Atlas Shrugs

IRAN FUNDS NAZIS IN EUROPE

It seems Ahmadinejad and his motley mullahs are taking history lessons from the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and Nazi Germany's Adolph Hitler;

Islamic regime finances Nazi groups in Europe

The Islamic regime has increased its financial help to several European Nazi and Far-Right groups, especially, in France, Germany and Austria. Thousands of Dollars and Euro have been already distributed in that line.

This policy intends to boost the regime's anti-Jewish propaganda and to show support of the regime's President and his denial of the Holocaust. It also targets the Iranian masses in an effort to persuade them on the validity of Ahmadinejad's claim which will look stronger with the presence of Europeans sharing his shameful view. hat tip: Asher

Iran to World Powers: FCUK OFF!

Security Council calls on Iran to halt uranium enrichment

Iran Defiantly Rejects New U.N. Demands

Now what fellas?

"The real problem is in the hearts and minds of men. It is not a problem of physics but of ethics. It is easier to denature plutonium than to denature the evil from the spirit of man." —Albert Einstein 

UPDATED: Iran Test-Fires Missile Able to Duck Radar

Iran's military said Friday it successfully test-fired a missile not detectable by radar that can use multiple warheads to hit several targets simultaneously, a development that raised concerns in the United States and Israel.

Iran's new missile shows it has an "aggressive" military program: US

UN Security Council Abets Iran's Nuclear Program
Ayn Rand Institute

IRVINE, CA--"The UN Security Council's call on Iran to halt its nuclear program will not stop Iran, but actually abet its pursuit of nuclear bombs," said Dr. Yaron Brook of the Ayn Rand Institute.

"It is absurd to think that any UN admonishment could derail the belligerent theocrats in Teheran. The Security Council's feeble statement gives them yet more time to continue building their bombs.

"This perverse gambit perpetuates the myth--inherent in the failed diplomatic efforts that preceded it--that Iran's leaders will listen to reason. But the ruling mullahs are religious mystics orchestrating a terrorist war on the West. To combat this avowedly irrational enemy we must retaliate by force. The time for military action against Iran is long since past."

Tigerhawk attended a roundtable on the Iran crisis at Princeton last night. Read it all here.

UPDATE April 2nd: Asher has new, rather frightening developments here

AP via Fox: ' Iran announced its second major new missile test within days, saying Sunday it has successfully fired a high-speed torpedo capable of destroying huge warships and submarines. The tests came during war games that Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards have been holding in the Gulf and the Arabian Sea since Friday at a time of increased tensions with the United States over Tehran's nuclear program. The Iranian-made torpedo — called the "Hoot," or "whale" — has a speed of 223 miles per hour, said Gen. Ali Fadavi, deputy head of the Revolutionary Guards' Navy. That would make it about three or four times faster than a normal torpedo and as fast as the world's known fastest, the Russian-made VA-111 Shkval, developed in 1995. It was not immediately known if the Hoot was based on the Shkval.' Reuters via Khaleej Times: 'Iran said on Sunday it had test fired what it described as the world’s fastest underwater missile during a week of war games in the Gulf, Iranian state television reported. “The world’s fastest underwater missile was successfully test fired on the third day of the ’Holy Prophet war games’,” state television reported in a caption without giving a source or details.' (various)

The Holzers' take on NYU and the Danish Cartoons

This was just sent to NYU President John Sexton. I strongly suggest you do the same.

My husband, Henry Mark Holzer, earned a BA from New York University and we both earned our Juris Doctor degrees at the law school in 1959.

We are ashamed of our connection with NYU because of your craven surrender regarding the Danish cartoons and the treatment accorded the Ayn Rand Institute panelists, as well as members of the public, all of whom courageously wished to discuss a serious and important issue like civilized human beings.

As it happens, my husband recently published a nationally syndicated column condemning the moral cowardice of the American press on this very subject, and now you have the “proud” distinction of being in the forefront of turning an institution of higher learning into a weapon of moral destruction—a renunciation of everything New York University purports to stand for.  (Professor Holzer’s article, “The Press Defaults on its Duty,” appears below in its entirety.)

Mirrors don’t lie, Mr. Sexton.  Every time you look in one, you will no longer see a man of principle.  Your capitulation on this matter is not some vague abstraction.  This is EVERY INDIVIDUAL’S constitutional right of free speech that you have helped undermine.  And in the name of what—or more precisely, whom?

Perhaps the collapse of the World Trade Center towers and the horrendous loss of life in your own city has become an abstraction too.

Erika Holzer

THE PRESS DEFAULTS ON ITS DUTY

Henry Mark Holzer

            Unfortunately, the recent spectacle of worldwide mindless Muslim riots—supposedly caused by a Danish newspaper’s publication of the Muhammad cartoons—has obscured a phenomenon even more dangerous to this nation than the rampages themselves: the capitulation of America’s free press, which almost universally has declined to publish any of the drawings.

            The issue is not that the press has a right to publish the cartoons.  That’s undeniable.  It’s Constitutional Law 101.

            No, the issue is the duty of the American press to publish the Muhammad cartoons.  It’s not a social or political duty, but rather a moral duty, rooted in the legacy of the Founders and the self-generated principle the press has wrapped itself in for over two hundred years: “the public’s right to know”—about such stories as the Pentagon Papers, Watergate, looting of Iraq’s museums, Abu Ghraib, NSA surveillance, alleged torture of terrorists, secret CIA prisons, and much more.

