Atlas Shrugs.com
The Pope on the "Authentic Grandeur" of Love
The Pope speaks of love in his first encyclical and
in that message rebukes the teachings of Radical Islam. This Pope is surely a
wonder. Courageous, wise, a mighty man of great faith. I really love him.
Benedict Seeks To Surprise With Encyclical on Love “In a world where the name of God is sometimes associated with vengeance or even a duty of hatred and violence, this message is both timely and significant,” he wrote. “For this reason, I wish … to speak of the love which God lavishes upon us and which we in turn must share with others.”
[...]Some said they saw — in its mention of those who associate God with violence — a coming body of teachings aimed at distinguishing Christianity from Islam in a way that Pope John Paul II was reluctant to do.
“I think that Pope Benedict understands that one root of the problems that one form of Islam is presenting to the world today is theological, and you can’t get around that,” the official biographer of Pope John Paul II and a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, George Weigel, said. “And that has to be faced. If you are going to have real inter-religious dialogue, it has to begin with those differences that make all the difference.”
[...]he argues that the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche and many contemporary thinkers distorted Church teaching on sex by arguing that the Church “blows the whistle” on it “with all her commandments and prohibitions.” Instead, Benedict said, human and divine love complement one another. “It is neither the spirit alone nor the body alone that loves: it is man, the person,a unified creature composed of body and soul, who love,” the pope wrote. “Only when both dimensions are truly united, does man attain his full stature. Only thus is love — Eros — able to mature and attain its authentic grandeur.” .
“I think what he’s saying is that whatever anyone else is doing, Christians believe in a God who is love itself, Rev. Koterski said. It’s in contrast to those who want to use God as simply a justification for violence and revenge and, positively, that God’s own nature of genuine love wants to evoke an appropriate response in us, a loving response and not a vengeful one.”
But a professor at the John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family, David Schindler, said the reference could instead be aimed at those who argue that all serious believers are fanatics-in-waiting. Mr. Schindler is the editor of the journal “Communio,” which was founded in 1972 by Pope Benedict, then Joseph Ratzinger, and has written extensively on the new pope’s thinking. Read it all in The New York Sun
“It’s not only the problem that emerges in an obvious way with terrorism that is linked to the name of God or Allah,” Mr. Schindler said, “but I think it also is tied to the association by many people in the more general secular culture of God with a kind of self-righteousness that tends toward violence and intolerance.”
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
DIVEST of GOOGLE STOCK
In light of alarming events inhibiting the free flow of news and information in China, the most egregious violaters of human rights, Roger Simon calls for divestment. Hear hear
What to do about the new Axis of Evil?
I'm talking about Yahoo, Microsoft and Google, of course, those three Internet mega-corporations who are actively cooperating with totalitarianism in China.
Google is the latest to prostrate itself before the new emperors. Timesonline sums it up
go over to Roger's blog here and leave suggestions on how to mount this campaign
... a Google stock divestment campaign.
Everyone who cares about the free-flow of information, about democracy in China,
in fact about democracy anywhere, should start selling their Google stock. This should begin most especially with those vast university endowments because academic institutions, of all places, should be most concerned with the censorship of ideas and information. Union pension plans as well should seek to divest as their members should be particularly appalled by the company's restrictive behavior.
I despise GOOGLE for it's terrorist enabling policies here and hate America bias here. Last March Ynet, reported that Google had been running advertisements for the recruitment web site of the terrorist group Hamas, that show up when the word “Hamas” is entered in Arabic: Google advertises Hamas.
And this terror love seems to be endemic to Google, they will include a Jew-hating site that meets their criteria for being a “news source,” featuring the work of the Jew hating lunatic Kurt Nimmo: Peace, Earth & Justice News but not one of the best news sources available on the net, LGF?
And YAHOO! was responsible for the Jailing of a Chinese Journalist here. Need I say more?
otay otay, here's more--hold your nose. This from Silicon beat back in October
Google bows to Chinese hegemonic designs
This is really too bad. Google succumbs to Chinese pressure, and lists Taiwan, the less powerful independent country across the Taiwan Strait, as a "province of China" in Google Maps.
As Jeff says, makes you wonder what else Google is doing to win favor with the Chinese.
Update: We've read the comments that say Google is doing only the same as the U.S. and many other governments. But hang on. The U.S. State Department's online information on Taiwan at least gives the island its own separate country page. Other online maps simply list the island as ``Taiwan,'' and don't wade into the politics. Taiwan separated from China in 1949 after a civil war, has since been self-governed, and evolved into a stable democracy. So why should Google revert and call Taiwan a province of China? Anyway, here's a good piece (free registration) that runs in the Merc.
