What is the Motive? Mosque donates $1M for UC Islamic studies

What would be the motive for his?

Mosque donates $1M for UC Islamic studies

From the Cincinnati Enquirer

A local mosque is donating $1 million to the University of Cincinnati to increase understanding of the Islamic religion amid concerns about Islamophobia.

UC is adding a titled professorship in Islamic studies, thanks to the gift from the Islamic Center of Greater Cincinnati. Money originates from Inayat Malik and his wife, Ishrat Malik.

Dr. Inayat Malik is a retired urologist and former 18-year board chair of the Islamic Center. He came from Pakistan in 1967 to specialize in urology at UC Medical Center and was a member of the UC College of Medicine clinical faculty for 20 years.

UC’s College of Arts and Sciences will begin a formal search for a top scholar with an international reputation to fill the chair. In the spring, before undertaking the search, the college plans to invite other Islamic studies scholars as a way to learn more about the field and spread the word of its larger commitment, said Dean Kenneth Petren.

An Example of How Liberals Rationalize That Taxes Are A Good Thing!

An Example of How Liberals Rationalize That Taxes Are A Good Thing

Liberals have utilized Taxes to manipulate public policy (Your Behavior and choice) through taxes for 50 years!

Recently, a coalition of more than 100 health care, business, education and health advocacy groups comprising the Coalition for a Smoke-Free Tomorrow called on the Kentucky legislature to raise the state tax on cigarettes by $1 per pack, with parallel increases in taxes on other tobacco products.

This $1 increase would keep 23,200 of today’s youths from becoming adult smokers and prevent 5,900 infants from being born too early due to smoking during pregnancy. Another 29,400 current adult smokers would quit. (Rationalization statistics)

The increase is clearly a win for the health of Kentucky, where 8,900 residents die every year of smoking related illnesses. That’s why Kentucky health advocates support the increase. (Boogy Man Scare)

It’s also a win for business leaders in the Commonwealth, who currently lose nearly $2.8 billion every year in reduced productivity due to smoking. The extra cost for businesses adds up to an estimated $5,816 per employee every year. Economic development experts also know that Kentucky’s high smoking rate — the second-highest in the nation at 24.5 percent, right behind West Virginia, and 62 percent higher than the national average — makes it harder to attract new business and jobs to the Commonwealth. That’s why so many of Kentucky’s leading employers and economic development officials support the increase. (More rationalization using cost to justify robbing liberty)

The $1 increase also would generate more than $266 million in new revenues, which would go a long way toward filling the state’s budget shortfall, not to mention the need for funding to shore up the state’s pension systems. Cigarette tax increases are particularly effective at reducing smoking among youths, lower income smokers and pregnant women — reductions that directly decrease state Medicaid expenditures. That makes it a win for the state budget. (Using needing more revenue rather than less spending to justify)

It’s time to enact the proven measures that will reduce smoking and its related illnesses, reduced quality of life and massive health care expenditures in Kentucky. We can honor our tobacco heritage without allowing it to continue plaguing both our health and our economy. We urge you to contact your legislators and tell them you support a $1 tobacco tax increase because it’s a win-win-win for Kentucky.

Ben Chandler is chair of the Coalition for a Smoke-Free Tomorrow Steering Committee.

NOTE: Virtually every tax that has ever been introduced (sin tax) that will mitigate or correct a problem in society has failed. Not only failed, but in the ensuing years, the tax spiraled upwards without ever producing the promised or predicted benefit. It is time to stop buying left wing liberal logic for increasing taxes!

Rhodes Trustees Now Promoting Radicals?

OHIO Local woman 1 of 32 Americans named as a Rhodes Scholar

A Cincinnati woman has been named one of 32 Rhodes Scholars from the U.S.

The Rhodes Trust says 21-year-old Camille Borders, a senior at Washington University in St. Louis, was chosen from more than 850 applicants who received endorsements from their schools to study at Oxford University in England. A biography provided by the Rhodes Trust says Borders is a history major whose senior thesis examines the lives of black women after slavery.

The biography says Borders founded Washington University Students in Solidarity to address police brutality and racial profiling and was active in protests in Ferguson, Missouri, after the fatal shooting of a black man by a white officer.

She will be reading for a master’s degree in social and economic history.

