Bittersweet

The last week of this year's school term has arrived. I've been teaching for over thirty-three years now, but I never get used to the dynamics of the final week of classes.

As is the case every year, both the students and I are looking forward to summer vacation. But we also know that the time has come to say "Good-bye!" to some in the group. A few graduate, others move on to different educational circumstances. Such farewells are difficult even though I know that they are part of the annual cycle.

As a teacher about to begin this last week of the term's classes, I always wish that I had done some things differently. And even as this term ends, I am making plans for the next year. Throughout the summer, I make mental plans as to what I envision for each of the courses I teach. After all, September comes in just a few months! The first day of every term's classes is a day to look forward to and a time of another new start, but the planning for that first day of the upcoming term begins with the first day of summer vacation.

During this last week of classes, the new term seems far away. The ultimate paradox is that summer will have seemed too short when classes resume, yet summer's arrival seemed so distant during the school year.

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Memorial Day

"It is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us the freedom of the press. It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us the freedom of speech. It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who gives us the freedom to demonstrate. It is the soldier who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protester to burn the flag."
--Father Dennis Edward O'Brien, U.S. Navy chaplain, who served on Guadalcanal during WWII

Government issued headstones in one of the sections at Arlington National Cemetery.

Remember the meaning of Memorial Day:

"Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day of remembrance for those who have died in our nation's service."

Very basic, isn't it? But consider the following:

"Traditional observance of Memorial day has diminished over the years. Many Americans nowadays have forgotten the meaning and traditions of Memorial Day. At many cemeteries, the graves of the fallen are increasingly ignored, neglected. Most people no longer remember the proper flag etiquette for the day. While there are towns and cities that still hold Memorial Day parades, many have not held a parade in decades. Some people think the day is for honoring any and all dead, and not just those fallen in service to our country...."

This site has some specific suggestions for a proper observance. Remember to honor those who paid the ultimate price so that we can remain free!

Below is one of the poems most often quoted in remembrance of lives given on the battlefield--"In Flanders Fields":

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders Fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe;
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders Fields.

[Literary analysis of John McCrae's "In Flanders Fields" here]

And remember the words of Moina Michael, who wrote a response to "In Flanders Fields":

We cherish too, the Poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led,
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies.

Be sure to visit GM's site for more photos related to Memorial Day!

Mustang's Memorial Day posting is also a must-see.

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Galloway "Justifies" Assassination

See this from Amboy Times and this from CUANAS.

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George And Martha

An American bald eagle

Martha flew some ninety miles to reunite with her mate George. This mating pair nests near the Woodrow Wilson Bridge spanning the Potomac River between Virginia and Maryland.

Read about George and Martha here.

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American Crusader Is Back!

Wonderful news! Go here to read our friend's postings. He will be posting on a limited basis.

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The D.C. Snipers

Front-page news in the Washington Post: Lee Boyd Malvo testified on Tuesday, May 23, 2006. Cross-examination today, and John Allen Muhammad is serving as his own defense attorney.

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Some Shady Connections

(All emphases by Always On Watch)

I have previously reported on some of the activities at the Herndon Day Laborer Center. See "The [Muslim?] Origins of Project Hope." Seed money for that facility, when it drew on private funding, came from Project Hope and Harmony, founded by Mukit Hossain.

From a May 17, 2006 article "Kingdom of the Illegals," which appeared in FrontPage Magazine:

"...Lost in all the controvery [sic], however, is the more disturbing fact that the site -- a covered building featuring picnic tables and bathrooms -- was founded by a Muslim charity with ties to suspected Saudi-backed terror front groups. Its town operating permit won't expire until the fall of 2007, allowing the group not only time to aid and abet hundreds more illegal immigrants, but possibly recruit them.

"The hiring center -- called the Herndon Official Workers Center -- is a charitable front for da'awa, or Islamic outreach to non-Muslims. Local law enforcement officials say the Saudis see new Hispanic arrivals to America as particularly ripe for conversion to Islam, and have even added an annex to their madrassa in another Washington suburb to help indoctrinate the beholden immigrants....

The madrassa is the Islamic Saudi Academy, of course--the alma mater of convicted aspiring Presidential assassin Ahmed Abu Ali. I previously reported on the Islamic Saudi Academy in "What about the Islamic Saudi Academy?" With regard to ISA, Mr. Sperry states the following:

"Located in Alexandria, the Islamic Saudi Academy a year after 9/11 helped set up a similar day-care center for Hispanic immigrants on its campus (which used to be the home of Mount Vernon High School before Fairfax County officials, in their infinite wisdom, leased it to the Saudi government). At one corner, day laborers routinely flock to a 'Pollo' chicken takeout. What better way to introduce them to Islam than to open an annex in the old home economics building just yards away?

"A spokeswoman for the little 'Progresso Hispano' school, which she confirms is operated in part by the Saudi academy, provides 'immigrant services' and 'English classes' to local Hispanics. She would not be more specific, and said the annex's website is 'down.'

"But a county notice of the special planning and zoning exception needed for the annex's approval in November 2002 says that Progresso Hispano 'provides ESL classes, job skill training, good parenting classes, citizenship classes and other support services to the Hispanic community.'

Those 'other support services' are what worry law enforcement authorities.

Now, back to Mukit Hossain:

"Stepping in last year to run the government-sanctioned site was an obscure group by the name, Project Hope and Harmony, which landed (in partnership with nonprofit Reston Interfaith) the $200,000 contract. The man behind the project is Muslim activist Mukit Hossain.

