Glenn Beck’s Address at Restoration Weekend

Posted by Frontpagemag.com Bio ↓ on Nov 24th, 2011

Editor’s note: Below is Glenn Beck​’s speech on November 19, 2011 at David Horowitz​’s Restoration Weekend in West Palm Beach, Florida (Nov. 17-20, 2011). It is preceded by an introduction by David Horowitz. To watch the video, click for Part I here and for Part II here.

David Horowitz: I am honored and incredibly privileged to introduce my friend, Glenn Beck, the busiest man on God’s green earth.

Glenn began life in circumstances that would crush most of us, and almost did him. He’s gone on to become one of the most successful and important political figures of our era. He is a major force in American media, the host of top-ranked radio and television shows that have reached millions of listeners and viewers. He’s the author of six New York Times​ bestsellers in both fiction and nonfiction and the organizer of unprecedented mass demonstrations — in Washington to restore hope for our country, and in Jerusalem to declare his solidarity with the Jewish state — as its citizens are threatened with a second holocaust by their Islamic enemies.

As the organizer of the 9/12 movement and march on Washington, Beck is the real creator of the American Tea Party​, the most important development in conservatism in our era and, in many ways, the last best hope for America’s future.

He is currently in the process of launching Glenn Beck TV and Mercury Enterprises, a media complex which is designed to break the virtual monopoly of the Left on American audiences, a monopoly that exerts itself either through direct control of media channels like MSNBC or through vicious attacks on advertisers who provide sponsorship for conservative programs like Glenn Beck’s on Fox.

Glenn has been the target of the most vicious attacks of which the Left is capable. He has been ridiculed and derided. His sanity has been questioned, and his character has been assaulted. He has been called racist, sexist, Islamophobic, and every other term the verbal assassins of the Left regularly invoke to destroy the conservatives they fear the most.

Like many other targets of the Left, he has also been attacked by Republican elitists in Washington, and in identical terms — nutcase, reactionary, conspiracy theorist, extremist. These are the words these elitists have used to describe him. Call it the Stockholm syndrome. It is a crippling disease of the Republican Party and of elements in the conservative movement to seek the approval of one’s enemies by attacking one’s friends, to treat one’s enemies as misguided friends, to be polite and courteous to people who want to slit your throat.

Let me tell you a personal story that will illuminate the problem. Twenty-five years ago, I was a recent refugee from the Left and had begun addressing conservative audiences. One of my first invitations came from the Cardinal Mindszenty Foundation in St. Louis, named after a famous hero of the anti-Communist struggle during the Cold War​. I had been a leader of the New Left, a Marxist, a self-styled revolutionary, a small-C communist and a large-A anti-American.

But when my conservative host introduced me, he said — this is David Horowitz, who is a former civil rights worker and peace activist. It is not just that my conservative host was too polite to notice that I had been a self-declared enemy of our country and of people like himself. It is that conservatives either do not want to believe that this country has enemies among its own citizens or do not want to be seen by the New York Times and the Washington Post​ as believing that this country has enemies within.

This is how Barack Obama​ got elected to the White House. All Republicans allowed themselves to see was a community organizer, a civil rights worker and peace activist. All they saw was a progressive. And that is what socialist, radical, pro-jihadist and anti-American activists call themselves today — progressives.

My parents were card-carrying members of the Communist Party and wanted the Soviet enemy to win the Cold War. But they always referred to themselves as progressives. When the Communist Party ran a candidate for President in 1948, the party they created for the job was called the Progressive Party. Actually, Henry Wallace — I hadn’t thought of this before — was the Joe Biden​ of his day — the former Democrat Vice President.

This was a ruse to hide their real agendas. Progressive was a good old American thing to be. And 50 years later, conservatives were still buying it hook, line and sinker. Until the arrival of Glenn Beck.

What distinguishes Glenn Beck, what makes him such a game-changing force in the struggle for America’s future, is that he has deconstructed the word “progressive,” put his finger on the enemy, named him, and won’t let him go. That is why Glenn Beck is marked for slaughter by the Left. It is also why conservative elitists in Washington are desperate to disown him. Because his message is discomforting, and because the heart of his message is an unpleasant truth.

Until Glenn Beck came along, ex-radicals like myself were endlessly frustrated by conservatives’ refusal to look at history, refusal to connect the dots, refusal to understand that these are not idealists, but dedicated anti-capitalist, anti-liberty and anti-American crusaders who number in the millions; that they are financed by anti-American billionaires, like George Soros​; and leftwing foundations, billionaire foundations, like the Tides Foundation and the Ford Foundation; and communist unions, like the SEIU; and criminal organizations, like ACORN; and that they are part of an international socialist Left which supports our Islamist enemies in the Middle East and Asia.

Former radicals like myself, who knew these people up close and personal, spent years in the conservative wilderness, beside ourselves with frustration as we watched conservatives call communists and socialists and anti-American radicals liberals, and misguided idealists.

And then, along came Glenn Beck. Before an audience of millions, Glenn Beck began to connect the dots and restore the history, and describe the real agendas of the leftist movement and its cynical deceptions, and its monumental crimes. Beck saw that the link between the anarchists and the radicals, the socialists and the liberals, lay in the very term “progressive.”

Progressivism is the religious idea that history is moving in a positive direction, that it is within the political power of human beings, within the power of political activists and governments, to remake the entire world and bring about a paradise of social justice. They believe that the way to do this is by increasing the power of government until the state is able to compel every man, woman and child to be just, and good, and environmentally friendly, and healthy — in a word, progressive. But you cannot compel human beings to be just and good without abolishing their individual freedom. This is the essence of the totalitarian idea. And it is the progressive idea.

This is the truth that Glenn Beck has brought to millions of Americans. This is why leftists hate him and attack him, and why conservative elitists want to disown him.

In 2011, Glenn Beck spoke to the most important conservative gathering in Washington. During his speech, he wrote the world “progressivism” on a blackboard and said — this is the disease. Progressivism is the cancer in America, and it is eating our Constitution. And conservatives attacked him. Not the grassroots conservatives at the CPAC conference, but the elitist conservatives at The Weekly Standard.

The Weekly Standard said that what Beck had written on that blackboard was nonsense and conspiratorial, and tangential to the political realities of our day. Those are quotes — “tangential to the political realities of our day.” No. The conservative elitists have it exactly wrong. The threat from progressives is the political reality of our day.

Our nation and its institutions are under siege. Obamaism is not a mistaken policy, or several mistaken policies, carried out by civil rights workers and peace activists. It is the latest incarnation of a 200-year-old movement to destroy the American Constitution and the American economic system — what in the old days we used to proudly call — or others used to proudly call the American way of life.

Glenn Beck has been teaching this to millions and millions of Americans, to Tea Party activists and Joe Six-Packs. He has been naming the enemy and revealing his agendas. He has taken on the dragons of American socialism and international socialism which have penetrated the heart and brain of the Democratic Party. And he has documented their unholy alliances with Islamic jihadists and America’s secular, totalitarian enemies.

