The Daily Catch Videos for 4-1-2011
Anti-Israel intimidation at University of Quebec. Posting this just as it is up on VT site.
From Vlad Tepes.
Thanks to Missglulu who sent me the original link at David Ouellette’s site for this. Once again we see the marriage between Islam and leftism giving birth to the rabid baby of antisemitism, this time in Montreal. Click over to David’s site for the whole story in French but I will try and update it here in English as I can.
The group who organized this particular disruption is ‘Quebec Solidarity’, a group Amir Khadir is involved with and may have helped create. The same Amir Khadir who often leads the protests outside of a Montreal Shoe store because they sell, among other kinds, one brand of shoe made in Israel. I might add, this shoe store is actually in his own riding as a member of the Quebec legislature. Talk about ‘representing’.
Herman Cain on islam and muslims
Our goal has never been peace with Israel
Britain today thanks to the liberal left
msa: are they recruiting for jihad?
CIA in Libya: From CNN of all networks.
Horror stories of Christian persecution in North Korea
Multicultural stupidity at its worst. Town tries to remove 'Easter' from Easter Egg Hunt. This is the result of excessive diversity and mutliculturalism.
Geert Wilders: Time to unmask muhammad
Truly an excellent op/ed by Geert Wilders. Can we imagine Geert Wilders, Allen West and Herman Cain all together at a conference on islam and sharia law? Better yet, Allen West and Hermain Cain running together in 2012. As I have mentioned before; Geert Wilders should run for office here. I bet he has a REAL birth certificate. With a loser and liar like obama pretending to be potus, why not Geert Wilders.
*******************************************************************************************
Time to Unmask Muhammad
By Geert Wilders
To know why Islam is a mortal danger one must not only consider the Koran but also the character of Muhammad, who conceived the Koran and the entirety of Islam.
The Koran is not just a book. Muslims believe that Allah himself wrote it and that it was dictated to Muhammad in the original version, the Umm al-Kitab, which is kept on a table in heaven. Consequently one cannot argue with the contents. Who would dare to disagree with what Allah himself has written? This explains much of Muhammadan behaviour, from the violence of jihad to the hatred and persecution of Jews, Christians and other non-Muslims and apostates. What we in the West regard as abnormal, is perfectly normal for Islam.
A second insuperable problem with Islam is the figure of Muhammad. He is not just anyone. He is al-insan al-kamil, the perfect man. To become a Muslim one must pronounce the Shahada (the Muslim creed). By pronouncing the Shahada one testifies that there is no god that can be worshipped except Allah, and one testifies that Muhammad is his servant and messenger.
The Koran, and hence Allah, lays down that Muhammad’s life must be imitated. The consequences of this are horrendous and can be witnessed on a daily basis.
There has been much analysis of Muhammad’s mental sanity. In spite of all the available research, it is rarely mentioned or debated. It is a taboo to discuss the true nature of the man whom one and a half billion Muslims around the world regard as a holy prophet and example to be followed. That taboo must be breached in the West, and here in the Netherlands.
Ali Sina is an Iranian ex-Muslim who established the organisation for apostates of Islam Faith Freedom International. In his latest book he posits that Muhammad is a narcissist, a paedophile, a mass murderer, a terrorist, a misogynist, a lecher, a cult leader, a madman, a rapist, a torturer, an assassin and a looter. Sina has offered 50,000 dollars for the one who can prove otherwise. Nobody has claimed the reward as yet. And no wonder, as the description is based on the Islamic texts themselves, such as the hadiths, the descriptions of Muhammad’s life from testimonies of contemporaries.
The historical Muhammad was the savage leader of a gang of robbers from Medina. Without scruples they looted, raped and murdered. The sources describe orgies of savagery where hundreds of people’s throats were cut, hands and feet chopped off, eyes cut out, entire tribes massacred. An example is the extinction of the Jewish Kurayza tribe in Medina in 627. One of those who chopped off their heads was Muhammad. The women and children were sold as slaves. Confronted with the lunacy of Islamic terrorists today, it is not hard to find out where the lunacy comes from.
In Vienna the women’s rights activist Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff was recently sentenced to paying a fine for insulting a religion by calling Muhammad a paedophile. However, that is the truth. Numerous hadiths contain testimonies by Muhammad’s favourite wife, the child wife Aisha. Aisha literally says: “The prophet married me when I was six years old, and had intercourse with me when I was nine.”
According to the historian Theophanes (752-817) Muhammad was an epileptic. Epileptic crises are sometimes accompanied by hallucinations, perspiration form the forehead and foaming at the mouth, the very symptoms which Muhammad displayed during his visions.
In his book “The other Muhammad” (1992) the Flemish psychologist dr. Herman Somers concludes that in his forties the “prophet” began to suffer from acromegaly, a condition caused by a tumor in the pituitary gland, a small organ that is situated just below the brain. When the tumor in the pituitary gland causes too much pressure in the brain, people start to see and hear things that are not there. Somers’s psychopathological diagnosis of Muhammad’s condition is: organic hallucinatory affliction with paranoid characteristics.
The German medical historian Armin Geus speaks of a paranoid hallucinatory schizophrenia. A similar analysis can be found in the book “The Medical Case of Muhammad” by the physician Dede Korkut.
In his book “Psychology of Mohammed: Inside the Brain of a Prophet” Dr. Masud Ansari calls Muhammad “the perfect personification of a psychopath in power.” Muhammad had a unhinged paranoid personality with an inferiority complex and megalomaniac tendencies. In his forties he starts having visions that lead him to believe he has a cosmic mission, and there is no stopping him.
The truth is not always pleasant or politically correct. On the basis of the research referred to above it can be argued that the Islamic creed obliges one and a half billion people around the world, including the one million living in the Netherlands, to take Muhammad as their example. There is no turning back once one has become a Muslim. For even though article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that every person has the right to “change his religion or belief,” in Islam there is a death penalty for leaving the faith.
Anyone who voices criticism of Islam and Muhammad is in grave personal danger — as I have experienced. And whoever attempts to escape from the influence of Islam and Muhammad risks death. We cannot continue to accept this state of affairs. A public debate about the true nature and character of Muhammad can provide insight and support to Muslims all over the world who wish to leave Islam.
Apostates are heroes and more than ever they deserve the support of freedom loving people all over the world. Party politics should not be at play in this matter. It is time for us to help these people by exposing Muhammad.
Geert Wilders is an MP in the Netherlands. He is the Chairman of the Party for Freedom (PVV). This article was published in the Dutch weekly magazine “HP/De Tijd” of March 30, 2011.
From Gates Of Vienna
*******************************************************************************************
By Geert Wilders
To know why Islam is a mortal danger one must not only consider the Koran but also the character of Muhammad, who conceived the Koran and the entirety of Islam.
The Koran is not just a book. Muslims believe that Allah himself wrote it and that it was dictated to Muhammad in the original version, the Umm al-Kitab, which is kept on a table in heaven. Consequently one cannot argue with the contents. Who would dare to disagree with what Allah himself has written? This explains much of Muhammadan behaviour, from the violence of jihad to the hatred and persecution of Jews, Christians and other non-Muslims and apostates. What we in the West regard as abnormal, is perfectly normal for Islam.
A second insuperable problem with Islam is the figure of Muhammad. He is not just anyone. He is al-insan al-kamil, the perfect man. To become a Muslim one must pronounce the Shahada (the Muslim creed). By pronouncing the Shahada one testifies that there is no god that can be worshipped except Allah, and one testifies that Muhammad is his servant and messenger.
The Koran, and hence Allah, lays down that Muhammad’s life must be imitated. The consequences of this are horrendous and can be witnessed on a daily basis.
There has been much analysis of Muhammad’s mental sanity. In spite of all the available research, it is rarely mentioned or debated. It is a taboo to discuss the true nature of the man whom one and a half billion Muslims around the world regard as a holy prophet and example to be followed. That taboo must be breached in the West, and here in the Netherlands.
Ali Sina is an Iranian ex-Muslim who established the organisation for apostates of Islam Faith Freedom International. In his latest book he posits that Muhammad is a narcissist, a paedophile, a mass murderer, a terrorist, a misogynist, a lecher, a cult leader, a madman, a rapist, a torturer, an assassin and a looter. Sina has offered 50,000 dollars for the one who can prove otherwise. Nobody has claimed the reward as yet. And no wonder, as the description is based on the Islamic texts themselves, such as the hadiths, the descriptions of Muhammad’s life from testimonies of contemporaries.
The historical Muhammad was the savage leader of a gang of robbers from Medina. Without scruples they looted, raped and murdered. The sources describe orgies of savagery where hundreds of people’s throats were cut, hands and feet chopped off, eyes cut out, entire tribes massacred. An example is the extinction of the Jewish Kurayza tribe in Medina in 627. One of those who chopped off their heads was Muhammad. The women and children were sold as slaves. Confronted with the lunacy of Islamic terrorists today, it is not hard to find out where the lunacy comes from.
In Vienna the women’s rights activist Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff was recently sentenced to paying a fine for insulting a religion by calling Muhammad a paedophile. However, that is the truth. Numerous hadiths contain testimonies by Muhammad’s favourite wife, the child wife Aisha. Aisha literally says: “The prophet married me when I was six years old, and had intercourse with me when I was nine.”
According to the historian Theophanes (752-817) Muhammad was an epileptic. Epileptic crises are sometimes accompanied by hallucinations, perspiration form the forehead and foaming at the mouth, the very symptoms which Muhammad displayed during his visions.
In his book “The other Muhammad” (1992) the Flemish psychologist dr. Herman Somers concludes that in his forties the “prophet” began to suffer from acromegaly, a condition caused by a tumor in the pituitary gland, a small organ that is situated just below the brain. When the tumor in the pituitary gland causes too much pressure in the brain, people start to see and hear things that are not there. Somers’s psychopathological diagnosis of Muhammad’s condition is: organic hallucinatory affliction with paranoid characteristics.
The German medical historian Armin Geus speaks of a paranoid hallucinatory schizophrenia. A similar analysis can be found in the book “The Medical Case of Muhammad” by the physician Dede Korkut.
In his book “Psychology of Mohammed: Inside the Brain of a Prophet” Dr. Masud Ansari calls Muhammad “the perfect personification of a psychopath in power.” Muhammad had a unhinged paranoid personality with an inferiority complex and megalomaniac tendencies. In his forties he starts having visions that lead him to believe he has a cosmic mission, and there is no stopping him.
The truth is not always pleasant or politically correct. On the basis of the research referred to above it can be argued that the Islamic creed obliges one and a half billion people around the world, including the one million living in the Netherlands, to take Muhammad as their example. There is no turning back once one has become a Muslim. For even though article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that every person has the right to “change his religion or belief,” in Islam there is a death penalty for leaving the faith.
Anyone who voices criticism of Islam and Muhammad is in grave personal danger — as I have experienced. And whoever attempts to escape from the influence of Islam and Muhammad risks death. We cannot continue to accept this state of affairs. A public debate about the true nature and character of Muhammad can provide insight and support to Muslims all over the world who wish to leave Islam.
Apostates are heroes and more than ever they deserve the support of freedom loving people all over the world. Party politics should not be at play in this matter. It is time for us to help these people by exposing Muhammad.
Geert Wilders is an MP in the Netherlands. He is the Chairman of the Party for Freedom (PVV). This article was published in the Dutch weekly magazine “HP/De Tijd” of March 30, 2011.
From Gates Of Vienna
The jackalopes of islam: moderate muslims are the missing link
We hear it all the time, read about it on occasion, the LSM and the far left liberals are always telling us that the 'moderates' of islam will save the day and take the reins of islam. Do any of you out there even take the term 'moderate muslims' seriously? I want to, I seriously do but where are they? What are they waiting for? We have been told that the 'new' egypt is a wondrous country of moderate muslims. Is that so? Is that why the muslim brotherhood has 'suddenly' came out of nowhere in egypt? The mb is not moderate, not even close. egypt has tipped it's hand on how it is now viewing Israel and the west. If this is what we can call moderate muslims then the LSM, the White House and the far left are even dumber than we thought they are.
Amil Imani, who is becoming a regular here on PC has a bit to say about what I have dubbed the missing link of islam; moderate muslims. They really are a missing link and have been for the last 1400 plus years. The moderate muslim is a myth and is nothing more than the Jackalope of islam.
From FamilySecurityMatters.
*******************************************************************************************
The Missing Moderate Muslims
Amil Imani
"I am already against the next war,” read the bumper sticker on a car ahead of me. I long to tell the driver: the next war is already here; Islamists are waging it in every corner of the globe and the “moderate Muslims” are either actively supporting them, placing the blame on the West, or simply looking the other way. This war aims to wipe out everything that free people cherish, including the right of expressing their sentiments. Banishing war has been the perennial dream of mankind’s best, while its worst have been frustrating its realization. To renounce war unilaterally and unconditionally is surrender and death.
Humanity has suffered horrific wars in the past. Yet, the present multi-form and multi-front war waged by Islamists has the potential of inflicting more suffering and destroying more lives than any before it. Ruthless Islamic forces are advancing rapidly in their conquests while those of freedom are acquiescing and retreating. Before long, Islamism is poised to achieve its Allah-mandated goal of cleansing the earth of all non-Muslims. Any and all means and weapons are to be enlisted in the service of this final holy war that aims to establish the Islamic Ummah.
