Save Civilization.org

Every day, the headlines scream with some new threat from the American Civil Liberties Union. I believe it’s important to look behind the curtain and discover the origins of groups and organizations to better understand their activities.

The ACLU was founded in the 1920s by Roger Baldwin and Crystal Eastman, described as a “progressive” and “the perfect feminist.”
Earl Browder was general secretary of the Communist Party of the United States from 1930 through its dissolution in 1944. When the party was reconstituted as the Communist Political Association later that year, Browder was chosen as its president. Browder proudly proclaimed that the ACLU functioned as “a transmission belt” for the party. To deny the ACLU’s founding was attached at the hip to communist organizations is to deny what can easily be proven as truth.

For the past few decades, the ACLU has been on a major crusade to destroy Christianity in America, promote filth under “freedom of speech and expression,” and of course, vigorously defend the homosexual culture of death. On Jan. 10, 1963, Congressman Albert S. Herlong Jr., D-Fla., read a list of 45 communist goals into the Congressional Record. Below are the communist goals being implemented by the ACLU in their quest to destroy America’s culture and traditions:

• * Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions, by claiming their activities violate civil rights.
• * Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers associations. Put the party line in textbooks.
• * Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all form of artistic expression. An American communist cell was told to “eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings,” substituting shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms.
• * Control art critics and directors of art museums. “Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art.”
• * Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them “censorship” and a violation of free speech and free press.
• * Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio and television.
• * Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as “normal, natural and healthy.”
• * Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with “social” religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity, which does not need a “religious crutch.”
• * Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the grounds that it violates the principle of “separation of church and state.”
• * Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of “the big picture.” Give more emphasis to Russian history since the communists took over. Obliterating the American past, with its antecedents in principles of freedom, liberty and private ownership is a major goal of the communists then and now.
• * Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture – education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.
• * Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.

Anyone who has been following the destructive path of the ACLU can easily see how effective these communist goals have been implemented to “promote democracy” and protect your “civil rights.” Lenin stated: “Communism alone is capable of providing really complete democracy.” (See Tucker, “The Lenin Anthology”). James Madison, known as the “Father of the Constitution” had something different to say about a democracy:

Democracy is the most vile form of government … democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention, have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property, and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.

Perhaps it’s time to recognize the ACLU as the American Communist Lawyers Union instead of their disingenuous “civil rights” stage name.

No organization can exist without memberships and funding. It is inconceivable to me how anyone who claims to be a Christian, lawyer or layman, could belong to such an anti-American organization as the ACLU. Burn your card and get out. Organizations like Working Assets, tobacco companies and big corporations all donate to the ACLU, which in turn uses that money to buy the favors of those who serve in Congress – who vote to unconstitutionally fund the activities of the ACLU under the Civil Rights Attorney’s Fees Awards Act of 1976.

If Americans really want to put the ACLU out of business, remove yourself as a member of their organization, boycott companies that donate to them and demand these public servants in Congress repeal the unconstitutional funding of this subversive organization.

There is no justification under Art. 1, Sec. 8, to steal from the people’s treasury to give money to the ACLU or any other organization for “civil rights” lawsuits. Your Congress critter will be in your district during the month of December – make the most of it.

Devvy Kidd authored the booklet, “Why A Bankrupt America and Blind Loyalty,” which has over 2 million copies in distribution. She has been a guest more than 1,600 times on radio shows, run for Congress twice and is a highly sought after public speaker. To learn more about Devvy, please visit her website.

Muslims love talking about the Crusades… and Christians love apologizing for them. To hear both parties tell the story, one would believe that Muslims were just peacefully minding their own business in lands that were legitimately Muslim, when Christian armies decided to wage holy war and “kill millions.”

Every part of this myth is a lie.  By the rules that Muslims claim for themselves, the Crusades were perfectly justified, and the excesses (though beneath Christian standards) pale in comparison with the historical treatment of conquered populations at the hands of Muslims.

