Shire Network News #143 has been released. The feature interview is with one time Marxist, David Horowitz from the David Horowitz Freedom Center. He talks to Tom Paine about the direction the Democratic party is taking and how this is rooted in the politics of the 1960’s. 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 #142 has been released. The feature interview is with Douglas Murray, the Director of the Centre for Social Cohesion think tank, who joins us for a talk about the latest report from his think tank. It’s a bombshell report on the attitudes of Muslim students in the UK. 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, Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri put out an official audiotape. Yeah, yeah, no big news there, he does this all the time, “death to the infidels”, yadda, yadda, yadda.

But wait, this time there was a first; he spoke in English. That’s right; he wanted to speak to the Pakistani people directly, but since he doesn’t do Urdu (do you?), English was a good second choice. But even in English, the words were pretty much the same. “Your President stinks and his mother dresses him funny.” “Please oh please stop cooperating with the Great Satan.” “How do you like the results of my Berlitz classes?” The usual stuff, all with nothing more than a stock photo of their man Ayman on-screen. It’s almost like AQTV is in summer reruns.

Hey, don’t laugh; it appears that they really are. ABC reported last month that the media arm of Al Qaeda distributed old videos to jihadist websites. And get this; they didn’t bill them as reruns. Instead, they were previously released material translated into Urdu. Sounds like they’re stealing some ideas from US television network executives.

And since they’re translating into Urdu, I guess it’s only a matter of time until the latest al-Zawahiri blockbuster gets the overdub treatment. Whoever does it, I hope they credit him for it. (“Overdubbing courtesy of a scared Pakistani store owner with a scimitar to his throat. We apologize for any nervous jittering in the voice. Listener discretion is advised.”)

And those poor jihadist websites! I hope they didn’t pay full price for these warmed-over videos. There’s got to be a cheap iTunes-like place for 2-month-old hate speech. I mean, even I can to a “dollar theater” for second-run movies. Well, I’m sure that they did get a break. Those Al Qaeda guys are nothing if not sensitive to the little guy.

So that’s my “This Week in Hate Speech Video”. Join me next time, when I review the DVD “Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Father Michael Pfleger; Together Again for the First Time”. Consider that.

Technorati Tags: podcast, Shire Network News, Douglas Murray, British Muslims, Islam, Al Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri

Shire Network News #141 has been released. For the second week, our guest is author and activist Ibn Warraq, who has been writing and speaking against Jihadi Islam for decades. His work on what the Koran really says, and what the core of Islam is really about is the kind of writing and thinking that Islam’s phobia of self criticism makes impossible from within Islam. 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.  (Next week, for sure.)

Technorati Tags: Ibn Warraq, Islam, Shire Network News

Shire Network News #140 has been released. The feature interview is with author and activist Ibn Warraq, who has been writing and speaking against Jihadi Islam for decades. His work on what the Koran really says, and what the core of Islam is really about is the kind of writing and thinking that Islam’s phobia of self criticism makes impossible from within Islam. He’s the author of many books, such as Why I am Not A Muslim and editor of The Origins of the Koran, The Quest for the Historical Muhammad, What the Koran Really Says, and Leaving Islam. His latest work is "Defending the West: A Critique of Edward Said’s Orientalism".

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 segment this week, since I was on vacation.

Shire Network News #138 has been released. The feature interview is with Anne Franklin, a spokesman for Clintons For McCain, Hillary Clinton supporters who are working overtime to defeat Barack Obama in November.  That’s right, independents and Democrats who are so alarmed at the prospect of an Obama presidency that they’re supporting Republican nominee John McCain.  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 going to Iraq.  Did you know that?  Why of course you did.  The networks are positively swooning over this.  Never mind that John McCain has taken 3 foreign trips in the past 4 months; this is news.  Obama is finally going on a trip, so you just know the media are going to send reporters to cover it.  But not just any reporters, no sir-ee.  The Big 3 US broadcast news organizations are sending their top-dog, big-time new anchors with him.  Never mind that when McCain hits the trail, sometimes he doesn’t get any reporters along, and sometimes CBS has to rearrange its sock drawer that day.

Say it with me kids; In.  The.  Tank.  And drowning.

When John McCain went to Iraq for a week in March, the biggest news from that was that he misspoke about Iran funding Al Qaeda.  CBS managed to squeeze out 31 words the whole week among 10 whole seconds of prime-time news coverage.  That must have hurt.  But now, with their anchors following his every breath, the evening news can open and close with a little Obama vignette, have time for a full-length news story on his visit, and still have a little time left over for…that, um, other guy, McFly something.  Just think of it; in the time it’ll take Katie Couric to introduce herself, CBS will have spent more time on the Obama visit than they did with that, um…other guy. 

But they’ll still look at you with a straight face and tell you that they are objective.  Time and Newsweek will give Obama 12 cover stories to McSomebody’s 5 and still insist that they are balanced. 

But the New York Times, in writing about this media extravaganza, had to grudgingly admit that things did look just a little slanted.

