I was surprised to see the European's showing some guts for a change.
Israel on Sunday welcomed the European Union's initial reaction to a Palestinian power-sharing deal, saying European leaders remain committed to their demands of any Palestinian government - recognizing Israel, renouncing violence and accepting previous peace accords.
German and British leaders told Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas clearly that his new government must accept the conditions of the "Quartet" of Mideast mediators - the US, EU, UN and Russia.
For the rest of the story go to
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1171894515747&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Footer Roundup
Chelsea's high price squad defeated Arsenal's youth team 2-1 to win the League Cup. I had a feeling that the result would come out in Chelski's favour but one has to give Arsene Wenger credit for using the youngsters. It will benefit the Gunners in the future and the Frenchman deserves a pat on the back for thinking ahead.
Liverpool 4 Sheffield United 0
The untroubled Reds dented the Blades to continue where they left off with Barcelona during the week (2-1 at the Nou Camp....I still can't believe that scoreline).
Fulham 1 Man U 2
Ronaldo makes use of a deflection to finish off the Cottagers
Spurs 4 Bolton 1
Great Red for Liverpool fans as the Trotters move away from a Champion's Leaguie challenge. Now why couldn't Spurs play against United in a similar way... a few weeks ago?
Blackburn 3 Pompey 0
Portsmouth may miss out on Europe at this rate.
Watford 0 Everton 3
Maybe there is another team in Liverpool.
Wigan 1 Newcastle 0
Jewell and co. show fighting spirit
Charlton 4 West Ham 0
Alan Pardew must be the happiest man in London.
Boro 2 Reading 1
Royals can't match heroics from last week's encounter at Old Traffic.
Liverpool 4 Sheffield United 0
The untroubled Reds dented the Blades to continue where they left off with Barcelona during the week (2-1 at the Nou Camp....I still can't believe that scoreline).
Fulham 1 Man U 2
Ronaldo makes use of a deflection to finish off the Cottagers
Spurs 4 Bolton 1
Great Red for Liverpool fans as the Trotters move away from a Champion's Leaguie challenge. Now why couldn't Spurs play against United in a similar way... a few weeks ago?
Blackburn 3 Pompey 0
Portsmouth may miss out on Europe at this rate.
Watford 0 Everton 3
Maybe there is another team in Liverpool.
Wigan 1 Newcastle 0
Jewell and co. show fighting spirit
Charlton 4 West Ham 0
Alan Pardew must be the happiest man in London.
Boro 2 Reading 1
Royals can't match heroics from last week's encounter at Old Traffic.
Sunday, February 18, 2007
In the News XXII
Chavez continues his crusade
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20070217-1436-caribbean-chavez.html
He hates imperialism unless its Venezuelan inspired.
The 'New' Palestinian government
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/02/18/mideast/
It will be nothing new or improved unless Israel's right to exist is agreed on.
Obama has the style but does he have the substance?
http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_5244360
Once the hype settles then we shall see...Could Obama be Powell Version II?
Pakistan Friend or Foe?
http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=26968
Unfortunately the latter may be all too apparent.
Iraq opens borders with Iran
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2007-02-18-iraq-iran-border_x.htm
Just when you thought the situation couldn't get worse.....
Darfur refugees under more pressure
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/16716026.htm
This will is set to become a true test of the UN's ability to act to prevent
terror...now I wouldn't put money on the world's bureaucrats.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20070217-1436-caribbean-chavez.html
He hates imperialism unless its Venezuelan inspired.
The 'New' Palestinian government
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/02/18/mideast/
It will be nothing new or improved unless Israel's right to exist is agreed on.
Obama has the style but does he have the substance?
http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_5244360
Once the hype settles then we shall see...Could Obama be Powell Version II?
Pakistan Friend or Foe?
http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=26968
Unfortunately the latter may be all too apparent.
Iraq opens borders with Iran
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2007-02-18-iraq-iran-border_x.htm
Just when you thought the situation couldn't get worse.....
Darfur refugees under more pressure
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/16716026.htm
This will is set to become a true test of the UN's ability to act to prevent
terror...now I wouldn't put money on the world's bureaucrats.
Thursday, February 15, 2007
On the North Korea deal???
John Podhoretz (in the New York Post) examines the N Korea deal below. Will we be duped again? More like how soon.....
For decades, intelligence agencies have assured the world that Kim Jong Il, the dictator of North Korea, is a psychopathic lunatic with a massive collection of pornography and a habit of kidnapping people from Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea to serve his whims.
He has made decisions about where to spend his government's money in a time of government-made famine that has caused the deaths of at least 1 million of his countrymen and women. He has built giant skyscrapers that are so structurally unsound they cannot be inhabited.
Psychopathic monster he almost certainly is. Almost everyone who has spent time in North Korea reports that it is, without question, the most horrifying place on this planet - a world in which the totalitarian fantasy imagined by Madeline L'Engle in the great 1962 children's book "A Wrinkle in Time" has been made flesh and bone.
But a lunatic Kim is not. He is a master geopolitician. Though we don't yet know the terms of the tentative deal announced yesterday under which North Korea has supposedly agreed to end its nuclear program, chances are very good that once again Kim has forced the world's powers - including the United States - to pay him a massive bribe that will help him maintain his stranglehold on power.
Since 1985, North Korea has used its reputation for insanity to manipulate not only the United States, but even the Evil Empire to its West. In that year, the Soviet Union agreed to provide the North Koreans with light nuclear reactors if the Norks agreed to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Showing stunning sangfroid against the ruthless bunch in Moscow, Kim's father signed the treaty and then simply refused to abide by any of its provisions. He spent five years refusing to allow a single inspector into the country, and when he did finally allow their entry in 1990, he deceived them and lied to them.
And how did North Korea pay for its recalcitrance? It didn't. In 1991, the United States agreed to remove its short-range nuclear weapons from the Korean peninsula in exchange for a promise from North Korea (and South Korea) not to do anything nuclear.
Our weapons were pulled. The South abided by its word. The North Koreans continued to develop their nuclear program regardless - until 1993, when Kim the Elder announced his nation was pulling out of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Why? Because, in complete contravention of its deal with the Soviets in 1985 and its deal with us and South Korea in 1991, it had built a nuclear reaction in Yongbyon.
At this point the Clinton administration took over, and at the end of 1994 announced its bribe - the so-called "Agreed Framework." This time, there would be no reactor for peaceful purposes built by the Soviet Union. Instead, the United States would build two reactors! And provide fuel oil and food aid. All of this totaled a $4 billion payout to Kim Jong Il.
The deal was much celebrated, and remains so even now. But in 1998, Kim struck again. He fired an intercontinental missile - the sort that carries a nuclear payload - over Japan.
Bill Clinton, who had promised that "North Korea will freeze and then dismantle its nuclear program" in 1994, had egg on his face. Talking tough, his people demanded that North Korea admit inspectors to reveal just how far Kim had gotten with his nuclear ambitions.
Kim wouldn't agree unless he was paid off to the tune of $300 million. With tragically naive hopes of helping to stave off famine, the U.S. dispatched a huge food-aid package that did nothing to stem the death toll. For four years now, ever since the North Koreans confirmed that they had finally and at long last built nuclear weapons the world (and especially the U.S.) had been paying them not to build, the United States and four other nations have been involved in a diplomatic dance with Kim called the "six-party talks."
Those talks have now borne fruit, because it appears that the Bush administration has now gone down the same path as everybody else - paying Kim a bribe in exchange for promises of change. We'll hear a lot about how this deal will be enforced with great determination. But it probably won't be, because Kim has the whip hand. Everyone is sure he's crazy, and everyone is fearful he will start a regional war in Asia if he doesn't get his way.
Why on earth should Kim keep up his end of any bargain? He's running one of the most successful extortion rackets in the history of the world. Why would he give up now?
For decades, intelligence agencies have assured the world that Kim Jong Il, the dictator of North Korea, is a psychopathic lunatic with a massive collection of pornography and a habit of kidnapping people from Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea to serve his whims.
He has made decisions about where to spend his government's money in a time of government-made famine that has caused the deaths of at least 1 million of his countrymen and women. He has built giant skyscrapers that are so structurally unsound they cannot be inhabited.
Psychopathic monster he almost certainly is. Almost everyone who has spent time in North Korea reports that it is, without question, the most horrifying place on this planet - a world in which the totalitarian fantasy imagined by Madeline L'Engle in the great 1962 children's book "A Wrinkle in Time" has been made flesh and bone.
But a lunatic Kim is not. He is a master geopolitician. Though we don't yet know the terms of the tentative deal announced yesterday under which North Korea has supposedly agreed to end its nuclear program, chances are very good that once again Kim has forced the world's powers - including the United States - to pay him a massive bribe that will help him maintain his stranglehold on power.
Since 1985, North Korea has used its reputation for insanity to manipulate not only the United States, but even the Evil Empire to its West. In that year, the Soviet Union agreed to provide the North Koreans with light nuclear reactors if the Norks agreed to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Showing stunning sangfroid against the ruthless bunch in Moscow, Kim's father signed the treaty and then simply refused to abide by any of its provisions. He spent five years refusing to allow a single inspector into the country, and when he did finally allow their entry in 1990, he deceived them and lied to them.
And how did North Korea pay for its recalcitrance? It didn't. In 1991, the United States agreed to remove its short-range nuclear weapons from the Korean peninsula in exchange for a promise from North Korea (and South Korea) not to do anything nuclear.
