The Western Word

This Week's Editorial

THE END OF THE ROAD
By Avi Davis

Somewhere near the middle of The Road, the two protagonists, a father and his son, stumble on a barn at the top of a snow swept hill. As they tentatively open the barn door they are exposed to a frightening sight: three bodies, two adults and an adolescent, hang from the rafters. The camera focuses on the son’s face as he registers the tragedy.

“ You know why they are dead,” the father mutters, almost matter-of-factly.The boy doesn’t answer. But the sorrow is clearly etched on his face.

The three died, it is revealed, for either of two reasons: Either to pre-empt the certainty of a slow death by starvation; or else a defiance of the resort to cannibalism – almost the only means of sustaining life in a land where nothing grows.

Its easy to see why Cormac McCarthy’s novel, transferred to the screen, is viewed as yet another tall tale in a long line of films depicting man pitted against man and man against nature. But that would be to miss the film’s deeper and more pointed meaning. For The Road is no mere survival film but a portrait of humanity on the brink of extinction and the immutable fact that human survival depends not only on physical nourishment but on fundamental moral choices.

As the father and son (never identified with names in either the book or the movie) wander across the desolate American landscape, they must contend with what it means to be human and the overarching question of whether survival is worth the moral cost of abandoning all human values.

The movie could therefore have easily have been titled The Test.

That is because the two are driven to extremes, as their sense of human decency is repeatedly stretched to the limit by the situations they encounter and the individuals they meet. After the father is forced to kill another man to save the boy’s life, both are visited with the deepest dread of the implications of the deed. A starving elderly man, who asks for nothing, is given food nonetheless, after the boy implores his father to do so. A wild child, glimpsed through a window in a deserted town, becomes the subject of a heated exchange between father and son as the latter beseeches his father to find the child and bring him along with them; a thief who steals all their possessions is hunted down and rather than being killed, is forced to disrobe and left to stand naked in the wind and rain. Only after hours of pleading from the boy does the father return to the spot where they first caught up with him, to deposit the items of clothing on the ground in the hope the thief will return to reclaim them.

In the clash between the father’s drive to protect his son and the almost febrile articulation of the boy’s moral consciousness, we are given a parable of the deep tension which has afflicted western civilization for the past 100 years: the struggle between the demand for fulfillment of individual needs and the quest for social responsibility.

McCarthy, himself, has never sounded so assured in his defense of humanity. While the world may well have been annihilated by human hand, he seems to believe in an ultimate goodness for which the task of regenerating mankind is made all the more worthwhile. This is the “fire” the man urges his boy to carry, a symbol of life and goodness that separates “the good guys” from “the bad guys” and is the clearest statement yet in a McCarthy novel of the demarcation between absolute goodness and ultimate evil . In this way The Road is a fundamental departure from other McCarthy works such as No Country for Old Men, Suttree and Blood Meridian – all of which display a deep ambivalence about humanity and its purpose.

For all its inherent bleakness, The Road is a profoundly uplifting movie. While it recognizes that there are two forces of evil that prevail upon us -one from within and the other from without – it also suggests that with sufficient vigilance and preparedness both can be defeated.

The two main characters emerge, then, as symbols of this drive.

The boy comes to represent the virtues of principle and idealism. He nudges his father’s conscience and repeatedly forces him to face the prospect of his own descent into inhumanity. The father, on the other hand, represents deep faith tempered by experience. He presents as a model of human resilience in the face of catastrophe. It is, after all, his unflinching vision of a better life which drives the two onward toward their uncertain, obscure future.

But even more impressive than this is the deep bond of love that binds father to son as they grapple with the exigencies of survival. It is evident in the final moments of both book and film, in one of the most touching scenes I have ever read on a page or viewed on screen. When everything is lost, when there seems little reason for either hope or faith, can love survive and become a source for both? Countless anecdotes from the Holocaust have suggested that it can.

It is a question to which The Road seems to respond resoundingly in the affirmative.

