The Iconoclast

BBC: Nigeria's Islamic authority has told the man who has 86 wives to choose only four and repent within three days or else he will be sentenced to death.

The Jamatu Nasril Islam (JNI) passed their verdict on Mohammed Bello Abubakar, 84, according to Sharia law.

This comes two weeks after the Nigerian press and the BBC reported on the case.

Talking to the media then, Mr Abubakar challenged Muslim scholars, saying there is no punishment stated in the Koran for having more than four wives.

However, Mr Abubakar advised other men not to follow his example and marry 86 women.

The former teacher and Muslim preacher lives in Niger State with his wives and at least 170 children, and says he is able to cope only with the help of God.

"A man with 10 wives would collapse and die, but my own power is given by Allah. That is why I have been able to control 86 of them," he told the BBC....

The Muslim Brotherhood is attempting to remake its image as fine upstanding representatives of the "Religion of Peace." From Ikwan.com (hat tip: GMBDR):

In a confusing account of Al Qaeda mastermind Khaled Sheikh Mohamed’s “terrorist history”, the Financial Times has most strangely stated that Mohamed “claims” to have joined the Muslim Brotherhood at an early age and then was “radicalized at youth camps.”

Some electronic jihadi hacked the FEMA voice mail system to make thousands of calls - probably to al Qaeda affiliates in the Middle East and South Asia - on our nickle. This is a scandal of earth-shaking proportions. The head of FEMA and SECDHS ought to be roasted, but good, over this breach of COMSEC because of some alleged contractor software glitch. The DHSCOMSEC team didn't obviously vet the system contractor nor test it to determine if it was bullet proof. If this could happen at FEMA/DHS then it tells me our federal government COMSEC is capable of being breached, and unless encrypted, calls and traffic monitored. I guess only the Israelis and SKYPE know how to  provide COMSEC. Embarrassing doesn't even come close to describe how this could occur and what the ramifications are. Is this a prelude to a 9/11 anniversary event?
 

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2008/08/20/2008-08-20_barack_obamas_povertystricken_halfbrothe.html

Michelle Obama, poor-mouthing  about still paying off student loans (the Obamas made more than $4 million in 2007, and $900,000 in 2006, so those loans must have been very large), was reported by The New Yorker in a story put up here, as complaining:

"You’re looking at a young couple that’s just a few years out of debt,” Obama said. “See, because, we went to those good schools, and we didn’t have trust funds. I’m still waiting for Barack’s trust fund. Especially after I heard that Dick Cheney was s’posed to be a relative or something. Give us something here!”

Perhaps, before asking her husband's very very distant relative Dick Cheny to "give us something here," Michelle Obama might suggest that in an act of charity -- Save-the-Children-Federation, that kind of thing -- her husband, Barack Obama, to the greater glory (ad majorem gloriam) of whom hundreds of millions of dollars have been raised, might do the handsome thing and perhaps spare a thousand dollars or so for a much closer relative than he is to Dick Cheney -- to wit, his half-brother in Kenya.

After all, if thinking in those family-tie terms comes so easily to Michelle Obama, surely she will urge her husband to do unto others as she would apparently have at least some of them do unto her.

It would mean so little to the Obama finances.

And it would mean so much, there can be no doubt, to Obama's half-brother. 

Or is African poverty going to be solved, in an Obama administration, another way -- by handing over (so Obama has suggested) another fifty billion dollars in taxpayers' money to add to the coffers of the Big Men who everywhere rule, and to their retinue of waBenzi profiteers? 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06D2lZcxqfA&feature=related

This business of "withdrawing combat troops" and leaving others confuses. Indeed, it hardly makes sense. Are we to understand that the other troops, those  "non-combat troops," the American soldiers who will continue to engage in the tireless and endless little acts of kindness and of love -- Reconstruction, teaching Peace and Justice, taming various lions (Arab and Kurd, Shi'a and Sunni ) to lie down peacefully with other lions -- will remain, without those "combat troops" to defend them? And what of the American civilians seconded to various ministries, or the American and other Western contractors? How long do you think they will remain safe and sound, when this or that group of Muslims may find it in in their interest, at the moment, to discourage American involvement (of the type: if we can't get the role in the government we think we deserve, we will push out the Americans and their aid to that government), or, alternatively, calculate that by attacking those Americans who remain insufficiently defended, such acts may force the American troops to return in force, and that too, may fit in with some sectarian or ethnic group's calculation.

