“Church Universal and Triumphant leader dies - WNYT” plus 4 more |
- Church Universal and Triumphant leader dies - WNYT
- Brasch Words - American Reporter
- Capitalism: A Possible Sea Change - Motley Fool
- Obama’s Newest Racemongering Judge: California’s Edward Chen - stoptheaclu.com
- Church Universal and Triumphant leader Prophet dies - Missoulian
| Church Universal and Triumphant leader dies - WNYT Posted: 16 Oct 2009 01:55 PM PDT (AP) BOZEMAN, Mont. - Church Universal and Triumphant leader Elizabeth Clare Prophet has died in Bozeman. She was 70. Prophet's legal guardian, Murray Steinman, says she suffered from advanced Alzheimer's disease and died at her apartment Thursday night. Prophet was the spiritual leader for a church that at one time boasted 50,000 members. In the late 1980s, assault rifles and armored vehicles were amassed in preparation for a nuclear missile strike that Prophet predicted was on the way. The sect combined icons from the world's major religions, mixing western philosophy and mysticism. This content has passed through fivefilters.org. | |
| Brasch Words - American Reporter Posted: 16 Oct 2009 12:15 PM PDT Brasch Words | EVEN IN FRESNO, FREE SPEECH IS NOT AN ISSUE by Walter Brasch American Reporter Correspondent Bloomsburg, Pa.
Printable version of this story BLOOMSBURG, Pa. -- The Sunbird Conservatives, a student group, put out some pro-McCain literature at a recruiting table at Fresno Pacific University a week ago. Seemed innocent enough. The conservatives weren't harassing anyone, nor were they blocking any sidewalks. But, administrators at this Christian-based college didn't like it. A dean told the students to either remove the McCain literature or to agree to what he said was university policy to present both sides. The dean correctly noted that the First Amendment applies only to government intrusion. A private university, unlike a public university, may curtail any free speech it wants. The students still argued "free speech rights." Enter the provost, head of all academic affairs at the university. She reaffirmed the dean's demands. One of the members shouted: "free speech" at her. They challenged her, arguing that for a political organization to present both views would defy common sense. The provost's response, according to the conservative Leadership Institute, was "Shut-up! I'm the provost. That is disrespectful." The students were warned if they didn't comply with the administrators' demands, they would be restricted in future activities on campus. The Founding Fathers wanted all views to be heard. Channeling the revolutionary political philosophy of poet John Milton and judge Lord Blackstone, they believed that mankind is rational, and if all the facts were available, mankind would find the truth. That became the basis of the First Amendment. Now, the twist is that the Fresno Pacific administrators were wrong. Their own university actually believes that all views should be allowed, as long as there is the opportunity for opposing views. It does not require one organization to put out all views. But the Fresno Pacific administrators are also right. A private university can do what it wants to do. It can encourage or restrict free speech. Except in California. California is the only state that extends the First Amendment to private colleges, which as a matter of educational philosophy should encourage, not restrict, freedom of expression. This means that the wishes of the Founding Fathers have been extended into California, which many believe is a hellhole of liberalism. Disregard the fact that some rabid conservatives actively try to restrict free speech rights of others. Disregard the reality that conservatives who want to keep government out of our lives used both the constitution and state law to underscore their right to distribute political literature. It's time for all states, especially Pennsylvania where the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were written, to enact legislation to assure that the principles of the nation, and especially the rights of free expression, are extended to all sectors, both public and private. AR Correspondent Walter Brasch's latest book is the second edition of Sinking the Ship of State: The Presidency of George W. Bush (November 2007), available through amazon.com, bn.com, and other bookstores. Contact him at brasch@bloomu.edu mailto:brasch@bloomu.edu> or at his WebsiteHREF>.
Copyright 2009 Joe Shea The American Reporter. All Rights Reserved.
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| Capitalism: A Possible Sea Change - Motley Fool Posted: 16 Oct 2009 11:53 AM PDT Recs 21   
Those of you who read The Economist may have noticed a change in the business section -- and for that matter, a possible change in the direction of the magazine's general philosophy. There used to be a column called "Face Value," in which business leaders and global tycoons were discussed and analyzed. Not too long ago, that column changed; now it is called "Schumpeter," and it discusses a broad array of business and management topics.
OK, so what's the big deal?
