The Company You Keep (and Sometimes Discard)

Hillary isn't happy with Obama's relationship with Anthony Rezko, purported Chicago slumlord (For some reason, Rezko's background isn't spoken of much. He is a native of Damascus, Syria. He has large real estate holdings there, clearly with the approval of the Bashar Assad regime).

Recently,

Antoin "Tony" Rezko was roused at daybreak Monday from his Wilmette mansion by federal agents and ordered jailed by a judge who was disturbed that the politically connected businessman concealed a $3.5 million payment from overseas.

Facing various criminal charges, Rezko had his bail revoked after it was discovered he had $3.5 million dollars wired from Lebanon to accounts here in the US.

Prosecutors have long feared the native of Syria would flee the U.S., but a year ago Rezko won his continued freedom in part by convincing St. Eve he had few assets and no access to money abroad.

A few months later, prosecutors recently discovered, $3.5 million was wired from Lebanon. Much of the money wound up in the hands of Rezko friends and relatives who had put up their homes to secure his bond, limiting their financial risk if Rezko fled, prosecutors argued. Assistant U.S. Atty. Reid Schar called the financial maneuvering "a shell game."

Rezko's sudden arrest came days after his name became a point of controversy in the presidential campaign because of his past ties to Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.). Rezko, a former key adviser and fundraiser for Gov. Rod Blagojevich, is set to stand trial on Feb. 25 on charges he extorted firms trying to do business with the state.

Here is another look at Tony Rezko.

Still, Hillary is in no position to play the ethics card. Let's look at some of her 'friends.'

In looking at instances of Democrat ’slumlords’ or those who benefited from them, Andrew Cuomo comes to mind.

Cuomo wants to become the state’s highest law enforcement officer, but that hasn’t stopped him from attaching himself at the hip to a onetime scandal-scarred kingpin of a housing empire he denounced himself when he was Bill Clinton’s secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

Never one to be far from the action, Hillary Clinton is closer to slumlords than she is to Chinese dishwashers. We won’t even get into the anti Union people she is cozy with. See the Village Voice expose, Hillary Clinton's Anti Union, Slumlord Pals. It highlights some less than progressive people with ties to Hillary.

Of course, Al Gore is the real deal slumlord.

Tracy Mayberry, who rents an apartment from the Man Who Gets An Oilcan Every Father’s Day, in Carthage, Tennessee, says he not only failed to fix overflowing toilets and backed up sinks, but also threatened to evict she and her disabled husband, mentally retarded daughter and another daughter with a seizure disorder.

Hillary claims she doesn't remember taking any photos with Anthony Rezko. Will she make the same claim about photos with her and Al Gore?

Speaking of real estate and Hillery's ethics

The Senior Senator from Massachusetts belongs to a family clan blessed with a net worth of nearly $500 million. Back in 1935, Joseph Patrick Kennedy, Sr., purchased Merchandise Mart, a Chicago real estate company, and according to Schweizer:

“…in 1947, he divided its ownership among family members and put it in the form of a trust…. [it] was not set up in their home state of Massachusetts, New York, Florida, or even California. This trust wasn’t even domiciled in the United States. Instead the Kennedy trust was set up in … Fiji.”

Now why establish a trust on an island best known for headhunters? The Fiji-based trust allowed the Kennedy’s to avoid “…the possibility of scrutiny by the IRS and federal authorities,” according to Schweizer. Worse, the sanctimonious Kennedy clan that demands the rich pay their fair share has “an intricate web of trusts and private foundations” that helps the family avoid the IRS.

For example, the family paid only $134,330.90 in estate taxes despite a family fortune thought to be between $300 and $500 million at the time of Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr.’s death in 1969. That was a tax bill of .04 percent, and Schweizer informs us that the figure is based on the lower end of the estimated family fortune.

According to Peter Schweizer,

“…the current (2005) inheritance tax rate is 49 percent on any money passed to your children after the first $2 million…a farmer or small businessman worth $2.26 million who didn’t have the benefit of Kennedy tax shelters and foreign-based trusts would pay the same amount in estate taxes as the Kennedys did on their entire half-billion-dollar fortune.

Amazing hypocrisy abounds. Imagine, a farmer or small businessman, with a net worth of $2 million, paying the same amount of taxes as a family clan worth a half-billion dollars. This is not the stuff of liberal “economic fairness.” It most certainly is not the kind of outcome Senator Kennedy would boast about to his so-called “progressive” liberal supporters.

The Kennedy clan maintains most of their fortune “in trusts today which are structured to keep the family from paying higher taxes… [Senator] Kennedy receives nice checks every year from trusts set up in 1926, 1936, 1978, 1987, and 1997,” says Schweizer.

Senator Kennedy and his family have adopted other means besides trusts to avoid paying higher taxes. In one particularly sordid case in 1980, Senator Kennedy benefited from a political connection to Cook County, Chicago’s Democratic tax assessor, Thomas Tully. Mr. Tully had assessed the Kennedy-owned Merchandise Mart’s property value at $22.8 million when in fact its true value was $35 million. The discrepancy meant the Kennedy's saved an estimated $8 million over a two year period. It also meant that Cook County’s public schools were short-changed a few million dollars in property tax revenues. Given Senator Kennedy’s long-standing support for public education, one would expect this example of hypocrisy to have a sobering impact on his supporters.

Until last week and Ted Kennedy's endorsement of Barack Obama, Hillary and the Senator from Massachusetts were best of friends

Clockworks

Pendulums.

With comforting regularity, pendulums swing back and forth, marking time. They are the visible part of the clockworks. Day becomes night, night becomes day and all is well with the world.

So it is with prayer. For every prayer that is extended our way when most needed, there are an equal numbers of prayers that we must extend because those prayers are needed. Prayer is a part of the great clockworks of life.

Like the pendulum, prayer is a visible and audible expression of the clockworks, but prayer is by no means the entire clockworks. The secret and magic of the clockworks of life are for the most part hidden, made up of small moving parts that for the most part, are unimpressive on their own. It is only when those many small parts are together and assembled, does the magic of the clockworks become apparent.

So it is with prayer. It only when the small parts, together, come together in a time-concert of awareness of ourselves, our lives and others , does prayer become meaningful.

God does not need our prayers. We cannot approach God and say, 'We pray to you so that you might see and recognize our worth, and so grant us your mercy.'

When we pray to God, we need to focus on our own smallness and limitations. God is not seeking us out to 'partner' with Him. Rather, He asks that we be worthy of His choosing to 'partner' with us. We are only worthy when we recognize our own limitations. The temporal successes of wealth, achievement and glory do not bring us closer to God.

Nor does the loss of those things.

What does bring us closer to God is our awareness of our place in the universe. The parts of the clock all work together- no one part can step out and declare himself to be a more worthy part of the clock. Each part of the clockworks of life are equally important and vital.

We never really master time. The clockworks of life allow us to master our own lives, to make our time on earth productive and meaningful. What we do with time is our expression of free will. We can spend time selfishly or we can spend time selflessly.

We noted that

Real self esteem is derived from 'selfless esteem.' No matter what great strides we have made in technology and interdependent economies and societies, we must make a difference in the lives of others if we are to make a difference and find meaning in our own lives. Information and technology will not make our world a better place. They can contribute to the effort, but no more.

It is in knowing our place that we can recognize triumph, tragedy and opportunity. It is in knowing our place that makes it possible to make lemonade out of lemons.

Parts of the following are a few other thoughts on prayer, published earlier.

Prayer certainly isn't for God. With or without our devotions, His power is constant.

Prayer isn't even necessarily for the object of our prayers, be that ourselves or others. That may sound cruel, but it is true. The universe God created was for all of us, not just one of us. While we are each important in God's eyes, we are part of a community of man, a family. There are times when individual and specific prayers appear to go unanswered, yet in truth, the community is served. The universe is a delicate balance, in which time, events in the present, past and future all factor into that balance.

We are finite creatures, with limited capacity, attempting to connect with the infinite God.

Prayer is our Jacob's ladder, the bottom firmly planted on the ground, while at same time, at the top of that same ladder, angels and other Godly apparitions are found.

It is through prayer and the physical embodiment of prayer, good works, that we ascend the ladder, rung by rung. Through prayer, we connect our small, finite selves, with the infinite. While the base of our ladder may be firmly rooted on the ground, a necessary requirement, it is clear that on our own Jacob's ladder, the higher portions are rooted in a spiritual place. The highest rungs on that ladder reach into the Heavens, the spiritual heights to which we aspire- the Infinite.