"Avoid entangling alliances" warned Washington. Not all alliances are "entangling" ones. Some are useful. But this business in Iraq, or any business in any Muslim land, where the best efforts of American soldiers and civilians are akin to that of Colonel Bogey building that bridge so dutifuly and beautifully over the River Kwai, losing sight that the bridge, when completed, would aid their enemies, the Japanese, is as entangling as all get out.

And that is why, you see, we should long ago have listened to those who for the right reasons --the better to divide and demoralize the Camp of Islam by exploiting those pre-existing sectarian and ethnic divisions -- wanted us to...get out.

While this seeming end-in-sight comes as a relief, I doubt if anyone who supported the initial Iraqi invasion would have done so if they knew in advance we would be there 8 years, at a cost of 2 to 3 trillion dollars and over four thousand lives. When we finally leave, Iraq will not be that beacon of democratic freedom for the Muslim nations as we had hoped because the people cling to Islam and under Islam, freedom means perfect slavery.

WSJ: BAGHDAD -- U.S. and Iraqi negotiators reached agreement on a security deal that calls for American military forces to leave Iraq's cities by next summer as a prelude to a full withdrawal of combat troops from the country, according to senior American officials.

The draft agreement sets 2011 as the goal date by which U.S. combat troops will leave Iraq, according to Iraqi Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammed al-Haj Humood and other people familiar with the matter. In the meantime, American troops will be leaving cities, towns and other population centers by the summer of 2009, living in bases outside of those areas, according to the draft...

He couldn't compromise his religion, you see. At this joint Muslim/Christian burial for a one year old boy, where he was officiating, the parents had put toys in the coffin. The outrage! Allah will punish them!

Imagine.

I don't know where the "fundamentalist loner" terrorist stereotype comes from except from people who haven't been paying attention.  The only common denominator is they are all Muslims and they are not shunned by their Muslim communities - quite the contrary. From The Telegraph which carefully avoids the M-word.

British terrorists are just as likely to be married with children and have little religious background as they are to be fundamentalist loners, a leaked MI5 study has concluded.

Research from the security service found it was impossible to draw up a typical profile of a "British Terrorist" contradicting the perception that all are traditional religious fanatics or Islamic fundamentalists.

The classified report on radicalisation concluded there was no single pathway to violent extremism and no easy way to identify those who would become involved in terrorism in Britain.

Researchers concluded terrorists "are a diverse collection of individuals, fitting no single demographic profile, nor do they all follow a typical pathway to violent extremism".

The Home Office has refused to comment about the document.

The analysis was based on hundreds of case studies and found that unlike the common stereotype, most terrorists are unremarkable and live normal lives within their communities.

(...)

While most are male, women are often aware of their husband's and sons activities but do nothing to stop them.

Nor did anybody else in the community try to stop them funding, supporting, planning or carrying out violent jihad, also known as qital, also known as terror attacks. Other kinds of jihad are not even on the radar as yet.

Excerpt from a modern translation of "The Wanderer", an Anglo-Saxon poem from The Exeter Book (h/t Hugh):

Often I had alone
to speak of my trouble
each morning before dawn.
There is none now living
to whom I dare
clearly speak
of my innermost thoughts.
I know it truly,
that it is in men
a noble custom,
that one should keep secure
his spirit-chest (mind),
guard his treasure-chamber (thoughts),
think as he wishes.
The weary spirit cannot
withstand fate (the turn of events),
nor does a rough or sorrowful mind
do any good (perform anything helpful).
Thus those eager for glory
often keep secure
dreary thoughts
in their breast;
So I,
often wretched and sorrowful,
bereft of my homeland,
far from noble kinsmen,
have had to bind in fetters
my inmost thoughts,
Since long years ago
I hid my lord
in the darkness of the earth,
and I, wretched, from there
travelled most sorrowfully
over the frozen waves,
sought, sad at the lack of a hall,
a giver of treasure,
where I, far or near,
might find
one in the meadhall who
knew my people,
or wished to console
the friendless one, me,
entertain (me) with delights.
He who has tried it knows
how cruel is
sorrow as a companion
to the one who has few
beloved friends:
the path of exile (wræclast) holds him,
not at all twisted gold,
a frozen spirit,
not the bounty of the earth.
He remembers hall-warriors
and the giving of treasure
How in youth his lord (gold-friend)
accustomed him
to the feasting.
All the joy has died!
 

