalmist, I rejoice at the destruction of the wicked. More:

The battle for Fallujah is all but over. The main north-south road in the once-dreaded Jolan district is a US military highway. Any guerrilla who could make his way back up from the last pockets of resistance in the south would see the mujahidin graffiti — “Jihad, jihad, jihad, God is Greatest and Islam will win” — replaced by slogans daubed by the US-backed Iraqi Army, posted the length of the route.

Gosh, it's almost like we're winning or something. And if you had even a tiny doubt about the people that the Marines and soldiers are fighting, read this:

Apart from a few women and children, the only civilians [the Iraqi officer] had seen were men of fighting age, about 500, detained for vetting. He said that some civilians had said that insurgent snipers had shot anyone trying to leave their homes. As US troops sweep through the houses, they are unearthing the insurgents’ horrifying secrets — more akin to the handiwork of serial killers than guerrillas or even terrorists — that have shocked the world and explain why this offensive has met with so little opposition from the Arab world.

In the south of Fallujah yesterday, US Marines found the armless, legless body of a blonde woman, her throat slashed and her entrails cut out. Benjamin Finnell, a hospital apprentice with the US Navy Corps, said that she had been dead for a while, but at that location for only a day or two. The woman was wearing a blue dress; her face had been disfigured. It was unclear if the remains were the body of the Irish-born aid worker Margaret Hassan, 59, or of Teresa Borcz, 54, a Pole abducted two weeks ago. Both were married to Iraqis and held Iraqi citizenship; both were kidnapped in Baghdad last month.

US and Iraqi troops have discovered kidnappers’ lairs filled with corpses or emaciated prisoners half-mad with fear, and piles of bodies of men who had refused to fight with the insurgents. As the guerrillas run their last sprint from death, sympathy for their cause is running out among Iraqis.

Consider the following from this site:

WHAT: A prayer vigil to call attention to a
growing atmosphere of homophobia in the Catholic Church.
WHEN: Tuesday, Nov. 9, 8-9:30am & 3:30-5pm.
WHERE: Chancery of the Arlington Diocese at 200 N. Glebe Rd., Arlington, Va.
WHO: Soulforce DC and other supportive groups and people of faith who are concerned about the fundamentalist drift of the Catholic Church.
WHY: The Arlington Diocese has not responded to 3 recent letters from Soulforce DC expressing our concern about the tone and
content of recent statements and documents from the Catholic Church concerning gays and lesbians. They have ignored our requests
for dialogue to begin the process of reconciliation and healing. We vigil to let
the victims of homophobia know that they are not alone and to give them hope for a more just and loving world.

Did it happen?

(Thanks to Fr. Sibley for the link.)

Giant turd Michael Moore, fresh off his four-year-long campaign to defeat George Bush, has taken down his self-promoting, self-congratulatory Web site, replacing it with a list of Americans who died in the War on Terror, and a collage of their faces that make up an image of President Bush.

You might think this is a mournful tribute to those who died in a needless war, and that Moore only opposes the War on Terror because he cares so much for the "little guy" who suffers. But that is one of the turd's little conceits. In fact, he does not care at all about death and suffering, unless the death or suffering is useful to him.

You will recall that hours after the September 11 attacks, he lamented that the hijackers killed a lot of Gore voters, not Bush voters. (That statement was removed from his site, but plenty of people saw it and quoted it.)

You will recall that he compared the vicious thugs in Fallujah to the Minutemen (did the Minutemen ever murder and desecrate the corpses of British contractors trying to protect a food shipment?) He also said the thugs will win.

You will recall that his "Fahrenheit 9/11" exploited scenes of injured U.S. servicemen.

You will recall that he wished for the deaths of American servicemen on his Web site, to expiate the sin of going to war against the peace-loving regime of Saddam Hussein.

To our friends on the left: dump the turd! It will be good for you. He's a master manipulator, egging you on so you'll pay attention to him. At the ballot box, he's a hindrance. While you're at it, ignore the rest of the Loony Left, too.