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Incorrectly_Politicall
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Name: Constitutional views
Interests: AMERICA AND HER RELATIONSHIP WITH THE WORLD
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Some people believe that a black female holding political views is incorrect. On the other hand, other people believe that a white male holding political views is incorrect. In this country, we have a right to be politically incorrect (or, incorrectly political) and call out about it. This is just a little corner of the internet celebrating political incorrectness!!! I'm gonna post articles in the posts, and also my own views when I have time, I need a little bit of opposition in the comments!
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| Sorry some of this stuff is old...but scroll down, see what you like, and I'd like some opinions...
The new music is Casting Crowns "While you were sleeping" about, (what else?) America. | | |
| To view the entire article, visit http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=48080
Tuesday, December 27, 2005
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Why Christians leave Mideast
By Joseph Farah
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Posted: December 27, 2005
1:00 a.m. Eastern
It is becoming an annual Christmas tradition - blaming Israel for the dwindling Christian population in formerly Christian towns like Bethlehem.
Last year at this time, I noticed this new myth of the Middle East was being perpetrated by the so-called newspaper of record, the New York Times, in a story by Greg Myre. It began:
In the town where Christians believe Christ was born, the Christians are leaving. Four years of violence, an economic free fall and the Israeli separation barrier have all contributed to the hardships facing Palestinian Christians in Bethlehem, one of the largest concentrations of Christians in the region.
There you have it. Why are the Christians leaving Bethlehem? At least partly, according to the New York Times, because of the Israeli security fence.
Now, ask yourself a question: Why would the security fence disproportionately affect Christians? If the security fence were contributing to the exodus, it should be causing an exodus of Muslims as well, right?
This year, perhaps taking their cue from the New York Times, the story was recycled in a thousand other news venues. Political leaders around the world took up the lie as their own. And, of course, Arab and Muslim leaders were only too happy to begin championing the cause of these poor, misplaced, mistreated Christians.
There's just one problem. It's a total, bald-faced lie - another one of those revisionist history lessons being written even while the history is still taking place.
Because, for the life of this New York Times reporter and his editors back home, they can't think of a single legitimate way to blame Israel for the Christian exodus.
Here is the truth. Bethlehem, once a 90 percent Christian town, now only claims only about 20,000 of the 60,000 Arab residents - about 35 percent. The number drops day by day, month by month, year by year.
They haven't left for no good reason. They have left for very good reasons. In fact, knowing the conditions these Christians face today, it's surprising there are still 20,000 there.
But does it have anything to do with the Israeli security fence? No.
Five years ago, when the latest exodus began, the Israelis had not even started construction of the security fence.
Up until 1948, Bethlehem was more than 90 percent Christian. The Arab-Israeli war of 1948, begun by Arab states in response to the founding of Israel, brought an influx of Muslim refugees to the Bethlehem area and signaled the start of a demographic shift. Then five years ago, the exodus of Christians became a flood.
Buried in the New York Times story of last year was a key paragraph that explained why:
In the early days of the uprising, Muslim gunmen in the Bethlehem area took hilltop positions in Beit Jala, which is predominantly Christian. That afforded them a clear firing line at the southernmost part of Jerusalem. When the Israeli military responded, Beit Jala residents found themselves on the front lines of the conflict, and occasionally among its casualties.
In other words, Muslim terrorists have intentionally placed Christians in the crossfire between them and Israel. They did that when they seized the Church of the Nativity, nearly destroying it, defecating in the hallways, smashing statues and stealing precious objects. The Israelis, for their part, negotiated an end to the standoff rather than destroy the church that represents so much to the Christian world.
If the Israelis contributed in any way to the exodus of Christians, it was by withdrawing from Bethlehem and the so-called "Palestinian territories" in the West Bank. Since they left, the Palestinian Authority has waged a jihad against the Christian community, raping women, extorting businessmen, lynching "collaborators" and seizing homes.
That's why the Christians have left and continue to leave. They enjoyed life while their towns were under the control of Israel. Once they were turned over to the terrorists, there wasn't much left to keep them in the areas in which their families lived for generations.
It took WND Jerusalem Bureau Chief Aaron Klein to set the record straight this year.
"All this talk about Israel driving Christians out and causing pain is nonsense," a Bethlehem Christian community leader told WND. "You want to know what is at play here, just come throughout the year and see the intimidation from the Muslims. They have burned down our stores, built mosques in front of our churches, stole our real estate and took away our rights. Women have been raped and abducted. So don't tell me about Israel. It's the Muslims."
