Dec 17, 2005 | Dollars & Crosses
From Eye of the UN:
As the "map of Palestine" without the state of Israel stands in the background, Secretary-General Kofi Annan addresses the public meeting at UN Headquarters. The anniversary of the UN partition vote that survivors of the concentration camps celebrated, has been described by Secretary-General Annan as "a day of mourning and a day of grief." Palestinians, and Arab citizens more generally, refer to it as part of "Al-Nakba," meaning the "catastrophe" of the creation of the state of Israel. [UN Wipes Israel off the Map]
Dec 17, 2005 | Dollars & Crosses
On Monday, December 19 at 5:00 AM Eastern (2:00 AM Pacific), C-SPAN's BookTV will broadcast a talk Dr. Andrew Bernstein gave at Marist College on his book The Capitalist Manifesto: The Historic, Economic and Philosophic Case for Laissez-Faire.
Dr. Bernstein talks about the benefits of laissez-faire capitalism and gives an overview of the advancements created within capitalist societies. He argues that, unlike fascism and socialism, capitalism is beneficial because it embraces the idea that individual rights are paramount. During his presentation, Dr. Bernstein discusses the work of Ayn Rand, John Locke, and a number of other social philosophers and defends against critics of the late 19th century industrialists widely referred to as "robber barons." Includes Q&A.
Dec 16, 2005 | Dollars & Crosses
From Robert Tracinski at TIA Daily:
The anti-immigration House Republicans who just pushed through a massive assault on immigration stand for a giant fraud. They claim to be patriots, acting out of a desire to protect America from an "invasion" of illegal immigrants. In reality, they are promoting an agenda that is thoroughly un-American, both in its goal and in its methods.
It has often been said that America is a nation of immigrants, but few people understand how deeply this is true. It is not just that America was settled and built almost entirely by people from somewhere else--from English settlers in the 18th century, to Irish, Italian, and Eastern European immigrants who came at the turn of the 20th century, on through every other racial and ethnic group in the world. The deeper reason America is a nation of immigrants is that the motives and goals of immigrants--and the moral outlook they represent--are the essence of the American character.
Why do immigrants come to America? They come for the freedom to pursue a better life. They do not come merely for jobs that pay more than what they can make back home. They come for the kind of culture that makes those jobs--and a million other opportunities--possible.
The immigrants I know are drawn here by the distinctively American culture of work and achievement that is the essence of our national identity. America was founded on the idea that all men are endowed with inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And how is happiness pursued? By hard work and ambitious effort. To become an American, this is the only creed one has to accept: the political ideal of liberty, the economic ideal of a free market, and the cultural ideal of individualism. Many immigrants do not have a full, explicit understanding of all of these ideas. But they do know that they are escaping from stagnant and corrupt nations in which little is possible to them, and they are coming to a land in which everything is possible.
They come because this is a nation where anyone can improve his life through his own effort, limited only by his talents and his capacity for hard work.
That is the essence of what we call the "American dream." It's what most of our forebears did, from the first settlers in Jamestown nearly 400 years ago, to a Polish carpenter named Traczynski (the spelling was later simplified) who came here a little more than a century ago, to the Indian, Chinese, and yes, Mexican, workers who continue to come here today. They all came here in pursuit of the most American of ideals: the right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
So why are so many Republicans coming out against the American dream?
Read the rest.Dec 15, 2005 | Dollars & Crosses
Yesterday's WSJ featured an inspiring eulogy to a Lebanese newspaperman, Gebran Tueni, who was assassinated by Syrian-directed assailants. In reading it, I was touched by his courage and integrity, and was again reminded how difficult a task it would be to regain freedom, if we continue to allow it to evaporate here in the West. The whole article is worth reading, but here are a few quotes from it:In 2000 he had broken his country's long silence by publishing an explicit call for Syria to get its troops out of Lebanon. He had no patience with the press self-censorship that tends to become the rule under jackboot regimes. "If you accept to enter the game of blackmailing, it's your fault," he said. "We try to have an independent paper."
