In a single day, August 30, 2005, we have stunning headlines about death--death, pain, suffering. It's from natural disaster, from murderous human passion, from accident, and we even celebrate self-inflicted ritual. One would think death becomes us, indeed.
New Orleans under water. Sounds like a new gumbo soup.
Hurricane Katrina is apocalyptic, with tens of thousands of people without homes, food, or drinkable water. Several hundred people have been killed, and many missing. The United States isn't above Third World disasters, nor the wake of primitive lawlessness associated therewith. The government has now sent in the United States Navy to assist in the cess pool region caused by the disaster.
On the other side of the world, in Baghdad, mortars were fired upon the Shi'ite shrine of Moussa al-Kadhim (9th century Muslim saint) by murderers, who knew that it would likely be filled with pilgrims. Many were injured. A short distance away, hundreds of thousands of people were walking to the shrine, crossing the Tigress River bridge in Baghdad, when someone cried out that there was a suicide bomber on the bridge. Everyone paniced, and 648 people were crushed in a stampede. The bridge collapsed, and many died in the river. Indeed, the accident was caused by the murderous Muslims trying to destroy all chances for freedom and democracy. They have established fear as a way of life, just as faithfully has had Saddam Hussein.
The bridge of death, on the way to the shrine of
Moussa al-Kadhim.
If that isn't enough, the mystical Sufi Muslim religious order of the Kasnazani, an extreme "orthodox" Muslim group, still manages to bring Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims, as well as Arabs and Kurds, together--not to celebrate life, but to torture themselves with self-flagellation and blade piercing. It transcends all their sectarianism, and brings them all closer to "god," they believe. Even now, at this time, they 'get high' off sporting with death and pain, when real, murderous death is all around them.
Mesmerizing Sufi music and dance, all in preparation for bodily affliction.
Aladin Abdel Naby/Reuters
The Muslims societies certainly maintain a death-oriented perspective--in no uncertain terms. Is it because they've had more natural disasters than other areas of the world? No. Europe was once very death oriented, full of wars, plagues and purgatory. America these days is seeing one natural disaster after another, like forest fires, tornados, hurricanes, and add to that domestic violence, not to mention wholesale abortion.
It's all about death. Death on every side. Death for every reason. Any reason. Pick a reason. It seems that so much death demands some kind of focus on what is most valuable in life. A cause in death: what shall one die for? That is the challenge, the only aspect which seems under our control. That's religion, especially in the primitve cultures, the underdeveloped societies. It's not, What shall I live for?, but, What shall I die for?.
The world is getting a terrible dose of death these days. Of course, in America, we make great entertainment of it. Hollywood, and all media, have made every effort to profit off death. It is a highly marketable item.
But, with so much of it, it surely loses its value. It has become denigrated by 'over-use.' It has become cheap. Just, How to die--the method of death, has become a competitive entertainment subject. Murder as a fine art, as it were.
The human race must be greatly pitied. Death happens, one way or another. We cannot escape it. We embrace it, and we increase it. We make money off it, and we bring more of it, prematurely.
Jesus died, so that the human race need not die, nor stay dead, forever. Eternity is possible. Now how unique is that thought, in this torture tomb we call earth?
Israel is looking more and more like an American Indian reservation. Sunday (Aug. 28), the 48 bodies buried in the Jewish cemetery in Gaza were exhumed for reburial inside Israel. The reburials are expected to be finished by the end of the week. Israel doesn't want her bones left to sacrilege. The abject animosity of the "Palestinians" would result in horrific, heaven-daring acts of hatred upon the dead. Yet the process of reburial is agonizing to many relatives of the dead.
The Jewish "settlement" of Neve Dekalin in the Gaza Strip, where residents question both
what will happen to their homes and their cemeteries. AP
Israelis won't allow science, industry, or casinos to be built on top of their graves. The Jews won't have the remains of their dead bulldozed like some pile of impeding refuse before the 'progress' of "Palestinian" civilization. Would that Indians had such power to protect our dead.
But Israel also withdraws further, conceding more and more land to the enemy, and yet suffers more attacks, and will know doubt be subjected to more. There will be constant vigilence, constant tension, and endless anxiety at the borders. This is truly an "Indian" story in Israel.
Israeli forensic expert inspects the remains of a suicide bomber after he blew himself
up in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba Sunday Aug. 28, 2005. The suicide bomber blew
himself up next to a bus at the central bus station of Beersheba, wounding at least 10
people, two critically, police and rescue workers said. AP Photo/Baz Ratner
Historically, American Indian land and rights have been also reduced, methodically, for decades. Today the "attacks" on Indian identity have increased with unprecedented intensity. There are those who advocate the idea that there should be no Indian lands, no reservations, no special legal identity at all. There should be complete and total assimilation. There should be no Indian "nations."
