March 4: Visitors from around the globe ... calendar notes ... today's index

Today's Index (March 4, 2k12)

refWrite Frontpage ... Israel not core problem of Arab Spring.

refWrite page 2 ... Ethics, Morality/ies: 'Theorizing about love.'

refWrite page 3 ... SPECIAL FEATURES:  Abraham Kuyper.

refBloggers Insert (page 5) ... Philippines / UN decrim libel.

refWrite Backpage ... Stand-up comedian lampoons Shakespeare.

     Music: Beethoven's 5th Piano Concerto. 

     Sports: NASCAR races.

refWrite Calendar (pager 6) ... Brasil, Harvard, Purim and other 

     March events.

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around the globe 

are you visiting refWrite?

This series was begun April13,2k11.

PoliticsIsrael: Diplomacy: A propaganda campaign launches around the concept 'Israel is not the core problem' of the Arab Spring

Israel's Prime Minister is in a t+t spot with USA Prez Barack Obama.  Israel's Netanyahu meets the American with a propaganda barrage launched under the slogan "Israel is not the problem."  And, by implication, the situation in the aftermath of the Arab Spring, supremely as evidenced in the Syrian débacle which has given way to clear-cut genocide.  Then there's Egypt.  Then there's Turkey.  Then there's Lebanon with its Hezbullah.  Don't forget Hamas and its alliance with Fatah within the Palestinian Authority.  Then there's Iran locked into deep sanctions via its tied-up banking industry.  But we're not done yet — are we?  Can we scoop up into one concept Libya, Iraq, and Afgthanistan?  How about Yemen?  Perhaps only Kuwait and Qatar remain friendly to the Western Alliance articulated in NATO (where Turkey holds membership and hosts the nascent Free Syria military).  Israel is not the core problem in the Middle East as made vividly clear in the reaction of the Organization of Arab States which sawt to censor Syria at the UN, failing due to Russia's and China's refusal to back the initial effort to bring the veto-holders on the UN Security Council around to explicit censuring of Syria for genocide at Homs, and Iran for pursing nuclear power that may give life to the nuclear missile power the prospect of which threatens the Western Alliance, as it shoud indeed.  Propaganda meets anti-nuclear diplomacy.  Israel is not the core problem.

— Politicarp

IMRA - As Netanyahu and Obama Meet: In Post Arab Spring, 

Israel is not the core problem

Posted: 01 Mar 2012 09:00 PM PST

Dr. Aaron Lerner..
IMRA Weekly Commentary..
01 March '12..

The post Arab Spring Middle East is certainly overflowing with problems that threaten the stability of the region.

There is one thing common to the problems in Egypt, Syria and the rest of the states on the neighborhood:  these problems have nothing to do with Israel.

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Love of the Land (Mar2,2k12)

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general editor, refWrite FrontpageTweet #yUT2ube
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Whether or not Israel builds another porch in Jerusalem or for that matter entire new communities beyond the Green Line has no impact on the resolution of these problems.

By the same token, the attitudes taken by the Arab “actors” in the region – be they the contending leaderships or the “street” – towards the United States are driven by how America relates to the new and developing situations in these countries rather than by either Israel’s activities within its own sphere or how the U.S. responds to those Israeli activities.

Simply put, the United States has nothing to gain by throwing Israel under the bus.

With the presidential elections coming up, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has the opportunity to try and get the Obama Administration to concede this fundamental point.

Sure, in the months coming up to the November elections Mr. Obama may hold back. But it would be a terrible mistake not to exploit this “election year window of opportunity” to try and put the concept in place to influence America’s post-election policies.

Link: http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=55902

JuridicsUSA: Criminal Anarchy: Verbal targetting of police and other officers ruled not applicable to Nevada monster

Law scholar Eugene Volokh documents the decision by which the Supreme Court of Nevada struck down the conviction of a Mr Rosales who tried to create an open season on law officers:

The State supported its criminal anarchy charge with evidence of graffiti sprayed on buildings throughout Reno[, Nevada]. This graffiti encouraged killing of police officers and violently attacking their families. It also lauded as heroes those who had killed police officers in the past and generally supported enmity toward the police. The State also produced evidence of Rosales’s taunting phone calls to the police, in which he called 911 and asked that officers be sent “down here, so I can shoot [the]m in the face.” Shortly after the phone calls, menacing graffiti appeared that listed the response times of officers and identified them by squad car. ... Other graffiti sprayed throughout south Reno threatened District Attorney Richard Gammick, warning, for example, that he “will die soon” and that he “must be killed now!!” ….

Does Mr Rosales therfore go free?  Dr Volokh leaves us hanging in suspense, while we are of course grateful that an imprecise charge did not result in a guilty verdict, even for this criminal.  Yet, why did the lower court think a guilty verdict was meritorious and just?  Surely, the graffiti monster of Reno will not simply waltz off, with the courts unable to reach him due to the standard against double jeopardy.

