The Western Word

This Week's Editorial

WHY THE DARWIN DEBATES?
By Avi Davis

This is a quote from the latest issue of Rolling Stone Magazine:

“ When I ask Lemmy if he has a positive or negative view of humanity, he doesn’t hesitate: “ Oh, negative. Human nature is to blame for everything, innit? We’re just a disease on this planet. Its going to shrug us off like crabs. Its too late anyway, with what we have done to the environment. Our kids are gone be wearing gas masks. We’re all gonna fry. “

Earlier, while discussing drugs, he expressed similar sentiments. “ There’s a lot of sh-t talked about what’s bad for you, especially in America. Everyone wants to be safe. Well, I got news for you: You can’t be safe. Life’s not safe. Your work isn’t safe. When you leave the house, it isn’t safe. The air you breathe isn’t going to be safe, not for very long. That’s why you have to enjoy the moment.”

This little piece of ersatz existential philosophy issues from the mouth of Lemmy Kilmister, the lead guitarist of heavy metal band Motörhead. The 63-year -old guitarist, according to the article, drinks a bottle of Jack Daniels a day, consorts proudly with prostitutes and lives in an apartment festooned with original Nazi paraphernalia.

Motörhead, for those who don’t know, was and is one of the original heavy metal bands, formed in 1975, playing a version of hard core thrash metal that was the predecessor to punk rock. Now it would come as little surprise to those who know something about rock culture, that a character of Lemmy Kilmister’s orientation and milieu would be a nihilist who has little patience for exploring purpose and meaning in life. His sense of alienation and fatalism might be said to be typical of a world-weary rock star who has spent most of his adult life seeking gratification from loud music, women, bottles, pills and needles.

Lemmy Klimister might be a jaded rock star, but don’t think that his negative narcissism and rejection of human exceptionalism is restricted to his goth rock contemporaries or that his interview is a mere reflection of the magazine’s penchant for showcasing outlaw personalities. The same issue of Rolling Stone features an article which bombastically claims that every ocean on the planet is filled to the brim with floating plastic - the result of human degradation of our environment; It is followed by an interview with Madonna, who insists, after one of the most lascivious careers in pop history, that changing one’s identity on a regular basis is healthy recipe for human contentment; and then another full length article which parades the old trope that our real enemies are not lurking in caves on the Afghan-Pakistan border but in the Pentagon.

Well, you say, it IS Rolling Stone, the flagship of the counterculture. What do you expect?

Yes, its Rolling Stone, but if you think these views and attitudes reflect only a thin current in the underground press you are wrong. Those attitudes have, in one way or another, percolated into our social vocabulary, into our attitudes toward government, into our suspicion of religious thought and practice, into the television programs we watch , into the nightly news we view and into our academies of learning.

Rolling Stone, in other words, is an underground paper no longer. It is the voice of the mainstream.

There can be little doubt that this self loathing, fatalism and nihilism has derived from the increasing distance the West has placed between itself and the foundational idea of our civilization - that human life has both purpose and meaning. The rapid secularization of our culture , which followed the Enlightenment and the French Revolution, the scientific discoveries which built upon Newtonian mechanics and the increasing role that rationalism and science have played in forming our understanding our world , have turned us away from exploring intentionality and purpose as key matters concerning our existence. The question of ‘why are we here?’ posed so adamantly by Aristotle, Plato and some of the greatest philosophical minds in history is today so loaded with angst, so distant from the focus of modern scientific inquiry, so dangerously pregnant with the threat of violating the boundaries between ‘Church and state’, that few dare openly contemplate it.

There is also no doubt that 150 years ago, the Darwinian intellectual revolution played a key role in this transformation. Darwin himself knew that his theory of evolution by natural selection would spur a burgeoning atheistic movement and that if his theory gained hold, there would be no turning back. For if natural processes alone, devoid of an intelligent mind or force, were responsible for life on earth , then the notion of a God , responsible for the creation and management of all life forms, could be dispensed with.

The neo- Darwinists, those who have inherited the mantle of the Darwinist thought, passed down from Thomas Huxley, via Herbert Spencer through the Scopes Trial and on toward our own time, have adopted the atheistic tradition, which has marched in step with Darwinism in its crusade to transform our understanding of the origins and development of life. Thus when Richard Dawkins, Darwin’s staunchest modern defender claims,
“ Darwin makes it possible to become an intellectually fulfilled atheist,” he is really stating that he was now free of any obligation to contemplate purpose and meaning for existence. Darwin had fixed it so that the question itself would have little impact on our appreciation of the mechanics of the universe – and that the investigation itself had become meaningless.

