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CREDIT, CONFIDENCE AND CONSENSUS
By Avi Davis
As a young boy, it didn’t take me long to learn the value of currency. A devoted collector of toy soldiers, I knew that 5 cents could buy a cowboy and 10 cents, a Revolutionary War soldier. For weeks I would hoard my 20 cent (AUS) allowance – a gratuity from my father offered for various acts of servitude performed in our home garden over the weekend. That 20 cent piece felt and looked like real money - weighty, shiny and always making a euphonic clink whenever it was plunked down among all the other coins at the bottom of the piggy bank. But it also represented something very real - a tangible token that could be exchanged in the pleasurable process of acquiring ownership.
You can imagine my shock then, at the age of eight, when introduced for the first time to a dollar bill. This dollar bill, in my boyish experience, had very little to recommend it. Flat, green and oblong, it could not compare with my 20 cent coins. And when my father explained that this odd looking piece of paper actually represented five times the worth of my treasured 20 cent coins, I was dumbfounded. How, I asked, could a mere piece of paper, almost weightless, with no shine nor engraving, be worth more than those precious discs. I was deeply skeptical.
At a very young age we learn that monetary value is not dependent on size, weight or luster. As we pass through our teens, we discover that not only do dollars carry monetary value, but that other odd devices - checks and rectangular pieces of plastic which don’t have any inherent value in themselves - offer access to that value. Adulthood introduces us to a dizzying array of monetary vehicles – from stocks (whose certificates we rarely ever see) to futures to commercial paper, none of whom make that same clink at the bottom of the piggy bank. They all represent purported value relying for their existence and their credibility on the notion, not of absolute value, but of a promise by someone to pay someone else at some point in the future.
That promise to pay, otherwise known as credit, is in fact the sea on which the world’s monetary system floats. For not only do banks lend to their individual customers but continuous liquidity demands that small banks loan from large banks and large banks loan from even larger financial institutions. Nearly 75% of all consumer purchases in the United States are conducted by some system of credit and nearly 100% of consumer loans are conducted in the same way. This had led to the development of an international monetary system which has grown increasingly removed from the tactile world of coins and dollars and today exists as a fabricated system of promises and expectations dependent on goodwill and good conscience.
Yet more than goodwill and good conscience there remains one element that buoys this system and keeps it from spinning into collapse. Confidence. Confidence that consumers, when using their credit cards, will eventually repay the credit card companies and banking institutions for the privilege of not having to use copious amounts of dollars and coins; Confidence that homeowners, who borrow money to purchase a property will eventually repay their lenders both principal and interest; Confidence that investments will grow and multiply; Confidence that even when there is a default on those investments, large insurers will make ready substantial funds to cover the shortfall.
It is the erosion of this vital element in our system, more than any other factor, which has shaken the world’s financial markets in the past two weeks. Simply put , there were too many lenders providing loans to too many people who had either no intention or no ability to repay them. Lax government regulation and the determination of successive administrations to ensure home ownership to all working Americans, had created a climate where credit became so accessible that millions of Americans found themselves owning homes they could not afford. The level of default on sub-prime mortgages has been so staggering that it is being referred to as the greatest housing collapse in American history. Confidence is the system has been deeply affected.
It is almost de riguer these days to blame Wall Street greed and lax government regulation for the series of financial crises which have overcome the American economy in the past several months. But there is another culprit who has not received much attention nor anything near the same level of opprobrium – the American consumer himself. This individual, riding the crest of a more than twenty year economic boom has become so accustomed to easy credit, that he has almost come to see large amounts of it as one of his constitutional rights. Such a view was reinforced by the government’s funding of government service enterprises such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two companies which were specifically designed to make it possible for large groups of Americans to own their own homes. With so many people whispering in his ear to take the money and run, the American consumer simply jettisoned common sense and gave in to his own greedy inclinations.
The idea that we all deserve easy access to credit is a piece with the general collapse of individual responsibility which hampers the vigorous growth of our own democracy. Since the 1970s, the sense that our entitlements outweigh our duties and responsibilities has been a feature of not only of American democracy, but of democracies around the world. The American citizen, much like his counterpart in the Europe, no longer places much emphasis on his duties, role or responsibilities as a citizen, but instead demands that the State protect and advance his individual rights and assure his social and economic wellbeing. But the focus on the individual at the expense of the greater public good has allowed greed to overcome good sense and selfishness to compromise social cohesion. This remains one of the gravest challenges and threats to continuity of Western democracy.
Years ago I scissored all my credit cards and began relying solely on a debit card - where money would be withdrawn directly from my banking account and I would thereby not owe anyone anything. For I, too, had been seduced by access to easy credit, thinking that the true pay day for my extravagant lifestyle could be shunted off to a distant future. I was wrong and was made to pay for it. My debt was modest but it is easy to imagine that millions of others gave in to the siren song of the banking and credit industries – with disastrous results, not only for themselves, but the country as well.
As of this writing economic catastrophe may well have been averted by the approval of the government’s bail out proposal of $700 billion. A consensus in Congress has ultimately been reached on the idea that where private enterprise fails so atrociously as to threaten the economic well being of the entire nation, then government has no option but to step in and lend a hand. The legislation, of course, flies in the face of conservative resistance to overt government interference in the economy and liberal fears of an all powerful executive dictating economic policy. But there it is- the payback for years of self involvement and abdication of social responsibility.
The real disaster will occur if none of the lessons of the past twenty years have been learned and the American consumer reverts to his careless, spendthrift ways. A severely tightened credit market may offer a brake on this possibility. But as for me, I can still hear the clink and the jangle of those 20 cent pieces in my childhood piggy bank and have to wonder whether real value and real money will soon begin to re-assert its role in our lives.
