Friday, June 25, 2004
Microsoft Patents Human Skin
Oh man, what is next? Microsoft has patented human skin. How long will it be before all of humanity is forced to buy the next skin upgrade? And will the upgrade cause a crash? I am shaking in my boots.
Thursday, June 24, 2004
So, we're hated
By Dennis Prager
http://www.jewishworldreview.com
There are many ways to philosophically divide Americans. Liberal-conservative and religious-secular are two obvious ways. But there is another, no less significant, division: Those who are ashamed of America for being hated and those who wear this hatred as a badge of honor.
I am in the latter group.
I understand such hatred. I am a Jew, a member of the most consistently and deeply hated people in world history. As such, and as coauthor of "Why the Jews? The Reason for Antisemitism" (Click HERE to purchase. Sales help fund JWR.), I have devoted decades to thinking about Jew-hatred.
There are basically two possible ways to look at anti-Semitism. One is that anti-Semites are essentially decent folks and Jews have usually been so bad that they have merited anti-Semitic hatred. The second is that the Jews have generally been a decent people who antagonized many of the morally worst people of their time and place.
Anti-Semites would, of course, choose the first explanation. Others would acknowledge that those who have hated the Jews have usually been the vilest of their generation. Whether Roman torturers, Crusaders who massacred Jewish communities on their way to the Holy Land, Nazis or Communists — they all hated Jews. The monsters of the 20th century, the Nazis, made Jew-hatred the centerpiece of their ideology. And the monsters of our young century, militant Muslims, have done the same.
Why have the Jews, always among the weakest and smallest of peoples, attracted the hatred of the most evil people? Because of what the Jews represented. The civility of the Jews' lives and the values the Jews brought into the world — especially ethical monotheism, i.e., a standard of right and wrong based on a moral and judging G-d — made them loathsome in the eyes of those who led particularly uncivil lives and who celebrated moral chaos and cruelty.
Turning to hatred of America, the same questions and answers apply. Either America is evil and hatred of it is merited, or America is a decent country and the haters are evil.
The correct explanation is so obvious that only one who already hates America or who is simply morally confused would choose the first.
To assess the veracity of this, all one need do is compare America — a country that has liberated more people from tyranny than any other, and which has been a place of refuge, tolerance and opportunity for more people from more backgrounds than any other in history — with those who hate America.
Militant Muslims hate America. These people include the Taliban of Afghanistan, Al Qaeda and other Muslim terrorists, the Islamic regimes of Iran and Sudan, members of Hamas and the many Palestinians and other Muslims who support it. Now, what types of people are these, and what societies have they made or seek to make?
To call the Taliban primitive is to insult the many primitive peoples who were light years more civilized than these totalitarians who forbade girls to get an education and prohibited women from such innocent activities as going to the zoo. They murdered anyone who loved liberty, beheaded any Muslim who converted to another religion, and blew up some of the most priceless sculptures of the ancient world because those works of art were of a different religion. Is it a good or bad reflection on America that the Taliban hated this country?
Al Qaeda and other Muslim terrorists seek to impose Taliban-like regimes on everyone in the world, beginning with the Muslim world. They routinely slaughter innocent people — literally slaughter, as cutting off the heads of their human sacrifices is their preferred method of murder. They are monsters in human form. Is it a good or bad reflection on America that Al Qaeda and other Muslim terrorists hate this country?
The Islamic regime of Iran has taken one of the brightest nations on earth back into the darkest past of human civilization. Their great ally is the genocidal regime of North Korea. Is it a good or bad reflection on America that the Islamists in Iran hate this country?
The Arab Islamic regime in Sudan has killed about one million non-Arab, non-Muslim blacks in the south of its country. Rape and enslavement of these blacks is routine. Is it a good or bad reflection on America that the Sudanese regime hates this country?
Hamas and its many supporters among Palestinians have developed a new theology of cruelty and death — that a Muslim boy who blows himself up while maiming and murdering as many innocent Jews as possible goes to heaven where he is then sexually serviced by dozens of virgins. In the annals of the history of religion, no analogous theology of cruelty and vulgarity has ever been devised. Is it a good or bad reflection on America that Hamas and its Palestinian supporters hate this country?