Here are some quick facts…

The first Crusade began in 1095… 460 years after the first Christian city was overrun by Muslim armies, 457 years after Jerusalem was conquered by Muslim armies, 453 years after Egypt was taken by Muslim armies, 443 after Muslims first plundered Italy, 427 years after Muslim armies first laid siege to the Christian capital of Constantinople, 380 years after Spain was conquered by Muslim armies, 363 years after France was first attacked by Muslim armies, 249 years after Rome itself was sacked by a Muslim army, and only after centuries of church burnings, killings, enslavement and forced conversions of Christians.

By the time the Crusades finally began, Muslim armies had conquered two-thirds of the Christian world.

Europe had been harassed by Muslims since the first few years following Muhammad’s death.  As early as 652, Muhammad’s followers launched raids on the island of Sicily, waging a full-scale occupation 200 years later that lasted well over two centuries and was punctuated by massacres, such as that at the town of Castrogiovanni, in which 8,000 Christians were put to death.  In 1084, ten years before the first crusade, Muslims staged another devastating Sicilian raid, burning churches in Reggio, enslaving monks and raping an abbey of nuns before carrying them into captivity.

In theory, the Crusades were provoked by the harassment of Christian pilgrims from Europe to the Holy Land, in which many were kidnapped, molested, forcibly converted to Islam or even killed.  (Compare this to Islam’s justification for slaughter on the basis of Muslims being denied access to the Meccan pilgrimage in Muhammad’s time).

The Crusaders only invaded lands that were Christian.  They never attacked Saudi Arabia or sacked Mecca as the Muslims had done (and continued doing) to Italy and Constantinople.

The period of Crusader “occupation” (of its own former land) was stretched over less than two centuries.  The Muslim occupation is in its 1,372nd year.

The period of Crusader “aggression” compresses to about 20 years of actual military campaign, much of which was spent on organization and travel.  (They were from 1098-1099, 1146-1148, 1188-1192, 1201-1204, 1218-1221, 1228-1229, and 1248-1250).  By comparison, the Muslim Jihad against the island of Sicily alone lasted 75 grinding years.

Unlike Jihad, the Crusades were never justified on the basis of New Testament teachings.  This is why they are an anomaly, the punctuation of fourteen centuries of relentless Jihad that began long before the Crusades and continued well after they were over.

The greatest crime of the Crusaders was the sacking of Jerusalem, in which 30,000 people were said to have been massacred.  This number is dwarfed by the number of Jihad victims, from India to Constantinople and Narbonne, but Muslims have never apologized for their crimes and never will.

What is called ’sin and excess’ by other religions, is what Islam refers to as the will of Allah.

This article is from the heroic and disturbing blog: The Religion of Peace (we fondly endorse…)

http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/Pages/Games-Muslims-Play.htm

Mr. Burke offers the following questions:

1. Where are the churches mentioned in the book of Revelations? What happened to those Christian communities? What could have possibly obliterated them?

2. The Middle East was the incubator of Christianity giving us the Apostles Creed and most of the church fathers whose writings helped define Christian orthodoxy. How did those lands and regions become almost wholly Muslim? What happened to all the Christians; all the churches and institutions?

The Ayatollah on having sex with infants…

(remember now: they’re just like us…they just want to work hard and feed their families..)

“A man can have sexual pleasure from a child as young as a baby.
However, he should not penetrate.  If he penetrates and the child is harmed then he should be responsible for her subsistence all her life.This girl, however would not count as one of his four permanent wives”.
(Arabic Source)

Whenever I see some college student sporting the iconic image of Che Guevara, the psychopathic physician whose romantic tale of blood and gore has thrilled the hearts of liberals every where, I chuckle. His now legendary diary, The Motorcycle Diaries, almost a total fabrication by the Cuban Ministry of Propaganda, has been the subject of many books and feature films. Here is a hint for all you thoughtful liberal documentary filmmakers, biographers, and journalists: if your source of information is published and distributed by a communist entity called the “Ministry of Propaganda” then every word of the source material is suspect at the very least. But of course, liberals love anything communistic and, as we all know, Cuba can do no wrong. Oh for the glory days of Mao and Stalin…what liberal’s heart doesn’t leap to fondly remember them.