Reaching out to God can be a very scary thing. Most often, when we reach high places we are told not to look down, despite the instinct to retreat to the familiar- and lower, ground. The same is true of prayer, and consequently, ourselves. Our aspirations and prayers must go ever higher. We cannot afford to 'look down' or lower the expectations we might have of ourselves. We must look to the future, not to the past, to find our better selves.

Political leaders often refer to the 'shining lights on the hill', or say, 'Our best days are yet to come.' In fact, those words echo the prayers of mankind. Our destiny is clear if we understand in which direction we are headed. It is better to be on a low rung, headed upwards, than it is to be on a higher rung, descending.

There are those who spend much of their time demanding from us that we ascend in our prayers, that combination of values, morals and good works, so that we may grow in our quest to find the best in ourselves.

Those who have such clarity and what they stands for, find favor in God's eyes. For that, we rejoice with them their community.

Adjust your clocks accordingly.

This post has been previously published.

Roswell, Revisited And Explained

From Obi's Sister, Roswell- and why it matters:

Many of you will recall that on July 8, 1947, just over 60 years ago, witnesses claim that an unidentified flying object (UFO) with five aliens aboard crashed onto a sheep and cattle ranch just outside Roswell, New Mexico . This is a well-known incident that many say has long been covered up by the U.S. Air Force and other federal agencies and organizations.

However, what you may NOT know is that in the month of March 1948, nine months after that historic day, the following people were born:

Don't stop now. Click here and Read Obi's Sister's list. You will understand much

More Rejected By Publisher And Other Titles Under Consideration

The titles of new classics in the works:

"You Were An Accident"

"The Boy Who Died From Eating All His Vegetables"

"Dad's New Wife, Robert"

"Four Letter Words To Know And Share"

"The Kids Guide to Hitchhiking"

"Kathy Was So Bad, Her Mom Stopped Loving Her"

"Hammers, Screwdriver And Scissors: An I-Can-Do-It Book"

"The Little Sissy Who Snitched"

"The Pop-Up Book Of Human Anatomy"

"Grandpa Gets A Casket"

"Daddy Drinks Because You Cry"

More as they become available.

Creation, Destruction And Basketball

On Tuesday, we participated in a terrific BlogTalk Radio podcast with Fausta, Micheal van der Galien of Poligazette and Rick Moran of Right Wing Nuthouse in which we discussed the differences between cultures for who creation is the highest expression versus cultures for destruction are the highest form of expression. Both Michal and Rick are astute observers and more than competent analysts. They possess teh capacity to see what is going on around them and understand what they are looking at- gifts not so common.

We also discussed what happens when cultures of creation meet cultures of destruction and the impact that confluence has on each.

In the end, cultures and societies are all measured by what they build and not by what they destroy. The merits of religion are measured by how many lives are saved, enriched and elevated in God's name and not by how many lives are taken and extinguished in His name.

In a comment to a recent post, reader Expat noted in speaking of the collective Holocaust memory of some Germans that

"...this group seems more interested in securing their own “heroic” legacy than in doing the hard work of understanding human moral failures."

For every well intentioned ying there is a less that savory yang. Expat's remarks are equally applicable to those who justify destruction and murder in the name of some kind of perverted 'justice' or religious ideology. It is an absolute truth that cultures and societies that obsess about others and care not a whit about their own spectacular failings and backwardness, are failed cultures and societies.

Why do some societies advance? Why do some groups achieve and others fail? Why do some cultures thrive on creation and others thrive only on destruction? While there is no single stock answer, we can learn from those who have succeeded (often despite tremendous odds against them).

We are reposting Jews, Basketball And The Human Condition.

Pondering whether or not Jews are 'smarter' than everyone else is like asking if basketball players can sink more three pointers than everyone else.

The evidence speaks for itself. The real question, is why Jews are smarter. There are of course, many theories. Some point to genetics, others point to culture. Yet others see the Jewish achievement as a combination of factors, giving no added weight to culture or genetics. Let's examine that.

The case for superior genetics is pretty easy to make. The smart Christian kid became a priest, or, if she 'heard the call,' became a nun- and that was that. The smart Jewish kid married the Rabbi's daughter and produced more smart kids- and that was that.

From a cultural standpoint, there is an equally easy connection that can be made. Even in the most religious of households, Jews had to read and write in at least two languages, Hebrew and the 'language of the land.' In addition, Jews were obligated to participate in the welfare the community- not just their own, but the community of which the were a part. While many people have referred to the Jews as 'clannish,' the facts clearly indicate otherwise. As a group, Jews give more charity per capita than any other group. Various studies have concluded that most charity is given to make the donor feel good. Jews, on the other hand, historically give money because it's the right thing to do. Within that community, there is a whole subculture of anonymous giving.

It is to that subculture we wish to look. We believe that there is much that can be learned. We'll start by the world we live in and how we see ourselves within that world. That idea is not as clear as one might think.

We are told that our world can be looked at in one of two ways. We either focus and concern ourselves with personal productivity, managing the information we have, or we look to gather as much information as possible, from as many sources as possible, before we direct our attention to the task at hand.

To be clear, these are not ethereal ideas. This battle of ideas has been picked up by Microsoft and Google. They are slugging it out and the winner will have a huge impact on society and culture as we know it.

Microsoft's new search engine focuses on personal productivity. It searches your hard drive for whatever it is you might need. They believe that web search results mixed in with your own work are too cumbersome and unwieldy. Too much information, from too many sources, only serves to slow productivity down.

Google search engines not only search your hard drive, but the web and email as well. They believe that having as much knowledge as possible at your fingertips is really enhanced connectivity- and that connectivity, shared, is all empowering.

What does all that have to do with the Jews? Everything. They are the embodiment of both those schools of thought- and they have the track record to prove it. Personal productivity and shared connectivity, amongst themselves and the human efforts to excel and achieve.

The Jews, it seems, understand that what is on the menu aren't the only things that can come out of the kitchen. With those same ingredients and a bit of creativity, we can expand our choices. We are not limited to what we are offered- or taught.

That may be the lesson we can learn from the Jews- that success and achievement are components, a recipe which we can all put to use.

In other words, maybe the Jews aren't really smarter than us, IQ tests notwithstanding. Maybe it is because Jews, as culture and as part of their faith, accept as dogma certain truths, despite having seemingly opposite foundations. For example, they are as committed to justice as they are to education. They are as committed to helping others as they are committed to God. They commit to personal and communal truths, each in equal measure.

Success is the result of individual effort, initiative and productivity. Knowledge is the result of that connectivity. When fused together, they make for a powerful culture- and belief structure.

What is their secret? How do they know? We can only guess. Still, there must be a recipe. The Jews are the only people that have survived from antiquity. As we and others have noted,

Where are the Hittites? Why does no one find it remarkable that in most world cities today there are Jews but not one single Hittite even though the Hittites had a great flourishing civilization while the Jews nearby were a weak and obscure people? When one meets a Jew in New York or New Orleans or Paris or Melbourne, it is remarkable that no one considers the event remarkable. What are they doing here? But it is even more remarkable to wonder, if there are Jews here, why are there not Hittites here? Where are the Hittites? Show me one Hittite in New York City.

Doesn't get much clearer than that. It is also true that we know the Jews because they know themselves. They have not wiped the memory of their history, faith or culture from their collective minds. They have assimilated- and yet they have managed to retain their identity- an identity clearly tied to the past and an unshakable set of values. They remember the joys and the tragedies, as if they happened yesterday. On the Passover holiday, Jews are taught to regard the liberation from Egypt as if it happened to them. As we noted, there is much we can learn.

While we may not all share the history of the Jews, we all share in the legacy of those men who founded this great nation. As the French playwright and philosopher, Moliere said, "The less we are like our ancestors, the less we deserve them."

The history and memories of a people are comprised of individual lifetimes- not necessarily in detail, but in the collective understanding that by applying certain truths and commitments to family, culture and community, we will succeed, no matter the adversity.

Some have predicted the demise of democracies, comparing free nations to the decline and eventual collapse of the Roman Empire, but in fact, the exact opposite is true. The empires that have declined are those dysfunctional regimes that made it their business to attempt to control every aspect of the lives of their citizens. The unstoppable juggernaut that was Communism and Socialism of the 20th century is no more, having been replaced by ideologies that embrace freer expression and individual initiative. Russia, China and Vietnam are all works in progress. There will be fits and starts, stumbles and falls, but in the end, the freedom genie was been let out of the bottle in Philadelphia- and there is no going back.

"Where in the world has one ever seen a nation that erects memorials to immortalize its own shame?"

