Saturday, January 17, 2009
Seventy Eight Members of US Congress Appeal to Obama to Retain Mexico City Policy
WASHINGTON, D.C., January 14, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A letter authored by US Congressman Doug Lamborn (Colorado) and signed by 77 additional Members of Congress (http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009_docs/mexicocitypolicyle...) is urging President-elect Obama not to overturn the Mexico City Policy. It is widely expected that one of Barack Obama’s first actions as President will be to overturn the Reagan-era policy that prohibits American tax dollars from going to abortion-performing organizations in other countries.In the letter the Congressmen state, "Based on a document posted on your transition website, proponents of abortion are calling for you to overturn Mexico City Policy. However, we urge you to retain this significant position. First developed in the Reagan Administration, this policy is important because it establishes a bright line between family planning activities and abortion, therefore ensuring that United States family planning funds are not co-opted by groups who promote abortion as a method of family planning."The letter emphasizes the responsiblity of the United States to respect the sovereignty of other nations on this matter. It states, "We also have a responsibility to respect the laws of many developing countries who have laws prohibiting or restricting abortion. It is an insult to fund organizations that are intent on overturning those laws by promoting the Western ideology of abortion on demand."(more)
Those who profess to love God, but back abortion, are liars
From the Sentinel:
...The reason for the increased awareness and even concern on the part of the pro-life community is the specter of the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) which is highly rumored to be in the works at the federal level. It is this act which has stimulated the bishops of the United States to launch a massive postcard campaign calling upon the House and Senate to abandon FOCA. While further details about the dramatic impact of FOCA on our American culture can be found in many places, I will simply say that it would establish abortion as a federally protected right and, as I understand it, preclude state limitation or regulation of abortion. Further, since abortion would be a federally protected right, it is very possible that even Catholic health care institutions and Catholic Physicians would be mandated to provide this heinous service.
Thus I strongly urge all who have a glimmer of concern for the lives of pre-born children to engage themselves in this postcard campaign. This is not an action which would limit or alter present permissive abortion laws, which some so-called Catholic pro-choice persons might object to, it would simply preclude a dramatic expansion of that permissiveness. Thus it would be very difficult for any Catholic, no matter how much in favor of abortion itself, to find a reason to refuse to participate in this campaign. At the same time, I do not see how any Catholic senator or representative could vote for the passage of FOCA without recognizing that such a vote would constitute a direct and intentional declaration of their disdain for Catholic teaching. Such a vote would be tantamount to a public declaration of their intention to abandon the Catholic faith...(more)
...The reason for the increased awareness and even concern on the part of the pro-life community is the specter of the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) which is highly rumored to be in the works at the federal level. It is this act which has stimulated the bishops of the United States to launch a massive postcard campaign calling upon the House and Senate to abandon FOCA. While further details about the dramatic impact of FOCA on our American culture can be found in many places, I will simply say that it would establish abortion as a federally protected right and, as I understand it, preclude state limitation or regulation of abortion. Further, since abortion would be a federally protected right, it is very possible that even Catholic health care institutions and Catholic Physicians would be mandated to provide this heinous service.
Thus I strongly urge all who have a glimmer of concern for the lives of pre-born children to engage themselves in this postcard campaign. This is not an action which would limit or alter present permissive abortion laws, which some so-called Catholic pro-choice persons might object to, it would simply preclude a dramatic expansion of that permissiveness. Thus it would be very difficult for any Catholic, no matter how much in favor of abortion itself, to find a reason to refuse to participate in this campaign. At the same time, I do not see how any Catholic senator or representative could vote for the passage of FOCA without recognizing that such a vote would constitute a direct and intentional declaration of their disdain for Catholic teaching. Such a vote would be tantamount to a public declaration of their intention to abandon the Catholic faith...(more)
Friday, January 16, 2009
Dueling Java- Dueling Science
Some good news about coffee....on the other hand....
Coffee Strong Enough to Ward Off Dementia?
Moderate Coffee Drinking Reduces Risk of Dementia and Alzheimer’s by 65% in Study
Those who drank three to five cups of coffee per day in midlife were much less likely to have developed dementia or Alzheimer's in follow-up checks two decades or more later, the researchers say in the January issue of the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease...
Coffee-induced hallucinations? Caffeinated co-eds hear voices, study says
But the Durham University researchers acknowledge that their study of 219 coeds doesn’t prove that caffeine, a stimulant in coffee, actually caused them to hallucinate. For instance, the students who reported hearing voices may have had psychological disorders and been chuggingcups of, in this case, instant coffee to help them cope with symptoms, write study co-authors Charles Fernyhough, a developmental psychologist, and grad student Simon Jones.
Some previous research has found that reducing or eliminating caffeinated coffee from the diets of schizophrenics reduces their hallucinations, but other studies haven’t replicated those findings, they note.
And then we have this bit of, well, I'm not sure what you'd call it, from the BBC News:
Personally I think the Tea Association has something to do with all this but I have no proof. Think I'll go brew a cupa Earl:
Cut caffeine, pregnant women told
Caffeine 'could help prevent MS'
Decaf coffee cuts diabetes risk
Decaf coffee linked to heart risk
One cup of coffee a day 'risky'
Coffee 'protects female memory'
Coffee 'raises miscarriage risk'
Coffee and exercise 'save skin'
One cup of coffee a day 'risky'
Coffee may help relieve gym pain
Coffee knocks out women's pain
Coffee 'boosts female sex drive'
Coffee Strong Enough to Ward Off Dementia?
Moderate Coffee Drinking Reduces Risk of Dementia and Alzheimer’s by 65% in Study
Those who drank three to five cups of coffee per day in midlife were much less likely to have developed dementia or Alzheimer's in follow-up checks two decades or more later, the researchers say in the January issue of the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease...
Coffee-induced hallucinations? Caffeinated co-eds hear voices, study says
But the Durham University researchers acknowledge that their study of 219 coeds doesn’t prove that caffeine, a stimulant in coffee, actually caused them to hallucinate. For instance, the students who reported hearing voices may have had psychological disorders and been chuggingcups of, in this case, instant coffee to help them cope with symptoms, write study co-authors Charles Fernyhough, a developmental psychologist, and grad student Simon Jones.
Some previous research has found that reducing or eliminating caffeinated coffee from the diets of schizophrenics reduces their hallucinations, but other studies haven’t replicated those findings, they note.
And then we have this bit of, well, I'm not sure what you'd call it, from the BBC News:
Personally I think the Tea Association has something to do with all this but I have no proof. Think I'll go brew a cupa Earl:
Cut caffeine, pregnant women told
Caffeine 'could help prevent MS'
Decaf coffee cuts diabetes risk
Decaf coffee linked to heart risk
One cup of coffee a day 'risky'
Coffee 'protects female memory'
Coffee 'raises miscarriage risk'
Coffee and exercise 'save skin'
One cup of coffee a day 'risky'
Coffee may help relieve gym pain
Coffee knocks out women's pain
Coffee 'boosts female sex drive'
'Atlas Shrugged': From Fiction to Fact in 52 Years
NO room on the bookshelf (thanks JM) but interesting for it's take on our present economics...
From the WSJ:
...For the uninitiated, the moral of the story is simply this: Politicians invariably respond to crises -- that in most cases they themselves created -- by spawning new government programs, laws and regulations. These, in turn, generate more havoc and poverty, which inspires the politicians to create more programs . . . and the downward spiral repeats itself until the productive sectors of the economy collapse under the collective weight of taxes and other burdens imposed in the name of fairness, equality and do-goodism.
In the book, these relentless wealth redistributionists and their programs are disparaged as "the looters and their laws." Every new act of government futility and stupidity carries with it a benevolent-sounding title. These include the "Anti-Greed Act" to redistribute income (sounds like Charlie Rangel's promises soak-the-rich tax bill) and the "Equalization of Opportunity Act" to prevent people from starting more than one business (to give other people a chance). My personal favorite, the "Anti Dog-Eat-Dog Act," aims to restrict cut-throat competition between firms and thus slow the wave of business bankruptcies. Why didn't Hank Paulson think of that?
These acts and edicts sound farcical, yes, but no more so than the actual events in Washington, circa 2008. We already have been served up the $700 billion "Emergency Economic Stabilization Act" and the "Auto Industry Financing and Restructuring Act."
Now that Barack Obama is in town, he will soon sign into law with great urgency the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan." This latest Hail Mary pass will increase the federal budget (which has already expanded by $1.5 trillion in eight years under George Bush) by an additional $1 trillion -- in roughly his first 100 days in office.