I am inclined to agree with Walid Phares that now is exactly the wrong time for intra-Western hostilities to be exacerbated because it can only profit the forces of Islam by weakening the West. The West should be encouraging intra-Islamic warfare and creating alliances with our Cold War enemies to counter the advance of Islam instead.

MOSCOW (AP) - Russia says its response to the further development of a U.S. missile shield in Poland will go beyond diplomacy.

Russia's Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying the U.S. missile shield plans are clearly aimed at weakening Russia.

The U.S. says the missile defense system is aimed at protecting the U.S. and Europe from future attacks from states like Iran.

The United States and Poland signed a deal Wednesday to place a U.S. missile defense base just 115 miles from Russia's westernmost fringe.

(...)

Many Poles consider the agreement a form of protection at a time when Russia's invasion of Georgia has generated alarm throughout Eastern Europe. Poland is a member of the European Union and NATO, and the deal is expected to deepen its military partnership with Washington.

Polish President Lech Kaczynski also expressed "great satisfaction" at the outcome of the long months of negotiations.

Poland and the United States spent a year and a half negotiating, and talks recently had snagged on Poland's demands that the U.S. bolster Polish security with Patriot missiles in exchange for hosting the missile defense base.

Washington agreed to do so last week, as Poland invoked the Georgia conflict to strengthen its case.

The Patriots are meant to protect Poland from short-range missiles from neighbors—such as Russia...

If I see one more doctoral thesis on “Riddles in the Codex Cumanicus and The Exeter Book: A Diachronic Comparison,” honestly, I think I’m going to scream. 

New Duranty: ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Political order in Pakistan frayed further on Tuesday, the day after President Pervez Musharraf resigned, raising questions about who in the deeply divided civilian government would be in charge and for how long.

The instant deterioration in relations within the government became evident when Nawaz Sharif, the leader of one of the two major parties in the governing coalition, the Pakistan Muslim League-N, walked out of a meeting here over the restoration of the chief justice of the Supreme Court, who had been dismissed by Mr. Musharraf. He then headed back to his home in Lahore, a four-hour drive away.

Party members said Mr. Sharif had delivered an ultimatum to the senior coalition party, the Pakistan Peoples Party, led by Asif Ali Zardari, to consent to the return of the chief justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, within 72 hours, or Mr. Sharif’s party would leave the government. Mr. Chaudhry was among about 60 Supreme Court and other high court judges suspended by Mr. Musharraf last year.

Even by the standards of Pakistan’s hard-boiled and volatile politics, the public discord between the political leaders was surprising, politicians said, a sign that opposition to Mr. Musharraf may have been the strongest thread tying them together.

The departure of Mr. Sharif’s party would greatly weaken the government — at a difficult time in this volatile nuclear power — but would not necessarily mean there would be new elections. Still, the situation did not bode well for future stability, with Pakistan facing a sharply declining economy and an emboldened Taliban insurgency that is fast moving past its sanctuaries in the tribal region and reaching into other parts of the country...

As we saw yesterday, the U.S. gave money to Pakistan to secure its nuclear arsenal, but we don't know what they did about it, if anything. If Pakistan falls into the hands of a radical Islamic government, naturally by the will of the people, what will "securing their arsenals" mean anyway?

From Aftenposten: 

Nalan Koc, a senior researcher who leads an Arctic climate program at the Norwegian Polar Institute in Tromsø, told Aftenposten that the melting tempo has suddenly increased.

There are four weeks left before the annual ice melting season officially ends in the Arctic. Last year, the melting tempo abruptly rose in August and September, and now the same thing appears to be happening.

Koc, who's also a professor at the University of Tromsø, said neither she nor her colleagues could explain why the ice is melting more quickly. She said the developments, however, were "dramatic" and "can have major consequences."

