Apr 22, 2005 | Dollars & Crosses
Environmentalism is Bad Medicine for Humans by Alex Epstein
On Earth Day, environmentalists should celebrate the latest consequence of their ideas: skyrocketing gasoline prices.
On Earth Day Remember: If Environmentalists Succeed, They Will Make Human Life Impossible by Michael Berliner
The fundamental goal of environmentalists is not clean air and clean water; rather it is the demolition of technological/industrial civilization. Their goal is not the advancement of human health, human happiness, and human life; rather it is a subhuman world where "nature" is worshipped like the totem of some primitive religion.
This "Earth Day" Celebrate the Industrial Revolution by Robert W. Tracinski
Let us have a day when all of us take a moment to acknowledge the enormous contribution made to human life by the inventors and businessmen of the Industrial Revolution.
This Earth Day Celebrate Vladimir Lenin's Birthday! by Alexander Marriott
Think of the parallels between Lenin and environmentalists.Apr 10, 2005 | Dollars & Crosses
Talks held this month:
The Philosophical Basis for A Woman's Right To Abortion by Dr. Andrew Bernstein (April 20)
This talk is a defense -- on philosophical grounds -- of the right to abortion. To validate this right requires a rational theory of rights, one grounded in fact, not faith or feeling. In establishing the basis of this right, Dr. Bernstein also demonstrates that anti-abortionists have no rational basis for using the phrase "right to life." Dr. Bernstein presents the scientific arguments used by anti-abortionists, then demonstrates the errors in those arguments: failure to recognize the biological nature of the fetus; equivocation on key terms; and obliteration of the distinction between actual and potential. Dr. Bernstein grounds his view of rights in an ethics of rational egoism and contrasts it with the theory of self-sacrifice espoused by anti-abortionists. Both political conservatives and liberals deny the principle of individual rights and the egoist ethics on which rights depend. Only Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism validates both rights and egoism, thereby providing the only valid philosophical basis of a woman's right to abortion. One hour lecture followed by one hour Q and A.
Wed, April 20, 2005 6:30-8:30 PM
THH-101 (Taper Hall of Humanities), 3501 Trousdale Pkwy
University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089
America at War: The Moral Imperative to Self-Defense by Dr. Andrew Bernstein (April 21, 2005)
Two major points are presented in this talk. One: Neither guns, bombs nor tanks constitute a nation's most powerful weapon. Rather, moral rectitude--the courage to proudly defend the property, freedom and lives of its citizens--does. The United States has abdicated this weapon in fifty years of appeasement in the Middle East. Just as President Thomas Jefferson and the fledgling republic--inspired by the battle cry of "Millions for defense, but not a penny for tribute"--had the courage to stand up to the notorious Barbary Pirates in 1801, so President George W. Bush must have the moral courage to wipe out America's current fanatical and deadly enemies. Two: This is not fundamentally a political but a philosophical struggle. Islamic Civilization--essentially a religious culture--loathes and seeks to destroy Western Civilization, which is essentially secular. Their religious fanaticism is the fundamental reason they hate the United States and the West, and is the reason that rational negotiation with them is impossible. This is a life-and-death struggle between contradictory philosophical systems. One hour lecture followed by one hour Q and A.
Thurs, April 21, 2005 5:30-7:30 PM, SGM-123 (Seely G. Mudd), 3620 McClintock,
University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089
Apr 8, 2005 | Dollars & Crosses
The ARI website has an brilliant lecture by Professor John Lewis on "The Failure of the Homeland Defense: The Lessons From History." The description for the free lecture (registration required) is as follows:
With the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, America has accepted a permanent, institutionalized state of siege on its own soil. But is this the correct strategy? In this lecture Dr. John Lewis examines several examples from history—including Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome—in which great nations, facing attack, have acted defensively rather than with bold offense. The results are clear: such a policy is suicidal. Rather than bracing against further attacks at home or spreading "democracy" abroad, America should destroy her enemies.
But this strategic lesson needs a moral foundation. The moral requirement of victory is self-interested action, not appeals to the needs of others. Wars cannot be fought altruistically. Once the civilian government has set clear goals, the military must be allowed to win. History illustrates the deep connection between intellectual clarity, moral certainty and the offensive strategy needed to defeat a ruthless enemy. Only Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism provides the moral basis for a successful military response to the threats we face today.
