US Replaced As Family Values Champion

Many potential conservative voters are less than inspired by the current field of presidential candidates claiming to represent their values. Many are mysteriously enamored of Fred Thompson’s possible candidacy, although a careful examination of his abortion views should make him no more appealing than avowed pro-choice candidate Rudy Giuliani. However, through its recent reports from the World Congress of Families conference held in Warsaw, Poland, World Net Daily inadvertently identified a leader who sets a high standard in defending traditional families, marriage, and national morality. Unfortunately, that leader is not eligible to hold office in America due to a slight technicality: he is Roman Giertych, Deputy Prime Minister of Poland. By all accounts he is busy doing a much better job of preserving family values in his country than any American politician can claim to be doing here.

The disintegration of the former Soviet Union and the release of Communism’s grip over Eastern Europe produced amazing results. The embrace of democracy in the Czech Republic and Poland in particular, has shifted power and alliances away from Russia into the welcoming arms of Western Europe and America. Russia now fears having two staunch American allies on its borders and continues to threaten the Czechs and Poles if either installs American anti-ballistic missile defense systems over Russia’s objection. To their credit, the Czech Republic and Poland have stood firm in the face of Russia’s threats. Neither country is intimidated by a loud powerful bully, or willing to blink in the stare down with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

One of the unexpected consequences of freedom and democracy in Poland is that these forces appear to have led to a new international ally for American and European conservatives in the fight for preservation of the family and traditional marriage, two pillars of human society currently under relentless assault from gay rights groups and their willing liberal accomplices. Just as the Poles stand firm against the Russians on ballistic missile defense, they are similarly holding the line as Europe’s primary bulwark against immorality in its various forms, particularly the growing acceptance of the “homosexual agenda” and pervasive pornography.

Tthe World Congress of Families recently held its conference in Warsaw, and as Europe and America increasingly quiver before the loud (but tiny) minority who clamor for gay marriage and liberal moral policies, WND reported that the Polish government is moving to ban what it perceives as homosexual propaganda from its schools, restrict circulation of pornography, and promote traditional family structures (a husband, wife and children) as “the hope for the entire world.” The Polish family values platform resembles in spirit and theory many GOP campaign slogans and stump speeches to conservative Christian audiences, with one notable exception: Polish government officials are actually legislating the rhetoric into reality, while America’s government and presidential candidates continue to “cut and run” whenever faced with the prospect of offending the gay rights lobby.

The following are a few choice statements on morality offered by Polish Deputy Prime Minister Roman Giertych, who also serves as Minister of Education. Imagine (if you can) any American politician courageously expressing these views:

"Pornography is evil; it is an evil that touches the family and threatens the development of young people," the deputy prime minister said. "Its circulation should be treated as a crime, because it ruins what is most virtuous in a human being."

Giertych, whose father and grandfather were prominent Polish politicians, says Poland is threatened by "various ideologies … that have nothing to do with the well-being of children, that promote attitudes which are not true to life."

"This world of permissiveness, of certain attitudes which promote homosexuality, which promote pornography, this world is coming to an end, because our civilization is built on virtues, on Roman law … on the Decalogue," said Giertych, according to an English interpretation. "This civilization has great strength for rebirth. The rebirth will take place in the family, not only in Europe, but in the entire world."

"Please don't let people shut you down," he said. "Please don't be convinced that others who are promoting lies are telling the truth. The truth is on our side."

"Let's never accept mommy and mommy or daddy and daddy," he said. "There is only one truth."

The Deputy Prime Minister’s remarks on abortion were equally compelling and forthright:

The world will never be free from dangers threatening the family, he said, if there are no rights in place protecting life from the very beginning until natural death.

"Today we need a great charter for the rights of the family and nations that defines the right to life, that would define abortion as murder," Giertych told the World Congress delegates. "Whether three months old or three months before birth, whether 60 or 90 years old, murder is always murder. It is always a crime."

Perhaps the best indication that the Polish government is bravely holding to traditional family values while the rest of Europe discards them comes from the angry reactions of gay rights groups. Robert Biedron, president of the Polish gay rights group Campaign Against Homophobia, lamented, “Poland is like an island drifting away from the rest of Europe.” Giertych is depicted on homosexual web sites as another Hitler, including nasty cartoons, superimposed photos, and headlines decrying him as a fascist, the same tactics employed against family values advocates in America. While Poland’s government often stands alone, mocked as homophobic or extremist by the rest of Europe, that will not prevent its leaders from continuing to legislate for and speak on behalf of what in America would be called “mainstream family values.”

