Kerfuffles

“I’m standing up for the principle of democracy. I’m standing up for moderation. And I’m standing up for hope for all the people in Pakistan who today are poor and miserable and really quite desperate..” ~~ Benazir Bhutto, CNN Interview of 28 September 2007.

In 1775, Patrick Henry declared “Give me Liberty or Give me Death,” at Saint John’s Church in Richmond, Virginia. That declaration set the course for revolution and independence for Americans. It was the cry that has reverberated in the hearts of mankind ever since. Many freedom lovers around the world have met death in their quest for liberty for themselves and others.

Today it was the American educated, woman freedom fighter, Benazir Bhutto, who was martyred in the name of freedom in her own native land of Pakistan. Today, it was a Muslim woman, murdered in a Muslim land, by her fellow male Muslims.

The news story is at BBC News; Christopher Hitchens names her “A Daughter of Destiny

The image, Benazir Bhutto last moments-5, is subject to copyright by PAKlSTAN. It is posted here with permission via the Flickr API by Kerfuffles.

As the first “freedom fighters” of long ago soon discovered, “FREEDOM IS NOT FREE”. It was not free then, nor is it free today. In fact, freedom is a costly commodity in terms of blood, sweat and tears.

In the Year Two Thousand and Five, AN ACT DESIGNATING CAPTAIN SAMUEL WHITTEMORE THE OFFICIAL STATE HERO OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS AND PROVIDING FOR AN ANNUAL PROCLAMATION OF A DAY IN HIS HONOR:

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

Section 44. Samuel Whittemore, born in 1694, when not engaged in numerous wars and conflicts in America and Canada during the eighteenth century, was a hard working farmer in Menotomy, now Arlington, Massachusetts. On April 17, 1775, while working in his fields, Whittemore became aware of the retreating British army which had fought the militia men at Lexington and Concord. Although then over 80 years old, he immediately armed himself with his weapon; disregarded warnings of onlookers, and stationed himself behind a stone wall directly in the path of the troops which were being harassed by our militia. When the British army came into point blank range, Samuel Whittemore stood up, opened accurate fire, and killed three soldiers before he collapsed from numerous wounds inflicted by the enraged English combatants who then left him for dead. However, Whittemore recovered from his ghastly injuries and lived to be 90 years old. Samuel Whittemore is the oldest known Patriot to fight in the Revolutionary War. And most recently, the United States never had a braver warrior. (SENATE BILL, NO. 1839)

The image, IMG_0404, is subject to copyright by Kingdafy. It is posted here with permission via the Flickr API by Kerfuffles.

As I surf the blogosphere, I often come upon comments by young people from Western nations who believe it is wrong for the West to have so much wealth, while in Africa people are dying of hunger and disease. They write that it is evil for the West to consume as much as we do, as if somehow our abundance is the cause of the misery of the undeveloped world. Of course, these young writers never seem to find the correlation between the two greatest causes of death in Africa, AIDS and politically motivated murders, and how it is that those killers are caused by the West. One young blogger wrote:

“Doesn’t it make you angry? I’m angry today about the state of the world, Ive seen some weird things recently, I’ve been and worked in a very poor country this year and coming back to the UK I’m alarmed at what I see. Massive consumption excessive, it’s disgusting people have so much more than they need, whilst people in Africa are dying of disease everyday, It makes me so sad and also so angry, how can we just let it be like this, how can we let the world be in such a mess.”

I couldn’t help responding - they need to be educated: No it does not make me angry. It makes me grateful for the legacy we received from our forebears. Our wealth comes from our liberal Western beliefs and ideas. Because we consume much has nothing to do with the cause of poverty and death in Africa. In fact, without our riches, which enable us to contribute to their relief, they would be much worse off. Everything that we consume helps someone economically. You say that you feel powerless to help. That is indeed sad, because there is much you could do. However, you will not help the less fortunate and miserable, by killing the goose that lays the golden eggs. So many wonderful ideas of economic freedom were taught by great thinkers of your own country, long ago. Study your history. The nations today that espouse the greatest economic liberalism are the same with the highest per capita incomes. There is a cure for the misery of these unfortunates, and to put it simply, its name is economic freedom. Go forth and teach Africa and other repressed peoples about the marvelous ideas of your own homeland and the Western world and explain to them, that they can become prosperous too. Do that if you truly want to help.

