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AND THE WINNER IS ……NIHILISM
By Avi Davis
 Do you ever wonder why circus performers do not have their own swanky award shows? After all, these men and women, who have devoted their lives to the performing arts, display not just a high level of physical conditioning and athleticism, but astounding bravery and deep commitment to their craft. Aren’t they also deserving of the red carpet treatment, with millions gawking at their beautiful forms and astonished by their every pronouncement?
Of course to even suggest such a thing, is to invite ridicule, because we all know that circus performers will never achieve the kind of acclaim that those who entertain us on movie screens have so effortlessly harvested for the past 100 years. But if you think of the lowly stature of the circus performer, you might then be able to envision how actors and actresses were regarded for centuries until the advent of moving pictures.
In fact, in earlier centuries, actors and actresses were often placed at a station only a little above vagabonds and prostitutes and often doubled as both. Nell Gwynne, the 17th Century’s most renowned courtesan, was an actress who became King Charles II’s royal mistress. An actor, John Wilkes Booth, became Abraham Lincoln’s assassin and thereafter one of history’s most notorious fugitives. King Edward VII, as the Prince of Wales and an accomplished roux, favored dalliances with actresses whom he regarded as easy prey for his ravenous sexual appetite. And Sarah Bernhardt, perhaps the most famous of the 19th Century actresses, was a profligate whose antics off stage attracted nearly as much notoriety as her thespian turns on the stages of Europe.
So what changed in the 20th Century to elevate the lowly profession of the theatrical performer to the Olympian heights it occupies today? Simply, it was visibility. The enormous appeal of the movie house, where for a few hours a man or woman can suspend reality and invest his or her emotions in the lives of fictional characters, has become modern man’s unique form of escape. In the thrall of watching our heroes grapple with life’s challenges and overcome daunting obstacles, the characters on the screen, for millions of us, have come to represent something more than mere mortal flesh and blood. They project a perfection of the human body and spirit, an aura of infallibility, a sense of trustworthiness and the results of perseverance.
The rapid rise of the acting class paralleled the ascendancy of atheism and steady collapse of religion. The vacuum left by these anchors of modern life, made us search for new objects of faith and the acting class provided a convenient vehicle. Over the past 100 years this class has transformed itself into the very beings that the Greeks once worshipped – self absorbed, petty, lustful, vindictive and omnipotent deities, concerned mostly with their own couture, aesthetics and appetites and largely indifferent to the mundane lives of their worshippers. In their Olympian firmament, which we call Hollywood, they and their enablers have cultivated a new pantheism which is as false and as deluded as anything practiced in Greece 2,500 years ago.
So we find ourselves today venerating not those who live exemplary moral lives, but rather those who imitate life. Plato anticipated this 25 centuries ago when he attempted to distinguish reality from imitation. In relating a famous Socrates allegory, he told of prisoners restricted to the darkness of a cave watching shadows projected by a fire on a rock wall. After some time they begin to believe that the shadows constitute reality. Suppose, he asks, that a prisoner is freed and permitted to go out into the sunlight. If someone were to show him the things that had cast the shadows, he would not recognize them for what they are and would not be able to name them; he would believe the shadows on the wall to be the reality and the outside world the illusion.
It is only through extended time in the sun that a man or woman learns that the shadows on the wall are not real and that it is the sun which is actually the cause and source of all the things that he and his fellow prisoners have been viewing.
It is a quaint analogy and one I often think of when watching a movie and almost every time I view the Academy Awards. Everything in this annual tribute to the imitative arts seems false – from the designer dresses that most of the actresses don’t own and may never see again; to the forced smiles of the celebrities as they preen in absurd statuesque poses before the cameras; to the resigned applause of the defeated nominees; to the expostulations of the winners themselves who profess humility but whose careers have been built on their own hubris.
This is truly life imitating art.
