WHAT HAPPENS WHEN LIBERAL MORAL RELATIVISM MEETS ISLAMIC EVIL?
I can't imagine how a father could contemplate killing his ten year old daughter because a mullah had raped her in a mosque, but I know it is evil. It is evil, too, to behead or bury alive helpless people because they are of a different faith; to blow up little girls because they went to school. But many prominent liberals have criticized Islamists only when making false and invidious comparisons between them and Christians, or Republicans. Liberals tend to conflate Islamists with Moslems generally, which is like conflating Germans with Nazis, Italians with the Mafia. It's as puzzling as it is appalling so many liberals - who trumpet their support for women's rights and gay rights - are unable or unwilling to distinguish between the majority and the Islamists. "Islamist" is a racist term, according to "media critic" Kay Sokolowski. Which is preposterous, because Islam is a religion with adherents in virtually every ethnic group. Ignorance goes a long way toward explaining why liberals believe such nonsense. But ignorance alone can't explain the willful blindness of so many to the evil proudly displayed by ISIS, Boko Haram, Hamas and other Islamist groups.
THE CHINESE ATTEMPT TO NATIONALIZE CHRISTIANITY
China will redouble its efforts to nationalize Christianity, a senior Chinese official announced on last Thursday (8/07). "The construction of Chinese Christian theology should adapt to China's national condition and integrate with Chinese culture," Wang Zuoan, director of the State Administration for Religious Affairs, said at a Shanghai forum on the "Sinicization of Christianity," according to Chinese state media. Gu Mengfei, deputy secretary-general of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement - a state-sanctioned umbrella organization for Protestant churches - elaborated on the initiative. "This will encourage more believers to make contributions to the country's harmonious social progress, cultural prosperity and economic development," Gu said. As the name implies, the Three-Self Patriotic Movement - which long predates the establishment of the People's Republic of China - has Chinese nationalism at its core. The Three-Selfs are the three principles of self-support (financial independence from foreigners), self-leadership/governance, and self-propagation (indigenous missionary work). Nonetheless, the officials' comments last week indicate that the Chinese Communist Party intends to further tighten its grip over Christianity. There are a number of possible targets and motivations for the crackdown.
THE WORLD’S BEST GOVERNMENT
Geneva. Switzerland is not perfect, but as countries go, it is hard to find one that is much better. The more people know about Switzerland, the higher regard they tend to have for it. By almost any measure of human accomplishment, and particularly in creating a most successful country governance model, the Swiss are clearly No. 1 in the world. Switzerland is a small, landlocked nation without much in the way of natural resources. It has managed to stay out of wars for two centuries and developed a long-term multilingual and multireligious democracy without strife. There is a rule of law with competent and unbiased judges and strong protections for private property. Switzerland also ranks higher than average among the OECD countries (the 35 most-developed economies in the world) in levels of education and student test scores, and has lower levels of air and water pollution. Civil liberties are strongly protected, including freedom of speech, religion, press, assembly and even the right to own guns. It does not get much better than this.
HALF-FULL REPORT 08/08/14
The United States is once again at war in Iraq - sort of. President Barack Obama authorized last night humanitarian air drops to the up to 40,000 Yazidi refugees trapped on Mt. Sinjar, and "limited" air strikes on the ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) terrorists who want to exterminate them. The belated American intervention comes at the 11th hour for Iraq, where it is rapidly approaching midnight. It remains to be seen whether the "narrow," defensive, heavily conditioned air strikes the president approved will be enough to avert catastrophe, or if they'll just make a terrible situation worse. * * * * In Afghanistan Tuesday, Army Maj. Gen. Harold Greene was killed and 15 others wounded by an Afghan soldier turned terrorist. Gen. Greene was the highest-ranking American service member to be killed since the war on terror began, the 2,340th to die in Afghanistan. More than 73 percent have died since Barack Obama became president. * * * * Sens. Pat Roberts, R-Kan, and Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn, won their primaries this week, giving conservative insurgents bupkes for the year in their challenges to incumbent GOP senators. The one clear cut victory for the Tea Party this week came in Michigan, where young libertarian Rep. Justin Amash turned back handily a very well funded, very nasty campaign to oust him. * * * * The Santa Barbara Masters, the water polo team on which Joel Wade plays, won the gold medal in the 55 and older category in the World Championships in Montreal last week. * * * * The Obamunists may be having second thoughts about issuing new executive orders to gut what little remains of enforcement of immigration law and protection of our southern border.
FORGIVE ME, ALLAH!
OBAMA’S PLAN OF PERFIDY FOR ISRAEL
Barack Obama has a plan. He wants to use the ceasefire talks in Cairo to strengthen Fatah, aka the "Palestinian Authority." In remarks Wednesday (8/06), Obama said: "I have no sympathy for Hamas. I have great sympathy for some of the work that has been done in cooperation with Israel and the international community by the Palestinian Authority. And they've shown themselves to be responsible. They have recognized Israel. They are prepared to move forward to arrive at a two-state solution. I think [PA Chairman and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas, aka] Abu Mazen is sincere in his desire for peace." While the administration's new plan sounds nice in theory, it has one basic problem. Hamas and Fatah are partners. Hamas's demands are Fatah's demands. Hamas's goals are Fatah's goals. Giving Fatah control of the borders means giving Hamas control of the borders. Abbas said himself in a speech broadcast on the PA's official station in December 2009 , as he was trying to form the sort of Fatah-Hamas unity government that he established in April, "There is no disagreement between us [Fatah and Hamas]: About belief? None! About policy? None! About resistance? None!" So what is Mr. Obama's Plan of Perfidy trying to accomplish?
