Saturday, February 19, 2011

Abort the House Budget Bill

(This copies a reply I made to a talkradiosucks.com article:)

I'm against abortion* and the genocidal bigot Margaret Sanger's dissemblingly-named organization, as I'm against all manner of cruelty and literal as well as metaphorical bloodsucking - so votes to defund PP and its like are fine with me, and represent the one bright spot and tiny twinkle of anything that passes for the 'public interest' and 'Christian values' professed by most of the House members who pushed through this otherwise SADISTIC, MURDERING budget bill.


*Abortion should be allowed in known cases of teratogeny and other incurable sepsis and morbidity. The Republican Party as it is now is a toxic monster made from the unnatural fusing of NeoCons/Global Corporate Statists, Libertarians, and strange zealots who chant their allegiance to the Bible and the US Constitution without having any realistic concept of the essential messages to be found in those documents. Would that IT would have been 'from ... womb untimely ripp't!'

'PRO-LIFE' is only something to be claimed by those who are willing to nurture those kids after they're breathing (and how about pre-natal care, as a lagniappe?!), and honor their lives till the natural expiration point by opposing war and environmental degradation, by promoting an economy that is local/native, independent and diverse, and restricts taxation and the expendatures therefrom to those things that may be of direct (not 'trickle down' will-o'-the-wisps) advantage to ALL.

Friday, February 11, 2011

Two Forms of INVASION USA

While I fantasize about supernatural power reforming everyone (insofar as I/they/we may need it), and always pray for the soon advent of universal salvation, there's a bummed-out, sarcastic-caustic, way-more-pragmatic-than-Christian-or-intellectual emotional prompting in me that looks at the problem (and character[s]) of GANG-BANGERS, and just sometimes wishes for the Xena Solution ('Kill them all!!').  Just saw part of a thing on TV on Miami's (claiming-Haitian-identity-whether-native-born-citizens-or-not) Zoe Pound Gang.  These unspeakables torture children to extort the kids' parents, and sacrifice them to witchdoctors' loa.  

I know.  Some gangsters reform.  Some are pulled into gangs young and helplessly - but, oh -!  I think~ Couldn't we just grab all members of these proven reallyreally murderous criminal organizations, run some tests on 'em, weed out those with any promise of being retreaded as mensches, and send the sadistic rest to some super-secure hole to =ah= carve out 'new friendships' among themselves?

Because so many gangs are international/colonial, I went to search the Zoe Pound on VDare, which damnably allows overt racism, but remains a valuable source of news items on the un- or ineffectively- contested toxic tide of foreigners flooding our nation.  I didn't find the Zoe Pound, so I tried a more general 'gang' search, and got this facetious use of 'gang'... With very important implications.  From 6 years ago:

View From Lodi, CA: Look Out Teachers; The H-1B Visa Gang Wants Your Job  By Joe Guzzardi
http://www.vdare.com/guzzardi/050826_vfl.htm

I'm very pro- trade unionist (not pro their corruptions!), but have thought the California State Teachers Association to be among the rottenest.  Either their power is misrepresented and they're being steamrollered, or they're almost unimaginably warped, if they allow this.  What the Californication??!!

    

Edmund Burke Asks What May Be Done With 'Freedom'.

http://www.frumforum.com/edmund-burke-blogs-egypt

When I see the spirit of liberty in action, I see a strong principle at work; and this, for a while, is all I can possibly know of it. The wild gas, the fixed air, is plainly broke loose; but we ought to suspend our judgment until the first effervescence is a little subsided, till the liquor is cleared, and until we see something deeper than the agitation of a troubled and frothy surface. I must be tolerably sure, before I venture publicly to congratulate men upon a blessing, that they have really received one. Flattery corrupts both the receiver and the giver, and adulation is not of more service to the people than to kings. I should, therefore, suspend my congratulations on the new liberty of France until I was informed how it had been combined with government, with public force, with the discipline and obedience of armies, with the collection of an effective and well-distributed revenue, with morality and religion, with the solidity of property, with peace and order, with civil and social manners. All these (in their way) are good things, too, and without them liberty is not a benefit whilst it lasts, and is not likely to continue long. The effect of liberty to individuals is that they may do what they please; we ought to see what it will please them to do, before we risk congratulations which may be soon turned into complaints. Prudence would dictate this in the case of separate, insulated, private men, but liberty, when men act in bodies, is power. Considerate people, before they declare themselves, will observe the use which is made of power and particularly of so trying a thing as new power in new persons of whose principles, tempers, and dispositions they have little or no experience, and in situations where those who appear the most stirring in the scene may possibly not be the real movers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Burke

Works by Edmund Burke at Project Gutenberg (including his collected works in twelve volumes)

Collected works of Founding Fathers like John Adams, James Madison, and Charles Pinkney will continue the edification (of those days till now, of the past and speculative future).  READ THEM.  They knew how to THINK in those days! 