There is also, of course, a certitude in the voices of the actor/deities and in their projection of wisdom, that has conditioned us to listen to them. And therefore many a recipient of an Oscar has chosen to use his or her moments of glory to lecture us on our failings. Vanessa Redgrave, Michael Moore and Al Gore are three that come to mind. Sean Penn and Bill Maher joined this trinity last Sunday when they admonished us to shake ourselves free of the social constraints of traditional marriage and organized religion. They don’t pretend to be one of us, because they are not. Their omniscience is rarely doubted by their peers who go on cheering and applauding as if the awardees have just unleashed a Zeusian thunderbolt.
What is the thread that weaves through this tangled web of self veneration and arrogance? It is not a universal morality based on human rights and tolerance, as the Sean Penns of this world might wish us to believe. It is, rather, a subtle nihilism that focuses unwaveringly upon individual gratification and personal fulfillment and which disparages anything that smacks of traditional values. How could it be otherwise with a class of people whose solipsistic lifestyles have been elevated by us as models of achievement and whose culture children, such as the young Kate Winslet ( at least in her own telling), are urged to emulate?
But if anyone wants to understand the heart and soul of this culture, they should go to the real Hollywood – the benighted Los Angeles suburb that the film industry left years ago for the sunnier enclaves of Beverly Hills and Century City.
There on the gritty boulevards you will find the footprint of the film industry and the residue of its stain on our society. Sex shops, strip clubs, tattoo joints, topless bars and gimmicky movie theaters all rub shoulders; the streets are dark, even in daylight. The air is oddly dank. Prostitutes and drug dealers are common. It is in this tawdry world of self abandon and amorality that the real Hollywood and the metaphorical Hollywood collide. Here the imitation is stripped away to reveal the reality - of an industry that has lost its moral bearings and constructed a perverted and seemingly impregnable value system of its own.
What is left is Hollywood’s infatuation with itself. Hollywood today is in form as different from Ancient Greece as can be imagined. But for all of that, the Gods on Mt. Olympus must surely be smiling down with delight.
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
Beheading Moderate Islam-by Robert Spencer
by Robert Spencer
Muzzammil Hassan allegedly beheaded his wife Aasiya on February 12 in the offices of Bridges TV, the Muslim-oriented cable channel that he founded in 2004 to combat the negative perceptions of Muslims that he claimed were dominating mainstream media coverage.
He said at the time the station was founded that Aasiya was his inspiration for founding Bridges TV: “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.”
The environment that they will grow up in instead cannot be imagined. But many people are doing their best to make sure that, whatever the other features of that environment may be, a critical appraisal of the roots of honor killing in Islamic culture, and a determination to put an end to this phenomenon, will not be among them. (HumanEvents)
NEWS: EUROPE AND AMERICA
 Addressing the Globalization and Evolution of the Terrorist Threat -Robert S. Mueller, III, Director, FBI, Council on Foreign Relations, Washington, D.C.
Good afternoon. I am honored to be here today. Nearly three months ago, several men in a rubber raft landed on the shores of a bustling financial capital as the sun began to set. They scattered in different directions, carrying backpacks with automatic weapons, hand grenades, and satellite phones. Within just a few hours, innocent civilians were lying in the street, buildings were burning, hostages feared for their lives, and a city was under siege. News of the attack quickly circled the globe, from traditional media coverage to streaming video, blogs, text messages, and even twitters. The attackers used that same technology, not only to monitor the movements of police and rescue teams and to evade capture, but to communicate with their leaders, who were some distance away. (fbi.gov)
Özdemir worried by Muslim anti-Semitism-The Local
Germany should take anti-Semitic tendencies among its Muslim population seriously, Turkish-German Green party leader Cem Özdemir warned in an interview with daily Frankfurter Rundschau on Monday.