One more point. When you look at the roster of the America-haters and realize that none of them hates France or Sweden, this assessment of America-hatred is rendered even more obvious. America, largely alone, calls these groups and regimes what they are — evil. America, largely alone, wages war against them. America, largely alone (with Israel), prevents them from assuming far more power.
As I said to my synagogue on the Sabbath after 9-11, "I stand before you as a proud member of the world's two most hated peoples — Americans and Jews."
http://www.jewishworldreview.com
There are many ways to philosophically divide Americans. Liberal-conservative and religious-secular are two obvious ways. But there is another, no less significant, division: Those who are ashamed of America for being hated and those who wear this hatred as a badge of honor.
I am in the latter group.
I understand such hatred. I am a Jew, a member of the most consistently and deeply hated people in world history. As such, and as coauthor of "Why the Jews? The Reason for Antisemitism" (Click HERE to purchase. Sales help fund JWR.), I have devoted decades to thinking about Jew-hatred.
There are basically two possible ways to look at anti-Semitism. One is that anti-Semites are essentially decent folks and Jews have usually been so bad that they have merited anti-Semitic hatred. The second is that the Jews have generally been a decent people who antagonized many of the morally worst people of their time and place.
Anti-Semites would, of course, choose the first explanation. Others would acknowledge that those who have hated the Jews have usually been the vilest of their generation. Whether Roman torturers, Crusaders who massacred Jewish communities on their way to the Holy Land, Nazis or Communists — they all hated Jews. The monsters of the 20th century, the Nazis, made Jew-hatred the centerpiece of their ideology. And the monsters of our young century, militant Muslims, have done the same.
Why have the Jews, always among the weakest and smallest of peoples, attracted the hatred of the most evil people? Because of what the Jews represented. The civility of the Jews' lives and the values the Jews brought into the world — especially ethical monotheism, i.e., a standard of right and wrong based on a moral and judging G-d — made them loathsome in the eyes of those who led particularly uncivil lives and who celebrated moral chaos and cruelty.
Turning to hatred of America, the same questions and answers apply. Either America is evil and hatred of it is merited, or America is a decent country and the haters are evil.
The correct explanation is so obvious that only one who already hates America or who is simply morally confused would choose the first.
To assess the veracity of this, all one need do is compare America — a country that has liberated more people from tyranny than any other, and which has been a place of refuge, tolerance and opportunity for more people from more backgrounds than any other in history — with those who hate America.
Militant Muslims hate America. These people include the Taliban of Afghanistan, Al Qaeda and other Muslim terrorists, the Islamic regimes of Iran and Sudan, members of Hamas and the many Palestinians and other Muslims who support it. Now, what types of people are these, and what societies have they made or seek to make?
To call the Taliban primitive is to insult the many primitive peoples who were light years more civilized than these totalitarians who forbade girls to get an education and prohibited women from such innocent activities as going to the zoo. They murdered anyone who loved liberty, beheaded any Muslim who converted to another religion, and blew up some of the most priceless sculptures of the ancient world because those works of art were of a different religion. Is it a good or bad reflection on America that the Taliban hated this country?
Al Qaeda and other Muslim terrorists seek to impose Taliban-like regimes on everyone in the world, beginning with the Muslim world. They routinely slaughter innocent people — literally slaughter, as cutting off the heads of their human sacrifices is their preferred method of murder. They are monsters in human form. Is it a good or bad reflection on America that Al Qaeda and other Muslim terrorists hate this country?
The Islamic regime of Iran has taken one of the brightest nations on earth back into the darkest past of human civilization. Their great ally is the genocidal regime of North Korea. Is it a good or bad reflection on America that the Islamists in Iran hate this country?
The Arab Islamic regime in Sudan has killed about one million non-Arab, non-Muslim blacks in the south of its country. Rape and enslavement of these blacks is routine. Is it a good or bad reflection on America that the Sudanese regime hates this country?