Data from American satellites indicate that ice conditions in the Arctic are changing quickly, Koc said. Figures from the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Colorado in the US have shown that the Northwest Passage is now open.

Last fall, around a million square kilometers of ice disappeared in a few weeks. Koc said there's a real danger that with so much ice already melted away, it won't be possible to return to conditions earlier viewed as "normal."

As the ice melts, warmer sunlight warms up the seas. At the same time, warmer waters from the Gulf Stream are being pressed northwards.

The temperature of the Gulf Stream along the Norwegian coast has risen two degrees Celsius in the past 20 years, while the average air temperature around Svalbard has risen four to five degrees.

"We’ve already seen that fjords around Svalbard that normally have been covered with ice in the winter have been ice-free the past few years," Koc said. "The glaciers are shrinking in volume."

It remains unclear, however, why the melting rate has risen so dramatically this month and in August of last year. "We have to learn from the past to understand the future," Koc said. "Now we're facing new challenges."

BBC:

Eleven people have been killed and 31 injured by twin car bombs near a hotel and a barracks in Bouira, south east of the Algerian capital, state media say.

Background from CFR (thanks to Alan):

What is al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb?

What's the connection between AQIM and al-Qaeda?

What are AQIM's goals?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBuHPebSdeY

Thousands of pounds of charity donations were used by the London bombers to fund propaganda activities, it has been reported.
BBC Children In Need confirmed that it gave £20,000 to the Leeds Community School in Beeston, West Yorkshire, between 1998 and 1999 "in good faith" to fund educational work for local children.
The school shared premises and funding with the Iqra bookshop, where the 7/7 bombers Mohammed Siddique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer worked.
It was reported the money was used by Siddique Khan and Tanweer to produce hundreds of propaganda videos glorifying armed Islamic resistance and to pay for outward bound trips.
A former employee of the school and bookshop, Martin Gilbertson, said some of the funding was used by Khan and Tanweer.
He said he had become increasingly alarmed by their extremism: "They blamed everything on the Jewish conspiracy, they hated western culture; it was like living with jihad on a daily basis."
Children In Need chief executive David Ramsden said he was "incredibly concerned" about the donation.
A spokesman for the Charity Commission said Leeds Community School was no longer a registered charity. He added the commission would look at the evidence put forward and assess whether there was any need for further action.

On this day, August 20th, in 1534, Fleet Admiral Hayreddin Barbarossa captured the city of Tunis for the Islamic Ottoman Caliphate from the Islamic Hafsid Dynasty.  While we are told that Muslims would never attack and kill fellow Muslims, and while the Qur’an is quite clear on the subject, in fact Muslims wage war against Muslims almost constantly, and Muslims are among the biggest victims of Islamic jihad.

The Hafsid Sultan was quickly re-instated in Tunis by the warships of the King of Spain, Charles V.  Rather than fight professional soldiers, Barbarossa decided to instead flee, and continued to bombard, sack, and destroy cities all along the Mediterranean Sea, including the Italian cities of Sicily and Sardinia, the island of Capri off Italy’s coast, Hippo in Algeria, Mahdia in Tunisia, and the Spanish cities of Majorca and Minorca.  And Nice, Cannes, San Remo, Monaco.  And Naples, Genoa, Elba, Tuscany, Sardinia, Salerno, and Reggio Calbria.  Besides bombing civilians and burning cities, he also found time to take tens of thousands of Greeks as slaves to Turkey.  He also converted the Cathedral of St. Mary in Toulon into a mosque.

After a successful career of blowin’ stuff up and running a lucrative extortion and protection racket, he retired in 1545 and died in 1546.  At the conclusion of the second World War, as a reminder of the former glory of the Ottoman Caliphate, Turkey build a memorial to Barbarossa in 1944.

Previous Days in the "Religion of Peace™":

Aug 19: Stoning Sentence in Nigeria
Aug 18: Iranian Jihad Against Kurds
Aug 17: Mass Murder in Lahore
Aug 16: Taliban Bans Bakeries
Aug 9: Pseudo Coup in Mauritania

Brian of London writes: 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 on #141

"Oh great. My parrot heard every word." --Rebecca Bynum of her new addition, Tolstoy, pictured left.