Glenn Beck is the most prominent voice of freedom in the face of the tyranny at our door. He is a champion of the Jews and their fragile democracy in the face of a second Nazi holocaust currently being organized by rabid Islamists and their progressive friends. He is a man of formidable personal courage, under relentless personal attack; an indispensible leader to millions of conservatives who believe in America and who want its glories to continue.

I am not a man given to prayer. But if I were, the person whose safety and whose health I would be praying for daily — for the sake of my children, and my friends, and my country — would be this man, this great American — Glenn Beck.

Glenn Beck: Thank you.

David, if you don’t mind, I have a box underneath my desk that I put some of my notes and put some of the stories and some of my thoughts in, and some things — I keep records for my children. Because when I started this, I met with my older children, who are now in college. And I said — this is going to change our family. And the only thing that I care about is that you remember who I am. And if you don’t mind, I’d like to take and put what you just said about me in that box, so they remember. Thank you.

Meaningful, thank you.

So, the topic that I was given today was — how much trouble are we in?

I don’t think I really need to tell you, do I?

David Horowitz has been standing guard at this door, along with many of you, long before I got off my couch, put on a pair of pants, took off my sweatpants, and stopped eating Doritos and went to work. And because of that, you’ve given us a chance to survive.

I think the question — how much trouble are we in — I’ll address. But the bigger question that I would like to address today is — how much trouble is the Left in? Because America is waking up. And there’s only going to be one of us standing in the end. And I have every intension of it being us.

The world is changing, and it doesn’t have to be a bad thing. But the world is changing. It’s changing for a myriad of reasons. The systems don’t work. If we took out all of the corruption, all of the greed; we took out all of the politics and everything else, still technology is changing. And the systems that were built shortly after the Industrial Revolution​, starting in the 1920s — they don’t work anymore. The networks don’t work anymore. Nothing works. We now have the ability to go one-on-one.

And because of that, the world is changing. And anyone with power is flailing in the water, trying to grab onto anything. Anybody who knows anything about a drowning man — they’ll take you down, too. You don’t jump in the water to save them. They’ll take you down as well. And that’s what’s happening on every front. They’ll take us all down.

Now, that’s the happy news.

The happy news is those people are flailing because they don’t know what else to do. They have built this world, they have been in those positions. This is the way the system works. It’s the record industry against Napster and then iTunes. The record industry is still saying — I don’t know what to do. They’ll do anything to claw their way back.

That’s why regulation is going out of control. You know industries are dying when they go for regulation. And everybody’s going for regulation. Except for the small entrepreneur — get the hell out of my way. Why? Because we have faith in ourselves. We have faith in the end user. I know all I have to do is create a better product, and people will come. That’s America. But we’re turning into Europe at best, and the Soviet Union at worst.

In the end, the world will change. The message that has to be gotten out to the rest of America is — are you going to sleep through it? Because this is the time that historians will write about for decades, if not centuries to come. The world is at a paradigm shift. And if you don’t be a part of it, if you’re not part of it now, if you’re not out redesigning, it will be redesigned for you. Welcome to slavery.

This is a journey unlike any journey that most people have ever traveled on. There is no blueprint for this journey. That’s why historians will look to us. There has never been a group of people at this point that have reversed the tide. But there have never been Americans at this point. When the world is always down, the world always flails in the water, until Americans arrive. Americans are already here. We just have to look to ourselves. We don’t have to take a boat or an airplane to go anyplace. We’re already here! All we have to do is stand up and take charge, and be the people that we have always been. Wake up, America, and we solve our own problems.

In the end, we can either continue down this course as freedom-loving people, and worry about the damn Republicans, and lose; or as freedom-loving people we can stand together and worry about the republic, and win.

The first thing we have to do is stop listening to morons.

We have to stop listening to the people who have been wrong every step of the way. These are the damn people that designed this system! And we go to them and say — okay mister banker, okay mister politician who’s been there the whole time — how do we fix it? How do you fix it? They said it would be fine in the first place. How do we fix it? Many times, we fix it by putting those people in jail.

We have to look to the people who have seen it coming. David Horowitz is one of them.

Because — if you will indulge me — because nobody else ever will, I want to give you a bit of my record, so you see the record, so what I say after this carries any kind of weight. What’s coming?

In 1999, I was in the air on WABC in New York. And I said — listen to the words of Osama bin Laden. And conservatives attacked me and said I was only supporting Bill Clinton​. I said — are you out of your mind? I hate the guy.

But if he’s bombing an aspirin factory, and it’s the right thing to do, I guess maybe we should say — okay, don’t like this. But he’s going after Osama bin Laden. And I read the words of Osama bin Laden. And the conservatives attacked me. And I said — mark my words — in this city, there will be blood, bodies and buildings in the streets. And they will be done by Osama bin Laden. Will you then stop playing politics? That was 1999.

In 2004, I begged my audience — do not take out any of these loans. They don’t make any sense. Well, you don’t have an education. I can do basic math. They don’t make sense. Stop.

Eighteen months prior, I was losing my audience. Because conservatives said I was talking down the economy. Eighteen months prior to TARP. I lost about 30 percent of my audience. My stations were canceling. My network came to me and said — please, will you shut up about the economy? Nobody cares. You’re wrong. It’s not going to happen. Sorry. Sorry.

Six months prior, I begged my audience — get out of the stock market. I remember a guy said — he was on television, and the Dow was at 14,000. And he said — we’re looking at 18,000. I looked right in the camera, and I said — don’t listen to that moron. Don’t listen to him. Don’t listen — I’m sorry we even had him on. Get your money out now. I believe it was six days later that the crash came.

It doesn’t take a genius. It takes someone who’s willing to look at common sense, and look at the facts. Last year — hammered for telling people to have some food. Because food prices are going to go up. This administration — how dare them! — betrayed our public, betrayed the average person by saying — oh, there is no such thing as inflation. When all I said was have food! That’s too conspiratorial? Prepare for hard times.

Thanksgiving dinner is now 13 percent higher than it was last year. Thirteen percent higher. It may not mean a lot to the people in this room, but it sure the hell means a lot to a lot of Americans who are struggling to get by. Thirteen percent.

I want you to do this. I want you to go to the Fed’s website. They’ve got a little game for kids to play — what’s it like to be Ben Bernanke​ for the day? Can you fix the economy?

Yes. My six-year-old could be Ben Bernanke for a day and do a better job. Go to the Fed’s website. On the Fed’s website there’s a little game, made for kids — can you control inflation? Do this test. Go to the website, and put in 0 percent interest on money. Put it in there. Run that program for three years. You could do it today. Project it out three years. Shows inflation at 17 percent. If anybody looks at the non-game-playing adjusted inflation, the way we used to calculate during the Carter years, the way we used to calculate inflation, it is now — bottom 11, top 17 percent. So the Fed’s own website shows — yeah, you do this for three years, yeah, Thanksgiving dinner will go up 13 percent. Put it and run it for four years. Inflation goes from 17 percent to 38 percent. All you have to do is be like a kid, and look at the facts.