At a time in history when man’s failures to maintain peace are wrathfully condemned by our elites and human interference with nature condemned as a blight on earth, it is good to see a film which pulls no punches in exploring the potential for human goodness and celebrates the cause of human exceptionalism

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

CAIR Finally Under Investigation
by Robert Spencer

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a longtime partner of the FBI in its efforts to reach out to American Muslims, now appears to be under criminal investigation by that same FBI. It’s a refreshing breakthrough of sanity in the FBI’s dealing with the domestic terror threat -- and it came to light just as CAIR was poised to win yet another victory in its ongoing campaign of harassment and intimidation against anyone who dares draw attention to jihadist activity in the United States. CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, is an unindicted co-conspirator in a Hamas terror funding case -- so named by the Justice Department. CAIR operatives have repeatedly refused to denounce Hamas and Hizballah as terrorist groups. Several former CAIR officials have been convicted of various crimes related to jihad terror. CAIR’s cofounder and longtime Board chairman (Omar Ahmad), as well as its chief spokesman (Ibrahim “Honest Ibe” Hooper), have made Islamic supremacist statements. Yet despite the many indications that CAIR was not exactly a paragon of patriotism and loyalty to Constitutional values, the FBI worked closely with CAIR for years – until the organization’s unindicted co-conspirator status was too much even for the politically correct Feds, and the FBI ended work with CAIR in fall 2008. (Humanevents)

Arrests Raise Fears of American Jihad-EVAN PEREZ
U.S. counterterrorism officials say 2009 has turned into the year of homegrown jihad, with the unmasking of the most serious suspected terror plots involving Americans in about five years. U.S. investigators are still trying to determine what drew five young Americans to travel last month to Pakistan, where local authorities allege they had sought to join extremist groups that have attacked U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan. U.S. investigators have interviewed some of the men, but haven't verified the information Pakistani officials have released on the case. The surge in alleged terror cases has raised concerns among counterterrorism officials. Some officials say young men have been swayed by the escalating war in Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as intensifying Internet recruiting of Westerners by extremist groups. At a Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee hearing last month, experts on terrorism cited the recent cases as evidence that the threat of radicalization, long an issue in Europe, has become a major concern in the U.S. (WSJ)

Finland: Spread of Islam cause for concern
Speaking on YLE's Ykkösaamu discussion programme on Saturday, Päivi Räsänen, chairwoman of the Christian Democrats, said the spread of Islam in Europe is a "real cause for concern." Räsänen says Islamisation should be taken seriously because the religion seems to include expansionist aspirations and demands for adopting Sharia law. She points out that a religious vacuum is the most dangerous thing for society, as the void can be filled with the negative effects of radical Islam. Räsänen says that for this reason Finns should hold on to their values and Christian cultural heritage—also in schools. "Traditions, such as the Nativity story are a part of Finnish culture. These traditions are for everyone. Children from Muslim families and kids of atheist parents should also have the right to learn about these traditions. This doesn't mean that parents have to give special permission for their kids to see the Christmas manger," says Räsänen. (Islamineurope)

How Much Allah Can the Old Continent Bear?-SPIEGEL Staff
Switzerland's recent vote to ban the construction of new minarets has shocked and angered Muslims around the world. But the controversial move also reflects a growing sense of unease among other Europeans who have trouble coming to terms with Islam's increased visibility.
In the small Swiss town of Langenthal, the battle over the minarets has been fought, and there seems to be no hope of reconciliation between the victors and the vanquished. "I feel abused and injured as a person," says Mutalip Karaademi. "We wanted to hit a symbol," says Daniel Zingg, "and we hit it." Zingg has prevented the minaret that Karaademi wanted to build, and has managed to make it illegal for any other minarets to be built in Switzerland. He was one of the authors of the referendum that was passed by the Swiss on Nov. 29 with 57.5 percent of the votes. The constitution will now contain the following sentence: "The building of minarets is banned." The Swiss decision has shocked Europe and the world because its ramifications go far beyond the building of minarets -- they also concern the identity of an entire continent. (Spiegelonline)

Bomb-sniffing dogs on Vancouver transit worry Muslim leader-CBC News
Specially trained bomb-sniffing dogs might soon be patrolling Metro Vancouver's buses and SkyTrains just in time for the Olympics, but that has some Muslims concerned. The Metro Vancouver Transit Police Service is in the process of selecting the handlers and dogs that will be part of the two-year pilot project, said deputy chief George Beattie. Once the teams are trained, the dogs will work on the entire transit system, including buses, SkyTrains and SeaBus ferries. But the idea of being sniffed up and down by a slobbery pooch — no matter how well trained — has already raised concerns among some members of Metro Vancouver's Muslim community. Some devout Muslims consider dogs to be unclean animals and try to avoid any contact with them. Some Muslim cab drivers in Vancouver have even refused to take guide dogs in their vehicles and will call for a second vehicle to take the fare instead. Shawket Hassan, the vice-president of the B.C. Muslim Association, says he wants to make sure the dogs will not touch passengers during searches, which could lead to problems, particularly for Muslims heading to a mosque to pray. (CBC.ca)

