"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler
Thanks to I Own the World for this memorable video moment in which Andrew Breitbart poses for a photo with Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer, featuring a surprise cameo appearance:
People who get the joke are laughing their asses off. Everybody else is wondering, “Who is Charles Johnson?”
UPDATE: Professor Reynolds gets the joke. And Charles Johnson just called me a “racist piece of s–” on Twitter.
We must each do our own small part to carry on the legacy.
Walking back his widely-criticized remarks on Fox News Sunday about the Palestinian “right of return”:
I have long been a vocal and unwavering supporter of our friend and ally, Israel.
All Israeli governments have rejected the “right” of large numbers of Arabs or Palestinians to return to what is now the state of Israel. Such an en masse return would unbalance Israel’s demographic makeup as the world’s sole Jewish state.
In this light, should the “right of return” “be negotiated,” as I said, “if that is a decision that Israel wants to make”? Certainly, and to reiterate, it’s Israel’s call. Israel has a long record of being more gracious to its enemies than its enemies are to it, and this would be yet another example of that. But is the “right of return” a moral imperative? Is it something Israel must grant? Is it something the United States ought to encourage?
The answer is no on every count.
Our policy on Palestinian affairs must be wholly a function of our policy on Israeli affairs. Israel is a friend. Israel is an ally. Israel shares common values with us. Israel shares common interests with us, especially in the eradication of terrorism and the need for bringing peace to the region. As President, I will never lose sight of these basic facts. Any aspirant to the Presidency must have the unshakable US-Israeli alliance at the core of his or her strategic vision in the Middle East.
As your President, I would.
Cain was asked a question he was not prepared to answer, and it looked bad. As a result, pundits who didn’t much care for Cain’s candidacy — including Jonah Goldberg and Michael Barone — are in told-you-so mode.
These things happen. Herman Cain is not a foreign-policy wonk and stumbled over a phrase with which he was unfamilar. The pundits were shocked, but I’m not sure how many grassroots GOP voters in Iowa reacted with the same horror.
Jimmie Bise Jr. at Sundries Shack has some valuable thoughts.
UPDATE: “Will Cain get the Palin treatment? You betcha!” Josh Painter says, adding: “The Hermanator desperately needs a Peter Schweizer.”
Actually, I’m sure Cain has foreign-policy advisers, but apparently the candidate had not studied the Palestinian issue in such depth as to recognize instantly the phrase “right of return” as something that friends of Israel are obligated to oppose. We can expect that (a) Cain will undergo intensive preparation to prevent such stumbles in the future, and (b) the video clip of his Fox News Sunday appearance will be replayed endlessly by his enemies. This is how the game is played.
Arab youths threw stones at a Jewish dance group during a street festival in Hannover, injuring one dancer and forcing the group to cancel its performance, German police and dance officials said Thursday.
The teenagers also used a megaphone to shout anti-Semitic slurs during the attack Saturday, Hannover police spokesman Thorsten Schiewe said. . . .
Six suspects have been identified — five Arabic immigrants and one German — and police are looking for the other three, police said. . . .
Stephan Kramer of the Central Council of Jews in Germany condemned the attack.
“This latest incident shows something we have not experienced before: A growing radicalization of young Muslims, which affects not only the Jewish community but the entire German community,” Kramer told The Associated Press . . .
Via Jihad Watch.
Excuse the recto-cranial inversion that prevented me from previously noticing that longtime blog buddy Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs has a new book coming out.
The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration’s War on America, written in collaboration with Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch, also a blog buddy, will be published in July by Simon and Schuster, but you can pre-order now at Amazon.com.
A note to reviewers and interviewers: Never call her “Pam.” She hates “Pam.” It’s always “Pamela” which, as linguistic scholars will note, is the Greek word for “honey.”
But don’t call her “honey,” either. Unless you’re a longtime blog buddy.
Exit Question: Will the Los Angeles Times assign the book review to Charles Johnson?
Exit Question 2: Speaking of Greek words, what’s the Greek word for “bailout“? And what’s the Greek word for “hell, no“?
“It’s all a blur,” Andrew Breitbart said to me in a phone conversation Monday, as we discussed events at CPAC 2010 — the biggest ever and, most attendees agreed, the best. The “blur” effect that Breitbart described is much like the experience of campaign coverage — you go, go, go day after day, with maybe four hours sleep night after night. Between the sleep deprivation and meeting so many people, you lose track of exactly who is who and what happened when.
When CPAC is over, you go through your pockets and find business cards for people you obviously must have met but whose names don’t match up with a face in your fatigue-scorched memory. And when you return to CPAC next year, you’ll be walking through the hotel and pass someone who looks vaguely familiar. You’ll say, “Hey, I know you.” And the other person will say, “Yeah, I think so, but I can’t remember where we met.”
That conversation will continue until either:
This is why it’s important to keep a camera in your pocket at all times during CPAC. My little pink Kodak digital — the famous “Barbie Cam” — captures those faces I might otherwise forget and those incredible scenes that no one would believe were it not for the photographic record. So brace yourself and get ready to be amazed. Continue reading CPAC 2010: Bloggerazzi Photopalooza! →
by Smitty
In the Rock Star Blogger pantheon, few exceed Pamela and Robert for lasting impact.
It’s one thing to carve out a blog, and quite another to do something like bring Geert Wilders to CPAC 2009. What do these two do for an encore? The Freedom Defense Initiative.
This blog in particular looks forward to meeting LtCol Allen West as a part of FDI. May Fortune continue to bless the efforts of these two stalwarts.
Also, Pamela just endorsed Rick Barber, and Stacy McCain approves of that message.