Thomas Jefferson: "I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it."
Camille Paglia: "Leaving sex to the feminists is like letting your dog vacation at the taxidermist."
Camille Paglia: "The only thing that will be remembered about my enemies after they're dead is the nasty things I've said about them”.
Camille Paglia: "It is capitalist America that produced the modern independent woman. Never in history have women had more freedom of choice in regard to dress, behavior, career, and sexual orientation."
From Samizdata
Cross Posted at Power and Control and at Classical Values
DEDICATED TO EXPOSING DISINFORMATION AND PROPAGANDA AND TO PROMOTING UNIVERSAL HUMAN RIGHTS - WITH SHARP ANALYSIS AND BLUNT COMMENTARY. NO ADS. NO TIP-JAR. JUST THE TRUTH.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
MY TAKE ON AHMADINEJAD
Persecution of Women in Iran
I was livid Monday at the outrage of Columbia University having Hitler Jr. speak on campus. I talked about it at length on my radio show Monday morning.
Just to give you a glimpse of the kind of freedoms people have in Iran check out the following videos. The above one details the persecution of Women in Iran, another one shows the persecution of homosexuals and another the persecution of Christians.
This article gives a great list of why it was a slap in the face to have Ahmadinejad speak at Columbia:
Columbia University does not allow the ROTC on their campus, they have denied the Minutemen the right to speak and yet it is okay for a terrorist-sponsoring dictator to come and speak. It sounds like your average, insane, socialist utopia, liberal campus.
Iranian students at Columbia are upset over this because they know how this will be portrayed and used for propaganda purposes over in Iran.
It is just ridiculous because we are dealing with an irrational mad man. You cannot reason with someone who is beyond reason. Yet, the Dean of Columbia said that they would even give "Hitler a platform to speak" at their University if he was still alive. What kind of message does that send? It is okay for you to arm and sponsor terrorists but we will still send you an invitation to speak at our University so we can have an "open dialogue". Unbelievable!!
Then the President, Lee Bollinger thinks he can justify the invitation by unloading on Ahmadinejad before he gets up to speak. That just seems completely irrational to me. Lets invite someone, give them a platform to speak but bash them to their face right before they get up to speak. A little strange if you ask me.
The whole thing was a drama performance and it has made a nice propaganda piece for those in Iran.
Many are outraged over this, including state and city lawmakers who are trying to find a way to deprive Columbia of state aid as a result. Many protested both speeches.
I have never had a desire to be a part of the protest but I can guarantee you that if I lived in New York my kids and I would've been a part of the protests.
I was livid Monday at the outrage of Columbia University having Hitler Jr. speak on campus. I talked about it at length on my radio show Monday morning.
Just to give you a glimpse of the kind of freedoms people have in Iran check out the following videos. The above one details the persecution of Women in Iran, another one shows the persecution of homosexuals and another the persecution of Christians.
This article gives a great list of why it was a slap in the face to have Ahmadinejad speak at Columbia:
"...Columbia was lending its name and prestige to a leader of a terrorist-sponsoring dictatorship who denies the existence of the Holocaust, vows to eliminate Israel, preaches Islamic extremism, and aspires to build nuclear weapons."
Columbia University does not allow the ROTC on their campus, they have denied the Minutemen the right to speak and yet it is okay for a terrorist-sponsoring dictator to come and speak. It sounds like your average, insane, socialist utopia, liberal campus.
Iranian students at Columbia are upset over this because they know how this will be portrayed and used for propaganda purposes over in Iran.
It is just ridiculous because we are dealing with an irrational mad man. You cannot reason with someone who is beyond reason. Yet, the Dean of Columbia said that they would even give "Hitler a platform to speak" at their University if he was still alive. What kind of message does that send? It is okay for you to arm and sponsor terrorists but we will still send you an invitation to speak at our University so we can have an "open dialogue". Unbelievable!!
Then the President, Lee Bollinger thinks he can justify the invitation by unloading on Ahmadinejad before he gets up to speak. That just seems completely irrational to me. Lets invite someone, give them a platform to speak but bash them to their face right before they get up to speak. A little strange if you ask me.
The whole thing was a drama performance and it has made a nice propaganda piece for those in Iran.
Many are outraged over this, including state and city lawmakers who are trying to find a way to deprive Columbia of state aid as a result. Many protested both speeches.
I have never had a desire to be a part of the protest but I can guarantee you that if I lived in New York my kids and I would've been a part of the protests.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Sarkozy: "Unacceptable" for Iran to get Nukes; says it could lead to War if it happens
French President Nicholas Sarkozy is showing real leadership. Is France usurping the UK and Germany as the strongest US ally in Western Europe?
French President Nicolas Sarkozy piled pressure on Iran at the United Nations Tuesday, saying it would be unacceptable for the Islamic republic to get hold of nuclear weapons.Sarkozy's comments came just hours before Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was due to address the world body, in a speech expected to attempt to play down fears of Tehran's nuclear ambitions.
"Iran has the right to nuclear energy," Sarkozy told world leaders at the General Assembly's 62nd session here. "But allowing Iran to have nuclear weapons would mean an unacceptable risk for regional and world stability."
Sarkozy added there would be no world peace if the international community "shows weakness in the face of the proliferation of nuclear weapons," in a speech received with loud applause from the rest of the assembly.
If you have not yet read Sarkozy's autobiography Testimony, check it out.
SECOND INVESTIGATION INTO OLMERT'S CROOKED PRACTICES LAUNCHED
And this may be even more important than the first. It's into his illegal method of purchasing a house:
It's about time. And I hope it'll yield some very telling results about what kind of a crook Olmert is.(IsraelNN.com) Attorney General Menachem Mazuz has instructed the police to launch a criminal investigation against Prime Minister Ehud Olmert regarding his purchase of a private home on Cremieux Street in Jerusalem when he was Mayor of Jerusalem in October 2004. Olmert is suspected of receiving a hefty discount on the apartment's purchase price from the contractor, Alumot, in return for his acting to speed up the approval of construction permits for the project.
