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There may be a language barrier evident in the wording, but the supremacism and sense of entitlement come through loud and clear. The documentary’s makers have already made a major effort not to offend, avoiding any visual depiction of Muhammad, but they are assured of offending someone nonetheless. In particular,…
Banning: you’re doing it wrong, along with a few other things. One great irony here is that one of the cases depends on the notion that two prospective deportees would be in danger under Sharia in Somalia… even as Britain has imported Sharia and it becomes increasingly entrenched in the…
The Camelia Shehata case should be dead and buried now, but will remain a pretext for jihadist violence. Conspiracy theories, which don’t have to make sense or be based in fact, will keep the grievance alive no matter what evidence or lack of evidence refutes them. Nonetheless, the closure of…
Echoes of the discourse here in the U.S.: treating people calling attention to the jihadists and their enablers as a bigger problem than the jihadists themselves. “Pakistan says stop “blame game” at U.S., Afghan talks,” Hamid Shalizi and Michael Holden for the Associated Press, June 28: KABUL (Reuters) – Pakistan…
Hardcore Leftist dhimmi pseudo-journalist David Weigel here casts the Islamic supremacist Ground Zero Mosque Imam Rauf as a victim, lamenting that Rauf “got a brutal reminder of what happens when idealism meets religion and politics” and “went through the ringer” over the Ground Zero Mosque initiative. Meanwhile, the pitiable victim…
“The biggest myth is the centrality of the Palestinian-Israeli issue to the region” He might rue the day he longed for such a renaissance. But Ambassador LeBaron has no doubt imbibed many prevailing historical myths — tolerant Muslim Spain; tolerant Ottoman Empire; 1001 Muslim inventions; the conflict between Israel…
It is time for a Freedom From Jihad Flotilla. Useful Idiots Update: “IDF in Arabic Video: This is a Flotilla of Hate,” by Gil Ronen for Israel National News, June 28: Major Avichay Adraee, IDF Spokesman in Arabic, issued a video message Monday stating Israel’s resolve to block any flotillas…
In FrontPage for Wednesday, I discuss the latest jihad/martyrdom suicide bombing in Afghanistan, and its larger implications: Details are still unclear, but it appears that as many as six jihad/martyrdom suicide bombers descended upon the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul Tuesday night. As many as ten people have been murdered, and…
Seeking the promise of paradise to those who “slay and are slain” for Allah (Qur’an 9:111). This sort of thing will become more common as the Americans leave, of course, but there really wasn’t anything that the Americans could ultimately have done to prevent it anyway. The idea of a…
Actually, we’ve already been told this again and again and again, but actions speak louder than words. “Muslim world must tell West Islam has nothing to do with terrorism: Kazakh President,” from the Ahlul Bayt News Agency, June 28: (Ahlul Bayt News Agency) – The Muslim world must establish direct…
STRASBOURG, FRANCE, June 28: In a capitulation to Islamic supremacists and violent radical Leftists, French and European Union authorities have canceled a free speech rally planned by a coalition of American and European human rights organizations in Strasbourg, the seat of the European Parliament. The human rights organizations Stop…
“Good women are obedient….As for those from whom you fear disobedience, admonish them and send them to beds apart and beat them.” — Qur’an 4:34 “And if ye fear that ye will not deal fairly by the orphans, marry of the women, who seem good to you, two or three…
The Flaws of Edward Said’s Orientalism by Fjordman Note: This essay overlaps to some extent with my previous one, Edward Said and the Myth of Eurocentrism. Orientalism by Edward W. Said (1935-2003), a Palestinian-American academic and political activist, was first published in 1978. It quickly became a very popular work…
Muslims here in Malaysia and elsewhere love to prattle on about how warlike the ‘infidels’ are, especially America or anyone that can be portrayed as one of America’s friends. When former British Prime Minister Tony Blair visited Malaysia in 2010, a op-ed in a Malaysian government-controlled newspaper, The Star, excoriated…
Who came out against reform last year? The “moderate,” “largely secular” Muslim Brotherhood. “‘Egyptian curricula states Jews, Christians are infidels’,” by Oren Kessler for the Jerusalem Post, June 28: Egypt’s school curriculum, laden with anti-Semitic and anti-Christian sentiment, must undergo drastic reform to comply with international standards, according to a…
On June 24, Yossi Alpher, Colette Avital, Shlomo Gazit, and Mark Heller, published an opinion article in the pages of the New York Times entitled “Buying Into Palestinian Statehood.” The instant I saw the title I said to myself that in fact the correct title for this outrageous and uncomprehending opinion article is “Buying Into Israeli Suicide.” The uncomprehending and counter intuitive character of the thinking that went into this article are evident from the first paragraph. Here is the article’s first sentence:
Instead of wasting time and energy trying to revive a moribund Israeli-Palestinian peace process, the United States and European Union should take another look at the Palestinian initiative to seek U.N. recognition in September.
