As Nigerians Vote

CHIPPLA VANDU COMMENTARY:

The Nigerian-born moderate blogger writes: "Two things appear certain when Nigerians begin voting in a couple of weeks time: it has become close to impossible for Mr. Obasanjo to extend his stay in office as he had one time hoped. However, by selecting Umaru Yar'Adua as his successor, Obasanjo believes he has found a wall of refuge that would eventually protect his interests after he ceases being Nigeria's first citizen. Secondly, Abubakar will most likely not run for the presidency, even though the slimmest of chance still exists that the courts might rule in his favour.

With Abubakar out, Yar'Adua's main challenger becomes Muhammadu Buhari—one time military dictator and presidential candidate of the All Nigeria's People Party (ANPP).

While it is most certain that the ruling PDP would do all in its power to rig the elections in favour of Yar'Adua, an easy victory cannot be guaranteed. Unfortunately, some of the brightest candidates—like Pat Utomi of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) party—have weak political bases. Thus, at the end of the day, most Nigerians will practically be compelled to choose between mediocrity and mediocrity. Such is the life of the game called politics.It would take nothing short of a miracle from the heavens to stop the ruling PDP from producing the next president of Nigeria.

In other words, Nigeria's next president would most likely be the very man chosen by the incumbent president. Despite being labeled honest, Yar'Adua's frail health should be a cause for concern. If the man who intends on becoming the next president of Nigeria has to keep running to Germany to be resuscitated each time his health starts to fail, one could only be left wondering what sort of message that sends to the very people he intends to govern.

But then, all through Nigeria's delicate history, there have always been two sets of rules—one for the upper class and another for others. Shattering this barrier could be but a first step towards creating the sort of society that would treat people for what they are—human beings. In this regard, the next government of Nigeria is already failing."

Ten Things We've Forgotten About the Iraq War

Hatip Evangelical Outpost

As the Iraq war enters its fifth year, its time to reflect on some of the things that we've long since forgotten.

1. Most people have forgotten--or never knew--all the reasons we went to war. -- H.J.RES.114 is the Congressional resolution that authorized the President to use force to overthrow the regime of Saddam Hussein.

Most Americans--probably including the 136 Congressional Representatives and 16 Senators who co-sponsored the resolution--have never bothered to read the text and instead parrot nonsense about "why we really went to war." This law, however, provides the complete list of justifications for why we went to war with Iraq. This law establishes the criteria that the American people--through their elected representatives--agreed were sufficient reasons for using force in Iraq. The list includes:

Continuing to possess and develop a significant chemical and biological weapons capability (false); actively seeking a nuclear weapons capability (true); supporting and harboring terrorist organizations (true); continuing to engage in brutal repression of its civilian population (true); refusing to release, repatriate, or account for non-Iraqi citizens wrongfully detained by Iraq (true); failing to return property wrongfully seized by Iraq from Kuwait (true); demonstrated its capability and willingness to use weapons of mass destruction against other nations and its own people (true); attempting in 1993 to assassinate former President Bush (true); firing on many thousands of occasions on United States and Coalition Armed Forces (true); harbored members of al-Qaeda (true); continues to aid and harbor other international terrorist organizations (true).

Critics of the war who deny or downplay these reasons for going to war are either ignorant or dishonest. They are either unaware of the real reasons provided to the American people by their legislature or do know and are intentionally being deceptive.

2. The plan to overthrow Saddam began during the Clinton Administration -- The Iraq Liberation Act of 1998 (Public Law 105-338) was a Congressional statement of policy calling for regime change in Iraq which Bill Clinton signed the bill into law on October 31, 1998. The Act authorized the President to provide assistance (including military assistance that didn't require the use of U.S. military force) to anti-Saddam groups working to enact a regime change. This act was also cited in H.J.RES.114.