Asked about the dangers of such a stance, he catalogued quickly that he had been shot twice, in 1976 and 1989; kidnapped briefly, in 1976; and exiled in 1990 for three years.
Tueni's defiance of despotic rule extended not only to Syrian occupation but to the presence of Hezbollah in Lebanese politics. He described Hezbollah as "an imported product from Iran. It has nothing to do with Lebanese identity." He went on to explain that Hezbollah is "a direct threat, acting in Lebanon like a state within a state," with "weapons everywhere." Hezbollah, he said, has its enticing side, building hospitals and schools, and providing free education to children of poor families--"but what are they teaching?" Hezbollah's strategy, he said, "Is to transform us into an Islamic republic." Tueni described Iran as providing Hezbollah's weapons and the funding, and Syria as providing "the cover."
...
An-Nahar's new building had armed guards and bulletproof security shields and doors. But sitting in his corner office with its big picture windows, not far from the spot where Hariri was murdered, Tueni seemed both brave and terribly vulnerable. I asked him if his own life was in danger. He said he expected a wave of Syrian-backed "assassinations, booby-trapped cars," but did not think that could stop Lebanon's democratic movement. "They can kill one, two, three of us" he said, but then they are "finished."
Dec 15, 2005 | Dollars & Crosses
Dr. Andrew Bernstein will be interviewed on Air America radio about his new book "The Capitalist Manifesto" on Monday Night starting at 7:00 p.m. EST for 10 minutes with Thom Hartmann, who is filling in as a guest host Monday night. Please tune in for Dr. Bernstein's presentation of the immense amount of historical evidence proving the moral and practical superiority of capitalism over any variety of statism (i.e. monarchy, theocracy, dictatorship, communism, Nazism, socialism, welfare statism, etc.). You can listen on the web using: http://www.airamericaradio.com/listenDec 12, 2005 | Dollars & Crosses
The office of the district attorney for Los Angeles County has released a document indicating the overwhelming amount of evidence of Stanley "Tookie" Williams's guilt. From the introduction:
On February 28, 1979, Stanley Williams murdered Albert Lewis Owens during a robbery of a 7-Eleven convenience store. On March 11, 1979, Stanley Williams murdered Tsai-Shai Yang, Yen-I Yang and Yee-Chen Lin during a robbery at their family run motel, the Brookhaven. In March of 1981, a jury convicted Stanley Williams of the first-degree murder and robbery of Albert Lewis Owens, the first-degree murders of Tsai-Shai Yang, Yen-I Yang and Yee-Chen Lin, and the robbery of Tsai-Shai Yang.
The jury also found true the allegations that Williams personally used a shotgun during the commission of each of the murders and robberies. Finally, the jury found true the special circumstance allegations of robbery-murder and multiple murder.
On April 15, 1981, the trial court, following the jury's recommendation, sentenced Williams to death. On October 11, 2005, the United States Supreme Court denied Williams' petition for writ of Certiorari. On October 24, 2005, Williams' execution date was set for December 13, 2005.
This cold-blooded killer, Stanley Williams, now seeks mercy, the very mercy he so callously denied Albert, Tsai-Shai, Yen-I, and Yee-Chen. Stanley Williams does not deserve this mercy. In fact, despite the overwhelming nature of the evidence against him, and despite the non-existence of any credible defense, Stanley Williams has steadfastly refused to take any responsibility for the brutal, destructive, and murderous acts he committed. Without such responsibility, there can be no redemption, there can be no atonement, and there should be no mercy.
For nearly 25 years, justice has been held in abeyance while Williams took advantage of a legal system designed to protect his rights. His rights have been protected. It is now time for the victims' voices to be heard. We ask that clemency be denied, and that the ultimate punishment, imposed so many years ago, now be fulfilled.
The document clearly exposes the lies of the celebrity-scum Save Tookie PR machine.