Indeed, it was the perceived moral duty of the press in service of the public’s right to know that brought us editorial cartoons like Joe McCarthy climbing out of a sewer carrying a bucket overflowing with slime, and of Richard Nixon dressed like a plumber.

            Now, in the matter of the Muhammad cartoons, virtually all of the American press has suddenly done an about face— in the name of “restraint,” “sensitivity,” “respect,” “tolerance,” and other out-of-context bromides.  Yet there was none of this, or any reluctance to “offend,” when the media showed a South Vietnamese policeman shooting a Vietcong killer in the head, or allowed Jews to be caricatured by making them look like Shylock, or depicted Christ immersed in urine, or in publishing other stories that were, certainly as to some members of the public, unrestrained, insensitive, disrespectful, intolerant, and, yes, even offensive.

            But then, the press had no reason to fear the South Vietnamese, the Jews, or the Catholics.  And therein lies the explanation of what has happened to the media in the United States.

The American press that has ignored the Muhammad cartoons—cognizant of the fatwas against Rushdie and others, the murder of van Gogh, the burning of diplomatic enclaves, and the rash of death threats—has cut and run for at least two reasons. 

One, much less important than the second, is that most journalists in America today believe, or at least purport to believe, in the “multiculturalism” gobbledygook that all cultures are equal, that they all deserve respect, etc. ad nauseam.

The more important reason is because they are cowards.  In capitulating to the irrational mob, the American press has done much worse than expose their hypocrisy, betray their European and domestic colleagues, and default on their moral duty as custodians of the First Amendment.  Much worse.

            The compliant American press has shamefully, and dangerously, reinforced the belief of Osama bin Laden and his minions that—like Nixon’s pullout from Vietnam, Reagan’s retreat from Beruit, Clinton’s flight from Somalia, and Bush 41’s failure of will in the Gulf War—Americans can’t take casualties.

            Now, despite the sagacity of the Founders and the many First Amendment battles to keep America’s press free, the guardians of that legacy have left the field—not because of atual harm to them (which, had it occurred, they should have proudly accepted and soldiered on), but because of the mere risk of danger.  They have capitulated to mere threats from political zealots who worship nihilism, and who in millennia have contributed little to the civilized world but hatred, destruction, and death.

                         Throughout American history, the principal enemy of a free press has been government.  Now, sadly, it is the press itself.

The Evil of The Islamic Society of Boston Unleashed

Breaking news on the corrupt and dangerous Islamic Society of Boston. Dirty dealings and lawsuits to those that dare expose and question their illegal actions here;

*New* Recently disclosed Boston Redevelopment Authority ("BRA") documents.

The following recently disclosed Boston Redevelopment Authority ("BRA") documents were the subject of the March 4, 2006 Boston Globe article entitled "Aide's role in mosque deal eyed":

1. March 29, 2000 document signed by Muhammed Ali Salaam, Deputy Director for Planning at the BRA, stating that the estimated fair market value of the public land to be transferred to the Islamic Society of Boston was $2,010,966.
2. August 2000 Agreement between the BRA and the Islamic Society stipulating that the fair market value of the land would be treated as $401,000, and that the land would be transferred to the Islamic Society for $175,000, as well as the Islamic Society's agreement to fundraise for the Roxbury Community College Foundation and establish a lecture series and library on Islamic issues.
3. December, 1999 Request by the Islamic Society that Mr. Ali Salaam, a BRA official with responsibility for overseeing the Islamic Society's proposal to the BRA to obtain public land, travel to the Middle East for 10 days as a "governmental representative" in order to assist the Islamic Society with its fundraising effort. The Islamic Society agrees to pay for Mr. Ali Salaam's trip to the Middle East to assist in this effort.
4. January, 2000 Approval by the BRA retroactively approving Mr. Ali Salaam's trip to the Middle East to assist in the fundraising effort in the United Arab Emirates, and reflects that his airfare will be paid by the Islamic Society. The documents do not reflect who if anyone paid for Mr. Ali Salaam's lodging, travel, food and entertainment during the approximately 10 days that he was in the Middle East assisting in the fundraising effort.
5. February 2000 Islamic Society newsletter highlighting the Islamic Society's "Overseas Fundraising Efforts", and stating that Mr. Ali Salaam "worked hard during Ramadan to solicit funds from overseas", and that he was one of the Islamic Society's representatives who "took on" fundraising in certain Middle Eastern countries.
6. December 9, 2000 letter written on official BRA stationery, signed by Mr. Ali Salaam and signed as well by two Islamic Society officials with no position at the BRA, conveying $10,000 in Islamic Society funds to the Roxbury Community College to the President of the Roxbury Community College, and asking that the contribution be kept "anonymous".
7. February 26, 1999 Confidential Memorandum from Mr. Ali Salaam to the Board of Directors of the Islamic Society, counseling the Board on ways of obtaining favorable review of the Islamic Society proposal to the BRA; "as long as the City feels we [are] working cooperatively and making measured progress, then they will continue to work with us."
8. February 26, 1999 Confidential Memorandum from Mr. Ali Salaam to the Board of Directors of the Islamic Society, counseling the Board on ways of obtaining favorable review of the Islamic Society proposal to the BRA; "as long as the City feels we [are] working cooperatively and making measured progress, then they will continue to work with us."
9. May 5, 1999 letter written by Mr. Ali Salaam on BRA stationery to a potential contractor for the Islamic Society of Boston, referred to by Mr. Ali Salaam as "the Client", and, on behalf of the Islamic Society, instructing the contractor to revise its bid to do work for the Islamic Society and to submit the revised bid to Mr. Ali Salaam.