“We must unfortunately acknowledge that there are anti-Semitic mindsets not only in the right-wing or among the so-called left-wing anti-imperialists, but also in the Muslim community – particularly among male Arabic, Turkish and Kurdish youths,” Özdemir, the country’s first leader of a major political party with Turkish roots, told the paper. These young men feel “marginalised” in German society and are identifying with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he told the paper. “Not just in Turkey, but also here there are many immigrants who try to superimpose the Middle East conflict one-to-one onto Germany and regard themselves as members of the Palestinian side,” he said. Muslim-German leaders must draw clear lines and emphasise that anyone who displays anti-Semitic sentiments will not be allowed to represent the community, Özdemir said, adding that educators should also openly address the problem. (thelocal.de)
What Sweden means by Davis Cup shutout-John Vinocur
Every so often, there's a controversial matter out there that can end in a way that exalts saying what you mean and doing what you say. Such conclusions are rare. If the issue involves avoiding a conflict with a new kind of political correctness, who's to worry much these days if the authorities dive out of responsibility's range and rationalize a wrong, while politely holding up white flags marked "So sorry" or "To our great regret"? Over the next two weeks, such a case will play out in Sweden, and it's worth a close look because conscience still has a chance to prevail.It's a simple matter, really: the city of Malmo's recreation council decided last week that it will ban spectators from attending the Davis Cup match between Sweden and Israel scheduled to run from March 6 to 8 in its municipal arena. (IHT)
UNRWA providing political cover for Hamas, Israeli official says-HERB KEINON and TOVAH LAZAROFF
The UN Relief and Works Agency is systematically providing political cover to Hamas, a senior government official told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday, lashing out at the agency for passing a Hamas letter to US Sen. John Kerry when he visited Gaza last week. UNRWA head Karen AbuZayd gave the letter to Kerry, along with other material, during his brief visit Thursday to the Gaza Strip. The letter, written by a Hamas Foreign Ministry adviser and later disavowed by the Islamist group, was addressed to US President Barack Obama. Kerry, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, handed the unopened letter to the US Consulate in Jerusalem. Kerry told Fox News that he never read the letter because it was sandwiched among other promotional papers the UN had given him. "Unfortunately, there is a pattern here," the senior Israeli official said. "That no one finds it strange that UNRWA, whose mandate is humanitarian, is the vehicle through which Hamas passes messages on to the US, just shows where UNRWA is at." (Jpost)
Academic freedom
Sexual Harassment Training and Collective Guilt-Glenn Ricketts
Compulsory sexual harassment training is back. Not that it ever entirely went away. But mandatory training at colleges and universities aimed at teaching adults not to harass each other is in the news again, after a rather long lull. And back as well is the debate. Is sexual harassment training a wise use of people’s time and institutional resources? Does it make a college a safer place to work and study?Last August the University of Iowa ordered its entire faculty and staff – more than 17,800 people – to undergo such “training” in the wake of allegations against a professor who was said to have offered several of his female undergraduate students higher grades in exchange for allowing him to fondle their breasts. He may have assaulted one of the students. The local prosecutor, searching for a statute that fit the facts, charged the professor with four counts of “attempted bribery.” (NAS)
Hate Speech At San Francisco State University-Richard L. Cravatts
The fragile ceasefire between Hamas and Israel in the recent Gaza incursion may have brought a tentative peace to that region, but on campuses in California -- the veritable ground zero of anti-Israel sentiment in the academy -- the debate over the 60-year conflict has gained a new, and more insidious, momentum as student demonstrations, protests, and denunciations of racist Zionism, a "brutal occupation," and "genocide" of Arabs were heard on campuses worldwide. The virulence of anti-Israelism and antisemitism at The University of California, Irvine campus, for instance, has been so flagrant and endemic in recent years that it actually prompted an investigation by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights, the findings of which were issued in a damning 2007 report. (AmericanThinker)
 UCLA professor helps launch boycott of Israel-Anna Andersen
Nearly 200 US professors follow suit; others cite need for pressure on Palestine, too
Sondra Hale, a UCLA professor in the anthropology and women’s studies departments, is an organizing committee member of the recently launched U.S. Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel.
