Conservapedia - User contributions [en]

Jimmy Wales

2009-08-18T20:38:13Z

Whipmuh:

[[Image:Jimmy_wales_1.jpg‎|right|250px|thumb|Co-Founder of Wikipedia, Jimbo Wales]]
'''Jimmy Wales''' is the co-founder of [[Wikipedia]] and self-described [[libertarian]]. Jimmy Wales claims to be an [[Objectivism|objectivist]] (a type of [[atheism|atheist]] ) who follows the philosophy of [[Friedrich Hayek]] and conservative Russian [[atheist]] [[Ayn Rand]]. His favorite book is Rand's ''[[Atlas Shrugged]]''.<ref>[http://qanda.org/Transcript/?ProgramID=1042 Interview with Jimmy Wales conducted by Brian Lamb], C-SPAN Transcript, September 25, 2005.</ref> Wales told an interviewer in ''Reason'' magazine, "One can't understand my ideas about Wikipedia without understanding [[Hayek]]," <ref>[http://reason.com/news/show/119689.html Wikipedia and Beyond],
Jimmy Wales' sprawling vision, Katherine Mangu-Ward, ''Reasononline.com'', June 2007.</ref> however there is thin evidence for this given the radical [[leftist]] agenda of Wales close confidants in control of Wikipedia.<ref name="Left_in_Control_of_Wikipedia">{{cite news
|first=Jim
|last=Davis
|title=Left in Control of Wikipedia
|url=http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2007/5/13/212015.shtml?s=lh
|work=
|publisher=[[NewsMax]]
|date=May 14, 2007
|accessdate=2007-10-04}}</ref> Hayek wrote in ''Road to Serfdom'', "By the time Hitler came to power, [[Classical liberalism|liberalism]] was dead in Germany. And it was [[socialism]] that had killed it;"<ref>[http://www.iea.org.uk/files/upld-publication43pdf?.pdf ''Road to Serfdom'',] Friedrich A. Hayek, Reader's Digest Condensed Version, April 1945, pg. 36.</ref> editors trying to make this point in Wikipedia are routinely [[politically profiled|profiled]], stalked, harassed, slandered, and banned.

Jimmy Wales became a millionaire by trading commodity options; before funding Wikipedia, he funded Bomis Inc. in 1996, which contained pornographic material.<ref>http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2005/12/69880</ref> Besides funding the non-profit Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales also funded the for-profit [[Wikia]], a company that provides wiki services for businesses and organizations.

Wales was caught editing his own profile on Wikipedia in a bit of a scandal in an effort to downplay [[Larry Sanger]]'s role in the company and distance himself from his Bomis past.<ref>[http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,69880,00.html ''Wikipedia Founder Edits Own Bio''] Wired. Accessed 17 March 2008</ref>

==Controversy==

In early October 2005, former [[Robert F. Kennedy]] aide and retired journalist [[John Seigenthaler Sr.]] contacted Wales about false and libelous information in his Wikipedia biographical entry. [[Wikipedia#Second_casualty:_Wikipedia_.22experts.22_called_into_question.2C_the_Essjay_Scandal|Essjay]] got the call to deal with the situation.<ref>[http://www.wikitruth.info/index.php?title=User:Essjay/Letter User:Essjay/Letter]. Retrieved from WikiTruth, November 3, 2007.</ref> On December 1, 2005 Wales told ''Editor & Publisher'' magazine, the nation’s oldest trade journal serving the newspaper industry regarding Daniel Brandt,
{{Cquote|I don't regard him as a valid source about anything at all... I find it hard to take him very seriously ...<ref>[http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/article_brief/eandp/1/1001612839 Wikipedia Founder, Readers Respond to Seigenthaler Article], Jay DeFoore, ''Editor & Publisher'', December 01, 2005.</ref>}}Brandt was the victim of malicious<ref>http://wikipediareview.com/index.php?showtopic=5641&pid=22336&mode=threaded&show=&st=0&#entry22336</ref> and vile slanders placed within his Wikipedia biographical entry<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Daniel_Brandt&diff=prev&oldid=55132392</ref> by prominent Wikipedia contributors, in violation of numerous published Wikipedia policies.<ref>[http://www.conservapedia.com/Wikipedia#Impugning_critics Wikipedia#Impugning critics], Conservapedia.com</ref> Four days later in a joint appearance with Seigenthaler on [[CNN]] Wales said,
{{Cquote|we are very, very responsive to complaints and concerns.<ref>http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0512/05/lol.02.html</ref>}}
Essjay was entrusted with oversight responsibilities in the wake of the Seigenthaler scandal and wrote to a professor to persuade her to allow students to cite Wikipedia as a "reliable source,"
{{Cquote|It is never the case that known incorrect information is allowed to remain in Wikipedia; we strive to provide a resource that is both accurate and expansive. As we approach one million articles (far more than any other encyclopedia could ever hope to attain) on the English Wikipedia alone (there are hundreds of thousands of articles in the projects that make up the Wikimedia Foundation in dozens of different languages), we prove ourselves as a resource like none ever known before.}}

The derogatory smears against Brandt, self-cited to a certifiably "extremist source" which "should never be used" remained in Brandt's biography for one and half years, with Jimbo Wales and the WikiMedia Foundations full knowledge.

