Bill Whittle has written another good one. I'll just present a sample:
We and two or three other nations, old and true friends who have stood by us through flame and terror, now confront a menace the likes of which we have not seen for almost a thousand years. We face an adversary in the full bloom of romance with death and destruction, an enemy willing – eager -- to spray our cities with a virus it has taken armies of scientists and doctors, working diligently through centuries of research and learning, to eradicate from the blood-soak rolls of history. We face fanatics who would bring down the entire world, themselves included, in a radioactive Armageddon, secure in their own twisted souls of the heavenly rewards of sexual gratification and revenge for their many abject failures. We face people such as this, people who are so far beyond the pale of human mercy and so corrupted by black and bitter rage that they must be killed, for nothing else will stop them, nothing – as they tell us at every opportunity.A few weeks ago someone asked on Charles Johnsons' site (link lost I'm afraid -- update: the direct link to the pertinent post, not the link to LGF!) why we care so much about the "Arab street." I replied something along the lines that it was a normal human response to be concerned about a group of people who were so obviously miserable, and to want to fix their situation somehow. See, our responses are normal, theirs are not. Go read the rest of Bill's essay. (PS: the title is a shout-out; he'll know what I mean.) Posted by Andrea Harris at January 27, 2003 09:23 AMWe have blithely ignored them for many years, turned a deaf ear to their warnings and fatwahs, turned an even more blinded eye to their procession of assassinations, massacres, bombings and attacks. Despite our recent and proven record of aiding and defending innocent Muslims in Kuwait, the Balkans, and elsewhere, we have been singled out as a Satan, a nation of sub-human infidels, and been the target of slander and incitement to murder that would have shamed the most fanatical Jesuit in the Spanish Inquisition.
i second that notion about the sweet title...it had me running for cover from the upcoming ballroom blitz...
Posted by: mr.helpful at January 27, 2003 at 11:10 AMAnd the girl in the corner is everyone's mourner... She could kill you with a wink of her eye.
Posted by: Bill Whittle at January 27, 2003 at 02:32 PMNow that damn song is stuck in my head again. Do you have any idea how many years of therapy it took to exorcise it the last time?
Posted by: Fred Boness at January 27, 2003 at 09:43 PMC'mon, man, that song ROCKS. And there could have been no New Wave without Sweet.
Posted by: Lex at January 28, 2003 at 04:14 PMWell, now I'm going to have to post all the lyrics!
It's -- it's -- the Ballroom Blitz...
Posted by: Andrea Harris at January 29, 2003 at 12:39 AMYou asked for it.
Are you ready, Steve? Uh-huh.
Andy? Yeah!
Mick? OK.
Alright, fellas, let's go!
Oh it's been getting so hard
Livin' with the things you do to me, aha
Oh my dreams are getting so strange
I'd like to tell you everything I see
Oh, I see a man at the back
As a matter of fact his eyes are red as the sun
And a girl in the corner let no one ignore her
'Cause she thinks she's the passionate one
Oh, yeah, it was like lightning, everybody was frightening
And the music was soothing, and they all started grooving
Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah
And the man at the back said
Everyone attack and it turned into a ballroom blitz
And the girl in the corner said
Boy, I wanna warn ya, it'll turn into a ballroom blitz
Ballroom blitz, ballroom blitz, ballroom blitz
Ballroom blitz
I'm reaching out for something
Touching nothing's all I ever do
Oh, I softly call you over
When you appear there's nothing left of you, aha
Now the man in the back
Is ready to crack as he raises his hands to the sky
And the girl in the corner is ev'ryone's mourner
She could kill you with a wink of her eye
Oh yeah, it was electric, so frightfully hectic
And the band started leaving, 'cause they all stopped breathing
Oh yeah, it was like lightning, everybody was frightening
And the music was soothing, and they all started grooving
It's it's a ballroom blitz, it's it's a ballroom blitz
It's it's a ballroom blitz, yeah, it's a ballroom blitz!