Last night's pro-terror and anti-terror rallies

Last night there was a protest against Israel that essentially was little more than a rally openly in favor of Hamas. Thankfully, Stand With Us was on the case and there was an anti-terror rally across the street. Here is a link to pictures I took on my friend Irina's camera of both rallies. You will note open terror support, including "We support the resistance in Gaza." The Neturei Karta were also out in full regalia. I told them they are a "chillul hashem," aka, a desecration of G-d's name. I nearly got into an altercation with Hamas supporters, who were out and proud of their open Hamas support. I have to repeat: this was not simply a rally against Israel's right to self defense. Rather, these Hamas supporters were openly shouting Hamas and Hizballah slogans and holding up signs in support of terrorism. I thanked every police officer I saw, and told them I loved the NYPD and valued their good work. I added that I hoped they were profiling these terrorists. In the subway home, a group of at least four Hamas members hopped on the subway car, and it quickly got ugly. They shouted at me and we nearly came to blows.

Through it all, I realized: I am so lucky to be Jewish and American. Our side is right and their side is wrong. It cannot be any more simple than that. Anyone seeing the screaming, foaming-at-the-mouth monstrosity that is the Hamas support of the anti-Israel crowd cannot possibly say those cretins are civilized human beings deserving of respect. We are right, they are wrong, and it feels good to walk tall and proud as a Jew, as an American, and as a lover of humanity itself. I am optimistic for the future, as this degeneracy cannot and will not win out.

We cannot continue to 'apologize' for being members of humanity. It does a disservice to humanity itself. We need to stop 'engaging' with these Islamonazi thugs who mean to wipe us off the map. These are barely literate buffoons who seek to destroy us. 'Dialogue' will hardly stop this hatred. The only thing that will stop it is pride in country, religion, and ourselves. Am Yisrael Chai and G-d Bless America! Have a healthy and Happy New Year (Gregorian calendar), knowing that we WILL indeed win!

Here again is the link to pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/sicat222/StandWithUsRally?feat=email#

Why do bad things happen to good people?

I was thinking about someone who in my opinion overreacted to a minor comment I told her. The details of it all are not important, except to say that I realized that her overreaction was triggered by the fact that she clearly never had to deal with real pain in her life, as something so minor appeared to set her off on a train wreck.

Anyway, after all that mishegas, I had a moment of perfect clarity. I realized that I am lucky that I had pain in my life. I never realized it as clearly as I do today. I went through a turbulent childhood and young adulthood, and I had more than my fair share of pain, humiliation, and distress as I was growing up. And as a child and young adult, I never understood exactly why it was that I had to endure all that I endured. It seemed like I was simply being randomly punished. But I now realize how lucky I was to have gone through what I went through. I realized that I have grown as a person and a human being as a result of my childhood mishegas. As a result, I am a stable and mature young adult, and I know I would never react in such an erratic and overwrought fashion, as my friend reacted.

Because of my former life experiences, I am the person that I am today. Yes, I suffered at the time that everything happened. But in truth, I would not take back any of my mistakes and past heartache even if I could. Because it all made me a better and stronger person. I wish that I could have learned and grew and become stronger without having had pain in the past, but I do not think I really could have, in practical terms.

There is the expression, "what doesn't kill us makes us stronger." And it is simply true. Only those who have undergone pain in their lives have the strength of character to not fear pain in the future. Only those who have themselves endured the worst forms of gossip and humiliation frankly grow stronger and tougher and realize that, no matter what someone says about a person, ultimately, it does not matter, and as long as you believe in yourself, the opinions of others are wholly irrelevant.

The pain I had in my past gives me the strength to tackle whatever life throws at me. On an even simple level, after I broke my wrist and had it in a cast, I was less afraid of needles and pain, and now I donate blood regularly (when I have enough iron to do so!). I am lucky that I had an antisemitic ex-friend in law school who runs one of the top antisemitic websites on the internet, because that caused me to examine Judaism and Israel, and rethink my entire life perspective and ideology. It brought me to a Jewish community which I find so extremely meaningful.

And so I know that ultimately, I am lucky I had a bumpy past, the details of which are beyond the point of this post. If everything was smooth sailing, I would never have understood how to deal with even a minor wind.

Maybe this is just a small reason why bad things happen to good people, so to speak. When good people deal these bad things, it makes them better people.

The Oxford Chabad

This past weekend was spent in Oxford, England. I was there to visit a friend, and I decided to go to Shabbat services at the Oxford Chabad House. This past weekend also was a weekened where we learned the horrible fate of Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg, of blessed memory. But for me, what I witnessed in Oxford was a chilling revelation.

The Chabad House Shabbat dinner started out pleasantly enough. Rabbi Eli Brakman runs a very warm and inviting place, where Jew and nonJew alike feels welcomed to their Shabbat meal. The Rabbi spoke eloquently about the Holtzbergs, who he knew personally, as he studied with them at the 770 yeshiva on Crown Heights, Brooklyn. I enjoyed meeting an interesting assortment of individuals who attended the Shabbat services at Oxford, mostly affiliated with the famed university. But then, the speakers spoke. The topic was Obama and his effect upon the Middle East. The first speaker was a leftist, who apparently wanted Obama to press for 'peace,' whatever that means, for Israel. The second speaker was a Palestinian, who compared Israel to Nazi Germany, and then spoke of the horrors of his two day detention in a West Bank prison, and how he made an Israeli guard break down in tears when he compared the situation to Nazi Germany. He also spoke of the need for Israel to be forced to accept 'peace.' He said he is dismayed that Obama will be too pro-Israel. The third speaker was half Jewish, half Palestinian, and again compared Israel to Nazi Germany, claiming that when a little Palestinian girl wets her bed due to Israeli aggression, it is comparable to the hell his Jewish family has endured in pogroms and Nazi camps. The fourth speaker was Jewish and spoke about the need for Obama to push for a regional peace, but was not optimistic about the chances for such a peace.

None of the speakers were actually experts on Israel, 'Palestine' (a state which does not exist), or the Middle East. They rather were Americans, pushed to speak for reasons I cannot understand.

In short, at the Chabad in Oxford, on the very night that the Holtzbergs were murdered, Israel was compared to Nazi Germany.

You can be sure I was there with a strongly worded comment or five. I spoke of the failure of Camp David, and how it is proof that 'peace' is completely impossible at this stage, and not only is it impossible, but forcing Israel to commit suicide against its will does nothing but encourage more violence. In response, of course, I was told I am a 'fanatic' 'who does not believe in peace.' In short, there was absolutely no substantive response in the slightest given.

I found it interesting that afterwards, when I spoke with the organizer of this event, the explanation given was that somehow all the speakers were zionists, and it was a positive event, in comparison to the usual events at Oxford. I was told that when Shimon Peres (a man who famously stated we need to 'close our eyes for peace,' and who is a leftist and believes in ethnically cleansing Jews from our homeland in Judea and Samaria) came to speak at Oxford, there were riots. There in short is no academic freedom at Oxford. Frankly, if I was not in town and did not complain at the Chabad house, there would be little to no opposition to the extremist positions taken. And yet I was told these were the most pro-Israel speakers to speak in a long time! I was told that true Zionist speakers will not or cannot come to Oxford!