• *New* Recently disclosed Boston Redevelopment Authority ("BRA") documents.
• *New* City Councilor calls for new hearings on local mosque
• *New* Mosque changes from unity sign to dividing force
• *New* Mosque Meltdown
• *New* Gang of Barbarians
• *New* Sincerity of ISB questioned as they expand lawsuit

Read it all, this is your future.
Previous Islamic Society of Boston posts:
Atlas Shrugs: Islamic Society of Boston in bed with Al Qaeda

Radical Islams Attacks on American Isntitutions: The David Project nder Siege by the Islamic Society of Boston

Islamic Society of Boston Sues Muslim Scholar for Exposing Hate in Mosque

Dirtiest Deal: Mosque and State

INTERNET JIHAD: MY SITE IS BEING BLOCKED

This is the third email I have received like this in as many days..........XEROX has blocked me as well.

This page (http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/) has been classified as a Extreme site and has been blocked per RC-EB-POL-002, Use and Monitoring of Computing Resources.

If you feel that this is in error, please contact the Helpdesk at (VPN) 

http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/

Please help me fight for free speech and truth telling. We can not let the left shut out the truth tellers. Please let mw know where I have been blocked and ask that Atlas Be unblocked. Anyone with any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
INTERNET JIHAD!

UPDATE: Another reader writes: "Add Pfizer to the list of companies that have blocked your web site."

What is happening? As an American am I not free to think? Having an opinion is suddenly a crime?

Last week a Marine in Iraq wrote to tell me some leftard blocked my site from the USMC (Marines) in Iraq. Imagine that! I love, support, admire, would kill for our guys over there. Whoever blocked my site in Iraq must have been in cahoots with those shitheads in Centcom that gave classified military strategy secrets to the Russians Who were those guys that put our soldiers and military campaign in harms way?

UPDATE: Are American Companies Aiding Islam? Because it sure looks that way...

UPDATE: One small step for Atlas, one giant step for free speech (or vice versa);

Hi,

Thank you for bringing this error to our attention.

The categorization of this URL will be corrected as Politics/Opinion.

The control list with the correction stated above will be available for download from our ftp server on 04/01/06. We are sorry for any inconvenience because of this site being incorrectly categorized.

Thank you.

SmartFilter Sites
Secure Computing Corporation

UPDATE: Muslim students wage Web war

Radical Islam's Internet Jihad

They are going after the net. But you knew this was coming. The internet, the only place to get a handle on what is really happening in the world, will be under constant siege for some time. Buck up cyberfiends.

The jihadi operatives in this country have a smear campaign against the most valued source of intel MEMRI- see my piece here.

This is another front on the war the Radical Islamists have declared on the West. And it is as important as the campaign in Iraq and just as critical to victory over the savages, this I assure you.

"Ya Mohammed" Website Hosted in the U.S.: A Part of the Internet Jihad here

In an interview with the political reporter of the Iranian News Agency Mehr, one of the managers of the Ya Mohammed website said that the site was launched as part of the "Internet Jihad to fight against the front of blasphemy" and "as a broad protest against the insults of the Western media."

It should be noted that the site is registered and operated by proxy in the U.S.(1) The following are excerpts from the Mehr report:(2)

An Effort to Block the Plots of the Western Internet Media

"...One of the managers of the Ya Mohammed site said: 'To date, 36,000 people have participated in the website poll, and 96% of them want to continue the Internet protests against the insults of the Western media, in an effort to prevent the repetition of such ugly conduct.'

"It should be noted that waves of protests swept over various countries throughout the world following the insults to the prophet of Islam by the Danish newspaper and various other Western newspapers. This protest has reached the Internet as well, and the Muslims are making efforts to block the influence and plots of the Western Internet media.

"Towards this goal, various Muslim students from universities worldwide have launched the Ya Mohammed website, as a broad protest against the Western media’s insult..., [focusing] especially on the Google search engine. You can reach the above-mentioned site [Ya Mohammed here . ]

"This site has now started [to operate] in six languages - Persian, Arabic, English, Italian, French and Spanish - and has the latest news and issues concerning Islam.... The site manager said that the site would soon begin to operate in Urdu, Russian, and Chinese.

"Every Internet user can write his e-mail address and subscribe to the site...

"The site manager said he has asked other Internet users, who themselves have websites or weblogs, to provide a link to the Ya Mohammed site. So far, more than 1,100 sites and weblogs have given such a link, but for those concerned with this matter, this number is not sufficient for an Internet Jihad to fight against the front of blasphemy...

"In response to the question why the protest against the inhumane and irreligious attitudes of several European papers still continues, he said: 'The people who raise such a question are uninformed about the Internet front, and they do not realize that the enemies of Islam have shifted the war front. After placing the cartoons in the papers, they have begun to expand the scope of the war, on a daily basis, into the arenas of 'legal websites'..."

New York Times: Crack-Whore for Sudan

Sudan: Aid Worker Fears 'Disaster of Biblical Proportions' in Darfur

How disgusting is The New York Slimes? Beyond contempt I tell you.

N.Y. Times Probed on Sudan Ad Insert
The State Department is investigating to see whether The New York Times violated American sanctions against Sudan by publishing an advertising supplement touting investment in the country

How could they accept this money from a Radical Islamic government committing the most heinous genocide, human trafficking, rape, the list of evil is endless.

he Times has caught the attention of the State Department, but not in the way that the newspaper had hoped.

