Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West

The College Republicans Club at California Lutheran University screened a movie titled: Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West. It is important to note that it says "Radical"- this means that it is not talking about the entire Muslim nation; only the radicals. This movie is very interesting and thought provoking. It speaks of how the radical Muslim's have waged jihad (holy war) on the West. They do not like our culture, they think that we are trying to take over the world (although that is precisely what they are trying to do) and they want us gone...forever. It showed how they indoctrinate their children from a very young age and teach them that jihad is what Allah wants them to do. It talked about how they had created a new type of terrorism, that is not bounded by geography. The "magnificent nineteen" who hijacked the planes for the 9/11 attacked, came to America, got American drivers licenses, and learned how to fly planes here in America and turn them into weapons of destruction. The movie has Muslim commentators that are ashamed of what the radicals are doing to the way the religion is viewed. Nonie Darwish, author of Now They Call Me Infidel is a Muslim Shahid's (martyr's) daughter and she says that America is strangling itself with its political correctness. I agree with her.

It is important to note, and the movie makes this distinction, that radical Islam is bad for the peaceful Muslims, its bad for everyone. The radicals are filled with hatred of America and England. There are not just radical Muslims in the Middle East though, they are all around London and even here in America. The problem is that they can no longer be solely classified by their ethnicity, so it makes it harder to identify who is a radical Muslim. One of the strongest arguments in the movie is that it drew connection with the Nazis and Radical Islam, and they cannot be ignored. Altogether it is a very thought provoking movie and if you would like to find out more you can go to obsessionthemovie.com. There they provide clips to watch the movie and it is five dollars to watch the entire film, which is approximately sixty minutes long.

The Republican Debate

Last night on CNN the You Tube Republican debate took place. I thought that it was very interesting to watch and that all of the candidates made very well points-perhaps excluding Ron Paul. I noticed that this debate was different than the Democratic one, not just because it was a You Tube debate, but also because there were more questions asked that dealt with “smaller” topics, while it seems as if the Democratic debate only focused on the large topics and wedge topics. I personally thought that this debate was also much more exciting than the Democratic one- and I do not say this because I like the Republicans, this is what I genuinely think. There are four candidates that I was impressed with: Mike Huckabee, Mit Romney, John McCain, and Fred Thompson. I thought that they all made very good points and I was impressed with all of them.

Mike Huckabee gave some great answers, one dealing with if he believed every word in the Bible and also if he would accept the support of gays or lesbians. Mit Romney Always formulated his answers very well- though there was a few times where it seemed that he got nervous on questions that involved the fact that he used to support abortion- but he admitted that he was wrong. John McCain is very straightforward, and I like that a lot. He is completely against abortion and he got angry with Mit Romney for the way that he answered one of the questions dealing with torture saying that he cannot comprehend how America could act that way. And then there was Fred Thompson- it seemed that he said the right things at the right times- thus making the whole crowd laugh. He seems like a straight shooter and I loved his answer to the question about what type of guns he owns, which he replied he wasn’t going to say what type of guns he own and definitely not say where they are at. The topics of gun control, abortion, gays serving in the military, space exploration, Guantanamo Bay and other important issues were discussed. All together the Republican debate was a very interesting one.

The Political Compass

Many people are not sure whether they are conservative or liberal, Republican or Democrat, Authoritarian or Libertarian and everything in between. Luckily there is a reliable source on the web called the Political Compass that can help one figure out his placement on the political spectrum. I took this test and was surprised by the outcome. First of all, while taking this test I did not understand all of the questions, so I had to use the handy dandy Wikipedia to explain some terms and look up quotes. Therefore I can justify my outcome via the fact that I responded to questions that I had to learn through very quick and most likely not the most efficient means. I identify myself as a conservative, yet on this test I fell into the left and even more so into the Authoritarian area.
I highly recommend that you take this test because it is very interesting to find out where you fall. It has made me want to do more research to find out exactly where I stand. My parents are conservative and thus I was instilled with those values, but perhaps I have some unknown liberal tendencies- or maybe not. Here is a picture below that explains how to read the Political Compass- The vertical line is the Economic Scale and the horizontal line is the Social Scale. Also, the two graphs below it show where the most famous political figures of our times and recent past have fallen. Then, the last one is mine. So take the test and see where you lay in the political spectrum.

Note- If some of the names are hard to see, take the test and when you finish it will show you all of the graphs.

