Jun 6, 2006 | Dollars & Crosses, Dollars & Crosses 2
Writes Jeff Jacoby in the Boston Globe:
...the burning immigration problem of our time isn't that too many people are breaking the rules to get in. It is what they are finding when they get here.
Instead of a national commitment to assimilation, a cynical multiculturalism sends the message that our culture is no better than any other, so there is no particular reason to embrace the American experience. ''Bilingual" education and foreign-language ballots accelerate the loss of a common English tongue, making it easier than ever for newcomers to cluster in linguistic ghettoes. Identity politics erodes the national identity, encouraging immigrants to see themselves first and foremost as members of racial or ethnic groups, and only secondarily as individuals and Americans.
From the day he got off the boat from Europe, my father lived up to the code that expected immigrants to go to work, learn the language, obey the laws, and become an American. My immigrant son, I hope, will live up to it too. The melting pot, it used to be called, before political correctness intervened. That political correctness is what has caused the present crisis. The crisis won't be solved by blaming the immigrants.
For more on multiculturalism, read Diversity and Multiculturalism: The New Racism and Multiculturalism's War on Education. For more on immigration read The Moral and Practical Case for Open Immigration.
Jun 6, 2006 | Dollars & Crosses
Here is what happens what you let foolish Europeans dictate US foreign policy -- this from Yahoo News:"A package of incentives presented Tuesday to Iran includes a provision for the United States to supply Tehran with some nuclear technology if it stops enriching uranium — a major concession by Washington, diplomats said." [US to give Iran nuclear technology]"The package includes a promise of Western technical help in developing peaceful civilian nuclear energy if Iran stops enriching uranium, a waiver of U.S. legal restrictions to allow export of some agricultural technology, access to U.S. aircraft parts or new Boeing Co. planes to upgrade Iran's aging fleet and U.S. and European backing for Iran to join the World Trade Organization, diplomats and others said." [Link]
Now once Irans gets the goods -- what is to stop Iranian dictators from starting the enrichment process again?
Isn't this what North Korea did in the recent past:
In the early 1980s, alarmed at North Korea's construction of a nuclear reactor capable of yielding weapons-grade material, America tried to induce the North to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. By 1985, after much stonewalling, Pyongyang finally agreed to ratify the treaty--but then demanded military concessions in return for promising to forgo nuclear weapons. Rather than dismissing these demands as extortion by a hostile nation, by 1992 the United States had agreed to cancel its military exercises in the area and to withdraw U.S. nuclear weapons stationed in South Korea; the South gave up its nuclear program and also offered a non-aggression pact and economic benefits. During this period, meanwhile, the North, bolstered by guarantees of security and the West's willingness to swallow its lies, completed two reactors capable of yielding weapons-grade fuel.
In 1993, after preventing required inspections of its nuclear facilities, Pyongyang announced its intention to withdraw from the treaty. Our response? More "diplomacy"--in the form of the "Agreed Framework," brokered in 1994. Under this scheme the North agreed to freeze its plutonium program in exchange for two light-water nuclear reactors (putatively for generating electricity) and, until the reactors were operational, 500,000 metric tons of oil annually (nearly half its annual needs). The United States, along with Japan and South Korea, paid for these lavish gifts. The agreement also provided for the lifting of trade and diplomatic restrictions, previously imposed as penalties for North Korea's aggression against its neighbors.
This shameful deal openly rewarded the North--already closer to acquiring nuclear weapons--for its aggression and lies, and furnished it with the means to become a worse threat. And indeed, by 2003--when the North actually did withdraw from the treaty--it was clear that Pyongyang had continued secretly to develop weapons-capable nuclear technology. [Elan Journo, Diplomacy" Aids North Korea's Nuclear Weapon's Program]
Unless someother development occurs, Iran will do the same. To paraphrase a famous line: "Those who do not study the lessons of history are bound to repeat its mistakes."The proper response to Iran see
End States Who Sponsor Terrorism and
Iraq: The Wrong War.From
Cox and Forkum:
Meanwhile, from CNN:
Israel: Iran 'months' from making nukes.
Iran is only months away from joining the club of nations that can make a nuclear weapon, Israel's prime minister said in a recent interview. "The technological threshold is very close," Ehud Olmert said on CNN's "Late Edition" in an interview taped Thursday and broadcast Sunday. "It can be measured by months rather than years." Asked whether he believes Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would halt his nation's nuclear-enrichment program under international pressure, Olmert said, "I prefer to take the necessary measures to stop it, rather than to find out later that my indifference was so dangerous." Some observers disagree with Israel's characterization, saying Iran is five to 10 years away from being able to make a nuclear weapon.