"But he's not just any activist. Born in Bangladesh, Hossain also runs a shadowy Muslim charity in Herndon which recently had its accounts closed by Wachovia bank due to suspicious activity related to possible money-laundering. The Foundation for Appropriate and Immediate Temporary Help, or FAITH, received a $150,000 donation last year from a front group run by Saudi bagman M. Yacub Mirza, whose home and offices were raided by federal agents after 9/11. FAITH helped establish the Project Hope and Harmony....

"[R]ecently, FAITH has become unusually interested in helping Hispanic illegal aliens.

"In addition to running their hiring site, FAITH's Hossain has organized feasts for hundreds of illegals during Thanksgiving, rounding them up and feeding them an intentionally nontraditional Middle Eastern dinner of beef kebabs and rice (instead of turkey and dressing) at Zuhair's Cafe in Herndon. He and other FAITH workers also gave away a van full of new winter coats (price tag: $10,000) to the Hispanic workers and their families. They've also raised money to buy them work boots and bicycles....

"Hossain serves as a member of the mosque's board of trustees when he's not working for FAITH and catering to Hispanic illegals. He's also a founder of the Muslim American Political Action Committee, or MAPAC, which he set up to recruit Muslim candidates to run for federal office and work for the 'empowerment of Muslim Americans.'

"What's more, Hossain is active in the Muslim American Society, which investigators say is the U.S. front for the Muslim Brotherhood, a worldwide jihad movement that gave rise to Hamas, PIJ and al-Qaida...."

The aforementioned mosque is the All Dulles Area Muslim Society [ADAMS Center], and Paul Sperry provides some interesting information about the ADAMS Center:

"Despite it claims of being moderate and progressive, ADAMS is a hard-line Wahhabi mosque controlled by the Saudis, investigators say. A Saudi pamphlet, called 'Religious Edicts for the Immigrant Muslim,' was recently found at the mosque. It states that 'it is forbidden for a Muslim to become a citizen of a country (such as the United States) governed by infidels.' Not surprisingly, even some of the mosque's more prominent members, such as Ibrahim Hooper of CAIR, have not hidden their wish to turn America into an Islamic state."

On May 12, 2006, a few days before Mr. Sperry's article was published in FPM and shortly after the election in which the Herndon mayor and two councilmen, all supporters of the taxpayer-funded center for day laborers, were defeated at the voting booth, the Washington Post published a letter from Mukit Hossain:

"Project Hope and Harmony led the effort to create a site at which day laborers could congregate in Herndon. We felt it was a moral imperative to help those who badly needed help and to solve a community problem with the help of members of that community. Sadly, opponents of the site say that it serves illegal immigrants, and they found eager allies for that viewpoint among anti-immigration groups and self-righteous journalists.

"The site has done its intended job; it has ended the chaos on the street corners where laborers assembled in the heat, cold or rain in the hope of getting a job. Often, the day laborers were exploited. But apparently it doesn't matter how well the site works, how much it would cost to expel workers that our economy needs or how inhumane it would be to close the site: Critics still want the day laborer site shut down.

"Some say the public has spoken through the recent election. Some say the laborers would be better served by returning home and perhaps trying to come back as legal immigrants. Some say they don't want the 'illegals' to be put on a path to legalization. But the more I hear these opinions, the more I see them for what they really are: bigotry.

"I once saw a bumper sticker that read, 'Hate is not a family value.' Apparently, in Herndon, it is about to become one unless the decent silent majority reclaims the community."

If Paul Sperry's information is accurate, the above letter from Mukit Hossain takes on a degree of irony. And I keep remembering another uncomforable fact: Islam divides all the world into Muslim and "other."

Finally Paul Sperry's FPM article provides a reminder that illegal immigration can pose a national-security risk:

"Hispanic illegals at a 7-11 in Falls Church turned a quick buck by helping the 9-11 hijackers obtain fake IDs."

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Saudi Textbooks

As I mentioned before, I'm overwhelmed right now. In fact, I'm not able even to read the daily paper from cover to cover. But thanks to an email heads-up from one of my homeschool parents, a new article about the matter of Saudi textbooks has been brought to my attention.

The following article, "This is a Saudi textbook (After the intolerance was removed.)," appeared in the May 21, 2006 edition of the Washington Post and is reproduced below in its entirety, with links enabled from the Washington Post web site:

Saudi Arabia's public schools have long been cited for demonizing the West as well as Christians, Jews and other "unbelievers." But after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 -- in which 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudis -- that was all supposed to change.

A 2004 Saudi royal study group recognized the need for reform after finding that the kingdom's religious studies curriculum "encourages violence toward others, and misguides the pupils into believing that in order to safeguard their own religion, they must violently repress and even physically eliminate the 'other.' " Since then, the Saudi government has claimed repeatedly that it has revised its educational texts.

Prince Turki al-Faisal, the Saudi ambassador to the United States, has worked aggressively to spread this message. "The kingdom has reviewed all of its education practices and materials, and has removed any element that is inconsistent with the needs of a modern education," he said on a recent speaking tour to several U.S. cities. "Not only have we eliminated what might be perceived as intolerance from old textbooks that were in our system, we have implemented a comprehensive internal revision and modernization plan." The Saudi government even took out a full-page ad in the New Republic last December to tout its success at "having modernized our school curricula to better prepare our children for the challenges of tomorrow." A year ago, an embassy spokesman declared: "We have reviewed our educational curriculums. We have removed materials that are inciteful or intolerant towards people of other faiths." The embassy is also distributing a 74-page review on curriculum reform to show that the textbooks have been moderated.