'Hosni Mubarak's Economic Achievements'

Hosni Mubarak's Economic Achievements - DailyFinance


http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/hosni-mubaraks-economic-achievements/19838632/

After an article which largely celebrated Mubarak's 'reforms' of 'economic liberalism /free markets' (privatization, 'friendliness' to business & globalist corporations, anti-tariffs, etc.), the truth of the same to most Egyptians, and most people in the world: (While) 'The economy' (meaning GNP / Some folks getting rich*) 'is doing great ... there was no trickle-down' and average folks just kept on suffering.

*Said on TV: Mubarak 'kleptomaniacally' took about $17 BILLION out of the country for himself. The Swiss have frozen is bank accounts.

MUBARAK RESIGNS, Gives Authority to Military

Mubarak Resigns; Egyptian Streets Erupt in Cheers

(snips from an article byTheunis Bates on AOL. I have not given the hyperlink, since its title reflects facts no longer true).

Hosni Mubarak resigned as Egyptian president today and handed control to the military, driven from the top after 30 years of autocratic rule.

Seconds after the nationally televised announcement by Vice President Omar Suleiman, celebrations broke out in Cairo's central Tahrir Square, ground zero of the protest movement, which was packed with some 250,000 protesters. They greeted the news with shouts of "Egypt is free! Egypt is free!"

That transition will be overseen by the High Council of the Armed Forces -- a group of generals headed by Defense Minister Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, 75 -- which is now in charge of the country. In a statement issued hours before Mubarak's resignation, the council promised that it would support free and fair elections, and would also scrap the much-hated emergency laws instituted when Mubarak took power in 1981, and which grant police almost unlimited powers of arrest.

"What are you waiting for?" one protester yelled at soldiers stationed outside Mubarak's main residence, Oruba, in northern Cairo, The Associated Press reported this morning. "Did you sign an oath and pledge your allegiance to the president or the people?" shouted another member of the 1,000-strong crowd.

*****************

DID YOU SIGN AN OATH AND PLEDGE YOUR ALLEGIANCE TO THE PRESIDENT OR THE PEOPLE?

Superb. This is one of the most important questions for all people, all nations, all constitutions of the World, as long as human governments exist.

Do we know????? 'We' as anyone in the World; 'we' specifically as citizens of the United States. We in the USA know that the President is Commander-in-Chief -but we have recently seen POTUS-power ignored, mocked and defied (yea, even in popular electronic media) toward Obama, particularly, and obviously, wantonly subverted and co-opted by Cheney/Rumsfeld/Wolfowitz toward GWB. I speak in main of military authority, but we continue (by mass media) to realize more and more how our elected and appointed officials have been puppet-mastered by purseholders foreign and domestic. The US military has many times turned against First Amendment demonstrations of (among others) tax protestors, states'-rightists, trade unionists, the poor, including, specifically, impoverished military veterans, and patriotic anti-globalists. Is our military a creature of 'the State' - which often means 'de facto present political and other ruling elites', or are they the armed 'arm' of RES PUBLICA?

All honor and congradulations to the Egyptians for effecting one of the most peaceful and rational (as well s amazingly swift) revolutions the World has thus far known. As Vice President Biden noted, the priority must be that further changes must irrevocably promote true democracy and freedom.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

The PATRIOT Act & 2 Who Care about the Constitution

More Examples of How Both Left and Right Pay Lip Service to the Constitution


Charles M. Kozierok (Mr. talkradiosucks.com) said, today:

Lawmakers swear to uphold and defend the Constitution. The House GOP made a grand spectacle of reading it at the start of the year. But there are very, very few who actually give a damn about it.


The ones who do end up forming some rather unusual alliances, such as Dennis Kucinich and Rand Paul, who joined together to oppose extension of the PATRIOT Act. Nobody in favor of that abomination cares about their constitutional oath, and that includes all the legislators who voted for it, and the Obama administration as well.


Kucinich is a guy I don’t care for much (especially after his dental nonsense last month), but he’s right on here:


“The 112th Congress began with a historic reading of the U.S. Constitution,” Kucinich said in a statement. “Will anyone subscribe to the First and Fourth Amendments tomorrow when the PATRIOT Act is up for a vote? I am hopeful that members of the Tea Party who came to Congress to defend the Constitution will join me in challenging the reauthorization.”


On the other side — way on the other side — we have Rand Paul. He not only also opposes the PATRIOT Act, but he has come out vocally against a whole host of other unconstitutional measures as part of his cost-cutting proposals. In return, he has reaped the scorn of just about everyone on both sides of the aisle.


Witness a recent discussion over at FrumForum about how Rand Paul wants to gut the Department of Energy. Some valid arguments were made both in favor and against the proposal, but what’s most interesting to me is the comments that trash Paul as some sort of wild-eyed extremist simply by virtue of wanting to cut a lot of stuff out of the federal budget that, according to the Constitution, should really never have been there in the first place.


One commenter said that Paul’s position was “insanely ideological”. If so, that’s really less about Paul, and more a commentary on our present political climate, and how unimportant our most important law has become.



Ayatollah K & the Muslim Bro's, K-I-S-S-I-N-G

http://babulilmlibrary.com/news/muslim-brotherhood-hails-imam-khameneis-support-of-the-egyptian-revolution

A senior member of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood has expressed gratitude to the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei for his support of the Egyptian revolution.

