Wishing One and All a great 2008
Regular site activity will resume January 3.
A happy and safe Holidays.
H.G.
Friday, December 21, 2007
Regular site activity will resume January 3.
A happy and safe Holidays.
H.G.
Thursday, December 20, 2007
How a UNICEF Photo Makes the West's Heart Ache :: Spiegel Online
There are people who will look at this image and be able to continue with business as usual -- without disgust, nausea and rage. We are beholding the fiercest barbarism imaginable. But a carefree cultural relativism -- which this age has donned as its outward manifestation of decadent indifference -- allows many to simply look away. They turn away from the sight of an 11-year-old girl, who is about to be raped by the man sitting next to her.
The girl was sold by her parents, even if they probably wouldn't use that word. The caption that came with the photo quoted the parents as saying that they "needed the money."
Sphere: Related ContentIslam and the diabolic slave trade By M.S.N. Menon
“If all crimes committed from creation down to the present day were added together, they would not exceed, I am sure, the guilt of the diabolic slave trade.”—Lord Palmerston (1844)
And did you know, dear Reader, that this “diabolic slave trade” had the blessings of Christianity and Islam? But this is not the only guilt they carried. And yet they assert that they are superior to Hinduism!
But how can the religion of Jesus Christ be a party to these atrocities? Here is what one of Europe’s foremost historians had to say: “They (Europeans) received the externals (of Christianity), but there they stop. They may baptize their children, they may take the sacrament, they may flock to the church. All these they may do and yet be as far removed from the spirit of Christianity as when they bowed their knees before their former idols.” (History of Medieval and Modern Civilisations by Seignobos.)
In short, Europe was never truly Christianised. This explains why Christian Europe was behind this “diabolic” trade.
Sphere: Related ContentKamikaze Campaigning by Jay Tea
Towards the end of World War II, the Japanese were growing desperate. They had lost the best of their pilots in the first year or two of the war against the United States, and had never instituted a first-rate program to replace them and fully train new ones. As a last-ditch effort to get some use out of half-trained young men who were most likely going to die anyway, they convinced them to pilot planes converted into "flying bombs" and deliberately crash into American and British ships. They were called "kamikaze," or "Divine Wind," after the storms that twice wrecked Mongol invasion fleets in the 13th century.
I'm starting to wonder if there is a similar mentality going on in the Hillary Clinton campaign.
A few weeks ago, an unpaid volunteer was caught forwarding on the "Barack Obama might be a secret Muslim" canard. She was let go.
Sphere: Related ContentOver 400 Prominent Scientists Disputed Man-Made Global Warming Claims in 2007 By Marc Morano
Over 400 prominent scientists from more than two dozen countries recently voiced significant objections to major aspects of the so-called "consensus" on man-made global warming. These scientists, many of whom are current and former participants in the UN IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), criticized the climate claims made by the UN IPCC and former Vice President Al Gore.
The new report issued by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee’s office of the GOP Ranking Member details the views of the scientists, the overwhelming majority of whom spoke out in 2007.
Sphere: Related ContentA Blueprint for the Suppression of Dissent in Europe By Baron Bodissey
The disappearance of liberty in Europe will not be accompanied by the loud knock of a jackbooted thug at the front door. Basic freedoms are already being eroded imperceptibly by the European Union. The process has been going on for many years, drip by silent drip. In order to create Eurabia, the will of the people is muffled, suppressed, and discarded by the elites of the EU.
We have reported several times on the Framework Decision, a document generated by the EU bureaucracy which outlines the steps to be taken to suppress “xenophobia and racism”. Among the punishments sought against offenders would be imprisonment, fines, and “temporary or permanent disqualification from the practice of commercial activities, a judicial winding-up order, exclusion from entitlement to public aid”.
Sphere: Related ContentWe Need New Nukes by Caspar Weinberger Jr.
Ridding the world of nuclear weapons won’t be the way George Bush will be remembered, but the fact is this week he personally authorized a sizeable reduction of the U.S. nuclear arms inventory. Over three-quarters of the U.S. atomic weapons that were stock-piled at the end of the cold war have now been or are about to be destroyed.
For obvious security reasons our government is not saying exactly how many units of our existing nuclear arsenal are being taken “off-line” and then being permanently disposed of, but we do know that America started the year with about 6,000 nuclear bombs under its control. Some of those are deployed but most are in reserve.
Sphere: Related ContentAmerican Exceptionalism By Dr. Paul Kengor
In this interview, Dr. Paul Kengor speaks with Dr. Charles Kesler, director of the Salvatori Center at Claremont McKenna College, and one of the nation’s most respected and thoughtful observers on the American Founding.
Dr. Paul Kengor: Dr. Charles Kesler, what was so uniquely significant about the American Declaration of Independence, and how and why does it continue to stand apart as an almost sacred political document?
Sphere: Related ContentMaura Harty’s Belated Exit By Joel Mowbray
Defying the axiom that no bungling bureaucrat goes unrewarded, the woman ultimately responsible for the backlog of 2 million passports this year — and who then withheld the truth from Congress — was passed over for a major promotion, and consequently will resign her post early next year.
While the millions whose honeymoons, vacations and business plans were ruined will be pleased that someone has been held responsible, it is U.S. border security that could be the biggest beneficiary of consular chief Maura Harty stepping down.
Sphere: Related ContentThe War on Zionism By Ted Belman
Post Annapolis, the Palestinian Authority made it crystal clear that it will never recognize Israel as a "Jewish state". Furthermore, it made it crystal clear that it will not compromise on Jerusalem making it a capital offense to do so. Yet negotiations continue. Either Olmert doesn't believe the PA or what is more likely, he will still cut a deal where Israel is denied that recognition and will divide Jerusalem according to Arab demands.
Do not think for a moment that these entrenched Arab positions are negotiable. They aren't and never have been.
Theodor Herzl wrote The Jewish State in 1896, the Arabs, with one exception, have opposed it.
Bat Ye'orwrote in her monumental study, The Dhimmi
Sphere: Related ContentDarwin’s Lapdog Thinks You’re an ID-iot! By Jeff Osonitsch
In his column last month on Humanevents.com, Mac Johnson, a man whose writing I’ve always admired, claimed that the concept of Intelligent Design is a “really, really bad idea — scientifically, politically, and theologically.” He attacked ID using the usual list of specious arguments, distortions, and straw-man fallacies commonly used by the minions of scientism. Since I wrote rather extensively on the subject in a previous article, I won’t rehash it all here in detail. However, I felt the need to respond to at least some of the theological garbage spewed by Johnson in this piece.
Sphere: Related ContentHardball or Dirt Ball? by Patrick J. Buchanan
It was as low a blow as has lately been landed in national politics.
And it had all the subtlety of a surprise kick to the groin.
Bill Shaheen, husband of ex-Gov. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, a national co-chair of the Clinton campaign, volunteered to The Washington Post his concern at what might happen to Barack Obama, were he to be nominated.
"The Republicans are not going to give up without a fight, and one of the things they're certainly going to jump on is drug use," said Shaheen. And, as Obama has admitted in his autobiography to using drugs, this will "open the door" to further probing.
Sphere: Related ContentThere's a Huckabee born every minute By Ann Coulter
Despite the overwhelming popular demand for another column on Ron Radosh's review of Stan Evans' book, this week's column will address the urgent matter of evangelical Christians getting blamed for Mike Huckabee.
