Shire Network News #128 has been released.

This week week we conclude our chat with Prof. Barry Rubin, Director, Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and Editor, Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal .  As we approach the 60th anniversary of the foundation of the modern state of Israel, Barry joins us to talk about his latest reprinting of "The Israel Arab Reader". The book provides over 300 original source documents and gives a massive amount of background into the Israeli Arab struggle.

Click here for the show notes, links, and ways to listen to the show; directly from the web site, by downloading the mp3 file, or by subscribing with your podcatcher of choice.

I did not have a commentary this week.

Shire Network News #127 has been released.  This week week’s guest is Prof Barry Rubin, Director, Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and Editor, Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal .  As we approach the 60th anniversary of the foundation of the modern state of Israel, Barry joins us to talk about his latest reprinting of "The Israel Arab Reader". The book provides over 300 original source documents and gives a massive amount of background into the Israeli Arab struggle.  Click here for the show notes, links, and ways to listen to the show; directly from the web site, by downloading the mp3 file, or by subscribing with your podcatcher of choice.

Below is the text of my commentary.

Hi this is Doug Payton for Shire Network News, asking you to "Consider This!"

The Los Angeles Times ran a story last Thursday noting a widening "ideology gap" between Al Qaeda and its allies.  Those once-loyal allies are now upset that bin Laden’s crew emphasizes suicide bombings instead of political action. 

I gotta’ ask; where were these allies in September of 2001?  Did they somehow explain those attacks as "political action"?  This wasn’t a bunch of angry protestors yelling "What do we want?  The Caliphate!  When do we want it?  Now!"  Did they imagine that this radical act would lead to later moderation?  "Well, now that we’ve killed 3,000 Americans in this massive attack, we’ll just stick to the ballot box and the ‘war of ideas’ from here on out."

And these allies are shocked — SHOCKED — that innocent Muslims are also being targeted.  I hate to break it to you fellas (OK, I actually love to break it to you) that a radical is a radical.  The cause is the only thing, and anything in the way has no value.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise to the allies of Al Qaeda, but apparently the nuances of radical Islamo-fascism have been lost on them.  They just thought, hey, kill a few infidels, strongarm a few politicians, and this whole affair would be over by Spring. 

Instead, Ayman al Zawahiri, in his latest audio message, found it necessary to respond to angry questions submitted online.  Kind of like a CNN presidential primary debate, except that in the end, if you vote for the wrong guy, you’re beheaded.  He spent an hour and a half responding to what he considered the most important questions, but not all the questions got a response.

But here on Shire Network News, we have, from the home office in Camillus, NY, the Top 9 Questions Ayman al Zawahiri Didn’t Have Time To Answer:

9 – What’s with all the guns in your videos?  Are they a show of machismo, or do you really use them?

8 – Will he be doing that hilarious "Carnac the Magnificent" act with Osama?

7 – How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck Danish cartoons?

6 – Are bribe..er..subsidies to the Canadian Human Rights Commission causing the budget shortfalls?

5 – Are we really taking our marching orders from Evil Bert?

4 – Before the advent of guns, what did they shoot into the air to celebrate the killing of civilians?

3 – Who does your hair?

2 – Where’s all the merchandising revenue from "Bin Laden, the T-shirt", "Bin Laden, the lunchbox", "Bin Laden, the coloring book", and "Bin Laden, the flamethrower"?

And the #1 Question Ayman al Zawahiri Didn’t Have Time To Answer:

Jihadi group?  I was told this would be the Al Qaeda Knitting Club!

Yes, it seems AQ and OBL could use some serious PR.  I hear some Hollywood war movie producer are available.

Consider that.

Shire Network News #126 has been released. The feature interview is with Kate McMillan of Small Dead Animals and Kathy Shaidle of Five Feet of Fury, two of the Canadian bloggers being sued by former Human Rights Commission employee Richard Warman. Click here for the show notes, links, and ways to listen to the show; directly from the web site, by downloading the mp3 file, or by subscribing with your podcatcher of choice.

Below is the text of my commentary.

Hi, this is Doug Payton for Shire Network News, asking you to “Consider This!”

As you know, if you’ve been an SNN listener for more than a month or so, that the Canadian Human Rights Commission has been prosecuting bloggers, writers and journalists over thought crimes regarding their views of radical Islam. Publishing the Danish cartoons is not, apparently, the problem. Having the wrong thoughts while publishing them seems to be the horror that the Canadian HRC is trying to abolish (while, of course, enriching the plaintiffs’ wallets).

