December 2009
You are currently browsing the articles from Concealed Carry Laws written in the month of December 2009.
J KRISHNAMURTI – “And with love, do what you will, there is no risk; there is no conflict. Then love is the essence of virtue. And a mind j that is not in a state of love, is not a religious mind at all. ”
J KRISHNAMURTI –“As you are externally aware, so also you can be inwardly aware of your thoughts and feelings, of your motives and urges, of your prejudices, envies, greed and pride. . . This outward and inward awareness is a unitary process which brings about a total integration of human understanding. ”
J KRISHNAMURTI –“Death must be something extraordinary; as life is. Life is a total thing. Sorrow, pain, anguish, joy absurd ideas, possession, envy, love, the aching misery of loneliness — all that is life. And to understand death, we must understand the whole life, not take just one fragment of it and live with that fragment, as most of us do. In the very understanding of life there is the understanding of death, because the two are not separate. ”
J KRISHNAMURTI – “Education has no meaning unless it helps you to understand the vast expanse of life with all its subtleties, with its extraordinary beauty, its sorrows and joys. You may win degrees; you may have a series of letters after your name and land a very good job; but then what? What is the point of it all if in the process your mind becomes dull, weary, stupid?”
J KRISHNAMURTI –“Human relationship is society, the relationship between you and me. If I am greedy and I have great power and authority, I am going to push you out; and you will try to do the same to me. So we make laws. But others come and break our laws, establishing another set of laws, and this goes on all the time. . . ”
J KRISHNAMURTI –“It is only when you have no reason for being peaceful that you will have peace. ”
J KRISHNAMURTI –“Psychologically there is nothing in the world that you can put your faith, your trust, or your belief in. Neither your gods, nor your science can save you, can bring you psychological certainty; and you have to accept that you can trust in absolutely nothing. Because, your leaders – religious and political — and your books — sacred and profane — have all failed, and you are still confused, in misery, in conflict. ”
J KRISHNAMURTI –“The confidence of which I speak is understanding — not the “I understand”, but understanding without self-identification. . . Confidence comes into being, it cannot be manufactured by the mind; confidence comes with experiment and discovery; not the experiment with belief, theory of memory but experimentation with self-knowledge. This confidence or faith is not self-imposed nor is it identified with belief, formulation and hope. It is not the outcome of self-expanding desire. ”
J KRISHNAMURTI –“To expand consciousness there must be a center which is aware of its expansion. The moment there is a center from which you are expanding, it is no longer expansion because the center always limits its own expansion. ”
J KRISHNAMURTI –“We shall know the state of love only when jealousy, envy, possessiveness, domination, comes to an end. And as long as we possess we shall never love. ”
J MARILYN BARRETT –“Although weeding, cutting back and transplanting are activities that may seem repetitive and never ending, when seen as a necessary and integral part of the overall unfolding of the garden scheme, they become purposeful rather than boring. In fact, what may appear on the surface to be tedious physical work may, in the actual doing, be spiritually liberating. ”
J NEVILLE WARD –“Failure is as much a part of life as success is and by no means something in front of which one sits down and howls as though it is a scandal and a shame. ”
J NEWTON –“People are lonely because they build walls instead of bridges. ”
J P VASWANI –“If ye would reach the Goal, be prepared to lose thyself on the way!”
J PAUL GETTY –“My father said: “You must never try to make all the money that’s in a deal. Let the other fellow make some money too, because if you have a reputation for always making all the money, you won’t have many deals”
J PAUL GETTY –“The man who comes up with a means for doing or producing almost anything better, faster or more economically has his future and his fortune at his fingertips. ”
J R LOWELL –“The pressure of public opinion is like the pressure of the atmosphere; you can’t see it but, all the same, it is sixteen pounds to the square inch. ”
J W VON GOETHE –“Those who know nothing of foreign languages know nothing of their own. ”
J. DONALD WALTERS –“Expand your happiness by sharing it with others. The larger a rainbow, the more brightly it shines. ”
J. DONALD WALTERS –“Not in passion, but in tenderness and kindness love finds its ideal expression. ”
J. DONALD WALTERS –“The secret of love is performing some little act daily to give happiness to your beloved — an act of service, perhaps; a small gift; a word of appreciation, a smile of affection. ”
J. HAWES –“The strength and safety of a community consists in the virtue and intelligence of its youth, especially of its young men. ”
J. KRISHNAMURTI –“No one holds the key to the kingdom of happiness. That key is your own self. ”
J. KRISHNAMURTI –“The action of love has no motive, and every other action has. ”
J. KRISHNAMURTI –“The moment you have in your heart this extraordinary thing called love, and feel the depth, the delight, the ecstasy of it, you will discover the world transformed. ”
J. KRISHNAMURTI –“We shall know the state of love only when jealousy, envy, possessiveness, domination, comes to an end. And as long as we possess we shall never love. ”
J. KRISHNAMURTI –“With love, do what you will, there is no risk; there is no conflict. ”
J. KRISHNAMYRHTI –“Religion is the feeling of goodness, that love which is like river, living, moving everlastingly. ”
J. P VASWANI –“Every one, no matter how poor, can give something. We can give a loving thought, a sweet word, a radiant smile, a moving song, a helping hand, any of which may bring comfort to a broken heart. More than money, the world needs love and sympathy. ”
J. P. VASWANI –“Life is a duty: dare it! Life is a burden: bear it! Life is a treasure: share it!”
J. PETIT-SENN –“We tire of the pleasures we take but never of those we give. ”
J. RUSSELL LYNES –“Every journalist has a novel in him, which is an excellent place for it. ”
J. C. & W. A. HARE- “No man keeps such a jealous lookout as a rival. ”
J. G. HOLLAND –“The heart is wiser than the intellect. ”
J. K. GALBRAITH- “Money is a singular thing. It ranks with love as man’s greatest source of joy. And with death as his greatest source of anxiety. ”
J. K. GALBRAITH –“Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable. ”
J. K. GALBRATH- “Meetings are indispensable when you don’t want to do anything. ”
J. KRISHNAMURTI –“Life is death;/ Death is rebirth/ Happy is the man/That is beyond the clutches/Of their limitations. ”
J. M. BARRIE –“Let no one who loves to call unhappy. Even love unreturned has its rainbow. ”
J. P. FLEISHMAN –“Most of us, swimming against the tides of troubles the world know nothing about, need only a bit of praise or encouragement — and well make the goal. ”
J. P. VASWANI –“Everyone, no matter how poor, can give something. More than money, the world needs love and sympathy. ”
J. P. SENN –“Let us respect grey hairs, especially our own. ”
J. R. LOWELL –“If youth be a defect, it is one that we outgrow only too soon. ”
J. R. LOWELL- “The better part of every men’s education is that which he gives himself. ”
J. ROBERT OPPENHEIMER- “The physicists have known sin, and this is a knowledge which they can not lose. ”
J. S HUXLEY- “The sense of spiritual relief which comes from rejecting the idea of God as a supernatural being is enormous. ”
JACK BENNY –“I don’t deserve this award, but I have arthritis and I don’t deserve that either. ”
JACK HANDY –“As a young boy when you get splashed by a mud puddle on the way to school, you wonder if you should go home and change, but be late for school, or go to school the way you are; dirty and soaking wet. Well, while he tried to decide, I drove by and splashed him again. ”
JACK HANDY –“The question is not so much whether there is life on Mars as whether it will continue to be possible to live on Earth. ”
JACK KAINE –“It’s easier for people to see it your way if you first see it their way. ”
JACK KEMP –“Self-esteem is at the core of a healthy nation. ”
JACK KEROUAC –“We tiptoed around each other like Heartbreaking new friends. ”
JACK KORNFIELD & MARK VICTOR HANSEN –“Great thinking attracts great results. Mediocre thinking attracts mediocre results. ”
JACK KROLL –“He was an artist who leaps over boundaries, changes our nervous systems, creates a new language, transmits new kinds of joy to our startled senses and spirits. ”
JACK LONDON –“A bone to the dog is not charity Charity is the bone shared with the dog, when you are just as hungry as the dog. ”
JACK LONDON –“You cannot wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club. ”
JACK LONDON –“You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it. ”
JACK NICHOLSON –“My mother never saw the irony in calling me a son-of-a-bitch. ”
JACK NICHOLSON –“People who speak in metaphors should shampoo my crotch. ”
JACK NICHOLSON –“Your reputation is in the hand of other’s. That’s what a reputation is. You can’t control that. The only thing you can control is your character. ”
JACK VALENTI –“Perception has a ravenous power because it springs from conviction. ”
JACK WELCH –“Globalisation has changed us into a company that searches the world, not just to sell or to source, but to find intellectual capital. ”
JACK WELSH –“Control your destiny or somebody else will. ”
JACKIE CHAN –“I have broken everything — from the top of my head (skull) to the bottom of my feet. ”
JACKIE ROBINSON –“Life is not a spectators sport. If you are going to spend your whole life in the grandstand just watching what goes on, you’re wasting your life. ”
JACKS, L. P. –“The pessimist sees difficulties ever opportunity, the optimist sees opportunities in every difficulty. ”
JACKSON BROWN –“Never deprive someone of hope; it might be alt they have. ”
JACOB BRAUDE –“Always behave like a duck-keep calm and unruffled on the surface but paddle with great vigor underneath. ”
JACOB BRONOWSKI –“The great poem and the deep theorem are new to every reader, and yet are his own experiences, because he himself recreates them. ”
JACOB BURCKHARDT -“Only the fairy tale equates changelessness with happiness. Permanence means paralysis and death. Only in movement, with all its pain, is life. ”
JACOBI –“It is impossible to be a hero in anything unless one is first a hero in faith. ”
JACQUELINE BESSET –“Ideally, couples need three lives; one for him, one for her and one for them together. ”
JACQUELINE KENNEDY ONASSIS –“If you bungle raising your children, I don’t think whatever else you do matters very much. ”
JACQUELYN SMALL –“We are not human beings trying to be spiritual, we are spiritual beings practicing to be human. ”
JACQUES BARZUN –“Teaching is not a lost art, but the regard for it is a lost tradition. ”
JACQUES BENIGNE BOSSUEL –“The heart has reasons that reason does not understand. ”
JACQUES CONSTEAU –“Don’t forget; the water cycle and the life cycle are one. ”
JACQUES COUSTEAU –“Water and air, the two essential fluids on which all life depends, have become global garbage cans. ”
JACQUES DERRIDA –“To pretend, I actually do the things: I have therefore only pretended to pretend. ”
JACQUES MARTIAN –“We don’t love qualities, we love persons; sometimes by reason of their defects as well as their qualities. ”
JAIDEV –“ “A buxom maiden cosily ensconced in Krishna’s arms Sings the refrain of his song in her sweet soprano voice. One maid, with her quivering eyes and inviting glances, Showers the sweetness of love on Krishna’s lotus-like face. ”
JAIDEV –“Krishna takes one lass in his arms and flirts with another; He smothers lips with kisses and looks deep in entranced eyes. The poet Jaidev enchanted by these amorous acts Narrated tales to devotees and filled their hearts with joy. ”
JAIDEV –“One maiden, pretends to whisper in Krishna’s ear, But instead kisses his cheeks, letting her love-juices flow. Another maiden seeking intimacy alone near the river, Tugs at Krishna’s clothes to drag him away from the crowded grove. ”
JAIDEV –“Radha sees Krishna flirting with other maidens and leaves in a fit of jealousy A friend showed Radha. . . Krishna in the embrace of many besotted girls, and said to a stunned Radha: Krishna’s deep blue body is smeared with sandalwood paste; His dangling jeweled earrings flirt with his bright smiling face. Sultry maidens, proud of their beauty, grasp Krishna tightly. While charming Radha sees Krishna do their every bidding. ”
JAIDEV –“She who jingles her bangled wrists in tune with Krishna’s flute Is flooded with repeated praise from the man of her dreams. ”
JAJA Q –“Life is like a baseball game. When you think a fastball is coming, you gotta be ready to hit the curve. ”
JAKOB JELLING, -“The elephant is a sacred animal for many oriental cultures and carries a great amount of symbolism. It also is one of the sacred treasures of Buddha, and according to Buddhism it is a celestial animal. It is seen as a representation of morals and dignity as well as it can help people having good luck. . . According to the oriental traditions and feng shut, the elephant symbolises power, strength, wisdom and longevity. ”
JAMES –“My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations. Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. ”
JAMES –“That knowledge is very superficial which remains only on your tongue: The intrinsic merit and value of knowledge is that you act up to it. ”
JAMES A BALDWIN –“Those who says it can’t be done are usually interrupted by others doing it. ”
JAMES A FROUDE –“As we advance in life we learn the limits of our abilities. ”
JAMES ALIEN –“A man sooner or later discovers that he is the master-gardener of his soul, the director of his life. ”
JAMES ALIEN –“The law of harvest is to reap more than you sow. Sow an act, and you reap a habit. Sow a. habit and you reap a character. Sow a character and you reap a destiny. ”
JAMES ALIEN –“The world is your kaleidoscope, and the varying combinations of colours, which at every succeeding moment it presents to you, are the exquisitely adjusted pictures of your ever-moving thoughts. ”
JAMES ALLEN –“Circumstances do not make the man, they reveal him. ”
JAMES ALLEN –“Humanity cannot forget its dreamers; it cannot let their ideals fade and die; it knows them as the realities which it shall one day see and know. ” Thomas Jefferson –“I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past. ”
JAMES ALLEN –“The more intense the nature of a man, the more readily will he find meditation, and the more successfully will he practise it. ”
JAMES BALDWIN –“Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them. ”
JAMES BALDWIN –“Freedom is not something that anybody can be given; freedom is something people take and people are as free as they want to be. ”
JAMES BALDWIN- “If they take you in the morning, they will be coming for us in the night. ”
JAMES BALDWIN –“Love does not begin and end the way we seem to think it does. Love is a battle, love is a war, and love is a growing up. ’
JAMES BALDWIN –“Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within. ”
JAMES BALDWIN –“People are trapped in history, and history is trapped in them. ”
JAMES BEARD –“Food is our common ground, a universal experience. ”
JAMES BOSWELL –“I, who have no sisters or brothers, look with some degree of innocent envy on those who may be said to born to friends. ”
JAMES BOVARD –“Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. ”
JAMES BRANCH CABELL –“The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds, and the pessimist fears this is true. ”
JAMES CONNELL- “Everything is a dangerous drug to me except reality, which unendurable. ”
JAMES DEAN –“Dream as if you’ll live forever. Live as if you’ll die today. ”
JAMES GARFIELD –“The man who succeed best in public life are those who take the risk of standing by their own convictions. ”
JAMES GORDON –“It’s not that some people have willpower and some don’t. It’s that some people are ready to change and others are not. ”
JAMES H. DOUGLAS –“Unfortunately, there are times when peace must be defended by fighting terror and tyranny. ”
james hetfield –“It’s all fan and games until someone loses an eye — then its fun and games you can’t see anymore. ”
JAMES JEANS –“From the intrinsic evidence of his creation, the Great Architect of the Universe begins to appear as a pure mathematician. ”
JAMES JOYCE- “All human history moves towards one great god. ”
JAMES JOYCE- “history is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake. ”
JAMES JOYCE –“No pen, no ink, no table, no time, no quite, no inclination. ”
JAMES JOYCE –“The east shall shake the west awake, / and ye shall have night of morn. ”
JAMES JOYCE –“When you come right down to it, the secret of having it all is loving it all. ”
JAMES LEWIS –“The fearless are merely fearless. People who act in spite of their fear are truly brave. ”
JAMES M BARRIE –“When the first baby laughed for the first time, the laugh broke into a thousand pieces and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies. ”
JAMES MACKINTOSH –“’Diffused knowledge immortalises itself. ”
JAMES MICHENER –“If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay at home. ”
JAMES OPPENHEIM –“The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, the wise grows it under his feet. ”
JAMES PUCKLE- “An honest man is a citizen of the world. ”
JAMES QORDON –“It’s not that some people have willpower and some don’t. It’s that some people are ready to change and others are not. ”
JAMES R LOWELL –“Children are God’s apostles, day by day Sent forth to preach of love, and hope, and peace. ”
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL –“All the beautiful sentiments in the world weigh less than a single lovely action. ”
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL –“Not failure but low aim is criminal. ”
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL –“Truly there is a tide in the affairs of men; but there is no gulf-stream setting forever in one direction. ”
JAMES S. MC DONNELL –“The creative conquest of space will serve as a wonderful substitute for war. ”
JAMES T MCCAY –“No matter what the level of your ability, you have more potential than you can ever develop in a lifetime. ”
JAMES THRUBER –“There are two kinds of light — the glow that illuminates, and the glare that obscures. ”
JAMES THURBER –“Accidents do not happen — they are caused. Ernest Greenwood There is no safety in numbers, or in anything else. ”
JAMES THURBER –“If I have any beliefs about immortality, it is that certain dogs I have known will go to heaven, and very very few persons. ”
JAMES THURBER –“Let us not look back in anger or forward in fear, but around in awareness. ”
JAMES W RILEY –“Ma loves me when she cuts an’ sews My little cloak an Sunday clothes; An’ when my Pa comes home to tea, She loves him most as much as me. She laughs an’ tells him all I said, An’ grabs me up an’ pats my head; An’ I hug her, an’ hug my Pa, An’ love him purt’ nigh as much as Ma. ”
JAMES W RILEY- “Ma loves me when she cuts an’ sews my little cloak an’ Sund’y clothes; an’ when my Pa comes home to tea, she loves him most as much as me. She laughs an’ tells him all I said, an, grabs me up a pats my head; an’ grabs me up an’ pats my head; an’ I hug her, an’ hug my Pa, an’ love him purt’ nigh as much as Ma. ”
JAMES WATSON –“Francis and I were running against God, in the sense that we wanted to know what made us human. Both of us had been subjected to religious truths which came by revelation, and we didn’t have much acceptance of truths by revelation. We wanted to know really what we were. We were both very curious about what life was. What is life? And that thinking led you to “What is a gene?”
JAMES WATSON –“I was twenty-five and too old to be unusual. ”
JAMESTHURBER –“Well, if I called the wrong number, why did you answer the phone?”
JAMI –“All through eternity God unveils His exquisite form. He holds a mirror to His own Face and beholds His own beauty. ”
JAMI –“The Loved One is quite colourless, 0 heart; Be not engrossed with colours, then, 0 heart: All colours come from what is colourless, And ‘who can dye so well as God’, 0 heart?”
JAMSE A BALDWIN –“Those who say it can’t be done are usually interrupted by others doing it. ”
JAN GLIDEWELL -“You can clutch the past so tightly to your chest that it leaves your arms too full to embrace the present. ”
JANE –“Instead of letting people die and having to make new ones, why don’t you just keep the ones you have now?”