3. It wasn't just neo-conservatives who made the case for war. -- Kenneth Pollack was the Iran-Iraq military analyst for the CIA, and the director of Persian Gulf Affairs and Near East and South Asian Affairs for the National Security Council under Bill Clinton. Pollack had both the experience and credentials to make liberals take notice so when his book, The Threatening Storm: The Case for Invading Iraq, debuted in 2002 it caused quite a splash among fence-sitters who were unwilling to accept the Republicans case for war. The New York Times claimed that Pollack‘s, 'argument for invading Iraq is surely the most influential book of this season, has provided intellectual cover for every liberal who finds himself inclining toward war but uneasy about Mr. Bush." According to The New Yorker, Pollack’s 'comprehensive and convincing" case for war was presented, 'More effectively than Dick Cheney or Paul Wolfowitz or any other of the hawkish big thinkers in the Administration…"

4. Saddam released over 100,000 hardened criminals from prison before the war. -- At the beginning of the war, 1 out of every 200 Iraqis on the streets was a convicted rapist, robber, or murderer, or other felon. Unleashing such a horde of convicts would naturally have a devastating and detrimental impact on any society. Imagine what life would be like if we emptied every prison in Texas, a state that has approximately the same land area and population as Iraq. How safe do you think it would be to walk the streets of Austin or Dallas? Imagine also that the police forces had been disbanded and was having to be reconstituted. How long do you think it would take before the state was able to reach a level of 'stability?"

Even if such an event were to occur here in the U.S. during a time of peace, it would be impossible for even the best police forces and military units to capture and reincarcerate all of these criminals within four years. The problem is compounded exponentially by occurring during a time of post-war reconstruction in a country run by a former dictator. Given such circumstances, how can anyone seriously claim that the country should even be close to being stable?

While I don’t think that all of the security issues in Iraq can be blamed on these criminals, a significant amount of the 'insurgent activity" can reasonably be attributed to old fashioned lawlessness. Yet I can’t recall having heard anyone, either from the Left or from the Right, even mention this as a factor. Such an omission is inexcusable and I find it difficult to take any pundit seriously when they fail to take such realities into account.

5. Every Western government believed that Iraq had WMDs -- In a interview with The Atlantic Monthly (Dec. 30, 2003), Kenneth Pollack made clear that Bush is not the only one who believed that Iraq had WMDs:

[The Atlantic] You too were a believer in the idea that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. How did that happen and on what evidence did you come to that conclusion?

My evidence came straight from the intelligence community. …I was certainly not alone in this—this was a consensus among the U.S. government, it was a consensus among the UN inspectors, it was a consensus of American experts outside the U.S. government. In fact, it was a consensus in the entire international community.


It's important to remember that any intelligence service or country with the ability to monitor Iraq and its weapons programs—Germany, France, Britain, Russia, Israel—was a hundred percent certain that Saddam had these programs. There may have been some debate over just how aggressive they were or how far along they were. The Germans were the most alarmist of all on the subject of a nuclear weapon. They thought the Iraqis might have one in as little as two or three years. Our own intelligence community tended to be a little more conservative; they thought it was more like four to six years away—or five to seven. But no one doubted that Saddam had these weapons.

...

So there would have been very few, if any, people, who ever posited, even as a hypothetical, that Iraq didn't have any imminent WMD programs?


I can't think of anyone who did not believe that the Iraqis had a weapons of mass destruction program. There was simply no one.


6. Economic sanctions helped strengthen Saddam -- With sanctions effectively forbidding all other foreign commerce, Iraq’s only legitimate trade was whatever flowed through Saddam’s ministries under the supervision of the UN program.

The UN even expanded the Oil-For-Food-Program (OFFP) to allow Saddam to import not just food and medicine but oil-industry equipment as well. The cap on the amount of oil that Iraq could sell was also raised from $4 billion to $10 billion a year. Saddam thanked the UN for their generosity by throwing the UN weapons inspectors out of Iraq.

