Caruba Still Falsely Claiming Global Warming Doesn't Exist Topic: CNSNews.com
Alan Caruba haslonglied that there's no such thing as global warming and that the earth is cooling, and he does so again in his Sept. 13 CNSNews.com column. In the midst of a rant about the impending death of incandescent light bulbs, he writes:
Here are some truths to keep in mind: (1) Carbon dioxide (CO2) along with other “greenhouse gas emissions” does not cause global warming. (2) There is no global warming. (3) The Earth has gone through known warming and cooling cycles for millions of years. (4) The Earth is in a cooling cycle.
Um, no. Even longtime climate "skeptic"-friendly critic Bjorn Lomborg -- whom Caruba defended after Obama science adviser John Holdren once criticized him -- has called for the funding of efforts to battle climate change
Tea Party Founder Swings At Gays-in-the-Military Ruling, Misses Topic: WorldNetDaily
Tea Party Nation founder Judson Phillips writes in a Sept. 13 WorldNetDaily column about a federal district judge overturning the military's "don't ask, don't tell" law against gays in the military:
When someone files a suit to declare a law unconstitutional, the attorney general and the Department of Justice are obligated under law to defend it. While they are duty-bound to defend the law, they do not have to defend it well. The Obama regime knows this.
As the case went to trial, DOJ called no witnesses. The only evidence it offered was the legislative record from Congress.
When judges try a case, their rulings are limited to the evidence that is in front of them. In this case, DOJ offered no real evidence to support DADT. Despite the fact that the judge was a Clinton appointee, she really had no choice in her ruling.
Imagine a baseball game where a team puts its batters up to the plate. The players stand there, but they absolutely refuse to swing at the ball.
That is exactly what the Obama Justice Department did. DOJ's actions were so unusual, the judge even commented on it in her ruling.
Phillips is misleading about the DOJ's efforts in the case. As Media Matters has noted, the case was filed in 2004, and the Obama DOJ has handled for less than two years, so it appears that the legal strategy in the case may have been decided under the Bush administration. Further, the Obama DOJ did much more that just "the legislative record from Congress," as Phillips claims; it filed numerous motions and hundreds of pages of legal briefs, while claiming that the court should consider only "the statute itself and the bare legislative history."
Phillips baselessly asserts that the legal strategy in the case was part of the Obama administration having "concocted a plan to repeal DADT without going through Congress," even though the case was under the jurisdiction of the Bush DOJ for four years. Nevertheless, he adds that "this is yet another example of what liberal elites are capable of when they're granted unchecked power."
Joseph Farah declares in his Sept. 13 WorldNetDaily column that he is tired of his birther crusade being ignored by its target:
With this kind of arrogance after the patience the American people have demonstrated over this matter, I'd say it's time to conclude that he is ineligible for office. He's had plenty of time to provide the evidence to clear himself of this charge, this suspicion, this indictment in the form of overwhelming public opinion.
He has failed to answer the charge. He has failed to enter a plea. He has failed to show up for a hearing. Therefore, I no longer afford him the presumption of innocence.
It's time to recognize what we have serving in the White House today – a pretender, a usurper, an arrogant narcissist who believes it's beneath him to answer the questions of the public and to demonstrate his worthiness for office.
He's like the suspect who refuses to come to court for adjudication. Sooner or later, the judge throws him in jail, recognizing that the presumption of innocence only goes so far.
Many in Washington, who are complicit in Obama's eligibility charade, and the establishment news media, who failed to provide the appropriate journalistic diligence and curiosity to hold Obama accountable, are still wishing, hoping and praying this issue and the public interest in it just fades away.
That isn't going to happen.
And for those who agree with me, it's time to ratchet up the pressure.
Of course, Obama has proven his eligibility -- Farah has chosen to ignore it and spread lies instead. And his statement that "despite suggestions to the contrary, I never accused Obama of being born elsewhere" defies the facts -- we've repeatedly documented Farah and his website promoting exactly that.
By making this unilateral I-will-not-be-ignored declaration, Farah is starting to go all Glenn Close on us. If Obama finds a dead rabbit on his stove one day soon, it's time for him to really start worrying.
