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	<title>FrontPage Magazine &#187; Los Angeles</title>
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		<title>Rise of the Barbarians</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/ben-shapiro/rise-of-the-barbarians/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=rise-of-the-barbarians</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/ben-shapiro/rise-of-the-barbarians/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 08 Oct 2014 04:33:26 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ben Shapiro]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Angels]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[barbarianism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Los Angeles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Royals]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[violence]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=242609</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[America's crisis of masculinity and its dangerous consequences. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/mans-fist.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-242612" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/mans-fist.jpg" alt="mans-fist" width="291" height="241" /></a>On Friday night, a Huntington Beach man, 43, was walking back to his car after the Los Angeles Angels played the Kansas City Royals in the American League Division Series. Three men accosted him, and then proceeded to beat him senseless. He is currently in critical condition at a local hospital after police found him unconscious.</p>
<p>I didn&#8217;t find the story particularly shocking, given that I took my father and two younger sisters to the Angels-Royals game on Thursday night. Throngs packed the stadium — the team announced the attendance at 43,321. We had bleacher seats, which sold for $68. The team must have also sold standing room tickets, since behind the bleachers — lines of fans stood three deep, watching the game.</p>
<p>When my family and I arrived at the game, the ushers had not cleared paths through the standing-room crowd for those who wanted to get to their seats. We gently edged our way toward the seats.</p>
<p>Which is when I heard a guy scream into my ear: &#8220;Why the f—- are you bumping me?&#8221;</p>
<p>I turned to face a young Hispanic man, wearing a long-sleeved flannel shirt (it was reportedly 93 degrees outside at the time), baggy jeans, an Angels cap cocked off at a bizarre angle, the brim unbent. He wore a close-cropped three-day stubble. He was approximately my height, but probably 20lbs. heavier than I. Two of his friends flanked him.</p>
<p>Though I hadn&#8217;t bumped, I quickly apologized — after all, what point is there in a confrontation at a sporting event?</p>
<p>My apology, however, was not accepted. &#8220;I said, why the f—- did you bump me?&#8221;</p>
<p>Again I apologized. When it became clear that this fellow had downed at least a few beers and had his mind set on some sort of violence, my sister grabbed my arm and we walked away. He glared at me the rest of the game. My sisters focused on reassuring me that getting into a physical fight with the dolt would have served no useful purpose, and could have ended in a 3-on-1 beating.</p>
<p>Which didn&#8217;t make me feel much better.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, this fellow wasn&#8217;t the only beer-soaked Neanderthal in the bleachers. When a Royals fan, who happened to be black, showed up with his girlfriend, two boozy white Angels fans screamed — with children in close proximity — &#8220;Go back to f—-ing Kansas City!&#8221;</p>
<p>It&#8217;s unlikely any of these charming folks were involved in the beating of the Huntington Beach man after Game 2 of the ALDS. But we now live in a society where young male barbarians are growing in number, their masculinity tied into useless aggression. More and more, young men seem to channel their aggressive instinct not into building, but into destroying — not into defending the innocent, particularly women and children, but into confrontations for no apparent reason other than demonstrating dominance.</p>
<p>Why?</p>
<p>As a society, we have robbed men of their protective missions. Men who seek to protect women and children are called anti-feminist, gender normative. Men have abandoned their responsibilities to the state. As for building things — well, there too, men have been told that to build is to act selfishly, without concern for the community. And young men have no male role models, since many of their fathers have abandoned them or abandoned true maleness in pursuit of vainglorious brutality. All of which leads to an increase in destruction by men without purpose, hemmed in only by the power of the state and the benefits of self-interest.</p>
<p>None of this is an excuse for barbarianism, of course. But it does help explain why masculinity used to center around acting like a gentleman, while now it centers around acting like a boor. The more we foster the barbarian mentality, the more barbaric society becomes.</p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>. </b></p>
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		<slash:comments>56</slash:comments>
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		<title>LA School District Solves Scandal Problem by Deleting All Emails</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/la-school-district-solves-scandal-problem-by-deleting-all-emails/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=la-school-district-solves-scandal-problem-by-deleting-all-emails</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/la-school-district-solves-scandal-problem-by-deleting-all-emails/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 14 Sep 2014 14:12:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Los Angeles]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=240914</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The Lois Lerner solution to record transparency.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/keep-calm-and-delete-emails.png"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-240915" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/keep-calm-and-delete-emails-300x350.png" alt="keep-calm-and-delete-emails" width="300" height="350" /></a></p>
<p>They&#8217;re<a href="http://iowntheworld.com/blog/?p=251578"> doing it for the children</a>. <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-California/2014/09/10/Scandal-Plagued-LAUSD-Installs-System-to-Delete-Emails-after-One-Year">Also to save money</a>. This is the first time that L.A. Unified has done anything to save money so that alone should be triggering some alarms.</p>
<blockquote><p>The Los Angeles Unified school board, under fire because of the release of internal emails outlining a possibly inappropriate relationship between its executives and Apple, as well as textbook publisher Pearson, has decided to buy a service that will automatically destroy staff emails after one year, according to KPCC.</p>
<p>School district general counsel David Holmquist asserted that the service, designed by Microsoft, will permit L.A. Unified to refuse any California Public Records Act requests for emails that are more than one year old.</p></blockquote>
<p>Problem solved. Just call this the Lois Lerner solution to record transparency. You can&#8217;t ask for emails that are deleted.</p>
<p>But don&#8217;t worry. It&#8217;s being done for the benefit of the public.</p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;Because the District relies on public funds, it is imperative for the District to minimize its costs and, therefore, dispose of information and records in a timely manner.”</p></blockquote>
<p>Sure. Imperative.</p>
<p>Just think of all the money they&#8217;ll be saving in lawsuits, prosecutions and PR experts. It&#8217;s a windfall for the public.</p>
<p>This is the greatest money saving service to the public since the Watergate coverup. Just think about how much money that would have saved.</p>
<blockquote><p>The Los Angeles District Attorney&#8217;s Office is reopening an investigation into the matter; it had closed a prior investigation of the iPad/Pearson purchase, but the release of the emails has prompted another inquiry.</p></blockquote>
<p>If a private company were doing this, they would be dragged into court. But the school bureaucracy continues to be impervious to the law.</p>
<p>Because they want to save you money.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
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		<title>LA Wants to Give Democrats Free Stuff for Voting</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/la-wants-to-give-democrats-free-stuff-for-voting/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=la-wants-to-give-democrats-free-stuff-for-voting</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/la-wants-to-give-democrats-free-stuff-for-voting/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 18 Aug 2014 01:17:34 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Los Angeles]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=238796</guid>
		<description><![CDATA["Maybe it's $25,000 maybe it's $50,000."]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/vevo.jpg"><img class="alignnone  wp-image-238798" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/vevo-350x350.jpg" alt="vevo" width="294" height="294" /></a></p>
<p>Apparently that Democratic majority just isn&#8217;t majoritarian enough. Gotta lock it in a little more. What&#8217;s next? Free beer for every voter? Isn&#8217;t taxing the working people on behalf of non-working people enough? Does<a href="http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-California/2014/08/15/Los-Angeles-looks-into-making-ballot-bankable"> the liberal elite have to give out door prizes too</a>?</p>
<blockquote><p>Los Angeles is considering turning voting ballots into lottery tickets. With fewer than a fourth of voters showing up for recent local elections, the city&#8217;s Ethics Commission voted to recommend that the City Council consider a cash-prize drawing as an incentive to vote.</p></blockquote>
<p>I love that this proposal comes from the Ethics Commission. It makes it so Orwellian.</p>
<blockquote><p>Commission President Nathan Hochman said a pilot program should be used first to find out the number and size of prizes that would bump up turnout.</p>
<p>&#8220;Maybe it&#8217;s $25,000 maybe it&#8217;s $50,000,&#8221; Hochman said, according to the Los Angeles Times. &#8220;That&#8217;s where the pilot program comes in.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>Why not make it $25 billion. It&#8217;s the people who lose elections who pay for it these days anyway.</p>
<blockquote><p>It wasn&#8217;t immediately clear whether there was any precedent in other cities or states for such a move, which brings with it questions of propriety and legality.</p>
<p>Federal law prohibits payment for voting, but Ethics Commissioner Jessica Levinson, who is also an attorney and law school professor, says that statute wouldn&#8217;t apply to elections without federal races on the ballot.</p>
<p>California law prohibits money or gifts for votes for a particular candidate or measure, or payment to stay away from the polls altogether.</p>
<p>Hochman said the proposed prizes would be for simply entering the voting booth.</p>
<p>&#8220;If they truly think there are no good candidates,&#8221; he said, &#8220;we&#8217;re not going to force them.</p></blockquote>
<p>Of course the kind of voters who need prizes to show up are a self-selecting group. They&#8217;re known as Democrats.</p>
<p>The Democrats throw hissy fits and make fantastic claims about voter suppression. Now they&#8217;re using government power to bribe a certain group of voters to come and vote for them.</p>
<p>Nothing unethical to see here. It came out of the Ethics Commission.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
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		<title>LA Mayor Exemplifies America&#8217;s Decline</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dennis-prager/la-mayor-exemplifies-americas-decline/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=la-mayor-exemplifies-americas-decline</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dennis-prager/la-mayor-exemplifies-americas-decline/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 25 Jun 2014 04:19:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Dennis Prager]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Beer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[bud light]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Eric Garcetti]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kings]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Los Angeles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mayor]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[stanley cup]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[swear]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=234811</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[If nothing is holy, what can be profane?]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/6852c48c12ce71fff70b3ac158468d4e7c737b53.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-234812" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/6852c48c12ce71fff70b3ac158468d4e7c737b53-450x348.jpg" alt="6852c48c12ce71fff70b3ac158468d4e7c737b53" width="287" height="222" /></a>Last week, during the official celebration of the Los Angeles Kings winning the Stanley Cup, the mayor of Los Angeles, Eric Garcetti, told a jammed Staples Center that &#8220;there are two long-standing rules for politicians . &#8230; They say never, ever be pictured with a drink in your hand and never swear. But this is a big f——-g day,&#8221; he said, holding up a bottle of Bud Light.</p>
<p>You read that right. In front of 18,000 people at Staples and hundreds of thousands of others watching on television — many of them, of course, children — the mayor of the second-largest city in America held up a beer bottle and used the F-word.</p>
<p>This was not a whisper overheard by reporters. This was not an accidental loss of self-control. This was a planned use of obscene language in a public forum.</p>
<p>The question is: Does it matter?</p>
<p>According to the Los Angeles Times report, to the vast majority of people who heard it, it didn&#8217;t.</p>
<p>&#8220;The audience roared. Players stood up to applaud.</p>
<p>&#8220;Outside Staples Center and L.A. Live, the remarks were a hit. Lake Forest resident Jeff Ottinger, who attended Monday&#8217;s rally, said &#8230; &#8216;I think a lot of times politicians are uppity and stuffy and for him to actually be a fan is cool.&#8217;&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;It makes me have much more respect for him,&#8221; said Jason Werntz, 45, of Burbank.</p>
<p>Not only was the mayor not apologetic, he repeated his comment on Facebook and Twitter.</p>
<p>&#8220;Soon afterward,&#8221; the Times reported, &#8220;Garcetti had similar, PG-rated messages on Facebook and his official Twitter feed. &#8216;There are a few rules in politics, one is never swear, but this is a BFD. @ericgarcetti welcomes the #StanleyCup to LA.&#8221;</p>
<p>There are those of us who believe that this is an example of a civilization in decline (or even in free fall). And there are those who think that this is either no &#8220;BFD&#8221; (as Garcetti and his admirers might say) or actually a good thing. Here are two typical comments on the Los Angeles Times website:</p>
<p>Bruuuce: &#8220;I love him even more!&#8221;</p>
<p>MarkRomero: &#8220;I thought the comment was very humorous!! I laughed out loud when I heard it. You no sense of humor haters will never get it. That&#8217;s exactly why you are the way you are — humorless and republican, most likely. Go KINGS!&#8221;</p>
<p>(He is right about &#8220;Republican&#8221; — which tells you a lot about both the Republican and Democratic Parties.)</p>
<p>Nor was support confined to anonymous commenters and thousands of fans.</p>
<p>Not one member of the Los Angeles City Council condemned the mayor. At least one, Councilman Mike Bonin, &#8220;said he agreed with the mayor&#8217;s vivid description of the day.&#8221;</p>
<p>Support for the mayor must have overwhelmed objection. As reported by the Times, &#8220;A day after using the F-word in televised remarks at an L.A. Kings victory party,&#8221; Garcetti told those who found it offensive to &#8220;lighten up.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;&#8216;I think I was just being myself for a moment there,&#8217; Garcetti told reporters . &#8230;</p>
<p>&#8220;&#8216;Look, I think people should be kind of light about this,&#8217; Garcetti said. &#8216;It&#8217;s something that plenty of people have heard in their lives for sure.&#8217;</p>
<p>&#8220;KNBC-TV reporter Conan Nolan asked the mayor if his cussing contributed to the coarsening of society.</p>
<p>&#8220;&#8216;We micro-analyze everything,&#8217; he added. &#8216;We ought to let people be people. I was just being a person yesterday.&#8217;&#8221;</p>
<p>So, who are those who think this reflects serious social decay?</p>
<p>They probably fall into two categories: those over, let&#8217;s say, 55 years of age and religious individuals of all ages.</p>
<p>Older Americans grew up in a religious America, and religions draw a strong distinction between the holy and the profane. That explains why even some non-religious older Americans will find this objectionable.</p>
<p>But the secular and left-wing tsunami of the last half century has all but extinguished the concept of the holy, and thereby extinguished the concept of the profane. If nothing is holy, nothing is profane.</p>
<p>Teachers tell us how common it has become for students to curse in class — including cursing teachers. Fifty years ago students were allowed to mention God in class prayer. But in 1962, Supreme Court justices considered it progressive to outlaw all school prayer. And school prayer was shortly thereafter replaced by school cursing.</p>
<p>To appreciate just how perverse our moral standards have become, imagine if Garcetti, instead of celebrating with a bottle of beer and the f-word, had lit up a cigar. He would have been excoriated by every liberal medium in the country. And many millions of Americans would have expressed horror at what a poor model he was for America&#8217;s children.</p>
<p>A society that is horrified by a mayor publically smoking a cigar, and either apathetic or enthusiastic about that mayor publically holding up a beer bottle and cursing, is in deep trouble.</p>
<p>One is tempted to dismiss Eric Garcetti as either a fool or a bad guy. Based on what he did, and his continuing defense of it, he may well be the former. But he is not the latter. Above all, he is a man of the left, a Democrat, and a product of a secularized culture.</p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>. </b></p>
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		<title>Airport Security &amp; Double Standards</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/david-menzies/airport-security-double-standards/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=airport-security-double-standards</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/david-menzies/airport-security-double-standards/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 11 Sep 2013 04:09:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[David Menzies]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[airport]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hijab]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[LAX]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Los Angeles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Muslim]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[niqab]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[security]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Women]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=203710</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[At LAX, some head coverings are more equal than others. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/niqab-2.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-203750" alt="niqab-2" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/niqab-2.jpg" width="288" height="193" /></a>“Take off the cap!” barked the TSA official working security at Los Angeles International Airport.</p>