The United States, however, has apparently decided that it needs to keep up with the Joneses. In New Mexico, that state’s HRC has now decided what pictures you simply must take. You no longer have a choice in the matter.

The New Mexico Human Rights Commission ruled on Wednesday that an evangelical Christian photographer discriminated against a lesbian couple by refusing a job to photograph the couple’s same-sex commitment ceremony. Religious rights attorneys plan to appeal.

The commission ordered Elaine and Jon Huenins, owners of Elane Photography in Albuquerque, N.M., to pay the lesbian couple $6,600 in attorney fees.

The old saying goes that when all you have is a hammer, everything around you looks like a nail. It’s also well known that government agencies tend to expand into areas not originally in their purview. I give you Exhibit A.

Contributing to its descent into being inaptly-named, the Human Rights Commission has now found that, in spite of our Constitution’s First Amendment protections of free speech and religion, people can no longer act on their conscience when picking up their camera. One might find it shocking hearing that, in Canada, an HRC investigator, when asked about freedom of speech, replied, “Freedom of speech is an American concept, so I don’t give it any value.” (One might find it odd to hear this when that “American concept” seems to have made it into section two of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.) But if we were to assume that this idea is indeed an “American concept”, one then needs to be outraged that one of our American states seems not to give it any value, either. Guess “freedom of speech” is no long a human right, hmm?

You might be led to think that there was not a single other photographer in all of Albuquerque. You’d, of course, be quite wrong. My suggestion to Vanessa Willock, the woman bringing the complaint, is: Google is your friend. We still have, as far as I know, a concept here called “the free market”, even (I think) in New Mexico.

This is obviously a case of using the club of government to beat into submission those who do not agree with you. How “tolerant” and “open minded”. I’m so glad that homosexuals don’t want any “special rights”. Choosing who you enter into a contract with is still a matter of some personal choice, unless the HRC thinks that lesbians now have some sort of “special right” to force you into signing on the dotted line. The Supreme Court said the Boy Scouts had a choice in the matter vis a vis homosexuals. Unless Elane Photography is government run or government funded, which I rather doubt, chances are they get the same choice.

Eugene Volokh, UCLA Law School professor and noted constitutional scholar put another ironic twist on this. Seems that the law says that the government can only compel someone to violate their religious beliefs if there is a “compelling government interest”. The twist is that New Mexico does not recognize same-sex marriages! So the only compelling interest there might be is for the HRC to justify its existence, or perhaps to pander to the compelling liberal interest groups that traffic in political correctness.

Well lemme’ tell you; Canada is not going to one-up the good ol’ US of A when it comes to bureaucratic silliness and big-government insanity. That, may I say, is truly an “American concept”.

Brian of London, welcome to my country. I’m glad to have you, but consider that.

Technorati Tags: human rights, Canadian Human Rights Commission, New Mexico Human Rights Commission, New Mexico, Elaine Huenins, Jon Huenins, Elane Photography, freedom of speech, Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Vanessa Willock, homosexuality, Christianity, First Amendment, Eugene Volokh

Shire Network News #125 has been released.

This week we continue a deep and meaningful discussion that ranges across the political spectrum. Douglas Murray and Nick Cohen join Tom Paine to discuss the failures on both Left and Right to come to terms with a Jihadi threat.

On the Right we have Douglas Murray, the director of the think tank, Centre for Social Cohesion and the author of "Neo-Conservatism: Why We Need It".

From the Left, broadly speaking, as he’s not on good terms with most of his former comrades just at present, is British journalist Nick Cohen, author of "What’s Left: How Liberals Lost their Way".

Click here for the show notes, links, and ways to listen to the show; directly from the web site, by downloading the mp3 file, or by subscribing with your podcatcher of choice.

I did not have a commentary this week.

Shire Network News #124 has been released. This week we have a deep and meaningful discussion that ranges across the political spectrum. Douglas Murray and Nick Cohenjoin Tom Paine to discuss the failures on both Left and Right to come to terms with a Jihadi threat. Click here for the show notes, links, and ways to listen to the show; directly from the web site, by downloading the mp3 file, or by subscribing with your podcatcher of choice.

Below is the text of my commentary.

Hi, this is Doug Payton for Shire Network News, asking you to “Consider This”.Last week in Pennsylvania, Barack Obama was speaking to a crowd about some of his political positions, including abstinence-only education. During that speech, he said this:

I’ve got two daughters — 9 years old and 6 years old. I am going to teach them first of all about values and morals, but if they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby….