The affair was initially exposed by investigative website NFC, which filed formal complaints against Olmert with the State Comptroller and the AG in February of 2006. The discount Olmert received in the apartment's purchase is suspected to have totaled about $500,000 (according the the Comptroller, he paid $1.2 million but the home's true value was about $1.7 million).
In April of 2007, the Comptroller presented the results of his inquiry to the AG, leaving it to the AG to decide whether to call for a comprehensive police investigation.
After going over the material, the AG asked that the value of the apartment be assessed and compared with Olmert's and Alumot's contentions regarding its worth.
After several consultations with members of the state prosecution staff, Mazuz decided to give the go-ahead for a police investigation. The results of the initial phase of the police investigation will be presented to the AG and Chief Prosecutor for evaluation.
Scientists Counter AP Article Promoting Computer Model Climate Fears
Post below lifted from Marc Morano. Small excerpt only:
Nearly two dozen prominent scientists from around the world have denounced a recent Associated Press article promoting sea level fears in the year 2100 and beyond based on unproven computer models predictions. The AP article also has been accused of mischaracterizing the views of a leading skeptic of man-made global warming fears. The scientists are dismissing the AP article, entitled “Rising Seas Likely to Flood U.S. History”(LINK) as a “scare tactic,” “sheer speculation,” and “hype of the worst order.” (H/T: Noel Sheppard of Newsbusters.org - LINK)
Dr. Richard S. Courtney, a climate and atmospheric science consultant and a UN IPCC expert reviewer ridiculed the AP article. “Rarely have I read such a collection of unsubstantiated and scare-mongering twaddle. Not only do real studies show no increase to rate of sea level change, the[AP] article gives reasons for concern that are nonsense,” Courtney told Inhofe EPW Press Blog on September 23.
UN IPCC reviewer and climate researcher Dr Vincent Gray, of New Zealand slammed the article as well: “This [AP article] is a typical scare story based on no evidence or facts, but only on the ‘opinions’ and ‘beliefs’ of ‘experts’, all of whom have a financial interest in the promotion of their computer models,” Gray wrote to the Inhofe EPW Press Blog.
Swedish Professor Wibjorn Karlen of the Department of Social and Economic Geography at Stockholm University: “Another of these hysterical views of our climate,” Karlen wrote to Inhofe EPW Press Blog regarding the AP article. "Newspapers should think about the damage they are doing to many persons, particularly young kids, by spreading the exaggerated views of a human impact on climate,” Karlen explained. The September 22, 2007 Associated Press article promoting future computer generated climate fears, appears just days before a high profile UN climate summit in New York Citythis week. The AP’s Seth Borenstein has a history of promoting unverifiable climate fears of the future (See: “AP Incorrectly claims scientists praise Gore’s movie” from June 2006 – LINK )
This AP report comes at a time when the peer-reviewed science is continuing to debunk the foundation of man-made climate change fears. (See "New Peer-Reviewed Scientific Studies Chill Global Warming Fears" (LINK)
Alabama State Climatologist Dr. John Christy of the University of Alabama in Huntsville, stated that the AP mischaracterized his views on sea level in the article promoting climate fears a hundred years from now. “[My] discussion [with the AP reporter Seth Borenstein] was primarily about the storm surges which come from hurricanes - that's the real vulnerability. The sea level is rising around 1 inch per decade, but sea level is like any other climate parameter - its either rising or falling all the time. To me, 16 inches per century is not a significant problem to deal with. But since storm surges of 15 to 30 feet occur in 6 hours, any preventive strategy, like an extra 3 feet of elevation, would be helpful,” Christy wrote to the Inhofe EPW Press blog. “Thinking that legislation can change sea level is hubris. I did a calculation on what 1000 new nuclear power plants operating by 2020 would do for the IPCC best guess in the year 2100. The answer is 1.4 cm – about half an inch (if you accept the IPCC projection A1B for the base case.) Also, there doesn't seem to be any acceleration of the slow trend,” Christy explained....
(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)
Nearly two dozen prominent scientists from around the world have denounced a recent Associated Press article promoting sea level fears in the year 2100 and beyond based on unproven computer models predictions. The AP article also has been accused of mischaracterizing the views of a leading skeptic of man-made global warming fears. The scientists are dismissing the AP article, entitled “Rising Seas Likely to Flood U.S. History”(LINK) as a “scare tactic,” “sheer speculation,” and “hype of the worst order.” (H/T: Noel Sheppard of Newsbusters.org - LINK)
Dr. Richard S. Courtney, a climate and atmospheric science consultant and a UN IPCC expert reviewer ridiculed the AP article. “Rarely have I read such a collection of unsubstantiated and scare-mongering twaddle. Not only do real studies show no increase to rate of sea level change, the[AP] article gives reasons for concern that are nonsense,” Courtney told Inhofe EPW Press Blog on September 23.
UN IPCC reviewer and climate researcher Dr Vincent Gray, of New Zealand slammed the article as well: “This [AP article] is a typical scare story based on no evidence or facts, but only on the ‘opinions’ and ‘beliefs’ of ‘experts’, all of whom have a financial interest in the promotion of their computer models,” Gray wrote to the Inhofe EPW Press Blog.
