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Heavy-Handed Politics

"€œGod willing, with the force of God behind it, we shall soon experience a world
without the United States and Zionism."€ -- Iran President Ahmadi-Nejad

Saturday, February 11, 2006

WILL EUROPE BECOME EURABIA?

By Mona Charen

"Civilizations die from suicide, not by murder." -- Arnold Toynbee

As Danish embassies and European Union offices smolder in Beirut, Damascus, Gaza and Tehran -- the result of a junior varsity jihad -- the time could not be more apt for Bruce Bawer's "While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam is Destroying the West from Within," due out at the end of this month. Bawer is a gay American with a flair for languages who moved to Europe in 1999 to escape what he perceived to be the narrow-mindedness of the Christian right in America. Read more.

Syrian charged with masterminding bombings

ASSOCIATED PRESS

ANKARA, Turkey -- A Syrian was charged Friday with masterminding suicide bombings that killed 58 people in Istanbul, and Turkish prosecutors claimed that Osama bin Laden personally ordered him to carry out terror attacks in this pro-Western country.

Loa'i Mohammad Haj Bakr al-Saqa, 32, was accused of serving as a point man between al-Qaida and homegrown militants behind the series of suicide bombings in Istanbul in 2003, said the indictment. It said al-Saqa gave the Turkish militants about $170,000. Read on.

Abramoff Team and Reid's Office Had Frequent Contact, Records Show

Washington PostAssociated Press

Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid wrote at least four letters helpful to Indian tribes represented by Jack Abramoff, and Reid's staff had frequent contact with the disgraced lobbyist's team about legislation.

The activities -- detailed in previously unreported billing records and correspondence -- occurred over three years as Reid (D-Nev.) collected nearly $68,000 in political donations from Abramoff's firm, lobbying partners and clients. Read on.

Friday, February 10, 2006

STICKS AND STONES.............

Someone posted a comment and labeled me an idiot and racist. Wow, how's that for fostering intelligent dialogue? Some of our lefty friends are so ... ah .. well ... accusatory. The word 'racist' just springs from their acidic tongues, doesn't it?

It does not speak well of them. They have no concept of civil discourse. Hell, they most likely can't even spell it, much less understand it.

What is Cultural Marxism?

The following article is by William S. Lind. He is Director for the Center for Cultural Conservatism of the Free Congress Foundation.

"In his columns on the next conservatism, Paul Weyrich has several times referred to “cultural Marxism.” He asked me, as Free Congress Foundation’s resident historian, to write this column explaining what cultural Marxism is and where it came from. In order to understand what something is, you have to know its history.

Cultural Marxism is a branch of western Marxism, different from the Marxism-Leninism of the old Soviet Union. It is commonly known as “multiculturalism” or, less formally, Political Correctness. From its beginning, the promoters of cultural Marxism have known they could be more effective if they concealed the Marxist nature of their work, hence the use of terms such as “multiculturalism.”

Cultural Marxism began not in the 1960s but in 1919, immediately after World War I. Marxist theory had predicted that in the event of a big European war, the working class all over Europe would rise up to overthrow capitalism and create communism. But when war came in 1914, that did not happen. When it finally did happen in Russia in 1917, workers in other European countries did not support it. What had gone wrong?

Independently, two Marxist theorists, Antonio Gramsci in Italy and Georg Lukacs in Hungary, came to the same answer: Western culture and the Christian religion had so blinded the working class to its true, Marxist class interest that Communism was impossible in the West until both could be destroyed. In 1919, Lukacs asked, “Who will save us from Western civilization?” That same year, when he became Deputy Commissar for Culture in the short-lived Bolshevik Bela Kun government in Hungary, one of Lukacs’s first acts was to introduce sex education into Hungary’s public schools. He knew that if he could destroy the West’s traditional sexual morals, he would have taken a giant step toward destroying Western culture itself.

In 1923, inspired in part by Lukacs, a group of German Marxists established a think tank at Frankfurt University in Germany called the Institute for Social Research. This institute, soon known simply as the Frankfurt School, would become the creator of cultural Marxism.

To translate Marxism from economic into cultural terms, the members of the Frankfurt School - - Max Horkheimer, Theodor Adorno, Wilhelm Reich, Eric Fromm and Herbert Marcuse, to name the most important - - had to contradict Marx on several points. They argued that culture was not just part of what Marx had called society’s “superstructure,” but an independent and very important variable. They also said that the working class would not lead a Marxist revolution, because it was becoming part of the middle class, the hated bourgeoisie.

Who would? In the 1950s, Marcuse answered the question: a coalition of blacks, students, feminist women and homosexuals.

Fatefully for America, when Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933, the Frankfurt School fled - - and reestablished itself in New York City. There, it shifted its focus from destroying traditional Western culture in Germany to destroying it in the United States. To do so, it invented “Critical Theory.” What is the theory? To criticize every traditional institution, starting with the family, brutally and unremittingly, in order to bring them down. It wrote a series of “studies in prejudice,” which said that anyone who believes in traditional Western culture is prejudiced, a “racist” or “sexist” of “fascist” - - and is also mentally ill.

Most importantly, the Frankfurt School crossed Marx with Freud, taking from psychology the technique of psychological conditioning. Today, when the cultural Marxists want to do something like “normalize” homosexuality, they do not argue the point philosophically. They just beam television show after television show into every American home where the only normal-seeming white male is a homosexual (the Frankfurt School’s key people spent the war years in Hollywood).

