The day before our nation commemorates the largest terrorist massacre upon American soil, perpetrated by foreigners who were able to skillfully exploit this country’s lax immigration controls, word comes that the Obama administration is prepared to import 10,000 Syrian refugees into this country. Keep in mind, this is above and beyond the tens of thousands of refugees who have already been resettled in this country-as well as the thousands of Syrians amnestied under Temporary Protected Status-and is in defiance of Congress, like much of the political agenda pursued by the White House during President Obama’s second term.

Of course, we’ve been reassured that these completely unknown individuals, who have unverifiable histories and hail from a country that’s home to hundreds of thousands of Islamic fanatics-of both the Sunni and Shiite persuasion-will be carefully “vetted” before being admitted to the United States. Just as I’m sure the Tsarnaev brothers were carefully screened before being allowed to settle in the United States under political asylum. Forgive me if I’m not willing to place my trust in the solemn promises of the same federal apparatchiks who allowed past terror attacks to occur.

There’s a phrase to describe this sort of behavior, and it’s willful negligence.

If you needed another reason why endowing Iran with nuclear weapons is a colossally bad idea, look no further than the latest manifestation of the Religion of Peace. The massacre at Garissa University in Kenya has taken the lives of nearly 150 Christians. Less than half a dozen well-trained Muslim terrorists armed with semi-automatic weapons and improvised explosive devices were able to murder the civilian equivalent of a company of soldiers with ease. And yet the notion of a genocidal Islamic state with ballistic missile capability being accepted into the nuclear club is something the global community greets with a shrug, at best.

How many more slayings of helpless infidels are necessary before we collectively abandon this increasingly macabre version of Groundhog Day? Only time will tell, but I’m not looking forward to the answer.

Although technically outside this website’s purview, I feel compelled to touch upon Hillary Clinton’s painfully uncomfortable press conference yesterday. You can watch it in its entirety courtesy of Fox News, but I would also suggest reading a surprisingly good analysis of the speech published, oddly enough, in the Los Angeles Times. What makes this event, seemingly untethered to the subjects of mass immigration, multiculturalism or citizenship, relevant to us is its demonstration of the mindset of the ruling class.

The contempt for the governing process, as well as contempt for any legal checks upon the exercise of authority, the betrayal of the public trust, the demand of a complaisant news media. Even though these are hallmarks of the Clinton political apparatus, they also exemplify the way the current administration has conducted itself, especially during its second term in office. The way the White House has vitiated the Constitution and usurped powers that haven’t been delegated to it, not simply on immigration policy-which is the most egregious example-but on a host of public policy matters, is unprecedented. At least, within recent memory.

The fact that the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee sees a lack of accountability as one of the perquisites of high office should be troubling to voters. At the very least, it should occasion some serious questions about how the body politic is currently constituted and why the electorate doesn’t view this as posing a problem for republican governance going forward.

Bosch Fawstin shows how it’s done. Never forget that there are artists and writers who have been forced to live in hiding because of our government’s willingness to accommodate obscurantist, medieval scum keen to exploit our culture’s misplaced generosity. Thank God there are still individuals with enough integrity and conscience to name and shame the specter which haunts the lives of millions of people throughout the globe.

Just remember, folks: War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, and Ignorance is Strength.

h/t Bosch Fawstin.

Update: As promised by Brit Hume, Fox News has republished the offending cartoons. If you’re waiting expectantly for other drive-by media to follow suit, don’t hold your breath. There’s only one religion in contemporary society whose mockery is verboten. 

Mark Steyn, as usual, cuts to the heart of the matter. The refusal by almost every North American media outlet of consequence-with one glaring exception-to republish the cartoons of Charlie Hebdo-like their choice to ban the Jyllands-Posten Mohammed caricatures, is an example of cowardice. This is a decision motivated by base, craven fear, masquerading as a sop to Muslim sensibilities. That said, the decision by most European newspapers to republish those same satirical cartoons shouldn’t be seen as an indication that the continental media have any firmer grasp of what’s at stake, as the  groupthink denunciation of grassroots anti-Islamization campaigns, as well as of those political figures who’ve criticized the multicultural ideology that contributed to Wednesday’s massacre, makes clear. The consistent obfuscation of who is responsible for the series of horrific anti-Semitic violence being but one example of how muddled the Fourth Estate’s evaluation of Islam’s relationship to the West is.

Unfortunately, I think that Steyn has hit upon a difficult truth to digest. The journalists who were assassinated by jihadists in Paris were not simply irreplaceable in terms of their unique talent for clarifying the relationship described above. They were irreplaceable in a much more immediate, practical sense. There are only so many people willing to place themselves in the crosshairs of the perpetually aggrieved religion before our reserve of martyrs is exhausted. And then, notwithstanding the faux solidarity of people who posture as journalists, the terrorists really will have won.
h/t Gates of Vienna.

Sony’s capitulation in the face of threats by unidentified sources, who are presumed to support the odious Kim dynasty, serves to confirm what most of us have known for some time. Namely, the extent of allowable political discourse in popular culture is inextricably linked to the willingness of the objects of political criticism to violently suppress that criticism. Or, at the very least, intimate the unpleasant nature of the response in store for those willing to offer a dissenting voice. An interview the iconic Indo-British author and apostate Salman Rushdie did with Irshad Manji several years ago is worth watching again, if only because in it Rushdie makes the ineluctable observation that with each acquiescence to the grievances of Islam-whose appetite for grievance is insatiable by its very nature-Western society weakens its resolve to stand up to less imposing gangsters and their intimations of violence. As this complete and utter surrender to a third-rate, despotic Asian reich demonstrates.

