Feb 16, 2011 | Politics
Writes Mark Topson at his blog:[Lohan on Twitter:] I pray Egypt maintains it's [sic] treaty with Israel and sets the trend for its neighbors to create peace with Israel and the entire region.
What a pleasant surprise, to hear someone in the entertainment world not only talk about something other than 1) themselves, 2) their uninformed socialist fantasies, and/or 3) their hatred/sexual fantasies of Sarah Palin, but actually express support for Israel's security for once, instead of bashing the country as a "genocidal apartheid state," banning its films from film festivals, and boycotting musical performances there. Good for you, Ms. Lohan.
Read the rest.For why you should support Israel see Yaron Brook's Israel Has A Moral Right To Its Life.Feb 15, 2011 | Politics
Richard Salsman takes on the concept of Democracy as an end to itself over at Forbes:
History makes very clear to nearly everyone (except history’s democrats) that democracy–the mere voting power and rule by some majority–is no necessary guarantor of genuine liberties or individual rights; indeed, more often than not, democracies have trampled rights.[...]For faith-based democrats like Presidents Bush and Obama, democracy means voting — and voting is considered an end in itself, not a means to some other, truly legitimate end like securing and protecting individual rights. ["Another Illiberal Democracy — In Egypt"]
Read the rest.Jan 25, 2011 | Business, Politics
On Friday, January 12, 2011, Dr. John Lewis -- at the invitation of Professor Michael Munger and the support of the Thomas W. Smith Foundation -- gave a lecture for the Philosophy, Politics, and Economics Program at Duke University: “The Morality of Exchange in the Ancient World.”You can listen to this lecture online here: http://michaelmunger.com/Lewis1-21-11.mp3
Some scenes from issue #1 of Bosch Fawstin's graphic novel series The Infidel.The Infidel is a story about twin brothers Killian Duke and Salaam Duka, whose Muslim background comes crashing to the forefront of their lives on 9/11.Salaam’s response is full submission to Islam.
Killian responds by creating a comic book featuring a pigskin-clad superhero named Pigman, who takes on Jihad. 
" The idea of Pigman" explains Bosch in a recent interview with Capitalism Magazine "came about when I started thinking about the enemy and what would be their worst nightmare personified. He’s a pigskin-clad superhero, a physically big, strong, ruthless defender of Western Civilization who fully understands the enemy and speaks his language. He is the perfect weapon against jihad."
Order a copy of issue#1 of the Infidel at Bosch's website.
NEW ROMANTICIST: Ayn Rand? Yes, I see the author of Atlas Shrugged she even makes an appearance in Table For One. What inspires you about Ayn Rand and her philosophy 
NEW ROMANTICIST: I see some John Romita Jr. in there too – particularly in the panel with your character Killian inking his comic with his library in the background. Also, some of those characters seem reminiscent at times of Herge’s Tintin. Wasn’t Miller an Ayn Rand fan too (though by no means could one call him an Objectivist)? I remember reading that Miller was particularly influenced by her work on esthetics, The Romantic Manifesto, which I assume you have also read?BOSCH: Definitely, I read it a number of times, and I recall that when I first heard of Rand's influence on Miller, I felt "Of course", after having read his work for a number of years. John Romita Jr. was my favorite penciler in comics for a good number of years, especially when he had his early runs in Amazing Spider-Man and X-men, and I still appreciate his work, but I'd love for him to draw stories that he thinks are truly worth telling because when he's asked about his best work he goes back nearly twenty years to his collaboration with Frank Miller in Daredevil: Man Without Fear.NEW ROMANTICIST: Miller also has been fairly vocal against the Jihadists and in his defense of 
NEW ROMANTICIST: Who is Pigman and how did he come about?BOSCH: Pigman is aka Frank Warner, an ex-Muslim who, prior to 
NEW ROMANTICIST: How did you come about your views of Islam?BOSCH: I was born into a Muslim family and, while my parents were not devout, anti-Semitism, misogyny, and a rejection of all those outside of our own kind was the norm in my upbringing. Only after 9/11 did I read the Koran and study Islam and its jihad. I needed to know firsthand whether Islam sanctioned the atrocity and I found that it did -- that however insane the act seemed to the civilized world, Islam gave the 9/11 Muslim mass murderers a moral sanction for their evil act. We are still so far removed from the realization that Islam’s heroes are its jihadists, from Mohammad to Osama bin Laden.NEW ROMANTICIST: Wow! Leaving Islam. Doesn’t that make you an Apostate?BOSCH: It does, and according to Islam, I'm to be killed for it. It's similar to how deserters of armies have been dealt with by their superiors when caught, which only emphasizes the militant nature of Islam.NEW ROMANTICIST: Well at least you are in good company. So I take it you would not put Mohammad in the same category of Jesus or Buddha?BOSCH: Mohammad was unique among those who claimed to be prophets as he had his critics assassinated, he waged wars against neighboring tribes and spread his religion by the sword. Mohammad made the founders of other religions seem rational by comparison.NEW ROMANTICIST: Well how would you reply to Former President George W. Bush and President Obama who say that Islam is a “religion of peace”, and that Osama and those violent Muslims are “extremists?”BOSCH: Islam means submission, submission to the will of the malevolent Muslim God, Allah. Osama bin Laden has never been repudiated as a deviant Muslim by any honest Muslim who knows Islam. The mass-murderer Osama bin Laden is revered in the Muslim world as the closest thing to Mohammad today, which really is all one needs to know about Islam and what it truly means.
