For Those Who Have Courage to Know Truth

Update 4/13: This post originally linked to the video Fitna. However, in its original form, the video lasted only 24 hours on many web venues before threats of violence. Threats against the publishers, made by subscribers to the Religion of Peace (a.k.a. Islam), caused the publishers to either remove the video or post a truncated version. However, the internet can be the great solution in the face of oppression, cowardice and bullying. The folks over at GoV have collected a list of other places the video may be viewed.Keep in mind, all content of the original version of the video is available within the public record. The complainers complain that the film is offensive because it quotes violent passages from the Koran, and preaching by mainstream Imams, and makes an association between those quotes and violent acts committed by Muslims. Of course, the perpetrators of said violence routinely quote the same passages from the Koran as they plan, accomplish, and brag about their heinous acts.

If the video can be found at LiveLeak, you may have to be logged in to view it.

Our Short, Incomplete View of History

In a Fox News article titled “Bush Defends Pace of Progress in Iraq” President Bush is quoted saying:

They’re trying to build a modern democracy on the rubble of three decades of tyranny, in a region of the world that has been hostile to freedom. And they’re doing it while under assault from one of history’s most brutal terrorist networks…

The outlook demonstrated through this quote shows a lack of understanding of the core problem, or perhaps instead a willful misrepresentation of the core problem. “Three decades of tyranny” is not the causal factor. To come to that conclusion, we must first assume that the culture in question is capable of developing a civil society based on motivations provided by its deeply held beliefs. There is no evidence to support this assumption. Conversely, Western democracies have the Magna Carte, and before that, a social contract between rulers and their subjects. Muslim societies have a very different history with its very different set of legacies.

Over at Gates of Vienna, there is a recent post that provides another historical data point indicating the difficulty with assumptions that Muslim culture has an inherent ability to form civil societies. This example dating back to the early 20th Century (more than three decades ago) can be used as one step in a hop-scotch journey all the way back to the 7th Century.

So Very… “7th Century”

News of delivery of the severed fingers of Americans long captured in Iraq should be viewed only as a method of extending the mileage of a successful terror operation. This is simply an effective and efficient way for the Jihadis to remind the American people of the current score as it relates to these few individuals. The ultimate goal is to extend the terror to the real target of the violence - that target being the minds of you and I.

The ‘unread’ among us might wonder at the casual barbarity of this news as it seems like a story out of the Middle Ages. Actually it is something right in line with the Jihadi playbook.

Political Flavor of The New York Dork

I don’t have a huge interest in, or connection to New York politics, but it looks like this Elliot Spitzer must have quite the polished skills of a serpent - looking and speaking confidently and telling the lowly people what is good for them.

Within the photo galleries alone I came upon this item that is just too easy to comment on. Here is the caption to one photo showing the gov next to some serious looking state bureaucrat speaking with his hands:

January 23, 2008 - Governor Spitzer announcing appointments to the New York State Commission on Property Tax Relief. The bipartisan commission, chaired by Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi (left), will examine the causes of high property taxes, identify ways to make the system fairer, and develop a property tax cap. [emphasis added by Linear Speak]

What a laugh, a bipartisan commission “will examine the causes of high property taxes.” Written in a way to make it sound like property taxes have some mysterious cause that must be determined through extensive research, research conducted by those who have their hands on the levers of government. One of those levers, of course, controls tax rates and processes. However, feeble little voter, do not fear, the government is here to study your tax bills as if the government confiscation of your wealth were some unexplainable skin rash or perhaps a mildew on your lawn that just won’t go away. You can see the caption HERE - at least until the State of New York rips down the page.

Also, check out the article over at FrontPage Magazine.

Per the Wall Street Journal:

Governor Spitzer, who made his career by specializing in not just the prosecution, but the ruin, of other men, is himself almost certainly ruined.

Mr. Spitzer’s brief statement yesterday about a “private matter” surely involves what are widely reported to be his activities with an expensive prostitution ring discovered by the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York. Those who believe Eliot Spitzer is getting his just desserts may be entitled to that view, but it misses the greater lesson for our politics.

Mr. Spitzer coasted into the Governorship on the wings of a reputation as a “tough” public prosecutor. Mr. Spitzer, though, was no emperor. He had not merely arrogated to himself the powers he held and used with such aggression. He was elected.

In our system, citizens agree to invest one of their own with the power of public prosecution. We call this a public trust. The ability to bring the full weight of state power against private individuals or entities has been recognized since the Magna Carta as a power with limits. At nearly every turn, Eliot Spitzer has refused to admit that he was subject to those limits.

Read the whole article.

This episode is not just a scandal, but it is also a perfect example of the goodness of limited government and the badness of looking to government to solve all of our problems - because eventually, the electorate will manage to put a guy like this into high office.

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Current Reading

Frequently I find myself reading several books at one time - well not really multiple books at the same instant, but perhaps you know what I mean. However, presently my reading list consists of two items: David Copperfield by Charles Dickens and A Never Ending War by Michael Cappi. Any connection? No.

The Dickens selection is for leisure and culture purposes. I’m wanting to take in some of those classics that perhaps some read in high school (that is, peeps that were academics in high school - that would not be me). I am enjoying the book purely for its artistry. I have not yet gotten far enough into it to grasp the intended moral / personal growth dimensions of the book.

Then there is the Cappi Book…

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Spring Fever

One son and I ventured out for some outdoor adventure last weekend. The weather was expected to be sufficiently good for the intrepid sorts that we are. We set out for Harper’s Ferry.

Our original plan was to find and hike a short portion of the Appalachian Trail. However, instead we chose to hike the Maryland Heights trail to the overlook above the cliffs opposite Harper’s Ferry across the Potomac River. The weather held at 42F and a stiff 25 knot wind in the open areas. Ah! No overheating on the trek up the hill. The photo above is from the overlook.

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Academic Break is Over

I am back in the BLOG game again - after taking a break to finish off a recent academic endeavor. Wait, “Academic Break”? Isn’t that what it is called when you take a break from school in order to goof off? Well, no, not in my case. The next real post will be up in a few hours.