Atlas Shrugs

PWR; Pamela's Weekend Recap. The Chicken Came First

This is something new, my thoughts on the most pressing issues of our time. Reflecting back with Eliane Elias singing Jobim in the foreground and the quiet of the moment, here it is.......

Atlas

I do not believe in "what came first, the chicken or the egg?" at least not while analyzing the blowback of the blogosphere. In the case of the "blog", the need (the chicken) came first. The dearth-of-objective-news vacuum was huge and the Blogosphere came to the intellectual rescue.

In the past, back in the day, the country turned to the big 3 (networks) and got their news fix. Years passed, cable emerged and so did cable news. The leftwing-agenda-pushing-bias network news outlets and CNN, propelled the FOX news channel to the forefront much to the consternation of the LLL (left lunatic libs), the media pundits and the chattering class. But America didn't care if they were being made fun of. They were tired of their psyches being clubbed into submission like baby seals. But even now, Fox falls far short (but more on that later).

The impact of the Blogs became painfully evident when The Blogosphere changed the course of the election. The Swift boat boys, Powerline's and Charles Johnson/Little Green Footballs' expose of RATHERGATE........ IMHO changed the course of human events.........if not for the blogboys, the chances are pretty good that Kerry/Annan/Chirac would be in the White House. Pretty frightening when you think about it.
And as much harm as the net can do (i.e. spreading the deadly poison of radical islam, disseminating critical info on bombmaking, nuclear site info etc.), it serves a much greater good. The 2004 presidential election was an indication but just the tip of the iceberg.

The American people are searching for truth in a mad, mad, mad world. And there is veracity in the blogosphere. Unlike the MSM (mainstream media) the blogs have tens of thousands of fact checkers, specialists - all in the their area of expertise. Any fallacy, misrepresention or out and out lie will be "outed" by the bloggers. The blogosphere maintains the highest standards. They answer to a higher authority - us. Vetted by all Americans, blogs are forums in which to correct and speak out. No inaccuracy goes unpunished, inhabited by lawyers, doctors, engineers, sanitation engineers, scholars, construction workers - well, you get the idea.

This week is a fine case in point.................with all the wild historical events and we are talking sweeping historical change across the globe, all you had to do was turn on any of the news stations and it was Michael and Martha, Martha and Michael (Jackson and Stewart). Fox particularly abandoned their role as the alter ego of the "common man" and went totally tabloid (actually that is a stain the tabs are somewhat undeserving of - at least they cover a wide range of celebrity driven drivel). The problem with FOX is that Ailes has drawn the wrong conclusions from his success. Ailes believes his feel good, happy face, "upbeat" approach to news is what keeps the fffffffolks coming back. And while a smiling face is certainly a pleasant change from the dray cups at CNN, it doesn't address the actual reason behind it's appeal. It is the center right that attracts us. Brit Hume attracts us. Republicans tend to be more half full people vs the Dem's half empty, "the sky is falling" mantra. FOX has always equivocated on Israel and the Palis. Who gave as much fair and balanced TV time as FOX and O'Reilly to Hamas and Stanley Cohen, their vile Jewish lawyer, than FOX? This was a critical failing which was overshadowed by everything else (Bush, the elections, Judeo-Christian values), but their quiet anti-Israel posturing will bite FOX should they continue to pursue this perversion of "fair and balanced", this moral inversion (imagine Bill OReilly, it's 1942 and in the guise of fair and balanced, O'Reilly softballing this one to Joseph Goebbels "C'mon Joe, no spin here, is there anything really sinsiter behind the final solution, or are the Jews being overly sensitive?".

Just this week, the only international incident to get play were the terrorists. The coverage of the Hezbollah protests completely drenched the airwaves. What about all the sweeping demonstrations* marking this week in history? Never before seen democracy and freedom marches* taking place in a part of the world where such things are an anathema. 
And there you have it. If the media and the all news cable channels continue to abdicate their roles as responsible disseminators of information, then the onslaught will continue and the blogosphere will replicate the media landscape of Lincoln, crowded , loud, opinionated, electric and diverse. Yes, wildly diverse.

Because the MOST SIGNIFICANT shift in the news paradigm is the role that media plays. No longer sufficient in merely bringing us the News, the American public is choosing its disseminator, its sifter, filter, prism and demanding thorough and complete journalism but one with a moral compass because a press is prejudicial when they are unable (or unwilling) to distinguish between terrorists and the victims of terror.

*Morrocans march by the thousands for Freedom (click)
Pakistani women against punitive rape (click)
Kuwait women rallying for the vote (click)
The Cedar Revolution: Lebanon tries to take back its Sovereignty

Overthrowing the US without a Single Shot. Brainwashing 101: Hijacking the Young American Mind

Once again, I play Moishe the Beadle from Night (Elie Weasel). This vitriole, intimidation, and anti-semitism escalates and in America, the band plays on. In the center quad at UC Irvine, Amir Abdel Malik Ali stands before a crowd of 150, his hands clutching a podium bearing the message, “Desperation of the Zionist Lobby.” “Zionism is a mixture, a fusion of the concept of white supremacy and the chosen people,” the Oakland-based Muslim religious leader and teacher told the audience at the Feb. 2 Muslim Student Union (MSU)-organized event. Malik Ali unleashed an attack about the Zionist control of the American media, Zionist complicity in the war in Iraq and Zionists’ ability to deflect justified criticism. “You will have to hear more about the Holocaust when you accuse them of their Nazi behavior,” he told the group of mostly Muslim students.

See my previous posts regarding the hostile takeover of the American Public Education and University Middle Eastern Departments (right under your nose, mind you). At the rate we are going, the Islamists will succeed in America much the way they triumphed in Europe (Euarabia) and the most of the Middle East. Get your head of the sand. If you are unfamiliar with this time bomb, no excuses, read it all (here are the previous posts, click on each entry): Saudis Payoff Columbia University Middle Studies Department to Train Public School Teachers in the ways of Antisemetic Revisionist history (click) Blogger's Notebook: Academic Integrity Part I (click ) Blogger's Notebook: "Landmark Event" Part II (click) Blogger's Notebook: "Rachel Fish is the Cure or "Sunlight is the Best Disinfectant" (click) Blogger's Notebook: An epiphany at Columbia...........too bad they had little to do with it (click) The Few and the Brave (click) The Best Public Education your Hard Earned Tax Dollars Can Buy (click) Columbia Most Unbecoming (click) Bat Yeor at Columbia "Learn Everything First" (click) Honest Injun....................Not! (click) The Shock! 9/11 Professor, Ward Mosquehill trained Terrorists (click) Columbia University pursues Antisemetism Apace (click) Little Green Footballs showcases Moral Inversion in Public school (click) Grinning abour Genocide at Ben Gurion University (click)

 

additional Education posts: Throw the Education Bums out! All Children Left Behind (click) Porn for kids, Courtesey of your Public School System (click)

Jew Hater of the Week Award goes to......................

London mayor says PM is a "war criminal" whose place is in prison 03/04/2005 Ken Livingstone denounced Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as a war criminal and accused him of carrying out terrorism and "ethnic cleansing."