Jun 6, 2006 | Dollars & Crosses
From Cox and Forkum:
From FoxNews: Canadian Authorities Arrest 17 Suspects on Terror Charges.Canadian authorities decided to move quickly against a suspected homegrown terror ring and head off any attack on Ontario targets after undercover Mounties delivered bomb-making materials in a sting operation, according to a news report Sunday. [...] Police arrested 12 adults, ages 19 to 43, and five suspects younger than 18 Friday and Saturday on terrorism charges, including plotting attacks with explosives on Canadian targets. The suspects were citizens or residents of Canada, and police said they had trained together.
From The National Post: Nevermind foreign terrorists, why is Canada growing its own extremists?They are young, militant and Canadian. And according to senior counterterrorism authorities, they have been plotting large-scale terrorist attacks on Canadian soil. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service acknowledged this week it has been investigating groups of "homegrown" extremists. In candid testimony to the Senate national security committee, the agency went on to say that these young followers of the "al-Qaeda ideology" have been plotting against targets within Canada."They are not looking to Afghanistan, the U.K. or anywhere else," Jack Hooper, the CSIS Deputy Director of Operations, testified on Monday. The exact targets of these young terrorists were not revealed, but it is their profile that is most shocking: young Canadian Muslims who have somehow become radicalized while growing up in Canada.They are "homegrown." In other words, they have emerged from within Canada, rather than infiltrating it from abroad. They are insiders, not outsiders like Millennium Bomber Ahmed Ressam, who was behind Canada's last major terrorism scare in 1999."Increasingly, we are learning of more and more extremists that are homegrown," says a declassified CSIS report obtained by the National Post. "The implications of this shift are important." Across the Atlantic, the term "European Jihad" is now used to describe the new generation of young Muslim extremists who not only live in Europe, but also consider it a legitimate terrorist target.
Jun 5, 2006 | Dollars & Crosses
Writes Robert Tracinski in TIA Daily on the reporting on Haditha:With the help of the American mainstream media, Iraqis are now apparently "enraged" at the US over these cases—but much less enraged at terrorists who continue to murder civilians by the dozens in public markets. [...] [The mainstream media] are merely acting to provide a propaganda victory for the enemy—and in providing disproportionate coverage of these stories, they are working to demoralize the American people.
From Cox and Forkum:
Comments Michelle Malkin in "The Truth About Haditha":
Let me repeat that: The investigations are ongoing. Not complete. Official reports aren't expected for several weeks. I do not know the truth about Haditha. Neither do Murtha and the media outlets calling the alleged massacre a massacre before all the facts are in.
[...]
There are countless numbers of anti-war zealots on the American Left rooting for failure. They believe the worst about the troops. They've blindly embraced frauds who've lied about their military service and lied about wartime atrocities. They've allied themselves with socialist kooks and coddled murderous dictators. They are looking for any excuse to pull out, abandon military operations and reconstruction, and impeach the president. They insist on giving suspected foreign terrorists more benefit of the doubt than our own men and women in uniform. And that, I know, I am not willing to do. [...] I will remind you that while the murder of civilians is and remains an anomaly in American military history, it is the jihadists' way of life.
May 26, 2006 | Dollars & Crosses
IRVINE, CA— "The House's decision to keep a 25-year-old moratorium on oil and gas drilling off much of the nation's coasts is a disgrace," said Dr. Yaron Brook, executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute."At a time when oil and gas prices are hitting record highs, our politicians should be removing, not entrenching, obstacles to oil and gas production.
"Politicians say keeping the moratorium is justified because oil and gas drilling off the coast would ruin the view and threaten the beaches with oil spills. But there is no such thing as a "right" to an unobstructed view of the horizon. Moreover, oil spills are rare events against which oil companies take reasonable and effective precautions. As long as oil companies are held financially responsible for any property damages their activities may cause, we should let them drill at will."
May 25, 2006 | Dollars & Crosses
IRVINE, CA--The Senate bill passed last Thursday boosting fines against media companies that violate "indecency" standards is an ominous attack on the freedom of speech protected by the First Amendment.
Just as the government doesn't fine newspapers that publish cartoons that some Muslims deem indecent, it shouldn't fine broadcasters that air shows that some viewers deem indecent. Viewers are free to change the channel or turn off their TV set if they do not like what they see. They can't be forced to patronize a station they find indecent.
Moreover, it is the parents--not the government--who should be responsible for determining what their children are allowed to watch on TV.