Avi Davis is the Executive Director and Senior Fellow of the American Freedom Alliance in Los Angele
NEWS: EUROPE AND AMERICA
Illinois Man Sentenced To 35 Years For Failed Bomb Plot
Shareef Sentenced to 35 Years in Prison for Foiled Plot to Bomb Shopping Mall During Holiday Season-USDOJ
CHICAGO — Derrick Shareef, a Rockford, Ill., man, was sentenced today to 420 months (35 years) in prison by U.S. District Judge David Coar for attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction in connection with a plot to set off several grenades in garbage cans at a Rockford shopping mall in December 2006. Shareef was arrested on Dec. 6, 2006 by agents of the FBI-led Chicago Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) when he met with an undercover agent at a store parking lot in Rockford to trade a set of stereo speakers for four hand grenades and a hand gun. On Jan. 4, 2007, a grand jury in the Northern District of Illinois returned an indictment charging Shareef with violations of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2332a, Attempted Use of a Weapon of Mass Destruction, and 844(I), Attempted Use of an Explosive to Destroy a Building. The indictment against Shareef alleged that he planned to set off several grenades at the CherryVale Shopping Mall, near the junction of Interstate 90 and Interstate 39 on the east side of Rockford, about 90 miles northwest of Chicago. The shopping mall has approximately 130 retail stores. The mall was among several potential targets that Shareef allegedly discussed during the course of the investigation – the others were primarily local government facilities. At all times Shareef allegedly was acting on his plan between Nov. 29 and Dec. 6, 2006, he was in contact with an acquaintance, who unbeknownst to him was cooperating with the FBI, and an undercover agent who was posing as the cooperating individual’s friend. On Nov. 28, 2007, Shareef pleaded guilty to one count of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. This case was investigated by the Chicago JTTF, which is comprised of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies from throughout the Northern District of Illinois, all of whom contributed to the investigation. The government was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sergio Acosta and Carrie Hamilton.(Usdoj.gov)
First Of The “Toronto 18” Indicted For Plot To Behead Canadian PM
Jail for man in Canada PM beheading plot-Tom Leonard
A Canadian man has been convicted of taking part in an Islamist plot to storm the country's parliament and behead the prime minister.
The man, who cannot be named under Canadian law because he was 17 at the time of the plot two years ago, is the first of the so-called "Toronto 18" suspects to be tried. The case has shocked a country that believed itself free from Islamic extremism and fuelled American fears that Canada could be a training ground for attacks on the United States. Despite claims disputing the seriousness of the conspiracy, Supreme Court Justice John Sproat ruled that evidence of the alleged terrorist plot was "overwhelming". The court in Brampton, Ontario, heard that the 18 men and teenagers, all of them Canadian Muslims, had planned a series of attacks in Ottawa and Toronto. Before they were caught after trying to buy three tons of fertiliser used to make explosives, they had also planned to truck-bomb a nuclear power plant and a building housing the Canadian intelligence service, the trial heard. Their assault on the Canadian Parliament would have involved taking hostages, including the PM, Stephen Harper, in order to force the country to pull its forces out of Afghanistan, the court was told. Prosecutors argued that the convicted man, now 20, attended a training camp where he took part in military exercises and firearms training. The court heard he was a minor player in the group while the defence argued that the plot was a "jihadi fantasy" of which the accused knew nothing. But Justice Sproat said he clearly understood the camp was for terrorist purposes. "Planning and working toward ultimate goals that appear unattainable or even unrealistic does not militate against a finding that this was a terrorist group," he said. The trial heard the man moved to Canada from Sri Lanka in 1994 after being raised a Hindu. He converted to Islam at high school and met many of his alleged co-conspirators at a mosque in the Scarborough district of Toronto. Charges against seven of the 18 suspects have been either stayed or withdrawn. The trials of 10 men, including the alleged ringleaders, have yet to begin. (Telegraph.co.uk)
Muslim Sues British Company Tesco For Carrying Alcohol
Devout Muslim sues Tesco for religious discrimination after he was made to carry crates of alcohol-David Wilkes
A muslim who claims he did not know Tesco sold alcohol is suing the store for religious discrimination after having to carry crates of drink as part of his job. Forklift truck driver Mohammed Ahmed, 32, worked in a distribution depot for eight months before quitting 'in protest', an employment tribunal heard. He claims he was forced to leave because handling beer, spirits and wine is against his strict Islamic beliefs and that he was victimised when he asked the company to give him another role. Mr Ahmed, who was raised in Saudi Arabia, told the tribunal he had no idea his job entailed handling alcohol when he started work last September at the depot in Lichfield, Staffordshire. When he realised it did, he asked to be found different work but alleges that one of his supervisors told him: 'You do the job or go home.' Mr Ahmed also claimed his line manager was 'aggressive' towards him and another supervisor angrily told him: 'Do not take the p***.' The problem allegedly worsened in November and December when extra alcohol arrived at the warehouse in readiness for Christmas, the tribunal in Birmingham heard. Mr Ahmed claimed he eventually lodged an official grievance with the company in February and was 'victimised and harassed' as a result.
Brass Plaques In Pavement Will Commemorate Shoah Victims In Prague
 Holocaust victims remembered by new ‘Stones of the Vanished’ project-Rosie Johnston
If you stumble across a little brass plaque on a walk in Prague’s Old Town next week, then the chances are it is going to be a ‘kámen zmizelého’ (‘stone of the vanished’). The project, organized by the Czech Union of Jewish Students, will eventually see stones commemorating victims of the Holocaust embedded in pavements all over the capital. The idea comes from Germany, as does the man making the memorials, Gunter Demnig. But the project coordinator at the Czech end is Petr Mandl. I met him on Wednesday morning to ask first about the name of the project:
“I would translate it as ‘The Stones of the Vanished’, the original name is ‘Stolpersteine’ in German, which means rather ‘stumbling stones’, but it is very hard to translate, and the meaning of the project is a bit different in the Czech Republic.”
So is this part of a European network of ‘Stolpersteine’ then? How big is the scale of this Czech project?
“So of course, we wanted Prague to be part of this international project – as you know, it has already been done in many other European countries. And now in Prague we are unveiling our first ten stones, and we want the project to enlarge by around 30 stones per year.”
And I hear that you are actually going to have to look quite hard to find these stones - that they are not going to be all that evident at first glance…
“One of the ideas of the project is to personify the historical event that was the Shoah, the Holocaust. We want to reflect the stories of people who were murdered in its course. So of course, the stones can’t be massive and all down the pavements, on every corner.”
So, if you were going to hunting for these stones, where would you find the first ten?