For articles available online by Dr. Lewis, click here.Apr 7, 2005 | Dollars & Crosses
IRVINE, CA--"Balancing phonics and whole language reading instruction is like balancing food and poison," says Dr. Onkar Ghate, a senior fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute.
In a recent episode of a tragedy that is playing out across the nation, an elementary school in Rockford, Illinois, was ordered to discard direct instruction in phonics--despite the method's overwhelming success. At Lewis Lemon elementary school, thanks to phonics, ordinary third graders scored near the top in statewide readings tests, their results bested only by students at a school for the gifted. But the incoming school superintendent ordered that phonics instruction be replaced by "balanced literacy"--which mixes phonics with "whole-language" instruction. In issuing his order, the superintendent is following the still-dominant voices in our schools of education. Because "reading is such a complex and multifaceted activity," says Dr. Catherine Snow, professor of education at Harvard, "no single method is the answer."
"This is not a technical dispute about the best way to teach reading," explains Dr. Ghate. "The advocates of phonics view the very purpose of education as developing the child's mind. Accordingly, they systematically teach a child the facts and principles that will enable him to decode written language. The advocates of ‘whole language' view the purpose of education as developing the child's feelings. Accordingly, they denounce phonics as imposing ‘an uptight, must-be-right model of literacy' that stifles the child's self-expression. Instead, they say we should begin with what supposedly interests a child—whole words and stories—and allow him to substitute other words, to guess and to otherwise follow his fancy as he ‘reads.'
"We would consider it child abuse to add contaminated food to a child's diet for the sake of ‘balance,'" concludes Dr. Ghate. "We should also consider it child abuse when educators contaminate proper reading instruction by ‘balancing' it with ‘whole language.'"Apr 6, 2005 | Dollars & Crosses
This year's tax season presents double punishment for today's taxpayer: high taxes and higher health care costs.
The twin threats, according to Americans for Free Choice in Medicine (AFCM), are related -- and a tax provision offers a partial remedy, just in time for April 15."Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) help consumers avoid both higher taxes and higher health care expenditures," suggests Richard E. Ralston, executive director of Americans for Free Choice in Medicine (AFCM). "The best way to keep both taxes and the cost of health care down is to keep control of your own health care."Ralston explains that HSAs, used with low premium, high-deductible health insurance policies, put health care squarely within affordable reach of most Americans. Banks, insurance companies, and mutual fund firms now offer HSAs, which became law in 2004. HSAs have been heralded by most personal finance analysts as better than the Roth IRA. Ralston adds another item to the tax policy wish list: an exemption for every individual¹s health insurance premiums.For now, Ralston advised taxpayers: "Look into tax-free Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) and liberate your health insurance premiums from taxes." Ralston's health care commentary has been published in the Houston Chronicle, Orange County Register and the Washington Times.Americans for Free Choice in Medicine, (AFCM), was founded in 1993. AFCM educates the public about the principles of socialized medicine and free market ideas, such as HSAs and tax reform, and publishes a consumer's guide on its Web site (http://www.afcm.org). AFCM is the nation's only educational organization based on individual rights, personal responsibility, and free market ideas in medicine.Apr 2, 2005 | Dollars & Crosses
From the archives:
Reason vs. Faith: In His Recent Encyclical, the Pope Claims to Be a Supporter of Reason, but Is Actually Its Arch-enemy by Peter Schwartz
As demonstrated throughout his encyclical, the pope wants to enshrine faith, but at the same time does not want to renounce the modern world of science and its consequences. The result; his attempt to have the church reign over everything, i.e. the 'evangelization of culture.'
Apr 1, 2005 | Dollars & Crosses
Congress should be investigating our failed foreign policy--not wasting time investigating private steroid use in sports, says Dr. Andrew Bernstein, senior writer for the Ayn Rand Institute.
Threats against our very lives continue to mount--in Iran, North Korea and elsewhere--and our government does worse than nothing. Where is the investigation of our suicidal foreign policy--present and past, Republican and Democratic? The ensuing report would make our government's intelligence failures seem insignificant by comparison.
But instead, Congress investigates a private matter in which no one's rights are being violated. Said Bernstein: "Adult citizens of a free country--so long as they do not initiate force or fraud against others--have the right to ingest whatever substance they choose.
"Further, Major League Baseball and the National Football League are private organizations with the right to determine the rules under which they will associate with others. They alone have the right to determine whether they will ban players who take certain performance-enhancing substances, or ignore the practice.