Today our magazines, television programs, scientific journals, academies and even our political culture are suffused with notions which on the one hand, avoid entirely the question of meaning in life and on the other, deride the attempt to grapple with it as an atavism, belonging to an age devoid of rationality. In the process, of course, they also castigate humanity as the source of the earth’s problems, reject democracy as a force for good in encouraging the spread of human liberty, deny the absolute sanctity of human life and brazenly promote rampant sexual license. The gradual secularization of our society has betokened a break with fundamental notions which underlie civilizational values. Western civilization, in short, is rapidly ceasing to believe in itself.

Did Darwin intend to wreak such a wholesale transformation of society? Probably not. But the consequences are nevertheless with us and they are profound.

Need examples? Here is Peter Singer, renowned Princeton professor and philosopher:

“ The life a new born baby is of less value than the life of a pig, dog or chimpanzee. All we are doing is catching up with Darwin. He showed us in the 19th Century that we are simply animals. Humans assumed we were a separate part of creation and that there was some kind of magical line between Us and Them. Darwin’s theory eradicated the foundations of that entire Western way of thinking about our species.”

Or Nobel Laureate, Steven Weinberg:

“ The more the universe seems comprehensible, the more it seems pointless.”

Or the Texas biologist Erik Pianka

:” We are no better and have no more rights to life than bacteria”

(Pianka famously advocated, at a public lecture at St. Andrews University in 2006, that over population in the world should be addressed by the deliberate spread of the ebola virus which could effectively eradicate 90% of humanity)

Or this slice of ineluctable pop culture wisdom from the Bloodhound Gang:

“ You and me baby ain’t nothin’ but mammals
So lets do it like the do (it) on the Discovery Channel.”

Given the shrinking acceptance of human exceptionalism and the belief that human beings are on par with every other feature of nature, is it really any wonder that the Spanish legislature has recently passed a statute which extends certain human rights to apes; that Ecuador’s new constitution extends legal rights to the environment or that Switzerland allows biologists to be prosecuted for conducting research on plants which have been illegally harvested – the suits being brought on behalf of the plants themselves.

It is also not such a stretch to claim that the gradual erosion of the belief in man’s uniqueness has contributed to the spread of a radicalism, with its roots steeped in 60s liberation politics, which has redefined culture in the direction of emancipation, experimentation and the casting off of traditional assumptions abut family, education and sex. The social thrust of our age is to emphasize that human beings, with no purpose nor reason for existence, should, as the Nike ad says “just do it” - satisfying any urge for individual gratification or personal fulfillment, regardless of the social costs.

But even as the movement to debunk human purpose spreads, enormous gaps in Darwinian theory continue to be exposed. In the field of micro-biology, the investigation of cellular structure has revealed DNA, the informational building block of the universe, to be so complex as to be almost beyond human understanding; In geology and paleontology, the sudden appearance of species without a discovered ancestry, continues to perplex ( just as it did Darwin in the instance of the Cambrian Explosion); in astrophysics, big bang theorists are unable to approach their subject without embracing some level of cosmology which suggests purpose. As science probes deeper into the origins of the universe, the questions themselves about ultimate cause and development of life grow more confounding and complex.

Perhaps at the root of this issue is not we know of the world and the universe, but rather what we don’t. As humans have increasingly developed theories and tools to probe the universe’s deepest secrets, we are correspondingly confronted with the frustrating awareness that the human mind may not be capable of grasping the deepest mysteries of the universe’s beginnings. This notion, that we simply can’t know everything, that we are too limited and too restricted by our physiognomy to appreciate the physical and metaphysical dimensions of the universe, is apostasy to the scientific community. That is because over the past 150 years that community has elevated the human mind as the supreme arbiter of universal knowledge and truth – with science to be employed as its ultimate barometer.

But hubris and self reverence will never serve us humans well in advancing science or increasing our understanding of the mechanisms of the universe. We should never forget that Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, were among our first scientists but, as they would have defiantly underlined themselves - they were philosophers first, concerned as much with why things work, as with questions of how. The great tragedy of our age is that we have lost the desire, and perhaps even the ability, to ask why. And that failure may leave us vulnerable to the assault of ideologies and movements that have no problem in asking that question and offering answers that are at complete odds with our views on the sanctity of human life and the necessity for human progress.

The AFA Darwin Debates, to be held in the month celebrating the 150th anniversary of the publication of Origin of the Species, is, then, an attempt to bring the question of purpose and intentionality back into public discussion. It is not, frankly, important to us whether a God (or Gods) emerges from the debates as the source of universe’s laws and their application. Nor is it our desire to discredit evolutionary theory which we believe has played an enormously important role in elevating our understanding and appreciation of our origins. But we are concerned that without such a debate, without informed discussion which embraces a range of options for understanding life, we run the risk of allowing our civilization to slide into a swamp of intellectual and spiritual stagnation, convinced that we are a blight on this earth and that we have no more reason for living than trees, stones or birds.