In some ways, the comparison is exceedingly apt. Even though the Kim dynasty is often described as a cult of personality, it could just as accurately be called the civic religion of North Korea. And just as devoted Muslims view any desecration of their holy book-real or imagined-as an offense worthy of death, the penalty for not properly venerating the image of a Kim is something best not contemplated. So it’s no surprise that a film which-initially, at least-concluded with the assassination of the current ruler of the DPRK would occasion the type of response it has engendered, even if Kim Jong-un is not as beloved as the man whose legacy he hopes to emulate.

It’s worth noting that the less personal cinematic assault against Juche dogma which was released in 2012 did not occasion similar retaliatory strikes from the North Korean regime, although it and its supporters were  displeased by that film as well, naturally enough. There is an artistic work of much greater value than the one starring Seth Rogan and his friend James Franco which explores the tragedy of North Korea while utilizing humor, albeit in service of illuminating a seemingly impenetrable prison, which I think my readers would enjoy. I’m speaking of Dear Reader: The Unauthorized Autobiography Of Kim Jong Il, which relates the ongoing tragedy taking place in that state in the most remarkable way I’ve ever seen in print-you can read my review here.

Perhaps unsurprisingly given the subject matter, and the craven nature of American publishers, although it’s shared by many others, Dear Reader is a self-published book. Nevertheless, it’s one of the outstanding pieces of literature on this subject and deserves to be read by as many people as possible, especially those who see the North Korean regime as some sort of penny dreadful or Saturday Night Live skit, rather than the horrific concentration camp for over 20 million human lives which it is.

As most of you may have heard, there was a large pro-Hamas, anti-Israel demonstration which took place this weekend in our fair city. Luckily, some of our friends in the anti-jihadist movement were there to record the festivities for posterity. As in past pro-terror support rallies, most of the participants were not actually from the West Bank, Gaza Strip, or any stretch of land within shouting distance of Israel.

You can see some more footage of what some have dubbed the Fakestinians on the Youtube channel of the activist who was gracious enough to share the video above with those of us who weren’t able to make it to the “Free Gaza” political theater which took place yesterday. You can look at some of the photos of the perpetually outraged here.

Details below the fold.

Although the deaths of migrants from North Africa and the Middle East upon the doorstep of Europe has occupied the attention of news media over the past few weeks, the difficulties endured by nations which serve as buffers between the third world and the West are often overlooked. One of the countries taxed by an influx of refugees from war-ravaged nations is the west African nation of Cameroon. Over 100,000 refugees reside in that country after fleeing Nigeria and the Central African Republic, because of a brutal Islamic insurgency  and ongoing civil war, respectively.

In other migration news, dozens of Rohingya Muslims from Burma are reported missing after their boat capsized in the Bay of Bengal. Despite the grossly misleading reportage we’ve been treated to by outlets like the BBC and Washington Post, among others, the inter-communal violence within Burma is not simply a case of an Islamophobic backlash, as Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has repeatedly pointed out. This Daily Telegraph photo essay provides a much more nuanced view of the violence engulfing Burma, much of it directed against Rakhine State’s Buddhist population by Muslim jihadists.

Moving on to the Western Hemisphere, we learned today that the U.S. Treasury Department has blacklisted 20 businesses linked to Rafael Caro Quintero, the Mexican drug lord responsible for the brutal torture and execution of DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena, who was recently released from prison this past August, despite having over a decade remaining on his prison sentence. Thanks to the endemically corrupt Mexican government, the proceeds of Quintero’s racketeering empire remained in his family, which will undoubtedly prove useful to one of the world’s most wanted fugitives.

In cheap labor lobby news, Indian outsourcing titan Infosys has reached a settlement with the federal government in its lawsuit alleging widespread visa fraud. The wholesale importation of foreign workers by Indian outsourcing firms is a problem in the high tech industry, although it is not the sole, nor even the primary, reason for the widespread unemployment and underemployment of highly qualified computer programmers and STEM graduates. As Norm Matloff has explained, the employment practices of American companies are even worse than their Indian counterparts, which shouldn’t surprise anyone who’s come across the ubiquitous pro-amnesty ads bankrolled by amnesty’s biggest cheerleader in Silicon Valley.

Finally, the news that there are still hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens streaming into the United States shouldn’t surprise anyone who’s been paying even perfunctory attention to the immigration reform debate occurring in Washington D.C. over the past year. While most of these aliens come from Central America, their  ultimate destination is clear. Despite the pressing need for border security, Janet Napolitano’s replacement at DHS doesn’t seem to be concerned about the waves of illegal aliens streaming across our southern border.

Mark Krikorian speculates that Mr. Johnson was installed in order to enact the wholesale version of amnesty via administrative fiat. Whether his promotion leads to stealth amnesty or is simply a savvy public relations move on the part of the Obama administration, the remainder of this year will provide some interesting clues as to how the anti-citizen party will proceed in its path to electoral hegemony.

Stay tuned…