The Median Sib

The world is crazy right now. People are rioting and killing because of some innocuous cartoons. Of course the cartoons aren’t the REAL reason. That’s just their excuse to kill. Major news organizations such as CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS and others cower under the threat of violence from Muslims. The selective reporting of the MSM becomes glaring - there is almost non-stop press coverage of an accidental shooting where the victim is already out of the hospital and admits that it’s not a big deal — and yet virtual non-coverage of racist comments by a prominent news personality and the torture and killing of Iraqi soldiers and civilians by islamic terrorists. It is obvious to anyone (except those oblivious because of blind loyalty to an increasingly radical “progressive” agenda) that the left and the MSM are beyond reason.

Some interesting writing for this Sunday evening on a variety of topics:
The 2nd edition of the Carnival of Blue Stars is up. Do you know what a blue star signifies?
Media hypocrisy at Rhymes With Right.
They’re coming to take them away at The Right Place.
Mensa Barbie wants an investigation.
Something Awful has the Muslim Man Complaint Box.
Gateway Pundit talks about the Gumbel grumble.
Le Sabot Post-Moderne talks about porn for Republican hawks.
Red State is down to the kitchen sink and pudding.
Dr. Sanity tells us about bullies pushing the envelope.
Peter Porcupine could make a fruit salad with the apples and oranges he’s writing about.
Beth at My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy has some advice for news folks who haven’t done enough research.
Stop the ACLU and how limiting the ability of police officers to control criminals can have fatal consequences.
Blame Bush! explains how the grown-up are trying to protect the children.
Captain’s Quarters uses a big word (pusillanimity) to describe the MSM. He also bring up the “Controversy, Crap and Confusion Press.”
Michelle Malkin maps the cartoon jihad for us.
Atlas Shrugs writes of the lesson American can learn from Great Britain.
Baldilocks stresses that practice makes perfect.

I apologize beforehand if this post bothers anyone. It’s a true story, but it is also extremely gross. Also kinda funny… maybe a sick kind of funny, but still funny.

I was reading a series of blogs about the grossest thing you’ve ever seen. They reminded me of a meeting I attended last year. After an afternoon break, I came back into the room where the meeting was being held and sat down. Off and on over the next little while I kept smelling something absolutely disgusting. So bad that I kept glancing around, trying to figure out where the smell was coming from. Then the leader of the session had us stand up to move our chairs into small groups. That’s when I saw it. There was an enormously overweight lady who had been sitting near me. When she stood up and turned around to move her chair, I saw toilet paper sticking out of the top of her slacks … obviously and disgustingly USED toilet paper. Apparently when she wiped she neglected to make sure the toilet paper went into the toilet.
I still cringe when I think about it. Absolutely the grossest thing I’ve ever seen.

Did I tell her about it? No, I didn’t. I turned away from her quickly and joined a small group across the room. I don’t know what happened. I don’t know her, but I know she’ll most likely be in other meetings with me in the future - and I KNOW what I’ll think of everytime I see her.

Today, February 19th, is my mother’s birthday. She is a remarkable woman. I thought that maybe the way to celebrate her birthday is to make a list of 83 facts about her - 83 is a purely random number I selected:

