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    <title>BoSS' Fan Page RSS Feed</title>
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      <title>Islam in the News</title>
      <description>To all the people who still think Islam is a moderate religion, full of peace and love, you should read my earlier posts and see the staggering amount of calls to violence in the Quran. I'm going to start posting just weekly news stories from around the world, this is going to be a small fraction of the crap these animals are doing since I don't have the time or the resources to post everything. There is a global genocide against Christians and other religious minorities at the hands of muslims.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;To put the numbers in perspective:&lt;br&gt;More people are killed by Islamists each year than in all 350 years of the Spanish Inquisition combined.&lt;br&gt;Islamic terrorists murder more people every day than the Ku Klux Klan has in the last 50 years.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Grieving UK Family Suffers Gang Abuse at Cemetery...&lt;br&gt;&lt;a class=&quot;bb_link&quot; href=&quot;https://steamcommunity.com/linkfilter/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thepressnews.co.uk%2FNewsDetails.asp%3Fid%3D5547&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot; noopener&quot; &gt;http://www.thepressnews.co.uk/NewsDetails.asp?id=5547&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Atheist Extradited to Face Execution in Saudi Arabia for Twitter Posts...&lt;br&gt;&lt;a class=&quot;bb_link&quot; href=&quot;https://steamcommunity.com/linkfilter/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.co.uk%2Fnews%2Fworld-asia-17001900&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot; noopener&quot; &gt;http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17001900&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Islamic Activists Attack Hindu Temples (Bangladesh)...&lt;br&gt;&lt;a class=&quot;bb_link&quot; href=&quot;https://steamcommunity.com/linkfilter/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fzeenews.india.com%2Fnews%2Fsouth-asia%2Fbangladesh-jei-activists-vandalise-hindu-temples_757888.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot; noopener&quot; &gt;http://zeenews.india.com/news/south-asia/bangladesh-jei-activists-vandalise-hindu-temples_757888.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Christian Convert Beheaded...&lt;br&gt;&lt;a class=&quot;bb_link&quot; href=&quot;https://steamcommunity.com/linkfilter/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.christiannewstoday.com%2FChristian_News_Report_90050910.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot; noopener&quot; &gt;http://www.christiannewstoday.com/Christian_News_Report_90050910.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Colorado Immigrant Supported Group That Killed Americans...&lt;br&gt;&lt;a class=&quot;bb_link&quot; href=&quot;https://steamcommunity.com/linkfilter/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailymail.co.uk%2Fnews%2Farticle-2094815%2FImmigrant-U-S-helped-relocate-Colorado-Uzbekistan-charged-supporting-Islamic-terrorism.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot; noopener&quot; &gt;http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2094815/Immigrant-U-S-helped-relocate-Colorado-Uzbekistan-charged-supporting-Islamic-terrorism.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Honor Killings Stalk Pakistani Couples Who Marry Out of Love&lt;br&gt;&lt;a class=&quot;bb_link&quot; href=&quot;https://steamcommunity.com/linkfilter/?u=http%3A%2F%2Ftribune.com.pk%2Fstory%2F330599%2Finsult-and-honour-tribal-predators-hunting-down-newlyweds-in-karachi%2F&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot; noopener&quot; &gt;http://tribune.com.pk/story/330599/insult-and-honour-tribal-predators-hunting-down-newlyweds-in-karachi/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Iran Sentences Christian Woman to Prison for Leaving Islam...&lt;br&gt;&lt;a class=&quot;bb_link&quot; href=&quot;https://steamcommunity.com/linkfilter/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mohabatnews.com%2Findex.php%3Foption%3Dcom_content%26amp%3Bview%3Darticle%26amp%3Bid%3D3887%3Airanian-christian-convert-sentenced-to-two-years-in-prison%26amp%3Bcatid%3D36%3Airanian-christians%26amp%3BItemid%3D279&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot; noopener&quot; &gt;http://www.mohabatnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&amp;amp;view=article&amp;amp;id=3887:iranian-christian-convert-sentenced-to-two-years-in-prison&amp;amp;catid=36:iranian-christians&amp;amp;Itemid=279&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Preacher Converted Man to Islam - Then Raped His Wife...&lt;br&gt;&lt;a class=&quot;bb_link&quot; href=&quot;https://steamcommunity.com/linkfilter/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thedailystar.net%2FnewDesign%2Fnews-details.php%3Fnid%3D220891&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot; noopener&quot; &gt;http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=220891&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Calls to Behead Indonesian Atheist...