I am sure you've noticed I have not and will not carry Google ads..........once they ran ads for Hamas, they were dead.
Google has as its motto "Don't Be Evil" - now that's pathetic.
Iran Threatens to put Israel in "ETERNAL COMA LIKE SHARON"
Were Israel to attack Iran's nuclear facilities, Iran would respond so strongly that it would put the Jewish state into "an eternal coma" like Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's, the Iranian defense minister said Wednesday.
These savages are just disgusting. Intelligence suggests Iran might have already reached the point of no longer requiring foreign assistance to advance in its nuclear weapons program here.
Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz has said his country would not accept Iran's acquiring nuclear weapons under any circumstances. He stopped short of threatening a military strike against Iran - as Israel destroyed an unfinished Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981 - but he said Israel was preparing for the possible failure of diplomatic negotiations with Iran.
A newscaster on Iranian state television read out a response from Iran's minister of defense, Gen. Mostafa Mohammad Najjar, on Wednesday.
"Zionists should know that if they do anything evil against Iran, the response of Iran's armed forces will be so firm that it will send them into eternal coma, like Sharon," Najjar said.
Bush:
Israel Is Our Ally; We Won't Be Blackmailed by Iranian
Bomb
President Bush said Monday, "I'm concerned when the country
of Iran, their president, announces his desire to see that Israel gets
destroyed. Israel is our ally. We're committed to the safety of Israel, and it's
a commitment we will keep. Secondly, I'm concerned about a non-transparent
society's desire to develop a nuclear weapon. The world cannot be put in a
position where we can be blackmailed by a nuclear weapon." (White
House)
Iran ready to send 'investigators' to Nazi death camps
Iran says it is willing to send a team of "independent investigators" to visit former Nazi deaths camps across Europe -- but not President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who has described the Holocaust as a "myth".
I have a better idea, let's send Ahmadjihadman to a death camp. I'll bring the Zyklon B...with pleasure.
UPDATE: Today, the Foundation for Democracy in Iran is launching the
FDI Appeal to identify and freeze Iranian government assets around the
world. Learn what you can do to help this effort below.
FDI believes that
the ONLY way to seriously prevent the Islamic Republic of Iran from pursuing
clandestine nuclear research is by hitting the regime and top regime leaders in
the pocket book. By denying the regime access to international financial
markets, the world community can cripple the regime’s ability to sell oil, buy
weapons, and finance its terrorist networks around the world.
This is
the single most effective sanction that could be imposed on the Islamic
Republic.
WHAT YOU
CAN DO:
If you believe you have information that could help to
identify foreign bank accounts, corporations, real estate and other material
assets controlled by the Tehran regime or top regime officials overseas,
join the
FDI Appeal by contacting us at the following email: exec@iran.org. All replies
will be kept confidential.
Read it all here
And the Winner is.........
Ok blogbabes and blogboys, the results are in for the
finalists in the Jerusalem Post and Israelly Cool Blog Awards.
It seems Atlas has made the finals in the Best New Blog Category here
and the Best Israel Advocacy blog here.
I think Charles is the winner for advocacy........Little Green Footballs is by far the best. LGF has done more to shake the collective slumber of apathy, antizionism and antipathy. A warrior indeed.
Best New Blog, yeah I'd like that. Click away folks.
Palestinian Electons: Spinning Hamas
Today are "elections" in "Palestine" monitored by that great unambiguous statesman Jimmuh Carter. Hamas poised to grab power.
Dr. Dore Gold: Hamas is World-Jihad Motivated
"It is important to say," Dr. Gold emphasized, "that Hamas is an organization that identifies with the goals of world jihad. [Hamas leader] Mahmoud A-Zahar has said that Hamas victories are supposed to strengthen the mujahidin i [Islamic terrorists] in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Hamas sheikhs provide inspiration for Al-Qaeda...
In a democracy, political parties have responsibilities as well as rights. In a democracy, political parties are not simply armed militias some of whose members have decided to seek votes.
In a democracy, political parties accept the idea of voter sovereignty; they accept the idea -- historically quite radical -- that rulers serve at the pleasure of voters, not because they have the power to rule and not by divine right.
Hamas is an armed militia. It is a terrorist organization. It rejects voter sovereignty. The fact that a "large fraction of Palestinians" support it does not necessarily qualify it as a legitimate political party entitled to participate in democratic society.
- Cliff May
UPDATE: Polls closed about an hour ago. Early indications from exit polling show Hamas with 34% of the vote.