Our weapons were pulled. The South abided by its word. The North Koreans continued to develop their nuclear program regardless - until 1993, when Kim the Elder announced his nation was pulling out of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Why? Because, in complete contravention of its deal with the Soviets in 1985 and its deal with us and South Korea in 1991, it had built a nuclear reaction in Yongbyon.
At this point the Clinton administration took over, and at the end of 1994 announced its bribe - the so-called "Agreed Framework." This time, there would be no reactor for peaceful purposes built by the Soviet Union. Instead, the United States would build two reactors! And provide fuel oil and food aid. All of this totaled a $4 billion payout to Kim Jong Il.
The deal was much celebrated, and remains so even now. But in 1998, Kim struck again. He fired an intercontinental missile - the sort that carries a nuclear payload - over Japan.
Bill Clinton, who had promised that "North Korea will freeze and then dismantle its nuclear program" in 1994, had egg on his face. Talking tough, his people demanded that North Korea admit inspectors to reveal just how far Kim had gotten with his nuclear ambitions.
Kim wouldn't agree unless he was paid off to the tune of $300 million. With tragically naive hopes of helping to stave off famine, the U.S. dispatched a huge food-aid package that did nothing to stem the death toll. For four years now, ever since the North Koreans confirmed that they had finally and at long last built nuclear weapons the world (and especially the U.S.) had been paying them not to build, the United States and four other nations have been involved in a diplomatic dance with Kim called the "six-party talks."
Those talks have now borne fruit, because it appears that the Bush administration has now gone down the same path as everybody else - paying Kim a bribe in exchange for promises of change. We'll hear a lot about how this deal will be enforced with great determination. But it probably won't be, because Kim has the whip hand. Everyone is sure he's crazy, and everyone is fearful he will start a regional war in Asia if he doesn't get his way.
Why on earth should Kim keep up his end of any bargain? He's running one of the most successful extortion rackets in the history of the world. Why would he give up now?
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
On Iran and the Holocaust Denial Obsession
By Matthias Küntzel
The Weekly Standard | February 14, 2007
(taken from Front Page Magazine)
On December 12, 2006, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad personally brought to a close the infamous Holocaust deniers' conference in Tehran. A strange parade of speakers had passed across the podium: former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, the nutty followers of the anti-Zionist Jewish sect Neturei Karta, and officials of the neo-Nazi German National party, along with the familiar handful of professional Holocaust deniers. Frederick Töben had delivered a lecture entitled "The Holocaust--A Murder Weapon." Frenchman Robert Faurisson had called the Holocaust a "fairy tale," while his American colleague Veronica Clark had explained that "the Jews made money in Auschwitz." A professor named McNally had declared that to regard the Holocaust as a fact is as ludicrous as believing in "magicians and witches." Finally, the Belgian Leonardo Clerici had offered the following explanation in his capacity as a Muslim: "I believe that the value of metaphysics is greater than the value of history."
If this motley crew had assembled in a pub in Melbourne, nobody would have paid the slightest attention. What gave the event historical significance was that it was held by invitation, at the Iranian foreign ministry: on government premises, in a country that disposes of the world's second-largest oil reserves (after Saudi Arabia) and second-largest natural gas reserves (after Russia). And in this setting, the remarks quoted above provoked not dismissive laughter, but applause and attentive nods. On the walls hung photographs of corpses with the inscription "Myth," and others of laughing concentration camp survivors with the inscription "Truth."
The Tehran deniers' conference marks a turning point not only because of its state sponsorship, but also because of its purpose. Up until now, Holocaust deniers have wanted to revise the past. Today, they want to shape the future: to prepare the way for the next Holocaust.
In his opening speech to the conference, the Iranian foreign minister, Manucher Mottaki, left no doubt on this point: If "the official version of the Holocaust is called into question," Mottaki said, then "the nature and identity of Israel" must also be called into question. The purpose of denying, among all the Nazis' war measures, specifically the persecution of the Jews is to undermine a central motive for the establishment of the state of Israel. Auschwitz is delegitimized in order to legitimize the elimination of Israel--that is, a second genocide. If it should turn out, however, that the Holocaust did happen after all, Ahmadinejad explains that it would have been a result of European policies, and any homeland for the Jews would belong not in Palestine but in Europe. Either way, the result is the same: Israel must vanish.
This focus explains why the conference's sponsors attached so much importance to the participation of a delegation from the Jewish sect Neturei Karta. Although it does not deny the Holocaust, the sect welcomes the destruction of Israel. That objective was the common denominator uniting all the participants in the conference. In his closing speech, Ahmadinejad formulated it with perfect clarity: "The life-curve of the Zionist regime has begun its descent, and it is now on a downward slope towards its fall. . . . The Zionist regime will be wiped out, and humanity will be liberated."
Holocaust denial and the nuclear program
Just as Hitler sought to "liberate" humanity by murdering the Jews, so Ahmadinejad believes he can "liberate" humanity by eradicating Israel. The deniers' conference as an instrument for propagating this project is intimately linked to the nuclear program as an instrument for realizing it. Five years ago, in December 2001, former Iranian president Hashemi Rafsanjani first boasted that "the use of even one nuclear bomb inside Israel will destroy everything," whereas the damage to the Islamic world of a potential retaliatory nuclear attack could be limited: "It is not irrational to contemplate such an eventuality." While the Islamic world could sacrifice hundreds of thousands of "martyrs" in an Israeli retaliatory strike without disappearing--so goes Rafsanjani's argument--Israel would be history after the first bomb.
It is precisely this suicidal outlook that distinguishes the Iranian nuclear weapons program from those of all other countries and makes it uniquely dangerous. As long ago as 1980, Khomeini put it this way: "We do not worship Iran, we worship Allah. For patriotism is another name for paganism. I say let this land [Iran] burn. I say let this land go up in smoke, provided Islam emerges triumphant in the rest of the world."
Anyone inclined to dismiss the significance of such statements might want to consider the proclamation made by Mohammad Hassan Rahimian, representative of the Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who stands even higher in the Iranian hierarchy than Ahmadinejad. A few months ago, on November 16, 2006, Rahimian explained: "The Jew"--not the Zionist, note, but the Jew--"is the most obstinate enemy of the devout. And the main war will determine the destiny of mankind. . . . The reappearance of the Twelfth Imam will lead to a war between Israel and the Shia." The country that has been the first to make Holocaust denial a principle of its foreign policy is likewise the first openly to threaten another U.N. member state with, not invasion or annexation, but annihilation.
Yet it's all confusing. Why, if Iran wishes Israel ill, does it deny the Holocaust rather than applaud it? Ahmadinejad's Holocaust denial has been especially well received in the Arab world, where it has won praise from Hezbollah, the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, and Hamas. Yet in the Arab world, Hitler is admired not for building highways or conquering Paris, but for murdering Jews. How can Holocaust denial be most prevalent in a region where admiration for Hitler remains widespread? To unlock this paradox it is necessary to examine the anti-Semitic mind.
Brother Hitler and Eichmann the Martyr
Holocaust denial is anti-Semitism at its most extreme. Whoever declares Auschwitz a myth implicitly portrays the Jews as the enemy of humanity: The assumption is that the all-powerful Jews, for filthy lucre, have been duping the rest of humanity for the past 60 years. Whoever talks of the "so-called Holocaust" implies that over 90 percent of the world's media and university professorships are controlled by Jews and are thereby cut off from the "real" truth. No one who accuses Jews of such perfidy can sincerely regret Hitler's Final Solution. For this reason alone, every denial of the Holocaust contains an appeal to repeat it.
Consider this passage written by an Egyptian columnist for the state-controlled newspaper Al-Akhbar, Egypt's second-largest daily, and published in April 2002:
The entire matter [of the Holocaust], as many French and British scientists and researchers have proven, is nothing more than a huge Israeli plot aimed at extorting the German government in particular and the European countries in general. But I, personally and in light of this imaginary tale, complain to Hitler, even saying to him from the bottom of my heart, "If only you had done it, brother, if only it had really happened, so that the world could sigh in relief [without] their evil and sin."
Often, however, enthusiasm for the Holocaust is expressed unvarnished. In 1961, when the trial of Adolf Eichmann dominated the headlines, such enthusiasm became evident for the first time. The Jordanian Jerusalem Times published an "Open Letter to Eichmann," which stated: "By liquidating six million you have . . . conferred a real blessing on humanity. . . .
But the brave Eichmann can find solace in the fact that this trial will one day culminate in the liquidation of the remaining six million to avenge your blood." Arab writers such as Abdullah al-Tall eulogized "the martyr Eichmann," "who fell in the Holy War." In her book Eichmann in Jerusalem, Hannah Arendt summarized the mood in the Arab world:
The newspapers in Damascus and Beirut, in Cairo and Jordan did not conceal either their sympathy for Eichmann or their regret that he "did not finish the job"; a radio broadcast from Cairo on the opening day of the trial even included a little sideswipe at the Germans, reproaching them for the fact that "in the last war, no German plane had ever flown over and bombed a Jewish settlement."
This heartfelt desire to see all Jews exterminated was reiterated in the Egyptian daily Al-Akhbar in April 2001 by the columnist Ahmad Ragab: "[Give] thanks to Hitler. He took revenge on the Israelis in advance, on behalf of the Palestinians. Our one complaint against him was that his revenge was not complete enough."
