Can Sharia Law and U.S. Law Coexist?

What most Americans associate with Sharia law are things like the stoning to death of adulterers (mostly female), gays and apostates and the practice of mandating Christian-owned businesses to have a cross outside their businesses and Jewish-owned businesses to have a Star of David outside theirs, so that Muslims will know not to conduct business there.

Those are ALL abuses, rooted in the medieval codes familiar to most major religion’s pasts. Since Islam has never had a Reformation, those medieval codes still persist in the religion today.

BUT there are other aspects of Sharia law that would probably appeal to many Westerners.

In the 1940s, Sayid Qutb, man who is believed to have started al Qaeda, laid out the 3 main principles of Sharia law;

1) Absolute freedom of conscience.

2) The complete equality of man (before the law, it does NOT presuppose that people are all of equal abilities, etc. NO viable system presupposes that).

3) The firm mutual responsibility of society.

While many Westerners would question the Muslim world’s living up to the first two, most would accept those principles to be very good ones for all of us to aspire to.

However, it should be noted that in many senses, Sharia law does more to protect “the people,” than Western law ever has. As an example, under Sharia law, BOTH parties must demonstrate a full understanding of the pact or contract before it can be entered into. Neither the seller, nor the buyer can omit, or obfuscate any pertinent facts about the pending sale.

In Western law, what the buyer doesn’t understand is his/her problem and sellers are allowed to omit, or downplay any disadvantages to the sale. NONE of that would be accepted under Sharia law.

But it is the 3rd principle that Qutb chronicled that most Westerners neither fully understand, nor accept.

Exactly what does “the firm mutual responsibility of society” mean?

Well, it means that any person who commits a crime (especially a violent crime) must take full responsibility by yielding up an exact equivalent of the damage they did. Qutb quoted the Koran on the punishments for killing or wounding; “A life for a life, an eye for an eye, an ear for an ear, a tooth for a tooth and wound for wound.”

What Sharia Law DOES that Western law DOES NOT is to make the victim the centerpiece of the law. Western Law DOES NOT recognize a crime victim’s right to retribution, the “crime” Western law acknowledges is ONLY “a crime against the state.”

While it can be argued that that is NOT what America’s Founders (especially Thomas Jefferson) intended, for in his own writings Jefferson was clear that while “the accused” had full rights and a presumption of innocence,” an individual had no rights and did not exist within the purview of the law, during the commission of a crime.

Unfortunately, that view was NOT accepted in the final draft of America's Constitution, perhaps due to the difficulties of that day in often determining who was the victim and who the aggressor in many conflicts. With today's DNA evidence and ubiquitous surveillance cameras, that is far less of a concern.

Sharia law’s making the victim, NOT the state the primary party in the criminal process appears to deliver more fairness and return real justice to that system.

The idea that “the death penalty doesn’t deter future crimes” is complete and utter nonsense on virtually every levels.

For ONE thing it deters the executed felon from ever committing such a crime again, and when done publically and brutally, as in the Muslim world, it DOES appear to deter others, as well. Among those nations with the very lowest murder rates around the world today are those Muslim nations where such public and draconian punishments are meted out. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate)

STILL, there are many aspects of Sharia law that are simply antithetical to Western standards of tolerance. Like many ancient religions, Islam views “fornication” (sex outside of marriage) as a serious crime. According to Qutb, “It involves an attack on honor and a contempt for sanctity and an encouragement of profligacy within society.” THAT is where the above mentioned penalties for adulterers and gays come from.

That is completely incompatible with Western traditions.

At this point, absent a serious Reformation, Islam and Sharia law are and will remain completely incompatible with Western law and Western traditions.

The idea that “many Muslims in the West don’t adhere to, nor desire Sharia law be imposed here,” is simply ignorant and misguided. The truth about that appears to be very different. Recently Ami Horowitz went to Minnesota to interview “moderate Muslims in that area, asking “Do you feel more comfortable living under American law or Shariah law?”

They ALL answered Sharia law.
(http://conservativetribune.com/american-muslims-shariah/?utm_source=MailChimp&utm_medium=email&utm_content=featured-stories&utm_campaign=DailyEmail05.31.15)

And that’s Sharia law, as it is, NOT the reformed version (that would eliminate the draconian punishments for “fornication”) that I’ve mentioned above.