But the coverage also feeds into concerns in Mr. McCain’s campaign, and among Republicans in general, that the news media are imbalanced in their coverage of the candidates, just as aides to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton felt during the primary season.

So you see, it’s not that it’s true, it’s not so much that the numbers and statistics all point the same way.  It’s that this simply "feeds into concerns" about media bias.  Kind of a "nolo contendere" defense.  So yeah, its a grudging admission.  "We apologize if you feel if you have been wronged, but if you were wronged, we didn’t do it, and if we did do it, we didn’t mean it, and if we did mean it, well can you blame us?"

Well, "Yes we can!"  Consider that.

Technorati Tags: Shire Network News, Anne Franklin, Clintons For McCain, Barack Obama, John McCain, liberal media bias

Shire Network News #137 has been released. The feature interview is with Guy Earle, who committed the unpardonable sin of having a go at some hecklers at a show in Vancouver who were members of a protected class. 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!"

This is a "Next Generation" update; stories that cover what’s going on in the world regarding the children, how they’re being brought up, brought down, pampered and hampered. 

We start with a doctor in Boston, Massachusetts that is prepping children as young as 7 for…a sex change.  Dr. Norman Spack, a pediatrician at Boston’s Children’s Hospital is taking in clients to give them drugs that delay the onset of puberty so these kids can decide what gender they really want to be.  So now, we’re doing with drugs what they used to do to boys in the middle ages in order to keep their high-pitched voices for the choir.  Only now, it’s "for the children".

Spack says that the permanent infertility is worth the trade-off, because, as he says, these kinds of kids are deeply troubled and have a high level of suicide attempts.  OK, so now, instead of addressing this deep troubling, we indulge their confusion?  Drug addicts are deeply troubled, too.  I suppose the next thing is giving them free needles and free drugs.  Oh, wait, they’re already doing that, especially in Canada.  Well, then, it’s be like giving cutters, those who inflict pain on themselves, clean razor blades.  Ah, nope, already been proposed by the Royal College of Nursing.  OK, something that even liberals would…ah ha, got it!  It’s like giving cigarette smokers free cigarettes!  They may not be as deeply troubled, but many do die early from the addiction, and as liberals like to remind us, even it saves just one life, it’s worth it.

Anyway, there are number of other doctors at prominent hospitals against it, so we have ways to go on this front.  Stay tuned.

In other news, the National Children’s Bureau in Britain has issued guidelines for nursery workers to be on the lookout for racist behavior in children.  This include things like a 3-year-old turning up their noses at unfamiliar foreign food.  I’m sorry, but when my kids were younger, they all had a penchant for saying "yuk" to unfamiliar food of any sort, foreign or not.  I don’t think they could tell what was domestic and what wasn’t.  Three-year-olds don’t ask, "Is that an imported cheese?  I’m sorry, but I only buy American; Wisconsin, specifically."  Nurseries are encouraged to report as many incidents from this 366-page guide as possible.  The guide says, "Some people think that if a large number of racist incidents are reported, this will reflect badly on the institution. In fact, the opposite is the case."  Heh, indeed.  It means more money for this government program to strain at gnats with.

Moving over to Germany, a new bill, which has the backing of dozens of big-time German politicians, would lower the voting age…to 0.  Babies could voice their opinions on the economy, and toddlers could weigh in on their education.  If you want to pass a bill on military deployment, you’ll have to get that crucial 3-10 year-old demographic on your side.  Again, not likely to happen soon — they tried before as recently as 3 years ago — but as with other efforts "for the children" and against disenfranchisement, it’s not dead yet.

And finally, from Pakistan, we have some good news and some bad news.  The good news is that 2000 women took a group vow last Wednesday.  They raised their voices in unity.  "I am woman, here me roar."  The bad news is that these burqa-clad Islamic women all vowed to raise their children to be Jihadis. 

Well it could be worse.  It could be a bunch of gender-confused kids going out to vote to send themselves out to holy war against people who call them "racist" for saying "yuk" to pork.

Consider that.  (Well, no.  Don’t.)

Technorati Tags: podcast, Shire Network News, children, Dr. Norman Spack, Boston Children’s Hospital, National Children’s Bureau, Britain, racism, Germany, Pakistan, jihad

Shire Network News #136 has been released. The feature interview is with Dr. Mordechai Kedar, of the Arabic Department of Bar-Ilan University in Tel Aviv. While appearing recently on Al Jazeera talking about building apartments in Jerusalem, he decided not to take the role of a piñata as expected by the show’s host. 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!"

With all due respect to the host of this show, who comes from the land we broke away from 232 years ago, I’m going to touch a bit on Independence Day in these United States. 

This quote from John Quincy Adams was brought to my attention recently.  He was writing to his wife Abigail about how he thought Independence Day would be celebrated in the years to come.

I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of the continent to the other, from this time forward forevermore.

Well, we seem to have the pomp and parade, fireworks and barbeques down pat.  Some sporting events, like Atlanta’s Peachtree Road Race, are exclusively on July 4th.  But it’s this clinginess to guns and religion that one US presidential candidate would, no doubt, find beneath him.  Thanks to the Heller Supreme Court decision, it now appears that individuals can celebrate Independence Day, not just "well-regulated militias".

