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WHAT WOULD ABE AND WOODROW DO?
By Avi Davis
 One Sunday afternoon in Washington State a 13 year-old- boy complains to his parents that he is being required by them to go to church three times a week – which, in his opinion, is two times too many. Unable to budge them from their insistence that as their child he has an obligation to do what they say, junior arrives at a novel conclusion - that his human rights have in some way been compromised. He calls 911, complaining of mistreatment.
The police arrive and after some discussion with their superiors and reference to their code books, agree that there is cause to believe that the child’s liberty has been compromised. They thereafter remove him from his parents’ custody. Three days later, a local judge, instead of immediately dismissing the case as a nuisance, acknowledges that the child actually does possess human rights that have been affected by the parents’ decisions and orders against them.
The parents, now frightened that an appeal could result in months, if not years, of loss of the custody of their own son, reluctantly surrender to the local court’s ruling. From that moment on, junior will be required to go to church only once a week – and on the day and time of his choosing.
What is described above might offer a comedic scene straight out of Disney’s The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, if it wasn’t all too real. It is eerily close in character to the story of Sheila Marie Sumey, a landmark parental rights case which reached the Washington State Supreme Court in the 1980s. In that case, the child’s parents had become alarmed when they found evidence of their daughter's participation in illegal drug activity and escalating sexual involvement. Their response was to act immediately to cut off the negative influences by grounding her.
But when Sheila went to her school counselors complaining about her parents’ actions, she was advised that she could be liberated from her parents because there was a "conflict between parent and child." Listening to this advice, Sheila notified Child Protective Services (CPS) about her situation. She was subsequently removed from her home and placed her in foster care.
Her parents, desperate to get their daughter back, challenged the actions of the social workers in court. They lost. Even though the judge found that Sheila's parents had enforced reasonable rules in a proper manner, the state law nevertheless gave CPS the authority to split apart the Sumey family and take Sheila away.
If you think that this sounds all too implausible to become a common trend, think again. Since the mid-1990s the United States has been the signatory to the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), an international treaty that not only accords children these kinds of rights, but requires American courts to override our Constitution by imposing international rulings on American law. Yet, while the treaty was signed by President Bill Clinton in the mid-90s, it was never presented to the Senate for ratification.
That all may change soon. The call for a vote on the treaty could reach the United States Senate within 30 days. During the confirmation hearing for U.N. Ambassador designate Susan Rice in January, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) demanded a 60-day timeframe for the State Department to complete its review of the international treaty and its submission for ratification. Boxer told Rice the UNCRC would protect “the most vulnerable people of society.”
But the United States has had very good reason to reject the treaty. Among the many aspects of parent -child relations that the treaty would seek to monitor or regulate are corporal punishment (which it would outlaw); a child’s right to leisure; the child’s right to reproductive health information without regard to parental involvement or permission; the sentencing of juvenile murderers to death and the sentencing of juvenile murderers to life imprisonment. According to the treaty, Government can override parental decisions based on “the best interest of the child” without proof of abuse, neglect, or harm. Under this new regime, American children would have legally enforceable rights to complain about parental decision-making in every area of their lives, including religious, economic and educational matters.
The negative scenarios which could occur -- and are occurring -- as a result of this dangerous notion, are both manifold and frightening.
Under the UNCRC, instead of following due process, government would have the authority to override parental choices at their whim because only government appointed monitors would be trusted to determine what is in "the best interest of the child." In essence, the UNCRC applies the legal status of abusive parents to all parents. This means that the burden of proof falls on the parent to prove to the State that they are good parents—when it should fall upon the State to prove that their investigation is not without cause.
Moreover, a committee of 18 experts from other nations, sitting in Geneva, would have the authority to issue official interpretations of the treaty, interpretations which would possess binding weight in American courts and legislatures. This effectively transfers ultimate authority for all policies in this area to a foreign committee. Such rulings would be supported by international law which provides, according to Article 27 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties that: “A party may not invoke the provisions of its internal law as justification for its failure to perform a treaty.”
The treaty would also have a pernicious impact upon American sovereignty because of the Supremacy Clause embedded in Article VI, Paragraph 2 of the U.S. Constitution. Under this clause, “all Treaties made under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby.” In other words, any treaty, ratified by the Senate, effectively preempts state law. Since virtually all laws in the U.S. regarding children are state laws, this treaty would negate nearly 100% of existing American family law.