The problem is: These claims are not true.

A review of a sample of official Saudi textbooks for Islamic studies used during the current academic year reveals that, despite the Saudi government's statements to the contrary, an ideology of hatred toward Christians and Jews and Muslims who do not follow Wahhabi doctrine remains in this area of the public school system. The texts teach a dualistic vision, dividing the world into true believers of Islam (the "monotheists") and unbelievers (the "polytheists" and "infidels").

This indoctrination begins in a first-grade text and is reinforced and expanded each year, culminating in a 12th-grade text instructing students that their religious obligation includes waging jihad against the infidel to "spread the faith."

Freedom House knows this because Ali al-Ahmed, a Saudi dissident who runs the Washington-based Institute for Gulf Affairs, gave us a dozen of the current, purportedly cleaned-up Saudi Ministry of Education religion textbooks. The copies he obtained were not provided by the government, but by teachers, administrators and families with children in Saudi schools, who slipped them out one by one.

Some of our sources are Shiites and Sunnis from non-Wahhabi traditions -- people condemned as "polytheistic" or "deviant" or "bad" in these texts -- others are simply frustrated that these books do so little to prepare young students for the modern world.

We then had the texts translated separately by two independent, fluent Arabic speakers.

Religion is the foundation of the Saudi state's political ideology; it is also a key area of Saudi education in which students are taught the interpretation of Islam known as Wahhabism (a movement founded 250 years ago by Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab) that is reflected in these textbooks.

Scholars estimate that within the Saudi public school curriculum, Islamic studies make up a quarter to a third of students' weekly classroom hours in lower and middle school, plus several hours each week in high school. Educators who question or dissent from the official interpretation of Islam can face severe reprisals. In November 2005, a Saudi teacher who made positive statements about Jews and the New Testament was fired and sentenced to 750 lashes and a prison term. (He was eventually pardoned after public and international protests.)

The Saudi public school system totals 25,000 schools, educating about 5 million students. In addition, Saudi Arabia runs academies in 19 world capitals, including one outside Washington in Fairfax County, that use some of these same religious texts.

Saudi Arabia also distributes its religion texts worldwide to numerous Islamic schools and madrassas that it does not directly operate. Undeterred by Wahhabism's historically fringe status, Saudi Arabia is trying to assert itself as the world's authoritative voice on Islam -- a sort of "Vatican" for Islam, as several Saudi officials have stated-- and these textbooks are integral to this effort. As the report of the commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks observed, "Even in affluent countries, Saudi-funded Wahhabi schools are often the only Islamic schools" available.
Education is at the core of the debate over freedom in the Muslim world. Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden understands this well; in a recent audiotape he railed against those who would "interfere with school curricula."

The passages below -- drawn from the same set of Saudi texts proudly cited in the new 74-page review of curriculum reform now being distributed by the Saudi Embassy -- are shaping the views of the next generation of Saudis and Muslims worldwide. Unchanged, they will only harden and deepen hatred, intolerance and violence toward other faiths and cultures. Is this what Riyadh calls reform?

religion@freedomhouse.org

FIRST GRADE

" Every religion other than Islam is false."

"Fill in the blanks with the appropriate words (Islam, hellfire): Every religion other than ______________ is false. Whoever dies outside of Islam enters ____________."

FOURTH GRADE

"True belief means . . . that you hate the polytheists and infidels but do not treat them unjustly."

FIFTH GRADE

"Whoever obeys the Prophet and accepts the oneness of God cannot maintain a loyal friendship with those who oppose God and His Prophet, even if they are his closest relatives."

"It is forbidden for a Muslim to be a loyal friend to someone who does not believe in God and His Prophet, or someone who fights the religion of Islam."

"A Muslim, even if he lives far away, is your brother in religion. Someone who opposes God, even if he is your brother by family tie, is your enemy in religion."

SIXTH GRADE

"Just as Muslims were successful in the past when they came together in a sincere endeavor to evict the Christian crusaders from Palestine, so will the Arabs and Muslims emerge victorious, God willing, against the Jews and their allies if they stand together and fight a true jihad for God, for this is within God's power."

EIGHTH GRADE

"As cited in Ibn Abbas: The apes are Jews, the people of the Sabbath; while the swine are the Christians, the infidels of the communion of Jesus."

"God told His Prophet, Muhammad, about the Jews, who learned from parts of God's book [the Torah and the Gospels] that God alone is worthy of worship. Despite this, they espouse falsehood through idol-worship, soothsaying, and sorcery. In doing so, they obey the devil. They prefer the people of falsehood to the people of the truth out of envy and hostility. This earns them condemnation and is a warning to us not to do as they did."

"They are the Jews, whom God has cursed and with whom He is so angry that He will never again be satisfied [with them]."

"Some of the people of the Sabbath were punished by being turned into apes and swine. Some of them were made to worship the devil, and not God, through consecration, sacrifice, prayer, appeals for help, and other types of worship. Some of the Jews worship the devil. Likewise, some members of this nation worship the devil, and not God."

"Activity: The student writes a composition on the danger of imitating the infidels."

NINTH GRADE

"The clash between this [Muslim] community (umma) and the Jews and Christians has endured, and it will continue as long as God wills."

"It is part of God's wisdom that the struggle between the Muslim and the Jews should continue until the hour [of judgment]."

"Muslims will triumph because they are right. He who is right is always victorious, even if most people are against him."