NEW ROMANTICIST: Yeah, but those moderate Muslims aren’t killing anybody. In fact you have a peaceful, moderate Muslim as a character in your comic-book. What does that make them?BOSCH: "Moderate Muslims" aren't Muslim in any way that Islam would recognize. The problem with them is that they give Islam a better face than it deserves, and some mistake them for Islam itself, sometimes citing a decent person who happens to be Muslim as proving that Islam's fine, outside of its "extremists." I've thought about this for a while, and I think I've found a good way to make my point about it: Your average Muslim is morally superior to Mohammad. They are individual human beings who may or may not be a problem. It's Islam's consistent practitioners, especially those who are active in Organized Islam, who are the problem.NEW ROMANTICIST: It’s quite intriguing how you have a story within a story. You have the counter-jihad superhero, PIGMAN, whom is the fictional creation of Killian Duke, who is himself is a fictional creation by you. It works on so many layers tailored to multiple audiences. How did you come up with that idea? BOSCH: At a certain point in putting together my ideas for the story, I thought about the fact that not only must we wage a ruthless battle against the jihadist enemy, but we also, as individuals, have to fight through the self-destructive barriers that our culture has built around us in order to dissuade anyone from taking on a project such as The Infidel. It's as if somehow those who are most invested in these barriers think that they can protect themselves from acknowledging certain terrible truths without paying any real world consequences for it. As Ayn Rand has stated, "To fear to face an issue is to believe that the worst is true." So the story of Pigman took on a whole new dimension for me when I decided to write about the kind of cartoonist who would create such a comic book in a world that demanded it, but that does its best to ignore the necessity for it, which made me even more interested in taking the project on.NEW ROMANTICIST: If you could describe Pigman in one or two words what would you call him?BOSCH: Jihadists' Terrorist.
NEW ROMANTICIST: And would it be safe to say, given the similarities, that Killian Duke is an autobiographical version of you?BOSCH: Yes, he is.NEW ROMANTICIST: So how has been the response to Issue#1 of The Infidel so far?BOSCH: The response to The Infidel #1 has been gratifying. There have been two reviews published so far, both positive. One was written by someone who disagrees with the theme of the work; one by someone who is sympathetic with it. Reader response has been as good as I could have hoped for, both from long-time comic book fans and from those for whom this may have been a first-time comic book purchase. Nearly ten years after 9/11, The Infidel #1 is the first comic that has taken on jihad in a significant way. I believe today’s pop culture has to show and tell the truth about what we are facing in the post-9/11 world; it has to bring it to the enemy the way the culture of the WWII generation did.NEW ROMANTICIST: …and it also looks like you will be making an appearance on The John Stewart show?BOSCH: Yes, after they read my critical comments about the "Muslim" Batman, they found out about Pigman and invited me on to discuss both in an "interview" conducted by their "Liberal Muslim". And even though I thought the actual shoot went pretty well, who knows what will air, since their job is get as much laughter as they can from their segments. But I figured this would be a good way to get Pigman out there to a culture that has seemed to want to keep him out. The segment I'm on has been rescheduled a few times already, but it looks like it will now air either Mon. Feb. 28, but more likely Tues., March 1st. I'll keep everyone updated about that on my blog.NEW ROMANTICIST: So what can we expect in Issue #2?BOSCH: The twins engage in a war of words that only makes matters worse between them, but sheds more light on who these men are. In Pigman's world, SuperJihad makes his first strike.NEW ROMANTICIST: Fantastic…thank you for sharing your time with us Bosch, and we hope to hear from you again.BOSCH: I appreciate the opportunity to get the word out about my work, thank you.