==References==
<references/>

==External Links==
[http://blog.jimmywales.com/ Jimmy Wales' Blog] (this blog was last updated Feb. 16, 2007)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wales, Jimmy}}

[[Category:Wikis]]
[[Category:Business People]]

{{stub}}

Capital punishment

2009-08-08T20:35:19Z

Whipmuh: /* Biblical View */

'''Capital punishment''', also known as the death penalty, refers to the custom of executing prisoners who are convicted of certain crimes. Such crimes are known as capital [[crime]]s, and tend to be grave crimes against persons or governments (such as [[premeditation|premeditated]] [[murder]], [[rape]] or [[treason]]).

== In the world today ==
Of the main developed countries, only the [[United States]] and [[Japan]] use formalized capital punishment, though many developed countries give law enforcement greater authority to kill than allowed by the [[United States]]. For emerging countries, [[China]] uses the death penalty and in the non-developed world it is practiced in most [[Shiite|Shari'a]] states (those whose legal systems are based on [[Muslim]] legal philosophy), as well as many others.<ref name="EU">EU: [http://www.eurunion.org/legislat/deathpenalty/EurHRConvProt13Decl.htm Concerning the Abolition of the Death Penalty in all Circumstances]</ref><ref>Encarta: [http://encarta.msn.com/media_461543496/Capital_Punishment_Worldwide.html Capital Punishment Worldwide]</ref>

According to officially released governmental figures, the [[human rights]] organization [[Amnesty International]] estimates that [[Singapore]] has the highest execution rate in the world, at 13.65 hangings per 1,000,000 residents. [[Saudi Arabia]] has the second-highest rate, at 4.65 per 1,000,000.

Based on 2004 figures, China is the world leader in total number of executions with an estimated 3,400. Following China is [[Iran]] with 159 and [[Vietnam]] with an estimated 64 executions. The [[United States]] executed the 5th greatest number of people in the world with a total of 52. <ref>''The Economist Pocket World in Figures 2008 Edition'' 2007, p. 99. London: Profile Books. ISBN 978-1846680908</ref>

=== United States ===
Capital punishment in the United States is handled on a state-by-state basis; twelve states' laws do not allow for executions at all. Capital punishment is also used by the federal government and the military.

[[Pennsylvania]] has hundreds of people on [[death row]], though only three inmates have been executed since the reinstatement of capital punishment laws, and all three essentially "volunteered" by dropping their appeals. In [[Texas]], one man has been on death row for 31 years.<ref>http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-deathrow28jan28,1,1271967.story?coll=la-headlines-nation</ref>
Appeals and stays of execution can create a backlog on death rows in many states.

Though the United States suspended the death penalty in 1973, it was reinstated in 1977. 65% of Americans believe putting someone to death for a crime is acceptable, according to a recent poll. But respondents were close to evenly split on whether they would prefer the death penalty (50%) to mandatory life in prison (46%). The death penalty is most favored by age 30+ males who are [[Caucasian]] and [[Republican]].<ref>ABC News/Washington Post poll: [http://abcnews.go.com/images/Politics/1015a3DeathPenalty.pdf Death Penalty]</ref>

Some studies conducted since the start of the new millennium have consistently shown a deterrence factor in the United States based on use of the death penalty. It has been calculated that each person executed saves the lives of anywhere from 3 to 18 innocent people.<ref>Studies: Death penalty discourages crime http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,280215,00.html</ref> Other studies have shown that as a whole, "death-penalty states" typically have higher murder rates than states that do not have capital punishment.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?&did=1705#STATES%20WITH%20THE%20DEATH%20PENALTY%20V.%20STATES%20WITHOUT|format=HTML|work=Death Penalty Information Center|language=English|title=Deterrence|accessdate=2007-08-21}}</ref>

===Morality===

Some have questioned how a nation such as the United States that largely identifies itself as [[Christian]] (76.5%) could have 65% of Americans believing putting someone to death for a crime is acceptable<ref>http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_prac2.htm</ref> They question whether or not the [[Bible]] allows such a view.<ref>http://www.itsyourtimes.com/?q=node/3524</ref>. The 6th Commandment is sometimes translated as, "Thou shalt not kill." This translation suggests that executions are a sin. The 6th Commandment is also sometimes translated as, "Thou shalt commit no murder." According to that translation it is possible to argue whether judicial executions are or are not murder.