The current economic strategy is right out of "Atlas Shrugged": The more incompetent you are in business, the more handouts the politicians will bestow on you. That's the justification for the $2 trillion of subsidies doled out already to keep afloat distressed insurance companies, banks, Wall Street investment houses, and auto companies -- while standing next in line for their share of the booty are real-estate developers, the steel industry, chemical companies, airlines, ethanol producers, construction firms and even catfish farmers. With each successive bailout to "calm the markets," another trillion of national wealth is subsequently lost. Yet, as "Atlas" grimly foretold, we now treat the incompetent who wreck their companies as victims, while those resourceful business owners who manage to make a profit are portrayed as recipients of illegitimate "windfalls."...(more)
From the WSJ:
...For the uninitiated, the moral of the story is simply this: Politicians invariably respond to crises -- that in most cases they themselves created -- by spawning new government programs, laws and regulations. These, in turn, generate more havoc and poverty, which inspires the politicians to create more programs . . . and the downward spiral repeats itself until the productive sectors of the economy collapse under the collective weight of taxes and other burdens imposed in the name of fairness, equality and do-goodism.
In the book, these relentless wealth redistributionists and their programs are disparaged as "the looters and their laws." Every new act of government futility and stupidity carries with it a benevolent-sounding title. These include the "Anti-Greed Act" to redistribute income (sounds like Charlie Rangel's promises soak-the-rich tax bill) and the "Equalization of Opportunity Act" to prevent people from starting more than one business (to give other people a chance). My personal favorite, the "Anti Dog-Eat-Dog Act," aims to restrict cut-throat competition between firms and thus slow the wave of business bankruptcies. Why didn't Hank Paulson think of that?
These acts and edicts sound farcical, yes, but no more so than the actual events in Washington, circa 2008. We already have been served up the $700 billion "Emergency Economic Stabilization Act" and the "Auto Industry Financing and Restructuring Act."
Now that Barack Obama is in town, he will soon sign into law with great urgency the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan." This latest Hail Mary pass will increase the federal budget (which has already expanded by $1.5 trillion in eight years under George Bush) by an additional $1 trillion -- in roughly his first 100 days in office.
The current economic strategy is right out of "Atlas Shrugged": The more incompetent you are in business, the more handouts the politicians will bestow on you. That's the justification for the $2 trillion of subsidies doled out already to keep afloat distressed insurance companies, banks, Wall Street investment houses, and auto companies -- while standing next in line for their share of the booty are real-estate developers, the steel industry, chemical companies, airlines, ethanol producers, construction firms and even catfish farmers. With each successive bailout to "calm the markets," another trillion of national wealth is subsequently lost. Yet, as "Atlas" grimly foretold, we now treat the incompetent who wreck their companies as victims, while those resourceful business owners who manage to make a profit are portrayed as recipients of illegitimate "windfalls."...(more)
Got to keep the loonies on the path-Latest global warming "news"
You remember the line above from Pink Floyd, right? OK, I'm old, but here we see real life examples of global warming loonies...
All from the Telegraph:
Paint cities white to tackle global warming, scientist says
Roads and buildings should be painted white in order to tackle global warming, according to a scientist.
Ice age atmosphere was 'warm', claim scientists
A warm atmosphere rich in carbon dioxide may have surrounded the Earth in an ancient ice age, new research has suggested.
Plan to investigate using giant mirrors to reverse global warming
Falling sea level upsets theory of global warming
Acid seas 'will kill off coral within 70 years' -Which is fine excepat that reports from Australia say the reefs are doing just fine thank-you...
And then the real scary part:
Blue sky tinkering
Scientists fighting global warming are now considering wacky ways of deliberately manipulating the environment to control the world's climate. Philip Sherwell in New York reports on the schemes that were once dismissed as the work of crackpots
Trillions of tiny sunshades orbiting in space; a mirror 150 miles high stationed between Earth and the sun; clouds sprayed with seawater; planes pumping sulphates into the stratosphere. They may sound to a layman like the weird and wacky fantasies of an eccentric bunch of boffins, but such ambitious plans for cooling the planet are now rapidly gaining credibility in the querulous world of climate science.
and these:
James Lovelock's plan to pump ocean water to stop climate change
Global warming fix could damage ozone layer
Global warming 'cure' found by scientists
All from the Telegraph:
Paint cities white to tackle global warming, scientist says
Roads and buildings should be painted white in order to tackle global warming, according to a scientist.
Ice age atmosphere was 'warm', claim scientists
A warm atmosphere rich in carbon dioxide may have surrounded the Earth in an ancient ice age, new research has suggested.
Plan to investigate using giant mirrors to reverse global warming
Falling sea level upsets theory of global warming
Acid seas 'will kill off coral within 70 years' -Which is fine excepat that reports from Australia say the reefs are doing just fine thank-you...
And then the real scary part:
Blue sky tinkering
Scientists fighting global warming are now considering wacky ways of deliberately manipulating the environment to control the world's climate. Philip Sherwell in New York reports on the schemes that were once dismissed as the work of crackpots
Trillions of tiny sunshades orbiting in space; a mirror 150 miles high stationed between Earth and the sun; clouds sprayed with seawater; planes pumping sulphates into the stratosphere. They may sound to a layman like the weird and wacky fantasies of an eccentric bunch of boffins, but such ambitious plans for cooling the planet are now rapidly gaining credibility in the querulous world of climate science.
and these:
James Lovelock's plan to pump ocean water to stop climate change
Global warming fix could damage ozone layer
Global warming 'cure' found by scientists
Our Commander-in-Chief, Too
From NRO:
Conservative vets will give Obama the chance Democrats denied Bush
...The slow erosion of a “country first” ethos—prominent in the politicization of some Iraq and Afghanistan veterans at home—comes at a high cost for the military, most significantly and consequentially in the eyes of the general public. When politicized, the military becomes a predictable messenger for a partisan camp rather than a personal and passionate messenger for the best tactical and strategic national-security policy. Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan are ambassadors for the military and those still serving—and our actions shape public perceptions of our profession.As the famous military theorist Carl von Clausewitz once observed, “War is the continuation of politics by other means.” For our generation, the inverse of that statement—politics a continuation of war by other means—is also true. Some veterans, and others invested in America’s conflicts, have turned the policies of war overseas into a zero-sum political battlefield for public opinion at home.As conditions in Iraq deteriorated, any semblance of dispassionate advocacy on the war evaporated. Anti-war veterans' groups seized on the situation and Iraq became “George Bush’s war,” rather than our war. And when conditions worsened considerably, prospects for battlefield success became linked to disdain for President Bush. For many veterans, defiance of the commander-in-chief started to look like a duty.
I, too, was frustrated by the conduct of the war when I returned from Iraq in mid-2006, and advocated a new strategy. Had America continued a fundamentally flawed policy—at the cost of even more lives—I would have constructively opposed those who decided upon such a continuation. But with the new surge strategy, the opposite occurred. America changed course in Iraq, and the war turned around. The test of intellectual honesty was thrust into the laps of those veterans who, nonetheless, continued to call the war a failure. Too many failed the test. Success on the ground in Iraq was politically damaging to their cause, and those veterans—aligned with many Democrats—ceaselessly took shots at President Bush, willing to sink the chances for their comrades in arms in order to sully a Republican president....(more)
Conservative vets will give Obama the chance Democrats denied Bush
...The slow erosion of a “country first” ethos—prominent in the politicization of some Iraq and Afghanistan veterans at home—comes at a high cost for the military, most significantly and consequentially in the eyes of the general public. When politicized, the military becomes a predictable messenger for a partisan camp rather than a personal and passionate messenger for the best tactical and strategic national-security policy. Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan are ambassadors for the military and those still serving—and our actions shape public perceptions of our profession.As the famous military theorist Carl von Clausewitz once observed, “War is the continuation of politics by other means.” For our generation, the inverse of that statement—politics a continuation of war by other means—is also true. Some veterans, and others invested in America’s conflicts, have turned the policies of war overseas into a zero-sum political battlefield for public opinion at home.As conditions in Iraq deteriorated, any semblance of dispassionate advocacy on the war evaporated. Anti-war veterans' groups seized on the situation and Iraq became “George Bush’s war,” rather than our war. And when conditions worsened considerably, prospects for battlefield success became linked to disdain for President Bush. For many veterans, defiance of the commander-in-chief started to look like a duty.
I, too, was frustrated by the conduct of the war when I returned from Iraq in mid-2006, and advocated a new strategy. Had America continued a fundamentally flawed policy—at the cost of even more lives—I would have constructively opposed those who decided upon such a continuation. But with the new surge strategy, the opposite occurred. America changed course in Iraq, and the war turned around. The test of intellectual honesty was thrust into the laps of those veterans who, nonetheless, continued to call the war a failure. Too many failed the test. Success on the ground in Iraq was politically damaging to their cause, and those veterans—aligned with many Democrats—ceaselessly took shots at President Bush, willing to sink the chances for their comrades in arms in order to sully a Republican president....(more)
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Thin Spots, Windows, and Undeceptions
From RZIM:
The well-read collection of essays written by C.S. Lewis and compiled posthumously in the book God in the Dock was originally published in England under a different title. The book was titled Undeceptions.
