Friday, June 16, 2017

It also means that...we are not realistic. - Read full text here ↓

Provided by Norman E. Hooben

Realism and Islam


Our leaders cannot comprehend what is going on, either when a whole Western civilization
loses its faith and moral standards or when Islam reawakens to the implications of its own faith and its vision of world conquest.
Political realism, long associated with Augustine, constrains us to consider what Machiavelli later recommended to us—namely, to look at what men “do” do and not at what they “ought” to do. This advice would be more persuasive if, in fact, some men did not do what they ought to do or others do what they ought not to do. Both sides usually persuade themselves that they ought to follow their convictions. Machiavelli thought that if men did what they “ought” to do they would not survive the onslaughts and cunning of those who did what they had power to do whatever they could do. However, Augustinian realism did not, as in the case of Machiavelli, justify this careful look at what men “do” do as a reason to deny the distinction between good and evil so that any means could be used to accomplish their purposes.

The “realistic” look was “realistic” for Augustine precisely because good and evil were included in the look itself, in the reality as seen. To see and act on the reality of good or evil is to see reality in its fullest dimensions. Practical truth, in terms of acting according to an accurate description of what is there, is the first principle of realism as well as of political action. Thus, Maritain could rightly maintain in the Augustinian tradition that “justice, brains, and strength” need not be separated. They belong together. Or, to refer obliquely to Lord Acton, the lack of power can also corrupt absolutely. Not to possess and use responsible power in defense of what is right is itself an evil, cowardice.

With this background in mind, we recall recent events from “9/11”, the bombings in Spain, England, Mumbai, Bali, Fort Hood, San Bernardino, twice in Paris, Lahore, and Brussels, not to mention the persecutions and beheadings in Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen, Nigeria, Libya, Somalia, Chad, Syria, and the Sunni/Shiite inner-Muslim battles. What is the most plausible way to judge such continuing violence and its origins? To make this assessment, we have to acknowledge that Islam, in principle, is actually and potentially violent throughout its entire history. The basic reason for this method is obedience to the Law of Allah, not love for violence itself.

On the basis of evidence and theory, we cannot conclude from the fact that Islam is a “religion” that therefore it is not “violent” or is so only by abuse of its own founding. It is possible to be a religion and to espouse violence. (Were this not so, we would have to exclude many key passages on the Old Testament itself.) We cannot obscure what is there and affirmed to be there by Muslims themselves. Realism means that we can and should call what happens by its proper name. It also means that, if we cannot or will not make this proper naming, we are not realistic. We will inevitably suffer the consequences of our failure to state the truth of what is there.

These things are said not to promote counter violence against Muslims or to justify Muslim violence against others. Rather it is to respect Islam’s insistence that all those inside and outside of its enclosure be subject to the law of the Prophet. Whether we like it or not, this vision of world rule that is proper to Islam can only be called “religious” in nature. It is rooted in and promoted as a worship of the god called Allah. Not to take this wording seriously is unrealistic. The Muslims who claim that they can read their religious texts as if such violence is not advocated and justified may be applauded for trying to mitigate the historic record. But the fact is that those who see this violence as essential to the religion have the better side of the argument and are the better witnesses to what historic Islam stands for.

II.

What is argued here, then, is not to be unfairly “critical” of Islam. On the contrary, it is written with considerable admiration for the zeal, consistency, and effectiveness displayed over the centuries by Islamic armies and law. And while it may be politically incorrect to state these things, they need to be stated and are in fact the truth—things that both Muslims and non-Muslims need to hear and consider. The designated and determined goal of the conquest of the world for Allah has been reinvigorated again and again in world history from the time of Mohammed in the seventh century. These revivals and expansions, which have only been temporarily halted by superior counterforce, have roots in the Qur’an itself and in its commentaries.

What we witness today, much to our surprise, is but another step in the historic world mission that Islam envisions for itself as the will of Allah, a goal that inspires the real and recurrent vigor that is found in its history. The reason we do not call it what it is lies not in Islam but in our own very different concepts of philosophy, religion, and law. In this sense, it is our own culture that often prevents us from being ourselves political realists.