To paraphrase the Jews, this is "bad for the evangelicals."
As far as I can tell, it's mostly secular liberals swooning over Huckabee. Liberals adore Huckabee because he fits their image of what an evangelical should be: stupid and easily led.
The media are transfixed by the fact that Huckabee says he doesn't believe in evolution. Neither do I, for reasons detailed in approximately one-third of my No. 1 New York Times best-selling book, "Godless: The Church of Liberalism."
Sphere: Related ContentPetraeus Doesn't Rank But J.K. Rowling does? by Dean Barnett
PEOPLE SHOULD HAVE stopped caring about Time magazine's Man of the Year contest some time ago. On a periodic basis, the magazine signaled its chronic frivolity and opted for idiotic gimmicks. You might remember that last year we all won the prize. In an earlier year, the planet Earth won. Even given Time's parameters--the award is supposed to go to the person who had the biggest impact on the world in the previous year--these choices showed that even Time's editors didn't take the award particularly seriously.
Sphere: Related ContentStupid Intelligence on Iran BY JAMES SCHLESINGER
The release earlier this month of "key judgments" from the National Intelligence Estimate--including the bald assertion "that in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program"--has caused both astonishment here at home and consternation overseas, where it has resulted in confusion about America's policy goals and steadiness.
Let us stipulate that the intelligence community has acquired evidence sufficiently persuasive to lead it to reverse its prior judgment that Iran was hard at work developing nuclear weapons. For that it has been praised, particularly in traditional intelligence quarters, for "speaking truth to power," and thereby dissipating some of the distrust generated by its faulty earlier judgments on Iraq.
Sphere: Related ContentHis Best Christmas Ever USA David Jeffers
This column is dedicated to my daughters Tiffany and Becky who have been struggling lately with the loss of their brother, Sergeant Eddie Jeffers.
Christmas 2006 was my son’s worst Christmas ever. He was stuck in Ramadi, Iraq at an outpost away from camp and did not even get a hot meal. Away from his wife Stephanie and family, beginning what would be the next two months of some of the most ferocious fighting he and “his boys” would face; this was not a Kodak moment. However this year, Christmas will be Eddie’s best Christmas ever. He’s celebrating it with Jesus.
Eddie was killed on September 19, 2007 in a vehicle rollover. It almost seems ironic at times that “Mundy,” as he was known in his unit, would survive two tours of intense combat, some at close quarters, only to die in a vehicle crash. I believe this was all part of God’s plan. Let me explain…
Eddie was famous for a NMJ article he wrote titled “Hope Rides Alone”; perhaps you’ve heard of it. (If not please take a moment and click the title and read it first) The response to Eddie’s article was overwhelming and its genesis I covered in my NMJ article titled “Hope Rides Eternal.” However, the response to Eddie’s article wasn’t well received in all quarters and his death did not bring the 100% sympathy one would expect.
Sphere: Related ContentWednesday, December 19, 2007
Simple Simeon By Quin Hillyer
A man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, was just and devout, "waiting for the consolation of Israel."
Having lived long enough to see the newborn Jesus brought to the Temple for Jewish rites, Simeon praised God, saying, "Mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel."
According to the American Religious Identification Survey in 2001, 81.1 percent of Americans are Christian, and another 1.4 percent are Jewish.
Sphere: Related ContentHave Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
By Marie Jon'
Luke 2:14 "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."
We all love the song "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas." Did you know that the man who wrote the song at one time hobnobbed with Hollywood's best?
Song writer Hugh Martin's friends included Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra and the famous dancer/singer Gene Kelly, to mention a few. Yet, with all of his fame, Hugh was very unhappy, as is the case with many in show business. We are not surprised when we learn of the failed marriages, dysfunctional life styles, and addictions to drugs and alcohol.
Sphere: Related ContentIsraelis join exclusive science club By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
Tel Aviv University has hit the jackpot, with three of its scientists included in the list of 50 of the world's leading innovators in the coming issue of one of the world's leading science magazines, Scientific American.
Prof. Eshel Ben-Jacob of TAU's faculty of exact sciences and his research assistant Dr. Itay Baruchi were chosen for their innovative work in brain research and their success in creating a memory- and information-processing neurochip made of living neurons. Ben-Jacob told The Jerusalem Post he was very happy his and Baruchi's work was being recognized, especially since when he first sent an article on it for publication to the prestigious journal Nature along with recommendations from three Nobel Prize laureates, it was rejected on the grounds of "not being of general interest." However, last spring, it was published in the American Physical Society's journal Physical Review.
Sphere: Related ContentDishonest Reporter Award 2007 :: HonestReporting
What a year of surprises.
Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip. Ehud Olmert and Mahmoud Abbas talked peace in the presence of Saudi and Syrian dignitaries. BBC journalist Alan Johnston was held hostage for nearly four months. When Israel struck an unidentified Syrian facility, the only significant protest came from North Korea.
And then came Farfur
, the Hamas mouse.
Who would've thought?
Of course, there were other unsurprising developments. Qassam rockets continued to fall on Sderot. This year's three unfortunate fatalities: Oshri Oz, Shirel Friedman and Chai Shalom.
Israeli MIAs Gilad Shalit, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev ended the year in captivity, as did other Israeli MIAs.
Sphere: Related ContentYou Say You Want a Res-o-lution… by Erik Rush
You say you want a revolution, well you know
We all want to change the world…
- The Beatles, Revolution
Ironic, if one reads all of the lyrics to The Beatles Revolution: Despite being left-leaners for their time, the tune almost sounds like something a conservative music artist might write today.
Snapshot of America: For the moment, we are still “allowed” to believe and say what we wish. I am not saying this to underscore my right to say what follows, but to acknowledge the right of those with whom I vehemently disagree to believe and say what we wish.
Still, the Left sickens me. I mean, really sickens me…
Sphere: Related ContentThe Imperial Supreme Court By Robert Haddick
Critics of the Bush administration assert that America's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and other actions, overt and covert, in the larger War on Terror, constitute an attempt by President Bush to create an American empire in the classic meaning of that term. These critics claim that the U.S. military has seized foreign countries, and that President Bush has used the government's power to compel obedience from weaker nation-states, in the manner of past imperial powers.
Yet it is the United States Supreme Court that could in the months ahead make the most stunning declarations of U.S. authority over the sovereignty of other countries. In a list of cases now before the Court, petitioners are calling on the Supreme Court to extend the judicial power of the United States into the territory and affairs of other nation-states. Should the Court take these breathtaking steps, there will be few limits remaining to the reach of the Court's jurisdiction. It would then be up to future Presidents and Congresses to cope with the consequences of the Court's imperial ambitions.
Sphere: Related ContentThree More Reasons to Reject the NIE on Iran By Spook 86
To accept the U.S. intelligence community’s finding that Iran halted its nuclear weapons development program three years ago, one must assume that Tehran suspended its most important state program on a “cost analysis” basis. Funny, writes Spook86, we never knew that Iran’s ruling mullahs were B-school graduates.
Borrowing a phrase from Hillary Clinton, acceptance of the key judgments found in the new National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran’s nuclear program requires the “willing suspension of disbelief.”
Not only are we supposed to accept the finding that Iran halted its nuclear weapons development program three years ago; readers must also accept the notions that Tehran is suddenly vulnerable to international pressure, and suspended its most important state program on a “cost analysis” basis. Funny, but we never knew that Iran’s ruling mullahs were B-school graduates.
