Senin, 31 Januari 2005
Frontpage interview of Author
FP: Dr. Schweikart, welcome to Frontpage Interview. It is a pleasure to have you here.
Schweikart: Thanks, Jamie. I only wish Mike could be here with us, but he's busy promoting the book on the West Coast.
FP: What inspired you to write a patriot’s history of America?
Schweikart: It began years ago when I was teaching U.S. history and found a numbing similarity in all the U.S. history textbooks: they all seemed heavily tilted to the left. One of the first things that really convinced me to write a survey was a chart on debt and deficits in the then-Bailey and Kennedy book, "The American Pageant," dealing with the Reagan years. The upshot was that federal debt and deficits just went off the screen under Reagan, and the authors had two charts to emphasize this--in case the students missed it. But I then noticed that their dollars were not in "real dollars," and so I re-calculated the charts in real dollars as a share of GNP and found that they not only were wrong, they were so seriously distorted as to be meaningless. The worst deficits in American history, as a share of GNP, occurred under FDR, not Reagan, and the national debt levels under Reagan in real dollars as a share of GNP were about where they were under Kennedy.
So I decided then to begin writing a U.S. history survey---and was already in the process of writing "The Entrepreneurial Adventure" for Harcourt, which is a history of American business. But I had some gaps in my knowledge and areas of emphasis, so I contacted Mike Allen, whom I had met before at the Western History Assoc. meeting, and we hit it off. Not only did our areas of emphasis compliment each other, but our interpretations and world view on the "big questions" were quite sympatico. It was a great match-up. We also agreed on the marketing strategy of making an "end run" around the textbook companies (and faculty committees) by going the "trade" route, and got a terrific publisher who really believes in the book in Penguin/Sentinel.
FP: How do you think your book will do in academia? Will it be included in the curriculum of any courses? What do you think can be done to improve the intellectual balance and diversity in academia?
Schweikart: We not only think it will do well, we are counting on it. Already people from Duquesne and Hillsdale had adopted it, as have a half-dozen instructors from junior colleges and smaller colleges. This, in fact, is where we will get great sales---in those schools where the uber-leftists do not dominate what the non-tenure track and part-timers can use. As a sidebar, it’s funny that in many schools, as you well know, the teaching of the “core” history classes, including Western Civ (if they still allow that to be taught) and U.S. History is foisted off on part-timers or non-tenure track people. My experience is that many of these teachers, though certainly not a majority, are conservatives. They come from the ranks of business people who just like history; conservatives who were blacklisted in “mainstream” academia; lawyers; housewives; and retired military people. We think the book will have a huge appeal to them.
But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. In March, Mike and I will have a booth provided by Penguin/Sentinel at the Missouri Valley History conference and the “buzz” is that there is great excitement over Patriot’s History. My personal experience is that many teachers have been waiting a long time for a book like this. Then we have the homeschoolers. I can’t tell you how many e-mail questions I get on website chat threads about whether this book is appropriate for homeschoolers, and the answer is yes. Homeschoolers as a rule are ahead of their public-school counterparts, and the book is perfect for a Junior or Senior homeschooler. I should add, though, that Patriot’s History does not have the typical “boilerplate” of a “textbook,” what with “study questions” and “review topics.” But it has a hefty notes/sources section. Maybe in the second edition we can add a few maps and charts. Still, students just don’t read most of that stuff. When I teach a freshman course, I often have to begin with “How to Read a History Book.” The study habits are that bad out there.
As to your second question, Jamie, I’m less optimistic. The academy is unique in the social and economic culture of the United States, in that it is essentially immune from the market forces that discipline every other activity. I highly recommend a book by my fellow Ohioan, Richard Vedder, Going Broke By Degree, on this topic. But here’s what we have: the faculty (aided and abetted by leftist administrations) sets the intellectual agenda. Trustees cannot control them, parents cannot control them, and even the students---who are less willing to put up with left-wing demagougery---really can’t control them. In the first place, faculty have an iron grip on hiring. No conservative can even get close to a final three cut-down in a search. Mike and I are rare, rare exceptions, and there are a few. But you’ve seen the numbers. In most universities it’s 10:1 liberal to conservative.
Worse, there is no competition, because the mind-set of those at the top convinces them that all of their competitors have the same views they do, so they steadily drift further left. Vedder argues that on-line universities, like the University of Phoenix, will eventually provide an important alternative. I don’t know. One central aspect of college life is the social interactions on a campus, and the electronic campus will never significantly replace that, any more than homeschooling can replace traditional schools.
However, I can’t completely lose hope. In my lifetime, I’ve seen something occur that I would have thought impossible---the demise of the MainstreamMedia (MSM) and the rise of “alternative” or “conservative” voices with almost as much power and influence, including the Internet and sites such as Frontpagemagazine.com . Twenty-five years ago, who would have predicted that the “big three” would be in a news ratings free-fall, or that a radio host like Rush Limbaugh would have as much influence over a large part of the country as the New York Times? So given that it happened in the media, anything’s possible. But right now, I don’t see educational reform on the horizon. I hope I’m wrong.
FP: What do you think motivates many Americans to loathe their own country?
Schweikart: I think this has its origins in several underlying factors. One is, liberals hate capitalism because it's been my experience that they just don't understand it. Most haven't read Adam Smith and certainly don't get that "self interest" is not selfishness. So right off the bat, any country that is primarily capitalist is "evil."
Second, they rightly recognize (but usually won't admit) the fact that Americans are blessed by God, and that as a nation we have honored Him, and therefore can be blessed by Him. They hate that about us---that we are, for all of our sin and rebellion, still pretty much a Christian nation. Liberals hate God-talk, whether it comes from an Orthodox Jew or a "fundamentalist" Christian (by which they mean any Christian who practices what he or she preaches!) They want to rely solely on themselves, which is the ultimate rebellion against God. Yet deep inside, they know this is wrong, and it eats at them. Jesus encountered the "rich young ruler" who "went away sad" because he would not do what Jesus told him to do, with the implication being that his sadness came because he knew what was the right thing to do, but his ego got in the way. Liberals hate that little voice that keeps telling them, "There is a God, and you're not him." It makes them angry people.
Third, they loathe the notion that America has a special role in the world---a GOOD role---and to them the notion that any one country is "better" than another is anathema. So they get themselves in this remarkable pickle: they rail against "oppression" and "violations" of "human rights," yet hate the only country in the world capable of doing anything about it. More important, since most of the time, the only way to deal with tyrannies is to defeat them militarily, liberals are even more exorcised because they can't stand the use of military force.