&lt;br&gt;&lt;a class=&quot;bb_link&quot; href=&quot;https://steamcommunity.com/linkfilter/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thejakartaglobe.com%2Fhome%2Fcalls-to-behead-indonesian-atheist-alexander-aan%2F495308&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot; noopener&quot; &gt;http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/home/calls-to-behead-indonesian-atheist-alexander-aan/495308&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;British Terrorists Planned to Bomb Pubs...&lt;br&gt;&lt;a class=&quot;bb_link&quot; href=&quot;https://steamcommunity.com/linkfilter/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thisisstaffordshire.co.uk%2FTerrorists-planned-plant-bombs-city-pubs%2Fstory-15110251-detail%2Fstory.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot; noopener&quot; &gt;http://www.thisisstaffordshire.co.uk/Terrorists-planned-plant-bombs-city-pubs/story-15110251-detail/story.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Hindu Girl Burned with Acid...&lt;br&gt;&lt;a class=&quot;bb_link&quot; href=&quot;https://steamcommunity.com/linkfilter/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fhinduexistence.wordpress.com%2F2012%2F02%2F02%2Facid-attack-on-hindu-girl-by-disappointed-muslim-love-jehadi-in-mumbai%2F&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot; noopener&quot; &gt;http://hinduexistence.wordpress.com/2012/02/02/acid-attack-on-hindu-girl-by-disappointed-muslim-love-jehadi-in-mumbai/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Muslim Converts Attempt to Bring Terror Manuals into the UK&lt;br&gt;&lt;a class=&quot;bb_link&quot; href=&quot;https://steamcommunity.com/linkfilter/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailymail.co.uk%2Fnews%2Farticle-2095611%2FGerman-Muslim-convert-pair-entered-Britain-stash-terror-manuals-bomb-making.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot; noopener&quot; &gt;http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2095611/German-Muslim-convert-pair-entered-Britain-stash-terror-manuals-bomb-making.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Woman Stabbed Trying to Stop Husband from Selling Daughter...&lt;br&gt;&lt;a class=&quot;bb_link&quot; href=&quot;https://steamcommunity.com/linkfilter/?u=http%3A%2F%2Ftribune.com.pk%2Fstory%2F330589%2Fdomestic-violence-injured-for-resisting-attempt-to-sell-daughter-in-marriage%2F&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot; noopener&quot; &gt;http://tribune.com.pk/story/330589/domestic-violence-injured-for-resisting-attempt-to-sell-daughter-in-marriage/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Blind Man Refused Service over Guide Dog...&lt;br&gt;&lt;a class=&quot;bb_link&quot; href=&quot;https://steamcommunity.com/linkfilter/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theadvertisergroup.co.uk%2FDaily-News%2FMuslim-cab-driver-refuses-guide-dog-in-Letchworth-02022012.htm&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot; noopener&quot; &gt;http://www.theadvertisergroup.co.uk/Daily-News/Muslim-cab-driver-refuses-guide-dog-in-Letchworth-02022012.htm&lt;/a&gt;</description>
      <link><![CDATA[https://steamcommunity.com/groups/dieprogressive/announcements/detail/1209451922897862552]]></link>
      <pubDate>Mon, 13 Feb 2012 03:15:37 +0000</pubDate>
      <author>Sefu</author>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">https://steamcommunity.com/groups/dieprogressive/announcements/detail/1209451922897862552</guid>
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      <title>Ayaan Hirsi Ali:The Global War on Christians in the Muslim World - Part 4</title>
      <description>&lt;a class=&quot;bb_link&quot; href=&quot;https://steamcommunity.com/linkfilter/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thedailybeast.com%2Fnewsweek%2F2012%2F02%2F05%2Fayaan-hirsi-ali-the-global-war-on-christians-in-the-muslim-world.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot; noopener&quot; &gt;http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/02/05/ayaan-hirsi-ali-the-global-war-on-christians-in-the-muslim-world.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;So let us please get our priorities straight. Yes, Western governments should protect Muslim minorities from intolerance. And of course we should ensure that they can worship, live, and work freely and without fear. It is the protection of the freedom of conscience and speech that distinguishes free societies from unfree ones. But we also need to keep perspective about the scale and severity of intolerance. Cartoons, films, and writings are one thing; knives, guns, and grenades are something else entirely.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;As for what the West can do to help religious minorities in Muslim-majority societies, my answer is that it needs to begin using the billions of dollars in aid it gives to the offending countries as leverage. Then there is trade and investment. Besides diplomatic pressure, these aid and trade relationships can and should be made conditional on the protection of the freedom of conscience and worship for all citizens.&lt;br&gt;Instead of falling for overblown tales of Western Islamophobia, let’s take a real stand against the Christophobia infecting the Muslim world. Tolerance is for everyone—except the intolerant.&lt;br&gt;</description>