So Hamas gets exactly what it wanted. It did not want to win. It did not want to run a country, pick up garbage, build infrastructure. HAMAS WANTED POWER.
Hamas has not put down its arms. It's not a cease fire. It's a temporary calm. Their strategy? A doctrine of response......if they see a perceived subjectively defined Israeli violation, and they see it as their within right to respond - that's quite a loophole.
Theyentered this ceasefire process because they were beaten back so badly. It's a function of power relationships not a function of them suddenly becoming zionists. The danger is as they rearm during this whole period and the PA doesnt do anything sigificant to disarm them that they will become very powerful again and this is what needs to be watched very carefully.
UPDATE: Vital Perspective has the best coverage in the sphere here
Exit Polls on Palestinian Elections Coming In
The polls are now closed in the Palestinian elections and early exit polls show that Fatah has won 40% of the vote and Hamas 30%. There was a heavy turnout of 60% according to Israel Army Radio, which benefited Fatah.UPDATE (1/25 @ 2:32PM): Israel's Channel 2 reports that Fatah will win 43% and Hamas 32%. The Palestinian Central Election Commission put turnout at 73%. Voting was extended by two hours until 9:00PM local time (2:00PM Eastern time) in East Jerusalem.
UPDATE (1/25 @ 3:05PM): Reuters is reporting a new exit poll that has Fatah winning 45% and Hamas 42%.
UPDATE (1/25 @ 3:49PM): A revised an-Najah University poll shows Fatah at 46% and Hamas at 40%. The Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research has Fatah at 42% and Hamas 35%. A Bir Zeit University poll has Fatah at 47% and Hamas at 44%. Vital Perspective predicted such an outcome, and we refer you to our post at Publius Pundit on the reverberations this will send across the region.
"Iran May be Preparing Another Holocaust"
A Most-Wanted Terrorist Is Spotted in Syria
WASHINGTON - One of the American government's most wanted terrorists visited Syria late last week with Iran's President Ahmadinejad, according to a former Reagan administration national security official and Iran watchers on Capitol Hill.
"Iran May be Preparing Another Holocaust"
Israel's ambassador to the UN, Dan Gillerman, on Tuesday called Iran's plan for a conference to examine the evidence for the Holocaust as proof that Iran was run by an "extreme, fundamentalist, lunatic regime" and "proof of what a global threat Iran really is." "I fear that the only reason Iran is showing so much interest in the Holocaust is because they may be preparing another Holocaust and it is up to the world and the United Nations to prevent that from happening,"(AP/ABC News)
The case for war.
I intend to make it. Here. Everyday. Every way. Without
let up. And who am I you may ask yourself. Me? I am no one, and I am everyone. I am the
proverbial "American Street" a juxta to the "Arab Street" we hear so much about
and cow tow to.
Iran operates by proxy. They are training Iraqi fighters, they have prolonged and funded the barbarians undermining the fragile new state of democracy in Iraq. Moqtada Al Sadr travels to Iran. They have financed hizbollah to the tune of 100 million dollars. They aid and abet al qaida leaders. I am sure Bin Laden found safe haven there. Iran defiant as world weighs action in atomic row
We are still circle jerking on United Nations Security council sanctions. Sanctions at the very least and yet knowing what we know about the United Nations sanctions enforcement, you can't help but be skeptical at best.
Iran is a monstrous aggressor whose first aggression is against their own people. The only thing that would stop them from starting a nuclear war is America .
Thinking the Unthinkable about Iran, read it all over at The American Thinker;
“No nuclear weapon ever designed has failed to go off.”
Earl sent me this Memri clip Iranian Pilgrims in Mecca Shout "Death to America, the Great Satan" in an Anti-American Rally click here and says "if you haven't seen this MEMRI clip you darn sure need to watch it!
It’s the Iranian’s working the crowds into war frenzy during the Mecca hate-fest. Call it, ‘Munich-Berlin 1938 Redux - Sans Beer.’"
Has history taught us
nothing?
PATRIOT ACT STALEMATE
Efforts to resolve House and Senate differences over a
revised USA Patriot
Act have reached a stalemate, a key committee chairman said yesterday. That
means the current version of the law is likely to remain in place through next
month or longer unless Senate Democrats and a handful of Republicans drop their
demands for greater privacy safeguards in a proposed renewal, the chairman said.
More
here
REMEMBER THE RINOS
COME NOVEMBER.
Craig,
Idaho.; Hagel, Neb.; Murkowski, Alaska; Sununu, N.H.
I expect
this from the sedition party, the dhimmicrats, the
party of CAIR. But any Republican that gets into office on the party ticket
and then betrays the people that elected him/her must be held accountable.