Swedish Professor Wibjorn Karlen of the Department of Social and Economic Geography at Stockholm University: “Another of these hysterical views of our climate,” Karlen wrote to Inhofe EPW Press Blog regarding the AP article. "Newspapers should think about the damage they are doing to many persons, particularly young kids, by spreading the exaggerated views of a human impact on climate,” Karlen explained. The September 22, 2007 Associated Press article promoting future computer generated climate fears, appears just days before a high profile UN climate summit in New York Citythis week. The AP’s Seth Borenstein has a history of promoting unverifiable climate fears of the future (See: “AP Incorrectly claims scientists praise Gore’s movie” from June 2006 – LINK )
This AP report comes at a time when the peer-reviewed science is continuing to debunk the foundation of man-made climate change fears. (See "New Peer-Reviewed Scientific Studies Chill Global Warming Fears" (LINK)
Alabama State Climatologist Dr. John Christy of the University of Alabama in Huntsville, stated that the AP mischaracterized his views on sea level in the article promoting climate fears a hundred years from now. “[My] discussion [with the AP reporter Seth Borenstein] was primarily about the storm surges which come from hurricanes - that's the real vulnerability. The sea level is rising around 1 inch per decade, but sea level is like any other climate parameter - its either rising or falling all the time. To me, 16 inches per century is not a significant problem to deal with. But since storm surges of 15 to 30 feet occur in 6 hours, any preventive strategy, like an extra 3 feet of elevation, would be helpful,” Christy wrote to the Inhofe EPW Press blog. “Thinking that legislation can change sea level is hubris. I did a calculation on what 1000 new nuclear power plants operating by 2020 would do for the IPCC best guess in the year 2100. The answer is 1.4 cm – about half an inch (if you accept the IPCC projection A1B for the base case.) Also, there doesn't seem to be any acceleration of the slow trend,” Christy explained....
(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)
Islamics and Leftists have a "logic" that serves their needs, not truth
With projection and denial prominent. Excerpt:
In the unconscious mind, where symmetrical logic rules the night, the stronger the emotion one is feeling, the more "symmetrical deductions" are likely to occur. For example, as Bomford writes, on a deep unconscious level, "one who hates has to believe that his or her hatred is returned." Note that this is a logical operation, only based upon a different sort of logic. This logic is no doubt the source of the psychotic fear of Israel in the Islamic world. Their unconscious hatred is so profound that it simultaneously reverses the relation, so that they can't help perceiving that Israel hates them. But Israelis just want to shop, raise their families, or read the Torah. They couldn't care less about Muslims, except to the extent that bloodthirsty Muslim barbarians harbor murderous rage toward them.
It's fine to hate evil, but in the Islamic world, what is hated is transformed into evil. Something is not hated because it is evil, but evil because it is hated. One could say the same of the left, which habitually fears what it eternally hates. The left cannot be comprehended unless one appreciates the extent of their unbound hatred. Once this is grasped, what seems illogical is suddenly seen to obey the dictates of symmetrical logic. For example, the unconscious feeling that I hate America and want us to lose in Iraq is transformed to General Petraeus is a traitor, or I am a racist becomes America is racist, or I am unbearably envious becomes the wealthy are engaged in class warfare against me!
Another characteristic of the unconscious is that it is timeless, in the sense that it can reverse temporal relations. For example, in the unconscious mind, if A is the cause of B, B can also be the cause of A. Thus, "before" and "after" become meaningless. Therefore, although we were inexcusably attacked by Islamists on 9-11, within minutes, leftists were saying that the real reason for the attack was that we had done something to offend Muslims.
Likewise, throughout the Cold War, leftist scholars wrote "revisionist" histories, in which the United States was the cause of the Cold War, or at least equally responsible for it. You will notice that there are no conservative revisionists who write, for example, that blacks were the cause of their own lynching, or that Japanese Americans were the cause of their own internment. You can only think in this manner if you are pathologically under the sway of unconscious symmetrical logic.
Also in the unconscious mind, there is no distinction between the memory of something that actually occurred vs. the memory of a fantasy. Here we can understand how and why the left is so prone to mythologizing the past, as their fantasies are mingled with reality. Thus, no amount of reality and asymmetrical logic will ever convince them that FDR made the Great Depression worse, not better, or that the black family only began to disintegrate after the imposition of all the "Great Society" programs of the mid to late '60s. No amount of logic could convince a leftist that his policies harm the "little guy," since his ruling myth, in the face of all evidence to the contrary, is that he is here to rescue the hapless little guy (for whom the leftist always feels rich contempt in the unconscious mind, contempt which only seeps out everywhere).
One thing you will notice about the left is that they are passionate. Because the left is guided by feelings and intentions, they are blind to the results of their actions. If their feelings are infinitely good, then in the unconscious mind, the results must also be infinitely good.
As I have written before, this is a religious passion in the absence of religion, so it has no traditional means to structure and channel it. Just as religion partakes of symmetrical logic in an adaptive way (i.e., the meek shall inherit the earth, the Golden Rule, humans are made in the image of the Creator, etc.), leftists do so in a terribly unhealthy way. That is, because of the intensity of their feelings, these feelings reach way down into the symmetrical realm, with no way to structure or make sense of them. This is why you always see so much highly charged, "unfiltered" unconscious material coming out of the left. To borrow a metaphor from someone, reading dailykos or huffington post is like taking a ride through a sewer in a glass bottom boat.
Source
(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)
In the unconscious mind, where symmetrical logic rules the night, the stronger the emotion one is feeling, the more "symmetrical deductions" are likely to occur. For example, as Bomford writes, on a deep unconscious level, "one who hates has to believe that his or her hatred is returned." Note that this is a logical operation, only based upon a different sort of logic. This logic is no doubt the source of the psychotic fear of Israel in the Islamic world. Their unconscious hatred is so profound that it simultaneously reverses the relation, so that they can't help perceiving that Israel hates them. But Israelis just want to shop, raise their families, or read the Torah. They couldn't care less about Muslims, except to the extent that bloodthirsty Muslim barbarians harbor murderous rage toward them.