London mayor refuses to apologize for Nazi slur against Jewish reporter 02/23/2005 Not sorry: Ken Livingstone attacked The Evening Standard, accusing it of a long history of anti-Semitism and scare-mongering about immigrants.

London mayor to be investigated for anti-Semitic comments 02/18/2005 Ken Livingstone comments, comparing a Jewish journalist to a Nazi concentration camp guard, will be investigated by the UK Commission for Racial Equality.

Courtesy Israeli Insider

Yes, it Makes me Happy when the Animals turn the Guns Against Each Other

I am sure I will take mega-criticism for this but frankly, I don"t give a __________. I am too tired of all the things that go unsaid in the name of political correctness (euphemism for antisemitism).

In a continuing violent development, the terrorists have yet again turned the gun toward themselves. AT EACH OTHER, for a distinct and welcomed change. And I expect to hear from an number of you insisting that Abbas is the good guy..............well if that is indeed true then he will deal with these terrorists for what they are...........COLD BLOODED KILLERS. Until I am proven otherwise I am unwilling to sacrifice one more delicious Israeli life to their bloodlust.

I am tired of murderers, terrorists, and wanton killers being referred to as "militants", "gunmen", "freedom fighters", or whatver flavor of the week "al aksa"," fatah", "plo", it's all smoke and mirrors - the killers are the same animals over and over again.

Al-Aksa gunmen shoot up party meeting in challenge to Abbas leadership
By Associated Press March 10, 2005/Israeli Insider, click headline

Palestinian gunmen burst into a meeting of the ruling Fatah Party on Thursday, shooting into the air and forcing participants to disperse in a brazen challenge to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. The incident cast doubt on his authority as he comes under increasing pressure from Israel to disarm militants.

More than 1,000 Fatah grass roots activists were meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah when two dozen gunmen dressed in military-style fatigues, their faces covered, burst into the room in a shiny new hotel where the session was in progress. The gunmen, from the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a violent group affiliated with Fatah, rampaged through the room and shouted slogans charging the Fatah leadership with complicity in widespread corruption. Shocked participants ducked and scrambled for the exits as the intruders, brandishing their assault rifles, began throwing chairs around, ordering everyone to leave.

The meeting broke up in disarray, and as the Fatah members fled, the gunmen fired in the air outside the hall for several minutes. No one was hurt, but the gunmen made their point -- the session did not reconvene. "Our demands are for change and reform," said Menwer al-Aqraa, an Al Aqsa commander in Ramallah, without elaborating. He said, however, that his group would not disarm

Pali security guard looks at members of the Fatah party as they leave a hotel in the West Bank town of Ramallah Thursday March 10, 2005, after more than 20 Palestinian gunmen burst into a large gathering of this ruling party, ordered people out of the building and fired shots into the air.

 

IRAN BIGGER THREAT TO LEBANON THAN SYRIA

And so the fog of mendacity begins to disappear and the global chessboard becomes ever more clear. It is Iran. And while I still believe China is Barzini, Iran is more than mere hatchet man. Here Farah of WND writes insightfully of the boots on the ground

ActivistReader cartoon

Iran out of Lebanon, too

Did you see the reports on the massive pro-Syrian Hezbollah rallies in Lebanon? Many people were fooled by it. Those not familiar with Lebanese politics could easily conclude that Syria is really not all that unpopular in the country. After all, how could such large demonstrations in favor of Syrian occupation be accomplished if the Lebanese people were really united against their occupying neighbor? The answer is simple: Many or most of those rallying in favor of Syria are not really Lebanese at all. The untold story of Lebanon's occupation is that Syrian troops represent only the most obvious part of it. For the most part, the Syrian troops wear uniforms – though thousands of intelligence agents, the most insidious and destructive force, do not. But there is another occupying force in Lebanon today – tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of Iranians or Iranian-backed militiamen and civilians who have emigrated with the express purpose of using Lebanon as a base of operations and to establish an Iranian-style Shiite theocracy. This invasion has been going on for 20 years – slowly but surely changing the demographics of the country. There were always Shiites in Lebanon. But before the Iranian revolution, they were a peaceful people, easily assimilated into the country's diverse population of Sunnis, Druze and Christians. All that changed when the Iranians came. They came with guns, ammunition, some 13,000 rockets and military advisers from Iran's Revolutionary Guards. They came with the purpose of using Lebanon as a base of terrorist operations against Israel. They came to stay. The whole world is calling on Syria to leave Lebanon after 30 years, but Syrians are hardly the only threat to the peace and stability of a future free Lebanon. In the long term, the Iranians may represent a bigger threat.

Long time coming................This Could Be the Start of Something Big

This is LONG OVERDUE. These are great developments.

Israel, US begin Joint Air Defense Exercise

One objective, live free

ASSOCIATED PRESS Israel and the United States have begun a joint air defense exercise on Israeli soil, the US Embassy said Thursday, underscoring the close defense ties between the countries. Embassy spokesman Paul Patin said the exercise, set to last for several weeks, involved the deployment of Patriot and Arrow missiles, developed to shoot down medium- and high-altitude missiles fired from neighboring states. "The exercise takes place every two years," Patin said. "It's a regular part of our cooperation." AP

"There can be no public or private virtue unless the foundation of action is the practice of truth." --George Jacob Holyoake

Porn for Kids, Courtesy of the Public School System

Dispatch From the Porn Belt  On Wednesday The Wall Street Journal reported that schools in Montgomery County, Md. (Kerry by 33.2%), plan to introduce a new sex education curriculum that, among other things, instructs youngsters in how to put condoms on cucumbers. Blogger Trevor Bothwell e-mailed the county board of education to complain about the "use of taxpayer dollars to indoctrinate Maryland's public school students with the Left's visions of a hypersexualized society, including discussion of anal sex and the like."
But Bothwell's e-mail bounced. The automated reply he received said his message had "surpassed the threshold set in the Adult Content dictionary."

He writes:
I'm struggling to pinpoint exactly which portion of my letter
"surpassed the threshold set in the Adult Content dictionary," but my guess is
that the words "anal sex" might have had something to do with it.
So, you
got that? It's "inappropriate" for one adult to write to a group of adults
expressing concern over topics addressed in a school district's curriculum
(indeed, the board's own web server admits the terms "anal," "sex," "anal sex,"
"hypersexualized," or any combination thereof, violate standards of appropriate
language laid out in the "Adult Content dictionary" and are thus filtered from
receipt by the school board), but it's apparently fine and dandy to reference
such terminology in schools filled with impressionable tenth-graders.
The
school board really ought to consider relaxing the settings on its porn filter.
After all, we wouldn't want the folks who run the schools to have to pick up
this kind of stuff on the street.

Daniel "Indiana Jones" Pipes

Have you seen this entry on Pipe's weblog? Talk about surreal. You gotta love how the Islamists have transformed the egghead, good looking version of Abe Lincoln into an action hero. Well at least they have it half right. Pipe's is Rand's ideal man so I guess super hero is fitting. Here's Pipe's amused entry

Islamists Make Me a Movie Star I have already noted at "Saddam Hussein Made Me a Movie Star" how the Iraqi dictator had me "starring" in a documentary titled In Shifting Sands: The Truth About UNSCOM and the Disarming of Iraq. Now I have even more exciting news to report. Islamists don't relegate me to a boring old documentary but feature me as the star of big-budget action movies. I can't do better than to post their fantasy posters. I wonder if Hollywood or Hong Kong will now come calling.