That's exactly what many people feel about Jews. Arab Muslims believe the state of Israel is immoral in it's very existence! If they concede life for Jewish people, it is only on condition that there is no Jewish conclave in the world, no nation, no reservation. There must be no haven, and certainly not one in their Arabian midst.
There is one element in the analogy of Indians and Jews, however, which is absent: Indians comprise separate nations, with different languages, religions, and cultures. While an individual nation of Indians--a single trible, might be an appropriate analogy to the nation of Israel, as a whole the Indian race has no single, unified "nation." Conversely, though there are Jews living in every country of the world, they are still Jews, and have their original language and religion. Israel is their nation, really, even if they don't live there.
Nevertheless, the nation of Israel is showing more and more signs of the "reservation" mind set. The casino deal in Gaza, as earlier noted, is a classic case similar to tribal leaders abusing tribal members for the sake of a larger "deal" for the tribe--that is, for the tribal leaders.
Aristotle has advice for both Indians and Jews, for reservations and nations. In The Politics (ca. 340 BC), his study of 158 different Greek city state organizations, Aristotle concludes that "a state cannot be made out of any and every collection of people...neither can it be made at any time at will." "Civil strife is exceedingly common when the population includes an extraneous element, whether these have joined in the founding or have been taken on later" (Bk.V, ch.3). The primary element of human nature, dissatisfaction (Bk.II, ch.7), will simply not abide peace in such artificial circumstance.
Millions of Arabs think Israel doesn't belong in the Middle East. Many Americans think Indians should not have reservations. But "Palestine" is the homeland of the Jews, always, millennia before an Arab ever set foot there. America is the homeland of all Indian people. A civilization was built on top of us, but, that doesn't change our relationship to the land.
I do say, Indians can be encouraged that America is in fact not like the Arab world. America did not commit genocide against Indians, and in fact was pleased to leave a good deal of land for relatively small population. The devil may be in the details, but, the gist of the story is that Indian people are still here, and we still have land.
Surely, the same shall always be true for the Jews, in Israel. No, it won't be from any altruism on the part of Arabs, in fact quite the opposite. In spite of Arab aversions, Israel has triumphed. Let's just hope America maintains its fundamental position toward Israel, the same way it has toward American Indians.
Is it time to ask every Mexican in America to show his ID? Shall we inquire, not just before we hire him, but when we see him in the grocery store, the post office, or on the street? Shall we be so bold, rude, and insulting as to demand his status?
We do have that right. And there is such a thing as a citizens arrest. It was invoked recently, too, in Miracopa County, Arizona. A citizen detained illegal immigrants and a smuggler, and was not prosecuted for it. It was not a crime. It was legal, according to the Miracopa Country Attorney Andrew Thomas. And just because an illegal has moved north of the border, and has illegally obtained a job, and stands next to you in the grocery store, doesn't mean he's not a criminal in your face, and that you don't have any responsibility.
Large groups of Mexicans illegally enter the United States
with ease, every day. From ImmigrationControl.com
Yet, the the federal government seems at odds with American citizens over this matter of illegal aliens. CNSNews reported that Herndon, Va. is a door of opportunity for illegal Hispanic workers. A tax-payer funded agency there finds work for the illegals. Susan Tully, national field director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, laments the government’s aiding and abetting of these criminals, and cautions "unsuspecting citizens" of Herndon who might unknowingly hire some of the 87% illegal Hispanic workers. But at his point, who can possibly be "unsuspecting?" At least in Herdon, there’s nearly a 90% chance that hiring an Hispanic means hiring an illegal. The same is generally true throughout the country. Hiring a Mexican is tantamount to hiring an illegal--which, of course, is illegal.
Anything is better than this. So, do those Americans who
hire illegal Mexicans think they are being charitable? Is
helping the Mexicans more important than American law?
Who is willing to confront the Mexican? Is the public educated enough to know even what kind of ID to look for? Does the public even care? Is it just too unkind to ask an Hispanic if he is 'legal?' What mysterious psychological law prohibits Americans from making such a simple inquiry? What social conventions shackle the public from protecting itself?
All Mexican and 'hispanic' workers are suspect now, thanks to the hordes of illegals. Roofers, yard men, brick layers, auto mechanics, and factory workers are plagued with the stigma of fraud. The government simply is not responding. The citizens alone must deal with the problem. But the lure of hiring cheap labor, over or under the table, is more tempation that most Americans seem able to resist. The American people have caused this problem, really. The Mexicans wouldn’t be here unless someone was paying them. Apparently, no one else will plant the onions.
At a time when Israelis are agonizing over the Gaza evictions, Pope Benedict XVI made a bewildering statement in Cologne: "Today, sadly, we are witnessing the rise of new signs of anti-Semitism and various forms of a general hostility toward foreigners."