But Islam is a religion of peace and the great majority of Muslims are not party to any plans and actions of the radicals, so claim academic pundits, leftist journalists, and hired Islamic apologists. The incantation of these “authorities” is the lullaby that puts the people into a sleep of complacency. For an average free human busy with all manners of demands on his time and resources, would hardly want to worry about the threat of Islamism when those he believes are “in the know” emphatically claim that there is nothing to worry about. Some of these advocates of Islam go further by accusing those who sound the alarm as racist, bigot, hatemonger and much more.
But where are all the peace-loving moderate Muslims that supposedly are in great majority? The Muslims who are neither jihadists themselves, nor do they support them? I and others, time and again, have been calling upon them to stand up and show the world that they oppose the fanatical Islamists. It is small comfort even if the vast majority of Muslims are not fanatic radicals, when they do nothing to demonstrate their position. It is instructive to recall that it is invariably a minority, and more often than not a very small minority, that launches a campaign of death and destruction.
Perhaps it is wishful thinking on the part of the non-Muslims to believe that one can be a Muslim moderate, given that Islam is radical at its very core. To be a moderate Muslim demands that the person explicitly renounce much of the violent, exclusionary, and radical teachings of the Quran. By so doing, the individual issues his own death warrant in Islamic countries, is condemned as apostate if he lives in a non-Islamic land and may even earn a fatwa on his head.
It is deadly, in any confrontation, to assess the adversary through one’s own mental template, because the two templates can be vastly different from each other. People in the West are accustomed in relativistic rather than absolutistic thinking. To Westerners, just about all matters range from black to white with an array of gray shades between the two poles. To Muslims, by contrast, nearly everything is in black and white and with virtually no shades of gray. The former type of thinking is typical of more mature minds, while the latter is that of young children and the less-enlightened.
This absolutist thinking is enshrined in the Quran itself. When the starting point for a Muslim is the explicit fanatical words of Allah in the Quran, then the faithful are left with no choice other than literally obeying its dictates or even taking it to the next level of fanaticism. Good Muslims, for instance, do not shake hands with women, even though the Quran does not explicitly forbid it. Although the Quran stipulates that men are rulers over women, good Muslim men take it upon themselves to rule women not much better than they treat their domesticated animals.
All extreme systems operate outside of the constraints of checks-and-balances and according to the principle of negative feedback loop. That is, once it starts, the extreme becomes more and more extreme until self-destructs and takes the larger system down with it. Cancer is a case in point. It begins with only a few cells. Left unchecked, the few cells continue expanding and stop only with the death of the host.
Fanatical Islam may indeed be a minority. Yet it is a deadly cancer that has metastasized throughout the body of the world. Urgent confrontation of this advancing disease is imperative to stave it off.
Dozens of Islamist shooting wars of lesser and greater bloodletting are presently raging in the world, aided and abetted by the “moderate Muslim” majority. The so called moderate Muslims, even if they exist, are complicit in the crimes of the radicals either by providing them with funds, logistics, and new recruits or by simply failing to actively confront and unequivocally renounce them.
As is the case with cancer cells, it is the malignant minority that is death-bearing.
In Germany of the 1930s, for instance, very few people were Nazis and most Germans dismissed them as a bunch of hot-headed fools. Before long, the hot-headed few cowed in the dismissive masses and as a result millions lost their lives.
The tentacles of the Islamist hydra have deeply penetrated the world. The Egyptian-based Muslim Brotherhood poses a clear threat in Egypt with its large block of representatives in the parliament, but also wages its deadly campaign through its hundreds of well-established and functioning branches all over the world.
The Wahhabis finance thousands of madressehs throughout the world where young boys are brainwashed into becoming fanatical footsoldiers for the Petrodollar-flush Saudis and other emirs of the Persian Gulf.
The end-of-the-world believers of the bomb-aspiring Iran’s Khomeinism are busy establishing the Shia hegemony in an arc extending from the Gulf of Oman to the Mediterranean Sea.
Al Qaeda and dozens of its like-minded jihadists relentlessly carry their barbaric campaigns in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kashmir, the Philippines, the former Soviet Union republics, the Russian federation, Somalia, North Africa and parts of Europe, as well as other lands.
I keep hoping that the purported peace-loving moderate Muslims are indeed the great majority who would prove me right by demonstrating their peacefulness and moderation in action. Thus far, only a faint murmur of equivocation is all that I hear from these people.
Are “moderate Muslims” an illusion? The only viable alternative for peaceful people of Islamic background, therefore, is to leave the bondage of violent Islam altogether and join ranks with humanity’s free.
The selected puppet president Ahamadinejad boasts that Iran’s mullahs’ nuclear train has no reverse gear and lacks brakes. He should harbor no illusions. The non-Islamist masses of Iranians will not docilely submit to the mullahs’ maniacal plans. It is the unmatched force of freedom that has no reverse gear and it is the force fully capable and determined to bring the mullahs’ train to a screeching halt before it is armed with the Armageddon nuclear weapons they so doggedly pursue.
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Amil Imani is an Iranian-born American citizen and a pro-democracy activist residing in the United States of America. Imani is a columnist, literary translator, novelist and essayist who has been writing and speaking out for the struggling people of his native land, Iran. He maintains a website at www.amilimani.com. Amil Imani is the author of the smashing book Obama Meets Ahmadinejad.
Original article from FSM is here.
Amil Imani, who is becoming a regular here on PC has a bit to say about what I have dubbed the missing link of islam; moderate muslims. They really are a missing link and have been for the last 1400 plus years. The moderate muslim is a myth and is nothing more than the Jackalope of islam.
From FamilySecurityMatters.
*******************************************************************************************
 |
| Jackalope |
The Missing Moderate Muslims
Amil Imani
"I am already against the next war,” read the bumper sticker on a car ahead of me. I long to tell the driver: the next war is already here; Islamists are waging it in every corner of the globe and the “moderate Muslims” are either actively supporting them, placing the blame on the West, or simply looking the other way. This war aims to wipe out everything that free people cherish, including the right of expressing their sentiments. Banishing war has been the perennial dream of mankind’s best, while its worst have been frustrating its realization. To renounce war unilaterally and unconditionally is surrender and death.
Humanity has suffered horrific wars in the past. Yet, the present multi-form and multi-front war waged by Islamists has the potential of inflicting more suffering and destroying more lives than any before it. Ruthless Islamic forces are advancing rapidly in their conquests while those of freedom are acquiescing and retreating. Before long, Islamism is poised to achieve its Allah-mandated goal of cleansing the earth of all non-Muslims. Any and all means and weapons are to be enlisted in the service of this final holy war that aims to establish the Islamic Ummah.
But Islam is a religion of peace and the great majority of Muslims are not party to any plans and actions of the radicals, so claim academic pundits, leftist journalists, and hired Islamic apologists. The incantation of these “authorities” is the lullaby that puts the people into a sleep of complacency. For an average free human busy with all manners of demands on his time and resources, would hardly want to worry about the threat of Islamism when those he believes are “in the know” emphatically claim that there is nothing to worry about. Some of these advocates of Islam go further by accusing those who sound the alarm as racist, bigot, hatemonger and much more.
But where are all the peace-loving moderate Muslims that supposedly are in great majority? The Muslims who are neither jihadists themselves, nor do they support them? I and others, time and again, have been calling upon them to stand up and show the world that they oppose the fanatical Islamists. It is small comfort even if the vast majority of Muslims are not fanatic radicals, when they do nothing to demonstrate their position. It is instructive to recall that it is invariably a minority, and more often than not a very small minority, that launches a campaign of death and destruction.
Perhaps it is wishful thinking on the part of the non-Muslims to believe that one can be a Muslim moderate, given that Islam is radical at its very core. To be a moderate Muslim demands that the person explicitly renounce much of the violent, exclusionary, and radical teachings of the Quran. By so doing, the individual issues his own death warrant in Islamic countries, is condemned as apostate if he lives in a non-Islamic land and may even earn a fatwa on his head.
It is deadly, in any confrontation, to assess the adversary through one’s own mental template, because the two templates can be vastly different from each other. People in the West are accustomed in relativistic rather than absolutistic thinking. To Westerners, just about all matters range from black to white with an array of gray shades between the two poles. To Muslims, by contrast, nearly everything is in black and white and with virtually no shades of gray. The former type of thinking is typical of more mature minds, while the latter is that of young children and the less-enlightened.
This absolutist thinking is enshrined in the Quran itself. When the starting point for a Muslim is the explicit fanatical words of Allah in the Quran, then the faithful are left with no choice other than literally obeying its dictates or even taking it to the next level of fanaticism. Good Muslims, for instance, do not shake hands with women, even though the Quran does not explicitly forbid it. Although the Quran stipulates that men are rulers over women, good Muslim men take it upon themselves to rule women not much better than they treat their domesticated animals.
All extreme systems operate outside of the constraints of checks-and-balances and according to the principle of negative feedback loop. That is, once it starts, the extreme becomes more and more extreme until self-destructs and takes the larger system down with it. Cancer is a case in point. It begins with only a few cells. Left unchecked, the few cells continue expanding and stop only with the death of the host.
Fanatical Islam may indeed be a minority. Yet it is a deadly cancer that has metastasized throughout the body of the world. Urgent confrontation of this advancing disease is imperative to stave it off.
Dozens of Islamist shooting wars of lesser and greater bloodletting are presently raging in the world, aided and abetted by the “moderate Muslim” majority. The so called moderate Muslims, even if they exist, are complicit in the crimes of the radicals either by providing them with funds, logistics, and new recruits or by simply failing to actively confront and unequivocally renounce them.
As is the case with cancer cells, it is the malignant minority that is death-bearing.
In Germany of the 1930s, for instance, very few people were Nazis and most Germans dismissed them as a bunch of hot-headed fools. Before long, the hot-headed few cowed in the dismissive masses and as a result millions lost their lives.
The tentacles of the Islamist hydra have deeply penetrated the world. The Egyptian-based Muslim Brotherhood poses a clear threat in Egypt with its large block of representatives in the parliament, but also wages its deadly campaign through its hundreds of well-established and functioning branches all over the world.
The Wahhabis finance thousands of madressehs throughout the world where young boys are brainwashed into becoming fanatical footsoldiers for the Petrodollar-flush Saudis and other emirs of the Persian Gulf.
The end-of-the-world believers of the bomb-aspiring Iran’s Khomeinism are busy establishing the Shia hegemony in an arc extending from the Gulf of Oman to the Mediterranean Sea.
Al Qaeda and dozens of its like-minded jihadists relentlessly carry their barbaric campaigns in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kashmir, the Philippines, the former Soviet Union republics, the Russian federation, Somalia, North Africa and parts of Europe, as well as other lands.
I keep hoping that the purported peace-loving moderate Muslims are indeed the great majority who would prove me right by demonstrating their peacefulness and moderation in action. Thus far, only a faint murmur of equivocation is all that I hear from these people.
Are “moderate Muslims” an illusion? The only viable alternative for peaceful people of Islamic background, therefore, is to leave the bondage of violent Islam altogether and join ranks with humanity’s free.
The selected puppet president Ahamadinejad boasts that Iran’s mullahs’ nuclear train has no reverse gear and lacks brakes. He should harbor no illusions. The non-Islamist masses of Iranians will not docilely submit to the mullahs’ maniacal plans. It is the unmatched force of freedom that has no reverse gear and it is the force fully capable and determined to bring the mullahs’ train to a screeching halt before it is armed with the Armageddon nuclear weapons they so doggedly pursue.
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Amil Imani is an Iranian-born American citizen and a pro-democracy activist residing in the United States of America. Imani is a columnist, literary translator, novelist and essayist who has been writing and speaking out for the struggling people of his native land, Iran. He maintains a website at www.amilimani.com. Amil Imani is the author of the smashing book Obama Meets Ahmadinejad.
Original article from FSM is here.
The Dog Of Peace: From Gates Of Vienna
No commentary is needed for this one!
The Dog of Peace
By Baron Bodissey
Back in 1961, Pablo Picasso drew this iconic image, “The Dove of Peace”:
Fifty years later the Swedish artist Lars Vilks, creator of the infamous Modoggies, has made his own contribution to the cause of world peace by drawing another peace-loving animal, “The Dog of Peace”:
The occasion for this latest work is today’s announcement that Mr. Vilks has been nominated for the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize. The drawing above is his depiction of the Peace Dog with Picasso’s olive branch, standing outside the Rådhus in Oslo, ready to receive the prize.
Below is a news report on this historic occasion from UPA:
Lars Vilks nominated for Nobel Peace Prize
By Oleg Shabazz Eriksson
Staff Writer, Universal Press Association
Oslo, 1 April 2011 (UPA) — The Ladonia-based Lars Vilks Defense Offense Committee circulated a release today stating that the beleaguered Swedish artist had been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Since he first published his drawings of “The Prophet as a Roundabout Dog” in 2007, Mr. Vilks has been repeatedly harassed, threatened, and assaulted. He has also been the target of an assassination conspiracy that included the infamous “Jihad Jane” as one of its alleged conspirators. Despite all these hardships, he has remained dedicated to the cause.
“The basis for Lars Vilks’ Nobel nomination has been his remarkable success in furthering the causes of peace and human rights,” stated the release from his support group.
