THE TRANSPARENT CENSOR

I found this post, and find it quite chilling in its simplicity.

I LIVE WITH A 24 year old from Shanghai who assures me that though China may THINK their people are clueless sheep marching towards the slaughter, they know better. They understand what is going on—SORT OF. We often have discussion about monetary policy at night—the Fed, the People’s Bank of China, blah blah blah…she gets it and says they KNOW.

The Chinese are smarter than you realize.

Her famous line?

“In China, they censor our news and tell us they do it ‘for our own good.’ But here in America, they censor YOUR news but don’t admit to it.”

Sadly, she’s right.

—JR

GUNS IN THE HANDS OF IDIOTS

GESTURE POLITICS SWEEP THE NATIONS. Enough said. Two Western governments sell their citizens short. Just so the stealth but vitriolic and plotting barbarians can rush in...

Suicide. What kind of civilizational survival strategy is this?

"You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass."

—Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto (Japanese Navy b.1884 d.1943)

THE WORKER'S PHILOSOPHER

Noted journalist Christopher Hitchens pays his respects to a noted Polish Marxist philosopher. Although I admit that I had been unaware of this lifelong communist, from the details that Hitchens has framed in fashioning his tribute, it seems that this man was a man who would have impacted my own heart and soul, as he has now impacted my mind.

I searched long and hard for an intellectual who sensed the lies and failures of the existing leftist regimes, but my shopping tour turned up little but more lies and failures. Finally my need for closure pushed me back to a natural conservatism wrapped in a ribbon and bow called radical centrism where Friedrich Hayek and Karl Popper had done the work I so desired to read. But this Polish fellow's testimony appears to be an honest struggle well worth an investigation, if only a less threatening global sensibility now haunted by Islamofacism prevails...

WROCLAW, Poland—It was distinctly eerie to learn of the death of professor Leszek Kolakowski just 15 minutes before entering a room in which I was to give a short lecture on his influence. But it was also rather inspiring to be in a country that made the passing of a public intellectual into the front-page headline of every national daily paper the following day.

The photographs of Kolakowski almost invariably portray a man with a forbiddingly craggy visage, austere to the point of asceticism. Yet he was one of the most engagingly witty people it was possible to meet. And his wit was deployed to puncture every kind of intellectual fraud or imposture. I remember his comment when he heard that Hungarian philosopher Georg Lukacs had said that even the worst socialism was preferable to the best capitalism: "Ah yes, the advantages of Albania over Sweden are self-evident."

He had earned the right to make such pronouncements. An ardent Communist in prewar and wartime Poland (and a sworn foe of the clerical, chauvinist, and anti-Semitic Polish right wing to the end of his days), Kolakowski was shorn of his Stalinism by exposure to its Moscow form on a visit to Russia, and he emerged as the leading "revisionist" Marxist philosopher of the Polish spring of 1956. At that stage, he advocated a form of democratic socialism approximately based on a reading of young—as opposed to late—Karl Marx. But repeated encounters with the obdurate and repressive Communist regime convinced him that the system was essentially beyond reform.

A second Polish spring in March 1968 was put down with the use of the most crude police tactics and the employment by the Communist Party of anti-Semitism as a weapon against dissent. Forced to leave his homeland, he roosted for a while as an exile professor in Berkeley, Calif., where his experience of the student movement more or less completed his break with the New Left. (Years later he would recall with contempt a pamphlet that described the libraries of the university as being stuffed with "useless 'white' knowledge.") In 1970 he moved to Oxford University and remained there until his death last week.

. . .

Meanwhile, Kolakowski was at work on his three-volume Main Currents of Marxism, which appeared at the end of the 1970s and constitutes one of the most searching investigations of the worldview that had dominated his youth. To state the thesis very briefly, Kolakowski's argument was that Stalinism was not, after all, an aberration of Marxism. It was, rather, its logical culmination. It is not necessary to agree completely with this thesis in order to admire the relentless logic of its presentation. If there has ever been a detailed rebuttal written by any Marxist scholar, I have not seen it.

Kolakowski's essential difference with Marxism was what one might call teleological: He rejected the idea that contradictions could be overcome, or anything "ultimate" achieved, either in the material world or in the world of ideas. This, however, did not prevent him from insisting that one had a duty to keep striving. Philosophy could not establish truth, but it could define the terms in which truth could be sought. Meanwhile, as he phrased it sardonically in an interview with Danny Postel in Daedalus, it turned out that there were better reasons to value freedom and democracy than the fact that Marx and Engels had not been so strongly opposed to them as some people had first thought.

. . .

In the short run, Kolakowski was perhaps slightly mistaken in that the nations of Eastern Europe were able to produce a generation of critics and activists who succeeded in making themselves heard. But in the longer run, he was proved right, in the sense that though the system could in fact "reform" itself, it could do so only by reforming itself out of existence. And he was at last able to fulfill his boyhood dream by becoming the esteemed intellectual ally of a working-class movement that actually succeeded in taking power. The realization that this movement was the gravedigger of communism was well-attuned to Kolakowski's very highly developed sense of historical irony.