It is very sad, the state of the world we live in. I frankly track the shonda (yiddish for 'shame') which took place at the Chabad house to the Mumbai attacks. If we are afraid to defend ourselves, if we cannot speak out against injustice, then those who seek malice in this world will exploit this. Edmund Burke said "The only thing necessary for evil to succeed is for good people to do nothing." And he was right.

Why is it that at the #1 most 'elite' university in the world, pro-Israel speakers are afraid of literally being physically attacked? What sort of a world do we live in where we are not even allowed the dignity of our own narrative?

Assume, for an instance, that it is completely impossible to know who is right, either the Palestinians, or Israelis and Jews. Assume, for an instance, that 'no one narrative is better than another.' (this is completely a fallacious assumption, as there is such a thing as absolute truth, but we are assuming this for a moment)

Even under that assumption, why must we surrender our narrative to the Palestinians? Why must we give up even our own dignity? In response to blood libels, why must we apologize? This does nothing other than legitimize the blood libels! The Palestinian position has not changed even a millimeter in sixty years; if anything, it has gotten even more extremist. Yet we now live in a world of 'post-zionism,' where we have to 'understand' an enemy which wishes to destroy us.

Why do we have to 'understand' the enemy at all? There is little to no effort being made to 'understand' Jews and Zionism. The Zionist position is completely absent on campus, replaced, as it were, with the delusion of a 'two state solution,' which is little more than Auschwitz borders. Why is it that Alan Dershowitz, certainly no 'right winger,' is put on a pedestal and given a speaking tour, simply because he does not demonize the Jew?

Where is Jewish pride? Where is Jewish dignity? Why must even my own Zionist narrative be stolen from me?

We see there are people out there who seek to annihilate us not because we think one way or another. But rather, simply because we exist. Why have we given up the will to fight? Why do we even humor our enemy, and give them a forum to speak, yet we refuse to even listen to an Aryeh Eldad or Effie Eitam?

Where is our will to survive? Can it ever come back? When will a real Zionist be able to speak at Oxford without fear of physical violence? Will it literally take the moshiach coming?

Why do we so vividly and constantly have to cry about our brothers and sisters being murdered for being Jewish, and we say "never again," yet we fail to do anything substantive about this all?

What will it take for things to change?

Face My Expression

I value my freedom of expression, and I believe that everyone has the same right as I. One can hardly fathom a more fundamental instrument of one's free expression than one's face. Your face is your expression. It shows your reactions and your emotions: your happiness, your distaste, your pleasure, your comfort, your pain.

Your face is the strongest symbol of who you are. When I think of my loved ones, I conjure an image of their face. I love their face, as it is uniquely their own. It is my window into communicating with them, and they with me. I may not remember everyone’s name, but in the old cliché, "I never forget a face."

I can scarcely imagine a life where my face and its expressions were eliminated from my public expression. Indeed, I can scarcely imagine a life where I cannot stand up and freely speak my mind as myself – smiles, tears, scars and all. Yet, I must force myself to do so, because so many in our global community face (no pun intended) this very limitation. It is an uncomfortable scenario that I must create in my imagination, but to fail to do so is to fail to do my utmost to understand their experience. Yes, this article is about the Islamic veil, most specifically the niquab.

With this veiling, one still has the eyes, the "window to the soul", visible. Now even that has come under attack. Perhaps it has been for some time, and I simply am now becoming fully aware. I have certainly noticed that burqas have netting over the eyes, all but completely obscuring the eyes from view.

I must state up-front that is useless to discuss the veiling of the face as a personal choice in areas where personal choice simply isn’t an option. In far too many cases (and I would argue the majority of the cases), free choice is not involved. Social pressure, being ostracized, family/spousal demands, even the persistent threat of violence renders the choice not to veil outside of reality. In many places it is legally compulsory and enforced by religious police and vigilantes. If one does not have the freedom to say “no”, one also lacks the freedom to say “yes”. The choice has been made for you. For this reason, it is useless to speculate on choice. The very legal requirements for this demonstrate that there are many who would exercise the choice not to veil, necessitating legislation to compel women to veil against their will.

One is hard-pressed to conceive of a greater oppression than half of the species having their faces and voices barred from public life. One is hard-pressed to conceive of a greater invalidation of a person than to tell her that her face and expression aren't welcome in public life. By its very nature, this is the compulsory exclusion and silencing of half of our species from public life.

It is also a dangerous exclusion that is detrimental to society as a whole, including men. One wonders how men can learn respect women as full human beings with rights when women are perpetually faceless and shrouded. One wonders how men can learn acceptable and non-acceptable interaction with unrelated women when they are barred from such interactions, and, when such interactions do occur, cannot see the reaction of the women. One wonders how men can possibly respect women’s sexual boundaries in this way, or value their opinions and right to say “no”, when their society doesn’t value women's expression and right of choice.

It is for this reason that, sadly, this practice will have the opposite effect than the purpose/goal stated by the Saudi cleric. Rape and sexual assault is grounded in belief and justification for imposing your will on another against the other’s will. The inoculation against this behavior is a respect for a person’s right to choose and say no. This is just not possible in a society where women’s right to make their own choices isn’t respected.

While I will always respect a woman’s right to choose to veil herself, I find myself morally obligated to stand up and push for her ability to freely make that choice without fear of repercussions. Anything less isn’t choice, it is coercion.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7651231.stm

Israel agrees to free convicted and unrepentant child murderer in exchange for Regev/Goldwasser/Arad's dead bodies

This is the most sickening thing I have read in a long time. Israel agreed yesterday to free Samir Kuntar and at least a dozen others in exchange for the dead bodies of Regev/Goldwasser/Arad. I have to ask; why should a terror group who kidnaps a Jew/Israeli keep said person alive? There is no incentive at this point, given the trade. Kuntar was convicted for having infiltrated Israel, murdering a police officer, and then invading a home, taking a father and son captive, murdering the father in front of the son (so this was the last image the four year old saw), and then beat the four year old's head against a rock with a rifle butt. While this happened, the mother of the boy was holding her little daughter to herself in a closet, hiding from Kuntar and his gunmen, and smothered the daughter to death accidentally.

This is one of the most cold blooded and vicious murders in Israel's history. Kuntar has publicly said he has no regrets, and wants to kill more Jews. And Israel is willing to free this monster in exchange for dead bodies. This is utterly shocking. Hizballah says this shows their strength. I say that this says the officials in the Israeli government value the credo of 'no soldier left behind' even when such a credo threatens the safety and security of Jews around the world. Given Israel exists in part to protect Jews around the world, this cuts to the very heart of the values of the nation.

This will only cause terrorists to be emboldened, and try to kidnap more Jews/Israelis wherever they can. They know they will be able to extract a high price for the kidnappings, whether the person in question is dead or alive.

This is a sad day.

On Short-Term Haitus

Lots of work combined with lack of sleep is going to result in a short-term hiatus... wish me luck for this afteroon!  Be back soon. :)

Todays Starred Stories

Here are today's starred stories, organised by topic:

Creeping Dhimmitude

The Telegraph

A police community support officer ordered two Christian preachers to stop handing out gospel leaflets in a predominantly Muslim area of Birmingham

The evangelists say they were threatened with arrest for committing a "hate crime" and were told they risked being beaten up if they returned. The incident will fuel fears that "no-go areas" for Christians are emerging in British towns and cities, as the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, the Bishop of Rochester, claimed in The Sunday Telegraph this year.