“Undeception” was the word Lewis used to describe a startling experience of awareness--moments when deception is uncovered and the cause is seen clearly from within, moments when blind spots are replaced with reality. He was taken with these awakenings or undeceptions in many of the characters of Jane Austen. In much of Austen's work, he observes, “[T]he undeception...is the very pivot or watershed of the story.”(1)
Lewis would unquestionably state the same of our own stories. “Undeception” was no doubt a word that fittingly described his startling experience of being brought into the kingdom kicking and screaming, the most reluctant convert in all England. It was that experience through which he saw himself, the world, and its Creator for the rest of his life. Encountering God, we start to recognize our own blind spots. “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it” woke Jacob to his own deception (Gen. 28:16). He didn't wake up declaring that the God who was once absent had now appeared. He said, “God was here all along and I was the one who didn’t see it.” A friend of mine refers to pivotal encounters like Jacob’s dream as “thin spots”--moments in life where the nearness of God is nearly palpable. Other theologians describe such encounters as openings or baptisms, windows or transcendence. Still others give testimonies similar to the man born blind in ancient Jerusalem. Forced to explain to the Pharisees the unexplainable moment he had with Jesus, he mustered the only words he could think to describe it: “Only one thing I do know. I was blind but now I see” (John 9:25).
In his book Grace Abounding, John Bunyan describes a day when he was inexplicably released from doubt and despair. While passing through a field, troubled in conscience and fearing that all was not right, the sentence fell upon his soul: “Thy righteousness is in heaven.” (See Psalm 85:11b). Writes Bunyan, “I thought I saw with the eyes of my soul Jesus Christ at God’s right hand. There was my righteousness. Wherever I was, or whatever I was doing, God could not say of me that I lacked his righteousness, for that was ever before Him. Moreover, I saw that it was not my good frame of heart that made my righteousness better, nor my bad frame that made it worse, for my righteousness was Jesus Christ himself.”(2)
Not surprisingly, Bunyan's encounter is one described in a small book recommended by Dallas Willard called Deeper Experiences of Famous Christians by James Lawson. In the book that was for him an experience of undeception, Willard notes the quality that moved him in each account of unmistakable, life-changing clarity. Lawson’s “famous Christians” were not seeking experiences of self-awareness or even experiences with God. They were seeking the Lord, his kingdom, and his holiness, and in seeking found it all.
This is not to be overlooked or seen as easy or even painless. A person that is willing to put even his or her vision of life into God’s hands, watching as He prepares a fearful concoction of spit and mud, is a soul that seeks Him with courage. Self-deception is a difficult thing to own up to, and far too often it is easier to see the deception in others than it is to see in ourselves. The blinders we walk with through life, God in his mercy must remove. Opening our reluctant eyes, the Father shows us with his radiance the darkness we’ve been squinting in, even as He prepares us to see.
In Bunyan and in Lewis, in the lives of Christians throughout history, the defining characteristic of their encounters with God was their willingness (even reluctant willingness) to see the deceptions within themselves and to bring these deceptions back to the feet of the one who made them visible. His love and mercy are to our lives the shining undeceptions that unwearyingly move us to see.
Have any of you ever had one of these "thin spots, windows or undeceptions"? And would you care to share them with us?
The well-read collection of essays written by C.S. Lewis and compiled posthumously in the book God in the Dock was originally published in England under a different title. The book was titled Undeceptions.
“Undeception” was the word Lewis used to describe a startling experience of awareness--moments when deception is uncovered and the cause is seen clearly from within, moments when blind spots are replaced with reality. He was taken with these awakenings or undeceptions in many of the characters of Jane Austen. In much of Austen's work, he observes, “[T]he undeception...is the very pivot or watershed of the story.”(1)
Lewis would unquestionably state the same of our own stories. “Undeception” was no doubt a word that fittingly described his startling experience of being brought into the kingdom kicking and screaming, the most reluctant convert in all England. It was that experience through which he saw himself, the world, and its Creator for the rest of his life. Encountering God, we start to recognize our own blind spots. “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it” woke Jacob to his own deception (Gen. 28:16). He didn't wake up declaring that the God who was once absent had now appeared. He said, “God was here all along and I was the one who didn’t see it.” A friend of mine refers to pivotal encounters like Jacob’s dream as “thin spots”--moments in life where the nearness of God is nearly palpable. Other theologians describe such encounters as openings or baptisms, windows or transcendence. Still others give testimonies similar to the man born blind in ancient Jerusalem. Forced to explain to the Pharisees the unexplainable moment he had with Jesus, he mustered the only words he could think to describe it: “Only one thing I do know. I was blind but now I see” (John 9:25).
In his book Grace Abounding, John Bunyan describes a day when he was inexplicably released from doubt and despair. While passing through a field, troubled in conscience and fearing that all was not right, the sentence fell upon his soul: “Thy righteousness is in heaven.” (See Psalm 85:11b). Writes Bunyan, “I thought I saw with the eyes of my soul Jesus Christ at God’s right hand. There was my righteousness. Wherever I was, or whatever I was doing, God could not say of me that I lacked his righteousness, for that was ever before Him. Moreover, I saw that it was not my good frame of heart that made my righteousness better, nor my bad frame that made it worse, for my righteousness was Jesus Christ himself.”(2)
Not surprisingly, Bunyan's encounter is one described in a small book recommended by Dallas Willard called Deeper Experiences of Famous Christians by James Lawson. In the book that was for him an experience of undeception, Willard notes the quality that moved him in each account of unmistakable, life-changing clarity. Lawson’s “famous Christians” were not seeking experiences of self-awareness or even experiences with God. They were seeking the Lord, his kingdom, and his holiness, and in seeking found it all.
This is not to be overlooked or seen as easy or even painless. A person that is willing to put even his or her vision of life into God’s hands, watching as He prepares a fearful concoction of spit and mud, is a soul that seeks Him with courage. Self-deception is a difficult thing to own up to, and far too often it is easier to see the deception in others than it is to see in ourselves. The blinders we walk with through life, God in his mercy must remove. Opening our reluctant eyes, the Father shows us with his radiance the darkness we’ve been squinting in, even as He prepares us to see.
In Bunyan and in Lewis, in the lives of Christians throughout history, the defining characteristic of their encounters with God was their willingness (even reluctant willingness) to see the deceptions within themselves and to bring these deceptions back to the feet of the one who made them visible. His love and mercy are to our lives the shining undeceptions that unwearyingly move us to see.
Have any of you ever had one of these "thin spots, windows or undeceptions"? And would you care to share them with us?
$3.7 Million for Virginity...How Much for One's Soul?
To raise money for college, a young woman is auctioning her virginity. The current bid is $3.7 million.
Story here.
Story here.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
The Time Clock Has Run Out: Israel Ready to Strike Iran
I find it difficult to believe that Israel would launch an attack on Iran while cleaning up Gaza, still...
From NewsMax:
Informed sources in Washington tell Newsmax that Israel indeed will launch a strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities soon – possibly in just days as President George W. Bush prepares to leave office.
The reason: The time clock has begun to run out. Iran is close to acquiring a nuclear device under the control of its radical president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Mohamed ElBaradei said in June that Iran would have a nuclear weapon in as little as six months.
That six-month period has passed. (more)
From NewsMax:
Informed sources in Washington tell Newsmax that Israel indeed will launch a strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities soon – possibly in just days as President George W. Bush prepares to leave office.
The reason: The time clock has begun to run out. Iran is close to acquiring a nuclear device under the control of its radical president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Mohamed ElBaradei said in June that Iran would have a nuclear weapon in as little as six months.
That six-month period has passed. (more)
"always winter but never Christmas"-the bigotry of the press toward Christianity
From American Spect:
...Fans of C.S. Lewis' "Narnia" series will immediately recognize that phrase -- "always winter but never Christmas" -- as the situation that prevailed in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (henceforth LWW) before the return to the land of Narnia of Aslan, the great lion-Christ. But consider the phrase more broadly and metaphorically. The establishment media continues to give copious evidence of ignorance of, and often outright hostility to, Western religion and to the moral values shaped by it. Their ignorance and hostility is unprofessional, and it is despicable. A reader could be excused for often getting the impression that, like the White Witch, the establishment media would love to turn all believers to stone and keep us from ever celebrating Christmas -- or Easter, or (for that matter) any Jewish observance, either, unless treated as merely a cultural observance rather than a true religious celebration. ...