FP: What do you think of many segments of the Left now cheering for radical Islam? Tom Hayden and Michael Moore have clearly come out supporting the Islamist enemy. This is bizarre, as our totalitarian enemy extinguishes all rights that are supposedly at the heart of leftist values. What gives here?
Schweikart: It is entirely predictable. Years ago, I took history courses from Robert Loewenberg, who has gone on to head up the Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies (IASPS) in Jerusalem. He even wrote a paper about how the “pacifist” Quakers were supporting the PLO---this was in the 1970s. These radicals always supported the Soviets and their slug-like apprentices, and I think we on the right assumed that it was because they had so much in common ideologically with communism. But perhaps an even more important factor was that the Soviets were anti-American. Perhaps it is that these people so hate America, and the concept of what this nation stands for, that they would gleefully align with anyone who opposes us.
That’s why I think the modern so-called “left” in fact greatly resembles the Nazis: they are anti-religious (unless it is their state, secular religion of “man” or Gaia); they are anti-Semitic; they hate freedom; and they are ruthless in their speech and behavior codes.
When it gets right down to it, both the Islamofascists and the modern Moore-ish left are terrified of the freedom of ideas. As a Christian, I’m convinced in the rightness of my ideas and that they will win out without force. It’s interesting that new research, which we cite in Patriot’s History, shows that the more competition there is in religion, the better the so-called “fundamentalist” denominations do. I don’t know if that applies to Orthodox Jewry---that wasn’t included in the study---but from my perspective, if all ideas are able to be expressed, the best ideas will always win. This doesn’t sit well with the Left and the Islamofascists. Many Muslim countries strictly prohibit missionaries and evangelizing. I don’t know if it’s still the case, but 20 years ago contractors working in Saudi Arabia were told they could not bring Bibles, crosses, Stars of David, or many other religions items that challenged Islam.
Well, if you think about the Left’s “enemies list,” God is at the top, and especially Jesus. A generic “god” is ok for now, but of course, they want to get rid of that concept too. I think, then, they see the Judeo-Christian God as the central threat to everything they do, and don’t take Allah as much of a threat at all. Therefore, the Islamic nations aren’t a problem in their book.
Oh, and one more thing: even if they were a problem, the Left is stuck because actually doing something about them is going to require military force, pure and simple, and the Left hates the use of military power for whatever purpose.
FP: What is it that makes America a beacon of liberty?
Schweikart: America remains a shining city on the hill because, despite steady erosion in some cases, we are a nation that celebrates individuals---individual freedom, individual initiative, and even individual failure. We tolerate failure more than any country in the world, and everyone learns from failure. We rejoice in cultural differences, but unlike many Euros, we insist that at some point you become "American." I know many people think this is unravelling, especially with Hispanic immigration. But it's interesting that in 1910 there were more daily German-language newspapers in the U.S. than there are Spanish-language newspapers today; that in the late 1900s it took about three generations before the majority of the language in the home of an immigrant was English, whereas today it's closer to two generations.
The United States, among all nations, also remains a beacon of liberty because we are a nation of LAW. We still respect, for the most part, the right to property. Citizens, unlike most places in the world, can be armed. We uphold, in most cases, sanctity of contract. And so on. It isn't just that we have unfettered liberty in America, but that we have a structure of law that generates a climate of responsibility to go along with it.
FP: Do you think the Bush administration did the right thing by liberating Iraq?
Schweikart: Absolutely. After 9/11, Bush faced up to a threat that, frankly, his own father and Bill Clinton ignored: Islamofascism. This was a very tough call. It would have been so easy to topple the Taliban and declare victory, then, two, three, or ten years later have a bio weapon go off in Chicago or have a dirty bomb make Manhattan unliveable for the next fifteen years. Instead, Bush did what a leader needs to do. He saw the threat and acted, not merely for short term results, but for long-term stability. This is something Woodrow Wilson didn't do with the communist revolution in Russia. And we note in the book that even though FDR was almost alone in seeing the Nazi and Japanese threats for what they were, he never used his own political capital to mobilize the country to face them. But Bush did.
Almost everyone knew that to effectively deal with the islamofascist threat, after Afghanistan we needed to take on Iraq, Iran, Syria, Libya, and Saudi Arabia, in no particular order and with a variety of methods. Bush chose the most obvious, I think, and, in a sense, the easiest. But we still are going to have to change the governments in Iran, Syria, and possibly Saudi Arabia, and Khaddafi wisely decided he'd rather rule as a prince without his weapons than sit in a jail as a one-time dictator.
Of course, the issue has been the WMDs, and I would remind everyone that as we geared up to go into Iraq, France and Germany said Saddam had WMDs; Britain said he had WMDs; Russia said he had WMDs (and also said that he provided support for 9/11); all of NATO said he had WMDs; Iran said he had WMDs; Israel said he had WMDs; Australia said he had WMDs; the King of Jordan and the president of Egypt BOTH told Tommy Franks that Saddam had WMDs; the UN said he had them; and lastly the CIA said he had them. Saddam himself easily could have proven he didn't, but chose not to. Now, my question is, why does only the CIA and Bush get blamed, when every darn country in the world, most of them using independent sources of intelligence, came to the same conclusion?
My own thought is that the weapons likely were there, and were moved. During the war, we found 140 JETS buried in the desert for 10 years that we didn't know about. If Saddam could hide 140 jets, how easy would it be to hide some drums of VX or other chem/bio weapons? His own army had chem/bio suits en masse. The bottom line is, Bush would have been a fool if he had not taken the WMD threat seriously and de-throned Saddam in light of the 9/11 attacks.
This is the defining issue of our day. Yes, Bush has made some mistakes by sighing Campaign Finance Reform and allowing that monstrosity of a prescription drug bill to pass. But overall these are very minor issues compared to what I believe is our very survival, and he has been a great leader on this defining issue of the time.
FP: If you were asked for your advice by the Bush administration on the next steps in fighting the terror war, what would you recommend?
Schweikart: First, finish pacifying Iraq. This will not be a short-term thing. Since 1899, the U.S. or western nations have fought something like eleven major anti-guerrilla or anit-”insurgency” campaigns, including the Philippine insurrection, Malaya, and Vietnam. The established government or the West won eight of those. Almost all of them took a minimum of five years to win. In other words, victory is nearly assured, but patience is an absolute necessity.