Without such serious reforms Sharia law and the Western tradition will remain incompatible.

While there are reform movements throughout the Islamic world, it’s too early to tell whether they have a very real chance at some relatively immediate impact.

But IF there’s ever going to be a bridge between Islam and the West, then the West will also have to make some changes, in order to meet that culture half way, for there is really no other way for us to truly coexist.

Racial Supremacists Are as Much a Threat to Non-Supremacist Members of Their Own Race, as They Proclaim to be to Those of Other Races

Aryan Brotherhood member

Often news events, especially those centered on crime and police reactions and overreactions are delivered couched in race.

It seems that these stories are actually intended to polarize and alienate people of different racial/ethnic groups from one another.

Sometimes it’s tempting for productive whites and blacks to take a cold comfort in the actions of militant black or white supremacists, as “giving the other side something to worry about.”

BUT it’s vital to know that ALL non-supremacist whites and blacks, virtually all productive members of those groups have as much to be concerned about from the supremacists of their own race as they do from the other.

In other words, the other race is NOT “the enemy,” it’s the supremacists of BOTH races that are ALL our “enemies.”

They wish the “race traitors,” and the “integrationists” of their own races as much harm as they do anyone of another race.

Individually people are, for the most part, the same –decent, hard-working and caring. There have been abuses against blacks (ALL of them historically well documented) and against whites (the ongoing disparate violent crime rates and the segregated standards and preferences of what “affirmative action” has morphed into), BUT those abuses were ALL implemented by government...from chattel slavery, to Jim Crow laws, to today’s various preferential policies. They ALL came from government.

The unfortunate thing is that we are often tempted to misdirect our frustrations and anger over bad policies at individuals, when that should be directed at bad government polices enacted by “bad,” or incompetent public servants (judges and legislators).

The Toxic Dependency of Our Existing Welfare Culture

The IRONY....ABOVE Detroit and Hiroshima circa 1945 and BELOW: Detroit and Hiroshima circa 2012

In the wake of the recent rioting in Baltimore, Sheryl Gay Stolberg of the NY Times found someone it identified as “Robert Wilson, a college student who went to high school in Baltimore, and her” article (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/29/us/baltimore-riots.html?_r=0) concludes with Mr. Wilson’s explanation of why Baltimore’s urban residents rioted.

He said nothing about Freddie Gray or police brutality, instead, he simply said: “We’re just angry at the surroundings – like this is all that is given to us? – and we’re tired of this, like nobody wants to wake up and see broken-down buildings. They take away the community centers, they take away our fathers, and now we have traffic lights that don’t work, we have houses that are crumbling, falling down.”

That one quote almost perfectly defines the essence of the pernicious and debilitating welfare-state mentality that leads to such rioting. The dependent poor (overwhelmingly black, in urban areas) live in neighborhoods that they, themselves, have destroyed, and then fume, “This is all that is given to us?”

Generations of hard-working Americans built all those “broken-down” buildings that Mr. Wilson complains about. Many of those buildings originally had opulent entrances, parquet floors, 10’ ceilings, French doors and ornate moldings rarely found today and they were ruined by subsequent generations of welfare dependents to whom food and clothing allowances, housing etc. were all simply “given to them,” without anything expected of them in return.

Is it realistic to expect such people to even understand the idea that we each earn what we get?

And why should they? Those who set up and managed those programs don’t seem to understand it.

After the extensive rioting in Baltimore during the late 1960s, productive people (black, white and other) fled that city and sold their property at rock-bottom prices. Today, all of that housing has been transformed into one massive and horrific slum, with many of the buildings abandoned and others seriously in need of rebuilding, all because the subsequent generations (most of them tethered to various dependency programs) didn’t maintain that housing stock.

This pattern of working-class flight and devastated housing stock, abandoned buildings, etc. has also been seen throughout America, in places like Atlanta, Birmingham, Chicago, Detroit, Memphis, Newark, New York, Philadelphia, Providence, St. Louis, and many other major American cities. Some of the best city housing stock in the country was transferred to the generational, urban poor, who then promptly destroyed it.