JANE AUSTEN –“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage. ”
JANE AUSTEN –“Children of the same family, the same blood, with the same first associations and habits, have some means of enjoyment in their power, which no subsequent connections can supply. ”
JANE AUSTEN –“Friendship is certainly the finest balm for the pangs of disappointed love. ”
JANE AUSTEN –“One half of the world can not understand the pleasure of others. ”
JANE AUSTEN –“Picture of perfection as you know make me sick and wicked. ”
JANE AUSTEN –“She was nothing more than a mere good tempered, civil and obliging young woman; as such we could scarcely dislike her she was only an Object of Contempt. ”
JANE AUSTEN –“The enthusiasm of a woman’s love is even beyond the biographer’s. ”
JANE AUSTEN –“Those who do not complain are never pitied. ”
JANE AUSTEN –“What dreadful hot weather we have! It keeps me in a continual state of inelegance. ”
JANE AUSTIN –“A woman, especially, if she has the misfortune of knowing anything, should conceal it as well as she can. ”
JANE WAGNER –“All my life, I always wanted to be somebody. Now 1 see that I should have been more specific. ”
JANE WAGNER –“The ability to delude yourself may be an important survival tool. ”
JANEAUSTEN –“I pay very little regard to what a young person says on the subject of marriage. If they profess a disinclination for it, I only set it down that they haven’t seen the right person yet. ”
JANEAUSTEN –“What dreadful hot weather we have! It keeps me in a continual state of inelegance. ”
JANEAUSTEN –“Why not seize the pleasure at once, how often is happiness destroyed by preparation, foolish preparations. ”
JANET CHAWLA –“Shakti practitioners worship the divine female principle, the immanent power of the absolute, in forms such as Durga, Kali, Lakshmi, Tripurasundari, Bhairavi, and local variations. According to one estimate, 51 Shakti Peeths are strewn across the geographical length and breadth of the Indian subcontinent. Mythology weaves together these sacred sites in the narrative of the grieving Shiva who flew through the skies in anguish at the death of his beloved Sati, dropping her body parts on to the earth. ”
JANET HARRIS –“We were brought up with the value that as we sow, so shall we reap. We discarded the idea that anything we did was its own reward. ”
JANIS JOPLIN –“Don’t compromise yourself. You are all you’ve got. ”
JANNA LYNN –“And I bow to the deathless Lord whose form I see, motionless in the still, white glacier beyond the swift, foam-capped waters, moving surely, one day to merge in the Sea. ”
JANNA LYNN –“In that stillness, as the spring snow drenched the Earth, I remembered offering myself at the temple ; as I lay under the pure Ganga stream, in the distance, Shivaling, where the yogi dreams above the shrill clamour of humanity in the valley below. ”
JANNA LYNN –“On the dark Moon, I dream placing a pineapple on the altar of Shiva and lighting a candle to burn in the darkness of the Moon. ”
JANNA LYNN –“So I may dwell with the Beloved and, one day, dance, foot lifted, pointed to the sky in the new cycle of becoming realising the dream into being. ”
JANNA LYNN –“The cool crystal water washes the ash on my forehead, and the ashes of one dear arise in my mind’s eye, As I rise clear-eyed from the current rushing with the force of the river’s journey homeward to the Sea. ”
JANOS ARANY -“Just because someone doesn’t love you in the way you want, doesn’t mean that they don’t love you with all they’ve got. ”
JAPANESE PROVERB –“Don’t be afraid of going slowly, be afraid of standing still. ”
JAPANESE PROVERB –“Giving birth to a baby is easier than worrying about it. ”
JAPANESE PROVERB –“Guests and flesh stink after days. ”
JAPANESE PROVERB –“If you believe everything you read, better not read. ”
JAPANESE PROVERB –“If you understand everything, you must misinform. ”
JAPANESE PROVERB –“One kind word can warm three winter months. ”
JAPANESE PROVERB –“Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare. ”
JAPANESE PROVERB –“When the character of a man is not clear to you, look at his friends. ”
JAPJI –“There is one God. He is the Supreme Truth. He, the Creator, Is without fear and without hate. He, the Omnipresent, Pervades the universe. He is not born, nor does He die to be born again. By His grace shalt thou worship Him?”
JAQUES MARITIAN –“We don’t love qualities, we love persons; sometimes by reason of their defects as well as of their qualities. ”
JARIOSARNAY –“In dreams and in love, there are no impossibilities. ”
JASBEEN S, CALIFORNIA –“When life throws shoes at you. . . at least pick through the best ones and try them on for size!”
JATAKA –“It will be given to us to behold the Bodhisattas infinite Buddha-lila and to hear his word. ”
JAWAHAR LAL NEHRU – “Facts are facts and will not disappear on account of your likes. ”
JAWAHAR LAL NEHRU – “The only alternative to co-existence is co-destruction. ”
JAWAHAR LAL NEHRU – “The policy of being too cautious is the greatest risk of all. ”
JAWAHAR LAL NEHRU – “There could be no real freedom without economic freedom, and so long as poverty remains. To call a starving man free is but to moke him. ”
JAWAHAR LAL NEHRU- “A moment comes. Which comes bur rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance?”
JAWAHAR LAL NEHRU –“A secular state does not mean an irreligious state. ”
JAWAHAR LAL NEHRU –“Act with courage and dignity; stick to the ideals that give meaning to life. ”
JAWAHAR LAL NEHRU –“Citizenship consists in the service of the country. ”
JAWAHAR LAL NEHRU –“Civilization, like empire, fall not so much because of the strength of the enemy outside as through the weakness and decay within. ”
JAWAHAR LAL NEHRU –“Crises and deadlocks when they occur have at least this advantage that they force us to think. ”
JAWAHAR LAL NEHRU –“Culture is the widening of the mind and of the spirit. ”
JAWAHAR LAL NEHRU –“Culture is the widening of the mind and of the spirit. ”
JAWAHAR LAL NEHRU –“Democracy is good. I say this because other systems are worse. ”
JAWAHAR LAL NEHRU –“Democracy is good. I say this because other systems are worse. ”
JAWAHAR LAL NEHRU –“Hinduism, as a faith, is vague, amorphous, many-sided, all things to all men. ”
JAWAHAR LAL NEHRU –“I want nothing to do with any religion concerned with keeping the masses satisfied to live in hunger, filth, and ignorance. I want nothing to do with any order, religious or otherwise, which does not teach people that they are capable of becoming happier and more civilised on this earth, capable of becoming master of his fate and captain of his soul. ”
JAWAHAR LAL NEHRU –“If you reject coexistence, the alternative is war and mutual destruction. ”
JAWAHAR LAL NEHRU –“It is now clear that science is incapable of ordering life. A life is ordered by values. ”
JAWAHAR LAL NEHRU –“Life is like a game of cards. The hand that is dealt you represents determinism; the way you play it is free will. ”
JAWAHAR LAL NEHRU –“Now what effort should I make So that I am rid of my doubt and swim across the ocean of fear I have done no good since I was born. That’s why I am afraid so much. My fear is that I have not remembered Him In thought, word, and deed. I haven’t gained understanding listening to my Guru. Like cattle I fill my stomach. Says Nanak—God, I can be saved I Only if You are kind as ever, There are barriers of religion, caste, colour, party nation, province, language, customs, and of rich and poor fortunately children do not know much about these barriers which separate. They play or work with each other, and it is only when they grow up that they begin to learn about these barriers from their elders. ”
JAWAHAR LAL NEHRU –“Obviously, the highest type of efficiency is that which can utilize existing material to the best advantage. ”
JAWAHAR LAL NEHRU –“The policy of being too cautious is the greatest risk of all. ”
JAWAHAR LAL NEHRU –“Waiting for the monsoon in Bombay, I became a watcher of the skies. . . A few showers came. . . Heavier rains followed, but I ignored them and waited for some extraordinary happening. While I waited I learned that the monsoon had definitely come and established itself. Where were the pomp and circumstance and glory of the attack, and the combat between cloud and land, and the surging and lashing sea? Like a thief in the night the monsoon had come to Bombay Another illusion gone. ”
JAWAHAR LAL NEHRU –“We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures that we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open. ”
JAWAHAR LAL NEHRU –“We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open. ”
JAWAHAR LAL NEHRU –“What we really are matters more than what other people think of us. ”
JAWAHAR LAL NEHRU –“When minds are closed they become impervious to reason. ”
JAWAHAR LAL NEHRU –“When you educate a man you educate a individual, when you educate a women you educate a whole family. ”
JAWAHAR LAL NEHRU –“You can tell the condition of a nation by looking at the status of its women. ”
JAWAHAR MALJI SAIN –“Accept the will of God. Will of God is destiny and one cannot fight destiny This does not mean that one must sit back and wait for destiny to perform. One must realise one’s role in society and strive towards performing it, without trying to be what one is not. Every man is not destined to be a Mahatma or a Maharaja. ”
JAWAHAR MALJI SAIN –“Have a clean body A clean body will harbour a clean mind. Follow a daily routine to maintain a healthy body and mind. This will allow a person to perform his duties well. ”
JAWAHAR MALJI SAIN –“Have a clean mind, devoid of evil thoughts. The mind should not be dull, but sharp and analytical. A mind that could discern between good and bad. An animal works on instinct and reaction, while a man has the ability to decide after weighing all options. A clean mind will find the right path. ”
JAWAHAR MALJI SAIN –“Have a clean soul that is simple, yet strong in character. For strength helps resist temptation. A simple, strong soul be honest, true and reliable. Such a soul would be humane. ”
JAWAHAR MALJI SAIN –“Lead a simple life. A simple daily routine will generate simple habits and will have the least requirement of luxury. Larger materialistic needs call for greater worldly goods and such a need will lead to evil deeds. The urge to get what you do not have, is likely to cause evil thoughts and deeds. ”
JAY –“Science can probe down to the most minuscule subatomic particle or look out into the universe, where light was first born a billion light years ago. Science is the field of the intellect. But. . . the poet’s song touches the human heart, and the beat of that eternal rhythm will never be explained, save by the Love of God. ”
JAY LENO –“Now there are more overweight people than average-weight people. So overweight people are now average. Which means you has met your New Year’s resolution. ”
JAY LENO –“The Supreme Court has ruled that they cannot have a nativity scene in Washington DC. They couldn’t find three wise men and a virgin. ”
JAY LENO –“You can’t stay mad at somebody who makes you laugh. ”
JAYADAYAL GOYANDKA –“Exclusive devotion is only another name for undivided love, love which is absolutely disinterested and imbued with supreme reverence and which is characterised by the notion that the almighty Lord alone is supreme. . . That love, which makes it unbearable to forget the Lord even for an instant, goes by the name of exclusive Devotion. ”
JAYADVAITA SWAMI –“Kamini, Kanchan, Kirti — beauty, wealth and fame —Krishna had these and more. He also had strength, knowledge and renunciation. With this winning combination, no amount of material opulence alone can attract Him. ”
JD SALINGER –“Take most people, they’re crazy about cars—and if they get a brand-new car already they start thinking about trading it in for one that’s even newer. I don’t even like old cars. I mean they don’t even interest me. I’d rather have a goddam horse. A horse is at least human, for God’s sake. ”
JE VON THOMPSON –“Thoughts don’t have to be “real” or “true” to create failure or success in our lives. They just have to be believed. ”
JEAN ANOUILH –“Beauty is one of the ran things that do not lead to doubt of God. ”
JEAN ANOUILH –“God is on everyone’s side. . . and in the last analysis, he is on the side with plenty of money and large armies. ”
JEAN ANOUILH- “Oh, love is real enough; you will find it someday, but it has one arch enemy and that is life. ”
JEAN BAUDRILLARD –“Driving is a spectacular form of amnesia. Everything is to be discovered, everything to be obliterated. ”
JEAN COCTEAU –“Art produces ugly things which frequently become beautiful with time. Fashion, on the other hand, produces beautiful things which always become ugly with time. ”
JEAN DE LA –“Everyone calls himself a friend, but only a fool relies on it; nothing is commoner than the name, nothing rarer than the thing. ”
JEAN DE LA BRUYERE –“Poverty may be the mother of crime, I but lack of good sense is the father. ”
JEAN DE LA BRUYERE –“There are only three events in a man’s life: birth, life, and death. He is not conscious of being born, he dies in pain, and he forgets to live. ”
JEAN DE LA BRUYERE –“We should keep silent about those in power; to speak well of them almost implies flattery; to speak ill of them while they are alive is dangerous, and when they are dead is cowardly. ”
JEAN DE LA FONTAINE –“Dressed in the lion’s skin, the ass spread terror far and wide. ”
JEAN DE LA FONTAINE –“Everyone believes very easily whatever they fear or desire. ”
JEAN DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD –“Everyone calls himself a friend, but only a fool relies on it; nothing is commoner than the name, nothing rarer than the thing. ”
Jean genet- “A man must dream a long time in order to act with grandeur, and dreaming is nursed in darkness. ”
JEAN GIRAUDOUX –“The flower is the poetry of reproduction. It is an example of the eternal seductiveness of life. ”
JEAN GIRAUDOUX –“Those who weep recover more quickly than those who smile. ”
JEAN HOUSTON –“At the height of laughter, the universe is flung into a kaleidoscope of new possibilities. ”
JEAN HOUSTON –“The ecological crisis is doing what no other crisis in history has ever done — challenging us to a realisation of a new humanity. ”
JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU- “All of my misfortunes comes from having too well of my fellows. ”
JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU –“As soon as any man says of the affairs of state, “What does it matter to me?” the state may be given up as lost. ”
JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU –“People who know little are usually great talkers, while men who know much say little. ”
JEAN KERR- “You don’s seem to realise that a poor person who is unhappy is in a better position then a rich person who is unhappy. Because the poor person has hope. He thinks money would help. ”
JEAN KLEIN –“Meditation is from moment to moment. The eyes see, the ears hear. The organs function. There is no interiorisation, no concentration, no introversion, no withdrawing of the sense. Don’t go into the old habits of withdrawal. Go in the directionless expansion, the space less space. ”
JEAN KLEIN –“Meditation is from moment to moment. The eyes see, the ears hear. The organs function. There is no interiorisation, no concentration, no introversion, no withdrawing of the sense. Go in the directionless expansion, the spaceless space. ”
JEAN LUE GODARD- “Movies should have a beginning, a middle and an end, but not necessarily in that order. ”
JEAN NIDETCH –“It’s choice—not chance — that determines your destiny”
JEAN P RICHTER –“God has sown his name on the heavens in glittering stars; but on earth he planteth his name by tender flowers. ”
JEAN PAUL RICHTER –“Our memories are the only paradise from which we can never be expelled. ”
JEAN PAUL SARTRE –“Everything has been figured out, except how to live. ”
JEAN PAUL SARTRE –“Only the guy who isn’t rowing has time to rock the boat. ”
JEAN PAUL SARTRE –“The more sand that has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it. ”
JEAN PIAGET –“If you want to be creative, stay in part a child, with the creativity and invention that characterises children before they are deformed by adult society. ”
JEAN RACINE –“Crime, like virtue, has its degrees. ”
JEAN RACINE- “It is no longer a heat concealed in my blood; its Venus herself setting on her prey. ”
JEAN ROSTAND –“Kill a man and you are assassin. Kill millions of men, and you are a conqueror. Kill everyone, and you are a god. ”
JEAN ROSTAND- “The true paradises are the paradises that we have lost. ”
JEAN SHINODA BOLEN –“While everyone has a different experience of what is soulful, these experiences do share similar beginnings. We start by giving ourselves permission to be soulful, to take seriously this aspect of ourselves, our soul and our soul’s need. ”
JEAN SIBELIUS –“Pat no attention to what critics say… a statue has never been set up in honour of a critic. ”
JEAN WEBSTER –“It isn’t the big pleasures that count the most; it’s making a great deal out of the little ones. ”
JEAN ZHENG –“Hopeless romantics are only hopeless in the eyes of those who don’t believe in romance. ”
JEAN ZHENG –“You know its love when all you want is that person to be happy, even if you’re not part of their happiness. ”
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU –“The world of reality has limits; the world of imagination is boundless. ”
JEANNE MOREAU –“Age does not protect you from love. But love, to some extent, protects you from age. ”
JEAN-PAUL SARTER- “Human life begins on the far side of despair. ”
JEAN-PAUL SARTRE –“Life has no meaning the moment you loose the illusion of being eternal. ”
JEAN-PAUL SARTRE –“We cannot withdraw our cards from the game. Were we silent and as mute as stones, our passivity would be an act. ”
JEAN-PAUL SARTRE –“When one does nothing, one believes oneself responsible for everything. ”
JEAN-PAUO SARTRE –“Once you hear details of victory, it is hard to distinguish it from defeat. ”
JEAN-PIERRE RAFFARIN –“Our vision of secularism isn’t anti-religious, but is one of the State’s neutrality and the spirit of tolerance. ”
JEFF –“Science cannot answer why there is something rather than nothing. Science can only study the something. ”
JEFF MARDER –“We live in an age when pizza gets to your home before the police. ”
JEFF. BUCKLEY –“Money can’t buy back all your youth when you’re old, a friend when you’re lonely, or peace to your soul. The wealthiest person, is a pauper at times compared to the man with a satisfied mind. ”
JENNIFER ANISTON –“Unless it is mad, passionate, extraordinary love, it’s a waste of your time. There are too many mediocre things in life. Love shouldn’t be one of them. ”
JENNIFER BARRETTA –“Once they know you’re willing to put on a bikini, the phone won’t stop ringing. ”
JENNIFER LOPEZ –“Don’t be fooled by the rocks that I got I’m still, I’m still Jenny from the block Used to have a little, now I have a lot No matter where I go, I know where I came from. ”
JENNY BIRD –“I may depart from the strength of loneliness But when you are joined as one with me I feel the unity of life I’m complete within and you are whole We blend and emerge as a universal soul, so come together in Unity, Unity, you know it makes us stronger Unity, Unity, separation is no longer Unity, Unity, alchemize your visions of unity. ”
JEREMIAH –“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately corrupt; who can understand it?”
JEREMY BRETT –“Villains are very, very boring to do. They’re so much easier than heroes. ”
JEREMY TAYLOR –“A great fear. . . is the parent of superstition; but a discreet and well-guided fear produced religion. ”
JEREMY TAYLOR –“Meditation is the tongue of the soul and the language of our spirit. ”
JEREMY TAYLOR –“No obligation to justice does force a man to be cruel, or to use the sharpest sentence. A just man does justice to every man and to every thing; and then, if he also be wise, he knows there is a debt of mercy and compassion due to the infirmity of man’s nature; and that is to be paid. ”
JEROME CUMMINGS –“A friend is one who knows us, but loves us anyway. ”
JEROME K JEROME –“It is always the best policy to speak the truth – unless, of course, you are an exceptionally good liar. ”
JEROME K JEROME- “It is impossible to enjoy idling thoroughly unless one has plenty of work to do. ”
JERRY BROWN –“What we need is a flexible plan for an ever changing world. ”
JERRY GARCIA –“You do not merely want to be considered just the best of the best. You want to be considered the only ones who do what you do. ”
JERRY GILLIES –“The more you love what you are doing, the more successful it will be for you. ”
JERRY SEINFELD –“It’s amazing that the amount of news that happens in the world every day always just exactly fits the newspaper. ”
JERRY SEINFELD –“Sometimes the road less traveled is less traveled for a reason. ”
JERRY WILSON –“The word ‘Halloween’ comes from All Hallows Eve’. November 1, All Hollows Day’ or All Saints Day’, is a Catholic day of observance in honour of saints. But, in Celtic Ireland, summer officially ended on October 31. The holiday was called Samhain (sow-en), the Celtic New year. The Celts extinguished their fires not to discourage spirit possession, but so that all the Celtic tribes could relight their fires from a common source, the Druidic fire that was kept burning in the Middle of Ireland, at Usinach. ”
JERZY KOSINSKI –“I rent everything, other than the gift of life itself which was given to me without any predictable lease, a gift that can be withdrawn at any time. ”
JESSE JACKSON –“If my mind can conceive it, and my heart can believe it, I know I can achieve it. ”
JESSE JACKSON –“Never look down on anybody unless you’re helping them up. ”
JESSE JACKSON –“Tears will get you sympathy; sweat will get you change. ”
JESSE JACKSON –“Time is neutral and does not change things. With courage and initiative, leaders change things. ”
JESSE JACKSON –“Your children need your presence more than your presents. ”
JESSE OWENS –“Awards become corroded, friends gather no dust. ”
JESSE OWENS –“If you don’t try to win you might as well hold g the Olympics in somebody’s backyard. ”
JESSE OWENS –“In the end, it’s extra effort that separates a winner from second place. But winning takes a lot more than that, too. It starts with complete command of the fundamentals. Then it takes desire, determination, discipline, and self-sacrifice. And finally, it takes a great deal of love, fairness and respect for your fellow man. Put all these together, and even if you don’t win, how can you lose?”
JESSE OWENS –“The only victory that counts is the one over yourself. ”
JESSE WALKER –“Voting is more an act of devotion than an act of democratic input. . . Voting is the holiest ritual in America’s civic religion, and not much else. ”
JESSE WALKER –“Voting is more enact of devotion than an act of democratic input. . . Voting is the holiest ritual in America’s civic religion, and not much else. ”
JESSICA BRUMLEY –“The worst part of life is waiting. The best part of life is having someone worth waiting for. ”
JESUS CHRIST –“Thou shalt love the lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. ”
JEWISH PROVERB –“A mother understands what a child does not say. ”
JEWISH PROVERB –“God could not be everywhere and therefore he made mothers. ”
JEWISH PROVERB –“If you are bitter at heart, sugar in the mouth will not help you. ”
JEWISH SAYING –“Who finds a faithful friend, finds a treasure. ”
JG HOLLAND- “A nation is a thing that lives and acts like a man, and men are the parties of which it is composed. ”
JHOMAS A KEMPIS –“First keep the peace within yourself, and then you can also bring peace to others. ”
JHON CHURTON COLLINS –“In prosperity our friends know us; in adversity we know our friends. ”
JHON TUDOR –“Technology makes it possible for people to gain control over everything, except over technology. ”
JIANG QING –“There can not be peaceful coexistence in the ideological realm. ”
JIDDU KRISHNAMURTI – “Love dose not demand a thing from another- nothing, physically, emotionally, intellectually. Has love a cause? IF it has not, then love and intelligence go together…Love is something beyond all causation, which is order, then the universe is open- because the universe is order. If love has a cause, it is not love. ”
JIDDU KRISHNAMURTI –“A consistent thinker is a thoughtless person, because he conforms to a pattern; he repeats phrases and thinks in a groove. ”
JIDDU KRISHNAMURTI –“Do we know what love is? You know sensation, emotion, desire, feeling, and the mechanism of thought, but none of these is love. You love your spouse, your children; you hate war but you practice war. Your love knows hate, envy, ambition, fear; the smoke of these is not love. Power and prestige you love, but power and prestige are evil, corrupting. Do we know what love . is? Never knowing it is the wonder of it, the beauty of it. Never knowing, which does not mean remaining in doubt, nor does it mean despair; it’s the death of yesterday and so the complete uncertainty of tomorrow. Love has no continuity, nor has death. Only memory and the picture in the frame have continuity but these are mechanical, and even machines wear out, yielding place to new pictures, new memories. What has continuity is ever decaying, and what decays isn’t death. Love and death are inseparable, and where they are, there’s always destruction. ”
JIDDU KRISHNAMURTI –“Freedom and love go together. Love is not a reaction. If i love you because you love me, that is mere trade, a thing to be bought in the market; it is not love. To love is not to ask anything in return, not even to feel that you are giving something — and it is only such love that can know freedom. ”
JIDDU KRISHNAMURTI –“Live with it. You live with pleasure, don’t you? Why don’t you live with suffering completely? Can you live with it in the sense of not escaping from it? What takes place? Watch. The mind is very clear, sharp. It is faced with the fact. The very suffering transformed into passion is enormous. From that arises a mind that can never be hurt. Full stop. That is the secret. ”
JIDDU KRISHNAMURTI –“Meditation is not the means to an end. It is both the means and the end. ”
JIDDU KRISHNAMURTI –“The constant assertion of belief is an indication of fear. ”
JIDDU KRISHNAMURTI –“There is no end to education. It is not that you read a book, pass an examination, and finish with education. The whole of life, from the . moment you are born to the moment you die, is a process of learning. ”
JIDDU KRISHNAMURTI –“To love is the greatest thing in life. . . If while you are young. . . you don’t look with love at people, at animals, at flowers, when you grow up you find that your life is empty; you will be very lonely, and the dark shadows of fear will follow you always. But the moment you have in your heart this extraordinary thing called love and feel the depth, the delight, the ecstasy of it, you will discover that for you the world is transformed. ”
JIDDU KRISHNAMURTI –“Violence is not merely killing another. It is violence when we use a sharp word, when we make a gesture to brush away a person, when we obey because there is fear. So violence isn’t merely organized butchery in the name of God, in the name of society or country Violence is much more subtle, much deeper, and we are inquiring into the very depths of violence. ”
JIGME SINGYE –“I care less about the gross national product and more about the gross national happiness. ”
JIGME SINGYE WANGCHUK –“I care less about the gross national product and more about the gross national happiness. ”
JILI –“Man is the link between God and Nature. . . As God has descended into man, so man must ascend to God. ”
JIM COURIER –“Sportsmanship for me is when a guy walks off the court and you really can’t tell whether he won or lost, when he carries himself with pride either way. ”
JIM CRAMER –“I am neither a bear nor a bull, I am an agnostic opportunist. ”
JIM GOODWIN –“The impossible is often the untried. ”
JIM HENDRIX –“Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens. ”
JIM MORRISION –“You can not petition the Lord with prayer. ”
JIM MORRISON –“I’ve always liked reptiles. I used to see the universe as a mammoth snake, and i used to see all the people and objects, landscapes, as little pictures in the facets of their scales. I think peristaltic motion is the life movement. ”
JIM ROHN –“Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going. ”
JIM ROHN –“One person caring about another represents life’s greatest value. ”
JIM ROHN –“Till you change how you are, you will have what you’ve got. ”
JIM ROHN –“You don’t get paid for the hour. You get paid for the value you bring to the hour. ”
JIM RYUN –“Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going. ”
JIMI HENDRIX –“If you can just put your mind together and come across to me,/ We’ll hold our hands and watch the sunrise/ From the bottom of the sea / But first, are you experienced? Have you ever been experienced? / Well, I have. ”
JIMI HENDRIX –“When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace. ”
JIMMY BUFFETT –“We are the people our parents warned us about. ”
JIMMY CARTER –“We become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams. ”
JIMMY DURANTE –“Be nice to people on your way up because you’ll meet them on your way down. ”
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Written by on December 31st, 2009 with no comments.
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The most serious case in this area was handed down by the New South Wales Court of Criminal Appeal in R. v Ida Ronen, Nitzen Roden and Izhar Ronen on the 19th April 2006. The message which the courts delivered in this case is that they will treat all cases of serial tax evasion as extremely serious leading to long periods of imprisonment irrespective of the taxpayer’s individual circumstances even where taxpayers have paid their penalty tax in full. Details of the Ronen case have largely been extrapolated below from judgement of the New South Wales Court of Criminal Appeal. Additional comments have been added as appropriate. The Ronen case is a poignant example of what will happen to serial tax evaders who engage in serious tax evasion when they are detected. Serious tax evasion means evasion of $100,000 or more in tax for which taxpayers are routinely gaoled for 2-3 years for taxation offences even where they are first offenders and of good character. This does not necessarily have to be the case where you obtain competent, professional advice which will assist you to deal not only with the Australian Taxation Office but with the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions following referral. Should anyone wish to explore this opportunity please do not hesitate to contact us, but in the meantime we recommend you read what follows.
The Case
This is one of the most important cases on tax evasion and the types of penalties to be applied. The matter went on appeal to the NSW Court of Criminal. The Ronens were convicted of two offences contrary to the Commonwealth Crimes Act arising from a conspiracy between them to defraud the Commonwealth of taxation revenue for which they were sentenced to terms of imprisonment. Interestingly the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions appealed against what he asserted to be the inadequacies of the sentences imposed and the Ronens sought leave to appeal against the sentences as being harsh as the amount of penalty tax was not properly taken into account.
There was argument over whether the maximum penalty for each offence was relevantly imprisonment for 10 or 20 years following legislative change. It is worthy of note that Mrs Ronen pleaded guilty at the commencement of her sentencing proceedings to an offence under section 31 of the Financial Transactions Reports Act 1988 (Cth) concerning 11 cash transactions each less than $10,000 in value which were structured to avoid reporting the requirements under the Act, the maximum penalty being five years.
The Sentences
Mrs Ronen was sentenced to imprisonment for eight years and six months with a non-parole period of four years and six months. Each of her sons was sentenced to eight years and six months with non-parole periods of five years and six months each. There was also an issue as to whether the sentences should be served concurrently rather than cumulatively.
The Circumstances
Basically the offences arose during the course of the operation of a clothing business and involved a number of companies trading in the retail and wholesale clothing industry through a number of factory outlets selling clothing manufactured by the companies to the public at discount prices under the name of Dolina Fashions. The facts were that the applicants had agreed to defraud the Commonwealth of income tax by concealing a substantial proportion of the cash income generated by these shops. It was apparent that they had concealed somewhere between $15M and $17M with none of the cash taken by them being declared as income in either their personal or company tax returns. By various devices they concealed the greater part of their income with no more than 10% of the cash takings being banked.
What really put the torch under this case was that Mrs Ronen’s former male friend informed on the family’s tax non-compliance. By means of a phone tap further details of the conspiracy came to light and the conversations alerted the authorities as to how much money the applicants were sending overseas which led to a search warrant being executed with the applicants being arrested the same day, 7th February 2001.
Following conviction but before sentence the applicants settled with the Commissioner of Taxation with one of them raising in their grounds of appeal that insufficient weight had been given to the fact that the applicants had paid a considerable amount of penalty tax to the Commissioner.
The Ronens
The background to the matter is important. Mrs Ronen was aged 72 at the date of sentencing and was not in good physical health. She suffered from osteoporosis; lower back pain; osteoarthritis of both knees; conjunctivitis and bilateral cataracts; high blood pressure and was depressed. She was a successful businesswoman who had worked hard to establish her business and was a good mother to her sons. The judge accepted that Mrs Ronen would find prison extremely difficult particularly in view of her health. She presented a large number of references and testimonials attesting to her qualities as a mother, grandmother and friend; her charitable work and her contrition and the responsibility which she felt she owed her two sons.
Nitzen Ronen was 47 years of age, married with four children between the ages of 1 and 6½ years. He pleaded guilty, regretted his conduct and the effect on his children. He presented a number of references to the court outlining his philanthropy, being depicted a hard and industrious man with considerable skill and experience of the clothing industry. As for Izhar Ronen, he was 46 years of age, married with two children aged 17 and 16; he was shamed by the whole experience and he likewise produced testimonials as to his generosity and hard work.
The Trial Judge’s Findings
The judge said that their situation was tragic and each offender was a person of previous unblemished good character who each worked very hard to establish and maintain a highly successful business with each being well-respected in the community and who practise philanthropy at a high level. They were regarded as outstanding family members who were well regarded by friends and acquaintances with each being imprisoned awaiting sentence for the most serious of crimes. Although the judge was aware of the impact of a sentence of imprisonment on the families of her sons he could find nothing exceptional that would permit him to impose a lesser sentence on that account despite the obvious contrition and remorse demonstrated by them including the settlement of the civil actions with the Commissioner.
Grounds of Appeal
The four grounds of appeal relied upon by the applicants were:
1 The sentencing judge erred in finding that the maximum penalty for the offences was 20 years imprisonment.
2 He had failed to have proper regard to
a) the imposition of penalty tax;
b) the general and specific deterrents attaching thereto; and
c) the level of punishment inherent in the imposition of penalty tax.
3 The judge was in error in partially accumulating the sentences.
4 The sentences were excessive.
5 Under section 135. 4 of the Criminal Code Amendment (Theft, Fraud, Bribery and Related Offences) Act 1999 the maximum penalty for offences falling within this section is imprisonment for 10 years.
The relevance of Penalty Tax
What is of haunting significance here is the role to be played by the payment of penalty tax to the Commissioner before the sentencing proceedings have commenced. The judge had evidence before him that the Commissioner imposed penalties under section 226J of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 (Cth) of $7,180,508. That section deals with penalty tax where the shortfall results from intentional disregard of the law and the taxpayer is therefore liable to pay by way of penalty an additional amount of tax equivalent to 75% of the shortfall amount or part thereof. The question is – what effect should be given to the fact that the applicants had paid a considerable amount of penalty tax. The judge quoted from a number of authorities but the one which is of most importance is DPP v Hamman (NSW CCA, Unreported, 1 December 1998). Sheller J. A. stated
“General deterrence is a predominant consideration when sentencing for offences of defrauding the revenue.
Appeal courts have discussed and emphasised the seriousness of frauds committed to the detriment of the public revenue . . .
While undoubtedly it is a matter to be taken into account, it is, in my opinion, of small account that when caught out the offender pays the amount due and additional tax by way of penalty for which the offender is liable to a greater or lesser extent, according to the Commissioner’s discretion, whatever the reason for non-disclosure. Past integrity and good character, devotion of family and work and contributions to the community, impeccable though they have been, carry little weight . . . when the respondent was caught out. ”
knowing that he had understated his income by very large amounts for his own benefit or advantage.
Apart from penalty tax the applicants were also liable for GIC under section 204(3) of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 as it relates to the post-assessment period.
Essentially where applicants wish the court to take into account the full impact of penalty tax as a matter of mitigation of sentence they have an onus of demonstrating the impact of the penalty upon them. Unfortunately the Ronens failed to do this.
Accumulation of Sentences
Generally it is a matter for the sentencing judge as to whether to make sentences concurrent or cumulative. One circumstance is where the discretion must be exercised in favour of cumulative sentences is where the appropriate sentence for one offence cannot comprehend or reflect the criminality involved in all the offences. Obviously in this case this was the approach taken as there was not one offence encompassing the whole of the criminality involved in the conspiracy.
Were the Sentences Excessive?
The applicants’ criminality fitted within the worst category given the length of time over which the conspiracy operated, the amount of money defrauded from the Commonwealth and the manner in which the fraud was carried out. There is little mitigation to the subjective features of the applicants having regard to the period of the offence and its systematic nature.
The most important aspect of punishment in relation to frauds on the Commonwealth revenue is general deterrence. Although the payment of penalty tax has some deterrent effect, it is not usually of the same magnitude as imprisonment even though the person is of good character and well respected in the community. It was particularly important in this case to denounce a decade of persistent, fraudulent conduct and the contempt of the taxation laws motivated by pure greed. The payment of penalty tax could not sufficiently achieve that purpose. The court was not persuaded that any lesser sentences were warranted because of the serious nature of the offences committed by the applicants.
Comments
What is particularly sobering is that the Crown was of the view that the total sentence of 8½ years was manifestly inadequate as against the statutory maximum of 20 years under the earlier legislation on which the crown sought to rely. Obviously it is open to the Crown in appropriate cases to seek to have tax evaders incarcerated for periods of up to 20 years where money laundering is involved. Tax evasions can be a very serious lesson in tax non-compliance. Should you be tax non-compliant call LAC Lawyers to obtain competent, professional legal advice.
Frank Egan is the Chief Executive Officer of LAC Taxation Lawyers Sydney and has over 27 years of experience as a lawyer.
Written by on December 29th, 2009 with no comments.
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The November edition of National Geographic magazine (NG) posed the question “Was Darwin Wrong?” on its front cover. Natural scientist David Quammen, author of the article by the same name, replied “No” to that question from his own perspective, and claimed that Darwin’s theory of evolution was today backed up by powerful scientific evidence. Quammen repeated the main claims from Darwin’s book The Origin of Species, but overlooked one important detail.
Darwin added another chapter to his book, one called “Difficulties on Theory,” and openly admitted the existence of difficulties in these terms:
Such is the sum of the several chief objections and difficulties which may justly be urged against my theory… I have felt these difficulties far too heavily during many years to doubt their weight. 1
The fact is, however, that the NG article discussed not one of the phenomena that Darwin regarded as a problem for his theory, and even ignored their existence. For example, although Darwin referred in his book to the way the fossil record failed to back up his theory and to the complexity in the eye, NG magazine did not even touch on such subjects which the theory of evolution is unable to account for as the Cambrian Explosion, biological complexity and the origin of genetic information.
Quammen, who thus appears to be more of a Darwinist than Darwin himself, emerged as the defender not of a theory that can account for difficulties, but of a “dogma” that needs to be shielded from criticism.
In this article, Quammen’s so-called evidence is analysed and the Darwinist propaganda embarked on by NG magazine refuted.
An Example of NG Turkey’s Dogmatic Stance
The English language edition of the NG article “Was Darwin Wrong?” also devoted space to Harun Yahya’s works about the theory of evolution. In the section describing worldwide reactions against evolution the following words appeared in reference to Harun Yahya:
Their discomfort is paralleled by Islamic creationists such as Harun Yahya, author of a recent volume titled The Evolution Deceit, who points to the six-day creation story in the Koran as literal truth and calls the theory of evolution “nothing but a deception imposed on us by the dominators of the world system. ”
Interestingly though, Harun Yahya did not appear in NG’s Turkish version, and this section was altered, assuming the following form: “This unease displays a parallelism among those who support the Islamic idea of creation. ”
As someone who states his primary aim as being that of describing the philosophy and scientific invalidity of Darwinism, Harun Yahya has closely monitored Darwinist propaganda in recent years and has responded, in the light of scientific findings, to the pro-evolutionist writings and broadcasts of media organisations, of which NG is one. (see www. darwinism-watch. com)
If Darwinism really were supported by a mass of evidence, as claimed in this NG article, then why is NG Turkey trying to prevent Harun Yahya’s scientific criticisms from being heard? Could it be that NG Turkey was concerned that Darwinism will be unable to withstand such scientific criticism? In fact, this attitude by NG’s Turkey desk not only shows that the magazine is unwilling to inform its readers of the source of effective criticism of evolution, but also confirms the criticism that it is seeking to keep Darwinism on its feet as an ideology.
NG Is Unwilling to Face the Modern Scientific Facts
There can be no doubt that in order to provide a realistic response to the question “Was Darwin Wrong?” one needs to look at what Darwin actually said and to compare this to modern scientific facts. In his book The Origin of Species, in which he unveiled his theory of evolution, Darwin provided a very important criterion by which to test his theory. So concrete is that criterion that in Darwin’s own words it could “absolutely break down” the theory. Darwin wrote:
“If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed, which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down. ” 2
Darwin maintained that organs evolved during a gradual process. Thinking of this imaginary process in reverse, it appears that Darwin assumed that these organs possessed reducibility. However, advances made in the field of biochemistry, especially over the last 40 years, have revealed that the cell possesses a superior complexity, the details of which were unknown in Darwin’s time, for which reason it was equated to a “black box,” and that certain structures within the cell actually possess the feature of “irreducible complexity. ”
“Irreducible complexity” is a phenomenon based on empirical evidence and literally constitutes the antithesis of Darwin’s theory. The most important figure to bring this concept onto the agenda of the scientific world is the biochemist Michael J. Behe from Lehigh University in the USA. In his 1996 book Darwin’s Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution Behe examines the irreducibly complex natures of the cell and certain other biological structures, and reveals that these cannot possibly be accounted for in terms of evolution. Behe sets out the effect that irreducible complexity has on the claims of Darwinism thus:
“To Darwin, the cell was a ‘black box’ — its inner workings were utterly mysterious to him. Now, the black box has been opened up and we know how it works. Applying Darwin’s test to the ultra-complex world of molecular machinery and cellular systems that have been discovered over the past 40 years, we can say that Darwin’s theory has ‘absolutely broken down’. ” 3
Irreducible complexity has demolished Darwinism, and proved that life is the product of intelligent design, in other words that God has created all living things. The way that NG seeks to keep this from its readers constitutes a flight from reality.
NG’s biogeographical tales
In his article in NG, Quammen begins his account of the so-called evidence for Darwinism with biogeography, and it may be of use to provide a description of this concept at this point. Biogeography is a branch of science that investigates the geographical distribution of species and seeks an answer to the question of how they came by these habitat regions by drawing up maps of their locations on the Earth.
Most books in the field of biogeography are full of facts that say nothing, neither in favour nor against, the theory of evolution: such as maps of living species’ habitat areas, the features of those areas, questions regarding the spread of organisms, and the grouping together of species on the basis of geographical area . . . 4
When their distribution on the Earth is examined it can be seen that species do not generally exhibit a global distribution. Species have rather spread in large groups in areas possessing specific climatic and environmental conditions. Ever since Darwin, evolutionists have sought to portray this spread as evidence for evolution, though with regard to the “fundamental” living categories of geographical distribution their efforts have failed to come up with a consistent evolutionary scenario.
In their book Systematics and Biogeography, G. Nelson and N. Platnick of the New York American Museum of Natural History analysed the studies performed in this field and set out their conclusion:
We conclude, therefore, that biogeography (or geographical distribution of organisms) has not been shown to be evidence for or against evolution in any sense. 5
If evolutionists really wish to offer evidence for their theory then what they need to do is to abandon their fairy tales about “if this living thing is found here then it must have evolved here, and if that living thing is found there then it must have evolved there,” and instead scientifically document their own responses to the question of how living things came into being in the first place. (It is an indisputable fact that the mechanisms of random mutation and natural selection cannot account for the origin of species. )
The fact that evolutionist claims based on biogeography are myths devoid of any scientific evidence clearly emerge on inspection of NG’s claims about palaeontology. The fossil record clearly reveals that the idea that living things spread by evolving is a myth.
NG’s palaeontology deception
NG makes a generalisation about the fossil strata, telling its readers that so-called closely related species are generally found side by side in consecutive strata, and that a life form going back millions of years in one stratum is followed by a similar, though not identical, one in the subsequent stratum. As an example of this generalisation it cites the equine sequence that even evolutionists abandoned years ago; it maintains that the modern-day horse emerged at the end of the sequence Hyracotherium, Orohippus, Epihippus and Mohippus, fossils of which are found in consecutive strata.
What NG is doing here consists of a blatant deception. The equine sequence is an unfounded one, the invalidity of which has now been demonstrated. That being the case, putting it forward as a generalisation regarding the fossil record cannot be described as anything else than an attempt to verify that generalisation with a deceptive example.
Life forms emerged with no evolutionary progenitors, but in a single moment, and with flawless bodily structures
Darwin, who maintained that living things emerged through graduated evolution and who hoped that the fossil record to confirm that claim would be obtained in future excavations, was mistaken. The fossils obtained in endless excavations carried out by palaeontologists all over the world have produced findings that openly refute the idea of gradual change in consecutive strata. These facts concern the phenomena of sudden appearance and stasis.
Species emerge suddenly, with no evolutionary progenitors but with flawless bodily structures. In his 1999 book Fossils and Evolution, Tom Kemp, Curator of the Zoological Collections in Oxford University Museum of Natural History, admits this:
In virtually all cases a new taxon appears for the first time in the fossil record with most definitive features already present, and practically no known stem-group forms. 6
Fossils hundreds of millions of years old that bear no
trace of evolution invalidate neo-Darwinism
Furthermore, species exhibit no gradual change as suggested in the NG generalisation. Species with natural histories of hundreds of millions of years exhibit a “stability” demonstrating a permanency throughout geological strata. The shark, coelacanth, ant, salamander and many other species, fossils of which have been found and which have remained unchanged for hundreds of millions of years, have led to palaeontologists accepting stasis as one of the most striking aspects of the fossil record. This phenomenon refutes Darwinism’s prediction of gradual change and invalidates the theory. Professor of Geology Peter J. Williamson describes this in Nature magazine:
The principal problem is morphological stasis. A theory is only as good as its predictions, and conventional neo-Darwinism, which claims to be a comprehensive explanation of evolutionary process, has failed to predict the widespread long-term morphological stasis now recognized as one of the most striking aspects of the fossil record. 7
In short, NG’s claim of graduated change throughout geological strata is a myth supported in the face of the science of palaeontology. The way that NG seeks to support that myth with the equine sequence only makes matters worse.
The truth in the equine sequence that NG seeks to conceal from its readers
The equine sequence is based on various hoofed fossils unearthed in North America. Darwinists set these out in such a way as to establish a sequence, according to the fossils’ dental characteristics and numbers of toes, and for years put this forward as evidence for Darwinism. Continuing palaeontological excavations, however, definitively revealed the inconsistencies within that series. NG, known for its blind devotion to Darwinism, has no qualms about concealing this development from its readers and writing that the alleged evolutionary ancestors of the horse follow one another in consecutive geological strata.
Former BBC science editor Gordon Rattray Taylor describes how the equine sequence constitutes no evidence for Darwinism:
But perhaps the most serious weakness of Darwinism is the failure of paleontologists to find convincing phylogenies or sequences of organisms demonstrating major evolutionary change. . . The horse is often cited as the only fully worked-out example. But the fact is that the line from Eohippus to Equus is very erratic. It is alleged to show a continual increase in size, but the truth is that some variants were smaller than Eohippus, not larger. Specimens from different sources can be brought together in a convincing-looking sequence, but there is no evidence that they were actually ranged in this order in time. 8
At a meeting in November 1980 at the Chicago Museum of Natural History, attended by 150 evolutionists, one speaker, Boyce Rensberger, stated that there was no basis in the fossil record for the scenario of equine evolution, and that no gradual equine evolution ever took place:
The popularly told example of horse evolution, suggesting a gradual sequence of changes from four-toed fox-sized creatures living nearly 50 million years ago to today’s much larger one-toed horse, has long been known to be wrong. Instead of gradual change, fossils of each intermediate species appear fully distinct, persist unchanged, and then become extinct. Transitional forms are unknown. 9
Discoveries that living things included in the imaginary sequence of equine evolution actually lived at the same time, and even together, totally refute Quammen. One of the most striking examples of this came to light in 1981. Fossils of thousands of living things, 10 million years old, that had been buried under lava as the result of a volcanic eruption and whose skeletons had been preserved down to the present day, were dug up in the US state of Nebraska. With that discovery it emerged that three- and single-toed equines assumed to have lived at different periods and to have ancestral relationships with one another in the framework of evolutionists’ imaginary equine sequence, actually lived side by side. Interestingly the source of this information is NG magazine. 10
The myth of whale evolution
I can see no difficulty in a race of bears being rendered, by natural selection, more and more aquatic in their structure and habits, with larger and larger mouths, till a creature was produced as monstrous as a whale. 11
From watching bears fishing along a river bank, Darwin set out his ideas on the origin of whales in these words in his book The Origin of Species, though he elected to remove that section from subsequent editions of the book. Yet evolutionists who came after Darwin had no hesitation over adopting this myth, with various minor amendments, that came down as a monument to the unrestricted nature of his imagination. They continued to propagate the myth that the whale evolved not from the bear but from other land mammals, as if this were a scientific fact.
It can now be seen that NG, one of the main representatives of Darwinian mythology, is behaving no differently, and is seeking to portray this great myth, supported for the sake of the dogma of evolution, as representing evidence for evolution.
There are enormous differences, in terms of such basic physiological characteristics as water conservation, sight and communication, between whales and the land mammals alleged to have been their progenitors. Let us now consider the scientific dilemma facing the myth of evolution by examining the design in whales:
The special water conservation design in whales’ bodies
Although they live in water, whales are unable to meet their water requirements from salty sea water. They need fresh water to live. Although it is not known exactly how they meet their water needs, it is thought that a large part of it is obtained by eating sea creatures that contain levels of salt that are 30% lower than those of the ocean water. In such an environment, where fresh water is exceedingly scarce, the maximum conservation of water in living things’ bodies and minimum consumption thereof are critical. Water levels are of great importance to whales, for which reason, just like camels, whales do not perspire. Their kidneys regulate urine concentration in such a way as to supply water.
Why is whale milk fatty?
Another delicate balance with regard to water needs appears in the fat level in the female whale’s milk. The mother whale feeds her young with a very thick milk, of the consistency of cheese. This milk is ten times fattier than human milk. There is a chemical reason why this milk contains such a high level of fat. Water is produced as a side product as fat is processed after being consumed by the baby. In this way the mother meets her offspring’s need for water with minimal water loss.
The design in whales’ eyes
There are complex arrangements in the design of the whale eye and its communication systems, no examples of which are to be found in terrestrial mammals. Land mammals have eyelids to protect against dust and impact. Whales, on the other hand, have a hard layer to protect against a different danger, the pressure under the sea. Moreover, the refractive index in the design of the whale eye makes it possible for a killer whale to leap up and catch a fish six metres above the water level in an amusement park with considerable accuracy. In addition, whales’ eyes are on either side of the head, unlike terrestrial mammals, thus protecting them from the current. Thanks to the levels of rod and cone cells in the eye, their sensitivity levels to light, colour and other details are very high. In addition to that ratio, the presence of phosphorus in the eyes is a design that facilitates their ability to see in the dark depths of the oceans.
The mathematical calculation employed by whales
The sense used by whales in the location of sources of food and of one another is not actually sight, but rather hearing. Many whales hunt at the dark regions at the bottom of the sea thanks to a form of natural “sonar. ” The whale’s brain emits clicking sounds, in a way not yet fully understood by scientists. The distance of an object is determined by means of a mathematical calculation. The whale brain multiplies the speed at which the sounds it emits strike an object and bounce back by the time necessary for this, and divides the result by two. The result is the distance of the object from itself. Furthermore, the whale also possesses the ability to focus the sound waves with its brain on a specific point and to emit these like a light impulse. The returning waves are analysed and interpreted in the animal’s brain. This interpretation determines the shape of the body in front of it, its size, speed and position. The animal’s skull is sound-proofed to protect it from the bombardment of powerful sound waves it constantly emits and which could even seriously damage the brain itself. The sonic system in the animal is unbelievably sensitive, so much so that the US Navy imitates the sonar design in sea mammals in developing its own technology. 12
Special designs for whale calves
The perfect designs in whales are by no means limited to these. The shape of a whale calf’s mouth has been designed in such a way as to be ideally suited to fit its mother’s teats, so that the calf is able to suckle without losing a drop of milk and without taking in a drop of sea water. Moreover, they possess lungs capable of storing high levels of oxygen for protracted dives and an ear membrane designed to protect them from high pressure.
These arrangements, every one of which indicates an evident design, are particular to whales and are not to be found in any terrestrial mammal. NG, however, expects it readers to set reason aside and believe that these all came about by chance. NG denies that whales were intelligently designed, maintaining instead that one fine day a land mammal decided to live in the sea, and that the whale evolved as the result of unconscious mechanisms such as random mutations and natural selection.
Yet what mutation could possibly produce sonar in a mammal that was allegedly the progenitor of the whale? Bearing in mind the effect of mutations and the importance of the brain to the whale’s survival, it is clear that mutations would damage the brain, crippling or killing the whale. Could the brain, that produces sound waves, be able to focus these on a particular point and determine the location of objects using a mathematical calculation, acquire a perfect sonar in an area that would be damaged during this random process? By what coincidence could it produce sonar of such a high quality that even the US Navy’s technology development units have been unable to match it? What mutations could turn a land mammal’s feet into fins and a tail capable of propelling several tons of weight?
There is no doubt that these questions may also be asked with regard to the systems that make it possible to use water so productively, the suckling system and the protective systems in the eye and ear. However, NG has no reasonable response to give to these questions. There is but one answer. Whales were created fully formed in a single moment. God created whales to be flawless, endowed with all the systems for their needs, just as He did all other living things. In one verse of the Qur’an it is revealed that:
Mankind! remember God’s blessing to you. Is there any creator other than God providing for you from heaven and earth? There is no god but Him. So how have you been perverted? (Qur’an, 35: 3)
(For a more detailed reply to NG’s fantastical whale story see http://www. harunyahya. com/70national_geographic_sci29. php)
NG’s error regarding embryology
Another error in Quammen’s article in NG is the repetition of a myth once known as the “law of recapitulation. ” This belonged to the German biologist Ernst Haeckel and in his claim regarding embryology Darwin was to a large extent “inspired” by Haeckel. The law of recapitulation maintains that the embryological development of living things repeats the imaginary stages undergone during the descent of the alleged evolutionary ancestors.
The fact that Quammen devotes space to this in his article reveals a wide gap of knowledge on his part. Objections along the lines that Haeckel’s claims were devoid of any scientific justification and that the evidence he offered was forged began 136 years ago13, and the end of the law of recapitulation as the subject of scientific debate came as far back as 80 years ago 14. Even George Gaylord Simpson, one of the founders of neo-Darwinism, admitted this fact 42 years ago in the words:
Haeckel misstated the evolutionary principle involved. It is now firmly established that ontogeny does not repeat phylogeny. 15
Moreover, the myth of recapitulation, which NG has no qualms over recapitulating itself, involves what one British embryologist referred to in 1997 as “the best known fraud in the history of biology. ” In his book Natürliche Schöpfungsgeschichte (The History of Natural Creation), written in 1868, Haeckel deliberately distorted the pictures of human, monkey and dog embryos in such a way as to support his claim.
One striking aspect of this fraud is that it also constitutes a “centennial monument” to Darwinist dogmatism. Until recently, a number of Darwinist sources, including text books, continued either to use the counterfeit drawings as they were, or else to repeat the myth of recapitulation. The Harvard University professor and evolutionist Stephen Jay Gould displayed great common sense and offered the following criticism:
… [W]e do, I think, have the right to be both astonished and ashamed by the century of mindless recycling that has led to the persistence of these drawings in a large number, if not a majority, of modern textbooks! 16
NG has not used counterfeit drawings. Yet it has no hesitations over using recapitulation, the invalidity of which emerged at least 80 years ago, as support for Darwinism.
We urge NG to consider Stephen Jay Gould’s words.
NG’s errors with regard to morphology
Quammen exhibits a most thought-provoking attitude in that section in which he deals with Darwin’s claims on the subject of morphology. The way that a zoo is organised into birds, monkeys, big cats, crocodiles or fish in the aquarium is interpreted as evidence for evolution. According to Quammen, the fact that living things can be classified under a hierarchical system in families, orders and kingdoms must be the product of an evolutionary process.
However, Quammen’s portrayal of hierarchical classification as evidence for evolution is nonsensical. That is because the fact that forms of life can be classified hierarchically is not a prediction first put forward by evolutionists and then subsequently confirmed. The Swedish scientist Carl Linnaeus, the father of the modern system of classification, was a scientist who believed in creation from nothing and regarded that classification as the product of intelligent design. That is compatible with what we see with our own eyes and is grounded in common sense. The ability to be hierarchically classified is a well known hallmark of intelligent design. Means of transport, for example, can be classified as land, air and sea vehicles, and may be broken down into subcategories and even smaller subgroups. Yet this classification does not show that the modes of transport in question came into being through evolution.
Indeed, in an article published in the magazine New Scientist, the prominent evolutionist Mark Ridley makes the following statement:
The simple fact that species can be classified hierarchically into genera, families, and so on, is not an argument for evolution. It is possible to classify any set of objects into a hierarchy whether their variation is evolutionary or not. 17
Quammen’s preconception
In the same way that what Quammen writes on this subject are far from supporting his claim, it also reveals how he relies on preconceptions rather than scientific evidence:
Such a pattern of tiered resemblances?groups of similar species nested within broader groupings, and all descending from a single source?isn’t naturally present among other collections of items. You won’t find anything equivalent if you try to categorize rocks, or musical instruments, or jewelry. Why not? Because rock types and styles of jewelry don’t reflect unbroken descent from common ancestors. Biological diversity does. The number of shared characteristics between any one species and another indicates how recently those two species have diverged from a shared lineage. (p. 13)
Quammen placed the hierarchical categorisation in living things in a separate place, on the grounds that it reflects a continual chain of descent from a common ancestor. That term, however, is helpless labelling in Quammen’s desperate attempts to prove Darwin right.
As is made clear above, there is no fossil record capable of being proposed as evidence of any evolutionary link between living categories. The words of the prominent evolutionary palaeontologist Stephen Jay Gould that “The evolutionary trees that adorn our textbooks have data only at the tips and nodes of their branches” are an admission of the fact that there is actually no evidence for the evolutionary links assumed to exist among living things. 18
In short, the origin of the evolutionary chain of descent that Quammen claims exists among living categories is not scientific fact such as the fossil record, but rather his own dogmatic mentality.
The five-digit skeletal structure error
Quammen maintains that the way that various vertebrates such as the bat, the dolphin and human beings all share the feature of having five digits stems from descent from a common ancestor. This claim rests on the fact that although there is the same basic plan in the front and rear legs of the living things in question, these can still be easily differentiated (the homological claim). This claim of Quammen’s can of course only deceive those readers who are unaware of the facts of modern science. Advances in the field of molecular biology definitively invalidate this morphology-based claim. One striking discovery that led to this is that the production of these organs, assumed to be a legacy from a common ancestor, is in fact controlled by different genes in different creatures.
The evolutionary biologist William Fix describes the collapse of the evolutionary thesis concerning pentadactylism (having five digits) in this area in the face of this discovery:
The older textbooks on evolution make much of the idea of homology, pointing out the obvious resemblances between the skeletons of the limbs of different animals. Thus the `pentadactyl’ limb pattern is found in the arm of a man, the wing of a bird, and flipper of a whale, and this is held to indicate their common origin. Now if these various structures were transmitted by the same gene couples, varied from time to time by mutations and acted upon by environmental selection, the theory would make good sense. Unfortunately this is not the case. Homologous organs are now known to be produced by totally different gene complexes in the different species. The concept of homology in terms of similar genes handed on from a common ancestor has broken down. 19
NG’s vestigial Darwinism
Quammen displays a striking determination not to grasp the fact that Darwin’s claims have been demolished by modern science. One of the indications of this is his repetition of the claim regarding vestigial organs, a claim which is utterly illusory. It is maintained in the article that organs such as the male nipple, structures claimed to be the vestiges of rear legs in certain snakes, or the covered wings in coleoptera that are not actually used, are redundant, functionless organs left over from the evolutionary process. Quammen is clearly ignoring the definitive results from scientific developments:
The list of up to 180 supposed vestigial organs at the beginning of the 20th century eventually shrank to almost none in the face of discoveries from scientific research. One by one it emerged that a great many organs, such as the appendix and the plica semilunaris, once supposed to be vestigial organs, do actually have functions. 20 “Science” is in any case the process by which human beings come to know what was previously unknown. The gradual emergence of the functions of organs that were once regarded as vestigial shows that, logically, the functions of the last few remaining organs whose functions are still unknown will soon be revealed.
Indeed, a great many present-day evolutionists have admitted that the myth of “vestigial organs” is an argument rooted in ignorance. In an article headed “Do Vestigial Organs Represent Evidence for Evolution?” published in the journal Evolutionary Theory, the evolutionary biologist S. R. Scadding admits this fact:
Since it is not possible to unambiguously identify useless structures, and since the structure of the argument used is not scientifically valid, I conclude that ‘vestigial organs’ provide no special evidence for the theory of evolution. 21
Evolutionists’ claim on the subject of vestigial organs stem not from any vestigialism in these organs, but from the vestigial nature of their own perspectives. The existence of any living thing proves only the existence of God, its creator. The way that inanimate and unconscious atoms combine to produce a hearing, smelling, touching and seeing human being is proof of God’s flawless creation. That it is because it is impossible for atoms, which cannot smell, hear or see, to wish to have perception and to combine together for that purpose. For a collection of matter to stand and look at itself in front of a mirror, or for matter to taste and touch itself, has no place in evolutionary logic. These feelings can only be explained in terms of a superior creation, in other words the existence of God and His flawless creation. Despite this self-evident truth, evolutionists hold to the irrational and blind belief that they themselves are the product of matter and blind chance, which shows that their claim regarding vestigial organs is one based on this prejudiced and dogmatic perspective.
The realisation that the organs regarded by evolutionists as vestigial do actually have functions is a proof of this. For example, the structures portrayed as the vestiges of rear legs in certain species of snake are now known to help them to grip one another during mating. To regard the male nipple as the product of an evolutionary process also rests on a distorted logic. If the male nipple were a leftover from an evolutionary process then males must have evolved from a population consisting solely of females, which is a scenario so unimaginable that no evolutionist has felt able to accept it. Coleoptera, another example cited by Quammen, also constitute no evidence for evolution. Insect species which do not develop a functional wing are generally seen in open habitats with strong winds, such as ocean islands. In an environment where strong winds blow and surrounded by large masses of water, insects’ being able to fly is by no means an advantage, and may even represent a danger. That is because insects flying in the air are exposed to the effects of the wind and can be hurled into trees or rocks, ending up crippled or dead. There may, therefore, have been a tendency for them to move towards a ground-based lifestyle. Over time, the insect population that lives near the ground comes to consist of individuals that do not develop fully fledged wings. That is because, unlike flying insects, mutations that prevent insects that live near to ground level developing wings may not be damaging to the insect (on the provision that they do not cause a total interruption in its physiology).
A mutation that prevented wing development in a flying insect living in a habitat uninfluenced by winds would be harmful and maybe even lethal. That is because normally an insect that uses its wings to feed and to avoid predators would possess functionless wings because of that mutation and would be unable to survive and thus eliminated from the population.
On the other hand, in insects living in a habitat affected by winds and that used their feet to move about in the same way as non-flying insects, a mutation in the wings might not have lethal consequences. That is because the insect will already have grown accustomed to a life style in which it does not use wings, and it will make no difference whether its wings are healthy or else lose their function due to mutation (as long as the mutation in question is not one that affects the insect’s general physiology). In short, a destructive mutation leading to the loss of an insect’s wings may not be lethal in an environment where wings are in any case of no consequence.
However, it cannot be said that the coleoptera that are assumed to have undergone such a process represent evidence of evolution. The theory of evolution proposes that organs gradually assume a more complex form. The genetic change proposed in support of this claim must be of such a kind as to add new genetic information to creatures’ DNA. It is evident, however, that coleoptera do not gain any new genetic information during this process and that, on the contrary, they suffer a loss of information in the genes that control wing development.
Can this acquisition of genetic information, which is not seen in coleoptera, be observed in any other living thing? Definitely not. Evolutionists have been unable to show the emergence of a new organ, or even a new protein, by means of random mutations.
In short, the theory of evolution maintains that living things acquire new organs with the addition of new genetic information to their DNA, but the vestigial organ argument is one that concerns a loss of function, in other words a loss of genetic data. Therefore, vestigial organs provide no scientific support for the theory of evolution. The reason for evolutionists’ determination to place this claim on the scientific agenda is psychological rather than scientific. Their display of blind devotion to materialism leads them to adopt a vestigial perspective towards the evident truth of creation. (You can read Harun Yahya’s article that demolishes evolutionists’ vestigial viewpoint here. http://www. darwinism-watch. com/hurriyet_science0407. php)
James P. Gills, M. D. , founder of St. Luke’s Cataract and Laser Institute in Tarpon Springs, Florida, is a creationist scientist. He is also a world-renowned ophthalmologist. In his book Darwinism Under the Microscope, Gills cites a great many proofs of creation that totally undermine evolution, and writes that the only reason why scientists still insist on evolution is the spiritual cataract of thinking of themselves as the product of blind chance. 22
The error of thinking that resistance to antibiotics and DDT is evidence of evolution
The NG article seeks to show that bacterial immunity to antibiotics and insects’ resistance to such pesticides as DDT constitutes evidence for evolution. On the subject of the resistance that microbes appear to develop to drugs Quammen confidently states:
There’s no better or more immediate evidence supporting the Darwinian theory than this process of forced transformation among our inimical germs. (p. 21)
However, Quammen’s excitement in portraying bacterial immunity as evidence for evolution is totally misplaced. It is explained below why these two phenomena do not represent evidence for Darwinism.
