Around the Web on 3-1-06

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