Hamas and its many supporters among Palestinians have developed a new theology of cruelty and death — that a Muslim boy who blows himself up while maiming and murdering as many innocent Jews as possible goes to heaven where he is then sexually serviced by dozens of virgins. In the annals of the history of religion, no analogous theology of cruelty and vulgarity has ever been devised. Is it a good or bad reflection on America that Hamas and its Palestinian supporters hate this country?
One more point. When you look at the roster of the America-haters and realize that none of them hates France or Sweden, this assessment of America-hatred is rendered even more obvious. America, largely alone, calls these groups and regimes what they are — evil. America, largely alone, wages war against them. America, largely alone (with Israel), prevents them from assuming far more power.
As I said to my synagogue on the Sabbath after 9-11, "I stand before you as a proud member of the world's two most hated peoples — Americans and Jews."
Friday, June 04, 2004
Illegal Immigration
Illegal immigration is a very sore spot for me personally. I know many good people in the US, hard working and kind people, who just happen to be in the US illegally, many who are personal friends of ours. This does not come out of some foreignphobia. My wife is Brazilian. We currently live in Brazil as missionaries. Our family is multilingual.
One of the reasons that illegal immigration is such a sore spot with me is that we tried to bring Luciene’s mom to the US on a visit when we lived there.
Luciene and I met and married in Brazil, and stayed in Brazil for a year and eight months, then we moved back to the States, to Columbus, Ohio, for seven years. My wife Luciene is Brazilian, and she was in the United States legally, on a visa that took us 8 months of waiting in Brazil to get, waiting on contorted bureaucracy and paperwork as well as spending thousands of dollars in travel to two different embassies.
We could have lied. We could have applied for a tourist visa, and then applied for a permanent visa while in the States. It would have been much easier in the contorted bureaucracy that is immigration to lie and then apply, but we wanted to do everything aboveboard, and we paid a price for it. We felt it our obligation to keep everything totally legal.
Luciene’s mom had no intention of staying illegally. Her whole family except for my wife was in Brazil. Her visa was denied. But some of our friends, in the US illegally, were able to get their families to the States, sometimes through shifty agencies. Many of those ended up staying on illegally.
Now, I sure don’t want to in any way offend my friends who are in the States illegally. I know how much many of them have endured to be there. But it really ticks me off when those that go through the paperwork, do everything just right, jump through all the hoops, when they are denied visas, and those that have decided to enter the US illegally are then rewarded with tuition prices that those legally in the States cannot get. It really ticks me off when those in the States illegally can get better health care than Americans can.
I am so sick of the PC crap on illegals, on out of control government spending, about the farce of separation of church and state that has now become a defacto “freedom FROM religion”. I would really like to see someone who shoots straight, and plays hardball, someone with the courage to stand up to the liberals, and not cave in to public pressure.
We need someone, a warrior, who will look the Liberal Loonies in the face, and tell them that the pork stops here. No more. We need someone who will look their Conservative Cohorts in the face, and tell them, the Pork stops here. No more. We need someone who will look the Looney Libs in the face, and tell them, the lies stop here. No Moore Michael.
We need someone who is really going to cut spending. Our deficit is out of control. Someone needs to have the courage to stand up, and cut until it hurts. It must be done. We all really know it must be done. We just really hope that we won’t have to feel any personal pain, that maybe we can put it off so that our kids and grandkids foot the bill. Isn’t that the case? Nobody it seems, wants to tighten their own belts, to do the hard things that need to be done to get us free from these shackles.
I just read that the Democracks strategy is to try to act like Christians on some issues like environment. But their real strategy is something else that really seems to work time and time again. Harp on the economy. Harp on the thing that most occupies the minds of most Americans. Harp on money.
Never mind that it is the Republicans that have been fixing the wrecked economy left by the Liberals. Never mind that Bush had not even taken office and the media was harping about “Bush’s Economy”, even though it was really eight years of Clinton’s economy that they had lied about and twisted enough numbers on to make Enron look like child’s play.