After World War II ended, most members of the Frankfurt School went back to Germany. But Herbert Marcuse stayed in America. He took the highly abstract works of other Frankfurt School members and repackaged them in ways college students could read and understand. In his book “Eros and Civilization,” he argued that by freeing sex from any restraints, we could elevate the pleasure principle over the reality principle and create a society with no work, only play (Marcuse coined the phrase, “Make love, not war”). Marcuse also argued for what he called “liberating tolerance,” which he defined as tolerance for all ideas coming from the Left and intolerance for any ideas coming from the Right. In the 1960s, Marcuse became the chief “guru” of the New Left, and he injected the cultural Marxism of the Frankfurt School into the baby boom generation, to the point where it is now America’s state ideology.

The next conservatism should unmask multiculturalism and Political Correctness and tell the American people what they really are: cultural Marxism. Its goal remains what Lukacs and Gramsci set in 1919: destroying Western culture and the Christian religion. It has already made vast strides toward that goal. But if the average American found out that Political Correctness is a form of Marxism, different from the Marxism of the Soviet Union but Marxism nonetheless, it would be in trouble. The next conservatism needs to reveal the man behind the curtain - - old Karl Marx himself."

Losing Civilization

Are we going to tolerate the downfall of Western ideals? By Victor Davis Hanson. Read it at NRO.

Negroponte: Al Qaida envisions 'global caliphate' based in Iraq

Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte has made the first public U.S. assessment of Al Qaida’s long-term plans and objectives. They include creating a radical Islamist “caliphate” or government throughout the Middle East. Read on.

Madame Librarian

Defending terrorists' privacy while ignoring real repression.
To hear the ALA talk, librarians are the last bulwark defending our most cherished civil liberties against government assault. Yet two recent examples show again that self-anointed guardians of the public good can be very selective about the people, and rights, they choose to protect. Read more.

Can We Talk?

If al Qaeda phones, tell them we can't take the call.

BY DANIEL HENNINGER

Let's start with the one thing we know for sure about the Bush administration's program to listen to al Qaeda's phone calls into and out of the United States: It's dead.

After all the publicity of the past two weeks, does anyone think that the boys working on plans for Boston Harbor, the Golden Gate Bridge or Chicago's Loop are still chatting by phone? If the purpose of the public exposure was to pull the plug on the pre-emptive surveillance program, mission accomplished. Be safe, Times Square. Read more.

President Kollar-Kotelly

Who elected Colleen Kollar-Kotelly to run national security?

"The story's real news is that Judge Kollar-Kotelly, and her predecessor, Judge Royce Lamberth, took it upon themselves to erect a new "wall" concerning how intelligence is to be used to protect America." Read editorial at Opinion Journal.
"...the opinion which gives to the judges the right to decide what laws are constitutional and what not, not only for themselves in their own sphere of action but for the Legislature and Executive also in their spheres, would make the Judiciary a despotic branch." -- Thomas Jefferson

There's GOT to be a Parallel Universe

"[T]he traditional media, the trusted media, the 'neutral' media, have become the chief delivery mechanism of potent anti-Democratic and pro-Bush storylines."

—Peter Daou, a 2004 Kerry strategist

Huh??

Other News Headlines

Chavez Orders U.S. Missionaries Out Of Venezuelan Jungle


CARACAS, Venezuela — U.S. missionaries accused by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez of espionage have been forced from their remote outposts among jungle tribes by a government order, the final pair leaving Thursday after years of evangelical work. Read on.

Israel Insists on Need for Defensible Borders

Jerusalem - Given all the political and security threats it faces from hostile neighbors, Israel's borders must be determined based on its strategic security interests, a former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations said.

"One of the problems still [to be] addressed by the next Israeli government is the line of defense," said Dr. Dore Gold, a former Israeli ambassador to the U.N.

"Defensible borders are one of the most integral parts of Ariel Sharon's legacy," said Gold, a former senior advisor to Sharon.

When Israel decided to pull out of the Gaza Strip, it obtained a letter from President Bush confirming U.S. backing for Israel's right to establish defensible borders.

"The United States reiterates its steadfast commitment to Israel's security, including secure, defensible borders," Bush wrote in his April 14, 2004 letter to Sharon. Two months later, both houses of Congress backed up what the president wrote.

Israel traded Gaza for defensible borders in the West Bank, said Gold, president of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, which is spearheading the initiative to promote Israel's need for defensible borders.

Israel is fewer than nine miles wide at its narrowest point near the country's largest population center. An Israeli withdrawal from the entire West Bank would return Israel to that position, a condition that Israeli and some U.S. military officials have said is untenable.

Israel is bordered on the north by Lebanon and Syria, on the west by the Mediterranean Sea and on the south by Egypt. The current argument with the Palestinians mainly concerns Israel's eastern front - the West Bank, and the Jordan Valley beyond that.

Israel has come under international condemnation for the route of its security barrier, which it credits for a dramatic reduction in suicide attacks in the center of the country.

According to Gold, Israel's "defensible borders" must also include the Jordan Valley as a buffer zone to stave off conventional attacks from the Arab world and to prevent terror infiltration from al Qaeda, which could link up with Hamas.

The Jordan Valley also would act as a buffer to prevent Palestinian smuggling of advanced weapons into the West Bank.

"Given the strategic situation emerging at present with Hamas, with al Qaeda moving closer to Israel's border and Iran seeking a nuclear umbrella over international terrorism -- for Israel to relinquish the Jordan Valley is an act of national irresponsibility," Gold said.

Palestinians consider the Jordan Valley as part of the West Bank, so-named by Jordan when it occupied the area from 1948-1967. The West Bank referred to the west bank of the Jordan River. The Palestinians want it to become part of a future Palestinian state.

