There are lots of U.S. voices bewailing the return of the unspeakable Turk, whom they regard as indistinguishable from Iranian mullahs and Arab jihadis.

You can find them in every comments thread to a Turkey story on PJMedia or Breitbart's Big.* or the WSJ.

The same believe the US is at war with Islam -- a conflict that only ends only when one side is dead. Most want to deport all Muslims from the US. Some want to sterilize them first.

It's nasty stuff. There's a lot of it. It passes for common sense.

I don't imagine those saying such things have been to Turkey or even ever met a Muslim. I suspect they mostly fear monsters conjured by Gabriel, Shoebat, Bostum, etc.

If this is Claire's meaning, she's right. Turkey is now on their list of cosmic enemies.

How widespread is the view? Maybe 10% or 15% of the U.S., probably more.

johnlamoreaux.org/ricochet/turkish.republic.comes.of.age.pdf

Bobby socks, a boom in books, Robert College, Turkish girls and track and field (in shorts), the queen of the Turkish Girl Scouts (photo caption notes: "Old-time mullahs ... mutter in the beards, but can't stop her progress"), "Faces and Arms are bare, but minds are clothed with knowledge."

I'm probably just feeling nostalgic.

1. A no-circ rag edited by a Haaavard grad, who grew up on Facebook?

2. A Turkish political party that regards the PKK as just a bunch of commies.

3. Sins of commission or omission? If the latter, they'd do a Chomsky proud.

4. You got me. Not the Koran. They're Turks, after all. Do magazines count? If so, Turkish-language Maxim.

5. My sense, there is something new.

There's always been conspiracy theories, racism, and paranoia. But not like this, and not this open. Not ten or twenty years ago. Beheading of prelates or blowing up synagogues also seems new. So too, the graffiti and the books. It's easier now to find the Protocols in Istanbul than Damascus.

What spooks me most are the changes in friends -- middle-class, professional, educated ones. I sometimes can't tell they're not Pasdaran or Hamas. Most are not particularly religious, either, and that's perhaps scariest.

The atmosphere seems so ... Arab. More like Cairo or Damascus, than the Turkey I used to know.

Perhaps it's something older. I'd hate to think it goes back to the 1910s or 1920s.

Speaking of wikileaks, Claire, and not irrelevant to the present subject....

From 05ANKARA1447, March 14, 2005

"Mein Kampf" Selling Fast in Turkey:  Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler's “Mein Kampf” is selling so fast in Turkey that it has entered the bestseller lists, Turkish papers reported over the weekend.  “Mein Kampf” has become a ‘handbook’ for supporters of the extreme nationalist Nationalist Action Party (MHP) and the Youth Party (GP), and is being widely read by students in police academies and schools in Turkey, according to a report in Sunday's “Radikal” supplement.  “Radikal” argues that the real reason for the growing interest in the book is the rise of anti-Semitism in Turkey.  “The Protocols of Zion,” a fraudulent document an a main source of inspiration for “Mein Kampf,” has been printed more than 100 times in Turkey between since 1943, the paper notes. “Mein Kampf's” fast sales in Turkey, a country where reading levels are not very high.... 13 publishers have printed the book in Turkish.  In January, a Turkish publisher sold 20,000 copies of “Mein Kampf” for 5.90 New Turkish Lira (less than 5 USD) each.

From August 2010 to August 2011, the job market has improved. [http://goo.gl/P01dP] With the rate of unemployment moving from 5.0 to 4.7 to 4.6 to 4.5 to 4.5 to 4.4 to 4.3 to 4.3.

(Less if you live in Texas.)

If you're male aged 25-34, you can expect to be making a median income of $51,000. [http://goo.gl/XywBl]

(More if you live in Texas.)

There's a catch, though. You need at least a Bachelor's degree.

Anything less than that, you've two or three times the rate of unemployment, and half the income.

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So perhaps the question should be: "Where did all the other jobs go?"

Put another way, do Democrats hate the working man?

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On a related matter, where do folks without papers (i.e., criminals) usually work?

I thought the official rule was:

If the left does it, it's just telling the truth.

If the right does it, it's just vile hate mongering.

Or does that only apply to matters of race, gender, and religion? and the word 'nuts'?

Mollie, thank you for the link.

It's a curious case. The boy's family was dysfunctional, but not terribly so. Hundreds of thousands of German boys grow up just the same -- without coming to believe that God delights in random mass murder. They muddle through, join a gang, or drink. What was different for this boy?