Sphere: Related ContentWhy Business Will Change Sides—And Accept An Immigration Cut-Off By Peter Brimelow
They stood close and spoke intensely but quietly, obviously not eager to attract attention. But there were even more of them than usually gather round you at the podium after you've finished a contentious debate. And their message was the same: whatever the economics of mass immigration, they were really worried about its social consequences. And they wanted to tell me their cogent reasons.
It was the summer of 1995. The issue of immigration was enjoying one of its brief moments in the sun of public attention—now forgotten, but very similar to the moment it enjoyed more recently, when it was surfaced by the Bush Administration's fanatical and foolish determination to ram an illegal alien amnesty through Congress before the mid-term elections. Such moments are ultimately due to the relentless accumulation of foreigners in the U.S. that is occurring because of public policy, both of commission and omission, and the consequent inexorably-mounting problems. But the story is not one that the Mainstream Media wants to cover, and it takes something specific for it to break free of the news managers' control.
Sphere: Related Content'The Factor's' Person of the Year By Bill O'Reilly
Al Gore is also a crowd favorite because of his global warming campaign. Ahmadinejad getting some attention. But again, he would not be a good choice and Time knows it.
Now "The Factor's" Person of the Year must meet some very strict requirements. The person must have done something extraordinary, must be a world player, and must have changed history in some way. That is our yardstick.
And so, "The Factor" person of the year is General David Petraeus, who has turned a disastrous military situation in Iraq into a possible victory in less than a year. You will remember how the general got worked over by some Congress people, how many folks said publicly the so-called "surge" in Iraq would not work.
Sphere: Related ContentThe Incredible Disappearing Border Fence by Michelle Malkin
Do you know the story of the Incredible Disappearing Border Fence? It's an object lesson in gesture politics and homeland insecurity. It's a tale of hollow rhetoric, meaningless legislation and bipartisan betrayal. And in the run-up to the Iowa caucuses, it's a helpful learning tool as you assess the promises of immigration enforcement converts now running for president.
Last fall, Democrats and Republicans in Washington responded to continued public outrage over border chaos by passing the "Secure Fence Act." Did you question the timing? You should have. It's no coincidence they finally got off their duffs to respond just before the 2006 midterm elections. Lawmakers vowed grandiosely to keep America safe. The law specifically called for "at least 2 layers of reinforced fencing, the installation of additional physical barriers, roads, lighting, cameras and sensors" at five specific stretches of border totaling approximately 700 miles.
Sphere: Related ContentStand By Steyn by Robert Spencer
The Canadian Human Rights Commission and the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal have begun proceedings against Mark Steyn, author of America Alone. They are responding to complaints from the Canadian Islamic Congress about an excerpt from the book that was published in the Canadian journal Maclean’s. “The article,” the CIC claims, “subjects Canadian Muslims to hatred and contempt,” and was “flagrantly Islamophobic.”
To be sure, the article was pretty strong stuff. Here’s a bit of it: “There are signs that Allah will grant Islam victory in Europe -- without swords, without guns, without conquests. The fifty million Muslims of Europe will turn it into a Muslim continent within a few decades.” Even worse, it goes on to say: “Just look at the development within Europe, where the number of Muslims is expanding like mosquitoes. Every Western woman in the EU is producing an average of 1.4 children. Every Muslim woman in the same countries is producing 3.5 children.”
Sphere: Related ContentThe Global Warming Suicide Cult By Don Feder
The Global Warming movement has been compared to a religion -- albeit one without God, but with a vision of sin and repentance, damnation and salvation.
Not quite.
Real religion is about improving the human condition by encouraging moral conduct in obedience to the will of God. The proponents of Global Warming are creating a suicide cult, which -- if followed to its logical conclusion -- will lead to human extinction.
Forget the Kyoto Treaty. Forget the Luddite Lieberman-Warner bill to cut so-called greenhouse gas emissions by 70% by 2050, which would cost the U.S. an estimated $1 trillion and result in the loss of 3.4 million jobs. That's just the beginning.
Ultimately, the Global Warming crusade is a frontal assault on procreation, the family and the future of mankind.
In the December 9th edition of Medical Journal of Australia, Professor Barry Walters urges a one-time "baby levy" of $5,000, followed by an annual tax of $800 per child, on Australian families with more than two children.
Sphere: Related ContentUniversity of Colorado Adopts Policy Protecting Students’ Academic Freedom By Sara Dogan
The University of Colorado, until recently the academic home of infamous professor Ward Churchill, last month adopted the American Council on Education’s statement on Academic Rights and Responsibilities. This document was adopted as direct response to the Academic Bill of Rights which it echoes in specifically protecting the rights of students not to be indoctrinated by their professors and granting them access to grievance procedures to protest classroom mistreatment.
The American Council on Education (ACE) represents more than 1,600 college and university presidents and more than 200 related associations in the United States. Twenty-seven separate educational organizations, including the American Association of University Professors, signed on to the Statement on Academic Rights and Responsibilities when it was first adopted in June, 2005.
Sphere: Related ContentIslam: Not Just Another Religion By Janet Levy
This campaign season, presidential candidates seem intent on battling each other with a war of words over universal healthcare, tax reform, immigration, the war in Iraq, the economy and Biblical literalism. Yet, they have spent few words on and have literally ignored the greatest threat to America and Western civilization since the Cold War: the global jihad.
Instead, conservative pundits debate whether we are in the midst of World War III or IV and non-candidate Newt Gingrich voices his concerns in monumental orations, such as his now famous, "Deeply Worried" speech at the National Press Club. Meanwhile, candidates on both sides of the aisle tiptoe around the proverbial elephant in the room as the critical issue of our nation and civilization's very survival takes a back seat. Aiming for front-row placement, they busy themselves with demonstrations of religiopolitical piety or make strident commitments on either side of popular social issues, such as same-sex marriage or abortion. More discussion has been devoted to the U.S. treatment of enemy combatants and the prison at Guantanamo Bay than the jihadist threat itself.
Sphere: Related ContentThe Experts vs. the Voters By J. B. Williams
Modern political analysts are a breed all their own, a mixed cross between statistician, news-hound, political junkie, and covert campaign operative. There is no such thing as an "unbiased" political analyst or political reporter. They all have personal views and personal preferences and none of them can separate those personal thoughts from how they perceive or report political events.
In recent years, the newsroom has become more about shaping public perceptions than about reporting current events in a forthright effort to keep the public openly informed. When it comes to politics, this practice becomes a Hulk-like, steroid drenched, overbearing monster focused upon driving public perception and shaping the outcome of elections.
Sphere: Related ContentA Samurai Shield For Japan By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY
The Japanese know all about surprise attacks and the devastation caused by nuclear weapons, and they are determined to be victims of neither. Our former foe is now a determined ally, and between us we are rapidly unfolding a missile defense umbrella over both countries and the ocean between.
A Japanese destroyer launches an interceptor missile.
In Greek mythology, Zeus used a shield called Aegis. Today, another shield called Aegis is in the hands of the descendants of the samurai. The latest in a stunning string of missile-defense successes took place Monday, when a Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) interceptor launched from the JS Kongo knocked out a target warhead from a ballistic missile simulating the launch of a North Korean Rodong intermediate-range missile. Pyongyang has some 200 such missiles capable of reaching targets throughout the Japanese home islands.