Related Reading: A Politically Correct Nobel Peace Prize for Murder by Michelle Malkin
Stanley "Tookie" Williams is co-founder of the violent Crips street gang in South Central Los Angeles, and resident of death row in San Quentin, Calif. A perfect candidate for the Leftist Nobel Peace Prize.
Nov 21, 2005 | Dollars & Crosses
From Fox News:
The Vatican's chief astronomer said Friday that "intelligent design" isn't science and doesn't belong in science classrooms, becoming the latest high-ranking Roman Catholic official to enter the evolution debate in the United States. The Rev. George Coyne, the Jesuit director of the Vatican Observatory, said placing intelligent design theory alongside that of evolution in school programs was "wrong" and was akin to mixing apples with oranges. "Intelligent design isn't science, even though it pretends to be," the ANSA news agency quoted Coyne as saying on the sidelines of a conference in Florence. "If you want to teach it in schools, intelligent design should be taught when religion or cultural history is taught, not science."
[...] Last week, Pope Benedict XVI waded indirectly into the evolution debate by saying the universe was made by an "intelligent project" and criticizing those who in the name of science say its creation was without direction or order.
Questions about the Vatican's position on evolution were raised in July by Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn. In a New York Times column, Schoenborn seemed to back intelligent design and dismissed a 1996 statement by Pope John Paul II that evolution was "more than just a hypothesis." Schoenborn said the late pope's statement was "rather vague and unimportant."
Nov 18, 2005 | Dollars & Crosses
IRVINE, CA--Both the Democrats and Republicans are wrong about what to do now in the Iraq war. The Democrats want to retreat immediately and the Republicans want to "stay the course." Neither proposal will make America safe from Islamic terrorism.
As Republicans have noted, withdrawal at this time would be perceived by the Islamic fundamentalists as a major defeat of the West and draw more recruits to their cause. But as the Democrats have noted, staying our current course--which has no standard of victory and no clear connection to protecting America from Islamic terrorism--is a disaster that has already resulted in the death of two thousand Americans.
The solution is neither embracing defeat nor staying a losing course; the solution is to pursue victory. We must define war objectives designed solely to protect the American people from Islamic terrorism, and then execute those objectives by any means necessary. Above all, we must make it our objective, not to bring the good life to every corner of the Middle East, but to make the terrorist states of the Middle East non-threatening--which means that we must end state sponsorship of terrorism.
In Iraq, we must crush the insurgency immediately--which includes choking its backers, Iran and Syria--and let the Iraqis themselves take on the responsibility of establishing a government that will not threaten America. Once the insurgency is crushed the priority should be on eliminating the regime that is the greatest terrorist and nuclear threat to the United States in the Middle East: Iran. Such a policy would serve as a death blow to bin Laden, al-Zarqawi and the rest of the fundamentalists, who attract their recruits with the hope that America can slowly be defeated.Nov 17, 2005 | Dollars & Crosses
Mark Cuban, owner, Dallas Mavericks on the most influential book he read in college:
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. It was incredibly motivating to me. It encouraged me to think as an individual, take risks to reach my goals, and responsibility for my successes and failures. I loved it. I don't know how many times I have read it, but it got to the point where I had to stop because I would get too fired up.
Nov 9, 2005 | Dollars & Crosses
Max Kellerman, ESPN Radio and HBO boxing host, speaking on The Situation with Tucker Carlson:CARLSON: According to recent poll, more than 20 percent of Americans believe in ghosts. [...] OK, look, ghosts are real. I think ghosts are real. I will just put it out there. I don‘t think there‘s any question actually. But a lot of people don‘t think that. [...]
KELLERMAN: I don't know if you are aware this is being broadcast live around the world, Tucker.
CARLSON: That‘s hardly the dumbest thing I have ever said.
KELLERMAN: [...] I don't believe in any supernatural phenomenon. I'm not superstitious at all, but in my view, religion is essentially superstition. And if--once you believe in God and supernatural forces, that your senses can't take in, just based on faith, on belief, you should believe in ghosts. It boggles my mind that like 90 percent believes in God, and only 20 percent believe in ghosts.