Newsmax Endorses Another Primary Candidate Topic: Newsmax
In a Sept. 12 editorial, Newsmax made an endorsement in the Republican primary for New York's 1st Congressional District -- Chris Cox.
The editorial touts Cox as "a solid conservative with a track record to prove it. It didn't mention that another candidate in the race, Randy Altschuler, is the designee of the state's Conservative Party (beating back a petition drive by Cox to force a write-in primary for the party line).
Newsmax's endorsement runs counter to that of other prominent conservatives. As CQ notes, Newt Gingrich has endorsed Altschuler, while Rush Limbaugh has touted a third candidate, George Demos. The three-way primary has become so contentious that it may harm the winner's chances of defeating Democrat Tim Bishop in the general election.
This is at least the third primary endorsement Newsmax has made in this election cycle. Most notably, it endorsed Bill McCollum -- and slanted its news coverage toward him -- over Rick Scott in the Republican primary for Florida governor (McCollum lost). Newsmax also provided an election-day endorsement of John McCain in his primary race, which McCain won easily.
Like the McCain endorsement, Newsmax's endorsement of Cox comes late in the cycle and arguably too late to have any real impact, as the election is today.
Drew Zahn's Sept. 12 WorldNetDaily article is ostensibly a review of the movie "Resident Evil: Afterlife," but much of it is a long, misleading digression into "social Darwinism":
Obviously, moviegoers that don't want to see wanton bloodshed, violence and gore, however, aren't going to want to see "Afterlife."
Furthermore, by digging just a little deeper, the film merits another word of caution: "Resident Evil," in the end, is aptly named, for beneath the video game violence and comic book storyline, the film pushes forward an evil that has quietly taken up residence in Western Civilization and rotted it from within, an evil idea sometimes called "social Darwinism."
Prior to the late 1800s, when the West abandoned the beginning of wisdom to embrace every form of foolishness (Psalms 111:10), its prevailing philosophy still embraced biblical values. Humans were considered made in the image of God, stamped therefore with an inherent value as the handiwork of a magnificent Creator. The highest value driving these Imago Deis was the expression of the essence of that Creator through relationship, the expression of love (1 John 4:8).
But when Charles Darwin's devotees eliminated the Creator from the equation, the eventual result was the elimination of the innate, God-given value of individuals.
Furthermore, the value of reflecting the Creator's love was replaced with a new set of universal laws, among them natural selection and "survival of the fittest." When applied to humanity in what was derided as "social Darwinism," individuals were replaced by valueless hordes striving to gain supremacy over others – the opposite of love – in a battle for limited resources. Only the strong nations, the strong companies, the strong people survive. The weak are left behind. And somehow, this was deemed not only the law of the universe, but in some cases, a better way to organize humanity.
Here we are now, several decades removed from the heyday of such thought, when social Darwinism fueled the abuses of the Industrial Revolution and spawned the concept of eugenics and Adolf Hitler's "superior race." After witnessing the brutality of the Nazis' "final solution," the emerging postmodern world began to rethink social Darwinism.
But that doesn't mean we're free of it.
Case in point, the underlying themes in "Resident Evil: Afterlife."
The zombie film presents humanity as reduced by plague to a faceless mob of undead animals groaning after a limited food supply. They have no value, except as blood-stained splatters for the remaining survivors of the plague.
As for those that escaped the plague, only a few have managed to climb out of this struggle for survival: an elite corporation, genetically enhanced warriors and a lucky band that has outsmarted the horde around them. Just as social Darwinism favored cutthroat businesses and the most "evolved" species, "Afterlife" gives us one, lone business running the world and duking it out with heroes of superior genes and wits.
Voila! Social Darwinism's ultimate end, a showdown on who is the fittest to survive.
[...]
Indeed, Western Civilization can't be allowed to go back to social Darwinism. We've seen its consequences, its "final solution."
But return to it we do, in part because the West's prevailing philosophy still denies the truths of God and demands that Darwin holds the keys to the universe. Until we repent and seek real wisdom, we'll likely return to social Darwinism again and again, even as a dog returns to its vomit (2 Peter 2:20-22).