==== Methods in the United States ====

[[Lethal injection]] is the official method of capital punishment in almost all of the 38 states that have the death penalty. A few states allow for other methods in some circumstances. Several botched electrocutions in [[Florida]] in the 1990s have effectively put an end to the era of the [[electric chair]], which was the most common means of execution in the United States before 1972. In addition to these two methods of execution, lethal gas, hanging, and shooting have all been used at least twice since 1977. Both [[firing squad]]s were conducted in [[Utah]], most recently in 1996. The three hangings took place in [[Washington]] and [[Delaware]], most recently Billy Bailey's 1996 hanging in Delaware. The [[gas chamber]], which has been abandoned because it has been found to normally lead to slow death, has been used in [[California]], [[Arizona]], [[Nevada]], [[Mississippi]], and [[North Carolina]] since 1977. Walter LeGrand's 1999 execution in Arizona's gas chamber will almost certainly be the last of this type.

===France===
The United States has never used the [[guillotine]], which was very popular in [[France]]. The last use of the guillotine in France was in 1977. Thereafter, capital punishment in France was abolished, in 1981.

===Canada===
[[Canada]] does not employ capital punishment, and it has not been a possible sentence in Canadian civilian courts since 1976.

Canada long employed capital punishment as a punishment for [[murder]] or [[treason]], typically executing prisoners by [[long drop hanging|long drop]] [[hanging]] in the case of civilians, and by [[firing squad]] in the case of soldiers or other military. (In particular, 25 soldiers were executed for various crimes during [[World War I]].) Canada had several notorious executioners, particularly [[Arthur B. English]], also known as "Arthur Ellis", after whom [[Arthur Ellis Awards|a Canadian literary award]] for mystery writing is named.

While Canada's use of capital punishment was inherited from the legal system of the [[United Kingdom]], opposition to capital punishment began to arise in the late 1950s, and came to a head in 1959, when [[Steven Truscott]], a 14-year-old boy, was convicted of murder, with a recommendation from the [[jury]] for mercy. The judge passed down a sentence of execution by hanging, then the only legal punishment for murder in Canada.

While Truscott's death sentence would later be commuted in 1960, his case galvanized public opinion, and in 1961 Canada reclassified capital murder, defining it as a murder that involved [[premeditation]], murder during the commission of a violent crime, or the murder of a [[police officer]] or [[prison guard]]. This marked the beginning of the decline of capital punishment in Canada, as the last executions would be in [[December]], 1962. The government of Canada routinely [[commutation|commuted]] any death sentence passed thereafter (indeed, the [[Liberal Party of Canada|Liberal Party]] made opposition to capital punishment a part of their [[platform (politics)|platform]]).

In 1976, this [[de facto]] state of affairs became law, when the [[Parliament (Canada)|Canadian Parliament]] abolished the use of capital punishment under the [[Criminal Code (Canada)|Criminal Code]]. Executions were still permitted under the [[National Defense Act (Canada)|National Defense Act]] until 1998, when they were similarly abolished.

Currently, Canada's [[Supreme Court of Canada|Supreme Court]] does not allow the [[extradition]] of criminals who may be executed for their crimes.

===Saudi Arabia===
Saudi Arabia follows a strict interpretation of Islam under which those convicted of murder, drug trafficking, rape and armed robbery are executed in public with a sword. As of November 25, 2007, Saudi Arabia has beheaded 136 people, 38 people in 2006 and 83 people in 2005. <ref>[http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,312768,00.html Saudi Arabia Marks 136th Beheading of 2007], Associated Press, [[Fox News Channel|Fox News]], November 25, 2007</ref>

===European Union===
The death penalty has been abolished in all 27 [[European Union]] member states, and 47 out of the 50 countries in [[Europe]] (only [[Belarus]] and [[Kazakhstan]] still practise it, and [[Russia]] has had an effective moratorium since 1996).<ref>http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/ACT50/001/2007/en/ACT500012007en.html Document - List of abolitionist and retentionist countries (1 January 2007)</ref> The EU has long been against capital punishment, and campaigns for its abolition worldwide. The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, legally adopted in the Treaty of Lisbon, bans execution in all member states, and abolition is a condition of acceding to the EU.<ref name="EU" /> EU law also bans detainee transfers in cases where the receiving party may seek the death penalty.

===North Korea===
The [[Associated Press]] has reported that executions and [[torture]] in [[North Korea]] are "worse than [[animal]] slaughter." "One inmate, Choe Kwang Ho, sneaked away from his work for 15 minutes to pick fruit. He was executed, his mouth stuffed with gravel to prevent him from protesting." "If a female inmate got pregnant, he said, she and her lover would be shot to death publicly. Then, An said, prison guards would cut open her womb, remove the fetus and bury it or feed it to guard dogs."<ref>[http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,444672,00.html Executions, Torture in North Korea 'Worse Than Animal Slaughter'], Associated Press, ''Fox News'', October 29, 2008</ref>

==Religious views of capital punishment==
===Christianity===
==== Biblical View ====
The [[Old Testament]] of the [[Bible]] has several passages that recommend the death penalty for different offenses.