If the treaty is ratified it will immediately find itself in direct conflict with the decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court. In Troxel vs Granville, a landmark case in 2000, the court found that parental rights are indeed fundamental rights guaranteed and protected by the Constitution. Parental rights, according to this ruling, are therefore the kind of integral “unalienable rights” referred to in the Declaration of Independence. The ratification of the Convention, if construed as interfering with constitutional rights, would set off a firestorm of litigation which would embroil the courts in years of contentious debate.
The overreaching assault on parental rights and family life, is a piece with the alarming penetration of international humanitarian law into our judicial system and government. We should not forget that the belief in principles of natural law which supersede sovereign enactments and aspects of domestic common law is one that has been similarly used to justify the indictment of Israeli generals, the prosecution of U.S. politicians and the detention of U.S. military personnel in countries around the world
More threateningly, human rights theory has been employed to justify the regulation of freedom of speech, the curtailment of press freedom and to stymie the exercise of the right to practice the religion of one’s choosing. Its boosters among the international human rights community - those who largely control the direction and efficacy of international human rights law- include such powerful non-governmental organizations as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Doctors Without Borders. But these are not transparent representative bodies in any respect and they propound philosophies which are avowedly inimical to the continuity of liberal democracy and the maintenance of traditional values.
With all this said, the ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child would be a grevious mistake for the United States, endangering national and state sovereignty and enabling the UN to dictate how parents raise their children while encouraging children to defy their parents by doing exactly as they please.
No more destructive assault on the foundations of our democracy, our way of life and our fundamental values can be imagined.
Want to comment on this article? See Avi Davis’ blog
THE MULLAHS’ DIRTY LITTLE SECRET
By Avi Davis
The starting point of the Iranian Revolution can probably be dated to February 11, 1979, the day that the Shah’s prime minister Shapour Bakhtiar fled Teheran. Ten days earlier Ayatollah Khomeini had returned from exile in France to be greeted by a rapturous reception.
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
Robert Spencer-Beheading in Buffalo
by Robert Spencer
Last Thursday, a woman named Aasiya Z. Hassan, 37, was founded decapitated in Orchard Park, New York, a village near Buffalo. Her husband, Muzzammil Hassan, 44, was charged, rather oddly, with second-degree murder in the case. But the specter of someone who beheaded his wife being charged only with second-degree murder was the least of the oddities in this case: Aasiya Hassan’s body was found in the offices of the cable channel, Bridges TV. Aasiya Hassan was the inspiration for Bridges TV, and Muzzammil Hassan was its founder. Muzzammil Hassan founded Bridges TV in 2004 to combat the negative perceptions of Muslims that he thought were dominating the mainstream media. According to a Reuters story at the time, Aasiya “came up with the idea in December 2001 while listening to the radio on a road trip.” Muzzammil Hassan explained: “Some derogatory comments were being made about Muslims that offended her. She was seven months pregnant, and she thought she didn’t want her kids growing up in this environment.” (Frontpagemagazine)
NEWS: EUROPE AND AMERICA
 Beheading in New York Appears to Be Honor Killing, Experts Say-Joshua Rhett Miller
The beheading of 37-year-old Aasiya Hassan has all the markings of an honor killing, psychologists and Islamic experts tell FOXNews.com, as the upstate New York woman's husband awaits a preliminary hearing on murder charges. Muzzammil Hassan, 44, remains jailed after being charged with the second-degree murder of his wife, whose body was found Thursday at the office of Bridges TV, their television station in Orchard Park, near Buffalo. Orchard Park Police Chief Andrew Benz said Hassan has not confessed to the crime, despite media reports to the contrary. "He came in and said his wife was dead," said Benz, who declined to elaborate on the particulars of his conversation with the suspect.But Erie County District Attorney Frank Sedita III left no doubt that he believes Muzzammil Hassan killed his wife. Hassan will appear for a preliminary hearing Wednesday in Orchard Park. If convicted of second-degree murder, he faces up to life in prison."He's a pretty vicious and remorseless bastard," Sedita told FOXNews.com Tuesday. "Whether he was motivated by some kind of interpretation of his religious or cultural views, we don't know. We'll look into everything in the case." (Foxnews)
 British terror cell 'planned to blow up seven transatlantic airliners'-Sean O’Neill, Crime and Security Editor
