My First Literary Crush
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.
God and Ghosts
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.
Tournante: The Meaning of Islam for French Muslim Girls
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]
Free Tirade
From Cox and Forkum: 
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.
Project Valour-IT
From Cox and Forkum:
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.
Multiculuralism: Why Paris is Burning
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.
French Muslims Riot in France
From Cox and Forkum:
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.
Hands Off The Oil Companies
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.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s Final Solution: A World Without Israel
From Cox and Forkum:
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.
Let’s Backstab The People That Save Us: Should We Steal Tamiflu?
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."Wal-Mart Advocates an Increase in Minimum Wages
Why 'big business' likes the minimum wage -- their 'small business' competitors cannot afford to pay it. From the Motley Fool:Also, in a bit of irony, Wal-Mart took a stance on public policy by advocating an increase in the minimum wage. The company has often drawn fire for its labor practices and employee pay. However, it maintains that it pays its employees at rates above the minimum wage, while trends indicate that its customers can't afford to purchase basic necessities throughout the month. Given its average wage of approximately $10 an hour, Wal-Mart's call to increase the minimum wage above $5.15 would actually place an additional burden on many of its smaller, low-wage competitors.
Recognition: Saddam Pleads Not Guilty
From Cox and Forkum:
At the start, the 68-year-old ousted Iraqi leader — looking thin in a dark gray suit and open-collared shirt — stood and asked the presiding judge: "Who are you? I want to know who you are." "I do not respond to this so-called court, with all due respect to its people, and I retain my constitutional right as the president of Iraq," he said, brushing off the judge's attempts to interrupt him. "Neither do I recognize the body that has designated and authorized you, nor the aggression because all that has been built on false basis is false."From The New York Times: Iraqis Watch the Trial on TV, With Emotions Running High.
Viewpoints varied widely, some calling it a tawdry display of victor's justice, others a long-awaited, if somewhat unsatisfactory, accounting for sins too numerous to list. The opinions generally divided along ethnic and sectarian lines, with many Sunni Arabs expressing some sympathy for Mr. Hussein, one of their own, and long-persecuted Shiites and Kurds barely containing their hatred. Everyone, though, seemed to take notice of Mr. Hussein's fierce disposition and his unwillingness to bend to his captors.
Cast Away
From Cox and Forkum:
The first bags containing sheets of vote counts from Iraq's provinces arrived in Baghdad for tabulation, but delays from other areas mean a final result in the landmark referendum may not be known until the end of the week, election officials said Tuesday. Complicating the count is the need to audit results that have raised eyebrows because they show an unexpectedly high number of "yes" votes, triggering questions of irregularities. Two crucial provinces that could determine the outcome are apparently among the regions that need investigation.Despite these questions, and despite concerns about what the constitution will ultimately mean for Iraq and America, TIA Daily's Robert Tracinski pointed out something of which we can be certain: Zarqawi loses, again.
The significance of Saturday's vote on the Iraqi constitution is not that the constitution itself will be adopted. The constitution provides only woozy protections for individual rights, offset by a possible basis for theocratic rule, plus a mechanism to allow Shiites to set up a "federal" theocracy in Southern Iraq -- with all of this to be decided later on. So it decides very little about the actual shape of the Iraqi government. What is significant about the election is that it amounts to a public endorsement of how those decisions are to be made: through electoral politics, rather than through terrorist bombings. While many voted for the constitution because it increased the power of their group (whether Shiite or Kurdish), others, like the man quoted in this New York Times article, voted for it because they want a system in which government depends on their consent. ... The election was a loss for the terrorist insurgency, which mounted even fewer attacks during this election than during the parliamentary elections in January. This time, crucially, Sunnis did not boycott the polls and many apparently voted in favor of the constitution. This could be the beginning of the end for the insurgency, as Sunnis reluctantly choose to engage in political debate rather than to obstruct it. ... [T]he real battle in Iraq becomes a political one to prevent a theocratic takeover in the south. Having failed to get a commanding majority in the January elections, the Iranian-backed Shiite theocrats have fallen back on a new strategy, campaigning for a semi-independent "federal" region in the south, where they have the votes to take over. This merely highlights the fact that the real enemy in this war is Iran, which arms and finances these Shiite theocrats and provides the theocratic model they hope to emulate. Meanwhile, our diplomats are at least beginning to issue threats against Iran for providing high explosives to insurgents who have attacked American and British troops. But when will this stop being a mere war of words?
