Holy Month of War

For more than a billion Muslims around the world—including some 8 million in North America—Ramadan is a "month of blessing" marked by prayer, fasting, and charity. This year Ramadan precedes Christmas and Hanukkah. But while in many places these holidays have become widely commercialized, Ramadan retains its focus on self-sacrifice and devotion to Allah (God).

Yeah right. Ramadan is now the month the faithful are called to conduct a Holy War against the West. It was during Ramadan that Muslims triumphed in many battles throughout the history of Jihad for the sake of Allah – among them the battle of Badr in 624, the conquest of Mecca in 630 and of Andalusia in 711, the battle of Al-Zallaqa (in Andalusia) in 1086, the battle of Ein Jalut in 1260, as well as the 1973 War (called The Ramadan War).

Al Qaeda has again called on Muslims to step up attacks against the West during this year's Ramadan...something it has done on a regular basis since we attacked Afghanistan and then Iraq. This year audiotape posted on a Web site today and attributed to the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq called for an escalation of attacks and the kidnapping of foreigners to try to force the release of a high-profile Muslim cleric imprisoned in the United States.

The message refers to Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, the blind Egyptian cleric who was convicted in 1995 of plotting to blow up New York landmarks and is now in a federal medical prison in Springfield, Mo. The tape also encourages the mujahedeen “to capture some of the Roman dogs so as to secure his release from the darkness of his prison.” Usually they prefer to just kill Catholic priests and nuns but it must be OK with Allah the merciful to use them as ransom.

As a special treat, nuclear scientists and explosives experts were invited Thursday to test their experimental weapons on U.S. military bases in Iraq and to join the jihad against the West by the voice, who identified himself as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir — also known as Abu Ayyub al-Masri — the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq.


Wow..a special invite from Al Qaeda's leader in Iraq. I've always been curious about how one becomes a Muslim scientist since the Koran is the perfect book and none other are needed. Now the Koran is just fine when it comes to teaching the use of a sword but I found it lacking in physics and other subjects.

The following list comes from Wikepedia. It is a compilation of wars/battles fought during Islam's most holy month:

* 624 - Battle of Badr. On 17 Ramadan, Muhammad led his forces in Arabia to victory over Makkan idolaters. "The great battle of Badr" or "Conquest of Mecca", was the first battle between believers and infidels.
* 627 - The Battle of the Ditch. Muslims trained for this battle during Ramadan, though it occurred in the following month of Shawal.
* 630 - Battle of Tabouk (also called the Battle of Tabuk). The soldiers of Islam, under the leadership of Muhammad, established a training and fighting camp in Tabouk during the month of fasting, and attacked the Byzantine army.
* 653 - Conquest of Rhodes. Muslims plundered the Colossus of Rhodes, melted it and turned it into arms for the soldiers.
* 710 - Muslims led by Tarek bin Ziyad, invaded Spanish southern frontier cities on the Andalusian coast defeating King Roderick. They stayed for eight hundred years, disseminating Islam. From there, Islam spreads out through Europe.
* 1099 - Battle of Ascalon. Took place on 22 Ramadan (August 12), the newfound crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem defeated Fatimid Egypt.
* 1187 - Battle of Hattin. Took place at dawn -- after the Night of Power (Lailat ul-Qadr); a night during the last ten days of Ramadan when tradition says that the angel Gabriel descended and God called Muhammad to be His messenger. (It is sometimes translated as the Night of Destiny.) Sultan Saladin (Salah Al-Din Al-Ayubi) wiped out the Frankish army and went on to reclaim Jerusalem for Islam. The battle took place on July 4.
* 1260 - Battle of Ain Jalut. Qutuz defeated the Mongols in Palestine.
* 1962 to 1970 - Yemeni Civil War. Fighting continued through nine Ramadans.
* 1973 - Ramadan War (Elsewhere known as the Yom Kippur War). Egypt and Syria launched their attack on Israel it was called Operation Badr, and foot soldiers were given religious slogans. The Yom Kippur War is also known as the 6th of October war of 1973 and the 10th of Ramadan War.
* 1975 to 1990 - Lebanon's civil war. Fighting took place over the course of seventeen Ramadans.
* 1981 - Iran rejected Iraqi offers for a Ramadan cease-fire.
* 1982 - Iran launched an attack on Iraq that they explicitly called "Operation Ramadan."
* 1986 - Christian forces called for a Ramadan cease-fire, which lasted two weeks.
* 1987 - Iran again rejected Iraqi offers for a Ramadan cease-fire.
* 1987 to 1993 - The first Palestinian Intifada was waged over six Ramadans.
* 1990s - There were at least 20 examples of Ramadan violence by Muslims during the Algerian civil war.
* 2000 - Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee stated that India would initiate a unilateral cease-fire in observance of the holy month of Ramadan as a step towards peace in Kashmir. Nonetheless, widespread fighting continued between Indian forces and the guerrillas in Jammu-Kashmir.
* 2000 - Al-Qaida operatives tried to bomb a U.S. destroyer, USS The Sullivans, in the harbor at Aden, Yemen. It was the Night of Power. The suicide boat was overloaded with explosives and sank.
* 2000 - Al-Qaida successfully bombs the USS Cole in the same harbor at Aden.
* 2003 - After the 2003 Iraq war, suicide bombers struck at four locations, including the Red Cross headquarters, killing at least 35 people.

I guess all that fasting makes them angry.

School Siege Ends in Violence

I am a product of public schools. My father was a career military officer and we moved around the country on average every 2-3yrs. I've been to public schools in New York City, Omaha Nebraska, Key West Florida and countless other places in between. The longest stretch was three years in Leavenworth. No...this wasn't a prison sentence, it was high school.
After college and seven years the Coast Guard, I got my master's degree in education at Florida International and taught at inner-city public schools in Miami for several years.
I've seen the pressure kids are under. Peer pressure, grades, relationships, acne-you name it.
But I still don't understand why our country seems plagued with school violence that often leads to so many needless deaths.
The circumstances seem a bit more bizarre than usual but still why are our schools the scene of so much violence?


BAILEY, Colo. — The Colorado school where a gunman took six girls hostage remained closed Thursday as students gave details of the incident that left one teenager and the hostage-taker dead.

Authorities were investigating whether any of the girls were sexually assaulted, said Lance Clem, spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety. The Rocky Mountain News — citing a "knowledgeable law enforcement source" — reported that the gunman did sexually assault some of the hostages during the four-hour standoff with authorities. Another local news station was reporting similar accounts.

The gunman began the takeover by ordering students to line up at the chalk board as he tapped each with his gun and told them to stay or go, said 16-year-old student Cassidy Grigg. He said the man walked in, fired a warning shot at the floor and ordered the students to line up. He told some to leave and others — all girls — to stay.

"You could tell that he wanted the females," Cassidy said on NBC's "Today" Thursday. "He tapped me on the shoulder and he told me to leave the room. I told him, 'I don't want to leave.'"