A British terrorist cell planned to kill thousands of people by detonating suicide bombs on transatlantic airliners, a court was told yesterday. The plot had been hatched by terrorist leaders in Pakistan but was to be carried out by young Islamist fanatics from East London and High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. Woolwich Crown Court was told that the conspirators planned to smuggle liquid bombs constructed from soft drinks bottles and batteries on to seven flights that would leave Heathrow within hours of each other. All seven flights would have been in air at the same time when the bombs exploded.Eight men are charged with conspiracy to murder but the court was told that the plan might have involved up to 18 suicide bombers. “They were prepared to strike a blow in which they would lose their lives but it was a blow that would reverberate across the globe,” said Peter Wright, QC, for the prosecution. (Timesonline.co.uk)
Spanish soldier arrested over 'jihad' videos-Al Goodman
MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- Spanish police Tuesday arrested a Spanish soldier and his Russian girlfriend for allegedly posting videos on the Internet promoting Islamic extremist views and calling for attacks in Spain, a Ministry of Interior statement said. The suspects, both 23 years old and practicing Muslims, were arrested in the southern Spanish city of Granada. They were identified as Christian Peso Ruiz Coello, born in Granada, and Maria Choubina, born in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) in 1985.The investigation began last June when police detected videos on the Internet that called for Islamic attacks in Spain, and specifically in Granada, the last outpost of the Muslim Moors in medieval Spain, with its fabled Alhambra palace that still stands. (CNN)
Obama Naïveté at the U.N.-Anne Bayefsy
In a major foreign-policy decision taken over the weekend, President Obama has decided to legitimize the United Nations’s “anti-racism” forum known as Durban II. State Department officials announced in a press release buried on Saturday, that starting today the United States will attend for the first time the preparatory meetings of this controversial U.N. conference. The “Durban Review Conference,” scheduled for April in Geneva, is the progenitor of the anti-semitic hatefest that took place in South Africa in early September 2001. The searing images of the demonization of America and Jews on the U.N.’s global stage, and the terrorism in New York 72 hours later, should have made joining this revived forum for U.N.-driven hate inconceivable. But President Obama seems intent on learning the lessons of history — and the relationship between hatemongering and violence — the hard way. (NationalReview)
Academic freedom
 Co-Conspirator on Campus-Joe Kaufman
It’s Islam Awareness Month once again at the University of Florida (UF) Gainesville, and once again “unindicted co-conspirator” of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, Siraj Wahhaj, has been invited to participate. Given the inappropriate nature of the event, can anyone question the radical nature of the group who is sponsoring his appearance? UF, like most other major universities, has on its premises a chapter of the Muslim Students Association (MSA), the Muslim Brotherhood faction that began in the early Sixties. The MSA stationed at UF has the title Islam On Campus (IOC). Not unlike its big Brother overseas, the rhetoric from IOC and its staff is considerably extreme.In the April 2008 issue of The IOC Chronicles, in an article about an online Scrabble-type word game, the following quotes are found: “Then on the very next turn, it crosses Mosque with JEW. I was so pissed. I could just picture some programmer with a yarmulke laughing at me. Punk.” He continued his slur: “That’s exactly what these friggin Yahood want. I won’t give them the satisfaction of winning.” The IOC excused the piece as “satire.” (Frontpagemagazine)
"Ask God What Your Grade Is"-Ashley Throne
Jonathan Lopez, a student who was shouted down by his professor when he defended Proposition 8, is suing LA City College, with the help of the Alliance Defense Fund. We heard it first from David French at Phi Beta Cons: Shortly after election day, one of Lopez's teachers told his speech class that any individual who voted for Proposition 8 was a "fascist bastard" and argued that supporters of traditional marriage valued animals more than people. A few weeks after this declaration, Mr. Lopez gave a speech (in response to an open-ended assignment) in which he discussed his Christian faith and read from a dictionary definition of marriage. His professor interrupted his presentation, called him a "fascist bastard," invited offended students to leave, and then (when no one left) terminated the class. Rather than grade his speech, the professor told Lopez to "ask God" what his grade was...When Lopez complained to the dean and the professor threatened Lopez with expulsion. Printed smartly on a wall at LA City College are the words, “Free Speech Zone.” (NAS)
Hampshire College Officials Struggle to Explain Israeli Divestment Moves-Steve Emerson
Campaigns pushing universities to divest their investments from companies doing business in Israel appear to be gaining steam, with radical student groups claiming two key victories in the past week. Meanwhile, the schools at issue say the student claims exaggerate what really happened. The situation at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts remains murky. The school's board of trustees voted February 7th to shift as much as a quarter of its investment portfolio after complaints from a group called "Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP)." The group wanted Hampshire to divest its investments in six companies that do business in Israel. (Familysecuritymatters)