In the intervening years since Adams’ prediction, and indeed hope, America has been there to fight for freedom in other places as well.  Imagine that; a country strong enough and with the right frame of mind to consider more than just its own well-being, but the well-being of other nations.  The American "empire", if you want to call it that, has been unlike any other.  Instead of entering a country and annexing it or taking it over, we come in, get rid of the bad guys, and, instead of installing our own government in perpetuity, we install voting booths.  Granted, it’s not always been that way, and we have certainly made our share of mistakes, no doubt.  But on balance, compared to other nations of our size and strength throughout history, I believe we’ve been an overall force for good and liberty in the world. 

And, quite notably, very often with our former enemy, England, by our side.  If our Founding Father’s had been told that someday the US and the UK would be BFFs, they’d ROFL.  Well, if they did any text messaging.

And to sound so utterly un-PC — something which we major in on Shire Network News — I believe we are this force for good precisely because we cling to our guns and our religion.  The guns represent individual liberty and individual rights.  They show that we are willing to fight for our ourselves and for what we believe in; both individually and as a nation. 

But this nation also clings to its religion, and while there is the freedom to practice any or no religion, much of our foundational ideas came from Judeo-Christian principles, including, by the way, that religious freedom, as well as concern for others as much as oneself.  Clinging just to guns, without that religious component, would have made us no different than the Romans or the Huns or the Nazis.  But we have also gone into Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, western Europe, and yes, even Vietnam, with the purpose of holding back oppression in other countries.  We could just hunker down behind our borders, clinging to our guns, but there is more to being a good neighbor that just waiting for the bad guys to show up here.  No, we can’t police the world, that much is certain.  But there are things we can do. 

Again, it is true that we’ve not always kept those two things in their proper proportions, sometimes leaning more on the guns that we should.  But we do eventually return.

Thomas Jefferson was a guy that I would have some religious disagreements with.  But there is a quote from him on one of the walls of the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, DC that I can buy into and, I think, brings this all together.  So, consider this:

And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep for ever . . . ."

Happy Independence Day, all you Americans.  Cling to your guns if you will, but cling tighter to your religion.  Consider that.

Technorati Tags: podcast, Shire Network News, Dr. Mordechai Kedar, John Quincy Adams, Thomas Jefferson, cling to guns and religion

Shire Network News #135 has been released. This week we continue with Part 2 of our interview with journalist Bill Bishop, author of "The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America Is Tearing Us Apart".  He says America is increasingly divided, not just politically, but by basic, fundamental world views. 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 segment this week.

Shire Network News #134 has been released. The feature interview is with journalist Bill Bishop, author of "The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America Is Tearing Us Apart".  He says America is increasingly divided, not just politically, but by basic, fundamental world views. 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 had no commentary this week because I got to actually host the show!  The big question now is whether they’ll ever let me again.  :)  (My sound equipment is not, shall we say, optimal.  Kudos to Brian of London for removing what he could of the awful hiss.)

Technorati Tags: podcast, Shire Network News, Bill Bishop, The Big Sort

Shire Network News #133 has been released. The feature interview is with Martin Bright the political editor with the left-leaning New Statesman magazine.  When Israel marked it’s 60th anniversary recently, he decided to mark the occasion by publishing an article questioning the Left’s increasingly hysterical assaults on the country, which have escalated from criticism of individual policies to an outright questioning of it’s very legitimacy and existence.  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!"

This is a story about a city under siege, a city in a war zone.  The munitions that it swims in threaten its inhabitants day after violent day.  Some won’t even go outside for fear of what might happen to them. 

In one zone, during the first 5 months of 2008 there have been more murders than in all of 2007.  It’s because of statistics like this that the local police have started cracking down harder than ever.  It’s these kinds of zones that they will cordon off and completely shut down for hours at a time.  Checkpoints will be set up and all cars inspected.  Failure to cooperate will result in arrest.

Now, it’s been well known that crime in this city has been on the rise.  However, the government, even with of its attempts to curb the violence, hasn’t been able to achieve even the most modest benchmarks.  While local politicians worry about a police state mentality, they do support the measures.  Some residents are not thrilled with the manner in which the police are making their presence known, but others say it’s better than nothing.

And yet, with all the efforts of government and local police, the tide is not turning fast enough for some.  Pundits have called the situation a quagmire, and suggested pulling out.  Perhaps, with a change of US administrations in November, Washington can bring our men and women home.

To the suburbs.

Because, you see, this isn’t Baghdad or Mosul I’m talking about, but it is a city torn apart by violence.  Good thing they have some of the most stringent gun control laws.  That got them off the street.  Or not.  No, this city is a lot closer to home than you might think.  So perhaps it’s time to pull out…

…of Washington, DC.

Paul Harvey would say, "And now you know the rest of the story."  I’d say, "Consider that."

Technorati Tags: podcast, Shire Network News, Baghdad, Washington DC, quagmire