...NINE DAYS AFTER the Post's one-two punch, the Wall Street Journal ran a book review by Vincent Carroll of the Rocky Mountain News of a book called Blind Spot, a collection of essays well described by the book's subtitle: "When Journalists Don't Get Religion." Carroll cites a number of the book's examples of journalists treating faith and religion with about the same level of understanding as an ordinary American would show for Egyptian hieroglyphics. When jihadist terrorists, for example, target Jewish centers or kill Christian hostages while sparing Muslim ones, news outlets such as the New York Times or CNN International proclaim that the terrorists' motives were unclear.
As an example of missing the obvious, that's akin to reporting that it is unclear why Red Sox fans boo when a Yankee star steps to the plate. But for the establishment media, it's a common occurrence. The media not only fails to understand basic things about religions and the motives of various religiously driven newsmakers, but doesn't even appear to want to understand.
As Carroll concludes in his review, the result isn't merely a snubbing of the faithful, but a failure of basic standards of journalistic competence. Failure at least to understand religion and to take it seriously means, Carroll writes, that "the news media will continue to miss a vast dimension of mankind's story." ...
...Fans of C.S. Lewis' "Narnia" series will immediately recognize that phrase -- "always winter but never Christmas" -- as the situation that prevailed in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (henceforth LWW) before the return to the land of Narnia of Aslan, the great lion-Christ. But consider the phrase more broadly and metaphorically. The establishment media continues to give copious evidence of ignorance of, and often outright hostility to, Western religion and to the moral values shaped by it. Their ignorance and hostility is unprofessional, and it is despicable. A reader could be excused for often getting the impression that, like the White Witch, the establishment media would love to turn all believers to stone and keep us from ever celebrating Christmas -- or Easter, or (for that matter) any Jewish observance, either, unless treated as merely a cultural observance rather than a true religious celebration. ...
...NINE DAYS AFTER the Post's one-two punch, the Wall Street Journal ran a book review by Vincent Carroll of the Rocky Mountain News of a book called Blind Spot, a collection of essays well described by the book's subtitle: "When Journalists Don't Get Religion." Carroll cites a number of the book's examples of journalists treating faith and religion with about the same level of understanding as an ordinary American would show for Egyptian hieroglyphics. When jihadist terrorists, for example, target Jewish centers or kill Christian hostages while sparing Muslim ones, news outlets such as the New York Times or CNN International proclaim that the terrorists' motives were unclear.
As an example of missing the obvious, that's akin to reporting that it is unclear why Red Sox fans boo when a Yankee star steps to the plate. But for the establishment media, it's a common occurrence. The media not only fails to understand basic things about religions and the motives of various religiously driven newsmakers, but doesn't even appear to want to understand.
As Carroll concludes in his review, the result isn't merely a snubbing of the faithful, but a failure of basic standards of journalistic competence. Failure at least to understand religion and to take it seriously means, Carroll writes, that "the news media will continue to miss a vast dimension of mankind's story." ...
Proof at last ... aliens in UFOs are far more intelligent than we are
On windmills and lightbulbs from Peter Hitchens at the Mail Online:
If visitors from another galaxy really are going round destroying wind turbines, then it is the proof we have been waiting for that aliens are more intelligent than we are.
The swivel-eyed, intolerant cult, which endlessly shrieks – without proof – that global warming is man-made, has produced many sad effects. The collapse of proper education has made two whole generations vulnerable to rubbishy fads.
But the disfiguring of the country with useless windmills, and the insane plan to ban proper light bulbs, are supreme triumphs of this dimwit pseudo-religion.
Both schemes override facts and logic. During the current cold spell, observant persons will have noticed that there has been very little wind, a rather common combination. Thus, at a time of great need for power, wind turbines would be almost entirely useless for producing electricity.
They’re pretty feeble anyway. Even when they are working, sensible power stations have to be kept spinning, so that they can be flung into gear at short notice if the wind drops.
Yet, over the objections of reasonable protesters fearing for the ruined landscape, or dreading the annoying whine and whirr, the authorities have marched over the once-lovely hills and moors of Britain, planting grotesque and futile engines.
In intervals between erecting these daft objects, the Government (influenced by the awful EU) has also colluded in a plan to stop the sale of traditional light bulbs.
This is even though the supposed replacements are expensive, don’t reduce electricity use anything like as much as claimed, won’t fit many existing lamps, won’t work with dimmers, in many cases give off a light as cheery and bright as the baleful glow emitted by a decomposing dingo, won’t work in fridges, don’t last as long as claimed, and when they do go phut, must be disposed of with tongs because they contain deadly mercury vapour.
This is the price we pay for fanaticism, and for a low-grade political class without the courage to stand up against it. True, it takes a little nerve to oppose this lobby. But if you don’t have that sort of nerve, you shouldn’t be in politics in the first place.
If visitors from another galaxy really are going round destroying wind turbines, then it is the proof we have been waiting for that aliens are more intelligent than we are.
The swivel-eyed, intolerant cult, which endlessly shrieks – without proof – that global warming is man-made, has produced many sad effects. The collapse of proper education has made two whole generations vulnerable to rubbishy fads.
But the disfiguring of the country with useless windmills, and the insane plan to ban proper light bulbs, are supreme triumphs of this dimwit pseudo-religion.
Both schemes override facts and logic. During the current cold spell, observant persons will have noticed that there has been very little wind, a rather common combination. Thus, at a time of great need for power, wind turbines would be almost entirely useless for producing electricity.
They’re pretty feeble anyway. Even when they are working, sensible power stations have to be kept spinning, so that they can be flung into gear at short notice if the wind drops.
Yet, over the objections of reasonable protesters fearing for the ruined landscape, or dreading the annoying whine and whirr, the authorities have marched over the once-lovely hills and moors of Britain, planting grotesque and futile engines.
In intervals between erecting these daft objects, the Government (influenced by the awful EU) has also colluded in a plan to stop the sale of traditional light bulbs.
This is even though the supposed replacements are expensive, don’t reduce electricity use anything like as much as claimed, won’t fit many existing lamps, won’t work with dimmers, in many cases give off a light as cheery and bright as the baleful glow emitted by a decomposing dingo, won’t work in fridges, don’t last as long as claimed, and when they do go phut, must be disposed of with tongs because they contain deadly mercury vapour.
This is the price we pay for fanaticism, and for a low-grade political class without the courage to stand up against it. True, it takes a little nerve to oppose this lobby. But if you don’t have that sort of nerve, you shouldn’t be in politics in the first place.
Obama Crticism A Downer
From WND/Coulter:
...an NBC insider told The Drudge Report: "We are just not interested in anyone so highly critical of President-elect Obama, right now," explaining that "it's such a downer. It's just not the time, and it's not what our audience wants, either."
In point of fact, I'm not particularly critical of Obama in my new book. I'm critical of the media for behaving like a protection racket for Obama rather than the constitutionally protected guardians of our liberty that they claim to be. So I think what the NBC insider meant to say is that NBC is not interested in anyone so highly critical of NBC right now. It's such a downer, it's just not the time, and it's not what their audience wants right now, either. ...
...When the Obama family materialized, the media were seized by a mass psychosis that hadn't been witnessed since Beatlemania. OK! magazine raved that the Obamas "are such an all-American family that they almost make the Brady Bunch look dysfunctional." Yes, who can forget the madcap episode when the Bradys' wacky preacher tells them the government created AIDS to kill blacks! ...
...Months before network anchors were interrogating vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin on the intricacies of foreign policy, here is how NBC's Brian Williams mercilessly grilled presidential candidate Barack Obama: "What was it like for you last night, the part we couldn't see, the flight to St. Paul with your wife, knowing what was awaiting?"
Twisting the knife he had just plunged into Obama, Williams followed up with what has come to be known as a "gotcha" question: "And you had to be thinking of your mother and your father." Sarah Palin was memorizing the last six kings of Swaziland for her media interviews, but Obama only needed to say something nice about his parents to be considered presidential material.
The media's fawning over Obama knew no bounds, and yet, in the midst of the most incredible media conspiracy to turn this jug-eared clodhopper into some combination of Winston Churchill and a young Elvis, you were being a bore if you mentioned the liberal media. Oh surely we've exploded that old chestnut. ... Look! Look, Obama just lit up another Marlboro! Geez, does smoking make you look cool, or what! Yeah, Obama!
The claim that there's no such thing as a left-wing press is a patent lie said to enrage conservatives. Newspapers read like the press under Kim Jong-il, which, outside of a police state, looks foolish. The prose is straight out of The Daily Worker, full of triumphal rhetoric with implicit exclamation points. Still, their chanted slogans fill your brain, like one of those bad songs you can't stop humming. ...(more)
...an NBC insider told The Drudge Report: "We are just not interested in anyone so highly critical of President-elect Obama, right now," explaining that "it's such a downer. It's just not the time, and it's not what our audience wants, either."
