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CHARLES DARWIN’S UNHAPPY LEGACY
By Avi Davis
 Many years ago I learned how thoroughly evolutionary theory had penetrated our culture. While watching the first installment of the Disney movie The Land Before Time with my sons I gazed with some amusement as colorful one celled organisms struggled through the soupy blue-green sludge to evolve, though several mutations and incarnations, into the adorable little dinos who would populate the movie and then, one day, the Earth.
Of course the nexus between that opaque little cell and the extraordinary creatures who would relentlessly pound the earth billions of years later is never clearly established. But then again, how the dinosaurs emerge speaking idiomatic English with outbursts of American slang is never made too clear either. It all makes good television.
The question today is whether it all makes good science.
The 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth will be celebrated this week, as will be his most famous work On The Origins of Species which was published in November, 1859 almost exactly 150 years ago. Back then the book hit Victorian England with the power of a full force gale, lifting the sheeting right off the rooftops of the Anglican Church and exposing the narrowness and impossibility of the Biblical narrative of Creation.
For the Church itself it was a call to arms since the evolutionary theory articulated by Darwin suggested that life could never have sprung into existence ab initio but required a slow process of mutation and transformation which probably took billions of years. In light of Darwin’s theory, it was then preposterous to declare the world only 5,000 years old and that man had entered it at more or less the same time as all other living creatures.
But the Darwinist revolution had an even more significant cosmological impact. If the Biblical narrative of Creation was demonstrably untrue, then perhaps the existence of a Deity, masterminding that Creation could also be dealt a death blow. Extrapolating further, order in the universe, and indeed its very purpose and meaning, could be questioned. Life, if one followed Darwin’s irreducible logic, actually had very little direction or purpose without the guiding hand of a Creator. Consistent Darwinism meant no life after death, no foundation for ethics, no free will, no ultimate meaning in life.
It is not an exaggeration then to state that the advent of Darwinism heralded the reign of secular humanism in British life and the eventual ennoblement of atheism throughout the western hemisphere. It was the midwife to Nietzcheian existentialism and the foster mother of 20th Century nihilism. Today, evolutionary theory and the concept of scientific materialism that it enshrines has become an ideological fortress that one assaults at his own peril. You can barely whisper a word of doubt about evolutionary theory without being immediately shelled with lethal amounts of outrage and scorn by our intellectual elites. For them, evolutionary theory has not just become a building block of modern science, but an unassailable truth, as accurate as a mathematical formula and as empirically proven as the earth’s orbit of the sun.
That, of course, would be fine if evolutionary theory had been proven unassailable. But the fact is that the theory, over the past 150 years, has been repeatedly punctured, leaving gaping holes that have been extraordinary difficult to fill. Missing is the fossil evidence which would reveal how one species changed and adapted over several billion years to produce the final product. Or as physicist Gerald Schroeder puts it:
“ In the entire fossil record, with its millions of specimens, there has been found no midway transitional fossil at the basic levels of phylum….. no trace of an animal that was half the predecessor and half the successor of its parent group.”
In other words, no missing link.
On the contrary, the fossil record portrays the continuity of the same morphology of plant and animal forms for billions of years, only to be upset by a sudden transformation which began in the Cambrian period.
Therefore evolutionary theory’s linear, gradual transformations of plant and animal life has not been proven, not enough at least to justify the Darwinists’ claim that the theory is incontrovertible. That proof may still be waiting, buried thousands of feet under the earth’s surface; or perhaps lying embedded on an ocean floor. But until it is revealed, the jury is still out on evolution.
I will leave to others, such as the molecular biologist Michael Behe in Darwin’s Black Box, the philosopher David Stove in Darwinian Fairy Tales ( an AFA recommended book of the month) or the mathematician William Dembski’s The Design of Life to amplify the claim that the proofs adduced by both Darwin and his successors have presented far more questions than they have ever answered. Suffice to say they show the Darwinian mechanism of chance variation and natural selection to be inadequate in accounting for the full diversity of life in the universe.