TENTH GRADE

The 10th-grade text on jurisprudence teaches that life for non-Muslims (as well as women, and, by implication, slaves) is worth a fraction of that of a "free Muslim male." Blood money is retribution paid to the victim or the victim's heirs for murder or injury:

"Blood money for a free infidel. [Its quantity] is half of the blood money for a male Muslim, whether or not he is 'of the book' or not 'of the book' (such as a pagan, Zoroastrian, etc.).

"Blood money for a woman: Half of the blood money for a man, in accordance with his religion. The blood money for a Muslim woman is half of the blood money for a male Muslim, and the blood money for an infidel woman is half of the blood money for a male infidel."

ELEVENTH GRADE

"The greeting 'Peace be upon you' is specifically for believers. It cannot be said to others."

"If one comes to a place where there is a mixture of Muslims and infidels, one should offer a greeting intended for the Muslims."

"Do not yield to them [Christians and Jews] on a narrow road out of honor and respect."

TWELFTH GRADE

"Jihad in the path of God -- which consists of battling against unbelief, oppression, injustice, and those who perpetrate it -- is the summit of Islam. This religion arose through jihad and through jihad was its banner raised high. It is one of the noblest acts, which brings one closer to God, and one of the most magnificent acts of obedience to God."

Nina Shea is director of the Center for Religious Freedom at Freedom House.

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AIDS And Free Speech

(All emphases by Always On Watch)

From a May 19, 2006 article in the Washington Post:

"Two federal judges in the past two weeks have ruled unconstitutional the government's policy of forcing U.S. health groups to denounce prostitution as a condition for receiving funds for international AIDS work.

"Both judges said the requirement violated the First Amendment right to free speech....

"Rebekah Diller, associate counsel of the poverty program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, who argued the New York case, said the requirements made it very difficult for groups to use even privately raised funds to teach prostitutes about AIDS prevention methods. She said health organizations could not collectively distribute condoms to groups of prostitutes, or work with other groups that tried to change laws or policies concerning prostitutes. 'It cast a very big chill on being able to do this outreach,' Diller said.

"A USAID spokeswoman did not return a call for comment.

"The New York case was brought by three health organizations, while the Washington case was brought by DKT International, a not-for-profit organization that works in 11 countries. Its representative in Vietnam refused to sign papers certifying that DKT 'has a policy explicitly opposing prostitution and sex trafficking.'"

Huh?

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The Bad Seed?

(All emphases by Always On Watch)

In the 1956 film The Bad Seed, Rhoda Penmark has every possible advantage, but she is one evil little girl and without conscience:

"Rhoda Penmark lives with mother, the nervous Christine (Nancy Kelly), and a doting but often absent father played by William Hopper. They live in a sheltered world of private schools and manicured lawns, shepherded in Daddy’s absence by doting, buffoonish landlady Monica (Evelyn Varden). Their lovely little world — punctuated by Rhoda’s grating curtsies, smarmy good manners, tacky piano stylings, and the toxic mantra "What would you give me for a basket of kisses?" — begins to unravel when one of Rhoda’s classmates turns up dead. Christine gets increasingly unhinged by hints that Rhoda doesn’t take defeat kindly, and it seems the deceased — little Claude Daigle — had the temerity to win the class penmanship medal. This in spite of the fact that, as Rhoda screams, 'Everyone knew I wrote the best hand!' More puzzling deaths follow until Nature weighs in to reclaim the little beast."

I bring up The Bad Seed because of developments in the case of Lionel Tate, who murdered a six-year old in 1999:

"Lionel Tate, a twelve year old, with a normal I.Q. weighing 170 lbs, said he was imitating professional wrestlers when he beat to death 6-year-old, 48 lb. Tiffany Eunick in his Pembroke Park, Fla., home.

"July 28, 1999 Kathleen Grossett-Tate, a Florida highway patrol trooper and single mother, brought Tiffany Eunick home to watch for the evening. The mothers knew each other from Jamaica where they'd grown up. Tiffany and Lionel Tate, 12, had known each other between 2-4 weeks. After dinner as the children watched television, Grossett-Tate went upstairs. Around 10 P.M., she yelled for them to quiet down, but didn't check on them. Forty minutes later Tate told his mother that Tiffany was not breathing. Tate claimed he had Tiffany in a headlock as he slammed her head on a table, but a medical examiner's reported indicated injuries caused by much rougher abuse. Experts testified that Tiffany suffered a beating lasting 1 - 5 minutes. She had 35 injuries, including a ruptured spleen, lacerations, and damage to her rib cage, a fractured skull, brain contusions, a partially detached liver and bruises all over her body. (Tate changed his story years later claiming he jumped on her from a staircase.)

"Tate's described as bright, and street smart, had an eight year history of major behavior problems including fighting, assault, lying, stealing, and fifteen school suspensions. His attorneys argued that the death was an accident. Michael Brannon, a forensic psychologist at the Institute for Behavioral Sciences and the Law was appointed to examine Tate in 1999. Brannon's evaluation concluded he didn't suffer from mental illness but had 'a high potential for violence, uncontrolled feelings of anger, resentment, and poor impulse control.' Brannon recommended that Tate be placed in a secure mental hospital for intensive monitoring if he was released...."

Whatever happened to Lionel Tate? In 2004, his conviction was overturned on appeal, and he was released on probation. Almost immediately, he had a run-in with the law and received an additional five years of probation, yet he remained free. And it didn't take long for him to get into more trouble, for which he was again recently in court:

"On Thursday [May 18, 2006], he was back in court over the holdup of a pizza deliveryman last May.

