The European Union has solved the problem of Islamic terrorism! How did they accomplish this amazing feat? Quite literally by wishing it out of existence.

The European Union has drawn up guidelines advising government spokesmen to refrain from linking Islam and terrorism in their statements.

Brussels officials have confirmed the existence of a classified handbook which offers “non-offensive” phrases to use when announcing anti-terrorist operations or dealing with terrorist attacks.

Banned terms are said to include “jihad”, “Islamic” or “fundamentalist”.

The word “jihad” is to be avoided altogether, according to some sources, because for Muslims the word can mean a personal struggle to live a moral life.

One alternative, suggested publicly last year, is for the term “Islamic terrorism” to be replaced by “terrorists who abusively invoke Islam”.

I know what you’re thinking. No, this is not satire.

It is amazing how arrogant these people are in assuming that non-Muslims have any say whatsoever in deciding which interpretation of Islam is “abusive” and which is the true Islam. That is only for Muslims to decide.

Why do we assume the Jihadist’s interpretation is wrong? The people who need to make that argument are the Muslims who disagree with it, and we need to pressure them to do so. But this accomplishes exactly the opposite because it sends a signal that we believe the “moderate” Muslims have won by defeat, relieving them of any pressure to actually attempt to do so.

Don’t want jihad associated with terrorists? There are only two ways to do that. 1) Defeat those who invoke jihad for the sake of terrorism. 2) Convince them not to do so. And there’s every reason to believe option 2 is impractical, leaving only victory. What is not an option (listen up EU) is attempting an Orwellian redefinition of verbiage with some odd hope that what you call a thing will have an impact on the reality of the thing.

Hat tip: Hot Air

Arabs want peace, the media declares with glee with headlines like “Arab leaders urge Israel to take peace offer”

Arab leaders urged Israel and the world on Thursday to take up a 5-year-old peace plan to end the conflict with Israel, and the Palestinian president warned of more violence if the “hand of peace” was rejected.

Hmm. So, what do you call it when someone tells you to take a course of action or face violence? If it were Israel or the U.S. making such a statement, it would be called a threat. But apparently when Arabs do it, it’s called a “peace offer”. And that doesn’t even address that fact that what they are actually demanding is a return of land the Arabs lost in a war of aggression against Israel. This isn’t a peace offer; this is extortion. But by dressing up their demands in the cloak of “peace” they get to bemoan the warmongering Israeli’s when their land grab is rightfully rejected, with the media there to help them every step of the way.

I bet you thought Iran was itching to start something. I mean, they’ve been supplying weapons to Iraq and now they’ve kidnapped 15 British soldiers. But silly you, TIME is here to inform us that clearly it’s all Bush’s fault. Robert Baur’s article oozes with sympathy for the poor, persecuted Iranians and attributes nothing but sinister motives to the scheming Bush, who is apparently just looking for any old excuse for war.

You wouldn’t be wrong to wonder if Iran hasn’t lost its mind seizing the fifteen British marines and sailors, and in so doing, handing Bush a causus belli even he couldn’t have imagined.

I guess that whole threatening to destroy us thing just isn’t enough, so Bush has to try and imagine things!

ranian grievances, real and perceived, don’t stop there. Tehran is convinced the U.S. or one of its allies was behind the March 2006 separatist violence in Iranian Baluchistan, which ended up with twenty people killed, including an IRGC member executed. And the Iranians believe there is more to come, accusing the U.S. of training and arming Iranian Kurds and Azeris to go back home and cause problems. Needless to say the Iranians are not happy there are American soldiers on two of its borders, as well as two carriers and a dozen warships in the Gulf. You call this paranoia, they ask.

The Bush Administration is doing nothing to allay Tehran’s paranoia. With the largest build up in the Gulf since the start of this Iraq war, it’s actually fanning it. You have to wonder if Bush is counting on the Iranians over-reacting like they did when they seized our embassy in 1979. And lest we forget, this was driven by paranoia that we were plotting to destroy the revolution.

Well golly gee, I’m so sorry we’ve offended the Iranians so, what with our existing and all. Let’s give Robert Baer what he seems to so desire and just kill ourselves and get it over with.

This is the single best opinion piece I’ve ever read on how to go about winning against the Iraqi insurgents. It also contains lessons on why we’ll lose if we let ourselves.

Unfortunately, as expressed in the article, the weakest link in western counterinsurgency ability has always been the leftists controlling the dialogue at home, fabricating one artificial defeat after another. General Petraeus may be doing very well in Iraq, and ultimately he may succeed in breaking the insurgency’s hold on the Iraqi population. But it won’t matter if the left continues to dispirit us here at home. We’ll lose despite victory on the ground. Just like the French in Algeria and ourselves in Vietnam.