"He told me that if I didn't go then he would pretty much kill me," Cassidy told ABC's "Good Morning America." "I noticed that he wanted to keep the females in the class. That's the main reason why I didn't want to go because I'm sure the girls would have felt more support if there would have been some males in the class with them."

No one recognized the man, who seemed to be dressed as a student, Cassidy said.

"He was just an old guy who came on a mission, and I think he got what he wanted," he told "Today."

Authorities said the gunman is between 30 and 50 years old.

"We are a community in mourning," schools superintendent Jim Walpole said. "Our thoughts, our prayers are with our students, staff and their families. Especially the family of the student we lost."

The dead victim was identified by acquaintances and a co-worker as 16-year-old Emily Keyes, shown in a yearbook photo as a smiling blonde who played volleyball and was on the debate team at Platte Canyon High School. She was pronounced dead at a Denver hospital hours after the standoff.

Grigg described Emily as one of his first friends when he moved to the area in 6th grade.

"She was always sweet," he told "Today." "She was just friendly. She was just a good person in general."

There was no known link between Keyes and the gunman, who was not identified by authorities. Park County Sheriff Fred Wegener, who had a son in the school as the drama unfolded, was at a loss to explain a motive.

"I don't know why he wanted to do this," Wegener said, his voice breaking.

Just Some Thoughts

Last night I watched a replay of Tony Blair's speech to the Labor Party. One line stood out to me above the rest:
The British people will forgive you for making a mistake but they won't forgive indecisiveness.

I for one will miss his leadership.



Recently the New York Times published a classified document(again!), claiming that the war in Iraq has led to an increase of terrorist activity.
Does this qualify as news? Of course a war will increase our enemies activities. Did we expect them to roll over and do nothing?
What most bothered me about this report is once again the New York Times has committed an act of treason. Why does the fourth estate get a free pass every time it leaks information to the enemy that can be used against our soldiers?
They shoot traitors...if nothing else at least hold them in custody until they release the name of their sources.

An Israeli military court has ordered the release of the Palestinian deputy prime minister because of a lack of evidence against him, his lawyer says.
Has Israel gained the release of any of their soldiers who were kidnapped in Palestine(1) or Hezbollah(2)?

Best comments made by a Democrat this past month goes to Congressman Charles Rangel:
I want to express my extreme displeasure with statements by the President of Venezuela attacking U.S. President George Bush in such a personal and disparaging way during his remarks at the United Nations General Assembly.


It should be clear to all heads of government that criticism of Bush Administration policies, either domestic or foreign, does not entitle them to attack the President personally.

George Bush is the President of the United States and represents the entire country. Any demeaning public attack against him is viewed by Republicans and Democrats, and all Americans, as an attack on all of us.



And finally....Is this the week when we finally reach and break the all-time DOW record of 11,723?

The Fall of Great Britain

Hitler, Göring and the Luftwaffe were not able to do it. Even Rome at its height had to build a wall to separate the northern tribes of England. Hadrian's wall was the most heavily fortified border in the Empire. But times have changed.

This will surely be the most talked about subject on the blogsphere today. Have the Brits surrendered to Sharia law? If the following story is true, then the answer is apparently yes.

Police to brief Muslims before terror raids

POLICE have agreed to consult a panel of Muslim leaders before mounting counter-terrorist raids or arrests. Members of the panel will offer their assessment of whether information police have on a suspect is too flimsy and will also consider the consequences on community relations of a raid.

Members will be security vetted and will have to promise not to reveal any intelligence they are shown. They will not have to sign the Official Secrets Act.

I'm glad that they promised not to reveal any intelligence. Muslims are known for their sense of honesty and fair play. Unfortunately it appears that the British police has also decided not to reveal any intelligence.

The first panel, expected to consist of four people, will be set up initially in London. Tomorrow representatives from police forces across England and Wales will decide whether to make the scheme national.

Muslim groups have welcomed the move, which is understood to be backed by Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan police commissioner.

This week the Association of Chief Police Officers will discuss with MI5 and the Home Office whether to reveal to the panel intelligence information from the security service.

The idea came from the Metropolitan police and the Muslim Safety Forum (MSF), which works for better police-Muslim relations. It has been under discussion for two years and came to the top of the agenda after a police raid in Forest Gate, London, in June, in which a man was shot. Police were acting on a tip-off about a bomb. None was found.

My question is will members of other religious organizations be afforded the same rights as Muslims?
Has the British Parliament formally submitted to Dhimmi status?

Islamic Russia in our Lifetime

THE COMING MUSLIM MAJORITY: On February 28, Russia expert PAUL GOBLE, vice dean of social sciences and humanities at Concordia-Audentes University in Tallinn, Estonia, gave a briefing at RFE/RL's Washington office. Goble said ethographers predict Russia will have a Muslim majority "within our lifetime."

Since 1989, Russia's Muslim population has increased by 40 percent, Goble said, rising to some 25 million self-declared Muslims. He said 2.5 million to 3.5 million Muslims now live in Moscow, gving Moscow the largest Muslim population of any city in Europe. Russia today has more than 8,000 mosques, up from just 300 in 1991. By 2010, experts predict, some 40 percent of Russian military conscripts will be Muslims.

Goble noted that these changes have been accompanied by a "rising tide" of anti-Muslim prejudice. Public-opinion surveys reveal that up to "70 percent of ethnic Russians" express sympathy with xenophobic slogans. Goble warned that heavy-handed state efforts to "contain Islam" could backfire and cause groups to move underground, "radicalizing people who are not yet radicalized."

"We underestimate the danger and know we are losing," the special-forces hero of the hit Russian television broadcast "Anti-Killer" told a colleague in a recent episode. "We are losing because we are at work -- and they are at war."

Islam -- The New Marxism

Delyagin, director of the Institute of Globalization and a former adviser to Russian prime ministers Mikhail Kasyanov and Yevgeny Primakov, offered two explanations for why Slavic nationals might be attracted to radical Islam. Islam, he says, now plays the role that Marxism did during the Soviet era. Marxism once offered young people a sense that they were contributing to a universal ideal, and in many ways Islam is playing that role now. Also, Delyagin argues that Islam provides a feeling of transcendence over everyday life -- filling another void left by the collapse of Marxism.

In short, militant Islam may provide Slavic converts a feeling of purpose they find lacking in modern society or in the teachings of traditional Christianity.

The expansion of radical Islam poses a serious challenge for Russian security agencies, and this problem is compounded by the activities of Slavic converts as terrorist activity spreads increasingly from Chechnya and the North Caucasus to Moscow and other Russian cities.

And the Kremlin does no know how to confront this threat.

Cafe Ground Zero: Serving up Nuked Food for over 50 Years

9/20/2006 - WASHINGTON (AFPN) -- The hot dog stand in the Pentagon's center courtyard, which long has been a source of Cold War intrigue, will be torn down in the coming months and replaced with a new eating facility.

