Citizen's Briefing Book

The Citizen's Briefing Book is a section of Change.gov, an online website that the Obama administration will maintain.  The Citizen's Briefing Book attempts to give the masses the power to share ideas with the president.  The website allows anyone to sign up to suggest ideas and issues and rank the ideas of others.  As expected, many of the issues include the usual "stupidity in masses" mentality seen frequently online.  However, there are a few gems hidden among the trash.

Most of the ideas in The Citizen's Briefing Book are fairly fiscally wasteful and some are very socially conservative as well.  I hope that the general public will hear about the website soon, allowing for possibility of diversifying the idea spectrum.  I encourage everyone to sign up for the Citizen's Briefing Book and vote up or add issues that matter, but please do not vote on issues when you are not well-informed.

Our Government Loves Us

I recently read about how an official in the Department of Homeland Security is interested in requiring ever air plane passenger to wear an "Electronic ID bracelet." These bracelets contain information about the passenger (taking the place of a boarding pass) so passengers could be easily tracked and it would have the ability to act as a taser device against the wearer if necessary. These devices would supposedly be very effective to fend off terrorists while in air.

I found it interesting when reading about this bracelet that the government only seems to want to use them to protect plane passengers. I mean, planes are one type of transportation that could be targeted by terrorists, but what about buses? Can't you imagine a terrorist wreaking havoc on buses and trains killing dozens of innocent passengers just as easily as on air planes? Sure the air plane is more difficult to exit in an emergency, but buses are in even more public places than planes, allowing for people who are not even on the bus to be hurt.

For that matter, why should we restrict the use of these bracelets to buses and trains? What if a terrorist is walking around on the streets of some major city and decides he is going to whip out enough explosives to blow up a city block? What if a terrorist is on the run and no one knows where? An electronic tracking device/taser seems like the perfect remedy for these horrible situations.

In conclusion, I believe the proponents of this device at the Department of Homeland Security should broaden the scope of their argument and look into requiring this bracelet for any person, citizen or not, who resides or will soon reside within the United States at any time. After that they should consider installing cameras in every television set sold and seeking enough funding for the Department of Homeland Security enough so that every citizen can be monitored at all times to ensure they are staying out of trouble and only eating trans fats on weekends.

How to Control the World

The most effective way to control the world is to control the supply of an essential item such as water or oxygen. Fortunately, completely controlling the supply of essentials is usually very difficult. Unfortunately, our patenting system in the United States has recently been transforming in such a way that encourages monopolies of control over many very common items, including food.

One of the biggest problems I see with our patent system is that it allows for the complete control over strains of genetically modified food and animals. At first glance it may not seem like a monopoly on specific strains of food would matter much. Farmers would just be able to not buy the strain or to use the seeds from their own already modified plants if they so wished, right? Wrong.

The U.S. patenting system allows for genetically modified seed to be sold in mass with restrictive stipulations placed upon them. For example, genetically modified seeds are often sold with the restriction that the seeds cannot be reused in the next years crop, so the farmer must purchase more costly seeds directly from source next year. This allows for a monopoly on this specific strain of seeds such that anyone who has these genetically modified plants are forced to buy their seeds from the supplier with the patent.

This doesn't seem so bad, right? A smart farmer would just not buy the genetically modified seeds in the first place if these crazy stipulations were placed on the use of these seeds. Unfortunately, this approach still does not circumvent this flawed system. Many plants spread their pollen far and wide, ensuring that genetically modified plants will contaminate any crops near them. Once a genetically modified hybrid plant has been produced, the law leaves the ownership of this plant in a potentially very dangerous place.

A company called Monsanto has been practicing this form of controlling the world over the years and they are becoming increasingly better at it. Monsanto owns thousands of patents on herbicides, insecticides, genetically modified seeds, and they have even filed a patent for genes present in pigs. Monsanto distributes the most popular herbicide and they are by far the leading producer and patent owner of genetically modified seed.

There are many conspiracy videos explaining how Monsanto is attempting to gain control of all pigs worldwide and is generally harming the world as a whole. Regardless of Monsanto's intentions, they obviously do not care at all about the health of the world (see Agent Orange) and they are in a position that allows them nearly complete control over all food. It is a bit curious how many people have supposedly been fired or humiliated for researching or reporting bad information about Monsanto.

Although people are fighting back and sometimes winning battles, Monsanto is winning the war. Congratulations to the Monsanto Corporation for grossly taking advantage of human ignorance and obtaining the power to control the world in the most effective way I have ever seen.

United States Drug Schedule Madness

In the United States Drug Schedules are used to determine to what extent certain drugs are federally regulated. Drugs in Schedules I and II have a high potential for abuse. Drugs in Schedule I have no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States and there is a lack of accepted safety of the drug under medical supervision.

Given the use of medical marijuana in California, I would have to argue that there is definitely a medical use of this drug. I would also argue that there is not a lack of accepted safety with this drug because it is difficulty to accidentally overdose. Unfortunately marijuana is on the Schedule I drug list. This means that legally marijuana has no accepted medical use and it is illegal to use marijuana medically.

Cocaine is used to some extent nationally in hospitals as a topical anesthetic. Cocaine's usage has decreased over the years, but it is definitely still used. Cocaine is on the Schedule II drug list. This means that by law there is a currently accepted medical use for cocaine. This is certainly true, although decreasingly so.

