Monday, October 29, 2007

OH SO SAD FOR HILARY-POOR POOR BABY

At 63 years young I am definitely a child of the 1960s. No long hair (I was in the Air Force). Loved the music and I still do. Never saw any sense to love in the mud and all of that nonsense. We did enjoy going into San Francisco and into North Beach (Carol Doda and her famous 44s).
Never saw any sense in getting High or drunk.

I have a serious problem when it comes to the Clinton's and some of their pet projects. And I really have a problem WITH any idiot wanting to spend my tax dollars on any thing commemorating or glorifying that culture. Let the witch donate Bill's money, not mine.

Yippee, No Hippie Earmark

October 29, 2007

I’m a child of the ’60s. I had long hair and still have an album with Jimi Hendrix playing the Star Spangled Banner on electric guitar.

Boy, I love that music. But even so, I’m just not for taking taxpayer money to promote the Woodstock generation. That’s just not my bag, man. When it comes to earmarks, I just can’t make the scene.

But baby, New York Senators Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer sure can. They think one million dollars should be taken from taxpayers and sent to a museum in upstate New York that commemorates Woodstock. They earmarked that cool million in a recent bill.

But, not so fast. Senator Tom Coburn offered an amendment to the bill to kill this earmark. And then a strange thing occurred: sanity broke out over much of the Senate. This million-dollar pet project was defeated, 52 to 42.

“I’m pleased my colleagues took a bold stand today in defense of common sense,” Coburn said in a statement. “Maybe this is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius for taxpayers.”

Tom Schatz of Citizens Against Government Waste quipped, “Taxpayers are dancing in the streets and saying ‘yippee’ over the defeat of this hippie earmark.”

And, as John Lennon probably meant to say, “When you talk about earmarks, don’t you know that you can count me out.”It’s gonna be . . . all right.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Click here to listen to an MP3 audio file of this episode.

NOT ONLY NO, BUT HELL NO

To begin with I am not a yuppie, preppies or any of that other B.S. I am a retired Air Force Veteran who has served his time hell, mentally and physically. I have disabilities relating to my service and because I am a retiree I can not even collect my full amount separate from my retirement check (long sad story involving retirees and the Government). I collect social security (retired at age 62) I come from a reasonably solid middle-class back ground. I serve as an elder in My home church (Presbyterian) and consider my self a reasonably good Christian.

My great-great grand-parents came from Norway, Holland and Italy. NO BODY ever handed them a damn thing on a silver platter. So I do not see why this America of ours is being handed over to illegals on a silver platters courtesy of a bunch of left wing liberals and Damn Democrats,

Illegal is just that, ILLEGAL Illegality on /in any area should be punished, not rewarded.

I am all in favor of the old adage that good fences make good neighbors. Shut down the Borders
tighter than tight. Deal with the Illegals who are here (send them home) and implore a Republican Congress to enact some decent legislation.

Immigration and Municipal ID Cards in San Francisco

Screenshot_1
Over the past few months I have had the privilege of sitting with some dedicated and thoughtful activists, community organizers and people of faith around the issues of immigration in San Francisco and national-wide.

A pretty grassroots kind of group called together by the FAITHS Program of the SF Foundation, the focus of our conversations have been mainly about the New Sanctuary Movement. Today we talked a little bit about the Municipal ID Card proposal that the SF Board of Supervisors is considering.

Obviously immigration issues are complex regardless of one's political leanings - or at least they should be acknowledged as so - but when we begin to really allow our faith to influence our actions, clarity becomes real. In the case of the current climate of immigration, I am firmly planted on the side of justice and compassion when it comes to the ways we deal with the "aliens in our midst." For me there are just too many biblical mandates that compel me to be on the side of the newcomer, the outcast, the poor . . .

So what do I do? I go to meetings to show solidarity with those who are on the front lines. I try to integrate some messages of justice in ways that are effective at MBCC and try to consistently live my beliefs. But is that enough? Am I just finding ways to stay within my own comfort zones, while claiming solidarity? Compared to some I am stepping way out and to others, I am just another hipster poser progressive. They are both right in many ways and so wrong in others. Thus the dilemma of the middle-class progressive Christian here in San Francisco. *sigh*

I'll keep trying, act when called, show my solidarity, yada yada yada . . . and in the mean time, here is some info on a Hearing that is taking place regarding the San Francisco Municipal ID Card. For more info, please visit Comite de vivienda San Pedro - St. Peter's Housing Committee. And if you wish to be part of this SF gathering of folks, let me know and I'll get you in touch with the organizers.
Line

ID // We all have a right to an identity!

The Municipal ID will:

  • Give a photo government issued ID for all San Franciscans, regardless of immigration status.
  • Improve access to available services.

Identification for all in a sanctuary city!
The City of San Francisco claims to be a sanctuary city. We need to make our voices heard to make that a reality. This ID is a way for our city to recognize its residents regardless of race, gender, sexuality or immigration status. We live and work in this city and we deserve an identity.

Demand an ID! Come to a Hearing!
Weds. October 24th 2007
1 pm @ SF City Hall

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Comments

I hope that NY State's win in getting drivers' licenses can be replicated in other cities and states, so that immigrants are able to have some form of identification and be recognized.

You know we often talk about white guilt, but we don't talk about class guilt. And we should be talking about the intersection of all these things more.

I for one am happy to see the yuppies and preppies with their dogs and high-class children's strollers at immigration rallies and marches - it means that our movement is gaining steam and traction across the class lines.

Truly, we ARE America.

P&P - Yes, class guilt is HUGE, but does not often translate into the same kind of actions that White guilt does. I think class guilt more often translates into apathy. Still I think that this is a vastly untapped resource for so many movements. Thanks for stopping by.

Bruce - i think you just need to do what you think is right and just, especially for undocumented people and low income and poor immigrant communities.
you shouldn't feel a need to apologize for it or to feel any kind of guilt either.
Supervisor Ammiano's and the immigrant community's ID card campaign seems to me to be a basic issue of dignity for a significant population of our people in SF and other areas throughout the US.

Eric - Thanks. I give thanks that in SF, we are at least looking at these issues. We may be in a kind of bubble, but it is our bubble ;-)

WHY THE HELL NOT

We have elected just about everyone else. Heavens to murgatroyd we even, gasp, elected a Catholic. Some of our founding fathers were not even Christians, they were Deists. This is part of what of what makes this country so great--That every native born idiot who is dumb enough to want to run for the presidency can do just that. SO WHY NOT A MORMON!!!!!


A Mormon in the Whitehouse? Or a Moronic Media Spectacle?

March 28th, 2007

ambition.jpgHugh Hewitt’s new book, which I have only begun to read, is titled “A Mormon in the Whitehouse?“ It sparks a conversation we need to have among all of us believing, evangelicals, many of whom are holding back on supporting Mit Romney, who is in all ways an excellent candidate for the presidency, due to his devout Mormon status. Admittedly I am only beginning to think through this issue. As one who has and does engage Mormons as often as I possibly can in theological and doctrinal debate, I’m wondering what the outcome of such a presidency might be. If we are holding back merely because “we don’t like Mormons,” we should suck it up and get over our bigotry. That amounts to a “my team against your team” perspective, and it doesn’t merit the time or energy it takes to end it. If we are holding back because we are afraid Romney might use the Whitehouse as a bully pulpit for Mormon doctrine, we should look at how he has used the Governor’s office in Massachussetts. If we have other real political or logistical concerns, we should address those concerns to the extent that we can lay them aside and vote for a candidate who is excellent in all “other” ways.

