Category Archives: Media

Update # II:Erasing The Afrikaner Nation

Classical Liberalism, Communism, Crime, Individualism Vs. Collectivism, Media, South-Africa

“CNN’s Kyra Phillips has led her viewers to believe that dangling a noose—an impolite and impolitic form of expression—is a hate crime; a black man beating a white man to a pulp—not so much. Being maimed or murdered, evidently, doesn’t compare to being maligned. Phillips and the feminized establishment media have difficulties differentiating a felony from an affront to feelings. No wonder these wonder men and women are mum about who’s killing whom in the democratic South Africa, the pride of the liberal press…”

I’m aware that in “Erasing the Afrikaner Nation” I’m reminding readers, on the happy occasion of the Thanksgiving, of brutal injustices. But, as I give thanks for the safety and security I enjoy in my American home, and for the love of my beloved husband and daughter, I think too of the innocents—members of my extended family included—imperiled in my former homeland.

Happy Thanksgiving,

ILANA

Update # I: Some of the letters received and promptly discarded were the ones with The Expected Epithet. As one wise scholar once said to me, “If you are not called a racist, then, it seems to me, you are in intellectual trouble and it is high time to reconsider your own thinking.”

The other less expected avenue of attack was a defense of Marxism, coupled to a claim, thrown into the ignorant mix, that the South African Communist Party is a spent force in that political landscape. On display here is an ignorance of the ANC, its history and philosophy.

The South African Communist Party, the African National Congress, and the ANC’s terrorist arm, the Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), were overlapping, intricately intertwined entities, historically and ideologically.

The Communist Party is a rib from the ANC’s rib cage. There is an overlap in membership, confirms the government’s own website, with “a number of SACP members occupying seats in the General Assembly by virtue of their dual ANC membership—The party’s membership overlaps with those of the ANC and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), its partners in what is known as the tripartite alliance. It has significant representation in the ANC and government, from the executive down to local government structures.”
“The party believes in the establishment of a socialist society, which it says should be characterized by democracy, equality, freedom, and the socialization of the predominant part of the economy.”

“Socialization,” to those who still don’t know, is antithetical to freedom. This is the embodiment of Orwellian speech.

The ANC-orchestrated “racial socialism” that is contributing to the destruction of South Africa would do any modern, media-savvy Marxist proud. This is not merely affirmative action—which is bad enough—but rather, legislation that does away with property rights, with the aim of transferring wealth, by stealth, from white owners to black non-owners. ANC position papers hint at its ideological direction/intentions. The leopard has not changed its spots; it’s just a very cunning leopard.

Update # II (Nov. 27): A number of “Christian” souls have written in to gloat: Afrikaners are getting their comeuppance because of the sins of apartheid. The more hateful of these letters were not published.

These collectivists conflate the actions and legislation enacted by the state with the wishes and will of all European people—Boer and British alike. Such is the collectivist mindset.

However, even if we concede the collectivist’s argument, the destruction wrought by the criminal class (that includes the ANC government) to South Africa’s economy and productive workers dwarfs compared to the sins of apartheid. What you have in the offing is the looming demise of a civilization. As for the numbers, I quote from an essay familiar by now to readers of BAB and IlanaMercer.com:

“Few know that during the decades of the repressive apartheid regime, only a few hundred Africans perished as a direct result of police brutality. A horrible injustice, indubitably, but nothing approximating the carnage under ‘free’ South Africa, where thousands of Africans perish every few months. (Let us not beat about the bush; crime in South Africa is black on black and black on white.)”

But then, collectivists love what they’d call “creative destruction.”

Al Jazeera: Fair, Balanced & Banned In The US

Journalism, Media, Middle East, Propaganda

I first saw Wafa Sultan, an Arab-American psychiatrist who regularly exposes Islam’s true hue, on Al Jazeera. Well, not quite; Al Jazeera is banned in the land of the free. This particular broadcast was made available on the Internet by the Middle East Media Research Institute. What I saw of the Al Jazeera program was fair and balanced. Unlike “Fix News,” it was also intelligent—the moderator made reference to, gasp, Samuel P. Huntington. Most of “Fix News’” bimbos and beaus have no idea who that American intellectual is. At the time, I wrote:

“For my money, if Al-Jazeera continues to provoke viewers with the likes of Sultan, I’ll be signing on when they start to transmit here. It’s a whole lot better than enduring Chris Matthews’ incestuous love-ins with ‘The ‘Hardball’ hotshots.’ That’s when MSNBC’s Tucker Carlson, Joe Scarborough, and Rita Cosby aka ‘Throaty McHuskington,’ who each torture us independently during their respective programs, combine to amplify the unedifying effects.
As for the girls at CNN—Paula Zahn, Kyra Phillips, and Anderson Cooper appear indifferent to professional competition. Edgy reporting elsewhere never rubs off on this crew. They prefer to kvetch interminably about colorectal, breast, and lung cancer; anorexia nervosa, and Katrina. In this stream of soporific, soft-news stories, Wafa Sultan is indeed a rarity.”