The sparsely populated section of the Jordan Valley in question runs about 35 miles north to south and is about three to seven miles wide at various points and includes hills on the Western side.

Militarily, Israel needs this area to protect itself from conventional armies invading from the east and to put a boundary between the Palestinians and the rest of the Arab world, said retired Maj. General Jacob Amidror, director of the Institute for Contemporary Affairs at the JCPA.

"Israel cannot build [its security] on the assumption that the Middle East will look the same in the next 20 years," said Amidror, a former commander of the Israeli army's Military College and former head of the army's research and assessment division, which prepares the national intelligence assessment.

No one can guarantee that the next Iraqi regime will not be closer ideologically to Iran; and that the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, which is more than 60 percent Palestinian, will not be taken over by the Palestinians; or that the radical Muslim Brotherhood, which made gains in recent elections won't rise to power in Egypt and be in control of the most sophisticated (U.S. supplied) weapons in the Middle East, said Amidror.

Therefore, Israel must be able to defend itself in the case of a conventional war with its neighbors, he said.

The second threat is terrorism -- the possibility of al Qaeda entering the Palestinian areas and Palestinians smuggling more advanced weapons through the Jordan Valley, he said.

Full article at CNS NEWS.

UK Muslims Call for Changes in Law and Media Guidelines
A Christian leader in Britain has voiced alarm over calls by Muslims to change the law to prevent the future publication of images of Mohammed...

Feds Must Secure Border from Those ‘Who Want to Kill Us’
The federal government must address illegal immigration and border security or risk the wrath of voters in upcoming elections, congressional Republicans told attendees at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C., Thursday...

Cheney: US Protected From Terror by ‘More Than Just Luck’
Washington
- Vice President Dick Cheney defended the Bush administration’s terrorist surveillance program on Thursday evening, telling a group of conservatives that the country has been protected from additional terror attacks by sensible policy decisions and “decisive action” at home and abroad...

GOP Congressman and Former POW Rips John Murtha
Washington
- Amid cheers, whistles and two standing ovations, U.S. Rep. Sam Johnson (R-Tex.) told a conservative conference on Thursday that his blood boiled when he heard “a liberal congressman from Pennsylvania” insist that the United States immediately withdraw its troops from Iraq. “I do know what it’s like to be far from home, serving your country, risking your life and hearing that America doesn’t care about you,” Johnson said, choking back tears...

So. Dakota House Approves Ban on Abortion

The South Dakota House has approved an abortion ban, with an exception for cases in which the mother is in danger of dying on a vote of 47-22. In it will now go to the state Senate.

Attempts to include provisions in the bill for rape, incest, and the general catch-all phrase "mother's health" were not successful.

"The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence. If 'Thou shalt not covet' and 'Thou shalt not steal' were not commandments of Heaven, they must be made inviolable precepts in every society before it can be civilized or made free."

--- John Adams

Putin invites Hamas to talks
Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday invited Hamas leaders to Moscow, saying his country -- unlike most of the West -- does not consider the winner in the Palestinian elections a terrorist organization.

GOP reaches Patriot Act deal
Four Republican senators reached a deal yesterday to drop their opposition to the renewal of the USA Patriot Act, hailed by the White House as crucial in the war against terrorists.

Counterintelligence posts vacant
The top ranks of government counterintelligence agencies are empty due to resignations and retirements amid a dispute over the role of counterspying, U.S. intelligence officials say.

Newspapers Continue to Call Slowed-Down Spending ‘Cuts’

Social programs are still expanding rapidly under new Bush budget, but writers hear only liberal criticisms of reduced growth.

By Ken Shepherd
Free Market Project

In New Hampshire on February 8, President Bush gave a simple lesson journalists could use. He compared slowing spending growth to driving the speed limit, rather than cutting spending, which would be like “putting your car in reverse.” The media, however, chose to steer readers wrong with an insistence on calling spending increases “cuts” and amplifying liberal outrage for not spending enough money. Read on.

Thursday, February 09, 2006

"He who dares not offend cannot be honest." -- Thomas Paine

Reinforces, it seems to me, my statement I posted January 17, 2006:
Political Correctness is to Supress Reality.

Self-harmers to be given clean blades

The Sunday Times / Britain
TimesOnLine

NURSES want patients who are intent on harming themselves to be provided with clean blades so that they can cut themselves more safely.

They say people determined to harm themselves should be helped to minimise the risk of infection from dirty blades, in the same way as drug addicts are issued with clean needles. Read more.

I wonder what FlexBlue's take is on this? Weigh in if you wish.

ON FISA

"Passed in the wake of the infamous Church hearings on the CIA, FISA is an artifact of post-Vietnam and post-Watergate hostility to executive power. But even as Jimmy Carter signed it for political reasons, his own Attorney General declared that it didn't supercede executive powers under Article II of the Constitution. Every President since has agreed with that view, and no court has contradicted it.

As federal judge and former Deputy Attorney General Laurence Silberman explained in his 1978 testimony on FISA, the President is accountable to the voters if he abuses surveillance power. Fear of exposure or political damage are powerful disincentives to going too far. But judges, who are not politically accountable, have no similar incentives to strike the right balance between intelligence needs and civilian privacy. This is one reason the Founders gave the judiciary no such plenary powers."

From Opinion Journal
Abolish FISA: A Congressional power grab, using judges as a cudgel.

"Half the work that is done in this world is to make things appear what they are not."