Everyone tries to dismiss what these — everybody’s got a backup plan. Everybody’s got — well, I got a system. Ah, you don’t have to worry about that, it’s going to be different this time. No, it’s not. It never is. Two plus two equals four. Not five, not seven, not 10; four. Every time, four. That’s the way it works.

Hammered in January. I have been looking for the Archduke Ferdinand moment. Tunisia, I said. A man sets himself on fire. That is the Archduke Ferdinand moment of this generation. It will cascade across the land. It will sweep the Middle East. Radicals, communists, socialists, Islamists, revolutionaries will collude. To collapse the Western way of life, they will destroy Israel and the United States of America. And anti-Semitism not seen since the 1930s will return.

Of course, I was a crazy man. Unless you read the papers today. Israel is our only real friend.

And we have betrayed them. We are doing more than that. We are betraying ourselves, our God and our legacy by not standing up now. I studied Dietrich Bonhoeffer​, Gandhi, Martin Luther King​. The reason why Bonhoeffer lost in Germany is because there’s a short window. You cannot play the games of marchers out in the streets like Martin Luther King to a society that has gone to hell already.

There’s this amazing speech given by Adolf Hitler​, where they started to actually — the idea was to take the SS, and — you can rat on your neighbor. If you see something, say something. Rat on your neighbor. Well, the people of Germany were so far off the scale that they were taking things from somebody who screwed them in middle school, like — oh, I’ve always wanted to get them back — and turn them in. Hitler actually said — I’m paraphrasing — it’s the most amazing thing I’ve ever read. This is Adolf Hitler. He said — what the hell is wrong with you people? Adolf Hitler! Looking at the Germans, and saying — you disgust me.

That’s when he knew he had them. Because they were so internally corrupt that he could do anything. And he did.

There’s about an 18-month window. And I contend we’re in it. An 18-month window that if you don’t slip through that window, there’s no going back. And in that 18-month window, that is the moment that a Martin Luther King, or a Gandhi, or an Abraham Lincoln​ need to appear, and need to lead the people to righteousness. Or profound global darkness will come.

Occupy Wall Street is some of the most dark, evil stuff I’ve ever seen. I am moving out of New York City. I attended a movie in the park with my daughters and my wife this summer. I’m used to getting the slings and arrows. I get it. But leave my children alone. My children were a block away from me. And people — women! — were standing up and pointing, and screaming at my children — get out of New York! My children. I wasn’t with them.

The country is splitting. But Martin Luther King was right. If you put goodness next to evil, if you compare them, and you let people see them — that’s what they’re trying to do at Occupy Wall Street. They are trying to make the police officers look bad. Those police officers — I got news for you. I’m about ready to go club a few of those dopes in the head for them. These police officers are amazing! They’re standing there now for, how long, two months? Standing there. Being called every name. Being pushed and poked and prodded. And they do nothing. Those are Americans.

We have people who glorify cop killers. We have rapes going on. How many people have died? Seven? And the media says nothing.

1968, as David knows — a banner year for the American Left. But 1968 was also the year of the moon shot. When you had pigs rolling around in the mud, you also had man walking up on the moon. And America was split. Am I Woodstock? Or do we reach out and touch the stars?

America has the choice again. The same choice, with the same people. But in 1968, the riots were in the streets. And because the same people are there, and they’re trying to recreate ’68, let’s look what happened in the 1960s. We had four assassinations. Let me ask you — there were four Presidents in the history of our country that have been assassinated. How many of them have been killed by Marxists? Three. Three. The only one that wasn’t a Marxist was John Wilkes Booth​. And he was a revolutionary. He wanted to dissolve the republic.

In the 1960s, JFK was killed by a Marxist, whipped up by a foreign power. RFK — killed by a Jordanian who didn’t want any more support going for Israel. The Palestinians were oppressed. MLK was killed by a racist; Malcolm X killed by the Nation of Islam. Do we have any of those seeds that are being planted right now?

They will recreate ’68. The question is, are we strong enough to stand? There is no moon shot. There is nothing to have us look to the heavens. Because NASA’s too busy telling Islam how great it is.

Here’s where we’re headed. Possibility — World War III. Because Israel has a right to survive, Israel has a right to live, the Jews have a right to be left alone by the rest of the world — they will defend themselves, as they should.

I sat with Benjamin Netanyahu​, probably five years ago now. I could’ve done the interview today. I said — look, here’s what’s going to happen. Nobody’s going to do anything about Iran. The world will do nothing. And then, if this moment of hope — this is where I had it wrong — this moment of hope will be on the edge of peace, and you will be forced to strike. Because it will be all lies. And the world will turn around and say it’s the Jews that started all of this. And it will be by design.

It’s not a moment of hope. It is a moment of chaos. I should’ve listened to Ahmadinejad. As a Twelver himself, he knows — when he says, “Oh, Allah, give me the strength to hasten the return of the Promised One,” the question I had for my comrades — and I use that word exactly the right way — my comrades at CNN — I asked them — what does he mean? What does he mean by “hasten the return of the Promised One?” Who’s the Promised One, does anybody know? Nobody! Oh, he says that religious junk, it’s just for the — no, it’s not. He means it. The Twelfth Imam​ is one spooky dude that crawls out of a well. You believe it, don’t believe it — I don’t really care. They believe it. They believe it. And the way to hasten the return of the Promised One is to create global chaos.

Well, gee. That sounds like Occupy Wall Street, quite honestly. Create global chaos. World War III — possibility. Guaranteed anti-Semitism not seen since the 1930s. Guaranteed economic — not depression; collapse. Collapse. And civil war. You cannot put this genie back in the bottle.

But there is something else. There’s something that I’d like to focus on here. These things are coming. But so is this. Healing. Healing and profound light, should we choose it. Now.

De Tocqueville​ was right when he said America is great because America is good. Why are they attacking our churches? Because it’s the source of our goodness. It’s the source of our faith, our hope, our charity. I don’t care what church you go to. I don’t care what synagogue you go to. That’s what’s connecting us with each other and something higher than ourselves. Of course they’re attacking that.

I am a guy that nobody would’ve even hired, nor should they have, 15 years ago. I’m a recovering alcoholic that screwed up my whole life. I betrayed everybody in my life, I built a whole life of lies. Until I admitted that my life was out of control. Until I was at the point of life or death — which do you choose, life or death? Interesting that that’s what Moses said. Choose life or death. I chose life. But I didn’t know how.

America and the rest of the world is at that same point. Choose! Light or dark, life or death! Choose today!

It was because of good friends, a loving spouse, who all allowed me to hear the truth — you suck. And it’s your fault. And then, by the grace of God, and the strength of faith, that I stand before you today. That’s what has to happen in America.

My mother died because she got to the point, when I was a young teenager — she got to the point where she had to choose life or death. She chose death. Some people will. Some people have one drink. And they say — wow, you know, that made me really feel like garbage, and I could probably have a problem with that, and they never drink again.