Pope Benedict XVI waves as he leaves German President Horst Koehler's official
residence Villa Hammerschmidt in the former German capital Bonn Friday, Aug 19, 2005.
Pope Benedict XVI arrived Thursday on his first foreign trip as pontiff to take part
in the Roman Catholic Church's 20th World Youth Day in Cologne. AP Photo/Arnd Wiegmann
Here is irony on all sides. Firstly, the Pope has equated Jews with foreigners, implying that a Jew anywhere outside Israel is a foreigner, a perpetual alien.
Secondly, the Pope has equated anti-Semitism with nationalism. The StormFronters would seem to bear that out. And, in order to be a foreigner, there must be at least two nations in existence. You are a foreigner when you are in nation other than your own.
Thirdly, the Pope implies that patriotism itself is consigned to mere ideology, not land, borders, language, or the natural human differentiations present in the world. One must not idolize the land, the language, nor the culture.
Fourthly, the Pope suggests that multi-culturalism, pluralism, integration, and intermarriage, are all a bulwark against hate. All the tensions in the world are therefore cause by national pride, and that the only solution to the tensions is the dissolution of all national distinctions.
Is the Pope Communist? Is the Church an enemy of the nations? This Cologne declaration is simply intolerable. It cannot be regarded as anything but an anti-nationalist anathema of patriotism and nature itself.
Natural evolution, or the Lord (Genesis 11:1-9), brought forth diversity of human language, of geographic local, and of culture. To intentionally operate against the phenomenon of nations seems rather blasphemous, or at least perilous. Those human beings who walk through the Pearly Gates are referred to as "the nations of the saved." (Revelation 21:24)
I would be most curious to know the Israeli response to Pope's statement, which was made in the synagogue of Germany's oldest Jewish community. Let the Pope tell the Israelis (and the Jews) that they need not be concerned about having a nation, they need not try to preserve their religion, their language, their culture, or their race.
And if every Jew not living in Israel is to be considered a foreigner, then half the world are foreigners. The only way to fully overcome the 'stigma' of being a foreigner, according to the implications of the Pope, is to dissolve all concepts of nationhood. Let there be no nations, and we'll have no foreigners.
This is globalism, surely. The Pope's statement is anti-Zionist, if not actually anti-Semitic itself. Yet, by suggesting that all Jews living outside Israel are foreigners, it seems like a very pro-Zionist statement. And to imply that anyone living outside his own country is a foreigner sound very nationalistic.
So what is the Pope saying, in fact?
Amy Teibel's headline for her Associated Press news story is ourageous. "Israeli troops storm Gaza strip synagogue." The simple facts of the story are devastating enough; but this headline is unspeakable. Change one word, and we may have the true sentiment of the author. Instead of the word "Israeli," read "Nazi." And rearranging the same words in the sentence, we have a virtual arraignment: Nazi storm troops strip Gaza synagogue. This is remarkable.
"Capturing the synagogues," Teibel writes, describing the Israeli military moves on the Jewish citizens of Gaza.
Men bring a Torah scroll out from the synagogue in the Gaza Strip settlement of
Neve Dekalim and march it in front of Israeli soldiers and police officers Thursday
Aug. 18, 2005. On the second day of removing settlers by force, troops encountered
stiffer resistance than at the start of the operation. However, security officials
said they expected to clear out all 21 Gaza settlements by Tuesday, more than two weeks
ahead of schedule. By nightfall, troops planned to have cleared out 18 of Gaza's 21
settlements, police said. AP Photo/David Guttenfelder
I am quite certain that this is how many Jews feel about the incidents in Gaza. Most everyone in the world would feel the same way. Only those who wish Israel to be no more, only those who hate Israel rejoice. The Arab world rejoices. Muslims the world over think it is a wonderful, hopeful scenario, to see Jews uprooted and removed.
An Israeli soldier and settler -- who are also brother and sister -- comfort
each other outside the Neve Dekalim settlement.AFP/David Furst
It is maddening. The injustice surely cries out to Heaven for vengeance. Every dimension of human relationships is on the stretch here, pushed to the limits of reason and tolerance.
Teibel's headline is probably one of the most artful implications since WWII. Amy Teibel deserves a Pulitzer Prize for the title alone. It is the most powerful and subliminal message of the day.
A Jewish girl cries outside a synagogue at the settlement of Neve Dekalim, Gaza Strip
August 18, 2005. On the second day of a massive military operation, unarmed soldiers poured
into the religious settlement of Kfar Darom on foot and encircled a synagogue filled with
hundreds of young radicals, many crowded on the roof singing defiantly. REUTERS/Oleg Popov
How could it happen? How could the Israeli government order the removal of its own citizens from their own land? What kind of socialist operation does this belie? Is the state of Israel not a democracy after all?
