WAHHABISM LIVES: As Americans fight Islamic radicals abroad, those radicals continue to win converts here in the United States. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D.-N.Y.) testified June 26 before a Senate committee about the power that organizations influenced by the radical Wahhabi sect of Sunni Islam have in the U.S. military and U.S. prisons. "While the potential Wahhabi influence in the U.S. armed forces is not well documented, these organizations have succeeded in ensuring that militant Wahhabism is the only form of Islam that is preached to the 12,000 Muslims in federal prisons," he said. "The imams flood the prisons with anti-American, pro-bin Laden videos, literature and sermon tapes."
RACISM LIVES: Major Democratic presidential candidates hailed the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling favoring subtle racism in university admissions, even going so far as to express dismay that the court struck down the University of Michigan's explicitly racist college admissions policy. The court kept the University of Michigan Law School's more subtle racial preferences system. "While I am disappointed in the Supreme Court's decision today to overturn the University of Michigan's undergraduate affirmative action program, the court's ruling upholding the law school case makes clear that race continues to be a legitimate factor to consider in providing opportunity to all students," said Rep. Dick Gephardt (D.-Mo.), a Michigan Law grad, in endorsing racism via a statement. Said Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D.-Conn.) in his own statement June 23, "The court made the right decision by siding with the University of Michigan Law School, rejecting arguments that diversity and excellence are at odds. While they should have gone further and also upheld Michigan's undergraduate admissions program, that ruling will not prevent well-crafted affirmative action programs from going forward."
NOT JUST THE LAW: Last month's pro-sodomy decision in the U.S. Supreme Court's Lawrence v. Texas case did not just violate the Constitution, the rule of law, and self-government. Christian leaders also noted that it violated long-standing norms of civilization concerning sexual activity, which has never been considered purely private. Focus on the Family Vice President of Public Policy Tom Minnery said June 26, "With today's decision, the court continues pillaging its way through the moral norms of our country. If the people have no right to regulate sexuality, then ultimately the institution of marriage is in peril, and with it, the welfare of the coming generations of children." And said Bishop Wilton Gregory, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, "In its decision, Lawrence v. Texas, the Supreme Court has chosen to view homosexual behavior between consenting adults as a matter of privacy. However, human sexuality cannot be viewed this way. Sexual activity has profound social consequences which are not limited to those immediately engaged in sexual acts. . . . The Catholic Church teaches, in agreement with other faith traditions and with what were once the norms generally accepted by society, that sexual activity belongs to the marital relationship between one man and one woman in fidelity to each other."
FREE TO EAT: The courts may declare that all sexual activity of any kind is a constitutional right, but there is no guarantee that they will do the same regarding eating. Health fascists are now targeting the food industry, trying to restrict the availability or raise the prices of supposedly unhealthy foods. (Proponents of the Atkins and other low-carbohydrate diets say that targeting high-fat foods-one of the health fascists' least favorite things-will make Americans unhealthier.) The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, reported CNN.com on June 27, wants the food industry protected from the fascists' lawyers, who may perhaps be hoping to win billions of dollars in fees as did the anti-tobacco lawyers. Todd Buchholz, a former White House economist, "said fat levels in fast food and home-cooked meals have declined since the 1970s," reported CNN, but Americans have gotten fatter. Rep. Ric Keller (R.-Fla.) has a bill to forbid the lawsuits.
THE TRUTH: In the course of interviewing Matt Drudge for Radar magazine, Camille Paglia stated: "I used to think, at the beginning of the '90s, that we had a relatively free press and that people were out to make their reputations in the Woodward-Bernstein model. But I no longer think that. Most of the reporters on the networks and in main northeastern newspapers are company men-shmoozing careerists who are desperately afraid to rock the boat."