Robert Wilson complains that “we have houses that are crumbling, falling down.” The remedy for crumbling houses is for the people who live in them to fix them, but instead, all Mr. Wilson can seem to do is to whine, “Is this all that is given to us?”

Like so many Americans today, Robert Wilson doesn’t seem to realize how disgustingly perverse it is even to think in terms of fine houses and beautifully maintained neighborhoods being “given” to anyone.

But in today’s world of welfare, food stamps, government housing, etc., Mr. Wilson just doesn’t know any better than to ask for more “free stuff.”

How could he be expected to see it any other way? After all, his own community’s “leaders,” like Jesse Jackson, are equally self-absorbed. At the funeral for Freddie Gray, Mr. Jackson wanted to know, “Why can’t the [poor] West Side get the same things downtown gets?” In other words, Jesse Jackson is asks the very same question that Robert Wilson asked, “Is this all that is given to us?”

If this toxic attitude can’t be turned around then America cannot be saved.

It starts with expecting something from those on welfare – mandated job training and birth control, so that they are forced to focus on bettering their own condition before recklessly and irresponsibly bringing another life into this world. Without such a basic quid pro quo, there can be no growth...no way OUT of the dependency trap that public assistance/welfare becomes.

Standards and Fitness are a HEALTH & SAFETY Issue for The Emergency Services

Captain Frank Lima LAFD

There’ve been reports of various members being disciplined over alleged “leaks” to the press over firefighters failing major parts of the physical fitness standards at the Training Academy and one member allegedly refusing to get off a rig at fires.

IF you should find yourself in such a situation...think JACKPOT!

In Los Angeles, LAFD Captain Frank Lima refused to obey both LAFD Officials and L.A. Elected Officials and WOULD NOT push substandard female recruits through that Academy.

Captain Frank Lima (1) Disobeyed direct orders given by superiors and (2) refused to comply with directives from elected City Officials.

He was summarily dismissed from his duties at the LAFD Fire Academy and passed over for promotion.

Frank Lima sued the City of Los Angeles for discrimination and retaliation and won a judgment of $4.8 MILLION from the City of Los Angeles. (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/08/la-city-council-agrees-to-pay-81-million-to-two-former-firefighters-who-sued.html) and (http://www.adversity.net/lafd/).

Captain Lima claimed, in court papers, that he was discriminated and retaliated against because he was a male and applied the same standards in training a female recruit that he would have done had she been a man.

Fitness and standards are a HEALTH & SAFETY issue and as such, they ARE protected under federal whistle-blower statutes.

Moreover, the FDNY’s Fire Marshall’s subpoena powers have traditionally been restricted to dealing with criminal investigations. The investigation into whether a member breached various FDNY regulations (especially ones that may run afoul of federal whistle-blower protections) is NOT a “criminal investigation.

That too, should be legally challenged.

No one should ever look for a fight, but if you find yourself caught up in any of this, seek out legal counsel and remind the attorneys of how Frank Lima fared.

Our BADLY Broken System...

Deranged Eric Shepherd stomping on the flag of the country that gave him everytghing he has...apparently WITHOUT earning ANY of it 





We've put waaaaay too many idiots (not to mention EDPs) in College....and it never works out.

You can't fix stupid.

But more than that we've put a specific KIND of people into Colleges they don't belong in, like the underachieving scions of alumnis and big donors and of course those who come from various "disadvantaged groups." You generally DON'T see the very "disadvantaged" from places like Appalachia in our major Universities, but you do see THIS guy - black supremacist, Eric Shepherd. (http://woundedamericanwarrior.com/georgia-student-who-stomped-on-the-flag-wants-to-kill-all-white-people/)

On every measure it's been an abject failure, just as has the idea that moving poor and dysfunctional people into areas among more productive, successful people will improve the lot of the poor.

WHY doesn't any of that work?

In a word, Schoenphauer's law; http://ifanythingcangowrongitwill.tumblr.com/post/22267360124/schopenhauers-law-of-entropy-if-you-put-a

"If you put a spoonful of wine in a barrel of sewage, you get sewage.

If you put a spoonful of sewage in a barrel of wine, you get sewage."

You can log this under Exhibit 9,874,937 of why race/gender preferences just DON'T work.