The story of religious cleansing in the Palestinian Authority today thus continues - and Israel gets the blame, even though it is perpetrated by the Muslim-controlled Arab leadership.
� 2005
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Joseph Farah is founder, editor and CEO of WND and a nationally syndicated columnist with Creators Syndicate. His latest book is "Taking America Back." He also edits the weekly online intelligence newsletter Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, in which he utilizes his sources developed over 30 years in the news business.
=============
From: <lexrex@adelphia.net>
To: <arv1963@adelphia.net>
Subject: A WorldNetDaily.com article from lexrex@adelphia.net
Date: Wed, 28 Dec 2005 07:44:00 -0600
You have been sent this message from Albert Veldhuyzen
(lexrex@adelphia.net) as a courtesy of WorldNetDaily.com
(http://www.worldnetdaily.com).
To view the entire article, visit
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=48064
Sunday, December 25, 2005
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Muslim grinches steal
Bethlehem Christmas
By Aaron Klein
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Posted: December 25, 2005
3:36 p.m. Eastern
BETHLEHEM - With Christmas services here drawing far fewer tourists than
in the 1990s and the town's Christian population now at an all-time low,
many world leaders and hundreds of major media outlets this week blamed
Israel for Bethlehem's decline - often citing false information - while
a simple talk with the town's residents reveals a drastically different
picture. They say Muslim persecution has been keeping Christians away.
"All this talk about Israel driving Christians out and causing pain is
nonsense," a Bethlehem Christian community leader told WND. "You want to
know what is at play here, just come throughout the year and see the
intimidation from the Muslims. They have burned down our stores, built
mosques in front of our churches, stole our real estate and took away
our rights. Women have been raped and abducted. So don't tell me about
Israel. It's the Muslims."
The Bethlehem leader, like many Christians on the streets here, would
not provide his name for publication for fear of retaliation.
Bethlehem's Christian population has declined drastically after the
Palestinian Authority took control in December, 1995. Once 90 percent of
the city, Christians now compose less than 25 percent, according to
Israeli survey information. Christmas celebrations this year attracted
about 30,000 tourists - 10,000 more than last year but down from an
average of 150,000 in 1994.
Many Christians told WND they face constant Muslim hostility.
One religious novelty-store owner cited examples of Muslim gangs
defacing Christian property, the PA replacing Christian leaders on
public councils with Muslims, and armed Palestinian factions stirring
tensions. One such incident was last week's storming of Bethlehem's City
Hall, across the street from the Church of the Nativity, believed to be
the birthplace of Jesus, by gunmen from the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades
terror group.
The store owner said "We are harassed but you wouldn't know the truth.
No one says anything publicly about the Muslims."
Indeed many leaders in attendance at Christmas Eve Mass in Bethlehem
last night took the occasion to blame Israel's recently constructed
security fence in the area for Christian woes.
In a televised midnight Christmas speech, PA President Mahmoud Abbas
said "Palestinians are seeking a bridge to peace instead of Israeli
walls. Unfortunately, Israel is continuing with its destructive policy
... (and) transforming our land into a big jail."
Jerusalem's Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah, speaking at St. Catherine's
Church, adjacent to the Church of the Nativity, called for Israel to
remove its "separation barrier, which is causing all kinds of hardships
and affecting normal life in Bethlehem."
The Archbishop of Westminster, Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, urged Israel "to
build bridges and not walls" and blamed Israel for "[compelling
Christians] to leave the land of their birth for foreign lands on
account of the political situation."
And a sampling of American media coverage of this weekend's festivities
seems to find Israel mostly at fault for the decline in Christian living
conditions and population figures.
A widely printed Associated Press article
<http://www.wnd.com/redir/r.asp?http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/na
tionworld/2002703319_bethlehem25.html> by staff writer Sarah El Deeb
opens, "Thousands of tourists and pilgrims gathered in Bethlehem for
Christmas Eve celebrations Saturday, bringing a long-missing sense of
holiday cheer to Jesus' historic birthplace. ... But Israel's imposing
separation barrier at the entrance to town dampened the Christmas spirit
and provided a stark reminder of the unresolved conflict."