But I wouldn’t tell that to Richard Dawkins. The best selling author who has made millions debunking religious faith has declared that “ it is absolutely safe to say that if you meet somebody who claims not to believe in evolution, that person is ignorant, stupid or insane.” The naturalist Edmund O. Wilson has stated that “ evolutionary theory is so ingrained in our intellectual approach to the world that anyone who disavows it should be regarded as mentally incompetent.” The Nobel laureate Steven Weinberg has stated that from all his research into the substance and mechanics of the universe he finds the universe to be pointless and “only a little above the level of farce – and only a fool would think otherwise.” These guardians of evolutionary theory, together with the late professors Stephen J. Gould and Carl Sagan have become the celebrity high priests of a movement that they regard - and demand that society regard - as inviolable.
But be warned. The dogmatism that has attached to the defense of evolutionary theory since its beginnings, can also stand accused as the progenitor of some of the most malign practices and political movements of the 20th century. The pervasive Darwinian notion of the survival of the fittest (a term coined not by Darwin but by the 19th Century philologist Herbert Spencer) gave Nazi propaganda regarding Jewish unfitness for life most of its intellectual heft. Marxism ( and Leninism for that matter) built on the notion of static inherent social conditions, a sociological variant of Darwinism and relied heavily on the necessity for violent confrontation rather than dialogue and cooperation in seeking to redress social wrongs. The eugenics movement of the 1930s, which sought to isolate, quarantine and ultimately eradicate defective human genes, led 30 U.S. states by 1935 to enact forced sterilization laws. At the legal level, the American eugenics crusade culminated in the infamous Supreme Court decision in Buck vs Bell, where Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. declared that compulsory sterilization for the mentally handicapped was constitutional because, afterall, “ three generations of imbeciles is enough.”
Extreme shades of multiculturalism, feminism and environmentalism today further represent forms of the same scientific materialism. Proponents of these ideologies often assert that human beings are so programmed by their race, gender or class that their political views, morality and religious beliefs are mere mechanical by-products of their social condition and that nothing can change them. This, of course, leads to the refusal to debate or discuss with seriousness the basis for their complaints against our society and often leads to violent confrontation.
And yet the wonder of how life began stubbornly persists. You don’t need to be a Nobel Prize winning scientist or a Sorbonne educated philosopher to understand the issue. One view of the night sky with the understanding that the light of any star you see may have been traveling towards you for a million years or the examination through a microscope of the infinite complexity of a cell – a galaxy unto itself - should be enough to make even a child ask powerful questions about ultimate cause. Science, of course, has helped us along in capturing this awe and wonder. We know, for instance, that almost four billion years ago, an exquisite, efficient system for encoding and transmitting the information necessary to guide an organism’s development from seed to adult, appeared. That same system, the double helix of our genetic DNA, guides the growth and characteristics of all living organisms. We also know that the development of a cell requires a perfect configuration of approximately 250 proteins and that the odds of this arrangement occurring by random chance from nothing, is several trillion to one.
The question then that any astronomer, molecular biologist and philosopher worth his salt must ask, is where did it all begin? Where did that first extraordinary cell which became the progenitor for all life derive its origins? Why did it develop and what, in the end, was its purpose?
Evolutionary biologists have no convincing answers for any of these questions.
Given this huge inadequacy, one is entitled to ask how is it possible to have such an intricately structured universe of such deep complexity, largely beyond human understanding or comprehension, and not be impressed by the hand of design? Curiously it is the scientific evidence – the significant discoveries of gravity, relativity, DNA, quantum mechanics and molecular biology and their irreducible complexity ( to borrow a term from Michael Behe) that points to the reality of intelligence in the origins and development of life.
The Intelligent Design theory, advanced by the authors I identify above, highlighted in Ben Stein’s excellent documentary Expelled and supported by hundreds of other scientists, philosophers and commentators throughout the world, does not demand to be the only theory advanced to explain the origins of life. But it demands and deserves to be heard.
But it is not heard, at least not audibly enough. Professors on our college campuses who even hint at the possibility of intelligent design suffer the threat of censure, research grant cuts and even termination. Books on intelligent design cannot be found in many college or community libraries or even in many book stores, as I found to my surprise in conducting research for this article. Scientists who espouse intelligent design are ridiculed on talk shows and news programs as simplistic born-again Christians, with a religious agenda, even if they practice no religion. A virtual witch hunt ensues in our society for those who wish to pursue alternative theories to evolutionary theory.
Oddly enough, it is science itself which has opened up the questions about intelligent design by leaving unanswered fundamental questions. Shouldn’t science then be the vehicle to examine it more fully? Do not the demands of free inquiry, one of the hallmarks of academic freedom and one of the absolute necessities for human progress, require our universities to take countervailing theories which seek to plug the gaping holes in old ideas with a level of seriousness?