From the "DONT HOLD YOUR BREATH" Department

Yes yes I know and OJ is innocent.................this makes me sick.  Translation: If we find any NON JEWISH BLOOD on Hezbollahs' hands, then they are a terrorist organization. A pox be upon them.

EU Eyeing Hizballah - Herb KeinonThe European Parliament on Thursday backed taking measures against Hizballah if evidence indicates that the group is involved in terrorist operations. However, they did not put Hizballah on a European list of terrorist organizations after a proposal to do so was dropped. Nonetheless, Israeli officials welcomed the resolution that was approved, which they said reflects a growing European awareness as to the real essence of Hizballah. (Jerusalem Post)

Slaves Denied their Freedom Because they Don't Exist

From WSJ Interactive:
Quote of the Day
"We are pretty depressed," David Ould, deputy  director of Anti-Slavery International, told the Economist, after the government  of Niger, which had blessed the  release of 7,000 slaves scheduled for last week, changed its mind, denied  that there were any slaves on its territory and intimidated the slave-owners  into parroting this denial. No slaves were freed.

Write your goddamn Congressman, Senators, and the White House - NOW!

The Department of Defense and Islam; ENEMIES, A LOVE STORY

LGF ran a piece earlier today questioning CAIR's use of the Department of Defense's email list "Why is the DoD email list used by CAIR? (click)". At first it sounded subversive and underhanded, but maybe it is a collaboration. Look at this lawsuit just filed by Judicial Watch (smells like cahoots to me):

After almost a year of stonewalling and bureaucratic double-talk, we filed a lawsuit against the Defense Department seeking documents about a very dubious Pentagon program to develop an Internet web site, with the help of highly paid ($40 million over 4 years) media consultants, called “Empower Peace.” The Pentagon’s “Empower Peace” website targets American and Islamic school age children, their teachers and schools, to participate in a “grassroots” peace movement and “cultural awareness.” This is not just a question of reckless spending and poor allocation of assets and efforts. The Smith-Mundt Act of 1948 (22 U.S.C. Sec. 1461), forbids the domestic dissemination of U.S. government authored or developed propaganda or “official news” deliberately designed to influence public opinion or policy. Why is the Pentagon involving itself in this sort of nonsense?

the "European Dream" vs. "Old America" - Ha!

And so the streets of Paris are alive with the semblance of  solidarity: "Down with Neoliberal Globalization," and "Defend Public Service à  la française," or "The World is Not For Sale" are the kind of banners we can  expect. Hundreds of thousands of people talk the talk of solidarity but in  reality walk the walk of self-interest: their "right" to retire at 57 on their  unemployed children's backs; their "right" to work four days a week; their  "right" to salary increases even as they work less; their "right" to protect  their standard of living even as millions of their compatriots are without  work.

 

The banners will declare that the profits of French multinational  companies are at all time highs and yet these companies refuse to create jobs.  What the protesters don't understand is that profits are high because some  corporations, like Michelin, earn 60% of their revenues overseas. Expanding the  labor force at home makes little sense for them.

 

Above all, profitable companies refuse to create jobs and invest  in France because they are wary of getting tied down to lifetime commitments to  workers -- commitments they never had to make during the Glory Days of French  capitalism. Back then, in the 1960s, unemployment was only 2% but labor turnover  rates were higher than today.

I see Nero in the crowd

SAUDI$ PAYOFF COLUMBIA UNIV ANTISEMETIC MIDEAST DEPT to TRAIN OUR PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS

This is getting really frightening..............if you've read my Post on Sunday's Conference on Columbia's Middle Eastern Studies Program, you know how deep the anti-Americanism and the jew hatred runs in that department, bought and paid for by our Saudi friends.
But this???????? If you haven't read my entries Part I,II and III - read it all, This is News you need to know. Click here for Academic Integrity Part I (the two subsequent entries follow).

"There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root." --Henry David Thoreau

SAUDIS FUNDED COLUMBIA PROGRAM AT INSTITUTE THAT TRAINED TEACHERS!

Think about this! The New York Sun New York's Next Great Newspaper, reports today that Saudi Arabia has funneled tens of thousands of dollars into "outreach" programs of Columbia's Middle East Institute, which until last week was training some of the city's public scool teachers in how to teach students about the Middle East politics.

Since 2002, the government-owned Saudi Aramco has given the institute annual grants of $15,000 for unspecified outreach activities. The institute's outreach activities have included a 15-week teacher-training course on Middle East politics led by Columbia faculty members and graduate students.

In a letter dated April 27, 2004, a scholar of Arab nationalism who took over the Middle East Institute in 2003, Rashid Khalidi, wrote to a senior executive in public affairs at Saudi Aramco, Mustafa Jalali, thanking him for "your generous contribution to the Middle East Institute's outreach activities in 2004." The money, Mr. Khalidi wrote, "will enable us to be more proactive and seek out wider outreach opportunities."

A student provided a copy of the letter to The New York Sun, along with a separate document, which the student said Mr. Khalidi had attached to the letter, containing a description of the 2003-04 outreach activities conducted by the institute.

Click headline and read it all....................We are INFECTED and we must cut out the cancern. This is not a New York problem or a university problem, This is part of a very clever, long term strategy to takeover our curriculum(s) nationwide and brainwash our children exactly the same way as the Islamics indoctrocinate their children with hate, lies and historical inaccuracy (too kind a word), This has been going on for years...........Wake up and smell the Napalm...........calling Dr Benson

when was the last time you wrote a check for a jewish day school?

Syria Movin Out and don't let the door hit ya in the ........

AFP/GETTY/PATRICK BAZ....courtesey New York Sun

Lebanese youth bangs a stone yesterday against a Syrian military outpost painted with the Syrian flag. The post was abandoned by Syrian troops overnight (Lebanese soldiers in the background)
Click here for New York Sun full article

Even more surprising (/sarc) is this from World Net Daily..............Assad is fighting for his life, expect a bloody battle

Ex-PM: Hezbollah rally numbers manipulatedExiled Lebanese leader says Syriaused foreigners, coerced workers
JERUSALEM – The giant Hezbollah rally that drew nearly half a million purported supporters of Syria's occupation of Lebanon included non-Lebanese citizens, Syrian workers, students and municipal employees coerced into joining the protest, former Lebanese Prime Minister Michel Aoun told WorldNetDaily in an exclusive interview this morning.

"Yesterday's huge protest calling for Syria to stay made it look to the world like a large segment of the Lebanese population actually wants to live under Syrian occupation," said Aoun, speaking to WND from Paris. "But the protest wasn't what it appeared to be. It was an elaborately staged affair."