The Harvard professor was known not so much for his teachings, but for having a devout following of students and academics who respected his unique thoughts on business, innovation, and market theory. In the United States, in a period of wartime productivity during which companies like General Electric (NYSE: GE) and Boeing (NYSE: BA) experienced extraordinary growth, Schumpeter had incredible foresight (albeit wrapped in a degree of slight contradiction). He disagreed with Keynes. He favored Turgot, not Smith. He valued commerce, yet empathized with Marx. In hindsight, Schumpeter's ideas seem even more exceptional today, put forth as they were during a time when the veil of a cold war kept capitalism relatively free from criticism. Simply put, Schumpeter was different, and that distinctiveness is what made him one of the most prophetic economists of our time.
Schumpeter and capitalism
The tale continues today, as filmmaker Michael Moore's documentary Capitalism: A Love Story, recently released in theaters, condemns companies like Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) and Wal-Mart. Some criticism is valid, some is just populist anger. However, Schumpeter seems to get capitalism right in four of the most important spheres:
Something rich and strange
But I am happy to see that someone -- in this case, the private shareholders and writers for The Economist -- is openly acknowledging the problems of capitalism without political motivations or destructive intentions. Just as people begrudgingly said that communism was good in theory but bad in practice, well, that statement can apply to any concept of markets -- especially when implemented without caution and discretion. In the wake of corporate scandals and excessive consumer materialism, let's not lament the resulting financial collapse, but look at business through the old lens of a Moravian student and economist. The allocation of capital. The distribution of goods and services. Relative ease, not relative riches. 
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| Obama’s Newest Racemongering Judge: California’s Edward Chen - stoptheaclu.com Posted: 16 Oct 2009 11:46 AM PDT Posted on October 16, 2009 -By Warner Todd Huston
So what sort of judge is Edward Chen? Well, for one, the left-wing American Bar Association rated Chen a "well qualified" nominee and many of his associates at the ACLU speak highly of him. As an ACLU lawyer, Chen was known for opposing English-only policies and for pushing discriminatory affirmative action ideals. He even came to the aid of gang members in one case. Chen was quite the ACLU activist between 1979 and 2001. His ACLU history would suffice to make many wary of him, of course. But for a segment of America, working for the ACLU is not a disqualifier. So in order to judge Edward Chen one must look at his past. Discovering what Judge Chen thinks of the country upon which he apparently assumes to sit in judgment is a telling exercise. Sadly, it seems he has quite a low opinion of the nation that he will be serving. One hint at Judge Chen's feelings about our nation can be seen from his appearance at the 2005 graduation ceremony at the Hastings Public Interest Law Foundation. There, Chen wondered aloud if American patriotism was justified. Chen told the crowd of his, "feelings of ambivalence and cynicism when confronted with appeals to patriotism — sometimes I cannot help but feel that there are too much [sic] injustice and too many inequalities that prevent far too many Americans from enjoying the beauty extolled in that anthem." Apparently, Chen feels that America is too racist to justify anyone feeling patriotism for her. In fact, racism seems to be one of Chen's major concerns and he sees it everywhere. Immediately after the attacks on 9, 11, 2001 Chen's first thoughts were about racism but not that of the Arabs that sent over three thousand Americans to their deaths. No, as soon as Chen learned of the attacks of 9/11 Chen's first worry was that white Americans were going to use their racism to justify racist attacks on Muslims and anyone else that got in their way. Only ten days after 9/11 occurred, Chen remarked that he imagined that America would revert to the "irresistible forces of racism, nativism and scapegoating" of the past and begin systematic oppression of American Muslims. Later he likened America's post 9/11 military and security policies to the climate that led up to Japanese internment during WWII. In fact, he seemed to imagine that "a thousand Americans" were being swept up and held in secret prisons right after 9/11. In a speech given at the Operation Protect and Defend dinner on May 4, 2006, Judge Chen referred to "secret surveillance of Americans without a judicial warrant, secret no fly lists, [and] secret detention of nearly a thousand American residents held without charges." Naturally, he offered no proof of this wholesale but secret detention of Americans. Chen also saw racism in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, as well. Chen charged that the reason that New Orleans had so much trouble after the storms passed was because the inhabitants of the Crescent City were black. "Institutionalized racism" caused the federal government's supposedly slow response to the crisis there, Chen said. At the Diversity Celebration of the California State Bar Convention in 2005, Chen asked the audience, "Would the response have been different had the majority of victims been white and middle class rather