1. She describes herself as painfully shy as a child.
2. She married my father when she was very young.
3. They had seven children.
4. She made education a priority in our family.
5. She “made do” with very little money, and yet we never felt poor.
6. One Christmas she made matching nightgowns for us girls and our dolls.
7. When I was caught shoplifting as a teenager, she knew how guilty I felt about it and she has never mentioned since then. At the time I begged her not to tell Daddy. I don’t know if she ever did. (Update: When Mother read this, she told me that she never told anyone about it - she doesn’t believe in discussing negative things about people).
8. She makes the best buttermilk biscuits in the world.
9. When I was a child she made biscuits in a big wooden bread board.
10. She makes the best yeast rolls in the world.
11. When my father died in 1986, the congregation of his small Methodist church asked Mother to take on the responsibilities of being their pastor until the conference could appoint another minister. Mother said yes. Within a few weeks after his death, she preached her first sermon.
12. She felt a strong calling to be a minister, and went back to school to finish her college degree and then her Masters of Divinity degree - all after the age of 63.
13. A few years later she was ordained an elder in the United Methodist Church.
14. She started a career as a Methodist minister at a time when most people her age were retiring.
15. She is an excellent preacher and still is often asked to fill in for other ministers who are sick or who must travel out of town.
16. I’ve heard her preach many times over the past 20 years. She’s phenomenal.
17. In some of the churches where Mother preached, there were church members who were reluctant to accept a woman as their minister. Without exception, she has won them over with her sincerity, her caring and her dedication to preaching God’s Word and following God’s will.
18. She still scolds me if I say “Oh God!” as slang.
19. She started using a computer in her sixties and became proficient at it.
20. She has a knack for decorating.
21. She has always had pretty legs - and still does.
22. When she was in the hospital a few months ago, the nurses commented on what young looking and pretty legs she has.
23. Each morning she walks down the driveway to get the newspaper.
24. During the walk to get the newspaper, she breathes deeply because that’s a healthy thing to do.
25. For my birthday she still bakes me a chocolate pound cake because she knows it’s my favorite.
26. Each of her seven children feel special and unique.
27. She loves her sons- and daughters-in laws.
28. She looks on the positive side of issues.
29. She and my father were married for 48 years before his death.
30. She has a green thumb. All the plants in her house thrive.
31. She used to collect elephant figurines until everyone gave her so many that she didn’t have a place to put them all.
32. Then she started to collect miniature churches until everyone gave her so many that she didn’t have room to display them all.
33. She remembers the birthdays of everyone in the family - and that’s over 50 people.
34. She has seven children.
35. She has 2 daughters-in-law.
36. She has six sons-in-law.
37. She has 18 grandchildren.
38. She has 15 great grandchildren.
39. She has 3 grandsons-inlaw.
40. She has 3 granddaughters-in-law.
41. She thinks that preparing a meal for 50 people is no big deal.
42. She lived with trigeminal neuralgia for years before getting some relief through surgery in 2001.
43. She likes to sit in a rocking chair by the fire to read.
44. Her feet get cold, and so she wears socks most of the time.
45. She prefers a bath over a shower.
46. She is a good friend to many people.
47. When she says she will attend a meeting or other activity, she is there - even if she doesn’t feel like it.
48. She sings hymns when she is cooking.
49. If I close my eyes, I can see and hear her singing “This is my story, This is my song…” or “Trust and Obey” in the kitchen.
50. Her father died when she was just 9 years old.
51. She tells about how much her mother and father loved each other - how tender they were with each other.
52. When her father died, she slept in the bed with her mother because there was nowhere else for her to sleep in their small house.
52. She is the youngest of 9 children.
53. Until my father died she had never slept by herself.
54. As I sit here typing this blog post, I am in her study, and I can see literally hundreds of books on shelves around me - a testimony to her love of books and reading.
55. She reads a lot.
56. She can quote a lot of scripture.
57. She believes that all Christians should support each other and not have bickering between denominations.
58. My mother has a funny sense of humor.
59. Tonight five of her seven children were at her home - having a meal together and laughing and talking for hours.
60. She is frugal.
61. Although she is frugal, she is incredibly generous.
62. She manages her money very well.
63. She looks 20 years younger than her age.
64. She knows how to dress stylishly. (Update: She wore a gorgeous RED suit to church this morning - looked absolutely fabulous!)
65. She is a lady.
66. She is kind.
67. She has her own blog (Ruthlace).
68. She has written some of the most beautiful poetry I’ve ever heard.
69. She taught me to sew, and she made many of my clothes when I was growing up.
70. She is consistent - true to her beliefs at all times.
71. She believes the Bible is the word of God. With just a quick glance around her study, I see EIGHT Bibles. I’m absolutely certain there are more in here - I just can’t see them from where I’m sitting.
72. She has a book: Recipes, Rhymes and Reflections that has her favorite recipes, some of her poetry, and some of her best sermons. I treasure my copy of it.
72. She has a Bible quiz on the sidebar of her blog - and each day she answers the questions. Usually she gets them all right.
73. She has her own webpage, too.
74. She says she looks better than her pictures.
75. She found some flannel nightgowns on sale and bought two of them, and she says they’re the most comfortable things in the world.
76. She prefers wearing dresses over wearing slacks.
77. She still has dial-up internet which is VERY slow.
78. During World War II she took the train to San Diego to be with my father who was in the Marines. She contracted Scarlet Fever and had to be quarantined the whole time she was there. My father brought his buddies to the window of the hospital to wave to her and to show off what a beautiful bride he had.
79. She loves bargains, and finds some great bargains at the Salvation Army store.
80. She made two trips to the Holy Land with my father.
81. There are pictures in her study of her and my father on horses during one of their trips there.
82. She doesn’t watch much TV, but when she does it is usually either the news or religious programming.
83. She is loved and respected by everyone in her family and community.
84 (an extra one) I wish her a wonderful birthday and many more to come.