Children are a punishment, eh? I’m sure your kids are proud to hear that, Senator.

Oh, you mean just unwanted, unplanned babies are a punishment? From whom? From God, perhaps? The God who put life into that baby? The God who said, in the Bible you hold dear:

Sons are a heritage from the LORD,
children a reward from him.

Like arrows in the hands of a warrior
are sons born in one’s youth.

Blessed is the man
whose quiver is full of them.

From That Guy?

Obama’s context was that all the information should be made available to kids (presumably in public school, safely out of earshot from those inconvenient parents), but it’s one thing to be concerned about curriculum, and another thing entirely to consider unplanned children “punishment” and worthy of disposal.

But considering this, and through our super secret backchannels in the Obama campaign, here, from the home office in Camillus, NY, are the top 9 other punishments Barack Obama wouldn’t wish on anyone.

9. Have their newly-washed car located underneath a flock of flying penguins. (Yes, I know it’s an April Fool’s joke.)

8. Listen to “You’re a Grand Old Flag Pin”.

7. Get their own money back from a >shudder< tax cut.

6. Not allow them to find out who the final human-looking Cylon is on “Battlestar Galactica”.

5. Get interviewed by Tom Paine. (He asks those tough questions.)

4. Spend a few years at the “Hanoi Hilton”. (Oh, sorry, that’s a punishment John McCain wouldn’t wish on anyone.)

3. Sit through an entire Michael Moore movie. (Hey, some things we can all can agree on.)

2. Be the unlucky superdelegate that suggests to Bill Clinton that he needs to “chill out”.

And the number one punishment Barack Obama wouldn’t wish on anyone:

Listen to Obama himself decide whether he’s for or against gun control, for or against decriminalizing marijuana, for or against mandatory minimum sentences, for or against…well, you get the idea.

Consider that.

Shire Network News #123 has been released. The feature interview is part 2 of a talk with British Member of Parliament for Wells, David Heathcote-Amery about the precarious state of democracy in Europe. Click here for the show notes, links, and ways to listen to the show; directly from the web site, by downloading the mp3 file, or by subscribing with your podcatcher of choice.

I did not have a commentary this week.

Shire Network News #122 has been released. The feature interview is with British Member of Parliament for Wells, David Heathcote-Amery. He is talking to Tom Paine about the precarious state of democracy in Europe with a new European constitution (in all but name) being rammed down the throats of an unwilling populace. Click here for the show notes, links, and ways to listen to the show; directly from the web site, by downloading the mp3 file, or by subscribing with your podcatcher of choice.

Below is the text of my commentary.

Hi, this is Doug Payton for Shire Network News, asking you to "Consider This".

Senator Barack Obama gave a speech in Philadelphia this past week on race issues. The speech was precipitated by connections being drawn between Obama and his pastor of 20 years, Rev. Jeremiah Wright.  This "religious Wright" has put the Left into a bit of quandary.  "How do we ignore or minimize this sort of speech, while still reserving the right to castigate the Right for the same thing?"

Take Pat Robertson.  Yeah, yeah, I know some of you want to say "Please!" (ba-da-dum), but hear me out.  The same folks who are telling us about Rev. Wright that we gotta’ understand his point of view, or understand his background, or consider the history of blacks in this country, never ever give the same consideration when Robertson says something inflammatory or just simply silly.  And when he does say something outrageous, here comes the Left with their size 82 paintbrush and their #10 can of tar, standing outside every church ready to paint all those church-goers with the same stuff.  >slop<  "Wingnut!"  >sploosh< "Extremist!" 

Now, frankly, we do need to take history into consideration when working cross-culturally.  Heck, even intra-culturally; not all people of pallor come from exactly the same background.  But there are a few points to consider.  First of all, is handwaving away or minimizing the best way to combat lies or conspiracy theories?  (I don’t think so.)  Sounds to me like the Left is more concerned with hurt feelings than, y’know, lies.  The press has clearly signaled that they’d just like this whole thing to go away.  "Nothing to see here, move along.  Oh look, McCain make a speaking gaffe!"

And maybe this would all be less of a deal if my second point wasn’t that these words were coming from a pulpit.  Most of Robertson’s statements that actually get press come on a TV show where he’s covering the news, not preaching.  Wright’s comments come directly from his role as a pastor.  I see this as more egregious in this context than normal political speech on the street.  And yet those paintbrushes come out from those on the Left >splosh< and they decorate us when a guy who’s not our pastor, priest or rabbi goes out on a limb. 

