Blog Smith is inspired by the myth of Hephaestus in the creation of blacksmith-like, forged materials: ideas. This blog analyzes topics that interest me: IT, politics, technology, history, education, music, and the history of religions.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
The Seen & Unseen of Government Regulation: Bastiat
Here we explore what Frederic Bastiat called the "seen and unseen" of economics. We also ask the question what affect does government regulation have on small business.
Muslim Majority Russian Basketball Drill: Russian official sacked for making boys kiss his feet
Claims he was merely repeating a lesson he had learned in the Red army.
Cell phone culprit never found. The dismissal represents another victory for Russia's vigilant and politically active blogosphere. Faced with a hostile judicial system that sides with the rich and well-connected, bloggers have taken to posting compromising material online, forcing the authorities to take action.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Lawyer SMOKES the Koran - and Bible...
Bible and Koran smoking lawyer on leave
Australian lawyer smokes pages of Bible and Koran, asking 'Which is best?'
Bible or Koran - which burns best? Alex Stewart smokes pages from the Koran and Bible!
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Geert Wilders Ground Zero New York City 11th September 2010
Dear friends,
May I ask you to be silent for ten seconds? Just be silent and listen. Ten seconds. And listen…
What we hear are the sounds of life in the greatest city on earth. No place in the world, no place in human history, is as richly varied and vibrant and dynamic as New York City.
You hear the cars, you hear the people, you hear them rushing to their various destinations, you hear the sounds of business and of pleasure, you hear the cheers, you hear the cries, the buzzing sounds of human activity. And that is how it should be. Always.
Now close your eyes – I know it’s a beautiful day, but close your eyes. I have been told that this day nine years ago was just such a beautiful day -- and remember, or try to remember, or try to imagine the sounds which were heard here on this spot under this same blue sky exactly nine years ago.
The sound of shock, the sound of destruction, the sound of panic, the sound of pain, the sound of terror.
Did New York deserve this? Did America deserve this? Did the West deserve this?
What, my friends, would you say to people who argue that New York, that America, that the West had itself to blame for those horrible sounds? There are people in this city who argue this. And they are angry because we are gathered here today to commemorate, to make a stand, to draw the line.
My friends, I have come from the other side of the Atlantic to share your grief for those who died here nine years ago.
I have not forgotten how I felt that day.
The scenes are imprinted on my soul, as they are on yours.
But our hearts were not broken in the same way as the hearts of the relatives and friends of those who lost their lives here. Many relatives of the victims are here in our midst today. I wish to take this opportunity to express my deepest and most heartfelt condolences to them and to all of the people of New York and America.
Humbly, I stand here before you as a Dutchman and a European.
I, too, however, cannot forget.
How can anyone forget?
Let me remind you of the words from Darryl Worley’s 9/11 song.
Have you forgotten how it felt that day?
To see your homeland under fire
And her people blown away
Have you forgotten when those towers fell?
We had neighbors still inside going thru a living hell
Worley’s response is our response: No, we will NEVER forget.
We are here today because we have not forgotten all the loved ones that were lost and those left to carry on. And neither has the world.
When the forces of Jihad attacked New York, they attacked the world.
Among those lost were people from 55 nations, people of every religion and every persuasion. No place on earth had a more multi-ethnic, multi-racial, and multi-lingual workforce than New York’s proud towers.
That is exactly why they were targeted. They constituted an insult to those who hold that there can be no peaceful cooperation among people and nations without submission to Sharia; to those who wish to impose the legal system of Islam on the rest of us.
But New York and Sharia are incompatible. New York stands for freedom, openness and tolerance.
New York’s Mayor recently said that New York is “rooted in Dutch tolerance.” Those are true words. New York is not intolerant. How can it be? New York is open to the world.
Suppose New York were intolerant. Suppose it only allowed people of one persuasion within its walls.
Then it would be like Mecca, a city without freedom.
Whatever your religion, persuasion or gender is, in New York you will find a home. In Mecca, if your religion isn’t Islam, you are not welcome.
Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf claims the right to build a mosque, a house of Sharia here – on this hallowed ground.
But, friends, I have not forgotten and neither have you. That is why we are here today. To draw the line. Here, on this sacred spot. We are here in the spirit of America’s founding fathers. We are here in the spirit of freedom. We are here in the spirit of Abraham Lincoln, the President who freed the slaves.
President Lincoln said: “Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves.”
These words are the key to our survival. The tolerance that is crucial to our freedom requires a line of defense.
Mayor Bloomberg uses tolerance as an argument to allow Imam Rauf and his sponsors to build their so-called Cordoba Mosque.
Mayor Bloomberg forgets, however, that openness cannot be open-ended. A tolerant society is not a suicidal society.
It must defend itself against the powers of darkness, the force of hatred and the blight of ignorance. It cannot tolerate the intolerant – and survive.
This means that we must not give a free hand to those who want to subjugate us.
An overwhelming majority of Americans is opposed to building this mosque. So is an overwhelming majority everywhere in the non-Islamic world.
Because we all realize what is at stake here. We know what this so-called Cordoba mosque really means.
Imam Rauf maintains that American secular law and Sharia law are based on the same principles. He refuses to condemn terrorists because he says terrorism is “a very complex question”.
He says America is “an accessory to the crime that happened on 9/11.” “In fact,” he literally said, “in the most direct sense, Osama bin Laden is made in the USA.”
He also says that “terrorism will only end when the West acknowledges the harm it has done to Muslims.”