According to the website for the five-member Nobel Peace Prize Committee, which is located in Oslo, Norway, their letters of nomination, names of nominees, and other information about nominations cannot be revealed to the public for 50 years. The committee reportedly sends out 1,000 letters each year inviting qualified people to submit their nominations.
“Even though the nominations are not revealed, we have it upon good authority that Lars was nominated this year,” his cousin and chairperson of the LV-DOC, Tamika Lateef Carlsson, told UPA.
The Nobel committee will cut their list to 10 names later this month, and will announce the winner in mid-October. Ms. Carlsson said they have not been told if Mr. Vilks has made it to the short-list. “We’ve never been able to find that out,” she said.
A 2010 letter to the Norwegian Institute from a former member of the Ladonian Parliament, Osvald Lagerhus, has surfaced on the Ladonian Independence Movement (LIM) website in support of the artist’s nomination: “The Nobel Peace Prize in my view is the only key that can fit the lock to rehabilitate Lars Vilks. All the aboriginal artists of Ladonia await his elevation.”
The LIM website mentions several projects that Mr. Vilks has worked on since going into seclusion nearly four years ago, such as playing a role in getting people from different genders and species to come together as he advocates for peaceful resolution of all artistic issues.
It is also estimated that Mr. Vilks has raised millions for charities through sales of his art work.
In his 2009 manifesto “Writings from Ladonia: My Life is my Lawn Chair,” Mr. Vilks states: “We are all in this together — the rich, the poor, the dogs, the pigs, the Red, the White, the Pink, the Green, and the Purple. I believe in the good of all animal kind.”
For previous posts on Lars Vilks and the Roundabout Dogs, see the Modoggie Archives.
Original article is here.
The Dog of Peace
By Baron Bodissey
Back in 1961, Pablo Picasso drew this iconic image, “The Dove of Peace”:
Fifty years later the Swedish artist Lars Vilks, creator of the infamous Modoggies, has made his own contribution to the cause of world peace by drawing another peace-loving animal, “The Dog of Peace”:
The occasion for this latest work is today’s announcement that Mr. Vilks has been nominated for the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize. The drawing above is his depiction of the Peace Dog with Picasso’s olive branch, standing outside the Rådhus in Oslo, ready to receive the prize.
Below is a news report on this historic occasion from UPA:
Lars Vilks nominated for Nobel Peace Prize
By Oleg Shabazz Eriksson
Staff Writer, Universal Press Association
Oslo, 1 April 2011 (UPA) — The Ladonia-based Lars Vilks Defense Offense Committee circulated a release today stating that the beleaguered Swedish artist had been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Since he first published his drawings of “The Prophet as a Roundabout Dog” in 2007, Mr. Vilks has been repeatedly harassed, threatened, and assaulted. He has also been the target of an assassination conspiracy that included the infamous “Jihad Jane” as one of its alleged conspirators. Despite all these hardships, he has remained dedicated to the cause.
“The basis for Lars Vilks’ Nobel nomination has been his remarkable success in furthering the causes of peace and human rights,” stated the release from his support group.
According to the website for the five-member Nobel Peace Prize Committee, which is located in Oslo, Norway, their letters of nomination, names of nominees, and other information about nominations cannot be revealed to the public for 50 years. The committee reportedly sends out 1,000 letters each year inviting qualified people to submit their nominations.
“Even though the nominations are not revealed, we have it upon good authority that Lars was nominated this year,” his cousin and chairperson of the LV-DOC, Tamika Lateef Carlsson, told UPA.
The Nobel committee will cut their list to 10 names later this month, and will announce the winner in mid-October. Ms. Carlsson said they have not been told if Mr. Vilks has made it to the short-list. “We’ve never been able to find that out,” she said.
A 2010 letter to the Norwegian Institute from a former member of the Ladonian Parliament, Osvald Lagerhus, has surfaced on the Ladonian Independence Movement (LIM) website in support of the artist’s nomination: “The Nobel Peace Prize in my view is the only key that can fit the lock to rehabilitate Lars Vilks. All the aboriginal artists of Ladonia await his elevation.”
The LIM website mentions several projects that Mr. Vilks has worked on since going into seclusion nearly four years ago, such as playing a role in getting people from different genders and species to come together as he advocates for peaceful resolution of all artistic issues.
It is also estimated that Mr. Vilks has raised millions for charities through sales of his art work.
In his 2009 manifesto “Writings from Ladonia: My Life is my Lawn Chair,” Mr. Vilks states: “We are all in this together — the rich, the poor, the dogs, the pigs, the Red, the White, the Pink, the Green, and the Purple. I believe in the good of all animal kind.”
For previous posts on Lars Vilks and the Roundabout Dogs, see the Modoggie Archives.
Original article is here.
America is on the WRONG side: Israel's version of MAD
Does Israel have nuclear weapons or not? As Israel has never declared openly one way or another, many think that Israel does not. I am am on the other side of the fence. I am pretty sure that Israel does and will use these weapons of mass destruction if her back is up against the wall or she is at risk of being overrun by the hordes of muslims that are calling for the total annihilation of Israel, and the death of every last Jew on the the planet.
For me and others, the unknown is exactly what and how many nuclear weapons does Israel have? If all hell breaks loose(that day is closer than we think, especially with the current muslim potus and his vilification of Israel)then Israel will lay waste to as many arab countries as possible. Whether Israel survives or not may be a moot point. What is for sure is that Israel will use what is known as the 'Samson Option'. This is Israel's version of what Nixon used do successfully to drive our enemies crazy and played a big part at keeping our enemies at bay during the cold war. Israel is in a different situation as most of her enemies do not have nuclear weapons unless her former allies turned against the tiny country. Pakistan is a wild card but I think Israel has that country on the list of targets to eliminate that possibility. Israel also has a few submarines with missile launching capabilities. This mean that Israel has a second strike platform. Let us not forget Israel's Air Force, one of the finest in the world.
As the next post mentions, our attention should not be completely on libya, syria, and yemen. The importance of Israel will become larger as events unfold across the Middle East.
From J.D. Longstreet's Insight On Freedom.
******************************************************************************************
Israel’s Samson Option
By J.D. Longstreet
If, while watching the disturbing events in the Middle East, you are not focusing your attention on Israel – then you are looking in the wrong place.
Once, a very long time ago, I heard someone refer to Israel as the "world’s canary in the coal mine." That is as apt a description of modern Israel as I have ever heard.
As I watch events in the Muslim countries surrounding Israel deteriorate it looks, for all the world, as if we are racing toward Armageddon. The great armies, just now dipping their toes into the deepening unrest in that region, are unaware that they are playing out a story line written thousands of years ago.
Those of us who have read that storyline know how the story ends and, too, we are aware of the events leading up to the true "Mother of all Battles."
For the first time in its history, America is on the wrong side.
Our President, with his loyalty to the world and not to the country that trusted him with the sacred duty to be leader of America and Commander-in-Chief of the mightiest military force in all of history, has gone over to the "Dark Side." He has turned his back on the one nation, which occupies the most important piece of real estate on the globe. He has made it clear he favors the countries, which consider themselves Israel’s most ardent enemies. Israel knows they, now, stand alone.
Just this past weekend, Israel deployed their homegrown antimissile defense system "Iron Dome." Another anti-missile defense system, a shorter-range system as we understand it, is in the pipeline and scheduled for deployment soon. Israel is getting ready for the coming conflagration when all the Muslim anger, boiling in the crucible of that region, boils over and pours onto their tiny country.
Without America standing with Israel, Israel stands a better than 50-50 chance of being over-run and wiped out as a country.
The Israelis have planned for that.
The plan is referred to as: "The Samson Option."
The "Samson Option" is Israel’s strategy of massive nuclear retaliation against "enemies" should its existence as a Jewish state be jeopardized through military attack.
The term was inspired by the Biblical figure Samson, who destroyed a Philistine temple, killing himself, and thousands of Philistine enemies.
The Samson option is a strategy of last resort retaliation - even if it means Israel’s own annihilation.
It has been estimated by so-called experts that Israel has at least 400 thermo-nuclear weapons. They can be launched from land, sea, and air. This means that Israel has a second strike option -- even if much of the country is destroyed.
Nuclear weapons were viewed by Israel as the ultimate insurer of Israel’s continued existance. Israel decided, as early as the 1960’s, to build-up its military and achieve absolute conventional military superiorty over it’s enemies, and not place its reliance on nuclear weapons. Israel did this in the hope that they would never have to call on their thermo-nuclear weapons stockpile to rescue their country.
Clealy the danger to Israel’scontinued existace has escalated until today Israel finds itself ann island of sanity in a sea of madness.
We have warned of Israel’s "Samson Option" many times before. Like their ancient ancestors on Masada, Israel, it would seem, is prepared to sacrifice itself rather than be driven into slavery -- or extinction -- by the enemy hordes that surround it.
Sadly, the only country that can prevent those Middle Eastern madmen from breaching the walls of Israel is the United States. But the US is leaderless, at least until 2013, and the man who currently occupies the office of President of the United States has shown no favor towards Israel or its plight.
Today, the entire world is threathened. The Damocles Sword of Islamic terrorism hangs precariously over our heads. Here, in America, the lives of every man, woman and child has changed since September 11, 2001. And yet, compared to the threat Israelis live under, every day, Americans live in perfect secutity and safety.
The canary in the coal mine is telling us the threat is real and it is lethal. The actions of Israel should be the warning the world heeds. But, sadly, it will not be taken seriously until it is too late. America should be shoring up its relationship with Israel and making it clear to all who threathen that tiny country that Israel’s big brother is back by her side. But that won’t happen until the electorate of America decides to send Obama into retirement where he can play golf and basketball to his heart’s content and leave the job of leading the free world to someone who actually knows how.
J. D. Longstreet
Original article can be found here.
Hat tip: Right Side News
For me and others, the unknown is exactly what and how many nuclear weapons does Israel have? If all hell breaks loose(that day is closer than we think, especially with the current muslim potus and his vilification of Israel)then Israel will lay waste to as many arab countries as possible. Whether Israel survives or not may be a moot point. What is for sure is that Israel will use what is known as the 'Samson Option'. This is Israel's version of what Nixon used do successfully to drive our enemies crazy and played a big part at keeping our enemies at bay during the cold war. Israel is in a different situation as most of her enemies do not have nuclear weapons unless her former allies turned against the tiny country. Pakistan is a wild card but I think Israel has that country on the list of targets to eliminate that possibility. Israel also has a few submarines with missile launching capabilities. This mean that Israel has a second strike platform. Let us not forget Israel's Air Force, one of the finest in the world.
As the next post mentions, our attention should not be completely on libya, syria, and yemen. The importance of Israel will become larger as events unfold across the Middle East.
From J.D. Longstreet's Insight On Freedom.
******************************************************************************************
By J.D. Longstreet
If, while watching the disturbing events in the Middle East, you are not focusing your attention on Israel – then you are looking in the wrong place.
Once, a very long time ago, I heard someone refer to Israel as the "world’s canary in the coal mine." That is as apt a description of modern Israel as I have ever heard.
As I watch events in the Muslim countries surrounding Israel deteriorate it looks, for all the world, as if we are racing toward Armageddon. The great armies, just now dipping their toes into the deepening unrest in that region, are unaware that they are playing out a story line written thousands of years ago.
Those of us who have read that storyline know how the story ends and, too, we are aware of the events leading up to the true "Mother of all Battles."
For the first time in its history, America is on the wrong side.
Our President, with his loyalty to the world and not to the country that trusted him with the sacred duty to be leader of America and Commander-in-Chief of the mightiest military force in all of history, has gone over to the "Dark Side." He has turned his back on the one nation, which occupies the most important piece of real estate on the globe. He has made it clear he favors the countries, which consider themselves Israel’s most ardent enemies. Israel knows they, now, stand alone.
Just this past weekend, Israel deployed their homegrown antimissile defense system "Iron Dome." Another anti-missile defense system, a shorter-range system as we understand it, is in the pipeline and scheduled for deployment soon. Israel is getting ready for the coming conflagration when all the Muslim anger, boiling in the crucible of that region, boils over and pours onto their tiny country.
Without America standing with Israel, Israel stands a better than 50-50 chance of being over-run and wiped out as a country.
The Israelis have planned for that.
The "Samson Option" is Israel’s strategy of massive nuclear retaliation against "enemies" should its existence as a Jewish state be jeopardized through military attack.
The term was inspired by the Biblical figure Samson, who destroyed a Philistine temple, killing himself, and thousands of Philistine enemies.
The Samson option is a strategy of last resort retaliation - even if it means Israel’s own annihilation.
It has been estimated by so-called experts that Israel has at least 400 thermo-nuclear weapons. They can be launched from land, sea, and air. This means that Israel has a second strike option -- even if much of the country is destroyed.
Nuclear weapons were viewed by Israel as the ultimate insurer of Israel’s continued existance. Israel decided, as early as the 1960’s, to build-up its military and achieve absolute conventional military superiorty over it’s enemies, and not place its reliance on nuclear weapons. Israel did this in the hope that they would never have to call on their thermo-nuclear weapons stockpile to rescue their country.
Clealy the danger to Israel’scontinued existace has escalated until today Israel finds itself ann island of sanity in a sea of madness.
We have warned of Israel’s "Samson Option" many times before. Like their ancient ancestors on Masada, Israel, it would seem, is prepared to sacrifice itself rather than be driven into slavery -- or extinction -- by the enemy hordes that surround it.