“Well, the first stones will be put in the Old Town, in the Jewish Quarter, where many Jewish people lived. But in the future, the majority of Jewish people in Prague lived in Vinohrady, and so there will be many stones there as well.”
Who is funding this project?
“It is funded by private sponsors and donors, and also those people who want to dedicate a stone to their family share the cost.”
The project is being unveiled later this month, so there aren’t yet any stones in place, but what will they look like, for those who maybe won’t get to Prague, and maybe won’t get tot see them?
“The stones are concrete cubes around 10cm each, or four inches if you want to be metric about it, and then there is a sheet of brass on top with writing. The writing reads ‘here lived – the name of a person, the date of birth, the date of transport, where that person was deported and the place and date of that person’s murder’.”
(Radio.cz)
ACADEMIC FREEDOM
How Multiculturalism Has Damaged Higher Education
How Preferences Have Corrupted Higher Education-John M. Ellis
John M. Ellis is professor emeritus of literature at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and president of the California Association of Scholars; john.ellis@earthlink.net. He is a founder and former governing council member of the Association of Literary Scholars and Critics. This address was originally presented at “Race and Gender Preferences at the Crossroads,” a conference organized by the California Association of Scholars and cosponsored by the American Civil Rights Institute and the Center for Equal Opportunity, held January 19, 2008, at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.
My colleague Rick Sanders has shown that some unintended consequences of preferences undermine their intent and so produce exactly the opposite result—the intended beneficiaries are harmed rather than helped.[1] But the unintended consequences of an action don’t only impact what that action was trying to achieve. The first law of unintended consequences is that you can never know what they will be or how far they will reach. Like a wildfire, they easily get out of control and start to cause devastation in places that are remote from where they started. My concern is with the unintended consequences of preferences that have damaged higher education in general. To understand the magnitude of this damage we need to think of it as systemic—that is, damage to the entire system of thought and behavior on college campuses. It begins with changes to the way in which a relatively small number of students and faculty are brought into colleges and universities, and that might seem to be a circumscribed kind of change that would not touch anything else that is going on there. But systemic damage happens when small changes trigger other changes, and those lead to still others, until the chain of reactions adds up to something that overwhelms the system.
This story of the series of changes initiated by preferences begins in the 1970s, as pressure slowly grew for colleges and universities to admit more minority and women students, and to hire more minority and women faculty. Soon this pressure became intense, and every new faculty appointment was expected to help increase the numbers of minority and women faculty. Many departments began to do what was expected of them, and in the humanities and social sciences almost all did. Inevitably, the people who were most enthusiastic about the need for preferences in faculty hiring were the ones who were most influential in the making of those appointments. And just as inevitably, the kinds of people they looked for and appointed shared in that enthusiasm. But enthusiasm for affirmative action correlated with something else, and that was a set of beliefs about why it was needed. Both the people who made the appointments and the people they appointed had a strong sense of the injustices of the past, of the need to break with it and its values, and to remake society in a new image. (NAS)
Jews And Israel Inaccurately Represented In US Textbooks
 'US textbooks misrepresent Jews, Israel'-Haviv Rettig
American elementary and high school textbooks contain many "gross misrepresentations" of Judaism, Christianity and Israel, according to a book-length study released this week by the San Francisco-based Institute for Jewish and Community Research. "It is shocking to discover that history and geography textbooks widely used in America's elementary and secondary classrooms contain some of the very same inaccuracies about Christianity, Judaism and the Middle East as those [used] in Iran," the IJCR said in a summary of the findings of the five-year study. In examining the 28 most widely-used history, geography and social studies textbooks in America, researchers Dr. Gary Tobin and Dennis Ybarra found some 500 instances of "errors, inaccuracies and even propaganda" on these issues. Tens of millions of schoolchildren in all 50 states use the textbooks, according to Tobin. Among the "outrageous misrepresentations" the study found was "a denial of the Jewish roots of Jesus," as when the textbook The World relates that "Christianity was started by a young Palestinian named Jesus." "Textbooks include negative stereotypes of Jews, Judaism and Israel," the authors write. "For example, textbooks tend to discredit the ties between Jews and the land of Israel." According to Tobin, "you're much more likely to learn about Jewish terrorism before the founding of Israel [in the textbooks] than about terrorism against Israel since that time." Among the claims made about Israel in some of the textbooks are that Arab countries never initiated wars against Israel, Arab nations desire peace while Israel does not and that it was Israel that placed Palestinians in refugee camps in Arab lands, not Arab governments. No mention whatsoever was found relating to the hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees from Arab countries who were forced out after the establishment of Israel.
In their treatment of Judaism, too, the textbooks showed a negative bias, according to the study. They often expressed a view that "Jews and Judaism are legalistic," and that "Jews care only about the letter of the law and ignore its spirit," the study found. The Jewish God is presented as "stern and warlike," and not compassionate, as is highlighted in other religions. In some instances, Jews are charged with deicide in the killing of Jesus. The study also found that 18 textbooks used "unscholarly and disparaging 'Old Testament' terminology for the Jewish scriptures when discussing the origins of Judaism." (Jpost)
FREEDOM OF SPEECH
“The War Against Israel Is Not A War Against Israel. It Is A War Against The West. It Is Jihad.”
 A Wise Warning from Europe about America’s Future-Geert Wilders
Editor’s note: This is the transcript from a speech given by Mr. Wilders at the Four Seasons, New York, last week.
I come to America with a mission. All is not well in the old world. There is a tremendous danger looming, and it is very difficult to be optimistic. We might be in the final stages of the Islamization of Europe. This not only is a clear and present danger to the future of Europe itself, it is a threat to America and the sheer survival of the West. The danger I see looming is the scenario of America as the last man standing. The United States as the last bastion of Western civilization, facing an Islamic Europe. In a generation or two, the US will ask itself: who lost Europe? Patriots from around Europe risk their lives every day to prevent precisely this scenario from becoming a reality.
My short lecture consists of four parts.
First, I will describe the situation on the ground in Europe. Then, I will say a few things about Islam. Thirdly, if you are still here, I will talk a little bit about the movie you just saw. To close, I will tell you about a meeting in Jerusalem.
