Like All Politicians, Sometimes Newt Really Rubs Me the Wrong Way
But like fewer politicians, every once in a while he lights a small glow inside me, something approaching fondness, even pride.
UPI – Gingrich: Imams should have been arrested
“Those six people should have been arrested and prosecuted for pretending to be terrorists,” Gingrich said. “And the crew of the U.S. airplane should have been invited to the White House and congratulated for being correct in the protection of citizens.”
Which just goes to show, as I was saying in an email to someone the other day, how starved we are for statements of the obvious from our political leaders.
(Background: Air Imams I, Air Imams II and the Rabid Investigative Newshounds at IBD)
But just to make it clear to us how horrid a man Newt is, the article goes on (ignored, apparently, by everyone else who linked to it today):
Their suspicious behavior apparently consisted of reports that they had prayed in Arabic and that they were not sitting together but had walked around to talk to each other.
Gad-dammed Ay-rabs prayin’ and talkin’ to deir frie-ends! Let’s throw ‘em in jail, maw!
Update:
Well, hey there. I got a little Instalanche, it seems (in the updates, on a Sunday afternoon in the Holiday Season. I wouldn’t have even noticed if Brett McS hadn’t clued me in.) (That sounds snooty. Actually I’m just relieved for my servers.)
So, maybe people can read the post before slagging me off, please. Though admittedly my irony takes some getting used to, Glenn Reynolds managed to get it, so it isn’t that hard.
December 17th, 2006 at 11:35 am
Hey I think you misread the article.
Newt didn’t say “Their suspicious behavior apparently consisted …”
But the writer of the article did, it wasn’t a Newt Quote. Thats why everyone else that linked this article didn’t highlight it.
The only quote from Newt is the one everyone highlighted.
lp
December 17th, 2006 at 11:40 am
Ohh and if you ment he said that because of the one one paragraph reason stated by the UPI, then you have no business commenting on this issues because if this is your only information on the subject (one paragraph from one story on UPI) you are grossely underinformed.
-lp
December 17th, 2006 at 12:13 pm
Uh, no, actually, since I’m quoting an article, and the article is quoting Newt, the bits in quotation marks would therefore be what Newt said, the bits without quotation marks would, thusly, be what the UPI reporter is saying. Thusly, it should be evident that I can actually read. Before unloading on me, you might make sure that you can as well.
December 17th, 2006 at 12:22 pm
I wonder why they didn’t mention the requested, given, and unused but retained seatbelt extenders (which could be used as weapons) for imams not fat enough to need them, or the fact that the imams sat in the selfsame exit-controlling configuration used by the 9/11 terror flyers or that an Arabic speaker heard them saying some pretty jihadish things in their conversaions with each other…I guess if they HAD mentioned such things, then Newt would not have come across as intolerantly as they wished him to, which is also why they tossed in his unrelated idle hypothetical musings recently on restriction on free speech subsequent to a catastrophic attack.
December 17th, 2006 at 1:17 pm
Does that sentence from UPI even make sense in the way it’s phrased? Their behavior consisted of reports? Um, one’s behavior is made up of one’s actions, not what others report about your actions.
December 17th, 2006 at 2:01 pm
ninme:
Salamantis just kicked your butt. Do a bit more research next time, huh?
December 17th, 2006 at 2:32 pm
Chester, buddy, you gotta read the post. It’s hard but dooable, even for the irony-impaired.
December 17th, 2006 at 2:46 pm
If they wanted to talk they should have sat in their assigned seats and not distributed themselves around the plane at the exits. It’s quite apparent they were trying to cause trouble. I work with Muslims and they don’t make it a habit to pray loudly. Nor do they do so in view of non-believers unless they don’t have a choice. At least that’s what they do here in New York (prior to 9/11) in front of Kafirs. The sermons I see on Memri are not the same. Nor the prayers I’ve seen in videos of Muslims firing rockets on helicopters. They seem to like to shout prayers out loud just before they are about to do something really awful. Shouts of “Allah Akbar” (God is Great)or “There is No God but Allah” before they commit some violent act.
