J. M. Verville

Interesting finds from Gallup:

Most people in Muslim countries and the West believe divisions between them are worsening, a Gallup poll for the World Economic Forum (WEF) suggests.

The poll also suggested that most Europeans thought more interaction with Islam would be a threat - though most Americans disagreed.

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According to WEF poll, neither the West nor the Muslim world believed the other side respected it.

But while Muslims said they believed their world did respect the West, Western respondents agreed that the West did not respect the Muslim world.

Intriguing how the Muslims think they are respecting the West. I wonder how these people could think that? And more than this… I think the West realizes that we do not respect the Muslim world and the next step is to agree that a lack of respect for the barbarism Islam is still achieving to this day is perhaps proper. (more…)

This is good news for moderate Muslims everywhere:

Turkey is preparing to publish a document that represents a revolutionary reinterpretation of Islam - and a controversial and radical modernisation of the religion.

The country’s powerful Department of Religious Affairs has commissioned a team of theologians at Ankara University to carry out a fundamental revision of the Hadith, the second most sacred text in Islam after the Koran.

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But the Turkish state has come to see the Hadith as having an often negative influence on a society it is in a hurry to modernise, and believes it responsible for obscuring the original values of Islam. (more…)

Before I say this I’d like to stress that even though this has profound ramifications for whites in general, it is not that incredibly negative for our outlook or anything. I am not saying the sky is falling nor am I saying that there needs to be some great re-awakening of who we are and what we think of ourselves. I am just explaining what I believe the reality of the situation is.

In fact, the current status we have now compared to 50 years ago is preferable. It is far better for whites to have a sense of guilt over what they did than to have no sense of guilt; it is far better for several ethnic groups to have become very empowered and of course whites have not been victimized in any undue way. We are only our own psychological and social victims as we have over exaggerated our sense of shame and guilt and it has translated into negative collective view to ourself.

America has been a nation that, like all others, changed radically over time. It went from a nation which had inherent racist institutions which were wrong and are, indeed, a shameful part of our American heritage. No one can decry more the maltreatment that blacks, Jews, Asians, Hispanics, American Indians and even certain white groups like Catholics and Eastern Europeans received. However, this mistreatment was not unique to America nor was it unique amongst white people to be racist or ethnocentric in practice.

The notion that we were the only racists or slave traders, the only historical criminals, is an utterly base and crude understanding of history but it is the history we learn. You do not learn about the ethnic tribal wars in Native America, nor do you learn about those in Africa. You do not learn about the historic hatred of the Koreans and the Japanese or the inner-Chinese ethnic conflict. Few even are aware that the Hmongs were so utterly persecuted and destroyed due to cultural differences they had to live in the mountains where no one else would go, literally driven out of China and into the least desirable parts of the Siamese penninsula from pure ethnic hatred.  The ethnic genocides committed by the Aztecs are legendary to the point that when the Spanish came with a modest Army of 500 it quickly swelled to nearly 20,000 as it gained the speed of the tribes persecuted by the Aztecs. One never receives an in depth education of the persecution of the Kurds, the Hottentots, the Arapaho or the Huron. We do not learn what the Persians did to the Indians. (more…)

A great article by the Telegraph which sums up a lot of where I stand on the fruitiness of this whole situation:

For many it is simply a sign of his charisma. But for a growing number of Barack Obama sceptics, there is something disturbing about the adulation with which the senator and Democratic presidential frontrunner is greeted as he campaigns for the White House - unnervingly akin to the hysteria of a cult, or the fervour of a religious revival.

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Now critics are quietly voicing the fear that Mr Obama and his campaign have deliberately adopted the tone and tactics of an evangelical preacher, whipping up “Obamamania” at the expense of more serious discussion of policy and government.

There is “something just a wee bit creepy about the mass messianism” deployed by the black senator and his supporters, observed Joe Klein, the veteran political commentator the first to latch on to the political potency of Bill Clinton, then an obscure Arkansas governor, early in the 1992 White House campaign.

At no fewer than six of Mr Obama’s recent rallies, young enthusiasts have been so overcome with excitement that they have fainted in front of the stage.

Indeed, fainting has become so common that a team of medical volunteers is ordered to be on hand to treat the victims, and Mr Obama has interrupted his own speeches to give his followers a blow by blow commentary of their recovery. (more…)

Here is a little of Obama’s voting record. The man who aims to be President isn’t exactly up to my high standards.

It is kind of funny because when the Senate has votes giving more funds to American intelligence sources and the Armed forces Obama’s record usually shows him as a “No Vote,” even in cases where it is simple amendments like “Vote to pass an amendment to reaffirm support for all men and women of the United States Armed Forces, to strongly condemn any attacks on General David Petraeus and all members of the US Armed Forces and to specifically condemn Moveon.org’s advertisement about General David Petraeus..” (more…)