In point of fact, I'm not particularly critical of Obama in my new book. I'm critical of the media for behaving like a protection racket for Obama rather than the constitutionally protected guardians of our liberty that they claim to be. So I think what the NBC insider meant to say is that NBC is not interested in anyone so highly critical of NBC right now. It's such a downer, it's just not the time, and it's not what their audience wants right now, either. ...
...When the Obama family materialized, the media were seized by a mass psychosis that hadn't been witnessed since Beatlemania. OK! magazine raved that the Obamas "are such an all-American family that they almost make the Brady Bunch look dysfunctional." Yes, who can forget the madcap episode when the Bradys' wacky preacher tells them the government created AIDS to kill blacks! ...
...Months before network anchors were interrogating vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin on the intricacies of foreign policy, here is how NBC's Brian Williams mercilessly grilled presidential candidate Barack Obama: "What was it like for you last night, the part we couldn't see, the flight to St. Paul with your wife, knowing what was awaiting?"
Twisting the knife he had just plunged into Obama, Williams followed up with what has come to be known as a "gotcha" question: "And you had to be thinking of your mother and your father." Sarah Palin was memorizing the last six kings of Swaziland for her media interviews, but Obama only needed to say something nice about his parents to be considered presidential material.
The media's fawning over Obama knew no bounds, and yet, in the midst of the most incredible media conspiracy to turn this jug-eared clodhopper into some combination of Winston Churchill and a young Elvis, you were being a bore if you mentioned the liberal media. Oh surely we've exploded that old chestnut. ... Look! Look, Obama just lit up another Marlboro! Geez, does smoking make you look cool, or what! Yeah, Obama!
The claim that there's no such thing as a left-wing press is a patent lie said to enrage conservatives. Newspapers read like the press under Kim Jong-il, which, outside of a police state, looks foolish. The prose is straight out of The Daily Worker, full of triumphal rhetoric with implicit exclamation points. Still, their chanted slogans fill your brain, like one of those bad songs you can't stop humming. ...(more)
What Obama Could Learn From Cheney
"With just one week before Barack Obama moves into the Oval Office, he probably isn't thinking "Dick Cheney" when it comes to advice. That may be a missed opportunity. Because in some interesting ways, the outgoing vice president could prove to be the best friend the incoming president has."
Obama has been calming his rhetoric the closer he gets to taking office. I think the daily intelligence briefs have started to open his eyes to what is really going on in the world. It's simple to be an arm chair quarterback. I pray for Obama's success where terrorist are concerned, our lives depend upon it.
Anybody can be a politician; it's the tough, sometimes unpopular choices, which make you a leader.
Obama has been calming his rhetoric the closer he gets to taking office. I think the daily intelligence briefs have started to open his eyes to what is really going on in the world. It's simple to be an arm chair quarterback. I pray for Obama's success where terrorist are concerned, our lives depend upon it.
Anybody can be a politician; it's the tough, sometimes unpopular choices, which make you a leader.
Friday, January 9, 2009
U. S. Senate Minority Report: More Than 650 International Scientists Dissent Over Man-Made Global Warming Claims
A growing list....
From the EPW Senate blog:
Over 650 dissenting scientists from around the globe challenged man-made global warming claims made by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and former Vice President Al Gore. This new 231-page U.S. Senate Minority Report -- updated from 2007’s groundbreaking report of over 400 scientists who voiced skepticism about the so-called global warming “consensus” -- features the skeptical voices of over 650 prominent international scientists, including many current and former UN IPCC scientists, who have now turned against the UN IPCC. This updated report includes an additional 250 (and growing) scientists and climate researchers since the initial release in December 2007. The over 650 dissenting scientists are more than 12 times the number of UN scientists (52) who authored the media-hyped IPCC 2007 Summary for Policymakers.
The chorus of skeptical scientific voices grow louder in 2008 as a steady stream of peer-reviewed studies, analyses, real world data and inconvenient developments challenged the UN’s and former Vice President Al Gore's claims that the "science is settled" and there is a "consensus." On a range of issues, 2008 proved to be challenging for the promoters of man-made climate fears. Promoters of anthropogenic warming fears endured the following: Global temperatures failing to warm; Peer-reviewed studies predicting a continued lack of warming; a failed attempt to revive the discredited “Hockey Stick”; inconvenient developments and studies regarding rising CO2; the Spotless Sun; Clouds; Antarctica; the Arctic; Greenland’s ice; Mount Kilimanjaro; Global sea ice; Causes of Hurricanes; Extreme Storms; Extinctions; Floods; Droughts; Ocean Acidification; Polar Bears; Extreme weather deaths; Frogs; lack of atmospheric dust; Malaria; the failure of oceans to warm and rise as predicted. ...(more)
From the EPW Senate blog:
Over 650 dissenting scientists from around the globe challenged man-made global warming claims made by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and former Vice President Al Gore. This new 231-page U.S. Senate Minority Report -- updated from 2007’s groundbreaking report of over 400 scientists who voiced skepticism about the so-called global warming “consensus” -- features the skeptical voices of over 650 prominent international scientists, including many current and former UN IPCC scientists, who have now turned against the UN IPCC. This updated report includes an additional 250 (and growing) scientists and climate researchers since the initial release in December 2007. The over 650 dissenting scientists are more than 12 times the number of UN scientists (52) who authored the media-hyped IPCC 2007 Summary for Policymakers.
The chorus of skeptical scientific voices grow louder in 2008 as a steady stream of peer-reviewed studies, analyses, real world data and inconvenient developments challenged the UN’s and former Vice President Al Gore's claims that the "science is settled" and there is a "consensus." On a range of issues, 2008 proved to be challenging for the promoters of man-made climate fears. Promoters of anthropogenic warming fears endured the following: Global temperatures failing to warm; Peer-reviewed studies predicting a continued lack of warming; a failed attempt to revive the discredited “Hockey Stick”; inconvenient developments and studies regarding rising CO2; the Spotless Sun; Clouds; Antarctica; the Arctic; Greenland’s ice; Mount Kilimanjaro; Global sea ice; Causes of Hurricanes; Extreme Storms; Extinctions; Floods; Droughts; Ocean Acidification; Polar Bears; Extreme weather deaths; Frogs; lack of atmospheric dust; Malaria; the failure of oceans to warm and rise as predicted. ...(more)
Rare Snowfall in London Helps Bobbies Track Down Bungling Burglars
That damn (uncooperative) "global warming", oops, I mean "climate change", strikes again.
From Dr Bulldog:
I bet those two young burglars are now wishing that global warming was more than just a myth…
...Rare snowfall in London, as temperatures reached minus 10C, meant the criminals had left a trail of evidence with every step along their escape route.
At around 4.30am, with local residents still in bed, the trail in the fresh snow was unsullied by commuters. Officers, accompanied by sniffer dogs, were able to follow the prints along Glebe Road, across driveways and down alleys....(more)
From Dr Bulldog:
I bet those two young burglars are now wishing that global warming was more than just a myth…
...Rare snowfall in London, as temperatures reached minus 10C, meant the criminals had left a trail of evidence with every step along their escape route.
At around 4.30am, with local residents still in bed, the trail in the fresh snow was unsullied by commuters. Officers, accompanied by sniffer dogs, were able to follow the prints along Glebe Road, across driveways and down alleys....(more)
HAMAS' EVIL MAP-PLAN FOUND FOR CIVILIANS AS SHIELDS
From NY Post:
Israeli soldiers yesterday discovered a hand-drawn Hamas map revealing how the terror group is exploiting Gaza's civilian population by deploying snipers, booby-trapping homes and planting bombs, officials said.
"Hamas makes cynical use of civilian homes," said Israel's chief intelligence officer, Brig. Gen. Yuval Halamish.
The map of the northern Gaza town of al-Atatra was translated on the scene and helped the Israeli troops in subsequent operations, he said.
The block-by-block sketch was apparently based on a view taken from Google Maps.
On the map, Hamas split up the town into three sectors - red, blue and green - and highlighted sites such as mosques, a gas station and a fuel depot, the Jerusalem Post and Yediot Ahronoth newspapers reported on their Web sites.
"You can see that the neighborhood was divided into three areas of fighting, according to color, and inside, the terrorists spread out a number of posts, planted explosive devices and posted sharpshooters," Halamish said...(more)
Israeli soldiers yesterday discovered a hand-drawn Hamas map revealing how the terror group is exploiting Gaza's civilian population by deploying snipers, booby-trapping homes and planting bombs, officials said.