Today's San Francisco Chronicle
<http://www.wnd.com/redir/r.asp?http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg
i?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/12/25/INGIEGBI8F1.DTL> states, "For
centuries, pilgrims from around the world converged on the Palestinian
town of Bethlehem at Christmas, packing Manger Square and the Church of
the Nativity, the birthplace of Jesus Christ. ... In 2002, Israel began
building a 25-foot concrete wall around the city, severing it from
Jerusalem and the northern West Bank. Today, the streets of Bethlehem
are quiet."
An earlier article by the Chicago Tribune
<http://www.wnd.com/redir/r.asp?http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationw
orld/bal-te.bethlehem18dec18,1,6478059.story?coll=bal-nationworld-headli
nes> blamed Israel's fence, constructed in 2002, for collapsing
Bethlehem's economy and prompting Christians to leave, even though the
mass exodus began seven years prior.
"A towering wall of gray concrete slabs, 30 feet high, cuts across what
was once the main road into this town from Jerusalem. Just inside the
barrier, past a new Israeli security terminal, a once-bustling
neighborhood has become a ghost town. Shops are shuttered or empty, and
the streets are deserted. ... The deteriorating economy has led to a
steady exodus of the city's Christian residents," the Tribune article
reads.
HonestReporting.com
<http://www.wnd.com/redir/r.asp?http://www.honestreporting.com> notes
the various press accounts are factually inaccurate.
* Contrary to the Chronicle report and scores of other media
accounts, there is no barrier that encircles Bethlehem. A fence exists
only where the Bethlehem area interfaces with Jerusalem, and only a
small segment of the fence is a concrete wall, which Israel says is
meant to prevent gunmen from shooting at Israeli motorists.
* The Bethlehem economy the past few years has actually improved
significantly. Tourism has doubled compared to last year, and
Bethlehem's main industries are up: Textiles by 50 percent, stone and
marble export by 40 percent, and commercial transportation 20 percent.
The increases have reportedly brought an influx of millions of dollars
into the Bethlehem local economy.
* Israel says the Israeli Defense Forces this year is making
access to Bethlehem easier for tourists. IDF Lt. Col. Aviv Feigel said,
"The military will try to speed the process by not checking every
tourist bus, but conducting spot checks of random buses instead." The
IDF also instituted a bus shuttle service to Bethlehem to speed travel
time to the city.
For years, Bethlehem was largely Christian. But when the PA took control
in 1995 it publicly expanded Bethlehem's boundaries reportedly to ensure
a Muslim majority, incorporating into the city over 30,000 Muslims from
adjacent refugee camps. Then-PLO leader Yasser Arafat unilaterally
replaced the Christian-dominated city council with a largely Muslim
leadership.
Since then, there have been a steady stream of reported abuses and
persecution.
An aide to Latin Patriarch Sabbah who asked that his name be withheld
told WND the PA has been appropriating lands of the Greek Orthodox
Church in Bethlehem and building mosques on the formerly Christian land.
He said he is aware of several cases in which Christian women were raped
and murdered, but the alleged criminals were not arrested.
"The Palestinian security forces know who did these crimes. They know
where the criminals live. Still nothing to arrest them," said the aide.
The novelty store owner told WND he was shot by Muslims in 2001. He said
the assailants are still at large.
Cases involving other alleged anti-Christian violence in Bethlehem
include attacks against Christians in 2001 after a Palestinian Muslim
leader called for a "jihad" against both Jews and Christians; riots that
spilled over from Ramallah in 2002 in which Muslim mobs burned Christian
businesses and attempted to destroy churches; and regular reports of
shootings and threats.
Israeli security officials say over 100 cases of anti-Christian violence
are reported to the Palestinian police every year. They estimate most
incidents go unreported.
In one of the most infamous cases of anti-Christian violence,
Palestinian terrorists in 2002 holed up in Bethlehem's Church of the
Nativity and refused to release the religious staff inside. There were
reports the gunmen, members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, looted the
facilities, desecrated the church and even used the Bible as toilet
paper.
One document later captured by Israel indicated the terrorists also
demanded monetary support from Bethlehem town officials.
The Bethlehem store owner said he took comfort from the words of Pope
John Paul II, who visited the city the same year as the church siege.
Speaking to a gathering of Christians, the pope said, "Do not be afraid
to preserve your Christian heritage and Christian presence in
Bethlehem."
