Under Construction . . .
The University of Colorado Student Union voted 9-6 to support the committee recommendations calling for Churchill’s firing. (h/t PirateBallerina)
Meanwhile some professors have signed a petition arguing that Churchill’s situation represents a threat to academic freedom and would have a “chilling” effect on universities across the nation, and therefore conclude that he should not be fired.
Nice to see students demonstrating independent thought, remaining unswayed by professors in CYA mode.
The title says it all–Aztecs butchered, ate Spanish invaders:
CALPULALPAN, Mexico (Reuters) — Skeletons found at an unearthed site in Mexico show Aztecs captured, ritually sacrificed and partially ate several hundred people traveling with invading Spanish forces in 1520.Skulls and bones from the Tecuaque archeological site near Mexico City show about 550 victims had their hearts ripped out by Aztec priests in ritual offerings, and were dismembered or had their bones boiled or scraped clean, experts say.
The findings support accounts of Aztecs capturing and killing a caravan of Spanish conquistadors and local men, women and children traveling with them in revenge for the murder of Cacamatzin, king of the Aztec empire’s No. 2 city of Texcoco.
Experts say the discovery proves some Aztecs did resist the conquistadors led by explorer Hernan Cortes, even though history books say most welcomed the white-skinned horsemen in the belief they were returning Aztec gods.
“This is the first place that has so much evidence there was resistance to the conquest,” said archeologist Enrique Martinez, director of the dig at Calpulalpan in Tlaxcala state, near Texcoco.
“It shows it wasn’t all submission. There was a fight.”
The question of how a few hundred soldiers-for-hire, combined with indigenous allies, overthrew a mighty empire is avoided. Perhaps it was this method of fighting that turned so many Aztec tributaries into Spanish allies.
Details are in the works, and the “message” is being formulated:
Local activists are planning what is likely to be another massive march and rally to push for compassionate treatment of the country’s immigrants.The plan is to march Sept. 30, said Ricardo Martinez of the Denver activist group Padres Unidos, which was heavily involved in the large but peaceful May 1 and March 25 downtown Denver rallies.
But organizer Jennifer Herrera said the details are still being decided and could change.
“There are definitely people meeting to discuss a plan for a march,” she said Tuesday.
The march is part of a wave of national events starting Labor Day intended to pressure Congress to pass immigration reform that gives illegal immigrants a path toward legalization, Martinez said.
Herrera said local organizers are still deciding on which message the local demonstration should take and which groups to align with.
Of course, the marches and rallies could backfire, and provide a sort of get-out-the-vote in reverse for the GOP. Especially if it involves illegal immigration activists engaged in behavior like this:
technorati: illegal immigration denver immigration immigration reform
Daniel Libeskind’s vision.
Architectural star Daniel Libeskind has offered his vision for a revitalized, multi-use Civic Center that would become a standalone draw in Denver:
A central water plaza shaped like a bowtie, an “iconic” light and water tower and a swooping bridge that sails over the intersection of Broadway and Colfax Avenue highlighted Daniel Libeskind’s proposals to revive Civic Center.The proposals, announced by the architect at a Wednesday press conference, were funded by the Civic Center Conservancy, which hired Libeskind last fall for about $75,000 to come up with ideas that could bring people into the park. He created a master plan for various structures and elements, based on a plan for Civic Center adopted by the city last year.
There is no price tag yet for the project, said Mayor John Hickenlooper during a press conference at the Colorado Convention Center. A series of public meetings will be held this fall, culminating in a report in January by parks and recreation manager Kim Bailey to the parks advisory committee.
Why is this such a pressing issue? Examine the caption below.
Marc Piscotty © News
A view of Civic Center Park Thursday, March, 17, 2005 looking northeast with Downtown Denver and the State Capitol in the background as shot from the seventh floor of the Denver Art Museum. Denver is working on a plan to turn Civic Center Park into a destination point in downtown Denver by possibly connecting it to the 16th Street Mall and perhaps even burying part of Colfax Avenue to make the whole area more pedestrian friendly. The ambitious plan calls for reviving the area around the park that has largely become a haven for drug dealers and users and the homeless.
So the problem is less one of beautification, and more a concern with weeding out undesirable guests. This, of course, is much more palatable when the city is dominated by Democrats, including a popular mayor. If this were a Republican plan, the critics would be outraged!
Let’s just hope the plan doesn’t include nude statues. What a furor that might cause!
technorati: civic center daniel libeskind denver
Infidel Rusty reminds us that St. Augustine of Hippo explains in The City of God, Book XIX, Ch. 12 how peace in its ideal form is not what humans desire, but rather a peace to their liking, according to their desires and beliefs, a peace that favors both the individual and the group, usually in opposition to other groups. Often, conflicting views of this precise nature of peace is what leads to the war that ends the old peace structure in favor of a potentially more beneficial peace. Of course, the other side, unhappy with the new situation, may oppose the new peace. Thus, conflict is both inevitable and permanent:
Whoever gives even moderate attention to human affairs and to our common nature, will recognize that if there is no man who does not wish to be joyful, neither is there any one who does not wish to have peace.For even they who make war desire nothing but victory,–desire, that is to say, to attain to peace with glory. For what else is victory than the conquest of those who resist us? and when this is done there is peace. It is therefore with the desire for peace that wars are waged, even by those who take pleasure in exercising their warlike nature in command and battle.