Sphere: Related ContentThe Bomb, Iran's Mullahs and Doomsday by Amil Imani
- It is the holiday season and we all have received this most welcome present: the U.S. National Intelligence Estimate about Iran’s nuclear problem. Since 2003 the mullahs running Iran have, on their own and through their own goodwill, have ceased all activities aimed at acquiring the bomb, so says the report.
Therefore, there is nothing to worry about folks, nothing to spoil the holiday season, and there is good reason to be upbeat about a safe and secure world.
Superficial reading of the CIA’s presentation of the findings is the comfort pill that successfully sugar-coats swallowing even the most unpalatable news.
A word of advice for President Bush: now you can also relax and give the celebratory mood a boost by ordering the armed forces to stand down. We have enough trouble in Iraq, Afghanistan and other hot spots of the world. This huge worry about the mullahs’ bomb is a distraction and doesn’t rate anything. Why listen to the warmonger alarmist Dick Cheney and his Neo-cons and keep us all in a jittery mood about the men-of-Allah mullahs?
Sphere: Related ContentTuesday, December 18, 2007
In War: Resolution By Victor Davis Hanson
"Iraq," swears Al Gore, "was the single worst strategic mistake in American history." Senate Majority leader Harry Reid agrees that the war he voted to authorize is "the worst foreign policy mistake in U.S. history," and indeed is already "lost." Many of our historically minded politicians and commanders have weighed in with similar superlatives. Retired General William Odom calls Iraq "the greatest strategic disaster in United States history." Senator Chuck Hagel (who voted for the war) is somewhat more cautious; he terms Iraq "the most dangerous foreign policy blunder in this country since Vietnam." Jimmy Carter takes, as usual, the loftiest view: the Iraq War, and Great Britain's acquiescence in it, constitute "a major tragedy for the world," and prove that the Bush Administration "has been the worst in history."
Sphere: Related ContentFantasy World of the Iran NIE By Matthias Küntzel
The latest American intelligence estimate on Iran has provoked an emotional response in Europe reminiscent of the euphoria inspired by Chamberlain's words on Sept. 30, 1938, as he appeared before the throng in front of 10 Downing Street and announced that he had achieved "peace in our time." Even if many commentators warn not to reduce the pressure on Tehran, the dominant sentiment is a feeling of relief: a sentiment to which the German weekly Die Zeit, for example, gave expression with the headline "Phew! There'll Be No World War Then!" The focus of the coverage in the media is not on the bitter realization that until 2003 the Iranian military apparatus was explicitly pursuing the development of an atomic weapon, but rather on the "good news" in the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE): namely that this military program "was halted primarily in response to international pressure," which is supposed to prove that "Iran may be more vulnerable to influence on the issue than we judged previously." If Iran gave in to international pressure in 2003, the implicit reasoning of the report runs, then it will certainly do so as well in the future. Thus, summarizing the implications of the NIE report, the author of the article in Die Zeit can conclude that "the Iranian regime does not so much conduct its foreign policy according to ideological criteria, but rather according to a lucid cost-benefit analysis."
Sphere: Related ContentDhabah Almontaser's Campaign Of Deceit By William Mayer and Beila Rabinowitz
December 18, 2007 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - On Sunday December 16, Dhabah Almontaser, the recently ousted principal of Brooklyn's embattled Arab language school Khalil Gibran International Academy, spoke as part of a series called the "Masked Talkback Series," held at the Daryl Roth 2 theater. The "talkback series" being organized around the controversial, pro-Intifada off-Broadway play, "Masked." Written by Israeli Ami Dayan, the plot revolves around the killing of a 7 year old Palestinian youth and the tension experienced within a Palestinian family, involved in the Intifada, who suspect that one of the family's three brothers is an Israeli informant, see "Masked" website, http://www.maskedtheplay.com/index_enter.html.
Almontaser's presence at the event [listen to audio file here, Almontaser Masked] brings her full circle back to the subject which was the tipping point, turning the tide against her effort to remain the head of KGIA.
Sphere: Related ContentDid the US Delegation Go Behind Bush's Back? By Gregor Peter Schmitz
Delegates at the Bali climate change conference reached a modest deal after the US dramatically abandoned its opposition. However, the White House almost immediately distanced itself from the negotiations. Did the US delegation make a deal without consulting Bush?
Washington is abuzz with speculation about the actions of the US delegation to the climate change conference in Bali as negotiations ended last weekend.
On Saturday US negotiators gave their approval to a minimal international road map for further negotiations of a new climate change treaty. Now it is unclear whether the administration of US President George W. Bush approved that affirmation.
Full Article ... Sphere: Related ContentThe Fair Tax: America's Last Best Hope By Mike S. Adams
Shortly after 911 one of my conservative friends said that the country was going to hell in a hand basket. He declared that the conservative movement had officially lost its way in America and that the fall of the republic was near. I disagreed with him then. But I must admit that the current selection of Republican candidates has me more worried than I’ve ever been.
Despite the negative outlook, I think there is one last chance for America to regain its past glory and, perhaps, to turn back the tide of socialism that threatens our future prosperity. This last chance comes in the form of a single piece of legislation which, if passed, will cure almost all of what is ailing America. I know that seems like an extreme position but I think it can be argued persuasively.
Sphere: Related ContentHillary, Bonhoeffer, and the Meaning of Truth By Miguel Guanipa
On his seminal work on Ethics the German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote that "it is worse for a liar to tell the truth than for a lover of truth to tell a lie."
At first glance, coming from a brilliant mind such as Bonhoeffer’s, this conclusion would seem a worrisome contradiction. Generally, the act of speaking the truth, from a person whose natural inclination is to lie, should be viewed as a positive and a hopeful trend in that person’s character development; a turn in the right direction; whereas a lie coming from the mouth of a person whom we have come to rely on by virtue of their fairly unblemished record of honesty, is rightfully viewed as a form of treason.
Bonhoeffer goes on to unfold his thesis by stating that a “falling away is worse than a falling down”. In other words, when a person who regularly speaks the truth utters a lie, he is merely suffering from a temporary lapse of judgment. In all likelihood he will be tempted and have recurrent lapses like these throughout his life; but the general direction in which he conducts his life will be one disposed towards honesty; he has merely “fallen down”.
Sphere: Related ContentBush backs UN's Bali 'consensus': Did Al Gore win the election? By Cliff Kincaid
Our national “news” programs have been preoccupied with baseball players on steroids, but they should devote some attention to the Bush Administration’s approval of a plan to put the United Nations on steroids. Apparently looking to leave office with the blessings of the “international community,” the Bush Administration just sold out American interests at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Bali, Indonesia.
Official conference documents speak of “a new global deal” by 2013, under which the U.S. dramatically reduces its greenhouse gas emissions under international supervision and transfers more money and technology to other countries. Marc Morano, who works for Senator James Inhofe and provides information that the U.S. media will not give to the American people, notes in a dispatch that the Bali conference featured a panel discussion of a global carbon tax to force U.S. taxpayers to cough up the money. An official U.N. report (PDF) prepared for Bali speaks of “a need for new and additional external sources of funds.” That’s U.N.-speak for global taxes. This is actually an old story I have been following for years. You can read more at my www.stopglobaltaxes.org website.
Sphere: Related Content'Gay' plans to target 2-year-olds By Bob Unruh
Children as young as two years of age are in the bull's-eye of coming changes in California's school curriculum, which "gay rights" advocates now admit will alter the very foundation of information presented to public school classrooms.