The thing that greatly bothers me about the United States Drug Schedules is that it is ruled that there is no acceptable medical use for marijuana, but there is an acceptable medical use for cocaine. Marijuana is a fairly effective painkiller that is much less physically shocking and much less addictive than many alternative painkillers that are legally prescribed. Cocaine is much more dangerous recreationally and therefore has a much greater potential for abuse. Why should cocaine be legal to prescribe if marijuana is not?

The Tea Party Begins

I support Dr. Ron Paul for president. The main reason I support him is that he is one of the very few politicians in our country who uses reason and logic to make decisions. His ideas closely resemble the ideas of many of our founding fathers. He believes the basic rulebook of our country, the Constitution, should be regarded and respected as the important document it is.

A few months ago people could have argued that Dr. Paul had no chance at winning and people often made this claim and touted it as fact. At this time it would be very difficult to argue that Ron Paul has no chance of winning the Republican primaries. Paul's support is increasing greatly. His campaign funding is growing immensely and the grassroots efforts of his supporters are never ending.

December 16 is the anniversary of the Boston Tea Party. Many supporters of Ron Paul have decided to celebrate this date by donating money to Paul's campaign. The "tea party" officially began at 12:00am EST. I expect the campaign to have broken their fourth quarter goal of $12 million dollars by 2:00am EST. I wish Paul's campaign the best of luck on this day.

Speech Regarding Affirmative Action

I recently attended a forum at UCLA regarding affirmative action. The three speakers present included Ward Connerly (founder and Chairman of ACRI), Richard Sander (faculty member of UCLA School of Law), and Peter Schwartz (former Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Ayn Rand Institute). The forum was mostly a discussion against affirmative action as it currently stands.

All three speakers argued in favor of California proposition 209, which banned state-sponsored discrimination based on race. Sander used statistics and findings from personal research to demonstrate that affirmative action is counter-productive in the battle against racism. He also argued that a comprehensive review of the affects of proposition 209 needs to be performed.

Connerly argued against the case Grutter v. Bollinger which allows universities to favor under represented groups in order to ensure diversity. Connerly argued that if this policy was enforced at UCLA then Asians could potentially be discriminated against due to their large over representation here.

Sander's arguments were very well formed, but I disagreed strongly with Sander's view that the wealthy kids could be discriminated against as a form of socio-economic justice. I respect Sander for the research he has done and for his immense patience during the brutal question and answer session at the end of the speech, but I think he is wrong in assuming that discrimination against anyone wealthy is justified.

Schwartz had the most capitalistic arguments of the night. Some of his statements were also somewhat accusatory towards audience members and people who support affirmative action. Although Schwartz expressed his views in a somewhat extreme fashion, I agreed with his views more than the other two speakers present. Schwartz brought up many points that the other two candidates did not. The most important point Schwartz brought up was in response to a question about how to solve the root of this problem of classism and racism. Schwartz's response was a simple one: give children a better education and ensure everyone has the education they deserve. I have argued this solution to the problem of racist and classist discrimination before.

The thing that surprised my the most about this speech was the demeanor of the protesters present. I honestly was not very surprised by the large number of protesters because so much controversy surrounds this issue. The protesters that spoke up, there were many that did, used circular logic or attacked the speakers with very outlandish accusations. Little respect was shown for the speakers while the speakers seemed to have nothing but good intentions.

Battling Racism through Education

This post is not about whether or not affirmative action is justified (See Racism and the Reverse). I may criticize affirmative action in this post, but that is only because I believe there is a more important and more effective way to battle racism. I look at affirmative action as attempting to treating the symptoms of a disease rather than attempting to cure the disease. The disease of racism may always be present in our society, but there are things we can do to help prevent the seeds of racism to grow in the next generation.

There is one goal that all affirmative action advocates have that I personally believe in. This goal is the to "level the playing field" for all races. I believe the goal is best attainable by starting children off on the "same level" by ensuring they have the same opportunities to obtain an education. In my opinion, the two key aspects of this unleveled playing field are lack of education and unhealthy family relations. In the United States today social standing, wealth, and skin color probably matter much less as a child than education and family relations do when speaking of giving a child the opportunity to succeed in life. These other factors do matter, but they play minor roles in giving a child an opportunity to succeed.

Education is the ultimate tool. It is my opinion that regardless of whether someone is poor or rich, if they are educated their potential to succeed in life is increased greatly. One problem for lower-class minorities today is that it is often very difficult to receive a good education in a low-income area. Low-income areas tend to have very poor public schools with little funding and ineffective teachers. This problem needs to be solved by raising the money to do whatever needs to be done to get really good teachers and really good programs set in place in these lower-class schools.

Every child is shaped by the family they grow up with. Families influence their children in both positive and negative ways. The negative ways in which families can influence children include not supporting their goals and dreams, convincing them that they do not need an education, and guilt-tripping them into making decisions that may affect them negatively. Families may not push their children to obtain an education, they may force them to drop out of school to support them, or they may tell them they should not pursue a college education. In my opinion, negative family influence is the one big road block that may keep the educational playing field unleveled for longer than expected.

Lower-class families need to be encouraged to support their children in their educational endeavors. Giving children the chance to receive a good education and prove their intelligence is the most important step the government can take in combating racism at a legal level. The argument that leeway must be given to minorities applying for jobs and college is based on the idea that minorities currently do not receive the same education and opportunities as everyone else.
Ensuring that everyone, minorities included, have easy access to education will allow everyone the opportunity to succeed.