That is why this man should not play the game he has in mind here in Manhattan. His “Blame the West, Blame America”-message is an insult. Americans – and by extension, all of us whose civilization was also attacked on 9/11/2001 – are not to blame for what happened here nine years ago today.
Osama bin Laden is not made in the USA. The West never “harmed” Islam before it harmed us.
Most Americans do not want this so-called Cordoba Mosque to be built here. They understand that it is both a provocation and a humiliation. They understand the triumphant narrative of a mosque named after the Great Mosque of Cordoba which was constructed where a Christian cathedral stood before the land was conquered by Islam.
An overwhelming majority of Americans is opposed to building an Islamic cultural center close to Ground Zero. There is no lack of mosques in New York. There are dozens of buildings in which Muslims can pray. It isn’t about a lack of space for prayers. It’s about the symbolic meaning.
We who have come to speak today, object to this mosque project because its promoter and his wealthy sponsors have never suggested building a center to promote tolerance and interfaith understanding where it is really needed: In Mecca – a town where non-Muslims are not even allowed to enter, let alone build churches, synagogues, temples or community centers.
Ordinary Americans object to the mosque project because currently no fewer than ten major multi-million dollar mosque projects are being planned in the United States as well as dozens in Europe, while not a single church is allowed in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, while Jews are not even allowed to move their lips in prayer on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, while the oldest Christians in the world, the Copts, are not free to renovate their churches, let alone to build one in Egypt.
My friends, that is why we are here today. What happens in New York must be seen in the perspective of the world. The events nine years ago made an enormous impact everywhere. Most people shared your pain, but, unfortunately, some did not.
Nine years ago, when the news of the terrible atrocity in New York reached Europe, Muslim youths danced in the streets. In a poll, two thirds of the Muslim immigrants in the Netherlands expressed partial or full understanding for the 9/11 terrorists.
If a mosque were built here on Ground Zero such people would feel triumphant.
But we, we will not betray those who died on 9/11.
For their sakes we cannot tolerate a mosque on or near Ground Zero.
For their sakes loud and clear we say: No mosque here!
For their sakes, we must draw the line.
So that New York, rooted in Dutch tolerance, will never become New Mecca.
But, let us also express our gratitude for the heroes of 9/11, those who went down in that Pennsylvania field, those who were standing freedom’s watch at the Pentagon, and those who were here in New York nine years ago to risk and lose their lives for the victims.
Friends, in honor of these victims, these heroes and their families, I believe that the words of Ronald Reagan, spoken in Normandy on the 40th anniversary of D-Day, resonate with new purpose on this hallowed spot. President Reagan said: “We will always remember. We will always be proud. We will always be prepared, so we may always be free.”
And, we, too, will always remember the victims of 9/11 and their loved ones who were left behind;
We, too, will always be proud of the heroes;
We will always defend liberty, democracy and human dignity;
In the name of freedom: No mosque here!
Burn the Koran or the Constitution
Same media which has consistently opposed a Constitutional amendment that bans flag burning has now decided that burning the Koran should be a crime
Burn the Koran or the Constitution
By Daniel Greenfield Saturday, September 11, 2010
The media’s coverage of the 9th anniversary of the Muslim murder of 3,000 people was overshadowed by their panicked coverage of the possibility that Terry Jones, the pastor of a tiny Florida church, might actually burn the Koran.
Last week Newsweek ran Fareed Zakaria’s piece insisting that Americans overreacted to 9/11. So instead the media showed us where their priorities lie, by shortchanging the dead, ignoring their killers and instead turning the pastor of a small Florida church into a villain for even talking about the possibility of torching a book, whose contents helped inspire 9/11. It’s as if on Holocaust Memorial Day, the key topic of discussion was not the murder of 6,000,000 Jews, but a protester who wanted to get his Bic lighter close to Mein Kampf.
In the weeks leading up to the anniversary, the media had been sanctimoniously lecturing Americans that their sensitivities regarding Ground Zero were irrelevant in the face of a Muslim desire to put up a massive and completely unnecessary Islamic complex in the area. Constitutional freedoms, real or imagined, trumped any sensitivities. But when a Gainesville pastor proposed returning a couple of copies of the Koran back to the environment by way of lighter fluid, suddenly freedom of speech and freedom of religion, and all that other stuff created by dead white men before the age of Walter Kronkite and CNN, were irrelevant in face of Muslim sensitivities.
Time Magazine and USA Today both ran polls asking whether burning the Koran should be criminalized as a hate crime. CNN gave a forum to a Dr. Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri to argue that burning a Koran would have been worse than 9/11 and warned that such actions “should be stopped by the U.S. government at any cost”. Now Dr. Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri shows in his article that while he may not know the difference between “principal” and “principle”, or “ensure” and “insure”, he understands exactly how to push for the imposition of the horrifying barbarity of Islamic Sharia law in America.
In Dr. Qadri’s own words: “any act of an individual or group which… hurts the feelings of 1.5 billion Muslim should be stopped at any cost.” There are no details of just what “any cost” would imply, but certainly Dr. Qadri argues that Freedom of Speech cannot be used to protect anything that offends Muslims. And since just about everything from eating on Ramadan to liquor in taxi cabs to ice cream cones that look like Allah, that means for September 11 you can kiss freedom goodbye. Or risk offending 1.5 billion Muslims. And we know what happens every time you offend the peaceful worshipers of the Religion of Peace. Riots, murder, terrorism and of course burning the American flag.
The same media which has consistently opposed a Constitutional amendment that bans flag burning (generally because they tend to agree with the flag burners), has now decided that burning the Koran should be a crime. Because burning the flag or killing thousands of Americans is no big deal—but burning a Koran, someone should make a law about that.