© 2005
_____
Aaron Klein <mailto:aklein@wnd.com> is WorldNetDaily's Jerusalem bureau
chief, whose past interview subjects have included Yasser Arafat, Ehud
Barak, Mahmoud al-Zahar and leaders of the Taliban. | | |
| http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=10848
The Great Koran Cartoon Controversy
by Robert Spencer
Last September, Danish author Kåre Bluitgen was set to publish a book on the Muslim prophet Muhammad, but couldn’t find an illustrator. Artistic representations of the human form are forbidden in Islam -- so three artists turned down Bluitgen’s offer to illustrate the book, fearing they would pay with their lives for doing so. The largest newspaper in Denmark, Jyllands-Posten, in turn asked for depictions of Muhammad and received 12 cartoons of the Prophet -- several playing on the violence committed by Muslims in the name of Islam today.
Danish Imam Raed Hlayhel demanded an apology, but Jyllands-Posten refused. Said editor-in-chief Carsten Juste: “We live in a democracy. That’s why we can use all the journalistic methods we want to. Satire is accepted in this country, and you can make caricatures. Religion shouldn’t set any barriers on that sort of expression. This doesn’t mean that we wish to insult any Muslims.” Cultural editor Flemming Rose concurred: “In a democracy one must from time to time accept criticism or becoming a laughingstock.” Some Muslims in Denmark were in no mood to be laughed at. Jyllands-Posten had to hire security guards to protect its staff as threats came in by phone and email.
In late October ambassadors from 11 Muslim countries asked Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen for a meeting about what they called the “smear campaign” against Muslims in the Danish press. Rasmussen declined: “I won’t meet with them because it is so crystal clear what principles Danish democracy is built upon that there is no reason to do so.” He added: “I will never accept that respect for a religious stance leads to the curtailment of criticism, humour and satire in the press.” The matter, he said, was beyond his authority: “As prime minister I have no tool whatsoever to take actions against the media and I don’t want that kind of tool.”
As far as one of the ambassadors, Egypt’s, was concerned, that was the wrong answer. Egyptian officials withdrew from a dialogue they had been conducting with their Danish counterparts about human rights and discrimination. Meanwhile, in Denmark in early November thousands of Muslims marched in demonstrations against the cartoons. Two of the cartoonists, fearing for their lives, went into hiding. The Pakistani Jamaaat-e-Islami party offered five thousand kroner to anyone who killed one of them. The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), with a membership of 56 Muslim nations, protested to the Danish government. Last week business establishments closed to protest the cartoons — in Kashmir. And last Saturday the most respected authority in the Sunni Muslim world, Mohammad Sayed Tantawi, Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar University in Cairo, declared that the “Al-Azhar intends to protest these anti-Prophet cartoons with the UN’s concerned committees and human rights groups around the world.”
The UN was all too happy to take the case. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, wrote to the OIC: “I understand your attitude to the images that appeared in the newspaper. I find alarming any behaviors that disregard the beliefs of others. This kind of thing is unacceptable.” She announced that investigations for racism and “Islamophobia” would commence forthwith.
Yet Jyllands-Posten had well articulated its position as founded upon core principles of the Western world: “We must quietly point out here that the drawings illustrated an article on the self-censorship which rules large parts of the Western world. Our right to say, write, photograph and draw what we want to within the framework of the law exists and must endure — unconditionally!” Juste added: “If we apologize, we go against the freedom of speech that generations before us have struggled to win.”
That freedom is imperiled internationally more today than it has been in recent memory. As it grows into an international cause célèbre, the cartoon controversy indicates the gulf between the Islamic world and the post-Christian West in matters of freedom of speech and expression. And it may yet turn out that as the West continues to pay homage to its idols of tolerance, multiculturalism, and pluralism, it will give up those hard-won freedoms voluntarily.
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Read more articles like this at HUMAN EVENTS ONLINE!
http://www.humaneventsonline.com/
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| The Christmas Grinch revisited
Dec 15, 2005
by Burt Prelutsky
Nothing that I have ever written has provoked as huge a response as a piece I wrote recently called “The Jewish Grinch That Stole Christmas.”
In the article, which brought me roughly ten times as much e-mail as I’m accustomed to, I suggested that my fellow Jews were at the forefront in waging war on the values and traditions of Christian Americans.