In 2000, Saddam found another way to profit from the venture. As Claudia Rosett wrote in an article in Commentary magazine:

It worked like this. Saddam would sell at below-market prices to his hand-picked customers—the Russians and the French were special favorites—and they could then sell the oil to third parties at a fat profit. Part of this profit they would keep, part they would kick back to Saddam as a "surcharge," paid into bank accounts outside the UN program, in violation of UN sanctions.
This allowed the dictator to pocket billions of dollars that was intended to be used for the relief of the Iraqi people. Emboldened by the UN’s refusal to reign him in, Saddam also began to smuggle out oil through Turkey, Jordan, and Syria. Rather than put a stop to this violation, the UN chose to expand the program even further. In 2002, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan approved “Oil-for-Food Plus" which added ten new sectors to be funded by the program, including "labor and social affairs," "information," "justice," and "sports." This allowed the UN to aid in financing, as Rossett points out, “the realms of Baathist party patronage, propaganda, censorship, secret police, rape rooms, and mass graves."

7. Iraq was linked to Al Qaeda -- Although you still hear people claim otherwise, Saddam had ties to Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda. As the 9/11 commision chair Thomas Kean told reporters, "Were there contacts between al-Qaida and Iraq? Yes. Some of them were shadowy, but they were there." Vice Chair Lee Hamilton added, "There were connections between al-Qaida and Saddam Hussein's government. We don't disagree with that. What we have said is that we don't have any evidence of a cooperative, or a collaborative relationship between Saddam Hussein's government and these al-Qaida operatives with regard to attacks on the United States [italics added]. So it seems to me that the sharp differences that the press has drawn, that the media has drawn, are not that apparent to me."

8. Democratic politicians like Ted Kennedy predicted that tens of thousands of Americans would die in combat -- Kennedy said, "“The 45,000 body bags the Pentagon has sent to the region are all the evidence we need of the high price in lives and blood we will have to pay." Kennedy also quoted General Joseph Hoar, who warned that when urban warfare broke out in Baghdad, the U.S. could run through “battalions a day at a time” and that the fighting would look like “the last fifteen minutes of 'Private Ryan.'”

9. The pre-war casualty predictions were extremely inflated. -- Before the war, the United Nations predicted that the civilian death toll in Iraq could reach 500,000. Current estimates are between 35,000 -40,000 -- including insurgents and other combatents.

10. The U.S. did not attack Iraq "unilaterally." -- The UN has 148 democracies that were available to join the "Coalition of the Willing":

Albania, Andorra, Angola, Antigua, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, the Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bermuda, Bolivia, Bosnia, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burundi, Cambodia, Canada, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, Colombia, Comoros, Republic of the Congo, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, East Timor, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Estonia, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, The Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Greenland, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Ireland, Jamaica, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kiribati, South Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Liberia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Isle of Man, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia, Mozambique, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Netherlands Antilles, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Niue, Pakistan, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, San Marino, Senegal, Serbia and Montenegro, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, Uganda, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Uruguay, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Now look at the list of countries that joined our call to action:

Albania, Andorra, Angola, Antigua, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, the Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bermuda, Bolivia, Bosnia, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burundi, Cambodia, (Canada), Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, Colombia, Comoros, Republic of the Congo, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, East Timor, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, The Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Greenland, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Ireland, (Israel), Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kiribati, South Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Liberia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Isle of Man, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Micronesia, Moldova, Mongolia, Mozambique, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Niue, Pakistan, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, San Marino, Senegal, Serbia and Montenegro, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Switzerland, (Taiwan), Tajikistan, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, Uganda, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Uruguay, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe

What about the other countries? We can't expect nations who were on Saddam's payroll to join us so we can exclude France and Russia. Three other countries refused, for various reasons, to get involved militarily (Germany, Egypt, and Bangladesh). Pakistan has its hands full aiding us in Afghanistan and Switzerland is, as always, neutral, so we can scratch those two as well. The countries that don't have a military (Andorra, Dominica, Kiribati, Mauritius, Panama, Nauru, Tuvalu, Vanuatu) are obviously excluded as are the states that rely on others for their defense (Bermuda, Greenland, Isle of Man, Niue).

Because of the cost to deploy troops to Iraq, we should remove any country with a military budget under $200 million a year (Antigua, Armenia, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Benin, Bolivia, Burundi, Cambodia, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Republic of the Congo, Cook Islands, Cote d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Dominica, East Timor, Equatorial Guinea, Fiji, Gabon, The Gambia, Ghana, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Jamaica, Kyrgyzstan, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Mauritania, Moldova, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, San Marino, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Suriname, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkmenistan, Zambia, and Zimbabwe).

