User:Benjaminikuta/sand

This is something of a sandbox. I copied some userboxes from other pages, and will go through them and choose some to include on my userpage when I get around to it. This page contains false statements.



Awards
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Other




Today is Monday, July 29, 2024; the current time is  UTC±0. Die Weisse Rose is a transliteration of Die Weiße Rose, which is translated in English as "The White Rose." The name refers to a secret, nonviolent resistance movement in Nazi Germany.

About me

 * As of January 10, 2011
 * Total edits: 2,456
 * Unique pages edited: 545

Articles I've Started

 * Rebecca Valadez and Rebecca Valadez en español
 * Kawther Salam
 * Richard T. Davis
 * Philip Mattar
 * Line Halvorsen
 * Kirchenkampf
 * New Orleans Human Rights Film Festival
 * Dreamkeeper
 * Black Hawk (artist)
 * Madeinusa
 * Skins (film)
 * An Act of Conscience
 * Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions
 * Abraham Hecht
 * Harry Shapiro (criminal)
 * Harry Shapiro (author)
 * Johann Andreas Eisenmenger
 * Aggravation (legal concept)
 * Theoretical Inquiries in Law

Userboxes I've Created

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Editing Wikipedia
''Wikipedia uses the "neutral point-of-view", which means we strive for articles that advocate no single point of view. Sometimes this requires representing multiple points of view; presenting each point of view accurately; providing context for any given point of view, so that readers understand whose view the point represents; and presenting no one point of view as "the truth" or "the best view." It means citing verifiable, authoritative sources whenever possible, especially on controversial topics.'' -Wikipedia:Five pillars

Fallacious Reasoning
Wikipedia editors should be wary of thinking that because opposing parties to a dispute both criticize them then that means that they must be "doing something right." The name of this fallacy is the "golden mean fallacy" or the "fallacy of moderation."

Tools

 * Policies and guidelines
 * Citing sources
 * Guidelines for controversial articles
 * Neutral Point of View
 * Reliable sources
 * Reliable sources/Noticeboard
 * Resolving disputes
 * Requests for comment/Policies
 * Vandalism


 * Template Messages
 * Images
 * Citation Templates
 * Template messages/Disputes
 * Template messages/Sources of articles
 * Stubs
 * List of infoboxes
 * Stubs
 * List of infoboxes


 * Wikipedia Proposals
 * Stubs
 * Color Palette
 * Style Manual
 * Help with tables
 * Help:HTML in wikitext
 * Articles for deletion discussions
 * strikethrough
 * Barnstars
 * Twinkle
 * Help:Magic words
 * Twinkle
 * Help:Magic words

External Resources

 * The Middle East 1916 - 2001 : A Documentary Record
 * Jerusalem Media & Communications Centre--Documents
 * NativeWiki
 * Deletionpedia

To Do List

 * Start Paul Jones (bishop)
 * Add James Welch (writer) obit info to article
 * Add Norman Finkelstein's views to New anti-Semitism
 * Herbert Samuel was a Zionist. Source: Israeli TV's Pillar of Fire
 * Compare Haj Amin al-Husayni and Riots in Palestine of 1929 to Mattar text
 * Expand Shaw Report
 * Start The Transfer Agreement and Zionist Relations with Nazi Germany articles
 * Edit Germany Must Perish
 * Edit Purim and Passover
 * Start Islamic Fascist Axis Conspiracy
 * Expand and Reorganize David Emory Norquist, al-Arian
 * Edit Valley of Elah
 * Start Shmuel Ben Zvi
 * Edit Coca-Cola
 * Add Tanay Quote (see Scratchpad)
 * Edit Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
 * Start Victor C. Vaughan
 * Edit Clarence Cook Little
 * Edit History of the University of Michigan
 * Start The Fatal Embrace
 * Edit Paul Warburg, Federal Reserve, & History of Central Banking in the United States
 * Edit Passion of the Christ--anti-Semitism
 * Add BDS