"Hamas makes cynical use of civilian homes," said Israel's chief intelligence officer, Brig. Gen. Yuval Halamish.
The map of the northern Gaza town of al-Atatra was translated on the scene and helped the Israeli troops in subsequent operations, he said.
The block-by-block sketch was apparently based on a view taken from Google Maps.
On the map, Hamas split up the town into three sectors - red, blue and green - and highlighted sites such as mosques, a gas station and a fuel depot, the Jerusalem Post and Yediot Ahronoth newspapers reported on their Web sites.
"You can see that the neighborhood was divided into three areas of fighting, according to color, and inside, the terrorists spread out a number of posts, planted explosive devices and posted sharpshooters," Halamish said...(more)
Better keep all the witches, well-diggers and brass monkeys in
From AcuWeather:
Beyond the weekend, waves of arctic air will plunge over the eastern two-thirds of the nation. Blustery winds will usher the bitterly cold air southward, resulting in even colder and potentially dangerous AccuWeather.com RealFeel® temperatures.
The first wave of cold will grip the Midwest and Northeast Tuesday into Wednesday. The second wave later in the week will not only encompass more places east of the Rockies, but threatens to be harsher than the first.
Beyond the weekend, waves of arctic air will plunge over the eastern two-thirds of the nation. Blustery winds will usher the bitterly cold air southward, resulting in even colder and potentially dangerous AccuWeather.com RealFeel® temperatures.
The first wave of cold will grip the Midwest and Northeast Tuesday into Wednesday. The second wave later in the week will not only encompass more places east of the Rockies, but threatens to be harsher than the first.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Into Eternity, Brother...
When I eat lunch each day in my classroom, I check the news at www.cnn.com and www.cnsnews.com. Then I head over to this blog to see what is going on. I stopped in mid-bite and tears came to my eyes as this post greeted me.
I cannot begin to say what the writings of Richard John Neuhaus have meant to me. In the early 1990s, I devoured the book he co-authored with Chuck Colson titled Evangelicals and Catholics Together. Since then I have savored his exquisite reflection on the last words of Christ called Death On A Friday Afternoon. Most recently I have been reading his book Catholic Matters. I can also recall vividly his commentary with Raymond Arroyo on EWTN during Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the United States. Father Neuhaus represented to this Protestant what is best in Catholicism. His doctrinal orthodoxy and his ability to articulate it are exceeded perhaps only by the current pope. I conclude with these words from the 1st century B.C. Roman poet Catullus. In perpetuum, frater, ave atque vale. "Into eternity, my brother, hail and farewell."
I cannot begin to say what the writings of Richard John Neuhaus have meant to me. In the early 1990s, I devoured the book he co-authored with Chuck Colson titled Evangelicals and Catholics Together. Since then I have savored his exquisite reflection on the last words of Christ called Death On A Friday Afternoon. Most recently I have been reading his book Catholic Matters. I can also recall vividly his commentary with Raymond Arroyo on EWTN during Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the United States. Father Neuhaus represented to this Protestant what is best in Catholicism. His doctrinal orthodoxy and his ability to articulate it are exceeded perhaps only by the current pope. I conclude with these words from the 1st century B.C. Roman poet Catullus. In perpetuum, frater, ave atque vale. "Into eternity, my brother, hail and farewell."
Richard John Neuhaus, 1936–2009
Sigh ) -:
Fr. Richard John Neuhaus slipped away today, January 8, shortly before 10 o’clock, at the age of seventy-two. He never recovered from the weakness that sent him to the hospital the day after Christmas, caused by a series of side effects from the cancer he was suffering. He lost consciousness Tuesday evening after a collapse in his heart rate, and the next day, in the company of friends, he died.
My tears are not for him—for he knew, all his life, that his Redeemer lives, and he has now been gathered by the Lord in whom he trusted.
I weep, rather for all the rest of us. As a priest, as a writer, as a public leader in so many struggles, and as a friend, no one can take his place. The fabric of life has been torn by his death, and it will not be repaired, for those of us who knew him, until that time when everything is mended and all our tears are wiped away. From First Things
Fr. Richard John Neuhaus slipped away today, January 8, shortly before 10 o’clock, at the age of seventy-two. He never recovered from the weakness that sent him to the hospital the day after Christmas, caused by a series of side effects from the cancer he was suffering. He lost consciousness Tuesday evening after a collapse in his heart rate, and the next day, in the company of friends, he died.
My tears are not for him—for he knew, all his life, that his Redeemer lives, and he has now been gathered by the Lord in whom he trusted.
I weep, rather for all the rest of us. As a priest, as a writer, as a public leader in so many struggles, and as a friend, no one can take his place. The fabric of life has been torn by his death, and it will not be repaired, for those of us who knew him, until that time when everything is mended and all our tears are wiped away. From First Things
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Holocaust Envy - Who Are the Real Nazis?
From the NRO
Go back to the oven! You need a big oven, that’s what you need!”
This is what one young woman thought passed for acceptable discourse during an anti-Israel rally last week in, of all places, Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Other chants were similarly unlovely. You can watch it on YouTube if you like....
...At a Saturday protest in New York against Israel’s military assault on Gaza, some carried signs that read: “Israel: The Fourth Reich,” “Holocaust by Holocaust Survivors,” “Stop Israel’s Holocaust,” “Holocaust in Gaza” and “Stop the Zionist Genocide in Gaza.”
Type “Israel” and “Nazi” into any news search engine and you’ll be rewarded, or punished, with a bounty of such statements from just the last week or so. Gaza is the new Auschwitz, the Israeli Defense Forces are SS troops ... I find myself tempted to simply write “et cetera” because it’s all so familiar by now. But to do that is to dismiss, and therefore accept, such grotesqueries as trivialities, when in fact such charges are deeply revealing — just not about Israel.
First, let us note that if supposedly all-powerful Israel is dedicated to exterminating the Palestinian people, it is doing a bad job.
The Palestinian population has only grown since 1948. There are more Arab citizens living in Israel proper today than there were in all of Palestine the year Israel was founded.
Perhaps one reason Israel fails at genocide is that it isn’t interested in genocide? That would explain why Israel warned thousands of Gazans by cell phone to leave homes near Hamas rocket stockpiles. It would clarify why, even amid all-out war, it offers aid to enemy civilians. It would even illuminate the otherwise mysterious clamor from Israelis for a viable “peace partner.”
But no. For millions of Israel haters, the more plausible explanation is that the “defiant” Palestinians have miraculously survived Israel’s determination to wipe them out.
Meanwhile, calls for the complete extermination of Israel are routine. The Hamas charter, invoking the fraudulent “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” as justification, demands the destruction of Israel. Hamas exists solely because it is dedicated to the complete obliteration of the “Zionist entity.” Remove that “principle” and Hamas is meaningless.
A sick mixture of Holocaust envy and Holocaust denial is the defining spirit of Hamas. Indeed, Holocaust denial passes for a scholarly pursuit not just in Gaza but throughout much of the Arab and Muslim world.
The head of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, literally earned a doctorate in it. His doctoral thesis became a book, The Other Side: the Secret Relationship Between Nazism and Zionism, in which he denounces “the Zionist fantasy, the fantastic lie that 6 million Jews were killed.”
In Hamas’ eyes, Abbas is an incorrigible moderate.It’s Palestinian Islamists who have ideological and political ties to Nazism stretching back to the days of “Hitler’s Mufti,” Haj Amin al-Husseini, a happy warrior for the Nazi cause....(more)
Go back to the oven! You need a big oven, that’s what you need!”
This is what one young woman thought passed for acceptable discourse during an anti-Israel rally last week in, of all places, Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Other chants were similarly unlovely. You can watch it on YouTube if you like....
...At a Saturday protest in New York against Israel’s military assault on Gaza, some carried signs that read: “Israel: The Fourth Reich,” “Holocaust by Holocaust Survivors,” “Stop Israel’s Holocaust,” “Holocaust in Gaza” and “Stop the Zionist Genocide in Gaza.”
Type “Israel” and “Nazi” into any news search engine and you’ll be rewarded, or punished, with a bounty of such statements from just the last week or so. Gaza is the new Auschwitz, the Israeli Defense Forces are SS troops ... I find myself tempted to simply write “et cetera” because it’s all so familiar by now. But to do that is to dismiss, and therefore accept, such grotesqueries as trivialities, when in fact such charges are deeply revealing — just not about Israel.
First, let us note that if supposedly all-powerful Israel is dedicated to exterminating the Palestinian people, it is doing a bad job.
The Palestinian population has only grown since 1948. There are more Arab citizens living in Israel proper today than there were in all of Palestine the year Israel was founded.
