Late Night Laugh: The Perfect Girlfriend
June 4, 2008
More Bad News For The Arabs And Iranians: German Neo-Nazis Pro-Israel, Condemn Anti-Semitism
June 4, 2008
First Obama’s AIPAC speech, now this.
Nazis against anti-Semitism? As bizarre as that sounds, a group of Germans which calls itself “National Socialists For Israel” launched its Web site in support of Israel.
“Stop the hatred of the Jewish people,” the Web site reads. “The Jews are a healthy, strong nation.”
The organization – whose members have yet to reveal themselves to the public – claims that Israel’s right to exist is anchored in the principles of social Darwinism, the same principles which the Nazis adopted prior to the Second World War.
“Israel earned the right to live among the nations [after emerging] from unending wars,” the group writes on the site. “Israel also has a right to exist. This nation also has culture… The nation of Israel is appreciated… It is our duty, as neo-Nazis, to defend this supreme success. Not just for the German people and the European cultural sphere, but also, especially, for Israel.”
As such, “Nazis for Israel” also leveled criticism at their colleagues in the neo-Nazi National Democratic Party (NPD), calling them “politicos, cowards, and reactionaries.”
“Show us proof of a Jewish plot to dominate the world,” they wrote in a rare manifesto which was posted on their Web site.
These unusual statements on the internet compliment the group’s other public campaigns, including the dissemination of bumper stickers. One of the stickers features a picture of Reinhard Heydrich, the senior Nazi official who chaired the Wansee Conference where the Final Solution was hatched. Underneath the photo reads: “As a Nazi, I’m a Zionist.”
Another sticker shows a photo of Israel Defense Forces soldiers during the Second Lebanon War under the heading: “2,000 years of struggling to survive – respect to those worthy of it.”
In terms of the group’s attitude towards the Holocaust, the organization says: “We must view what is referred to as ‘the Holocaust’ within the context of acts of self-defense undertaken by nations under threat.” It added, however, “that there is no justification for it.” Instead, the Nazis ought to have supported the Zionist cause, the group states.
The group claims it held its first meeting of activists in Berlin last month. It said the meeting touched on issues ranging from “solidarity with Israel, anti-Semitism, capitalism, and Islam.”
Green lighting kissing cousins:
WA scientists are challenging the myth that inbreeding always leads to unhealthy babies.
The highly contentious, often-tabooed practice has in the past been linked to deformities such as heart disease, mental retardation, deafness and even blindness.
Australian research published in 2001 showed that babies born to first-cousins are nearly three times more likely to have serious birth defects.
But Professor Alan Bittles, an adjunct professor at the Centre for Comparative Genomics at Murdoch University, who has spent 30 years researching the topic says most children born to first-cousins are healthy.
What can happen when unemployment is low:
An Indian man, frustrated at failing to find employment, ordered the murder of his father to get his government job, a day before the victim was to retire, police said on Tuesday.
The man, arrested from a village in the impoverished eastern Bihar state, had planned to claim his father’s job on the grounds that he died while still at work, police officer Naresh Singh said.
The son had paid a relative about $2,500 to carry out the crime which was committed at the weekend but reported on Tuesday.
“He told us he would have got a government job on compassionate grounds had this murder remained a mystery,” Singh said.
Dutch police say a man who pushed his exposed buttocks against a restaurant window as a joke was injured when the glass broke and lacerated his behind.
Authorities say a man, 21, and two others had run down a street Sunday morning with their pants pulled down. The man pushed his behind against the window of a restaurant when it broke and cut him.
The injured man was treated for his injuries at a nearby hospital. The cafe owner decided not to press charges after the men agreed to pay for the broken window.
The luxurious lifestyle of a convict in northeastern Brazil has come to an abrupt end after police confiscated a plasma TV set, gym equipment, two pistols and cash worth $173,000 from his cell, officials said Tuesday.
Bahia’s Prison Affairs Department head Jose Francisco Leite said police raided the cell Monday in a statewide crackdown on drug trafficking.
He said Tuesday authorities have ordered an investigation of how of Genilson Lins da Silva got 280,000 reals ($173,000), two .38-caliber pistols and other amenities into his cell at the Bahia’s Lemos Brito Penitentiary. Silva is serving 28 years for robbery and murder and was transferred to another prison.
Leite says Silva “led a posh prison life in his cell, which he occupied all by himself.”
It isn’t hard to understand why so many people have a hard time with religion.