than poor and black? Would the response have been quicker had it been Kennebunkport instead of New Orleans?" Racism again came to vex Chen's overactive imagination in the aftermath of the Virginia Tech shootings perpetrated by an Asian man. Chen's fevered imagination dreamed up images of Asian men being discriminated against all across the country because of the actions of one mentally unstable nut. In comments before the Asian Pacific Americans in Higher Education Conference, Chen worried that Asians would be the "subject of a racial backlash, victimized" by hate crime. It is apparent that Edward Chen does not find much to celebrate about the United States. The whole country is so filled with "injustice" and "inequalities" that only a crusading judge can right the wrongs. Now, what of his judicial standards? What sort of philosophy does Chen employ on the bench? Is it a strict standard of reading at law, or is he one of those sorts of judicial activists that uses the law to spread his own particular philosophy of social justice? Sadly, it appears to be the later. At least one can be excused to think this from a 2003 article Chen wrote entitled "The Judiciary, Diversity, and Justice For All" published in the California Law Review. "…diversity enhances the quality of decision-making. . . . judges have to make determinations that draw not so much upon legal acumen, but on an understanding of people and of human experiences. Such experiences inform assumptions that affect legal decisions. At trial and in evidentiary hearings, judges have to assess the credibility of witnesses. A witness' testimony may seem more credible if it is consistent with the judge's knowledge or experience, and, conversely, less credible if it remains outside the judge's experience. . . . Simply put, a judge's life experiences affect the willingness to credit testimony or understand the human impact of legal rules upon which the judge must decide. These determinations require a judge to draw upon something that is not found in the case reports that line the walls of our chambers. Rather judges draw upon the breadth and depth of their own life experience, upon the knowledge and understanding of people, and of human nature. And inevitably, one's ethnic and racial background contributes to those life experiences." Of course, this attitude seems to register well with Obama's views of "judicial empathy." In this view the law is heavily influenced by the judge's "feelings" and those feelings are at least as important as the written law. This also matches well with Sotomayor's ideas that her status as a Latina made her more qualified than an old white man to be a judge. For Obama's judges, experiences and feelings trump the Constitution and the law and these experiences and feelings should be used as a basis to adjudicate the cases that come before them. In Chen's case we can see that the main influence on his judicial philosophy is an inordinate fear of racism. He sees it under his bed, in his closet, in the faces of everyone he meets. With this penchant in mind, can Chen honestly, dispassionately, and seriously serve effectively as a federal judge? One cannot help but wonder if his preoccupation with envisioning racism in every situation makes Judge Chen ill-suited for the federal bench where a dispassionate mien is required. It is easy to see that his constant resorting to charges of racism will likely color every decision he delivers. Judge Chen will bring "diversity" to the bench as President Obama wants certainly. But will he also bring divisiveness and a desire to get even with all the racism he sees where ever he looks? His record hints that he just might. *The 10 nominees mentioned above are as follows:
(Cross posted at RedCounty.com.) » Filed Under ACLU, Activist Judges, Anti-Americanism, Barack Obama, Delusional Dupes and DUmmies, Democrats, Government, Government corruption, Judicial Impeachment, Judicial Tyranny, Liberal World, News, Patriotism, Political Correctness, President, Racism, Senate, U.S. Constitution, Viewpoint discrimination, liberalism, race baiting Trackback URL CommentsLeave a Reply This content has passed through fivefilters.org. | |
| Church Universal and Triumphant leader Prophet dies - Missoulian Posted: 16 Oct 2009 01:12 PM PDT
BOZEMAN - Church Universal and Triumphant leader Elizabeth Clare Prophet has died in Bozeman. She was 70. Prophet suffered from advanced Alzheimer's disease and died at her apartment Thursday night, said legal guardian Murray Steinman. Prophet was the spiritual leader for a Park County church that at one time boasted 50,000 members. In the late 1980s assault rifles and armored vehicles were amassed in preparation for a nuclear missile strike that Prophet predicted was on the way. The sect combined icons from the world's major religions, mixing western philosophy and mysticism. Posted in State-and-regional on Friday, October 16, 2009 1:55 pm | Tags: Bozeman, Elizabeth Clare Prophet This content has passed through fivefilters.org. |
President Obama has gone out of his way to "diversify" the federal bench with his spate of nominations of various minorities chief of which was his successful seating of the "wise Latina,' Sonia Sotomayor, on the Supreme Court. Obama's nominees* for 10 district court openings include four African-Americans, three Asian-Americans, one Latino and four women. One of those nominees, San Francisco U.S. Magistrate Judge Edward Chen, 
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