Check my siblings’ blogs to read more: Daddy’s Roses, Blue Star Chronicles, Alone on a Limb.

I’m in Georgia for the weekend - visiting my mother whose birthday is Sunday. I drove here after work this afternoon. She made me promise not to write how old she will be. So I won’t. I will say that I had a delightful evening sitting in my mother’s family room and chatting with my mother (Ruthlace), my sister (Blue Star Chronicles) and my niece (who doeesn’t have a blog because she thinks they are annoying).

It will be a sparce weekend for blogging. I’ll be busy visiting family, celebrating my mother’s birthday…and cooking. I always enjoy cooking a meal or two whenever I’m here, and I got my mother to tell me her favorite menu so I can prepare that for dinner Satuday night.

Despite my other activities, I will take time tomorrow to write a post about my mother. Check back here for it. I wrote a story about her in 1989 that made it into a couple of publications. She’s an incredible woman.

This is the third time I’ve started to write something for this blog tonight, and the two previous times, I’ve written a couple of sentences and then stopped and deleted it all. I’m tired of writing about political issues. Nothing I write will make any difference, and I just get all worked up thinking about what I see happening in the world.

I’m just not in the mood to blog tonight. And really, what does it matter? I’ll be back full force in a day or two. For tonight, I’m turning off the computer and going to bed. Good night.

Oh wait! I DID hear something I thought was funny this afternoon. On the radio (as I was driving home from work) there was a discussion of the muslims calling Danish pastries “Roses of the Prophet Muhammed” (now that’s a mouthful - figuratively and literally speaking) to punish the Danes for publishing those cartoons. Yea, that’ll spank ‘em! One of the callers remarked that he was going to order a “RoMo and a cup of decaf” next time he went to the coffee shop. I guess TECHNICALLY it should be a “RoMu”. Either way - I thought it was funny. I could see people all over the world asking for RoMo’s just because it sounds funny - and it points out the absurdity of the whole situation.

OK - a few links for the RoMo… I should google the term and see if it’s an original or if everybody in the world is talking about RoMo’s and I just don’t know it. However, I won’t. If you want to read more about non-abbreviated RoMo’s, check out Atlas Shrugs, The American Princess, Blue Star Chronicles, Michelle Malkin - Here, too.

Now, I mean it this time! Good night!

I discovered a blog new to me - and in it I found a wonderful quote. The blog is Le Sabot Post-Moderne and here’s the quote:

Liberalism has become a philosophy of Western suicide.

I took the quote from a post titled “Danish Cartoons: An issue of sensitivity or free speech?” How have I NOT read this blog before? Here’s more:

What I can’t fathom is the unbelievable stupidity of the Left - particularly in this instance. This is their issue! They are lions when it comes to fighting the Ten Commandments in a courtroom or gagging a kid from praying at the football game.

However, when confronted with true, creeping theocracy, they denounce the victims! I was nearly alone in my Migration and Radicalism class in framing this as a freedom of speech issue. Nearly all of them saw it through a prism of Arab victimization. The cartoon authors were white and European, so inevitably bad. The fact that they were exercising freedoms of press and speech was immaterial. . . .

This is a test, one of many to come. It’s a test of whether or not the West (and especially Europe) has the will to defend its core freedoms in the face of religious totalitarianism.

THE MEDIAN SIB’S TOP THIRTEEN BLOGS 13. The Anchoress 12. Rhymes with Right 11. ScrappleFace 10. Right on the Left Coast 9. The Education Wonks 8. A Female Soldier 2 7. My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy 6. All the Thursday Thirteen Folks 5. Captain’s Quarters 4. Michelle Malkin 3. Blame Bush! 2. Dr. Sanity 1. My family blogs come first because I check them everyday - and enjoy reading them all. I have to list them altogether - otherwise they’d take up almost the entire thirteen by themselves! Here they are: Ruthlace (my mother), Daddy’s Roses (my sister), Alone on a Limb (my brother), Blue Star Chronicles (my sister), Cozy Reader (my cousin), Reasoned Audacity (my niece), Jack Yoest (my niece’s husband - does that make him my nephew-in-law?), A Few Minutes With Robin and Andy (my cousin), and Bran’s Florida Blog (my niece). Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. Norma 2. Joan 3. Jane 4. Terrell 5. Chickadee 6. Kelly 7. Courtney 8. Jade 9. Uisce 10. LazyDaisy 11. P.J. 12. Kimmy 13. iKat (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