Since the late 1850s we have seen where fanatical adherence to a philosophy and theory which brooks no opposition can lead. In the ontological approach it propounds, evolutionary theory has not led to the discovery of universal truths. On the contrary, the atheism of which evolutionary theory is a natural corollary has failed us, leading us to doubt, despair, ennui and societal breakdown. In its political incarnation it did not engender tolerance, cooperation and understanding as the scientific community might have once promised us, but instead led to competition, struggle and violence. The perniciousness of the theory as it has developed, unintended by its author, would probably shock him today.
What is at stake in all of this? Why should the debate over ultimate cause, evolution and intelligent design matter to any non-scientist? It is fairly simply stated. If life on earth is a product of blind, purposeless natural causes, brought into existence by random associations, then our lives are a mere cosmic accident. There is no source for overarching moral imperatives, no unique dignity for human life and no sense of purpose at all. Why should we fight to preserve human life or battle for a culture or a civilization when none of it has any transcendental meaning?
On the other hand, if life is the product of foresight and design, then human beings are not merely randomly associated chunks of matter, whose atoms will be spewed back into the ether to be reformed into space dust, but organisms whose existence have a direction and a purpose. With such assurance we can firmly fix our place in the universe and discern meaning in our daily lives. We have reason to defend our families, our values and our civilization.
At stake, ultimately, is which world view will shape our culture and our future.
At stake, may be our very survival.
Want to comment on this article? See Avi Davis’ blog
Avi Davis is the Executive Director and Senior Fellow of the American Freedom Alliance in Los Angeles. He can be contacted at isdev@ix.netcom.com
Friend or Foe of Free Speech?
by Robert Spencer
Dutch Parliamentarian Geert Wilders has been hailed worldwide as a hero of free speech after Dutch authorities announced that they were going to prosecute him for insulting Islam and Muslims. However, not everyone sees him as a hero. Ian Buruma said it in the New York Times:
Whether Mr. Wilders has deliberately insulted Muslim people is for the judges to decide. But for a man who calls for a ban on the Koran to act as the champion of free speech is a bit rich.
It’s worth considering. Is supporting Wilders as a champion of free speech “a bit rich”? Is he just a totalitarian book-banner?
In fact, no. Wilders made a speech in the Dutch Parliament about banning the Qur’an in September 2007. In it, Wilders outlines some of the incitement to violence that is contained in the Qur’an -- here is part of his argument: (Frontpagemagazine)
NEWS: EUROPE AND AMERICA
‘Moderate’ Muslim Brotherhood Cleric is Anything But-Steve Emerson
On January 30, 2009 excerpts of a speech by Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi were aired on Al-Jazeera. In the speech, Qaradawi made vicious remarks about Jews, inciting Muslims to put Jews in “their place” as Hitler had done, in revenge for Israeli actions in Gaza several weeks prior: “Throughout history, Allah has imposed upon the [Jews] people who would punish them for their corruption. The last punishment was carried out by Hitler. By means of all the things he did to them – even though they exaggerated this issue – he managed to put them in their place. This was divine punishment for them. Allah willing, the next time will be at the hand of the believers.” Such vitriol is nothing new for Qaradawi. At a “Gaza Victory Rally” in Doha, Qatar two days earlier, which was attended by Hamas Political Chief Khalid Mishaal, he gave a speech saying that “martyrdom is the greatest wish of a Muslim,” and that the “resistance must continue.” (Familysecuritymatters)
Granada could get first Islamic primary school in the country
GRANADA could play home to the first Islamic primary school in Spain if Muslim leaders win approval for the plan. The idea is to provide the province’s sizeable Muslim population with the opportunity to give their children an Islamic education in Spain – where schools are secular by law, but where religious education centres almost exclusively on Catholicism. There are an estimated 10,000 Muslims registered as living in and around Granada, and the city seems a fitting location for the project. It was the seat of a caliphate – islamic kingdom – until 1492 when Granada became the last city in Iberia to fall to the Catholic majesties, Fernando and Isabel. “We are not trying to oppose the current system. We want to provide an alternative that defends fundamental values that are being lost in modern society,” said Malik Ruiz, the leader of the Islamic Community of Spain – the group behind the proposals. “We are not trying to force segregation,” he added.