Given a choice between burning the US Constitution or burning the Koran—the media happily raises a lighter to the First Amendment. To them nothing American is sacred, but everything Islamic is.
Their defense of the Ground Zero Mosque was never about the Constitution. It was about kowtowing to the morally superior victims of American imperialism, starving in Dubai or Islamabad. If it helps them make their case to the people they think of as “The Great Unwashed”, still clinging to their guns and religion, they will invoke the Constitution or the Magna Carta or an instruction manual from IKEA. From Obama on down, centuries of ideas about self-government are nothing but toys that they keep in the attic and bring out whenever particularly dull companies comes over. They don’t believe in self-government themselves. That is something they have in common with their brethren ruling with an iron fist beneath the sickle and hammer, or the crescent and star. Ideas, not the referendum or a national legacy of rights and responsibilities, are their source of political power. What the people and the law has to say about it, doesn’t matter.
Touch your head to the floor or risk offending 1.5 billion Muslims
And so we come down to the ugly choice. Burning the Koran or burning the Constitution. The left has already made its choice. You can walk down the streets of Europe’s greatest cities and see what remains of centuries of national struggle, republican ambitions and millions dying so that their language and their culture might have the shelter of a nation of their own. Now America is being presented with the same option. Touch your head to the floor or risk offending 1.5 billion Muslims. And what is the value of freedom compared to the feelings of a bunch of followers of Mohammed, with a long string of zeroes trailing after them around the globe.
It isn’t about whether burning someone else’s sacred book is right or wrong. To appease Muslim sensitivities, the US military burned a large number of Christian bibles last year. The same media which is panting breathlessly at the notion that anybody would dare use a holy book for kindling, smiled approvingly then. Because the issue isn’t about burning anyone’s holy books, but offending Muslims. That is the one law we are left with, after all the others have been tossed into the fire. Thou Shalt Not Enrage the Mohammedan.
What offends Muslims is anyone who disobeys their laws. And if our laws are to always defer to their sensitivities, then that means we have replaced the United States Constitution… with the Koran.
The media has put on a show of being concerned about US troops as outraged murderous members of the Religion of Peace might try to kill US soldiers in the full fury of their peacefulness, but if the media hadn’t focused attention on the story, how would all those peaceful bearded types in Pakistan have even known about the Koran burning? In 2005, Newsweek falsely reported that American personnel in Gitmo had flushed a Koran. There was no actual truth to the report, but still 15 people died in the rioting. Yet the smug blond talking head on CNN who berated Terry Jones for “having blood on his hands”, did not accuse Newsweek of having blood on their hands, even though they actually did. Just as there are no “blood on their hands” accusations for the media outlets who broadcast the heavily edited Wikileaks tape, or any of the Bin Laden videos, or leaked sensitive information about US military operation.
Dead US soldiers, like the Constitution, are only of interest when they’re a handy talking point
Dead US soldiers, like the Constitution, are only of interest when they’re a handy talking point. If dead US soldiers were of interest to the media or General Petraeus, perhaps there might be some interest in just how many US soldiers have died in Afghanistan because they were denied proper aerial support or the right to fire on their assailants under McChrystal and Petraeus’s Rules of Engagement, which put the focus on appeasing Muslims, over the lives of American boys on the front line.
But like the Constitution, the bodies of American soldiers must burn, in the name of Muslim sensitivities.
In 1987, the National Endowment for the Arts partially funded Piss Christ, an image of a crucifix in urine. Two decades later in 2007, a Koran in a Pace University toilet triggered a 10 month investigation (in New York City, few murder cases are investigated half that long) and finally led to the arrest of one Stanislav Shmulevich on Hate Crime charges. Piss Christ, you see is a work of art. But Piss Koran is a hate crime. Similarly burning the Christian Bible soothes Muslim sensitivities. Burning the Koran inflames them. Killing US soldiers makes Muslims feel good. Killing Muslim terrorists inflames their sensitivities.
The Pace University case, in which a Muslim NYPD detective was assigned to pursue a student for a violation of Muslim law, served as a warning that the media chatter at Time, USA Today and CNN about making burning the Koran into a hate crime should not be taken lightly. Under the Constitution, burning the Koran is completely legal. But the Islamists and their Leftist allies have no regard for the Constitution. No more than they do for the lives of US soldiers or the dead at Ground Zero. They prefer Islamic law, with all its concomitant tyranny and brutality, over the freedoms and values of Americans.
Why do they hate the Constitution of ours so much? Because it is premised on legal equality and self-government, two sets of values anathema to the left and Islam. Under Islamic law, Christians, Jews, Hindus and all others are inferior to Muslims. Women are inferior to men. Koranic experts are superior to ordinary Muslims. First wives are superior to second wives. And so on it goes, a pyramid of discrimination and segregation, sanctioned and approved by Allah, Mohammed and Islam.
Under Islamic law, the sensitivities of Muslims trump the rights of non-Muslims
Under Islamic law, the sensitivities of Muslims trump the rights of non-Muslims. That is why in the Muslim world, no church or synagogue was allowed to be taller than a mosque. The Twin Towers which dared to be one of the world’s tallest buildings, had to be knocked down to make way for Muslim skyscrapers in Dubai and Malaysia. Such is the arrogance and brutality of the Islamic worldview. And such are the horrors that it gives birth to.
