THE TENSION: The Decline and Fall of Western Civ for 27 Oct.

The Decline and Fall of Western Civ.: Barbarians are Crashing the Gates

After reading: wash, rinse and repeat.

When the folks down at CNN post a headline about politics that includes the words "Fictional Sex" you would be mistaken to think the writer is referring to former Congressman Mark Foley. Nope, for CNN this fictional sex deserves a dressing down because it comes straight out of the Democratic Virginia Senate candidate Jim Webb's mind and published in his fictional works. While CNN tries to spin the facts, AP and Reuters seemingly ignore the news. The Washington Post, who have been brutal to Webb's opponent George Allen, says Webb's books show bad character.

With 11 days remaining before election day, the allegations about sex-laced passages in Webb's writings injected a new question into a campaign that has largely centered on character issues: Should the author of a fictional work who runs for office be personally held to account for the scenes in his books?
Allen campaign officials provided sentences from Webb's novels -- some of them depicting acts of incest and graphic sexuality -- to the Drudge Report Web site Thursday night. Matt Drudge's online report often breaks or promotes stories with a sensational angle, most recently the scandal involving former Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.)
Leave it to Matt Drudge to break the story of George Allen's macaca revenge.

In an interview on Washington Post Radio Friday morning, Jim Webb, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Virginia, said excerpts of his novels are "a little bit inappropriate" to be read on news radio, reports CNS. See Fox News for additional details.

Speaking of CNN, B&C reports Lynne Cheney, wife of Vice President Dick Cheney, strongly criticized CNN Friday for its "Broken Government" series of specials in the run-up to the November mid-term elections and for its airing of tapes of snipers shooting American soldiers in Iraq.

In an interview with Situation Room anchor Wolf Blitzer, Cheney said the network's Vote 2006 specials contained "terrible distortions of the president's and vice president's positions on many issues." Cheney turned the tables on Blitzer, becoming the questioner: "what is CNN doing running tapes of terrorists shooting Americans," she asked more than once, repeating a question CNN had been asked:

"Do you want us to win?"
CNN can't catch a break. Since they seem to act with complicity with America's enemies, some folks would argue CNN really doesn't deserve a break. Transcript.

Lynn Cheney at CNN

If we were to believe that President Bush and current American foreign policy are to blame for all the Muslim unrest in the world, it would be hard to accept that 4,000 police have been drafted into French suburbs on the anniversary of the 2005 riots caused when two Muslim teenagers were killed when returning home to end their Ramadan feast. It's interesting to note that most Western news outlets do not identify the protests as having Islamic roots. Look deeper.

AFP reports hundreds of people marched in a silent tribute to two teenagers whose death exactly one year ago sent a wave of urban riots surging through France (who didn't support or join in the invasion of Iraq), sparking the country's most serious social crisis in 30 years.

French authorities were on alert for a new flare-up of violence after youth gangs, some carrying handguns, torched -- and in one case hijacked -- three buses near Paris on Wednesday, but police reported no major trouble overnight.

WorldTribune.com reports the ongoing 'intifada' in France that injured 2,500 police in 2006 might have dropped below the radar, but Al Qaida and its allies are literally battling the Crusaders every day in Europe. And so far, Europe isn't doing so well.

"We are in a state of civil war, orchestrated by radical Islamists," said Michel Thoomis, secretary general of the Action Police trade union. "This is not a question of urban violence any more. It is an intifada, with stones and firebombs."

In more news about those terrorists around the world that the U.S. didn't rile up, Reuters reports top world oil exporter Saudi Arabia said on Friday it was taking measures to protect its oil and economic installations from a "terrorist threat."

"The terrorist threat to the kingdom's economic installation exists and it is a declared goal of the straying faction to affect the interests of the Saudi citizen," an Interior Ministry spokesman said.
It is interesting to note that AP reports crude oil futures fell Friday, backing off gains they made following reports of a terror alert in the Gulf region.

The head of the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency on Friday hailed what he described as epochal progress toward putting a high-energy laser aboard a modified Boeing Co. 747 to zap ballistic missiles that could be fired by North Korea and Iran, according to Reuters.

Former United Nations chief weapons inspector Hans Blix (wav) on Wednesday described the United States-led invasion of Iraq as a "pure failure" that had left the country worse off than under the rule of Saddam Hussein, reports IOL.

The testosterone-fueled American male may be losing his punch, reports HealthDay News. Over the past two decades, levels of the sex hormone in U.S. men have been falling steadily, a new study finds.