If it receives the go ahead from both Granada councillors and officials from the Junta de Andalucía regional government, the school will be both privately and publicly funded. It will admit non-Muslim children, while its curriculum will follow that of other public schools across Spain. “We hope to buy land on which to build the school later this year, with the aim to start classes in October 2010,” explained Ruiz. (theolivepress)
Norway: Increasing radicalization among extremist Muslims
Radicalization in the Norwegian extreme Islamic communities is increase, says the PST, the Norwegian security service, in its threat report for 2009. The PST did not uncover concrete plans for a terror attack in Norway and the threat level continues to be low. But international events, like the situation in Gaza, Afghanistan and Iraq, affect the development in the radicalized communities in Norway. In these communities indications are that the radicalization is increasing somewhat, says the security service.
They point out that there are charismatic leader figures in Norway who have a lot of influence on people in a radicalization process. These are first and foremost ideological guides, but PST thins these people can also assist young radicalized people with establishing contact with militant groups outside Norway. (IslaminEurope)
 Hijab chic on the catwalk-ROISIN INGLE
IT’S FASHION, but not as we know it. The latest trends in “hijab chic” will be unveiled at a fashion show in UCD today when over one hundred young Muslim women gather at a female-only event to strike a pose in a headscarf. Instead of the usual catwalk uniform of plunging necklines and form-fitting couture, participants will be conservatively covered up for the second annual Hijab Fashion Show organised by students of the university. “Our aim is to promote the hijab, to show how it can be worn anytime, anywhere and to communicate the message that beauty can be modest and fashionable at the same time,” says food science student Fatima Elkhomssi (18), at a meeting with the rest of the event’s organising committee in UCD’s Student Centre. The women – some international students from countries such as Malaysia, others who have spent most of their lives in Ireland after arriving with their families from Libya, Saudi Arabia or Pakistan – are keen to dispel what they see as myths about the conservative Muslim dress code.
Student teacher Anissa Majeed came to Dublin from England with her family as a young girl and says the stereotypes of Muslim women being oppressed by the dress code are, in her experience, misleading. (Irishtimes)
Muslim investors profit by adhering to faith-Matthai Kuruvila, Chronicle Religion Writer
As credit markets have imploded, triggering a global economic crisis, Islamically correct investors have seen a change of fortune: The conservative principles this small group of devout Muslims clung to during the economic heyday has insulated them from the worst of the past year's suffering.Their renunciation of the interest-based economy kept them away from investments in financial services companies, whose stocks have collapsed, and out of traditional mortgages. "There was a time two or three years ago that Islamic finance was considered simply too conservative," said Professor Ibrahim Warde, author of "Islamic Finance in the Global Economy" and an adjunct professor at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. "Right now, many people are recognizing that maybe it wasn't such a bad thing." Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes, which represent benchmarks for Islamically correct investment categories, have been outperforming their non-Islamically compliant counterparts by 3 to 4 percent in key indexes. The two Amana Income and Growth funds, the largest Islamic mutual funds in the country with $1.2 billion in combined assets, have been outperforming the S&P 500 in the past year by 13 and 7 percent, respectively. (Both Amana funds also outperform the S&P index on 5- and 10-year comparisons.) (Sfgate)
Academic freedom
Staving Off the ‘Yellow Peril’-By Stephan Thernstrom
The University of California regents attempt to curtail Asian admissions.