Kamal al-Halbavi made the remark in an interview with the state-funded BBC Persian on Sunday night.

Halbavi further expressed hope that Egypt would have “a good government, like the Iranian government, and a good president like Mr. Ahmadinejad, who is very brave.”

When asked about the Muslim Brotherhood’s opinion of Ayatollah Khamenei’s statements on Egypt’s developments, Halbavi said, “Many thanks for Imam Khamenei and all who support the revolution in Egypt.”

Ayatollah Khamenei said in Tehran’s Friday prayers last week that the recent developments in North Africa are the result of “Islamic awakening, which followed the great Islamic Revolution of the Iranian nation.”

The Leader of the Islamic Revolution made reference to Egyptians’ fight for “dignity and honor” and noted that Mubarak’s biggest crime was turning Egypt into an instrument in the hands of the United States.

The Muslim Brotherhood member added that he wants his country to develop in all spheres “like Iran, achieving more technological and scientific advances and becoming a regional power.”



Monday, February 7, 2011

Sometimes Marxism Gets Right Back to Where It Started From

Marxism started when a bunch of rich bankers engaged -and financed- Karl Marx to write huge tomes of unoriginal historical commentary and theorizing, with great loads of pretty-much incontrovertable factoids peppered with falsehoods, all of which were meant to overwhelm the reader into supporting The Conclusion: A Conclusion which was usually actually scarcely related to the previous blather, and made such little sense to those still able to shake the paydirt (the actual elements of the Conclusion's supposed triumph and the tome's Premise) from the obfuscating tons of dust and rubble, that what was to be the inescapably ponderous mountain-range weight of 'Proven Theory' was rendered but a fizz of bubbles of mephitic air. This was the common method 19th Century, easily found in still-controversial classics of Darwin and Donnelly, Hislop and Fraser, and was carried creaking into the 20th Century largely by the archons of proto-Wicca and Radical Feminism, especially Margaret Murray, Robert Graves (the Old White Male who originated the rebellion against Old White Males in favor of 'poetic truth'= 'truthiness'; the belief in what Feeeeeeeeels Right to You, howevermuch it may be countered by provable fact), and Marija Gimbutas... And their scholatically degenerated admirers. But no theory of Anunnaki, Atlantises or alternate dimensions can beat Marx's Magic Conclusion, that what best serves the suffering Proletariat is: To reject and sabotage all betterment of their condition, to make the gulf between the rich-ruling and and the poor-oppressed as great as possible, because that will then maaaaaaaaagically make the squashed wretches arise and take over to create the Workers' Paradise: A do-it-yourself resurrection!


Like all the worldly-successful religions, this original Marxism, grubstaked by High Finance dedicated to the goal of Global-Corporate-State Absolutism, has been taken and run with by all manner of quarterbacks, from delusional-do-gooders to demagogic despots trying to put their (necessarily) heterodox notions of Trying to Make Dictatorship of the Proletariat Practicable.

In our Millennial decades, we have seen the Red East, after tormenting hundreds of millions to death for the god Lenin, return to the real goal of Marx and his financiers: The Orwellian 'Economic Freedom' of totalitarian state-monopoly industrialism, a 'more perfect (-even better than mid-20th Century fascism!) union' of Capitalism and Communism. But there are smaller, more personal examples~

I was trying to get away from politics, so I turned from last weekend's Murder, She Wrote Marathon to look up Angela Lansbury (she ever-deserving of immense praise as a talent and a lady) on Wikipedia. I was led (by hyperlink, of course) to her cousin, Oz pol -and plutocrat-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_Turnbull

Check him out! Check out the Lansburys! From 'Good Old George' a Labour/Socialist who seems to have come from New Testament 'small-C' communistic ideals, through the luminous Theatrical Side, to Malcolm, pseudo-Liberal playing Anti-Monarchist Labourite on one hand and environment-raping Gold Man's Sacks heaper on the other.      

Sunday, February 6, 2011

WTF Raw: Obama 4 'TORTURE GUY' Omar Suleiman

 
Click here: "torture guy" "Omar Suleiman" - Google Search 21 results.

Sire!  Sire!  The street arabs are revolting...  But not as much as you, doin' this. 

Surfing links: Spreading Revolution IN & FROM the MidEast.

http://www.jihadwatch.org/2011/02/as-we-wait-for-the-tsar-to-abdicate.html

"dhimmiwatch" - Google Search about 11,4000


http://www.dhimmiwatch.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurabia * 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_Yeor

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/dhimmitude

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_Brotherhood **

*(snips.  As always, Wikip. articles I quote will have Other Good Stuff Unsnipped, and even my quote will mot transmit useful links within): Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi, in a speech that aired on Al-Jazeera TV on April 10, 2006, said:[17][18]


"We have 50 million Muslims in Europe. There are signs that Allah will grant Islam victory in Europe - without swords, without guns, without conquests. The 50 million Muslims of Europe will turn it into a Muslim continent within a few decades."

"Allah mobilizes the Muslim nation of Turkey, and adds it to the European Union."

"That's another 50 million Muslims. There will be 100 million Muslims in Europe. Albania, which is a Muslim country, has already entered the E.U."