Intolerance / Hate Culture

Elder of Ziyon, IsraelMatzav, Israel National News, Yourish

The Algerian government has arranged for 14 Iraqi children to receive surgery in Algeria so that they would not have to go to Israel as previously planned. The children’s mothers expressed relief, with one saying the “nightmare” of seeking help in Israel had been removed.

The children were going to receive medical care with help from the Israeli group Save a Child’s Heart, which provides free heart surgery in Israel to children in need from several countries around the world. Members of the Christian group Brothers Together (Shevet Achim), which works with Save a Child’s Heart and has offices in Iraq, expressed concern that Algerian doctors may not be adequately prepared to deal with some of the children’s complicated medical conditions.

JPost

Kuwaiti MPs stage walk out in protest of bareheaded female Cabinet members

Iran and Hezbollah

Smooth Stone, Soundbites, Solomonia, Israel Matzav, YNet, Yourish

Because We Value Life and They Value Death... Israel Receives Body Parts in Exchange for Spy.

Israel made a 'gesture' to Hezbollah today by 'deporting' convicted Hezbollah spy Nassim Nisr to Lebanon after six years in an Israeli jail.

In return (or maybe not in return) Hezbollah returned 'body parts' of Israeli soldiers that it had been holding since the Second Lebanon War in the summer of 2006.

As far as that wider exchange goes, Israelis overwhelmingly support trading the murderer Kuntar for Goldwasser and Regev - but only if Goldwasser and Regev are alive. If they are not alive, most Israelis oppose the trade. So far, Hezbollah has refused to say which it is.

Beirut Spring

5 points summing up Iranian tactics in the Middle East...

Principle No. 1: Always seek “control without responsibility.” In Lebanon, Gaza and Iraq, Iran & Friends have veto power over the politics, without being held fully responsible for the electricity. America’s allies, by contrast, tend to have “responsibility without control.”

Principle No. 5: Cast yourself as the “resistance” to Israel and America, so any opposition to you is equal to support for Israel and America and so no matter how badly you are defeated the mere fact that you “resisted” means you didn’t really lose.

IRNA

Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Mohammad-Reza Baqeri in a meeting with his Japanese counterpart on Saturday agreed to expand mutual cooperation.

History

BokerTov

The tomb of the Prophet Ezekiel in Kifl, south of Baghdad, used to be a pilgrimage site for Jews. It is one of few traces that remain of a once-vibrant Jewish community in Iraq. A pogrom in 1941 and other traumas led to a sharp decline in the Jewish population.

Weapons Manufacturing / Smuggling

Israel Matzav

Egyptian police disclosed today that they discovered a massive weapons cache inside a mountain in the Sinai desert.

They can figure out how to smuggle anti-aircraft missiles and hand grenades into Gaza, but not sugar and flour. Some 'blockade.'

"There's no doubt that the appearance of these weapons represents a very significant change," said Yoram Schweitzer, director of the Program on Terrorism and Low Intensity Conflict at the Institute for Counter-Terrorism at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya.

"Air force helicopters fly low over Gaza, and if they are downed the significance of that would be enormous. The air force has to make preparations, and take these weapons into account," Schweitzer said.

IMRA

Ten members of a family from the Abu Sha'ban clan were injured, including 4 women and 3 children, when an explosive device detonated inside their house.

Obama & Hillary... Combined?

I haven't heard much discussion about the recent news that Obama and Hillary may join forces...

Hillary Clinton will be offered a dignified exit from the presidential race and the prospect of a place in Barack Obama's cabinet under plans for a "negotiated surrender" of her White House ambitions being drawn up by Senator Obama's aides.

I am not supportive of the Democratic candidacy this year, however I think that this move could give the Democrats a great advantage over the Republicans.

What do you think this could mean for the presidential race between the Democrats and Republicans?

- Written by Steven

Contact Us

Earlier today somebody used our search engine to look for the word "contact". I am guessing that they were looking for contact information for our blog and it's authors.

Our contact details can be found by clicking on the link at the top titled About Culture for All.

Muslim of the Day

Abdurrahman Wahid

Tip of the hat to Bruce at MidEast Soundbites, and to Ron Kampeas at the San Francisco Sentinel for his original report (duplicated below):

[...] Best known as the president who shifted Indonesia to democracy from 1999 to 2001, Wahid [...] was forced out due to a combination of financial scandals and hard-liners who opposed his attempts to liberalize restrictions on political groups and the country’s Chinese minority.

Wahid also has gained prominence for his insistence on introducing the world’s most populous Muslim nations to certain truths about the Jews.

As an opposition leader, he broke new ground by visiting Israel in 1994. The apex of this effort, conducted jointly with the LibForAll Foundation, a group that promotes moderate Islam, and the Simon Wiesenthal Center, was the Holocaust conference last year in Bali, Indonesia.

At the conference, which was attended by survivors and Jewish and Muslim clergy, Wahid called Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a “liar” for denying the Holocaust.

Wahid, 67, continues to promote his message with LibForAll, founded in 2003 by C. Holland Taylor, a scholar of Southeast Asia and a telecommunications magnate. Wahid, who says he plans to run for president again in 2009, brings to the venture his prestige as the scion of a family of Javanese Islamic scholars.

Earlier this month he attended a Wiesenthal Center tribute dinner in his honor and then traveled to Israel to participate in Israeli President Shimon Peres’ conference celebrating Israel’s 60th anniversary, “Facing Tomorrow.”

This Jewish component is just part of Wahid’s larger effort to promote an ideology of moderate Islam. He wants to demonstrate that the radical factions are not pre-eminent and to promote a faith that preaches equality for women and tolerance of non-believers.

Taylor says the strategy is to reach political, religious and cultural leaders — even pop stars — and through them to “trickle down” the message of Wahid’s moderate Islam.

“We work with top leaders,” Taylor said. “These individuals are able to drip their message down to a grass-roots levels.”

LibForAll recruits respected, moderate Muslim leaders in Indonesia to endorse and write tracts repudiating the radical brand of Islam promoted by Saudi-funded advocates of Wahhabi Islam.

The organization also is disseminating a 30-lesson video curriculum called “What is Islam” [not released yet -Steven] that advances a pluralistic vision of the faith throughout thousands of Islamic boarding schools in Indonesia.

One of the project’s highest-profile coups was getting rock star Ahmad Dani, whose group, Dewa, has been likened to U2, on board with the program. Dani has recorded a single taking on Laskar Jihad, Indonesia’s radical Islamist terrorist group. The song is called Laskar Cinta — “Warriors for Love.” [Listen here -Steven]

Taylor says plans are under way to translate the videos and tracts into Arabic and other languages.

“We feel that Indonesia has the cultural capital to be a leader in the struggle,” he said.

This strategy might make headway in countries where moderate Islam has roots — Malaysia, Turkey and some East African nations — but Taylor does not have a clear plan of action for how this strategy is supposed to work in places such as Saudi Arabia, which has few Islamic moderates.

Wahid says moderate Islam stands a greater chance of triumphing over Islamic radicalism once Western leaders stop trying to accommodate Islamic extremists. Saudi Arabia, in particular, remains the primary funding source for the global spread of fundamentalist Islam.

That is worthy of being repeated:

Moderate Islam stands a greater chance of triumphing over Islamic radicalism once Western leaders stop trying to accommodate Islamic extremists.