In 1995, the regents of the University of California, at the urging of Ward Connerly and Gov. Pete Wilson, voted to bar racial preferences on all nine of the system’s campuses. A year later, the state’s voters passed Proposition 209, an amendment to the constitution that extended that ban to state and local governments. But today, the regents are expected to approve major changes in admissions policies that represent the most recent of many misguided attempts to circumvent Prop 209. The move is breathtaking. It will drop the requirement that applicants take two SAT “subject tests”; if the students the school wants tend to do poorly on such tests, then it is best not to know just how poorly. The plan also sharply lowers the academic standards that applicants must meet to be eligible for a “full admissions review.” This review is where their distinctive “personal qualities” can be discerned and made to count for more than the weaknesses in their academic performance. (Nationalreview)
The Two Languages of Academic Freedom-Stanley Fish
Last week we came to the section on academic freedom in my course on the law of higher education and I posed this hypothetical to the students: Suppose you were a member of a law firm or a mid-level executive in a corporation and you skipped meetings or came late, blew off assignments or altered them according to your whims, abused your colleagues and were habitually rude to clients. What would happen to you?The chorus of answers cascaded immediately: “I’d be fired.” Now, I continued, imagine the same scenario and the same set of behaviors, but this time you’re a tenured professor in a North American university. What then? I answered this one myself: “You’d be celebrated as a brave nonconformist, a tilter against orthodoxies, a pedagogical visionary and an exemplar of academic freedom.”My assessment of the way in which some academics contrive to turn serial irresponsibility into a form of heroism under the banner of academic freedom has now been at once confirmed and challenged by events at the University of Ottawa, where the administration announced on Feb. 6 that it has “recommended to the Board of Governors the dismissal with cause of Professor Denis Rancourt from his faculty position.” Earlier, Rancourt, a tenured professor of physics, had been suspended from teaching and banned from campus. When he defied the ban he was taken away in handcuffs and charged with trespassing. (fish.blogs.nytimes)
Media Bias
How Israel became a terrorist state-Essa bin Mohammed Al Zedjali
I HAVE been following the shameful and painful events in our Arab region ever since the establishment of the Jewish state in 1948. Thanks to my readings, I am aware of the aims of the West in choosing Palestine as a homeland for the Jews through what is known as the Balfour Declaration of 1917, crafted by the then British foreign minister, Arthur James Balfour, to fulfil his so-called promise. I have also come to know the fundamental objectives behind the establishment of the Jewish state. We the Arabs know and, in fact, the entire world knows, the historical truth that the Jewish people had been a scattered lot with no homeland of their own as they had been living in other people’s lands. Some of the Jewish people used to live in Arab countries. There they lived like Arab citizens enjoying all the rights and duties. In fairness, however, we should say that the Arab Jews were far more polite, well-behaved and good-hearted than the European Jews. (Timesofoman)
As British Jews come under attack, the liberal left must not remain silent-Jonathan Freedland
It should be perfectly possible to condemn Israel's brutal action in Gaza while taking a stand against antisemitism
In the immediate aftermath of the attacks on September 11 2001 and July 7 2005, a noble impulse seized the British liberal left. Politicians, commentators and activists united to say to their fellow citizens that, no matter how outraged they felt at the loss of civilian life they had just witnessed, they should under no circumstances take out that anger on the Muslim community. Progressive voices insisted that Muslims were not to be branded as guilty by association, just because the killers of 9/11 and 7/7 had been Muslims and had claimed to act in the name of all Muslims.They urged Britons to be careful in their language, not to generalise from a few individuals to an entire community, to make clear to Britain's Muslims that they were a welcome part of the national life. One week after the 7/7 London attacks, a vast crowd gathered in Trafalgar Square to hear a call for unity led by then mayor Ken Livingstone, who said Londoners should not start looking for "who to blame and who to hate". (Guardian.co.uk)
Freedom of Speech
Anti-Islamist politician Geert Wilders refused entry to Britain
(Marcel Antonisse/EPA)
Geert Wilders caught a British Midlands flight to Heathrow
David Charter, Heathrow, and Nico Hines
The far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders was turned away from Heathrow today after testing the Home Secretary’s ban on him entering the country.
Immigration officials denied the Dutch MP entry to the country after the Government decided he should not be allowed to attend a screening of his controversial anti-Islamist film tonight.
Mr Wilders said: "I am in a detention centre at Heathrow ... I am detained. They took my passport. I will not be allowed to enter the country. They will send me back within a few hours.”