"Rumor has it that during the Cold War the Russians never had any less than two missiles aimed at this hot dog stand," said Brett Eaton, an information and communications officer for Washington Headquarters Services. "They thought this was the Pentagon's most top secret meeting room, and the entire Pentagon was a large fortress built around this hot dog stand."

Reportedly, by using satellite imagery, the Soviets could see groups of U.S. military officers entering and exiting the hot dog stand at about the same time every day. They concluded that the stand was the entrance to an underground bunker.

"Inshallah!" Hugo Chavez

Hugo Chavez is learning Arabic. Can his conversion be far behind?

Rumors stated that Satan made an appearance this week at the United Nations. There were scattered reports of smelling "sulfur" near the podium at the 61st session of the UN's General assembly.

"The devil came here," Chavez said. "Right here. Right here. And it smells of sulfur still today, this table that I am now standing in front of."

Chavez suggested President Bush see a psychologist because he thinks he "rules the earth".

He then made the sign of the cross, brought his hands together as if praying and looked up to the ceiling.

Does anyone know another phrase for "Waste of Time"?
How about UNITED NATIONS....

On a sad note..the US Navy retired F-14 Tomcat
Although still swift and deadly, the F-14 is a victim of changing times. For example:

•Sophisticated missiles have made its specialty, aerial dogfighting, obsolete. Opposing aircraft target each other from miles away, often before the pilots can see each other except on radar.

•Precision bombing is the new priority, and despite modification, the Tomcat can’t carry the loads of the new F/A-18 Super Hornet.



•It’s too expensive in the long run. The jet that flew its first combat missions in September 1974 requires 50 hours of maintenance, compared with five to 10 hours for the Super Hornet, for each hour of flight time.

It was the best in its day. No other aircraft came close when it came to aerial dogfighting.

Group to Attack Christian Targets

In an effort to prove the peaceful intent of Islam, Gazan Muslims are forming an Islamic group to attack Christians in response to Pope's comments.



Muslims in Hamas-controlled Gaza have formed an ad hoc terrorist group promising to attack Christian targets to avenge the Pope’s choice of a quotation insinuating that Islam is prone to violence.



The group, which calls itself the “Army of guidance,” sent an announcement to news agencies based in Gaza saying that “every place relevant to Christians will be a target until the cursed infidel – the Vatican – apologizes to Muslims.”

Hardline Islamic groups were offended by the Pope’s citing of a Byzantine emperor who criticized Islam’s founder Mohammad’s command to spread Islamic faith by the sword.

Last Friday, the 1,400 year old St. Perfidious Greek Orthodox church in Gaza was among seven Christian targets burned or vandalized throughout PA-controlled areas.

Pope Benedict XVI has refused to apologize for merely citing quotations, but said he was “deeply sorry” for the Muslim reaction to the words – which he stressed do not constitute his own opinion.

Though touted as an apology by the Vatican’s own public relations team, Islamic leaders continue to demand submission from the leader of Catholicism.

The chief Islamic Mufti of Jerusalem Mohammed Hussein called the Pope’s statement of sorrow insufficient and demanded a “clear apology” Tuesday. He condemned attacks on churches but insisted the Pope himself is responsible for the Muslim violence.



Behind the Badge has been called to active duty. Stop by his site and wish him luck...

Notes from Somewhere over the Ocean
Hey Y'all!! Guess what?? I found a computer with internet access. I'm writting to you from somewhere in the Old World. Got a while to go yet before I will be back in the good Ol' U S of A.

Anyway, thought I'd leave you with this tidbit to ponder for a few days. See ya when I get another chance to comandeer a 'puter.

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

Only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you:

1. Jesus Christ
2. The American G.I.

One died for your soul, the other for your freedom.

YOU MIGHT WANT TO PASS THIS ON, AS MANY SEEM TO FORGET BOTH OF THEM.

Islam's Peaceful Protest in London

Joee Blogs - a Catholic Londoner

A Call to Arms

Al Qaeda issues warning to Pope

All comments in red belong to me.

AP:CAIRO, Egypt — Al Qaeda in Iraq warned Pope Benedict on Monday that its war against Christianity and the West will go on until Islam takes over the world, and Iran’s supreme leader called for more protests over the pontiff’s remarks on Islam.

Nothing new here. This has been the goal of Islam since its inception. So basically they are just regurgitating the policy line.

Protests broke out in South Asia and Indonesia, with angry Muslims saying Benedict’s statement of regret a day earlier did not go far enough. In southern Iraq, demonstrators carrying black flags burned an effigy of the Pope.

Killing priests, nuns and burning churches...every day Islamic activities.

Islamic leaders around the world issued more condemnations of the Pope’s comments, but some moderates in the Middle East appeared to be trying to put a damper on the outrage, fearing it could spiral into attacks on Christians in the region.

Umm...I think it already has.

On Sunday, Benedict said he was “deeply sorry” over any hurt caused by his comments made in a speech last week, in which he quoted a medieval text characterizing some of the Prophet Muhammad’s teachings as “evil and inhuman” and calling Islam a religion spread by the sword.

What's the big deal? Isn't this exactly what the Koran mandates?

Benedict said the remarks came from a text that didn’t reflect his own opinion, but he did not retract what he said or say he was sorry he uttered what proved to be explosive words.

Nor should he...all he said was the truth. Too bad more leaders are afraid to speak the truth.

The Vatican on Monday sought to defuse the anger, ordering papal representatives around the world to meet with leaders of Muslim countries to explain the Pope’s point of view and full context of his speech.

Why bother? It went over their seventh century intellect.

Roman Catholic leaders stepped forward to defend the pontiff. At an Italian bishops’ conference, Camillo Cardinal Ruini underlined the bishops’ “total closeness and solidarity to the Pope” and said they deplored interpretations of the Pope’s comments “which attribute to the Holy Father . . . errors that he has not committed and aim at attacking his person and his ministry.”

Few in the Islamic world were satisfied by Benedict’s statement of regret.

Too bad.

“The Pope’s words have caused a deep wound in the hearts of Muslims that won’t heal for a long time, and then only after a clear apology to Muslims,” Egypt’s religious affairs minister, Mahmoud Hamdi Zaqzouq, wrote in a column in the government daily Al-Ahram on Monday.

What a bunch of crap. Deep wounds? All they need to do is read the Koran.

An influential Egyptian cleric, Sheik Youssef al-Qaradawi, called for protests after weekly prayers on Friday, but maintained they should be peaceful.

By peaceful, the cleric means only some churches should be burnt.

Extremists said the Pope’s comments proved that the West was in a war against Islam.

And this is news? Even though in reality it is the other way around.

Al Qaeda in Iraq and its allies issued a statement addressing the Pope as “a cross-worshipper” and warning, “You and the West are doomed, as you can see from the defeat in Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya and elsewhere.

OK Osama..now just come out from hiding in your cave.

“You infidels and despots, we will continue our jihad (holy war) and never stop until God avails us to chop your necks and raise the fluttering banner of monotheism, when God’s rule is established governing all people and nations,” said the statement by the Mujahedeen Shura Council, an umbrella organization of Sunni Arab extremist groups in Iraq.