"Congress should kick the habit of grandstanding for votes and let individuals and private organizations, including professional sports leagues, exercise their freedom. Congress should get back to its long-neglected but only proper function: to protect the individual rights of every American citizen against foreign or domestic threat. Private drug use is not a threat to America." Mar 27, 2005 | Dollars & Crosses
I keep reading and hearing that religious conservatives refer to the culture of "death" when they cite the recent defeat of Terri Schiavo's family in trying to keep her alive on life support, despite her husband's and, quite possibly, her own wishes.
It seems to me that exactly the opposite is true. It's cultural and religious conservatives who have focused on this unfortunate exception, this borderline case of "life," to actually make the case for life. How bizarre. You don't champion life by looking at a case like Terri Schiavo. You champion life by upholding the values that make life possible: reasoning, thinking, responsible self-action, joyfully celebrating existence, being productive and much more.
Poor Terri Schiavo. I say "poor" because she can no longer exhibit the qualities that make life possible and worthwhile. This is not some subjective or arbitrary value judgment. This isn't an optional question. This is how it is. If you want to fight for Terri Schiavo's political right to be kept biologically alive indefinitely, then do so. But don't make this a battle about life. Any remote remnant of life, rationally defined, ended a long time ago for Terri Schiavo, and it's not coming back.
How odd, strange and sad that our religiously conservative President and Congress don't want to fight for what life really is, and instead would prefer to obsessively focus on this sad case. This is the real story of our times. The Culture of Death is being promoted by those who shriek the loudest that they're defending it.Mar 21, 2005 | Dollars & Crosses
Capitalism Magazine writer, Glenn Woiceshyn, has launched an education resources website called powerfulminds.org. Powerful Minds was founded to "develop high quality K-12 curriculum materials for students, teachers, and homeschoolers."Mar 21, 2005 | Dollars & Crosses
Terri Schiavo has a right to life; we all do. But does the right to life include the right to live as an inhuman vegetable? Does it include the right to submit one's husband to the status of permanent caretaker, endless emotional pain and mile-high medical bills? Speaking of medical bills, do conservative Republicans who want people like Terri Schiavo kept alive also want the government -- meaning you and I -- to foot those bills? Republicans favor expanding the welfare state (e.g. Medicare) just as Democrats do; aren't they submitting this welfare state to even more economy-busting medical expenses than we already have in the name of -- what? Keeping the hopelessly ill and barely alive breathing another few days or weeks?
The dangerous, ugly side of this whole issue is that it's not being treated as a borderline case, or as the unfortunate exception that it is. Instead, religious conservatives are trying to use it as an example of how any kind of life is life, no matter how partial, or tenuous or barely hanging on that life might be. They know that if they can impose force on the living to keep alive the barely living, they can likewise impose force on the living to bring into existence unwanted potential lives. Their view of life is not rational; it's religious. When they say that this country is founded not on reason but on faith, they mean it.Mar 20, 2005 | Dollars & Crosses
From Cox and Forkum:
On the second anniversary of the Iraq invasion, Iraqi blogger Husayn Uthman writes:So you ask me, Husayn, was it worth it. What have you gotten? What has Iraq acheived? These are questions I get a lot.
To may outsiders, like those who protested last year, who will protest today. This was a fools errand, it brought nothing but death and destruction. I am sheltered in Iraq, but I know how the world feels, how people have come to either love or hate Bush, as though heis the emobdiement of this war. As though this war is part of Bush, they forget the over twenty million Iraqis, they forget the Middle Easterners, they forget the average person on the street, the average man with the average dream.
Ask him if it was worth it. Ask him what is different. Ask him if he would go through it again, go ahead ask him, ask me, many of you have.
Now I answer you, I answer you on behalf of myself, and my countrymen. I dont care what your news tells you, what your television and newspapers say, this is how we feel. Despite all that has happened. Despite all the hurt, the pain, blood, sweat and tears. These two years have given us hope we never had.
Media coverage of the "anti-war" protests (including photos): CNN: Thousands of protesters mark Iraq war anniversary and FoxNews: Protests Erupt on 2nd Anniversary of Iraq War.The protests were nowhere near as big as those held in February 2003, just before the war, when millions marched in cities around the world to urge President Bush and his allies not to attack Iraq.