— Lawt
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Volokh Conspiracy (Mar1,2k12)
— reposted here by Lawt, refWrite Frontpage juridics columnist


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Nevada Supreme Court Reverses “Criminal Anarchy” Conviction Posted: 01 Mar 2012 02:32 PM PST (Eugene Volokh)The case is Rosales v. State (Nev. Sup. Ct. Feb. 28, 2012) (unpublished 3-judge opinion). An excerpt: “Criminal anarchy is the doctrine that organized government should be overthrown by force or violence, or by assassination of the executive head or of any of the executive officials of government, or by any unlawful means.” NRS 203.115(1). To convict Rosales of criminal anarchy, the State had to show either that Rosales’s graffiti and other writings advocated the “overthrowing or overturning organized government by force or violence,” NRS 203.115(2)(a), or that his writings justified the killing of executive officers “with the intent to teach, spread or advocate the propriety” of the doctrine that organized government should be overthrown by force or violence. NRS 203.115(2)(c). The State supported its criminal anarchy charge with evidence of graffiti sprayed on buildings throughout Reno. This graffiti encouraged killing of police officers and violently attacking their families. It also lauded as heroes those who had killed police officers in the past and generally supported enmity toward the police. The State also produced evidence of Rosales’s taunting phone calls to the police, in which he called 911 and asked that officers be sent “down here, so I can shoot [the]m in the face.” Shortly after the phone calls, menacing graffiti appeared that listed the response times of officers and identified them by squad car. A letter mailed to the police station said “another one must die, a cop in the wrong place at the right time will be end of games when they come across me.” Finally, Rosales allegedly created a flyer (though it’s not clear that it was distributed) that applauded Larry Peck for killing Officer John Bohach in the line of duty. It also exhorted others to kill police officers and sodomize their wives. Other graffiti sprayed throughout south Reno threatened District Attorney Richard Gammick, warning, for example, that he “will die soon” and that he “must be killed now!!” … Nevada’s criminal anarchy statute proscribes advocating the overthrow of organized government by force or violence, NRS 203.115, and because this statute has the potential to reach constitutionally protected speech, see Brandenburg v. Ohio, 395 U.S. 444, 447–49 (1969), we read its proscription narrowly. Richard Gammick, though he is an elected official, is not “organized government.” Equating Rosales’s encouragement to kill a single elected official with the overthrow of organized government would call the constitutionality of NRS 203.115 into serious question. Rosales’s writings, including those directed at the police, are both hate-filled and heinous, but they provide no hint that he sought to rouse the populace to overthrow organized government by force or violence. For this reason, we conclude that the evidence is legally insufficient to sustain his conviction of criminal anarchy. Although Rosales argues that NRS 203.115 violates the First Amendment and is unconstitutionally vague, we do not reach these arguments, because we conclude that the statute, properly construed, does not permit his conviction of criminal anarchy on the evidence presented. Note that the court affirmed Rosales’s conviction for threatening Gammick, under a separate “aggravated stalking” statute. And Rosales’s speech does seem to consist of constitutionally unprotected “true threats.”

JuridicsIsrael: New Prez Supreme Court: Activist Prez Dorit Beinisch retires, replacement Asher Gunis in past advocated judicial restraint

JERUSALEM (JTA) — It ordered the West Bank security fence rerouted because it cut through private Palestinian property.

It overturned state-backed discrimination against Arab Israelis on issues of land distribution and ruled against the Israel Defense Forces’ use of military methods deemed to cause “disproportionate” harm to Palestinian civilians. It overturned Israel’s ban against political parties said to be too “radical.”

And just last week it ruled that the Tal Law, which grants exemptions to haredi Orthodox Israelis from Israel’s military draft so they can study in yeshiva, is unconstitutional.

These are just some of the Israeli Supreme Court decisions that have changed the way Israel does business during the tenure of justice Dorit Beinisch, Israel’s first female chief of the court.

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Jewish Ideas (March1,2k12)

— article intro reposted here by Lawt, refWrite Frontpage juridics columnistFollow @Owlbgeneral editor, refWriteTweet #juridics

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The Supreme Court’s interventionist approach — with its strong emphasis on protecting minority rights – was pioneered by Aharon Barak, who served as the court’s president (the Israeli equivalent to chief justice) between 1995 and 2006. But Beinisch, who is retiring from the court this week after serving since December 1995, upheld the tradition of judicial activism, keeping the court at the center of Israeli public debate and making it a lightning rod for Orthodox and right-wing critics.

That could change as Beinisch, who turned 70 on Tuesday, steps down and is replaced by Asher Grunis, a conservative justice who has made a name for himself as a supporter of judicial restraint.

“There is a huge difference between Grunis’ approach and that of Barak and Beinisch,” said Barak Medina, dean of Hebrew University’s law department. “If the Supreme Court were to move in Grunis’ direction, it would be a 180-degree turnaround.”

Read the full article .... click the t+mstamp below ...

See also Harvard Prof Dorit Wisse in Wall Stret Journal (Feb28,2k`2)
vs Harvard Gangbangers letting loose on Israel (rW6 Calendar March 3-4)