Transcript From Recent Osama Bin Laden Video

The mainstream media makes it very difficult to find some information. An example of this is Osama Bin Laden's latest video which surfaced on September 7, 2007. The video was made sometime in the past few months based on the news events referenced in the tape. According to Bin Laden's statement that "just a few days ago, the Japanese observed the 62nd anniversary of the annihilation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki" I would date the tape to somewhere around August 8th.

I believe that public information such as this should be easily available. A transcript of the video is included below. I have linked some words and phrases to relevant websites.

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All praise is due to Allah who built the Heavens and earth in justice, and created man as a favor and grace from Him. And from His ways in that the days rotate between the people, and from His law is retaliation in kind: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth and the killer is killed. And all praise is due
to Allah, who awakened His slaves' desires for the Garden, and all of them will enter it except those who refuse. And whoever obeys Him alone in all of his affairs will enter the Garden, and whoever disobeys him will have refused.

As for what comes after: Peace be upon he who follows the Guidance. People of America: I shall be speaking to you on important topics which concern you, so lend me your ears. I begin by discussing the war which is between us and some of its repercussions for us and you.

To preface, I say: despite America being the greatest economic power and possessing the most powerful and up-to-date military arsenal as well; and despite it spending on this war and is army more than the entire world spends on its armies; and despite it being the being the major state influencing the policies of the world, as if it has a monopoly on the unjust right to veto; despite all of this, 19 young men were able - by the grace of Allah, the Most High - to change the direction of its compass. And in fact, the subject of the Mujahideen has become an inseparable part of the speech of your leader, and the effects and signs of that are not hidden.

Since the 11th, many of America's policies have come under the influence of Mujahideen, and that is by the grace of Allah, the Most High. And as a result, the people discovered the truth about it, its reputation worsened, its prestige was broken globally and it was bled dry economically, even if our interests overlap with those of the major corporations and also with those of the neoconservatives, despite the differing intentions.

And for your information media, during the first years of the war, lost its credibility and manifested itself as a tool of the colonialist empire, and its condition has often been worse than the condition of the media of the dictatorial regimes which march in the caravan of the single leader.

Then Bush talks about his working with al-Maliki and his government to spread freedom in Iraq but he in fact is working with the leaders of one sect against another sect, in the belief that this will quickly decide the war in his favor.

And thus, what is called the civil war came into being and matters worsened at his hands before getting out of his control and him becoming like the one who plows and sows the sea: he harvests nothing but failure.

So these are some of the results of the freedom about whose spreading he is talking to you. And then the backtracking of Bush on his insistence on not giving the United Nations expanded jurisdiction in Iraq is an implicit admission of his loss and defeat there.

And among the most important items contained in Bush's speeches since the events of the 11th is that the Americans have no option but to continue the war. This tone is in fact an echoing of the words of neoconservatives like Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Richard Perle, the latter having said previously that the Americans have no choice in front of them other than to continue the war or face a holocaust.

I say, refuting this unjust statement, that the morality and culture of the holocaust is your culture, not our culture. In fact, burning living beings is forbidden in our religion, even if they be small like the ant, so what of man?! The holocaust of the Jews was carried out by your brethren in the middle of Europe, but had it been closer to our countries, most of the Jews would have been saved by taking refuge with us. And my proof for that is in what your brothers, the Spanish, did when they set up the horrible courts of the Inquisition to try Muslims and Jews, when the Jews only found safe shelter by taking refuge in our countries. And that is why the Jewish community in Morocco today is one of the largest communities in the world. They are alive with us and we have not incinerated them, but we are a people who don't sleep under oppression and reject humiliation and disgrace, and we take revenge on the people of tyranny and aggression, and the blood of the Muslims will not be spilled with impunity, and the morrow is nigh for he who awaits.

Also, your Christian brothers have been living among us for 14 centuries in Egypt alone, there are millions of Christians whom we have not incinerated and shall not incinerate. But the fact is, there is a continuing and biased campaign being waged against us for a long time now by your politicians and many of your writers by way of your media, especially Hollywood, for the purpose of misrepresenting Islam and its adherents to drive you away from the true religion. The genocide of peoples and their holocausts took place at your hands: only a few specimens of Red Indians were spared, and just a few days ago, the Japanese observed the 62nd anniversary of the annihilation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by your nuclear weapons.

And among the things which catch the eye of the one who considers the repercussions of your unjust war against Iraq is the failure of your democratic system, despite it raising of the slogans of justice, liberty, equality, and humanitarianism. It has not only failed to achieve these things, it has actually destroyed these and other concepts with its weapons - especially in Iraq and Afghanistan - in a brazen fashion, to replace them with fear, destruction, killing, hunger, illness, displacement and more than a million orphans in Baghdad alone, not to mention hundreds of thousands of widows. American statistics speak of the killing of more than 650,000 of the people of Iraq as the result of the war and its repercussions.

People of America: the world is following your news in regards to your invasion of Iraq, for people have recently come to know that, after several years of the tragedies of this war, the vast majority of you want it stopped. Thus, you elected the Democratic Party for this purpose, but the Democrats haven't made a move worth mentioning. On the contrary, they continue to agree to the spending of tens of billions to continue the killing and war there, which has led to the vast majority of you being afflicted with disappointment.