FIRED. 
The law, passed in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, has been the single most effective tool in finding, capturing, and exposing terror plots. Many major provisions were scheduled to expire Dec. 31, but lawmakers extended them to Feb. 3 in hopes of resolving a House-Senate impasse on how to renew the act, with some changes, for four years.
Anyone that stands in the way of protecting this country, our people, our way of life, must be taken to task. Have you written the candy asses that are holding our security hostage?
The Young, The Restless, The Libertarians
HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL in the pastoral campus setting of the University of Pennsylvania, the nations first Libertarian student newspaper (hOO ah), The Pennsylvania Independent, does a Q & A with yours truly here. The lefties on our colleges and universities campuses must be suicidal. Just read their mission statement
Mission Statement
The Pennsylvania Independent is a monthly print libertarian-oriented newspaper covering social and political issues affecting students on Penn’s campus and surrounding areas. The Independent aims to create a system of open-source politics and a free-market of ideas, where fresh thought is embraced and individual liberty triumphs over unnecessary '
The nations first student Libertarian newspaper? This trend is most excellent
Citizen Journalist
More than just your average blogebrity, this citizen solider is changing the world one word at a time... And she’s hot. We sit down with Pamela - the enigmatic and erudite hottie behind the popular libertarian blog Atlas Shrugs - and ask her the tough questions.
So, Pamela. Do you believe in love at first sight?
“Absolutely, how great is that?”
...Speaking of which, what is it that makes libertarian guys so much hotter, anyways?
“Sanity, rationality, masculinity. Robert Mitchum. Libs are such girliemen, metrosexuals... not sexy baby, not sexy at all.”
Can exes be friends?
“Uh... then why be exes?”
Good point. Let me ask, do you know how to pump your own gas?
“Of course, high test... and make a killer brisket too.”
So you’re not from Jersey. Ok then, in one word, how would you describe Philly?
“Creamy.”
Right. So then what kind of milk do you drink?
“Skim, baby, skim.”
Favorite Johnny Cash song?
“Ring of Fire” [wink]
who annoys the hell out of you right now?
“The mainstream media and the contempt they hold for the American people. Oh yeah, and the seven RINOs (I hate a tyranny of the minority).”
And what are you grateful for?
“To be an active participant in the American experiment.”
Your new years resolution?
“To save the free world so that the whiners, looters, and parasites are free to commit treason and behave like two year olds without fear of beheading.”
And speaking of killer interviews, the blogger's blogger, Basil of Basil's blog will be running his exclusive interview with moi on Sunday the 29th...............be there.
Another tasty blogolicous morsel you must indulge in ~~~the 30th Carnival of the Clueless is up at Right Wing Nuthouse............... the best, always.
Princeton University Raises Tuition, Fees to $42,200
Ha! Tell you what, save your money, home school them, or better yet, send them to me. I'll teach them well. Then I recommend you take that 42K and invest in a small business for them in a freestate aka a non welfare state.
I assure you the money will have been better spent.
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Bolton Does the Heavy Lifting
The U.N. Security Council must stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons or flunk a "major test" of its role in the 21st century, U.S. Ambassador John Bolton warned yesterday.
But defiant Iranian spokesman Ali Asghar
Soltaniyeh threatened to begin full-scale uranium enrichment immediately if Iran
gets hauled before the council.
Amid a mood of crisis, President Bush warned that a nuclear Iran, under the direction of loose-cannon President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, could try to blackmail the world. But U.N. nuclear regulators appeared to punt and postpone the showdown with Iran for at least a month, from Feb. 2 to March 6.
Bolton, Bush's man at the United Nations, said Iran must be prodded to follow Libya's example and give up all dreams of becoming a nuclear power — and let its nuclear-weapons program go into cold storage on U.S. soil.
"Libya's nuclear program now lives in Oak Ridge, Tenn. — and there's room right next to it for the Iranian nuclear-weapons program," Bolton told Post editors and reporters as jitters about Iran fueled oil-price worries.
"The Security Council, if it's to be effective in the 21st century, needs to be able to deal with terrorism and weapons of mass destruction, and Iran's effort to acquire nuclear weapons really is the test case." Read it all at The New York Post
Is John Bolton the man or what? Yes, I think the world of him and it pains me that he is marginalized and given no support by the left wing press when they deign to speak of him. This man should have sailed through confirmation hearings. I am imploring all readers to send the RINOS that voted him down packing come November.
I believe if anything can be done with the mad mullahs in Iran it will be Bush's war cabinet. Warriors all.