This is not to say that doctrinal or theological, or even practical concerns over Mormonism are in some way illegitimate. For instance, many Evangelicals would like to engage Mormons on the issue of women’s roles. This is a legitimate concern, but its legitimacy exists within the confines of religious and practical discussion. If our concerns are purely doctrinal or theological, then we should open a new discussion among ourselves and with the Mormons with whom we can speak candidly. But this should never be done in an open forum for the press and media to interpret and use as they wish. Churches have, for centuries, held debates and discussions over doctrinal issues in which matters were settled by simply agreeing to disagree. I’m not necessarily advocating that solution here, but the process is historically in place. What I’m saying is that engagement is good, but open debate of religious issues in the political forum is not necessarily the best form of engagement. As Christians we are called to engage each other on issues of importance, but we are adjured against doing so in public. This, as much as anything else, is the core of Paul’s admonishment to the Corinthian church not to bring their disputes to the civil courts. It shames the cause of Christ. (1 Corinthians 6:1-6)

I have two very good friends who are former Mormons, and who address the issue of Mormonism in a loving and rational manner. Their argument is strong against the doctrines and historical foundations of Mormonism, but it is also strongly in favor of treating people with dignity and love as Christ would have us do. Nobody ever castigates them as “Mormon haters,” a term I have heard applied to many other Christian apologists who only see errant doctrine and not the people involved. In a book, recently published, my friend Carma details her journey from deep roots in historic Mormonism to a deep faith in historical Biblical Christianity. [1] Never once does she engage in the type of irascible rhetoric which is so common in “Answer Man” type apologetics. In her own effortless way Carma demonstrates for us that the truth will win over all oppressors if it is only given a chance. No political discussion is necessary.

Certainly a Romney presidency would bring growth and a furtherance of legitimacy to Mormonism, a fact which ires many Evangelicals and especially fundamentalists. However, while many might find such a situation irritating to their sensibilities, here is a man who holds virtually ALL of the political virtues we do. The fact that we disagree with his religious doctrines (and I am one who engages Mormons in debate often) could also be seen as an opportunity to finally engage the Mormon church in a legitimate national conversational debate regarding their foundations and beliefs. We could end up a Romney presidency with a slightly larger Mormon church that no longer is able to present itself as “just another of the many alternatives within Christianity.” Or better yet, perhaps a recant on the errant doctrines and a move toward orthodoxy, as we have seen with the Worldwide Church of God: As I have said before, “better to personally and privately engage those with whom we disagree than let the world participate in our disagreement.”

In view of the other candidates I can see who could truly win this presidential race in 2008, Mr. Romney, if he can win, would represent more of the agenda we all personally espouse than anyone else. Imagine, if you will, Hillary Clinton in the People’s House!

Here’s the question I’m asking people. Suppose you have a business, say , a gas station or a grocery store, or even a construction firm. And suppose you have dug a financial hole for yourself, and are facing some really terrible times ahead. But suppose you have a Mormon friend who has demonstrated that he is an absolute genius at retrieving beleaguered business from the brink of despair, and that friend offers to help you out of your mess. Would you say “no thanks?” Even if you knew that your Mormon friend might likely “call in his marker” at some future time, asking you to do something or say something nice about his religious perspective, you’d still be more likely to say “yes, thank you.”

  • As we face further corrections in the housing market, and probably on Wall Street as well
  • As interest rates appear to be rising and we see a slowdown looming on the jobs horizon,
  • As the war continues and a real “Thatcher-esque” strategy is needed to win and continue winning,
  • As the war on our borders appears solvable if only we had the political starch in Washington to solve it,
    I think we’d be MORONS not to at least consider Mit Romney!
  • Here’s what the News Max Magazine special edition has to say about Romney:

    …(this) candidate is Reaganesque: a man with a sunny disposition. On his desk he has a plate that states ‘America is Never Stuck.’”

  • “He has taken more conservative positions than Giuliani and McCain on immigration policy and abortion.”
  • “Grover Norquist notes that Romney was the first major candidate to sign Americans for Tax Reform’s pledge to oppose any effort to raise marginal income tax rates.”
  • “Unlike McCain and Giuliani, Romney says, ‘I have worked in the world of employers and employees for all of my career. I understand what makes us more competitive as a nation, what makes us less competitive. I know why jobs grow and why they’re eliminated.’”
  • Romney emphasizes four priorities if elected president:

    1. Defeating the Jihadists,
    2. Competing with Asia,
    3. Stopping run-away spending, and
    4. Affirming America’s culture and values

    Surely we can get past the issue of the doctrinal and theological confusion of Mormonism to elect a candidate who has the will and the knowhow to accomplish what we want to see done! If not, then where are we to look for those who will lead our nation?

    [1] Naylor, Carma: A Mormon’s Unexpected Journey 2006 Enumclaw WA Winepress Publishers

    5 comments to “A Mormon in the Whitehouse? Or a Moronic Media Spectacle?”

    1. I would vote for Mr. Romney. The fact that he is LDS, Conservative Republican Govoner in a Democratic liberal state says enough for me.


    2. Thanks for the comment, Jeff.


    3. I really appreciate your open minded view point, and your willingness to set aside personal opinions for a greater good. I am a Mormon and people frequently make their differences with Mormons the focus of attention instead of seeing how much good we have in common with mainstream Christianity.


    4. Thanks for your comment, Velyn. I just think that political things should be decided, where appropriate, on the basis of political information and not other stuff. Sometimes religious considerations enter in. Sen. Barak Obama’s dodging of the issue of his Muslim upbringing, for instance, is an issue that probably should have more exposure. But I honestly think that Gov. Romney’s LDS persuasion could be a good thing - could inspire and give place to a more factually correct and open conversation on the differences between Mormonism and orthodoxy. I want to engage Mormons on the issues of their faith, but I don’t want to do it in the political arena.


    5. Good article Bill. The only downside I can see at a casual glance is the potential perspective of the culture at large who tend to throw semi like-minded people into the same pot of soup, suggesting that if we campaign for a Mormon candidate then we must support everything about them, even their theology. To draw distinctions we are then forced to introduce theology into the political debate with an, “it’s not that simple,” kind of approach, which is what we’re trying not to do… Catch 22?
      I ran into this in a Board of Directors that I was involved with where there was a Mormon director who saw himself as just another Christian, just like me. While it inspired debate, his underlying assumption that we were all basically the same unnerved me a bit. I wonder if the culture would do the same thing with evangelical support of Mr. Romney. “Hey, they used to view this as a cult, now they are campaigning for his election” - bottom line, they must have settled any differences and now be pretty much the same. What a beautiful world.

      I’m not disagreeing with your premise, I think it’s exactly right and precisely how I personally view the issue, I’m just wondering how it might take shape out in Spin-land.

    Sunday, October 28, 2007

    Ya just gotta love it

    2. Former Bill Clinton Aides Backing Obama

    A number of officials and advisers who served in Bill Clinton’s presidential administration are not backing his wife Hillary’s White House bid and are instead throwing their support behind her Democratic rival Barack Obama.

    They include former energy and transportation secretary Federico Pena, former commerce secretary William Daley, foreign policy advisers Anthony Lake and Susan Rice, former Navy secretary Richard Danzig, women’s advocate Betsy Myers, and Deval Patrick, who was assistant attorney general for civil rights.