Second, make plans to foment a revolt in Iran. We should already be slipping agents inside Iran and destabilizing that government. Once we are satisfied with the situation in Iraq, lower the boom. I don’t think Iran will require direct military intervention, but it may need some special forces and a well-placed precision-guided-weapon or two.
Third, get it set in our minds now that this isn’t over until we deal with Syria. At that point, with a democratized Iraq, Afghanistan, and Iran in place, who knows what would develop. I suspect the Saudis would see the writing on the wall, but you never know.
Finally, but certainly this could be done right now, tighten our borders. Illegal immigration is going to be the issue of the 2008 election, in my opinion. The fact that She-Who-Mus-Not-Be-Named has already made noises about this shows that the Dems are not totally blind. Of course, the Democratic Party cannot propose any serious immigration reform, because that would finish it as a party. So the key will be the Republican contenders. But sooner or later, someone must step up and say “enough.” We cannot allow millions of illegals to keep coming into this country---it is, above all, a security threat.
FP: What is the future of America?
Schweikart: Right now, the future looks incredibly bright. The increasing conservatism of youth, the growing awareness of a need for spiritual things, and the continued growth of the economy all are very positive signs. The “Greatest Generation” is going to die out and with them, the entitlement mentality of the New Deal will die too. Most of the students I speak to are upset about Social Security---and they tend to not get upset about anything. But they easily see the injustice of that program. More and more, they see the inherent destructiveness of “anti-poverty” programs, and while they don’t lack compassion, they do have common sense, and know that having babies without fathers just ain’t gonna work! The aforementioned revolution in the media is a spectacle to behold, and with it, the phenomenal success of the Passion of the Christ suggests that even Hollywood is losing its grip on our culture.
Heck, merely the appearance of books like A Patriot’s History, Slander, Radical Son, and Bias reflects the loss of control over the intellectual discussion in the United States that once was completely in the hands of the Left. But there are still major hurdles remaining. I’ve mentioned the university system. Hollywood and the music industry still have far too much influence over all citizens---not just the young. Rap is particularly destructive---and, in my view, boring. (This from a former rock drummer who opened major concerts back in the 1970s!). There is a lot yet to do, and evil never takes a holiday.
FP: Dr. Schweikart, thank you. It was a pleasure to have you here. We hope to see you again soon.
Schweikart: Thanks very much. I love FPM and am honored that you guys took the time to discuss our book. It's a long war, and I hope this is one of many small victories we experience.
[Get A Patriot's History of the United States by Larry Schweikart for just $29.95 in the FrontPage Bookstore.]
Jumat, 28 Januari 2005
Scalia
Click here to return to 2theadvocate.com
Scalia: Faithful live for Christ
Supreme Court justice urges Christians to live fearlessly
By PENNY BROWN ROBERTS
Advocate staff writer
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said Saturday that people of faith should not fear being viewed by "educated circles" as "fools for Christ."
The justice -- in Baton Rouge to address the Knights of Columbus Council 969 centennial celebration without charging a fee -- told a largely Roman Catholic crowd of 350 at the Holiday Inn Select that there's nothing wrong with "traditional Christianity."
"To believe in traditional Christianity is something else," Scalia said. "For the son of God to be born of a virgin? I mean, really. To believe that he rose from the dead and bodily ascended into heaven? How utterly ridiculous. To believe in miracles? Or that those who obey God will rise from the dead and those who do not will burn in hell?
"God assumed from the beginning that the wise of the world would view Christians as fools ... and he has not been disappointed."
Scalia praised "traditional Catholics" who say the rosary, go on pilgrimages, kneel during the Eucharist and "follow religiously the teaching of the pope," adding that "intellect and reason need not be laid aside for religion. It is not irrational to accept the testimony of eyewitnesses who had nothing to gain. There is something wrong with rejecting a priori (deductively) the existence of miracles."
The outspoken conservative justice -- known for his views on religion in America -- didn't shy from them during his visit to south Louisiana Saturday. He didn't discuss any specific issues before the high court, but did tell those in attendance they had "no greater model" for their faith than St. Thomas More.
The Catholic martyr and considered the patron saint of lawyers, repudiated Martin Luther and refused to endorse King Henry VIII's plan to divorce Katherine of Aragon or recognize the king as the supreme head of the Church of England. More was found guilty of treason and beheaded in 1535.
"I find it hard to understand people who revere Thomas More but who themselves selectively oppose the teachings of the pope," said Scalia, widely cited as a potential nominee for the position of chief justice when William Rehnquist leaves the bench.
"If I have brought any message today, it is this: Have the courage to have your wisdom regarded as stupidity. Be fools for Christ. And have the courage to suffer the contempt of the sophisticated world."
President Ronald named Scalia to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in 1982. Four years later, Scalia was nominated and unanimously confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court, taking the seat vacated when was elevated to the court's top post.
The Catholic justice -- raised in the New York City Borough of Queens, and the father of nine children, one of them a priest -- has become an anti-abortion hero to many in the American political right and a leading conservative voice on the court.
He has described himself as an "originalist," following the Constitution as written by the Founding Fathers, rather than interpreting it to reflect the changing times.
In November, while speaking to an interfaith conference at a Manhattan synagogue, Scalia made headlines by saying that a religion-neutral government does not fit with an America that reflects belief in God in everything from its money to its military.
More than a year ago, he removed himself from the Supreme Court's review of whether "under God" should be in the Pledge of Allegiance after mentioning the case in a speech and complaining that courts are stripping God from public life.
Last year, Scalia cast one of two dissenting votes in a 7-2 Supreme Court ruling that states may deny taxpayer-funded scholarships to divinity students. And in 2000, he stood with a majority of the court in upholding the constitutionality of taxpayer funding for parochial school materials in a Jefferson Parish case.
Louis McHardy, a Baton Rouge native who is retired executive director of the Nevada-based National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, called Scalia "one of the nation's heroes."
"His message to me is that our constitution is all-encompassing," said McHardy, who attended Saturday's banquet. "It takes into consideration all points of view."
Rev. Miles Walsh, pastor of Our Lady of Mercy Church and Knights of Columbus chaplain, said Scalia's address convinced him that the justice is "committed to the transcendent principles he believes in."
The Knights of Columbus Baton Rouge Council 969 was founded in January 1905 by 30 men who were charter members. The organization founded the LSU Catholic Center, and over the years has supported orphanages, mental health facilities and hospitals.
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Shroud of Turin Between 1,300 and 3,000 Years Old
Christianity Today, Week of January 24
Weblog: Shroud of Turin Between 1,300 and 3,000 Years Old, Journal Says
Plus: Scalia the circuit rider, the next "SpongeBob," and other stories from online sources around the world.