The first of the “deadly molecules” employed against micro-organisms was penicillin, discovered by Alexander Fleming in 1928. Fleming discovered a molecule that killed the Staphylococcus mould bacterium, after which antibiotics taken from micro-organisms were used against various bacteria. Although it appeared at first that definitive results had been obtained, the truth later emerged: bacteria gradually acquire resistance to antibiotics. The great majority of bacteria exposed to antibiotics die, but since a small minority remain unaffected this rapidly multiply and eventually come to constitute the entire population. Thus the entire population becomes resistant to the antibiotic.
However, there is no question of bacteria developing through mutation here, because the bacteria already possess the characteristics in question before being exposed to antibiotics. Despite being an evolutionist publication, Scientific American magazine admitted these facts in its March 1998 edition:
Many bacteria possessed resistance genes even before commercial antibiotics came into use. Scientists do not know exactly why these genes evolved and were maintained. 23
Insects acquire resistance to pesticides such as DDT in the same way, and, again in the same way, this represents no evidence for evolution.
The prominent evolutionary biologist Francisco Ayala accepts the truth of this in the words:
The genetic variants required for resistance to the most diverse kinds of pesticides were apparently present in every one of the populations exposed to these man-made compounds. 24
One of those to carry out the most detailed research on this subject is the Israeli biophysicist Dr. Lee Spetner. In his book Not by Chance, published in 1997, Spetner showed that bacterial immunity is brought about by two different mechanisms, but that these offer no support for the theory of evolution. For more detail on this subject see http://www. harunyahya. com/20questions05. php#q19 and http://www. darwinismrefuted. com/embryology_01. html)
Another so-called piece of evidence in the NG article, in addition to the resistance in bacteria and insects, concerns genetic similarities.
The deception that evolution can be observed
NG claims that evolution can actually be witnessed in nature and in the laboratory. This, however, is a fantastical and groundless claim. In an article titled “How Are New Species Formed?” published in the 14 June, 2003, edition of New Scientist, George Turner made the following significant “admission”:
Not long ago, we thought we knew how species formed. We believed that the process almost always started with complete isolation of populations. It often occurred after a population had gone through a severe “genetic bottleneck,” as might happen after a pregnant female was swept off to a remote island and her offspring mated with each other. The beauty of this so-called “founder effect” model was that it could be tested in the lab. In reality, it just didn’t hold up. Despite evolutionary biologists’ best efforts, nobody has even got close to creating a new species from a founder population. What’s more, as far as we know, no new species has formed as a result of humans releasing small numbers of organisms into alien environments. 25
As we have seen, evolutionists do not actually know how new species are formed. In other words, Quammen’s claim about being able to witness evolution in action is totally unfounded. The fact that the long years of study carried out by the Grants into chaffinch beak lengths on the Galapagos islands is cited in support is the result of Darwinism misrepresenting variations to represent evidence for itself. (For further information, see http://www. harunyahya. com/nas04. php)
Conclusion
As we have seen, Darwin was wrong. National Geographic’s posing the question whether he was wrong is as ridiculous as asking “Was Freud wrong?” or “Was Marx wrong?” That is because, like Freudianism and Marxism, Darwinism is a theory that has come to the end of its life. We call upon NG magazine to abandon its support for this outdated myth and to accept that creation is the true origin of life.
What NG needs to do is to set its preconceptions to one side and cease supporting Darwinism as a dogma, and to face up to the scientific evidence that undermines this theory. Discoveries in the last 40 years in particular have definitively revealed the invalidity of the naturalist philosophy at the heart of Darwinism. If NG does face up to that fact it will see that the organised complexity of life and the genetic information on which it depends point to intelligent design, in other words that life did not evolve on its own through chance and natural events, but was “created. ”
NG – and all other Darwinists – have so far avoided facing up to this, and may therefore have resorted to covering up the difficulties facing their theory. Yet they must be aware that this avoidance will be of no use in keeping their theory alive. That is because a major development in the world of science is serving notice that the age of sweeping matters under the carpet has come to an end.
The way that the intelligent design movement, that has been sweeping through the USA over the last 10 years, has one by one unmasked the dogmas of Darwinism, has made it the focus of wide interest. The intellectual basis of this movement is the “Theory of Intelligent Design. ” The theory in question maintains that complex biological structures containing large amounts of information can only be explained in terms of intelligence-based causes, and that these causes can be empirically studied in the field of biology. 26
One indication that the intelligent design movement may represent the dynamic for major cultural changes is the way it is effectively and in a widespread manner revealing that the evidence for so long taught as evidence for Darwinism in schools actually consists of mythology, deception, misrepresentation and even fraud. California Berkeley University’s Professor Phillip E. Johnson, the leader of the movement, stresses that Darwinism will pass into the dustbin of history sometime in this century. 27
It will be of use here to remind NG of the damage from a determined persistence in its policy of uncritical defence of Darwinism. It will be remembered that NG announced the discovery of the Archaeoraptor fossil discovered in China as definitive proof that birds evolved from dinosaurs, without waiting for it to be described in referred scientific journals. Later, however, it was realised that the fossil did not represent a missing link at all, but was a counterfeit “produced” by a Chinese peasant. 26 Because of its blind devotion to Darwinism NG had no hesitation in embracing this fossil as “proof” by unscientific methods, and later found itself in “modern paleontology’s greatest embarrassment. ” 29
According to the ornithologist Dr. Storrs Olson, “National Geographic has reached an all-time low for engaging in sensationalistic, unsubstantiated, tabloid journalism. ” 30
The portrayal of the claim of recapitulation, which died at least 80 years ago, as evidence for evolution in NG’s article “Was Darwin Wrong” shows that it is devoid of the seriousness required by science and is continuing with its “unsubstantiated, tabloid journalism. ” NG is not behaving intelligently. Maintaining this approach does not provide any support for Darwinism. On the contrary, NG is documenting its own dogmatism in an ever more obvious way.
We invite NG to consider these points and to accept that creation is the true origin of life.
There is no doubt that the Lord of all living things, on Earth, in the Sky, and between, is God. In one verse of the Qur’an God reveals that:
Your God is One God. There is no god but Him, the All-Merciful, the Most Merciful. (Qur’an, 2: 163)
Under the pen name of Harun Yahya, Adnan Oktar has written some 250 works. His books contain a total of 46,000 pages and 31,500 illustrations. Of these books, 7,000 pages and 6,000 illustrations deal with the collapse of the Theory of Evolution. You can read, free of charge, all the books Adnan Oktar has written under the pen name Harun Yahya on these websites www. harunyahya. com
1. Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library.
2. Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species: A Facsimile of the First Edition, Harvard University Press, 1964, p. 189.
3. Michael Behe, Darwin’s Black Box, 1996
4. For more information about the evolutionist theses on biogeography, please see Walter J. Remine, “The Biotic Message: Evolution Versus Message Theory”, Saint Paul Science; 1st ed edition, 1993. page 538.
5. G. Nelson & N. Platnick, Systematics and Biogeography: Cladistics and Vicariance, Columbia University Press, 1981, p. 223.
6. Fossils and Evolution, Dr TS Kemp – Curator of Zoological Collections, Oxford University, Oxford University Press, 1999, p. 246.
7. Peter G. Williamson, “Morphological stasis and developmental constraint: real problems for neo-Darwinism,” Nature, vol. 294, 19 November 1981, p. 214; Stephen E. Jones, http://members. iinet. net. au/~sejones/
8. Gordon Rattray Taylor, The Great Evolution Mystery, Abacus, Sphere Books, London, 1984, p. 230.
9. Boyce Rensberger, Houston Chronicle, November 5, 1980, p. 15.
10. Voorhies M. R. , “Ancient Ashfall Creates a Pompei of Prehistoric Animals,” National Geographic, Vol. 159, No. 1, January 1981, pp. 67-68,74 ; “Horse Find Defies Evolution” Creation Ex Nihilo 5(3):15, January 1983, http://www. answersingenesis. org/docs/3723. asp
11. Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species: A Facsimile of the First Edition, Harvard University Press, 1964, p. 184.
12. Spotting Mines With Dolphin Sonar , ScienceNOW 1998: 2
13 L. Rutimeyer, “Referate,” Archiv fur Anthropologie, 1868
14 Keith S. Thompson, “Ontogeny and Phylogeny Recapitulated”, American Scientist, vol. 76, May / June 1988, p. 273
15 G. G. Simpson, W. Beck, An Introduction to Biology, Harcourt Brace and World, New York, 1965, p. 241.
16 Stephen Jay Gould, “Abscheulich! – Atrocious! – the precursor to the theory of natural selection,” Natural History, March 2000, p. 45.
17 Mark Ridley, “Who Doubts Evolution?” New Scientist, vol. 90 (25 June 1981), p. 832.
18 Gould S. J, “Evolution’s Erratic Pace,” Natural History, May 1977, p. 13-14.
19 William Fix, The Bone Peddlers: Selling Evolution, Macmillan Publishing Co. , New York, 1984, p. 189.
20 J. Bergman & G. Howe, Vestigial Organs are Fully Functional, CRS Books, Terre Haute, IN, 1990.
21 S. R. Scadding, “Do ‘Vestigial Organs’ Provide Evidence for Evolution?,” Evolutionary Theory, vol. 5, May 1981, p. 173.
22 James P. Gills, M. D. & Thomas Woodward, Ph. D. , Darwinism under the Microscope, Charisma House, 2002, p. 39.
23 Stuart B. Levy, “The Challenge of Antibiotic Resistance,” Scientific American, March 1998, p. 35
24 Francisco J. Ayala, “The Mechanisms of Evolution,” Scientific American, vol. 239, September 1978, p. 64
25 George Turner, “How Are New Species Formed?,” New Scientist, vol. 178, issue 2399, 14 June 2003, p. 36
26 http://www. arn. org , http://www. discovery. org/csc/
27 Phillip E. Johnson, “Mothballed Science,” Touchstone Magazine, December 2003
28 For more information about Archaeoraptor forgery, please see http://www. harunyahya. com/20questions03. php#q7
29 Tim Friend, “The ‘missing link’ fossil that wasn’t”, USA Today, 02/01/2000
30 Open Letter to National Geographic Society by Storrs L. Olson, Curator of Birds, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution
ABOUT THE AUTHOR, HARUN YAHYA
Born in Ankara in 1956, Adnan Oktar writes his books under the pen name of Harun Yahya. Ever since his university years, he has dedicated his life to telling of the existence and oneness of Almighty Allah, and to disseminating the moral values of the Qur’an. He has never wavered in the face of difficulties and despite oppression, still continues this intellectual struggle today exhibiting great patience and determination. For mor information pls visit: http://www. harunyahya. com/theauthor. php
Written by on December 28th, 2009 with no comments.
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The November edition of National Geographic magazine (NG) posed the question “Was Darwin Wrong?” on its front cover. Natural scientist David Quammen, author of the article by the same name, replied “No” to that question from his own perspective, and claimed that Darwin’s theory of evolution was today backed up by powerful scientific evidence. Quammen repeated the main claims from Darwin’s book The Origin of Species, but overlooked one important detail.
Darwin added another chapter to his book, one called “Difficulties on Theory,” and openly admitted the existence of difficulties in these terms:
Such is the sum of the several chief objections and difficulties which may justly be urged against my theory… I have felt these difficulties far too heavily during many years to doubt their weight. 1
The fact is, however, that the NG article discussed not one of the phenomena that Darwin regarded as a problem for his theory, and even ignored their existence. For example, although Darwin referred in his book to the way the fossil record failed to back up his theory and to the complexity in the eye, NG magazine did not even touch on such subjects which the theory of evolution is unable to account for as the Cambrian Explosion, biological complexity and the origin of genetic information.
Quammen, who thus appears to be more of a Darwinist than Darwin himself, emerged as the defender not of a theory that can account for difficulties, but of a “dogma” that needs to be shielded from criticism.
In this article, Quammen’s so-called evidence is analysed and the Darwinist propaganda embarked on by NG magazine refuted.
An Example of NG Turkey’s Dogmatic Stance
The English language edition of the NG article “Was Darwin Wrong?” also devoted space to Harun Yahya’s works about the theory of evolution. In the section describing worldwide reactions against evolution the following words appeared in reference to Harun Yahya:
Their discomfort is paralleled by Islamic creationists such as Harun Yahya, author of a recent volume titled The Evolution Deceit, who points to the six-day creation story in the Koran as literal truth and calls the theory of evolution “nothing but a deception imposed on us by the dominators of the world system. ”
Interestingly though, Harun Yahya did not appear in NG’s Turkish version, and this section was altered, assuming the following form: “This unease displays a parallelism among those who support the Islamic idea of creation. ”
As someone who states his primary aim as being that of describing the philosophy and scientific invalidity of Darwinism, Harun Yahya has closely monitored Darwinist propaganda in recent years and has responded, in the light of scientific findings, to the pro-evolutionist writings and broadcasts of media organisations, of which NG is one. (see www. darwinism-watch. com)
If Darwinism really were supported by a mass of evidence, as claimed in this NG article, then why is NG Turkey trying to prevent Harun Yahya’s scientific criticisms from being heard? Could it be that NG Turkey was concerned that Darwinism will be unable to withstand such scientific criticism? In fact, this attitude by NG’s Turkey desk not only shows that the magazine is unwilling to inform its readers of the source of effective criticism of evolution, but also confirms the criticism that it is seeking to keep Darwinism on its feet as an ideology.
NG Is Unwilling to Face the Modern Scientific Facts
There can be no doubt that in order to provide a realistic response to the question “Was Darwin Wrong?” one needs to look at what Darwin actually said and to compare this to modern scientific facts. In his book The Origin of Species, in which he unveiled his theory of evolution, Darwin provided a very important criterion by which to test his theory. So concrete is that criterion that in Darwin’s own words it could “absolutely break down” the theory. Darwin wrote:
“If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed, which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down. ” 2
Darwin maintained that organs evolved during a gradual process. Thinking of this imaginary process in reverse, it appears that Darwin assumed that these organs possessed reducibility. However, advances made in the field of biochemistry, especially over the last 40 years, have revealed that the cell possesses a superior complexity, the details of which were unknown in Darwin’s time, for which reason it was equated to a “black box,” and that certain structures within the cell actually possess the feature of “irreducible complexity. ”
“Irreducible complexity” is a phenomenon based on empirical evidence and literally constitutes the antithesis of Darwin’s theory. The most important figure to bring this concept onto the agenda of the scientific world is the biochemist Michael J. Behe from Lehigh University in the USA. In his 1996 book Darwin’s Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution Behe examines the irreducibly complex natures of the cell and certain other biological structures, and reveals that these cannot possibly be accounted for in terms of evolution. Behe sets out the effect that irreducible complexity has on the claims of Darwinism thus:
“To Darwin, the cell was a ‘black box’ — its inner workings were utterly mysterious to him. Now, the black box has been opened up and we know how it works. Applying Darwin’s test to the ultra-complex world of molecular machinery and cellular systems that have been discovered over the past 40 years, we can say that Darwin’s theory has ‘absolutely broken down’. ” 3
Irreducible complexity has demolished Darwinism, and proved that life is the product of intelligent design, in other words that God has created all living things. The way that NG seeks to keep this from its readers constitutes a flight from reality.
NG’s biogeographical tales
In his article in NG, Quammen begins his account of the so-called evidence for Darwinism with biogeography, and it may be of use to provide a description of this concept at this point. Biogeography is a branch of science that investigates the geographical distribution of species and seeks an answer to the question of how they came by these habitat regions by drawing up maps of their locations on the Earth.
Most books in the field of biogeography are full of facts that say nothing, neither in favour nor against, the theory of evolution: such as maps of living species’ habitat areas, the features of those areas, questions regarding the spread of organisms, and the grouping together of species on the basis of geographical area . . . 4
When their distribution on the Earth is examined it can be seen that species do not generally exhibit a global distribution. Species have rather spread in large groups in areas possessing specific climatic and environmental conditions. Ever since Darwin, evolutionists have sought to portray this spread as evidence for evolution, though with regard to the “fundamental” living categories of geographical distribution their efforts have failed to come up with a consistent evolutionary scenario.
In their book Systematics and Biogeography, G. Nelson and N. Platnick of the New York American Museum of Natural History analysed the studies performed in this field and set out their conclusion:
We conclude, therefore, that biogeography (or geographical distribution of organisms) has not been shown to be evidence for or against evolution in any sense. 5
If evolutionists really wish to offer evidence for their theory then what they need to do is to abandon their fairy tales about “if this living thing is found here then it must have evolved here, and if that living thing is found there then it must have evolved there,” and instead scientifically document their own responses to the question of how living things came into being in the first place. (It is an indisputable fact that the mechanisms of random mutation and natural selection cannot account for the origin of species. )
The fact that evolutionist claims based on biogeography are myths devoid of any scientific evidence clearly emerge on inspection of NG’s claims about palaeontology. The fossil record clearly reveals that the idea that living things spread by evolving is a myth.
NG’s palaeontology deception
NG makes a generalisation about the fossil strata, telling its readers that so-called closely related species are generally found side by side in consecutive strata, and that a life form going back millions of years in one stratum is followed by a similar, though not identical, one in the subsequent stratum. As an example of this generalisation it cites the equine sequence that even evolutionists abandoned years ago; it maintains that the modern-day horse emerged at the end of the sequence Hyracotherium, Orohippus, Epihippus and Mohippus, fossils of which are found in consecutive strata.
What NG is doing here consists of a blatant deception. The equine sequence is an unfounded one, the invalidity of which has now been demonstrated. That being the case, putting it forward as a generalisation regarding the fossil record cannot be described as anything else than an attempt to verify that generalisation with a deceptive example.
Life forms emerged with no evolutionary progenitors, but in a single moment, and with flawless bodily structures
Darwin, who maintained that living things emerged through graduated evolution and who hoped that the fossil record to confirm that claim would be obtained in future excavations, was mistaken. The fossils obtained in endless excavations carried out by palaeontologists all over the world have produced findings that openly refute the idea of gradual change in consecutive strata. These facts concern the phenomena of sudden appearance and stasis.
Species emerge suddenly, with no evolutionary progenitors but with flawless bodily structures. In his 1999 book Fossils and Evolution, Tom Kemp, Curator of the Zoological Collections in Oxford University Museum of Natural History, admits this:
In virtually all cases a new taxon appears for the first time in the fossil record with most definitive features already present, and practically no known stem-group forms. 6
Fossils hundreds of millions of years old that bear no
trace of evolution invalidate neo-Darwinism
Furthermore, species exhibit no gradual change as suggested in the NG generalisation. Species with natural histories of hundreds of millions of years exhibit a “stability” demonstrating a permanency throughout geological strata. The shark, coelacanth, ant, salamander and many other species, fossils of which have been found and which have remained unchanged for hundreds of millions of years, have led to palaeontologists accepting stasis as one of the most striking aspects of the fossil record. This phenomenon refutes Darwinism’s prediction of gradual change and invalidates the theory. Professor of Geology Peter J. Williamson describes this in Nature magazine:
The principal problem is morphological stasis. A theory is only as good as its predictions, and conventional neo-Darwinism, which claims to be a comprehensive explanation of evolutionary process, has failed to predict the widespread long-term morphological stasis now recognized as one of the most striking aspects of the fossil record. 7
In short, NG’s claim of graduated change throughout geological strata is a myth supported in the face of the science of palaeontology. The way that NG seeks to support that myth with the equine sequence only makes matters worse.
The truth in the equine sequence that NG seeks to conceal from its readers
The equine sequence is based on various hoofed fossils unearthed in North America. Darwinists set these out in such a way as to establish a sequence, according to the fossils’ dental characteristics and numbers of toes, and for years put this forward as evidence for Darwinism. Continuing palaeontological excavations, however, definitively revealed the inconsistencies within that series. NG, known for its blind devotion to Darwinism, has no qualms about concealing this development from its readers and writing that the alleged evolutionary ancestors of the horse follow one another in consecutive geological strata.