    In interviews with the Boston Globe, several former Clinton aides who

    support Obama said they view the Illinois senator as the best hope for the party, and cite his youth as a plus — Obama is 46, while Hillary just turned 60.

    Some also said they fear Hillary is too divisive to defeat a Republican opponent or govern effectively.

    “One of the chief things that would energize a very dispirited Republican Party is Hillary Clinton on the ticket,” Obama supporter Eric Holder, who was second in command at Bill Clinton’s Justice Department in the late 1990s, told the Globe.

    “My feelings of loyalty are outweighed by my concern about the world my kids are going to live in.”

    Hillary does enjoy the backing of many officials and advisers from her husband’s political machine, and her own loyal staff from the 1990s.

    But Greg Craig, who defended Bill Clinton against impeachment in the Monica Lewinsky scandal and now advises Obama, told the Globe his candidate is “a thoughtful, youthful new voice with a new vision for finding common ground, rather than finding a reason for conflict and difference. I think he represents the future and everybody else in this election is more of the same of the past.”

    Editor's Note:

    Saturday, October 27, 2007

    IMPORTANT LINKS

    1. www.pcusa.org/washington - Presbyterian Washington Office
    2. www.whitehouse.gov - White House
    3. www.senate.gov - Senate
    4. www.house.gov - House of Representatives
    5. www.un.org - United Nations.
    6. thomas.loc.gov - Thomas Legislative Information on the Internet.
    7. www.access.gpo.gov - U.S. Government Printing Office.
    8. www.fedworld.gov - Fedworld Information Network.
    9. nch.ari.net/otheradvocacy.html - Advocacy Resources on the Internet.

    Gold Divider Rule

    1. www.politicalindex.com - National Political Index.
    2. www.commoncause.org - Common Cause.
    3. www.cq.com - Congressional Quarterly.
    4. epn.org/prospect.html - American Prospect.
    5. www.cbpp.org - Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
    6. www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS - CNN/Time AllPolitics.
    7. www.bread.org - Bread for the World with hunger news and advocacy tools.
    8. www.newslink.org - A link to thousands of national and local newspapers.
    9. www.interaction.org - News from relief, development and refugee agencies.

    Original Intent and Purpose

    Original Intent and Purpose of the Second Amendment

    Introduction

    The Second Amendment:

    A well regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.

    The original intent and purpose of the Second Amendment was to preserve and guarantee, notwell-regulated one, was not intended to serve as a prerequisite for exercising the right to keep arms.

    The Second Amendment preserves and guarantees an individual right for a collective purpose. That does not transform the right into a "collective right." The militia clause was a declaration of purpose, and preserving the people's right to keep and bear arms was the method the framers chose to, in-part, ensure the continuation of a well-regulated militia.
    grant, the pre-existing right of individuals to keep and bear arms. Although the amendment emphasizes the need for a militia, membership in any militia, let alone a

    There is no contrary evidence from the writings of the Founding Fathers, early American legal commentators, or pre-twentieth century Supreme Court decisions, indicating that the Second Amendment was intended to apply solely to active militia members.

    Evidence of an Individual Right

    In his popular edition of Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England (1803), St. George Tucker (see also), a lawyer, Revolutionary War militia officer, legal scholar, and later a U.S. District Court judge (appointed by James Madison in 1813), wrote of the Second Amendment:

    The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed, and this without any qualification as to their condition or degree, as is the case in the British government.
    In the appendix to the Commentaries, Tucker elaborates further:
    This may be considered as the true palladium of liberty... The right of self-defense is the first law of nature; in most governments it has been the study of rulers to confine this right within the narrowest limits possible. Whenever standing armies are kept up, and the right of the people to keep and bear arms is, under any color or pretext whatsoever, prohibited, liberty, if not already annihilated, is on the brink of destruction. In England, the people have been disarmed, generally, under the specious pretext of preserving the game: a never failing lure to bring over the landed aristocracy to support any measure, under that mask, though calculated for very different purposes. True it is, their bill of rights seems at first view to counteract this policy: but the right of bearing arms is confined to protestants, and the words suitable to their condition and degree, have been interpreted to authorise the prohibition of keeping a gun or other engine for the destruction of game, to any farmer, or inferior tradesman, or other person not qualified to kill game. So that not one man in five hundred can keep a gun in his house without being subject to a penalty.
    Not only are Tucker's remarks solid evidence that the militia clause was not intended to restrict the right to keep arms to active militia members, but he speaks of a broad right – Tucker specifically mentions self-defense.

    "Because '[g]reat weight has always been attached, and very rightly attached, to contemporaneous exposition,' the Supreme Court has cited Tucker in over forty cases. One can find Tucker in the major cases of virtually every Supreme Court era." (Source: The Second Amendment in the Nineteenth Century)

    (William Blackstone was an English jurist who published Commentaries on the Laws of England, in four volumes between 1765 and 1769. Blackstone is credited with laying the foundation of modern English law and certainly influenced the thinking of the American Founders.)

    Another jurist contemporaneous to the Founders, William Rawle, authored "A View of the Constitution of the United States of America" (1829). His work was adopted as a constitutional law textbook at West Point and other institutions. In Chapter 10 he describes the scope of the Second Amendment's right to keep and bear arms:

    The prohibition is general. No clause in the constitution could by any rule of construction be conceived to give congress a power to disarm the people. Such a flagitious attempt could only be made under some general pretence by a state legislature. But if in any blind pursuit of inordinate power, either should attempt it, this amendment may be appealed to as a restraint on both.
    This is another quote where it is obvious that "the people" refers to individuals since Rawle writes neither the states nor the national government has legitimate authority to disarm its citizens. This passage also makes it clear ("the prohibition is general") that the militia clause was not intended to restrict the scope of the right.

    (In 1791 William Rawle was appointed United States Attorney for Pennsylvania by President George Washington, a post he held for more than eight years.)

    Yet another jurist, Justice Story (appointed to the Supreme Court as an Associate Justice by James Madison in 1811), wrote a constitutional commentary in 1833 ("Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States"). Regarding the Second Amendment, he wrote (source):

    The next amendment is: "A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."

    The importance of this article will scarcely be doubted by any persons, who have duly reflected upon the subject. The militia is the natural defence of a free country against sudden foreign invasions, domestic insurrections, and domestic usurpations of power by rulers. It is against sound policy for a free people to keep up large military establishments and standing armies in time of peace, both from the enormous expenses, with which they are attended, and the facile means, which they afford to ambitious and unprincipled rulers, to subvert the government, or trample upon the rights of the people. The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered, as the palladium of the liberties of a republic; since it offers a strong moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers; and will generally, even if these are successful in the first instance, enable the people to resist and triumph over them.

    As the Tennessee Supreme Court in Andrews v. State (1871) explains, this "passage from Story, shows clearly that this right was intended, as we have maintained in this opinion, and was guaranteed to, and to be exercised and enjoyed by the citizen as such, and not by him as a soldier, or in defense solely of his political rights."