Once we scrub our list we are left with the following:

Argentina, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia, Botswana, Brazil, Chile, Cyprus, Ecuador, Finland, Greece, Indonesia, Ireland, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Mexico, Nepal, Peru, Serbia and Montenegro, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Uruguay, Venezuela, Yemen

These are the remaining democracies--the able but unwilling--that did not join us in overthrowing a brutal dictator.

Ice Cube’s “Good in the Hood”

Duane from Black Informant has a great peice on Ice Cube's new pilot program


A&E Network is currently in development on a non-fiction pilot produced by legendary hip-hop and film artist Ice Cube (“Black White,” “Are We There Yet?”)
and produced by reality TV veteran Dave Broome (“The Biggest Loser”) and Matt Alvarez (“Black White,” “Are We There Yet?”) titled “Good in the Hood.” The show explores stories of ultimate redemption.

In the vein of the fictional film “American History X,” “Good in the Hood” will feature real people who have pulled themselves back from the edge and are trying to do good by saving people they love from the life they once led.

“This show is a way to demonstrate what is going on in a positive way in the urban community,” said Ice Cube. “It is very important for me as an artist and individual to make sure these stories are told and I am grateful to A&E to allow us to do this.”

Booker Rising on Dumb Songs

What has happened to mainstream hip hop?

I've never been a big hip hop fan, but I do have a little hip hop in my iPod. Back in the day, I could at least point to some songs that I liked that were all over the radio and video shows.

Not so today. Two of the most stupid songs out there right now have got to be "Pop, Lock & Drop It" by Huey and "This Is Why I'm Hot" by Mims. And of course, these are hit songs.

While mainstream music overall is getting dumber by the year, mainstream hip hop by far leads the pack on the stupid songs (and videos) front."Pop, Lock & Drop It" has a kiddie-sounding chorus, with the oh-so-not-original ho-ish, no-class video featuring bling and booty.

To have little girls in the Pop, Lock, & Drop It" video is particularly foul. "This Is Why I'm Hot" just has stupid repetition, and ol' boy ain't even hot.

What many folks won't admit: Common, Rhymefest, The Roots, etc. aren't massively popular not because they aren't known, but because mainstream hip hop fans - who remain disproportionately black, even if whites are the majority in sheer numbers - instead prefer to listen to crap like these two dumb songs.

These are the desired sound and images of blackness desired by fans.The trash called mainstream hip hop sinks ever lower, dragging a once-rich black American musical culture further down with it. Too often, there is a dumbed down expectation of what black American music should be.

Where is the originality? Self-respect? Musical diversity?

I must be getting old in my 36 years because we can definitely put out better mainstream music.

Reagan - "On Surrender"

Ronald Reagan's wise words are just as relevant now as they were when he made them forty years ago. The entire speech can be found at http://www.rightlinx.com/?p=767

Where have you gone Ronald Reagan?

UN: "Human Rights Hypocrisy"

The UN Human Rights organization is a joke. It's become a bully pulpit for anti-Israel countries who do terrible things and get away with it. Where's the condemnation of Sudan? Where's the demand for sanctions and the threat of military action if the violence in Darfur continues? Where's the demand that Arab states live in peace with Israel and that the Palestinians get their act together?

Now Watch a video representative from Zimbawe's Mugabe get slammed!

UN Watch's Hillel Neuer on CNN to debate human rights with Zimbabwe's UN Ambassador. Should repressive governments such as that of Robert Mugabe's in Zimbabwe serve as members of the UN Human Rights Council? (more)

UN Watch vs. Mugabe Regime




NOW CHECK THIS OUT


Have no cause for fear at all be at peace........ yeah right!!!

Congressional Black Caucus Proves A Broken Clock Is Right Twice A Day

Great post on the Congressional Black Cacus recent decison to partner

with Fox News in the up coming Presidental debates!

