The VonFrederick 

Tempus             

June 2007  Volume 5 Issue 6

  Feature Article:

ACLU… A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing? Part II

George A. Torres, MBA, Law Enforcement Specialist, The VonFrederick Group

"It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once." … Philosopher David Hume 

In ACLU-Part I, I examined the history of the American Civil Liberties Union and how it was created to transform our government into a communistic form government. Its founders were devout Communist (Socialist), who followed the ideology of Marxism. The policies and activities of the ACLU further support its agenda restructure American society. 

First let’s review a few stated goals published in the ACLU policy issues.
• The defense of all pornography, including child pornography, as "free speech". 
• The opposition of parental choice in children's education. 
• The opposition of spousal or informed consent preceding abortion or parental consent of minors seeking an abortion and support for tax-funded abortion. 
• The promotion of homosexuality.
• The defense and promotion of euthanasia, defense of religious restrictions and government control of church institutions and gun control.

According to the ACLU these policies uphold the U.S. Constitution, preserve freedom, protect American citizens, etc. How? An assessment reveals its policies actually destroy our historic traditions and replace them with inferior values and compromise our security. Consider these examples.

In 1988, the ACLU opposed a California bill that would require instruction in sex education that stressed monogamous heterosexual intercourse within marriage is a traditional American value. The ACLU stated, “It is our position that monogamous, heterosexual intercourse within marriage as a traditional American value is an unconstitutional establishment of religious doctrine in public schools...”

The ACLU advocated that black teenagers convicted of the vicious rape of Trisha Meili (NYC Central Park Jogger in 1989) be spared additional investigations so “the boys could continue with their young lives and proceed on with their future.” It was not concerned with the life or rights of Meili or other law abiding citizens like the Duke University Lacrosse players.

In 2005, the ACLU filed suit in North Carolina to prohibit the court from disallowing people of non-Christian faiths to swear religious oaths using any text other than the Christian Bible. It advocated for a broad interpretation of the phrase “Holy Scriptures” that would allow any “religious text” including the most bizarre self subscribed religious beliefs. 

In 2006, the ACLU filed a lawsuit in Tennessee to eliminate an elementary school’s annual Christmas program and allowing prayer in school as "a practice of promoting and endorsing religious activities." It claimed these activities are a violation of “separation of church and state”, which does not exist. The ACLU ignores the fact the 1st Amendment actually grants freedom to practice religion and the Constitution only forbids the establishment of an official state church.

In 2006, the ACLU sued to end the warrantless surveillance program that monitored phone calls and emails to or from the U.S. involving people suspected of having terrorist links. In the same year it sued the U.S. government on behalf of foreign Islamic terrorist in military custody, claiming the terrorist were victims of torture or other degrading treatment. Fortunately, U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan threw out the lawsuit noting it “might subject government officials to all sorts of political lawsuits. Even Osama bin Laden could sue claiming two American presidents threatened to have him murdered.” 

The ACLU filed lawsuits prohibiting the implementation of legislation denying free government services to “Illegal” aliens. It relies on liberal judges to reverse legislation passed by overwhelming majorities and deny U.S. citizens their right to the legislative processes. In 2006, the ACLU filed suit in Texas to reverse a local ordinance that would prohibit landlords renting to “Illegal” aliens. In 2007, it sued Texas on behalf of “Illegal” kids and families confined to a facility awaiting adjudication of their illegal status and possible deportation. The ACLU justified the suit by claiming a 9 yr old child complained, "It is hard to be in here because no toys no good food no clean clothes. Everything is bad here." Remember, these are “Illegal” aliens that are breaking U.S. laws, not U.S. citizens.

ACLU founders were dedicated to replacing capitalistic American traditions with the Marxist / Communistic ideologies inherent in the liberal left. While its deceptive rhetoric claims to protect “rights, privacy and freedom”, its conduct reveals contempt and intolerance for traditional American values. With rare exception it only supports cases that are anti-American, anti-Judeo-Christian, anti-religious, anti-free market, and anti-abortion or anti any other traditional America value. The ACLU endeavors to destroy the values that allowed it to flourish. Think about it? Is there a Muslim or Communist Civil Liberties Union? Ask yourself, how do its lawsuits protect American tradition for posterity? 