Nothing, in the end, can be more deadly to a civilization than its own recognition that it has no reason for being.
Yet while we struggle with these issues, we shouldn’t forget that the certainty that there is a purpose to life, is really not so far behind us. Afterall, Lemmy Klimister’s father was a vicar.

Avi Davis is the President of the American Freedom Alliance.

Want to comment on this article? See Avi Davis’ blog
Avi Davis is the president of the American Freedom Alliance in Los Angeles. He can be contacted at isdev@ix.netcom.com

Terror Without Preconditions
by Robert Spencer

Last Thursday, National Security Adviser General James L. Jones declared that nothing was going to stand in the way of the creation of a Palestinian state. Speaking of the Israel-Palestinian conflict at the Fourth Annual Gala of the American Task Force on Palestine, Jones said, “The time has come...to relaunch negotiations without preconditions to reach a final status agreement on two states.” Jones emphasized the President’s personal commitment to this resolution: “President Obama’s dedication to achieve these goals is unshaken, is committed, and we will be relentless in our pursuit of achieving these.” “Without preconditions.” It was a telling indication of how far the Obama presidency has departed from the ringing declarations of Obama the candidate, who stated in a major address to the American Israel Political Action Committee (AIPAC) on June 4, 2008 that “we must isolate Hamas unless and until they renounce terrorism, recognize Israel’s right to exist, and abide by past agreements. There is no room at the negotiating table for terrorist organizations.” He even said that “the Palestinian people must understand that progress will not come through the false prophets of extremism or the corrupt use of foreign aid.” (Humanevents)

Mass. Man Charged With Alleged Terror Plot to Attack U.S. Shopping Malls-Fox News
A 27-year-old Massachusetts man has been charged with conspiring with others to support and plan violent jihad in and outside the United States, including terror plots to attack U.S. shopping malls and U.S. military in Iraq. Federal officials in Boston say Tarek Mehanna of Sudbury worked with others from 2001 to May of 2008 to provide support and resources in a conspiracy to "kill, kidnap, main or injure" people in foreign countries and to kill prominent U.S. politicians. Mehanna was charged in a complaint with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, according to the Department of Justice. The complaint further alleges that the co-conspirators attempted to radicalize others and inspire each other by, among other things, watching and distributing jihadi videos. The charges accuse the suspects of talking about their desire to participate in Islamist holy war and of their desire to die on the battlefield. The case comes less than a month after an Afghan-born man, Najibullah Zazi, was accused of plotting a bomb attack against the United States. (Foxnews)

Terrorist plot unravels at rural Oregon ranch-Les Zaitz, The Oregonian
Oussama Kassir, a self-proclaimed al-Qaida tough guy, flew into a rage after his late-night arrival at a remote Oregon ranch. The barren rangeland, suggestive of Afghanistan, was to become an Islamic fighter training base. Kassir expected to be welcomed by Muslim recruits, eager to learn the ways of war. Instead, he got an Islamic leader from Seattle, a mentally impaired 18-year-old and two women more interested in canning jars than jihad. Kassir expected access to a weapons armory. He got one pistol and a .22-caliber rifle. The events that led to the effort 10 years ago to establish a jihad camp outside Bly have been well-chronicled. But testimony and exhibits from Kassir's trial in New York provide the fullest account to date of what went on behind the gates of the Dog Cry Ranch. What emerges from the trial record is an almost comic account of passwords, night patrols and target practice. Jihad, it seems, couldn't take root alongside the sagebrush and weeds that greeted Kassir. Kassir recently was sentenced to life in prison for his effort, and his two partners in the enterprise are awaiting extradition to the U.S. The whole set up was in fact a hustle by a petty crook from Seattle named James Ujaama. (Theoregonian)

French high court quashes Islamic finance measure-AFP/Expatica
France's highest constitutional authority on Wednesday struck down a provision of a new law that would have opened up French banking to Islamic finance.
The National Assembly last month adopted the measure to allow Sharia-compliant financing despite opposition from the Socialists who asked the Constitutional Council to rule on its legality. Opposition deputies had complained that staunchly secular France must not allow principles of Sharia law to be recognized in legislation. The measure would have provided a legal basis for Islamic "sukuk" bonds, which are asset-based and do not pay interest. Investors receive coupons corresponding to part of the profits earned by the asset underpinning the bond. Under Sharia law, making money by means such as charging interest is not permitted and investment in companies involved in alcohol, gambling and tobacco is strictly off limits.
The Constitutional Council ruled that the provision should not have been lumped into a broader bill on financing for medium and small businesses as it was a separate issue. (Expatica)

