The Everlasting Phelps
18/10/2002
OpinionJournal - Wonder Land
Interesting collumn about the rule of law being the foundation for society. The only disheartening thing after reading it is my realization that the rule of law is under attack here in America too.Every time someone calls America a democracy, the rule of law is under attack and we are one step closer to mob rule. Everytime a property right is usurped, we step one pace closer to mob rule. Everytime a child is forced to say the Pledge of Allegance in a Government School, we are one step further from civilization.
17/10/2002
ArabNews: The Moral Majority in the sewer
I am coming to love Arab News more than the National Enquirer, even though I hold them both to about the same degree of journalistic integrity. This little column is a doozy.Not that there ought to be a law against monomaniacs who publicly verbalize incendiary views about another people’s faith, or jejune ideas about the One Absolute Truth. After all, McCarthyism is no longer on the books, and one’s constitutional right to free speech, enshrined in the First Amendment, remains sacrosanct in contemporary American life.True 'dat. If they had a law like that in Saudi Arabia, they wouldn't have any clerics left.
Like those people not too long ago who, before political correctness overtook them, used to speak of the “civilized world,” implying the existence of an uncivilized one out there, members of the Moral Majority self-righteously believe that all other mortals, who do not espouse their views, are by definition immoral.True 'dat. I mean, imagine what the world would be like if states like Saudi Arabia taught that the world was divided into Muslims and unbelievers, and that they unbelievers were seconds class citizens? I mean, if they taught that people were immoral just for not believing in "the Prophet" they might start doing really crazy shit like crashing jet liners into buildings!
A society is made up of words, and hateful words contribute to the coarsening of culture and crudeness in social discourse, both of which in turn conduce to violence.Heh.
Not since the Inquisitorial tribunals of the 13th century, set up to discover, repress and punish heresy, and the time of the Puritan bullies in the 16th, who insisted on a “pure” interpretation of the Bible (hence their name, which was given them in derision) has a Christian movement debased, cheapened and, above all, so mockingly and intolerantly misinterpreted the Christian faith.Two words: Wahabi Islam.
You wonder, though, why this much-touted system of government, that they are anxious to export to us or thrust down our throats, a system seemingly imbued with great reserves of compassion, fairness and equality, never once acted, in the 19th century, as an impediment to bestial oppression of people of color or, in the first half of the 20th, to concentration camps and wanton slaughter.You have to wonder, though, what this has to do with the price of beans, since the Arab system was to actually offer material support to the regimes that ran the concentration camps and wanton slaughter in the 20th century and continues the bestial opression of the people of the book to this day.
Reuters | Israeli Tank Shells Kill Six Palestinians in Camp
"It must be noted that Rafah is a major center of hostile activity and arms smuggling, where terrorists operate from behind the cover of a civilian population," the army said.I just want to know why when six Palestinians get killed because a tank shoots back at a rocket launcher, it is a massacre, but if a nut blows himself up in the middle of a wedding reception and kills 20 civilians who are just breaking glasses and eating cake, it is a sucessful military operation."Palestinian terrorists fired an anti-tank rocket at an army unit that operated in the area and troops returned fire, targeting the attackers," it said in a statement.
The Palestinian Authority denounced what it called "the massacre" in Rafah and renewed its call for international monitors in the West Bank and Gaza. Israel has resisted any foreign intervention, calling its military measures against militants an appropriate response.
OpinionJournal - The Ostrich Position
The sociology of Europe has amused me for a while. I think that a large part of the conflicts in Europe can be traced back even further than that last world wars. Hell, half of the conflicts go all the way back to the Roman Empire. Europe is like the dysfunctional family down the street. Let them duke it out in the front yard, and as long as they don't start shooting in your general direction, let them work it out among themselves. Whatever you do, don't take their opinions on how you should run your life seriously.16/10/2002
WorldNetDaily: Police suppress terrorism angle
I've been of the opinion that this is international Arab terrorism from the start. Things are starting to fall into place.A pattern is beginning to emerge of a concerted policy of supressing any mention of terrorism in the media by government officials whenever possible, to the point of actually covering up acts of terrorism when they are known to government officials.
- There are indications of an Arab link to the Oklahoma City bombing, possibly to Iraq
- There are many indications that the crash of TWA 800 was from a surface to air missile, and that Al Queda has attempted to claim the attack
- The explanation for the Airbus crash in Queens does not hold up to any independant analyst, and Richard Reid was aprehended a week later - with the FBI admitting that if he had succeeded, he would have broken the plane up the same way the Queens crash occured
- There was an admitted media blackout on the nuclear scare with the FBI a few months after 9/11/01 in New York
I don't like that idea.
