Remember how members of the American chattering class, libertarians too, practically tripped over one another to show-off their solidarity with the popular uprising in Egypt?

Many of the same slobbering sorts failed to mention that, when he was not ordering rendition and torture in the service of the US, Mubarak’s dictatorial powers were directed, unjustly indubitably, against the Islamic fundamentalists of the Muslim brotherhood. He kept them in check. All in all, Mubarak protected the endangered Coptic Christians of Egypt, who form “one-tenth of the 80 million people.”

So many neocons and liberals came down on Obama, his VP, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton when they responded with “old-school diplomacy” to the developments on Israel’s southern border. The opposition wanted BHO to be less low key about the lovely rebels. BHO eventually complied.

PBS refuses to identify the 26 “protesters” who were killed in yesterday’s “sectarian” clashes in Egypt between Muslim and Christians. I wager that the Christian Coptic community stands less of a chance now that Mubarak is gone.

RAY SUAREZ: Some 1,000 Christians gathered last night to protest the slow response of the military government to Muslim attacks on Coptic churches, but the peaceful protest quickly grew into a melee, as Christians, Muslims and security forces battled in the streets.

DAVID KIRKPATRICK of the New York Times attests to the fact that what started as “a demonstration, a peaceful march that began in the neighborhood of Shoubra—Copts demonstrating over the attack on a church in the southern part of Egypt—“ended with “the security forces… driving a trucks into the Coptic Christian protesters and firing ammunition also at the protesters. So, today, we had bodies that were badly mangled by those vehicles and others that had those bullet wounds.”

“The Christian minority [lost] a protector in Hosni Mubarak,” admitted KIRKPATRICK.

But no. “Yesterday wasn’t a clash between Muslim and Christians, but it was led by thugs who want to stab the revolution and the political process,” said one of Egypt’s new “son of 60 dogs” (an Egyptian expression for political master).

Nice try.

Egypt, like Iraq (where Saddam kept Muslim fanaticism in check), is destined to become Dar al-Islam (House of Islam)

The heyday for Iraq’s Christian community was under Saddam Hussein, when “Catholics made up 2.89 percent of Iraq’s population in 1980. By 2008,” thanks to the Bush pig, “they were merely 0.89 percent.” Iraq’s “dwindling Christian community,” “whose numbers have plummeted since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion as the community has fled to other countries,” has suffered a terrible loss today.

Whatever you say about Mitt Romney, one cannot dispute that this presidential candidate is patrician; Romney is a refined, mild-mannered man. He could have made mincemeat out of Rick Perry for his word-salad during the debate in Tampa, Florida. Romney’s retort was, “Nice try.” That’s all. But a lot of people prefer the boorish Bush clone, Rick Perry. In fact, rumor has it that Perry is behind the latest assault on Mitt’s Mormonism. Via the WaPo:

Dallas pastor Robert Jeffress, a Rick Perry supporter who recently described the Mormon religion as a “cult,” and isn’t backing off that claim in subsequent interviews.
But while the “Mormon Question” was a big one in the 2008 presidential race, there’s plenty of reason to believe its impact has somewhat lessened four years later, as Romney becomes more of a known quantity to voters.

Mitt Romney’s response typified his good manners: “We should remember that decency and civility are values too.”

The country and the “cognoscenti” did this dance in 2007, back when Mitt was forced into publicly defending his faith.

I’ll repeat what I said back then, on 12.07.07:

“I have no dog in the fight over Mitt’s Mormonism … Admittedly, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints may have some odd ideas. Not so the Mormons I know; they are very fine people. And quite magnificent is the Mormon Tabernacle Choir; it’s in fact the finest in the world.”

What gets to me is the absolute Alzheimer’s of the political players involved and their followers.

I would not put it past Bush’s clone (Perry) to have had a hand in this latest anti-Mormon mischief-making.

Ron Paul melds the teachings of the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament to remind “Values Voters” at the 2011 Summit of the Biblical imperative and the blessings of peace, and personal sovereignty; of the need to follow the Golden Rule (treat others as you wish to be treated), of the importance of striving for virtue and excellence as individuals—and not as subjects beholden to the proverbial king about whose evils Samuel forewarned. Above all, Paul emphasized the urgent need to revive the restraints this country once placed on the federal government. And fast.

Read the complete speech.

The Texas congressman won 37% of the poll at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, sponsored by the Family Research Council, a social conservative group.

[CNN]

SO JEWS SUCK; I GET THIS ALL THE TIME. BUT WHAT ABOUT MEMBERS OF THE CHRISTIAN TRIBE? Emails flood this blog spot on a regular basis pointing to the machinations of Jews and to their tribal nature. As you know, I often publish these tracts. “Sunlight is the best disinfectant,” and all that stuff.

On the other hand, I’m totally tactful—and more than gracious—about Christian tics, despite my dismal experience with the decency and grace of this group’s individual members (one or two stellar individuals excepted.)

A kind word or a helping hand from a Christian? What’s that? Not in my world, although Christians do spend a lot of their time shouting “Praise the Lord” from the rooftops. Then again, perhaps Jews are not Kosher; don’t qualify for decent treatment? Who knows? All I know is that, in my experience, Christians are the quintessential tribalists. You’re either in or out.

The other day, a snippy, self-professed Christian, having befriended me on Facebook, wrote to demand imperiously that I justify the letter Aleph near the URL of my website.

I know better than to expect readers in “The Age of the Idiot” to have researched the object of their scorn, and thus to know that she is Jewish and grew up in Israel. That’s too much like fact-finding. So politely, I responded with a link to the Hebrew alphabet, explaining that my name begins with an Aleph.

But information was not what he was after. Judging from the obnoxious, follow-up on my Facebook Wall—a forum which is supposed to be collegial—some rude, distinctly theological routine was the man’s aim.

The chutzpah of this investigation into the legitimacy of an ex-Israeli, Hebrew-speaker’s use of her Hebrew name! What’s up with that?

I’m curious, truly. Where does he get off judging/commenting on my use of my native tongue, Hebrew? Can he speak the language? Can he even read the Hebrew Bible in Hebrew? Did he spend his formative years debating/conversing/conducting life in Hebrew? Did he take all his school exams in Hebrew?

I did. For the first 19 years of my life, I was “ilana” with an aleph.

It’s who I am.

UPDATE: Compassionate Fascist’s posts are an example of the collectivist, contempt-filled comments I’m pretty patient with. Isn’t it time to kick CF off BAB? Here he is below, maligning Jews again. At the same time, he is a recipient of my hospitality in cyberspace, where he is permitted to vent his disdain for the likes of his host. The way I treat Compassionate Fascist provides a measure of proof against his theorizing about how bad Jews are. In effect, by bad-mouthing Jews as a group, and posting here quite happily, for the most, he finds himself in self- contradiction.

Writing on the topic of Western Civilization, historian Alan Charles Kors once observed that avoiding self-contradiction is the touchstone of truth—being mired in self-contradiction, the touchstone of error. To the Greek philosophers, to be mired in self-contradiction was to be “less than human, less than coherent, less than sane.”