      <link><![CDATA[https://steamcommunity.com/groups/dieprogressive/announcements/detail/1209451393417244279]]></link>
      <pubDate>Sun, 12 Feb 2012 01:36:33 +0000</pubDate>
      <author>Sefu</author>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">https://steamcommunity.com/groups/dieprogressive/announcements/detail/1209451393417244279</guid>
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      <title>Ayaan Hirsi Ali:The Global War on Christians in the Muslim World - Part 3</title>
      <description>&lt;a class=&quot;bb_link&quot; href=&quot;https://steamcommunity.com/linkfilter/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thedailybeast.com%2Fnewsweek%2F2012%2F02%2F05%2Fayaan-hirsi-ali-the-global-war-on-christians-in-the-muslim-world.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot; noopener&quot; &gt;http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/02/05/ayaan-hirsi-ali-the-global-war-on-christians-in-the-muslim-world.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Such cases are not unusual in Pakistan. The nation’s blasphemy laws are routinely used by criminals and intolerant Pakistani Muslims to bully religious minorities. Simply to declare belief in the Christian Trinity is considered blasphemous, since it contradicts mainstream Muslim theological doctrines. When a Christian group is suspected of transgressing the blasphemy laws, the consequences can be brutal. Just ask the members of the Christian aid group World Vision. Its offices were attacked in the spring of 2010 by 10 gunmen armed with grenades, leaving six people dead and four wounded. A militant Muslim group claimed responsibility for the attack on the grounds that World Vision was working to subvert Islam. (In fact, it was helping the survivors of a major earthquake.)&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Not even Indonesia—often touted as the world’s most tolerant, democratic, and modern majority-Muslim nation—has been immune to the fevers of Christophobia. According to data compiled by the Christian Post, the number of violent incidents committed against religious minorities (and at 7 percent of the population, Christians are the country’s largest minority) increased by nearly 40 percent, from 198 to 276, between 2010 and 2011.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;The litany of suffering could be extended. In Iran dozens of Christians have been arrested and jailed for daring to worship outside of the officially sanctioned church system. Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, deserves to be placed in a category of its own. Despite the fact that more than a million Christians live in the country as foreign workers, churches and even private acts of Christian prayer are banned; to enforce these totalitarian restrictions, the religious police regularly raid the homes of Christians and bring them up on charges of blasphemy in courts where their testimony carries less legal weight than a Muslim’s. Even in Ethiopia, where Christians make up a majority of the population, church burnings by members of the Muslim minority have become a problem.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;It should be clear from this catalog of atrocities that anti-Christian violence is a major and underreported problem. No, the violence isn’t centrally planned or coordinated by some international Islamist agency. In that sense the global war on Christians isn’t a traditional war at all. It is, rather, a spontaneous expression of anti-Christian animus by Muslims that transcends cultures, regions, and ethnicities.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;As Nina Shea, director of the Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom, pointed out in an interview with Newsweek, Christian minorities in many majority-Muslim nations have “lost the protection of their societies.” This is especially so in countries with growing radical Islamist (Salafist) movements. In those nations, vigilantes often feel they can act with impunity—and government inaction often proves them right. The old idea of the Ottoman Turks—that non-Muslims in Muslim societies deserve protection (albeit as second-class citizens)—has all but vanished from wide swaths of the Islamic world, and increasingly the result is bloodshed and oppression.</description>
      <link><![CDATA[https://steamcommunity.com/groups/dieprogressive/announcements/detail/1209451393417128447]]></link>
      <pubDate>Sun, 12 Feb 2012 01:34:56 +0000</pubDate>
      <author>Sefu</author>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">https://steamcommunity.com/groups/dieprogressive/announcements/detail/1209451393417128447</guid>
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      <title>Ayaan Hirsi Ali:The Global War on Christians in the Muslim World - Part 2</title>
