Monthly Archive

The lead from a Fox story this morning:

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea threatened South Korea with destruction Sunday after Seoul’s top military officer said it would consider attacking the communist nation if it tried to carry out a nuclear attack.

For all of their bluster and human-rights violations, the North Koreans do occasionally provide some entertainment, this time by saying the equivalent of “We will destroy you for attacking us after we try to destroy you.”A post-announcement evil laugh would have been icing on the cake, but I suspect most North Koreans lack from mass starvation the resonance vis a vis body mass needed to produce a Dracula-style chortle, though an “also your mom’s fat!” would have been a suitable substitute.

In a related but somewhat overlooked story, Kim, saying, “I’ve never before seen such redundancy and obviously ridiculous syntax, even for non-native English speakers…come on guys you’re not even trying,” executed all members of the Korean Central News agency. We suspect the mass-slaying came after the dictator read sections of the agency’s Sunday comments on South Korea, such as, “Everything will be in ashes, not just a sea of fire, if our advanced pre-emptive strike once begins.” Yes, for those of you out there wondering, ashes are scarier than fire and advanced preemption differs from regular preemption…somehow…if their strike once begins…

From LiveLeak’s statement regarding their withdrawl of Fitna:

We stood for what we believe in, the ability to be heard, but in the end the price was too high.

Ladies and Gentlemen, this is what the last seven years have been about, and the 225 before that. We fight an ideological enemy that transcends state-bounds; and this enemy strikes at the heart of the underpinnings of liberal society: freedom of speech, free of the press, and freedom of religious exercise. For the whole of our existance, the US has stood against totalitarianism. Those arguing that Iraq is about oil or American empire have so fixated on leftist self-flagellation that they fail to see the blatant danger posed by these aggressive, new forms of despotism that seek, as Communism did, to control not only the body, but the heart and mind of its victims.

Dictatorship and junta contented to run their courses inside state-bounds are one thing. Ideological tyranny whose core principles dictate expansion and subjugation of others are another. The US has a responsibility to herself and the Free World (a term that fell into disuse after the collapse of the USSR but may well merit resurrection given our current struggle with a new despotism) she protects to rollback this threat to every free man, woman, and child on the planet.

I honestly thought, even at my young age, I would never face the day when an organization in Britain would concede that for discussing ideas the coin paid in physical danger would simply be too great.

If we cannot see the catastrophic threat posed by societies hellbent on expansion, who enslave and mutilate women, savagely execute men, teach their children to detonate themselves for a “god,” and wage unceasing war on any and all who oppose them, then we are truly lost.

May we never rest until those who plot our demise, justifying through their holy books malevolent machinations aimed at our most basic of human rights, are vanquished from this globe, adding yet another black page to history’s tome of failed, despotic ideologies which sought the the desecration of reason and the doom of mankind’s most precious liberties.

Something caught my eye in the Reuters story Jason commented on:

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday condemned as “offensively anti-Islamic” a Dutch lawmaker’s film that accuses the Koran of inciting violence.

Interestingly, Ban’s condemnation of Dutch politician Geert Wilders’ film on fundamentalist Muslim violence as “offensively anti-Islamic”may tacitly admit Wilders’ point.

Imagine a Mississippi filmmaker were to produce a movie linking the violence of abortion bombers and the Bible verses they use to justify their actions. Being an extremely devout evangelical, I would hardly call that work anti-Christian. It would condemn those twisting Scripture for their own fatal machinations; and it would condemn those executing violence, a proportion of Christians so small as to make laughable any conflation of them or their ideas with the faith itself. A film such as this would be anti-abortion-bomber not anti-Christian.

But Ban didn’t say Wilders’ film attacks those taking the Qur’an out of context or that it condemns those tiny numbers of Muslims embracing v iolence. He didn’t say it was anti-violence as its hypothetical, Christian analog might be categorized. Instead he labeled it anti-Islamic, accidentally acknowledging that perhaps the only circumstance under which this film could be anti-Islamic is if it accurately portrays some sect whose size and interpretation of the Qur’an makes conflation with the whole anything but laughable.

This is precisely why both fundamentalist and moderate Muslims have denounced the film: They’ve been left no choice but to conclude, much like Secretary-General Ban, that Wilders’ attack on Islamists specifically is also an attack on broader Islam; and if that is their conclusion, then perhaps such an attack is not without reason.

While Islamists may be able to intimidate centralized organizations such as LiveLeak…or the Dutch government, file sharing networks are extremely cellular, so much so that once information is released onto them, it is nearly impossible for it to be withdrawn, no matter what threats are made. I was pleased this morning to see this working to our advantage when I searched Isohunt.com for Fitna and found at least half-a-dozen copies already available to anyone with a mind to download one.