    Story adds:

    And yet, though this truth would seem so clear, and the importance of a well regulated militia would seem so undeniable, it cannot be disguised, that among the American people there is a growing indifference to any system of militia discipline, and a strong disposition, from a sense of its burthens, to be rid of all regulations. How it is practicable to keep the people duly armed without some organization, it is difficult to see. There is certainly no small danger, that indifference may lead to disgust, and disgust to contempt; and thus gradually undermine all the protection intended by this clause of our national bill of rights.
    Story laments the people's lack of enthusiasm for maintaining a well-regulated militia. However, some anti-gun rights advocates misinterpret this entire passage as being "consistent with the theory that the Second Amendment guarantees a right of the people to be armed only when in service of an organized militia." (See Arms, Anarchy and the Second Amendment for an example of reaching that conclusion by committing a non-sequitur.)

    The need for a well-regulated militia and an armed citizenry are not mutually exclusive, nor was the right to have arms considered dependent on membership in an active militia (more on that later). Rather, as illustrated by Tucker, Rawle, and Story, the militia clause and the right to arms were intended to be complementary.

    More Evidence Supporting an Individual Right

    After James Madison's Bill of Rights was submitted to Congress, Tench Coxe (see also: Tench Coxe and the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, 1787-1823) published his "Remarks on the First Part of the Amendments to the Federal Constitution," in the Federal Gazette, June 18, 1789 He asserts that it's the people (as individuals) with arms, who serve as the ultimate check on government:

    As civil rulers, not having their duty to the people duly before them, may attempt to tyrannize, and as the military forces which must be occasionally raised to defend our country, might pervert their power to the injury of their fellow-citizens, the people are confirmed by the next article in their right to keep and bear their private arms.
    "A search of the literature of the time reveals that no writer disputed or contradicted Coxe's analysis that what became the Second Amendment protected the right of the people to keep and bear 'their private arms.' The only dispute was over whether a bill of rights was even necessary to protect such fundamental rights." (Halbrook, Stephen P. "The Right of the People or the Power of the State Bearing Arms, Arming Militias, and the Second Amendment". Originally published as 26 Val. U. L.Rev. 131-207, 1991).

    Earlier, in The Pennsylvania Gazette, Feb. 20, 1788, while the states were considering ratification of the Constitution, Tench Coxe wrote:

    Who are the militia? are they not ourselves. Is it feared, then, that we shall turn our arms each man against his own bosom. Congress have no power to disarm the militia. Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birth-right of an American...The unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the federal or state governments but, where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the people.

    The Federalist Papers

    Alexander Hamilton in the Federalist, No. 29, did not view the right to keep arms as being confined to active militia members:

    What plan for the regulation of the militia may be pursued by the national government is impossible to be foreseen...The project of disciplining all the militia of the United States is as futile as it would be injurious if it were capable of being carried into execution... Little more can reasonably be aimed at with the respect to the people at large than to have them properly armed and equipped ; and in order to see that this be not neglected, it will be necessary to assemble them once or twice in the course of a year.

    James Madison in Federalist No. 46 wrote:

    Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation, the existence of subordinate governments,to which the people are attached, forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any form can admit of. Notwithstanding the military establishments in the several kingdoms of Europe, which are carried as far as the public resources will bear, the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms. And it is not certain, that with this aid alone they would not be able to shake off their yokes. But were the people to possess the additional advantages of local governments chosen by themselves, who could collect the national will and direct the national force, and of officers appointed out of the militia, by these governments, and attached both to them and to the militia, it may be affirmed with the greatest assurance, that the throne of every tyranny in Europe would be speedily overturned in spite of the legions which surround it.

    Here, like Story, Madison is expressing the idea that additional advantages accrue to the people when the citizens' right to arms is enhanced by having an organized and properly directed militia.

    The Federalist Papers Continued – "The Original Right of Self-Defense"

    The Founders realized insurrections may occur from time to time and it is the militia's duty to suppress them. They also realized that however remote the possibility of usurpation was, the people with their arms, had the right to restore their republican form of government by force, if necessary, as an extreme last resort.

    "The original right of self-defense" is not a modern-day concoction. We now examine Hamilton's Federalist No. 28. Hamilton begins:

    That there may happen cases in which the national government may be necessitated to resort to force cannot be denied. Our own experience has corroborated the lessons taught by the examples of other nations; that emergencies of this sort will sometimes exist in all societies, however constituted; that seditions and insurrections are, unhappily, maladies as inseparable from the body politic as tumors and eruptions from the natural body; that the idea of governing at all times by the simple force of law (which we have been told is the only admissible principle of republican government) has no place but in the reveries of these political doctors whose sagacity disdains the admonitions of experimental instruction.
    Hamilton explains that the national government may occasionally need to quell insurrections and it is certainly justified in doing so.

    Hamilton continues:

    If the representatives of the people betray their constituents, there is then no recourse left but in the exertion of that original right of self-defense which is paramount to all positive forms of government, and which against the usurpations of the national rulers may be exerted with infinitely better prospect of success than against those of the rulers of an individual State. In a single State, if the persons intrusted with supreme power become usurpers, the different parcels, subdivisions, or districts of which it consists, having no distinct government in each, can take no regular measures for defense. The citizens must rush tumultuously to arms, without concert, without system, without resource; except in their courage and despair.
    Hamilton clearly states there exists a right of self-defense against a tyrannical government, and it includes the people with their own arms and adds:
    [T]he people, without exaggeration, may be said to be entirely the masters of their own fate. Power being almost always the rival of power, the general government will at all times stand ready to check the usurpations of the state governments, and these will have the same disposition towards the general government. The people by throwing themselves into either scale, will infallibly make it preponderate. If their rights are invaded by either, they can make use of the other as the instrument of redress. How wise will it be in them by cherishing the union to preserve to themselves an advantage which can never be too highly prized!

    Thus the militia is the ultimate check against a state or the national government. That is why the founders guaranteed the right to the people as opposed to only active militia members or a state's militia. But of course, via the militia clause, the Second Amendment acknowledges, as well, the right of a state to maintain a militia. (For more on militia see: http://guncite.com/gc2ndmea.html.)

    Hamilton concludes, telling us the above scenario is extremely unlikely to occur:

    When will the time arrive that the federal government can raise and maintain an army capable of erecting a despotism over the great body of the people of an immense empire, who are in a situation, through the medium of their State governments, to take measures for their own defense, with all the celerity, regularity, and system of independent nations? The apprehension may be considered as a disease, for which there can be found no cure in the resources of argument and reasoning.

    Again, it is the recurring theme of the people's right to keep and bear arms as individuals, enhanced by a militia system, that (in part) provides for the "security of a free state."

    Connecting the Dots...

    "The opinion of the Federalist has always been considered as of great authority. It is a complete commentary on our Constitution, and is appealed to by all parties in the questions to which that instrument has given birth. . . . "
    ---
    The U.S. Supreme Court in Cohens v. Virginia (1821)

    Although the Federalist Papers were written prior to the drafting of the Bill of Rights (but after the Constitution was sent to the states for ratification), the passages quoted, above, help explain the relationships that were understood between a well-regulated militia, the people, their governments, and the right to keep and bear arms. The Second Amendment did not declare or establish any new rights or novel principles.

    The Purpose of the Militia Clause

    "Collective rights theorists argue that addition of the subordinate clause qualifies the rest of the amendment by placing a limitation on the people's right to bear arms. However, if the amendment truly meant what collective rights advocates propose, then the text would read "[a] well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the States to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." However, that is not what the framers of the amendment drafted. The plain language of the amendment, without attenuate inferences therefrom, shows that the function of the subordinate clause was not to qualify the right, but instead to show why it must be protected. The right exists independent of the existence of the militia. If this right were not protected, the existence of the militia, and consequently the security of the state, would be jeopardized." (U.S. v. Emerson, 46 F.Supp.2d 598 (N.D.Tex. 1999))

    For more information about justification clauses see: Volokh, Eugene, The Commonplace Second Amendment, (73 NYU L. Rev. 793 (1998)). (See also, Kopel, David, Words of Freedom, National Review Online, May 16, 2001.)

