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Aquaponics is the integration of aquaculture (fishkeeping) and
hydroponic (soilless) plant growth techniques. It requires no soil and
no chemicals to produce a vast and large amount of fish, fruits and
vegetables in a very small space. Fish produce ammonia as waste.
Bacteria convert that waste to nitrates used by the plants as the
nutrient source. The water is recirculated to the fish clean and
aerated. Water consumption is lower and plant density is usually at
least twice that of soil based methods.
Read my lips, pond scum. Your company bears the majority of responsibility for forcefully removing we the people's right to choose what kind of food we eat.
Entire crew was vaccinated with H1N1 Swine Flu vaccine shortly after they put to sea. Crew sickened so severely that other ships had to respond to render aid. READ MORE…
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After reading the following historical facts, read the part about Switzerland twice.
A LITTLE GUN HISTORY
In 1929, the Soviet Union established gun control.. From 1929 to 1953, about 20 million dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated. ------------------------------ In 1911, Turkey established gun control. From 1915 to 1917, 1.5 million Armenians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated. ------------------------------ Germany established gun control in 1938 and from 1939 to 1945, a total of 13 million Jews and others who were unable to defend themselves were rounded up and exterminated. ------------------------------ China established gun control in 1935. From 1948 to 1952, 20 million political dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated
------------------------------ Guatemala established gun control in 1964. From 1964 to 1981, 100,000 Mayan Indians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated. ------------------------------ Uganda established gun control in 1970. From 1971 to 1979, 300,000 Christians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated ------------------------------ Cambodia established gun control in 1956. From 1975 to 1977, one million educated people, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
----------------------------- Defenseless people rounded up and exterminated in the 20th Century because of gun control: 56 million. ------------------------------ It has now been 12 months since gun owners in Australia were forced by new law to surrender 640,381 personal firearms to be destroyed by their own Government, a program costing Australia taxpayers more than $500 million dollars. The first year results are now in: List of 7 items: Australia-wide, homicides are up 3.2 percent. Australia-wide, assaults are up 8.6 percent. Australia-wide, armed robberies are up 44 percent (yes, 44 percent)! In the state of Victoria alone, homicides with firearms are now up 300 percent. Note that while the law-abiding citizens turned them in, the criminals did not, and criminals still possess their guns! While figures over the previous 25 years showed a steady decrease in armed robbery with firearms, this has changed drastically upward in the past 12 months, since criminals now are guaranteed that their prey is unarmed. There has also been a dramatic increase in break-ins and assaults of the ELDERLY. Australian politicians are at a loss to explain how public safety has decreased, after such monumental effort, and expense was expended in successfully ridding Australian society of guns. The Australian experience and the other historical facts above prove it. You won't see this data on the US evening news, or hear politicians disseminating this information. Guns in the hands of honest citizens save lives and property and, yes, gun-control laws adversely affect only the law-abiding citizens ! Take note my fellow Americans, before it's too late! The next time someone talks in favor of gun control, please remind them of this history lesson. With guns, we are 'citizens.' Without them, we are 'subjects'. During WWII the Japanese decided not to invade America because they knew most Americans were ARMED! THIS IS A PROVEN FACT !
If you value your freedom, please spread this anti-gun control message to all of your friends. The purpose of fighting is to win. There is no possible victory in defense. The sword is more important than the shield, and skill is more important than either. The final weapon is the brain. All else is supplemental.
SWITZERLAND ISSUES EVERY HOUSEHOLD A GUN! SWITZERLAND 'S GOVERNMENT TRAINS EVERY ADULT THEY ISSUE A RIFLE. SWITZERLAND HAS THE LOWEST GUN RELATED CRIME RATE OF ANY CIVILIZED COUNTRY IN THE WORLD!!!
(READ AGAIN) IT'S A NO BRAINER! DON'T LET OUR GOVERNMENT WASTE MILLIONS OF OUR TAX DOLLARS IN AN EFFORT TO MAKE ALL LAW ABIDING CITIZENS AN EASY TARGET. I'm a firm believer of the 2nd Amendment! If you are too, please forward.
Our founding fathers established the greatest Country in history. We must fight to keep it or we will be history.
Just think how powerful our government is getting!
They think these other countries just didn't do it right. They blindly went like sheep to the slaughter.
John Deere enamelware 4pc canister set Sizes: John Deere Kitchen, 4-piece Canister Set. This enamelware set measures: Small (2000 John Deere Logo) - 4.31" x 5.25"; Medium (1950 John Deere Logo) - 5.13" x 6.38"; Large (1936 John Deere Logo) - 5.94" x 7"; X-Large (1876 John Deere Logo) - 6.25" x 8"
It's Time To Stop Iran Before It's Too Late; Report: Saudi Air-Space Open To IAF
In Jerusalem, last week's announcement of yet another Iranian nuclear facility was received with feeling of validity, with statements from the United States and some European leaders more in line with Israel's rapidly mounting concerns, with Israeli leaders continuing to warn the window of opportunity to prevent a nuclear capable Iran is closing, and we mustn't permit Iran to reach its objective.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu this week told associates that the time has come for the world to take the necessary steps to halt Iran. The prime minister is pleased with the statements released by leaders of the United States, Germany, Russia and China, all signaling they represent a united front against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's objective, to enrich enough low grade uranium to build a nuclear bomb. In Jerusalem, there is a ray of hope that the western alliance is about fed up with diplomatic efforts, and the discussion may soon come to an end and lead to more forceful measures, most likely beginning to stepped-up economic sanctions.
According to a Wall Street Journal report, despite last week's report of the discovery of the nuclear facility in Qom, America and Israel have been aware of its existence for the a number of years.
In a related matter, the British Sunday Express reported over the weekend that Saudi Arabia will permit Israeli fighter planes to fly through its airspace en route to Iran if an offensive assault is decided upon. The report quotes Britain's chief of intelligence, Sir John Scarlett, who apparently met with Mossad Intelligence Agency Director Meir Dagan. It appears the news of the Qom facility was enough to finally persuade the Saudis.
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Ken Blackwell The American Spectator 25 September 09
Readers who are familiar with the Stockholm Syndrome will recall that it refers to a hostage-taking 1973 incident in that Swedish capital city. Over time, the hostages began to look to their captors as friends and protectors rather than the murderous kidnapers that they truly were.
We are seeing something similar in what I call the Camp David Syndrome. President Obama has just announced the latest effort toward crafting a Middle East Peace Settlement. That grand-sounding title is Beltway-speak for "let's lean on Israel to gain some street cred with the Euros." He's chosen Hillary Clinton as his negotiator. In 1978, Jimmy Carter brought Egypt's Anwar Sadat and Israel's Menachem Begin together to his mountain top presidential retreat in Maryland's beautiful Catoctin Mountains. There, over days of intense negotiation, Carter brokered what became known in diplomatic lore as the Camp David Accords. Under those agreements, Israel agreed to withdraw her forces from the Sinai Peninsula that she had seized in the lightning Six-Day War of 1967, and re-captured during the 1973 Yom Kippur War. That war had been launched by Egypt's Sadat -- showing the characteristic respect for other faiths that Muslims habitually show -- the Jewish High Holy Days of that year.
Carter hailed his achievement as something just shy of the Second Coming. It wasn't. Carter was led up to that mountain by growing problems on the plain below. Americans were becoming increasingly disenchanted with Jimmy's fecklessness on the domestic front. High interest rates made home ownership impossible for young couples, long gas lines frayed nerves, and rising unemployment made everyone edgy. But Carter felt that success on the international scene could bring him and his embattled party some goodwill from American voters.
It didn't. Barely six weeks after the media hullabaloo over the Camp David Accords, voters trooped to the polls and spanked Carter's party. Between 1978 and 1980, voters gave Republicans 46 seats in the House of Representatives, five more seats than the GOP had lost in the watershed post-Watergate election of 1974.
Still, the myth persists that a Middle East peace agreement will translate into electoral success at home. Carter proved to be a one-trick pony. He received a sharp kick from voters in 1980. They put the pony permanently out to pasture.
What Carter achieved at Camp David is not replicable today. That's because the Israelis in 1978 did not want to occupy Sinai. They agreed that it did not materially contribute to their security. (Israel's Prime Minister Golda Meir used to joke that the Almighty had led the Children of Abraham out of bondage in Egypt, called them to wander for forty years, and told them to settle on the only piece of real estate in the Middle East that has no oil!)
So Carter's fabled diplomacy was not really necessary to persuade the Israelis to disgorge territory that had never been Israeli and that they did not really want. And President Anwar Sadat had a firm grip over Egypt, which one Egyptian diplomat described as the only real nation in the Arab world. "The rest are just tribes with flags," that Arab diplomat memorably said. Besides, Sadat needed money. And the U.S. was ready to purchase a peace.
Despite the fact that Jimmy Carter got a shellacking at the polls in 1978 and 1980, Presidents persist in pursuing the brass ring, or an elusive Nobel Prize, for brokering a Mideast Peace Settlement.
Bill Clinton tried it in 2000. He was playing out an exhausted presidency, grasping for straws. He summoned Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and the "reformed" terrorist leader, Yassir Arafat, to the U.S. He tried to arrange another Camp David breakthrough. Barak made extraordinary concessions, even dangerous ones. No dice. Arafat fomented a second "intifada" against Israel. Clinton's party lost the next Presidential Election.
Then, there was the 2007 Annapolis Conference on Mideast Peace. President George W. Bush chose that week after Thanksgiving to bring a wide range of Arab and Israeli negotiators to the U.S. Naval Academy's historic Yard. Some of the Arab delegates refused to enter the same doorway as the Israelis had entered. Some peace talks. The best we can say for this effort is that it could have been worse. It might have lasted two days instead of just one. And Bush's party lost the next Presidential Election.
What was considered historic about the Annapolis Conference is that for the first time all parties agreed to a "two-state solution." Did the Arab delegates who attended, the ones who refused to enter the same doorway as the Israelis, agree that Israel would be one of those two states? Don't ask.
What we have yet to hear is why the U.S. should want a Palestinian state to be formed in the Mideast. When the Israelis evacuated from Gaza and the local residents held elections, they promptly voted in Hamas, the terrorist organization. Hamas supporters stormed the residence of the late Yassir Arafat and stole his Nobel "Peace" Prize. Now, there's poetic justice.
On the West Bank, Arafat's loyal lieutenant, Abu Abbas, maintains a precarious perch. The U.S. is giving $900 million in aid to his so-called Authority for allegedly humanitarian purposes. This is where bombers use ambulances to run rockets to and from Palestinian hospitals and where children dance in mock explosive belts before PTA meetings in schools named for suicide bombers. This is what we want more of? For Peace's sake? For Pete's sake!
I was amazed to see President Obama come on TV so soon to call for a Mideast breakthrough. I didn't think he was in that much trouble on the domestic front already. Ken Blackwell is a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Commission and a senior fellow at the Family Research Council. .
A famous Hizbullah marching song, "Hizbullah ya ayuni" (Hizbullah - my eyes), contains the following verse: "And today through the blood of the brave, the merciful creator has given us victory, and the whole world and all people have begun to speak of our glory." Unfortunately for the Lebanese Shi'ite Islamist movement, the main world news story in which it currently features concerns matters of a distinctly inglorious type, with which it would undoubtedly prefer not to be associated.
The revelations concerning the activities of the so-called Lebanese Bernie Madoff - Salah Ezz el-Din of the south Lebanese village of Ma'aroub - are serving to tarnish the image of selflessness and idealism in which Hizbullah likes to present itself. The movement has long sought to differentiate itself from the notoriously corrupt, distinctly nonidealistic political and financial practices with which Lebanon is often associated. Ezz el-Din's activities suggest that on close observation, Hizbullah may be less different from its surroundings than its admirers (especially in the west) like to think.
Ezz el-Din, a Lebanese Shi'ite in his 50s, is accused of embezzlement and defrauding investors of hundreds of millions of dollars. The means by which he chose to part his victims from their money are familiar. He promised quick returns on investments in what he claimed were construction, oil and gas projects outside of Lebanon. He is reported to have guaranteed investors 20 percent-25% profits within 100 days on certain investments.
It now appears that Ezz el-Din was running a Ponzi scheme - paying clients with funds gleaned from newer investors. The sums involved are large - though nowhere near Madoff-like proportions. He is believed to have defrauded investors of around $500 million.
But Ezz el-Din was no ordinary financier. Rather, he enjoyed close links to Hizbullah. He ran a variety of enterprises associated with the group - most importantly the Dar al-Hadi Publishing House - named after Hadi Nasrallah. Hadi Nasrallah was the son of Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah who was killed fighting the IDF in southern Lebanon, and is somewhere near the top of the movement's pantheon of "martyrs." The publishing house which bore his name was responsible for the publication of a number of books by senior Hizbullah officials.
THE PERCEPTION of Hizbullah patronage was a major factor in encouraging investors to place their trust in Ezz el-Din. As one disappointed client put it, "people put money with him because he was wearing the Hizbullah cloak." The presence of people like him does not fit with the puritanical image of Hizbullah. But it is not especially out of place with the broader pattern of the movement's activities. As a major Lebanese political force, Hizbullah offers patronage to powerful families and individuals from the Lebanese Shi'ite community. The organization effectively operates a state within a state. Its areas are off limits to the army and police. This is particularly useful for individuals close to the movement engaged in criminal activities.
The lucrative hashish trade in the movement's heartland in the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon offers an example of this patronage. Families engaged in this trade receive the protection of Hizbullah, ensuring that neither the authorities nor their rivals interfere with their activities. In return, Hizbullah takes a generous helping of the considerable profits.
The movement controls 13,000 acres in the Bekaa, which produce at least 300 tons of hashish annually. Hizbullah is reckoned to rake in profits of $180 million annually from this trade.
Most of the hashish is exported to Europe. Not all, though. The problem of drug abuse among residents in the Hizbullah-controlled Dahiyeh area of south Beirut is well known in Lebanon. Not all residents of the Dahiyeh are Shi'ite puritans.
Hizbullah is not reinventing the wheel. Rather, it is behaving in the manner of other Lebanese political forces. These activities are not particularly demonic - though the less powerful members of the various Lebanese communities are most likely to be hurt by them. But they serve to indicate the extent to which Hizbullah's pose of purity and incorruptibility and standing above the base practices of its rivals is largely a product of good public relations, rather than any observable reality.
The gradual tarnishing of the Hizbullah brand is, of course, good news for Israel. With past enemies - Arab nationalist regimes, the Yasser Arafat-led PLO - it was in the end the unbridgeable gap between proclamations and reality which served to initiate their slow decay and decline more than any single military defeat.
In this regard, another explanation for the Ezz al-Din affair is predictably doing the rounds in southern Lebanon. Haj Kamal Shour, who lost $1.03 million investing with the financier told reporters that he was sure that the "Israeli Mossad and Zionist lobby" were in some unaccountable way behind it all.
The reliable Zionist foe is enlisted to explain away failures and corruption scandals. But wasn't that exactly the political style that Hizbullah, with its selfless martyrs and its blood-curdling marching songs, was supposed to be doing away with? As Lebanon's former colonial governors might have put it - the more things change, the more they stay the same.
The Obama administration's Arab-Israeli peace process is in more trouble than even the White House realizes. To be sure, the Israelis and Palestinians are both dug in, and when the president sought baby steps from the Arabs toward normalizing relations with Israel, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Kuwait rebuffed the administration. But now even Cairo, where Obama hit his reset button with the Muslim world, has made its stand, albeit much less publicly. The campaign against Egyptian editor and analyst Hala Mustafa for meeting with Israel's ambassador to Cairo is sufficient evidence that the first country to have a peace treaty with Jerusalem is no closer to normalization than it was when Anwar Sadat signed the Camp David Accords 30 years ago.
Recently, Israel's envoy to Egypt, Shalom Cohen, visited Mustafa at her office in the Al-Ahram newspaper building, home to the semi-official daily to which Mustafa often contributes, and where she edits the quarterly Arabic-language journal, Democracy.