And here is the gist of the matter, so one should pause, think, and reflect: why have the Democrats failed to stop this war, despite them being the majority?

I will come back to reply to this question after raising another question, which is:

Why are the leaders of the White House keen to start wars and wage them around the world, and make use of every possible opportunity through which they can reach this purpose, occasionally even creating justifications based on deception and blatant lies, as you saw in Iraq?

In the Vietnam War, the leaders of the White House claimed at the time that it was a necessary and crucial war, and during it, Rumsfeld and his aides murdered two million villagers. And when Kennedy took over the presidency and deviated from the general line of policy drawn up for the White House and wanted to stop this unjust war, that angered the owners of the major corporations who were benefiting from its continuation.

And so Kennedy was killed, and al-Qaida wasn't present at that time, but rather, those corporations were the primary beneficiary from his killing. And the war continued after that for approximately one decade. But after it became clear to you that it was an unjust and unnecessary war, you made one of your greatest mistakes, in that you neither brought to account nor punished those who waged this war, not even the most violent of its murderers, Rumsfeld. And even more incredible than that is that Bush picked him as secretary of defense in his first term after picking Cheney as his vice-president, Powell as secretary of state and Armitage as Powell's deputy, despite their horrific and bloody history of murdering humans. So that was a clear signal that his administration - the administration of the generals - didn't have as its main concern the serving of humanity, but rather, was interested in bringing about new massacres. Yet in spite of that, you permitted Bush to complete his first term, and stranger still, chose him for a second term, which gave him a clear mandate from you - with your full knowledge and consent - to continue to murder our people in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Then you claim to be innocent! This innocence of yours is like my innocence of the blood of your sons on the 11th - were I to claim such a thing. But it is impossible for me to humor any of you in the arrogance and indifference you show for the lives of humans outside America, or for me to humor your leaders in their lying, as the entire world knows they have the lion's share of that. These morals aren't our morals. What I want to emphasize here is that not taking past war criminals to account led to them repeating that crime of killing humanity without right and waging this unjust war on Mesopotamia, and as a result, here are the oppressed ones today continuing to take their right from you.

This war was entirely unnecessary, as testified to by your own reports. And among the most capable of those from your own side who speak to you on this topic and on the manufacturing of public opinion is Noam Chomsky, who spoke sober words of advice prior to the war, but the leader of Texas doesn't like those who give advice. The entire world came out in unprecedented demonstrations to warn against waging the war and describe its true nature in eloquent terms like "no to spilling red blood for black oil," yet he paid them no heed. It is time for humankind to know that talk of the rights of man and freedom are lies produced by the White House and its allies in Europe to deceive humans, take control of their destinies and subjugate them.

So in answer to the question about the causes of the Democrats' failure to stop the war, I say: they are the same reasons which led to the failure of former president Kennedy to stop the Vietnam war. Those with real power and influence are those with the most capital. And since the democratic system permits major corporations to back candidates, be they presidential or congressional, there shouldn't be any causes for astonishment - and there isn't any - in the Democrats' failure to stop the war. And you're the ones who have the saying which goes, "Money talks." And I tell you: after the failure of your representatives in the Democratic Party to implement your desire to stop the war, you can still carry anti-war placards and spread out in the streets of major cites, then go back to your homes, but that will be of no use and will lead to the prolonging of the war.

However, there are two solutions for stopping it. The first is from our side, and it is to continue to escalate the killing and fighting against you. This is our duty, and our brothers are carrying it out, and I ask Allah to grant them resolve and victory. And the second solution is from your side. It has now become clear to you and the entire world the impotence of the democratic system and how it plays with the interests of the peoples and their blood by sacrificing soldiers and populations to achieve the interests of the major corporations.

And with that, it has become clear to all that they are the real tyrannical terrorists. In fact, the life of all of mankind is in danger because of the global warming resulting to a large degree from the emissions of the factories of the major corporations, yet despite that, the representative of these corporations in the White House insists on not observing the Kyoto accord, with the knowledge that the statistic speaks of the death and displacement of the millions of human beings because of that, especially in Africa. This greatest of plagues and most dangerous of threats to the lives of humans is taking place in an accelerating fashion as the world is being dominated by the democratic system, which confirms to massive failure to protect humans and their interests from the greed and avarice of the major corporations and their representatives.

And despite this brazen attack on the people, the leaders of the West - especially Bush, Blair, Sarkozy and Brown - still talk about freedom and human rights with a flagrant disregard for the intellects of human beings. So is there a form of terrorism stronger, clearer, and more dangerous than this? This is why I tell you: as you liberated yourselves before from the slavery of monks, kings, and feudalism, you should liberate yourselves from the deception, shackles, and attrition of the capitalist system.

If you were to ponder it well, you would find that in the end, it is a system harsher and fiercer than your systems in the Middle Ages. The capitalist system seeks to turn the entire world into a fiefdom of the major corporations under the label of "globalization" in order to protect democracy.

And Iraq and Afghanistan and their tragedies; and the reeling of many of you under the burden of interest-related debts, insane taxes and real estate mortgages; global warming and its woes; and the abject poverty and tragic hunger in Africa; all of this is but one side of the grim face of this global system.

