Wednesday, November 24, 2004
Old Media sighs, US Marines pacify, Europe opens its eyes
November 24, 2004
I'd Rather not C-BS
Many bloggers and pundits have analyzed and spun Dan Rather's announced departure from CBS News as an "end of an era" (See http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/columnist/shapiro/2004-11-23-hype-rather_x.htm for more info.).
Yet, this day has been a long time coming. It started when Ted Turner launched CNN, wasaccelerated when the Mosaic internet browser was first made available in the early 1990's and was heralded when Drudge took the Monica story public in 1998. The technology and culture imperceptively but inexorably changed beneath Big Media's feet. But, like the proverbial frog in the cooking pot, the Old Media guard did not perceive the increase in heat until they were a delicacy on the blogosphere's menu. The institutional arrogance of those in power at CBS (Dan Rather, Les Moonves, Mary Mapes) must have also blinded their perception to the gathering threat. It's not 1980 anymore, when there were only 3 networks that could selectively spin and control the issues of the day. And, as CBS learned too late, mass media consumers are more conservative, discerning and media savvy than they thought. And the pursuit of truth is better for it.
The great thing about the blogosphere is that it is a self-correcting mechanism. Ideas are quickly debated and truth claims quickly tested by other bloggers. Ideas with merit and facts that are verified stand. Bad ideas and lies are quickly winnowed out. Network news has no such competive truth testing and real time fact verification. Nor, does it seem, do they have any desire to acquire such competencies. Long live the blogs!
Semper Fi!
We all have much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. One thing we should all thank God for are the US Armed Forces, putting their rear ends on the line to keep Islamic terrorists on the run and away from our shores. This article from Janan Ganesh (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3284-1371830,00.html ) chronicles the shabby treatment in most media outlets accorded to our young men and women in uniform, even while these soldiers valiantly pacify Fallujah, that wicked hive of terrorist scum and villainy.
The Fallujah and related actions are a key tipping point in the War on Terror in Iraq. The belated cleasing of al Fallujah is a key signal to friend and foe alike. To our Iraqi and allied friends, it says that we will pay any cost and bear any burden to make good on our promise to overthrow the terrorist insurgency in Iraq, and win the War on Islamic radicals everywhere. To the terrorists fighting our forces, it says that the US is over the "Mogadishu Syndrome", where small terrorist bands need only inflict enough casualties for the American public to go squishy and bleat for a hasty retreat.
This is why the election was so dreadfully important for the War on Terror in Iraq and elsewhere. It showed that the American body politic is resolved to win and has given President Bush a seal of approval for his plan. Before the election, Islamic terrorists and their affiliates were thinking "if we can just hold things together long enough to bleed the Americans till the election, the US will pull out when Kerry is elected." Happily, the American people dropped a smart bomb on that trope.
Now, the terrorists are in a very precarious state: Their operations are now going to have to be defensive for much longer than they hoped, and they will have to hold together their own "Coalition of the Chilling" another four years. That is, the insurgent terrorists in Iraq are a likely a band of Sunni rabblerousers, foreign jihadis and a smattering of Saddam loyalists: all the groups that would have something to gain from a premature allied withdrawal. Now that it's clear they will not succeed in that goal, each of these constituent groups has to reasses what they think they can get out of continued rebellion and what they can get from each other. The natural fissures and tensions in this caustic combination can now be more artfully exploited, and any local support will soon diminish. Think of it as an episode of geopolitical "Survivor" with the Allies are doing the manipulating. And we all owe a debt of gratitude to the Marines and other allied military personnel on the ground getting the job done. Stay strong!
Another storm gathers on Europe's horizon
Fashionable Euro elites take great delight in smearing, slandering, and savaging red-state America, especially the unique and expressive Christian faith that seems to animate large segments of the American electorate.
However, instead of whining about religion in America, Western Europe needs to quickly come to terms with religion in Europe....the Islamic religion, that is.
Read the essay "Europe's Civil War" by Arnaud de Borchgrave from last Sunday's New York Post (available at http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/34601.htm).