Zahn, as his WND employer has done before, is falsely conflating Darwin's theory of evolution with so-called social Darwinism, a survival-of-the-fittest idea that predates Darwin. That's just a lazy attack on evolution -- and makes for a sucky movie review.
MRC Non-Disclosure Watch Topic: Media Research Center
A Sept. 12 NewsBusters post by Tim Graham highlighting the response of conservative moneybags David and Charles Koch to a New Yorker profile of the brothers and their prolifigate funding of conservative causes fails to mention (as we've noted) that Graham's employer, the Media Research Center, has accepted nearly $10,000 from the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation and the Koch Family-controlled Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation.
WND's Richardson: Let Jesus Burn the Quran! Topic: WorldNetDaily
Nevertheless, I also want to state that I am utterly opposed to the planned burning of Qurans.
Why?
The answer is because this job belongs to Jesus alone. While Muslims believe that Jesus will return as a Muslim to destroy Christianity, I believe that he will return as a Jew to destroy Islam.
But as much as I would like to rid the earth of this soul-destroying book myself, this job has not been given to me or any other Christian. This job belongs to Jesus. Only He is worthy. And as such, the central hope and expectation of every prophet and apostle throughout the Bible is to eagerly await the "Day of the Lord," when the Messiah will return to execute vengeance, deliver justice and rid the world of all evil.
When the Messiah returns, He will rid the world not only of the Quran but also the collections of Haddith (Islam's other demonic source of sacred authority), Hitler's "Mein Kampf" (an equally anti-Semitic and racist book which is presently a best-seller in the moderate Islamic nation of Turkey), or Barack Obama's favorite textbooks: Karl Marx's "The Communist Manifesto," and Saul Alinsky's "Rules For Radicals." All of these books will be destroyed and thrown into the fire. And I'm looking forward to it.
Sheppard Baselessly Portrays Gingrich As Statesman Topic: NewsBusters
Noel Sheppard declares in a Sept. 11 NewsBusters post that that he can't understand why a writer at Foreign Policy magazine would use Newt Gingrich's name in the same sentence as wannabe Quran-burning pastor Terry Jones as examples of the "Talibanization" of America:
So, as far as this author is concerned, the highly-esteemed former Speaker of the House is the same as a nutty Pastor in Florida that up until a few weeks ago almost nobody in America ever heard of.
Sheppard seems curiously incurious as to why the writer would make such a comparison. Why, it certainly couldn't be Gingrich's statement that "There should be no mosque near Ground Zero in New York so long as there are no churches or synagogues in Saudi Arabia." Or his likening of the proposed Islamic center near Ground Zero to the Nazis "a sign next to the Holocaust museum in Washington" and "the Japanese putting up a site next to Pearl Harbor." And it certainly couldn't be Gingrich's statement that President Obama is engaging in "Kenyan, anti-colonial behavior."
Why, as far as Sheppard is concerned, those are incredibly statesmanlike words that only a "highly-esteemed former Speaker of the House" could make.
Sheppard engages in fantasies elsewhere in the post, asserting that "this whole idea of Islamophobia is a fiction created by America's press that's been negligently presented as a mainstream fear rather than a fringe sentiment in a dishonest attempt to change the public's view of the Ground Zero mosque." His evidence for this is a previous post he wrote making the same claim without any evidence.
That's right -- his evidence that there's no Islamophobia is that he said it before, so it must be true. Sad, isn't it?
Farah Denies His Anti-Muslim Screed Is An Anti-Muslim Screed Topic: WorldNetDaily
Joseph Farah writes in his Sept. 11 WorldNetDaily column:
The mosque at Ground Zero represents the tip of the iceberg in terms of a long-term threat to the security of this nation. New mosques are springing up all over America – most of them funded by foreign money and controlled by the hideous ideology that form the basis for the attack of 9/11.
We're all still screened at airports to prevent yesterday's attack – often by Muslims wearing burkas!
Islam is now taught as a religion of peace in our schools, despite 1,300 years of history to the contrary.
Our media are full of accounts of an imaginary bigotry called Islamophobia.