But the bar for the bird, no matter how winsome, is already set by their masters so low. Psittacisms are seldom witticisms.  Or are you expecting more than "polly-want-a-cracker" or "pieces-of-eight" or, as in the dismal case at hand that supplied the sound-and-nonsense recorded at a meeting of campus calibans, "you-mutha"? 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ir2eQw6E-Y

Reuters: ISTANBUL, Aug 19 - Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, on his first trip abroad since the International Criminal Court moved to indict him for war crimes, on Tuesday denied that his forces had committed genocide in Darfur.

Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo last month asked the court to issue an arrest warrant for Bashir on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur, saying his state apparatus had killed 35,000 people and indirectly at least another 100,000.

Bashir, who has defied the ICC and calls the court's move part of a neo-colonialist agenda to protect the interests of developed countries, said that his government forces were not responsible for crimes in Darfur.

"We are not committing genocide in Darfur," Bashir told Turkish President Abdullah Gul during a meeting in Istanbul, according to a Turkish official close to the talks.

"We are saddened by the events there," Bashir was quoted as saying.

"Events" happen out of the blue, much like drugs happen to users in Dalrymple's accounts. The passive voice lends no responsibility. Things like mass murder just happen. It's nobody's fault.

The two men, who met for 30 minutes in an Ottoman-era palace by the Bosphorus strait on the sidelines of a Turkey-Africa economic summit, did not discuss the ICC nor the case against Bashir. Bashir does not accept the legitimacy of the court....

Meanwhile, the fairness of Bashir's own courts is called into question. (thanks to Alan).

Hussein Zorkot's is an instructive case. He is a "Lebanese American." He apparently had a fairly good existence in the United States, so good, in fact, that he was admitted to medical school, and apparently could afford to go. He had made it into his third year when he decided to express his pent-up feelings about Infidels by showing up at a park with a car containing two knives, an Ak-47 (doesn't everyone have those in their picnic baskets? Yes, if everyone is the title character in Flannery O'Connor's story "The Misfit" or the title character in Evelyn Waugh's "Mr. Loveday's Little Outing"), and all sorts of other disturbing material in his backseat, he himself gotten up in man-in-black style (with his face also painted black) , in other words he, Hussein Zorkot, was dressed to kill, and judging by all this evidence, had not the police intervened, he might well have let himself go,  have been responsible for a little mayhem, possibly a little murder, directed at Infidels.

Here's how a local paper described the case of Hussein Zorkot: 

"The controversial case gained national attention in late 2007 when Zorkot, then 26 years old, was observed carrying a loaded AK-47 semi-automatic assault rifle near the west side of the park, which is located north of Ford Road near Schaefer.

Following his arrest, Zorkot's status as a Lebanese American and his open support of Hezbollah, which has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, led some to classify the Dearborn resident as a terrorist.

Zorkot was arraigned on charges on Sept. 11, 2007, in Dearborn's 19th District Court — the same day city officials issued a press release about the incident.

Dearborn Mayor Jack O'Reilly has defended the city's decision to delay releasing the information three days, and told the Press & Guide the information was withheld until after Zorkot's arraignment to avoid stirring up fears of another terrorist attack.

While Zorkot openly supports Hezbollah on his Web site — www.zorkot.org — he has not been identified as a terrorist or linked to any terrorist group, according to law enforcement officials.

The Dearborn resident pled guilty last month to the charges of possessing a weapon in a vehicle, possessing a weapon with unlawful intent and felony firearm.

According to Dearborn police, Zorkot was dressed in dark clothing and had his face painted black when officers located him on Sept. 8, 2007, inside his 2007 Ford Escape, which was parked on the park's west side. The engine was still running.

Officers approached the vehicle, which proceeded to pull out of the parking space and head northbound toward the park's entrance. Dearborn police were able to block the vehicle in before it was able to leave the park.

When approached by officers, Zorkot opened the driver's side door, but remained inside the vehicle. He then asked officers why they had stopped him, and said, "You guys are always harassing me."

During the confrontation, officers observed Zorkot lower his right hand toward the center console, which was out of view. According to police reports, officers feared Zorkot may have been reaching for a weapon and grabbed his left wrist while ordering him to exit the vehicle.