Today at Ground Zero, a man did burn the Koran. He gave no interviews, only to say; “Americans should never be afraid to give their opinion”. Such a view is not favored by Islam and the Liberal media, which is very determined that people should be afraid to give their opinions. And this last week has been a tremendous exercise in just that. In intimidating Americans. In intimidating America itself, with the threat of 1.5 billion Muslim sensitivities inflamed into a killing rage. Yet again.
But these handful of pages from the Koran were not the first thing burned at Ground Zero. Nine years ago, thousands of human beings were burned alive in the name of the Koran at this place. Pages from their books, their Rolodexes, their memos and their family photographs flew burning into the air, taking wing over the city and drifting down to the place where Imam Rauf and his gang of grinning henchmen would like to erect their symbol of contempt for the dead. The Muslim world did not tremble at the sensitivities of 300 million Americans when they burned 3,000 people at this spot. Like Fareed Zakaria, they either did not care, or they grinned in triumph, and danced in the streets.
Now when the moderate Muslims crawl out of their headspace to warn us that burning the Koran will lead to murder—all they manage to do is show off their sick and hateful values. A value system that places a higher priority on printed pages than on the lives of non-Muslims. Such a value system cannot and must not be allowed to impose its will on the people of a free nation. Not on this sacred day, and not on any day. Ever.
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Senator: Obama, Congress ‘Trying to Run Government Into the Ditch’
“Larry, you’re absolutely right,” Gregg said. “This is a very important point for your viewers to understand. This spending is being done intentionally. The reason the GDP –the spending-to-GDP ratio has gone from 20 percent to 24 percent, it’s heading to 27 percent of GDP is because the present government, the present presidency and the present Congress genuinely believe that you create prosperity by radically growing the size of government and they genuinely believe that our society is fundamentally under-taxed and they want to fill the gap between what has historically been our tax revenues, which have been about 18 to 19 percent of GDP and the spending, which they put in place at 24 percent.”
Six Christians rip pages from Koran in White House stunt
Cops pounced on one protester when he held up a Koran and whipped out a lighter. They didn't arrest him
The original pastor, Jones, who threatened to burn a Koran ended up not burning one at all. Meanwhile, In Kabul, more than 10,000 Afghans set fire to tires in the streets and shouted "Death to America" for a second day in a row, also prompted by Jones' calls to burn the Islamic holy book.
Friday, September 10, 2010
Ringless: Obama's wedding band is "an intricate gold design from Indonesia"
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Pastor nixes Quran-burning, claims NYC mosque deal
Obama Promotes Islamist Ban on Koran Burning
May 22, 2009: Military burns Bibles sent to Afghanistan
US loses ground in competitiveness report
The U.S. has slipped down the ranks of competitive economies, falling behind Sweden and Singapore due to huge deficits and pessimism about government, a global economic group said Thursday.
Sweden moved up to second place while Singapore stayed at No. 3. The United States was in second place last year after falling from No. 1 in 2008.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Vatican: 'Outrageous'...
"Burn, Baby! BURN!"
The slogan proved to be, dare I say it, so incindiery that "Bill" Epton Jr., a Maoist African-American activist, was "the first person convicted of criminal anarchy since the Red Scare of 1919"-—reportedly for the crime of uttering three words: "Burn, baby, burn."
In any event, “Disco Inferno” is a 1976 hit by The Trammps. It became a success in 1978 after being included on the soundtrack to the 1977 film Saturday Night Fever.
English & History Inter-disciplinary Assignment: A Man For All Seasons and What Went Wrong?
THEMES
“...to thine own self be true, and it shall follow, as the night the day, thou cans’t not then be false to any man.” ~Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act I, Scene III
Integrity is the major theme of A Man for All Seasons. Sir Thomas More stays true to his conscience even under threat of death.
Some minor themes are:
No man can serve two masters.
Every man has his price.
Look to your own conscience for what to believe and how to act.
Having serious concerns about your life and death does not preclude being lighthearted and sociable.
At roughly the same time as the setting for A Man for All Seasons, the Western world and the Arab Middle East diverged.
In What Went Wrong?, Bernard Lewis writes of the key role of the Middle East in the rise of science in the Middle Ages, before things went wrong:
And then, approximately from the end of the Middle Ages, there was a dramatic change. In Europe, the scientific movement advanced enormously in the era of the Renaissance, the Discoveries, the technological revolution, and the vast changes, both intellectual and material, that preceded, accompanied, and followed them. In the Muslim world, independent inquiry virtually came to an end, and science was for the most part reduced to the veneration of a corpus of approved knowledge. There were some practical innovations — thus, for example, incubators were invented in Egypt, vaccination against smallpox in Turkey. These were, however, not seen as belonging to the realm of science, but as practical devices, and we know of them primarily from Western travelers.
[. . .]
Another example of the widening gap may be seen in the fate of the great observatory built in Galata, in Istanbul, in 1577. This was due to the initiative of Taqi al-Din (ca. 1526-1585), a major figure in Muslim scientific history and the author of several books on astronomy, optics, and mechanical clocks. Born in Syria or Egypt (the sources differ), he studied in Cairo, and after a career as jurist and theologian he went to Istanbul, where in 1571 he was appointed munejjim-bash, astronomer (and astrologer) in chief to the Sultan Selim II. A few years later her persuaded the Sultan Murad III to allow him to build an observatory, comparable in its technical equipment and its specialist personnel with that of his celebrated contemporary, the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe. But there the comparison ends. Tycho Brahe's observatory and the work accomplished in it opened the way to a vast new development of astronomical science. Taqi al-Din's observatory was razed to the ground by a squad of Janissaries, by order of the sultan, on the recommendation of Chief Mufti. This observatory had many predecessors in the lands of Islam; it had no successors until the age of modernization.
