Yaron Brook gives a rousing speech at the Tea Party Patriots American Policy Summit 2011 on 2/25/2011. His speech focuses on the idea that freedom lies in stresses a single, fundamental principle, the principle of individual rights, rather than vague terms such as fiscal responsibility (can be done through taxation) or limited government (can suggest democracy rather than a republic). An engaging speech which ended in an 1800 person standing ovation, the only one that night.
Archive | February, 2011
Art Against Jihad
In this wide-ranging and exclusive Capitalism Magazine interview, ex-Muslim artist extroadinaire Bosch Fawstin discusses: his new graphic novel series The Infidel and its’ hero Pigman — the Jihadist’s Terrorist; the influence of Frank Miller, Alex Toth and Ayn Rand on his work; the errors of George W. Bush and his contempories; his appearance on the Daily Show and the solution to dealing with Islamic terrorists. Definitely worth reading!
Link: Art Against Jihad: An Interview with Bosch Fawstin Creator of The Infidel and Pigman
Pigman: The Jidhadist’s Terrorist
Some scenes from issue #1 of Bosch Fawstin’s graphic novel series The Infidel.
The Infidel is a story about twin brothers Killian Duke and Salaam Duka, whose Muslim background comes crashing to the forefront of their lives on 9/11.
Salaam’s response is full submission to Islam.
Killian responds by creating a comic book featuring a pigskin-clad superhero named Pigman, who takes on Jihad.
“ The idea of Pigman” explains Bosch in a recent interview with Capitalism Magazine “came about when I started thinking about the enemy and what would be their worst nightmare personified. He’s a pigskin-clad superhero, a physically big, strong, ruthless defender of Western Civilization who fully understands the enemy and speaks his language. He is the perfect weapon against jihad.”
Politics Webcast from an Objectivist Perspective
Here’s a link to broadcast of Amy Peikoff’s Don’t Let It Go Unheard — webcast to talk on politics and politics from an Objectivist perspective. Topics include: Tax dollars to support mosques in Egypt; the current mess in the Middle East; potential presidential candidates for 2012; and the soon-to-be released (and recently screened) Atlas Shrugged movie. Not only does Amy have a great voice, she also has a clear mind. Enjoy!
To download Episode #2 and/or to register for next week’s live podcast click here.
Islam is Islamism; Democracy is Mob Rule
I appreciate Mr. Pipes’ assessment of Egypt and the “regime change” there, and certainly respect his appraisal of Islam and the Mideast, but I shudder every time I encounter and otherwise intelligent and knowledgeable person employ the term “democracy” so carelessly. It is as though Mr. Pipes (and many, many others) had never read what the American Founders and Framers had to say about “democracy.” They feared and loathed democracy. Democracy, they saw in history, was always an overture to tyranny of one kind or another. Democracy was and remains mob rule. Their purpose was to establish an individual rights-protecting republic, one that was proof against the whims and fashions of mobs, majorities, and power-seeking politicians. Democracy is, for example, a state government banning smoking in private restaurants and bars, because some group with political pull wanted it that way; or Obama patronizing millions of people who want lower health-care costs and endorsing socialized medicine legislation; or state or municipal governments banning plastic (or paper) bags in supermarkets to curry favor with environmentalists. The instances of “democracy” in action are numerous, and they all depend on the employment of government force and the diminishment of individual rights.
Mr. Pipes makes a distinction between Islam and Islamism. But what is Islamism but taking Islam’s most belligerent tenets seriously and acting on them?
Islam is a totalitarian ideology, pure and simple. This is aside from its primitive, tribalist character. Islam is already a form of “democracy”; the majority of Muslims want it, and to conform to Sharia law, to worship Allah, honor Mohammad, etc. What could be more democratic than that? But most Muslims, like most Christians (and Jews), develop a kind of schizoid ethics when it comes to practicing the creed. They, too, compartmentalize the “truths” to be found in the scriptures and keep them segregated from what is required in everyday life. Christians, if they attempted to live according to the morality of selflessness and self-sacrifice, which are central tenets of their creed, would be deceased from suicide in a matter of weeks. Muslims, if they attempted to practice literally the central tenets of their creed, would become rampaging hordes and card-carrying Islamo-Nazis.
As you can see, I cut neither Christianity nor Islam any moral slack. If the morality is no good for living on earth, if others’ well-being and happiness have priority over one’s own (or obeying God’s or Allah’s will), if there is no “practical” application of and end to it except suicide and/or homicide, what good is it and why subscribe to it? Both creeds are antithetical and hostile to reason. Both deny or act to counter man’s nature as a being of volitional consciousness, who must choose his purpose for living and act to achieve those goals in pursuit of his own happiness. Democracy, Christianity, and Islam are all in fundamental opposition to that fact. So I am less sanguine than is Mr. Pipes about Egypt’s fate over the next year, or about the fate of any Mideast country. There are millions of Arabs who are also practicing (and perhaps even devout) Muslims who haven’t a clue to what individual rights are, or if they are read enough in the subject, would be hostile to them because they’d see that individual rights trump any morality founded on mysticism. Democracy is just another form of mysticism. The “people” will it. Well, so did the Germans, and the Japanese.
The United States itself has slid downward to becoming a democracy. Obama’s administration is an overture to tyranny.
