Showing posts with label alan dershowitz. Show all posts
Showing posts with label alan dershowitz. Show all posts

Jul 29, 2015

ALAN DERSHOWITZ: 2ND AMENDMENT ‘AN ABSURD THING’ IN OUR CONSTITUTION..........breitbart on the ronnie republic

English: Professor Alan Dershowitz of Harvard ...
English: Professor Alan Dershowitz of Harvard Law School. עברית: הפרופסור אלן דרשוביץ מבית הספר למשפטים של הרווארד. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

ALAN DERSHOWITZ: 2ND AMENDMENT ‘AN ABSURD THING’ IN OUR CONSTITUTION

During a recent appearance on Newsmax TV, Harvard Law Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz said the Second Amendment is an “absurd thing” in our constitution and that our legal framework needs to be adjusted “to create a presumption against gun ownership instead of a presumption in favor of gun ownership.”

We have tried an experiment for the last 250 years and it’s failed miserably and we have to start a new approach. The new approach has to be guns should not be available to people generally, except if they have a significant need.
If I could write the Bill of Rights over again, I would skip amendment number two. We’re the only country in the world that puts in our Constitution the right to bear arms. It’s an absurd thing to be in our Constitution, but it’s in our Constitution. We have to live with it.
He then referenced the attack that killed two people in the Grand Theatre in Lafayette, Louisiana, saying, “Guns have to be well regulated and they are not well regulated in this country. We’re going to have these kinds of massacres over and over and over again until we change the gun culture and the National Rifle Association is part of the problem, not part of the solution.”
Dershowitz contends that if you want a gun you should have to go to the police or other authorities, borrow a gun for self-defense purposes or hunting, then be required to return it when finished using it.
He added:
What is needed is some very tough legislation both on the federal and state level to make it much, much harder to get guns and to create a presumption against gun ownership instead of a presumption in favor of gun ownership, consistent with the well-regulated militia language of the Second Amendment.
Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.

Read More Stories About:


copied from breitbart.com.........




