SOLID VOX

Solid Vox, the podcasting / radio show network by Prodos, is on its way... I look forward to present my first program on the Egoist.

FREIVALDS

It took some time, but Freivalds is now kicked out... "Daily Industry's" magazine, Diego, has an interview with Stefan Amér, political adviser to the former foreign minister.

Recommending reading: My post, RELIGION OF PEACE and the Ayn Rand Institute's Free Speech Campaign site.

THE SHRINKING ANTIWAR MOVEMENT

I didn't conduct a counter demonstration this year. According to "Gothenburg's Post", about 1,000 people demonstrated against the "occupation of Iraq"... [Via InstaPundit.] Here is a picture from my solo protest last year.



UPDATE 03/21/06:

I had to clean up in front of our entrance. I removed an anti-war poster at a bus stop sign. The speakers are all active communists. Sven-Eric Liedman is a Marxist author. I had to read one of his text books during my high school years. Ida Gabrielsson is head of the youth organization of the Left Party. Henry Ascher is a member of the Communist Party and an activist pushing for a boycott of Israeli goods.


Before...


After...

TIEBREAK

I have written this post as a mental "tie break" due to the "overtime" work with plenty of stuff... [Editor's note to self: Morris could give you instructions on how to relax...]



I was searching the blogosphere in order to find a blogger who writes about a start-up adventure. I found a blog describing his start of a café somewhere in America, but I can't find the blog at the moment. I should have made a mental note or bookmark...

We have now sent in the application for serving coffee, tea, baked goods, and "cold" ready-made food (e.g., two slices of bread, ham, and a slice of cheese put together and heated up, i.e., a toast) to the bureaucrats at the "environmental & food" agency. We have ordered broadband telephony / internet access. Blue Chip Café will have wireless hotspot so you could surf the net with your mobile smartphone (e.g., Qtek 9100 / HTC Wizard), or a laptop. I will purchase a espresso machine, coffee bean grinder and hot water tank for tea, next week.

We are planning to have a special event on May 1 (Labor Day in Sweden). We will work hard on marketing our business during next month by updating our web site, do the final touches of the logotype and create an outdoor sign for the café, and talking with a PR and marketing firm.


"Ask for Ideas in Gothenburg" / Blue Chip Café / IdeaTank. Click on the image for a description of the photo.

I will send an invitation to Toiler of Acid Free Paper to visit our place in Gothenburg. Read his post, Café Society.

Related: My post, ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT.

AROUND THE WEB ON 3-15-06

Cross-posted from Gus Van Horn

I'm still coming off a severe schedule crunch here. Yesterday evening, coming off six hours' sleep in two days, I stumbled home, quickly posted on "Sudden Jihad Syndrome", and crashed. I really feel like getting a little more sleep this morning, but I'd like to get my blogging back on track so I can capitalize on some recent momentum.

An Army of Davids

Glenn Reynolds doesn't need my help promoting his book, but this review piqued my interest enough to make me want to buy it. (I've been ignoring the hype so far, and have not been following Instapundit as much as usual.)

The full title of the book does a good job of setting up the context for the following excerpt. An Army of Davids: How Markets and Technology Empower Ordinary People to Beat Big Media, Big Government, and Other Goliaths.

[Reynolds's] greatest strength ... is in describing what he knows best: blogging. He sees communications technology making repression steadily harder. An ordinary video camera can be confiscated and its tape destroyed. But if a video blogger were transmitting footage wirelessly to hundreds of other people as he films it -- as will soon be possible -- it would be a rash secret policeman who shoots him.

Mr Reynolds understands that the blogging revolution has ill effects as well as good. The same technology that spreads protests against tyranny can also be used to stoke sectarian riots, as happened recently in Nigeria. And there are some things the little guy cannot easily do. With a few exceptions (Mr Reynolds lauds a do-it-yourself war correspondent in Iraq), bloggers do little original reporting. Posting opinions online is cheap, but news-gathering is not. Mr Reynolds sees this changing as technology costs fall still further and bloggers find niches in local news. But the revolution is unlikely to destroy "old media" entirely. For one thing, with no MSM, what would bloggers deconstruct?