An officer at the scene observed the AK-47 in the vehicle's backseat, and alerted her fellow officers that the Dearborn resident was armed. Zorkot was then forcibly removed from the vehicle through the driver's side door — although he initially refused to let go of the door.

When he refused to release the door, officers struck Zorkot's arm once with a plastic flashlight, however, the Dearborn resident refused to let go.

A Taser was then deployed, which struck Zorkot between his shoulder blades. The electrical jolt caused Zorkot to fall to the ground, where he began rolling back-and-forth.

When Zorkot refused to comply with the officers' commands, he was stunned again and taken into custody.

Evidence technicians then searched Zorkot's vehicle and found two pairs of cloth gloves, a military combat belt with a canteen and two knives, boots with socks, a receipt for the AK-47 rifle and ammo, a gunlock and keys, a list of Metro Detroit shooting ranges, numerous photographs of Zorkot standing in front of billboard depicting "various Muslim extremists," a briefcase containing a laptop and a cell phone.

Two cameras, a portable AM/FM radio, a pair of binoculars, four computer CDs, an Army surplus bag, a camouflage face paint kit, a Lebanon flag, a VCR cassette of "The Never Ending Story," and eight prepaid international phone cards were also found inside the vehicle.

Based on the statements he made at time of his arrest, and the materials found inside his vehicle, a search warrant was issued for Zorkot's home. Police have not disclosed the results of that search."

For this he was given two years of probation, risible punishment only if you are the laughter-through-tears type.

But there is something else about the Hussein Zorkot case that is not only instructive but positively piquant.

For this same would-be bringer of mayhem and murder (had he not been intercepted in time)-- just look at what he had in his car and how he was dressed -- might simply have been one more in series of those who have supplied such episodes of one-man my-own-personal Jihad  (bizarre and inexplicable only to those who have not been paying attention to Islam) this  Hussein Zorkot , happened to have been quoted, a year or two before, in an article that appeared in the Wayne State Medical School Alumni Magazine.

And here is what Hossein Zorkot said then, in the language we have all grown accustomed to, even been taught to celebrate, on our cretinized campuses:

'Celebrating one of the most diverse student bodies in the country, the Wayne State University School of Medicine held its annual Ethnic Week in October. "Although Ethnic Week was only over a span of several days, the unity which we all displayed holds lifelong implications,”said Houssein Zorkot, second-year medical student and president of the Board of Student Organizations. “Becoming aware of cultural and ethnic issues is essential to a career in medicine. Thankfully, the WSU School of Medicine has a very diverse student body. The more diverse the body, the richer the experience. We had fun, too — it was great."'

http://www.med.wayne.edu/news_media/scribe/PDF/2006/06WinterScribe.pdf

Print that little paragraph out and send it to friends as part of your personal Celebrating Diversity and Jihad Day, your very own observance of  Ethnic Week and Dhimmihood, or any other idiotic yoking to your liking. 

"Piquant" I described this contrast above. And, exactly as promised -- piquant.

There have been a number of suicide bombings in Algeria recently. This is the latest.

IHT: PARIS: A suicide bomber rammed an explosives-filled car into a police academy 60 kilometers east of Algiers early Tuesday, killing at least 43 people - mainly civilians and young recruits who had been waiting to take an entrance exam.

The Algerian Interior Ministry said in a statement that the death toll from the explosion, which took place at 7 a.m., was a "preliminary estimate." An additional 45 people were wounded in the attack carried out in Les Issers district of Boumerdes in northern Algeria, it said.

"What is certain is that it was an attack aimed at hitting a large number of people - they were above all civilians and a number of recruits," said an official at the office of the Algerian president, who declined to be identified but who confirmed the details of the Interior Ministry statement.

"It was in the morning, at the moment when the young recruits were lining up to take an exam," he added.

Of those who died, 42 were civilians and one was a gendarme, the Interior Ministry said. Of the other 45 casualties, 32 were civilians and 13 were gendarmes, the ministry said in comments relayed by the Algerian Press Service.

"It's a bloodbath," a security official at the school told the Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter with the media.

No one immediately took responsibility for the bombing, which follows a series of deadly explosions in the country carried out by the North African wing of Al Qaeda...