According to the Old Testament, these are the offenses which merit the [[death penalty]]:

# Worshiping a false god ([[Deuteronomy]] 13:6-10)
# Sacrificing to false gods ([[Exodus]] 22:20)
# Sacrificing children to Molech ([[Leviticus]] 20:2)
# [[Blasphemy]] (Leviticus 24:16)
# Desecrating the [[Sabbath]] (Exodus31:15)
# False [[Prophecy]] (Deuteronomy 13:5)
# [[Witchcraft]] (Exodus 22:18, Leviticus 20:27)
# Cursing Parents (Exodus 21:17)
# Rebellious Sons (Deuteronomy 21:18-21)
# Disobedience to judgments by authority established God (Deuteronomy 17:9-13)
# False witness in a capital crime (Deuteronomy 19:16-20)
# [[Murder]] ([[Exodus]] 21:12, 21:15)
# Negligent [[homicide]] Exodus 21:29)
# [[Homosexual]] intercourse ([[Leviticus 18]]:22, 20:13)
# Bestiality (Leviticus 20:15)
# [[Adultery]] (Leviticus 20:10; 19:20)
# Incest (Leviticus 20:11; from Moses onward: [[Genesis]] 19:33,35; 4:17)
# Sex with a woman betrothed to another (Deuteronomy 22:25)
# Un[[chastity]]; marriage under false pretense of virginity (Deuteronomy 22:21-24)
# Daughter of a priest becoming a prostitute (Leviticus 21:9)
# Kidnapping to sell into slavery (Exodus 21:16)
# Coveting and making a wicked thing one's possession (Deuteronomy 7:26; [[Joshua]] 7:15,25)

The term "put to death" or similar explicit terms are usually used in commands mandating capital punishment, though the term "cut off from his people" (Lev. 17:4, etc.) may also denote such,<ref>Dr. John Gill (1690-1771) on Lv. 17:4, 14</ref> and which would increase the number of capital offenses.<ref>http://peacebyjesus.witnesstoday.org/TheDeathPenalty.html</ref>

Conditions necessary for true conviction:

"At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, shall he that is worthy of death be put to death; but at the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death." (Deuteronomy 17:6; cf. Exodus 20:16)

Requirements for Judges:

Lev 19:15 Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment: thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honour the person of the mighty: but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbour.

Few people support capital punishment for non-murder offenses, and a number of Christians oppose the death penalty in all cases. Apologist [[JP Holding]] argues that the Bible including the [[New Testament]] nowhere repudiates the use of capital punishment, but that it does not necessarily mandate its use, either. <ref>http://www.tektonics.org/af/cappun.html</ref>

In Acts 25:11, the [[apostle Paul]] stated, "...if I be an offender, or have committed any thing worthy of death, I refuse not to die", while Romans 13:1-5 states that God has ordained the just use of the sword by the government. (cf. 1 Pet. 2:14)

Some Christians who are opposed to the death penalty cite John 8:1, which describes how Christ saved an adulteress from death by stoning by challenging the crowd "let he who has not sinned cast the first stone", which they interpret as saying that man does not have the moral authority to condemn man to death. Other Christians argue that the unjust execution of Jesus demonstrates that capital punishment is immoral.

==== Catechism of the Catholic Church====

The [[Catholic Church]] has always supported capital punishment in certain circumstances that range from combating heresy to saving lives of potential victims of crime. Traditionally, capital punishment has been endorsed by the Church for reasons beyond preventing additional wrongdoing by the same criminal.

The renowned Modern Catholic Dictionary (1980) by John A. Hardon, S.J., which was given the "imprimatur" (official endorsement) by Joseph T. O'Keefe, Vicar General, Archdiocese of New york (Dec. 13, 1979), describes the Catholic position of capital punishment as follows:

:It is certain from Scripture that civil authorities may lawfully put malefactors to death. ... Christian dispensation made no essential change [to the Old Testament endorsement of the death penalty], as St. Paul expressly says .... [citing Romans 13:4]. Among the errors of the Waldenses condemned by the Church in the early thirteenth century was the proposition that denied the lawfulness of capital punishment (Argentre, ''Collectio de Novis Erroribus'', I, 86). St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-74) defends capital punishment on the grounds of the common good. ... If even with capital punishment crime abounds, no lesser penalty will suffice. The practice question remains of how effective a deterrent capital punishment is in some modern states, when rarely used or only after long delays. In principle, however, it is morally licit because in the most serious crimes the claims of retribution and deterrence are so demanding that the corrective value of punishment must, if necessary, be sacrificed.

The Catholic Encyclopedia explains the historical use by the Church and Catholic nations to executing heretics, and even cremating the remains of heretics, as a way of expunging evil:<ref>http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12565a.htm</ref>

:The nations of modern Europe, as they gradually developed, seemed to have agreed upon the necessity of extirpating all influences and agencies which tended to pervert the faith of the people, or which seemed to them to betray the potency of evil spirits. Therefore, the laws of all these nations provided for the destruction of contumacious unbelievers, teachers of heresy, witches, and sorcerers, by fire.