Obviously, from a logical point of view, enthusiasm for the Holocaust is incompatible with its denial. Logic, however, is beside the point. Anti-Semitism is built upon an emotional infrastructure that substitutes for reason an ephemeral combination of mutually exclusive attributions, all arising from hatred of everything Jewish. As a result, many contradictory anti-Jewish interpretations of the Holocaust can be deployed simultaneously: (1) the extermination of millions was a good thing; (2) the extermination of millions was a Zionist fabrication; (3) the Holocaust resulted from a Jewish conspiracy against Germany that Hitler thwarted and punished; (4) the Holocaust was a joint enterprise of the Zionists and Nazis; (5) the Zionists' "Holocaust industry" exaggerates the murder of the Jews for self-interested reasons; (6) Israeli actions against the Palestinians are the "true" Holocaust--and so on.
We are dealing here with a parallel universe in which the reality principle is ignored, and blatantly contradictory fantasies about Jews all have their place so long as they serve to reinforce anti-Semitic paranoia and hatred: a universe in which the laws of reason have been abolished and all mental energy is harnessed to the cause of anti-Semitism.
Amid the confusion, this universe is characterized by two constants: the refusal to come to terms with the facts of the Holocaust as it actually took place; and a willingness to find in the Holocaust a source of encouragement and inspiration, a precedent proving that it is possible to murder Jews by the million. This is why the precise content of Ahmadinejad's Holocaust tirades is not the issue. He is obsessed with the subject because he is fascinated by the possibility of a second Holocaust.
Why, then, did Ahmadinejad repeatedly and publicly embrace the ultra-orthodox Jews at the conference? Why did he personally greet every Jew present and say that "Zionism should be strictly separated from the Jewish faith"? Let us take a look at modern anti-Semitism in Iran.
Ahmadinejad and the Jews
Ahmadinejad's great inspiration, the Ayatollah Khomeini, not only recognized the mobilizing power of anti-Semitism in the struggle against the shah, he made use of it himself, as far back as the 1960s. "I know that you do not want Iran to lie under the boots of the Jews," he cried out to his supporters on April 13, 1963. That same year, he called the shah a Jew in disguise and accused him of taking orders from Israel. This drew a huge response from the public. Khomeini had found his theme.
Khomeini's biographer Amir Taheri writes: "The Ayatollah was by now convinced that the central political theme of contemporary life was an elaborate and highly complex conspiracy by the Jews--'who controlled everything'--to 'emasculate Islam' and dominate the world thanks to the natural wealth of the Muslim nations." When in June 1963 thousands of Khomeini-influenced theology students set off to Tehran for a demonstration and were brutally stopped by the shah's security forces, Khomeini channeled all their anger toward the Jewish nation: "Israel does not want the Koran to survive in this country. . . . It is destroying us. It is destroying you and the nation. It wants to take possession of the economy. It wants to demolish our trade and agriculture. It wants to grab the wealth of the country."
After the Six Day War of 1967, the anti-Semitic agitation, which drew no distinction between Jews and Israelis, intensified. "[I]t was [the Jews] who first established anti-Islamic propaganda and engaged in various stratagems, and as you can see, this activity continues down to the present," Khomeini wrote in 1970 in his principal work, Islamic Government. "[T]he Jews . . . wish to establish Jewish domination throughout the world. Since they are a cunning and resourceful group of people, I fear that . . . they may one day achieve their goal." Then in September 1977, he declared, "The Jews have grasped the world with both hands and are devouring it with an insatiable appetite, they are devouring America and have now turned their attention to Iran and still they are not satisfied." Two years later, Khomeini was the unchallenged leader of the Iranian revolution.
Khomeini's anti-Semitic attacks found favor with the opponents of the shah, both leftists and Islamists. His anti-Semitism ran along the same lines as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the turn-of-the-century hoax beloved of the Nazis that purports to expose a Jewish conspiracy to rule the world. The Protocols was published in Persian in the summer of 1978 and was widely disseminated as a weapon against the shah, Israel, and the Jews. In 1984, the newspaper Imam, published by the Iranian embassy in London, printed excerpts from The Protocols. In 1985, Iranian state authorities did a mass printing of a new edition. Somewhat later, the periodical Eslami serialized The Protocols under the title "The Smell of Blood: Jewish Conspiracies."
Just two years ago, in 2005, at the Iranian booth at the Frankfurt Book Fair, I was readily able to buy an English edition of The Protocols published by the Islamic Propagation Organization of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Other anti-Semitic classics were also available, such as Henry Ford's The International Jew and Mohammad Taqi Taqipour's screed Tale of the "Chosen People" and the Legend of "Historical Right." The cover of the latter volume caught my eye: a red Star of David superimposed over a grey skull and a yellow map of the world. Obviously, even after the death of Khomeini in 1989, the worldwide dissemination of anti-Semitism by Iran continued.
The fact that 25,000 Jews now live in Iran, making it the largest Jewish community in a Muslim country, is not incompatible with the foregoing. The Jews in Iran are made clearly to feel their subordinate Dhimmi status. Thus, they are not allowed to occupy higher positions than Muslims and so are disqualified from the leading ranks in politics and the military. They are not allowed to serve as witnesses in court, and Jewish schools must be managed by Muslims and stay open on the Sabbath. Books in the Hebrew language are forbidden. Up to the present, the regime, which has time and again published anti-Semitic texts and caricatures, has prevented such hate-mongering from resulting in violence against Jews. Nevertheless, the combination of incitement and restraint leaves the Jewish community in a state of permanent insecurity. Today, the Jewish community serves Ahmadinejad not only as an alibi in his power game, but also increasingly as a deterrent: In the event of an Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facilities, this community would find itself hostage and vulnerable to acts of reprisal.
Irrespective of the leeway that Ahmadinejad has, for the time being, left the Iranian Jews, his rhetoric is steeped in an anti-Semitism that is unprecedented for a state leader since World War II. Ahmadinejad does not say "Jews" are conspiring to rule the world. He says, "Two thousand Zionists want to rule the world." He says, "The Zionists" have for 60 years now blackmailed "all Western governments." "The Zionists have imposed themselves on a substantial portion of the banking, financial, cultural, and media sectors." "The Zionists" fabricated the Danish Muhammad cartoons. "The Zionists" are responsible for the destruction of the dome of the Golden Mosque in Iraq.
The pattern is familiar. Ahmadinejad is not a racist social Darwinist who, Hitler-like, wants to eliminate every last trace of "Jewish blood." The term "half-Jew" is not used in Islamist discourse. But he invests the word "Zionist" with exactly the same meaning Hitler poured into "Jew": the incarnation of evil.
The Iranian regime can court the Jewish Israel- haters of Neturei Karta all it wants, but anyone who makes Jews responsible for the ills of the world--whether calling them Judas or Zionists--is clearly driven by an anti-Semitism of genocidal potential. Demonization of Jews, Holocaust denial, and the will to eliminate Israel--these are the three elements of an ideological constellation that collapses as soon as any one of them is removed.
Ahmadinejad inhabits a delusional world that is sealed off from reality. The louder the liberal West protests against Holocaust denial or the Islamists' demands for the destruction of Israel, the more conviced Ahmadinejad becomes of Zionist domination. In a conversation with the editors of the German newsweekly Der Spiegel, the Iranian president reacted as follows to the remark that the magazine does not question Israel's right to exist: "I am glad that you are honest people and say that you are required to support the Zionists." Only when we too finally realize that the Holocaust is a Jewish lie--only when we too want to annihilate Israel--only then will Ahmadinejad be convinced that we are academically credible and politically free. It is this lunacy that makes the revolutionary mission of the Iranian leadership so dangerous.
Which brings us to the question of the broader significance of Iranian Holocaust denial. The Islamist mission is by no means restricted to Israel.
"Historical War"
In his first speech on the guiding principles of his politics, Ahmadinejad made this clear: "We are in the process of an historical war, . . . and this war has been going on for hundreds of years," he declared in October 2005. This is a war, then, that is not fundamentally about the Middle East conflict and will not end with the elimination of Israel. He continued: "We have to understand the depth of the disgrace of the enemy, until our holy hatred expands continuously and strikes like a wave." This "holy hatred" is boundless and unconditional. It will not be mitigated by any form of Jewish or non-Jewish conduct--other than subordination to sharia and the Koran.
In his letter to George W. Bush, the Iranian president described his objective: "Those with insight can already hear the sounds of the shattering and fall of the ideology and thoughts of the liberal democratic systems." The letter also tells how the liberal democracies will be shattered. Even here (if slightly diluted), the ideology of martyrdom--You love life, we love death--is propagated: "A bad ending belongs only to those who have chosen the life of this world. . . . A good land and eternal paradise belong to those servants who fear His majesty and do not follow their lascivious selves."
Shiite Islamism confronts us with an adversary who reviles the achievements of modernity as Satan's work, who denounces the international system created after 1945 as a "Jewish-Christian conspiracy," and who therefore wishes to overturn the accepted historiography of the postwar period. At the start of the Holocaust deniers' conference, Foreign Minister Mottaki explained that the problem is the "wording of historical occurrences and their analysis [are written from] the perspective of the West." As against this "Western" historiography, Islamism wants to create a new historical "truth," in which the Holocaust is declared a myth, while the Twelfth Imam is deemed real. Whereas the delusional worldview of Holocaust denial is elevated to the norm, any deviation from it is denounced as a symptom of "Jewish domination."
