SCHOOL DAYS, THEN AND NOW
1. Scenario: Jack goes quail hunting before school, pulls into school parking lot with shotgun in gun rack.
1957 - Vice principal comes over to look at Jack's shotgun. He goes to his car and gets his shotgun to show Jack.
2007 - School goes into lock down, and FBI is called. Jack is hauled off to jail and never sees his truck or gun again. Counselors called in for traumatized students and teachers.
2. Scenario: Johnny and Mark get into a fist-fight after school.
1957 - Crowd gathers. Mark wins. Johnny and Mark shake hands and end up best friends.
2007 - Police called. SWAT team arrives. Johnny and Mark are arrested and charged with assault. Both are expelled even though Johnny started it.
3. Scenario: Jeffrey won't be still in class, disrupts other students.
1957 - Jeffrey sent to office and given a good paddling by the principal. He returns to class, sits still, and does not disrupt class again.
2007 - Jeffrey is diagnosed with ADD and given huge doses of Ritalin. Becomes a zombie. School gets extra money from state because Jeffrey has a learning disability.
4. Scenario: Billy breaks a window in his neighbor's car and his Dad gives him a whipping with his belt.
1957 - Billy is more careful next time, grows up, goes to college, and becomes a successful businessman.
2007 - Billy's dad is arrested for child abuse. Billy is placed in foster care and joins a gang. State psychologist tells Billy's sister that she remembers being abused herself, and their dad goes to prison. Billy's mom has affair with psychologist.
5. Scenario: Mark gets a headache and takes some aspirin to school.
1957 - Mark shares aspirin with principal out on the smoking dock.
2007 - Police called. Mark is expelled from school for drug violations. Car is searched for drugs and weapons.
6. Scenario: Pedro fails high school English.
1957 - Pedro goes to summer school, passes English, goes to college.
2007 - Pedro's cause is taken up by state. Newspaper articles appear nationally explaining that teaching English as a requirement for graduation is racist. ACLU files class action lawsuit against state school system and Pedro's English teacher. English banned from core curriculum. Pedro is given a diploma anyway but ends up mowing lawns for a living because he cannot speak English.
7. Scenario: Johnny takes apart leftover firecrackers from 4th of July, puts them in a model airplane paint bottle, blows up a red ant bed.
1957 - Ants die.
2007 - Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, Homeland Security, and FBI called. Johnny is charged with domestic terrorism. The FBI investigates parents; siblings are removed from home; computers confiscated. Johnny's dad goes on a terror watch list and is never allowed to fly again.
8. Scenario: Johnny falls while running during recess and scrapes his knee. He is found crying by his teacher, Heather. Heather hugs him to comfort him.
1957 - In a short time, Johnny feels better and goes on playing.
2007 - Heather is accused of being a sexual predator and loses her job. She faces three years in state prison. Johnny undergoes five years of therapy.
Johnny sues Heather and the school, settles for $2.5 Million
Sunday, September 30, 2007
obama= the beast ??
A simple word play on this phonetically ironic name will generate Barack=Iraq, Hussein=Saddam (Hussein), Obama=Osama (Bin Laden).
Obama claims to be a Protestant Christian (The United Church of Christ).
Many websites are already beginning to question if Barack Hussein Obama is indeed the supposedly coming “false Messiah”, id est, The Antichrist. Indeed, according to Overture.com (the parent of the Yahoo search engine) Barack Obama is the 2nd most popular search incorporating the keyword “antichrist”. In fact, if you perform a Yahoo search for “antichrist”, the alternative suggestions are “Also try: barack obama antichrist, tony blair antichrist, maitreya antichrist” with Obama's name being the first alternative. Google claims well over 100,000 web pages connecting Barack Obama and Antichrist.
With all of these coincidences, it does make one wonder, is this man really a secret Muslim Manchurian candidate, and if so, is he dedicated to the Jihad declaring Death to all Whites? Recently, Australian Prime Minister John Howard expressed concern when he said, “If I were running al Qaeda in Iraq, I would put a circle around March 2008, and pray, as many times as possible, for a victory not only for Obama, but also for the Democrats” in response to Obama's ill-conceived binding legislation introduced in the Senate, seeking withdrawal of all U.S. forces from Iraq by March 31, 2008.
Obama himself expressed that the first Black Presidential win, would transform the nation, suggesting that an impulsive Black President could detrimentally impart a measure of political superiority upon Blacks — when he spoke before a Black crowd gathered at the National Urban League convention in St. Louis, saying “The day I'm inaugurated, the country looks at itself differently. Don't underestimate that power. Don't underestimate the transformation.” This would-be-first Black President also said, “We have more work to do when more young black men languish in prison than attend colleges and universities across America” seemingly without any real understanding as to the very cause, nor comprehending the requirements for mitigating the consequences of this fact — the basis of which has been determined as a natural genetic predisposition toward lower intelligence in Blacks. In light of all this, one must now consider the very real possibility, that even further leniency toward Blacks would thoughtlessly be granted by newly appointed judges; meaning even less imprisonment for predominantly violent Black criminals, should Obama achieve his goal, and actually win the White House.
Many people assume the name “Barack Hussein Obama” to be that of purely African origin, and indeed the name “Obama” is just that — however his first name came directly from the Holy Qur'an, where the word “Barack” means “blessed”. It is without much doubt that everyone on earth now realizes that “Hussein” is a Muslim name, one which originated from Hussein bin Ali, who was the Sharif of Mecca, Emir of Mecca, King of Hejaz, and Caliph of all Muslims. So one needs to ask themself, will Barack Hussein Obama be yet another Black Muslim, this time sworn into our nation's highest office, using the Holy Qur'an? Does he seem to fit the middle-eastern-looking profile which has been suggested by many theologians, as being that of The Antichrist? Why has he downplayed his attendance at a “predominantly Muslim school” (Saudi-funded Madrassa) in Jakarta Indonesia?
The other night before going to bed, I saw on CNN, radical Black Muslims in Europe standing in front of a Catholic church, calling for the death of the Pope. They were dressed very similar to the Muslims you see killing Americans in Iraq (faces covered with cloth; with only their eyes showing). Their message was succinct, “The Prophet Mohammed has come to slaughter all of you. We are Muslims, we drink the blood of the enemy, and we can face them anywhere. This is Islam. This is jihad.” A quote of the message shouted by bullhorn from masked Black men in front of a Catholic church. Keep in mind, if a White European was to shout even the most benign comments against Muslims or the Prophet Mohammed in front of a Mosque, he would quickly be arrested and charged with “inciting racial hatred”, a charge seemingly applicable only to native European Whites. So why the double standard?
One needs to ask, why would White Europeans EVEN LET such vile non-White Muslims into their country, if all they want to do is commit crimes against Whites and commit acts of racial violence? Have White people the world over, collectively lost their minds? What was life like before “multiculturalism” and is it really so much better now?
Minority Race is apparently so important in American politics these days, that it has ultimately propelled this Black Chicago politician, a freshman senator, less than two years removed from the corruption plagued Illinois state senate, into the limelight of the upcoming 2008 U.S. Presidential election.
Yet we still aren't supposed to engage in any real, genuine, or honest public debates regarding the realities of race.
I will freely admit that I am wholly unimpressed with, and do not endorse any Democratic presidential candidates. So let me note that Senator Barack Obama (Democrat, Illinois) strikes me as essentially a no-more-or-less typical Democratic candidate for President, similar to any of the other potentials, past or present, including my very own irrelevant governor, Tom Vilesack from Iowa. Vilesack has since withdrawn from the race due to a lack of support, although some might point to the many scandals and economic failures in Iowa during his tenure as a cause; such as the CIETC Scandal (Central Iowa Employment and Training Consortium) which coincidentally happened to unfold while Vilesack was campaigning in New Hampshire. Scandals of other candidates notwithstanding, I do believe that I might be able to play an educational role here, by actually mentioning some of the quite unmentionable reasons behind “Obama-mania”.
Obama is often being compared by the media to Tiger Woods, however he bears a striking difference from Woods in two rather significant ways. First, his list of accomplishments within his chosen profession is vastly smaller, and second, Woods rejected Nike's assertion that he should identify himself as Black (in order to maximize his marketability in North America). Woods rejected this notion because he did not want to offend and alienate his mother and all of his other non-Negro ancestors.
In contrast, like Oscar winning Halle Berry, Obama identifies only as Black, tho that requires a somewhat symbolic disowning of his White mother and maternal grandparents — despite the fact that they did far more for him than his drunken abusive polygamous African father (who, like most Black fathers, abandoned him when he was age two, later dying in a one-car drunk driving accident in Kenya when Obama was age 21). In a New York Magazine article, Obama comments, “I ceased to advertise my mother’s race at the age of twelve or thirteen, when I began to suspect that by doing so I was ingratiating myself to whites.” This seems to me to be rather self-sacrificial, but oddly enough, this statement apparently hasn't hurt his popularity amongst Whites one bit! Interestingly, in what appears to be a rather coincidental theological parallel, throughout all of his life, Jesus would often ridicule, scold, and even disowned his mother at the age of twelve (Luke 2:49, John 2:4). Although this may merely be yet another coincidence, but isn't The Antichrist prophesied to have many parallels in common with Jesus? Also, what audience reactions have you observed when Obama speaks, and how is this entranced captivation similar to what was foretold by end-times prophecy?
Regardless of all this circumstantial evidence, the brutal truth remains that Obama is an Uncle Tom. He is a remarkably exotic variety of “faux American Negro”, and is essentially what is termed “an Oreo”. He has absolutely no ancestors who were ever slaves in the U.S., moreover, his upbringing by his White mother and Muslim stepfather in Indonesia — and at age 10+ by his White grandparents in Hawaii (an area where mixed-race children are essentially commonplace) has almost wholly divorced him from any semblance of an “African-American” heritage, except of course for what he could see and possibly assimilate from watching TV.
Even genetically, Obama; whose East African descent is apparent by his above-Black-median intelligence, generally non-aggressive, nonviolent nature, as well as his unusual facial features — has only a very distant relationship to West Africans, who are the predominant ancestors of American Blacks. But differences such as these just seem to make this nominal “African-American” all that much more endearing to Whites. So why are so many Whites, especially those in the media, so passionate about promoting this man for President in 2008?
Obama-mania appears to be quite similar to the Colin Powell craze of 1995. Of course, Powell had far better qualifications. He had been intimately involved in managing a successful international campaign, the Gulf War of 1991. He had also articulated a thoughtful, cautious policy for when and how to conduct military operations, the Powell Doctrine, a journalist created neologism, based in large part on the Weinberger Doctrine, the wisdom of which our current situation in Iraq has only served to underline. Supporting Obama for President, like supporting Powell a decade ago, is seen by many Whites as the ultimate in White Guilt absolution!
It is important to understand however, that White Guilt is quite different from, for example, Catholic Guilt — which consists of a very straightforward feeling of spiritual, personal and of course, moral failure.
By comparison, I don't think I've ever met even ONE White who personally felt any real guilt for the inability of Blacks, some 140+ years after slavery had ended, to fit and function within American society. But I HAVE known many Whites, who choose to loudly and unfairly blame Racial Realist Whites for the many obvious Black failures.
Some Whites choose to heap guilt upon their own ancestors, but many who publicly proclaim both the existence and reality of White Guilt, aren't at all averse to noting that their own forefathers arrived at Ellis Island long after slavery was over, thus absolving themselves forever of any inherited shame.
In other words, White Guilt is just another power ploy in the great American White status struggle. Negroes have become nothing more than mere pawns, used by some Whites in asserting a higher level of moral superiority over all other Whites.
Also, finding and punishing “guilty” Whites seems to have become almost a national obsession. One notorious example from current events is the framing of the White Duke University lacrosse players by Durham district attorney Mike Nifong (with the enthusiastic assistance of the Jew York Times) in their endless hunt for what Tom Wolfe, author of Bonfire of the Vanities calls “the Great White Defendant”. It appears that many Whites want to be able to say, “I'm not a hater, I'm not one of those bad Whites — l voted for a Black guy for President!”
I also suspect that there is an even more insidious reason many Whites wish Obama becomes selected for President — they hope that when Blacks finally move into and take over the White House, it will prove to ALL American Negroes, once and for all, that White animus isn't the root cause of all their troubles. They hope that it will show, once and for all, that all Blacks need to do is to live and behave just like “President Obama”, and all their problems will disappear as well!
It's quite a seductive vision, don't you think? It plays right into our national delusion — that race is only skin deep, that race is “all in our minds”, and that the solution for all racial conflict is to simply become color blind.
Of course, selecting Obama for President won't actually have any real effect upon typical Black behavior, just as electing Tom Bradley as Black mayor of Los Angeles for five terms in a row from 1973-1993, prevented the thousands of Black rioters from looting and burning down much of that city's commercial district in 1992. Another example could also be drawn from the more recent Black riots in Toledo Ohio, where electing a Black mayor, Jack Ford, had little effect in preventing the Black riots of October 15, 2005, which left many White and Asian-owned, North Toledo businesses, looted and in flames.
Since the Civil Rights Act was first enacted on July 2nd, 1964 — legislation which for the first time in our nation's history outlawed segregation in the United States, there have been at least 47 Black riots in the U.S. — far more Black civil unrest during the post-segregation period, than in any earlier period in history! Obama even cites such cases in a speech before Blacks at a meeting of the Hampton University Ministers' Conference where he claims “quiet riots that take place every day are born from the same place as the fires and the destruction and the police decked out in riot gear and the deaths” suggesting that Black frustration and resentment regarding their own genetically predisposed inability to fit and function within a healthy society, is again building toward yet another inevitable Black riot. Thus it has become immediately clear exactly why our forefathers and patriarchs enforced segregation between the races, and why they enacted the Jim Crow laws (separate but equal) — fairness laws which were put in place immediately following the ratification of the 14th amendment to abolish slavery.
In 1858, Abraham Lincoln publicly announced, “I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races, that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of Negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality.” Abraham Lincoln indeed may have believed that Blacks should enjoy the same freedom from bondage as Whites, but he also understood that freed Blacks, due to their incompatible genetic differences, should enjoy this new found freedom somewhere else, separated away from Whites. Lincoln was clearly not in favor of Blacks holding political office — especially not the same office which he held, the Presidency of the United States.
Lincoln even worked during the Civil War on a failed attempt to transport freed Blacks to colonies in the Caribbean, as he understood quite well, the great potential for miscegenation and of severe interracial conflict which would ensue if he did not! As a direct consequence of Lincoln's failure to colonize these freed Blacks outside of the United States, today we see both widespread miscegenation, as well as Black crime, violence and terror, just as was enumerated above. The numerous and violent post-segregation Black riots in the U.S. include, but are not limited to:
New York race riot, 1964, New York City, NY
Rochester race riot, 1964, Rochester, NY
Jersey City race riot, 1964, Jersey City, NJ
Paterson race riot, 1964, Paterson, NJ
Elizabeth race riot, 1964, Elizabeth, NJ
Columbia Avenue race riots, 1964, Philadelphia, PA
Chicago race riot (Dixmoor), 1964, Chicago, IL
Watts Riot, 1965, Los Angeles, CA
Hunter's Point Riot, 1966, San Francisco, CA
Hough Riots, 1966, Cleveland, OH
North Omaha riot, 1966, North Omaha, NE
Fire Hydrant Riots, 1966, Chicago, IL
Newark riots, 1967, Newark, NJ
Plainfield riots, 1967, Plainfield, NJ
Cambridge Riot, 1967, Cambridge, MD
12th Street Riot, 1967, Detroit, MI
Orangeburg riot, 1968, Orangeburg, SC
Washington DC riots, 1968, Washington, DC
Baltimore Riot, 1968, Baltimore, MD
Chicago riot, 1968, Chicago, IL
Kansas City riot, 1968, Kansas City, MO
Louisville riots, 1968, Louisville, KY
Glenville riot, 1968, Cleveland, OH
York Race Riot, 1969, York, PA
North 24th Street Riots, 1969, North Omaha, NE
Augusta Riot, 1970, Augusta, GA
Asbury Park Riots, 1970, Asbury Park, NJ
Black Muslim riot, 1971, Baton Rouge, LA
Livernois-Fenkell riot, 1975, Detroit, MI
New York City Blackout Riot, 1977, New York City, NY
Greensboro Riot, 1979, Greensboro, NC
Chattanooga Riot, 1980, Chattanooga, TN
Liberty City Riots, 1980, Miami, FL
Arthur McDuffie, 1980, Miami, FL
Washington Anti-Klan riot, 1982, Washington, DC
Overtown Riot, 1982, Miami, FL
Tampa Riot, 1987, Tampa, FL
Miami Riot, 1989, Miami, FL
Tampa Riot, 1989, Tampa, FL
Mount Pleasant riot, 1991, Washington, DC
Crown Heights Riot, 1991, Brooklyn, NY
Rodney King riot, 1992, Los Angeles, CA
St. Petersburg Riot, 1996, St. Petersburg, FL
Seattle Mardi Gras Riots, 2001, Seattle, WA
Cincinnati Riots, 2001, Cincinnati, OH
Benton Harbor Riot, 2003, Benton Harbor, MI
Toledo Riot, 2005, Toledo, OH
Deprecatory criticism aside, the unfortunate reality remains — there is no panacea for race! The roots of racial difference in America are fundamentally genetic, and these genetic differences stretch far back into the historical and prehistorical past of our respective peoples, spanning onto our separate and unique continents of evolutionary origin. No enacted laws nor spending measures can ever change these genetic differences. Symbolic gestures such as electing Black officials to high office simply don't have any demonstrable impact at all on these clearly genetically predetermined Black-White racial differences, nor upon the Black propensity for violence and crime.
Obama claims to be a Protestant Christian (The United Church of Christ).
Many websites are already beginning to question if Barack Hussein Obama is indeed the supposedly coming “false Messiah”, id est, The Antichrist. Indeed, according to Overture.com (the parent of the Yahoo search engine) Barack Obama is the 2nd most popular search incorporating the keyword “antichrist”. In fact, if you perform a Yahoo search for “antichrist”, the alternative suggestions are “Also try: barack obama antichrist, tony blair antichrist, maitreya antichrist” with Obama's name being the first alternative. Google claims well over 100,000 web pages connecting Barack Obama and Antichrist.