Now I see why he was upset about the sword comment.

Another Iraqi extremist group, Ansar al-Sunna, challenged ``sleeping Muslims” to prove their manhood by doing something other than “issuing statements or holding demonstrations.”

“If the stupid pig is prancing with his blasphemies in his house,” the group said in a web statement, referring to the Pope, ``then let him wait for the day coming soon when the armies of the religion of right knock on the walls of Rome.”

What brave men...issuing statements while hiding behind the Internet.

In Iran, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei used the comments to call for protests against the United States. He argued that while the Pope may have been deceived into making his remarks, the words give the West an “excuse for suppressing Muslims” by depicting them as terrorists.

There goes sneaky George Bush...deceiving the Pope into making comments he otherwise would not have said.

“Those who benefit from the Pope’s comments and drive their own arrogant policies should be targeted with attacks and protests,” he said, referring to the United States.

Another threat to kill all the infidels. Doesn't this shit ever get old?

The anger recalled the outrage earlier this year over cartoons depicting the prophet published by a Danish paper. The caricatures, which Muslims saw as insulting Muhammad, set off large, violent protests across the Islamic world.

So far, protests over the Pope’s comments have been smaller. However, there has been some violence: Attackers hurled firebombs at seven churches in the West Bank and Gaza Strip over the weekend, and a nun was shot to death in Somalia.

Some 200 Khamenei loyalists in the Syrian capital, Damascus, held a protest Monday at an Islamic shrine, dismissing the Pope’s apology. “The Pope’s sorrow was equivocal,” read one banner.

I'm impressed. A Muslim using the word "equivocal".

Dozens protested outside the Vatican Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, and schools and shops in the Indian-controlled section of Kashmir shut their doors in protest.

“His comments really hurt Muslims all over the world,” Umar Nawawi of the radical Islamic Defenders’ Front said in Jakarta. “We should remind him not to say such things which can only fuel a holy war.”

Again...aren't we already in a holy war? It has been declared everyday since Mohammed aped his way across the desert.

Islamic countries also asked the UN Human Rights Council to examine the question of religious tolerance. Malaysia’s foreign minister, Syed Hamid Albar, said Benedict’s apology was “inadequate to calm the anger.”

This is so laughable it's pathetic. Muslims decrying religious intolerance.

In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood said the anger should not be allowed to hurt ties with the Middle East’s Christian minorities. But worries among Christians in the region are high.

Guards have been posted around some churches, and the head of Egypt’s Orthodox Coptic Church, Pope Shenouda III, disassociated himself from Benedict’s statements.

The Dominican mission in Cairo also criticized Benedict’s words, saying he chose a text for his speech that “revived the polemics of the past.”

He was reading a document 600 years old but I suppose Christians in Egypt have a legitimate reason to be afraid of retaliation.

“These comments, seen by many Muslims as hurtful, risk encouraging extremists on all sides,” it said in a statement, “and put in danger all the advances in dialogue made in recent decades.”

Advances made in recent decades? He must be referring to the genocide in Sudan, the attack on the World Trade Center, the Cole, the killing and raping of Catholic girls in Indonesia, cutting the heads off innocent journalist, the killing of priests and nuns or any of the other peaceful advances made by the Religion of Peace. How long before its time for ordinary people to start fighting back?

Mohammed "Evil and Unhuman"

What was Pope Benedict XVI thinking? Of course Islam is nonviolent.

Today's church bombings/burnings throughout the Middle East and South East Asia prove it. Those were peaceful Palestinians wielding guns, firebombs and lighter fluid who attacked four churches in the West Bank town of Nablus.

In the peaceloving country of Nigeria, almost 600 people have been killed and 12 churches burned. I'm sure there is a perfectly reasonable explanation....

Burning the Pope in effigy was only their way of showing love and respect.

hmmm.. It is easy to make fun of Islamic beliefs, but by not taking serious the threat they impose on the modern world will lead to catastrophe. These "people" want to reestablish seventh century ideals and impose these ideals on every living being. Those who resist will be made example of: by the sword.


Let's get serious just for a moment. It's far too easy to mock these brainwashed followers of Satan. The problem is that there are well over one billion Muslims who are seeking to enforce their beliefs on the rest of us. They want to force our women to be their slaves and spread their "seed" wherever they can. They are willing to spread Islam by war, extermination, overpopulation and any means available. Using terrorism, weapons of mass destruction including chemical, biological and nuclear are all considered fair. Do not become complacent because of their seventh century ideals.


Let's take a look at the controversy.
Excerpt from the Pope's speech:

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached". The emperor, after having expressed himself so forcefully, goes on to explain in detail the reasons why spreading the faith through violence is something unreasonable. Violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul. "God", he says, "is not pleased by blood - and not acting reasonably. Violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul. "God", he says, "is not pleased by blood - and not acting reasonably. It is contrary to God's nature.
Faith is born of the soul, not the body. Whoever would lead someone to faith needs the ability to speak well and to reason properly, without violence and threats...(These are concepts that are too complex for the Islamic mind) To convince a reasonable soul, one does not need a strong arm, or weapons of any kind, or any other means of threatening a person with death...".(Again...using truth/love instead of violence is alien to Islam thinking)

OK...let's look at what the Pope really said.
Very simply it could be summed up in one sentence,"There is no compulsion in religion". How simple is that? You believe or you don't. And those who don't are free to believe in what they choose.
The Pope stated that religion should not be forced on nonbelievers...particularly at the end of a sword.
Islam states the opposite. The duty to wage war for the propagation of the faith is plainly written in the Koran.

"And slay them wherever you catch them, and turn them out from where they have turned you out; for tumult and oppression or worsen slaughter; but fight than not at the Sacred Mosque, unless they fight you there; but if they fight you, slay them. Such is the reward of those who suppress faith" (sura 2: 190)
The Koran explicitly enjoins Muslims to wage war against the People of the Book until they either convert Islam or are subdued as second-class dhimmis (sura 9) Repentance
In the end it is the will of Allah and Islam will triumph over all other religions (sura 9: 33)

For those who reject Islam, the consequences are clear, "For those who do not submit to Allah] their punishment is . . . execution or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet, from the opposite sides, or exile from the land.”

So now the Islamic world is reaching another cartoon frenzy because someone spoke the truth about their violent seventh century cult.

Now...don't confuse my feelings/beliefs with those of the Pope, Pat Robertson or any other prominent Jewish/Christian theologian.
I think we should ban the Koran as hate speech. We should tear down every Mosque in this country. Brick by brick. Every Muslim should be given the opportunity to return to his country of origin or to any other place/country willing to accept them.
If the government is afraid to do this then the citizens of this country should assume responsibility. They have announced publicly their goals of replacing the Constitution with Sharia law and making Islam the dominant religion in the United States.
It's passed time to fight back, but it's far from being too late. Do not frequent their businesses. Place the Star of David in plain view. Do not listen to their lies (which their religion allows for the benefit of Islam).