When Muslims go on the rampage in mass-murder attacks like the one at Fort Hood, members of the media class wring their hands about reporting their names and government officials deny they are examples of terrorism despite the fact that they share the same motivation as the 9/11 hijackers.
Yet, Farah wants to believe he doesn't hate Muslims:
There will be those who try to portray this column as an anti-Muslim screed. It is not. I do not condemn all Muslims. In fact, I have sympathy and compassion for those trapped in their 7th century worldview. I do, however, have a beef with all who subscribe to Saudi-style Shariah law. Muslims in the U.S., who subscribe to Shariah law, have a duty and obligation to place that ideology ahead of any allegiance they might have to the U.S. Constitution. That effectively makes them unworthy of U.S. citizenship.
But, then again, we have a president who wipes his feet contemptuously on the Constitution. So I don't expect even a new class of leadership in Congress to require any loyalty test for new citizens.
Riiiight. Farah then proves himself wrong again, declaring that Islam isn't a real religion and they should all covert to Christianity:
It's time for American Christians to realize what a fertile missions field we have right here in the United States with an expanding Muslim population and many new gathering places they are building.
If they have the religious freedom to build these mosques all over America, we have the Christian duty to evangelize them, to persuade them they are worshipping a false god and revering a false prophet – one who, by the way, has no record of making even one prophecy!
Since we're all learning more about Islam every day, let's put that knowledge to good use. Let's all vow to make new Muslim friends – and bring them to the saving grace of the one true God of the universe.
Thanks, Joe, for making us laugh with your pathetic attempt to tell your readers not to trust their own eyes.
Newsmax Misrepresents Obama's Statement on 'Ground Zero Mosque' Topic: Newsmax
In a Sept. 10 Newsmax article, David Patten suggested that President Obama "specifically addressed the wisdom of placing a 15-story, $100 million community center and mosque two blocks from ground zero."
But he didn't. As the Washington Post's Greg Sargent points out, Obama merely once again reiterated the legal right for the project to proceed. While Obama was asked about the wisdom of locating it there, Obama did not specifically answer that question.
Patten's article was little more than a way to attack Obama by invoking Debra Burlingame, "he sister of an American Airlines pilot who died in the 9/11 attacks," who smeared Obama as, in Patten's words, "more sensitive to Muslim sensibilities than to those of people in the United States." Patten made no apparent attempt to contact any other source to react to Obama's statement.
Feel the Hate from WND's Robert Ringer Topic: WorldNetDaily
Robert Ringer brings the Obama derangement we all know and love in full force in his Sept. 10 WorldNetDaily column, in which he is oh-so-cleverly unable to use Obama's name, instead calling him "the presidential imposter" (and smears Michelle Obama as "Angela Davis II"):
On Labor Day, I engaged in the most dangerous of all activities, jumping from channel to channel with the remote. Suddenly, there he was, the presidential imposter, or "PI". Forget the fact that the presidential election was almost two years ago – he was giving yet another campaign speech, this time in Milwaukee!
My self-discipline momentarily abandoning me, I got sucked into watching the PI for five minutes … then 10 … then 15 … until I finally became too nauseous to continue. In 15 minutes of nonstop lies, hollow rhetoric, whining, smart-aleck barbs and chest-puffing, the PI turned on his best street-thug accent and delivered a rousing tirade against villains of the common man: George Bush, "fat cats on Wall Street," the minority Republicans in Congress and a variety of other straw men.
At one point, he shrieked, "We didn't become the most prosperous country in the world by supporting greed and recklessness." No mention of the fact that his "stimulus package" has failed to lower the unemployment rate to 8 percent as promised. No mention of the fact that he has quadrupled the evil George Bush's deficit. No mention of the fact that spouse Angela Davis II spent $500,000 vacationing in Spain for a few days. No mention of anything substantive.
Nothing substantive? Sounds like Ringer is talking about himself. Anyway, the hatefest continues:
The PI even had the audacity to say that he's going to "restore the American dream." Whoa! Hold on there, junior. Now you're crossing into my territory. I'll tell you how to restore the American dream – and it's not by collapsing the economy and establishing a totalitarian regime in Washington.