Never mind that after a devastating terrorist attack aimed precisely to harm America and our economy, and a war on two fronts, that the economy, which was already in deep trouble, is now making a comeback thanks to Bush’s tax cuts.
The Democracks are, simply put, just experts at touching the root of greed in mankind, and manipulating the weak and gullible.
You cannot serve God and money. It just cannot be done. If you find yourself thinking of the candidates in terms of money and economy, perhaps it is time to take a step back, perhaps fall on your knees, and make some decisions based on values, on character. And not the fake, “let’s paint a Christian face on this Pagan to deceive even the elect if it were possible” kind of character, but real solid character.
If we, America the Great, continue to make decisions based on greed, then we will get the leaders that we deserve, and eventually, we will cease to be America the Great. God allowed America to become great for one reason, and it is found on our money, “In God we trust”. It is because America was founded on Christian principles (even if that fact drives Liberals stark raving foaming at the mouth mad and they try to deny it) that God has blessed us.
I will tell you, as one that lives dependant on the generosity of my fellow Americans to be here living on the Amazon as a missionary, that I doubt that there is a more generous and caring people in the world as the American people. We have been so well taken care of, and have received so much love and encouragement. If it were not for the generosity, we could not even be here helping the poor and needy.
I know that God continues to bless America because there are so many people that are faithfully His, because America sends so many missionaries all over the world, and because there are so many that on bended knee, plead for the mercy of God on our nation.
But as a people, as a nation, we are drawing away from God. This is mainly a failure of those that claim to be sons and daughters of God, a failure of Christians to stand up and do what is right. We have allowed God to be eliminated from most public places. In a few short generations, which just happen to be the most affluent in the history of the world, we have tried to forget God and relegate Him to the dusty bin of irrelevance. There is a full fledged war going on to destroy the Bride of Christ and America the Great, and those that call themselves by God’s name are asleep on comfortable leather couches, remote controls loosely falling from flaccid junk food fingers.
One of the things that is speeding this along is the acceptance of people that refuse to assimilate into the American way of life. Illegal immigration is a floodgate that is wide open, and threatens to swallow America in a sea of crime, run away medical costs, and trafficking in substances and flesh. As we look the other way, and ignore the dangers, we leave ourselves open to further terrorist attacks, through the same routes that the illegals are taking to invade our country.
This is an issue that demands someone with courage to stand up and put an end to. Where are the leaders of this great nation that will take the risks to do the hard things that we need to do to preserve our way of life, to preserve the very fabric of our nation? Where are the leaders?
Hello, hello, hello, is there anybody in there?
One of the reasons that illegal immigration is such a sore spot with me is that we tried to bring Luciene’s mom to the US on a visit when we lived there.
Luciene and I met and married in Brazil, and stayed in Brazil for a year and eight months, then we moved back to the States, to Columbus, Ohio, for seven years. My wife Luciene is Brazilian, and she was in the United States legally, on a visa that took us 8 months of waiting in Brazil to get, waiting on contorted bureaucracy and paperwork as well as spending thousands of dollars in travel to two different embassies.
We could have lied. We could have applied for a tourist visa, and then applied for a permanent visa while in the States. It would have been much easier in the contorted bureaucracy that is immigration to lie and then apply, but we wanted to do everything aboveboard, and we paid a price for it. We felt it our obligation to keep everything totally legal.
Luciene’s mom had no intention of staying illegally. Her whole family except for my wife was in Brazil. Her visa was denied. But some of our friends, in the US illegally, were able to get their families to the States, sometimes through shifty agencies. Many of those ended up staying on illegally.
Now, I sure don’t want to in any way offend my friends who are in the States illegally. I know how much many of them have endured to be there. But it really ticks me off when those that go through the paperwork, do everything just right, jump through all the hoops, when they are denied visas, and those that have decided to enter the US illegally are then rewarded with tuition prices that those legally in the States cannot get. It really ticks me off when those in the States illegally can get better health care than Americans can.