Poverty and Violence – There IS No Causal Connection

The Aryan Brotherhood is the fastest growing and most dangerous gang in the U.S. today

Is Gang Violence About to Take Hold in Middle America, the Way Out-of-Wedlock Births and Single-Parenthood Has?

I’ve always been one of those people who’d blurt out the direct answer to a problem without much diplomacy, or regard for “political correctness” (a/k/a “OTHER people’s feelings”). It’s NOT always a prudent strategy, but it seems to be a part of my DNA. Yeah the "obnoxious dick" part.

Recently I came across two articles I found both interesting and oddly enough related. One, titled “4 US Cities Cited as Most Violent in the World. Do You Know What They Have in Common?” (http://www.ijreview.com/…/315809-four-violent-american-ci…/…) highlights four American cities (Detroit, New Orleans, Baltimore and St. Louis) that rank among the most violent the world over.

This article (from the Conservative website IJ Review) went on to try to get a handle on the root cause, or etiology of this violence...and came up with the SAME trite and tired causes that most Left-of-Center outlets do:

They came up with;

(*) High poverty rates

(*) A high prevalence of single-parent families...

...AND

(*) Decades of uninterrupted Democratic control of those cities. (The IJ Review IS a Conservative outlet, after all)

The problem with those potential “causes” is that they ARE NOT among the real causes of the violence in those areas. We KNOW that because there are other poor cities in America with all of those SAME issues that are far LESS violent, so it MUST BE...."something else."

The 2nd article shed some light on the subject...at least for me, but then again, I seem to be more open-minded, not to mention, more of a real DICK, then a lot of other folks I know.

That article was titled simply, “These Are the Poorest Cities in America” (http://time.com/3581716/poorest-cities/). And well, what do you know, it turns out that a number of cities NOT known for their violence make the list. Cities like Fresno, El Paso and Tucson are all among the 10 poorest cities in America, BUT they are NOT among its most violent.

Can anyone else see the primary difference between Tucson, Fresno and El Paso....and Detroit, Baltimore and New Orleans?

Oooooh...I do...I DO?!

Anyone else?

Come on! I KNOW this one!

OK, it’s that while Detroit, Baltimore and New Orleans are all predominantly black, Fresno, Tucson and El Paso are not.

Detroit is 83% black, Baltimore is 63.3% black, New Orleans is 60.2% black. By contrast, Fresno is just 6% black (78% white), El Paso is just 4% black (92.2% white) and Tucson is just 5% black (70% white).

YES, “blackness,” or more appropriately, the preponderance of African-Americans seems to be the primary factor that separates the most violent poor cities from the less violent ones.

Weird huh?

OK, for anyone who’s ever lived or worked in such areas, it’s really not all that “weird,” it’s just “the way things are.” Such areas have long been seen as "more dangerous," but judging by our failed policies and our continuing to be stuck in failed paradigms (blaming poverty, single-parenthood, etc.) in attempting to understand the violence, we seem to lack NOT only the will, but even the appropriate measure of concern to effectively deal with it.

We tend to collectively look away.

And we cling to these failed ideas, despite the fact that NONE of our well-intentioned “solutions” have ever worked – we refuse to address the real problem, out of a sense of not wanting to hurt other people’s feelings.

Seriously?!

Do you think black people are unaware that the places they live in are ultra-violent?

Does refusing to address that issue do anything to address the shameful and shocking fact that the #1 cause of death for black males between 16 and 36 is homicide?

Do you think that the black community is fundamentally different than the Irish, Jewish or Greek communities?

They are NOT! We are all subject to the same advantages and pitfalls of human nature. There are some very noble aspects of human nature and also some horrific aspects, as well....and every group deals with both.

That’s also why throwing money at such problems NEVER...EVER works.

As an example, there WILL no doubt be a good deal of federal money flowing into Baltimore in the wake of the riots there and the CVS there has (inexplicably) said it will reopen, but no amount of money can fix the problem of a populace that seems to have little use for education, lacks the requisite skills for today's job market and is prone to bigotry, hatred and violence.

Now, that lack of interest in education, a lack of basic jobs skills and penchant for recklessness and irresponsibility that causes POVERTY is NOT a BLACK/WHITE issue. Poverty is caused by the SAME behaviors among blacks, whites and all others.