Our government has shown itself to be incapable of making the hard choices.
Let's show them the way.

UPDATE: The New York Times editorialized on Saturday that the pope must give a "deep and persuasive" apology for his remarks.

What else would you expect from the New York Times? Why should the Pope apologize for telling the truth? "Truth"..Something the New York Times has had trouble with in the past. There can be no doubt that Islam is spread by the sword. Either submit or die. There are no other choices. The Koran has specific references commanding its followers to kill all nonbelievers. This isn't something new. The Pope was speaking from a 600-year-old document. The only thing new was a world leader speaking the truth. And now the "Religion of Peace" has threatened his life with homicide bombers. That will show the world how peaceful they are.

Taliban Funeral

I'm sure most of you have already seen this picture of almost 200 Taliban soldiers attending a funeral for one of their own. I've tried to count how many soldiers are there but it's almost impossible. I've seen reports from 120-200. I counted well over 50 on the first row alone.

This picture was taken from a predator drone armed with hellfire missiles. We could have killed these Taliban soldiers but didn't because it was at a cemetery. You can be sure that if the opportunity was reversed, there would be dead American soldiers. Even worse, by not killing them, this missed opportunity will most likely cost the lives of American soldiers...if it hasn't already.

Are we fighting a war or aren't we?

While not giving a reason for the decision, the military concluded the statement saying that while Taliban forces have killed innocent civilians during a funeral, coalition forces "hold themselves to a higher moral and ethical standard than their enemies."

If we are going to fight by these "higher and ethical standards" we will never finish the job. This was a tightly compact group of soldiers. An easy target. The only "innocent" civilians were already dead and buried. If we didn't want to kill them at the cemetery, why didn't we take advantage of the situation after the burial when they were leaving?

Afghan governor's funeral bombed; 6 dead

Why do we give more respect to cemeteries and mosques then our enemy does? Last week an Afghan governor was killed by terrorists. At his funeral, a homicide bomber detonated a large device killing 6 and injuring dozens.

AP:TANI, Afghanistan - A suicide bomber struck Monday at a funeral for a provincial governor assassinated by the Taliban a day earlier, and four senior members of the government at the service escaped unhurt, officials and witnesses said. At least six people were killed and dozens were wounded.

The blast went off near a tent where more than 1,000 people had congregated in Tani district of Khost province in eastern
Afghanistan at the funeral for Gov. Abdul Hakim Taniwal. He was killed Sunday along with two other people in a suicide attack outside his office in Gardez, the capital of neighboring Paktia province.

Back to the Taliban funeral:

NBC News had quoted one Army officer who was involved with the spy mission as saying "we were so excited" that the group had been spotted and was in the sights of a U.S. drone. But the network quoted the officer, who was not identified, as saying that frustration soon set in after the officers realized they couldn't bomb the funeral under the military's rules of engagement.

Enough Already

I don't know about the rest of you, but I for one have had about all I can take with the 911 memorials. All day Monday, the past month and continuing still, I have been reminded time and again about the horrible events of five years ago.

Do we need to remember? Of course... but we don't need to be obsessive about it. We make miniseries about the events, movies, documentaries, commissions, debates after debates and then more debates. We cannot let any opportunity go to talk about the heroes of 911. How many different ways can we use the term "HEROES"?

There were many heroes that day. That is indisputable. The first responders, those aboard flight 93, John O'Neill, the man who sat with his quadriplegic friend instead of evacuating and this list goes on and on. But for the majority who died that day, tragic as it was, they were victims. No more heroic than someone killed needlessly in a car crash. I'm sure that will make some people unhappy but it's the truth.

America, instead of fighting to win a war, has been distracted by this pity-fest.

Five years after Pearl Harbor, American soldiers were sitting in Japan drinking Sake with Japanese geisha girls.

Five years after "Remember the Alamo!", Santa Anna was defeated at the Battle of San Jacinto and Texas was an independent country.

Five years after "Remember the Maine!", the United States controlled the Philippines, several Caribbean islands and Cuba was an independent country.

Now I'm sure many of you will point out that after World War II, the Cold War started. Texas became a state, but then succeeded from the Union in the Civil War. And of course Cuba is a communist nation.

But still, America was challenged and America answered.

Five years later after 911, we are still fighting the Taliban. With weapons no more modern than those used in Vietnam, these fighters still haven't relinquished Afghanistan. in fact, they have recaptured territories they lost.

I'm not even going to get into Iraq.

Just yesterday we had the opportunity to kill almost 190 Taliban fighters but declined the opportunity because it was near a cemetery. How are we going to win a war when we have such ridiculous rules? Islamic fighters use mosques and cemeteries to store weapons and to launch operations but we let 190 fighters, some of which will surely later kill American soldiers, walk away.

Let's win this war. Whatever it takes. Remember 911, but wouldn't it be better to celebrate victory?

Stop 'pussy-footing' Around

When it comes to speaking the truth about Islam and terrorism, no one does it better than Australia's Prime Minister John Howard.
The rest of the world could learn something here.


Sydney - Australian Muslims must denounce terrorism rather than 'pussy-foot' around the links between Islam and acts of political violence, Prime Minister John Howard said Monday.

'We shouldn't pussyfoot around - no decent, genuine Muslim would support terrorism,' Howard said in an interview with The Australian newspaper coinciding with the fifth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.

'On occasion they should come out and be more critical of terrorism,' Howard said. 'We are confronting people who would deny our human rights.'

Howard repeated a warning delivered earlier this month that among the 300,000 Muslims in Australia were some who were opposed to liberal values like democracy, freedom of religion and the equality of women.

'There is a section of the Islamic population which will not integrate, ... does have values and attitudes which are hostile to Australia's interests, and I have said that before,' Howard said.

'And I would like the rest of the Islamic community to join the rest of the Australian community in making sure that the views and attitudes of that small minority do not have adverse consequences.'

Howard happened to be in Washington when hijacked jets were flown into buildings five years ago, leaving nearly 3,000 people dead.

'I was getting ready for a news conference, and my press secretary, Tony O'Leary, said a plane had hit one of the towers in New York, the World Trade Centre, and then he quickly said in a few minutes another plane had hit,' Howard recalled.

'After the news conference was over we actually pulled back the curtain and could see the smoke rising from the Pentagon building.'

Howard subsequently invoked the formal defence pact Australia has with the US and pledged support for the war on terror. Australia committed troops to the invasion of Afghanistan and, along with Britain and Poland, sent soldiers for the US-led war in Iraq.

God Bless America?

‘God Bless America' poster yanked

The God Bless America poster that used to hang in the Lompoc post office lobby is now in the back room out of public view.

That's the way Lompoc resident Matt Hughes likes it.

Hughes, a vocal atheist and advocate for the separation of church and state, was offended by the sign and complained to the postmaster, who ordered it taken down last month.

The red, white and blue poster has a large American flag above the words “God Bless America.”

Post office employees were as offended as Hughes, not by the poster but by the postmaster's decision.