The photos of protesters in this Little Green Footballs post reminded us of some previous cartoons (here and here). Other blogger coverage (some overlap): Rayra (Hollywood), Trumpet Sounds (London), IDF Israel (Montreal), Banagor (San Fransisco), Darleen's Place (San Diego), Citizen Smash (San Diego), Martin Lindeskog (Gothenburg), and Dean's World, Erin.net (San Francisco), and KelliPundit (Providence).
Mar 17, 2005 | Dollars & Crosses
From Cox and Forkum:
From FoxNews: Senate Votes to Open Oil Drilling in ANWR.A closely divided Senate voted to approve oil drilling in an Alaska wildlife refuge, a major victory for President George W. Bush and a stinging defeat for environmentalists who have fought the idea for decades.
By a 51-49 vote, the Senate on Wednesday put a refuge drilling provision in next year's budget, depriving opponents of the chance to use a filibuster to try to block it. Filibusters, which require 60 votes to overcome, have been used to defeat drilling proposals in the past.
"This project will keep our economy growing by creating jobs and ensuring that businesses can expand," Bush said in a statement. "And it will make America less dependent on foreign sources of energy, eventually by up to a million barrels of oil a day."
Environmentalists for years have fought such development, contending it would lead to a spider web of drilling platforms, pipelines and roads that would adversely impact the calving grounds of caribou, polar bears and millions of migratory birds that use the refuge's coastal plain.
Also from FoxNews: Crude Soars Above $57 Amid Supply Fears.Crude oil futures prices soared above $57 a barrel, a new all-time record, Thursday as OPEC's pledge to increase output failed to assure traders who were worried about tight supply. ...
In a monthly report released Thursday, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries warned that economic growth in the United States, China and Japan would push demand for its oil even higher in the second half of this year. It also said it was unclear what impact the resulting price increases could have.
For those not familiar with the tale that inspired the cartoon, you can read it here: The Camel's Nose in the Tent.
Mar 15, 2005 | Dollars & Crosses
From Cox and Forkum:
FoxNews reported yesterday: U.S. Displeased With China Vote.The Bush administration said Monday that China's threat to use force to stop any Taiwanese move toward independence is an "unfortunate" development that could increase tensions in the region. ...
China's parliament on Monday, voting unanimously with two abstentions, enacted a law authorizing force if Taiwan pursues formal independence [from] mainland China.
Taiwan and China split in 1949, but Beijing considers the democratic, self-ruled island to be Chinese territory. Beijing has threatened repeatedly to attack if Taiwan tries to make its de facto independence permanent.
We shouldn't be surprised by communist China's aggressive moves. They already have hundreds of missiles aimed at the island, and in the short term they have everything to gain from annexing wealth-producing Taiwan. But what continues to be disappointing is how the Bush administration plays both sides. As the article goes on to explain:Any outbreak of hostilities could ensnare the United States, which is Taiwan's biggest arms supplier and is bound by the Taiwan Relations Act to help Taiwan defend itself. There are 50,000 U.S. troops in Japan and 35,000 in South Korea. Under Washington's one-China policy, the United States agrees to have no diplomatic ties with Taiwan and recognizes Beijing as China's sole government.
This precarious position of supporting both a one-China policy and an independent Taiwan is why the administration so worships the status quo and "stability." When Taiwan last made moves for independence, the Bush administration came down against Taiwan (as we covered in this cartoon). Such diplomatic moral equivalence is not in America's long-term interest.
In yesterday's New York Post, Peter Brookes outlined the China Challenge. (Via TIA Daily)With a white-hot economy, a burgeoning defense buildup, a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council and a growing nuclear arsenal, China is fast becoming an Asian -- and global -- superpower.
Increasingly confident of its political and economic clout, Beijing is dead center of many of the days' most volatile international security issues, including North Korea, Iran and stability across the Taiwan Strait.
American relations with Beijing are arguably more stable than at any time in the recent past. But the potential for political, even military, confrontation with the U.S. and its allies over critical security issues is ever present -- and growing.
By far the greatest concern is China's military buildup. Buttressed by double-digit defense budget growth for 14 years in a row, including a 13 percent bump-up this year, China now has the world's second largest defense budget at $65 billion.
Mar 14, 2005 | Dollars & Crosses
IRVINE--The idea that morality is impossible without faith in God is an endlessly-repeated theme of several Fox News Channel talk show hosts. "This idea must be challenged," said Dr. Yaron Brook, executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute.