A recent documentary on poverty highlighted the dysfunctions in Appalachia. One former resident, who'd gotten out and made good in the mining industry moved back to that area, opened up a mine in one county there and the many of the local people wouldn't take the job training, others would work 5 or 6 weeks at jobs that paid over $100,000/year, then leave to drink and do Meth.

There's a reason people are poor and it's primarily behavioral. Society fails to understand that at its own peril.

HOWEVER, there is a reason why there is such a stark difference between say, Tucson and Baltimore (Tucson is BOTH poorer and less violent than Baltimore) in terms of VIOLENCE, and it is NOT poverty....it’s demographics.

It appears that the widespread violence in predominantly black urban areas IS very much a "black problem"...for now. Since 1976, blacks in the USA (12% of the population) have accounted for over HALF of all murders in the entire nation. THAT’S an incredible statistic.

The vast majority of poor people (of ALL backgrounds) are NOT violent.

Schools fail because the parents in such areas fail to make education a priority in their children's lives. The children come to school undisciplined and the schools are NOT allowed to instill it.

It seems that violence stems from a perversion of the innate desire for control. Creative, productive people (like Savvas Savopoulos, the recent victim of a racial killing in Washington, D.C.) turn that desire inward to exert control over themselves and harness that innate desire into creation (in the form of art and businesses, etc.), impotent/powerless people (like Daron Wint, Mr. Savopoulos’ murderer) turn that desire inward and turn to violence to get a sense of that kind of control...over others.

I DO NOT claim to know the precise etiology of that phenomenon in predominantly black areas, but it would appear that racism and racial violence are encouraged as "righteous rage," by a well-established and well-funded racial grievance industry. That certainly seems borne out by the chronicling done by the likes of Colin Flaherty (https://www.youtube.com/user/BamaFanatic12345)

There seems to be no other logical explanation and if that's indeed the case, that's going to be a very difficult problem to get a handle on. For a whole host of reasons, Western society has begun rewarding/compensating "victims," and the competition for that coveted "victim's status" has been full bore for a long time now...among ALL groups.

That too, is probably one of the reasons that gang culture is so attractive to so many young people...of ALL backgrounds. There are gang issues in Fresno, El Paso and Tucson, as well. In fact, right now, in the USA, the Aryan Brotherhood is the fastest growing and reportedly, the most dangerous gang in the nation. Like ALL gangs the Aryan Brotherhood and other such gangs offer youths a source of acceptance, pride and they reinforce a victim's sense of paranoia that "everyone else is out to get them."

Today, just as the black family was in the vanguard of those caught up in the unintended consequences of welfare (the disintegration of the family, generational dependency, etc.), that community is again "the canary in the coal mine" when it comes to gang culture and the systemic violence that comes along with it. IF you don't think that can happen throughout the rest of America, then you haven't been paying attention.

Suburbanites, black and white do themselves a great disservice by ignoring this and convincing themselves "this won't happen here." NO ONE ever thinks it's going to happen to THEIR community...to THEIR family.

When Daniel Patrick Moynihan warned about the corrosive effects of America's welfare programs (chasing men/fathers out of the home, miring generations in a "learned helplessness," and elevating victimhood to an exalted status, thereby balkanizing America's cities), and noted that the effects we were then first seeing in the black community were coming for everyone else, the vast majority of Americans rejected that message.

Since that time, then Senator Moynihan has been proven correct. Both out-of-wedlock birth rates and the number of single-parent households have skyrocketed throughout American society.

The explosion of the gang culture and all that brings with it will come next, shocking those that "never thought it could happen here."

Ignoring the problem will NOT make it go away. It will only let it metastasize.

The fact that a Conservative publication, like the IJ Review would buy so completely into the Left’s absurd Marxist “root causes” (discrimination, oppression and poverty) of violence, shows how very, VERY far from being able to adequately address such issues America really is.

In the meantime, an epidemic of black-on-white violence is being ignored, “hate crimes” laws are being consistently and apparently deliberately misapplied and the #1 cause of death among black males between the ages of 16 and 36 remains homicide.