Many believing Muslims, likely more than we are willing to admit, are tired and frustrated at having their religion’s principles denied. Outside observers are unwilling to believe or imagine that what Muslim advocates say about themselves, both in their founding texts and in their historic actions, is true. World conquest over time is what they hold must be achieved.

In other words, whether they be Muslim or otherwise, many people refuse to acknowledge that violence is proposed and carried out in the name of Islam. Outside Islam, it is called by the peculiar word “terrorism”. It is rarely called what it is, namely, a religious endeavor to conquer the world as an act of piety. Muslims, in this central tradition, are not “terrorists” just for the fun of it. That is insulting and resented. They practice what we call “terror” because they see themselves carrying out the will of Allah, even sometimes to their own death in doing so. Those who, in the process, kill “infidels”—that is, any non-Muslim or Muslim who does not accept true Islam—is considered to be a “martyr” to the cause of Islam. Only if Islam is not true can these ritual killings be seen as the objective evil that they are.

A subtle philosophic theory (called “voluntarism”) purports to justify this usage of what we call terror for religious purposes. The principle of contradiction cannot hold in a “revelation” that contains, in its texts, contradictory commands, as does the Qur’an. Allah then must become pure will, not bound by Logos or reason. Hence Allah is not limited by any distinction of good and evil. The Muslim blasphemy laws that threaten with death anyone who violates this claim arise from this source.

Allah’s mandate to Islam is progressively to subject the world to his will and to the law based on it. Terror will end and true “peace” will result only when all are submissive to Allah and live under Muslim law in all its details. What we outside of Islam call acts of violence are considered within it to be the carrying out of Allah’s will. Gruesome beheadings of Christians, however innocent, are seen as acts of justice. They are acts of “virtue” in this sense. The people who cannot understand this religious charge given to Islam, whether they be themselves Muslim or not, are themselves both unrealistic and dangerous. Their own presuppositions prevent them from recognizing and judging the real issue. They also prevents them from doing anything effective to hinder this expansion of Islam into Europe, Asia, Africa, and America.

III.

Back in 1975, I wrote an essay in the Modern Age entitled “On the Teaching of Ancient and Medieval Political Theory”. The gist of this essay was that unless we understand the content and history of religions—their truth claims and aberrations—we will be unable to see the actual forces that swirl through the political world. An education that lacks a proper and accurate study of the theology and theologies peculiar to each different religion is not really an education. It could not prepare anyone to deal with a world in which religions, in their differences, are a reality. Both in Europe and America in the last half century or longer, this sanitized education is what decades of students have been given. With it, most citizens are simply not equipped to face the forces now reappearing in the world. Indeed, even to propose a realistic look at Islam, as is proposed here, is almost everywhere forbidden and excluded from any consideration, however valid the analysis.

This neglect of or hostility to religion has come back to haunt us. We have lumped all “religions” together as illusions or myths. They are to be defanged and wholly subject to state power. Our political, academic, and cultural leaders cannot comprehend what is going on, either when a whole Western civilization loses its faith and moral standards or when Islam reawakens to the implications of its own faith and its vision of world conquest. The two—the loss of faith and the rise of Islam—are connected. The decline of the birth rate and civil undermining of the family in the West is one thing. Muslim immigration or invasion has engulfed this same area. Muslims, especially young males, did not seek power and prosperity in other adjoining Muslim lands. The expansion of Islam was justified also by its charge of moral decadence against the West.

We see well-equipped modern armies, with inept and not seeing political leadership and with little motivation of forces, out-fought by young armed zealots in pick-up trucks who can, with their followers, threaten every train station and public building in Europe, Africa, Asia, and America. As they planned, they have managed to turn the whole world into a battleground of fear. The cry “Allah be praised!” is heard after every act of destruction. It is quite clear by now, or should be, that no cultural artifacts—be they books, buildings, statues, or paintings—will be allowed to exist. They are seen to be contrary to Allah’s will, no matter what they are or when created. In this sense, the Pyramids, the Buddhist statues, the library in Timbuktu, the Vatican, and the monasteries in the deserts, Canterbury, the towers in New York, the kosher markets in Paris, and the airports in Brussels are equally subject to destruction. Everything must be protected because everything is now threatened.