"How is the gold become dim! how is the most fine gold changed!" Lamentations 4:1.
Surely, the full account of why this is happening has not been told. The reasons are being withheld. This is certainly not the way to bring peace. There is no peace, with Arab Muslims all desiring the complete eradication of the state of Israel. There is only survival. When the Israeli government makes such a decision as this, to remove her own people from Israel's land, to give it to the very people who hate all Jewish presence, we know that there has to be more to the story. This is suicide, and Israeli leaders surely do not intend that. Surely.
Not just giving land to the hateful "Palestinians" is like giving a small morsel of dog meat to a hungry grizzly bear. It only feeds the passion for more. Reasonable people in the world understand this. Everyone can see the satanic hatred in the Arabic Muslims. They have an insatiable, pathological aversion to all things Jewish, and there is no remedy. It is mechanical and mindless, and truely animalistic. It is competely unnecessary on all counts.
"Palestinian militants," reports Teibel, "are portraying the pullout as a victory for their suicide bombings and rocket attacks, and some Israelis fear they will resume their violence once the withdrawal is complete."
For this? The Israeli government turns on its own, for this? Again, the only hopeful thing to think is that we simply are not being told the whole story. There must be something extremely serious behind this which, as yet, has gone unmentioned.
IsraeliInsider says it's all about a big casino plan in Gaza. It's a deal. Israel will give up Gaza, and maintain a casino. Are then Israel leaders gambling that they will make more money from an international casino on the Mediterranean than anything they could hope for from the "settlements?"
The Israelis of Gaza are being commanded by their own government to move from their homes. The enforcement of such an agonizing command is left to the Israeli police, security forces, and the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces, i.e., the military). The situation is tragic. The personal accounts and the best accounts, are found on IsraeliInsider.com. The world should be looking at this site, on a daily basis.
It remains to be seen whether the young Israeli enforces will finally evict, by force, their fellow citizens. This is a most remarkable moment. Indeed: "Can these young people live with the idea that they are helping Hamas and Jihad to realize the destruction of the Jewish state, home by home, family by family, soul by soul? Will they grasp that the settlers and their supporters they are ordered to evict represent the best of Israel, the cream of the Zionist crop, the courage of moral strength, righteousness and resistance that they were educated and trained to defend?" Some soliders have already declined to enforce the command. The integrity and authenticity of the Israeli citizens, and that of the soldiers themselves, is overwhelming. The command to evict is simply too much. It is too wrong. Immediate indications are that many enforcement personnel will simply not obey the command.
Daily diarist Orange Orit says she's crying now, not because of what injustice is being done to the Jewish people, but because her own friends don't care. They don't care enough to help. They don't idenify with the cause.
Orange Orit, Gaza Diarist
Sound familiar?
But Orit has faith. Last Friday, as Sabbath approached, Orit wrote: I don't think it will be my last Shabbat in Gush Katif -- nor the last Shabbat in Gush Katif -- and neither do most of my friends here. We still believe the miracle will happen." And as Reuven Koret suggests, "The Miracle will come through our soldiers."
This is where the heart meets the soul. This is where the people are. The government cannot go against the people with impunity. Not forever. This Gaza eviction just may be the one circumstance which pushes everything over the top. Is the state of Israel sovereign, or not? Is Israel a democracy or not? Are the people in command, or not? Shall Israel be, or not be?
It is an awsome moment in the history of Israel. There have been many, but none which cut to the chase as clearly as this one. It is a reminder of why Israel exists, and those who have forgotten are those who seek peace by compromise, land give-away, and surrender. Let the world watch. Already, the "Palestinians" boast in ways which clearly show their fomented delusions. Already, the voice of the enemy has made its position clear.
The Israeli government needs to make its position equally clear.
The world should not look the other way, as if this fight is not their fight. It's everyone's concern. All evil has to do is be persistent, and it wins? Enough numbers, enough time, and enough murderous slaughters, and evil wins?
In the third world, people kill each other over ideas, not pot roast. In the remote villages of the underdeveloped countries, slaughter is meted out over superstition, local politics, and territory. Yes, there are "third world" areas in American cities (especially those most closely connected to the Third World ethnically); but generally speaking, it is the civilized way to settle differences by negotiation. We call it court, or law. Monstrous obstipation as that may be, and in the end, often wholly ineffective for justice, at least society by law is likely to last longer, or to certainly develop a larger, and more powerful society.
Nepalese soldiers patrol Kathmandu after a bomb-
packed rickshaw exploded on the second day of a gen-
eral strike called by pro-Maoist students, Feb. 26,
2004. A second blast ripped apart a bus on March 3.
Photo: Devendra M. Singh/AFP-Getty Images
In remote villages of Nepal (the Himalayan country on the northeaster border of India), villagers are being slaughtered by young Maoist party thugs. Why? The villagers refused to join the club. Typical of the Communist uprisings, the Maoists comprise basically murders, with a hackneyed political excuse. It's called the Himalayan Conflict, effecting all countries in the region.
