Rudy Giuliani Bloggers Conference Call – 5/16 - Granite Grok

Rudy Giuliani Bloggers Conference Call – 5/16

Update: Was real pressed for time earlier – I have now put in the links that I should have and spelled Jim Geraghty’s name right as well!

 

 

 

The ‘Grok was invited Rudy’s con call just held.  As opposed to last time, Rudy was actually on the phone.  His opening remarks (paraphrased) were about the debate last nite were that the questions were more challenging (going after stances and more real situations) than asked by Chris Matthews and that they had more time to actually answer the questions without interruptions.  He obviously liked the FOX crew better and chided the Dems to actually go on a FOX hosted event.

We only had a half hour with the Mayor, and once again, it was a one-shot question time – no opportunities for follow up questions – in this area, the McCain crew show that they understand bloggers better – we want answers and we like to banter with whom we are interviewing.  More time too!  Also, we were told at the outset that after Rudy left we’d have time to speak with his staff.  However, the conferencing folks killed the connections before that could happen.

However, having Rudy on the call is a good step forward – he sounded friendly and seemed well prepared.  Questions came from Jennifer Rubin (a frequent guest on Meet The New Press) from  ABC, Blake Dvorak of Real Clear Politics was there, Phil Klein from the American Spectator, Matt Lewis of Townhall.com, Jim Geraghty  (boy, am I mangling his last name – fixed now – sorry!) of National Review and Bill Bradley of New West Notes.

And me!

Mine went along these lines:

In addition to the military wars that the Islamists are waging against the West in

In addition to the military wars that the Islamists are waging against the West in Iraq, Afganistan, Thailand, and other places, do you believe that a more covert “war” is being waged against Western liberal democratic culture via an political correctness / information / PR war and the steady pushing of elements of Shar’ia law onto non-muslims? Examples: the Minn/St Paul Airport and refusal of Muslim taxi drivers to carry passengers with alcohol or having service dogs? 

Well, he kind of skirted the question by saying that this is not part of the War on Terror.  He did referring to the Palestinian Mickey Mouse caught on Palestinian TV advocating little kids to grow up to kill Israelis and Americans.  He also mentioned the movie Obsession that outlines more Islamic fundamentalism preaching against our West liberalism of ideas.

While I agreed with these two examples, I still didn’t feel I got the kind of answer I was hoping for.  No, not looking for Rudy to necessarily agree with me, but at least speak to the question as posed. 

Now, to be fair, this followed the question by Jim G of "should Ron Paul be part of the next debate?" for his answer that we were to blame for 9/11.   During his answer, he did state that Ron Paul made no sense and it is not sensible to blame ourselves for it. Why?  He has been studying Ismalic fundamentalsm since 70s. They hate us for one reason – we do not submit to their version of the world. It is not about Iraq, or Israel vs the Palestinians, or any other reason.

Now, why that question from me? I do believe that "war is politics by other means".  I also believe that "politics and culture can be war by other means" as well.  War is convincing your opposition that you are right and they are wrong.  War is the process of breaking the will of the other side to keep from fighting back.

In previous Western wars, wars have been of the military type (think WW I and WW II).  Given the nature of asymmetric warfare, it makes no sense for a completely military style war by the Islamists against the West.  Instead, as in many of the karate / Tae Kwon Do / Akido / Judo style martial arts, use your opponent’s strengths against them (and certainly, exploit their weaknesses too).

Our greatest strengths are our liberal ideals – individualism, freedom of religion and speech, and the ability to vote on our own laws.  However, they can also be our weaknesses – re: political correctness, the willful lack of proper judgementalism, and the ideas of diversity and multiculturalism that can blind us to "threats by other means".  I do see Islamists pushing all the time against our culture and ideals under the guise of our strengths:

  • Using the freedom of religion to not service taxi cab passengers because they have alcohol and service dogs (both are forbidden!)
  • Ditto by taking cashier positions and refusing to scan pork related products, forcing others to do their job and slowing push their rights over non-muslims
  • Pushing for more school holidays to honor Muslim religious holidays
  • Suing potential "John Does" (e.g., the Flying Imams event) under hate speech, discrimination, or racial profiling

There are plenty of examples out there.  Each activity, in my opinion, is a slow attempt at the culture level, to force acceptance of their religious values onto the rest of us.  And given that Islam is both a religion/political/culture based system (no separation of church and state in this system!), it is a danger to our liberal democratic ideals.

Think frog and boiling water. 

So again, why?  If our leaders will not lead, if threats are not named and discussed, our enemies will win by other means….

 

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