Outside Influence
From Cox and Forkum:
Iraq's most powerful Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, also weighed in, ordering Shiites to vote "yes" in the referendum, one of his aides, Faisal Thbub, said. It was the most direct show of support for the charter by al-Sistani, whose call brought out huge numbers of voters to back Shiite parties in January elections.Though the constitutional compromise is being hailed, VOA reports: Some Iraqis Fear Constitution Will Give Power to Iran (via Free Thoughts).
For months, secular Iraqi politicians like Mithal al-Alousi have been warning that Shi'ite Iran is trying to stoke sectarian tension and is aiming to create a breakaway Islamic state in the mostly-Shi'ite southern Iraq. "I am very sure we have Iranian influence in Basra. We have Iranian influence in Amarah. We have the Iranian intelligence agency. They have control in Basra," he said. U.S. and British military intelligence officials say they believe Iran is running intelligence-gathering operations in southern Iraq and providing arms and money to several active Islamic groups operating in the region. The groups are accused of carrying out attacks on coalition forces, imposing Islamic laws by force, and assassinating former members of Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath Party. The largest of these Islamic groups is the Badr Organization, a Shi'ite militia force of about 20,000 men, trained by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. The Badr group also acts as the armed wing of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), which operated out of Iran for decades during Saddam's rule and is now the largest and the most powerful political party in Iraq. The head of the SCIRI party, religious cleric Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, has been the leading proponent of a provision in Iraq's draft constitution, which calls for the creation of a Shi'ite mini-state in the oil-rich south. The federalist arrangement is also supported by members of the Islamic Dawa Party, led by interim Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari. Like SCIRI, the Dawa Party has strong ties to Iran. [Emphasis added]Other expressions of concern over Iran's influence in Iraq: From Space War: Iran's Influence Growing In Iraq by Martin Sieff, UPI Senior News Analyst:
Prime Minister al-Jaafari and the United Iraqi Alliance he leads represents the Shiite majority and dominates the government. Al-Jaafari's own al-Dawaa party has very strong ties to Iran. For that matter, so does Deputy Prime Minister Ahmed Chalabi who runs energy policy. U.S. intelligence concluded last year that he may have given crucial U.S. intelligence secrets to Tehran. ... Jaafari's United Iraq Alliance looks to Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani as its political as well as religious mentor. Sistani has been quiet, politic, cautious and shrewd since Saddam was toppled. But two facts about him stand out. He remains a citizen of the Islamic Republic of Iran and in the two and a half years since U.S. forces liberated Baghdad, he has never once officially met any U.S. representatives. Jaafari's appointment as prime minister was welcomed in Washington as a giant stride toward the goal of establishing a peaceful, stable, constitutional state in Iraq friendly to the United States. But his emergence as the first Shiite national leader of Iraq in its history may also be seen part of a very different process -- the rise of a new, militant, politicized and revolutionary Shiism articulated and shaped by the late Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in Iran.From the New Hampshire Union Leader: Iran hopes constitution bolsters Shiites by Ali Akbar Dareini, Associated Press Writer:
There is little question that Iran hopes the referendum on the Iraqi constitution will help consolidate the power of Shiites in Iraq after decades of Sunni Arab domination. Others see more sinister goals. U.S. officials have accused Iran of secretly backing the Sunni-led insurgency in Iraq to reduce the impact of America's victory there as it tries to strengthen democracy in the region. Tehran has repeatedly said it doesn't see Iraq as a battleground between Iran and the United States.