A list of school resources, sponsored by a homosexual-advocacy group called Safe Schools Coalition, suggests that for those who are only two years old, there's "Felicia's Favorite Story," which tells how she was "adopted by her two mothers."
The list also promotes a book called "Are You a Girl or a Boy?" by Karleen Jiminez, a resource for children ages 4-8 when advocating homosexuality, bisexuality, transgenderism and other alternative lifestyle choices.
It's described as "A sweet book about a gender-different kid."
Sphere: Related ContentThe Algorism of Global Doom By James Lewis
Heads I win; Tails you lose. That's the guiding principle of Algorism.
When the story of our time is written -- as soon as future historians can stop laughing -- Al Gore will be Exhibit #1 for the unprecedented nuttiness of our politics.
In Florida in 2000, Al Gore just knew he was destined to win the presidency, just like Mom and Dad told him all those years ago. The Big Media were actually convinced that Gore had won before the votes came in, based on their usual dubious polls. It was only a question of how many recounts it would take to prove what they already knew, and how many rules had to be busted for Mr. Gore to assume his rightful place in history.
Sphere: Related ContentAcademic Intimidation By Thomas Sowell
There is an article in the current issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education -- the trade publication of the academic world -- about professors being physically intimidated by their students.
"Most of us dread physical confrontation," the author says. "And so these aggressive, and even dangerous, students get passed along, learning that intimidation and implied threats will get them what they want in life."
This professor has been advised, at more than one college, not to let students know where he lives, not to give out his home phone number and to keep his home phone number from being listed.
Sphere: Related ContentTreating Enemies as Equals By William R. Hawkins
The most consistent theme running through liberal-left opinion since September 11, 2001, has been concern for the well-being of the enemy. The latest example is the contrived scandal over the CIA destroying tapes of interrogations of two captured terrorists.
The first instinct of responsible members of Congress is to fulfill their duty to protect Americans from attack. Now they are pushed by ideological zealots to not only accord foreign adversaries "rights" that will protect them from effective U.S. counteraction but to harass their countrymen on the front lines in this deadly conflict.
Joby Warrick and Dan Eggen reported in The Washington Post on a secret congressional briefing given by the CIA in September 2002: "For more than an hour, the bipartisan group, which included current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, was given a virtual tour of the CIA's overseas detention sites and the harsh techniques interrogators had devised to try to make their prisoners talk ... on that day, no objections were raised. Instead, at least two lawmakers in the room asked the CIA to push harder."
Sphere: Related ContentThe Pope vs. Global Warming By Joseph D'Hippolito
London’s Daily Mail reported on December 12 that the Vatican released the remarks the pope will make in his annual January 1 address, “The Human Family, A Community of Peace.” The release coincided with the December 11 opening of the United Nations’ conference on climate change in the Indonesian resort of Bali.
“We need to care for the environment,” Benedict writes. “It has been entrusted to men and women to be protected and cultivated with responsible freedom, with the good of all as a constant guiding criterion.”
That responsible freedom rejects both the panic motivating global warming activists and a radical environmentalism that demands humanity’s subjugation to ecology.
“Human beings, obviously, are of supreme worth vis-Ã -vis creation as a whole,” Benedict continues. “Respecting the environment does not mean considering material or animal nature more important than man.
Islamist in the Army By Joe Kaufman
In April of 2000, the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) – the American arm of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), the Muslim Brotherhood of Pakistan – launched a website to provide information about Islam to non-Muslims, appropriately called Why Islam? (WI). Since then, the website has been used, instead, to propagate support for overseas terrorist groups and to spread violent hatred against non-Muslims. One of the individuals that has been involved in both is currently located in Iraq. However, he is no Iraqi. He is an American and a member of the United States Army. The following exposes this individual, in hopes that a potential threat will be averted.
Dawah is the Arabic term for outreach (with the intent to convert non-Muslims to Islam). WI is ICNA’s program for just such outreach. For it, ICNA created a toll-free helpline and built an interactive website. One of the main functions of the website is a forum, where group members get together on-line to discuss numerous subjects regarding Islam and current events. Many times these discussions result in praise for terrorist organizations, such as Hamas and Hezbollah, and extreme hateful statements aimed at non-Muslims, particularly members of the Jewish faith. This occurs from not only WI members, but from forum leaders, as well.
Sphere: Related ContentWhich part of this Scientific paper did Government Advisors Not read or Understand? By Sherwood B. Idso and Craig D. Idso
If there is any human enterprise that should be free of appeal to authority, it is science, where observation and impartial analysis are supposed to reign supreme. However, when the outcome of an ongoing scientific investigation is perceived to be a powerful catalyst for governmental action by the world’s community of nations, and when the leading policy prescription for those actions is something akin to a massive restructuring of the way the energy that runs the modern world is produced, distributed and used - and especially if the policy is developed before all pertinent data have been acquired and properly analyzed - this principle can easily be forgotten. In such circumstances, and even more so if the subject being studied is extremely complex - such as how human activity will impact global climate centuries into the future - and when a divergence of views develops because of ambiguities in the observations and different methods of analysis, it is important that personal opinion be clearly differentiated from demonstrable fact. Sadly, however, this distinction is hard to make on a consistent basis, even for some of the very best of the world’s scientists.
Sphere: Related ContentSingle-Issue vs. Comprehensive Conservatism By David Limbaugh
Since its emergence as a dominant political force in the '80s, the religious right has been a favorite whipping boy of the mainstream media and political left and a sometimes embarrassment to certain conservative elitists. Yet neither group of critics can deny the electoral power Christian conservatives have wielded.
The group's uncompromising commitment to protecting life and defending America's traditional institutions has been instrumental in beating back the left's relentless assault on our culture. Without its grassroots contributions, we'd be seeing a lot more Ruth Bader Ginsbergs and a lot fewer Antonin Scalias.
Sphere: Related ContentJudge Declares the Declaration of Independence Unconstitutional By Mario Diaz, Esq.
Okay, so the headline is a bit premature, but it's the logical precursor to the legal philosophy of liberal extremists, isn't it?
Ever since the Supreme Court erroneously elevated Thomas Jefferson's "wall of separation between church and state" metaphor to a constitutional doctrine in the 1947 landmark decision Everson v. Board of Education, a growing sort of legal fog has been setting in on our constitutional religious freedoms, ending in what can only be described as a requirement of government hostility towards religion. This is, of course, not only a far cry from what our founding fathers intended, including Thomas Jefferson - a staunch religious liberty advocate - but it is a far cry from what "We the people" intended when the Constitution was ratified.
The many perils of reading into the Constitution a "wall of separation between church and state" where none exists came as no surprise to many of us. Nothing good ever comes from deviating from the clear text and context of the Constitution. Many well-intentioned, smart people have argued for a "living, breathing" Constitution, changing with the times and looking for small immediate "advances," but this interpretation has only one result in the long run: tyranny.
Sphere: Related ContentWhat's Wrong With America: the Liberal-Progressive Version By Thomas Brewton
It’s important to know what we’re up against.
The Sunday, December 16, 2007, edition of the New York Times carries a review of Robert Kuttner’s The Squandering of America: How the Failure of Our Politics Undermines Our Prosperity.