<p>The recipient of this curt order was my young son, Sean, who was brandishing a Batman baseball cap. News Flash: Apparently, 11-year-old Canadians are responsible for a disproportionate amount of terrorism. But I digress…</p>
<p>In any event, the kid complied and dad (for a change) kept his triple-XL mouth shut. When you have a flight to catch it’s seldom prudent to perturb those ever-so-pleasant folks working airport security.</p>
<p>Still, I felt compelled to return to the screening area once the family was safely seated in the departure lounge. And here’s what I observed: some Muslim women proceeded through the checkpoint without having to remove<i> their</i> headwear (hijabs.)</p>
<p>How odd. If one can presumably stash a box-cutter or a dollop of C4 underneath a baseball cap, surely an hijab can serve the same purpose?</p>
<p>I approached a policeman standing guard. I politely asked him: why the apparent double-standard?</p>
<p>He told me hijabs cannot be removed because “that would be against their religion.”</p>
<p>I corrected the officer, noting there’s nothing in the Koran that mandates the wearing of the hijab.</p>
<p>“OK,” he conceded. “But it’s a cultural thing or something.”</p>
<p>Or something.</p>
<p>Then he said in a tone reminiscent of how a principal would speak to a seven-year-old: “You see, sir, in America, Americans and people visiting America have rights.”</p>
<p>No argument there. Except for a small caveat: surely there’s a reasonable expectation that one’s “rights” will be curtailed somewhat when one enters an airport. That’s why we are prodded and poked and X-rayed when we proceed through security in the first place. That’s why one can’t waltz into a terminal brandishing a legal handgun.</p>
<p>The cop simply shrugged. I upped the ante: if those women had been wearing full-face coverings such as a burqa or niqab, would they have been forced to unveil to confirm their identities?</p>
<p>“Nope,” came the reply. “It’s because that’s a religion thing, too.”</p>
<p>My jaw was now resting on the linoleum.</p>
<p>Reminding him that the vast amount of terrorism in the world today emanates from those shouting “Allahu Akbar!” before pressing the detonator, the poor constable’s face contoured as though he had just bitten into a sour lemon. Our conversation was over.</p>
<p>Still, on reflection, perhaps I got off easy. After all, I wasn’t detained against my will and put through the wringer – which is precisely what happened to author David Jones at London’s Gatwick Airport last year.</p>
<p>According to an article in <i>The Telegraph</i>, Jones placed his belongings into a tray to pass through the X-ray scanner when he spotted a Muslim woman in a niqab breeze through the area without showing her face.</p>
<p>In a light-hearted aside to a security official who had been assisting him, the 67-year-old said: “If I was wearing this scarf over my face, I wonder what would happen?”</p>
<p>Oh dear. Red alert! Jones was promptly accused of racism and sequestered. An airport security guard, a British Airlines official, and even a policeman all agreed he had been “insensitive” with his comment and needed to apologize. After being detained for almost half-an-hour, Jones issued a <i>mea culpa</i>; otherwise, he risked missing his flight to Portugal.</p>
<p>But Jones also rightly noted: “I had not made a racist remark but purely an observation that we were in a maximum security situation being searched thoroughly whilst a woman with her face covered walked through. I made no reference to race or religion.”</p>
<p>Amazingly, Department for Transport rules don’t prevent people covering their faces at U.K. airports for – you got it – “religious reasons.”</p>
<p>Bottom line: Wednesday marks the 12<sup>th</sup> anniversary of 9/11. How sad that whatever lessons we supposedly learned on that dark day back in 2001 already seem to have been sacrificed upon the alter of political correctness.</p>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank">Click here</a>.</strong></p>
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		<title>LA School Superintendent/Apple Stockholder to Buy iPad for Every Student</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/la-school-superintendentapple-stockholder-to-buy-ipad-for-every-student/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=la-school-superintendentapple-stockholder-to-buy-ipad-for-every-student</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/la-school-superintendentapple-stockholder-to-buy-ipad-for-every-student/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 21 Jun 2013 16:18:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[APPLE]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Los Angeles]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=193981</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Each iPad will cost $678 which is more than the retail price because it comes with special educational software.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/1000w.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-194047" alt="1000w" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/1000w-444x350.jpg" width="444" height="350" /></a></p>
<p>Nothing<a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2345124/EVERY-school-child-Los-Angeles-iPad-state-strikes-30m-deal-Apple.html"> opens up a child&#8217;s world</a> like Facebook and Angry Birds. (Via <a href="http://www.americandigest.org/">American Digest</a>)</p>
<blockquote><p>Every school child in Los Angeles is to be given an iPad following a $30million deal with Apple. The Los Angeles Unified School District announced on Tuesday the decision after teachers voted iPads the cheapest product and the best quality in the market.</p></blockquote>
<p>Cheapest really? The iPad is about the priciest major tablet.</p>
<blockquote><p>iPads will now be handed out in 47 schools to give students from low-income households a better chance in the classroom as new national and state tests are to be taken on the devices.</p></blockquote>
<p>Apparently the only thing standing in the way of educating low income students in Los Angeles was a high end tablet. Now that they have it, Einstein look out.</p>
<p>And how will this brilliant plan be paid for?</p>
<blockquote><p>Supt. John Deasy said that the tablet project would be paid for using school construction bonds that are repaid over decades, according to the LA Times.</p></blockquote>
<p>Which is exactly the purpose those bonds were intended for. Educrats scream that they need schools for the children and then turn around and blow the money and then demand more tax hikes for the children.</p>
<blockquote><p>By only using Apple devices, the school district will pay out millions of dollars to the California-based company over the next two years.</p></blockquote>
<p>Sounds like a good deal for Apple.</p>
<blockquote><p>Mr Deasy and another board member did not take part in the vote on the iPads because each has stock in Apple. Each iPad will cost $678 which is more than the retail price because it comes with special educational software.</p></blockquote>
<p>Of course. Isn&#8217;t it great how taxpayers get screwed so that Apple can get a sweetheart deal.</p>
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		<title>LA&#8217;s Largest Teachers&#8217; Union Endorses Racist Anti-Semite for City Council</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/las-largest-teachers-union-endorses-racist-anti-semite-for-city-council/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=las-largest-teachers-union-endorses-racist-anti-semite-for-city-council</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/las-largest-teachers-union-endorses-racist-anti-semite-for-city-council/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 22 Feb 2013 18:59:17 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[La Raza]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Los Angeles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MEChA]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=178733</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In 2002, Ron Gochez published a Letter to the Editor, at SDSU’s Daily Aztec, entitled “The Jewish-owned media continue to blind the masses with propaganda to keep them in fear.” ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/las-largest-teachers-union-endorses-racist-anti-semite-for-city-council/ron-gochez/" rel="attachment wp-att-178734"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-178734" title="ron gochez" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/ron-gochez.jpg" alt="" width="320" height="180" /></a></p>
<p>Can<a href="http://weaselzippers.us/2013/02/22/los-angeles-teacher-union-endorses-racist-anti-american-socialist-for-la-city-council/"> we start divesting from</a> <a href="http://eagnews.org/l-a-union-says-a-lot-about-itself-by-endorsing-a-racist-for-city-council/">Teachers&#8217; Unions any time soon</a>?</p>
<blockquote><p>United Teachers Los Angeles made a bold and revealing statement about its radical political principles when the union endorsed <a href="http://factreal.wordpress.com/2010/05/10/l-a-teacher-ron-gochez-called-for-mexican-revolt-in-the-u-s-transcript-video/">Ron Gochez</a> for L.A. City Council this month.</p>
<p>There are 12 candidates running for one position, but the UTLA endorsed two: Gochez and State Sen. Curren Price, who is much more likely to win, according to California Political News.</p></blockquote>
<p><a href="http://americanpowerblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/ron-gochez-anti-semitic-social-justice.html">Ron Gochez happens to be a huge bigot </a>who is affiliated with racist groups such as  MEChA, La Raza and the African People’s Socialist Party. And he also <a href="http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2010/05/your-tax-dollars-at-work-ucla-professor.html">has a history of saying racist things</a>.</p>
<blockquote><p>In 2002, he published a Letter to the Editor, at SDSU’s Daily Aztec, entitled “The Jewish-owned media continue to blind the masses with propaganda to keep them in fear.”</p>
<p>At a UCLA rally, Gochez said, &#8220;Why is that these people&#8230; these frail, racist white people want to keep us out of this country? It&#8217;s not simply because the color of our skin, it&#8217;s not simply that they just want to exploit us, let me tell you why: because on this planet right now, six billion people&#8230; at the forefront of the movement is La Raza (the race)&#8230;&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>Totally sounds nothing like Hitler. The Aztec removed Ron Gochez&#8217;s original rant and then deleted the responses to it. But here they are again.</p>
<blockquote><p><a href="http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/70511-28-130nm-racists-welcomed-here">MEChA:</a> AGENDA OF U.S. GOVERNMENT IS WHITE POWER</p>
<p>&#8220;Either you are with us or against us&#8221; is what Bush tells us. Our civil rights are under attack by this fascist and Nazi-like Bush administration. All people of color have been/are victims of racial profiling at the hands of the border, police, military, Republican and Democratic pigs. The post Sept. 11 disappearances of our Middle Eastern brothers and sisters are proof of that. As Chicanos/Mexicanos living in occupied Mexico/Aztlan, we are treated like foreigners on our own land. Our civil rights are violated 24/7. Don&#8217;t believe me? Research Operation Gatekeeper and the 800 people who have been murdered under the rule of the &#8220;Republicrat&#8221; dictatorship. When we try to educate ourselves by passing out &#8220;Know Your Rights&#8221; fliers, we are beaten, arrested and made political prisoners like Ben Prado.</p>
<p>The Jewish-owned media continue to blind the masses with propaganda to keep them in fear. Because of that, foolish Americans are accepting B.S. like the Patriot Act which is turning the United States (if it is not already) into a military/police state and taking away our privacy. The FBI and CIA tap the phones and break into the homes of anyone who has a different viewpoint and assassinate those who pose a threat to their White Power and capitalistic agenda.</p>
<p>MEChA is completely against everything that Bush and his cronies stand for but we still deserve and demand that our people&#8217;s civil rights be respected!</p>
<p>&#8211;Ron Gochez<br />
chairman, MEChA de SDSU</p></blockquote>
<p>And here are some of the responses to Gochez&#8217;s hatefilled racist rant.</p>
<blockquote><p>I am writing to urge the student body not to vote for Ron Gochez, who is running for the Associated Students vice president of external affairs. Gochez is a racist segregationist who continually spreads his message of hatred. Gochez labels all Caucasians as evil oppressors and accuses the &#8220;Jewish-owned media&#8221; of spreading propaganda.</p>
<p>Civil rights leaders, such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, MedgarEvers and Cesar Chavez fought against segregation and for racial unity. Gochez continues to spread the racial hatred that King, Evers, and Chavez fought against.</p>
<p>Any person who serves as a member of the Associated Students should strive to fight for the rights of all students, not just those of color. Associated Students needs members who seek to unify, not segregate, the student body. So I call upon you, the student body, to not elect Ron Gochez.</p>
<p>&#8211;Jennifer Weaver English junior</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>I am writing in response to Ron Gochez&#8217;s letter to the editor. His empty words are filled with racist remarks and lies. As the President of the Jewish Student Union at SDSU, I take personal offense at his comments and beliefs that &#8220;Jewish-owned media continues to blind the masses with propaganda to keep them in fear.&#8221; This lie is the language of hate speech perpetuated by anti-Semitic groups such asthe Ku Klux Klan.</p>
<p>I have sat on A.S. Council with Ron Gochez for over a year, and I considered him both a very sincere person and a friend. Disappointingly, this is no longer the case. Additionally, Ron ironically refers to those living in the Middle East as his &#8220;brothers and sisters.&#8221; Israel, the Jewish homeland, is located in the Middle East. Therefore, Ron is stating that he considers Israelis/Jews as his &#8220;brothers and sisters.&#8221; I believe this is ignorant and hypocritical.</p>
<p>Ron also believes that our society is run similar to the Nazi Regime. The Bush administration is not systematically mass murdering more than 6 million innocent people simply because they do not fit the &#8220;ideal&#8221; Aryan model.</p>
<p>Ron wants to be elected as SDSU&#8217;s next Vice President of External Affairs. Ron actually wrote in his candidate statement, &#8220;enough with the racist policies,&#8221; yet his feelings about Jews (and so many other groups) exemplify that he is a racist himself. I would not vote forh im as his contradictory statements show his great lack of character and respect toward our diverse student population.</p>
<p>Ron&#8217;s head is filled with such erroneous lies and misconceptions.I do not know whether to laugh at him or cry for him.</p>
<p>&#8211;Tevia Schriebman, Jewish Student Union president</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Mr. Gochez&#8217;s letter exposes the true nature of MEChA. The true nature of MEChA is a racist organization against Jews and white people. In its statement at http://www.aztlan.org/berkbigots.htm, MEChA describes Jews as those the like of KKK and Hillel-type students. The statement further states that many Muslim and African-American groups allege that Jews were actively involved in slave trade. MEChA is also racist against white people. In its flier called &#8220;El Plan Espiritual de Aztlan,&#8221; MEChA called for a revolutionary liberation of the &#8220;bronze continent by the bronze people&#8221; and blasted the &#8220;gringos&#8221; for invading their land (http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20020305-21028866.htm).<br />
MEChA is also militant about its racism.</p>
<p>The university cannot condone racism in any form.</p>
<p>&#8211;Samuel Young economics senior</p></blockquote>
<p>But apparently United Teachers Los Angeles can and does condone Ron Gochez&#8217;s racism.</p>
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		<title>Los Angeles&#8217; Gay Mexican County Assessor to Continue Receiving $197,000 Salary in Jail</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/dgreenfield/los-angeles-gay-mexican-county-assessor-to-continue-receiving-197000-salary-in-jail/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=los-angeles-gay-mexican-county-assessor-to-continue-receiving-197000-salary-in-jail</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/dgreenfield/los-angeles-gay-mexican-county-assessor-to-continue-receiving-197000-salary-in-jail/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 20 Dec 2012 18:37:52 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Corruption]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Los Angeles]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=170364</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Antonovich said he personally believed that "Noguez has not abandoned his job by virtue of choice — he's been incarcerated for allegations of corruption and until a court of law convicts him of a crime, he's still the assessor of Los Angeles County."]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2012/dgreenfield/los-angeles-gay-mexican-county-assessor-to-continue-receiving-197000-salary-in-jail/assessor-pleads-not-guilty-to-bribery-seeks-to-have-bail-reduced/" rel="attachment wp-att-170365"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-170365" title="Assessor pleads not guilty to bribery, seeks to have bail reduced." src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/6a00d8341c630a53ef017c32b7395a970b-640wi-450x296.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="296" /></a></p>
<p>John Noguez is many things to many people. Born in California but raised in Mexico, he is California&#8217;s highest elected openly gay official, who is also married to a woman.</p>
<p>He dropped out of the Los Angeles&#8217; School of Finance without finishing his degree, but was elected to serve as Los Angeles&#8217;s County Assessor. Now he&#8217;s California&#8217;s highest ranking elected openly Gay Mexican prisoner, <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/12/20/Los-Angeles-County-Decides-To-Keep-Jailed-Assessor-In-Office-Pay-His-197-000-Salary">who will still go on collecting his $197,000 salary </a>while he awaits trial on corruption charges for lowering the tax rates of the clients of tax agent, Ramin Salari. The $197,000 salary is almost as large as the $185,000 bribe that he allegedly received from Salari.</p>
<blockquote><p>Los Angeles County Assessor John Noguez has been in jail since mid-October because a campaign fundraiser allegedly bribed him to lower property taxes for his individual clients, but the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday decided they will not remove him from office and continue paying his $197,000 annual salary, which has already increased by $5,000 since July due to a cost-of-living adjustment.</p>
<p>Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich said until a court convicts Noguez of a crime, he should be allowed to stay on as assessor even though he cannot perform his duties while in jail because Noguez he has been &#8220;unable to make his $1.16-million bail.”</p>
<p>Antonovich said he personally believed that &#8220;Noguez has not abandoned his job by virtue of choice — he&#8217;s been incarcerated for allegations of corruption and until a court of law convicts him of a crime, he&#8217;s still the assessor of Los Angeles County.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>Noguez has not worked since June, since he stepped down to conduct his legal defense, which raises the question of whether the entire California state and municipal system would better if all of its elected officials were in jail. It&#8217;s an experiment that may be worth trying.</p>