In the 1990s, however, some within the Church have advocated limiting the use of capital punishment to situations where there is no other practical way of restraining the particular criminal. This new position found expression without prior discussion or reconciliation with traditional Church doctrine as follows:

:If, instead, bloodless means are sufficient to defend against the aggressor and to protect the safety of persons, public authority should limit itself to such means, because they better correspond to the concrete conditions of the common good and are more in conformity to the dignity of the human person.

:Today, in fact, given the means at the State's disposal to effectively repress crime by rendering inoffensive the one who has committed it, without depriving him definitively of the possibility of redeeming himself, cases of absolute necessity for suppression of the offender "today ... are very rare, if not practically non-existent."<ref>[John Paul II, Evangelium vitae 56.]http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P7Z.HTM</ref>

This surprising new position is at odds with the historic use by the Church of capital punishment to deal with heretics, and the cremation of the exhumed bodies of heretics. It may have simply reflected the late 20th century repudiation in Europe of all uses of capital punishment.

== Injustices Caused by Limits on Death Penalty ==

Increasingly arbitrary limits have been placed on use of the death penalty. One arbitrary prohibition established by the [[U.S. Supreme Court]] on use of the death penalty is when the murder is committed by someone under the age of 18.<ref>''See [[Roper v. Simmons]]''.</ref> Prior to this Supreme Court ruling, states had statutory minimum ages (at the time of crime) for when the death penalty could be imposed.

The award-winning documentary ''The Thin Blue Line'' portrays the true story of the framing of an innocent drifter because the age of the real murderer was slightly below the legal minimum for imposing the death penalty. The crime was the heinous murder of a police officer during a routine traffic stop, and the outrage at the crime cried out for retribution with the death penalty. But the authorities were legally barred from executing the real murderer, and an adult drifter who was in the wrong place at the wrong time was convicted for it. He served years on death row before being released after the movie was widely seen.

== See also ==
*[[Culture of life]]
*[[Guillotine]]
*[[Hanging]]
*[[Lethal injection]]

==Further reading==
*[http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=55990 Christian sentenced to death for blasphemy], By Michael Ireland, ''WorldNetDaily,com'', June 2, 2007.

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

[[category:political Terms]]
[[category:law]]
[[Category:Punishment]]

Communism

2009-08-08T20:27:51Z

Whipmuh: /* Apologists of communism */

[[Image:Captive-nations-01b----07-19-06.jpg|thumbnail|180px|right|A monument to the Captive Nations stands at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation in [[Washington, D.C.]]]]
'''Communism''' is an atheistic ideology supporting a [[political]] system which replaces the [[private property|private ownership]] of the means of production with government ownership (see [[nationalization]], as in [[Venezuela]]).
It is based on [[Karl Marx]]'s proposed establishment of a "[[classless society]]." However, no Communist society has ever been classless; each has been dominated by a self appointed ''[[Nomenklatura]]''.

In the belief that "people cannot change", governments under the banner of communism have caused the death of somewhere between 40 million to 260 million human lives.<ref>[http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/finalconflict/fcrevb102.html The Black Book of Communism]</ref><ref>[http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~hpcws/lelivrenoir.htm The Black Book of Communism]</ref><ref>http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/COM.ART.HTM</ref><ref>[http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat1.htm Source List and Detailed Death Tolls for the Twentieth Century Hemoclysm]</ref><ref>[http://www.sarasotamagazine.com/blog/template_permalink.asp?id=365 Memory and Ideology]</ref><ref>[http://www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id_article=2526 The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression]</ref> Dr. R. J. Rummel, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Hawaii, is the scholar who first coined the term [[democide]] (death by government). Dr. R. J. Rummel's mid estimate regarding the loss of life due to communism is that communism caused the death of approximately 110,286,000 people between 1917 and 1987.<ref>http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/COM.ART.HTM</ref>

Today, communism continues to rule over one-fifth of the world's people.<ref>[http://www.victimsofcommunism.org/history_communism.php Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation], Documenting Communism's Crimes Against Humanity.</ref>
__TOC__
 

==Communist Theory==

[[Image:HammerAndSickle.png|thumb|left|180px|The [[hammer and sickle]], the international symbol of communism, stands for the uprising of the peasants (the sickle) and the workers (the hammer). In certain countries, it is considered to be offensive in the same manner as the [[swastika]] is.{{fact}}]]
Communism is based upon [[Marxism]], a philosophy which uses [[materialism]] to explain all physical and social phenomena. The theory of [[evolution]] influenced the thinking of the Communists, including Marx, [[Friedrich Engels|Engels]], [[Vladimir Lenin]], and [[Joseph Stalin]].<ref>http://www.icr.org/index.php?module=articles&action=view&ID=276</ref> Marx wrote, "[[Charles Darwin|Darwin]]'s book is very important and serves me as a basis in natural science for the class struggle in history." Marx offered to dedicate the second German edition of his polemic "Das Kapital" to [[Charles Darwin]], but Darwin declined the "honour." <ref>http://www.icr.org/index.php?module=articles&action=view&ID=276</ref> <ref>Karl Marx's Social and Political Thought, Bob Jessop, ISBN 0415193265 (pg 476)</ref>

