Borders Books and Waldenbooks Capitulate Amidst (the threat of) Islamist Thuggery

In response to a decision by Borders and Waldenbooks not to carry the most recent issue of a magazine titled Free Inquiry, due to an article inside the publication discussing the Muhammad Cartoon fiasco, Robert Bidinotto, former editor for Readers Digest, and current editor of The New Individualist, wrote a letter to those organizations demanding that they amend their policy.

Additionally, within the same blog entry, Bidinotto provides some interesting information behind recent "business relations" and policies at Borders yielding a greater perspective on this issue- they have just accepted an offer to host stores in United Arab Emirates and other GCC countries. (I could understand if the Borders stores in those countries cannot carry such media- obviously, respecting the customs of a nation wherein a business operates is critical, BUT this should not be the case in the United States!)

-etw

Welcome to South Dakota!

The First Publication in the United States to Host A 'Muhammad Cartoon' on Its Cover!

Flemming Rose: Courage Under Fire!

Flemming Rose, the editor of the Danish publication that releashed the cartoons that satirized aspects of Islam, could not have been more efficacious at articulating how crucial the state of "free speech" is within our society and what the results from the publishing of the cartoons have illustrated.

He is quite a courageous individual, unlike the majority of integrity-lacking and ethically-bankrupt government and media officials in the West who are unsucessfully trying to appease both sides, most notably censoring the cartoons and ceasing their dissemination. Why haven't our citizenry seen them and why are they not being released more widely in Europe? We are seeing a frightening precedent by many government and media authoritarians in the West controlled by fear who claim that people have a responsibility within the tenets of "free speech" to not offend religious sensitivities; effectively indicating that religion - especially its tyrannous consequences upon humanity - should never be criticized and is untouchable!

Just like in a dysfunctional familial environment, if people in authority and their ideas can never be addressed, questioned, and criticized, how can such a failing and abusive system ever be rectified? How can such malignant tyrants ever be held accountable? Problem-solving and change only occurs within an open-communicative environment, not one where fear rules!

-etw

Homeland Insecurity: As the White House Stalls the Congressional Investigation of the Fed's Response To Hurricane Katrina...

... the decisive issue of a critical government oversight of the past is (conveniently) being marginalized and forgotten- the funding of the levee infrastructure that could have prevented the disastrous flooding that destroyed New Orleans. If the United States government officials at all levels- national, state, and/or local - were truly sincere about protecting the citizenry of New Orleans from catastrophic flooding, surely they would have coordinated funding to fully construct such a vital barrier? Apparantly not. New Orleans' vulnerability to flooding that a Category Three and above storm can cause was voiced for years by many scientists and local emergency planners prior to Hurricane Katrina's catastrophic Category Four conditions, which easily ravaged the levee barrier causing New Orleans to be buried under many feet of water, plunging the city into chaos... Sure, the millions of dollars that were needed to fully build an efficacious defense against the potential floodwaters of nearby Lake Pontchartrain were exorbitant, and as a result, government officials and probably even residents themselves became reluctant to pay, but here we are after the disaster that has already cost just as much money and maybe even more to rescue the city, and the city still hasn't even been rebuilt, not to mention all the lives that were lost and up-rooted!

Yes, the federal government's slow, censured, mismanaged, and confused response to Hurricane Katrina and their irrational and irresponsible excuses are important issues, as is the government's unbalanced priority on consequence management of a terrorist-borne disaster - allowing for negligent oversight in response to the effects of a natural catastrophe, but let us not forget why New Orleans had to endure the chaos of post-Hurricane Katrina.

-etw

"In America, we do not abandon our fellow citizens in their hour of need."
-President George Bush, Jr

Senators: White House Stalls Katrina Probe

By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer
Tue Jan 24, 6:51 PM ET

The White House is crippling a Senate inquiry into the government's sluggish response to Hurricane Katrina by barring administration officials from answering questions and failing to hand over documents, senators leading the investigation said Tuesday.

In some cases, staff at the White House and other federal agencies have refused to be interviewed by congressional investigators, said the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. In addition, agency officials won't answer seemingly innocuous questions about times and dates of meetings and telephone calls with the White House, the senators said.

A White House spokesman said the administration is committed to working with separate Senate and House investigations of the Katrina response but wants to protect the confidentiality of presidential advisers.

"No one believes that the government responded adequately," said Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn. "And we can't put that story together if people feel they're under a gag order from the White House."

Sen. Susan Collins (news, bio, voting record) of Maine, the committee's Republican chair, said she respects the White House's reluctance to reveal advice to President Bush from his top aides, which is generally covered by executive privilege.

Still, she criticized the dearth of information from agency officials about their contacts with the White House.

"We are entitled to know if someone from the Department of Homeland Security calls someone at the White House during this whole crisis period," Collins said. "So I think the White House has gone too far in restricting basic information about who called whom on what day."

She added, "It is completely inappropriate" for the White House to bar agency officials from talking to the Senate committee.

White House spokesman Trent Duffy said the administration's deputy homeland security adviser, Ken Rapuano, has briefed House and Senate lawmakers on the federal response. A "lessons learned" report from Homeland Security Adviser Frances Fragos Townsend also is expected in coming weeks, Duffy said.