“We're just upset and we're offended that we can't show support for our country,” said Cathy Hefferman, lobby director at the post office. “This is a time that you need to do that.”

Hefferman said Hughes had every right to ask that the sign be taken down. But she said postal employees had a right to be able to keep the poster where they work.

Hughes disagreed.

“They posted a religious expression, in this case, a prayer, and it's not the business of our government to be promoting religion,” Hughes said. “That's the business of our churches.”

The poster had been hanging on a wall above the customer service area since 2001. It was placed there, where clerks accept packages from customers, shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Hughes said a supervisor's initial response to his request was resistant.

“I first spoke to a supervisor who told me, ‘It's not coming down,'” Hughes said. “He refused and said ‘That's not coming down. You can complain to Washington if you want, but it's not coming down.'”

Several days later, Hughes discovered that it had been taken down.

“I'm delighted that it's down. I think there's no reason that a government facility should have the largest word in the customer services area be the name of some people's deity,” Hughes said.

“For some people, their god is named Jehovah or Allah. Some people worship Buddha. Some people worship the flying spaghetti monster. But the Christians and Jews have named their god, God with the capital G, and that's whose god was listed in the post office. If there is a god, I would wish he would bless everyone - not just America.”

Hefferman said the Lompoc postmaster got authorization from the main regional office in San Luis Obispo to remove the sign.

“For one person to come in and say it offends him that is his right, but it's also our right to have that up there,” Hefferman said. “I just think he stepped on our rights. He has the right for his booth downtown (Olde Towne Market) and that's his right, so we should have the right to display what we want and if he's offended by something we have in our business then he can take his business elsewhere.”

Adele Carter, another post office employee, said she was also disappointed by the removal.

“I believe God does bless America,” Carter said. The same America that gives us our freedom of speech, is the same America that lets him speak and give him his freedom of speech.

Hughes, a former Sunday school teacher, disagreed.

“The post office is not an appropriate place for people to be speaking for or against god,” Hughes said. “Not in a way that makes it appear that the government is sharing this opinion. People can go to the public square and pray to their heart's content. People are free to do whatever they want in public, but the people at the post office don't get to use the post office to share their religious beliefs because it gives the appearance that the government is endorsing their beliefs.”

Time to Move On...but Never to Forget

Architect Minoru Yamasaki "The World Trade Center should, because of its importance, become a living representation of man's belief in humanity, his need for individual dignity, his belief in the cooperation of men, and through this cooperation his ability to find greatness."







It started out as just another beautiful day in New York City...
































Firefighters pick through the wreckage of the towers in search of survivors

More Toothless Threats from Kofi

You would think the Secretary General would finely understand that Sudan doesn't care what he says. They know that Kofi Annan is leaving in December after nine years of turning the United Nations into a toothless tiger. But still he keeps growling.

Sudan leaders warned over Darfur

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has stepped up pressure on the government of Sudan amid growing international concern about the crisis in Darfur.

He warned Sudanese leaders they could be held personally responsible for what happened in the region if international troops were not allowed in.

I wonder what he means by "held responsible"?

Mr Annan said conditions there were already desperate and many could die if peacekeepers were refused entry.

Earlier the UN refugee chief warned of an impending "catastrophe".

Impending? I'm sure the thousands killed already feel it's a catastrophe.

Antonio Guterres said escalating violence in Darfur was now threatening the entire region.

Three years of conflict have left millions displaced and thousands dead.

The UN says the situation shows no signs of improving, and aid agencies say it is getting worse.

The African Union has said it will pull out its 7,000-strong peacekeeping force next month, but Sudan has refused permission for a UN force to replace it.

Of course they have, they are three years into a genocide and want to finish the job.

Violence rising

Mr Annan said continuing to block UN intervention could leave Sudan's leaders open to be "held collectively and individually responsible for what happens to the population in Darfur".

He added that Darfur would be discussed at a UN Security Council meeting on Monday.

Despite a peace deal signed in May between the government and one of the rebel groups, the violence on the ground is increasing.

Attacks on aid workers occur almost daily - 12 have been killed in the last three months.

Speaking in Geneva, Antonio Guterres, the head of UNHCR, said it was a situation which could not continue.

"I think we are facing a terrible disaster. War is starting again, violations of human rights are massive, situations of rape - these have all kinds of devastating forms of impact in the lives of this population and make us feel more and more uncomfortable because we are not able to help them.

"We cannot even have access to them. This is unacceptable, this has to stop."

Aid agencies believe their work will be impossible without an international force in Darfur.

Privately many in the UN fear the escalating violence over the last few weeks is the build-up to a major attack by government forces, says the BBC's Imogen Foulkes in Geneva, where the UNHCR is based.

If that happens, it could trigger another flood of refugees from Darfur into neighbouring Chad, where the UN refugee agency is already caring for 200,000 people.

Those camps are stretched to breaking point, Mr Guterres said, and a new refugee crisis along the borders could bring instability to the entire region.

I think you could say that the entire region is already unstable.

Arabs Give Consent to Continue Genocide.

The Sudanese government announced Thursday that it had won the support of all the other Arab states for its position on the Darfur issue.

The remarks were made by Sudanese State Minister for Foreign Affairs Ali Ahmed Karti, who is currently in Cairo to take part in a foreign ministers meeting of the Arab League, reported the Sudanese News Agency.

Karti was quoted as saying that there was an Arab unanimous stance crystallized in the Arab foreign ministers meeting to reject any foreign intervention in Darfur without consent of the Sudanese government.

The meeting had taken specific decisions to support Sudan politically and materially to face the situation in Darfur, he added.

Ominously, the Khartoum government is preparing a new, massive military deployment, ostensibly to put down rebel forces before any U.N. peacekeepers arrive. But Khartoum's tactics have not been those of counter-insurgency, or even total war. They have been the tactics of genocide.

A recent Amnesty International report describes "indiscriminate and disproportionate bombings on civilians and how the Janjaweed, government militias operating alongside the Sudanese army, target exclusively civilians. In such attacks, civilians are usually killed, injured, raped, abducted or forcibly displaced." If ever there was time to intervene, it is now, before this offensive against Darfuris takes place.

This fits with Khartoum's strategy of making only the vaguest gestures toward diplomacy. Doing so keeps Bolton's recent reference to Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter--the invocation of which would allow U.N. peacekeepers in Sudan to use force against genocidaires to protect civilians and seize weapons--an empty threat for now.

The Sudanese government knows that, despite years of talk, there has been no action yet; its strategy of obstruction has worked.

Yet, as UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan pointed out "when it comes to laws ... we are blessed with what amounts to an international bill of human rights, among which are impressive norms to protect the weakest among us, including victims of conflict and persecution."


uh-huh...

Sounds a lot like BS to me. The international community, led by the United Nations makes heroic proclamations while genocide led by Arabs/Muslims continues to take place in plain view of the world. Why bother with passing resolutions that will never be enforced?
This is why countries such as Iran laugh at UN resolutions. Under the leadership of
Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the UN has lost all credibility. Resolution after resolution is passed without any consequences for noncompliance.

