In the weeks following the attacks on the United States, liberals around the country have been showing their "true colors," and they aren't red, white and blue. Here are a few news stories describing liberalism during wartime:
The Madison School Board barred schools on Monday from using the Pledge of Allegiance as a way to comply with a new state law that requires a daily patriotism dose.
Instead, schools can use only the national anthem - and then only instrumental versions of it. No words.
The 3-2 board vote came after several parents and teachers complained that the pledge, which contains the line "one nation, under God," is a religious oath that doesn't belong in public schools. Others criticized the pledge for promoting nationalism and militarism.
Link
School rallies to retain sign: The ACLU says the message 'God Bless America' divides kids by religion and is unconstitutional
Link
Thousands demonstrate against plans for
U.S. retaliation
Protesters burn the U.S. flag Saturday in front of the Capitol Building in Washington. Thousands of demonstrators marched in Washington to protest possible U.S. military action in response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Link
"Blame America First"
Fad Prominent on Campus
HERNDON, VA - Despite numerous demonstrations of patriotism and unity across the country following the terrorist attacks, America's college campuses are running rampant with anti-American and anti-capitalism sentiment.
The anti-war movement is embarking upon a nostalgic binge that ignores the committed terrorist attacks on American civilians. Professors are leading radical left-wing students in a campaign to attack America's sacred institutions of capitalism and civic duty, and student columnists are serving as daily catalysts for anti-American sentiment. The following are the top ten attacks on the American way of life by campus radicals since September 11, 2001.
#1. Hours after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, University of New Mexico History Professor Richard Berthold told students in his Western Civilization and Greek history classes, "Anyone who can blow up the Pentagon has my vote."
2. Radical student organization BAMN, based at the University of Michigan, whose mission includes defending racial preferences by "any means necessary," states in a recent press release that, "U.S. military and foreign policy has reaped hatred, any U.S. retaliation will escalate the hate of the U.S. and worsen an already bad situation."
3. MIT Linguistics Professor Wayne O'Neil, a member of the MIT Committee on the Middle East, spoke of U.S. soldiers painting sarcastically happy messages on missiles to be launched on Iraq. "Is this not as bad as Palestinians celebrating?" he asked the crowd. O'Neil also criticized previous United States policies and called for "Operation Peaceful Justice" rather than "Operation Infinite Justice," so that Americans can "bring ourselves and our country to justice, not just the perpetrators."
4. A teach-in at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, entitled "Understanding the Attack on America: An Alternative View," featured speaker William Blum, author of Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower. Blum equated the United States with terrorist states, saying, "There are few if any nations in the world that have harbored more terrorists than the United States."
5. David Horn, a student columnist from the Michigan Daily at the University of Michigan, presumes that the United States deserved to be attacked, stating, "?the action taken by the terrorists on Tuesday are not completely unwarranted. We try to forget about the way this country behaves internationally - that we too often behave as terrorists."
6. A Penn State University group called "The Village" went ahead with a planned protest complaining about prejudice in America just four days following the attacks. Speaker Jennifer Storm, a member of the Lambda Student Alliance, compared the fear that many Americans are feeling after Tuesday's attack to the emotions felt by minorities daily. "I mean no disrespect," she said, "But welcome to the reality of so many people every day."
7. Once again, race-hustler Jesse Jackson turned a national crisis into a race issue during a speech at Harvard Law School. His speech, titled "America's Response to Terrorism," stressed that the main goal of the U.S. should be to stop prejudice and the country should "build bridges and relationships, not simply bombs and walls."
8. Kathryn Duke, a student columnist for the Chronicle at Duke University writes, "The words 'freedom,' 'liberty' and 'democracy' are great words. But when they are used by the media to summon a nationalism so potentially destructive as that being bred now--the sight of the flag burning would be preferable to me to its display across America, across the hearts of Americans."
9. During an anti-war protest at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, protestor Verdell DeYarman equated flag waving to murder, stating, "It disturbs me to see all the flags out supporting the slaughter."
10. University of Wisconsin-Madison's former Campus Relations Committee Chairman, Adam Goldstein, likened leaders of the U.S. to some of the notorious murderers of the 20th century. His letter to the editor of the Badger Herald states, "?before you preach at us about the evil terrorists, why don't you try getting your facts straight and face up to the reality that our leaders are war criminals just as much as people like Hitler, Stalin and other monsters of the 20th century."
Link
WASHINGTON ? Breaking bipartisan solidarity on Capitol Hill, Rep. Jim McDermott yesterday criticized the U.S.-led attacks on military targets in Afghanistan, questioning whether President Bush had "thought this action out completely or fully examined America's cause."