"In a deal with prosecutors, Tate had faced 10 to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to robbery and violating his probation by having a gun. On Thursday, the judge let him withdraw his guilty plea in the robbery but still sentenced him on the gun charge. The robbery trial is set for Sept. 18.

"Defense attorney H. Dohn Williams said he did not understand why Tate would want to go to trial on the robbery charge, given that a conviction could bring a life sentence in addition to the 30 years for the probation violation.

"'He continues to get bad advice from meddling third parties,' Williams said outside court.

"Williams said Tate's mother, Florida Highway Patrol trooper Kathleen Grossett-Tate, told him he could win an appeal on the probation violation conviction, win his robbery case and leave jail in a year. She left court without commenting.

"Williams pleaded with the judge for leniency, blaming Tate's criminal behavior on his upbringing.

"'The death of Tiffany Eunick would never have occurred if there had been proper parental guidance and control,' Williams said...."

From a May 19, 2006 item in the Washington Post:

"FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Lionel Tate, the teenager who got a second chance after he beat and stomped a 6-year-old girl to death, was sent back to prison for 30 years for gun possession. 'In plain English, Lionel Tate, you've run out of chances. You do not get any more,' Circuit Judge Joel T. Lazarus told Tate, who smirked as he was led off to jail."

Whether or not there is any validity to the bad-seed argument, rehabilitation is an extremely remote possibility. In The Bad Seed, no amount of love or good upbringing could change Rhoda Penmark, the child born without a conscience, a trait she had inherited from her maternal grandmother, who had been a cold-blooded killer.

In 2036, the year in which Lionel Tate is scheduled for release, he will be forty-nine years old--if he serves the full sentence, that is. I imagine that his mother will continue to make excuses and to search for leniency for her son. Such has been her pattern all along, despite her career as a law-enforcement officer. But excuses and leniency have done nothing to teach Lionel Tate about responsibility and accountability.

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Temporarily Overwhelmed

The time of year for grading projects, producing the variety pageant, and averaging grades has arrived. I've also had an extremely painful relapse of the back injury sustained last year, when I was rear-ended by a cab driver. Therefore, my postings and responses here will probably be erratic and/or of a different type for the next few weeks.

I'm not taking a hiatus in the true sense of the term, but work obligations and health concerns must take precedence for the next few weeks. My Friday reports on the Symposium will also resume after the school term ends on June 1.

I will continue to make blog rounds as I'm able and as time permits.

Thank you in advance for your understanding.

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American Crusader

Go here for information on American Crusader.

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About American Crusader

I received the following in an email from American Crusader on May 15:

"Do me a favor AOW, let everybody know that I am doing fine and that I will post from time to time on the Infidels Blocker Alliance."

You can visit Infidel Bloggers Alliance by clicking here. It is a busy site, with multiple postings every day.

I know that many who frequent this blog will join me in wishing American Crusader all the best, including improved health and much happiness.

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The Price Of Gasoline

(All emphases by Always On Watch)

According to the article "Gasoline Is Not Going Up!" another cause underlies the sticker shock we're experiencing at the pump. Excerpt:

"...The dirty little secret is this: Gasoline is not going up. It is the dollar your [sic] buy it with that is going down; and it has been going down in value for a very long time because it is just government issued paper with numbers printed on it and nothing physical in storage anywhere to back it up. What's more, the dollar is now going down faster than ever....

"Over the years, those gold reserves decreased while the printing of that multi-colored paper we've come to love, increased, which today amounts to nothing more than a lot of government IOUs - printed promises on colored coupons, if you will, guaranteed by something that no longer exists; and as that pretty paper piles up it plummets in purchasing power here and around the world - and now faster than ever.

"Lately the printing presses have been working overtime to produce even more paper for everyone to pass around for their goods and services, much of which is funneled directly into the near record-breaking stock market by the government's own 'Plunge Protection Team' so as to prop it up on those economically rough days when it might otherwise have taken a severe beating or collapsed altogether, thereby strengthening the ongoing illusion that the economy is thriving, when it is in reality, an imploding house of paper. And all those government sound bites and statistics you hear quoted in the mainstream media each night - more illusion…

"That's why, in spite of our 'strong economy,' gold hit $725 an ounce last week, (up almost 67% in a single year) gasoline is almost three times what it was in 2002; and as for housing and real estate - well lets [sic} just say they're through the roof; not because these things are all worth more now than they were a short time ago; but because the dollar used to purchase them with is simply worth less - a lot less....

"...[O]il has, for decades, been bought and sold using dollars only. That was a deal OPEC made with the US years ago. That's why the dollar is referred to as the world's 'reserve currency.' If you wanted oil, you had to have American dollars to buy it with.

"But that's all changing now. More and more oil-producing countries want to switch to the Euro or other currencies to sell their petroleum products to the world...."

Read it all.

Does Paul Proctor have a point? Or is he merely another doomsaying conspiracy-theorist? I been hearing similar predictions from some forty years ago until the present day.

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About The Immigration Bill

Read this article from the May 15, 2006 edition of the Washington Times. Your thoughts?

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Symposium Report: Part Three

(All emphases by Always On Watch)

Islam and the Criminal Mind
Dr. Babu Suseelan, professor in clinical psychology and Director of Addiction Research Institute in Pennsylvania was the second speaker at the April 29, 2006 Symposium and made the following statements early in his presentation:

“The ideology behind terrorism is Islam. Period."

“The whole history of Islam has been death and destruction.”

Those statements got the immediate attention of the listeners. The first third of the presentation included several hot-button statements such as the above, as well as substantiation.