“Don’t give any kind of recognition to the fundamentalist view of Islam,” Wahid said. “The Saudis have a double-pronged thing: the first is to give assistance to fundamentalists, on the other side to show the ‘humanist’ side of Islam. These things cannot be reconciled.”

The President's Dissonant Speech

Author unaccredited

There were several main goals of President Bush's recent address to the Knesset in Jerusalem: to reinforce the perception that the government of America is a staunch friend of Israel; to shore up the expulsion regime of the American elite's client regime headed by Ehud Olmert; to soften up the hearts and heads of Israeli Jews to accept more 'painful sacrifices' for 'peace'; to distract attention from America's arming and training of Fatah and to draw a facile distinction between Iran, Fatah and Hamas…

Islam, as the past two administrations have taught us "is a religion of peace" thus we are duly prepped for the ascendancy of that menacing hollow man, made-in-a-lab, B.H. Obama.

Few politicians are born but many are made… the lust for power, to be a made-man or woman intertwines tightly with the purple tones of the twilight times.

VP Cheney flew to the Middle East a few weeks ago. In Israel he declared that America must never do anything to compromise Israel's security. Then he flew to Amman and demanded the speedy creation of a "Palestinian State" which would destroy whatever remains of Israel's security and drive a last big nail into the coffin of history. Cheney's a politician and speaketh readily with forked tongue…

May 14th was the sixtieth anniversary of David Ben Gurion's declaration of Israel's independence. Miracles of course do not happen in one day: they are the result of many choices and deeds as well as the holy life energies of the Creator ^[1] acting over large tracts of space and time. For one thing, the occupying British who greatly assisted the Final Solution (delegated to their continental cousins, the Germans) did not leave the Promised Land that day in May sixty years ago: it took them a few more months to finish arming their Arab troops for the Federation on which they're still working with many helpers ^[2].  But politicians are not only personae, they are 'party-animals' so President Bush and an impressive entourage visited Jerusalem where he delivered an address remarkable for its incongruence with American policy, its internal dissonance and its effects on American presidential politics.

Remember that neither this nor any other post-War President formulates foreign or economic policy: he announces or indicates its shape, however bizarre; he may have some input into its articulation. But he doesn't want to choke to death on popcorn or anything else…

He read some lines remarkable for their sense: "we consider it a source of shame that the United Nations routinely passes more human rights [sic] resolutions against [Israel] than any other nation in the world" (with the United States being second as whipping boy for the "international community") ^[3].  But really, that is its purpose, shaped both by providence and the global oligarchy; condemning and dicing the Jews with attrition and dependency is the method and goal of "the Quartet" which is ALL the states in the world (the US, USSR, EU and UN). "In the end of days, all nations of the world will gather against Jerusalem…"

If Mr. Bush or his speech writers were serious about the UN, they, and previous administrations would have withdrawn decades ago and Israel with them. The dissonance shows that the oligarchs run American policy and intend no good to America or Israel.

The President denounced the Nazis and their assistants saying "they could not take away the spirit of the Jewish people and they could not break the promise of God." He's right, and that's a miracle (see above); and it's almost a miracle that this is the same fellow that said he looked into the pope's eyes and saw god ^[4]. This is why we noted that Presidents do not formulate policy nor write their own speeches anymore; this is why we note the kinship of politicians to harlotry.

Near the end of his speech, Mr. Bush made a reference rarely made by the dominant faction in Israel: "over the past six decades [actually, it has taken centuries] the Jewish people have raised a modern society in the Promised Land, a light into the nations that preserves the legacy of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob." If only this were more true; if only the oligarchy that the West keeps in power in Israel wanted this to happen; if only Israel was a Constitutional Monarchy settled in its tribal territories from the Sea of Reeds to the Euphrates and from the Arabian wilderness to the Western Sea. Did someone forget to tell the speech writers that every time Ms. Rice descends upon Israel she demands that her sub-contractors remove checkpoints so that more Jews can be murdered and destroy more Jewish towns and synagogues; to destroy Israeli army bases or Jewish-owned land and to build cities for the fictional "Palestinians" in their place? That they join her bosses in declaring Jews "illegal" residents in the center of the Promised Land? And that as checkpoints to weed out Arab murderers are dismantled, checkpoints to inhibit Jews from traveling to their homes are erected as part of the ethnic cleansing plan.

No, no one forgot anything. This was a birthday speech made in Jerusalem for those who love the promise of the Promised Land. It was politics. If it was Riyadh or Moscow or Rome or Zagreb a very different speech would have been made with a different amount of attention paid. After all, the key policy goal of both Bush II administrations has been to create a fake state for a non-existent people to curtail fulfilment of the Promise and legacy the President invoked. He may even have noted the dissonance in his writers having him hallucinate about a peaceful Palestinian State sixty years hence, "in a new period of tolerance and integration," they're smoking dope.

Being only VP, Mr. Cheney can be far more succinct and honestly dissonant, hoisting the thesis and antithesis clearly and in close proximity to enhance our virtual reality, the lie made truth.

But the above is background for the turmoil, probably pre-scripted that the President's remarks stirred up Stateside. Mr. Bush's writers had him denounce "the false comfort of appeasement" and the belief "that we should negotiate with terrorists" which is exactly what American policy requires that Israel do, it's blared out and enforced almost daily; it also is the catechism of Team Blue. State might quibble: didn't Mr. Bush himself declare that Abu Mazen (now decked in three-piece suits and called Mahmoud Abbas) "is a man of courage" and a "moderate" (May 2005) rather than the good cop to Hamas' bad cop? Mr. Abbas a few weeks ago vaunted to the press in Transjordan about the good old days when he and his co-worker Mr. Arafat created the PLO from Fatah (into which it has again devolved for the one is just a transliterated acronym of the other) for the same old purpose of destroying the Jewish State whose miracle Mr. Bush had extolled.

In any case, Team Blue acted as if this "delusion" and "false comfort of appeasement" applied only to them; Mr. Obama particularly was appalled: appeasement is his middle name. His purpose is to dissolve America into a North American Union and generic and impoverished part of the world state. The distinguished Senator from Delaware, Joseph Biden commented that Mr. Bush's praise of Israel was "B******it" ^[5]. Oh how the "debate" raged between "liberal and conservative commentators" for whom guests are props for the delivery of the daily truth.

Of course Team Blue is appeasers and destroyers of sovereignty; so are the Carlisle Group and much of Team Red, especially its upper echelons. Indeed the relation between the teams (America's 'two' political parties) recalls Hardy's poem "the Convergence of the Twain" and Milton's description of the ambiguity of death "if shape it might be called that shadow seemed…" ^[6]; the teams' contrived argument exemplified my essays on convergence in the purple dusk: boundaries dissolve; integrity, identity and history fade. The foreign policy teams of each candidate could fit snugly into the Carter or first Bush administrations: shape seems shadow and shadow shape; "fair is foul and foul is fair, -- hover through the fog and filthy air." It's the time of the lie made truth and erasure of history, even while the past is given "mouth honor." Today, "nothing is but what is not" as virtual reality meets reality TV in a climate like the fog in Macbeth's disintegrating mind and Culturetainment invites us to waltz on the decks of the Titanic.  

In Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad referred to Brussels as "a whited sepulcher." The same may be said of D.C. or Moscow, London or Rome as the new world disorder draws near, brandishing its dart… famine, plague, war and population reduction; despite the recent speech about the Nazis' failure, eugenic dogma has never been more entrenched in high places.