So it is imperative that you free yourselves from all of that and search for an alternative, upright methodology in which it is not the business of any class of humanity to lay down its own laws to its own advantages at the expense of the other classes as is the case with you, since the essence of man-made positive laws is that they serve the interests of those with the capital and thus make the rich richer and the poor poorer.

The infallible methodology is the methodology of Allah, the Most High, who created the heavens and earth and created the Creation and is the Most Kind and All-Informed and the Knower of the souls of His slaves and the methodology that best suits them.

You believe with absolute certainty that you believe in Allah, and you are full of conviction of this belief, so much that you have written this belief of yours on your dollar.

But the truth is that you are mistaken in this belief of yours. The impartial judge knows that belief in Allah requires straightness in the following of His methodology, and accordingly, total obedience must be to the orders and prohibitions of Allah Alone in all aspects of life.

So how about you when you associate others with Him in your beliefs and separate state from religion, then claim that you are believers?!

What you have done is clear loss and manifest polytheism. And I will give you a parable of polytheism, as parables summarize and clarify speech.

I tell you: its parable is the parable of a man who owns a shop and hires a worker and tells him, "Sell and give me the money," but he makes sales and give[s] the money to someone other than the owner. So who of you would approve of that?

You believe that Allah is your Lord and your Creator and the Creator of this earth and that it is His property, then you work on His earth and property without His orders and without obeying Him, and you legislate in contradiction to His Law and methodology.

This work of yours is the greatest form of polytheism and is rebellion against obedience to Allah with which the believer becomes an unbeliever, even if he obeys Allah in some of His other orders. Allah, the Most High, sent down His orders in His Sacred Books like the Torah and Evangel and sent with them the Messengers (Allah's prayers and peace be upon them) as bearers of good news to the people.

And everyone who believes in them and complies with them is a believer from the people of the Garden. Then when the men of knowledge altered the words of Allah, the Most High, and sold them for a paltry price, as the rabbis did with the Torah and the monks with the Evangel, Allah sent down His final Book, the magnificent Qur'an, and safeguarded it from being added to or subtracted from by the hands of men, and in it is a complete methodology for the lives of all people.

And our holding firm to this magnificent Book is the secret of our strength and winning of the war against you despite the fewness of our numbers and material.

And if you would like to get to know some of the reasons for your losing of your war against us, then read the book of Michael Scheuer in this regard.

Don't be turned away from Islam by the terrible situation of the Muslims today, for our rulers in general abandoned Islam many decades ago, but our forefathers were the leaders and pioneers of the world for many centuries, when they held firmly to Islam.

And before concluding, I tell you: there has been an increase in the thinkers who study events and happenings, and on the basis of their study, they have declared the approach of the collapse of the American Empire.

Among them is the European thinker who anticipated the fall of the Soviet Union, which indeed fell. And it would benefit you to read what he wrote about what comes after the empire in regard to the United States of America. I also want to bring your attention that among the greatest reasons for the collapse of the Soviet Union was their being afflicted with their leader Brezhnev, who was overtaken by pride and arrogance and refused to look at the facts on the ground. From the first year of the Afghanistan invasion, reports indicated that the Russians were losing the war, but he refused to acknowledge this, lest it go down in his personal history as a defeat, even though refusal to acknowledge defeat not only doesn't do anything to change the facts for thinking people, but also exacerbates the problem and increases the losses. And how similar is your position today to their position approximately two decades ago. The mistakes of Brezhnev are being repeated by Bush, who - when asked about the date of his withdrawing of forces from Iraq - said in effect that the withdrawal will not be during his reign, but rather, during the reign of the one who succeeds him. And the significance of these words is not hidden.

And here I say: it would benefit you to listen to the poignant messages of your soldiers in Iraq, who are paying - with their blood, nerves and scattered limbs - the price for these sorts of irresponsible statements. Among them is the eloquent message of Joshua which he sent by way of the media, in which he wipes the tears from his eyes and describes American politicians in harsh terms and invites them to join him there for a few days. Perhaps his message will find in you an attentive ear so you can rescue him and more than 150,000 of your sons there who are tasting the two bitterest things:

If they leave their barracks, the mines devour them, and if they refuse to leave, rulings are passed against them. Thus, the only options left in front of them are to commit suicide or cry, both of which are from the severest of afflictions. So is there anything more men can do after crying and killing themselves to make you respond to them? They are doing that out of the severity of the humiliation, fear and terror which they are suffering. It is severer than what the slaves used to suffer at your hands centuries ago, and it is as if some of them have gone from one slavery to another slavery more severe and harmful, even if it be in the fancy dress of the Defense Department's financial enticements.

So do you feel the greatness of their sufferings?

To conclude, I invite you to embrace Islam, for the greatest mistake one can make in this world and one which is uncorrectable is to die while not surrendering to Allah, the Most High, in all aspects of one's life - i.e., to die outside of Islam. And Islam means gain for you in this first life and the next, final life. The true religion is a mercy for people in their lives, filling their hearts with serenity and calm.

There is a message for you in the Mujahideen; the entire world is in pursuit of them, yet their hearts, by the grace of Allah, are satisfied and tranquil. The true religion also puts peoples' lives in order with its laws; protects their needs and interests; refines their morals; protects them from evils; and guarantees for them entrance into Paradise in the hereafter through their obedience to Allah and sincere worship of Him Alone.