<p>There are some questions as to whether <a href="http://www.sgvtribune.com/ci_21829845/los-angeles-county-assessor-john-noguez-staying-jail?source=rss_emailed">Noguez may have been leading a double life</a> in a strange hall of mirrors halfway between diversity and insanity.</p>
<blockquote><p>Deputy District Attorney Susan Schwartz argued bail should be set high because Noguez has not stepped down as assessor but remains on paid leave. With the investigation ongoing, she hinted the amount he is accused of taking in bribes is &#8220;just the tip of the iceberg.&#8221;</p>
<p>Schwartz raised concerns about Noguez being a flight risk, saying he has family in Mexico and may be leading a double life.</p>
<p>The appraiser was born &#8220;Juan Renaldo Rodriguez&#8221; but elected as &#8220;John Noguez,&#8221; and has used various combinations of those first, middle and last names in driver&#8217;s licenses, passports and other identification.</p>
<p>His sexual orientation was also discussed briefly in court to support the argument he was living a double life. Schwartz noted that even though Noguez has been married to a woman since 2001, he is known as being openly gay.</p>
<p>Noguez&#8217;s lawyer called those accusations &#8220;demeaning.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a complex issue &#8211; one&#8217;s sexuality,&#8221; Proctor said. &#8220;It doesn&#8217;t make one duplicitous; doesn&#8217;t make one not love their spouse; and doesn&#8217;t mean that Noguez is a flight risk.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>The <a href="http://www.loscerritosnews.net/2012/11/23/obscure-elect-noguez-committee-poured-thousands-into-campaign-coffers/">Noguez corruption scandal doesn&#8217;t end with him</a>. It extends all the way up through the corrupt infrastructure of the Democratic Party.</p>
<blockquote><p>Los Cerritos Community Newspaper has found a campaign fund controlled by jailed Los Angeles County Assessor John Noguez that was established in 2010 to donate contributions in the tens of thousands of dollars to some of the most powerful politicians in California including Governor Jerry Brown, State Controller John Chiang, at least two members of Congress, and local city council members.</p>
<p>The committee was called the “Elect Noguez Committee” according to documents filed with the California Secretary of State.  The treasurer of the political action group is Martha Castaneda, who currently resides in Noguez’ home in Huntington Park. She also serves as Noguez’s Executive Assistant inside the Los Angeles County Assessor’s Office.</p>
<p>Noguez was jailed in October and is facing dozens of felony charges for money laundering, perjury and other allegations in what Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley called “the biggest political corruption case” in his 40 years as a criminal prosecutor.</p>
<p>In the filings with the Secretary of State in late 2010, the “Elect Noguez Committee” doled out more than $85,000 in contributions that were directly sent to Brown’s campaign for Governor, Chiang’s campaign for Controller, as well as donations to Los Angeles Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard, Judy Chu and others.</p></blockquote>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
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		<title>Would-Be Jihadists Arrested by Los Angeles FBI</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/lloyd-billingsley/natural-born-killers/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=natural-born-killers</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/lloyd-billingsley/natural-born-killers/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 21 Nov 2012 04:45:12 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Lloyd Billingsley]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[arrested]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FBI]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[four]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Islam]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jihad]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Los Angeles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Miguel Alejandro Santana]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Muslim]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[terrorists]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=166040</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[“I’d cut all their throats if I ever had the chance.”]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2012/lloyd-billingsley/natural-born-killers/picture/" rel="attachment wp-att-166067"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-166067" title="picture" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/picture.jpg" alt="" width="272" height="204" /></a>Frontpage recently noted that the Federal Bureau of Investigation has been handing out awards to mosques. Frontpage should also note that the FBI has not neglected its undercover work against terrorism. That work has now culminated in <a href="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/11/california-terror-plot-suspects.html">the recent arrest of four Muslims eager for “violent jihad.”</a></p>
<blockquote><p>The more I think about it, the more it excites me. . . I wanna do C-4s if I could put one of these trucks right here with my, with that. Just drive into, like, the baddest military base.  .  . If I’m gonna do that, I&#8217;m gonna take out a whole base. Might as well make it, like, big, ya know.</p></blockquote>
<p>That is from FBI surveillance of Miguel Alejandro Santana, a 2010 convert to Islam and Mexican national awaiting U.S. citizenship. Also arrested were:  Sohiel Omar Kabir, 34, a naturalized U.S citizen born in Afghanistan who served in the U.S. Air Force from 2000-2001; Ralph Deleon, 23, of Ontario, Ca., a resident alien born in the Philippines; and Arifeen David Gojali, 21, a U.S. citizen from Riverside, California.</p>
<p>According to <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/113872621/FBI-Terror-Arrest">the FBI complaint of November 16</a>, Kabir recruited the others with the violent jihad doctrines of <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/a/anwar_al_awlaki/index.html">Anwar al-Awlaki</a>, an al-Qaida leader killed in 2011. The FBI also notes a fatwah issued by Ayman Al-Zawahiri, that calls “on every Muslim who believes in God and wishes to be rewarded to comply with God’s order to kill the Americans and plunder their money wherever and whenever they find it.”</p>
<p>The FBI complaint goes into considerable detail on the recruits’ weapons training, name changes, travel plans and so forth. The surveillance also revealed their keen interest in killing on behalf of al-Qaida and the Taliban. That was most pronounced in Miguel Alejandro Santana who said he “accepted Islam without knowing anything about it other than it was the truth.” It was a place where he could “fit in and actually be able to fight for something that’s right.” In his old life, he said, he always looked for violence.</p>
<p>Santana outlined seven or eight targets including the U.S. Air Force, the UN and “yahud,” (Jews), mercenaries and private contractors. He wanted to “help the brothers pave the way to Jerusalem”  and told the others “I’d cut all their throats if I ever had the chance.”</p>
<p>Asked how it would feel to take an “American, British, Jew, a wack Muslim ok and take him out,” Santana replied that he had “no problem before taking life. I don’t know why I would have a problem now.” It didn’t matter if those he killed had a wife and kids. “It’s gonna feel good insha’Allah,” the Muslim convert said.</p>
<p>Santana also said Yemen was a good place because “they actually take over the cities and enforce sharia law.” But some Muslims needed to be “taken out” because they were not on the right side.</p>
<p>In the same vein, Ralph Deleon said he would not have a problem killing “if it’s for Allah. . . The least I can do is blow his brains out and send him to janannam (hell).” De Leon said that Omar Kabir was “basically a mujahid walking the streets of LA.” Arifeen David Gojali told Deleon “the shit just got real, son.” He wasn’t kidding.</p>
<p>The four eager jihadists booked flights from Mexico City to Istanbul but were arrested on November 15 only two days before departure. If convicted they face 15 years in prison for plotting to kill Americans and destroy U.S. targets overseas, title 18 United States Code, Section 2339A as the FBI complaint says. But the FBI surveillance revealed more than a terrorist plot.</p>
<p>If a man of 21 told US. Army recruiters he wanted to join the military in order to kill Muslims, along with Americans who didn’t have the right beliefs, he would be shown the door. With Islamic jihad recruiters, on the other hand, the desire to kill is the primary qualification, and a violent past a positive asset. In violent jihad, as in George Orwell’s <em>Animal Farm</em>, rats are comrades.</p>
<p>“I’d cut all their throats if I ever had the chance,” Miguel Alejandro Santana said. “It’s gonna feel good insha’Allah.”</p>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank">Click here</a>.</strong></p>
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		<title>Exposing the 18th Street Gang</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/volpe/exposing-the-18th-street-gang/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=exposing-the-18th-street-gang</link>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 01 Nov 2012 04:05:19 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Michael Volpe]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[18th Street Gang]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Brown]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[California]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hispanic]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Illegal Immigration]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Los Angeles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Shaw]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=163507</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[And how the Bush administration's Secure Communities program has helped turn the tide. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2012/volpe/exposing-the-18th-street-gang/18-graf/" rel="attachment wp-att-163536"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-163536" title="18-graf" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/18-graf.gif" alt="" width="315" height="232" /></a>On March 2, 2008, Jamiel Shaw joined the likes of Len Bias and Ben Wilson in an exclusive group no one ever wants to be a part of. All three are one-of-a-kind talented athletes who died under tragic and disturbing circumstances. Each of their deaths was blamed in large part on real and perceived failed social policies. Because of the overwhelming media attention that each of the three stories generated, the shock from the deaths led directly to social change.</p>
<p>The cases of both Len Bias and Ben Wilson have become so famous that ESPN featured each in their 30 For 30 Series.</p>
<div id="attachment_163532" style="width: 194px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2012/volpe/exposing-the-18th-street-gang/photo-1-6/" rel="attachment wp-att-163532"><img class="size-full wp-image-163532" title="photo 1" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/photo-1.jpg" alt="" width="184" height="274" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Len Bias dunking during his college basketball career</p></div>
<p>Athletic University of Maryland forward Len Bias died of a cocaine overdose two days after the Boston Celtics took him with the second pick in the 1986 National Basketball Association (NBA) Draft. Many of the tough drug laws in place today (which often led to overcrowding in prisons) could be traced to the aftermath of Bias’ death.</p>
<p>In Chicago, Ben Wilson died on November 21, 1984 after he was shot by another youth following a confrontation. Wilson starred at Simeon Career Academy while in high school. (Leading Simeon to a state title earlier in 1984) Simeon also produced Derrick Rose. He was considered the best high school basketball player in America in his class. Some that saw him play believe he had the potential to be the greatest basketball player ever to come out of the Chicago area, an area that includes NBA Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas. While Chicago’s tough gun laws pre-date Wilson’s shooting, those views were crystallized and set in stone for a long time in Chicago following Wilson’s death.</p>
<div id="attachment_163533" style="width: 190px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2012/volpe/exposing-the-18th-street-gang/photo-2-3/" rel="attachment wp-att-163533"><img class="size-full wp-image-163533" title="photo 2" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/photo-2.jpg" alt="" width="180" height="258" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Ben Wilson in 1984</p></div>
<p>Jamiel Shaw burst on the football scene as a junior in high school in 2007. He had rare speed; the kind necessary to be a football playmaker. Shaw was always on the field in a position to make a big play. He was the star running back on offense and the shut-down cornerback on defense.  On special teams, he returned punts and kick-offs. At the time of his death, Shaw was still looking forward to his senior year in high-school, which almost everyone believed would be even better than his junior year.</p>
<p>Shaw’s dad, Jamiel Shaw Sr. said the world lost a one of a kind talent.</p>
<p>“(It was the) equivalent to Michael Jordan dying,” said Shaw Sr. He continued, “He was super-fast; he had a chance at the Olympics.”</p>
<p>On March 2, 2008, he was walking home in the Arlington Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles. In gang parlance, Arlington Heights was known for a large contingency of Bloods, an African-American gang.</p>
<p>The perpetrator of the murder is an individual named Pedro Espinoza. At the time, Espinoza was a member of the 18<sup>th</sup> Street Gang in Los Angeles, rivals of the Bloods. Espinoza was in the neighborhood visiting Shaw’s neighbor, when he approached Shaw on his way home. Shaw was wearing a Spiderman backpack, which happened to sport the colors of The Bloods. After confronting Shaw, Espinoza shot Shaw execution style.</p>
<p>Immediately following the murder, the media blamed flawed immigration policy and specifically the “sanctuary city” policy of the city of Los Angeles. While flawed immigration policies contributed to this murder, laying proper blame becomes far more complicated.</p>
<p>Originally, Espinoza was what we now call a DREAMer. According to Alex Alonso, a gang expert in Los Angeles, Espinoza crossed the border illegally with his mother when he was between the ages of two and six.</p>
<p>In the initial aftermath of Shaw’s murder, lax immigration policies on the part of officials of the city of Los Angeles were initially blamed. LA presented an easy target. After all, LA was well known for implementing a so-called “sanctuary city” policy.</p>
<p>In fact, said Jessica Vaughan in an interview with Front Page Magazine, the city of LA has plenty of responsibility. Vaughan is a policy analyst with the Center for Immigration Studies. She did extensive research on immigration policy’s role in certain gang activity in her role as policy analyst.</p>
<p>Vaughan said that Espinoza was in parts of the LA governmental system for years and no one alerted ICE. Vaughan said she was even able to speak with Espinoza’s juvenile probation officer. Vaughan said that Espinoza slipped through the cracks for years in LA.</p>
<p>Alonso said the truth is far more complicated. For instance, there’s the matter of whose fault it was that Espinoza was released following a gun charge. He was released the day before he committed the murder.</p>
<p>In late 2007, Espinoza was arrested on a gun charge and spent several months in prison before being released in March 2008.</p>
<p>Alonso points out that he was arrested on these charges in Culver City, California, not LA. Furthermore, he was taken to LA County Jail, a totally separate governmental agency from the city of Los Angeles.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, ICE should have had longstanding policies where ICE agents had an office on-site in LA County Jail. It would ultimately be their responsibility to investigate Espinoza. Yet, the entirety of the blame fell on the city of Los Angeles, even though that is the one entity not responsible in anyway for Espinoza’s arrest, incarceration, and release immediately prior to his killing of Shaw.</p>
<p>ICE declined to give any new comment on the matter, when contacted by Front Page Magazine. Instead, we were directed to a statement ICE gave to CNN in the immediate aftermath of the murder.</p>
<blockquote><p>U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is not going to provide an on camera interview regarding this case because the issues related to this subject’s prior assault arrest involve law enforcement agencies other than ICE.  As you know, the Culver City Police Department originally detained Mr. Espinoza for assault and took the booking information related to the case.  Based upon that information, Mr. Espinoza was not referred to ICE for a follow-up immigration enforcement interview after he was detained at the Los Angeles County Jail on the assault charges.</p>
<p>Following Mr. Espinoza’s latest arrest, ICE officers at LA County Jail sought him out and conducted an interview.  During that interview, Mr. Espinoza was untruthful and uncooperative.  The following day, the officers located one of the suspect’s relatives who stated that Mr. Espinoza was born in Mexico and he will come into ICE custody if, and when, he is released by local authorities.</p></blockquote>
<p>Furthermore, said Alonzo, based on his own research, illegal immigration has far less to do with gang activity than in many other cities. He said that he’s testified in about 300 gang cases and only 15 of those involved illegal immigration.</p>
<p>Alonso said that in his own research of LA gangs, he found that poverty rates were far better predictors of gang activity than were illegal immigration statistics. Alonzo said that neighborhoods with poverty rates of 40% and above were almost always ones infected with gangs.</p>
<p>However, the 18<sup>th</sup> Street Gang itself has had longstanding ties to the illegal immigrant community, using that community as a sort of niche for recruiting new members. That’s where it gets even more complicated, said Alonso.</p>
<p>The 18<sup>th</sup> Street Gang in Los Angeles has little in common with the 18<sup>th</sup> Street Gangs in cities like Houston and Chicago. That’s because 18<sup>th</sup> Street Gangs is a sort of gang movement and philosophy. All 18<sup>th</sup> Street Gang members subscribe to the same philosophy, but there’s no central hierarchy controlling any of the local gang members.</p>
<p>In fact, Espinoza belonged to something called the Alsace Street Clique. That was his gang. It is one of hundreds, said Alonso, that each subscribe to the same philosophy. They are not necessarily interconnected in other ways. For instance, members of other gangs aren’t necessarily helping to plan crimes with members of this gang.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.streetgangs.com/hispanic/18thstreet">As of 2008</a>, there were about 15,000 18<sup>th</sup> Street Gang members in the city of Los Angeles.  That makes them the largest Hispanic gang in the city. Writing about Shaw’s murder in 2008, Alonso also <a href="http://www.streetgangs.com/features/jamiel-shaw-gang-race">said that statistic was misleading</a>.</p>
<p>“Collectively they are the largest Hispanic gang operating under the same name, but in actuality, each of the 20 or so discreet 18th Street neighborhoods should be treated as individual autonomous gangs, since many of the separate neighborhoods clash and have internal rivalries in an unstable network.”</p>