From the IHT:

Berlin: Most countries celebrate the best in their past. Germany unrelentingly promotes its worst.

The enormous Holocaust memorial that dominates a chunk of central Berlin was completed only after years of debate. But the building of monuments to the Nazi disgrace continues unabated. On Monday, the German minister of culture, Bernd Neumann, announced that construction could begin in Berlin on two monuments, one near the Reichstag to slain members of the gypsy groups, known here as the Sinti and Roma, and another not far from the Brandenburg Gate to gays and lesbians killed in the Holocaust.

In November they broke ground on the long-delayed Topography of Terror center at the site of the former Gestapo and SS headquarters. And in October, a huge new exhibition opened at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. At the Dachau camp outside Munich, a new visitor center opens this summer. The city of Erfurt is planning a museum dedicated to the crematoriums. There are currently two competing exhibitions about the role of the German railroads in delivering millions to their deaths.

This Wednesday marks the 75th anniversary of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party taking power in Germany, which remarkably has prompted yet a new round of soul-searching.

"Where in the world has one ever seen a nation that erects memorials to immortalize its own shame?" said Avi Primor, the former Israeli ambassador to Germany, at an event commemorating the Holocaust and the liberation of Auschwitz on Friday in Erfurt. "Only the Germans had the bravery and the humility."

It is not just in edifices and exhibits that the effort to come to terms with this history continues unabated. The Federal Crime Office last year began an investigation into itself: trying to shine a light on the Nazi past of its founders after the end of the war. And earlier this month the federal prosecutor overturned the guilty verdict of the communist Marinus van der Lubbe, the Dutchman executed for allegedly setting the Reichstag fire, the 75th anniversary of which is Feb. 27.

The experience of Nazism is actively alive in contemporary public debates over everything from the country's troops in Afghanistan to the low birth rate to the country's dealings with foreigners. Often it seems to stifle discussion that could proceed more openly in other countries with fewer taboos.

But the force of time also has brought about a necessary shift in Germany's relationship with its graying history of violence. According to government statistics, the average life expectancy of a German man born in 1930 is 64 and for a woman 72. Soon nearly all of the victims - and even sooner the perpetrators - will be dead.

Rüdiger Nemitz first began welcoming back this city's exiled victims of Nazi tyranny, the overwhelming majority of them Jews, in 1969. Berlin flies its former citizens, mostly Jews, back for a week of fully expense-paid visits, complete with a reception by the mayor.

The Invitation Program for Former Persecuted Citizens of Berlin, which has brought roughly 33,000 people for visits to the city, once had 12 full-time staff members. Now it is just Nemitz and another half-time employee.

The program is not, however, winding down due to waning support for commemoration of Germany's difficult past. To the contrary, at a time when the nearly-broke Berlin city government has had to make deep cutbacks in other areas, Nemitz said that every single political party in the city Parliament supported the program and had not pared back its budget of €550,000, or about $815,000, for flights, hotels and tours since at least 2000.

"When it started, they were grown-ups. Now, it's people with hardly any memory of Berlin," said Nemitz, 61, from his office on the ground floor of the Berlin City Hall. "Those who come today were children then."

The visits will end in either 2010 or 2011, Nemitz estimated, because there are so few victims left.

Easily overlooked next to the poignant fact of the survivors dying out is that Nemitz's generation, those who faced these crimes intimately and were fighting to break the silence of their parents and teachers, is beginning to retire. When the last tour group leaves Berlin, Nemitz, who said he is afraid to take vacation and treats his position more like a mission than a job, will shut the door to his office and become a retiree.

As the contact to the events becomes more remote, less personal, it raises the question of how a society should enshrine its crimes and transgressions over the longer term.

"I can't help but feeling that some of the continued 'Let's build monuments. Let's build Jewish museums,' is a fairly ritualized behavior," said Susan Neiman, director of the Einstein Forums in Potsdam, an international public research organization.

Her own children, she said, are saturated with discussions of the Holocaust and no longer want to hear about it.

"I worry terribly that it's going to backfire," she said.

Germany's relationship with its Nazi history still regularly generates controversy, as in the case of the dueling train exhibits. The first, Train of Commemoration, is a locomotive carrying displays detailing how Jewish children were murdered in the Holocaust.

The train is making its way through German cities, open for visitors along the way, ultimately bound for Auschwitz. Organizers complain that rather than embracing the project, the national railroad, Deutsche Bahn, has hindered it, making the exhibition's organizers pay for using the tracks even as they commemorate the railway's history of misdeeds.

The second exhibition, sponsored by Deutsche Bahn itself, opened in Berlin at the Potsdamer Platz train station last week. Critics have derided the official one as a response to attention from the first to acknowledge its role. But the Deutsche Bahn exhibition does lay out how the company's predecessor, the Reichsbahn, carried about 3 million passengers to their deaths; it is filled with painful statistics, photographs and powerful stories of some of the individuals who perished.

When insufficient care is taken around the history, it immediately grabs national attention. In Munich this past weekend, a traditional carnival season parade overlapped with the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, celebrated every year on Jan. 27. The result was a nationwide flood of negative publicity for the city. Charlotte Knobloch, head of Germany's national Jewish organization, said that it "dishonors and insults the victims."

"There was no conscious affront," said Stefan Hauf, a spokesman for the city. He explained that they would have changed the date of the parade as the smaller city of Regensburg had, but too many participants were flying in from other countries to make the change on such short notice.

"The date has been on the public calendar since last May," Hauf said.

Munich played a special role in Nazi history. It is where the National Socialist party rose to prominence and was the location of the Beer Hall Putsch of 1923, the failed coup attempt enshrined in Nazi myth. Hitler eventually declared the city the "Capital of the Movement." Unlike Berlin, which has developed a reputation as a city with a memorial practically on every street corner, Munich has often been criticized for playing down its history.

"Munich was the capital of the movement. Since 1945 it's been the capital of forgetting," said Wolfram Kastner, an artist who said he has fought the city government over the years for permits and permission to use performance art to keep the memory of the Holocaust alive.

The Munich city government says it has been very active in trying to keep the history of that time alive. A short walk from the city's historic Marienplatz is an entire complex of new buildings devoted to both its Jewish history and present. The synagogue opened in November 2006 on the anniversary of the 1938 Kristallnacht attacks on Jewish people, businesses and places of worship. The Jewish Museum and a new community center opened in Munich last year.

The city is working on a new museum to be built where the Nazi party headquarters once stood, which will be called the Documentation Center for the History of National Socialism, with an expected opening date of 2011. The stated goal, according to the museum's Web site, "is to create a place of learning for the future."

Toward that goal, Angelika Baumann of the city's Department of Arts and Culture has been running workshops with school classes of teenagers between 14 and 18, including children from the college track as well as trade schools, and children of non-German ethnic backgrounds.

"We're planning for people who aren't even born yet," Baumann said.

Cosmic Truths

Middle Class Dreams, Arab World Failure

As images of Gaza Palestinians crossing border with Egypt are broadcast around the world, it hard to distinguish them from the images of Gazans 'celebrating' by going on an orgy of destruction after the Israelis left in 2005. Fires, violence and mayhem were the order of the day then as they are now. The Egyptian police are having a hard time maintaining order and resealing the border.

Why are Gazans reacting and behaving this way? Simply put, it is because Gazans (and the Arab world who lives vicariously through them, seeing themselves as 'martyrs' and as heroic figures) understand self expression through destruction. That should be no surprise- for centuries, the Arab world has been devoid of any kind of meaningful creation, endeavor or enterprise.

Israel is the glue that keeps the Arab world from falling apart. Without Israel, the Arabs would have to create-viable economies, education systems, modern infrastructures and everything necessary to compete in a modern world.

The failed Communist states learned their lesson. The Russians, Chinese and others have learned by way of failure that an empowered population and middle class best serves their nations and regimes. The Arab world has fallen even further behind, as dysfunctional leaders and religious thugs continue to oppress and repress their population, causing them to be further marginalized from civilized society. They are afraid of a citizenry that takes control of their own future and destiny. They are afraid of a middle class, empowered and desirous of a better life and who will make demands from their leaders.

The following has been previously published. It was written jointly with Dr. Sanity and ourselves.

Classical Marxist socialism predicted that because of the exploitative nature of capitalism and the oppression of the workers (proletariat) by the capitalists (bourgeoisie) that the masses of the "exploited" would become revolutionaries and sweep the evil capitalists out of power, instituting a "workers' paradise."