But there is hope. We’re making progress in negating the one piece of the equation where militant ideological extremists and thier leftists allies can manage to tip things against us. I’m talking about the media. Broadcast TV and print are practically lost causes, impenetrable fortresses of defeatist liberalism. But in radio and the internet we can rob them of thier advantage. If you’re here reading this, realize that you are standing in the middle of the pivotal battlefield for the survival of our way of life. A virtual battlefield for the hearts and minds of America. To make a dramatic overstatement, Western Civilization lives or dies here on the internet with the click of a mouse.

The weapons which will achieve victory on this battlefield: Common sense, good judgment, and skepticism. Question everything. Critical thought is the left’s Achilles’ Heel. And most of all, make your voice heard. In that regard, making our voices heard, we’ve got a lot of ground to make up. The time our ideological adversaries save by dispensing with critical thought and avoiding the rigors of capitalism they devote to political expression of every variety imaginable. I contend that your typical liberal activist is so devoid of thought, that were his brain removed the mouth might continue speaking for hours before exhausting itself. We have to drown these people out.

Reshaping the debate in our favor is the only way to succeed against the challenges we will face this century.

Al Gore considers run on green party ticket.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton faces a possible new threat to her presidential ambitions.

Former Vice President Al Gore has again been entertaining offers to run for president. Gore has been discussing a run for a third party nomination with family and close aides.

“Al Gore has been energized by the attention he’s been receiving as America’s leading environmentalist,” a political source close to Gore said. “He believes this might present an opportunity to become president or at least try again.”

How long before we get to bring up the separation of church and state with regard to prophet Al’s new eco-religion?

Rudy Guiliani’s presidential campaign announced today the addition of Steve Forbes to his list of endorsers.

“I am honored to support Rudy Giuliani for President,” Steve Forbes said. “As Mayor of New York City, Rudy Giuliani showed how exercising fiscal discipline, including tax cuts, lowers deficits, spurs economic growth, and increases revenue. It is time the rest of the country benefit from a true fiscal conservative leader who gets real results.”

“Steve and I share an economic vision that embraces supply-side economics, tax relief, and spending restraint,” said Mayor Giuliani. “I look forward to working with Steve and am proud to have him as a member of our team.”

Democrats show us what “supporting the troops” really means.

Apparently it means $24 million for sugar beats, or $20 million for insect infestation reimbursements, or $1.5 billion for livestock production losses. On and on it goes. Welcome to the most clean Congress, EVER.

Hat tip: Right Wing News

Not to worry though, I’m sure they’re just picking lettuce.

Teams assigned to make sure foreigners ordered out of the United States actually leave have a backlog of more than 600,000 cases and can’t accurately account for the fugitives’ whereabouts, the government reported Monday.

The report by the Homeland Security Department’s inspector general found that the effectiveness of teams assigned to find the fugitives was hampered by “insufficient detention capacity, limitations of an immigration database and inadequate working space.”

Even though more than $204 million was allocated for 52 fugitive operations teams since 2003, a backlog of 623,292 cases existed as of August of 2006, the report said.

The number of illegal immigrants in the United States has been estimated at between 11.5 million and 12 million. About 5.4 percent of them are believed to be “fugitive aliens,” those who have failed to leave the country after being ordered out.

I have a novel idea. How about when they are “ordered out”, you know that time when they are in our custody, we physically take them to the border and push their asses out instead of simply taking their word for it that they’ll pack up and go. Crazy idea, I know, but it just might work.

…Climate change can create new climates!

Some climates may disappear from Earth entirely, not just from their current locations, while new climates could develop if the planet continues to warm, a study says.

I’m so glad some learned people came along to help me out here, because I never would have guessed that if the climate changes it could lead to different climates.

What’s ironic, though, is that the computer models so heavily relied upon for this type of research have a horrible track record. If I recall correctly, they can’t even accurately predict todays climate based on historical data.

Does anyone actually get excited about this guy?

New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, a self-made billionaire, has told friends more than once that his definition of good financial planning is making sure the check to the undertaker bounces when it’s finally time to go.

So how does a billionaire spend all his money before he dies? In Bloomberg’s case, he just might drop a cool half-billion on a long-shot bid to become the nation’s first modern president from outside the two major political parties.

. . . Publicly, the Democrat-turned-Republican professes no interest in the top job at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. But the founder of the Bloomberg financial news empire has dropped enough hints and has had enough tantalizing discussions with potential supporters that people who observe the city’s politics for a living are convinced he is at least thinking about it.

Just what this campaign season was missing…a moderate!