The Maoists of Nepal killed ten villagers today, and 15 were killed a few weeks ago. Since 1996, the Maoists have been trying to overthrow the Nepalese monarchy. Some 11,500 Nepalese have been killed since the Maoists started their revolt. Maoists have been killed in conflict also.
Ah, yes, some reports say that King Gyanendra's regime is evil, etc., oppressing the people terribly. Same old story there. Women's rights, "equality," etc. Many Nepalese are leaving the country, because the Maoists are such murderers. Never mind what the Maoists say about fighting for freedom, fighting for the people's rights. They slaughter people who don't cooperate. That's their sign.
That's the sign for the whole world. People who murder those who disagree with them, or who won't joing them, are people who believe not in freedom, but in tyranny, and slaughter.
Anti-war people who protest the American effort in Iraq need to reconsider the nature of the murderous Muslims, too. The Muslims, like the Maoists, clearly do not wish to see anything that smacks of freedom. The Muslims will murder anyone who advocates it. Anti-war people are therefore saying they support the murderers. They support slavish culture. They support anti-freedom. They support the oppression of others. They support the denial of freedom, of even the chance for freedom, to millions of people in the Middle East.
Christian missionary literature tells the true story. Christian internet and radio all tell the same lurid tales of slaughter in these Muslims countries. Indigenous Christians, natural born citizens of these countries, are violently persecuted. Christians are fleeing from these countries en mass, as in a biblical exodus. They are targeted mercilessly, especially in the remote areas, where law is scarce, and knives are plentiful.
It is a most piquant irony that Muslims would set up a university post or so-called "charity" in a free western country, and claim to represent Islam as a worthy way of life. You accept it, or off with your head. That's the basic psychology, as communicated to the world by Muslims. No, not by all Muslims, but the ones who promote Islam.
And no, the Crusades are not comparable. They were not about aggression. The Crusades were a defensive response by Europe as it was about to be choked to death by Islam from the east and Islam from the west (across from North Africa in the Iberian peninsula).
If the anti-war crowd doesn't wish to be an Arabic-speaking Muslim, then they can thank the Christian armies of Europe, and thank the efforts of George W. Bush. And while they're at it, they might even thank the Iranian Americans, who have lived here for some 30 years now, and never said "Allah" out loud. The anti-war crowd, if they really want to impress people with the "wonderful" character of Muslims, should feature the Iranian Americans, most of whom view Isalm with an educated objectivity, and have adapted the faith to a rational sentiment, and not flamed it into a dangerous, murderous passion. The anti-war crowd could get a lot farther in their cause this way, instead of trying to get everyone to think Arabic slaughters are somehow victims, and Muslims are all oppressed by the American oil companies.
New York's Weschester Country district attorney Jeanine Pirro may run against Hillary Clinton in 2006 for a senate seat in Congress. Hillary is expected to run for the Presidency in 2008, and, if re-elected to the senate in 2006, Hillary would obviously be preoccupied with her presidential campaign for the remainder of her senate term. Some Republicans see Hillary's situation as an opportunity to oust her from the senate. They are exited for Pirro. But Democrats are enthusiastic about Hillary's bid for the White House. They believe she can win. Some commentators see the husbands of both women as their worst liabilities, actually favoring Hillary, for some mysterious notion that Bill is 'clean.' The question is, Will Hillary run again for her senate seat?
Republican Jeanine Pirro
But the bigger question is, How will the Democrats win anthing? The party has been in chaos for years, increasing in its disintegration rate with every election.
There is one way to focus the party, and one way for the Democrats to become winners once again: rise up against Islam. Stand up, and show more aggression than the Muslims murderers show. Be meaner, be more vicious, and more deadly, than they've ever dreamed.
Any Democrat who steps out and speaks against the alien nature of Islam, the anti-American character of its leaders, the unnecessary espousal of Islamic business ties that undermine American interests and values, that Democrat will be an instant winner.
Never mind the high level Republicans who are allegedly encouraging Pirro to run against Hillary. Never mind the political scheming to get into the White House. That's all a boring, disappointing side show.
What do the American people want? Where is the heart of the people? Americans are angry at Islam. Americans are angry over the uncontrolled, illegal immigration of millions of Mexicans and the Muslim murderers among them. Americans are outraged by the liberal attitude in the country that tolerates the Islamic slaughterers in the name of freedom, and yet takes away freedoms from Americans for "security." Americans are angry!
Who wants to win an office? Get in touch with American anger. Get in touch with the patriots of the land. Get in touch with rage. Anyone, Republican or Democrat, who touches the heart of the people will win instantly.