Sadly for them, the places where this process was helpfully encouraged in the last century by actual violent revolutions--such as in the Soviet Union and Cuba--the "workers' paradise" thus created turned out to be more of a workers' hell on earth. Nevertheless, indoctrinated little socialists and communists elsewhere--such as in the U.S, where unimaginable wealth was apparently being created off the backs of the poor proletariat.-- waited hopefully for the oppressed workers to join the revolutionary wave.

Much to their surprise and dismay, the clever capitalist system was actually co-opting the oppressed workers, and helping them enter the dreaded "middle class".

Marx always expected that the middle class--which he described as composed of the small manufacturer, the shopkeeper, the artisan, the peasant etc--would own some property, but not sufficient to have all work done by employees or workers. Those in the middle class must also work in order to survive and are thus simultaneously members of Marx's proletariat as well as his bourgeoisie. He expected that the middle class would disappear as capitalism developed, since the only sustainable positions were the ones of his dialectic.

This, however, is not what actually happens in the real world as it turns out.

Whenever the workers are given liberty and allowed to pursue their own happiness (and not the state's), the middle class has continued to expand. In fact, the values of this particular economic group have come to anchor society in the United States. Far from wanting to ignite a worker's revolution as Marx predicted, they enjoy the creature comforts of the capitalist system and feel themselves empowered by it. Worse (from the communist/socialist's perspective anyway), the typical person in the middle class believes that he or she can better themselves by using the many opportunities offered by a liberal, capitalistic democracy.

Even in Communist China, capitalistic pursuits and entrepreneurship have become the true "opiates" of the masses--in the sense that to the degree people are free to pursue their own happiness and work for their own interests--i.e., where they have economic freedom, even if they don't have political freedom-- they are relatively content, and are unlikely to fulfill the ardent communist/socialist's revolutionary fantasies.

Let's switch gears now and look at the scenario that has been playing out in the Middle East for the last half century or more. The Palestinian-Israeli conflict has all the trappings of a perfect Marxist drama: the oppressed and poverty-stricken proletariat who have been dispossessed from the land that should be rightfully theirs; and the evil, oppressive and exploitative Jew.

There is only one way that the Israelis could have achieved a country of plenty in the midst of the arid and empty desert --and that must be by exploitation, oppression and abuse of the Palestinians. I mean, just look at what Israel has been able to accomplish since its founding! Not only have they managed to create a country that exemplifies western values, but their people are prosperous, industrious, educated, and contribute to the advancement of humanity in every way. And, they managed to do all this in only a few decades; while their Arab counterparts (including the Palestinians) have not been able to create much of anything over hundreds of years. In fact, if it wasn't for the discovery of oil in the Middle East, there would not be any wealth at all to sustain most of the countries surrounding Israel.

As this Marxist play continues act after repetitive act, highlighting the dialectic of oppressor versus oppressed, we can begin to understand why the political left have supported the Palestinian and Arab cause against Israel; and why jihad and shar'ia have become the preferred "revolt of the masses".

It was no coincidence that the Al Aqsa intifada was unleashed when it was.

Whoever thinks that the Intifadah broke out because of the despised Sharon's visit to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, is wrong," Imad al-Faluji, the Palestinian communications minister, declared in March. "This Intifadah was planned in advance, ever since President Arafat's return from the Camp David negotiations.

The Camp David negotiations that might possibly have lead to a real peace accord between the Palestinians and the Israelis was the doomsday scenario feared by every faction of the corrupt Palestinian regime and even Palestinian opposition parties (who wanted their turn at the trough). Why? Because peace with Israel meant the Palestinian psychological dynamic would change for good.

When nations that are that are led by or are under the influence of tyrants or dictators, attempt to justify their actions, we can rightly assume that justification is false. Tyrants and dictators do not make moral choices, because moral choices can only lead to the demise of the tyranny.

Peace with Israel would highlight a few realities that the Arab world leadership does not want to face. Overnight, the Palestinians would have the most successful Arab world per capita economy. The Palestinian standard of living would be unparalleled in the Arab world. That economy would grow as foreign investment would flood the region, pouring into already established, but dormant free-trade zones with Israel and themselves. This is no small matter- free trade is is the truest expression of peaceful relations. Countries and regions at peace manage to put aside the differences they have and instead, focus on the things that unite them so that trade and the resulting growth and wealth, remain facilitated.

Wars are not good for free trade. Notwithstanding the 'military industrial complex' (who make far more money in peaceful times than they do during war), the generations of free trade of goods and services provide far more money, income and benefits to society at large and demonstrably raise the standard of living for those nations.

Wars interrupt growth and the process of wealth creation. For the Palestinians, peace with Israel would mean the emergence of a middle class; and a middle class is necessary for all healthy and civilized societies.

For the Palestinians, a healthy middle class means that their focus would be redirected away from the dysfunctional values that promote an endless conflict, to those that promote growth and opportunity for its citizens. In a healthy Palestinian society, parents would want their children to go to school and use the tools of education to build a life and a future filed with possibilities. In the current unhealthy society, parents take pride in sending their children to schools where they are taught to hate. Those parents beam with pride as they hear their children commit themselves to kill and destroy; and are rewarded by the society at large when their children blow themselves up.

Nations with a healthy middle class have some other things in common, something that makes both Hamas and Fatah as they vie with each other for power, tremble in a common fear: a successful middle class demands that government answer to them, and not the other way around. Democracies are not developed or sustained by the political extremes- they are the trust and legacy of a vibrant, functioning middle class.

A healthy middle class can be defined in many ways, but in the end, it is human nature that dictates reality. If an individual desires to achieve and succeed are recognized and rewarded by the society, then that society will be a healthy society.

In the most successful societies there is a large middle class, and anyone has the potential to succeed if they have a good idea, commitment to work and plenty of drive. America, Canada, the UK, Australia and Israel are all examples of societies that while very different, are very successful. As the barrier to entry into the middle class becomes more onerous and difficult, requiring expensive and hard to obtain permits and licenses; societies are less successful and become progressively more likely to fail. The nations of the Arab world is a good example of that. There is no middle class in most of the middle east; only an elite, plundering class who are the beneficiaries of the oil wealth the land is blessed with; and a lower class, condemned by the elites to poverty, ignorance and oppression.

When there are few barriers to entering the free market, then the middle class can thrive; and the more successful the entrepreneurs and community becomes, the greater the stake the people have in maintaining peace and prosperity. Thus, it is far more likely that the society will refrain from making war upon it's neighbors except to defend itself. A prosperous and free middle class, engaging in free trade and pursuing their own lives, liberty and happiness is the ultimate expression of commitment to peace.

The Palestinians live right next door to a very successful society--certainly the most successful and free society in the entire middle east. Israelis know and understand the value of higher education. They know and understand the value of a healthy and free press. A peace treaty with Israel would be the first step to a Palestinian middle class. Within one generation, Palestinians working in economic partnership with Israel would find unheard of economic empowerment.

A peace treaty with Israel would mean that the Palestinians would dictate their own future. A peace treaty with Israel would level the playing field and thus offer each and every Palestinian the opportunity to succeed, and not be subject to failure before they even began. Success is not always easy and success is never guaranteed; but even with failure, a middle class mindset sees new, open doors and possibilities.

It is no coincidence that the Israelis have for years, attempted to facilitate the emergence of a Palestinian middle class. It is also just as clear that successive Palestinian regimes, political leaders and religious authorities have done everything they could to thwart those plans. When Israel pulled out of Gaza, they attempted to leave the structures--apartment buildings and greenhouses and such that might raise the standard of living for the Palestinians who moved in. The results of this generosity can be seen to the right.

It is in the interest of both Palestinian and Arab leaders to blame the failures and poverty of Palestinian society on Israel. In this, they are simply acting out the middle eastern variation of the Marxist drama by claiming that they have been "oppressed" by the very existence of Israel and cashing in on their victimhood. Thus an empowered middle class with a stake in peace and a desire for prosperity and commerce is the last thing the tyrants and terrorists of the middle east would want to emerge from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A middle class demands accountability. A middle class demands responsible government and a middle class demands opportunity. Thus, the Palestinians are forever doomed to exist in poverty and misery (whether in the primitive "camps" in Gaza; or Lebanon or anywhere in the ME) as an everlasting testament to Israeli and Western "oppression."

The Palestinian political, cultural and religious leadership in both Hamas and Fatah are united in one area: they are afraid they will rightly be held accountable for the poverty, misery, havoc and destruction they have wrought for the last half century; and for the dark curtain they have drawn around the Arab world. It is the Arab world that has kept generations of Palestinians impoverished and without hope.