Even as he is conducting his religious war, Ahmadinejad is also playing the role of a global populist. He addresses his speeches to all the world's "oppressed." He cultivates good relations with Fidel Castro and Hugo Chávez and ingratiates himself with the Western left by using anti-American rhetoric. His use of the word "Zionist" is strategic. It is the Trojan horse by which he makes his anti-Semitism respectable, allowing him to be at once an anti-Semite and Holocaust denier and the ultimate spokesman for the "oppressed nations."
Of course, Iran would not have to rely on Holocaust denial to pursue its strategic objectives. Yet Ahmadinejad insists on the point, in order to provide ideological undergirding to his push to destroy Israel. He also speculates that this project might win the approval of the Europeans. After all, in Europe the delegitimization of Israel has been going on for some time--if for different reasons. Recently the BBC organized a symposium on the question of whether Israel would still exist in 50 years. In a poll taken four years ago in the E.U., 59 percent saw Israel as "the biggest danger to world peace." Even in the United States, a growing number of intellectuals are convinced that Israel and its American supporters are the real source of the problems facing American foreign policy.
The alarm cannot be sounded loudly enough. If Iran is not put under pressure without delay and forced to choose between changing course and suffering devastating economic sanctions, the only remaining alternatives will be a bad one--the military option--and a dreadful one--the Iranian bomb.
This article was translated from German by Michael Bugajer and John Rosenthal.
The Weekly Standard | February 14, 2007
(taken from Front Page Magazine)
On December 12, 2006, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad personally brought to a close the infamous Holocaust deniers' conference in Tehran. A strange parade of speakers had passed across the podium: former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, the nutty followers of the anti-Zionist Jewish sect Neturei Karta, and officials of the neo-Nazi German National party, along with the familiar handful of professional Holocaust deniers. Frederick Töben had delivered a lecture entitled "The Holocaust--A Murder Weapon." Frenchman Robert Faurisson had called the Holocaust a "fairy tale," while his American colleague Veronica Clark had explained that "the Jews made money in Auschwitz." A professor named McNally had declared that to regard the Holocaust as a fact is as ludicrous as believing in "magicians and witches." Finally, the Belgian Leonardo Clerici had offered the following explanation in his capacity as a Muslim: "I believe that the value of metaphysics is greater than the value of history."
If this motley crew had assembled in a pub in Melbourne, nobody would have paid the slightest attention. What gave the event historical significance was that it was held by invitation, at the Iranian foreign ministry: on government premises, in a country that disposes of the world's second-largest oil reserves (after Saudi Arabia) and second-largest natural gas reserves (after Russia). And in this setting, the remarks quoted above provoked not dismissive laughter, but applause and attentive nods. On the walls hung photographs of corpses with the inscription "Myth," and others of laughing concentration camp survivors with the inscription "Truth."
The Tehran deniers' conference marks a turning point not only because of its state sponsorship, but also because of its purpose. Up until now, Holocaust deniers have wanted to revise the past. Today, they want to shape the future: to prepare the way for the next Holocaust.
In his opening speech to the conference, the Iranian foreign minister, Manucher Mottaki, left no doubt on this point: If "the official version of the Holocaust is called into question," Mottaki said, then "the nature and identity of Israel" must also be called into question. The purpose of denying, among all the Nazis' war measures, specifically the persecution of the Jews is to undermine a central motive for the establishment of the state of Israel. Auschwitz is delegitimized in order to legitimize the elimination of Israel--that is, a second genocide. If it should turn out, however, that the Holocaust did happen after all, Ahmadinejad explains that it would have been a result of European policies, and any homeland for the Jews would belong not in Palestine but in Europe. Either way, the result is the same: Israel must vanish.
This focus explains why the conference's sponsors attached so much importance to the participation of a delegation from the Jewish sect Neturei Karta. Although it does not deny the Holocaust, the sect welcomes the destruction of Israel. That objective was the common denominator uniting all the participants in the conference. In his closing speech, Ahmadinejad formulated it with perfect clarity: "The life-curve of the Zionist regime has begun its descent, and it is now on a downward slope towards its fall. . . . The Zionist regime will be wiped out, and humanity will be liberated."
Holocaust denial and the nuclear program
Just as Hitler sought to "liberate" humanity by murdering the Jews, so Ahmadinejad believes he can "liberate" humanity by eradicating Israel. The deniers' conference as an instrument for propagating this project is intimately linked to the nuclear program as an instrument for realizing it. Five years ago, in December 2001, former Iranian president Hashemi Rafsanjani first boasted that "the use of even one nuclear bomb inside Israel will destroy everything," whereas the damage to the Islamic world of a potential retaliatory nuclear attack could be limited: "It is not irrational to contemplate such an eventuality." While the Islamic world could sacrifice hundreds of thousands of "martyrs" in an Israeli retaliatory strike without disappearing--so goes Rafsanjani's argument--Israel would be history after the first bomb.
It is precisely this suicidal outlook that distinguishes the Iranian nuclear weapons program from those of all other countries and makes it uniquely dangerous. As long ago as 1980, Khomeini put it this way: "We do not worship Iran, we worship Allah. For patriotism is another name for paganism. I say let this land [Iran] burn. I say let this land go up in smoke, provided Islam emerges triumphant in the rest of the world."
Anyone inclined to dismiss the significance of such statements might want to consider the proclamation made by Mohammad Hassan Rahimian, representative of the Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who stands even higher in the Iranian hierarchy than Ahmadinejad. A few months ago, on November 16, 2006, Rahimian explained: "The Jew"--not the Zionist, note, but the Jew--"is the most obstinate enemy of the devout. And the main war will determine the destiny of mankind. . . . The reappearance of the Twelfth Imam will lead to a war between Israel and the Shia." The country that has been the first to make Holocaust denial a principle of its foreign policy is likewise the first openly to threaten another U.N. member state with, not invasion or annexation, but annihilation.
Yet it's all confusing. Why, if Iran wishes Israel ill, does it deny the Holocaust rather than applaud it? Ahmadinejad's Holocaust denial has been especially well received in the Arab world, where it has won praise from Hezbollah, the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, and Hamas. Yet in the Arab world, Hitler is admired not for building highways or conquering Paris, but for murdering Jews. How can Holocaust denial be most prevalent in a region where admiration for Hitler remains widespread? To unlock this paradox it is necessary to examine the anti-Semitic mind.
Brother Hitler and Eichmann the Martyr
Holocaust denial is anti-Semitism at its most extreme. Whoever declares Auschwitz a myth implicitly portrays the Jews as the enemy of humanity: The assumption is that the all-powerful Jews, for filthy lucre, have been duping the rest of humanity for the past 60 years. Whoever talks of the "so-called Holocaust" implies that over 90 percent of the world's media and university professorships are controlled by Jews and are thereby cut off from the "real" truth. No one who accuses Jews of such perfidy can sincerely regret Hitler's Final Solution. For this reason alone, every denial of the Holocaust contains an appeal to repeat it.
Consider this passage written by an Egyptian columnist for the state-controlled newspaper Al-Akhbar, Egypt's second-largest daily, and published in April 2002:
The entire matter [of the Holocaust], as many French and British scientists and researchers have proven, is nothing more than a huge Israeli plot aimed at extorting the German government in particular and the European countries in general. But I, personally and in light of this imaginary tale, complain to Hitler, even saying to him from the bottom of my heart, "If only you had done it, brother, if only it had really happened, so that the world could sigh in relief [without] their evil and sin."
Often, however, enthusiasm for the Holocaust is expressed unvarnished. In 1961, when the trial of Adolf Eichmann dominated the headlines, such enthusiasm became evident for the first time. The Jordanian Jerusalem Times published an "Open Letter to Eichmann," which stated: "By liquidating six million you have . . . conferred a real blessing on humanity. . . .
But the brave Eichmann can find solace in the fact that this trial will one day culminate in the liquidation of the remaining six million to avenge your blood." Arab writers such as Abdullah al-Tall eulogized "the martyr Eichmann," "who fell in the Holy War." In her book Eichmann in Jerusalem, Hannah Arendt summarized the mood in the Arab world:
The newspapers in Damascus and Beirut, in Cairo and Jordan did not conceal either their sympathy for Eichmann or their regret that he "did not finish the job"; a radio broadcast from Cairo on the opening day of the trial even included a little sideswipe at the Germans, reproaching them for the fact that "in the last war, no German plane had ever flown over and bombed a Jewish settlement."
This heartfelt desire to see all Jews exterminated was reiterated in the Egyptian daily Al-Akhbar in April 2001 by the columnist Ahmad Ragab: "[Give] thanks to Hitler. He took revenge on the Israelis in advance, on behalf of the Palestinians. Our one complaint against him was that his revenge was not complete enough."
Obviously, from a logical point of view, enthusiasm for the Holocaust is incompatible with its denial. Logic, however, is beside the point. Anti-Semitism is built upon an emotional infrastructure that substitutes for reason an ephemeral combination of mutually exclusive attributions, all arising from hatred of everything Jewish. As a result, many contradictory anti-Jewish interpretations of the Holocaust can be deployed simultaneously: (1) the extermination of millions was a good thing; (2) the extermination of millions was a Zionist fabrication; (3) the Holocaust resulted from a Jewish conspiracy against Germany that Hitler thwarted and punished; (4) the Holocaust was a joint enterprise of the Zionists and Nazis; (5) the Zionists' "Holocaust industry" exaggerates the murder of the Jews for self-interested reasons; (6) Israeli actions against the Palestinians are the "true" Holocaust--and so on.