Key To Happiness

How many times have you heard someone say they want to make a better world? It is a noble sentiment, but very hard to achieve, right?

Well, actually, it’s quite easy. All we have to do is increase just one human trait. This trait is so powerful that it alone can make people happier without working on their happiness, and make them better – and by “better,” I mean more generous, more honest, more kind, more everything good – without a single lesson in morality.

So, then, what is this one almost magical thing? Drumroll, please.

It’s gratitude.

You can’t be a happy person if you aren’t grateful, and you can’t be a good person if you aren’t grateful. Almost everything good flows from gratitude, and almost everything bad flows from ingratitude.

Let’s begin with ingratitude. Here’s a rule of life: ingratitude guarantees unhappiness. It is as simple as that. There isn't an ungrateful happy person on Earth. And there isn’t an ungrateful good person on Earth. There are two reasons.

Reason one is victimhood. Ingratitude always leads to or comes from victimhood. Ungrateful people—by definition—think of themselves as victims. And perceiving oneself as a victim or perceiving oneself as a member of a victim group may be the single biggest reason people hurt other people—from hurtful comments to mass murder. People who think of themselves as victims tend to believe that because they’ve been hurt by others, they can hurt others.

And the second reason ungrateful people aren’t good people is that ingratitude is always accompanied by anger. The ungrateful are angry, and angry people lash out at others. If ingratitude makes people unhappy and mean, then gratitude must make people happy and kind.

And so it does. Think of the times you have felt most grateful—were they not always accompanied by a feeling of happiness? Weren’t they also accompanied by a desire to be kinder to other people? The answer, of course, is yes. Grateful people aren’t angry and they also don’t see themselves as victims.

The problem, however—and it’s a big one, is that in America and much of the rest of the world, people are becoming less grateful. Why? Because people are constantly told that they are entitled to things they haven’t earned—what are known as “benefits” or “entitlements.” And the more things that people think they should get, the less grateful they will be for whatever they do get. And the more angry—and therefore unhappy—they will be when they don’t get them.

Here are two rules of life. Rule number one: The less you feel entitled to, the more gratitude you will feel for whatever you get and the happier you will be. Rule number two: The more you feel entitled to, the less happy you will be. That’s why, for example, children who get whatever they want are usually less happy children. We have a word for such children: spoiled. And no one thinks of a spoiled child as a happy child, and certainly not a kind one.

The more that you feel that life or society owes you, the angrier you will get, the less happy you will be. As a result, we are increasing the number of angry, unhappy, and selfish people. The other way we are making people unhappy, and even meaner, is by cultivating a sense of victimhood. People are constantly told that they are victims because of their upbringing, because of past prejudice against their group, because of material inequality, because they are female, and for many other reasons.

Next time you want to assess any social policy, ask this question first: Will this policy increase or decrease gratitude among people? You will then know whether it is something that will bring more goodness and happiness to the world—or less.

If I were granted one wish, it would be that all people be grateful. Gratitude is the source of happiness, and the source of goodness; and the more good people, and the more happy people there are walking around, the happier and better our world will be. If you have a way of achieving such a world without increasing gratitude, let me know what it is.

I'm Dennis Prager.

Politics, Accusations and Due Process

Politics, Accusations and Due Process

No one is more repulsed by the poster boy of Hollywood excess and immorality than me. Ditto for U.S. Senator wannabe Roy Moore. But I also must say that while I despise the amoral attitudes of those who prey on others, I cherish due process even more.

America was founded after royal subjects living in British North America became vexed at governmental abuses of power. The founding fathers and their ancestors had seen royal authority misused through search warrants that allowed soldiers to search any house at any time, government confiscation of property without compensation, and imprisonment and execution without anything resembling a fair trial. Indeed, the Declaration of Independence itself alleges that King George was “deaf to the voice of justice.”

Due process was costly to achieve in battle and ought not to be conveniently ignored. When someone raises an allegation that the law has been violated, we must presume that the claim lacks merit until evidence is tested in a court of law and a judge or jury makes a ruling.

Mitt Romney recently announced that “innocent until proven guilty is for criminal convictions, not elections.” Others have claimed that a news report is enough to determine someone’s guilt.