My guess? It was mostly just dumb luck, and a painful desire to belong, anywhere. It happened that Muslims, not Moonies, found him. Not just any Muslims, either. He fell in with a vile bunch. Again, bad luck.

While the boy shares some small measure of guilt, as do his parents, it's his Wahhabi mentors who deserves the millstones about their necks. Offenses must come, but woe to the men by whom the offense comes.

German state, too, stands condemned: for thirty years now, the E.U. has been a cesspool of Muslim terrorists. Perhaps it's time they recognized that some religious ideologies can have no place in a civil society. (Same goes for the U.S.)

I've not seen Perry shirtless, but I fear the beard may not serve his purposes, as it'll scare away coastal voters. It's a balance that's needed. He's gonna need to be the idealized object of both demographics: the girly man and the manly man. While Perry surely learns Putin in the fighting, Putin knows something about getting out the vote. Perhaps he's got the winning strategy for Perry's campaign:

http://pik.tv/en/cj/item/putin-and-his-army-eyeing-presidency

And just to keep the $50K in perspective.

The average high school teacher in the U.S. with 20 yrs of experience makes $48K. And that's more than the average accountant, nurse, or police officer.

So basically, a normal, traditional family in the U.S. is destitute.

I never knew I had it so bad growing up.... and my folks had to raise four kids.

A family of four making $50K is unable to afford food?

Maybe if they're proglibites, and live in some godawful, rent-controlled city, buy only organic, and won't drink wine if it comes in a box.

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$50,000 -- Std Deduction $11,400 w 4 exemptions at $3,650 per

Taxable income: $24,000

Owed: $2,769

Less 2 x $1,000 for Child Tax Credit

Less $800 for the Orwellian-named "Making Work Pay"

Result: This household gets $31 in 'taxes'

Perry v Obama -- fistfight behind the high school. Odds?

Perry v Putin -- fistfight behind the Kremlin. Odds?

With Perry, at least they can still express their envy in complete sentences.

Imagine a Texas woman was running. Seen ours? Seen theirs?

They'd only be able to spit and cuss.

I concur. I'm just back from a visit to the slums at Huff Post.

Definitely, fainting works -- only, it's gotta be the hysterical kind, with high-pitched screeching, profuse sweating, and a red face like a pimple about to burst. The one fainting also has to be a certified member of the best and brightest (picture works, good choice).

These Huff Post progressives, are they always like this in their native habitat? Or perhaps this was an orgiastic mating ritual? For being vile bigots, they're surprisingly well informed about others: I'd not known, e.g., that the GOP had recently mandated diets of cat food for the elderly. That's good to know.

A past counterfactual condition? When was the last time Egypt had a functioning government, rule of law, and a real legislature and executive -- well, that was....

Third dynasty? Nope. Second? Nope. First? Sorry, nope. Turtles and military dictatorships all the way down.

Ah, but what about when Joseph was in charge? Nope. He was an imperialist stooge, working for the Zionists.

If this were a real shot at self-governance, Egyptians might should have started with something smaller, like the PTA.

I'd wager you're spot on about the pre-emptive coup. MB and army probably planned it in Dec. 2010, maybe after Pharaoh got a cancer diagnosis. Tahrir was just a docudrama for the lumpen intelligentsia, Egyptian and foreign.

Well, as there's no other evidence of a rift between the MB and the army at the moment, I'm gonna tentatively attribute this to their PR agency. Other parties are accusing the MB of not supporting tahrir (which they didn't) and of cutting a deal early with the army (which they did), and of now turning on their opponents (which they are). Perhaps this is public posturing to shore up their bona fides as an opponent of The Man.

It's odd, though. Especially as the army is just now beginning what'll be a very long campaign to retake Sinai from the tribes and the half-dozen Muslim terror NGOs with whom the tribes are working. Given that HAMAS is among them, it's hard to imagine the army not working closely with the MB.

On the other hand, MB leadership is drooling-at-the-mouth insane. And, well, insane people don't always do sane things. So really, I got no clue.

It's this young lady's parents who should be footing the bill, for having raised such a wretched beast of a child. But what's it matter? Half of Americans aren't even asked to pay their share of taxes. At the very least, they ought not be allowed to vote. It's not like the universal franchise was revealed by God.

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"Major Reid smiled cynically. 'I have never been able to see how a thirty-year old moron can vote more wisely than a fifteen-year-old genius ... but that was the age of the "divine right of the common man." Never mind, they paid for their folly.'"