With all of these coincidences, it does make one wonder, is this man really a secret Muslim Manchurian candidate, and if so, is he dedicated to the Jihad declaring Death to all Whites? Recently, Australian Prime Minister John Howard expressed concern when he said, “If I were running al Qaeda in Iraq, I would put a circle around March 2008, and pray, as many times as possible, for a victory not only for Obama, but also for the Democrats” in response to Obama's ill-conceived binding legislation introduced in the Senate, seeking withdrawal of all U.S. forces from Iraq by March 31, 2008.
Obama himself expressed that the first Black Presidential win, would transform the nation, suggesting that an impulsive Black President could detrimentally impart a measure of political superiority upon Blacks — when he spoke before a Black crowd gathered at the National Urban League convention in St. Louis, saying “The day I'm inaugurated, the country looks at itself differently. Don't underestimate that power. Don't underestimate the transformation.” This would-be-first Black President also said, “We have more work to do when more young black men languish in prison than attend colleges and universities across America” seemingly without any real understanding as to the very cause, nor comprehending the requirements for mitigating the consequences of this fact — the basis of which has been determined as a natural genetic predisposition toward lower intelligence in Blacks. In light of all this, one must now consider the very real possibility, that even further leniency toward Blacks would thoughtlessly be granted by newly appointed judges; meaning even less imprisonment for predominantly violent Black criminals, should Obama achieve his goal, and actually win the White House.
Many people assume the name “Barack Hussein Obama” to be that of purely African origin, and indeed the name “Obama” is just that — however his first name came directly from the Holy Qur'an, where the word “Barack” means “blessed”. It is without much doubt that everyone on earth now realizes that “Hussein” is a Muslim name, one which originated from Hussein bin Ali, who was the Sharif of Mecca, Emir of Mecca, King of Hejaz, and Caliph of all Muslims. So one needs to ask themself, will Barack Hussein Obama be yet another Black Muslim, this time sworn into our nation's highest office, using the Holy Qur'an? Does he seem to fit the middle-eastern-looking profile which has been suggested by many theologians, as being that of The Antichrist? Why has he downplayed his attendance at a “predominantly Muslim school” (Saudi-funded Madrassa) in Jakarta Indonesia?
The other night before going to bed, I saw on CNN, radical Black Muslims in Europe standing in front of a Catholic church, calling for the death of the Pope. They were dressed very similar to the Muslims you see killing Americans in Iraq (faces covered with cloth; with only their eyes showing). Their message was succinct, “The Prophet Mohammed has come to slaughter all of you. We are Muslims, we drink the blood of the enemy, and we can face them anywhere. This is Islam. This is jihad.” A quote of the message shouted by bullhorn from masked Black men in front of a Catholic church. Keep in mind, if a White European was to shout even the most benign comments against Muslims or the Prophet Mohammed in front of a Mosque, he would quickly be arrested and charged with “inciting racial hatred”, a charge seemingly applicable only to native European Whites. So why the double standard?
One needs to ask, why would White Europeans EVEN LET such vile non-White Muslims into their country, if all they want to do is commit crimes against Whites and commit acts of racial violence? Have White people the world over, collectively lost their minds? What was life like before “multiculturalism” and is it really so much better now?
Minority Race is apparently so important in American politics these days, that it has ultimately propelled this Black Chicago politician, a freshman senator, less than two years removed from the corruption plagued Illinois state senate, into the limelight of the upcoming 2008 U.S. Presidential election.
Yet we still aren't supposed to engage in any real, genuine, or honest public debates regarding the realities of race.
I will freely admit that I am wholly unimpressed with, and do not endorse any Democratic presidential candidates. So let me note that Senator Barack Obama (Democrat, Illinois) strikes me as essentially a no-more-or-less typical Democratic candidate for President, similar to any of the other potentials, past or present, including my very own irrelevant governor, Tom Vilesack from Iowa. Vilesack has since withdrawn from the race due to a lack of support, although some might point to the many scandals and economic failures in Iowa during his tenure as a cause; such as the CIETC Scandal (Central Iowa Employment and Training Consortium) which coincidentally happened to unfold while Vilesack was campaigning in New Hampshire. Scandals of other candidates notwithstanding, I do believe that I might be able to play an educational role here, by actually mentioning some of the quite unmentionable reasons behind “Obama-mania”.
Obama is often being compared by the media to Tiger Woods, however he bears a striking difference from Woods in two rather significant ways. First, his list of accomplishments within his chosen profession is vastly smaller, and second, Woods rejected Nike's assertion that he should identify himself as Black (in order to maximize his marketability in North America). Woods rejected this notion because he did not want to offend and alienate his mother and all of his other non-Negro ancestors.
In contrast, like Oscar winning Halle Berry, Obama identifies only as Black, tho that requires a somewhat symbolic disowning of his White mother and maternal grandparents — despite the fact that they did far more for him than his drunken abusive polygamous African father (who, like most Black fathers, abandoned him when he was age two, later dying in a one-car drunk driving accident in Kenya when Obama was age 21). In a New York Magazine article, Obama comments, “I ceased to advertise my mother’s race at the age of twelve or thirteen, when I began to suspect that by doing so I was ingratiating myself to whites.” This seems to me to be rather self-sacrificial, but oddly enough, this statement apparently hasn't hurt his popularity amongst Whites one bit! Interestingly, in what appears to be a rather coincidental theological parallel, throughout all of his life, Jesus would often ridicule, scold, and even disowned his mother at the age of twelve (Luke 2:49, John 2:4). Although this may merely be yet another coincidence, but isn't The Antichrist prophesied to have many parallels in common with Jesus? Also, what audience reactions have you observed when Obama speaks, and how is this entranced captivation similar to what was foretold by end-times prophecy?
Regardless of all this circumstantial evidence, the brutal truth remains that Obama is an Uncle Tom. He is a remarkably exotic variety of “faux American Negro”, and is essentially what is termed “an Oreo”. He has absolutely no ancestors who were ever slaves in the U.S., moreover, his upbringing by his White mother and Muslim stepfather in Indonesia — and at age 10+ by his White grandparents in Hawaii (an area where mixed-race children are essentially commonplace) has almost wholly divorced him from any semblance of an “African-American” heritage, except of course for what he could see and possibly assimilate from watching TV.
Even genetically, Obama; whose East African descent is apparent by his above-Black-median intelligence, generally non-aggressive, nonviolent nature, as well as his unusual facial features — has only a very distant relationship to West Africans, who are the predominant ancestors of American Blacks. But differences such as these just seem to make this nominal “African-American” all that much more endearing to Whites. So why are so many Whites, especially those in the media, so passionate about promoting this man for President in 2008?
Obama-mania appears to be quite similar to the Colin Powell craze of 1995. Of course, Powell had far better qualifications. He had been intimately involved in managing a successful international campaign, the Gulf War of 1991. He had also articulated a thoughtful, cautious policy for when and how to conduct military operations, the Powell Doctrine, a journalist created neologism, based in large part on the Weinberger Doctrine, the wisdom of which our current situation in Iraq has only served to underline. Supporting Obama for President, like supporting Powell a decade ago, is seen by many Whites as the ultimate in White Guilt absolution!
It is important to understand however, that White Guilt is quite different from, for example, Catholic Guilt — which consists of a very straightforward feeling of spiritual, personal and of course, moral failure.
By comparison, I don't think I've ever met even ONE White who personally felt any real guilt for the inability of Blacks, some 140+ years after slavery had ended, to fit and function within American society. But I HAVE known many Whites, who choose to loudly and unfairly blame Racial Realist Whites for the many obvious Black failures.
Some Whites choose to heap guilt upon their own ancestors, but many who publicly proclaim both the existence and reality of White Guilt, aren't at all averse to noting that their own forefathers arrived at Ellis Island long after slavery was over, thus absolving themselves forever of any inherited shame.
In other words, White Guilt is just another power ploy in the great American White status struggle. Negroes have become nothing more than mere pawns, used by some Whites in asserting a higher level of moral superiority over all other Whites.
Also, finding and punishing “guilty” Whites seems to have become almost a national obsession. One notorious example from current events is the framing of the White Duke University lacrosse players by Durham district attorney Mike Nifong (with the enthusiastic assistance of the Jew York Times) in their endless hunt for what Tom Wolfe, author of Bonfire of the Vanities calls “the Great White Defendant”. It appears that many Whites want to be able to say, “I'm not a hater, I'm not one of those bad Whites — l voted for a Black guy for President!”
I also suspect that there is an even more insidious reason many Whites wish Obama becomes selected for President — they hope that when Blacks finally move into and take over the White House, it will prove to ALL American Negroes, once and for all, that White animus isn't the root cause of all their troubles. They hope that it will show, once and for all, that all Blacks need to do is to live and behave just like “President Obama”, and all their problems will disappear as well!
It's quite a seductive vision, don't you think? It plays right into our national delusion — that race is only skin deep, that race is “all in our minds”, and that the solution for all racial conflict is to simply become color blind.
Of course, selecting Obama for President won't actually have any real effect upon typical Black behavior, just as electing Tom Bradley as Black mayor of Los Angeles for five terms in a row from 1973-1993, prevented the thousands of Black rioters from looting and burning down much of that city's commercial district in 1992. Another example could also be drawn from the more recent Black riots in Toledo Ohio, where electing a Black mayor, Jack Ford, had little effect in preventing the Black riots of October 15, 2005, which left many White and Asian-owned, North Toledo businesses, looted and in flames.
Since the Civil Rights Act was first enacted on July 2nd, 1964 — legislation which for the first time in our nation's history outlawed segregation in the United States, there have been at least 47 Black riots in the U.S. — far more Black civil unrest during the post-segregation period, than in any earlier period in history! Obama even cites such cases in a speech before Blacks at a meeting of the Hampton University Ministers' Conference where he claims “quiet riots that take place every day are born from the same place as the fires and the destruction and the police decked out in riot gear and the deaths” suggesting that Black frustration and resentment regarding their own genetically predisposed inability to fit and function within a healthy society, is again building toward yet another inevitable Black riot. Thus it has become immediately clear exactly why our forefathers and patriarchs enforced segregation between the races, and why they enacted the Jim Crow laws (separate but equal) — fairness laws which were put in place immediately following the ratification of the 14th amendment to abolish slavery.
In 1858, Abraham Lincoln publicly announced, “I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races, that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of Negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality.” Abraham Lincoln indeed may have believed that Blacks should enjoy the same freedom from bondage as Whites, but he also understood that freed Blacks, due to their incompatible genetic differences, should enjoy this new found freedom somewhere else, separated away from Whites. Lincoln was clearly not in favor of Blacks holding political office — especially not the same office which he held, the Presidency of the United States.
Lincoln even worked during the Civil War on a failed attempt to transport freed Blacks to colonies in the Caribbean, as he understood quite well, the great potential for miscegenation and of severe interracial conflict which would ensue if he did not! As a direct consequence of Lincoln's failure to colonize these freed Blacks outside of the United States, today we see both widespread miscegenation, as well as Black crime, violence and terror, just as was enumerated above. The numerous and violent post-segregation Black riots in the U.S. include, but are not limited to:
New York race riot, 1964, New York City, NY
Rochester race riot, 1964, Rochester, NY
Jersey City race riot, 1964, Jersey City, NJ
Paterson race riot, 1964, Paterson, NJ
Elizabeth race riot, 1964, Elizabeth, NJ
Columbia Avenue race riots, 1964, Philadelphia, PA
Chicago race riot (Dixmoor), 1964, Chicago, IL
Watts Riot, 1965, Los Angeles, CA
Hunter's Point Riot, 1966, San Francisco, CA
Hough Riots, 1966, Cleveland, OH
North Omaha riot, 1966, North Omaha, NE
Fire Hydrant Riots, 1966, Chicago, IL
Newark riots, 1967, Newark, NJ
Plainfield riots, 1967, Plainfield, NJ
Cambridge Riot, 1967, Cambridge, MD
12th Street Riot, 1967, Detroit, MI
Orangeburg riot, 1968, Orangeburg, SC
Washington DC riots, 1968, Washington, DC
Baltimore Riot, 1968, Baltimore, MD
Chicago riot, 1968, Chicago, IL
Kansas City riot, 1968, Kansas City, MO
Louisville riots, 1968, Louisville, KY
Glenville riot, 1968, Cleveland, OH
York Race Riot, 1969, York, PA
North 24th Street Riots, 1969, North Omaha, NE
Augusta Riot, 1970, Augusta, GA
Asbury Park Riots, 1970, Asbury Park, NJ
Black Muslim riot, 1971, Baton Rouge, LA
Livernois-Fenkell riot, 1975, Detroit, MI
New York City Blackout Riot, 1977, New York City, NY
Greensboro Riot, 1979, Greensboro, NC
Chattanooga Riot, 1980, Chattanooga, TN
Liberty City Riots, 1980, Miami, FL
Arthur McDuffie, 1980, Miami, FL
Washington Anti-Klan riot, 1982, Washington, DC
Overtown Riot, 1982, Miami, FL
Tampa Riot, 1987, Tampa, FL
Miami Riot, 1989, Miami, FL
Tampa Riot, 1989, Tampa, FL
Mount Pleasant riot, 1991, Washington, DC
Crown Heights Riot, 1991, Brooklyn, NY
Rodney King riot, 1992, Los Angeles, CA
St. Petersburg Riot, 1996, St. Petersburg, FL
Seattle Mardi Gras Riots, 2001, Seattle, WA
Cincinnati Riots, 2001, Cincinnati, OH
Benton Harbor Riot, 2003, Benton Harbor, MI
Toledo Riot, 2005, Toledo, OH
Deprecatory criticism aside, the unfortunate reality remains — there is no panacea for race! The roots of racial difference in America are fundamentally genetic, and these genetic differences stretch far back into the historical and prehistorical past of our respective peoples, spanning onto our separate and unique continents of evolutionary origin. No enacted laws nor spending measures can ever change these genetic differences. Symbolic gestures such as electing Black officials to high office simply don't have any demonstrable impact at all on these clearly genetically predetermined Black-White racial differences, nor upon the Black propensity for violence and crime.
Friday, September 28, 2007
Tutankhamun Was Not Black: Egypt Antiquities Chief
Egyptian antiquities supremo Zahi Hawass insisted Tuesday that Tutankhamun was not black despite calls by US black activists to recognise the boy king's dark skin colour. "Tutankhamun was not black, and the portrayal of ancient Egyptian civilisation as black has no element of truth to it," Hawass told reporters.
"Egyptians are not Arabs and are not Africans despite the fact that Egypt is in Africa," he said, quoted by the official MENA news agency.
Hawass said he was responding to several demonstrations in Philadelphia after a lecture he gave there on September 6 where he defended his theory. Negro protestors also claimed images of King Tut were altered to show him with lighter skin at the "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs" exhibit which leaves Philadelphia for London on September 30.
The exhibition sparked an uproar when it kicked off in Los Angeles in June 2005 when Negro activists demanded that a bust of the boy king be removed because the statue portrays him as White.
The face of the legendary pharaoh, who died around 3,300 years ago at the age of just 19, was reconstructed in 2005 through images collected through CAT scans of his mummy. The boy king's intact tomb caused an international sensation when it was discovered by Briton Howard Carter in 1922 near Luxor in southern Egypt.
"Egyptians are not Arabs and are not Africans despite the fact that Egypt is in Africa," he said, quoted by the official MENA news agency.
Hawass said he was responding to several demonstrations in Philadelphia after a lecture he gave there on September 6 where he defended his theory. Negro protestors also claimed images of King Tut were altered to show him with lighter skin at the "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs" exhibit which leaves Philadelphia for London on September 30.
The exhibition sparked an uproar when it kicked off in Los Angeles in June 2005 when Negro activists demanded that a bust of the boy king be removed because the statue portrays him as White.
The face of the legendary pharaoh, who died around 3,300 years ago at the age of just 19, was reconstructed in 2005 through images collected through CAT scans of his mummy. The boy king's intact tomb caused an international sensation when it was discovered by Briton Howard Carter in 1922 near Luxor in southern Egypt.
Yet Another White Victim of the Negro Crime Plague
Three Harnett County Negroes who are accused of killing a 12-year-old White girl last week made their first court appearance Tuesday morning and remain jailed under high security as they prepare for another hearing.
Van Roger Smith, 16, Sherrod Nicholas Harrison, 19, and Michael Graham Currie, 18, briefly appeared in Moore County court and were appointed attorneys. All of the suspects have Cameron addresses but live in Harnett County.
They have all been charged with first-degree murder and breaking and entering in the death of Emily Elizabeth Haddock. Emily was found dead Friday in her home on Marks Road outside of Vass. She had stayed home from school with strep throat and was alone when someone broke into the house and shot her several times with a .22-caliber handgun.
Two of the teens lived on Marks Road about six miles from the Haddock home. Harnett County authorities got a break in the case when they located a stolen .22-caliber handgun on Monday in a car with stolen plates in the Carolina Hills area of the county.
Another Negro, Perry Ross Schiro, 19, was charged in that case. He is in the Harnett County Jail on charges of burglary, larceny and possession of stolen property, but is not charged in the murder. Schiro, who also has a Cameron address, is being held on $100,000 secured bond. He is accused of stealing the gun last Thursday and authorities believe it could be the weapon used in the murders.
One of the three teens charged in the slaying is suspected in yet another break-in near the scene of the murder. He is considered a "person of interest" in an attempted break-in last Friday about a mile from the Haddock home. He was seen in the area of the break-in before Emily's death.
Two of the three accused killers and Schiro have extensive criminal records and now are on probation. Harrison is on probation for three breaking and entering charges. Currie has a long list of convictions including trespassing, simple assault, possession of stolen goods, unauthorized use of a conveyance and misdemeanor larceny.
Schiro is now on probation for charges of possession of stolen goods, possession with intent to sell schedule five narcotics, simple affray and simple assault.
According to The Fayetteville Observer, Emily was laid to rest Tuesday in front of a packed church in front of 400 people in Hope Mills. Flags at the school she attended flew at half-staff in her memory.
Van Roger Smith, 16, Sherrod Nicholas Harrison, 19, and Michael Graham Currie, 18, briefly appeared in Moore County court and were appointed attorneys. All of the suspects have Cameron addresses but live in Harnett County.