Eleven of the 15 organizing committee members represent California universities, and four of them are from the University of California. Nearly 200 faculty members from universities across the nation are endorsing the boycott. The committee was formed in response to a call for support by Palestinian civil society and follows the guidelines drafted by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, which was launched in 2004, according to its Web site. The call is “inspired by the struggle of South Africans against apartheid and in the spirit of international solidarity, moral consistency and resistance to injustice and oppression,” according to its mission statement.Although there have been local efforts to boycott and divest from Israeli companies in the past, this is the first attempt in the United States to organize an academic and cultural boycott on a national level, Hale said. (DailyBruin)
Media Bias
 Media Credibility, Not Ice Caps, In Meltdown-Peter C. Glover
Eco-warriors and media hype aside, the fact is, as we head into 2009, that the world's ice mass has been expanding not contracting. Which will surprise evening news junkies fed a diet of polar bears floating about on ice floes and snow shelves falling into the oceans. But if a whole series of reports on ice growth in the Arctic, the Antarctic and among glaciers are right, then it is truth in the mainstream media (MSM) that's in meltdown not the polar ice caps. The problem for the MSM is that it long ago nailed its colors to the climate alarmist mast. No ice cap meltdown, no rising waters. No disappearing islands, no reason for alarm. No alarm, no story. Worst of all having called yet another global apocalypse wrong: No credibility. So the MSM has a significant stake in running highly selective warm-mongering headlines. Not to mention disparaging those scientists who have the temerity to disagree as 'holocaust deniers' and 'pseudo-scientists'. There's nothing more the climate alarmist media loves than a 'melting Arctic' ice cap story. So why not stories from the far larger expanse of ice that is the 'melting' Antarctic? Well it might have something to do with the fact that the Antarctic ice grew to record levels in 2007 - and continues to grow. (AmericanThinker)
Media Watchdog: Dutch Coverage of Israel 'Beyond Belief'-Nissan Ratzlav-Katz
(IsraelNN.com) A media watch organization says that the primary state-funded news program of the Netherlands engaged in anti-Israel distortion and manipulation of the news from the Middle East during the IDF's Operation Cast Lead in Gaza. The media fans the flames of anti-Semitism, the group concludes in a report released this week. According to analysts from the European media watchdog organization Israel Facts Group, a leading Dutch prime-time TV news program, NOS Journaal, "omits and distorts the facts and manipulates the opinion of the Dutch public beyond belief." Israel Facts Group monitors focused on NOS Journaal's coverage of the Operation Cast Lead at the end of 2008 and into January 2009.
For comparison, the monitors checked the NOS reporting against the TV station's own journalistic code, which Israel Facts Group member Yochanan Visser said "obliges it to provide impartial and independent news and to allow the right of response." In addition, the Israel Facts Group compared the reports from NOS with those of German and Israeli state-funded news programs. (INN)
The Deceits of Bridges TV-Daniel Pipes
On the occasion of its launch in 2004 from near Buffalo, New York, the Muslim television channel "Bridges TV" won the enthusiastic support of Secretary of State Colin Powell's media assistant, Stuart Holliday: "I laud your expression of interest in promoting understanding and tolerance." And so it went; Bridges TV also met with euphoric media coverage, uncritical academic reaction, and blessings from sports giants like Muhammad Ali and Hakeem Olajuwan. From the start, however, Bridges TV amounted to a lie. On the political level, its raison d'être was based on the canard that Muslims in the United States suffer from bias and are victimized. That an idea took formal expression in 2000, when the Senate passed a resolution inveighing against the "discrimination" and "backlash" suffered by the American Muslim community, an insulting falsehood then and now. On the ideological level, Bridges TV was a fraud, pretending to be moderate when it was just another member of the "Wahhabi lobby." Endorsed by some of the worst Islamist functionaries in the country (Nihad Awad, Ibrahim Hooper, Iqbal Yunus, Louay Safi), it was an extremist wolf disguised in moderate sheep's clothing. (Frontpagemagazine)
Freedom of Speech
Speech by Geert Wilders Rome, February 19, 2009
Signore e signori, molte grazie. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much. I feel very honoured to have been invited to speak here in Rome, to speak here in this splendid city, the cradle of our Western civilization.