To restore the American dream, all redistribution-of-wealth functions of government need to be phased out along with most taxes. Every individual should be given the opportunity to succeed or fail according to his own abilities and efforts – without interference from government.
[...]
Well, guess what? Straightening out the economy can be done with a minimum investment of time and effort. Simply repeal health care "reform," financial "reform" and virtually everything else that the PI and his comrades have forced into law by subverting the Constitution, cut personal taxes dramatically, eliminate both corporate and capital gains taxes, start dismantling the EPA, shut down the transfer-of-wealth programs euphemistically referred to as General Motors and Chrysler … for starters.
In other words, listen to the tea-partiers message: Government, get off our backs! Don't do anything to "stimulate" the economy and create jobs. Just get out of the way and remove job-killing taxes and regulations. We'll handle the rest, thank you.
That will leave Congress time to focus on investigating, bringing to trial, and, hopefully, convicting members of the gangster government that has been raping and pillaging the American public at a rapidly accelerating rate over the past two years. Sorry, but criminals are not entitled to "retire with dignity."
Enough said. As Robert Shaw put it in "The Sting," "Ya folla?"
Feel the pure, uncut vitriol, people! Ringer's in da house!
NewsBusters Defends Quran-Burning Pastor Again Topic: NewsBusters
Earlier this week, as we noted, NewsBusters ran to the defense of Quran-burning pastor Terry Jones after a CNN anchor was deemed to be overly rude to him. NewsBusters defends Jones' honor in a Sept. 10 post by Matt Hadro:
In what had to be the ultimate in condescension and elitism, MSNBC's "Morning Joe" brought Pastor Terry Jones on the show merely to lecture him on Christianity, cutting him off before he could even respond. Co-host Mika Brzezinski explained to him "we don't really need to hear anything else, so thanks."
Excuse us, but why shouldn't one be condescending toward someone who wants to perform an act that has been universally condemned (even elsewhere at NewsBusters)? What has Jones done to earn anybody's respect -- or, more to the point, Hadro's respect? Perhaps he can explain.
MRC's Gainor Exempts Conservatives From Blame for Post-9/11 Divisions Topic: Media Research Center
In his Sept. 8 column, the Media Research Center's Dan Gainor is quick to throw around blame for post-9/11 divisions -- but is careful not to blame conservatives. He writes:
Soon after fire fighters raised a flag in the ruins of New York, the fingerpointing began. George Bush was to blame, though he only recently had taken office. America was to blame because of its longstanding friendship with Israel. Everyone was to blame it seemed, except the monsters driven by hate to harm the innocent.
Gainor seems to have forgotten that conservatives were not interested in only blaming the terrorists. As we documented at the time, thebodies of the victims weren't even cold yet before WorldNetDaily and Newsmax were blaming Bill Clinton's supposed national security lapses for the attacks.
Gainor also goes after conspiracy theorists, lamenting that "the 9/11 truther industry" has "spread like the plague it is." Gainor overlooks the fact that the organization condones conspiracy theories when it suits their political agenda -- it has done little to counter the fallacious notion that President Obama is a Muslim or not eligible to be president, the promotion of which is raison d'etre for such right-wingers as WorldNetDaily.
Gainor then sent after Newsweek's Fareed Zakaria for claiming the U.S. overreacted after 9/11: "Did we overreact after Pearl Harbor? Perhaps America should have tried to find peace with Imperial Japan instead of fighting for freedom." That's a straw man, of course; most people would consider the internment of Japanese-Americans an overreaction. And we don't recall Gainor or his fellow MRC employees expressing any alarm over the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program, despite its apparent contrvention of existing law.
Gainor concludes: "That’s the kind of 20-20 hindsight easy for those in the media who think themselves so above the pain and anguish that they remove flags and patriotism from their broadcasts. This year, journalists will once again try to understand the lingering wound that is 9/11. And once again they will fail."
Apparently Gainor is so pained and anguished by 9/11 that he's stuck in projection mode, unable to see fault with anything he or his fellow conservatives have done and eager to blame everyone else for dividing America.