Palestinians as Indigenous Sources
















Dave Emory on Iraq War, etc.
The program reviews Grover Norquist’s role as primary tax-slasher. In this context, it is important to remember that he is also the point man for the Islamists in the Republican Party. Note that these Islamists’ attacks on the United States precipitated the national security build-up which, when combined with the Bush tax cuts, has led to a return to record budget deficits. Whether Norquist is fully conscious of the effects of his actions is not particularly relevant. In FTR#327, the collapse of the commodities market effected by the Underground Reich is worth noting. When coupled with the assassination of JFK, it led to a huge profit for the Underground Reich perpetrators of these events. Tino De Angelis was (apparently) under mind control and not aware of the implications of his actions. The same may be true of Norquist. Pecunia nervus belli. “Reaction from advocates and critics was swift and strong. ‘It’s a tax shelter for the wealthy. This is really an attempt to help the president’s friends,’ said Rep. Robert t. Matsui, D-Sacramento. ‘It’s unbelievable.’ ‘These are the building blocks of a new tax system,’ said Grover Norquist, president of the conservative Americans for Tax Reform.” (“Bush Proposes New Tax-Free Savings Plans” by Peter G. Gosselin; The Los Angeles Times; 2/1/2003; p. A20.)

33.      Although not part of the original broadcast, a very important article from The Wall Street Journal is presented here in order to underscore the significance of the growing Muslim Brotherhood influence described above. It will be many years before the substantive results of the Iraq war are evident. One of the fears that Mr. Emory has expressed about the Iraq situation concerns the possibility that the war is a trap set by the Underground Reich—designed to lure the U.S. into a conflict with the Muslim population of the Earth Island and (ultimately) its economic and/or physical destruction. The observations of the head of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt are worth noting in this regard. It is doubtful that the U.S. will acquiesce in the ascension of either the Muslim Brotherhood or militant Shiites associated with Iran. Should the advent of democracy in Iraq (or elsewhere) lead to such an eventuality, the results are likely to be altogether unpleasant. “ . . . Yet with only a day to organize, the Muslim Brotherhood got tens of thousands of mourners to show up. ‘We have cellphones and the Internet and we live in the modern world,’ says the dead leader’s deputy, Mamun Hodaibi. ‘There was no secret to getting the word out.’ This organizational strength, despite years of suppression, spotlights a powerful conundrum in the Middle East. President Bush hopes that by establishing a representative government in Baghdad, the U.S. will spark a wave of democratic reform in other authoritarian nations in the region. Among other benefits, such a movement, by giving voice to the masses, might lessen the odds of their turning toward malign revolutionaries such as Al Qaeda. Yet the groups that are most organized, broad-based, and best positioned to benefit from any creeping Middle East democracy are Islamic fundamentalist forces such as the Muslim Brotherhood. They are the political elements the U.S. would least like to encourage. ‘I’m sure George Bush never meant to help us,’ says Mr. Nodaibi, 83 years old. ‘But he did.’” (“If Iraq War Opens Mideast Politically, Islamists Are Ready” by Christopher Cooper; The Wall Street Journal; 5/1/2003; p. A1.)

1. Unfortunately, both the pro-war and anti-war sides have gotten it wrong with regard to Saddam’s relationship with Al Qaeda. Although there is no indication that Iraq or Saddam were involved with 9/11, the two entities did have a “doomsday back-up” arrangement. Saddam and bin Laden worked out an arrangement in which Iraq—in order to provide for a payback capability if the U.S. ousted him—gave information about WMD’s to bin Laden’s people. Al Qaeda, in turn, was to act as a back-up unit for Saddam’s Iraq, striking at the United States if it knocked out Saddam. Of course, precisely that scenario has transpired. The United States has walked into this “Death Trap,” and a disturbingly large percentage of the Muslim and Arab communities appear ready to join the conflict. “It appears, however, that this version is the publicly admissible one, the one that can pass political muster. According to the same sources, there was another scenario more. In keeping with the calculating mentality of Saddam Hussein and his secret services. In 1998, after declining all offers that had been made to them through official diplomatic channels, those services are reported to have established a secret operational ‘connection’ with bin Laden in Manila and in Kashmir. It was indeed difficult for Iraq to ignore an Arab like Osama bin Laden who so effectively humiliated the Americans.' Colonel Khairallah al Takiriti, the brother of the head of Mukkhabarat, the intelligence services, is reported to have been named case officer for the connection. The arrest of two Morroccan associates of bin Laden in Rabat on November 11, 1998, made it possible to establish to establish the link with certainty. According to Western sources, the Iraqi services have sought to secure the assistance of bin Laden's networks, in case Iraq were again to be attacked by the United States, in order to carry out attacks against American targets in Arab countries.” (In the Name of Osama Bin Laden; by Roland Jacquard; Copyright 2002 [SC]; Duke University Press; ISBN 0-8223-2991-3; pp. 112-113.)