We are dealing here with a parallel universe in which the reality principle is ignored, and blatantly contradictory fantasies about Jews all have their place so long as they serve to reinforce anti-Semitic paranoia and hatred: a universe in which the laws of reason have been abolished and all mental energy is harnessed to the cause of anti-Semitism.
Amid the confusion, this universe is characterized by two constants: the refusal to come to terms with the facts of the Holocaust as it actually took place; and a willingness to find in the Holocaust a source of encouragement and inspiration, a precedent proving that it is possible to murder Jews by the million. This is why the precise content of Ahmadinejad's Holocaust tirades is not the issue. He is obsessed with the subject because he is fascinated by the possibility of a second Holocaust.
Why, then, did Ahmadinejad repeatedly and publicly embrace the ultra-orthodox Jews at the conference? Why did he personally greet every Jew present and say that "Zionism should be strictly separated from the Jewish faith"? Let us take a look at modern anti-Semitism in Iran.
Ahmadinejad and the Jews
Ahmadinejad's great inspiration, the Ayatollah Khomeini, not only recognized the mobilizing power of anti-Semitism in the struggle against the shah, he made use of it himself, as far back as the 1960s. "I know that you do not want Iran to lie under the boots of the Jews," he cried out to his supporters on April 13, 1963. That same year, he called the shah a Jew in disguise and accused him of taking orders from Israel. This drew a huge response from the public. Khomeini had found his theme.
Khomeini's biographer Amir Taheri writes: "The Ayatollah was by now convinced that the central political theme of contemporary life was an elaborate and highly complex conspiracy by the Jews--'who controlled everything'--to 'emasculate Islam' and dominate the world thanks to the natural wealth of the Muslim nations." When in June 1963 thousands of Khomeini-influenced theology students set off to Tehran for a demonstration and were brutally stopped by the shah's security forces, Khomeini channeled all their anger toward the Jewish nation: "Israel does not want the Koran to survive in this country. . . . It is destroying us. It is destroying you and the nation. It wants to take possession of the economy. It wants to demolish our trade and agriculture. It wants to grab the wealth of the country."
After the Six Day War of 1967, the anti-Semitic agitation, which drew no distinction between Jews and Israelis, intensified. "[I]t was [the Jews] who first established anti-Islamic propaganda and engaged in various stratagems, and as you can see, this activity continues down to the present," Khomeini wrote in 1970 in his principal work, Islamic Government. "[T]he Jews . . . wish to establish Jewish domination throughout the world. Since they are a cunning and resourceful group of people, I fear that . . . they may one day achieve their goal." Then in September 1977, he declared, "The Jews have grasped the world with both hands and are devouring it with an insatiable appetite, they are devouring America and have now turned their attention to Iran and still they are not satisfied." Two years later, Khomeini was the unchallenged leader of the Iranian revolution.
Khomeini's anti-Semitic attacks found favor with the opponents of the shah, both leftists and Islamists. His anti-Semitism ran along the same lines as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the turn-of-the-century hoax beloved of the Nazis that purports to expose a Jewish conspiracy to rule the world. The Protocols was published in Persian in the summer of 1978 and was widely disseminated as a weapon against the shah, Israel, and the Jews. In 1984, the newspaper Imam, published by the Iranian embassy in London, printed excerpts from The Protocols. In 1985, Iranian state authorities did a mass printing of a new edition. Somewhat later, the periodical Eslami serialized The Protocols under the title "The Smell of Blood: Jewish Conspiracies."
Just two years ago, in 2005, at the Iranian booth at the Frankfurt Book Fair, I was readily able to buy an English edition of The Protocols published by the Islamic Propagation Organization of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Other anti-Semitic classics were also available, such as Henry Ford's The International Jew and Mohammad Taqi Taqipour's screed Tale of the "Chosen People" and the Legend of "Historical Right." The cover of the latter volume caught my eye: a red Star of David superimposed over a grey skull and a yellow map of the world. Obviously, even after the death of Khomeini in 1989, the worldwide dissemination of anti-Semitism by Iran continued.
The fact that 25,000 Jews now live in Iran, making it the largest Jewish community in a Muslim country, is not incompatible with the foregoing. The Jews in Iran are made clearly to feel their subordinate Dhimmi status. Thus, they are not allowed to occupy higher positions than Muslims and so are disqualified from the leading ranks in politics and the military. They are not allowed to serve as witnesses in court, and Jewish schools must be managed by Muslims and stay open on the Sabbath. Books in the Hebrew language are forbidden. Up to the present, the regime, which has time and again published anti-Semitic texts and caricatures, has prevented such hate-mongering from resulting in violence against Jews. Nevertheless, the combination of incitement and restraint leaves the Jewish community in a state of permanent insecurity. Today, the Jewish community serves Ahmadinejad not only as an alibi in his power game, but also increasingly as a deterrent: In the event of an Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facilities, this community would find itself hostage and vulnerable to acts of reprisal.
Irrespective of the leeway that Ahmadinejad has, for the time being, left the Iranian Jews, his rhetoric is steeped in an anti-Semitism that is unprecedented for a state leader since World War II. Ahmadinejad does not say "Jews" are conspiring to rule the world. He says, "Two thousand Zionists want to rule the world." He says, "The Zionists" have for 60 years now blackmailed "all Western governments." "The Zionists have imposed themselves on a substantial portion of the banking, financial, cultural, and media sectors." "The Zionists" fabricated the Danish Muhammad cartoons. "The Zionists" are responsible for the destruction of the dome of the Golden Mosque in Iraq.
The pattern is familiar. Ahmadinejad is not a racist social Darwinist who, Hitler-like, wants to eliminate every last trace of "Jewish blood." The term "half-Jew" is not used in Islamist discourse. But he invests the word "Zionist" with exactly the same meaning Hitler poured into "Jew": the incarnation of evil.
The Iranian regime can court the Jewish Israel- haters of Neturei Karta all it wants, but anyone who makes Jews responsible for the ills of the world--whether calling them Judas or Zionists--is clearly driven by an anti-Semitism of genocidal potential. Demonization of Jews, Holocaust denial, and the will to eliminate Israel--these are the three elements of an ideological constellation that collapses as soon as any one of them is removed.
Ahmadinejad inhabits a delusional world that is sealed off from reality. The louder the liberal West protests against Holocaust denial or the Islamists' demands for the destruction of Israel, the more conviced Ahmadinejad becomes of Zionist domination. In a conversation with the editors of the German newsweekly Der Spiegel, the Iranian president reacted as follows to the remark that the magazine does not question Israel's right to exist: "I am glad that you are honest people and say that you are required to support the Zionists." Only when we too finally realize that the Holocaust is a Jewish lie--only when we too want to annihilate Israel--only then will Ahmadinejad be convinced that we are academically credible and politically free. It is this lunacy that makes the revolutionary mission of the Iranian leadership so dangerous.
Which brings us to the question of the broader significance of Iranian Holocaust denial. The Islamist mission is by no means restricted to Israel.
"Historical War"
In his first speech on the guiding principles of his politics, Ahmadinejad made this clear: "We are in the process of an historical war, . . . and this war has been going on for hundreds of years," he declared in October 2005. This is a war, then, that is not fundamentally about the Middle East conflict and will not end with the elimination of Israel. He continued: "We have to understand the depth of the disgrace of the enemy, until our holy hatred expands continuously and strikes like a wave." This "holy hatred" is boundless and unconditional. It will not be mitigated by any form of Jewish or non-Jewish conduct--other than subordination to sharia and the Koran.
In his letter to George W. Bush, the Iranian president described his objective: "Those with insight can already hear the sounds of the shattering and fall of the ideology and thoughts of the liberal democratic systems." The letter also tells how the liberal democracies will be shattered. Even here (if slightly diluted), the ideology of martyrdom--You love life, we love death--is propagated: "A bad ending belongs only to those who have chosen the life of this world. . . . A good land and eternal paradise belong to those servants who fear His majesty and do not follow their lascivious selves."
Shiite Islamism confronts us with an adversary who reviles the achievements of modernity as Satan's work, who denounces the international system created after 1945 as a "Jewish-Christian conspiracy," and who therefore wishes to overturn the accepted historiography of the postwar period. At the start of the Holocaust deniers' conference, Foreign Minister Mottaki explained that the problem is the "wording of historical occurrences and their analysis [are written from] the perspective of the West." As against this "Western" historiography, Islamism wants to create a new historical "truth," in which the Holocaust is declared a myth, while the Twelfth Imam is deemed real. Whereas the delusional worldview of Holocaust denial is elevated to the norm, any deviation from it is denounced as a symptom of "Jewish domination."
Even as he is conducting his religious war, Ahmadinejad is also playing the role of a global populist. He addresses his speeches to all the world's "oppressed." He cultivates good relations with Fidel Castro and Hugo Chávez and ingratiates himself with the Western left by using anti-American rhetoric. His use of the word "Zionist" is strategic. It is the Trojan horse by which he makes his anti-Semitism respectable, allowing him to be at once an anti-Semite and Holocaust denier and the ultimate spokesman for the "oppressed nations."