Read it all.

FREE SPEECH IN DISTRESS

"The refusal of the Western elite class to protect their nations from jihadist infiltration is the biggest betrayal in history."

—Serge Trifkovic

Another ambitious article by the American Thinker:

ON JULY 19 , A CONFERENCE entitled "The Fall of Capitalism and the Rise of Islam" took place as scheduled at the Hilton Hotel in Oak Lawn, Illinois, a Chicago suburb. There, in the heartland of a post 9/11America, Hizb-ut Tahrir, an international organization outlawed as a terrorist group in several European and Middle East countries, sponsored sessions focusing on strategies to end free enterprise and replace it with Shari'ah law.

Hizb-ut Tahrir is no academic think-tank simply examining public issues. It is an international group reported to have over a million members, including cells in more than 40 countries. It supports the Taliban and Hamas, sanctions suicide bombing and has called for the killing of nonbelievers. It has spawned terrorists for Al Qaeda, Hamas and Jemaa Islamiya; subscribes to the mantra that "jihad has to continue till the Day of Judgment;" and endeavors to replace existing governments with a worldwide Khilafah (Caliphate) or Islamic government under Shari'ah law.

It is remarkable enough that a conference of this nature by a group that advocates the overthrow of the U.S. government actually took place in an American city. Perhaps even more disturbing is the growing number of cancellations of events and conferences that feature the opposite point of view with material and speakers that seek to educate the public about the threat of radical Islam. Increasingly, our country's prized right to freedom of speech seems to operate in only one direction, providing plenty of opportunities for our enemies to speak openly against us, yet, placing a gag over any discussion about the radical Islam threat.

Here are some disturbing recent examples.

New English Review Symposium

In December 2008, the New English Review, a non-profit organization dedicated to the defense of Western values, had scheduled and signed a contract to conduct a symposium, "Understanding the Jihad in Israel, Europe and America" at the Loew's Vanderbilt Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee. Three days before the symposium was to begin, the hotel manager cancelled the event citing concerns about "the safety, welfare and security of hotel guests and employees." Subsequent investigation disclosed that the manager summarily disagreed with the politics of the event and responded to pressure from prominent Muslims and Leftists in the community. A local paper went so far as to refer to the conference speakers as "agents of intolerance."

American Library Association Panel

Just this week, the American Library Association cancelled a panel, "Perspectives on Islam: Beyond the Stereotyping," at the behest of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and CAIR sympathizers who objected to the participation of Islamic scholar and author Robert Spencer.

Spencer has studied Islamic doctrine for close to 30 years and quotes directly from traditional Islamic sources in his efforts to shed light on the myriad facets of the global jihad. He has led seminars on Islam and jihad for the United States Central Command, the FBI, the Joint Terrorism Task Force, the U.S. intelligence community and other government organizations. Spencer is the author of eight books on Islam and the jihad and has appeared on CNN, BBC, FoxNews, PBS, MSNBC and other networks.

CAIR, which presents itself as a benign civil rights organization for American Muslims, is an unindicted co-conspirator in the successful prosecution of Muslim charity founders who illegally funneled millions of dollars to the Palestinian militant group Hamas. CAIR officials are known to have terrorist ties and the organization has actively fought to repeal the Patriot Act, eliminate military tribunals and even defended convicted terrorists. The group is well known for its pursuit of individuals who expose its links to terrorist funding and support activities. In 1994, one of CAIR's co-founders, Nihad Awad, publicly asserted that he was a Hamas supporter.

In 1998, co-founder Omar Ahmad declared, "Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant." He added, "The Koran should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth."

People's Truth Forum

In 2005, The Georgetown Marriott refused to host a symposium on counterterrorism sponsored by America's Truth Forum (ATF), formerly known as People's Truth Forum, a non-profit organization dedicated to educating Americans about national security threats. The ATF hosts a website featuring articles from mainstream media sources and had planned a series of panels featuring top experts in the field of counterterrorism. ATF's conference was rejected by the Georgetown Marriott Conference Center on the grounds that the organization was too controversial, the venue was inappropriate for the topic and heightened security would be necessary to protect hotel guests. The following statement was issued by Marriott's corporate office: "Due to the high density of Muslim students on campus, we're afraid of the potential for violent protests, injured employees and damage to the facility."

Shortly thereafter, CAIR hosted its 11th Annual Banquet at the Crystal Gateway Marriott in Arlington, Virginia. Not only have several CAIR officials been convicted and deported by the United States for terrorist activity, but a 2005 invited speaker, Siraj Wahhaj, is an unindicted co-conspirator in the first World Trade Center bombing of 1993. Apparently, a group with established connections to terrorism is a non-controversial organization for the Marriott Corporation.