I don’t know where everybody’s scale is. Some are going to have to perish. Unfortunately, they will choose that. You can’t save everybody. We have to now look into the mirror ourselves and say — what do I choose? And will I dedicate everything in my life? There is nothing less at stake than the very republic in which we have all enjoyed and the freedom of mankind. That’s what’s at stake. Are you up to the challenge of saving it? The answer should be — yes! If we just have 10 percent. Ten percent is the tipping point.

Principles of God are everywhere. Ten percent. He asks you for 10 percent. Tithe 10 percent is what He asks. But in the end, if you really understand tithing, and you really do it, you know it’s 10, then it’s 11, then it’s 15, then by the time you’re — it’s all of it, whatever. He takes it all.

The same thing with evil. Just be 10 percent — you’re 90 percent good. But you can take 10 minutes here. You’re 90 percent there. That’s good enough. Look at them, they’re not even 90 percent. And you allow yourself to be 90 percent good. Do it 90 percent. And pretty soon, it’s 89, 87, 85, 70, 60.

That’s how you get people to put people into gas chambers. Little pieces at a time. You don’t show up — nobody shows up like a storm trooper and says — hey, what do you say we gas all these people? You’d say — you’re out of your mind, you’re a crazy person. It takes time. Give me 1 percent today. Just say something bad about them. Start to dehumanize them a little bit. You know what, just take away their radio. Yeah, maybe they should shop at another store. That’s how you do it.

So let’s use the positive, and fix the 10 percent. Let’s use that God-given concept and change the course of the entire planet.

Culture. Culture is under attack. And all of our children — they’ll watch, whatever it is. They’ll listen, whatever it is. And how many Americans say — oh, my kids know the difference. No, they don’t. This is the culture they were raised in. There is nothing that’s the standard. They don’t have what we had.

I remember walking around in grocery stores when I was a kid. I’d say something, I’d do something, I’d mouth off at somebody. An adult would come around that corner of that grocery store and say — knock it off. I know your father. He wouldn’t like that. You’d be like, oh crap.

Even if they didn’t know our parents, they still said knock it off. We were a team. We had shared values. We don’t. The values that are being jammed down our throat are just that. They’re being jammed down our throat, they’re being enforced through intimidation, because we don’t believe in those things. The things we do believe in we won’t stand up for. Because we’re afraid.

The media is coming undone. The lies are being exposed. There’s a tipping point, and it’s all about here. It’s about to tank.

I’m setting on a journey to redesign the media. I don’t know if I’m going to be the one that does it. But somebody will. Because this system doesn’t work, and it’s got to be built on the truth, and a new way of doing business.

I was just in Nashville. I talked to some of the leaders of country music. And I said — look, the culture is under attack. There’s got to be a coordinated effort to take some music and move us ahead, some inspiration, anything.

Financial sector is going to fix itself. Not in a good way. But it’s the Kondratiev wave. Kondratiev was the first economic advisor for Stalin. Ended with a bullet in his head. Because he had to think about which is better — communism or capitalism. Ah, it’s Stalin asking the question, I think it’s communism.

He said let me think about it, I’ll get back to you on it. He had some time to think about it in a gulag. He came up with the Kondratiev wave. Green shoots. That’s where that comes from. Green shoots.

You’re in winter. Then you see a green shoot. That’s somebody having an idea. Wait a minute. It doesn’t have to be that way. I got a better idea. In their garage. A kid. Little Billy Gates. Little Stevie Jobs. They have an idea, a green shoot. And then, that idea starts to roar to life, and spring is here. An exuberance. And then the arrogance of summer — it’s always going to be this way.

And things get ugly, and people start making stupid moves. Because it will always be summer. And then the leaves start to change. And a few people say — wait a minute, look at the leaves. Wait a minute, something’s going on. What’s happening? Something’s happening here. Others say no, it’s always like — it’s going to be summer all the time. Then the leaves fall off the trees. And dummies — this is what he actually said that actually got him thrown into the gulag and executed — he said — this is where communism goes wrong. They try to take the trees and uproot them, and put them in greenhouses. It doesn’t work. You’ll kill all the trees. They need the time to rest, and regenerate, and green shoot.

The financial sector will fix itself. But our faith-based life we must be responsible of. Our education — we must stand guard on our education. Our university system is corrupt to the core. To the core. We need to, as people, decide — do we continue to support this that is corrupting our society and our children?

I have a book on my desk from 1946. It’s called “Hitler’s Professors.” They went in in 1946 and wanted to document, what happened here? What a surprise. Was in the universities. But we can’t just stand guard against the universities, because too much has been lost. We must, as people, guard our current history, our current truth; correct ourselves the things that are wrong — the missing pieces of our founders, the missing pieces of Woodrow Wilson​.

The fifth-best President? All the professors across, in every grand institution all across America, say — oh, Woodrow Wilson, one of the top five Presidents of all time. The guy was a monster. A monster.

We have to be in charge of our own history. If the republic is to survive, it’s going to survive because of us as individuals, and what we do. The political system is going to fix itself with jail time. There are people now in the streets calling for guillotines. That’s not America. Jail time is, for those who have been involved in corruption — jail time. No one is — we are a country of laws, and not of men.

We need to go back and listen to George Washington​. He had all of the answers in his farewell address. Here’s a guy who never, ever wanted to serve. He didn’t want to do those things. At 16 years old, he just wanted to go be in the navy. And his mother is crying — oh, George. He goes up the gangplank, gets onto the ship. Oh, George, how could you leave your mother?

And he comes back down, and he said — never, mother. I will not leave you. Every step of the way, that man did what the right thing was. Not for him, but for someone else.

I have given up trying to find those people in Washington. Washington takes them in, chews them up and spits them out. Great. The lesson should be — we’re putting too much emphasis on Washington. Why do we need to send one lamb into the lion’s den? Shut the damn lion’s den down!

(Applause)

The power is with the people, not the corruption in Washington. When we change our homes, when we change our communities, when we change our states, Washington changes. The answer will not come from Washington. Only more of the cancer will come from Washington. The cure comes from us as individuals and our homes.

I was reading Abraham Lincoln​’s last inaugural speech. Times have not changed. At the time he gave that speech, the world was on fire. America was. And rage was the in feeling. Vengeance. They started it. They did it. Get ‘em! Punish ‘em!

The inaugural speech — his Vice President got up to speak first. And he was hammered. And his speech, basically, was that — get ‘em! And let me tell you something else about the South! They cause all these problems! He’s hammered out of his mind. And Lincoln had to be sitting back there and say — this is the worst Vice President. It’s going to take Joe Biden​ to beat this guy.

And Abraham Lincoln got up to speak. He didn’t want to be there. He didn’t want to speak. He certainly didn’t want to say the things that he had to say. Because nobody wanted to hear this. Everybody wanted blood. My son, my daughter! My family’s been ripped apart, killed, maimed! My country! Because of these people over here. Get ‘em! You got ‘em! Now take ‘em out!

When Grant had Lee, Lincoln received a telegram — I have him. I have him. What should I do? Lincoln’s response was — let him up gently, and tell him to go home.