    Parting Shots

    There are 3 ways the Second Amendment is usually interpreted to deny it was intended to protect an individual right to keep and bear arms:

    • It protects a state's right to keep and bear arms.
    • The right is individual, but limited to active militia members because the militia clause narrows the right's scope.
    • The term "people" refers to the people collectively, rather than the people as individuals.

    Yet, three jurists, who were contemporaries of the Founders, and wrote constitutional commentaries, read the Second Amendment as protecting a private, individual right to keep arms. There is no contrary evidence from that period (see Guncite's Is there contrary evidence?Second Amendment challenge). and

    Instead of the "right of the people," the Amendment's drafters could have referred to the militia or active militia members, as they did in the Fifth Amendment, had they meant to restrict the right. (Additionally, see GunCite's page here showing evidence that the term, "people," as used in the Bill of Rights, referred to people as individuals.)

    It strains credulity to believe the aforementioned three jurists misconstrued the meaning of the Second Amendment.

    The only model that comports with all of the evidence from the Founding period is the one interpreting the Second Amendment as protecting an individual right for a collective purpose. The militia clause and the right to keep and bear arms were intended to be complementary.

    Perversely, gun rights defenders are accused of creating a Second Amendment myth, when it is some present-day jurists and historians who have failed to give a full account of the historical record.

    (The assertion that the Second Amendment was intended to protect an individual right should not be confused with the claim that all gun control is un-constitutional. However, to read why many gun rights advocates oppose most gun controls, today, please see GunCite's, Misrepresenting the Gun Control Debate.)


    Friday, October 26, 2007

    Fringe Left Protests in Pink

    Only te radical left pulls crap like this
    Can anyone show me where a right wing
    conservative like me has ever pulled a
    stunt like this. Come on, show me.

    Fringe Left Protests in Pink

    Posted by Bobby Eberle
    October 25, 2007 at 6:23 am

    >> Printer-Friendly Version

    Leave it to the far Left to once again demonstrate their double standard when it comes to proper behavior and common decency. They go on and on about how conservatives are "mean" (oh no!) or how conservatives are heartless (gasp!). But when one is looking for examples of how not to behave, or an example of ill manners, crudeness, and just plain "no class," all one has to do is look at a far Left protest group.

    In this case, I'm talking about the recent protest by fringe group Code Pink in which five members of the group were arrested and one confronted Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice with blood-colored hands. It's one thing to want to get your message out, but the far Left has no boundaries or standards when it comes to civility.

    During a Congressional hearing on Wednesday in which Rice was to give testimony, a protester was able to get into Rice's face with dyed hands.

    Rice was about to take a seat at a table before members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee when a woman from the anti-war Group CodePink rushed at her from the gallery behind the table. ...

    When asked how the episode could have happened, Capitol Police spokeswoman Sgt. Kimberly Schneider said hearings are open to the public and officers try to prevent outbursts "to the best of our ability."

    As reported in The Hill, "White House spokeswoman Dana Perino, referencing the incident and calling it 'despicable,' said it 'seems that, increasingly, Congress is being run by Code Pink.'"

    The anti-war group’s members are often arrested on Capitol Hill for disrupting congressional hearings and events.

    However, few protests have been as dramatic as Wednesday's, at which protester Desiree Anita Ali-Fairooz screamed at the secretary of state and yelled that the blood "of millions of Iraqis" is on the hands of the administration.

    First of all, it's clear from the way these "protestors" rant that they are looking for attention more than substantive results. AS you can see from this video, all the police officer had to do was grab the woman's wrist, and she immediately starts screaming:

    This group has absolutely no shame. When wounded troops are treated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC, how are they greeted? Are they thanked for their service? No. Instead, protestors, as reported by CNSNews.com, "hold signs that read 'Maimed for a Li' and 'Enlist here to die for Halliburton.'"

    Among the props used by the protesters are mock caskets, lined up on the sidewalk to represent the death toll in Iraq.

    Code Pink Women for Peace, one of the groups backing anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan's vigil outside President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, organizes the protests at Walter Reed as well.

    According to the Code Pink web site, members put an emphasis on "joy and humor" as they "seek to activate, amplify and inspire a community of peacemakers through creative campaigns and a commitment to non-violence." After reading the "About Us" page, I didn't find any references to class, civility, or common decency.

    Too often, these groups cross the line, and no one holds them accountable. Whether it's MoveOn.org or the rantings of a liberal Democrat, there should be more officials speaking out. It's pathetic to see Democrat leaders look the other way for fear of retribution, as these groups continue to spew their rhetoric. Hopefully, America will see what the far Left is all about and realize that these fringe groups have an agenda that is out of step with mainstream values.

    Thursday, October 25, 2007

    FACT OR FICTION

    Read. Study. Reflect. Reach your own conclusions. There are good, peaceful Muslims in this world. Some right here in Sioux Falls and I mean them no harm or disrespect. I have learned over my 63 years to respect the rights of others (except damned Democrats, Liberals and other Idiots). Live and let live, until you cross the line and start disrespecting my beliefs. Especially if you are killing innocent people.

    The militants do not recognize the idea of 'innocent people'. Their thoughts are that you are on our side then you are an enemy and deserve to die.

    Screw that noise, you either believe in peaceful co-existence and respect for the rights of others, or you don't. If you don't then you are the enemy and deserve to forfeit your very existence

    As for those in this country who chose to ignore the obvious threat we face, woe on you. For you could be in for a very rude wake up call.

    It was liberals who tried to appease Hitler in between World War I and World War II. Look where it got the world, a massive blood letting around the. You can not appease or reason with people who refuse to acknowledge either concept. They want to inflame the world just like the forest fires in Southern California. You can not reason with a forest fire nor can you try to appease it. It just an't gonna work my friend. The fires have to be brought under control and fought to the death. The same goes for Islamic, state sponsored, terrorism, you have to contain and destroy.

    As for those



    TheReligionofPeace.com Presents:

    The Myths of Islam


    Muslims often complain of the popular "misconceptions" about their religion in the West.

    We took a hard look, however, and found that the most deeply held myths of Islam are the ones generated by Muslims and Western apologists. The only glaring exception to this is the misconception that all Muslims are alike (they aren't), but even Muslims fall into this trap as well, as evidenced by the various contrary factions insisting that they are the true Muslims, while others are either infidels, hijackers, or hypocrites.

    Don't be fooled! Hear the myths, but know the truth.


    Islam Means 'Peace'

    Islam respects Women as Equals

    Jihad Means 'Inner Struggle'

    Islam is a Religion of Peace

    Islam is Tolerant of Other Religions

    Islam Facilitated a 'Golden Age' of Scientific Discovery

    Islam is Opposed to Slavery

    Islam is Incompatible with Terrorism

    Islam is a Democracy

    Islam Means ‘Peace’

    The Myth:

    Lesser educated Muslims sometimes claim that the root word of Islam is “al-Salaam,” which is “peace” in Arabic.

    The Truth:

    The root word for Islam is “al-Silm,” which means “submission” or “surrender.” There is no controversy about this among Islamic scholars.