Be strong, tough, non-compromising, and openly truthful about the continual betrayal of the nation by business and government. Stand up against globalism, and strike a blow for American sovereignty and independence.
Otherwise, it doesn't matter who wins at all. All political hands reach for the empire. Globalism is the natural direction of greed and dependency. All politicians, to get elected, follow the trands of the voters.
That only means that American people have been duped. The people are asleep, and material success has made the people politically impotent. Strong leaders make weak people. Weak people make tyrants.
A strong people don't need a leader. It's time to be strong, and to stop hoping and depending on spineless leaders. One of the liabilities of free elections is the natural tendency of the politican to say what wins votes, and to then behave differently once in office. Accountability is too complicated, takes to long, and in the end has little effect, if any. The country has proven it cannot hold accountable even a rat like Bill Clinton. The legal process favors the criminal.
That's the very subject of Jeanine Pirro's book, To Punish and Protect: The DA's fight against a system that coddles criminals (St.Martin, 2003).
Go for it, Jeanine. Let's see how tough you really want to be. Democrat leaders will never be tough when it comes to protecting America. They will probably never transgress their ideology of liberalism and tolerance of the enemy. "Whatever it takes," refers to Demorat campaign fraud, not national security.
Jeanine, you want to step up to the plate? Okay. We're waiting. We'll see if you have strength. But the American people may not wait much longer. We're going to have to be strong, ourselves.
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me:
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.
So says the first line of the poem, "The New Colossus" by Emma Lazarus. It's on the plaque at the base of America's Statue of Liberty, that lovely cultural "whore" given to America by France back in 1876. She stands at New York's door, inviting a rather motley crew of undesirables. I wonder if todays immnigrants understand the role they play. I wonder if they see themselves in the lines of this poem. I doubt it.
"Wretched refuse?" "Huddles masses" of "homeless?" Hardly. This would be the emitome of political incorrectness. I'm surprise the ACLU hasn't gone for this target. What a splendid opportunity. How cruel is this 'brazen' invitation. Imagine, calling immigrants "wretched refuse"!
More importantly, the Statue of Liberty is not a statute of law. The famous words of Lazarus' poem express a transcendent, romantic senitment, but they bespeak an opportunity for failed governments to rid themselves of their failed and filthy masses. That's the way it was back then, over a century ago, for certain. But this idea is for another age, and not for today (despite the fact that churches and 'humanitarian' agencies continue to bring as many "huddled masses" of diseased, disenfranchised, and dependent people that they can possible get across the borders.)
Not in the Declaration of Independence, nor in the United States Constitution, is there any such sentiment or statement expressed. There is not one word of international invitation, nor any law indicating or even suggesting it.
America has absolutely no obligation whatsoever to hold itself and its people reponsible for the failures of the rest of the world. America has been willing, of late, to make stupendous efforts to help other nations build their own democratic, free enterprise society, as in the case of Iraq. This indeed the best insurance for the future of the world. But, when we educate our avowed enemies in our own universities and let them teach anti-American values to our own students, when we trust that economic exchange and trade with our avowed enemies will elude future military conflict or even secure American values for Americans, we are approaching a kind of treason.
The Constitution (Article III Sec.3) says that treason against the United States involves "adhering to their Enemies," and giving them "Aid and Comfort." So much for 'trade-as-solution' politics.
And we deny these countries their oppotunity to have their own revolution; we deny their people the right to become strong, and to create their own nation the way they want it to be. We rather support their weakness. We enable their failure to perpetuate itself, and to bring a curse upon the world.
Mr. Bush, Tear down that statue.
Tony Blair has announced that racial Islamic leaders in England will be deported from the country. "The first batch of deportation orders will begin shortly. Let no-one be in any doubt -- the rules of the game are changing," Blair told a news conference.
The world may be encouraged. England is showing the first signs of courage, the kind of courage it takes to win a war, to preserve a nation, to make the world better. Hear ye, Hear ye!
Of course, we'll be nauseated by the endless protests of the human rights advocates (really nothing but professional agitators). We'll be verbally attacked by the self-destroying idealists who honor the killer's right to kill us. We'll live with the drone of discontent in those who revel in the very freedoms they actually despise.
But England has made a good move. Indeed, America should have made such a move, not after 9-11, but after the first WTC bombing in 1993. Anti-American Muslims were involved then.
Blair need not offer an elaborate explanation for deportation. It is a radical move, in radical times. The enemey demands it. Other European nations will follow the lead. America may be last to wise up, since the delusive human rights lobby is so terribly strong here.
Blair also wants the authority to close down places of worship used to foment extremism and deport any foreigner actively engaged with extremist bookshops or Web Sites.