The Europe you know is changing. You have probably seen the landmarks. The Eiffel Tower and Trafalgar Square and Rome’s ancient buildings and maybe the canals of Amsterdam. They are still there. And they still look very much the same as they did a hundred years ago.
But in all of these cities, sometimes a few blocks away from your tourist destination, there is another world, a world very few visitors see – and one that does not appear in your tourist guidebook. It is the world of the parallel society created by Muslim mass-migration. All throughout Europe a new reality is rising: entire Muslim neighbourhoods where very few indigenous people reside or are even seen. And if they are, they might regret it. This goes for the police as well. It’s the world of head scarves, where women walk around in figureless tents, with baby strollers and a group of children. Their husbands, or slaveholders if you prefer,walk threesteps ahead. With mosques on many street corners. The shops have signs you and I cannot read. You will be hard-pressed to find any economic activity. These are Muslim ghettos controlled by religious fanatics. These are Muslim neighbourhoods, and they are mushrooming in every city across Europe. These are the building-blocks for territorial control of increasingly larger portions of Europe, street by street, neighbourhood by neighbourhood, city by city.
There are now thousands of mosques throughout Europe. With larger congregations than there are in churches. And in every European city there are plans to build super-mosques that will dwarf every church in the region. Clearly, the signal is: we rule.
Many European cities are already one-quarter Muslim: just take Amsterdam, Marseille and Malmo in Sweden. In many cities the majority of the under-18 population is Muslim. Paris is now surrounded by a ring of Muslim neighbourhoods. Mohammed is the most popular name among boys in many cities. In some elementary schools in Amsterdam the farm can no longer be mentioned, because that would also mean mentioning the pig, and that would be an insult to Muslims. Many state schools in Belgium and Denmark serve only halal food to all pupils. In once-tolerant Amsterdam, gays are beaten up almost exclusively by Muslims. Non-Muslim women routinely hear “whore, whore.” Satellite dishes are not pointed to local TV stations, but to stations in the country of origin. In France school teachers are advised to avoid authors deemed offensive to Muslims, including Voltaire and Diderot; the same is increasingly true of Darwin. The history of the Holocaust can in many cases no longer be taught because of Muslim sensitivity. In England, Sharia courts are now officially part of the British legal system. Many neighbourhoods in France are no-go areas for women without head scarves. Last week a man almost died after being beaten up by Muslims in Brussels, because he was drinking during the Ramadan. Jews are fleeing France in record numbers, on the run for the worst wave of anti-Semitism since World War II. French is now commonly spoken on the streets of Tel Aviv and Netanya, Israel. I could go on forever with stories like this. Stories about Islamization.
A total of fifty-four million Muslims now live in Europe. San Diego University recently calculated that a staggering 25% of the population in Europe will be Muslim just 12 years from now. Bernhard Lewis has predicted a Muslim majority by the end of this century. (FamilySecurityMatters)
Sir Salman Rushdie And The Satanic Verses Twenty Years Later
Salman Rushdie unrepentant about Satanic Verses-Ben Hoyle, Arts Reporter
Watch further highlights of the interview
Twenty years after the publication of the book that almost cost him his life, Sir Salman Rushdie is still glad that he wrote The Satanic Verses. In the second of a series of interviews with leading cultural figures filmed exclusively for The Times, he tells Clive James that he “wouldn’t not have wanted” to be the writer asking the big questions about religion and civilisation posed by the book. His remarks are uncomfortably pertinent, coming at a time when Muslim extremists have again driven a literary figure into hiding. This time the victim is Martin Rynja, a Dutch-born London publisher who had agreed to release The Jewel of Medina, a controversial novel by Sherry Jones about the Prophet Muhammad’s relationship with his nine-year-old bride, Aisha. Mr Rynja’s home in Islington was firebombed in the early hours on Saturday. Undercover police tipped him off hours earlier and arrested three men from East London. Rushdie criticised Random House, his own publisher, in August for refusing to publish the book in the United States , calling it “censorship by fear.” The interview stretches beyond the fatwa against Rushdie. It ranges from the partition of India to how he played air-guitar Elvis on a squash racket when a child in Bombay. Rushdie says he is an atheist who finds dead religions “much more attractive” but says he has nothing against true believers until their faith spills over into the public sphere and becomes “my business”. Like all the interviewees in the series (Sir Tom Stoppard was the first and Germaine Greer is among others to appear later on Times Online) Rushdie is filmed chatting on a sofa in James’s London flat. The Times first reviewed The Satanic Verses 20 years ago today. The review carried no hint of the controversy to come but praised the book as “better than Midnight’s Children”, Rushdie’s Booker Prize-winning second novel. The first sign of serious trouble came four days later when India banned the book after complaints that it was offensive to Muslims and protests began in Muslim communities around the world. In February 1989 Ayatollah Khomeini, then supreme leader of Iran, issued a fatwa calling on all Muslims to murder Rushdie, and the writer went into hiding for the best part of ten years. (TimesOnline.co.uk)
CAIR’s Underhanded Tactics
CAIR: 'Obsession' Interviewee Calls Film 'Vile Piece of Propaganda'
Dr. Khaleel Mohammed: 'I apologize to my fellow Muslims for appearing in such a film'
WASHINGTON, Sept 27, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ -- The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today said that a participant in an anti-Muslim film that is being distributed to 28 million homes in presidential election swing states has issued a statement calling the production a "vile piece of propaganda." In his statement, Dr. Khaleel Mohammed, a professor at San Diego State University, apologizes to the Muslim community for his role in "Obsession: Radical Islam's War against the West."