Unlike America’s politicians, the Poles are not intimidated by organized bullying or labeling from small internal lobbyists or interest groups or the behemoth European Union government. After all, throughout Poland’s history, it has fought against impossible odds and bested its enemies, even when it took decades to achieve victory. WND interviewed Robert Knight of the Media Research Center, an organization dedicated to defending the family as an institution, who attended the World Congress of Families meetings in Warsaw. Knight made it clear that his group and all family-friendly organizations are and should be inspired by Poland’s willingness to stand alone while the European Union promotes abortion, homosexuality, and pornography. According to Knight:

"We have taken our courage in what the Poles are doing," he said. "This is a nation that has suffered enormously over many decades. First from Nazism and then communism. They're a tough bunch of people who appear to have the strength to resist especially the homosexual agenda.

"If you've been victim of communists and Nazis, you're not going to run in fright from the forces from San Francisco."

In Poland “political correctness” is trumped by moral correctness and its people vote accordingly. They have not yet accepted the destructive and fallacious belief that simply because a practice exists in society, concessions should be offered to placate those who engage in it, such as abortion or homosexuality. They have not yet given up their religious conviction that right and wrong do exist and can be readily identified and labeled appropriately. It was not foreseen that Poland, hidden behind the iron curtain for so long, would emerge as the world’s most outspoken and active advocate of the traditional family, marriage, the pro-life movement, and moral clarity on the evils of pornography. It is to America’s condemnation that international moral leadership on such issues does not come from America.

It speaks volumes that none of the current candidates for the 2008 presidential election have a resume on family values issues that would be acceptable to Polish voters. That their resumes are acceptable to American voters demonstrates that America has drifted along with Europe into the sea of secularism and it is steadily allowing itself to be influenced by cultural currents determined to pull it further away from Poland, the island stronghold of moral sanity.

Fast Cars, Women, and Cash for Iran

If you drive a DaimlerChrysler vehicle and fuel it at Shell gas stations, you are supporting pornography, terrorism, and Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons.

That may sound like a harsh accusation, and you likely were not aware that your purchases were benefiting pornographers and terrorists, but the sad truth is that DaimlerChrysler and Shell Oil Company are engaged in profitable business contracts with purveyors of lurid magazines and the world’s biggest sponsor of terrorism, Iran.

Let’s start with the double offender, Shell Oil. Shell’s cozy business relationship with Iran is well documented, and has grown in scope despite U.S.-led international efforts to isolate the radical Iranian government through anti-terror sanctions. Shell thumbed its nose once more at President Bush in January when it completed a multi-billion dollar deal with Iran to develop a massive natural gas field in that country, which the American government views as the world’s primary sponsor of global terrorism. While financial analysts applauded Shell’s pluck in forging ahead with the deal despite political pressure not to financially aid the mullahs, it should be noted that Shell’s fiercest competitor, BP, made the morally correct decision to not bid for the Iranian contract. If you have a choice between Shell or BP stations in your area, remember that the IEDs and suicide bombs killing Iraqi and American troops in Iraq are funded and manufactured by Iran, from oil money flowing into its coffers from Shell.

Ignoring international sanctions and doing business with terrorists would be reason enough to withhold your patronage of Shell. However, Shell appears to suffer significant moral bankruptcy fueled (no pun intended) by profit greed, and contracting with unsavory elements to increase already record revenues is a price Shell is willing to pay. Shell’s decisions may have given it the decidedly dubious honor of being the world’s only corporate joint sponsor of Islamic terrorism and pornography.

Major oil companies in the U.S. have long supported the policy of not selling pornography, including Playboy and Penthouse magazines, at branded gas stations. These oil companies have strict contractual arrangements with third party operators such as Circle K that prohibit the convenience stores at branded stations from selling pornography or face costly fines or breach of contract proceedings. As reported by World Net Daily, when the Florida Family Association contacted Shell to complain about the sale of Playboy and Penthouse magazines at Shell branded Circle K stores in the Southeast, Shell responded to the family organization by declaring that Playboy and similar magazines are not pornography. WND interviewed David Caton, Executive Director of the Florida Family Association:

The request, Caton told WND, has been made to more than a dozen major oil companies supplying fuel to nearly 150,000 outlets in the United States. And until now, Caton said, there has been virtually a 100 percent positive response.

"However, Shell Oil Company has decided instead to change their definition of pornography, unlike all other major oil companies, to exclude Penthouse and Playboy magazines which are sold by Circle K Stores," he said.