WND has an essay from Joseph Farah explaining, from a conservative's point of view, why a McCain presidency would actually cause more damage to the country than an Obama presidency. Some excerpts:

• Both Barack Obama and John McCain are unqualified and unfit for high office because they do not have a foundational commitment to the U.S. Constitution's strict limitations on the federal government's power.
  
   
• By playing an active role in accepting either of these deeply flawed candidates, we set a new low standard for presidential candidates of the future – choices will actually get worse.
  
   
• Choosing between two candidates who have, in the final analysis, very little difference between them on the most important issues of the day is no choice at all – and the American people should demand better.
  
   
• By actively rejecting both candidates, Americans can make their voices heard in a powerful new way in 2008 – by demonstrating a serious demand for more and better political choices in the future.
  
   
• No matter who wins between these two candidates, presidential policy is sure to be worse than under President Bush, who, in my opinion, represented objective failure in the White House. No American should choose to vote for a candidate who promises to take America in the wrong direction.

Of course, the choice in this election is not just between McCain and Obama.  We started the campaign with a full slate of candidates from both parties, and both parties had candidates with better credentials (from the point of view of understanding jihad) than either McCain or Obama.  From whom are we "demand[ing] ... more and better political choices"?  We had choices, and we made our choice, for better or (much more likely) for worse.  We can't blame "them" for only giving us McCain and Obama.  "They" are "us".  Farah then draws a now-familiar analogy between Obama and Jimmy Carter.

But the change he promised was not the kind Americans had wanted. Jimmy Carter was a pushover for America's enemies. When the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, on a march they expected to make right into the Middle East, Carter's impotent response was to boycott the Olympics. When Iranian radicals took over the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, kidnapping U.S. personnel and holding them hostage for 444 days, Carter's response was his famous "Rose Garden strategy" – he would not leave the White House until the enemy capitulated. Needless to say, the enemy never did give up during Carter's term of office. Instead they watched an ineptly planned rescue effort go up in flames and praised Allah for their good fortune.

Meanwhile, during those four years of Jimmy Carter's presidency, Americans, for the first time in history, began measuring their distress and suffering. This may seem like satire for those too young to remember these days, but the Carter administration prompted something called "the misery index" to measure Americans' woes and anxiety.

For his part, Carter blamed the American people for being in a "malaise." Of course, they were in a malaise. They had to wait for another election to be rid of the bumbling rascal who had fooled them into thinking he had real answers to America's problems.

I present this history to you to make a point. I believe the best way to get another choice like we had in 1980 is for Americans to have the opportunity, if you want to call it that, of seeing someone very much like Carter back in the White House and working with a House and Senate dominated by his own party.

Farah is hoping that Obama is elected, causes destruction to the country, which can then be used to political advantage by the Republicans to elect a new Ronald Reagan, whom Farah does not yet see on the horizon.

I can almost promise you Barack Obama will not be elected to a second term. He will, in all likelihood, just like Jimmy Carter, pave the way for a real Republican president in 2012 – if indeed there is one in the wings.

[...]

Some will undoubtedly ask if I am suggesting a Barack Obama presidency will actually be better for America than a John McCain presidency. The shocking answer to that question is "yes." I do believe America will be better off with Barack Obama in the White House for the next four years rather than John McCain. Please understand I am not advocating voting for him. I could never do that. I could not affirmatively participate in that kind of evil. But I point this out simply to illustrate that voting for what appears to be the lesser of two evils can actually be detrimental to the health of the country.

Perhaps conservate NER readers will find Farah's argument more convincing and palatable than I do.  I would instead point to the horrific costs in the short term that McCain's promised policy of continuing the Iraqi Light Unto the Muslim Nations project, no matter what the cost in lives and money for the generous and naive kufirs, will be in the short/mid-term.  I would instead point to the consequences of ignoring our fossil-fuel based energy policy, and of denying the effects of anthropogenic global warming until it is too late to stop it.

 I agree with Farah that neither candidate is acceptable, from the point of view of being educated on jihad, or taking steps to protect kufirs from jihad. 

I DISagree that the solution is to vote for "None of the Above", or to disengage from the messy and imperfect method of choosing a leader that is democracy.  I DISagree that we should hope for damage to the country for the sake of partisan political gain.