Not only are individual Christians eradicated but so are the statues of their saints. The reason for this destruction is “religious”. Such things ought not to exist. We have here a literal application of the belief that nothing should be allowed public or private space that does not correspond with strict Muslim beliefs. Provisional tolerance of Christians and Jews if they accept second class citizenship and pay heavy fines is merely temporary until the conquest is complete. Such zealous destruction to do the will of Allah, in other words, is considered to be an act of piety. If someone is going to oppose such acts, it cannot be done on the grounds of opposition to “terror” or that it is unreasonable. Ultimately, it depends, as Augustine learned with the Donatists, on a conversion and rejection of the theology that justifies it.

IV.

Whether Islam, in its origins, is a rereading of Jewish, Nestorian, and Christian texts (as it probably is) can be disputed. First, Islam claims to be a literal revelation of what is in the mind or being of Allah. In this sense, what is in the text must always remain in the text. It cannot be changed or “reinterpreted” to leave out those multiple passages that propose and justify violence in the name of the expansion of this religion. This advocacy of violence, which has been practiced in Islam from its seventh century beginning, has a purpose. This purpose is, ultimately, religious and pious. Whether the Muslim notion of “heaven,” where its martyrs go, is primarily this-worldly or transcendent, can also be disputed. In any case, the concept of heaven is very earthy sounding. This picture is not, as such, an argument against its truth.

The message contained in the Qur’an is that the world should bow in submissive worship to Allah. This purpose abides and recurs over the centuries because it is there in the text. Men may temporarily neglect its zealous pursuit, but the text itself always contains the mission for others to find and pursue. There will always be those who realize that the mission of world conquest in the name of Allah is not complete. This realization is why, so long as it exists unrefuted, the Qur’an will always produce what we call “terrorists”. What we see now is little different from what has been seen throughout the centuries wherever Islam is found.

In this view, the world is divided into an area of peace and an area of war. The former is where the law of Allah rules politically, religiously, and culturally, where no other philosophy or faith has any right to be present. All signs of alien religion, art, artifact, and people are eliminated through forced conversion or death. Sometimes, Christians and Jews can be allowed to stay alive provided that they accept second class citizenship and pay taxes. This situation, in practice, is the basic constitutional rule in all existing Muslim states, even in those that reject ISIS or other approaches to eventual conquest of the world. Once Islam has conquered, it has always followed the same principles. In its history, certain famous battles have turned back Muslim conquests for a time, sometimes for centuries. But this relative inertness is only on the surface. As long as the book exists, its goals will again and again inflame prophets, imams, politicians, and the young men to recommence the conquest of the rest of the world.

In conclusion, what is argued here in terms of political realism is that we must understand the religious nature of Islamic expansion and the methods used to achieve it. By trying to abstract these motivation from the soul of this particular religion, which is, on this score, unlike most others, only makes it impossible to describe what in fact is going on in the mind of the adversary that is Islam. Wars are first fought in minds—and this is a war. It is not World War III; rather, it is an extension of the wars that Mohammed first launched against Byzantium, Persia, Syria, eventually North Africa, even to India, Spain, the and Balkans.

The Muslim protagonists of today realize how close they were several times in the past to conquering Europe as the next step in world conquest. What they see today is a very realistic opportunity to succeed where their ancestors failed. They, though also idealists, are (often unlike ourselves) realists. That is, they see what our minds really hold. And they see that they are largely empty of what really counts in this world: a true conception of God. Their only fault is that of choosing a false understanding of the real God. Aside from this “small” issue, one cannot help but admire, and fear, a blind faith that so abides over time and place without the real presence of the Logos whose incarnate presence in the world is explicitly denied.

 

THE BLACK RACE IN THE UNITED STATES IS IN TROUBLE because our so-called warriors are too busy running around like a bunch of dogs in heat. ~ Edward Cage

From: UNHYPHENATED AMERICA
Source
Unhyphenated American: Edward Cage-Uncaged
By Leslie Brown - October 30, 2014

“Once I was able to read past a third grade level with comprehension I never voted Democratic again, I ran with my wife and kids off the plantation to freedom.”