"Honour Violence" - A Threat To Immigrant Women
Immigrant women in Finland are increasingly the victims of violence perpetrated in the name of family honour. In Helsinki, twice as many immigrant women have sought protection this year from violence than in previous years. Nasima Razmyar, who herself came to Finland as a refugee from Afghanistan, has been taking in growing numbers of immigrant women and girls at the Monika House shelter in Helsinki's Sörnäinen district. Some of these women have been forced into marriages, some beaten for disobedience or even threatened with death. This year, within just six months more than 30 women have sought refuge from honour violence at the facility. That is as many as during the whole of last year. As the coordinator at Monika House, Nasima Razmyar has the impression that the rise can be explained by growing numbers of women of marriageable age. "Second generation immigrants are at just the age, around twenty and marriageable, when the situation starts being strongly seen," says Razmyar. Honour violence involves the subjugation of a woman within some ethnic groups carried out with the intent of controlling her sexual behaviour. (Yle.fi)

Mother describes final day with 'honour killing' schoolgirl Tulay Goren-David Brown
A tearful mother described yesterday the angry final conversation she had with her daughter shortly before the schoolgirl was allegedly murdered by her father in an “honour” killing. Hanim Goren told the Old Bailey that she was still cross with Tulay, 15, for disgracing their Turkish Kurd family by briefly running away to live with a boyfriend twice her age. The housewife said her husband, Mehmet Goren, ordered her to leave the family home in Woodford Green, northeast London, because he wanted to be alone with Tulay as “they had things to talk about”. As Mrs Goren, 45, left the house in January 1999 she had a final conversation with her daughter, the court heard. The schoolgirl has not been seen since. “I was very angry and very cross with her,” she told the court through a Turkish interpreter. “I said, ‘I will not halal [sic] the milk I fed you with and all my labour as your mother’.” Her husband then turned to their youngest son, Tuncay, then 8, and said: “Come, let Tulay kiss you. This will be the last time you see each other,” (Timesonline.co.uk)

Muslims Call for Sharia in Britain-R. CORT KIRKWOOD
Britons learned last week that thousands of the nation’s Muslims will descend upon London to publicly protest for the implementation of Sharia or Islamic law. The Islamic dervish, according to the Daily Express, is called the March 4 Islam and will take place later this month. Its sponsor is a radical outfit called Islam 4 UK, which is led by a friend of terrorism, Muslim imam Anjem Choudary. For Islam 4 UK, Britain must change to suit Muslims; Muslims must not change to suit Britain. The group calls the House of Commons, where the parade will start, the “very place where the lives of millions of people in the UK are changed and it is from here where unjust wars are launched.” Next, the Muslims will head for 10 Downing Street, the home of the British Prime Minister, to “call for the removal of the tyrant Gordon Brown from power.” Finally, the paper reports, Londoners will see this army of Allah at Trafalgar Square to show “in the heart of London the need for Shari’ah in society.” “We hereby request all Muslims in the United Kingdom …,” the group says, “to join us and collectively declare that as submitters to Almighty Allah, we have had enough of democracy and man-made law and the depravity of the British culture. On this day we will call for a complete upheaval of the British ruling system its members and legislature, and demand the full implementation of Shari’ah in Britain.” (Thenewamerican)

Academia Goes Silent on Free Speech-Peter Berkowitz
Yale's decision to censor anti-Muslim cartoons deserved a thoughtful debate. We didn't get one.
Professors have a professional interest in—indeed a professional duty to uphold—liberty of thought and discussion. But in recent years, precisely where they should be most engaged and outspoken they have been apathetic and inarticulate. Consider Yale. On Oct. 1, the university hosted Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard. His drawing of Muhammad with a bomb in his turban became the best known of 12 cartoons published by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in September 2005. That led to deadly protests throughout the Muslim world. On the same day, at an unrelated event, Yale hosted Brandeis Prof. Jytte Klausen. Her new book, "The Cartoons that Shook the World," was subject in August to a last minute prepublication decision by Yale President Richard Levin and Yale University Press to remove not only the 12 cartoons but also all representations of Muhammad, including respected works of art. The Westergaard appearance inspired protests. Muslim students condemned Yale's invitation to the cartoonist as religiously and racially insensitive, compared him to Holocaust deniers and white supremacists, and declared his art and utterances hate speech rather than free speech. (WSJ)