Survivors of sex abuse by Christian clergy today responded with anger and shock to the Church of England bishop who said that everyone who failed to act on climate change was as guilty as Austrian child abuser Josef Fritzl.
Victims accused the bishop of being “facile and demeaning” towards Fritzl’s daughter, who was kept in a cellar for 24 years, raped repeatedly and who had seven children by her own father.
The Bishop of Stafford, the Right Rev Gordon Mursell, an expert on Christian spirituality and near the bottom of the hierarchy of Anglican bishops, said that people who ignored global warming were, in effect, locking their children and grandchildren into a world without a future and throwing away the key.
Bishop Mursell, who spoke last year at a conference organised by the ultra-liberal Modern Churchpeople’s Union, said in a pastoral newsletter to parishes that such people were “destroying the future of our children” and were “as guilty as” Fritzl.
The Bishop, whose comments come at the same time as the Church of England is publishing a new report complaining about the quality of its clergy, said that he was not accusing those who do nothing about global warming of being child abusers.
But he but said that shocking analogies were needed to force people to face up to the threat to the future of mankind.
In his pastoral letter, Bishop Mursell wrote: “Josef Fritzl represents merely the most extreme form of a very common philosophy of life: I will do what makes me happy, and if that causes others to suffer, hard luck.
“In fact you could argue that, by our refusal to face the truth about climate change, we are as guilty as he is – we are in effect locking our children and grandchildren into a world with no future and throwing away the key.
“We are right to be disgusted at these crimes. But mere disgust is too convenient. There are lessons for all of us to learn.”
Survivors condemned the Bishop and urged church leaders to take more action against abuse by clergy.
Margaret Kennedy, chair of Minister and Clergy Sex Abuse Survivors, an organisation that helps survivors of sex abuse by clergy, said: “It is with horror and shock that survivors sexually abused as children or as adults within Christian churches and by Christian clergy and ministers should hear their own bishop declare that perhaps buying oranges from South Africa is the equivalent to being locked into a dungeon and being raped repeatedly for 20 years by an evil father.
“In many respects it does not surprise us since all calls to Anglican bishops to recognise the sexual abuse, exploitation and rape of adult women by their clergy are consistently ignored.
“If he cannot see that sexual abuse of a vulnerable adult, or children by Fritzl and others are indeed the far greater criminal acts then we now know why Bishops across the land refuse to deal with sexual abuse by clergy of adults.
“Climate change is the responsibility of Governments who need the political will to change their pollution outputs. The comparison between global warming and vicious evil sexual abuse for 20 years is facile and demeaning to the victim, who suffers greatly.
“Since he now believes global warming is as evil as Joseph Fritzl’s behaviour we would now wish to hear from the Bishop of Stafford on how he is going to tackle the evil of the ‘fritzls’ within the clergy ranks.”
Academics also joined in the attack. Leading sociologist Frank Furedi, professor at Kent university and author of the book Invitation to Terror, accused the Bishop of demonising climate-change sceptics.
“The Bishop’s linking of the crime of child abuse with scepticism about today’s received wisdom on the climate exemplifies a new kind of demonology,” he said in an article on Spiked. “History shows that crusades against heretics and demons havem a nasty habit of disorienting society, and undermining civilised and humanist behaviour.”
Other organisations, however, expressed sympathy for the bishop.
Donald Findlater, director of research and development for the Lucy Faithfull Foundation, wich aims to safeguard children from child abuse, told The Birmingham Post: “On the face of it this is an outrageous and offensive statement by the Bishop of Stafford. But we know that sex offenders don’t care about or don’t notice the harm they cause to their victims. I understand why the bishop would then liken other individuals’ disregard for the harmful impact of their lifestyles on the environment, which will, sooner rather than later, harm the lives and futures of our children and of future generations.”
This morning, Bishop Mursell defended himself on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. He said: “I don’t wish to shock people unnecessarily and I am in no way trying to imply that people who ignore climate change are child abusers – of course not.
“I am simply trying to use an analogy to get people to wake up to the consequences of what we are failing to do, because if we don’t there won’t be a future for our children either.”
He added: “The problem with climate change is – as I heard Prince Charles arguing very eloquently a couple of weeks ago – that it is terribly hard to get people to see the seriousness of it, because the consequences are not faced just by the person failing to take action now.”
He admitted that Fritzl was a revolting person and that it was hard to imagine a more “monstrous” crime.