Jul 17, 2014

Seumas Milne of The Guardian Talks Isolation and the Shameful Injustice in Gaza

Gaza: this shameful injustice will only end if the cost of it rises

The idea that Israel is defending itself from unprovoked attacks is absurd. Occupied people have the right to resist
A relative of the four Palestinian children killed by a shell fired by an Israeli naval gunboat.
A relative of the four Palestinian children killed by a shell fired by an Israeli naval gunboat. Photograph: APAimages/REX
For the third time in five years, the world’s fourth largest military power has launched a full-scale armed onslaught on one of its most deprived and overcrowded territories. Since Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip began, just over a week ago, more than 200 Palestinians have been killed. Nearly 80% of the dead are civilians, over 20% of them children.
Around 1,400 have been wounded and 1,255 Palestinian homes destroyed. So far, Palestinian fire has killed one Israeli on the other side of the barrier that makes blockaded Gaza the world’s largest open-air prison.
But instead of demanding a halt to Israel’s campaign of collective punishment against what is still illegally occupied territory, the western powers have blamed the victims for fighting back. If it weren’t for Hamas’s rockets fired out of Gaza’s giant holding pen, they insist, all of this bloodletting would end.
“No country on earth would tolerate missiles raining down on its citizens from outside its borders,” Barack Obama declared, echoed by a mostly pliant media. Perhaps it’s scarcely surprising that states which have themselves invaded and occupied a string of Arab and Muslim countries in the past decade should take the side of another occupier they fund and arm to the hilt.
But the idea that Israel is responding to a hail of rockets out of a clear blue sky takes “narrative framing” beyond the realm of fantasy. In fact, after the deal that ended Israel’s last assault on Gaza in 2012, rocketing from Gaza fell to its lowest level for 12 years.
The latest violence is supposed to have been triggered by the kidnapping and killing of three Israeli teenagers in the occupied West Bank in June, for which Hamas denied responsibility. But its origin clearly lies in the collapse of US-sponsored negotiations for a final settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the spring.
That was followed by the formation of a “national reconciliation” government by the Fatah and Hamas movements, whose division has been a mainstay of Israeli and US policy. Israeli incursions and killings were then stepped up, including attacks on Palestinian civilians by armed West Bank settlers. In May, two Palestinian teenagers were shot dead by the Israeli army with barely a flicker of interest outside the country.
It’s now clear the Israeli government knew from the start that its own kidnapped teenagers had been killed within hours. But the news was suppressed while a #BringBackOurBoys campaign was drummed up and a sweeping crackdown launched against Hamas throughout the West Bank.
Over 500 activists were arrested and more than half a dozen killed – along with a Palestinian teenager burned to death by settlers. Binyamin Netanyahu’s aim was evidently to signal that whatever deal Hamas had signed with Mahmoud Abbas would never be accepted by Israel.
Gaza had nothing to do with the kidnapping, but Israeli attacks were also launched on the strip and Hamas activists killed. It was those killings and the West Bank campaign that led to Hamas resuming its rocket attacks – and in turn to Israel’s devastating bombardment.
Hamas is now blamed for refusing to accept a ceasefire plan cooked up by Netanyahu and his ally, the Egyptian President Sisi, who overthrew Hamas’s sister organisation the Muslim Brotherhood last year and has since tightened the eight-year siege of Gaza.
But having already suffered so much, many Gazans believe no further truce should be agreed without the lifting of the illegal blockade which has reduced the strip to hunger and beggary and effectively imprisoned its population.
As the independent Palestinian MP Mustafa Barghouti puts it, the Egyptian proposal was a “game” Israel will now use to escalate the war. Some sense of what can now be expected was given by the Israeli reserve major general Oren Shachor, who explained: “If we kill their families, that will frighten them.”
Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu. Photograph: Dan Balilty/EPA
The idea that Israel is defending itself against unprovoked attacks from outside its borders is an absurdity. Despite Israel’s withdrawal of settlements and bases in 2005, Gaza remains occupied both in reality and international law, its border, coastal waters, resources, airspace and power supply controlled by Israel.
So the Palestinians of Gaza are an occupied people, like those in the West Bank, who have the right to resist, by force if they choose – though not deliberately to target civilians. But Israel does not have a right of self-defence over territories it illegally occupies – it has an obligation to withdraw. That occupation, underpinned by the US and its allies, is now entering its 48th year. Most of the 1.8 million Palestinians enduring continuous bombardment in Gaza are themselves refugees or their descendants, who were driven out or fled from cities such as Jaffa 66 years ago when Israel was established.
It can’t seriously be argued that Israel’s refusal to withdraw from the rump of the territory on which the United Nations voted to establish a Palestinian state in 1947 is because of rocket fire. It was after all during the period of quiescence over the past year that the Israeli government rejected the US plan for even a figleaf of a two-state solution – and stepped up illegal colonisation. As Netanyahu made clear this week, there cannot be “any agreement in which we relinquish security control” of the West Bank.
So we’re left with a one-state solution, operated on ethnically segregated apartheid-style lines, in which a large section of the population has no say in who rules over them, indefinitely. But it’s folly to imagine that this shameful injustice will continue without an escalating cost for those who enforce it.
Palestinian resistance is often criticised as futile given the grotesque power imbalance between the two sides. But Hamas, which attracts support more for its defiance than its Islamism, has been strengthened by the events of the past week, as it has shown it can hit back across Israel – while Abbas, dependent on an imploded “peace process”, has been weakened still further.
The conflict’s eruptions are certainly coming thicker and faster. Despite heroic Israeli efforts to fix the narrative, global opinion has never been more sympathetic to the Palestinian cause. But the brutal reality is that there will be no end to Israel’s occupation until Palestinians and their supporters are able to raise its price to the occupier, in one way or another – and change the balance of power on the ground.
seumas.milne@theguardian.com

Jul 14, 2014

Thank Goodness Geraldo is Back!!!!!

Geraldo Rivera
Geraldo Rivera--the boys are back in town
The one thinking Republican on the planet has returned to his radio show on WABC New York Talk Radio after his much needed vacation to Rome..........I'm jealous.

Seriously, my daughter wasn't in Rome 5 minutes before she said......have you seen the leather jackets here?  I just feel like it would be wrong to leave Rome without actually getting one.

Back to G/jay........got in a good go round with Alan Dershowitz about the recent collective punishment of the Palestinians from Israel.

My question.........why is Gaza/Palestine an occupied country.  How does anyone do anything.

Geraldo.....why not have someone like Doc Jazz on your show for an interview.  He is trying to bring the world together with music....and he is a surgeon...an average working successful individual trying to go on with the activities of daily living and suffering the trials and tribulations of occupation.  Lets chat with this regular work-a-day guy and see what he says.  Lets see......Doc Jazz.....what is your take on the current situation.  What are you good ideas to stop the violence.

Also we got to hear from my favorite talking cop, Bernie Kerik.  Love to hear his take on things.....my favorite part about Bernie.......he always speaks with a certain compassion towards police officers and the guys on the street in a way that is loving and refreshing.  It sends a good message out there for the police and the citizens.  Talking about stop and frisk and how it affects the officers walking the beat in New York City today.

Noam Laden, news/jay and fellow talker on the show shared with us his agreement and disagreement with Geraldo Rivera about the situation in Palestine since he does have family in Israel.

This Israel/Palestine situation is extremely difficult.  Geraldo said the one way for sure to wreck a media career in NYC is to bash the actions of Israel.