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So Vice President Dick Cheney talks to Fox News today. Here’s the news story. Here are a few of his words:

“I had a bit of the feeling that the press corps was upset because, to some extent, it was about them - they didn’t like the idea that we called the Corpus Christi Caller-Times instead of The New York Times,” he said. “But it strikes me that the Corpus Christi Caller-Times is just as valid a news outlet as The New York Times is, especially for covering a major story in south Texas.”

Boy, ain’t THAT the truth! Talk about doing their best to make a scandal and cover-up out of nothing! It was a terrible accident. Period.

More at Michelle Malkin, Real Clear Politics Blog, ScrappleFace, Right Wing News, Protein Wisdom, The Anchoress, The American Thinker, California Yankee, The Nose on Your Face, Baldilocks, Outside the Beltway, National Institute for Truth and Freedom, Blame Bush!

This morning when I got dressed for work, I thought my hair looked especially nice. I honestly did! Sometimes no matter what I do, it just doesn’t look right. I was pleased that today wasn’t one of those days.

Later at school, my third grade reading group walked into my classroom - five bright-eyed children who were unusually quiet (probably on a low after yesterday’s valentine sugar high). As Nicki sat down, she looked at me and said (and I quote verbatim):

“It looks like you are having a bad hair day!”
“Oh,” I replied. “My hair looks bad?”
“No, it just looks like you’re having a bad hair day.”

She contradicted herself. Right? I felt my hair to make sure there were no wayward strands sticking out, and then grabbed pencil and paper to write down Nicki’s exact words. As they say, “Pride goeth before the fall.”

Week 54 of the Carnival of Education is now up at EdWahoo. It is FULL of interesting posts this week dealing with a wide variety of topics in edusphere. Check it out.

The 6th edition of the Carnival of the Magnolias is up at Everyman Chronicles. It highlights the writing from the Southern blogosphere. The carnival had been on hiatus for awhile and is just now getting started again. It’s a great opportunity for bloggers to get their writing seen by more readers.

If you would like to submit a post for next week’s Carnival of the Magnolias, go here for the submission form. Submissions are due on Sunday, but you can send them in any time between now and then.

A store that sells new husbands has just opened in New York City, where a woman may go to choose a husband. Among the instructions at the entrance is a description of how the store operates:

You may visit the store ONLY ONCE! There are six floors and the attributes of the men increase as the shopper ascends the flights. There is, however, a catch: you may choose any man from a particular floor, or you may choose to go up a floor, but you cannot go back down except to exit the building!

So, a woman goes to the Husband Store to find a husband. On the first floor the sign on the door reads: Floor 1 - These men have jobs. The second floor sign reads: Floor 2 - These men have jobs and love kids. The third floor sign reads: Floor 3 - These men have jobs, love kids, and are extremely good looking.

“Wow,” she thinks, but feels compelled to keep going. She goes to the fourth floor and sign reads: Floor 4 - These men have jobs, love kids, are drop-dead good looking and help with the housework.

“Oh, mercy me!” she exclaims, “I can hardly stand it!” Still, she goes to the fifth floor and sign reads: Floor 5 - These men have jobs, love kids, are drop-dead gorgeous, help with the housework, and have a strong romantic streak.

She is so tempted to stay, but she goes to the sixth floor and the sign reads: Floor 6 - You are visitor 31,456,012 to this floor. There are no men on this floor. This floor exists solely as proof that women are impossible to please. Thank you for shopping at The Husband Store.

A new Wives Store opened across the street. The first floor has wives that love sex. The second floor has wives that love sex and have money. The third through sixth floors have never been visited.

(H/T to my friend, Dianne)
(We don’t really believe any of that. Women are NOT impossible to please…and men are interested in more than just sex and money. There IS the NFL, after all.)

I just got my February issue of The Reading Teacher. Yes, it is February 14th which means it’s running a tad late. There was an article, though, that is pertinent to what is going on in my life at the moment. The title is “Accountability by design in literacy professional development,” and it is written by Kathryn Kinnucan-Welsch, Catherine A. Rosemary, and Patricia R. Grogan.