The reviewer, Harry Hurt III, summarizes the author’s views:
"The potential of our economy to underwrite a society of broad prosperity is being sacrificed to financial speculation,” Mr. Kuttner declares in his new book’s opening chapter. “The winnings are going to a narrow elite, jeopardizing not only our broad prosperity but our solvency. In less than a decade, our government budget, gutted by tax cuts, has shifted from endless projected federal surpluses to infinite deficits. Our trade imbalances and financial debt to the rest of the world have grown from a modest concern to levels that could produce a crash.”
Sphere: Related Content
'Mosque' uncovered on college campus :: WorldNetDaily
A Minnesota community college has "a Muslim place of worship" featuring "a schedule for Islam's five daily prayers," according to a local newspaper columnist who visited the campus.
Tax-supported Normandale Community College in Bloomington, Minn., also has a "sign requesting that shoes be removed" and a barrier that divides men's and women's "prayer spaces," writes Katherine Kersten of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.
College officials denied it was anything more than a "meditation" room available for "all faiths."
The description of the facility, however, led one faculty member to tell Kersten the room is "unprecedented" and "goes beyond religious toleration."
Sphere: Related ContentTime to Move On...From Hillary by William Kristol
The defining moment of the Democratic presidential campaign so far came during the Des Moines Register debate, December 13, at 2:10 P.M. Central time.
Q: Senator Obama, you have Bill Clinton's former national security adviser, State Department policy director, and Navy secretary, among others, advising you. With relatively little foreign policy experience of your own, how will you rely on so many Clinton advisers and still deliver the kind of break from the past that you're promising voters?OBAMA: Well, the--you know, I am . . .
CLINTON (interrupting): [cackle] I wanna hear this [more cackling]
OBAMA: Well, Hillary, I'm looking forward to you advising me, as well.
As are we all. What we are not looking forward to is the prospect of Hillary Clinton in the spotlight, as the Democratic nominee. She might be easier to beat than Barack Obama or John Edwards. She might take positions that are a little less distant from this magazine's views than Obama or Edwards. But the last few weeks have reminded us--and, we suspect, many other Americans--how little we should want the Clintons back on the center stage of American politics.
Sphere: Related ContentHow Petraeus Turned Around Iraq By Trudy Rubin
On Thursday, Gen. David Petraeus addressed a gathering of hundreds of Sunni sheikhs in flowing robes, including some who were attacking his soldiers around the capital not long ago.
This is the new Baghdad, where security has improved as tens of thousands of former Sunni insurgents have recently turned against al-Qaeda in Iraq and smashed it with U.S. help. Many of these Sunnis are now on the U.S. payroll. But no one is certain whether these security gains will hold after the extra U.S. "surge" troops are withdrawn as scheduled by next July, or whether Iraq will slip back into brutal sectarian warfare.
Sphere: Related ContentMonday, December 17, 2007
How Free Are We? Really? By Selwyn Duke
We Americans take great pride in our freedom. We call ourselves “the land of the free, home of the brave,” have Lady Liberty in New York Harbor, and the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia. America is synonymous with freedom in the minds of most people. Much of the rest of the world, however, is thought a land of darkness which doesn’t benefit from our unencumbered bliss. Thus do we speak of the free and unfree worlds.
In reality, it’s not that simple. There is neither such a thing as a people with complete freedom nor one completely bereft of it; it’s a matter of degree.
While many people realize this, few understand that there is a barometer with which liberty can be measured: The number of laws in existence.
Sphere: Related ContentThe GOP "Sell-out Seven" By Allan Wall
Several months back, the Democrats had a bilingual panderfest hosted by Spanish-language network Univision. Not to be outdone, the Republican candidates (with the heroic exception of Tom Tancredo) attended another Panderfest with the same format recently (December 9).
The fact that only Tancredo understood that pandering was a bad idea tells us more about the state of the GOP than it does about Tom Tancredo. As he explained the day before the forum:
Sphere: Related ContentFear and Loathing on the Hugh Hewitt Show By Roger L. Simon
I have frequently been called a “chickenhawk” on Iraq and, though I am loath to admit it, my critics are basically correct – I am pretty much of a chicken… on Iraq and everything else. I have been since the seventh grade when I chickened out on a fight with Ernie Schaub in the yard of Junior High School 167 Manhattan. (There – I’ve finally said it!)
Still, I am not nearly as much of a chicken as Lawrence O’Donnell revealed himself to be on the Hugh Hewitt radio show last week.
O’Donnell was on to discuss some controversial remarks he made about Mormonism on the McLaughlin Group in reaction to Mitt Romney’s speech on the presidential candidate’s religion. Actually the remarks were more than routinely controversial - the Democratic pundit/television writer (The West Wing) launched a full-scale attack on Mormonism, branding its founding father Joseph Smith a racist and demanding Romney disassociate himself from Nineteenth Century tenets and behaviors of his faith long ago abandoned.
Sphere: Related ContentFor Kyoto's champions, the meetings never end By Lorne Gunter
If you want an indication of just how utterly meaningless the "historic" Bali global warming deal was, consider this: The UN climate change meeting that concluded on Friday was officially the 13th conference of the parties (COP) to the Kyoto accords. It was the 10th since the international greenhouse gas treaty was created more than a decade ago.
Every year, these same signatories meet. Every year, they go over (and over) the same territory. Every year, they dicker, blather, preach, assail, negotiate, draft and redraft (not to mention flying from one exotic location to another eating, drinking and living off fat publicly funded expense accounts). And every year, they leave claiming to have reached an historic consensus to save the UN climate change process.
Sphere: Related ContentCAIR Once Again Defends Confessed Terrorist Al-Arian :: PipeLineNews
December 17, 2007 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - Reading between the lines of the December 12 CAIR newsletter, the Saudi funded Islamist organization seems to think that confessed terrorist Dr. Sami Al-Arian, has been harassed by the U.S. Justice Department, victimized by what the CAIR continuously alleges to be Islamophobia.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today welcomed a federal judge's decision to lift civil contempt charges against Dr. Sami Al-Arian, a former University of South Florida professor who has been serving time for refusing to testify before a grand jury… In 2005, a Florida jury rejected federal charges that Al-Arian operated a cell for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Al-Arian later pleaded guilty to one non-violent offense and was scheduled for release and deportation in April 2007… "
As intended by CAIR's "takiyya" [religiously-sanctioned deception] laced propaganda, one only casually familiar with the facts of the Al-Arian case might get the impression that he is indeed a victim of a bigoted witch hunt, when that conclusion couldn't be further from the truth.
According to an April 17, 2006 DOJ press release:
Sphere: Related ContentAnother Lying Ex-governor from Arkansas in White House?
By John W. Lillpop
Most Americans recall all too well the turmoil and discord of the Clinton Presidency of 1992-2000. While in office, President Clinton fine tuned the art of issuing misleading, inaccurate and flat out false statements into a precise science.
The unvarnished truth is that President Clinton lied through his teeth, regularly and unashamedly.
Sphere: Related ContentWar on Christmas marches on By William Donohue
As the following examples indicate, the war on Christmas is not over:
After one person complained about a nativity scene in Shawnee State Park in Ohio, the state parks’ chief ordered a ban on crèches from all parks. It took the governor to overturn this decision. In Wesley Chapel, Florida, Jesus was banned from a holiday display. The mayor of Cranston, Rhode Island censored all religious displays.
Government officials in Tehama County, California tried to ban Santa in office displays but had to reverse their decision after a protest. A nativity scene in Olean, New York was removed from the City Hall lawn after Wiccans placed the pentacle alongside it. A crèche was banned from Triangle Park in Manistique, Michigan.