So now, at the second inaugural address, his Vice President in a drunken stupor, Abraham Lincoln gets up. Starts walking towards the podium. And there’s a guest on the podium who hates Abraham Lincoln, and is so enraged when he sees him, he actually stands up and lunges towards Lincoln. A police officer happens to be there and stands in between them. And the guy gets control of himself, and looks up at the police officer and President Lincoln​, and says — sorry, I slipped. And the police officer said — because he recognized him, because he was sitting with the daughter of a very famous Northern senator — she was the Paris Hilton​ of her day, and he was the Leonardo DiCaprio of the time. And so the police officer said — oh, I know who you are. Sure. I understand, Mr. Booth. And Abraham Lincoln walked on. Rage.

Abraham Lincoln came to the podium and just said — with malice toward none, and charity for all. It is the message of every great leader at times of trouble. It’s what Bonhoeffer tried to say and no one would listen, because it was too late. It was the message of Abraham Lincoln, and Gandhi. It has always been the underlying message of the United States of America — with malice toward none, and charity for all.

The next 18 months are going to be unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. Darkness beyond our wildest imagination. But I’m here to tell you — as darkness grows, so does the light. You’re about to see flashes of light unlike you’ve ever seen before. Because this time, it’s happening in America. Americans cannot turn their eyes from it. It’s not overseas, it’s here. And they will rise. And they will rise with malice toward none, and charity for all.

Thank you, and God bless.

Union Gangsters: Wade Rathke

Posted by Arnold Ahlert Bio ↓ on Nov 16th, 2011

Don’t miss FrontPage’s other Union Gangsters profiles featuring Craig Becker, Richard Trumka, Stephen Lerner, Andy Stern, Jimmy Hoffa Jr., John Sweeney, Leo Gerard and Daniel De Leon.

In the connect-the-radical-dots evolution of radical leftists and their thuggish tactics, from the anti-Vietnam war protests of the ’60s to the OWS movement currently afflicting the American landscape, few men stand out more vividly than Wade Rathke​.

Despite the fact the Rathke’s family members were prosperous ranchers from Orange Country, California, Rathke describes himself as a “professional organizer for over 35 years” who has “worked for and founded a series of organizations dedicated to winning social justice, workers rights, and a democracy where ‘the people shall rule.’”

His first use of those skills was his organization of draft resistance for the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) after dropping out of Williams College in Massachusetts in the late ’60s. From there he moved onto a career with the NWRO (National Welfare Rights Organization) in Springfield, Massachusetts, under the direction of the late George Wiley, a black militant. Both men were dedicated to the Cloward-Piven Strategy, formulated by Columbia University sociology professors Richard Andrew Cloward and Frances Fox Piven. The strategy aims to implement the overthrow of capitalism by overwhelming the government with so many entitlement demands that the entire system crashes.

Thus it should come as no surprise that Rathke, who was sent by Wiley to Little Rock, Arkansas to begin organizing NWRO chapters in the South, would take it one step further after he fell out of favor with members of the NWRO who objected to a white man being in a position of power. In 1970, he formed the Arkansas Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), which as the acronym indicates, became the first chapter of the now infamous Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.

Rathke began training members of ACORN using a Syracuse University program that was part of Lyndon Johnson​’s War on Poverty​ efforts. A Community Action Training Center was created at the University, and it hired none other than the godfather of community activism himself, Saul Alinsky​. Thus began the implementation of the “Alinsky Method,” which Alinsky described as one in which a community organizer “must first rub raw the resentments of the people of the community; fan the latent hostilities of many of the people to the point of overt expression. He must search out controversy and issues, rather than avoid them, for unless there is controversy people are not concerned enough to act.” (It should be noted that during his own days as a community organizer, president Barack Obama​ taught the Alinsky method. A photo of him doing it can be seen here.)

Rathke served as ACORN’s Chief Organizer until 2008 when he was fired. A month later it was revealed that his brother Dale had embezzled almost a million dollars from 1999-2000, and that board members kept the scandal quite for eight years. The money was repaid personally by Drummond Pike​, who founded the Tides Foundation in 1976, a public charity that funnels money to radical left-wing groups. Why would Drummond make the payment? It might be due to the fact that in 1996, he created the Tides Center to help other organizations get a tax-exempt status under the umbrella of the foundation–and Wade Rathke was made chairman of the board. Rathke also sits on the board of the Tides Foundation as well.

Yet it was ACORN where Rathke had his most enduring success. At is high point, the organization boasted more than 400,000 dues-paying member families, and more than 1,200 chapters in 110 U.S. cities. And under Rathke’s leadership, thug-like behavior became a regular occurrence. Noisy and sometimes violent protests were organized against financial institutions, businessmen and public officials, much of which centered around living wage laws, voter registration and affordable housing.

Each initiative has been marked by either hypocrisy or disaster. With respect to living wage laws, a 2003 study by the Employment Policies Institute revealed that, despite advocating for job-killing, municipal budget-busting living wages that were often double the prevailing rates, ACORN was paying its own workers only $5.67 per hour. Furthermore, despite supporting “card check” for union organizing, which would have resulted in the elimination of secret ballots for workers, ACORN itself unlawfully blocked its own workers from organizing in 2003, according to the National Labor Relations Board​.

With respect to voter registration, ACORN has been at the center of multi-state investigations into voter fraud. The low-water mark for such fraud came during the 2008 election cycle, when Anita MonCrief, a former ACORN employee, testified in a Pennsylvania state court that the organization’s quality-control efforts were “minimal or nonexistent.” Less than two weeks before the 2008 election it was also revealed that ACORN’s claim of registering 1.3 million new voters was wildly exaggerated–but that 30 percent of ACORN registrations were self-admittedly “faulty.” The group managed to avoid direct convictions for vote fraud by claiming they were not to blame for the actions of people they hired. Last August, however, Nevada District Court Judge Donald Mosley fined them the maximum amount allowed by law after ACORN’s Nevada field director, Christopher Edwards​, who had previously pled guilty, testified against them in court.

Yet perhaps the most damaging aspect of ACORN’s activism was its involvement in affordable housing schemes which began in the 1980s, when ACORN activists in several cities seized abandoned properties and promoted “squatting” in them by homeless people. It was a ham-fisted attempt to force local governments to salvage and convert those properties into affordable housing. Yet their greatest success was their ability to get changes made to the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) by successfully arguing that any discrepancy between lending rates to “people of color” and whites–regardless of credit-worthiness–was de facto evidence of racism.

Such nonsense reached ridiculous levels when “credit-worthiness” was extended to include welfare and unemployment insurance as income streams during the Clinton administration, which also pressured Fannie Mae​ and Freddie Mac to expand mortgage loans to low and medium income borrowers by relaxing standards. Both developments contributed substantially to the subsequent housing meltdown which continues to this day. Yet relaxed mortgage standards for minorities are still being pushed today by Attorney General Eric Holder and a Department of Justice task force.