They have all been charged with first-degree murder and breaking and entering in the death of Emily Elizabeth Haddock. Emily was found dead Friday in her home on Marks Road outside of Vass. She had stayed home from school with strep throat and was alone when someone broke into the house and shot her several times with a .22-caliber handgun.
Two of the teens lived on Marks Road about six miles from the Haddock home. Harnett County authorities got a break in the case when they located a stolen .22-caliber handgun on Monday in a car with stolen plates in the Carolina Hills area of the county.
Another Negro, Perry Ross Schiro, 19, was charged in that case. He is in the Harnett County Jail on charges of burglary, larceny and possession of stolen property, but is not charged in the murder. Schiro, who also has a Cameron address, is being held on $100,000 secured bond. He is accused of stealing the gun last Thursday and authorities believe it could be the weapon used in the murders.
One of the three teens charged in the slaying is suspected in yet another break-in near the scene of the murder. He is considered a "person of interest" in an attempted break-in last Friday about a mile from the Haddock home. He was seen in the area of the break-in before Emily's death.
Two of the three accused killers and Schiro have extensive criminal records and now are on probation. Harrison is on probation for three breaking and entering charges. Currie has a long list of convictions including trespassing, simple assault, possession of stolen goods, unauthorized use of a conveyance and misdemeanor larceny.
Schiro is now on probation for charges of possession of stolen goods, possession with intent to sell schedule five narcotics, simple affray and simple assault.
According to The Fayetteville Observer, Emily was laid to rest Tuesday in front of a packed church in front of 400 people in Hope Mills. Flags at the school she attended flew at half-staff in her memory.
Australian Government Admits That Invader Doctors Cannot be Trusted
The Australian Minister for Immigration, Kevin Andrews, says the public cannot be confident about the screening procedures for overseas-trained doctors. Andrews has called for all state and territory medical boards to review the procedures they use to vet overseas-trained doctors before registering them to practice.
The move raises doubts about the processes used to check more than 4000 foreign doctors in Australia, many of whom work under limited supervision in country areas. About 1500 overseas-trained doctors work in NSW hospitals.
In a letter drafted for state medical boards, Andrews has hit out at what he says is "less than thorough employment vetting processes" that put at risk the integrity of the migration system.
His intervention follows the failure of terrorism charges against the Indian doctor Mohamed Haneef and the subsequent revelation that his colleague, Dr Mohammed Asif Ali, was found to have exaggerated his medical credentials and employment history.
"In order for Australians to have confidence in their overseas-trained doctors, they need to have full confidence that these doctors have undergone a rigorous assessment process," Mr Andrews writes in a letter expected to go to medical boards today.
"Given this case, I do not believe that Australians can be fully confident in the assessment system that currently exists.
He says the case "has highlighted to the Australian Government the risk to Australians' quality of health through inconsistent registration processes across different jurisdictions and less than thorough employment vetting processes".
The move raises doubts about the processes used to check more than 4000 foreign doctors in Australia, many of whom work under limited supervision in country areas. About 1500 overseas-trained doctors work in NSW hospitals.
In a letter drafted for state medical boards, Andrews has hit out at what he says is "less than thorough employment vetting processes" that put at risk the integrity of the migration system.
His intervention follows the failure of terrorism charges against the Indian doctor Mohamed Haneef and the subsequent revelation that his colleague, Dr Mohammed Asif Ali, was found to have exaggerated his medical credentials and employment history.
"In order for Australians to have confidence in their overseas-trained doctors, they need to have full confidence that these doctors have undergone a rigorous assessment process," Mr Andrews writes in a letter expected to go to medical boards today.
"Given this case, I do not believe that Australians can be fully confident in the assessment system that currently exists.
He says the case "has highlighted to the Australian Government the risk to Australians' quality of health through inconsistent registration processes across different jurisdictions and less than thorough employment vetting processes".
South Africa is More Unsafe than Zimbabwe
South Africa being the third least safest place out of 48 countries on the African continent, indicates that SA is critically unsafe, an opposition political party in that country has claimed.
The party's spokesperson on Safety and Security MP Dianne Kohler Barnard said that the Mo Ibrahim Index of African Governance, which ranked SA as third most dangerous after "war zone" countries, Sudan and Burundi indicated that what citizens of that country had been crying out for years, was the truth.
"South Africa's safety and security performance is utterly abysmal. The fact that we are just 30 points above the most dangerous country in Africa, and right now, probably the world, must act as a loud wake-up call to the Minister of Safety and Security."
She added that countries including Congo, Angola, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe Rwanda and Liberia were far safer in terms of safety and security. "Although the government will continue to throw money at the crime problem, such an approach has had only limited success," Barnard said.
She said it was likely that companies and individuals would continue protecting their own security themselves. "This threatens to spawn a vigilante environment ... if a spate of violent robberies and killings of foreigners is repeated during the 2010 Soccer World Cup, the negative consequences for future tourism and foreign investment will be severe."
"ANC spin-doctors are already attempting to denigrate the Index, stating that, there is this hullabaloo over crime, and that South Africa is one of the safest countries in the world - for the ministers and their cronies perhaps, but most certainly not for the rest of us," Barnard said.
The party's spokesperson on Safety and Security MP Dianne Kohler Barnard said that the Mo Ibrahim Index of African Governance, which ranked SA as third most dangerous after "war zone" countries, Sudan and Burundi indicated that what citizens of that country had been crying out for years, was the truth.
"South Africa's safety and security performance is utterly abysmal. The fact that we are just 30 points above the most dangerous country in Africa, and right now, probably the world, must act as a loud wake-up call to the Minister of Safety and Security."
She added that countries including Congo, Angola, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe Rwanda and Liberia were far safer in terms of safety and security. "Although the government will continue to throw money at the crime problem, such an approach has had only limited success," Barnard said.
She said it was likely that companies and individuals would continue protecting their own security themselves. "This threatens to spawn a vigilante environment ... if a spate of violent robberies and killings of foreigners is repeated during the 2010 Soccer World Cup, the negative consequences for future tourism and foreign investment will be severe."
"ANC spin-doctors are already attempting to denigrate the Index, stating that, there is this hullabaloo over crime, and that South Africa is one of the safest countries in the world - for the ministers and their cronies perhaps, but most certainly not for the rest of us," Barnard said.
U.S. Nuclear Weapons Being “Guarded” by Israel
American supporters of Israel were delighted to learn that an Israeli company, Magal Security Systems-owned in part by the government of Israel-is in charge of security for the most sensitive nuclear power and weapons storage facilities in the United States.
The largest perimeter security company in the world, Magal started out as a division of Israeli Aircraft Industries (IAI)-which was owned in part by the government of Israel. In recent years, however, Magal evolved into a publicly-traded company, although IAI (and thus the government of Israel) still holds a substantial share in the highly successful firm.
What all of this means is that the government of Israel will actually have control over the security of America's nuclear weapons.
Supporters of Israel say that this is a splendid idea, since Israel is said to be perhaps America's closest ally on the face of the planet. However, there are some critics who question the propriety of America's super-sensitive nuclear security being in the hands of any foreign nation, particularly Israel which, even today, officially denies that it is engaged in the production of nuclear arms.
Be that as it may, however, Magal's global interests are quite broad-ranging. Having secured 90 percent of Israel's borders through a wide-ranging array of super-modern "space age" technology, Magal has now branched out internationally.
Not only does Magal provide security for American nuclear facilities, but it also does likewise for most major nuclear facilities in Western Europe and Asia. In addition, the Israeli firm also provides security for Chicago's O'Hare Airport and, for the last fifteen years, has kept watch on the Queen of England's famed Buckingham Palace in London. What's more, Magal provides security for 90% of the American prisons that utilize electronic systems. Magal brags that its other clients around the globe include: borders, airports, industrial sites, communication centers, military installations, correctional facilities, government agencies, VIP estates and residences, commercial buildings and storage yards.
There is hardly a major country or major enterprise that does not have Magal's security specialists keeping a close watch on their activities.
Clearly, Magal is no small enterprise. While 27% of its total sales are in the Israeli market, its largest market is in North America, which currently accounts for 35% of its sales.
However, Magal's American outreach is expected to increase substantially, especially now that firm has set up a Washington, D.C. office which will promote its products to federal agencies and to the members of Congress who provide funding for federally-supervised security projects across the country at all levels: local, state and national.
And with current U.S. Homeland Security Chief, Michael Chertoff, not only a strong supporter of Israel but also the son of a woman who has strong Israeli ties-even including service with El Al, the national airline of Israel-Magal, owned in party by Israeli Aircraft Industries-will be a clear-cut favorite in the eyes of the power brokers in official Washington who have the power to grant lucrative security contracts.
At the moment, Magal has four U.S.-based subsidiaries: two in California, Stellar Security Products, Inc. and Perimeter Products Inc., as well as the New York-based Smart Interactive Systems, Inc., and the Virginia-based Dominion Wireless, Inc.
All told, the Israeli company holds a 40% share in the worldwide market in perimeter intrusion detection systems and is working to expand its business in the protection of oil pipelines.
Magal is also said to be quite interested in guarding water lines around the globe, particularly in the United States. In fact, Magal may have an inside shot at getting a monopoly in guarding America's water supplies.
On July 19, the Bush administration's Environmental Protection Agency announced a "partnership" with the Israeli Ministry of National Infrastructures to improve what they called "water supply system security in the United States and Israel." Since Magal is so highly respected in Israel, it's an even bet that Magal will soon be guarding the U.S. water supply.
The largest perimeter security company in the world, Magal started out as a division of Israeli Aircraft Industries (IAI)-which was owned in part by the government of Israel. In recent years, however, Magal evolved into a publicly-traded company, although IAI (and thus the government of Israel) still holds a substantial share in the highly successful firm.
What all of this means is that the government of Israel will actually have control over the security of America's nuclear weapons.
Supporters of Israel say that this is a splendid idea, since Israel is said to be perhaps America's closest ally on the face of the planet. However, there are some critics who question the propriety of America's super-sensitive nuclear security being in the hands of any foreign nation, particularly Israel which, even today, officially denies that it is engaged in the production of nuclear arms.
Be that as it may, however, Magal's global interests are quite broad-ranging. Having secured 90 percent of Israel's borders through a wide-ranging array of super-modern "space age" technology, Magal has now branched out internationally.
Not only does Magal provide security for American nuclear facilities, but it also does likewise for most major nuclear facilities in Western Europe and Asia. In addition, the Israeli firm also provides security for Chicago's O'Hare Airport and, for the last fifteen years, has kept watch on the Queen of England's famed Buckingham Palace in London. What's more, Magal provides security for 90% of the American prisons that utilize electronic systems. Magal brags that its other clients around the globe include: borders, airports, industrial sites, communication centers, military installations, correctional facilities, government agencies, VIP estates and residences, commercial buildings and storage yards.
There is hardly a major country or major enterprise that does not have Magal's security specialists keeping a close watch on their activities.
Clearly, Magal is no small enterprise. While 27% of its total sales are in the Israeli market, its largest market is in North America, which currently accounts for 35% of its sales.
However, Magal's American outreach is expected to increase substantially, especially now that firm has set up a Washington, D.C. office which will promote its products to federal agencies and to the members of Congress who provide funding for federally-supervised security projects across the country at all levels: local, state and national.
And with current U.S. Homeland Security Chief, Michael Chertoff, not only a strong supporter of Israel but also the son of a woman who has strong Israeli ties-even including service with El Al, the national airline of Israel-Magal, owned in party by Israeli Aircraft Industries-will be a clear-cut favorite in the eyes of the power brokers in official Washington who have the power to grant lucrative security contracts.
At the moment, Magal has four U.S.-based subsidiaries: two in California, Stellar Security Products, Inc. and Perimeter Products Inc., as well as the New York-based Smart Interactive Systems, Inc., and the Virginia-based Dominion Wireless, Inc.
All told, the Israeli company holds a 40% share in the worldwide market in perimeter intrusion detection systems and is working to expand its business in the protection of oil pipelines.
Magal is also said to be quite interested in guarding water lines around the globe, particularly in the United States. In fact, Magal may have an inside shot at getting a monopoly in guarding America's water supplies.
On July 19, the Bush administration's Environmental Protection Agency announced a "partnership" with the Israeli Ministry of National Infrastructures to improve what they called "water supply system security in the United States and Israel." Since Magal is so highly respected in Israel, it's an even bet that Magal will soon be guarding the U.S. water supply.
Why Did Israel Attack Syria?
Israel's air strike on northern Syria earlier this month should be understood in the context of events unfolding since its assault last summer on neighboring Lebanon.
From the leaks so far, it seems that more than half a dozen Israeli warplanes violated Syrian airspace to drop munitions on a site close to the border with Turkey. We also know from the US media that the raid occurred in close coordination with the White House. But what was the purpose and significance of the attack?
It is worth recalling that, in the wake of Israel's month-long war against Lebanon a year ago, a prominent American neoconservative, Meyrav Wurmser, wife of Vice-President Dick Cheney's recently departed Middle East adviser, explained that the war had dragged on because the White House delayed in imposing a ceasefire. The neocons, she said, wanted to give Israel the time and space to expand the attack to Damascus.
But faced with constant rocket fire from Hizbullah last summer, Israel's public and military nerves frayed at the first hurdle. Instead Israel and the US were forced to settle for a Security Council resolution rather than a decisive military victory.
The immediate fallout of the failed attack was an apparent waning of neocon influence. The group's program of "creative destruction" in the Middle East -- the encouragement of regional civil war and the partition of large states that threaten Israel -- was at risk of being shunted aside.
Instead the "pragmatists" in the Bush Administration, led by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the new Defense Secretary Robert Gates, demanded a change of tack. The standoff reached a head in late 2006 when oilman James Baker and his Iraq Study Group began lobbying for a gradual withdrawal from Iraq -- presumably only after a dictator, this one more reliable, had again been installed in Baghdad. It looked as if the neocons' day in the sun had finally passed.
Israel's leadership understood the gravity of the moment. In January 2007 the Herzliya conference, an annual festival of strategy-making, invited no less than 40 Washington opinion-formers to join the usual throng of Israeli politicians, generals, journalists and academics. For a week the Israeli and American delegates spoke as one: Iran and its presumed proxy, Hizbullah, were bent on the genocidal destruction of Israel. Tehran's development of a nuclear program -- whether for civilian use, as Iran argues, or for military use, as the US and Israel claim -- had to be stopped at all costs.
While the White House turned uncharacteristically quiet all spring and summer about what it planned to do next, rumors that Israel was pondering a go-it-alone strike against Iran grew noisier by the day. Ex-Mossad officers warned of an inevitable third world war, Israeli military intelligence advised that Iran was only months away from the point of no return on developing a nuclear warhead, prominent leaks in sympathetic media revealed bombing runs to Gibraltar, and Israel started upping the pressure on several tens of thousands of Jews in Tehran to flee their homes and come to Israel.
While Western analysts opined that an attack on Iran was growing unlikely, Israel's neighbors watched nervously through the first half of the year as the vague impression of a regional war came ever more sharply into focus. In particular Syria, after witnessing the whirlwind of savagery unleashed against Lebanon last summer, feared it was next in line in the US-Israeli campaign to break Tehran's network of regional alliances. It deduced, probably correctly, that neither the US nor Israel would dare attack Iran without first clobbering Hizbullah and Damascus.
For some time Syria had been left in no doubt of the mood in Washington. It failed to end its pariah status in the post-9/11 period, despite helping the CIA with intelligence on al-Qaeda and secretly trying to make peace with Israel over the running sore of the occupied Golan Heights. It was rebuffed at every turn.
So as the clouds of war grew darker in the spring, Syria responded as might be expected. It went to the arms market in Moscow and bought up the displays of anti-aircraft missiles as well as anti-tank weapons of the kind Hizbullah demonstrated last summer were so effective at repelling Israel's planned ground invasion of south Lebanon.
As the Israeli military historian Martin van Creveld reluctantly conceded earlier this year, US policy was forcing Damascus to remain within Iran's uncomfortable embrace: "Syrian President Bashar al-Assad finds himself more dependent on his Iranian counterpart, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, than perhaps he would like."
Israel, never missing an opportunity to wilfully misrepresent the behavior of an enemy, called the Syrian military build-up proof of Damascus' appetite for war. Apparently fearful that Syria might initiate a war by mistaking the signals from Israel as evidence of aggressive intentions, the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, urged Syria to avoid a "miscalculation". The Israeli public spent the summer braced for a far more dangerous repeat of last summer's war along the northern border.
It was at this point -- with tensions simmeringly hot -- that Israel launched its strike, sending several fighter planes into Syria on a lightning mission to hit a site near Dayr a-Zawr. As Syria itself broke the news of the attack, Israeli generals were shown on TV toasting in the Jewish new year but refusing to comment.
Details have remained thin on the ground ever since: Israel imposed a news blackout that has been strictly enforced by the country's military censor. Instead it has been left to the Western media to speculate on what occurred.
One point that none of the pundits and analysts have noted was that, in attacking Syria, Israel committed a blatant act of aggression against its northern neighbor of the kind denounced as the "supreme international crime" by the Nuremberg war crimes tribunal.
Also, no one pointed out the obvious double standard applied to Israel's attack on Syria compared to the far less significant violation of Israeli sovereignty by Hizbullah a year earlier, when the Shia militia captured two Israel soldiers at a border post and killed three more. Hizbullah's act was widely accepted as justification for the bombardment and destruction of much of Lebanon, even if a few sensitive souls agonized over whether Israel's response was "disproportionate". Would these commentators now approve of similar retaliation by Syria?
The question was doubtless considered unimportant because it was clear from Western coverage that no one -- including the Israeli leadership -- believed Syria was in a position to respond militarily to Israel's attack. Olmert's fear of a Syrian "miscalculation" evaporated the moment Israel did the maths for Damascus.
So what did Israel hope to achieve with its aerial strike?
The stories emerging from the less gagged American media suggest two scenarios. The first is that Israel targeted Iranian supplies passing through Syria on their way to Hizbullah; the second that Israel struck at a fledgling Syrian nuclear plant where materials from North Korea were being offloaded, possibly as part of a joint nuclear effort by Damascus and Tehran.
(Speculation that Israel was testing Syria's anti-aircraft defences in preparation for an attack on Iran ignores the fact that the Israeli air force would almost certainly choose a flightpath through friendlier Jordanian airspace.)