<p>Nationally, the gang counts about 60,000 members, in thirty-seven states, and in 120 cities. It is estimated that as many as sixty percent are in the United States illegally, though Alonso puts the number between five and ten percent in the city of Los Angeles, where the gang originated in the late 1950s.</p>
<p>There are gang members that believe in the 18<sup>th</sup> Street Gang philosophy at every level of the international drug trade, from helping the drug lords in South America start the smuggling route, to those that help drug mules smuggle drugs illegally over the Mexican border, to those that sell it on the streets.</p>
<p>The street pushers are not in contact with those that are helping to smuggle the drugs across the border.</p>
<p>Alonso said he didn’t discount the presence of illegal immigration in 18<sup>th</sup> Street Gang nationwide, though ironically, he said that it was a relatively small problem in LA.</p>
<p>Whatever the truth, the response in LA was fierce and put the 18<sup>th</sup> Street Gang in the crosshairs of authorities.</p>
<p>According to numbers from the ICE field office in LA, acquired exclusively by Front Page Magazine, gang arrests by the Los Angeles Special Agent in Charge (SAC) Office went up dramatically from 2007-2009. The spike started shortly after Shaw’s death. It’s important to note that when ICE participates in a gang investigation, those investigated are pro-active, targeted street arrests based on intelligence and operations, not people located in jails who were arrested for other things.</p>
<p>The arrests by ICE LA from 2007-2009 were 129, 451, and 502 of all gang members, and 11, 21, and 39 for members of the 18<sup>th</sup> Street Gang specifically.</p>
<p>Furthermore, points out Jamiel Shaw Sr., father of the victim, California was leading the way in implementing Secure Communities. Secure Communities is a data sharing program that would give ICE fingertip access to all sorts of inmate data from any inmate in any municipal prison in the network.</p>
<p>California was one of the first states to have each of the counties signed up, and leads all the States in the country in yearly deportations from investigations started by Secure Communities. Secure Communities was started under the Bush administration but popularized under the Obama administration. Currently more than 80% of all counties have signed up for Secure Communities.</p>
<p>In fact, Secure Communities became so popular that liberal groups attempted to ban most contact between ICE and local county jails in the state. A bill even passed the California legislature significantly curbing cooperation between jails in the State of California and ICE detainers. (ICE detainers are holds on municipal prisoners by ICE and they are often the result of Secure Communities investigations.) Governor Brown wound up vetoing that bill, a position that Jamiel Shaw Sr. vocally supported.</p>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank">Click here</a>.</strong></p>
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		<title>Lessons from the L.A. Airport Terrorist Plot</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/lloyd-billingsley/lessons-from-the-l-a-airport-terrorist-plot/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=lessons-from-the-l-a-airport-terrorist-plot</link>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 26 Oct 2012 04:46:17 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Lloyd Billingsley]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ahmed Ressam]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[airport]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[algeria]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[canada]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Los Angeles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[plot]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[security]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sentenced]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Terrorist]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=162873</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Ahmed Ressam sentenced to 37 years, but how many more are waiting to take his place? ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2012/lloyd-billingsley/lessons-from-the-l-a-airport-terrorist-plot/ahmed-ressam/" rel="attachment wp-att-162889"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-162889" title="ahmed-ressam" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/ahmed-ressam.jpg" alt="" width="280" height="210" /></a>The hit film <em>Argo</em> recalls the 1980 “Canadian Caper” that helped Americans escape Iran. The Algerian terrorist <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/terrorist-37-years-lax-bomb-plot-article-1.1191159">Ahmed Ressam, sentenced to 37 years in prison on October 24</a>, recalls the ineptitude and indifference that allowed the terrorist, also known as Benni Noris, to escape detection in Canada, facilitating his plot to blow up Los Angeles International Airport.</p>
<p>According <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/trail/inside/cron.html">to an investigation by PBS’s Frontline</a>, Ressam became a militant Islamist in the early 1990s after an Islamist party won the Algerian elections. Ressam left for France where he lived illegally for four years before departing for Montreal with a bogus French passport Canadian officials easily spotted, but which did not prevent him from remaining in Canada. Ressam requested political asylum and Canadian officials accepted his story without checking with France, Algeria, or Interpol.</p>
<p>In Montreal Ressam augmented his welfare payments by robbing tourists. He was arrested four times but convicted only once and, incredibly enough, served no jail time. In Montreal, Ressam also linked up with the Osama bin Laden network and the Algeria-based Armed Islamic Group (GIA), which hijacked an Air France plane and attempted to crash the Eiffel Tower. The GIA also bombed the Paris Metro and attempted to murder European leaders at a G-7 meeting.</p>
<p>A car bomb case near Roubaix gave French police evidence that led to Ressam’s Montreal apartment. French authorities asked Canada for a search warrant but Canada took six months to process the request. When Canadian authorities did attempt to deport Ressam, he adopted the alias of Benni Noris and easily eluded them.</p>
<p>Ressam left Canada for Afghanistan in 1998 and there Al Qaeda, according to Frontline, gave him “training in light arms – including machine guns and rocket propelled grenades – the use of explosives and poison gas, methods for assassination, sabotage, and urban warfare.” And consider the ease of travel outlined in the Frontline story:</p>
<blockquote><p>Ressam traveled alone – on the Canadian passport under the name of Benni Noris – back to Montreal. He says that he brought with him chemicals and directions for making explosives. He flew from Pakistan to Seoul, South Korea, and then on to Los Angeles International Airport. It was this visit to the Los Angeles airport that provided him with the inspiration for his bombing target. He thought he could place a bomb, hidden in a suitcase, in the passenger waiting area. After surveilling the airport and calculating how long it would take security guards to check abandoned luggage, he caught a flight to Canada. Back in Montreal, under the name of Benni Noris, he signed a lease on an apartment and obtained a driver&#8217;s license. CSIS [Canadian Security Intelligence Service] officials say during this period they were actively looking for Ahmed Ressam and were unaware of his alias.</p></blockquote>
<p>Ahmad Ressam should not have been allowed to remain in Canada and should have been deported after his first robbery. His lenient treatment was not one of Canada’s <em>plus brillants exploits</em> but U.S. immigration officials also proved inept. They accepted Ressam’s fake Canadian passport, and failed to inspect the rented Chrysler in which Ressam had stashed 100 pounds of explosives in the wheel well. In Port Angeles, Washington, <a href="http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20110503/NEWS/305039995">customs inspector Dan Clem searched the Chrysler and found the explosives</a>. Ressam fled on foot but customs inspector Mike Chapman helped chase him down and police arrested the Algerian bomber.</p>
<p>In custody Ressam cooperated and his information helped convict a Bin Laden associate. But Ressam recanted all his cooperation when he did not get the deal he wanted, less than 27 years in prison. The Justice Department wanted life in prison for Ressam, who gets 37 years – nearly 13 years after his attempt at mass murder. In that time the Algerian terrorist has become fluent in political correctness, claiming <a href="http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2019505699_ressam24m.html">in a letter to the court</a> to be “against killing innocent people of any gender, color or religion.” Now who would do a thing like that?</p>
<p>“Look truthfully at yourselves,” Ressam’s letter said, “you will see how many innocent people you have killed under the guise of various slogans.”</p>
<p>Ahmed Ressam may be out of circulation but it is certainly possible that other Islamic militants are targeting Los Angeles. That city remains home to the U.S. movie industry. Islamists want the U.S. government to take away filmmakers&#8217; free-speech rights and punish the producer of “Innocence of Muslims.” So a sequel to Ressam’s attempt could well be in the works.</p>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank">Click here</a>.</strong></p>
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		<title>The Islamists’ Allies in Law Enforcement</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/ryan-mauro/the-islamists%e2%80%99-allies-in-law-enforcement/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=the-islamists%25e2%2580%2599-allies-in-law-enforcement</link>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 04 Jun 2012 04:30:19 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ryan Mauro]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[CAIR]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Islam]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Los Angeles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[muslim brotherhood]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sheriff lee baca]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[stealth jihad]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=133857</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Proof of the success of stealth jihad in Los Angeles. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/3368615267_d2dbb41a46_z.gif"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-133861" title="3368615267_d2dbb41a46_z" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/3368615267_d2dbb41a46_z.gif" alt="" width="375" height="249" /></a>If you are searching for proof of the success of stealth jihad, then look no further than the Islamists’ success in becoming partners with law enforcement agencies eager to reach out to the Muslim community.</p>
<p>Los Angeles should be particularly embarrassed by an <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/3603/la-top-cops-partner-with-islamists">exposé</a> by the Investigative Project on Terrorism published on June 1. Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca is among the most high-profile defenders of the Muslim Brotherhood’s fronts in the U.S., including the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). He stands by the group’s innocence, even though the federal government designated it as an “unindicted co-conspirator” in the trial of the Holy Land Foundation, a front set up by the Muslim Brotherhood to finance Hamas. The FBI subsequently ended its use of CAIR as a liaison, but some in law enforcement, such as Sheriff Baca, believe they know better than the agency. CAIR has <a href="http://ca.cair.com/losangeles/news/sheriff_lee_baca_recognized_at_cair-la_banquet">honored</a> Baca with an award for his support. Los Angeles County Deputy Sherif Morsi received it on his behalf.</p>
<p>The Los Angeles Police Department’s Deputy Chief Michael Downing, who is the Commanding Officer of the Counter-Terrorism and Special Operations Bureau, shows some knowledge of the Muslim Brotherhood, but dismisses accusations that it is currently a threat because, in his words, it has “evolved and changed.”</p>
<p>On May 15, 2011, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Muslim Public Affairs Unit held a town hall at the Islamic Center of Southern California, a mosque with Brotherhood origins. It was moderated by the Muslim Public Affairs Council, a group that was founded by Brotherhood ideologues. Tom Trento of <a href="http://www.theunitedwest.org/">The United West</a> held up a copy of <a href="http://shariahthethreat.org/"><em>Shariah: The Threat to America</em></a>, authored by top national security experts, and asked if the speakers believe that there is a Muslim Brotherhood presence in Los Angeles County and what is being done about it.</p>
<p>Downing answered the question by conceding that he is “sure” that the Brotherhood is in his county, but did not address its threat potential. Trento approached him after the event and, <a href="http://youtu.be/siOgo1QHfZw">on videotape</a>, Downing said that “the message is not to demonize the Brotherhood here” because it has “evolved and changed.” He compared it to how there are more moderate and more extreme elements of the Republican and Democratic parties and said it would be wrong to oppose a group like the Muslim Students Association just because it was founded by the Brotherhood.</p>
<p>He then encouraged Trento to study <em>ijtihad</em>, an Islamic concept that permits independent scrutiny of specific interpretations. When Trento responded that, according to mainstream Islamic theology, <em>ijtihad</em> is “closed,” Downing disagreed, only saying, “it’s not.” The United West’s <a href="http://youtu.be/siOgo1QHfZw">video</a> of the encounter then quotes the 2011 edition of the Encyclopedia Britanica about <em>ijtihad</em>, confirming that it was declared a thing in the past by the Islamic schools of jurisprudence by 1258 A.D. Downing would later use the incident as an example of those who “want to instill fear in the hearts of the American people because they don’t tell the truth.”</p>
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		<title>Disasters and Double Standards</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/andrew-cline/disasters-and-double-standards/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=disasters-and-double-standards</link>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 04 Jun 2010 04:26:01 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Andrew Cline]]></dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[Where’s the media outrage over Obama's mismanagement of the Gulf Coast crisis?]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/gallery-obamabpspill1.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-61790" title="gallery-obamabpspill1" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/gallery-obamabpspill1-300x216.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="216" /></a></p>
<p>Remember the big stories in the national media when George W. Bush waited four days to tour New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina hit? Here’s a pop quiz: How long did it take President Obama to visit the Gulf coast after the Deepwater Horizon oil leak began?</p>
<p>The answer is 13 days. Here is how The <em>Washington Post</em> described that visit:</p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;He flew in and out of New Orleans on May 2, drove two hours to a Coast Guard station and got a briefing before taking a quick helicopter tour. He did not even see the oil slick.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>Mark Knoller of CBS News reported last week that in the first 39 days after each respective catastrophe, Obama visited the Gulf coast twice; Bush visited New Orleans seven times. But remember, this is not Obama’s Katrina!</p>
<p>Now imagine if President Bush, five weeks into one of the largest oil leaks in U.S. history, and without ever having seen the slick, jetted across the country to headline a $17,600 per-person fund-raiser at the home of an oil-fortune heir. How do you think the national press would have treated that? Bush didn’t do that, which is why you didn’t hear about it. President Obama did — which is why you didn’t hear about it.</p>
<p>The media covered Obama’s trip to San   Francisco to raise money for Barbara Boxer. Some news outlets even reported that Obama spoke at a private reception at the home of Democratic Party donor Gordon Getty. But few reported that Getty is the heir to the Getty Oil fortune. For instance, the <em>New York Times</em> reports on Obama’s trip never identified Getty as an oil heir. Do you think that would have been omitted had Bush been Getty’s guest?</p>
<p>What if, hours after the head of the U.S. Minerals Management Service left her job over Washington’s mishandling of that giant oil spill, President Bush held a press conference (his first in months) and, when asked about that agency head, could not say whether she had resigned or been fired? What if, hours later, the White House stated that the President knew all along that she had been dismissed, but that story was contradicted by the Cabinet secretary — the one who supposedly did the dismissing — having said that morning during a congressional hearing that she’d resigned voluntarily?</p>
<p>That happened in the Obama administration last week. Where are the outraged cries of incompetence and dishonesty?</p>
<p>Can you imagine the charges of buffoonery that would pour forth from New York, Washington, and Los Angeles, if the George W. Bush administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a state law that had been signed into law by one of Bush’s own cabinet secretaries?</p>
<p>Well, last week the Obama administration did exactly that. The Department of Justice asked the court to overturn a 2007 Arizona immigration law that punishes employers who knowingly hire illegal aliens. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano signed the bill into law when she was Arizona governor.</p>
<p>All of these events were reported in the mainstream media. But they were not reported in the same way they would have been had a Republican been president. The point of this criticism is not to say that Bush was great and Obama stinks. Bush was not a great president. The point is to illustrate the double standard most of the media have.</p>
<p>Media bias exhibits itself in the subtle favoring of liberal politicians and ideas. The same rules don’t apply to the left and the right. The left is presumed to have good intentions, the right bad. So when Bush took four days to get to New Orleans after Katrina hit, it was evidence of racism, elitism, a general lack of concern for the little people. But when it took Obama three times as long to visit the Gulf Coast, there was silence.</p>
<p>When a left-wing administration makes mistakes or contradicts itself, that is simply human nature. When a right-of-center administration does, it is incompetence or duplicity. Or both.</p>
<p>At least some on the left are calling out Obama for his inattentiveness to the Gulf oil spill. That’s no substitute for the press setting the national narrative by holding him to the same standards to which it held Bush. But it’s a start.</p>
<p><em>Andrew Cline is editorial page editor of the New Hampshire Union Leader. Follow him on twitter @Drewhampshire.</em></p>
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		<title>The “Humanitarian Relief” Wing of Hamas and Al-Qaeda</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/john-perazzo/the-%e2%80%9chumanitarian-relief%e2%80%9d-wing-of-hamas-and-al-qaeda-3/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=the-%25e2%2580%259chumanitarian-relief%25e2%2580%259d-wing-of-hamas-and-al-qaeda-3</link>