And as we mature as a culture, and as we become more sophisticated, I think there's less religious literalism, especially as rocket ships went into the sky said no God? Oh, well, God exists in a psychological space. And as we get more sophisticated, we like to have it both ways. Yeah we kind of believe in God, but no we don‘t believe in ancillary stuff attached to it.
Nov 8, 2005 | Dollars & Crosses
From the Globe and Mail:
Three years ago, a brave Algerian-born woman named Samira Bellil went public with the story of her horrific life growing up in the immigrant ghettos of France. She described a world in which young girls are routinely brutalized by boys, and where violence against women is endemic. Young women who dare to go out on dates or wear makeup or dress immodestly can be punished by gang rape -- also known as tournante, or "passing around."
Samira was first gang-raped when she was 14, by her boyfriend and his friends. "I couldn't say anything, because, in my culture, your family is dishonoured if you lose your virginity," she recalled. "So I kept quiet and the rapes continued." When her parents found out, they kicked her out; her neighbourhood also rejected her. Her book, Dans l'enfer des tournantes, shocked the nation.
[...] The plight of abused Muslim women would be regarded as intolerable if the victims were culturally French. But a pervasive cultural relativism, largely rooted in the left, has allowed France to tolerate the intolerable for quite a while. The results aren't pretty.
The recent rise in fundamentalist Islam has made the situation even worse. Teenage Muslim girls are forbidden to play sports or to visit coed community centres or movie theatres. Young bearded men, in the role of religious police, enforce strict dress codes. [Margaret Wente,"For Muslim girls, becoming truly French is not an option", November 8, 2005]
Nov 7, 2005 | Dollars & Crosses
From Cox and Forkum: 
From The Miami Herald: Leftists protest Bush policies.Latin America's radical left took to the streets Friday as populist figures such as Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez ...
In a speech lasting more than two hours, Chávez unsparingly criticized President Bush and his policies in the region and said Latin America was uniting against the "imperialism of the north."
"We are creating a great political body in the south, and not only geographically," said the Venezuelan leader, whom U.S. officials have accused of subverting democracy in his country and his neighbors. 'This is the great task of our region, to create a consensus of 'the South' that will bring better lives to all our people.''
Chávez repeated charges that the United States was planning to invade his oil-rich country and promised to defend it in a "war of 100 years." U.S. officials have denied any such plans. ...
A giant banner of Ernesto "Che" Guevara, the Cuban revolutionary and Argentine native, hung from the roof.
Chávez said he'd talked to Castro shortly before speaking and received emotional words of encouragement from the 79-year-old leader.
Nov 6, 2005 | Dollars & Crosses
From Cox and Forkum:
A worthy cause: Project Valour-IT.Project Valour-IT, in memory of SFC William V. Ziegenfuss, provides voice-controlled software and laptop computers to wounded Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines recovering from hand and arm injuries or amputations at major military medical centers. Operating laptops by speaking into a microphone, our wounded heroes are able to send and receive messages from friends and loved ones, surf the 'Net, and communicate with buddies still in the field without having to press a key or move a mouse.
This cartoon is based on suggestions from John of Argghhh! and Bill Faith.Nov 4, 2005 | Dollars & Crosses
Good stuff by Amir Taheri from the NY Post:In some areas, it is possible for an immigrant or his descendants to spend a whole life without ever encountering the need to speak French, let alone familiarize himself with any aspect of the famous French culture. The result is often alienation. And that, in turn, gives radical Islamists an opportunity to propagate their message of religious and cultural apartheid.
Some are even calling for the areas where Muslims form a majority of the population to be reorganized on the basis of the "millet" system of the Ottoman Empire: Each religious community (millet) would enjoy the right to organize its social, cultural and educational life in accordance with its religious beliefs. In parts of France, a de facto millet system is already in place. In these areas, all women are obliged to wear the standardized Islamist "hijab" while most men grow their beards to the length prescribed by the sheiks.