 

Hundreds of thousands packed into a central Beirut meeting square yesterday, chanting support for Syrian troops to maintain positions in Lebanon and denouncing America in what has been called a massive show of strength by Syrian and Iranian-backed Hezbollah.
Protestors held signs, in English, reading "Thank you Syria'' and "No to foreign interference,"[how many Syrians in the Arab Street talk that?] a reference to American intervention. The crowd sang the national anthem and many waved red-and-white Lebanese flags, some holding posters with

Does the Plumbing Really Matter?

A front page piece in today's Wall Street Journal does not bode well for the direction of Iraqi politics. While a great fuss is beng made about the proactive  involvement and subsequent effect the women of Iraq (and the Middle East for that matter) will make on democracy, if they are devout muslems and believers in Shar'ia, does the plumbing really matter? Mind you, I am a huge supporter of the Bush Doctrine and the US invasion of Iraq, but such developments must not be ignored. Here is an excerpt from today's WSJ, click on the headline to read the entire aritcle by WSJ staff reporter FARNAZ FASSIHI.

   

Over the past two years, Fatima Yaqoub has gone from sewing dresses at home to shaping municipal policies as a councilwoman in Kathamiya, a bustling district in Iraq's capital.

   

Ms. Yaqoub has organized computer courses for women and traveled to Egypt for a U.S.-funded course on constitutional and human-rights law. During the Iraqi elections in January, she supervised a polling station and oversaw the counting of the ballots.

   

In many ways, Ms. Yaqoub, 40 years old, is emblematic of the kind of gender equality the U.S. and many Iraqis envision for the new Iraq. But the devout Shiite Muslim is part of a group of increasingly powerful female politicians seeking to erase laws that provide women with some of the same rights as men.

   

She favors allowing Iraqi men to have as many as four wives and repealing laws that guarantee alimony payments and child-custody rights for women in divorces. Ms. Yaqoub also believes in decreasing the amount of money women stand to gain in inheritances and removing legal barriers to the marriage of girls younger than 18 years old.

   

   

Ms. Yaqoub is in the vanguard of a major push by Iraq's Shiite religious and political leaders to introduce aspects of Islamic "Sharia" law into Iraq's legal code, especially where it concerns family matters and women's rights. Sharia is Islam's version of divine law, drawn from the Koran and other religious texts.

   

In Iraq's recent election, Shiite candidates won by a landslide and secured a little more than half of the 275 seats in the national assembly. When the new government meets for the first time later this month, its most immediate task will be to draft a new constitution and pave the way for a new round of elections by this December.

In Memorium

The IDF Soldiers brutally lynched 2000
the "intifada"

oh BTW, they got them all, the Israelis got every last one of them (see below for final capture)

Thank G-d! Bloodlust PA Cop nabbed in 2000 IDF Soldier Lynching

You must remember that awful bloody lynching of those IDF soldiers back in 2000. The mob tearing apart those godforsaken soldiers that took a wrong turn.
Well they got 'em...................G-d I love Shin Bet

Shin Bet Catches Another  PA Cop Involved in 2000 Lynch
The Shin Bet security service has arrested a Palestinian police officer who took part in the lynching of two IDF reserve soldiers at the hands of an angry mob in Ramallah in 2000, security officials said Tuesday. Mohammed Abu Eida, 28, told his interrogators he took part in the killing and was the officer who initially arrested the two soldiers. Abu Eida fled to Egypt shortly after the killings and was caught Jan. 31, when he tried to return. (AP/Ha'aretz)

"Conservative Blogs are the Shock Troops of a Decades Long Battle"

Jonah Goldberg writes a scathing but historically accurate op ed piece on the revolution of news media outlets in today's  Federalist Patriot. Cutting open the belly of the beast ............thanks Jonah

   

_____----********O********----______

   

 

   

OPINION IN BRIEF

   

"Don't let the word 'conservative' fool you. Rebels on the right were pioneers in the political exploitation of new and alternative technologies long before anyone knew what blogs were. Led by Rush Limbaugh, conservatives even revived AM radio, making it a major source of a populist backlash against liberal-controlled institutions. Cable profoundly transformed politics. C-Span alone did more to demystify government than a generation of muckrakers -- or bloggers -- ever could. CNN pioneered the steady erosion of the Big Three Networks' stranglehold on information. Later, Fox News soon destroyed CNN's stranglehold on 24-hour news. And, remember, the Internet was a big deal before the onset of the blogs as well. For good or for ill, Matt Drudge refused to treat the MSM as a sacred monastery, and in many respects he remains the uber-blogger. ... Left-wing bloggers believe they are part of the same 'revolution' as right-wing bloggers are. They're not. The conservative blogs are the shock troops of a decades-long battle to seize back the culture. Conservatives have always had to rely on 'alternative media' -- magazines, AM radio, blogs -- because the Mainstream Media barred the door to conservatives. And even when they let a few token ones in, they had to be labeled 'conservative' first and journalists a distant second. The lefty blogs are something else entirely. They represent -- much like the still lame liberal talk radio and the new liberal think tanks -- an attempt to copycat conservative successes. Their fight is not with the monolithic mainstream media (or academia) but with the usurpers. Politics is not a battle of technology. It is a battle of ideas, and therein lies all the difference." --Jonah Goldberg

Media Ahms for the Terrorists, Bubkis for Those Yearning to be Free

Can anyone tell me why these Hizbollah protests are  completely drenching the airwaves? I dont know about you but I couldn't find jack on all the democracy and freedom marches taking place through the world this past week - all self propelled mind you (the only distinct coverage was out of the blogworld, Charles Johnson, Lizardmaster of LGF and his bloggettes of which I am one).

No, all we saw was martha and michael michael and martha even FOX (they have really lost their moral compass lately, I expect agenda advancing bias reporting  from the other guys)

   

media ahms for the terrorists, nothing for those yearning to be free

Tell me how much did you hear about these very recent rallys: Morrocans march by the thousands for Freedom (click) Pakistani women against punitive rape (click) Kuwait women rallying for the vote (click)

and of course all the freedom protests in Syria.

This, the MSM (mainstream media) deems unimportant. Ugh. Knowing Hezbollahs MO (modus operandi) I say this mob was bought. Clearly planned in advance. You know the deal: threats, extortion, free lunches, coercion, printed ENGLISH signs ( I mean really, "no Foreign Interference" who talks like that in Lebanon?Sounds lefty Mad Ave/media spin to me). Bribes and coercion. Bussed in a couple of miles from Syria.

Those Lebanese people marching for freedom are risking their lives, as Syrian secret police take down their names and wait for the unflattering shade of limelight to fade so that they can get back to their dirty business.

Madawaskan makes an interesting observation on LGF

   

I also saw this reported on CBC or ITN. It was about the poor living conditions of the Syrian immigrant workers in Lebanon.. How they feared for their own safety from the Lebanese. It showed a factory that had lost all fifteen workers because they had left already. There were three Syrian immigrant workers who were camping out in a building they were also helping to construct. One of them said he wanted to stay in Lebanon,or would go anywhere else except back to Syria.