Here are some bullet points for all you Che admirers out there:

- Twice, Che plotted terrorist attacks against New York City. In November 1962, the FBI cracked a terrorist plot by Cuban agents who targeted Macy’s, Gimbel’s, Bloomingdale’s and Grand Central Terminal. They planned to blow up those landmarks with 12 incendiary devices and 500 kilos of TNT the day after Thanksgiving. Several months before visiting New York in December 1964 and being feted by the toast of the city’s intelligentsia, Che hatched a plan with the Black Liberation Army to blow up the Statue of Liberty, the Liberty Bell and the Washington Monument. The plotters were infiltrated in 1965 by a sharp-eyed NYPD cadet.

- Che detested rock and roll and railed against “long hairs,” “lazy youths,” and homosexuals. At one point, he wrote that the young must always “listen carefully - and with the utmost respect – to the advice of their elders who held governmental authority.”

- Che sidelined black Cubans and mocked those who were part of the revolutionary movement. He once told radio host Luis Pons, “We’re going to do for blacks exactly what blacks did for the revolution. By which I mean: nothing.”

- Che personally ordered 700 executions by firing squad, which he supervised at his jungle headquarters in Cuba. He also hosted book burnings, torching thousands of books owned by suspect intellectuals and librarians.

–Che enjoyed viewing executions and had a special window constructed in his study so he could watch men and women being shot to death. What a hero!

He’s the ultimate symbol of radical chic but Che Guevara was really a homophobic, racist square who personally ordered the jailing and executions of innocent men, women and children?

According to Humberto Fontova, the author of “Exposing the Real Che Guevara and the Useful Idiots Who Idolize Him,” Guevara probably would have imprisoned or punished most of his celebrity fans, from Johnny Depp to Angelina Jolie.

Ultimatum to Mosul’s Christians: Leave within 3 days or die
Not a very tough decision.
“Islamic group drive Christians away from Mosul,” from the Eastern Star News Agency:
A statement by an Islamic group that calls itself the Islamic Emirate of Mosul threatened to kidnap or kill all Christians whether students or employees in Mosul University if they did not leave the university campus in three days.
According to the statement that was posted on city streets, the Islamic group threatened as well all Christians living in Mosul to leave the city within three days or the group will behead any Christian who will remain in the city.
The Islamic Emirate of Mosul had killed four Christians living in the al-Sa’aa and al-Yarmook quarters of the right littoral of the city after they were kidnapped and their bodies were found in the Wadi ‘Aaqab cemetery. The group had killed as well two Christians who arrived from Hamdaniya District to Mosul where they worked. The said group murdered another female Christian employee of the Iraqi Central Bank in Mosul.
The event will be sponsored by Allah and the tolerant religion of peace.
Crossposted from The American Israeli Patriot.

Police found details of the discussions on a site run by one of a three-strong “cyber-terrorist” gang.

They were discovered at the home of Younis Tsouli, 23, Woolwich Crown Court in south-east London heard.

One message read: “We are 45 doctors and we are determined to undertake jihad and take the battle inside America.

Whatever happened to the Hippocratic Oath? Rest assured, I will not be seeing an Islamic doctor any time soon. I will take the witchdoctor any day.

“The first target which will be penetrated by nine brothers is the naval base which gives shelter to the ship Kennedy.” This is thought to have been a reference to the USS John F Kennedy, which is often at Mayport Naval Base in Jacksonville, Florida. The message discussed targets at the base, adding: “These are clubs for naked women which are opposite the First and Third units.”
It also referred to using six Chevrolet GT vehicles and three fishing boats and blowing up petrol tanks with rocket propelled grenades.

Doctors are now filling the ranks of the Islamic Vice Squad. Still think it prudent to sponsor exchange student programs for the “gifted” Muslim?

Investigators have found no link between the Tsouli chat room and the group of doctors and medics currently in custody over attempted car bomb attacks in London and Glasgow.
The three “cyber terrorists” - a British national and two who had been given the right to live in Britain - are facing lengthy jail sentences after admitting using the internet to spread al-Qa’eda propaganda inciting Muslims to a violent holy war and to murder non-believers.