    Submission and peace can be very different concepts, even if a form of peace is often brought about through forcing others into submission.

    In truth, the Qur’an not only calls Muslims to submit to Allah, it also commands them to subdue people of other religions until they are in a full state of submission to Islamic rule. This has inspired the aggressive history of Islam and its success in conquering other cultures.

    Islam Respects Women as Equals

    The Myth:

    The Qur’an places men and women on equal foundation before Allah. Each person is judged according to his or her own deeds. Women have equal rights under Islamic law.

    The Truth:

    Merely stating that individuals will be judged as such by Allah does not mean that they have equal rights and roles, or that they are judged by the same standards. In fact, Sura 37:22-23 implies that women will be punished on Judgment Day for sins committed by their husbands.

    There is no ambiguity in the Qur’an, the life of Muhammad, or Islamic law as to the inferiority of women to men, despite the efforts of modern-day apologists to salvage Western-style feminism from scraps and fragments of verses that have historically held no such progressive interpretation.

    After military conquests, Muhammad would dole out captured women as war prizes to his men. In at least one case, he advocated that they be raped in front of their husbands. Captured women were made into sex slaves by the very men who killed their husbands and brothers. There are at least three Qur’anic verses in which Allah makes it clear that a Muslim master has full sexual access to his female slaves, yet there is not one that prohibits rape.

    The Qur’an gives Muslim men permission to beat their wives for disobedience. It plainly says that husbands are “a degree above” wives. The Hadith says that women are intellectually inferior, and that they comprise the majority of Hell’s occupants.

    Under Islamic law, a man may divorce his wife at the drop of a hat. If he wishes to remarry her, then she must first have sex with another man. Men are exempt from such degradations.

    Muslim women are not free to marry whomever they please, as are Muslim men. Their husband may bring other wives into the marriage bed. She must be sexually available to him at all times (as a field ready to be “tilled,” according to the holy book of Islam).

    Muslim women do not inherit property in equal portions to males. Their testimony in court is considered to be worth only half that of a man’s. Unlike a man, she must cover her head and often her face.

    If a woman wants to prove that she was raped, then there must be four male witnesses to corroborate her account. Otherwise she will be jailed or stoned to death for confessing to “adultery.”

    Given all of this, it is quite a stretch to say that men and women have “equality under Islam” based on obscure theological analogies or comparisons. This is an entirely new stratagem that is designed to appeal to modern tastes, but is in sharp disagreement with the reality of Islamic law and history.

    Further Reading from the Qur'an:

    Veils
    Women Worth Less than Men
    Proving Rape under Islamic Law
    Wife-Beating
    Divorce - A Man's Prerogative
    Remarriage
    Men in Charge of Women
    Polygamy


    Jihad Means 'Inner Struggle'

    The Myth:

    Islam’s Western apologists sometimes claim that since the Arabic word, Jihad, literally means “fight” or “struggle,” it refers to an “inner struggle” rather than holy war.

    The Truth:

    This is extremely difficult to reconcile with the Qur’an, which, for example, exempted the disabled and elderly from Jihad. This would make no sense if the word is being used merely within the context of spiritual struggle. It is also unclear why Muhammad would use graphic language, such as smiting fingers and heads from the hands and necks of unbelievers if he were speaking merely of personal development.

    With this in mind, Muslims themselves usually admit that there are two meanings to the word, but insist that “inner struggle” is the “greater Jihad,” whereas “holy war” is the “lesser.” In fact, this misconception is based only on a tiny handful of extremely weak and unreliable Hadith.

    By contrast, the most reliable of all Hadith is that of Bukhari. The word, Jihad, is mentioned over 200 times in reference to the words of Muhammad and each one is a clear connotation to holy war. By contrast, Bukhari does not contain a single reference to Jihad within the context of “personal struggle.”

    Further Reading:

    The Greater-Lesser Jihad Myth (from a Muslim Source)

    Islam is a Religion of Peace

    The Myth:

    Muhammad was a peaceful man who taught his followers to be the same. Muslims lived peacefully for centuries, only fighting in self-defense when it was necessary. True Muslims would never act aggressively.

    The Truth:

    Muhammad organized 65 military campaigns in the last ten years of his life and personally led 27 of them. The more power that he attained, the smaller the excuse needed to go to battle, until finally he began attacking tribes merely because they were not part of his growing empire.

    After Muhammad’s death, his most faithful followers and even his own family turned on each other almost immediately. There were four Caliphs (leaders) in the first twenty-five years. Three of the four were murdered. The third Caliph was murdered by the son of the first. The fourth Caliph was murdered by the fifth, who left a 100-year dynasty that was ended in a gruesome, widespread bloodbath by descendents of Muhammad’s uncle.

    Muhammad’s own daughter, Fatima, and his son-in-law, Ali, who both survived the pagan hardship during the Meccan years safe and sound, did not survive Islam after the death of Muhammad. Fatima died of stress from persecution within three months, and Ali was later assassinated. Their son (Muhammad’s grandson) was killed in battle with the faction that became today’s Sunnis. His people became Shias. The relatives and personal friends of Muhammad were mixed into both warring groups, which then fractured further into hostile sub-divisions as Islam grew.

    Muhammad left his men with instructions to take the battle against the Christians, Persians and Jews. For the next four centuries, Muslim armies steamrolled over unsuspecting neighbors, plundering them of loot and slaves, and forcing the survivors to either convert or pay tribute at the point of a sword.

    Companions of Muhammad lived to see Islam declare war on every major religion in the world in just the first few decades following his death - pressing the Jihad against Hindus, Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians, and Buddhists.

    By the time of the Crusades (when the Europeans began fighting back), Muslims had conquered two-thirds of the Christian world by the sword, from Spain to Syria, and across North Africa. The Arab slave-trading routes would stay open for another 1300 years, until pressure from Christian-based countries forced Islamic nations to declare the practice illegal (in theory).

    Today, there is not another religion in the world that consistently produces terrorism in the name of religion as does Islam. The most dangerous Muslims are nearly always those who interpret the Qur’an most transparently. They are the fundamentalists or purists of the faith, and believe in Muhammad’s mandate to spread Islamic rule by the sword, putting to death those who will not submit.

    The holy texts of Islam are saturated with verses of violence and hatred toward those outside the faith. In sharp contrast to the Bible, which generally moves from relatively violent passages to far more peaceful ones, the Qur’an travels the exact opposite path. The handful of earlier verses that speak of tolerance are overwhelmed by an avalanche of later ones that carry a much different message. While Old Testament verses of blood and guts are generally bound by historical context within the text itself, Qur'anic imperatives to violence usually appear open-ended.

    By any objective measure, the "Religion of Peace" has been the harshest, bloodiest religion the world has ever known.

    Further Reading:

    The Life of Muhammad: An Inconvenient Truth
    Muslim Terror from 9/11 through 2003
    Muslim Terror in 2004
    Muslim Terror in 2005
    Muslim Terror in 2006
    Muslim Terror in 2007
    In the Name of Allah

    Islam is Tolerant of Other Religions

    The Myth:

    Religious minorities have flourished under Islam. Muslims are commanded to protect Jew and Christians (the People of the Book) and to do them no harm.

    The Truth:

    Religious minorities have not “flourished” under Islam. In fact, they have dwindled to mere shadows after centuries of persecution and discrimination. Some were converted from their native religion by brute force, others under the agonizing strain of dhimmitude.