To download your own legal copy of Fitna, follow these steps (if your video player gives you trouble, I recommend using VideoLan–it will play virtually every file-type imaginable).

1. Visit uTorrent.com and download their torrent program here.

2. Install uTorrent by opening the file you just downloaded.

3. Once uTorrent installs, click here. When the page opens, click “Download .torrent” and then when the box pops up, tell it to open using uTorrent. (You’re now downloading the film. If this for some reason doesn’t work, move on to the next steps below.)

4. Visit this link which will auto-search Isohunt.com for copies of Fitna

5. Select the copy you want to download and click on it. (Currently I prefer the 133.55 MB version–it plays well and is in English.)

6. Once you click the file you want, you will be taken to another page with a “Download .torrent” link. Click the link, choose to open it with uTorrent, and uTorrent will start downloading the film automatically.

Remember that downloading items such as Fitna is not illegal because they are designed for public consumption. Downloading movies, music, and other intellectual property may be illegal and should be avoided. The Watchmen in no way endorse illegal file sharing.

In another manifestation of Islam’s peaceful nature, Muslims have threatened the website that hosted Geert Wilders’ Fitna, a movie linking fundamentalist Muslims to violence. Nothing says “we object to being called violent” quite like threatening to harm those who call you violent. And it would appear those threats have done their job. LiveLeak, in a video occupying Fitna’s former address, says it had to choose between freedom of speech and the safety of its employees. The internet organization pulled the film after fewer than forty-eight hours.

A statement on LiveLeak’s site says:

Following threats to our staff of a very serious nature, and some ill informed reports from certain corners of the British media that could directly lead to the harm of some of our staff, Liveleak.com has been left with no other choice but to remove Fitna from our servers.

This is a sad day for freedom of speech on the net but we have to place the safety and well being of our staff above all else. We would like to thank the thousands of people, from all backgrounds and religions, who gave us their support.

They realised LiveLeak.com is a vehicle for many opinions and not just for the support of one.
Perhaps there is still hope that this situation may produce a discussion that could benefit and educate all of us as to how we can accept one anothers [sic] culture.

We stood for what we believe in, the ability to be heard, but in the end the price was too high.

The Watchmen, however, will continue to push this film, and this author in particular would welcome the opportunity to face these faith-fueled fiends. In the spirit of freedom of speech, we repost here the youtube clips. In the post just above this one, you will also find instructions for legally downloading your own copy of Fitna. Wilders has released the film into the public, so downloading will not be a legal concern for anyone.

Resolutely,

Custos

Another shocker here

The UN came out officially today against the film Fitna and its creator Geert Wilders.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday condemned as “offensively anti-Islamic” a Dutch lawmaker’s film that accuses the Koran of inciting violence.

Ban acknowledged efforts by the government of the Netherlands to stop the broadcast of the film, which was launched by Islam critic Geert Wilders over the Internet, and appealed for calm to those “understandably offended by it.”

I wonder if  Ban will also understand it when the offended start the protest, rioting, looting, and murder spree’s always accompanying any legitimate criticism of Islam?

“There is no justification for hate speech or incitement to violence,” Ban said in a statement. “The right of free expression is not at stake here.”

The short film, titled “Fitna,” an Arabic term sometimes translated as “strife,” intersperses images of the September 11 attacks on the United States and Islamist bombings with quotations from the Koran.

The film urges Muslims to tear out “hate-filled” verses from the Koran and starts and finishes with a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammad with a bomb under his turban, accompanied by the sound of ticking.

Several Muslim countries, including Iran, Pakistan and Indonesia, have also condemned the film.

“Freedom must always be accompanied by social responsibility,” Ban said.

So once again, making a film to discuss the obvious failing of militant islamists is irresponcible but not acknowledging the trail of destruction of these militants is? Thanks again United Nations! To qoute Dumb and Dumber “Just when I think you couldn’t possibly be any dumber, you go and do something like this…and totally redeem yourself!”

“We must also recognize that the real fault line is not between Muslim and Western societies, as some would have us believe, but between small minorities of extremists, on different sides, with a vested interest in stirring hostility and conflict,” Ban said.

Your getting warmer there  Ban. Yes, not all Islam is the problem, just the militant fundamentalists variety. Unfortunately, they seem to make up the majority of the practitioners in the middle east. The countries of Saudi Arabia, Iran, Egypt, Syria, Palestinian territories teach these principles to their people. And no Ban, pretending like this is not how things are is not helping.

… good. It almost gets you excited to support the one-time possible Republican Senator-turned Democrat.

