United Liberty

At the Cato Institute, David Boaz relays the Saudi sentencing to death of a man for the “crime” of astrology:

A court in Saudi Arabia has sentenced a Lebanese television host to death for the crime of “sorcery.” Apparently Ali Hussein Sibat was recognized by Saudi religious police as he made a pilgrimage to Mecca. On his show, he gave advice to callers and made predictions about their future. He could be executed any day now.

It’s disputable how significant the portion of the Islamic faith is that follows the line of thinking that led to Ali Hussein Sibat’s sentencing, but it is very clear, from countless constant and widespread terror attacks to similar backward sentencing occurring throughout the Islamic world (and in supposedly “democratic” regimes such as Afghanistan), that it is not a small phenomenon.

Christopher Hitchens -

Alot of people see you as just a contrarian spoiling for a fight, but I see you as a political prophet (forgive the religious phraseology) and a clear-thinking mind in a world of confusion. Even if it was executed in a way that made the effort self-destructive, you were always correct about the need to fight the war against radical Islam. You have been brave and forthright in criticizing the insanity of religion. Your relentlessness in taking on terrorist-apologizing leftists (even when it cost you friendship at the Nation) and psychotic religionists (even when it likely boiled the blood of conservative allies like Dennis Prager and Hugh Hewitt) is inspiring. In an environment full of commentators who have barely traveled, you have been to the places you write about. Sure, you aren’t my role model, as you smoke and drink as if someone was paying you to do it (Vanity Fair?) but we don’t live in a world of heroes.

Thanks for all you do.

There is a lot of rhetoric being bantered about by political partisans from all parties over what to do about detainees at our naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Republicans are outraged that President Barack Obama would dare think about allowing any of them to come to the United States. Let’s face it, right now, the fear is the only card Republicans have against Democrats, who have felt the heat andrejected funding to close the facilities at Gitmo.

Let me tell you something, there are already terrorists imprisoned in the United States who have committed or were planning to commit acts of terrorism, including several al-Qaeda members, both before and after 9/11.

The rhetoric from the right is dishonest and it plays on the short-term memory of the electorate who may not remember what happened to Ramzi Yousef or Richard Reid or any other terrorist responsible for killing or plotting to kill Americans.

Below are the names of more than 20 terrorists currently imprisoned at ADX Florence, a supermax prison in Colorado:

China’s totalitarian, anti-life abortion policies continue, understandably, to upset Christians in the West. Meanwhile, America’s destructive, anti-life Middle Eastern policy continues to upset Christians in the Middle East. What proves less understandable is the disconnect certain American Christians eagerly draw between the value of a life in embryo and the value of a life once it reaches its mother’s arms.

For the record, the life of a fetus is not more sacred than the life of a human being. Christians who value the lives of fetuses should also value the lives of the people they become. You cannot be pro-life and pro-war without ultimately eviscerating the word “life” for the sake of political preferences. Christians who are “pro-life” must be for human life in all cases.

Barack Obama has been president for a little over a month and innocent people are still getting killed by coalition efforts in Afghanistan. Is it possible that Obama could become as unpopular in the Muslim world as George W. Bush?

Yes, it’s possible.  I expect though that the different tone of the Obama Administration will keep him above the Bush unpopularity low though even if the Obama policies are just as upsetting. Obama will at least give lip-service to things that concern the Muslim people of the region and that will be more than Bush did.

That doesn’t mean he won’t be very unpopular though…it just means he will be seen as “better than Bush” by the locals.  And who knows?  He might do quite a bit better.  We’ll see.

In The Atlantic, Andrew Sullivan sums up neoconservatives as essentially advocates for an Israel-centered American foreign policy: