Always On Watch Archives

Moving

2006-12-15T13:24:00.001-05:00

Even though I sometimes use an identity which links back to this blog, this site has now moved to Always On Watch Two, where Haloscan provides for the banning of trolls.

See you there, friends!

Note: Feel free to continue commenting here to the threads which are presently active and operating under comment moderation.

Addition To Sidebar

2006-12-15T13:01:00.000-05:00

Turn on your speakers.

[Hat-tip to Brooke]

December 15: Bill Of Rights Day

2006-12-15T13:00:00.000-05:00

According to this source,

This day was signed into practice by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on December 15, 1941, one hundred and fifty years after the actual signing of the Bill of Rights by our forefathers. Ironically, he proclaimed the holiday just one week after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor initiating the United States' involvement in World War II where freedom issues were at the core of wartime dogma....

While the U.S. Constitution was written in 1787, it wasn't until two years later that the ten Bill of Rights were incorporated into the governing document.

George Mason of Virginia, with the Virginia Declaration of Rights, helped to contribute to our Declaration of Independence and to the Bill of Rights, an essential portion of our Constitution:

A call for American independence from Britain, the Virginia Declaration of Rights was drafted by George Mason in May 1776 and amended by Thomas Ludwell Lee and the Virginia Convention. Thomas Jefferson drew heavily from this document when he drafted the Declaration of Independence one month later.

Mason wrote that "all men are born equally free and independant [sic], and have certain inherent natural rights,...among which are the Enjoyment of Life and Liberty, with the Means of acquiring and possessing Property, and pursueing [sic] and obtaining Happiness and Safety." This uniquely influential document was also used by James Madison in drawing up the Bill of Rights (1789)...

The following is the complete text of our Bill of Rights, with summarizing headers:

First Amendment – Freedom of speech, press, religion, peaceable assembly, and to petition the government.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Second Amendment – Right for the people to keep and bear arms, as well as to maintain a militia.
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.

Third Amendment – Protection from quartering of troops.
No Soldier shall, in time of peace quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

Fourth Amendment – Protection from unreasonable search and seizure.
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Fifth Amendment – Due process, double jeopardy, self-incrimination, private property.
No person shall be held to answer for any capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

Sixth Amendment – Trial by jury and other rights of the accused.
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district where in the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense.

Seventh Amendment – Civil trial by jury.
In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.

Eighth Amendment – Prohibition of excessive bail, as well as cruel and unusual punishment.
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

Ninth Amendment – Protection of rights not specifically enumerated in the Bill of Rights.
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Tenth Amendment – Powers of states and people
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

Now is also a fitting time to review some quotations from George Mason. A few samples:

June 12, 1788
Live in a frugal Style, without parade or Ostentation, avoid all unnecessary Expence, & do as much of your Business your selves, as you can...

April 17-26, 1775
We came equals into this world, and equals shall we go out of it. All men are by nature born equally free and independent. To protect the weaker from the injuries and insults of the stronger were societies first formed; … Every society, all government, and every kind of civil compact therefore, is or ought to be, calculated for the general good and safety of the community. Every power, every authority vested in particular men is, or ought to be, ultimately directed to this sole end; and whenever any power or authority whatever extends further, or is of longer duration than is in its nature necessary for these purposes, it may be called government, but it is in fact oppression.

May 20, 1787
It is easy to foresee that there will be much Difficulty in organizing a Government upon this great Scale, & at the same time reserving to the State Legislatures a sufficient Portion of Power for promoting & securing the Prosperity & Happiness of their respective Citizens.

July 5, 1792
… for at my time of Life, my only Satisfaction and Pleasure is in my Children; and all my Views are centered in their Wellfare and Happiness.

Aug. 22, 1787
...Every master of slaves is born a petty tyrant. They bring the judgment of heaven on a Country. As nations can not be rewarded or punished in the next world they must be in this. By an inevitable chain of caused & effects providence punishes national sins, by national calamities.

From this article about George Mason:

Mason...[called slavery] "that slow poison, which is daily contaminating the minds and morals of our people." At the Constitutional Convention, he spoke against allowing any mention of slavery to appear in the text of the Constitution. He also pressed to include a bill of rights — and when none was put in (this was before the first ten amendments were passed), he urged his home state of Virginia not to ratify our country's key founding documents.

That move cost Mason his long friendship with George Washington, and also knocked him out of the pantheon of Founding Fathers. Had he supported the Constitution, his name would be spoken in the same breath as Washington, Jefferson, John Adams, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton. Instead, he went into history as a leading Anti-Federalist.

Mason...supported freedom of religion and freedom of the press long before these ideas became institutionalized in American life. He was a lifelong champion of liberty whose influence improved the United States in its earliest days.

A Republic, If You Can Keep It is maintaining an updated list of Bill-of-Rights Day commemorations. Please notify David if you learn of a commemoration in your area: schantz627@aol.com

Wreaths Across America

2006-12-15T08:45:00.000-05:00

(This posting stuck toward the top through December 15. Please scroll down for the latest postings)

[All emphases by Always On Watch]

From "' Rest easy, sleep well my brothers. Know the line has held, your job is done,'" which appeared in the December 3, 2006 edition of the Washington Post:

Every year for more than a decade, at the height of the season, Morrill Worcester would pack up a truckload of his Christmas wreaths and head down from Maine to Arlington National Cemetery. Without fanfare, he and a dozen or so volunteers would lay red-bowed wreaths on a few thousand headstones of fallen Americans.

There was no publicity. No crowds gathered. The gesture was one man's private duty, born of a trip to Washington he won as a 12-year-old paperboy. Of all the monuments and memorials he saw, it was the visit to Arlington that stuck with him -- the majesty and mystery, the sadness and the pride, the sight of all those neat rows of government-issue white headstones....

A week from today, Worcester will leave Columbia Falls, Maine, to lead the trailer full of wreaths down the coast. This time, it won't be just the trucker, Worcester and his wife, Karen. This time, there'll be an escort of a couple hundred Patriot Guard Riders, a national group of motorcyclists who take it upon themselves to display their respect for fallen service members.

This time, Worcester and friends won't barrel down the interstate; they're taking the slow road, Route 1, so that more motorcyclists -- perhaps thousands more -- might join the caravan.

This time, the wreath-laying won't be a private affair. Instead of the 10 or 12 volunteers who had been rounded up in past years by Wayne Hanson, a retired federal law enforcement officer who lives in Springfield, at least 500 people will be ready to help lay the wreaths Dec. 14 -- and maybe many more.

There will be a busload of school kids from Skowhegan, Maine, a Civil Air Patrol unit from up that way and all manner of Washington-area volunteers, too.

Worcester has always returned the checks that people send him. The wreath-laying is his personal statement: "This is the least we can do."

Everyone connected with the wreath project takes pains to note that it has nothing to do with politics, nothing to do with anyone's opinion about Iraq or terrorism....

This year, the project is expanding:

...The interest in Worcester's project has exploded to the point that he had to find some way to extend the tribute, so he has launched Wreaths Across America, a Web site that coordinates similar rituals at more than 200 military cemeteries around the country.

From the Wreaths Across America web site:

Spurred by the tremendous outpouring of letters and interest, and to celebrate the 15 years of giving, Worcester Wreath Company solicited Civil Air Patrol and its members to help expand the reaches of the Arlington Wreath Project with Wreaths Across America – the placing of memorial wreaths during a special ceremony at each of the over 230 State and National Cemeteries, and Veterans Monuments across the country.

Morrill Worcester - President of Worcester Wreath Company explains his desire to develop the Wreaths Across America project:
"Our goal is to expand the recognition of those who serve our country, both past, present, and future, as well as their families who deserve our support. Without the sacrifices of our veterans, there would be no opportunity to enjoy the freedoms, the life we live today."
Worcester Wreath invites you to attend the annual wreath-laying at Arlington National Cemetery, or in your local area.

Thursday, December 14th, 2006 - More details coming soon!

The list of locations is growing each day and our goal with Civil Air Patrol is to involve every State and National cemetery, Veterans Monument and Memorial across the country.

Note: If you are not able to attend, please participate by taking a moment of silence at the noon hour on December 14th, to reflect on the sacrifices made and freely given, by those who will not be home for the holidays.

I have two family members buried at Arlington National Cemetery. No matter what I'm busy doing, I will pause at noon on December 14th to remember my two uncles: one served on the front lines during World War I and came home permanently disabled, and the other served at Omaha Beach on D-Day and came home safely. How grateful I am to have the reassurance that each of their markers will have a wreath placed!

Please take 7-8 minutes of your time to watch the following video:

Flying While Muslim

2006-12-13T06:16:00.000-05:00

(All emphases by Always On Watch)

Just in time for the Hajj, which begins on December 29, CAIR, now the legal representative of five of the six praying imams and pursuing an out-of-court settlement, is stirring the pot:

American Muslims making a religious pilgrimage to Mecca are being encouraged to file civil rights complaints if they feel discriminated against by airlines.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), citing what it called the "airport profiling" of six imams removed from a recent flight, yesterday said Muslims traveling this month to the holy site in Saudi Arabia need to be aware of their rights.

"Given the increase in the number of complaints CAIR has received alleging airport profiling of American Muslims, we believe it is important that all those taking part in this year's hajj be aware of their legal and civil rights," said Ibrahim Hooper, CAIR spokesman.

Apparently CAIR has distributed materials specifically delineating how to promote this flying-while-Muslim agenda:

A guide issued by CAIR advises Muslims that "as an airline passenger, you are entitled to courteous, respectful and non-stigmatizing treatment by airline and security personnel."

"You have the right to complain about treatment that you believe is discriminatory," the guide says.

Those treated in a discriminatory manner are advised by CAIR to "ask for the names and ID numbers of all persons involved in the incident. Be sure to write this information down."

CAIR recently held this day-long conference:

On December 9, the Maryland and Virginia chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MD/VA), in cooperation with the D.C. Coordinating Council of Muslim Organizations (DC-CCMO) and the Fairfax Institute, will hold its first annual Imams' media relations conference in Herndon, Va.

The one-day conference is designed to teach Imams, community leaders and activists how to interact effectively with media professionals. Sessions will cover basic media relations skills.

"Basic media relations skills"? And something else, too, including the distribution of materials as to how to intimidate the airlines from following proper security-procedures? According to one airline official,

"You do wonder what the ultimate aim is here [with regard to the six praying imams and CAIR's involvement]; to eliminate a discriminatory practice that does not exist, or is there some other agenda afoot."

The above-cited article in the Washington Times also contains the following with regard to CAIR's possible agenda:

Pilots and air marshals called the incident a "PC probe" to intimidate passengers and crew from reporting suspicious behavior by Muslim passengers and are fearful the incident will set off a domino effect of lawsuits.

Debra Burlingame, whose brother was the pilot of American Airlines Flight 77 that crashed into the Pentagon on September 11, thinks this is a ploy to extort money from the airlines.

"I think CAIR is soliciting complaints, and if they don't get it, they will make it up," said Miss Burlingame, who is also a director for the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation.

Although CAIR likes to promote itself as representative of all or of the majority of American Muslims, such is not the case:

M. Zuhdi Jasser, a Phoenix physician and chairman of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD), said the announcement by CAIR "continues the tired stoking of the flames of victimization."

"They are unfortunately exploiting, for purely political reasons, what should be a sacred and purely spiritual story of our faith's annual holy pilgrimage to Mecca," Dr. Jasser said.

"We need new leadership and organizations which use their passions and the bandwidth of the media to lead the ideological fight against radical and political Islam rather than this tired pre-emption of supposed discrimination."

Catching Up

2006-12-12T11:25:00.000-05:00

I know that I haven't been commenting much, here or elsewhere. But I'm trying to catch up on a six-month backlog of balancing bank accounts, cleaning out my office, and averaging grades for the semester. Nevertheless, I do read all comments here in between my catching-up frenzies.

Thanks in advance for your understanding.

"The Dawn of the Real Islam"

2006-12-11T05:55:00.000-05:00

So says Abu Ayman, a senior leader of Islamic Jihad in the northern West Bank town of Jenin, as he gloated about details in the report from the Iraq Study Group. Islamic Jihad is the group which has been responsible for suicide bombings within Israel over the past two years. More from Abu Ayman:

"The report proves that this is the era of Islam and of jihad..."(With the Iraq Study Group report), the Americans came to the conclusion that Islam is the new giant of the world and it would be clever to reduce hostilities with this giant. In the Koran the principle of the rotation is clear and according to this principle the end of the Americans and of all non-believers is getting closer."

And this from Abu Abdullah, leader of Hamas's military wing:

"It is not just a simple victory. It is a great one. The big superpower of the world is defeated by a small group of mujahedeen (fighters)....

"It is no doubt that Allah and his angels were fighting with them (insurgents) against the Americans. It is a sign to all those who keep saying that America, Israel and the West in general cannot be defeated on the ground so let us negotiate with them."

According to Abu Abdullah, after the United States withdraws from Iraq,

"America must understand that with anti-American governments in Latin America and with Islam growing and reinforcing, including in the US itself, the next step would be a total defeat on their (American) land, not a relative one like they are facing in Iraq."

Bluff and bluster? Before 9/11, we thought that Osama bin Laden's threats were bluff and bluster.

Personal Update

2006-12-09T15:40:00.000-05:00

This gastorenteritis, which hit me on Wednesday, is one nasty virus. What a way to start my Christmas vacation! I'll try to make limited rounds as I can.

Tomorrow evening, my husband and I have tickets for "Mount Vernon by Candlelight." As a lifelong resident of Northern Virginia, I've yet to take this tour, about which I've heard such praise. From the Mount Vernon web site:

During this holiday program, visitors learn about the Washingtons' Christmas traditions, tour the candlelit Mansion including the rarely-seen third floor, and meet historical characters 'Martha Washington' and 'Tobias Lear', who served as Washington’s secretary during his presidency.

On the grounds, guests enjoy caroling and free cookies and hot cider around a roaring campfire. This is the only time of the year that Mount Vernon is open exclusively for public evening tours.

My husband and I will be resting up so as to enjoy the event tomorrow. A bit of snow would make the tour even better.

Virtual tour of Mount Vernon HERE.

"Don't Play Us For Chumps"

2006-12-08T06:20:00.000-05:00

Dennis Miller's take on the six praying imams:

[Hat-tip to CatHouse Chat]

Exposed: The Extremist Agenda

2006-12-07T23:59:00.000-05:00

[This posting stuck at the top for a while. Scroll down for the lastest postings from Always On Watch]

From The Glenn Beck Show, approximately 40 minutes:

Sick!

2006-12-06T12:48:00.000-05:00

Gastroenteritis. It started last night. I won't be blogging for a few days.

Dennis Prager And CAIR

2006-12-05T07:20:00.000-05:00

From The United American Committee, in response to this announcement at CAIR's web site:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

U.S. HOLOCAUST MUSEUM URGED TO KEEP COUNCIL APOINTEE

(LOS ANGELES, 12/04/2006) - A prominent national education and action group today called for the support of a presidential appointee to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council after accusations of intolerance by a radical Islamist organization.

The United American Committee (UAC) urged that talk show host and columnist Dennis Prager be supported by all Americans for his recent appointment to the museum's council.

Controversy arose when the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), viewed as a radical Islamic organization by many, objected to a recent syndicated column by Prager in which he wrote that Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress, should be prevented from taking his oath of office using the Koran.

"This goes beyond politics, regardless of one's political views and opinions of Dennis Prager we must support him as he endures a relentless smear campaign by this radical Islamist group. We must make a stand for freedom of speech in the face of the Islamists who would attempt to destroy our freedoms and who try to silence those who oppose them.” remarks UAC Chairman Jesse Petrilla.

In a letter to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council Chairman Fred S. Zeidman, the United American Committee wrote:

"We support Mr. Prager for courageously standing up to the threat of radical Islam that America is facing today. We can not allow radical groups to work to silence American journalists and commentators, and must continue to uphold the 1st Amendment and protect the freedoms that this nation holds dear. We thank you for having him on your council."

The United American Committee is a leading educational group dedicated to awakening the nation to the threats of radical Islam and works to educate Americans on the nature of Islamic extremism. Its mission is to fight the ideological aspects of the War on Terror to counter elements of radical Islam in America.

Contacts for the U.S. Holocaust Museum are as follows:

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
100 Raoul Wallenberg Place, SW
Washington, DC 20024-2126
Main telephone: (202) 488-0400
TTY: (202) 488-0406
http://www.ushmm.org/museum/council/
https://secure.ushmm.org/join/contact/main.php

Letters of support may also be emailed to Dennis Prager at dennisprager@dennisprager.com

##

The United American Committee
P.O. Box 3301
Burbank, CA 91508
Fax: (202) 478-0325
www.UnitedAmericanCommittee.org
info@unitedamericancommittee.org

Mr. Prager's column about Keith Ellison and the Koran is HERE.

Jerry Klein's "Spoof"

2006-12-04T07:20:00.000-05:00

What did Jerry Klein of WMAL Radio have in mind when he did this? (Print synopsis here)

Was Klein's purpose to expose growing hatred for Muslims? Or did he have in mind provoking his listeners to make concurring comments so as to bring in CAIR?

After all, CAIR is no stranger to WMAL Radio. According to this July 28, 2005 press release from Anti-CAIR:

ABC DISNEY BACKS DOWN TO THREATS FROM CAIR, FIRES CONSERVATIVE TALK HOST OVER STATEMENTS REGARDING ISLAM AND TERRORISM

Conservative talk-show host Michael Graham was suspended without pay today by ABC Disney after threats from the Council for American-Islamic Relations over his on-air comments regarding terrorism and Islam.

Despite repeated statements of support for Graham's free-speech rights by management at 630 WMAL in Washington, D.C. ----- the ABC-owned radio station where Graham works as mid-morning host ---- he was summarily suspended pending an "investigation."

"I honestly don't know what Disney is investigating me for, unless it's for doing a compelling talk show that gets people's attention," Graham said. "I thought that was my job."

Graham has been harshly criticized by CAIR for public comments linking the current theology and structure of Islam to the repeated acts of terror in its name. CAIR sent mass e-mails to its members urging them to contact ABC and demand the company to punish Graham for his remarks.

The statements at the heart of the controversy reflect Graham's opinion that, as he puts it, "Because of the mix of Islamic theology that --- rightly or wrongly --- is interpreted to promote violence, added to an organizational structure that allows violent radicals to operate openly in Islam's name with impunity, Islam has, sadly, become a terrorist organization. It pains me to say it. But the good news is it doesn't have to stay this way, if the vast majority of Muslims who don't support terror will step forward and re-claim their religion."

Ironically, CAIR announced today that a group of US Muslim scholars were issuing a fatwa against terrorism. According to Ibrahim Hooper of CAIR, the fatwa was issued in part due to criticism from talk radio hosts like Michael Graham.

"Nearly four years after the World Trade Center fell, CAIR is participating in a blanket denunciation of terrorism, and my attitude is "better late than never." If our conversation on 630 WMAL helped CAIR finally take this long-needed step, then we've done something good for the future of Islam," Graham said....

In contrast to CAIR's reaction to Michael Graham's comments and to his explanation thereof, CAIR is pleased with the results of Jerry Klein's spoof:

RADIO SPOOF DRAWS SUPPORT FOR NAZI-LIKE TREATMENT OF U.S. MUSLIMS

CAIR says callers' reaction is a 'wake-up call' on Anti-Muslim bigotry

(WASHINGTON, D.C., 11/27/06) - A parody of anti-Muslim bigotry on a Washington, D.C., radio station drew support for treating American Muslims in a manner similar to how the Jewish community was targeted in Nazi Germany.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said today that the reaction to the parody is a "wake-up call" for religious and political leaders who remain silent on the issue of growing Islamophobia in America....

The story about Jerry Klein's spoof has elicited a lot of attention, according to Klein's own statement on November 28:

I've been overwhelmed by the response to Sunday's show (click ... if you'd like to hear a recording). Besides being interviewed by the Reuters news service, and having both NBC4 and WUSA TV9 here in Washington feature this story prominently on Monday night's newscasts, I've heard that other talk show hosts and bloggers have now joined the conversation. By early Tuesday, I've stopped counting the emails you've sent me from all over the world in response to my contention that as Americans, we need to be careful that we don't allow our concerns over terrorism to push us over the line towards discrimination against all Muslims, and in fact all Arabs, whether Muslim, Christian, or any other faith. Thank you for your words of support. I'll try to respond to everyone -- but it's going to take a little time.

FYI...Jerry Klein is sort of odd-man-out at WMAL Radio, which also presents programs from Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh. The WMAL Radio web site refers to Jerry Klein as "WMAL's Favorite (Pet) Liberal?" The following is his biographical sketch from the station's web site:

Jerry Klein is 630 WMAL’s Senior Producer, and Producer for The Chris Core Show. He was born in Philadelphia, but grew up and spent most of his life in Charlotte, NC, where he was an award-winning talk-radio host, concert producer, weekly columnist, record store owner, the program director for a non-profit center for community and culture, and a psychological counselor. (Jerry says, "That’s code for I’ve led a very full and colorful life.")

He moved to the Washington area a little more than five years ago to finally marry the love of his life. Jerry has two sons, Josh and Ben, and relies on his cat, Yogi, for spiritual guidance - though, he says, "All assistance in these matters is gratefully accepted!"

Any bets as to whether Jerry Klein will be present at this meeting in Herndon, Virginia, on Saturday, December 9? Excerpt from CAIR's web site:

...The one-day conference is designed to teach Imams, community leaders and activists how to interact effectively with media professionals. Sessions will cover basic media relations skills....

Homemade Meals Approved

2006-12-02T07:30:00.000-05:00

Fairfax County does something right:

Fire up those ovens! The casserole is back.

The chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors yesterday nixed plans to bar residents from cooking food in home and church kitchens and donating it to homeless shelters. He blamed overzealous county employees for a policy that made Fairfax the subject of nationwide ridicule....

In dozens of comments on the Washington Post's Web site, readers vented indignation over the ban on home-cooked food, calling it "idiocy," the product of a "bungling bureaucracy" and accusing the county of trying to block the faith community's efforts to help the poor....

For as long as I can remember, local churches in Fairfax County have provided delicious homemade meals for those less-advantaged. In fact, during the Thanksgiving/Christmas seasons, such service has traditionally been a large part of local custom, also involving the serving of the food by schoolchildren.

Fairfax County deserved national ridicule on this one. But if objections had not been voiced, those homemade meals would've been scrapped. For my own part, I'd rather eat a meal prepared by the Church of the Brethren than my own cooking!

Greenhouse Gases

2006-12-01T12:45:00.000-05:00

Too funny!

[Hat-tip to Reliapundit at THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS]

Stupid Is As Stupid Does. Or Is The Problem Something Else?

2006-12-01T08:10:00.000-05:00

( When I put together the first part of this, I played the story for laughs. Perhaps that angle is inappropriate now? You decide.)

Nineteen-year-old Devin K. Hoerauf just keeps getting into trouble. According to this article in the Washington Post,

...Hoerauf first appeared before [Judge] Boynton years ago on juvenile charges. He pleaded guilty this summer to second-degree assault after an incident in Silver Spring. He was charged with robbery in June after he and some friends were suspected of stealing bikes from a group of younger teenagers near the MARC train station in Germantown....

[Possible spew alert! Protect your keyboard and monitor before scrolling down!]

Hoerauf's situation worsened in his last court appearance:

...As Devin K. Hoerauf's robbery trial in Rockville was wrapping up Tuesday afternoon [November 21], the 19-year-old accidentally dropped a bag of marijuana on the floor when he stood up at the defense table.

The judge's assistant noticed a plastic bag containing "a green, leafy substance" and pointed it out to a Montgomery County deputy sheriff, who picked it up and added two misdemeanor charges...

[Don't pick up that beverage yet!]

Hoerauf's defense attorney was certainly placed in a tough position:

To make matters worse, his mother, a defense lawyer, was by his side at the time -- representing him.

What did his mother have to say about her son's recent flub? First, she stated that jail would not help him. And she went on:

"I'm going to say it in a very crass way, and I hope he forgives me," she said.

"He is brain-damaged, your honor. I don't mean he's just a defendant who does dumb stuff. This is a boy with an IQ in triple digits. His brain is glued together with Silly Putty. He can't think his way out of a paper bag, but he can do physics."

I suppose that most of us know somebody like David K. Hoerauf. I'm not referring necessarily to a pothead, but rather to somebody who just doesn't have any sense despite a high IQ. Nominations for others in the stupid-is-as-stupid-does category?

***********************************************

After I wrote the above, a week later I found the following letter to the editor:

What The Post Didn't Say About My Son

In a Nov. 25 Metro article, "Marijuana Multiplies Suspect's Problems," I was quoted as telling a judge that my son, Devin Hoerauf, is "brain-damaged" and has a brain "glued together with Silly Putty." The context of those comments was omitted: My son has autism.

The story may be fitting for "America's Dumbest Criminals," but the newsworthy aspect to the story is that prosecutors in the Montgomery County State's Attorney's Office are aggressively seeking the imprisonment of a boy who they know suffers from autism. Devin has never physically hurt or threatened anyone. Coincidentally, I, his mother, am a criminal defense attorney.

In the most recent trial, my son was charged with six counts of robbery and one count of conspiracy. The trial revealed that he never touched, threatened or stole from anyone. I did not speak to the jury or examine witnesses during the trial. I was there to help Devin communicate with his actual attorney, Andrew Jezic.

It is unfortunate that The Post is more interested in reporting snippets about a "brain-damaged" defendant than in reporting on a major educational and health crisis. The failure of our society to provide services for autistic people is newsworthy, not dropping pot in a courtroom.

GWYN HOERAUF
Germantown

If Devin Hoerauf does have autism, documentation regarding his disability should have been presented to the court. And if such documentation is produced, should autism be recognized as an excuse for escaping incarceration?

The following portion of Ms. Hoerauf's letter appears to contradict facts presented in the above-cited article in the Washington Post:

The jury, which was not in the courtroom for the marijuana bust, convicted Hoerauf on four counts of robbery and acquitted him on two counts of robbery and one charge of conspiracy.

So what's the truth here? If the Washington Post published a correction to the article about Hoerauf, I missed it.

Before finalizing this blog article, I did a tiny bit of research on autism. According to this interview which appeared on Newsweek's web site, diagnosing certain forms of autism is not easy:

Los Angeles, CA: What is the difference between Autism, High-Functioning Autism, Asperger Syndrome and Pervasive Development Disorder? Or is it just in the eye of the diagnoser?

Barbara Kantrowitz [biography]: These are all different disorders on the autism spectrum. All are characterized by three basic issues: language problems, repetitive behaviors and difficulty with social interaction. People on the high-functioning end of the spectrum, particularly those with Asperger syndrome, have the best chance of establishing an independent life. I understand why you would question diagnosis, but you should understand that these definitions are relatively new and it takes a while for the latest information to filter down to doctors around the country.

Ms. Kantrowitz recently co-wrote a lengthy article on autism, but I don't recall any discussion of a link between autism and crime. I have to wonder if such a connection exists, beyond this, from the Autism Society of America:

Unfortunately, individuals with autism are too often victims of crimes....

Also, when I was doing my bit of research, I found the following, from a UK blog:

The National Autistic Society has said there is no link between autism, including Asperger Syndrome, and crime - and there was no evidence to suggest people with autism were more likely to break the law than any member of the public.

In a statement, the society said: "In fact, in many cases individuals are unusually concerned to keep to the letter of the law. A person with autism will have individual personality traits and facets to their character, just like any other person, that make up who they are and determine their actions."...

As advocates for care and recognition of autism attempt to improve the situation of those who manifest signs along the spectrum of autism, these advocates should be careful that they don't sink to "the Twinkie defense."

Hippies Want To Run The Country

2006-11-30T07:02:00.000-05:00

I'm in a rush, so I'll just post a quick link here. Read it!

[Hat-tip to Donal]

Shari'a Law Comes To The UK?

2006-11-29T07:38:00.000-05:00

According to a November 29, 2006 article in the London Telegraph, Shari'a law, based on the Koran and the Hadith, is becoming an alterate source of justice in some parts of Britain. According to a recent show on BBC 4 Radio, an unofficial Somali "court" recently rendered a decision in a stabbing case in southeast London. According to the article,

Mr Yusuf [a youth worker from Somalia] told the programme he felt more bound by the traditional law of his birth than by the laws of his adopted country. "Us Somalis, wherever we are in the world, we have our own law," he said. "It's not sharia, it's not religious — it's just a cultural thing."

In the UK, shari'a law is not binding. Yet.

Meanwhile, some in the UK see the use of shari'a law as a good measure:

Some lawyers welcomed the advance of what has become known as "legal pluralism".

"Legal pluralism" - multiculturalism as applied to the legal system?

The article also states the following:

Dr Prakash Shah, a senior lecturer in law at Queen Mary University of London, said such tribunals "could be more effective than the formal legal system"....

Read the entire article in the Telegraph HERE.

[Hat-tip to Nanc for providing me the link to the above story]

Don't Fire Illegals

2006-11-28T07:15:00.000-05:00

According to a November 28, 2006 article in the Washington Times, firing illegal immigrants is discriminatory:

A Mississippi Democrat in line to become chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee has warned the nation's largest uniform supplier it faces criminal charges if it follows a White House proposal to recheck workers with mismatched Social Security numbers and fire those who cannot resolve the discrepancy in 60 days.

Rep. Bennie Thompson said in a letter to Cintas Corp. it could be charged with "illegal activities in violation of state and federal law" if any of its 32,000 employees are terminated because they gave incorrect Social Security numbers to be hired.

"I am deeply troubled by Cintas' recent policy change regarding the Social Security Administration's 'no match' letters," Mr. Thompson said in the Nov. 2 letter. "It is my understanding that hundreds of Cintas' immigrant workers have received these letters. I am extremely concerned about any potentially discriminatory actions targeting this community."...

Complying with immigration laws and regulations is discrimination?

[Hat-tip to Raven for calling my attention to the above article in the Washington Times]

Campaign Promise To Go Unfulfilled?

2006-11-26T07:41:00.000-05:00

Surprise, surprise! The Democratic Party's pie-in-the-sky plan to "fix" the Medicare prescription-benefit program might not be so feasible. From "Success of Drug Plan Challenges Democrats" in the Sunday, November 26, 2006 edition of the Washington Post:

It sounded simple enough on the campaign trail: Free the government to negotiate lower drug prices and use the savings to plug a big gap in Medicare's new prescription-drug benefit. But as Democrats prepare to take control of Congress, they are struggling to keep that promise without wrecking a program that has proven cheaper and more popular than anyone imagined.

House Democrats have vowed to act quickly after taking power in January to lift a ban on Medicare negotiations with drugmakers, which they hope will save as much as $190 billion over a decade. But House leaders have yet to settle on a strategy and acknowledge that negotiation is, in any case, unlikely to generate sufficient savings to fill the "doughnut hole," the much-criticized gap in coverage that forces millions of seniors to pay 100 percent of drug costs for a few weeks or months each year....

"This is going to be much more of a morass than people think," said Marilyn Moon, director of the health program at the American Institutes for Research and a former trustee of the Social Security and Medicare trust funds. Negotiating drug prices is "a feel-good kind of answer, but it's not one that is easy to imagine how you put into practice."

The Medicare drug benefit, one of the Bush administration's signature domestic programs, was created in 2003 and took effect in January....The cost of the program has been lower than expected...

For now, it is not clear how aggressively Democrats are willing to push price negotiation. Ideas range from simply repealing the ban on negotiations -- which would accomplish little if the Bush administration refuses to negotiate -- to creating a separate, government-run Medicare drug program with strong negotiating power.

Rep. Fortney "Pete" Stark (D-Calif.), who is in line to become chairman of a key health subcommittee, said he prefers a middle path, with Medicare setting ceilings from which private insurers could negotiate downward.

But Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), the incoming Senate Finance chairman, is cool to the idea of government negotiation, and has committed only to holding hearings to "determine what the result would be of eliminating" the no-negotiation clause.

Tell the AARP, staunch supporters of the Democratic Party, that they've been had on this one. Oh, never mind:

John C. Rother, policy director for AARP, the powerful lobby for elderly Americans, said he has no doubt that the next Congress will give government some role in negotiating Medicare drug prices.

"This is an idea that's favored by 90 percent of the American public," Rother said. "It's not like you have to convince the American public that this is a good idea."

Sure, Mr. Rother. Just keep on believing that. After all, "Hillary Care" worked out too, didn't it?

More On Tariq Ramadan

2006-11-25T19:40:00.000-05:00

(All emphases by Always On Watch)

In my previous post, "Time Magazine's Dhimmitude," I relied on information from FrontPageMagazine. I did so as a matter of convenience because a Google Search of "Tariq Ramadan" yields a multitute of hits. Probably the sources I'm using below won't be any more satisfactory to a leftist because, as Diana West editorialized,

The media love a martyr. And I don't mean "martyr" in the context of modern-day jihad. I mean the sort from our pre-Islamic consciousness, the long-suffering "victim" of "witch hunts" and moralizing of a singularly "right-wing" and "puritanical" kind. Such martyrdom never dims -- and I'm thinking, say, of Alger Hiss, or, on a different level, Bill Clinton. It beams on in perpetuity, alight with liberal pieties projected by a media culture that, in turn, basks in reflected martyrdom.

Tariq Ramadan, a Eurabian intellectual with a string of associates linked to terrorism, is becoming just such a media martyr.

Below is a bit more information about Tariq Ramadan, from Tariq Ramadan's editorial in the October 1, 2006 edition of the Washington Post:

What words do I utter and what views do I hold that are dangerous to American ears, so dangerous, in fact, that I should not be allowed to express them on U.S. soil?

I have called upon Western societies to be more open toward Muslims and to regard them as a source of richness, not just of violence or conflict. I have called upon Muslims in the West to reconcile and embrace both their Islamic and Western identities. I have called for the creation of a "New We" based on common citizenship within which Buddhists, Jews, Christians, Muslims and people with no religion can build a pluralistic society. And yes, I believe we all have a right to dissent, to criticize governments and protest undemocratic decisions. It is certainly legitimate for European Muslims and American Muslims to criticize their governments if they find them unjust -- and I will continue to do so.

At the same time, I do not stop short of criticizing regimes from Muslim countries. Indeed, the United States is not the only country that rejects me; I am also barred from Tunisia, Saudi Arabia and even my native Egypt.

Note that Mr. Ramadan doesn't say why he is s was banned from certain Islamic nations. According to the Washington Times,

Mr. Ramadan's activities do not stop in Europe. In 1995, when the Algerian Armed Islamist Movement (AIM) perpetrated several terrorist attacks in Paris, French Interior Minister Jean Louis Debre barred Mr. Ramadan at that time from France -- based on his links to AIM. Tunisia, Saudi Arabia and his native Egypt also bar Mr. Ramadan from crossing their boarders. He is denied entrance to those countries, not for supporting Hamas or because he carries peaceful messages. They keep him out because of his links to and influence on radical Muslim groups.

Regardless, Mr. Ramadan's popularity among the Europeans is growing fast....

The above link also includes the following information:

...On Dec. 8, 2005, the French prosecution of Chechen terror network chief Menad Benchellali revealed evidence of Mr. Ramadan's links to terrorists in Europe. Benchellali had traveled to Switzerland "one or two times in 2000, to attend conferences on Islam provided by Tariq Ramadan." Benchellali, who later planned chemical attacks in France "under the supervision of Abu Musab Al Zarqawi," was sentenced in June to 10 years in prison.

Earlier, in March 2005, Algerian al Qaeda member Djamel Beghal received 10 years in prison in Paris for participating in a foiled terror attack on the U.S. embassy there. Beghal testified in September 2001 that "his religious engagement started in 1994," when "he was in charge of writing the statements of Tariq Ramadan." That October, Beghal added that he had also taken "courses given by Tariq Ramadan."

Moreover, a 2001 Swiss intelligence memo said: "brothers Hani and Tariq Ramadan coordinated a meeting held in 1991 in Geneva attended by [al Qaeda leader] Ayman Al Zawahiri and Omar Abdel Rahman," the imprisoned planner of the 1993 World Trade Center attack.

Spanish Judge Balatasar Garzon, whose investigations into the terror activities of the Algerian Ahmed Brahim, rendered a 10-year prison sentence in April 2006, reported Ramadan's "routine contacts" with Brahim, the alleged financial chief of Al Qaeda in Europe and financier of the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.

Mr. Ramadan denies these charges. But according to French terrorism expert Jean-Charles Brisard, Mr. Ramadan also "denied being a director of the Geneva Islamic Center, a position he still holds, according to the official Swiss register of companies."

Again, from the Washington Times (a different article/commentary):

Tariq Ramadan is radioactive. Speak to any Christian in the Arab world, and "roadkill" is the nicest thing you'll hear about him. For the left -- especially the far left -- the grandson of the founder of the incendiary Muslim Brotherhood, the most important Islamist movement of the 20th century, is just in from a little stroll on the Sea of Galilee.

For France's influential Jewish intellectuals -- Bernard-Henri Levy, Andre Glucksmann, Bernard Kouchner -- Ramadan is a dangerously skillful anti-Semite....

Mr. Ramadan's apocalyptic, nihilistic vision appears to some as a scene-setter for the center-stage appearance of Osama bin Laden Superstar.

The author of a dozen books, Mr. Ramadan lets fly staccato-style, at the speed of an AK-47 on full automatic, quotations from Nietzsche, Heidegger and the Koran, to prove a central point: Decadent Europe will give way to an Islamized Europe.

The 21st century, he says, will see a second role reversal between Islam and the West: "The West will begin its new decline, and the Arab-Islamic world its renewal" and ascent to seven centuries of world domination after seven centuries of decline.

The fully European Islam, he predicts, presupposes a violent upheaval against the Western values Mr. Ramadan rejects. But he quickly cushions the supposition with hosannas to democracy and free expression. He is a past master of dissimulation and disinformation.

"To Be a European Muslim," published in 1999, was translated into 14 languages. The European Parliament consults him as an expert voice of reason in a cacophony of extremist epithets.

Criticism of this Islamist intellectual troubadour is quickly rejected as Islamophobia. Mr. Ramadan speaks the language of Europe's intellectual left. A frequent lecturer in U.S. universities, his brilliantly articulate perorations mesmerize his liberal fans. "Only Islam can achieve the synthesis between Christianity and humanism, and fill the spiritual void that afflicts the West." All good people are implicitly Muslims, he maintains, "because true humanism is founded in Koranic revelations."

"Today the Muslims who live in the West must unite themselves to the revolution of the anti-establishment groups from the moment when the neoliberal capitalist system becomes, for Islam, a theater of war," is another thunderclap that says "jihad" to his detractors and sweet reasonableness to his fans.

Marxism failed because it slavishly followed the dictates of a bunch of aging klutzes in Moscow, according to the Ramadan school. Islam, he says, can now bring forth a body of values that would form the embodiment of this universal vocation.

This, in turn, would replace the values of Western civilization. Islam-centric thinking thus replaces Eurocentric rearview mirror nostalgia for what was once a great civilization.

Muslim identity is the only true source of universality, proclaims Tariq Ramadan. "It will fill the spiritual void that afflicts the West." Music to some, but a hidden Islamist agenda to DHS. Some would say, not so well hidden.

From this source, quoting Tariq Ramadan:

"Only Islam can achieve the synthesis between Christianity and humanism, and fill the spiritual void that afflicts the West" ("Islam, le face à face des civilisations," Tawhid, 2001).

And again: "The Koran confirms, completes, and corrects the messages that preceded it" ("Les messages musulmans d´occident"). Some Christian personalities whose charitable works cannot be misconstrued - Mother Teresa, Sister Emanuelle, Abbé Pierre, Fr. Helder Camara - are exceptions who show only that all good people are implicitly Muslims, because true humanism is founded in Koranic revelation. Thus, both directly and through this humanism, the "Muslim City" can be founded upon the earth. "Today the Muslims who live in the West must unite themselves to the revolution of the antiestablishment groups from the moment when the neoliberal capitalist system becomes, for Islam, a theater of war..." ("Pouvoirs," 2003, n. 164).

The article below is cited in its entirety:

NS Profile - Tariq Ramadan Profile
Andrew Hussey
Monday 21st June 2004

Some call him ''the most dangerous man in Europe'', others ''the Martin Luther of Islam''. Just how sinister is he?

You will find the headquarters of Tariq Ramadan, described by some people as "the most dangerous man in Europe" and by others as Islam's Martin Luther, in Saint-Denis, the slightly battered and down-at-heel town at the end of the Paris Metro line, once known mainly for its glorious gothic basilica, the final resting place of Clovis, founder of the French nation. Ramadan is admired across the francophone Islamic world, from the ghettoes of Lyons and Marseilles to the souks of Morocco and the slums of Senegal. His pamphlets, books and speeches sell in their tens of thousands. He has put political Islam at the very top of the political agenda in France, challenging ministers over the banning of the hijab in French schools and defending the application of sharia law in Muslim areas. His confident, insolent manner in a televised debate last year with Nicolas Sarkozy, then minister of the interior, now finance minister and Jacques Chirac's most likely successor as president, made him an instant hero to radical Muslim youth in France. Time magazine named him as one of the hundred most important innovators of the 21st century. The anti-globalisation movement embraced him at the European Social Forum last autumn despite misgivings from some activists who saw him as a demagogue.

Ramadan, aged 41, was born in Switzerland to a family that had a tradition of Islamist political involvement. His maternal grandfather, Hassan al-Banna, was a founder in 1928 of the Muslim Brotherhood, one of the cornerstones of modern Islamist fundamentalism. His father, Said Ramadan, fled Gamal Abdel Nasser's crackdown on fundamentalist troublemakers in 1954 and founded an Islamic Centre in Geneva which Tariq's brother Hani still runs.

Although he studied French literature and philosophy as an undergraduate at the University of Geneva, Tariq Ramadan chose 19th-century reformist Islam as the subject of his doctoral thesis. Much to the chagrin of his supervisor - who later described him as a "pseudo-intellectual" and "vain opportunist" - the thesis ended up as a hagiography of his grandfather. He got his doctorate, but without the traditional congratulations of the judging panel. None the less, he teaches at a lycee in Geneva and holds a part-time position at the University of Fribourg.

Ramadan's academic career has always been secondary to his religious enthusiasms. In the early 1990s, he founded the Movement of Swiss Muslims, to bring Islam to Swiss and European youth. The European secret services - noting that, around the same time, Ramadan pursued further Islamic studies in Cairo - believe he was chosen to act as the Muslim Brotherhood's figurehead in Europe, an allegation he firmly denies. He also denies press allegations of links to terrorism in general and al-Qaeda in particular.

Ramadan's big idea (set out in his latest book, Western Muslims and the Future of Islam, now published in English by Oxford University Press) is that Islam is an essential part of modernity. The opposition between western and non-western societies should be dissolved, he says, into a "European and American Islamic culture", which would allow Muslims to live in the west without any sense of contradiction.

But what does Ramadan mean by this? He talks constantly of respect for European tradition (by which he means Judaeo-Christian religious thinking) but rarely gives any positive examples of what he means in terms of art, music or literature (the poet Rimbaud is quoted, but only in a distorted and misleading fashion). His only advice to Muslims in the US is to commit themselves to "the spiritual life" and "radical resistance".

What is clear from Ramadan's writings is that, for young Muslims, integration into western society as it exists is not an option. He refers to the concept of tawhid, faith in the unity of God, which he sees as a universal value. It is the west that has to be integrated into this totality. In other words, he does not see Islam adapting to local conditions - as is the case with many more progressive Islamic thinkers such as Mohammed Taleb or Malek Chebel - but as an extension of the "house of Islam" into the land of the unbelievers. Muslims in Europe should not consider themselves a minority in alien territory but as leaders in the spiritual redemption of the west.

At his office in Saint-Denis, I put it to Ramadan that there is some justification in his critics seeing him as the enemy of a multicultural society. "It is important, I think, not to see Europe and Islam as two separate, monolithic terms," he says. "I am a Muslim and European, and the two identities do not always have to be in contradiction. I think multiculturalism is a way forward. But really, cultures are not separate beings. Islam is and always was a participant in the history of Europe. Unfortunately, many Europeans do not understand this either. And it is this lack of knowledge which creates suspicion and ultimately war."

So is he really arguing not for a "European Islam", but for an "Islamified Europe"? "These two words are another false opposition," he replies. "Islam has always been part of European history. It is wrong to think otherwise. But Islam in Europe is the same Islam as across the world. The duty for Muslims now is to take Islam from the periphery of European culture to the centre."

He goes on: "France is one of the most tense European countries from the point of view of cultural and religious conflict. That is why it is so important to bring Islam, which is universal, into debate here, a place where there is no coherent political belief."

Ramadan is equally clear about the need for intellectuals in the west to understand that Islam is not the exclusive property of medieval-minded fanatics, but, as he sees it, a living component of modernity in Europe and the rest of the world. Ramadan himself lays claim to legitimacy in such debates by stressing that he is a trained philosopher in the western tradition and that, from Friedrich Nietzsche to Jean Baudrillard, there are distinctly European influences on his thinking. He cites as key influences the French writer and film-maker Guy Debord (also a favourite thinker of many in the anti-globalisation movement) and his book The Society of the Spectacle (1967). "Debord saw that modernity in the west had reached the end of its uses for capitalism," says Ramadan. "My opinion, like that of Debord, is that in the west we are trapped in a society of spectacles, illusions. But we are obliged also to fight against false representations, false images of the world."

In France, Ramadan, despite his ubiquitous media presence, is personally still very much the object of fear and suspicion. He does not hold a French passport and was banned from entering France in 1995 by Charles Pasqua, then minister of the interior, on suspicion of having links with the Algerian terrorists who had launched a bombing campaign in Paris that year. More recently, leading intellectuals in France have charged him with spreading the crudest and most divisive form of anti-Semitism.

This came to a head in an article that Ramadan published on the internet in which he accused several leading Jewish intellectuals in France of "communitarian politics". By supporting the Anglo-American war in Iraq, he says, they were also supporting Israel. The names cited by Ramadan included secular thinkers such as Alain Finkielkraut and the humanitarian Bernard Kouchner. Ramadan also accused the writer Bernard-Henri Levy of "vilifying Pakistan" in his book Who Killed Daniel Pearl?, an emotive account of the American journalist's murder.

Most loaded of all was Ramadan's use of the term "communitarian politics" as a charge against the liberal intelligentsia. In French, it carries with it not only an attack on the intellectual integrity of individuals, but also a challenge to the fundamental principles of the Republic. Ramadan was, in other words, not only accusing Jewish intellectuals of Jewish self-interest but also, in an echo of the Dreyfus affair, of deliberately acting against the interests of the state. This is precisely why the level-headed and highly respected Kouchner called him "a most dangerous man". Ramadan's response to his critics is that he does not want to be drawn into "a discourse of hate". He adds that all Muslims must know how to rise above such predictable enemies. "There are certain insults which are unworthy and which we do not have to answer," he says.

The cafe in the elegant courtyard of the Grande Mosquee de Paris, in the heart of the Latin Quarter, is a long way from the grimy streets of Saint-Denis. It has always been a tolerant place and is at present a fashionable meeting place for young Parisian Muslims of both sexes. At the cafe tables, the jury is still out on Tariq Ramadan. "He pretends to be a moderate but anyone who has heard his speeches knows that he is a sympathiser with hardliners," says a well-dressed young woman in a disgusted tone of voice. The writer and academic Khalid Amine, who travels frequently between Morocco and Paris, offers a slightly different view. "Ramadan is important because he can speak to both sides - to moderate Muslims and to fundamentalists," he says. "But it remains to be seen what can emerge from this dialogue."

The consensus at the Grande Mosquee, which has always been at considerable remove from hardliners, is that Ramadan is no Martin Luther, but a propagandist for radical Islam. However, even his enemies agree that his message does contain one important insight: that the real conflict of the 21st century is not between east and west, or even rich and poor, but between ignorance and knowledge, sacred truth and lies.

This distinction is, as Ramadan sees it, the issue that defines the new wars of religion, from Iraq to the council estates of Paris. Most importantly, and most dangerously, as his support grows in France, Europe and even in the United States, Ramadan is beginning to feel sure that he is on the winning side.

Tariq Ramadan is the Islamic expert to whom Time Magazine turns and presents to its readers as the European voice of reformist Islam?

Time Magazine's Dhimmitude

2006-11-23T21:45:00.000-05:00

This is one of my long posts, so be prepared for a lengthy read. All emphases are mine.

The day before Thanksgiving, the November 27, 2006 edition of Time Magazine arrived in my mailbox. Not wanting to spoil my appetite for the big feast, I decided to wait after Thanksgiving dinner to read this particular issue. But early on Thursday morning, as I was cruising the blogs over my first cup of coffee, I read this blog article by Pim's Ghost. She was all riled up:

...[I]t is their little timeline on pages 42-3 that really irked me the most....

The timeline in question is simply pathetic. It is biased, it is poorly worded (to show perhaps the bias?), it skips several centuries, and is careful in its treatment of the beginning of Islam. This bothers me, all of it. The other thing that bothers me is that if you are going to write a "History of Interaction", you should add more than a handful of questionable views of historical fact. Maybe this is why I could not find this in the online version, only the print copy. Therefore, let me reproduce it for you here:

CHRISTIANITY AND ISLAM: A HISTORY OF INTERACTION

589-632 Koran revealed to Muhammad; it shares stories with Judeo-Christian texts

711-718 Arabs conquer Spain, which becomes center of commerce and culture

1096-1291 Christian Europe launches the Crusades against Islam

1453 Ottoman Turks take Constantinople, capital of Orthodox Christianity

1492 King Ferdinand drives the Moors from Spain and next expels the Jews

1683 The Ottoman siege of Vienna fails, marking the end of its Islamic expansion

1965 The Vatican issues Nostra Aetate, which calls for interfaith discussion

2001 Pope John Paul II is first Pontiff to visit a mosque, in Damascus, Syria

Sept. 2006 Pope Benedict XVI links Islam to violence, igniting debate and protest

And that's it. That's the history of interaction. Never mind that it is merely belief that the Koran was "revealed" to Muhammad, a distinction usually not afforded to Christians or Jews, but instead given the common journalistic disclaimer "What Jews/Christians believe to be an event in their Faith in which.....". Note the conquest of Spain, simply put, but pleasantly wrapped up by the odd mention of the myth that it became a "center of commerce and culture" that somehow implies peace for the conquered. Then, oh heavens to Betsy, Christian Europe launches those darned Crusades! Why not mention the "interaction" that led to the call for the Crusades in the first place? Wouldn't want to anger guest writer Tariq Ramadan I suppose....

After some time of "European Christians" doing their Crusading against apparently placid Muslims, they somehow take Constantinople. No mention of how Turks come into Islam, nor of any Muslim activities that may have "ignited debate and protest" on the part of any non-Muslims. Skip to La Reqonquista, which was not glorious but involved "driving out", as of so much cattle. And note that the rotten Christian King also "next expels the Jews". Can't let that one slip, unlike the wholesale slaughter of the Jews of Granada in 1066. Am I being nit-picky? Pardon me, TIME. Skip quite a bit again to 1683, never mention the details of the Siege of Vienna, leave readers wondering just how anyone in Europe could have been hostile to the Ottomans while they've had a major city under siege and their failure brings "Islamic expansion to an end".

Being the trust-but-verify type, I turned immediately to pages 42-43. Sure enough! Pim's Ghost had exactly reproduced what Time passes off as "Christianity and Islam: A History of Interaction." Something else jumped out at me from Pim's Ghost's essay — the author of one of the commentaries which Time included in this edition. More on that author in a minute.

As long as I was thumbing through the magazine, I decided to read the lead story for myself. At that early hour with the first cup of coffee still in hand, what I read seemed to me to be blah, blah, blah. Then I came to the post-article commentaries in the "Viewpoints" section. The first viewpoint was "What the Pope Gets Right" by Father Richard John Newhaus. Excerpt:

By decrying the use of violence in the name of God, Benedict is challenging Muslims to confront hard truths....

Benedict XVI's journey to Istanbul, formerly Constantinople, is laden with the wounds of history both ancient and painfully contemporary. The Pope's controversial Sept. 12 lecture in Regensburg, Germany, quoted a 14th century exchange between a Byzantine Christian Emperor and a Muslim intellectual in which the Emperor made some distinctly uncomplimentary observations about Islam. The Pope admitted that the Emperor's statement was brusque. But his point in reaching so far back into history was to demonstrate that problems between the Christian West and Islam long precede today's "war on terrorism."

Although the West, and most notably Europe, may be less Christian today, Muslims still view it as the Christian West. For a thousand years, from the days of Muhammad in the 7th century, Islam enjoyed a run of triumphant conquest, interrupted only momentarily by the Christian Crusades. The time of conquest lasted until the failed siege of Vienna in 1683. After Vienna, and most dramatically under 19th and 20th century Western colonialism, Islam was sidelined from history--one of the main sources of the rage and resentment of today's jihadists.

The jihadists believe their time of resumed conquest has come. Through terrorism and the mass immigration of Muslims in Europe, the jihadists are pressing for the reversal of the military outcome of 1683. This is the context in which Benedict attempted to make a larger point at Regensburg....

The violent responses to the Pope's speech reflect the belief of jihadist groups, such as al-Qaeda, that their religion mandates the use of any means necessary, including suicide bombers and the mass killing of civilians, to bring about the world's submission to Islam. In an Oct. 12 "Open Letter to His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI," 38 distinguished Islamic religious authorities, including Grand Muftis in Turkey, Egypt, Russia, Syria, Kosovo, Bosnia and Uzbekistan, wrote that "jihad ... means struggle, and specifically struggle in the way of God. This struggle may take many forms, including the use of force." The signers delicately criticized some acts of Muslim terrorism, such as the killing of a nun in Somalia, but failed to address the relationship between religion and politics in Islam, or whether the "maintenance of sovereignty" includes, as radical jihadists claim, the violent reconquest of Western lands that were once Muslim. Whether out of conviction or fear of being targeted by terrorists, the 38 did not frontally reject the linkage between violence and the advance of Islam....

Then I came to the second of the "Viewpoint" essays, "Where He's [the Pope] Still in the Dark" by Tariq Ramadan. Excerpt:

Since delivering the speech in which he quoted a 14th century Emperor who said the Prophet of Islam had given nothing positive to humanity and had commanded followers to use violence to spread their faith, Pope Benedict XVI has been subjected to bitter Muslim reaction around the world. Benedict has responded by saying he regretted the consequences of his misunderstood words, but he did not retract his statement--perhaps rightly so. After all, he had simply cited an ancient Emperor. It is Benedict's right to exercise his critical opinion without being expected to apologize for it--whether he's an ordinary Roman Catholic or the Pope.

But that doesn't mean he was right. Muslim attention has focused mainly on the lecture's association between violence and Islam, but the most important and disputable aspect of it was Benedict's reflection on what it means to be European....

As I have written before, this profoundly European Pope is inviting the people of his continent to become aware of the central, inescapable character of Christianity within their identity, or risk losing it. That may be a legitimate goal, but Benedict's narrow definition of European identity is deeply troubling and potentially dangerous....

What the West needs most today is not so much a dialogue with other civilizations but an honest dialogue with itself--one that acknowledges those traditions within Western civilization that are almost never recognized. Europe, in particular, must learn to reconcile itself with the diversity of its past in order to master the coming pluralism of its future....

Selective about its past, Europe is becoming blind to its present. The European continent has been home to a sizable population of Muslims for centuries. While visiting Turkey, the Pope must acknowledge that he is encountering not a potential threat but a mirror. Islam is already a European religion....

Rather than focus on differences, the true dialogue between the Pope and Islam, and between secularized societies and Islamic ones, should emphasize our common, universal values: mutual respect of human rights, basic freedoms, rule of law and democracy....

And who is this Tariq Ramadan? According to Time,

Tariq Ramadan, a research fellow at Oxford, is the author of several books on Islam, including To Be a European Muslim.

Before including Ramadan's commentary, did Time consider this information about Tariq Ramadan? Excerpt from the first article in the above link, an index to several articles at FrontPageMagazine:

The most vocal advocate of Wahhabism in France is Tariq Ramadan, a Swiss philosophy teacher who happens to be the grandson of Hassan Al Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood. Ramadan has been very active in France during the past ten years, spreading his extremist views and becoming the unofficial voice of French Islam. He has now become a "star," appearing constantly on French prime-time television.

Excerpt from the third article in the above index:

While claiming to be “against these acts of terror,” he immediately qualifies the reasonableness of those who advocate for terrorism against Israel. This position is taken straight from the American leftist playbook: “I’m personally opposed to suicide bombings, but I would never prevent someone from exercising their right to conduct one against the Zionist oppressors.”

Ramadan identifies these Western policies as the cause of the rise of extremist Islamic political groups and the source of the “us-and-them” worldview of the “four young” (and it should be noted – Muslim) 7/7 London suicide bombers.

Excerpt from the second article in the above index:

It’s not every day that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) revokes a visa issued to a Swiss-national scholar scheduled to teach at one of America’s premier universities. But this has just happened, and it’s a good thing too.

The Swiss scholar is Tariq Ramadan. He is Islamist royalty – his maternal grandfather (Hasan al-Banna) founded the Muslim Brotherhood, probably the single most powerful Islamist institution of the twentieth century, in Egypt in 1928. Tariq is a Swiss citizen because his father (Sa‘id Ramadan), also a leading Islamist, fled from Egypt in 1954 following a crackdown on the brotherhood. Sa‘id reached Geneva in 1958, where Tariq was born in 1962.

Thanks to his pedigree and his talents, Tariq has emerged as a significant force in his own right. Symbolic of this, Time magazine in April named him one of the world’s top hundred scientists and thinkers. And so, when Notre Dame University went looking for a Henry R. Luce professor of religion, conflict and peacebuilding, it unsurprisingly settled on Ramadan....

Here are some reasons why Ramadan might have been kept out:

· He has praised the brutal Islamist policies of the Sudanese politician Hassan Al-Turabi. Turabi in turn called Ramadan the “future of Islam.”

· Ramadan was banned from entering France in 1996 on suspicion of having links with an Algerian Islamist who had recently initiated a terrorist campaign in Paris.

· Ahmed Brahim, an Algerian indicted for Al-Qaeda activities, had “routine contacts” with Ramadan, according to a Spanish judge (Baltasar Garzón) in 1999.

· Djamel Beghal, leader of a group accused of planning to attack the U.S. embassy in Paris, stated in his 2001 trial that he had studied with Ramadan.

· Along with nearly all Islamists, Ramadan has denied that there is “any certain proof” that Bin Laden was behind 9/11.

· He publicly refers to the Islamist atrocities of 9/11, Bali, and Madrid as “interventions,” minimizing them to the point of near-endorsement.

And here are other reasons, dug up by Jean-Charles Brisard, a former French intelligence officer doing work for some of the 9/11 families, as reported in Le Parisien:

· Intelligence agencies suspect that Ramadan (along with his brother Hani) coordinated a meeting at the Hôtel Penta in Geneva for Ayman al-Zawahiri (deputy head of Al-Qaeda) and Omar Abdel Rahman (the blind sheikh, now in a Minnesota prison).

· Ramadan’s address appears in a register of Al Taqwa Bank, an organization the State Department accuses of supporting Islamist terrorism.

Then there is the intriguing possibility, reported by Olivier Guitta, that Osama bin Laden studied with Tariq’s father in Geneva, suggesting that the future terrorist and the future scholar might have known each other.

Ramadan denies all ties to terrorism, but the pattern is clear. As Lee Smith writes in The American Prospect, he is a cold-blooded Islamist whose “cry of death to the West is a quieter and gentler jihad, but it’s still jihad.”

How sincere are Tariq Ramadan's efforts at interfaithing, the emphasis of his essay in Time? According to this October 13, 2006 article,

...One of Ramadan's interfaith partners, Fr. Christian Delorme, had this to say in 2001:
I am today convinced--and it took me time to understand it--that Tariq Ramadan's thinking and actions are dangerous. I believe he is not at all a man of dialogue. He knows how to charm his audience, but in reality, he wants a total separation between Muslims and other communities. I am convinced that Tariq Ramadan deeply hates the West.
For all his interfaith zeal, an examination of Ramadan's work fails to turn up any positive discussion of Christianity or Judaism. He calls Arabs "my brothers and sisters" while addressing all others as "madam," "sir," or without any honorific. When Ramadan faced off with Nicolas Sarkozy, the French interior minister and presidential hopeful, in 2004 on French TV, he repeatedly called the minister "Sarkozy" instead of the usual "Mr. Sarkozy" or, as the French say, monsieur le ministre. During this debate, Sarkozy pressed Ramadan to condemn the stoning of adulterers, a form of capital punishment endorsed by his brother, Hani Ramadan, head of the Islamic Center in Geneva. Tariq declined to go beyond his previous call for a moratorium on corporal punishment and the death penalty while Islamic scholars study the matter....

A great many adults and students read Time Magazine. The publication has untold impact upon its readers. Would that the rebuttal to Neuhaus's article "What the Pope Gets Right" been penned by someone without the disturbing connections alluded to in the above articles from FrontPageMagazine! Then, again, anti-dhimmitude from the mainstream media is too much to hope for.

Give Thanks

2006-11-21T18:30:00.000-05:00

Abraham Lincoln was our first President to make Thanksgiving Day a national holiday. He probably set the observance in late November so as to correlate the holiday with the date of the Mayflower's anchoring (November 21, 1620, by the modern Gregorian calendar but November 11, 1620, by the Julian calendar used by the Pilgrims).

Abraham Lincoln's 1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation reads as follows:

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the ship; the axe had enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years, with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.

A. Lincoln

In keeping with the words of President Lincoln, let us meditate upon our blessings, which are too numerous to count.

May this Thanksgiving be a special time for each and every one of you!

"A Clash Between Two Opposites"

2006-11-20T20:14:00.000-05:00

Doctor of psychiatry Wafa Sultan, named this year as Time Magazine's one of the 100 most influential people of the world in "A Daring Voice Calls For a New Islam," sharply criticized President Bush, according to the November 18, 2006 WorldNetDaily article "Bush empowering terrorists, charges vocal Islam critic":

President Bush is undermining criticism vital to the survival of Western civilization and empowering terrorist leaders by proclaiming Islam a "religion of peace," says one of the most outspoken critics to emerge from the Muslim world in recent years....

She understands Bush's position as president and believes he is only trying to be diplomatic, but insists, nevertheless, his words are "empowering" Muslim leaders whose ultimate aim is for Islamic law to govern the world.

"I believe he undermines our credibility by saying that," said Sultan....

[She] told WND she would urge Bush to take a closer look at Islamic culture and its general embrace of violence as a means of establishment and expansion.

"Facts are very stubborn things. Facts are facts," she said. "If you are not familiar with Islamic culture, how can you claim Islam is a peaceful religion?"

The White House declined WND's request to respond to Sultan's comments....

In a February 21, 2006 interview on Al-Jazeera Television, Dr. Sultan stated the following:

"The clash we are witnessing around the world is not a clash of religions, or a clash of civilizations....It is a clash between two opposites, between two eras. It is a clash between a mentality that belongs to the Middle Ages and another mentality that belongs to the 21st century. It is a clash between civilization and backwardness, between the civilized and the primitive, between barbarity and rationality. It is a clash between freedom and oppression, between democracy and dictatorship. It is a clash between human rights, on the one hand, and the violation of these rights, on other hand. It is a clash between those who treat women like beasts, and those who treat them like human beings. What we see today is not a clash of civilizations. Civilizations do not clash, but compete....

"The Muslims are the ones who began using this expression. The Muslims are the ones who began the clash of civilizations. The Prophet of Islam said: 'I was ordered to fight the people until they believe in Allah and His Messenger.' When the Muslims divided the people into Muslims and non-Muslims, and called to fight the others until they believe in what they themselves believe, they started this clash, and began this war...."

Read the entire WND article HERE, and watch the video of Dr. Sultan's interview on Al-Jazeera Television. According to the New York Times, this video has already been viewed at least one million times. If you've never seen this clip, you owe it to yourself to check it out.

[Hat-tip to Nanc for alerting me this article in WorldNetDaily]

The Height Of Dangerous Fashion

2006-11-20T06:15:00.000-05:00

(All emphases by Always On Watch)

Photo from the Washington Post

Caption: "[A] platform-wearing model tripping and then falling at Vivienne Westwood's Paris show last month."

Having once fallen off my platform shoes back in the 70's and having been on crutches for over two weeks as a result of the fall I took, this article in the November 18, 2006 edition of the Washington Post brought an I-told-you-so smile to my face:

Platform shoes could be the eighth architectural wonder. They are remarkable examples of design but, like most of the seven fabled monuments of the ancient world, surely these extravagant pillars of footwear cannot last.

However exhilarating the shoe's concept, those wearers who equate inches with power must finally acknowledge the obvious:

Platform defies function.

At the recent Paris fashion shows, towering soles topped out at seven inches, with designers such as Christian Lacroix and John Galliano showing all manner of sparkles, tassels and lacings up top. At such heights, the platform shoe ranks as the skyscraper of footwear, but runway models were toppling over them.

"It's like walking on stilts," says Washington podiatrist Arnold Ravick, or "falling off a hill. You're up so high that the center of gravity and balance is off. It's much harder to walk."

Historically, shoes were made for walking, of course, as the Italian Cultural Institute's "Walking Art" exhibition makes clear. Roman soldiers marched to Hadrian's Wall on sturdy thin-soled sandals (which looked a lot like Birkenstocks), so it's fair to surmise that the Roman Empire would have been a lot smaller had those soldiers tried that trek on platform shoes.

Common sense would consign such footwear to historical oblivion. But the wobblies, in fact, have endured a long time. "Walking Art" traces the first elevated shoe to 16th-century Venice.

A pair of 12-inch burgundy velvet platform shoes stands out in the display. The exaggerated soles of these chopines are sculpted like inverted ocean liners, with small, ordinary lace-up booties on top. They were not mere fashion statements. Chopines were designed to elevate Venetian women -- literally above the floodwaters and garbage, and metaphorically above the lowly stature previously attached to their sex.

There has also long been the suggestion that courtesans wore them to stand above the crowd, so potential customers could see them. The Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art argues that the height of the shoe rose in tandem with the nobility of the wearer, rather than her downfall. The curators of "Walking Art," Luciano Calosso of the Colosseum Associazione Culturale of Rome and theatrical designer Enrica Barbano, take no position.

There is no argument that these early platform shoes were only relatively stable for standing and almost useless for walking. Unlike modern fashion victims, the Renaissance women of Venice did not try to go it alone. Instead, they relied on walking sticks and a gentleman, who could balance the lady on his left arm while leaving his right free to draw a sword.

Fast-forward to the 1970s, when such acts as David Bowie and Elton John and Kiss rocked onstage in platform boots, and fashion designers picked up on the style. The fad faded, only to be revived in 1993, when Naomi Campbell walked the runway alone in Vivienne Westwood platforms and fell.

More women wear high heels than platforms. The high heel was invented in 1533 to give Caterina de Medici the stature of a platform shoe but with more stability at her wedding to the Duke of Orleans. The kings of France adopted high heels, as did the aristocracy, which explains why poor people who couldn't afford them were said to be "down at their heels." After the French Revolution, flat shoes -- the populist flip-flops of that day -- came back in style.

But high heels made a roaring comeback in the 20th century. After World War II, shoemakers acquired steel that made the stiletto possible. Spike heels have mostly supplanted platforms ever since. Their appeal is made obvious by a Donna Karan design that resembles a corset of black velvet and brass, with a zipper snaking up the back.

The form is great, but function gives spike heels their appeal, according to Ravick.

"The appeal is the way high heels make a woman walk," he says. Not so appealing is that "it's easier to fall off and break your leg."

He considers two-inch platforms potentially safer than six-inch stilettos.

Glass cases at the embassy offer examples of both, along with white leather thigh-high boots crafted for Sophia Loren in the 1966 movie "Arabesque," and soccer star Francesco Totti's shimmering silver-and-blue World Cup boot. Among the historic shoes, there are two examples of poulaines: slippers with long, pointed toes, which fashion-conscious men were willing to trip over for a few hundred years during the Middle Ages.

The collection of shoes was lent by the legendary Italian shoemaker Rossimoda, which supplies the world's fashion houses, and Arditi, a maker of theatrical costumes.

Why haven't platforms gone the way of poulaines, which men abandoned some six centuries ago? Perhaps because fashion has always exerted a more powerful pull on women, enticing them to apply a separate standard. In the design of shoes, fantasy matters more than function.

The long-ago damage to the ligaments in one of my ankles has forced me to abandon wearing outrageously high platform shoes and to choose practical footwear. After a few more close calls with falling off my own shoes, I've decided that the risks of wearing high heels of any kind far outweigh their appealing look. But I miss wearing shoes which used to bring me closer to eye-level with those whose company I keep!

PlayStation Insanity

2006-11-17T22:15:00.000-05:00

Watch the video. All this over a game?

My Take

2006-11-15T07:18:00.000-05:00

I've not had time to read all the comments carefully, but this thought crosses my mind after skimming what various commenters have said:

The right views victory in Iraq as important for presenting a strong face to the enemy. Hence, the right is averse to withdrawal, which smells like appeasement. Time and again, history has shown that appeasing an enemy serves merely to embolden that enemy. Case in point, of course--dealing with Hitler in the 1930's.

Also, some on the right feel that a stable Iraq will lead to stability in the Middle East. Additionally, some of the right feel that regime change in Iraq can serve as a model for other Middle Eastern countries.

The left, on the other hand, sees the American presence in Iraq as the problem in the Middle East. Were the United States to withdraw, the Middle East would settle down. What historical examples can the left offer to substantiate their position? Or is the situation so unique as not to offer examples?

In sum, the right believes that the costs of staying far outweigh the costs of withdrawal. The left, of course, believes the opposite.

Perhaps the above is simplistic and a misinterpretation of the discussion which has been going on here in my absence. Feel free to correct me.

[Hat-tip to The City Troll for giving me the idea of transferring one of my comments]

Discussion Invited

2006-11-13T11:12:00.001-05:00

From Steve's Hodgepodge:

"The question I have is this: Are all Liberals totally aware that they possess the same ideology as al-Qaida, or are some of them in the blind about this? Do they get angry when compared with our enemy, or do they maintain a prowess of pride when being told that they are progressing in the wrong direction toward anti-Democracy and the support of fascism?

"...I am addressing each and every single Liberal that may read this blog to please comment and explain the motives behind backing our enemies, or try your very best to prove the piece as being wrong or misguided."

Before commenting, please read "Al Qaeda Gloats over U.S. Election."

You are, as usual, welcome to comment here, but Steve would also like your comments.

CAIR: The Other Winner In The November 7 Elections?

2006-11-13T07:41:00.000-05:00

From "CAIR's Congress," in today's edition of FrontPageMagazine:

With the Democratic victory in the midterm elections, one big winner was the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR). The American Islamic pressure group now has a chance to advance its agenda in numerous ways, with energetic water-carrying by, among others, the Speaker of the House, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and the first Muslim member of Congress....

The article goes on to discuss John Conyers and House Resolution 288. According to the article in FPM,

Such a bill, of course, would do a great deal to stifle honest discussion of the elements of Islam that give rise today to violence and fanaticism. William Gawthrop, former program manager for the Joint Terrorism Task Force of the Defense Department’s Counterintelligence Field Activity (CIFA), has noted: “There is evidence to support the contention that sources of terrorism in Islam may reside within the strategic themes of Islam,” including “the example of Muhammad, the Quran, the hadiths, Islamic law, the pillars of faith and jihad.” However, “as late as early 2006, the senior service colleges of the Department of Defense had not incorporated into their curriculum a systematic study of Muhammad as a military or political leader. As a consequence, we still do not have an in-depth understanding of the war-fighting doctrine laid down by Muhammad, how it might be applied today by an increasing number of Islamic groups, or how it might be countered.” Conyers’ resolution would effectively end any hope that the Department of Defense or any other agency would begin such study, as vitally needed as it is.

Nothing would please CAIR more, of course, as that agency routinely tars as “bigotry” any attempt to discuss such matters.

Read the entire article HERE.

[Hat-tip to Nanc for alerting me to the article in FPM]

Personal Update

2006-11-12T07:45:00.000-05:00

This posting is a follow-up to "Frazzled!"

1. After nearly two weeks, my car is back on the road. The dealership refused to acknowledge that, in the course of their repair to the heater-tube assembly leading to the intake manifold, they had fouled up the spark-plug wires. Nevertheless, once the dealership provided the diagnosis as to why my car was suddenly running roughly and threatening to stall, my husband replaced wires and plugs. The other major repair — a complete overhaul of the front brakes, marked as "Urgent!" by the dealership — turned out not to be needed at all!

2. Cameo, our youngest cat, had to undergo another surgery, which involved a huge incision with debriding so as to remove an odd irritation of the skin on her back. The pathology report came back yesterday and showed nothing definitive to treat. We're hoping that the problem has now been resolved but won't know for certain until the stitches are removed and the hood comes off. Cameo doesn't like to eat unless I remove the hood; she also needs time to groom. Therefore, I'm tied down as the cat nurse but not as much so since the drains have been removed.

3. The midterm elections are over. No more signs are standing on my yard, so I don't have to stand watch for the sign swappers. I no longer have the tedium of getting out a flashlight to check my front yard when I get home from work.

4. The dead tree has been removed. We have a huge stack of wood for our fireplace.

5. Even though I have finished my course of physical therapy, I still have multiple medically related appointments. The neurologist wants to investigate some other possibilities because of my recent relapse into terrible pain. Meanwhile, I have a massage therapist who knows about trigger points and can provide me with some relief. I see her three or four times a week.

6. I'm starting to catch up with grading papers, making blog rounds, checking snail-mail and email, writing out checks for bills, and reading the daily newspaper. I may even find time to start reading Stephen King's latest — Lisey's Story. I need some recreational reading!

Best of all, Thanksgiving break begins November 17! An end to my overload is in sight!

Melanie Phillips's Analysis

2006-11-09T21:23:00.000-05:00

Today, Melanie Phillips, author of Londonistan, posted her analysis of the recent election results. Excerpt from "America Falters":

...[T]he most likely outcome of these mid-term elections is another major terror attack on America. Whatever the smart analysis of the likely shape of domestic American politics over the next two years, America has now signalled a faltering of resolve; and that’s the cue for a redoubled Islamist attack....

Alarmist or realist?

God's Paintbrush And A Reflection

2006-11-08T05:39:00.000-05:00

I took this photograph on October 31, 2006, a block from home. I have merely to walk a few feet out into my front yard, from which point I can gaze at the "on fire" tree standing in front of the nearby country church built in the 1800's. And when I look at that tree, I see my mother, who so loved this time of year.

A few days before her passing, Mom and Dad took a long drive so that she could enjoy looking at the fall foliage, which reached its peak a bit earlier that this year's peak. Did she know that their drive that day would be her last opportunity to drink in the beauty of God's earthly creation? Perhaps, because she said, "You never know. This could be the last time I see the autumn leaves."

A mere five days later, most of the trees had shed their leaves. And Mom, too, was gone, having shed this mortal coil.

An early snowstorm surprised the D.C. area on the day of Mom's funeral. Like my mother's passing, winter of 1987 had arrived with suddenness. The chill of that year's early winter mirrored the coldness in my heart at my having suddenly lost both parent and best friend.

In these beautiful days of fall, as I do every year, I find myself thinking back to nineteen years ago. One day my mother was vibrantly alive, the next she wasn't — just as the autumn leaves around us are vibrant with color, yet at the same time preparing the trees for dormancy.

Today, If You Vote For A Democrat...

2006-11-07T06:40:00.000-05:00

1) You want Nancy Pelosi to be speaker of the House.

2) You want Harry Reid to be Senate Majority Leader.

3) You think its okay for Senators in your party to bash the troops.

4) You love paying high taxes!

5) You want to Cut and Run in Iraq!

6) You don't want drilling in Alaska or anywhere else in the U.S. but you like to whine about how we shouldn't be dependant on the Middle East for our oil.

7) You love activist judges and how they erode our religious freedoms and re-write laws to fit their belief system.

8) You say you're concerned about national security but you're against every plan that has been implemented to prevent future terrorist attacks.

9) You want to sock it to big oil and tax them to death so our gas prices can go up even further even though they already pay an astounding tax rate.

10) You believe in abortion on demand and experimentation on human life.

[The above, reposted from Sunday, shamelessly appropriated from The Chatterbox Chronicles, which has graphics, videos, and links for the list]

Please scroll down to read "Beyond The Congressional Majority."

Beyond The Congressional Majority

2006-11-07T06:39:00.000-05:00

(All emphases by Always On Watch)

The past several weeks, most of us voters have focused our attention on the consequences of having either a Republican or a Democratic majority in Congress. But other matters will also be on the ballots in various states. Among those referenda, according to the November 5, 2006 editorial in the Washington Times:

Missouri, Amendment 2: This ballot initiative to protect and grant access to embryonic stem cell research has drawn national headlines recently...Advocates of the amendment say that it will open the door to any number of cures, and that it bans cloning. But critics allege those assurances are false, and that the amendment's fine print actually permits cloning most conservatives oppose.

Michigan, Proposal 2: Otherwise known as the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, this ballot measure would prohibit state and local government from discriminating against or giving preferential treatment to any individual based on race, sex, ethnicity for employment. In other words, the campaign...would correct the Supreme Court's disastrous 2003 case upholding the University of Michigan's use of racial preferences in enrollment....

Virginia, Question 1: A state constitutional amendment to protect marriage as a union between a man and woman has a good chance of passing. With state supreme courts in Massachusetts and New Jersey legislating homosexual "marriage" from the bench, traditional marriage proponents have taken their fight to the voters, the democratic way....

Colorado, Referendum I: This is a domestic partnership initiative authorizing the state government to extend to homosexual couples many of the same benefits and protections that are currently granted to a married couple. Its supporters like to point out that the text of the referendum clearly states a "domestic partnership is not a marriage, which consists of the union of one man and one woman." Critics say that's just a matter of semantics and the initiative essentially legalizes homosexual "marriage."

South Dakota, Abortion Ban: The South Dakota legislature took the addition of two conservative justices on the Supreme Court as a sign that the days of Roe v. Wade were numbered. It passed an outright ban on abortion with no exception in the case of rape or incest. Opponents quickly gathered enough signatures to put the law on the ballot for the voters to decide. The law's original drafters knew that it would be challenged in court, perhaps getting as far as the Supreme Court....

California, Proposition 87: In the name of global warming, California liberals, a set which includes the uber-wealthy Hollywood class, have decided that the best way to get Californians to cut back on their carbon-dioxide emissions is to stick them with a $4 billion tax increase. Naturally, that's not what the proposition's supporters claim. They say that the tax increase on oil companies will not be allowed to be passed on to the consumer....

Don't forget to educate yourself as to any referenda on the ballot you will be casting on November 7!

Frazzled!

2006-11-05T21:13:00.000-05:00

Don't you hate it when, in the course of a single week,...

you take your car into the dealership for a major repair and the first time you take the car out for a spin, the vehicle has another problem — a problem which requires returning to the dealership?

you don't find the new problem with your "repaired" car until Saturday, when no neighbors are available to help shuttle you home and, therefore, you have to wait until Monday to return the vehicle to the service deparment, thus dragging the car repair into its second week?

your beloved pet seems fully recovered from a minor surgery, later develops an undiagnosed problem at the incision site, has to wear the hated Elizabethan collar (aka "the cone," aka "the lampshade") and continues not to improve despite following the vet's new set of instructions to the letter?

you come home from a doctor's appointment and find that not only has one of the political signs in your fenced front yard been stolen but also that the missing sign has been replaced by the opponent's sign?

here comes the tree-service expert to give an estimate for removing a dead tree and he sees those two conflicting political signs in the yard of his prospective customer? He must be thinking, "Man, what an easy mark this ditzy woman is going to be!"

you have four medically related appointments in the course of one week, all because a cabbie rear-ended you some eighteen months ago?

all of the above puts you so far behind schedule that you don't have time to respond to comments at your own blog nor to visit your favorite web sites nor to answer your emails or even to read the daily newspaper?

Fox News Special — November 4

2006-11-03T07:29:00.000-05:00

From this source,

Sat., November 4 at 8 p.m. ET
Hosted by E.D. Hill

This weekend, join host E.D. Hill as FOX News examines Obsession: The Threat of Radical Islam.

They are the most vital questions of our time: How deadly is the Islamic terror threat to the world and especially to the United States? Do terrorists really want to destroy our economy, our civilization, our way of life or is this just an exaggeration?

A frightening new documentary by filmmaker Wayne Kopping seeks to answer those questions. Kopping examined reels of Islamic news footage, interviewed former terrorists and obtained undercover footage from the lairs of the terrorists and jihadists.

What he found, is something FOX News believes every American should know.

It's a FOX News special that you can't afford to miss — Obsession: The Threat of Radical Islam, Saturday at 8 p.m. ET

[Hat-tip to Nanc for providing the link to this FNC special]

Too Little, Too Late

2006-11-02T06:40:00.000-05:00

Statement from John Kerry, from this source:

As a combat veteran, I want to make it clear to anyone in uniform and to their loved ones: my poorly stated joke at a rally was not about, and never intended to refer to any troop.

I sincerely regret that my words were misinterpreted to wrongly imply anything negative about those in uniform, and I personally apologize to any service member, family member, or American who was offended.

It is clear the Republican Party would rather talk about anything but their failed security policy. I don’t want my verbal slip to be a diversion from the real issues. I will continue to fight for a change of course to provide real security for our country, and a winning strategy for our troops.

Having had two uncles who served at Omaha Beach and one who served on the front lines of the Pacific Theater, I find Senator Kerry's apology hollow and just as offensive as his failed "joke." My uncles volunteered to serve on the front lines because they loved America — not because they flunked out of school. Besides, the apology came after pressure from his fellow Democrats. As I see it, their primary concern was and is the November 7 election. Senator Kerry's apology is nothing more than pandering for votes.

The photograph below sends a more polite message than I'd like to send:

Who Pushed First?

2006-11-01T06:55:00.000-05:00

(All emphases by Always On Watch)

The 2006 Senate race between incumbent George Allen (R, VA) and challenger Jim Webb (D) has been one ugly campaign. Webb supporters point to Senator Allen's using the term "macaca," and Sen. Allen's supporters point to salacious material written by Mr. Webb. [Hat-tip to Steve's Hodgpodge for the link]

Yesterday the confrontation between supporters became a bit physical. WATCH THE VIDEO. (You'll first have to endure a short commercial)

The October 31, 2006 story from WUSA-TV9:

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) -- A protester who shouted questions at Virginia Senator George Allen was pushed to the floor during Allen's campaign appearance today at a Charlottesville hotel.

Allen held a campaign event there this morning with North Carolina Senator Elizabeth Dole.

The protestor and blogger was put in a choke hold and slammed to the floor by three of Allen's supporters.

First-year University of Virginia law student Mike Stark approached Allen at a campaign event.

Stark loudly asked Allen about a rumor Allen once spit at his first wife.

Allen's campaign says in a statement that Stark was being aggressive and was screaming at Allen.

Allen's former wife, Anne Waddell, issued a statement calling Stark's question "a baseless, cheap shot."

Stark tells The Associated Press that as a constituent, he should be allowed to ask a question to his senator.

He says he will press charges against the people who accosted him.

Excerpt from the Washington Post version of the same story:

A Democratic activist who verbally confronted U.S. Sen. George Allen at a campaign rally in Charlottesville yesterday was shoved, put into a headlock and thrown against a window by three men wearing Allen stickers, according to a widely disseminated video of the incident.

W. Michael Stark, who identified himself in an e-mail after the incident as a University of Virginia law student, yelled a question at Allen (R) about whether he had ever spit on his first wife, an unsubstantiated charge that has been circulating on liberal blogs on the Internet. Allen supporters hauled him away from the senator as television cameras rolled....

Allen aides accused Democrats and the Webb campaign of orchestrating the event as a way of getting news organizations to write about the Internet rumor. "These are the typical Jim Webb tactics," said spokesman Dan Allen, no relation to the senator. "It was disappointing to see, and this certainly has no place in Virginia politics."

Kristian Denny Todd, a Webb spokesman, said Stark has no affiliation with the Webb campaign. "I have no idea who this guy is or what he was trying to accomplish," she said. "I saw the video, and from what I saw, he was wrestled to the ground by a bunch of Allen supporters so that is not very nice behavior."...

The 2006 race for the Virginia seat in the U.S. Senate has been one ugly campaign, certainly not of the type which most Virginians usually see. This latest incident reminds me of spats on the playground. "He pushed me first!" "No, he started it!" Considering how important the midterm elections are with regard to which political party will have a Congressional majority, I can understand that emotions of both sides run high. But shoving matches? Shouts of "Did you spit on your first wife?" I didn't even know that George Allen had a first wife, nor do I care.

Election results should hinge on a debate of the issues, and I think that most Virginians want to hear discussion of issues such as immigration and national security. As Northern Virginiastan said in a comment to this posting,

"I am getting disgusted by the Senatorial race between Sen. Allen and Jim Webb. I want to know the candidates's stance on substantive issues like national security, immigration, and terrorism, but instead we're getting regurgitated ads about what Jim Webb said about women at Annapolis some twenty years ago and George Allen's potential conflicts of interest, his mother being outed for her Jewish origins, and his gaffe in calling Webb's staffer a 'macaca.'"

In another week, the race will be over, and I'll be glad to see the end of it. Even better, once the midterm elections are over, the blitz of political spots which infest our television screens will have ceased.

A Seasonal Graphic

2006-10-30T17:41:00.000-05:00

Click on the image for a larger view.

And just in time for Halloween, HERE is a story about Houdini, who died on October 31, 1926. It seems there was more to Houdini than met the eye:

"...A new biography of the legendary performer suggests that Houdini worked as a spy for Scotland Yard, monitored Russian anarchists and chased counterfeiters for the U.S. Secret Service — all before he was possibly murdered...."

Testing

2006-10-29T16:43:00.000-05:00

Is Blogger back?

CAIR: No Comment?

2006-10-28T15:33:00.000-04:00

Today on Fox News Channel, there was some discussion of the documentary Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against The West, recently released on DVD. The moderator of the discussion stated that CAIR had been invited to participate in the discussion, but had declined.

Now, why is that? One would think that such a discussion on cable news would be an excellent opportunity for CAIR (1) to debunk the film and (2) to issue a call for moderate Muslims to speak out against Islamic radicals.

A recently released twelve-minute version is available for online viewing HERE. Better yet. Buy the DVD and watch the entire documentary.

Press Release: Gilchrist To Speak

2006-10-28T06:45:00.000-04:00

MINUTEMAN FOUNDER JIM GILCHRIST ADDED TO SPEAKER LINE-UP FOR NOVEMBER SYMPOSIUM ON TERRORISM IN LAS VEGAS

Jim Gilchrist, the founder of the Minuteman Project, has joined the line-up of speakers scheduled to appear at a symposium addressing the threat of terrorism set to take place on November 10th & 11th in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Gilchrist joins a distinguished list of scheduled speakers including Hamid Mir, the only journalist to have interviewed Osama bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahri since the attacks of September 11, 2001, who will be the keynote speaker.

The symposium, titled, Understanding the Threat of Radical Islamist Terrorism, addresses the origins and threat of terrorism and is presented by America’s Truth Forum, a grassroots, non-partisan, educational organization. The event is scheduled for November 10th & 11th, 2006 in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is open to the public. Tickets are $150 per attendee and require advanced purchase due to security protocol.

Gilchrist founded the multi-ethnic Minuteman Project on Oct. 1, 2004, after years of frustrated efforts trying to get a neglectful U.S. government to simply enforce existing immigration laws. He is a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps and recipient of the Purple Heart award for wounds sustained while serving with an infantry unit in Vietnam, 1968 - 1969.

Mr. Gilchrist will speak on the issues of terrorist infiltrating the US border and the threat they pose, and the events surrounding his recent appearance at Columbia University where protesters denied him his First Amendment free speech rights when they rushed his stage.

America’s Truth Forum launches the symposium on Friday evening with a VIP Pre-Symposium Reception on November 10, 2006. Those in attendance will be provided the unique opportunity to personally interact with our speakers and other "prominent" guests. Tickets for the VIP Pre-Symposium Reception are $109.00 per attendee. Again, tickets need to be purchased in advance due to security protocol

For information and to purchase tickets: America's Truth Forum or email staff@americastruthforum.com or call Jeffrey Epstein at (866) 709-3474.

[Posted as fulfillment of my duties as a member of America's Truth Forum Blog Corps]

CAIR And Election Campaigns

2006-10-27T07:42:00.000-04:00

In my previous posting (Please scroll down), I questioned whether or not CAIR has violated its tax-emempt status by the organization's support of candidate Keith Ellison.

Now comes this October 27, 2006 article in FrontPageMagazine. Excerpt:

"...[F]or officials of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) – the most visible group claiming to represent Muslims in America – their political loyalties appear to lean in one particular political direction. An extensive review of political contributions by CAIR officials, employees and board members on the local, state and national level reveals that CAIR is betting almost exclusively on Democrats to represent them politically on Capitol Hill during the upcoming 110th Congress....

"[A]t present CAIR officials are content to liberally spread their campaign contributions to Democrats, apparently on the gamble that they will take one, if not both, chambers of Congress....With Democrats in control, CAIR is betting that they will be better represented on Capitol Hill in their self-proclaimed goal of eventual Islamic domination for America. Maybe that is something that citizens should keep in mind on November 7th as they go to the polls and vote."

Among the states mentioned in the article are Ohio, California, Minnesota, Georgia, Virginia, and Florida. Read the entire article here.

CAIR And Tax-Exempt Status

2006-10-27T07:07:00.000-04:00

Is CAIR in violation of Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code? That portion of the code reads as follows:

"To be tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, an organization must be organized and operated exclusively for purposes set forth in section 501(c)(3), and none of its earnings may inure to any private shareholder or individual. In addition, it may not attempt to influence legislation as a substantial part of its activities and it may not participate in any campaign activity for or against political candidates."

American Crusader has posted a link to an October 24, 2006 article dealing with the above. The entire article is posted below (emphases mine):

WASHINGTON - Alarmed by the furor surrounding Muslim Fifth Congressional District candidate Keith Ellison, a national Islamic group is targeting Minnesota with an "anti-terror TV ad" blitz disavowing ties between Islam and terrorism.

The campaign, "Not in the Name of Islam," will begin airing today on cable networks statewide and during Monday night's Vikings game.

The new Minnesota ad is meant to distance Islam from terrorism, but it has added fuel to the fire over Ellison's ties to some Muslim figures, including Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.

The 30-second spot (on the Web at www.cair.com/video/psa.rm) is sponsored by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Washington-based group with strong ties to Minnesota.

The group's leader, Nihad Awad, says Ellison's predicted election to the U.S. Congress from the heavily DFL district centered on Minneapolis has electrified Muslims around the world, some of whom have asked him, "Is it true?"

But Awad, a former Minnesotan, has himself been the subject of an acrimonious nationwide debate over his alleged support for terrorist groups in the Middle East -- which he denies. Both of Ellison's opponents in the race, Republican Alan Fine and Independence Party candidate Tammy Lee, accuse CAIR of secret ties to Hamas, and question Ellison's support from the organization. The United States considers Hamas a terrorist organization.

"CAIR is to Muslims as the Ku Klux Klan is to Christians," Fine said Tuesday. "I don't think that we can say that CAIR truly represents Muslims in America."

Said Lee: "One positive political ad is not going to sanitize a group that has known ties to terrorist groups."

A host of national political and Jewish leaders, both Democrats and Republicans, have made statements both in support of and against CAIR and Awad, who appeared with President Bush after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Ellison's campaign declined to make him available for an interview. His spokeswoman, Bridget Cusick, noted that Ellison has no formal organizational support from CAIR, other than personal contributions from Awad and others.

Ellison, who could become the first black Minnesotan and the first Muslim elected to Congress, traveled to Florida earlier this month on a fundraising tour that included a party hosted by Altaf Ali, CAIR's state director there.

The ad campaign, which is intended to counter what the group says is anti-Muslim stereotyping, also is being coordinated by a CAIR official in Florida, Ahmed Bedier.

"The focus is not on the election," Bedier said, "but to send the message that American Muslims do not condone terrorism."

The ad has run in other states as a free public service announcement, but is now running only in Minnesota as a paid advertisement. That is a first for CAIR, according to Washington spokesman Ibrahim Hooper.

The reason, Hooper said, is the attacks by Fine and others against Ellison over CAIR and his past ties to Farrakhan, a controversial figure with a long record of anti-Semitic statements.

Ellison has disassociated himself from Farrakhan's anti-Semitic positions, although he says he remains proud of his work on the 1995 Million Man March in Washington, D.C.

"With all the anti-Muslim stereotyping that's coming out of that race, we thought it necessary to set the record straight, particularly with regards to terrorism," Hooper said.

The ad features an American Muslim stating, "We often hear claims Muslims don't condemn terrorism. ... As Muslims, we want to state clearly that those who commit acts of terror in the name of Islam are betraying the teachings of the Qur'an and the prophet Mohammed."

It is slated to run more than 50 times over the next week on CNN, Headline News, Fox News, MSNBC, and ESPN. CAIR has not disclosed the cost of the cable media buy.

Fine and Lee, however, said that their criticism has not focused on Ellison's faith, but rather on his association with CAIR and its alleged support for Hamas.

"This isn't about religion," Fine said. "It's about an organization that promotes hatred and violence toward others."

Allegations of CAIR's sympathies for Hamas, which have been made by a former FBI official, among others, are based in part on a widely distributed statement by Awad in 1994 expressing support for the Palestinian group for helping "respond to the daily needs of the people."

The United States did not designate Hamas as a terrorist organization until the next year.

Bedier dismissed any allegations of the group's terrorist ties, including ones made in lawsuits brought by families of 9/11 victims. "After 9/11, there were families that sued every Muslim under the sun," he said.

He also said that CAIR's critics are indirectly taking aim at Muslims: "We are to the American Muslim community what the NAACP is to blacks in America. If you attack us, you are attacking the Muslim community and the religion of Islam in this country."

Speaking for Ellison, Cusick said: "Whether some of the things that have been said are based on anti-Muslim bigotry, or whether they're campaign tactics designed to mislead, the result is the same: They've taken the focus away from the issues."

American Crusader asks the following questions about certain portions of the above article:

This campaign has been shown in other states in the past, but now will target Minnesota exclusively. Should CAIR be allowed to openly support a candidate and maintain its tax-free status?

Why is a representative of CAIR from Florida [Ahmed Bedier] coordinating the ad campaign in a Minnesota congressional race?

Is Mr. Bedier actually stating that criticism of CAIR is an attack on all Muslims?

Steve Harkonnen has posted "A Letter to My Congressional Representative," portions of which suggest a possible model for writing to others who might be interested in what American Crusader has found. Go read what Steve has posted. Then see the list below for those who might be interested in receiving notification

Copy and Paste into an Email

Jamie Glazov, Frontpage Magazine:
jglazov@rogers.com

Daniel Pipes:
meqmef@aol.com

Bill Koenig's International News:
comment@watch.org

Ben Johnson, Frontpage Magazine:
ben@cspc.org

CAMERA:
feedback@camera.org

HonestReporting:
action@honestreporting.com

Newsbusters/Mattew Sheffield, also has a blog:
msheffield@geemail.com

Contact via the Web

Newhouse Newspapers (26):
HERE and HERE

Jihad Watch/Dhimmi Watch
Scroll down to contact section

Contact Congress in your state

If you decide to post a comment to a blog--a CAIR member's or otherwise--please review this warning.

The Caliphate And CAIR

2006-10-25T07:38:00.000-04:00

(All emphases by Always On Watch)

In January of 2006, I composed a blog article largely based on the Washington Post article "Reunified Islam: Unlikely but Not Entirely Radical: Restoration of Caliphate, Attacked by Bush, Resonates With Mainstream Muslims." According to that Washington Post article:

"[T]he caliphate is also esteemed by many ordinary Muslims....Muslims regard themselves as members of the umma, or community of believers, that forms the heart of Islam. And as earthly head of that community, the caliph is cherished both as memory and ideal, interviews indicate."

Recently, discussion of the caliphate has resumed, in part because President Bush has been using the term in several of his speeches.

On October 23, 2006, Dr. Walid Phares wrote an essay entitled "The Caliph-Strophic Debate" and analyzed a recent article in Newsweek Magazine. Excerpt from Dr. Phares' article:

"It seems that the US is having a hard time winning the hearts and minds of Arabs and Muslims, but an equally serious problem can be observed in the intellectual circles of America where some have had a difficulty coming to terms with the terminology of the War of Ideas. If the educated elite of the United States is incapable of identifying the ideology and the strategy of the Jihadists five years after 9/11, we not only have a problem with handling the War in Iraq, but also with the future of American national security as a whole.

"An article published in Newsweek magazine on October 13, 2006 illustrates this problem....

"[T]he lesson from Newsweek article is that indeed the Caliphs were emperors and did wage wars. Some were benign, others harsh, as in any other empire. But that is important for average Americans to know and for Europeans to remember: Caliphs were involved in geopolitics and have declared Jihads, as did Christian emperors for centuries calling for divine wars. Hence, Caliphs aren’t spared criticism and aren’t shielded from historical analysis and judgment because they were strictly spiritual. Besides, even if they were, Caliphs aren’t deities and the Caliphate is a very earthly thing. Along with all other offices of power in world history, the Caliphates had blood on their hands and no one can dispute that.

"But what was missed by the writers was that the US President, and before him President Putin, US Congressional leaders from both parties and Arab leaders such as King Abdallah of Jordan and others, when they mention the Caliphate as a threatening goal, they are not playing historians. They are not talking about Caliphs Omar, Moawiya, Haroun el Rashid or Sleiman the Magnificent. Those are the Caliphs of history, not the commanders of 21st century al Qaeda. Adolph Hitler wasn’t a German emperor from the Middle Ages but he pretended he was their heir. Mussolini wasn’t Julius Cesar but he played his role. Hence when world leaders are warning about the 'Caliphate' they aren’t arguing with those who died centuries ago, but resisting the extremists who want to reawaken the dark ages again, but with modern weaponry."

Many Muslims, including CAIR, have objected to President Bush's use of the word caliphate. Some of these same Muslims also objected to the term Islamofascism. One wonders if any term getting to close to Islam's geopolitical ideology is objectionable. Too close to the truth?

In his essay, Dr. Phares writes the following:

"And to top it the article consults with the Islamist lobby on the issue and elevate it to the position of ex cathedra on all things Islamic. They write:

Parvez Ahmed, chairman of the Council on American Islamic Relations, says bin Laden’s word choices distort Islam for the world, and he wishes the president would take more care. When Ahmed heard “caliphate” Wednesday morning, he thought of the way Bush used the word “crusade” after September 11. “There’s a fundamental misunderstanding with the president and his advisers on core Islamic issues,” Ahmed said. “He’s getting bad advice, they’re misinformed on Islamic terminology.” Either that, or he’s making a strategic rhetorical choice.

Perhaps a CAIR spokesman — Mr. Bedier, for instance — would share with us an acceptable term on his blog site. [Aside: Since when does a CAIR officer have his own Blogspot site?] Might that term be "a great religion"? "A religion of peace?" Those terms, however, do not go the distance to explain why so many Muslims long for the caliphate. Neither do those catch phrases explain why many ordinary Muslims, whom CAIR claims to represent, hold the concept of the caliphate in such high regard (See the above-cited article from the Washington Post).

Consider these words from Ibrahim Hooper, CAIR's Director of Communications:

"I wouldn't want to create the impression that I wouldn't like the government of the United States to be Islamic sometime in the future...But I'm not going to do anything violent to promote that. I'm going to do it through education."

Also consider these words from a July 1998 statement by CAIR founder and Chairman Emeritus Omar M. Ahmad:

"Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant. The Koran . . . should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on earth."

Do those statements from Mr. Hooper and Mr. Ahmad reflect a longing for the establishment of a worldwide caliphate, with the United States as part of that caliphate? If so, could it be that such a longing is the reason that hordes of moderate Muslims have not come forth to take back their hijacked religion?

In his essay, Dr. Phares explores Newsweek's errors and why it is important to understand the historical and current significance to Muslims regarding the utopian concept of establishing the caliphate. Read all of Dr. Phares' essay here.

The Blogosphere And CAIR

2006-10-23T18:25:00.000-04:00

YouTube has enjoyed a reputation of upholding the right to freedom of speech. Last week, however, in the space of two hours, I twice attempted to leave a comment to this YouTube video relating to Ahmed Bedier, the Executive Director of the Tampa Chapter of CAIR. Both times, the following message appeared:

"Your comment will be posted once it has been approved."

My comment has never appeared, even three days later. What I attempted to post read somewhat as follows:

"From what I've read, some of the incidents reported by CAIR were not confirmed.

"Frankly, Americans showed remarkable restraint following 9/11."

Today, I left a comment asking why my comments had never appeared. That comment has also not appeared. Apparently, all of my comments were deemed inappropriate. But the following comments to that particular video were acceptable:

fmm3 (3 days ago)
When did arson attacks on churchs become terrorist attack ? see [2.00 mins]. Seems like every crime a muslim does now days is a "terrorist attack".I would expect Fox news to use every opporunity to insite people to hate muslims, i wish you would stop using Fox news clips.
(Reply) (Mark as spam)

bedier (3 days ago)
fmm3, If Muslims have a problem with what is displayed on FOX News, then they have to work harder to be on those clips and making a difference. Ignoring that media outlet will not help change the negative perceptions.
(Reply) (Mark as spam)

Supkem (3 days ago)
Another excellent point.
(Reply) (Mark as spam)

fmm3 (2 days ago)
An excellent point made and i can see CAIR is working hard, but with Fox news broadcasting soo much anti-muslim newsclips those clips making a difference are often a drop in the ocean and often broadcasted on local Fox stations. For example sice your president used the term "Islamic-fascists" Fox news has made this a popular term and is now used frequently and the average person is lead to believe they are a strong ideological connection.
(Reply) (Mark as spam)
bedier (3 days ago)
fmm3, If Muslims have a problem with what is displayed on FOX News, then they have to work harder to be on those clips and making a difference. Ignoring that media outlet will not help change the negative perceptions.
(Reply) (Mark as spam)

Supkem (3 days ago)
excellent point.
(Reply) (Mark as spam)
Supkem (3 days ago)
It is nice to see so many americans reaching out to Muslims in an effort to embrace peace.

The street runs both ways though. Is Islam doing enough to intergrate into socity? or do they cry wolf to often?

As far as I see there are far more "I'm a victim" stories, and not enough, condemnation videos. the ratio is about 10-1 right now. and that is a fact. Sorry but true.
(Reply) (Mark as spam)

bedier (3 days ago)
Watch more of our videos. We're condemning and doing it often. The "I'm a victim" stories are more because there is sooo much hate in our nation against Islam and Muslims and people are acting that hatred out. We will continue to speak out on both topics.
(Reply) (Mark as spam)

fmm3 (2 days ago)
The news channels don't seem to broadcast Muslims holding conferences and demostrations denouncing violence because simply "peace" is in some ways boring and does not attract viewers, you know, who wants to watch muslims hold a conference on community relations when they can see flag burnings in Pakistan, India etc. They want to see the people insiting violence so their stereotypical views can be confirmed.
(Reply) (Mark as spam)

fmm3 (2 days ago)
I think the real question is, are American doing enough to understand Islam and muslims ? Maybe most people are too lazy to go down to the book shop or library, it is far easier to pick up the remote control. In some ways Bedier is right, the influx of "victim Stories" on your television is simply because arguebly most Americans hate Islam and muslims are the those with the extremist views buy a sniper rifle and use mosques as target practice.

On Saturday, October 21, 2006, blogger Steve Harkonnen posted the following, which relates to what has been going on with Bedier’s material at YouTube:

“From the actions of the past week against a known terrorist supporter that claims he's working for a civil rights group that still supports fundraising groups that aid and abet terrorist factions in the Middle East, it's basically proof-positive that on his youtube.com site, where he posts his propaganda videos that tout how "good" his organization is, there is active post-screening going on, and 9 out of 10 posts are showing support for his group.

“Simply put: he's screening out truths - truths on recorded quotes, truths that his group is an illicit organization that is hell-bent on instituting Sharia Law in the United States and making it into an Islamic Theocracy….

“[H]e's obviously trying to hide the truth that:

“His group was birthed from Hamas and that his group has close ties with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

“Several of this group's officers have been arrested for terrorism, and they were employed by this radical group during the time of their arrest.

“This was the thesis of what I was trying to post over on youtube.com but the comments weren't coming up. If they were, they were quickly snatched away by the propagandist that sits behind this site...."

The following provides some additional information about Ahmed Bedier (Go HERE to access the links):

December 13, 2005

CAIR-FL SPOKESMAN SAYS "NOTHING IMMORAL" ABOUT ISLAMIC JIHAD

BEDIER PRAISES SAMI AL-ARIAN'S ACQUITTAL

(Coral Springs, FL) Last Thursday, on a local Tampa Bay, Florida television program, Ahmed Bedier, the Communications Director of CAIR-Florida, stated that, prior to 1995, there was "nothing immoral" about the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorist organization.

The show, WTVT's 'Your Turn with Kathy Fountain,' featured a discussion about the recent acquittal of PIJ leader Sami Al-Arian. Bedier, who has been acting as Al-Arian's long-time unofficial spokesman, was asked a series of questions by the host of the show.

One of the questions dealt with the morality behind Al-Arian's connection to Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Fountain asked, "If he was associating with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, doesn't that seem immoral, in your opinion?" Bedier responded, "To a certain degree. Now, before 1995 there was nothing immoral about it."

Bedier's answer is startling, given the fact that, prior to 1995, Palestinian Islamic Jihad took credit for five terrorist attacks, which resulted in the murders of eight innocent people. This includes a suicide bombing in the town of Netzarim Junction, in November of 1994.

On December 7th, the day prior to the TV show, Bedier didn't hide his praise for the acquittal of Al-Arian. He said that the verdicts were "a huge relief, and people are just jubilant."

About Bedier's statements, Joe Kaufman, Chairman of Americans Against Hate, said, "It is disgraceful for Ahmed Bedier to make light of a cold-blooded terrorist organization, as he has about the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. It is offensive to the memories of all those that died at the hands of this monstrous group! It is equally offensive for Bedier to describe the acquittal of terrorist leader Sami Al-Arian in terms of 'jubilation.' Our organization calls on the news media to not seek quotes from this man, but to instead denounce his irresponsible statements."

Several other articles about Ahmed Bedier can be found HERE.

Additional information covering developments with YouTube and Blogger over the past few days can be found HERE, the final sentence of which reads as follows:

This is interesting stuff and the blogosphere should be made totally aware of what is happening.

Be sure to go HERE to read Joe Kaufman's most recent statement. If you have time, you might want to read all the postings at Joe Kaufman's blog, which, as of this moment, shows a total of seven postings.

Addendum: Please see what Pim's Ghost has posted, HERE and HERE.

American Crusader & CAIR

2006-10-22T16:17:00.000-04:00

THIS is interesting. Excerpt:

"The following list contains all the responses/comments found at YouTube. It's pretty obvious that free speech is not one of Ahmed Bedier's favorite freedoms....Why not allow all comments?"

Mobilizing The Muslim Vote

2006-10-21T14:10:00.000-04:00

(All emphases by Always On Watch)

According to this October 19, 2006 article (also posted at CAIR's web site) reproduced here in its entirety:

Richmond - Muslims in Virginia are poised to play a sizable role in next month’s election, with nearly 60,000 registered Muslim voters in the state, according to a local political organization.

Mukit Hossain, president of the Virginia Muslim Political Action Committee, said his group is working to mobilize voters to get out and vote Democratic. In a Senate race as tight as the one between Democrat Jim Webb and incumbent Republican George Allen, 60,000 voters can be the difference between a win and a loss.

Population estimates show Virginia’s Muslim population at about 300,000. Most reside in Northern Virginia.

“I think we can make sizeable impacts,” Hossain said. “I think we made a difference in the gubernatorial race” between Tim Kaine and Jerry Kilgore. The group supported Kaine, the winner of the race by just more than 113,000 votes.

Hossain said the group does not have a political affiliation and attempts to be nonpartisan. He said the PAC is endorsing Webb and the Democratic House candidates in Northern Virginia based on their views on civil liberties, human rights, immigration, foreign policy, health care and education.

One issue especially important to the group was local enforcement of federal immigration laws. The Herndon Town Council’s decision to train local police to enforce these laws was especially troubling, Hossain said.

“That’s the sort of mechanism we believe would be extremely dangerous for the Muslim community,” he said. “You are handing over a degree of power that is not necessarily warranted and can be abused, especially given the skimpy training [Herndon police] are going to receive.”

The picture caption reads as follows:

(Brig Cabe/Examiner)
The Mustafa Center is a Muslin mosque near the intersection of Braddock and Backlick roads in Annandale.

Here at Always On Watch, I have previously blogged about Mukit Hossain. See THIS and THIS. The former includes this information:

"Hossain and the other Muslims working with Project Hope and Harmony have been accused of trying to justify illegal immigration, but their commitment to the issue has remained strong."

Project Hope and Harmony made both local and national news because this organization supported the Herndon Day Laborer Center. The next local elections in Herndon ousted the mayor and council members who voted in favor of the center.

Patches The Horse

2006-10-20T09:37:00.000-04:00

To watch this video, click on the center arrow, then on the arrow at the lower left.

[Hat-tip to my client M.N. for emailing this]

"New" Source For Water Pollution

2006-10-20T06:45:00.000-04:00

Note: When I was having so much back pain that I couldn't do much blogging, I saved a stack of newspaper and news-magazine articles which I found interesting. The following blog is based on one of those hoarded articles. All emphases are mine.

Photo from the Washington Post
Sometimes a story comes along and makes the reader say, "Duh!" Such a story appeared on the front page of the September 28, 2006 edition of the Washington Post. Excerpt from "Wildlife Waste Is Major Water Polluter, Studies Say":

"Scientists have run high-tech tests on harmful bacteria in local rivers and streams [in Virginia and Maryland] and found that many of the germs -- and in the Potomac and Anacostia rivers, a majority of them -- come from wildlife dung. The strange proposition that nature is apparently polluting itself has created a serious conundrum for government officials charged with cleaning up the rivers.

"Part of the problem lies with the unnaturally high populations of deer, geese and raccoons living in modern suburbs and depositing their waste there. But officials say it would be nearly impossible, and wildly unpopular, to kill or relocate enough animals to make a dent in even that segment of the pollution.

"That leaves scientists and environmentalists struggling with a more fundamental question: How clean should we expect nature to be? In certain cases, they say, the water standards themselves might be flawed, if they appear to forbid something as natural as wild animals leaving their dung in the woods."

Not serious, you say? Sometimes waxing eloquent and even calling upon historical background (which is, of course, unverifiable), some animal lovers refuse to accept the data from the study and want to discount the findings:

"'If you were here when Captain John Smith rode up the Anacostia River [in 1608], and you tested the water, it would probably have a good bit of coliform in it' because of wildlife,' said Robert Boone, president of an environmental group called the Anacostia Watershed Society."

Maybe so. But throughout D.C. and the close-in suburbs here, we have deer, geese, muskrats, raccoons, and a variety of other wild animals leaving their little gifts. According to the article, such leavings are having an impact beyond the nuisance of dealing with goose droppings in the area's swimming pools and on golf courses, cemetery markers, and our freshly washed vehicles:

"In the Washington area, violations of the bacteria standards have put more than two dozen streams, including the Potomac and Anacostia rivers, on the federal 'impaired waters' list. That means they do not meet the ideal conditions for swimming and need cleaning up....

"In the Potomac and the Anacostia, for instance, more than half of the bacteria in the streams came from wild creatures. EPA documents show that similar problems were found in Maryland, where wildlife were more of a problem than humans and livestock combined in the Magothy River, and in Northern Virginia tributaries such as Accotink Creek, where geese were responsible for 24 percent of bacteria, as opposed to 20 percent attributable to people.

"'Wildlife consistently came up as being . . . a major player,' said Peter Gold, an environmental scientist for the EPA.

"To some scientists, this makes perfect sense. They point out that a few wild animals have managed to thrive in the environments that humans create: Deer feast on suburban flowers; raccoons raid backyard pet-food bowls. Nonmigratory Canada geese, descended in part from geese brought to this area as live hunting decoys, have fallen so much in love with golf courses and groomed city parks that their East Coast population now stands at 1.1 million.

"It could be the ultimate irony of people's impact on nature that the entire system has changed so radically that wild animals now degrade their own environment. More animals means more bacteria-laden waste. Some of that is swept by storm water into rivers and streams."

What to do?

"[I]t is one thing to blame wild animals for pollution and another to figure out how to get them to stop....

"[Scientists] determined that there needed to be an 83 percent reduction in the amount of waste that wildlife left directly in streams."

"But even the scientists who make these determinations say such a large reduction is unlikely. Although Maryland does kill a few hundred geese annually to reduce water pollution, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service last month relaxed its rules to make it easier to kill geese for public-health reasons, no officials in this area have plans to kill or remove wildlife on a scale large enough to make a difference to the waterways."

Thinning the ranks of Bambis or Rascals is, to say the least, distasteful to animal lovers. All those years of Disney movies, National Geographic, and Animal Kingdom have caused a lot of people to anthropomorphize and idealize living with wild creatures.

The final conundrum, according to the last pargraph of the article:

"'Has anybody studied about fish?' quipped David Feld, national program director for a Falls Church-based group called GeesePeace, which seeks nonlethal ways of controlling goose populations. 'How much fish contribute?'"

I can see the line forming for the grants now, as various groups apply for funds to conduct studies as to how much fish contribute to water pollution.

Returning To Normal?

2006-10-19T06:16:00.000-04:00

Sheba has turned the corner. Blood work and urinalysis were negative; we didn't conduct any scans. The vet's best guess is that Sheba was suffering from indigestion due to tainted cat food and a hairball.

On my own medical front, I'm seeing improvement in my lower-back pain. The combination of medication, medical massage, and physical therapy is working wonders. Finally, after more than a year of searching for a diagnosis, I have an appropriate treatment plan and times with NO PAIN!

Sometimes it takes crises for us to appreciate normality.

Symposium In Las Vegas

2006-10-19T06:00:00.000-04:00

"Understanding the Threat of Radical Islam Terrorism," Part 2 of a series.

November 10-11, in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Among others, Laura Mansfield. Dr. Wafa Sultan, Robert Spencer [Go HERE to see the C-Span interview of Robert Spencer), and Walid Shoebat will be speaking.

Details HERE.

Reservations can now be made.

Message From America's Truth Forum

2006-10-19T05:58:00.000-04:00

Dear Concerned Americans:

For some time, America’s Truth Forum has been recognized for being on the very cutting edge of the struggle to expose Radical Islam’s menacing threat to our homeland. In keeping with expectations, we’ve encountered numerous obstacles along the way. Most challenging has been the mainstream media’s imposition of virtually impenetrable roadblocks – obstacles implemented to prevent us from reaching out to fellow citizens who share our concerns for national security and the safety of future generations. Fortunately, we’ve discovered alternative means to circumvent those barriers.

In the process, we also learned how to effectively deal with detractors and maneuver in an environment best described as “PC gone wild.”

Bar none, the greatest challenge currently facing us, and placing our nation in harm’s way, is apathy. According to Webster’s dictionary, “apathy” is best defined as a lack of concern or “indifference”.

Sustained periods of uncertainly, especially when a nation is at war, should give rise to greater concern amongst the populace. We are currently engaged in a struggle for our very existence yet, astoundingly, few seem to take note or even care. This is true in nearly every case except, of course, for our Islamist enemies who are poised to benefit from our indifference.

The struggle against Islamofascism is clearly being lost on the home front. Please consider the following:

§ There are over 1.1 billion Muslims worldwide. According to conservative estimates, at least 10% or 110 million are radicalized and prone to violence. Of equal concern, these jihadis have rallied the support of another 40% or 400 million. In summary, that’s some 500 million people who are sworn and committed to our death and destruction.

§ Islamic religious leaders granted Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda the right to kill up to 10 million Americans. Most experts agree that plans are in the works for catastrophic attacks involving weapons of mass destruction. Yet, our political correct policies prohibit racial profiling and other effective measures that must be employed by law enforcement agencies to protect the homeland.

§ Over 90% of American Mosques are Saudi funded and tainted by Wahabbi doctrine. Hate-inspired anti-American messages and literature are shared with their hungry audiences on our own soil.

§ American institutions of higher learning like Harvard, Georgetown and many others have received multi-million dollar gifts from Saudi Arabian dignitaries – funds being used to purchase influence and capture the minds of our youth.

§ On an annual basis, tens of thousands of prisoners are being converted to Islam in our penal institutions. Upon release, many of these same felons are recruited into a standing army awaiting marching orders.

§ Terrorist training facilities continue to operate freely within our borders.

§ Muslim Students Associations (MSA’s), Islamic centers and Mosques across America and Canada sponsor paintball outings and promote survival skills. Paintball, in itself, may be a harmless sport but one must consider ulterior motives since the MSA’s also benefit from Saudi funding. The National MSA’s online publication promotes firearms training with the following quote that they attribute to Mohammed, “Power is shooting, power is shooting, power is shooting”. They also recommend Muslim students that paintball as an excellent way to learn about combat. This certainly begs the question as to why college-based religious organizations would advocate sharpening combat skills.

§ Despite its dark history and terrorist ties, CAIR continues to exert tremendous influence in Washington. Their propaganda machine is supported by multi-million dollar donations from Saudi Arabia.

§ In the words of CAIR’s Chairman, Omar Ahmad, “Islam isn’t in America to be equal to any other faith, but to be dominant. The Koran should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on earth”.

§ CAIR continue to host regional conferences for thousands of Muslims nationwide. Keynote Speakers include the likes of Siraj Wahhaj. According to the U.S. Attorney’s office, Wahhaj is the un-indicted co-conspirator of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

§ Our enemies are forthright when voicing their intensions with regard to establishing a caliphate and delivering the entire world to Allah. We are the ones who refuse to accept the fact that they mean business and continue to live in a state of denial.

§ Over 6300 Muslim-inspired terrorist attacks have taken place worldwide since 9/11 – begging the question as to why our fearless leaders in Washington continue to refer to Islam as a religion of peace.

The future of America is in peril and we can’t afford to rest in the hands of a scant few who chose to stand defiantly in the face of evil.

Silent are the voices of those patriots who stand proud while paying homage to our nation’s fallen servicemen on Memorial Day.

Absent are the statesmen of a by-gone era when men served their nation with dignity and upheld their oaths to preserve the constitution.

We are currently engaged in fighting a war for our very survival against a clever, cunning and deceptive enemy – an enemy that is skilled in using the rights guaranteed by our own Constitution against us.

What future awaits upcoming generations - meaning your children? Who will be there to protect them from this evil, if we fail to confront it now in earnest? The time has come for all concerned Americans to either rise up and take a stand or acquiesce and sink further into a state of apathy. A lack of action, at this point, will only seal the fate of our heirs. We owe it to our founding fathers who did better than condemn us to making a choice between death, conversion and enslavement. The time has come for those of us who value life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness to unite, in a common front, and be heard.

To quote Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch:

“In this era of violent intimidation, it is crucial for the continued life of our free society that we speak out, and do so fearlessly.”

Show your concern for the future of our great nation. Don’t abandon those who are engaged in a daily struggle, both here and abroad, to preserve the American way of life.

America’s Truth Forum needs your financial support to continue to fight on your behalf. This struggle has nothing to do with partisan politics, instead it has everything to do with survival. Above all, please make the effort to attend the symposium this November 10th & 11th in Las Vegas, Nevada, and spread the word to other concerned Americans.

These events are designed to do nothing more than provide a forum for the dissemination of the truth – facts provided by internationally recognized counterterrorism experts that could prove potentially life saving for you and your family. There will be no better opportunity to engage the experts in dialogue.

Contributions and registration forms may be mailed to:

America’s Truth Forum
P.O. Box 802
Glastonbury, CT. 06033

Your support of our initiative is greatly appreciated.

Respectfully,

Jeffrey Epstein
http://www.americastruthforum.com/

[Posted as fulfillment of my duties as a member of America's Truth Forum Blog Corps]

Featured Comment

2006-10-17T06:59:00.000-04:00

Yesterday Mark Alexander of A New Dark Age Is Dawning and author of The Dawning of a New Dark Age: A Collection of Essays on Islam, left the following comment here at Always On Watch:

As a non-American, but one who loves your country, four developments in America distress me. In particular, they are:

1. The growth of the power of organizations such as CAIR, and their closeness to the corridors of power there in Washington DC.

2. The growth in the number of black converts to Islam.

3. The growth in the number of Hispanics turning to Islam.

4. The unhampered financing of mosques, propagation centres, and Islamic faith schools by the Saudis.

There are many more things that make me feel uneasy, but it seems to me that if things go on as they are, then the US will become quite unrecognizable in the years ahead.

Further comments or additional concerns from readers here?

[Hat-tip to American Crusader for the idea of featuring a reader's comment. Crusader used to have "Comment of the Week" at his previous site.]

Sheba

2006-10-15T09:24:00.000-04:00

[Click on the photo for a larger image]

Sheba, our eighteen-year-old tabby literally rescued from an alley when she was a starving and malnourished kitten, is "off her feed" as of yesterday As you can tell from this photo taken a few years ago when she was spry enough to hop up to her blanket on the living-room radiator, Sheba is devoted to her food, so her not eating is a bad sign. Often with cats, loss of appetite is the only sign that something is wrong. Cats are masters at masking their ailments! For well over a year, Sheba has, on her own, confined herself to her mat on the floor. She has truly been The McGuffey Reader's "the cat on the mat." In her dotage, also referred to as cognitive dysfunction, Sheba has been more comfortable on her mat in front of the fireplace, whether the fire is burning or not.

This morning, I managed to coax Sheba into lapping up some tuna juice, but she wasn't much interested in eating the tuna itself. What's happening could be stomach upset or something more serious.

The Old Girl is still purring, but not very enthusiastically. And she's still licking my hand, but not as aggressively as usual. My husband and I will make the decision to have Sheba euthanized if she starts showing signs of suffering. For quite a while, she has had benign tumors all over her body; she may well have these tumors internally, in her digestive tract. We've known for some time that "the bad day" is coming, but the knowing doesn't make the day any easier.

CAIR Watch

2006-10-14T20:48:00.000-04:00

[Logo from this source]

Regular readers know that one of the focuses of this blog has been CAIR. An index to those articles is HERE. I've been watching CAIR for quite some time.

Recently, Joe Kaufman, an investigative journalist who sometimes publishes articles at Front Page Magazine, has put out a call asking for volunteers to report stories about CAIR.

From this source:

Since the early 80's, the terrorist organization Hamas has had a presence within the United States. Many groups connected to Hamas have come and gone. They include: the United Association for Studies and Research (UASR), the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF), the Global Relief Foundation (GRF) and KindHearts.

Another organization, the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP) was shut down in 2005, after it was found liable for the murder of an American boy who was killed during a Hamas terror operation in Israel. Eleven years prior to its closure, three leaders from the IAP created the Council on American-Islamic Relations or CAIR.

CAIR Watch, a project of Americans Against Hate, was founded with the mission to expose the extremist nature and terrorist ties of CAIR, in hopes that it will be shut down, just as the others were before it. You can help in this endeavor. We need you to be our eyes and ears in your area. Events, publications, statements, and all else concerning the aforementioned are of grave importance to us.

Is there an article, blog entry or CAIR quote that we need to place on our site? Do you know of someone connected to the group that we should create a new profile for? We are open to your suggestions.

If you would like to assist us and become a CAIR Watcher, feel free to send an e-mail to us at:
cairwatchers@americansagainsthate.org

Mr. Kaufman, chairman of Americans Against Hate, is scheduled to speak at the America's Truth Forum Symposium Understanding the Threat of Radical Islam Terrorism, to be held on November 10-11 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Details are HERE.

Autumn Is My Favorite Season

2006-10-11T09:01:00.000-04:00

I can't take credit for taking this photo, "Fall Puddle." The credit goes to Joe Citizen.

CLICK HERE to see a larger view.

With all the ugliness in the world, don't forget to notice the beauty!

[Hat-tip to CUANAS, where I spotted this photo]

Haven't We Been Here Before?

2006-10-09T20:45:00.000-04:00

(All emphases by Always On Watch)

Until 9/11, I did not follow events in the Middle East. But since that day, when the daily paper arrives, I first read "World News," with focus upon recent developments in the Middle East. Many times, I have a feeling of deja vu, harkening back to the time when all I did was glance at similar headlines in the world section of the newspaper and of news magazines. Now, of course, I read entire articles instead of merely skimming over the headlines.

On the inside of the back page of the first section of the Sunday, October 8, 2006 edition of the Washington Post appeared the headline "Rice's Tour of Mideast Yields Little Progress on Key Issues." Excerpt from the article:

"LONDON, Oct. 7 -- It was a tough week for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in the Middle East. On four issues pivotal to the future of the world's most volatile region, U.S. diplomatic efforts made no visible progress or came up against unexpected resistance during her five-day tour, according to Arab and Israeli officials and analysts.

"On Iraq, Arab-Israeli peace, democracy promotion and fostering a so-called moderate bloc of Arab states to stand together against militancy, Rice pressed at each of six stops for new energy or more decisive action. Many of the Arab leaders she met share U.S. fears about the region's future, but there is a growing divide even with Washington's closest allies over what needs to be done, at what pace, in what order and by whom, according to Arab officials interviewed at each stop....

"The United States and the Arab world are now engaged in a chicken-and-egg argument over what happens next. Arab governments -- including Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and five oil-rich Persian Gulf sheikdoms -- all appealed to Rice to revive U.S. leadership to break deadlocks on several fronts because they have so far been unable to do it alone, Arab officials said. But Rice basically told governments at each stop that they must first take difficult steps to create conditions more conducive to greater U.S. involvement, U.S. officials said....

"The greatest pressure put on Rice at every stop was to do something to jump-start the moribund Arab-Israeli peace process, which Arab leaders almost unanimously described as the key to addressing other flash points as well. Yet Rice found herself negotiating some of the same issues she was engaged in last November...

"Senior Arab officials and analysts also said U.S. efforts to promote democracy and foster an anti-militant bloc were contradictory, because the moderates the United States is trying to rally against radical Islamic groups are some of region's most autocratic governments...."

Most of the above seems so familiar to me. Over and over again, hopes for peace have come to naught or have been dashed shortly after much lauded peace accords. Do we really believe that Muslim resistance to the path to peace is "unexpected," and are we actually shocked when diplomatic overtures result in "no visible progress"? And should that impasse continue to be laid at the feet of the United States or of Israel?

Character Ishmael, from Leon Uris's The Haj (page 14):

"So before I was nine I had learned the basic canon of Arab life. It was me against my brother; me and my brother against our father; my father against my cousins and the clan; the clan against the tribe; and the tribe against the world. And all of us against the infidel."

The Amish Are Accepting Donations

2006-10-09T08:52:00.000-04:00

According to this article,

Though the Amish generally do not accept help from outside their community, King [of Mennonite Disaster Service] quoted an Amish bishop as saying, "We are not asking for funds. In fact, it's wrong for us to ask. But we will accept them with humility."

[Hat-tip to Raven]

Mir To Speak At November Symposium On Terrorism

2006-10-09T08:50:00.000-04:00

Upcoming Symposium on Terrorism

When? November 10-11, 2006

Where? Las Vegas, Nevada

Below is the press release from America's Truth Forum:

Hamid Mir, the only journalist to have interviewed Osama bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahri since the attacks of September 11, 2001, will be the keynote speaker at a symposium addressing the origins and threat of terrorism presented by America’s Truth Forum, a grassroots, non-partisan, educational organization.

The symposium, titled, Understanding the Threat of Radical Islamist Terrorism, is scheduled to take place on November 11, 2006 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The symposium is open to the public. Tickets are $150 per attendee and require advanced purchase due to security protocol.

Mr. Mir, a journalist from Pakistan, founding editor of Daily Ausaf Islamabad and Bureau Chief of Islamabad for GEO-TV, is Osama bin Laden’s officially sanctioned biographer. Mr. Mir brings to the symposium first-hand knowledge, gained through his interviews with the world’s most wanted terrorist, of al Qaeda’s nuclear capability, an in-depth knowledge of al Qaeda and Taliban operations in both Pakistan and Afghanistan, evidence of Iranian support – both financial and strategic – for the Taliban and al Qaeda and an intimate knowledge of the ideology that fuels the mind of Osama bin Laden. Mr. Mir was recently captured and released by Hezbollah during the recent 34 day war between Lebanese Hezbollah and Israel.

Mr. Mir joins a panel of internationally recognized counterterrorism experts for day-long educational symposium.

America’s Truth Forum launches the symposium on Friday evening with a VIP Pre-Symposium Reception on November 10, 2006. Those in attendance will be provided the unique opportunity to personally interact with our speakers and other "prominent" guests. Tickets for the VIP Pre-Symposium Reception are $109.00 per attendee. Again, tickets need to be purchased in advance due to security protocol

For information and to purchase tickets: www.AmericasTruthForum.com or email staff@americastruthforum.com or call Jeffrey Epstein at (866) 709-3474.

Why I'm So Quiet Lately: Part Two

2006-10-06T14:00:00.000-04:00

Part One is HERE.

Nothing much has changed, except that I now have a diagnosis: sciatica. At long last, I'm properly medicated and ordered to undergo two types of physical rehabilitation — physical therapy (According to Stephen King, "PT stands for pain and torture") and medical, therapeutic, and relaxation massage.

I've already been warned by my neurologist that the PT is going to be painful. But pain is relative. For months now, I've been pushing a Number 10 on the Pain Scale.

The medication I'm taking produces mild euphoria. I can use that!

My neurologist is hopeful that I can make a good recovery because I'm "in good shape." All that country upbringing and years of power-walking built strong muscles and bones. But my recovery will take time. I'll be blogging and making blog rounds as I am able to do so.

Historical Context: Article And Video

2006-10-04T06:55:00.000-04:00

Commentary from the October 1, 2006 edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer:

One Last Thing: Post-9/11 conflicts rooted in history

It's not just Afghanistan, Iraq and a "war on terror." It's the West vs. the Islamic world, a clash that has never abated.

By Jonathan Last

Soon after 9/11, the Bush administration labeled the conflict into which it plunged this country the "war on terror." But this is no more descriptive than calling the fight in Iraq a "war on IEDs." The more pressing question is: Are we, or are we not, engaged in a larger clash of civilizations?

If the answer is "We are," the clash long predates 9/11, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and George W. Bush. It predates America itself. It is a clash between Western civilization and the Islamic world.

Harvard professor Samuel Huntington first made this case in 1993, in his famous article "The Clash of Civilizations" in the journal Foreign Affairs. "Conflict along the fault line between Western and Islamic civilizations has been going on for 1,300 years," he wrote. After the founding of Islam, Muslims spread their faith by the sword. Islam conquered North Africa and pushed into Europe, where it ruled in Sicily, Spain, Portugal, and parts of France. Twice, the forces of Islam laid siege to Vienna. For 1,000 years, Islam advanced and Christendom retreated.

As Pope Benedict XVI explains in his book Without Roots, the very concept of "Europe" emerged as a reaction to the surge of Islam. Not until the failure of the second Turkish siege of Vienna in 1683 did the Islamic tide recede definitively. For the next 300 years, Western civilization was ascendant and the Islamic world stagnated.

But the conflict between the two cultures never fully abated. Throughout the 20th century, Western countries tussled with Islamic states or their non-state proxies. And, as columnist Mark Steyn points out, when you gaze at conflicts around the globe today, the one constant is Islam. Muslims are fighting, or have recently fought, Jews in the Mideast, Hindus in Kashmir, Christians in Nigeria, atheists in Russia, Buddhists in Thailand and Burma, Catholics in the Philippines, and Orthodox Christians in the Balkans.

Some argue that these conflicts arise not from a clash of civilizations, but from specific grievances, such as the West's support of Israel. This is an unsatisfactory argument. In his 1990 essay "The Roots of Muslim Rage," professor Bernard Lewis pointed out: "The French have left Algeria, the British have left Egypt, the Western oil companies have left their oil wells, the westernizing shah has left Iran, yet the generalized resentment of the fundamentalists... against the West and its friends remains and grows and is not appeased."

The cause of conflict is not what the West does, but what the West is. Lewis gives two examples. When Israel was first founded, U.S. support was less than wholehearted. Instead, it was the Soviet Union that, through its proxy Czechoslovakia, sent Israelis arms to defend themselves in their first war. In 1956, the United States intervened to help force the British and French out of Egypt. Still, through the '50s and '60s, the Muslim world joined with the Soviets in resenting America.

In November 1979, Islamic terrorists took control of the Great Mosque in Mecca. In Islamabad, a Muslim mob was outraged. The response was to attack and burn - the U.S. Embassy. If Western opinion on the clash is divided, many Islamic voices are quite candid on the subject.

"The war with Israel is not about a treaty, a cease-fire agreement, Sykes-Picot borders, national zeal, or disputed borders," Ayman al-Zawahiri explained this year. "It is rather a jihad for the sake of God until the religion of God is established."

Zawahiri, of course, is an al-Qaeda leader. But the views of other Islamic leaders sound similar.

"Let the entire world hear me. Our hostility to the Great Satan is absolute," Hezbollah's Hassan Nasrallah said in 2002. "Death to America will remain our reverberating and powerful slogan."

Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad proclaimed in 2005: "[We] will soon experience a world without the United States, and Zionism and will breathe in the brilliant time of Islamic sovereignty over today's world."

"It is not the world against Iraq. It is the West against Islam," wrote Safar Al-Hawali, dean of Islamic Studies at Umm Al-Qura University in Mecca. This last quote, however, is not from 2003 - it is from 1990, and Hawali was speaking about the first Gulf War.

Two lessons and three caveats here. Lesson one: When we face horrors such as the Beslan school massacre, the assassination of Theo van Gogh, the bombings in Bali, or the beheading of Daniel Pearl, we are seeing not a response to this policy or that action, but the latest episode in a long, historic struggle. Second: No matter how frightening, sometimes you must take your adversaries at their word.

First caveat: Appearances can deceive, and even the wise can be wrong. Second, even if this is a clash, it still could be short-circuited via unforseen events (such as the invention of a hydrogen fuel cell, or the rise of a great Muslim teacher who persuades millions to reject fundamentalism).

Finally, as Lewis writes:

"There is something in the religious culture of Islam which inspired, in even the humblest peasant or peddler, a dignity and a courtesy toward others never exceeded and rarely equaled in other civilizations."

If we accept that this is a clash between civilizations, two questions face us: How does this change our thinking? And the painful one: What do we do about it?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact Jonathan V. Last at jlast@phillynews.com.

For a short visual representation of the history of Islam's expansion, watch the following video (Click on center arrow, then on the arrow on the lower left):

[Hat-tip to Brooke for alerting me to this video]

So Much For Academic Freedom

2006-10-01T08:48:00.000-04:00

"'I will have to move homes and live somewhere else, where I will now be forced to remain anonymous in my own country [France],' he said."

READ THE ARTICLE.

Why I'm So Quiet Lately

2006-09-29T19:10:00.000-04:00

1. Classes have resumed. My time for blogging is more limited.

2. My mother-in-law, who has Alzheimer's, was paying a visit. She needed a watchful eye. She left yesterday morning, but I now have other matters to catch up on.

3. I'm going to multiple medical appointments as I pursue a definitive diagnosis for my back injury. At the moment, I have to put up with physical suffering as medications have been withdrawn to conduct various diagnostics.

I'm still here, however, posting, reading all comments, and making blog rounds when I can.

Where's The Apology?

2006-09-26T15:53:00.000-04:00

(All emphases by Always On Watch)

From 712 until 1492 (when La Reconquista, the centuries-long process of reclaiming the Iberian Peninsula as Christian territory, was completed), much of Spain was under the boot of the Moors, Muslim tribes from northern Africa. The invasion commenced in 711 and consisted of a combined force of Africans, Berbers, and Arabs landing at Gibraltar and moving northward; these combined forces are commonly referred to as the Moors. By 714, the name of Hispania had been changed to Al-Andalus, a name which reflects that this particular geographical area was a part of the Caliphate.

This period of history was the Age of Feudalism, lacking in central government and effective military defense. Beginning with Agila's surrender of his lands in 712, the fiefdoms of the Iberian Peninsula surrendered one by one until the northward-moving Moorish forces had subdued all of Hispania. The Moors continued their expansion into France until they were defeated by Eudes of Aquitaine (near Toulouse in 721) and Charles Martel (the Battle of Tours in 732). The Frankish military-defeats of the Moors and the natural barrier of the Pyrenees Mountains, the passes of which were fortified under Charlemagne, thus confined the Moors to the Iberian Peninsula, where the Muslim tribes established an Emirate originally subordinate to the Caliph in Damascus. Because of the large distance from the Damascene Caliph, Muslim rule in Spain was more or less an independent and isolated governance, yet in keeping with the oppression of Christians and Jews according to the Code of Umar.

Muslims are presently demanding an apology from the Pope. As Jose Maria Aznar, the former prime minister of Spain, has pointed out, in this article dated September 23, 2006, no Muslim apology is forthcoming with regard to the Muslim rule of Spain:

"Bush and his war on terror, said the West is under attack from radical Islam and must defend itself. 'It is them or it is us,' Aznar said. 'There is no middle ground.'

"Muslims should apologize for occupying Spain for 800 years and a U.N.-backed program to encourage dialogue between them and West is stupid, former Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar has said. Aznar made his comments Friday night in a speech at the Hudson Institute, a thinktank in Washington, D.C., as he discussed Pope Benedict XVI's recent remarks on Islam and violence. Aznar, a firm ally of U.S. President George W. Bush and his war on terror, said the West is under attack from radical Islam and must defend itself. 'It is them or it is us,' Aznar said. 'There is no middle ground.' He did not elaborate. Aznar said he found it surprising that Muslims have demanded an apology from the pope over his Sept. 12 remarks.

"Aznar noted the nearly 800-year Moorish occupation of Spain that began in the year 711 with an invasion from North Africa. He said Muslims had never apologized for this but still demand apologies whenever they feel offended by remarks by non-Muslims. 'It's absurd,' Aznar said.

"He also criticized an initiative launched last year by his Socialist successor, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, to encourage dialogue between the West and Muslim countries."

In at least one of his videotaped speeches, Osama bin Laden referred to "the Andalusan atrocity," meaning the success of La Reconquista in re-establishing Christian rule on the Iberian Peninsula. Why the mention of events which occurred centuries ago? For one thing, Arabic does not have a past tense in the sense we understand it: what's over is not over and done with. For another, according to Islamic beliefs, once a territory has been claimed for Allah, that territory must forever remain Muslim. Should Muslim rule be overthrown, as was the case in Spain, it is the duty of Muslims to reclaim that territory for Allah.

Now, toward the beginning of Ramadan, the Pope has met with Muslims to discuss their offended sensitivities and has asked for reciprocity with regard to religious tolerance? What was the outcome of a previous similar meeting many centuries ago? Agila, the first Iberian Visigoth to surrender to the Moors, found dialogue ineffective, even after his uncle's previous alliance with the Moors:

"Agila's uncle, Oppas, bishop of Toledo, solicited the aid of the Moslems of Morocco against Roderic and it was this which led to the conquest of the peninsula in 711. When Roderic died in battle against the Moors, Agila was probably crowned in Toledo.

"In 712, he [Agila] travelled to Toledo to meet the Moslem leader, Tariq ibn Ziyad. He received no mercy for his conquered subjects and lands."

Granted, the Pope's meeting with Muslim leaders has not come about because of a military defeat. But there are other kinds of defeat as well, including ideological defeat. Ideological defeats are often a matter of subtle perceptions. From such perceptions, beliefs and ideological movements grow stronger or weaker. Western civilization is, once again, at the crossroads of two opposing ideologies.

[Hat-tip to Gravelrash of Democracy Frontline for alerting me to the above article about Jose Maria Aznar]

"From the House of Family Jihad"

2006-09-22T06:53:00.000-04:00

Avenging Apostate, who posts as a member of the team at Pedestrian Infidel, recently wrote an article which deserves a careful reading. Excerpt:

"I knew all along that the decision that I have made—converting to Christianity from Islam—would have undesirable consequences. I knew the path I chose wasn’t a walk in the park. But I guess I, somehow, managed to deny this truth for quite awhile. Somewhere in my mind, I thought I was living in a perfect world, that somehow (however illogical it might sound to those who know about my situation) it was all going to be alright.

"Recently, I found out how wrong I really was. I had my fears realized and that realization for me has been earth-shaking and profound. The world has taken on different, frightening dimensions, and I don’t think it will ever be the same...."

READ IT ALL!

For earlier articles by Avenging Apostate, CLICK HERE. Now, do you still believe the refrain of various Muslim spokespersons when they say, "There is no compulsion in religion"? Or, what about this from CAIR: "understanding and coming to appreciate the universal teachings of Islam"?

Note: Another of Avenging Apostate's recent articles, "Mum's the Word," is HERE.

Texas Roadhouse

2006-09-19T16:58:00.000-04:00

On May 8, 2006, Detective Vicki Armel, 40, and Police Officer Michael Garbino, 53, were slain outside the Sully District Police Station in Chantilly, Virginia. The gunman, who also perished when officers returned fire, was Michael Kennedy; he fired more than seventy rounds from a wooded area near the station's parking lot. As details about Michael Kennedy emerged, residents here learned that Kennedy was mentally ill and that his parents had been attempting to get help for their son. On May 12, 2006, the Washington Times printed this article, a portion of which is excerpted below:

"Local police and mental health officials said yesterday that they had no authority to return to a Rockville psychiatric facility last month an 18-year-old escapee who earlier this week ambushed Fairfax County police officers in Chantilly.

"'In the state of Virginia, if someone voluntarily checks themselves into a mental health facility and leaves, they are able to leave, [unless] there is a detention order,' said Officer Beth Underhill, a spokeswoman for Fairfax County police. 'If you leave, police cannot pick you up.'...

"Michael William Kennedy, 18, of Centreville, was voluntarily admitted to Potomac Ridge Behavioral Health Center in Rockville at about 1 p.m. April 18. Center officials said that the door to his room had no lock, but that he was staying in a unit block that was secured.

"About seven hours after he had checked in, Kennedy broke a window [and] left the facility....

"Kennedy's friends and neighbors have said he had exhibited bizarre behavior, such as calling himself Jesus Christ and talking about invasions by zombies. Documents seized from Kennedy's home after the Monday afternoon ambush show that he had received treatment for mental health issues...."

For a few weeks following the officers' and Kennedy's deaths, various people weighed in as to what might have been done to prevent the terrible events of May 8. But after a short time, as do many news stories of this kind, the story faded.

This past week, The Texas Roadhouse, quite near the police station, made the front page of the local-news section of the September 12, 2006 Washington Post in an article entitled "It's Enough to Make Your Stomach Turn":

"Two Fairfax County officers lay mortally wounded in the parking lot of their Sully District police station. At the height of the crisis, anxious police cordoned off streets, closing down some businesses. The Texas Roadhouse restaurant just down the road had to shut its doors for a few hours that day in May and again on the next two Saturdays, when large crowds came out to honor the funeral processions for Detective Vicki Armel and Officer Michael Garbarino.

"So what did the restaurant do in the police department's time of loss? Offer to cater the funerals? Set up a food donation schedule for the bereaved families? Nah. The Texas Roadhouse in Chantilly counted up the pennies it had lost -- a total of about $9,000, the manager computed -- and turned to the police department with a formal request for compensation."

Wait. There's more:

"...[Restaurant manager Eric] Rainwater asked the police to dismiss $5,000 in fines that the restaurant had accumulated because its alarm system had repeatedly malfunctioned, summoning police for no reason...."

Columnist Marc Fisher, the author of the above-cited article, writes,

"The dictionary provides various definitions for 'chutzpah,' such as effrontery, unbelievable gall and utter nerve. None of these words comes close to describing what happened here."

The chief executive of Texas Roadhouse, the son a retired Virginia police officer, has apologized to the police department and has disciplined the manager of the local restaurant. The requests for compensation and for dropping fines have been withdrawn. But the restaurant's reputation here may well be permanently tarnished.

Columnist Marc Fisher concludes with a biting, final paragraph, a portion of which is excerpted below:

"[The manager of Texas Roadhouse exhibited] a blindness to others that we see all too often these days, even in businesses that rise or fall on customer satisfaction....[T]hink about the people you know and how they respond when they think they have been cheated -- think of the nasty e-mails they dash off, the angry calls, the righteous demands for compensation. Is what happened here really so inconceivable, so far from the kind of behavior we've come to accept in our daily lives?"

I didn't personally know Detective Armel and Officer Garbino. But on two Saturday mornings in a row, I passed by McLean Bible Church, which hosted services for both of the fallen officers. The attendance was enormous! Yes, traffic was congested that day, with attendees from all over the state and with rubberneckers amazed and moved by the sight of police motorcycles lined up on the knoll outside the church and officers standing at attention as they paid a final tribute to their own.

Apparently, the manager of Texas Roadhouse was moved by the loss of a few thousand dollars. In my view, his selfishness symbolizes part of what's wrong with our society today. The Me-First Generation is in charge!

Armel and Garabino Trust Fund

Muslim Temper Tantrums

2006-09-17T18:25:00.000-04:00

Recently, the Pope offended Muslims around the world; this is the full text of the Pope's offensive remarks, and this is his apology. HERE is a musical rebuttal in response to Muslim outrage.

The Great Dog Hair Dilemma

2006-09-16T06:18:00.000-04:00

The following was posted by Cubed to The Ultimate Insult:

Wednesday, July 27, 2005

Here, in all its breathtakingly micromanagerial detail, is the solution to a very nasty problem experienced by a convert to Islam. It is offered on a sort of "ask the expert" feature of http://livingislam.org. where they can go with their most pressing concerns.

We all know that Muslims don't like dogs; they pretty much don't like anything, after all. But fortunately, they have access to painfully, even excruciatingly, detailed advice on any problems they might run into.

The way I figure it, the mullahs keep Muslims really, really busy with this sort of concern; this way, they just won't have time to rock the boat by asking - hmmmm - well, more penetrating questions, such as, "You're kidding, right?"

The questioner is a Muslim convert whose family owns a pet dog (all emphases are mine).

Question:

". . . one difficultly is regarding dog hair. My family keeps the dog confined to only certain areas in the home and keeps him out all day when we are around. They are very respectful of our practices. However, the dog sheds hair almost all year round. Almost everywhere you go, you will find the dog's hair. My mother vacums the house every day to try to keep it under control. Many times I will find dog hair on my clothing and also this dog hair has definitely (with yaqin) entered the washing machine which I use when I am there.

Dog hair or any hair from an animal (that cannot be eaten) is impure when separated from the creature. I remember you mentioned checking yourself for cat hair before prayer. Can I pray with a small amount of dry dog hair on my person if it cannot be seen (with the eye) from a distance. Am I excused for all the filth of dogs that cannot be seen even with close inspection, that is invisible filth? (These questions present more difficultly then simply saliva because saliva is relatively easy to avoid and wash if the dispensation of substitution is apllied.)

My family's washing machine has been contaminated (with yaqin) with both dog saliva and wet hair. If I wash my clothes in this machine, do they then become contaminated or does the washing with detergent (according to the substitution position) make the machine pure?

Dog hair does not remain in the washing machine and I don't find it in the machine when I go to wash my clothing. However, dog hair and saliva have definitely been on my family's clothing and then they have washed it in the washing machine. No traces of saliva or hair remain. Is the washing machine pure from the ibdal position (because they are washing the clothing with soap and washing it in the machine)?

Answer:

Some sensible measures you can take before Salat (in logical steps):

(1) use a different garment to pray (like the Malays like to do, changing their still clean garments into their 'sarong', etc. everytime before prayer - even in mosques - that is why we have changing rooms in most Malaysian + Indonesian mosques);

(2) use a sajjada; at this point there might not be anymore dog hair remaining but you should still try to

(3) remove as much as humanly possible any dog hair from your body and clothes (and if there are still a small amount of impurities remaining that missed your notice after this point (even if they are visible), then the remaining impurities - since it is a great difficulty to remove all of it - are excused [maf'uw]).

Remember that dog hair when it is dry, is only impure in itself (i.e., its 'ayn) and it does not make other things impure. If after checking your clothing and your body and then you proceeded to pray but then later you find a few hairs remaining on you or on your clothing or on your immediate place of prayer, then your prayer is still valid.

This is because the remaining hair is considered to be athar najasa [traces of impurity] that are difficult to remove and these athar najasa are therefore excused, in the same way as when a small amount of blood for example, if found on you, is excused. (There is tafsil in this ruling. The original fiqh ruling is in fact, dog hair, even if a little (meaning even one hair) is not excused (due to the severity of this type of impurity, the Mughallaza), but in your very unique case ['udhr nadir; or literally, rare excuse], after taking all of the above necessary and other possible precautions that humans could, if dog hair are still found (and there is no more choice or way around it because it is beyond what humans are accustomed to bear), then this is considered a Darura [necessity], and necessity excuses one from the rule to the degree demanded by necessity.

Once considered a Darura situation, there are two positions in our school. The less-than-the-standard fiqhi position is one does not need to repeat the prayer: in this Darura situation (for which one is allowed to pray even in a state of Najasa (for dog hair is not maf'uw) and the prayer is valid and one does not sin), know that you will be following the alternative position [Qawl Marjuh] (which is actually the Qawl Qadim [the Early Position] of our Imam).

The alternative to following this alternative position (namely following the Qawl Azhar) would mean that you have to [Wajib] keep on repeating that same prayer until you stop discovering dog hair during the course of your prayer. Of course, this applies only when that dog hair discovered immediately after the prayer is, with yaqin, there during the course of the whole prayer.

If there is the slightest doubt or thought that the dog hair came about (such as being blown by the wind - hubub al-rih and the like) after the prayer is finished, or there is some delay in the discovery of that hair after the taslim or that it could still be some other hair, then there is no need to follow the weak position of our school, since there is no question of the validity of the prayer in the first place and the possibility of you continuously repeating your prayer does not arise.

There is a second way out of this dilemma (for which its legal basis ['illa] is in fact, an extension of that first position, but with the added difference that you repeat the prayer at a later time), and this is the more precautionary opinion, the Ihtiyat (and it is better to follow this one, since one will not in the end follow the alternative position, and our later Imams agree on this one and also, it is the way of Ihsan).

Again, if you find yourself in this Darura situation, then you can pray even in a state of Najasa, but you must [Wajib] make up the prayer (but not because that prayer was invalid) at a later time (when you are no longer in that Darura situation, such as when you depart from your mother's house to go the mosque or some other place), whereas the prayer performed while in Darura and during that rare excuse is what is known in our school as the Salat li-Hurma al-Waqt, or the prayer, however incomplete (its pre-conditions), is nevertheless performed in deference to the Prayer Time (in case that if you were to die before the repeat or i'ada of that prayer, then you will be free from any blame for missing that prayer).

(If you do this, then you have to be aware that you are praying the Salat li-Hurma al-Waqt and intending it as such during the niyya of that prayer--just like for the prayer performed in a place where there is normally water but you have to make Tayammum or the Fard Salat on the train and the like.)

Again, if there is the slightest doubt that it is not dog hair (ask yourself please, how can you be so sure that this is dog hair: could it not be from the sajjada perhaps)? I cannot make this more clearer than to say that as a rule, if there is the slightest doubt whether the hair is pure or impure, then it must be deemed pure because of al-Aslu 'Adamu.)

Since the washing machine is - as you say, with yaqin - contaminated by the Mughallaza, then it would be better for you to do the laundry at another place (for even if the other place is also contaminated with Mughallaza but you do not know of that fact and therefore have no yaqin knowledge of it). I know this is unusual but unfortunately even if you take the takhfif of ibdal and use soap, dog hair will still be around. And since you are certain that it is dog hair that remains in the machine, then it becomes Mughallaza every time it is moist and wet. Clearly if this is the case, there is great hardship. This is a good illustration of what I have said regarding the act of judging whether there is Mughallaza or not in the first place with yaqin, is the one that is going to make a difference between whether it is going to be 'easy' or not for you.

Now an equally good illustration of our scholars going at length to uphold the rule of judging things by its al-asl (and that originally it is pure) is that their immediate and automatic response upon seeing hair in the machine is they will not consider it dog hair with yaqin since there is the possibility that it may be some other animal hair or even human hair despite however unlikely (but not impossible) this might be; the point being: the possibility of it being non-Mughallaza exists. They will try to give every excuse that it is pure in the first place as in the case of the dog and the container. However, if you have already reached the state of certainty (presumably by inferring for example that the colour of the dog's fur is brown and you find brown hair in the machine even when you do not physically see the dog's brown hair going into the machine (technically, there is still room for doubt to arise here) and there is nothing we can do to change your mind about this, is there?) that it is dog hair, then you have to treat it as such (however, if you begin to doubt yourself, then this is an indication that it is not knowledge based on yaqin but zann which is, by definition, the element that you know is more or higher than the element you do not know (while for yaqin, there is no element that you do not know) - but if no doubt comes to you, then it is Mughallaza).

Well, it is your own personal ijtihad [i.e, the judgement or decision you make] in deciding whether the hair found is dog hair. In any case, doing your laundry at another place is still the safest option.

Now, if on the other hand, dog hair does not remain in the washing machine but dog hair and dog saliva for example, have contaminated your family's clothing after which they have washed it in the washing machine using soaps and detergents (and there are no traces of dog hair in the machine - as far as you are able to tell), then if you have to follow the ibdal position, the area affected by the impurity [mahall mutanajjis] becomes pure. It follows from this that the washing machine is also pure and is not contaminated by the Mughallaza.

Anyway, I can now see the hikma of why when we were children, we have always been discouraged by our teachers from investigating a matter further into hair-splitting detail for fear of finding some sabab or cause for great hardship. As the wisdom of the Prophetic Sunna goes: yasiru wa la-tu'asiru [when it is easy don't make it harder].

May this help, and only Allah and His Messenger know the best ruling.

Your poor brother

Muhammad Afifi al-Akiti

I don't know how much of the Koran or the Hadith deal with the topic of the accursed dog hair, but I managed to find the following, from the Hadith:

Bukhari vo. IV, nos. 539: "Narrated Abu Talha: The Prophet said, "Angels do not enter a house which has either a dog or a picture in it."

Muslim vol. I, no. 551: "When the dog licks the utensil, wash it even times and rub it with dirt the eighth time."

And, come to think of it, I don't know any Muslim veterinarians.

Recently, Jason provided me with a link about the new policy on pets in Saudi Arabia. Excerpt from an article which appeared in the September 11, 2006 edition of the New York Sun:

"Saudi Arabia's religious police, tasked with chiding women to cover themselves and ensuring men attend prayers, are turning to cats and dogs. The police have issued a decree banning the sale of the pets, seen as a sign of Western influence....

"Some conservatives have decried the trend as a Western influence, like the fast food, shorts, jeans, and pop music that have become more common in the kingdom, which is ruled by the puritanical Wahhabi interpretation of Islam...."

As far as I can discern, none of the animal-rights groups have issued a comment.

Maybe I should buy a Muslim prayer-rug to use as a welcome mat. I can get my neighbors to bring by their dogs to anoint the rug with some dog hair. That type of decor on my front porch will complement the various pig-ornaments I've put on display over the past several months.

Oriana Fallaci Is Gone

2006-09-15T10:08:00.000-04:00

Excerpt from this source, dated September 15, 2006:

ROME -- Oriana Fallaci, the Italian writer and journalist best known for her abrasive interviews and provocative stances, has died, officials said Friday. She was 76....

During her journalistic career she became known for challenging interviews with such world leaders as former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Her work - both interviews and books - was translated across the world....

Describing Europe as "Eurabia," Fallaci said the continent "has sold itself and sells itself to the enemy like a prostitute."

"Europe becomes more and more a province of Islam, a colony of Islam," she wrote.

The current invasion, Fallaci went on to say, is not carried out only by the "terrorists who blow up themselves along with skyscrapers or buses" but also by "the immigrants who settle in our home, and who, with no respect for our laws, impose their ideas, their customs, their God."...

At Jihad Watch today, Robert Spencer posted the following tribute to a fearless warrior who did battle with her words and urged the West to preserve our civilization. Mr. Spencer also offers suggestions for paying tribute:

She was one of the most fearless and courageous defenders Western civilization had in these latter days, and the West rewarded her by hounding, persecuting and vilifying her.

Such is the state of the society and culture she loved and tried to save from itself.

Many times in her last months, after she did me the honor of calling me her friend, I thought to myself, What can I do for Oriana? Of course, the only answer was to do exactly what I am doing here at this site, and in my books, and in traveling around the country speaking, trying to alert people to the reality and magnitude of the global jihad.

I invite you, then, on this day of sadness and loss, to pay tribute to Oriana. There is no way we can make up for what we have lost in her. But the best way we can pay tribute to Oriana is by becoming Oriana. Let there be a hundred new Orianas today, a thousand new passionate and articulate and absolutely unbowed defenders of Western culture and civilization, with a fine contempt for all the many weapons of physical and psychological intimidation that the jihadists and their non-Muslim allies and tools in the Western media and government establishments use to try to silence and discredit us.

Buy her books. Give them to your friends and coworkers. Explain to them why she said -- as is quoted in the obituary linked above -- that "Europe becomes more and more a province of Islam, a colony of Islam." Explain to them why that matters for so much that they hold dear. Enlist them also in the anti-jihad resistance.

And when we prevail, we will be able to memorialize her fittingly, as a light that shone in our darkest days.

May her memory be eternal.

Note To A Teacher

2006-09-13T07:40:00.000-04:00

The homeschool classes I teach began the 2006-2007 term this week. As usual, I'll be teaching a variety of courses, for both high school and for middle school. I know that I don't always succeed as a teacher and that I'm not everyone's "cup of tea." Students are flawed; so are teachers. There are no perfect students, no perfect parents, and no perfect teachers!

This summer, I received via snail mail a thank-you letter from a student who had left my classes at the end of the previous term so as to complete his senior courses elsewhere--either at home or in a different set of classes. Like all college-bound seniors in their last year of high school, this student applied to a number of universities and as is often the case with my seniors, asked me to write some letters of recommendation. Because he was a superior student in all respects (academics, character, spirituality), writing the letters was easy, and I could end each one with "I recommend this student without reservation." His letter to me is as follows, in its entirety:

I wanted to write this note to you to express my sincere thanks to you for both the immense help you've been in this college process and the way you've prepared me for the future through your classes.

Thanks (in large part) to the letters you wrote and the forms you filled out, I received both a nomination to West Point and a full-ride scholarship to George Mason.

As I leave to go to West Point and serve our country, I just wanted to express to you my thanks for all your help (during this process) and all the hard work you put into your classes--the classes that prepared me for college.

Thanks again.

P.S. Feel free to correct my spelling, grammar, or punctuation, if you wish. I won't rewrite it, though. :)

If you know a teacher to thank, take time to do so, even if you were in that teacher's class years ago. Such letters matter, and it's never too late to send one!

Announcing A New Blog Site

2006-09-13T00:58:00.000-04:00

Please welcome to the blogosphere a new site called Band of Bloggers. The quotation in the site's heading reads "There Was A Time When The World Asked Ordinary Men To Do Extraordinary Things." Knowing some of the contributors there, I am certain that Band of Bloggers will be doing some extraordinary things!

9/11 Tribute: Steven L. Glick

2006-09-12T01:00:00.000-04:00

(This article stuck at the top through September 12, 2006. Scroll down for the lastest postings by Always On Watch)

Take a good look at this face. It is the face of Steven Lawrence Glick, who perished on 9/11 at the World Trade Center. Steve was forty-two years old.

Look into his eyes, look at his smile. Really. A good, long look.

He's gone now. He left behind friends and family, including two young children.

Now, read about Steve (emphases mine):

Steven Glick, a financial consultant who worked for Credit Suisse-First Boston, was attending a conference at 1 World Trade Center.

He was managing director of CSFBNext in New York City and previously was a partner in Greenwich Associates. He graduated from Northwestern University and earned his master of business administration degree at Harvard University.

In his spare time he enjoyed playing tennis, running, skiing and going to the movies. He and his wife, Mari, have two children.

-- The Hartford Courant

*******
Steven Lawrence Glick, 42, a managing director at Credit Suisse First Boston, died Tuesday, Sept. 11.He died in the attack on 1 World Trade Center, where he was attending a technology conference on the 106th floor, his family said.

Mr. Glick had lived in town for the past 11 years and worked for Greenwich Associates, a local financial consulting firm, until last year.Since then, Mr. Glick had worked for Credit Suisse First Boston in Manhattan.Mr. Glick was a partner at Greenwich Associates, traveling extensively and advising international clients in England, Japan and Hong Kong on providing bond, foreign exchange and other financial services.

Mr. Glick graduated from Northwestern University in 1982 and received his MBA from Harvard Business School in 1989.He is survived by his wife, Mari Glick of Greenwich; a son, Colin Glick of Greenwich; a daughter, Courtney Glick of Greenwich; his mother, Ester Glick of Philadelphia; two brothers, Gordon Glick of London and Robert Glick of New York City; and two sisters, Ellen Glick of Philadelphia and Stefanie Glick of Memphis, Tenn.

-- The Greenwich Time

*******
Steven Glick and Robert Noonan

On a rainy morning in Greenwich, hundreds of mourners came to say good-bye and thank you to two men who disappeared in the prime of their lives.

The two men, Steven Lawrence Glick, 42, a manager for Credit Suisse-First Boston, and Robert Walter Noonan, 36, a coal and emissions account manager for TradeSpark, a subsidiary of Cantor Fitzgerald & Co., have both been missing since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks which destroyed the World Trade Center.

At Greenwich Reform Synagogue, a crowd of more than 400 from all over the country gathered in the sanctuary. Friends and family remembered Glick, a husband and father of two, as a man devoted to others whose priorities of family, friends and hard work seemed like a beacon to those who knew him. While acknowledging their profound loss, they talked about Glick's relentless optimism, kindness and drive as an ongoing example of a life well-lived.

"Steven has been living in heaven all along," Rabbi Robert Lennick, the family's rabbi, said.

With their two children, Colin, 6, and Courtney, 4, his wife Mari Glick spoke about the fun-loving college student she met on a blind date 20 years ago, who "shared her dreams and hopes." The couple settled in Greenwich 11 years ago.

"He cared dearly for those he worked with, members of the community and, above all, his family," she said. "His favorite times were with Colin and Courtney. He loved our friends and often said he considered them our family. Today I think he is right."

Stephen Harburg, a lifelong friend of Glick's, recalled his high spiritedness, talking about a New Year's Eve "battle" Glick started in Manhattan's ritzy Russian Tea Room restaurant with silly string ² a confetti-like aerosol spray.

"Steve Glick is my friend," said Harburg, a childhood friend and classmate at Germantown Academy. "I use the word Ôis' as a reminder that those qualities that endeared us to Steve cannot be crushed by concrete and steel. They endure because we will remember."

A passage written by Gordon Glick was read, focusing on his brother's good-natured humor. Glick's son Colin stayed at the podium, shuffling papers."The word I will always use to describe Steven is fun," read Jeff Abram, a cousin. "No matter what trouble he faced, he always tried to enjoy life and would come out of it with a smile."

Accompanied by an organist, Cantor Vicki Axe sang "Listen," a song encouraging people to seek the voice of God when they are heartbroken or facing trouble.

"If you're lost and feel afraid, and don't know what to say, listen, listen, to our God," she sang. "If there is a question in your mind, and the answer is hard to find, listen, listen, to our God."

The ceremony ended with a mourning prayer, "Eil Maleh," followed by the singing of "America the Beautiful."

Read what his son Colin Stuart wrote in 2004:

Steve was my dad. to me he was the best person in the world. he was optomistic and very funny. if you are reading this page know that steve glick was a nice person an nice dad and a nice husband.

Iain Bruce, who personally knew Steve, sent me an email so that I would add the following to this tribue:

Steve was part of how I met my wife, and he was part of how my wife and I met some of our best friends.

I first met Steve in Bay Head New Jersey in July of 1987. He and his wife Mari shared a summer beach house with friends, and I spent one weekend at that house as the guest of mutual friends. For the next two years, I joined that group of people in their summer share. It was Steve and Mari who organised that first beach house, and the woman who is now my wife was one of the group, so Steve is part of the reason that I met my wife Linda, and he is thus part of the reason that I am as happy as I am in my life today. And to this day we remain in touch with others who shared in those beach houses, despite the fact that we are now scattered in half a dozen states around the four corners of the country.

As newlyweds in 1989, my wiife and I moved to Westport Connecticut, and that Halloween we attended a party at Steve and Mari's house in Greenwich. Like everyone, we brought our carved pumpkin, for the much-touted pumpkin carving contest. We were runner-up in the "most pathetic" category, typical of Steve's sense of humour. What's worse, to win "most pathetic" or to not even be able to win it, but to come second? At that party, we met another couple who, it turned out, lived only a short distance from us, and who have since become dear friends, and whose children are very close to our children.

Steve was a vibrant, enthusiastic liver of his life. He had high energy and an infectious laugh, and everything he did, he did with verve and joie de vivre. He deserves a tribute. Thank you.

Iain Bruce
Westport, CT

Thank you, Mr. Bruce, for providing such a personal touch to this tribute!

Click HERE to add a flower of tribute to the page for Steve Glick. In addition, please observe a moment of silence for this man.

Today, I remember Steven Lawrence Glick, my fellow American. Though he and I never met, I know his face and his smile. I will never forget.

[For a list of other blogs participating in this 9/11 tribute by 2,996 bloggers, CLICK HERE and read more tributes. Also, over at Northern Virginiastan, see my tribute to Edna L. Stevens, who perished at the Pentagon on 9/11]

9/11 Tribute Planned

2006-09-11T01:00:00.000-04:00

(This information stuck at the top for the summer. Scroll down for the latest postings by Always on Watch)

I found the following at GM Roper's blog and am shamelessly copying the information here:

"'September 11, 2006 will mark the 5-year anniversary of the attacks that killed 2,996 innocent people on American soil....

"'A few months ago I started wondering what, if anything, I would write in my blog that day. A remembrance? A tribute? Anything I came up with seemed shallow, cliché, not enough.

"'I’d like 2,995 blogging volunteers to help me with a tribute to the victims of 9/11. If you’d like to participate, you’ll be assigned the name of someone who was murdered on September 11, 2001. Then on September 11, 2006 you’ll post your own tribute to that person. It can be anything you want it to be: a photo tribute, an essay, a remembrance, a poem…it’s up to you. Then link back to a page I will create which will give the names of all 2,996 victims and links to the blogs that will remember them that day.

"'But, and this is critical, I don’t want any of us to remember the murderers. Do not refer to the terrorists. Or their organization. Or their goals. Let them fade into nothing. Let them be forgotten. Remember those worth remembering.'"

Here is how to sign up:

"If you want to participate, signups are being accepted through comments on either of two blogs: D.C. Roe or 2996. You can also sign up by email to dcroe05-at-yahoo-dot-com. D.C. is making the assignments; although, if you have a name you'd really like to honor, it probably wouldn't hurt to request it. A list of names and participants assigned so far is available here."

I'm going to participate and have requested my assignment.

Addition To Right Sidebar

2006-09-11T00:58:00.000-04:00

(As part of this site's tribute to the victims of 9/11, this posting to remain toward the top. Scroll down for the lastest postings by Always On Watch)

If you click on the similar graphic on the right sidebar, you can learn how to add this to your own web site. Alternatively, you can go to this site for the information.

This easy-to-add script is an effective way for your blog to pay tribute to the victims of 9/11. A different name of one of those who perished on 9/11 will appear each time your site loads.

C-Span Interview of Robert Spencer

2006-09-11T00:45:00.000-04:00

On August 20, 2006, Brian Lamb conducted a lengthy interview of Robert Spencer. The emphasis of the interview is the documentary film Islam: What the West Needs to Know. My review of the movie is HERE. The C-Span broadcast contains clips from the film.

Click HERE to watch the interview with Robert Spencer.

A transcript of the interview is HERE.

[Hat-tip to Mike's America for letting me know about the C-Span interview]

Addendum: According to commenter Eyes All Around, CAIR is expressing disapproval to C-Span for airing the interview with Robert Spencer. You can express your support of C-Span's interviewing Robert Spencer by contacting C-Span at this email address: viewer@c-span.org

Off To The Beach!

2006-09-01T08:28:00.000-04:00

In a short while, classes will be resuming. Therefore, it is time for MY vacation. My husband and I are heading for the beach tonight or tomorrow.

While I'm away, I don't plan to spend any time on the Internet. After all, this is a vacation!

Just before we roll out in our Mustang convertible, Blogger willing, I will turn on comment moderation, merely as a precaution. Comments will be posted when they get approved--whenever that may be.

While I'm away, if you have nothing better to do, you might enjoy taking these personality tests, which I learned of over at Brooke's site. I'm not sure how valid the tests are, but taking them is somewhat enjoyable. My own results are questionable.

I took the one on similar leaders and got the following result:

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

SAT's, Genius, And Smart Pills

2006-08-30T05:25:00.000-04:00

(All emphases by Always On Watch)

According to this article which appeared in the August 30, 2006 edition of the Washington Post, SAT scores have recently dropped:

"The first national results from the revamped SAT show the biggest annual drop in reading scores in 31 years..., the College Board reported yesterday.

"The College Board said the average score on the test's critical reading section was down five points and the average math section score was down two points, for a joint score of 1021, the lowest since 2002. The reading decline was the largest since a nine-point drop in 1975 on what was then known as the verbal section.

"On the new writing section, the average score nationwide was 497, for a new total average of 1518 out of a possible 2400 points....."

The article goes on to discuss various opinions as to the possible reasons for the drop in scores: recent changes in the test, including the addition of an essay and a grammar section (though the word grammar is avoided), the length of the test, the reduction in the number of students taking the test multiple times, and the addition of more difficult material in the math portion. The article also places considerable emphasis on the differences between the scores of boys and girls.

What the article doesn't mention, however, is that, over at least the past ten years, both public and private schools have reported making more effort to offer higher-level courses — both AP and IB — and, indeed, to improve courses for average students; much money has been devoted to training teachers, to "improving" the curriculum, and to "maintaining high standards." Nevertheless, scores on various tests, standardized and otherwise, continue to drop, and many employers today complain, "The employee pool doesn't have the basic skills every high-school graduate should have." CEO's often say, "My people can't write, even with master's degrees." Based on the just-released information about scores on the writing section of the SAT, this second complaint appears to be a valid one.

Also not mentioned in the Washington Post article is that many students today are making a Herculean effort to prepare for the SAT's. Every sizeable bookstore has one section devoted to several different guides for taking the SAT's, and various tutoring services — most for a fee, but free services are also available — also offer courses to prepare students for this test which most universities use as an important criterion for determining admissions. I myself offer prep classses and private tutoring for the reading and writing portions of the SAT's, and in my experience, preparing for the test does indeed significantly enhance students' scores. Also in my experience, instead of merely completing a test-prep guide, many students today spend a lot of time preparing well in advance for taking their SAT's. Some students begin their preparation in sixth grade!

From what I've observed over the past ten years, no longer do college-bound students "just take the test," as most of us did when I was in high school. In fact, as I think back to my own preparation for the SAT's, that preparation consisted of buying one guide and of taking two practice tests so as to be sure of the format, to brush up on certain concepts, and to learn how to coordinate the bubble sheet with the test booklet.

Admission to Ivy League schools has traditionally been tough, as was the case with Wilber B. Huston. Of course, Mr. Huston did not have the opportunity to prepare for college admissions the way in which today's students do. Apparently, he was a genius.

Until his lengthy obitutary appeared in the Washington Post, I'd never heard of Wilber B. Huston, nicknamed "the brightest boy of 1929" and "the smartest boy in America." By virtue of his performance in an interview with an illustrious panel, he won a full scholarship to MIT after first having won the Edison Contest in Washington state. Thomas Edison himself sponsored the contest as promotion for the study of science.

Check out the names on the panel which interviewed Huston and, unanimously, found him worthy:

"No contemporary applicant to Harvard, Stanford or Chicago has faced a panel of judges who compare to those who grilled Huston and his rivals the day after their exam. Besides Edison, they included film-and-camera company founder George Eastman, automaker Henry Ford, industrialist Harvey Firestone, aviator Charles Lindbergh, the headmaster of Phillips Exeter Academy and the president of MIT."

After passing both the written and oral exams, Huston enjoyed the privilege of a social occasion with Thomas Edison:

"[I]n that heady first week of August 1929, Edison sent word to Huston that he wished to have dinner with him. Huston arrived at the grand Edison home to a formal family dinner, with servants in attendance.

"'The first course was a soup,' Huston wrote in his family memoir. 'After a few minutes Mr. Edison said something, and everyone laughed. I asked my dinner partner what he had said. "I see he tasted his soup before he salted it" was the reply. Mr. Edison is famous for saying, "I have no use for a man who salts his soup before he tastes it." So I guess I passed both his examinations.'"

Huston originally planned to study chemical engineering but switched to the study of physics. He graduated from MIT in 1933. Some details about his many achievements can be found here.

Due to the Great Depression, Mr. Huston could not afford to attend graduate school. Nevertheless, he managed commendable achievements. Without doubt, this fellow was brilliant, and very likely without certain pharmaceuticals known as "smart pills," recently mentioned in the June 11, 2006 Washington Post article "A Dose of Genius":

"Seen by some ambitious students as the winner's edge -- the difference between a 3.8 average and a 4.0, maybe their ticket to Harvard Law -- these 'brain steroids' can be purchased on many campuses for as little as $3 to $5 per pill, though they are often obtained free from friends with legitimate prescriptions, students report.

"These drugs represent only the first primitive, halting generation of cognitive enhancers. Memory drugs will soon make it to market if human clinical trials continue successfully.

"There are lots of the first-generation drugs around. Total sales have increased by more than 300 percent in only four years, topping $3.6 billion last year, according to IMS Health, a pharmaceutical information company. They include Adderall, which was originally aimed at people with attention-deficit disorder, and Provigil, which was aimed at narcoleptics, who fall asleep uncontrollably. In the healthy, this class of drugs variously aids concentration, alertness, focus, short-term memory and wakefulness -- useful qualities in students working on complex term papers and pulling all-nighters before exams. Adderall sales are up 3,135.6 percent over the same period. Provigil is up 359.7 percent.

"In May, the Partnership for a Drug-Free America issued its annual attitude-tracking study on drug use. It is a survey of more than 7,300 seventh- through 12th-graders, designed to be representative of the larger U.S. population and with an accuracy of plus or minus 1.5 percent, according to Thomas A. Hedrick Jr., a founding director of the organization. It reported that among kids of middle school and high school age, 2.25 million are using stimulants such as Ritalin without a prescription.

"That's about one in 10 of the 22 million students in those grades, as calculated by the U.S. Department of Education. Half the time, the study reported, the students were using these drugs not so much to get high as 'to help me with my problems' or 'to help me with specific tasks.'"

Chemical enhancement of the brain is nothing new, of course. From the above Washington Post article:

"In the name of altering mood, energy and thinking patterns, we have been marinating our brains in chemicals for a very long time.

"Caffeine is as old as coffee in Arabia, tea in China, and chocolate in the New World. Alcohol, coca leaves, tobacco and peyote go way back.

"Even psychopharmaceuticals have been around for generations. Amphetamines -- which are the active ingredient in Adderall and Ritalin -- were first synthesized in Germany in 1887. Students have been using them for generations, in the form of Benzedrine and Dexedrine.

"Beta blockers have been the dirty little secret of classical musicians since the 1970s. Originally prescribed to treat high blood pressure, they became the 'steroids of the symphony' when it became clear Inderal controlled stage fright. As long ago as 1987, a study of the 51 largest orchestras in the United States found one in four musicians using them to improve their live performances, with 70 percent of those getting their pills illicitly.

"What's new is the range, scope, quantity and quality of substances, old and new, aimed at boosting our brains -- as well as the increase in what's in the pipeline. Current psychopharmaceuticals represent only the beginning of cognitive enhancers aimed at improving attention, reasoning, planning and even social skills.

"The memory compounds being raced to market by four U.S. companies are initially aimed at the severely impaired, such as early-stage Alzheimer's patients. But researchers expect the market for memory drugs to rapidly extend into the aging population we think of as normal, such as the more than 70 million baby boomers who are tired of forgetting what they meant to buy at the shopping mall and then realizing they've forgotten where they parked their cars, too. Or students who think such drugs could gain them hundreds of points on their SATs."

Founder of Memory Pharmaceuticals Eric R. Kandel, an expert in neurological memory and who shared the 2000 Nobel Prize in medicine, said the following about students' use of smart pills:

"'That's awful! Why should they be taking drugs? They should just study! I think this is absurd. What's so terrible about having a 3.9? The idea that character and functioning and intelligence is to be judged by a small difference on an exam -- that's absurd. This is just like Barry Bonds and steroids. Exactly what you want to discourage. These kids are very sensitive. Their brains are still developing. Who knows what might happen. I went to Harvard. I like Harvard. It ain't worth it.'"

Do we, as a society, really want to go down the road to such pharmaceutical enhancement of memory? Or is this new trend just another manifestation of scientific improvements?

As I see it, the root of the problem with education today is the widespread belief that everyone must have a college degree, whether it's needed or not. In reality, not all high-school graduates are college material, nor should they be. High schools should be focused on teaching, and they claim that they are. Nevertheless, we continue to see drops in scores on SAT's and on other tests, and even the taking of drugs to enhance academic performance.

Sick Cat

2006-08-28T07:01:00.000-04:00

Cameo, the youngest of our four cats, has a huge lump on her right shoulder. Please, don't let this be vaccine-associated sarcoma!

Hitler And The Grand Mufti

2006-08-27T08:37:00.000-04:00

(All emphases by Always On Watch)

The following subtitled video is about six minutes in length; it provides a history lesson and concludes with information about the connections today between Nazism and Islam. Blurb from YouTube:

"This news report from Bayerischer Rundfunk explains in detail the cooperation between the Nazis and the Muslim Arab leaders during WW2.

"It goes on to explain how high ranking heads of the SS fled to the Arab world and carried on their activities under the protection of leaders such as President Nasser and how modern Islam has adopted a Nazi style ideology of hate and conspiracy against the Jews.

"Thanks to the Editrix for providing the translation and revealing this ray of light in the darkness of vitriolic reporting about Israel in the German media."

Click on the center arrow, then on the play arrow at the bottom left of the video screen.

Direct link to the above video at YouTube.

[Hat-tip to Infidel Bloggers Alliance]

The Maids Are Coming! The Maids Are Coming!

2006-08-24T20:00:00.000-04:00

Note: Rarely do I write a personal post, but I want to announce what may turn out to be good news. The signs look good so far.

Ever since that miserable car accident last year—Never get rear-ended by a cabbie!—I’ve been unable to do my own housework. It’s all I can manage to get the laundry and the dishes done. We live rather primitively and have no dishwasher other than yours truly, so dishwashing here involves more than loading an appliance. Until I got laid up with this back injury, I didn’t realize just how painful standing over the kitchen sink could be.

Admittedly, the housekeeping situation here is very bad, so bad that last week The Merry Maids came to give an estimate and never called back to schedule a cleaning. I'm not surprised that I didn't get a return call because the representative contorted his face the minute he started looking around. Also, he would not commit as to exactly what day he would call back.

You ask, "Why doesn't your husband help you, AOW?" He tries to, but my husband is the Oscar Madison type; I attribute his abililty to ignore the necessity of housekeeping tasks to a combination of genetics and growing up with a live-in maid. In addition, he also has back problems, much more long-standing than mine; the same tasks which give my back fits give his back fits.

This morning, after waiting nearly a week for Merry Maids' return call, I contacted a different company, which seems to have consented to come here on Monday. Being a bit of a cynic, I’ll feel more reassured when the cleaning crew actually appears at my front door, in part because the representative did not actually come to look at the house. According to the company’s representative, the crew has four members, and I figure that within three hours, these ladies can get done what I absolutely must have done: kitchen, bathroom (Yes, only one), living room, and upstairs guestroom; they can leave my home office and the master bedroom alone, except for possibly vacuuming the carpet in the latter. The upstairs guestroom, usually closed off, simply must be freshened up because my mother-in-law will be paying us a visit in September. Even though she has Alzheimer’s and won’t remember much of anything about her accommodations here after she leaves, the daughter-in-law in me just can’t abide the thought of her staying in a room which has not been properly vacuumed and dusted.

At this time, I count the blessing of having a small, albeit quite old and a bit rundown, house with mostly hardwood floors. If the maids come as promised, four of them can put this house in order in a relatively short period of time. Come Monday evening, I hope to be a much happier person—even if my wallet takes a hit.

Something To Keep In Mind

2006-08-23T07:30:00.000-04:00

I've decided that it's time for a little break from discussion of national and international issues. This posting is about something much more important — a joy we should not miss out on.

GM Roper posted the essay below almost three months ago. Since that time, his most recent scans have come back cancer-free, but he didn't know of that good outcome when he wrote the following:

The JOY Of Living ~ Even With Cancer!
Sun-up came like a shy child, sneaking the eyes around the corner to see who was there. As the sky lit up, the world came alive and reminded me how great it is to be alive, even if you are recovering from cancer.

Before sun-up I arose with my bride and made coffee (with a little bit of chickory for a kick) while she got dressed to go to work. I walked her out and kissed her good bye, poured my coffee and sat on the patio to await brother sun. On time and in glory brother sun arose after making sure I was settled on the patio with a book and my morning cup of java. I stared up at the sky, listened to the wind in the trees, sniffed at the fragrance of flowers in the early summer air and listened at last to the gentle cooing of white-wing doves.

I wish I could share that feeling with the world, but I can't and more's the pity.

It occurred to me during that second cuppa that I really do enjoy living. I enjoy sitting with my arms around my bride, or kissing my daughter goodbye after she comes for a visit. I enjoy the interchange of ideas as found in blogs and in reading what others think. But most of all, I enjoy that quiet bit of solitude that I share with God in the morning.

Back in January when I announced on this site that I had cancer, I had absolutely no idea what my future held, other than I intended to fight this evil bastard down to the wire and I intended to win. I still do if you are curious. I received over a hundred comments on that post and well over 300 emails from folk wishing me well. One can share that, but one cannot truly understand the buoyancy to the spirit unless it has happened to you. And one thing I know, deep within my heart-of-hearts, it is not the only thing that has kept me going, but it sure has helped.

The other week, I went to church and got to announce a "Joy," that my CT Scan had come back clean. The congregation applauded and several people walked up after services and announced that they "knew" that things were going to be OK. How did they know? We have lost other church members to disease, accidents and the like, how did they know I would do OK? I don't have an answer, I don't know why some are, like me spared, and others, good people all are not.

I do know that a large part of this is truly the Joy of Living - even with cancer! Nothing that I can imagine would cause me to despair and give up. Nothing that I can think of would make me say that the illness and weakness brought about by chemo-therapy and having part of a lung removed would tilt me towards giving up and giving in.

So, as the sun has risen high in the sky, it is time to bring this little bit of posting to an end, to let you, my faithful readers, know how very much I love all of you (even the lefties out there) and how much you have touched this old guy.

Thanks for being my friends, and Thank YOU God for taking care of me during this phase of my joy filled life.

And friends, be assured that no matter what, I will fight on and beat this thing.
Fight On!

Our lives are filled with battles, large and small. But no matter what our present situation, we would do well to remember the good things in life. Just as our lives are filled with battles, so are our lives filled with wonderful moments. As this summer comes to a close, don't miss out on those moments of blessings, large and small.

Saudi Demands Apology!

2006-08-21T20:16:00.000-04:00

From Arab News, August 21, 2006:

"JEDDAH, 21 August 2006 — Shoura Council Chairman Dr. Saleh Bin-Humaid yesterday called for a public apology from US President George W. Bush for linking Islam and Muslims with fascism and terrorism.

"The chairman was referring to a recent statement by Bush branding Muslim extremists 'Islamic fascists.' He also warned against deliberate smear campaigns targeting Islam, saying they would have dangerous consequences.

"Bin-Humaid denounced attempts by some political and religious leaders, as well as certain sections of the media, to defame Islam and Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).

“'We demand a public apology for this falsification as it came from an influential political figure and received wide publicity,' Al-Madinah Arabic daily quoted Bin-Humaid, who is also imam of the Grand Mosque in Makkah, as saying. Bush’s statement provoked worldwide Muslim protests.

"The Saudi Cabinet last week warned against linking Islam with terrorism and fascism without considering the history of Islamic civilization. 'Fascism is a product of Western culture,' a Cabinet statement said.

"Bush’s use of the term 'Islamic fascists' was also criticized by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Washington-based Muslim advocacy group. 'We believe that this is an ill-advised term and we believe that it is counterproductive to associate Islamic Muslims with fascism,' said CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad.

“'The problem with the phrase is that it attaches the religion of Islam to tyranny and fascism, rather than isolating the threat to a specific group of individuals,' said Edina Lekovic, spokeswoman for the Muslim Public Affairs Council in Los Angeles. She said the terms cast aspersions on all Muslims, even the vast majority who want to live in safety like other Americans.

"Mohamed Elibiary, a Texas-based Muslim activist, said he was upset by the president’s comment. 'We’ve got Osama Bin Laden hijacking the religion in order to define it one way. We feel the president and anyone who’s using these kinds of terminologies is hijacking it too from a different side.'

"In his statement, Bin-Humaid said the attack on Islam and the Prophet would only strengthen Muslims’ faith in their religion. He urged Muslim governments and organizations to take effective steps to prevent attempts to spread hatred of Islam and Muslims.

"Bin-Humaid said it was the growing popularity of Islam that had provoked enemies to launch smear campaigns."

[Hat-tip to Democracy Frontline]

According to Amil Imani,

"The terror and death inflicted on humanity is not the work of radical Islam, neither the political Islam, nor the militant Islam. It is Islam, period...."

Read the rest of Amil Imani's essay here.

Islamic Terrorist Network

2006-08-20T07:55:00.000-04:00

[Hat-tip to Eyes All Around]

Letter Which Appeared In The WaPo

2006-08-19T11:20:00.000-04:00

(All emphases by Always On Watch)

The following letter appeared in the Friday, August 18, 2006 Washington Post:

"When he commented on the arrest of a handful of British Muslims accused of plotting to blow up U.S.-bound civilian aircraft ["Plot to Bomb U.S.-Bound Jets Is Foiled; Britain Arrests 24 Suspected Conspirators," front page, Aug. 11], President Bush said the case was "a stark reminder that this nation is at war with Islamic fascists." The president's use of that term is misleading, unfortunate and unacceptable.

"We, as peaceful and justice-loving Muslims, deeply resent the implication that 'fascism' is an integral part of our faith tradition, or that it is condoned by those of us who practice the religion of Islam. In fact, there is absolutely no evidence that supports the legitimacy of any form of state-sponsored violence and injustice, either in our revealed text, the holy Koran, or in the traditions of Islam.

"Islam is constantly referred to by the news media as the theological basis for terrorism and, now, fascism.

"But the same media never associated the Catholic faith as a root cause of Italian fascism under Benito Mussolini in the 1930s, or the Jewish faith as a religious motivation for the violent, anti-Palestinian conduct of many Israeli settlers in the West Bank and Gaza. Islam, alone among the three major Abrahamic faiths, has been tarred with the brush of legitimized extremism and violence in the name of God. This is an association that has no basis in our faith, and it is an association that we vigorously reject.

ESAM OMEISH

President

Muslim American Society

Falls Church

The following should be taken into consideration:

"....Kill those who join other gods with Allah wherever you find them; besiege them, seize them, lay in wait for them with every kind of ambush...."(Sura 9:5).

"When you encounter the unbelievers, strike off their heads, until ye have made a great slaughter among them...."(Sura 47:4).

"....Make war upon such of those to whom the Scriptures have been given as believe not in Allah, or in the Last Day, and who forbid not what Allah and His Apostle have forbidden....until they pay tribute..." (Sura 9:29).

"Say to the infidels: If they desist, what is now past shall be forgiven them; but if they return, they have already before them the doom of the ancients! Fight then against them till strife be at an end, and the religion be all of it Allah's." (Sura 8:39).

"Proclaim a grievious penalty to those who reject faith." (Sura 9:3)."

The Sura, a chapter in the Koran, is supposed to be the last 'revelation' by Allah and, by Islamic definition, abrogates previous verses.

Don't say "Islamic Fascists"

2006-08-18T07:10:00.000-04:00

(All emphases by Always On Watch)

On August 11, 2006, I wrote about the use of the term "Islamic fascists" and about CAIR's objections to that term. Now, via Pedestrian Infidel, comes the following, to which Mark Alexander alerted me:

"STATE DEPARTMENT President Bush has avoided repetition of a term that angered Muslims....

"In a statement after its weekly meeting, the Saudi Cabinet 'warned against labeling Muslims with accusations of terrorism and fascism.'

"Bush didn't repeat the reference to 'Islamic fascists' at the State Department today, referring instead to 'individuals that would like to kill innocent Americans to achieve political objectives.'"

The Saudi Cabinet objects? President Bush didn't label all Muslims "Islamic fascists." Or did he, albeit unwittingly?

Amil Imani, an Iranian-born American who is an essayist, poet, and novelist, contends that terms used to differentiate between two types of Islam are actually dangerous euphemisms. According to his essay "Islam's Useful Idiots,"

"Terms such as 'Political Islam,' or 'Radical Islam,' for instance, are contributions of the Useful Idiot. These terms do not even exist in the native parlance of Islam, simply because they are redundant. Islam, by its very nature and according to its charter—the Quran—is a radical political movement. It is the Useful Idiot who sanitizes Islam and misguides the populace by saying that the 'real Islam' constitutes the main body of the religion; and, that this main body is non-political and moderate.

"Regrettably, a large segment of the population goes along with these nonsensical euphemisms depicting Islam because it prefers to believe them. It is less threatening to believe that only a hijacked small segment of Islam is radical or politically driven and that the main body of Islam is indeed moderate and non-political.

"But Islam is political to the core. In Islam the mosque and state are one and the same—the mosque is the state. This arrangement goes back to the days of Muhammad himself. Islam is also radical in the extreme. Even the 'moderate' Islam is radical in its beliefs as well as its deeds."

Amil Imani's final paragraph is scathing:

"...Beware of the Useful Idiots who live in liberal democracies. Knowingly or unknowingly, they serve as the greatest volunteer and effective soldiers of Islam. They pave the way for the advancement of Islam and they will assuredly be among the very first victims of Islam as soon as it assumes power."

Almost Ten Years Later

2006-08-17T09:08:00.000-04:00

"Former Teacher Claims He Killed JonBenet" False confession? Or have the authorities nabbed the pervert who killed a beautiful child?

Documentary: Relentless

2006-08-17T09:00:00.000-04:00

(This posting stuck towad the top for a while. Please scroll down for the lastest postings by Always On Watch)

Watch Relentless: The Stuggle for Peace in the Middle East. Approximately 62 minutes. [Link left by "Just Mom"]

Introducing Brandon T. Stanley

2006-08-15T19:20:00.000-04:00

On the front page of his blog, Brandon T. Stanley's profile reads as follows:

"I'm currently seeking to become a published author. I am a freshman in college."

Read Brandon's entire profile.

Brandon has given me permission to republish one of his articles here:

A Step Forward
In one of the most famous, or in recent theological debates rather infamous, events in the Old Testament, Moses is told by Yaweh that Israel will inherit the land of the Canaanites. Yahweh does call for war, he tells the Israelites to show no mercy. Not because Israel is moral, not because it is great, not for Paradise or to avoid Hell, but because the Canaanites were evil. Tradition relates that the Canaanite practiced forms of human sacrifice. Moses died and the scepter passed to Joshua. In a series of brutal campaigns, Joshua subdued and destroyed many of the cities of the Canaanites, depopulating them utterly. Thus was Canaan defeated, and the worship of Baal lessened.

The tale was largely taken as a Jewish Jihad, as an uprovoked attack upon peaceful peoples. The tales of the perverse nature of Canaanite worship were called slanders and tall tales. That is until, like always, Bible skeptics were hit with archaelogical evidence. Ugarit Epics were found which told tales of perverse deities who tortured men for fun, and of gods whoese care was not for men but for themselves. It told tales of deities, the moon-deity Baal foremost among them, who demanded human blood.

The Canaanite deities were strikingly similar to today's Allah, to the reincarnation of the terrible Mesopotamian gods. The mode of sacrifce today has a new name, that of Jihad, and the followers still place their children upon altars, albeit ones of a more explosive type. One could even say that the ancient Canaanites were actually morally superior to today's Jihadists, for at least in the immolation of the Canaanite children, only their children were slain. But Allah demands more. Allah demands the death of the infidels, until he is worshipped alone. Then Allah can get down to what he is best at: roast men in Hell. He takes pleasure in destroying infidels. He has boiling water poured down their throats and thorny bushes fed to the unfaithful. But to those who decide to roast the hated infidel on earth is the promise of the sick and brothel-like "Garden of Bliss." Islam is a religion of works, where the only surest way to gain Paradise is to kill infidels. These are the facts of the doctrine of fundamental Islam--that is, Islam as it was first taught and has been implemented ever since.

The history of Islam has been recounted scores of times on this blog and others. The teachings of Islam--vile and depraved--have finally been exposed. But the question remains: What now?

The Information Age is a two-edged sword; for the very same technology which is used by today's terrorists can be used by any concerned citizen to find the truth regarding the matter of Islam. Indeed, this is the first step. But it has been taken.

There is a step two. If we do not take such a course, Christianity itself will be submerged to the Muslim. As related above, there are countless occurrences of "holy" war, which we would now call Just War, that occur in the Old Testament, and these examples must be reviewed again. They serve as a theological prism by which we can view Islam as the logical modern continuation of moon-god worship and Baal sacrifice as practiced in the Canaanite-Phonecian civilization. Foremost in Phonecian civilization is the city of Carthage. The archaelogical evidence there speaks of horrific numbers of sacrificial victims. The Roman chronicles spoke of such a thing. Now we face an enemy which openly sacrifices its young. They worship death. In their candid moments many Muslims would agree. It is brandished by their theoreticians like a badge. "We worship death, the infidels/Thagout/Shaitan worship life."

This is exactly why Yahweh commanded the Canaanites be eradicated to a man. Being Deity, He saw the logical unfolding of such cults. But Islam is worse. What examples do we have to follow if we are to proceed forth in our war against fundemental Islam?

Whether it be Gideon's destruction of the invading Midianites, David's rapid conquests, or the expedition of the kings of Judah, there are various approaches to take. But the message from the Old Testament is loud and clear. Such a cult as Islam--such an evil, such an unclean thing--cannot be tolerated. Its toleration leads to rot, decay and destruction. Spiritual, temporal and total. Destruction which we see today across the world, destruction in which Islam is engaged in. Ninety percent of the planet's wars involve Muslim fanatics. It turns out Yahweh, the God of the Bible, was right. His detractors were wrong. For we have not "cast down their idols," and they will in turn cast down ours, beginning with Lady Liberty and ending with the Crucifix. We can tolerate the principles which call for our death and submission; or we can decide not to tolerate the intolerable and thus survive. That is the message of the Old Testament.

Men have fought this same enemy before, albeit in different times, but their experiences are worth noting. We must remember them, we must spread their name wide.

The first of the great anti-Jihad heroes hails from the Eastern Roman Empire, whose lands were invaded first by Muhammad at Muta and Tabuk, and later lost after the battle of Yarmuk and the seige of Damascus:
"Leo entered Constantinople on March 25, 717 and forced the abdication of Theodosios III, becoming emperor as Leo III. The new emperor was immediately forced to attend to the Second Arab siege of Constantinople, which commenced in August of the same year. The Arabs were Ummayad forces send by Caliph Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik and serving under Maslama. They had taken advantage of the civil discord in the Roman Empire to bring a force of 80,000 men and a massive fleet to the Bosphorus.
"Careful preparations and the stubborn resistance put up by Leo wore out the invaders. An important factor in the victory of the Romans was their use of Greek fire. The Arab forces also fell victim to Bulgarian reinforcements arriving to aid the Romans. Leo was allied with the Bulgarians but the chronicler Theophanes the Confessor was uncertain if they were still serving under Tervel or his eventual successor Kormesiy of Bulgaria. Unable to continue the siege in the face of the Bulgarian onslaught and lack of successes, the Arabs were forced to abandon their ambitions on Constantinople in August, 718. Sulayman himself had died the previous year and his successor Umar II would not attempt another siege. The siege had lasted 12 months."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_III_the_Isaurian
Thus was Islam stopped in the East. Had the Muslim armies not been stopped, large tracts of Eastern and Central Europe would have submitted to the Islamic sword, and in turn, like all of Islam's victims become subjugated by its sword. In the West the tale was decided not in a massive siege but in open battle.

Charles Martel met the Saracen on the field of battle and drove them from his land. Wielding axes and broadswords, the Frankish infantry held against the Islamic cavalry and carried the battle. This reversed the tide of conquest which began at Jib-al-Tariq in 711. The victory, however, did not stave off the Muslim assaults, which continued for many centuries. The Moslems are warlike lot, and having no economy, they could not simply subsist on honest labor. The Muslims continued their attacks until the time of the Crusades. But they would not have France yet.

The next example comes from the East, from the lands of the Mongols, from Central Asia, a yet un-Islamic area at the time.

Hulagu Khan launched a little-known Asian Crusade. Coming from deep in Central Asia, he gathered up Mongol forces and set out. The eastern Kwarazem-Shah Empire (Persia+Afghanistan+Uzbekistan) had already been eradicated for its arrogant treatment of the trade missions of Hulagu's father, Genghis Khan. But this conflict was different. This time it was not only Mongols but also Caucasian peoples like the Alans who took up the sword and repaid the Muslims their deeds to their face. Arriving at Baghdad in 1258, Hulagu sent word to the Caliph and demanded surrender. The soon-to-be last Abbasid refused. He felt safe inside the great jewel of Islamic "culture." Within a few weeks the Mongols, using Chinese-built siege-engines, breached the walls. Allah was curiously AWOL. Hulagu's Mongols scourged the entire city; only the Christian population was spared. Hulagu had been urged to have mercy on them by his Nestorian Christian wife. The Korans and Hadith collections were not given undue respect. They were given their due--tossed headlong into the Tigris. Mosques were entered. Worshipers were slain. Horses were allowed to feed within their walls. The Caliph and his retinue surrendered, but he was put to death nonetheless. The sources disagree on his final fate, but one version has him being stuffed into a sack and trampled to death by Mongol horses. All told, 800,000 were killed.

In the course of this campaign, the Islamic group called the Assassins was destroyed. This group was so radical that it slayed other Muslims. Its small bands carried out the medieval version of today's suicide attacks. They sneaked into the tents of leaders and killed them, then offered their breasts to the swords of the leader's retinue. Hulagu set to work against them. In short order he hunted them in their strongholds. They too were destroyed or surrendered.

The Islamic world was nearly destroyed. In the course of all of this killing, the heart of the Sunni world was ripped out, the great Shia Empire disappeared, and the Assassins destroyed. The Islamic world was not to offer a serious threat to the West until the coming of the Ottoman Turks. This period of dislocation of the Islamic Imperialist machine was truly unprecedented. But for the Mongols themselves, the action was a failure. The Muslims defeated the Mongol rearguard at Ain Jalut and prevented an invasion of Egypt. Later Mongols would convert to Islam and become some of its fiercest warriors.

John III Sobieski was the last of the great Jihad-killers. A valiant Polish King, he fought many wars. He was called "Lion" by the Turks. The Jihad had renewed, and it had pushed deeply into Europe and had come to the very gates of Vienna. He led his Hussars personally and smashed headlong into the enemy ranks, breaking them. The tips of the Polish lances drank of the Turkish blood. The Turkish forces fractured, and their troops took to flight, leaving their camp unguarded. The Poles settled down and drank of the Turkish coffee, probably the best cup of java ever to touch Western lips. The Ottomans melted away to the east, never to return to Vienna. This was the last Jihad; all others are simply flair ups, desperate half-measures designed to enrich local leaders or fight local wars.

Until our time.

With the coming of our age, something began to roll off the lips of every Imam and dirty Mullah who ever took on the unholy robes: Jihad. The Soviet Union was defeated in Afghanistan and slowly collapsed, not unlike the collapse of Sassanian Persia. Always aware of history and keen to seize it, the Jihadist next looked to America and Europe as an enemy. The West, lost to frivolity and make-believe, robbed of its culture by the acid of cultural relativism and enervated like so many other cultures by luxury, was in no position to respond. The acid of relativism has done its job. It has managed to reduce much of the United States to the level of pre-conceptual babies and our lot to that of toothless barbarians. It now remains to be asked: Where is our hero? Is there yet a man, in this land of multiculturalism, who is yet to pick up the sword against the enemy? Not the sword of truth, for it has been justly and deftly wielded against Islam for long enough, but the cutting sword, the sword which will uproot the tree and cast it into flame.

These men must enter or re-enter our log of heroes. We need more of them. But how is a people to understand their need for heroes when heroism and virtue itself are debased? That's a religious and philosophical matter, to be answered at another time. But we have this task. Our civilization shall not be aborted before its time. If we shake shyly behind our false ideas concerning war and do not face up to reality, we will lose. Nothing less than civilizational survival is at stake.

We as a people are nearly ready to take the second step. We are only waiting for that hero to appear on the scene, to take up the sword, and to lead the way. Then may we all move forward into the bright morning and the name of Allah be like that of Baal--a distant and fleeting shadow of a memory. Then may the glorious Yahudim lay down their arms--and we may see the new day at the break of a dawn, a new vision of Eden; a godly and just peace. Peace for Israel and peace for the Western world will come only through strength. It is high time for us to pluck up the last of our courage and see to it that the day is won.

Otherwise, the night may have its way, and the bearer of light shall be blotted out. The choice is ours; but the victory goes only to God. The spoils of the battle are the future. It is a spoil worth taking, lest we take to headlong flight and our only recompense be a river of tears.

May all our defenders stand strong; and may our heroes arise.

The choice remains, fellow countrymen, as it always has,

"Victory or death!"

Brandon has written No God But Allah, a novelized biography of Muhammad; the book is, as yet, unpublished. He hopes to have portions of the book available online soon.

CAIR Whines—Again

2006-08-11T14:49:00.000-04:00

In reference to the term "Islamic fascists," the obligatory whine-o-gram has been issued from CAIR. Excerpt:

"U.S. MUSLIMS CONCERNED ABOUT BUSH'S USE OF 'ISLAMIC FASCISTS' - TOP CAIR: 'Today you equated the religion of peace with the ugliness of fascism'

"(WASHINGTON, D.C., 8/10/06) - A prominent national Islamic civil rights and advocacy group today expressed concern over President Bush's use of the term 'Islamic fascists' in a news conference about the arrest of 21 suspects in a plot to bomb airliners flying between Britain and the United States.

"In a letter to President Bush, Parvez Ahmed, board chairman of the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) wrote in part:

"'American Muslims have consistently condemned all acts of terrorism, whether carried out by individuals, groups or states. We repudiate anyone who plans or carries out a terrorist act. The American Muslim community remains dedicated to the protection of our nation's security. . .'"

The above sounds good, primarily because the West wants to belive that all religions speak to the goodness in man. Nevertheless, the fact remains that CAIR refuses to condemn terrorists or terrorist organizations by specific name. According to this source,

"[A] previous fatwa backed by a large number of American Islamic organizations ambiguously declared; 'Islam strictly condemns religious extremism and the use of violence against innocent lives'[;] this fatwa did not condemn any individuals by name, and did not define who is deemed to be innocent."

As yet, the above specific fatwa has not appeared, and the recent statement by CAIR is just as ambiguous.

Another sound-bite often heard from CAIR's spokesmen on the news states that Islam condemns terrorism. Oh, really? Consider the following, from this source:

Ishaq: 326 "If you come upon them, deal so forcibly as to terrify those who would follow, that they may be warned. Make a severe example of them by terrorizing Allah’s enemies."

Quran 8:12 "I shall terrorize the infidels. So wound their bodies and incapacitate them because they oppose Allah and His Apostle."

Bukhari: V4B52N220 "Allah’s Apostle said, I have been made victorious with terror."

And what about Sura 9, the most recent "revelation" of Allah—a "revelation" which, by Koranic definition, abrogates all previous passages? A few examples:

"....Kill those who join other gods with Allah wherever you find them; besiege them, seize them, lay in wait for them with every kind of ambush...."(Sura 9:5).

"When you encounter the unbelievers, strike off their heads, until ye have made a great slaughter among them...."(Sura 47:4).

"....Make war upon such of those to whom the Scriptures have been given as believe not in Allah, or in the Last Day, and who forbid not what Allah and His Apostle have forbidden....until they pay tribute..." (Sura 9:29).

"Say to the infidels: If they desist, what is now past shall be forgiven them; but if they return, they have already before them the doom of the ancients! Fight then against them till strife be at an end, and the religion be all of it Allah's." (Sura 8:39).

"Proclaim a grievious penalty to those who reject faith." (Sura 9:3)."

When will an interviewer hold CAIR responsible for such obvious taqiyya? How long will these interviewers be allowed to continue knuckling under and nodding their heads in dhimmitude?

[Hat-tip to George Mason(PBUH) of Sixth Column for the term "whine-o-gram"]

Addendum, August 18, 2006, from this source:

"STATE DEPARTMENT President Bush has avoided repetition of a term that angered Muslims.

"Responding last week to the foiling of an alleged plot to blow up flights between Britain and the United States, Bush said, 'This nation is at war with Islamic fascists.'

"That triggered immediate objections from the Council of American-Islamic Relations, and another objection today from the government of Saudi Arabia.

"In a statement after its weekly meeting, the Saudi Cabinet 'warned against labeling Muslims with accusations of terrorism and fascism.'

"Bush didn't repeat the reference to 'Islamic fascists' at the State Department today, referring instead to 'individuals that would like to kill innocent Americans to achieve political objectives.'"

Youth Training, The Koran, And Mein Kampf

2006-08-10T06:40:00.000-04:00

(All italics and emphases by Always On Watch)

From this source (translated from German to English by Babel Fish):

"The radical-Islamic Hisbollah trains in summer camps young people for the activities by force of the group of terror. A German scientist compares its proceeding with the Hitler Youth. The fotografin Alexandra Avakian of the US magazine Time visited such a camp at the Lebanese coast. There the 'aluminium-Mahdi-pathfinders in such a way specified' train each year - the new generation of the group of terror of Hisbollah. Before their tent the boys formed a David star out of stones. Everyone, which would like to enter the tent, must step on this Jewish symbol. According to the Bild newspaper the children crawl by stacheldraht and learn to deal with a high-speed fire rifle.

"The Bonn psychologist and Fanatismus researcher Peter Conzen see parallels to the Hitler Youth: 'it is the same method,' said it in relation to 'picture' 'a hate-fulfilled ideology uses the inspiring ability, the energy of young humans shameless. Children the 'destruction of the enemy' is proper drummed in as the most ambitious goal. 'Like every other totalitarian regime also the Hisbollah in Lebanon pray-reprimands these children around its youth.' The scientist is an author of the book Fanatismus. Psychoanalysis of an Uncanny Phenomenon....

[Hat-tip to Hodja who posted a link to the above at Infidel Bloggers Alliance]

The above information should come as no surprise. Consider the following, which appeared at Infidel Bloggers Alliance on June 1, 2006, and compares the Koran and Mein Kampf:

"Let's start with titles.
"The very title of Herr Hitler's tome means 'My Struggle' in English. One could even entitle this book 'My Jihad' and this Islamic term would have the same precise meaning. 'Kampf' in a Nazi ideological context and 'Jihad' in the Islamic one are almost identical. That in itself goes a long way to explaining why Mein Kampf is still such a best seller in current times all over the Islamic World, including in supposedly 'moderate' Islamic states like Turkey.
"But the similiarities between the Koran and Mein Kampf don't just stop there. Far from it. Fellow blogger and ally Freedom Fighter over at his/her blog Joshua Pundit has come up with an exceptional, enlightning list of how alike Islam and Nazism really are:
"Mein Kampf- States that Germans are the superior race of mankind and that Germany is destined to rule the world, and dominate all other races and nations.
"The Q'uran-States that Islam and Muslims are the superiors of mankind and that Islam is divinely mandated to rule the world and dominate all other races, creeds and nations.
...
"Mein Kampf-Says that the German State is to have control over every aspect of life. Says all individuals must submit to the State.
"The Q'uran-Says that Islam and Sharia is to have control over every aspect of life. Says all individuals must submit to Islam.
...
"Mein Kampf-Says that Germans have the duty to claim their divinely appointed place in the world by whatever means necessary. Puts loyalty to the Volk (the race) above all other ethical considerations.
"The Q'uran-Says that Muslims have a duty to wage Jihad and to advance Islam's domination over the world (Dar al Islam and Dar al Harb) by any means necessary. Places loyalty to fellow Muslims (Umma) and Islam above all other ethical considerations.
...
"Mein Kampf-Mandates that men are superior to women and that women's place should be limited to procreation, the kitchen and the home.
"The Q'uran-Mandates that men are superior to women and that women's place should be limited to procreation, the kitchen and the home. (Admittedly, the Q'uran goes quite a bit farther than Mein Kampf on this topic)
...
"Mein Kampf-Says that homosexuals are 'race traitors' and should be condemned to death. (Many, in fact were murdered in the concentration camps).
"The Q'uran-Says homosexuals are unholy to Allah and should be condemned to death.
...
"Mein Kampf-Sets out a detailed model for world conquest, including rules for how conquered peoples are to be suppressed and dominated by the German race. States that the wealth, resources and property of subject peoples belongs to Germans by right and the right to life for subject peoples is dependent on Germans. States that
non-Germans have no legal or civil rights.
"The Q'uran-Sets out a detailed model for world conquest, including rules for how conquered peoples are to be suppressed and dominated by Muslims. States that the wealth, resources and property of subject peoples belongs to Muslims by right and the right to life for subject peoples is dependent on Muslims. States that non-Muslims have no legal or civil rights. (in truth, a lot of this has its basis in the Hadith and the Sunna, but both derive essentially from what's in the Q'uran, along with all the other aspects of Sharia).
...
"Mein Kampf-Divides the world into 'German land' and enemy territory. States that land with Germans living in it or land that once had Germans ruling it rightfully belongs to Germany, and Germany is entitled to get it back by any means necessary.
"The Q'uran-Divides the world into 'Dar al Islam' (Muslim ruled land) and enemy territory (Dar al Harb). States that land with Muslims living in it or land that once had Muslims ruling it rightfully belongs to Dar al Islam, and Muslims are entitled to get it back by any means necessary.
...
"Mein Kampf-Blames the Jews for society's ills and says that they will be exterminated.
"The Q'uran-Blames the Jews for society's ills and says that they will be exterminated. ('On the day of Judgement the rocks and trees will call out 'O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me! Come and slay him!')

The above comparison of Mein Kampf and the Koran gives credence to a term we are now hearing with some frequency: Islamofascism. But is Islamofascism truly a hijacking or a perverson of Islam? The peaceful Meccan verses which many Muslims choose to follow were abrogated by the later militant Medinan verses, especially Sura 9:

"....Kill those who join other gods with Allah wherever you find them; besiege them, seize them, lay in wait for them with every kind of ambush...."(Sura 9:5).

"When you encounter the unbelievers, strike off their heads, until ye have made a great slaughter among them...."(Sura 47:4).

"....Make war upon such of those to whom the Scriptures have been given as believe not in Allah, or in the Last Day, and who forbid not what Allah and His Apostle have forbidden....until they pay tribute..." (Sura 9:29).

"Say to the infidels: If they desist, what is now past shall be forgiven them; but if they return, they have already before them the doom of the ancients! Fight then against them till strife be at an end, and the religion be all of it Allah's." (Sura 8:39).

"Proclaim a grievious penalty to those who reject faith." (Sura 9:3).

Devout Muslims believe that the Koran is the literal word of Allah. As Walid Shoebat pointed out in the film Islam: What the West Needs to Know, "What is it about kill that the West doesn't understand?"

[Note: I published a portion of the above blog article at Democracy Frontline]

Shining

2006-08-07T19:38:00.000-04:00

Remember Stephen King's book The Shining? Remember the film version with Jack Nicholson? If not, click here.

Now, take a look at the following to see how the movie trailer could be altered in order to communicate a different message:

To watch the video, click on the center arrow, then the play-arrow on the lower left.
[Direct link here]

To change the original intent, all it takes is a little editing.

[Hat-tip to Seth, who found the above at this site]

Obsession: The Movie

2006-08-07T19:00:00.000-04:00

Go here to read the details.

I just ordered the DVD, delivery guaranteed by September 11, 2006.

Addendum 1: The movie is online. Watch it here or here.

Addendum 2 (August 3, 2006): ~~The movie is no longer available online.~~

Addendum 3 (August 5, 2006):The movie URL was changed. Link is now fixed.
Thank you "Just Mom"!

Addendum 4 (August 11, 2006): The movie is no longer available online.

At The Bloggers' Party

2006-08-06T19:40:00.000-04:00

All those miles from home, and whom do I find at the party? Mr. Ducky! Or at least a facsimile thereof.

If you look closely at my right knee, you'll notice a bandage. The first night of the party, I managed to do a little pirouette on the pool deck. The scrape on my knee isn't the worst of the injury; concrete is very unforgiving, and my right big-toe has a huge gash. But thanks to the first-aid skills of our hostess's husband, all is well.

[Thanks to Romeocat for the photo]

Update on the Flight 93 Memorial

2006-08-06T19:00:00.000-04:00

(This posting stuck toward the top through August 14, 2006. Scroll down for other postings by Always On Watch)

A few days ago, Alec Rawls, the author or Error Theory, sent me an email. Excerpt:

"The Memorial Project is finally accepting public comment on its barely modified Crescent of Embrace design for the Flight 93 memorial. I have posted links and a primer on some of the Islamic and jihadist features that remain fully intact in this design. (It is actually a mosque.)"

The following is from the July 10, 2006 posting at Error Theory:

"The Flight 93 Memorial Project has opened up a comment period (through August 14th) on whether it should proceed with its plan to build a slightly modified version of the original Crescent of Embrace design, or start over by adopting a 'No Action alternative.'

"Starting over is imperative because the Crescent design was, and still is, a plan to build the world’s largest mosque...."

Read the rest here.

If you find Mr. Rawls's analysis worthy, email your objections to the Flight 93 Memorial Project. Here is a model to use for composing an email.

Mr. Rawls also points out the following:

"People might also want to send their comments to Memorial Project Chairman John Reynolds (jreynolds@nationalparks.org) and to Superintendent Hanley's boss Mary Bomar (mary_bomar@nps.gov). The Project has a history of ignoring information and criticism. CCing comments to the Project's overseers could help."

I have already fired off my three emails.

Off To A Bloggers' Party!

2006-08-03T17:12:00.000-04:00

Good food, good company, good times!
Comment moderation will be on while I'm away. Comments will be posted as schedule permits.

Media Deception? Watch Pallywood

2006-08-02T08:17:00.000-04:00

To watch the above video, click on the center arrow, then on the play arrow on the lower left. The direct link is here.

Are there applications to the recent events in Qana?

[Hat-tip to Mike's America]

Poke, Poke, Poke

2006-08-01T18:00:00.000-04:00

CLICK HERE.

[Spotted by Laura Mansfield.]

Attention, Fellow Bloggers!

2006-08-01T07:45:00.000-04:00

Check out this idea as to how to get your voice heard:

"Pick something with substance on your mind and blog about it. Your point of view on the state of world politics...Then send it to your reps with your blog address.

"Send it to the President; send it to everyone, Fox News, ABC, CBS,CNN, NBC; anyone that will listen. It only takes a few minutes of your time...."

READ MORE!

[Hat-tip to Gayle]

"This Far, And No Further"

2006-07-29T20:00:00.000-04:00

Just when I think I know what my next blog article is going to be, along comes something irresistible at another blogger's site. This time, my find comes from Benning's Writing Pad. Below is a lengthy excerpt and is worth your time:

"Recently we have heard cries calling on Israel to respond to the Hezbollah terrorist attacks with 'proportionate response'. As in 'tit-for-tat', we must suppose. Hezbollah fights from hideouts within civilian neighborhoods, from within hospitals and mosques. They are shielded, usually knowingly, by the very civilians who we are told are innocent victims of Israeli aggression. And while the terrorist of Islam fire their rockets and missiles purposely into civilian targets in Israel, cower behind women and children in attacks against Israeli forces, the World would have us hold back Israel. We are called upon to safeguard the terrorists and denounce the people who have been attacked, again and again, by fanatics.

"The World continues to plead with our nation to convince Israel to seek a 'path for peace', as if that has not been tried again and again. We are told by former Federal government officials that we are the only super power in the region and that we hold sway with both sides, thus being the only ones who can stop the war there. Americans, told of the danger of Lebanon for years, and despite US State Department warnings against traveling to, or staying in, Lebanon, went there. And now endangered, they demand that the US government not only rescue them from the situation there, but stop it.

"Stop Israel. Keep them from killing innocent Lebanese civilians. And the Western Media proclaim the horrors of Israeli attacks on the Lebanese people and trumpet the sorrow, bloodshed, and horror of what is happening in Lebanon. And on occasion they also show us images of the victims of Hezbollah in Israel.

"But the World Media remain quiet about the Israeli soldiers kidnapped from Israel by Hezbollah in the north, and by Hamas in the south. Two Islamic terror organizations, shielded by their civilian neighbors in Lebanon, and elected to office in Gaza, commit acts of war, and then call upon the West to restrain the victims from seeking justice. And retribution.

"History in the region of the Middle East tells us quite clearly that for each step toward peace, made by Israel, they have been made to pay a steep price in blood. Every move Israel has made to promote peace in the region has resulted in increased violence from the Islamists. Each time Israel has conceded land to the Islamists they have been attacked for their weakness - for that is how the Islamists see Israel's concessions - and made to pay more for Peace than for War. And still the World calls on them to give up. To step back further, to concede again.

"Far too many in the West cannot, or will not, see the Evil that is Islam. They prattle on about its proud history: of exploration, of art, of medicine, of learning. All nonsense. And what they will not allow themselves to see now is the utter depravity of Islam and its interations with the Civilized World around it. This Cult of Death is granted concessions by the West that are suicidal in nature. Concessions that nobody would ever accept were the circumstances local rather than global.

"Imagine that your neighbors began lobbing M-80s into your yard, onto your patio, through your windows. Would your response be to grant them part of your yard? If they crawled under your fence and kidnapped your child, would you offer to sit down and discuss the matter with them? Or would you call the police? Would you expect the Authorities to punish the missile lobbers, retrieve your child, and punish the kidnappers? If so, then you are not considered nuanced enough to be discussing the Middle East 'situation'.

"And that 'situation' is but a tiny, though massively dangerous part of what is happening in the OWrld, whether we want to face it or not. For Islam is on the move. As it has since its violent, bloody inception, Islam is expanding, demanding converts or surrender, moving in and demanding that each place give in to its demands. Western Europe, which fought for its own survival centuries ago agaisnt this same Death Cult, finds itself once again endangered by Islam. This time it is different, though.

"Europeans, in their Liberal, compassionate way, allowed Islam to enter. Acts of mercy, giving home and sustenance to refugees from other Muslim lands, has resulted in a growing minority of demanding, violence-prone cultists who despise their adoptive homes and refuse to assimilate into the societies around them. They are attempting to take over those nations from within. First through legislative means, and political bullying (Hate Speech Laws anyone?), then through armed uprisings, violent criminal activities, and the cordoning off of entire areas within cities, where the actual native populace can no longer tread without fear for their lives and limbs.

"Europe may well fall this time, where they did not centuries ago. What will America do? Our own naysayers have emboldened the Islamist enemy. They have cost this nation precious blood through their tacit support of the Islamist Horde. Their incessant whining about the 'Rights' of the enemy attempt to weaken our resolve. We listen at our peril. Now is not the time to debate the finer points of diplomacy. Now is the time to gird up our loins, put on our armor, heft our swords and go fight the Forces of Darkness and Chaos. Because they are coming. Many are already here, working to weaken us from within. Using our Media, our Courts, our common decency as platforms from which to launch more attacks....

"It's time for us, the people of the United States of America, to stand up and say, 'This far, and no further!'"

I couldn't have said it better myself. Thank you, Benning!

[You can read Benning's full essay HERE]