Sadly, the only country that can prevent those Middle Eastern madmen from breaching the walls of Israel is the United States. But the US is leaderless, at least until 2013, and the man who currently occupies the office of President of the United States has shown no favor towards Israel or its plight.
Today, the entire world is threathened. The Damocles Sword of Islamic terrorism hangs precariously over our heads. Here, in America, the lives of every man, woman and child has changed since September 11, 2001. And yet, compared to the threat Israelis live under, every day, Americans live in perfect secutity and safety.
The canary in the coal mine is telling us the threat is real and it is lethal. The actions of Israel should be the warning the world heeds. But, sadly, it will not be taken seriously until it is too late. America should be shoring up its relationship with Israel and making it clear to all who threathen that tiny country that Israel’s big brother is back by her side. But that won’t happen until the electorate of America decides to send Obama into retirement where he can play golf and basketball to his heart’s content and leave the job of leading the free world to someone who actually knows how.
J. D. Longstreet
Original article can be found here.
Hat tip: Right Side News
The Olive Tree Initiative-Was There a Meeting With Hamas in 2009?
Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
I am cross-posting an article by the Orange County Independent Task Force on Anti-Semitism. This article reports that, pursuant to a California State Freedom of Information Act, a letter has been obtained from the University of California at Irvine (UCI) files. The letter was reportedly written in 2009 by the Orange County Jewish Federation to UC-Irvine Chancellor Michael Drake and concerns a reported meeting between student participants in the 2009 Olive Tree Initiative trip to Israel and the West Bank with a reputed official of Hamas, one Aziz Duwaik (aka Dweik, Dwaik, aka Abdel Aziz Duwaik). This individual is identified as the speaker of the Palestinian Authority Legislature and the highest ranking member of Hamas in the West Bank.
http://octaskforce.wordpress.com/2011/03/29/letter-uc-irvine-olive-tree-initiative-students-met-with-hamas-leader-in-2009-trip/
Here is a report by JTA, which contains a statement by the OC Jewish Federation.
http://www.jta.org/news/article/2011/03/31/3086657/jewish-organization-protests-uc-student-meeting-with-hamas-leader
What is missing from the above report is the fact that while the Federation and Hillel were defending themselves from 2010 to the present from criticism over the OTI's alleged visits with ISM activists and criticizing the person who revealed these ties, they were apparently keeping this whole 2009 incident and their correspondance with UCI under wraps. Only a California Freedom of Information request has brought the letter and the alleged meeting to light. Also, it would be nice to know who exactly, if anyone, told students to keep silent about meeting with Duwaik.
It gets more interesting. Here is an article on the topic from the Orange County Register on 3-31-11:
http://www.ocregister.com/news/uci-294427-students-jewish.html
"Cathy Lawhon, spokeswoman for UCI, said "meeting with people of many different points of view is consistent with (Olive Tree's) mission."
"Their stated mission is to hear varying points of view, and to take people of varying points of view over there," Lawhon said. "It's not a homogenous group at all."
"Lawhon said more trips to the Mideast have taken place since 2009, but that she is unaware if additional meetings with Duwaik or other Hamas officials were held."
I beg to differ. Meeting with people with varying points of view is one thing. Meeting with members of organizations designated by our government as terrorist organizations is quite another. In addition, the JTA article quotes a Federation spokesman as stating that the university assurred the Federation that such an incident would not happen again and that it has not. Yet, the university spokesperson seems to have no idea as to what happened on the subsequent 2010 trip, nor does she seem to have any problem with what happened in 2009.
Here is the Wikipedia entry for Aziz Duwaik.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aziz_Duwaik
In way of background for those readers unfamiliar with the Olive Tree Initiative, it was formed in 2007 at UC-Irvine in order to send selected groups of Jewish, Muslim and other students to Israel and the West Bank to meet with various figures on both sides of the Israel-Palestinian dispute. To date, there have been three trips, 2008-2009-2010. In addition, the program has spread to other UC campuses. Funding for the travel of Jewish students is handled primarily by the Rose Project, which was established by the OC Jewish Federation. In addition the OTI, in its brochure, solicits public donations. Finally, it is known that the Federation and Hillel of UCI have supported OTI-the Federation monetarily. At the university, the program falls under the Dept of Social Sciences.
In the past few months, there has been an on-going controversy within the Jewish community concerning some of the Palestinian figures that the Jewish students have been meeting with in the Holy Land. They include figures who have been part of or even helped found the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), an international organization dedicated to the destruction of Israel.
As stated, the OTI claims that it is exposing the students to both sides of the dispute. The Jewish Federation claims that this exposure makes the Jewish students better equipped to argue Israel's side. Yet, many members of the local Jewish community, including those who have donated money to the Federation, are questioning the wisdom of sending Jewish students to be influenced by older, experienced activists who are dedicated to deligitimizing Israel through so-called peaceful protests and the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions movement (BDS). The OTI-sponsored speaking appearance in November of 2010 of George S Rishmawi at UCI also sparked questions. Rishmawi, is a Christian Palestinian figure, who was a co-founder of ISM, with whom he claims not to be presently involved. He is one of the top OTI contacts in the Palestinian territories.
It should be pointed out here that if Jewish students want to travel to the Middle East and meet with such persons, that is their absolute right. However, this travel is funded by others. It is also true that donors have the absolute right to know how their money is being spent, and if they disagree, they have the right to stop donating.
When, several months ago, a local Jewish woman, who has been following events on the UCI campus for a couple of years, began to ask questions about the nature of the travel and the nature of the people involved, she was met with an avalanche of blow-back from the OC Jewish Federation and Hillel. Her claims about George S. Rishmawi were called false. She was accused of causing division within the Jewish community. She was called a liar. Past and present student participants of OTI trips contributed open letters to the OC Jewish Experience web site denouncing the complaints and defending the OTI. In addition, several dozen Jewish students' names were added to a Hillel letter of support, in which many of the students involved had not given their concurrence to have their names included. In the OC Jewish Life monthly publication, a rabbi, who writes regularly for the monthly, said that the woman should apologize to the Federation for speaking out without bringing her concerns to them first (which she, in fact, had done).
That brings us to the release of the aforementioned letter. If the statements in the letter are factual, then this OTI controversy goes far beyond the alleged involvement of the ISM et. al. It now involves Hamas. This organization is appropriately labeled as a terrorist organization by our government. It is an organization that refuses negotitions with Israel as a waste of time. Its charter calls for the elimination of every Jew and the elimination of the Jewish state. As we speak, Hamas, the government of Gaza, continues to lob missiles into southern Israel. The Federation letter, of course, shows appropriate concern that this meeting reportedly took place. Unfortunately, what should have happened in 2009 and in 2010 in the middle of the controversy within the Jewish community, apparently did not happen. There was apparently no notification publicly that a major problem reportedly had occurred during the 2009 trip. While the Federation and Hillel were defending themselves on the OTI issue, this Duwaik matter was apparently kept under wraps-as they were criticizing the lady who was trying to bring light to the very questions surrounding the OTI. All the while, this letter was sitting in someone's files, out of public view. It took a Freedom of Information request to bring this all to light.
It should also be noted that both the 2008 and 2010 itineraries for the OTI trips have been posted on the OTI websites and thus, posted on this blog. What cannot be found on the OTI website is the 2009 itinerary. Now we can only wonder why.
It is now time for the OC Jewish Federation, Hillel, the university, and the Olive Tree Initiative to come clean on this matter and explain exactly what happened in September of 2009 during the OTI trip-and why the information remained out of the public domain while they (UCI excepted) were, in effect, shooting the messenger, the one woman who questioned what this Olive Trip Initiative is all about.
fousesquawk
I am cross-posting an article by the Orange County Independent Task Force on Anti-Semitism. This article reports that, pursuant to a California State Freedom of Information Act, a letter has been obtained from the University of California at Irvine (UCI) files. The letter was reportedly written in 2009 by the Orange County Jewish Federation to UC-Irvine Chancellor Michael Drake and concerns a reported meeting between student participants in the 2009 Olive Tree Initiative trip to Israel and the West Bank with a reputed official of Hamas, one Aziz Duwaik (aka Dweik, Dwaik, aka Abdel Aziz Duwaik). This individual is identified as the speaker of the Palestinian Authority Legislature and the highest ranking member of Hamas in the West Bank.
http://octaskforce.wordpress.com/2011/03/29/letter-uc-irvine-olive-tree-initiative-students-met-with-hamas-leader-in-2009-trip/
Here is a report by JTA, which contains a statement by the OC Jewish Federation.
http://www.jta.org/news/article/2011/03/31/3086657/jewish-organization-protests-uc-student-meeting-with-hamas-leader
What is missing from the above report is the fact that while the Federation and Hillel were defending themselves from 2010 to the present from criticism over the OTI's alleged visits with ISM activists and criticizing the person who revealed these ties, they were apparently keeping this whole 2009 incident and their correspondance with UCI under wraps. Only a California Freedom of Information request has brought the letter and the alleged meeting to light. Also, it would be nice to know who exactly, if anyone, told students to keep silent about meeting with Duwaik.
It gets more interesting. Here is an article on the topic from the Orange County Register on 3-31-11:
http://www.ocregister.com/news/uci-294427-students-jewish.html
"Cathy Lawhon, spokeswoman for UCI, said "meeting with people of many different points of view is consistent with (Olive Tree's) mission."
"Their stated mission is to hear varying points of view, and to take people of varying points of view over there," Lawhon said. "It's not a homogenous group at all."
"Lawhon said more trips to the Mideast have taken place since 2009, but that she is unaware if additional meetings with Duwaik or other Hamas officials were held."
I beg to differ. Meeting with people with varying points of view is one thing. Meeting with members of organizations designated by our government as terrorist organizations is quite another. In addition, the JTA article quotes a Federation spokesman as stating that the university assurred the Federation that such an incident would not happen again and that it has not. Yet, the university spokesperson seems to have no idea as to what happened on the subsequent 2010 trip, nor does she seem to have any problem with what happened in 2009.
Here is the Wikipedia entry for Aziz Duwaik.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aziz_Duwaik
In way of background for those readers unfamiliar with the Olive Tree Initiative, it was formed in 2007 at UC-Irvine in order to send selected groups of Jewish, Muslim and other students to Israel and the West Bank to meet with various figures on both sides of the Israel-Palestinian dispute. To date, there have been three trips, 2008-2009-2010. In addition, the program has spread to other UC campuses. Funding for the travel of Jewish students is handled primarily by the Rose Project, which was established by the OC Jewish Federation. In addition the OTI, in its brochure, solicits public donations. Finally, it is known that the Federation and Hillel of UCI have supported OTI-the Federation monetarily. At the university, the program falls under the Dept of Social Sciences.
In the past few months, there has been an on-going controversy within the Jewish community concerning some of the Palestinian figures that the Jewish students have been meeting with in the Holy Land. They include figures who have been part of or even helped found the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), an international organization dedicated to the destruction of Israel.
As stated, the OTI claims that it is exposing the students to both sides of the dispute. The Jewish Federation claims that this exposure makes the Jewish students better equipped to argue Israel's side. Yet, many members of the local Jewish community, including those who have donated money to the Federation, are questioning the wisdom of sending Jewish students to be influenced by older, experienced activists who are dedicated to deligitimizing Israel through so-called peaceful protests and the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions movement (BDS). The OTI-sponsored speaking appearance in November of 2010 of George S Rishmawi at UCI also sparked questions. Rishmawi, is a Christian Palestinian figure, who was a co-founder of ISM, with whom he claims not to be presently involved. He is one of the top OTI contacts in the Palestinian territories.
It should be pointed out here that if Jewish students want to travel to the Middle East and meet with such persons, that is their absolute right. However, this travel is funded by others. It is also true that donors have the absolute right to know how their money is being spent, and if they disagree, they have the right to stop donating.
When, several months ago, a local Jewish woman, who has been following events on the UCI campus for a couple of years, began to ask questions about the nature of the travel and the nature of the people involved, she was met with an avalanche of blow-back from the OC Jewish Federation and Hillel. Her claims about George S. Rishmawi were called false. She was accused of causing division within the Jewish community. She was called a liar. Past and present student participants of OTI trips contributed open letters to the OC Jewish Experience web site denouncing the complaints and defending the OTI. In addition, several dozen Jewish students' names were added to a Hillel letter of support, in which many of the students involved had not given their concurrence to have their names included. In the OC Jewish Life monthly publication, a rabbi, who writes regularly for the monthly, said that the woman should apologize to the Federation for speaking out without bringing her concerns to them first (which she, in fact, had done).
That brings us to the release of the aforementioned letter. If the statements in the letter are factual, then this OTI controversy goes far beyond the alleged involvement of the ISM et. al. It now involves Hamas. This organization is appropriately labeled as a terrorist organization by our government. It is an organization that refuses negotitions with Israel as a waste of time. Its charter calls for the elimination of every Jew and the elimination of the Jewish state. As we speak, Hamas, the government of Gaza, continues to lob missiles into southern Israel. The Federation letter, of course, shows appropriate concern that this meeting reportedly took place. Unfortunately, what should have happened in 2009 and in 2010 in the middle of the controversy within the Jewish community, apparently did not happen. There was apparently no notification publicly that a major problem reportedly had occurred during the 2009 trip. While the Federation and Hillel were defending themselves on the OTI issue, this Duwaik matter was apparently kept under wraps-as they were criticizing the lady who was trying to bring light to the very questions surrounding the OTI. All the while, this letter was sitting in someone's files, out of public view. It took a Freedom of Information request to bring this all to light.