He cautioned, "There's not a guarantee of what the outcome is going to be . . . I didn't say I was optimistic."
In other UN News:
In a policy shift, the U.N. Security Council yesterday increased pressure on Syria and its proxy armed militias in Lebanon, releasing a statement calling for the "disbanding and disarming of Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias," and delegitimizing Damascus's ally, President Lahoud.
The language of the statement, according to the top U.N. envoy in Lebanon, Terje Roed Larsen, was aimed chiefly at Hezbollah, which is backed and financed by Iran and Syria, as well as Palestinian Arab groups. "There is complete consensus" in the council, Mr. Larsen said, "and this is why this is important."
Very good indeed. Whether it has any teeth remains to be seen. More here.
Russia, Iran Want Nuke Issue Kept in IAEA
Russia's national security chief and Iran's top nuclear negotiator said Tuesday that Tehran's nuclear standoff must be resolved by diplomatic efforts in the U.N. atomic watchdog agency.
Of course Iran wants this. Hardly surprising. El Baradei and the IAEA are culpable in the Iran nuclear weaponry crisis. Hey, give 'em another peace prize.
Iran seeks drop in OPEC's oil production
Iran has pressed OPEC to reduce oil production by 1 million barrels per day. OPEC plans to meet on Jan. 31. The United States has opposed any drop in oil production on grounds that it would rise oil prices.
One of the historic crimes of this country's government is we allowed our superiority to deteriorate. But we can't hand wring now, we must correct it.So long as there is the kind of threat that Radical Islam represents, "WE MUST EXTEND OUR ABILITY TWENTY TIMES OVER [Rand]
I'd rather we blow up the whole world then surrender it to the Radical Islamists."
Leftards and the Lefties that Love them
Why doesn't Cindy Sheethan and Harry Leftafonte move there?
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez now rivals Fidel
Castro as the Western Hemisphere's most visible symbol of anti-Americanism,
which explains why "peace activist" Cindy Sheehan is climbing abroad the
Venezuelan firebrand's bus. She has announced plans to attend the World Social
Forum in Caracas, which kicks off today and will celebrate, among other things,
Chavez's Bolivarian Revolution.
The annual "forum," which began in Brazil in 2001 as an anti-globalization conference, is also sometimes referred to as the "carnival of the oppresed." Like most events of its kind, it has become flypaper for the planet's kookiest activists, including many who still espouse the "armed struggle" against capitalism, the "North," whatever. Perhaps the grieving Ms. Sheehan, an avowed peace lover, has been so busy with the makeup artists and the cameras to pay attention to the violence-prone types she's now embracing. But the name of one of the forum's organizers -- Ernesto "Che" Mercado -- could have given the anti-Bush publicity hound a hint. A Latin American revolutionary who takes the moniker of a legendary Cuban executioner is hardly a follower of Gandhi.
Indeed, the Sheehan tour to Caracas belongs in the "you-can't-make-it-up" category: A bitterly outspoken American citizen who has made a career of lambasting her president, she travels abroad to celebrate with a dictator who has thrown his own critics out of work and even put them in prison, stripped the pres of its freedom, destroyed property rights and militarized the government. His political supporters are known to be armed and dangerous and many Venezuelans in poor neighborhoods have reported that they are afraid to disent from the Chavez agenda. Venezuela's arms build-up is frightening his neighbors and threatening regional stability. Wall Street Political Jorunal
Activists Rally in Caracas Against Iraq
To the beat of drums
and trilling whistles, thousands of activists from around the world showed their
opposition to globalization and the Iraq war at the opening Tuesday of the World
Social Forum backed by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
Pork Soup, oui?
It is hard to look at France and not look away. First you might giggle, shake your head and then grimace because this is for real. French culture teeters on extinction, it's population held hostage to a Muslim underclass that threatens the fabric of their society. Eurabia is fast approaching. Not a joke.
Pork Soup Becomes Political in France
..... ladling pork soup to France's homeless. Critics and some officials denounce the charity as discriminatory: because it contains pork, the soup is off-limits for Muslims.
Critics view the stew — dubbed "identity soup" by its cooks — as a cynical far-right ploy to penetrate the most vulnerable level of society while masking their intentions as humanitarian.
"It's not that we don't like Muslims. It's a problem of critical mass," Robert said in a telephone interview. "Just 1,000 Muslims in France poses no problem, but 6 million poses a big problem."
The country's Muslim population — the largest in western Europe — is estimated at 5 million, many of them French citizens.
The associations deny any ties to the far-right National Front party, which opposes Muslim immigration and built its reputation around the theme of "French first."
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