As you perhaps know, Oriana Fallaci is one of my heroes. She definitely was one of the greatest examples of bravery and honesty. Her brilliant books ‘The Rage and the Pride’ and ‘The Force of Reason’ are my guidelines that inspire me day after day. Mr. Manocchia, Una via per Oriana, thank you very much for remembering the great Oriana Fallaci. The world should remember her forever. Ladies and gentlemen, following in the footsteps of Oriana Fallaci, I want to warn you for a great threat. This great threat is called Islam. Islam is build on two rocks. First there is the Koran, Allah’s personal word, with orders that need to be fulfilled by Muslims regardless of place and time. As you know, the Koran calls for hatred, violence, submission, murder, terrorism, war, Jihad. The Koran calls upon Muslims to kill non-Muslims and he Koran considers Jews to be monkeys and pigs. That is why the great German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer called the Koran inferior. That is why former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Oriana Fallaci compared the Koran to Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf. (GatesofVienna)
 "There is No Moderate Islam"
An interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali, ex-Muslim, and activist for truth- Interview by Bryce Gerard, Aditya Bindal, and Charles Johnson
Editor’s note: Early Friday morning, Bryce Gerard, Aditya Bindal, and I met with Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Ms. Ali was kind enough to grant us an exclusive interview in the restaurant of the hotel in which she was staying. While Ms. Ali’s security guards insisted that we find a quiet, presumably safe conference room, Ms. Ali would have none of it. She insisted upon talking to us in the crowded, hotel restaurant and offered us orange juice and coffee. Unlike members of the Muslim Student Association (MSA), who monopolized the question and answer period, we sought a real dialogue, with one of the most courageous, well-spoken freedom fighters of our time. Happily, she accepted. Here’s what followed.
AB: Ms. Ali, the students that distributed flyers to the audience and spoke out against you were students of the Claremont Colleges. Unlike young Muslim women in the Middle East and around the world, they have the privilege of a Western Education, and yet -- as you pointed out -- their passions and energies are directed towards ‘protecting the image of Islam’ instead of criticizing the oppression of Sharia Law. Why do you think that is? Is this a failure of Western Education or a type of thinking that is indifferent to any academic or intellectual experience? (Claremontindependent)
ANTISEMITISM
Israel's Choice-Melanie Phillips
As Iran sprints towards the nuclear finishing line, the lethal and wicked isolation of Israel in the west is accelerating. Yesterday, Amnesty called for an arms embargo against Israel based on a travesty of a report which accused Israel falsely of crimes it did not commit in Gaza – deliberately targeting civilians – while omitting the crimes Hamas did commit – using civilians as human shields. An arms embargo (of the type apparently favoured by Obama’s foreign policy guru Samantha Power) – would of course remove Israel’s ability to defend itself against an Arab and Muslim world bending every sinew for its destruction. It is therefore tantamount to calling for the destruction of Israel.Amnesty proposes no total arms embargo on Iran, nor on any of the 22 states of the Arab league. Only on Israel, their designated victim. Oh, and on Hamas whose sole crime it says was to have fired rockets at Israel which hardly killed anyone anyway. Thus in its absurd attempt to appear even-handed Amnesty equates the victims of terror with those who would murder them. Israel alone of all the countries of the world is not to be allowed to defend itself against annihilation. (Spectator.co.uk)
 WIESENTHAL CENTER PROTESTS GROWING INTIMIDATION OF JEWISH STUDENTS AND ABUSE OF ACADEMIC POSTS TO DEMONIZE ISRAEL
Launch of iCAN ads to expose hypocrisy of boycotters of Israel
On Friday, February 27, 2009, at 10:30am, famed UCLA Professor Dr. Judea Pearl (father of the murdered Wall Street Journal’s Daniel Pearl) will join senior officials of the Simon Wiesenthal Center to protest increasing intimidation of pro-Israel students on (California) campuses and the demonization of the Jewish state by academics. Center officials will outline efforts made in the US, Canada and UK to counter these troubling trends. The Center will unveil its iCAN ad campaign which will run in student newspapers in major universities to counter a self-declared international “Israel Apartheid Week.” and other anti-Israel efforts in March that include calls for boycotting Israel academia and all Israeli products. (SWC)
