Off the grid.

Just the long-threatened hiatus; those of you who need to know are aware of what I'm doing, and therefore approximately when you should expect to see something here again. In fact, you'll get some sort of direct contact on that, so your minds can be at rest until I return...

More than cheap exports...

This connects with my previous post, "Crusade vs. Jihad", showing that there is more than one axis of re-vitalized Christianity to oppose militant expansionist Islam. In an ideal world I would of course prefer a secular opposition to any sort of theocracy, but things are not promising in that direction.

As always, "be careful what you wish for" goes with "the enemy of my enemy is my friend", but this article touches on the enervation of Europe, suggesting that the opposition to a Caliphate future rests elsewhere. Of particular interest:

"Islam might defeat the western Europeans, simply by replacing their diminishing numbers with immigrants, but it will crumble beneath the challenge from the East. "

and

"Years ago I speculated that if Mecca ever is razed, it will be by an African army marching north; now the greatest danger to Islam is the prospect of a Chinese army marching west."

I may point out that Mecca has been despoiled before, in fact by the early Wahhabis (see the book God's Terrorists by Charles Allen), but to date not actually razed. I don't see flattening Mecca as a realistically useful way to counter the people who would destroy us, but it would nicely polarize any other Muslims to a real drop-the-gloves us-vs.-them Götterdämmerung.

If things head in that direction, I suppose it won't be any time soon, but just because the Western "progressives" pooh-pooh all of our secular and religious heritage, the rest of the world does not share our collective self-loathing and desire to be erased. Something to keep in mind...

'Nuff said.

This article from Slate by Christopher Hitchens deals with how certain parties are demanding we all give up our rights to free speech (freedom varies by locality, of course) on pain of unlimited liability. [Hyperlink removed since it was dead; find it if you can because he's not dead yet and writes better than I do. 17 Jan 2011]

Unlimited liability means up to and including death, but I won't re-hash it; he does a pretty good job, so I suggest you read it yourself. It's not something most of us have had a direct experience with, but examples abound without looking too hard. This ties in loosely with my bit on that Aussie law from a few days ago, and it's something to keep an eye on.

I don't think it's at all classy to crap on peoples' holy books, but if that's all it takes to set off riots and generate a raft of death threats then I think there are some people with screwed up priorities and I for one don't want to be held hostage to that.