"Bosnia, which is a Muslim country, has already entered the E.U. Fifty percent of its citizens are Muslims."

"Europe is in a predicament, and so is America. They should agree to become Islamic in the course of time, or else declare war on the Muslims."

**
United States


The Muslim Brotherhood has been active in the US since the 1960s. Its stated goals have included propagating Islam and creating havens for Muslims in the US, and integrating Muslims. A main strategy has been dawah or Islamic renewal and outreach. In the 1960s, groups such as U.S. military personnel, prison inmates and African-Americans were specifically targeted for dawah. According to a report done by the NEFA Foundation which cites evidence from the United States v. Holy Land Foundation trial, the goal of the Muslim Brotherhood in the USA is

Enablement of Islam in North America, meaning: establishing an effective and stable Islamic Movement led by the Muslim Brotherhood which adopts Muslims’ causes domestically and globally, and which works to expand the observant Muslim base, aims at unifying and directing Muslims’ efforts, presents Islam as a civilization alternative, and supports the global Islamic state wherever it is.[74]

The NEFA Foundation report further explains that in the same document where the goal is stated, considerable time is spent explaining the concept of settlement which is central to the Muslim Brotherhood-led efforts in North America. Settlement is defined as follows:

The process of settlement [of Islam in the United States] is a "Civilization-Jihadist" process with all the word means. The Ikhwan must understand that all their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and "sabotaging" their miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God's religion is made victorious over all religions. Without this level of understanding, we are not up to this challenge and have not prepared ourselves for Jihad yet. It is a Muslim's destiny to perform Jihad and work wherever he is and wherever he lands until the final hour comes, and there is no escape from that destiny except for those who choose to slack.[75]

Organizations in the US started by activists involved with the Muslim Brotherhood include the Muslim Students Association in 1963,[19] North American Islamic Trust in 1971, the Islamic Society of North America in 1981, the American Muslim Council in 1990, the Muslim American Society in 1992, and the International Institute of Islamic Thought in the 1980s.[19] According to the Washington Post, Muslim activists say MSA's members represent "all schools of Islam and political leanings – many are moderates, while others express anti-U.S. views or support resistance against Israelis."[19]

The Holy Land Foundation trial has led to the release as evidence of [76] several documents on the Muslim Brotherhood. One of these documents, dated in 1991, explains that the goal of the Muslim Brotherhood in the U.S. is “settlement”, defined by the author as a form of jihad aimed at destroying Western civilization from within and allowing for the victory of Islam over other religions.[77] In another one of these documents, "Ikhwan in America", the author alleges that the activities of the Muslim Brotherhood in the US include going to camps to do weapons training (referred to as Special work by the Muslim Brotherhood),[78] as well as engaging in counter-espionage against US government agencies such as the FBI and CIA (referred to as Securing the Group).[79] In November 2008 the Holy Land Foundation was found guilty of illegally funding Palestinian militant group Hamas, which is designated by the United States as a terrorist group.[80]





Friday, February 4, 2011

2 Great Posts From Frum on Egypt's 'Transitioning'

A Test for the New Egypt  February 3rd, 2011 by David Frum ~ FrumForum


http://www.frumforum.com/a-test-for-the-new-egypt

The treaty with Israel contains more than just a promise not to go to war. It contains a series of very specific commitments about Israeli security:

1) It pledges Israeli ships may use the Suez Canal

2) It recognizes the Gulf of Aqaba as an international waterway, precluding Egypt from closing access to the port of Eilat.

3) It demilitarizes the Sinai.

4) It emplaces US military observers at strategic points in the Sinai

5) It provided for normalization of relations, as a consequence of which there is direct air travel between the two countries.

There’s a lot of heady talk in the US media right now, from both liberals and conservatives, about the possibilities in Cairo. We all share those hopes. But we all also ought to recognize that popular protests in the Middle East do not typically generate stable democratic regimes, and that even free elections can bring very nasty people to power, as happened in Gaza in 2005.

Here’s a special request for the US and international journalists doing such impressive work under such dangerous circumstances in Egypt today. When you talk to Egyptian opposition figures, do not ask – and do not accept – generalities about accepting “all of Egypt’s obligations.” Ask them specifically about the individual commitments to open the Canal and maintain normal friendly relations. If they hem and haw, ask them why. Whom are they afraid of offending? Not that questioning will change anything. But it could at least provide some valuable early warnings.

And~

Does Anyone Really Trust the Muslim Brotherhood? FrumForum  February 3rd, 2011    David Frum

As readers have probably noted, I’m one of those less excited by – and more wary of – the protests in Egypt. I hold no brief for Hosni Mubarak, but worry greatly that the next regime could be a lot worse for the Egyptians themselves, for peace in the region, and for (no apology for considering these uppermost) the national security interests of the United States.


Those interests require: preserving control of the Egyptian army, security forces and Suez Canal away from the control of radical Islamist groups. Representation of Islamic parties in the Egyptian parliament is one thing. Executive power something very different. Happily the existing Egyptian constitution makes it possible to separate the two.