The Seattle Democrat issued a two-paragraph statement that suggested Bush and his military advisers reacted too quickly to the Sept. 11 suicide jet attacks against the Pentagon and World Trade Center. The statement was the first public criticism of the retaliatory strikes by a federal lawmaker...
Criticism of a military action during a time of heightened nationalism might come back to haunt most politicians, but McDermott, an outspoken liberal whose district is primarily in the city of Seattle, has one of the safest seats in Congress.
He was overwhelmingly reelected without GOP opposition in 2000. As an indication of how liberal the district is, the Green Party candidate got nearly 20 percent of the vote.
Link
Towers of Intellect
By JAMES BOWMAN
Earlier this week, The Wall Street Journal, on its front page, told the sad story of Jennie Traschen, professor of physics at the University of Massachusetts, who had the bad luck at an Amherst town meeting on Sept. 10 to have called the American flag "a symbol of terrorism and death and fear and destruction and oppression."
Her words were circulated on the Internet just as real terrorism and death put them in an unwelcome perspective. Suddenly she started getting irate phone calls and e-mails, some of them threatening or obscene. "There's been a level of repercussion that was totally unanticipated," she said.
Well, maybe it's time that she did a bit more anticipating. The same goes for the professor at the University of New Mexico who said that "anyone who can blow up the Pentagon gets my vote." Later he called this claim "the worst attempt at an incredibly stupid joke," and I'm sure he is right. The language of politics in the rarefied world of American higher education had not prepared either professor for a reality like the terror attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Oh! So that's what "terrorism" means!
They were caught unawares, with their assumptions showing. But others in the academy spoke deliberately after Sept. 11 of the provocations given to the terrorists by America. Prof. Robert Jensen of the University of Texas wrote that the suicide mission "was no more despicable than the massive acts of terrorism . . . that the U.S. government has committed during my lifetime." Prof. Barbara Foley of Rutgers University wrote of the terror attack that "whatever its proximate cause, its ultimate cause is the fascism of U.S. foreign policy over the past many decades."
Not Thought but Reflex
For those unaccustomed to the jargon of the professoriate and unable to recollect the mass rallies of American black-shirts, I should mention that the word "fascist" in the preceding phrase is used in the Stalinist sense to mean anything that is not, well, Stalinist. So automatic has such jargon become to the likes of Prof. Foley that she probably never even stopped to reflect on how much more like the actual fascists known to history were the fanatical theocrats who brought down the towers.
Link
My favorite description of liberalism:
"Liberalism is a philosophy of consolation for the West as it commits suicide."
- Jerry Pournelle
The Madison School Board barred schools on Monday from using the Pledge of Allegiance as a way to comply with a new state law that requires a daily patriotism dose.
Instead, schools can use only the national anthem - and then only instrumental versions of it. No words.
The 3-2 board vote came after several parents and teachers complained that the pledge, which contains the line "one nation, under God," is a religious oath that doesn't belong in public schools. Others criticized the pledge for promoting nationalism and militarism.
Link
School rallies to retain sign: The ACLU says the message 'God Bless America' divides kids by religion and is unconstitutional
Link
Thousands demonstrate against plans for
U.S. retaliation
Protesters burn the U.S. flag Saturday in front of the Capitol Building in Washington. Thousands of demonstrators marched in Washington to protest possible U.S. military action in response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Link
"Blame America First"
Fad Prominent on Campus
HERNDON, VA - Despite numerous demonstrations of patriotism and unity across the country following the terrorist attacks, America's college campuses are running rampant with anti-American and anti-capitalism sentiment.
The anti-war movement is embarking upon a nostalgic binge that ignores the committed terrorist attacks on American civilians. Professors are leading radical left-wing students in a campaign to attack America's sacred institutions of capitalism and civic duty, and student columnists are serving as daily catalysts for anti-American sentiment. The following are the top ten attacks on the American way of life by campus radicals since September 11, 2001.
#1. Hours after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, University of New Mexico History Professor Richard Berthold told students in his Western Civilization and Greek history classes, "Anyone who can blow up the Pentagon has my vote."
2. Radical student organization BAMN, based at the University of Michigan, whose mission includes defending racial preferences by "any means necessary," states in a recent press release that, "U.S. military and foreign policy has reaped hatred, any U.S. retaliation will escalate the hate of the U.S. and worsen an already bad situation."
3. MIT Linguistics Professor Wayne O'Neil, a member of the MIT Committee on the Middle East, spoke of U.S. soldiers painting sarcastically happy messages on missiles to be launched on Iraq. "Is this not as bad as Palestinians celebrating?" he asked the crowd. O'Neil also criticized previous United States policies and called for "Operation Peaceful Justice" rather than "Operation Infinite Justice," so that Americans can "bring ourselves and our country to justice, not just the perpetrators."