--- Elias Root Beadle

Murder of sheikh provokes Sunnis to turn on al-Qaeda
Times Online - UK
... Al-Qaeda cells loyal to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, their Jordanian leader, once had considerable support in Ramadi. US intelligence officers ...

"Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but only those specifically enumerated."

--Thomas Jefferson

"The issue today is the same as it has been throughout all history, whether man shall be allowed to govern himself or be ruled by a small elite."

-- Thomas Jefferson

SATAN STRIKES AGAIN

United Nations, United States Aiding Bolivian Flood Victims
Washington File - Washington,DC,USA
Washington -- The United Nations is complementing US aid to victims of flooding in Bolivia by providing more than 600 tons of emergency food relief to 10,000 ...

BOGUS RIGHTS

A MINORITY VIEW
BY WALTER E. WILLIAMS

Do people have a right to medical treatment whether or not they can pay? What about a right to food or decent housing? Would a U.S. Supreme Court justice hold that these are rights just like those enumerated in our Bill of Rights? In order to have any hope of coherently answering these questions, we have to decide what is a right. The way our Constitution's framers used the term, a right is something that exists simultaneously among people and imposes no obligation on another. For example, the right to free speech, or freedom to travel, is something we all simultaneously possess. My right to free speech or freedom to travel imposes no obligation upon another except that of non-interference. In other words, my exercising my right to speech or travel requires absolutely nothing from you and in no way diminishes any of your rights. Read the rest of his article here.

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

"The deterioration of every government begins with the decay of the principles on which it was founded."

--- Charles-Louis De Secondat

"The circumstances that endanger the safety of nations are infinite, and for this reason no constitutional shackles can wisely be imposed on the power to which the care of it is committed."

—Alexander Hamilton

Homeland Security Is Too Important for Patriot Games
By Ed Feulner

When Congress passed the USA Patriot Act shortly after 9/11, it added a "sunset" provision for 16 key provisions. The idea was to make lawmakers revisit the act after a time and ensure that it was working as intended. Four years and zero domestic terrorist attacks later, we've hit that expiration date. And the verdict is in: "We need the Patriot Act," as Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) put it. So why does Congress keep delaying renewal? Enough!

John Bolton Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize
Democrats and a few Republicans refused to confirm Bolton as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and less than a year later, he's been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for exposing Iran's nuclear plans. The nomination stems from the job he held before President Bush used a recess appointment to get Bolton to the United Nations...

UN’s Ability to Overhaul Human Rights Role Questioned
As negotiators wrestle over how a new human rights council at the U.N. should look and work, some scholars believe the U.S. should seek alternatives outside the world body, rather than settle for a new rights entity hampered the same problems that discredited its predecessor...

Body Armor Shortages Now Explosive Political Issue
Critics accuse the Pentagon of inexcusable delays in shipping body armor to soldiers and Marines fighting in Iraq. In congressional testimony on Feb. 2, top officers denied any intentional delays, but high-profile critics like U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton remain unconvinced...

WARM AND FUZZY

NBC has a news story by Lisa Myers, Jim Popkin and the NBC News Investigative Unit: US citizen accused of aiding al-Zarqawi which is posted on the MSNBC website. In this story an American citizen is being held in Iraq and has been since 2004. He is alleged to have worked with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and helped plan insurgent attacks on foreigners in Iraq.

Go here to read the story. Note the nice, warmy fuzzy picture they chose to use in conjunction with their story.


STAY HOME, DAMN YOU !

Quit your damn job! What nerve you have, to put us all in jeopardy. A pox to you, your family, and to your employer.

Commuting helping boost global warming
WCAX - Burlington,VT,USA
CONCORD, NH A consumer advocate group says the pollution caused by New Hampshire residents commuting to and from work is contributing to global warming. ...

About the Danish Refugee Council

Moscow - The United Nations received a letter today from the Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Chechen Republic, Mr. Vaikhanov, in which he recommended that the Danish Refugee Council suspend its activity in the territory of Chechnya in the interest of staff safety. We welcome the attention of the Government to the safety of humanitarian workers.

The Danish Refugee Council is the largest among dozens of nongovernmental organizations that are partners to the United Nations in providing humanitarian and recovery assistance in Chechnya and its neighboring republics. An interruption in their activities implies hardship for the vulnerable civilians in Chechnya who rely on material assistance and protection. Therefore, the United Nations is hopeful that the safety concerns expressed by the Government will quickly pass and not hamper the ongoing humanitarian program.

From: ReliefWeb.int

ABOUT TAXES

FREE MARKET PROJECT points us to George Pieler of the Institute for Policy Innovation as he assesses a tax threat that’s literally right in front of you as you read this on your computer screen: local, state, and federal politicians, as well as international bureaucrats, lining up to tax the Internet.



Remedial Math for the President

President George W. Bush's new budget proposes spending $5.9 billion to promote math in America. This might not be a bad idea, if only because politicians seemingly cannot count. This year, the president wants to spend $2.77 trillion, including record amounts of money for both domestic programs and national defense/homeland security. The details are even less encouraging. His new budget will add $18 billion for hurricane relief on top of the billions already blanketing the regions affected by Hurricane Katrina, as well as comical proposals such as $148 million for the Solar America Initiative and $55 million for activities during the International Polar Year. And yet the White House argues that this year we will "maintain our pro-growth policies and insist on spending restraint."

The administration's reductions in tax rates have been a success, so the first part of that claim is fine. After that, it goes downhill.

Read the rest of the commentary at Reason.com.

WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN

Free Market Project adviser and National Taxpayers Union President John Berthoud calculates that if federal spending had been held to 4-percent growth since President Bush took office instead of the 49-percent jump in spending since 2001, the White House would instead be projecting a surplus of $58 billion rather than $354 billion in red ink. READ MORE.

Ironic Media Position Follows Bush’s Declaration of Oil ‘Addiction’

Didn’t the media say the Iraq war was all about oil, and that the United States was too dependent on the Mideast’s resources? Well, now that President Bush has agreed that it’s time to look elsewhere for energy, the media have been scoffing at his proposal. Their about-face has journalists calling attention now to the small percentage of oil America imports from the Mideast.
By Noel Sheppard at Free Market Project. Read on.

MCCAIN GAINS ON THE RIGHT

REPUBLICAN conservatives are really warming up to Sen. John McCain as they look ahead to 2008 — and one reason is they are starting to see him as the best person to beat Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Conservatives loved the poll that showed McCain would trounce Clinton by 52 to 36 percent in a White House. It came along just as they were reminding themselves that McCain really is a true-blue conservative.

The clincher was this week's confirmation of President Bush's second Supreme Court nominee, Samuel Alito, without a bruising showdown over a filibuster — thanks to the "Gang of 14" deal that McCain brokered with Dem moderates.

Conservatives howled betrayal when McCain cut the deal, but, in fact, he got moderates to agree that it's unacceptable to kill a judge's nomination solely because he's a conservative.

McCain is a prime reason why John Kerry's filibuster bid flopped. Read on.

US contributes $203.8 million to the United Nations High ...
ReliefWeb (press release) - Geneva,Switzerland
The United States is pleased to announce an initial contribution of $203.8 million toward the 2006 operations of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). ...

Leading United Nations Abortion Advocate a Prof at a Pontifical Catholic University

The United Nations pushes abortion rights. In an article by John-Henry Westen, he writes in his first paragraph (for LifeSiteNews.com) that "Silvia Pimentel, has distinguished herself as one of the leading promoters of abortion on the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Elected to sit on the committee in January 2005 and currently serving as Vice Chair, Pimentel is one of the 23 'experts' on the UN body which monitors compliance with the UN convention of the same name."

Emphasis is mine. See the connection? "Eliminate discrimination of women and abortion." Get it? If you do, please let me know.
"While it may not be surprising that a CEDAW committee member encourages countries to permit abortion, even though abortion does not fall within the UN committee's mandate, the fact that Pimentel is a Professor of Legal Philosophy at the Pontifical Catholic University of Sao Paulo is raising eyebrows."
[snip]
"In the most recent round of CEDAW committee meetings which ended last week, the UN body took up compliance reports and made recommendations on eight countries. During the meetings concerning Togo and Thailand, Pimentel promoted abortion."

Full article.

Hypocrisy on Parade: Times Runs Photo of Dung-Clotted “Virgin Mary”

Times Watch notes The New York Times hypocrisy with this piece.

Just yesterday the Times wrote in an editorial on the Danish cartoons of Mohammad that “The New York Times and much of the rest of the nation's news media have reported on the cartoons but refrained from showing them. That seems a reasonable choice for news organizations that usually refrain from gratuitous assaults on religious symbols, especially since the cartoons are so easy to describe in words.”


Apparently the Arts pages didn’t get the memo, because it runs a photo of Chris Ofili’s dung-clotted “Holy Virgin Mary” in Wednesday’s Arts section story by Michael Kimmelman, who calls the Danish cartoons “callous and feeble.”

This is the most striking example yet of the double standard by the Times when it comes to art that offends religious sensibilities.

For Kimmelman’s full story, click here.

First Grader Suspended for Harassment

Breitbart.com / AP

BROCKTON, Mass.


A first grader was suspended for three days after school officials said he sexually harassed a girl in his class by allegedly putting two fingers inside the girl's waistband while she sat on the floor in front of him.

The boy's mother, Berthena Dorinvil, said she "screamed" about last week's suspension from Downey Elementary School, and added her son doesn't know what sexual harassment is.

"He doesn't know those things," she told The Enterprise of Brockton. "He's only 6 years old."

School officials declined comment to The Enterprise, citing the child's age.

"They would have not suspended the child without doing an investigation," said spokeswoman Cynthia McNally.

Dorinvil said the school principal, Diane Gosselin, called her to pick up her son Jan. 30. She said her son asked the principal if the police were going to come get him.

The principal told Dorinvil the girl complained to the teacher after her son touched the girl's waistband, hitting her skin, in a room full of children.

Dorinvil said her son told her he touched the girl's shirt, not her skin, after the girl touched him.

"He was playing with her," Dorinvil said.

Putting it in Proper Perspective......

"I consider the government of the United States as interdicted by the Constitution from intermeddling with religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or exercises.

This results not only from the provision that no law shall be made respecting the
establishment or free exercise of religion, but from that also which reserves to the States the powers not delegated to the United States.

Certainly, no power to prescribe any religious exercise or to assume authority in any religious discipline has been delegated to the General Government. It must then rest with the States."

-- Thomas Jefferson

Muhammad's image subject of art in past

Lost in the furor over cartoons of the prophet Muhammad is the fact that his likeness has long been portrayed in the collections of some of the world's greatest museums and libraries without exciting alarm or comment. Read on.

PATHETIC PARTY DOES IT AGAIN

The Dems just cannot help themselves, as once again they turn a funeral into a political forum. What a shame. These losers are truly lost souls.

Tribute to Mrs. King by Joseph Curl
Four American presidents yesterday joined hands and bowed their heads in prayer for civil rights leader Coretta Scott King, but the joyful celebration of her life turned harsh, with one former president and a prominent black preacher bitterly criticizing... Read on.