Not to be overly "deconstructive" here, but couldn't you say that all technology -- if you recall that evil people exist and technology hasn't any moral scruples -- has "ill effects"? And this being the case, mightn't it be better to frame this in terms that lay the blame where it belongs: evil men? I suspect that Reynolds won't make this very basic mistake and look forward to seeing whether I am right.

In the meantime, I do wonder whether this reviewer thinks that such "ill effects" provide a good rationale to crush -- er "regulate" -- this new "army" -- er these new technologies.

New Jersey Free -- for Now

And, speaking of an "army of Davids", this article shows this army in action in a skirmish that is taking place in New Jersey. (And pardon me if I seem be slow on the uptake here.... I do recall seeing mention of an "Internet civility bill" somewhere recently, but didn't follow up on it. I think it was this one.)

A New Jersey Assemblyman's Internet civility bill is on ice since opponents blasted it as an assault on free speech.

Assemblyman Peter Biondi and his staff said they were trying to curb malicious exchanges on some local discussion boards when they introduced a bill requiring people to provide their real names and addresses before posting on public Web sites. The bill also stated that hosts could be sued for failing to disclose the identities of people disseminating false or defamatory information.

Biondi's staff drafted the measure late last year. In was introduced in January. The bill hadn't even made it to committee before a small weekly newspaper published an article about it and Internet news providers began spreading the word. Then, callers from as far away as Canada deluged Biondi's office with complaints.

And not only does the article show the "army" in action, it shows us why we need such an army in the first place: Despite the fact that our Constitution guarantees freedom of speech, our media often either fail to use it adequately (e.g., the massive failure to display the cartoons that "provoked" Moslem rioting and murder recently) and sometimes even misuse it (e.g., Rathergate. See article discussed in previous section for mention and mild whitewashing thereof.)! This is a shame since our media ought to be very interested in protecting freedom of speech by doggedly exposing government attempts to abridge it, not aiding them by inaction or collusion!

As an example of inadequate reporting, consider that if you were busy and simply skimmed the article, you'd think that the battle against this bill had already been won! However, buried near the bottom is an ominous warning that Biondi isn't done with his attempt to subordinate our freedom to "civility".

[Biondi's Chief of Staff Scott] Ross said that Biondi and his staff were responding to requests from local constituents who complained about the viciousness of local discussion boards littered with name-calling. They were shocked that the bill -- drafted to bring decorum to Internet discussions -- drew an intense response from Internet users far beyond the Garden State's boundaries.

Critics said the law would be unconstitutional and impossible to enforce. Ross said he can see things from their perspective, but he still believes people should maintain civility online.

If Ross really did "see things from their perspective", he'd understand the importance of freedom of speech and advise Biondi to withdraw his bill or even resign from his staff in protest.

Medical Experiments of Another Kind

This cost-benefit analysis of socialized medicine makes a decent point about the fact that Americans have access to more cutting-edge technology than those whose medical costs are subsidized by governments looking to cut corners.

But then it sells freedom down the river!

In my view, either single-payer health care or a return to individual responsibility represents a radical change. It would be more prudent to have individual states experiment with these alternatives before we commit to any single approach at a national level.

No! It is not any more "prudent" to "experiment" with some states violating the rights of their physicians to set the terms for which they will work than it was to "experiment" with making the income tax constitutional in 1913 so the feds could levy a 1% tax. It is a precedent made dangerous because the principle of individual rights is ignored at the outset by a myopic concern with the details of a wholly wrong scheme of government interference in the economy.

This argument plays into the hands of those who, like Ted Kennedy, would socialize our medical industry incrementally. Assuming Arnold Kling is against socialized medicine, his is not merely a strategic mistake. It is made possible by a more fundamental error: failure to vigorously support the principle of individual rights.