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The Arabic Anti-Jew Sentiment

Eric Chevreuil, Retired Captain, French Military, The VonFrederick Group

Fed up with the drive-by US liberal or Arab anti-Jew bloggers that keep on claiming the modern land of Palestine for its alleged original owner, the Palestinian people, I decided to take a ride in my time-traveling Yugo and figure out by myself if an injustice had been committed against the “Palestinian” people, thus explaining the anti-Semitic feelings Arab nations and their terrorist off-springs have for Israel.
I could have taken the easy way and moved back to what most of the people consider as the beginning of it all: November 29 1947, when the UN voted on resolution 181, which approved the partition of the western part of Palestine into a predominately Jewish state and a predominately Arab state. Remember that only 13 countries formulated a “No” vote (Afghanistan, Cuba, Egypt, Greece, India, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, Yemen) and that the next day, most of them started the bloodshed by proxy or directly.

But I decided to move a little earlier, to the aftermath of the war that ended all the wars. 
From my personal library, I dug out a 1922 Atlas of the post WW1 world describing among other things “the new old land of promise in Palestine” under British Mandate. After WW1, interestingly, the British government was mandated by the League of Nations to facilitate “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people”. Eventually, the Jews worldwide saw it as “an opportunity to the return of national power and unity in a free nation controlled by its ancient inhabitants” and the New York Times of the day summarized the Jewish aspirations by saying: “The effect of the mandate is to create a national home, a refuge for Jews who, because of oppression or persecution in any other land, may desire to seek shelter there” (The literary Digest Atlas, p38, 1922). 

By 1921, the 515.000 Muslims in Palestine were already at odds with the 63.000 Jews and the 62.000 Christians that also considered that piece of land sacred and prompted the British Secretary of States of the time, Winston Churchill, to declare: “Palestine belongs to the whole world, and this city of Jerusalem is almost equally sacred to Moslems, Christians and Jews, and not only to the DWELLERS in Palestine, but everywhere. Instead of sharing miseries through quarrelling, the Palestinians should share blessing through cooperation.” 

Furthermore, at the same time, G.A.Smith, in his “Historical Geography of the Holy Land” (London), also wrote that “By a strange turn of events, the Philistines, those ancient enemies of the Children of Israel, have succeeded in giving their name to the whole country, for “Palestine” is directly derived of Philistine”. 
Interesting, isn’t it how history keeps on repeating itself, all over again, and again!
This took me further down in time and an Internet search of the Philistines brought up troves of information. 

The Philistines, literally the “people of the sea”, were the people archaelogically linked to Western Anatolia or Mycenean Greece (Cyprus, Crete) that INVADED the Egyptian Southern coast of Canaan circa 1160 BC, just before the Israelites arrived and created their 6 million people “Kingdom of David and Solomon” that covered the land from the Sinai to the Mediteranean, from the Jordan river to most of Syria included Damascus and the Beirut of today! Maybe Palestine should be returned to Egypt or Greece, and Syria and Lebanon to Israel!

Isn’t it ironic that the Philistines weren’t Arab, that they invaded an Egyptian coastal land that is almost the Gaza strip of today, occupied the cities of Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashod and Ekron, and spent the time they were not fighting the Egyptians, fighting their Hebrew neighbors of the highlands. 
Isn’t it ironic that The Philistines were characterized as cunning pagan warmongers by the Jews and as pirates and marauders by the Egyptians?

Isn’t it ironic that the modern Jews of the “highland” have finally returned the land of the Philistines – the Gaza strip- to the modern Arab people that claim it today but that it eventually led to a new open war?
Isn’t it Ironic that the Arab world thinks that Gaza is not enough and also wants to give the original Jewish land to the new Philistines?

Isn’t it ironic that the name Philistine could come from the Semitic word Plishah that means invasion, and that only in the XIX century did writers start officially referring to the Philistines as being the Arab people native of Palestine?
Finally, isn’t it ironic that one of the common meanings of the word Philistine describes a close minded person?
Now –and again- does it really matter if the chicken or the egg was there first? And if it matters, can we at least be honest about it?

Hatred between the two people was there than and is still kept alive today by foreign Arab powers interested in the destabilization of the region and using the resentment for a proxy war that serves their interests and preserve a “justification” for their Islamic terrorist off-springs across the world. 

You are right! They are right! Let us redraw the borders, do right for the people who were wronged! 
But where to start? How far back? Iran and Iraq were Persia. The rest was Egypt, Arabia and the Ottoman Empire. Just take a look at Europe today, pre-1989 (Berlin, the Wall), pre and post WW2, pre and post WW1, pre and post 1870, pre and post any major conflict or invasion that has shaken its borders every 50 years of its existence….Where do you want to start righting the wrongs? How far back? And is it really going to solve anything? Does it really matter anyways?