Media Bias
Solicitor close to forcing release of report on BBC MidEast bias-Simon Rocker
The BBC is under new pressure to publish a five-year-old report into the fairness of its Middle East coverage after a decision this week by the Law Lords. Steven Sugar, who has been campaigning for four years for the corporation to disclose the Balen Report under the Freedom of Information Act, overturned one of the main obstacles against its release. After his 3-2 victory in the Lords, Mr Sugar, a commercial solicitor from London, said that there was now a strong case for issuing the report — written by the senior BBC editorial adviser, Malcolm Balen. “They have lost their best point,” Mr Sugar said. “And there is renewed interest in the report. It has recently been claimed that the report concluded that the BBC’s Middle East coverage had been biased against Israel and that the BBC’s decision not to broadcast the charity aid appeal for Gaza was influenced by this.” But the extraordinary legal ping-pong is not yet over: the BBC still has an outstanding High Court appeal which could yet prevent the document’s publication. (JewishChronicle)
'World duped by Hamas death count'-Yaakov Katz
Four weeks after the cessation of Operation Cast Lead, the IDF finally opened its dossier on Palestinian fatalities on Sunday for the first time, and presented to The Jerusalem Post an overview utterly at odds with the Palestinian figures that have hitherto formed the basis for assessing the conflict. While the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, whose death toll figures have been widely cited, reports that 895 Gaza civilians were killed in the fighting, amounting to more than two-thirds of all fatalities, the IDF figures shown to the Post on Sunday put the civilian death toll at no higher than a third of the total. The international community had been given a vastly distorted impression of the death toll because of "false reporting" by Hamas, said Col. Moshe Levi, the head of the IDF's Gaza Coordination and Liaison Administration (CLA), which compiled the IDF figures. (Jpost)
Freedom of Speech
 Geert Wilders and the Fight for Europe-Bat Yeor
Britain has just witnessed the spectacle of a duly elected parliamentarian from another EU country, Geert Wilders of the Netherlands, being denied entry to the country because he constituted “a threat to public policy.” Wilders, after being detained briefly at Heathrow, was sent back to Holland — where he has further legal troubles. Three weeks earlier, a Dutch appeals court had ordered prosecutors to begin criminal proceedings against Wilders for “inciting hatred and discrimination” and “insulting Muslim worshippers” through his public statements and his 2008 film, Fitna. The order to proceed with the criminal prosecution resulted from pressure put on European states and on the UN Human Rights Council by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC). The OIC’s aim is to punish and suppress any alleged Islamophobia, around the world but particularly in Europe, and it has been a leader in creating the conditions that made the U.K.’s Wilders ban possible. (NationalReview)
Speech impediments- The Economist
Anxiety over causing religious offence limits freedom of speech in the West
TWO decades ago, on 14th February 1989, Salman Rushdie received one of history’s most notorious Valentine greetings. Ayatollah Khomeini, then Iran’s Supreme Leader, issued a fatwa (a religious edict) calling for the death of the Indian-born British author in response to his novel, “The Satanic Verses”. Khomeini called on all “intrepid” and “zealous” Muslims to execute the author and publishers, reassuring them that if they were killed in the process, they would be regarded as martyrs.Rarely had a book stirred up such intense feelings. Hitoshi Igarashi, its Japanese translator, was stabbed to death. Ettore Capriolo, the Italian translator and William Nygaard, the book’s Norwegian publisher, were stabbed and shot respectively, although both survived. Bookshops were bombed and the tome was burned in public across the world. Mr Rushdie, fearing for his life, was forced into hiding.Horrific though these consequences were, many argued that freedom of speech itself was at stake. To cave in, by withdrawing publication or sale of the work, would represent the crumbling of a defining principle of liberal societies. Britain broke off diplomatic relations with Iran over the threat to kill a British citizen. At no point did Penguin, the original publisher, withdraw the book. It remained possible to argue that Mr Rushdie’s intolerant detractors, despite their violence, had lost their battle. (TheEconomist)
ANTISEMITISM
 Financial turmoil evokes familiar scapegoats- Abraham Cooper and Harold Brackman