"We are currently examining the [8 page] advertising supplement," Erin Tariot, a spokeswoman for the State Department, told the Forward. "We are looking into it in regards to our own policies with respect to the U.S. sanctions regime against Sudan."

The issue was not the ad's content, but the financial transaction.

Unconscionable.

Rally for Darfur - Washington, D.C. - April 30, 2006
Tell President Bush to protect the people of Darfur I am writing to ask you to help stop genocide and save the people of Darfur. Send President Bush a clear message that American Jews will not stand idly by and watch the first genocide of the 21st century unfold. As a result of our work and the work of activists around the world, change is slowly starting to happen. President Bush, Congress and the UN have begun to make specific overtures to address the ongoing rape, murder and violence in Darfur. While this change in rhetoric is a step in the right direction, the fact remains that there is still no resolve and no commitment from the United States to send troops to the area, no timetable for action and no mandate for civilian protection. In short, although words are encouraging, they are useless without substantive action. That's where you come in. Together, we can help turn words into action. Here's how: Sign the Million Voices for Darfur Postcard: Join the national campaign to send one million postcards to President Bush, urging him to support a stronger multinational force to protect the people of Darfur. Come to the April 30 Rally in Washington: Be part of the national rally against the genocide in Darfur. Pledge to be there. Tell your friends: Please ask three friends and family members to sign the postcard and attend the rally. We must stop genocide - because we can.

Victory for Academic Freedom

The intellectual corruption of our universities by political radicals has been proceeding without interruption since the Vietnam War. This political movement in the academic world didn’t get into high gear until the 1980s, when the Sixties generation attained tenure rank and with it institutional power in the universities. But it has now become a pervasive and destructive fact of our national life. Entire academic departments and fields are no longer devoted to scholarly pursuits, but have become ideological training and recruitment centers for radical causes.

Educational institutions are the cornerstones of our democracy.This is particularly so in the present historical juncture when we are engaged in a war with totalitarian enemies that seek to destroy us. Teaching the next generations the principles of our system, and developing in them the ability to reason and think for themselves are agendas crucial to the health and survival of our nation. This knowledge and these abilities are the fundamental prerequisites of a democratic culture. And they are in danger in our country today. David Horowitz

The father of the Academic Bill of Rights David Horowitz, the president of the Center for the Study of Popular Culture, brought the issue of academic integrity to Jack Kingston a few years ago and has really put the ball in play on this issue.

[...] the Young America's Foundation noted that John Daly, a professor at the Warren County Community College sent a threatening email to a student promising "to expose her right-wing, anti-people politics until groups like [hers] won't dare show their face on a college campus." As if that wasn't enough, Daly continued by saying that "Real freedom will come when soldiers in Iraq turn their guns on their superiors."

In fact, a study of liberals and conservatives on college campuses found that the overall ratio of Democrats to Republicans at the 32 schools studied was more than 10 to 1 (1397 Democrats, 134 Republicans).

The learning environment on campuses throughout America is not fair and balanced.

Today, I'm pleased to report that Congress went on record to support legislation containing the Academic Bill of Rights, which will help level the ideological playing field and take the personal politics of liberal professors out of the classroom.

That bill, the College Access & Opportunity Act (H.R. 609), passed the House of Representatives yesterday afternoon by a vote of 221-199. I was proud to support it.

Though today's victory is sweet, the road to get here has required a number of key players.

Continue reading the full post.

Majority Leader Boehner wrote a must-read editorial on the importance of the Academic Bill of Rights which gives the history of the legislation and lays out a strong case for why we need it NOW.

Another very good thing. Very good indeedy.

Rightalk.com to Live Webcast David Horowitz/Ward Churchill Debate on April 6 PR Web, On April 6 2006, Rightalk.com will webcast LIVE a debate on “Can Politics Be Taken Out Of The Classroom, and Should It Be?” between David Horowitz and University of Colorado-Boulder Professor Ward Churchill at George Washington University. Following on April 7 Rightalk.com will also webcast live the first Students For Academic Freedom Conference at the Washington Court Hotel.

Parents Must Recognized the Ideological Cost of Higher Education

 

France Riot Intifada: Partie Deux

Asinine Pic of the Week and BTW the mainstream media can't get enough of this faux flower girl's bullshit (an obvious  knock-off of the metrosexual - photo right). Hey flowerchild, want calm and "peace", stop rioting and running roughshod over your country.

They're rioting in France, again. Gluttons for punishment. If they put as much effort into their work, lives, country, economy as the put into the fight to get something for nothing.......

The Marquis De Sade was french, right? Makes sense. Torturers.

France moves ahead with disputed labor law leaving President Jacques Chirac to sign it and spark more street protests or risk losing his prime minister by withdrawing it. Yeah, it's all in Chirac's webbed hands, talk about sending in the clown.

"Waiting for Chirac," read the headline in the daily La Croix.

"He only has one shot and if he misses, I don't know where we're going," Le Figaro newspaper quoted a Chirac aide as saying. "There is no good solution, we have to pick the least bad."

Unions warned Chirac against promulgating the law.

"That would be a decision with serious consequences," said Bernard Thibault, head of the pro-communist CGT union. More on these thugs here.

French unions and students promised more days of nationwide strikes and protests next week to demand the scrapping of a youth jobs law. They want job guarantees. What next? Businesses will demand profit guarantees? Evasion of bankruptcy guarantees?

It is insane.