I think it is highly probable that the large number of pro-Syrian protesters in Lebanon today are augmented by some of these 800,000 Syrian workers who don’t want to return to Syria.  Ironic

Throw the Education Bums out! Leaving All Children Behind

Andrew Wolf's edit piece in today's New York Sun is particularly disturbing. Its long term implications are devastating. Andrew Wolf is editor and publisher of the Bronx Press Review and Riverdale Review Newspapers. He writes frequently in the New York Sun. A Web page, maintained (imperfectly) by New York City HOLD, provides links to his columns on education issues in NYC. He calls attention to Barry Garelick's post(click). Read it carefully, our children are math illiterate. Trillions on educationa and they can't add. Future leadership in math and sciences looks dismal for the prospects of continuing American Greatness.

An A-Maze-ing Approach to Math

I am not a mathematics teacher, but I have a degree in mathematics and an intense interest in how the subject is taught. When I retire, I would like to teach math, which is why I started tutoring high school students in my spare time three years ago. My first student was a 9th grader having difficulty with geometry. He stated his problem succinctly: “I don’t know how to do proofs.” Confronted with what I thought could be a common problem, I was still unaware that what I was really seeing was a national crisis in mathematics education.
Here’s some of what I would soon learn:
—Only 55 percent of 8th graders taking the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) exam in math correctly answered the question, “How many pieces of string will you have if you divide 3/4 yard of string into pieces each 1/8 yard long?”
—In an international math test taken by students worldwide in 1995 (the Third International Mathematics and Science Study, or TIMSS),

U.S. student math proficiency for 8th graders fell below the international average (28th out of 41 countries). For 12th grade, U.S. math performance was among the lowest (18th of the 21 countries participating).
—In 1989 the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) published its Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics—an extensive set of mathematics standards for grades K–12 which de-emphasized memorization of number facts, the learning of proofs, and algebraic skills, but encouraged the use of calculators and “discovery learning.”

—The National Science Foundation (NSF) promoted the NCTM standards beginning in 1991 and awarded millions of dollars in grant money for the writing of math texts that embraced them and to state boards of education whose math standards aligned with them (see Figure 1).
Not knowing about these significant events (all of them before last December’s release of the Program for International Student Assessment report ranking American 15-year-olds 24th out of 29 in math among industrial countries (see Figure 2)), I had no idea that our children were being deprived of a math education, thanks in no small part to a dubious education theory, watered-down standards, and a well-meaning but intellectually bankrupt federally subsidized program of math illiteracy.
What I did know was that my 9th grader didn’t know how to do proofs.

I looked through his textbook, one of whose authors was a recent president of NCTM, and I was surprised to find very few proofs of anything. More troubling, most theorems in the book were stated as postulates—that is, propositions stated without proof—and students were told to memorize them. The problems at the end of the chapter required students to do only a few simple proofs.
Proofs in geometry class have been a mainstay of mathematics. In fact, proofs were always considered an essential part of high school geometry, not only because of their importance in higher math, but because learning the rules of logical argument and reasoning has applications in science, law, political science, and writing. To see proofs being shortchanged in a geometry textbook was shocking.
Algebra texts were in no better condition, in terms of presentation and content—or, rather, their lack of content. Even if you accept the argument that geometry in general, and proofs in particular, are unnecessary for students to learn, at least algebra should be taught properly, since algebra is the common language of, and gateway to, all of higher math. The absence of clear explanation and logical development left students I later tutored in algebra as lost as my geometry student. Their textbooks (and, probably, their teachers too) encouraged them to use a graphing calculator. Operations with algebraic fractions, like a¼b + c¼d, were given little attention, to say nothing of quadratic equations, once the pinnacle of any first-year algebra course. Instead, the quadratic formula is presented for the students to memorize and apply—if it is even mentioned at all.
At the time I started tutoring, my daughter was in 2nd grade. I was concerned that she was not learning her addition and subtraction facts. Other parents we knew were saying the same thing. Teachers told them not to worry because kids eventually “get it.”
One teacher told me her understanding of the new method. “It used to be that if you missed a concept or method in math, then you were lost for the rest of the year. But the way we do it now, kids have a lot of ways to do things, like adding and subtracting, so that math topics from day to day aren’t dependent on kids’ mastering a previous lesson.”
In a world where it doesn’t matter when you learn something, because you’ll get it eventually, there seem to be few if any critical junctures, no mastery of procedure, no building on what you’ve learned—no learning.

The First One Was a Warning Shot

"The chief of Ukraine's security service said Saturday that the country's former interior minister, Yuri F. Kravchenko, had shot himself twice in the head on Friday, refuting speculation that he had been killed by someone else."--New York Times, March 6

The Times they are a'changin............White House admits 1st Blogger to White House Press briefing

As you have heard me repeatedly say, the blogosphere is the news dissemination system of the not too distant future. The MSM has rendered itself impotent. The press is prejudiced when they cannot distinguish the terrorist from the victim of terror. No longer will the L3 dictate what we think, or force feed our daily news diet. The internet/blogosphere is a global marketplace of news and information. The impact that the blogosphere cannot be understated. The American public will be able to choose their filter. With all the sweeping historical emerging movements turning on a daily basis in Lebanon, Syria, Morroco, Afghanistan, turn on the cable/network news and what do you get? Michael and Martha? What are these people thinking? I can smell the malodorous stench of rotting dinosaur flesh. And so, apparently, can the White House.

   

WASHINGTON -  With an official credential hanging from his neck, a young man stepped into the White House briefing room Monday as perhaps the first blogger to cover the daily press briefings. He found the surroundings to be dilapidated and cramped and concluded that his morning at the White House was "remarkably uneventful."    

   

         

AFP/File Photo

   

   

Garrett M. Graff, 23, writes Fishbowl D.C., a Web log about the news media in Washington. He decided to see if he could get a daily pass for a briefing after a recent controversy raised questions about White House access and who is a legitimate reporter.

 

Click here to review my previous posts regarding the changing of the media gods:   Onlsaught of the Blogosphere - Slay the Dragon, February 14th  The Great Blog Phenomenon - February,16th

From the Truth is Stranger than Fiction file: Israeli 'survivor' flower boasts cells in shape of Star of David

It's known as the ultimate survivor. It grows wild in Israel, thriving in the harsh dry conditions that would kill many other plants.

And what do the  cells of this hardy survivor - a native Israeli Persian buttercup - look like  under a microscope?

A Star of David.

"It really is symbolic," says Dr. Rina Kamenetsky, a researcher at Israel's Volcani Institute, who made the surprising discovery while trying to understand the survival mechanisms of this resilient bulb, known in Hebrew as nurit, and in Latin as Ranunculus asiaticus.

The flower from the Holy Land is also known in botanical circles as a type of 'resurrection plant' which, explains Kamenetsky, means that it can live without water, and is 'resurrected' when water becomes available.

Kamenetsky brought samples of the native Israeli type of this Mediterranean species to study during a sabbatical leave at the University of Guelph in Canada last year. She and her Canadian colleagues discovered that the storage roots of this particular Persian buttercup have a special mechanism for resisting drought and heat that is found in no other plant to date - a finding they published recently in the journal New Phytologist.

But Kamenetsky also found an additional surprise: under a microscope the cells of the root assume the form of interlocking Stars of David.