For those who do feel less cautious about the Egyptian revolutionary movement, please, please do consider this reality check by Barry Rubin of the Gloria Center in Israel:

Consider the following chart:

Who in the Middle East could the United States depend on five years ago to support its basic policy goals?

Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Turkey

Who in the Middle East can the United States basically depend on today?

Israel, Iraq (?), Jordan (until next week?), Saudi Arabia

Who in the Middle East is likely to oppose basic U.S. policy goals today?

Egypt (soon), Gaza Strip (Hamas), Iran, Lebanon (Hizballah), Libya, Sudan, Syria. Turkey

Might there be a trend here?

Rubin continues:

But what really riles me is when Westerners write a sentence like this one:

“It’s incumbent on Islamists who are elected democratically to behave democratically.”

Please contemplate those dozen words. What if they don’t? What are you going to do about it after they are in power? What if they take your concessions but not your advice? The United States conditioned the Muslim Brotherhood’s participation in Egypt’s next government on that group’s abandoning violence and supporting “democratic goals.” There is no chance that it will meet those conditions and also no chance that the United States would try to enforce them.

I have an idea: why don’t we wait until we have some reason to believe they will behave democratically before you put them into power?

Let’s remember a little detail here: You are all willing to ignore everything the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood has said or done for decades. You have no idea of their proposals in parliament, do you? You have no idea of their recent platform, do you? You have no idea what the Brotherhood’s leader is saying in his speeches, do you? Nor do you take these things into account.

So how dare you tell me that the Brotherhood is or is about to become moderate when you cannot cite a single piece of evidence–well, ElBaradei’s word when he lies to you about these things–to prove your thesis. Not one. Don’t you realize that victory has made the Islamists arrogant. They are becoming more radical, not less so. And mainstream clerics in Egypt, for example, have also become increasingly more extremist, well before the latest crisis.

Frankly, the more these people talk like this about Islamists, the more I don’t believe them. If they had any real proof they would offer it. And their ignorance makes me suspect their conclusions.


Patrick Buchanan's WINNERS AND LOSERS FROM A PHARAOH'S FALL

http://buchanan.org/blog/winners-and-losers-from-a-pharaohs-fall-4600

By Patrick J. Buchanan     February 1, 2011


Among the biggest losers of the Egyptian uprising are, first, the Mubaraks, who are finished, and, next, the United States and Israel.

Hosni Mubarak will be out by year’s end, if not the end of this month, or week. He will not run again and will not be succeeded by son Gamal, whom he had groomed and who has fled to London.

Today, the lead party in determining Egypt’s future is the army. Cheered in the streets of Cairo, respected by the people, that army is not going to fire on peaceful demonstrators to keep in power a regime with one foot already in the grave.

Only if fired on by provocateurs is the army likely to clear Tahrir Square the way the Chinese army cleared Tiananmen Square.

But the army does have an immense stake in who rules, and that stake would not be well served by one-man, one-vote democracy.

Like the Turkish army, the Egyptian army sees itself as guardian of the nation. From the Egyptian military have come all four of the leaders who have ruled since the 1952 colonel’s revolt that ousted King Farouk: Gens. Naguib, Sadat and Mubarak, and Col. Nasser.

The military has also been for 30 years the recipient of $1.2 billion dollars a year from the United States. Its weapons come from America. Moreover, the army has a vital interest in the “cold peace” with Israel that has kept it out of war since 1973, produced the return of Sinai, and maintained Egypt’s role as the leader of the moderate Arabs and major ally of the United States.

The Egyptian army is also aware of what happened to the Iranian generals when the Shah fell, and what is happening to the Turkish army as the Islamicizing regime of Prime Minister Erdogan strips that army of its role as arbiter of whether a Turkish regime stays or goes.

The Egyptian army will not yield its position readily, which is why it may tilt to the ex-generals Mubarak named Friday as vice president and prime minister.

The army’s rival is the Muslim Brotherhood. The oldest Islamic movement in the Middle East, the most unified opponent of the regime, its future in a democratic Egypt, as part of a ruling coalition or major opposition party, seems assured.

And while the crowds in Cairo and Alexandria are united in what they wish to be rid of, the Muslim Brotherhood is united in knowing the kind of state and nation it wishes to establish.

Why are the United States and Israel seemingly certain losers from the fall of Mubarak? Because in any free and fair election in the Middle East, a majority will vote for rulers who will distance the country from America and sever ties to Israel.

When it comes to America and Israel, there is little doubt where the “Arab street” stands. And the freer the elections, the more the views of the Arab street will be reflected in the new Arab regime.

But why do they hate us? Is it because of who we are?

Surely, it is not our freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly or free elections for which we are hated. For this is what the demonstrators are clamoring for. Indeed, it is in the name of these freedoms that the Egyptian people are demanding that we cease standing behind Mubarak and stand with them.

No, the United States is not hated across the region because of the freedoms we enjoy or even because of the lectures on democracy we do not cease to deliver. We are hated because we are perceived as hypocrites who say one thing and do another.

The Arabs say we support despots who deny them the rights we cherish. They say we preach endlessly of human rights but imposed savage sanctions on Iraq for a dozen years before 2003 that brought premature death to half a million children. They say we use our power to invade countries that never attacked us.