I am surprised Chirac is not ripping this girl and her sign to shreds in pursuit of his war against English. ANGLAIS! NON! (The mime thing is sooooo over)

Mainstream media keeps silent on the wilding Muslims.
See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.

But now he's home....

So great. Read the whole story over at Hewitt

The long hard kiss, yowser. Hat tip: Jeremiah. Thanks, these stories are my favorites.
BTW Hugh Hewitt was great last night on FOX. Caught the replay at 2am.

Good intel over at MEMRI on the latest developments in Iraq;

Iraqi Reformist MP Sayyed Ayad Jamal al-Din on Current Iraqi Issues*

Sayyed Ayad Raouf Jamal al-Din was elected, on December 15, 2005, a member of Iraqi Parliament on the Iraqiyah list headed by former prime minister Dr. Ayad Alawi. He is a distinguished religious scholar persistently calling for the separation of religion and state. During the first meeting organized by the Iraqi opposition to Saddam, held in Nasiriyah in April 15, 2003, Sayyed Ayad declared: "In defense of religion, I call for secularism... The Holy Koran has been hijacked by the state for a long time, and it is incumbent upon us to save religion from the grip of the state."(1)

The Protocols of Zion: HATE IS CONTAGIOUS

Over at my favorite (my only) Frenchman, No Pasaran, he posts on the film that turns the lens on the people who put the "crack" in "crackpot" here. hat tip tom p

Jill Carroll: Hostage or House Guest?

I just saw Jill Carroll's only interview since her "release" where she spoke glowingly of her "captors." She had tons to eat, was never threatened, could shower when she wanted, apparently she wanted for nothing.   (Watch Carroll describe life as a hostage, including eating, showering and TV -- 2:27)

"I was treated very well. That's important people know that. That I was not harmed. They never said they would hit me. Never threatened in any way."

She also looks like she put on a fast 20 lbs.

So then she wasn't kidnapped, right? My Pet Jawa has been following this story all along. They've got  the 411.

UPDATE: Like I said. Freed US hostage says Iraq insurgents 'will win:' video. Does anyone else see parallels between Shill Carroll and Giuliana Sgrena ? Her driver was killed too bt that's just the beginning of the similarities.

UPDATE: Jill Carroll has recanted here. Color me skeptical.

I also gave a TV interview to the Iraqi Islamic Party shortly after my release. The party had promised me the interview would never be broadcast or aired on television, and they broke their word.

Huh? So who was the video for? WTF?

UPDATE April 7: Debbie Schlussel has the 411 here, there is more, much more than meets the eye (isn't there always?)

Jews on the Front Lines Everywhere

Jews in the Diaspora. Some are more fortunate (America) then others  (below). I received this from my email group in the UK;

Hi everyone.

Betar now has a weekly Krav Maga session, the numbers are growing but there is still space for more. Learning  self defence is of vital importance for the young Jewish community of London, as Jews are increasingly the target for attacks

Pathetic, really.

NYU: The Danish Cartoons without The Danish Cartoons

"The most famous, news making cartoons in history" Greg Lukianoff

NYU's administration limited attendance to 75 non-NYU guests (out of 150 already registered to attend). So I got there early as only the first to arrive would be let in (or so they told me) The cartoons were NOT  displayed (see the announcement below).

In order to allow entry to non-NYU guests, the student organization sponsoring this event has been forced by NYU administrators to NOT display the Danish cartoons. The panel discussion on free speech will nevertheless proceed as planned.

The Objectivist club: explained "we decided it was more important to have some people in the hall  to hear the ideas." Muslim students cheered the decision to pull the images.

In continuing attempts to  sabotage the event, Islamic students secured a  large number of tickets and then destroyed them.

I made it downtown early and a kind sweet fellow Objectivist, RB,  promised to save me a seat. Upon my arrival, there was one lone free speech demonstrator with roughly 25 Islamic students mulling around across the street handing out flyers on "intolerance". Whoa, the irony. Strong police presence.

No media save one FOX cameraman and reporter and while I spoke to them, I am sure they won't run what I said. When asked about the toons I said "Why hasn't FOX run the Danish cartoons?, Why has FOX submitted to dhimmitude? This is America! " Like I said, don't expect to see it anytime soon.

The panel the Ayn Rand Institute assembled were articulate, bright, knowledgeable, rational - Dr. Bostom was particularly brilliant, an Islamic historian who could recite passages from the Koran cold and  quotedm extensively from noted scholar Bat Ye'or.

But I have to tell you, the moment that spoke the loudest, that was at the very heart of the controversy, was the intense security and security check. The whole nine yards, bags searched, cops, metal detectors............the whole megillah And after I snapped this pic, the police boomed, "NO PICS!" No pictures, no audio taping , no video...........

The Panel

The panelists sat in front of easels with black canvasses 

Peter Schwartz, former chairman of the Board of Directors of the Ayn Rand Institute and author of The Foreign Policy of Self-Interest: A Moral Ideal for America. Schwartz made some salient  points but he was so apoplectic over the rise of the religious right I had to turn him off at points. Equating the power of the religious right with the rabid left was moral equivalence and just plain wrong. They have not taken over the Republican party the way the far left has hijacked the Democratic party platform. Schwartz was a raving atheist, unforgiving of religion.