Perhaps one reason Israel fails at genocide is that it isn’t interested in genocide? That would explain why Israel warned thousands of Gazans by cell phone to leave homes near Hamas rocket stockpiles. It would clarify why, even amid all-out war, it offers aid to enemy civilians. It would even illuminate the otherwise mysterious clamor from Israelis for a viable “peace partner.”
But no. For millions of Israel haters, the more plausible explanation is that the “defiant” Palestinians have miraculously survived Israel’s determination to wipe them out.
Meanwhile, calls for the complete extermination of Israel are routine. The Hamas charter, invoking the fraudulent “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” as justification, demands the destruction of Israel. Hamas exists solely because it is dedicated to the complete obliteration of the “Zionist entity.” Remove that “principle” and Hamas is meaningless.
A sick mixture of Holocaust envy and Holocaust denial is the defining spirit of Hamas. Indeed, Holocaust denial passes for a scholarly pursuit not just in Gaza but throughout much of the Arab and Muslim world.
The head of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, literally earned a doctorate in it. His doctoral thesis became a book, The Other Side: the Secret Relationship Between Nazism and Zionism, in which he denounces “the Zionist fantasy, the fantastic lie that 6 million Jews were killed.”
In Hamas’ eyes, Abbas is an incorrigible moderate.It’s Palestinian Islamists who have ideological and political ties to Nazism stretching back to the days of “Hitler’s Mufti,” Haj Amin al-Husseini, a happy warrior for the Nazi cause....(more)
The Trinity in Romans
STR alerts us to a fine sermon:
Fred Sanders preaches on the Trinity in the book of Romans. Here's his summary and the reason to listen to it:
The Trinity is lurking in Romans, and I hope you can see that it is lurking in the life of every believer. This trinitarian reality is going on in your life whether you know that you know it or not.
Fred Sanders preaches on the Trinity in the book of Romans. Here's his summary and the reason to listen to it:
The Trinity is lurking in Romans, and I hope you can see that it is lurking in the life of every believer. This trinitarian reality is going on in your life whether you know that you know it or not.
Hamas's 'Sole Strategy is Destruction and Chaos'
There is a good dose of Fatah camel hockey here but it's still interesting:
Mohammed Dahlan, 47, is the former head of security for Fatah in the Gaza Strip. In a SPIEGEL interview, he discusses the Israeli war against Hamas and why he believes the Islamist organization will lose the next election.
...SPIEGEL: But doesn't the war offer Fatah a new opportunity to assume power in Gaza again?
Dahlan: We will only return to Gaza after we have won an election -- not through military force. If you ask me personally, though, I am happy about the coup against Hamas.
SPIEGEL: What do you mean?
Dahlan: The Palestinians have now realized that Hamas is not capable of governing. Their leaders were celebrated as resistance fighters and for fighting corruption, but since their election they have lost all legitimacy. Their sole strategy is destruction and chaos. Hamas has lost its appeal -- and it will lose the next election.
Another good article from American Thinker on the destruction and chaos wrought by Hamas:
Hamas leaders take refuge in hospitals
Hamas' cruelty towards Israeli civilians is reflected in its cruelty to its own civilians. Hamas, like the other Arab/Muslim states and guerrillas, considers all Israelis as the enemy, making no distinction between civilians and military targets. Israeli hospitals, schools and homes are deliberately bombed.
But while Israel tries to avoid civilian casualties Hamas cowardly exploits what they think is an Israeli weakness, exposing its own people to the terror it poured on Israel. (more)
Mohammed Dahlan, 47, is the former head of security for Fatah in the Gaza Strip. In a SPIEGEL interview, he discusses the Israeli war against Hamas and why he believes the Islamist organization will lose the next election.
...SPIEGEL: But doesn't the war offer Fatah a new opportunity to assume power in Gaza again?
Dahlan: We will only return to Gaza after we have won an election -- not through military force. If you ask me personally, though, I am happy about the coup against Hamas.
SPIEGEL: What do you mean?
Dahlan: The Palestinians have now realized that Hamas is not capable of governing. Their leaders were celebrated as resistance fighters and for fighting corruption, but since their election they have lost all legitimacy. Their sole strategy is destruction and chaos. Hamas has lost its appeal -- and it will lose the next election.
Another good article from American Thinker on the destruction and chaos wrought by Hamas:
Hamas leaders take refuge in hospitals
Hamas' cruelty towards Israeli civilians is reflected in its cruelty to its own civilians. Hamas, like the other Arab/Muslim states and guerrillas, considers all Israelis as the enemy, making no distinction between civilians and military targets. Israeli hospitals, schools and homes are deliberately bombed.
But while Israel tries to avoid civilian casualties Hamas cowardly exploits what they think is an Israeli weakness, exposing its own people to the terror it poured on Israel. (more)
Inauguration 2009: 'So Help Me God' At Risk
From the AmericanThinker some good (if somewhat disheartening) reading on the Establishment Clause (or what is left of it)
With the approach of the presidential inauguration, America's most notorious atheist, Michael Newdow, is back in the headlines. Once again, he and an assortment of other plaintiffs are challenging the long-standing addendum, "So help me God," to the presidential oath of office. The lawsuit, filed by the American Humanist Association on Dec. 30, also challenges as unconstitutional, the pending invocation and benediction prayers to be offered respectively by Pastor Rick Warren and Rev. Joseph E. Lowery at the swearing-in ceremony of President-select Barack Obama on Jan. 20....
...Many words may be used to describe Michael Newdow, but unintelligent is not one of them. It is likely that most Americans view lawsuits against the religious expressions of inaugurations as frivolous and without merit, invoking the same type of ire against those challenging the constitutionality of the Flag pledge and the national motto. Dr. Newdow, however, knows something that most Americans do not.
Newdow knows that the legal precedent of the U.S. Supreme Court is actually on his side. He knows also that when it comes to judging his complaints, the Court has not been intellectually honest in the application of its precedent. So, he keeps at it (in 2002, the 9th circuit federal appeals court applied precedent and agreed with him, ruling that the Flag pledge was unconstitutional)....
...The religion clause of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution merely prohibits the federal Congress from passing law to establish religion and/or to prevent the people from enjoying free exercise. Under the protection of the Constitution, the feds cannot, by force of law, make you or your State subscribe to a religion and cannot prevent you or your State from carrying out religious expression. In short, the First Amendment ensures that the federal government has no jurisdiction over the religious affairs of the states and the people.
Then came the 1947 case of Everson v. Board of Education, in which the Supreme Court scuffled with the Establishment Clause, turning it on its head and setting it against the very states it was meant to protect. (Jurists refer to that feat as the doctrine of incorporation through which the Court uses the 14th Amendment as a handy tool to apply the Bill of Rights against the states.) Ironically, the clause meant to limit the federal government was used by the federal government to expand its power. Holding the Establishment Clause upside down in a full nelson, the Court forced it to cry Uncle Sam by reading into it a previously unheard-of doctrine: The requirement of government - federal, state and local -- neutrality toward religion.
We have reached the point in which the historic purpose of the Establishment Clause is practically irrelevant....(more)
With the approach of the presidential inauguration, America's most notorious atheist, Michael Newdow, is back in the headlines. Once again, he and an assortment of other plaintiffs are challenging the long-standing addendum, "So help me God," to the presidential oath of office. The lawsuit, filed by the American Humanist Association on Dec. 30, also challenges as unconstitutional, the pending invocation and benediction prayers to be offered respectively by Pastor Rick Warren and Rev. Joseph E. Lowery at the swearing-in ceremony of President-select Barack Obama on Jan. 20....
...Many words may be used to describe Michael Newdow, but unintelligent is not one of them. It is likely that most Americans view lawsuits against the religious expressions of inaugurations as frivolous and without merit, invoking the same type of ire against those challenging the constitutionality of the Flag pledge and the national motto. Dr. Newdow, however, knows something that most Americans do not.
Newdow knows that the legal precedent of the U.S. Supreme Court is actually on his side. He knows also that when it comes to judging his complaints, the Court has not been intellectually honest in the application of its precedent. So, he keeps at it (in 2002, the 9th circuit federal appeals court applied precedent and agreed with him, ruling that the Flag pledge was unconstitutional)....
...The religion clause of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution merely prohibits the federal Congress from passing law to establish religion and/or to prevent the people from enjoying free exercise. Under the protection of the Constitution, the feds cannot, by force of law, make you or your State subscribe to a religion and cannot prevent you or your State from carrying out religious expression. In short, the First Amendment ensures that the federal government has no jurisdiction over the religious affairs of the states and the people.