It is a time of trouble for Israel as the West destroys itself by attacking its root.

---

1.  Rambam, Yesodei HaTorah, 2:7 and Ramban on Genesis 1, the words "Bara" and "Yetzirah."

2. Samuel Katz, Days of Fire (Israel 1966; NY Doubleday 1968) remains the best source in English on events in Israel during the 1940s. Planned by 1915 in the subsequently abrogated Sykes-Picot treaty, secretly advanced by David Lloyd George at Versailles and then openly by Churchill in 1921-2, by 1944 the British plan for an Arab Federation featured merging the Lebanon and "Syria" (states that had never yet existed) with Transjordan (ditto) and Israel in a block to be merged subsequently with the state of "Iraq" which the British at that point were still trying to get into place.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/950373.html "In August 1944 the British government gave its representatives in the Middle East the go-ahead to implement 'the Fertile Crescent Plan.'" Call it the Assyrian Empire redux in which "Christian and Jewish minorities would enjoy [sic] autonomy." This plan is now called the Road Map and interlocks with other regional groupings served by the beer ad. Javier Solana and Tony Blair have been "crisis managing" in and around the Gaza Strip as George Tenet used to do.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/950189.html  You can't manage a crisis unless there's a crisis to manage. That's why Israel must be ruled by an oligarchy sub-contracted to the global oligarchs that deny Israel the fruits of victory, to fight for total victory or even fight a war at all, as was plain in July-August 2006. Into this Fertile Crescent, Arabia and the Gulf states fit like a big, fat oil-sloshed plug.
Just as the ancient Assyrians ruled their sprawling imperium by transferring populations and scrambling discreet peoples, so the new world omelet does the same via multiculturalism and 'free flow' of human resources across artificial borders.
The renewed press for Israel to surrender the Golan to Syria indicates the relentless Anglo-American push to achieve the Fertile Crescent Plan.

3. See www.eyeontheun.org for reports, inter alia, on the UN "human rights commission" which is dominated by the Arab League and other Islamic states, most of them created by Western empires with whom they continue to work hand-in-glove.

4. See note to EWTN in previous essay and note that the current pope is fast-tracking the beatification of Pius XII who couldn't bring himself to mention the massacre of  Jews during WW II and even made speeches inflaming the deicide claim. See John Cornwell, Hitler's Pope (1999).

5. Our previous essay discussed "the coarsening of speech" and "the reversion of the beast folk" in the prescient and nasty self-fulfilling prophecy of H. G. Wells (the Island of Dr. Moreau) for he and his fellow oligarchic world-breakers have done all they can to make people revert to beasts, the better to treat them as such.

6. John Milton, Paradise Lost (1673), Book II. 666-70, "if shape it might be called that shape had none…" Milton's description of death describes post-modernism's institutionalized ambiguities and negation of integrity. So does the bizarre trans-gendered nature of Aphrodite, see Hesiod, Theogeny 160-210; contrast the Hellenist idea of the love goddess and love to Genesis 24. For Macbeth references see 1.1.4, 10-11; 1.3.39, 83-5, 130-42, 5.3.22-8, passim.

[visit www.israelendtimes.com  & learn from our virtual encyclopedia. E.N. WW III: the War on the Jews (2007)

Photographs from the Negev

Thanks David. :-)

Israel at 60 event at radio City Music Hall: Demonstration and Counter-Demonstration!

Greetings! Sorry for not posting in ages! I have been very busy. Last night, I attended the Israel at 60 event at Radio City Music Hall. I was counter-demonstrating outside, and then I received a free ticket!

I was able to hear Matisyahu, he's amazing! The bands inside were amazingly talented, and I was able to hear Governor David Patterson speak. He was amazing! I am now a huge Gov. Patterson fan. :)

Anyway, below are pictures from the demonstration outside against Israel. As you can see, there was open support for terror, and the conflation of the Sean Bell case with the 'Palestinian' cause. I never knew Sean Bell was a 'Palestinian'! You learn new things every day! I told one of the people, a 70+ year old man, that he was associating with terror supporters (a clear fact), and he screamed, at the top of his lungs: "MURDERER! MURDERER! YOU MURDER LITTLE BABIES!" I was so shocked to see this level of hate in his eyes that I nervously laughed, and then walked away. The only surprise for me was the lack of the Neterei Karta presence.

Click here to see pictures of the 'demonstration'!

Samples:

Open terror support!

Then there was our counter-demonstration (yay Andy!). Click here to see some pictures. Am Yisrael Chai!

Samples:

It is clear who is flying American flags and who hopes to take down America.

UPDATE: Please read the Jewish Week for a summary of the concert last night. Rightly, Gov. Patterson was mentioned as an amazing speaker. He really did stand out.

Beware of the flying fish

Can someone please send open meat Imam... they need him horribly, to show his cat features!!

Todays UN Shame Round-Up

• To Sounds of Cheers, UN Human Rights Council Elects Khaddafi Prize Founder to Expert Post
• The Latest UN Fiasco: The Dugard Report
• Iran wants compensation for 'illegal UN sanctions resolutions'

Land of milk and start ups

While I am on an updating surge, I thought I would link an article about "Silicon Wadi," namely, the high tech industry in Israel. It is quite an interesting and informative read. Take a look!

The mindset of the typical Israeli entrepreneur has also helped shape the business. He (and it is usually a he, for there are even fewer female entrepreneurs than in Silicon Valley) is more of a nuts-and-bolts innovator than a clever marketer. Having grown up in a truly multicultural society, he is well equipped to deal with diversity, for instance in standards bodies. Being used to less generous funding, he knows how to improvise. Many Israelis also see their work as an act of patriotism, which explains how they can be both ultra-competitive, yet help each other out. And they are more interested in inventing things than in protecting them with patents. “It's like painting a good picture for others to see it,” says Zion Hadad, boss of Runcom, a pioneer of WiMax, an upstart wireless-broadband technology.

Read it all, for insight into the Israeli high tech industry!

Dor Chadash invites anti-Israel self hater to come speak

Dor Chadash is a Zionist organization, whose goal is to facillitate Jewish American and Israeli friendship, dialogue and understanding. It is an abomination that this supposedly 'Zionist' organization would invite some to speak who said that Israel acts like Nazi Germany. This is some sort of a 'legitimate' viewpoint?

And so, it happened that last night I went to the launch of "Z-Mag" (a Zionist blog) with the American Jewish Committee, and I was able to speak with the organizers of the Avrum Burg event from Dor Chadash. These people literally have no idea what Avrum Burg really said and think that he has a "legitimate viewpoint" that "deserves to be aired" and "it is censorship" to deprive him of a viewpoint. I told them that his "viewpoint" is nothing short of libels and hysteria, and says that Israel is essentially the new Nazi Germany. I said that his perspective is no more "legitimate" than Ahmadinejad, and if Dor Chadash allows Avrum Burg to speak, they might as well allow Ahmadinejad to speak. (why not? Columbia did!) I further said that if you were going to have a self hating Israeli come to speak, there should be some counterpoint to his hysterical perspective. I was told there was going to be someone from the "Forward" as a moderator. I replied that the "Forward" is a leftwing newspaper and not an effective counterpoint. I said a true counterpoint would be a Nonie Darwish or a Khaled Abu Toameh - Arabs who are pro-Israel. She replied "Well, we found it really hard to schedule people, it's not easy to bring people in to speak!" I said "Well, then you should not have scheduled Avrum Burg, because it is NOT an effective counterpoint to simply have the audience respond to him. The ONLY TRULY efective counterpoint to his perspective is to have an academic who is an Arab refusnik counter his blood libels." She basically was left speechless. I think I got through to the organizer from Dor Chadash, and she understands it might have been a mistake to invite this anti-Israel blood libeller to speak at what is *supposed* to be a Zionist organization.