Why is the Israeli-Palestinian peace process moribund? Not on account of anything Israel has done or didn’t do for the last two years. It is moribund because Abu Mazen, the president of the Palestinian Authority killed it in 2009.
Toward the end of 2009 the Palestinian Authority announced:
“A plan to seek unilateral statehood through a UN Security Council vote. Palestinian leaders say the US and Israel leave them with no other option”.
The government of Israel rejected this Palestinian gambit.
“Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a new Palestinian plan to seek unilateral statehood through a UN Security Council vote.”
It seems no one ever asked the Palestinians what they meant by “Israel and the US leaving them with no other option…” But this is obviously just a meaningless pretext, typical of Palestinian diplomatic deceit.
Closing the door on bilateral negotiations and launching an aggressive worldwide diplomatic initiative for Palestinian unilateral statehood recognition in the UN was Abu Mazen’s strategic choice two years ago, and the Palestinian effort is poised to bear fruit in September.
But while Alpher, Avital, Gazit and Heller are sanguine about this dramatic Palestinian move, and even see great merit in it, the fact is the Palestinian UN statehood scheme is the most hostile thing the Palestinians can do. It isn’t just an absolute betrayal of the Oslo Agreement’s provisions for bilateral relations between the Palestinians and Israel. The Palestinian declaration of statehood in the UN is essentially a declaration of war against Israel. It flies in the face of logic and rationality that any Israeli could see the Palestinian unilateral move for statehood in the UN as anything else whatsoever. Yoni Meltzer:
“If the “civilized world” helps bring the Palestinian plan to fruition then a very likely result of such actions will be the outbreak of war. Thus, in a world turned upside down it will be the UN, a body formed to help foster peace throughout the world, which will be directly responsible for bringing the next great Arab-Israeli war to the Middle East.”
Abu Mazen deliberately and maliciously closed the door on bilateral negotiations because he decided that the best bet for the Palestinians was statehood recognition in the UN. Regardless of what Israel thinks or what Israel needs in order to resolve the Palestinian Israeli conflict. But this hubris and this betrayal will only backfire on the arrogant and uncomprehending Palestinians.
The day after the Palestinians unilaterally declare statehood in the UN it will be Israel that acts.
Foreign Minister Lieberman recently stated that Israel will void the Oslo Accords, for example. This will have the effect of gelding the brazen Palestinian Authority cold. The tactic of withholding PA tax funds has also come up.
This would have a devastating effect on its ability to function on any plane.
A proposal has also been raised in the Knesset to annex the lands in Judea and Samaria on which Jewish settlements are located. This would effectively eviscerate the Palestinian state.
The authors of Buying Into Palestinian Statehood would be well advised to climb on the bandwagon of logic, rationality and truth (not to mention Israeli patriotism) and tell PA President Mahmoud Abbas to abort the whole malicious UN statehood initiative immediately. Bilateral negotiations are the only path to a permanent settlement.
Turkey continues its regression to full re-Islamization — a process already begun within a decade of Ataturk’s death in 1938 — and about to be fully realized under the fundamentalist Erdogan regime.