There is a LOT that is disturbing about that...about continuing to stay with policies and ideas we all KNOW have failed, simply because they sound...and feel good.

The LIMITS of Public Influence

Irish Voters Celebrate Gay Marriage Vote

A LOT of people seem to give the media and government (especially politicians) far more credit for “influencing public opinion,” then they deserve.

We’ve seen the Left go apoplectic over “Rush Limbaugh’s and Fox News’ influence over the public.”

They were, and ARE wrong.

Neither Limbaugh, nor FNC ever converted, nor converted people to “Conservatism.” Their message merely struck a chord that resonated with a HUGE number of Americans.

What the Left was actually more concerned with, but most were unable to articulate, was that these outlets “emboldened” Conservatives and “generated a Conservative consensus,” or at least showed how little of a “Left-wing consensus existed.”

Those are very real, but very different concerns.

The idea that media and public figures greatly influence public opinion has long been with us.

Look at the global movement for homosexual rights. Ireland (Catholic Ireland) just passed gay marriage! (http://www.irishcentral.com/opinion/cahirodoherty/Ireland-strongly-votes-YesWelcome-to-the-Rainbow-Republic.html)

“WHY is this happening,” many ask.

Some have blamed “a godless, perverted media and entertainment industry,” others have blamed “political forces,” BUT the truth is that homosexuality, along with increased friction and tension between the genders often arises at times when the human population reaches the limits of the earth’s ability to sustain it. Likewise, the more affluent a society becomes, generally the more socially liberal (permissive) it becomes.

That’s a fact.

Homosexuality isn’t a recent discovery.

It’s been around as long as...well, as long as prostitution has, and we all know how long mankind’s oldest profession has been around – probably about as long as there’ve been people.

What I’m saying (or trying to say) is that most of the ideas, good and bad, traditional and extreme have always bubbled up among the populace, first. In other words, the PEOPLE have influenced the media and the political class and NOT the other way around. Yes, often the old adage that goes, “When politicians get an idea, they usually get it wrong,” is dead on and politicians and their media cousins pervert that message because they didn’t fully understand it, but the original ideas almost always stem from the people themselves.

It would seem that the REAL changes bubble upward, well before they are disseminated downward by the media and academia.

In the case of homosexuality, I DO believe that it is more accepted during periods when mankind pushes the limits of the sustainability of the environment and is less accepted in periods when human survival is predicated upon expanding the human population.

I believe that’s the SAME with most issues.

The abolitionist movement bubbled up from private citizens long before the government and the media of that day ever took up that fight.

Why did that movement advance?

So many of us just don’t have a good understanding of history, that a lot of us seem unaware that Western Europe and America were among the first places on earth to eradicate chattel slavery. In fact, chattel slavery STILL goes on in much of the known world today (in large tracts of Asia, throughout the Arab Muslim world and in sub-Saharan Africa).

The primary reason that chattel slavery (a hallmark of agricultural societies) first ended in Western Europe and the Americas is that those areas were where the Industrial Revolution first took hold. While chattel slavery is a relatively efficient economic system for agricultural societies, chattel slavery is NOT at all an efficient economic system for Industrial societies.

In the USA, the Industrial North became more and more outraged at what it saw as the primitive and barbaric economic system of the agricultural South, so the abolitionist movement grew and garnered more and more victories. The importation of slaves to the USA was banned in 1808.

“Southern congressmen joined with the North in voting to abolish the African slave trade, an act that became effective January 1, 1808. The widespread trade of slaves within the South was not prohibited, however, and children of slaves automatically became slave themselves, thus ensuring a self-sustaining slave population in the South.”

(http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/congress-abolishes-the-african-slave-trade)

So, it seems human development, mankind’s moving FROM the agricultural societies of the past, TO the industrial societies of the modern age, was the impetus for the abolitionist movement in the West. That movement typically bubbled UP from the people and only belatedly became embraced by government (and “the political class”) and the media.

That is the case with MOST major movements. They are driven upwards by the people, before they ever take hold in government and the media.

So, if you’re looking for someone to blame over all this “creeping social permissiveness,” look no further than your friends and neighbors. The ideas bubble up from US, they do not filter downward, regardless what some egotistical folks in the media may presume.