Well, that is the word out of the New York Times. The newly elected president wants to give such a speech sometime in the first hundred days of his term -- possibly in Cairo

President-elect Barack ObamaÂ’s aides say he is considering making a major foreign policy speech from an Islamic capital during his first 100 days in office.

So where should he do it? The list of Islamic world capitals is long, and includes the obvious —Riyadh, Kuwait City, Islamabad — and the not-so-obvious — Male (the Maldives), Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso), Tashkent (Uzbekistan). Some wise-guys have even suggested Dearborn, Mich., as a possibility.

Clearly it would be cheating for Mr. Obama to fly to Detroit, talk to DearbornÂ’s 30,000 Arab residents and call it a day. And Male and Ouagadougou, while certainly majority Muslim, canÂ’t really be what Mr. ObamaÂ’s aides have in mind when they talk about locales for a high-profile speech that would seek to mend rifts between the United States and the broader Muslim world.

In other words, look for a kow-tow. The dhimmification of America will be in full swing with such a speech. After all, these are folks who aren’t happy with the fact that the US dared to strike back against al-Qaeda after 9/11. These are folks who aren’t happy that the US dared to remove Saddam Hussein from power after multiple violations of UN resolutions and the brutal oppression of his people. These are the folks who are unhappy about our support for Israel. These are thepeople who want our civil liberties and human rights be curtailed lest they be offended by the free expression of non-Islamic views. How do we “mend rifts” with those who insist that we have been wrong to defend ourselves, oppose dictatorship, support our allies, and live in freedom without repudiating things that are quintessentially American?

But if Obama is going to a Muslim capital to speak, he ought to carry a message of freedom. He ought to speak out against authoritarianism and oppression, and in favor of democracy and liberty. He ought to speak out on behalf of women who are relegated to subservience in much of the Muslim world. He ought to call for full respect for the rights and dignity of non-Muslims in the Muslim world, including freedom of speech and religion. WhatÂ’s more, he ought to speak out against the application of sharia law to those who Islam calls apostates due to their decision to reject Islam in favor of another faith or none at all.

And should Barack Obama be so courageous and honorable as to give such a speech in the Muslim world, it ought to be given in the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh, in the presence of the ruler who is also custodian of the holiest sites in Islam. After all, the only terms on which America can legitimately mend the rifts that exist are those that echo the clarion call of freedom that is central to our founding documents – and one which offers no apology for exercising, protecting, and promoting the inalienable rights with which we are endowed by our Creator.

H/T Don Surber (who proposes the speech be in Baghdad), Hot Air (Ed would like Mumbai, but would settle for Dubai), Commentary's Contentions (where Abe Greenwald notes that Obama's "ability to move mountains by speechifying hit its career high exactly one month ago, when it got him elected President of the United States of America.")

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As disgusting and hateful as I find the sentiments expressed, I rejoice that we live in a country where these religious bigots can freely trumpet their message of hate for all to see.

An atheist group has unveiled an anti-religion placard in the state Capitol, joining a Christian Nativity scene and “holiday” tree on display during December.

The atheists' sign was installed yesterday by Washington members of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a national group based in Madison, Wis.

With a nod to the winter solstice — the year's shortest day, occurring on Dec. 21 this year — the placard reads, in part, "There is only our natural world. Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds."

Mind you, this is from an organization whose leader claims that a Nativity scene is “hate speech” and openly boasts that his sign is intended as an attack on religion.

I trust that, in a similar spirit of tolerance, the state of Washington (and the state of Wisconsin, where a similar plaque has appeared for over a decade), will abide by the same principle and solicit a similarly contemptuous point of view from the KKK for display along with material honoring Martin Luther King, Jr. in January.

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After all, a drop in oil prices like the one predicted by Gulf OilÂ’s CEO would surely be merely a temporary thing, as the law of supply and demand would soon lead the former to drop, causing the latter to rise.

Gulf Oil CEO Joe Petrowski said on Wednesday that the price of oil could sink to $20 per barrel, and there is a chance gasoline prices could drop as low as $1 per gallon by early next year.

Speaking at a South Shore Chamber of Commerce breakfast at LombardoÂ’s in Randolph, the Brockton native said that after speculators drove oil prices up, there is a chance that the market will overshoot on the way back down, resulting in much lower prices at the pump.

We still need to develop solar, wind, and other alternate energy sources. We still need to build nuclear plants. We still need to expand the use of clean coal technology. And we still need to heed the wisdom of those chanting “Drill here, drill now” in an effort to end our dependency on foreign energy suppliers.

UPDATE: Looks like Petrowski is not alone in his analysis.

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Personally, I hope that the Supreme Court takes the case and expedites it -- because I believe that the result would be the confirmation of my long-standing position on the issue.

The U.S. Supreme Court will consider Friday whether to take up a lawsuit challenging President-elect Barack ObamaÂ’s U.S. citizenship, a continuation of a New Jersey case embraced by some opponents of ObamaÂ’s election.

Not because I want to deny Obama the presidency. I don’t – and have not since the election returns came in a month ago. Rather, I wish to definitively confirm the legitimacy of his election so that those who continue to claim differently will be exposed as the crackpots they are.