Posted by Terry K.
at 10:15 AM EDT
Updated: Saturday, September 11, 2010 10:38 AM EDT
Tea Party Founder Swings At Liberals, Misses Topic: WorldNetDaily
Judson Phillips, founder of Tea Party Nation, writes in a Sept. 10 WorldNetDaily column:
The left frequently complains that conservative Christians want to keep women barefoot and pregnant, without rights. They want to oppress the rights of other religious minorities and kill homosexuals.
There is not a "Christian" country on the earth that does that. While liberals shriek about conservative Christians, they turn a blind eye to the Islamists, who do those exact things in numerous countries around the world.
Phillips conveniently forgets about two conservative Christians who very much want to kill homosexuals, as evidenced by their support for a proposed law in Uganda that would permit the execution of people for being gay: Cliff Kincaid and WND's very own Molotov Mitchell. Further, that law was inspired and championed by other far-right American Christian conservatives such as Scott Lively.
And we only need to see the right-wing-generated attacks on the proposed Islamic center near Ground Zero to prove wrong Phillips' contention that conservative Christians don't want to "oppress the rights of other religious minorities."
AIM Column Condones Quran-Burning Topic: Accuracy in Media
We forgot to include this in our previous item on the ConWeb's reaction to Quran-burning pastor Terry Jones. Accuracy in Media, like other ConWeb outlets, has condoned the burning by way of a Sept. 8 column by "editors of Family Security Matters."
Responding to Obama administration criticism of the burning, the "editors" sneer: "It is strange to hear a member of this administration declare an action to be un-American, considering the manner in which this administration has acted recently."
The sneering -- and condoning -- continue:
An administration that has argued that a mosque should be allowed near Ground Zero, despite widespread opposition from American citizens, does test credibility when its leading members loudly condemn a pastor’s freedom of expression. A general does not sound like a military leader if he suggests that a conflict will worsen if a few people burn Korans. Due to restrictive ROE guidelines, the military in Afghanistan is still compelled to act like a team of social workers rather than as a war-winning team.
Pastor Terry Jones is doing what he thinks is appropriate. It would be unrealistic to suggest that there will be no reactions in the Muslim world. It is to be expected that there will be violence, and probably deaths. However, the hysteria on the part of the establishment in reaction to this upcoming event shows how much they apparently fear the volatility of Islamic extremists.
The 'editors" conclude with more acceptance (and more sneering):
In America the current administration’s apparent love affair with Islam, including Islamism (judging by the Islamist representatives invited to iftar dinners) has alienated many Americans.
The affair of the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville is just a reaction to the current situation. It is rare for anyone in the administration to dare to take time to praise Christianity or Judaism, yet Islam – which is still a minority religion in America – is on the front pages ad nauseam, and is constantly being engaged with and apparently promoted by politicians who should be upholding the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
Such apparent bias towards a religion that is alien to, and (in its strictest form) even antithetical to the American Way of Life, is bound to create a backlash. The Ground Zero Mosque has heightened the sensitivities surrounding 9/11, and a sense that the administration has “sided with the enemy,” with that enemy being Islamism.
Pastor Terry Jones is preparing to do something that is perhaps unwise, and is certainly going to offend many Muslims, including the vast majority of Muslims who try to live their lives as good citizens. But Pastor Jones is resolute, and his bravery can be respected. Now the media has become involved, he could become a target.
Burning Korans, or burning any book, is genuinely distasteful. But if Muslims have the freedom to worship in their mosques in America, and are supported in this by the administration, then Christians who choose to burn books must also be allowed to carry out their freedom of expression. No laws are broken, and no-one is physically hurt.
If the only reasons to argue against this event in Florida are that such actions will invoke violence, then what does that say about the nature of Islam? And if an administration responds cooperatively to fears of threats and intimidation by extremists, what does that say about the nature of the West today?
AIM insists that "Guest columns do not necessarily reflect the views of Accuracy in Media or its staff," but there is no evidence that columns are posted on the AIM website without an AIM employee explicitly approving such posting -- and, therefore, providing at least tacit approval of the contents of those columns.
