Evidence Found of a Lost Civilization

A Yahoo news story titled Scholar claims to find medieval Jewish capital was authored by Mansur Mirovalev, an Associated Press writer and was dated 9/20/08. The article discussed a little known fact of history. A group of people known as the Khazars had once formed an influential nation which adopted Judaism as its official religion over 1,000 years ago. Archeological evidence for this was recently discovered at an excavation site near the Caspian Sea. The excavation was led by Dmitry Vasilyev, a professor at Astrakhan State University.

The excavation unearthed the foundations of a fortress as well as some dwellings. They are believed to be remnants of the Khazar capital Izar and the fact that the fortess was of flamed brick and Khazar law permitted flammed bricks only in the capital is evidence that Vasilyev has found Izar, said to have been the first feudal state of Eastern Europe. In addition the general location of the city was revealed by medieval European, Jewish and Arab writers. It was said to be on the Silk Road; a trade route involving Europeans, the Chinese and the Khazars. The Khazars ammassed considerable profits at least in part due to their location. They were also known to have interacted with the Byzantine Empire and North Africa. Their conquests included large amounts of land in what are now Russia and the Ukraine and Central Asia. Khazar civilization thrived between the seventh and tenth centuries.

A prominent feature of the Khazar nation was its Judaic nature. The dynasty which ruled the Khazars and the nobility of that nation converted to Judaism. This seems to have taken place during the eigth or ninth century. Russian epic poems speak of their warriors battling the "Jewish Giant."

Perhaps the greatest legacy of the Khazars was the role they played in containing the expansion of Islam toward Eastern Europe and the Caucasus Mountains. Their inhibiting influence has been compared to what French knights accomplished in defeating an Arab army at the Battle of Tours which took place in France in 732.

The Cost of Liberty: Constant Vigilance

The Alliance Defense Fund has a disturbing news story at their website. As a consequence of what took place a complaint was filed with the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, Northern Division. It is identified as Swagler v. Harford County. This link provides details.

The complaint resulted from the arrest, jailing and strip searching of 18 individuals engaged in a peaceful public demonstration against abortion. That activity is protected by the First Amendment which guarantees both freedom of speech and freedom of religion. Also of concern, to those of us who are not focused on selective enforcement of constitutional rights, was a refusal on the part of authorities to allow contact between the detainees and attorneys Steve Peroutka and Scott Whiteman during the evening of the date on which they were arrested.

Authorities released the 18 individuals after opting not to pursue charges against them. Charges included loitering, disorderly conduct, and failure to obey a lawful order. A permit offense was not even among the charges.

Trampling civil liberties should always be a concern to those valuing freedom even when the beliefs of protestors are at odds with their own. We have tolerated demonstrations by Ku Klux Klan members as well as American Nazis yet young unarmed and non-threatening anti-abortion protestors are treated like criminals.

This is not the first incident of this type and makes one wonder what motivates authorities to behave like they did. Stereotyping probably plays a significant role. Leftist extremists have successfully demonized anti-abortionists. Bigotry is encouraged when perceptions of others are clouded by vicious stereotyping. Stereotyping does not have to be racial in nature. It can target beliefs. The killing fields of Cambodia testify to this abuse. The need for Americans to be vigilant in defense of liberty exists today as it has during the course of our history.

The High Cost of Ethanol

'Crime' and Ethanol is a Breakpoint commentary authored by Chuck Colson. From Chuck:

Biofuels are one of the major reasons you and I are paying more for groceries these days. For most of us, it is just an inconvenience. For many around the world, however, it is a catastrophe. Last week, United Nations Special Investigator Jean Ziegler called the use of biofuels, such as ethanol, a “crime against a great part of humanity.”

In the past, global food crises were sparked by natural disasters and bad harvests. What makes this food crisis a crime against humanity is: We caused it. And like many man-made problems, this one can be traced to our false worldview.

Here in the United States, egg prices are up 35 percent; milk up 23 percent; and bread up 16. For most Americans, who on average spend 10 percent of their income on food, these increases squeeze our budgets.

But for the “great part of humanity” Ziegler talks about, it is a lot worse. In countries like Ethiopia and Bangladesh, people can spend 70 percent of their income on food; so even modest increases in food prices can impair their ability to feed their families. And price increases for the staples they depend on have not been modest: Wheat prices have doubled and corn prices quadrupled in the last year.

Rising food prices are causing social instability. According to the World Food Program, “33 countries in Asia and Africa face political instability as the urban poor struggle to feed their families”—which is why the president and Congress are talking now about increasing aid to these countries.

While the rise in food-staple prices has many causes, as Ziegler noted, one of them is definitely man-made: the use of cropland and food-staples to produce bio-fuels such as ethanol. He called “transforming hundreds and hundreds of thousands of tons” of foodstuffs into fuel “absolutely catastrophic for the hungry people.”

Look at it this way: It takes 510 pounds of corn to make 13 gallons of ethanol—that amount could “feed a child in Zambia or Mexico for a year,” while it fuels your car only for a week!

Ziegler is not alone; the IMF (International Monetary Fund) has raised grave concerns, and Secretary of State Rice recently spoke of the “unintended consequence from the alternative fuels’ effort.”

What is maddening about this is that the biofuel effort is fueled by politicians handing out massive subsidies to the farm belt and pandering to glassy-eyed environmentalists. Every presidential hopeful who participated in the Iowa caucuses had to sing the praises of ethanol. That is why John McCain stayed away, because he opposes the subsidies.

Now, I am all for farmers making money on their crops. They deserve it. But no politician with a shred of integrity can deny that it is more important to feed a child in Zambia for a year than to feed your car for a week. And—as if I need to remind you—this is an election year, so ask your candidates where they stand on this tragic political folly. And call your members of Congress to tell them how you feel.

A properly informed worldview is the key here. Two non-Christian worldviews have merged to bring about this crisis: one that sees maintaining political power as an end in itself, and one that sees the environment as our chief concern, even at the expense of humans.

We Christians insist on the proper use of government: that is, to restrain evil and promote justice. And we believe in proper environmental stewardship. But we insist that people, especially the poor, must come first.

Well said Chuck. Environmentalists too often have a zeal that clouds their better judgement. The thinking that guided the trail to the ethanol debacle was one dimensional. If the source of fuel can be grown it is renewable and that's all we need to know. Unfortunately there was more to it. The large input of energy needed to process ethanol has been previously mentioned at this blog. A significant input of energy is needed to produce the fuel.

Now add cheating the poor to inefficiency. Higher food prices exact a high toll from those least able to afford it. In the future more thorough analyses free of idelogically driven concerns ought to motivate decision makers.