Bishop Mursell said: “I think we have to try to find ways to get people to see the consequences of our failure to act on climate change. If we don’t face those, all I am saying is we are destroying the future of our children just as he did. Could you not argue that if there is no future for our children and grandchildren, we will have been guilty of committing the most appalling crimes as well?”
A Lichfield diocesan spokesman also defended the bishop. “Yes, at first glance, this does appear controversial but if people actually look at what he’s saying, he’s saying the actions are not the same but the motives are the same. The underlying cause behind a lot of these problems is this selfish nature; it is that sort of mindset that was being discussed.”
Mr Drake said climate change is an issue of concern throughout the Church of England. He said that although the bishop was not deliberately courting controversy, the publicity over his remarks had served to stimulate debate and attract attention to the issues he was discussing.
Barack Obama is very persuasive when he talks about race, class and what it means to be an American.
He likes to speak about those things mostly because we like to hear about those things. When we talk about race and class and nationhood, we flex our identity muscles and in doing so we touch that most emotional side of ourselves- our existence. No matter how hard we want to talk about these things, emotions always end up dictating the discussion or the discussion on what the research really means. The attempt to deal with important issues rationally and reasonably goes out the window.
From early childhood on, we are taught about the social class structure as being ‘problematic.’ Somebody might have something you don’t and that becomes or is a problem. Your neighbor might have something you don’t- and we are taught that there is something inherently unfair about that.
In particular, Americans, most often by way of education, believe that the social class system is a tragedy that is unique to them (one would have to conclude that teachers are the group least likely to have traveled or have any experience with groups or cultures other than their own, or have absolutely no idea about anything beyond our shores).
If you ask most Americans to which class they identify with, they will almost always answer, ‘Middle Class.’ It matters little if they work in the coal mines or law office. Americans know that even if they aren’t really of the Middle Class they aspire to be. For them, that iconic station in life is achievable and within reach. ‘Next year in the Middle Class’ means a lot more to most people than ‘Next year in Jerusalem.’
Barack Obama knows this very well. His variation on ‘next year in the Middle Class‘ is a tried a proved slogan that has worked it’s magic time and time again. The slogan works because ‘Middle Class’ can be defined any way you like.
For some, Middle Class is defined as the college educated manager/teacher/engineer types. Most doctors, lawyers and accountants see themselves as ‘Middle Class.’ Others see the ‘real’ Middle Class as the small business people who employed others in small offices, factories or retail shops. Still others see the Middle Class populated with skilled tradespeople or unionized factory workers, Still others see the real Middle Class as the highly motivated group of people with pickup trucks who place classified ads stating they will do anything, anytime, anywhere and have enough skills to get the job done. Others clean 2 houses a day, 5 days a week for $150 a day, cash ($1500 a week, tax free- not too shabby).
Then there are the ‘others’ of another and parallel Middle Classes- blacks, Asians, Jews, and so one.
What do these Middle Class groups have in common? Absolutely nothing. They don’t mingle socially, culturally or even politically. This begs a question: To whom is Barack Obama (and others) talking? The answer is simple and unadorned. Obama, et al, are talking to the Middle Class consumers in all of us. What unites the disparate Middle Class is consumerism. We want the same fashions and the same cookware and the same replacement windows. We buy the same greeting cards and we root for the same team and mascot and listen to and buy the same music.
To be sure, determined and frenzied consumerism is a disease, brought on by a virus that attacks a community with little or no common culture or values. Despite the decades of efforts of well meaning social engineering projects that dwarf the Hoover and Aswan dams, what divides the Middle Class is as deeply entrenched as ever.
There are now disparities in the various Middle Classes in terms of overall health, disease and longevity- and that with the blessings of all the best technology has to offer. Death, like Lady Justice, used to be blond and indiscriminate.
While people in the inner cities might have the exact same TV, central air, DVD, dishwashers, computers and internet access as their fellow Middle Class citizens in the suburbs, their health and longevity are markedly different. While the state mandates identical educational standards for all, even within the Middle Class, there are huge disparities in who succeeds and who does not. The number of people with marketable skills and education are dwarfed by those who do not have such skills (and a college or university degree is no guarantee of possessing relevant skills).
There are many reasons this has come to pass, not the least of which is the myopic and intoxication with individual identity as opposed to status, an earned place in society. From Identity And Status:
Our true and real identity, that visceral part of us that instinctively relates to our family and ethnic group is fundamental to existence. Our real identity defines not only our best values and beliefs, but identity also defines our center, the best of who we are and where we come from. It is in that part of our identity in which we find our greatest comfort and our greatest potential at the same time.