The Hate Campaign at Temple – by David Horowitz
Everywhere you look these days Americans’ most basic freedom is under attack by the jihadists of the international left. The infamous UN Human Rights Commission which includes the worst human rights violators on the planet (now joined by the Obama Administration) has recently passed a resolution against religious defamation — defined as linking Islamists to terrorism. At home Democrats have attached a “hate crimes” amendment which would make thinking a crime to the new defense appropriations bill. Radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh has been banned from owning a National Football League team on the grounds that he is a conservative and conservatives are hateful. And at Temple students who have invited one of the most important international figures in the fight against Islamic terrorism are being attacked by the Muslim Students Association [1] on the grounds that his speech is going to be “hateful.” I myself was scheuled to speak at St. Louis University a Catholic college next Friday but was banned by administrators when supporters of the jihad claimed that my speech would insult Muslims. (Frontpagemagazine)

MEDIA BIAS

Media Matters & President Obama in Lockstep- Kyle-Anne Shiver
Revival of right-wing conspiracy charges are all the rage in the age of Obama, but liberals are just playing the same old shell game. The real action is on the left, with lockstep collusion by the President with Soros-funded Media Matters. While the President sends his surrogates onto national network programs to decry Fox News, Media Matters is behind the scenes working its Fight Fox campaign. Media Matters' president, Eric Burns, sent out the Fight Fox campaign announcement to supporters on September 17 and explained why Fox had to be driven out of the national political conversation
Translation: Fox is a thorn in the side of the Chavez-minded leftists.
"Since President Obama's inauguration, Fox News has officially abandoned its already dubious standing as a news organization and is now engaging in outright political activism, completing its transition into the 24/7 media wing of the far-right conservative movement." (Americanthinker)

Taking On the 'Democrat-Media Complex'-James Taranto
The conservative Internet entrepreneur on bringing down Acorn, Hollywood liberals, and embarrassing the mainstream media.
Hollywood
Dressing up as a pimp and prostitute in order to seek Acorn's help in starting a child sex-slavery ring wasn't Andrew Breitbart's idea. But without the Internet entrepreneur's flair for publicity, the hidden-camera sting might not have produced such impressive results. Within days of his publishing the video exposé, government agencies were cutting ties with the left-wing advocacy and community-organizing group, Congress was voting to end its federal funding, and news organizations were rushing to catch up with a sensational story they had initially resisted or ignored. James O'Keefe, the 25-year-old aspiring filmmaker who played the pimp in the Acorn meetings, came to Mr. Breitbart in early August with his videos. They showed Mr. O'Keefe and his putative partner in crime, 20-year-old Hannah Giles, asking Acorn counselors for advice on how to evade the authorities while setting up a business offering the sexual services of underage girls smuggled into the U.S. from El Salvador. (WSJ)

Judge attacks stifling of free speech and 'libel tourism' - Steve Doughty
The Lord Chief Justice yesterday delivered a sharp warning to judges not to trespass on the freedoms of Parliament. Lord Judge, who acts as the figurehead for the judiciary, said it was a 'fundamental principle' that the courts should not try to interfere with what MPs do and say. And he called for new laws to rein in the powers of judges in libel cases, saying he was 'not proud' that the restrictive rulings of British courts have made London the world capital for so-called libel tourism. The warning from Lord Judge, the most senior judge in England and Wales, came after a series of scandals surrounding judicial decisions which have widened privacy and libel laws. Last week a judge angered MPs by granting an injunction to oil industry company Trafigura which prevented any mention of its activities. The ban included suppression of a question asked in Parliament by a Labour MP. This was highly unusual because Parliament is supposed to enjoy absolute privilege, meaning that all statements made within it are free from prosecution for defamation. (Dailymail.co.uk)

Dutch Anti-Islam Politician Sparks Protests in London-Spiegel Online
Geert Wilders, the Dutch populist politician known for his anti-Islam remarks, said his success in overturning a ban on entry to the United Kingdom was a victory for freedom of speech. Muslim protesters demonstrated against his arrival, waving banners reading "Wilders go to hell." Geert Wilders, the leader of the Dutch Freedom Party and the man behind a film linking the Koran to violence, arrived in London on Friday after a ban prohibiting him from traveling to Britain was overturned earlier this week. Police created a barrier between Wilders' car and a group calling itself "Islam in the UK" as a handful of protesters waved banners reading "Shariah for the Netherlands" and shouted "Wilders go to Hell" and "Muslims rise up," Reuters reported. The travel ban was imposed on Wilders in February because some in the British government were concerned that his presence could trigger violence. (Spiegelonline)