Wow!  Such honesty, and candor in an age of deceit.  A friend sent me a link on Edward, and I realized he would be a great role model for our site.

We’re kinda “radical” here at UA, because we ascribe to that whole, “judging on the content of character, not the color of skin” thingie like M.L.K. Jr. preached, oh, say FIFTY YEARS AGO!

Edward Cage has been an eloquent and powerful advocate for conservatism, recognizing that the false story line told by the left and propagandized by the media only serves to keep America’s minorities “on the plantation.” He joins us from Missouri to share his tactics for opening the eyes of those who are still enchained by the leftist lies, and for bringing them to see the light of truth.

Edward Cage was born in St. Louis, Missouri. Raised on the city’s North side, he was faced with countless challenges, each of which he overcame. Edward’s teen years were full of pain and confusion, including running with a gang and becoming a father at the age of sixteen.

He dropped out of high school and began to sell drugs, but when so many of his old school mates were killed or locked up, Edward decided to make a change and got a job at a sandwich shop. While working there he learned a great truth: he couldn’t read or write. Mad at the world generally and white people specifically, he turned to Islam.

But as he taught himself to read and write, he started to see life in Black America differently. He stopped feeling sorry for himself, and walked away from Islam. This journey has taken him from liberalism to being a God-fearing, strong-minded, thought-provoking, in-your-face Christian Conservative with an attitude. As Edward says, “Once I was able to read past a third grade level with comprehension I never voted Democratic again, I ran with my wife and kids off the plantation to freedom.”

Edward, thank you for your work in calling people “out”, telling the Truth and spreading the Word. 
Thank you to: http://rageagainstthemedia.org/edward-cage-proud-conservative-truthteller/

Thursday, June 15, 2017

I think the biggest environmental hazard is the EPA ~ Norman E. Hooben

"And one gentleman from Maryland was talking about an 18-mile road.  And he brought with him some of the approvals that they’ve gotten and paid for.  They spent $29 million for an environmental report, weighing 70 pounds and costing $24,000 per page." ...full text below ↓
Above depiction by Norman E. Hooben