The confirmation came in an e-mail from Otto O. Meyers III, a Shell executive, who told the Florida Family Association those stores selling "Penthouse" are not selling pornography.

"In regard to your inquiry about specific Circle K locations, our investigation has concluded that these stores are not selling pornography as one would think the general public defines it, but rather 'adult sophisticate' magazines such as Playboy and Penthouse," Meyers wrote.

Caton said that puts Shell in a crowd of one among companies who "no longer consider the hardcore content of Penthouse and explicit nudity in Playboy to be pornographic. No other major oil company has taken this position". . . .

Caton said the new policy by Shell probably had been influenced by Circle K Store's recent purchase of 240 Shell branded retail locations.

After receiving this surprising rejection from Shell, Caton initiated an email campaign to encourage Shell to abandon its new liberal magazine policy:

"The e-mail calls on Shell Oil Company to follow the standards and definitions established and enforced by all other major oil companies regarding the sale of pornographic materials by strictly prohibiting the sale of Playboy, Penthouse and other magazines that feature full nudity and explicit sexual conduct at all Shell branded stations including Circle K Stores," Caton said.

The Florida Family Association previously has had positive responses from Amoco, Chevron, BP, Citgo, ConocoPhillips, Mobil, Murphy, Sunoco, and Texaco in its requests to ban pornography. An estimated 35,000 7-Eleven stores also have cooperated, as have another 20,000 locations run by Albertsons, Cumberland Farms, Eckerd Drugs, Farm Stores, Kash n Karry, Swifty mart, Tom Thumb and other companies.

Take note of these names of oil companies who are helping maintain community standards, make sure they are complying with their own policies, and give them your business. Most importantly, communicate to them why they are receiving your patronage rather than Shell. Pornography, in all its forms, has eroded the moral values of America for decades, and in today’s era of Internet subscriptions there is no reason for such products to be available or on display in convenience stores or any establishment often frequented by children and families. Circle K would be well advised to get on the values bandwagon and act unilaterally to remove these magazines regardless of whether Shell allows them or not.

Ironically, Islamic terrorists, according to Dinesh D’Souza’s book, allegedly want to kill us because of our decadent culture, yet they are gladly pocketing money from the only American oil company that offers pornographic magazines (which it does not consider pornography at all) to customers. I suspect that Ahmadinejad would accept money from Hugh Hefner himself and spend a weekend at the Playboy Mansion if it would help get more centrifuges online.

Now that you have decided to fuel your vehicle somewhere other than Shell, you may want to drive that DaimlerChrysler to your favorite dealer and trade it in for a truly American car, i.e. one whose maker does not provide Iran with vehicles and heavy machinery used to intimidate pro-western demonstrators.

Last month, FrontPage Magazine’s Ken Timmerman linked to some excellent photos of DaimlerChrysler’s investments in Iran that clearly demonstrate the uses to which the mullahs are putting this prized equipment. Timmerman wrote:

DaimlerChrysler has been expanding its operations in Iran in recent years, and recently opened an assembly line to build E-class vehicles in Iran. It also owns a factory that builds Mercedes-Benz diesel engines for trucks and buses under license.

In 2004, DaimlerChyrsler sold through a Saudi affiliate 270 Mercedes Benz commercial vehicles to Iran in a $22 million contract. Those vehicles have since been used by law enforcement authorities in Iran for riot control. A German prosecutor in Stuttgart opened an investigation into the sale.

DaimlerChrysler AG is the parent corporation of what used to be Chrysler Corporation here in the United States. The U.S. company has no legal or corporate responsibility for the sales of its parent to Iran.

Those sales are perfectly legal. But they are wrong.

Indeed, companies willing to ignore currently imposed sanctions against Iran are wrong to do so and are actively increasing the capabilities and resolve of a terror sponsoring nation, all in the name of profit margin. In December I wrote about “Terror-Free Investing,” and Timmerman recently encouraged readers to look into “Divest Terror,” a similar effort to demand that mutual fund managers, private industry 401k plans, and government retirement funds stop investing in companies doing business with terror sponsors. If you have not checked with your fund manager about whether your funds are invested in Iran or other state sponsors of terror, let this be your call to action.

You can start small by not buying gas from Shell or buying DaimlerChrysler products. Lest these companies not associate their declining sales with their ill-advised partnerships with Iran or pornography, make it clear to them through email, letters, or telephone calls why you are no longer a customer and how they can win back your patronage.