2.          “According to Arab sources, in anticipation of a foreseeable reversal of alliances in Kabul, bin Laden had been in discreet contact since September 2000 with associates of Oudai Hussein, another of Saddam’s sons; the ground for agreement was the anti-Israeli and anti-American battle. Bin Laden and the Iraqis are said to have exchanged information about chemical and biological weapons, despite the opposition of some of the Baghdad leadership, including Tarik Aziz” (Ibid.;p. 113.)

Another detail concerning the bogus intelligence that was used to justify the Iraq invasion involves an Al Qaeda captive who was evaluated by the Defense Intelligence Agency. That agency opined that he was very likely giving his American interrogators information that he felt they wanted to hear. Is it possible that he was also helping to lure the US into a trap? Bin Laden himself stated that the US overthrow of Saddam was a boon for his organization. Is it possible that Mr. al-Shaykh was deliberately working to lure the United States into the “doomsday back-up” trap that had been laid by Al Qaeda and Iraq?! This is a possibility to be seriously evaluated. “Who in the White House knew about DITSUM No. 044-02 and when did they know it? That's the newly declassified smoking- gun document, originally prepared by the Defense Intelligence Agency in February 2002, but ignored by President Bush. Its declassification last weekend blows another huge hole in Bush's claim that he was acting on the best intelligence available when he pitched the invasion of Iraq as a way to prevent an al Qaeda terrorist attack using weapons of mass destruction. The report demolished the credibility of the key al Qaeda informant the administration relied on to make its claim that a working alliance existed between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. It was circulated widely within the federal government a full eight months before Bush used the prisoner's lies to argue for an invasion of Iraq because ‘we've learned that Iraq has trained al Qaeda members in bomb-making and poisons and deadly gases.’” (“Lying with Intelligence” by Robert Scheer; San Francisco Chronicle; 11/9/2005; p. B13.)

19.     “Al Qaeda senior military trainer lbn al-Shaykh al-Libi -- a Libyan captured in Pakistan m 2001 -- was probably ‘intentionally misleading the debriefers,’ the DIA report concluded in one of two paragraphs declassified at the request of Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and released by his office over the weekend. The report also said: ‘Ibn al-Shaykh has been undergoing debriefs for several weeks and may be describing scenarios to the debriefers that he knows will retain their interest.’ He got that right. Folks in the highest places were very interested in claims along the lines Libi was peddling, even though they went against both logic and the preponderance of intelligence gathered to that point about possible collaboration between two enemies of the United States that were fundamentally at odds with each other. Al Qaeda was able to create a base in Iraq only after the U.S. overthrow of Hussein, not before. ‘Saddam's regime is intensely secular and is wary of Islamic revolutionary movements,’ accurately noted the DIA. Yet Bush used the informant's already discredited tall tale in his key Oct. 7, 2002, speech just before the Senate voted on whether to authorize the use of force in Iraq and again in two speeches in February 2003, just before the invasion.” (Idem.)

20.     “Leading up to the war, then-Secretary of State Colin Powell tried to sell it to the United Nations, while Vice President Dick Cheney, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer and Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith repeated it breathlessly for homeland audiences. The con worked, and Americans came to believe that Hussein was associated with the Sept.11, 2001, hijackers. Even CIA Director George Tenet publicly fell into line, ignoring his own agency's dissent that Libi would not have been m a position to know what he said he knew. In fact, Libi, according to the DIA, could not name any Iraqis involved, any chemical or biological material used or where the training allegedly occurred. In January 2004, the prisoner recanted his story, and the next month the CIA with- drew all intelligence reports based on his false information.” (Idem.)