Nearly three quarters of Germans fear the spread of Islam, according to a survey released on Friday.- The Local
A poll by Infratest dimap for public broadcaster ARD showed a third of those asked expressed great concern that Islam was growing too quickly in Germany. Thirty-nine percent were still worried about Islam’s impact on society, but to a lesser degree. Only 22 percent said they had no problem with the religion. A separate survey for daily Berliner Morgenpost and broadcaster RBB showed, however, that a majority in the German capital did not support banning the construction of mosques with minarets as Switzerland did following a recent referendum on the issue. Fifty-three percent of those Berliners surveyed rejected slapping such restrictions on Muslim houses of worship, whereas 40 percent supported such a move. Seven percent had no opinion on the matter. Both surveys polled 1,000 people each. (Thelocal)

Sharia law tribunal is proposed-BBC News
Wales could get its first court based on Islamic law under proposals from a Muslim body, BBC Wales has learned.
A Sharia law tribunal in Cardiff will help community relations and give some Muslims services they want, supporters have told the Dragon's Eye programme. But the Ministry of Justice said that Sharia law "has no jurisdiction in England and Wales". A spokesperson said: "Regardless of religious belief we are all equal before the law". Some commentators, such as the think-tank Civitas, say a Muslim arbitration tribunal undermines the concept of one law for UK citizens. A women's group said it was not needed and women may not be treated fairly. A tribunal has been proposed for the middle of next year, and its backers say it will bring the law and Muslim faith together. There are already seven such tribunals in England when two parties facing marital, financial and other disputes come before experts in Islamic and UK law. Both parties must agree to allow the tribunal to sit in judgement. Shaykh Siddiqi, of the tribunal, said: "What we are trying to do is help the third or fourth generation British Muslims who are growing up to give them the services necessary to make Britain their homeland, rather than saying we actually want to ghettoise ourselves." (BBC)

Suspicions Follow Third Viva Palestina Convoy-IPT News
Viva Palestina, an organization that materially and morally supports the terrorist organization Hamas, launched its third convoy to Gaza last Sunday. Dubbed "The Return to Gaza," the convoy is an international effort, with groups joining from the UK, the U.S. and dozens of other countries. While some members of the Viva Palestina USA branch met their counterparts over the weekend in London, most will be joining the convoy in Istanbul on December 15th. The convoy plans to enter Gaza on December 27th after traveling through France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Syria, Jordan and Egypt. It does so amid an ongoing British government inquiry and American-based requests for investigations to determine whether its support for Hamas has broken any laws. The brainchild of British MP George Galloway, the first Viva Palestina UK convoy publicly gave over $1 million to Hamas officials in March 2009. (IPT)

Manchester terror suspects cleared to work as guards-David Leppard
Ten members of a suspected Islamist terror cell, said by MI5 to be plotting to blow up a shopping centre and a nightclub in Manchester, had been granted permission by the Home Office to work as security guards in Britain. The Pakistani students — who were never charged for lack of evidence — were arrested over an alleged plot to bomb Britain last Easter. Police believed they had conducted “hostile reconnaissance” of the Arndale and Trafford shopping centres and the Birdcage nightclub. It has now emerged that in the months before the alleged plot, the men were given licences to work as security guards by the Security Industry Authority (SIA), a Home Office body that regulates the private security industry. They all passed a vetting programme designed to bar criminals and undesirables from taking up sensitive security posts protecting airports, ports and Whitehall buildings from terrorist attack. When arrested, two of the students were working for a cargo firm which had access to secure areas at Manchester airport. (Timesonline.co.uk)

Kids to Meet Marx in School – Care of Hollywood and The History Channel- Patrick Courrielche
Children are uniquely malleable beings, readily convinced of magically colorful tales – Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy are the first that come to mind. This innocence is beautiful, but it is a quality that can easily fall victim to radically foreign ideas if taught consistently and pervasively at an early age. One need only look at the birth of fascism or socialism to see a recipe for how radical ideas become ubiquitous among a nation’s youth. Enter Howard Zinn – an author, professor and American historian – who, with the help of Hollywood [1] and the History Channel, intends to change the way our pre-K through high school children learn American history. His current curriculum suggestions, like introducing three-year-olds to the lynching of African-Americans [2], or quizzing seven-year-olds on which Presidents owned slaves [3], should be a red flag to parents. Zinn has spent a lifetime teaching college students about the evils of capitalism, the promise of Marxism, and his version of American history – a history that has, in his view, been kept from students. (Bighollywood.breitbart.com)