But if we’re truly committed to due process, in our heart we’ll presume innocence even when 

we hear multiple sickening reports about the purported misdeeds of Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey and Roy Moore. It’s hard to do. I struggle with it. But it’s the right thing.

When we hear a criminal defense, lawyer remind a jury that the person whom we genuinely believe is guilty must be presumed innocent, we feel uncomfortable. But we must allow the trial to take its course because we know requiring sworn testimony and evidence tested by cross-examination is the best way to discern the truth. And sticking to this standard is what keeps you and me from becoming accused and adjudged without credible evidence.

Men who abuse women share something with street thugs who rob, attack and steal — they think they can avoid the natural result of violating basic tenets of right and wrong. Even beyond statutes passed by legislatures, there’s an immutable moral law much like the law of gravity.

Far too much of Hollywood’s product showcases characters who violate that moral law and avoid consequences. The entertainment industry’s fetish for violence, sex, and nihilism leads many young people astray. And the people who write, act, and produce this garbage marinate in it themselves, affecting their own behavior and skewing their core values.

Which brings me to the uber repulsive Harvey Weinstein. I say that because, even if the accusations against him are untrue, the actions he admits to — adultery, cheating, bullying, make him a person that no person of good character will defend. But, as to whether he violated the law, we ought to wait on a court ruling. Due process requires it.

So, Roy, if you’re reading this, here’s the good news: we should all withhold judgment about the sexual assault allegations until you get a fair trial. And, here’s the bad news. There are those that have forgotten or do not care about due process with regards to politics.

The GOP proposed tax reform package has been released:

The GOP proposed tax reform package has been released:

The text of the GOP proposed tax reform package has finally been released -- and I want you to be among the first to know the details and how it will impact you and your family.

Months ago, conservatives began pressuring their lawmakers to ensure that tax reform followed five conservative principles. Here’s how the bill stacks up to those principles:

Lowering and Simplifying the Individual Tax Rates: The GOP proposal provides long overdue relief to millions of Americans by simplifying and lowering the individual tax rates to 12 percent, 25 percent, 35 percent and 39.6 percent. For married couples, the 25 percent rate starts at $90,000, the 35 percent rate starts at $260,000 and the top rate starts at $1 million. The bill will also double the standard deduction to $12,000 for individuals and $24,000 for families.

Lowering the Corporate Tax Rate: This bill will immediately lower the corporate rate to 20 percent -- the rate demanded by conservatives for months -- making American businesses more competitive with the rest of the world and providing hard working Americans with a much needed raise. Rates for small business pass throughs were also reduced by 15 percentage points, down to 25 percent.

Tax Free Entrepreneurship (Full Expensing): The GOP proposal includes full expensing for some investments that phases out after 5 years. This is a necessary boost to investment in the short-term, though improvements could be made as the process advances.

Establishing a Territorial Tax System: This bill attempts to eliminate the double taxation that defines our current worldwide tax system, though there are some provisions that could undermine the full value of that reform. Stay tuned for a more in-depth analysis.

Ending Cronyism in the Tax Code: Conservatives have also been fighting back against big-government special interest groups. The plan eliminates many special interest provisions including the State and Local Tax Deduction (SALT), though it allows a write off for property taxes. If not for conservative pushback, the swamp creatures would have been far more successful in defending the broken, corrupt status quo.

Here are some other things included in the bill you should know:

•                     Repeals the Alternative Minimum Tax

•                     Child tax credit goes to $1600 from $1000 plus additional $300 credit for parents and non-child dependents.

•                     State and local deduction converted to property tax deduction with $10K cap

•                     401k’s are untouched

•                     The Death Tax exemption will be doubled and eventually phased out after five years.

•                     Preserves the home mortgage interest deduction for current mortgages and limits the deduction to $500,000 for new mortgages.

•                     Preserves the Charitable Tax Deduction.

At first glance, the preliminary text released today has the potential to unleash economic growth, create American jobs, increase wages for American workers, allow families to keep more of their hard-earned money, and make U.S. businesses competitive across the globe.

According to documents released by Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee, a typical middle-income family of four, earning $59K (median household income), will receive a $1,182 tax cut under this bill.

The debate is just beginning, and we will continue to update you with developments and ways that you can impact the fight against the special interests and K Street lobbyists that will try to dismantle these reforms.

Dan Holler

Vice President

Heritage Action For America