"It implies that man has no reason or purpose to be moral; it implies that no rational standard of morality is possible; it implies that in questions of morality man must suspend reason and blindly submit to faith or blindly obey some authority's ‘revelations' or ‘mystical insights.' To imply that we have no earthly reason to be moral is profoundly immoral.
"The purpose of morality," said Dr. Brook, "is to discover and teach the principles that lead to life, achievement, happiness, success, joy. There is only one means to discover and understand these principles: reason. A proper morality, one for living on earth, requires rationality and independence of soul, not faith and obedience to self-appointed interpreters of an alleged omnipotent being. A proper morality looks not to the supernatural but at man's nature and the reason why he needs values--and then defines the values he must reach and the virtues he must practice to reach them.
Dr. Brook concluded: "Properly understood, not only does morality not require faith in God--morality is incompatible with faith in God. The moral is the rationally accepted and chosen, not the mindlessly believed and followed."Mar 14, 2005 | Dollars & Crosses
From Lin Zinser:
In "Tackling Hard Thinking," Jean Moroney teaches practical techniques for guiding one's thinking when the task is challenging.
The objective of the course is to teach methods for monitoring one's cognitive progress and strategies for re-directing one's thought when something blocks that progress. Specifically, she teaches tactics for sustaining thinking despite four common problems which can bring the thinking to a halt: blankness, vagueness, overload, and floundering. The course is organized around these four problems. Although suitable for any adult, "Tackling Hard Thinking" is particularly relevant to professionals of all kinds.
Review the course in detail at her website: www.thinkingdirections.com
Mar 13, 2005 | Dollars & Crosses
From Cox and Forkum:
This cartoon is based on a suggestion from Rich Chandler.
Colorado University Professor Ward Churchill first gained national notoriety when it became widely known that he referred to some victims of the 9/11 World Trade Center terrorist attack as "little Eichmanns" in a paper titled "Some People Push Back: On the Justice of Roosting Chickens." FoxNews reported: 9/11 Prof Says He Mourns U.S., Iraqi Dead.
But it didn't end there. Los Angeles Times has the latest charges against the professor and a good overview of controversy: One Issue Triggers Firestorm of Doubt About Professor (free subscription required).[Churchill's] claim to be an American Indian, his scholarship, whether he promotes violence and how he got tenure so quickly are issues now under scrutiny. Most recently, he's been accused of art fraud, replicating paintings by the late Thomas Mails and selling them as his own. He said Mails gave him permission. ...
Churchill in the past had ties to militant organizations. On his resume, under the heading "political activism," he wrote that after returning from a combat tour in Vietnam -- Army records list him as a light vehicle driver -- he became an organizer for the Students for a Democratic Society, a radical protest group.
"Later that year I became a member of the Weathermen faction and liaison to the Black Panther Party chapter in Peoria," he wrote. In a 1987 Denver Post story, Churchill said he taught the Weathermen, who bombed two dozen buildings in the late 1960s and early 1970s, how to make explosives.
Other information on the charges regarding academic plagiarism, artistic fraud, Indian ancestry, and terrorist training.Mar 10, 2005 | Dollars & Crosses
From Cox and Forkum:
AP reports today: Annan Calls for Treaty Outlawing Terrorism.U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called Thursday for a world treaty on terrorism that would outlaw attacks targeting civilians and establish a framework for a collective response to the global threat.
Although the United Nations and its agencies already have 12 treaties covering terrorism, a universal definition has been elusive.
World leaders and officials have had deep disagreements over whether resisters to alleged oppression -- for example, Palestinian suicide bombers attacking Israeli targets — are terrorists or freedom fighters; and whether states that use what they think is legitimate force might be branded terrorists.
But Annan was categorical in his address Thursday to terrorism experts and world leaders from 50 countries ... "The right to resist occupation ... cannot include the right to deliberately kill or maim civilians," Annan told the conference on democracy, terrorism and security. The United Nations, he said, must proclaim "loud and clear that terrorism can never be accepted or justified in any cause whatsoever."
However, it's impossible to take Mr. Annan seriously when just days ago AP also reported: U.N. Must Accept Hezbollah, Annan Says.The United Nations must recognize Hezbollah as a force to be reckoned with in implementing the U.N. resolution calling for the withdrawal of all Syrian forces from Lebanon and the disarmament of the country's militias, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Tuesday.