"The ambassador had a proposal to convene a symposium and asked me to participate," Mustafa told me by phone. "Egyptians, Israelis and Palestinians were to discuss Obama's initiatives and the peace process. Since we would need authorization from Al-Ahram and other state institutions, I didn't give him any final decision."
Nonetheless, chairman of the Egyptian press syndicate Makram Muhammad Ahmed claimed that Mustafa's brief interview with Cohen violated the boycott of the Zionist enemy that the syndicate adopted in 1983.
"But there have been many exceptions" over the past two decades, Mustafa says. "A lot of journalists at Al-Ahram have met with Israelis and even traveled to Israel. Even the chairman of Al-Ahram met with Israelis when he took part in the Copenhagen movement in the '90s. There is no way my act could be considered a violation." A member of the ruling National Democratic Party's policy planning staff, Mustafa says that the regime still considers her an independent intellectual, and wants to limit interactions with Israel to intellectuals and journalists with connections to the security establishment. "The issue with me is not a legal one," she says, "since the constitution endorses the right of individuals to think and act freely, and we have a peace treaty with Israel and Cohen is the ambassador whose credentials have been accepted by the state. Rather, it is a political issue."
The context is not just normalization, but an Egypt gorged, fat, and sleek with anti-Israel sentiment as well as anti-Semitism.
"The press syndicate's probe is part of a paranoid reflex against any contact with Israel or Israelis," says Raymond Stock, an American writer and academic who has lived in Cairo for nearly two decades. "It harms not only Egypt's psyche but also makes it more difficult for them to actually understand their alleged enemy to the northeast."
It also affects Egypt's soft power, or those intangible qualities of national honor that enable states to advance their interests by way of what statesmen once called prestige.
Egypt's Culture Minister Farouk Hosni was considered the front-runner to take over UNESCO, the United Nations' organization devoted to cultural diversity and cooperation until some of his less tolerant opinions were aired in public. For instance, to prove his anti-Zionist credentials at home, Hosni, as Stock reported in a recent Foreign Policy article, told the "Egyptian parliament that he would 'burn right in front of you' any Israeli books found in the country's libraries." (Continue) Lee Smith is the author of 'The Strong Horse: Power, Politics, and the Clash of Arab Civilizations' (Doubleday), forthcoming in January. .
The United States does not negotiate with terrorists — but we insist Israel do without preconditions.
We will not get entangled in the distasteful internal politics of Iran — but we define Israel's borders.
We will remove missile defense systems in Eastern Europe so we do not needlessly provoke our good friends in Russia — but we have no compunction nudging Israel to hand over territory with nothing in return.
This week, President Barack Obama spoke to the United Nations' General Assembly and insisted that Israel and the Palestinians negotiate "without preconditions." (Well, excluding the effective precondition that Israeli settlements are "illegitimate," according to the administration — so no pre-conditions means feel free to rocket Israel while you talk.)
This tact, Obama hopes, will lead to "two states living side by side in peace and security — a Jewish state of Israel, with true security for all Israelis; and a viable, independent Palestinian state with contiguous territory that ends the occupation that began in 1967, and realizes the potential of the Palestinian people."
Hate to break the news to you, but there already exists a Jewish state of Israel with true security for all Israelis. This security is attained through a perpetual war against terrorism and Arab aggression.
And the last time Israel withdrew from disputed lands without pre-conditions to allow the potential of the Palestinian people to shine through was in Gaza. The Arabs, hungering for the light of freedom, used the gift to elect Hamas — now an Iranian proxy and always a terror organization — to rain rockets down on the civilians that voted to allow the first democratic Arab entity in history.
If Obama expects Israel to end the "occupation" that began in 1967 he is also demanding Israel abandon parts of Jerusalem. If he really anticipates a Palestinian state will be "contiguous territory," what he expects is that Israel can't be contiguous.
And when he uses the word "occupation" he is negotiating for the Palestinians. None of the lands up for discussion are "occupied" territory. The president, a highly educated man, knows well that there has never been an ultimate agreement on borders, nor has there ever, in history, been a Palestinian state to occupy.
There is an ethical question that the president might want to answer, as well. Why would the United States support an arrangement that scrubs the West Bank of all its Jews? Why is it so unconscionable to imagine that Jews could live among Muslims in the same way millions of Arabs live within Israel proper? Not many international agreements feature ethnic cleansing clauses.
Isn't this, after all, about peace?
Of course, we all know the answer to this question: Jews would be slaughtered, bombed from their homes, rocketed from their schools. This indisputable fact reveals the fundamental reality of these negotiations.
Instead of reaffirming the importance of our relationship with Israel, Obama has renewed our membership in the United Nations Human Rights Council, presided over by exemplars of self-determination and human dignity like Libya, Syria and Angola. The hobbyhorse of this organization is accusing Israel of war crimes, which isn't surprising.
Noted intellectual George Gilder argues in his recent book, "The Israel Test," that where you stand on Israel — not always, but in general — is an indication about how you feel about the ideals of liberty and capitalism. The debate over Israel, he claims, is the manifestation of a deeper moral and ideological war around the globe.
"The real issue," writes Gilder, "is between the rule of law and the rule of leveler egalitarianism, between creative excellence and covetous 'fairness,' between admiration of achievement versus envy and resentment."
This nation has no inherent duty to wage endless wars to secure freedom for the world's masses — often against their will. But shouldn't it stand with those nations that already value the basics tenets of a free and peaceful society?
Or, are all people now equally deserving of our friendship simply because they exist?
(Erev Yom Kippur all Jewish visitors were turned away as Arabs rioted on Har HaBayit to prevent their ascent)
Last week, our synagogue in Beit Shemesh made its annual High Holy Day week visit to the Temple Mount. We began the tradition six years ago when the site was reopened to non-Muslims. During the first three years following the start of the September 2000 war launched against Israel by the Palestinian Authority, Hamas and Hizbullah, the government decided to reward Arab terror by barring all non-Muslims from even setting foot on the Temple Mount.
Visiting the Temple Mount is a schizophrenic experience. When standing there, it is impossible not to be awestruck by the magnitude of where you are and the enormity of the colossal events that took place there. It is on the Temple Mount that both the First and Second Temple stood for nearly 1,000 years, where millions of Jews from all over the Land of Israel and the Diaspora made the three festival pilgrimages and where, according to Jewish belief, the Third Temple, ushering in the days of the messiah, is destined to be built. Throughout history, whenever and wherever Jews were engaged in prayer, they faced Jerusalem. And when in Jerusalem, they pray in the direction of the Temple Mount.
It boggles the mind to imagine your family tree and to consider when the last time anybody in the family line had been on the Temple Mount. Might that ancestor have been one of the survivors of the fighting that took place there prior to the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans in 70 CE? Might it have been on Shavuot of that year, the final pilgrimage festival celebrated by the Jewish people prior to the destruction?
But now that I was standing in that holiest of places, which generations of Jews for 2,000 years could only dream of visiting, I was forbidden to pray. Simply moving my lips in whispered prayer could be grounds for removal. Why? Because I am a Jew. And only a Muslim can pray on the holiest site in Judaism. A Jew may not.
DURING THE War of Independence in 1948, the Old City of Jerusalem fell to the Jordanians. Nearly 1,500 Jews, including many women and children, were killed. While it was under Jordanian control, dozens of Jewish synagogues, many centuries old, were destroyed and the cemetery on the Mount of Olives, where Jews have been buried for 2,500 years, was desecrated. For 19 years, no Jew was allowed to set foot in the Old City or pray at the Western Wall, the retaining wall of the Temple Mount closest to where the Temples stood.
In June 1967, when Egypt, Syria and Jordan embarked on a war to annihilate the Jewish state, Israel recaptured Jerusalem's Old City. One of the most stirring announcements in Jewish history was the message transmitted from the front during the Six Day War: "The Temple Mount is in our hands."
But then, in a mind-boggling display of attempted appeasement of an enemy that just days before had sought Israel's destruction, defense minister Moshe Dayan decided to allow the Muslim religious council, the Wakf, to retain administrative authority over the Temple Mount. Thus, a truly bizarre and unacceptable situation developed.
Israel has scrupulously upheld Muslim worship at the Aksa Mosque, which was built just off the supposed site of the Temples, even when the site has been used to stone Jewish worshipers at the Western Wall and sermons are delivered calling for the demise of Israel and the US. Nor have Muslim prayer services been banned even in the worst periods of Arab terror attacks. During the just-completed Ramadan, hundreds of thousands of Arabs prayed at al-Aksa and held nighttime picnics on the Temple Mount breaking their fast. The garbage and leftover food items we saw strewn over the Temple Mount during our visit was appalling.
But in glaring contrast, Israel has, for the past 43 years, failed to challenge the Muslim ban on Jewish worship on the Temple Mount. On our visit, the number of Jews allowed up at one time was severely limited, we were checked for any religious items, which cannot be brought onto the Temple Mount by a Jew, and we were warned by the police not to even whisper a prayer.
THE STATUS quo is woefully offensive and intolerable. Never mind that at no time during the lengthy Muslim control over much of the Middle East did the Muslims ever designate Jerusalem as an imperial capital or even as a provincial or subprovincial capital. Even if we choose to overlook this very relevant history, the pattern of Islamic religious imperialism, exemplified by the Wakf's contemptible conduct on the Temple Mount, must not be ignored.
The problem is not simply that the Arabs have attempted to take as their own every site in Israel holy to Judaism, whether it be the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem or Joseph's Tomb in Nablus. But in doing so, they have consistently attempted to obliterate the historic Jewish connection and claim to each of those sites.
In the same manner, in the years following the Oslo Accords and Israel's withdrawal from Bethlehem, a concerted policy by the Palestinian Authority to Islamicize the city and terrorize the Christian population resulted in a reduction in the percentage of Christians living there from 60 percent to less than 15% today.
We pay a terrible price when we close our eyes to the trampling of human rights and religious freedom out of fear of enraging the Muslim world. The Temple Mount is a huge area. It is the length of nearly five football fields north to south, and nearly three football fields east to west. It is certainly large enough to accommodate the ancient call of the prophet Isaiah recited in fervent prayer by Jews on Yom Kippur: "My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations."
The sooner we take action to help bring this about, the better. .
What happens when multi-culturalist, anti-Israeli pieties clash with a full and rounded rendition of the Nazi past? If recent events in Berlin (of all places) are anything to go by the answer may be as follows: important truths will be denied so that those multi-culturalist, anti-Israeli pieties may be preserved.
In the most important commentary on the subject for quite some time, Daniel Schwammenthal of the Wall Street Journal Europe relates a story about such events which everyone should read and internalise. It is not only shocking in itself, it holds up an image of one of Europe's possible futures.
Schwammenthal's piece pegs off an attempt by a German journalist, Karl Rössel, to stage an exhibition at a state funded multi-cultural centre in an Arab and Turkish dominated area of Berlin. The exhibition was entitled "The Third World in the Second World War" and included a small section on the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al Husseini — the Palestinian leader and national hero who was an admirer of Hitler, a prolific propagandist for the Nazi cause and an active recruiter for the SS in wartime Yugoslavia where he participated in genocide.
Such facts, unfortunately, do not fit with the multi-culturalist narrative in which the people of the third world can only be counted as victims. Nor do they fit with important elements of the anti-Israeli narrative in which, as Schwammenthal notes, the notion that the Palestinians are "paying the price for Germany's sins" as "the second victims" of the Holocaust is deeply rooted. The event was, therefore, cancelled. The Berlin authorities initially supported the decision but then belatedly and reluctantly backed down following accusations they were pandering to historical revisionism.
In Schwammenthal's words:
"Mr. Rössel [the author of the exhibition] says this episode is typical of how German historians, Arabists and Islam scholars deny or downplay Arab-Nazi collaboration. What Mr. Rössel says about Germany applies to most of the Western world,where it is often claimed that the mufti's Hitler alliance later discredited him in the region. Nothing could be further from the truth. In the Mideast, Nazis were not only popular during but also after the war—scores of them found refuge in the Arab world, including Eichman's deputy, Alois Brunner, who escaped to Damascus. The German war criminals became trusted military and security advisers in the region, particularly of Nazi sympathizer Gamal Nasser, then Egypt's president. The mufti himself escaped to Egypt in 1946. Far from being shunned for his Nazi past, he was elected president of the National Palestinian Council. The mufti was at the forefront of pushing the Arabs to reject the 1948 United Nations partition plan and to wage a "war of destruction" against the fledgling Jewish state. His great admirer, Yasser Arafat, would later succeed him as Palestinian leader.
"The other line of defense is that Arab collaboration with the Nazis supposedly wasn't ideological but pragmatic, following the old dictum that "the enemy of my enemy is my friend." This "excuse" not only fails to consider what would have happened to the Jews and British in the Mideast had the Arabs' German friends won. It also overlooks the mufti's and his followers' virulent anti-Semitism, which continues to poison the minds of many Muslims even today."
But not, it seems, if you listen to the BBC or read the Guardian or most other bien pensant organs of the media in western Europe. The inconvenient truths about Arab and Muslim anti-Semitism must be denied even if this means providing a distorted picture of the Holocaust and its participants and collaborators.
The other significant part of this story, of course, is that the furore arose in large part because of the location of the planned exhibition in an area dominated by Muslims. But since any discussion of potential problems arising from Europe's soaring Muslim populations has been a prioridesignated as "racist" by multi-culturalist ideologues, that issue cannot be properly discussed either.
I'm afraid that this is the way things are going in modern Europe. And, be warned, this is just the start of it.
To read Schwammenthal's excellent piece, click here:
For a broader discussion of such issues as they relate to Israel, click here to purchase my recently published book, A State Beyond the Pale: Europe's Problem with Israel:
Shortly thereafter (1938) Ben Gurion made his case to Malcolm MacDonald, the Colonial Secretary, who suggested, that the Arab and Muslim world could rise up and threaten the British Empire and therefore to prevent this, Britain had to make sure that the Jews in Palestine remained a minority.
But Menachem Begin had a different take which he set out in his 1948 book, The Revolt. This book is Begin's reflection on the Jewish revolt against the British, which he lead. He likened this revolt to the revolt by the Maccabees against the Greeks in Second Century BCE and by the Jews against the Romans in the First Century CE and by Bar Kochba against the Romans in the Second Century. But he also foresaw a Maccabee-like victory rather than Bar Kochba-like defeat.
Begin advises that Britain had long wanted Palestine for itself well before the Balfour Declaration. When Herzl was still alive, Lord Cromer of Britain, said "When the Ottoman Empire crumbles, as sooner or later it will, we (Britain) must have Palestine."
Britain generally had a policy of cloaking their goals with a lofty ideals, such, as in this case, giving the Jews a national home. So in furtherance of her "Master Plan" in the late Nineteenth Century she kept complaining of Turkey's treatment of the Jews.
The best way for Britain to gain control of Palestine was to act ostensibly on behalf of the Jews. This was born out in the Balfour Declaration in 1917 in which the British Government backed the creation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine, mind you, not Palestine as the Jewish homeland. Britain would have Palestine and the Jews would have a homeland in it. Britain had no fears that too many Jews would want to come. Afterall they were not pioneers and certainly not fighters. The blueprint evolved: the Arabs when required would "revolt" against the "foreign invasion"; the Jews would be forever a threatened minority. Thus Britain would be called upon to maintain the peace. Unfortunately for them, as Robbie Burns wrote, "The best laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft agley,"
Throughout the twenties and thirties the British encouraged the Arabs to "revolt". But because of the Holocaust, the Jews kept coming. Britain in order not to lose control had to limit their entry.
Thus the Peel Commission in the late thirties recommended in a White Paper that only 75,000 Jews more, be allowed into Palestine by 1944. The Jews had to be kept to a minority at all costs.In fact Hitler's Final Solution played into their hands as there would be less Jews left to emigrate to Eretz Yisroel. The British spin machine went into overdrive and overtime. "Afterall, couldn't let German spies into Palestine, could we."