No citizen -- not even even a physician, Mr. Kling -- should be forced to work for any other. Not in America, or anywhere else for that matter.

Synergy: "Freedom" and "Discipline"

There's a short, interesting piece at City Journal by Theodore Dalrymple that discusses how British complacency plays into the hands of Moslems who want to snuff out the hopes and dreams of their own children. It includes the following sad vignette.

There was a strange paradox about the young Muslim women I saw in the hospital, usually after they had tried to kill themselves. Their manners and deportment were infinitely better than those of young white women of the same economic class, and they were better educated than their white peers, although they had received at least four, and sometimes as many as seven, years fewer education.

In fact, they often were often estimable young women. They wanted desperately to learn, to accomplish something, to enter a profession, and to earn a living. If I had been an employer, they were just the kind of people I would hope to find. But their truncated education clearly had the purpose -- usually achieved -- of thwarting any ambition they might have. The young women found themselves in an utterly wretched position: hence the suicide attempts.

Dalrymple could have made his excellent point even more forcefully, but it is obscured by his title, his terminology ("freedom" used to denote both actual freedom and complacency), and his final paragraph.

Here, then, is proper material for reflection, of the kind that the opportunistic Blair couple will never give it. Discipline without freedom leads to misery, but freedom without discipline leads to chaos, shallowness, and misery of another kind.

It is precisely freedom that young women like this lack. It is complacency or worse on the part of Brits, free for the moment anyway, who too willingly accommodate the religious customs of Moslems, while forgetting the better aspects of their own culture. It is not freedom, but the failure to take advantage of it, that is the problem in Britain and so many other places in the West.

Free Blog Hosting, Chinese Style

The Gaijin Biker notes that in China, even if your blog's hit totals are in a league with Instapundit, you will not make a dime from your advertising. GB invites the reader to "Take a moment to digest the wonderfully oxymoronic concept that a company should be compensated for providing a free service."

Turk Stopped at Sub Base

Bubblehead has some thoughts on a recent incident at our submarine base in Connecticut.

From another article in The Day (posted over at Rontini's BBS), it appears the guy said he was trying to visit the Sub Force Museum. At 0630. Congressman Simmons actually voices the concern that it may have been an attempt to probe base security, so someone else is thinking the same thing. [link omitted]

Bombs Away!

I fully agree with Martin Lindeskog that we should take out all the Iranian nuclear capability we can find. And do follow the link to "signs that the United States is about to bomb Iran".

I only play a kindly, wise man on TV.

Willy Shake notes (with a disappointment I share) that Issac "Chef" Hayes is quitting Southpark.

But I refuse to wallow in disappointment. Hayes's action is also an amusing admission on his part that no amount of Scientology training will ever make him able to simply will Matt Stone and Trey Parker to cease poking fun at his "religion", or otherwise supernaturally actualize his wishes. Perhaps Hayes ought to consider quitting something else. Hint: It would be the activity that is giving him a negative cash flow.

-- CAV

BOMB IRAN

In the news: Iran's supreme leader: No retreat on nukes - USA Today.

Read Edward Luttwak's article, To bomb or not to bomb?

Here is an excerpt:

The bombing of Iran's nuclear installations may still be a bad idea for other reasons, but not because it would strengthen the hold of its rulers, nor because it would require a huge air offensive. On the contrary, it could all be done in a single night. (TheFirstPost.co.uk, 03/14/06.)

Have you heard about the "signs that the United States is about to bomb Iran"?

Related: My post, OPEN THREAD POST: WHEN COMES THE STRIKE AGAINST IRAN?

AROUND THE WEB ON 3-8-06

Cross-posted from Gus Van Horn

Welcome to what I think, going into it, will be a shorter than usual weekly roundup. I was busier than usual at work yesterday (when I wrote this) and have the morning meeting I normally do on Thursday a day early. Them's the breaks.