Let’s see the 'criticism' of Israel for what it really is-Howard Jacobson
Emotions have run high over recent events in Gaza. And in this impassioned and searching essay, our writer argues that just below the surface runs a vicious strain of ancient prejudice
I was once in Melbourne when bush fires were raging 20 or 30 miles north of the city. Even from that distance you could smell the burning. Fine fragments of ash, like slivers of charcoal confetti, covered the pavements. The very air was charred. It has been the same here these past couple of months with the fighting in Gaza. Only the air has been charred not with devastation but with hatred. And I don’t mean the hatred of the warring parties for each other. I mean the hatred of Israel expressed in our streets, on our campuses, in our newspapers, on our radios and televisions, and now in our theatres. A discriminatory, over-and-above hatred, inexplicable in its hysteria and virulence whatever justification is adduced for it; an unreasoning, deranged and as far as I can see irreversible revulsion that is poisoning everything we are supposed to believe in here – the free exchange of opinions, the clear-headedness of thinkers and teachers, the fine tracery of social interdependence we call community relations, modernity of outlook, tolerance, truth. You can taste the toxins on your tongue. (Independent.co.uk)
Making the world 'Judenstaatrein'-Irwin Cotler
Some 125 parliamentarians gathered together last week for the historic founding conference of the Interparliamentary Coalition for Combating Anti-Semitism (ICCA), brought together by a new sophisticated, globalizing, virulent and even lethal anti-Semitism reminiscent of the atmospherics of the 1930s, and without parallel or precedent since the end of World War II. The new anti-Jewishness overlaps with classical anti-Semitism but is distinguishable from it. It found early juridical, and even institutional, expression in the UN's "Zionism is racism" resolution - which the late US senator Daniel Moynihan said "gave the abomination of anti-Semitism the appearance of international legal sanction" - but has gone dramatically beyond it. This new anti-Semitism almost needs a new vocabulary to define it; however, it can best be identified using a rights-based juridical perspective. In a word, classical or traditional anti-Semitism is the discrimination against, denial of or assault upon the rights of Jews to live as equal members of whatever host society they inhabit. (Jpost)
Egyptian Cleric Ahmad Abd Al-Salam: Jews 'Infect Food with Cancer and Ship it to Muslim Countries-MEMRI
Following are excerpts from a speech delivered by Egyptian cleric Ahmad Abd Al-Salam, which aired on Al-Nas TV on January 28, 2009. To view this clip, visit http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/2035.htm.
TO VIEW THIS CLIP AND OTHERS, YOU MUST LOG IN/REGISTER FOR MEMRI TV, AT http://subscriptions.memri.org/content/en/member_registr_tv.htm. REGISTRATION IS FREE OF CHARGE.
The Jews "Invest Their Utmost Efforts... in Conspiring How to Corrupt the Islamic Nation... This Is Why We Hate Them"-MEMRI
Ahmad Abd Al-Salam: "The Jews 'will not fail to corrupt' the believers. What does this mean? The Jews are never remiss - they invest their utmost efforts, day and night, in conspiring how to corrupt the Islamic nation, the nation led by the Prophet Muhammad. "I want you, Muslim viewers, to imagine the Jews sitting around a table, conspiring how to corrupt the Muslims, and how to destroy their worldly and religious affairs. The Jews 'will not fail to corrupt you,' and this is why we hate them."
The Jews "Infect Food with Cancer and Ship It to Muslim Countries"
"The Jews conspire day and night to destroy the Muslims' worldly and religious affairs. The Jews conspire to destroy the economy of the Muslims. The Jews conspire to infect the food of the Muslims with cancer. It is the Jews who infect food with cancer and ship it to Muslim countries." (MEMRI)
TERRORISM, INTERNET, JIHAD
British Muslims 'providing Taliban with electronic devices for roadside bombs'-Con Coughlin
British Muslims are providing the Taliban with electronic devices to make roadside bombs for use in attacks against British forces serving in southern Afghanistan, The Telegraph can disclose.