They had close links with al-Qa’eda in Iraq and believed they had to fight jihad against a global conspiracy by kuffars, or non-believers, to wipe out Islam.

Al-Qaeda promised action this summer. It looks like they are trying to stick to their word.

Shut up, you monstrous, bloated half-witted troll.  Please, just shut up!

What if 80% of the elementary school children in America wanted to grow up to be suicide bombers?

This is the case among Palestinian school children.

What if Jerry Falwell and Billy Graham and T.D. Jakes and hundreds of other preachers regularly appeared on TV begging for volunteers to explode themselves and others for God’s sake?

Prominent clerics across the Middle East commonly do this.

What if the US government published books and pamphlets claiming that Canadians routinely kill white people to make pastries with human blood in them.

Across the Middle East, university professors, clerics, heads of state, and journalist believe and propagate the belief that Jews use human blood to make Passover matzos.

What if every child in America used text books  that taught that God hates Canadians, that Canadians were descended from apes and pigs, and that anyone who kills a Canadian will be rewarded in heaven.

Throughout the Middle East such state printed text books are in use. They are also being used in Britain and America in Islamic schools.

What if the US government spent hundreds of millions of dollars to send missionaries and build schools to help spread the word across the entire earth that Canadians are pigs and must be destroyed?

Most Islamic countries have branches of their governments which funnel millions of dollars in public funds for the propagation of radical Islam.

What if the US government denied that there was any such country as Canada.

Muslim leaders commonly deny the legitimate claim of Israel to exist. It is also common among the leaders and academics of Islam to deny that the holocaust ever took place.

What if the Bible was filled with verses commanding Christians to go out and kill every non-Christian they could find?

The Quran contains plenty of such verses and most scholars insist that these later, violent verses abrogate the earlier more tempered ones.

Preachers of Hate: Islam and the War on America

By the recently Nobel Peace Prize nominated Kenneth Timmerman 

Two nuggets of inestimable value surfaced in this book for me. First, it is the realization that the stupefying double-speak of so many Islamic voices is made possible by the fact that they say different things in English than they say in Arabic.

(more…)

The End of Days by Gershom Gorenberg

Here is yet another alarmist tome by an author who can’t seem to see the truth that is exploding all around him. I suppose I can be considered a fundamentalist. I believe that because the scripture compels me to “love my neighbor just as I love myself” that I should actually do everything in my power to do just that. I know hundreds of other fundamentalists and I am dismayed by these books from journalists or commentators who are clearly secular if not agnostic/atheist in their world view who attempt to analyze the state of fundamentalism. How absurd. It’s alike a rich white kid from Beverly Hills writing books about the pitfalls of being a welfare mother in Compton.

(more…)

Much has been made of Obama’s religious background and the fact that he could be the first U. S. President to have been educated in an Islamic Madrassa.  As a response to this troubling issue, Obama and his staff have started to cite his membership and apparent endorsement of the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. 

Trinity UCC is a separatist, afrocentric congregation that adheres to bizarre derivative of 1960’s era Liberation theology which falls well outside the bounds of orthodox Christian belief.  The church’s website contains the following statements regarding it’s beliefs.

(more…)

By the way, Mr. Burke and all of his subordinates are smitten with Secretary Rice, surely one of the most intelligent and effective figures a civilization has ever produced. If you have yet to be awe-stricken, tune into c-Span when the Secretary (in all of her sphinxesque glory) addresses the UN or the Senate or any of a dozen international bodies and watch with amazement as she navigates flawlessly with a complete command of an indescribably broad range of issues. Though we fear she would be unelectable due to the short-sightedness of so many, we would love to see this woman become President of the United States.

Visit this artist at his homepage: www.patriotart.com

Any thinking American who cares in the slightest about the rising tide of Islamic extremism which will surely and violently define the decades to come must read and support MEMRI.

MEMRI (The Middle East Media and Research Institute) monitors and translates Islamic media including, television broadcasts, newspapers, websites, magazines, sermons, governmental publications, announcements, and speeches throughout the Islamic world. This information is translated into English and made available on their website and distributed to thousands of relevant recipients.

