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True
North Archives - July 08, 2008
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Featured
Articles
Al-Jazeera
and Cultural Jihad
By Robert Maynard
A couple of week’s ago the
True North Radio show featured Defender’s Council of Vermont President
John Stuart and Robert Spencer on the topic of Al-Jazeera as a propaganda
tool for the spreading of jihad. A couple of callers raised the issue of
Americans being too smart to fall for Al-Jazeera's propaganda effort and
that it might even be a good idea to let them on the air as a way of exposing
their ideas. One questioned the notion that they would be successful
in inciting Americans to violence.
I think that they were totally
missing the point. The nature of the propaganda threat posed by AJ
English differs from that of AJ Arab. There are two forms of jihad,
violent jihad and "Cultural Jihad". I think that AJ Arab is inciting
the former, but that AJ English is more likely to facilitate the latter.
Furthermore, much of the propaganda groundwork needed for this effort has
already succeeded and a significant number of Americans have already fallen
for it.
Liberalism:
A Disease which Cannot be Cured with Socialized Medicine
By Glenn Eno
Being a liberal means never
having to defend a position. You simply talk over the top of your accusers;
blaming them for feeling the way you do. You do not have to justify your
position. It’s not your fault. Conservatives are the ones who allow big
business to make profits. They don’t have compassion for the poor, the
elderly, minorities, illegal immigrants, and the environment and
(gasp) the children. You do love the children don’t you?
When
Government Drills, Enviro’s Cheer
By Martin Harris
 Surely
a drilling rig adorned with the State Seal would deserve cheers and approbation
from such as VNRC and Sierra, not the criticism and contempt richly deserved
by, say, the private-sector Cambrian Corporation. Montpelier could then
sell the black gold to Vermont’s local-vore contingent, that highly vocal
activist group which wants all foods raised east of Lake Champlain and
logically would simply love, dahling, to have all energy extracted locally
as well. And, of course, there’s the follow-the-money principle: as O’Grady
writes in her Journal column, "Environmentalists don’t seem to mind State
profits". Indeed, when it comes to more-money-going-to-Montpelier, what’s
not to love?
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Quotable
"My grandmother wanted
me to have an education, so she kept me out of school." --
Margaret
Mead (1901-1978) American cultural anthropologist and author
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Vermont
Weekly News Round-Up
A
New Call for Jessica's Law in Vermont
From WCAX-TV, July 5, 2008
The investigation that led
to the discovery of Brooke Bennett's body did not end this case. State
and federal law enforcement officials say there may be additional arrests
as the investigation points to an Internet pornography connection. And
there's also political fallout. Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie (R-Vermont) is calling
for enactment of Jessica's Law.
Lake
Champlain Pollution: Shoveling Good Money After Bad
Caledonia Record Editorial,
July 05, 2008
In a 36-page report, "State
of the Lake," the Lake Champlain Basin Commission acknowledges that the
Lake's phosphorus pollution levels are no lower, now, than they were 18
years ago, despite tens of millions of dollars of clean-up money spent
on the lake since that benchmark date. Yet, the enviros claim the clean-up
programs have been a success.
Money
Talks
From VermontTiger.com, July
06, 2008
The year of decision on Vermont
Yankee approaches. The state – in the form of the Public Service
Board and the Legislature – will decide in 2009 on relicensing the nuclear
plant. Those who have long seen the plant as a vile dragon
in urgent need of slaying will make all the old, familiar arguments.
They must now add to that list an explanation of how it will benefit the
state – and its ratepayers – to take a pass on a three quarters of a billion
dollar windfall if the plant is relicensed.
Free
Money In Danville
Caledonia Record Editorial,
June 30, 2008
Taxpayers in the rest of
the state must be scratching their heads. Everyone who has followed the
Vermont Legislature, listened to the governor, turned on the news or watched
family and neighbors struggle financially must wonder how some people in
Danville think they can spend like the good times will never end. The answer
is easy: Danville is spending other people's money. The state and federal
grants paying for new consultants and financing new studies and projects
came from the wallets of taxpayers all over the state.
Fantasy
Energy Policies
From VermontTiger.com, July
05, 2008
So I asked Peter, "Now you’re
a trial lawyer. Tell me how you’re going to get King Abdullah into a federal
court to answer to price fixing charges. Whose army are you going to use
to bring him in?" Peter replied that OPEC was of course engaged in price
fixing, and there was a real possibility that America’s antitrust law could
or ought to be extended to cover petroleum price fixing foreign governments.
But then he added, "Of course there was a lot of symbolism in that bill."
Yeah, symbolism. Symbolism of the Democratic Party’s total irrelevance
on energy issues. Are intelligent Vermonters expected to respect their
Congressman and his party for engaging in this absurd symbolism?
‘Governor’
Gaye Symington Equals New Broad Based Taxes
Caledonia Record Editorial,
July 03, 2008
Gaye Symington, in her announcement
of candidacy for governor, promised no new general taxes, but her other
promises (health care for all, new energy policy, presumably without Vermont
Yankee, entrepreneurial initiatives and enticements, education property
tax reform, etc.) indicate the imposition of broad new taxes. A Democrat,
she seems to believe that there is no cost to these pie-in-the-sky promises,
yet she admitted at the time of her announcement that she might have to
seek some new broad-based taxes to accomplish all of her contemplated program.