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		<pubDate>Wed, 02 Jun 2010 04:29:47 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[John Perazzo]]></dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[The longstanding terror ties of the Turkish group that organized the Gaza-bound flotilla.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/ihh11.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-61834" title="ihh1" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/ihh11.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="300" /></a></p>
<p>The Foundation for Human Rights and Freedom and Humanitarian Relief (better known by its Turkish acronym, IHH) is the group that organized the six-ship flotilla which recently tried, without success, to sail all the way to Gaza. <a href="http://www.rightsidenews.com/2010060110406/global-terrorism/ihhinsani-yardim-vakfi.html">Established</a> in Turkey in 1992, the Foundation sends <a href="http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/English/eng_n/html/hamas_e105.htm">aid</a> to distressed areas throughout the Middle East – in the form of food, medicine, vocational education, and building supplies. A prime destination for this aid is Gaza, where – according to IHH – Palestinians are being oppressed by an unjustified Israeli naval blockade. (For the record, that blockade was put in place to prevent <a href="http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/groupProfile.asp?grpid=6204">Hamas</a>, which controls Gaza politically and has fired thousands of rockets into southern Israeli towns in recent years, from importing additional weaponry from Iran and other allies abroad.)</p>
<p>For several days last week, as the flotilla approached Gaza, Israel issued warnings that the ships would not be permitted to reach their destination without first submitting to an inspection of their cargoes – to ensure that no weaponry was being transported. But when the respective crews of the vessels refused to comply, Israeli commandos took action and intercepted the flotilla in the early morning hours of May 31. The IHH-affiliated activists responded with violence, instantly attacking the commandos with knives and clubs, and throwing one of them overboard. In the melee that ensued, ten activists were killed and seven Israeli soldiers were wounded. How could this be? How can we be expected to believe that a well-meaning “humanitarian relief” group would ever behave in a manner that might provoke violent reprisals from Israeli troops? A more thorough examination of IHH&#8217;s history and affiliations explains everything.</p>
<p>While IHH is indeed <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/7790919/Gaza-flotilla-the-Free-Gaza-Movement-and-the-IHH.html">involved</a> in the aforementioned humanitarian endeavors, its overall objectives are much broader. Belying the <a href="http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/English/eng_n/html/hamas_e105.htm">dove of peace</a> whose image appears on its logo, IHH overtly supports <a href="http://docs.google.com/groupProfile.asp%3Fgrpid=6204">Hamas</a>, is <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/7790919/Gaza-flotilla-the-Free-Gaza-Movement-and-the-IHH.html">sympathetic</a> to <a href="http://docs.google.com/groupProfile.asp%3Fgrpid=6211">al Qaeda</a>, and maintained regular contact with al Qaeda cells and the Sunni insurgency during the bloodiest stretches of the Iraq War. Moreover, IHH has <a href="http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/English/eng_n/html/hamas_e105.htm">supported jihadist terror networks </a>not only in Iraq, but also in Bosnia, Syria, Afghanistan, and Chechnya. <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/7790919/Gaza-flotilla-the-Free-Gaza-Movement-and-the-IHH.html">According to</a> Carnegie Endowment analyst Henri Barkey, IHH is “an Islamist organization” that “has been deeply involved with Hamas for some time.” A 2006 <a href="http://www.diis.dk/graphics/Publications/WP2006/DIIS%20WP%202006-7.web.pdf">report</a> by the Danish Institute for International Studies characterized IHH as one of many “charitable front groups that provide support to Al-Qaida” and the global jihad.</p>
<p>Is the IHH beginning to sound less and less like a “humanitarian relief” group? Let&#8217;s look a little deeper still.</p>
<p>According to a French intelligence report, <a href="http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/English/eng_n/html/hamas_e105.htm">in the mid-1990s</a> IHH leader Bülent Yildirim was directly involved in recruiting “veteran soldiers” to organize jihad activities, and in dispatching IHH operatives to war zones in Islamic countries to gain combat experience. The report also stated that IHH had transferred money as well as “caches of firearms, knives and pre-fabricated explosives” to Muslim fighters in those countries. Given this track record, can Israel&#8217;s concern about the contents of the IHH flotilla cargoes really be considered excessive or unwarranted?</p>
<p>In 1996, IHH continued to burnish its credentials as a “humanitarian relief” organization when an examination of its <a href="http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/English/eng_n/html/hamas_e105.htm">telephone records</a> showed that repeated calls had been made to an al Qaeda guest house in Milan and to Algerian terrorists operating in Europe. That same year, the U.S. government formally <a href="http://www.rightsidenews.com/2010060110406/global-terrorism/ihhinsani-yardim-vakfi.html">identified</a> IHH as having connections to extremist groups in Iran and Algeria.</p>
<p>In December 1997, Turkish authorities, acting on a tip from sources claiming that IHH leaders had purchased automatic weapons from other regional Islamic militant groups, <a href="http://globalmbreport.org/?p=3080">initiated a domestic criminal investigation</a> of IHH. A thorough search of the organization&#8217;s Istanbul bureau uncovered a large assortment of firearms, explosives, bomb-making instructions, and a “jihad flag.” In addition, Turkish authorities seized a host of IHH documents whose contents ultimately led investigators to conclude that the group&#8217;s members “were going to fight in Afghanistan, Bosnia, and Chechnya.”</p>
<p>Near the end of 2000, IHH <a href="http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/English/eng_n/html/hamas_e105.htm">organized protests</a> against proposals to overthrow that humanitarian icon, Iraqi President <a href="http://docs.google.com/individualProfile.asp%3Findid=1344">Saddam Hussein</a>; American and Israeli flags were burned at these rallies.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/case_docs/312.pdf">During the April 2001 trial</a> of would-be “millennium bomber” Ahmed Ressam, it was revealed that IHH had played an “important role” in the plot to blow up Los Angeles International Airport on December 31, 1999. Some reasonable observers might contend that to classify such a pursuit under the heading of “humanitarian relief” would require an unduly broad definition of that term.</p>
<p>In 2002, investigators <a href="http://globalmbreport.org/?p=3080">found</a> correspondences from IHH in the offices of the <a href="http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:hTJnY7GO7_oJ:globalmbreport.com/?p=2634+">Success Foundation</a>, a <a href="http://docs.google.com/groupProfile.asp%3Fgrpid=6386">Muslim Brotherhood</a>-affiliated organization whose Secretary was <a href="http://docs.google.com/individualProfile.asp%3Findid=1311">Abdul Rahman Alamoudi</a>. For the record: The Brotherhood was the ideological forebear of Hamas and al Qaeda; it supports jihad; and it seeks to impose shari&#8217;a law on the entire civilized world.  Mr. Alamoudi, for his part, is currently serving a prison term of nearly a quarter-century for his role as a funder of international terrorism. He is best known for having proudly declared himself to be a passionate supporter of Hamas and <a href="http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/groupProfile.asp?grpid=6256">Hezbollah</a>. The connections to “humanitarian relief” seem rather tenuous here.</p>
<p><a href="http://globalmbreport.org/?p=3080">According to</a> a <a href="http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/English/eng_n/pdf/hamas_e105.pdf">report</a> issued by a website close to Israeli military intelligence: “[S]ince Hamas took over the Gaza Strip, IHH has supported Hamas’ propaganda campaigns by organizing public support conferences in Turkey.” The report also states that IHH continues to operate widely throughout Gaza and to funnel large sums of money to support the Hamas infrastructure.</p>
<p>In January 2008, an IHH <a href="http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/English/eng_n/html/hamas_e105.htm">delegation</a> met with Ahmed Bahar, chairman of Hamas’ council in the Gaza Strip. At the meeting, the delegation not only boasted about the large amount of financial support it had given Hamas during the preceding year, but also declared its intent to double that sum in the future. Once again, we are left to wonder how any of this falls under the rubric of “humanitarian relief.”</p>
<p>In 2008 Israel <a href="http://globalmbreport.com/?p=962">banned</a> IHH from the country because of the organization&#8217;s membership in the “Union of Good” (UOG), a Hamas-founded <a href="http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/html/final/eng/sib/2_05/funds.htm">umbrella coalition</a> comprised of more than 50 Islamic charities (most of which are associated with the global Muslim Brotherhood) that channel money and goods to Hamas-affiliated institutions. In December 2008, the U.S. government <a href="http://www.ustreas.gov/press/releases/hp1267.htm">designated</a> UOG as a <a href="http://globalmbreport.org/?p=3080">terrorist entity</a> that was guilty of “diverting” donations that were intended for “social welfare and other charitable services,” and using those funds “to strengthen Hamas’ political and military position.”</p>
<p>In January 2009, IHH head Bülent Yildirim <a href="http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/English/eng_n/html/hamas_e105.htm">met</a> with <a href="http://docs.google.com/individualProfile.asp%3Findid=793">Khaled Mash&#8217;al</a>, chairman of Hamas’ political bureau in Damascus, and Mash&#8217;al thanked Yildirim for the support of his organization.</p>
<p>In <a href="http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/English/eng_n/html/hamas_e105.htm">November 2009</a> IHH activist Izzat Shahin transferred tens of thousands of American dollars from IHH to the Islamic Charitable Society (in Hebron) and Al-Tadhamun (in Nablus), two of Hamas’ most important front groups posing as “charitable societies.”</p>
<p>This, then, is the IHH: a pack of anti-Semitic supporters of terrorism, cloaking themselves in the vestments of victimhood, and bleating to the world about how unfairly they have been treated by the very nation whose extermination they have worked long and hard to bring about. It&#8217;s actually a story that has become quite familiar.</p>
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		<title>Excuses for Islamists</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/eric-golub/excuses-for-islamists/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=excuses-for-islamists</link>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 30 Apr 2010 04:00:40 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Eric Golub]]></dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[UCLA’s "see no evil" approach to terrorism financing.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/aclu.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59267" title="aclu" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/aclu.jpg" alt="" width="375" height="256" /></a></p>
<p>A conference at the University  of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) on April 16,  2010, offered “<a href="http://www.international.ucla.edu/calendar/showevent.asp?eventid=8022">Critical Perspectives on the Criminalization of Islamic Philanthropy in the War on Terror</a>.” Co-sponsored by the UCLA International Institute, the Critical Race Studies Program, and the <em>UCLA Journal of Islamic and Near Eastern Law</em>—and including speakers from UCLA’s Center for Near Eastern Studies (CNES)—the conference proffered the usual apologist fare.</p>
<p>It was also an echo chamber. Of the approximately 30 people in attendance, 20 of them were academics. Several students showed up, in addition to the usual assortment of aging leftist revolutionaries.</p>
<p>The thrust of the conference was simple: The war on terror has led to a crackdown on Muslim charities, which has had a chilling effect on Muslims by rendering them unable to engage in <em>Zakat </em>(charity), one of the five pillars of Islam.</p>
<p>Unmentioned throughout this eight-hour infomercial was that the majority of the charities that have been investigated for financially aiding terrorism were found guilty and that decent Muslims are capable of giving to charities that do not foment bombings and beheadings.</p>
<p>Asli Bali, acting professor of law at UCLA, organized the conference and acted as one of the principal moderators. She responded to challenging questions from the audience by stating: “We will take three questions from presenters; others will have to wait.”</p>
<p>Jennifer Turner of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Human Rights Program was the speaker over whom everybody seemed to be fawning. Her presentation was titled, “Blocking Faith, Freezing Charity,” and, in typical ACLU fashion, she made excuses for Islamists’ bad behavior while bashing America.</p>
<p>She began by stating: “I’m not a social scientist. I am not here to offer any statistical analysis”—a fig leaf she employed to make wildly unsubstantiated claims, as when she announced that “the conviction in the Holy Land Foundation case was based on faulty evidence.” She didn’t bother to elaborate.</p>
<p>It turned out her “research” that had the entire room in a swoon consisted of the following:</p>
<blockquote><p>I did 120 interviews with American Muslims in Michigan and Texas. People reported that they were unable to give<em> Zakat</em>. Some had stopped giving entirely. Some felt fear of deportation or denial of citizenship.</p></blockquote>
<p>Turner excused her extremely small sample size with more platitudes about not being a statistician. She insisted that she did not ask leading questions, although the process was clearly an exercise in promoting victimhood. She did not verify the accuracy of her respondents or analyze any tax returns. In short, she relied on her own biased views to justify a predetermined conclusion.</p>
<p>University  of Michigan, Dearborn, history professor Sally Howell actually found oppression in increased giving. As she put it:</p>
<blockquote><p>Since 2001, there have been 14 new mosques, and 17 mosques have doubled in size. This is proof that people are not donating overseas.</p></blockquote>
<p>Howell followed this with more bizarre commentary:</p>
<p>“The Arab charity LIFE [Life for Relief and Development] had their board resign one year after Israel invaded Lebanon.”</p>
<p>Foiled again!</p>
<p>“As a result of restrictive policies” a board member of another charity, according to Howell, “embezzled $10,000.”</p>
<p>Yes: and as a result of inconvenient and restrictive securities laws, Bernie Madoff was forced to steal. It was all America’s fault.</p>
<p>“Does government get to decide what is good Islam and what is bad Islam?,” she asked.</p>
<p>No, but it does get to decide what constitutes funding terrorism.</p>
<p>Howell concluded, “The FBI has to show results or lose resources.”</p>
<p>Erica James, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) anthropology professor, offered proof—of nothing:</p>
<p>“I have an anthropology background. I am here to theorize what is happening.”</p>
<p>Her solution to the supposed problems faced by Muslim charities? “Defiant giving.”</p>
<p>During the question and answer period of this panel, an audience member—resorting to the usual name calling directed at critics of Middle East studies— proclaimed that “well-known bigot Daniel Pipes wrote an article about ‘stealth Islamists.’”</p>
<p>The panelists all nodded in agreement. There was no word on <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/1841/stealth-islamist-khaled-abou-el-fadl">Pipes’s findings</a> regarding UCLA law professor—and moderator at this conference—Khaled Abou El Fadl’s status as, in fact, a stealth Islamist.</p>
<p>Laila Al-Marayati, the chairperson of KinderUSA—a charity that terrorism analyst Matthew Levitt <a href="http://www.nysun.com/national/charity-drops-suit-against-terrorism-analyst/60635/">included</a> in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Hamas-Politics-Charity-Terrorism-Service/dp/0300122586/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1268664162&amp;sr=1-1">his book</a> on funding Hamas—portrayed the terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah as harmless. As she put it, “Hamas helps Palestinian children in Gaza. I don’t consider Hamas and Hezbollah as threats to me and my family.”</p>
<p>Jonathan Benthall of University College, London, gave a talk that can be summed up in one quote: “The United States is the key to the problem.”</p>
<p>Mona Atia, assistant professor of geography and international affairs at George Washington University, claimed that “Egypt has been a model of fighting terrorism.”</p>
<p>Meanwhile, McGill University political science and Islamic studies professor Khalid Medani demonstrated willful blindness by opining, “Somalia is a place where Islamic terrorism is not possible because they are not organized.”</p>
<p>When asked if the definition of a terrorist was hard to prove, Medani responded, “You’re right. I try to critique them based on their own terms. I’m not a lawyer.”</p>
<p>No UCLA conference would be complete without <a href="http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/6835">offensive</a> <a href="http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/8648">commentary</a> from a member of the Center for Near Eastern Studies faculty. This time, CNES director and anthropology professor Susan Slyomovics—speaking during a break with colleagues about a book she’s working on—said:</p>
<blockquote><p>If Jews can get reparations from Germany, then Palestinians should get reparations from Israel. After all, <em>what the Germans supposedly did to the Jews</em> [emphasis added] is what Israel is doing to the people of Palestine.</p></blockquote>
<p>All the while, she kept smiling and laughing. Nothing makes for a good academic sitcom like Holocaust denial from a prominent professor of Middle East studies.</p>
<p>Despite eight hours of groupthink, I was able to finally cut through the leftist clutter to determine why the U.S. is investigating Muslim charities: 9/11 actually did happen, and the majority of the charities accused of funding terrorism actually did.</p>
<p>Only a UCLA Middle East studies conference could deliberately fail to grasp this.</p>
<p><em>Eric Golub is the publisher of the <a href="http://www.tygrrrrexpress.com/">Tygrrrr Express</a> blog. He wrote this article for <a href="http://www.campus-watch.org/" target="_blank">Campus Watch</a>, a project of the <a href="http://www.meforum.org/" target="_blank">Middle East Forum</a>.</em><em></em></p>
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		<title>The Dr. Ruth of Counter-Terrorism</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/jamie-glazov/the-dr-ruth-of-counter-terrorism/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=the-dr-ruth-of-counter-terrorism</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/jamie-glazov/the-dr-ruth-of-counter-terrorism/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 13 Apr 2010 04:09:11 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Jamie Glazov]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[arabic script]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dr. Joan Lachkar]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dr. Ruth]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[early childhood development]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[father]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Female]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[horrific abuse]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Identity]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[kobrin]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Minnesota]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[murder suicide]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[non verbal communication]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[semitic languages]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[suicide]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[suicide terrorism]]></category>