This ad certainly sets the tone for the campaign, even though it will only be aired in New Mexico for now. McCain will attempt to run on his “Americanism” and the fact that he was a POW. We’ll see how this works out. He has a penchant for overplaying a line, and we need to look back only as far as 2004 to see how far that kind of thing will get you: people still joke about John Kerry, who (did you know?) once served in Vietnam.

Directly below are both parts of Geert Wilders’ long-anticipated, short film, Fitna which links Qur’anic passages to Wahabistic violence (original video here–be patient, they are getting a lot of traffic). The film has caused no shortage of controversy and buzz, culminating so far in a crisis meeting of Holland’s cabinet and the formation of a police cordon around the Dutch Parliament building. According to the Hollywood Reporter,

Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said Thursday night that the Department of Justice will investigate whether Wilders has broken Dutch law with his attack on the Quran. Balkenende condemned the film as “out to hurt” the Dutch people.

Welcome, dear friends, to life in paradisaical, post-Kantian Europe, where politicians and the enlightened excoriate those documenting murderous fanatics’ religiously motivated atrocities. That such documentation should result in muzzling the masses both viscerally and intellectually offends our undeniable desire for liberty.

We have already seen moral equivalence arguments being used as defenses for Islamist actions. But many a documentary and history has been made concerning the Crusades and the Inquisition. Vatican inspired violence doesn’t pour into the streets to greet these publications, though the Church may express its dismay or disagreement over the subject’s treatment. But when Dutch Cartoonists published works of satire; Islamists lauded murder, burned buildings, and stormed embassies. And now we see another reactionary storm on the horizon as Geert Wilders, a member of Holland’s House of Representatives, releases a film publicizing Islamist racism and violence along with some Qur’anic verses (or ayats) extolling murder and death. Intrinsically dishonest as moral equivalence arguments are, situations such as this demonstrate their utter uselessness and the complete intellectual dishonesty of those who deploy them.

Also bearing mention is the fact that Network Solutions refused to host the film online. This is certainly acceptable given Network Solutions’ status as a private firm. What disgusts is the fact that Network Solutions, while refusing to host what is actually a documentary exploration of those who would just as soon kill NS’ CEO as change turbans, contentedly hosts vile pornography (articles here and here). Somehow in the world of Network Solutions, objectifying and degrading women equates to protected speech while exploring Wahabism’s link to the Qur’an may violate the company’s own “guidelines on hate language.” The world is truly turned on its head.

… into forced marriages. Morrissey has the scoop.

Good to know this whole thing is just a fantastical story concocted by crazy Islamophobes the world over and that it is all a mirage though, right?

In which the media suddenly discovers Hillary Clinton is a brazen, bald-faced, so-obvious-you-can-watch-her-nose-grow liar.

CBS was first to see the light. Twice.

Now, via Hot Air, the NAFTA chickens have landed. MSNBC let them into the coop.

As Rush would say, you just can’t make this stuff up, folks.

In another fine example of the liberal mantra on free speech (freedom for me, but none for thee) Forrest Lake Highscrewel in Minnesota cancelled a scheduled event in which decorated veterans from both Iraq and Afghanistan were to discuss with students the importance of the missions operating in both these countries.

Get the full story here.

The event in question was cancelled when several parents of students called Principal Steve Massey concerned according to the Minneapolis St. Paul Star Tribune that “the event was becoming political rather than educational and therefore was not suitable for a public school .” Principal Massey included that if the event went on as planned, many parents said that they would stage a protest during the event. On the decision to cancel the event Principal Massey said “The event was structured to be an academic classroom discussion around military service. We thought we’d provide an opportunity for kids to learn about service in the context of our history classes. As the day progressed, it became clear that this was becoming a political event … which would be inappropriate in a public setting.“

Now, correct me if I’m wrong but I thought that liberals wanted to discuss our differences and valued diversity in opinion. Also, I must say that I’m not questioning their patriotism or their love for our troops (even though they don’t support their mission, don’t want them to recruit, and now wont even let them speak about their experiences). Contrary to the open-mindedness they preach to us, this is just the latest example of do as I say not as I do from the Anti- military and anti America crowd.

A post in which yours truly gets to continue his treasured pastime of poking fun at his favorite unindicted co-conspirator and the media.

It’s just too easy.

Today’s email newsletter from the terrorist financiers spotlighted efforts to free Sami Al-Arian, who is currently sitting in a US prison for his connections to terrorist-supporting organizations, some of which he founded. In an action item a few days ago, CAIR called for American Muslims and “people of conscious” to write letters on his behalf to members of Congress, Judge Gerald Lee of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, and to Attorney General Michael Mukasey.

In a showcase of its utter contempt for any sense of consistency or reason, in the same email, CAIR blasted Walid Shoebat again, quoting Dawud Walid in a second article specifically targeting the ex-terrorist.