And it will also achieve your desire to stop the war as a consequence, because as soon as the warmongering owners of the major corporations realize that you have lost confidence in your democratic system and begun to search for an alternative, and that this alternative is Islam, they will run after you to please you and achieve what you want to steer you away from Islam. So your true compliance with Islam will deprive them of the opportunity to defraud the peoples and take their money under numerous pretexts, like arms deals and so on.

There are no taxes in Islam, but rather there is a limited Zakaat [alms] totaling only 2.5%. So beware of the deception of those with the capital. And with your earnest reading about Islam from its pristine sources, you will arrive at an important truth, which is that the religion of all of the Prophets (peace and blessings of Allah be upon them) is one, and that its essence is submission to the orders of Allah Alone in all aspects of life, even if their Shari'ahs (Laws) differ.

And did you know that the name of the Prophet of Allah Jesus and his mother (peace and blessings of Allah be on them both) are mentioned in the Noble Qu'ran dozens of times, and that in the Qu'ran there is a chapter whose name is "Maryam," i.e. Mary, daughter of Imran and mother of Jesus (peace and blessings of Allah be upon them both)? It tells the story of her becoming pregnant with the Prophet of Allah Jesus (peace and blessings of Allah be upon them both), and in its confirmation of her chastity and purity, in contrast to the fabrications of the Jews against her. Whoever wishes to find that out for himself must listen to the verse of this magnificent chapter: one of the just kings of the Christians - the Negus - listened to some of its verses and his eyes welled up with tears and he said something which should be reflected on for a long time by those sincere in their search for the truth.

He said, "verily, this and what Jesus brought come from one lantern": i.e., that the magnificent Qu'ran and the Evangel are both from Allah, the Most High; and every just and intelligent one of you who reflects on the Qu'ran will definitely arrive at this truth. It also must be noted that Allah has preserved the Qu'ran from the alterations of men. And reading in order to become acquainted with Islam only requires a little effort, and those of you who are guided will profit greatly. And peace be upon he who follows the Guidance.

2008 Presidential Candidates: Keeping Informed

Being an informed voter and voting in presidential and state elections is probably the most important role one has as a citizen in the United States of America. As such, finding the best ways to keep informed about elections is important. I have faced the fact that at this time our system is a two party system when it comes to the presidential election. I do not like this fact and I hope another party can step up to the plate soon. However, the system being as it is, the places I look for information on presidential candidates may be biased towards these two parties solely, leaving out any talk of other parties.

I have found that the best places to find information on presidential candidates are online. Personally, I have researched the upcoming presidential candidates a lot already, but I will be keeping up with the debates and some of the key speeches as time goes by. Some might think it is a bit early to be looking at candidates when the election is over a year away. I will remind those of you that think this that the primary elections are in February. I know very few voters, if any, that vote in the primaries, but I feel it is the most important part of the election process because it is the only time you get to decide out of well over a dozen candidates, which one you want to make the cut. I encourage everyone to inform themselves as a voter, try to remain open minded, and vote in the primaries when they come around.

Here are a list of websites I recommend for finding out about the candidates:

1. Candidates@Google (Google's QA Sessions With Candidates)
   
2. YouTube's You Choose '08
3. OnTheIssues - 2008 Presidential Race Speculation
4. Project Vote Smart - 2008 Presidential Candidates
5. Presidential Political Compass (Not useful but interesting)
6. Pick Your Candidate (Uses 2decide's On The Issues)
7. Council on Foreign Relations - Issue Tracker
8. Election.tv
9. Tech President

"Racism and the Reverse" Response

This post is a response to Racism and the Reverse. In the previous post George defended the "current approach" for dealing with racism. The current approach often comes in the form of affirmative action and is meant to reverse the effects of racism. I disagree with George's defense of this approach to battle racism and I disagree with the idea of affirmative action.

I agree with George that racism is most certainly still a problem in the United States. I do not believe affirmative action is the correct way to counter current discrimination problems. George raised three arguments that support the use of affirmative action today. I believe these are valid points but each of these points can be solved by means other than affirmative action.

George's first point brings up the idea of battling racism at the individual level. This point is applicable when an admissions, recruitment, or hiring officer of a school or business is racist. The problem with assuming affirmative action can fix racism at the individual level is that more than half of the hiring officers need to be racist for this method to be beneficial at all. If less than half of the hiring officers are racist then the extra leeway given in favor of one race will statistically allow less qualified employees of that race to be hired.* This creates a flaw in the system in favor of one race, just as racism itself does and the problem then exists in the reverse. Instead of using affirmative action, this "individual racism" problem can be battled by administering tests to ensure these hiring officers are racially unbiased to a reasonable means.

The second point George made was that flaws in the hiring or admissions system of a company/university may encourage racism. The example given in the previous post was a test biased against minorities. I think systems that encourage racism are special cases that need to be fixed on a case-to-case basis. Most of these systems are probably due to minorities not receiving the opportunity to seek the education or credentials they need. This situation cannot be helped by lowering the bar slightly for certain minorities that tend to lack the opportunity to seek the qualifications needed for a certain job.

Any non-discriminatory system should ensure that everyone is given the opportunity to learn, especially poor inner-city children whose school systems may be of a poor caliber. This problem of uneven education opportunities is the root of the racism problem and it is the major reason that a low number of minorities are admitted into colleges. If affirmative action were used to solve this problem instead, employers would be required by law to hire potentially under-educated people. This could lead to people making the assumption that employees of that particular minority are not up to par and de facto racism will occur.