And hence it is obvious that peace is the end sought for by war. For every man seeks peace by waging war, but no man seeks war by making peace. For even they who intentionally interrupt the peace in which they are living have no hatred of peace, but only wish it changed into a peace that suits them better.
They do not, therefore, wish to have no peace, but only one more to their mind.
Indeed, for Islam, a world of Muslims comprised in the dar al-Islam, the house of submission, represents peace against the dar al-Harb, the house of war. Only when those outside Islam are brought to submission, converted, and the house of war eliminated, can there be peace.
Similarly, two thousand years of Western culture has revealed that democracy, market economies, and inherent human freedoms comprise a package designed to bring peace to those throughout the world (extremely oversimplified to be sure). Communism or “scientific socialism” had its own version of what world peace meant. So did Nazism.
In several eras, peace was enforced by a hegemon, a nation/state with enough power to discourage opposition unilaterally or bring a coalition to bear against potential upstart rivals. The Pax Romana epitomizes this concept, and was succeeded in later times by powers such as Britain or America. Even eras dominated by two rival powers, with their own spheres of influence, recognized that for certain stretches neither side could gain a significant advantage against the opposition, and so a tense but tentative peace existed–think U.S. and the U.S.S.R. and mutually assured destruction.
When peaceniks, anti-American and anti-Israeli activists, and other countries target the West and accuse them of attacks on peace, it is either because the current situation gives them an advantage and the conflict’s (Iraq, Israel in Lebanon) potential outcome would harm that arrangement; the setback could represent a serious blow to their envisioned peace scheme (wiping Israel off the map in the Middle East, eliminating the West); or some other such nonsense. Either way–and there are myriad other reasons–”peace” cannot exist in all places and at all times, until rival visions of peace are reconciled and become congruous, or are eliminated altogether.
Who answered this question like this:
Would you describe the US as it is now as a fascist state?Far from it. In many respects it is the most free country in the world.
Other quotes:
–Why should the US exist, sitting on half of Mexico, including Florida, conquered in a violent racist war carried out in violation of the Constitution?–In the case of Lebanon, there is little doubt [war crimes occurred]. Ample reasons have been given by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, and that’s a bare beginning. But guilt extends far beyond. The Bush-Blair invasion of Iraq, for example, is a clear example of what the Nuremberg Tribunal determined to be “the supreme international crime”, which encompasses all the evil that follows. We would do well to recall the eloquent words of Nuremberg chief counsel Justice Robert Jackson: “We are handing the defendants a ‘poisoned chalice’, and if we sip from it, we must accept the same judgement.” The conclusions seem clear enough.
Who answered this question like this:
Would you describe the US as it is now as a fascist state?Far from it. In many respects it is the most free country in the world.
Other quotes:
–Why should the US exist, sitting on half of Mexico, including Florida, conquered in a violent racist war carried out in violation of the Constitution?–In the case of Lebanon, there is little doubt [war crimes occurred]. Ample reasons have been given by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, and that’s a bare beginning. But guilt extends far beyond. The Bush-Blair invasion of Iraq, for example, is a clear example of what the Nuremberg Tribunal determined to be “the supreme international crime”, which encompasses all the evil that follows. We would do well to recall the eloquent words of Nuremberg chief counsel Justice Robert Jackson: “We are handing the defendants a ‘poisoned chalice’, and if we sip from it, we must accept the same judgement.” The conclusions seem clear enough.
By Julian Dunraven
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) has decided Colorado citizens need assistance from the federal government in deciding how to vote this November. Specifically, the DEA doesn’t want mere citizens getting confused about what’s good for them and voting to legalize something as terrible as possessing an ounce of marijuana. Thus, the federal government is condescending to inject itself into our state ballot process and campaign against this initiative. “DEA raises cash to fight pot issue.” Already, the DEA has $10,000 to spend on its campaigning efforts.
The agency tells us we shouldn’t worry about this, though, and that their efforts are completely legal. Given that the applicable law was designed to prevent the executive agencies from partisan campaigning, and did not contemplate non-partisan ballot initiatives, the DEA may in fact be correct that it is acting within the technical bounds of law, if not its spirit. Still, it is rather telling that the DEA’s campaign fund comes from private donations and not tax dollars, despite the DEA’s contention its actions are proper. Surely, if the agency directors are avoiding the use of tax money, it must occur to them on some level that their actions are wrong.
Whether one agrees with Amendment 44 or not, the actions of the DEA should worry us all. The executive branch of government is designed to enforce the laws. Yet, the executive branch has become so large, that Congress cannot possibly have time to deal with all the issues that arise as each executive department carries out its mandate. Thus, executive agencies have the power to create administrative policies and regulations in their spheres of influence that are every bit as binding as legislatively made law. Thus, they have taken on a good deal of legislative power as well as executive. Moreover, many federal agencies have their own administrative courts to oversee disputes arising from their actions, thus assuming judicial power. This is a huge collection of power in the executive branch. Now, the executive branch seeks even to assert itself into citizen law making processes by telling people how to vote. This is simply too much. We must restrain this behemoth, many headed monster that is the U.S. executive branch.