(more…)

Robert Mugabe: The Dumbest Man on Earth

IS THERE AN HONEST MAN LEFT IN THE ZIMBABWEAN ARMY?

Surely receiving well wishes from the likeminded in all the lowest levels of Hell, Robert Mugabe, the cancer that has brought the once proud and prosperous nation of Zimbabwe to it’s knees, spent more than one million US dollars on a party to celebrate his 83rd brithday. To say exactly how much this sickening indulgence cost in the national currency is impossible because with annual inflation of 1600% the cost for the party will actually increase notably between the time it starts and ends. 

Mr. Burke wonders if there is an honest man left in the Zimbabwean army who could possibly give a gift to the people of Zimbabwe who have suffered under the demonic reign of this idiot for far too long.  Will someone do the world a favor and send this fool to his eternal reward! 

The Thief in Chief of Zimbabwe recently purchased another gigantic mansion, this one in Malaysia, apparently to escape the stench of the rotting corpse of a country that once was the bread basket of Africa.

Mugabe’s Newest Mansion

Surviving Zimbabwe’s runaway inflation 
 
Bread is now so expensive that only the rich can afford to eat it
A Zimbabwean student, who asked to remain anonymous, told the BBC News website how she copes with living in a country with runaway inflation.

According to official figures, Zimbabwe’s annual inflation rate now stands at 1593% - the world’s highest.

The cost of absolutely everything in Zimbabwe has gone up. I am a student and my bus to the campus has trebled in price in the last two months. The cost of a meal has increased tenfold.

Most people have had to remove bread, milk, meat and eggs from their daily diets as these things are just too expensive now.

The implications of this rise in inflation are very serious. What it really means is the poor are getting even poorer.
 
  (more…)

1.  THE JIHAD ISN’T ABOUT THE WAR IN IRAQ.

In 1979 America’s president was Jimmy Carter.  By undermining the Shah, Carter had helped the Islamic revolutionaries to sieze power in Iran. Yet one million Iranians,  organized by the revolutionary Islamic regime, filled the streets of Tehran chanting “Death to America.”

 2.  THE JIHAD ISN’T ABOUT ISRAEL.

Significant Jihad groups can be found today in Indonesia, the Phillippines, Thailand, Kashmir, Chechnya, Nigeria, and other countries that have no conceivable quarrel with Israel.  Even the Jihadis’ quarrel with Israel is not about borders or “occupation” but about the expulsion of all non-Islamic peoples from the Middle East. 

3. THE JIHAD ISN’T ABOUT AMERICA.

Long before American troops entered Afganistan and Iraq, the first modern Jihad movement, the Muslim Brotherhood, was founded in Egypt in 1928.  The Jihad ideology that fuels modern terror activity is identical to the Jihad ideology that justified Islam’s aggressive wars for centuries before America existed.

4. THE GOAL OF JIHAD IS WORLD DOMINATION.

The creation of a unified Islamic state, which will ultimately encompass the globe, is the stated goal of Jihad.

5. THE IDEOLOGY OF THE JIHAD TERRORISTS IS DEEPLY ROOTED IN ISLAM.

Today’s jihadis use the Qur’an and the words and deeds of Muhammad to justify their actions.  They present their views as ”pure Islam,” and convince many Muslims that that’s what it is.

6.  THE JIHAD IDEOLOGY DEMANDS THE KILLING OF “INFIDELS” (NON-MUSLIMS) OR THEIR CONVERSION TO ISLAM OR THEIR SUBJUGATION AS INFERIORS UNDER ISLAMIC LAW.

All the orthodox sects of Sunni and Shi’ite Islam, as well as all the schools of Islamic jurisprudence, teach the necessity of Jihad warfare and the subjugation of non-Muslims under Islamic law.  Non-Muslims are denied equality of rights under that law in numerous ways.

7.  THE JIHAD IS ADVANCING THROUGH SUBVERSION AS WELL AS VIOLENT MEANS.

Attempts to compel Western governments to adopt laws outlawing blasphemy in the wake of the Danish cartoon riots are part of a larger effort to bring Islamic law to the West and to subordinate its Christian, Jewish, and secular populations to Islam.