Or help feed and clothe one child in Africa:
Christian’s Children Fund
http://www.christianchildrensfund.org/

Well for one reason - we may just save the Easter Bunny this year from being gunned down.

Have you read the Congressional Record for September 20, 1961? The whole thing? Well, if you have not and are unaware of what was happening on that particular day of the long and threatening Cold War, when America and the free world were fighting godless communism, you can find an eye-opening synopsis at Stop The ACLU. You will learn that the two co-founders of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Roger Baldwin and Crystal Eastwood, were both confessed socialists. Dr. Harry Ward, the first chairman of the ACLU, had links to more than 200 Communist Party affiliations. As Kerfuffles has learned after many, many decades of living in these United States of America, whenever an organization has the word “American” in their official name - WATCH OUT! It very often means the group is anything but. It merely forgets to place that “UN” before the word in the hope that it can appear to be something other than what it truly is - UN-American!

From “The Stars and Stripes” of 18 March 2006 comes the story: “Lawmaker proposes bill to ban protests at military funerals”. In response to a Kansas church, Westboro Baptist (see my previous post), and its disrespectful demonstrations at service members’ burials, Michigan congressman Mike Rogers (R) plans to introduce federal legislation to block protests at military funerals.

Representative Rogers began crafting the legislation after attending a soldier’s funeral that was picketed by the “Church of Hatred”. Rogers said “When you go to a funeral, it’s difficult enough to show up and pay your respects to someone who died for their (sic) country without getting jeered, taunted and harassed.”

As mourners approached, the congressman saw placards reading “Thank God for IEDs”. The former Army officer described the experience as “worse than awful, … It was darn close to being criminal.” He said afterwards: “There’s a difference between free speech and hateful, harassing speech.”

But is there really such a difference, asks Kerfuffles? Shirley Phelps-Roper, a daughter of the Westboro group’s founder, said that the efforts to block her church’s protests is anti-American, adding that such demonstrations “are exactly what the framers of the Constitution had in mind.” As the church founder and most of his children are attorneys, she promised a legal challenge if the federal law is passed. She added “It’s so fitting that this nation, before the eyes of the world, is prepared to give away the freedoms it wants to spread to other countries. We are witnessing the suicide of a once-great nation.”

Is it necessary for a new federal law, as five states — South Dakota, Kansas, Oklahoma, Indiana and Kentucky — have already passed similar bills in response to the Westboro Baptist’s hateful demonstrations at military funerals. So far, those state’s laws have seemingly stopped the church’s protests in those states.

I tend to shudder at the thought of limiting anyone’s speech, even hate speech. I do not agree with Representative Mike Rogers’ statement: “There’s a difference between free speech and hateful, harassing speech.” What that really means is that “free speech” will become only the speech we approve of, and then there will no longer exist “freedom of speech”. Perhaps if this law were guaranteed to apply to only military funerals of active duty soldiers it would be a bit more palatable. However, my gut reaction is that this is not a good idea, even though, in a free society, we have to tolerate this: Sky News Video.

Also, check out another related video at “Expose the Left”. Linked at Captain’s Quarters.

Regime Change Iran is reporting that the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee is holding hearings on the Iran Freedom Act. Call your Senators today and ask them to support this important bill today.

Publish, Publish, Publish!
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is contained in the Bill of Rights. It states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Most all democracies in the world have similar freedoms written into their nations’ creeds. Now it seems that the very first right, “free exercise” of religion by some followers of Islam, is in conflict with freedom of speech, freedom of the press and freedom to peaceably assemble for everyone else.