If you are in the NYC area on April 1, I heartily encourage you to attend the Avrum Burg event to ask the difficult questions that need to be asked.

[UPDATE: Please go here for a fuller interview with Avrum Burg, so you can understand exactly who this man is.]

Take action; support Congressman Lowey!

(United States) Rep. Nita Lowey, Foreign Operations Chairperson, is demanding accountability from Abbas on statements he has made in Arabic in the Jordanian press. She spoke of taking away the $150 million in funding promised to the 'Palestinian Authority.' In addition to Abbas's Jordanian statements, the PA official newspaper put a picture of the terrorist who perpetrated the attack on Thursday in Jerusalem on the front page calling him a ‘holy martyr.’ As long as the endorsement of terrorism is still going on in the PA there will never be the possibility of peace. We must do all we can to hold them accountable.

We suggest that you call Rep. Nita Lowey thanking her for demanding accountability from Abbas and the PA for their statements, and that you call or email the White House demanding that they hold the PA accountable for their endorsement of terrorism.

Here is a suggested statement:

We call on the United States to hold PA Prime Minister Abbas and the official PA newspaper accountable to the 2008 Foreign Operations Bill for advocating or honoring terrorist activity. The PA newpaper called the perpetrator of last Thursday’s attack a ‘holy martyr’ and Mr. Abbas spoke with pride of violence he had waged in his past, suggested that terrorism could start anew in the future. Is this the PA that we want to be funding?

Representative Nita Lowey

Washington, D.C. Office

2329 Rayburn HOB

Washington, D.C. 20515

202-225-6506

202-225-0546 (fax)

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Washington, DC 20500

Phone Numbers

Comments: 202-456-1111

Switchboard: 202-456-1414

FAX: 202-456-2461

TTY/TDD

Comments: 202-456-6213

Visitors Office: 202-456-2121

E-Mail

Please send your comments to comments@whitehouse.gov.

Al-Queda Jaw dropper !!

In yet another example of terrorists lacking loyalty to other terrorists, the Sunni Deobandi movement of Afghanistan (Aka "the Taliban") had turned towards Shi'ite Iran, dumping Bin-laden (Al-Queda) into the dustbin. This came days after Deobandis had denounced terrorism (but not Jihad) in the Indian city of Deoband.

I was wondering, is Ahmedinejad going to represent next the Generation of "Al - Afghani (who was an official 'freedom fighter' from the Indian war of independence, or 1857 sepoy mutiny)", whose influence had given a new face to Islamic Jihad by influencing figures such as "Al-Hajj Mohammed Amin al Husseini" or "Hassan al Banna" during the days of the Armenian Holocaust. The Jerusalem Post has a small article about how dogs are eating dogs (so to speak)...

Al-Qaida supporters on the Web have unleashed an unprecedented flood of criticism of Afghanistan's Taliban, once seen by extremists as the model of an Islamic state.

Now extremists accuse the Taliban of straying from the path of global jihad after its leader Mullah Omar issued a statement saying he seeks good relations with the world and even sympathizes with Shi'ite Iran.

In February, the Taliban announced it wanted to maintain good and "legitimate" relations with neighboring countries. Then, last week online militants were outraged when the movement expressed solidarity with Iran, condemning the latest round of sanctions imposed on Teheran by the UN Security Council over its nuclear enrichment.

The Shi'ite Islamic state of Iran is viewed as anathema by the Sunni militants of the al-Qaida and other extremist movements.

"This is the worst statement I have ever read ... the disaster of defending the (Iranian) regime is on par with the Crusaders in Afghanistan and Iraq," wrote poster Miskeen, whose name translates literally as "the wretched" and who is labeled as one of the more influential writers on an al-Qaida linked Web site.

It seems, Deobandis sense good the increasing frustration in global democratic citizens, and is once again trying to play "safe Jihad" between by pseudo-splitting Religious fanaticism and Political fanaticism.

Are they marking a new revival of the 1926 for survival of Jihad? In 1926, meetings between prominent Islamists had given a new shape to Jihad by giving birth to two dedicated movements for Western and Eastern spheres of Jihad, i.e., the Muslim Brotherhood ("Ikwan"), and Tablighi Jammat respectively. Both organizations had (and have) goals of purifying Islam from non-Islamic activities in an 'apolitical' way (but still involving themselves with many political activities); Deobandis have merely insulated themselves with a 'more accepted' form of political Fanaticism.

Dogs does eat Dogs, and Political Islam does means this in all senses!! That said, it would be great if Al-Queda can release an official statement about "Al-Queda Phobia" in Talibanis, or will they will castigate the Taliban as Islamophobic and zionist agents :)

Human butchers mass murder in Jerusalem yeshiva

Just disgusting. Israeli Arab terrorists killed at least eight yeshiva boys today.

I have no words. This is an Israeli Arab group, supposedly 'so well integrated' into society,' who are doing the butchering, and in this case they purposely attacked a school - with teenage boys. The brutality and inhumanity is disgusting and beyond words.

What is most shocking is that somehow, despite the fact that this attack happened, 'peace talks' will go on, as if somehow there is a culture for 'peace,' or anything other than a desire for PIECES of Jews.

Tragic.

UPDATE:

If you have time, please say the following:

PSALM 130: A song of ascents. From the depths I called you Ado-nay. My Lord, hear my voice, may Your ears be attentive to the sound of my pleas. If you preserve iniquities, O' God, my Lord, who could survive? For with you is forgiveness, that you may be feared. I put confidence in Ado-nay, my soul put confidence, and I hoped for his word. I yearn for my Lord, among those longing for the dawn, those longing for the dawn. Let Israel hope for Ado-nay, for with Ado-nay is kindness, and with Him is abundant redemption. And He shall redeem Israel for all its iniquities.

PRAYER FOR THE ILL: He who blessed our forefathers, Avraham, Yitzchak and Ya'acov, Moshe, Aharon, David and Shlomo, may He bless and heal those injured today in the terrorist attack at Yeshivat Mercaz Harav. Because I (insert your name) will, without taking a vow, contribute charity on their behalf. In reward for this may the Holy One blessed be He be filled with compassion for them to restore their health, to heal them, to strengthen , to revivify them. And may He send them speedily a complete recovery from heaven among the other sick people of Israel, a recovery of the body, a recovery of the spirit, swiftly and soon and let us all respond Amen.

Overheard on the subway...

I was on the subway this morning, when I overheard a very telling comment. It is the very picture of 'liberal fascism.'

I cannot believe the Republicans are even running a candidate in this election. They should be taken out and shot for how they have ruined this country.

That is an exact quote I overheard. This person think she is the height of morality and superiority, in comparison to ChimpyMcHalliburton.

Illiberal liberalism at its 'finest.'