Dr. Mohammed's statement reads in part: "Sadly, it would seem that I have allowed myself to be used ... The free distribution of the film to voters in particular districts shows the political chicanery that is the motive, and the secrecy about the financing of the distribution only underlines the evil intent in circulating this vile piece of propaganda. "Evidence seems to indicate the involvement of Aish ha-Torah in this dishonest enterprise. I find that particularly distressing, because any Jewish organization ought to realize what the film seeks to do: they demonize an entire community to the point where a government takes action to further beleaguer its citizens and resident aliens simply because of their religious identity. This bigotry over religion and identity is precisely what caused the Shoah -- and it is sad that those who ought to have learned what hate can engender should seek to imitate Nazi propagandism. "Yet -- for all the nefarious intent of the distributors of the film -- I must also accept culpability for allowing myself to be so used ... I apologize to my fellow Muslims for appearing in such a film ... " (Marketwatch)
Controversial Novel About Mohammed’s Wife Halted After Firebomb Attack At Publisher’s London Office
Plans to publish controversial novel about wife of Mohammed suspended after firebomb attack on publisher's home-Richard Pendlebury
Plans for the British publication of a controversial novel about a young wife of the Prophet Mohammed have been postponed following a firebomb attack at the publisher's London office. Martin Rynja of Gibson Square books intended to publish 'The Jewel Of Medina' by U.S. writer Sherry Jones. But following the attack on his London home, his plans are now said to be "in suspended animation". Alan Jessop of Compass, the publisher's sales representative, said: "He (Rynja) is in good spirits, but has put publication in suspended animation while he reflects and takes advice on what the best foot forward is." Novelist Sherry Jones has urged the British people to stand by the principle of free speech to ensure that her book about the Prophet Mohammed is published here. She spoke out after learning of the attack on Rynja's home. 'You have to ask whether a thug with a gun or petrol bomb should be allowed to censor the people of Great Britain,' Miss Jones, 47, said at her home in Spokane, Washington state. 'This is about the future of free speech. Is it the case that there are now some books which cannot be published in Britain? 'My publisher cannot fight this all by himself. I hope the people of Britain will support him. He is a courageous man.' Mr Rynja, 44, was in hiding with an armed police guard following the strike by suspected Muslim extremists at the weekend. Radicals say the book insults the Prophet - an offence which they say carries a death penalty. However, Mohammed Shafiq, from Muslim youth group The Ramadhan Foundation, while admitting he was disgusted by the novel, called for calm among Muslims. (DailyMail)
ANTISEMITISM
Holocaust Denial Alive And Well In Iran As Iranian Students Publish Book Of Cartoons Of The Holocaust
Young Iranians Release Book Caricaturing The Holocaust-Thomas Erdbrink
TEHRAN, Sept. 27 -- Iranian students have released a book containing cartoons of the Holocaust, including some depicting hospitalized Jews on respiratory machines attached to canisters of Zyklon B, the gas used to exterminate Jews during World War II. The students, members of a state militia, unveiled "Holocaust" in Tehran's Palestine Square on Friday in the presence of Education Minister Ali Reza Ali-Ahmadi, during annual demonstrations calling for the retreat of "Zionists" from "occupied Palestine." In a speech at the United Nations last week, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad blamed "Zionists," rather than Jews, for the occupation of the Palestinian territories, a reference to the historical movement to reestablish a Jewish homeland. Iranian officials frequently draw that distinction, mindful of the approximately 25,000 Jews in Iran -- more than in any country in the Middle East except Israel. The book, however, talks explicitly of the history of the Jews "before, during and after the Holocaust." The cartoons show caricatured Jews with large, hooked noses trying to fabricate evidence for the Holocaust, while the text states that the Nazi massacre has been highly exaggerated, makes fun of testimonials from survivors and accuses present-day Jews of trying to make money from the Holocaust. Ahmadinejad has publicly questioned whether 6 million Jews died during the Holocaust and in 2006 opened a conference in Tehran attended by Holocaust deniers. Former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke was one of the speakers. "We have seen many anti-Zionist stances but never anti-Semitic," said Siamak Mehre Sadegh, a Jewish member of the Iranian parliament who had not yet seen the book. "Anti-Semitism is not the official position of the country." (WashingtonPost)
Hizbullah Leader Nasrallah Claims That The Entire Land Of ‘Palestine’ Is Holy And Belongs To The Arabs
 'Palestine must be returned to Arabs'-JPost.com and AP
The entire land of Palestine is holy and belongs solely to the Arabs, Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah said in a speech delivered on Friday in honor of Al-Quds Day. "Palestine, from the sea to the river, is the property of Arabs and Palestinians and no one has the right to give up even a single grain of earth or one stone, because every grain of the land is holy. The entire land must be returned to its rightful owners," Nasrallah said. He said Israel and the "Jewish lobby" ruled the world and influenced the US and its allies, and that jihad was the only way for Muslims to achieve results. "Our lands will be liberated, not by begging the US or the West, but with will, determination, resistance and sacrifices made by the region's peoples," he said. Hizbullah's leader stressed the holiness of Palestine and the suffering of the Palestinians, saying "the Islamic nation has a historic commitment to Jerusalem, Palestine and the Palestinian people." Earlier on Friday, former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani warned the West - during a prayer ceremony in Teheran also marking Al-Quds Day - that its support for Israel would backfire. Rafsanjani, who is still influential in Iranian politics, said the US, Britain and France backed Israel - and this was dangerous. "They will put themselves in trouble, eventually," Rafsanjani said. Israel could "take tougher and more offensive action" than the United States against Iran and the Arab world, warned Rafsanjani, who is the head of the Assembly of Experts, a powerful clerical body that has the ability to appoint and dismiss the country's supreme leader. State-run television also aired clips on Friday featuring President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in New York. The president, who is in the US for the UN General Assembly meeting, said Israel did not have support among ordinary people in the United States. He also chided hundreds of demonstrators who protested him during his trip. "It was a big failure for them," Ahmadinejad said. The latest anti-Israel remarks made by Iranian leaders come as hundreds of thousands rallied in cities across the country to protest Israel's hold on Jerusalem. In Teheran, demonstrators chanted, "Death to America," and, "Death to Israel." Some protesters also burned American and Israeli flags. (Jpost)
A New Exhibition In Berlin Tells The Story Of Artwork Looted By The Nazis
Berlin's Jewish Museum retraces artwork looted by Nazis
BERLIN (AFP)---More than a half-century after Nazis looted artwork from European Jews, an unprecedented Berlin exhibition tells both sides of the story: how property was seized and efforts, at times fruitless, were made to have it restored.