With world stock markets plummeting and unemployment spiking, it is only prudent to ask: will the global economic meltdown provide the toxic fuel for haters? Early signs from Europe are far from reassuring. Ed Balls, a cabinet minister, worried that fascist movements, subdued since the 1930s, could emerge as a powerful force in British politics for "the next year, the next five years, the next 10 and even the next 15 years". Derek Simpson, joint general secretary of Unite, the trade union, warned that the xenophobic British National party was leveraging the slogan "British jobs for British workers" to infiltrate the labour movement. A poll commissioned by the AntiDefamation League reveals that old habits die hard in Europe. Jews are the scapegoat du jour for nearly a third of Europeans. About 40 per cent of respondents - including more than half the Hungarians, Poles and Spaniards - said Jews had too much power in business. In Spain, 74 per cent said it was "probably true" that Jews had too much control over financial markets. (FinancialTimes.co.uk)
The writing is on the synagogue wall-Dennis MacShane
World depressions lead to a rise in anti-Semitism. All over Europe, the evidence is around us
The periodic crises that have shaken world capitalism in the century and a half since Marx wrote Das Kapital are marked by a common political phenomenon. It is the rise of political anti-Semitism. Attacks on Jews and Jewishness constitute the canary in the coal mine that tells us something is going seriously wrong. Last month a 32-year-old IT worker, Michael Booksatz, was beaten up in the streets of north London by two hooded men shouting about Palestinians. Jewish students at the London School of Economics - home to many brilliant Jews who fled Hitler's Germany - are now frightened by anti-Jewish abuse from Islamist students. Graffiti such as “Kill the Jews” or “Jihad 4 Israel” appear close to synagogues in London. (Timesonline.co.uk)
Foreign Office minister Lord Malloch-Brown: UK failing to tackle anti-Semitism-Martin Beckford
Britain has failed to eradicate the "utterly unacceptable cultural ill" of anti-Semitism, the Foreign Office minister Lord Malloch-Brown has admitted.
He said the recent conflict in Gaza had triggered a "dramatic" rise in attacks on Jews and synagogues in the UK. The minister insisted, however, that political debate over Israel's military tactics should not lead to the "insidious" view that "whole races or nations are mysteriously evil". Lord Malloch-Brown made his comments at the Foreign Office's first international conference on combating anti-Semitism in London , which was attended by more than 100 politicians from 40 countries. It comes after the Community Security Trust reported that 250 anti-Semitic incidents were recorded in Britain in the month after Israeli forces launched their offensive against Hamas in Gaza, compared with 40 attacks in the same period last year. (Telegraph.co.uk)
Is there a 'firewall' between anti-Semitism and criticism of Israel?-Allen Z. Hertz
The Merriam-Webster On-line Dictionary says that anti-Semitism means "hostility toward or discrimination against Jews as a religious, ethnic, or racial group." This definition is useful because it reminds us that Jews are more than simply adherents of a particular religion; i.e., they are also an ethno-cultural group, a tribe, a people. But is there a "firewall" between anti-Semitism and criticism of Israel? Like other countries, Israel has features that invite criticism, but crafting a fair critique is troublesome because it requires something approximating respect for natural justice, application of generally applicable norms, reference to the general practice of states, and giving reasons to support particular judgments. Thus, criticizing Israel is not necessarily anti-Semitic. But it is untrue to say that there is a logical distinction that prevents a persistent pattern of bitter criticism of Israel from being anti-Semitic. To the contrary, the methodologies applied in more than a half-century of modern human-rights law make it clear that a persistent pattern of targeting Israel with discriminatory criticism is anti-Semitic. (Jpost)
TERRORISM, INTERNET, JIHAD
H.D.S. Greenway: France v. terrorism- H.D.S. Greenway
PARIS: The men and women involved with antiterrorism here have a reputation of being among the best in Europe. One of the reasons for their expertise in the age of jihad is that they have been confronting Islamic extremism longer than most European countries. While Britain was concentrating on the Irish Republican Army, and Spain on Basque separatists of the Euskadi ta Askatasuna, the French were involved with after-effects of their North African empire. And few countries in the world have witnessed more Islamist violence than Algeria, over which France fought a long, colonial war before it gave in and accepted Algerian independence.Although Islamists from every country can be found in France, it is from North Africa that most of France's antiterrorism worries come. (InternationalHeraldTrbune)
The Islamist Mindset 'Is Very Comfortable'-Interview conducted by Yassin Musharbash
Ghaffar Hussain was once a radical Islamist with the group Hizb ut-Tahrir. Now he is part of the Quilliam Foundation, a British think tank seeking to combat extremism. He spoke with SPIEGEL ONLINE about the Islamist world view and the pleasant feeling of omniscience.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: As we speak, around three dozen German Islamists are supposedly living in terrorist training camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Some of them have radicalized very quickly, within months. You yourself were a radical Islamist at one time and are now an expert in the field. What is it that makes some young Muslims tick?