How credible are these two scenarios?
The nuclear claims against Damascus were discounted so quickly by experts of the region that Washington was soon downgrading the accusation to claims that Syria was only hiding the material on North Korea's behalf. But why would Syria, already hounded by Israel and the US, provide such a readymade pretext for still harsher treatment? Why, equally, would North Korea undermine its hard-won disarmament deal with the US? And why, if Syria were covertly engaging in nuclear mischief, did it alert the world to the fact by revealing the Israeli air strike?
The other justification for the attack was at least based in a more credible reality: Damascus, Hizbullah and Iran undoubtedly do share some military resources. But their alliance should be seen as the kind of defensive pact needed by vulnerable actors in a Sunni-dominated region where the US wants unlimited control of Gulf oil and supports only those repressive regimes that cooperate on its terms. All three are keenly aware that it is Israel's job to threaten and punish any regimes that fail to toe the line.
Contrary to the impression being created in the West, genocidal hatred of Israel and Jews, however often Ahmadinejad's speeches are mistranslated, is not the engine of these countries' alliance.
Nonetheless, the political significance of the justifications for the Israeli air strike is that both neatly tie together various strands of an argument needed by the neocons and Israel in making their case for an attack on Iran before Bush leaves office in early 2009. Each scenario suggests a Shia "axis of evil", coordinated by Iran, that is actively plotting Israel's destruction. And each story offers the pretext for an attack on Syria as a prelude to a pre-emptive strike against Tehran -- launched either by Washington or Tel Aviv -- to save Israel.
That these stories appear to have been planted in the American media by neocon fanatics like John Bolton is warning enough -- as is the admission that the only evidence for Syrian malfeasance is Israeli "intelligence", the basis of which cannot be questioned as Israel is not officially admitting the attack.
It should hardly need pointing out that we are again in a hall of mirrors, as we were during the period leading up to America's invasion of Iraq and have been during its subsequent occupation.
Bush's "war on terror" was originally justified with the convenient and manufactured links between Iraq and al-Qaeda, as well as, of course, those WMDs that, it later turned out, had been destroyed years earlier. But ever since Tehran has invariably been the ultimate target of these improbable confections.
There were the forged documents proving both that Iraq had imported enriched uranium from Niger to manufacture nuclear warheads and that it was sharing its nuclear know-how with Iran. And as Iraq fell apart, neocon operatives like Michael Ledeen lost no time in spreading rumors that the missing nuclear arsenal could still be accounted for: Iranian agents had simply smuggled it out of Iraq during the chaos of the US invasion.
Since then our media have proved that they have no less of an appetite for such preposterous tales. If Iran's involvement in stirring up its fellow Shia in Iraq against the US occupation is at least possible, the same cannot be said of the regular White House claims that Tehran is behind the Sunni-led insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan. A few months ago the news media served up "revelations" that Iran was secretly conspiring with al-Qaeda and Iraq's Sunni militias to oust the US occupiers.
So what purpose does the constant innuendo against Tehran serve?
The latest accusations should be seen as an example of Israel and the neocons "creating their own reality", as one Bush adviser famously observed of the neocon philosophy of power. The more that Hizbullah, Syria and Iran are menaced by Israel, the more they are forced to huddle together and behave in ways to protect themselves -- such as arming -- that can be portrayed as a "genocidal" threat to Israel and world order.
Van Creveld once observed that Tehran would be "crazy" not to develop nuclear weapons given the clear trajectory of Israeli and US machinations to overthrow the regime. So equally Syria cannot afford to jettison its alliance with Iran or its involvement with Hizbullah. In the current reality, these connections are the only power it has to deter an attack or force the US and Israel to negotiate.
But they are also the evidence needed by Israel and the neocons to convict Syria and Iran in the court of Washington opinion. The attack on Syria is part of a clever hustle, one designed to vanquish or bypass the doubters in the Bush Administration, both by proving Syria's culpability and by provoking it to respond.
Condoleezza Rice, it emerged at the weekend, wants to invite Syria to attend the regional peace conference that has been called by President Bush for November. There can be no doubt that such an act of détente is deeply opposed by both Israel and the neocons. It reverses their strategy of implicating Damascus in the "Shia arc of extremism" and of paving the way to an attack on the real target: Iran.
Syria, meanwhile, is fighting back, as it has been for some time, with the only means available: the diplomatic offensive. For two years Bashar al-Assad has been offering a generous peace deal to Israel on the Golan Heights that Tel Aviv has refused to consider. This week, Syria made a further gesture towards peace with an offer on another piece of territory occupied by Israel, the Shebaa Farms. Under the plan, the Farms -- which the United Nations now agrees belongs to Lebanon, but which Israel still claims is Syrian and cannot be returned until there is a deal on the Golan Heights -- would be transferred to UN custody until the dispute over its sovereignty can be resolved.
Were either of Damascus' initiatives to be pursued, the region might be looking forward to a period of relative calm and security. Which is reason enough why Israel and the neocons are so bitterly opposed. Instead they must establish a new reality -- one in which the forces of "creative destruction" so beloved of the neocons engulf yet more of the region. For the rest of us, a simpler vocabulary suffices. What is being sold is catastrophe.
From the leaks so far, it seems that more than half a dozen Israeli warplanes violated Syrian airspace to drop munitions on a site close to the border with Turkey. We also know from the US media that the raid occurred in close coordination with the White House. But what was the purpose and significance of the attack?
It is worth recalling that, in the wake of Israel's month-long war against Lebanon a year ago, a prominent American neoconservative, Meyrav Wurmser, wife of Vice-President Dick Cheney's recently departed Middle East adviser, explained that the war had dragged on because the White House delayed in imposing a ceasefire. The neocons, she said, wanted to give Israel the time and space to expand the attack to Damascus.
But faced with constant rocket fire from Hizbullah last summer, Israel's public and military nerves frayed at the first hurdle. Instead Israel and the US were forced to settle for a Security Council resolution rather than a decisive military victory.
The immediate fallout of the failed attack was an apparent waning of neocon influence. The group's program of "creative destruction" in the Middle East -- the encouragement of regional civil war and the partition of large states that threaten Israel -- was at risk of being shunted aside.
Instead the "pragmatists" in the Bush Administration, led by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the new Defense Secretary Robert Gates, demanded a change of tack. The standoff reached a head in late 2006 when oilman James Baker and his Iraq Study Group began lobbying for a gradual withdrawal from Iraq -- presumably only after a dictator, this one more reliable, had again been installed in Baghdad. It looked as if the neocons' day in the sun had finally passed.
Israel's leadership understood the gravity of the moment. In January 2007 the Herzliya conference, an annual festival of strategy-making, invited no less than 40 Washington opinion-formers to join the usual throng of Israeli politicians, generals, journalists and academics. For a week the Israeli and American delegates spoke as one: Iran and its presumed proxy, Hizbullah, were bent on the genocidal destruction of Israel. Tehran's development of a nuclear program -- whether for civilian use, as Iran argues, or for military use, as the US and Israel claim -- had to be stopped at all costs.
While the White House turned uncharacteristically quiet all spring and summer about what it planned to do next, rumors that Israel was pondering a go-it-alone strike against Iran grew noisier by the day. Ex-Mossad officers warned of an inevitable third world war, Israeli military intelligence advised that Iran was only months away from the point of no return on developing a nuclear warhead, prominent leaks in sympathetic media revealed bombing runs to Gibraltar, and Israel started upping the pressure on several tens of thousands of Jews in Tehran to flee their homes and come to Israel.
While Western analysts opined that an attack on Iran was growing unlikely, Israel's neighbors watched nervously through the first half of the year as the vague impression of a regional war came ever more sharply into focus. In particular Syria, after witnessing the whirlwind of savagery unleashed against Lebanon last summer, feared it was next in line in the US-Israeli campaign to break Tehran's network of regional alliances. It deduced, probably correctly, that neither the US nor Israel would dare attack Iran without first clobbering Hizbullah and Damascus.
For some time Syria had been left in no doubt of the mood in Washington. It failed to end its pariah status in the post-9/11 period, despite helping the CIA with intelligence on al-Qaeda and secretly trying to make peace with Israel over the running sore of the occupied Golan Heights. It was rebuffed at every turn.
So as the clouds of war grew darker in the spring, Syria responded as might be expected. It went to the arms market in Moscow and bought up the displays of anti-aircraft missiles as well as anti-tank weapons of the kind Hizbullah demonstrated last summer were so effective at repelling Israel's planned ground invasion of south Lebanon.
As the Israeli military historian Martin van Creveld reluctantly conceded earlier this year, US policy was forcing Damascus to remain within Iran's uncomfortable embrace: "Syrian President Bashar al-Assad finds himself more dependent on his Iranian counterpart, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, than perhaps he would like."
Israel, never missing an opportunity to wilfully misrepresent the behavior of an enemy, called the Syrian military build-up proof of Damascus' appetite for war. Apparently fearful that Syria might initiate a war by mistaking the signals from Israel as evidence of aggressive intentions, the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, urged Syria to avoid a "miscalculation". The Israeli public spent the summer braced for a far more dangerous repeat of last summer's war along the northern border.
It was at this point -- with tensions simmeringly hot -- that Israel launched its strike, sending several fighter planes into Syria on a lightning mission to hit a site near Dayr a-Zawr. As Syria itself broke the news of the attack, Israeli generals were shown on TV toasting in the Jewish new year but refusing to comment.
Details have remained thin on the ground ever since: Israel imposed a news blackout that has been strictly enforced by the country's military censor. Instead it has been left to the Western media to speculate on what occurred.
One point that none of the pundits and analysts have noted was that, in attacking Syria, Israel committed a blatant act of aggression against its northern neighbor of the kind denounced as the "supreme international crime" by the Nuremberg war crimes tribunal.
Also, no one pointed out the obvious double standard applied to Israel's attack on Syria compared to the far less significant violation of Israeli sovereignty by Hizbullah a year earlier, when the Shia militia captured two Israel soldiers at a border post and killed three more. Hizbullah's act was widely accepted as justification for the bombardment and destruction of much of Lebanon, even if a few sensitive souls agonized over whether Israel's response was "disproportionate". Would these commentators now approve of similar retaliation by Syria?
The question was doubtless considered unimportant because it was clear from Western coverage that no one -- including the Israeli leadership -- believed Syria was in a position to respond militarily to Israel's attack. Olmert's fear of a Syrian "miscalculation" evaporated the moment Israel did the maths for Damascus.
So what did Israel hope to achieve with its aerial strike?
The stories emerging from the less gagged American media suggest two scenarios. The first is that Israel targeted Iranian supplies passing through Syria on their way to Hizbullah; the second that Israel struck at a fledgling Syrian nuclear plant where materials from North Korea were being offloaded, possibly as part of a joint nuclear effort by Damascus and Tehran.
(Speculation that Israel was testing Syria's anti-aircraft defences in preparation for an attack on Iran ignores the fact that the Israeli air force would almost certainly choose a flightpath through friendlier Jordanian airspace.)
How credible are these two scenarios?
The nuclear claims against Damascus were discounted so quickly by experts of the region that Washington was soon downgrading the accusation to claims that Syria was only hiding the material on North Korea's behalf. But why would Syria, already hounded by Israel and the US, provide such a readymade pretext for still harsher treatment? Why, equally, would North Korea undermine its hard-won disarmament deal with the US? And why, if Syria were covertly engaging in nuclear mischief, did it alert the world to the fact by revealing the Israeli air strike?
The other justification for the attack was at least based in a more credible reality: Damascus, Hizbullah and Iran undoubtedly do share some military resources. But their alliance should be seen as the kind of defensive pact needed by vulnerable actors in a Sunni-dominated region where the US wants unlimited control of Gulf oil and supports only those repressive regimes that cooperate on its terms. All three are keenly aware that it is Israel's job to threaten and punish any regimes that fail to toe the line.
Contrary to the impression being created in the West, genocidal hatred of Israel and Jews, however often Ahmadinejad's speeches are mistranslated, is not the engine of these countries' alliance.
Nonetheless, the political significance of the justifications for the Israeli air strike is that both neatly tie together various strands of an argument needed by the neocons and Israel in making their case for an attack on Iran before Bush leaves office in early 2009. Each scenario suggests a Shia "axis of evil", coordinated by Iran, that is actively plotting Israel's destruction. And each story offers the pretext for an attack on Syria as a prelude to a pre-emptive strike against Tehran -- launched either by Washington or Tel Aviv -- to save Israel.
That these stories appear to have been planted in the American media by neocon fanatics like John Bolton is warning enough -- as is the admission that the only evidence for Syrian malfeasance is Israeli "intelligence", the basis of which cannot be questioned as Israel is not officially admitting the attack.
It should hardly need pointing out that we are again in a hall of mirrors, as we were during the period leading up to America's invasion of Iraq and have been during its subsequent occupation.
Bush's "war on terror" was originally justified with the convenient and manufactured links between Iraq and al-Qaeda, as well as, of course, those WMDs that, it later turned out, had been destroyed years earlier. But ever since Tehran has invariably been the ultimate target of these improbable confections.
There were the forged documents proving both that Iraq had imported enriched uranium from Niger to manufacture nuclear warheads and that it was sharing its nuclear know-how with Iran. And as Iraq fell apart, neocon operatives like Michael Ledeen lost no time in spreading rumors that the missing nuclear arsenal could still be accounted for: Iranian agents had simply smuggled it out of Iraq during the chaos of the US invasion.
Since then our media have proved that they have no less of an appetite for such preposterous tales. If Iran's involvement in stirring up its fellow Shia in Iraq against the US occupation is at least possible, the same cannot be said of the regular White House claims that Tehran is behind the Sunni-led insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan. A few months ago the news media served up "revelations" that Iran was secretly conspiring with al-Qaeda and Iraq's Sunni militias to oust the US occupiers.
So what purpose does the constant innuendo against Tehran serve?
The latest accusations should be seen as an example of Israel and the neocons "creating their own reality", as one Bush adviser famously observed of the neocon philosophy of power. The more that Hizbullah, Syria and Iran are menaced by Israel, the more they are forced to huddle together and behave in ways to protect themselves -- such as arming -- that can be portrayed as a "genocidal" threat to Israel and world order.
Van Creveld once observed that Tehran would be "crazy" not to develop nuclear weapons given the clear trajectory of Israeli and US machinations to overthrow the regime. So equally Syria cannot afford to jettison its alliance with Iran or its involvement with Hizbullah. In the current reality, these connections are the only power it has to deter an attack or force the US and Israel to negotiate.
But they are also the evidence needed by Israel and the neocons to convict Syria and Iran in the court of Washington opinion. The attack on Syria is part of a clever hustle, one designed to vanquish or bypass the doubters in the Bush Administration, both by proving Syria's culpability and by provoking it to respond.
Condoleezza Rice, it emerged at the weekend, wants to invite Syria to attend the regional peace conference that has been called by President Bush for November. There can be no doubt that such an act of détente is deeply opposed by both Israel and the neocons. It reverses their strategy of implicating Damascus in the "Shia arc of extremism" and of paving the way to an attack on the real target: Iran.
Syria, meanwhile, is fighting back, as it has been for some time, with the only means available: the diplomatic offensive. For two years Bashar al-Assad has been offering a generous peace deal to Israel on the Golan Heights that Tel Aviv has refused to consider. This week, Syria made a further gesture towards peace with an offer on another piece of territory occupied by Israel, the Shebaa Farms. Under the plan, the Farms -- which the United Nations now agrees belongs to Lebanon, but which Israel still claims is Syrian and cannot be returned until there is a deal on the Golan Heights -- would be transferred to UN custody until the dispute over its sovereignty can be resolved.
Were either of Damascus' initiatives to be pursued, the region might be looking forward to a period of relative calm and security. Which is reason enough why Israel and the neocons are so bitterly opposed. Instead they must establish a new reality -- one in which the forces of "creative destruction" so beloved of the neocons engulf yet more of the region. For the rest of us, a simpler vocabulary suffices. What is being sold is catastrophe.
African archbishop says condoms deliberately infected with HIV
The head of the Catholic Church in Mozambique has told the BBC he believes some European-made condoms are infected with HIV deliberately.
Maputo Archbishop Francisco Chimoio claimed some anti-retroviral drugs were also infected "in order to finish quickly the African people".
The Catholic Church formally opposes any use of condoms, advising fidelity within marriage or sexual abstinence.
Aids activists have been angered by the remarks, one calling them "nonsense".
"We've been using condoms for years now, and we still find them safe," prominent Mozambican Aids activist Marcella Mahanjane told the BBC.
The UN says anti-retrovirals (ARVs) have proved very effective for treating people with Aids. The drugs are not a cure, but attack the virus on several fronts at once.
The BBC's Jose Tembe in the capital, Maputo, says it is estimated that 16.2% of Mozambique's 19m inhabitants are HIV positive.
About 500 people are infected every day.
'Serious matter'
Archbishop Chimoio told our reporter that abstention, not condoms, was the best way to fight HIV/Aids.
"Condoms are not sure because I know that there are two countries in Europe, they are making condoms with the virus on purpose," he alleged, refusing to name the countries.
"They want to finish with the African people. This is the programme. They want to colonise until up to now. If we are not careful we will finish in one century's time."
Aids activists in the country have been shocked by the archbishop's comments.
"Condoms are one of the best ways of getting protection against catching Aids," said Gabe Judas, who runs Tchivirika (Hard Work) - an theatre group that promotes HIV/Aids awareness.
"People must use condoms as it's a safe way of having sex without catching Aids," he told the BBC.
Archbishop Chimoio, who made the remarks at celebrations to mark 33 years of independence, said that fighting the disease was a serious matter.
"If we are joking with this sickness we will be finished as soon as possible.
"If we want to change the situation to face HIV/Aids it's necessary to have a new mentality, if we don't change mentality we'll be finished quickly," he said.
"It means marriage, people being faithful to their wives... (and) young people must be abstaining from sexual relations."
Our correspondent says the archbishop is well respected in the country and the Catholic Church played a leading role in sponsoring the 1992 peace deal that ended a 16-year civil war.
Some 17.5% of Mozambicans are Catholic.
Maputo Archbishop Francisco Chimoio claimed some anti-retroviral drugs were also infected "in order to finish quickly the African people".