Speaking recently to my fervently pro-Israel father in South Africa, he said: “The only fair shake Israel ever gets in this country’s media is from Al-Jazeera. The women anchors are also beautiful and refined,” he added. That’s more than you can say of say, Laurie Dhue—an anchor with a foghorn for a voice and a neck as thick as an ox’s. Dhue modulates her voice and pulls faces to ensure the viewer knows exactly where she stands on the issues. Kimberly Guilfoyle’s shrieking voice and large overbite are also something to behold. And have you seen Fix’s Red-Eye female representatives? Loud, crass, and crude doesn’t begin to capture their charms.

In “Bring the Real World Home,” Roger Cohen of the New York Times confirms what I surmised about Al Jazeera:

“A year after its launch, it reaches 100 million households worldwide. Its focus is on ‘reporting from the political south to the political north,’ as Nigel Parsons, its managing director, put it. The world it presents, more from the impact than the launch point of U.S. missiles, is one that must be understood.

Yet, the network has been sidelined in the United States. Representative Jim Moran, a Democrat from Virginia, told me: ‘There’s definitely an attitude here that these guys are the enemy. But in the Mideast, Asia and Europe they have a credibility the U.S. desperately needs.’
Moran met recently with Al Jazeera English executives seeking to extend the service’s Lilliputian reach here. Right now, you can watch it in Toledo, Ohio, through Buckeye Cablesystem, which reaches 147,000 homes.

Or, if you’re in Burlington, Vt., a municipal cable service offers the network to about 1,000 homes. Washington Cable, in the capital, reaches half that. Better options are YouTube or GlobeCast satellite distribution.

These are slim pickings. Al Jazeera English is far more accessible in Israel. Allan Block, the chairman of Block Communications, which owns Buckeye, told me: ‘It’s a good channel. Sir David Frost and David Marash are not terrorists. The attempt to blackball it is neo-McCarthyism.’

Block, like other cable providers, got protest letters from Accuracy in Media, a conservative watchdog. Cliff Kincaid, its editor, cites the case of Tayseer Allouni, a former Afghanistan correspondent jailed in Spain for Al Qaeda links. This is evidence, he suggests, that ‘cable providers shouldn’t give them access.’

Most cable companies have bowed to the pressure while denying politics influenced their decisions. ‘It just comes down to channel capacity and other programming options,’ Jenni Moyer, a Comcast spokeswoman, told me.
Nonsense, says Representative Moran, blaming ‘political winds plus a risk-averse corporate structure.’

These political winds hurt America. Counterinsurgency has been called armed social science. To win, you must understand the world you’re in.

Comparative courses in how Al Jazeera, CNN, the BBC and U.S. networks portray the Iraq war and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict should be taught in all U.S. high schools and colleges. Al Jazeera English should be widely available.”

Al Jazeera: Fair, Balanced & Banned In The US

Journalism, Media, Middle East, Propaganda

I first saw Wafa Sultan, an Arab-American psychiatrist who regularly exposes Islam’s true hue, on Al Jazeera. Well, not quite; Al Jazeera is banned in the land of the free. This particular broadcast was made available on the Internet by the Middle East Media Research Institute. What I saw of the Al Jazeera program was fair and balanced. Unlike “Fix News,” it was also intelligent—the moderator made reference to, gasp, Samuel P. Huntington. Most of “Fix News’” bimbos and beaus have no idea who that American intellectual is. At the time, I wrote:

“For my money, if Al-Jazeera continues to provoke viewers with the likes of Sultan, I’ll be signing on when they start to transmit here. It’s a whole lot better than enduring Chris Matthews’ incestuous love-ins with ‘The ‘Hardball’ hotshots.’ That’s when MSNBC’s Tucker Carlson, Joe Scarborough, and Rita Cosby aka ‘Throaty McHuskington,’ who each torture us independently during their respective programs, combine to amplify the unedifying effects.
As for the girls at CNN—Paula Zahn, Kyra Phillips, and Anderson Cooper appear indifferent to professional competition. Edgy reporting elsewhere never rubs off on this crew. They prefer to kvetch interminably about colorectal, breast, and lung cancer; anorexia nervosa, and Katrina. In this stream of soporific, soft-news stories, Wafa Sultan is indeed a rarity.”

Speaking recently to my fervently pro-Israel father in South Africa, he said: “The only fair shake Israel ever gets in this country’s media is from Al-Jazeera. The women anchors are also beautiful and refined,” he added. That’s more than you can say of say, Laurie Dhue—an anchor with a foghorn for a voice and a neck as thick as an ox’s. Dhue modulates her voice and pulls faces to ensure the viewer knows exactly where she stands on the issues. Kimberly Guilfoyle’s shrieking voice and large overbite are also something to behold. And have you seen Fix’s Red-Eye female representatives? Loud, crass, and crude doesn’t begin to capture their charms.

In “Bring the Real World Home,” Roger Cohen of the New York Times confirms what I surmised about Al Jazeera:

“A year after its launch, it reaches 100 million households worldwide. Its focus is on ‘reporting from the political south to the political north,’ as Nigel Parsons, its managing director, put it. The world it presents, more from the impact than the launch point of U.S. missiles, is one that must be understood.