Robert Spencer's Response to Adam Gadahn’s Convert-to-Islam-or-Die Message

FrontPageMagazine.com | September 6, 2006

In American al-Qaeda operative Adam Gadahn’s convert-to-Islam-or-die message to America released last Saturday, he extends a special invitation to the President, as well as to Daniel Pipes, Michael Scheuer, Steve Emerson – and me:

If the Zionist crusader missionaries of hate and counter-Islam consultants like Daniel Pipes, Robert Spencer, Michael Scheuer, Steven Emerson, and yes, even the crusader-in-chief George W. Bush were to abandon their unbelief and repent and enter into the light of Islam and turn their swords against the enemies of God, it would be accepted of them and they would be our brothers in Islam. And we send a special invitation to all of you fighting Bush’s crusader pipe dream in Afghanistan, Iraq, and wherever else W. has sent you to die.

Gadahn also praises Western leftist sycophants and apologists for the global jihad, and invites them to become Muslims as well:
This only makes sense since they are collaborating with the enemy.

Why not surrender to the truth? Escape from the unbelieving army and join the winning side. As for those who have expressed their respect and admiration for Islam, and acknowledged that it is the truth and demonstrated the support and sympathy for the Muslims and their causes like George Galloway, Robert Fisk, and countless others, I say to them, isn’t it time you stopped sitting on the fence and came over to the side of truth?...Abandon unbelief and accept the truth.
No personal invitation to George Soros?

It is important to note that Gadahn’s “invitation” to Islam is coupled with a threat of violence: “To Americans and the rest of Christendom we say, either repent (your) misguided ways and enter into the light of truth or keep your poison to yourself and suffer the consequences in this world and the next….” In this, Gadahn is following the example of the Muslim prophet Muhammad, who told his followers:

“When you meet your enemies who are polytheists, invite them to three courses of action…Invite them to (accept) Islam; if they respond to you, accept it from them and desist from fighting against them…If they refuse to accept Islam, demand from them the Jizya [the tax on non-Muslims specified in Qur’an 9:29]. If they agree to pay, accept it from them and hold off your hands. If they refuse to pay the tax, seek Allah’s help and fight them” (Sahih Muslim 4294).

Muhammad’s directions here to extend an invitation to Islam and follow it with a threat were also followed recently by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. For his part, Gadahn calls the Islamic prophet Muhammad “the chief and master of Adam’s children, and the embodiment of high morals and good character.”

The thuggishness of Gadahn and the supremacist creed for which he has become a salesman was evident in other parts of his message. “Islam,” he explained, “is the only religion acceptable to God and came with the revealed book, the Koran, which abrogates all previous revelations, like the Torah and Evangel [Gospel]... God recognizes no separation between religion and state.” In this he makes an expression of the Islamic supremacism that delegitimizes the religious traditions of Jews and Christians. In line with the Qur’an (3:67), Gadahn says, “Abraham was neither a Jew or a Christian, but was a Muslim hanif.” (A “hanif” is a pre-Islamic monotheist.) In other words, Judaism and Christianity as practiced today have no legitimacy, but are merely renegade corruptions of the true religion, Islam.

Maybe Adam Gadahn is angry with me for describing him a couple of years ago as he appears in an old photo: as a “pudgy, long-haired American kid who appears to be locked in a desperate, losing struggle to grow a beard.” Adam, I see from more recent photos that you have won that struggle, for which I congratulate you. In your larger struggles, however, you will not prevail. Thank you for your invitation to me to become a Muslim and wield my sword against the enemies of Allah. But I’m afraid I must decline. While I appreciate the fact that becoming your “brother in Islam” might afford me a measure of personal security that I do not enjoy today, some things are more important than that. I cannot and will not give in to violent intimidation, come what may, and I do not want to live in a society that bows to such intimidation.

I believe that societies that respect the equality of rights before the law of all people, including women and religious minorities, as well as the freedom of conscience, are superior to those that do not. I hope that such societies will be able to summon the will to resist you and your “invitation” in all its implications before it is too late.

Meanwhile, Adam, I have an invitation of my own for you: I invite you to accept the Bill of Rights, and enter into the brotherhood of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. My invitation does not focus on my religion, although I invite you to that also, but rather on a framework within which people of differing faiths can live in peace, harmony, and mutual respect – provided that none of the groups involved cherishes supremacist ambitions to subjugate the others.

I hope you will consider my invitation carefully.

Don't hold your breath Robert...

Conservative Or Liberal?

# Which is your choice from this list?
Paleoconservative...
Paleo-libertarian...
Conservative...
Libertarian...
Neoconservative...
Centrist...
Third Way...
Liberal...
Left-libertarian...
Radical...
Take this poll and find out. Some of the questions seem dated, but hopefully the results are still accurate.
I came out as a NEOCONSERVATIVE to my surprise.

The Man Who Fed the World

The Man Who Fed the World
How a poor Iowa farm boy came to be one of humanity's greatest benefactors.
BY RONALD BAILEY

Who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970? You may be forgiven for not remembering, given some of the prize's dubious recipients over the years (e.g., Yasser Arafat). Well, then: Who has saved perhaps more lives than anyone else in history? The answer to both questions is, of course, Norman Borlaug.

Who? Norman Borlaug, 92, is the father of the "Green Revolution," the dramatic improvement in agricultural productivity that swept the globe in the 1960s. He is now the subject of an admiring biography by Leon Hesser, a former State Department official who first met Mr. Borlaug 40 years ago in Pakistan, where they worked together to boost that country's grain production. "The Man Who Fed the World" describes, in a workmanlike way, how a poor Iowa farm boy trained in forestry and plant pathology came to be one of humanity's greatest benefactors.

After graduating from the University of Minnesota in 1944, Mr. Borlaug accepted an invitation from the Rockefeller Foundation to work on a project to boost wheat production in Mexico. At the time, Mexico was importing a good share of its grain. Working at plant breeding stations near Mexico City in the south and near Obregon in the northwestern part of the country, Mr. Borlaug and his staff spent nearly 20 years breeding the high-yield dwarf wheat that sparked the Green Revolution. (Using two stations allowed them to plant two crops a year instead of one, doubling the speed of research.) The key to their success was painstakingly cross-breeding thousands of wheat varieties to find those resistant to highly destructive "rust" fungi. They also changed the architecture of the wheat, from tall gangly stems to shorter sturdier ones that produced more grain.

It was an achievement that made Mexico self-sufficient in wheat by the late 1950s and, when later deployed throughout much of the developing world, forestalled the mass starvation predicted by neo-Malthusians. In the late 1960s, lest we forget, most experts were speaking of imminent global famines in which billions of people would perish. "The battle to feed all of humanity is over," biologist Paul Ehrlich famously wrote in "The Population Bomb," his 1968 best seller. "In the 1970s and 1980s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now."