Shredding the Turkish Constitution, which institutionalized Turkey’s harshly imposed secularism by assigning the military as “protectors of the secular order,” there are now more generals that have been imprisoned for purported “coup attempts” against Erdogan’s fundamentalist rule than are in active service for the military.
The total of 34 officers being held at the military prison in Hasdal, explained the daily, was reached following the arrest of rear admiral Mucahit Sislioglu…
Heartbreaking new video has been smuggled out of North Korea, where mass starvation has reappeared, even affecting the army. A magazine called Rimjin Gang (using the name ASIAPRESS in English), headed by Jiro Ishimura, is devoted to smuggling images and video out of North Korea documenting the horrors of life under the Kim dynasty.
Two bits of video can be seen today. One was broadcast by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The ABC was licensed to show the video only for 24 hours, so has taken it down, but other sites still carry it, and it can be seen here. The ABC describes it:
Shot over several months by an undercover North Korean journalist, the harrowing footage shows images of filthy, homeless and orphaned children begging for food and soldiers demanding bribes.
The footage also shows North Koreans labouring on a private railway track for the dictator’s son and heir near the capital Pyongyang.
Strolling up to the site supervisor, the man with the hidden camera asks what is going on.
“This rail line is a present from Kim Jong-il to comrade Kim Jong-un,” he is told.
The well-fed Kim Jong-un could soon be ruling over a nation of starving, impoverished serfs.
The video shows young children caked in filth begging in markets, pleading for scraps from compatriots who have nothing to give.
“I am eight,” says one boy. “My father died and my mother left me. I sleep outdoors.”
Many of the children are orphans; their parents victims of starvation or the gulag.
But markets do exist – private markets that stock bags of rice, pork, and corn. The state no longer has any rations to hand out.
But the state wants its share of this embryonic capitalism.
In the footage, a party official is demanding a stallholder make a donation of rice to the army.
“My business is not good,” complains the stallholder.
“Shut up,” replies the official. “Don’t offer excuses.”
It is clear that the all-powerful army – once quarantined from food shortages and famine – is starting to go hungry.
“Everybody is weak,” says one young North Korean soldier. “Within my troop of 100 comrades, half of them are malnourished,” he said.
Jiro Ishimaru is the man who trained the undercover reporter to use the hidden camera.
“This footage is important because it shows that Kim Jong-il’s regime is growing weak,” he said.
“It used to put the military first, but now it can’t even supply food to its soldiers. Rice is being sold in markets but they are starving. This is the most significant thing in this video.”
Kim Jong-il’s grip on power depends on the military and if some of its soldiers have growling, empty bellies, it is bad news for the dictator and his hopes for a smooth transition to his son.
Kim Jong-il is reportedly dying, and anxious to hand over power to his third son, Kim Jong-un, either 27 or 28 years old. All power in North Korea depends on the military, and until recently, the military was protected from the depredations of starvation. A few years ago, some economic liberalization took place, leading to private plots, markets, and a very limited degree of prosperity. However, tensions quickly emerged, as private wealth grew, threatening state power. As a result, a disastrous currency revaluation happened, with civilians required to exchange old money for newly-denominated bills, and a strict limit on the amount that could be exchanged, in effect confiscating any significant build-up of private wealth, as the old currency became worthless.
As one might expect, production collapsed. The result is that today the economic chaos has reached the point where even the army is affected. The saddest victims, of course, are the children. Both the ABC video, and this separate video, obtained by the UK Telegraph, show very disturbing images of children and young adults in pitiful filthy states, barely alive, and evidently orphaned, grubbing in the dirt for something, anything on which to survive.
North Korea is a nightmare that has lasted over 60 years. Mean while, to their south, the capitalist Republic of Korea flourishes, a glittering high tech powerhouse, whose people are affluent beyond the dreams of their ancestors and cousins to the north. My son just moved to Daejon, South Korea, the so-called Silicon Valley of Korea. Below, a few pictures showing a Costco store and the McMansions which are now proliferating.