Now, to be fair, I do not doubt that the input of the DEA might be useful in debating Amendment 44. However, that input should be solicited by citizen opponents of the amendment. It is those independent citizens who should then be raising money to campaign against the amendment, and they who should decide how to use the DEA’s information in that campaign. The DEA and the executive branch of the federal government should not be intervening in our state elections to tell our people how it thinks we should vote. Last I checked, that sort of behavior was expected of Communist and Socialist regimes. In this country, the people are supposed to be telling the administration what to do—not the other way around.
We have grown used to a sort of nanny state in this country. We have decided that we want our government to provide certain programs as safeguards against our own stupidity. So be it. If, however, we now truly desire a state that eliminates even the need to think for ourselves, a state all to happy to tell us what our opinion should be, then we have no business calling ourselves a free country. We should simply shut up about those annoying things called civil liberties, take our state issued pacifiers, and let the government do whatever it thinks best. As I am not quite ready for permanent mental infancy, I think it would behoove Congress to amend the Hatch Act, and prevent the executive branch from campaigning period.
Julian Dunraven, J.D., M.P.A.
IranCartoon has made available their daily dose of repugnant anti-semitism and anti-American cartoons–much discussed and seldom seen, and the themes can be easily discerned as they are repeated again and again–
Uncle Sam as Hitler, American oppression of Islam:
What a surprise, Hitler makes an early appearance, donning Uncle Sam’s garb, complete with swastika top hat.
Islam fights back against U.S. imperialism!
American and Israeli conspiracy:
Employing stereotypical features that would make Goebbels and Streicher proud, the Statue of Liberty holds the Talmud while giving support to Israel’s campaign.
Familiar as terrorists are with explosisves, it is not a surprise that projection might yield an image such as this, with America and Israel igniting a global conflagration.
Here, America spins Israel’s true nature.
With America’s help, Israel is able to stick it to the Lebanese citizens.
Occupation, blah blah blah. . .
Usually the guys in the back wear kaffiyehs and other facial coverings preparing to behead their latest victim. Here, the terrorists are the usual suspects, and the imagery straight from al-Jazeera.
Israeli atrocities:
Green-helmut guy takes a turn as a Red Cross aid worker, again staging victims for the world media.
Where Israel sees peace, war must be made.
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Crucifixion art–and as Allah reminds us–the “Christkillers” meme.
Targeting the kiddies.
Worse than dogs, sharks, and bat. Israel in a class by itself.
More crucifixion allusions.
Hang ‘em high.
Taking refuge behind the Holocaust.
Beware of fauxtographic shock.
Star of David picking on Islam.
More dead kiddies.
Israel really hates children.
Israel=Nazis:
Tic-tac-toe.
The entrance to Auschwitz.
Recycling Nazism.
Tick . . . tick . . . tick.
Stealing Rosenthal’s Iwo Jima image:
Award for inadvertent humor:
To tell the truth, this actually makes a lot of sense.
Beating AK-47s into rosebushes.
IranCartoon has made available their daily dose of repugnant anti-semitism and anti-American cartoons–much discussed and seldom seen, and the themes can be easily discerned as they are repeated again and again–
Uncle Sam as Hitler, American oppression of Islam:
What a surprise, Hitler makes an early appearance, donning Uncle Sam’s garb, complete with swastika top hat.
Islam fights back against U.S. imperialism!
American and Israeli conspiracy:
Employing stereotypical features that would make Goebbels and Streicher proud, the Statue of Liberty holds the Talmud while giving support to Israel’s campaign.
Familiar as terrorists are with explosisves, it is not a surprise that projection might yield an image such as this, with America and Israel igniting a global conflagration.
Here, America spins Israel’s true nature.
With America’s help, Israel is able to stick it to the Lebanese citizens.
Occupation, blah blah blah. . .
Usually the guys in the back wear kaffiyehs and other facial coverings preparing to behead their latest victim. Here, the terrorists are the usual suspects, and the imagery straight from al-Jazeera.
Israeli atrocities:
Green-helmut guy takes a turn as a Red Cross aid worker, again staging victims for the world media.
Where Israel sees peace, war must be made.
Crucifixion art–and as Allah reminds us–the “Christkillers” meme.
Targeting the kiddies.
Worse than dogs, sharks, and bat. Israel in a class by itself.
More crucifixion allusions.
Hang ‘em high.
Taking refuge behind the Holocaust.
Beware of fauxtographic shock.
Star of David picking on Islam.
More dead kiddies.
Israel really hates children.
Israel=Nazis:
Tic-tac-toe.
The entrance to Auschwitz.
Recycling Nazism.
Tick . . . tick . . . tick.
Stealing Rosenthal’s Iwo Jima image:
Award for inadvertent humor:
To tell the truth, this actually makes a lot of sense.
Beating AK-47s into rosebushes.
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