Stand tall, Mr. Blair. Stand tall. The brave stand with you. Like Martina McBride sings:
Let freedom ring, let the white dove sing
Let the whole world know, that today is a day of reckoning
Let the weak be strong, let the right be wrong
Roll the stone away, let the guilty pay
It's Independence Day
Tony Blair, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Reuters/Richard Pohle
The word is out: there is a major casino scheme going on in Israel, and this is the real reason for the Gaza crisis.
The Israeli government is removing thousands of Jews from their homes in Gaza, not because Israel seeks peace, but because government officials are brokering a casino deal, and these people just happen to be in the way.
Sounds like just what Ray Halbritter did to some of his own Oneida people in New York. Self-appointed dictator of the recently created "Oneida Nation," Halbritter evicted Indians in the way of a casino development, and bulldozed homes. Of course he offered alternative housing, elsewhere.
"Oneida Nation" CEO, Ray Halbritter
Evicted from your own home, on your own land, in your own country.
Well, last month, the United State Supreme Court ruled that American cities and counties had the right to take land and property from citizens to use for business enterprise. It's already been happening in Ohio, Connecticut, and elsewhere.
We all see it coming. People in power positions only seek to increase their power. The people under them are puppets, or sheep, or useful idiots. Rise up against the leaders, and you'll be shot down, by your own government. Works every time.
Jack Engelhart (IsraelInsider) describes the Gaza casino scheme as a godfather scenario. It's not Italian against Italian, but Jew against Jew. Jews aren't getting 'whacked' yet, but the government is using "intimidation, blockading, arrests and pistol-whipping of old women and children who happen to be Jewish and Zionists. Behave, they are told, like Jews throughout the centuries. Become refugees again. Submit. Don't make trouble."
Israeli Prim Minister, Ariel Sharon
Rachel Neuwirth (IsraelInsider), in her article "Does Corruption Drive Israeli 'Disengagement'?," indicts top Israeli leaders like Ariel Sharon, Simon Perez, Eival Giladi, and private manoeuverers like Dov Weissglass, Cyril Kern, and Martin Schlaf. Neuwrith delivers the goods on the matter.
Neuwrith ends her article with these words--the drone of the free world: "We must all pray that honest and patriotic men and women will take back Israel's government and clean it up before it is too late."
Indeed, the cry of the oppressed in all ethnicities. Israel has everything at stake. The security of the nation is involved. No one cared anything about the Indian families Ray Halbritter evicted. Not enough people in America care enough about the seizure of private property. Some people seem enjoy having their bags searched, like it's an honor to be proven honest, publically. But Israel is surrounded by millions of Arabic Muslims who are vowed to destory Israel.
What are the leaders thinking? Casinos will be a diversion for the Muslim slaughterers? And what kind of 'security' are they going to have around a casino in heavily "Palestinian" populated areas? Certainly sounds like madness in the ears of this Indian in Oklahoma.
Major league baseball star Rafael Palmiero (Cuban-born batting star for the Baltimore Orioles) just tested positive for steroids, and has been suspended for ten days. The drama of it all is the fact that in March (2005) he testified before Congress that he had "never used steroids, period." After he tested positive, Palmiero now says, "I never intentionally used steroids."
Tony Snow buried him alive on the Snow radio show yesterday. How stupid of Palmiero, how blasphemous, how utterly abandoned he must be! "What does he mean 'intentionally'?" Tony yelled out. "How can you unintentionally, accidentally use steriods. Tony obviously had in mind the syringe technique, like steroids are something like heroine, or big time drug abuse. Locker room steroid use looms up in the imagination like a crack house.
Rafael Palmeiro, seen here in March 2005
testifying before US lawmakers that he had
never taken steroids, received a 10-day sus-
pension for violating Major League Baseball's
steroids policy. AFP/File/Paul Richards
But Tony, like many other outraged folk, does not consider a critically important factor: unknown stimulants are present in some dietary suppliments. A simple vitamin pill content can show up in a urine sample, and turn a steroid test positive. Chemicals like nandralone, caffeine, testosterone, and ephadrene are often included in dietary suppliments, and are often not mentioned on product labels. In 2001, the Gatoraid Sports Science Institute published a report which states that dietary suppliment products are not subject to the same federal standards of production that food and drugs are. And the US government is already considering new law to control the suppliment and vitamin market. That would eliminate the need for steroid tests altogether, along with their inherent inaccuracies and high profile legal implications.
But right now, suppose an athlete takes a vitamin c pill a half hour before a work-out. Would it show up in a urine sample? Absolutely. And so would any other chemical in the pill.
Yet, Tony Snow was happy to flame baseball players. Fine. Cheating is criminal, beyond description. We all agree. But, using dietary suppliments is not--unless one knows that there is caffeine in the vitamin pill. Then the player is knowingly taking a risk.