Compiled by Ted Olsen | posted 01/26/2005 2:00 p.m.
Microchemists say 1988 dating of Shroud tested a newer patch, not the "much older" original
Continuing good news for those who believe in the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin—a retired chemist from the Los Alamos National Laboratory has published a peer-reviewed study declaring invalid the 1988 radiocarbon dating of the cloth (which dated it between 1260 and 1390).
The problem, writes Raymond N. Rogers, in the January 20 issue of Thermochimica Acta, is that the 1988 study tested a sample from a medieval patch, not the shroud itself.
"The radiocarbon sample had been dyed, most likely to match the color of the older, sepia-colored cloth," Rogers told Discovery News. "The sample was dyed using a technology that began to appear in Italy about the time the Crusaders' last bastion fell to the Mameluke Turks in 1291. … The radiocarbon sample cannot be older than about 1290, agreeing with the age determined by carbon-14 dating in 1988. However, the shroud itself is actually much older."
How much older? That's hard to tell, Rogers wrote.
The fact that vanillin can not be detected in the lignin on shroud fibers, Dead Sea scrolls linen, and other very old linens indicates that the shroud is quite old. A determination of the kinetics of vanillin loss suggests that the shroud is between 1,300 and 3,000 years old. Even allowing for errors in the measurements and assumptions about storage conditions, the cloth is unlikely to be as young as 840 years.
"The presence of a patch on the shroud doesn't come as a surprise," says Discovery News. "The linen cloth has survived several blazes since its existence was first recorded in France in 1357, including a church fire in 1532. Badly damaged, it was then restored by nuns who patched burn holes and stitched the shroud to a reinforcing cloth that is now known as the Holland cloth."
Rogers also notes in a side comment that the apparent blood stains probably are blood of some sort: "Incidentally, the pyrolysis/ms spectra of samples from apparent blood spots showed hydroxyproline peaks at mass 131, a pyrolysis product of animal proteins." Here's that in a bit more plain English.
Scalia: 'Be fools for Christ'
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has been on a kind of speaking circuit of late. His American University debate with fellow justice Stephen Breyer (video) over whether foreign courts should be cited in American judicial decisions has received a fair bit of media attention, but the emphasis in his more recent speeches has been religion.
In a dinner address for the Ave Maria School of Law yesterday, Scalia discussed the three-prong "Lemon test" created by the Court in determining whether a law or practice unconstitutionally "establishes religion." Scalia didn't support throwing out the Lemon test, The Ann Arbor News reports.
"They are the means by which judicial arbitrariness is checked." But they must be rooted in the Constitution, he said. And when the Constitution itself is unclear, jurists must default to "the settled practices that the text represents." …
Scalia cited a 1970 Supreme Court case involving tax exemptions for houses of worship in New York. "Such exemptions had been around forever," said Scalia, but they don't pass the three tests because the houses of worship had gotten what amounted to favored treatment. Still, the court let the exemptions continue, pointing to long-standing history and tradition. "Those historic understandings are the raw data from which the rules should be constructed," Scalia said.
And Scalia criticized judges who forget historical practices, the Associated Press reports. "Scalia criticized judges for using what he called 'abstractions' to interpret religious issues when they should be looking to the text of the Constitution itself. 'The Constitution says what it says and does not say what it does not say,' he said."
Last week, however, Scalia had less jurisprudential matters on his mind when addressing a Louisiana chapter of the Knights of Columbus.
"To believe in traditional Christianity is something else," Scalia told a group of about 350.
For the Son of God to be born of a virgin? I mean, really. To believe that he rose from the dead and bodily ascended into heaven? How utterly ridiculous. To believe in miracles? Or that those who obey God will rise from the dead and those who do not will burn in hell?
God assumed from the beginning that the wise of the world would view Christians as fools … and he has not been disappointed. …
Intellect and reason need not be laid aside for religion. It is not irrational to accept the testimony of eyewitnesses who had nothing to gain. There is something wrong with rejecting a priori the existence of miracles. …
If I have brought any message today, it is this: Have the courage to have your wisdom regarded as stupidity. Be fools for Christ. And have the courage to suffer the contempt of the sophisticated world.
Weblog: Shroud of Turin Between 1,300 and 3,000 Years Old, Journal Says
Plus: Scalia the circuit rider, the next "SpongeBob," and other stories from online sources around the world.
Compiled by Ted Olsen | posted 01/26/2005 2:00 p.m.
Microchemists say 1988 dating of Shroud tested a newer patch, not the "much older" original
Continuing good news for those who believe in the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin—a retired chemist from the Los Alamos National Laboratory has published a peer-reviewed study declaring invalid the 1988 radiocarbon dating of the cloth (which dated it between 1260 and 1390).
The problem, writes Raymond N. Rogers, in the January 20 issue of Thermochimica Acta, is that the 1988 study tested a sample from a medieval patch, not the shroud itself.
"The radiocarbon sample had been dyed, most likely to match the color of the older, sepia-colored cloth," Rogers told Discovery News. "The sample was dyed using a technology that began to appear in Italy about the time the Crusaders' last bastion fell to the Mameluke Turks in 1291. … The radiocarbon sample cannot be older than about 1290, agreeing with the age determined by carbon-14 dating in 1988. However, the shroud itself is actually much older."
How much older? That's hard to tell, Rogers wrote.
The fact that vanillin can not be detected in the lignin on shroud fibers, Dead Sea scrolls linen, and other very old linens indicates that the shroud is quite old. A determination of the kinetics of vanillin loss suggests that the shroud is between 1,300 and 3,000 years old. Even allowing for errors in the measurements and assumptions about storage conditions, the cloth is unlikely to be as young as 840 years.
"The presence of a patch on the shroud doesn't come as a surprise," says Discovery News. "The linen cloth has survived several blazes since its existence was first recorded in France in 1357, including a church fire in 1532. Badly damaged, it was then restored by nuns who patched burn holes and stitched the shroud to a reinforcing cloth that is now known as the Holland cloth."
Rogers also notes in a side comment that the apparent blood stains probably are blood of some sort: "Incidentally, the pyrolysis/ms spectra of samples from apparent blood spots showed hydroxyproline peaks at mass 131, a pyrolysis product of animal proteins." Here's that in a bit more plain English.
Scalia: 'Be fools for Christ'
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has been on a kind of speaking circuit of late. His American University debate with fellow justice Stephen Breyer (video) over whether foreign courts should be cited in American judicial decisions has received a fair bit of media attention, but the emphasis in his more recent speeches has been religion.