It's fine to hate evil, but in the Islamic world, what is hated is transformed into evil. Something is not hated because it is evil, but evil because it is hated. One could say the same of the left, which habitually fears what it eternally hates. The left cannot be comprehended unless one appreciates the extent of their unbound hatred. Once this is grasped, what seems illogical is suddenly seen to obey the dictates of symmetrical logic. For example, the unconscious feeling that I hate America and want us to lose in Iraq is transformed to General Petraeus is a traitor, or I am a racist becomes America is racist, or I am unbearably envious becomes the wealthy are engaged in class warfare against me!
Another characteristic of the unconscious is that it is timeless, in the sense that it can reverse temporal relations. For example, in the unconscious mind, if A is the cause of B, B can also be the cause of A. Thus, "before" and "after" become meaningless. Therefore, although we were inexcusably attacked by Islamists on 9-11, within minutes, leftists were saying that the real reason for the attack was that we had done something to offend Muslims.
Likewise, throughout the Cold War, leftist scholars wrote "revisionist" histories, in which the United States was the cause of the Cold War, or at least equally responsible for it. You will notice that there are no conservative revisionists who write, for example, that blacks were the cause of their own lynching, or that Japanese Americans were the cause of their own internment. You can only think in this manner if you are pathologically under the sway of unconscious symmetrical logic.
Also in the unconscious mind, there is no distinction between the memory of something that actually occurred vs. the memory of a fantasy. Here we can understand how and why the left is so prone to mythologizing the past, as their fantasies are mingled with reality. Thus, no amount of reality and asymmetrical logic will ever convince them that FDR made the Great Depression worse, not better, or that the black family only began to disintegrate after the imposition of all the "Great Society" programs of the mid to late '60s. No amount of logic could convince a leftist that his policies harm the "little guy," since his ruling myth, in the face of all evidence to the contrary, is that he is here to rescue the hapless little guy (for whom the leftist always feels rich contempt in the unconscious mind, contempt which only seeps out everywhere).
One thing you will notice about the left is that they are passionate. Because the left is guided by feelings and intentions, they are blind to the results of their actions. If their feelings are infinitely good, then in the unconscious mind, the results must also be infinitely good.
As I have written before, this is a religious passion in the absence of religion, so it has no traditional means to structure and channel it. Just as religion partakes of symmetrical logic in an adaptive way (i.e., the meek shall inherit the earth, the Golden Rule, humans are made in the image of the Creator, etc.), leftists do so in a terribly unhealthy way. That is, because of the intensity of their feelings, these feelings reach way down into the symmetrical realm, with no way to structure or make sense of them. This is why you always see so much highly charged, "unfiltered" unconscious material coming out of the left. To borrow a metaphor from someone, reading dailykos or huffington post is like taking a ride through a sewer in a glass bottom boat.
Source
(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)
IS AHMADINEJAD A LEFT-WINGER OR A RIGHT-WINGER?
Ahamdinejad and the ruling elite of Iran are all Lefties. They run a socialist state which controls many industries and over-regulates even more, like their oil and gasoline businesses.
They are buddies with Chavez and were protected by socialists like Schroeder.
This canard - that the islamoNAZIS are right-wing is rooted in the fallacious left-wing political spectrum (the one we were all taught in school) which puts Nazis and Fascists on the right and Marxists on the left.
This spectrum is WRONG. Here's proof:
- Nazism and Fascism were both forms of socialism - according to Hitler and Mussolini. They were anti-freemarket and anti-MARXIST. The Marxist-Nazi/Fascist divide was INTERNECINE like Stalin -Trotsky divide.
- In the traditional political spectrum - which we were all taught - there no logical place for anarchism. Marxists are put on the extreme left, an fascists/Nazis on the extreme right. Mixed economies governed by democracies are in the middle - THERE IS NO PLACE FOR ANARCHISM
The correct spectrum place ALL statist ideologies TOGETHER on the left : National Socialism and Marxist socialism. And then, anarchism is on the the extreme right. In the middle are the mixed economies run by democracies (with the USA more right of center and Scandinavian ones more left of center).
So the charge that Colmes makes s TOTALLY WRONG and JUST MORE LEFTIST PROPAGANDA.
The Left and the islamonazis are BIRDS OF A FEATHER. Leftist governments all over are all more supportive of the islamonazis than conservative ones. The leftist ones are all more anti-American than they are anti-islamonazi.
The left and leftists like Colmes refuse to accept the truth about Nazism, Fascism and Islamism because the truth is to gard to swallow: their ideology is the one closest to Nazism an fascism and their ideology has always failed at everything except increasing misery, poverty.
The left turn takes you on to the road to serfdom.
HEZBOLLAH ALLY, IRANIAN PROXY MAHDI ARMY PRESENTS MAJOR PROBLEM FOR POST-SURGE SCENARIOS
Danger Room has a roundup of the post surge scenarios that are available to the Coalition. One major problem:
[Cross-posted to Mere Rhetoric]
Garton Ash believes that "capacity to intervene" will diminish as Basra increasingly comes under the sway of extremist elements. AlterNet concurs: "Should British forces decide to venture back, they will inevitably face a den of Mahdi Army fighters," according to their analysis: The militia is said to number 17,000 in Basra alone and is divided into 40 company-size military units, according to a senior Iraqi security official. ... They control multiple units in the 14,500-strong police force, and hold sway in hospitals, the education board, the university, ports and oil terminals, and the oil products and electricity distribution companies.Or as we like to call them, the Hezbollah allied Mahdi army:
“We teach each other,” i.e. cross-pollination. The traffic’s not one way, either; follow that last link to refresh your memory. As far as I know, it still hasn’t been conclusively established that Sadr is Iran’s chief proxy in Iraq, although the collusion with Hezbollah and the fact (again, per the Independent) that thousands of JAM members have trained in camps in Iran indicates a high level of nuance to the relationship. Traditionally SCIRI was Iran’s arm inside the country but they seem to have drifted towards the American side in the past year, possibly as a reaction to Sadr’s coziness with the regime. Michael Totten, on the ground in Baghdad, seems pretty clear on what’s what, though: The Mahdi Army is Iran’s major proxy in Iraq. It is, in effect, the Iraqi branch of Hezbollah.Hey, remember when the US kept the IDF on a short leash because they didn't want to destabilize Sinoria, even at the risk of not uprooting Hezbollah? Apparently - according to the oh-so-brave State Department Director Alberto Fernandez - Lebanon's government wasn't responsible for Hezbollah even though Hezbollah was part of the Lebanese government. Good to see that's working out.