Former BBC science editor Gordon Rattray Taylor describes how the equine sequence constitutes no evidence for Darwinism:
But perhaps the most serious weakness of Darwinism is the failure of paleontologists to find convincing phylogenies or sequences of organisms demonstrating major evolutionary change. . . The horse is often cited as the only fully worked-out example. But the fact is that the line from Eohippus to Equus is very erratic. It is alleged to show a continual increase in size, but the truth is that some variants were smaller than Eohippus, not larger. Specimens from different sources can be brought together in a convincing-looking sequence, but there is no evidence that they were actually ranged in this order in time. 8
At a meeting in November 1980 at the Chicago Museum of Natural History, attended by 150 evolutionists, one speaker, Boyce Rensberger, stated that there was no basis in the fossil record for the scenario of equine evolution, and that no gradual equine evolution ever took place:
The popularly told example of horse evolution, suggesting a gradual sequence of changes from four-toed fox-sized creatures living nearly 50 million years ago to today’s much larger one-toed horse, has long been known to be wrong. Instead of gradual change, fossils of each intermediate species appear fully distinct, persist unchanged, and then become extinct. Transitional forms are unknown. 9
Discoveries that living things included in the imaginary sequence of equine evolution actually lived at the same time, and even together, totally refute Quammen. One of the most striking examples of this came to light in 1981. Fossils of thousands of living things, 10 million years old, that had been buried under lava as the result of a volcanic eruption and whose skeletons had been preserved down to the present day, were dug up in the US state of Nebraska. With that discovery it emerged that three- and single-toed equines assumed to have lived at different periods and to have ancestral relationships with one another in the framework of evolutionists’ imaginary equine sequence, actually lived side by side. Interestingly the source of this information is NG magazine. 10
The myth of whale evolution
I can see no difficulty in a race of bears being rendered, by natural selection, more and more aquatic in their structure and habits, with larger and larger mouths, till a creature was produced as monstrous as a whale. 11
From watching bears fishing along a river bank, Darwin set out his ideas on the origin of whales in these words in his book The Origin of Species, though he elected to remove that section from subsequent editions of the book. Yet evolutionists who came after Darwin had no hesitation over adopting this myth, with various minor amendments, that came down as a monument to the unrestricted nature of his imagination. They continued to propagate the myth that the whale evolved not from the bear but from other land mammals, as if this were a scientific fact.
It can now be seen that NG, one of the main representatives of Darwinian mythology, is behaving no differently, and is seeking to portray this great myth, supported for the sake of the dogma of evolution, as representing evidence for evolution.
There are enormous differences, in terms of such basic physiological characteristics as water conservation, sight and communication, between whales and the land mammals alleged to have been their progenitors. Let us now consider the scientific dilemma facing the myth of evolution by examining the design in whales:
The special water conservation design in whales’ bodies
Although they live in water, whales are unable to meet their water requirements from salty sea water. They need fresh water to live. Although it is not known exactly how they meet their water needs, it is thought that a large part of it is obtained by eating sea creatures that contain levels of salt that are 30% lower than those of the ocean water. In such an environment, where fresh water is exceedingly scarce, the maximum conservation of water in living things’ bodies and minimum consumption thereof are critical. Water levels are of great importance to whales, for which reason, just like camels, whales do not perspire. Their kidneys regulate urine concentration in such a way as to supply water.
Why is whale milk fatty?
Another delicate balance with regard to water needs appears in the fat level in the female whale’s milk. The mother whale feeds her young with a very thick milk, of the consistency of cheese. This milk is ten times fattier than human milk. There is a chemical reason why this milk contains such a high level of fat. Water is produced as a side product as fat is processed after being consumed by the baby. In this way the mother meets her offspring’s need for water with minimal water loss.
The design in whales’ eyes
There are complex arrangements in the design of the whale eye and its communication systems, no examples of which are to be found in terrestrial mammals. Land mammals have eyelids to protect against dust and impact. Whales, on the other hand, have a hard layer to protect against a different danger, the pressure under the sea. Moreover, the refractive index in the design of the whale eye makes it possible for a killer whale to leap up and catch a fish six metres above the water level in an amusement park with considerable accuracy. In addition, whales’ eyes are on either side of the head, unlike terrestrial mammals, thus protecting them from the current. Thanks to the levels of rod and cone cells in the eye, their sensitivity levels to light, colour and other details are very high. In addition to that ratio, the presence of phosphorus in the eyes is a design that facilitates their ability to see in the dark depths of the oceans.
The mathematical calculation employed by whales
The sense used by whales in the location of sources of food and of one another is not actually sight, but rather hearing. Many whales hunt at the dark regions at the bottom of the sea thanks to a form of natural “sonar. ” The whale’s brain emits clicking sounds, in a way not yet fully understood by scientists. The distance of an object is determined by means of a mathematical calculation. The whale brain multiplies the speed at which the sounds it emits strike an object and bounce back by the time necessary for this, and divides the result by two. The result is the distance of the object from itself. Furthermore, the whale also possesses the ability to focus the sound waves with its brain on a specific point and to emit these like a light impulse. The returning waves are analysed and interpreted in the animal’s brain. This interpretation determines the shape of the body in front of it, its size, speed and position. The animal’s skull is sound-proofed to protect it from the bombardment of powerful sound waves it constantly emits and which could even seriously damage the brain itself. The sonic system in the animal is unbelievably sensitive, so much so that the US Navy imitates the sonar design in sea mammals in developing its own technology. 12
Special designs for whale calves
The perfect designs in whales are by no means limited to these. The shape of a whale calf’s mouth has been designed in such a way as to be ideally suited to fit its mother’s teats, so that the calf is able to suckle without losing a drop of milk and without taking in a drop of sea water. Moreover, they possess lungs capable of storing high levels of oxygen for protracted dives and an ear membrane designed to protect them from high pressure.
These arrangements, every one of which indicates an evident design, are particular to whales and are not to be found in any terrestrial mammal. NG, however, expects it readers to set reason aside and believe that these all came about by chance. NG denies that whales were intelligently designed, maintaining instead that one fine day a land mammal decided to live in the sea, and that the whale evolved as the result of unconscious mechanisms such as random mutations and natural selection.
Yet what mutation could possibly produce sonar in a mammal that was allegedly the progenitor of the whale? Bearing in mind the effect of mutations and the importance of the brain to the whale’s survival, it is clear that mutations would damage the brain, crippling or killing the whale. Could the brain, that produces sound waves, be able to focus these on a particular point and determine the location of objects using a mathematical calculation, acquire a perfect sonar in an area that would be damaged during this random process? By what coincidence could it produce sonar of such a high quality that even the US Navy’s technology development units have been unable to match it? What mutations could turn a land mammal’s feet into fins and a tail capable of propelling several tons of weight?
There is no doubt that these questions may also be asked with regard to the systems that make it possible to use water so productively, the suckling system and the protective systems in the eye and ear. However, NG has no reasonable response to give to these questions. There is but one answer. Whales were created fully formed in a single moment. God created whales to be flawless, endowed with all the systems for their needs, just as He did all other living things. In one verse of the Qur’an it is revealed that:
Mankind! remember God’s blessing to you. Is there any creator other than God providing for you from heaven and earth? There is no god but Him. So how have you been perverted? (Qur’an, 35: 3)
(For a more detailed reply to NG’s fantastical whale story see http://www. harunyahya. com/70national_geographic_sci29. php)
NG’s error regarding embryology
Another error in Quammen’s article in NG is the repetition of a myth once known as the “law of recapitulation. ” This belonged to the German biologist Ernst Haeckel and in his claim regarding embryology Darwin was to a large extent “inspired” by Haeckel. The law of recapitulation maintains that the embryological development of living things repeats the imaginary stages undergone during the descent of the alleged evolutionary ancestors.
The fact that Quammen devotes space to this in his article reveals a wide gap of knowledge on his part. Objections along the lines that Haeckel’s claims were devoid of any scientific justification and that the evidence he offered was forged began 136 years ago13, and the end of the law of recapitulation as the subject of scientific debate came as far back as 80 years ago 14. Even George Gaylord Simpson, one of the founders of neo-Darwinism, admitted this fact 42 years ago in the words:
Haeckel misstated the evolutionary principle involved. It is now firmly established that ontogeny does not repeat phylogeny. 15
Moreover, the myth of recapitulation, which NG has no qualms over recapitulating itself, involves what one British embryologist referred to in 1997 as “the best known fraud in the history of biology. ” In his book Natürliche Schöpfungsgeschichte (The History of Natural Creation), written in 1868, Haeckel deliberately distorted the pictures of human, monkey and dog embryos in such a way as to support his claim.
One striking aspect of this fraud is that it also constitutes a “centennial monument” to Darwinist dogmatism. Until recently, a number of Darwinist sources, including text books, continued either to use the counterfeit drawings as they were, or else to repeat the myth of recapitulation. The Harvard University professor and evolutionist Stephen Jay Gould displayed great common sense and offered the following criticism:
… [W]e do, I think, have the right to be both astonished and ashamed by the century of mindless recycling that has led to the persistence of these drawings in a large number, if not a majority, of modern textbooks! 16
NG has not used counterfeit drawings. Yet it has no hesitations over using recapitulation, the invalidity of which emerged at least 80 years ago, as support for Darwinism.
We urge NG to consider Stephen Jay Gould’s words.
NG’s errors with regard to morphology
Quammen exhibits a most thought-provoking attitude in that section in which he deals with Darwin’s claims on the subject of morphology. The way that a zoo is organised into birds, monkeys, big cats, crocodiles or fish in the aquarium is interpreted as evidence for evolution. According to Quammen, the fact that living things can be classified under a hierarchical system in families, orders and kingdoms must be the product of an evolutionary process.
However, Quammen’s portrayal of hierarchical classification as evidence for evolution is nonsensical. That is because the fact that forms of life can be classified hierarchically is not a prediction first put forward by evolutionists and then subsequently confirmed. The Swedish scientist Carl Linnaeus, the father of the modern system of classification, was a scientist who believed in creation from nothing and regarded that classification as the product of intelligent design. That is compatible with what we see with our own eyes and is grounded in common sense. The ability to be hierarchically classified is a well known hallmark of intelligent design. Means of transport, for example, can be classified as land, air and sea vehicles, and may be broken down into subcategories and even smaller subgroups. Yet this classification does not show that the modes of transport in question came into being through evolution.
Indeed, in an article published in the magazine New Scientist, the prominent evolutionist Mark Ridley makes the following statement:
The simple fact that species can be classified hierarchically into genera, families, and so on, is not an argument for evolution. It is possible to classify any set of objects into a hierarchy whether their variation is evolutionary or not. 17
Quammen’s preconception
In the same way that what Quammen writes on this subject are far from supporting his claim, it also reveals how he relies on preconceptions rather than scientific evidence:
Such a pattern of tiered resemblances?groups of similar species nested within broader groupings, and all descending from a single source?isn’t naturally present among other collections of items. You won’t find anything equivalent if you try to categorize rocks, or musical instruments, or jewelry. Why not? Because rock types and styles of jewelry don’t reflect unbroken descent from common ancestors. Biological diversity does. The number of shared characteristics between any one species and another indicates how recently those two species have diverged from a shared lineage. (p. 13)
Quammen placed the hierarchical categorisation in living things in a separate place, on the grounds that it reflects a continual chain of descent from a common ancestor. That term, however, is helpless labelling in Quammen’s desperate attempts to prove Darwin right.
As is made clear above, there is no fossil record capable of being proposed as evidence of any evolutionary link between living categories. The words of the prominent evolutionary palaeontologist Stephen Jay Gould that “The evolutionary trees that adorn our textbooks have data only at the tips and nodes of their branches” are an admission of the fact that there is actually no evidence for the evolutionary links assumed to exist among living things. 18
In short, the origin of the evolutionary chain of descent that Quammen claims exists among living categories is not scientific fact such as the fossil record, but rather his own dogmatic mentality.
The five-digit skeletal structure error
Quammen maintains that the way that various vertebrates such as the bat, the dolphin and human beings all share the feature of having five digits stems from descent from a common ancestor. This claim rests on the fact that although there is the same basic plan in the front and rear legs of the living things in question, these can still be easily differentiated (the homological claim). This claim of Quammen’s can of course only deceive those readers who are unaware of the facts of modern science. Advances in the field of molecular biology definitively invalidate this morphology-based claim. One striking discovery that led to this is that the production of these organs, assumed to be a legacy from a common ancestor, is in fact controlled by different genes in different creatures.
The evolutionary biologist William Fix describes the collapse of the evolutionary thesis concerning pentadactylism (having five digits) in this area in the face of this discovery:
The older textbooks on evolution make much of the idea of homology, pointing out the obvious resemblances between the skeletons of the limbs of different animals. Thus the `pentadactyl’ limb pattern is found in the arm of a man, the wing of a bird, and flipper of a whale, and this is held to indicate their common origin. Now if these various structures were transmitted by the same gene couples, varied from time to time by mutations and acted upon by environmental selection, the theory would make good sense. Unfortunately this is not the case. Homologous organs are now known to be produced by totally different gene complexes in the different species. The concept of homology in terms of similar genes handed on from a common ancestor has broken down. 19
NG’s vestigial Darwinism
Quammen displays a striking determination not to grasp the fact that Darwin’s claims have been demolished by modern science. One of the indications of this is his repetition of the claim regarding vestigial organs, a claim which is utterly illusory. It is maintained in the article that organs such as the male nipple, structures claimed to be the vestiges of rear legs in certain snakes, or the covered wings in coleoptera that are not actually used, are redundant, functionless organs left over from the evolutionary process. Quammen is clearly ignoring the definitive results from scientific developments:
The list of up to 180 supposed vestigial organs at the beginning of the 20th century eventually shrank to almost none in the face of discoveries from scientific research. One by one it emerged that a great many organs, such as the appendix and the plica semilunaris, once supposed to be vestigial organs, do actually have functions. 20 “Science” is in any case the process by which human beings come to know what was previously unknown. The gradual emergence of the functions of organs that were once regarded as vestigial shows that, logically, the functions of the last few remaining organs whose functions are still unknown will soon be revealed.
Indeed, a great many present-day evolutionists have admitted that the myth of “vestigial organs” is an argument rooted in ignorance. In an article headed “Do Vestigial Organs Represent Evidence for Evolution?” published in the journal Evolutionary Theory, the evolutionary biologist S. R. Scadding admits this fact:
Since it is not possible to unambiguously identify useless structures, and since the structure of the argument used is not scientifically valid, I conclude that ‘vestigial organs’ provide no special evidence for the theory of evolution. 21
Evolutionists’ claim on the subject of vestigial organs stem not from any vestigialism in these organs, but from the vestigial nature of their own perspectives. The existence of any living thing proves only the existence of God, its creator. The way that inanimate and unconscious atoms combine to produce a hearing, smelling, touching and seeing human being is proof of God’s flawless creation. That it is because it is impossible for atoms, which cannot smell, hear or see, to wish to have perception and to combine together for that purpose. For a collection of matter to stand and look at itself in front of a mirror, or for matter to taste and touch itself, has no place in evolutionary logic. These feelings can only be explained in terms of a superior creation, in other words the existence of God and His flawless creation. Despite this self-evident truth, evolutionists hold to the irrational and blind belief that they themselves are the product of matter and blind chance, which shows that their claim regarding vestigial organs is one based on this prejudiced and dogmatic perspective.
The realisation that the organs regarded by evolutionists as vestigial do actually have functions is a proof of this. For example, the structures portrayed as the vestiges of rear legs in certain species of snake are now known to help them to grip one another during mating. To regard the male nipple as the product of an evolutionary process also rests on a distorted logic. If the male nipple were a leftover from an evolutionary process then males must have evolved from a population consisting solely of females, which is a scenario so unimaginable that no evolutionist has felt able to accept it. Coleoptera, another example cited by Quammen, also constitute no evidence for evolution. Insect species which do not develop a functional wing are generally seen in open habitats with strong winds, such as ocean islands. In an environment where strong winds blow and surrounded by large masses of water, insects’ being able to fly is by no means an advantage, and may even represent a danger. That is because insects flying in the air are exposed to the effects of the wind and can be hurled into trees or rocks, ending up crippled or dead. There may, therefore, have been a tendency for them to move towards a ground-based lifestyle. Over time, the insect population that lives near the ground comes to consist of individuals that do not develop fully fledged wings. That is because, unlike flying insects, mutations that prevent insects that live near to ground level developing wings may not be damaging to the insect (on the provision that they do not cause a total interruption in its physiology).
A mutation that prevented wing development in a flying insect living in a habitat uninfluenced by winds would be harmful and maybe even lethal. That is because normally an insect that uses its wings to feed and to avoid predators would possess functionless wings because of that mutation and would be unable to survive and thus eliminated from the population.
On the other hand, in insects living in a habitat affected by winds and that used their feet to move about in the same way as non-flying insects, a mutation in the wings might not have lethal consequences. That is because the insect will already have grown accustomed to a life style in which it does not use wings, and it will make no difference whether its wings are healthy or else lose their function due to mutation (as long as the mutation in question is not one that affects the insect’s general physiology). In short, a destructive mutation leading to the loss of an insect’s wings may not be lethal in an environment where wings are in any case of no consequence.
However, it cannot be said that the coleoptera that are assumed to have undergone such a process represent evidence of evolution. The theory of evolution proposes that organs gradually assume a more complex form. The genetic change proposed in support of this claim must be of such a kind as to add new genetic information to creatures’ DNA. It is evident, however, that coleoptera do not gain any new genetic information during this process and that, on the contrary, they suffer a loss of information in the genes that control wing development.
Can this acquisition of genetic information, which is not seen in coleoptera, be observed in any other living thing? Definitely not. Evolutionists have been unable to show the emergence of a new organ, or even a new protein, by means of random mutations.
In short, the theory of evolution maintains that living things acquire new organs with the addition of new genetic information to their DNA, but the vestigial organ argument is one that concerns a loss of function, in other words a loss of genetic data. Therefore, vestigial organs provide no scientific support for the theory of evolution. The reason for evolutionists’ determination to place this claim on the scientific agenda is psychological rather than scientific. Their display of blind devotion to materialism leads them to adopt a vestigial perspective towards the evident truth of creation. (You can read Harun Yahya’s article that demolishes evolutionists’ vestigial viewpoint here. http://www. darwinism-watch. com/hurriyet_science0407. php)
James P. Gills, M. D. , founder of St. Luke’s Cataract and Laser Institute in Tarpon Springs, Florida, is a creationist scientist. He is also a world-renowned ophthalmologist. In his book Darwinism Under the Microscope, Gills cites a great many proofs of creation that totally undermine evolution, and writes that the only reason why scientists still insist on evolution is the spiritual cataract of thinking of themselves as the product of blind chance. 22
The error of thinking that resistance to antibiotics and DDT is evidence of evolution
The NG article seeks to show that bacterial immunity to antibiotics and insects’ resistance to such pesticides as DDT constitutes evidence for evolution. On the subject of the resistance that microbes appear to develop to drugs Quammen confidently states:
There’s no better or more immediate evidence supporting the Darwinian theory than this process of forced transformation among our inimical germs. (p. 21)
However, Quammen’s excitement in portraying bacterial immunity as evidence for evolution is totally misplaced. It is explained below why these two phenomena do not represent evidence for Darwinism.
The first of the “deadly molecules” employed against micro-organisms was penicillin, discovered by Alexander Fleming in 1928. Fleming discovered a molecule that killed the Staphylococcus mould bacterium, after which antibiotics taken from micro-organisms were used against various bacteria. Although it appeared at first that definitive results had been obtained, the truth later emerged: bacteria gradually acquire resistance to antibiotics. The great majority of bacteria exposed to antibiotics die, but since a small minority remain unaffected this rapidly multiply and eventually come to constitute the entire population. Thus the entire population becomes resistant to the antibiotic.
However, there is no question of bacteria developing through mutation here, because the bacteria already possess the characteristics in question before being exposed to antibiotics. Despite being an evolutionist publication, Scientific American magazine admitted these facts in its March 1998 edition:
Many bacteria possessed resistance genes even before commercial antibiotics came into use. Scientists do not know exactly why these genes evolved and were maintained. 23
Insects acquire resistance to pesticides such as DDT in the same way, and, again in the same way, this represents no evidence for evolution.
The prominent evolutionary biologist Francisco Ayala accepts the truth of this in the words:
The genetic variants required for resistance to the most diverse kinds of pesticides were apparently present in every one of the populations exposed to these man-made compounds. 24
One of those to carry out the most detailed research on this subject is the Israeli biophysicist Dr. Lee Spetner. In his book Not by Chance, published in 1997, Spetner showed that bacterial immunity is brought about by two different mechanisms, but that these offer no support for the theory of evolution. For more detail on this subject see http://www. harunyahya. com/20questions05. php#q19 and http://www. darwinismrefuted. com/embryology_01. html)
Another so-called piece of evidence in the NG article, in addition to the resistance in bacteria and insects, concerns genetic similarities.