      <description>&lt;a class=&quot;bb_link&quot; href=&quot;https://steamcommunity.com/linkfilter/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thedailybeast.com%2Fnewsweek%2F2012%2F02%2F05%2Fayaan-hirsi-ali-the-global-war-on-christians-in-the-muslim-world.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot; noopener&quot; &gt;http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/02/05/ayaan-hirsi-ali-the-global-war-on-christians-in-the-muslim-world.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;The Christophobia that has plagued Sudan for years takes a very different form. The authoritarian government of the Sunni Muslim north of the country has for decades tormented Christian and animist minorities in the south. What has often been described as a civil war is in practice the Sudanese government’s sustained persecution of religious minorities. This persecution culminated in the infamous genocide in Darfur that began in 2003. Even though Sudan’s Muslim president, Omar al-Bashir, has been indicted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague, which charged him with three counts of genocide, and despite the euphoria that greeted the semi-independence he grant-ed to South Sudan in July of last year, the violence has not ended. In South Kordofan, Christians are still subject-ed to aerial bombardment, targeted killings, the kidnap-ping of children, and other atrocities. Reports from the United Nations indicate that between 53,000 and 75,000 innocent civilians have been displaced from their resi-dences and that houses and buildings have been looted and destroyed.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Both kinds of persecution—undertaken by extragovernmental groups as well as by agents of the state—have come together in Egypt in the aftermath of the Arab Spring. On Oct. 9 of last year in the Maspero area of Cairo, Coptic Christians (who make up roughly 11 percent of Egypt’s population of 81 million) marched in protest against a wave of attacks by Islamists—including church burnings, rapes, mutilations, and murders—that followed the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak’s dictatorship. During the protest, Egyptian security forces drove their trucks into the crowd and fired on protesters, crushing and killing at least 24 and wounding more than 300 people. By the end of the year more than 200,000 Copts had fled their homes in anticipation of more attacks. With Islamists poised to gain much greater power in the wake of recent elections, their fears appear to be justified.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Egypt is not the only Arab country that seems bent on wiping out its Christian minority. Since 2003 more than 900 Iraqi Christians (most of them Assyrians) have been killed by terrorist violence in Baghdad alone, and 70 churches have been burned, according to the Assyrian International News Agency (AINA). Thousands of Iraqi Christians have fled as a result of violence directed specifically at them, reducing the number of Christians in the country to fewer than half a million from just over a million before 2003. AINA understandably describes this as an “incipient genocide or ethnic cleansing of Assyrians in Iraq.”&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;The 2.8 million Christians who live in Pakistan make up only about 1.6 percent of the population of more than 170 million. As members of such a tiny minority, they live in perpetual fear not only of Islamist terrorists but also of Pakistan’s draconian blasphemy laws. There is, for example, the notorious case of a Christian woman who was sentenced to death for allegedly insulting the Prophet Muhammad. When international pressure persuaded Punjab Gov. Salman Taseer to explore ways of freeing her, he was killed by his bodyguard. The bodyguard was then celebrated by prominent Muslim clerics as a hero—and though he was sentenced to death late last year, the judge who imposed the sentence now lives in hiding, fearing for his life.</description>
      <link><![CDATA[https://steamcommunity.com/groups/dieprogressive/announcements/detail/1209451393416845508]]></link>
      <pubDate>Sun, 12 Feb 2012 01:31:12 +0000</pubDate>
      <author>Sefu</author>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">https://steamcommunity.com/groups/dieprogressive/announcements/detail/1209451393416845508</guid>
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      <title>Ayaan Hirsi Ali:The Global War on Christians in the Muslim World</title>
      <description>&lt;a class=&quot;bb_link&quot; href=&quot;https://steamcommunity.com/linkfilter/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thedailybeast.com%2Fnewsweek%2F2012%2F02%2F05%2Fayaan-hirsi-ali-the-global-war-on-christians-in-the-muslim-world.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot; noopener&quot; &gt;http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/02/05/ayaan-hirsi-ali-the-global-war-on-christians-in-the-muslim-world.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;From one end of the muslim world to the other, Christians are being murdered for their faith.&lt;br&gt;We hear so often about Muslims as victims of abuse in the West and combatants in the Arab Spring’s fight against tyranny. But, in fact, a wholly different kind of war is underway—an unrecognized battle costing thousands of lives. Christians are being killed in the Islamic world because of their religion. It is a rising genocide that ought to provoke global alarm.