But he defended the administration's decision to prohibit White House staffers or other presidential advisers from testifying before Congress.

"There is a deliberate process, and the White House has always said it wants to cooperate with the committee but preserve any president's ability to get advice from advisers on a confidential basis," Duffy said. "And that's a critical need for any U.S. president and that is continuing to influence how we cooperate with the committees."

Collins and Lieberman sidestepped questions about whether they plan to subpoena the White House to get the information they seek, though Collins said she does not believe subpoenaing the Homeland Security Department is necessary.

The Senate inquiry is scheduled to conclude in March with a report detailing steps the federal government took — and didn't take — to prepare for the Aug. 29 storm.

Investigators have interviewed about 260 witnesses from federal, state and local governments and the private sector. Additionally, the committee has received an estimated 500,000 documents — including e-mails, memos, supply orders and emergency operation plans — outlining Katrina-related communications among all levels of government.

But Lieberman said the Justice and Health and Human Services departments "have essentially ignored our document requests for months" while HHS has refused to allow interviews of its staff. He described the Homeland Security response as "too little, too late."

Collins offered a rosier view of Homeland Security's cooperation, noting that Deputy Secretary Michael Jackson and department chief of staff John Wood were scheduled to talk to investigators later this week.

A special House committee created to review the government's readiness for Katrina is to release its findings by Feb. 15. Although Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., the panel's chairman, earlier considered subpoenaing the White House, the panel backed away after the Rapuano briefing.

The panel ultimately did subpoena the Pentagon for Katrina documents, but one lawmaker, Rep. Charlie Melancon, D-La., said he believes Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has not handed over enough to fully comply with the legal order.

But in a letter to Melancon on Tuesday, Davis said he is satisfied the Pentagon has complied with the subpoena, which yielded "massive mounds of documents," including classified materials from Rumsfeld.

America's Most Popular Dual Political Party System is a Failure!

As the United States enters a New Year full of new possibilities and the learning of new ideas, maybe the citizenry of my fine nation will step closer to realizing just how much further the United States has morphed into a tyrannous, sly theocracy under the Bush Administration, while under the watchful eye of the Democratic Party. (Sure, the Republicans aren't the only ones to blame- the Democrats haven't done much to repel the Vatican invasion...) Both the Conservatives and Liberals are corrupt, authoritarian, collectivist, and unlibertarian. Their ideologies operate under the same premise where the individual exists for the sake of a collective- the Republicans immolate the citizenry in the name of The Church and to secure a better, so-called "afterlife" and the Democrats offer up their livelihood and welfare for the sake of collective harmony. Not only do they espouse an irrational and unethical code of morality based upon the repression of the human being, but both ethically-bankrupt political parties do nothing to support the foundation of a truly free society, in which a citizenry would only tolerate a limited government authority, so that they be better positioned to "own their life" resulting in greater self reliance, personal responsibility and achievement, individual choice and tolerance, and a celebration of a happy life here on Earth!

-etw

On War and Selfishness

Just recently, I finished reading the book Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo, which I found to be an incredibly moving and rational indictment against war. However, in my case, since I am not anti-war, a position that Trumbo asserts in this book, I still found this book to efficaciously illustrate why war should rarely, if ever, be fought. Which leads me into the reason why war should be fought- only in support of fighting to defend one's individual sovereignty in the face of a tyrannical and/or a totalitarian government after all civil methods have been ruled out; not for reasons of imperialism, procurement of natural resources, or for charity, as has been customary for centuries. For a well-reasoned defense of a "just war" see Objectivist philosopher Leonard Peikoff's speech at West Point.

-etw

“You can always hear the people who are willing to sacrifice somebody else’s life. They’re plenty loud and they talk all the time. You can find them in churches and schools and newspapers and legislatures and congress. That’s their business. They sound wonderful. Death before dishonor. This ground sanctified by blood. These men who died so gloriously. They shall not have died in vain. Our noble dead. Hmmmm. But what do the dead say? Did anybody ever come back from the dead any single one of millions who got killed did any one of them ever come back and say by god I’m glad because death is always better than dishonor? Did they say I’m glad I died to make the world safe for democracy? Did they say I like death better than losing liberty? Did any of them ever say it’s good to think I got my guts blown out for the honor of my country? Did any of them ever say look at me I’m dead but I died for decency and that’s better than being alive? Did any of them ever say here I am I’ve been rotting for two years in a foreign grave but that’s wonderful to die for your native land? Did any of them say hurray I died for womanhood and I’m happy see how I sing even though my mouth is choked with worms?

Nobody but the dead know whether all these things people talk about are worth dying for or not. And the dead can’t talk. So the words about noble deaths and sacred blood and honor and such are all put into dead lips by grave robbers and fakes who have no right to speak for the dead. If a man says death before dishonor he is either a fool or a liar because he doesn’t know what death is. He isn’t able to judge. He only knows about living. He doesn’t know anything about dying. If he is a fool and believes in death before dishonor let him go ahead and die.”

-Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo, pages 115-116.