The deception that evolution can be observed
NG claims that evolution can actually be witnessed in nature and in the laboratory. This, however, is a fantastical and groundless claim. In an article titled “How Are New Species Formed?” published in the 14 June, 2003, edition of New Scientist, George Turner made the following significant “admission”:
Not long ago, we thought we knew how species formed. We believed that the process almost always started with complete isolation of populations. It often occurred after a population had gone through a severe “genetic bottleneck,” as might happen after a pregnant female was swept off to a remote island and her offspring mated with each other. The beauty of this so-called “founder effect” model was that it could be tested in the lab. In reality, it just didn’t hold up. Despite evolutionary biologists’ best efforts, nobody has even got close to creating a new species from a founder population. What’s more, as far as we know, no new species has formed as a result of humans releasing small numbers of organisms into alien environments. 25
As we have seen, evolutionists do not actually know how new species are formed. In other words, Quammen’s claim about being able to witness evolution in action is totally unfounded. The fact that the long years of study carried out by the Grants into chaffinch beak lengths on the Galapagos islands is cited in support is the result of Darwinism misrepresenting variations to represent evidence for itself. (For further information, see http://www. harunyahya. com/nas04. php)
Conclusion
As we have seen, Darwin was wrong. National Geographic’s posing the question whether he was wrong is as ridiculous as asking “Was Freud wrong?” or “Was Marx wrong?” That is because, like Freudianism and Marxism, Darwinism is a theory that has come to the end of its life. We call upon NG magazine to abandon its support for this outdated myth and to accept that creation is the true origin of life.
What NG needs to do is to set its preconceptions to one side and cease supporting Darwinism as a dogma, and to face up to the scientific evidence that undermines this theory. Discoveries in the last 40 years in particular have definitively revealed the invalidity of the naturalist philosophy at the heart of Darwinism. If NG does face up to that fact it will see that the organised complexity of life and the genetic information on which it depends point to intelligent design, in other words that life did not evolve on its own through chance and natural events, but was “created. ”
NG – and all other Darwinists – have so far avoided facing up to this, and may therefore have resorted to covering up the difficulties facing their theory. Yet they must be aware that this avoidance will be of no use in keeping their theory alive. That is because a major development in the world of science is serving notice that the age of sweeping matters under the carpet has come to an end.
The way that the intelligent design movement, that has been sweeping through the USA over the last 10 years, has one by one unmasked the dogmas of Darwinism, has made it the focus of wide interest. The intellectual basis of this movement is the “Theory of Intelligent Design. ” The theory in question maintains that complex biological structures containing large amounts of information can only be explained in terms of intelligence-based causes, and that these causes can be empirically studied in the field of biology. 26
One indication that the intelligent design movement may represent the dynamic for major cultural changes is the way it is effectively and in a widespread manner revealing that the evidence for so long taught as evidence for Darwinism in schools actually consists of mythology, deception, misrepresentation and even fraud. California Berkeley University’s Professor Phillip E. Johnson, the leader of the movement, stresses that Darwinism will pass into the dustbin of history sometime in this century. 27
It will be of use here to remind NG of the damage from a determined persistence in its policy of uncritical defence of Darwinism. It will be remembered that NG announced the discovery of the Archaeoraptor fossil discovered in China as definitive proof that birds evolved from dinosaurs, without waiting for it to be described in referred scientific journals. Later, however, it was realised that the fossil did not represent a missing link at all, but was a counterfeit “produced” by a Chinese peasant. 26 Because of its blind devotion to Darwinism NG had no hesitation in embracing this fossil as “proof” by unscientific methods, and later found itself in “modern paleontology’s greatest embarrassment. ” 29
According to the ornithologist Dr. Storrs Olson, “National Geographic has reached an all-time low for engaging in sensationalistic, unsubstantiated, tabloid journalism. ” 30
The portrayal of the claim of recapitulation, which died at least 80 years ago, as evidence for evolution in NG’s article “Was Darwin Wrong” shows that it is devoid of the seriousness required by science and is continuing with its “unsubstantiated, tabloid journalism. ” NG is not behaving intelligently. Maintaining this approach does not provide any support for Darwinism. On the contrary, NG is documenting its own dogmatism in an ever more obvious way.
We invite NG to consider these points and to accept that creation is the true origin of life.
There is no doubt that the Lord of all living things, on Earth, in the Sky, and between, is God. In one verse of the Qur’an God reveals that:
Your God is One God. There is no god but Him, the All-Merciful, the Most Merciful. (Qur’an, 2: 163)
Under the pen name of Harun Yahya, Adnan Oktar has written some 250 works. His books contain a total of 46,000 pages and 31,500 illustrations. Of these books, 7,000 pages and 6,000 illustrations deal with the collapse of the Theory of Evolution. You can read, free of charge, all the books Adnan Oktar has written under the pen name Harun Yahya on these websites www. harunyahya. com
1. Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library.
2. Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species: A Facsimile of the First Edition, Harvard University Press, 1964, p. 189.
3. Michael Behe, Darwin’s Black Box, 1996
4. For more information about the evolutionist theses on biogeography, please see Walter J. Remine, “The Biotic Message: Evolution Versus Message Theory”, Saint Paul Science; 1st ed edition, 1993. page 538.
5. G. Nelson & N. Platnick, Systematics and Biogeography: Cladistics and Vicariance, Columbia University Press, 1981, p. 223.
6. Fossils and Evolution, Dr TS Kemp – Curator of Zoological Collections, Oxford University, Oxford University Press, 1999, p. 246.
7. Peter G. Williamson, “Morphological stasis and developmental constraint: real problems for neo-Darwinism,” Nature, vol. 294, 19 November 1981, p. 214; Stephen E. Jones, http://members. iinet. net. au/~sejones/
8. Gordon Rattray Taylor, The Great Evolution Mystery, Abacus, Sphere Books, London, 1984, p. 230.
9. Boyce Rensberger, Houston Chronicle, November 5, 1980, p. 15.
10. Voorhies M. R. , “Ancient Ashfall Creates a Pompei of Prehistoric Animals,” National Geographic, Vol. 159, No. 1, January 1981, pp. 67-68,74 ; “Horse Find Defies Evolution” Creation Ex Nihilo 5(3):15, January 1983, http://www. answersingenesis. org/docs/3723. asp
11. Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species: A Facsimile of the First Edition, Harvard University Press, 1964, p. 184.
12. Spotting Mines With Dolphin Sonar , ScienceNOW 1998: 2
13 L. Rutimeyer, “Referate,” Archiv fur Anthropologie, 1868
14 Keith S. Thompson, “Ontogeny and Phylogeny Recapitulated”, American Scientist, vol. 76, May / June 1988, p. 273
15 G. G. Simpson, W. Beck, An Introduction to Biology, Harcourt Brace and World, New York, 1965, p. 241.
16 Stephen Jay Gould, “Abscheulich! – Atrocious! – the precursor to the theory of natural selection,” Natural History, March 2000, p. 45.
17 Mark Ridley, “Who Doubts Evolution?” New Scientist, vol. 90 (25 June 1981), p. 832.
18 Gould S. J, “Evolution’s Erratic Pace,” Natural History, May 1977, p. 13-14.
19 William Fix, The Bone Peddlers: Selling Evolution, Macmillan Publishing Co. , New York, 1984, p. 189.
20 J. Bergman & G. Howe, Vestigial Organs are Fully Functional, CRS Books, Terre Haute, IN, 1990.
21 S. R. Scadding, “Do ‘Vestigial Organs’ Provide Evidence for Evolution?,” Evolutionary Theory, vol. 5, May 1981, p. 173.
22 James P. Gills, M. D. & Thomas Woodward, Ph. D. , Darwinism under the Microscope, Charisma House, 2002, p. 39.
23 Stuart B. Levy, “The Challenge of Antibiotic Resistance,” Scientific American, March 1998, p. 35
24 Francisco J. Ayala, “The Mechanisms of Evolution,” Scientific American, vol. 239, September 1978, p. 64
25 George Turner, “How Are New Species Formed?,” New Scientist, vol. 178, issue 2399, 14 June 2003, p. 36
26 http://www. arn. org , http://www. discovery. org/csc/
27 Phillip E. Johnson, “Mothballed Science,” Touchstone Magazine, December 2003
28 For more information about Archaeoraptor forgery, please see http://www. harunyahya. com/20questions03. php#q7
29 Tim Friend, “The ‘missing link’ fossil that wasn’t”, USA Today, 02/01/2000
30 Open Letter to National Geographic Society by Storrs L. Olson, Curator of Birds, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution
ABOUT THE AUTHOR, HARUN YAHYA
Born in Ankara in 1956, Adnan Oktar writes his books under the pen name of Harun Yahya. Ever since his university years, he has dedicated his life to telling of the existence and oneness of Almighty Allah, and to disseminating the moral values of the Qur’an. He has never wavered in the face of difficulties and despite oppression, still continues this intellectual struggle today exhibiting great patience and determination. For mor information pls visit: http://www. harunyahya. com/theauthor. php
Written by on December 27th, 2009 with no comments.
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Michael Webster: Investigative Reporter May 1, 2008 8:00 PM PDT
The overwhelming influence and power of the Mexican Drug Cartels who are the
Mexican drug trafficking organizations and criminal gangs operating in Mexico and the United States.
They have emerged in recent years as the most dangerous and politically influential drug traffickers in the western hemisphere if not the world. The Mexican cartels have existed for some time, they have become increasingly powerful with the demise of the Medellin and Cali cartels in Colombia and have now come to dominate the U. S. illicit
drug market and other criminal enterprises.
According to the National Drug Intelligence Center, Mexican cartels are “the
predominant smugglers, transporters, and wholesale distributors of cocaine, marijuana,
methamphetamine, and Mexico-produced heroin in the United States” and “are
expanding their control over the distribution of these drugs in areas controlled by
Colombian and Dominican criminal groups, and now believed to include all of the U. S. A. .
In addition to drug trafficking, cartels have been tied to illegal alien, terrorist, arms smuggling and
those proceeds are subsequently laundered through seemingly legitimate local
businesses.
.
The cartels through the criminal gangs who work for them have been involved in kidnappings and
military style training camps, some reported to be along the border with the U. S.
FBI Director Robert Mueller described U. S. based-gangs as “more
organized, more violent, and more widespread than ever. ” The Department of Justice
estimates there are approximately 30,000 gangs with more than 800,000 members in the
U. S. Mueller believes these violent gangs pose a growing threat to the safety and
security of Americans.
As this reporter has documented Mexican Drug cartels are ordering decapitations of cartel enemies, including federal, state and city police officers. Many of these victims were blind folded and hooded before they shoot them.
Other types of violence to murder victims were: Physical beating, torture, or body dumped on
street or lot torture involving beating, tooth removal, appendage removal, death by torture, strangulation, single shot to head and/or multiple shots to head and body.
Other tactics were same as above with head and/or face fully or partially wrapped with duct tape or other head wrappings or blind folds. Bodies often disposed of by the alternate “Pozole” method. The pozole is where they stuff the body sometime still alive into a 55 gallon barrel and pour gas, battery acid and other corrosive terrible chemicals. The theory being that they think it makes the body easer to dispose of and makes what may remain very difficult to identify later by authorities.
Many were beheaded with or without written messages on bodies or in vehicles.
The cartels’ methods of torture and killing are particularly brutal. On September 6, 2006,
masked gunmen entered a nightclub in the Michoacan, fired guns in the air and rolled
five severed human heads onto the dance floor. The gunmen left a sign among the
severed heads that read:
“The family doesn’t kill for money. It doesn’t kill women. It doesn’t kill innocent
people, only those who deserve to die. Know that this is divine justice. ”
Alarming Sensitive U. S. Government Report on Mexican Violence
By using these horrible and terrifying tactics the Cartels are sending a chilling message to the Mexican President Felipe Calderon Administration by adopting methods of intimidation made notorious by Middle Eastern terrorist groups.
Dozens of people have been decapitated in Mexico so far this year, with heads stuck on fence posts, found in trash bags and heads being tossed onto a nightclub dance floor for all to see.
Dozens of U. S. citizens have been kidnapped, held hostage and killed by their captors in Mexico and many cases remain unsolved. Moreover, new cases of disappearances and kidnap-for-ransom continue to be reported yet no high level warning has been issued to protect Americans against this world class violence. Many kidnapped victims where held in deplorable jail like metal cages in so called safe houses.
U. S. intelligence officials report that human smuggling has become another
component of the drug cartels’ business. This fact is of particular import in a post 9/11
environment and at a time in history when the United States is more concerned than ever
about securing its borders.
Americans Being Kidnapped, Held and killed in Mexico
Mexican cartels have also increased their relationships with prison and street gangs in the
United States to facilitate trafficking drugs, murders and kidnappings within the United States. For example, gangs
including the Latin Kings and Mara Salvatrucha (MS13), El Paso’s Barrio Azteca gang and many others know and unknown.
Federal authorities point to the Mexican drug cartels who are ultimately responsible for border violence by having cemented ties to street and prison gangs like Barrio Azteca on the U. S. side. Azteca and other U. S. gangs retail drugs that they get from Mexican cartels and Mexican gangs. Mexican gangs run their own distribution networks in the United States, and they produce most of the methamphetamine used north of the border. They have even bypassed the Colombians several times to buy cocaine directly from producers in Bolivia, Peru and even Afghanistan. These same gangs often work as cartel surrogates or enforcers on the U. S. side of the border. Intelligence suggests Los Zetas have hired members of various gangs at different times including, El Paso gang Barrio Azteca, Mexican Mafia, Texas Syndicate, MS-13, and Hermanos Pistoleros Latinos to further their criminal endeavors.
Many members of violent street gangs are actively involved in other crimes such as rape,
robbery, and murder. U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has found that
approximately half of the apprehended gang members have violent criminal histories,
with arrests and convictions for crimes such as robbery, assault, rape and murder. This
figure includes only those whose criminal histories are known. Approximately 90
percent of U. S. MS-13 members are foreign-born illegal aliens and depend upon the
Texas-Mexico border smuggling corridor to support their criminal operations. MS-13
members are involved in a variety of other types of criminal activity, including rape,
murder, and extortion.
FBI Director Robert Mueller described U. S. based-gangs as “more
organized, more violent, and more widespread than ever. ” The Department of Justice
estimates there are approximately 30,000 gangs with more than 800,000 members in the
U. S.
Dangerous Mexican Cartel Gangs
The U. S. Drug Enforcement Administration reports that the Mexican drug syndicates
operating today along our Nation’s border are far more sophisticated and
dangerous than any of the other organized criminal groups in America’s law enforcement
history. Indeed, these powerful drug cartels, and the human smuggling networks and
gangs they leverage, have immense control over the routes into the United States and
continue to pose formidable challenges to our efforts to secure our border.
According to the late El Paso County Sheriff Leo Samaniego, drug cartels operating along the
southwestern U. S. border are a “country unto themselves” with intelligence capabilities,
weaponry and communications equipment that challenges the Border Patrol and local law
enforcement. Sheriff Samaniego advised his deputies to “back off” when they see well
armed individuals from cartels and other criminal organizations.
Many of these sophisticated networks include placing spotters with high-powered binoculars
and encrypted radios along smuggling routes to guide smugglers past Border Patrol and other
law enforcement agencies operating along the border. A Library of Congress report on
Criminal and Terrorist Activity in Mexico describes how smugglers carry on a
“technological arms race” with CBP and ICE.
Webb County, Texas Sheriff Rick Flores indicated that he is disturbed by the level of
resources the cartels and criminal organizations possess and utilize against local law
enforcement noting that the cartels utilize rocket propelled grenades…automatic assault
weapons, and “level four” body armor and Kevlar helmets similar to what the U. S.
military uses. Some local officials are taking steps to protect their officers from these
weapons. The Sheriff for Hidalgo County, Texas Sheriff has prohibited the deputies in
his department from patrolling along the banks of the Rio Grande River because of the
threat of violence from the cartels.
Along the U. S. Mexican border, drug cartels as organized criminal groups have
established a robust presence in key strategic areas from Brownsville to San Diego
it includes dozens of Ports of Entry, and has major interstate highway connections to
all parts of the country. Thereby providing the organized crime groups with access to
all of the America’s. These smuggling routes start in South America through Panama,
Honderous, Guatemala and Mexico and then extend from border to border ocean to
ocean and points north all the way to Alaska.
Federal authorities point to the Mexican drug cartels who are ultimately responsible for
border violence by having cemented these ties to street and prison gangs like Barrio Azteca
on the U. S. side. Azteca and other U. S. gangs retail drugs that they get from Mexican cartels
and Mexican gangs. Mexican gangs run their own distribution networks in the United States,
and they produce most of the methamphetamine used north of the border. They have even
bypassed the Colombians several times to buy cocaine directly from producers in Bolivia,
Peru and even Afghanistan. These same gangs often work as cartel surrogates or enforcers
on the U. S. side of the border. Intelligence suggests Los Zetas have hired members of
various gangs at different times including, El Paso gang Barrio Azteca, Mexican Mafia,
Texas Syndicate, MS-13, and Hermanos Pistoleros Latinos to further their criminal endeavors.
Dangerous Mexican Cartel Gangs
The South Texas region alone covers approximately 625 miles of border territory – a total area
of 20,963 square miles and borders three separate Mexican States. Inside the territory are
11 Ports of Entry that include 15 international bridges. Directly across the cities of
Brownsville, McAllen, Laredo and El Paso are major Mexican cities, each with a population
between 600,000 and 1,500,000. Trains from Central America and Mexico en route to the
U. S. border with McAllen, Brownsville and El Paso host interstate highways and thoroughfares
to all points north. These trains, usually 90 to 160 cars in length, traveling from Central
America through Mexico are one mode of transportation criminal enterprises use to
enter the United States with their illegal contraband human and otherwise. Each year thousands
of illegal aliens cling to the sides and tops of the rail cars for the journey to the north.
The El Paso-Juarez corridor in west Texas also serves as the gateway for drugs destined
to major metropolitan areas in the United States. Mexican drug cartels transport
significant quantities of methamphetamine, and Mexico-produced heroin, marijuana, and
imported cocaine through the El Paso Port of Entry using major east/west and north/south
interstate highways. As stated earlier these highways provide the Mexican cartels with
transportation routes for drug distribution throughout the United States. Drug cartels also
obtain warehouses in El Paso and near by areas for stash locations and run ads in newspapers
and on the internet to recruit drivers from the local area to transport the drugs to various
destinations throughout the United States.
According to the feds the Alpine area is largely rural and sparsely populated, encompassing
the Big Bend corridor, a transshipment route for drugs entering the United States from Northeast
Mexico. The drug cartels maintain command and control elements to the north in the
Midland-Odessa area and in the border towns to the south in Presidio and Redford.
The Laredo Port of Entry is the 2nd busiest and 2nd most heavily traversed land Port of Entry on
the Southwest border excluding El Paso/Juarez ports of entry. The Laredo port handles
approximately 6,000 commercial vehicles a day. Forty percent of all Mexican exports cross
into Laredo, Texas, where Interstate 35 connects directly to Dallas, and from there throughout
the United States.
U. S. Border Patrol Chief John Montoya describes this Port of Entry as one of “the key ingress
into the United States. ”
“It’s called a gateway city, not only into Mexico but into the United States as well. ” The
very conditions that make the Laredo Port of Entry so attractive to legitimate commerce
also make the city ideal for the illicit drug and human smuggling trade.
Cartels waging violent turf battle over Control of these key smuggling corridors
from Nuevo Laredo, to San Diego. The neighboring cities on the Mexico side of the border,
are the most important launching point for illegal contraband entering the United States.
These twin cities all along our border with Mexico are where much of the violence and drug
cartel activity is taking place. The violence is due to the fact that the major drug cartels are
currently battling for control over this highly coveted corridors into the United States known as a
“plaza. ”
The plaza proceeds through major cities with large highway systems where aliens, terrorist
and drugs can be staged prior to movement to other parts of the United States. Control of
this corridor translates into control of all illegal smuggling.
All criminal organizations that want to smuggle through these established safe passages
into the United States is required to pay a tax to the cartel that controls the plaza.
The Sinaloa cartel began to contest the Gulf Cartel’s domination of the coveted southwest
Texas corridor following the arrest of Gulf Cartel leader Osiel Cardenas in March 2003.
While in prison, Arellano Felix, head of the Tijuana cartel, and Cardenas forged an alliance
against the Sinaloa and its ally the Juarez cartel. As a result, the cartels are now largely aligned
into two blocks, some which support the Gulf Cartel and others which support the
Sinaloa Cartel. It is these two blocks that are involved in the massive and violent turf
wars which are currently being carried out in northern Mexico
To protect and expand their criminal operations, Mexican drug cartels maintain highly
developed intelligence networks on both sides of the border and have hired private armies
to carry out enforcement measures. For example, the Gulf Cartel leader Cardenas
employs a group of former elite military soldiers known as “Los Zetas. ” The Zetas are
unique among drug enforcer gangs in that they operate as “a private army under the
orders of Cardenas’ Gulf Cartel, the first time a drug lord has had his own
paramilitary. ” The Zetas have been instrumental in the Gulf Cartel’s domination of the
drug trade in much of Mexico and have fought to maintain the cartel’s influence in northern cities
following the arrest of Cardenas. The Zetas’ activities are not limited to defending the
Gulf Cartel’s terrain in northern Mexico. The paramilitary force is also believed to
control trafficking routes along the eastern half of the U. S. -Mexico border and perhaps others
as well.