Redemption for Palestinians will come about as the result of peace with Israel and the establishment of healthy and vibrant middle class, with middle class sensibilities and values. The hate, bigotry and racism of Islamist extremists will have the potential of finally being replaced with openness and the same commitment to equality and fairness so valued by the middle class of healthy societies worldwide.

For over six decades, the racism and bigotry of the Arab world has been rejected by the middle class of civilized societies. That is something the Palestinians need to think about.

Marx believed that the capitalist system would ignite a worker's revolution, but the reality is that those workers began to enjoy the creature comforts of the capitalist system and felt themselves empowered by it. As stated earlier, the worse aspect of this reality--from the communist/socialist's perspective anyway--is that the typical person in the middle class believes that he or she can better themselves by using the many opportunities offered by a liberal, capitalistic democracy. The middle eastern variant of the Marxist dialectic holds that Palestinians--indeed, all Muslims--are oppressed by the decadence of Western/Christian/Jewish capitalism and democracy and that the only way to get rid of this oppression is through jihad. Thus the elites are invested in encouraging jihad and endless war as they live off the oil profits and bask in their own corruption; while the Arab (especially the Palestinian) proletariat can only look forward to blowing themselves up for Allah as the highest achievement they can aspire to. The pursuit of their own happiness or working for their own interests is simply not an option.

From infancy on, the individual is taught to believe that he or she belongs to the Islamic state and exists solely to fulfill that state's religious revolutionary fantasies. But in reality, those in power are nothing more than the petty bourgeois Marxists whose sole concern is in maintaining their power over others and enriching themselves along the way. Without a chance to pursue their own happiness, there will never be a Palestinian middle class who will have a stake in peace with Israel; and neither will they ever have a stake in peaceful coexistence with any other successful culture or society.

It's Obama, Mama!

Tonight at 8:00 PM there will be an Obama-fest as The Squad shine a psychological spotlight on the Obama-phenomena! Who is this guy, anyway? And why are so many jumping on his bandwagon and accepting him as their personal savior -- even the notorious Kennedy clan! And why has NOW-NY gone nuts?

Join Dr Sanity, ShrinkWrapped, Neo, and ourselves for some psychological and political analysis of Iowa and New Hampshire that's sure to be provocative and, hopefully, extremely annoying.

The CALL-IN Number during show is (646) 716-9116

The chatroom can be accessed during the show from the Sanity Squad BTR. homepage.

Be there or be forever and hopelessly unaware.

Arms R Us

Just because you can't get it on Ebay, doesn't mean you can't get it.

For Army equipment, click here (be sure to click on items listed for image and description).

To outfit a Navy, click here (be sure to click on items listed for image and description).

For Air Defense Systems, click here (be sure to click on items listed for image and description).

To outfit a modern Air Force, click here (be sure to click on items listed for image and description).

The Redistribution Of Morality

“Show me the money.”

That loaded expression has surfaced as the mantra for a generation, but not for the reason many people think.There is more to the expression than is immediately evident. In fact, "show me the money” have become the watchwords of the extremes ofn either side of the the value system that is our own.

The center of conservative ideology revolves around morality and ideas. Behavior, responsibility and accountability are the foundations of society. Conservative ideology is clear: We exist not to replace or destroy our past, but rather to improve and build upon what has preceded us. That process improves not only society, but the individual as well.

The center of leftist (as opposed to classical liberal) ideology revolves around wealth- or rather, the redistribution of wealth. As far as leftists are concerned, responsibility and accountability are one way street. Government and the approved ideologues are responsible and to held accountable for the redistribution of wealth.

Further, leftist ideologies abhor restraints on behavior. There are no behaviors that are unacceptable- none. The only constraints are the claimed justification of those behaviors. Some are acceptable, some are not. To kill a political/religious opponent in the name of leftist ideologies is good. To kill defending oneself from those ideologies is bad.

Leftists believe that consuming wealth is the same as creating wealth. They also believe that a consumer society is the same kind of society that facilitates the creation of wealth. To that end, those to whom redistributed wealth is apportioned, are good. Those who create the wealth, are bad. That in a nutshell, is the definition of populism- a government says ‘We will take care of you, cradle to grave. We will give you what we take from others.’

Leftists see the redistribution of wealth and materialism as an expression of values. That is why they believe they can buy their way out of any confrontation of evil. They cannot accept the truth that evil is defeated by defending and insisting upon a set of values and behaviors from everyone and standing firm.

Leftists do not want to acknowledge that evil is defeated by values and not by sharing wealth. That is why leftists are comfortable with taking the sides and defending some of the most dysfunctional and despicable tyrants to be found anywhere. They believe that their ‘enlightened’ ideas of wealth distribution will change pathological behaviors.

For example, they believe that Arab misogyny, homophobia and racist hate will abate, once there is a ‘redistribution’ of wealth (and ideological values) from the west. In the event that doesn’t happen, leftists believe they and their ‘values’ will be excluded from persecution. After all, they have proved themselves to be a useful part of the ’cause.’ The dysfunctional Arab world leadership is only too happy to keep this generation of ‘useful idiots’ under the ether.

One might be tempted compare the leftists of today of today to the Jews of prewar Germany, blind to the horror and the inferno that was about to engulf the world.

The Nazi era German Jews desperately wanted to believe that German racist ideologies were really expressions of political rhetoric. The German volk were a civilized lot, cultured and well educated. The social, cultural and political elite, those who filled the Berlin salons with progressive ideas and discussions that centered around sophisticated philosophy, art, literature and the new kultur would in the end, never allow for such brutality. They would never turn their backs on the persecution and wholesale slaughter, predicated on racialism.

We all know how that turned out.

Leftists today believe that in the end, the redistribution of wealth, will ‘enlighten’ the tyrannies they support and bring them into line with their own relativism, multicultural and a value system that honors nothing but the self. Unlike the Jews of prewar Germany, the left are supporting regimes that already have a track record of evil. The Nazis attempted to hide and deny their evil- the darlings of the left, the Arab world, cannot be bothered. The left cannot say they knew nothing of the misogyny, racism and bigotry, because in fact, those behaviors are in plain view. Nevertheless, they choose to support and defend the tyrannies.

Leftists have failed women because they have chosen to embrace regimes and causes that oppress and betray women. They turn a blond eye to FGM or attempt top justify the barbarity. Leftists have failed the gay community because they will ‘out’ a gay person if and when it suits their political needs.

The leftist dance is reminiscent of the Nazi era, with German government officials denying their atrocities by taking Red Cross workers to ’show camps’ where Jews and other minorities were portrayed as ‘happy guests’ of Reich generosity and largesse, even as the gas chamber and ovens were going at full tilt just down the road.

Why the leftists go to extremes to defend evil isn’t hard to understand.

There is a phenomena of the self hating Jew, an individual who denies his or her own identity, culture and faith, and seeks to identify and support those who make no secret of their own pathological agendas, directed against Jews.

The pathology of the self hating Jew is not new. Jews were attracted to communism and socialism, because someone said, “We are all equal. You are a comrade.” For the first time, Jews believed they were to be ‘free.’ After centuries of relentless oppression the idea was intoxicating.

After the horrors of the Second World War were made clear, there were a whole sub culture of Jews, even the children of Holocaust survivors that migrated to the self hating brigades. Why? Because those Jews believed that if they could be unlike the Jews (and more like their oppressors), then no one would come for them. They would be safe and secure. Surely the oppressors would see there were ‘good Jews’ too, noted just evil and hated Jews.

The same is true today of leftists (Jews included) who believe that siding with the racist, bigoted and dysfunctional oppressors might save them from the destiny of those their new friends promise. They are the Kapos of this generation, willing to sacrifice their own so as to save themselves.

Prewar German Jews could at least hope against hope that there would be no Holocaust. Leftists of today cannot argue ignorance.

Leftists today hate freedom and democracy because those ideas have created the environment for success. Assistant Village Idiot recently noted in a comment that Arabs don’t hate us because we have succeeded, but rather, because they have failed. The same is true for the leftists- their burning hatred of democracy stems from their failure to create a single instance of a functioning society that isn’t a least a generation behind our own. Not even the redistribution of wealth can make up for the values and freedom that create an environment that allows for the creation of wealth.

For the left, it is the appearance that becomes the brass ring. Iran, like North Korea, wants the ‘materialism’ of nuclear technology so that they might be perceived as equals. They do not understand that materialism has nothing to do values. Free western nations can easily have more in common with nations that share our values than with nations who enrich uranium.