In theory ACORN no longer exists due to the well-publicized scandal in which undercover reporters posing as a pimp and a prostitute got ACORN employees to give them advice on how to set up a proposed prostitution business, leading to a cutoff of Congressional funding for the group. Reversing a lower court ruling, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City upheld the cutoff and the Supreme Court declined to hear the case. Yet on November 3rd, Fox News​ reported that ACORN, re-invented as New York Communities for Change, has been involved in the OWS movement “as a key organizing force.”

It is worth remembering that the OWS movement began as a “Day of Rage​” scheduled for September 17th. Last March 25th, Rathke, who was also a former president of a local chapter of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) in New Orleans and served for eight years as a member of SEIU’s International Executive Board, announced the beginning of “days of rage in ten cities around JP Morgan Chase” which he claimed would be “the beginning of the anti-banking jihad.” The lead organizer of that so-called jihad is Stephen Lerner, an SEIU board member.

SEIU’s political leanings? The union reported spending $85 million on politics in 2008–of which more than $32.5 million in independent expenditures was used to elect Barack Obama​. SEIU tactics? In litigation initiated by catering company Sodexo Inc. against the SEIU earlier this year, the discovery phase revealed a work entitled “Contract Campaign Manual” written by former SEIU president John Sweeney, which laid out specific ways unions could muscle companies into doing their bidding.

It is somewhat ironic that Rathke would use the word jihad to describe the OWS uprising. An October 2010 posting at Organizers’ Forum website indicated the chair of that organization was putting together “An International Dialogue in Egypt” from September 25, 2011 to September 30, 2011 “to determine leadership transitions in what has been an autocratic regime, now challenged by the Muslim Brotherhood​ and succession and democracy issues,” further noting that “we will strive to have a mix of both community and labor organizers/leaders from a variety of community organizations and unions…meet in Cairo.” Wade Rathke​ founded the Organizers’ Forum in 2000 and is the Chairman of the Board​. Drummond Pike​ sits on the Board of Directors.

Perhaps sensing the implications of the timeline, in which his effort to organize Egyptians preceded the uprising there, Rathke denied any involvement in the movement now known as the Arab Spring.

Currently, Rathke operates out of New Orleans, where he purchased Fair Grinds Coffeehouse for $500,000. And despite being unceremoniously dumped by ACORN, which on June 28th, 2008, voted that Rathke “be terminated from all employment with ACORN and its affiliated organizations or corporations” and “removed from all boards and any leadership roles with ACORN or its affiliated organizations or corporations,” he keeps busy traveling to the 12 countries that are partners in ACORN International. Furthermore, Rathke envisions his coffee shop as a “nexus of activism.”

In the meantime, the OWS movement is entering a new phase, with cops cracking down on protesters in Oakland, Portland and most recently in New York on Tuesday. It remains to be seen whether these anti-capitalist protests will eventually peter out, or enter a dangerous new phase. At his website Rathke reminds us where he’s been–and where he stands:

A million years ago around 1984 or so at ACORN we organized something we called Reagan Ranches, which were similar tent cities, protesting the terrible conditions of that time under the Reagan Administration​…My heart goes out to the (OWS) organizers on the ground. This is just plain hard and thankless work.

And, worth it!

The movement is not in the small parks and tent cities of Occupy but in the way people everywhere are consolidating their positions around core concerns, including the 99% pitched against the 1%. If this is only something for this moment of history where it allows an administration to finally belly up and get aggressive, or a movement trailed by a long wake of many changes over time, we need it now, it is helping us all, and it deserves and demands our support.

One can only wonder, if this movement turns more violent than it already has, if Wade Rathke will still be out there “demanding” support for it. If his historical track record is any indication, the answer is unequivocally “yes.”

This is probably the reason for BHO to getting the “boys” back home for Christmas. Just a thought ;-)

Quote:
[if !mso]> [endif]Senate To Vote On Legislation That Allows U.S. Military to Detain Americans Without Charge or Trial:

This is probably the reason for BHO to getting the “boys” back home for Christmas. Just a thought ;-)

Read it here.

Quote:
Hello Friends,

Thanksgiving weekend is behind us but this morning I read a very inciteful article by Daniel Greenfield about all we have to be thankful for. It ranges from the Islamic catastrophe going on in Egypt today (supported wholeheartedly by B Hussein), all the jobs being created, the Islamic changes in America thanks to Islam and current politics.

After reading it I wonder how many will be thankful but to each his own.

A good read and an eyeopener for those interested in the truth as opposed to the propaganda of the liberal progressive media, politicians and all the other politically correct freebie loving and love is the answer destroyers.

Shalom,

Peter

Friday Afternoon Roundup - So Much to be Thankful For

Posted: 25 Nov 2011 11:14 AM PST

(See if you can spot the Turkey)

THE TIMES THEY ARE A CHANGING

There was a time long ago when Americans were sad and unhappy, when the world hated us, people were forced to work for a living and there were no inspiring leaders. But today in this wonderful age of free health care, free mobs and freedom for Islamists, there is so much for us to be thankful for. Like that new age of freedom and democracy breaking out like a rash across the Middle East.

Sure women keep being sexually assaulted in the new liberated Egypt, but that's democracy for you. Or a democracy of Muslim men.

Caroline Sinz, a French reporter for Channel 3, was the latest to experience Islam's historical tolerance for women who walk down the street unaccompanied by a male guardian. Her story is nearly identical to what happened to Lara Logan.

The significance here is that there's nothing new about this. Egyptian women experience sexual harassment on a nearly universal basis. Egyptian were being assaulted in this way for years. I wrote about this back during the Logan assault with "Muslim Rape Culture and Lara Logan" And then there's this back in 06 on mass sexual assaults in Cairo.

"It was the first day of Eid, and a new film was opening downtown. Mobs of males gathered trying to get in, but when the show was sold out, they decided they will destroy the box office. After accomplishing that, they went on what can only be described as a sexual frenzy: They ran around grabbing any and every girl in sight, whether a niqabi, a Hijabi or uncovered. Whether egyptian or foreigner. Even pregnant ones. They grabbed them, molested them, tried to rip their cloths off and rape them, all in front of the police. The ones who approached the police asking them to do something were told : "what do you want us to do? It's Eid. Happy Eid to you too!"

Happy Eid indeed. You can't blame the Islamists for this or the authorities or anyone but the culture in Egypt and throughout much of the Muslim world. A culture that says a woman causes a man to attack her through her looks and that a woman who is unveiled is a whore. Islam's conquests, its commodification of women as sex slaves and loot for the victorious Muslim armies certainly helped.

And the Islamists will respond to assaults like this by calling for more morality, which means women "taking responsibility" by donning Burqas and avoiding going out without a male guardian. And just not to leave anyone out, Aliaa al-Mahdy, who had shot to prominence with a photo protest was beaten and thrown to the ground at Tahrir Square and dragged out of a protest area. No information on who the men were, but their goal was to move her out of a protest area, and all but one was clean shaven, which suggests these are some of the "heroes" of Egypt's democracy movement getting rid of an atheist girl who called for freedom.