Girl, age 15, given radiation overdose

Glasgow - AN INVESTIGATION is under way at a top cancer hospital today after a teenage patient was given a massive overdose of radiation up to 17 times during treatment. Read more.

Hate cleric's mosque hid 'an arsenal for training terrorists'

DETECTIVES investigating the radical Islamic preacher Abu Hamza al-Masri uncovered evidence that Islamic terrorists are operating training camps inside the UK, it emerged yesterday.
Read more.

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

The task of weaning various people and groups from the national nipple will not be easy. The sound of whines, bawls, screams and invective will fill the air as the agony of withdrawal pangs finds voice.


---Linda Bowles

Nowhere at present is there such a measureless loathing of their country by educated people as in America.

---Eric Hoffer

Certainly, it is a world of scarcity. But the scarcity is not confined to iron ore and arable land. The most constricting scarcities are those of character and personality.


--- William R. Allen

The first thing a man will do for his ideals is lie.

--Joseph A. Schumpeter

Preoccupied with Trivialities

Looking back at the history of tragic times often reveals that many -- or most -- of the people of those times were often preoccupied with things that look trivial, or even pathetic, in view of the catastrophe looming over them. Will later generations looking back at our times see a similar blindness, and even frivolousness, in the face of mortal dangers?

Terrorists and terrorist governments are giving us almost daily evidence of their fanatical hatred and violent sadism, as the clock ticks away toward their gaining possession of nuclear weapons. They not only hold a harmless young woman hostage in Iraq, they parade her in tears on television, just as they have paraded not only the terrorizing, but even the beheading, of others on television.

Moreover, there is a large and gleeful audience in the Arab world for these gross brutalities, just as there was glee and cheering among the Palestinians when the televised destruction of the World Trade center was broadcast in the Middle East.

Yet what are we preoccupied with or outraged about? Whether the American government should intercept the phone calls of these cutthroats to people in the United States.

By Thomas Sowell. Read all of it here.

The Twilight Zone

"As it happens, I have sympathy with the notion that newspapers and others need to be sensitive to religious, including Muslim, sensibilities. However, when Muslim governments and religious spokesmen attack the West for its insensitivity to Muslims and its anti-Muslim prejudice, one has entered the Twilight Zone. Because nowhere in the world is there anywhere near the religious bigotry and sheer hatred of other religions that exists in the Muslim world."

--- Dennis Prager

Read Dennis' column on "First they came for Israel, then they came for America ..." here.

"24 hours in a day, 24 beers in a case. Coincidence? I think not."

~ Stephen Wright

ABOUT FACE!!.....

Bolton wins praise from vocal Republican critic.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A Republican lawmaker who once described Washington's combative U.N. ambassador, John Bolton, as everything a diplomat should not be, had some kind words for him while visiting U.N. headquarters on Monday.

"I spend a lot of time with John on the phone. I think he is really working very constructively to move forward," said Sen. George Voinovich of Ohio. Read on.

THE BUSH DOCTRINE

The Promise of Liberty
The ballot is not infallible, but it has broken the Arab pact with tyranny.

BY FOUAD AJAMI

So, some now say, a people led for more than three decades by Yasser Arafat, a man who dodged all moral and political responsibility, have flunked a great democratic test. It wasn't a pretty choice that the Palestinians were presented with: the secular autocracy of plunder and pretense represented by Arafat's inheritors on the one side and the cruel utopia of the Hamas hard-liners on the other. This was where Palestinian history led. Ever since the Palestinians had taken to the road after 1948, that population had never been given the gift of political truth. Zionism had built a whole, new world west of the Jordan River, but Palestinian nationalism had insisted that all this could be undone. Read on.

Oppressors vs. Victims

"Generally speaking, multiculturalists consider Christians to be an oppressor class, while Muslims are a victim class. A victim class's grievances must be taken seriously and can even trump free expression, while the same is never true of an oppressor class's. (The multicultural worldview sees Jews as an intermediate class--victims of Christians, oppressors of Muslims--which is why liberals can be outraged by anti-Semitic imagery in "The Passion of the Christ" but unperturbed by terrorism against Israelis.)"

--- James Taranto, Opinion Journal

America Expects Surveillance

Monitoring the enemy is necessary and appropriate.

BY ALBERTO R. GONZALES

In the days following Sept. 11, 2001, President Bush charted a course of action to respond to the worst attack on our homeland in history. He promised to use every tool available to defeat al Qaeda and pledged to take the fight to the enemy abroad as he worked to prevent another attack. As he said in the State of the Union address, "Our country must remain on the offensive against terrorism here at home." The president has the constitutional responsibility--and authority--to lead this response. Read on.

CARTOON COMMENTARIES

Cartoons and Islamic Imperialism
By Daniel Pipes

The key issue at stake in the battle over the twelve Danish cartoons of Muhammad is this: will the West stand up for its customs and mores, including freedom of speech, or will Muslims impose their way of life on the West? Ultimately, there is no compromise; Westerners will either retain their civilization, including the right to insult and blaspheme, or not…

It Shouldn’t Be a Federal Offense to Offend
By Marc A. Levin

Americans recently learned that wearing the wrong clothes in the U.S. Capitol can get you arrested. While members of Congress are now criticizing the arrests, they are emperors with no clothes when it comes to such madness. After all, it is Congress that is responsible for the proliferation of over 4,000 federal criminal laws that put all Americans in danger of arrest…

Request falls short of full funding for border agents

President Bush's new budget again fails to fund the entire number of Border Patrol agents mandated by Congress but for the first time includes funds for his proposed guest-worker program. Read on.