Another Objectivist Blogger to Go Into Business

First, Don Watkins started a magazine from his blog. Then Martin Lindeskog decided to go into business for himself. And Philip Pape ended his brief foray into the blogosphere by starting a business. And now, Zach Oakes has decided to take the plunge!

Good luck, Zach!

Veksler on the Austrian View of Economic Value

I found David Veksler's ruminations on Austrian economics interesting.

My argument is that the subjective theory of value is essentially correct, but incorrectly named, and should be distinguished from two contrasting erroneous views of economic value by calling it the objective theory of value, since market prices are in fact objective.

...

Note that both the intrinsic and the subjective [not in the Austrian sense --ed] theory of value are conductive to arguments for regulating the market because they claim that market prices are arbitrary. If economic values are intrinsic, then prices distract and distort the actual value of goods, and regulation is necessary to keep prices in live with the real values of goods. If economic values are subjective, then regulation is necessary to keep the capitalist bosses from exploiting the helpless masses. This is one of the reasons why it is important for capitalists to explain that prices are neither proxies for some ideal value, nor subjective choices, but objectively reveal the actual values that individuals hold.

South Dakota leaves a loophole.

Gideon Reich notes that South Dakota's new abortion ban has a loophole and concludes: "I suppose we should be grateful that the law's proponents are not yet fully consistent. But then evil never has to be."

Quite true. Just look at their reason for leaving a "grace period" for rape victims: It would be overwhelmingly unpopular to do otherwise. Why not make a good, solid case, once and for all, that a fetus is a human being, and that abortion is murder? Is this an admission that they can't? Or that they place their religious agenda above actually protecting lives and rights (by making sure they first know what these are)? Or both?

This reminds me of another recent example of the contempt held by many social conservatives for the notion that laws should protect individual rights. When Texas wrote a law to ban gay marriage, it literally was a ban on all marriage. Neither the author of the bill nor, apparently anyone else, seems to care. (And, oh yeah. Some doctors who perform abortions there are, technically, subject to criminal prosecution.)

We thus have three examples of contempt for the law: (1) The South Dakota law, which does not consistently carry out its alleged goal; (2) The law in Texas that clearly bans marriage, but is basically being interpreted away; and (3) A legal circumstance created by some other laws in Texas that is also being ignored.

The Mississippi Internet Bubble

Well, the title isn't really descriptive, but I couldn't resist it. The Gaijin Biker notes that some spammers are using some sloppy coding in the web site of the government of my home state to host trackback spam!

As you can see from the above screenshot (click to enlarge in a new window if it's too small), the trackback appears to come from www.ms.gov, which is the official website of the state of Mississippi. But the actual URL is:

http://www.ms.gov/frameset.jsp?URL=http://SPAM-URL

where "SPAM-URL" is the actual URL of the spammer's site, such as "buy-cheap-viagra.com" or what have you. (I've grayed it out in the screenshot to avoid giving him free publicity.)

The URL listed above will display the spammer's site within a frame on the Mississippi site. You can test this out by pasting it into your browser's address bar and replacing SPAM-URL with the URL of your choice.

Banned in Pakistan!

Martin Lindeskog, at whose blog I often cross-post my midweek roundups, can now add another country to the list of states that ban Ego! Grant Jones reports that Pakistan has joined the ranks of states quaking in their boots at the prospect that their citizens might like what someone on Blogger has to say more than what their governments do.

God's Debris

Jennifer Snow, who appears to be well on her way to becoming a book reviewer, has another intriguing bok recommendation.

Reading God's Debris will help you learn how to entertain ideas without accepting them by allowing you to exercise your skill in philosophical detection.

So, I do recommend reading it if you have some spare time and feel like flexing your mental muscles; it's an extremely important exercise. Why? Because, as [author Scott] Adams puts it (amazingly, getting it dead right):

"Ideas are the only things that can change the world. The rest is details."