In the middle portion of his speech, Dr. Suseelan drew parallels between the Islamic mind and the criminal mind; he also compared Islamic thinking to that of the alcoholic or drug addict and pointed out that early indoctrination leads to what most of us would describe as twisted thinking—a code which encompasses a violent lifestyle.

The essence of the middle portion of Dr. Suseelan's presentation was similar to the following comment, which Dr. Suseelan made at Front Page Magazine's blog "Go Postal":

“…Jihadi terrorists are irrational, extreme xenophobic, hostile, and blinded by their dogmatic, fundamentalist faith. The basic premise of Jihadi terrorist is that their violent acts stem from feelings of rage and hatred reinforced by their belief system. Jihadis think and behave differently. They are selfish, impulsive, calculating and act out of their own selfish interest with no regard to the responsible members of society. Whatever their ideology, religious sanction, Jihadis are cunning, intelligent, self-seeking, aware of their criminal acts and incapable of guilt and empathy. Several patterns of thinking drive the Jihadis terrorists, including:

• Rationalization
• Indifference
• A sense of entitlement
• Super optimism
• Lack of Guilt
• Shallow emotions
• Lack of remorse
• Egocentricity
• Grandiosity

"Ideas expressed in the Koran provide all the justification necessary for Jihadis to carry out deadly terrorist activities. Jihadi terrorists are primarily afraid of freethinking, liberty, pluralism, secularism, and co-existence. They are defensive, capricious, and conditioned by their outdated irrational fanatic religious dogma…”

Speaking in terms from his area of expertise, Dr. Suseelan pointed out that Islam itself is a closed paradigm which uses force to maintain itself, thereby leading to violence in Islamic societies. Citing Afghanistan as an example, Dr. Suseelan emphasized that merely introducing democracy into this closed paradigm will not succeed in opening the Islamic paradigm and that changing a regime is only a temporary relief from the self-perpetuating a closed dogma disguised in religious garb. Rather, cognitive restructuring is required. He mentioned the following as strategies to use in containing the violence and to promote cognitive restructuring:

• Don’t accept Islam as just another cultural variant.
• Criticize Islam openly, using the Internet and any available media.
• Stop immigration from Muslim nations.
• Emphasize the humanity of those slaughtered by the followers of Islam.
• Disqualify any Islamic theocracy from having a seat at the United Nations.
• Do not permit Muslim proselytizing in prisons.

Dr. Suseelan’s speech was quite lengthy and complex, and some attendees at the Symposium may have had difficulty in following all his rapidly-made points. Also, the sound of English spoken with a soothing and lilting Indian accent can become the focus of the listener. However, Dr. Suseelan began his presentation with attention-getters, did not speak in euphemisms or politically-correct terms, and included a PowerPoint presentation of graphs, maps, and trends. He substantiated much of what he said with a brief history of Islam, particularly with regard to the five-centuries-long “Holocaust in India” (Eleventh-Sixteenth Centuries), in which 80,000,000 were slaughtered by Muslims in the Indian subcontinent, and also mentioned at least one recent statement which he overheard from a Muslim in New York City after the most recent detonation of a bomb in Tel-Aviv, Israel:

“We need more bombs to kill more Jews.”

In other words, he effectively showed that "radical Islam" is not a new development and that jihadism has been characteristic of Islam across the centuries.

In the final portion of his presentation, almost as a musical coda, Dr. Suseelan concluded his speech with visual aids to illustrate how, over the past fourteen centuries, the methods for waging Islamic have progressed from the sword to guns to suicide-bombers to IED’s.

Dr. Suseelan left us with this question: Is the next Jihadist weapon the nuclear bomb?

[Find essays by Dr. Babu Suseelan here.]

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Student Essay: The Lackadaisical Man

The assignment given was to write a type sketch. According to our textbook (Handbook of Grammar and Composition, A Beka Book, Pensacola, Florida: 2003, page 242),

"A type sketch is the opposite of a character sketch. Instead of describing a specific individual, the type sketch paints a word picture of a general type of person. Usually the best way to bring the type sketch to life is to use humor, satire, or gentle sarcasm...Usually the title of the type sketch will reveal the opinion of the author..."

G.M., a tenth-grade homeschool student, enjoys satire and used gentle sarcasm in the essay below. Has G.M. described anyone you know?

The Lackadaisical Man
The not-caring man of today’s world is becoming more and more popular. We see him every day throughout our lives. He lives completely satisfied for whatever comes to him and to other people. He is the happy-go-lucky man who really could care less about life, just living it through, ignoring the bad, and enjoying what good comes to him.

What is the lackadaisical student like? He is idle, sometimes even lazy, and lacks the interest and liveliness in some of life’s mysteries. Still, however, he lives somewhat on the positive side. If he receives a failing mark on a school paper, so what? He will get a better grade eventually. It is not the end of the world. Heck, having some money in his pocket, some friends, and a place to go—those are enough to get him through.

What is the twenty-first century lackadaisical man like? He is, for the most part, happy with his job, life, family and, if he is lucky enough, his girlfriend. Provided he has a paycheck coming in, a bottle of beer, and maybe a pack of cigarettes, he is satisfied with his life. No need to accomplish great deeds or to change the world. Those goals are what really smart or crazy people strive for. He laughs at people who try to achieve the best in life. “Just give it a break, and have some fun. Avoid the bad things, and just wait it out. Sooner or later, life will throw some lucky thing at me.” He holds an air of recklessness, still hoping for the best, however.