Feminism's freedom fighter-PATT MORRISON ASKS | AYAAN HIRSI ALI
Ayaan Hirsi Ali has put her life on the line to defend women against radical Islam. For five years she's lived under the threat of death from Islamic radicals, and in those five years, she has become an acclaimed and provocative author on matters about Islam and the West. Ayaan Hirsi Ali was born into a Somali Muslim family and eventually made her way to the Netherlands as a refugee. There she wrote a screenplay for a short film about women's treatment under Islam. Just over two months after it aired, the filmmaker Theo van Gogh was assassinated. A letter threatening Ali's life has meant she has lived under guard ever since -- most recently thanks to a fund set up by private donors. Controversy follows her: In 2006, she resigned from the Netherlands parliament under fire for lying on her asylum papers; the complex charges and countercharges precipitated a Dutch political upheaval. She now works for the conservative American Enterprise Institute, which is headquartered in Washington. She established her AHA foundation to defend the rights of women in the West against militant Islam. Her autobiography, "Infidel: My Life," which detailed her own genital mutilation in Somalia, was a bestseller, and her next book, "Nomad," is to be published in February. (LAT)

Rights Watchdog, Lost in the Mideast-Robert L. Bernstein
AS the founder of Human Rights Watch, its active chairman for 20 years and now founding chairman emeritus, I must do something that I never anticipated: I must publicly join the group’s critics. Human Rights Watch had as its original mission to pry open closed societies, advocate basic freedoms and support dissenters. But recently it has been issuing reports on the Israeli-Arab conflict that are helping those who wish to turn Israel into a pariah state. At Human Rights Watch, we always recognized that open, democratic societies have faults and commit abuses. But we saw that they have the ability to correct them — through vigorous public debate, an adversarial press and many other mechanisms that encourage reform. That is why we sought to draw a sharp line between the democratic and nondemocratic worlds, in an effort to create clarity in human rights. We wanted to prevent the Soviet Union and its followers from playing a moral equivalence game with the West and to encourage liberalization by drawing attention to dissidents like Andrei Sakharov, Natan Sharansky and those in the Soviet gulag — and the millions in China’s laogai, or labor camps. When I stepped aside in 1998, Human Rights Watch was active in 70 countries, most of them closed societies. Now the organization, with increasing frequency, casts aside its important distinction between open and closed societies. (NYT)

Even perfidy is now gutless in Albion-Melanie Phillips
It appears that these days Albion doesn’t even have the courage to admit to its perfidiousness. The UN Human Rights Council last week voted overwhelmingly to condemn Israel for war crimes on the back of the Goldstone report. This was hardly a surprise, given that Goldstone – whatever his protestations since – was given a brief by the Israel-bashing UNHRC specifically premised on the advance condemnation of Israel for committing the war crimes the evidence of which his ‘fact-finding mission’ was ostensibly supposed to discover. As has been detailed in previous posts, his report was a travesty of justice, recycling as fact the unverified propaganda of Hamas and its patsies in the NGO world, ignoring the most heinous crimes of Hamas while giving a spurious air of even-handedness by condemning it just a little, and most disgustingly of all accusing Israel of deliberately trying to harm the civilian population of Gaza during Operation Cast Lead. Having thus obtained its objective, the demonisation of Israel in Gaza, the UNHRC duly voted to endorse the Goldstone report and send it on to the UN Security Council. (Spectator.co.uk)

How Turkey was lost-Caroline Glick
Once the apotheosis of a pro-Western, dependable Muslim democracy, this week Turkey officially left the Western alliance and became a full member of the Iranian axis. It isn't that Ankara's behavior changed fundamentally in recent days. There is nothing new in its massive hostility toward Israel and its effusive solicitousness toward the likes of Syria and Hamas. Since the Islamist AKP party first won control over the Turkish government in the 2002 elections, led by AKP chairman Recip Tayyip Erdogan, the Turks have incrementally and inexorably moved the formerly pro-Western Muslim democracy into the radical Islamist camp populated by the likes of Iran, Syria, Hizbullah, al-Qaida and Hamas. What made Turkey's behavior this week different from its behavior in recent months and years is that its attacks were concentrated, unequivocal and undeniable for everyone outside of Israel's scandalously imbecilic and flagellant media. Until this week, both Israel and the US were quick to make excuses for Ankara. When in 2003 the AKP-dominated Turkish parliament prohibited US forces from invading Iraq through Kurdistan, the US blamed itself. Rather than get angry at Turkey, the Bush administration argued that its senior officials had played the diplomatic game poorly. (Carolineglick.com)

TERRORISM, security and policy

At least six killed in Pakistan as suicide bombs shatter Islamabad campus-Zahid Hussain and Jeremy Page
Two suicide bomb attacks killed six people on a university campus in the Pakistani capital yesterday as the Taleban retook a key town from the army in the militant stronghold of South Waziristan. One of the bombers blew himself up outside a girls’ cafeteria during the lunch break at the International Islamic University on the outskirts of Islamabad. The other struck a faculty building on the same campus. At least two female students were among the dead. It was the latest in a series of militant attacks over the past two weeks but the first since Pakistani security forces launched a ground assault against Taleban and al-Qaeda sanctuaries in South Waziristan on Saturday. “It seems that [militant] sympathisers or collaborators are doing this to divert attention from the military operation,” Anwar Hussain Siddiqui. the university’s president, said. “They are trying to create panic in the capital city.” Rehman Malik, the Interior Minister, said that the bombings were in retaliation for the long-awaited military operation. “The militants are testing our nerves,” Mr Malik said. The Government ordered the closure of schools in all the major cities last week after intelligence reports that the militants could attack educational institutions. (Timesonline.co.uk)