The relationship between Christendom and Islam in the sciences was now reversed. Those who had been disciples now became teachers; those who had been masters became pupils, often reluctant and resentful pupils. They were willing enough to accept the products of infidel science in warfare and medicine, where they could make the difference between victory and defeat, between life and death. But the underlying philosophy and the sociopolitical context of these scientific achievements proved more difficult to accept or even recognize.
Contrast what you know and have read of The Man for All Seasons and What Went Wrong?
What are the differences of one's conscience, the role of science, and thinking along a skeptical, scientific manner, or not, between the West and the Middle East? The assignment should be limited to 250 words, about one page of standard type-written text. You are free to email the text as well.
For an open-ended assignment such as this please bear in mind that there is no right or wrong answer. The instructor grades on the quality and clarity of your writing. Are you using proper form? Do you support your ideas with evidence, logic, and is the prose coherently written?
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Morgan Fisher - MO 30-1 CUT (13:43) (formerly of Mott The Hoople)
Morgan Fisher formerly played keyboards for Mott The Hoople.
Lessons learned from Lower Merion’s “Webcamgate”
“Ramadan is the month of JIHAD”
Yet another Ramadan dinner hosted by Obama. The Islamic Emirate is pleased to produce the Ramadam victory series here as depicted in the trailer. Saudi textbook council members verify jihad and the fact that slavery is integral to Islam. The Saudi states: "Slavery is part of Islam. Slavery is part of jihad and jihad will remain as long as there is Islam. It has not been abolished."
Should Generals Dictate Policy for Civilians?
1. Free Speech should be protected at any cost;
2. The dogs of war should be unleashed so our military attains victory;
3. Generals should not dictate political positions for civilians.
Monday, September 6, 2010
Nanny State Intrudes Again
4 Previous Muslim Shootings Against Military
1) On 23 March 2003 there was a grenade attack by Muslim Sgt. Hasan Karim Akbar that killed Army Captain Christopher Seifert and Air Force Major Gregory Stone and wounded 14 others. He was convicted of two counts of premeditated murder and three counts of attempted premeditated murder on April 21, 2005. Notably, during his trial Akbar smuggled scissors out of a conference room, then asked the Military Police Officer guarding him to remove his hand cuffs so he could use the restroom. When the officer removed Akbar’s restraints, he stabbed the officer in the neck and shoulder before being wrestled to the ground by another officer.
2) While serving as a naval signalman on board the USS Benfoldin the months following the attack on the USS Cole, Hassan Abujihaad (a/k/a Paul R. Hall) actively provided Islamic terrorists with sensitive information about the location of Navy ships and their weaknesses. He also discussed sniper attacks on military personnel and attacks on U.S. military recruitment sites with Muslim terrorists as well. For his crimes, Abujihaad is currently serving a ten-(10) year sentence. On 5 March, 2008 Abujihaad was convicted by a jury and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
3) There is also the case of U.S. Army captain James “Yousef” Lee, the former Muslim chaplain charged with espionage while serving at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Lee was arrested at a U.S. airport on charges of espionage after he was caught in possession of detailed maps of the detention facility along with other classified materials. In addition to LEE, two other Islamic Arabic translators stationed at Guantanamo were convicted of unauthorized possession of classified documents.
Ultimately, the U.S. Army opted not to proceed with the espionage charges against YEE due to national security concerns arising from the evidence that would be made available to the public at the trial.
4) On 1 June 2009 there was a shooting attack at the Little Rock recruiting center by 23 year-old Muslim Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, who killed two officers.
Obama Ally Group Code Pink Targets Children of Military Personnel
Dressed as ‘zombie soldiers’ killed in combat, ‘ghosts of war victims,’ witches and healthcare fairies, members of Code Pink menacingly paraded in front of a captive audience of children one block from the White House, who waited along the sidewalk in front of Decatur House just off Lafayette Park for a Halloween party hosted by Obama.
Obama hosted several hundred military families for trick or treating. Also invited were children of White House staff and about 2000 children from eleven D.C. area elementary schools.
In a press release published at their website, key Obama ally Code Pink – a group co-founded by one of Obama’s top funders Jodie Evans, announced they were targeting military families by conducting a macabre protest of the war in Afghanistan as the families waited in line to enter the White House grounds.
JAG Officer’s Account of Ft. Hood Shooting
November 10, 2009 00:00
Author "Mr. Black" 11/09/09
Since I don’t know when I’ll sleep (it’s 4 am now) I’ll write what happened (the abbreviated version…..the long one is already part of the investigation with more to come). I’ll not write about any part of the investigation that I’ve learned about since (as a witness I know more than I should since inevitably my JAG brothers and sisters are deeply involved in the investigation). Don’t assume that most of the current media accounts are very accurate. They’re not. They’ll improve with time. Only those of us who were there really know what went down. But as they collate our statements they’ll get it right.
I did my SRP last week (Soldier Readiness Processing) but you’re supposed to come back a week later to have them look at the smallpox vaccination site (it’s this big itchy growth on your shoulder). I am probably alive because I pulled a ———- and entered the wrong building first (the main SRP building). The Medical SRP building is off to the side. Realizing my mistake I left the main building and walked down the sidewalk to the medical SRP building. As I’m walking up to it the gunshots start. Slow and methodical. But continuous. Two ambulatory wounded came out. Then two soldiers dragging a third who was covered in blood. Hearing the shots but not seeing the shooter, along with a couple other soldiers I stood in the street and yelled at everyone who came running that it was clear but to “RUN!”. I kept motioning people fast.