Supreme Court to Decide Christian Legal Society v. Martinez-Ashley Thorne
The Supreme Court has granted certiorari in the case Christian Legal Society v. Martinez. The case aims to settle a longstanding controversy: whether a religious student group, recognized or funded by a public university, has the right to specify that its members must share the group’s religious beliefs. Christian Legal Society (CLS) is a group of Christian lawyers (“Seeking Justice with the Love of God”) with chapters in multiple cities. The Hastings College of Law of the University of California denied recognition to the CLS chapter on campus, claiming that the Society violated the College’s policy on nondiscrimination. Hastings, however, does recognize Law Students for Reproductive Justice, the La Raza Law Students Association, the Hastings Animal Law Society, the Hastings Jewish Law Students Association, and a group called OUTLAW, which exists “To promote a positive atmosphere at Hastings for lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgendered, and queer students. This includes educating the community at large in order to alleviate and eradicate homophobia and other affronts to human dignity.” Each of these groups is ideological in nature, and participation in them means sharing their values. (NAS)

Robert Fulford: A media gone carbon-cuckoo
At the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference, what matters is making an impression. If you happen to be a politician or a public servant, most people will retain at best a hazy memory of how much carbon you and your colleagues voted to eliminate. They will recall, however, your ability to exude an aura of devotion to planetary welfare. Before the conference, in the foreign ministries of the 192 countries involved, bureaucrats spent months framing their answers to a single question: What should we appear to be doing? Now they are all watching each other, to determine who among the delegates displays satisfyingly elevated ecological responsibility; or, failing that, who can summon enough common decency to pretend to be doing the right thing. This was the issue that shamed many Canadians during the run-up. Certainly it affected me that way, at least when I was listening to the CBC. Apparently, Canada had not reached the standards expected by a UN member. On about a dozen occasions, the CBC told me that our abysmal failure had made people elsewhere consider us the world’s moral sinkhole. As late as Thursday morning, a CBC radio host reminded me that among countries ecologically in the know, Canada is considered “public enemy number one.” (Nationalpost)

We are being gagged: The right to speak freely is being undermined by those who should be protecting it-Mike Judge Of The Christian Institute
Common sense has, for once, prevailed. The criminal case – yes, criminal case – against a Christian couple, Ben and Sharon Vogelenzang, has been dismissed. Hopefully, the Vogelenzangs can get on with their lives and start to rebuild their hotel business – a business that has almost been destroyed because of the allegations against them. Thanks to the donations of thousands of Christians, The Christian Institute was able to pay for Mr and Mrs Vogelenzang’s legal defence. We did so because it was a significant case of free speech, not just for Christians, but for every person’s right to question someone else’s beliefs. Now that the case is over I hope the nation will ask itself: What’s happening to free speech? How on earth did a breakfast discussion about religion end up with two Christians sitting in the dock at Liverpool Magistrates’ Court? Big questions need to be asked of the police and the CPS. (Dailymail.co.uk)

Britain, Long a Libel Mecca, Reviews Laws-SARAH LYALL
LONDON — England has long been a mecca for aggrieved people from around the world who want to sue for libel. Russian oligarchs, Saudi businessmen, multinational corporations, American celebrities — all have made their way to London’s courts, where jurisdiction is easy to obtain and libel laws are heavily weighted in favor of complainants. Embarrassed by London’s reputation as “a town called sue” and by unusually stinging criticisms in American courts and legislatures, British lawmakers are seriously considering rewriting England’s 19th-century libel laws. A member of the House of Lords is preparing a bill that would, among other things, require foreigners to demonstrate that they have suffered actual harm in England before they can sue here. English libel law is the opposite of America’s in many ways. In the United States, the plaintiff, or accuser, must prove that the statement in question was false; public officials must also prove that it was made maliciously, with “reckless disregard” for the truth. (NYT)

