[FISKING] A Comment

From a comment relating to my previous post, at GNXP on the subject of Eurabia. (I'm happy with the comments thread--59 comments at last count!)

In a psychological sense, there is a "phase" of denial when the mind of the individual can't confront a huge, mind boggling problem.

The anonymous commenter begins by making the cheap point that I'm in denial, that I can't confront an issue. That's false, of course. I've written on the subject of civilizational clashes elsewhere, and not from a stereotypical left-wing position whatever that is. See my fisking last year of Toronto Star columnist Haroon Siddiqui, who wrote an insulting column last year about people naturally hostile to the partial recognition of shari'a law in the province of Ontario.

What I am concerned about--what I've always been concerned about--is the degree to which perceptions are rooted in reality. Surprise! surprise! They aren't. Not only that, but there are direct comparisons which can be made with past prejudices and past negative experiences with immigrant communities, most notably (in the Anglo-American world) towards Catholics. Remember that Catholic immigrants assassinated the presidents of the United States and France, and that Italians were feared generally as (alternatively) immigrants who'd outbreed the natives or sinister anarchist terrorists. Things change; things stay the same.

Some of the passengers of one of the hijacked planes got calmed after one of the hijackers said "Stay quiet and all will be okay". The wise passengers quickly understood that that sentence was their sentence.

This paragraph admits itself to one of two different and mutually exclusive readings readings.

1. I am one of those passengers, one of the non-wise passengers, who foolishly takes the hijackers (see, they run things already) at their word.

2. More interestingly, I am one of those hijackers, lying to my captives about their fate.

I have to say that I prefer the second reading, for dramatic reasons. Anyone who's read me knows, of course, my strong support for the establishment of a global Caliphate. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll go stone myself to death for the crime of sodomy.

Bet Ye'or is right. Sadly.

Um, no.

[NON BLOG] Lunch with talktooloose

I'd lunch with talktooloose at an excellent Mediterranean/Middle Eastern restaurant yesterday afternoon on Yonge just south and west of St. Clair yesterday. Much fun was had by me, over my chicken shawarma plate.

One subject of conversation that I particularly enjoyed was a comparison of the DC and Marvel universes, specifically of the Justice League of America versus the X-Men. My acquaintance with comics is limited, I fear, but I've always garnered the impression that the X-Men are more realistic, that they are subject to the normal dynamics of any group of changing individuals and that the world hasn't been radically transformed. (In the JLA universe, to name only one element, the multiple massive alien incursions made over the 1990s, including at least one effort to blot out the Sun, should have created a universe wherein Star Wars would look like a good investment. As talktooloose explained it, the X-Men have an element of dynamic realism to them that's rather attractive.

UPDATE (11:56 PM) : Or not. Turns out I inversed things rather completely.