4. A teach-in at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, entitled "Understanding the Attack on America: An Alternative View," featured speaker William Blum, author of Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower. Blum equated the United States with terrorist states, saying, "There are few if any nations in the world that have harbored more terrorists than the United States."
5. David Horn, a student columnist from the Michigan Daily at the University of Michigan, presumes that the United States deserved to be attacked, stating, "?the action taken by the terrorists on Tuesday are not completely unwarranted. We try to forget about the way this country behaves internationally - that we too often behave as terrorists."
6. A Penn State University group called "The Village" went ahead with a planned protest complaining about prejudice in America just four days following the attacks. Speaker Jennifer Storm, a member of the Lambda Student Alliance, compared the fear that many Americans are feeling after Tuesday's attack to the emotions felt by minorities daily. "I mean no disrespect," she said, "But welcome to the reality of so many people every day."
7. Once again, race-hustler Jesse Jackson turned a national crisis into a race issue during a speech at Harvard Law School. His speech, titled "America's Response to Terrorism," stressed that the main goal of the U.S. should be to stop prejudice and the country should "build bridges and relationships, not simply bombs and walls."
8. Kathryn Duke, a student columnist for the Chronicle at Duke University writes, "The words 'freedom,' 'liberty' and 'democracy' are great words. But when they are used by the media to summon a nationalism so potentially destructive as that being bred now--the sight of the flag burning would be preferable to me to its display across America, across the hearts of Americans."
9. During an anti-war protest at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, protestor Verdell DeYarman equated flag waving to murder, stating, "It disturbs me to see all the flags out supporting the slaughter."
10. University of Wisconsin-Madison's former Campus Relations Committee Chairman, Adam Goldstein, likened leaders of the U.S. to some of the notorious murderers of the 20th century. His letter to the editor of the Badger Herald states, "?before you preach at us about the evil terrorists, why don't you try getting your facts straight and face up to the reality that our leaders are war criminals just as much as people like Hitler, Stalin and other monsters of the 20th century."
Link
WASHINGTON ? Breaking bipartisan solidarity on Capitol Hill, Rep. Jim McDermott yesterday criticized the U.S.-led attacks on military targets in Afghanistan, questioning whether President Bush had "thought this action out completely or fully examined America's cause."
The Seattle Democrat issued a two-paragraph statement that suggested Bush and his military advisers reacted too quickly to the Sept. 11 suicide jet attacks against the Pentagon and World Trade Center. The statement was the first public criticism of the retaliatory strikes by a federal lawmaker...
Criticism of a military action during a time of heightened nationalism might come back to haunt most politicians, but McDermott, an outspoken liberal whose district is primarily in the city of Seattle, has one of the safest seats in Congress.
He was overwhelmingly reelected without GOP opposition in 2000. As an indication of how liberal the district is, the Green Party candidate got nearly 20 percent of the vote.
Link
Towers of Intellect
By JAMES BOWMAN
Earlier this week, The Wall Street Journal, on its front page, told the sad story of Jennie Traschen, professor of physics at the University of Massachusetts, who had the bad luck at an Amherst town meeting on Sept. 10 to have called the American flag "a symbol of terrorism and death and fear and destruction and oppression."
Her words were circulated on the Internet just as real terrorism and death put them in an unwelcome perspective. Suddenly she started getting irate phone calls and e-mails, some of them threatening or obscene. "There's been a level of repercussion that was totally unanticipated," she said.
Well, maybe it's time that she did a bit more anticipating. The same goes for the professor at the University of New Mexico who said that "anyone who can blow up the Pentagon gets my vote." Later he called this claim "the worst attempt at an incredibly stupid joke," and I'm sure he is right. The language of politics in the rarefied world of American higher education had not prepared either professor for a reality like the terror attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Oh! So that's what "terrorism" means!
They were caught unawares, with their assumptions showing. But others in the academy spoke deliberately after Sept. 11 of the provocations given to the terrorists by America. Prof. Robert Jensen of the University of Texas wrote that the suicide mission "was no more despicable than the massive acts of terrorism . . . that the U.S. government has committed during my lifetime." Prof. Barbara Foley of Rutgers University wrote of the terror attack that "whatever its proximate cause, its ultimate cause is the fascism of U.S. foreign policy over the past many decades."
Not Thought but Reflex
For those unaccustomed to the jargon of the professoriate and unable to recollect the mass rallies of American black-shirts, I should mention that the word "fascist" in the preceding phrase is used in the Stalinist sense to mean anything that is not, well, Stalinist. So automatic has such jargon become to the likes of Prof. Foley that she probably never even stopped to reflect on how much more like the actual fascists known to history were the fanatical theocrats who brought down the towers.
Link
My favorite description of liberalism:
"Liberalism is a philosophy of consolation for the West as it commits suicide."
- Jerry Pournelle
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