Appearance is not a substitute for substance. Religious garb is often spoken of as a sign of religiosity that must be respected, as if appearance alone were to be regarded as sacred. When it is all said and done, religiosity is not measured by what goes on the head, but rather, what goes in the head. That ‘magnificent’ Mohammed Atta spent the the night of September 10, 2001 in a strip club, paying for lap dances with a Quran at his side. So much for his religiosity.

The left will support the redistribution of ‘nuclear wealth’ to unstable totalitarian regimes that threaten their neighbors and other- especially if they hate American and western freedoms. In their mind, that gives these regimes the appearance of equality with the west. The believe that appearance of equality, precludes us from noting their hypocrisy and their failures.

(On the other hand, the very suggestion that a non nuclear western and democratic nation go nuclear is sure to set the leftists off into a wild frenzy.)

Of course, it is only by managing behavior of those who threaten us or our allies that we can ensure our security. When values and beliefs are shared, we do not need to ‘manage’ behavior. We do not need to manage our relationships with other free nations because free and democratic nations do not go to war with each other. Free and democratic nations do not need to institutionalize racism, bigotry and religious hate.

In the end, it is not the redistribution of wealth that will ensure our security. Rather, it is the redistribution of principles, values and beliefs of free nations that will make all the difference.

Portions of this post have been previously published.

Obama, Apostasy, The Quran And Exploration

Najia, author of the very fine Myrtus blog, has posted The Change Of Religion Of Religion Under Islamic Law: The Case Of Barack Hussein Obama.

The piece, an examination of Barack Obama's legal status as a Muslim from a Sharia point of view, was originally published by IndyMedia.be and other outlets but was subsequently removed.

Some of the more salient points from the article:

Is Barack Hussein Obama a Muslim?

Muslim theologians define Muslims as those who were born as such or became Muslims later, (See Al Ahkam Al Sultaniyya fi Al Wilaayaat al diniyya by Abi Al Hassan Al Mawardi, Dar Al kutub Al ‘Ilmiyya, Beirut, Lebanon, p. 67). The Quran allows a Muslim to marry a woman who belongs to the ‘People of the Book’, that is Christian or Jew, but does not force the wives to change their religion (Quran 5:6). As for women who are pagans, the Quran insists that they must convert to Islam if they have to marry a Muslim man (Quran 2:222). In other words, a Muslim man is allowed to get married to a woman belonging to any religion. Based on a provision from the Quran (60:11) which reads: “The women (i.e. Muslims) are not lawful for them (disbelievers)…,” Muslim theologian prohibit a Muslim woman to marry a non-Muslim.

It is further understood by Islamic laws that the children born of a Muslim man must be raised as Muslims, which means that the religion of the children born of a Muslim man must be Islam. Therefore, it is obvious that Barack Obama is considered, according to Islamic Shari’a, a Muslim regardless of whether he practiced the religion of Islam in dedication to the prayers, paying the ‘zakat’ (alms giving), or going to Mecca for pilgrimage, or any of the other conditions prescribed by the Quran for Muslims to follow...

All Muslim theologians agree that a Muslim who converts to any other religion (Arabic, murtadd), is subject to the death penalty. This is based on what the prophet of Islam said: “Kill he who changes his religion.” The death penalty for apostasy in Islam is supported by all four schools of thought in the Sunni traditions: Maliki, Shafi’i, Hanafi, and Hanbali, (see Kitab al Fiqh according to the four traditions by Abdul Rahman Al Jaziri, Dar Al Irshad, Egypt, vol.5, pp. 333-342)...

Is Barack Hussein Obama an apostate?

On his website, Barack Obama states the following: “He has been a member of Trinity Church of Christ for twenty years…he was baptized and attends church once a week when he is able...”

I was sworn in with my hand on the family Bible. Whenever I’m in the United States Senate, I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States…”

For a Muslim to swear on the Bible is an utmost offence to the Quran and what it represents. Senator Obama has indeed violated the teachings of the Quran and the Sunna of the prophet Muhammad...

Consequently, and according to the Islamic Shari’a, Senator Obama has violated the provisions stated in the Quran and the Sunna, and therefore, he is considered, in the eyes of the Islamic Shari’a, an apostate. So far, Islamic religious leaders have not addressed his apostasy yet. Taking into consideration his position as a U.S. Senator and a candidate for president of the United States, they will probably turn a blind eye and ignore the issue altogether...

Najia has published the entire article.

Gabriel Sawma is an attorney with expertise and experience in European Union law, Middle East law and Sharia law. Mr Sawma's Sharia law expertise is by virtue of experience and study: Every Middle East law school makes the study of Sharia law mandatory. He is also the author of The Quran: Misinterpreted, Mistranslated And Misread, a fascinating and riveting examination of the origins of the Quran from a linguistic (and subsequently, cultural) point of view. Sawma posits that the Quran was written in Aramaic and not Arabic. Subsequent efforts to 'force a square peg into a round hole' have resulted in the severing in the roots of the Quran

The attacks of September 11, 2001 on New York City and Washington D.C. by Muslim terrorists is a form of "clash of civilizations" instigated by Muslim fundamentalists against the United States of America.

Muslims call Christians and Jews:"kafir (i.e. infidel), apes, swine (Q. 5: 61), those who incur the wrath of Allah, who worship evil, and those who have gone astray, whose adobe is fiery hell". Yet Muslims benefit from the civilization of the those "infidels". They are the ones who make their cars, airplanes, television sets, radios, computers, etc.

On the political side, every single constitution of the Muslim states in the Middle East (except Lebanon and Turkey) stipulates that the religion of the state shall be "Islam", or the religion of the president shall be Islam, or the laws of the state shall be based on the Islamic Shari'a (i.e. the Qur'an, the Hadith and the interpretations given by Muslim commentators, etc.).

It is important to note that Islamic culture seems much less likely to develop stable democratic political systems, or advance human rights and freedom of expression. Bobming of mosques, churches, and sinagogues, and sending out suicide bombers to kill innocent people does not advance a civilization, to the contrary, it pulls it backward. After all the Quran respects both: Christianity and Judaism. One Quranic verse reads the following: "We believe in Allah and what has been revealed to us, and what was revealed to Abraham and Ishmael, and Isaac, and Jacob and his children, and what was given to Moses and Jesus, and what was given to all other prophets from their Lord" (Quran 2: 137). In another verse, the Quran commands his followers that: "There should be no compulsion in religion" (Q. 2: 257).

So what causes Muslim fundamentalists to follow the path of hostility and hatred to Christians and Jews? Why do Muslim fundamentalists treat the West in general, and the United States in particular as 'enemy'?

The problem lies in the fact the Muslim commentators do not understand the language in which the Quran was written. The language of the Quran has always been Aramaic. Aramaic renders interpretations that are totally different from those rendered by Muslim commentators throughout the last fourteen centuries.

The Quran states that its language is Arabic, but Arab speaking people have difficulty understanding its language. The difficulty stems from the fact that the language of the Quran has always been and still is Aramaic. In the seventh century, the written language of the Near East was Syriac, a dialect of Aramaic, not Arabic. The classical Arabic is a distorted form of Aramaic. The Palmyrene and Nabataean inscriptions in Syria and Transjordan indicates that these two Arab kingdoms had their literature written in Aramaic, Greek and some Latin. None of these inscriptions were written in the "classical Arabic".

Whether or not Sawma's efforts and work will find traction in the near future is doubtful. Dysfunctional political ideologues and poseurs that are in fact religious thugs that have been bought and paid for, will no doubt attempt to throttle and strangle his work. That said, the genie has been let out the bottle. However long it takes, free thinkers and real scholars will be encouraged by the work.

There has always been a Muslim undercurrent of intellectual curiosity about the Quran in the same way there is intellectual curiosity about the Old and New Testaments. To date, that curiosity is punished in the Islamic world (Nasr abu Zayd comes immediately to mind). Scholars have been hounded and intimidated, persecuted and marginalized. Nevertheless, the study, examination and intellectual pursuits of 'coming to know God' continues in the Muslim world and in the end, there is nothing anyone can do to stop that endeavor. Exploration, be it of the distant planets or the world in which we live in, defines the human condition.

Seeking God, like efforts, is an exploratory effort and no journey is without stumble and falls. It is also true that stumbles and falls have never arrested man's need to explore.

As history has proved, greatness and the elevation of human potential are the fruits of exploration, physical and intellectual. History also teaches that those who attempt to block or stymie exploration, end up extinct or forgotten.

It's Obama Time

MHNN (Ann Arbor, MI)- Dr Pat M Santy (PMS), former NASA organic waste in space specialist therapist and author of Carnival Of The Insanities, appeared on MHNN Satellite Radio (simulcast on DirecTV and heard on Sirius Radio), as contributor and commentator on the South Carolina primaries.