Of course, Iran would not have to rely on Holocaust denial to pursue its strategic objectives. Yet Ahmadinejad insists on the point, in order to provide ideological undergirding to his push to destroy Israel. He also speculates that this project might win the approval of the Europeans. After all, in Europe the delegitimization of Israel has been going on for some time--if for different reasons. Recently the BBC organized a symposium on the question of whether Israel would still exist in 50 years. In a poll taken four years ago in the E.U., 59 percent saw Israel as "the biggest danger to world peace." Even in the United States, a growing number of intellectuals are convinced that Israel and its American supporters are the real source of the problems facing American foreign policy.
The alarm cannot be sounded loudly enough. If Iran is not put under pressure without delay and forced to choose between changing course and suffering devastating economic sanctions, the only remaining alternatives will be a bad one--the military option--and a dreadful one--the Iranian bomb.
This article was translated from German by Michael Bugajer and John Rosenthal.
Harvard Caving in
This is defintely worth reading...
Taken from http://frontpagemag.com/blog/index.asp
Heather Mac Donald
Harvard's Faustian Bargain
America's oldest university selects a dreadful president.
9 February 2007
The feminist takeover of Harvard is imminent. The Harvard Crimson reported yesterday that the university is about to name as its new president Drew Gilpin Faust, dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Harvard's Corporation, which is likely to recommend Faust to the university's Board of Overseers for confirmation, could not have more clearly repudiated Lawrence Summers's all-too-brief reign of meritocracy and academic honesty, or more openly signaled that Harvard will now be the leader in politically correct victimology.
Faust runs one of the most powerful incubators of feminist complaint and nonsensical academic theory in the country. You can count on the Radcliffe Institute's fellows and invited lecturers to proclaim the
"constructed" nature of knowledge, gender, and race, and to decry endemic American sexism and racism. Typical guest speakers include left-wing journalists Susan Faludi and Barbara Ehrenreich. At Radcliffe, Faludi argued that 9/11 had triggered yet another "backlash against feminism," while Ehrenreich lectured on "Weird Science: Challenging Sexist Ideology Since the 1970s." It is received truth among Radcliffe Institute lecturers that obstacles throughout American society block women's progress. Radcliffe speaker Rebecca Walker, for example, has created the "I Spy Sexism" initiative, which asks young women between the ages of 15 and 30 to keep logs of the "sexism, racism, and
homophobia" that they see as they walk down the street or go to a movie.
With typical feminist hypocrisy, Faust has managed to wield massive power even as she rues female powerlessness. She headed the Task Force on Women Faculty, created after the firestorm over Summers's recklessly honest speculations about women in science, that strengthened the feminist hold on faculty hiring and promotions. The Task Force won a $50 million commitment to increase faculty "diversity efforts" at Harvard, notwithstanding that for decades the university has tied itself in knots trying to increase female and black faculty representation. Faust's Task Force also muscled into existence a remarkable new bureaucratic sinecure: the Senior Vice Provost for Diversity and Faculty Development.This new official sits with the president, the provost, and the deans of faculties, in order to push "diversity" quotas in every corner of the university's academic operations. Naturally, Harvard gave the new position to one of Faust's two co-chairs on the Task Force: Evelyn Hammonds, a professor of the history of science, and of African and African-American studies, who specializes in discerning bias against minority women in science and medicine. (Please do not question how Hammonds's unobstructed rise through the most elite American universities comports with her thesis of pervasive discrimination against black women.)
Should the Board of Overseers confirm Faust, the Senior Vice Provost for Diversity that she created will be even more redundant than before. Expect a constant push for ever greater female and minority
representation throughout the university, backed up by academic "research" showing widespread discrimination against those favored beneficiaries-research unclouded by the fact that women now run many of the nation's most prestigious universities. Unbiased inquiry into why certain groups may not enjoy proportional representation in scientific and technical fields, of the sort that Summers engaged in to his demise, will be even more proscribed. This triumph of feminist ideology is a tragedy not just for Harvard, but for the American academic world, which will undoubtedly follow Harvard's lead in elevating feminist politics to premier intellectual standing.
http://www.city-journal.org/html/eon2007-02-09hm.html
Taken from http://frontpagemag.com/blog/index.asp
Heather Mac Donald
Harvard's Faustian Bargain
America's oldest university selects a dreadful president.
9 February 2007
The feminist takeover of Harvard is imminent. The Harvard Crimson reported yesterday that the university is about to name as its new president Drew Gilpin Faust, dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Harvard's Corporation, which is likely to recommend Faust to the university's Board of Overseers for confirmation, could not have more clearly repudiated Lawrence Summers's all-too-brief reign of meritocracy and academic honesty, or more openly signaled that Harvard will now be the leader in politically correct victimology.
Faust runs one of the most powerful incubators of feminist complaint and nonsensical academic theory in the country. You can count on the Radcliffe Institute's fellows and invited lecturers to proclaim the
"constructed" nature of knowledge, gender, and race, and to decry endemic American sexism and racism. Typical guest speakers include left-wing journalists Susan Faludi and Barbara Ehrenreich. At Radcliffe, Faludi argued that 9/11 had triggered yet another "backlash against feminism," while Ehrenreich lectured on "Weird Science: Challenging Sexist Ideology Since the 1970s." It is received truth among Radcliffe Institute lecturers that obstacles throughout American society block women's progress. Radcliffe speaker Rebecca Walker, for example, has created the "I Spy Sexism" initiative, which asks young women between the ages of 15 and 30 to keep logs of the "sexism, racism, and
homophobia" that they see as they walk down the street or go to a movie.
With typical feminist hypocrisy, Faust has managed to wield massive power even as she rues female powerlessness. She headed the Task Force on Women Faculty, created after the firestorm over Summers's recklessly honest speculations about women in science, that strengthened the feminist hold on faculty hiring and promotions. The Task Force won a $50 million commitment to increase faculty "diversity efforts" at Harvard, notwithstanding that for decades the university has tied itself in knots trying to increase female and black faculty representation. Faust's Task Force also muscled into existence a remarkable new bureaucratic sinecure: the Senior Vice Provost for Diversity and Faculty Development.This new official sits with the president, the provost, and the deans of faculties, in order to push "diversity" quotas in every corner of the university's academic operations. Naturally, Harvard gave the new position to one of Faust's two co-chairs on the Task Force: Evelyn Hammonds, a professor of the history of science, and of African and African-American studies, who specializes in discerning bias against minority women in science and medicine. (Please do not question how Hammonds's unobstructed rise through the most elite American universities comports with her thesis of pervasive discrimination against black women.)
Should the Board of Overseers confirm Faust, the Senior Vice Provost for Diversity that she created will be even more redundant than before. Expect a constant push for ever greater female and minority
representation throughout the university, backed up by academic "research" showing widespread discrimination against those favored beneficiaries-research unclouded by the fact that women now run many of the nation's most prestigious universities. Unbiased inquiry into why certain groups may not enjoy proportional representation in scientific and technical fields, of the sort that Summers engaged in to his demise, will be even more proscribed. This triumph of feminist ideology is a tragedy not just for Harvard, but for the American academic world, which will undoubtedly follow Harvard's lead in elevating feminist politics to premier intellectual standing.
http://www.city-journal.org/html/eon2007-02-09hm.html
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Climate Change
Some articles to think about regarding Climate Change
Its not that I am a global warming skeptic (I do believe it occurs) I just don't believe that the explanations are as cut and dry as most would have you believe...
I also detest dogma...
An experiment that hints we are wrong on climate change
http://timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1363818.ece
by Nigel Gilder - Former Editor of New Scientist
Small plankton and Carbon export from the Sea
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/short/315/5813/838
Rapid Changes in Ice discharge from Greenland Outlet
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/1138478v1
Global Warming time for a heated debate
http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/earticle/1675
Those pesky oceans are cooling
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14944138
Its not that I am a global warming skeptic (I do believe it occurs) I just don't believe that the explanations are as cut and dry as most would have you believe...
I also detest dogma...
An experiment that hints we are wrong on climate change
http://timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1363818.ece
by Nigel Gilder - Former Editor of New Scientist
Small plankton and Carbon export from the Sea
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/short/315/5813/838
Rapid Changes in Ice discharge from Greenland Outlet
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/1138478v1
Global Warming time for a heated debate
http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/earticle/1675
Those pesky oceans are cooling
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14944138
Saturday, February 10, 2007
In the News XXI
Condi Rice states the obvious about Chavez
http://voanews.com/english/2007-02-07-voa60.cfm
Old Hugo is wrecking the country.
Palestinians 'protest'
http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2007/s1844641.htm
Another day another excuse to riot against Israel
Unity government won't recognize Israel
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=123&art_id=qw1171117262329B214
So I guess we are back to square one.
Yesterday man 'Kerry' criticizes Bush
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=2865371
However don't ask the Massachusetts Senator for a workable alternative. He has none.
The Islamic Mein Kampf Video
http://www.terrorismawareness.org/islamic-mein-kampf/
Very Frightening...
http://voanews.com/english/2007-02-07-voa60.cfm
Old Hugo is wrecking the country.
Palestinians 'protest'
http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2007/s1844641.htm
Another day another excuse to riot against Israel
Unity government won't recognize Israel
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=123&art_id=qw1171117262329B214
So I guess we are back to square one.
Yesterday man 'Kerry' criticizes Bush
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=2865371
However don't ask the Massachusetts Senator for a workable alternative. He has none.