The radicals have managed to chase away French shopkeepers selling alcohol and pork products, forced "places of sin," such as dancing halls, cinemas and theaters, to close down, and seized control of much of the local administration. A reporter who spent last weekend in Clichy and its neighboring towns of Bondy, Aulnay-sous-Bois and Bobigny heard a single overarching message: The French authorities should keep out.
[...] President Jacques Chirac and Premier de Villepin are especially sore because they had believed that their opposition to the toppling of Saddam Hussein in 2003 would give France a heroic image in the Muslim community. That illusion has now been shattered — and the Chirac administration, already passing through a deepening political crisis, appears to be clueless about how to cope with what the Parisian daily France Soir has called a "ticking time bomb."
It is now clear that a good portion of France's Muslims not only refuse to assimilate into "the superior French culture," but firmly believe that Islam offers the highest forms of life to which all mankind should aspire.
So what is the solution? One solution, offered by Gilles Kepel, an adviser to Chirac on Islamic affairs, is the creation of "a new Andalusia" in which Christians and Muslims would live side by side and cooperate to create a new cultural synthesis. The problem with Kepel's vision, however, is that it does not address the important issue of political power. Who will rule this new Andalusia: Muslims or the largely secularist Frenchmen?
The solution is capitalism: a social system based on individual rights. Under such a system one is free to practice ones religion so long as one does not violate the rights of others.
Editor' Note: For those who are seriously interested in this issue I recommend Ayn Rand's brilliant essay "Global Balkanization" posthumously published her book The Voice of Reason.
Related Articles:
Diversity and Multiculturalism: The New Racism by Michael Berliner
"Ethnic diversity" is the highest priority of a university education today, the politically correct educational establishment states, pointing to its race, class and gender standards for hiring and promoting faculty, admitting and housing students, and even choosing the content of courses. While claiming that its primary goal is to eradicate racism, the "diversity" movement is not imparting knowledge to students or helping them to develop the skill of reasoning, but promoting the ideas of racism instead.
Multiculturalism's War on Education by Elan Journo
Multiculturalism seeks to inject an anti-Western dogma into today's curriculum.
On Columbus Day, Celebrate Western Civilization, And Not The Cruel Hoax of Multiculturalism by Michael Berliner
The values of Western civilization are values for all men; they cut across gender, ethnicity, and geography. We should honor Western civilization not for the ethnocentric reason that some of us happen to have European ancestors but because it is the objectively superior culture.Nov 3, 2005 | Dollars & Crosses
From Cox and Forkum:
From FoxNews Seventh Night of Riots in France.France's government faced mounting pressure Thursday as suburban unrest spread, with youths setting fire to a car dealership and public buses in battles with riot police, who reportedly came under gunfire.
Youths rampaged for a seventh straight night, undeterred by the presence of armed riot police. Acts ranging from clashing with police to torching vehicles were reported in at least 10 Paris (search)-region towns.
The riots have highlighted the division between France's big cities and their poor suburbs and frustrations simmering in housing projects to the north and northeast of Paris, heavily populated by North African and Muslim immigrants and their French-born children who struggle with high unemployment, crime and poverty.
From Jihad Watch: French Muslims riot for seventh night running.The difference between the Reuters headline and mine epitomizes the difficulty the French have in facing the real dimensions of this problem. For it is ultimately not a problem of disaffected youth who just need jobs and money, but of youth who consider the French government a foreign power, and one that ultimately must be replaced by a very different kind of government. Bat Ye'or in Eurabia has demonstrated that the French for over 30 years now have allowed for massive immigration without making any move to assimilate the immigrants. Up until the hijab ban their Islamic identity was not only unchallenged but encouraged -- partly out of ignorance of how the Sharia impulse conflicts with the Western societal model of pluralism. Now they are reaping the fruit.