The Catholic Church formally opposes any use of condoms, advising fidelity within marriage or sexual abstinence.
Aids activists have been angered by the remarks, one calling them "nonsense".
"We've been using condoms for years now, and we still find them safe," prominent Mozambican Aids activist Marcella Mahanjane told the BBC.
The UN says anti-retrovirals (ARVs) have proved very effective for treating people with Aids. The drugs are not a cure, but attack the virus on several fronts at once.
The BBC's Jose Tembe in the capital, Maputo, says it is estimated that 16.2% of Mozambique's 19m inhabitants are HIV positive.
About 500 people are infected every day.
'Serious matter'
Archbishop Chimoio told our reporter that abstention, not condoms, was the best way to fight HIV/Aids.
"Condoms are not sure because I know that there are two countries in Europe, they are making condoms with the virus on purpose," he alleged, refusing to name the countries.
"They want to finish with the African people. This is the programme. They want to colonise until up to now. If we are not careful we will finish in one century's time."
Aids activists in the country have been shocked by the archbishop's comments.
"Condoms are one of the best ways of getting protection against catching Aids," said Gabe Judas, who runs Tchivirika (Hard Work) - an theatre group that promotes HIV/Aids awareness.
"People must use condoms as it's a safe way of having sex without catching Aids," he told the BBC.
Archbishop Chimoio, who made the remarks at celebrations to mark 33 years of independence, said that fighting the disease was a serious matter.
"If we are joking with this sickness we will be finished as soon as possible.
"If we want to change the situation to face HIV/Aids it's necessary to have a new mentality, if we don't change mentality we'll be finished quickly," he said.
"It means marriage, people being faithful to their wives... (and) young people must be abstaining from sexual relations."
Our correspondent says the archbishop is well respected in the country and the Catholic Church played a leading role in sponsoring the 1992 peace deal that ended a 16-year civil war.
Some 17.5% of Mozambicans are Catholic.
Hate Crimes Bill Passes Senate
Rev. Ted Pike
Thursday, September 27, 2007
By a vote of 60 to 39 this morning, Sens. Kennedy and Smith’s hate crimes amendment was attached to the defense authorization act. After three days of virtual silence, several Republican senators spoke against the bill within the two hours of debate. Sen. Lindsey Graham briefly argued that, if passed, the President will veto the hate bill and arms bill together, jeopardizing timely support of our troops. Sen. Jeff Sessions contended that states are adequately dealing with hate crimes and that Kennedy’s amendment burdens the defense authorization bill. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, arriving after the debate, was allowed to very briefly state that a hate bill was irrelevant to an arms bill.
The real hero of the day was Sen. Orrin Hatch. Yesterday he stood alone among Republicans to publicly oppose the hate bill. But today he spoke three times with powerful, logical, legal, and constitutional reasons why the hate bill is redundant to state law enforcement, which adequately deals with all kinds of violent crime. He said that gender identity, as put forth in this legislation, is unclear. Its definition depends on the subjective perceptions of both the hate criminal and the victim. He offered his own amendment (which was later passed unanimously) calling for the federal government to authorize studies to determine if states are adequately enforcing hate crimes laws.
Remarkably, Sen. Byrd of West Virginia , habitual supporter of the hate bill, voted against it. If only one more pro-hate bill Senator, Democrat or Republican, had been persuaded, either by massive calling during the last week or by impassioned attack of the hate bill on the floor of the Senate, the hate bill would have been destroyed in this Congress. It would have to be resubmitted in the next Congress under the stigma of having been rejected six times. Yes, the President has promised to veto today’s hate bill victory. But at the same time, the hate bill, through passage now by both House and Senate, is energized and dignified as never before to be easily ratified in the next Congress, little more than a year from now.
Credit for hate bill victory must largely go to the repeated impassioned speeches by Sens. Kennedy and Smith, but leaders of the religious right and Republican senators are, by default, just as responsible. Since the defense appropriations act was introduced 16 days ago, opening the possibility of hate bill attachment, there has been an astonishing lack of consistent warning from leaders of the religious right. This has grown even more acute since Monday, with a virtual blackout of warning from all new right websites (See, Do New Right Leaders Want Hate Bill Passed? and Hate Bill Ready for a Vote). As a result, the millions of calls which might have been generated amounted to a relative trickle. Only at the last minute, yesterday, when it became virtually impossible to influence today’s Senate vote, did new right leaders send out calls to action.
Such dereliction of duty was reflected on the floor of the Senate this week by the silence of Senators well known to oppose hate laws. Day after day they ignored invitations to speak to the Senate against the hate bill.
Both new right leaders and Republican senators represent themselves as watchmen on the wall, guardians of our freedom. Yet God told the prophet Ezekiel that if, as such a watchman, he knew the enemy was coming and yet did not sound the alarm, he would lose his eternal soul (Ez. 33)
For the past several weeks, both Christian and Republican leaders have seen the enemy coming. Yet they did not sound the alarm in a timely and effective way. For this they will have to answer to their Creator. Meanwhile, all Americans now are very, very much closer to having to answer to the federal “thought police” for every idle word that is not politically correct.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
By a vote of 60 to 39 this morning, Sens. Kennedy and Smith’s hate crimes amendment was attached to the defense authorization act. After three days of virtual silence, several Republican senators spoke against the bill within the two hours of debate. Sen. Lindsey Graham briefly argued that, if passed, the President will veto the hate bill and arms bill together, jeopardizing timely support of our troops. Sen. Jeff Sessions contended that states are adequately dealing with hate crimes and that Kennedy’s amendment burdens the defense authorization bill. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, arriving after the debate, was allowed to very briefly state that a hate bill was irrelevant to an arms bill.
The real hero of the day was Sen. Orrin Hatch. Yesterday he stood alone among Republicans to publicly oppose the hate bill. But today he spoke three times with powerful, logical, legal, and constitutional reasons why the hate bill is redundant to state law enforcement, which adequately deals with all kinds of violent crime. He said that gender identity, as put forth in this legislation, is unclear. Its definition depends on the subjective perceptions of both the hate criminal and the victim. He offered his own amendment (which was later passed unanimously) calling for the federal government to authorize studies to determine if states are adequately enforcing hate crimes laws.
Remarkably, Sen. Byrd of West Virginia , habitual supporter of the hate bill, voted against it. If only one more pro-hate bill Senator, Democrat or Republican, had been persuaded, either by massive calling during the last week or by impassioned attack of the hate bill on the floor of the Senate, the hate bill would have been destroyed in this Congress. It would have to be resubmitted in the next Congress under the stigma of having been rejected six times. Yes, the President has promised to veto today’s hate bill victory. But at the same time, the hate bill, through passage now by both House and Senate, is energized and dignified as never before to be easily ratified in the next Congress, little more than a year from now.
Credit for hate bill victory must largely go to the repeated impassioned speeches by Sens. Kennedy and Smith, but leaders of the religious right and Republican senators are, by default, just as responsible. Since the defense appropriations act was introduced 16 days ago, opening the possibility of hate bill attachment, there has been an astonishing lack of consistent warning from leaders of the religious right. This has grown even more acute since Monday, with a virtual blackout of warning from all new right websites (See, Do New Right Leaders Want Hate Bill Passed? and Hate Bill Ready for a Vote). As a result, the millions of calls which might have been generated amounted to a relative trickle. Only at the last minute, yesterday, when it became virtually impossible to influence today’s Senate vote, did new right leaders send out calls to action.
Such dereliction of duty was reflected on the floor of the Senate this week by the silence of Senators well known to oppose hate laws. Day after day they ignored invitations to speak to the Senate against the hate bill.
Both new right leaders and Republican senators represent themselves as watchmen on the wall, guardians of our freedom. Yet God told the prophet Ezekiel that if, as such a watchman, he knew the enemy was coming and yet did not sound the alarm, he would lose his eternal soul (Ez. 33)
For the past several weeks, both Christian and Republican leaders have seen the enemy coming. Yet they did not sound the alarm in a timely and effective way. For this they will have to answer to their Creator. Meanwhile, all Americans now are very, very much closer to having to answer to the federal “thought police” for every idle word that is not politically correct.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Sunday, September 23, 2007
The Decline of the Anglos
by Patrick J. Buchanan
In Russia’s Ulanovsk region, Sept. 12 is Conception Day.
Workers are given the day off and encouraged to go home and do their best to conceive a new Russian. The hope is to have a bumper crop of babies on Russia’s national holiday, nine months off.
Conception Day has occasioned much mirth and ribald humor. But for Mother Russia, the issue of her children is no laughing matter.
Two decades ago, the Soviet Union was three times the size of any of the other giant nation – the United States, Canada, China, Brazil – and the third most populous, with nearly 300 million people. Came then the great crack-up of 1990-91.
The Baltic republics – Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia – broke free first. Next were Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova in the west; Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan in the Caucasus; and Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan in Central Asia.
These amputations removed a third of the territory and half the population of the Soviet Union. Yet the remnant, Russia, remained twice as large as any other nation and still boasted a population of 150 million.
Since the 1990s, however, Russia has been losing population at a rate of 750,000 a year – not to emigration, but to death. By one count, the Russian population is down to 143 million. President Putin has predicted that only 124 million Russians will be alive in 2015. In 2000, the United Nations projected that, at its present birth rate, by 2050 Russia’s population would fall to 114 million.
In a 2005 study, the United Nations estimated that, together, Ukraine and Russia will lose 50 million people – 25 percent of their combined populations – by mid-century. The Slavs are dying out, and the geostrategic implications are enormous.
In a few decades, Turkey, which seeks entry into the European Union, will become Europe’s most populous nation. Like Xerxes’ bridge of boats across the Hellespont, Turkey will be the Asian land bridge into Europe, the Bridge of The Prophet into the homeland of the Christians.
As critical, the vast majority of Russians live west of the Urals, while east of Novosibirsk (New Siberia City), all the way to Kamchatka, the tiny Russian population is departing or dying out. Yet, in timber, oil and minerals, this is the most resource-rich region on earth. And south of Siberia lies the most populous and resource-hungry nation on earth.
American children born today may have Chinese for neighbors across the Bering Strait from Alaska.
Nor is it only the Slavic peoples who are expiring. So, too, are the native-born populations of Western and Southern Europe, as the empty nurseries of Europa fill with bawling Muslim babies.
Americans of European ancestry are also declining as a share of the U.S. population, down from near 90 percent into 1960 to 66 percent today. Anglos, as they are called now, are now minorities in our two largest states, Texas and California, and, by 2040, will be a minority in the nation that people of British and European stock built.
Last month, the Census Bureau projected the U.S. population would grow by 167 million by 2060, to 468 million.
And immigrants and their children will constitute 105 million of that 167 million. That would be triple the 37.5 million legal and illegal immigrants here today, which is itself the largest cohort of foreigners any nation has ever taken in.
With the 45 million Hispanics here to rise to 102 million by 2050, the Southwest is likely to look and sound more like Mexico than America. Indeed, culturally, linguistically and ethnically, it will be a part of Mexico.
Like Russians, Americans of European ancestry are failing to reproduce. Yet, a closer look reveals that population growth remains healthy among the religiously devout – evangelical Christians, Catholic traditionalists, Muslims and Mormons. Among the secularists, however, birth rates are far below Zero Population Growth – and the possibility of extinction looms.
One recent study found that the Jewish population in the United States fell by 6 percent in the 1990s, from 5.5 million to 5.2 million. Orthodox Jews, however, are known for families of five, eight or 10 children.
“And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and have dominion … over every living creature.” So reads Genesis. And so European Man once preached and practiced. But having lost his empires along with his faith, European Man no longer sees himself as commissioned by God.
Indeed, he no longer believes in God. Among our best and brightest are many whose purpose is to enjoy life to the fullest and to end it, when the time comes, as painlessly as possible.
Which seems to suit the rest of the world – China, India, Islam, Africa, Latin America – fine, as all look forward to a magnificent inheritance.
If demography is destiny, the West is finished. And, if so, does it really matter all that much who rules in Baghdad?
Spread the Word! These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
In Russia’s Ulanovsk region, Sept. 12 is Conception Day.
Workers are given the day off and encouraged to go home and do their best to conceive a new Russian. The hope is to have a bumper crop of babies on Russia’s national holiday, nine months off.
Conception Day has occasioned much mirth and ribald humor. But for Mother Russia, the issue of her children is no laughing matter.
Two decades ago, the Soviet Union was three times the size of any of the other giant nation – the United States, Canada, China, Brazil – and the third most populous, with nearly 300 million people. Came then the great crack-up of 1990-91.
The Baltic republics – Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia – broke free first. Next were Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova in the west; Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan in the Caucasus; and Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan in Central Asia.
These amputations removed a third of the territory and half the population of the Soviet Union. Yet the remnant, Russia, remained twice as large as any other nation and still boasted a population of 150 million.
Since the 1990s, however, Russia has been losing population at a rate of 750,000 a year – not to emigration, but to death. By one count, the Russian population is down to 143 million. President Putin has predicted that only 124 million Russians will be alive in 2015. In 2000, the United Nations projected that, at its present birth rate, by 2050 Russia’s population would fall to 114 million.
In a 2005 study, the United Nations estimated that, together, Ukraine and Russia will lose 50 million people – 25 percent of their combined populations – by mid-century. The Slavs are dying out, and the geostrategic implications are enormous.
In a few decades, Turkey, which seeks entry into the European Union, will become Europe’s most populous nation. Like Xerxes’ bridge of boats across the Hellespont, Turkey will be the Asian land bridge into Europe, the Bridge of The Prophet into the homeland of the Christians.
As critical, the vast majority of Russians live west of the Urals, while east of Novosibirsk (New Siberia City), all the way to Kamchatka, the tiny Russian population is departing or dying out. Yet, in timber, oil and minerals, this is the most resource-rich region on earth. And south of Siberia lies the most populous and resource-hungry nation on earth.
American children born today may have Chinese for neighbors across the Bering Strait from Alaska.
Nor is it only the Slavic peoples who are expiring. So, too, are the native-born populations of Western and Southern Europe, as the empty nurseries of Europa fill with bawling Muslim babies.
Americans of European ancestry are also declining as a share of the U.S. population, down from near 90 percent into 1960 to 66 percent today. Anglos, as they are called now, are now minorities in our two largest states, Texas and California, and, by 2040, will be a minority in the nation that people of British and European stock built.
Last month, the Census Bureau projected the U.S. population would grow by 167 million by 2060, to 468 million.
And immigrants and their children will constitute 105 million of that 167 million. That would be triple the 37.5 million legal and illegal immigrants here today, which is itself the largest cohort of foreigners any nation has ever taken in.
With the 45 million Hispanics here to rise to 102 million by 2050, the Southwest is likely to look and sound more like Mexico than America. Indeed, culturally, linguistically and ethnically, it will be a part of Mexico.
Like Russians, Americans of European ancestry are failing to reproduce. Yet, a closer look reveals that population growth remains healthy among the religiously devout – evangelical Christians, Catholic traditionalists, Muslims and Mormons. Among the secularists, however, birth rates are far below Zero Population Growth – and the possibility of extinction looms.
One recent study found that the Jewish population in the United States fell by 6 percent in the 1990s, from 5.5 million to 5.2 million. Orthodox Jews, however, are known for families of five, eight or 10 children.
“And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and have dominion … over every living creature.” So reads Genesis. And so European Man once preached and practiced. But having lost his empires along with his faith, European Man no longer sees himself as commissioned by God.
Indeed, he no longer believes in God. Among our best and brightest are many whose purpose is to enjoy life to the fullest and to end it, when the time comes, as painlessly as possible.
Which seems to suit the rest of the world – China, India, Islam, Africa, Latin America – fine, as all look forward to a magnificent inheritance.
If demography is destiny, the West is finished. And, if so, does it really matter all that much who rules in Baghdad?
Spread the Word! These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
What the Talmud Really Says About Jesus
Will Peter Schaefer's new book, Jesus in the Talmud (Mar.), be controversial? "I'm afraid so," Schaefer told RBL. "That's why I'm nervous."
His editor at Princeton University Press, Brigitta van Rheinberg, laughed but agreed: "You think, oh, whoa, this is not going to go over well in certain circles."
Schaefer, who heads up Princeton's Judaic studies program, has collected and analyzed all the passages in the Talmud that apparently refer to the founder of Christianity, texts that were previously censored from Talmud editions for centuries. In his book he argues—against other scholars—that the scandalous passages indeed refer not to some other figure of ancient times but to the famous Jesus of Nazareth.
What exactly is so scandalous? How about Jesus punished in Hell for eternity by being made to sit in a cauldron of boiling excrement? That image appears in early manuscripts of the Babylonian Talmud, as does a brief account of Jesus' trial and execution—not by the Romans but by the Jewish high court, the Sanhedrin. The Jewish community, to the extent Jews were even aware of these excised texts, has been content to let them remain obscure and unknown.
Schaefer, a distinguished German-born Christian scholar who describes classical rabbinic literature as "my first love," has now definitively let the cat out of the bag. This undermines a widespread assumption that, of Judaism's and Christianity's respective sacred texts, only the Christian Gospels go out of their way to assail the rival faith, whereas Judaism's classical texts refrain from similar attacks.
It seems fair to say now, however, that the Talmud is every bit as offensive to Christians as the Gospels are to Jews.
The Talmud's scattered portrait of Jesus unapologetically mocks Christian doctrines including the virgin birth and the resurrection. Which isn't to say that the rabbinic invective is meant simply to insult. In his book, the author calls the Talmud's assault on Christian claims "devastating."
"It is a very serious argument," said Schaefer, who emphasizes that the rabbis' stories about Jesus were never intended as an attempt at historically accurate narrative. Rather, in the classic Talmudic style, they encode legal and theological argumentation in the form of sometimes-imaginative storytelling.
One naturally wonders, when Jesus in the Talmud is published, what the results will be for Jewish-Christian relations. "I certainly don't want to harm Jewish-Christian dialogue. God forbid," Schaefer said. But dialogue requires honesty, and "I'm trying to be honest."
His editor at Princeton University Press, Brigitta van Rheinberg, laughed but agreed: "You think, oh, whoa, this is not going to go over well in certain circles."