Hatip to http://newleadership.blogspot.com/

There's an old saying I like to jokingly say to friends or acquaintances that disagree with me politically but on rare occasions discern an issue correctly: "A broken clock is right twice a day." Well, the Congressional Black Caucus has had a broken clock moment in this early presidential contest.

Normally sidelined to irrelevancy in the political process, the CBC has decided to team up with Fox News - the great Satan of journalism to liberals - to co-sponsor primary debates this fall for each party's presidential field. This is a smart move by the CBC. It allows the organization to publicize its agenda to cable news' largest television audience and it gives cover to Majority Leader Reid, who was in favor of a Fox debate in Nevada this summer, but caved when Moveon.org and other fringe left groups made a stink.

"The CBC Institute is committed to presenting the presidential candidates to the broadest audience possible," Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the chairman of the institute, said in a statement. "Collaborating with Fox News provides an opportunity to take this presidential election to millions of households."

Of course, poverty pimps like Jesse Jackson and the idiots who run this outfit can't put aside unnecessary partisanship and see the big picture.

"The CBC Institute's decision is shamefully out of step with most black voters and we will continue to push on the CBC Institute to drop this deal," said James Rucker, head of colorofchange.org.

It's "out of step with most black voters" to have a chance to see and listen to men and women who want to be the next president of the United States?

Nigerian Email Scam "New Music Video"

Yeah, I dare him to go chop my dollar!!

The popular Nigerian actor, Nkem Owoh, stars in the music video, I Go Chop Your Dollar. The music video was directed by Uzodinma Okpechi in 2005. The music video is a parody of the 419 scam, that details the condition which makes it is possible for such a scam to exist. All in all, 419 can only succeed because greed attracts greed, and scammers can only attract scammers.

I Go Chop Your Dollar (lyrics)

I don’t suffer no be small
Upon say I get sense
Poverty no good at all, no
Now I’m make I join this business
4191 no be thief, it’s just a game
Everybody they play ‘em
If anybody fall mugu2, ha! My brother I go chop ‘em

Chorus

National Airport now me get ‘em
National Stadium now me build ‘em
President now my sister brother
You be the mugu2 , I be the master
Oyinbo3 I go chop your dollar, I go take your money disappear
4191 is just a game, you are the loser I am the winner
The refinery now me get ‘em,
The contract, now you I go give ‘em
But you go pay me small money make I bring ‘em
You be the mugu2, I be the master… now me be the master ooo!!!!

When Oyinbo3 play wayo, them go say now new style
When country man do ‘em own, them go the shout bring ‘em, kill ‘em, die!
Oyinbo3 people greedy, I say them greedy
I don’t see them tire that’s why when them fall enter my trap o!
All day show them fire

"The Madmen of Africa" YouTube Video

These men are the cream of a large crop of megalomanic and psychotic 'leaders' that have plagued the African continent for the past forty years. The heartache, misery and suffering caused by these men is truly appalling.

In order of appearance:

Mobutu Sese Seko, Sani Abacha, Idi Amin Dada, Hastings Kamuzu Banda, Siad Barre, Jean Bedel Bokassa, P.W. Botha, Gnassingbe Eyadema, Muammar Gaddafi, Felix Houphouet-Boigny, Robert Mugabe, Macias Nguema, Jonas Savimbi, Ian Smith and Charles Taylor.





The $300,000,000 Basilica of Our Lady of Peace in Yamoussoukro represents the squandering of the continents resources by these lunatics.

Info:

1. Two acres of hand-blown French stained glass windows.

2. Individual air conditioning ducts at each of the 7000 seats.

3. On the average Sunday about 200 people attend mass in the largest church on earth.

4. Four of the basilica's 272 gargantuan columns contain elevators that can carry 10 people to a balcony beneath the dome.

5. 7.4 acre marble-floored courtyard.

The song in the video is by legendary Afro pop singer: Fela Kuti. it is tittled: Sorrow, tears and blood. Viva Nigeria.

"A note about African Anti Americanism"

It is statism, not the market, and socialism, not capitalism, that has destroyed the African economies. After independence, the African elites who formed the political leadership generally adopted the Soviet and Chinese systems. Thus they were able to assume absolute power with access to the levers of personal enrichment.