My favorite: Costco shoppers lining up for a free sample of New York strip steak (as, tragically, people starve across the border):
McMansions in Daejon, built by affluent hi tech entrpreneurs and professionals:
Any questions about the superiority of capitalism over communism?
The Quartet Still Pushing Obama’s ‘Peace’ Plan – June 28, 2011
In a last-minute effort to stop the Palestinians from seeking unilateral recognition at the United Nations in September, the Mideast Quartet is planning to present a new international peace plan at a summit in Washington on July 11. The Quartet’s envoys – representing the United States, the European Union, the United Nations, and Russia – will be mapping out a plan based on U.S. President Barack Obama’s Mideast speech on May 19. Haaretz
Iran Has Underground Missile Silos – June 27, 2011
Iran unveiled underground ballistic missile silos for the first time on Monday in a warning to the world of its ability to protect its missiles and secretly store them in hidden locations throughout the country. State TV broadcast footage of several military officers touring an underground silo that was holding a Shahab 3 ballistic missile. The missile has a range of 2,000 kilometers, putting Israel within its reach. The Jerusalem Post
Indiana Planned Parenthood Gets Medicaid For Health Services – June 27, 2011
Planned Parenthood clinics in Indiana started seeing Medicaid patients again Saturday, the day after a federal judge ruled the state couldn’t cut off the organization’s public funding for general health services even though it also provides abortions. Planned Parenthood of Indiana has been without Medicaid funding since May 10, when Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels signed the law that cut off about $1.4 million and made Indiana the first state to deny the organization Medicaid funds for services such as breast exams and Pap tests. AP
Same-Sex Marriage Legalized In New York – June 25, 2011
New York, the nation’s third most populous state, will join Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and the Washington capital district in allowing same-sex couples to wed. The passage of New York’s legislation was made possible by two Republican senators who had been undecided.The sticking point over the past few days: Republican demands for stronger legal protections for religious groups that fear they will be hit with discrimination lawsuits if they refuse to allow their facilities to be used for gay weddings. Fox News
Evangelical Leaders See Secularism As Greater Threat Than Islam – June 22, 2011
Evangelical leaders around the world say they do not see Muslims as as much of a threat to their faith as secularism and popular culture. The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life conducted the survey during what it called a “geographically representative” meeting of global evangelical leaders last year in South Africa. While a century ago the world’s 80 million evangelicals lived mostly in Europe and America, that population has since tripled and today most live in Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and Asia. AP
“In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.” – Genesis 7:11-12
In Genesis 6-8, the Bible describes a flood of global proportions. The fountains of the great deep exploded out of the ground. Something happened to that great firmament that God created to divide the waters above from the waters below, and water came crashing down on the earth after hundreds of years of dew watering the earth without the help of rain. During the Flood, it rained for 40 days and 40 nights, and the waters rose high enough to cover the tops of the mountains (however tall they were at that time). It was a devastating, catastrophic event that destroyed all the land-dwelling creatures on the planet, except for those protected on the ark that Noah built.
The Bible is not alone. Around the world, legends can be found of a global flood. Many of the details are different, but the essential elements tend to be there; a massive flood wiped out everybody but a particular righteous man. Often boats and animals are involved. The use of animals and birds to check the receding of the waters, and the violence of the flood are common themes.
Gilgamesh: The most famous flood story outside of the Bible is found in the Epic of Gilgamesh, discovered in the ruins of Asurbanipal’s library in Nineveh. Gilgamesh may have actually been a real person; he is listed in the Sumerian King List in the first dynasty of Uruk (and apparently reigned for 126 years).
In Tablet 11, after a variety of adventures, Gilgamesh meets a man named Utnapishtim who survived the Great Flood. Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh his story, which parallels the Biblical account in many ways. There are differences, of course. In Gilgamesh, multiple gods are involved, the flood lasted just a week, and the boat landed on Mount Nisir rather than in the mountains of Ararat. However, there are a significant number of details that are the same between the two accounts. In the Gilgamesh epic, Utnapishtim describes how he was ordered to build a large boat, which he coated with pitch and into which he brought “the seed of life of everything.” The flood wiped out everybody but righteous Utnapishtim and his family, and while they waited for the waters to drain away, he sent out a dove, a swallow, and then a raven to check for land. Later, Utnapishtim made a sacrifice.