In a dinner address for the Ave Maria School of Law yesterday, Scalia discussed the three-prong "Lemon test" created by the Court in determining whether a law or practice unconstitutionally "establishes religion." Scalia didn't support throwing out the Lemon test, The Ann Arbor News reports.
"They are the means by which judicial arbitrariness is checked." But they must be rooted in the Constitution, he said. And when the Constitution itself is unclear, jurists must default to "the settled practices that the text represents." …
Scalia cited a 1970 Supreme Court case involving tax exemptions for houses of worship in New York. "Such exemptions had been around forever," said Scalia, but they don't pass the three tests because the houses of worship had gotten what amounted to favored treatment. Still, the court let the exemptions continue, pointing to long-standing history and tradition. "Those historic understandings are the raw data from which the rules should be constructed," Scalia said.
And Scalia criticized judges who forget historical practices, the Associated Press reports. "Scalia criticized judges for using what he called 'abstractions' to interpret religious issues when they should be looking to the text of the Constitution itself. 'The Constitution says what it says and does not say what it does not say,' he said."
Last week, however, Scalia had less jurisprudential matters on his mind when addressing a Louisiana chapter of the Knights of Columbus.
"To believe in traditional Christianity is something else," Scalia told a group of about 350.
For the Son of God to be born of a virgin? I mean, really. To believe that he rose from the dead and bodily ascended into heaven? How utterly ridiculous. To believe in miracles? Or that those who obey God will rise from the dead and those who do not will burn in hell?
God assumed from the beginning that the wise of the world would view Christians as fools … and he has not been disappointed. …
Intellect and reason need not be laid aside for religion. It is not irrational to accept the testimony of eyewitnesses who had nothing to gain. There is something wrong with rejecting a priori the existence of miracles. …
If I have brought any message today, it is this: Have the courage to have your wisdom regarded as stupidity. Be fools for Christ. And have the courage to suffer the contempt of the sophisticated world.
Rabu, 26 Januari 2005
Chrenkoff
Chrenkoff
Thursday, January 27, 2005
Good news from the Muslim world, Part 4
From the past few weeks, a selection of some positive steps and encouraging trends towards greater freedom and democracy throughout the Islamic world.
Region-wide: Not the first - and hopefully many more to come - stirrings of a reformist spirit in Islam:
"Mohamed Shahrour, a layman who writes extensively about Islam, sits in his Damascus engineering office, arguing that Muslims will untangle their faith from the increasingly gory violence committed in its name only by reappraising their sacred texts.
"First, Shahrour brazenly tackles the Koran. The entire ninth chapter, The Sura of Repentance, he says, describes a failed attempt by Prophet Muhammad to form a state on the Arabian peninsula.
"As the source of most of the verses used to validate extremist attacks, with lines like 'slay the Pagans where you find them,' he believes that chapter should be isolated to its original context.
" 'The state which he built died, but his message is still alive,' says Shahrour, a soft-spoken, 65-year-old Syrian civil engineer. 'So we have to differentiate between the religion and state politics. When you take the political Islam, you see only killing, assassination, poisoning, intrigue, conspiracy and civil war; but Islam as a message is very human, sensible and just'."
Read the whole story of Shahrour and other like-minded intellectuals who have presented their call for reform after a Cairo seminar titled "Islam and Reform".
Afghanistan: For the latest good news from Afghanistan see this separate post.
Egypt: Great news for economic integration in the Middle East:
"Israel and Egypt signed a three-way trade deal with the United States yesterday in a move that signalled a further warming of relations between the two neighbours and gave momentum to renewed hopes for peace negotiations in the Middle East.
"The pact will enable Cairo to export some goods free of duty to the US. It was hailed as the most important agreement to be reached by Israel and Egypt since they signed their peace deal 25 years ago.
"Under the agreement seven Qualified Industrial Zones will be set up in Cairo, Alexandria and Port Said, where goods produced using Israeli input can be sold to the US.
"The agreement could create as many as 250,000 jobs in Egypt’s textile sector — the country’s largest area of export — next year, and help to offset the ending next month of beneficial US quotas on the import of textiles. Beyond the trade deal Egypt and Israel believe that the agreement could pave the way for greater co-operation in the search for peace."
The Gulf Region: Signs of increasing openness and debate:
"The absence of Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz from the GCC summit, reportedly due to his country's announced reservations over a Bahraini-US free trade agreement, is 'a strong' signal that the old style of 'hiding' inter-GCC problems is being replaced by a newly-emerged way of open discussions and criticism, analysts said yesterday.
"News of the controversy over the Saudi objections to unilateral agreements with the United States would not have been splashed on the front pages of regional newspapers a few years ago, the way they are being done now, said Abdul Nabi Salman, member of the Bahraini Parliament, who writes regularly on Gulf affairs.
" 'It is a strong indicative of the changes in Gulf politics that have been forced upon us by the rapid developments regionally and internationally,' he said of the absence of Saudi Prince Abdullah."
Iran: You can't keep freedom of speech down, even in mullahocracy:
"In September 2001, a young Iranian journalist, Hossein Derakhshan, devised and set up one of the first weblogs in his native language of Farsi. In response to a request from a reader, he created a simple how-to-blog guide in Farsi, thereby setting in motion a community's surreal flight into free speech; online commentaries that the leading Iranian author and blogger, Abbas Maroufi, calls our 'messages in bottles, cast to the winds.'
"With an estimated 75,000 blogs, Farsi is now the fourth most popular language for keeping online journals. A phenomenal figure given that in neighbouring countries such as Iraq there are less than 50 known bloggers.
"The internet has opened a new virtual space for free speech in a country dubbed the 'the biggest prison for journalists in the Middle East', by Reporters sans Frontieres (RSF). Through the anonymity and freedom that weblogs can provide, those who once lacked voices are at last speaking up and discussing issues that have never been aired in any other media in the Islamic world. Where else in Iran could someone dare write, as the blogger Faryadehmah did, 'when these mullahs are dethroned ... it will be like the Berlin wall coming down ...'?"
Iraq: For the latest good news from Iraq see this separate post.
Kuwait: A reformist movement is launched in the Kingdom:
"A group of young political activists has launched the Justice and Development Movement in the country and are calling for political pluralism and the activation of civil institutions and organisations.
"It also called for the country's 42-year-old constitution to be implemented in practice and cautioned against certain influential people who are trying to amend it to serve their vested interests.