The happy-go-lucky personality lives within all of us, but most of us choose to try harder, rather than just letting life go by. The lackadaisical do try to make good of their lives, but they do not try as hard as most people. As long as the happy-go-lucky man holds luck, he will forever be satisfied and will see no need to try any harder than he already does.

--Submitted by G.M.

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From the Yemen Times

Read this link: "Was Bin Laden Deceived?" Try to figure out the logic. I'm hearing the theme music from Rod Serling's Twilight Zone.

My next planned posting will be a somewhat light-hearted one, though with room for some philosophy and social analysis. I don't know about you, but I feel that the heavy material is getting somewhat depressing.

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Movie: United 93

Read the entire commentary by Pim's Ghost. Excerpt:

"...[W]hen the passengers struck back, and when they attacked their first victim amongst the hijackers, audience members started CLAPPING and CHEERING!..."

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Symposium Report: Part Two

Brigitte Gabriel

At the April 29, 2006 America's Truth Forum, the first speaker (online bio) was Brigitte Gabriel, a tiny woman who spoke with convincing passion. She brought the attendees to tears as she spoke of her experiences during the Islamic revolution in her native land of Lebanon. Ms. Gabriel maintained that the worldwide Islamic revolution began in Lebanon, some four years before the 1979 revolution in Iran.

Before the takeover, sometimes referred to as a civil war, Lebanon was a republic, often referred to as "the Paris of the Middle East," and a nation of multiculturalism and diversity. Multicultural and diverse — Sound familiar?

In 1970, Lebanon took in various Muslim refugees. These welcomed refugees, who never intended to assimilate and who had another agenda, became a majority, and in Ms. Gabriel's words,

“Outside and inside Muslims put their heads together."

Ms. Gabriel went through her 9/11 when she was ten years old:

"I knew I was wanted dead because I was born a Christian."

From the ages of ten through seventeen, she and her family lived in an eight-by-ten bomb shelter underground—no bathrooms, no light—and ate grass to stay alive; to bring water back to the shelter where she and her parents were hiding, Ms. Gabriel, just a child, had to crawl under snipers’ bullets. In the middle of the night, Israelis would come to bring real food and to minister medical aid; Ms. Gabriel believes that if not for these Israelis she and her family would have perished in that hole in the ground.

Many of the monstrosities committed during Lebanon's takeover were never reported by the media. For example, the revolutionists would capture a family with a small baby and kill them in a horrifying manner: one of a baby’s legs tied to the father and the other leg to the mother, then the parents forced apart, thereby pulling apart their own child and watching themselves kill their baby.

When Ms. Gabriel was thirteen years old, shortly after they took shelter in their hole in the ground, her family got word that they would most likely die the next day. In preparation for her death and burial, and so as to look good for her own funeral, the young girl dressed in her best dress—her Easter dress, blue with white flowers—and her mother put a matching ribbon in her hair. The family waited to die. The attack didn’t come, and in 1982, Israelis entered Lebanon and rescued Brigitte Gabriel.

Excerpt from Ms. Gabriel's web site:

"We are facing an enemy that uses children as human bombs, mothers as suicide bombers, and men driven by the glory of death and the promise of eternal sexual bliss in heaven. We are fighting an enemy that loves death more than we love life....So many times in history in the last 100 years, citizens have stood by and done nothing allowing evil to prevail...[N]ow it is time to stand up against the terror of religious bigotry and intolerance."

Read more about Brigitte Gabriel at American Congress for Truth.

And if you ever have the opportunity to hear this lady speak in person, go! Ms. Gabriel speaks with passion and, as a survivor of Islamic terrorism, gives unique and unforgettable insights.

Addendum: Watch the video interview of Brigitte Gabriel. It is available at the bottom of the left sidebar here.

The same geopolitical ideology which led to what Ms. Gabriel described has a strong base in today's Western world. The followers of Allah really believe that they have the religious duty to bring about the establishment of the worldwide caliphate, Islamic utopia. In that regard, radicals and "moderates" have the same goal.

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Guillermo Sobrero And Abu Sayyaf

(All emphases by Always On Watch)

Do the names in the title of this blog article mean anything to you? Ring any bells?

The following brief item appeared in the Sunday, April 30, 2006 Washington Post:

"MANILA -- Military intelligence agents captured a second militant allegedly involved in the abduction of three Americans, including a missionary couple, from a resort five years ago. Abdasil Malangka Dima, an alleged member of Abu Sayyaf, a Muslim extremist group linked to al-Qaeda, was captured in Basilan province, the military said.

"Dima allegedly was involved in the abduction of Martin and Gracia Burnham, from Wichita, Kan., tourist Guillermo Sobero of Corona, Calif., and 17 Filipinos in 2001. Sobero was beheaded and Martin Burnham was killed during an army rescue mission."

I didn't wake up until September 11, 2001, and did not recognize the names in the above news item, though I vaguely recalled the names Martin and Gracia Burnham.

A quick Internet search of the name "Guillermo Sobrero" yielded a June 12, 2001 report of his beheading. Excerpt from the June 12, 2001 article about the beheading of Sobrero:

“'Look for his head in Tuburan,' spokesman Abu Sabaya said.... "

"Sabaya told the radio station: 'As an independence day gift we released an amigo, Guillermo Sobrero, but he doesn’t have a head now.'

"Today is the 103rd anniversary of the Philippines’ declaration of independence from Spain.

"Sabaya said there would be no more negotiations.

"'There is no reason why we should not behead the others,' he said...."