It should also be noted that both the 2008 and 2010 itineraries for the OTI trips have been posted on the OTI websites and thus, posted on this blog. What cannot be found on the OTI website is the 2009 itinerary. Now we can only wonder why.
It is now time for the OC Jewish Federation, Hillel, the university, and the Olive Tree Initiative to come clean on this matter and explain exactly what happened in September of 2009 during the OTI trip-and why the information remained out of the public domain while they (UCI excepted) were, in effect, shooting the messenger, the one woman who questioned what this Olive Trip Initiative is all about.
Who’s more responsible: Charlie Sheen or Washington?
Who is more fiscally responsible: Charlie Sheen or Washington? Duh! Charlie the Warlock. Washington spends $30 million, the same as Charlie’s salary, in less than five minutes. Now that’s a fastball… At least Charlie knew not to spend more than Two and a Half Men was paying him.
Bankrupting America: At first thought, Charlie Sheen hardly seems like a model for fiscal responsibility. But, somehow, Washington has managed to be far worse.
Washington's habit of spending far more than it takes in has driven the country into debt. And our economic situation is projected to only get worse.
The solution is clear, but not easy: spending cuts. History shows that reducing government spending leads to sustained economic growth. And that's something (even Charlie Sheen) can get behind.
With the help of Charlie (sort of), our latest video explains that after years of spending far more than we take in, Washington has driven us deep into the red. And there’s only one viable solution. Check out the video below and then sign up to be one of the first to receive our latest products!
Tags: Bankrupting America, Charlie Sheen, data visualization, debt, deficit, Government Overspending, Government Spending, new video, video, who is more responsible, Who's more responsible: Charlie Sheen or Washington?, winning Via ARRA News Service.
Washington's habit of spending far more than it takes in has driven the country into debt. And our economic situation is projected to only get worse.
The solution is clear, but not easy: spending cuts. History shows that reducing government spending leads to sustained economic growth. And that's something (even Charlie Sheen) can get behind.
With the help of Charlie (sort of), our latest video explains that after years of spending far more than we take in, Washington has driven us deep into the red. And there’s only one viable solution. Check out the video below and then sign up to be one of the first to receive our latest products!
Excerpt:
Charlie Sheen (impersonator): “Yeah, well, being a ‘rockstar from Mars’ is expensive. Duh. But I still brought in more than I spent. WINNING. You can’t say the same for Washington. LOSING.”
Here are a few facts:Last year, Washington brought in 2.3 trillion in taxes, and spent it all, plus a lot more. One and a half times to be exact. Losing!We need solutions NOW and Public Notice’s latest video shows what we already know to do. Cut Spending!
It took over 200 years, and every president from George Washington through Bill Clinton, to rack up a $ 6-trillion debt. But Washington politicians have more than doubled that in just 10 years. Losing!
Our current debt of more than 14 trillion means every American household is on the hook for $130,000. Losing!
We pay almost $1 trillion, every year, on interest payments alone. Losing!
After World War II, the U.S. government cut spending from 44 percent of the economy to 11 percent.
If Charlie Sheen can figure out how to turn a dire situation around, there just might be hope for Washington.
Tags: Bankrupting America, Charlie Sheen, data visualization, debt, deficit, Government Overspending, Government Spending, new video, video, who is more responsible, Who's more responsible: Charlie Sheen or Washington?, winning Via ARRA News Service.
How Washington Ruined your Washing Machine
Labels:
Environmentalism
It is a sad truth, that the political pursuit of 'environmental' regulations, frequently masked by the term "efficiency", is achieving the exact opposite of its intention, and ruins the quality of the objects it regulates on the way.No worries, though, the rich folks at the top never have to worry about their quality of living - after all, they can afford the expensive tools that work almost as well as the better, cheaper devices of the past; not to mention having servants to operate them for it, and other who would buy new ones when they break.
In the 'good old days' (which was until not long ago), if you built an appliance from a respected company, you knew it was built to last. Today, it is built to break, so you will have to continue buying replacements - at a premium price.
Or maybe it's just that the Chinese can't built a bloody mixer like the Germans could?
As for the article, here's an excerpt to whet your appetite:
In 1996, top-loaders were pretty much the only type of washer around, and they were uniformly high quality. When Consumer Reports tested 18 models, 13 were "excellent" and five were "very good." By 2007, though, not one was excellent and seven out of 21 were "fair" or "poor." This month came the death knell: Consumer Reports simply dismissed all conventional top-loaders as "often mediocre or worse."
How's that for progress?
Read the whole thing at the Wall St. Journal.
Thoughts on the Liberal Thought Process: Guest post by Jill Clayton. Post of the night and a MUST READ
This is an outstanding article by a wonderfully gifted writer, Jill Clayton. It is very interesting to me that like Jill, I was raised in a very liberal home. My mother, who was a most wonderful and caring woman, was very far to the left. She was always involved in protests against the Vietnam war, lots of liberal, far left professors, both men and women were always over at our home for poetry readings, listening to hippie peace, love, hope and change music(sound familiar)that made me start to question her politics. My mother was an english professor and taught at a couple of the small, private colleges that were located in the town we lived in. I got so sick of Joan Baez, Judy Collins, Cat(I am really a muslim)Stevens, Peter, Paul and Mary, I thought about breaking her records. I thankfully discovered the Grateful Dead, West Coast sound, blues, Hendrix, Doors, Canned Heat, Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship, John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, John Mayall, Robert Johnson.
I remember small gatherings at our home of local chapter of the ACLU, other nasty liberal, far left oragnizations, and several of the fledgling environazi organizations that have helped kill our independence and furthered our addiction to foreign oil. Just a sample of the many causes and events that ensured I would become the conservative backlash to a very liberal upbringing.
One of my most vivid memories I recall is witnessing Vietnam veterans who had returned from Vietnam, getting spit on and garbage thrown at them as they just walked through campus on their way to classes at one of the local colleges. There was a protest going on and these vets had to go through the protest to get to their classes and that is how they were treated by the unwashed, long haired mass of leftarded idiots that were making their presence known at colleges all across America. It was also the first time I really lost my cool and went after these stupid liberals who had never worked a day in their sorry lives. Myself and three of my friends jumped right in and helped these veterans who had unselfishly served in the military so loser, liberal traitors were FREE to protest against those who fought and died to preserve those rights. We made the front page of the local paper and it was a watershed event in my young life. I lost a lot of friends in Vietnam and what I witnessed became very personal. I tried to enlist twice but was 4F for bad knees and eyesight.
My mom was also a great humanitarian up till the day she died. Always one to be of service to others and extend help to those who really needed it. That is one of the best attributes I learned from her as many of my friends will attest to.
So I really identify with what Jill has so eloquently written here. Many of the battles being fought today across America are ones that were birthed in the 1960's and 1970's. Progressives, socialism, unions of entitlement, we know the drill and the what we must do. I am honored that Jill has granted permission to post her fine essay here.
Feel free to share this. All she and I ask is that you make sure Jill gets full and proper credit for her fine work. Sit back and read this.
This is the post of the night!
****************************************************************************************
Thoughts on the Liberal Thought Process
By Jill Clayton
For the last couple of days I've been wandering about in liberal haunts on the web, dropping a little conservative thought here and there, just to stir things up a little and make people think. I've gotten a lot of crap flung right back at me, called a "Teabagger" and "redneck trash," etc., but there have been a few people who engaged me in conversation after I told them I used to be a registered Democrat. They naturally asked me why I "changed." And I told them. Some continued to question, and I see that as a good thing. When these questions come at me, I usually begin with ObamaCare. Because I'm a cancer survivor who was caught out in 2010 with no health insurance, my story serves as a way to prop open the doors of liberal minds just long enough for me to toss in a few seeds of doubt. If I encounter resistance there, I try the subject of the Race Card. Either way, I'm pretty confident that I'm being heard for a few seconds before the doors slam shut again. But then, that might be all it takes.
Since last year when Obamacare was passed, the Tea Party has risen out of nowhere and has become a real force to be reckoned with by swinging elections all over the country, booting out incumbent dinosaurs and generally flushing the Congressional toilet. Because of the Tea Party's apparent power in the voting booth, the mainstream media has also spent the last year going out of its way to brand this loosely gathered group as a racist movement aimed at shoving the United States back to 1956. Last time I checked, blaming the majority for the actions of a few was called "Prejudice." Why does this matter? Because liberal hypocrisy is one of the most frustrating things about trying to talk to liberals. It flies in the face of Common Sense, leading one to conclude that liberals are either stupid or brainwashed. But in all reality, they're not stupid. They're just misled - and have been for years and years.
Today's Democratic Party is a study in hypocrisy. Race-baiting and the flagrant disregard for the U.S. Constitution by the Democrats has now gotten so commonplace that even average Americans who don't normally pay attention to politics have now noticed it -- and it's starting to anger them. I know a few middle-of-the road Democrats and even they are now questioning Obama and the mainstream media. It finally took Obama declaring a military action in Libya without even consulting Congress and the American people beforehand to make them ask, "WTF?" What is really getting to the moderate Left is the fact that not only did Obama attack Libya, he did so while on vacation. Even my oh-so-liberal California and Seattle family members are questioning this. But then, it always takes something really huge to make people shake off their complacency and take notice of what's going on, doesn't it? I think that what's going on with my liberal friends and family members is a slower version of the same thing that "converted" me about three years ago. Here's a summary of sorts about how I, a longtime Democrat, changed my mind and in 2008, left the Democratic party forever.
Evolution of a Liberal-turned-Conservative
As a child who was born in union-controlled Detroit and later moved to southern California, I went through a very liberal public school system and was raised by a staunch feminist radical - my mother. She also influenced my brothers as well - both of whom are liberal to this day. My mother wasn't a stay-at-home, baking cookies type of Mom. Instead, Mom was at every NOW meeting in our area, or always off at some women's gathering. She was gone so often that I began cooking for my family at the age of ten and cleaning house. I changed both my brothers' diapers and babysat them from the age of thirteen and on. My father was a "closet Republican" who never dared to speak his point of view lest he draw the Wrath of Mom. I remember one fight they had where Mom actually said to him, "People just don't like you because you still support Tricky Dick!" (Nixon). Fortunately, my dad divorced her eight years later. However, like my mother, I began to get involved in feminist and liberal causes when I was barely in the seventh grade. I wore "Reagan is the Anti-Christ" T-shirts, and talked loudly and often about how the Republicans were "raping" the country and screwing the Poor. I was "Pro-Choice" because Mom said I should be, even when I didn't one hundred percent understand what that meant. Because I was indoctrinated at such a young age, I believed this wholeheartedly.
But, there were some things I began to disagree with my mother on, and this caused a great deal of tension between her and I when I reached my mid-teens. The internal questioning of Mom's ideals began the year that I turned fifteen and Mom declared that we could have Santa decorations around the house for Christmas, but no "Jesus-stuff." This contradiction confused me right away. I was raised a Lutheran, and Mom took us to church every now and then, but she would remain in her seat throughout the service, making a show of not praying or singing. It began to draw stares from others in the congregation - so much so that it embarrassed me. After a while, I began to get flak from other kids and their parents about my mother's odd behavior in church. Then, one day, Mom just stopped going.
To this day Mom has never answered me directly about why she did this, or why she took us to church or continued to allow my brothers and me to go if she really didn't believe in it. I can only conclude that she took us because my father, a Catholic who later became a Methodist, insisted. But despite this religion-confusion, I kept attending church even when the rest of the family stopped going. I loved singing in the choir and despite my mother's rantings, I believed in God. I grew up questioning the Bible and everything about religion, and for a while, I even stopped attending when I reached my twenties. However, I could never bring myself to let go of God completely. No matter how confused I was, God remained in the back of my mind, guiding me throughout my troubled years and getting me back on an even keel by the time I reached my mid-thirties and my own kids were questioning me about religion and government.
In grade-school, I was taught some things that proved to be universal truths. These included that the N-word was a very, very bad thing to say, (as was any disgusting euphemism) and I was also taught to think of people as people - to disregard their skin color. I still hold these values to this day. However, as the late 70s gave way to the 80s, I noticed a profound change in school curriculum, and along with the fights I had with my mother over church, and I began to question the school system as well.
Why was there an African-American club and a Hispanic Club? How come it was suddenly not okay to talk about Christ at school anymore? Why am I supposed to feel guilty because I happen to look white? In English class, I was taught political correctness and that there are certain terms and phrases you cannot say because we might offend someone if we do say them. I agreed with it, believed in it and thus PC became an integral part of my verbal lexicon. By 1981, the Progressives were already injecting their doctrines of Socialism and Communism into our education system, and I bought it all. I fervently believed in everything the current Democratic party stood for, until I grew up and went to college. That's when I began to realize just how warped the liberal mindset truly is when it comes to the economy. What I couldn't get past, however (and wouldn't for many years) is that I still believed that all conservatives were inherently racist.