Schaefer, who heads up Princeton's Judaic studies program, has collected and analyzed all the passages in the Talmud that apparently refer to the founder of Christianity, texts that were previously censored from Talmud editions for centuries. In his book he argues—against other scholars—that the scandalous passages indeed refer not to some other figure of ancient times but to the famous Jesus of Nazareth.
What exactly is so scandalous? How about Jesus punished in Hell for eternity by being made to sit in a cauldron of boiling excrement? That image appears in early manuscripts of the Babylonian Talmud, as does a brief account of Jesus' trial and execution—not by the Romans but by the Jewish high court, the Sanhedrin. The Jewish community, to the extent Jews were even aware of these excised texts, has been content to let them remain obscure and unknown.
Schaefer, a distinguished German-born Christian scholar who describes classical rabbinic literature as "my first love," has now definitively let the cat out of the bag. This undermines a widespread assumption that, of Judaism's and Christianity's respective sacred texts, only the Christian Gospels go out of their way to assail the rival faith, whereas Judaism's classical texts refrain from similar attacks.
It seems fair to say now, however, that the Talmud is every bit as offensive to Christians as the Gospels are to Jews.
The Talmud's scattered portrait of Jesus unapologetically mocks Christian doctrines including the virgin birth and the resurrection. Which isn't to say that the rabbinic invective is meant simply to insult. In his book, the author calls the Talmud's assault on Christian claims "devastating."
"It is a very serious argument," said Schaefer, who emphasizes that the rabbis' stories about Jesus were never intended as an attempt at historically accurate narrative. Rather, in the classic Talmudic style, they encode legal and theological argumentation in the form of sometimes-imaginative storytelling.
One naturally wonders, when Jesus in the Talmud is published, what the results will be for Jewish-Christian relations. "I certainly don't want to harm Jewish-Christian dialogue. God forbid," Schaefer said. But dialogue requires honesty, and "I'm trying to be honest."
Radical Zionist tapped to replace
WASHINGTON — A radical Zionist of Russian Jewish parentage has
been appointed by President Bush to be the next attorney general
of the United States, replacing Alberto Gonzales, who recently
resigned in disgrace. He is New York Federal Judge Michael Mukasey.
Mukasey is expected to win speedy Senate confirmation as the nation's
top law enforcement officer, with members of both parties rallying in
support. One of them is Charles Schumer, the Jewish Democratic
senator from New York, who expressed glowing praise for the nomination.
The nomination was also hailed by William Kristol, a well-known Jewish
supremacist and editor of The Weekly Standard, a leading neo-conservative
magazine.
Judge Mukasey and his wife, both Orthodox Jews, have been long-time
supporters of the most radical elements of the Jewish community in New
York and Israel. His wife Susan was one of the biggest fundraisers in New
York for the illegal Jewish settlements on Palestinian land, this despite the
stated policy of the United States government against such settlements.
Mukasey has also been a strong supporter of the so-called Patriot Act
restricting the rights of American citizens. Last month he wrote an op-ed
piece in The Wall Street Journal, in which he complained about "the
inadequacy of the current approach to terrorism prosecutions," a view
shared by the Bush administration in its war on civil liberties.
Worked with Chertoff on cover-up
As federal judge in New York, Mukasey has been in the middle of the 9/11
coverup. From his new position he will be able to quash any serious dissent
on 9/11, as Israel's role in that disaster becomes ever clearer.
A dedicated Zionist, Mukasey worked with the then head of the Justice
Department Terrorism Task Force, Michael Chertoff, to free apprehended
Israeli spy teams and get them safely back to Israel and away from 9/11
investigators and the 9/11 commission as material witnesses.
Among these were the five dancing Israelis who were picked up by the FBI
after they had filmed themselves with the World Trade Center towers
burning in the background.
The Israelis had multiple passports, box cutters, large amounts of cash and
turned out to be Mossad agents, complete with military training in explosives
and special ops. As hundreds of Americans were being burned alive, they
were seen laughing, cheering and dancing in celebration.
been appointed by President Bush to be the next attorney general
of the United States, replacing Alberto Gonzales, who recently
resigned in disgrace. He is New York Federal Judge Michael Mukasey.
Mukasey is expected to win speedy Senate confirmation as the nation's
top law enforcement officer, with members of both parties rallying in
support. One of them is Charles Schumer, the Jewish Democratic
senator from New York, who expressed glowing praise for the nomination.
The nomination was also hailed by William Kristol, a well-known Jewish
supremacist and editor of The Weekly Standard, a leading neo-conservative
magazine.
Judge Mukasey and his wife, both Orthodox Jews, have been long-time
supporters of the most radical elements of the Jewish community in New
York and Israel. His wife Susan was one of the biggest fundraisers in New
York for the illegal Jewish settlements on Palestinian land, this despite the
stated policy of the United States government against such settlements.
Mukasey has also been a strong supporter of the so-called Patriot Act
restricting the rights of American citizens. Last month he wrote an op-ed
piece in The Wall Street Journal, in which he complained about "the
inadequacy of the current approach to terrorism prosecutions," a view
shared by the Bush administration in its war on civil liberties.
Worked with Chertoff on cover-up
As federal judge in New York, Mukasey has been in the middle of the 9/11
coverup. From his new position he will be able to quash any serious dissent
on 9/11, as Israel's role in that disaster becomes ever clearer.
A dedicated Zionist, Mukasey worked with the then head of the Justice
Department Terrorism Task Force, Michael Chertoff, to free apprehended
Israeli spy teams and get them safely back to Israel and away from 9/11
investigators and the 9/11 commission as material witnesses.
Among these were the five dancing Israelis who were picked up by the FBI
after they had filmed themselves with the World Trade Center towers
burning in the background.
The Israelis had multiple passports, box cutters, large amounts of cash and
turned out to be Mossad agents, complete with military training in explosives
and special ops. As hundreds of Americans were being burned alive, they
were seen laughing, cheering and dancing in celebration.
Friday, September 21, 2007
Democracy in Action: Zundel Attorney Charged
From the democratic Federal Republic of Germany comes the news that the Mannheim state attorney's office has brought nine counts of Volksverhetzung — "mass incitement" — against attorney Jürgen Rieger. The 61-year-old dissident, previously convicted on similar charges, had defended Holocaust™ challenger Ernst Zündel in court.
According to a spokesman for the prosecutor's office, Rieger himself is accused of having, as Zündel's defense counsel, repeatedly disputed and "played down" the alleged genocide of Jews in World War II.
In addition, the state attorney's office is seeking to have the well-known Hamburg jurist barred from legal practice. No date has been set for trial of the case.
In February Zündel was sentenced to a maximum five years in prison for so-called mass incitement. According to the court, he disputed the death of six million Jews on the Internet from Canada and in related publications.
The federal court, meanwhile, has rejected an appeal. At the trial, Zündel's defense — representing five lawyers before the court — called the casualty figures of the Jewish "holocaust" into question.
Another Zündel defense attorney, Sylvia Stolz, has been accused of Volksverhetzung. She has been ordered to appear on November 15 before the state court in Mannheim. The state attorney's office is likewise seeking to have her disbarred from legal practice. Because of "sabotage" the lawyer was excluded from the Zündel trial.
According to a spokesman for the prosecutor's office, Rieger himself is accused of having, as Zündel's defense counsel, repeatedly disputed and "played down" the alleged genocide of Jews in World War II.
In addition, the state attorney's office is seeking to have the well-known Hamburg jurist barred from legal practice. No date has been set for trial of the case.
In February Zündel was sentenced to a maximum five years in prison for so-called mass incitement. According to the court, he disputed the death of six million Jews on the Internet from Canada and in related publications.
The federal court, meanwhile, has rejected an appeal. At the trial, Zündel's defense — representing five lawyers before the court — called the casualty figures of the Jewish "holocaust" into question.
Another Zündel defense attorney, Sylvia Stolz, has been accused of Volksverhetzung. She has been ordered to appear on November 15 before the state court in Mannheim. The state attorney's office is likewise seeking to have her disbarred from legal practice. Because of "sabotage" the lawyer was excluded from the Zündel trial.
Freedom Party Leads Anti-Islamification drive in Austria
A Muslim leader in Austria sounded the alarm about the growing influence of some “far-right” political parties, which are waging an onslaught against Islam and Muslims in the country.
Interviewed by Kuwait News Agency (KUNA), Anas Shakfa, chief of an official Islamic organization in Austria, refuted recent allegations claimed by the Freedom Party as “ungrounded and divorced from reality.”
Last week, Freedom party demonstrators protested against what they called the "building of mosques and minarets in Austria".
Shakfa believed that the ongoing campaign against Muslims and religious rituals began in Germany and then moved to Austria through far-right parties. He voiced concern over anti-Muslim statements by some moderate political leaders in Austria, who are on good terms with the Muslim community in the country.
The onslaught against the building of mosques was sparked by Freedom party leader Heinz Christianne Stracher and continued by Alliance for the Future of Austria leader Jurg Haider. It was also joined by Counselor Molterer Wilhem of the conservative Austrian People's Party, a partner in the ruling alliance.
There are some 350,000 Muslims living in Austria, constituting four percent of the country's population of eight million.
Islam has become the second key religion in the Austrian capital, Vienna.
Interviewed by Kuwait News Agency (KUNA), Anas Shakfa, chief of an official Islamic organization in Austria, refuted recent allegations claimed by the Freedom Party as “ungrounded and divorced from reality.”
Last week, Freedom party demonstrators protested against what they called the "building of mosques and minarets in Austria".
Shakfa believed that the ongoing campaign against Muslims and religious rituals began in Germany and then moved to Austria through far-right parties. He voiced concern over anti-Muslim statements by some moderate political leaders in Austria, who are on good terms with the Muslim community in the country.
The onslaught against the building of mosques was sparked by Freedom party leader Heinz Christianne Stracher and continued by Alliance for the Future of Austria leader Jurg Haider. It was also joined by Counselor Molterer Wilhem of the conservative Austrian People's Party, a partner in the ruling alliance.
There are some 350,000 Muslims living in Austria, constituting four percent of the country's population of eight million.
Islam has become the second key religion in the Austrian capital, Vienna.
Russian Youth Group Praised for Helping Arrest Invaders
The Russian Federal Migration Service on Monday lauded members of a nationalist youth group for rounding up dozens of illegal foreign workers and turning them over to authorities.
Migration service chief Konstantin Romodanovsky told reporters that Mestniye members "really helped" the agency in detaining 72 people attempting to obtain work illegally, Interfax reported.
Romodanovsky did not elaborate on the nature of Mestniye's assistance, but the youth group's spokesman, Andrei Groznetsky, said activists used subterfuge to blow the whistle on the workers.
In a daylong operation Saturday, Mestniye activists pulled up in cars to a market near Yaroslavskoye Shosse in northeast Moscow where migrant workers typically wait for temporary manual labor jobs.
"It's no secret that they hide in groups next to the building materials store near the market looking for work," Groznetsky said. The driver, posing as a businessman in search of cheap labor to renovate his dacha, would call over three or four foreigners standing nearby and offer them 1,000 rubles each for four hours of work, Groznetsky said. But instead of taking them to the dacha, the driver would then drop the workers off at a nearby migration service office to have their documents checked, he said.
"We have close links with the Federal Migration Service and have helped them before," Groznetsky said. Created two years ago as a pro-Kremlin youth group, Mestniye has drifted more toward anti-immigration stunts in line ideologically with the ultranationalist Movement Against Illegal Immigration.
This summer Mestniye activists distributed fliers urging Russians not to take taxi rides in cars driven by illegal immigrants. The flier showed a picture of a young blond woman refusing a ride from a leering, dark-skinned driver.
Romodanovsky defended the use of the Mestniye activists in cracking down on illegal immigration, despite the fact that they can occasionally be "very combative." "If they are utilized wisely, they can be useful," Romodanovsky said at the news conference.
Migration service chief Konstantin Romodanovsky told reporters that Mestniye members "really helped" the agency in detaining 72 people attempting to obtain work illegally, Interfax reported.
Romodanovsky did not elaborate on the nature of Mestniye's assistance, but the youth group's spokesman, Andrei Groznetsky, said activists used subterfuge to blow the whistle on the workers.
In a daylong operation Saturday, Mestniye activists pulled up in cars to a market near Yaroslavskoye Shosse in northeast Moscow where migrant workers typically wait for temporary manual labor jobs.
"It's no secret that they hide in groups next to the building materials store near the market looking for work," Groznetsky said. The driver, posing as a businessman in search of cheap labor to renovate his dacha, would call over three or four foreigners standing nearby and offer them 1,000 rubles each for four hours of work, Groznetsky said. But instead of taking them to the dacha, the driver would then drop the workers off at a nearby migration service office to have their documents checked, he said.
"We have close links with the Federal Migration Service and have helped them before," Groznetsky said. Created two years ago as a pro-Kremlin youth group, Mestniye has drifted more toward anti-immigration stunts in line ideologically with the ultranationalist Movement Against Illegal Immigration.
This summer Mestniye activists distributed fliers urging Russians not to take taxi rides in cars driven by illegal immigrants. The flier showed a picture of a young blond woman refusing a ride from a leering, dark-skinned driver.
Romodanovsky defended the use of the Mestniye activists in cracking down on illegal immigration, despite the fact that they can occasionally be "very combative." "If they are utilized wisely, they can be useful," Romodanovsky said at the news conference.
Vlaams Belang Launches "Stop Islamisation" Program
Belgium’s populist Vlaams Belang party is going to launch a campaign to "stop Islamisation," first in Antwerp and later in other cities. The party is calling for a stop to the registration of newcomers in the city, a restriction on the number of mosques, and the expulsion of radical imams.
VB faction leader in the Flemish Parliament Filip Dewinter says that Islam is pursuing a deliberate strategy to conquer Flemish cities. That is being done through increasing concentration, the formation of ghettos, and the refusal to integrate, he says.
More and more native Belgians are leaving the cities and the government is making the situation worse, Dewinter says. "Allah is great and Patrick Janssens is his prophet. He keeps giving in on essential issues and is not putting a stop to the Islamisation of our city," Dewinter says.
Vlaams Belang wants to put a stop to immigration to Antwerp and encourage voluntary repatriation. In addition Vlaams Belang wants Islam to be scrapped as a recognized religion and that any subsidies by stopped.
"Personal religious observance should be free, also for Muslims, but we do not think that a sort of Islamic pillar of society should be created in our country to which we have to make all sorts of concessions, like segregated swimming areas and halal food in public schools," Dewinter says.
VB faction leader in the Flemish Parliament Filip Dewinter says that Islam is pursuing a deliberate strategy to conquer Flemish cities. That is being done through increasing concentration, the formation of ghettos, and the refusal to integrate, he says.
More and more native Belgians are leaving the cities and the government is making the situation worse, Dewinter says. "Allah is great and Patrick Janssens is his prophet. He keeps giving in on essential issues and is not putting a stop to the Islamisation of our city," Dewinter says.
Vlaams Belang wants to put a stop to immigration to Antwerp and encourage voluntary repatriation. In addition Vlaams Belang wants Islam to be scrapped as a recognized religion and that any subsidies by stopped.
"Personal religious observance should be free, also for Muslims, but we do not think that a sort of Islamic pillar of society should be created in our country to which we have to make all sorts of concessions, like segregated swimming areas and halal food in public schools," Dewinter says.
Twelve Percent of Germans Might Vote for “Far Right”
A survey of Germans has found that one-eighth, or twelve percent, of Germans might contemplate voting for “far-right parties which embrace neo-Nazis,” the weekly magazine Stern said Wednesday.
Thanks to a rule that excludes parties unable to win at least 5 per cent of the vote nationwide, German rightists have never managed to enter the Bundestag parliament during the post-World-War-II era.
The survey, by Forsa pollsters, found 2 per cent of Germans were regular voters for the German Nationalist Democratic Party and its ally the German People's Union DVU.
Another 4 per cent could contemplate voting for either party, while 7 per cent said they could "perhaps contemplate" casting a vote for the far right. The three groups together comprised 13 per cent of German adults. Forsa questioned 3,773 Germans.
Thanks to a rule that excludes parties unable to win at least 5 per cent of the vote nationwide, German rightists have never managed to enter the Bundestag parliament during the post-World-War-II era.
The survey, by Forsa pollsters, found 2 per cent of Germans were regular voters for the German Nationalist Democratic Party and its ally the German People's Union DVU.
Another 4 per cent could contemplate voting for either party, while 7 per cent said they could "perhaps contemplate" casting a vote for the far right. The three groups together comprised 13 per cent of German adults. Forsa questioned 3,773 Germans.
Glamorous politician wants law to allow 7-year itch
BERLIN (Reuters) - Bavaria's most glamorous politician -- a flame-haired motorcyclist who helped bring down state premier Edmund Stoiber -- has shocked the Catholic state in Germany by suggesting marriage should last just 7 years.
ADVERTISEMENT
Gabriele Pauli, who poses on her web site in motorcycle leathers, is standing for the leadership of Bavaria's Christian Social Union (CSU) -- sister party of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) -- in a vote next week.
She told reporters at the launch of her campaign manifesto on Wednesday she wanted marriage to expire after seven years and accused the CSU, which promotes traditional family values, of nurturing ideals of marriage which are wide of the mark.
"The basic approach is wrong ... many marriages last just because people believe they are safe," she told reporters. "My suggestion is that marriages expire after seven years."
After that time, couples should either agree to extend their marriage or it should be automatically dissolved, she said.
Fifty-year-old Pauli, twice divorced, is a maverick intent on shaking up her male-dominated and mainly Catholic party which has dominated Bavarian politics since World War Two.
"This is about bringing ideas into the CSU and starting a discussion," she told German television on Thursday after she had unleashed a wave of criticism from other politicians.
Former foe Stoiber said she did not belong in the CSU and European lawmaker Ingo Freidrich dismissed her views.
"She is diametrically contradicting our Christian, ethical values," Freidrich said.
Peter Ramsauer, head of the CSU in Germany's parliament, compared Pauli's ideas to "the dirt under your fingernails".
Pauli, who attracted attention earlier this year when she posed for a magazine wearing long black latex gloves, was at the centre of a snooping scandal which eventually led to Stoiber, Bavarian premier for 14 years, saying he would stand down early.
She said his office tried to obtain details about lovers and alcohol consumption to use against her.