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		<description><![CDATA[Dr. Nancy Kobrin explains how a culture that forces males to be terrified of females leads them to murder and suicide.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Kobrin.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-58025" title="Kobrin" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Kobrin.jpg" alt="" width="375" height="431" /></a></p>
<p>Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Dr. Nancy Kobrin, a psychoanalyst with a Ph.D. in romance and semitic languages, specializing in Aljamía and Old Spanish in Arabic script. She is an expert on the Minnesota Somali diaspora and a graduate of the Human Terrain System program at Leavenworth  Kansas. Her new book is <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Banality-Suicide-Terrorism-Psychology-Islamic/dp/1597975044" target="_blank"><em>The Banality of Suicide Terrorism: The Naked Truth About the Psychology of Islamic Suicide Bombing.</em></a></p>
<p><strong>FP: </strong>Nancy Kobrin, welcome to Frontpage Interview.</p>
<p>Congratulations on your book. Tell us about its significance and what makes it different from all other books on suicide terrorism to date.</p>
<p><strong>Kobrin: </strong>Thank you so much Jamie. I must say how indebted I am to you and the entire staff at Frongpagemag.com because you provided the opportunity and invaluable space to discuss and debate my theory for the suicide attack with other colleagues. If it hadn’t been here at Frontpage, I wonder if this book would have ever been written. My thanks and gratitude to you all.</p>
<p>This is a psychological study and its significance is that it is the first to address early childhood development and its crucial role that it plays in suicide terrorism with regard to the psychology of extremism and gender – specifically with the emphasis on the devalued female in Arab Muslim shame honor cultures which have developed suicide terrorism. This is not to blame the female or the mother but to understand the power and control of her and its devastating consequences.</p>
<p>To the best of my knowledge and to date, I know of no other book or theory, which has made the link between the horrific abuse of the female and its ramifications with regard to murder-suicide, her split-off body parts and the alleged honor killing. I hasten to add that we are only at the beginning of understanding the phenomenon and we are in the model T stage of integrating a more in-depth or shall we say psychodynamic approach to the knowledge that we have about terrorism.</p>
<p>Because I understand non-verbal communication and ninety-five percent of what we communicate is nonverbal, the focus of the book is primarily on the nonverbal predatory behavior of these terrorists by looking at the imagery.</p>
<p>It is understandable that we tend to stress the terrible nature of the incitement of the ideologies of Jihad and violence, which are indeed extremely important. However, by over focusing on its “verbiage”, this tends to obscure an already confusing and terrorizing picture. The ideologies act like a girdle, which harnesses the pre-existing rage of a fragile abused child grown into a “time-bomb” of a personality. I’ll give an example later in the interview when I address the issue of the female suicide bomber, how we can easily miss a “hidden communication” in this terrorism, precisely because it is so deeply terrorizing.</p>
<p>This is why people are always mystified by the “nice guy or gal jihadi next door.” The mask of “peace” is so well developed, giving perfect cover for a rageful personality. It hides the embroiled rage and it is so terrorizing that “We just don’t want to go there. . .” This is also why Islam can present itself as a religion of peace when it is a religion of <em>two pieces</em> – Jihad and Peace – two sides of a coin. If we are going to be effective in filleting the phenomenon of Islamic suicide terrorism, it is imperative that the imagery be taken into consideration and factored in with the ideologies. When read together, then other questions can be raised concerning the psychological function of religious and cultural practices.</p>
<p>How did I come to this realization? I recall the first psychiatric child patient that I ever had to interview. It was on a locked ward and I was tasked to establish a rapport with a five year old boy who was hospitalized for setting fires &#8212; immolation.  I was told to talk with him and engage him through a game of checkers. No sooner did we sit down that he had his foot on top of mine under the table. I said to myself – OMG, alpha male dominance. I realized that he was absolutely terrified of me.</p>
<p>Terror is not to be equated with fear. It is nameless dread, non-verbal which encapsulates a complete sense of utter vulnerability, tantamount to death<em>. </em></p>
<p><strong>FP:</strong> It took very long to get the book into print. How come?</p>
<p><strong>Kobrin:</strong> You know, I didn&#8217;t quite understand it at first myself but it turned out to be a valuable experience and it taught me a lot about terror. It was a humbling experience.</p>
<p>In January of 2002 I took a month sabbatical in Jerusalem. Suicide bombings became an every day occurrence. Lots of suicide bombings were going on. It was there when I came across the image of Shakespeare’s Othello who commits murder-suicide that I grasped the violent simplicity of Islamic suicide terrorism. Let us recall that Othello was a North African, a Moor and military man who married Desdemona the daughter of an Italian senator. He murders her and then commits suicide. Islamic suicide terrorism grounds itself in this kind of death though it is a hybrid of murder-suicide, serial killing by the suicide bomber proxy and a jihadi honor killing. But this is territory that few want to explore.</p>
<p>The book was sketched out in 2002. Bottom line – it was at two different publishing houses before it wound up at Potomac. I believe the two other presses were too “freaked out” to publish it because of the function of terror, especially the terror of retaliation, being targeted. Again, people have a very poor understanding of terror. The terrors run so deep that we tend to be dissociated from them. Most of us live in denial, busy with our daily lives. It is too terrifying to recognize the impending death threat of power and control, so we disengage. It is also too terrifying to tap into this primitive unexplored territory (i.e., the unconscious motivations behind terrorism).</p>
<p><strong>FP:</strong> What is your background? What influenced you to come up with your ideas about suicide terrorism?</p>
<p><strong>Kobrin: </strong> I have always followed my passion and my studies evolved. I did a doctorate in comparative literature, romance and semitic languages. I am dyslexic so I came to be fascinated with verbal and nonverbal language very early.</p>
<p>While writing my dissertation, I wound up on a training analyst’s couch; this is when it all came to life. I discovered a new world in depth but fascinating in its valuing the simplicity of explanation. I found the analytic experience extremely helpful and interesting.  I became very interested in trauma.</p>
<p>I was following all the research coming out of Israel concerning the victims of terrorism and it dawned on me that I needed to understand the mind of the perpetrator. So I started studying this on my own after the truck bombs went off in Lebanon in the early 1980s. I then realized that it had to be looked at functionally &#8211; victim-perpetrator together as a kind of unhealthy bonding. The terrorists do not have a sense of intimacy &#8212; they bond by maintaining a connection to those they murder and over whom they take control.</p>
<p>The summer before 9/11 Dr. Joan Lachkar invited me to participate in a seminar on suicide terrorism in Los Angeles. She wrote a very important dissertation on the narratives/fantasies in the Bible and the Quran. I also had some questions, which I sent to the Interdisciplinary  Center in Counter Terrorism in Tel Aviv and the Israeli who identified Osama Bin Laden wrote me back. This fellow informally mentored me and inspired me to study the history of terrorism. He does not necessarily agree with my theory but I remain deeply indebted to him. He has practical knowledge of the “Matzav” = the situation that is unparalleled and unequalled.</p>
<p>While I was schlepping back and forth to Israel, I realized that the jihad was going on in Minnesota. We have the largest population outside of Mogadishu of Somalis in the world. I familiarized myself well with the peoples, the cultures and af-Somali, the language. I am a very practical person. I went into the community as well as the county jail and did prison interviews. So I have hands on experience right in my own back yard. I want to stress that the major of Somalis are law abiding good people who want to put food on the table, clothe their children and send them to school. However, there is an element that seeks jihad.</p>
<p><strong>FP:</strong> Talk some more about Arab culture and its views of mothers.</p>
<p><strong>Kobrin: </strong>In Arab Muslim culture you are never ever permitted to separate from your mother, ever. This means that you are glued to her and she is more important than your wife. It means that you are not permitted to establish your own sense of self, i.e. separate from her. Your wife is ultimately devalued and the upshot is that you harbor unbelievable, disavowed rage toward your mother, in essence one has no real effective father – the father is too busy with his other wives and women.</p>
<p>This creates tremendous ambivalence, on the one hand to want to bond with mother (ummi) and on the other hand at the same time remaining terrified of her, resulting in a confusing sense of identity. Perhaps this is why Muslims struggle so and are always fighting to prove their identity.  Proving their existence becomes a more pervasive force than life itself. “I’d rather die by blowing myself up than looe my identity as a Muslim brother.”</p>
<p>Counter terrorist experts are often taught that Arabs need very strong fathers because the father is absent and that is what they respond to. However, this is <em>merely the symptom of the problem</em><span style="text-decoration: underline;"> </span>– that the devalued female has been internalized by them and they can not relate to the female. They, the males, are terrorized by her and her body. The mother is larger than life, almost in a category un-to-herself. This is where the bitter paradox comes in as much as males can idealize the female, they can also feel enormously terrorized by the female body.</p>
<p>The end result of these tragic forces leave these males very confused. If we could put them on the couch we might suggest they are in desperate need of sex education. The males are not only confused, they suffer from severe deprivation ending up depriving themselves of very basic human needs. The irony is that they shame/blame everyone for depriving them but ultimately they are the real “deprivers.” So instead of love for the mother/female, the replacement becomes the destruction of her. In psychodynamic terms this is known as primitive envy. In essence the very love that is required to maintain healthy love bonds, is the very thing that makes them feel powerless and impotent so they must defend against this by becoming killers and murderers. We however pay the price. Sometimes I think of myself as the Dr. Ruth of counter-terrorism. I kid you not.</p>
<p><strong>FP:</strong> Your position on Islam?</p>
<p><strong>Kobrin: </strong>I take the same position as my colleague Ibn Warraq – I believe that there are millions upon millions of moderate Muslims but Islam itself is not moderate, especially those who identify with Sharia law.</p>
<p>Having said that – I endorse Tawfik Hamid’s position that the ummah, the world-wide Muslim community unwittingly <span style="text-decoration: underline;">and</span> wittingly engages in passive terrorism. All too often they can too easily hide behind the mask of peace and let the jihadis do the dirty work.</p>
<p>This is <em>not</em> acceptable and they need to be called on it.</p>
<p><strong>FP:</strong> Revenge and deprivation in and of themselves clearly does not explain female suicide bombers as in the recent bombings in Moscow. Tell us your views on why.</p>
<p><strong>Kobrin: </strong>Actually it is quite simple and bizarrely clever – this kind of terrorism and rage is about the prenatal mother. The male terrorists make a concrete image of the prenatal mother &#8212; the female suicide bomber who is repeatedly described by the media as if she were pregnant, symbolized by hiding the bombs under her clothing. This is a good example of a not so hidden communication per se but one that is readily missed if a person does not know well his or her own terrors from our first years of life. In some instances the female suicide bomber has actually been pregnant and in other instances, faux pregnant bellies have been made for the female suicide bomber to hide the bombs. It is a “two-fer” for the male terrorists – they get to kill off their own females while at the same time murdering us.</p>
<p>The prenatal mother is the essence of dependency needs. It is the time in life when everything is taken care of for us. While it might not be perfect, nonetheless it is a time of encapsulation where the majority of one’s needs and vulnerabilities are taken care of. Yet after the female being devalued for centuries, the female suicide bomber can find honor and respect within the twisted psychology of the male dominated terrorist group.</p>
<p>Yes, it can be reported by the media and the foiled female suicide bombers can say that they were “seeking revenge” but the complexity of the early life history of these devalued and abused females make them ripe to be brain washed which harnesses their own unconscious rage about having been manipulated and abused to turn this outward by murdering others. It is uncontrollable unleashed rage, which exceeds murder itself because body parts are created in the process as in serial killing. Simply stated it is a way of maintaining a bond with the mother of pain – a part objection connection – her dismembered body parts which are now the body parts of the targeted innocent victims.</p>
<p>The female suicide bomber merely internalizes the male rage of the female as self-hatred. She becomes victim-victimizer as my colleague Dr. Anat Berko has named her. The female suicide bomber is the most expandable of the terrorist chain. The Islamic female suicide bomber image is in stark contrast to Christianity where the prenatal mother, Mary and her post-partem motherhood with Jesus, are sacred images, venerated and cherished.</p>
<p><strong>FP:</strong> What can we do to fight to this pathology and enemy we face?</p>
<p><strong>Kobrin:</strong> We must invest in the little Muslim girl. We must help all those who live under a death threat. For brevity here I refer your readers to the last chapter of my book where I make a series of suggestions.</p>
<p>In addition to this I have recently also started to work on a conceptual dictionary of this peculiar language of the terrorists, which I call Desperanto. I hope to map out images, use of objects by terrorists and their tough talk, using open sources from journalism, etc. to show other primitive  nonverbal and verbal communications in this vein, in order to help counter terrorist experts expand their understanding should they so desire. I believe that these communications can be extracted from what we know about terrorism and from it, a language can be built which in turn can be hooked up with the ideologies. I parallel this understanding of communication to an abused child in play therapy. If a child took a car and rammed it repeatedly into the back of a truck, we would wonder if he or she had been anally raped. While it is not exactly the same and we do not have terrorists in therapy nor am I advocating that, we should still try to map out the nonverbal communications in a more systematic manner. My hunch is too that the people who work in biometrics have a good sense of this body language but alas, I have not had the opportunity to work with them. This would help us make better interventions, earlier as well as better profiling. The reason why it is so difficult to profile is that the psychopathology is very early developmentally and it takes us outside our comfort zone.</p>
<p><strong>FP:</strong> Nancy Kobrin, thank you for joining us. This is all fascinating, original and frightening stuff. Hope to talk to you again soon.</p>
<p>I encourage all our readers to order Dr. Kobrin&#8217;s new book:<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Banality-Suicide-Terrorism-Psychology-Islamic/dp/1597975044" target="_blank"><em> The Banality of Suicide Terrorism: The Naked Truth About the Psychology of Islamic Suicide Bombing.</em></a></p>
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		<title>The Left Squashes Life&#8217;s Little Pleasures</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/dennis-prager/the-left-squashes-lifes-little-pleasures/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=the-left-squashes-lifes-little-pleasures</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/dennis-prager/the-left-squashes-lifes-little-pleasures/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 13 Apr 2010 04:00:32 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Dennis Prager]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Alexandria]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Burger]]></category>
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		<description><![CDATA[Why every poll has concluded that liberals are less happy than conservatives. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/happy.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-58045" title="happy" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/happy.jpg" alt="" width="425" height="282" /></a></p>
<p>Reading the onslaught of angry  denunciations of Burger King by mental health organizations and mainstream media  reporters this past week reminded me of a characteristic of the Left not often  commented on: a certain joylessness, even an antipathy to the little joys that  contribute more than almost anything else to most people&#8217;s ability to endure the  difficulties of life.</p>
<p>These characteristics further  reinforce the view that Leftism functions as a (secular) religion. Like medieval  Christians who wore hair shirts and Puritans who thought dancing was  sacrilegious, the Left, consciously or not, is uncomfortable with many of the  joys &#8212; with notable exceptions such as sex and drugs &#8212; that people  experience.</p>
<p>Needless to say, the Left always has  noble explanations &#8212; usually, the protection of people&#8217;s emotions and health &#8212;  for opposing and even banning many joys of life. But the end result is fewer of  these little joys that mean a great deal to people.</p>
<p>Burger King&#8217;s ad was innocuous and  innocent. It featured the company&#8217;s royal mascot running through a building,  knocking a person over and crashing through a glass window to deliver the new  Burger King Steakhouse XT burger. Called &#8220;crazy&#8221; by those present, he was  finally tackled by men in white coats. &#8220;The king&#8217;s insane,&#8221; the ad noted, for  &#8220;offering so much beef for $3.99.&#8221;</p>
<p>This has triggered a storm of  criticism from activists (a term which, unless otherwise specified, means  liberal or left).</p>