On his flight to London, he told The Times that the British Government was “the biggest bunch of cowards in Europe”. ”It is easy to invite people you agree with, it is more difficult to invite people you disagree with and this is the proof of the pudding," he said. (Timesonline.co.uk)
Row over Cambridge University's 'insensitive and offensive' British Empire ball-Tamara Cohen
Cambridge University has been accused of advocating slavery and racism yesterday by hosting a glamorous ball to celebrate the excesses of the British Empire. Emmanuel college is hosting the 'Empire' ball in honour of 'the Victorian commonwealth and all of its decadences' priced at £136 per head. But there was outrage from anti-racist groups as students were urged to 'Party like it's 1899' - the year the Boer War started and concentration camps were used for the first time. Posters promoting the event read: 'Once, there was an empire that governed over a quarter of the world's population, covered about the same proportion of the earth's land, and dominated nearly all of her oceans. 'They say that the sun never set on the British Empire - but at the Empire ball, you'll be wishing it never rises. 'Travel with us to the Indian Raj, an emerging Australia and the West Indies. We invite you to experience the Pax Britannica and party like it's 1899.' Campaigners branded the theme 'offensive' and accused the organisers of being 'white and upper class'. A row has already broken out among students at the college - known to its members as 'Emma' - on the social networking site Facebook. (Dailymail.co.uk)
ANTISEMITISM
'Toxic atmosphere' at Oxford University-Simon Rocker
Jewish students at Oxford University have accused it of appearing to “appease” organisers of a sit-in at the university library last month in protest at Israel’s actions in Gaza. The incident is also said to have disturbed some Jewish academics. One University Reader reportedly told a meeting that “within five years, Oxford will be a Jew-free zone”. In an official reaction to the protest, the Senior Proctor of the university, Professor Donald Fraser, who oversees disciplinary matters, recommended “a relatively lenient course of action” against the demonstrators. He also agreed to take up several of their concerns, including writing to Balliol College, “drawing attention to the protestors’ concerns about the title of the lecture series inaugurated by Shimon Peres”. In November, the Israeli president — braving noisy hecklers — delivered the first of a Balliol lecture series on world peace sponsored by the publisher Lord Weidenfeld. (thejc)
 'Anti-Semitism on the rise in Sweden'
An ugly wave of anti-Semitism is on the rise in Sweden, and politicians who compare Israel with Nazi Germany or apartheid-era South Africa cannot claim to be free of responsibility, writes David Stavrou, a freelance Israeli journalist based in Sweden.
Sweden, like most countries in the western world, is obsessed with the Middle-East. The Arab-Israeli conflict receives constant media coverage and public interest, and the recent events in Gaza were no exception. As usual, they sparked a lively and sometimes violent debate. Sadly, and this too is usual, the debate is full of misinformation and misunderstandings. Most Swedish political figures positioned themselves between strongly condemning Israel while mildly criticizing Hamas' actions on the one hand and totally supporting Hamas and its administration in Gaza on the other. On the left many condemned Israel's military operation and the Jewish state in general. "I don’t think Israel is a democracy worthy of the name. It’s a racist apartheid state,” said the Left Party's Hans Linde, calling for a boycott of Israel. (thelocal.se)
1/3 of Europeans: Jews caused meltdown-AP & JP
The Anti-Defamation League said Tuesday that a survey it commissioned found nearly a third of Europeans polled blame Jews for the global economic meltdown and that a greater number think Jews have too much power in the business world. The organization, which says its aim is "to stop the defamation of Jewish people and secure justice and fair treatment to all," says the seven-nation survey confirms that anti-Semitism remains strong. The poll included interviews with 3,500 people - 500 each in Austria, Britain, France, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Spain. It says that in Spain, 74 percent of those asked say they feel it is "probably true" that Jews hold too much sway over the global financial markets. That is the highest percentage in the survey. Nearly two-thirds of Spanish respondents said Jews were more loyal to Israel than they were to their home countries. "This poll confirms that anti-Semitism remains alive and well in the minds of many Europeans," said Abraham H. Foxman, the ADL's national director in America. "Clearly, age old anti-Semitic stereotypes die hard." (Jpost)
The Royal Court's Mystery Play-Melanie Phillips
Today’s Observer carries a report that Jew-hatred attacks in Britain are now running at such a level the police have drafted in extra patrols and British Jews are beginning to emigrate. I have previously reported here on the menacing atmosphere in which British Jews are currently living, as a result of the malevolent misrepresentation of Israel’s actions in Gaza by Britain’s media and intelligentsia which are pumping out mind-twisting and ultimately genocidal Arab propaganda as unchallengeable truths. The Royal Court theatre in London is now adding fuel to that Jew-hatred by staging a ten-minute blood-libel written by Caryl Churchill. A copy of this text has now reached me (and it has also reached Harry’s Place. Please bear in mind that what is actually being performed on stage may be slightly different.) Ostensibly about Israel, it is actually a direct attack on the Jews. It tells them in effect that they are to be held responsible for the fact that in Israel Jews have turned into Nazis. Indeed, the title ‘Seven Jewish children’ makes that explicit. (In the typescript I have, the word ‘jews’ is presented in lower case throughout while Arabs, God, Jerusalem and Hamas get capital letters). (Spectator.co.uk)
TERRORISM, INTERNET, JIHAD
It’s Not the Prison, It’s the Prisoners-Andrew C. McCarthy
Obama can close Guantanamo Bay, but that won’t make the war go away.