During this period, the Jewish leadership followed a policy of self-restraint known as "havlagah". But Vladiimir Jabatinsky, the founder of Betar, would have none of it. He preached resistance and revolt until his death in 1940. Out of his teachings was born the Jewish underground army The Irgun and another underground group, Fighters for Freedom of Israel which later became known as the The Stern Gang after their slain leader.
In early 1944 The Irgun declared war on Britain demanding an "immediate transfer of power to a Provisional Hebrew Government" and announced a call to arms for all Jews. The British reaction amounted to, "What chutzpah!".
Shortly thereafter, the revolt brought about the neutralization of the Arab factor. They ceased to do the British bidding. Only after the British announced that they were leaving Palestine and the Arab countries declared war on the future Jewish state did the local Arabs return to their attacks.
Britain expected that the Stern Gang and The Irgun would fight them and maybe even the Haganah would join in. They were confident they would crush them just as the Romans crushed the Jews 2000 years earlier. They would force the Jewish leaders to collaborate and hunt them down just like the Nazis did. They planned to get the support of the US for their plan arguing it was necessary to prevent Russian expansion into the Middle East. All this was set out in a document marked "Secret" prepared by the British "Cairo Bureau" which came into the hands of The Irgun.
The revolt depended on the willingness of the Jews to fight to the death. And they were not found wanting. According to Begin, but for the revolt, the state of Israel would not have come into existence. According to Ben Gurion, who usually opposed Begin, but for him the state would not have survived the war waged by the Arab counties after the state was declared.They were both right. Begin had forced Britain out and Ben Gurion had prepared Israel to defend itself by building an army and keeping the country unified.
A month before the State of Israel was declared, The Irgun and others, attacked Deir Yassin, an Arab village. There is much dispute on the numbers killed. Wikipedia reports
The massacre became a pivotal event in the Arab-Israeli conflict for its demographic and military consequences. The narrative was embellished and used by various parties to attack each other—by the Palestinians to besmirch Palestine's Jewish community, and later Israel; by the Haganah to play down their own role in the affair; and later by the Israeli Left to accuse the Irgun and Lehi of violating the Jewish principle of "tohar hanashek" (purity of arms), thus blackening Israel's name around the world.[6] News of the killings sparked terror within the Palestinian community, encouraging them to flee from their towns and villages in the face of Jewish troop advances, and it strengthened the resolve of Arab governments to intervene, which they did five weeks later by invading Palestine, following Israel's declaration of independence on May 14.[2]
Begin advises that it was a very important military target and that the fighting was fierce. He adds;
Yet the hostile propaganda disseminated throughout the world, deliberately ignored the fact that the civilian population of Deir Yassin was actually given a warning by us before the battle began. One of our tenders carrying a loud speaker was stationed at the entrance of the village and it exhorted, in Arabic, all woman and children and aged to leave their houses and to take shelter on the slope of the hill. By giving this humane warning our fighters threw away the element of complete surprise, and thus increased their own risk in the ensuing battle.
Many, though not all, heeded the advice.
Our men were compelled to fight for every house; to overcome the enemy they used large numbers of hand grenades. The civilians who had disregarded our warnings, suffered inevitable casualties. (Continue) .
A "Wine, Cheese, and Water Tour" of the Magnificent Shomron
Elon Moreh
Yitzhar's Organic Vineyards
Itamar's Organic Farms
Har Kabir
Nachal Tirtza
Ma'ayan El Kabira
A Support Rally for the Citizens of Judea and Samaria (Participation open to all - NOT limited to Likud members!)
With World Likud Chairman, Member of Knesset Danny Danon
A salute to Yehuda and Shomron with the participation of public figures and delegations from Israel and abroad. (additional Likud MKs and Minister pending)
Wednesday, 7th October , 19 Tishrei, Chol Hamoed Succot
Departure Location: Inbal Hotel, 3 Jabotinsky St.
Departure Time: 8AM sharp (Return: app. 7PM)
English speaking guide
For Further Information and to Register, Please Contact:
Greetings, I am inviting you to join the Facebook group "Prepaid Legal and Identity Theft Shield". Please consider joining the group to stay aware of the newest happenings with this great opportunity with Prepaid Legal and Identity Theft Shield. Thanks, Rivkah
New Documents posted September 28, 2009 1-800-392-8683 www.nraila.org
Please forward this information to your family, friends, and fellow gun owners!
Receive a gift when you make a donation to NRA-ILA.
Second Amendment cases could affect state laws - The New Haven Register (Conn.) The Supreme Court has clearly ruled that the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution means individuals have a right to own weapons, and the justices have been asked to take up two cases that could broaden that right to include state laws. The court's decision on whether to take up the cases, National Rifle Association v. Chicago and McDonald v. Chicago, could come this week, before the fall term officially starts Oct. 5. Read More | Read Other News
California: Ammunition restriction bill on governor's desk - The Record Searchlight (Redding, Calif.) A bill that would require buyers of handgun ammunition to leave thumbprints and detailed personal information with registered ammo sellers, as well as put restrictions on online bullet sales, is sitting on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's desk. Read More | Read Other News
NRA takes aim at anti-gun mayors group - The Tallahassee Democrat Naples Mayor Bill Barnett expected a hard recoil when he joined Mayors Against Illegal Guns, but the fusillade of angry mail and phone calls startled him. "We've been absolutely bombed with protest," he said. Read More | Read Other News
Tennessee: Right-to-Carry in parks and a tale of two guns - The Knoxville News Sentinel As I am writing this, both the Knox County Commission and the Knoxville City Council are about to decide if our community needs to opt out of a provision allowing carry permit holders to carry their weapons in parks. The arguments both for and against are very familiar ones; in fact, they are the same arguments that were used when deciding if we should have carry permits at all. The truth is, parks are just like any other public places, and the same rules should apply to parks that apply elsewhere. Read More | Read Other News
Arizona: Right-to-Carry in restaurants takes effect Wednesday - KSAZ (Phoenix, Ariz.) Wednesday, September 30, a new gun law goes into effect. Concealed weapons permit holders will be able to carry concealed handguns into bars and restaurants. Read More | Read Other News
Delaware: New Castle County councilman seeks to change emergency power law - The News Journal A New Castle County councilman wants to shoot down an old law that gives the county's top administrator the power to restrict weapons in the hands of residents during times of emergency. Read More | Read Other News
Tennessee: Democratic candidates for governor differ on Right-to-Carry in parks - The Knoxville News Sentinel Sen. Roy Herron of Dresden and Sen. Jim Kyle of Memphis, took opposite positions on legislation that led to the current law. The measure allows handgun permit holders to take weapons into state parks, except when local government bodies vote to prohibit them. Read More | Read Other News
Minnesota: Making a case for uncased guns - The Star Tribune When Brad Schultz went ruffed grouse hunting near his home at Lake Vermilion the other day, he climbed into his pickup truck with his uncased shotgun in the front seat and drove off down the road. A year ago Schultz, a Department of Natural Resources conservation officer, would have had to write himself a ticket for illegally transporting a firearm. But this fall, for the first time in 90 years, it's legal for Minnesota hunters to transport uncased shotguns and rifles in vehicles. Read More | Read Other News
Please do not reply to this email as you will not receive a response. This email is a broadcast email generated by an automated system. To contact NRA-ILA call 800-392-8683. Address: 11250 Waples Mill Road Fairfax, Virginia 22030
But we are starting to find out that with technology comes risks. In fact cell phones are the #1 cause of teen age death. Greater than:
* Alcohol * Drugs * Suicide
The Media is having a field day. Almost every day, there’s a story on the dangers of cell phones in the news. I'm sure you have seen stories about:
* Sexting * Cyber Bullying * Texting and Driving
The media loves to talk about the problem, but very rarely do they talk about how to solve the problem. That's because there never was a solution UNTIL NOW!!!
The WebSafety solution is starting to get press
Good Morning America did a 4-minute national telecast about the WebSafety total solution. It was picked up by more than 50 local television stations.
Readers Digest did a cover story in May of this year. WebSafety was the only company featured with a solution to sexting.
WebSafety has also been featured in
* USA Today, * Fox News, * ABC News and * MSNBC.
Our Mission
Our Mission is to protect children and families from the dangers invading our lives over cell phones and the Internet, and to empower parents to have more influence in their children’s lives.
If you believe in our Mission, you can join our cause.
Shocking Statistics
* A chat room is the #1 place for sexual predators to hang out. * 600,000 registered predators and sex offenders. . . . . Most law enforcement experts believe that for every predator who is convicted, there are at least 10 who have not been caught.
Oprah and Dr. Phil
Ever since we bought a Parental Control Company more than 2 years ago, I have NOT been able to find a:
…who doesn't recommend every parent putting a child’s computer in a public place to monitor all chat and text messaging.
Among the top-rated talk shows on T.V. are Oprah and Dr. Phil. These are direct quotes taken off their websites.
Every few months they dedicate a show to:
* Sexual Predators * Sexting * Cyber Bullying * Texting and driving
To Catch a Predator
This could not stand.
2 things bothered me about this show...
* Nobody should be giving their name, address, and phone number to a stranger. * No 13-year-old should be talking to a stranger about oral or anal sex.
This is when we decided to come up with our revolutionary Word Recognition Software.
Development Teams
The key to developing our revolutionary technology was coordinating 2 separate development teams
The first team consisted of software developers. A team of 80 engineers that wrote the software application for the computer, cell phone and the website.
The second team of experts helped put together the 4000 word vocabulary. Most predators are experts at entrapping our kids. They use a technique called "Grooming" which starts with a harmless conversation and escalates into a conversation we can not discuss. We needed experts who understood how they think and the techniques they use.
Parents NOW Have Peace of Mind
How many of you have home security systems? Why? To keep people from taking your stuff and harming your family.
How many of you have locks on your front door?
Locks on your windows?
Sorry, but the predator trying to harm your child is not coming through the front door or window. They are coming through your computer.
That's why you need WebSafety protection.
We are a security system, NOT a spy service.
We are not the only Parental Control Software out there.
The "Best Rated" competitors are all SPY services. Meaning, they copy every word your your child types and tracks every place they go. Your child will hate you.
If something bad happens... you may not know for days or weeks. Plus, they are more expensive than WebSafety.
We are the only service with Real Time Alerts. You'll know in seconds.
Kids are Sometimes MEAN to other kids
Cyber bullying
So far, we've only talked about adults trying to hurt kids. But sometimes kids are trying to hurt other kids.
This comes in several forms:
* Cyber Bullying * Sexting
* 42% of the kids admit to sending MEAN messages to kids. * For example: o "Your fat and ugly" o "Go kill yourself"
We STOP this! We REPORT this to you, the parent, for IMMEDIATE ACTION.
Sexting
Kids are sending nude pictures of themselves to others and are being arrested for distributing child pornography.
...UNLESS WebSafety is on the job! WebSafety is a pornography blocker that actually works!
Pornography
Verizon and AT&T claim to have a pornography blocker, but they really don't.
* Their blocker works only on their 3G network, not on WI-fi, which is the way most of us access the internet. * This means it works only some of the time. * You wouldn't buy your child a subscription to Playboy or Hustler would you?!
WebSafety is FIRST to combine Texting and GPS.
It's 10:00 P.M., Do you know where your children are?
I get confused sometimes and wonder what day is it? Are my kids at...
* work * the mall * football practice * school
Schools have a HUGE problem
* 50% of the kids in Dallas county are not graduating * the #1 reason: they don't go to school.
The average child sends 1700-2000 texts per month.
Some places are not appropriate for texting!
* Lights out at 10:00 P.M. You don't want your kid texting all night. * No texting at school stops cheating and helps to eliminate kids not paying attention.
Nightly News with Brian Williams
More than 50 tests performed in the past year and they all came to the same conclusion:
Texting and driving is more dangerous than drinking and driving.
11. How will you stop the #1 killer of teenagers?
According to the Mothers Against Drunk Driving web site:
Texting and driving kills twice as many kids age 16-21 as drunk driving.
MADD had 3 million moms who volunteered their time or gave money for their cause.
We are not asking for you to volunteer or give us money.
We just want you to ask yourself 2 questions.......... To learn more click below to watch the presentation.
After viewing this information I'd like to invite you to a webinar this evening as follows. Monday, September 28, 2009 6:00 PM-7:30 PM (GMT-07:00) 1. Please join my meeting. https://www1.gotomeeting.com/join/382220409 2. Use your microphone and speakers (VoIP) - a headset is recommended. Or, call in using your telephone.
Dial 914-339-0013 Access Code: 382-220-409 Audio PIN: Shown after joining the meeting
Meeting ID: 382-220-409
GoToMeeting® Online Meetings Made Easy™ Then if your ready to get your software or would like to offer this software to your family and friends contact me at shekinah.cohen@gmail.com with your name, contact information and best time to contact you.
Data gleaned indirectly from anonymous testimony of Navy wives of the affected crew via the internet radio show A Marine Disquisition!
From Bob Chapman's International Forecaster
1) Unnamed US Navy vessel put to sea in April with 347 man crew.
2) Entire crew was vaccinated with H1N1 Swine Flu vaccine shortly after they put to sea.
3) Crew sickened so severely that other ships had to respond to render aid. 16 Medical Dr.s put aboard from an unnamed aircraft carrier and other responding vessels. Total of 50 Navy personnel sent aboard to respond to crisis.
4) Two of the crew of 347 died - including the Captain of the ship (a Lieutenant Commander) and a Chief Petty Officer.
5) 50 personnel sent aboard to help are quarantined in Navy hospital in Balboa, Spain after 10 of them caught the flu from the ship's crew. Two of the 50 quarantined are in serious condition at last report.
6) Of the 347 man crew that were vaccinated, 333 contracted the H1N1 flu FROM THE VACCINE. Two died, as mentioned above, and 331 survived. Only 14 of the 347 vaccinated sailors did not show any ill effects from the vaccine.
7) Navy has threatened all the spouses of the ship's crew to remain silent - claiming all this information is classified. Some are whistle-blowing and that is where this information is coming from.
8) On the unnamed aircraft carrier that provided assistance, 415 sailors contracted the swine flu and are currently quarantined onboard.
9) The truth is that the swine flu epidemic will be created BY THE VACCINE. If we don't take it, there will be no epidemic. From this one test it's apparent that the vaccine as tested on that ship's crew in April is 96% effective at infecting the recipient with swine flu. Such an infection rate is impossible to achieve by any natural means. Though it only killed 1% immediately, there is no telling what the long term effects on those injected with the vaccine will be. See the research on the long term effects of the 1976 swine flu vaccine, and the Gulf War anthrax vaccine programs for more information.
10) Also note that mere contact with those that have been vaccinated creates a 20% chance of you contracting the swine flu even if you have not been vaccinated.
The U.S. Navy has "OVER" 5 U.S. Navy Ships TURNING BACK FROM MAJOR ORDERS OF TRANSPORT TO "MIDDLE EAST WAR ZONE"
NAVY & COMBAT MARINES AIR WINGS, AND GROUND TROOPS
A favorite recipe for cabbage for those who grow cabbage in your gardens and looking for another way to incorporate it in your meals.
1 small head of cabbage (Maybe only 1/2 needed, depends on the size of the pan you are using and how big the head of cabbage is.) Oil for pan Olive oil for drizzling Parmesan cheese, grated
I cut a small head of cabbage into thin wedges. No more than 1" in thickness at the thickest point. I rub a jelly roll pan with oil or line it with parchment so there is no sticking. Then I lay the cabbage wedges on it. I tend pack them in pretty tightly, but there is supposed to be some room between them. I drizzle them with olive oil and I rub it around a little on each slice to make sure the oil lightly covers the surface of the cabbage. Then I put the pan into a 400 degree oven until it begins to brown a bit on the edges (maybe 30 minutes or so). While it is roasting I grate some parmesan cheese. Then when the cabbage is ready, I sprinkle parmesan all over it. I like to make sure each piece gets about the same amount of parmesan so no one complains later about their pieces of cabbage. Then I put the pan back in the oven to brown more and so the cheese will melt. We like it a little bit crunchy on the edges. If you don't like it to get brown on the edges then you would probably want to put the cheese on when it is starting to turn translucent. Then you could take it out before it gets brown on the edges.