Economically, communism advocates a [[socialist]] economy in which the public owns the [[means of production]]. In countries where communism has been imposed, the government has taken ownership of farms, factories, stores and so on in the name of the people; see "[[dictatorship of the proletariat]]". This drives all [[free market|market-based]] economic activity underground and leads to inefficiencies and shortages.{{fact}} In both the Soviet Union and Red China, the number of people who starved to death when the government confiscated their farm products (animals and grain) is estimated in the tens of millions.{{fact}}

Members of the ruling party (see [[Nomenklatura]]) have special stores in which ordinary people are barred, stores which are immune to the shortages which the lower class must endure (see [[queuing]]).{{fact}}

Various communist doctrines have evolved or been adapted to the time and place they have been implemented. Marxism, developed by [[Karl Marx]], and its modifications under [[Vladimir Ilyich Lenin| Vladimir Lenin]], [[Joseph Stalin]], and [[Mao Zedong]], advocates the overthrow of the existing order by a revolution of the proletariat, the social group which does not control the means of production. The goal of Marxism is supposedly to create a classless society which would result in no longer the need for any [[government]] (Communism).

The most famous government to label itself "communist" is the former [[USSR]] or the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; the Communist Party controlled its government from 1922 to 1991. This government was officially [[atheist]] and attempted to suppress all religion. Like many authoritarian regimes, it tried to cultivate reverence for the state as a psychological substitute for religion. Left-wing critics of the USSR charged that it was communist in name only, and had betrayed the revolution which founded it. George Orwell expressed this viewpoint eloquently in his 1945 fable ''[[Animal Farm]]''.

Marxist theory is intended to appeal to its adherents with the phrase, "from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs", which essentially states point blank a worker does not get paid according to his abilities, and there is no [[incentive]] within the economic theory. Another quote by Marx was, "The theory of the Communism may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property," or as some have phrased it, legalized theft.

== Communism and militant atheism ==

[[Karl Marx]] established atheism as a key part of communism. He famously said, "Religion ... is the opium of the masses."<ref>Marx, K. [http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/31765.html Introduction to A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right] (Classic Quotations) (Standard translation from the original German).</ref> He believed it was part of the "superstructure," a false culture built to maintain the status quo. Thus he denigrated Christianity as a fictional religion. Instead, Marx was an avowed atheist, as he wrote, "Communism begins from the outset with [[atheism]]; but atheism is at first far from being communism; indeed, that atheism is still mostly an abstraction."<ref>Marx, Karl, [http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/manuscripts/comm.htm Private Property and Communism], 1944.</ref>

[[Vladimir Lenin]] similarly wrote: "A Marxist must be a materialist, i. e., an enemy of religion, but a dialectical materialist, i. e., one who treats the struggle against religion not in an abstract way, not on the basis of remote, purely theoretical, never varying preaching, but in a concrete way, on the basis of the class struggle which is going on ''in practice'' and is educating the masses more and better than anything else could."<ref>Lenin, Vladimir Ilyich, ''Proletary'', No. 45, May 13 (26), 1909, translated by Andrew Rothstein and Bernard Issacs, quote from [http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1909/may/13.htm].</ref>

In 1955, [[China|Chinese]] communist leader Chou En-lai declared, "We Communists are atheists".<ref>Noebel, David, The Battle for Truth, Harvest House, 2001.</ref>

The [[atheism]] in communist regimes has been and continues to be [[militant atheism]] and various acts of repression including the razing of thousands of religious buildings and the killing, imprisoning, and oppression of religious leaders and believers.<ref>http://www.academia.org/campus_reports/2000/March_2000_4.html</ref><ref>http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/ecumenism/frroman1.aspx</ref><ref>http://www.nysun.com/article/23082?page_no=1</ref><ref>http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/5/7/120250.shtml</ref><ref>http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1058/is_26_116/ai_56249447</ref><ref>http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35818</ref><ref>http://theworldnow.wordpress.com/tag/around-the-world/asia/china/</ref>

Marxists justification for its persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church was based upon the claim that the Church was a "willing tool of Tsarism."<ref>http://www.marxist.com/religion-soviet-union170406-6.htm</ref>

The clergy openly stated its support for the counter-revolution (White Revolution). Lenin proclaimed that a communist regime must show itself to be merciless toward the question of religion. There was no place for the church in Lenin's regime. This led to anti-religious decrees and propaganda. All church property was expropriated by the new Soviet government. <ref>http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-42047/Union-of-Soviet-Socialist-Republics#277888.hook</ref>

During the late 1930's and later 1940's the restrictions on church activity were loosened as Stalin needed all the support he could get for the war. This doctrine of co-operation between the church and state continued through out the existence of the Soviet republics and the other Warszawa pact nations. Though never going as far as a leader of the Soviet Union asking [http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/simon_barrow/2007/03/hiding_behind_god.html god to bless the country] the clause in the Soviet Unions constitution addressing the separation of church and state was rendered useless.