Sphere: Related ContentTerrorist freed in Germany is welcomed by Iran By RFE/RL :: SperoNews
There once was a well-known restaurant in central Berlin called Mykonos. Its Greek fare was said to be good, but it is now remembered for an altogether different reason: on the site of the former restaurant is a plaque -- to which Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad personally objected -- that lists three Iranian-Kurdish leaders who were "murdered [here in 1992] by the then-rulers of Iran. They died fighting for freedom and human rights."
The infamous "Mykonos Operation," which shone an unprecedented light on the Islamic republic's campaign to assassinate critics in the Iranian-exile community and sparked a diplomatic crisis between Europe and Iran, is back in the headlines. Some 15 years after Iranian agents killed three top members of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) and one of their supporters in a Berlin restaurant, Germany on December 10 released and deported two of the crime's masterminds.
Sphere: Related ContentThe Problem With Pastor Mike By Peter Wehner
Former Arkansas governor and Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee has written an article for Foreign Affairs magazine, the first two paragraphs of which are stunningly silly, misguided, and unfortunately for Huckabee, deeply revealing.
The two opening paragraphs read this way:
The United States, as the world's only superpower, is less vulnerable to military defeat. But it is more vulnerable to the animosity of other countries. Much like a top high school student, if it is modest about its abilities and achievements, if it is generous in helping others, it is loved. But if it attempts to dominate others, it is despised.Sphere: Related Content
Saying "No" When Everyone Else Is Saying "Yes" By Alan Caruba
I have been witness to the complete subversion of science in the service of an utterly corrupt new religion called environmentalism.
In the Middle Ages the Church determined what «truth» was. Today the Green
Church seeks the same power. From the fall of the
Roman Empire in the 5th century to the beginning of the Renaissance in the 15th century, civilization experienced a period of ignorance and superstition. Globally, via the media and the classroom, a distorted and debased science is being used to advance the fraud of global warming.
Sphere: Related ContentClinton fundraising ties to terror group By Doug Hagmann
On December 4, 2007, we reported that members of the terrorist organization Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), more commonly known as the Tamil Tigers, were arrested in New York for their plot to use stolen credit card numbers and other methods to steal $250,000 in New York “and tens of millions from ATMs worldwide.”
One of the men arrested worked three jobs at Newark Airport as a security agent and baggage handler with complete security clearance. The Tamil Tigers are well known for their use and “perfection” of terrorists’ “suicide belts” and vests, and the use of females as suicide bombers as illustrated in our report published earlier this month.
Sphere: Related ContentThe Huckabee Hustle By Selwyn Duke
When evangelicals embraced Jimmy Carter during the 1976 presidential campaign, they didn't know he would repudiate the Southern Baptist Convention a generation later. Today the very same constituency has glommed onto Mike Huckabee, and I can't help but lament how history truly does repeat itself.
One can see why the man I dubbed "Huck the Huckster" would appeal to evangelicals. He's a pro-life Southern Baptist minister with charm, wit and a good-ol'-boy, yuck-it-up style. Yet this resplendent exterior only serves to obscure the stain of liberal sin.
Huck would be a disaster - a disaster - on immigration. In fact, in 2006 he compared those who would crack down on illegals to antebellum slave masters, saying,
Sphere: Related ContentHillary Agonistes By Thomas Lifson
Has Hillary Clinton's candidacy for the Democrats' nomination gone from "inevitable" to "doomed" in the space of a few weeks? Momentum always is a precious factor as the compressed primary season looms, with undecideds making up their minds and contributors wanting to back the likely winner
But special circumstances surround the junior senator from New York. For years she has exercised what seem like special powers, as well-entrenched Clinton allies in the press and a political machine unmatched in resources and ruthlessness served to support her version of the narrative in major conflicts with her enemies. Generous use of victim status also has always been a winner for her in then past.
Sphere: Related ContentDissenter of The House By Bob Parks
To the "Honorable" Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Democrat, California:
As a citizen of the United States of America, I find your comments today beyond insulting. Your competence to hold the hallowed office of House Speaker should be questioned.
During a press conference today, you said of Republicans...
"They like this war. They want this war to continue."
Let me be clear: No Republican I know "likes" war. I know of no Republican that woke up this morning, happy in the knowledge that someone, somewhere in the world, was the latest casualty of a war.
It's not anyone's fault but your own that the current climate on Capitol Hill is as acidic as it is today. Like the cowboy you, and many in your party, have accused President Bush of being, you came into the reigns of power declaring the end of "business as usual". What the American people have seen is exactly that, and more.
Sphere: Related ContentThe EU's Treaty Treachery by Susan Easton
To millions of Britons, December 13, 2007 is a date which will live in infamy.
In the Labor Party’s 2006 Election Manifesto, the British people were given a devout promise that there would be a referendum on whether to sign on to the proposed EU Constitution. Gordon Brown reaffirmed this vow when he succeeded Tony Blair as Prime Minister in July of this year. The promise was an empty one. The proposed EU Constitution -- meant to replace all previous treaties -- was already legally dead thanks to ”no” votes by both the French and the Dutch in 2005.
Sphere: Related ContentConceits of the Horrid Generation By Jason Maoz
Dennis Prager, the sometimes controversial, always thought-provoking radio host and syndicated columnist, wrote a column last week on the legacy the baby boom generation has bequeathed to younger Americans.
“We live in the age of group apologies,” wrote Prager. “I would like to add one. The baby boomer generation needs to apologize to America, especially its young generation, for many sins.”
One of those sins, according to Prager, is the mindless pacifism espoused by Sixties-era liberals and leftists and passed down to their ideological heirs – a pacifism neatly summarized by the popular 1960’s slogan “Make love, not war.”
“Our parents,” Prager continued, “had liberated the world from immeasurably cruel and murderous regimes in Germany and Japan – solely thanks to waging war. But instead of concluding that war could do great moral good, we sang ourselves silly with such inane lyrics as ‘Give peace a chance,’ as if that deals in any way with the world’s most monstrous evils. So we taught you to make love and not war. And we succeeded.”
Sphere: Related ContentVenerating Cop-Killers By Mark D. Tooley
Always determined to prove that America is the center of global injustice, the Religious Left is now championing the cause of 8 former Black Liberation Army (BLA) militants who face charges for having killed a San Francisco area policeman in 1971. The Marxist BLA was an offshoot of the Black Panthers, whom it deemed too moderate, and is believed to have assassinated 13 police officers during the early 1970's in a deliberate terror campaign.
Hailed the militants as persecuted martyrs, a World Council of Churches (WCC) press conference in New York recently demanded the immediate release of the so-called "San Francisco 8." A WCC official gravely intoned: "The time has come to set free those who have been bound. The case of the SF8 requires all of us to come together, and take an active stand for justice for all U.S. political prisoners."
Sphere: Related ContentJackie Mason vs. James Watson: IQ, Jews and ‘Shvartzers’ By Prof. Nicholas Stix
In the Watson Affair (read this, this, and this), since Nobel Prize-winning geneticist James Watson was forced, in October, to recant his statement that blacks are, on average, less intelligent than whites and that there are genetic reasons for this inequality, and to resign his position as chancellor of the world-famous (due to Watson’s 40-year leadership) Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, ever more rats have been jumping ship, including some I hadn’t even known were on board.