Europe's secularisim, and it's attendant permissiveness, have created a breeding ground for Islam and Islamic radicalism, as the recent murder of Theo Van Gogh illustrates. Violence due to Islamic and related anti-Semitic reasons is increasing throughout Western Europe. While fashionable politicians think they can turn a blind eye, they are really whistling past the demographic graveyard. The radical growth of Islam, declining birthrates in Europe, and the shunning of the Christian worldview in civic society are a gathering storm for Old World. Couple this with the fact the the US is set to dramatically reduce its military presence in Western Europe, it's not hard to see that, at current course and speed, Europe could be headed to something like civil war within our lifetimes.
Fortunately, it seems that our Old World kin have been roused from their somnolent state and are awake to the novel dangers facing them. As this recent article by Tony Blankley (http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20041123-080540-5101r.htm) points out, European political and media leaders are finally shedding their post-modern inhibitions and saying that new immigrants actually need to assimilate to the prevailing cultures. It seems that Muslim immigrants hadn't been doing that in large numbers for some reason. Perhaps it is because the Islamic worldview does not leave open the possibility for dissent and plurality in society?
Herein lies the heart of the struggle: which worldview will triumph in effect and in society? Will it be the Christian worldview, with its notions of tolerance, equality of all under God, rule of law, and freedom. Or will it be the Muslim worldview, with its attendant repression and corruption. You will notice, dear reader, that I did not mention the secular worldview, to which most Western Europeans blithely abscribe, as an option. This is because it cannot stand against the Muslim worldview. The Muslim worldview (at least the more strident flavor which seems to be in effect in most Mid East nations) assumes there is a Supreme Being and that this being directs followers to spread the faith, by violent means, if necessary. People adhering to passive, "Live and let live" secularism simply have no ethical basis or spiritual strength to resist determined fanatics. Europe must return to the loving and powerful God of the Bible and the Great Commission zeal of the Lord Jesus Christ to forestall a dark future.
And this is the story that US believers with a passion for revival in Western Europe must pray about and address. Europe's problem is not too much Christianity in the US, but too little in Europe.
November 24, 2004
I'd Rather not C-BS
Many bloggers and pundits have analyzed and spun Dan Rather's announced departure from CBS News as an "end of an era" (See http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/columnist/shapiro/2004-11-23-hype-rather_x.htm for more info.).
Yet, this day has been a long time coming. It started when Ted Turner launched CNN, wasaccelerated when the Mosaic internet browser was first made available in the early 1990's and was heralded when Drudge took the Monica story public in 1998. The technology and culture imperceptively but inexorably changed beneath Big Media's feet. But, like the proverbial frog in the cooking pot, the Old Media guard did not perceive the increase in heat until they were a delicacy on the blogosphere's menu. The institutional arrogance of those in power at CBS (Dan Rather, Les Moonves, Mary Mapes) must have also blinded their perception to the gathering threat. It's not 1980 anymore, when there were only 3 networks that could selectively spin and control the issues of the day. And, as CBS learned too late, mass media consumers are more conservative, discerning and media savvy than they thought. And the pursuit of truth is better for it.
The great thing about the blogosphere is that it is a self-correcting mechanism. Ideas are quickly debated and truth claims quickly tested by other bloggers. Ideas with merit and facts that are verified stand. Bad ideas and lies are quickly winnowed out. Network news has no such competive truth testing and real time fact verification. Nor, does it seem, do they have any desire to acquire such competencies. Long live the blogs!
Semper Fi!
We all have much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. One thing we should all thank God for are the US Armed Forces, putting their rear ends on the line to keep Islamic terrorists on the run and away from our shores. This article from Janan Ganesh (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3284-1371830,00.html ) chronicles the shabby treatment in most media outlets accorded to our young men and women in uniform, even while these soldiers valiantly pacify Fallujah, that wicked hive of terrorist scum and villainy.