Toiler makes me jealous.

I don't get to write in cafes. Ever. Wah.

So it seems that some writers enjoy the camaraderie of working with or against (competing with?) other writers. Maybe they enjoy being part of a movement. I don't know. Maybe they simply benefit from each other's enthusiasm and also share insights. I know from my own experience that this can be motivating. But that's not at all why I go to cafes. In fact, I'd rather not speak to anyone while I'm there.

...

That's exactly why I like to find my quiet corner and pretty much ignore everyone else. My favorite spots serve exactly that purpose.

Yep. I selected the parts of this article that appeal the most to my extremely introverted nature, but there's much more in Toiler's discussion of cafe society.

My definition of hell.

And speaking of introversion, I ran across this article on introversion vs. extroversion just before the holidays.

"Bah, Humbug, another party?" or "Happy Holidays, another party!"

Your choice of greeting you exclaim during the holidays may have more to do with your genetic make-up than your mood. For introverts living in an extroverted culture, the holidays and all they entail can be fingernails on a chalkboard. For all those who are introverted, all that holiday socializing seems to be an enormous waste of time and energy. Rather than being out there mingling at parties, introverts would rather be snuggled up reading a nice, fat book.

Or sipping a coffee, hunched over my laptop, and writing in some darkened corner of a cafe. Wah. Again.

But on a serious note, the article does do a fairly good job at explaining introverts to the overwhelmingly extroverted world without making us seem too much like sissies, or wet blankets, or misanthropes -- at least until Jonathan Rauch is quoted saying something about an "introverts rights" movement at the end.... (Rauch also says that introverts are "oppressed" here. Great. Perhaps hell is really some multiculturalist attempting to make your personality type into an "oppressed minority". HT: northstar.)

But I bring the article up because I remembered a very funny quote from it. I strongly prefer to be alone in the morning, so I particularly enjoyed this line: "Not all introverts are as misanthropic as philosopher Sartre, who said, 'Hell is other people at breakfast.'"

Not as misanthropic. I can enjoy other people at breakfast -- if I've been forewarned!

(Come to think of it, maybe I could say, "I can enjoy other people for breakfast. You've been forewarned!" Bwahahaha!)

"Never trust an Objectivist under 40."

And speaking of memorable aphorisms, I picked this one up (from a comment) over at the Software Nerd's blog, where some thoughtful discussion on understanding and integrating Objectivism has been going on.

I guess if I ever need a short blurb in my blog header, I could say, "Almost old enough for Leonard Peikoff to trust."

-- CAV

CARNIVAL OF THE DANISH RECIPES

Welcome to the Carnival of the Recipes #81. This compilation of recipes has a Danish theme. [Editor's note: Check out the cuisine of Denmark at Answers.com.] As a starter, I recommend you to read All For One by Amit Ghate. [Via Gus Van Horn.]



So, without further ado, please have a seat and check out the menu!

Preparations

• Muse of Me-Ander has some kitchen advice, for planning, renovations, etc. before you start cooking...

Appetizers

[Editor's note: You are welcome to add a suggestion for this section of the menu. Please leave a comment.]

Side orders

• DeputyHeadmistress of The CommonRoom has a recipe for basil biscuits in her post, Wheat and Water.

• Bacon and Onion Muffin by David of Third World County.

Main courses

• Sausage and Cabbage by Annamaria Kovacs of Bunny? Anna says: "Deceptively simple but very yummy." [Editor's note: How about a glass of Unicum?]

• Spanish Tortilla With Spinach by Cathy of Chief Family Officer. Cathy says: "You can turn this into a Danish tortilla by using Edam cheese instead!"

• Garden Sandwich by Marsha Hudnall of A Weight Lifted.

• Sissy Willis of Sisu has another recipe for sandwich ("smørrebrød" in Danish) in her post, The Taste of Freedom.