[Cross-posted to Mere Rhetoric]
JIMMY CARTER: IRAN IS NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT
Yesterday TAB's Pastorius blogged this story about how Jimmy Carter's former NSA Chief Brzezinski is quite sanguine about Iran. You have to admire that former administration's message discipline. Not content with urging urging Iowa voters to reject "knee-jerk" supporters of Israel - because the vicious, frothing at the mouth anti-Israel side is so level-headed and thoughtful - Jimmy Carter wants you to know that things are just fine with Iran:
[Cross-posted to Mere Rhetoric]
In "The Gathering Storm," his history of World War II, Winston Churchill recalls how President Roosevelt once asked for suggestions about what the war should be called. "The Unnecessary War," Britain's wartime prime minister replied. "There never was a war more easy to stop than that which has just wrecked what was left of the world from the previous struggle."... Former President Jimmy Carter says we shouldn't take the Iran threats seriously. "I think it would be almost inconceivable that Iran would commit suicide by launching one or two missiles of any kind against the nation of Israel," he said. Many of Churchill's critics said the same about Nazi Germany in the 1930s. But apocalyptic fanatics have been known to be suicidal, and Carter, of course, has been wrong about Iran before.The last time Jimmy Carter said that things were just fine with Iran, it took Ronald Reagan to even start cleaning up that mess.
[Cross-posted to Mere Rhetoric]
STATE DEPARTMENT GETS BRIGHT IDEA: LET'S SCREW ISRAEL EVEN MORE BY BUNDLING SYRIA INTO THE ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN PEACE PROCESS
Sure why not? If we're already all sitting down to pressure Israel to make concessions that endanger its existence - why not go the whole distance:
That's why the Saudis are already setting preconditions for their participation (nice to see major media outlets helping them out with that - teamwork). They understand that the State Department has maneuvered Olmert into an impossible situation, and they're ready to exploit it after three decades of Israel successfully resisting multilateral talks. Even Bush I and Baker, when they convened the multinational Madrid Conference, didn't successfully force Israel into large-scale multilateral peace negotiations.
[Cross-posted to Mere Rhetoric]
Syria could attend an upcoming Middle East peace conference in Washington as part of an Arab League committee, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice attends a Middle East "Quartet" briefing at the U.N. Sunday. Speaking after a meeting of the Mideast Quartet -- which includes the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia -- Rice said Arab League members charged with following up on a Saudi-backed peace proposal were likely to be invited to the November conference. Syria is a member of that follow-up committee.When we were taught Israeli-Arab Peace Process 101, it was an ironclad principle that Israel pushes for bilateral talks with each individual Arab enemy and the Arabs push for multilateral talks with Israel. Why? Because when the Arab states combine their "negotiating strength", they can make demands in unison: "hey Israel, you want this concession from the Palestinians? Well then you're also going to have to give back the Golan to Syria." Israel has to give something to every Arab state in order to get anything that it wants.
That's why the Saudis are already setting preconditions for their participation (nice to see major media outlets helping them out with that - teamwork). They understand that the State Department has maneuvered Olmert into an impossible situation, and they're ready to exploit it after three decades of Israel successfully resisting multilateral talks. Even Bush I and Baker, when they convened the multinational Madrid Conference, didn't successfully force Israel into large-scale multilateral peace negotiations.
[Cross-posted to Mere Rhetoric]
OB/GYN CRISIS: THANK EDWARDS & CO
NYC IS ONE OF THE MEDICAL CAPITOLS OF THE FREAKIN' WORLD. BUT THERES A OB-GYN CRISIS HERE. NYPOST: The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Medical Society of the State of New York both say that, with malpractice-insurance premiums rising, the dwindling number of OB/GYNs who can afford to practice has become a crisis, particularly for risky patients such as older women or those with medical conditions.THERE'S LOT'S MORE - RTWT.
"The impact of these rate hikes is tremendous," said Donna Williams of ACOG. "We're seeing many OBs who aren't willing to stay in practice because they just can't afford it."
Nationwide, malpractice-insurance premiums for OB/GYNs constitute about 5 percent of expenses, Williams said. In New York state, they are 36 percent.
According to an ACOG survey, in the past four years, rising malpractice premiums have led 8.7 percent of New York state OB/GYNs to stop practicing obstetrics; 12.6 percent have decreased the number of deliveries they perform.
And although the total number of births in New York City was down by 6,697 between 1995 and 2003, those requiring a Caesarean section - and a trained obstetric surgeon - rose by more than 3,000. At the same time, the city's supply of practicing OB/GYNs fell by 6 percent.
AND IT'S JOHN EDWARDS FAULT. MORE HERE.
Monday, September 24, 2007
BLEG: Adam Air Flight 574
DOES ANYBODY ELSE REMEMBER THE ADAM AIR JET WHICH CRASHED OVER THE JAVA SEA FOR NO APPARENT REASON, KILLING ALL 102 ON BOARD?