“Either he’s a fraud or he should be detained by the Justice Department if he really was involved with a supposed terrorism attack in Israel,” said Dawud Walid, executive director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

So if you are CAIR, real terrorist supporters should run free while those who have reformed and speak out against radicalism should be prosecuted. That makes sense.

What is even more funny is a portion of the article that also quoted Dawud Walid. The article was written by Kathleen Lavey, a reporter for the Lansing (Michigan) State Journal. FEC records show she is a contributor to the DNC.

[Walid Shoebat] will visit Michigan State University on Tuesday.

…

The MSU chapter of Young Americans for Freedom - classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center- has brought other controversial speakers to MSU, including Minutemen co-founder Chris Simcox and British Nationalist Nick Griffin. . .

Yup, Young Americans for Freedom is a hate group all right! That’s what William F. Buckley Jr. and Ronald Reagan were into, right?

SPLC was founded by Morris Dees and Joe Levin, two lawyers in Alabama. Dees has contributed over $15,000 to various Democrats since 1979 (plus Ralph Nader in 2000 and no Republicans ever), including Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Gary Hart (that Gary Hart), Kerry, Edwards, and even Ted Kennedy’s presidential campaign. Ick.

Joe Levin worked for the Carter Administration and contributed only to Democrats as well.

The first President of the SPLC was none other than Julian Bond. You may know him as President of the Democrat support group known as the NAACP.

Basically, noting that the SPLC designates YAF as a hate group is akin to noting that Jews are labeled by Iran as an illegitimate part of humanity in need of a serious whoopin’–it’s not news and it’s expected. In others words, to a liberal feminist like Kathleen Lavey, it should be mentioned as much as possible.

Especially if you have a symbiotic relationship with CAIR in Michigan, as Lavey seems to.

Rabbi Uria Ohana was just going about his day inside a subway station when a young man snatched off his Yarmulke and ran off with it. Not to be deterred in his expression of faith, Rabbi Ohana gave chase through the subway station only to run into this young man and a few of his friends. The man, 18 year old Ali Hussien and two unidentified friends began to throw punches at the rabbi and yelled Allah akbar (God is great) while they beat him.

check out the full story here.

Now this latest display of “tolerance” and “respectful religious disagreement” did not happen in Tel Aviv, Egypt or even in one of the many European countries now running over with militant islamists. This latest attack came in a substation located in Brooklyn, NY. Now, since our country has infected itself with an acute case of Political Correctness, I will start the legal disclaimer section of my blog. I the engaging party of this blog here-do attest and vow, in the presence of God, Allah, Jehovah, Budda, mother earth, everything and anything you the reader believe and hold dear, that I dont believe all muslims to be of the militant variety.

Just like any group, there are elements that will abuse the good name of a religion and distort the practice of the majority, but this attack begs the question of what was being taught to those disciples of Muhammad. Certainly they did not learn this behavior on their own, so what code of conduct are they learning at home and at their mosque? Just out of my own curiosity, I ask you to indulge this question also. If the shoe were on the other foot, and a young Jewish male had ripped the religious head dress off a young muslim woman, or if several jewish men had beaten up a muslim cleric while chanting how great their God was, what do you think the reaction would be from the muslim community?

To my eternal amusement, as the young man who had stolen the yarmulke was attempting to flee, reveling in the knowledge that Allah had blessed his actions, he was struck by a vehicle and had to have emergency services treat him. Even now however, political correctness is still a factor in serving justice for Rabbi Ohana. Since he has decided to press charges in the incident, New York City Prosecutors have not yet decided if this crime falls into the category of a “hate” or bias crime (I would have to agree, since the victim was not gay, black or muslim for which this special victim status was intended). Ill stop my rant now but I raised this story with one point in mind. Our political correctness is killing us, and unless we dig our heads out of the sand now, we might not have a head to pullout later.

Despite having the most liberal voting record of 2007, Obama claims to be:

“a leader who can finally move beyond the divisive politics of Washington and bring Democrats, independents and Republicans together to get things done.”

Not that an endorsement by the New Black Panthers and statements like “typical white American” are divisive.  

At the sunrise Easter service I attended yesterday, my pastor threatened people opposed to our church with a quote from rapper Ice Cube: “You picked the wrong folk to mess with.”

The title of my pastor’s sermon was “How to Handle a Public Lynching.” Appropriately, then, he coupled his Ice Cube quote with a little touch of blasphemy, saying that a fellow church member of mine who had …

… likened the U.S. to the Ku Klux Klan and declared it damned for its “state-sponsored terrorism,” is facing the same challenges Jesus did. “No one should start a ministry with lynching, no one should end their ministry with lynching,”

I don’t really attend Trinity United Church of Christ, where Barack Obama is a member and where these comments constituted the main points in the Easter morning message on the resurrection of Christ.