8.  THE JIHAD IDEOLOGY INSTITUTIONALIZES THE OPPRESSION OF WOMEN.

Islamic law legalizes wife-beating, denies the equality of a woman’s testimony with that of a man, mandates that women are not even to leave the house without permission, along with numerous other oppressive regulations.

9.  THE JIHAD IDEOLOGY INSTITUTIONALIZES THE OPPRESSION OF NON-MUSLIMS.

Under the traditional Islamic law that Jihadis fight to restore, non-Muslims must pay a special tax, not hold authority over Muslims, not build or repair their houses of worship, and many other regulations designed that the “feel themselves subdued” (Qur’an 9:29)

10.  THE JIHAD IS A THREAT TO ALL FREE PEOPLE.

The Jihad ideology denies freedom of conscience.  Jihadis take to heart Muhammad’s dictum, “If anyone changes his religion, kill him,” and deny Muslims any freedom to convert or have no religion at all.  The Jihadis would extinguish equality of the sexes, equality of rights before the law, freedom of conscience, and more.  All free people should resist them.

“Jews are apes and Christians are pigs!” So say Saudi school textbooks in Saudi-funded school in England!

(more…)

Loopey Scientologists Think Tom Cruise is the Messiah

According to a report in the UK Sun, some Scientology leaders believe Tom Cruise is the “Christ of Scientology“. Flabbergasted after reading such a claim, we decided to send a group of undercover agents to investigate the dark recesses of the Los Angeles Church of Scientology in order to seek clues. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence and we obtained it! Our wily agents gained entrance into the fortress by feigning interest in being “audited” and were quickly able to escape unnoticed into the darkness of the church basement. Prying open the safe, our agents were shocked to discover Leopold Da Vinnie’s famous painting, “The Scientologist’s Last Supper“. It clearly shows Tom Cruise as Christ, but leaves several other questions unanswered. For instance, who is the mysterious woman seated to His left and why is she smiling like that? Could she be his…gasp…wife? Is that a Jenny Craig-approved cupcake Kirstie Alley is grabbing? John  is wearing loafers and he’s floating - what does this mean? How did Will Smith get mixed up with this bunch? So many questions, so few answers.

This post is provided by the brilliantly satirical mind behind the GalleryoftheAbsurd.com

 It’s Rosie O’ Donnell VS Donald Trump…

WHO CARES!

(sadly, millions)

From 1992-2006

Dubai is the fastest growing city on earth. For anyone who thinks the territories of Islam are an economic backwater, take a look at the building boom in Dubai in just 14 years.  This view shows the same street in 1992 and 2006.

By comparison, look at what New York City has been able to build in the last 5 years on the site of the World Trade Center.  The Freedom Tower (NYC), meant to be the tallest building in the world has yet to be started.  In Dubai, on the other hand, the Burj Dubai is already under construction and will exceed the height of the Freedom Tower by about 300 meters.

The Burj Dubai

Thomas Sowell (born 30 June 1930), is an American economist, political writer, and commentator, generally from a socially conservative and economically laissez faire perspective. He is currently a senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. In 1990, he won the Francis Boyer Award, presented by the American Enterprise Institute. In 2002 he was awarded the National Humanities Medal for prolific scholarship melding history, economics, and political science. Conservative British author Paul Johnson has described Sowell as “America’s leading philosopher”.

Quotes from the Man

“One of the sad signs of our times is that we have demonized those who produce, subsidized those who refuse to produce, and canonized those who complain.”

“‘Entitlement’ is not only the opposite of achievement, it undermines incentives to do all the hard work that leads to achievement. It is the people who were born and raised in the welfare state atmosphere who seem to have great difficulty finding jobs.”

“The next time some academics tell you how important ‘diversity’ is, ask how many Republicans there are in their sociology department.”

“The real minimum wage is zero [unemployment].”

“The most fundamental fact about the ideas of the political left is that they do not work. Therefore we should not be surprised to find the left concentrated in institutions where ideas do not have to work in order to survive.”

“Each new generation born is in effect an invasion of civilization by little barbarians, who must be civilized before it is too late.”

