He probably believes what he is saying. His world view is entirely centered on militant Islam. He has zero ability to look outside himself or his movement.

Now that oil is down to about $50 bucks per barrel Zawahri and his crew are going to find fund raising increasingly difficult.

Look for political turmoil in all the oil producing countries as politicians begin to wonder what they are going to do to replace the oil money. They are going to discover that have to pay attention to their constituents. Many won't survive the shock.

One wonders if Zawahri realizes how ridiculous he sounds.

There are people who continually say outrageous things because they know the press will gaspingly report every word and the targets of the remarks will obediently get their hackles up.

We even have a few such people here in the U.S., huh?

Posts on George Bush, Robert Rubin, and Ayman al-Zawahri, all with a couple of common threads - delusion and denial. They are all discovering they are not really masters of the universe and none of them like it one little bit.

Look for the Radio Wingnuts to embrace part of al-Zawahri's message -- taken out of context, of course.

The financial crisis isn't George Bush's fault and it wasn't caused by excessive deregulation or by ignoring every aspect of the economy except the Dow-Jones average. The current crisis was caused by "Islamo-fascists" and their attack in 2001 -- which, as we all know, was Bill Clinton's fault. And the reason the 9-11 attack had such a devastating effect on the economy was that we didn't deregulate enough and that we didn't cut taxes for the rich enough.

Two groups of religious fanatics re-enforcing each other's message.

"One wonders if Zawahri realizes how ridiculous he sounds."

That depends on whom the audience is. If we are, then, yeah, Zawahiri sounds ridiculous.

If the audience are prospective jihadists around the world looking for inspiration, who knows what's ridiculous?

So it's pretty clear that bin Laden's dead, then, yeah?

on NPR this morning, juan williams expressed disbelief that we were only attacked by al qaeda once during the bush administration -- "no one could have imagined it" jeez, what an idiot.

His detaching reality from facts is reminiscent of another group. What's their name again????? Oh yeah, its Republicans.

I agree with SteveT, it depends on the audience. Sarah Palin sounds pretty ridiculous to the uninitiated, but to the true-believers she hits all the right notes.

Actually, it sounds to me as though al-Zawahri has been getting his information from Fox News. They share similar delusions.

Desperate sounding? Well, maybe, but the fact remain that a significant percentage of Americans continue to piddle their panties in paranoid fear that Islam is going to Conquer the World and haul us off to the ovens. I had high hopes that maybe Obama would abolish the Department of Fatherland - sorry, Homeland Security, but that's not going to happen.

Wow, someone who is even less intellectually interesting than the fundamentalist Republicans. Could we ask him to read Jacques Ellul maybe? He is not even close in understanding the way traditional cultures all over the world are getting efficiently destroyed. He thinks his problem is America!

As for "forbidden" (I think he means concentrated) wealth, the traditional cultures have a much bigger problem with it than modern ones. What a dullard.

His comments are ridiculous? Now you tell me. I wonder if it's too late to get my money back on the Koran I purchased from Amazon?

Since Islam traditionally forbids lending at interest, it could have prevented the mortgage crisis. I wonder where Islam stands on CDOs and credit swaps...

It is an easy thing to talk of patience to the afflicted,
To speak the laws of prudence to the houseless wanderer,

To listen to the hungry raven's cry in wintry season
When the red blood is fill'd with wine and with the marrow of lambs.

It is an easy thing to laugh at wrathful elements,
To hear the dog howl at the wintry door, the ox in the slaughter house moan;
To see a god on every wind and a blessing on every blast;
To hear sounds of love in the thunder storm that destroys our enemies' house;
To rejoice in the blight that covers his field, and the sickness that cuts off his children,
While our olive and vine sing and laugh round our door, and our children bring fruits and flowers.

Then the groan and the dolor are quite forgotten, and the slave grinding at the mill,
And the captive in chains, and the poor in the prison, and the soldier in the field
When the shatter'd bone hath laid him groaning among the happier dead.

It is an easy thing to rejoice in the tents of prosperity:
Thus could I sing and thus rejoice: but it is not so with me.
- William Blake, from The Four Zoas

Giuliani or al-Zawahri
Glen or Glenda

Aside from the brutal mind numbery
These swingers from humbuggery
Are listed as first in arse waggery

Zawahri is a conservative whackjob. He just happens to be the other bookend to our kinds of whackjobs.

That Ayman critter is such a comic! Wouldn't you just want to give him a great big Solstice hug---with a revved-to-the-max chainsaw?

Although, it might be fun to just dope him up on tranquilizers, and take pictures of him in a Santa Claus outfit. I don't suppose he'd be making any more Al Quack-ah videos after that....

Sorry Al Z, we're already up to our ears in gibbering jackasses who tell us that all we have to do is embrace the one true religion and everything will be just dandy.

Please take a ticket and wait until your number is called.

Since Islam traditionally forbids lending at interest, it could have prevented the mortgage crisis. -- M. Peachbush, @11:34

*Traditionally*, so were Christians forbidden to lend money for profit (see: moneylenders, temple). That's why only Jews did it in Europe. Until the Lombards figured out a way around it (and gave us the pawn shops).

Some traditions we keep, some we discard, all in the name of Jesus.

..."to live a life free of greed, exploitation and forbidden wealth."

Yet he keeps making these DVD box sets.

"One wonders if Zawahri realizes how ridiculous he sounds."...

i dunno...there IS the small matter that bush's reaction to 9/11 was to hurl the country into new levels of debt and that the "meter" in iraq is still running to the tune of $10 billion a month or so.....

in his small way, al-z did help collapse the economy....

Doesn't he sound a lot like those televangelists who are always proclaiming folks to get right with God and let their troubles disappear? Just a different costume, but the same BS message - "prosperity gospel ~ God (allah) loves you and rewards you with luxury goods (or 7 seven virgins/male prostitutes, your choice)and financial prosperity while the rest of the world starves to death

This goes to show that you can win for losing.

Great stuff! Great!

Haven't heard stuff this good since Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf!

Since Islam traditionally forbids lending at interest, it could have prevented the mortgage crisis. I wonder where Islam stands on CDOs and credit swaps... Posted by: M. Peachbush on November 29, 2008

Fascinating query, but not something to lose one's head over.