• Frikadeller by KeeWee's Corner. Here is an excerpt from the post:

Frikadeller, rolls off your tongue, just like a swear word.
Forty years ago, I helped my mother make, it seemed like hundreds, of frikadellers, for my after the wedding reception party we had back at the house, and quite a party it was too. If there is one thing us kiwis know how to do, it is party.
We made the frikadellers smaller than you see in the picture, so they could be eaten using toothpics, as I remember there were a couple of different sauces on the side.
They are especially tasty if they are cooked in bacon fat.

[Editor's comment: Mmm, How abut DANISH BACON...]

• Here is another recipe for Frikadeller by B.D. of Booklore.

• Pork Loin Stuffed with Prunes and Apples ("Morbrad med Svedsker og Aebler" in Danish) by Riannan of In the Headlights. From Riannan's post:

I prewrote this thinking he wanted Danish recipes. When I read the post today, I realized he is asking for Danish pastry...Well, this isn't pastry, and I'm not redoing the post. I figure you'll need a little protein to go with all that sugar so I'm submitting it anyway.

[Editor's comment: I am sorry for causing any inconvenience. I should have be more precise in the description. But, as a fun twist, I hereby announce a meme. Please send your DANISH PASTRY (a.k.a "Roses of the Prophet Muhammad" in Iran) recipes, or a photo of a pastry, and I will update the post later on.]

• Northwest Salmon Chowder by Triticale - The Wheat / Rye Guy.

• Crab Gumbo by Dave Schuler of The Glittering Eye.

• Danish Baby Back Ribs by The General aka Wiley McCrary of BBQ General. Here is an excerpt from Wiley McCrary's post:

What is the difference between American and Danish baby back ribs? There is one more rib on the Danish ribs....13 instead of 12! The Danish hog is called the "Land Race." Mark went on to say that there are three defining points to the taste of pork ribs. The breed of the hog, what it is fed, and the age it is slaughtered.

• Cajun Cholent by Blog d'Elisson.

Desserts

• Dutch Baby w/Fuji Apple Compote by The Pragmatic Chef™. The chef says: "This would be great with a slice of Havarti cheese!"

• Raspberry Danish Sorbet by Mensa Barbie Welcomes You. Mensa Barbie says: "Sorbet is lovely to separate the flavors and tastes of the many cheeses, finest ham, and sliced rye, that the Danes are famous for."

• Danish Puff Coffee Cake and Aebleskivers by B.D. of Booklore. The author writes:

I have the in on Danish foods, as my husband is half Danish and came from Junction City, Oregon, which has its annual Scandinavian Festival every August. Apparently, that's where all the Minnewegians who took the Oregon Trail moved.

Drinks

• Coffee in Danish & Danish Coffee by Christine Torres of Morning Coffee & Afternoon Tea. Here is an excerpt from the post:

Ok, so the theme for this week's Carnival of the Recipes is "Danish". But I wasn't sure if that meant "recipes for Danish pastry", or "recipes for Danish foods". I'm easily confused. So, I bagged out of that path altogether.

[Editor's comment: I am sorry for the confusion. It must be the Scandinavian language...;)]

How about ending this carnival by drinking a glass of Danish bitter called Gammel Dansk ("Old Danish")?



Or, maybe you prefer a glass of Matilde cocoa milk?


[Hat tip to H.M.]

Next week's edition of the Carnival of the Recipes will be announced by Punctilious of Blog o'RAM. The deadline for submissions for next week's edition is on Saturday, March 11, at noon Central Standard Time. You could send your entries via Blog Carnival, Conservative Cat, or send it by email to: "recipe.carnival AT gmail DOT com". I will update the post with the name of the host as soon as I get the schedule. If you are interested in hosting a future carnival, please send an email message to "recipe.carnival AT gmail DOT com" with the word "host" in the subject line.

UPDATE: One For The Road will host next week's edition of the Carnival of the Recipes.