<p>Michael Fitzpatrick, executive  director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, called the ad &#8220;blatantly  offensive &#8230; I was stunned. Absolutely stunned and appalled,&#8221; he said. David  Shern, president and chief executive of Mental Health America in Alexandria, Va., echoed this assessment. And reporters  from the Associated Press to the Washington Post all  agreed.</p>
<p>If this were isolated, it would be  worth mentioning only in the context of wondering why people who run mental  health &#8212; and most other activist &#8212; organizations seem to have little common  sense. They should listen to William Gardner of Los Angeles, who wrote to  me:</p>
<p>&#8220;I am a father of a 24 year old son  with mental health issue. I am particularly tuned to protecting my son&#8217;s  self-image. My son and I have both seen the Burger King Ad that you have  referred to. It did not occur to either of us that the Burger King Ad was  offensive in any way. Why would I raise my son to be hyper-sensitive about his  disability? My objective as a parent is to strengthen him. Making him  hyper-sensitive would have the opposite effect.&#8221;</p>
<p>But the Left has problems with much  else as well: smoking (including cigars and pipes); virtually all kids games  that can make a kid feel at all bad or get hurt; wood-burning fireplaces; cars;  most jokes or any flirting in the workplace; incandescent light bulbs; cool  homes in summer; and more.</p>
<p><strong>Smoking</strong></p>
<p>One of life&#8217;s great little pleasures  is tobacco. Just watch old war reportage to see the serenity and joy a cigarette  brought to a wounded soldier. Though I do not smoke cigarettes, I have been  smoking cigars and pipes since I was in college (my father still smokes cigars  daily at age 91), and it would be difficult to overstate how much I enjoy  both.</p>
<p>No one opposes educating the public  about the dangers of cigarette smoking. Cigarette smoking shortens the lives of  up to a third of smokers, often in terrible ways, and that is what public health  organizations should be saying. But the battle against smoking and tobacco has  become a religious crusade for anti-smoking zealots, who are almost invariably  on the Left. If the Left hated Hugo Chavez or Fidel Castro as much as it hates  &#8220;Big Tobacco,&#8221; the world would be a better place.</p>
<p>But because the Left hates the fact  that people smoke (tobacco, not marijuana, which the Left defends) it uses  totalitarian (I use that term with no exaggeration) tactics to eliminate it.  Just as the Soviets removed Trotsky from old photos, anti-smoking zealots have  forced the removal of cigarettes from old photos &#8212; from photos of FDR, from the  famous Beatles photo &#8212; and from movies whenever possible. Torture and murder  are ubiquitous in films, but smoking is all but banned &#8212; even cigars are now  banned from James Bond films.</p>
<p>Smoking has been banned in entire  cities, outdoors as well as in. In Pasadena, Calif., one cannot even smoke in a cigar  store. That the Left has contempt for Prohibition reveals a lack of  self-awareness that is quite remarkable.</p>
<p>Kids Games such as Tag, Dodgeball,  Soccer, Touch Football, Monkey Bars</p>
<p>Virtually every game I played as a  child during school recess is now banned because organizations such as the  National Program for Playground Safety deem games in which kids are &#8220;running  into each other&#8221; as too dangerous. Someone might get hurt.</p>
<p>Until a few years ago, just about  every American boy, and many girls, played dodgeball. No more. This joy, too,  has been eliminated from American life. &#8220;We consider it inappropriate to use  children as human targets,&#8221; said Mary Marks, physical education supervisor for  Fairfax County, Va. And it may hurt the feelings of kids who  are eliminated. For the same reason &#8212; potential hurt feelings of those  eliminated &#8212; musical chairs is no longer played in some  schools.</p>
<p>Some might argue that these bans are  not because of Leftism but because of fear of lawsuits. But in light of how  leftwing the trial bar is, that only reinforces my  argument.</p>
<p><strong>Pinups</strong></p>
<p>For men working in, let us say, a  car repair shop, there is not much by way of excitement or visual beauty. So the  typical repair shop or factory had its pinup calendar &#8212; a calendar featuring a  photo of a beautiful woman in a sexy pose, usually clad in no more than a  bikini, sometimes less. The Left, in another totalitarian move, has banned  pinups. The reasons: Sexism and possible Hostile Environment. How can a woman  possibly work or bring her car into a repair shop where there is a picture of a  scantily clad woman? The same people who clamor for a woman&#8217;s right to walk in  public with no top on (because men are allowed to) have banned photos of women  with no top on.</p>
<p><strong>Flirting at  Work</strong></p>
<p>A joy in life since the advent of  men and women has been men flirting with or &#8220;chatting up&#8221; women. No more.  Virtually anything related to a male reaction to a fellow employee who is female  can be grounds for his losing his job and worse. What began as a campaign  against bosses trading professional advances for sexual favors has degenerated  into the elimination of essentially all the fun &#8212; and, yes, potential emotional  hurt &#8212; of man-woman dialogue. At work, a man never knows what comment to what  woman will trigger his being sent, a la Communist regimes, to a &#8220;re-education&#8221;  program, being fined, having charges leveled against him, being humiliated,  having a permanent mark on his employment record, and, of course, losing his  job.</p>
<p>There is no question that some men  went too far in their sexually charged comments to women. But as a rule, we have  wildly overreacted. Women are not wimps. But the Left has inculcated a sense of  victimhood into large numbers of women and thereby rendered them weak &#8212; just as  it has, in ways too numerous to mention, emasculated men. I deplore crude  comments. But in the America I grew up, it was legal to  speak crudely, and either decent men would shut the crude man up or women would  give the man a well-earned smack across the face.</p>
<p>Today, any hint at the sexual  tension that naturally and joyfully exists between the two sexes has been  banned. In the attempt to eliminate all pain caused by potentially inappropriate  comments, the Left has done what it tries to do about all pain &#8212; ban actions  that may lead to it. As a result, gone are the joys of the man-woman repartee in  the workplace.</p>
<p><strong>Cars</strong></p>
<p>For most Americans, the car is not  only a source of much pleasure, it is also rightly identified with individual  liberty. But here, too, to the extent the Left is able to, it will tell you what  kind of car you can drive and, if possible, get you out of your car and into  mass transit.</p>
<p>The Home</p>
<p>To the Left, your home is not your  castle; it is another place of too many joys that the Left would like to  ban.</p>
<p>One joy I particularly identify with  is the wood-burning fireplace. In California, activists on the Left, aka  environmentalists, have banned them from being built in all new homes. Too many  harmful emissions. Meanwhile, at the other end of the temperature spectrum,  activists wish to determine how low you can set your air conditioner, lest you  use more energy than the Left believes you should.</p>
<p>Do you like your present light  bulbs? The Left has banned them in favor of CFLs that contain mercury. These new  bulbs give a fair number of people headaches, emit less pleasant light, are  initially much more expensive and, if broken, necessitate opening windows even  in winter, and people and pets must leave the area. The EPA has issued a  16-point procedure to follow if a CFL bulbs breaks.</p>
<p>Indeed, if the Left had its way, the  house would eventually become an anachronism as everyone gradually moves into  space-saving, less polluting, less energy-wasting apartments.</p>
<p>Every poll has concluded that  liberals are less happy than conservatives. There are many reasons for this, and  given the importance of little joys to happiness, the Left&#8217;s religious-like  opposition to many of them is surely one of those reasons. The problem for the  rest of us, however, is that, like most unhappy people, many folks on the Left  don&#8217;t like seeing anyone happier than they are.</p>
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		<title>CAIR’s Friends in U.S. Law Enforcement</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/jamie-glazov/cair%e2%80%99s-friends-in-u-s-law-enforcement/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=cair%25e2%2580%2599s-friends-in-u-s-law-enforcement</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/jamie-glazov/cair%e2%80%99s-friends-in-u-s-law-enforcement/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 12 Apr 2010 04:02:46 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Jamie Glazov]]></dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[Why is a Los Angeles County Sheriff endorsing jihadi material published by the Muslim Brotherhood?]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><em> </em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/CAIR.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-57928" title="CAIR" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/CAIR.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="321" /></a></p>
<p>Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Dave Gaubatz, the first U.S. civilian (1811) Federal Agent deployed to Iraq in 2003. He is the owner of <a href="http://www.daveg.us./">DG Counter-terrorism Publishing</a>. He is currently conducting a 50 State Counter-terrorism Research Tour (CTRT). He is the co-author (with Paul Sperry) of the new book, <a href="http://www.muslimmafia.com/">Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld that’s Conspiring to Islamize America.</a> He can be contacted at <a href="mailto:davegaubatz@gmail.com">davegaubatz@gmail.com</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/MuslimMafia.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-57931" title="MuslimMafia" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/MuslimMafia.jpg" alt="" width="375" height="368" /></a></p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
<p><strong>FP:</strong> Dave Gaubatz, welcome to Frontpage Interview.</p>
<p>You were recently in the Los Angeles area conducting lectures and book signings. Fill us in a bit about what you learned about the Los Angeles County Sheriff (Sheriff Baca) and his ties to the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR).</p>
<p><strong>Gaubatz:</strong> Thank you Jamie. I spent 5 days in the LA area and utilized every minute communicating with citizens and collecting counter-terrorism intelligence on Sheriff Baca. I visited four Islamic Centers to determine their association with CAIR and likewise his link to this terrorist supporting organization.</p>
<p>Unfortunately for the citizens of LA, Sheriff Baca supports Islamic groups who advocate violence against the very people he is supposed to be protecting. I informed the attendees of my lectures that there are only three primary reasons anyone supports CAIR and the violent ideology they spread and advocate.</p>
<p><strong>FP:</strong> Why would someone support CAIR?</p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
<p><strong>Gaubatz:</strong> The first is out of pure ignorance of what CAIR advocates behind the scenes. Second: job incompetence (lack of proper training in counter-terrorism and the Islamic ideology). Third and the most worrisome: like in the case of Sheriff Baca, certain people are in bed with the enemy for financial gain or political power.</p>
<p><strong>FP:</strong> Expand on why you think this is the case with Sheriff Baca.</p>
<p><strong>Gaubatz:</strong> I spoke with numerous people, reviewed materials from the Islamic Centers Sheriff Baca and CAIR both endorse, and talked with officers of Sheriff Baca’s Islamic Community Affairs program. At this stage of my research I would analyze Sheriff Baca as incompetent, and regardless of the innocent lives he is jeopardizing by supporting Islamic based terror groups, he is more concerned with the votes/funds CAIR can generate for his personal political goals.</p>
<p>I have advised several times to readers they should not become confused by the various acronyms used by Islamic based non-profit organizations. CAIR, ISNA, MSA, MAS, MANA and the host of others are Muslim Brotherhood (MB) and they encourage through their materials terrorist attacks against our troops in Iraq, Afghanistan, and even in America (Ft. Hood).</p>
<p>Readers may know I had over 23 years of U.S. Federal Service, was a Federal Agent, trained Arabic linguist, counter-terrorism specialist, visited numerous Middle east countries, was the 1st U.S. civilian Federal Agent in Iraq, had the highest U.S. government clearance, briefed into numerous ‘special government projects,’ personally conducted counter-terrorism research in over 200 Islamic Centers, obtained and reviewed thousands of documents/manuals from U.S. based Islamic Centers, and did what our federal government with vast financial and manpower resources could not do. I planned and executed an intensive (legal and professional) undercover research project placing 5 people (male and female) inside CAIR National (Top Branch of the Muslim Brotherhood operating in America) for a period of 6 months.</p>
<p>Based on my training and experiences, Sheriff Baca is aiding and abetting the Muslim Brotherhood. It will be our children who will suffer.  Sheriff Baca and any officer or politician who is supporting his actions should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and of course replaced with law enforcement officers who understand the violent aspects of the Islamic ideology and the Muslim Brotherhood.</p>
<p>If we want to save our country from Islamic terrorists, we as a country must be proactive and begin prosecuting anyone who seeks to hurt our children’s future. No longer do Americans want to see the Sheriff Bacas roll up in their decked out patrol cars, give a political speech about how effective his officers responded to a terrorist scene, and how brave everyone was.  This is no longer acceptable. Sheriff Baca needs to understand if he and his officers respond to an Islamic based terrorist scene, he has failed. Neither he nor any officer who ever supported his actions should be considered a ‘hero’ after our country has been attacked and lost innocent lives due to the ignorance, incompetence, and personal political goals of men like Sheriff Baca.</p>
<p><strong>FP:</strong> You mentioned you visited several Islamic Centers in the LA, CA, and area. Can you describe the type of material you observed/obtained?</p>
<p><strong>Gaubatz:</strong> Of course.  The four Islamic Centers I visited were Sunni/Salafist, (Wahhabi) ‘Pure Muslim’, backed by the Saudi government, CAIR (Muslim Brotherhood), and had material available for their worshippers that advocate violence against innocent people, treason and sedition.  I will mention one for the time being:</p>
<p>Omar Ibn Al-Khattab Foundation<br />
1025 Exposition Blvd.<br />
Los Angeles, CA 90007</p>
<p>A few weeks ago Sheriff Baca had visited this Islamic Center with CAIR executives and publicly endorsed CAIR and the teachings of this mosque.  I respectfully ask readers to review the following statements obtained in materials endorsed by CAIR and I observed/obtained in LA County and from people who support CAIR Executives:</p>
<p>“What should you do if you are arrested or framed by the racist, fascist, criminal police? Or the racist, fascist, criminal FBI?</p>
<p><strong>Note by Gaubatz:</strong> This manual is distributed by CAIR supporters throughout the U.S.  It is an 81 page manual that clearly shows their support for terrorist organizations and not our U.S. Constitution or law enforcement.</p>
<p>“If we really want to produce such youth who should be prepared to lay down their lives for the sake of their country (Islamic Ummah) and also for the survival of the Islamic way of life, we should undertake to give them Islamic instruction of high standard along with sophisticated military training”.</p>
<p><strong>Note by Gaubatz:</strong> This manual by Maududi (Jammet Islami founder) was obtained at an LA County Islamic center who instruct their children to fight (Jihad) for Islam, not America, and to train to the highest military standard in order to defeat their enemies (Christians, Jews, and non Sharia compliant Muslims).</p>
<p>I ask readers to closely review the following statements from materials endorsed by CAIR, published by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and provided to Islamic Centers, schools, and libraries across America. This manual was obtained at an LA County mosque:</p>
<p>“Islam does not acknowledge territorial boundaries, national or popular relations, and nationalities, as these lead to separation and differentiation among people. There is no nationality for Muslim except Islam”.</p>
<p><strong>Note by Gaubatz;</strong> This statement alone by the Saudi government explaining the Islamic ideology should answer the question in people’s minds if Muslims can follow Islam and be American. The answer was no 1400 years ago and is no today.</p>
<p>“Apostasy from Islam is a grievous crime punishable by death. One who commits apostasy from Islam rejects truth after he known it, thus, he does not deserve life.”</p>
<p><strong>Note by Gaubatz:</strong> Again this manual is distributed by the Saudi government and is in thousands of Islamic centers across America. Please keep in mind the above statement made by the Saudi government that ‘Islam does not acknowledge territorial boundaries.” This means if a young Muslim child (like 17 year old Rifka Bary) decides they want to leave Islam and convert to Christianity that the Saudi government and Islam fully support killing her and anyone who leaves Islam. This is regardless of the country they reside in. This statement alone is why ‘honor killings’ of innocent Muslims are committed every year across America by Sharia compliant worshippers and the media seldom reports on them. Why? Because a large part of our media worships at the altar of political correctness and is also financially supported by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.</p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
<p><strong>FP:</strong> Final thoughts?</p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
<p><strong>Gaubatz:</strong> Jamie; I again thank you and your organization. Sheriff Baca is not the lone senior law enforcement officer or politician who is knowingly cooperating with those forces who are working to destroy our country. They are scattered across our great country and we are currently being attacked from within, and we are losing the ‘war on terrorism.”  There are few officers or employees of a politician who will not follow the orders of their ‘leader’. This equates to Sheriff Baca having the support of thousands of LA county Sheriffs who would back the Muslim Brotherhood before they would a hard working American family that prioritizes patriotism to our country above all.  Or would they? I will have more intelligence on CAIR, Sheriff Baca, and other terrorist supporters on our site <a href="http://www.muslimmafiainternational.com/">muslimmafiainternational.com</a> Thank you.</p>
<p><strong>FP:</strong> Dave Gaubatz, thank you for joining Frontpage Interview.</p>
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		<title>Celebrating the Iranian New Year</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/lisa-daftari/celebrating-the-iranian-new-year/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=celebrating-the-iranian-new-year</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/lisa-daftari/celebrating-the-iranian-new-year/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 02 Apr 2010 04:05:46 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Lisa Daftari]]></dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[Ex-patriot Iranians celebrate in Los Angeles and send a message back home.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/lisa.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-56896" title="lisa" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/lisa.jpg" alt="" width="375" height="303" /></a></p>