Maybe, just maybe, Iran and Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas should have given a chance to the planned Palestinian referendum on the existence of an independent Palestine and on the recognition of Israel. But the outcome of such a vote could have deprived them from their anti-Jew rhetoric. The Palestinian people, like their Lebanese neighbors are just held hostages by powers that use them as proxy for their crazy causes. That Israel gave Gaza back and bulldozered its own colons out of the strip of land was not enough of a step in the right direction for them. Total annihilation has been sought since 1947 at the price of many wars and bloodshed that have permanently weakened Egypt and Syria, almost destroyed Jordan, and annihilated the fabrics of Palestine and Lebanon.

Knowledge is power!

Literary Digest atlas of the New Europe and the Far East, Funk & Wagnalls Company, New York and London, 1922

http://search.yahoo.com/search?ei=utf-8&fr=slv8-&p=philistines
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=philistine

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The audacious scope of financial chicanery at Enron galvanized the government to crack down on corporate malfeasance, a pursuit that ultimately brought low many high-flying businesses, prompted Congress to pass the Sarbanes Oxley corporate governance law, and culminated with the convictions of former chief executives Kenneth L. Lay and Jeffrey K. Skilling. Many believed that it would have never happened. How, people are asking, can people with so much disposable wealth get involved in such risky schemes to produce even more?

There are as many explanations for white-collar crimes as there are white-collar crimes. Many offenders feel free to engage in business crimes because they can easily rationalize their effects; they are convinced that their actions are not really crimes because the acts involved do not resemble street crimes. For example, a banker who uses his position of trust to lend his institution’s assets to a company he secretly controls may see himself as a shrewd businessman, not as a criminal. 
Some business people feel justified in committing white-collar crimes because they believe that government regulators do not really understand the business world or the problems of competing in the free enterprise system. Even when caught, many white-collar criminals cannot see the error of their ways. For example, one offender convicted in a major electrical industry price-fixing conspiracy categorically denied the illegality of his actions. “We did not fix prices. I am telling you that all we did was recover costs” he said. Some white-collar criminals believe that everyone violates business laws, so it is not so bad if they do so themselves. Rationalizing greed is a common trait of white-collar criminals.

Greed is not the only motivation for white-collar crime; need also plays an important role. Executives may tamper with company books because they feel the need to keep or improve their jobs, satisfy their egos, maintain an outside “girlfriend”, or send their children to Ivy League colleges and universities. Blue-collar workers may pilfer because they need to keep pace with inflation, need to survive, or buy a new car. According to Donald Cressey, embezzlement is caused by what he calls a “non-shareable financial problem.” This condition may be the result of offenders living beyond their means, perhaps piling up gambling debts; offenders feel they cannot let anyone know about such financial problems without ruining their reputations. Offenders use these and other rationalizations to resolve the conflict they experience over engaging in illegal behavior. Rationalizations allow offenders’ financial needs to be met without compromising their values.
There are a number of more formal theories of white-collar crimes. The corporate culture view is that some business organizations promote white-collar criminality in the same way that lower-class culture encourages the development of juvenile gangs and street crime. According to this view, some businesses cause crime by placing excessive demands on employees while at the same time, maintaining a business climate tolerant of employee deviance. New employees acquire the attitudes and techniques needed to commit white-collar crimes from their peers through a learning process. Newcomers are encouraged to believe that “greed is good.”

According to the self-control view, the motives that produce white-collar crimes are the same as those that produce any other criminal behavior: the desire for relatively quick, relatively certain benefits, with minimal effort. According to this view, white-collar criminals have low self-control and are inclined to follow momentary impulses without considering the long-term costs of such behavior. Where do you fit in? Search deep inside of your soul. Have you ever committed a white-collar crime? If not, what has stopped you? Are you being truthful with yourself? How much different are you from Ken Lay? 

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It hardly made a ripple in the deluge of violent news gripping the nation, but it was enough to frighten relatively placid San Bernadino. Members of a drug-trafficking gang opened fire with a rifle and 9-mm handguns one evening in 2005 when a stray bullet killed 11 year old Mynisha Crenshaw who was eating dinner with her family. More than 60 shots failed to hit their intended target, a figure in a narcotics sale dispute. 