'Freedom of speech' victory as Christian hoteliers are CLEARED of insulting Muslim woman as judge slams her evidence-Daily Mail Reporter
Christian hoteliers accused of insulting a Muslim guest for wearing the hijab and berating her for her beliefs were dramatically cleared this afternoon. Benjamin and Sharon Vogelenzang denied using threatening, abusive or insulting words which were religiously aggravated against white British Muslim convert Ericka Tazi, 60. District Judge Richard Clancy, who heard the case in the absence of a jury, told the couple that religion and politics was the 'tinderbox which set the whole thing alight and it would appear because of strongly entrenched positions that is what has happened here'. Explaining his reasons for dismissing the case, he said Mrs Tazi's claim that she was verbally attacked by the couple for up to an hour had not been borne out by other prosecution witnesses, who suggested that any discussions lasted around seven minutes. (Dailymail.co.uk)

An inconvenient truth-Melanie Phillips
Yesterday evening, the historian Andrew Roberts delivered a remarkable address at the annual dinner of the Anglo-Israel Association. I reproduce it here in full, with no further comment.
My Lords, Ladies & Gentlemen,
It’s a great honour to be invited to address you, especially on this the 60th anniversary of AIA, and I’d like to take the opportunity of this anniversary to look at the overall story of the relationship between Britain and Israel, and to try to strip away some of the myths. Because it seems to me that for all the undoubted statesmanship implicit in Arthur Balfour’s Declaration of November 1917, promising ‘a National Home for the Jewish People’, it doesn’t mean that Britain has ever been much more than a fair-weather friend to Jewish national aspirations. The Declaration itself was at least in part conceived to keep Eastern European and Russian Jews supporting the Great War after the Bolshevik Revolution, and Chaim Weizmann’s preferred wording of ‘a Jewish State’ was turned down by the British Foreign Office. As David Ben-Gurion wrote at the time: ‘Britain has made a magnificent gesture … But only the Hebrew people can transform this right into tangible fact: only they, with body and soul, with their strength and capital, must build their National Home and bring about their national redemption.’ (Spectator.co.uk)

UK supermarkets to heed advisory on West Bank labelling-Jonny Paul
The major supermarket retailers are set to follow the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) guidelines issued on Thursday calling for the clear labelling of goods and produce originating from the West Bank. Defra Secretary of State Hilary Benn said the advisory was a response to consumer demand for information about the origin of produce that has been produced in the West Bank. "Importers, retailers, NGOs and consumers have asked the government for clarity over the precise origin of products from the Occupied Palestinian Territories," Benn said. "The label 'West Bank' does not allow consumers to distinguish between goods originating from Palestinian producers and goods originating from illegal Israeli settlements." The Foreign Office also said the government published the advice to "help provide clarity to traders and retailers who want to offer their consumers more information about the origin of produce from the West Bank." The advisory drew an angry response from Israel's Foreign Ministry, which said Friday that it would promote further radicalization of Palestinians. (Jpost)

Muslim Hackers Return to US Jewish Website-Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
(Israelnationalnews.com) A self-identified Turkish Muslim returned for the second week in a row Saturday night to hack the popularFive Towns Jewish newspaper website. Readers of the site were met with a picture of the Statue of Liberty, carrying a Muslim holy book, apparently the Koran, and decked out in a burka, the Moslem robe that covers the body. Last Saturday night, readers attempting to access the site saw images of burning Israeli flags and a video demonizing former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. The Five Towns Jewish Times is a weekly newspaper serving the Long Island, Brooklyn and Queens area of New York. The hacker, calling himself Seyhul-isLam, posted the following message to the website. “The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger, and strive with might and main for mischief through the land is: execution, or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides, or exile from the land: that is their disgrace in this world, and a heavy punishment is theirs in the Hereafter [Al-Maida: 33] Allahu Akbar!!!” (INN)

Irish slammed for Gaza ban-Anthony Garvey
The Israeli government has been sharply criticised in the Irish parliament for refusing Foreign Affairs Minister Micheal Martin permission to visit Gaza. Some members called the refusal “intolerable” and “an insult”, while the chair of the parliament’s committee on European affairs, Bernard Durkan, claimed the decision “serves to give the impression that Israel is unwilling to let the outside world see the suffering that is going on”. Mr Martin, tipped by many to be the next Irish taoiseach (prime minister), told the committee he had been given “no substantial reason” for the refusal, though he acknowledged similar requests from other European countries had been turned down. The request had been made last month, he said, and his department had been advised by the Israeli government last week that “access was not possible”. He added: “I just wanted to go in myself and see Gaza.” (Thejc)

European Jewish Congress calls EU declaration 'disappointing and one-sided'-Maureen Shamee
PARIS (EJP)---The European Jewish Congress (EJC) expressed disappointment over the conclusions issued after the European Union Foreign Ministers meeting in Brussels.
EJC President Moshe Kantor said that the declaration hardly takes into account recent Israeli concessions including a moratorium on settlement building, removing roadblocks, boosting the Palestinian economy and accepting the premise of a Palestinian state. “Although the declaration goes some way to correcting the unprecedented proposals by the Swedes, it is still extremely lopsided towards the Palestinian point of view,” he said. “This will only embolden the Palestinians by sending them the message that they don’t need to negotiate because they will receive everything on a silver platter. (EJP)

Trapped by the Axis of Anti-Semitism: Left, Right and Islam-Rael Jean Isaac, Ruth King
The Jewish people are in danger of being entrapped in a pincer movement of anti-Semitic hatred from left and right, often thinly masked as “anti-Zionism,” with moral cover provided by haters of Israel within the Jewish community. Europe is in the lead, but there are ominous developments in this country (and Canada) as well. In the recent period hostility from the left has been dominant, even though, precisely because Jews overwhelmingly identify with this end of the political spectrum, many remain in denial. In The Resurgence of Anti-Semitism, British philosophy professor Bernard Harrison reminds us of the enormity of what has occurred:
“Surely few of the most cynical observers of human affairs would have predicted that anti-Semitism would be flourishing in Western Europe within little more than fifty years of the destruction of the Nazi regime – and what is more, establishing its base within the self-proclaimed ‘progressive, anti-racist’ left in universities, journalism and political life.” (Familysecuritymatters)

Islamists must be prevented from brainwashing kids-Carl Ungerer
ACCORDING to Karl von Clausewitz's dictum, "the aim of any war has to be a situation better than when hostilities began". After nearly a decade of the global war on terror, how do we know if the situation has improved?
One measure may be the cadence of terrorist attacks. So far this year, more than 7500 people have been killed in more than 5000 incidents across four continents. That is a significant improvement on last year, when more than 15,000 people were killed in more than 11,000 terrorist attacks. Despite a clear desire to do so, Osama bin Laden and his central al-Qa'ida leadership have been unable to replicate the mass-casualty atrocities of the 2001 airlines plot against the US, nor can they get their hands on a nuclear weapon. Can we therefore say that terrorism is a declining security threat and the situation is better than when hostilities began? Public opinion in Australia supports this view. (Theaustralian)

Homeland Insecurity-Daniel Byman
The U.S. is facing rising terror threats from its own citizens. What made the country safer after 9/11 is changing, and not for the better, argues Daniel Byman
Americans are now learning what citizens of Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, the United Kingdom, and other foreign countries have long known: that some of our own can and will go to great lengths to kill their fellow citizens. Ramy Zamzam and four friends from the Washington, D.C., suburbs were detained in Pakistan in a police raid on a house allegedly tied to a militant group earlier this week. One of the men had recorded a video filled with images of war and declarations that young Muslims must act. The five Americans, students in their 20s, are now being questioned by U.S. and Pakistani authorities. The revelations about the Alexandria, Va., five come just more than a month after Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan allegedly killed 13 of his fellow soldiers at Fort Hood in Texas. (WSJ)

Arrests suggest U.S. Muslims, like those in Europe, can be radicalized abroad-Mary Beth Sheridan and Spencer S. Hsu
Community groups, in bid to address problem, launch programs aimed at youths
A spike in terrorism cases involving U.S. citizens is challenging long-held assumptions that Muslims in Europe are more susceptible to radicalization than their better-assimilated counterparts in the United States. Four investigations disclosed in the past 12 months, including the arrests of five Northern Virginia men in Pakistan this week, underscore what the Obama administration asserts is a domestic threat emanating from Americans training overseas with al-Qaeda and related terrorist groups in Pakistan. "We have apprehended extremists within our borders who were sent here from the border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan to commit new acts of terror," President Obama said this month in announcing plans to deploy 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan. (Washingtonpost)

An Irrational Act-Andrew C. McCarthy
Trying KSM in NYC will delay the verdict, and reduce the chances it is the right one.
Here’s the biggest problem with the Obama administration’s decision to transfer Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other 9/11 jihadists to the civilian court system: It makes sense only if it’s being done for the wrong reasons — to provide a forum for the Left to use al-Qaeda as a vehicle to put the Bush administration on trial, to give the Left the “reckoning” that the Obama campaign promised before the 2008 election. As a matter of law enforcement or national security, it is irrational. To demonstrate this, we need look no farther than the two principal justifications Attorney General Eric Holder has offered: the asserted need to end delay in seeking justice and the claim that a civilian trial provides the best chance for a successful prosecution. On the matter of delay, let’s put aside for now the fact that, during the Bush years, Holder’s former firm — and many lawyers who’ve since been recruited into his Justice Department after years of volunteering their services to the nation’s enemies — used every arrow in the litigator’s quiver to delay, delegitimize, and derail war-crimes trials by military commission. (Nationalreview)

Insurgent infiltrators terrorise Kabul's ruling class-
Miles Amoore in Kabul
TALIBAN insurgents who have infiltrated Kabul are nailing “night letters” to the doors of policemen, soldiers and government workers, warning them to leave their jobs or face punishment. The militants are being welcomed in the Afghan capital’s poorer areas among inhabitants who are disaffected with corruption, and who supply them with food, cash and weapons. Safe houses and bomb-making workshops have begun to appear in run-down districts close to the city centre as the militants increase their presence and plot attacks on prominent local targets. “They know who we are, where we live and what we do,” said Dr Ehsan Anwari, who used to work as an Afghan army medic and now runs a clinic in Company district, where Highway One, the main road from Kandahar to the south, enters the capital. “Whenever we hear shooting we think that the Taliban are taking over the district by force. We are afraid.” Described by one police officer as a den of vice, Company district is a warren of tightly packed, single- storey houses and mud-caked, narrow streets. (Timesonline.co.uk)

The New Socialism- Charles Krauthammer
In the 1970s and early '80s, having seized control of the U.N. apparatus (by power of numbers), Third World countries decided to cash in. OPEC was pulling off the greatest wealth transfer from rich to poor in history. Why not them? So in grand U.N. declarations and conferences, they began calling for a "New International Economic Order." The NIEO's essential demand was simple: to transfer fantastic chunks of wealth from the industrialized West to the Third World.On what grounds? In the name of equality -- wealth redistribution via global socialism -- with a dose of post-colonial reparations thrown in. The idea of essentially taxing hard-working citizens of the democracies in order to fill the treasuries of Third World kleptocracies went nowhere, thanks mainly to Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher (and the debt crisis of the early '80s). They put a stake through the enterprise. But such dreams never die. The raid on the Western treasuries is on again, but today with a new rationale to fit current ideological fashion. With socialism dead, the gigantic heist is now proposed as a sacred service of the newest religion: environmentalism. (Humanevent)

Copenhagen summit: The world is COOLING not warming says scientist Peter Taylor - and we're not prepared...-David Derbyshire
In his provocative book Chill, natural scientist Peter Taylor warns that the world is cooling not warming and that solutions proposed at Copenhagen ignore the risks of a possible return of the Ice Age... Like a magician who fools themselves but not audience, the Anthropomorphic Global Warming (AGW) lobby have identified the wrong problem and the wrong solution. Global cooling threatens disaster for humanity in the developed and developing world alike, yet the media and the scientific consensus ignores this peril. The Climategate controversy revolves around whether warming has been real and why it has not persisted – but it misses the point. Cycles are involved, not short-term trends, and many respected scientists, especially those in Russia and China, think that a cooling cycle is coming. The AGW brigade have mistaken the current warm period for a trend caused by carbon emissions. But the detailed science says it could be natural and part of a cycle. (Dailymail.co.uk)

UN Security Stops Journalist’s Questions About ClimateGate- Mike Flynn
A Stanford Professor has used United Nation security officers to silence a journalist asking him “inconvenient questions” during a press briefing at the climate change conference in Copenhagen. Professor Stephen Schneider’s assistant requested armed UN security officers who held film maker Phelim McAleer, ordered him to stop filming and prevented further questioning after the press conference where the Stanford academic was launching a book. McAleer, a veteran journalist and film maker, has recently made a documentary “Not Evil Just Wrong’ which takes a sceptical look at the science and politics behind Global Warming concerns. He asked Professor Schneider about his opinions on Climategate – where leaked emails have revealed that a senior British professor deleted data and encouraged colleagues to do likewise if it contradicted their belief in Global Warming. Professor Phil Jones, the head of Britain’s Climate Research Unit, has temporarily stood down pending an investigation into the scandal. Professor Schneider, who is a senior member of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), said he would not comment on emails that may have been incomplete or edited. (Biggovernment)