The Biami: Missionaries made their way to the Biami people of Papua New Guinea in the late 20th century and discovered that this cannibalistic people had Creation and Flood myths already in their culture. While their Creation myth was fairly vague, their Flood myth had many similarities to the Biblical account:
The Biami tell about a great flood that came and killed everybody on the earth except for their ancestors. There is no boat in the story, but the Biami ancestors climbed into a Gobia Tree, and they took with them all their animals and the things they needed for planting crops. Once the waters receded, they came down and repopulated the land. Until the missionaries came, the Biami did not know that other people existed on the earth aside from themselves and the tribes around them.
Andaman Islands:
After the British arrived on the Andaman Islands, a place isolated throughout much of known history, they found people who spoke strains of very old Asian languages. In the local mythology, a flood came upon the earth as a result of the wickedness of humanity. According to the myth, the Creator Puluga found that humankind grew disobedient, and he sent a flood that covered the whole land. Only two men and two women in a canoe were saved from the flood. When the waters sank, they landed. Then Puluga recreated the birds and animals, and created a fire in the damp world.
North America: The Chippewa have a story in which a hero, Nanabozho, followed the Great Serpent to the deep lake where it had dragged and killed Nanabozho’s cousin. There the Great Serpent lived with all his evil spirits. In order to kill the Serpent, Nanabozho told the sun to shine on the lake and make it boil so that the Serpent would come out. After the Serpent emerged, Nanabozho shot him and fatally wounded him. Before he died, however, the Serpent caused the waters of the lake to boil out and flood the land.
“Madly the flood rolled over the land, over the tracks of Nanabozho, carrying with it rocks and trees.”
Nanabozho and other men, women and animals climbed to the tallest mountain, where Nanabozho built a raft from timber. The people and animals on the raft watched even the tallest mountains disappear. Then they floated there until slowly the mountains and hills began to appear again as the waters receded.
The Ottawa tell of the prophet Kwi-wi-sens Nenaw-bo-zhoo, whose name means, “the greatest clown-boy in the world.” The prophet sought revenge on the sea-god for killing his beautiful wolf-dog. He waited until the god came on land, and then shot him through the heart. In revenge, water monsters sent mountains of water after him “which swept down the forests like grass before the whirlwind.” According to the account:
He continued to flee before the raging flood, but could find no dry land. In sore despair he then called upon the God of Heaven to save him, when there appeared before him a great canoe, in which were pairs of all kinds of land-beasts and birds, being rowed by a most beautiful maiden, who let down a rope and drew him up into the boat. The flood raged on; but, though mountains of water were continually being hurled after the prophet, he was safe.
After a time, the prophet sent a beaver to swim down and check and see how deep the waters were. The beaver nearly drowned. Then he sent a muskrat, and it nearly drowned, but it brought back a handful of dirt. The prophet tied that ball of earth to the raven and sent it to fly over the waters to make them recede. When the world dried, the prophet and the beautiful woman repopulated the earth.
One Choctaw version of the Flood story tells about Oklatabashih (People’s mourner), who lived in the distant past. The Great Spirit grieved because the people of earth had become so wicked. He told Oklatabashih to build a large boat and take on it his family and one male and one female animal of all the animals on earth. Oklatabashih collected all the animals, except for some particularly quick birds, and then went on the boat. It rained for a long time and thousands of animals and people died, but there were still groups found here and there. Then a raging wall of waters crashed down on those that were left and killed everybody except for Oklatabashih and those in the boat. The boat floated safely for many moons. Oklatabashih sent out a dove, which returned with grass in its beak. Finally, the waters receded and those on the boat went out to repopulate the earth.