Brussel sprouts are great done this way too. They don't taste as bitter.
I make this recipe at least once a week. It is a favorite for our family.
Many of you already know that Obama is having almost everyone's front door GPS'D in regard to forcing everyone and their children to have swine flu vaccination. If you don't know, contact me and I will direct you to where to find out more.
So there is more to be cautioned about here than just spams,and pilfering. The government is attempting to do the greatest pilfering job there is. Rivkah
2010 Census Cautions by Susan Johnson - August 3, 2009 12:07 pm
Be Cautious About Giving Info to Census Workers With the U.S. Census process beginning, the Better Business Bureau (BBB) advises people to be cooperative, but cautious, so as not to become a victim of fraud or identity theft. The first phase of the 2010 U.S. Census is under way as workers have begun verifying the addresses of households across the country. Eventually, more than 140,000 U.S. Census workers will count every person in the United States and will gather information about every person living at each address including name, age, gender, race, and other relevant data. The big question is - how do you tell the difference between a U.S. Census worker and a con artist? BBB offers the following advice:
** If a U.S. Census worker knocks on your door, they will have a badge, a handheld device, a Census Bureau canvas bag, and a confidentiality notice. Ask to see their identification and their badge before answering their questions. However, you should never invite anyone you don’t know into your home.
** Census workers are currently only knocking on doors to verify address information. Do not give your Social Security number, credit card or banking information to anyone, even if they claim they need it for the U.S. Census. While the Census Bureau might ask for basic financial information, such as a salary range, it will not ask for Social Security, bank account, or credit card numbers nor will employees solicit donations.
Eventually, Census workers may contact you by telephone, mail, or in person at home. However, they will not contact you by Email, so be on the lookout for Email scams impersonating the Census.
Never click on a link or open any attachments in an Email that are supposedly from the U.S. Census Bureau.
For more advice on avoiding identity theft and fraud, visit www.bbb.org.
Many of you already know that Obama is having almost everyone's front door GPS'D in regard to forcing everyone and their children to have swine flu vaccination. If you don't know, contact me and I will direct you to where to find out more.
So there is more to be cautioned about here than just spams,and pilfering. The government is attempting to do the greatest pilfering job there is. Rivkah
2010 Census Cautions by Susan Johnson - August 3, 2009 12:07 pm
Be Cautious About Giving Info to Census Workers With the U.S. Census process beginning, the Better Business Bureau (BBB) advises people to be cooperative, but cautious, so as not to become a victim of fraud or identity theft. The first phase of the 2010 U.S. Census is under way as workers have begun verifying the addresses of households across the country. Eventually, more than 140,000 U.S. Census workers will count every person in the United States and will gather information about every person living at each address including name, age, gender, race, and other relevant data. The big question is - how do you tell the difference between a U.S. Census worker and a con artist? BBB offers the following advice:
** If a U.S. Census worker knocks on your door, they will have a badge, a handheld device, a Census Bureau canvas bag, and a confidentiality notice. Ask to see their identification and their badge before answering their questions. However, you should never invite anyone you don’t know into your home.
** Census workers are currently only knocking on doors to verify address information. Do not give your Social Security number, credit card or banking information to anyone, even if they claim they need it for the U.S. Census. While the Census Bureau might ask for basic financial information, such as a salary range, it will not ask for Social Security, bank account, or credit card numbers nor will employees solicit donations.
Eventually, Census workers may contact you by telephone, mail, or in person at home. However, they will not contact you by Email, so be on the lookout for Email scams impersonating the Census.
Never click on a link or open any attachments in an Email that are supposedly from the U.S. Census Bureau.
For more advice on avoiding identity theft and fraud, visit www.bbb.org.
Redirecting the buying power of the Christian Community
back into the kingdom of Christ!
30fold is Blasting Off. Are you going with us,
or just watching from the ground?
I have never seen the U.S.
economy in as poor ...shape as it is right now. But I have also
never seen an opportunity greater than the one before us right
now, and I am anxious to share it with each of you.
You see, 30fold has taken on a whole new shape - a while new meaning. We have entered an arena that directly attacks some of the key problem areas people in North
America face right now - the very things that evidence the economic crisis we are experiencing: foreclosures, bankruptcies, joblessness, identity theft, and more.
These issues are not going away. And the average working person simply can not afford the justice system as it is today.
In the last election the nation voted for the concepts of hope and change. But we are looking to the wrong place to get the real hope and real change we so desperately need. Hand outs and bail outs will not help America in the long run. You ... I ... all of us must create new sources of income, prosperity, and long term security.
That's exactly the plan we will present to those who participate in our upcoming webinar, "Thriving
In Tough Economic Times". In this brief webinar we will focus
on the major financial issues of or day, solutions to those issues you can implement, and the opportunity
it presents to you.
Join us for this
free webinar and learn how this dynamic
opportunity can change not just your life, but
your family legacy. Whether your looking to cover yourself and/or your family when unexpected life events come your way or would like a unique business opportunity please consider joining us this evening.
Senator Santorum will be in Iowa next week to talk about issues that are at the heart of pro-life citizens, such as healthcare and elections. Following the Senator's talk, there will betraining sessions that include information on lobbying, writing an effective letter to the editorand how to give pro-life answers to anti-life arguments.
The session with Senator Santorum is open to the public at no cost. We hope you will joinus to hear an important message and take this opportunity to ask him questions.
[..] But, fair is fair; there is also a lot being achieved by this government. For instance, integration goes very well… At least, the integration of the Netherlands into Dar-al-Islam, the Islamic world. This government is enthusiastically co-operating with the Islamization of the Netherlands. In all of Europe the elite opens the floodgates wide. In only a little while, one in five people in the European Union will be Muslim. Good news for this multiculti-government that views bowing to the horrors of Allah as its most important task. Good news for the CDA [Christian Democratic Appeal, the party of the PM]: C-D-A, in the meanwhile stands for Christians Serve Allah [Christenen Dienen Allah].
Madam Chairman, this government, this elite does not have even the slightest will to oppose Islamization. No, it looks to it as a great enrichment of the Dutch landscape. All those snug mosques, those cute headscarves, those cozy burkas. Yes, the Netherlands really becomes more beautiful with that. Here and there from time to time some are left dead, or some are raped, and eventually our country will go bankrupt. But all that may not spoil the fun. Only a grumbler would pay attention to that. Just have patience for a little while, because we await the Islamic Utopia.
Madam Chairman, a better environment begins with yourself. Many Dutch are irritated by the pollution of public space by Islam. In other words, our streets in some places are increasingly looking like Mecca and Tehran. Scarves, hate-beards, burkas, men in long weird white frocks. Let us do something about that. Let us start to reconquer our streets, and ensure that the Netherlands will look like the Netherlands again.
Those headscarves are a true sign of oppression of women, of subjugation, of conquest. It is a symbol of an ideology that is out there to colonize us. Therefore: it is time for a big...
[Makovsky shows a little more sophistication than most. He suggests that agreeing on borders first is the best approach. According to him such an agreement would exclude Maaleh Adumin and Ariel. Not so fast. ]
Having raised Arab expectations months ago with the idea of a settlement freeze, the Obama administration now has the unpleasant task of coaxing Palestinian Authority (PA) president Mahmoud Abbas to tacitly accept an agreement on settlements that offers less than expected — if more than was offered in the past. Therefore, it is uncertain whether the United States will succeed at arranging a trilateral summit involving President Barack Obama, President Abbas, and Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu at the UN next week that would culminate in the announcement of a formal relaunching of peace negotiations.
An agreement on settlements would likely involve a nine-month moratorium on construction, with the exception of the 2,500 partially built units as well as public or nonresidential buildings. Israel's decision not to enact a more comprehensive settlement freeze was made somewhat easier by Saudi Arabia's repeated and pointed rejection of any confidence-building measures until Israel conforms with its backloaded 2002 Arab Peace Initiative. The Saudi plan unrealistically requires Israel to withdraw completely from the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights before Riyadh takes any reciprocal steps. Assuming that the United States, Israel, and the PA strike an settlement agreement this week or in the near future, which U.S. policy options will determine the direction and shape of the main event — the Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations?
U.S. Policy Options
Full Israeli-Palestinian agreement on all core issues. The desire to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict lends allure to this approach. Its feasibility, however, is open to serious...
Official says American president 'fed up' with Israel
By Aaron Klein, WorldNetDaily
JERUSALEM – President Obama is "fed up" with Israel while his administration has given the Palestinians guarantees they will eventually take over Jewish homes and buildings throughout most of the West Bank, a top Palestinian Authority official claimed to WND.
"We heard from the U.S. that no matter what Israel is building in the West Bank, it will not affect a final status agreement to create a Palestinian state," said the PA official, who spoke on condition his name be withheld.
"The Americans told us (Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu might construct in the West Bank for now but we (Palestinians) can enjoy these houses later. The evacuated homes will not be destroyed like some were when Israel pulled out of Gaza," the official said.
The official said Obama has adopted the position of PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, who presented a plan to create a Palestinian state within two years based largely on the 1967 borders, meaning Israel would retreat from the West Bank and eastern sections of Jerusalem.
The official said the U.S. would back Israel retaining what are known as main settlement blocs, a reference to certain large Jewish West Bank communities such as Gush Etzion.
The official, however, said the U.S. does not support Israel retaining the E1 area in Jerusalem, referring to Maale Adumim, a Jewish community in eastern Jerusalem.
In a little noticed interview with the Daily Beast (presumably little noticed because serious people don't read the Daily Beast), Zbigniew Brzezinski suggests that Barack Obama do more than just refuse to support an Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear sites — the American president must give the order to shoot down Israeli aircraft as they cross Iraqi airspace:
DB: How aggressive can Obama be in insisting to the Israelis that a military strike might be in America's worst interest? Brzezinski: We are not exactly impotent little babies. They have to fly over our airspace in Iraq. Are we just going to sit there and watch? DB: What if they fly over anyway? Brzezinski: Well, we have to be serious about denying them that right. That means a denial where you aren't just saying it. If they fly over, you go up and confront them. They have the choice of turning back or not. No one wishes for this but it could be a Liberty in reverse.
Contrary to Brezinski's half-hearted disclaimer that no one wishes for such an outcome, there are plenty on the left who would delight in a pitched battle between the United States and Israel. Democrats in Congress routinely support resolutions affirming Israel's right to take whatever steps it deems necessary to assure its own national defense. And Obama has at least paid lip service to the concept. But hostility to Israel among the rank and file is very real on the left — and among "realists."
So conjure the image — the Obama administration sending U.S. aircraft up to protect Iran's airspace and it's nuclear installations from an attack by a democracy that is one of America's closest allies. Unfortunately, this may not be so hard to imagine in Israel, where the number of people who believe Obama is pro-Israel is at just 4 percent — and falling. And given Obama's (literally) submissive...
I just received word that Sarah Palin has accepted an invitation to speak to a convention of 6000 delegates in Washington in the new year.
She also signed up with the Speaker's Bureau as a speaker for hire. This is the leading speaker agent in the US and every speaker charges a different amount depending on what the traffic will bear. Her fee could well be between $50,000 and $100,000 per event.
As I suggested in my previous post Palin will be much in demand in 2010.
ADDENDUM: A poll was taken recently among value voters and Huckabee came in first with 28%. Palin and three others were tied for second with 12% apiece.
Stupid or evil. Most folks, even critics, say Obama is hopelessly naive. I have heard John Bolton (no Obama supporter) say it more than once. Nonsense. You don't consistently choose the side of evil by accident. It is no accident that Obama consistently defers to evil. It cannot be. It cannot be an accident, a coincidence that Obama consistently sides with evil. In his short yet consequential tenure as President, he has unwaveringly take the side of wrong, of malevolence -- the haters of liberty and individual rights. He stands against long time Friends and allies of America - Israel, the people of Iran, Honduras Poland, Czech Republic. He runs interference for the most evil despots on the face of the eartth - Ahmadinejad (isran), Chavez (Venezuela), ex-KGB Putin (Russia), Islamist Erdogan (Turkey), Castro (Cuba),
Obama wants us to slash our nuclear arsenal (the superiority that has kept us safe for decades.) Mind you this is fresh on the heels of the Muhhamaden led International Atomic Energy Agency admitting that Iran can make a nuclear bom.
Armaros opined, "Not only does he want to disarm the US, but also the UK and France. The French have already given him the finger. Oh La La (those racist radical neocon French) will not submit to the Obaummah. Thank God, at least they are still refusing to surrender to demon cult calling itself a religion."
Europe will be pleading for the likes of George W. in no short order.
It's going to get much worse, we have yet to see the full horror of O's foreign policy.
Pentagon told to map out radical cuts as president prepares to chair UN talks
has demanded the Pentagon conduct a radical review of US nuclear weapons doctrine to prepare the way for deep cuts in the country's arsenal, the Guardian can reveal.
Obama has rejected the Pentagon's first draft of the "nuclear posture review" as being too timid, and has called for a range of more far-reaching options consistent with his goal of eventually abolishing nuclear weapons altogether, according to European officials.
Those options include:
• Reconfiguring the US nuclear force to allow for an arsenal measured in hundreds rather than thousands of deployed strategic warheads.
• Redrafting nuclear doctrine to narrow the range of conditions under which the US would use nuclear weapons.
• Exploring ways of guaranteeing the future reliability of nuclear weapons without testing or producing a new generation of warheads.
The review is due to be completed by the end of this year, and European officials say the outcome is not yet clear. But one official said: "Obama is now driving this process. He is saying these are the president's weapons, and he wants to look again at the doctrine and their role."
The move comes as Obama prepares to take the rare step of chairing a watershed session of the UN security council on Thursday. It is aimed at winning consensus on a new grand bargain: exchanging more radical disarmament by nuclear powers in return for wider global efforts to prevent further proliferation.
That bargain is at the heart of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, which is up for review next year amid signs it is unravelling in the face of Iranian and North Korean nuclear ambitions.
Obama cum Chavez style information control. These newspapers need to die a long overdue death. They are dishonest merchants of self styled propaganda. They abdicated their role as public servant, in the service of investigative journalism, long ago.
The NY Times has been in hospice long enough. Their reign is over. They are a cancer that infected every media organ in the country and outside it. They would set the news for the day. They were the template that others followed. They set the news agenda for the day, everyday. They are the propaganda machine for the Democrat party. They are depraved and partisan.
As far as Obama pulling a Chavez style media coup ...... this ain't Venezuela. This is a free market society. Period. If business is bad, you go out of business. If you have become obsolete (horse and carriage), then you are done, kaput, good-bye. C ya.
Obama, you ain't the king. You will be stopped.
My taxpayer dollar, my money, to lavish on my executioner? I hope this riles the folks as much as it riles me. I hope there is a march on DC to end all marches. This crap has got to stop.
The president said he is "happy to look at" bills before Congress that would give struggling news organizations tax breaks if they were to restructure as nonprofit businesses.
Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) has introduced S. 673, the so-called "Newspaper Revitalization Act," that would give outlets tax deals if they were to restructure as 501(c)(3) corporations. That bill has so far attracted one cosponsor, Cardin's Maryland colleague Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D).
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs had played down the possibility of government assistance for news organizations, which have been hit by an economic downturn and dwindling ad revenue.
In early May, Gibbs said that while he hadn't asked the president specifically about bailout options for newspapers, "I don't know what, in all honesty, government can do about it."
Obama said that good journalism is "critical to the health of our democracy," but expressed concern toward growing tends in reporting -- especially on political blogs, from which a groundswell of support for his campaign emerged during the presidential election.