The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release

Remarks by President Trump on Regulatory Relief

Department of Transportation
Washington, D.C.
11:40 A.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you, Secretary Chao.  Thank you, everybody.  This is very nice, by the way.  Beautiful.  I want to really thank you.  You have been so amazing as the leader of this department, and the progress is being made so quickly.  Leaders and officials gathered here from across the country have all praised the work that the Secretary is doing to create a safe, modern and reliable transportation system for the United States and for its great, great, great people.
I also want to thank Secretary Zinke for the fantastic job he’s doing at the Department of the Interior to clear the way for new infrastructure and economic development.
Both Secretary Chao and Zinke joined us at the White House yesterday for a meeting with state and local leaders to develop plans to replace America’s decaying infrastructure and construct new roads, rails, pipelines, tunnels, and bridges all across our nation.
We are here today to focus on solving one of the biggest obstacles to creating this new and desperately needed infrastructure, and that is the painfully slow, costly, and time-consuming process of getting permits and approvals to build.  And I also knew that from the private sector.  It is a long, slow, unnecessarily burdensome process.
My administration is committed to ending these terrible delays once and for all.  The excruciating wait time for permitting has inflicted enormous financial pain to cities and states all throughout our nation and has blocked many important projects from ever getting off the ground.  Many, many projects are long gone because they couldn’t get permits and there was no reason for it.
We’ve already taken historic steps to speed up the approvals, including the approval of the Keystone XL Pipeline -- which was very quickly approved.  They were sitting there for a long time saying, well, that project is dead.  Then I came into office and, all of the sudden, a miracle.  And I guarantee you, the consultants went over to the heads of the company and told them what a great job they did.  They asked for a lot of money, most likely.  But we got it approved.  And we got it approved fast.
I’m also very proud to say that the Dakota Access Pipeline is now officially open for business.  It was dead 120 days ago, and now it officially just opened for business. Very proud of that.  Hi, Bill.
We’re also excited to be joined by representatives from our labor unions, including the North America Building Trades Union, which I know well, and the Laborers International Union of North America.  You will play a -- go ahead, fellas, take a little credit.  Come on, fellas. You will play a central role in rebuilding America.  Very important.
We’re also joined, as well, by many distinguished members of Congress who share our total passion and desire to repair and restore America’s highways, railways, and waterways.  In the audience is Chairman Bill Shuster of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.  Stand up, Bill. Thank you, Bill, great job -- who is working very closely with us, including on our proposal to dramatically reduce airport delays by reforming air traffic control.
We have an obsolete system.  And I have to say, before Elaine got here, they had spent close to $7 billion on the system.  Boom -- a waste.  All wasted.  But we’re going to have a great system -- great new system.  A top of the line -- it will be the best in the world.  Right now, we’re at the lowest part of the pack.  It will be the best in the world, for a lot less money than they’ve been wasting for years.
For too long, America has poured trillions and trillions of dollars into rebuilding foreign countries while allowing our own country -- the country that we love -- and its infrastructure to fall into a state of total disrepair.  We have structurally deficient bridges, clogged roads, crumbling dams and locks.  Our rivers are in trouble.  Our railways are aging.  And chronic traffic that slows commerce and diminishes our citizens' quality of life.  Other than that, we’re doing very well.
Instead of rebuilding our country, Washington has spent decades building a dense thicket of rules, regulations and red tape.  It took only four years to build the Golden Gate Bridge and five years to build the Hoover Dam and less than one year to build the Empire State Building.  People don’t believe that.  It took less than one year.  But today, it can take 10 years and far more than that just to get the approvals and permits needed to build a major infrastructure project.
These charts beside me are actually a simplified version of our highway permitting process.  It includes 16 different approvals involving 10 different federal agencies being governed by 26 different statutes.
As one example -- and this happened just 30 minutes ago -- I was sitting with a great group of people responsible for their state’s economic development and roadways.  All of you are in the room now.  And one gentleman from Maryland was talking about an 18-mile road.  And he brought with him some of the approvals that they’ve gotten and paid for.  They spent $29 million for an environmental report, weighing 70 pounds and costing $24,000 per page.
And I said, do me a favor.  I’m going to make a speech in a little while.  Do you mind if I take that and show it?  So I’m going to show it.  So they spent millions and millions of dollars.  When I said, how long has this short roadway been talked about, the gentleman said, well, if you say 20 years, you’re safe.  I said, yeah, don’t say anymore because I have to be -- you know, I have to be exactly accurate with these people.  I was off by like two months -- it’s a major front-page story.
But these binders on the stage could be replaced by just a few simple pages, and it would be just as good.  It was actually be much better.  Because these binders also make you do unnecessary things that cost billions and billions of dollars and they actually make it worse.
As another example, the 23 -- if you look at it, in Ohio, the Ohio River Bridge -- $2.3 billion.  The project amassed a 150,000-page administrative record -- 150,000 pages is a five-story-tall building.  Think of it.  If you put the paper together, it’s a five-story building.