The devices, which enable Taliban fighters to detonate roadside bombs by remote control, are either sent to sympathizers in the region, or carried by volunteers who fly to Pakistan and then make their way across the border. Details of how British electronic components have been found in roadside bombs were given to David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, when he visited British troops at their military compound at Lashkagar, in Helmand province, earlier this week. In a briefing on British operations in southern Afghanistan by Brigadier Gordon Messenger, the Royal Marine commander of the British battlegroup, Mr Miliband was shown examples of the crude, home-made devices that are being used in attacks against British patrols. (Telegraph.co.uk)
One in ten freed Guantánamo detainees goes back to terrorism, says Pentagon-Tom Baldwin in Washington and Michael Evans
More than one in ten of the Guantánamo detainees sent back to their countries of origin have subsequently become involved in terrorist activities, according to the Pentagon. Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon spokesman, said that an estimated 62 former inmates had been linked to terrorism again. “That's an 11 per cent recidivist rate,” he told The Times. Said Ali al-Shihri, released to Saudi Arabia in 2007, was put through the kingdom's special rehabilitation programme for Jihadists but subsequently emerged as al-Qaeda's deputy leader in Yemen, Mr Morrell claimed. “The detainees released in the early phases were considered to be the easy ones, in other words they could be released with minimal risk, and yet 11 per cent have returned to terrorism,” he said.“With the remaining detainees, it's increasingly difficult to come to an arrangement because they are considered to pose a greater danger, although not necessarily too dangerous to release to their home countries in the right circumstances.” (Timesonline.co.uk)
 Don't dismiss Binyam Mohamed's al Qaeda connections-Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens
Binyam Mohamed landed in Britain today and before his plane had even touched the tarmac the Guardian pounced upon the opportunity to showcase the alleged crimes of the United States by giving him space on their Comment is Free blog. In the statement he tells us how happy he is to be in Britain, and that he is 'not asking for vengeance'. Really? Well thank you so much Binyam, for promising not to attack us.
Over the last few weeks we have heard again and again the allegations regarding his torture in Pakistan and Guantanamo and this is something for which, if proven, officials from both the U.S. and Britain will need to be held to account. Amid the excitement surrounding his arrival it is easy to forget that there are two big stories here: one has been transformed into a tale about a helpless and innocent Muslim man being oppressed and beaten by an evil Bush-led mission to persecute Islam; the other is the same old boring old yarn about a young man who attended an al-Qaeda training camp to learn how to kill large groups of people and travel around the world unnoticed. (Socialcohesion.co.uk)
Egyptian Cleric Zaghloul Al-Naggar: The Arab World Is Ruled By the Scum of the Earth and the Garbage of All Nations; I Am 'Absolutely' Calling to Wage Jihad Against the Jews, Who Are Devils in Human Form-MEMRI
Following are excerpts from an interview with Egyptian cleric Zaghloul Al-Naggar, which aired on Al-Rahma TV on January 6, 2009.
"The West Wanted To Avenge Its Defeat In The Crusades, So It Gathered These Dispersed [Jewish] Communities... And Planted Them In The Heart Of The Arab World"
Zaghloul Al-Naggar: "I have written about the conspiracy against the Palestinian people, and about how this abominable conspiracy was hatched by Britain and France, in collaboration with several Western countries. In our days, this conspiracy has been adopted by the U.S. "This conspiracy has many causes. The West wanted to avenge its defeat in the Crusades, so it gathered these dispersed [Jewish] communities - the scum of the earth and garbage of the nations - and planted them in the heart of the Arab world, thus saying to us: 'We've returned, after you drove us out of this blessed land.' "The Jews used to live a life of squalor and humiliation, and were fought and persecuted in Europe and the whole world. I lived in Britain from the early 1960s, and many stores and restaurants still had a 'no dogs, no Jews' sign. The Jews wanted to escape the humiliation imposed on them by the West, and to shift it to the Arab nation. In this case, two goals coincided: The Jews' goal was to have a state, which would protect them from their humiliation all over the world, and the goal of the West was to avenge its defeat in the Crusades, by returning to the region. (MEMRI)
Radical ENVIRONMENTALISM and Science
Climate change rhetoric spirals out of control
Christopher Booker says that the Government must be absolutely sure that their data on climate change is accurate.