Hussain: Primarily they buy into a certain narrative, and a specific world view, which seems to be particularly appealing for young Muslims in Europe. Quite a few of them feel marginalized, they don't feel they fit into society and they can't connect with their parents' generation. So they look for something they can belong to and some of them feel very attracted by the Umma concept, the idea that all Muslims form a unity. This is then where your allegiance lies and nothing else matters. From there, they develop an urge to do something good, and then they are sometimes confronted with what I call shock tactics: graphic images of Muslim victims, for example. They reach the conclusion that they have to do something about it. Plus there is the scriptural side: They are being told that they have to fight, that fighting is a duty. (Spiegelonline)
Report: Hamas stole 7 tons of unexploded ordnance
UN confirms seven tons of IDF shells, explosives fired during Operation Cast Lead amassed by Hamas and waiting to be neutralized by UN sappers has vanished - Ali Waked
Senior UN officials were outraged Tuesday evening as they confirmed Hamas has appropriated seven tons of weaponry and ammunition stored in UN warehouses in Gaza and intended to be destroyed by sappers.
The officials demanded the ordnance stockpile be returned immediately. With the conclusion of Operation Cast Lead, Hamas and UN personnel amassed weapons and explosives – mainly unexploded tank shells – and moved them to a special warehouse guarded by Hamas security troops. UNRWA representatives examined the weaponry, and a delegation of UN-employed experts was due to arrive in Gaza in order to carry out a controlled detonation of the explosives. Over the course of the past two days, however, it was discovered that the weaponry had gone missing. The Hamas security officials charged with guarding the storage facility had also vanished. (Ynetnews)
 Terrorist Speaks: My 8 Years in Hamas-Maayana Miskin
(IsraelNN.com) IDF soldiers managed to capture hundreds of terror suspects during Operation Cast Lead in Gaza. One of them, 20-year-old Mohammed Amazi, was revealed to be one of Hamas' more senior fighters. Parts of Amazi's interrogation were published this week by the Hebrew-language Maariv. Amazi told security forces that he was recruited by Hamas at age 12 as he left a mosque in his hometown of Jabalia. At first his participation in the group consisted only of daily Koran classes, he said. However, at age 13 he was officially sworn in to the terrorist group, and soon began actively supporting Hamas's armed forces as well. At age 15, Amazi was an active member of one of Hamas's youth patrol groups. The groups patrolled Gaza in search of any evidence of impending IDF activities in the area. "There were rumors that Israeli soldiers would invade Gaza, and we had to be ready to fight them at any price, to kill them,” he said. (INN)
Radical ENVIRONMENTALISM and Science
Gore's Global Warming Riff Keeps Melting-Christopher C. Horner
What a strange week. First, we saw what just might be an official transformation of the institution of science into a bordello, as its constituent members cheered on proven nonsense about “global warming.” Then the American Association for the Advancement of Science applauded alarmist-in-chief Al “there is no debate” Gore for admitting to them that this non-existent debate needs their help. Topping it all off was former president Bill Clinton, refusing to be outdone, expressing concern that we might actually come back from our economic woes, which would only cause global warming.
As the news reports came in last weekend, I was embarrassed for the lab-coat set, manifesting how they have completely sold out in the name of a taxpayer-funded gravy train. Reporters told us of their feverish approval at being told that, when it comes to their own personal bailout -- catastrophic man-made global warming theory -- things are even worse than we thought. Whether that’s “again” or “still” wasn’t clear, but this lecture by an otherwise respected scientist prompted headlines like this from Reuters: “Global warming seen worse than predicted.”
What did this mean, with the world cooling over more in the past decade while more and more of the (marginal) greenhouse gas carbon dioxide was released?