Brazil:
The Indians of Brazil had various versions of a Flood legend when they were discovered by Europeans. In the story, only two brothers and their wives survived a global flood that destroyed everybody else on earth. In some accounts the brothers survive by climbing the tallest tree on the top of the tallest mountain. In others, they rode on a canoe.
The Frenchman André Thevet related a story by the Indians about Cape Frio in the 16th Century. The Indians told about a great medicine-man named Sommay who had two sons called Tamendonare and Ariconte. Tamendonare was the righteous brother who took care of his wife and children and worked the ground. Ariconte just wanted to subdue the people around him, including his brother. One day, during an argument over Ariconte’s violence and pride, the village they lived in was transported to the sky. The brothers remained on the earth. Then Tamendonare stamped the earth and a great fountain of water sprang out and shot higher than the hills. The water continued to spout until it covered the whole earth. The two brothers climbed the trees on the tallest mountains and pulled their wives up with them, and were therefore the only ones to survive the great flood.
The Flood Memory:
After the Tower of Babel incident, humanity spread across the face of the earth and took the memory of their ancestor Noah’s great escape with them. There are certainly stories about local floods among tribes – floods that took place long after The Deluge. However, the theme of a massive flood that destroyed all living things can be found among tribes and peoples all over the world.
The Bible’s version of the story, however, goes into the greatest detail. It describes the dimensions of the ark, names the survivors’ descendants for many generations, and gives a constant notation of the events’ dates. These are facts that cannot be easily dismissed.
“And the waters returned from off the earth continually: and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated. And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat. And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month: in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen.” – Genesis 8:3-5
The battle continues in Syria, where protestors and security forces have clashed for three months over the rule of President Bashar al-Assad. Human rights groups say that more than 1000 people have been killed as the government cracks down on the protests. Because international media have been banned from the country, all information about the goings on come from interviews with refugees or in the form of amateur videos.
Video footage from the town of Hama on Friday showed what looked like tens of thousands of people shouting against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Syrian officers were captured on film shooting at protesters, leaving as many as 20 dead.
Gunfire and tear gas were the response to protests in the Damascus suburbs of Barze and Midan. Witnesses said that officers were making “Mass arrests … taking whoever is standing in the street.” Another witness claimed that security forces fired into a crowd in south Damascus, injuring unknown numbers of people
On June 20, Assad, a clean cut 45-year-old (with a remarkably long neck), spoke to the people of Syria and offered reforms, inviting the opposition to a “national dialogue” including the possibility of allowing competition with his ruling Baath Party. Commentators in the area were not impressed with the too-little-too-late approach, especially since Assad had recently called the protestors “saboteurs” and “germs.”
Even those previously friendly to Assad criticized him. “Whoever looks into the reactions to President Bashar al-Assad’s last speech would find it hard to find even one positive statement in its favor since almost everyone found it negative on all levels,” wrote columnist Mohamed Krichen in Al-Quds al-Arabi, a Palestinian-owned daily published in London. Krichen declared that Assad had “wasted another opportunity.” He wrote, “It is not shameful for a leader worthy of that title to show a little modesty, retreat or recognize the mistakes he committed while saying he is willing to assume his responsibilities in full.”
Still, there appear to be some steps toward reconciliation. A group of 200 Syrian opposition figures gathered at the Semiramis Hotel in Damascus Monday in order to seek the “peaceful transition to a democratic, civil and pluralistic state.” Many activists refused to show up because of the ongoing harsh crackdown. Those that did attend called for the attacks on protestors to end, political prisoners to be released, and the army to pull back from the cities.
The Syrian government sent out an Assad advisor to smile and trouble shoot on Tuesday. Bouthaina Shaaban presented the government’s crisis as one against lawless groups of “armed gangs.” She said that the president recognized that there were legitimate grievances and declared that the government was not targeting peaceful protestors but extremists.
“It is our ultimate desire, as a government, of course, to put an end to the violence,” she said. “But when you have extremists everywhere, going anywhere, killing people, obstructing roads. What do you do? The opposition should come and help, not only criticize.”