Google: Capitalists vs, Capitalism
Capitalists are often the worst enemy of capitalism. Google is a case in point. Instead of proudly proclaiming that it created and earned its billions, Google is bowing to the cries of altruists and "poverty activists." It announced yesterday that it is "giving back to the community" $1 billion--thereby implicitly admitting that by moral right the money is the property of society. "This is the moral principle of socialism, not capitalism," says Dr. Andrew Bernstein, author of "The Capitalist Manifesto." Google's actions in China show just how fully it accepts the corrupt moral principle that whatever society commands, the individual must obey. Goggle, along with other high-tech firms like Yahoo and Microsoft, has been helping Chinese censors identify customers who e-mail words forbidden by this repressive government, words like "freedom," "democracy" and "Tiananmen massacre." In one recent case a Chinese reporter was sentenced to ten years in prison for doing nothing more than requesting pro-democracy information from a colleague in New York How do Google and other American businesses justify their complicity in the destruction of an individual's free speech? These companies say they have to obey the laws, regulations and customs of the countries where they do business. In other words, the will of society trumps the rights of the individual.Bernstein wonders: "Why do business in China if it forces you to destroy the very rights and freedoms that made your own economic success possible in America? What happened to Google's motto 'Do no evil'?"
Debate on “Intelligent Design”
Dr. Keith Lockitch, fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute will debate "Intelligent Design" with Dr. Jim Buchholz, professor of physics at California Baptist University in Riverside on KABC radio with host - Al Rantel. This will take place on Monday, October 17 at 8PM pacific time. Tune in to 790 on the AM dial in the LA area or listen to it on the net at www.kabc.com. Dr. Lockitch will also be speaking at the University of Southern California on Tuesday, October 25th at 7:30 PM in SGM-123. For details see the USC Objectivist Club website: www.uscobjectivistclub.comSynergetic Racism: National Socialist Movement
From Cox and Forkum:
Protesters at a white supremacists' march threw rocks at police, vandalized vehicles and stores and cursed the mayor for allowing the event. Mayor Jack Ford said when he and a local minister tried to calm the rioters Saturday, they were cursed and a masked gang member threatened to shoot him. ... At least two dozen members of the National Socialist Movement, which calls itself "America's Nazi Party," had gathered at a city park to march under police protection. Organizers said they were demonstrating against black gangs they said were harassing white residents. The violence broke out about one-quarter of a mile away along the planned march route shortly before it was to begin. One group of men pounded on a convenience store, and others overturned vehicles. ... When the rioting began, Ford tried to negotiate with those involved, but "they weren't interested in that." He said people in the crowd swore at him and wanted to know why he was protecting the Nazis. They were mostly "gang members who had real or imagined grievances and took it as an opportunity to speak in their own way," Ford said. "I was chagrined that there were obvious mothers and children in the crowd with them," he said. Thomas Frisch, 76, said a large group of men destroyed the exterior of a gas station next to his home of 30 years. "A whole big gang started to come in here. Next thing you know, they're jumping on the car. Then they overturned it. Then they started on the building, breaking windows, ripping the bars off," he said. Ratajski and his nephew left Jim & Lou's Bar as a crowd gathered in front, pelting police with rocks and breaking the windows. "I was shaking. I feared for my life," said Ratajski's nephew, Terry Rybczynski.UPDATE I: FoxNews has updated the above link, adding and deleting information. This was added:
The neighborhood northwest of downtown, full of tree-lined streets and well-kept brick homes, once was a thriving Polish community. But within the last decade it's become home to poorer residents. ... The neo-Nazi group became interested in the neighborhood because of a white resident's complaints to police about gang violence, Bill White, a group spokesman, said earlier this month. ... Rioters set fire to 86-year-old Louis Ratajski's neighborhood pub, Jim & Lou's Bar, but he and his nephew, Terry Rybczynski, escaped the flames.And in a Reuters article, Mayor Ford said of the violent reaction by gangs: "That's exactly what (the white supremacist group) wanted." UPDATE II -- Oct. 17: More interesting links and commentary by Michele Malkin, Martin Lindeskog, and Committees of Correspondence. UPDATE III: From CNN: Mayor: Nazis had right to march in neighborhood.