I have my opinions on the Mexico/US border dilemma, which I've already expressed in a number of posts & commentaries all over the web, so I won't go into a spiel on that now. I know that I got in trouble when I came out in support of it and was accused of being a racist. Even before that, the questions lingered. Suffice it to say that during the presidential primaries, it finally hit me that Democrats themselves were racist. It wasn't overt, like you'd find in Aryan groups and such, but it's the kind that's just swimming around below the surface like a copperhead snake, striking only when it's necessary and convenient for them to do so. I saw how Team Obama slapped Hillary Clinton and all the other candidates with the race card. It shocked me so much that I began to read up on this "thing" called Multiculturalism, as well as the Cult of Personality while trying to figure out how Obama could get away with this rhetoric and no one - NO ONE - in the Democratic Party or the media was questioning him about it.
Trust me when I tell you that most average Liberals (Progressives, Socialists, and so on) truly do not see themselves and what they are doing as "racist" or hypocritical. They honestly believe that multiculturalism is a celebration of diversity and to speak out against it is tantamount to putting on a KKK hood and burning crosses on people's front lawns. They believe that conservatives are stupid because we just don't "get it." But having seen this kind of dogma being spoon-fed to kids in public schools and then reinforced later on in college, I can also tell you that the intellectual Progressives like my mother know exactly what they're doing. They know it's hypocritical. They simply do not care what this kind of thinking does to the American Public because they have an agenda, which is to realize their Socialist utopia in this country, whatever that might be. To accomplish these things, I finally realized, they had to divide and conquer the minds of the American people. The masses. I also realized with quite a bit of horror that this has been going on right under our noses in one form or another in our public schools since the 1960s.
What are kids being taught? In order for the socialist agenda to be furthered in this day and age, you have to maintain the illusion that there is Oppressed and their Oppressor. Kind of like God Vs. Satan. There always has to be a "bad guy," and for the last 30 years, the "bad guy" just so happened to be all conservatives and all White People in general. In the average Progressive's mind, the Tea Party is actually seen as the last dregs of this supposed Oppressor/Aryan Nation mindset gathering together for one final stand before the evil conservative capitalists are wiped out completely. They believe this without question.
This hypocritical close-mindedness is inherent in every liberal. I had to consciously question every thing I saw to even begin to grasp it on my own. It took an accidental viewing of the Glenn Beck show in August of '09 to get me to understand the big picture. The problem, as I see it, is that most liberals don't bother to question anything coming from the media. They're comfortable with their mindset and see no reason to look at it any closer. The intellectual elite feeding this mindset know this and will not tolerate anyone who decides to ask a few too many questions.
These Progressive intellectuals, who supposedly know what's "best for us," knowingly use the ideals of Multiculturalism to get people to divide themselves into racial groups. Since these Progressive elites are very familiar with the social dynamics of certain racial groups (taught in every high school and college as "Humanities" courses), they know the right things to say to inflame these groups whenever it's called-for. The anti-SB1070 hype in Arizona is a prime example. The sad thing is that once divided by race, people simply close their minds and will not listen to any dissenting opinion or reasoning. These people are being played, and they either don't know or simply don't care. They have become ensnared in the trap of Multiculturalism completely and it will take nothing short of the lifting of bedrock Progressive principles to show people the ugly stuff squirming beneath to even begin to make them change their minds. Even at fifteen, something about political correctness and dividing people and labeling with race-hyphens stuck in my craw. But again, it took me years upon years of questioning the status quo to make me realize exactly what was going on. "Labeling" people is what Progressives do, and it has a very ugly and nefarious purpose, despite its outward humanitarian appearance.
Multiculturalism is nothing more than the 1950s ideal of "Separate but Equal," but it's been repackaged into a more sleek and modern design that is palatable for the general population. The underlying message became "Let's celebrate diversity with diversification!" It took me until 2008 to realize just how insidious and pervasive this mind-set was. Liberals of all stripes believe in it without question. When you challenge the idea of multiculturalism with an average liberal, be prepared for blow-back. You have to remember that you're fighting two generations of public school & college-level Progressive indoctrination. The idea of true equality and a "color blind" mode of thought is an alien concept to them because they think they're already doing it by championing diversity. This is the great fallacy of Multiculturalism.
In recent months, I am heartened by the growing number of black and Hispanic conservatives standing up and speaking out. I am glad that these communities are finally now beginning to see that true equality can only happen when we stop considering someone's race when we judge them as a person. People should be judged first and foremost by their motives and actions. My dad always used to tell me, "If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then chances are pretty damned good that you're looking at a duck."
So, if you want to open the eyes of liberals, and by this I mean the average man-on-the-street liberal, you have to get them to begin by pointing out the hypocrisy in THEIR TERMS, thus allowing them to come to their own conclusions. This transition, I suppose, was easier for me because I've always harbored unanswered questions about liberal thought, which were finally answered for me when I went to work in the media and saw the Democrats' bully tactics in the last presidential primaries. But what about the rest of the libs out there?
In recent weeks, the subject has come up in public discourse that Planned Parenthood has been silently and deliberately exterminating blacks and Hispanics over the years via abortion clinics being placed in poor neighborhoods. This truth is finally resonating with these communities. Their ears are perked and they're growing more and more willing to listen to conservative opinion. What's also resonating is the message that is only just now getting out there that minorities have been "enslaved" by the Welfare system for many years now, blunting the minds of the young and stifling all but the brightest of those who want a better life. Many eyes are in the process of being opened, slowly but surely, especially by terrific people like Allen West, Herman Cain and others like them who get out in these communities and keep hammering away on this subject.
Unless a liberal can be led to question their own belief system, it is very hard to get them to change their minds. I've printed out reams of articles proving to my mother that Margaret Sanger was supportive of the idea of the extinction of black people. Regardless of this proof, Mom refuses to see it. Sanger was one of her heroes. Some minds, you just can't change. One can only hope that if we keep putting honest and truthful information out there that is contrary to what the liberal establishment has come to accept, maybe it will happen in time to save this country.
The main battle against Progressive ideals is already being waged within in our public schools. Progressives and union Socialists have a strangle-hold on our schools. As parents and grandparents, we need to start influencing our school boards to take up a more conservative-based curriculum. Teach kids the ugly yet honest truth about American history and world history, letting them draw their own conclusions. Even if Progressivism is finally rooted out of our schools one fine day, sooner or later, someone will discover Karl Marx again and think it's a smashing idea that everyone else should know about. I think Marxist materials should be used in schools but only as examples of what we SHOULD NOT DO, accompanied with comprehensive explanations as to WHY.
I think Rudyard Kipling said it best in "Gods of the Copybook Headings" (which I read many years before I ever heard of Glenn Beck, by the way):
The Gods of the Copybook Headings
by Rudyard Kipling
AS I PASS through my incarnations in every age and race,
I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place.
Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.
We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn
That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn:
But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind,
So we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the March of Mankind.
We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace,
Being neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market Place,
But they always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come
That a tribe had been wiped off its icefield, or the lights had gone out in Rome.
With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch,
They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch;
They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings;
So we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things.
When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "Stick to the Devil you know."
On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life
(Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife)
Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "The Wages of Sin is Death."
In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "If you don't work you die."
Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four and the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.
As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began.
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;
And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!
------------------------------
Have a nice day!
Jill
~~~~~
Edit: Morton fixed some typos for me - thanks Morton!
The original article can be found here on FreedomTorch.
I remember small gatherings at our home of local chapter of the ACLU, other nasty liberal, far left oragnizations, and several of the fledgling environazi organizations that have helped kill our independence and furthered our addiction to foreign oil. Just a sample of the many causes and events that ensured I would become the conservative backlash to a very liberal upbringing.
One of my most vivid memories I recall is witnessing Vietnam veterans who had returned from Vietnam, getting spit on and garbage thrown at them as they just walked through campus on their way to classes at one of the local colleges. There was a protest going on and these vets had to go through the protest to get to their classes and that is how they were treated by the unwashed, long haired mass of leftarded idiots that were making their presence known at colleges all across America. It was also the first time I really lost my cool and went after these stupid liberals who had never worked a day in their sorry lives. Myself and three of my friends jumped right in and helped these veterans who had unselfishly served in the military so loser, liberal traitors were FREE to protest against those who fought and died to preserve those rights. We made the front page of the local paper and it was a watershed event in my young life. I lost a lot of friends in Vietnam and what I witnessed became very personal. I tried to enlist twice but was 4F for bad knees and eyesight.
My mom was also a great humanitarian up till the day she died. Always one to be of service to others and extend help to those who really needed it. That is one of the best attributes I learned from her as many of my friends will attest to.
So I really identify with what Jill has so eloquently written here. Many of the battles being fought today across America are ones that were birthed in the 1960's and 1970's. Progressives, socialism, unions of entitlement, we know the drill and the what we must do. I am honored that Jill has granted permission to post her fine essay here.
Feel free to share this. All she and I ask is that you make sure Jill gets full and proper credit for her fine work. Sit back and read this.
This is the post of the night!
****************************************************************************************
Thoughts on the Liberal Thought Process
By Jill Clayton
For the last couple of days I've been wandering about in liberal haunts on the web, dropping a little conservative thought here and there, just to stir things up a little and make people think. I've gotten a lot of crap flung right back at me, called a "Teabagger" and "redneck trash," etc., but there have been a few people who engaged me in conversation after I told them I used to be a registered Democrat. They naturally asked me why I "changed." And I told them. Some continued to question, and I see that as a good thing. When these questions come at me, I usually begin with ObamaCare. Because I'm a cancer survivor who was caught out in 2010 with no health insurance, my story serves as a way to prop open the doors of liberal minds just long enough for me to toss in a few seeds of doubt. If I encounter resistance there, I try the subject of the Race Card. Either way, I'm pretty confident that I'm being heard for a few seconds before the doors slam shut again. But then, that might be all it takes.
Since last year when Obamacare was passed, the Tea Party has risen out of nowhere and has become a real force to be reckoned with by swinging elections all over the country, booting out incumbent dinosaurs and generally flushing the Congressional toilet. Because of the Tea Party's apparent power in the voting booth, the mainstream media has also spent the last year going out of its way to brand this loosely gathered group as a racist movement aimed at shoving the United States back to 1956. Last time I checked, blaming the majority for the actions of a few was called "Prejudice." Why does this matter? Because liberal hypocrisy is one of the most frustrating things about trying to talk to liberals. It flies in the face of Common Sense, leading one to conclude that liberals are either stupid or brainwashed. But in all reality, they're not stupid. They're just misled - and have been for years and years.
Today's Democratic Party is a study in hypocrisy. Race-baiting and the flagrant disregard for the U.S. Constitution by the Democrats has now gotten so commonplace that even average Americans who don't normally pay attention to politics have now noticed it -- and it's starting to anger them. I know a few middle-of-the road Democrats and even they are now questioning Obama and the mainstream media. It finally took Obama declaring a military action in Libya without even consulting Congress and the American people beforehand to make them ask, "WTF?" What is really getting to the moderate Left is the fact that not only did Obama attack Libya, he did so while on vacation. Even my oh-so-liberal California and Seattle family members are questioning this. But then, it always takes something really huge to make people shake off their complacency and take notice of what's going on, doesn't it? I think that what's going on with my liberal friends and family members is a slower version of the same thing that "converted" me about three years ago. Here's a summary of sorts about how I, a longtime Democrat, changed my mind and in 2008, left the Democratic party forever.
Evolution of a Liberal-turned-Conservative
As a child who was born in union-controlled Detroit and later moved to southern California, I went through a very liberal public school system and was raised by a staunch feminist radical - my mother. She also influenced my brothers as well - both of whom are liberal to this day. My mother wasn't a stay-at-home, baking cookies type of Mom. Instead, Mom was at every NOW meeting in our area, or always off at some women's gathering. She was gone so often that I began cooking for my family at the age of ten and cleaning house. I changed both my brothers' diapers and babysat them from the age of thirteen and on. My father was a "closet Republican" who never dared to speak his point of view lest he draw the Wrath of Mom. I remember one fight they had where Mom actually said to him, "People just don't like you because you still support Tricky Dick!" (Nixon). Fortunately, my dad divorced her eight years later. However, like my mother, I began to get involved in feminist and liberal causes when I was barely in the seventh grade. I wore "Reagan is the Anti-Christ" T-shirts, and talked loudly and often about how the Republicans were "raping" the country and screwing the Poor. I was "Pro-Choice" because Mom said I should be, even when I didn't one hundred percent understand what that meant. Because I was indoctrinated at such a young age, I believed this wholeheartedly.
But, there were some things I began to disagree with my mother on, and this caused a great deal of tension between her and I when I reached my mid-teens. The internal questioning of Mom's ideals began the year that I turned fifteen and Mom declared that we could have Santa decorations around the house for Christmas, but no "Jesus-stuff." This contradiction confused me right away. I was raised a Lutheran, and Mom took us to church every now and then, but she would remain in her seat throughout the service, making a show of not praying or singing. It began to draw stares from others in the congregation - so much so that it embarrassed me. After a while, I began to get flak from other kids and their parents about my mother's odd behavior in church. Then, one day, Mom just stopped going.
To this day Mom has never answered me directly about why she did this, or why she took us to church or continued to allow my brothers and me to go if she really didn't believe in it. I can only conclude that she took us because my father, a Catholic who later became a Methodist, insisted. But despite this religion-confusion, I kept attending church even when the rest of the family stopped going. I loved singing in the choir and despite my mother's rantings, I believed in God. I grew up questioning the Bible and everything about religion, and for a while, I even stopped attending when I reached my twenties. However, I could never bring myself to let go of God completely. No matter how confused I was, God remained in the back of my mind, guiding me throughout my troubled years and getting me back on an even keel by the time I reached my mid-thirties and my own kids were questioning me about religion and government.