    What Muslims call “tolerance,” others correctly identify as institutionalized discrimination. The consignment of Jews and Christians to dhimmis under Islamic rule means that they are not allowed the same religious rights and freedoms as Muslims. They cannot share their faith, for example, or build houses of worship without permission.

    Historically, dhimmis have often had to wear distinguishing clothing or cut their hair in a particular manner that indicates their position of inferiority and humiliation. They do not share the same legal rights as Muslims, and must even pay a poll tax (the jizya). They are to be killed or have their children taken from them if they cannot satisfy the tax collector’s requirements.

    For hundreds of years, the Christian population in occupied Europe had their sons taken away and forcibly converted into Muslim warriors (known as Jannisaries) by the Ottoman Turks.

    It is under this burden of discrimination and third-class status that so many converted to Islam over the centuries. Those who didn’t often faced economic and social hardships that persist to this day and are appalling by Western standards of true religious tolerance and pluralism.

    For those who are not “the People of the Book,” such as Hindus and atheists, there is very little tolerance to be found once Islam establishes political superiority. The Qur’an tells Muslims to “fight in the way of Allah” until “religion is only for Allah.” The conquered populations face death if they do not establish regular prayer and charity in the Islamic tradition (ie. the pillars of Islam).

    Tamerlane and other Muslim warriors slaughtered hundreds of thousands of Hindus and Buddhists, as well as displacing or forcibly converting millions more over the last thousand years.

    At best, Islam has a dual personality toward other religions. In some places they are explicitly cursed by Allah, in others there appears to be a measure of tolerance shown. There are about 500 verses in the Qur’an that speak of Allah’s hatred for non-Muslims and the punishment that he has prepared for their unbelief. There is also a tiny handful that say otherwise, but these are mostly earlier verses that many scholars consider to be abrogated by the later, more violent ones.

    If tolerance simply means discouraging the mass slaughter of those of a different faith, then today's Islam generally meets this standard more often than not. But, if tolerance means allowing people of other faiths the same religious liberties that Muslims enjoy, then Islam is fundamentally the most intolerant religion under the sun.

    Islam and the “Golden Age” of Scientific Discovery

    The Myth:

    Muslims often claim that their religion fostered a rich heritage of scientific discovery, “paving the way” for modern advances in technology and medicine. On this topic, they usually refer to the period between the 7th and 13th centuries, when Europe was experiencing its “Dark Ages” and the Muslim world was conquering new populations and culture.

    The Truth:

    Although there is no arguing that the Muslim world was more advanced during this period than the “Christian” world, the reasons for this have absolutely nothing to do with the Islamic religion (other than its mandate for military expansion). In fact, the religion actively discourages knowledge outside of itself, which is why the greatest Muslim scholars throughout history tend to be students of religion rather than science.

    First, the Muslim world benefited greatly from the Greek sciences, which were translated for them by Christians and Jews. To their credit, Muslims did a better job of preserving Greek text than did the Europeans of the time, and this became the foundation for their own knowledge. (One large reason for this, however, was that access by Christians to this part of their world was cut off by the Muslim slave ships and coastal raids that dominated the Mediterranean during this period).

    Secondly, many of the scientific advances credited to Islam were actually “borrowed” from other cultures conquered by the Muslims. The algebraic concept of “zero”, for example, is erroneously attributed to Islam, but it was, in fact, created by the Hindus and merely introduced to the West by Muslims - along with the products of other cultures that were found to be useful to their new rulers.

    In fact, conquered populations contributed greatly to the history of “Muslim science” until gradually being decimated by conversion to Islam (under the pressures of dhimmitude). The Muslim concentration within a population is directly proportional to the decline of scientific achievement. It is no accident that the Muslim world has had little to show for itself in the last 600 years or so, since running out of new civilizations to cannibalize.

    Third, even the great Muslim scientists and icons were often considered heretics in their time, sometimes for good reason. One of the greatest achievers to come out of the Muslim world was the Iranian scientist and philosopher, al-Razi. His impressive works are often held up today as “proof” of Muslim accomplishment. But what the apologists often leave out is that al-Razi was denounced as a blasphemer, since he followed his own religious beliefs – which were in obvious contradiction to traditional Islam.

    Fourth, even the contributions that are attributed to Islam (often inaccurately) are not terribly dramatic. There is the invention of certain words, such as alchemy and elixir, but not much else that survives in modern technology that is of any practical significance. Neither is there any reason to believe that such discoveries would not have easily been made by the West following the cultural awakening triggered by the Reformation.

    As an example of this, consider that Muslims claim credit for coffee, since the beans were discovered in Africa (at the time, an important source for Islamic slave trading) and first processed in the Middle East. While this is true, it is also true that the red dye used in many food products, from cranberry juice to candy, comes from the abdomen of a particular female beetle found in South America. It is extremely unlikely that the West would not have stumbled across coffee by now (although, to be fair, coffee probably expedited subsequent discoveries).

    In fact, the litany of “Muslim” achievement often takes the form of rhapsody, in which the true origins of these discoveries are omitted - along with their comparative significance to Western achievement. Scientific, medical and technological accomplishments are not something over which Muslim apologists want to get into a pissing contest with the Christian world. Today’s Islamic innovators are known merely for turning Western technology, such as cell phones and airplanes, into instruments of mass murder.

    To sum up, although the Islamic religion is not entirely hostile to science, neither should it be confused as a facilitator. The great achievements that are said to have come out of the Islamic world were made either by non-Muslims who happened to be under Islamic rule, or by heretics who usually had little interest in Islam. Scientific discovery tapers off dramatically as Islam asserts dominance, until it eventually peters out altogether.

    Islam is Opposed to Slavery

    The Myth:

    Islam is intolerant of enslaving human beings. The religion eradicated the institution of slavery thanks to the principles set in motion by Muhammad, who was an abolitionist.

    The Truth:

    There is not the least bit of intolerance for slavery anywhere in the Qur’an. In fact, the “holy” book of Islam explicitly gives slave-owners the freedom to sexually exploit their slaves – not just in one place, but in at least four separate Suras. Islamic law is littered with rules concerning the treatment of slaves, some of which are relatively humane, but none that prohibit the actual practice by any stretch.

    The very presence of these rules (along with the fact that Muhammad owned and traded slaves) condones and legitimizes the institution of slavery. As such, this deeply dehumanizing horror has been a ubiquitous tradition of Islam since the days of Muhammad to the current plight of non-Muslims in the Sudan, Mali, Niger and Mauritania, as well as other parts of the Muslim world.

    There has never been an abolitionary movement within Islam (just as the religion produces no organized resistance to present-day enslavement). The abolition of slavery was imposed on the Islamic world by European countries, along with other political pressures that were entirely unrelated to Islamic law.

    Although horrible abuses of slaves in the Muslim world were recorded, there has been little inclination toward the documentation and earnest contrition that one finds in the West. The absence of a guilty conscience often leads to the mistaken impression that slavery was not as bad under Islam... when it is actually indicative of the tolerance that the religion has for the practice

    So narcissistic is the effect of Islam on the devoted, that to this day many Muslims believe in their hearts that the women and children carried off in battle, and their surviving men folk, were actually done a favor by the Muslim warriors who plucked them from their fields and homes and relegated them to lives of demeaning servitude.