Picture Emerging on Genetic Risks of IVF-Gina Kolata
Over the past 30 years, in vitro fertilization has been reassuringly safe. Millions of healthy children have been born and developed normally. And the first IVF baby, Louise Brown, born in England on July 25, 1978, now has her own child, 2-year-old Cameron, conceived without the technique. But researchers have always wondered whether there might be subtle changes in an embryo that is grown for several days in a petri dish, as IVF embryos are — and, if so, whether would there be any consequences.Now, with new epidemiological studies and new techniques that allow scientists to probe the genes of embryo cells, some tentative answers are starting to emerge. The issues have nothing to do with the chances that a woman will have twins, triplets or even, as just happened in California, octuplets. Instead, they involve questions of whether there are changes in gene expression or in developmental patterns, which may or may not be obvious at birth. (NYT)
Pill to erase bad memories: Ethical furore over drugs 'that threaten human identity'-David Derbyshire
A drug which appears to erase painful memories has been developed by scientists.
The astonishing treatment could help sufferers of post-traumatic stress disorder and those whose lives are plagued by hurtful recurrent memories. But British experts said the breakthrough raises disturbing ethical questions about what makes us human. They also warned it could have damaging psychological consequences, preventing those who take it from learning from their mistakes. Dr Daniel Sokol, a lecturer in medical ethics at St George's, University of London, said: 'Removing bad memories is not like removing a wart or a mole. It will change our personal identity since who we are is linked to our memories. 'It may perhaps be beneficial in some cases, but before eradicating memories, we must reflect on the knock-on effects that this will have on individuals, society and our sense of humanity.' (Dailymail.co.uk)
 Decisions, decisions-The Economist
What people can learn from how social animals make collective decisionsDICTATORS and authoritarians will disagree, but democracies work better. It has long been held that decisions made collectively by large groups of people are more likely to turn out to be accurate than decisions made by individuals. The idea goes back to the “jury theorem” of Nicolas de Condorcet, an 18th-century French philosopher who was one of the first to apply mathematics to the social sciences. Now it is becoming clear that group decisions are also extremely valuable for the success of social animals, such as ants, bees, birds and dolphins. And those animals may have a thing or two to teach people about collective decision-making. Animals that live in groups make two sorts of choices: consensus decisions in which the group makes a single collective choice, as when house-hunting rock ants decide where to settle; and combined decisions, such as the allocation of jobs among worker bees. (TheEconomist)
Society and CULTURE
Alfie, Chantelle and the sheer madness of sex education that teaches nothing about morality-Melanie Phillips
The story of 13-year-old Alfie, who reportedly has become a father by 15-year-old Chantelle, is a fable for our tragically degraded times.Most of the attention has focused upon Alfie, who looks about eight and doesn't even understand the word 'financial'. But while Alfie's youth is exceptional, this situation is not.
Whether or not Alfie is the father of baby Maisie or whether that honour goes to one of Chantelle's reputed other boyfriends, the fact is that the length and breadth of this country there are many Chantelles, having sex and often getting pregnant while under age. Britain's rate of teenage pregnancy is the highest in Western Europe. Each one of these cases is a personal tragedy, and not just for the babies who are thus conceived.
Children who bear children are condemned to a kind of half-life of adultified childhood and then infantilised adulthood, with a catastrophic disruption of their normal development to maturity. The appalling rate of family breakdown is a crucial part of this story. It is linked to premature sexual activity, creating a vicious cycle of family fragmentation and teenage promiscuity. More and more individuals are being locked into this cycle of abandonment, emotional chaos and harm. (Dailymail.co.uk)
 Poet Laureate Andrew Motion calls for all children to be taught the Bible-John Bingham
Andrew Motion, the Poet Laureate, has warned that every child should be taught the Bible at school or they will fail to properly understand culture and literature.
Mr Motion said that generations of teachers with less and less knowledge of the Bible had left even the brightest students with a "sketchy" understanding of once familiar stories. The poet, who describes himself as an atheist, called for an overhaul of the school curriculum to reverse the "depressing" trend which threatened to leave future generations unable to fully understand the works of Milton and Shakespeare or even more recent writers such as TS Eliot. The solution, he said, could be to include study of the Bible and other religious stories into a new wider general studies curriculum as well as working it into everyday lessons. Mr Motion, who holds a chair in creative writing at Royal Holloway, University of London, said that he had struggled to teach Milton's Paradise Lost to undergraduates because they had no concept of the fall of man. (Telegraph.co.uk)
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