Civilian Courts Are No Place to Try Terrorists-MICHAEL B. MUKASEY
We tried the first World Trade Center bombers in civilian courts. In return we got 9/11 and the murder of nearly 3,000 innocents.
The Obama administration has said it intends to try several of the prisoners now detained at Guantanamo Bay in civilian courts in this country. This would include Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, and other detainees allegedly involved. The Justice Department claims that our courts are well suited to the task. Based on my experience trying such cases, and what I saw as attorney general, they aren't. That is not to say that civilian courts cannot ever handle terrorist prosecutions, but rather that their role in a war on terror—to use an unfashionably harsh phrase—should be, as the term "war" would suggest, a supporting and not a principal role. The challenges of a terrorism trial are overwhelming. (WSJ)

What Is Victory?-Andrew C. McCarthy
If defeating the Taliban is not our goal, what is? Rarely has there been such a dramatic disconnect between rhetoric and reality. On Afghanistan, the national-security Right talks about “victory,” concerned Democrats talk about “success,” and Obama allies such as Sen. John Kerry talk about the “fulfillment of our mission.” They aren’t talking about the same thing. The somnolent press is content to court, rather than clarify, this confusion, but that’s no reason for the rest of us to go along for the ride. What is “victory” or “success”? What is this “mission” of ours that must be fulfilled? Staunch supporters of our military are seething as President Obama dithers over Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s request for an additional 40,000 troops. Their frustration would be justifiable if the main issue were Obama’s inconstancy. Months ago, the president endorsed the counterinsurgency strategy of McChrystal, his hand-picked commander. Now, he is balking. (Nationalreview)

U.N. Report Demands Repeal of Counterterrorism Laws to Promote 'Gender Equality'- Joseph Abrams
In case you weren't sure, human gender is "changeable over time and contexts," sex slaves must not be "stigmatized" for their work, and it's important to recognize the role of "transgender and intersex individuals as stakeholders" in counterterrorism policy. Those are some of the conclusions of a United Nations report on counterterrorism that is intended to promote human rights — but that critics say is designed to redefine gender and hamstring actual counterterror efforts. Martin Scheinin, a special rapporteur for the U.N.'s Human Rights Council, filed his report in August after six months of studying the "complex relationship between gender equality and countering terrorism." Scheinin recommends a radical reworking of counterterrorism policies, insisting that the U.N.'s member nations "abandon the 'war paradigm'" and "enshrine the principles of gender-equality and non-discrimination in the design and implementation of all counter-terrorism measures."
Among his proposals:
• "Repeal all counter-terrorism measures" that sanction the ill-treatment of women and children as a way to put pressure on terror suspects within their families.
• Loosen terror financing laws to ensure "safe and effective channels for funding ... of organizations devoted to gender equality"
• "Repeal restrictive immigration controls" that violate human rights by "unduly penalizing transgender persons whose personal appearance and data are subject to change" as their "self-defined gender identity" changes.
Critics say the suggestions are part of an "absolutely insane" agenda at the U.N. that too often seems intent on undermining efforts to blot out terrorism across the globe. (Foxnews)

‘Climate Conference’ in Copenhagen Could Spell Disaster for U.S. Sovereignty-Alan Caruba
Not long ago UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, told everyone they only had a few weeks in order to save the Earth from “climate change” and this week it’s the Prime Minister of Great Britain, Gordon Brown.
Ever since he was Vice President and a defeated candidate for the presidency, Al Gore has been telling people the Earth is doomed. President Obama talks about climate change – remember when it used to be global warming? – and will no doubt sign the treaty coming out of a “climate” conference in Copenhagen in December. The real problem will be whether the Senate will ratify it because, if it does, the U.S. Constitution will be nullified in favor of a global government. Ever since the first United Nations conference on “global warming” the only goal has been to establish a global government so that the “leaders” could grow wealthy while the rest of mankind is treated like cattle. Why would anyone believe anything as preposterous as the claims being made regarding global warming or climate change? Consider what happens when climate and natural events occur? (Familysecuritymatters)