Identity should not be confused with status. That more ethereal idea also identifies us, but in a different way.
Status is less about an idea and more about a concrete and definitive expression of ourselves, outside the group. Some of us are recognized as more influential than others, some less so. Some are more educated, others are recognized for their skills. Some people are more charitable, others are more parsimonious. The individual ‘who we are’ is confers a kind of status on us and in doing so, establishes a social pecking order of sorts.
The ideology of multiculturalism has produced an unhealthy emphasis on the self- so much so that the earned ’status’ of an individual is deliberately subjugated and regarded as an expression of ‘class.’ As far as the dogged proponents of multiculturalism are concerned, earned status is an expression of human ugliness.
Barack Obama (and others) plays on the ‘unity’ of the Middle Class using shared consumerism as ‘common ground.’ Nothing of substance ever needs to be addressed because ‘hope’ and ‘change’ are packaged in a way that does not ask anything of us- other than to consume the idea. Issues of behavior (status) are glossed over in favor of trite and meaningless expressions (for example, HIV-AIDS could be dramatically reduced by changes in behavior, an idea rejected out of hand as ‘discriminatory.’ Peace in the Middle East could be achieved by changes in behavior as well, an idea that horrifies Palestinians inculcated with the notion that being victims is far more preferable to being successful. If it takes violence and death to maintain the identity of ‘victim,’ so be it).
To achieve a society that embraces both identity and status and achievement, the multiculturalists must concede to a common identity that can be shared by all hyphenated Americans. The emphasis must shift from the first part to the second. Black-Americans must see themselves as Black- Americans, first and foremost. Italian-Americans must see themselves as Italian-Americans and so on. This is not a counter intuitive or even radical idea. We each live layered and multifacted lives. We love our spouses and children in very different ways. We choose to believe in a higher power, each in our own way and we respect and worship together.
When it is all said and done, fierce devotion to multiculturalism, moral relativism and identity have only served to drive us apart. We live separate live with every incentive in the world not to integrate with others to find common grounds and values. What was meant to promote equality and tolerance has lead to divided and fractured societies. We pretend those things don’t exist, because rather than deal with real problems, we are only too happy to buy into the vague consumer ideals of ‘hope’ and ‘change.’ Demand that the real problems be addressed and you are labeled a racist.
Democracy only succeeds when real problems and disparities are addressed and dealt with Democracies fail when real problems and disparities are ignored. Promises of hope and change do not deal with problems and disparities- they camouflage them. Equality does not come about with the redistribution of wealth. Equality comes about with the redistribution of opportunity and shared common values.
When free speech is put at risk (see Mark Steyn) the problem will not be resolved with the redistribution of wealth. When non political endeavors become politicized or are forced to take sides, democracy is weakened. When political correctness becomes a purview of government bureaucrats and ethnic tensions are mediated as if they were engaged in a high stakes game, democratic and civil society becomes in danger of collapse.
When there is no emphasis on a common, democratic and national culture, implosion becomes inevitable. Political discourse becomes warfare with a ‘take no prisoners’ attitude (supporters say it’s OK for Obama to want to talk to Ahmadenijad, but heaven forbid he reach a compromise with Republicans). Religious groups become commandos in unspoken of battles and war, some fought as proxies for ideologues (or worse) in far away places and others fought to influence local culture and identity.
Trade unions, academia and professional organizations are involving themselves not in the name of values but in the support of a particular identity. Civil discourse is no longer the center of our culture, having been replaced with noise and the ‘look at me!’ expressions.
Instilling fear has become the priority over protecting freedom.
More on Barack Obama and the Middle Class, tomorrow.
Part Two of Obama And The Middle Class He Pretends To Care About.
Part Three of Obama And The Middle Class He Pretends To Care About.
*UPDATE* See the Anchoress post, The Widening Gyre: Liberty Edition for a smorgasbord of ideas on liberty, reality and what real hope and change looks like (taken from her superb post, The Art Of The Painless Coup).
We must repeat, over and over, that Liberty is the means by which we created creatures are meant to live and to grow and be. That Liberty lives in the Truth. That Liberty lives where people can speak freely, without fear of injury or reprisals. That Liberty lives only when the press is free and unencumbered – when it is detached from events instead of entwined in them. That Liberty lives when people refuse to be intimidated into silence or acquiescence, whether in the workplace or within the community. That Liberty is the fragile thing that diminishes whenever one refuses to acclaim it for oneself.