About 6-10 minutes later (the shooting continuous), two cops ran up. one male, one female. we pointed in the direction of the shots. they headed that way (the medical SRP building was about 50 meters away). then a lot more gunfire. a couple minutes later a balding man in ACU’s came around the building carrying a pistol and holding it tactically. He started shooting at us and we all dived back to the cars behind us. I don’t think he hit the couple other guys who were there. I did see the bullet holes later in the cars. First I went behind a tire and then looked under the body of the car. I’ve been trained how to respond to gunfire…but with my own weapon. To have no weapon I don’t know how to explain what that felt like. I hadn’t run away and stayed because I had thought about the consequences or anything like that. I wasn’t thinking anything through. Please understand, there was no intention. I was just staying there because I didn’t think about running. It never occurred to me that he might shoot me. Until he started shooting in my direction and I realized I was unarmed.
Then the female cop comes around the corner. He shoots her. (according to the news accounts she got a round into him. I believe it, I just didn’t see it. he didn’t go down.) She goes down. He starts reloading. He’s fiddling with his mags. Weirdly he hasn’t dropped the one that was in his weapon. He’s holding the fresh one and the old one (you do that on the range when time is not of the essence but in combat you would just let the old mag go). I see the male cop around the left corner of the building. (I’m about 15-20 meters from the shooter.) I yell at the cop, “He’s reloading, he’s reloading. Shoot him! Shoot him!) You have to understand, everything was quiet at this point. The cop appears to hear me and comes around the corner and shoots the shooter. He goes down. The cop kicks his weapon further away. I sprint up to the downed female cop.
Another captain (I think he was with me behind the cars) comes up as well. She’s bleeding profusely out of her thigh. We take our belts off and tourniquet her just like we’ve been trained (I hope we did it right…we didn’t have any CLS (combat lifesaver) bags with their awesome tourniquets on us, so we worked with what we had). Meanwhile, in the most bizarre moment of the day, a photographer was standing over us taking pictures. I suppose I’ll be seeing those tomorrow. Then a soldier came up and identified himself as a medic. I then realized her weapon was lying there unsecured (and on “fire”). I stood over it and when I saw a cop yelled for him to come over and secure her weapon (I would have done so but I was worried someone would mistake me for a bad guy). I then went over to the shooter. He was unconscious. A Lt Colonel was there and had secured his primary weapon for the time being. He also had a revolver. I couldn’t believe he was one of ours. I didn’t want to believe it. Then I saw his name and rank and realized this wasn’t just some specialist with mental issues.
At this point there was a guy there from CID and I asked him if he knew he was the shooter and had him secured. He said he did. I then went over the slaughter house. the medical SRP building. No human should ever have to see what that looked like. and I won’t tell you. Just believe me. Please. there was nothing to be done there. Someone then said there was someone critically wounded around the corner. I ran around (while seeing this floor to ceiling window that someone had jumped through movie style) and saw a large African- American soldier lying on his back with two or three soldiers attending. I ran up and identified two entrance wounds on the right side of his stomach, one exit wound on the left side and one head wound. He was not bleeding externally from the stomach wounds (though almost certainly internally) but was bleeding from the head wound. A soldier was using a shirt to try and stop the head bleeding. He was conscious so I began talking to him to keep him so. He was 42, from North Carolina, he was named something Jr., his son was named something III and he had a daughter as well. His children lived with him. He was divorced. I told him the blubber on his stomach saved his life. He smiled. a young soldier in civvies showed up and identified himself as a combat medic. We debated whether to put him on the back of a pickup truck. A doctor (well, an audiologist) showed up and said you can’t move him, he has a head wound. we finally sat tight.
I went back to the slaughterhouse. they weren’t letting anyone in there. not even medics. finally, after about 45 minutes had elapsed some cops showed up in tactical vests. someone said the TBI building was unsecured. They headed into there. All of a sudden a couple more shots were fired. People shouted there was a second shooter. a half hour later the SWAT showed up. there was no second shooter. that had been an impetuous cop apparently. but that confused things for a while. meanwhile I went back to the shooter. the female cop had been taken away. a medic was pumping plasma into the shooter. I’m not proud of this but I went up to her and said “this is the shooter, is there anyone else who needs attention…do them first”. she indicated everyone else living was attended to. I still hadn’t seen any EMTs or ambulances. I had so much blood on me that people kept asking me if I was ok. but that was all other people’s blood. eventually (an hour and a half to two hours after the shootings) they started landing choppers. they took out the big African American guy and the shooter. I guess the ambulatory wounded were all at the SRP building. Everyone else in my area was dead.
I suppose the emergency responders were told there were multiple shooters. I heard that was the delay with the choppers (they were all civilian helicopters). they needed a secure LZ. but other than the initial cops who did everything right, I didnt’ see a lot of them for a while. I did see many a soldier rush out to help their fellows/ sisters. there was one female soldier, I dont’ know her name or rank but I would recognize her anywhere who was everywhere helping people. a couple people, mainly civilians, were hysterical, but only a couple. one civilian freaked out when I tried to comfort her when she saw my uniform. I guess she had seen the shooter up close. a lot of soldiers were rushing out to help even when we thought there was another gunman out there. this Army is not broken no matter what the pundits say. not the Army I saw.
And then they kept me for a long time to come. oh, and perhaps the most surreal thing, at 1500 (the end of the workday on Thursdays) when the bugle sounded we all came to attention and saluted the flag. in the middle of it all. this is what I saw. it can’t have been real. but this is my small corner of what happened.