How can a country prosper under this kind of nonsense?  And I know it.  I know it so well, being in the private sector.  But you know, in the private sector you move, and you wheel, and you deal, and you hope, and you pray.  And maybe it goes a little faster, but it’s a horrible thing in the private sector also.  And we’re talking about reducing that for the private sector likewise.
Why should we continue to accept what is so clearly unacceptable?  Oftentimes, the consultants -- that are making a fortune because you can’t doing anything without hiring them, paying them a tremendous amount of money, having them write up this nonsense -- you can’t get approvals.  And they’re in, in the case of New York, Albany -- they go to Albany, the state capital or, here, they go to Washington for federal.  And they want to make it really tough because that way, you have to hire them.  It's a terrible thing.  It's a group of people -- probably nobody has ever heard anybody talk about it because -- I know it because I'm a business guy, I understand that.  They work really hard to make it difficult.  And some are believers, but most aren't.  Most want to make a lot of money.  So they make a very, very simple roadway or whatever you want to be building a very complicated subject, and they make it very much more expensive and they make it worse.  It's not as good as it would have been.
I was not elected to continue a failed system.  I was elected to change it.  All of us in government service were elected to solve the problems that have plagued our nation.  We are here to think big, to act boldly, and to rise above the petty partisan squabbling of Washington D.C.  We are here to take action.  It’s time to start building in our country, with American workers and with American iron, and aluminum and steel. It’s time to put up soaring new infrastructure that inspires pride in our people and our towns.
When I approved the Keystone Pipeline I said, where was the pipe made?  Unfortunately, they had purchased a lot of it, but I put a little clause at the bottom -- you want to build a pipeline in this country, buy American steel and let it be fabricated here. Very simple little clause written in hand, but it does the trick.
It is time, at last, to put America First.  Americans deserve the best infrastructure anywhere in the world.  They deserve roads and bridges that are safe to travel, and pipes that deliver clean water into their homes.  Not like what happened in Flint, Michigan.  They deserve lanes of commerce that get people and products where they need to go on time.  Most of all, Americans deserve a system of infrastructure that is looked upon not with pity -- the world, in many cases, is so far advanced that they look at our infrastructure as being sad.  We want them to look at us with envy -- a system worthy of our magnificent country.
No longer can we allow these rules and regulations to tie down our economy, chain up our prosperity, and sap our great American spirit.  That is why we will lift these restrictions and unleash the full potential of the United States of America.
To all our state and local leaders, I appreciate you being here today.  Thank you.  Thank you.  Thank you, Bill.  I want you to know that help is finally -- after many, many decades -- on its way.  We are giving control back to the cities and the states.  You know best how to plan your communities, analyze your projects, and protect your local environment.
We will get rid of the redundancy and duplication that wastes your time and your money.  Our goal is to give you one point of contact to deliver one decision -- yes or no -- for the entire federal government, and to deliver that decision quickly, whether it's a road, whether it's a highway, a bridge, a dam.
To do this, we are setting up a new council to help project managers navigate the bureaucratic maze.  This council will also improve transparency by creating a new online dashboard allowing everyone to easily track major projects through every stage of the approval process.  This council will make sure that every federal agency that is consistently delaying projects by missing deadlines will face tough, new penalties.  I know it won't happen with these two.  We don't have to worry about them.  We will hold the bureaucracy accountable.
We are also creating a new office in the Council of Environmental Quality to root out inefficiency, clarify lines of authority, and streamline federal and state and local procedures so that communities can modernize their aging infrastructure without fear of outdated federal rules getting in their way.
This massive permit reform -- and that's what it is; it's a permit reform -- doesn’t sound glamorous.  They won't write stories about it.  They won't even talk about it.  But it's so important.  But it's only the first step in renewing America’s roads, rails, runways and rivers.
As I discussed in Ohio recently, my new vision for American infrastructure will generate $1 trillion in infrastructure investment -- which we desperately need.  We've spent, as of a few months ago, $6 trillion in the Middle East.  Think of it -- $6 trillion in the Middle East.  And it's worse than it was 15 years ago by a factor of 10.  And yet, if you want to build a little road in one of your communities in Pennsylvania or Ohio, or in Iowa, or in North Carolina, or in Florida, you can't get the money.
State and local leaders will have more power to decide which projects get built, when they start and how they are funded.  And investors will have a much more predictable environment that encourages them to invest billions of dollars in capital that is currently stuck on the sidelines.
Together, we will build projects to inspire our youth, employ our workers, and create true prosperity for our people.  We will pour new concrete, lay new brick, and watch new sparks light our factories as we forge metal from the furnaces of our Rust Belt and our beloved heartland -- which has been forgotten. It's not forgotten anymore.
We will put new American steel into the spine of our country.  American workers will construct gleaming new lanes of commerce across our landscape.  They will build these monuments from coast to coast, and from city to city.  And with these new roads, bridges, airports and seaports, we will embark on a wonderful new journey into a bright and glorious future.  We will build again.  We will grow again.  We will thrive again.  And we will Make America Great Again.
Thank you.  God bless you.  I appreciate it.  Thank you very much. Thank you.
12:05 P.M.
EDT