The Peaceful Realisation of The Palestinian Right of Self-determination

I found this link worth reading:

For nearly four decades, he expressed and symbolised in his person the national aspirations of the Palestinian people.

Now that he is gone, both Israelis and Palestinians, and the friends of both peoples throughout the world, must make even greater efforts to bring about the peaceful realisation of the Palestinian right of self-determination.

It looks like sort of new Gandhi to me...

Whatever, world leaders thoughts are alredy registered. My own comments will be too harsh if i publish them. Yet I wanna know, what do you think?

Jerusalem Our Capital

Via Carl in Jsrusalem:

In response to the murder of fifteen innocent civilians by a suicide bomber at Sbarro's Pizza in Jerusalem earlier that day, on August 9, 2001, Israeli security forces shut down Orient House (pictured at top left), a building just over the 'green line' in 'east' Jerusalem that the 'Palestinians' had made into a quasi government headquarters in violation of the Oslo Accords they had signed with the Rabin government in 1993 and 1995.

In August of this past year, 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen appointed former director of the Islamic Wakf Adnan Husseini as his 'adviser on Jerusalem affairs.' The Wakf is the organization that controls anything the Muslims call a holy site, and that currently controls the Temple Mount; the organization is responsible for multiple, daily violations of Israel's Antiquities Law on the Temple Mount. Husseini is also a cousin of the late Faisal Husseini, who held the position under Yasser Arafat. In an interview with the Jerusalem Post shortly after his appointment, Husseini placed a priority on reopening Orient House.

My only question is: Why isn't Israel making Jerusalem its true capital?

How Rachel Corrie Really Died

Hat Tip: Carl in Jerusalem, How Rachel Corrie Really Died.

Please see the videos below, and Carl's commentry above.

[ Video Source ]

[ Video Source ]

[ Video Source ]

Also see: The Strange Case of Joseph Smith

Will Hillary Defeat Obama?

BlackTigrrrr thinks so, and I feel the same way.

The people who hate her [Clinton] have maxed out. If anything, she might win over a small amount of them. Those who love her will fight to the death for her. People have gone to jail for this woman. They have died for her. They will do anything for her. That means anything.

Anything means destroying a man [Obama] who is an image, but largely undefined.

[ Full Article ]

“Progressive” Jewish Thought and the New Anti-Semitism

A worthwile read:

How can there be something “new” about something as old as anti- Semitism? Hostility to Jews—because of their religious beliefs, their social or ethnic distinctiveness, or their imputed “racial” differences— has been around for a long time. But, as this erudite essay by Professor Alvin Rosenfeld of Indiana University demonstrates, hostility to Jews has morphed into hostility toward a Jewish state, and that hatred has acquired the ability to leap across national, linguistic, and religious boundaries.

[ Download, Mirror ]

Redesign

[ Updated: 14th Feb ]

Hi all!

Any feedback/thoughts with regards to the template so far?

Here is the current off-my-head-to-do-list:

1. Themes
   • So far I have not created any themes, just a print-view and 2 font sizes. I could, however, completely alter the appearance of the site. Do you have any colour schemes or theme ideas?
   • I was told by someone that the website is hideous, and I need more colour!
2. Usability Issues
   • Add "more posts" or "previous posts" to the bottom of main/archive.
   • Fix the problem where post elements (such as videos) jump to the bottom of the column when they are too wide for the post area (IE Only).
   • There are no defined accesskeys.
   • I need to include a list of all the tags used in posts in the right-hand-column.
   • Intense Debate has a few glitches every now and again which need to be fixed or taken into account. (Note: The Intense Debate staff absolutely rock! I have complete confidence that these things glitches will be fixed.)
   • List how many comments have been posted prior to viewing the itempage.
   • Date headers (for all but the first date).
3. Javascript
   • Have some sort of warning to let people know when JS is disabled and that C4A would operate better with JS.

Thanks in advance for the feedback. Constructive criticism is always good - so please be brutally honest.

Steven

RSS Reader

What is RSS?

ProBlogger answers:

RSS is a technology that is being used by millions of web users around the world to keep track of their favorite websites.

In the ‘old days’ of the web to keep track of updates on a website you had to ‘bookmark’ websites in your browser and manually return to them on a regular basis to see what had been added.

I am currently trying to maintain a public RSS Reader with collects updates from various sources all over the web.  I have organised the public reader into 3 levels of priority as follows:

Level 3: Master Feed
This is where all the stories appear as soon as they arrive.  Anything could appear here, even stories that I don't support.  [Link]

Level 2: Selected Stories
When I am browsing the internet and I see a story I want to share, or if I read a story from the Master Feed that I want to share, I add it to this list.  [Link]

Level 1: Starred
When I feel a story is a must-read, it will appear in the "Starred" list.  [Link]

Meaningless Words

How can anyone debate anything in this age when we don't even agree on the definitions of words?

What does it mean to want "Peace"?

What is "Terrorism"?

What is "Barbarism"?

What does it mean to be "Liberal"?

What qualifies as "Torture"?

What does "Palestinian" really mean?

How can we have conversations about so many issues when we often don't agree with the definition of simple words?

The Culture for All Dictonary

I want to regain control of the meaning behind the words I use.

From now on, when anyone has any doubt about a word that I have used, I am going to write a definition on Culture for All and label it with the "Definition" tag.

This dictionary is not authorative, but it will serve its purpose.

Global Warming

I am no expert, however I can identify propaganda and find people who refute it.

I can also weigh up the options... to see what choices are avaliable to us.

Video 1: Propaganda

Video 2: Refutations

Video 3: Choices

Also take note that:

• Alternative renewable energy will help reduce or eliminate our dependency on oil-exporting countries
• Oil reserves are finite, so eventually we will be forced to use renewable energy no matter what.
• Natural renewable energy will not pollute our environment.

Make your choice.

Wrong. Just Wrong!

When I read the following story... I immediately looked towards the chocolate cake picture and felt cravings.

Mmmm. Chocolate cake!

But then I read the headline.

Shop-owners sold chocolate cake sprinkled with human faeces

Two shop-owners were today fined for selling chocolate cake - which had been sprinkled with human faeces.

A horrified customer ate the foul-smelling gateaux but noticed that it didn't taste or smell "quite right" and handed the cake to public health scientists.

The analysts soon established that the sweet treat was covered in faeces and legal proceedings against the shop owners were started.

Shop owners Saeed Hasmi, 25, and Jan Yadgari, 23, were fined £1,500 for selling food unfit for human consumption.

This, is utterly revolting.

I know I don't need to explain that, but - saying it helps!

Yuck.

Yuck. Yuck. Yuck.

"Subsequent examination by the public analyst and national public health service laboratories confirmed the presence of faecal matter.

"There were bits of it all over the top of the cake.

"We cannot say for definite what kind of faecal matter it is, although it is very likely it was human. It would have to go through a DNA test for us to know for absolutely sure."

When I said I would have liked a strong Chocolate industry in my ideal society, this is not what I meant!

The case has taken 18 months to come to court and the pair have both left the Pizzeria.

Shams Mehrabi, who took over the Italiano Pizzeria in March, condemned the actions of the two men. He now has hygiene certificates on the wall and said: "I have the highest standards.

"This is a completely different business now. We have a lot of happy customers - we won't be selling chocolate cake."

Thank goodness, a happy ending!

The moral of the story: Be careful when you eat out!

