The Arab Spring and French Common Sense

Not so many months ago the popular press was trumpeting the glories of the Arab Spring and how popular protests against the rulers of Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia would result in liberal democracies of the Western European type. So far it appears that the movement has resulted in a strengthening of conservative Muslim control over those nations.
In Egypt the Coptic Christians are in worse shape than they were during the reign of Mubarak. Murbarak, as authoritarian as he was, managed to protect the minority communities of Egypt from the hate and idiocy of conservative Muslims. In Libya the Muslim Brotherhood is poised to take control. In Tunisia, a nation that was, in culture at least, was friendly to the West having been a French colony, the M.B. waits for it's chance to strike and take control.
Recently in Egypt, in Cairo, in fact, there were protests against the military regime (who seem to be working at the behest of the M.B.), and it has been shown that the Muslim "respect" for women isn't worth much. In fact, the demand for "modesty" in women is not a big deal as long as one is beating them publicly. This writer is of no doubt that these protesters would have much preferred to have been pepper spray as the Occupiers in Santa Cruz (or was it UC Davis?) were. One recovers from a pepper spraying a lot faster than a beating by steel rods:

The brave women of the Middle East: Female protesters brutally beaten with metal poles as vicious soldiers drag girls through streets by their hair in day of shame | Mail Online

David Cameron has thrown the "defi" at Archbishop of Canterbury Rowen Williams and the Church of England in general. In a speech celebrating the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible he stated what the chin scratching crowd would like to deny: that Great Britain is a Christian nation. The King James Bible is the glue, that in a sense, holds the Anglo-sphere together. And it is Christianity that that spread the KJV to the world.

David Cameron: "We are a Christian country and we should not be afraid to say so" The Tory Diary

The French often take the politically correct route, but as bar as the burkha goes, they have taken a stand that the U.S. should. There is nothing in the Koran about the burkha. The burkha is a national cultural artifact from the Middle East. If a person immigrates to a nation and does not want to become part of that nation they show not bother to unpack their grip. Just go the hell back home. And if you want to be a member of a primitive society despite being born into a modern society just go to the primitive society you so admire. Don't expect to have it both ways:


Burka ban. New French law forbids Islamic women from wearing full-face veils in public (but the only real protest was in London) | Mail Online

Trump Trump

We here at the Manor are conservative, though we are loathe to call ourselves Republicans. We support the conservative candidate and will have no truck with any party machine.
Having said that, let it be known that this writer will not vote for ANY candidate, Republican, Democrat or whatever, who kisses Donald Trump's ring.
Donald Trump is nothing but a big blowhard and bully, a self promoting bankrupt, a man who thinks that his money buys him wisdom. He is, in a sense, the financial version of Alec Baldwin -- a bloviating anus that thinks it's a mind.
All politicians are whores. Some are call girls. Others are skid row kneelers. Any politician who does not denounce Trump, or at least ignore him, is nothing but a strawberry kneeling on broken glass in a gutter to make five bucks.

Suck It Up, But Don't Be Afraid to Protest

This writer has long been of the opinion that certain groups are all too thin skinned. Examples of such groups are feminists. Muslims, blacks, evangelical Christians, Catholics, liberals and conservatives, among others.
We live, due to the rise of the psychiatric professional, in the age of the sensitive. Counsellors are called out to comfort children when a mountain lion has been killed near a school or when a bad man has been shot down by the police at a shopping mall. It is assumed that every living thing has a right to live despite the fact that that particular living thing undermines the society. The individual is important, but a bent individual is less important than the good of the polis.
The end result of all this nonsense is that people have become very thin skinned. They hurt and bruise easily. They take offense easily. They make it almost impossible to express one's opinion without being accused of being "hateful." Well, guess what. Some people do hate things and hate ideas. Some people hate some ideas and they hate some ideas. They see some things, some ideas and some people as dragging the nation down to the level of a Norway where the idea of nationhood is an embarrassment.
Your faithful correspondent is of the opinion that this thin skin attitude is partly due to the fact that most people do not perform manual or skilled labor. They sit in cubicles and they really do not deal with other people. Their dealings with other people are limited to company sponsored "sensitivity training". In other words, one is told that to call something wrong is wrong in itself.
Here's an article from the Tory party in Great Britain that is interesting:

Andrew Lilico: For a tolerant society to work, we all need thick enough skins Conservative Home Columnists

But that doesn't mean that one should allow one and one's beliefs to be kicked around by the art crowd. Modern art stands for nothing but the shocking and itself:

Catholics protest against 'blasphemous' play in Paris | World news | The Guardian

Some Links

The United States has spent lives, blood and money in an attempt to rid Afghanistan from the influences of fundamentalist Islam and the Talaban. Apparently our investment is not paying off very well:

AFGHANISTAN Afghan women victims of violence and abuse like under the Taliban - Asia News

Your faithful correspondent has often stated that the American civilization is now living on the interest of the investment that Christian-Americans made up until about two generations ago and that that interest is running out. In Great Britain it appears that it has run out and the heathens have taken over:

The National Secular Society doesn't get it: Christianity is integral to our national life – Telegraph Blogs

Britain: Islam In, Christianity Out :: Hudson New York