Greg Lukianoff, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education; Lukianoff was superb taking to task  the group of Muslims in the back holding a ginormous banner that said FREEDOM OF SPEECH IS FREEDOM TO HATE. He challenged them to consider what they were saying and what they were professing could easily be turned around to work against them. But the crew that was there was beyond reason. Waste of precious breath. “If you make it through four years of college and haven’t had your deepest beliefs questioned, ask for your money back” and accused the university of allowing a “heckler’s veto.”

NYU Surrenders to the Heckler’s Veto in Mohammed Cartoon Dispute

Andrew Bostom, author of The Legacy of Jihad: Islamic Holy War and the Fate of Non-Muslims; and I will buy Bostom's book, you should too.. He is brilliant. In explaining the religion of peace, he said yes it's a religion of peace but only after the world is pax islamica...meaning , yeah it's a religion of peace only  after they take over the world.

Jonathan Leaf, New York Press editor who resigned over his paper’s decision not to publish the Danish cartoons. Yes this is the guy that resigned. He was clear. Concise. 

Listen, they were all good. It was painful to watch reasonable men arguing for a fundamental individual right. It was an indication of  how far we have fallen.

What was of considerable concern was these cartoons were the most famous in history. These were news making cartoons. People died, embassies burned, thousands rioted and the mainstream media refused to run them. Panelists pointed to the hypocrisy of The New York Times' claim of sensitivity but  had no problem running photos of the Virgin Mary surrounded by small vaginas and covered with elephant dung. The mainstream media has no problem running items  that are offensive to people they do not fear. Apparently, the New York Sun still has had a constant police presence at their headquarters (they ran the cartoons a few weeks back.)

You could see these men were stunned  by the absence of the cartoons on the podium. They could not ingest the censure by the university, what one was a bastion of free thinking and free speech, campuses across the country have taken on a group think collectivist mentality.  The panel answered as many questions from the audience (roughly 125 people) that time would allow. Of all the questions submitted, they answered almost all of the hostile ones.

The Islamic students demanded to know why their side was not represented on the panel to which Kara, the Objectivist club organizer that put this baby together, said "numerous inquiries were made. I contacted at last 15 Islamic societies, professors et al and no one would come."

My favorite question was the  guy sitting next to me who was told he had to remove his Muhammad bomber tee shirt. "Why did I have to remove my tee shirt while the Islamic students can hold that enormous banner that deeply offends me?" It was rich. Lukianoff responded, "you are 100% right, come see me after the program I'll take your case." heh. Even sweeter, this same guy recognized me from my "infidel babe of the week" stint. heh heh.

The banned tee shirt took on a life of its own  when a bit later an audience meber  wanted to know what was so offensive about my neighbor's tee shirt. Suddenly, seemingly  from out of nowhere, this guy pops up, rips open his button down and rebel yells "this is the tee shirt, here is the tee shirt. Lo and behold, the man was wearing the mo bomber tee surreptitiously.

About halfway through the program a group of Islamic students all got up and walked out. Their only contribution was to glare hard at anyone that clapped enthusiastically. The girls in the back wore the full metal jacket - headgear , covered from head to toe.

The crowd was mostly non NYU so the Objectivists Club really had no choice, if they displayed the cartoons, none of us from the general population could have attended. As for NYU, I understand their security concerns but in some things you must take a stand.

Four blank pedestals were displayed  behind the speakers to symbolize what one member of NYU’s Objectivist Club, Ryan Puzycki, called “a hijab on free speech.”

What I found  most notable in the evening was that such an evening is necessary. Necessary and dangerous. Boiling it all down to its essential oils, this is the gotcha moment.

Like I said to the FOX reporter, "this is America!" I should have exchanged the exclamation point with a question mark.

Borders, Waldenbooks Won't Carry Magazine AP
Borders and Waldenbooks stores will not stock the April-May issue of Free Inquiry magazine because it contains cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that provoked deadly protests among Muslims in several countries.

Imagine that, book stores self censoring ..........Fahrenheit 451

UPDATE: From the "soooo outta hand" Dept:

Danish Muslims sue newspaper that printed prophet cartoons
A group of 27 Danish Muslim organizations have filed a defamation lawsuit against the newspaper that first published the carricatures of Islam's Prophet Muhammad, their lawyer said Thursday. The lawsuit was filed Wednesday, two weeks after Denmark's top prosecutor declined to press criminal charges, saying the drawings that sparked a firestorm in the Muslim world  did not violate laws against racism or blasphemy. d'oh

Good move. If you can't baffle them with bullshit, force them into bankruptcy defending frivolous lawsuits. Oh and BTW, when did Islam become a race? I thought it was a religion?

Protein Jeff reports that the Western Standard and Jyllands-Posten are being sued for re-printing the images:

One thing is clear here: in their haste to show their intolerance of the supposedly “intolerant” dissemination of information, the [Alberta Human Rights] Commission has provided interest groups with the incentive to file suits as a way to prevent other criticisms; because the financial burden of having to pay for the right of free speech necessarily acts as a material check on such speech.

In other words, free speech isn't free. Which is why the Western Standard has to do this.

UPDATE: Craig sent me this all important contact information for the dhimmis over at the self censoring bookstore here. Write these pods and tell them what you think of their policy! Craig you rock!

Anne Roman at 734-477-1392 or aroman@bordersgroupinc.com

Beth Bingham at 734-477-4457 or bbingham@bordersgroupinc.com

Holley Stein at 734-477-1224 or hstein1@bordersgroupinc.com

BTW, TYPEPAD keeps rendering my cartoon images as "unavailable". It's them, not me. Dhimmis dhimmis everywhere.