The CSU will elect Stoiber's successor as party head at a conference next week. He will be replaced as state premier in early October.
Viewed as a party rebel, Pauli stands almost no chance of winning next week's vote. The contest has been fought mainly between Bavarian state economy minister Erwin Huber and German Consumer Minister Horst Seehofer.
The popularity of Seehofer, a 58-year-old married father of three, has suffered from the disclosure that he had been having an affair with a younger woman who recently had his baby.
ADVERTISEMENT
Gabriele Pauli, who poses on her web site in motorcycle leathers, is standing for the leadership of Bavaria's Christian Social Union (CSU) -- sister party of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) -- in a vote next week.
She told reporters at the launch of her campaign manifesto on Wednesday she wanted marriage to expire after seven years and accused the CSU, which promotes traditional family values, of nurturing ideals of marriage which are wide of the mark.
"The basic approach is wrong ... many marriages last just because people believe they are safe," she told reporters. "My suggestion is that marriages expire after seven years."
After that time, couples should either agree to extend their marriage or it should be automatically dissolved, she said.
Fifty-year-old Pauli, twice divorced, is a maverick intent on shaking up her male-dominated and mainly Catholic party which has dominated Bavarian politics since World War Two.
"This is about bringing ideas into the CSU and starting a discussion," she told German television on Thursday after she had unleashed a wave of criticism from other politicians.
Former foe Stoiber said she did not belong in the CSU and European lawmaker Ingo Freidrich dismissed her views.
"She is diametrically contradicting our Christian, ethical values," Freidrich said.
Peter Ramsauer, head of the CSU in Germany's parliament, compared Pauli's ideas to "the dirt under your fingernails".
Pauli, who attracted attention earlier this year when she posed for a magazine wearing long black latex gloves, was at the centre of a snooping scandal which eventually led to Stoiber, Bavarian premier for 14 years, saying he would stand down early.
She said his office tried to obtain details about lovers and alcohol consumption to use against her.
The CSU will elect Stoiber's successor as party head at a conference next week. He will be replaced as state premier in early October.
Viewed as a party rebel, Pauli stands almost no chance of winning next week's vote. The contest has been fought mainly between Bavarian state economy minister Erwin Huber and German Consumer Minister Horst Seehofer.
The popularity of Seehofer, a 58-year-old married father of three, has suffered from the disclosure that he had been having an affair with a younger woman who recently had his baby.
Schools obsessed with Hitler, says Church of England report
> Schools are perpetuating damaging stereotypes of Germans because of
their
> "obsession" with Hitler and the Second World War, it was claimed
> yesterday.
>
> The vast numbers of pupils who choose to study the Nazi period in
history
> is fuelling anti-German feeling, the Church of England said.
>
> This undercurrent is reinforced by the large number of war films
shown on
> television and the "drip feed" of anti-German comments in the media,
a
> report said.
>
> Its authors said that they had received letters from German
Christians
> living in Britain who had experienced "shameful treatment".
>
> "A teacher of German in a secondary school reported being repeatedly
> confronted with a 'Heil Hitler' and with swastikas on history books,"
said
> the report.
>
> "The grandchild of another person found herself excluded, on a school
trip
> to France, from visiting a British war cemetery 'as she was a Nazi' -
this
> despite the fact that her grandfather came to Britain as a Jewish
> refugee."
>
> It said that the role of Britain in defeating the Nazis had
reinforced "a
> sense of moral righteousness" and inhibited "soul-searching" over our
own
> history.
>
> The Bishop of Croydon, the Rt Rev Nicholas Baines, said that the
Church
> had written to the Department of Education urging schools to focus
more on
> modern Germany.
>
> "If you bring up children and their only images of Germany are of
Fritz in
> a helmet, that is going to have an effect," he said.
>
their
> "obsession" with Hitler and the Second World War, it was claimed
> yesterday.
>
> The vast numbers of pupils who choose to study the Nazi period in
history
> is fuelling anti-German feeling, the Church of England said.
>
> This undercurrent is reinforced by the large number of war films
shown on
> television and the "drip feed" of anti-German comments in the media,
a
> report said.
>
> Its authors said that they had received letters from German
Christians
> living in Britain who had experienced "shameful treatment".
>
> "A teacher of German in a secondary school reported being repeatedly
> confronted with a 'Heil Hitler' and with swastikas on history books,"
said
> the report.
>
> "The grandchild of another person found herself excluded, on a school
trip
> to France, from visiting a British war cemetery 'as she was a Nazi' -
this
> despite the fact that her grandfather came to Britain as a Jewish
> refugee."
>
> It said that the role of Britain in defeating the Nazis had
reinforced "a
> sense of moral righteousness" and inhibited "soul-searching" over our
own
> history.
>
> The Bishop of Croydon, the Rt Rev Nicholas Baines, said that the
Church
> had written to the Department of Education urging schools to focus
more on
> modern Germany.
>
> "If you bring up children and their only images of Germany are of
Fritz in
> a helmet, that is going to have an effect," he said.
>
Some Oregon schools adopting Mexican curriculum
Some Oregon high schools are adopting Mexico's public school curriculum to help educate Spanish-speaking students with textbooks, an online Web site, DVDs and CDs provided free by Mexico to teach math, science and even U.S. history.
The Oregon Department of Education and Mexico's Secretariat of Public Education are discussing aligning their curricula so courses will be valid in both countries.
Similar ventures are under way in Yakima, Wash., San Diego, Calif., and Austin, Texas.
"Students come to us with such complex issues," said Tim King, director of Clackamas Middle College and Clackamas Web Academy, where a virtual course using Mexico's learning materials got started this week.
"We've had to change in order to fit into each school scene, become more complex and open ourselves up to new situations."
Oregon officials say the approach is intended as a supplement to keep students learning in Spanish while also gaining English skills.
Until now, Oregon school districts generally have relied on bilingual aides or used Spanish material different from the English material others are studying.
"That's not enough," said Patrick Burk, chief policy officer with the superintendent's office of the Oregon Department of Education. He said the idea is minimal disruption for immigrant Latinos.
"The availability of resources is astounding," said Burk, who flew to Mexico with Oregon curriculum officials in August to discuss making equivalency standards official. "We're able to serve the students so much better if we're working together."
Mexico has made its national curriculum available to communities across the U.S. since 2001 to encourage Mexican adults and youths to continue an education often abandoned back home due to limited resources.
"We wanted people to be aware that they have to study," said Patricia Ramos, the director of national affairs for Mexico's Institute for Adult Education and National Advisory of Education for Life and Work.
"You have to dare to study and make use of technology because that way, it will be easier to adapt to where you now live."
In other places, the curriculum was used to educate students' parents, rescue dropouts and even teach inmates. A program exists now at MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility in Woodburn.
The program caught the attention of public schools such as Reynolds High School in Troutdale and Marshall Night School, an alternative school based at Marshall High School in Portland.
At Marshall, the material has been used in night school and may soon move into daytime classrooms.
At Reynolds, educators began using part of Mexico's curriculum to teach a Spanish literacy class.
Students learned punctuation and sentence structure in Spanish and then saw improvement in English progress, said Dale Bernardini, a teacher who handles the partnership for Reynolds School District.
This fall, textbooks, DVDs and Mexico's curriculum Web were introduced in Francisco Rico's math classroom at Reynolds.
"We're just ahead with all the materials," he said. "We have the Web site where students can do exercises ... they can learn through visual and audio. We were having trouble bringing something that would be familiar to their culture."
In Washington state, nearly 30 schools have already implemented Mexico's curriculum into the classrooms.
In Oregon, learning materials are free, but districts must pay for staff. So far, two computer servers supporting Mexico's Web site cost the state about $10,000 to install and about $2,200 annually to maintain.
One of the biggest challenges will be finding more Spanish-speaking instructors, said Burk of the Oregon Department of Education.
He said about 15 percent of Oregon students are Latino, compared with 2 percent of teachers.
The Oregon Department of Education and Mexico's Secretariat of Public Education are discussing aligning their curricula so courses will be valid in both countries.
Similar ventures are under way in Yakima, Wash., San Diego, Calif., and Austin, Texas.
"Students come to us with such complex issues," said Tim King, director of Clackamas Middle College and Clackamas Web Academy, where a virtual course using Mexico's learning materials got started this week.
"We've had to change in order to fit into each school scene, become more complex and open ourselves up to new situations."
Oregon officials say the approach is intended as a supplement to keep students learning in Spanish while also gaining English skills.
Until now, Oregon school districts generally have relied on bilingual aides or used Spanish material different from the English material others are studying.
"That's not enough," said Patrick Burk, chief policy officer with the superintendent's office of the Oregon Department of Education. He said the idea is minimal disruption for immigrant Latinos.
"The availability of resources is astounding," said Burk, who flew to Mexico with Oregon curriculum officials in August to discuss making equivalency standards official. "We're able to serve the students so much better if we're working together."
Mexico has made its national curriculum available to communities across the U.S. since 2001 to encourage Mexican adults and youths to continue an education often abandoned back home due to limited resources.
"We wanted people to be aware that they have to study," said Patricia Ramos, the director of national affairs for Mexico's Institute for Adult Education and National Advisory of Education for Life and Work.
"You have to dare to study and make use of technology because that way, it will be easier to adapt to where you now live."
In other places, the curriculum was used to educate students' parents, rescue dropouts and even teach inmates. A program exists now at MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility in Woodburn.
The program caught the attention of public schools such as Reynolds High School in Troutdale and Marshall Night School, an alternative school based at Marshall High School in Portland.
At Marshall, the material has been used in night school and may soon move into daytime classrooms.
At Reynolds, educators began using part of Mexico's curriculum to teach a Spanish literacy class.
Students learned punctuation and sentence structure in Spanish and then saw improvement in English progress, said Dale Bernardini, a teacher who handles the partnership for Reynolds School District.
This fall, textbooks, DVDs and Mexico's curriculum Web were introduced in Francisco Rico's math classroom at Reynolds.
"We're just ahead with all the materials," he said. "We have the Web site where students can do exercises ... they can learn through visual and audio. We were having trouble bringing something that would be familiar to their culture."
In Washington state, nearly 30 schools have already implemented Mexico's curriculum into the classrooms.
In Oregon, learning materials are free, but districts must pay for staff. So far, two computer servers supporting Mexico's Web site cost the state about $10,000 to install and about $2,200 annually to maintain.
One of the biggest challenges will be finding more Spanish-speaking instructors, said Burk of the Oregon Department of Education.
He said about 15 percent of Oregon students are Latino, compared with 2 percent of teachers.
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
if you dont like modern art your a NAZI!!!
A German archbishop has sparked controversy by calling some modern art "degenerate" - a term used by the Nazi regime in its persecution of artists.
Cardinal Joachim Meisner, Archbishop of Cologne, was speaking as the Church inaugurated its Kolumba art museum.
Cardinal Meisner warned that when art became estranged from worship, culture became degenerate.
The cardinal had not intended to pay tribute to "old ideologies", a spokesman said.
Taboo
The BBC's Marianne Landzettel says this was no off-the-cuff remark by the cardinal, delivered in a sermon in Cologne Cathedral, but was precisely scripted.
She says the phrase degenerate art - "entartete Kunst" - in German has only one connotation: that of Nazi Germany and the persecution of artists, the banning of paintings and the burning of books.
"Entartete Kunst" was the name of an exhibition of works organised by the Nazis in 1937 in Munich as a warning to the German people.
In a newspaper interview, the North Rhine-Westphalia culture secretary, Hans-Dietrich Grosse-Brockhoff, said it was appalling that Cardinal Meisner had used such a word.
Former minister Michael Vesper also said he was shocked.
"I thought all this was history, and then it is a high-ranking member of the Catholic clergy who uses it," he said.
After Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, the Nazi government started to bring art under its control.
All modern art, and Expressionism in particular, was labelled degenerate and was not to be shown in public.
More than 15,000 paintings were removed from German museums.
Recently Cardinal Meisner expressed opposition to a new stained-glass window in Cologne Cathedral.
The abstract work by renowned artist Gerhard Richter contains thousands of squares.
The archbishop's supporters say he is not opposed to modern art as such but wanted the window to be a more figurative representation, including of those who suffered under Nazi persecution.
Correspondents say any sign of agreement with the Nazis is taboo in Germany.
Last week, a top TV presenter was sacked for praising the Nazis' respect for families and motherhood.
Cardinal Joachim Meisner, Archbishop of Cologne, was speaking as the Church inaugurated its Kolumba art museum.
Cardinal Meisner warned that when art became estranged from worship, culture became degenerate.
The cardinal had not intended to pay tribute to "old ideologies", a spokesman said.
Taboo
The BBC's Marianne Landzettel says this was no off-the-cuff remark by the cardinal, delivered in a sermon in Cologne Cathedral, but was precisely scripted.
She says the phrase degenerate art - "entartete Kunst" - in German has only one connotation: that of Nazi Germany and the persecution of artists, the banning of paintings and the burning of books.
"Entartete Kunst" was the name of an exhibition of works organised by the Nazis in 1937 in Munich as a warning to the German people.
In a newspaper interview, the North Rhine-Westphalia culture secretary, Hans-Dietrich Grosse-Brockhoff, said it was appalling that Cardinal Meisner had used such a word.
Former minister Michael Vesper also said he was shocked.
"I thought all this was history, and then it is a high-ranking member of the Catholic clergy who uses it," he said.
After Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, the Nazi government started to bring art under its control.
All modern art, and Expressionism in particular, was labelled degenerate and was not to be shown in public.
More than 15,000 paintings were removed from German museums.
Recently Cardinal Meisner expressed opposition to a new stained-glass window in Cologne Cathedral.
The abstract work by renowned artist Gerhard Richter contains thousands of squares.
The archbishop's supporters say he is not opposed to modern art as such but wanted the window to be a more figurative representation, including of those who suffered under Nazi persecution.
Correspondents say any sign of agreement with the Nazis is taboo in Germany.
Last week, a top TV presenter was sacked for praising the Nazis' respect for families and motherhood.
breaking story on the zundel case
On 12 September 2007, the German Bundesgerichtshof, a sort of appeal
court, has rubberstamped the treason against the German People - that
they have absolutely no right to hear the truth about their history.
The judgment stands as Judge Meinerzhagen pronounced it shamelessly
while sentencing Ernst Zundel:
« It is of absolutely no relevance whether the Holocaust happened or
not. Denying it is a punishable offense. That is the only thing
that matters to the Court ! » (Source : Berliner Tageszeitung, 2
Feb 2007)
Five years for speaking the truth - as documented by forensic science
- about the Holocaust !
Let it be said that the defense submissions appealing the harsh
Mannheim sentence consisted of more than 800 carefully crafted pages
of legal arguments.
The Bundesgerichtsamt's reply consisted of one-and-a- half pages of
blah-blah !
Since I am archiving for history the many facets of this epic
struggle between the Germans and the Jews, I thought it is
appropriate to share with you Ernst's thoughts on having reached this
milestone.
In a letter to a fellow activist in France, his dear friend, Dr.
Robert Faurisson, Ernst wrote in part:
Ernst Zündel
JVA Mannheim
Herzogenriedstr. 111
68169 MANNHEIM
24 August 07
Dear Dr. Faurisson !
I know it is August and most of France is on holidays, so forgive the
intrusion, and no need to reply. (S)
I wanted to write one more time, because at the moment it is a bit
like the quiet before the storm we experienced as peasants before a
thunderstorm would hit in Summer before we could get the hay in, or
harvest the grain, potatoes etc. !
There always was a kind of heavyness, a kind of foreboding in the
air, and after two or three lightning strikes and sharp thunder
clasps, the sluice gates of heaven opened up - lukewarm rain would
fall plentifully. There would rise steam from the meadows and forests
- and the air would smell heavenly ! Only a peasant would be able to
appreciate what freshly-watered soil smells like !
Thus, after the stresses and the strains, the constant struggles and
battles and cajoling of the lawyers to try to get them to undertake
certain initiatives, now a certain calm is setting in. I was ordered
to pack and remove my court-related documents from my cell, A
certain realization is setting in that the end phase is [at hand]!
The most amazing, dedicated, quietly competent lawyer [of the
Mannheim trial] was Dr. Schaller. A delight to work with ! I had
invited him to Canada to observe the appeal of one of my trials,
liked him, and we remained in contact ever since. Although unwell, he
consented to help me. I was delighted, for there is no one who takes
the time to weigh every word, who has the enormous background
knowledge, which is a real asset in these cases ! And he is cultured,
with good manners. This has meant that I could draw on his knowledge
and rely on his topics and documents, which he had assembled over a
53-year-spanning career.
Thus justice was done to the cause before history, even if little
justice was done to me by my detractors and persecutors, which
usually happens in these types of cases throughout history.
There are, now that the case is before the Bundesgerichtshof, two
more relatively simple hurdles to take : the Bundesverfassungsgericht
and then the European Court of Human Rights.
If the finances last, we will go there, in order that NO Germans can
say that they did not have a chance to confront and examine their
history. That does not mean that I expect justice will be done - it
is important historically, in the context of the German nation ! And
Karma.
It is also important to me as a person and a son of Germany, that I
stood the ground and did not (S) make foul, unethical compromises in
order to get a lesser sentence, for we say in English : « Where there
is no accuser, there will never be a judge ». Important issues, in
order to be examined, need a forum. Since normal academic forums are
usually barred or denied to certain subjects, courtrooms are a
substitute - a poor one but, still, they are a forum nevertheless.
I was fortunate to have understood that early enough. And I was even
more fortunate in [having lived] in an Anglo-Saxon legal system
dominated Canada, [in a country where] enough of the old Anglo-Saxon
legal traditions still existed but were under assault even then by
the graduates of Marxist dominated universities and law schools.
Thus, in the beginning I was the beneficiary of fortunate cultural
circumstances. I understood those trends - that's why I was so
furious at Mrs. Marshall - in that preliminary hearing in June of
1984, to have not pulled out all stops with that guy Fried, [a
prosecution witness,] for instance, because I realized we would never
get a chance to grill that old German-hater again. He, like Hilberg,
Vrba, Urstein and others are now dead ! WE have their testimonies !
How fortunate I was to have been the instrument, to have especially
found you, and our excentric Ditlieb, to have found a man with the
courage of Christie - and the quiet dedication of Keltie and Barbara !