Syria seen as instigator

Lebanon's dominant coalition accused Syria yesterday of deliberately fomenting violent protests over cartoons about the Islamic prophet Muhammad, while the United States urged its Arab allies to help quell the spreading anger. MORE.

You’re Under Surveillance

By Alan Caruba

In the midst of all the hypocritical and self-righteous talk about the fact that the National Security Agency actually listens to calls from known or suspected terrorists talking to someone in the United States or vice versa, is the fact that every single American is under surveillance these days. It begins with the Social Security number that is issued to newborn infants. Read on.

South and Latin America’s ‘Lurch to the Left’

(CNSNews.com) – Pre-occupied with the Middle East, the U.S. government has ignored South and Latin America in recent years, a time when leftist political candidates have won elections in at least a half-dozen countries. This "lurch to the left" is only the beginning of a trend, according to analysts contacted by Cybercast News Service... Read on.

"Sometimes when I reflect back on all the wine I drink I feel shamed. Then I look into the glass and think about the workers in the vineyards and all of their hopes and dreams. If I didn't drink this wine, they might be out of work and their dreams would be shattered. Then I say to myself, "It is better that I drink this wine and let their dreams come true than be selfish and worry about my liver."

--- Jack Handy

Monday, February 06, 2006

"The churches of America do not exist by the grace of the state; the churches of America are not mere citizens of the state. The churches of America exist apart; they have their own vantage point, their own authority. Religion is its own realm; it makes its own claims. We establish no religion in this country, nor will we ever. We command no worship. We mandate no belief. But we poison our society when we remove its theological underpinnings. We court corruption when we leave it bereft of belief." —Ronald Reagan

"Our enemies may be irrational, even outright insane, driven by nationalism, religion, ethnicity or ideology. They do not fear the United States for its diplomatic skills or the number of automobiles and software programs it produces. They respect only the firepower of our tanks, planes and helicopter gunships."

—Ronald Reagan

Total casualty rate in Iraq lowest in 2 years

BAGHDAD — The U.S. military has reported the lowest casualty rate in Iraq in nearly two years.

Officials said the casualty rate in Iraq dropped significantly in January 2006. They said that for most of the month, the casualty rate was the lowest since early 2004.

"In January, there were 19 days where the number of casualties were lower than 50," Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition, said. "And that's the lowest rate we've seen since the spring of '04." Read on.

UN, pressed by Bolton, set to take over in Darfour

WASHINGTON — The United Nations has moved to take over peace-keeping operations in Sudan's Darfour province.

"My instructions and my intentions are very clear: which is to move as far and as fast as we can during the month of February." Security Council president John Bolton, the U.S. envoy, said on Feb. 3. Full article.

Al-Qaeda Frees 23 Mujahideen From Yemen Prison In Precision Operation

Saudi Arabia and Jordan nervous they will be targets.

From Jihad Unspun.

While Yemen issued arrest warrants and sought Interpol’s help yesterday in an attempt to recapture the 23 Al-Qaeda operatives who were freed from a Sanaa prison on Friday, the sophisticated jail break operation depicts Al-Qaeda’s ability to penetrate any system with ease.

The Al-Qaeda operatives, including 13 from the 2000 bombing of the US naval destroyer USS Cole and the 2002 attack on the French oil tanker Limburg off the coast of Yemen, were freed late Friday from a jail at intelligence headquarters in the southern Sanaa suburb of Hadda.

Read the rest here.


Can al-Qaeda's Lebanese Expansion be Stopped?

The Washington Institute
Policy Watch / Peace Watch

As Israelis assess the implications of Hamas’s victory in January elections to the Palestinian Legislative Council, a new threat may be developing in Lebanon. Al-Qaeda–linked terrorists have been present in Lebanon for a decade, but recent statements by Ayman al-Zawahiri and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi suggest that the dual objectives of destabilizing Arab regimes and targeting Israel proper are becoming top al-Qaeda priorities. Al-Zarqawi–linked terrorists in Lebanon have already engaged in low-level targeting of Israeli and Lebanese interests, yet several obstacles may hinder their ability to launch significant attacks in or from Lebanon. The Lebanese government, although weak, has a clear interest in preventing both internally and externally directed al-Qaeda activity. The dynamic among Hizballah, the Palestinians, and al-Qaeda remains more ambiguous, but early signs suggest potential antagonism among the groups. Together, Israel and the United States may be able to help Lebanon contain this emerging threat. Read more.

Sunni tribes turn against jihadis

To fight foreign terrorists, US and Iraqi forces are looking to the Sunni Arab resistance.

BAGHDAD – Sheikh Osama al-Jadaan, head of the influential Karabila tribe in Sunni Arab-dominated western Iraq, is more politician than traditional sheikh these days. He's given up his dishdasha and Arab headdress for a pinstripe suit with a silk handkerchief in his breast pocket.

He's also turned away from supporting Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi and other foreign fighters in Iraq. "We realized that these foreign terrorists were hiding behind the veil of the noble Iraqi resistance," says Mr. Jadaan. "They claim to be striking at the US occupation, but the reality is they are killing innocent Iraqis in the markets, in mosques, in churches, and in our schools." Read more at The Christian Science Monitor.

Boy saved after 36 hours in sea

A SIX-year-old boy has been found alive after spending up to 36 hours in the Red Sea on his own following the sinking of a ferry with the loss of as many as 1,000 lives.

