British Colonel Declares “The IDF Did More to Safeguard Civilians Than Any Other Army”

“Expelled Exposed” Is Wrong: Materialists Allowed to Challenge Neo-Darwinian Orthodoxy, Intelligent Design Proponents Are Not

Evolution News and Views:

We’re often told that the evidence for neo-Darwinian evolution — where natural selection acting on random mutations is the driving force generating the complexity and diversity of life — is “overwhelming.” But hints of dissent from this position can be found throughout the mainstream scientific literature. One article in Trends in Ecology and Evolution last year stated that admitted there exists a “healthy debate concerning the sufficiency of neo-Darwinian theory to explain macroevolution”.[1] Likewise, Günter Theißen of the Department of Genetics at Friedrich Schiller University in Jena, Germany recently wrote in the journal Theory in Biosciences:

while we already have a quite good understanding of how organisms adapt to the environment, much less is known about the mechanisms behind the origin of evolutionary novelties, a process that is arguably different from adaptation (Wagner 2000). Despite Darwin’s undeniable merits, explaining how the enormous complexity and diversity of living beings on our planet originated remains one of the greatest challenges of biology.[2]

Even more striking criticism of what he called the “dogmatic science” of neo-Darwinian thinking can be found in a 2006 paper by Theißen, also in Theory in Biosciences:

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I was in a fruitless debate with a Darwinist here not too long ago.  I was making the same point about the failure of Darwinits to demonstrate any evidence for true macroevolution.  They always end up moving the goal posts in what constitutes speciation and then throwing out ad hominems.

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How to win liberal friends and oppress your people

By Victor Davis Hanson, NRO:

How strange that our rather nondescript, sober friends abroad do not garner attention from the current administration, yet overt enemies in Cuba, Nicaragua, Iran, Venezuela, and the West Bank most certainly do. Is there some covert code of conduct known to these dictators that allows them to win a pass from supposedly liberal Americans, who profess to value human rights, religious tolerance, and consensual government?

Here’s a tutorial for up-and-coming thugs abroad, who wish to ingratiate themselves with Western elites, not worry about “legitimacy,” and not have someone meddle in their affairs.

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One Interview, Five Lies

By: Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik, FrontPageMagazine.com:

In a single TV interview, one of the Palestinian Authority’s most senior religious officials has reiterated several of the many fundamental lies, libels and defamations about Israel, Jews and Jewish history that play a central role in PA ideology and hate propaganda. Tayseer Tamimi, the PA’s Chief Religious Justice, regularly appears as a religious authority in the official PA media and at public events.

In this recent interview, Tamimi teaches that the Quran says that Jews have inherently negative traits and have been evil throughout history; that Jerusalem has no Jewish holy sites; that Israel is destroying the foundation of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which is now “hanging in midair;” that Orthodox Jews deny the Western Wall is part of the Jewish Temple; and that Jesus was not a Jew but a Palestinian.

Tamimi’s recent libels, lies and defamations on Fatah-controlled PATV, on June 9 alone, include:

1. The Quran says Jews have inherently negative characteristics
2. Jews have no connection to Jerusalem
3. Israel is acting to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque
4. Orthodox Jews deny the Western Wall is part of the Temple
5. Jesus was not a Jew but a Palestinian prophet of Islam

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Obama’s Demagoguery

By Vel Nirtist, AT:

“Suddenly another voice spoke, low and melodious, its very sound an enchantment. Those who listened unwarily to that voice could seldom report the words that they heard; and if they did, they wondered, for little power remained in them. Mostly they remembered only that it was a delight to hear the voice speaking, all that it said seemed wise and reasonable, and desire awoke in them by swift agreement to seem wise themselves. When others spoke they seemed harsh and uncouth by contrast; and if they gainsaid the voice, anger was kindled in the hearts of those under the spell. For some the spell lasted only while the voice spoke to them, and when it spoke to another they smiled, as men do who see through a juggler’s trick while others gape at it. For many the sound of the voice alone was enough to hold them enthralled; but for those whom it conquered the spell endured when they were far away, and ever they heard that soft voice whispering and urging them. But none were unmoved; none rejected its pleas and its commands without an effort of mind and will…”

- J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, Book Tree, Chapter X, “The Voice of Saruman”

It has always been assumed that we humans are rational creatures, and can therefore be swayed only by a rational argument — that is, an argument firmly rooted in facts, utilizing solid logic to link those facts to the conclusion. And I think this is still the case. Rhetoric, oratory, and demagoguery — these dramatic tricks of presentation — will carry you only so far, but will cost you and your enthusiasts dearly if the facts you are relying on in your well-crafted speeches are not really facts, or if logic is lost in the gorgeous flow of words. Hitler — an orator second to none, but given too much to seeing differences amongst human “races” where there were none — caused Germany plenty of grief.

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An African entrepreneur eviscerates liberal academic do-gooders

Thomas Lifson, AT:

A most satisfying put-down of Jeffrey Sachs, notoriously arrogant liberal Columbia University economics professor comes from Magatte Wade, an Africa born immigrant who is a successful entrepreneur. It is found (of all places!) on the Huffington Post.

Wade takes to task not just the condescension of liberal academic do-gooders, she eviscerates the naïveté and sheer ignorance about the way business works emanating from a man supposedly so brilliant that he achieved tenure at Harvard at the youngest age in the university’s history. It just goes to show how thoroughly stuck in abstraction and how unrealistic one can be and still be regarded as brilliant on elite campuses.

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Sarah Palin’s Surprise

Hot Air:

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The people who pronounce themselves “baffled,” and who conclude that Palin has made a stupid move by resigning, are leaving a couple of things out of their calculations. First, Palin is a Christian who, in the past, has made straightforward reference to the will of God. What she believes — what she must believe — is that if it is God’s will that she become president, she will. Therefore, the conventional wisdom of the commetariat and all the advice from political “experts” are just so much noise to her.

Second, Palin’s closest adviser is her husband, Todd. He is not stupid. He is also not a man who will show up on TV and blabber his every thought for the sake of creating the impression that he knows everything.

Just because you don’t know what Sarah Palin is doing doesn’t mean that she doesn’t know what she’s doing.

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An Open Letter to Pastor Rick Warren

Jan Markell, OTM:

On July 5 the Washington Times online reported that Pastor Rick Warren told his Islamic audience, the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA,) that he envisions “a coalition of faith.” Whether Pastor Warren knows this or not, this is just another term for the coming one-world religion outlined in Revelation 13. It is further outlined in Revelation 17. I have not taken on the issue of Rick Warren all that often, but after reading what the Washington Times has to say about his message to a group of spiritually lost Muslims, I feel I must address this in an open letter to who many say is the most influential pastor in America and some would say the world.

Pastor Warren, you pleaded with 8,000 Muslim listeners on Saturday, July 4, to work together to solve the world’s greatest problems by cooperating in a series of interfaith projects.  You said, “Muslims and Christians can work together for the common good without compromising my convictions or your convictions.”

Pastor Warren, you needed to compromise the convictions of the Muslims in attendance. To just say that “My deepest faith is in Jesus Christ” was not enough to a thoroughly lost crowd.

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