The Fallujah and related actions are a key tipping point in the War on Terror in Iraq. The belated cleasing of al Fallujah is a key signal to friend and foe alike. To our Iraqi and allied friends, it says that we will pay any cost and bear any burden to make good on our promise to overthrow the terrorist insurgency in Iraq, and win the War on Islamic radicals everywhere. To the terrorists fighting our forces, it says that the US is over the "Mogadishu Syndrome", where small terrorist bands need only inflict enough casualties for the American public to go squishy and bleat for a hasty retreat.
This is why the election was so dreadfully important for the War on Terror in Iraq and elsewhere. It showed that the American body politic is resolved to win and has given President Bush a seal of approval for his plan. Before the election, Islamic terrorists and their affiliates were thinking "if we can just hold things together long enough to bleed the Americans till the election, the US will pull out when Kerry is elected." Happily, the American people dropped a smart bomb on that trope.
Now, the terrorists are in a very precarious state: Their operations are now going to have to be defensive for much longer than they hoped, and they will have to hold together their own "Coalition of the Chilling" another four years. That is, the insurgent terrorists in Iraq are a likely a band of Sunni rabblerousers, foreign jihadis and a smattering of Saddam loyalists: all the groups that would have something to gain from a premature allied withdrawal. Now that it's clear they will not succeed in that goal, each of these constituent groups has to reasses what they think they can get out of continued rebellion and what they can get from each other. The natural fissures and tensions in this caustic combination can now be more artfully exploited, and any local support will soon diminish. Think of it as an episode of geopolitical "Survivor" with the Allies are doing the manipulating. And we all owe a debt of gratitude to the Marines and other allied military personnel on the ground getting the job done. Stay strong!
Another storm gathers on Europe's horizon
Fashionable Euro elites take great delight in smearing, slandering, and savaging red-state America, especially the unique and expressive Christian faith that seems to animate large segments of the American electorate.
However, instead of whining about religion in America, Western Europe needs to quickly come to terms with religion in Europe....the Islamic religion, that is.
Read the essay "Europe's Civil War" by Arnaud de Borchgrave from last Sunday's New York Post (available at http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/34601.htm).
Europe's secularisim, and it's attendant permissiveness, have created a breeding ground for Islam and Islamic radicalism, as the recent murder of Theo Van Gogh illustrates. Violence due to Islamic and related anti-Semitic reasons is increasing throughout Western Europe. While fashionable politicians think they can turn a blind eye, they are really whistling past the demographic graveyard. The radical growth of Islam, declining birthrates in Europe, and the shunning of the Christian worldview in civic society are a gathering storm for Old World. Couple this with the fact the the US is set to dramatically reduce its military presence in Western Europe, it's not hard to see that, at current course and speed, Europe could be headed to something like civil war within our lifetimes.
Fortunately, it seems that our Old World kin have been roused from their somnolent state and are awake to the novel dangers facing them. As this recent article by Tony Blankley (http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20041123-080540-5101r.htm) points out, European political and media leaders are finally shedding their post-modern inhibitions and saying that new immigrants actually need to assimilate to the prevailing cultures. It seems that Muslim immigrants hadn't been doing that in large numbers for some reason. Perhaps it is because the Islamic worldview does not leave open the possibility for dissent and plurality in society?
Herein lies the heart of the struggle: which worldview will triumph in effect and in society? Will it be the Christian worldview, with its notions of tolerance, equality of all under God, rule of law, and freedom. Or will it be the Muslim worldview, with its attendant repression and corruption. You will notice, dear reader, that I did not mention the secular worldview, to which most Western Europeans blithely abscribe, as an option. This is because it cannot stand against the Muslim worldview. The Muslim worldview (at least the more strident flavor which seems to be in effect in most Mid East nations) assumes there is a Supreme Being and that this being directs followers to spread the faith, by violent means, if necessary. People adhering to passive, "Live and let live" secularism simply have no ethical basis or spiritual strength to resist determined fanatics. Europe must return to the loving and powerful God of the Bible and the Great Commission zeal of the Lord Jesus Christ to forestall a dark future.
And this is the story that US believers with a passion for revival in Western Europe must pray about and address. Europe's problem is not too much Christianity in the US, but too little in Europe.