== Communism and Atrocities and Repression ==

Modern communist regimes have engaged in mass killings on a scale of millions of individuals.<ref>http://www.gmu.edu/departments/economics/bcaplan/museum/comfaq.htm#part3</ref> A work entitled ''[[The Black Book of Communism]]'' published by the [[Harvard]] Press focuses on the crimes, terror, and repression of modern communist regimes over a 70 year period.<ref>http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/COUBLA.html</ref> This book is fairly controversial partly due to the various estimates regarding the millions of people who died under communist regimes.<ref>http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/finalconflict/fcrevb102.html</ref><ref>http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~hpcws/lelivrenoir.htm</ref><ref>http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat1.htm</ref>
<ref>http://www.sarasotamagazine.com/blog/template_permalink.asp?id=365</ref><ref>http://www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id_article=2526</ref>

Similarly, a influential book which concerns itself with Russian communist torture, repression and atrocities is [[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]]'s ''[[The Gulag Archipelago]]'' which won Solzhenitsyn a [[Noble Prize]].<ref>http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/01/home/solz-gulag.html</ref> In 1983, Alexander Solzhenitsyn in which he gave his explanation of the cause of why millions of people died under Russian communism:

<blockquote style="background: #F9F9F9; border: 1px solid #AAAAAA; padding: .3em;">
"Over a half century ago, while I was still a child, I recall hearing a number of old people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia: "Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened.
</blockquote>

<blockquote style="background: #F9F9F9; border: 1px solid #AAAAAA; padding: .3em;">
Since then I have spend well-nigh 50 years working on the history of our revolution; in the process I have read hundreds of books, collected hundreds of personal testimonies, and have already contributed eight volumes of my own toward the effort of clearing away the rubble left by that upheaval. But if I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of the ruinous revolution that swallowed up some 60 million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: "Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened."<ref>http://www.icr.org/index.php?module=articles&action=view&ID=276</ref>
</blockquote>

In communist [[North Korea]], abuse and killing in prison camps is occurring today.<ref>http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=5596</ref><ref>http://www.kimsoft.com/korea/nkdefec3.htm</ref> In addition, the North Korean government practices brutal repression and atrocities against North Korean Christians.<ref>http://www.nysun.com/article/23082?page_no=1</ref><ref>http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/5/7/120250.shtml</ref>

In 1999, the publication [[Christian Century]] reported that "China has persecuted religious believers by means of "harassment, prolonged detention, and incarceration in prison or `reform-through-labor' camps and police closure of places of worship."<ref>http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1058/is_26_116/ai_56249447</ref> In 2003, owners of Bibles in China were sent to prison camps and 125 Chinese churches were closed.<ref>http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35818</ref> China continues to practice religious oppression today.<ref>http://theworldnow.wordpress.com/tag/around-the-world/asia/china/</ref>

==Communists cite scripture==

Some Communist ideology has made its way into the Church as a [[Social Gospel]], interpreting the Gospel as less redemptive of sin and more of a public works campaign and activism. They often cite Jesus feeding the masses and warnings to the wealthy who believed self-seeking is all this world has to offer. Communists often cite the Acts of the Apostles, as early Christians practicing some form of sharing for the common good:

:And all that believed were together, and had all things common; And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. (Acts 2:44-45, KJV)

:Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold,

:And laid them down at the apostles' feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need.

:And Joses, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas, (which is, being interpreted, The son of consolation,) a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus,

:Having land, sold it, and brought the money, and laid it at the apostles' feet.(Acts 4:34-7, KJV)

But as Arnold Toynbee has pointed out, this Marxist view denies the most crucial points,

:The passage in the Acts represents the philanthropy of the primitive Christian Society as flowing from a God-given grace which was the fruit of a belief in the divinity of Jesus. In other words, the charity which is here depicted as moving the primitive Christians to go—in their mutual concern for one another's welfare—to the extreme length of sharing all their worldly goods is not a mere love of Man for Man (which is the limited literal meaning of the word ‘philanthropy’), but is a spiritual relation to which God is a party as well as His human creatures. In fact, this Christian Socialism is a practical application, on the economic surface of life, of the fundamental religious truth that the brotherhood of Man is a consequence of the fatherhood of God - a truth which is driven home with special force by a religion which teaches that God is not only the father and creator of Man, but also his savior who has been incarnate in human shape and has suffered, and triumphed over, Death.<ref>Arnold Toynbee, ''A Study of History'', Annex II to Vol. V, Part C (i) (c) 2, p. 585, ''Marxism, Socialism, and Christianity''.</ref>

==Collapse of most Communist parties==
===Europe===
Between 1989 and 1991, many communist governments fell. The [[Berlin Wall]] in [[Germany]], which had become a symbol for the division between the West and communist states, was torn down largely in response to Ronald Reagan in 1989, and there was also a large revolution against Romanian dictator [[Nicolaie Ceausescu]]. In 1991, the USSR broke up into several countries - each which reformed to capitalism. Some of these remained under autocratic governments, but some have embraced democracy. With the collapse the remnants of Communist parties have dropped their old names and ideologies, but still operate on the left of the political spectrum.

