Ladies an' Gentiles:

[thebitterguy]

The Protocols of the Elders of Islam:

And ever since 1946, every inhabitant of the old Caliphate has dreamed of a day when they reunite under a single capital.

Comments

[dewline.livejournal.com]

Huh. Not the first time I've read this sort of alleged logic, and it likely won't be the last.

Yeesh.

[thebitterguy]

What I can't figure out is if they're divisive tribalists doomed to never acheive modern civilization by religious , linguistic and racial divisions, or some monolithic hive mind. It's so hard to keep track!

[perich.livejournal.com]

Maliki Sunni? Druse Lebanese? Ah, they're all the same color; who the fuck cares?

[uhlrik.livejournal.com]

Both?

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Oh, you're just sensitive because you can't WAIT for the day when you're strutting around Milton (or Al-Miltan-izan...) in a big onion-shaped hat, whipping the goyim, or whatever it is you people do.

[dewline.livejournal.com]

*stares in shock over the ongoing realization that there are people who really do believe in such thinking*

[waiwode.livejournal.com]

He's quite guilty of "monolithic" thinking in all three of his defined regions, however the first paragraph of his "Plato to NATO in five paragraphs" is pretty much right on the money, up to the last sentence.

His ignorance of several deep political (I'm not even touching the religious ones) differences among "the Islamic Empire" count against him, although between the rise of the Prophet and the fall of the Umayyad Caliphate he is correct .. a lot of conquerifying (mostly in water-poor Africa) did happen.

Pretty Map (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/20/Age_of_Caliphs.png)

On the other hand, it should be noted that this conquering happened during the western Dark Age, and without the funding of West - East trade.

But, of course, which ever region of the world you're in, people are people, and eventually people want a piece of the pie for themselves. The Umayyad didn't last, and the successors fractioned and divided their territory ... just like in Europe. And West and Middle East continued to fight themselves and each other over pie (and trade and gold and oil) right up until today, violently ever after.

Doug.

[ludickid.livejournal.com]

That's awesomely dumb. I mean, just the sheer ahistoricality of it all, the notion that the Caliphate was some sort of unified, ideologically constant, unchanging and perpetual monolith during all that time (entire uncomparable to, say, the Egyptian dynasties, the Chinese dynasties, or the Eastern Church) is just amazingly...why doesn't this guy have his own Town Hall column, is what I want to know.

[athelind.livejournal.com]

Crap on a crutch -- I started reading the comments thread on that post to see if you'd posted this insight there, and the sheer level of STUPID in overwhelmed me.

I'm keeping Hicks in my read list, but never never never opening the comments page again.

[thebitterguy]

I'm not gonna go into crazy libertarian culture war land and toss off my bon mots. I don't know if they respect the jesters there.

[thebitterguy]

I DREAM of getting my onion shaped hat.

[thebitterguy]

Ohhh, he'd kill for that kind of exposure.

[optimussven.livejournal.com]

What an amazingly retarded understanding of history. As was said above, the monolithic point of view is just ridiculous. As if there was actually one single Caliphate ruling the whole Muslim world for 1400 years. Yeesh.

And then the claims about WWI and WWII? Buh? Why did the Ottoman Empire side with Germany? Oh, I don't know, a little thing called Russia?

And then siding with the Nazis? Excuse me?

Whatever.

[thebitterguy]

I think the proper description for the situation is a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

[multiplexer.livejournal.com]

That post popped him off my 'casual read' lj list and into the circular file. We're all full up on crazy here and there just ain't any more room.

[perich.livejournal.com]

why doesn't this guy have his own Town Hall column

His occasional glowing paeans to FDR, for one.

[thebitterguy]

True. Maybe LGF might be more willing to forgive his occasional weakness in that regard.

[thebitterguy]

I'm keeping him, if only for amusements sake. He's got his own tag now!