The Islamic Mein Kampf Video
http://www.terrorismawareness.org/islamic-mein-kampf/
Very Frightening...
Birth of the Worldohistory Blog
My Worldohistory Blog is alive and well. It has entries covering the fields of American, Ancient, British, European, World, Jewish, Science, Teaching History and WWII. It is updated daily.
Its URL is
http://www.worldohistory.blogspot.com/
Its URL is
http://www.worldohistory.blogspot.com/
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
In the News XX
Dubya's national park investment biggest in history
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/07/AR2007020701192.html
But according to the Mandarins of the Green movement
Bush hates the environment....Mmmmm
Iranian Supreme leader calls for retaliation against Israel
http://breakingnews.iol.ie/news/story.asp?j=209663644&p=zx966435x
...because its so much easier to blame the Jews then solve the problems
in your own country
China takes lead in North Korean crisis
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/2/8/worldupdates/2007-02-07T211007Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_-286654-6&sec=Worldupdates
But are they part of the problem or the solution?
Russia plans new ICBMs, nuclear subs
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/4533723.html
and the Phoenix of the Soviet Union shall arise again.
Garth Turner sells his soul
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/politics/story.html?id=e4afbd45-45d3-4f6c-9eec-c039835d78a8&k=68269
I have always thought of Turner as the right wing version of Sid Ryan.
Both love the publicity.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/07/AR2007020701192.html
But according to the Mandarins of the Green movement
Bush hates the environment....Mmmmm
Iranian Supreme leader calls for retaliation against Israel
http://breakingnews.iol.ie/news/story.asp?j=209663644&p=zx966435x
...because its so much easier to blame the Jews then solve the problems
in your own country
China takes lead in North Korean crisis
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/2/8/worldupdates/2007-02-07T211007Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_-286654-6&sec=Worldupdates
But are they part of the problem or the solution?
Russia plans new ICBMs, nuclear subs
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/4533723.html
and the Phoenix of the Soviet Union shall arise again.
Garth Turner sells his soul
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/politics/story.html?id=e4afbd45-45d3-4f6c-9eec-c039835d78a8&k=68269
I have always thought of Turner as the right wing version of Sid Ryan.
Both love the publicity.
Americans Buy Liverpool FC
I am very optimistic about the prognosis of this move. Fresh finance should help the Reds.
LIVERPOOL, England -- Two storied franchises -- the Montreal Canadiens and Liverpool soccer club -- are coming under the same roof.
Chairman David Moores said yesterday he will sell his 51% stake in the 18-time English champions to George Gillett Jr., owner of the Canadiens, and Tom Hicks, who owns the Dallas Stars. It leaves Liverpool on the verge of becoming the third Premier League club owned by Americans.
The 218.9 million pound (C$509.8 million) offer from Gillett and Hicks includes an agreement to pay off about 45 million pounds (C$104.3 million) of club debt and pledges to build a 60,000-seat stadium.
"I believe this is a great step forward for Liverpool, its shareholders and its fans," said Moores.
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman welcomed the move, saying he saw no problem in rival owners sharing an asset.
"There are plenty of owners in sports who have various business interests together outside of their teams," Bettman said. "We scrutinize all transactions and obviously if there are any transactions between the Stars and Canadiens they will have to be thoroughly scrutinized to make sure that we don't think there are any issues."
"We don't see this as a problem."
"This club is my passion and forms a huge part of my life. After much careful consideration, I have agreed to sell my shares to assist in securing the investment needed for the new stadium and for the playing squad."
Broadcaster ITV said it would also sell its 9.9 per cent stake, and Gillett and Hicks said they had received acceptances from 62.2 per cent of Liverpool's shareholders under the deal worth 5,000 pounds (C$11,644) per share.
The pair need to acquire 90 per cent of the shares through Kop Football Ltd., the British company they formed to launch the bid, before they can compulsorily acquire the rest and assume full control.
If Gillett and Hicks succeed in taking full control, Liverpool would become the third American-owned Premier League club. Malcolm Glazer, who owns the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers, won control of Manchester United in 2005, while Cleveland Browns owner Randy Lerner took over Aston Villa in September.
However, Gillett stressed that the proposed takeover differed from that of Manchester United by Glazer, who borrowed heavily against future earnings to fund his purchase.
"Owning this great franchise is special," he added. "We want to add to that lustre, not detract from that lustre."
The pair would be the co-chairmen of the club, with a son from each man's family on the board. Rick Parry will stay as chief executive and Moores, who has been chairman since 1991, will become lifetime president.
Gillett and Hicks committed themselves to maintaining an annual budget for player transfers, suggesting they may even exceed it, but declined to provide a figure.
Hicks also said they planned to invest in the club's youth academy.
"You need to keep your star players but also develop your young players," Hicks said.
Liverpool said the proposed takeover would be a "great step forward" for a club that has been European champion five times -- more than any other English team -- but last won the league in 1990.
"I feel very excited, it has been a long process," Parry said. "It is about three years since we started so I'm very excited to be bringing it to a conclusion."
The deal announced Tuesday comes a week after a Dubai-based consortium pulled out of a proposed takeover when it discovered that Liverpool was listening to the rival bid.
A solo bid from Gillett was turned down in November in favour of the approach from Dubai International Capital, owned by the ruler of Dubai, Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum.
Gillett renewed his overtures after persuading Hicks to join him when the pair talked at the NHL all-star game on Jan. 24 in Dallas.
Liverpool received clearance from Liverpool City Council in September to build a new 60,000-seat stadium in the city, moving it closer to an exit from the 45,000-capacity Anfield it has used since 1892.
The club confirmed that Gillett and Hicks would finance the move, without giving financial details.
For more go to source:
http://calgarysun.canoe.ca/NewsStand/Sports/Hockey/2007/02/07/3549026-sun.html
LIVERPOOL, England -- Two storied franchises -- the Montreal Canadiens and Liverpool soccer club -- are coming under the same roof.
Chairman David Moores said yesterday he will sell his 51% stake in the 18-time English champions to George Gillett Jr., owner of the Canadiens, and Tom Hicks, who owns the Dallas Stars. It leaves Liverpool on the verge of becoming the third Premier League club owned by Americans.
The 218.9 million pound (C$509.8 million) offer from Gillett and Hicks includes an agreement to pay off about 45 million pounds (C$104.3 million) of club debt and pledges to build a 60,000-seat stadium.
"I believe this is a great step forward for Liverpool, its shareholders and its fans," said Moores.
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman welcomed the move, saying he saw no problem in rival owners sharing an asset.
"There are plenty of owners in sports who have various business interests together outside of their teams," Bettman said. "We scrutinize all transactions and obviously if there are any transactions between the Stars and Canadiens they will have to be thoroughly scrutinized to make sure that we don't think there are any issues."
"We don't see this as a problem."
"This club is my passion and forms a huge part of my life. After much careful consideration, I have agreed to sell my shares to assist in securing the investment needed for the new stadium and for the playing squad."
Broadcaster ITV said it would also sell its 9.9 per cent stake, and Gillett and Hicks said they had received acceptances from 62.2 per cent of Liverpool's shareholders under the deal worth 5,000 pounds (C$11,644) per share.
The pair need to acquire 90 per cent of the shares through Kop Football Ltd., the British company they formed to launch the bid, before they can compulsorily acquire the rest and assume full control.
If Gillett and Hicks succeed in taking full control, Liverpool would become the third American-owned Premier League club. Malcolm Glazer, who owns the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers, won control of Manchester United in 2005, while Cleveland Browns owner Randy Lerner took over Aston Villa in September.
However, Gillett stressed that the proposed takeover differed from that of Manchester United by Glazer, who borrowed heavily against future earnings to fund his purchase.
"Owning this great franchise is special," he added. "We want to add to that lustre, not detract from that lustre."
The pair would be the co-chairmen of the club, with a son from each man's family on the board. Rick Parry will stay as chief executive and Moores, who has been chairman since 1991, will become lifetime president.
Gillett and Hicks committed themselves to maintaining an annual budget for player transfers, suggesting they may even exceed it, but declined to provide a figure.
Hicks also said they planned to invest in the club's youth academy.
"You need to keep your star players but also develop your young players," Hicks said.
Liverpool said the proposed takeover would be a "great step forward" for a club that has been European champion five times -- more than any other English team -- but last won the league in 1990.
"I feel very excited, it has been a long process," Parry said. "It is about three years since we started so I'm very excited to be bringing it to a conclusion."
The deal announced Tuesday comes a week after a Dubai-based consortium pulled out of a proposed takeover when it discovered that Liverpool was listening to the rival bid.
A solo bid from Gillett was turned down in November in favour of the approach from Dubai International Capital, owned by the ruler of Dubai, Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum.
Gillett renewed his overtures after persuading Hicks to join him when the pair talked at the NHL all-star game on Jan. 24 in Dallas.
Liverpool received clearance from Liverpool City Council in September to build a new 60,000-seat stadium in the city, moving it closer to an exit from the 45,000-capacity Anfield it has used since 1892.
The club confirmed that Gillett and Hicks would finance the move, without giving financial details.
For more go to source:
http://calgarysun.canoe.ca/NewsStand/Sports/Hockey/2007/02/07/3549026-sun.html
Monday, February 05, 2007
In the News XIX
Chavez and Calderon of Mexico go head to head
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7165872
No not a WBA title fight - but a fight over the future of Latin American Economics. Lets hope Chavez comes up second.