It the direct association between the praying and the killing that has been going on for centuries that is the problem.
If you were so inclined you might also go out and find those videos of Muslim Imams advocating violence from the pulpit. Not mild stuff like “If Chavez thinks we are going to assasinate him then we might as well go ahead and do it”. No we’re talking about clerics brandishing swords and calling for genocide. It’s not just one guy either. Almost every one of these terrorist attacks has some imam behind it. The first bombing of the world trade center involved a cleric. The chants of “Death to America” involves Muslim clerics.
Muslim clerics just are not analogous to the kind of modern Christian or Jewish cleric we are used to. You know the non-violent kind. They are more akin to the kind of clerics prevalent during the Spanish Inquisition (a reactionary revolt against .. you guessed it … Muslim opression. Ever hear of the martyrs of Cordoba).
I suggest you read the entire Qur’an an not just the few vague semi-tolerant passages from when Mohammed was too weak to force his views on anyone. Make sure you read the chapters titled “The Spoils [of war]” and “The Ranks [of war]“. Keep in mind while reading any passages justifying polygamy for the sake of widows and orphans exactly who is it that made them widows and orphans. Also make sure you read the parts of the religious text that justify being able to keep as many slave girls as you want and rape them as you like.
When you have the most esteemed clerics at the most esteemed Islamic religious universities not being able to condemn suicide bombing and you have many clerics celibrating events like 9/11 I think it is pretty damn sensible to view Islamic prayer with suspicion. Especially when combined with other quite clearly provocative behavior like having making very anti-American comments, discussing Osama and the like. Look it up on google: “witnesses told law enforcement that the men spoke in Arabic and English, criticizing the war in Iraq and President Bush, and talking about al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden.”
Plus these bastards, like many of these clerics are associated with terrorist organizations. Well paint me surprised.
Why don’t you go out and learn about the Christian that was lynched for drinking from the “Muslim only” water communal water cup in Pakistan? Why the hell should the fact that we think, no make that know, that Islam is used to justify terrorism and want to take precautions worrry you when Muslims don’t even allow non-muslims the right to drink out of a cup. When the Muslim religion considers non-muslims naja, the equivalent of dirty feces.
This was an obvious staged event and these bastards ought to be in jail.
December 17th, 2006 at 5:06 pm
This was certainly a try-on, whether or not it was part of a plan to get the stalled anti-profiling legislation through. At its most basic I think it is part of the on-going push to carve out Islam-only territory (physical and legal).
It can take a while to get used to the ninme irony style.
December 17th, 2006 at 10:44 pm
Aww, thanks Half!
It comforts me to know that I have readers who are irony-abled, and, uh, you know, literate.
December 18th, 2006 at 1:54 am
Been reading for months now, ninme! It’s a whole new world! They were obviously testing out the aircrew’s reaction to lowish-level provocations. Given the crap that the airline industry (not to mention US immigration service) inflicts on friends of the US, there’s a bit of me that resents the fact they weren’t just shot on sight. Wonder whether taxi drivers are allowed to to pick up imams at airports?
December 18th, 2006 at 2:36 am
Sorry, meant to say “not to pick up imams”.
December 18th, 2006 at 6:41 am
Your honor, I rise in the defense of ninme. It’s odd the post was so misread when Glenn Reynolds told them in advance what it said. (Except, nin, you know, God doesn’t really hate the Arabs and they don’t all belong in jail.)
December 18th, 2006 at 8:16 am
Hehehehe
No but seriously! “The following link says x” “The following link says x, eh? [clicks link] Who are you and how dare you say y?!?!”
December 18th, 2006 at 2:57 pm
Good for Newt!
December 19th, 2006 at 10:31 am
I don’t know who you think you are, but stop bashing Newt! He said something that should have been said and that’s pretty rare in our political leaders these days.
December 19th, 2006 at 4:55 pm
I think we’ve discovered/created a new isotope of irony. Doesn’t seem to register on normal irony-meters.