Thatcher adviser: Copenhagen goal is 1-world government-Jerome R. Corsi
'Global warming' to be used as 'pretext' for 'change'
A former science adviser to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher says the real purpose of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen on Dec. 7-18 is to use global warming hype as a pretext to lay the foundation for a one-world government. "At [the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in] Copenhagen this December, weeks away, a treaty will be signed," Lord Christopher Monckton told a Minnesota Free Market Institute audience on Thursday at Bethel University in St. Paul."Your president will sign it. Most of the Third World countries will sign it, because they think they're going to get money out of it. Most of the left-wing regimes from the European Union will rubber stamp it. Virtually nobody won't sign it," he told the audience of some 700 attendees. "I read that treaty and what it says is this: that a world government is going to be created. The word 'government' actually appears as the first of three purposes of the new entity. (WND)

China and carbon emissions-Michael J. Economides and Xina Xie
The declared war against global warming by governments, organizations and environmentalists had no credibility when both the United States, under George W. Bush, and China, the two biggest carbon emitters, were not playing along. But the election of Barack Obama brought the United States into the forefront of global warming pronouncements; China remained enough of a question mark to cool down any warming rhetoric. On the road to Copenhagen to replace the Kyoto Protocol next December, a surprise awaited both advocates and opponents of carbon regulations and legislations at the United Nations summit on climate change in New York in September 2009. In what was labeled by some news media as the first ever official statement by top Chinese leadership, President Hu Jintao spoke about the "international responsibility on climate change" and China's strategy on carbon reduction. (Americanthinker)

HU develops way to harness T-rays for medical and security imaging-Judy Siegel-Itzkovich , THE JERUSALEM POST
Nanostructures based on semiconductors with special properties have been developed by Hebrew University of Jerusalem physicists with future applications for security cameras and spectrometers and medical imaging. Prof. Leonid Shvartsman and Prof. Boris Laikhtman of the university's Racah Institute of Physics have invented a novel design of TeraHertz-ray (T-ray) lasers. They said the novel device will have 400 times higher "gain" (a measure of power) than that of the only coherent T-ray sources existing today, called THz quantum cascade lasers. T-rays are electromagnetic waves with a wavelength shorter than microwave but longer than infrared. They could be very attractive for various imaging applications because they can penetrate substances ranging from clothing and walls; are harmless to humans and therefore can be used for healthcare and homeland security applications; and can detect various chemicals, especially explosives. Thus, T-ray-based devices can detect hidden weapons and explosives, as well as improve safety in healthcare by allowing an unlimited number of exposures for medical examinations, something not possible with x-rays. (Jpost)

Wafa Sultan: Allah’s Apostate Cassandra-Andrew Bostom
On Tuesday, October 13, 2009, an ominous interim decision was reached in the case of 17 year- old Sri Lankan native, and Christian “apostate” from Islam, Rifqa Bary. Rifqa fled her Ohio community—notably, the radicalized mosque she was compelled to attend, which revealed and condemned her apostasy. She sought refuge in Orlando, Florida, when Muhammad Bary, Rifqa’s father threatened to murder the young Muslim woman apostate—the consensus draconian punishment for “unrepentant” apostasy from Islam sanctioned by all major schools of Islamic jurisprudence, Sunni and Shiite alike, to this day. (For irrefragable examples, see these contemporary Sunni rulings by Al Azhar University, in Cairo, Egypt, the Mufti of Lebanon, and IslamonLine [here; here], website of the mainstream, immensely popular Muslim Brotherhood cleric, and Al Jazeera personality Yusuf al-Qaradawi, as well as this Shiite legal opinion published in Kayhan International, an official organ of the Islamic Republic of Iran). org)

Confessions of a Cultural Drop-out-Victor Davis Hanson
I have some confessions to make, not because any of you readers are particularly interested in my views; but rather because I think some of you are in the same boat: Have you stopped reading, listening, watching, and paying attention to most of what now passes for establishment public or popular culture? I am not particularly proud of this quietism (many Athenians did it in the early 4th century BC and Romans by the late 3rd AD), but not really ashamed of it either.
Shut up and see a movie?
Take Hollywood protocol—make a big movie, hype it, show it at the mall multiplex. But I went to one movie the last year. Maybe three in the last four years. There is not much choice here—car crashes, evil white men killing the innocent, some gay or feminist heroes fending off club-bearing white homophobic Mississippians in pick-ups. Or you can endure the American war-machine kidnapping, torturing, or murdering even more of the helpless abroad—with Robert Redford, glassed down, tweed in display, or snarly George Clooney sermonizing, like the choruses of Euripides’ tragedies. The usual themes—some evil corporation is destroying something (fill in the blanks: the environment, the neighborhood, the small town, etc.), some CIA conspiracy is out to ruin a crusading heroic journalist, or some brave professor or writer is exposing a massive cover-up—are, well, boring, even with the sex, the blow-em-up explosions, and some nice scenery. (Pajamasmedia)