'Racist' Teddy Roosevelt statue is removed from outside NYC's Natural History Museum
It's true that TR did share the disrepect for blacks that was typical of his era but that is a very minor aspect of what he said and did. He was a great patriot
A towering statue of President Theodore Roosevelt has been removed, under cover of darkness, from outside New York City's American Museum of Natural History - after more than eight decades on the museum's steps.
The 'Equestrian Statue of Theodore Roosevelt,' commissioned in 1925 and unveiled to the public in 1940, depicts Roosevelt on a horse, with a Native American man and an African man on foot at his side. It has been criticized by some as a symbol of colonialism and racism.
It was removed under cover of darkness in an operation involving a crane and tarpaulin around 1am on Wednesday.
The New York City Public Design Commission voted last June to remove it, the museum said on its website. Its new home will be the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in Medora, North Dakota, where it will remain on long-term loan.
In early December, two weeks after the removal was announced, the museum covered the statue under tarp and scaffolding.
The Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, which is set to open in Medora, North Dakota in 2026, announced their agreement with the City of New York for a long-term loan two weeks ago. No information on how long the loan is intended to last for has been provided by the museum.
The Roosevelt statue was commissioned by the Board of Trustees of the New York State Roosevelt Memorial in 1929 and welcomed guests at the front of the American Museum of Natural History since 1940.
The statue has long been criticized, however, for its depiction of Roosevelt on horseback alongside a black man and Native American, which critics have said signifies a racial hierarchy in which Roosevelt stands higher than the other two.
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'We Muslims in America undeniably have an increasing anti-Semitism problem'
A Duke University professor has called on his fellow Muslims to confront the 'increasing anti-Semitism problem' within their community in wake of the Texas synagogue terror attack.
Abdullah T. Antepli, a professor of the Practice of Interfaith Relations at the Duke Divinity School, took to Twitter Sunday saying members of his faith have a 'moral call for action for the soul of Islam and Muslim' to address the hatred towards Jews.
He also took aim at Rep. Ilhan Omar for over past anti-Semitic commentary, including a comment she made in 2019 suggesting that Israel’s allies in American politics were 'all about the Benjamins'. That was a reference to cash which was widely interpreted as an anti-Semitic trope, and which Omar later apologized for.
'We North American Muslims need to have the morally required tough conversations about those“…polite Zionists are our enemies…”“…The Benjamins!!!...” voices and realities within our communities,' Antepli wrote.
'We MUST! Without ands and buts, without any further denial, dismissal and or trivializing of the issues… we need to honestly discuss the increasing anti-Semitism within various Muslim communities.'
Antepli's comments come just hours after an FBI Hostage Rescue Team on Saturday night stormed Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas - near Fort Worth - ending a 10-hour standoff with police by accused gunman Malik Faisal Akram, who disrupted a Sabbath service and took the rabbi and three other people hostage.
Akram, 44, of Blackburn, England - who was reportedly armed with 'backpacks of explosives' - had demanded the release of convicted Pakistani terrorist Aafia Siddiqu - known as Lady Al Qaeda - who police say was referred to as his sister.
The four hostages were all released unharmed. After the incident, the Jewish community and President Joe Biden renewed calls to fight anti-Semitism.
The FBI has sparked fury after claiming that they had yet to find evidence that the attack was anti-Semitic.
'Houston! We have a problem,' Antepli tweeted. 'Not going anywhere….quite the contrary getting worse.'
He argued that North American Muslims need to hold honest discussion about anti-Semitism without any 'further denial, dismissal and or trivializing of the issues'.
The professor alleged the community has failed to address Jew-hatred 'honestly, morally and accurately'.
'I am really sick and tired of the over all defensiveness and tribal nature of our reaction to this alarming internal problem,' he wrote.
'We are better than this! We can no longer pretend the problems of anti-Semitism within us does not exist. There are more urgent moral calls than “Let’s not bring shame to our already vulnerable communities..”'
The professor also called out American leaders - specifically Omar - who he suggests further the anti-Semitism problem.
'The Benjamins,' he wrote, quoting a February 2019 tweet from Omar, a Minnesota Democrat, that caused outrage among her party and other leaders.
'Anti-Semitism must be called out, confronted and condemned whenever it is encountered, without exception,' House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her team wrote at the time.
'We are and will always be strong supporters of Israel in Congress because we understand that our support is based on shared values and strategic interests. Legitimate criticism of Israel's policies is protected by the values of free speech and democratic debate that the United States and Israel share. But Congresswoman Omar's use of anti-Semitic tropes and prejudicial accusations about Israel's supporters is deeply offensive. We condemn these remarks and we call upon Congresswoman Omar to immediately apologize for these hurtful comments.'
Omar apologized for for using old anti-Semitic tropes about Jews and money in her tweets but stuck to her guns in blasting the problems of lobbyists and their financial influence in politics.
'Anti-Semitism is real and I am grateful for Jewish allies and colleagues who are educating me on the painful history of anti-Semitic tropes,' Omar said in a statement in 2019.
'My intention is never to offend my constituents or Jewish Americans as a whole,' she added. 'We have to always be willing to step back and think through criticism, just as I expect people to hear me when others attack me for my identity. This is why I unequivocally apologize.'
'At the same time, I reaffirm the problematic role lobbyists in our politics, whether it be AIPAC, the NRA or the fossil fuel industry. It's gone on too long and we must be willing to address it,' Omar added. She tweeted out her statement with the words: 'Listening and learning, but standing strong.'
Sunday, responding to the Texas hostage situation, Omar tweeted: 'Thank God for the freeing of the hostages. Blessings to the members of Beth-Israel synagogue and the entire community.'
She was just one of several lawmakers issuing their support for the synagogue and members of the Jewish faith.