The third point brought up was that minorities may not be hired because customers and statistics are biased against them. This point is strongly linked to the second point of flaws in a system that encourage racism. This problem can only be solved over time by ensuring that all minorities have the same opportunity for an education as the majority has. Once this is true the average education levels of minorities will increase and reverse this trend of racist thinking. An opportunity for education is the most important factor to ensure equality among all demographics of people and it is the only way to properly combat racism.

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* Explanation: Imagine a scenario where three out of ten admissions officers at a college are racist. Affirmative action is practiced at this school so being a minority boosts your chance of getting in slightly. This may help counter racism of the three racist officers but the other seven officers will also be letting in more minorities than they would have without affirmative action. Assuming each official evaluates an approximately equal number of minorities, this system will ensure that seven out of every ten minorities that entered the school had too much preferential treatment.

MPAA Movie Ratings: NC-17 Movies

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has a de facto monopoly on movie ratings in the United States. The MPAA rating system was started in 1968 after rising complaints over the presence of sexual content, graphic violence, and profanity in some films. The system ensured that the federal government would not create their own movie rating system which would have allowed a de jure monopoly on movie ratings.

The MPAA's rating system has acquired quite a bit of fire from critics. Most of the controversy that surrounds the MPAA ratings is due to the NC-17 rating. Nearly all major theaters follow the MPAA rating system. Movie theaters that follow this system will not allow minors into movies with an NC-17 rating even if a parent accompanies them.

Movies with an NC-17 rating are shunned in the United States. Many movie theaters will not even play NC-17 rated movies. Movie producers do not want their movies rated NC-17 because of this bias. Movies that receive an NC-17 rating are usually edited and resubmitted until they receive an R rating.

According to my count, over 90 out of the 157 NC-17-rated movies were appealed or re-edited until they received an R rating. This bias against NC-17 rated films effectively creates nation-wide movie censorship. The censorship created by this system may be more the fault of misconceptions of the American public than the fault of the MPAA. Regardless to whose fault this censorship is, it is still a problem.

Fortunately, many edited movies are being released in an "Unrated" form on DVD, allowing movie buyers to see the movie in its original form. This allows for an alternative to the censored release version of the movie but it does not act as a solution to this problem. The MPAA should revise the current movie rating system or theater owners should adopt multiple rating systems, allowing for competition and hopefully encouraging less censorship.

Industrial Hemp: A Dead Cash Crop

The cannabis plant is often associated with the drug marijuana, which is harvested from strains of cannabis that have high levels of THC. Industrial hemp is a strain of the cannabis plant that has low levels of THC, rendering it useless as a drug. Cannabis plants are illegal to grow in the United States, regardless of their THC content, because some strains of cannabis can be harvested to produce the drug marijuana. Since hemp is a strain of cannabis, industrial hemp is illegal to grow in the United States.

Hemp is a very useful resource and has numerous uses. Before hemp was outlawed in the United States it was seen as valuable cash crop. The U.S. Department of Agriculture actually released a film called "Hemp for Victory" in 1942 in order to promote the production of the hemp plant to support the war effort. Industrial hemp plants produce very strong fibers and, along with cotton and flax, are one of the most useful natural fibers known to man.

There is a theory that cannabis plants were originally outlawed in the US in order to stop hemp from taking business away from many other industries. This theory is fairly widely accepted by advocates of industrial hemp. Of course, some consider this theory to be inaccurate. Regardless of whether or not there was a well-planned conspiracy to outlaw the production of industrial hemp, the fact still stands that industrial hemp is outlawed in the United States.

There are no good arguments for keeping industrial hemp illegal. One common argument against industrial hemp is that it would be too hard to tell industrial hemp apart crops from medical cannabis crops. This is not true. It is fairly easy to tell industrial hemp crops and medical cannabis crops apart based on appearance, the way in which they are grown, and the time of year they are ready for harvesting. David P. West's Hemp and Marijuana: Myth's & Realities sheds some light on the truths about industrial hemp.

Legalizing industrial hemp is not a lost cause. Organizations such as Vote Hemp are trying to legalize industrial hemp in the United States. The U.S. Department of Agriculture published a study on hemp in 2000. Ron Paul introduced the Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2005 and the Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2007 to Congress. A wealth of information is available on industrial hemp. Hopefully U.S. politicians will wake up and see the light soon.

Discussion on Intellectual Property

The actions taken by many companies in the United States have got me thinking about intellectual property and its role in society. My last post was about how intellectual property laws concerning music are being abused in the United States.

Research into the abuse of intellectual property has lead to me literature that shuns the whole idea of intellectual property such as Lawrence Lessig's Free Culture (freely available of course). Lessig brings up points such as the fact that the amount of time a work can be copyrighted has changed multiple times. Originally a work was copyrighted for 28 years, then it could be copyrighted for 75 years, and now a work can be copyrighted for 95 years. This means that since our current copyright laws in the U.S. started in 1923, any work whose copyright was properly renewed has not entered the public domain yet. This means at the current rate of copyright law changing the copyright term may one day be limitless.