My Internet search also yielded the following 2003 blog article which contained an excerpt from Gracia Burnham's book In the Presence of My Enemies:

"'… I was watching a group of the remaining captors as they horsed around with each other, just having fun. Somebody pushed a pleasant young man named Jaafar, who was probably no more than eighteen. In a slightly mocking tone, he retorted “Oooh, oooh, don’t kill me! I want to see my sons!” … In the days ahead we heard that line repeated more than once; in fact it became kind of an “in” joke among the captors. We gradually admitted to ourselves the awful truth: Guillermo’s decapitated body was lying back there somewhere on a hillside, marked only by his head raised up on a bamboo pole like a trophy.'"

Consider the following excerpt from the March 27, 2006 Weekly Standard article "Saddam's Philippines Terror Connection: And other revelations from the Iraqi regime files":

"SADDAM HUSSEIN'S REGIME PROVIDED FINANCIAL support to Abu Sayyaf, the al Qaeda-linked jihadist group founded by Osama bin Laden's brother-in-law in the Philippines in the late 1990s, according to documents captured in postwar Iraq. An eight-page fax dated June 6, 2001, and sent from the Iraqi ambassador in Manila to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Baghdad, provides an update on Abu Sayyaf kidnappings and indicates that the Iraqi regime was providing the group with money to purchase weapons. The Iraqi regime suspended its support--temporarily, it seems--after high-profile kidnappings, including of Americans, focused international attention on the terrorist group...."

Read it all. Note the apparent connection among Saddam Hussein, al-Qaeda, and Abu Sayyaf. Often, what we Westerners think of as different groups of Islamic terrorists have ties, usually financial. According to Dr. Walid Phares, one of the speakers I heard at the Pre-Symposium event on Friday, April 28, 2006, different Islamic terrorist-organizations are branches of the same tree.

More information about Abu Sayyaf can be found here, in this April 2005 report from the State Department. Excerpt:

"The ASG [Abu Sayyaf Group] engages in kidnappings for ransom, bombings, beheadings, assassinations, and extortion. The group’s stated goal is to promote an independent Islamic state in western Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago (areas in the southern Philippines heavily populated by Muslims) but the ASG has primarily used terror for financial profit. Recent bombings may herald a return to a more radical, politicized agenda, at least among certain factions. The group’s first large-scale action was a raid on the town of Ipil in Mindanao in April 1995. In April of 2000, an ASG faction kidnapped 21 persons, including 10 Western tourists, from a resort in Malaysia. On May 27, 2001, the ASG kidnapped three US citizens and 17 Filipinos from a tourist resort in Palawan, Philippines. Several of the hostages, including US citizen Guillermo Sobero, were murdered. During a Philippine military hostage rescue operation on June 7, 2002, US hostage Gracia Burnham was rescued, but her husband Martin Burnham and Filipina Deborah Yap were killed. Philippine authorities say that the ASG had a role in the bombing near a Philippine military base in Zamboanga in October 2002 that killed a US serviceman. In February 2004, Khadaffy Janjalani’s faction bombed SuperFerry 14 in Manila Bay, killing approximately 132, and in March, Philippine authorities arrested an ASG cell whose bombing targets included the US Embassy in Manila."

So, what got me curious about Guillermo Sobrero and Abu Sayyaf? The Washington Post's mention of a beheading, of course. Just how many beheadings don't make the front page of our newspapers so as not to promote Islamophobia? And how many more reports of Islamic terrorism are buried or not published at all?

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Rosie's Defender!

Notice the addition of Warren's avatar on the right sidebar. I have a bodyguard!

(Scroll down for the most recent postings by Always On Watch)

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A Day Without Immigrants

Poor things! The illegal invaders had a bit of a scare in Montgomery County, Maryland. From the April 30, 2006 Washington Post item "Montgomery Schools: Immigrant Students Reassured":

"The Montgomery County school system is urging students to go to school [May 1], disputing rumors that undocumented immigrants would be arrested if they do.

"In a news release, school officials acknowledged widespread rumors of arrests in conjunction with a business boycott to protest proposed legislation to tighten U.S. borders.

"Schools spokesman Brian Edwards said that several schools had received calls from parents. County police also released a statement dispelling rumors of mass raids against undocumented immigrants in the county."

Isn't it nice to know that Montgomery County Public Schools System and the Montgomery County Police Department have assured the illegal invaders that they will not be rounded up? Your tax dollar at work!

The following is an email I received this morning:

"Please don't forget that today, Monday, May 1st, is the day the illegal members of our country and those who symphasize with them have declared to be a national day of 'No Spending Whatsoever.' It's been all over the news and in the papers. The intent is to show how much power they have in their ability to cripple our nation's economy for a day in order to influence immigration legislation. As American citizens who want some constraints and controls, and who do not wish to give these people the power to ruin our economy on Monday, please go out for breakfast, go out for lunch, go out for dinner. Take in a movie. Buy a new dress and shoes. Buy a new car. If you have been planning to buy a tv, or any large purchase, do it on Monday. Show them that they cannot cripple us, not even for a day. Please drown out the statement they are trying to make with a statement of our own. This is our country, and you don't run it. Your boycott will not be noticed. We will show how little power you actually have because your boycott will not work. You will not cripple our economy - not even for one day and especially not on Monday, May 1st, 2006."

So which will it be today — a victory for the rule of law or a victory on the part of illegal invaders? Because that's what "undocumented workers" are — illegal invaders!

Note: Did you notice all the American flags in the previous demonstration? According to the Austin-American Statesman, after the demonstration last month in Austin, Texas, those American flags were tossed into the trash. Get the message?

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