But if this sermon sounds a little off to you, you must be a “typical white person.” You see, as Barack has also said, “if you go there on Easter on this Easter Sunday and you sat down there in the pew you would think this is just like any other church.”

For some reason, I had thought that Easter Sunday was about Christ’s death and miraculous resurrection, providing salvation to all of humanity, blacks and whites, through God’s amazing saving grace.

My mistake, Messiah. My mistake.

Yglesias with the scoop.

On March 17th, Hillary described the trip this way:

I certainly do remember that trip to Bosnia, and as Togo said, there was a saying around the White House that if a place was too small, too poor, or too dangerous, the president couldn’t go, so send the First Lady. That’s where we went. I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base.

Captain Ed has the exit question:

Hillary Clinton lied about Tuzla. She lied about it to make people believe in her qualifications to handle national crises. If she sells her Tuzla greeting as a harrowing encounter with death, what other delusions would she try to sell us as President?

UPDATE 03/24: This video, via Hot Air, knocks the socks off the one above.

Via Atlas, this nifty little map comparison courtesy of the Brussels Journal.

The French website 5 Years Later has posted maps that illustrate the advance of Islam in France. I’ve taken the latest one from 2008 showing through shades of green the areas of implantation of the religion of peace and tolerance. The numbers on the map are those of the departments and have nothing to do with numbers of Muslims. The chart at the bottom runs from fewer than 5 to more than 30 mosques, prayer rooms or meeting houses. So we see that, in the southwest, department 33 has more than 30 while department 40 has fewer than 5.

For a complete list of all places of Islamic worship in France, click the link above. Even if you don’t know French you will find the listing impressive.

You will note also the inset in the upper left showing Paris (75) and its three surrounding suburbs. The name for that whole region is Ile-de-France, but someone has chosen to emend it to Êl-de-France.

They might as well call up bin Laden and have him give lectures to rookie agents on how not to offend Muslims in the process of pursuing terrorism charges against them. The FBI does know what our own federal prosecutors think of CAIR, right? Right?

Three days and counting until The Investigative Project on Terrorism drops the mother load. Says Insight …

An American Muslim group identified as an unindicted co-conspirator in a criminal terrorism case is being used by the FBI to train its agents about Islam.

The FBI declined to respond to Insight’s questions about this seeming disconnect, as one of the pre-eminent anti-terrorist research centers in America is set to release an extensive report on the same prominent U.S. Muslim group, accusing the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) of being a foe, rather than an ally, in the war on terror.

The 10-part report on CAIR from The Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT), led by Steven Emerson, debuts March 24. It tells the story of a group formed in the early 1990s to push an agenda of radical Islamists in the Middle East by portraying the war on terror as a war on Islam, and by defending those arrested on terror charges.

After a careful review of the history, activities, statements, and causes of and by CAIR, it seems that its primary goals are to silence and de-legitimize its critics and redefine what it means to be a moderate Muslim,” says the IPT report, a copy of which was obtained by Insight. “And when it comes to U.S. efforts to crack down on terrorists and their financiers, CAIR takes an almost visceral stand in opposition.”

This is where a good President would step in and say to Mueller, Hey buddy, this doesn’t seem quite right …

It was only a few days ago that the supreme court began hearing arguments from attourneys representing the District of Columbia as well as Dick Heller, a security guard who simply wanted to take his gun home with him for protection while not on duty. Heller, who is 65, would ordinarily not be allowed to have a handgun in his house under the existing DC rules, challenged the long standing DC gun ban and surprisingly won his appeal in a district court last year. Now, I hate to take away from the heaping good time we are having on Barack Obama’s attempt to stop the bleeding from stockpiles of video, showing his pastor blasting rich people, white people, rich white people, black people that arent democrats, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, black people who would vote for Hillary Clinton, and America in general (did I mention rich white people?). However, this issue is important and really hasnt been discussed in much detail. Why is this case so important you might ask? Well, in a nutshell the courts from all appearances seem to be on the verge of deciding not only the constitutionality of the DC gun ban, but in a much larger scope; the right of private citizens to own firearms.

Still missing the big deal? Well how about we start at the beginning. Im a firm believer that the men that founded our country were pretty sharp guys. When they penned the constitution and the bill of rights specifically, they believed that our most basic freedom comes not from government, but from our creator. The freedom to pray to whom we want, to assemble peacefully when and where we want, and to say what we want is not granted to us by our politicians. They come to us from a much greater power and are not negotiable…ever. The other rights such as fair trials and unreasonable searchs, ect. are again ours without dispute from our government. These rights have been tried and tested over many years, but have stood throughout the world as a symbol of freedom and hope, that our country has never and will never belong to a tyrant to control. Rather that we the people of this nation will govern ourselves and our affairs. The second amendment however is particularly important to the other rights specifically mentioned in the bill of rights, because this right is the only recourse we the people have to defend ourselves and our rights. Thats right folks, the second amendment was never intended for hunting (its just one of the perks). Dont believe me?