The Zetas are believed to be a serious threat to public safety on both sides of the
U. S. Mexican border. They are well-financed and well-equipped and have demonstrated a
willingness to shoot, torture, and kill law enforcement officers, or rival cartel and gang
members on both sides of the border. Federal law enforcement officials deem the Zetas
among the most dangerous criminal enterprises in the Americas.
Reports indicate that while the Zetas were initially comprised of members of the Mexican
military’s Special Forces, they now include Federal, State, and local law enforcement
personnel as well as civilians. Moreover, according to U. S. intelligence officials, Zetas
are recruiting former Guatemalan Special Forces military personnel known as Kaibiles
and members of the notorious cross-border gangs known as Maras, including the violent
Mara Salvatruchas (MS-13). They’re known as “Los Zetas
According to Federal law enforcement officials; these hideous acts was a revenge killing
between warring gangs. Decapitations are becoming quite common in many areas in
Mexico where cartels and gangs battle for control over lucrative smuggling corridors.
Heads are publicly displayed for the purpose of intimidation.
Another brutal means of torture and death is called “guisoe. ” This practice involves
putting a person into a 55 gallon drum, usually dead, but not always, and pouring various
flammable liquids over the body and lighting it on fire. A variation on this method is to
place a burning tire around the neck of an individual, burning the victim alive. The
remains are dumped on roadsides as a message to others who would consider crossing the
cartels. The ruthless methods employed by these cartels to torture and kill their
competitors are no different than the techniques used by Al Qa’ida and other terrorist
organizations. This level of brutality is particularly troubling as the cartels are executing
these vicious murders a mere stones-throw from U. S. soil.
Sometimes the violence and intimidation is captured on video. In 2005, a video was
anonymously delivered to the Dallas Morning News showing four men, handcuffed and
badly beaten in front of a backdrop of black plastic, describing to off-camera
interrogators their work as cartel assassins. The men were members of the Zetas. The
video ends when one of the Zetas is shot in the head at point blank range by an off-
camera captor. Law enforcement authorities have never found the body of the murdered
Zeta, nor the other three men, dead or alive.
U. S. law enforcement officials are struck with the resiliency and determination of these
criminals. In the words of one law enforcement official: “They [the Zetas] have the
Texas-Mexico border wired. ” For example, in 2005, just six hours after being sworn in
as Nuevo Laredo’s Police Chief, Alejandro Dominguez was killed. He had announced a
crackdown on the cartels. He was shot more than 50 times. During mid-September
2006, a group of 25 individuals in Nuevo Laredo were gathered in a local hotel with visas
to travel to the U. S. for work. The Zetas mistakenly thought the workers were from a
rival cartel and kidnapped and tortured them. The workers were released when the
cartels realized their mistake. U. S. Federal law enforcement authorities said Mexican
police would not respond to the emergency calls for help that were made during the
incident.
The violence has spread to neighboring Mexican States also sharing a border
with the U. S. Nuevo Leon, once thought to be one of the safest States and home to some
of the richest families in Mexico, has seen the murders of three top law enforcement
officials who had spoken out against the drug cartels. During September 2006, two
police chiefs were killed as well as the top crime investigator. In the past two years, six
journalists covering drug trafficking along the border have also been killed.
The Zetas have now become completely entrenched along the U. S. Mexican border and
have grown to more than 1200 with hundreds more in a support network throughout
Mexico.
In an example of the Zeta’s capabilities, a shootout on September 22, 2006 in Nuevo
Laredo between the Zetas and an assassination target lasted approximately 40 minutes.
The shootout included bazookas and grenades and reportedly killed approximately five
Zetas and injured approximately five others.
In response to such aggressive efforts on the part of the Zetas to defend and control parts
of Mexico and its border with the U. S. , the Sinaloa cartel established its own heavilyarmed
enforcer gang, “Los Negros. ” The group operates in a similar fashion to the Zetas.
Los Negros, attempting to wrest control from the Zetas over the local police in Nuevo
Laredo are believed to be responsible for the rise in violence there. According to
Webb County Sheriff Rick Flores, the warring cartels and the increase in violence
wrought by these paramilitary enforcers have provoked a major cross-border human
exodus from Nuevo Laredo into Laredo, Texas.
Federal, State, and local law enforcement officials are witnessing a growing nexus
between the Mexican drug cartels, illegal alien smuggling rings, and U. S. based gangs.
The human smuggling networks that operate along the Southwest border cannot move
their human cargo through drug cartel controlled corridors without paying a fee. 35 The
typical Mexican illegal alien now pays approximately $1,200 to $2,500. For aliens from
countries other than Mexico this price is often considerably higher, and may even be
more alluring for the cartels. Foreign nationals and terrorist are often charged an exorbitantly
higher fee ranging anywhere from $45,000 to $100. 000 per person. Indeed, it is estimated
that human smuggling through Mexico into the United States each year puts billions of
dollars into criminal hands.
According to U. S. law enforcement officials, tremendous incentive exists for drug cartels
to diversify their criminal enterprises to include the human smuggling trade. Human
smuggling can be more lucrative than the illicit drug trade and the benefits far outweigh
the risks for the cartels. There are many reasons for this. Law enforcement is dealing
with a different type of commodity – drugs don’t hide themselves as humans are able.
Consequently, smugglers can transport large numbers of illegal aliens across the border at
one time and meet with some success.
Moreover, prosecutions for human smuggling are abysmally low. Typically, groups of
illegal aliens apprehended attempting to cross the border will not identify the smuggler in
the group. For those smugglers that are identified and captured, most are simply returned
to their country of origin. Thus, there is a revolving door for the smugglers. Since it is
unlikely the smuggler will be prosecuted he or she can opt for voluntary removal, face no
criminal penalties and smuggle again. As human smugglers charge anywhere from
$2,000 to $60,000 per alien and face little or no consequences if caught, human
smuggling is a far less risky business endeavor than the drug trade.
Federal law enforcement officials also report that the cartels are not only increasingly
engaged in the human smuggling business, they are also actively coordinating with
existing human smuggling rings, using diversionary tactics to protect their loads. It is
not uncommon for cartels to facilitate the crossing of fifty or more illegal aliens across
the U. S. -Mexico border to divert Border Patrol resources away from an area they plan to
transport large amounts of drugs across.
The criminal organizations are indeed extremely advanced, well-equipped, and highly
adaptable to enforcement measures marshaled against them. In January 2006, ICE
agents, along with ATF agents and Laredo Police Department officers seized an
enormous cache of weapons in Laredo, Texas. Authorities confiscated two completed
improvised explosive devices (IEDs) materials for making thirty-three more, military
style grenades, twenty-six grenade triggers, large quantities of AK-47s and AR-15 assault
rifles, 1,280 pounds of ammunition, silencers, machine gun assembly kits, 300 primers,
bulletproof vests, police scanners, sniper scopes, narcotics and cash. These seizures
clearly illustrate the level of violence along the border, especially in Nuevo Laredo,
Juarez and Tijuana area.
Many in law enforcement believe the manpower, resources, and technology utilized by U. S.
law enforcement needs to be enhanced to combat the highly organized and sophisticated cartels.
These criminal enterprises have seemingly unlimited money to purchase the most advanced
technology and weaponry available. The cartels are able to break the encryptions on both
Border Patrol and sheriffs’ deputies’ radios. Lookouts for the cartels, using military
grade equipment, are positioned at strategic points on the U. S. side of the border to
monitor movements of U. S. law enforcement. In response, the cartels then move their
cargo accordingly. The cartels use automatic assault weapons, bazookas, grenade
launchers and IEDs. In contrast, U. S. Border Patrol agents are issued . 40 caliber Beretta
Not all illegal aliens are crossing into the United States to find work. Law enforcement
officials indicate that there are individuals coming across the border who are forced to
leave their home countries because of their criminal activity. These dangerous criminals
are fleeing the law in other countries and seeking refuge in the United States. For
instance, it is known that many of the operatives of cartels in Mexico actually live in the
United States. Information received by several law enforcement agencies indicates these
criminals are living in our communities and that they come to the U. S. to escape the
possibility of apprehension in Mexico.
The Violent Crimes Institute conducted a 12 month in-depth study of illegal immigrants
who committed sex crimes and murders for the time period of January 1999 through
April 2006. This study makes it clear that the U. S. faces a dangerous threat from sexual
predators that cross the U. S. borders illegally.
The Institute analyzed 1,500 cases in depth, including serial rapes, serial murders, sexual
homicides, and child molestation committed by illegal immigrants. Police reports, public
records, interviews with police, and media accounts were all included. Offenders were
located in thirty-six states, with the most of the offenders were located in States with the
highest numbers of illegal immigrants. California was ranked first, followed by Texas,
Arizona, New Jersey, New York, and Florida.
Based on an estimated illegal immigrant population of 12,000,000 and the fact that young
males make up more of this population than the general U. S. population, the Institute
concluded that sex offenders in the illegal immigrant group make up a higher percentage.
ICE reports and public records show sex offenders comprising 2% of illegals
apprehended. Based on this 2% figure, which is conservative, the Institute estimates that
there are approximately 240,000 illegal immigrant sex offenders in the United States.
The study concluded, when applied to ongoing illegal immigration at the borders, these
estimates translate to 93 sex offenders and twelve serial sexual offenders coming across
U. S. borders illegally per day. The 1,500 offenders in this study had a total of 5,999
victims. Each sex offender averaged four victims. This puts the estimate for
victimization numbers around 960,000 for the 88 months examined in this study.
The violence of illegal aliens is not confined to border communities. Residents and law
enforcement in the interior cities are also vulnerable to criminals crossing the border.
The number of aliens other than Mexican (“OTMs”) illegally crossing the border has
grown at an alarming rate over the past several years. Based on U. S. Border Patrol
statistics there were 30,147 OTMs apprehended in FY2003, 44,614 in FY2004, 165,178
in FY2005, and 108,025 in FY2006. 210,027 FY 2007. Most of them were
apprehended along the U. S Southwest border.
The sheer increase of OTMs coming across the border makes it more difficult for Border
Patrol agents to readily identify and process each, thereby increasing the chances that a
potential terrorist could slip through the system. Moreover, there is no concrete
mechanism for determining how many OTMs evade apprehensions and successfully enter
the country illegally.
The U. S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) pays particular attention to OTMs
apprehended by the Border Patrol who originate from thirty-five nations designated as
“special interest” countries. According to Border Patrol Chief David Aguilar, special
interest countries have been “designated by our intelligence community as countries that
could export individuals that could bring harm to our country in the way of terrorism. ”
Though the majority of overall apprehensions made by the Border Patrol occur in the
Tucson sector of Arizona, the Texas border – specifically the McAllen sector – far
outpaces the rest of the country in OTM and Special Interest Alien apprehensions. Since
September 11, 2001, DHS has reported a 501% increase in arrests along the U. S. Mexican
border of Special Interest Aliens.
The data indicates that each year hundreds of illegal aliens from countries known to
harbor terrorists or promote terrorism are routinely encountered and apprehended
attempting to enter the U. S. illegally between Ports of Entry. Just recently, U. S.
intelligence officials report that seven Iraqis were found in Brownsville, Texas in June
2006. In August 2006, an Afghani man was found swimming across the Rio Grande
River in Hidalgo, Texas;104 as recently as October 2006, seven Chinese were
apprehended in the Rio Grande Valley area of Texas.
Items have been found by law enforcement officials along the banks of the Rio Grande
River and inland that indicate possible ties to a terrorist organization or member of
military units of Mexico. A jacket with patches from countries where al Qa’ida is
known to operate was found in Jim Hogg County, Texas by the Border Patrol. The
patches on the jacket show an Arabic military badge with one depicting an airplane flying
over a building and heading towards a tower, and another showing an image of a lion’s
head with wings and a parachute emanating from the animal. The bottom of one patch
read “martyr,” “way to eternal life” or “way to immortality. ”
Border Patrol Chief David Aguilar was asked by a reporter from
KGNS television station in Laredo, Texas, about the outcome of the investigation of the
jacket. Chief Aguilar responded that the patches were not from al Qa’ida but from
countries in which al Qa’ida was known to operate.
According to ICE testimony, on September 8, 2004, ICE agents arrested Neeran Zaia and
Basima Sesi. The human smuggling organization headed by Zaia specialized in
smuggling Iraqi, Jordanian, and Syrian Nationals and was responsible for the movement
of more than 200 aliens throughout the investigation. The investigation was initiated
when a confidential informant familiar with the organization reported ongoing smuggling
activities by Zaia, who had been previously convicted of alien smuggling. Investigative
efforts revealed that the aliens were smuggled from the Middle East to staging areas in
Central and South America. Once in these staging areas, the conspirators would arrange
to smuggle the aliens from these sites into the U. S. or its territories.
Members of Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based terrorist organization, have already entered into
the United States across our Southwest border. On March 1, 2005, Mahmoud Youssef
Kourani pleaded guilty to providing material support to Hezbollah. Kourani is an
illegal alien who had been smuggled across the U. S. -Mexico border after bribing a
Mexican consular official in Beirut for a visa to travel to Mexico. Kourani and a Middle
Eastern traveling partner then paid coyotes in Mexico to guide them into the United
States. Kourani established residence among the Lebanese expatriate community in
Dearborn, Michigan and began soliciting funds for Hezbollah terrorists back home in
Lebanon. He is the brother of the Hezbollah chief of military operations in southern
Lebanon.
Salim Boughader Mucharrafille, a café owner in Tijuana, Mexico,
was arrested for illegally smuggling more than two hundred Lebanese illegally into the
United States, including several believed to have terrorist ties to Hezbollah. Robert L.
Boatwright, Assistant Chief Patrol Agent of the El Paso Texas Sector,
reported, “We have apprehended people from countries that support terrorism…they
were thoroughly debriefed and there was a tremendous amount of information collected
from them. ”
Statements made by high-ranking Mexican officials prior to and following the September
11, 2001 terrorist attacks indicate that one or more Islamic terrorist organizations has
sought to establish a presence in Mexico. In May 2001, former Mexican National security
adviser and ambassador to the United Nations, Adolfo Aguilar Zinser, reported, that
“Spanish and Islamic terrorist groups are using Mexico as a refuge. ”
Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Robert Mueller has confirmed in testimony
“that there are individuals from countries with known al-Qa’ida connections who are
changing their Islamic surnames to Hispanic-sounding names and obtaining false
Hispanic identities, learning to speak Spanish and pretending to be Hispanic
immigrants.
These examples highlight the dangerous intersection between traditional transnational
criminal activities, such as human and drug smuggling, and more ominous threats to
national security. Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez summed it up this way: “I dare to say that
at any given time, daytime or nighttime, one can get on a boat and traverse back and forth
between Texas and Mexico and not get caught. If smugglers can bring in tons of
marijuana and cocaine at one time and can smuggle 20 to 30 persons at one time, one can
just imagine how easy it would be to bring in 2 to 3 terrorists or their weapons of mass
destruction across the river and not be detected. Chances of apprehension are very
slim. ”
Furthermore, according to senior U. S. military and intelligence officials, Venezuela is
emerging as a potential hub of terrorism in the Western Hemisphere, providing assistance
to Islamic radicals from the Middle East and other terrorists.
General James Hill, commander of U. S. Southern Command, has warned the United
States faces a growing risk from both Middle Eastern terrorists relocating to Latin
America and terror groups originating in the region. General Hill said groups such as
Hezbollah had established bases in Latin America. These groups are taking advantage of
smuggling hotspots, such as the tri-border area of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay, and
Venezuela’s Margarita Island, to channel funds to terrorist groups around the world.
Venezuela is providing support—including identity documents—that could prove useful
to radical Islamic groups, say some U. S. officials. The Venezuelan government has
issued thousands of cedulas, the equivalent of Social Security cards, to people from
places such as Cuba, Columbia, and Middle Eastern nations that host foreign terrorist
organizations. The U. S. officials believe that the Venezuelan government is issuing the
documents to people who should not be getting them and that some of these cedulas
could be subsequently used to obtain Venezuelan passports and even American visas,
which could allow the holder to elude immigration checks and enter the United States.
Recently, several Pakistanis were apprehended at the U. S. -Mexican border with
fraudulent Venezuelan documents.
“Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela, has been clearly talking to Iran about uranium,”
said a senior administration official quoted by the Washington Times. Chavez has made
several trips to Iran and voiced solidarity with the country’s hard-line mullahs. He has
hosted Iranian officials in Caracas, endorsed Tehran’s nuclear ambitions and expressed
support for the insurgency in Iraq. The Times reports Venezuela is also talking with
Hamas about sending representatives to Venezuela to raise money for the militant group’s
elected Palestinian government as Chavez seeks to build an anti-U. S. axis that also
includes Fidel Castro’s Cuba. “I am on the offensive,” Chavez said on the al Jazeera
television network, “because attack is the best form of defense. We are waging an
offensive battle…. ”
Given all that is happening in Chavez’s Venezuela, some American officials regret that
terrorism is seen chiefly as a Middle East problem and that the United States needs to
start looking to protect its southern flank. A U. S. intelligence official expressed concern
that “Counterterrorism issues are not being aggressively pursued in this hemisphere. ”
Another intelligence official stated terror suspects held at Guantanamo Bay are not being
interrogated about connections to Latin America. The bottom line, when it comes to
terrorism so close to U. S. shores, says the official, “We don’t even know what we don’t
know. ”
Islamic radical groups that support Hamas, Hezbollah and Islamiya Al Gamat are all
active in Mexico and other Latin American countries. These groups generate funds through
money laundering, drug trafficking, and arms deals, making millions of dollars every year
via their multiple illicit activities. These cells reach back to the Middle East and extend
to this hemisphere the sophisticated global support structure of international terrorism.
While threats to our nation from international terrorism are well known, lesser known
threats spawned by narcoterrorism reach deeply into this country.
Federal law enforcement entities estimate they apprehend approximately 10 to 30 percent
of illegal aliens crossing the border. U. S. intelligence officials along the southwest
border, on the other hand, are less optimistic. To be sure, it is unclear how many illegal
aliens of any nationality evade capture by law enforcement each year and succeed in
entering the United States illegally.
One thing, however, is known for certain – hundreds of people from countries known to
harbor terrorists or promote terrorism are caught trying to enter the United States illegally
along the land border, and the massive flow of immigrants and our porous border create
various and abundant opportunities for concealment. Given the ever-present threat posed
by al-Qa’ida and other terrorist organizations show the vulnerability of our borders – the need for immediate
action to enforce our borders could not be more apparent.
The Federal government has taken positive steps to secure its borders, but much more is
needed to combat an increasingly powerful, sophisticated, and violent criminal network
which has been successful in smuggling illegal contraband, human or otherwise, into our
country. The growth of these criminal groups, along the border, and the
potential for terrorists to exploit the vulnerabilities which they create, represents a real
threat to America’s national security.
It is imperative that immediate action be taken to enhance security along our border with Mexico.
Thousands of Mexican soldiers have been sent to the Mexican border cities and towns after many pleas from residents and local politicians. The Mexican troops arrived by troop transport C-130 Hercules aircraft, military transport vehicles, gunship helicopters, troop personal carries, pickups and Humvees with mounted . 50-caliber machine guns. These Mexican army and Federal police now operating throughout the border region.
The Mexican soldiers are armed with combat American supplied M-16 fully automatic rifles. This latest action by Mexican President Calderon now places Mexican armed soldiers on the U. S. Border with Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California.
These Mexican troop movement places more than 30,000 Mexican troops combating the Mexican cartels throughout the country. This operations, carried out by the Mexican army is expected to provoke a violent response from Mexican drug cartels, officials said.
Sources:
Laguna Journal, FBI, DEA, CBP, ICE, ATF, and various Mexican City Police Departments, El Paso County Sheriff’s Dept. , National Drug Intelligence Center, U. S. Department of Defense, U. S. Department of Homeland Security.
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Why not a Warning for Mexico travel or at least an up-grade to the existing alert?
Nuclear Threat From Mexico
Hundreds being rounded- up and many Arrested in Juarez Mexico
The U. S. placed Mexico under a travel alert As Thousands of Armed Mexican Troops Patrol the Streets of Juarez
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