An unlimited copyright term is probably the worst thing that can happen to intellectual property law. An unlimited term for copyright means that any new creation which is based on a previously copyrighted idea will be subject to royalty fees. If in 50 years people want to make things that are loosely based upon other works created a long time ago, they will have to pay royalty fees to create their work. With this cycle, people will eventually run out of completely original and new things to create and basically everyone who creates something will need to pay up.

Intellectual property laws discourage the creation of new works that are not completely original. Anyone who creates a derivative work could potentially be sued. The 'fair use' clause of copyright law should exempt some works from paying royalty fees. Fair use should cover educational uses and non-profit uses. Apparently filesharing and educational YouTube videos do not fall under this fair use clause.

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) of 1998 added another layer of evil to intellectual copyright law. The DMCA makes it illegal to circumvent copy protection methods in order to modify software or equipment that you own. This means that by modifying many electronic devices or pieces of software for your own personal uses you may be breaking the law. The most ridiculous section of the DMCA is the WIPO Copyright and Performances and Phonograms Treaties Implementation Act. Out of all the sections of the DMCA, this section has probably caused the most unnecessary court cases targeting innocent consumers.

One solution to the abuse of intellectual property is to abolish intellectual property from the law completely. This would hurt large companies and benefit consumers. One could argue that it makes sense for certain things to be copyrighted. Intellectual property could still be protected when absolutely necessary by including a contract of use that one must agree to when acquiring a particular item. This would make intellectual property unprotected by default, which allows for more incentive to create derivative works.

Abolishing intellectual property completely is not a feasible solution in the United States today. Our copyright laws are too deeply rooted. However, finding an optimum length for copyright terms and abolishing acts such as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act would help our situation. The optimum length of a copyright term would enable the creator to seek great financial reward but would allow the work to enter the public domain in an appropriate amount of time so new derivative works could be freely made. A Cambridge student claims to have calculated the optimum length of time for a copyright term to be 14 years. Hopefully someday our government will encourage creation and progress of intellectual property by lowering the copyright term for new works.

RIAA: The Worst Company In America

A recent poll conducted by The Consumerist concluded that the RIAA is currently the worst company in America. The RIAA has sued over twenty thousand file sharers since 2003. They are a relentless suing machine.

Among the people sued by the RIAA are a ten-year-old girl, a twelve-year-old girl and a dead woman. The RIAA has targeted YouTube video uploaders who dance to music, coffee shop owners who play live music, and AM/FM radio. A man who offers free guitar lessons through YouTube videos has even been targeted by the RIAA for copyright infringement because the songs he teaches are copyrighted.

The RIAA has petitioned judges to lower artist royalties. This is the most wrong of all their wrongdoings. The people who deserve the money most in the music industry today are the artists.

The RIAA is not the only company fighting this losing battle against music lovers. The NMPA and MPA recently sent take a down letter to OLGA (as their homepage currently states). OLGA is an archive of guitar tablature. The take down letter was sent because OLGA has guitar tablature for copyrighted music. Most of this tablature is transcribed by ear and therefore not necessarily even accurate. I think it is just as wrong to sue OLGA as it would be to sue a website that posts the lyrics to a song, most of which would be transcribed by ear.

I sent an email to my local representative in the district I vote in because he has accepted large amounts of campaign contributions from the RIAA. The email informed him that he had lost my vote because of the people he received contributions from. Like a good caring politician he of course sent me a love letter back to me stating that he'd love to hear from me again. Most politicians will probably not listen at all but if you are interested here is a list of politicians who have received campaign contributions from the RIAA.

Despite the massive amounts of people that have been sued in recent years due to a "misuse of music," this fight is a lost cause. This is a lost cause just as a war against sex would be a lost cause. File sharing is on the rise and guitar tablature can still be found all over the internet. The plans of the RIAA will probably backfire badly at some point and they may end up in a bad mess with little income and no love from artists or listeners. Until then try to stay under the radar of the RIAA and if you are extreme enough, boycott them.

What Democrats thought of Iraq

I found an interesting website that lists quotes from Democrats both after and before 9/11. All of the quotes support the claim that Saddam Hussein has been producing weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Many of the claims show support for using force against Iraq and Saddam Hussein specifically. All of the quotes have sources listed for contextual purposes.

I think these quotes demonstrate an interesting point. The Democrats quoted on this page are all currently against our current war in Iraq. However, these same Democrats were for taking action against Iraq at some time between 1998 and 2003 based on their quotes. I think information like this becomes quickly lost in the hate-driven debates between the Republicans and Democrats we see all over the media nowadays.

One of the main reasons we are in Iraq is because the Bush demonstration claimed there was a link between Al Qaeda and Iraq and deemed it necessary to take action against Iraq. The facts brought up by the Democrats in the link above about Iraq having weapons of mass destruction was also a very strong point.

The 9/11 and Iraq connection seems to be a foggy and easily-forgotten part of our recent political history. The Bush administration asserted that there was a link between Al Qaeda and Iraq but many dismissed this link stating that there was not any valid evidence to support this connection. Cheney's haughty response probably did not help the Bush administration's case much. The odd thing about this Al Qaeda-Iraq debate was that the Clinton administration believed there was a link between Al Qaeda and Iraq also.

I'm not bringing up these points to determine whether starting the war was the right thing to do and I don't necessarily believe that any of the statements made by the Republicans or Democrats mentioned above are correct. I think there was an interesting connection between the agenda of the Democrats and Republicans though.

I am not going to go into details on whether Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. You can use this Wikipedia article for that.