“Freedom has cost too much blood and agony to be relinquished at the cheap price of rhetoric.”

“Like a baseball game, wars are not over till they are over. Wars don’t run on a clock like football. No previous generation was so hopelessly unrealistic that this had to be explained to them. It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.”

I recently purchased these old French casts of the hands of Franz Liszt in bronze.  Many people regard Liszt as the greatest pianist to have ever lived.  His rhapsodies and etudes continue to seperate the men (Volodos, Cziffra, and Kissin) from the boys (Yundi cLang, Watts, and a host of other sad wannabes).  The casts–life sized, of course–were made when he was in his fifties and are exceptionally rare.  They bear the mark of the famous French foundry (contemporary to the day) of F. Barbedienne.  They have been authenticated by comparing close-up photographs of Liszts hands and known casts made at the time of his death.  There are several distinguishing features (scar, mole, deep creases) that appear in the proper locations on these casts.  The hands are known to be casts, rather than sculpted works, because of the manner in which the fingers tips are depressed on a flat surface. 

With them came this fine miniature painting of Liszt on ivory when he was quite a lot older.

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - A U.S. attack plane killed many people with barrages of gunfire in a remote Somali village occupied by Islamists thought to be hiding at least one al Qaeda suspect, a Somali government source said on Tuesday.
 
 In the first known direct U.S. military intervention in Somalia since a failed peacekeeping mission that ended in 1994, an C-130 plane rained gunfire on the desolate southern village of Hayo near the Kenyan border late on Monday.
 
 ”I understand there are so many dead bodies and animals in the village,” the senior source told Reuters.
 

(more…)

No More Bin Laden “Love-fests” for Somalia

Last jihadist stronghold in Somalia captured Ras Kamboni, at the southernmost tip of Somalia, has been a stronghold for jihadist activity and a conduit for al-Qaeda for a number of years, as illustrated by this BBC report from December, 2001. Its capture is a significant victory.
 
 ”Islamic hideout in Somalia said captured,” by Mohamed Olad Hassan for AP:
 
MOGADISHU, Somalia - Ethiopian-backed government forces captured the last remaining stronghold of the Islamic movement in southern Somalia, the Somali defense minister said Friday, hours after warlords met with the president and promised to enlist their militiamen in the army.
The southern town of Ras Kamboni fell after five days of heavy fighting, Defense Minister Col. Barre “Hirale” Aden Shire told The Associated Press. He said government troops backed by Ethiopian forces and MiG fighter jets chased fleeing Islamic fighters into nearby forests and the fighting would continue. He did not give casualty figures.
Ras Kamboni is in a rugged coastal area a few miles from the Kenyan border. It is not far from the site of a U.S. airstrike Monday targeting suspected al-Qaida militants — the first U.S. offensive in Somalia since 18 American soldiers were killed here in 1993.
The report of the town’s fall came after Somalia’s warlords met with President Abdullahi Yusuf in the capital of Mogadishu and pledged to disarm their militias, a major step toward bringing calm to this city after years of chaos.

My best advice to any thinking American who might stumble across this post is to go out and buy everything you can from this man, read it, assimilate it, and pass it on.
 
My current recommended Sowell tome: Black Rednecks and White Liberals is a collection of essays by Thomas Sowell, published in 2005.
 
Another brilliant book you might like is: Affirmative Action Around the World: An Empirical Study 2004 by economist Thomas Sowell.
 
(Mr. Burke)
 
Here’s a brief review of it:
 
 Already known as a critic of affirmative action or race-based hiring and promotion, Sowell, himself African-American, analyzes the specific effects of such policies on India, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, and Nigeria, four countries with longer multiethnic histories and then compares them with the recent history of the United States in this regard.
 