"Looting and Restitution: Jewish-owned Cultural Artifacts from 1933 to the Present", at the Jewish Museum Berlin until January 25, focuses on 15 different pieces plundered from Jewish families during World War II. Using photos and documents of the time, the show not only sets up the historical context but looks at who profited from or played a role in the looting, including at times disreputable dealings by museums, libraries and art dealers. It also examines efforts after 1945 to restore the works to their rightful owners. "We are addressing highly emotionally charged questions, issues which can be very divisive," said museum director W. Michael Blumenthal. "At the same time, we wanted to be careful not to favour either side. We wanted to show the facts, show them with historical objectivity and show the current situation," Blumenthal told a news conference. The show's explanatory notes are written on wooden boxes like those that might have been used to move the stolen property, which ranges from paintings to porcelain, silverware, entire libraries and private photos. One is a painting by expressionist painter Otto Mueller, one of 18 works belonging to the widow of Jewish art dealer Ismar Littmann confiscated by the Gestapo in 1935. Littmann had committed suicide a year earlier after the Nazis barred him from practising law, taking away his sole source of income. His widow was about to auction the painting to help make ends meet for herself and her children when it was seized. Some of Littmann's works were destroyed on grounds that they were "degenerate", but "Boy with Two Standing Girls and One Sitting Girl" was exhibited in Munich and then sold on by the Nazis.
These are emotionally charged issues
Littmann's family spent years trying to recover the piece before finally securing documents in the 1990s that proved its provenance. A legal battle ensued and the painting was finally returned to them in 1999. The loser, in this case, was an art foundation that had bought the piece in good faith in 1979, apparently unaware of its murky past, to display in a German museum. Inka Burtz, one of the show's curators, said it is impossible to estimate how many artworks in galleries, museums and homes around the world might still be subject to ownership claims. But such cases have multiplied in recent years. (EJP)
"The Zionists' "Jewishness Is A Great Lie - They Have No Religion Whatsoever"'
Ahmadinejad: 'If [The Zionists] Themselves Do Not Wrap Up Zionism... The Peoples Will Wipe These Germs of Corruption Off the Face of the Earth'-MEMRI
Following are excerpts from statements by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The statements aired on IRINN, the Iranian News Channel, on September 18 and 23, 2008:
To view this clip on MEMRI TV, visit http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/1868.htm.
To view more MEMRI TV clips of Ahmadinejad, visit http://www.memritv.org/subject/en/358.htm.
Sept. 18: "The Zionists... Have Taken Over the Power Centers of the World"
Ahmadinejad: "The Zionists are crooks. A small handful of Zionists, with a very intricate organization, have taken over the power centers of the world. According to our estimates, the main cadre of the Zionists consists of 2,000 individuals at most, and they have another 8,000 activists. In addition, they have several informants, who spy and provide them with intelligence information.
"But because of their control of power centers in the U.S. and Europe, and their control of the financial centers and the news and propaganda agencies, they spread propaganda as if they were the entire world, as if all the peoples supported them, and as if they were the majority ruling the world."
The Zionists' "Jewishness Is a Great Lie - They Have No Religion Whatsoever"
"That is a great lie - just like their Jewishness is a great lie. They have no religion whatsoever. They are a handful of lying, power-greedy people who have no religion, who only want to take over all the peoples and countries, and to trample the rights of the peoples. [...] (Memri)
TERRORISM, INTERNET, JIHAD
Bali Bombers Issue Terrorism Threat If They Are Executed
 Bali bombers' chilling warning: 'Execute us and mayhem will follow'-Richard Shears
A chilling warning has been issued by three men convicted of the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, including 30 Britons: 'Execute us and mayhem will follow.' The heartless killers, allowed to leave their cells on an island prison to pray with other prisoners to mark the end of Ramadan, are expected to be executed by firing squad within weeks. But not only have the three warned that 'there will be revenge all over the place' if they are put to death. Amrozi, known as the 'smiling assassin', said he would not hesitate to carry out another bombing if he had the chance. Amrozi, who gained his nickname because he constantly grinned at the cameras after his arrest for the nightclub bombings, was released temporarily from his cell along with convicted bombers Mukhlas - his brother - and Imam Samudra. Amrozi, who like his brother uses only one name, added: 'If it is true that there will be an execution, then all the people committing the execution will be condemned to die by God.' Speaking at the jail on the island of Nusakambangan, off the coast of central Java, Amrozi added: 'Is anyone ready to die? Only God knows about that. 'If it's true that later on I will be executed, certainly there will be someone who will take revenge. I don't have to say who will take revenge.' (Dailymail)
Terrorism Expert Steven Emerson On ‘Legal Jihad’
Controversial terrorism expert Steven Emerson warns against 'legal jihad' in Dallas speech-Jason Trahan
Steven Emerson, described by some Muslims as an "an agenda-driven demagogue," made it apparent Friday during a speech in Dallas why he can't register his car publicly anymore, and why he has to live in an "undisclosed location" somewhere near Washington D.C. The terrorism expert's message, delivered at a joint conference of the National Center for Policy Analysis and the Atlas Economic Research Foundation at the downtown Fairmont Hotel, is that radical Islamists are feverishly working inside the U.S. to undermine the Constitution and replace it with Shariah, or Islamic law. According to Emerson, violent overthrow is not their aim. Instead, he says, their strategy is a type of "legal jihad," which includes groups such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Islamic Society of North America -- both unindicted co-conspirators in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism financing case -- hiding behind free speech protections to spread their Islamist agenda. They do this, Emerson says, through a steady drumbeat of protests labeling attempts by law enforcement and media to investigate Islamic terrorism as "Islamophobia. "He said that this is a disservice to moderate Muslims, who should be more vocal in taking back their religion from zealots. On Friday, he raised eyebrows when he proposed giving the FBI and CIA the power to designate certain groups as fronts for terrorism based on, among other things, propaganda they issue -- a sort of a Treasury Department terrorist designation program on steroids. (Crimeblog.Dallasnews)
As 2009 Approaches So Do Threats To National Security
Identifying the Next National Security Threats-Michael Jacobson
In January 2009, the next administration will enter office facing a wide range of serious national security threats. At the top of this list will undoubtedly be Iran’s budding nuclear program, the terrorist threat posed by al Qaeda and its affiliates, and the unstable situation in Pakistan. While it’s hard to argue that these should be the top priorities, as the last eight years have made clear, in today’s world, the threats to the US can evolve rapidly. New threats can emerge quickly and top-tier threats can fade. The next administration’s success in the national security arena will certainly be judged in part by its ability to tackle the most obvious threats confronting the US. Equally important, however, will be its ability to accurately identify and appropriately respond to those threats that are emerging as well as those which are in decline. This is not an easy task, particularly for a large, plodding bureaucracy such as the US government, which is often slow to adapt. The possibilities of what the next serious threat could be are almost endless. Will the threat of a crippling cyber-attack grow, as some experts are predicting? Will a new rogue regime or terrorist group appear on the scene which has the capability to inflict major damage to the US? Will terrorist groups move closer to acquiring WMD capabilities? Could climate change have far reaching national security consequences in the years ahead? And on the flip side, could, as some senior US government officials are predicting, al Qaeda be defeated within a matter of years? The primary responsibility for getting this right will likely fall to the US intelligence community, as the US national intelligence strategy of 2005 makes clear. One of the five key pillars of the strategy is “anticipating developments of strategic concern,” in part through the newly created strategic analytic unit in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The strategy also states that to succeed in this effort, the IC must have expertise on “every region, every transnational security issue and every threat to the American people.” (Counterterrorismblog)
Radical ENVIRONMENTALISM
German Environment Minister On Tightening Emission Standards
'They Shouldn't Act As if their Primary Concern Were Climate Protection'
German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel, 51, discusses plans by the Environment Committee in the European Parliament to tighten emissions standards on new cars, arguing that standards must be increased, but without jeopardizing the economic base.