It is pertinent to me at the moment because I’m in the midst of planning the February 20th professional development day for the 90+ second grade teachers in our school system. I NEVER imagined that planning such a day would involve so much! I feel guilty about the times I’ve been overly critical of other professional development experiences. In the future, I know I will be a little more understanding about what goes into such a day. I always expect high quality, but I won’t be quite so picky about minor things.

There are four of us on the committee, and I believe we have a productive and helpful day planned. We’ve got a great motivational speaker for the first 15 minutes, and we have three break-out sessions. Each session has four or five different classes from which participants may choose. We’ve got local stores, restaurants and book representatives to donate items for door prizes, and the PTO is providing refreshments. Most importantly, I think (hope, pray!) the classes will be really good. The classes are planned to meet the needs that the teachers themselves expressed.

Now that I’ve read this article in The Reading Teacher, I have a guideline against which to gauge our plans. The article lists six principles of high-quality professional development. The first three principles are the ones that most relate to a specific professional development opportunity. So let’s see how we’re doing.

(1) The content must align with what students need to know and be able to do, often as articulated by content standards and district course of study. Whew! We got that one covered! That’s where we started with our initial ideas. Our wonderful Tennessee “Blue Book” of standards.

(2) Professional Development involves active learning for teachers. Again, we’ve got that covered, but no thanks to me. My “old school” patterns are hard to let go, although I DO constantly work at it. I was gearing up for a “sit and get” day when my co-presenter (at the three classes we’re leading) suggested getting the teachers actively involved instead. MUCH better idea, and I think it will be much more helpful for the teachers. Since children’s literature is a passion of mine, I volunteered to lead classes on using children’s literature to teach reading and writing skills and strategies. That class will be held during all three sessions since so many teachers signed up for it. The other classes will also involve the teachers in active learning.

(3) Professional development is embedded in the context of work in schools and classrooms. Again, we hit the nail on the head. There are two second grade teachers on our committee, and we initially came up with a long list of ideas, sent that list to all the second grade teachers in the county to find the topics they most wanted help with, and then we worked with those topics in coming up with our sessions. We also have built in time during the day for teachers to talk with teachers from other schools and with their own school team to plan how to utilize what they’ve learned in their own classrooms. Teachers leading teachers.

It makes me a little scared, though. It sounds almost TOO good. You know what I mean? No matter how well we think we’ve covered every need, there are bound to be things that come up that no one on the planning committee anticipated. That’s where that great life skill of flexibility comes in. We’ll just have to do our best in planning, hope for the best, and then handle whatever happens.

Each teacher will have to fill out an evaluation form at the end of the day. Knowing how I’ve filled out those forms in the past makes me very wary to think of what I might read in them Monday evening.

Reading Today Daily had further information on professional development, and Mei at Mei Flower tells about a professional development day that I hope we don’t match.

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Here’s another joke forwarded via email. Most forwards I get are repeats of old jokes. This is actually one I hadn’t heard before.

A young blonde woman in Nashville, TN, was so depressed that she decided to end her life by throwing herself into the Cumberland River. She went down to the docks and was about to leap into the frigid water when a handsome young sailor saw her tottering on the edge of the dock, crying.

He took pity on her and said, “Look, you have so much to live for. I’m off to Europe in the morning, and if you like, I can stow you away on my ship.

I’ll take good care of you and bring you food every day.” Moving closer, he slipped his arm around her shoulders and added, “I’ll keep you happy, and you’ll keep me happy.”

The girl nodded yes. After all, what did she have to lose? Perhaps a fresh start in Europe would give her life new meaning.

That night, the sailor brought her aboard and hid her in a lifeboat.

From then on, every night he brought her three sandwiches and a piece of fruit, and they made passionate love until dawn.

Three weeks later, during a routine inspection, she was discovered by the captain.

“What are you doing here?” the captain asked.

“I have an arrangement with one of the sailors,” she explained. “I get food and a trip to Europe, and he’s screwing me.”

“He certainly is,” the captain said.

“This is the General Jackson, and we never leave Nashville.”

Note for non-Nashvillians: The General Jackson is a riverboat that stays docked most of the time and makes brief river cruises along a few miles of the Cumberland River.