The wording of the Amendment itself should be very clear “A well-regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed“. For the benefit of anyone not convinced of the intent behind this amendment, lets go back and look at the words of the founders themselves on this very topic.

Thomas Jefferson first talked about this matter when helping to create the constitution of the state of Virginia saying “No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.” He reafirmed this belief in a letter to Justice John Cartwright around 1824. “The constitutions of most of our States assert, that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves, in all cases to which they think themselves competent, (as in electing their functionaries executive and legislative, and deciding by a jury of themselves, in all judiciary cases in which any fact is involved,) or they may act by representatives, freely and equally chosen; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed…”.
Samuel Adams confirmed citizen firearm ownership when he spoke to the Philadelphia Independent Gazetteer in 1789 saying “”And that the said Constitution be never construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the Press, or the rights of Conscience; or to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms;…”.

Alexander Hamilton concurs as well stating in one of his contributions to the Federalist Papers that “The best we can help for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed.” This amendment was also confirmed by President Geoerge Washington in his first annual address to congress in 1790. He stated “A free people ought not only to be armed, but disciplined; to which end a uniform and well-digested plan is requisite; and their safety and interest require that they should promote such manufactories as tend to render them independent of others for essential, particularly military, supplies.”

I could go on citing more examples of the founders telling us that this amendment, is the bedrock on which the others sit. I could list examples throughout history such as in Germany, Russia, and China and expound upon the attrocities that ensued after these nations instituted gun bans on their respective citizens since they could no longer defend themselves from an unjust government. I could provide the evidence of the failings of the DC gun ban (or of many gun free zones across the country) but in the interest of breavity I will not. I will simply conclude by saying that regardless of how you FEEL about guns, my right to protect myself, my family, my friends, or my property can never be taken from me by my government. My government never gave me the right of self defense, my creator did.

Joe Vento, owner of the famous Philly cheesesteak shop that displayed a sign asking patrons to speak English when ordering, took on political correctness and won. After the Philadelphia commission found probable cause against Geno’s for discrimination, the case went to a public hearing where: 

In a 2-1 vote, a Commission on Human Relations panel found that two signs at Geno’s Steaks telling customers, “This is America: WHEN ORDERING ‘PLEASE SPEAK ENGLISH,’” do not violate the city’s Fair Practices Ordinance.

Shop owner Joe Vento has said he posted the signs in October 2005 because of concerns over immigration reform and an increasing number of people in the area who could not order in English.

Vento has said he never refused service to anyone because they couldn’t speak English. But critics argued that the signs discourage customers of certain backgrounds from eating at the shop.

Commissioners Roxanne E. Covington and Burt Siegel voted to dismiss the complaint, finding that the sign does not communicate that business will be “refused, withheld or denied.”

“There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn’t an American at all. We have room but for one language here and that is the English language, for we intend to see that the crucible turns our people out as Americans, of American nationality; we have room for but one soul loyalty, and that is loyalty to the American people.”  - President Theodore Roosevelt, 1907

Creeping Sharia cites a juicy BizzyBlog post.

The July 22, 2007 Trinity United Church of Christ bulletin reprinted an article written by Mousa Abu Marzook, deputy of the political bureau of Hamas. Originally printed in the LA Times as “Hamas’ stand“, Pastor Wright added a new title, “A Fresh View of the Palestinian Struggle”. The Times was criticized for giving a “Platform To Genocidal Terrorist.” Where does that leave Obama’s church? Marzook is a known terrorist and created an extensive Hamas network in the United States.

The smoking gun is here in Obama’s church bulletin. Was Obama there? Does he support Hamas? Expect Obama and his supporters to simply ignore this tacit if not direct support of a terrorist organizaton.

Visit Creeping Sharia for the photo scan of the bulletin. Maybe Wright really did mean it when he said “God damn America.” After all, Hamas has called for attacks on the US.

Quick to denounce Don Imus yet, continues to defend the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama shows his true colors and America is not impressed.

According to NewsMax:

It took Barack Obama more than a year to repudiate his former pastor’s racially charged anti-American tirades, but when it came to denouncing Don Imus for his racial slurs against the Rutgers girls basketball team, it took Obama only a week to demand the shock jock be fired

And now, the latest Gallup poll shows:

For the first time in nearly six weeks, Hillary Rodham Clinton leads Barack Obama, 49 percent to 42 percent in daily tracking polling conducted this past Sunday to Tuesday.