See No Pasaran for more.
UPDATE I -- Nov. 4: From FoxNews Paris Riots Spread to 20 Suburbs.A week of riots in poor neighborhoods outside Paris gained dangerous new momentum Thursday, with youths shooting at police and firefighters and attacking trains and symbols of the French state. ...
The unrest cast a cloud over the end of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month. In Clichy-sous-Bois — heart of the rioting — men filled the Bilal mosque for evening prayers, but streets were subdued with shops shutting early.
UPDATE II: From FoxNews French Riots Spread Beyond Paris.The chaotic riots that have gripped the suburban slums north of Paris for more than a week spread to more suburbs and other towns across France Thursday night.
North of Paris, Muslim youths from northern and sub-Saharan Africa torched over 400 cars and several large stores. Jean-Francois Cordet, a regional official, said a group of 30 to 40 teenagers harassed police near a synagogue and that a school classroom had been partially burned.
UPDATE III -- Nov. 5: From FoxNews Paris Rioters Burn Ambulance and Stone Medics.Widespread riots across impoverished areas of France took a malevolent turn in a ninth night of violence, as youths torched an ambulance and stoned medical workers coming to the aid of a sick person. Authorities arrested more than 200 people, an unprecedented sweep since the beginning of the unrest.
Other bands of predominantly Muslim youths also burned a nursery school, warehouses and more than 750 cars overnight as the violence that spread from the restive Paris suburbs to towns around France. ...
An attack this week on a woman bus passenger highlighted the savage nature of some of the violence. The woman, in her 50s and on crutches, was doused with an inflammable liquid and set afire after passengers were forced to leave the bus, blocked by burning objects on the road, judicial officials said.
Late Friday in Meaux, east of Paris, youths prevented firefighters from evacuating a sick person from an apartment in a housing project, pelting them with stones and torching the awaiting ambulance, an Interior Ministry officer said. The officer, not authorized to speak publicly, asked not to be named.
Oct 31, 2005 | Dollars & Crosses
IRVINE, CA--Nobody seems to think that the oil companies have a moral right to keep their huge third-quarter profits--nobody, that is, except Yaron Brook, president of the Ayn Rand Institute.
Congressional Democrats want to punch the oil industry with a windfall-profit tax; others want these profits "rebated" to consumers. House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-IL) said oil companies must invest their profits in building refineries to boost production so that they can lower prices. Environmentalists want Congress to force the oil companies to invest in alternative-energy sources. Though these people disagree on how to spend the oil companies' profits, they agree the companies should feel morally guilty for earning their vast profits and must "give them back to the community."
In contrast, Dr. Brook, a former professor of finance, argues that "these profits are well earned, a return on years of investing--despite opposition by environmentalists and government regulators--in new oil fields and in upkeep of refineries. These profits are the property of the oil companies--the property of their investors. These shareholders have the moral right to do with their money as they please--pay it out as a dividend, invest in new refining capacity (assuming government will allow them to do so), pay large salaries to executives, use it to buy new businesses, etc. It is their money, not ours."
The government should not bail out companies when they are struggling (as U.S. refiners had been for a number of years); and it certainly should not penalize them when they are successful. The proper governmental policy, economically and morally, is: Hands off.Oct 27, 2005 | Dollars & Crosses
From Cox and Forkum:
From AFP today: Iran condemned over anti-Israel remark, regime unrepentant.Iran was hit by a barrage of Western condemnation after its hardline president called for Israel to be "wiped off the map", but the clerical regime struck back with yet more verbal attacks against the Jewish state.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's speech, delivered Wednesday at a conference entitled "The World without Zionism", came just hours before a suicide bombing in Israel and provoked fresh fears that Iran has a covert nuclear weapons programme.
The European Union said Thursday that the comments -- the first time in years that such a high-ranking Iranian official has openly called for Israel's annihilation -- were "despicable and unacceptable" and "inconsistent with any claim to be a mature and responsible member of the international community". ...