"I am concerned that if the direction of the news is all blogosphere, all opinions, with no serious fact-checking, no serious attempts to put stories in context, that what you will end up getting is people shouting at each other across the void but not a lot of mutual understanding," he said.
As the Jews of Havat Gilad in Samaria celebrated the second day of Rosh Hashanah on Sunday
afternoon, a group of Arabs from a nearby village infiltrated the town and set fire to the area. The holiday ended with an emergency evacuation, several wounded residents, and two families left homeless.
Police arrested four Arab suspects near the scene of the crime.
The attack took place as most residents prayed in the community synagogue. Residents spotted the smoke from the synagogue windows and ran out to see part of the town in flames.
Zazi (this century's nazi) incredible lies show the utter contempt jihad has for infidels. His outlandish tale indicates how pathetic the jihad thinks we are.
"The FBI said it found images of nine pages of handwritten notes on a laptop containing formulas and instructions for making bomb, detonators and a fuse.
Choi writes, "Zazi told the FBI that he must have unintentionally downloaded the notes as part of a religious book he downloaded in August. Zazi said he "immediately deleted the religious book within days of downloading it after realizing that its contents discussed jihad."
So, bomb Making Instructions CONCEALED in Religious 'Text", and this guy Zazi , upon 'shockingly Discovering it ,' DELETES the "religious text, but, oh, accidentally 'leaves" the bomb-making instructions".
Of course. Perfectly "reasonable". "To ERR is Human" (even when deliberate and in an evil cause).
Any dhimmi would buy that, right?
One can only imagine how "benevolent' the "deleted religious text" was?
And of course those who would believe that, also think "1001 Arabian Nights" really happened."
DENVER – Investigators said they found notes describing how to make bombs in the handwriting of an airport shuttle driver arrested as part of a terrorism investigation, and they also discovered his fingerprints on materials — batteries and a scale — that could be used to make explosives.
The emerging details show that Najibullah Zazi, who has admitted receiving weapons training from al-Qaida, played a direct role in an alleged terror plot, authorities said in court documents released Sunday.
Zazi, 24, has publicly denied being involved in a terror plot. Zazi, his father, and an Imam in New York City were arrested late Saturday on charges of making a false statement to the government, though legal experts say more charges could be coming.
Zazi's defense team denied reports that Zazi considered a plea deal related to terror charges, and Zazi's attorney, Arthur Folsom, dismissed as "rumor" any notion that Zazi played a crucial role. Zazi's defense team did not respond to repeated attempts to reach them Sunday.
Federal officials in Denver declined to comment.
Zazi admitted to FBI agents that he received instructions from al-Qaida operatives on subjects such as weapons and explosives. Court documents filed in Denver say Zazi was speaking with agents under an agreement where he might avoid prosecution.
He received the training in the federally administered tribal areas of Pakistan, the documents say.
The FBI said it found images of nine pages of handwritten notes on a laptop containing formulas and instructions for making bomb, detonators and a fuse.
Zazi told the FBI that he must have unintentionally downloaded the notes as part of a religious book he downloaded in August. Zazi said he "immediately deleted the religious book within days of downloading it after realizing that its contents discussed jihad."
However, an arrest affidavit says the handwriting on the notes appeared to be Zazi's. The affidavit doesn't mention that they were part of a book, but that they were e-mailed as an attachment between accounts believed owned by Zazi in December, including an account that originated in Pakistan.
"It appeared to be consistent with the handwriting as it appeared in the document," an FBI agent wrote of comparisons of Zazi's handwriting with the notes.
In addition, agents found Zazi's fingerprints on a scale and double-A batteries seized during a raid at a home in the New York City borough of Queens on Sept. 14.
Zazi, who lives in the Denver suburb of Aurora, underwent three days of questioning by the FBI before his arrest.
Also arrested were his father, Mohammed Wali Zazi, 53, in Denver; and an associate, Ahmad Wais Afzali, 37, of New York City, the Justice Department said Sunday. Both also were charged with making false statements to federal agents, which carries a penalty of eight years in prison.
The jihadis in Islamic occupied Israel and their useful tools in the West continue their propaganda onslaught on the free world, but they make no bones about what the illegally seized Jewish land will be: an Islamic state. And that means shariah (Islamic) law. There's no room for anyone, anything, anybody else in Islam except ............. Islam.
It will be Gaza times ten. It is a terror state. Why are we doing this? Would we help set up a Nazi state? What's the difference?
Throughout the month of August, 2009, Palestinian National Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayad met with more than fifty members of the US Senate and US House of Representatives.
In press conferences held by almost all American elected officials after meeting the American educated Fayad, the consistent impression that they conveyed was that Mr. Fayad represented a "moderate voice of leadership" for a future Palestinian state that could live alongside the state of Israel.
Read Working paper by Palestinian PM for future Palestinian State to understand program for PA state.
Fayad declares that the Palestinian State will be an Islamic state and "Promote awareness and understanding of the Islamic religion and culture and disseminate the concept of tolerance in the religion through developing and implementing programs of Shari'a education as derived from the science of the Holy Qur'an and Prophet's heritage". In sum, Fayad concludes with a demand for a Palestinian state in the next two years, along the parameters that he has outlined, with an Palestinian state that will have all of Jerusalem as its capital, in an Islamic Sharia state that will campaign for all convicts to be freed, for all refugees to return to the homes and villages that they left in 1948.
BDS -- no, not Bush Derangement Syndrome. Beck Derangement Syndrome.
The left is incapable of self reflection, self criticism, or any analysis of their failed statism. They just wanna kill the messenger(s). Sound like any other ideology you know?
I received this document from Oda Dridi-Dörffel, Parliament (Bundestag), Ministry of the Interior, the Army (Bundeswehr), Ministry of Integration and the Police organizations. Oda Dridi-Dörffel is an esteemed figure in international circles.
Here Oda Dridi-Dörffel presents the actual fatwa issued at Al-Azhar University in Cairo, the most important institution of islamic law in the sunni world, and where Obama made his speech to the Muslim world. (More on Obama's speech here and here.)
Proof of the fatal threat against Rifqa Bary:
Here is the fatwa, proof that death "is a very normal part of Islamic law for apostasy and for every muslim its an honor to CLEAN the umma if Rifqa is dead".
Fatwa committee concerning the case of a man who converted to Christianity: "Since he left the Islam, he will be invited to express his regret. If he does not regret, he will be killed pertaining to rights and obligations of the Islamic law."
Hallo, Pamela Geller.
Sorry for my English:
I follow the Rifqa Bary case from the beginning. You make a brilliant job!!!
I'm an adviser (in the background) for Islam/Terror/Migration for the Parliament (Bundestag), Ministry of the Interior, the Army (Bundeswehr), Ministry of Integration and the Police organisations.
[...]
I have for you a very important document:
A fatwa from university of Al-Azhar in Cairo, the most important institution of islamic law in the sunni world:
In all opportunities I present this fatwa in front of muslims in public (conferences..), the reaction of muslims was the same: releases, threats, denial and totally dis inhibiting.
The Non-Muslims in the conference were absolutely shocked about these reactions.
A view behind the curtain of the system of muslim lies.
You need this fatwa as a proof that death is a very normal part of islamic law for apostasy and for every muslim its an honor to CLEAN the umma if Rifqa is dead.
Legal opinion on apostasy by a Fatwa committee concerning the case of a man who converted to Christianity: "Since he left the Islam, he will be invited to express his regret. If he does not regret, he will be killed pertaining to rights and obligations of the Islamic law." Popis Source: Orientalist Author: al-Azhr, the Egyptian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs This Fatawa describes how an Egyptian man turned apostate and the subsequent punishment prescribed for him by the Al-Azhr Fatawa council. The following translation is a rough guide:
In the Name of Allah the Most Beneficient the Most Merciful.
Al-Azhr
Council of Fatawa.
This question was presented by Mr. Ahmed Darwish and brought forward by [name obscured] who is of German nationality.
A man whose religion was Islam and his nationality is Egyptian married a German Christian and the couple agreed that the husband would join the Christian faith and doctrine.
1) What is the Islamic ruling in relation to this man? What are the punishments prescribed for this act?
2) Are his children considered Muslim or Christian?
The Answer:
All praise is to Allah, the Lord of the Universe and salutations on the leader of the righteous, our master Muhammed, his family and all of his companions.
Thereafter:
This man has committed apostasy; he must be given a chance to repent and if he does not then he must be killed according to Shariah.
As far as his children are concerned, as long as they are children they are considered Muslim, but after they reach the age of puberty, then if they remain with Islam they are Muslim, but if they leave Islam and they do not repent they must be killed and Allah knows best.
Seal of Al-Azhr
Head of the Fatawa Council of Al-Azhr.
Abdullah al-Mishadd (عبد الله المشد)
23rd September 1978.
Proof doesn't stop Michael Kruse from displaying his profound asshattery skills. Robert takes him apart here:
Michael Kruse is yet another mainstream media pseudo-journalist who relentlessly pursues a politically correct multiculturalist agenda, and the facts be damned. You can see previous discussion of this "reporter's" casual acquaintance with the truth here.
Yesterday in the St. Petersburg Times he continued his campaign to discredit Rifqa Bary, the girl who says her father threatened to kill her for converting from Islam to Christianity, and her defenders. A girl's life is a stake, but who cares? The gods of political correctness must be appeased.
"How real are runaway's fears?," by Michael Kruse for the St. Petersburg Times, September 19 (thanks to Kinana):
Will religious runaway Rifqa Bary be killed if she's sent home to Ohio?
Bary is the 17-year-old girl who fled to Florida in July because she's terrified that her Muslim family has to murder her due to her conversion to Christianity.
Authorities in both states say there's no "credible" threat against her. Investigators from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement say her fear is "subjective and speculative." Her parents say they don't want to hurt her and just want her back.
On the FDLE report, see this analysis of its many flaws by a veteran FBI agent. As for what her parents say, what does anyone realistically expect them to say? Even if everything Rifqa Bary has said that they said to her is true, does Michael Kruse, or the FDLE, or the Governor of Ohio, or anyone else actually think that they're going to say, "Yes, of course we want to kill her, now send her back to us so that we can slit her throat!"? Also, other fathers who have threatened to kill their daughters have lured them back home with assurances that all is forgiven -- only to murder them when they return. These include Yaser Said, the father of Amina and Sarah Said, who were murdered in Texas on New Year's Day 2008, and Mohammed Parvez, father of Aqsa Parvez, who was murdered in Canada in 2007. Do we really want to take that kind of a chance with Rifqa Bary's life?
She's living with a foster family as a court in Orlando tries to decide what to do with her. The next hearing is Monday afternoon. Attorneys for her parents are expected to argue that the case should be shifted to Ohio.
This is a good time to pause for a bit and take another look at her Aug. 10 interview with local TV. It remains this ongoing story's primary source.
"I'm fighting for my life!" she said in her nearly seven-minute interview with Orlando's WFTV. "You guys don't understand!"
Let's understand then.
• • •
"Imagine the honor in killing me," she said. "It's in the Koran."
It's not. Here's what is.
Note that this supposedly "objective" journalist does not simply report -- as would a genuinely objective journalist -- that some people say that the Koran mandates the killing of apostates and that some people say it doesn't. Instead, he sets himself up as judge in the case and decides it all for you. To be sure, he trots out witnesses in his show trial, including me, but he has already delivered his verdict: Is the death penalty for apostates in the Koran? "It's not."
One verse: "If any of you turn back from their faith and die in unbelief, their works will bear no fruit in this life and in the Hereafter; they will be companions of the Fire and will abide therein."
Another verse: "If they turn renegades, seize them and slay them wherever ye find them."
Those are parts of the two verses Robert Spencer cites to support his belief that Bary will be killed because Islam says she must be killed.
I don't think Rifqa Bary "will be killed because Islam says she must be killed." That would be asinine, and I expect Kruse knows that. I think Rifqa Bary might be killed because she says that her father said he would kill her, and because there is abundant support in Islam for the idea that apostates should be killed. Michael Kruse wants to gamble with her life. I don't.
In a word, dumbfounded. There is no logic to this. In league with the butchers.... No one has the right to throw away centuries of blood, toil, advancement, sweat, tears to the dustbin of history. No one. Civilized man vs the savage.
Once again we see just how backwards things in the UK are. Last week the Manchester Council was calling for an upcoming anti-Islam protest to be canceled. Now two Christians have been arrested for discussing Islam with a Muslim. Apparently non-Muslims there now have restrictions on their free speech, while Muslims can openly call for holy war.
Christian hotel owners hauled before court after defending their beliefs in discussion with Muslim guest By JONATHAN PETRE 20th September 2009
A Christian couple have been charged with a criminal offence after taking part in what they regarded as a reasonable discussion about religion with guests at their hotel.
Ben and Sharon Vogelenzang were arrested after a Muslim woman complained to police that she had been offended by their comments.
They have been charged under public order laws with using 'threatening, abusive or insulting words' that were 'religiously aggravated'.
The couple, whose trial has been set for December, face a fine of up to £5,000 and a criminal record if they are convicted.
Although the facts are disputed, it is thought that during the conversation the couple were challenged over their Christian beliefs.
It is understood that they suggested that Mohammed, the founder of Islam, was a warlord and that traditional Muslim dress for women was a form of bondage.
They deny, however, that their comments were threatening and argue that they had every right to defend and explain their beliefs.
Mrs Vogelenzang, 54, who has run the Bounty House Hotel near Aintree racecourse in Liverpool with her husband Ben, 53, for six years, said: 'Nothing like this has happened to us before. We are completely shocked.'
She added that the episode had damaged their business and they had been forced to lay off staff and run the nine-bedroom hotel by themselves, leaving them exhausted.
Sources said that a number of guests staying at the hotel, which charges £92 a night for a double room, were having breakfast in its restaurant on March 20 when comments were made about religion.
One of those involved was the Muslim woman, who was staying at the hotel while she received treatment at a hospital nearby.
The couple, who are members of the Bootle Christian Fellowship, and their solicitor, David Whiting, said they could not discuss the content of the conversation for legal reasons. But the independent lobby group, the Christian Institute, which has seen both the prosecution and defence legal papers, is supporting their defence.
Mr Whiting, who last year successfully defended street preacher Anthony Rollins in Birmingham, said: 'There is a dispute as to the facts of the allegations, but Ben and Sharon do not accept they were threatening, abusive or insulting.
'They are committed Christians and it is the defence's contention that they have every right to defend their religious beliefs and explain those beliefs to others who do not hold similar views.'
The Queen deigns to shop! But seriously, this is all very ugly, on par with Obama's NYC date that cost upwards of a cool million. Can you feel their hate? Rick over at Brutally Honest:
Let's say you're preparing dinner and you realize with dismay that you don't have any certified organic Tuscan kale. What to do?
Here's how Michelle Obama handled this very predicament Thursday afternoon:
The Secret Service and the D.C. police brought in three dozen vehicles and shut down H Street, Vermont Avenue, two lanes of I Street and an entrance to the McPherson Square Metro station. They swept the area, in front of the Department of Veterans Affairs, with bomb-sniffing dogs and installed magnetometers in the middle of the street, put up barricades to keep pedestrians out, and took positions with binoculars atop trucks. Though the produce stand was only a block or so from the White House, the first lady hopped into her armored limousine and pulled into the market amid the wail of sirens.
Then, and only then, could Obama purchase her leafy greens. "Now it's time to buy some food," she told several hundred people who came to watch. "Let's shop!"
Cowbells were rung. Somebody put a lei of marigolds around Obama's neck. The first lady picked up a straw basket and headed for the "Farm at Sunnyside" tent, where she loaded up with organic Asian pears, cherry tomatoes, multicolored potatoes, free-range eggs and, yes, two bunches of Tuscan kale. She left the produce with an aide, who paid the cashier as Obama made her way back to the limousine.