Democratic Debate

The Democratic Debate that was shown on CNN and held in Las Vegas last week was very interesting. There were many issues that were covered such as the immigration problem, the removal of troops in Iraq, the methods of future diplomatic encounters, election of Supreme Court Justices and other important issues. There were many responses that candidates gave that I did not agree with, not just because I am a Republican and decided that everything any of the presidential hopefuls said was wrong, but because I strongly felt that their convictions were incorrect. I was eager to hear from Obama. He has become so popular today and he such a well spoken person that he is engaging to listen to. But, surprisingly the obvious tension between him and Clinton made some of their arguments less appealing. He says that he wants to have diplomatic relations with our enemies, well fine but I highly doubt they want to talk to us, I think they would rather see us all…gone. So I don’t know how Mr. Obama would, with efficiency produce his desired effect.
One person that I actually agreed with on the immigration problem was Governor Bill Richardson. He made some great points that I really liked, and some I did not completely agree with concerning illegal immigration. He does not agree with putting up a fence around the border. Why? Its not that he would not want to, but it is that he does not believe it would work. I see his point. What type of “super fence” would we have to build in order to keep the illegal immigrants out? Would it even work? Also, he believes that the people of Mexico need a better path to citizenship. Perhaps it could be changed, but for now I believe that they need to come here legally or not at all. And, people should not get angry at the US for this belief or believe that the US is being too harsh, but Mexico needs to better provide for its poor. The main point that Richardson made that I agree with is that we should not give all of the Mexican illegals amnesty. This is just ridiculous and it would undermine one of the duties of a citizen, which is to obey a law.

The Second Amenment

The Second Amendment is topic that is surrounded by much controversy. The syntax of the sentence is something that lawyers and politicians and the Supreme Court argue about. Different people have different interpretations to this supposed ambiguous sentence “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” According the Interactive Constitution, the “right to bear arms” belongs to an individual person… “the people” also appears in the First, Fourth, and Ninth Amendments. These rights apply to individuals not states, they argue, and so does the Second Amendment.” Yet, there is still much argument.
One of the key elements to this argument is that the second Amendment does not allow an “absolute” right to bear arms because “no right is absolute.” “Just as free speech does not protect obscenity, they say, the Second Amendment does not include an unlimited right to own guns.” Just because we have free speech, doesn’t mean that we can shout “Fire!” in a crowd. This same condition could be applied to the Second Amendment. I am a member of the NRA and do believe that individuals should be able to have guns. I happen to agree with this statement by Wendy Kaminer: “The irony of the Second Amendment debate is that acknowledging an individual right to bear arms might facilitate gun control more than denying it ever could.”

Family Jewels

On June 26, 2007 the CIA released its “family jewels” report “detailing 25 years of Agency misdeeds”. The entire 702 page report can be

found in the National Security Archive

(http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB222/index.htm). This “dirty laundry” is very interesting to read. One such interesting “family jewel” is the “Plan to poison Congo leader Patrice Lumumba”. If you click on this link (http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB222/top06.pdf) you can read how Mr. (blank) was direct by Richard Bissell to kill Patrice Lumumba via poisoning. Patrice Lumumba was the first legally elected Prime Minister of the Republic of Congo. When I read this it was almost exciting (not from a sick standpoint), but that it was akin to reading a Hollywood movie script about the CIA. But, this is actual documentation of a covert operation that has been revealed! It is very interesting to read and search through the contents; there is a Top Ten list of the most interesting Family Jewels that, indeed is very interesting to read.

My Representative

Many people do not know who their representative is in the House of Representatives. My Representative is Howard (Buck) McKeon of California. He began his work in the House of Representatives in 1993 and has consecutively been active since. He is a Republican and the ending of his term is going to be in 2008. At opencongress.org if you type in the name of your representative, you can find out whom he or she is and if their beliefs parallel yours. Buck’s “recent voting history” has been on issues like the SCHIP Extension Bill, which was a “Nay”, the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007, which he abstained and a plethora a others which range from terrorism and taxing on mechanic’s work gloves. Buck votes most often with Rep. David Dreier (R, CA-26) and least often with Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D, NY-22). It also has a section from opensecrets.org which lets me know what donations have taken place.
I learned more about Buck McKeon from browsing all of the bills he has or has not supported and looking through his voting history. It’s great that I can who votes most and least like him because I can see where they are from. I find it very interesting that he votes most like David Dreier, and not some other Republican from another state. This may mean that McKeon and Dreier have a relationship and thus are voting on the same issues in the same way, but how Conservative is McKeon? After all, California is a liberal state. I got a better idea of the networking that can go on from each state, and thus, maybe there is a certain level of skewed voting. I recommend that anybody reading this find out who their Representative is at http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/ find out who your rep is and then go to opencongress.org.