Doug Hanlon

Fellow Unbelievers:

An interesting piece of archeology to add to the ideosphere of the Middle East:

Jewish presence predates Islam in Arabia
08.31.2026, by Sylvie Dauvillier
Reading time: 10 minutes
https://news.cnrs.fr/articles/jewish-presence-predates-islam-in-arabia

The looney “Free Palestine” crowd are now going to “just ask the questions”:…[Read more]

Reg:

Hamas has “achieved” nothing but repression and destruction and the only way to “Free Palestine” is to free it from Hamas as well as their Palestinian Authority rival Fatah.

One can rightly criticize Bibi’s Intel for their failure of imagination, as well as Trump for his “Board of Peace” which is just his attempt to make the Israel-Hamas…[Read more]

I always found it idiotic that so many Western ‘activists’ continue treating Hamas as an emblem of liberation. They bite down on the bait every time in order to confirm their biases. I am yet to meet one of them that has any real understanding of the history of the area. Maybe change does come from within. As “Bibi” said after October 7th, “Hamas…[Read more]

Jake:

BTW Enco i was ridiculing my own confirmation bias. It is nearly impossible to kill all of the time. We are human.

Nothing per se wrong with confirmation bias as long as you acknowledge it and keeping it in perspective.

My confirmation bias is assuring that I have coordinates on Earth as a living, rational, free, flourishing human…[Read more]

Jake:

Recall though, that U.S. Intelligence Community, didn’t foresee either the first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993 or 9/11/2001, (not to mention Tiananmen Square, the collapse of the Soviet Union, the fall of The Berlin Wall, the end of Communism in the Eastern Bloc, the end of Apartheid in South Africa, etc. ad nauseum). So again,…[Read more]

Fellow Unbelievers:

Unlike the oblivious writers at Commentary, this writer somewhat gets it:

Arthur Herman
Did America Win the War on Terror?
It depends on where you look.
https://www.city-journal.org/article/war-on-terror-911

He does overestimate our foreign prowess against Islamic terrorism, however he does at least acknowledge areas where…[Read more]

Reg:

Yes, I doubt if Mr. Gray is ever the most colorful actor on the party scene. He probably belongs to some branch of the ‘reality based community’.

Ron Suskind would have really been the life of the party if he’d have just named the name of the one who made the quote, and he would have been really ‘reality based.’

Yes, I doubt if Mr. Gray is ever the most colorful actor on the party scene. He probably belongs to some branch of the ‘reality based community’. 🙂

Reg:

The idea of progress is a dangerous lie.

Phew! Bet John Gray’s the life of the party!
😁

Sunday Book Club: When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows by Steven Pinker.

Cue the Leonard Cohen, who, according to Neal from The Young Ones, is both alive and yet dead:

Jake:

2026 is the year of saying two things at once that seem contradictory at first blush but really aren’t.

Jake:

The purpose however is at least in part to terrorize the populace. And listen it worked. Those groups changed for the better. Correlation or cause and effect? I have already indicated my opinion. Just like the counter terrorism measures applied in the USA ya have to ask whether those have been difference makers.

What I think worked was…[Read more]

Jake:

Glad to see that I am not the only one to acknowledge that The War on Terror is not over. Also glad you acknowledge that inhuman ideas such as those of Islam are the root of terrorism. I just wish the influencer set would put down the toys and albums on their shelves and get back in the intellectual fight.

The definition of terrorism…[Read more]