Santy offered up colorful commentary throughout the evening and served up appropriate psychological insights as she gave listeners cogent profiles of the candidates, their backgrounds and families.

Santy also responded to callers during a segment called, Get Your Head On Straight With Dr Pat Or Pills.'

What follows are highlights and excerpts the listener call in segments.

PMS- This is Dr Pat- How can I help you?

Listener- Well Pat-

PMS- I'm Doctor Pat. Unless we are related or you know me, please call me Doctor.

Listener- Well, we went to med school together. I just didn't want to be identified. Anyway, I have a problem-

PMS- And Martin Luther King had a dream. We were in med school together? Cool. Where did you sit in anatomy class?

Listener- Well, I was in front of you to the right. Here's my problem-

PMS- I thought I recognized your voice! Your Anton Biligcze from Budapest! You managed to skate by on those molesting corpses charges. I heard you went into Pathology. So how are things working out for you? Did you marry that Goth Girl? Hello? Are you there? Anton? Anton? We must have lost Anton.

Listener 2- Hi Dr Sanity! I have a question. Why is Bill campaigning so hard for Hillary? Shouldn't she be front and center?

PMS- Good question. Bill is campaigning for Hillary for two reasons. First, it keeps him center stage- and Bill Clinton loves the center stage. Secondly, his always being 'just over the top' actually sabotages Hillary. I don't think he really wants her to win. He's treated her like crap their entire married life. Why would he stop now?

Listener 3- Hi Doc! There is something about Obama that strikes a chord, even with some Republicans. Now that Caroline Kennedy has endorsed him, will the Republicans have anything to worry about?

PMS- Let's be clear. Obama is no Jack Kennedy. If JFK were to run for Democrat office today, he'd never get elected. He was anti Castro, anti communist and he rejected every tip pot dictator out there. Comparing Obama to JFK is absurd. Still, he is charismatic and the reason is that he's the first leftie who can make the left sound less than repugnant- and that's why the left supports him. He makes them look civilized. he says everything no true leftie would say or admit. He says he can work with Republicans and that they might have good ideas. He says he wants to make bipartisanship a big part of his administration and he says he will make mistakes.Those are all ideas that have the likes of Kos and Atrios frothing at the mouth. Jane Hamsher (whose over the top politicking for Ned Lamont ensured Joe Lieberman's re election) would sooner commit hari kiri than admit any Republicans ought not be drawn and quartered.

Listener 3- So Obama is just conning the left?

PMS- He's conning everybody. He wants to come across as the new JFK, but in fact, he's the same old politician. There won't be the kind of healthcare plan he's promising because there can't be that kind of plan. Other big Democrat supporters won't allow it. The trial lawyers are perfectly happy to sue the doctors and the insurance companies and make obscene amounts of money. Do you think they will be thrilled to hear that they won't be able to sue the government or doctors in the same way they do now? Lobbying by lawyers, doctors and big pharma, all for whom socialized medicine means less money,will guaranteed the tort reform sought after by George Bush. Do you think Democrat representatives will be less susceptible to lobbying efforts by others? Don't make me laugh. Next caller.

Listener 4- This is pretty interesting. I want to vote for Hillary. I want to see the first woman in the White House.

PMS- And you're an idiot. Hillary no more represents a worthy woman in the White House than Bill was the first 'black president' or represented the moral man. If you are keen on seeing a woman in the White House, work for Condi Rice. She didn't ride any coat tails to her successes. She earned every bit of what she has accomplished. There are so many real and accomplished women out there. Have you ever heard of Myra Blackwell? She was a real feminist and a real hero- not like the loser that is Hillary Clinton. Next caller.

Listener 5- I won't vote for a Republican.

PMS- Good thing you don't live in Cuba, Iran, Syria or the Palestinian Authority. In places like that you might get shot or worse for disagreeing. You are an idiot. You are free to vote for anyone you like in this country. You are not making a political point by announcing who you will or won't vote for. You are making yourself look like an idiot- and for that I congratulate you. Don't worry, you aren't alone. There are plenty of idiot Republicans with whom you share your DNA. They believe that George Bush sold out the country and that all is lost.

PMS- I'll have more to say next week as listeners call in search of meaning qand purpose in life. Till then, see this week's Carnival Of The Insanities. You'll find reason to live, sanity and people that are a whole lot worse off than you are. Hard to believe, but true.

Pretty Much Says It All

Hank, Jr, Jumbalaya And Kids WhoSupport Mama

If you're kid had your genes, you'd be in fat city- but noooo, your kid has those other genes...



Fast Forward: More Hunter.

FEEEEEEEEEEEED MEEEEEEEEEEEE

Fausta's BlogTalk Radio podcast with Julie of Happy Catholic is a terrific, if too short conversation about food, religion, politics (and funereal Jello).

We talked about the natural and spiritual relationship between food and religion- feeding the body and feeding the soul, and the similarities between communing with family over meals at home and communing with God in a House of Worship. We hope to be able to expand on these and other issues in a follow up podcast.

Julie masquerades as the author of a couple of blogs, but in fact she's a terrific writer, literary and film critic. More than that, she writes cogently and with clarity.

Her relationship with her faith is neither forced on her readers or herself. Her readers perceive her faith as intimate and she never wears her faith on her sleeve. Julie's readers have come to understand that her faith is a journey, begun anew everyday. She neither preaches or speaks in a didactic manner. In that, she is very much like the Anchoress. They are attractive to so many readers because they (religiously!) share their spiritual journey with sure footedness and at the same time, readily identify themselves as travelers and students of life. On any given day, they can reach the mountain top or stumble and fall into the mud puddle. They get up, dust themselves off and start anew.

In our conversation today, Julie reminded of a post we wrote that we hope is right up her alley.

From Of God, faith And Ice Cream:

Here’s an example. A father wanted to find special ways to bond with his daughter. Fathers think about that sort of thing. Anyway, what this father did once a month was to have an ‘ice cream emergency.’ What the father did was wake his daughter up at 11 or 12 O’clock at night and insist she hurriedly come to the kitchen- there was an emergency. The ice cream had to be eaten before it melted! Needless to say, there was laughter and good times- and good memories. That went on for years.

Well, that little girl is a teenager now- and she talks about the ‘ice cream emergency!’ as if it were yesterday. To this day, whenever that girl and her father are together, she insists on having an 'ice cream emergency!’ It is a bond they share. She insists that she will do the same for her kids and that father has been asked more than once by her friends if the ‘ice cream emergency!’ might accommodate a few strangers. That silly ritual it seems, struck a chord with more than a few people.

The simplicity of the ‘ice cream emergency!’ does not diminish the significance. It brings together father and daughter with the common understanding that sometimes, the smallest of things can make a big difference in someone’s life. Over time, the daughter will no doubt understand what that really means.

So it is with faith. Sometimes, a little bit goes a long way. God is not looking for our partnerships to result in earth shattering changes. Maybe it is enough that our partnership yields enough so that our own participation results in a our making this world a better place, for ourselves, our kids and if we’re lucky enough, their kids too.

Today's podcast with Julie of Happy Catholic is here. Bon appetit!

Dinner With Dr Mengele

Yesterday, we made note of the difference between terrorism, freedom fighters and those who cannot distinguish between the two.

NBC Tel Aviv bureau chief Martin Fletcher has gone so thoroughly native in the West Bank that he’s turning in pieces like this one—showing the “human side” of a family of brutal terrorist murderers: One man’s terrorist, another’s freedom fighter (Link from LGF).

It is quite astonishing to realize that a member of the media cannot make the clear distinction between what is a terrorist and what is a freedom fighter.

“Terrorism” is a description of a means, a method of deliberately attacking or threatening to attack civilian targets in order to achieve political goals. “Freedom fighting” is a description of an end, as a freedom fighter’s goal is national liberation. An individual could participate in “terrorism” and “freedom fighting” simultaneously, because one word describes means, while the other describes ends. To say that a Palestinian suicide bomber is not condemnable as a terrorist because the bomber’s cause is national liberation is to argue that the end justifies the means.”

LGF's Charles Johnson posts Martin Fletcher's 'money shot':

It is hard for me to describe Ahmed Sanakreh as a terrorist, although I know it’s true. Hard, because I got to know him and his family quite well, and when you understand people, it’s hard to hate them: Twenty-year-old Ahmed, baby-faced with black hair sticking up in gelled spikes, and a passion for his Nokia 90 cell phone; and his elder brother, Alaa, the intense, hollow-cheeked leader of the Palestinian al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades in the Balata refugee camp in Nablus. They are the hard core of the hard core.