President Reagan's Remarks to Harley-Davidson Company employees in York, Pennsylvania on May 6, 1987
Just Like China: Sebelius Calls for Re-education
Sunday, September 5, 2010
When Will We Have Another Black President?
The black president will really be black. Obama is half-white, half-black which states the factual truth overlooked by political pundits. However, far more important is the fact that he is not a natural born citizen and does not relate to Americans. His haughtiness and holier than thou demeanor is off-putting at best. Obama's politics have resulted in the mish-mash of mistaken policies and failed political positions that have plagued the country lo' in the glacial pace that his one-term administration has damaged the country. An actual black president will love his native country, even if people disagree with him or her just as the real and actual presidents have done up to this time. At least they are really one of us voters can exclaim. The damage that Obama has done to African-Americans in this country is incalculable. The genuine talents among American blacks is impressive and unfortunately they will be thwarted by Obama's mistakes. Racial progress has taken a giant leap backwards because of Obama. This harms the country aching for a sincere, genuine step forwards such as would have been possible if Colin Powell would have materialized into a credible presidential candidate. Imagine if a Colin Powell type had been elected instead of Obama. That election would have united the country probably as never before in a time of international uncertainty and crisis. I hope Obama has not harmed out country's sensibilities so much that voters overlook the many fine and exceptionally well-qualified American blacks running for office now.
Saturday, September 4, 2010
NY mosque investor also Hamas terrorist supporter
Scheuer on Osama Bin Laden
Michael Scheuer ist ein amerikanischer Historiker, politischer Analytiker und früherer CIA Mitarbeiter. In seiner 22 jährigen Karriere war er der Chef der "Bin Laden Einheit" von 1996-1999. Danach arbeitete er als spezieller Berater das Chefs der "bin Laden Einheit" von September 2001 bis 2004.
Scheuers kritisiert die Anschauungen der USA zu Islamistischen Aufständischen, im speziellen Osama Bin Laden. Er beschreibt Bin Laden als rational, der hauptsächlich gegen die USA kämpft in dem er ihre Wirtschaft schwächt, als dass er Amerikaner bekämpft und tötet. Ausserdem ist er der Annahme, dass Terror die größte Bedrohung der USA darstellt, und bezeichnet es als "islamischen Aufstand" (nicht Terrorismus), der weltweit nicht nur um Unabhängigkeit geführt wird, sonder gegen institutionelle Barberei
Osama Bin Laden bestätigte 2007 in einer Erklärung, dass Scheuers Buch die "Gründe für das Verlieren des Krieges gegen uns" aufdeckt.
2009 wurde Scheuer von seiner Stelle bei der Jamestown Foundation (Think Tank) gekündigt, als er sagte, dass "die momentane Beziehung zwischen USA und Israel die nationale US Sicherheit untergrabe.
Miss Muslim Moral Beauty Pageant Held in Saudi Arabia
Following are excerpts from a TV report on a Saudi moral beauty pageant, which aired on Al-Arabiya TV on August 2, 2009.
Reporter: Female beauty is no longer dependent on looks alone. This has been replaced by moral values and conduct the new criteria in the first contest of moral beauty queens in Saudi Arabia. In the contest, which was organized by a womens festival, several girls competed for the title.
Contest supervisor Khadhraa Al-Mubarak: In our contacts with girls in general, we noticed that they follow false notions, due to the purposeless Western notions, conveyed by some TV channels. The girls are preoccupied with their external appearance only. This is how we came up with the idea of creating an alternative. So we thought of a contest for the title of moral beauty queen. The goal is, first and foremost, to spread virtue, even if through different means. In this contest, we focus on the theme of honoring ones parents.
[...]
Moral beauty queen Aya Al-Mula: We were like sisters in a family. It was very nice. The contest focused on external skills, such as home design or skin care, and internal abilities, such as interpersonal skills and personal improvement.
First runner-up Hawraa Al-Mahdi: I entered the contest and the courses, which were very nice. They judged my personality, both externally and internally.
Second runner-up Fatima Al-Tarouti: I was the youngest contestant. Even though I didnt win the contest, its enough that I made it to the finals.
Reporter: The contestants acquired many social and interpersonal skills, before the elimination process began and the winner was announced. The contestants who lost did not leave the contest empty-handed. Their very participation in the contest was rewarding.
Troops Ticked at Obama, Lamestream Lies: Support the Troops
From someone who is deployed, and . . . BETTER THAN CNN!!!!
Subject: Update 8-20-2010
Date: Friday, August 20, 2010, 5:41 PM
Hey everybody I just wanted to send a quick update and give Yall the REAL story on what's going on over here with the troop withdrawal. The picture is of my crew and I on a break during a mission. The guy to the far left is my gunner (Burks) and the guy in the middle is my driver (Mizell). They go with me on every mission and are great guys. The reason I'm sending this out is because I have had a few people ask if I left Iraq early because all of the combat troops are out of Iraq and I wanted to let everyone know the real deal. It's kind of ridiculous how the news is saying that the last of the "combat" troops are out of Iraq because of Pres Osama ( I mean Obama ). He says that it was his campaign promise. Take our Brigade for example. We were originally called a HBCT ( Heavy Brigade Combat Team). Well since Obama said he would pull all of the "combat" troops out by Aug all they did before we left was change our name from a HBCT to a AAB ( Advise and Assist Brigade ). We have the same personnel/equipment layout as before and are doing the same missions. The ONLY difference is that they changed our name from a HBCT to an AAB and that's how he is getting away with saying that he has pulled all of the "combat" troops out. It is really ridiculous what he's doing and he has ticked alot of people off. And it's funny how the media is buying all of it to. So no the last combat troops are not out of Iraq we are still here. There are other Brigades just like ours that are doing the same missions that are still over here. Sorry for going on about it but we are just sitting over here watching it and are like "You've got to be kidding me!" So anyway now you know the REAL story so that's why I'm not coming back early. Anyways I hope everyone is doing well and I'll see you soon!