===Asia===
Communism still has a presence in Asia. China retains an autocratic regime controlled by the Communist party, which allows no democracy or dissent. However it does allow capitalism, and has experienced a very rapid growth of the private sector and the middle class. Observers expect that the regime's efforts to control public opinion and forestall the will of the people will be more and more difficult.

[[North Korea]] remains a brutal dictatorship controlled by the same family. [[Laos]], and [[Vietnam]] are also run by the old Communist cliques.

Elsewhere the only other communist countries is [[Cuba]], which has been controlled by the Castro brothers since 1960.
==Reagan's vision==
President Ronald Reagan speaking to the British House of Commons at the Palace of Westminster said,
{{Cquote|What I am describing now is a plan and hope for the long term -- the march of freedom and democracy which will leave Marxism-Leninism on the ash heap of history as it has left other tyrannies which stifle the freedom and muzzle the self-expression of the people.<ref>President Ronald Reagan [http://www.iri.org/history_ReaganSpeech.asp Speech to the British Parliament], June 8, 1982. Retrieved from International Republican Institute 05/24/07. </ref>}}

==Apologists of communism==

Apologists for communism like to say that the atrocities of communism were not really because of communism.
They say that Communist ideals were internally contradicted (many communist states ignored Marx's opposition to use of the death penalty for example), so no government ever met the official definition of "communist". Thus, no country has so far been Communist in the Marx model, only dictatorships under the Communist title.
Many states have, however, proclaimed themselves as communist.

==Notable communists==

Notable communists include:
*[[Fidel Castro]]
*[[Friedrich Engels]]
*[[Che Guevara]]
*[[Lazar Kaganovich]]
*[[Vladimir Lenin]]
*[[Mao Zedong]]
*[[Karl Marx]]
*[[Joseph Stalin]]
*[[Yakov Sverdlov]]
*[[Leon Trotsky]]
*[[Genrikh Yagoda]]
*[[Yakov Yurovsky]]

==See also==
*[[Communist Party of the United States of America]]
*[[Cold War]]
*[[Capitalism]]
*[[Iron Curtain]]
*[[Socialism]]
*[[Social Effects of the Theory of Evolution]]
*[[Korean Airlines Flight 007]] for the connection of the shootdown by the Soviets of KAL 007, with 269 people aboard, on Sept. 1, 1983 with the heightened U.S./Soviet confrontations of 1983-4.

==Notes and references==
{{reflist|2}}

==External links==
*[http://www.memorialsighet.ro/en/colectie.asp?id=3 Memorial to the Victims of Communism and the Resistance]
*[http://www.aim.org/wls/category/communism/ What Liberals Say - Category: Communism], [[Accuracy In Media]]

[[Category:Communism]]
[[Category:Forms of Government]]

Oman

2009-08-08T20:25:00Z

Whipmuh:

'''Sultanate of Oman''' ('''سلطنة عُمان''') is an [[Arab]] nation on the south east corner of the [[Arabian peninsula]]. Oman has a narrow coastal plain up to only 16 kilometers in width, and then wide barren mountain ranges and waterless plateaus further inland. Oman also controls the access to the Persian Gulf with the Musandam peninsula, a separate enclave to the north. The total area is 309,500 km2, although it's boundaries with the [[United Arab Emirates]] and [[Saudi Arabia]] are still undefined.

Oman has a population of over 3,200,000 and the capital city is Muscat, which is a major port in the southwest region of the Arabian peninsula. Like many middle eastern countries some 600,000 expatriates perform much of the menial work in the country.

==History==

Oman succeeded [[Portugal]] as a power in the western [[Indian Ocean]] in the eighteenth century. In the late 18th century, Muscat signed a series of friendship treaties with [[Great Britain]] but it never became a British colony. In the 1950's Britain would aid in suppressing uprisings by the rebellious interior tribes. In 1970 Sultan Said bin Taimus was overthrown by his son to free the country from his father's oppressive rule. Qaboos bin Said al-Said has ruled as Sultan since then.

With large oil reserves Oman has been able to develop rapidly.

==Government and Politics==

The Sultanate of Oman is a hereditary absolute monarchy. The Sultan is both chief officer of state and chief executive and wields considerable power in a largely centralized state.

== Sources ==

*The Earth and Its Peoples A Global History, Bulliet et al, 2005.
*[https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/mu.html| CIA Factbook]
*[https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/mu.html| CIA Factbook]

[[Category: Middle Eastern Countries]]
[[Category:Muslim-Majority Countries]]