And from communism they borrowed an infallible recipe for agricultural ruin: collectivizing the land, from Algeria to Tanzania, setting up “cooperatives” that quickly became unproductive.

In these fatal mistakes the Third World has had false friends. In particular, the privileged pseudo-revolutionaries of Seattle and Göteborg have encouraged them down the primrose path of anti-capitalism. Lacking any real knowledge about the African cataclysm, and careless about finding remedies, the anti-globalist agitators prefer hurling brickbats at their perennial hobgoblin to the moral imperative of saving and improving lives.

This just licenses Africa’s socialist dictators to commit their robberies. In Madagascar, the anti-American radical Didier Ratsiraka received a fortune in francs, but the starving Madagascan people never had the slightest whiff of it. An investigative journalist could do well to search for traces in Switzerland or elsewhere of the billions of dollars stolen by the late Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha.

And what’s the point (other than irritating America) of defending Robert Mugabe, a typical dictator who has rigged every election in Zimbabwe and managed in 20 years to transform one of the most fertile lands of Africa into one of the most desolate? Between 1960 and 2000, Africa received four times as much funding and aid per capita as Latin America or Asia. How was it that these last two continents took off, and not Africa? By practicing capitalism and establishing world trade.

~ Jean-Francois Revel

To read the whole article go here
http://www.taemag.com/issues/articleid.18005/article_detail.asp

Quote Of The Day

"There will always be racism. I truly cannot see how we could completely eliminate it. However, today, cultural factors independent of racism matter just as much. I disagree, for empirical and carefully presented reasons, with the common idea that the cultural factors are the product of racism. I am more interested in addressing something that can change. I assume that as strong people, we black Americans can handle the fact that all white people do not love us."

– John McWhorter, moderate-liberal commentator

History Channel special on the Muslim Brotherhood

The History Channel does a special on the history of the Muslim Brotherhood. This shows how Al-Qaeda was formed, how the concepts of Suicide Bombings were created, and how anti-western attitudes prevailed.

JOSEPH C. PHILLIPS COMMENTARY: The Property Of God

Drawing from "Amazing Grace", the recent movie about British efforts to end the slave trade, the conservative Republican actor writes: "Slavery was/is not evil because of its cruelty, but because it violates the natural state of man by reducing the divine to the profane. It is the assertion of divine ownership that is the basis upon which we claim our liberty.

God made man free and independent. As free men, we must own our bodies, our ideas, and the fruits produced by same. It is upon this concept that we properly define rights and upon this rock America was founded. Rights are those things to which we claim by virtue of simply being human -- by belonging to God – and are therefore things that cannot be granted by other men.

Hence the removal of chains is not the granting of freedom, but the return of liberty to its rightful owner. Property taken from you doesn’t cease being yours simply because it is in another man’s possession. And when it is returned, the thief grants you nothing but that which has always been yours. Critical to our understanding is that rights also come with corresponding duties to respect the rights of others. My neighbor has a duty to respect my right to life, liberty and private property and I have a duty to do the same. Of course, men regularly violate that duty, which is why men compact with government to secure inalienable rights from the devilment of human nature.

"Mr. Phillips continues his commentary: "Sitting in the theatre, I wondered that here in America, the only nation built upon these principles, we have largely lost our understanding of rights and in fact diluted them so that increasingly they are indistinguishable from privileges, those advantages that government grants or denies certain groups that meet or fail to meet certain requirements. For instance, we hear about our right to health care, social security and a host of other government, or more accurately, taxpayer funded entitlements.

If men are in fact born with these rights, there must be a corresponding duty that falls on our neighbors to provide it. Does your neighbor have a duty to pay for your doctor’s visits and medical care? Do your neighbors have a duty to pay for your retirement? What about housing?

Food and clothing? One can argue that these are things God fearing neighbors ought to cheerfully do for one another. However, that is wholly different from politicians that want to use the power of government to force munificence. The administrative state along with its corresponding schemes of wealth redistribution are wrong because the equal right to liberty means no man should be made to work for the benefit of another. Slavery practiced with kid gloves is slavery still."