Since the first Islamic missionaries arrived on our shores during the 1920s, the goal has been to conquer America. A variety of subversive methods have been put toward those ends, although the non-violent approach of establishing Shar’ia law is the most feasible since government neutrality towards religion is guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution. By attempting to convince Americans that Islam does not have any fundamental disagreements with the ideals of a free society, unsuspecting Americans will not be alerted to the real ends being sought. By giving the appearance of wanting to join the great American experiment, not work against it, Islamists intent on their religion dominating our Western culture are really masking an attempt to destroy it from within.

Non-violent Muslim efforts are manifested in the election of a second Muslim to the U.S. House of Representatives. According to the Militant Islam Monitor, on March 12, 2008, Andre Carson was sworn in as a representative from the 7th District of Minnesota.

Despite Mr. Carson’s assertions that he is an “orthodox, universal secular Muslim,” a term which seems crafted to reject Islamism, the fact that he has chosen to partner with groups like CAIR and extremists like Ellison suggests otherwise, that Carson is instead, playing a game of intentional deception.

Carson’s continued presence in Congress - where it appears that he will follow in Keith Ellison’s footsteps - is therefore a matter of grave concern and further evidence that the stealth jihad has now spilled into the very halls of Congress.

While the many Americans who voted for him may see themselves as accommodating of other religions, they fail to realize that Islam is not just a religion, but also a legal system that issues such punishments as floggings, stonings, and the severing of limbs. It is not a religion of peace as some would like to claim. If America is to preserve its existing order, we must be vigilant in defending it against the social and political pressures in favor of handing Islam a special status. Instead, we must foster the revealing of the true nature of Islam.

Fox reports that Obama’s site finally took down an endorsement from the New Black Panther Party . Leader of the NBPP, Malik Zulu Shabazz, said he understood the decision and would continue to strongly support Obama, no doubt sending chills down the aspiring nominee’s spine. According to the story, the Candidate of Unity is also the candidate of choice for an organization

identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a tolerance education organization, as an extremist hate group. The Anti-Defamation League calls NBPP “the largest organized anti-Semitic black militant group in America. … the group continues to organize demonstrations across the country that blend inflammatory bigotry with calls for black empowerment and civil rights.”

The NBPP lists on its Web site a 10-point plan for full employment for black Americans as well as housing, education, free health care and an end to the death penalty.

In addition, it demands slavery reparations, the release of all black prisoners from American jails, trials of blacks only by all-black juries, an end to all black cooperation with police departments, exemption for blacks from the all-volunteer U.S. military and a separate country for African-Americans.

Nothing says “unity” quite like calls for a separate country.

Of course it’s true that we can’t fault Obama for the choices his supporters make (other than following him that is), but we can ask why he attracts these types of supporters.

ABC News ain’t havin’ none of it…

Buried in his eloquent, highly praised speech on America’s racial divide, Sen. Barack Obama contradicted more than a year of denials and spin from him and his staff about his knowledge of Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s controversial sermons.

This should account for a few extra hires in each of her rivals’ campaigns.

Thousands of pages of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s schedules as first lady are being released to the public after months of pressure and criticism that the Clintons were delaying the disclosure.The National Archives, which operates the former President Clinton’s presidential library in Little Rock, announced Tuesday it would release 11,046 pages of Clinton’s daily schedules at the Little Rock facility and online Wednesday morning.

The timing for this is interesting. Despite her claims, Hillary has been able to release these documents for a long while but chose to weather the criticism she received for not having already let them go. In doing so, she staved off the even more intense onslaught of attacks that will come from exposing to the public the nuggests of gold contained within. As the files are finely combed by opposition research teams, I am sure we will see something revealed that could have been the last straw to a campaign that could have died many times already (think NH, March 5th, etc.). Now, when Obama is in hardcore defensive mode and his numbers are slipping, Hillary probably figured this was the best chance she is going to have to get this necessary move out of the way. The frenzy over Jeremiah Wright proves the perfect cover for such a release, and a perfect contrast. While Obama is seen distancing himself from some sort of dark secret in his life and trying to cover it up, Hillary is seen as being open and forthcoming. (h/t Alisa)

The Pentagon just released a new report covering hundreds of documents recovered in Iraq following the invasion. What it shows is a clear link between Saddam and al Qaeda:

“Captured documents reveal that the regime was willing to co-opt or support organizations it knew to be part of al Qaeda — as long as that organization’s near-term goals supported Saddam’s long-term vision.”