They say we have provided Israel with the weapons to crush the Palestinians and steal their land, and that we practice a moral double standard. We condemn attacks on Israelis, but sit silent as Israel bombs Lebanon for five weeks and conducts a war on Gaza, killing 1,400 and wounding thousands, most of them civilians.

Any truth to all this? Or is this just Arab propaganda?
After losing Turkey as an ally, Israel has just seen Hezbollah come to power in Beirut and the Palestinian Authority stripped of its credibility by the Wikileaks exposure of its groveling to America and Israel. Now Israel faces the near certainty of a more hostile Egypt.

As for America, if we are about to be thrown out of the Middle East, it would be neither undeserved nor an unmitigated disaster.

After all, it’s their world, not ours.

**********
(My remark~)  Yesterday (Feb 03) I turned on KCET (recently independent from PBS) for a travelogue.  Instead, they were carrying Israeli TV in English on the crisis in Egypt.  Their line was that Middle Eastern cultures (of all affinities) specially scorn those who suddenly pull the plug on old allies, and Iran would particularly make hay in the region on the example of US fecklessness.  Of course the Israelis would say this... But it probably is true.  

Bridging this and the previous post:
http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/2011/02/democracy-and-stoning-no-problem.html#more

Thursday, February 03, 2011Democracy and Stoning? No Problem!   by Baron Bodissey 2/03/2011 


We are on the verge of a democratic revolution in Egypt. This is the Egyptian equivalent of 1989, the “Arab Spring”.

If you believe the media, that is. And progressive politicians.

And most (neo)conservatives, for that matter, at least in the United States. For them the events in Egypt are a vindication of the policies of George W. Bush, who championed freedom as a universal right.

It’s a stirring sentiment, and one feels curmudgeonly arguing against it. But let’s pause to take a deep breath here, and then look more closely at what “freedom” means to a Muslim. Diana West, in reference to the Bush Doctrine, has this to say:

Such is “universalist” gospel. Universalists believe all peoples prefer freedom to its absence, which is probably true. But they also believe all peoples define “freedom” in the same way. Is that true?

The answer — and first concept — is no. The entry on freedom, or hurriyya, in the “Encyclopedia of Islam” describes a state of divine enthrallment that bears no resemblance to any Western understanding of freedom as predicated on the workings of the individual conscience. According to the encyclopedia, Islamic freedom is “the recognition of the essential relationship between God the master and His human slaves who are completely dependent on Him.” Ibn Arabi, a Sufi scholar of note, is cited for having defined freedom as “being perfect slavery” to Allah. To put it another way, Islamic-style “freedom” is freedom from unbelief.

And what about democracy? Are Egypt and the Arab world ready for democracy?

You betcha! But it may not be the kind of democracy that the revolution’s Western cheerleaders are thinking of. Democracy means the majority gets to vote for whatever kind of rules and institutions it likes. What do the majority of Muslims want?

For an outline of what ordinary Egyptians are ready to vote for, take a look at this summary from The Globe and Mail of a Pew Research poll conducted last year in Egypt:

Poll Shows Egyptians Favour Democracy and Stoning for Adultery

Egyptians reject radical Islamists, but want Islam to play a large role in politics and think democracy is the best political system, according to poll data collected in Muslim countries last year. The sample group of 1,000 was surveyed in face-to-face interviews in April and May of last year for the U.S.-based Pew Research Center. These results give an idea of Egyptian public opinion before the current protests there broke out.

Democracy

59%: Say democracy is preferable to any other form of government.

22%: Say a non-democratic system can be preferable in certain circumstances

Islam in politics

95%: Say it’s good that Islam plays a large role in politics

85%: Say Islam’s influence on politics is good

48%: Say Islam currently play a large role in Egyptian politics

Islamist extremism

80%: Think suicide bombings are never or rarely justified.

20%: Think suicide bombings are sometimes or often justified

70%: Are concerned or very concerned about Islamist extremism in the world

61%: Are concerned or very concerned about Islamist extremism in the Egypt

Traditional Muslim practices

54%: Believe men and women should be segregated in the workplace

82%: Believe adulterers should be stoned

84%: Believe apostates from Islam should face the death penalty

77%: Believe thieves should be flogged or have their hands cut off

So that gives you an idea of what “freedom” and “democracy” mean to ordinary Egyptians. How well would this checklist have gone over in Philadelphia in 1787?

Sad to say, a year or two from now Hosni Mubarak will start looking pretty good.









Hat tip: TV.

10:28:00 PM

Flogged to Death for Being Raped (at 14 Years Old)


Click here: http://www.aolnews.com/2011/02/03/bangladeshi-girl-dies-after-public-flogging/...

A 14-year-old Bangladeshi girl allegedly raped by a much older cousin has died after being publicly flogged for adultery, media reports said.


Hena Begum was sentenced to receive 100 lashes by a village council made up of elders and Muslim clerics in the district of Shariatpur, about 35 miles from the capital, Dhaka, the BBC said today.

She endured about 80 lashes before collapsing Monday, according to The Daily Star, a Bangladeshi newspaper. Her family took her to a hospital, where she died.

