Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Terrorism

  • What is to be Done? The Dark Side of Diversity

    What is to be done about the threat of radical Islam?  After explaining the problem, Pat Buchanan gives his answer: How do we deal with this irreconcilable conflict between a secular West and a  resurgent Islam? First, as it is our presence in their world that enrages so many, we should  end our interventions, shut down…

  • Backlash and ‘Frontlash’

    Some lefty scribblers, effete and epicene, have their knickers in a knot worrying about the nativist and xenophobic 'backlash' post-Paris and post-San Bernardino.  Even worse, however, is Attorney General Loretta Lynch's disgracing of herself along these lines: Lynch addressed the Muslim Advocate’s tenth-anniversary dinner and declared that she is concerned about an “incredibly disturbing rise…

  • Time for a Moratorium on Immigration from Muslim Lands?

    And now San Bernardino.  It is surely 'interesting' that in supposedly conservative media venues such as Fox News there has been no discussion, in the wake of this latest instance of Islamic terrorism, of the obvious question whether immigration from Muslim lands should be put on hold.  Instead, time is wasted refuting silly liberal calls…

  • The Problem: Islam or a Construction of Islam?

    Diana West: Meanwhile, Islamic society is whitewashed by pretending the dangers it poses to Western societies are non-Islamic (the Left with talk of "extremism"), or so outside the Islamic norm as to render Islam itself beyond debate, beyond concern (the Right with talk of "Islamism"). Take a recent essay on Paris by Andrew C. McCarthy.  “Allahu Akbar!”…

  • ‘Politicization,’ National Debt, and the Paris Attacks

    The Republicans have been accused of 'politicizing' the debt crisis.  But how can you politicize what is  inherently political?  The debt in question is the debt of the federal government.  Since a government is a political entity, questions concerning federal debts are political questions.  As inherently political, such questions cannot be politicized. If to reify…

  • France Needs Stricter Gun Control . . .

    . . . so that events like yesterday's massacre in Paris never happen again. Yes, I am being sarcastic, and doubly so.  First, stricter gun laws would have had no effect on yesterday's events.  Second, the silly phrase "so that it never happens again," beloved of politicians, insults our intelligence and erodes their credibility even further.…

  • American Sniper

    It's a movie I haven't seen.  I have no strong desire see it.  I understand the principle; why do I need to rub my nose in the details?  I know what a sniper is and I know what he does.  It is an awful world in which snipers are needed, but they are, and they…

  • Discussion of a Putative Counterexample to My Terrorism Definition

    From a reader  (the same one as yesterday):   I think the two distinctions you make are the right ones to make. I doubt that the four necessary conditions in your definition of 'terrorism' are jointly sufficient, but I'm not too concerned about that. [And I didn't claim that they are jointly sufficient, only that…

  • Are Most Terrorists Muslims? And What is a Terrorist?

    This recently over the transom:   I was reading your recent post on religious profiling in which you said, "Not all Muslims are terrorists, but most terrorists are Muslims." I totally agree, but it's something I've been thinking about lately. I saw someone else make the same claim just last week on another blog, and…

  • ‘Religious Profiling’

    I heard Nicholas Kristof use the phrase the other night. But is there such a thing as religious profiling? I have argued that there is no such thing as racial profiling.  The gist of my argument is that while race can be an element in a profile, it cannot itself be a profile.  A profile…

  • Is Paris a ‘No Go’ Zone?

    Apparently it is for Obama. Dereliction of duty and abdication of authority characterize the man. Commentary from Commentary by Jonathan S. Tobin: But, of course, there’s more here than mere tone deafness to public opinion. The president’s flat line response to the Charley Hebdo massacre and then the terrorist attack on the kosher market in…

  • Report from London

    London Karl is a young Irishman living in London.  I had heard that Birmingham is a 'no go' zone, so I asked London Ed about it.  Ed told me that it is 80% 'no go' but that nobody would want to go there anyway: it is rainy and like Detroit.  When I mentioned this to…

  • Pope Francis’ Attempt to Put a Christian Face on Islam

    Pope Francis is a foolish man, and folly brings danger in its train.  That is my harsh judgment.  For documentation, I refer you to an excellent article by William Kilpatrick, Looking at Islam Through Catholic Eyes. Kilpatrick is too politic to draw the harsh conclusion; he prefers to say that the good pope has "clouded…

  • Bill Maher on Charlie Hebdo

    As much of a jackass as Bill Maher can be, I appreciate the cojones and good judgment he displays when he speaks the truth about Islam and terrorism.

  • More Islamist Thuggery

    "A senior Islamic cleric in Ireland has issued a warning against reproducing Charlie Hebdo's front page depiction of the Prophet Muhammad, after the massacre of journalists and police at the magazine's offices." (HT: Karl White)