    Shame and apology, no matter how appropriate, are almost never to be found in Dar al-Islam. Caliphs, the religious equivalent of popes, maintained harems of hundreds, sometimes thousands of young girls and women captured from lands as far away as Europe and consigned to sexual slavery. Hungarians were hunted like animals by the Turks, who carried 3 million into slavery over a 150 year period.

    African slaves were often castrated by their Muslim masters. Few survived to reproduce, which is why there are not many people of African descent living in the Middle East, even though more slaves were taken out of Africa in the 1300 years of Arab slave trading than in the 300 years of European slavery. The 400,000 slaves brought to America, for example, have now become a community of 30 million, with a much higher standard of living than their African peers.

    There is no William Wilberforce or Bartoleme de las Casas in Islamic history as there is in Christianity. When asked to produce the name of a Muslim abolitionist, apologists sometimes meekly suggest Muhammad himself. But, if a slave owner and trader, who commanded the capture and sexual exploitation of slaves, and left a 13-century legacy of religiously-based slavery, is the best that Islam can offer, then no amount of sophistry will be enough to convince any but the most ignorant.

    Further Reading:

    Slavery in Islam

    Islam is Completely Incompatible with Terrorism

    The Myth:

    Islam is completely incompatible with acts of terrorism. It is against Islam to kill innocent people.

    The Truth:

    Even though many Muslims earnestly believe that their religion prohibits the killing of innocent people by acts of terrorism, the truth is certainly more complicated. This is why the Jihadis and their detractors are both able to point fingers at the other, while confidently insisting that they are the true Muslims.

    In fact, the definition of an “innocent person” is far more ambiguous in Islam than Muslim apologists will lead others to believe. So, also, is the definition of terrorism.

    First, consider that anyone who rejects Muhammad is not considered to be innocent under Islamic law. The most protected and respected of all non-Muslims are the dhimma, the “people of the book.” These would specifically be Jews and Christians who agree to Islamic rule and pay the jizya (tribute to Muslims). Yet, the word “dhimmi” comes from the Arabic root meaning “guilt” or "blame." ["...the dhimmi parent and sister words mean both 'to blame' as well as safeguards that can be extended to protect the blameworthy" Amitav Ghosh, In an Antique Land]

    So, if even the dhimma have a measure of guilt attached to their status (by virtue of having rejected Allah’s full truth), then how can non-Muslims who oppose Islamic rule or refuse to pay the jizya be considered “innocent?”

    Within the Islamic community itself there is a category of Muslims who are also said to bear guilt – greater even than the average non-believer. These are the hypocrites, or “Munafiqin,” whom Muhammad referred to in the most derogatory terms. A hypocrite is considered to be a Muslim in name only. They are distinguished either by an unwillingness to wage holy war or by an intention to corrupt the community of believers.

    When Muslims kill Muslims in the name of Allah (which occurs quite frequently), they usually do so believing that their victims are Munafiqin or kafir (unbelievers). This is actually a part of Islamic Law known as takfir, in which Muslims are declared apostates and then executed. (A true Muslim would go to paradise anyway, in which case he or she could hardly be expected to nurse a grudge amidst the orgy of sex and wine).

    In addition to the murky definition of innocence, there is also the problem of distinguishing terrorism from holy war. Islamic terrorists never refer to themselves as terrorists, but always as holy warriors (Mujahideen, Shahid, or Fedayeen). They consider their acts to be a form of Jihad.

    Holy war is something that Muhammad commanded in the Qur’an and Hadith. In Sura 9:29, he establishes the principle that unbelievers should be fought until they either convert to Islam or accept a state of humiliation under Islamic subjugation. This is confirmed in the Hadith by both Sahih Muslim and Bukhari.

    In many places, the prophet of Islam says that Jihad is the ideal path for a Muslim, and that believers should “fight in the way of Allah.” There are dozens of open-ended passages in the Qur’an that exhort killing and fighting – far more than ones of peace and tolerance. It is somewhat naïve to think that their inclusion in this "eternal discourse between God and Man" was of historical value only and not intended to be relevant to present-day believers, particularly when there is little to nothing within the text that distinguishes them in such fashion.

    Combine the Qur’anic exhortation to holy war with the ambiguity of innocence, and a monumental problem develops that cannot be covered over by mere semantics. Not only is there a deep tolerance for violence in Islam, but also a sharp disagreement and lack of clarity over the conditions that justify this violence... and just whom the targets may be.

    Even many Muslims who claim to be against terrorism still support the “insurgency” in Iraq, for example, and often entertain the allegation that there is a broader “war against Islam.” Although the Americans in Iraq are trying to protect innocent life and help the country rebuild, Muslims around the world and in the West believe that it is legitimate for Sunnis to try and kill them.

    Enjoying the sanction of holy war, the Mujahid reasons that it is permissible to attack fellow Iraqis – the ones helping the Americans… even if they are part of a democratically-elected Iraqi government. These non-combatants and combatants alike are believed to be the “Munafiqin” assisting the enemy “Crusaders.”

    Although we use Iraq as an example here, this is the same rationale that is ultimately behind all Islamic terror, from the Philippines to Thailand. Wherever the religion of Islam is a minority, there are always radicals who believe that violence is justified in bringing it to dominance - just as Muhammad taught by example in places like Mecca and the land of al-Hirath.

    And what of the so-called “innocents” who suffer from the bombings and shootings? Even in Muhammad’s time they were unavoidable. The much-touted hadith in which Muhammad forbade the killing of women also indicates that there were such casualties in his conflicts.

    If there is any doubt that he believed that the forbidden is sometimes necessary, it should be put to rest by an incident in which Muhammad's men warned him that a planned night raid against an enemy camp would mean that women and children would be killed. He merely replied “they are of them,” meaning the men.

    This is the slippery slope that is opened by the sanction of holy war. What starts out as the perception of a noble cause of self-defense against a supposed threat gradually devolves into a "let Allah sort them out" campaign through a series of logical steps that are ultimately justified by the sublime goal of Islamic rule.

    Islam is not intended to co-exist as an equal with other religions. It is to be the dominant religion, with Sharia as the supreme law. Islamic rule is to be extended to the ends of the earth, and resistance is to be dealt with by any means necessary.

    Apologists in the West often shrug off the Qur'an's many verses of violence by saying that they are only relevant in a “time of war.”

    To this, Islamic terrorists would agree. They are at war.

    Islam is a Democracy

    The Myth:

    Islam is compatible with democratic principles. The religion itself is a democracy.

    The Truth:

    A democracy is a system in which all people are judged as equals before the law, regardless of race, religion or gender. The vote of every individual counts as much as the vote of any other. The collective will of the people then determines the rules of society.

    Under Islamic law, only Muslim males enjoy full rights. The standing of a woman is often half that of a man's - sometimes even less. Non-Muslims have no standing with a Muslim.

    The Islamic state is guided by Islamic law, derived from the Qur'an and Sunnah. A body of clerics interprets the law and applies it to all circumstances social, cultural and political. The people are never to be placed above the Qur'an and Sunnah any more than man should be above Allah.

    It is somewhat debatable as to whether there are any states in the Muslim world that qualify as actual democracies. There is no denying, however, that the tiny handful that are often held up as democratic nations are ones in which deep tension exists between the government and religious leaders, as the later often complain that it is an idolatrous system imposed on them.

    Islam does not facilitate democracy.

    Further Reading:

    Democracy and Islam
    Loyalty to a Non-Muslim Government

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