"When my Canadian colleague Professor Larry Peterson saw it, he called me over right away and said: 'Look, Rina: here's something especially for you.' I was truly amazed," she told ISRAEL21c.

It was the first time that Kamenetsky, a  leading floriculturist, had seen a Star of David pattern on the cells of any  plant.

It turns out that the cell walls of the storage roots of this  particular plant serve as a shield. In winter, when the first rain comes, the cell walls block the sudden influx of water which could cause the cells to burst. At the same time, they protect the cells from dehydration by absorbing water.

The cell walls that serve as a year-round shield also happen to look like a shield - the shield of David. Now how gosh darn wild is that? ONE FOR THE BOOKS ALRIGHT.

Blogger's Notebook, Academic Intergrity, PART I

Under heavy security akin to what one goes through to get on an El Al flight (really that tight), I made my way up to the third floor of the Uris Building at Columbia University for the conference on the Middle East and Academic Integrity on the American Campus.

Intimidation of students and anti-Israel bias have become a matter of public concern because of the recent film, Columbia Unbecoming. Considerable evidence suggests that abuses similar to those described in the film or worse are pervasive on campuses in the US and abroad. Students and professors who defend the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state are routinely silenced and harassed. So are those who bring up such topics as human rights in Darfur, honor killings and rights of religious and ethnic minorities in numerous countries.

One of the many lies perpetrated by the professors and staff of the Columbia MEALAC Department is that "Israel is an apartheid state". That Israel is not an apattheid state is obvious to any scholar. This is not a perspective guaranteed by laws of academic freedom, but extremely poor scholarship. It is libel. Over one and a quarter million Arabs live in Israel, have the right to vote in Israel and are represented by nine Knesset members, many of whom freely oppose Israel's existance through speeches and their media. This is not apartheid. Israeli Arabs attend the same universities as everyone else in Israel, receive the same medical care and have the same social benefits. This is not apartheid.

Israel is not an apartheid state, But MEALAC has become an Apartheid Department. Dissent is not allowed.

The Speakers
(from my scribbles and notes, forgive the stream of consciousness incongruities)

First to speak was Edward Beck, President, Scholars for Peace in the Middle East. Beck stressed the grass roots nature of this movement for Academic Integrity. "We are sending a message". As Beck so succinctly put it "PROPAGANDA AS A FORM OF SCHOLARSHIP IS UNACCEPTABLE.

Martin Gross (substituting for Susan Tuchman) of the ZOA Center for Law and Justice took the podium to advance ZOA's legal position on the Civil Rights Act extendiing to the funding of universities; And those universities that don't apply the Civil Rights Act to protect all their students will lose federal funding. ZOA is actively involved in reforming TITLE VI of the Higher Education funding act.

Next up New York congressman Anthony Weiner, whose politics I vehemently oppose but whose staunch support of and vocal opposition to the thug (my word) tactics of the oppressive MEALAC faculty members has made him an object of derision and scorn to those on the left. He is accused of stunting free speech ( he replies FREE SPEECH WITH RESPONSIBILTY) and interfering in campus affairs ("a blatant attempt to silence voices outside the university"). To which Weiner replies "when 12 people stand up and say 'I am afraid' it is no longer a theory but a truth. DEFACTO INTIMIDATION."

Laurie Zoloth, Professor of Medical Humanities and Bioethics and Professor of Religion at Northwestern University spoke next of the complex time for "social theory"and "hysterical rhetoric". A staunch and unapologetic liberal, Zoloth said "all moral action is a sort of publicity", (what a magnificent thought) and that "we must care about how ideas are made". She suffered her own alienation when teaching in California and was blown away by the "boycott of Israeli academics". Ms. Zoloth believes "even Republicans need to feel safe at Columbia" (unintended laughter from the audience).

Rachel Ehrenfeld was next and what a wealth of knowledge she carried around in that tiny body of hers. Authpr of "Funding Evil". Enrenfeld tells of the "promoting of JIHAD, always JIHAD at the expense of Academia. America's brightest minds are being indoctrinated without counter balance". She explains how Saudi Arabia spent 70 to 87 billion dollars on the spread of Wahhabism throughout the world since the late 1970s. Large amounts were spent in America (universities, Centers for Islamic Studies etc). The Saudis established the Middle East center at the University of Southern California and "extorted monies from American companies doing business in Saudi Arabia. NO ISRAEL - "international Outlaw". The next move by the Saudis was a center at Duke University to "balance" the west coast USC. Ehrenfeld's numbers were breathtaking. Saudi monies to universities were nothing short of obscene.....Cornell got 11 million, Georgetown received 8 million, Columbia 5 million among many others. It has become more difficult to identify the funding as now the Saudis give anonymously. And if all this wasnt eggregious enough, the US taxpayer "supplements with our tax dollars over 86 million dollars. "We are giving money [indirecty to the Saudis] to recruit and pay for the knives that will slit our throats". Room fell completely silent.

It was with this last threat that Natan Sharansky spoke via live feed from Milan. He said we must "walk the walk not just talk the talk for human rights". Sharansky took a tour of US campuses and spoke of an "increasing hostility". The Jewish students have to struggle to "remain proud jews". He spoke of an "atmosphere very strange at Columbia" like a "ghetto. Where they could only discuss this among themselves never outside. To have this struggle, here [ in the US ] is a very unpleasant feeling". Sharansky furthered "alot has been done by the Jewish students at Columbia University but they cannot do this by themselves. The cannot."
"Academic integrity should BASIC, INTRINSIC AND IMPORTANT"
"The press is prejudiced, when the press can't differentiate between terrorists and the victims of terror. "Propaganda and brainwashing instead of teaching the truth". Sharansky said "I know I lived it, but here? Suddenly our point of view, our history disappears. None of us can afford."
"RACHEL FISH SHOWED HOW ONE PERSON, ONE PERSON CAN MAKE ALL THE DIFFERENCE" She had no support, no money, but she reached public opinion. "if one girl can do it..............."

Natan Sharansky really gets it, he is unambiguous and wants to put it all put to his public square test............if a man can't go into the public square and shout what he feels without fear than he is not free. He says "the course we are struggling for must become very popular. We must make our course popular" In response to a question on how to turn the faculty(s) around, Sharansky replied "make the cause popular and the faculty will happily join us". [amen]

Bloggers notebook Part II, a "Landmark Event"