At the end of the day, Geraldo Rivera, is not afraid to stand up for what he believes in and suffer the heated radio back lash.

All the bashers that I had to endure while he was gone....Mad man Mendte, Stunningly beautiful and successful and stunningly incorrect Judge Jeanine Pirro; it was exhausting to hear them yell and shout.  Judge Napolitano was okay with his back and forth over police actions in the city.

The home grown talent of Rita Cosby and Noam Laden are always enjoyable as they can think, talk and disagree all at the same time without getting angry....who knew.......

Again asking the age old question.........will the talk show inspire new thoughts with chat and info about current events or shall we adopt the opinions of the shouting host.

I'm sticking with Geraldo Rivera on this one.

from the ronnie republic radio round-up.........and thank you to Larry Mendte for being my friend on facebook......welcome you opinion and thoughts.......cl


A story about Doc Jazz:

http://theronnierepublic.blogspot.com/2014/06/fighting-racism-with-doc-jazz-bringing.html


and.........

http://theronnierepublic.blogspot.com/2013/06/copied-from-palestine-chronicle-cl.html


about the Palestine Youth Orchestra:

http://theronnierepublic.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-palestine-youth-orchestra.html


from Roger Waters.....

http://theronnierepublic.blogspot.com/2013/04/from-doc-jazz-open-letter-to-roger.html

from the ronnie republic.....Roger Waters Begs Mick Jagger for the Sake of Palestine.......

http://theronnierepublic.blogspot.com/2014/05/roger-waters-begs-mick-jagger-for-sake.html


May 1, 2014

Geraldo Rivera Radio Round-Up: Geraldo's Back

English: Yasser Arafat at 'From Peacemaking to...
English: Yasser Arafat at 'From Peacemaking to Peacebuilding' at the Annual Meeting 2001 of the World Economic Forum (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Geraldo Rivera.
Geraldo Rivera. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Have to say it.......Good News........Geraldo's Back!


Seriously, Geraldo Rivera runs one of the best radio talk shows out there today--WABC New York--9-11 AM Central Time Zone-------I listen to it on my Chromebook.........and watch it on the streaming video.


Geraldo gets all the info--agree or disagree--he runs an intelligent show.

Geraldo has the magic to say his opinion, bring out the opposite opinion of the guest......and then say thank you.  The listener is the winner because we get the info--we get to hear both sides.

Amazing conversation yesterday--Geraldo Rivera chatted with Alan Dershowitz--again a partial disagreement--about former Palestinian leader Yassar Arafat and his decision to back away on the peace agreement channeled by then President Bill Clinton.  Geraldo told us that Arafat talked to him directly and said this was the biggest mistake of his life and his biggest regret but his hesitation came from the relationship of Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky and Arafat felt this would have negative repercussions on the agreement.

Alan Dershowitz said in his opinion the real reason it was not signed was because Jimmy Carter had instructed Arafat not to sign it.

Always, trying to understand the Middle East, two insiders giving their take on the situation--two people who actually spoke to the individuals involved--really, how often do you hear that kind of thing on talk radio......This will be available on the podcast to hear the conversation again.  It is important to understand the middle east because it affects the world--a good conversation between friends but the listener gets the info.........I do not like angry talk because we lose info.

Comparison--today on KTOK morning drive with Rick Roberts in Oklahoma....Oklahoma City......tries to stir up fear about Obama Care everyday--yes, it's disgusting, because in true Bill O'Reilly style he uses his podium to create panic when he could use it to give out much needed information.

Bad Job Rick Roberts--was this why you were drummed out of San Diego--fear mongering is such an unintelligent way to run a radio show--he said today it is just a matter of time until someone dies from Obama Care similar to the botched execution recently in Oklahoma.  Really, Rick, exactly how will that take place?

Perhaps Geraldo should run for office--you have to give him credit for working across the table and engaging in a conversation.  It's not like the repubs do not need to learn this rule.

The cool thing about Geraldo Rivera--he has the gift of conversation and appreciating the difference in others--take a clue Bill o'Reilly and GOP--this could work for you.

Many callers said today they were glad Geraldo was back, too....they chat with him as if he was their neighbor.......Geraldo talks the vibe of New York.....it's a fun show.

Geraldo also talked today about his affiliation with J Street and his personal views on Israel--Palestian peace.  Geraldo and Alan disagreed on the settlements yesterday and Geraldo feels like J Street and most Jews in America have the right ideas for negotiation for modern times.


  • J Street
    Nonprofit organization
  • J Street is a nonprofit liberal advocacy group based in the United States whose stated aim is to promote American leadership to end the Arab–Israeli and Israel–Palestinian conflicts peacefully and diplomatically. It was founded in April 2008. Wikipedia




  • Enhanced by Zemanta