My third point is probably the most controversial, so let me be as plain as I can and lay this out.  When a man of one race says something controversial, he’s called out on it, loud and clear.  When a man of a different race says something controversial, all manner of considerations are made for him; from the history of how his race was treated — true as it may be — to the understanding of why he might hold such ideas to the fact that others’ views are worse.  What would you call that double standard?

In this country, the Right will call out nuttiness where it finds it, even in its own camp.  The Left won’t.  Which side sounds like it’s more ready for racial equality?  Consider that.

Shire Network News #121 has been released. The feature interview is a continuation of the discussion from last week with retired Green Beret Lt Col Gordon Cucullu, who is worried about the increasing cultural gap between western military forces and the civillian population.  This week’s show comes to you, not from London, and not even from our emergency backup studio in Australia. No, Shire Network News this week is hosted by Meryl Yourish in Richmond VA!  Click here for the show notes, links, and ways to listen to the show; directly from the web site, by downloading the mp3 file, or by subscribing with your podcatcher of choice.

I did not have a commentary this week.

Shire Network News #120 has been released.

This week’s feature interview is with former Green Beret Lt Col Gordon Cucullu, who says there’s a growing cultural rift between the US military and civilian society, which is endangering preparedness to face unexpected challenges, such as the Venezuela/Colombia War of 2008.

What’s that? You hadn’t heard about that potential regional conflict which might drag the US in? Precisely the Colonel’s point.

Click here for the show notes, links, and ways to listen to the show; directly from the web site, by downloading the mp3 file, or by subscribing with your podcatcher of choice.

Below is the text of my commentary.

Hi, this is Doug Payton for Shire Network News, asking you to "Consider This!"

Barack Obama is campaigning to be the nominee from the Democratic Party for President of the United States.  A video was released on YouTube in which he enumerates the defense policies he would like to enact should he be elected President.  In the interest of the public service, I will be translating what he says into practical terms, so that all those listening can truly understand what he is saying and can make an informed decision, should he be on the ballot.  Here, then, is Senator Barack Obama.

I’m the only major candidate who opposed this war from the beginning, and as President I will end it. 

Translation: I’m the only major candidate who thought that liberating Iraqis, and cutting off the flow of funds to terrorists from Saddam Hussein, was a waste of time.  Shooting at our aircraft enforcing the no-fly zones was no big deal.  As President, I vow to remove all troops from Iraq, where the enemy is, but keep them in countries in Europe where the enemy isn’t.

Second, I will cut tens of billions of dollars of wasteful spending. 

Translation: I will sound vaguely conservative.

I will cut investments in unproven missile defense systems.  I will not weaponize space.  I will slow our development of future combat systems.

I will be fiscally "responsible" by shirking my duty to defend the country from new threats and new technology. 

And I will institute an independent Defense Priorities Board to ensure that the quadrennial defense review is not used justify unnecessary spending.

I will create a new committee to make sure that the other committee’s report isn’t used to stay ahead of the bad guys.  If we drop our weapons, it stands to reason that they will drop theirs.

Third, I will set a goal of a world without nuclear weapons. 

See previous translation.

To seek that goal, I will not develop new nuclear weapons, I will seek a global ban on the production of fissile material,…

Which, I am sure, Iran, North Korea and China will be more than happy to join me in.  I trust them implicitly.  Oh, and al Qaeda.  I will endeavor to bring my Swiss Army Knife to all gun battles.

…and I will negotiate with Russia to take our ICBMs off hair-trigger alert, and to achieve deep cuts in our nuclear arsenal.

I trust Vladimir Putin, and his hand-picked successor, implicitly.  Thank you, and sleep tight.

This has been a public service by Shire Network News, and the McCain for President committee.  OK, McCain doesn’t know we’re doing this, but tell me with a straight face that he wouldn’t like it.  Consider that.

Technorati Tags: Shire Network News, Lt. Col. Gordon Cucullu, military, Barack Obama, defense spending

Shire Network News #119 has been released. The feature interview is with the author of "Culturism", John Press, who says if we don’t believe we have the right to defend our own culture, then we’ll lose it. Click here for the show notes, links, and ways to listen to the show; directly from the web site, by downloading the mp3 file, or by subscribing with your podcatcher of choice.

I did not have a commentary this week.

Technorati Tags: Shire Network News, John Press, Culturism