I am ashamed to say I was unfamilar with Phyllis Chesler's work before this conference but she was one of the most powerful speakers there. WOW. Author and feminist, Ms Chesler is Emerita Professor of Psychology and Wome' Studies and I've posted her website on my sidebar. Familiarize yourself with her work.
Chesler details the whole of the propaganda campaign. She explains how the Islamists have "hijacked the Jihad". When describing the impossible standards to which the Israelis hold themselves and the extremes to which the Israeli soldiers go to so as not to endanger Palistinian civilians (going without air cover in Jenin and losing 24 Israeli boys), Chesler is heckled by Pro-Palistinian inciters in the room. Inciters? Yes, these fools had the temerity to have their phones play music and walkie talkies go off (electronic white noise particularly when the spokesmen from Sudan, Dafur, Moratania spoke of the atrocities in their countries, but we'll get to that later). Anyway, this really big fool (true) starts heckling Chelser and the guy behind me gets up and starts making threats, I tell him not to feed this putz, that that ist exactly what this shmendrick wants but the tough guy behind me wants to beat him up (oy). I implore him to calm down, other people start hammering and they call the cops in........."anyone heckling or disrupting will be forced to leave". Things calm down and the guy behind hands me his card, East Coast Director, Connecticut State chairman of the Jewish Defense League (oy!) but he was strong and tough and I cannot lie I felt better with him sitting behind me.
Back to Chesler, a noted feminist and liberal, she has written several books but after she wrote the book that questioned the left's position on Israel and muslim women etc, her circuit froze her out. Shows and radio appearances she had made for 35 years refused her. She could not get her book reviewed.. Chesler explains passionately "the leading offender of "APARTHEID IS ISLAM" (wild applause). "Humilation of Palistinians at checkpoints? Not nearly as bad as killing a daughter for wanting to go to college, honor killings, and gential mutilation". What is happening is 'GENDER CLEANSING"..............Go to her site!

After is impassioned Chesler, the brilliant erudite Dr. Martin Kramer spoke via live feed. He called this a "landmark gathering". The author of Ivory Towers on Sand:the Failure of Middle Eastern Studies in America, Kramer was really the first to bring the crushing reality of academic perversion inot the light of day. He spoke of the "impact the Columbia crisis has had outside the campus". "Scholarship has taken a backseat to Advocacy". "Dissenting views are THOUGHT CRIMES". Kramer thought the great awakening on campuses would surely come after 9/11. But not so...........even after 9/11, the Higher Funding Act was passed with most of thos funds going to Middle Eastern studies.
Title VI attempted reform (to right the wrong as it were) of the Higher Education Funding Act by instituting a reviewboard/ panel.................it passed handily in the House, it languished and expired in the Senate due to opposition from Hillary Clinton [giant surprise, ugh] and Christopher Dodd [another shocker]. We must pass Title Vl. I (Atlas) urge all in the Blogoshere to do your homework and write your congressman urging passage. Back to Kramer, the change on campuses will take a "turnover in generations" because of tenure and how ingrained the mindset has become. It took years for this happen, it will take years to unravel it. KRAMER SAYS "BE POLITICALLY ACTIVE".

Charles Jacobs spoke. I think Jacobs is a very special, really one-o- a-kind man. Rand's ideal man as it were. He is the Founder of the American Anti-Slavery Group and the David Project. He is attempting to reform Middle East Studies and the Blackout of Oppressed Minorities. When everyone (and I mean everyone) turned Rachel Fishdown, Jacobs supported her, backed her, sponsored her (which is why Fish now works for the David Project). Jacobs is a human rights activist, helped found CAMERA, and underwrote COLUMBIA UNBECOMING. Need I say more? Jacobs says the "code of silence [on college campuses] is their omerta". It is "a campus of thought police" .............. and its not just a Jewish issue. Islamic arab governments oppress their non-muslim populations worldwide. Mr. Jacobs brought with him four elegant, gentlemen made of steel. Simon Dang, enslaved by Arabs in the Sudan, Farhoud Saleh from the Darfur region and two other gentlemen one from Moratania whose name I did not catch

Charles Jacobs with the contingency from "other Middle East"

Listening to their histories was harrowing. Simon Dang, enslaved by Arabs in the Sudan is a persecutated Christian. Slavery is commonplace among non-muslims. The Arab government
"declared JIHAD on Infidels. In my country BEING BLACK IS BEING A SLAVE. Sudan is an arab country, member of the Arab league. where hundreds of thousands of people are enslaved today. We are part of the Middle East even if geographicvally we are in Africa. Bin Laden established his terrorist network in the Sudan." Is it any surprise?
The man from Darfur was just as bare and stark. "In Darfur, 900,000 people have been slaughtered by genocide (since the onslaught in 1994)". The only people to come to our aid is the "jewish people. They have been the only ones, and they do all they can".

It was, for me, the moment - the moment will replay in my head again and again. I cannot forget those men, their stories, their faces. When I ran to grab a salad in a small commisary (inbetween speakers), Simon Dang came in. He had this incredible (giant) scar running across his forehead and I grabbed his hand and we both thanked each other(having never met) and we started to hug and I couldn't help but kiss his face again and again

I am gong to bed, well after 1 am NY time, we'll finish tomorrow with Dershowitz, Rachel Fish , Brigitte Gabriel et al.
Goodnight

Rachel Fish is the Cure or "Sunlight is the Best Disinfectant" Part lll

In a previously recorded speech, Alan Dershowitz spoke (February at Columbia.........which was (thankfully) covered by New York's next great newspaper The New York Sun.

The kind of hatred that one hears on campuses like Columbia, and let me say especially Columbia, is a barrier to peace," Mr. Dershowitz said. "They are encouraging the terrorists. They tell the terrorists you will have academic support even if you oppose the peace process."

At times he singled out for censure an assistant professor of modern Arab politics, Joseph Massad, who is accused of ordering one of his students to leave his classroom if she continued to deny Israel's alleged atrocities against Palestinian Arabs. Mr. Massad, who denies that the incident took place, is among dozens of Columbia professors who in 2003 called on the university to divest itself of financial holdings in companies that support Israel.

"Anybody who advocates for divesting only from the Jewish state ... at a time when Iraq was posing a great threat to the world, when Iran was posing great threats ... when China is oppressing million of Tibetans, when the Kurds are still denied independence and statehood, to single out only Israel for divestiture at that point in time cannot be explained by neutral political, even ideological consideration," Mr. Dershowitz said.

Mr. Massad, who argues that Israel is a racist state, has publicly urged Palestinian Arabs to continue their resistance against Israel and supports the creation of one binational state containing both Israel and the occupied territories.

"If you were a space alien from a distant planet and your spaceship landed at Columbia University, you wouldn't think necessarily that the reality is a two-state solution," Mr. Dershowitz said. "You would think there is another potential reality - the one-state solution, the secular national state of Palestine."

He said those at Columbia who advocate the end of a Jewish state as a solution to the Middle East conflict "deliberately ignore the lessons of history."

"I do not believe that those who advocate it genuinely believe that a one state solution would produce a secular bi-national state," Mr. Dershowitz said.

Mr. Dershowitz said he was struck by the reluctance on the part of faculty members at Columbia to demand publicly more intellectual diversity within the Middle East studies department. Such silence, he said, has turned the controversy at the university into a student-versus-teacher dispute.

"Having tenure means you have no excuse for not speaking out," Mr. Dershowitz said. "I'm appalled at how many professors at Columbia University privately support Israel, and privately support many of the students, but are publicly afraid to speak out."

 

Nat Hentoff, who now writes for the Washington Times (which I love) quoted Louis Brandeis ("the best Supreme Court judge there ever was") in saying "Sunlight is the best disinfectant. Say it plain, he excoriated. "what courage [his emphasis] these students had [in the film, Columbia Unbecoming). The have been instrumental in creating that very sunlight." [indeed].