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;The portrayal of Muslims as victims or heroes is at best partially accurate. In recent years the violent oppression of Christian minorities has become the norm in Muslim-majority nations stretching from West Africa and the Middle East to South Asia and Oceania. In some countries it is governments and their agents that have burned churches and imprisoned parishioners. In others, rebel groups and vigilantes have taken matters into their own hands, murdering Christians and driving them from regions where their roots go back centuries.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;The media’s reticence on the subject no doubt has several sources. One may be fear of provoking additional violence. Another is most likely the influence of lobbying groups such as the Organization of Islamic Cooperation—a kind of United Nations of Islam centered in Saudi Arabia—and the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Over the past decade, these and similar groups have been remarkably successful in persuading leading public figures and journalists in the West to think of each and every example of perceived anti-Muslim discrimination as an expression of a systematic and sinister derangement called “Islamophobia”—a term that is meant to elicit the same moral disapproval as xenophobia or homophobia.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;But a fair-minded assessment of recent events and trends leads to the conclusion that the scale and severity of Islamophobia pales in comparison with the bloody Christophobia currently coursing through Muslim-majority nations from one end of the globe to the other. The conspiracy of silence surrounding this violent expression of religious intolerance has to stop. Nothing less than the fate of Christianity—and ultimately of all religious minorities—in the Islamic world is at stake.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;From blasphemy laws to brutal murders to bombings to mutilations and the burning of holy sites, Christians in so many nations live in fear. In Nigeria many have suffered all of these forms of persecution. The nation has the largest Christian minority (40 percent) in proportion to its population (160 million) of any majority-Muslim country. For years, Muslims and Christians in Nigeria have lived on the edge of civil war. Islamist radicals provoke much if not most of the tension. The newest such organization is an outfit that calls itself Boko Haram, which means “Western education is sacrilege.” Its aim is to establish Sharia in Nigeria. To this end it has stated that it will kill all Christians in the country.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;In the month of January 2012 alone, Boko Haram was responsible for 54 deaths. In 2011 its members killed at least 510 people and burned down or destroyed more than 350 churches in 10 northern states. They use guns, gasoline bombs, and even machetes, shouting “Allahu akbar” (“God is great”) while launching attacks on unsuspecting citizens. They have attacked churches, a Christmas Day gathering (killing 42 Catholics), beer parlors, a town hall, beauty salons, and banks. They have so far focused on killing Christian clerics, politicians, students, policemen, and soldiers, as well as Muslim clerics who condemn their mayhem. While they started out by using crude methods like hit-and-run assassinations from the back of motorbikes in 2009, the latest AP reports indicate that the group’s recent attacks show a new level of potency and sophistication. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;</description>
      <link><![CDATA[https://steamcommunity.com/groups/dieprogressive/announcements/detail/1209451393416606215]]></link>
      <pubDate>Sun, 12 Feb 2012 01:28:14 +0000</pubDate>
      <author>Sefu</author>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">https://steamcommunity.com/groups/dieprogressive/announcements/detail/1209451393416606215</guid>
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      <title>Affirmative Action and Gay ‘Marriage’  Continued...</title>
      <description>By Thomas Sowell&lt;br&gt;&lt;a class=&quot;bb_link&quot; href=&quot;https://steamcommunity.com/linkfilter/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jewishworldreview.com%2Fcols%2Fsowell110508.php3&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot; noopener&quot; &gt;http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell110508.php3&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Another fraud on the ballot this year is gay &amp;quot;marriage.&amp;quot; &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Marriage has existed for centuries and, until recent times, it has always meant a union between a man and a woman. Over those centuries, a vast array of laws has grown up, all based on circumstances that arise in unions between a man and a woman. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes said that law has not been based on logic but on experience. To apply a mountain of laws based specifically on experience with relations between a man and a woman to a different relationship where sex differences are not involved would be like applying the rules of baseball to football. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;The argument that current marriage laws &amp;quot;discriminate&amp;quot; against homosexuals confuses discrimination against people with making distinctions among different kinds of behavior. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;All laws distinguish among different kinds of behavior. What other purpose does law have? &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;While people may be treated the same, all their behaviors are not. Laws that forbid bicycles from being ridden on freeways obviously have a different effect on people who have bicycles but no cars. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;But this is not discrimination against a person. The cyclist who gets into a car is just as free to drive on the freeway as anybody else. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;The question is not whether gays should be permitted to marry. Many gays have already married people of the opposite sex. Conversely, heterosexuals who might want to marry someone of the same sex in order to make some point will be forbidden to do so, just as gays are. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;The real issue is whether marriage should be redefined— and, if for gays, why not for polygamists? Why not for pedophiles? &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Despite heavy television advertising in California for &amp;quot;gay marriage,&amp;quot; showing blacks being set upon by police dogs during civil right marches, and implying that homosexuals face the same discrimination today, the analogy is completely false. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Blacks had to sit in the back of the bus because they were black. They were doing exactly what white people were doing— riding a bus. That is what made it racial discrimination. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Marriage is not a right but a set of legal obligations imposed because the government has a vested interest in unions that, among other things, have the potential to produce children, which is to say, the future population of the nation. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Gays were on their strongest ground when they said that what they did was nobody else's business. Now they are asserting a right to other people's approval, which is wholly different. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;None of us has a right to other people's approval. &lt;br&gt;</description>
      <link><![CDATA[https://steamcommunity.com/groups/dieprogressive/announcements/detail/1209451393385446709]]></link>
      <pubDate>Sat, 11 Feb 2012 20:50:48 +0000</pubDate>
      <author>Sefu</author>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">https://steamcommunity.com/groups/dieprogressive/announcements/detail/1209451393385446709</guid>
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      <title>Affirmative Action and Gay ‘Marriage’</title>
      <description>By Thomas Sowell&lt;br&gt;&lt;a class=&quot;bb_link&quot; href=&quot;https://steamcommunity.com/linkfilter/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jewishworldreview.com%2Fcols%2Fsowell110508.php3&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot; noopener&quot; &gt;http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell110508.php3&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;The politically clever way to get special privileges is to call them &amp;quot;rights&amp;quot;— especially &amp;quot;equal rights.&amp;quot; &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Some local election campaigns in various states are using that tactic this year, trying to get special privileges through affirmative action quotas or through demands that the definition of marriage be changed to suit homosexuals. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Equality of rights does not mean equality of results. I can have all the equal treatment in the world on a golf course and I will not finish within shouting distance of Tiger Woods. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;When arbitrary numerical &amp;quot;goals&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;quotas&amp;quot; under affirmative action are not met, the burden of proof is put on the employer to prove that he did not discriminate against minorities or women. No burden of proof whatever is put on the advocates of &amp;quot;goals&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;quotas&amp;quot; to show that people would be equally represented in jobs, colleges or anywhere else in the absence of discrimination.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Tons of evidence from countries around the world, and over centuries of history, show that statistical disparities are the rule, not the exception— even in situations where discrimination is virtually impossible. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Anonymously graded tests do not show the same results from one group to another. In many countries there are minorities who completely outperform members of the majority population, whether in education, in the economy or in sports, even when there is no way that they can discriminate against the majority. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Putting the burden of proof on everybody except yourself is a slick political ploy. The time is long overdue for the voting public to see through it. &lt;br&gt;</description>