OR JUST LAST WEEK:
FIVE PREVIOUS POSTS HERE.
REPRISE:
A plane missing over Indonesia with 102 people on board did not send out distress signals or report mechanical problems before disappearing, a top aviation official said today, as search teams intensified their hunt for the Boeing 737.
WELL: The flight recorders were retrieved from the ocean on JANUARY 25, 2007.
OR JUST LAST WEEK:
Adam Air black box retrieved by salvage team
Jakarta Post, Indonesia -Aug 28, 2007
A multi-national salvage team has retrieved the black box of the Adam Air airliner that crashed in waters off Sulawesi at the start of the year en route ...
THEN TWO WEEKS AGO THIS:
Adam Air black box legible, team says
Jakarta Post, Indonesia -Sep 11, 2007
JAKARTA: The Adam Air black box recovered from the Majene Sea off West Sulawesi after an aircraft accident this year has been opened and can be read, ...
- WHY THE NEWS BLACKOUT ON WHAT THE BLACK-BOXES CONTAIN?
- DO THEY PROVE IT WAS WEATHER?
- IS IT RELATED TO THE EQUIPMENT - (IT WAS A 737)?
- BAD MAINTENANCE?
- OR A BOMB?
FIVE PREVIOUS POSTS HERE.
QUOTATIONS FROM CHAIRMAN AHMADINEJAD
EXCERPT: Religious extremism and martyrdom:
* "We don't shy away from declaring that Islam is ready to rule the world.“ 1RWTW.
* "The wave of the Islamist revolution will soon reach the entire world." 2
* "Our revolution's main mission is to pave the way for the reappearance of the Twelfth Imam, the Mahdi." 3
* “Soon Islam will become the dominating force in the world, occupying first place in the number of followers amongst all other religions.” 4
* “Is there a craft more beautiful, more sublime, more divine, than the craft of giving yourself to martyrdom and becoming holy? Do not doubt, Allah will prevail, and Islam will conquer mountain tops of the entire world.” 5
* "What is important is that they have shown the way to martyrdom which we must follow.'' 6 [President Ahmadinejad’s comments on an aircraft crash in Tehran that killed 108 people in December 2005].
* Ahmadinejad praises Iran for being able to recruit thousands of suicide bombers a day. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad praised his country's ability to recruit "hundreds of suicide bombers a day," saying "suicide is an invincible weapon. Suicide bombers in this land showed us the way, and they enlighten our future.“ Amadinejad said the will to commit suicide was "one of the best ways of life." 7
* “This regime (Israel) will one day disappear.” 8
* “The Zionist regime is a rotten, dried tree that will be eliminated by one storm.” 9
* Israel is "a disgraceful stain on the Islamic world" 10
* Israel is doomed to be "wiped from the map" in "a war of destiny." 11
- WE IGNORE THEM AT OUR PERIL.
- WE MUSTN'T IGNORE WHAT THEY SAY.
- THEY MEAN WHAT THEY SAY.
- WE MUST IGNORE THE LEFTISTS - THE DEMOCRATS, THE DHIMMIS, THE APPEASERS...
WEASELS REUNITE AT BLACK SEA RESORT
Former French president Jacques Chirac and former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder have arrived in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi on private visits, the Kremlin said on Sunday.
The ex-leaders traveled to Russia on the invitation of President Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin press office said.
On September 25, Schroeder will chair a shareholders' meeting in Sochi of Nord Stream AG, a company building a natural gas pipeline under the Baltic, of which the ex-chancellor is the supervisory chief.
State-controlled Russian energy giant Gazprom [RTS: GAZP] holds a 51% stake in Nord Stream AG...
The former French and German leaders Jacques Chirac and Gerhard Schroeder arrived at Russia's Black Sea coastal resort of Sochi on Sunday as guests of President Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin said. Contacted by AFP, a Kremlin spokesman described the visit of the former French president and the former German chancellor as "private" and confirmed they had been invited by Putin.
The Russian leader had close ties with both men during their terms in office, symbolised in their united front against the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq. Schroeder was to attend a meeting in Sochi of the shareholders' committee of the Gazprom-led company that plans to build a pipeline under the Baltic Sea to Germany, the RIA Novosti news agency reported.
CHIRAQ, SCHROEDER AND PUTIN ARE NOT WEASELS; THEY ARE CROOKED; THEY ARE SCUM.
(HAT TIP NO PASARAN.)
MORE ON THE CORRUPT SCHROEDER HERE.
MARK LEVIN: WE SHOULD HAVE AND COULD HAVE BANNED AHMADINEJAD
LEVIN:
I think if the president were to announce the reasons for denying him entry to our country, and further announced that we would not allow entry to any head-of-state who harbors al Qaeda terrorists and kills Americans, that would be a perfectly legitimate position.RTWT TO FIND OUT HIS IRON-CLAD REASONS.
AHMADINEJAD, THE HOLOCAUST, PALESTINE AND ISRAEL: THE ILLOGICAL ANTI-SEMITISM OF ANTI-ZIONISM EXPOSED
AP:
This attack on Israel is RIDICULOUS and flies in the face of historical facts:
FACT: Jews have CONTINUOUSLY lived in the geographical region comprising Israel and Gaza and the West Bank. At the time Mark Twain went there - and as documented in his account and in the era's editions of Baedeker's - the Holy Land was MOSTLY populated by Jews. The Arabs in the region were nomadic Bedouins and did not outnumber the Jews. Jews were the largest segment of Jerusalem's population.
FACT: Zionism as a modern movement began in the 19th century - and that too was before WW2 and the Holocaust.