Dhimmitude - I’ve seen that word in a lot of different blogs, and I just wasn’t sure what it meant. I could guess from the context, but still I wanted to be certain. So I went searching and discovered that it is a very good word - a very descriptive word. Let’s have a vocabulary lesson. The Washington Times provides our definition (The bold print/emphasis is mine):

Dhimmitude is the coinage of a brilliant historian, Bat Ye’or, whose pioneering studies of the dhimmi, populations of Jews and Christians vanquished by Islamic jihad, have led her to conclude that a common culture has existed through the centuries among the varied dhimmi populations. From Egypt and Palestine to Iraq and Syria, from Morocco and Algeria to Spain, Sicily and Greece, from Armenia and the Balkans to the Caucasus: Wherever Islam conquered, surrendering dhimmi, known to Muslims as “people of the book [the Bible],” were tolerated, allowed to practice their religion, but at a dehumanizing cost. There were literal taxes (jizya) to be paid; these bought the dhimmi the right to remain non-Muslim, the price not of religious freedom, but of religious identity. Freedom was lost, sorely circumscribed by a body of Islamic law (sharia) designed to subjugate, denigrate and humiliate the dhimmi. The resulting culture of self-abnegation, self-censorship and fear shared by far-flung dhimmi is the basis of dhimmitude.

The extremely distressing but highly significant fact is, dhimmitude doesn’t only exist in lands where Islamic law rules. This is the lesson of Cartoon Rage 2006. . . . We have watched the Muslim meltdown with shocked attention, but there is little recognition that its poisonous fallout is fear. Fear in the State Department, which, like Islam, called the cartoons unacceptable. Fear in Whitehall, which did the same. Fear in the Vatican, which did the same. And fear in the media, which have failed, with few, few exceptions, to reprint or show the images. With only a small roll of brave journals, mainly in Europe, to salute, we have seen the proud Western tradition of a free press bow its head and submit to an Islamic law against depictions of Muhammad. That’s dhimmitude.

Not that we admit it: We dress up our capitulation in fancy talk of “tolerance,” “responsibility” and “sensitivity.” We even congratulate ourselves for having the “editorial judgment” to make “pluralism” possible. “Readers were well served… without publishing the cartoons,” said a Wall Street Journal spokesman. “CNN has chosen to not show the cartoons in respect for Islam,” reported the cable network. On behalf of the BBC, which did show some of the cartoons on the air, a news editor subsequently apologized, adding: “We’ve taken a decision not to go further… in order not to gratuitously offend the significant number” of Muslim viewers worldwide. Left unmentioned is the understanding (editorial judgement?) that “gratuitous offense” leads to gratuitous violence. Hence, fear — not the inspiration of tolerance but of capitulation — and a condition of dhimmitude.

How far does it go? Worth noting, for example, is that on the BBC Web site, a religion page about Islam presents the angels and revelations of Islamic belief as historical fact, rather than spiritual conjecture (as is the case with its Christianity Web page); plus, it follows every mention of Mohammed with “(pbuh),” which means “peace be upon him”—”as if,” writes Will Wyatt, former BBC chief executive, in a letter to the Times of London, “the corporation itself were Muslim.”

Is it? Are we? These questions may not seem so outlandish if we assess the extent to which encroaching sharia has already changed the Western way. Calling these cartoons “unacceptable,” and censoring ourselves “in respect” to Islam brings the West into compliance with a central statute of sharia. As Jyllands-Posten’s Flemming Rose has noted, that’s not respect, that’s submission. And if that’s not dhimmitude, what is?

The publication of the Muhammad cartoons solicited by Denmark’s Jyllands-Posten was an act of anti-dhimmitude. Since no Danish artist would dare illustrate a PC children’s book about Muhammad for fear of Islamic law (and Islamic violence), the newspaper boldly set out to reassert the rule of (non-Islamic) Danish law. It’s as simple as that. And as vital. The cartoons ran to establish — or re-establish —Denmark as bastion of Western-style liberty. But in trying to set up a force field against encroaching sharia, Jyllands-Posten and the Danes have showed us that no single bastion of Western liberty can stand alone. So, how do you say solidarity in Danish? If we don’t find out now, our future is more dhimmitude

Now I understand dhimmitude, and I see it all over the news, and it is frightening. Are we Americans not strong enough to stand up for our freedoms? Do we not expect and demand that our culture and our freedoms be respected by others? Sure, it’s not very nice when someone draws and publishes cartoons about someone’s religion, but that’s the price of living in a free country. Do we REALLY want to be submissive to a religion that not only condones but promotes this and this and this?

Other posts on dhimmitude: Michelle Malkin, Cox & Forkum, Dhimmi Watch, Junkyard Dog, Atlas Shrugs, Environmental Republican, Jihad Watch.