      <link><![CDATA[https://steamcommunity.com/groups/dieprogressive/announcements/detail/1209451393385326300]]></link>
      <pubDate>Sat, 11 Feb 2012 20:49:57 +0000</pubDate>
      <author>Sefu</author>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">https://steamcommunity.com/groups/dieprogressive/announcements/detail/1209451393385326300</guid>
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      <title>Gay marriage 'rights' Continued...</title>
      <description>By Thomas Sowell&lt;br&gt;&lt;a class=&quot;bb_link&quot; href=&quot;https://steamcommunity.com/linkfilter/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jewishworldreview.com%2Fcols%2Fsowell010305.asp&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot; noopener&quot; &gt;http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell010305.asp&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;The issue is not individual rights. What the activists are seeking is official social approval of their lifestyle. But this is the antithesis of equal rights. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;If you have a right to someone else's approval, then they do not have a right to their own opinions and values. You cannot say that what &amp;quot;consenting adults&amp;quot; do in private is nobody else's business and then turn around and say that others are bound to put their seal of approval on it. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;The rhetoric of &amp;quot;equal rights&amp;quot; has become the road to special privilege for all sorts of groups, so perhaps it was inevitable that gay activists would take that road as well. It has worked. They have already succeeded in getting far more government money for AIDS than for other diseases that kill far more people. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;The time is long overdue to stop word games about equal rights from leading to special privileges   —   for anybody   —   and gay marriage is as good an issue on which to do so as anything else. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Incidentally, it is not even clear how many homosexuals actually want marriage, even though gay activists are pushing it. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;What the activists really want is the stamp of acceptance on homosexuality, as a means of spreading that lifestyle, which has become a death style in the era of AIDS. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;They have already succeeded to a remarkable degree in our public schools, where so-called &amp;quot;AIDS education&amp;quot; or other pious titles are put on programs that promote homosexuality. In some cases, gay activists actually come to the schools, not only to promote homosexuality as an idea but even to pass out the addresses of local gay hangouts to the kids. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;There is no limit to what people will do if you let them get away with it. That our schools, which are painfully failing to educate our children to the standards in other countries, have time for promoting homosexuality is truly staggering. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Every special interest group has an incentive to take something away from society as a whole. Some will be content just to siphon off a share of the taxpayers' money for themselves. Others, however, want to dismantle a part of the structure of values that make a society viable. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;They may not want to bring down the whole structure, just get rid of the part that cramps their style. But when innumerable groups start dismantling pieces of the structure that they don't like, we can be headed for the kinds of social collapses seen both in history and in other parts of the world in our own times. &lt;br&gt;</description>
      <link><![CDATA[https://steamcommunity.com/groups/dieprogressive/announcements/detail/1209451393383787137]]></link>
      <pubDate>Sat, 11 Feb 2012 20:39:12 +0000</pubDate>
      <author>Sefu</author>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">https://steamcommunity.com/groups/dieprogressive/announcements/detail/1209451393383787137</guid>
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      <title>Gay marriage ‘rights’</title>