FACT: The idea of RE-establishing - EMPHASIS ON "RE-" - a Jewish state in the Holy Land PREDATES WW2 and the Holocaust. IT WAS NOT A RESPONSE TO THE HOLOCAUST. The Balfour Declaration declared that the UK would create a Jewish state in the region once ruled by the Ottoman Empire.
FACT: Before the British Empire assumed LEGAL dominion over the Holy Land it was NOT Arab ruled; it was ruled by TURKS - THE OTTOMANS. The British dominion over Palestine was legal and internationally approved. At the time, ONLY Jews called themselves Palestinians; Arabs called themselves ARABS, and believed they were part of the UMMAH, the transnational Arab "nation" and not of any particular nation.
FACT: The original Balfour Declaration would have given the Jews ALL of British Palestine - and area which includes - REPEAT - INCLUDES ALL OF WHAT IS TODAY CALLED JORDAN. After WW2, Jews were then offered a tiny part of eastern Palestine. They accepted it anyway. The Arabs refused to accept it.
FACT: The Jews fought a war of INDEPENDENCE against the British Empire and Arabs and WON. They captured more land in this war then the POST-WW2 British had offered them. Like the international borders of most nations, Israel's borders were the result of war's won; the original borders were established by victory in war in 1949. The borders expanded after Israeli victories in subsequent wars by "neighboring" Arab nations. Israel's current borders - LIKE MOST EVERY NATION IN THE WORLD - are a result of its victories in wars.
Even Ahamdinejad's less disgusting position (that a supposed European Holocaust perhaps occurred but that it still doesn't "justify" Israel's existence) IS WRONG ON THE FACTS, AND IT HOLDS ISRAEL TO A DIFFERENT SET OF STANDARDS THAN EVERY OTHER NATION IS HELD TO.
When Jews or Israelis are held to a different set of standards than everyone else IT IS ANTI-SEMITIC. And wrong. And immoral.
All Arabs in Gaza, the West Bank and the rest of the world need to do to improve their lives and end their suffering is to cast off the shackles if Jihad and join the modern world in democracy and pluralism.
Then they can live in peace and prosperity and with dignity - like the Arab citizens of Israel, the freest Arabs in the world.
[NOTE:
During a question and answer session, Ahmadinejad appeared tense and unsmiling, in contrast to more relaxed interviews and appearances earlier in the day.AP:
In response to one audience, Ahmadinejad denied he was questioning the existence of the Holocaust: "Granted this happened, what does it have to do with the Palestinian people?"
Why is it that the Palestinian people are paying the price for an event they had nothing to do with?BLOOMBERG:
He said Palestinians were paying for the Holocaust with the violence in the Middle East...Ahmadinejad's line of attack in this case reverted to the one in which he MIGHT deign to admit that genocide against Jews MIGHT have occurred in EUROPE, but that this event does not justify the existence of an artificial and "colonialistic" Jewish state which exists at the detriment of so-called "Palestinian" Arabs.
This attack on Israel is RIDICULOUS and flies in the face of historical facts:
FACT: Jews have CONTINUOUSLY lived in the geographical region comprising Israel and Gaza and the West Bank. At the time Mark Twain went there - and as documented in his account and in the era's editions of Baedeker's - the Holy Land was MOSTLY populated by Jews. The Arabs in the region were nomadic Bedouins and did not outnumber the Jews. Jews were the largest segment of Jerusalem's population.
FACT: Zionism as a modern movement began in the 19th century - and that too was before WW2 and the Holocaust.
FACT: The idea of RE-establishing - EMPHASIS ON "RE-" - a Jewish state in the Holy Land PREDATES WW2 and the Holocaust. IT WAS NOT A RESPONSE TO THE HOLOCAUST. The Balfour Declaration declared that the UK would create a Jewish state in the region once ruled by the Ottoman Empire.
FACT: Before the British Empire assumed LEGAL dominion over the Holy Land it was NOT Arab ruled; it was ruled by TURKS - THE OTTOMANS. The British dominion over Palestine was legal and internationally approved. At the time, ONLY Jews called themselves Palestinians; Arabs called themselves ARABS, and believed they were part of the UMMAH, the transnational Arab "nation" and not of any particular nation.
FACT: The original Balfour Declaration would have given the Jews ALL of British Palestine - and area which includes - REPEAT - INCLUDES ALL OF WHAT IS TODAY CALLED JORDAN. After WW2, Jews were then offered a tiny part of eastern Palestine. They accepted it anyway. The Arabs refused to accept it.
FACT: The Jews fought a war of INDEPENDENCE against the British Empire and Arabs and WON. They captured more land in this war then the POST-WW2 British had offered them. Like the international borders of most nations, Israel's borders were the result of war's won; the original borders were established by victory in war in 1949. The borders expanded after Israeli victories in subsequent wars by "neighboring" Arab nations. Israel's current borders - LIKE MOST EVERY NATION IN THE WORLD - are a result of its victories in wars.
Even Ahamdinejad's less disgusting position (that a supposed European Holocaust perhaps occurred but that it still doesn't "justify" Israel's existence) IS WRONG ON THE FACTS, AND IT HOLDS ISRAEL TO A DIFFERENT SET OF STANDARDS THAN EVERY OTHER NATION IS HELD TO.
When Jews or Israelis are held to a different set of standards than everyone else IT IS ANTI-SEMITIC. And wrong. And immoral.
All Arabs in Gaza, the West Bank and the rest of the world need to do to improve their lives and end their suffering is to cast off the shackles if Jihad and join the modern world in democracy and pluralism.
Then they can live in peace and prosperity and with dignity - like the Arab citizens of Israel, the freest Arabs in the world.
[NOTE:
1949 Armistice AgreementsAHMADINEJAD AND HIS JIHADIST COMRADES IN AL QAEDA, HAMAS, AND HIZBALLAH WOULD EVEN ALLOW JEWS THIS LAND.]