I am so sick of the PC crap on illegals, on out of control government spending, about the farce of separation of church and state that has now become a defacto “freedom FROM religion”. I would really like to see someone who shoots straight, and plays hardball, someone with the courage to stand up to the liberals, and not cave in to public pressure.
We need someone, a warrior, who will look the Liberal Loonies in the face, and tell them that the pork stops here. No more. We need someone who will look their Conservative Cohorts in the face, and tell them, the Pork stops here. No more. We need someone who will look the Looney Libs in the face, and tell them, the lies stop here. No Moore Michael.
We need someone who is really going to cut spending. Our deficit is out of control. Someone needs to have the courage to stand up, and cut until it hurts. It must be done. We all really know it must be done. We just really hope that we won’t have to feel any personal pain, that maybe we can put it off so that our kids and grandkids foot the bill. Isn’t that the case? Nobody it seems, wants to tighten their own belts, to do the hard things that need to be done to get us free from these shackles.
I just read that the Democracks strategy is to try to act like Christians on some issues like environment. But their real strategy is something else that really seems to work time and time again. Harp on the economy. Harp on the thing that most occupies the minds of most Americans. Harp on money.
Never mind that it is the Republicans that have been fixing the wrecked economy left by the Liberals. Never mind that Bush had not even taken office and the media was harping about “Bush’s Economy”, even though it was really eight years of Clinton’s economy that they had lied about and twisted enough numbers on to make Enron look like child’s play.
Never mind that after a devastating terrorist attack aimed precisely to harm America and our economy, and a war on two fronts, that the economy, which was already in deep trouble, is now making a comeback thanks to Bush’s tax cuts.
The Democracks are, simply put, just experts at touching the root of greed in mankind, and manipulating the weak and gullible.
You cannot serve God and money. It just cannot be done. If you find yourself thinking of the candidates in terms of money and economy, perhaps it is time to take a step back, perhaps fall on your knees, and make some decisions based on values, on character. And not the fake, “let’s paint a Christian face on this Pagan to deceive even the elect if it were possible” kind of character, but real solid character.
If we, America the Great, continue to make decisions based on greed, then we will get the leaders that we deserve, and eventually, we will cease to be America the Great. God allowed America to become great for one reason, and it is found on our money, “In God we trust”. It is because America was founded on Christian principles (even if that fact drives Liberals stark raving foaming at the mouth mad and they try to deny it) that God has blessed us.
I will tell you, as one that lives dependant on the generosity of my fellow Americans to be here living on the Amazon as a missionary, that I doubt that there is a more generous and caring people in the world as the American people. We have been so well taken care of, and have received so much love and encouragement. If it were not for the generosity, we could not even be here helping the poor and needy.
I know that God continues to bless America because there are so many people that are faithfully His, because America sends so many missionaries all over the world, and because there are so many that on bended knee, plead for the mercy of God on our nation.
But as a people, as a nation, we are drawing away from God. This is mainly a failure of those that claim to be sons and daughters of God, a failure of Christians to stand up and do what is right. We have allowed God to be eliminated from most public places. In a few short generations, which just happen to be the most affluent in the history of the world, we have tried to forget God and relegate Him to the dusty bin of irrelevance. There is a full fledged war going on to destroy the Bride of Christ and America the Great, and those that call themselves by God’s name are asleep on comfortable leather couches, remote controls loosely falling from flaccid junk food fingers.
One of the things that is speeding this along is the acceptance of people that refuse to assimilate into the American way of life. Illegal immigration is a floodgate that is wide open, and threatens to swallow America in a sea of crime, run away medical costs, and trafficking in substances and flesh. As we look the other way, and ignore the dangers, we leave ourselves open to further terrorist attacks, through the same routes that the illegals are taking to invade our country.
This is an issue that demands someone with courage to stand up and put an end to. Where are the leaders of this great nation that will take the risks to do the hard things that we need to do to preserve our way of life, to preserve the very fabric of our nation? Where are the leaders?
Hello, hello, hello, is there anybody in there?