Expectant Cairo Takes a Dark Turn, reads the Australian's headline. As if this was something that happened just now. Before Tahrir Square was just sunshine and bunnies. Now it's suddenly dark and rapey.

Tahrir Square does represent freedom. Freedom as Egyptian Muslim men define it, which includes the freedom to burn churches, assault women and dominate ethnic, religious and other minorities. That is the true face of Tahrir Square that the media romanticized.

Forget the Mona Eltahawy story, that's being utilized to call for an overthrow of the military authorities who are the only thing keeping the Islamists from sweeping the nation. The military authorities are bastards, but it should be abundantly clear to anyone paying attention that everyone playing this game are bastards and that the liberals, the Islamists and the military are no better than one another. The Sinz story proves that this is hardly some unique SCAF phenomenon. And the men dragging al-Mahdy in that video are likely members of the same liberal activists pushing the Eltahawy story. (Though to be fair Eltahawy did publish a piece in the Guardian defending al-Mahdy)

The bottom line is that Egypt has a problem with abusing women not because of Mubarak or military rule, but because the culture has a problem with human equality for anyone but Muslim men. Too many bloggers were taken in by the Kefaya movement and their Twitter propaganda on the first round. Don't fall for it a second time. This is a leftist anti-American movement of articulate upper class Egyptians with El-Baradei at the top. Their main function is to sanitize the anti-government protests whose true beneficiaries have been and will be the Muslim Brotherhood.

In response to the Sinz assault, Reporters Sans Frontières suggested that the media stop sending female reporters to Cairo. After protests followed it withdrew that statement and urged media organizations to make the security of reporters their first priority. But how much security will it take to protect a female reporter from a mob of Egyptian teenagers? Those who read the bible might suddenly find a new relevance in the stories of Abraham and Isaac traveling to Egypt and Gaza, and being forced to pass off their wives as their sisters from the Egyptians and Philistines to avoid being murdered. Though the Arabs are newcomers to the area, not much has changed over the years.

But a better solution than not sending female reporters to Cairo might be to stop allowing Egyptian Muslim men into America and France. The high rape statistics coming out of Europe link Muslim men to startling numbers of sexual assaults in countries where they are a minority. A female reporter going to Cairo has some kind of security, but what do we do when Cairo comes to us, except to start acting like Egyptian Christians? Or to quote from the al-Mahdy CNN interview

Women under Islam will always be objects to use at home. The (sexism) against women in Egypt is unreal, but I am not going anywhere and will battle it 'til the end. Many women wear the veil just to escape the harassment and be able to walk the streets.

But we still have to remember to be thankful because these are changing times. Very soon Egypt will be free and democratic and then bunnies will dance in the sunshine of Tahrir Square. Don't believe me? Just listen to the song.

.


THANKFUL FOR JOBS

As the Summer of Recovery has faded into the Arab Spring and into the Winter of Our Discontent, those imaginary green jobs have died and fallen off the Washington cherry tree.

According to the National Association for Business Economics, "The NABE Outlook panel expects employment will improve, albeit very slowly. Monthly job gains are expected to rise steadily over the forecast horizon, from an average of 100,000 during the fourth quarter of 2011 to 130,000 by the end of next year." Now that's optimistic. Of course the Keystone XL pipeline could have created six figures worth of jobs, but who needs those anyway?

Not the Environmentalist Administration which killed the deal to get America some freedom from Muslim oil and a whole bunch of jobs. But good news to be thankful for...

At the same time, my administration will build on the unprecedented progress we’ve made towards strengthening our nation’s energy security, from responsibly expanding domestic oil and gas production to nearly doubling the fuel efficiency of our cars and trucks, to continued progress in the development of a clean energy economy.

I think Jimmy Fallon's drummer has an intro to go with this statement. Obama might want to ask Fishbone about making that his theme song. But at least the Islamists and the People's Republic of China have something to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.

Saudi Arabia has an even bigger stack of oil barrels, and on top of that black pyramid is a degenerate royal family wearing crowns of terrorism and tyranny. Iran has its own pyramid with hanging women dangling off it and the corpses of murdered student protesters floating in the crude. And if the environmentalists really cared about any of that, at least to the extent of wanting to end the wars, then they would be laying a pipeline that would funnel money out of the House of Saud​ and the Mullahs back to the United States of America.

Instead billions have been poured into the People’s Republic of China, which lends us the money to pay for the solar and wind power components that we buy from them, and after the handful of watts from green power have been exhausted to spread joy and peace across parts of Vermont and Oregon, the country goes back with hat in hand to the grinning petroleum plutocracies.

Read the rest in my article at Front Page Magazine on the the Islamist-Environmentalist Alliance.



ISLAM IN AMERICA

But that's not all that we have to be thankful for. TLC's not at all fake documentary/reality show So You Want To be a Muslim All-American Muslim reminds us of how much we have to be grateful for to the immigrants coming from distant shores to culturally enrich us with their ancient heritage of beheading people who offend them and their legacy of science looted from the Indians and Greeks.

Take the previous episode where we learn how wonderful Hijabs are and how they can help you give birth when you're infertile. And the episode does feature a true Islamic scholar and feminist who has very modern and enlightened views about beating and raping women. Here are some of his answers to All-American Muslims who wonder whether it's legal to rape their wives.

So, the wife must obey her husband by giving him his physical rights which he asks from her; she has to make herself available to him when he wants her; she has no right to abstain unless she has her period, a medical condition, or a difficulty that keeps her from responding favorably to him. If he demands his right and obliges her, this would not be rape in the Islamic Law, but something basic in the concept of marriage contract. Otherwise, what would marriage be without mating?

Truly Islam is a beacon of human rights and enlightenment and only filthy Islamophobes would get the idea that the Religion of Peace has any negative attitude toward women. Just to prove it, here's Berry on how to beat your wife.

When all peaceful methods have been exhausted and attempts to fix the problem have failed, and if this is the only means for reform, practice disciplinary confrontation with the rebellious wife. Again, Islam poses extreme conditions on this last step. The confrontation must not lead to injury or leave bruises. It must not be done in revenge or be based on hatred which trespasses the set limits, but instead be prescribed like the bitter medicine with calculated dosages to speed reform while still protect from harming the self and others.

The noble fellow goes on to suggest that beating your wife should be seen as a kind of surgical procedure.

Noting of course, that no one would object to a doctor’s decision to cutting open a patient’s body to cause it to heal later on. Islam, in a similar way, legalized this last effort like a surgical procedure (light confrontation) as long as it is deemed the only effective treatment to bringing a family back together that could lead to healing and allow things to return to normalcy.

Islam does not require men to go to medical school to beat their wives. Still there's good progressive news coming out of all this.

On the other hand, more importantly, other societies prohibit such disciplinary confrontation between the man and his wife and this could lead to legal complications that could complicate the entire problem and dissolve the family entirely. It should be understood that Islam allowed such confrontation but did not deem it an obligation.