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The seductions of government
People have been conditioned to think in terms of entitlement because governments keep throwing 'free' things at them.
While we know these government giveaways are all paid for by someone, many recipients don't care about that. In their mind, they want benefits now without reaching into their own pockets.
Whenever an individual or group of people are so dependent on others for their dopamine hit, they are easily manipulated into compliance. When they complain, any threat to remove their access to that benefit prompts a change in behaviour.
That's where we are at now.
If you don't comply with government demands then you will lose the ability to use services, attend public houses or restaurants or funerals.
Once that principle has been established and accepted, then the coercion can be applied across all manner of circumstances.
In Germany, there are media reports that only triple jabbed people are now allowed to go to restaurants. In Queensland, only double jabbed people can attend the pubs and clubs. In the Northern Territory, the unjabbed are confined to their own homes.
Incredibly, most people accept these arbitrary decrees as if it is in their interest.
They aren't but in a society where government dishes out all the goodies, most will comply lest they lose the largesse of the gift giver.
That is the real danger of big government. In the worlds of former US President Gerald Ford; A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have.
Email from Cory Bernardi
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Health fascism has become a Hollywood dystopian sci-fi
Some of you might recall the 2013 film Elysium starring Matt Damon and Jodie Foster. It is about a ravaged Earth in the future where the poor and medically deprived live, while the wealthy elites and medically protected live on a luxurious space station called Elysium that orbits around it. Max (Damon) is exposed to radiation and given only five days to live. The rest of the movie involves him trying to make it up to Elysium and get his much-needed healthcare.
Hmm, sound familiar? It should. The stuff of shocking dystopian novels and films is now fully upon us. Consider this – a good friend in WA just told me: ‘My dad is scheduled for surgery for cancer in a few weeks. The surgery has now rung my parents and said that he cannot have the surgery unless he has a first dose of the vaccine. Wow. They would just leave him to die of cancer instead.’
Wow indeed. Talk about heartless bastards and health fascists. The fundamental rule of medicine for millennia has always been, ‘First, do no harm.’ Refusing to treat patients because they are making informed health choices is wrong. Making them the subject of unjust discrimination is the height of cruelty and inhumanity.
Our various human rights’ charters make this quite clear. For example, Article 25:1 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights says this: ‘Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.’
And the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights says a similar thing: ‘The States Parties to the present Covenant recognise the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health’ (Article 12:1).
Yet countless individuals are now being denied medical treatment, and are being treated as second-class citizens when it comes to health care. Numerous states and nations are moving this way. Consider this headline from two months ago: ‘Singapore withdraws free health care for Covid patients who are ‘unvaccinated by choice’.
Thankfully, some are resisting these sorts of moves: ‘Australia’s peak doctors body has criticised an ‘unethical’ proposal to charge unvaccinated people for their medical care that is being considered by the New South Wales government.’
This denial of health care is morally repulsive. A few months ago, an opinion piece in the British Medical Journal by law professor John Coggon (also a member of the Bristol Population Health Science Institute, and an honorary member of the UK Faculty of Public Health) appeared.
He asked, ‘Should treatments for Covid be denied to people who have refused to be vaccinated?’ He offers five compelling reasons why we should never head down this path, and then concludes:
‘For any or all of the above reasons, it is not ethically justifiable to institute a policy of medical treatment prioritisation that discriminates between people on the basis of their willingness or otherwise to be vaccinated. Looking to moral judgment of patients would alter basic principles underpinning NHS care, and would wrong those whom it denied access to treatment. It would arbitrarily single out one irresponsible choice. And it would compound social inequities while missing its moral target and placing unfair burdens on healthcare practitioners. It should not feature in resource allocation decisions.’
The man I mentioned above had paid taxes all his life, and he is entitled to get the health care he needs and that he helped to subsidise. But sadly there are far too many stories like this that we learn of every day. It seems in the name of ‘keeping us safe’ and ‘not killing grandma,’ our policies are now such that not everyone will be kept safe, and we will deliberately kill (or let die) grandma and grandpa – and anyone else who does not comply.
Our governments – drunk on power and control – are fully involved in the creation of a two-tiered society where grossly immoral and unjust discrimination takes place at the most crucial of levels: in the access to basic goods and service, to travel, to education, and even to healthcare.
Our leaders are effectively saying, ‘You get the jab or else. Do as we demand or you can just die.’ Never mind the legitimate concerns so many have about the efficacy and safety of Covid vaccines. Never mind the human rights declarations that speak of the vital need for there to be no compulsion in medicine, and the need for full voluntary informed consent.
If hospitals and emergency rooms are not turning away those making irresponsible choices – such as drug addicts and heavy drinkers – it should not be turning away those who in my view are making very responsible choices about things like vaccination.
We now have a new class of lepers and untouchables who are being denied the basics of life – even healthcare. All because they believe in the fundamental human right to decide for themselves what healthcare they will receive. For refusing to have a questionable substance jabbed into their bodies (not just once, or twice, but perhaps in perpetuity), they are now being denied life-saving medical treatment – even for cancer.
In the case of Elysium, we had the evil Delacourt (Foster) forcibly preventing mere earthlings from getting access to healthcare. In Australia’s dystopia, we have McGowan in WA and other premiers doing much the same. We once simply read these books and watched these films for entertainment, knowing they were just works of fiction and science fiction. Little did we know that they in fact would soon become accurate depictions of government policy in Australia and the West.
Got something to add? Join the discussion and comment below.
https://spectator.com.au/2022/01/health-fascism-has-become-a-hollywood-dystopian-sci-fi/
****************************************My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
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Kristina Pimenova, once said to be the most beautiful girl in the world. Note blue eyes and blonde hair
Bliss: What every woman wants: to feel safe and secure in the arms of her man. Robert Irwin and Rorie Buckey. See 
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