In 1949, Israel signed separate armistices with Egypt on 24 February, Lebanon on 23 March, Transjordan on 3 April, and Syria on 20 July. The new borders of Israel, as set by the agreements, encompassed about 78% of mandatory Palestine as it stood after the independence of Jordan in 1946.
Considering the original British mandate (including Jordan, which was included within the Mandate in the summer of 1921, but excluded from the provisions for a Jewish National Home), however, Israel was created only on 18% of the total area of Palestine and Transjordan.
This was about 50 percent more than the UN partition proposal allotted it.
These cease-fire lines were known afterwards as the "Green Line". The Gaza Strip and the West Bank were occupied by Egypt and Transjordan respectively."
HE REALLY IS NUTS....
Ahmadinejad: "We don't have any homosexuals in Iran..."
Well, gee, could that be because you are executing them all?
Oh, and he also questioned the "true cause" of 9/11 and questioned the Holocaust again... Damn, this guy is batting 1.000 for his visit:
(Frankly I was not overly happy with the President's quote in that last story, but I can live with it because Bush will probably soon make his actions speak a lot louder than those words....)
UPDATE: Uncle Jimbo weighs in.
Well, gee, could that be because you are executing them all?
Oh, and he also questioned the "true cause" of 9/11 and questioned the Holocaust again... Damn, this guy is batting 1.000 for his visit:
- He parrots the DNC talking points on 60 Minutes
- He throws in with the 9/11 "truthers"
- He denies the existence of homosexuals in Iran
- He defends the Holocaust deniers
- He denies journalists have been sentenced to death in Iran
- He says that no where are women "freer" than in Iran
(Frankly I was not overly happy with the President's quote in that last story, but I can live with it because Bush will probably soon make his actions speak a lot louder than those words....)
UPDATE: Uncle Jimbo weighs in.
Hitler Redux
About that Hitler comment from John Coatsworth (the nutjob Dean who invited Ahmadinejad to Colombia in the first place):
Read the whole thing.Here is what Coatsworth said in a Saturday interview with Fox News. So shocking were his comments that we quote verbatim to assure the reader that he actually said what he said: "If Hitler were in the United States and wanted a platform from which to speak, he would have plenty of platforms to speak in the United States. If he were willing to engage in a debate and a discussion, to be challenged by Columbia students and faculty, we would certainly run it."
Coatsworth is grievously wrong on so many counts. His belief that Hitler would be invited to speak across the U.S. is an insult to America's character. And his thought of engaging the guiding force of the Third Reich in collegial debate is simply monstrous. In your worst nightmare, you can imagine the topics. For example: Yes or no, are Jews truly subhuman? Even to conceive of such a colloquy is both soul-deadening and a wellspring of fury. Identical thinking - repugnant on its face and grossly insensitive to the Jewish community and to all good people - drives Coatsworth's event with Ahmadinejad.
Coatsworth's efforts to justify his remarks further showed he is absolutely ill-equipped for his post. He told the Daily News yesterday he meant "in 1939, [when Hitler] had not started the war and the Holocaust hadn't begun." Oh. So six years after Dachau, four years after the anti-Jewish Nuremberg Laws and a year after Kristallnacht, when Hitler's intentions were known to all, he'd be a fine speaker for Columbia?
WHY GOOD WILL ALWAYS WIN OUT OVER EVIL
The devils in our world are always more concerned with aquiring power than they are with increasing prosperity. Therefore, the devils will always fall to fighting amongst themselves over how the power will be divided up.
Meanwhile, those who pursue Freedom will not argue over how to divide up the Freedom, but will instead trust that increased individual liberty for all will naturally expand prosperity for all.
So, no matter how malevolently it bares it fangs, evil is inevitably a house divided against itself. Meanwhile, Freedom is always the progenitor of more freedom, of more properity, and of more happiness.
Meanwhile, those who pursue Freedom will not argue over how to divide up the Freedom, but will instead trust that increased individual liberty for all will naturally expand prosperity for all.
So, no matter how malevolently it bares it fangs, evil is inevitably a house divided against itself. Meanwhile, Freedom is always the progenitor of more freedom, of more properity, and of more happiness.
NRO ASKS THE $64 BILLION QUESTION: WHY DOESN'T COLUMBIA INVITE ANY IRANIAN DISSIDENTS TO SPEAK?
From National Review:
Free-Speech Hypocrisy [Michael Rubin]
Free-Speech Hypocrisy [Michael Rubin]
Institutional memory is short, so just a flashback to the Qadhafi speech at Columbia. The sad thing is that while faculty fall all over themselves to bring repressive dictators to campus, many dissidents from the same countries are ignored. Columbia has never invited chief Libyan democracy activist Fathi El-Jahmi, for example (his mailing address for the last two and a half years would be Libya's state prison system).
Likewise, Richard Bulliet, Columbia's point man to arrange giving a platform to Ahmadinejad, does not extend invitations to people like Mansour Osanlou, the head of the Islamic Republic's first independent trade union (his mailing address for the last 75 days has been Evin prison).
While university faculties at New York University and Notre Dame rally around convicted terrorists (in the former case) and those denied visa for terror support (in the latter), no faculty has yet to rally around the case of Issam Abu Issa, the Palestinian banker who blew the whistle on Arafat's corruption and promptly had his visa revoked by the Powell State Department in an effort to save Arafat's hurt feelings and keep the "peace process" going.
The issue we see with Columbia is deeper than freedom of speech but rather the inconsistency with which university faculties choose to support it. If men like Richard Bulliet and Lee Bollinger, and women like Lisa Marie Anderson cared about freedom of speech, they might want to enable those who don't have it, rather than celebrate the men who have taken it away.
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