In grade-school, I was taught some things that proved to be universal truths. These included that the N-word was a very, very bad thing to say, (as was any disgusting euphemism) and I was also taught to think of people as people - to disregard their skin color. I still hold these values to this day. However, as the late 70s gave way to the 80s, I noticed a profound change in school curriculum, and along with the fights I had with my mother over church, and I began to question the school system as well.
Why was there an African-American club and a Hispanic Club? How come it was suddenly not okay to talk about Christ at school anymore? Why am I supposed to feel guilty because I happen to look white? In English class, I was taught political correctness and that there are certain terms and phrases you cannot say because we might offend someone if we do say them. I agreed with it, believed in it and thus PC became an integral part of my verbal lexicon. By 1981, the Progressives were already injecting their doctrines of Socialism and Communism into our education system, and I bought it all. I fervently believed in everything the current Democratic party stood for, until I grew up and went to college. That's when I began to realize just how warped the liberal mindset truly is when it comes to the economy. What I couldn't get past, however (and wouldn't for many years) is that I still believed that all conservatives were inherently racist.
I have my opinions on the Mexico/US border dilemma, which I've already expressed in a number of posts & commentaries all over the web, so I won't go into a spiel on that now. I know that I got in trouble when I came out in support of it and was accused of being a racist. Even before that, the questions lingered. Suffice it to say that during the presidential primaries, it finally hit me that Democrats themselves were racist. It wasn't overt, like you'd find in Aryan groups and such, but it's the kind that's just swimming around below the surface like a copperhead snake, striking only when it's necessary and convenient for them to do so. I saw how Team Obama slapped Hillary Clinton and all the other candidates with the race card. It shocked me so much that I began to read up on this "thing" called Multiculturalism, as well as the Cult of Personality while trying to figure out how Obama could get away with this rhetoric and no one - NO ONE - in the Democratic Party or the media was questioning him about it.
Trust me when I tell you that most average Liberals (Progressives, Socialists, and so on) truly do not see themselves and what they are doing as "racist" or hypocritical. They honestly believe that multiculturalism is a celebration of diversity and to speak out against it is tantamount to putting on a KKK hood and burning crosses on people's front lawns. They believe that conservatives are stupid because we just don't "get it." But having seen this kind of dogma being spoon-fed to kids in public schools and then reinforced later on in college, I can also tell you that the intellectual Progressives like my mother know exactly what they're doing. They know it's hypocritical. They simply do not care what this kind of thinking does to the American Public because they have an agenda, which is to realize their Socialist utopia in this country, whatever that might be. To accomplish these things, I finally realized, they had to divide and conquer the minds of the American people. The masses. I also realized with quite a bit of horror that this has been going on right under our noses in one form or another in our public schools since the 1960s.
What are kids being taught? In order for the socialist agenda to be furthered in this day and age, you have to maintain the illusion that there is Oppressed and their Oppressor. Kind of like God Vs. Satan. There always has to be a "bad guy," and for the last 30 years, the "bad guy" just so happened to be all conservatives and all White People in general. In the average Progressive's mind, the Tea Party is actually seen as the last dregs of this supposed Oppressor/Aryan Nation mindset gathering together for one final stand before the evil conservative capitalists are wiped out completely. They believe this without question.
This hypocritical close-mindedness is inherent in every liberal. I had to consciously question every thing I saw to even begin to grasp it on my own. It took an accidental viewing of the Glenn Beck show in August of '09 to get me to understand the big picture. The problem, as I see it, is that most liberals don't bother to question anything coming from the media. They're comfortable with their mindset and see no reason to look at it any closer. The intellectual elite feeding this mindset know this and will not tolerate anyone who decides to ask a few too many questions.
These Progressive intellectuals, who supposedly know what's "best for us," knowingly use the ideals of Multiculturalism to get people to divide themselves into racial groups. Since these Progressive elites are very familiar with the social dynamics of certain racial groups (taught in every high school and college as "Humanities" courses), they know the right things to say to inflame these groups whenever it's called-for. The anti-SB1070 hype in Arizona is a prime example. The sad thing is that once divided by race, people simply close their minds and will not listen to any dissenting opinion or reasoning. These people are being played, and they either don't know or simply don't care. They have become ensnared in the trap of Multiculturalism completely and it will take nothing short of the lifting of bedrock Progressive principles to show people the ugly stuff squirming beneath to even begin to make them change their minds. Even at fifteen, something about political correctness and dividing people and labeling with race-hyphens stuck in my craw. But again, it took me years upon years of questioning the status quo to make me realize exactly what was going on. "Labeling" people is what Progressives do, and it has a very ugly and nefarious purpose, despite its outward humanitarian appearance.
Multiculturalism is nothing more than the 1950s ideal of "Separate but Equal," but it's been repackaged into a more sleek and modern design that is palatable for the general population. The underlying message became "Let's celebrate diversity with diversification!" It took me until 2008 to realize just how insidious and pervasive this mind-set was. Liberals of all stripes believe in it without question. When you challenge the idea of multiculturalism with an average liberal, be prepared for blow-back. You have to remember that you're fighting two generations of public school & college-level Progressive indoctrination. The idea of true equality and a "color blind" mode of thought is an alien concept to them because they think they're already doing it by championing diversity. This is the great fallacy of Multiculturalism.
In recent months, I am heartened by the growing number of black and Hispanic conservatives standing up and speaking out. I am glad that these communities are finally now beginning to see that true equality can only happen when we stop considering someone's race when we judge them as a person. People should be judged first and foremost by their motives and actions. My dad always used to tell me, "If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then chances are pretty damned good that you're looking at a duck."
So, if you want to open the eyes of liberals, and by this I mean the average man-on-the-street liberal, you have to get them to begin by pointing out the hypocrisy in THEIR TERMS, thus allowing them to come to their own conclusions. This transition, I suppose, was easier for me because I've always harbored unanswered questions about liberal thought, which were finally answered for me when I went to work in the media and saw the Democrats' bully tactics in the last presidential primaries. But what about the rest of the libs out there?
In recent weeks, the subject has come up in public discourse that Planned Parenthood has been silently and deliberately exterminating blacks and Hispanics over the years via abortion clinics being placed in poor neighborhoods. This truth is finally resonating with these communities. Their ears are perked and they're growing more and more willing to listen to conservative opinion. What's also resonating is the message that is only just now getting out there that minorities have been "enslaved" by the Welfare system for many years now, blunting the minds of the young and stifling all but the brightest of those who want a better life. Many eyes are in the process of being opened, slowly but surely, especially by terrific people like Allen West, Herman Cain and others like them who get out in these communities and keep hammering away on this subject.
Unless a liberal can be led to question their own belief system, it is very hard to get them to change their minds. I've printed out reams of articles proving to my mother that Margaret Sanger was supportive of the idea of the extinction of black people. Regardless of this proof, Mom refuses to see it. Sanger was one of her heroes. Some minds, you just can't change. One can only hope that if we keep putting honest and truthful information out there that is contrary to what the liberal establishment has come to accept, maybe it will happen in time to save this country.
The main battle against Progressive ideals is already being waged within in our public schools. Progressives and union Socialists have a strangle-hold on our schools. As parents and grandparents, we need to start influencing our school boards to take up a more conservative-based curriculum. Teach kids the ugly yet honest truth about American history and world history, letting them draw their own conclusions. Even if Progressivism is finally rooted out of our schools one fine day, sooner or later, someone will discover Karl Marx again and think it's a smashing idea that everyone else should know about. I think Marxist materials should be used in schools but only as examples of what we SHOULD NOT DO, accompanied with comprehensive explanations as to WHY.
I think Rudyard Kipling said it best in "Gods of the Copybook Headings" (which I read many years before I ever heard of Glenn Beck, by the way):
The Gods of the Copybook Headings
by Rudyard Kipling
AS I PASS through my incarnations in every age and race,
I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place.
Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.
We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn
That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn:
But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind,
So we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the March of Mankind.
We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace,
Being neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market Place,
But they always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come
That a tribe had been wiped off its icefield, or the lights had gone out in Rome.
With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch,
They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch;
They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings;
So we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things.
When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "Stick to the Devil you know."
On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life
(Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife)
Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "The Wages of Sin is Death."
In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "If you don't work you die."
Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four and the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.
As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began.
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;
And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!
------------------------------
Have a nice day!
Jill
~~~~~
Edit: Morton fixed some typos for me - thanks Morton!
The original article can be found here on FreedomTorch.
The Daily Catch Videos for 3-30-2011: muslims4Israel, mb in Europe and more..
I was going to take tonight off but you can see how well that worked out. Off to the fridge for another IPA.
Muslims4Israel: If this group is really for Israel then they better have really good 24/7 protection from all the other muslims who will want to kill them.
Wafa Sultan on islam abuses of women
UN Watch speaks the blazingly obvious on Human rights in Islamic countries and China.
Bill Ayers: There’s a Ghost of a Chance: From Weasel Zippers great blog.
Jack Cashill has been on Obama’s case for the last three years. There has been the allegation that Bill Ayers was the ghost-writer for Obama’s first book, Dreams from My Father. Last week Ayers spoke at Montclair University and was confronted with the question from someone in the audience about the book’s authorship.
Chairman King on Fox and Friends on Senate hearing on Muslim civil rights
Muslims4Israel: If this group is really for Israel then they better have really good 24/7 protection from all the other muslims who will want to kill them.
Wafa Sultan on islam abuses of women
UN Watch speaks the blazingly obvious on Human rights in Islamic countries and China.
Bill Ayers: There’s a Ghost of a Chance: From Weasel Zippers great blog.
Jack Cashill has been on Obama’s case for the last three years. There has been the allegation that Bill Ayers was the ghost-writer for Obama’s first book, Dreams from My Father. Last week Ayers spoke at Montclair University and was confronted with the question from someone in the audience about the book’s authorship.
Chairman King on Fox and Friends on Senate hearing on Muslim civil rights
Slavery in Islam: Amil Imani
islam is really the only religion, political ideology that is still is active in slavery. This is because slavery has always been allowed under islamic sharia law. mohammud had quite a few slaves and it was expeceted to take not only 'booty' from wars and conquests, but slaves as well.
One can make the argument that Christians and Jews practiced slavery. This is true but these two religions have moved on and up, and left slavery far behind. This cannot be said for islam. The vast majority of slavery in the world today takes place under islam in Africa and on the Arabian peninsula. No matter where islam spreads, slavery and every other facet of sharia law soon followed. This is just one more reason to battle islam and sharia law on every front. Do we want this here? Think it cannot happen here? The Jews did not think there was anything to worry about in Germany during the 1930's. That did not work out well at all and we should not fall into the same trap. The establishment of a global islamic caliphate ruled by sharia law is what islam is all about.
*****************************************************************************************
Slavery in Islam
Amil Imani
Slavery, making one human the property of another, was widely practiced in the past by many societies. Regrettably, even in the 21st Century, the horrid practice continues in certain areas, most notably among Muslims. Islam’s genesis was the Arabian peninsula of the seventh century AD, known for its primitive beliefs and savage practices. So, it is of no surprise that Islam incorporated slavery and much of the ethos of the culture of its birthplace.
Is discussing slavery beating a dead horse? Regrettably, it is not. The Anti-Slavery Society has documented numerous contemporary instances, most of them from Islamic countries. The repugnant practice of slavery presents a real threat to human dignity as Islamic fundamentalism is surging. The Islamic law—the Shariah—is based on the provisions of the Quran.
And the Quran explicitly and implicitly condones slavery in dozens of suras (chapters). Muhammad himself took numerous slaves, mostly women, as spoils of war. Some of the women Muhammad took for himself he called concubines, hardly a consolation to the helpless enslaved women.
Documents show that in the heyday of slavery, Muslims took just as many slaves from East Africa as did the Christians from West Africa.
Slavery is a matter of degrees. On one extreme is the absolute right of the owner to do whatever he wishes to the slave. This form of slavery is no longer prevalent. Yet disenfranchising people from any provisions of the Charter of Human Rights constitutes a form of enslavement.
Slavery seamlessly became a part of Islam, since it was widely practiced by the Arabs. Slavery is repeatedly approved in the Quran. The Old Testament also sanctioned slavery. Yet, Jewish and Christian societies have long banned slavery while the Muslims consider every verse and word of the Quran as those of Allah that can never be revised, discarded or violated. Therefore, with the resurgence of Islam, more and more Islamic laws and ethos, including slavery of various types and degrees, are implemented. One clear validation of the practice of slavery is the sura below:
[Q 16.75] Allah sets forth a parable: (consider) a slave, the property of another, (who) has no power over anything, and one whom We have granted from ourselves a goodly sustenance so he spends from it secretly and openly; are the two alike? (All) praise is due to Allah!
Slavery, discrimination, exclusivity and many more unjust provisions are systemic to Islam without any possibility for reformation. Muslims revere the Quran as the eternal immutable words of Allah. They accept the Hadith, Muhammad’s sayings, as further elucidation of their faith and emulate the Sunna the way Muhammad, the perfect practitioner of Allah’s teachings, conducted his life.