First Refuge of Scoundrels
''I have been attacked as a self-hating Jew, as an anti-Semite, but it does not matter to me because I consider the accusation of anti-Semitism to be the first refuge of scoundrels. Patriotism is the last refuge, anti-Semitism is the first. In [ the United States ] it has been used to silence so many people.''
 * Source: Interview with Jeffrey Blankfort

When Gandhi Advises Violence
Gandhi guarded against attracting to his satyagraha ''movement those who feared to take up arms or felt themselves incapable of resistance. "I do believe," he wrote, "that where there is only a choice between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence."'' (p. 28)

''At every meeting I repeated the warning that unless they felt that in non-violence they had come into possession of a force infinitely superior to the one they had and in the use of which they were adept, they should have nothing to do with non-violence and resume the arms they possessed before. It must never be said of the Khudai Khidmatgars that once so brave, they had become or been made cowards under Badshah Khan's influence. Their bravery consisted not in being good marksmen but in defying death and being ever ready to bear their breasts to the bullets.'' (p. 139)


 * Source:

Slave Labor and Solomon's Temple
''This was the purpose of the forced labor that King Solomon imposed: It was to build the House of the Lord ... All the people that were left of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites who were not of the Israelite stock—those of their descendants who remained in the land and whom the Israelites were not able to annihilate—of these Solomon made a slave force, as is still the case. But he did not reduce any Israelites to slavery ...''


 * Source: I Kings 9:15-22a (1985 Jewish Publication Society Tanakh translation)

Science & Religion
I do not believe—indeed, I deem it a comic blunder to believe—that the exercise of reason is sufficient to explain our condition and where necessary to remedy it, but I do believe that the exercise of reason is at all times necessary ...


 * Source: P.B. Medawar. The Limits of Science. (New York: Harper & Row, 1984) p. 98. Medawar wrote extensively on the philosophy of science and was the Director of Britain's National Institute for Medical Research from 1962 to 1971. He won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1960.

Jack Abramoff & Israel-Palestine
Information you won't find in the Wikipedia article:

''Before his legal troubles began, Abramoff was one of the chief pillars of the budding political alliance between Orthodox Jews and Evangelical Christians. …''

''In the Jewish community, Abramoff promoted a conservative Republicanism based on a strong association with evangelical Christian politicians such as DeLay, who hold strongly pro-settler views on Israel. …''

Of his relationship with DeLay, Abramoff once told the Washington Business Forward: "He's a religious Christian, I'm a religious Jew."

''"He's very actively pro-Israel. I'm rabidly pro-Israel," Abramoff said. "We had a lot of mutual friends, as well."''


 * Source: E.J. Kessler. "Senate Probe Of Lobbying Puts Heat On DeLay Ally." Forward. November 26, 2004.

''In addition to his close ties to Christian conservatives, DeLay has worked with the Zionist Organization of America, which vehemently opposes Israel's Gaza disengagement plan and regularly criticizes Israeli and American efforts to support Abbas. DeLay was also close to Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff, an Orthodox Jew with hawkish views on Israel, until Abramoff's recent legal troubles involving claims that he overcharged Native American tribes involved in casino gambling.''


 * Source: Ori Nir. "House Sets Limits on Palestinian Aid As DeLay Defies Calls of Bush, Rice." Forward. March 18, 2005.

''Abramoff's main contribution to national Jewish communal causes was a stint in the 1990s as chairman of Toward Tradition, a social conservative group based outside of Seattle that frequently criticizes the Jewish community's liberal majority and many of its more-established organizations. Toward Tradition, led by a South African-born Orthodox rabbi, Daniel Lapin, made its mark by becoming a leading proponent of the idea that Jews should return to a "biblical faith" and ally themselves politically with Evangelical Christians because of their moral qualities and support for Israel.''

It was Lapin, in fact, who introduced Abramoff to DeLay, according to press accounts.


 * Source: E.J. Kessler. "Felony Plea of GOP Lobbyist Sets D.C. Players Scrambling." Forward. January 6, 2006.

Other

 * Scratchpad
 * Sandbox

User Boxes That Don't Suck
More to come whenever I get so bored that editing the List of prehistoric sponges would seem like a vacation in the Bahamas.

Psychology
Talk • Contributions • Templates Email Me

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