Yet, the network has been sidelined in the United States. Representative Jim Moran, a Democrat from Virginia, told me: ‘There’s definitely an attitude here that these guys are the enemy. But in the Mideast, Asia and Europe they have a credibility the U.S. desperately needs.’
Moran met recently with Al Jazeera English executives seeking to extend the service’s Lilliputian reach here. Right now, you can watch it in Toledo, Ohio, through Buckeye Cablesystem, which reaches 147,000 homes.

Or, if you’re in Burlington, Vt., a municipal cable service offers the network to about 1,000 homes. Washington Cable, in the capital, reaches half that. Better options are YouTube or GlobeCast satellite distribution.

These are slim pickings. Al Jazeera English is far more accessible in Israel. Allan Block, the chairman of Block Communications, which owns Buckeye, told me: ‘It’s a good channel. Sir David Frost and David Marash are not terrorists. The attempt to blackball it is neo-McCarthyism.’

Block, like other cable providers, got protest letters from Accuracy in Media, a conservative watchdog. Cliff Kincaid, its editor, cites the case of Tayseer Allouni, a former Afghanistan correspondent jailed in Spain for Al Qaeda links. This is evidence, he suggests, that ‘cable providers shouldn’t give them access.’

Most cable companies have bowed to the pressure while denying politics influenced their decisions. ‘It just comes down to channel capacity and other programming options,’ Jenni Moyer, a Comcast spokeswoman, told me.
Nonsense, says Representative Moran, blaming ‘political winds plus a risk-averse corporate structure.’

These political winds hurt America. Counterinsurgency has been called armed social science. To win, you must understand the world you’re in.

Comparative courses in how Al Jazeera, CNN, the BBC and U.S. networks portray the Iraq war and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict should be taught in all U.S. high schools and colleges. Al Jazeera English should be widely available.”

Updated: The Boring Idea (Or Donny Vs. Annie)

Ann Coulter, Christianity, Judaism & Jews, Media

The verbose, vacuous Donny Deutsch had the leggy, one-trick Coulter on his big bore of a show, “The Big Idea.”

The exchange:

“Deutsch said to her: ‘You said we should throw Judaism away and we should all be Christians,’ and Coulter again replied, ‘Yes.’ When pressed by Deutsch regarding whether she wanted to be like ‘the head of Iran’ and ‘wipe Israel off the Earth,’ Coulter stated: ‘No, we just want Jews to be perfected, as they say. … That’s what Christianity is. We believe the Old Testament, but ours is more like Federal Express. You have to obey laws.’”

Deutsch promptly took offense. Left-liberals, Jews included, followed. I don’t have the time or patience to search for links to their apoplexy (here’s one). However, let me say this: If Coulter was more than a brash babe (she’s looking bonny), she’d have explained (as I did in “Unlearend Rabbi Rages at Ratzinger“) that a filament of the Christian faith is the belief that the path to God is predicated on accepting Christ. The centrality in Christianity of accepting Christ is a doctrinal issue, plain and simple. To get past the Pearly Gates, Christians believe one has to accept Christ.

So what? I don’t hear Christians telling orthodox Jews to ditch their maddening dietary laws, because these make people of other faiths feel excluded.

So long as they don’t use the Rack to convert others, why do these immutable doctrinal issues matter?

On a slightly different tack (but still on the topic of Coulter and Christianity), I wrote the following in February, 2005:

“Most real people had a 9/11 moment. Ann Coulter’s call to arms was particularly memorable. For exhorting, ‘We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity,’ she was even banished from National Review. This was indeed a puzzling purge, considering neoconservatives promptly adopted her recommendations, invaded Muslim countries, and killed their leaders.

The neocons have adopted all of Coulter’s recommendations, save the peaceful one. So long as it’s voluntary and doesn’t involve The Rack, I think that unleashing an army of missionaries on the Islamic patrimony would be far more efficacious than the military offensives currently underway. In fact, I’ve always suspected that an aversion to Christian conversion was at the core of the ‘girlie boys’’ horrified response to Coulter’s cri de coeur.”

Update (12:25 AM): A brief comment on Coulter’s clinging to the instant clemency Christianity offers:

Here’s more of Coulter the theologian, in the punch-up with Deutsch:

“[The New Testament] is more like Federal Express,” she barked at Deutsch. “You have to obey laws. … As you know from the Old Testament, God was constantly getting fed up with humans for not being able to live up to all the laws. What Christians believe—this is just a statement of what the New Testament is—is that that’s why Christ came and died for our sins.”

Yes, a Jew can’t expect to go to heaven if he whoops it up for an unjust war, and pimps for a corrupt president (that is if you believe all the heaven hocus pocus; I don’t). In Judaism, your actions determine your fate on earth and in the hereafter (the first being more important than the last).

A rabbi can’t wave a wand and absolve the wicked, as a priest does following confession. A Jew has to obey certain imperatives toward G-d and his fellow man. In other words, he must live justly and do good deeds.

So, yes: I can see the appeal amnesty express à la Christianity would hold for Coulter.