Muslims believe that Allah himself is the author of the Quran, that he wrote each chapter himself and had the angel Gabriel deliver it to Muhammad, who was illiterate. Muhammad must have been endowed with perfect memory in order to transmit each verse of the Quran exactly as written by Allah. What Muhammad revealed bit-by-bit over twenty years, not a voluminous work by any measure, was recorded by various people on all manner of bones, parchments, and bark. At least four major versions of the Quran eventually emerged. So, Allah’s words were revealed by a perfect unerring messenger and were recorded by a number of imperfect humans in different versions. It remained for other imperfect humans, the Caliphs, to choose the one version they believed to be the literal perfect words of Allah and ordered the rest destroyed.
Based on the Quran itself, a number of Islamic precepts and practices clearly violate the provisions of human rights, institutionalize discrimination, and constrain liberty. A partial list of these violations is supplied below:
•Freedom of assembly, expression, and worship is either denied or severely restricted in every Islamic country.
•Women are relegated to a second class status, depriving them of many rights enjoyed by men.
•Religious minorities are often harassed, their properties are confiscated, their holy places destroyed, their cemeteries leveled, and even their persons harmed without receiving justice.
•“People of the book,” Jews and Christians, are treated as “tolerable,” since they together with Muslims are considered to be followers of the only three divine religions, while members of other religions, or no religion at all, are deemed ineligible for fair treatment under the law. Egypt, for instance, requires its citizens to obtain identity cards to be eligible for all the rights of citizenship, such as education, employment and medical care. Yet, gallingly, the same government denies these rights to those who are not members of the three divine religions or those who have no religious affiliation at all.
•The Islamic Republic of Iran officially bars its largest non-Muslim minority, the Baha’is, from many rights of citizenship, including access to higher education solely for the “sin” of practicing a different faith.
•Censorship of all sort are systemic to Islam. It is its way of mind control: an atrocious practice of keeping the mind in bondage. The press is required to parrot the approved line, and the violators are shut down and their staff imprisoned; Internet access to undesirable sites is routinely blocked; and, book publications pre-screened, and much much more.
•Women, by the very nature of their second class status expressly stipulated in the Quran, are occasionally allowed a token high position in government, while non-Muslim minority citizens are virtually barred from securing any positions at all.
To better understand Islam, a brief reference to its birth may be helpful. The founder of Islam, Muhammad, worked for and married a wealthy woman many years his senior named Khadija. One day, alone in a secluded place, Muhammad had a revelation and reported the experience to Khadija. Khadija assured him that he had been chosen by Allah as his messenger. From that point on, Muhammad proceeded to reveal the Quran and the carved-in-granite Islam and its dogma was born.
Presently, with each passing day Islam is making inroads into both the traditionally Muslim lands as well as much of the non-Muslim world where Islam is beginning to run deep roots and vie with the laws and cultures of its hosts. Muslims are taking advantage of the freedom that democracies grant. They use the same provisions of the law that are intended to protect and enhance liberty to subvert democracy and freedom.
Islam is indeed a dangerous comprehensive form of slavery. Its very name, Islam, means submission or surrender. True to its name, Islam strives for nothing short of enslavement of the body of humanity as well as the bondage of its mind.
Complacency and appeasement on the part of free people can only serve Islam. There is no chance for co-existence with Islam. All one needs to know is to see what is happening in Islamic countries. That is exactly what is in store for the presently free people of the world if Islam is not held in check.
There is a hope that Muslims themselves may leave this Bedouin slaveholder religion. Yet, the hope is slim. Islam has a stranglehold on its slaves and will neither let them go, nor do the Muslims seem to have the insight or the will to leave it in large numbers. But hope, as slim as it is, keeps me sounding the alarm before the fire of Islam engulfs us all.
Warning to free people: Don't bank on the politicians, the master practitioners of the art of the politically correct, to protect liberty. Politicians must be urged by the citizens to safeguard liberty, scrutinized closely that they do the work, and be held accountable if they fail to do so. You, a citizen, also have a job to do. Take a few minutes a day and do what you can to protect freedom. “Freedom is not free,” may be a cliché. Yet, it is the most profound four-word sentence in the lexicon of the free.
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Amil Imani is an Iranian-born American citizen and a pro-democracy activist residing in the United States of America. Imani is a columnist, literary translator, novelist and essayist who has been writing and speaking out for the struggling people of his native land, Iran. He maintains a website atwww.amilimani.com. Amil Imani is the author of the smashing book Obama Meets Ahmadinejad.
Original article is here.
One can make the argument that Christians and Jews practiced slavery. This is true but these two religions have moved on and up, and left slavery far behind. This cannot be said for islam. The vast majority of slavery in the world today takes place under islam in Africa and on the Arabian peninsula. No matter where islam spreads, slavery and every other facet of sharia law soon followed. This is just one more reason to battle islam and sharia law on every front. Do we want this here? Think it cannot happen here? The Jews did not think there was anything to worry about in Germany during the 1930's. That did not work out well at all and we should not fall into the same trap. The establishment of a global islamic caliphate ruled by sharia law is what islam is all about.
*****************************************************************************************
Slavery in Islam
Amil Imani
Slavery, making one human the property of another, was widely practiced in the past by many societies. Regrettably, even in the 21st Century, the horrid practice continues in certain areas, most notably among Muslims. Islam’s genesis was the Arabian peninsula of the seventh century AD, known for its primitive beliefs and savage practices. So, it is of no surprise that Islam incorporated slavery and much of the ethos of the culture of its birthplace.
Is discussing slavery beating a dead horse? Regrettably, it is not. The Anti-Slavery Society has documented numerous contemporary instances, most of them from Islamic countries. The repugnant practice of slavery presents a real threat to human dignity as Islamic fundamentalism is surging. The Islamic law—the Shariah—is based on the provisions of the Quran.
And the Quran explicitly and implicitly condones slavery in dozens of suras (chapters). Muhammad himself took numerous slaves, mostly women, as spoils of war. Some of the women Muhammad took for himself he called concubines, hardly a consolation to the helpless enslaved women.
Documents show that in the heyday of slavery, Muslims took just as many slaves from East Africa as did the Christians from West Africa.
Slavery is a matter of degrees. On one extreme is the absolute right of the owner to do whatever he wishes to the slave. This form of slavery is no longer prevalent. Yet disenfranchising people from any provisions of the Charter of Human Rights constitutes a form of enslavement.
Slavery seamlessly became a part of Islam, since it was widely practiced by the Arabs. Slavery is repeatedly approved in the Quran. The Old Testament also sanctioned slavery. Yet, Jewish and Christian societies have long banned slavery while the Muslims consider every verse and word of the Quran as those of Allah that can never be revised, discarded or violated. Therefore, with the resurgence of Islam, more and more Islamic laws and ethos, including slavery of various types and degrees, are implemented. One clear validation of the practice of slavery is the sura below:
[Q 16.75] Allah sets forth a parable: (consider) a slave, the property of another, (who) has no power over anything, and one whom We have granted from ourselves a goodly sustenance so he spends from it secretly and openly; are the two alike? (All) praise is due to Allah!
Slavery, discrimination, exclusivity and many more unjust provisions are systemic to Islam without any possibility for reformation. Muslims revere the Quran as the eternal immutable words of Allah. They accept the Hadith, Muhammad’s sayings, as further elucidation of their faith and emulate the Sunna the way Muhammad, the perfect practitioner of Allah’s teachings, conducted his life.
Muslims believe that Allah himself is the author of the Quran, that he wrote each chapter himself and had the angel Gabriel deliver it to Muhammad, who was illiterate. Muhammad must have been endowed with perfect memory in order to transmit each verse of the Quran exactly as written by Allah. What Muhammad revealed bit-by-bit over twenty years, not a voluminous work by any measure, was recorded by various people on all manner of bones, parchments, and bark. At least four major versions of the Quran eventually emerged. So, Allah’s words were revealed by a perfect unerring messenger and were recorded by a number of imperfect humans in different versions. It remained for other imperfect humans, the Caliphs, to choose the one version they believed to be the literal perfect words of Allah and ordered the rest destroyed.
Based on the Quran itself, a number of Islamic precepts and practices clearly violate the provisions of human rights, institutionalize discrimination, and constrain liberty. A partial list of these violations is supplied below:
•Freedom of assembly, expression, and worship is either denied or severely restricted in every Islamic country.
•Women are relegated to a second class status, depriving them of many rights enjoyed by men.
•Religious minorities are often harassed, their properties are confiscated, their holy places destroyed, their cemeteries leveled, and even their persons harmed without receiving justice.
•“People of the book,” Jews and Christians, are treated as “tolerable,” since they together with Muslims are considered to be followers of the only three divine religions, while members of other religions, or no religion at all, are deemed ineligible for fair treatment under the law. Egypt, for instance, requires its citizens to obtain identity cards to be eligible for all the rights of citizenship, such as education, employment and medical care. Yet, gallingly, the same government denies these rights to those who are not members of the three divine religions or those who have no religious affiliation at all.
•The Islamic Republic of Iran officially bars its largest non-Muslim minority, the Baha’is, from many rights of citizenship, including access to higher education solely for the “sin” of practicing a different faith.
•Censorship of all sort are systemic to Islam. It is its way of mind control: an atrocious practice of keeping the mind in bondage. The press is required to parrot the approved line, and the violators are shut down and their staff imprisoned; Internet access to undesirable sites is routinely blocked; and, book publications pre-screened, and much much more.
•Women, by the very nature of their second class status expressly stipulated in the Quran, are occasionally allowed a token high position in government, while non-Muslim minority citizens are virtually barred from securing any positions at all.
To better understand Islam, a brief reference to its birth may be helpful. The founder of Islam, Muhammad, worked for and married a wealthy woman many years his senior named Khadija. One day, alone in a secluded place, Muhammad had a revelation and reported the experience to Khadija. Khadija assured him that he had been chosen by Allah as his messenger. From that point on, Muhammad proceeded to reveal the Quran and the carved-in-granite Islam and its dogma was born.
Presently, with each passing day Islam is making inroads into both the traditionally Muslim lands as well as much of the non-Muslim world where Islam is beginning to run deep roots and vie with the laws and cultures of its hosts. Muslims are taking advantage of the freedom that democracies grant. They use the same provisions of the law that are intended to protect and enhance liberty to subvert democracy and freedom.
Islam is indeed a dangerous comprehensive form of slavery. Its very name, Islam, means submission or surrender. True to its name, Islam strives for nothing short of enslavement of the body of humanity as well as the bondage of its mind.
Complacency and appeasement on the part of free people can only serve Islam. There is no chance for co-existence with Islam. All one needs to know is to see what is happening in Islamic countries. That is exactly what is in store for the presently free people of the world if Islam is not held in check.
There is a hope that Muslims themselves may leave this Bedouin slaveholder religion. Yet, the hope is slim. Islam has a stranglehold on its slaves and will neither let them go, nor do the Muslims seem to have the insight or the will to leave it in large numbers. But hope, as slim as it is, keeps me sounding the alarm before the fire of Islam engulfs us all.
Warning to free people: Don't bank on the politicians, the master practitioners of the art of the politically correct, to protect liberty. Politicians must be urged by the citizens to safeguard liberty, scrutinized closely that they do the work, and be held accountable if they fail to do so. You, a citizen, also have a job to do. Take a few minutes a day and do what you can to protect freedom. “Freedom is not free,” may be a cliché. Yet, it is the most profound four-word sentence in the lexicon of the free.
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Amil Imani is an Iranian-born American citizen and a pro-democracy activist residing in the United States of America. Imani is a columnist, literary translator, novelist and essayist who has been writing and speaking out for the struggling people of his native land, Iran. He maintains a website atwww.amilimani.com. Amil Imani is the author of the smashing book Obama Meets Ahmadinejad.
Original article is here.
The Daily Catch Videos for 3-29-2011: EDL Blackpool video, Iranian popaganda video and more
At a town hall today, obama wants illegal aliens to succeed. How nice, what about us LEGAL American citizens? It is quite obvious who he really cares about. This is an individual who is a marxist, worshipped ayers, alinsky and wright.
EDL Blackpool Demo Report: Justice for Charlene Downes. A peaceful demonstration for once as the UAF and MDL were not about to cause havoc and mayhem.
Iranian propaganda video translated by Reza Kahlili. This is from Vlad Tepes. Run time is about 29 minutes for this one.Translation was done by Reza Kahlili who runs the site, www.Atimetobetray.com Reza is a former CIA agent who was stationed within the Iranian security services for some time.
Th madi is near: One more from Iran. New evidence has emerged that the Iranian government sees the current unrest in the Middle East as a signal that the Mahdi--or Islamic messiah--is about to appear.
EDL Blackpool Demo Report: Justice for Charlene Downes. A peaceful demonstration for once as the UAF and MDL were not about to cause havoc and mayhem.
Iranian propaganda video translated by Reza Kahlili. This is from Vlad Tepes. Run time is about 29 minutes for this one.Translation was done by Reza Kahlili who runs the site, www.Atimetobetray.com Reza is a former CIA agent who was stationed within the Iranian security services for some time.
Th madi is near: One more from Iran. New evidence has emerged that the Iranian government sees the current unrest in the Middle East as a signal that the Mahdi--or Islamic messiah--is about to appear.
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