"If You Listen To Fools..."

"...The Mob Rules." So goes the lyric from Black Sabbath's classic album, "Mob Rules". Truer words were never sung as we can see across the Middle East and Europe this weekend. The master manipulators in the mosques, the press and government have stoked the fires and fanned the flames of the Muslim mobs and the result has been continual riots, arson and calls for bloody murder at the hands of the righteous. This is why our Founding Fathers feared and abhorred the concepts of theocracy and democracy. They all invariably lead to mobacracy at the drop of a hat, or the publishing of a cartoon.

Europe has already been beset by Muslim radicalism. Look to France, Denmark, Holland and the other countries of the E.U. for the inevitable results of political and religious pandering and the effects of democracy. In this most recent upset the spark was the publication of the cartoons in the Danish press in September. Danish rabble rousers in the mosques actually had to go abroad to garner any support for their fundamentalist agenda and to gain any reaction. Apparently, they cannot get the requisite number of folks together for a good protest-cum-riot in Denmark. The folks in Gaza, Damascus and other sites, tho..well, that's what happens when you haven't got access to quality entertainment, cable, satellite or bars. When tea/coffee shops, Arabic Talk Radio and the mosques are your sole entertainment well, you can understand why a riot about someone other than your dictators is inevitable and sanctioned.


In Damascus the Embassies of Denmark and Norway were set alight and little was done to stop it. I find it hard to imagine that a dictator cannot quell a mob if he is determined to do so, huh? And the continuous broadcasting of Islamic Fundamentalist Poster child President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran certainly doesn't aid in soothing the mobs anger over nothing.

This is all about the Mohammed cartoons originally posted in Denmarks Jyllands-Posten, as you can see. Look. They aren't particularly offensive. When certain outlets in Europe and North America published Photoshopped pictures and cartoons of the Pope Benedict we were not presented with Catholic rioting. Jews haven't taken to the streets for insane comments from American Pope Idol Pat Robertson. Perhaps tolerance isn't such a bad thing after all.




The Middle East is currently going through what could be called a 2nd cultural childhood, heading for a new middle age or adulthood. What we are seeing right now is a cultural and regional teen angst. Some folks, notable the "rural cousins" of Islam are having some growing pains and have fallen in with bad company. Those Muslims who are more urbane and modern in their outlook and education aren't taking to the streets to commit acts of violence against people and property and, by and large do not fall for the snake oil salesmen in the mosques.

We certainly aren't seeing this behaviour here in the US. Probably because printing the pictures as a symbol of freedom of the press and free speech would be a foreign concept to our politically correct media. Bravery and fortitude are not watchwords for our guys and girls in the press room trenches.

The rhetoric is the same from all quarters here, Islamic, Christian, Media and Political. Pander to the lowest common denominator, placate the population at large and inflame where necessary as a release. All the poor people in the mobs know is that it's fun to run in a crowd and act up when the powers that be say to. And look at all the pretty cameras. "Hey, Ahmad! Look, I'm on TV!"

If, or when the mobs discover the blogosphere many of us are going to be in trouble considering that we have posted these many more times than the European media. I can't help but wonder what the reaction will be. An Internet Jihad? Cutting off offending keyboards, (brings a whole new meaning to hacking, huh?)? Perhaps burning down internet cafes and Starbucks?

This is what it all boils down to. Mob metallity, some rather inoffensive caricatures and the gullibility of the Masses when the "leaders" get together. Snake oil is an easy sell to the uneducated and bored. Individuality is a good thing. Perhaps it's time to strike while the flags are hot.