UPDATE: Bidinotto, the first publisher of a Danish cartoon magazine cover, has written an Open Letter to Borders Books about their capitulation to Muslim intimidation here.

"Your company's craven policy of capitulation in the face of the mere hypothetical threat of terrorism is absolutely appalling -- a complete moral abdication that only encourages those threatening our rights and liberties.

I am a writer, and the editor of The New Individualist, a news and cultural magazine. In fact, to the best of my knowledge, I am the first editor in the nation to dare to print one of those "offensive" cartoons of Muhammad right on the cover of our Winter 2006 issue. I therefore have no doubt that our magazine, which is still available only by subscription, would have been banned by Borders, too.

Let me be clear: I did not publish the cartoon to offend Muslims. I did so as a profound matter of principle: to stand up to those who are trying to annihilate our First Amendment rights. I did so because here, in America, nobody can be permitted to get away with coercion and intimidation against anyone's freedom to write and speak and publish. I did so because I learned many years ago, as a child on school playgrounds, that when you surrender to bullies, you grant them dictatorial power over your life. " Read it all

UPDATE: It gets better. The Ayn Rand Institute issues a statement. Read it.

NYU Caves in To Muslims' Pressure

CYNTHIA MCKINNEY: Everything that's wrong with the Democratic Party

............is in the following news item;

According to sources on Capitol Hill, U.S. Representative Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) punched a Capitol police officer on Wednesday afternoon after he mistakenly pursued her for failing to pass through a metal detector.

Members of Congress are not required to pass through metal detectors.

Sources say that the officer was at a position in the Longworth House Office Building, and neither recognized McKinney, nor saw her credentials as she went around the metal detector.

The officer called out, “Ma’am, Ma’am,” and walked after her in an attempt to stop her. When he caught McKinney, he grabbed her by the arm.

Witnesses say McKinney pulled her arm away, and with her cell phone in hand, punched the officer in the chest. Hat tip Hugh G

McKinney’s office has not responded to requests for comment.

Hey, Rule Of Law, bee-yatch!

Liberal Democrat's Satanic Overlord - How the Democratic Party has sold its soul for power, and in turn attacks everything that holds a country and a culture together.  The Democrats now actively and openly fight against the spread of sexually transmitted disease, teen pregnancy, drug abuse and suicide.  Meanwhile, with massive events, such as 25,000 students showing up to engage in the culture war, the media is virtually silent. More here

Hey Dud! Where's my country? - It's the Carnival of the Clueless

UPDATE March 31: And speaking of Bad Girls Behaving Brutally.

Naomi Campbell hurls cell phone at maid's head. NAOMI'S RAMPAGE - MODEL BLOODIES MAID IN ATTACK - Check this out;

Naomi's Rampage

Campbell confronted Scolavino and became enraged when told the maid had no idea where the jeans were because they were not kept in her work area, Scolavino said.

-MS. MEAN JEANS: Naomi Campbell, cuffs covered by a poncho, catwalks yesterday to her arraignment, where she was accused of bashing maid Ana Scolavino.  Blood stains the collar of the work coat a maid was wearing when Naomi Campbell allegedly struck her.

[Naomi Campbell] hired [Ana Scolavino], a native of Chile married to an American, to be one of four maids - two for each floor of her duplex apartment. Scolavino said she sometimes worked up to 14 hours a day - and got no overtime pay.

Could you imagine if these women were white and their victims were black. Holy Batdung! The left were be rabid. We are talking grand mal seizures.

There appears to be a real lack of strong role models. Condi?

 

Hamas Holds Israeli's Dhimmitude in Contempt

How appropriate - coming to us from Hades

Hamas: Israeli policies remain hostile

KHARTOUM, Sudan — The militant group Hamas on Wednesday dismissed Israel's election results as another face of Israeli policy designed to eliminate the Palestinian issue, while other Arabs warned the Jewish state about taking unilateral action.

Hamas Government Approved, Vows to Fight Israel - Nidal al-Mughrabi
"We cannot recognize Israel," Hamas' newly-approved Minister of Information, Youssef Rizka, told one cheering crowd in Gaza. "The land of Palestine is ours and not for the Jews."

What a joke.The Israelis never learn. I can't imagine what they were thinking but they have to live there and its their security that is at stake. It reeks of a Gore victory after 9/11.

I've been conversing with Doc Nancy and she writes;

The answer is that Israel is infected with the same disease (liberalism) as the US and most countries of the world. It bespoils everything it touches.

We spoke in the past of my concern for Israel's coalition government. I believe there has been a change in its structure in the last generation. It has become clear in recent years that no party leader is able to truly lead because he never has a mandate due to this. To me, this is the real story. And furthermore, by conventional wisdoms' definition, winning 29-32 seats does not a mandate make.

This is fascinating: Graphic (bottom left) shows projected results of Israel's parliamentary election.

If you collect all of the fractious right thinking votes, you get a lot more than 11 seats. The imperiled Sharon who created Kadima was responding to this coalition difficulty, but he never wanted to create a party Peres would approve of. Kadima seems to be much more leftward than he planned. Sharon and Netanyahu were on the same side for years, even competitors in their own party, that's why Bibi said we're "shattered" but the press acts like they were never on the same side. I could study this graph for hours, but I really feel they need to fix their governmental structure becaue what they need most is basically a TWO PARTY SYSTEM, a system that forces people to commit to a side and let the leader lead. THE ABOVE SORT OF LOOKS LIKE A REPEAT OF PEROT!