There's nothing like the simple pleasures of a farm stand to return us to our agrarian roots.
The first lady had encouraged Freshfarm Markets, the group that runs popular farmers markets in Dupont Circle and elsewhere, to set up near the White House, and she helped get the approvals to shut down Vermont Avenue during rush hour on Thursdays. But the result was quite the opposite of a quaint farmers market. Considering all the logistics, each tomato she purchased had a carbon footprint of several tons.
The promotion of organic and locally grown food, though an admirable cause, is a risky one for the Obamas, because there's a fine line between promoting healthful eating and sounding like a snob.
I think this is an apt metaphor for the 44th presidency. Not that I mean to insult vegetable gardeners, but it seems to me an imbalanced lifestyle has been embraced, one devoted to the lifestyle of a vegetable gardener who possesses vast holdings of land, but is obsessed only with that one damn garden. Pull the weeds, spray the weeds, fertilize the vegetables, plant the vegetables, harvest the vegetables…from the moment the gardener rises in the morning, until he puts his weary head down for the night. Just stay fixated on image, image, image the way the gardener remains fixated on the garden.
Elsewhere, there are bridges that need mending…and fences too. There are taxes to be paid on owning the land. There is a house to be painted with a roof that needs patching. Babies with dirty wet butts that need changing. Meals to be cooked, and after that's done, dishes to be washed and ovens to be cleaned. And on the far corner of the property a pack of wild coyotes is making inroads, doing their scavenging and fornicating and pooping and yelling. As they get bolder, they're going to start carrying off things like kittens and puppies, then work their way up the babies.
There's sh*t to be taken care off. All over that spread.
But no. Nothing matters except the vegetable garden of public image. So get someone on the phone with Chris Wallace to do some whining.
Nailed. Totally.
Nothing matters except the vegetable garden of public image.
Morgan once again sez in few words what would take others (including me) many, many more. And he complements Dana Milbank quite nicely.
It is poetic justice that the Aqsa Parvez Peace Park was dedicated on the 18th (18 is chai or "life" in Hebrew) of September, erev Rosh Hashanah. Wild. I am sure the city organizers had no clue, but for me it is .....providential.
It is just beautiful ..............
Aqsa ...........remembered and free. The journey to this moment is here.
Photo hat tips: Scott Macleod and Norm Traversy
Firechief Scott Macleod made these remarks. G-d bless the good people of Pelham.
Aqsa Parvez Memorial
I would like to thank the people here today on behalf of Pelham, who are assisting us in the dedication of this memorial bench.
We believe that this memorial and the ideology behind it, is a demonstration of values which we as a town and country hold dear.
Personally I am extremely proud that this event is taking place in Pelham Ontario. We consider ourselves to be the town in the heart of Niagara, with a big heart.
I could dwell on the events which caused us to create this memorial; however I believe it is more fitting to celebrate the Life of Aqsa, rather than her death.
There have been true hero's in this story who have shaped the efforts to make this possible.
The first are Pamela Geller & Robert Spencer who created the fund which made this possible, Norman & Sandra Traversy who worked so hard in Mississauga.
My personal Hero's are the members of the Town Council in Pelham who approved this memorial without hesitation.
I would also like to thank the numerous people who came forward with assistance & donations to make this event possible.
I will finish my statement with a paraphrase of a poem which I believe fits this all our friends and Aqsa.
THEY SHALL WALK BEYOND THE CRYSTAL MOUNTAIN
THEY SHALL BE LIFTED ON THE SHOULDERS OF ANGELS
THEIR STORIES WILL BE TOLD IN THEIR HOMELANDS
AND THEY SHALL REST IN PEACE.
RECOGNIZED BY THE TALLY OF THEIR DEEDS
GOD SHALL STAND BESIDE THEM FOR ALL ETERNITY
FOR THEY HAVE ENTERED INTO THE REALM OF HONOR
Thank you
There were speeches by Chief McLeod, and the Mayor. CBC, the Toronto Sun, the Guelph Mercury and the local papers were all invited.
Here's a doctor's common sense solution to Obama's nationalised health care debacle. The good doctor provides real answers. Of course, I don't believe Obama is looking for any such thing. He wants to control 20% of the nation's economy. Period. It's all about control, autocracy and "change".
Medicine is the keystone of the arch of socialism - Lenin
Dr. C. L. Gray, President, Physicians for Reform, (above left), writes exclusively for Atlas. Send it to your Congressmen, Senators, Representatives, etc. If they have a genuine bone in their body, they can't say no.
A SEASON FOR CHANGE
For months now President Obama has extolled the virtues of choice and competition—two free market principles essential for efficiency in healthcare. In fact, these two principles comprise the sum total of the President's argument for the public option. However, there is a problem—we now find stalemate in Congress.
Nancy Pelosi states the House won't pass a bill without the public option; the Senate doesn't have votes to pass a bill with one. And the longer the debate goes on, the less average Americans like what they see. Opposition to the President's healthcare plan now stands at an all time high. Perhaps we need a change of plans.
Physicians for Reform, a coalition of working physicians, patients, and business leaders, proposes an alternative, common sense solution. It is not ours. It is not even new. Bob Moffit wrote about it three years ago and it was not even new then. Mr. President, if you believe so strongly in the principles of choice and competition, introduce them. Let individuals and businesses purchase insurance across state lines.
With one, simple, 25-page bill—no pork, no slight-of-hand, written with clarity the average American can understand—we can have choice and competition without adding a dime to the federal deficit or asking for a penny of new taxes. Mr. President, in your national address before a joint session of Congress you invited alternative ideas. If this debate is really about patient care and not about politics and power, why not endorse such a bill? When Wolf Blitzer posed this question to David Axelrod, one of your top advisors, even Mr. Axelrod could find no objection. In this age of political stalemate there are few ideas that share such consensus.
No, this one idea won't solve all of the problems with America's healthcare system. In fact, Physicians for Reform has laid out four such foundational reforms along with seven secondary reforms. But let's slow down, take them one at a time, and let each idea stand on its merits.
Letting individuals and businesses purchase insurance across state lines would impact the economy far beyond healthcare. True choice and competition would lower the cost of health insurance for many American businesses. This in turn would lower overhead letting businesses either increase wages or hire new people. Given our economic downturn and rising unemployment, there are few alternative ideas that would stimulate the economy more effectively without costing the Federal government another dime.
Mr. President, you invited alternative ideas. America awaits your response.
The sign reads: PLEASE RESTRAIN YOURSELF FROM KILLING US. THANK YOU. THE PEOPLE OF IRAN
Photo hat tip Banafsheh
Congressional Research Service report--May 19, 2009--Obama has hung the Iranian democracy protesters out to dry in the 2010 budget.
Wicked.
Page 44: As shown, $67 million has been appropriated for Iran democracy promotion ($19.6 million through DRL and $48.6 million through the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs/USAID).
Of that, as of October 2008, $42.7 million has been obligated, and $20.8 million disbursed. Additional funds, discussed in the chart below, have been appropriated for cultural exchanges, public diplomacy, and broadcasting to Iran.
However, the Obama Administration did not request funding for democracy promotion in Iran in its FY2010 budget request, an indication that the new Administration views this effort as inconsistent with its belief in dialogue with Iran.
The Bush Administration characterized Iran as a "profound threat to U.S. national security interests," a perception generated primarily by Iran's nuclear program and its military assistance to armed groups in Iraq and Afghanistan, to the Palestinian group Hamas, and to Lebanese Hezbollah. The U.S. approach was to try to prevent a nuclear breakout by Iran by applying multilateral economic pressure on Iran while also offering it potential cooperation should it comply with the international demands to suspend its enrichment of uranium. Multilateral efforts to pressure Iran include three U.N. Security Council resolutions (1737, 1747, and 1803) that ban weapons of mass destruction (WMD)-related trade with Iran; freeze the assets of Iran's nuclear and related entities and personalities; prevent Iran from transferring arms outside Iran; ban or require reporting on international travel by named Iranians; call for inspections of some Iranian sea and airborne cargo shipments; and call for restrictions on dealings with some Iranian banks. Separate U.S. efforts to persuade European governments to curb trade, investment, and credits to Iran; and to convince foreign banks not to do business with Iran, began to weaken Iran's economy, compounding the effect of a sharp drop in oil prices since mid-2008. To strengthen its approach, the Bush Administration maintained a substantial naval presence in the Persian Gulf, which U.S. commanders insist would prevent any Iranian attempts to close the crucial Strait of Hormuz for any extended period.
The Obama Administration has not pushed assertively for new sanctions, pending the results of its outreach to Iran. However, Administration officials says they might renew that focus if Iran does not show signs of willingness to compromise, perhaps by the fall of 2009. Bills in the 111th Congress, such as H.R. 2194 and S. 908, would tighten U.S. sanctions on Iran by amending the Iran Sanctions Act. These bills contain provisions similar to those of several bills in the 110th Congress, including H.R. 1400, S. 970, S. 3227, S. 3445, and H.R. 7112.
Uh, what happened to Obama's September deadline?
[....]
The latest State Department human rights report (released February 25, 2009), the 2008 State Department "religious freedom" report (released September 19, 2008), and a report by the U.N. Secretary General on October 1, 2008, cite Iran for widespread serious abuses, including unjust executions, politically motivated abductions by security forces, torture, arbitrary arrest and detention, and arrests of women's rights activists.
The State Department human rights reports said the government's "poor human rights record worsened" during 2008. The Secretary General's report later became the basis of a U.N. General Assembly resolution, finalized on December 18, 2008 by a vote of 69-54, citing Iran for these abuses and calling on it to allow visits by U.N. personnel investigating the status of human rights practices in Iran. Subsequent to the passage of the resolution, Iranian authorities raided the Tehran office of the Center for Defenders of Human Rights, headed by Nobel Peace Prize laureate (2003) and Iran human rights activist lawyer Shirin Abadi.
[...]
Women Regime strictly enforcing requirement that women fully cover themselves in public, generally with a garment called a chador, including through detentions. In March 2007, the regime arrested 31 women activists who were protesting the arrest in 2006 of several other women's rights activists; all but 3 of the 31 were released by March 9. In May 2006, the Majles passed a bill calling for increased public awareness of Islamic dress, an apparent attempt to persuade women not to wear Western fashion.
Human Trafficking The June 4, 2008 (latest annual),
State Department "Trafficking in Persons" report continues to place Iran in Tier 3 (worst level) for failing to take action to prevent trafficking in persons. Girls purportedly are trafficked for sexual exploitation within Iran and from Iran to Turkey, Pakistan, and the Gulf states.
Juvenile Executions Iran has executed six persons under the age of 18 in 2008.
No other country has executed juvenile offenders in 2008. As a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Reights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Iran is obligated to abolish such executions.
And this interesting tidbit----page 56
Among those that have pulled out of Iran are UBS and Credit Suisse (Switzerland), HSBC (Britain), Germany's Commerzbank A.G and Deutsche Bank.
Note: Nemazee, a fund-raiser for Barack Obama ...... who was charged last month with defrauding Citigroup Inc (C.N.), is being sued by HSBC (HSBA.L) for deceiving it into lending him $100 million.
The lawsuit filed in New York State Supreme Court in early September accused private equity firm head Hassan Nemazee, 59, of engaging in an elaborate scheme to make HSBC Bank USA believe that its loan was secured by collateral in the form of U.S. Treasury Notes when it was not.
Nemazee, who sits on the board of the Iranian American Political Action Committee, typically donates more than $100,000 annually to Democratic political candidates.
This is rich. really rich. Remember I reported on the mass slaughter of pigs in Egypt because of "swine" flu. I know, geniuses. Public health experts said it was a "misguided attempt to combat swine flu". The video was appalling.
Well anyway, now that they killed the pigs, there is no animal up to the task of devouring Egyptian garbage. No, seriously.
CAIRO — It is unlikely anyone has ever come to this city and commented on how clean the streets are. But this litter-strewn metropolis is now wrestling with a garbage problem so severe it has managed to incite its weary residents and command the attention of the president.
"The problem is clear in the streets," said Haitham Kamal, a spokesman for the Ministry of State for Environmental Affairs. "There is a strict and intensive effort now from the state to address this issue."
I love a good speech, don't you? I am so sick and tired of Obama's endless rant of vanity speeches, every day. Dear leader needs his daily fix of faux adulation ............... So it is refreshing times ten when someone makes a speech that matters, that says something. And who else but our modern day Churchill?
It is over. This government has run aground, like an old car that got stuck in loose sand. It still squeaks a little, it cracks. Anyone can see that the little creature will never move one meter again. The battery is dead. It's all over. Madam Chairman, it would be laughable if it were not for the future of the Netherlands. Then you could make fun of that little club of helpless people who stare out through the misty windscreen, hoping there is someone who can tell them which way to go. They know themselves that if you look closely, it is way past saving. That they only made the wrong decisions and did not take note of the little sign: "swamp to the left".
Then they did turn left. Because their ideological GPS is programmed to only turn "left" ever since the sixties. They cannot do anything else. Wouter [Bos, Vice PM, Finance Minister PvdA, Socialist] behind the wheel, Andre [Rouwvoet, Youth and Family Minister CU, Christian Union] in the baby seat, and to Jan Peter [Balkenende, PM CDA, Christian Democrat] anything is okay as long as his party gets to stay in the front seat. [V1] They tried to throw some ballast overboard. Mrs. Vogelaar [former Integration Minister PvdA, Socialist] was tied to a tree.
Aboutaleb [Moroccan-Dutch mayor of Rotterdam PvdA, Socialist] got out in Rotterdam with all his passports. Van Geel [fraction leader CDA] would have preferred to take the turn to Brabant to become the Queen's Governor there. Jan Peter [Balkenende] cries out all the time: "I want to go to Brussels!", and the Al Gore parrot, Miss Cramer [Environment and Housing Minister PvdA, Socialist] trumpets from the back seat: "Not too fast, that is bad for the polar bears!" The only route the PvdA is proposing is to do a few turns around the [Amsterdam] canals.
Prime Minister, please just stop with this. Send that rusty piece of junk to the junkyard. Collect the scrap fee. It makes no sense anymore. There is only one reason why the government ["Cabinet", coalition government] continues stumbling: that is out of fear of elections.
[....]
Madam Chairman, this government, this elite does not have even the slightest will to oppose Islamization. No, it looks to it as a great enrichment of the Dutch landscape. All those snug mosques, those cute headscarves, those cozy burkas. Yes, the Netherlands really becomes more beautiful with that. Here and there from time to time some are left dead, or some are raped, and eventually our country will go bankrupt. But all that may not spoil the fun. Only a grumbler would pay attention to that. Just have patience for a little while, because we await the Islamic Utopia.
Madam Chairman, a better environment begins with yourself. Many Dutch are irritated by the pollution of public space by Islam. In other words, our streets in some places are increasingly looking like Mecca and Tehran. Scarves, hate-beards, burkas, men in long weird white frocks. Let us do something about that. Let us start to reconquer our streets, and ensure that the Netherlands will look like the Netherlands again.
Those headscarves are a true sign of oppression of women, of subjugation, of conquest. It is a symbol of an ideology that is out there to colonize us. Therefore: it is time for a big spring-cleaning of our streets. If our new Dutch citizens want so badly to show their love for that seventh-century desert ideology, then they should rather comfortably do that in a Muslim country, but not here, not in our country.
Madam Chairman, this country has an excise tax on petrol and diesel, it has parking permits and a dog-tax, it has an airline ticket tax and has a packaging tax, so why not tax the headscarf? A Head Rag Tax. Just pick up a license once a year and immediately pay for it in cash. €1000 a year [$1500] seems like a tidy sum to me. Then we will finally get some money back out of what has cost us so much. I would say: the polluter has to pay. My question: is the government prepared to introduce a headscarf-tax?