Among our illustrious allies in the War on Terror, Yemen ranks right up there with Pakistan, whose government just released nuke-peddler A. Q. Kahn from house arrest. Yemen’s government says it is preparing a major combat operation to drain one of the many swamps where jihad festers. So what preparations is it making? Massing troops? Infiltrating terrorist strongholds to identify top targets? No, Yemen’s approach is a little different: They’re releasing al-Qaeda operatives from prison—more than 170 of them. It’s a development worth remembering as the Obama administration continues its hand-wringing over the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, where 245 enemy combatants, including 21 charged with war crimes, are being held. The Yemen/Gitmo nexus is in the news again because of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a ringleader behind the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in the port of Aden. Last week, the “appointing authority” (sometimes called the “convening authority”), which oversees military commissions at Gitmo, dismissed all charges against Nashiri. (Nationalreview)
 Horrifying video of militants beheading Polish engineer is released by Pakistani Taliban-Sarah Titterton
A shocking new video that appears to show Pakistani militants beheading a kidnapped Polish engineer has emerged.The seven-minute video appears to show the Polish hostage, Piotr Stanczak, sitting on the floor flanked by two masked men. Off camera, a militant briefly engages him in conversation before three others behead him. The video is so horrifying that some news wire agencies chose not to distribute the images. One of the hooded men then addresses the camera, blaming Pakistan for the killing for not agreeing to their demands to release Taliban prisoners. If confirmed, Stanczak's death would appear to be the first killing of a Western hostage in Pakistan since U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl was beheaded in 2002.The video was given to an Associated Press reporter yesterday in north-western Pakistan on a flash drive by an intermediary who said he obtained it from the Taliban.Jacek Cichocki, Polish minister for security services, said he saw the full video and in his opinion 'that is the Pole and the film is authentic.' 'I can say that watching the film last night, it is a terrible thing,' he told Poland's TVN24 television, adding final confirmation would have to wait until diplomatic and consular services receive the body. (Dailymail.co.uk)
Terror suspects linked to al-Qaeda 'on the run in Midlands'-Daily Telegraph Reporter
Three suspected members of a terror cell with links to al-Qaeda are being sought in the Midlands.
The alleged jihadists, who all have joint Libyan/British citizenship, have been placed on Interpol's Most Wanted list over claims they funded terror plots for Osama Bin Laden. The international police force has made the men subject to a Red Notice - the highest level of arrest warrant - and have traced them to areas in and around Birmingham. Abd'rabbah Ghuma, 51, Abdulbaqi Mohammed Khaled, 51, and Mohammed Benhammedi, 42, also appear on a United Nation's list of Al Qaida associates. (Telegraph.co.uk)
Evidence of the Use of the Civilian Population as Human Shields:
Hamas operatives detained during Operation Cast Lead related that weapons were situated in schools, mosques and residential dwellings, that operatives shot from within residential neighborhoods, and that Hamas operatives stole the humanitarian aid for their own use1 IICC
1. During Operation Cast Lead the IDF detained dozens of terrorist operatives, most of them belonging to Hamas. All the terrorists detained were transferred to the Israel Security Agency for interrogation, where they revealed a great deal of information about the use Hamas made of public buildings (including mosques and schools) and private residences as sites for storing weapons. They also related that rockets were fired from public and private buildings, and that public institutions were put to military use based on the assumption that the IDF would be deterred from attacking them.
2. In addition, the operatives said that Hamas had commandeered the humanitarian aid sent to the Gaza Strip and prevented it from being freely distributed to the Gazans. They said that Hamas exploited sources of external aid to reward operatives and as bait to enlist new ones. Palestinians who agreed to join Hamas received food coupons and other benefits. (IICC)
Radical ENVIRONMENTALISM and Science
Wind Turbines in Europe Do Nothing for Emissions-Reduction Goals-Anselm Waldermann
Despite Europe's boom in solar and wind energy, CO2 emissions haven't been reduced by even a single gram. Now, even the Green Party is taking a new look at the issue -- as shown in e-mails obtained by SPIEGEL ONLINE.