"Nasser Yousuf Al Abdali, a founder member of the group, told Gulf News, 'We are looking for a democracy shaped along the lines of Britain and Spain where the royal families play a very important special role but real power lies in the hands of the people'."
Pakistan: Less conservatism in the the conservative tribal areas:
"Zuhra Nafees drinks in the sights and sounds of Peshawar’s riotous marketplace with newfound enthusiasm. A year ago the grate of a burqa separated her from the outside world.
"Now the late twenty something is clad only in the traditional Muslim chador, the long cloth that covers her body from head to toe but leaves her face completely unobscured. 'As our men are no longer stressing that we wear the burqa, so we have now abandoned it,' said Zuhra, who belongs to the Mohmand tribe and lives in the semi-lawless tribal areas in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province."
Palestinians: are more optimistic about their future - and the opposition to violence is growing:
"The death of Yasser Arafat has left most Palestinians optimistic regarding the future and opposed to the continuation of terror attacks on Israel, according to a public opinion poll published Wednesday by the Jerusalem Media and Communication Center.
"A majority of 51.8 percent of the Palestinians polled said that they were opposed to 'military operations' against Israeli targets and consider them harmful to Palestinian national interests, compared with 26.9% last June. Only 41.1% of the Palestinians believe that terrorist attacks should continue compared with 65.4% last June.
"According to the poll, a majority of Palestinians, 59.3%, feel optimistic regarding the future in general, compared with 45.3% last June...
"In response to a question about their favored solution, 56.7% said they supported a two-state settlement compared with 44.5% last June."
Palestinians, of course, also had their second election since the mid 1990s, with Mahmoud Abbas being elected president with 62.3 percent of the vote.
"Palestinian leaders called the elections the most transparent in modern Arab history, and international observers said they could be the first truly democratic Arab elections...
"An 800-strong contingent of international observers, organized through the U.S. National Democratic Institute, was on hand for the election, along with 20,000 Palestinian observers.
"Election officials reported about 65 percent turnout among the 1.8 million voters. Earlier they had reported about 35 percent and extended the voting by two hours."
Saudi Arabia: The government is conducting a TV campaign against jihadism:
"Saudi national television aired interviews Saturday with fathers of militants condemning their own sons for launching terrorist attacks as part of a national public relations campaign to undermine support for militants. In a program called A Pause with the Parents shown on state television, emotional accounts were narrated by the fathers of five militants as part of the Saudi royal family's campaign against militants who have carried out several attacks against westerners inside the kingdom and abroad.
" 'I contacted the authorities immediately when I knew he was wanted,' Ahmed Jamaan al-Zahrani said of his son Faris, No. 12 on the list of Saudi Arabia's 26 most wanted terror suspects before he was captured in August. 'He has a wife and children whom he should have been taking care of better than staying in Afghanistan.'
"The father of the former top militant on the list, Abdulaziz Issa Abdul-Mohsin al-Moqrin, who was killed in a June 19 shootout after the al-Qaida cell he led decapitated an American hostage, said he had vowed to take down his son himself.
"The program, viewed via satellite in Dubai, played on Islam's high regard for honouring parents - stressing that disobeying them is almost equated with apostasy. The narrator of the program, Khamees bin Saeed al-Ghamdi, said the 'misery and pain' these parents went through negate militants' claims that they are being true Muslims."
Sudan: "Cellphones, roads, and girls in school. Is this south Sudan?" asks the "Christian Science Monitor" as Sudan slowly reawakens from the long-running nightmare:
"As fear subsides, southern Sudan is reawakening and rebuilding. A Jan. 9 peace deal ended Africa's longest civil war - a conflict between north and south in which 2 million died. The first signs of normalcy are appearing: Children, even girls, are going to school - many for the first. (Only Afghanistan under the Taliban had fewer girls graduate from eighth grade.) Some are starting to see a life beyond the battlefield. And commerce is coming back."
Thursday, January 27, 2005
Good news from the Muslim world, Part 4
From the past few weeks, a selection of some positive steps and encouraging trends towards greater freedom and democracy throughout the Islamic world.
Region-wide: Not the first - and hopefully many more to come - stirrings of a reformist spirit in Islam:
"Mohamed Shahrour, a layman who writes extensively about Islam, sits in his Damascus engineering office, arguing that Muslims will untangle their faith from the increasingly gory violence committed in its name only by reappraising their sacred texts.
"First, Shahrour brazenly tackles the Koran. The entire ninth chapter, The Sura of Repentance, he says, describes a failed attempt by Prophet Muhammad to form a state on the Arabian peninsula.
"As the source of most of the verses used to validate extremist attacks, with lines like 'slay the Pagans where you find them,' he believes that chapter should be isolated to its original context.
" 'The state which he built died, but his message is still alive,' says Shahrour, a soft-spoken, 65-year-old Syrian civil engineer. 'So we have to differentiate between the religion and state politics. When you take the political Islam, you see only killing, assassination, poisoning, intrigue, conspiracy and civil war; but Islam as a message is very human, sensible and just'."
Read the whole story of Shahrour and other like-minded intellectuals who have presented their call for reform after a Cairo seminar titled "Islam and Reform".
Afghanistan: For the latest good news from Afghanistan see this separate post.
Egypt: Great news for economic integration in the Middle East:
"Israel and Egypt signed a three-way trade deal with the United States yesterday in a move that signalled a further warming of relations between the two neighbours and gave momentum to renewed hopes for peace negotiations in the Middle East.
"The pact will enable Cairo to export some goods free of duty to the US. It was hailed as the most important agreement to be reached by Israel and Egypt since they signed their peace deal 25 years ago.
"Under the agreement seven Qualified Industrial Zones will be set up in Cairo, Alexandria and Port Said, where goods produced using Israeli input can be sold to the US.
"The agreement could create as many as 250,000 jobs in Egypt’s textile sector — the country’s largest area of export — next year, and help to offset the ending next month of beneficial US quotas on the import of textiles. Beyond the trade deal Egypt and Israel believe that the agreement could pave the way for greater co-operation in the search for peace."
The Gulf Region: Signs of increasing openness and debate:
"The absence of Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz from the GCC summit, reportedly due to his country's announced reservations over a Bahraini-US free trade agreement, is 'a strong' signal that the old style of 'hiding' inter-GCC problems is being replaced by a newly-emerged way of open discussions and criticism, analysts said yesterday.