It was another bad week for the "warmists", now more desperate than ever to whip up alarm over an overheating planet. It began last weekend with the BBC leading its bulletins on the news that a "leading climate scientist" in America, Professor Chris Field, had warned that "the severity of global warming over the next century will be much worse than previously believed". Future temperatures "will be beyond anything predicted", he told a Chicago conference. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) had "seriously underestimated the size of the problem". The puzzle as to why the BBC should make this the main news of the day only deepened when it emerged that Prof Field was not a climate scientist at all but an evolutionary biologist. To promote its cause the BBC website even posted a video explaining how warming would be made worse by "negative feedback". This scientific howler provoked much amusement and derision on expert US blogs, such as Anthony Watts's Watts Up With That – since "negative feedback" would lower temperatures rather than raise them. The BBC soon pulled its video. (Telegraph.co.uk
Social websites harm children's brains: Chilling warning to parents from top neuroscientist-David Derbyshire
Social networking websites are causing alarming changes in the brains of young users, an eminent scientist has warned. Sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Bebo are said to shorten attention spans, encourage instant gratification and make young people more self-centred. The claims from neuroscientist Susan Greenfield will make disturbing reading for the millions whose social lives depend on logging on to their favourite websites each day. But they will strike a chord with parents and teachers who complain that many youngsters lack the ability to communicate or concentrate away from their screens. More than 150million use Facebook to keep in touch with friends, share photographs and videos and post regular updates of their movements and thoughts. A further six million have signed up to Twitter, the 'micro-blogging' service that lets users circulate text messages about themselves. But while the sites are popular - and extremely profitable - a growing number of psychologists and neuroscientists believe they may be doing more harm than good. Baroness Greenfield, an Oxford University neuroscientist and director of the Royal Institution, believes repeated exposure could effectively 'rewire' the brain. (Dailymail.co.uk)
Society and CULTURE
Polygamy UK: This special Mail investigation reveals how thousands of men are milking the benefits system to support several wives-Sue Reid
He cut a smart figure in his grey suit and crisply ironed shirt. The 6ft tall Somalian bowed to the judge, calling him 'Sir', before begging for his wife, Fatima, and their teenage son to be allowed to stay in Britain.
Fatima, with a black khimar veil covering her hair and shoulders, sat quietly next to her husband. In her late 30s and wearing open sandals, she lowered her dark eyes as the details of the unconventional life she and her husband, Abdi, led in the West London suburb of Shepherd's Bush unfolded at a busy immigration court .The judge listened in silence. Perhaps he knew from past experience what was coming next. Abdi went on to reveal that Fatima was not his only wife. Indeed, he was a self-confessed bigamist who had a second, much younger wife and a 13-year-old daughter by her. They both lived nearby. 'I visit them regularly,' said Abdi, 51, who arrived in Britain in the 1990s and works in an old people's home. 'I have done nothing wrong. In Somalia, it is normal to have two wives - even three or four. multiple marriage in Britain. (Dailymail.co.uk)
 A Bollywood Ending-Alvaro Vargas Llosa
What the overly PC critics of 'Slumdog Millionare' still don't understand.
WASHINGTON--Almost three months ago, I wrote that "if there is any justice, 'Slumdog Millionaire'--a $15-million movie that the distributors were dubious about, and a third of which is in Hindi--will be nominated by the Motion Picture Academy for Best Picture. And go on to win." Naturally, I beg to differ with those Indian activists and intellectuals who have decried the movie as demeaning to their country because of its portrayal of poverty and violence, its use of child actors, and a scene in which a group of Hindu fanatics attacks a Muslim community.One example of this balderdash is a lawsuit filed by Tapeshwar Vishwakarma, who represents a charity and claims that the human rights of the slum dwellers have been violated. Another high-profile protester has excoriated the Indians associated with the production for accepting the use of the word "slumdog." Shyamal Sengupta, from the Whistling Woods International Institute in Mumbai, calls the film "a white man's imagined India" and "a poverty tour." How ironic, in the light of these highbrowed attacks, that, according to numerous news accounts, residents of the slums of Mumbai celebrated the triumph of Danny Boyle's movie at the Oscars as their own. They are the ones who have it right.(TNR)
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