Travis
--
Travis L
Jack Webb Schools Eric Holder on Arizona
Paul Babeu is Sheriff of Pinal County, Arizona. With the help of the Pinal County Justice Foundation he is asking for donations to buy assault weapons for his deputies to match the firepower required to provide border security. At http://www.pinalcountyjusticefoundati... click on the "PayPal" link and designate line item 2-C-1 Patrol Rifles.
At http://www.hulu.com/dragnet you can watch the original Dragnet episodes. (This clip is from "D.H.Q. - The Victims"
Season 4: Ep. 26. Most of this comes from the great dialog starting at 14:05.
http://BulletPeople.com is our blog.
Friday, September 3, 2010
"Maxime Lepante:" Islamization of Paris
A hidden camera shows streets blocked by huge crowds of Muslim worshippers and enforced by a private security force.
This is all illegal in France: the public worship, the blocked streets, and the private security. But the police have been ordered not to intervene.
Privileged status of Islam in Paris.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Reich Tells Audience in 2007 that Old People Should Die
Robert Reich, Clinton’s Secretary of Labor and Obama advisor, wants to deny health care to old people. He states that they are not worth the expensive technology. He also told an audience in 2007 that most people will not live longer than their parents because this is too expensive. The audience applauds his death care option. You can’t make this stuff up.
Obama Gives $25 to $150 Million Dollars to Muslims
Obama's Teleprompter Tales
"I jumped the gun here; go ahead and move it up."
Obama apparently calling one of his daughter's Maya. Obama's daughter is named Malia. His half-sister's name is Maya.
The Obamas at home.
Web 2.0 Tools
Wallwisher is an online notice board maker.
Voki
is a tool to create animated speaking avatars. You can create class
pet/mascot/puppet that can ask questions of the students or talk about
weather, day, month, the activities that the children will be doing in
class that day. You can also ask students to create their own avatars
that talk about themselves. If you have a class website, it's also a
good idea to have a Voki avatar that introduces you to the kids and the
parents.
You can start a talk group using Voxopop. You can talk about yourself or ask questions to the kids that you want them to talk or start a discussion on any topic.Voicethread
can be an alternative to Voxopop. If you give the students a book
report assignment for the summer, you can ask them to leave their
comments on a Voicethread by using different commenting styles. The
activities that you can do with Voicethread throughout the year truly
endless.
Online
surveys or polls can be an interesting and a fun way to engage your
children. You can use them to get to know them better or you can design a
survey to learn their opinions about school or what activities they do enjoy in class. SurveyMonkey, Polldaddy, PollEverywhere can be the tools where to start!
If you want to give a quiz at the first days, you can choose a more techie way and use some online quiz generators. EasyTestMaker, HotPotatoes, QuizEgg and QuizMaker are my favourites.
What about asking students to create timelines? Xtimeline or OurStory can be some examples of these tools.
Creating
an animated film may seem difficult to produce, luckily we have Web 2.0
tools to make it very easy and fun for us and for our students. Zimmertwins, Xtranormal and DVolver are
my favourite tools.You can create a film starter and ask the children
to guess the ending or create their own films on any topic you've given
them. These sites are new ways to engage your kids and improve their
creativity.
EduGlogster can
be an awesome way to use in class all throughout the year. You can
create a colourful glog for your children with links, pictures, animated
pictures, colourful background, audio or with a video. You can create a
glog to introduce yourself/your lesson, brainstorm ideas with students or
simply ask them to create a glog to introduce themselves to
each other.
Top Ten Social Networks for Education
Top Ten Social Networks for Education by David Kapuler
Permanent linkI'm a huge advocate of Web 2.0 in general, and social networking in
particular. Here are my favorite networks for education that targets
technology literacy.
1. Twitter
- Far and away one of the most popular social networks around. This
micro-tweeting platform is used worldwide and especially in education
(search hash tags, edchat or edtech).
2. Classroom 2.0
- Created by Steve Hargadon and used by thousands of educators on a
daily basis. This site alone changed the way I viewed education and
ignited my passion for Web 2.0.
3. Facebook -nuff said!!
4. Plurk - A social network similar to Twitter with a timeline view and fun karma-based platform.
5. Educator's PLN
- Built by Thomas Whitby, this social network is one of the fastest
growing around and some of the top technology based innovators can be
found here.
6. Learn Central - Sponsored by elluminate, Learn Central is an ideal place for educators to host or learn through its virtual conferences.
7. ISTE Community - International Society for Technology & Education is a great place for educators to collaborate on technology issues.
8. Edutopia - A very popular organization created by the George Lucas foundation.
9. Collaborative Translation - Created by well renowned educator James O'Reilly, CT is a great place to learn and share innovative ideas.
10. IT4ALL
- Integrating Technology 4 Active Life-Long Learners is a nice place
for educators to share best practices for technology integration.
David Kapuler was the media
and technology specialist at Greendale (Wis.) School District. Read his
blog at cyber-kap.blogspot.com.
Posted by Tech Learning Blog Staff at 08/31/2010 05:26:47 PM |
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