UPDATE 03/11/06:

Thanks for your comments and trackback links! As promised, here is a photo of a Danish, a.k.a "Rose of the Prophet Muhammad". You are welcome to send pictures of pastries, or other sweet stuff. [Editor's comment: How about a "Havarti hottie"? [Via Michelle Malkin.]]



UPDATE 03/18/06:

Here is another recipe: Chili Van Horn by Gus Van Horn.

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENT

Morris is looking forward to the arrival of the next season. "When is spring coming?"

This week has been very hectic... I have been attending a course in logistics, getting the keys to our new business facility, and preparing for the Carnival of the Recipes. The carnival with a Danish theme will be up and running later on this day... In the meantime, have a look at our business place.


"Ask for Ideas in Gothenburg" / Blue Chip Café / IdeaTank

AROUND THE WEB ON 3-1-06

Cross-posted from Gus Van Horn

Netvibes is a good thing! In about thirty minutes, I've found more than enough posts to make an interesting roundup despite the fact that I've been pretty much out of the loop for a few days. Now let's see what I can put together in another thirty to forty-five minutes....

Oh yeah.... If you decide to use Netvibes, I have two pieces of advice related to the fact your user ID is an email address. (1) This may be obvious, but use a password other than that you use to access your email account. (2) Use a throw-away account or at least one with a good spam filter. I do the latter and ever since I signed up, the spam folder has needed emptying about once a week.

Freedom Remains Sexy

Can a Burqa ever be sexy? If it gets stripped off in defiance of a bunch of bearded, louse-infested, insecure imams, to reveal a stunningly beautiful bombshell, I say it does.

The Gaijin Biker has a post about a Moslem dissident you may not have heard of yet.

[I]f this video by 28-year-old UK- and US-based singer Deeyah (nicknamed the "Muslim Madonna") is any indication, the connection between freedom and sex appeal remains as strong as ever.

The video has, predictably, earned Deeyah a round of death threats from the usual suspects.

She immigrated to the UK after her act riled the Moslem community in her native Norway.

Read the whole thing and get a glimpse of what the imams deny men on earth, but use to induce them to murder themselves and others.

Is my use of the term "dissident" over the top here? I think not. Islamists want to control all aspects of everyone's life. In that sense any Moslem who wants to live a normal life qualifies as a dissident.

And speaking of brave women....

Michelle Malkin reports that twelve intellectuals, including female Moslem dissidents Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Irshad Manji, and Talsmia Narseen, have issued a manifesto against Islamic totalitarianism. It includes this explicit rejection of cutlural relativism, which is very important.

We reject cultural relativism, which consists in accepting that men and women of Muslim culture should be deprived of the right to equality, freedom and secular values in the name of respect for cultures and traditions. We refuse to renounce our critical spirit out of fear of being accused of "Islamophobia", an unfortunate concept which confuses criticism of Islam as a religion with stigmatisation of its believers. [bold added]

Malkin profiles each intellectual. Talsmia Nasreen has the distinction of having a hate group named after her and being persecuted as an apostate.

Meanwhile, back in the land of the free ...

... a major city is getting ready to name a street after a domestic terrorist: "Chicago plans to name a street after a Black Panther leader who [told] people to ... "off the pig!"

We won't be the "land of the free" for much longer if we keep honoring people like this.

An Interesting Proposal

Curtis Weeks points to a very interesting proposal.

ReadtheBill.org called on the U.S. House of Representatives to approve by election day a resolution by Rep. Brian Baird (D-WA) to require that all proposed legislation be posted on the Internet for 72 hours before it comes up for floor debate.

"It's time to stop passing bills in the dead of night that nobody has read," said Rafael DeGennaro, Founder and President of ReadtheBill.org. "We want sunshine at the Capitol by November. Any member of Congress who opposes this 72 online reform is part of the problem in Washington, D.C."

Baird's resolution updates the current three-day rule in the House, which requires legislation to be available to members of Congress, but not the public, for three calendar days. The three-day rule is vague, obsolete and routinely waived, according to DeGennaro.