Shaaban claimed that over 500 officers had been killed, “-sometimes with their families their children. Who is killing [them]? I want an answer from the opposition, they have no answer.”
The international community is not ready to dive into Syria the way it did Libya. NATO’s intervention in Libya did not result in the exit of Muammar Gaddafi, and nobody wants to get into the sticky mess in Syria.
Russia, which has long sold weapons to Syria, has called on Syria to implement “real” reforms. Russian envoy Mikhail Margelov met with a group of Syrian opposition activists in Moscow, and he said that Russia did not want Syria to descend into a civil war like the one that plagued Libya.
Meanwhile, the European Union added more sanctions to the list against both Syria and Iran, which has been accused of aiding in the attacks against protestors.
Former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty gave a passionate speech at the Council on Foreign Relations on Tuesday morning, criticizing the Obama Administration’s tolerant attitude toward the Syrian government:
“The Obama ‘engagement’ policy in Syria led the Administration to call Bashar al Assad a ‘reformer.’ Even as Assad’s regime was shooting hundreds of protesters dead in the street, President Obama announced his plan to give Assad ‘an alternative vision of himself.’ Does anyone outside a therapist’s office have any idea what that means?”
The US Supreme Court shot down a California law on Monday that would have banned the sale of exceptionally violent or morally offensive video games to minors. In a case that pitted common decency against freedom of speech, the Supreme Court decided that video games are an art form, and as such are guaranteed the same First Amendment protections as other media. According to Justice Antonin Scalia, parents, and not government, should be deciding what video games children are able to purchase.
Free Speech Includes Offensive Speech: In the case of Brown vs. Entertainment Merchants Assn , the Supreme Court voted 7-2 against a California law that prohibited the sale or rental of “violent video games” to minors, requiring the games to be labeled “18.” The law included games “in which the range of options available to a player includes killing, maiming, dismembering, or sexually assaulting an image of a human being, if those acts are depicted” in a manner that a “reasonable person, considering the game as a whole, would find appeals to a deviant or morbid interest of minors.” Breaking the law would have resulted in a civil fine of up to $1,000.
The Supreme Court struck down the law, ruling that youngsters’ freedom to engage in virtual slaughter and mayhem was not up to the state, it was up to mom and dad.
The video game industry already has in place a self-imposed rating system to notify buyers about potentially offensive content in video games. Stores like GameStop have historically maintained a policy of not selling games rated “Mature” to customers under 17.
The justices broke their usual conservative and liberal ranks in voting on this case. Justice Antonin Scalia, one of the Court’s most conservative members, gave the majority opinion, while his usual ally Justice Clarence Thomas dissented. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito voted in the majority, but wrote a separate opinion arguing that there might be cases in which the a more narrowly defined law could be constitutional.
One problem with the law as written, said Scalia, is that it picked on the video game industry while excluding other media from the same standards. Children are exposed to violence in literature, in Saturday morning cartoons, in graphic novels, without censorship by the government. Yet, California wanted to focus only on video game violence, and it couldn’t do that.
Since Ginsberg v. New York (1968), children have been prohibited from buying materials that would be considered obscene from the viewpoint of a child, because obscenity is not a protected speech under the Constitution. However, there have been no laws that protect children from buying materials that contain violence; such laws could cover everything from Bugs Bunny to Spiderman to the gruesome Grimm’s Fairy Tales.
“High-school reading lists are full of similar fare. Homer’s Odysseus blinds Polyphemus the Cyclops by grinding out his eye with a heated stake,” Scalia pointed out. “In the Inferno, Dante and Virgil watch corrupt politicians struggle to stay submerged beneath a lake of boiling pitch, lest they be skewered by devils above the surface… And Golding’s Lord of the Flies recounts how a schoolboy called Piggy is savagely murdered by other children while marooned on an island.”
Scalia noted that the fact that the video games are interactive is not compelling enough to place them in a separate category, since there are choose-your-own-adventure books that require children to make decisions about the direction the character goes. The major point is not that children should be free to play violent games, but that the government is not authorized to censor ideas, including the ideas found in video games.