Congress would love to have control over baseball and dietary suppliments (and anything else they can control). Never mind about testing Congressmen's body fluids for alcohol content. We're talking baseball here! Why, nothing is more American, more sacred to American society. Congress has to get in the act.
And radio shows have to have entertainment. It seems they share in the Congressional tradition of dramatizing and distorting, all to make a point effectively, to persuade successfully. The polemics and rhetoric employed are oracular at this point.
So let Tony Snow enflamed the public's paranoia about steroids and athletes. Let him damn Palmiero to hell. It was good entertainment. It was moral transcendency. It just probably wasn't the truth. And it certainly wasn't "balanced."
Anyone familiar with world history knows that the rise and fall of nations, kingdoms, or tribes, is a perpetual social process, along with weather and earthquakes. As a former teacher of humanities and psychology, I am quite conscious of the basic questions: why are there such social entities called nations? What brings them about, and what is their purpose? What is required to keep them around, and why do they go out of existence?
Ancient history shows a pattern of ever-enlarging conglomerates of people. Mergers of nations increased in Mesopotamia. By 1900 BC, there was Old Babylonia, a combination of Sumerian and Akkadian culture, coerce in union under the invading "Babylonians," nomads from the the deserts. The famous Code of Hammurabi was the law under which such diversity was made cohabitable. Coerced combinations of diversity continued and enlarged until the phenomenon of the "empire" evolved. by 1076 BC, we see the rise of the Assyrian Empire, which included all the peoples of Mesopotamia, from Lake Van in the north, to the Persian Gulf in the south; from Ecbatana in the east, to the Mediterranean by 622 BC.
Nebuchadezzar's Babylon followed. Then came Cyrus and the Persian empire, followed by Alexander and the Greek world. Each empire exceeded its precedent. Greece was superceded by Rome, then the Roman Church. I suppose we could say Spain followed, then England, and finally America.
Empires seem to be a natural, yet coerced arrangement. We say it has to do with survival, and has an economic base to it all. But we are also well aware of a visceral greed in operation, and we know there's a difference between survival intuitions and unnecessary avarice. But the "will to power" continues throughout modern history.
Was America a historical accident? If America is England's unwanted son, adopted by the Indians, grown into the grandest tiger in the forest, America is still carrying on the tradition of empire. America is a new comer on the block, but, somehow not only outgrew everyone else, but also kept the most benevolent disposition of any empire player, perhaps exceeding the Persians in that regard.
The curious thing about America, however, is that the coerced diversity has, to a great extend, taken place within America's own borders. Where as the ancient empires watched over the diversity within their realms, their realms were made up of individual nations, within each of which was maintained the basic national identity. Empires did not so much destroy nations as manage them, or control them. It was all about money, or tribute. Economics, we would call it.
Now, the historian must ask, Does coerced diversity withint a nation's own borders destroy a nation? To have a foreign, authoritative, imperial presence in all nations is one thing; to have coerced, world ethnicity within the borders of individual nations, like we see in Europe, Canada, and America, is a recent phenomenon, compared to all of world history. What is the precedent? What are the guarantees? What are the liabilities?
Clearly, the trend of humanity is always toward the conglomerate. Why? For safety? Survival? Or does it have to do with the elites, the high and mighty, and their financial, economic vision of world control?
We have had great freedoms in America. If American goes completely global, how can we expect to retain those freedoms, unless everyone else has the same? But then, if America does change, how can it possibly be better? Will it not require that we surrender freedoms, or at least redefine them, change them, in short, lose them?
Do we love America or not? Do we know what America is, what America is supposed to be, or not? We have a constitution. We've built on it. Constitutional authority isn't a new thing. The Greek city states had many different kinds. Aristotle's The Politics (ca.350 BC) examines a 150 such constitutions. But he suggests that diversity destroys a democracy (V,3), because discontent is the nature of man (II,7), and some kind of revolution is always on the agenda.
The American constitution doesn't have a doctrine of diversity. The historical context of its content tends to deny any such doctrinal notion. And there is no formal invitation to the world to come to America. Yet, the constitution has been made to serve as such an invitation, and coerced diversity is the outcome. Anyone born in the world has the right to the American dream, on American soil. This is the law of today, as the constitution has been employed to serve.
This is all historically unpredecented. Ideology has become the only accepted identity of the human race. All other differentiations are now superficial. Politicians, scientists, and the elite, all deny the most ancient and fundamental concepts of nationhood. Yes, there has to be some national identity to deal, or they can't play cards; but, it seems the suits are all lost in the shuffle. It's not a real game anymore. It's a gesture. Nations have no power or authority. They're just cards in the hands of the big players, the elite, who hold all the cards, and who have no particular loyalty to any nation.
Patriotism is a romantic fantasy of the past ages of man. Love of country is really a hinderance to the inevitable globalism of the greedy. Independence seems a lost cause, and nationhood has become archaic before our eyes.