And there’s this:

“Saddam supported groups that either associated directly with al Qaeda (such as the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, led at one time by bin Laden’s deputy, Ayman al Zawahiri) or that generally shared al Qaeda’s stated goals and objectives.”

The media, of course, jumped on the line in the Executive Summary of the report (that’s as far as they read) that said there was no “smoking gun.”

For this, Stephen Hayes is a must read.

They just don’t make preachers like this anymore. I wonder why not? Better yet, what can we infer about someone who willingly sits under this tripe for years…and raises his children there? Just a thought.

Barack Obama spoke today, trying to calm voter’s concerns about a candidate whose preacher calls on God to damn America when he’s not busy blaming American for introducing AIDS to African Americans…intentionally.

I’m not sure the speech accomplished much though, other than reminding us that Obama continues at a church pastored by someone who is either completely intellectually dishonest or absolutely looney. As a friend at dinner tonight pointed out, it seems all Obama managed to do was sully his grandmother’s name while trying to avoid acknowledging his pastor’s sullied name. I mean really Barack, you want to convince us that it’s ok for your pastor to be a racist because your grandmother was one too? Or is it that it’s ok for you to accept your racist pastor because your grandmother was racist. Come on Obama, was the teleprompter out?

Transcript and CNN story here

Editors’ Note: The following post obligatorily strikes a sober chord. It wouldn’t do to start a blog about ideas without a serious post about the value of our central idea: Freedom. So take a look if you’re curious about our reasoning and background. Otherwise, just check out the last couple of paragraphs and then hang on because things are about to get fun, really fast.

The bug bit after Buckley passed away. I don’t know what it was. Maybe all of the videos of Firing Line I watched. Maybe all of the obituaries. Or maybe it was the conscious knowledge that we had lost one of the intellectual giants of the last sixty years–and our leader.

When President Reagan died, I mourned. When Milton Friedman died, I mourned. When Buckley died, I jolted bolt upright. This is not to diminish Reagan and Friedman, but to laud Buckley. His death and the outpouring of sympathy, interspersed with recognition of his intellectual acumen by the Right and, perhaps more significantly, the Left, helped rekindle my enthusiasm not for politics, partisanship, or even conservatism but for freedom itself.

Freedom is the most important value of all. Morality, equality, tolerance, respect–none of these can exist without the life-giving breath that is freedom.

But as history has shown and Jefferson noted, “The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.” Though the days of the Great Society have passed–minorities plunged into poverty by the unintentionally devilish device of government welfare still toil to recover–Americans see more threats to freedom daily. They abound. Mississippians elected a representative to their state congress who proposed making it a crime for restaurants to serve obese people. California has mandated that thermostats contain radio-transmitters allowing the government to control them during “times of need”–whatever those may be. Public schools suspend students for making market transactions with each other in the form of the sale of a bag of Skittles.

William Somerset Maughan said, “If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that, if it is comfort or money it values more, it will lose that too.” He was right. Many among us value a great many things more than freedom. The cry “make a law” echoes in our ears nearly as often as “please” and “thank you” are heard, and certainly more than anyone dares utter the name “Jesus” in public (unless in epitaph form, which is perfectly acceptable). It is these gradual encroachments–good intentions made law–that will pave the way to hell.

We have been down this road before, the difference is that those who tried statism in the past tried to rapidly implement it. This failed miserably, though not before tens of millions died grasping, gasping deaths. Moralists took lessons from this and continue their flirtation with statism, hoping that gently prodding the beast instead of fully awakening it will invoke blessing not ruinous blast. But they play a dangerous game, the consequences of which can only be a diminution of that most sacred of all values: freedom.

In 1955 William F. Buckley said that the National Review “stands athwart history, yelling Stop, at a time when no one is inclined to do so, or to have much patience with those who so urge it.” Things are not so grim as they were then. Some today are inclined to yell “stop.” The rise of talk radio, internet news, and the blogosphere has given voice to many who love freedom as we do. But others urge the state on, praising the fetters it inflicts on freedom. To them we join with the chorus Bill Buckley started some 53 years ago, and yell “Stop!”

In the days ahead, we hope to provide commentary and discussion on the news of the day, articles on prescient issues, and not a little entertainment mixed in. It’s unimaginable that many of our submissions will approximate this post’s length or somber demeanor. We’re a diverse group of writers, from objectivists to evangelicals, neo-cons to libertarians. With that mixture, the discussions should be robust, and we will do everything we can to keep the mood light and humorous when possible. This space will be a playground for us to explore ideas on the Right, debunk fallacies on the Left, and give a good dose of pop-culture and irreverent media analysis in between.

So pull up a mouse and chair, pick up a volume of the Federalists or PJ O’Rourke, and join in.