Predictably enough, the response from gentiles was uniformly positive. The feedback from Jews was somewhat less positive, roughly split between those who admired my courage and those who accused me of being a turncoat. What I found most telling was that those who damned me didn’t, as a rule, refute what I had written; they were merely angry that a Jew had written the piece. They accused me of lending aid and comfort to bigots.
Because I make it a rule to write back to anyone who writes me, and because I assume that those who took the time and trouble to write were representative of many more who didn’t, I’d like to share some of my responses.
The term that nearly every Jew used in condemning me was “a self-hating anti- Semite.” A few accused me of not really being a Jew. That didn’t mean they thought I was a Catholic or a Baptist flying under false colors; no, they meant that my sole claim to being Jewish was that my ancestors were Jewish. The fact is, they’re right.
As I have written on other occasions, I am not a religious man. I do not keep kosher. I do not help make up the morning minyan at the local synagogue. I do not even attend High Holiday services. So what? I’m Jewish because I say I’m Jewish. And because, quite frankly, with my face, who would believe me if I bothered to deny it? Furthermore, most Jews in America are not orthodox and can not read Hebrew or even speak Yiddish. For the most part, American Jews are circumcised, have a bar mitzvah, attend a reformed or conservative temple twice a year, and vote the straight Democratic ticket.
Also, I say I’m Jewish because I don’t wish to offend the memory of my parents by denying their religion and the religion of their parents.
Finally, I say I’m Jewish because Hitler would have said I was Jewish, and then sent me off to Auschwitz, if I hadn’t been fortunate enough to have been born in America.
That was my whole point. I was lucky to have been born to a Jewish family in a Christian nation. It was, in the main, Christian soldiers who liberated the Nazi death camps. Even if I’m not as Jewish as some of my critics would like, I still believe it behooves us to be openly grateful to our Christian neighbors -- not because we fear future pogroms -- but because it’s the decent thing to do.
One of the very few points for which I was specifically taken to task was for referring to America as a Christian nation. To those people, I pointed out that I wasn’t claiming this nation is a theocracy, but Christians of one denomination or another compose about 90% of America’s population. That is 10% higher than the percentage of Jews in Israel, but I am willing to wager that none of my critics would deny that Israel is a Jewish state.
The sad fact is that the ACLU is made up in good part of Jews, and it is that organization and its lawyers who are leading the assault against Christmas. What makes it particularly unfortunate is that most Jews are not only opposed to the policies of the ACLU, but are embarrassed by and ashamed of the organization. However, when every ACLU lawyer who appears on TV to announce the latest attempt to remove Christian symbols and traditions from America seems to be Jewish, it’s all too easy for Christians to assume the rest of us support this vile campaign.
As one of my respondents put it, “An anti-Semite used to be someone who hated Jews, but it’s become someone whom Jews hate.” The problem with that truism is that Jews, in the great majority, don’t hate gentiles. Sometimes it just seems that way. In fact, most of us are well aware that Israel has no more devoted allies in the world than America’s most devout Christians.
Unfortunately, as is so often the case with black Americans, those who are high- profile and get most of the media attention are the radicals and the rabble-rousers. When my critics accused me of promoting anti-Semitism, I pleaded not guilty. I asked them if they thought that gentiles were so stupid that, until I wrote my piece, they didn’t recognize that there is a secular jihad underway in this country to remove Christ from Christmas.
Finally, the problem is that if Christians complain that the minority group is trying to bully the majority, they stand condemned as bigots. If I, a Jew, suggest that Christians should be free to celebrate one of their holier holidays in any fashion they like, and not have to feel guilty about it, I’m accused of being a self-hating anti-Semite. In short, nobody is allowed to be critical of Jews. Well, it so happens that while we Jews may be the Chosen People, that doesn’t make us the perfect people. And, believe me, I’m not just talking about my relatives.
Many of us, Jews and Christians alike, have been annoyed with American Muslims because they seem to spend an inordinate amount of time whining about racial profiling at the airports, instead of condemning the world-wide butchery of Islamic fascists or passing the hat to place a reward on Osama bin Laden’s head. Well, to me, the silence of American Jews when it comes to Christian-bashing has been equally deafening.
What truly astonishes me is the patience and good grace with which Christians have dealt with this attack on so many things they hold dear.
It is, I think, a tribute to their religion.
Burt Prelutsky has been a humor columnist for the L.A. Times and a movie critic for Los Angeles magazine. He is the author of Conservatives are from Mars (Liberals are from San Francisco).
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