Of course, Obama should simply moot the whole thing by directing the state to release certified copies of the original vault version, filed in 1961, of his birth certificate. I remain mystified why he has not done so.

H/T Hot Air

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Sullivan quotes Hitchens approvingly, and therefore indicates his intent to call the city victimized by Islamist terrorists last week Bombay rather than by its proper modern name, Mumbai. Their argument is that it is illegitimate for brown-skinned to change the names given to their cities by their British masters during the colonial era – especially if that name change reflects the cultural heritage of the majority.

When Salman Rushdie wrote, in The Moor's Last Sigh in 1995, that "those who hated India, those who sought to ruin it, would need to ruin Bombay," he was alluding to the Hindu chauvinists who had tried to exert their own monopoly in the city and who had forcibly renamed it—after a Hindu goddess—Mumbai. We all now collude with this, in the same way that most newspapers and TV stations do the Burmese junta's work for it by using the fake name Myanmar. (Bombay's hospital and stock exchange, both targets of terrorists, are still called by their right name by most people, just as Bollywood retains its "B.")

In effect, the two British expatriates argue that the Indians must accept the decisions of those who colonized their nation and attempted to suppress their religion and culture. I guess that is a sign of the arrogance that still runs deep in British culture – the sun may have long since set upon the British Empire, but they want to pretend that they still rule the world anyway.

Sullivan, though, in a fit of intellectual honesty, does publish a dissent by one of the uppity Indians who insists upon defending their right to give an Indian city a proper Indian name.

I'm a fourth-generation Mumbaikar who loves reading your blog, but your post about the name Mumbai (linked to Hitchens) left me seething.
Hitchens is completely wrong. As someone whose roots go back many generations in Mumbai, let me assure you that we've always called the city Mumbai in our local language Marathi. The name Bombay was given to the city by the British. What do you think the city was called before the Europeans arrived? It was called Mumbai.

No word yet on whether or not either of these Brits will repent of their cultural imperialism and acknowledge that the name change to Mumbai is every bit as legitimate as the decision of Chinese authorities to rename their capital Beijing, or for the Russians to strip the names of Communist dictators from Saint Petersburg and Volgograd.

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I've been remiss in posting winners from teh Watcher's Council, so here are the last two weeks' results.

November 28, 2008

Winning Council Submissions

• First place with 2 2/3 points! - The Colossus of Rhodey - Culture of Whine (a rant)


• Second place with 1 point - (T*) - Joshuapundit - Zero HourÂ…Iran Now Has Material For First Nuclear Bomb
• Second place with 1 point - (T*) - The Provocateur - Some Perspective on PNC, Fraud, and the Bailout


• Third place with 1/3 point - (T*) - The Glittering Eye - Official History


• Third place with 1/3 point - (T*) - Cheat-Seeking Missiles - Sunday Scan

Winning Non-Council Submissions

• First place with 2 2/3 points! - Serendituous Altruism - American troops in Afghanistan through the eyes of a French OMLT infantryman


• Second place with 1 point - (T*) - Israelly Cool - The despicable Lauren Booth


• Second place with 1 point - (T*) - National Review Online - Party of Privilege


• Second place with 1 point - (T*) - The Daily Beast - No Stimulus From Government Spending


• Third place with 1/3 point - Jewish World Review - Why Reporters — and Judges and Professors — are Biased

  November 21, 2008

  Winning Council Submissions

  
  
  
  
  • First place with 2 2/3 points! - Joshuapundit - The Afghanistan Blues
  
  
  • Second place with 1 1/3 points - The Colossus of Rhodey - Oh, the musical memories Â…
  
  
  • Third place with 1 point - (T*) - Bookworm Room - Perpetually Selfish Anger and Victimhood
  
  
  • Third place with 1 point - (T*) - Rhymes With Right - Intolerant Gays Attacking Religion
  
  
  • Fourth place with 2/3 point - (T*) - The Provocateur - The Coming Mortgage Class War
  
  
  • Fourth place with 2/3 point - (T*) - Soccer Dad - Names will never hurt me - the double standard
  
  
  • Fourth place with 2/3 point - (T*) - Mere Rhetoric - Detente In Our Time - Obama Prepares To Sell Out Poland In The Face Of Russian Aggression. Again. (Plus: By The Way, Missile Defense Works)
  
  
  • Fourth place with 2/3 point - (T*) - The Razor - COIN of the Realm

  
  

  Winning Non-Council Submissions

  
  
  
  
  • First place with 3 points! - American Thinker - How the Academic Left Elected Obama
  
  
  • Second place with 1 point - Chicago Tribune - Obama and the Chicago Way
  
  
  • Third place with 2/3 point - (T*) - Hot Air - Obama picks presidential assassinÂ’s lawyer as White House counsel
  
  
  • Third place with 2/3 point - (T*) - Pajamas Media/Ed Morrissey - Growth through dismemberment doesnÂ’t work
  
  
  • Third place with 2/3 point - (T*) - Laz-a-fare - Time for a culture change

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