Madam Chairman, the government refuses to tell the citizen what mass immigration and the presence of non-western immigrants costs us. The government refused to answer our questions on this. Fortunately we know approximately what this joke costs us. The Dutch weekly Elsevier did a calculation and came up with over two hundred billion euros. To be precise: 216 billion euros [$318 billion]. For this year alone that already means nearly 13 billion euros [$20 billion].
But, Madam Chairman, this government does not want to know it. "For we aren't going to calculate how much the elderly cost us, either," the government says. How is it we do not know how much an elderly person costs? Someone in a nursing home costs €165 a day, a prisoner €192 and a TBSer €476 euros. But when it comes to the electoral cattle of the Socialist Party [PvdA] then suddenly it is: all eyes closed and all peckers tight. Then the truth has to remain under the hood. When it comes to immigration, that information suddenly almost seems a state secret. And this while immigration is the result of government policy, the result of the decision to open the locks wide.
Madam Chairman, The Netherlands has approximately one million Muslims. Many of them are immigrants. And none of those really came over here out of love for the Netherlands. They did not really come en masse to the Netherlands because they find it such a fabulous country with all those unbelievers, all those kaffirs. What did they come over for then? Well, for state benefits, for instance. And before you attack me on this, I am not the only one who says this. GreenLeft MP Tofik Dibi recently said that young people in Morocco view the Netherlands as a utopia where you can get free benefits. A takeaway counter for free money, as I understand it. In short, they come here out of an economic calculation. Over there penniless, here a fat benefit.
Madam Chairman, is it such a surprise then, that we start to wonder how much that leftist hobby costs us? That we carry out an economic calculation? If they do it, why can't we? The message of the government is: you pay and you shut up, and you know what? The immigration party must go on, you just are going to enjoy working two years longer for it [past your pension year]. Two years of toiling and sweating, to finance Islamization. What a vision!
President Obama's worn all these hats since taking office. Now he's assuming a new role: media critic.
The president of the United States used the Sunday morning talk shows to broadly scold the news media for playing up what he called "rude" and "outrageous" political comments, and urge the 24-hour news networks to consider giving more of a platform to those who demonstrate decency and civility.
Obama blanketed the airwaves Sunday, appearing on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and the Hispanic network Univision in a bid to promote his health care plan. But he also very deliberately used the unprecedented media blitz to chide those journalists who cover him, delivering a similar lecture on every network except Univision about the importance of changing the way media prioritize stories.
"The easiest way to get on television right now is to be really rude. If you're just being sensible and giving people the benefit of the doubt, and you're making your arguments, you don't get time on the nightly news," Obama said on ABC's "This Week."
"You might on Sunday morning," host George Stephanopoulos countered -- to which Obama said, "But if you say something outrageous, you're there in a hot second."
He continued that thought on NBC's "Meet the Press."
"The easiest way to get 15 minutes on the news or your 15 minutes of fame is to be rude. ... That's something that I think needs to change," Obama said, lamenting the habit of "plucking out a sentence here or a comment there."
The president was evidently agitated by the coverage the media have given to stories that sprouted as a result of Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., shouting, "You lie," at Obama during his health care address to a joint session of Congress more than a week ago. Coverage of the outburst seemed to overshadow coverage of Obama's health care plan itself, and later evolved into coverage of racial controversy after several prominent Democrats, including former President Jimmy Carter, claimed critics like Wilson were racially motivated.
"The media loves to have a conversation about race," Obama noted on NBC. "This is catnip to the media because it is a running thread in American history that is very powerful and it evokes some very strong emotion."
Obama dealt with a similar media furor over race in July after he waded -- to his detriment -- into the case of a black Harvard professor who was arrested at his house by a white Cambridge police officer. Obama said the police "acted stupidly," but following enormous uproar walked back his statement and played peacemaker by inviting the officer and professor to the White House for a beer.
Dealing again with the issue, the first black U.S. president made clear Sunday that, while some of his critics and supporters surely are motivated by race, most of them are not.
And he urged the media to look for less controversial content, offering somewhat of a wish list on CNN's "State of the Union."
"I think it's important for the media -- you know, not to do any media-bashing here -- to recognize that right now, in this 24-hour news cycle, the easiest way to get on CNN or FOX or any of the other stations -- MSNBC -- is to just say something rude and outrageous," Obama said. "And, you know, part of what I'd like to see is all of us reward decency and civility in our political discourse. That doesn't mean you can't be passionate, and that doesn't mean that you can't speak your mind. But I think we can all sort of take a step back here and remind ourselves who we are as a people."
The president squeezed in the same point on CBS' "Face the Nation," accusing the media of viewing "extreme elements" and "conflict" as "catnip."
"Meet the Press" host David Gregory subtly pointed out the irony of appearing on five Sunday shows, which gave him an extensive platform to discuss substance and policy, in order to denounce TV news.
"You get a lot of air time too, though, and your views are not rude," Gregory said.
"I do occupy a pretty special seat at the moment," Obama conceded.
House Republican Leader John Boehner, though, disputed Obama's assertion that "rude" voices are dominating the debate.
"I don't know that the tone of the debate has gotten out of control. It's been spirited," Boehner said on NBC. And he blamed Democrats for prolonging the controversy over Wilson and race, since Democratic leaders drew out the conflict with a vote on the House floor to formally admonish Wilson -- even after he apologized to the White House.
"It didn't need to happen. It was over with. As the president said, it's time to talk about health care, not talk about Joe Wilson," Boehner said.
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You just spent $20,000,000 to move members/supporters of Hamas, a terrorist organization, to the United States ; housing, food, the whole enchilada. HB 1388 PASSED
Whether you are an Obama fan, or not, EVERYONE IN THE U. S. needs to know....
Something happened.... H.R. 1388 was passed, behind our backs. You may want to read about it.. It wasn't mentioned on the news.. just went by on the ticker tape at the bottom of the CNN screen.
Obama funds $20M in tax payer dollars to immigrate Hamas Refugees to the USA . This is the news that didn't make the headlines...
By executive order, President Barack Obama has ordered the expenditure of $20.3 million in "migration assistance" to the Palestinian refugees and "conflict victims" in Gaza ..
The "presidential determination", which allows hundreds of thousands of Palestinians with ties to Hamas to resettle in the United States , was signed and appears in the Federal Register.
Few on Capitol Hill, or in the media, took note that the order provides a free ticket replete with housing and food allowances to individuals who have displayed their overwhelming support to the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in the parliamentary election of January 2006.
Let's review....itemized list of some of Barack Obama ' s most recent actions since his inauguration:
His first call to any head of state, as president, was to Mahmoud Abbas, leader of Fatah party in the Palestinian territory.
His first one-on-one television interview with any news organization was with Al Arabia television.
His first executive order was to fund/facilitate abortion(s) not just here within the U. S. , but within the world, using U. S. tax payer funds.
He ordered GuantanamoBay closed and all military trials of detainees halted.
He ordered overseas CIA interrogation centers closed.
He withdrew all charges against the masterminds behind the USS Cole and the "terror attack" on 9/11.
Now we learn that he is allowing hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refuges to move to, and live in, the US at American taxpayer expense.
These important, and insightful, issues are being "lost" in the blinding bail-outs and "stimulation" packages.
President Barack Obama will need some fancy footwork next week as he tries to dodge the dictators during his first-ever visit to the United Nations.
Stung by GOP criticism of his Hugo Chavez grip-and-grin in April, Obama doesn't need the political fallout from any more cozy encounters or smiling snapshots with anti-American rivals.
At this year´s U.N. meeting, Libyan President Muammar Qadhafi and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are two leaders Obama would likely prefer not be on his dance card. Chavez, the fiery Venezuelan president, and Zimbabwe's leader Robert Mugabe also will be there.
But avoiding an insistent suitor at the bustling U.N. headquarters can be difficult - despite the painstaking efforts aides sometimes take to send a U.S. president down a different hallway, or into a different corner of a meeting hall to avoid unwelcome diplomatic advances.
The bad news for Obama is that it´ll be hard to avoid Qadhafi next week. The United States is heading up the U.N. Security Council, while Libya currently holds the presidency of the U.N. General Assembly. That means Qadhafi is scheduled to speak immediately after Obama on Wednesday morning, and the two men could meet in a green room of sorts just off the floor.
Later Wednesday, there is a lunch sponsored by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, and that´s where U.S. presidents and their aides have had to be most vigilant for unwanted diplomatic advances.
Obama shook hands with Qadhafi in June at the G-8 economic summit in Italy. However, since then U.S.-Libyan relations were strained by Qadhafi's decision to celebrate Scotland's release of Pan Am 103 bomber Abdel Megrahi. Despite U.S. demands that there be no festivities surrounding Megrahi's return to Libya, Qadhafi went to the airport to hug the ex-prisoner and join in the hero's welcome.
And then there's Ahmadinejad. Obama famously said during the presidential campaign that he'd negotiate with the Iranian leader "without preconditions" - but the White House rejected talk of an Obama-Ahmadinejad tete-a-tete in New York, though a U.S. representative will take part in broader negotiations with the Iranians Oct. 1.
Asked how Obama might respond to a greeting from Ahmadinejad or Qadhafi, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice punted.
"I don't want to presage or guess what they might say or what would be the appropriate response. That's in the realm of the hypothetical," she told reporters Friday at a White House briefing.
Rice said she doubted Obama and the Iranian president would come face-to-face, but she acknowledged that avoiding face time with Qadhafi may be impossible, at least this year.
"With respect to the Iranian leader, I don't think there's much likelihood that there will be an interaction. There's no obvious venue in which that would occur, and certainly we have no meetings or anything of the sort planned," Rice said. "With respect to Qadhafi, Libya holds a seat at present on the United Nations Security Council, and Libya will be present at the Security Council summit."
Though he's been in office for only eight months, Obama has already caught political flak three times for his close-quarters interactions with foreign leaders.
At a G-20 economic summit in London in April, TV cameras captured Obama appearing to bow as he took the hand of Saudi King Abdullah. The video went viral on the Internet, prompting the White House to deny that Obama kowtowed to the Saudi monarch.
The Chavez moment came at a summit in the Caribbean later that month, when Obama shook hands with the Venezuelan president and pictures captured wide smiles on both men´s faces. Later, Chavez sought out Obama at the same summit and handed him an anti-American book. Obama called the gift a "nice gesture," but critics pilloried him for being chummy with a leader who once referred to President George W. Bush as "the devil."
And in July, photographers snapped shots of Obama's handshake with Qadhafi.
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Report: Obama Urges Governor Paterson To Drop 2010 Bid
Governor David Paterson says he hasn't changed plans to run for a full term next year, despite reports President Obama is urging him to abandon the election bid.
Governor Paterson put on a defiant face Sunday, insisting he is going to run for office in 2010.
"I have said time and again that I'm running for governor next year," Paterson said.
Paterson did not confirm nor deny reports that the Obama Administration has asked him to sit out the race. The governor said he has not talked with the president, but admitted to having discussions with other people about his future.
"I have had a number of different conversations with a number of people. They were confidential and I'm not going to discuss them," Paterson said.
The governor addressed the stunning news at a short press conference Sunday that was as chaotic as his political life.
In the last year, Paterson has seen his poll numbers drop to record lows. And now, the nation's first black president reportedly fears the state's first black governor could lose to a Republican and bring down other state Democrats in the process.
There are concerns both in New York and in Washington, D.C. about Paterson's ability to govern. Those concerns became glaring during the circus-like selection process to replace Hillary Clinton in the U.S. Senate.
Obama's friend, Caroline Kennedy, had lobbied for the job, but Paterson chose upstate Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand in the end.
The decision reportedly strained his relationship with the White House, as did Paterson's recent comments about racial bias in the media.
President Obama's involvement in the race could give Democrats a reason to back State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who is said to be thinking about running for governor.
Governor Paterson and the president will come face to face Monday, when Obama travels to upstate New York to give a speech on the economy.
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The man at the center of a terror investigation in the city and in Denver, Colorado was arrested Saturday night on charges he lied to federal investigators.
Najibullah Zazi, 24, and his father, Mohammed Wali Zazi, 53, were arrested by federal agents late Saturday at their suburban Denver homes.
A third man, Ahmad Wais Afzali, 37, of Flushing, was also arrested.
The Justice Department says all three are charged with making false statements to federal agents in an ongoing terror investigation.
The three men are all expected to appear in federal court Monday, and each faces eight years behind bars if convicted.
The arrests came hours after Najibullah Zazi canceled a fourth meeting with the FBI to talk with his lawyer instead.
Authorities say Zazi rented a car and drove from Denver to New York, arriving in the city on September 10th.
According to federal affidavits, investigators say a September 11th search of Zazi's rental car in New York turned up a laptop computer that contained an image of notes which included instructions about building explosives.
But the documents say when confronted with the notes, Zazi told agents he didn't write them.
Law enforcement officials tell ABC News a computer belonging to Zazi showed he had researched baseball and football stadiums along with some sites being used for Fashion Week.
ABC also says text messages were sent indicating a plot was nearing the attack phase.
Reports say Zazi had cell phone video of Grand Central Terminal, but a federal official warns there is no specific terror threat or target.
Officials raided three homes in the Queens neighborhood where Zazi had been staying -- one of them belonging to Naiz Kahn, who doesn't believe he is linked to a terror group.
"I don't think so but I know him if somebody comes to mosque, you know our culture, people come to mosque and you talk to them: hi, how are you? And you don't know what he's up to," Kahn said.
Zazi's defense team has repeatedly dismissed reports that indicated he is directly linked with al-Qaida.
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NoNAIS.org has posted a new item, 'TX Commission' Promoted from comment of esbee:
Here is the texas 13-member commission appointed by the governor. perhaps we texans and others can write to them to somehow influence them to find someone with sense who does not worship the great god nais and drink the naisty koolaid...i am sure, knowing how politicks works, they are probably [...] You may view the latest post at http://NoNAIS.org/2009/09/20/tx-commission/
New Documents posted September 18, 2009 1-800-392-8683 www.nraila.org
Please forward this information to your family, friends, and fellow gun owners!
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Many Mayors Hear Your Voice
Grassroots politics is alive and well in the United States, as gun owners have been making their voices heard to their mayors. In the past few weeks, gun owners have been contacting their mayors who joined New York Mayor Michael Bloombergs anti-gun group, Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG). Read More
NRA-Backed Wicker Amendment Adopted By Senate
During consideration of H.R. 3288 (FY 2010 Transportation--Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill), Senator Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) offered NRA-backed Amendment 2366 to reform policies regarding the transportation of firearms on Amtrak trains. Currently, passengers who choose to travel by passenger rail in the United States cannot transport a firearm in checked baggage as they can on airlines. Read More
Tennessee: Bartlett City Council Attempting to Opt-Out of New Park Carry Law!
The Aldermen of Bartlett will soon consider an ordinance which would ban the possession of firearms in local parks, even by those who possess Right-to-Carry permits. Read More
Tennessee: Knoxville City Council Could Overturn Long-Standing Ban on Guns in City Parks!
On Thursday, September 3, the Knoxville City Council held a work session regarding the removal of a long-time ban on the possession of firearms within city parks. Read More
Gun control mainly about the control - The Journal Gazette/ Times-Courier (Illinois) In summary, all of this proposed additional legislation is not about gun control. Its not about guns for hunting or personal protection. Its not about ammunition. Its not about reducing violent crime. Its not about protecting children. Its not about animal rights. Its not about hunting. It is about control! It makes all of us more dependent on government and less self-sufficient. Read More | Read Other News
Tennessee: Right-to-Carry in parks still debated in Knoxville - Knoxnews Council members are set to take the first of two votes Tuesday on a proposed repeal of the citys long-standing ban on firearms in city parks a move championed by local gun-rights advocates. Read More | Read Other News
California: NRA takes aim at Modesto Mayor - The Modesto Bee The NRA has warned Modesto Mayor Jim Ridenour's constituents about his involvement with Michael Bloomberg's Mayors against Illegal Guns coalition. Read More | Read Other News
Massachusetts: Fitchburg police reviewing carry permits - The Sentinel and Enterprise (Fitchburg, Mass.) The Police Department is reviewing all gun licenses in the city. Gun owners may be concerned about protecting their licenses to carry concealed weapons but Police Chief Robert A. DeMoura claims the measure is to protect the public. Read More | Read Other News
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Today was the second week where Campaign for Liberty coordinator (IOWA) Dr. Drew Ivers and Steve Deace (WHO RADIO 1040AM) took part in a book review. The chapter that was discussed today is Principle #2 "A free people cannot survive under a republican constitution unless they remain virtuous and morally strong."Please find the link below to an audio file with the book review from today. Ivers will be on 1040AM again next Friday 9/25/2009 4:10-5:00ish.
The book that is being discussed for the next 26 weeks is The 5000 Year Leap it is about A Miracle That Changed the World and is authored by W. Cleon Skousen. The book discusses "The 28 Great Ideas That Changed the World". Please see the attached audio file.
Audio from today's book review (5000 Year Leap study 2) can be found at:
"Homosexuality is one of the most disgusting sins and greatest crimes.... It is a vile perversion that goes against sound nature, and is one of the most corrupting and hideous sins.... The punishment for homosexuality is death. Both the active and passive participants are to be killed whether or not they have previously had sexual intercourse in the context of a legal marriage.... Some of the companions of the Prophet stated that [the perpetrator] is to be burned with fire. It has also been said that he should be stoned, or thrown from a high place." Saudi Textbook Jurisprudence (Fiqh)
When Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejadspoke at Columbia University two years ago, declared that there were no Homosexuals in Iran. Many people (including me) thought it a joke. The real reason the Iranian mass-murderer said that there were no Homosexuals in Iran is that being gay in Iran is a capital offense punishable by death.
But its not just Iran and Saudi Arabia, Homosexuality is a crime in most of the fundamental Islamic world
According to a pamphlet produced by Al-Fatiha, there is a consensus among Islamic scholars that all humans are naturally heterosexual. Homosexuality is seen by scholars to be a sinful and perverted deviation from the norm.
All Islamic schools of thought and jurisprudence consider gay acts to be unlawful. The Companions of Prophet Muhammad held various views concerning punishment. The fatwa cited by IslamOnline.net states:
"....this led to different views maintained by Muslim Jurists. For example:
In the Hanafi school of thought, the homosexual is punished through harsh beating, and if he/she repeats the act, death penalty is to be applied.
As for the Shafi`i school of thought, the homosexual receives the same punishment of adultery (if he/she is married) or fornication (if not married). This means, that if the homosexual is married, he/she is stoned to death, while if single, he/she is whipped 100 times.
Truth be told, Islamist society is a homophobic world and its getting worse as more countries are taken over by Muslim fundamentalists:
In most Islamic countries, gay men and women are ostracized, persecuted and in some cases even murdered. Repressive regimes are often fanning the flames of hatred in a bid to outdo Islamists when it comes to spreading "moral panic."
Bearded men kidnapped him in the center of Baghdad, threw him into a dark hole, chained him down, urinated on him, and beat him with an iron pipe. But the worst moment for Hisham, 40, came on the fourth day of his ordeal when the kidnappers called his family. He was terrified they would tell his mother that he is gay and that this was the reason they had kidnapped him. If they did he would never be able to see his family again. The shame would be unbearable for them. "Do what you want to me, but don't tell them," he screamed.
Instead of humiliating him in the eyes of his family, the kidnappers demanded a ransom of $50,000 (€33,000), a huge sum for the average Iraqi family. His parents had to go into debt and sell off all of their son's possessions in order to raise the money required to secure his freedom. Shortly after they received the ransom the kidnappers threw Hisham out of their car somewhere in the northern part of Baghdad. They decided not to shoot him and let him go. But they sent him on his way with a warning: "This is your last chance. If we ever see you again, we'll kill you."
That was four months ago. Hisham has since moved to Lebanon. He told his family that he had decided to flee the violence and terror in Baghdad and that he had found work in Beirut. Needless to say he didn't disclose the fact that he is unable to live in Iraq because of the death squads who are out hunting for "effeminate-looking" men.
In Baghdad a new series of murders began early this year, perpetrated against men suspected of being gay. Often they are raped, their genitals cut off, and their anuses sealed with glue. Their bodies are left at landfills or dumped in the streets. The non-profit organization Human Rights Watch, which has documented many of these crimes, has spoken of a systematic campaign of violence involving hundreds of murders.
Restoring 'Religious Morals'
A video clip showing men dancing with each other at a party in Baghdad in the summer of 2008 is thought to have triggered this string of kidnappings, rapes, and murders. Thousands of people have seen it on the Internet and on their cell phones. Islamic religious leaders began ranting about the growing presence of a "third sex" which American soldiers were said to have brought in with them. The followers of radical Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr, in particular, felt the need to take action aimed at restoring "religious morals."
In their stronghold, the part of Baghdad known as Sadr City, black-clad militiamen patrol the streets, on the lookout for anyone whose "unmanly appearance" or behavior would make it possible to identify them as being homosexual. Often enough long hair, tight-fitting t-shirts and trousers, or a certain way of walking were a death sentence for the persons in question. But it's not just the Mahdi army who has been hunting down and killing gay men. Other groups such as Sunni militias close to al-Qaida and the Iraqi security services are also known to be involved.
Homosexuals in Iraq may be faced with an exceptionally dangerous situation but they are ostracized almost everywhere in the Muslim world. Gay rights organizations estimate that more than 100,000 gay men and women are currently being discriminated against and threatened in Muslim countries. Thousands of them commit suicide, end up in prison, or go into hiding.
Egypts Starts to Clamp Down
More than 30 Islamic countries have laws on the books that prohibit homosexuality and make it a criminal offense. In most cases punishment ranges from floggings to life imprisonment. In Mauritania, Bangladesh, Yemen, parts of Nigeria and Sudan, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Iran convicted homosexuals can also be sentenced to death.
In those Muslim countries where homosexuality is not against the law gay men and women are nonetheless persecuted, arrested, and in some cases murdered. Although long known for its open gay scene, Egypt has recently started to clamp down hard. The lives of homosexuals are monitored by a kind of vice squad who tap telephones and recruit informants. As soon as the police have accumulated the kind of evidence they need they charge their victims with "debauchery."
In Malaysia homosexuality has been used as a political weapon. In 2000 opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim was sentenced to nine years in prison for allegedly committing "sodomy" with his wife's chauffeur as well as with a former speechwriter. In 2004 the conviction was overturned on appeal and he was acquitted. In the summer of 2008 charges were filed against him in a similar case when a male aide accused him of sodomy. The case is still ongoing.
For a while Anwar was the favorite of former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and was being groomed to succeed him in that office until they had a falling out in 1998. Ten years and some prison time later, on August 28, 2008, Anwar managed to be sworn in again as a member of the Malaysian parliament. But that's as far as he has got with his political comeback.
Even in liberal Lebanon homosexuals run the risk of being sentenced to a year in prison. On the other hand, Beirut has the only gay and lesbian organization in the Arab world (Helem, which means 'dream' in Arabic). There are posters on the walls of the Helem office in downtown Beirut providing information on AIDS and tips on how to deal with homophobia. The existence of Helem is being tolerated for the time being but the Interior Ministry has yet to grant it an official permit. "And it's hard to imagine that we ever will be given one," says Georges Azzi, the organization's managing director.
Islamists Are the Dominant Cultural Force
In Istanbul there is a free gay scene, a Christopher Street Day, and even religious Muslims are among the fans of transsexual pop diva Bülent Ersoy and the late gay singer Zeki Müren. But outside the world of show business it is considered both a disgrace and an illness to be a götveren or "queen." In the Turkish army homosexuality is cause for failing a medical test. To identify anyone trying to use homosexuality as an excuse to get out of military service, army doctors ask to see photos or videos showing the recruits engaging in sex with a man. And they have to be in the "passive" role. In Turkey being in the active role is considered manly enough not to be proof of homosexuality.
It looks as if a wave of homophobia has swept over the Islamic world, a place that was once widely known for its openmindedness, where homoerotic literature was written and widely read, where gender roles were not so narrowly defined, and, as in the days of ancient Greece, where men often sought the companionship of youths.
Islamists are now a dominant cultural force in many of these countries. They include figures such as popular Egyptian television preacher Yussuf al-Qaradawi who demonizes gays as perverse. Four years ago Shiite grand ayatollah Ali al-Sistani issued a fatwa saying that gays are to be murdered in the most brutal way possible. These religious opinion leaders base their hatred for gays on the story of Lot in the Koran: "Do ye commit lewdness such as no people in creation (ever) committed before you? For ye practice your lusts on men in preference to women: ye are indeed a people transgressing beyond bounds." Lot's people suffered the destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah for their sins. The Prophet Muhammad has a number of dicta in which he condemns these acts by Lot's people and in one of them he even goes as far as to call for punishment by death.
European Prudery Exported to the Colonies
The story of Lot and related verses in the Koran were not interpreted as unambiguous references to homosexual sex until the 20th century, says Everett Rowson, professor of Islamic Studies at New York University. This reinterpretation was the result of Western influences -- its source was the prudery of European colonialists who introduced their conception of sexual morality to the newly conquered countries.
The fact of the matter is that half of the laws across the world that prohibit homosexuality today are derived from a single law that the British enacted in India in 1860. "Many attitudes with regard to sexual morality that are thought to be identical to Islam owe a lot more to Queen Victoria than to the Koran," Rowson says.
More than anything, it is the politicization of Islam that has led to the persecution of gays today. Sexual morals are no longer a private matter. They are regulated and instrumentalized by governments.
'Regimes Want to Control the Private Lives of Citizens'
"The most repressive are secular regimes such as those in Egypt or Morocco which are under pressure from Islamists and so try to outdo them with regard to morals," says Scott Long of Human Rights Watch. "In addition the persecution of homosexuals shows that a regime has control over the private lives of its citizens -- a sign of power and authority." For several years now a sense of "moral panic" has been systematically fomented in many Muslim countries.
Iran is a case in point, where homosexuals have been persecuted on a more or less regular basis since the Islamic revolution. Since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been in office there has definitely been an increase in this persecution despite the fact that Ahmadinejad never grows tired of emphasizing that there are no homosexuals in his country.
The mere suspicion that someone may have committed "unnatural acts" is enough for that person to be sentenced to a flogging in Iran. If caught more than once, the person in question can be sentenced to death. According to official statistics, 148 homosexuals have been given a death sentence and executed thus far. The true figure is doubtless much larger than this. The last case of this kind to attract public attention was that of 21-year-old Makwan Moludsade, who was hanged in December 2007. He was accused of having raped three boys several years earlier. Homosexuals are almost always charged with other crimes such as rape, fraud, or robbery in order to be better able to justify their execution.
'If I Had Stayed, They Would Have Killed Me'
As a result of this situation thousands of gays and lesbians have fled Iran. For most of them the first port of call is Turkey. "I had no choice but to flee," says Ali, a 32-year-old physician. "If I had stayed, they would have killed me."
Ali was careful. He rarely went to parties, he used different Internet cafés for online chat sessions, and he didn't let anyone in on his secret, not even the members of his family knew. Everything went well until one day his friend's father caught them kissing. Two days later Ali lost his job at the hospital and then he was hit by a car, in what seemed to be a deliberate attack. Shortly after that he received a telephone call telling him: "We want to see you hang."
What he hadn't known was that his friend's father was a high-ranking member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.
Ali went to the bank, withdrew his savings, and took a train to Turkey, where he applied for asylum. Since then he has lived in a tiny apartment in Kayseri, Central Anatolia, one of 35 gay Iranian exiles in that city.
Arsham Parsi, 29, from Shiraz, fled Iran four years ago. A slight man with a fluffy beard and glasses, he was one of the most wanted men in Iran for several years after creating the country's first gay network in 2001. Its members only communicated with each other by e-mail and very few people knew his real name. But in the end his identity was still revealed. Parsi managed to get away but it was a close call. He got a visa for Canada, where he founded the "Iranian Queer Organization", which now has 6,000 members in Iran. They include numerous transsexuals or persons who consider themselves to be transsexuals. Parsi estimates that "Nearly half of all sex-change operations are requested by homosexuals."
Sex-Change Operations Booming in Iran
The persecution of gays has led to a boom in demand for sex-change operations in Iran. More operations of this kind are carried out in the Islamic Republic than anywhere else in the world apart from Thailand. These procedures were approved by Ayatollah Khomeini himself in 1983. Khomeini defined transsexuality as a disease that can be healed by means of an operation. Since then thousands of people have requested this kind of treatment and the Iranian government even covers part of the costs.
"Family members and physicians urge homosexuals to have operations to normalize their sexual orientation," Parsi says. This way it was possible for a high-ranking Shiite religious scholar to finance his secretary's physical transformation into a woman and then to marry him.
The archconservative Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the only Arab country where sharia law is the sole legal code, under which homosexuals are flogged and executed. "homosexuals are freer here than they are in Iran," says Afdhere Jama, who traveled through the Islamic world for seven years doing research for his book "Illegal Citizens."
Gay men and women have a surprising amount of space in Saudi society. Newspapers print stories about lesbian sex in school lavatories, while it is an open secret that certain shopping centers, restaurants, and bars in Jeddah and Riyadh are gay meeting points.
"There are numerous Saudi men who have sexual relationships with youths before they are married or when their wives are pregnant," Jama says. In these cases having sex with another male is often the only way of having sex at all. Extramarital affairs with women are nearly impossible. "In the West the men in question would be considered gay, but in countries like Saudi Arabia it is harder to categorize them," Jama notes. Most Muslims have trouble understanding the Western concept of "gay identity." In their countries there is no such thing as a gay lifestyle or a gay movement.
Cultural and Political Factors
Daayiee Abdullah, 55, is an imam. He wears a prayer cap, has a beard -- and is gay. He is one of only two imams in the world who are openly gay. He voluntarily chose to follow the path of Islam. Raised as a Baptist in Detroit, he made friends with Chinese Muslims while studying in Beijing and then converted to Islam. "They told me it would be no problem for me as a gay man to be a good Muslim."
Imam Abdullah and many others along with him have a somewhat different interpretation of the story of Lot. According to them, those whom God condemned were not homosexuals but rapists and robbers. It is not homosexuality that the Koran prohibits but rather rape. "The rejection of gays is a result of cultural and political factors," he says. "Just like honor killings and arranged marriages. They're not in the Koran either."
Abdullah lives in the US capital, Washington D.C., and says prayers at the funerals of gay persons, particularly if they died of AIDS, something no other imam is willing to do. He officiates at same-sex marriages and, for the past 11 years, has provided religious advice in an on-line forum entitled "Muslim Gay Men."
He regularly receives death threats but now laughs them off, saying: "How can two loving men pose a threat to the foundations God has laid?"
Posts
[..] But, fair is fair; there is also a lot being achieved by this government. For instance, integration goes very well… At least, the integration of the Netherlands into Dar-al-Islam, the Islamic world. This government is enthusiastically co-operating with the Islamization of the Netherlands. In all of Europe the elite opens the floodgates wide. In only a little while, one in five people in the European Union will be Muslim. Good news for this multiculti-government that views bowing to the horrors of Allah as its most important task. Good news for the CDA [Christian Democratic Appeal, the party of the PM]: C-D-A, in the meanwhile stands for Christians Serve Allah [Christenen Dienen Allah].
It is over. This government has run aground, like an old car that got stuck in loose sand. It still squeaks a little, it cracks. Anyone can see that the little creature will never move one meter again. The battery is dead. It's all over. Madam Chairman, it would be laughable if it were not for the future of the Netherlands. Then you could make fun of that little club of helpless people who stare out through the misty windscreen, hoping there is someone who can tell them which way to go. They know themselves that if you look closely, it is way past saving. That they only made the wrong decisions and did not take note of the little sign: "swamp to the left". 