As Mr. Ehrlich was making his dark predictions, Mr. Borlaug was embarking on just such a crash program. Working with scientists and administrators in India and Pakistan, he succeeded in getting his highly productive dwarf wheat varieties to hundreds of thousands of South Asian peasant farmers. These varieties resisted a wide spectrum of plant pests and diseases and produced two to three times more grain than traditional varieties.

Mr. Borlaug's achievement was not confined to the laboratory. He insisted that governments pay poor farmers world prices for their grain. At the time, many developing nations--eager to supply cheap food to their urban citizens, who might otherwise rebel--required their farmers to sell into a government concession that paid them less than half of the world market price for their agricultural products. The result, predictably, was hoarding and underproduction. Using his hard-won prestige as a kind of platform, Mr. Borlaug persuaded the governments of Pakistan and India to drop such self-defeating policies.

Fair prices and high doses of fertilizer, combined with new grains, changed everything. By 1968 Pakistan was self-sufficient in wheat, and by 1974 India was self-sufficient in all cereals. And the revolution didn't stop there. Researchers at a research institute in the Philippines used Mr. Borlaug's insights to develop high-yield rice and spread the Green Revolution to most of Asia. As with wheat, so with rice: Short-stalked varieties proved more productive. They devoted relatively more energy to making grain and less to making leaves and stalks. And they were sturdier, remaining harvestable when traditional varieties--with heavy grain heads and long, slender stalks--had collapsed to the ground and begun to rot.

Hence the Nobel Prize. The chairman of the Nobel committee explained why it had chosen Mr. Borlaug in this way: "More than any other single person of this age, [he] has helped to provide bread for a hungry world. We have made this choice in the hope that providing bread will also give the world peace."

Whether bread induces peace is a question for another day. It certainly kills hunger and saves lives. Contrary to Mr. Ehrlich's bold pronouncement, hundreds of millions of people did not die for lack of food. Far from it. Despite occasional local famines caused by armed conflicts or political mischief, food is more abundant and cheaper today than ever before in history. It is an absurd travesty that Mr. Ehrlich is still much better known than Mr. Borlaug, but perhaps Mr. Hesser's biography can begin to right the balance.

Mr. Borlaug is still tirelessly working to keep hunger at bay. He remains a consultant to the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center in Mexico and president of a private Japanese foundation working to spread the Green Revolution to sub-Saharan Africa. He believes that biotechnology will be crucial to boosting world food supplies in the coming decades and decries the underfunding of the world's network of nonprofit agricultural research centers.How a poor Iowa farm boy came to be one of humanity's greatest benefactors.

More Stupidity from the Islamic Thinkers Society

Prophet Solomon (peace be upon him) (in Arabic he is called ‘Sulaiman'), built a mosque, a long, long time ago, on Mt. Moriah in Jerusalem.

He dedicated it to the worship of Allah s.w.t. the One True God. Like his father, Prophet David (peace be upon him) (in Arabic he is called 'Dawood'), he was a prophet and a messenger, calling all humanity to the worship of Allah s.w.t. and to establish piety on the earth.

I guess changing Solomon's and David's names makes them sound more Arabic.

Now, all these years later there is some confusion about the site of this mosque. In the eastern part of Jerusalem is the Old city, a quadrangular area built on two hills. Within the wall there are four quarters. The Muslim quarter, on the east, contains the Haram ash-Sharif, within which are the ‘Dome of the Rock' and the ‘Mosque of al Aqsa'. Both places are sacred sites for Muslims. However it is around the Mosque of Al Aqsa that the confusion lies.

Whenever mention is made in the local or international media pertaining to Al Aqsa, a picture of the ‘Dome of the rock' will appear. These two mosques lie within a rather close proximity to each other but they bear little resemblance. All over the world, we can find pictures of the ‘Dome of the rock' under the heading ‘Al Aqsa' , to the point that people aren't really sure anymore, which is which.

The difference however, is clear and simple. The ‘Dome of the rock' bears the sacred rock that Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him) stood on when he went on the ascension to the heavens, while Al Aqsa mosque lies on the site of the original mosque of Prophet Solomon (Sulaiman) (peace be upon him). Islam reveres both Jewish and Christian traditions, as these two religions belong to its traditions.

Notice how our "traditions" BELONG to Islam. Is that why Allah states we are infidels who should be beheaded if we don't submit to Islam?

Actually Al Aqsa Mosque was the original qibla (The direction of prayers), which was later changed during the time of Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him) to the Ka'ba at Mecca.

The reason for the deliberate dispersion of false information is also clear and simple. By focusing attention on the ‘Dome of the rock' under the label of Al Aqsa, people all over the world will not know when the real Al Aqsa mosque finally disappears.

The Temple in Jerusalem or the Holy Temple was built in ancient Jerusalem in c. 10th century BC. That's almost 1700 years before Mohammed was having sex with six-year-olds out in the desert. This site has previously called Jesus the first Muslim and the Apostles the first "reverts". It would almost be funny if they weren't so dangerous.

Check it out for yourself:
Islamic Thinkers Society

Ray Nagin in New York

This weekend, the mayor of New Orleans C. Ray Nagin is in New York raising money just a week after describing the World Trade Center site as a "hole in the ground".

My money will stay in my pocket.

While New York City first responders risked their lives by rushing into danger, the Chocolate City's first responders ran the opposite way leaving the blame to President Bush and FEMA.
Police were unable to account for 240 officers on the 1,450-member force following Katrina. Fifty-one members of the New Orleans Police Department were fired for abandoning their posts before or after Hurricane Katrina and more cases are pending.

Ray Nagin was quick to blame the Federal Government even though he failed to evacuate the city after President Bush had declared a state of emergency.

In the days leading up to Hurricane Katrina, hundreds of buses were sitting in bus yards, some less than a mile from the Superdome. Louisiana Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco(a Democrat) commented, "The buses could have saved an estimated 20,000 people if they had been used for emergency evacuations which President Bush had declared two days before Katrina hit.", however the evacuation was ordered by Mayor Nagin, President Bush having no direct authority to order evacuations.

The failure to issue a timely evacuation order in effect made it physically impossible to evacuate the nursing homes, hospitals, and those without buses.

The FBI has also investigated and prosecuted numerous fraud cases in which millions of disaster relief funds have been mismanaged. Not to mention the millions that are still unaccounted for.

Nagin tries to drum up New Orleans business

September 2, 2006

New York

NEW YORK -- Mayor C. Ray Nagin of New Orleans opened a visit to New York yesterday by expressing regret for describing the World Trade Center site as ``a hole in the ground." He said residents of New York and New Orleans both ``understand what tragedy is all about." Nagin was in town for a two-day pitch to the New York investment community to get business in New Orleans, which still has an enormous rebuilding job ahead of it a year after Hurricane Katrina. During a recently broadcast ``60 Minutes" interview, a CBS correspondent pointed out flood-damaged cars still on the streets of the city's devastated Ninth Ward. Nagin replied: ``You guys in New York can't get a hole in the ground fixed, and it's five years later. So let's be fair." Nagin apologized soon afterward . (AP)