And Israel, which alleges Iran is seeking nuclear weapons and long-range missiles, said the Islamic republic should be expelled from the United Nations.
But Iran's regime was unrepentant, confirming its dramatic shift to the right that came with Ahmadinejad's shock election win in June.
The spokesman of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Seyed Massoud Jazihiri, backed up Ahmadinejad by describing Israel as a "cancerous tumour".
He said the West "was right to be afraid, because two decades ago when the Imam (Khomeini) called for Israel to be wiped off the map they thought it was a slogan, but as time passes we are seeing signs of unity in the Islamic world."
"We have no doubts that at the end of the road, the victory of Muslims and the defeat of Israel is inevitable," Jazihiri told the Fars news agency.
Iran's foreign ministry also ordered its diplomats to lodge official protests over Europe's attitude toward "Zionist crimes". [Emphasis added]
UPDATE I: From Investor's Business Daily: Hate, Iranian Style.There's nothing Israel can do to please such Islamic radicals. Ahmadinejad called Israel's recent withdrawal from the Gaza Strip only a "new instigation, which aimed at Israel's recognition by the Islamic countries." No concessions on the part of Israel hold meaning to the Iranian regime; it wants nothing less than the state's eradication, and by extension the Jews themselves.
More significant than words is what Iran has been up to. Iran's determination and ability to act against the U.S. should not be underestimated.
The November issue of the German monthly Cicero will report that, according to Western intelligence sources, the Iranian Republican Guards are providing haven in and near Tehran to 25 members of al-Qaida — from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Uzbekistan and Europe. ...
What's more, the deadlier, more sophisticated bombs now being used by insurgents to kill American troops in Iraq make use of TNT from Iran seven times stronger than the TNT available in Iraq, according to a Washington Post interview of a former Iraqi army officer who is now a member of al-Qaida.
And lest there be any doubt about the fascistic tendencies of his regime, Ahmadinejad recently led a committee of Islamic clerics in banning Western films from being shown or sold in Iran. [Emphasis added]
UPDATE II -- Oct. 28: From FoxNews: Iranians Rally in Support of President's Anti-Israel Stance.Tens of thousands of Iranians staged anti-Israel protests across the country on Friday, repeating calls by their ultraconservative president for the Jewish state's destruction. ...
Iranians staged multiple demonstrations in the capital, Tehran (search), and other cities such as Mashad in Iran's east, holding banners carrying anti-Israeli and pro-Palestinian slogans. "Death to Israel, death to America," read many of the placards.
The demonstrations are part of the annual al-Quds — Jerusalem — Day protests, which were first held in 1979 after Shiite Muslim clerics took power in Iran.
The state-organized rallies are expected to grow ahead of midday mosque sermons across Iran. Hundreds of thousands of Iranians have attended previous protests.
Oct 27, 2005 | Dollars & Crosses
IRVINE, CA--As fears of an avian flu pandemic grow, demands that governments trample on the property rights of drug companies also grow. Many people want governments to violate the patent rights of Roche AG, licensed manufacturer of Tamiflu, so that other organizations can manufacture the drug.
"These demands are immoral," said Dr. Yaron Brook, executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute. "Instead of vilifying Roche we should be praising it for having the foresight to license and manufacture Tamiflu in the first place, the drug which appears to be the most effective treatment for the current strand of avian flu. Governments that wish to stockpile Tamiflu should enter into contracts to purchase it. The surge in demand will lead Roche to manufacture as much of the drug as it profitably can and to license its patent to other manufacturers for a fee. The new demand will be swiftly met. That Roche will profit is only just.
"We must remember that without Roche and Gilead (the inventor of the drug), Tamiflu would not exist. And without unyielding recognition of a creator's patent rights, research into the next anti-flu drug will be stifled. Government intervention has already made many avenues of drug research unprofitable--to the detriment of the health of each of us. The threat of an influenza pandemic is ongoing. We must not let governments destroy this vital area of research too."