Scalia quoted Erznoznik v. Jacksonville (1975) saying, “Speech that is neither obscene as to youths nor subject to some other legitimate proscription cannot be suppressed solely to protect the young from ideas or images that a legislative body thinks unsuitable for them.”
Parental Responsibility: The Court’s answer to the problem at hand was for parents to take charge of which games their children played.
“Ninety-six percent of ‘M’ rated game owned by a minor was purchased for them by an adult. If we really want to keep violent games out of the hands of children, we need to stop buying them for them,” University of Utah director of game design, Roger Altizer, told Fox13.
CNN’s interview of 15-year-old Matt Myers’ parents shows the real issue; Tim and Amy Myers have an anemic attitude toward framing what games their son does and does not play.
“It’s a challenge to keep the teenager off the game without you having to hover over them constantly,” said Matt’s father, Tim Myers.
Amy Myers doesn’t really want her son spending so much time at the console. “I’d prefer if Matthew wasn’t playing the games, not only because I think they’re a little violent – very violent – but because I’d rather he’d do other things with his time.”
Yet, Matt sits there on screen, battling with his thumbs. The impression CNN gives is that parents are helpless to take charge of their own 15-year-olds. CNN says, “Parents like Tim and Amy Meyers are under constant pressure to buy the newest, hottest games.”
Why should today be different? Parents are always under pressure to buy their kids this or that, and it is the practice of healthy parents to often say, “No.”
What Parents Can Do: 1. Pay attention to the games the kids are playing. In our busy world, parents are often not involved in what movies and games get onto the screen and into their kids’ heads. Parents should take the time to check out the ratings of games before letting the youngsters play them (and put limitations on time at the game console, regardless of content). If parents want to sit and play games with their kids, they can get a real feel for the virtual worlds their children are entering while doing something with them that the kids like to do.
2. Make use of parental control systems. The major game consoles – Microsoft’s Xbox 360, Sony’s PlayStation 3 and Nintendo’s Wii – give parents the power to go in and set up in advance which aspects of games their children will be able to access. This helps keep the more offensive parts of games locked out. Brier Dudley at The Seattle Times gives basic instructions on how to take advantage of this parental power. [See the link below.]
3. Teach children to set boundaries while they’re still young. Building a relationship of trust and instilling wisdom into children can’t start when the kids are 14 or 15-years-old, of course. Parents need to start young in helping their children make good decisions about what they let into their heads. That way, parents won’t have to “hover” and kids are less likely to bug their parents to buy these games in the first place.
Society may embrace all manner of violence and evil, but we can still stand at the door guarding what we allow into our homes. First and foremost, if we don’t want our kids playing video games with disgusting content, we have to stop buying the games for them.
To the Chief Musician; [set to the tune of] “Do Not Destroy.” A Psalm of Asaph. A song.
1WE GIVE praise and thanks to You, O God, we praise and give thanks; Your wondrous works declare that Your [a]Name is near and they who invoke Your Name rehearse Your wonders.
2When the proper time has come [for executing My judgments], I will judge uprightly [says the Lord].
3When the earth totters, and all the inhabitants of it, it is I Who will poise and keep steady its pillars. Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!
4I said to the arrogant and boastful, Deal not arrogantly [do not boast]; and to the wicked, Lift not up the horn [of personal aggrandizement].
5Lift not up your [aggressive] horn on high, speak not with a stiff neck and insolent arrogance.
6For not from the east nor from the west nor from the south come promotion and lifting up.
7But God is the Judge! He puts down one and lifts up another.
8For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup [of His wrath], and the wine foams and is red, well mixed; and He pours out from it, and all the wicked of the earth must drain it and drink its dregs.
9But I will declare and rejoice forever; I will sing praises to the God of Jacob.
10All the horns of the ungodly also will I cut off [says the Lord], but the horns of the [uncompromisingly] righteous shall be exalted.
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