(It is a scientific fact that African blacks have radically lower average IQs than whites, and that American blacks also have considerably lower average IQs than whites. One may curse a scientific fact, as one may curse the rain, but one cannot wish it away. The average group IQs are: white Americans, 100; black Americans, 85; blacks in sub-Saharan Africa, 67. Richard Lynn, Race Differences in Intelligence: An Evolutionary Analysis, 2006, 23, 37, 44. Ashkenazi (European) Jews’ IQ has been estimated to average 112-115 (PDF). The genetics behind the IQ differences are based — as Watson was intimately aware — on the alleles (“alternative forms for genes”) for intelligence that developed in those races that left Africa, as opposed to those that stayed. Some of Watson’s tormentors knew this, and were thus traitors to science; others were scientific illiterates who lied out of ignorance, spite, and the will to power.)
Charles Johnson: The Dan Rather of the Blogosphere? By Baron Bodissey
Remember this? This is the infamous “Killian Memo”, the blatantly forged document that discredited Dan Rather and CBS News during the height of the 2004 presidential campaign. If this hoax had been deployed prior to the emergence of blogs, it would probably not have been discredited before election day, and might have changed the course of the election.
This image was the iconic representation of the success of bloggers in fighting dishonest smears coming from Big Media. It showed that even the most prominent liberal stars of TV news were vulnerable to an internet investigation involving hundreds or thousands of independent volunteers working and communicating via their computers.
Sphere: Related ContentThe Race FAQ By Steve Sailer
This was another tumultuous week in the science wars over race.
The Times (both London and New York) ran articles claiming that James Watson was genetically one-quarter non-white. Yet anyone with a basic knowledge of American racial history who bothered to look at the first half dozen pages of Watson’s new autobiography, Avoid Boring People
The New Yorker printed an essay by Malcolm Gladwell on race and IQ that contained such an egregious libel of Charles Murray that the magazine posted a humiliating apology and retraction.
Sunday, December 16, 2007
All Americans Left Behind By Andrew J. Coulson
Congress passed the No Child Left Behind Act overwhelmingly in December 2001. NCLB's popularity was partly political and partly geopolitical. Republicans wanted a legislative victory for the new president, and legislators sought to demonstrate U.S. solidarity in the wake of 9/11. But adding to its appeal was the mom-and-apple-pie promise that it would raise overall achievement in math and reading while narrowing the test score gaps dividing rich from poor, and black and Hispanic from white. Recent results from two different sets of international tests suggest that NCLB has failed to deliver on that promise.
Sphere: Related ContentThe Global Warming debate isn’t over, it’s just beginning :: Pundit Review
Is the debate over Global Warming really over, as Al Gore insists, or is it actually just beginning?
Here are 99 brave scientists willing to stand up to the Global Warming Fanatics in the name of, well, science. Of course, they will now be attacked as being no better than Holocaust deniers, they will have their reputations smeared as shills for Big Oil.
What Global Warming believers fail to understand is that the stridency of their belief, their unwillingness to accept or respect dissent, is driving many to take a long look at the claims of so-called skeptics.
When a debate has been so poisoned as this one has, this is surely a good thing. Many, many people are interested in an open, honest debate about this issue.
Sphere: Related ContentThe new Iraq By Oliver North
The slogan "de oppresso liber" is Latin for "free the oppressed." It's the motto of the U.S. Special Forces, but it has also been adopted by several of the Iraqi military and police units our Fox News "War Stories" team has been covering here in the land between the rivers.
These Special Operations troops — Americans and their Iraqi counterparts — have become the tip of the spear in the war against radical Islamic terror.
U.S. military forces have started phasing down from the "surge" that began last summer. The 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division whose departure from Iraq was announced in November and is now taking place, will not be replaced by an American unit. In the months ahead, four more brigade-sized units are scheduled to rotate home.
Sphere: Related ContentWhat if Christmas Disappears? By Jack L. Key
I’ve been reading the greetings written on the colorful Christmas cards that I receive each year from family and friends. And as has been my custom for many years, I read and reread the beautiful old reply “Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus” written by the editor of the New York Sun, Frances Pharcellus Church, to Virginia O’Hanlon, age 8, and published in 1897.
My grandmother gave me my copy many years ago when I was a child, and since she was born in 1876, she had read the original letter and reply reprinted in the local paper. But the Santa Claus written about and described to Virginia by Mr. Church back then is not the same Santa we know today. Then he represented hope, love, imagination, and the spirit and joy of a child on the eve of the birth of Jesus, a mythology of caring, the sincerity of giving, and the happiness of receiving.
Sphere: Related ContentDealing Dangerous Drugs By Gordon G. Chang
Last Tuesday, the United States and China signed an accord on pharmaceuticals and medical devices, one of fourteen agreements inked in Beijing during the eighteenth meeting of the Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade. The pact will require Chinese companies that export certain products to America to register with their nation’s regulators. The general concept is that Washington can ensure the safety of items before they ever reach our shores.
Sphere: Related ContentHow to break the oil monopoly in this decade By Clifford D. May
“We are financing a war against ourselves,” writes Robert Zubrin, nuclear engineer and author of a new book responding to the distressing fact that Americans and Europeans are sending trillions of dollars to militant Islamists whose goal is our destruction.
But in his new book “Energy Victory,” Dr. Zubrin does not just complain. He proposes a way to break free of dependence on a resource controlled by those who have declared themselves our mortal enemies. The technology already exists. It’s not expensive. All that is lacking is for voters to make this a priority -- and to communicate that to the political class.
Sphere: Related ContentTax And Wane By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY |
Big news from the United Nations global warming conference was the last-second agreement on a pact for cutting greenhouse gas emissions. But a more ominous development went largely unnoticed.
The media obsession has been on the efforts of delegates at the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change conference to craft an agreement for a climate treaty that would take effect after the Kyoto Treaty expires in 2011.
Though it appeared the meeting would end with no deal, the delegates looked to be near a compromise late Friday.
Sphere: Related ContentOpen Letter From 100 Scientists to Ban Ki-moon By joellerose :: NP
UN climate conference taking the World in entirely the wrong direction.
It is not possible to stop climate change, a natural phenomenon that has affected humanity through the ages. Geological, archaeological, oral and written histories all attest to the dramatic challenges posed to past societies from unanticipated changes in temperature, precipitation, winds and other climatic variables. We therefore need to equip nations to become resilient to the full range of these natural phenomena by promoting economic growth and wealth generation.
The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has issued increasingly alarming conclusions about the climatic influences of human-produced carbon dioxide (CO2), a non-polluting gas that is essential to plant photosynthesis.
Sphere: Related ContentU.S. funded Hamas university :: Dhimmi Watch
JERUSALEM – An audit has revealed the U.S. government authorized nearly $1 million in aid to a Hamas-controlled university senior terror leaders told WND is openly utilized by Hamas to recruit fighters, manufacture explosives and train on campus grounds for attacks.
The audit concluded the American tax dollars were provided to Gaza's Islamic University between 2002 and 2006. It stated officials from both the U.S. Agency for International Development in Tel Aviv, which initiated the fund request, and the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, which conducted an investigation, found no "derogatory information" on the university.
Also in March 2007 State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told WND U.S. officials concluded after a review Islamic University does not supports terrorist activities.
But Israeli and Palestinian security officials and Palestinian terrorist leaders themselves scoffed at the State Department claims.
Sphere: Related Content
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)