Mohammed Hassan was plucked to safety after a prolonged ordeal in the water. He found himself separated from his parents, who were missing, presumed drowned, in the chaos as the ferry, al-Salaam Boccaccio 98, sank on Friday. Read on.

Sunday, February 05, 2006

"Strange it is, that men should admit the validity of the arguments for free discussion, but object to their being 'pushed to an extreme'; not seeing that unless the reasons are good for an extreme case, they are not good for any case."

--- John Stuart Mill, British philosopher

A Clarifying Moment?

From the German, Spiegel Online:

"Best-selling author and Muslim dissident Ibn Warraq argues that freedom of expression is our western heritage and we must defend it against attacks from totalitarian societies. If the west does not stand in solidarity with the Danish, he argues, then the Islamization of Europe will have begun in earnest."

HeavyHanded says maybe there is hope yet for our European friends. Perhaps the offensive cartoon of Mohammed and the insane repercussions will turn out to be the clarifying moment for the West and galvanize our fight against Islamic fascism.

I suggest going here to read the article. It is in excellent article; he asks some very good questions. It's worthy of your time.

USS REAGAN FUN FACTS

THE USS REAGAN

When the Bridge pipes "Man the Rail" there is a lot of rail to man on this monster. Shoulder to shoulder around 4½ acres. This doesn't give her displacement but it's about 100,000 tons with full complements.

Capability

Top speed exceeds 30 knots

Powered by two nuclear reactors that can operate for more than 20 years without refueling

Expected to operate in the fleet for about 50 years

Carries over 80 combat aircraft
Three arresting cables can stop a 28-ton aircraft going 150 miles per hour in less than 400 feet

Size

Towers 20 stories above the waterline

1092 feet long; nearly as long as the Empire State Building is tall

Flight deck covers 4.5 acres

4 bronze propellers, each 21 feet across, weighing 66,200 pounds

2 rudders, each 29 by 22 feet and weighing 50 tons

4 high speed aircraft elevators, each over 4,000 square feet

Dates

Dec. 8, 1994 Contract awarded to Newport News Shipbuilding

Feb 12, 1998 Keel laid

Oct 1, 2000 Pre-commissioning Unit established

March 4, 2001 Christened by Mrs. Nancy Reagan

May 5, 2003 First underway

July 12, 2003 Commissioned

July 23, 2004 Arrived at homeport in San Diego, CA

Capacity

Home to about 6,000 Navy personnel

Carries enough food and supplies to operate for 90 days

18,150 meals served daily

Distillation plants provide 400,000 gallons of fresh water from sea water daily, enough for 2000 homes

Nearly 30,000 light fixtures and 1,325 miles of cable and wiring 1,400 telephones, 14,000 pillowcases and 28,000 sheets

Costs the Navy approximately $250,000 per day for pier side operation

Costs the Navy approximately $2.5 million per day for underway operations (Sailor's salaries included).

Leading al Qaida figure 'arrested'

"Iraqi police have arrested al Qaida's fourth-ranking figure in Iraq, the country's state television said. The brief report on Iraqiya television identified the suspect as Mohammed Rabei, also known Abu Dhar."

SOURCE: The Scotsman

UPDATE:
More information on this story at Basque News and Information Channel eitb24.

Intelligence intransigence

One year after Congress authorized the creation of a czar to oversee and reform intelligence agencies, the CIA, the FBI and other services remain largely the same, bound by ingrained bureaucratic process and culture, intelligence officials say. Read on.

"Instead of giving a politician the keys to the city, it might be better to change the locks."

--- Doug Larson

"Since we cannot know all that there is to be known about anything, we ought to know a little about everything."

--- Blaise Pascal

Death Knell for the Case against Scooter Libby?

Court documents were released yesterday which appear to sound the death knell for Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald’s case against Lewis “Scooter” Libby. Leftists who once eagerly anticipated a “Merry Fitzmas” are likely to find a lump of coal in their stockings next December, before the trial, scheduled for early 2007, ever gets underway. Read more.

Losing the fight for Europe?

David Schwammenthal, a member of the Wall Street Journal editorial board, writes today on the paper’s subscriber-only website that Denmark has in effect capitulated in the cartoon crisis, and that this bodes ill for the future of Europe. Read on...

11 Year Old Girl's Recovery Will Stir End-of-Life Debate

In a case that is sure to raise questions after doctors had concluded she could not survive, an 11 year old Massachusetts girl was about to be taken off life support when she started to show signs of recovery. She had been beaten savagely. So this medical and moral dilema will rage on.

The End of the Internet as We Know It?

The nation's largest telephone and cable companies (Verizon, Comcast, Bell South and other communications giants) are crafting an alarming set of strategies that would transform the free, open and nondiscriminatory Internet of today to a privately run and branded service that would charge a fee for virtually everything we do online.

They are developing strategies that would track and store information on our every move in cyberspace in a vast data-collection and marketing system, the scope of which could rival the National Security Agency.

According to white papers now being circulated in the cable, telephone and telecommunications industries, those with the deepest pockets--corporations, special-interest groups and major advertisers--would get preferred treatment. Content from these providers would have first priority on our computer and television screens, while information seen as undesirable, such as peer-to-peer communications, could be relegated to a slow lane or simply shut out.

Under the plans they are considering, all of us--from content providers to individual users--would pay more to surf online, stream videos or even send e-mail. Industry planners are mulling new subscription plans that would further limit the online experience, establishing "platinum," "gold" and "silver" levels of Internet access that would set limits on the number of downloads, media streams or even e-mail messages that could be sent or received. Read more.