That scenario of violence against innocent bystanders has been repeated across the nation. The drumbeat of news coverage has made it seem that America is in the midst of its worst epidemic of violence ever. That sense is not supported by the numbers. The latest evidence is that crime levels actually fell in 2006. But that does not mean that 2006 was not one of the scariest years in American history. Overriding the statistics is the chilling realization that the big crime stories of recent months have invaded virtually every sanctuary where Americans thought they were safe: their cars (Francisco Regalado/Joe Malta murders, Los Angeles), their public transit (over ran by gangs and criminals), even their bedrooms (Elizabeth Smart, Utah/Jessica Lunsford, Florida). Gangs have taken root in small towns and suburbs. In addition, a holiday season burst of multiple killings showed how potent modern weapons are and how random the slaughter can be.

The nation has been through any number of anticrime seasons in the past generation. In many of them, the public’s preoccupation with crime rose as citizens’ concerns about the economy subsided – and then waned as economic and terrorism issues regained center stage. Public attitudes are also driven by periodic media orgies of crime coverage. Yet, there are some who believe that the forces gathering behind this season’s effort are different because the threat seems so much graver. There is some hope, too, that a much more serious and comprehensive national attack on crime, violence and terrorism will emerge – and maybe even show real results.

With resources scarce at all levels of government, the best hope for progress against violence is at the local level, where grass-roots organizations are rising up to mount more sophisticated campaigns against street crimes. It does not entail a magic formula; citizens will have to decide whether to sit idly or take up the mantle. 

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Statistics are an interesting beast to analyze, and basing company projections on another’s random survey may be a precarious procedure to say the least. A recent study conducted by CFO Magazine would make an executive question how proper understanding of a questionnaire can result in positive correction of a questionable situation.

CFO Magazine conducted a study, which included 220 senior financial executives from private and public companies, regarding the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. The following data was accumulated:

• 56% of senior financial executives do not track the costs of implementing Sarbanes-Oxley
• 48% of senior financial executives plan to never track the costs of implementing Sarbanes-Oxley
• 48% of senior financial executives estimate the total costs to implement all portions of Sarbanes-
Oxley to exceed $500,000 to more than $5 million in the next 5 years
• 33% of projects or incentives have been reported as declined or canceled as a result of
Sarbanes-Oxley, as reported by surveyed senior financial executives.

Let us analyze these statistics in the most simplistic of terms. First and foremost, Sarbanes-Oxley was implemented to reduce fraudulent activity to protect shareholders against corporate malfeasance. The second rational behind the Act was to maintain accountability of corporate chieftain’s organizational responsibilities to the general public. The glaring error in these reported statistics is obvious; why would 56 percent of senior financial executives avoid tracking costs of a law that imposes financial hindrances in excess of $500,000 (up to $5 million), and purportedly decreases projects and incentives by 33 percent? Are the statistics incorrect, or are senior executives clearly lazy? We would assume the later is not true.

It is a corporate executive’s responsibility to track costs and maintain a legitimate record of enhanced accountability of compliance directly related to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. If you fall under the 56 percentile of disregarding tracking responsibilities, you are not only disrespecting your corporate responsibilities, but you are also participating in a great injustice to your shareholders. Ignorance is no longer bliss in the world of corporate governance. Compliance is no longer an option, and the accounting records of an organization cannot be misconstrued. 

Hopefully your organization is not categorizing the costs of the most important legislation since the 1933/1934 Act under “miscellaneous expenses”.

“An organization’s biggest threat in the 21st Century is ignorance in corporate governance”
.

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Tempus Virtuous

(good), adj., morally excellent, kind, beneficent, honorable or worthy

Rules for good living.

"Be sincere in your care for others. Hate everything that is evil and hold tight to everything that is good. Care for each other as brothers and sisters and honor others more than you do yourself. Never give up. Eagerly follow and serve where ever you may go. Let your hope make you glad. Be patient in time of trouble and never stop hoping for goodness. Take care of needy people and welcome strangers into your home." --from an ancient scribe during times of chaos & homeland turmoil

It is summer holiday time for many. I am off to the tropics and will continue in "catching goodness."
Look around you where ever your summer vacation takes you, and catch some goodness yourself.

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Tempus Consultus

Why do jets traveling at high altitudes leave those long cloudlike trails in the sky?

High-flying jet aircraft are often hard to see, but the trails they leave behind can be easily spotted. These trails are more properly called “contrails,” because they are formed from condensed vapor water. Jet engines release water vapor into the air from their exhaust. The hot water vapor from the jet engines mixes with the cold air of the atmosphere and condenses into a cloudlike foggy trail. The phenomenon is more likely to occur higher in the sky, where the air temperature is lower. If the relative humidity of the surrounding air is high, the contrail can last for several hours. If the relative humidity is low, it will quickly evaporate and disappear. 