      <description>By Thomas Sowell&lt;br&gt;&lt;a class=&quot;bb_link&quot; href=&quot;https://steamcommunity.com/linkfilter/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jewishworldreview.com%2Fcols%2Fsowell010305.asp&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot; noopener&quot; &gt;http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell010305.asp&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;In all the states where gay marriage was on the ballot this year, the voters voted against it   —   as they should have. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Of all the phony arguments for gay marriage, the phoniest is the argument that it is a matter of equal rights. Marriage is not a right extended to individuals by the government. It is a restriction on the rights they already have. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;People who are simply living together can make whatever arrangements they want, whether they are heterosexual or homosexual. They can divide up their worldly belongings 50-50 or 90-10 or whatever other way they want. They can make their union temporary or permanent or subject to cancellation at any time. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Marriage is a restriction. If my wife buys an automobile with her own money, under California marriage laws I automatically own half of it, whether or not my name is on the title. Whether that law is good, bad, or indifferent, it is a limitation of our freedom to arrange such things as we ourselves might choose. This is just one of many decisions that marriage laws take out of our hands. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Oliver Wendell Holmes said that the life of the law is not logic but experience. Marriage laws have evolved through centuries of experience with couples of opposite sexes   —   and the children that result from such unions. Society asserts its stake in the decisions made by restricting the couples' options. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Society has no such stake in the outcome of a union between two people of the same sex. Transferring all those laws to same-sex couples would make no more sense than transferring the rules of baseball to football. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Why then do gay activists want their options restricted by marriage laws, when they can make their own contracts with their own provisions and hold whatever kinds of ceremony they want to celebrate it?</description>
      <link><![CDATA[https://steamcommunity.com/groups/dieprogressive/announcements/detail/1209451393383608766]]></link>
      <pubDate>Sat, 11 Feb 2012 20:37:58 +0000</pubDate>
      <author>Sefu</author>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">https://steamcommunity.com/groups/dieprogressive/announcements/detail/1209451393383608766</guid>
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      <title>The left's vocabulary Continued...</title>
      <description>By Thomas Sowell&lt;br&gt;&lt;a class=&quot;bb_link&quot; href=&quot;https://steamcommunity.com/linkfilter/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jewishworldreview.com%2Fcols%2Fsowell080604.asp&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot; noopener&quot; &gt;http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell080604.asp&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;More to the point, third parties' notions are imposed by the power of the government to raise our taxes to support people who are raising hell on our streets and in parks where it has often become too dangerous for our children to play.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;The left has a whole vocabulary devoted to depicting people who do not meet standards as people who have been denied &amp;quot;access.&amp;quot;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Whether it is academic standards, job qualifications or credit requirements, those who do not measure up are said to have been deprived of &amp;quot;opportunity,&amp;quot; &amp;quot;rights&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;social justice.&amp;quot;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;The words games of the left — from the mantra of &amp;quot;diversity&amp;quot; to the pieties of &amp;quot;compassion&amp;quot; — are not just games. They are ways of imposing power by evading issues of substance through the use of seductive rhetoric.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&amp;quot;Rights,&amp;quot; for example, have become an all-purpose term used for evading both facts and logic by saying that people have a &amp;quot;right&amp;quot; to whatever the left wants to give them by taking from others. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;For centuries, rights were exemptions from government power, as in the Bill of Rights. Now the left has redefined rights as things that can be demanded from the taxpayers, or from private employers or others, on behalf of people who accept no mutual obligations, even for common decency.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;At one time, educators tried to teach students to carefully define words and systematically analyze arguments. They said, &amp;quot;We are here to teach you how to think, not what to think.&amp;quot; &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Today, they are teaching students what to think — political correctness. Instead of knowledge, students are given &amp;quot;self-esteem,&amp;quot; so that they can vent their ignorance with confidence.&lt;br&gt;</description>
      <link><![CDATA[https://steamcommunity.com/groups/dieprogressive/announcements/detail/1209451393261667575]]></link>
      <pubDate>Sat, 11 Feb 2012 03:39:45 +0000</pubDate>
      <author>Sefu</author>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">https://steamcommunity.com/groups/dieprogressive/announcements/detail/1209451393261667575</guid>
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