"News of the controversy over the Saudi objections to unilateral agreements with the United States would not have been splashed on the front pages of regional newspapers a few years ago, the way they are being done now, said Abdul Nabi Salman, member of the Bahraini Parliament, who writes regularly on Gulf affairs.
" 'It is a strong indicative of the changes in Gulf politics that have been forced upon us by the rapid developments regionally and internationally,' he said of the absence of Saudi Prince Abdullah."
Iran: You can't keep freedom of speech down, even in mullahocracy:
"In September 2001, a young Iranian journalist, Hossein Derakhshan, devised and set up one of the first weblogs in his native language of Farsi. In response to a request from a reader, he created a simple how-to-blog guide in Farsi, thereby setting in motion a community's surreal flight into free speech; online commentaries that the leading Iranian author and blogger, Abbas Maroufi, calls our 'messages in bottles, cast to the winds.'
"With an estimated 75,000 blogs, Farsi is now the fourth most popular language for keeping online journals. A phenomenal figure given that in neighbouring countries such as Iraq there are less than 50 known bloggers.
"The internet has opened a new virtual space for free speech in a country dubbed the 'the biggest prison for journalists in the Middle East', by Reporters sans Frontieres (RSF). Through the anonymity and freedom that weblogs can provide, those who once lacked voices are at last speaking up and discussing issues that have never been aired in any other media in the Islamic world. Where else in Iran could someone dare write, as the blogger Faryadehmah did, 'when these mullahs are dethroned ... it will be like the Berlin wall coming down ...'?"
Iraq: For the latest good news from Iraq see this separate post.
Kuwait: A reformist movement is launched in the Kingdom:
"A group of young political activists has launched the Justice and Development Movement in the country and are calling for political pluralism and the activation of civil institutions and organisations.
"It also called for the country's 42-year-old constitution to be implemented in practice and cautioned against certain influential people who are trying to amend it to serve their vested interests.
"Nasser Yousuf Al Abdali, a founder member of the group, told Gulf News, 'We are looking for a democracy shaped along the lines of Britain and Spain where the royal families play a very important special role but real power lies in the hands of the people'."
Pakistan: Less conservatism in the the conservative tribal areas:
"Zuhra Nafees drinks in the sights and sounds of Peshawar’s riotous marketplace with newfound enthusiasm. A year ago the grate of a burqa separated her from the outside world.
"Now the late twenty something is clad only in the traditional Muslim chador, the long cloth that covers her body from head to toe but leaves her face completely unobscured. 'As our men are no longer stressing that we wear the burqa, so we have now abandoned it,' said Zuhra, who belongs to the Mohmand tribe and lives in the semi-lawless tribal areas in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province."
Palestinians: are more optimistic about their future - and the opposition to violence is growing:
"The death of Yasser Arafat has left most Palestinians optimistic regarding the future and opposed to the continuation of terror attacks on Israel, according to a public opinion poll published Wednesday by the Jerusalem Media and Communication Center.
"A majority of 51.8 percent of the Palestinians polled said that they were opposed to 'military operations' against Israeli targets and consider them harmful to Palestinian national interests, compared with 26.9% last June. Only 41.1% of the Palestinians believe that terrorist attacks should continue compared with 65.4% last June.
"According to the poll, a majority of Palestinians, 59.3%, feel optimistic regarding the future in general, compared with 45.3% last June...
"In response to a question about their favored solution, 56.7% said they supported a two-state settlement compared with 44.5% last June."
Palestinians, of course, also had their second election since the mid 1990s, with Mahmoud Abbas being elected president with 62.3 percent of the vote.
"Palestinian leaders called the elections the most transparent in modern Arab history, and international observers said they could be the first truly democratic Arab elections...
"An 800-strong contingent of international observers, organized through the U.S. National Democratic Institute, was on hand for the election, along with 20,000 Palestinian observers.
"Election officials reported about 65 percent turnout among the 1.8 million voters. Earlier they had reported about 35 percent and extended the voting by two hours."
Saudi Arabia: The government is conducting a TV campaign against jihadism:
"Saudi national television aired interviews Saturday with fathers of militants condemning their own sons for launching terrorist attacks as part of a national public relations campaign to undermine support for militants. In a program called A Pause with the Parents shown on state television, emotional accounts were narrated by the fathers of five militants as part of the Saudi royal family's campaign against militants who have carried out several attacks against westerners inside the kingdom and abroad.
" 'I contacted the authorities immediately when I knew he was wanted,' Ahmed Jamaan al-Zahrani said of his son Faris, No. 12 on the list of Saudi Arabia's 26 most wanted terror suspects before he was captured in August. 'He has a wife and children whom he should have been taking care of better than staying in Afghanistan.'
"The father of the former top militant on the list, Abdulaziz Issa Abdul-Mohsin al-Moqrin, who was killed in a June 19 shootout after the al-Qaida cell he led decapitated an American hostage, said he had vowed to take down his son himself.
"The program, viewed via satellite in Dubai, played on Islam's high regard for honouring parents - stressing that disobeying them is almost equated with apostasy. The narrator of the program, Khamees bin Saeed al-Ghamdi, said the 'misery and pain' these parents went through negate militants' claims that they are being true Muslims."
Sudan: "Cellphones, roads, and girls in school. Is this south Sudan?" asks the "Christian Science Monitor" as Sudan slowly reawakens from the long-running nightmare:
"As fear subsides, southern Sudan is reawakening and rebuilding. A Jan. 9 peace deal ended Africa's longest civil war - a conflict between north and south in which 2 million died. The first signs of normalcy are appearing: Children, even girls, are going to school - many for the first. (Only Afghanistan under the Taliban had fewer girls graduate from eighth grade.) Some are starting to see a life beyond the battlefield. And commerce is coming back."
Senin, 24 Januari 2005
JS Online: 5 charged in election-day tire slashings
JS Online: 5 charged in election-day tire slashings
Sons of prominent Milwaukee politicians among those facing felonies
By DERRICK NUNNALLY
dnunnally@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Jan. 24, 2005
Milwaukee County District Attorney E. Michael McCann announced this morning that five of the seven men arrested in the election-day slashing of Republican vehicles' tires - including the sons of two prominent Milwaukee Democratic politicians - have been charged with felonies and will appear in court this afternoon.
49024Election Day Vandalism
Photo/AP
First-term U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore accompanies her son, Sowande Omokunde, at his court appearance Monday.