<p>Three years ago, when thousands of Iranians gathered on Los Angeles’ Westwood Boulevard to celebrate their New Year, altercations broke out over the flags hanging from storefronts. Many expatriate Iranians show allegiance to the old Iranian flag, which is red, white and green with a golden lion and sun. To them, the old flag symbolizes an Iranian legacy that is thousands of years old. Others believe that hanging the old flag is a political statement, dismissive of the new government and its Islamic flag. Still others hold that the New Year is a cultural celebration and that arguments over politics should be avoided.</p>
<p>Every year, on the Sunday after the Iranian New Year, the city blocks off a section of Westwood   Boulevard, the same area that is famous for its rows of Iranian book and music shops, restaurants, travel agencies and many other specialty stores. Thousands come from all over to see one another, to dance and listen to music and to welcome in the New Year with fellow Iranians.</p>
<p>As a result of the disagreements, and even physical assaults that occurred, the following year, in 2008, the annual New Year celebration was cancelled. It was blamed on those who wanted to control the event with their political agendas.</p>
<p>Then last year, festival coordinators agreed to bring back the event, but to make it a policy to leave politics out.  Memos spread throughout the community, particularly addressing storeowners, stating that no visible political statements could be made, with a flag or otherwise. And accordingly, Iranians draped the boulevard with flags that were red, white and green and blank in the middle.</p>
<p>This was before the June elections. It was a time when Los Angeles Iranians agreed to hide their political sentiments for fear of losing the only common ground they shared with fellow Iranians. They emphasized cultural aspects. They played up the customs, the food and the music.  They celebrated their New Year by buying the ingredients for their <em>haft sin</em> (seven S) table, where each item on the table begins with the letter S and is symbolic for the coming of the spring season.  They would gather annually on Westwood Boulevard to see one another and to hear dignitaries, including the mayor of Los Angeles, pay homage and extend New Year greetings to his large Iranian constituency.</p>
<p>This year everything was different. The Iranian New Year is the first day of spring and this year it was March 20. The same Iranian people who fought to de-politicize their New Year celebrations came out and made a conscious effort to have their voices and political opinions heard. An enormous sized Iranian flag adorning the old lion and shining sun hung in the center of Westwood Boulevard where no one could miss its presence.  The flag, that became a centerpiece for the day’s events, hung in front of carpet store, Damoka.</p>
<p>“We have always kept our flag with the lion and sun up and we always will,” Alex Helmi, owner of Damoka said. “Even last year (when lion and sun flags were banned) we put our flags up.”</p>
<p>Helmi formerly served as the president of the festival planning committee. He resigned and now sits on the board along with other Westwood Boulevard business owners.</p>
<p>As the old Iranian flag, in various sizes and forms, was waving throughout the street, with it wafted an air of optimism, hope and solidarity that was absent from these annual gatherings for years.</p>
<p>Most poignant was the irony in seeing the flag that had “Death to the Islamic Republic” written in its center, the same flag that ignited all the arguments years ago, hanging again.  This time, storeowner Roozbeh Farahanipour, owner of Delphi Greek, received dozens of compliments on his sign. Two years ago, he received a punch in the face.</p>
<p>“This is a victorious sign for us.  We are showing that the opposition against the Islamic regime is still strong in Los Angeles, Farahanipour said.  “The lion and sun flag is a national symbol. This flag is the one thing that unites all Iranians. Everyone accepts this flag so it has become the symbol of our country and the opposition.”</p>
<p>Around the corner from the festivities stands a striking billboard on Santa Monica Boulevard with a picture of Lady Liberty that reads, “Liberty, Free Iran, Eide Shoma Mobarak (Happy New Year!), The billboard was paid for up by Amir, an internationally acclaimed Iranian fashion designer.</p>
<p><em>Nowruz</em> is a time of renewal for the Iranian people. It is a secular New Year that celebrates rebirth, nature, peace and oneness. It is neither a political celebration nor a religious one, but this year, the cultural and political have become one &#8212; as the minds and hearts of Los Angeles’ expatriate community are with their people back home.</p>
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		<title>Eighteen Years, Five Books, One Torah, and Dennis Prager</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/matthew-duda/eighteen-years-five-books-one-torah-and-dennis-prager/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=eighteen-years-five-books-one-torah-and-dennis-prager</link>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 29 Mar 2010 04:03:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Matthew Duda]]></dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[The talk radio host's Torah studies help a Catholic deepen his faith]]></description>
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<p>A very significant event took place in the second week of February that received scant attention in the media —no news reports, no blogs, no TV coverage.   On that Tuesday night, February 9, 2010, Dennis Prager concluded his 18-year, verse-by-verse study of the Torah at the <a href="http://www.ajula.edu/">American Jewish University</a> (formerly the University of Judaism) in Los Angeles.  Juggling his busy schedule of lecturing, writing, and anchoring his nationally-syndicated radio talk show, Mr. Prager had been offering his commentary on each and every verse of the Torah’s <a href="http://ohr.edu/judaism/survey/survey1.htm#CHUMASH">5 Books of Moses</a> (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy) since 1992. What ironically began on the very night of the Rodney King <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992_Los_Angeles_riots">riots in Los Angeles</a>, ended on that day with a small reception with 80 or so of his students to celebrate the conclusion of a most remarkable journey.</p>
<p>Since I live in Southern California and have been a long-time Dennis Prager fan, I had the opportunity to attend his classes in person. So, in 2003, I finally took the plunge and went to my first class.  By that point Mr. Prager had completed Genesis and Exodus and was near the end of Numbers (the book of Leviticus was saved for last even though it appears third in the order of Torah Books).  For many Roman Catholics like me, in-depth Bible study was not part of our formal religious training. Although readings from both the Old and New Testament are integral to the Catholic Mass, I always thought that formal Bible Study was something that only Protestants, especially Evangelicals, and religious Jews did.  Feeling somewhat ignorant about the Book that is foundational to my own faith, I thought a class like Mr. Prager’s would be an effective way to fill in those gaps.  Over the next 7 years as we completed the study of Numbers and the whole of Deuteronomy and Leviticus I came to appreciate, along with hundreds of other students, the remarkable life-changing insights of Mr. Prager’s analysis.  This Torah study deepened my own <em>Catholic</em> faith in an important way, but more about that in a moment.</p>
<p>Each calendar year, Mr. Prager would offer 3 sets of 4 weekly sessions.  Each lecture was 90 minutes in length but often continued longer because of questions and additional commentary. Our lecturer would begin each class with a brief assessment of the attendees. Invariably, about half the students identified themselves as new to the course which always amazed our host, who would often comment that if all the students who ever took any of these courses gathered in one place, they would fill the Rose Bowl.  Next he would ask for a show of hands indicating the religious affiliation of the students.  Each class always had a healthy mix of Catholics, Evangelicals, Greek Orthodox, and Jews of all stripes&#8211;Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist, or Secular. This eclectic mix of faiths in attendance each week greatly pleased Mr. Prager and was a testament to one of the central premises of his teaching, “Either the Torah has something to say to everyone, or it has nothing to say to Jews.”   The universality of the Torah is critical—the idea that the Torah is only for Jews, Mr. Prager would point out, would be like saying that “Vitamin C is only effective for Mormons.”</p>
<p>Before turning to the text, Mr. Prager would introduce concert violinist (and accomplished photographer) <a href="http://www.endresphotos.com/-/endresphotos/about.asp">Endre Balogh</a> and <a href="http://www.usc.edu/schools/music/private/faculty/jfsmith.php">Jim Smith</a>, the head of the classical guitar department at USC, who together would play brief pieces in a wide range of styles to help set the mood for the Torah study to follow.  These two remarkable musicians would treat each class to performances of Professor Smith’s arrangements for violin and guitar of everything from Bach to Dave Brubeck.  From Villa-Lobos to Cole Porter.  From Bartok to Elmer Bernstein’s film music from <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056592/fullcredits">To Kill a Mockingbird</a>.  Mr. Prager would often say, “We start our Torah class with beautiful music.  Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the Los Angeles Philharmonic started their concerts with a little Torah study?”</p>
<p>Since he believes the Torah to be a sacred work, Mr. Prager would place a <em>kippah</em> (or <em>yarmulke</em>) on his head and then turn to the reading of the text itself.  He would follow the structure familiar to many Bible students—reading a few verses aloud (often translating from the original Biblical Hebrew) and then returning to them for commentary and analysis.  He would supplement his own commentary with those from renowned Bible scholars such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Milgrom">Jacob Milgrom</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Elliott_Friedman">Richard Elliot Friedman</a>.</p>
<p>The 34 chapters of Deuteronomy (“This is Moses speaking,” Mr. Prager would remind us) offer countless avenues to explore including the Ten Commandments and other concepts such as blessings, curses, order, good vs. evil, family relationships and more.  My favorite Prager insight into the Ten Commandments sprang from an analysis of the Fifth Commandment, &#8220;Honor your Father and your Mother&#8221; (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy+5%3A16&amp;version=KJV">5:16</a>). He explained that the word “honor” in the Biblical Hebrew comes from the word “<a href="http://www.searchgodsword.org/lex/heb/view.cgi?number=03513">Kabad</a>”, meaning literally “to make heavy.”  We honor our parents not by loving them, but by making them “heavy”, i.e. making them people of substance and not “making light” of them.  I was struck how even to this day we use the phrase “make light” of someone to mean a way of belittling or humiliating them.</p>
<p>Prager often pointed out that the worst sin of all is doing evil in God’s name—a violation of the Second Commandment (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy%205:11&amp;version=KJV">5:11</a>). Taking the Lord’s name in “vain” does not mean, our teacher stressed, cursing, but rather <em>doing</em> evil in God’s name.  Of course this concept resonates today in the evil done by to Muslims in the name of Allah by carrying out violent jihad against innocents.  Those actions taint the very God they are worshipping.  It would be simply inconceivable for Christians, for example, to stand by as evil against innocents was carried out in the name of Jesus.  “If you want to know about a religion,” Prager would often say, “look not their dogma, but to their behavior in the name of their God.”</p>
<p>One of the other central tenets of the Torah that Deuteronomy and Leviticus return to time and again is the concept of an ordered universe created by God.  Prager would say amplify the text this way: “do not mix what God has made separate.”   This idea is illustrated by examples such as the admonition not to wear garments made of a blend of linen (man-made) and wool (natural) (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy%2022:11&amp;version=KJV">22:11</a>); the prohibition for men of wearing women’s clothing (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy%2022:5&amp;version=KJV">22:5</a>); and the condemnation of homosexual sexual behavior (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus%2018:22&amp;version=KJV">Lev. 18:22</a>).  The Biblical view of homosexuality is one that Mr. Prager has spent a lifetime thinking, speaking, and writing about (<a href="http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/homosexuality/ho0003.html">here</a> for example) so I won’t go into great detail here except to emphasize his point that since the Torah promotes separation and order as an ideal, the separation of the sexes strives for that ideal.  “Love the stranger,” the Torah admonishes, and no one is more of a stranger to us than a member of the opposite sex.</p>
<p>The Book of Leviticus explores the ways we enrich our relationship with God.  It is steeped in the concepts of the holy and the sacred.  The 27 chapters of the book comprise a remarkable journey and Mr. Prager led us through all of it&#8211;the sacrificial system, the dietary laws, the sexual prohibitions, the skin diseases,  the bodily emissions, everything.  He would often marvel at our desire to spend a Tuesday night studying “diseases of the skin and bodily discharges.”  Of course the profundity lies beneath the examples and shows how a sinful people can become Holy and get closer to God through sacrifice.   Although we generally think of a sacrifice as giving something up, Prager pointed out that the Hebrew word for <a href="http://www.templeinstitute.org/sacrificial_service.htm">sacrifice</a> (<em>korban</em>) actually means “to get close; to draw near.”  By offering sacrifices we are able to get closer to God.</p>
<p>The 37 verses comprising Chapter 19 of Leviticus took six classes to complete, so packed were they with wisdom addressing issues ranging from not holding back the wages of a laborer overnight (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus19:13b&amp;version=KJV">19:13b</a>), to showing respect for the elderly (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus19:32&amp;version=KJV">19:32</a>). One of my favorites is the Torah’s admonition to avoid showing favoritism to the rich in court <em>as well as</em> not showing partiality to the poor. (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus19:32&amp;version=KJV">19:15</a>).  Once Mr. Prager spent 2 hours on just 2 verses, (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus19:17-18&amp;version=KJV">19:17-18</a>), which contain &#8220;love your neighbor as yourself.&#8221; He pointed out that the original Hebrew implies a <em>behavioral</em> command (love “to” your neighbor, i.e. an active love) rather than an emotional one (as in the way we love God.) And before you can love you neighbor, he explained to us, you must take care to love yourself; only then can you love your neighbor “as if he were you.”</p>
<p>As we made our way through Leviticus we learned about the establishment of the rituals surrounding the various Festivals and Holy Days such as the <a href="http://www.jewfaq.org/shabbat.htm">Sabbath</a>, Passover, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot. Mr. Prager pointed out how for the first time in history, time itself was consecrated by the Torah’s institution of the Sabbath and making it holy (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus%2023:4&amp;version=KJV">23:4</a>). These discussions of the festivals and the importance of ritual really resonated with my Catholic roots, themselves steeped in the 2000 years of Church ritual. Our guide in our journey to discover the wisdom of the Torah emphasized again and again the importance of rituals in not only keeping alive the memories of those who came before, but essential to the very survival of Judaism itself.  I realized how this applied to my own religion as well. When Prager described how the rituals set forth in Leviticus over 3500 years ago are still being practiced today, I can say I wasn’t the only one in the class who felt chills.</p>
<p>The climax of the study of Leviticus for me came in a discussion about how the holy is necessary to protect the ethical.  Ethics without God are not lasting. In some ways all of Leviticus shows us how to be holy in order that ethical behavior might survive.  “The death of the Holy will eventually lead to the death of the ethical,” Mr. Prager said in that very last presentation in which he summed up what his 18 years of what teaching the Torah had meant to him.  After all, he continued, it is the Torah itself inside the Holy of Holies at the Temple, a literal demonstration of the Holy protecting the Ethical and the Law.</p>
<p>Obviously I can only scratch the surface of the countless topics we covered and the boundless wisdom that pours from these books.  And even Mr. Prager’s classes had to eventually come to an end.  And so on that brisk Tuesday night after some extra pieces of music from the musicians, a lovely cake, some gifts exchanged, he brought the curtain down on 18 years of studying this “instruction manual for life,” as he often calls the Torah.  Its divinity is found in its honest depiction of its people. No society, Mr. Prager said, can point to a history of itself in which its people are presented in such an undistinguished manner while many members outside the group are presented heroically (Noah, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jethro_%28Bible%29">Jethro</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bithiah">daughter of Pharaoh</a>).  The true genius of the Torah, he concluded, is in the values it puts forth.  The values that could take an undistinguished people and make them worthy to be chosen by God.  The values that were imbued in America’s founders.  The values that caused those founders to include a verse from Leviticus to be stamped on the Liberty Bell as they wanted to “proclaim liberty throughout the land” (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus%2025:10&amp;version=KJV">25:10</a>). The values that were entirely <em>new<strong> </strong></em>to the world when they appeared and have endured to this day. Values we call Judeo-Christian.</p>
<p>As I walked back to my car on that crisp February evening after the final class, I thought back on the 7 years I had spent studying this remarkable text. I felt a little sad it was ending but exhilarated in what I had learned about life, about Judaism and about myself.</p>
<p>For those not lucky enough to have been able to take the classes in person, Mr. Prager has recorded every one and makes them available at the <a href="http://stores.dennisprager.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc">store</a> on his web site.  There are also plans to publish a multi-volume set of his complete commentary.  Now <em>that</em> will be something.  So if you want to change your life for the better, I suggest that you get a study Bible, order some of Mr. Prager’s recorded classes, and immerse yourself in these most remarkable and blessed books.  You may find that 18 years is not enough—a lifetime may not even suffice.</p>
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