All freedom loving nations and people should stand in solidarity with the brave newspapers of little Denmark and the other sympathetic European publishers by demonstrating peaceably for freedom. Prove to the ignorant that the pen still be mightier than the sword; even the sword of Allah. Publish, publish, publish; not to offend a religion, but to defend freedom.

Here is a link to the cartoon images of Mohammad (Mohammed) published at Human Events Online.
Stand With Denmark!

Where Are Those Moderate Muslims We Constantly Hear About?

This is a real human being, an innocent women, not a cartoon character, being held hostage by Islamists. Beth of MVRWC has written that she does not believe there are any such Muslims who are truly “moderate Muslims”. Since no Muslims anywhere in the world have gone out into the streets to protest about the Islamic world’s publication of this offensive picture, I must say it appears that Beth is probably correct.

The image, capt.sge.fxq71.310106161126, was originally uploaded by sandmonkey. It is posted here from Neddy’s favorites.

Islam’s leaders attempt to start World War IV over a children’s book!

The Muslim Riots in the Middle East were started by a children’s book. Quite Incredible? No, not with the current state of Islam with its imams playing the role of agents provocateurs.

Danish Author Kåre Bluitgen wrote a children’s book about the life of Mohammad, but when he attempted to find an illustrator for his book, he discovered that Danish artists were frightened of the project. After hearing of Bluitgen’s difficulty in finding someone willing to approach the subject of Mohammad, Islam’s prophet, the editor of Jyllands-Posten decided that freedom of expression in Denmark was in peril, so he published the cartoons about Islam from the twelve illustrators he could find, who were brave enough to consent. Many months went by after publication, followed by numerous apologies, etcetera. However it was not until the agents provocateurs, Danish imams, inflamed the Muslim street by adding their own depictions of Mohammad to the set of cartoons and carried them from Denmark to the mosques of the Middle East. (“What’s Rotten In Denmark?”)

As for Kåre Bluitgen and his children’s book, he eventually found an “anonymous” illustrator and published his story of Mohammad for Danish children. Nan at “American Daughter” has posted the original illustrations from Bluitgen’s book, which started it all. Nan adds: “In our secular society, good taste is a matter of choice, not legislation.”

The best thing that Islam could do for itself, it it wants to survive as a religion, is to hire a Pope. Yes, a Pope; someone to lay down the law to all the insane mullahs who are leading the various Islamic factions today. Someone from the outside would be best, as the core of Islam is so corrupt and deranged it is unlikely a good leader would be found there. Perhaps Pope Benedict would be just the man.

Linked at Mudville Gazette’s “Fall Out”.

Danish Imams!

On October 19th, 2005, ambassadors from Islamic countries demanded a meeting with the Danish Prime Minister, wanting his government to prosecute the newspaper that published the cartoons of Mohammad. The PM gave them the brush-off, reminding them that his government could not interfere with the right to free speech.

It was then that a group of conservative Danish imams, Islamisk Trossamfund, took matters into its own hands, setting about on a tour of Saudi Arabia and Egypt with the inflammatory cartoons, plus three other mysteriously unattributed drawings. From somewhere unknown Islamisk Trossamfund obtained drawings “showing Muhammad with the face of a pig; a dog sodomising a praying Muslim; and Muhammad as a paedophile.” The creator of the Danish cartoons complains, “This was pure disinformation. We never published them.”

But the devious campaign of the Islamisk Trossamfund imams succeeded. The easily led Arab street erupted in rioting and protests, burning European embassies, and calling for death to all who disrespect Islam. Last week, Saudi Arabia recalled its ambassador from Denmark and Libya shut its embassy.

According to “Guardian Unlimited”, the journalists at Jyllands-Posten, where the cartoons were originally published were asked about regrets for their actions. “We apologised for hurting the feelings of a lot of Muslims in this. But we don’t apologise for printing the cartoons.”

Michelle Malkin is on the story with “The Lies of the Danish Imams.”