And lord knows without Perot there would have been no Bill Clinton - what a wonderful world it would be.

But seriously, the doc hits on the key problem. Israel needs an electoral college. Their system is broken, wherein after every election the tyranny of the minority kicks in.

Kadima won an underwhelming victory. Kadima received 28 seats, significantly fewer than predicted. Only once before in Israeli history has a smaller party formed a government - in 1999 - and it lasted only 18 months.

Lots of excuses being made for Likud's abysmal showing. Here is MK Uzi Landau, #14 on the Likud list

Another reason for the Likud's failure, Landau feels, involved the economic reforms led by party leader Binyamin Netanyahu when he served as Finance Minister. "What we were unfairly punished for was the economic policy," Landau said. "People told us that because their pensions decreased, they wouldn't vote for us." The Pensioners' Party in fact scored a totally unexpected success, jumping from oblivion to 7 Knesset seats.

Landau also blamed the media to a certain extent. "Look," he said, "I ran against Bibi [Netanyahu] for party leader, and I have some criticism of him - but what was done to him by some of the media, especially Channel Two and Yediot Acharonot, was simply a targeted killing. I believe the media should perform a self-reckoning of its role in the campaign; it did not act like the watchdog of democracy it is supposed to be."

Frankly, I am not buying it. The fact that the turnout was the lowest in Israeli history is counter intuitive. This, after Hamas, whose mission statement is to destroy Israel,  got elected? What am I missing here? This was a critical election - and the diaspora felt as I did. So yeah I am at a loss.

I think Israel gave Ariel Sharon the old tip of the hat: Sharon's Party Is Winner in Israel. But I also think the Israelis were wrong and will pay dearly for their cognitive dissonance.

Hamas is already dissing the election results ands vowing to destroy Israel. America should watch the unfolding events carefully. Israel's swerve to the left provides America with a snapshot of a similar fate if we do the same at the polls in 2006/2008.

Danish Cartoons: New York University Submits to Dhimmitude

Ayn Rand Institute: NYU's Surrender Underscores Need to Display Danish Cartoons

I was scheduled to attend the Ayn Rand Institute's panel discussion tomorrow night on the Free Speech, Danish Cartoons controversy at New York University. I just received the missive from the institute. NYU is shutting down the innocuous toons. I can't go. Read it and weep. Needless to say, I am ................speechless;

NYU's Surrender Underscores Need to Display Danish Cartoons

Irvine, CA--"In a seemingly mundane decision, New York University has sacrificed the principle underlying its flourishing and the survival of civilization--free speech," said Dr. Yaron Brook of the Ayn Rand Institute. NYU is refusing to protect a student group's right to display the Danish cartoons of Mohammad at a panel discussion on free speech on March 29.

The group's event was to be open to the public, but at the last minute NYU retreated. Under the pretense of maintaining campus security, the administration contradicted its own stated policy on free speech by requiring that, if the cartoons are displayed, the event be limited only to "members of the NYU community." The student group now must turn away more than 150 members of the public who had planned to attend the panel.

"The university's shameful appeasement of Muslim and anti-free-speech groups--which have vowed to protest the event--underscores the urgent need to display the cartoons in defense of freedom of speech," said Dr. Brook.

"Free speech protects the rational mind: it is the freedom to think, to reach conclusions and express one's views without fear of coercion of any kind. And it must include the right to express unpopular and offensive views, including outright criticism of religion. NYU--which like other universities grants tenure to protect intellectual freedom--ought to recognize the crucial importance of this principle and defend it.

"If intimidation and threats are allowed to compel writers, cartoonists, thinkers and institutions of learning into self-censorship, the right to free speech is lost. If Muslims are allowed to pressure critics of Islam into silence, critics of religion will be next. And then everyone else."

Panel Discussion on the Danish Cartoons

Panelists: Peter Schwartz, former chairman of the Board of Directors of the Ayn Rand Institute and author of The Foreign Policy of Self-Interest: A Moral Ideal for America; Greg Lukianoff, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education; Andrew Bostom, author of The Legacy of Jihad: Islamic Holy War and the Fate of Non-Muslims; and Jonathan Leaf, New York Press editor who resigned over his paper's decision not to publish the Danish cartoons.

Moderator: Dr. Harry Binswanger, professor of philosophy and member of the Board of Directors of the Ayn Rand Institute.

What is planned: (1) A display of the controversial Danish cartoons depicting Mohammad. (2) A panel discussion and Q & A on the meaning of the worldwide reaction to the cartoons.

Where: New York University, 60 Washington Square South at NYU Kimmel Center, Eisner and Lubin Auditorium (4th Floor), NY, NY 10012

When: March 29, 2006, 7 to 10 PM

Summary: ARI's Peter Schwartz will participate in a panel discussion on the Mohammad cartoon controversy. He will explain: Why the eruption of violence and the issuance of death threats make completely irrelevant the question of whether the cartoons are in bad taste. Why the idea that freedom of the press must be "coupled with press responsibility" means that free speech is not a right, but a fleeting permission. Why every Western newspaper and media outlet should have immediately re-published or shown the cartoons in solidarity with the cartoonists. Why the cowardly and appeasing response of many Western governments--including our own--will only invite further aggression. Other panelists will present their own views.

So does this mean I can't go?  This New York City damn it!

"I would give the greatest sunset in the world for one sight of New York's skyline. The sky over New York and the will of man made visible. I feel that if a war came to threaten this, I would like to throw myself into space, over the city, and protect these buildings with my body." Ayn Rand