Set in the 1940s, the film “A Christmas Story” depicts a series of family vignettes through the eyes of 9-year-old Ralphie, who yearns for that gift of all gifts: the Daisy Red Ryder BB gun. This was boyhood before “bang-bang you’re dead” was banned; family life prior to “One Dad Two Dads Brown Dad Blue Dads” and Christmas without the ACLU.
The excerpt is from my new WorldNetDaily column, ‘A Christmas Story’: Nullified by the State. Comments are welcome.
As I’ve mentioned, there isn’t a respectable antiwar movement libertarians can get behind. That some antiwar libertarians endorse the A.N.S.W.E.R coalition is not to their credit. At its core, A.N.S.W.E.R comprises American haters from the “Muslim, Arab, Palestinian, Filipino, Haitian, and Latin American communities.”
One of their objectives is to undermine everything Israeli. For example, they continue to propagate the Jenin massacre canard, which was even renounced by Kadoura Moussa, the Fatah director for the northern West Bank.
Mr. “the-Jews-are-monkeys-and-swine,” aka Sami Al-Arian, is not merely someone they defend, but a star among them. The hard-Left Rabbi, Michael Lerner, is always poised to remind Israelis, whenever their civilians are blown to smithereens by suicide bombers, to take the blame and turn the other cheek. Even he is too pro-Israel for A.N.S.W.E.R. So they banished him from one of their ragtag rallies.
And A.N.S.W.E.R opposes capitalism (that their agitators are mostly unemployed may have something to do with that).
So it is with great joy that I announce a genuine peace coalition: The Perdana Global Peace Forum, headed by Dr. Mahathir Bin Mohamad. This is the same Mahathir who once arrested his political rival, Anwar Ibrahim, for his support of “open markets and international investments“; the same Mahathir who has distinguished himself
for Jew baiting, to quote:
“The Europeans killed 6 million Jews out of 12 million. But today the Jews rule the world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them.”
Clearly anti-Semitism and peace activism are not mutually exclusive pursuits. (By the way, a more Halaal-kind of anti-Semitism is called “I-am-only-criticizing-the-Jewish-State’s-‘criminal’-policies, relentlessly, day-and-night, with-no-balance, with-the-aim-of-bringing-about-the-destruction-of-that-‘despotic’-gulag, which-so-threatens-its-‘peaceful’-neighbors.)
At least two of the papers at the Perdana Peace conference were devoted to the threat Israel poses to Iran. Peace activism can be a little unintuitive—go against the grain, you know. But Mahathir and panelists—a Counterpunch scribe, Robert G. Mugabe,
Zimbabwe’s Genocidal Dictator For Life, the “Attorney of Record for the Chechen Republic, an Imam or two, the Chairman of the UK-based Planetary Movement, and some UN lackeys—mean well, no doubt. Mahathir especially does a lot to make vivid the horrors of war and the effects of explosives. His speech is replete with descriptions of guts spilling out and limbs hanging by a strand of muscle. And Israel is in the thick of it. Mahathir’s latest libel—also in his keynote speech—is that Israel uses depleted uranium bullets and missiles on the Palestinians. I gather the Perdana peaceniks won’t be condemning suicide bombers who smear Jews on pavements any time soon.
As I’ve mentioned, there isn’t a respectable antiwar movement libertarians can get behind. That some antiwar libertarians endorse the A.N.S.W.E.R coalition is not to their credit. At its core, A.N.S.W.E.R comprises American haters from the “Muslim, Arab, Palestinian, Filipino, Haitian, and Latin American communities.” One of their objectives is to undermine everything Israeli. For example, they continue to propagate the Jenin massacre canard, which was even renounced by Kadoura Moussa, the Fatah director for the northern West Bank.
Mr. “the-Jews-are-monkeys-and-swine,” aka Sami Al-Arian, is not merely someone they defend, but a star among them. The hard-Left Rabbi, Michael Lerner, is always poised to remind Israelis, whenever their civilians are blown to smithereens by suicide bombers, to take the blame and turn the other cheek. Even he is too pro-Israel for A.N.S.W.E.R. So they banished him from one of their ragtag rallies.
And A.N.S.W.E.R opposes capitalism (that their agitators are mostly unemployed may have something to do with that).
So it is with great joy that I announce a genuine peace coalition: The Perdana Global Peace Forum, headed by Dr. Mahathir Bin Mohamad. This is the same Mahathir who once arrested his political rival, Anwar Ibrahim, for his support of “open markets and international investments“; the same Mahathir who has distinguished himsel for Jew baiting, to quote:
“The Europeans killed 6 million Jews out of 12 million. But today the Jews rule the world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them.”
Clearly anti-Semitism and peace activism are not mutually exclusive pursuits. (By the way, a more Halaal-kind of anti-Semitism is called “I-am-only-criticizing-the-Jewish-State’s-‘criminal’-policies, relentlessly, day-and-night, with-no-balance, with-the-aim-of-bringing-about-the-destruction-of-that-‘despotic’-gulag, which-so-threatens-its-‘peaceful’-neighbors.)
At least two of the papers at the Perdana Peace conference were devoted to the threat Israel poses to Iran. Peace activism can be a little unintuitive—go against the grain, you know. But Mahathir and panelists—a Counterpunch scribe, Robert G. Mugabe,
Zimbabwe’s Genocidal Dictator For Life, the “Attorney of Record for the Chechen Republic, an Imam or two, the Chairman of the UK-based Planetary Movement, and some UN lackeys—mean well, no doubt. Mahathir especially does a lot to make vivid the horrors of war and the effects of explosives. His speech is replete with descriptions of guts spilling out and limbs hanging by a strand of muscle. And Israel is in the thick of it. Mahathir’s latest libel—also in his keynote speech—is that Israel uses depleted uranium bullets and missiles on the Palestinians. I gather the Perdana peaceniks won’t be condemning suicide bombers who smear Jews on pavements any time soon.
“Person of the Year,” TIME stipulates, “is an annual issue that features a profile on the man, woman, couple, group, idea, place, or machine that—for better or worse—has most influenced events in the preceding year.”
My Person of the Year flouts TIME’s criteria. He has not “influenced events in the preceding year”; he has been irreparably influenced by events beyond his control. He has not triumphed over adversity, for how can he? To do so, he’d have to be super powerful, like a Super Power. He’d have to be someone with a say; someone whose vote actually counts. He’d have to be wealthy; stupendously strong; immune to daisy cutters, cluster bombs, RPGs, and IEDs.
My Person of the Year is the Common Iraqi.
Yes, it is misguided to celebrate victims. But then I am not celebrating The Average Iraqi. I’m suggesting that he serve as a symbol for the ravages visited by the state. He has constituted collateral damage for two administrations. And he’ll continue to be a pawn in the grubby hands of whoever seizes power in that failed state.
The Average Iraqi’s vote is not a triumph over adversity; it’s a victory over reality, for it is folly to equate freedom with symbols, and rhetoric with reality. Casting a vote to give someone power does not make a man free; freedom is the knowledge that even if one doesn’t perform that ritual, nobody can exercise power over one’s life, liberty, and property.
The Average Iraqi is a tragic hero, not a Randian hero. His image should be seared in the minds of men with a conscience. He is the repository of state evil; first Saddam, and then a faraway president and his Revolutionary Assembly sealed his fate without his consent.