If ever there was a DREAM-TEAM, we were it !
We have a good library [in prison] with surprisingly interesting
books on esoteric and historical topics I did not have the time to
study in Canada. Here I read at least one or two books a week. (S)
So you can see I will come out of prison wiser than when I came in.
With much respect. Ernst Zündel
=====
This just inS:
The Associated Press / Monday, September 17, 2007
German court rejects far-right activist Zundel's appeal against
incitement conviction
BERLIN: A German federal court said Monday that it has rejected an
appeal by far-right activist Ernst Zundel against his incitement
conviction for denying the Holocaust, which resulted in a five-year
prison sentence.
Zundel, who was deported from Canada in 2005, was convicted by a
Mannheim court in February on 14 counts of incitement for years of
anti-Semitic activities, including denying the Holocaust - a crime in
Germany - in documents and on the Internet.
The court handed him the maximum five-year sentence.
The Federal Court of Justice said it had thrown out Zundel's appeal
in a Sept. 12 ruling.
In a statement, the court also said that judges in Mannheim were
right not to deduct time Zundel served in pre-deportation custody in
Canada from his sentence. It said that was not formal
"pre-extradition detention for the criminal proceedings here."
Zundel and his supporters have argued that he was a peaceful
campaigner being denied his right to free speech. As well as Canada,
Zundel has in the past lived in the U.S. state of Tennessee.
court, has rubberstamped the treason against the German People - that
they have absolutely no right to hear the truth about their history.
The judgment stands as Judge Meinerzhagen pronounced it shamelessly
while sentencing Ernst Zundel:
« It is of absolutely no relevance whether the Holocaust happened or
not. Denying it is a punishable offense. That is the only thing
that matters to the Court ! » (Source : Berliner Tageszeitung, 2
Feb 2007)
Five years for speaking the truth - as documented by forensic science
- about the Holocaust !
Let it be said that the defense submissions appealing the harsh
Mannheim sentence consisted of more than 800 carefully crafted pages
of legal arguments.
The Bundesgerichtsamt's reply consisted of one-and-a- half pages of
blah-blah !
Since I am archiving for history the many facets of this epic
struggle between the Germans and the Jews, I thought it is
appropriate to share with you Ernst's thoughts on having reached this
milestone.
In a letter to a fellow activist in France, his dear friend, Dr.
Robert Faurisson, Ernst wrote in part:
Ernst Zündel
JVA Mannheim
Herzogenriedstr. 111
68169 MANNHEIM
24 August 07
Dear Dr. Faurisson !
I know it is August and most of France is on holidays, so forgive the
intrusion, and no need to reply. (S)
I wanted to write one more time, because at the moment it is a bit
like the quiet before the storm we experienced as peasants before a
thunderstorm would hit in Summer before we could get the hay in, or
harvest the grain, potatoes etc. !
There always was a kind of heavyness, a kind of foreboding in the
air, and after two or three lightning strikes and sharp thunder
clasps, the sluice gates of heaven opened up - lukewarm rain would
fall plentifully. There would rise steam from the meadows and forests
- and the air would smell heavenly ! Only a peasant would be able to
appreciate what freshly-watered soil smells like !
Thus, after the stresses and the strains, the constant struggles and
battles and cajoling of the lawyers to try to get them to undertake
certain initiatives, now a certain calm is setting in. I was ordered
to pack and remove my court-related documents from my cell, A
certain realization is setting in that the end phase is [at hand]!
The most amazing, dedicated, quietly competent lawyer [of the
Mannheim trial] was Dr. Schaller. A delight to work with ! I had
invited him to Canada to observe the appeal of one of my trials,
liked him, and we remained in contact ever since. Although unwell, he
consented to help me. I was delighted, for there is no one who takes
the time to weigh every word, who has the enormous background
knowledge, which is a real asset in these cases ! And he is cultured,
with good manners. This has meant that I could draw on his knowledge
and rely on his topics and documents, which he had assembled over a
53-year-spanning career.
Thus justice was done to the cause before history, even if little
justice was done to me by my detractors and persecutors, which
usually happens in these types of cases throughout history.
There are, now that the case is before the Bundesgerichtshof, two
more relatively simple hurdles to take : the Bundesverfassungsgericht
and then the European Court of Human Rights.
If the finances last, we will go there, in order that NO Germans can
say that they did not have a chance to confront and examine their
history. That does not mean that I expect justice will be done - it
is important historically, in the context of the German nation ! And
Karma.
It is also important to me as a person and a son of Germany, that I
stood the ground and did not (S) make foul, unethical compromises in
order to get a lesser sentence, for we say in English : « Where there
is no accuser, there will never be a judge ». Important issues, in
order to be examined, need a forum. Since normal academic forums are
usually barred or denied to certain subjects, courtrooms are a
substitute - a poor one but, still, they are a forum nevertheless.
I was fortunate to have understood that early enough. And I was even
more fortunate in [having lived] in an Anglo-Saxon legal system
dominated Canada, [in a country where] enough of the old Anglo-Saxon
legal traditions still existed but were under assault even then by
the graduates of Marxist dominated universities and law schools.
Thus, in the beginning I was the beneficiary of fortunate cultural
circumstances. I understood those trends - that's why I was so
furious at Mrs. Marshall - in that preliminary hearing in June of
1984, to have not pulled out all stops with that guy Fried, [a
prosecution witness,] for instance, because I realized we would never
get a chance to grill that old German-hater again. He, like Hilberg,
Vrba, Urstein and others are now dead ! WE have their testimonies !
How fortunate I was to have been the instrument, to have especially
found you, and our excentric Ditlieb, to have found a man with the
courage of Christie - and the quiet dedication of Keltie and Barbara !
If ever there was a DREAM-TEAM, we were it !
We have a good library [in prison] with surprisingly interesting
books on esoteric and historical topics I did not have the time to
study in Canada. Here I read at least one or two books a week. (S)
So you can see I will come out of prison wiser than when I came in.
With much respect. Ernst Zündel
=====
This just inS:
The Associated Press / Monday, September 17, 2007
German court rejects far-right activist Zundel's appeal against
incitement conviction
BERLIN: A German federal court said Monday that it has rejected an
appeal by far-right activist Ernst Zundel against his incitement
conviction for denying the Holocaust, which resulted in a five-year
prison sentence.
Zundel, who was deported from Canada in 2005, was convicted by a
Mannheim court in February on 14 counts of incitement for years of
anti-Semitic activities, including denying the Holocaust - a crime in
Germany - in documents and on the Internet.
The court handed him the maximum five-year sentence.
The Federal Court of Justice said it had thrown out Zundel's appeal
in a Sept. 12 ruling.
In a statement, the court also said that judges in Mannheim were
right not to deduct time Zundel served in pre-deportation custody in
Canada from his sentence. It said that was not formal
"pre-extradition detention for the criminal proceedings here."
Zundel and his supporters have argued that he was a peaceful
campaigner being denied his right to free speech. As well as Canada,
Zundel has in the past lived in the U.S. state of Tennessee.
Monday, September 17, 2007
Italian Police Launch Massive Raid On National Socialist Dissidents
47 Homes Raided In Crackdown On Political Opposition
Milan, Italy -- Italian police raided the homes of 47 peaceful political dissidents this morning, making no arrests but confiscating political literature critical of the Italian state.
Members of the National Socialist Movement of Workers, a group active in Milan, Varese, Como and Lecco, were targeted by Italian authorities for the crime of distributing literature criticizing the Italian political system and the influence of Jews over the Italian government. In most of Europe, it is illegal to discuss or criticize Jews and illegal to criticize or suggest a change in the political systems that Jews have imposed on Europe's white population.
The National Socialist Movement of Workers is reported to seek a political system in Italy resembling that of the German Third Reich.
Milan, Italy -- Italian police raided the homes of 47 peaceful political dissidents this morning, making no arrests but confiscating political literature critical of the Italian state.
Members of the National Socialist Movement of Workers, a group active in Milan, Varese, Como and Lecco, were targeted by Italian authorities for the crime of distributing literature criticizing the Italian political system and the influence of Jews over the Italian government. In most of Europe, it is illegal to discuss or criticize Jews and illegal to criticize or suggest a change in the political systems that Jews have imposed on Europe's white population.
The National Socialist Movement of Workers is reported to seek a political system in Italy resembling that of the German Third Reich.
World’s Non-Whites Demand Even More Money from Whites
The United Nations General Assembly has adopted a non-binding declaration on the rights of “indigenous peoples” (i.e. non-Whites) after 22 years of debate.
The document proposes protections for the “human rights of native peoples,” and for their land and resources. It passed despite opposition from Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States. They said it was incompatible with their own laws.
The Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples calls on countries to give more control to tribal peoples over the land and resources they traditionally possessed, and to return confiscated territory, or pay compensation.
The General Assembly passed it, with 143 countries voting in favor and 11 abstaining. Four nations - Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States - each with large “indigenous populations,” voted against.
Australia said it could not allow tribes' customary law to be given precedence over national law. "There should only be one law for all Australians and we should not enshrine in law practices that are not acceptable in the modern world," said Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough.
A leader of a group representing Canada's native communities criticised his government's decision to oppose the declaration. "We're very disappointed... It's about the human rights of indigenous peoples throughout the world. It's an important symbol," said Phil Fontaine, leader of the Assembly of First Nations.
Campaign group Survival International says Canada's Innu tribe, who live in the frozen Labrador-Quebec peninsula, are struggling to maintain their traditional lifestyle as the government allows mining concessions, hydro-electric power schemes, and roads on their land.
The Canadian government said it supported the "spirit" of the declaration, but could not support it because it "contains provisions that are fundamentally incompatible with Canada's constitutional framework."
"It also does not recognise Canada's need to balance indigenous rights to lands and resources with the rights of others," a joint statement from the Canadian ministries of Indian and Foreign Affairs said. Canada has 1.3 million indigenous people, among a total population of 32.7 million.
The document proposes protections for the “human rights of native peoples,” and for their land and resources. It passed despite opposition from Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States. They said it was incompatible with their own laws.
The Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples calls on countries to give more control to tribal peoples over the land and resources they traditionally possessed, and to return confiscated territory, or pay compensation.
The General Assembly passed it, with 143 countries voting in favor and 11 abstaining. Four nations - Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States - each with large “indigenous populations,” voted against.
Australia said it could not allow tribes' customary law to be given precedence over national law. "There should only be one law for all Australians and we should not enshrine in law practices that are not acceptable in the modern world," said Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough.
A leader of a group representing Canada's native communities criticised his government's decision to oppose the declaration. "We're very disappointed... It's about the human rights of indigenous peoples throughout the world. It's an important symbol," said Phil Fontaine, leader of the Assembly of First Nations.
Campaign group Survival International says Canada's Innu tribe, who live in the frozen Labrador-Quebec peninsula, are struggling to maintain their traditional lifestyle as the government allows mining concessions, hydro-electric power schemes, and roads on their land.
The Canadian government said it supported the "spirit" of the declaration, but could not support it because it "contains provisions that are fundamentally incompatible with Canada's constitutional framework."
"It also does not recognise Canada's need to balance indigenous rights to lands and resources with the rights of others," a joint statement from the Canadian ministries of Indian and Foreign Affairs said. Canada has 1.3 million indigenous people, among a total population of 32.7 million.
Pornography Outlawed for Australian Aborigines
As of today, anyone caught in an Aboriginal community in the Northern Territories of Australia with pornographic DVDs or magazines faces fines of up to A$11,000 (US $9,200). This forms part of an attempt by the White government to stop the rampant child sex abuse in the non-White community.
People in possession of five or more prohibited items will be automatically deemed traffickers and face up to two years imprisonment.
Ironically, Aboriginal women have singled out SBS television – Australia’s foremost promoter of ‘multi-culturalism’ as one of the main distributors of pornography in the Northern Territory.
The bans form part of the second phase of the federal government's intervention in the NT but critics claim they don't target problem areas and will be easily undermined. "Foxtel R rated channel is still by far the major source of porn going into communities and unfortunately the federal government hasn't turned that stream off yet," said Robbie Swan from the Eros Foundation, an adult entertainment industry lobby group.
Swan said only 15 to 25 per cent of pornographic material viewed in remote Aboriginal communities came in the form of a DVD or magazine, while the rest was sourced through pay or commercial television.
He said there as "plenty of evidence" to suggest that Foxtel representatives were promoting the channel in Aboriginal communities, despite the government's intervention.
People in possession of five or more prohibited items will be automatically deemed traffickers and face up to two years imprisonment.
Ironically, Aboriginal women have singled out SBS television – Australia’s foremost promoter of ‘multi-culturalism’ as one of the main distributors of pornography in the Northern Territory.
The bans form part of the second phase of the federal government's intervention in the NT but critics claim they don't target problem areas and will be easily undermined. "Foxtel R rated channel is still by far the major source of porn going into communities and unfortunately the federal government hasn't turned that stream off yet," said Robbie Swan from the Eros Foundation, an adult entertainment industry lobby group.
Swan said only 15 to 25 per cent of pornographic material viewed in remote Aboriginal communities came in the form of a DVD or magazine, while the rest was sourced through pay or commercial television.
He said there as "plenty of evidence" to suggest that Foxtel representatives were promoting the channel in Aboriginal communities, despite the government's intervention.
Europe's first Islamic Political Party Formed in Finland
More Whites gone mad -- Europe's first Islamic political party has formed in Finland -- with a White Finn as its chairman and Whites making up the majority of its members.
The Finnish Islamic Party plans to collect 5,000 signatures in order to qualify for official registration by the end of the year. Counting on support from the 55,000 Muslims living in Finland, the party anticipates some success in next year's municipal elections as well as in the 2011 parliamentary elections.
The party’s chairman, Abdullah Tammi said the party supports a ban on alcohol sales, the option for Muslim children to be excused from school music classes and outings to swimming pools, legal status for ritual animal killing and male circumcision, and the eventual introduction of shari'a law in Finland. Tammi added that the purpose of Sharia law was to prevent crime.
The Finnish Islamic Party plans to collect 5,000 signatures in order to qualify for official registration by the end of the year. Counting on support from the 55,000 Muslims living in Finland, the party anticipates some success in next year's municipal elections as well as in the 2011 parliamentary elections.
The party’s chairman, Abdullah Tammi said the party supports a ban on alcohol sales, the option for Muslim children to be excused from school music classes and outings to swimming pools, legal status for ritual animal killing and male circumcision, and the eventual introduction of shari'a law in Finland. Tammi added that the purpose of Sharia law was to prevent crime.
Negro Gang Violence Spreading in North Carolina
The party in Salisbury, N.C., ended when a group of teenage Negroes shouted the name of their gang over the sound system: “Westside!” Across the dance floor another clutch of Negroes responded in kind: “Eastside!”
As more than 200 partygoers emptied into the parking lot that March night, an argument between the two gangs devolved into a shoot-out. The police arrived to find the crumpled body of a 13-year-old girl, Treasure Feamster, an innocent bystander.
The killing there, 35 miles from Charlotte, has helped rally support in North Carolina for a Los Angeles-style crackdown on gangs.
At least 36 states have passed hard-line laws similar to those pioneered in the 1990s by Los Angeles, and enacted statewide in California. The laws prohibit public gatherings of two or more people suspected of being gang members; establish databases to track gang members; deploy broad sweeps of suspects; and lengthen prison sentences for gang-related crimes.
But even as lawmakers in Raleigh have worked to create a similar gang law, doubts have been raised across the country about the value of the approach.
A growing number of law enforcement officials, including some in Los Angeles, suggest that such aggressive suppression tactics may worsen some gang problems by alienating “whole groups of people” (i.e. non-Whites) from the police and stocking prisons with thousands of young people, many of whom are transformed into hardened gang members while incarcerated.
“L.A. has this approach of being tough on crime,” said Craig Watkins, the district attorney in Dallas, where some Los Angeles-style tactics are being rolled back. “But the result of that is overflowing prisons, high crime rates and increasing numbers of gang members. Now we want to be smart on crime.”
Large-scale arrests have been a key component of Los Angeles’s antigang approach for more than 30 years, said Constance L. Rice, director of the Advancement Project, a liberal group founded by civil rights lawyers that focuses on racial justice issues. Over the last decade, the authorities throughout Los Angeles County have arrested more than 450,000 juveniles, Rice said, while gang membership doubled.
Earl C. Paysinger, an assistant police chief and operations director for the Los Angeles Police Department, said the department’s “assertive gang suppression” was appropriate for gang members “whose sole purpose is to wreak havoc on the community.”
As more than 200 partygoers emptied into the parking lot that March night, an argument between the two gangs devolved into a shoot-out. The police arrived to find the crumpled body of a 13-year-old girl, Treasure Feamster, an innocent bystander.
The killing there, 35 miles from Charlotte, has helped rally support in North Carolina for a Los Angeles-style crackdown on gangs.
At least 36 states have passed hard-line laws similar to those pioneered in the 1990s by Los Angeles, and enacted statewide in California. The laws prohibit public gatherings of two or more people suspected of being gang members; establish databases to track gang members; deploy broad sweeps of suspects; and lengthen prison sentences for gang-related crimes.
But even as lawmakers in Raleigh have worked to create a similar gang law, doubts have been raised across the country about the value of the approach.
A growing number of law enforcement officials, including some in Los Angeles, suggest that such aggressive suppression tactics may worsen some gang problems by alienating “whole groups of people” (i.e. non-Whites) from the police and stocking prisons with thousands of young people, many of whom are transformed into hardened gang members while incarcerated.
“L.A. has this approach of being tough on crime,” said Craig Watkins, the district attorney in Dallas, where some Los Angeles-style tactics are being rolled back. “But the result of that is overflowing prisons, high crime rates and increasing numbers of gang members. Now we want to be smart on crime.”
Large-scale arrests have been a key component of Los Angeles’s antigang approach for more than 30 years, said Constance L. Rice, director of the Advancement Project, a liberal group founded by civil rights lawyers that focuses on racial justice issues. Over the last decade, the authorities throughout Los Angeles County have arrested more than 450,000 juveniles, Rice said, while gang membership doubled.
Earl C. Paysinger, an assistant police chief and operations director for the Los Angeles Police Department, said the department’s “assertive gang suppression” was appropriate for gang members “whose sole purpose is to wreak havoc on the community.”
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