He was responding to a question about the disarmament of Hezbollah, which showed its strength Tuesday at a huge pro-Syrian rally in Beirut attended by hundreds of thousands of people who chanted anti-U.S. slogans. Two huge banners read in English: "Thank you Syria" and "No to foreign interference."
Annan said the world needs to accept that in every society different groups may hold different views.
Today is the first anniversary of the Madrid terrorist bombings. Charles Johnson has appropriate comments.Mar 8, 2005 | Dollars & Crosses
From Cox and Forkum:
FoxNews reports: Pro-Syrian Protesters Rally in Beirut.Nearly 500,000 pro-Syrian protesters and members of Hezbollah descended upon central Beirut on Tuesday, chanting anti-American slogans in an effort to counter weeks of huge rallies demanding the immediate exit of Syrian forces.
Coming just one day after Syrian and Lebanese leaders announced that Syrian forces would begin moving out of Lebanon, the protesters were answering a nationwide call by the militant Shiite Muslim Hezbollah group for the public demonstration.
Organizers handed out Lebanese flags and directed the men and women to separate sections of Riad Solh Square, which is near U.N. offices. Loudspeakers blared militant songs urging resistance to foreign interference. Demonstrators held up pictures of Syrian President Bashar Assad and signs saying, "Syria & Lebanon brothers forever."
Other placards read: "America is the source of terrorism"; "All our disasters are from America"; "No to American-Zionist intervention; Yes to Lebanese-Syrian brotherhood."
Black-clad Hezbollah guards handled security, lining the perimeter of the square and taking position on rooftops. Trained dogs sniffed for bombs.
Large cranes hoisted two giant red-and-white flags bearing Lebanon's cedar tree. On one, the words, "Thank you Syria," were written in English; on the other, "No to foreign interference."
Ralph Kinney Bennett at TechCentralStation.com explains why Hezbollah terrorists want continued Syrian occupation of Lebanon: Deconstructing Demonstration Day (Via InstaPundit).Hezbollah, remember, is the 800-pound terrorist gorilla in the Lebanese living room. Heavily financed by Iran at its birth in the early 1980s, this guerrilla group is now thinly disguised as a political party and even has 13 members in the Lebanese Parliament.
But if you want to get some perspective on Hezbollah as a political party (or "Lebanese faction" as the New York Times called it), think Nazi party in the German Reichstag in the early 1930s.
Hezbollah is the only Lebanese political party that has 25,000 men under arms. This is a disciplined militia, heavily armed with heavy machine guns, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, some artillery and a little armor.
All the other "factions" in Lebanon, Christian, Druze or Muslim, were formally disarmed when Syria moved into Lebanon at the end of the bloody civil war.
But Hezbollah, under Syria's control, has been allowed to swagger around Lebanon, stage theatric marches of ski-masked fighters for bored TV newsmen, and continue its war of hatred against Israel with few restraints.
And Robert Tracinski comments on the "me-too" demonstrations in today's TIA Daily:The Axis of Evil strikes back, though in a tame, weakened form. A decade ago, anti-Syrian demonstrations would have been put down by brute force. Now, the Syrians try to play by the rules of a whole new game, trying to show that they have broad popular support by getting their Hezbollah lackeys to stage a pro-Syria street rally -- in awkward, self-conscious imitation of the recent anti-Syria demonstrations.
The Hezbollah rally is big, but don't let that fool you: it is the product of an entrenched organization practiced at the old ruse of staging "spontaneous" mass demonstrations. The anti-Syria rallies are far more significant precisely because they are, in fact, spontaneous. Most important, the pro-freedom demonstrators are the ones setting the agenda, not just on the style of the demonstrations, but on the *substance*.
Hezbollah is a factional militia -- yet its supporters wave the Lebanese flag, a symbol of anti-factional "national unity." It is in favor of perpetuating Syrian tyranny -- yet its rent-a-mob holds up pictures of pro-independence leader Rafik Hariri, whom even they must know was assassinated by Syria. And Hezbollah is funded and controlled by Syria and Iran -- yet it steals the slogan of "no foreign interference."
Most of all, the Syrian-staged "me-too" demonstrations, by the very fact that they copy the style of the opposition's peaceful demonstrations, grant the premise that the desires of the Lebanese people ought to be consulted -- a premise no dictatorship or terrorist organization can accept if it wants to survive.