Although Alaa was the leader, Ahmed was the one Israel most wanted dead. I often asked Alaa why his younger brother had so many bodyguards, and Alaa would only smile mysteriously. But one day he confirmed Israel’s claims: that Ahmed blew up an Israeli officer, and was the bomb-maker behind other suicide bombers.

Alaa, Ahmed and their friend Nasser abu Aziz were my de facto guides to the Palestinian side of the second Intifada (uprising). They were terrorists to the Israelis, freedom fighters to their neighbors, and sources to me.

Would NBC's Martin Fletcher be so sanguine and ambiguous if he were interviewing SS-Obersturmbannführer Rudolph Hoess, commandant of Auschwitz, because of his dedication to' honor' and elevated 'sense of duty' ? Would Fletcher find Josef Mengele, the Auschwitz 'Angel of Death,' a scintillating host because Mozart and Wagner musical selections were chosen to accompany dinner? Would Fletcher 'relate' to Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels on a professional level or find his ideas worthy of consideration because of those six lovely blond children he raised with Magda?

Given how he describes his dinner hosts for the evening in Gaza, the answer to those questions is a resounding 'yes.'

There is no great distinction between the Palestinians and the Nazis. As we have noted before, the Nazis attempted to hide and conceal their murderous intentions. The Palestinians (both supporters of Hamas of the PA) and many in the Arab world cannot be bothered. Every day, the Palestinian and Arab world media broadcast the most vile hate and bigotry. Every day, children in schools are taught that the hate of Jews trumps any and all desire for peace or achievement. Every day, religious vile, racist and bigoted religious pronouncements are spewed from pulpits.

All the while Martin Fletcher and his colleagues seem to have trouble distinguishing between terrorists and freedom fighters.

Like the Nazis, the Palestinians and many Arabs world want to make the world Judenrein. They make no secret of it and they don't hide their agenda. Here is Hamas ally, Hassan Nasrallah of Hizbollah and 'guardian of body parts of Jews', quoted in the respected Lebanon Daily Star:

If they (Jews) all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide.

Luckily for Palestinians and most of the Arab world, Martin Fletcher and his colleagues in the media doesn't seem to have a problem as long as there are after dinner mints.

Black And White

Courtesy of Little Green Footballs:

NBC Tel Aviv bureau chief Martin Fletcher has gone so thoroughly native in the West Bank that he’s turning in pieces like this one—showing the “human side” of a family of brutal terrorist murderers: One man’s terrorist, another’s freedom fighter (Link from LGF).

Terror, freedom fighting and 'news sources' are easily distinguishable for anyone with hald a brain.

As we noted:

“Terrorism” is a description of a means, a method of deliberately attacking or threatening to attack civilian targets in order to achieve political goals. “Freedom fighting” is a description of an end, as a freedom fighter’s goal is national liberation. An individual could participate in “terrorism” and “freedom fighting” simultaneously, because one word describes means, while the other describes ends. To say that a Palestinian suicide bomber is not condemnable as a terrorist because the bomber’s cause is national liberation is to argue that the end justifies the means.”

This isn't rocket science, folks- unless of course, you count yourself as a member of the MSM.

Teachers, Life, Morality

From Mamacita:

...Scenario: Public school teacher, pregnant, unmarried, living with boyfriend with whom she isn't getting along all that well and has no intention of ever marrying, standing before classroom of impressionable students being what all teachers are: a role model and an example.

. . . of. . . what?

The thing is, times really haven't changed; some people have always had trouble keeping it in their pants or keeping it out of their pants, and what people do in the privacy of their own homes is nobody else's business as long as they're not hurting or betraying someone else.

But. . . shouldn't certain professions hold people to a higher standard than others? We are disgusted when ministers have no self-control. A teacher, who is supposed to be a role model and a good example. . . shouldn't he/she be expected to try a little harder to control himself/herself when it comes to situations that can't be kept under cover of one's own household? Is there such a thing as moral standards these days? Am I confusing my own moral standards with somebody else's moral standards in some kind of awful old-person "nice girls don't do that" kind of way? Because, when I think of an unmarried largely pregnant woman professing to be some kind of positive example in a classroom, in front of young people who are quick to figure out the difference between what we say, what we do, and what we are, I feel heartsick...

Mamacita has achieved minor celebrity status. The issues she talks about have made their way around various teacher forums and discussion groups.

We're going to discuss this neatly and succinctly, without mincing words. We're going to strip away the mindless, meaningless fluent edu-speak and examine the issue head-on.

Not surprisingly, there are many teachers who take umbrage at being held up to the status of role model. Their private lives are their own, they say and what they do in their private lives has no bearing on what they do in the classroom.

These teachers are hypocrites in every sense of the world. If they believe they ought not be held to a higher standard and are to be measured only by their ability to teach, so be it.

We don't want to hear a word from those teachers about what ought to be taught and what kids needs to know. We don't want these teachers talking about politics or right and wrong. We certainly don't want these teachers talking about the morality and behavior of others.

These teachers have chosen to be construction workers and trash workers, entrusted to do a job mechanically. That's it. Their 'opinions' are irrelevant. They need to teach those things that can be taught mechanically and they ought not be allowed to teach those things that require thoughtfulness, consideration or reflection. Why? Because teaching those things requires certain moral standards and morality and values extend beyond the classroom and beyond the school day.

There are teachers who feel right at home with the KKK. That their personal and private bigotry is repugnant to most people isn't hard to fathom. It doesn't take a genius to understand that having them teach and influence impressionable kids isn't such a good idea, even if participating in those Klan activities take place during 'off time.' As our culture and homes becomes less and less values centric, it is imperative that kids get those necessary values they need to succeed in life at school.

Don't like the analogy? Too bad. Most people would find the behavior noted by Mamacita as reprehensible. Not many parents would say, "I hope my kid grows up to be like teacher and make the same choices she has."

Teachers are professionals who want to be treated with respect, so they like to say. Maybe the time has come for teachers to earn that respect and reinforce the image of themselves as professionals, instead of reinforcing the reality of teachers emerging from the bottom of the academic barrel. Respect does not only come from doing a job well done- respect emerges when the person doing that job is admired, respected and is a credit to their profession.

Would you be comfortable with a pilot who was drunk the night before and gets into the cockpit with a hangover, day after day? That gives a whole new meaning to white knuckle flier. Would you be comfortable with an attorney who everyone knew was a thief, cheat and had a less than savory reputation? Probably not, unless you were a mobster or other lowlife.

Any teacher who has a problem with being a role model needs to find a new line of work. Like it or not, that is a big part of the job- maybe the most important. Teaching isn't only about imparting information. Teaching is also about mentoring- and mentoring has a huge moral and values component. Teachers are not basketball or football players who say, 'Hey, I don't play the game to be a role model.' Athletes make their living influencing the direction of a ball. Teachers make their living influencing the direction of children.

Hugging young children became an issue that frightened that species known as school administrators and parents because some teachers abrogated their roles as teachers and role models. Good and caring people who were not only teachers but mentors as well now had to deal with not only educating their charges but stemming the damage first inflicted by the inappropriate huggers and then brought on by Debra Lefave, et al. There is no hiding behind the tree on this issue. Now, every teacher is presumed to be a predator and teachers now concern themselves with first and foremost with protecting themselves. Why? Because teachers are now presumed to no longer be role models and mentors. Schools are now presumed to be another place where children are potentially exposed to danger. Sexual abuse in public schools is a reality- one that by most accounts dwarfs the issue of abuse in the Catholic schools, because teachers no longer believe they need to be primarily role models and mentors. Now, teachers want their kids to score well on standardized tests and secure the best possible contract and pension as their primary concern.

That may not always be the case. That may only be the priorities of a minority of teachers.

Newsflash- the rest of us see have come to regard teachers as workers bees, employees no different that the workers at the Department of Motor Vehicles, secure in their 9 month a year jobs and nice summer vacations.

If teachers are not held to a higher standard or allow themselves to be held to a higher standard, the problems in schools and the negative perceptions of teachers will only increase.

It is not acceptable for a teacher to say my private life and behavior ought to be kept out of the equation. Teachers are not the police, also necessary and well meaning individuals who deal mostly with adults. Teachers deal with children by choice.

If you want to be a good surgeon or pilot and serve the public good, you have to be more intimately familiar with word 'sobriety' than the world 'alcoholic.' If that is unacceptable, be a veterinarian or fly cargo planes in the bush. If you want to teach children, you have to assume the mantle of role model. If that is unacceptable, leave the school system and teach prison inmates.