 According to Dutch Martina’s review of this book:[1]
 
 Among the common consequences of preference policies in the five-country sample are:
 They encourage non-preferred groups to redesignate themselves as members of preferred groups to take advantage of group preference policies;
 
They tend to benefit primarily the most fortunate among the preferred group (e.g. black millionaires), often to the detriment of the least fortunate among the non-preferred groups (e.g. poor whites);
 
They reduce the incentives of both the preferred and non-preferred to perform at their best — the former because doing so is unnecessary and the latter because it can prove futile– thereby resulting in net losses for society as a whole; and
 
They engender animosity toward preferred groups as well as on the part of preferred groups themselves, whose main problem in some cases has been their own inadequacy combined with their resentment of non-preferred groups who– without preferences– consistently outperform them.

Arguably the greatest living pianist, Arcadi Volodos, is missing in action; at least from American concert halls.  One is compelled to ask, “What happened?”  “Why doesn’t Sony Classical promote Volodos or even list his concert dates (albeit in Europe and the Far East) on their website?” 

Thankfully “You Tube” has some videos of this master at work (but for how long?) Here is a link to an interesting video of Volodos in a private home playing Mendelssohn’s Wedding March.

Are we to waste away on a watery broth of Andre Watts and Earl Wild? Are we doomed to be force-fed the faddish cLang cLang and Yundi Li (the Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan of the classical world) as they ride the same hyped up train to nowhere that inflicted Helfgott’s bizarre resurrection on the world?  Deliver us Arcadi Volodos!

If anyone has any information about Arcadi Volodos, please let it be known.  If anyone knows Mr. Volodos and can get a message to him; please tell him this: “Your fans wither for want of a glimpse of the gift you possess.  Please come to the United States.  We can bare this deprivation no longer!”

Moral equivalence is a term used in political debate, usually to characterize in a negative way the claim that there can be no moral or ethical hierarchy decided between two sides in a conflict, nor in the actions or tactics of the two sides. –from Wikipedia.

So many of our progressive “friends” lean heavily on the notion that there is moral equivalence between Christianity and Islam.  As soon as anyone has the poor taste and ignorance to mention Islamic bloodlust (contemporary, historic, whatever…it’s always been part of Islam) some all-knowing progressive will assume an elitists posture and begin regurgitating their droning mantra.  “Christianity is just as violent,” they spew.  Pretty soon some loner clinic bomber from 20 years back is lumped in with the Spanish Inquisitions (and, oh Lord…the Crusades!) and the leftist intelligentsia bask in the smug assurance that they have proved again that Americans are the real terrorists.

Recently, two events took center stage, one offensive to Muslims and one offensive to Christians.  Lets see how the moral equivalence argument holds up. 

*NUMBER OF PEOPLE KILLED IN RIOTS:

  –Against Da Vinci Code:  0

  –Against Muhammad cartoons: 146 are known so far (some estimate over 300)

*NUMBER OF EMBASSIES BURNED:

  –Against Da Vinci Code:  0

 –Against Muhammad cartoons: 2

*NUMBER OF CALLS FOR BEHEADINGS AND HOLY WAR:

 –By Christians:  0

 –By Muslims:  Countless millions on four continents.

Yep, I’d say they’re about the same…

THE TOP TEN LIST OF MOST POPULAR SEARCHES ON YAHOO F0R 2006

Could it be the war in Iraq, the elections, President Bush, the Tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, North Korea…

Nope, none of the above…can I have a drum roll please?

10.  Lindsay Lohan

9. Pamela Anderson

8. Chris Brown

7. Beyonce Knowles

6. American Idol

5. Paris Hilton

4. Jessica Simpson

3. Shakira

2. WWE

1. Britney Spears

The Art on this page is provided by the brilliantly satirical mind behind the GalleryoftheAbsurd.com

(for my fellow Methodists…)

“Ever since the religion of Islam appeared in the world, the espousers of it…have been as wolves and tigers to all other nations, rending and tearing all that fell into their merciless paws, and grinding them with their iron teeth; that numberless cities are raised from the foundation, and only their name remaining; that many countries that were once as the garden of God are now a desolate wilderness; and that so many once numerous and powerful nations are vanished from the earth!  Such was, and is at this day, the rage, the fury, the revenge of these destroyers of human kind.”–John Wesley

–from “The Doctrine of Original Sin”  Works, 1841

Art by D. T. Devareaux from his blog: THE STUDY OF REVENGE