Baby, It’s Cold Outside-Alan Caruba
One of the great ironies of the Climate Change Conference taking place in Copenhagen is that its focus is on “global warming” at a time when Planet Earth has been in a cooling cycle for the past decade. That fact alone is testimony to another one; the United Nations conference has nothing to do with the climate and everything to do with a binding treaty that would ultimately transfer power from the individual sovereign nations whose representatives are attending to centralized governance by unelected bureaucrats. Just as Communism concentrates all power in the “State” and relegates its citizens to “property” of the state, the UN Climate Change program would subjugate entire nations in the name of “saving the Earth.” It needs saving, but not from a fraudulent “global warming.” The present greatest danger to mankind is the various power centers represented by the delegates to the conference. (Familysecuritymatters)

Discovery of T.Rex's little ancestor suggests dinosaurs came from what is now America-Daily Mail Reporter
Fossil hunters have unearthed one of the earliest known relatives of the Tyrannosaurus Rex in the U.S. The two-legged predator Tawa hallae, was found on the Ghost Ranch in New Mexico and scientists say it has shed new light on early dinosaur evolution. The theropod dinosuar lived 213 million years ago, while its most famous descendant - the T.Rex - did not appear until 68 million years ago. A team led by Sterling Nesbitt from the University of Texas unearthed a number of well-preserved Tawa hallae skeletons that ranged in size from 6.6ft to 13ft long. A full grown T. Rex could reach up to 43ft in length. The scientists are fairly confident the newly-discovered creature was a carnivore because its teeth had little serrations like a steak knife. The finding suggests dinosaurs may have originated in what is now South America and then dispersed around the world instead of evolving in different places. The biggest surprise came when T. hallae was compared with two other species from the same era and order of dinosaurs also found at the ranch. (Dailymail.co.uk)

Why We Give a Damn About Scarlett-DAVID MERMELSTEIN
As it turns 70, 'Gone With the Wind' still stirs complicated feelings, which is part of the movie's allure
No one denies that "Gone With the Wind" holds an honored—even sacred—place in the pantheon of beloved American movies. Adjusted for inflation, its domestic box-office gross is variously estimated at $1.3 billion to $1.5 billion—vastly more than the sum earned by "Titanic." Still more impressive are its initial ticket sales, which totaled more than 200 million at a time when the U.S. population was just 130 million. And then there are those eight Oscars, including best picture, in a year widely acknowledged as Hollywood's greatest. But affection and respect are different things, and it is perhaps only now—70 years after its initial release on Dec. 15, 1939—that this film is acquiring a patina of venerability. In large part, this delay can be attributed to the complicated feelings the picture engenders. Unlike, say, "The Wizard of Oz," from that same year, or "Casablanca," from three years later, "Gone With the Wind" is not unobjectionable. How could it be? Its primary characters are rich white Southerners living through the Civil War and into Reconstruction—not material that goes down easy for many Americans then or now. (WSJ)

Dame Judi Dench: ‘I am very un-divaish’-Tim Teeman
Ahead of her new film, Britain’s greatest actress talks about her life, career and why politicians are failing the arts
You will never want to be on the receiving end of the Dench glare. The mouth tightens, the hoods on the eyes flare. I had asked what she thought of the prospect of a Conservative government and the glare was her response, followed by five seconds of silence and then the sullen pronouncement: “I’m not too hot about that.” Gordon Brown needn’t feel smug, though. She just sighed at his name and said quietly: “I’m not much a fan of any of them now.” Indeed, Dame Judi Dench, 75, dressed today in black, would like it to be known that she is nobody’s national treasure. She may be one of our most esteemed actresses, but she begs that we divest ourselves of the twinkly, matronly image we have of her. She doesn’t help herself; she’ll soon pop up reprising her role as Miss Matty Jenkyns on the BBC’s Cranford Christmas special. “National treasure? I hate that. Too dusty, too in a cupboard, too behind glass, too staid,” she says tartly in that wonderful, commanding yet playful croak of hers. “I don’t want to be thought of as recognisable — I always want to do the most different thing I can think of next. I don’t want to be known for one thing, or as having done huge amounts of Shakespeare and the classics. I hate speaking as myself. I could never do a one-woman show. But I love being part of a company. (Timesonline.co.uk)