Efraim Karsh, Professor and Head Mediterranean Studies Programme, Kings College, University of London is brilliant.....................rapid fire speech almost to self strangulation. Karsh explained that this is systemwide, university-wide, these "victims of intimidation". The problem is "if you throw Massad out, Massad will get another job so fast they will be lined up".

"Imperialism is not a 'western' concept, but an arab one. History bears this out...the Ottoman, Byzantine, Sassanid- all Arab empires (even before Rome)."

And yet in the "Middle East - the Arabs are always the victim" and to say anything else is "not a good career move".

Professor Karsh was most emphatic about the text(s) being fabricated and created without accurate footnoting, bibliographic innotations and nobody in academia seems to check or for that matter care. Careless mmedacious text(s) that are being used in the curriculum. This upset Karsh the most. As it is an affront to all that he he is and believes in......................truth, history and education - not indoctrination.

Karsh said he "was very pessimistic" [ugh] and didn't see the way out of it. I didn't footnote as well here. Regrettably. I was paying keen attention and his speech was furious and fast. I would recommend you study his work.

Rachel Fish, articulate, confident and strident spoke after Karsh. If you are unfamilar with her story..............click on her name for her OpEd piece in the WSJ June 2003. Here is a synopsis from the Globe but DO READ HER PIECE, A Troubling Gift.

Against the backdrop of Arab anti-Semitism - the most virulent Jew-hatred since the Hitler years - the closing of a single anti-Semitic institute in the Middle East barely registers as a blip on the screen. But it shows what can be achieved when one gutsy individual decides to push back against bigotry. The story begins in July 2000, when Harvard's Divinity School accepted $2.5 million from the ruler of the United Arab Emirates, Sheik Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan, to endow an academic chair, the Sheik Zayed Al Nahyan Professorship in Islamic Religious Studies. The sheik was also the funder and namesake of the Zayed Center for Coordination and Follow-up, a think tank established in 1999 in his capital, Abu Dhabi, one of the Arab world's leading arenas for anti-Jewish and anti-American poison.
Rachel Fish, an Islamic Studies student at the divinity school, set about researching the issue and in March took her evidence to the divinity school's dean, William Graham. Asking that Zayed's money be returned, she argued that Harvard would never accept money from a Ku Klux Klan financier. The hate funded by the sheik is no less abhorrent. An online petition urging the university to decline Zayed's money drew thousands of signatures. On Friday, Harvard announced that it would need another year to decide what to do about Sheik Zayed's money. (Boston Globe)

Rachel Fish is the cure. She spoke of her journey. Her lack of support from Dean Graham [*spit*], faculty, jewish students and muslim students....................as if she might listen and "let it pass". Not make waves..............she received support from only one organization Charles Jacobs, The David Project. And when the media called her regarding the 70+ page fact finding report behind Zayed's conditional donation, she immediatley called Graham (who, btw, had never gotten back to her in the promised 4 to 6 week time frame) asking him (his office) if he wanted to respond before the she commented to the press. She was met with complete silence.

Rachel Fish is the cure. I will say it over and over and over ..................... one person can change the world. She wanted to refuse her diploma but I think her parents nearly had a breakdown but hse acheived her objective. Zayed withdrew his pledge an the school sat on its hands.

Fish power pointing
Brigitte Gabriel tore into us after Fish and if you havent viewed her interview do it NOW (click)

Brigitte and Atlas (yo, thats me) comparing notes

Brigitte was impassioned. Extolling the virtues of Israel and the Jewish people, blessing them for saving her life. And excoriating world press for their lies and the truths that remain unspoken. Her interview says it all....................please see it.
The last speaker that I saw was Debbie Schlussel, syndicated columnist and attorney. I gotta tell you the women at this conference were the FORCE, the force to be reckoned with.
Schlussel represents many jewish students at University of Michigan in various legal suits regarding this very thing. What I found most compelling about her argument was Hillel on campus (particularly at Michigan but this appears to be nationwide) was an obstacle, a silencer. Apparently Mike Brookstone (?- I am sure I have his name wrong, didnt scribe it) the Head of Hillel at University of Michigan said "we should not call attention to these speakers. We don't want people to think this is an antisemetic campus". Yes yes the Biggest Enemy was Hillel. And if that weren't enough, one of the highest paid Hillel Directors? Yes, the University of Michigan who according to Schlussel hasn't woken up from his pot smoking, 60s hippie days
Scary eh?
Schlussel's two best parting shots? "Teach us how to think not what to think" and Bollinger, the man in the arena at Columbia (President) came from which campus? That's right, the University of Michigan. argh........................
At that point it was close to 5 and I had to bolt missing the last two speakers, I am sorry fellow bloggers but my butt was going to fall of as well.
On this I will tell you, yes a great deal needs to be done to cut the head of this snake. But in Sharansky's words the objective should be to "make our course [cause?- not sure which he said- same difference] popular" and on this I couldn't more vehemently agree. But it wont't be thru a media that "is prejudiced when it can't distinguish the terror from the victims of terror". Then from where you may ask? From where will it come?
It will come from here, my kind and wise fellows. It will come from here. From you.
The internet is the only way, our salvation. As it is still free so I ask you, implore you, beg you to SPREAD THE WORD and write your congressman in support of TITLE Vl Reform of the Higher Funding Act.

An epiphany at Columbia...........Too bad Columbia had so very little to do with it, ugh!

What a difference a day makes..........UNBELIEVABLE! What a tale to tell. I have a huge extensive post that I must work on but I will tell you that Charles Jacobs, Founder of the Anti-Slavery Group and The David Project is nothing short of an angel. Edward Beck that put it together, Phyllis Chesler (what a powerhouse despite the heckling), Dershowitz, Efraim Karsh (!) Nat Hentoff (who I now temporarily love), RACHEL FISH!!!!!!!!!, Briggitte Gabriel (click on interview on side bar) Debbie Schussel, columnist and and attorney...................these people are doing G-d's work, thanklessly and taking a heat..........POST TO FOLLOW
In the meantime, call your congressman and tell him to REFORM TITLE VI of the Higher Education funding

The Few and the Brave

Ex Slaves, Simon Dang and Fahoud Saleh (from Sudan and Dafur respectively), speak of the horrors and atrocities foisted upon all of non-muslims that refuse to "islamify"in those nations

Students in the film, COLUMBIA UNBECOMING, speak to us . Their "coming out" took incredible courage............

The Program for Middle East & Academic Integrity, March 5

Program Cover
Program

The Middle East & Academic Integrity on the American Campus Conference At Columbia University

Ok, Guys I am off to Columbia University for this day conFerence! I will report back later...............this conference should be wildly interesting. Scholars for Peace are webcasting it.............
Highlights:
NATAN SHARNSKY
MARTIN KRAMER
COLUMBIA UNBECOMING, the raw documentary of the academic antisemitism at Columiba
ALAN DERSHOWITZ
EDWARD BECK
RACHEL FISH
NAT HENTOFF (oy)
EFRAIM KARSH
MORTON KLEIN
JERRY NADLER (GIANT OY)
MARTIN PERETZ
and many other featured speakers. Not to worry, will be kicking butt and taking names.
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