[ Update: Beware of the Chocolate Conspiracy! ]

[ UPDATE (Red Tulips): I just wanted to inform you that not only is there a chocolate conspiracy...there is a VAST NETWORK of a chocolate conspiracy! Be afraid! There is a plot for worldwide chocolate domination! ]

[ POST-SCRIPT UPDATE: (Red Tulips): FYI, Steven actually prefers white chocolate to dark chocolate! White chocolate is not even really chocolate! Culture for All readers, I declare it is our duty as citizens of the world to show him the error of his ways. He has blasphemed the chocolate faith, dammit! Attica! Attica! ]

[ Update (Steven): Leave the dark side! Its tastes bitter! ;-) ]

Scalia Defends Ticking-Time-Bomb 'Torture'

Justice Scalia of the US Supreme Court recently echoed Alan Dershowitz's 'ticking time bomb' idea on torture. His words are below:

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said that aggressive interrogation could be appropriate to learn where a bomb was hidden shortly before it was set to explode or to discover the plans or whereabouts of a terrorist group.

"It seems to me you have to say, as unlikely as that is, it would be absurd to say you couldn't, I don't know, stick something under the fingernail, smack him in the face. It would be absurd to say you couldn't do that," Scalia told British Broadcasting Radio Corp.

Scalia said that determining when physical coercion could come into play was a difficult question. "How close does the threat have to be? And how severe can the infliction of pain be? I don't think these are easy questions at all, in either direction," he told the BBC's "Law in Action" program.

[ Source ]

I have had this discussion with many law colleagues of mine. I asked them the following...

Assume, for the sake of argument, that torture works. Let us just assume this - because in fact it has been proven to work in certain instances. If there is a ticking time bomb that could kill thousands of people, would you be willing to torture someone to find/diffuse the bomb? What if your sister, your mother, your niece, the love of your life...is under imminent threat to be raped/maimed/beheaded? Would you advocate a form of torture in order to save them?

My friend said no. He said that - literally even if a million people were to die - he still would not torture anyone. That is what he told me. I think that is not only absurd, it is unrighteous. Then, when pressed, he said that was because he really did not believe torture worked. But with his back against the wall, he said he would torture someone to save his family, to save humanity, BUT, he thinks that he should be punished afterwards for doing so.

So I ask this to the John McCains of the world, knowing that waterboarding was used to get vital information from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed...

Why is it righteous to let a million people die, just so...what? For what? For a 'principle'? What sort of principle? Why is it inherently evil to torture, for any reason whatsoever, even to save a life?

I will put it this way. We believe murder is wrong. But killing in self defense is not wrong. So why is "self defensive" torture - not for revenge, but rather to glean information to save lives, inherently wrong? And what is torture, exactly? Is waterboarding torture? You can recover from waterboarding. Wouldn't REAL torture mean harming someone to the point that they are harmed for life? (such as, to be graphic, hacking off limbs) Why is it so inherently true that waterboarding is torture?

I believe we have a duty to treat prisoners humanely. But why do we have a duty to treat prisoners who have information vital to saving lives SO HUMANELY, that it puts American lives at risk? Why? Under what theory, exactly?

As an aside, I wrote of this subject on Culture for All a while back, and I still agree with what I wrote back then.

[ UPDATE FOR CLARIFICATION ]

I just want to say that I do not think REAL torture is ever justified, but the CURRENT definition of torture DOES find justifications, in my opinion. (under the 'ticking time bomb aegis) I view REAL torture as inflicting permanent injury to a person. (the hacking off limbs scenario) I am simply not convinced that it EVER is necessary - from a security perspective, or getting information perspective - to engage in such barbaric tactics to save lives. And even if it were...where does the slippery slope end of the 'ends justifying the means'?

What is the Target?

In the past few weeks I have argued that people must stop labeling Islam as evil, and to just focus on the issues at hand. This meant, I said, talking directly about Sharia and preventing its spread.

Clearly Sharia (and other Fascist Islamic Supremacist tools) are linked to Islam, however I believe that I can separate the two. Furthermore, I believe that by separating the foundations and constructs of Islam from the broad label "Islam" it will A) protect Muslims who do not wish to impose Sharia on us and B) be more effective at combating the spread Islamism.

I will explain further by quoting from a couple of conversations I have had in the last week.

You [Aka. Me!] claim saying 'anti-Shariaization' is better than saying 'anti-Islamization'.

Why is it better?

Robert Spencer would probably say that you cannot be a devout Muslim and NOT want Sharia to rule over everyone.

If the foundations [Sharia law etc.] are the same as the building itself [Islam]... maybe there is no difference.

I replied as follows:

I may agree with Robert Spencer there - but I don't need to discuss Islam.

Specifically fighting Sharia law will affect Islam, but it will not harm any Muslims who do not wish to impose Sharia law on our societies.

It's the difference between being against Judaism, or being against Halacha.

If someone was anti-Judaism you would be defensive.

If they were anti-Halacha, you could more easily shrug your shoulders.

I think we should fight Sharia on the specifics of what the law actually represents. Muslims can debate the theology themselves.

I believe this would be vastly more successful than the anti-Islam positions that most anti-Sharia groups are propagating.

On a previous occasion I also wrote:

I am sure most people in the UK who are not Muslim, would not take kindly to an organisation that suggests all Muslims are Islamists, unless they are afraid of leaving Islam. If I went around and said Islam is evil to the core and there are either Islamists and Muslims who want to leave Islam - I would look foolish. Muslims are everywhere here. I know Muslims who are not Islamists and don't wish to leave Islam... this simple bit of personal knowledge would be enough to completely discredit the entire anti-Sharia organisation... which is currently not doing buch more than creating climate of suspicion and fear of all Muslims.

Maybe not all these Muslims are "real" Muslims... I don't know - but even if they are not I don't really care. What I do know is that they think they are Muslim and their identities are linked to Islam... yet they are good decent people. Saying that Islam is evil doesn't get us anywhere. It is up to the theologians to discuss religious tenants - and up to the individuals to make up their own individual minds as to whether or not Islam is for them or not.

If we fight Sharia it will force Muslims to discuss Islam... but discussing Islam is their job, not ours.

I do not want to allow the establishment of a state within a state... it will not have positive ends. I think we should make efforts to fight Islamic supremisism, and that includes fighting against the establishment of Islamic law in our societies.

I am open to criticism... please share your views with me. Thanks.

Your Values

I have been speaking to Red Tulips about what values are important for me in society. I came up with this basic list of values:

• Secular law.
• Freedom of expression.
• Freedom of religion.
  • *Any* religion - because religion is a personal matter, not state business.
  • Religious practices that breach secular law will be deemed illegal.
  • A state can have an official religion if it likes, so long as everyone has freedom of religion.
• A representative and accountable government.
• A strong chocolate industry. ;-)
• Standing behind these values and not subscribing to cultural and/or moral relativism.

If you could create any society, what would its values?

Cute Zionist Octopus!

Elder of Ziyon via Israellycool gave me a smile today with a very cute [and evil] "Zionist Octopus".

Here he is!

"We urge the Muslim and Arab nations to act decisively against the Zionist octopus that threatens the security of Arab and Muslim countries," Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said.

*Grins*

The dehumanizing antisemitic octopus imagry is not new, as evidenced by two famous examples below:

[ Source ]

[ Source ]