Another type of contrail, an “aerodynamic contrail,” can be produced by the reduced pressure created by air flowing over the wing of a plane. The reduced pressure causes the air to cool rapidly and condense. This type of trail disappears quickly in the turbulent wake of the airplane.

Lionel researching Voorhees

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Did You Know? Michelle Glisan Blevins         

• That since gaining its independence from France in 1975 there have been 19 attempted or successful coups in the South African island nation of Comoros 

• That the name Comoros is said to be derived from the Arabic word qamar which means “moon”

• That the life expectancy at birth for Comorans is a mere 62.73 years of age- only 3% of the population is 65 or over

• That Mount Karthala on Grande Comore Island is an active volcano, last erupting in April of 2005, and is Comoros’ highest point

• That 98% of the population of Comoros are Sunni Muslim
  

The flag of Comoros has four equal horizontal bands of yellow (top), white, red, and blue with a green isosceles triangle based on the hoist; centered within the triangle is a white crescent with the convex side facing the hoist and four white, five-pointed stars placed vertically in a line between the points of the crescent; the horizontal bands and the four stars represent the four main islands of the archipelago - Mwali, Njazidja, Nzwani, and Mayotte (a territorial collectivity of France, but claimed by Comoros); the crescent, stars, and color green are traditional symbols of Islam.

Al-Hajj Ta'lim Abu Nasr 

Dr. Thomas Ballantyne Irving

1914 - 2002

Professor T. B. Irving was born in Preston, Ontario, Canada in 1914. During the 1950s Irving began following the Islamic faith and took the name Al-Hajj Ta'lim Abu Nasr. Irving taught at several universities in Canada and America. He authored several books on Islam including “Growing Up in Islam”, “Had You Been Born a Muslim”, and “Falcon Spain” about the Arab/Islamic period of Spanish history. He is most known for writing the first American-English translation of the Quran. Irving retired as a professor of Spanish and Arabic in 1980 but served as the dean of the American Islamic College, Chicago from 1981 to 1986. Irving passed away in September 2002 after suffering through a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease. 

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How To Stop A Car With No Brakes

1. Begin pumping the brake pedal and keep pumping it. 
   You may be able to build up enough pressure in the braking system to slow down a bit, or even stop completely. If you have anti-lock brakes, you do not normally pump them— but if your brakes have failed, this may work. 

2. Do not panic—relax and steer the car smoothly.
   Cars will often safely corner at speeds much higher than you realize or are used to driving. The rear of the car may slip; steer evenly, being careful not to over-correct. 

3. Shift the car into the lowest gear possible and let the engine and transmission slow you down. 

4. Pull the emergency brake—but not too hard.
   Pulling too hard on the emergency brake will cause the rear wheels to lock, and the car to spin around. Use even, constant pressure. In most cars, the emergency brake (also known as the hand brake or parking brake) is cable operated and serves as a fail-safe brake that should still work even when the rest of the braking system has failed. The car should slow down and, in combinations with the lower gear, will eventually stop. 

5. If you are running out of room, try a “bootlegger’s turn.”
   Yank the emergency brake hard while turning the wheel a quarter turn in either direction—whichever is safer. This will make the car spin 180 degrees. If you were heading downhill, this spin will head you back uphill, allowing you to slow down. 

6. If you are running out of room, try a “bootlegger’s turn.”
   Making hard urns at each side of the road will decrease your speed even more. 

7. If you come up behind another car, use it to help you stop. 
   Blow your horn, flash your lights, and try to get the driver’s attention. If you hit the car, be sure to hit it square, bumper to bumper, so you do not knock the other car off the road. This is an extremely dangerous maneuver: It works best if the vehicle in front of you is larger than yours—a bus or truck is ideal—and if both vehicles are traveling at similar speeds. You do not want to crash into a much slower-moving or stopped vehicle, however.  

8. Look for something to help stop you. 
   A flat or uphill road that intersects with the road you are on, a field, or a fence will slow you further but not stop you suddenly. Scraping the side of your car against a guardrail is another option. Avoid trees and wooden telephone poles: The do not yield as readily. 

9. Do not attempt to sideswipe oncoming cars

10. If none of the above steps has enabled you to stop and you are about to go over a cliff, try to hit something that will slow you down before you go over. 
    This strategy will also leave a clue to others that someone has gone over the edge. But since very few cliffs are sheer drops, you may fall just several feet and then stop. 

(Piven and Borgenicht)

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