ARE WE WITNESSING THE FUNERAL OF RUSSIA?
The Kremlin's gamble has gone horribly wrong. The eastern regions of Ukraine have failed to rise in mass support for Putin's front organizations, led by political operatives from Moscow, and patently run by the Russian security apparatus (FSB/GRU) as even Russian newspapers admit. Mr. Putin has failed equally to drive a wedge between America and Europe, or to paralyze the EU by playing off one country against another. Mr. Putin now faces draconian sanctions from the US, EU, Japan, Canada and Australia together. He can strike back by asymmetric means -- perhaps a cyberattack -- but tit-for-tat retaliation can achieve nothing. There is no equivalence. Russia's economy is no bigger than California's. This is an economic showdown between a $40 trillion power structure, and a $2 trillion producer of raw materials that has hollowed out its industrial core. Mr. Putin is counting on acquiescence from the BRICS quintet as it confronts the West, and counting on capital from China to offset the loss of Western money. This is a pipedream. Beijing will reduce Russia to a vassal state of China. Vladimir Putin is quickly becoming the ruination of Russia.
THE EPIC FAIL OF RENEWABLE ENERGY
America's Mr. Obama insists that various forms of "renewable" energy are the wave of the future and worth spending countless billions of taxpayer dollars to subsidize. He is precisely wrong. An example emerged on my side of the Pond here in Britain the other day. My train was diverted by engineering works near Doncaster. We trundled past some shiny new freight wagons decorated with a slogan: "Drax - powering tomorrow: carrying sustainable biomass for cost-effective renewable power." Serendipitously, I was at that moment reading a report by Dr. David McKay, chief scientist at the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change on the burning of wood in Yorkshire power stations such as Drax. And I was feeling vindicated. Believe it or not, Drax imports a million kilotons of wood from Canada and the US a year to burn in its power station in place of coal, producing twice-as-expensive electricity requiring government subsidies. And it plans to increase its imported subsidized wood to seven million kilotons a year by 2016. When I wrote how ludicrous this is in the London Times, there was a howl of protest on the letters page from Drax's chief executive. Now, Dr. MacKay's report vindicates me. The entire rationale for burning wood rather than coal is that it allegedly produces fewer CO2 emissions. Yet the report shows that, if the wood comes from whole trees, as much of it does, the result is an increase in emissions compared with coal. And that's allowing for the regrowth of forests. Nonetheless, the renewable-energy bandwagon careens onward, costing ever more money and doing real environmental harm, while producing trivial quantities of energy and risking blackouts next winter. This applies to every form of renewable energy. Here's the scorecard in Britain.
THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE WORLD’S STUPIDEST WAR
It was 100 years ago this week that the "Guns of August" sounded at the beginning of what almost certainly was the most pointless war in the history of humankind. And until World War II, of which it was the primary cause, the "Great War," as it was known at the time, was the bloodiest in history. About 9 million soldiers and 7 million civilians were killed between Aug. 4, 1914 and Nov. 8, 1918. The world in August, 1914 was very different from the one we live in. There were just 62 sovereign states then, compared to 196 today. Most of Africa and Asia were divided up among European empires, of which the German, Russian and Austro-Hungarian were ruled by kings. Virtually all of the Middle East was ruled by a Turkish caliph in Istanbul. Nearly all of our geopolitical troubles today stem from the Great War and its immediate aftermath. Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany (1859-1941) was the grandson of Queen Victoria (1819-1901), first cousin to King George V, second cousin to Czar Nicholas II of Russia (1868-1918), first cousin to his wife, Czarina Alix of Hesse. More of German than of Russian descent, Czar Nicholas was also a first cousin of King George V, and of the kings of Norway and Greece. Their relationships didn't prevent these monarchs from blundering into a war none of them wanted, or from continuing it to the ruin of their countries after the expectations each had for a quick victory were dashed.
IN PRAISE OF TAX HAVENS
Jersey, Channel Islands. Americans know of the state of New Jersey, but few know that it was named after the island of Jersey, which is located in the English Channel about 14 miles off the coast of France. This small island, about two-thirds the size of Washington, D.C. with only 100,000 people, is today home to one of the world's largest financial centers. Jersey has a higher per-capita income than America, and roughly twice the per-capita income of Britain and France. The globe is dotted with relatively small, prosperous places that have become rich without the benefit of natural resources. What have they -- Jersey and the island next door, Guernsey, along with Bermuda, Cayman, Singapore, Hong Kong, and even larger places like Switzerland -- done right, leaving many of their larger and more richly endowed neighbors plodding along in their economic dust?