Just to be clear, Islam does not mandate beating your wife. Or raping her. And how can anyone read that and doubt that Islam is a truly progressive and enlightened faith? The Imam also has a lot of great stuff about statutory rape.

"The girl’s menstrual period is a natural sign that her body qualifies her for fertility, pregnancy, or reproduction. Islam does not contradict the natural aspect of life. Therefore, it does not oppose marriage at a younger age when the girl is naturally ready."

And lots of similar rulings...

Q. Is it true that a fourteen year old girl can be allowed to marry? A. Yes she can be married with the permission and consent of her parents, preferably the father. This is very normal with Muslims and in Muslim states. Islam allows early marriages as a protection to society and children from the spread of corruption, fornication, and rape. In the USA, an early marriage has to be blessed in court by a civil judge in addition to the parent’s consent.

And if you want an even more nightmarish answer, here you go

25: The Age of Maturity in Relationship to Marriage Q. What is the age of maturity and marriage for girls in Islam? A. According to Islamic law, a girl reaches the age of maturity when she has completed nine yours of age. A girl’s maturity is achieved at the age of thirteen, however, according to some jurists; that is when she starts her menstrual cycle and her body is ready for pregnancy and childbirth. As for mental maturity and physical aptness, these might differ from one to another. For some men and women, it could happen at the age of fifteen, for others at eighteen, or twenty, or even at forty

Naturally All-American Muslim neglected to include all these wonderful things about Islam or the Imam in this episode. Sadly they might have thought that people would not understand. They didn't even include wonderful pieces of advice like this.

It is also true that by not helping with doing housework, she is pushing her husband to seek a second wife who is more willing to do the work.

And a piece of Hijab related advice that the episode even more unaccountably left out.

36: Refusing to Wear the Veil Q. Does the husband have the right to force his wife to wear the veil if she refuses to do so under the pretense that the veil has nothing to do with the essence of religion? What if she refuses to wear it? A. He can resort to moral influence, such as making her know that she is pushing him into looking for another wife who wears the veil.

Just keep in mind this is America or it used to be. And these are the rules by which the All-American Muslims live. To follow up, Debbie Schlussel has some more on the Hezbollah ties of the fun-loving Shiites in Anti-American Muslim And one final grace note from Imam Berry.

Q9. Some people refer to a saying that Muslims should not initiate the Islamic greeting to non-Muslims, including Jews and Christians. Is saluting them forbidden? A. No, it is not forbidden. The Islamic greeting is “Al-Salamo Alaykom”, which means “Peace is on you.” Of course, this greeting of peace is not fit for those who fight Muslims and are their enemy. Also, it is not favored to salute them who are like those who at the time of the Prophet (p) used to mock Muslims by changing the words of our greeting, saying to Muslims “Al-Samo Alaykom” which means “death be upon you.” Other than that there should be no issue with saluting non-Muslims and non-believers.

...other than that.

See the entire thing in my Front Page Magazine article, "The Islamic Feminism of All-American Muslim."



ROMNEY, GINGRICH, PERRY AND IMMIGRATION

One reason I never spent much time taking Perry to task on immigration is that none of the candidates were very good on it. And that's true of the recent list of Republican presidents as well. Perry was worse than most but unfortunately none of them are much good on it.

Gingrich's panel proposal seems to be loosely adapted from something similar in Switzerland. Bringing it up is a testament to his broad knowledge, but proposing it in the United States is just stupid. In Switzerland those panels are made up of natives, in the United States they would be made up of other immigrants from the same part of the world.

Gingrich, like so many Republicans is trying to develop a rationale for distinguishing between different types of illegal immigrants, which isn't entirely unreasonable, but it's also a dead end. And unwise.

Last Shabbat I listened to Linda Lingle, the former Republican governor of Hawaii, now running for Senate, talk about the issues and like Gingrich, she showed that she had thought about the issues and came up with some interesting proposals, which were hobbled by the same inability to understand the scope of the problem. (I shudder at the prescription of stamping a green card for every university engineering grad. I can't think of a better formula for more car bombs in Times Square.)

It's easy to propose these kinds of solutions when you ignore the scope of the problem and what its long term implications are. There's a certain similar thought pattern in the War on Terror and immigration. The speaker begins from the position of, "We can't deport them all" or "We can't fight them all" and then tries to arrive at a way of distinguishing moderates from extremists or good risks from bad risks. That's fine as far as it goes, but it misses the bigger picture.

At the Restoration Weekend, I listened to a panel debate featuring Robert Spencer who discussed the dangers of shifting the meaning in order to win over the moderates. I would highlight the danger that when the meaning is shifted then we forget what the problem is.

What is the problem with illegal immigration? Disrespect for the law is one factor, but the bottom line is that illegal immigration is a demographic threat that places undue stress on southwestern states and on the national economy. That's the fundamental thing to keep in mind.

Guest workers stay on and become citizens. Which isn't a problem if we want the United States to become Mexico. Mexico isn't a bad place despite all its problems. There are much worse places in the world. But it also has a broken political culture, massive drug and gang violence and a whole bunch of other things that will change this country significantly. And large scale immigration will do that beyond our ability to control it. Importing Muslim immigrants in sufficient number means importing everything wrong with the Muslim world along with some ethnic foods. The same goes for illegal immigration from Mexico. The bottom line is do we want to live in Mexico? Do we want to live in Cairo? Because if things keep going the way they are, we will. Just ask a European.

We're a nation built on immigrants, but on a balance of immigrants set around a Western European core. Change that core and you fundamentally change the nation. On a similar note, Lawrence Auster's response to the trouble with Muslim democracy.

The modern West cannot face this truth about Islam, because it would mean that not all cultures, peoples, and religions are equally capable of self-government. And that discovery would mean in turn (a) that not all peoples and cultures are equal, period, and (b) that a universal liberal order embracing all mankind is not possible.

And a corollary to that is that even when Third world governments fail, we must go on believing that they can succeed to be able to go on believing in that universal order.




AND NOW THE ROUNDUP

American Digest has narrowed down the primary candidates to just one.

OccupyMiami is OccupyIslam, via Boker Tov Boulder. No wonder it has this whole, "Jews to the Ovens" clause.

Christian refugee? Forget about it! Religion of Peaceful Beheadings? Uncle Sam Wants You.

US policy regarding the refugee resettlement program would shock most Americans if they only knew. The UN picks who becomes US refugees. Christians are being refused refugee status and face persecution and many times certain death for their religious beliefs under the sharia, while whole Muslim communities are entering the US by the tens of thousands per month despite the fact that they face no religious persecution.

Nothing to be thankful for in the Eurozone

A reminder that there are alternatives to the PA. Muslim tribal elders and leaders have governed their own clans and areas well enough and adding a layer of terrorist politicians on top paid for by the US hasn't made things any better. Restoring tribal authority makes more sense than anything else so far.

Finally a rather dark piece of satire from Latma, which like most of their Israeli stuff is well done. It helps to have some familiarity with the Israeli reality to get this one.

Enjoy the Thanksgiving weekend.