Rice ripped for avoiding terrorist label on Hamas
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3361187,00.html
And we wonder why so many don't take the war against terror
in the US seriously. Come on Condi wake up....
Hezbollah is up to their old tricks
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,250355,00.html
Another sign of the failure of Lebanon 2006.
More stupidity from a leftwing Israeli
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,2002298,00.html
Arafat was hated by Hamas. Furthermore his regime of corruption did the Palestinians no favour. What Aviney forgets is that the so-called father of the Palestinian people was a key sponsor of terrorism. Long may he rot.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7165872
No not a WBA title fight - but a fight over the future of Latin American Economics. Lets hope Chavez comes up second.
Rice ripped for avoiding terrorist label on Hamas
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3361187,00.html
And we wonder why so many don't take the war against terror
in the US seriously. Come on Condi wake up....
Hezbollah is up to their old tricks
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,250355,00.html
Another sign of the failure of Lebanon 2006.
More stupidity from a leftwing Israeli
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,2002298,00.html
Arafat was hated by Hamas. Furthermore his regime of corruption did the Palestinians no favour. What Aviney forgets is that the so-called father of the Palestinian people was a key sponsor of terrorism. Long may he rot.
Saturday, February 03, 2007
Footer Results - 3rd Feb 2007
Liverpool 0 Everton 0 - Still don't know why Benitez didn't bring on the extra winger. Everton parked the school bus in front of goal (apologies to Mourinho - who might be destined for Real Madrid next year) and held the Reds scoreless.
Craig Bellamy was unlucky to have had what would have been a wonder goal disallowed.
Boro 1 Arsenal 1 - Henry saves face for the Gooners. Reds are still solid in third place.
Charlton 0 Chelsea 1 - Lampard scores to defeat bottomfeeders. Win puts pressure on United who play tomorrow against Spurs.
Blackburn 2 Sheffield 1 - Hughes and co. recover from midweek schlacking at Stamford Bridge.
Watford 0 Bolton 1 - Still no break for the Hornets. Trotters are solid in fifth.
Aston Villa 1 West Ham 0 - Sinking feeling persists in Hammers Camp as Villains win the battle of the Claret and Blue.
Wigan 1 Pompey 0 - Jewell's team wins some breathing room as southsiders sink
Fulham 2 Newcastle 1 - Toons cursed again by inconsistency
Man City 0 Reading 2 - Steve Coppell for manager of the year? Neverrr
Craig Bellamy was unlucky to have had what would have been a wonder goal disallowed.
Boro 1 Arsenal 1 - Henry saves face for the Gooners. Reds are still solid in third place.
Charlton 0 Chelsea 1 - Lampard scores to defeat bottomfeeders. Win puts pressure on United who play tomorrow against Spurs.
Blackburn 2 Sheffield 1 - Hughes and co. recover from midweek schlacking at Stamford Bridge.
Watford 0 Bolton 1 - Still no break for the Hornets. Trotters are solid in fifth.
Aston Villa 1 West Ham 0 - Sinking feeling persists in Hammers Camp as Villains win the battle of the Claret and Blue.
Wigan 1 Pompey 0 - Jewell's team wins some breathing room as southsiders sink
Fulham 2 Newcastle 1 - Toons cursed again by inconsistency
Man City 0 Reading 2 - Steve Coppell for manager of the year? Neverrr
Friday, February 02, 2007
Physics Stories III
String Theory could fall?
http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn11085-new-particle-accelerator-could-rule-out-string-theory.html
I wouldn't bet on it but I imagine that the supporters of Quantum Loop Gravity are looking at this closely
Some assistance in the hunt for Dark Energy
http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn10924-keplers-supernova-may-aid-dark-energy-search.html
Diamond no longer the stiffest substance
http://www.newscientisttech.com/article/dn11093-diamond-loses-its-stiffness-crown-to-new-material.html
beaten by mineral barium titanate and molten tin mixture...drat
A single photon producing a whole image?
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleid=5116CF53-E7F2-99DF-3B64CF41CFBB5B91&chanId=sa026
Now thats one for the mind to ponder - the wonders of slow light technology
Why did matter truimph over antimatter?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/origins/antimatter/index.shtml
This one is far from over. I wonder if dark energy-dark matter-antimatter are all linked somehow.
http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn11085-new-particle-accelerator-could-rule-out-string-theory.html
I wouldn't bet on it but I imagine that the supporters of Quantum Loop Gravity are looking at this closely
Some assistance in the hunt for Dark Energy
http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn10924-keplers-supernova-may-aid-dark-energy-search.html
Diamond no longer the stiffest substance
http://www.newscientisttech.com/article/dn11093-diamond-loses-its-stiffness-crown-to-new-material.html
beaten by mineral barium titanate and molten tin mixture...drat
A single photon producing a whole image?
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleid=5116CF53-E7F2-99DF-3B64CF41CFBB5B91&chanId=sa026
Now thats one for the mind to ponder - the wonders of slow light technology
Why did matter truimph over antimatter?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/origins/antimatter/index.shtml
This one is far from over. I wonder if dark energy-dark matter-antimatter are all linked somehow.
In the News XVIII
Hilary talks tough about Iran
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--clinton-iran0202feb02,0,4997045.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork
Finally its good to see someone wake up the Dems
Hamas vs Fatah
http://today.reuters.com/News/CrisesArticle.aspx?storyId=L02129941&WTmodLoc=IntNewsHome_C4_Crises-4
Is this a sneak preview of how a future Palestinian state will function?
More delusions from Chavez
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20070202-0330-venezuela-us.html
My prediction is that within a year or so Venezuela will be an economic basket case.
Castro is still alive...barely
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N30381975.htm
2 to 1 odds on him outlasting Dubya's presidency
Sharpton takes Biden to task on remark
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16941976/
I wonder if the hypocrisy advice that Sharpton received on the Glenn Beck show
last night forced the good Rev. to act?
Hilary ahead of Obama amongst Black Voters
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/nation/4520064.html
Obama may be more popular with the White Middle Class though? This could be a very interesting runoff...
Looks like Obama is positioning himself as the main anti-war candidate as well
http://news.yahoo.com/s/thenation/20070201/cm_thenation/15162299
Ten Years in and the scandals start piling up..More problems for Blair
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/story.html?id=3d458e37-1c34-4240-8ff9-c8b81c99c067&k=25687
Will Labour ditch Tony soon than we think?
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--clinton-iran0202feb02,0,4997045.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork
Finally its good to see someone wake up the Dems
Hamas vs Fatah
http://today.reuters.com/News/CrisesArticle.aspx?storyId=L02129941&WTmodLoc=IntNewsHome_C4_Crises-4
Is this a sneak preview of how a future Palestinian state will function?
More delusions from Chavez
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20070202-0330-venezuela-us.html
My prediction is that within a year or so Venezuela will be an economic basket case.
Castro is still alive...barely
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N30381975.htm
2 to 1 odds on him outlasting Dubya's presidency
Sharpton takes Biden to task on remark
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16941976/
I wonder if the hypocrisy advice that Sharpton received on the Glenn Beck show
last night forced the good Rev. to act?
Hilary ahead of Obama amongst Black Voters
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/nation/4520064.html
Obama may be more popular with the White Middle Class though? This could be a very interesting runoff...
Looks like Obama is positioning himself as the main anti-war candidate as well
http://news.yahoo.com/s/thenation/20070201/cm_thenation/15162299
Ten Years in and the scandals start piling up..More problems for Blair
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/story.html?id=3d458e37-1c34-4240-8ff9-c8b81c99c067&k=25687
Will Labour ditch Tony soon than we think?
Ten A's that I like
(Not in order)
1. Astrophysics/Astronomy - Form the basis for my book 'A History of the Future'. I have owned a reflecting telescope since 1985. Only regret is that I haven't had time to use it lately. Special Interest: Future Evolution of the Universe.
2. Alexander the Great - Arguably the greatest military general of all-time. A relatively tolerant conqueror he helped spread Greek rationality eastward.
3. Amadeus - Middle Name of Wolfgang Mozart - one of music's true geniuses.
4. Aleinu - My favourite Hebrew prayer.
5. Aircraft - especially those of the World War II era.
6. Astral Travel - The idea fascinates me despite the doubt about its reality.
7. Algebra - What can I say its relaxes me. Bizarre isn't it...
8. Ancient History - A personal study and a course that I was very fortunate to design and teach for three years.
9. Australia - One of the few countries with a backbone in the war against terror.
10. Asthma Spray - A device that has kept me alive all these years.
1. Astrophysics/Astronomy - Form the basis for my book 'A History of the Future'. I have owned a reflecting telescope since 1985. Only regret is that I haven't had time to use it lately. Special Interest: Future Evolution of the Universe.
2. Alexander the Great - Arguably the greatest military general of all-time. A relatively tolerant conqueror he helped spread Greek rationality eastward.
3. Amadeus - Middle Name of Wolfgang Mozart - one of music's true geniuses.
4. Aleinu - My favourite Hebrew prayer.
5. Aircraft - especially those of the World War II era.
6. Astral Travel - The idea fascinates me despite the doubt about its reality.
7. Algebra - What can I say its relaxes me. Bizarre isn't it...
8. Ancient History - A personal study and a course that I was very fortunate to design and teach for three years.
9. Australia - One of the few countries with a backbone in the war against terror.
10. Asthma Spray - A device that has kept me alive all these years.
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