Germany's renewable energy companies are a tremendous success story. Roughly 15 percent of the country's electricity comes from solar, wind or biomass facilities, almost 250,000 jobs have been created and the net worth of the business is €35 billion per year. But there's a catch: The climate hasn't in fact profited from these developments. As astonishing as it may sound, the new wind turbines and solar cells haven't prohibited the emission of even a single gram of CO2. Even more surprising, the European Union's own climate change policies, touted as the most progressive in the world, are to blame. The EU-wide emissions trading system determines the total amount of CO2 that can be emitted by power companies and industries. And this amount doesn't change -- no matter how many wind turbines are erected. Experts have known about this situation for some time, but it still isn't widely known to the public. Even Germany's government officials mention it only under their breath. No one wants to discuss the political ramifications. (Spiegelonline)
Climate change takes a mental toll-Emily Anthes, Globe Correspondent
Last year, an anxious, depressed 17-year-old boy was admitted to the psychiatric unit at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne. He was refusing to drink water. Worried about drought related to climate change, the young man was convinced that if he drank, millions of people would die. The Australian doctors wrote the case up as the first known instance of "climate change delusion." Robert Salo, the psychiatrist who runs the inpatient unit where the boy was treated, has now seen several more patients with psychosis or anxiety disorders focused on climate change, as well as children who are having nightmares about global-warming-related natural disasters. Such anxiety over current events is not a new phenomenon. Worries about contemporary threats, such as nuclear war or AIDS, have historically been woven into the mental illnesses of each generation. But global warming could have a broader and deeper effect on mental health, even if indirectly. "Climate change could have a real impact on our psyches," says Paul Epstein, the associate director for the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School. (Boston)
 Darwin, Ahead of His Time, Is Still Influential-Nicholas Wade
Darwin’s theory of evolution has become the bedrock of modern biology. But for most of the theory’s existence since 1859, even biologists have ignored or vigorously opposed it, in whole or in part. It is a testament to Darwin’s extraordinary insight that it took almost a century for biologists to understand the essential correctness of his views. Biologists quickly accepted the idea of evolution, but for decades they rejected natural selection, the mechanism Darwin proposed for the evolutionary process. Until the mid-20th century they largely ignored sexual selection, a special aspect of natural selection that Darwin proposed to account for male ornaments like the peacock’s tail.And biologists are still arguing about group-level selection, the idea that natural selection can operate at the level of groups as well as on individuals. Darwin proposed group selection — or something like it; scholars differ as to what he meant — to account for castes in ant societies and morality in people. (Nytimes)
Society and CULTURE
 And Baby Makes How Many?-Kate Zernike
THE comment from the photographer at Sears was typical. “Are these all yours?” she asked, surveying Kim Gunnip’s 12 children. “No,” Mrs. Gunnip replied, “I picked some up at the food court.” But it was harder to find a retort for the man in line at the supermarket, who said within earshot of her youngest children, “You must have a great sex life.” Now her family, like other larger families, as they call themselves, is facing endless news coverage of the octuplets born in California and a new round of scorn, slack jaws and stupid jokes. Back when the average woman had more than three children, big families were the Kennedys of Hickory Hill and Hyannis Port, “Cheaper by the Dozen,” the Cosbys or “Eight is Enough” — lovable tumbles of offspring as all-American in their scrapes as in their smiles. But as families have shrunk, and parents helicopter over broods tinier yet more precious, a vanload of children has taken on more of a freak show factor. The families know the stereotypes: they’re polygamists, religious zealots, reality-show hopefuls or Québécois in it for the per-child government bonus. And isn’t there something a little obsessive about Angelina Jolie’s quest for her own World Cup soccer team? (nytimes)
Holy Smoke! Batwoman makes her comic book comeback as red-headed lesbian-Mail Foreign ServiceShe first swung into action 50 years ago, helping her boyfriend Batman rid Gotham City of villains until she was killed off in 1979.
Now Batwoman is making a comeback - but in a guise which may cause the Caped Crusader to raise an eyebrow behind his mask.
The female superhero is returning to comic book life as a red-haired, crime-fighting lesbian.Billed as a 'lesbian socialite by night and a crime-fighter by later in the night', she replaces Batman, who was himself killed off in a recent issue of Detective Comics, the publication which introduced him to the world back in 1937.
Batwoman - the alter ego of Kathy Kane - is clad in a figure-hugging black outfit and knee-high red stiletto boots. She is the comic's first openly gay superhero. (Mailonline.co.uk)
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