"The three-day rule encourages the insiders game in Washington, D.C. because it says that democracy is for members only," said DeGennaro. "The new 72-hour rule would use the Internet to power democracy for all. It harnesses thousands of people to read the bills and find the shady provisions."

The best way to discourage corruption in politics remains: getting our government out of the economy. My initial impression is that while this proposal has some merits, it cannot alone prevent Congress from passing bloated budgets. After all, the very people who will be reviewing legislation are the same ones who keep reelecting the members of Congress who routinely pass the pork. The average American must still appreciate why our government should not be in the business of redistributing wealth before even this legislation would have a serious impact on federal spending.

Happy Anniversary!

Eric Ryle's The Sub Report, that oasis of news for submarine aficionados, turned one yesterday.

Inalienable, and of this World

Nick Provenzo reports on a "defense" of freedom that relies on the exact same premise that animates the Islamists.

What is astonishing about Jaffa's thesis is his utter unwillingness to come to grips with intellectual history. Why, if faith in God is the fount of all individual liberty, did it take mankind almost 1,800 years to get from the Sermon on the Mount to the Declaration of Independence? Why the Dark Ages? Why the repression of scientists such as Galileo? Why the Inquisition? Why the wars of religion? And why the First Amendment, which protects the individual's right not to have a religion, if all freedom springs from faith in God?

A Question for Objectivists and Fellow Travelers

Diana Hsieh asks a more interesting question than the usual "How did you first learn about Ayn Rand?" that many Objectivists and Ayn Rand fans ask one another.

When Objectivists meet for the first time, they often inquire about each other's early history with Ayn Rand, particularly how they discovered her fiction and philosophy. That's a fine and dandy question, but here's a somewhat different one: At what point in reading Ayn Rand did you realize that she had something really significant to contribute to your understanding of the world?

That's a harder question than you might think.

As for me, I encountered Rand when I was focused on whether or not there was a God. While she was the only one I encountered who gave a definitive "No" as an answer, she also demonstrated through her writings on so many other things that that question isn't even the most fundamental one could ask. So what really got my attention was the fact that there was so much more that needed to be thought through and understood before one could answer the kinds of questions one needed to guide one's life.

Religion of Peace Roundup

Amit Ghate continues his excellent coverage of matters related to the current war that started with the Battle of the Cartoons with a rather chilling roundup. Here's a quote from just his first excerpt.

The Pakistani terrorist group Jamaat ul Fuqra is using Islamic schools in the United States as training facilities, confirms a joint investigative report by an intelligence think tank and an independent reporter.

A covert visit to an encampment in the Catskill Mountains near Hancock, N.Y., called "Islamberg" found neighboring residents deeply concerned about military-style training taking place there but frustrated by the lack of attention from federal authorities, said the report by the Northeast Intelligence Network, which worked with an Internet blogger, "CP," to publish an interim report.

Hmmm. That sounds disturbingly familiar.

Upcoming Carnivals

Martin Lindeskog will be hosting a Danish-themed "Carnival of the Recipes" on March 4, which happens to be the same day that Nick Provenzo will be kicking off the first Carnival of the Objectivists.

He had a vision!

This reminds me of that old Father Guido Sarducci skit, "Find the Pope in the Pizza".

Nature Deficit Disorder

Andrew Dalton reports on the latest attempt by liberals to claim that, if you don't agree with them, something is wrong with you. Er, I mean -- "market" their emotionalist fads.

He's back!

Toiler has returned from a prolonged vacation in beautiful New Zealand.

Not Blinded by Science

Not content to show my advancing age with one old pop cultural reference, I've used a second. Mike N. has concluded his series on the science establishment. Links to his previous posts are in the sidebar to the right. I liked this line, but it doesn't do him justice: "You know you're listening to a member of an establishment when ... [h]e says his findings are so urgent and catastrophic there is no time to verify them. Government must act now."

-- CAV