Then came the 1947 case of Everson v. Board of Education, in which the Supreme Court scuffled with the Establishment Clause, turning it on its head and setting it against the very states it was meant to protect. (Jurists refer to that feat as the doctrine of incorporation through which the Court uses the 14th Amendment as a handy tool to apply the Bill of Rights against the states.) Ironically, the clause meant to limit the federal government was used by the federal government to expand its power. Holding the Establishment Clause upside down in a full nelson, the Court forced it to cry Uncle Sam by reading into it a previously unheard-of doctrine: The requirement of government - federal, state and local -- neutrality toward religion.
We have reached the point in which the historic purpose of the Establishment Clause is practically irrelevant....(more)
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
What Disappearing Sea Ice?
From American Thinker:
Despite the mountains of contrary evidence, concerns over disappearing sea ice and the unfounded position that the North Pole could melt entirely in 2008, pushed U.S. government bureaucrats to officially list the polar bear as an endangered species in May of 2008. And then guess what happened....
After the onslaught of record breaking bitter temperatures during the last quarter of this year, and with less wind, the amount of sea ice has significantly and dramatically rebounded at the fastest rate ever before recorded. Currently being measured to be about where it was 29 years ago in 1979, sea ice is again as expansive and dense as it was when global cooling proponents of the time said that we were witnessing the advance of a mini ice age.
Reported by the University of Illinois's Arctic Climate Research Center, and derived from satellite observations of the Northern and Southern hemisphere polar regions, sea ice has been restored to pre-AGW levels. ...(more)
Despite the mountains of contrary evidence, concerns over disappearing sea ice and the unfounded position that the North Pole could melt entirely in 2008, pushed U.S. government bureaucrats to officially list the polar bear as an endangered species in May of 2008. And then guess what happened....
After the onslaught of record breaking bitter temperatures during the last quarter of this year, and with less wind, the amount of sea ice has significantly and dramatically rebounded at the fastest rate ever before recorded. Currently being measured to be about where it was 29 years ago in 1979, sea ice is again as expansive and dense as it was when global cooling proponents of the time said that we were witnessing the advance of a mini ice age.
Reported by the University of Illinois's Arctic Climate Research Center, and derived from satellite observations of the Northern and Southern hemisphere polar regions, sea ice has been restored to pre-AGW levels. ...(more)
Monday, January 5, 2009
Hippies for Hamas
From Contentions:
Title of a post at the Daily Kos:
Why Do I Find Israeli Troop Deaths Satisfying?
Read on to learn why. As Glenn Reynolds likes to say: they’re not anti-war, they’re just for the other side.
Title of a post at the Daily Kos:
Why Do I Find Israeli Troop Deaths Satisfying?
Read on to learn why. As Glenn Reynolds likes to say: they’re not anti-war, they’re just for the other side.
DisenFrankenchised
Some good stuff as usual over at And Sometimes Tea: on the election in Minnesota.
Also this Minnesota Madness Update from AmSpec
Also this Minnesota Madness Update from AmSpec
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Focus/Study For the New Year
During Advent I read an article in the local newspaper on a book called Soul Revolution and began to prayerfully consider the possibility of using the exercise it recommended as a part of a study for the New Year. I decided to include "Learn to pray" in my list of resolutions for 2009. A number of things occurred including learning that my church will be focusing on prayer this year when I came across this quote over at MereComments:
...While we all have our plans, and perhaps "resolutions," the best of all is to begin each day on our knees, so to speak, seeking the Lord's grace and mercy upon our lives, our loved ones, and our plans, which have to be tentative and revisable. If we are just too busy to pray regularly, we are doing the wrong things. Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain....
So that kind of settles it. We'll have a number of postings on prayer in the coming months and some exercises and some links. It is my hope and prayer that these tools will lead us all to a deeper and richer prayer life.
...While we all have our plans, and perhaps "resolutions," the best of all is to begin each day on our knees, so to speak, seeking the Lord's grace and mercy upon our lives, our loved ones, and our plans, which have to be tentative and revisable. If we are just too busy to pray regularly, we are doing the wrong things. Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain....
So that kind of settles it. We'll have a number of postings on prayer in the coming months and some exercises and some links. It is my hope and prayer that these tools will lead us all to a deeper and richer prayer life.
Vatican Attacked for Defending Natural Family
ROME, December 3, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Vatican has been attacked for its defence of the natural family and of the countries in which the natural family is still recognised and protected in law. Homosexualist groups and newspaper editorials today attacked the Vatican’s representative to the United Nations, after he said that the Vatican will not support a resolution that purports to “decriminalise” homosexuality.
The proposal, put forward by France, is set to be brought to the European Union later this month. While the Vatican, an independent state, is not a part of the EU, it holds Permanent Observer status at the UN. ...
...Pro-life and pro-family leaders have warned that the use of the language of “human rights” and “equality” have been manipulated by the homosexualist political movement and their secularist supporters to suppress principled opposition to the movement’s anti-Christian goals.
Gabrielle Kuby, a German Catholic writer, wrote recently in an article featured on LifeSiteNews.com, that the movement is a direct attack on the social foundations of western society. “Behind the facade” of equality, she wrote, “lurks the general attack on the moral standards to which we owe the Western culture. Without it, neither the family nor Christianity can survive.”
The proposal, put forward by France, is set to be brought to the European Union later this month. While the Vatican, an independent state, is not a part of the EU, it holds Permanent Observer status at the UN. ...
...Pro-life and pro-family leaders have warned that the use of the language of “human rights” and “equality” have been manipulated by the homosexualist political movement and their secularist supporters to suppress principled opposition to the movement’s anti-Christian goals.
Gabrielle Kuby, a German Catholic writer, wrote recently in an article featured on LifeSiteNews.com, that the movement is a direct attack on the social foundations of western society. “Behind the facade” of equality, she wrote, “lurks the general attack on the moral standards to which we owe the Western culture. Without it, neither the family nor Christianity can survive.”
Employer-Based Health Insurance: Why Congress Should Cap Tax Benefits Consistently
From the Heritage:
Too many Americans do not fully understand how the health insurance they receive through their employer is financed. Health insurance is, of course, a "fringe" benefit. Formal premium payments to health insurance companies are made by employers, just as employers pay for other fringe benefits, such as paid vacation, child care, education and training, or retirement plans.
Technically, however, the employer is not "giving" the employee anything: The employees pay for these benefits through a reduction in their wages or an employer's reduction of full-time staff.The number of part-time jobs is increased to accommodate workload without offering any additional fringe benefits.... (more)
Too many Americans do not fully understand how the health insurance they receive through their employer is financed. Health insurance is, of course, a "fringe" benefit. Formal premium payments to health insurance companies are made by employers, just as employers pay for other fringe benefits, such as paid vacation, child care, education and training, or retirement plans.
Technically, however, the employer is not "giving" the employee anything: The employees pay for these benefits through a reduction in their wages or an employer's reduction of full-time staff.The number of part-time jobs is increased to accommodate workload without offering any additional fringe benefits.... (more)
Where is Global Warming When We Need It?
Fom the American Spec:
Still, shouldn't global warming mean, well, the planet is warming? But it hasn't over the last decade. If the alarmists can't get today's temperature right, I keep wondering why we chould believe them when they purport to predict the temperature a century from now. "Some day we'll get it right" seems to be the mantra of the alarmist lobby.
At least I'm not the only person with questions. Christopher Booker has a wonderful year-ending column in The Daily Telegraph. He wryly observes:
Looking back over my columns of the past 12 months, one of their major themes was neatly encapsulated by two recent items from The Daily Telegraph.
The first, on May 21, headed "Climate change threat to Alpine ski resorts" , reported that the entire Alpine "winter sports industry" could soon "grind to a halt for lack of snow". The second, on December 19, headed "The Alps have best snow conditions in a generation" , reported that this winter's Alpine snowfalls "look set to beat all records by New Year's Day".
Well, I guess that's why the operative phrase now is "climate change." That way the social engineers can justify destroying the economy whatever happens to the temperature. ...
Still, shouldn't global warming mean, well, the planet is warming? But it hasn't over the last decade. If the alarmists can't get today's temperature right, I keep wondering why we chould believe them when they purport to predict the temperature a century from now. "Some day we'll get it right" seems to be the mantra of the alarmist lobby.
At least I'm not the only person with questions. Christopher Booker has a wonderful year-ending column in The Daily Telegraph. He wryly observes:
Looking back over my columns of the past 12 months, one of their major themes was neatly encapsulated by two recent items from The Daily Telegraph.
The first, on May 21, headed "Climate change threat to Alpine ski resorts" , reported that the entire Alpine "winter sports industry" could soon "grind to a halt for lack of snow". The second, on December 19, headed "The Alps have best snow conditions in a generation" , reported that this winter's Alpine snowfalls "look set to beat all records by New Year's Day".
Well, I guess that's why the operative phrase now is "climate change." That way the social engineers can justify destroying the economy whatever happens to the temperature. ...
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