Last week the Environment Committee of the European Parliament agreed to support a sharp measure: Beginning in 2012, and not in 2015, as originally envisioned, average CO2 emissions from new cars will be capped at 120 grams per kilometer. The German automobile industry would be most affected by the measure. However, the plan must first be ratified by the European Parliament and the European Council, which consists of the heads of state and government of the European Union, before it can become law.
SPIEGEL: Mr. Gabriel, are you fighting for this tougher regulation on the side of the Environment Committee?
Gabriel: No, not at all. The Committee's recommendation will only mean that the search for a compromise will take even longer. It will spark new arguments. And clarity for climate protection and the automobile industry won't come until later.
SPIEGEL: Why are you, as the environment minister, opposed to the early implementation of climate protection measures in the auto industry?
Gabriel: People are acting as if the world climate depended on whether the legislation is fully enacted three years earlier or later. I think this is totally absurd. The problem lies elsewhere. The Environment Committee had originally decided to send the following message: Make sure that you don't use the banner of climate protection to conduct a competitive race! But that's exactly what is happening now. Unlike its French and Italian competitors, the German auto industry, with its completely differently line of models, can hardly reach the set goal by 2012.
SPIEGEL: Are you more concerned about the auto industry than the climate?
Gabriel: No, I am concerned about one thing: We cannot and must not play off climate protection and the economy against one another. Germany is taking on 75 percent of Europe's CO2 reduction. This country can only do so if it is successful economically. To that end, you also need the support of the skilled workers in the German automobile industry. If they are under the impression that they're the ones footing the bill, you will not see such policies supported by a majority in Germany.
What We Can Learn From Nineteenth Century Weather
Weather disasters explained-Paul Simons
In 1816 a freak summer led to the creation of Frankenstein, the invention of the bicycle and Turner's finest paintings. In the bleak winter of 1947, Britain nearly starved. The Times's weatherman explains why
In April 1815, Mount Tambora in Indonesia exploded so violently that a third of it vanished in rocks and dust. It was possibly the biggest eruption in recorded history, killing around 10,000 people outright and many more from starvation and disease. Ash and sulphuric acid were blasted 43km (27 miles) into the stratosphere, then spread around the globe, hanging as a veil over the sky and blocking out sunlight for years. As a result, global temperatures dropped so drastically that, in the northern hemisphere, the year after was known as “the year without a summer”. In Britain the summer of 1816 was wet, cold and wretched. The foul weather rotted crops and led to shortages of food. Farmworkers were left unemployed, grain prices soared and mobs went on the rampage for food - in one riot, some 2,000 people in Dundee ransacked more than 100 shops and a grain store. In Ireland, rain fell on 142 out of 153 days of summer, potato crops rotted and an estimated 60,000 people died of famine or typhoid. Across Europe there was desolation, at a time when the continent was emerging from the Napoleonic Wars. In the grim climate of 1816, crop failures in France led to riots that shook the new constitutional monarchy of Louis XVIII and Talleyrand. Starving Germans baked straw and sawdust into loaves of “bread”, and in Switzerland people ate moss in desperation. At least 200,000 people died from famine in Europe, and the weather was also blamed for a typhus epidemic from 1816 to 1819 that killed millions more. Thousands of people emigrated to the US, only to find conditions there just as bad - the northeast suffered snow in June and frosts in July that ruined harvests and, in turn, drove a mass migration of farmers westwards across the prairies. In India, the monsoon failed and the resulting famine triggered the world's first cholera pandemic. Cold weather killed trees, rice crops and water buffalo herds in northern China and disrupted the monsoon season there as well. The dismal weather did have some more fortunate consequences. In Switzerland, Lord Byron rented a villa near Lake Geneva. Among his guests were 18-year-old Mary Shelley and her husband Percy. Incessant rain kept the members of the house party trapped indoors for days, so Byron declared: “We will each write a ghost story.” The result was Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, published in 1818. (TimesOnline.co.uk)
Society and CULTURE
How Movies Are Blurring The Line In Depicting The Normalization Of Sex With Children
 Towelhead and the Normalization of Sex With Children-John Nolte
At the 1999 Academy Awards, [1] Elia Kazan, the legendary director of On The Waterfront, A Streetcar Named Desire, East Of Eden, and many other timeless classics, received an honorary lifetime achievement Oscar. As the ninety-year-old took the stage, one-third of liberal Hollywood refused to stand or even applaud, refused to forgive Kazan the four decades-old “sin” of naming names during the blacklist era.
However, just three years later, no such protest was mounted when the Oscar for best director was awarded to [2] Roman Polanski, a man who in 1977 pled guilty to drugging and sodomizing a thirteen-year-old girl. Of course, Polanski wasn’t there to receive his Oscar. He’s still a fugitive from the law for that crime.