Conclusions

It is unconscionable in 2009 that an acceptable forum in America today is a conference entitled, "The Fall of Capitalism and the Rise of Islam," with a goal of strategizing the demise of the bedrock of our democracy—the free enterprise system—and the replacement of our constitution with a theo-political-legal system that subjugates women, murders homosexuals, confers non-person status on non-Muslims, permits slavery and kills apostates. At the same time, attempts to discuss Islamic doctrine and educate the American public about this very threat are increasingly verboten. In many recent instances, accurate speech is being deemed inflammatory due to fear of retaliation by those who want to silence critics of Islam who engage in legitimate discussion of a serious threat to our nation.

How this threat plays out in everyday life can be illustrated by the city of Nashville, Tennessee, which provides an interesting example of the exercise of one-way free speech and the accompanying extreme accommodation of those with whom we disagree. Thanks to the largesse of the State department's Refugee Resettlement Program, which offers housing, jobs, welfare and an abundance of social services for program recipients, at least 50% of whom are Muslim, Nashville has over 20,000 Muslims from Iraq, Somalia and the Sudan. Six known mosques exist in Nashville, a doses a Muslim graveyard, a madrassa, a Muslim Boy Scout troop and chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Muslim Student Association and Muslim American Society. According to a local psychiatrist, the Nashville Muslim community has evidenced polygamy, child marriage, female genital mutilation and wife beating. Crimes such as drug-dealing, money-laundering, murder, rape and Medicare and grant fraud are occurring at alarming rates. Many of these behaviors are grounded in value systems that are contrary to our own, yet anyone pointing this out would be subject to accusations of "intolerance."

In this and other ways, attempts to curtail the speech and assembly of critics of Islam portends a grave threat to the First Amendment protections that are vital to preserving our cherished liberty and freedom and safeguarding us from totalitarianism and tyranny. If we are unable to speak freely and openly about the radical Islamic threat presently confronting our country while Islamists are given the freedom to gather and plot the overthrow of our system of government and spout hateful rhetoric and propaganda, an Islamic government under Shari'ah law will surely be our fate.

Read it all.

HONOR AMONG THIEVES

AL-ZAWAHIRI, THE SECOND IN COMMAND of Al-Qaida, released a new video message to Pakistani people yesterday, which shows the desperation of Al-Qaida to keep on going in its supposedly strongest region. Al-Qaida is fighting to survive and has lost its fundamental strength in the last few years. The U.S. government has killed or captured over 60% of Al-Qaida's leadership.

Whether you agree or disagree with the previous administration's War on Terror, it has been successful on all fronts:

We have done major damage to Al-Qaida's operation and leadership destroying 60% of its command structure. Al-Qaida today is even hurting for funds. Al-Zawahiri appealed to the Pakistanis in his video to support the organization with much-needed funding to carry on operations.

We have brought democracy to Iraq where today there are almost 100 different political groups practicing democracy and participating in the government system. Iraq today is the envy of its surrounding neighbors such as Iran, Syria, Egypt and many others - thanks to the U.S. and its allies.

We have eliminated the dictator Saddam Hussein who posed a major threat to the region and our interest.

We have protected the homeland form a major terrorist attacks since 2001.

Our immediate military involvement in Pakistan working with the secular military and applying pressure on the government has helped choke Al-Qaida in its stronghold.

All the above successes were achieved through strong, authoritative confrontation with terror. Despite all the criticism for the way we fought the War on Terror, the results speak for themselves.

Brigitte Gabriel, the New York Times bestselling author of "They Must Be Stopped" and president of Act! for America provides in-depth analysis and commentary on Al-Zawahiri.

YOU KNOW IT WHEN YOU HEAR IT

HATE SPEECH ON THE STREETS OF NEW YORK. Americans are smart people. We know it when we hear it and when we see it. Unfortunately, many will still continue to ignore the obvious, make excuses for these true racists, these true haters, these true radicals, while turning their ire on those who would seek to protect our our culture, our nations, our cities, our families, ourselves from this vicious brand...

...of hatred.

While nations continue to pass laws against hate speech, this evil tongue roves wildly across the lands, and the nations tremble, cower in fear, and bow to their false witness. We must awaken, my people. Awaken to the obvious.

Think of it this way. When a marching Muslim man cries foul, he's just aiming to play the race and the victim cards, in order to camouflage the Islamic supremacist sharia-pushing agenda. Think of the strategy as one of disguise and ambush. In the US, Muslims are claiming to be the "New Blacks" just as in Europe they are pretending to be the "New Jews" even as an unspeakable anti-semitism froths or snarls from their mouths.

Frankly, these stealth imperialists would more accurately be described in the US, as "the new KKK" and in Europe, as "the New Nazis", given their fascist-style supremacist ideology which mocks as weak the Golden Rule and aims to set up a ghastly religion-based apartheid system with their Muslim Ubermenschen on top and dhimmis and all women on the bottom.