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Freedom
Under Fire:
The
Global War on Terrorism
Pakistan's
Rising Islamist Tide
By Ralph Peters, New York
Post, July 2, 2008
Last weekend, Pakistani security
forces launched a desperate counteroffensive in the Khyber Agency on the
Afghan border. They hope to prevent medieval tribesmen (with modern weapons)
from overrunning the city of Peshawar and severing the main supply route
for US and NATO forces in Afghanistan. The Pakistani Frontier Corps made
some local gains. But their efforts amount to belated sandbagging against
the rising flood of militant Islam.
Gathering
Storm
By Bruce S. Thornton, National
Review Magazine, July 2, 2008
This jihadist ideology motivated
Abdel Rahman and the 9/11 jihadists, and continues to motivate Islamic
terrorism today. But then and now, this obvious traditional belief is ignored
or rationalized away by those entrusted with our security: The Secretary
of State publicly croons that Islam is the "religion of peace and love,"
and the State and Homeland Security departments instruct their employees
not to use words like "jihad" or "mujahedeen" (holy warrior) in its communications.
In contrast to this delusional thinking, McCarthy bluntly, and correctly,
states the obvious: "Islam is a dangerous creed. It rejects core aspects
of Western liberalism: self-determination, freedom of choice, freedom of
conscience, equality under the law." We refuse to face the truth about
Islam, and thus we disarm ourselves before "a doctrine that rejects our
way of life and a culture unwilling or unable to suppress the savage element
it breeds wherever it takes hold."
Defectors
Not Buying North Korea’s Nuke Pledge
By Ashley Rowland and Hwang
Hae-rym, Stars and Stripes, July 04, 2008
Han Chang-kweon is skeptical
when he hears that his homeland is taking steps to get rid of its nuclear
weapons. Born in North Korea in 1961, he escaped from a communist logging
camp in his early 30s, lived in Uzbekistan, and sought asylum in the United
States before moving to Seoul in 2005. He said North Korea’s nuclear weapons
are its only bargaining chip, and the country can’t survive without them.
Why
the Brits Are Setting Terrorists Free
By Melanie Phillips, The
Wall Street Journal, July 1, 2008
It turns out that the U.S.,
whose Supreme Court last month ruled that non-American prisoners held at
Guantanamo Bay may challenge their detention, isn't the only country where
judges are hampering the war on terror. Many people here are rubbing their
eyes at the fact that Britain is letting out of jail some of al Qaeda's
most dangerous members. In June, a British court released the notorious
Islamist preacher Abu Qatada, who had spent the previous three years in
jail pending deportation to Jordan to stand trial on terrorism charges.
Seeing
Through Iran's Strait Talk
From Investor's Business
Daily, July 01, 2008
Iran's Islamofascist regime
is threatening to block the major oil route of the Strait of Hormuz if
attacked by Israel. But bluffing doesn't work when the whole world sees
how bad your hand is.
Sniffer
Dogs Offend Muslims
By Tom Whitehead
Daily Express June 27, 2008
POLICE sniffer dogs trained
to spot terrorists at railway stations may no longer come into contact
with Muslim passengers – after complaints that it is against the suspects’
religion.
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From
Elsewhere
Christianity
and the History of Freedom
By Kevin E. Schmiesing Ph.D.,
Acton Institute, July 2, 2008
For Americans the Fourth
of July marks national independence, but the holiday has become symbolic
of a more universal cause: human liberty. The development of human freedom,
in theory and in practice, is in large measure the story of Christianity.
Global
Warming as Mass Neurosis
By Bret Stephens, The Wall
Street Journal, July 1, 2008
Last week marked the 20th
anniversary of the mass hysteria phenomenon known as global warming. Much
of the science has since been discredited. Now it's time for political
scientists, theologians and psychiatrists to weigh in.
Does
Patriotism Matter?
By Thomas Sowell, National
Review, July 02, 2008
At the outset of the invasion,
both German and French generals assessed French military forces as more
likely to gain victory, and virtually no one expected France to collapse
like a house of cards — except Adolf Hitler, who had studied French society
instead of French military forces. Did patriotism matter? It mattered more
than superior French tanks and planes. Most Americans today are unaware
of how much our schools have followed in the footsteps of the French schools
of the 1920s and 1930s, or how much our intellectuals have become citizens
of the world instead of American patriots.
We
Can Lower Oil Prices Now
By Martin Feldstein, The
Wall Street Journal, July 1, 2008
Now here is the good news.
Any policy that causes the expected future oil price to fall can cause
the current price to fall, or to rise less than it would otherwise do.
In other words, it is possible to bring down today's price of oil with
policies that will have their physical impact on oil demand or supply only
in the future.
Lights
Out In Georgia
From Investor's Business
Daily, July 01, 2008
A state judge has blocked
construction of a power plant on grounds that its emissions permit does
not set a cap on carbon dioxide. Global warming alarmism wins another round.
Iraq's
Oil Surge
From The Wall Street Journal,
July 5, 2008
Here's a thought experiment:
Assume that Iraq's democratic government declared it was nationalizing
its oil industry, a la Venezuela or Saudi Arabia, while excluding American
companies from the country. How do you think U.S. politicians would react?
With angry cries of "ingratitude" and "this is what Americans died for"?
Of course they would, led
no doubt by that critic for all reasons, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York.
So it is passing strange that Mr. Schumer and other Senators are now assailing
Iraq precisely because it is opening up to foreign oil companies, especially
to U.S. majors like Exxon Mobil and Chevron. For some American pols, everything
that happens in Iraq is bad news, especially when it's good news for the
U.S.
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