Is this just another example of liberal Hollywood values? Hypocrisy? Unfortunately, it goes much deeper than that. There’s a new civil rights push in Hollywood: the right to have sex with your children. And this Friday, with Towelhead, Hollywood releases their next theatrical volley to normalize the very worst kind of sexual deviancy.
During the Q&A, after a sneak preview of Towelhead, writer/director Alan Ball (Six Feet Under) said of child rape, “Society wants us to believe that’s a soul destroying event, I don’t believe that.” The context of such a statement is important and can be found in his film, the story of a thirteen-year-old Arab girl, Jasira (Summer Bishil), who‘s raped by her Army Reservist neighbor (Aaron Eckhart), molested by her mother‘s boyfriend, and sexually manipulated by Thomas (Eugene Bradley), a young classmate. When it’s all over, not only is Jasira’s soul not destroyed but she suffers no emotional or psychological damage whatsoever. In fact, to quote Ball again, the “experience makes her stronger.” The film ends on a triumphant note, with the thirteen-year-old sexually empowered by the abuse and ready to have a relationship with the aforementioned Thomas.
Towelhead is the latest in a years-long Hollywood crusade to make the child molester sympathetic and the act of molestation just another step in the evolution of normal, healthy, youthful sexuality. Which isn’t to say that say that child molesters should only ever be presented as one-dimensional, mustache-twisting deviants.
In both [5] Stanley Kubrick’s 1962 version and Adrian Lyne’s [6] equally fine 1997 remake, Lolita’s Humbert Humbert is a pederast consumed with desire for the fourteen-year-old daughter of his landlady, whom he later marries just to stay close to the young girl. After the wife dies, he embarks on a road trip and sexual affair with his new step daughter. Humbert is no one-dimensional monster. At times he’s even pitiable. But inexorably we watch the affair strip him of all dignity until it so destroys him emotionally he proves capable of murder. Young Lolita doesn’t fare much better. She marries the first guy who asks and winds up pregnant and broke on a dirt farm before her eighteenth birthday. (Pajamasmedia)
All You Need Is Love: Sir Paul’s Fabulous Historic Concert In Tel-Aviv
 McCartney's tour de force in Tel Aviv-David Brinn
In the end, it comes down to the music. After all the hoopla surrounding PaulMcCartney's visit to Israel - the calls for boycotts, the death threat, the private chef and grand piano in his hotel suite, and the visit to Bethlehem - it all boiled down to a little over two hours onstage Thursday night at Yarkon Park in Tel Aviv before 40,000 plus fans. And it was a dynamite two hours, with the 66-year-old former Beatle proving time and time again that he's a consummate performer, musician and songwriter. Evidently in fine spirits, despite reports of him receiving threatening e-mails up to two hours before show time cautioning him not to go onstage, Sir Paul and his energetic and versatile four-piece band surprised the crowd of all ages by opening with a rousing version of "Hello Goodbye." It faithfully recreated The Beatles' original, thanks in equal measures to McCartney's voice barely having aged a day, the band's uncanny ability to recapture the vibe The Beatle's created in the studio, and the magnificent sound system which highlighted each instrument. If you closed your eyes, it might as easily have been the Fab Four on stage. Recapturing the past was what the more than 30 song set was all about, as McCartney hauled out crowd pleasing versions of "Back in the USSR," "Eleanor Rigby" and, of course, the set closing "Let it Be" and "Hey Jude" while the adoring audience waved their cell phones in the air and sang along to every word. The excitement level waned somewhat whenever McCartney played one of a handful of late period solo songs - including "Only Mama Knows" and "Calico Skies" from albums like Flaming Pie and Memory Almost Full. But, seasoned showman that he is, he rebounded immediately with fan favorites like "Jet" or "Band On the Run." McCartney, who constantly shifted between his trademark Höfner bass, electric and acoustic guitar, and piano, was the epitome of boundless energy. Despite inexplicably snubbing his accompanying musicians - guitarists Rusty Anderson and Brian Ray, effervescent drummer Abe Laboriel Jr., and keyboard player Paul "Wix" Wickens - by not introducing them even once to the audience, McCartney succeeded in giving the impression that he was just one of the boys, engaging his mates with smiles, eye contact and gestures. But, of course, all eyes were on McCartney, who generously addressed the crowd between songs with a mixture of pidgin Hebrew and corny show biz platitudes. "Shalom Tel Aviv, Shana Tova, Ahlan," he shouted in his first address to the crowd. Before introducing his Wings-era ballad "My Love," he said in Hebrew, "This song is dedicated to Linda," referring to his late wife. And before a spot on "All My Loving" from The Beatles' first album, he said coyly, "Zeh Mi Pa'am" (This is an oldie). Among the most emotional moments was a tribute to former Beatle George Harrison, which started out with McCartney performing Harrison's "Something" solo on the ukulele before morphing halfway through into the full band traditional version. Images of Harrison flashed on the huge, incredibly vivid video screens, causing at least one young female fan captured on screen to burst into tears. McCartney also dedicated a song to John Lennon - a dramatic "A Day in the Life," which evolved into an audience sing-along of "Give Peace A Chance." A version of "Live and Let Die" was explosive, literally, with the band playing the song's orchestral crescendos as fire flash pots were ignited on stage, and fireworks shot up into the sky. For the two-encore finale, McCartney pulled out some more nuggets like "Lady Madonna," "I Saw Her Standing There" and "Get Back." before ending the show with a solo acoustic "Yesterday" and a full band medley of the rocking reprise to "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and the classic "The End" from Abbey Road. Watching McCartney trade blistering lead guitar lines with Anderson and Ray on the song's long jam - elongated even further in concert - was a goose bump moment, one of many which dominated an entirely exceptional show. He may have received the short end of the stick from some revisionist Beatles historians, but anyone attending the show had to be convinced that McCartney was as integral to the phenomenal success and influence of The Beatles as any of his band mates. Seeing the legends of days gone by is usually wrought with disappointment and inflated expectations. But on Thursday night, before the packed crowd at Yarkon Park, PaulMcCartney only succeeded in adding to his legendary status. (Jpost)
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