"What sort of justice is this? My daughter has been beaten to death in the name of justice. If it had been a proper court then my daughter would not have died," Dorbesh Khan, the girl's father, told the BBC.

Family members said Hena was raped by a 40-year-old married cousin, The Daily Star said. The man's family beat up the teen, then accused of her adultery, the newspaper said.

The very next day, she was sentenced to the flogging in a fatwa, or religious ruling, issued by the village council under Islamic Shariah law, the BBC said.

Her father was also told pay a fine of about $700, police told the BBC.

Four people, including a Muslim cleric, have been arrested in connection with Hena's death, the BBC said. Police said they were looking for another 14 people in the case.

Bangladesh's high court has ordered district officials in Shariatpur to explain why they did not protect the girl, The Daily Star said. The court ruled eight months ago that Shariah punishment was illegal.

In December, a 40-year-old woman in Rajshahi district died after she was publicly caned for allegedly carrying on an affair with her stepson.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

The Tea Party: More Traditional Than It Thinks

Perhaps those of us who are annoyed-to-appalled by the highjacking of the early antiwar / populist / paleoconservative-libertarian, as-down-on-the-Republican-Party-as-down-on-the-Democrats Tea Party by Zombies of the Nuttosphere, Pavlovian-programmed to TRUTHINESS
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truthiness          
need to put it all in historical context (& not just the obvious stuff like the Weimar Republic's fast slide down the volcano's inner downslope, and other examples of high cultures decaying so that manipulated mobs who suppose that they are reacting to save civilization become the worst of it).  The truthiness of the Teeps in regards to their invocative-idolatry-amidst-ignorance-of the teachings of the New Testament and the content of the Constitution is as drops in the lake compared to that of organized religion and the Supreme Court of the United States, and these old institutions may so much more be suspected of having pursued their perversions intentionally, and for insatiable self-aggrandizement.


Wednesday, February 2, 2011

CLAN McDUCK!

Getting away from this wretched political stuff.  Oh, take me to better Alternate U's!!!)

Clan McDuck - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia  ~snips (but there's so much more, all wonderful.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clan_McDuck ( lots of things should be linked, here, but I don't know how to do it.  Or pix).

The Clan McDuck is a fictional family in the style of a Scottish clan, from which a great number of Walt Disney Company's comic book characters held their origin.

According to Don Rosa's timelines the Clan is known since 122 AD,[1] when an, as of yet, unnamed member of the clan sold stone to the construction crew of Hadrian's wall. The Clan McDuck was originally called the Clan MacDuich, but dropped the Gaelic spelling of the name in 1071 and became the McDucks. The most famous members of the clan are Scrooge McDuck* and Donald Duck.

*'Scrooge McDuck or Uncle Scrooge is a Glaswegian[1] anthropomorphic duck...'

This has been expanded on in the Italian Disney comic universe in the story Storia e gloria della dinastia dei paperi (History and glory of the duck dynasty).[2] According to it, the clan was founded during the 1st century BC by Pah-Peh-Rheo, an Egyptian, who had become a Roman citizen as Petronius Paperonius. Originally following a campaign of the Roman Army to Britain, he eventually decided to settle in Caledonia (the Roman name for Scotland) among the populations of the Picts.

Donald, his sister Della Duck and her children Huey, Dewey and Louie Duck are descendants of the Clan through their maternal line of ancestry.

In the early 1950s Carl Barks was in his second decade of creating comic book stories starring Donald Duck and his various relatives. He had personally created several of the latter, Scrooge McDuck and Gladstone Gander being the most notable among them. But the exact relation between them was still somewhat uncertain. Carl decided to create a personal version of their Family tree. To better define their relations he added several previously unknown relatives. Carl never intended to publish this family tree as he had created it for personal use.

In 1981 Carl was well into his retirement but his stories remained popular and had gained him unexpected fame. He had given several interviews and answered questions about his personal views on the characters and their stories. Among other subjects, Carl described his early version of the family tree. Rough sketches of the tree were published in a number of fanzines. Fans of the characters were pleased for the background it added to them. At this point Mark Worden decided to create a drawing of this family tree including portraits of the characters mentioned. Otherwise Mark made few changes to the tree, most notably adding Daisy Duck as Donald's main love interest. His illustrated version of the tree was published at first in several fanzines and later in the Carl Barks Library. The later was a ten-volume collection of his works in hardcover black-and-white edition.

In 1987 Don Rosa, a long-time fan of Carl Barks and personal friend of Mark Worden, started creating his own stories featuring Scrooge McDuck and his various associates. His stories contained numerous references to older stories by Carl as well as several original ideas. After several years he gained a fanbase of his own. In the early 1990s Egmont, the publishing house employing Don, offered him an ambitious assignment. He was to create the definitive version of Scrooge's biography and a family tree accompanying it. This was supposed to end decades of contradictions between stories which caused confusion to readers. The project was to become The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck. The family tree accompanying it was first published in Norway on July 3, 1993.

In the process of working on Scrooge's biography, Don studied Barks' old stories mentioning his past. Then he added several ideas of his own. Among them were biographical information for Scrooge's supporting cast. In a way Scrooge's biography was also their own biography.

