Category Archives: Uncategorized

Osama Bin Laden is dead. Reports say he was killed one week ago, by a U.S. missile, and that we have the body. His identity has been confirmed by DNA, which is why they waited a week to announce it.

This is good, of course, but why don’t I feel like celebrating? Bin Laden has done and said some of the most vicious things in world history, so you’d think I’d be busting out the champagne. I guess it could be because I have an exam to write this evening. But I don’t think it’s that. Rather I think it’s because (1) this news is loooong overdue, and (2) this war really is like a game of “whack a mole,” in which it doesn’t matter how many you’ve hit down, there is always another ready to pop up and take its place.

Nearly ten years ago, we thought this call to action might actually be heeded. Now we’ve learned that, unless there is a fundamental change in the culture, it never will be.

UPDATE: They have corrected the initial reports. He was shot during some sort of firefight, not hit by a missile. (Also, he was killed Sunday evening, not a week earlier. It will still take time for the DNA evidence to come back.) This makes me think of one good aspect of this: I bet that Obama would have preferred that Bin Laden be captured alive and allowed to stand trial. Our soldiers did not let that happen. Good for them!

As you may have heard, controversial koran-burning pastor Terry Jones was jailed this week in Dearborn, Michigan, because of his plans to demonstrate outside the largest Islamic Center in the United States. He and an associate were apparently released on $1 bond each, on the condition that neither go within some specified distance of the Center for three years!! Eugene Volokh is following the story on his blog, providing periodic updates along with Constitutional analysis.

What does this mean for us? As Ayn Rand has said, free speech is the litmus test issue by which we judge whether we are still able to speak, to persuade our fellow man to adopt views consistent with individual rights. Now, even at the time she was writing about this issue, in the 1960’s, there were some restrictions on speech. So it’s not the case that one more restriction necessarily means we’ve gone over the precipice towards totalitarian dictatorship. But here we have what Constitutional scholars call a “prior restraint” on speech, one that Eugene Volokh predicts (at link above) should clearly be found unconstitutional. And yet it happened. Here.

In addition, this is distinctly unlike restrictions on obscenity or profanity. The ideology of Islam, if adopted and practiced consistently, does appear, from everything I know about it (I plan to learn more, soon, starting with my Koran reading group), to be a threat to our way of life. Freedom to protest against it is as important as freedom to protest against any politician, political party, or political ideology. This is not an issue of defending one’s right to produce or consume tasteless pornography, simply as a matter of principle, so that we can preserve our right to political speech. In my mind, this is an unjustified restraint on political speech itself. What do you think? Join in the discussion during my live webcast tomorrow and let me know (here’s the link to the Facebook event with more information, or you can go directly to register here).

[Update: Terry Jones apparently plans to sue the prosecutor’s office in Michigan for what they have done to him. Let’s hope he wins and that this sets a precedent for any other prosecutors that would prevent us from exercising our freedom of speech!]

Inspired by the tremendous bravery of Ann Barnhardt:

I decided to lead a Koran reading group. Is Islam a religion of peace that’s been hijacked by a small minority of extremists, as we’ve been told repeatedly by both liberals and conservatives? Or is there something essential to Islamic doctrine that inspires and purports to legitimize acts of terrorism, as we’ve heard from people like Wafa Sultan, Robert Spencer, and Geert Wilders? Find out for yourself. Start by reading the Koran.

Beginning on May 10 we will meet weekly (Tuesdays from 5:00 to 6:00 or 6:30, PST), via the same platform I use to conduct my live webcasts, to discuss sections of the Koran. The platform allows for interaction via text-based chat, but also by voice using either a USB mic connected to your computer (VoIP) or telephone. We will read approximately 20 pages of the Koran per week, along with the corresponding commentary published by Robert Spencer. We’ll take the week of July 4th off, which will allow participants to celebrate the Declaration of Independence — the reason I am able to organize a reading group such as this — in the manner of their choosing. We will finish on September 6, several days before the 10th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks on America. This will allow us a few days to plan an appropriate commemoration of that day, armed with our newfound knowledge.

The version of the Koran I plan to use is this relatively inexpensive one. Should you want to join the group, you will need to buy a copy of the Koran, plus pay a small fee ($20) to help me cover the cost of using the platform for the meetings. Space is limited, so if you would like to reserve your spot, click here to register.