Michael Savage, surely you can't be serious

Michael Savage is a hard-core conservative talk show host (weekdays 5-8pm CST, WIND-AM 560 in Chicago) who pulls in about eight million listeners a week. I had an opportunity to listen most of the first hour of his Jan. 7 show on my way to Plainfield, Ill. He made two statements of opinion on which I believe him to be absolutely 100 percent wrong. I tried to call in but was unsuccessful in reaching the call screener.

1. In discussing the Dec. 25 attempted bombing of NW Flt 253 AMS-DTW by a Nigerian Al-Queda operative, Savage said Jihadist, Islamofascist Muslim terrorists hate us because of the cultural ills of this country: gambling, prostitution, pornography, etc. Nothing could be further from the truth. Terrorists hate us because of what is great about the U.S. That would include democracy, freedom of speech and freedom of religion. In Muslim countries, not only is the practice of Christianity and Judaism absolutely prohibited, but practicing an unauthorized branch of Islam is illegal as well. The two Muslim sects--Shiite and Sunni--do not get along and often end up attacking each other, sad to say. Muslim terrorists find the fact that the U.S. allows Jews to practice their faith in public and as they please particularly galling and abhorrent.

2. In discussing the cultural ills of this country, Savage maintained that this country is worse than the worst excesses of Ancient Rome. Michael, don't get me started on the Empire. During that time:

--the Romans forced convicted prisoners to fight each other to the death in their world-famous Coliseum. Prisoners also had to fight predatory felines starved in advance of their Coliseum appearances to make them desperately aggressive.
--parties called Bacchanals featured unlimited wine, food and sex (every kind imaginable) and lasted for days.
--a homeowner could murder his family and slaves. This was not illegal.
--the Romans' pagan religion was practiced in the extreme, and not in a good way. A group of young women, the Vestal Virgins, tended to the eternal flame in the Forum. If one violated her vow of chastity, (1) her lover was whipped to death; and (2) she was buried alive.

And you would compare our civilized society to this barbaric culture, Michael? I truly hope not.

RedEye's Israel problem

RedEye,the free Tribune Co. tabloid publication aimed at people who ride the bus and/or train to work in Chicago, frequently prints international news in a couple of column inches. An item on Israel is limited to this coverage with what is often a very misleading headline. On Feb. 10, the headline was "More airstrikes in Gaza." No context as to what prompted the airstrikes. The first sentence said, "Israeli aircraft struck two targets in the Gaza Strip and a militant died in a clash with troops on the border Monday." Why did the "militant" (terrorist?) die? Maybe because he attacked the troops or was seen launching a rocket toward Israel? Or was it ruthless Israeli aggression? Yeah, right. We just don't know, and the casual news observer is left to draw his own conclusions. So first I criticized RedEye in my Twitter feed, saying, "Your 'More airstrikes in Gaza' item 02-10 gives no context for reason--Hamas rocket attacks. Your editor keeps doing this." This reached my 68 followers (wow! =)), plus a RedEye editor. The editor replied that context is difficult with only 30 words. I replied that context is necessary as far as Israel is concerned, and if RedEye doesn't have enough room, then the story should be dropped. In my Twitter comments, I have a 140-character limit. So I emailed ritaredeye@tribune.com and wrote:

Dear Editor:

Twice I have complained to your Twitter writer about items in the RedEye news roundup about Israel. The latest was yesterday's very biased headline: "More airstrikes in Gaza." Obviously there's much more to the story, but the Twitter writer explained, "Context isn't always easy in 30 words." Actually it was 46 words including the headline. Here's my version: same word limit, different angle:

Hamas terrorists attack Israeli troops in Gaza

A Hamas terrorist attacked Israeli troops in Gaza Monday, forcing them to respond, fatally wounding him. Due to Hamas terrorists in Gaza shelling Israeli civilian areas, Israeli aircraft launched a defensive response, striking two Gaza targets.

I'm sure you noticed the difference. Your story, perhaps pulled from anti-Israel media such as Reuters, euphemistically refers to "The violence" when the reality is "Hamas terrorist violence" and "Israeli defensive response." My story's perspective is different and yet retains the basic facts, in 43 words. Please be more careful when adding Mideast stories as anti-Israel bias frequently comes into play.

* * *

I think I made my point, and I hope RedEye pays attention.

Could an armed citizenry stop a terrorist AK-47 attack?

I’m not sure we’ll ever find out.
I would have been very interested if Mayor Richard M. “No Guns” Daley had a security meeting with Chief of Police Jody Weis after the Mumbai attacks last week. “How can we protect the people of Chicago from such an attack?” One or two years ago, I read a magazine article that suggested several inexpensive soft-target attacks in the U.S. One was launching a heat-seeking missile from a Southern California beach at a passenger aircraft on its takeoff path. Another was the kidnap and murder of a congressman. Two more were detonating bombs aboard approaching ships near New York Harbor and the Houston refineries. The fifth was an automatic-weapon attack by multiple terrorists at a crowded shopping mall in December, with a bomb timed to detonate at the loading dock right about the time the SWAT team would show up.
It’s the last one that most concerns me. Unlike another terrorism-prone country, we don’t have metal detectors at shopping-mall entrances. (They would come after an attack.) How to stop an attack once it is in progress? It only takes a few minutes—often less time than emergency response takes to show up—to inflict high numbers of casualties. A terrorist group would be far less likely to plan an attack on civilians whom they know are likely to be armed, and vice versa. That increases the probability of an attack within the City of Chicago. In Texas, where law-abiding citizens can legally pack heat, I imagine terrorists would be concerned about being shot and take their murderous plans elsewhere.
I never thought I’d say anything complimentary about Texas.

Holtzberg funeral

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1091318/Jewish-mother-killed-Mumbai-attacks-pregnant--son-2-beaten-militants.html

Apologies if that link doesn't work. I'm sure you can search at the Daily Mail's website for the article.

I'm still stunned from the carnage the terrorists inflicted on Mumbai and the city's innocent victims Wednesday night through Friday. The pictures (from the above article) of the Holtzberg's funeral in Israel are heart-wrenching. I'm truly at a loss for words. If the Holtzbergs were like any of the Chabad shluchim (emissaries) I've met, then they were truly nice, gentle, loving people who went out of their way to make anyone who met them feel right at home. Running Chabad Mumbai may have been a daunting task, but I doubt the Holtzbergs ever considered being anywhere else despite their Western childhoods.

Mrs. Holtzberg was pregnant; Moshe, age two, probably witnessed his parents' murders; Moshe was most likely beaten; his parents may have been tortured. The terrorists were not just cold-blooded killers. They were sadists fueled by unadulterated hatred who inadvertently spared Moshe only because they didn't realize he survived. They certainly didn't hold to the Mob's "No women/no kids" code. The attacks had nothing to do with U.S. foreign policy, Deepak Chopra. And no, Stupid Woman on TV, the terrorists didn't much care we elected Barack Obama. This was another Muslim terrorist attack on Jews and Westerners, and yes, it matters the terrorists were Muslim. Most Muslims are peace-loving people who just want to live their lives like everyone else. But almost all terrorists are Muslim, and almost all terrorist attacks are carried out by Muslims. The terrorists targeted the Chabad House because it is a Jewish center and house of worship--a symbol of Judaism and the West in mostly Hindu Mumbai. There is no other reason.