The seat of Clan McDuck is the McDuck Castle. The castle was first featured in the Carl Barks story The Old Castle's Secret in Donald Duck Four Color #189. Barks' only other story to have McDuck Castle was in The Hound of the Whiskervilles.

Don Rosa used the castle in The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck,[4] Parts 1, 5, and 9, and in A Letter from Home/The Old Castle's Other Secret. According to The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, the castle is located in Dismal Downs, somewhere in Rannoch Moor (a non-fictional location in Scotland). The nearest village is the fictional MacDuich. The McDuck family (except for a few family ghosts) vacated the castle in 1675, relocating to MacDuich, and later to Glasgow due to the depredations of "a monstrous devil dog." [5]

Other comic book artists have used the Castle too. The most famous use of the McDuck Castle outside of the Barks/Rosa universe is an Angus/Vicar story titled The Sobbing Serpent.

According to The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, the castle was built in 400 AD, as portrayed in the unpublished first draft sketches.[6] It is most probably based upon Andrew Carnegie's Skibo Castle, befitting the character of Scrooge McDuck as a loose caricature of Carnegie.[7] Upon the death of his father, Scrooge McDuck became Laird of The Clan McDuck and owner of the castle and its lands.[8] Indeed, Scrooge had supported the castle financially for many years prior, enabling the McDuck family to reoccupy it in 1885.[8]

In the show DuckTales, McDuck Castle appeared in the Episode The Curse of Castle McDuck where Scrooge, Webby, and the Nephews investigate a crisis in Scotland. That Episode is loosely based on The Hound of the Whiskervilles.[9]

Tartan of Clan MacDuck

Two Tartan patterns are registered with the House of Tartans, MacDuck, and MacDuck Final version (note spelling variation: MacDuck vs. McDuck).[10] These were created and registered by the Walt Disney Corporation, the MacDuck Final version in 1942, and MacDuck in 1984. Both tartans are non-fiction in nature and are available as bolts of cloth or finished kilts and other garments.

Some sources state Disney created the MacDuck Final version with Scrooge McDuck in mind.[11] This is unlikely, as Scrooge McDuck made his first appearance in 1947, in the story Christmas on Bear Mountain.

A tartan which looks like Mac Duck Final version is shown on some Don Rosa stories, such as The Old Castle's Other Secret or A Letter From Home.

Motto of Clan McDuck

Scrooge McDuck's gravestone epitaph reads "Fortuna Favet Fortibus." This is the best candidate for a clan motto.[12] Translated into English, it means "Fortune Favors the Brave" (or "Bold," or "Strong").

Main article: Scrooge McDuck

See also

Duck family (Disney)   Don Rosa's Scrooge McDuck chart    Rannoch Moor: The region where Dismal Downs is located; a real location in Scotland.

Categories: Donald Duck universe characters |  Fictional families |  Fictional family trees |  Disney comics characters |  Fictional Scottish people

Mostly Rotten But Maybe Some Good News

Egyptian Chaos Amid Protests over Mubarak Could Spell Opportunity for Investors - DailyFinance

http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/investing/egyptian-protesters-chaos-mubarak-opportunity-investors-buy-stock/19822819/ by Vishesh Kumar See full article from DailyFinance: http://srph.it/gd4Q32

Begins by quoting Baron Rothschild: 'The time to buy is when there's blood in the streets.'
Says it all, doesn't it?  Bloody bloodsuckers behind all wars, riots and their causes.

also (from Jordan's King Abdullah, who looks about as Arab as Charlie Brown :D)

http://www.aolnews.com/2011/02/01/jordans-king-sacks-government-in-wake-of-protests/?icid=main%7Chtmlws-main-n%7Cdl2%7Csec3_lnk1%7C198543

It could actually work out good for US and Western notions of reform (snips): Abdullah named Marouf al-Bakhit, 63, as Rifai's replacement. Al-Bakhit, an ex-general who supports strong ties with the U.S. and Jordan's peace treaty with Israel, previously served as prime minister from 2005-2007.

Abdullah ordered al-Bakhit to "undertake quick and tangible steps for real political reforms, which reflect our vision for comprehensive modernization and development in Jordan."

"Economic reform is a necessity to provide a better life for our people," the king said in the statement. "But we won't be able to attain that without real political reforms, which must increase popular participation in the decision-making."

Abdullah also demanded an "immediate revision of laws governing politics and public freedoms," including legislation governing political parties, public meetings and elections.

Al-Bakhit is a moderate politician, who served as Jordan's ambassador to Israel earlier this decade.

Like Abdullah, he supports close ties with Israel under a peace treaty signed in 1994 and strong relations with the United States, Jordan's largest aid donor and longtime ally.

In 2005, Abdullah named al-Bakhit as his prime minister days after a triple bombing on Amman hotels claimed by the al-Qaida in Iraq leader, Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

During his 2005-2007 tenure, al-Bakhit - an ex-army major general and top intelligence adviser - was credited with maintaining security and stability following the attack, which killed 60 people and labeled as the worst in Jordan's modern history.