Recent Coverage
1/22/05: Expect tire-slashing charges Monday
1/18/05: Spivak & Bice: Charges imminent in election day tire slashing
11/11/04: Police arrest ex-mayor's son in tire-slashing
11/10/04: FBI starts own probe of vandalism of GOP vehicles
11/4/04: Spivak & Bice: Tire-slashing questions await Democrats' sons
11/2/04: Republican rental vehicles vandalized
Advertisement
Click to learn more...
The five who were charged with felony criminal damage to property for slashing 40 tires on 25 vehicles are:
* Michael Pratt, 32, of the 400 block of N. 16th St., Milwaukee. Pratt is the son of former acting mayor Marvin Pratt.
* Sowande A. Omokunde, 25, of the 4000 block of N. 19th Place, Milwaukee. Omokunde is the son of U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore.
* Lewis G. Caldwell, 28, of the 2900 block of N. Summit Ave., Milwaukee.
* Lavelle Mohammad, 35, of the 4700 block of W. Lloyd St., Milwaukee.
* Justin Howell, 20, of the 2400 block of N. Olive St., Racine.
The vans had been rented by the state Republican Party to transport voters to the polls on election day Nov. 2.
If convicted, each of the five faces up to a $10,000 fine and up to 3 1/2 years in prison. The crime met the $2,500 damage threshold as a felony because the slashed tires and towing costs totaled more than $5,300, according to the criminal complaint filed today. It says the men were caught after a security guard in the Republican Party headquarters parking lot saw the vandalism and wrote down the license-plate numbers of a fleeing car.
Sons of prominent Milwaukee politicians among those facing felonies
By DERRICK NUNNALLY
dnunnally@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Jan. 24, 2005
Milwaukee County District Attorney E. Michael McCann announced this morning that five of the seven men arrested in the election-day slashing of Republican vehicles' tires - including the sons of two prominent Milwaukee Democratic politicians - have been charged with felonies and will appear in court this afternoon.
49024Election Day Vandalism
Photo/AP
First-term U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore accompanies her son, Sowande Omokunde, at his court appearance Monday.
Recent Coverage
1/22/05: Expect tire-slashing charges Monday
1/18/05: Spivak & Bice: Charges imminent in election day tire slashing
11/11/04: Police arrest ex-mayor's son in tire-slashing
11/10/04: FBI starts own probe of vandalism of GOP vehicles
11/4/04: Spivak & Bice: Tire-slashing questions await Democrats' sons
11/2/04: Republican rental vehicles vandalized
Advertisement
Click to learn more...
The five who were charged with felony criminal damage to property for slashing 40 tires on 25 vehicles are:
* Michael Pratt, 32, of the 400 block of N. 16th St., Milwaukee. Pratt is the son of former acting mayor Marvin Pratt.
* Sowande A. Omokunde, 25, of the 4000 block of N. 19th Place, Milwaukee. Omokunde is the son of U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore.
* Lewis G. Caldwell, 28, of the 2900 block of N. Summit Ave., Milwaukee.
* Lavelle Mohammad, 35, of the 4700 block of W. Lloyd St., Milwaukee.
* Justin Howell, 20, of the 2400 block of N. Olive St., Racine.
The vans had been rented by the state Republican Party to transport voters to the polls on election day Nov. 2.
If convicted, each of the five faces up to a $10,000 fine and up to 3 1/2 years in prison. The crime met the $2,500 damage threshold as a felony because the slashed tires and towing costs totaled more than $5,300, according to the criminal complaint filed today. It says the men were caught after a security guard in the Republican Party headquarters parking lot saw the vandalism and wrote down the license-plate numbers of a fleeing car.
Minggu, 23 Januari 2005
Sabtu, 22 Januari 2005
Proverbial Wife: A Counterculture of Death
Proverbial Wife: A Counterculture of Death
A few months after my birthday, Roe v. Wade turns another year older, making us the same age (now we're both 32). Legal executions in the womb began with the slaughter of my generation, known as "X," perhaps because so many of us were x'd out.
The masses who succeeded in securing abortion rights for the nation would not have existed if their own parents had believed so strongly in so-called "choice." Had the murder of the unborn been legalized one generation earlier, numerous defenders of reproductive freedom wouldn't have had any voice at all. I wonder if they ever think about it that way...
The baby boomers (I'm generalizing, I know) obviously didn't value the sacrifices their parents made to birth them and raise them because they weren't ready to make those same sacrifices for their own children. Instead, many chose to dwell on the dysfunctions and repressions of what they attributed to a "patriarchal" society.
The end result was that one of the biggest generations in our history (my parents') produced one of the smallest (mine). They boast of what their "revolution" accomplished and fret that we "slackers" aren't overthrowing the culture like they did. It takes numbers to start a movement...and to stop one.
That was all I had written from my time in the waiting room during my last pre-natal appointment, and I was hoping more would come to me for this momentous and tragic day, so that I could actually make some sort of meaningful point, but as it turns out, it had to come from my mother, herself a poster child in many ways for the 60s--Berkeley student, boyfriend one of the ringleaders of the Vietnam protest, Mario Savio groupee, and later...after I was born...a heroin addict who aborted my two younger siblings.
Her drug addiction was relatively brief (and induced by my now deceased stepdad), though she did almost die from an overdose (was brought back to life by a counter-injection), but her anguish over taking the lives of her children took many years of grieving and healing prayer. It was also bittersweet that when they did want another child, she couldn't conceive again. For anyone in her place, I suggest the novella Tilly which I haven't read in years but it comforted me when I mourned the absence of siblings in a home with a tyrannical parent where I longed for solace and comraderie.
But as I shared with my mom today about what I had sketched out for this post, she brought up something that hadn't occured me, but that her own life testifies too. The people from her generation weren't just out for themselves, but actually out to get themselves. So many of her peers kept on the path of self-destruction and ultimately took their own lives by their drug use, like my stepdad whose Hepatitis-C, transmitted via needle in the late 60s, and alcohol abuse destroyed his liver. My mom said it was like they had a deathwish. So many of her generation have died prematurely as a result of their choices.
It's also ironic that they were so impassioned about protecting the lives of invisible people half way across the world in Vietname, yet felt no sense of obligation to preserve the lives of invisible human beings within their own borders...and bodies. "A woman's right to her body" somehow extended to include her unborn baby's body as well, but it almost makes sense in a culture where those same bodies are being pumped full of drugs and alcohol and other toxic substances. And then we encounter yet another irony. The whole natural health movement initiated by hippies like my parents were. My stepdad died having taken several dozen different vitamins every day, a protein shake, wheatgrass juice, you name it...all while he was still taking methadone, a.k.a. legal heroin.
It's not realistic for me (or anyone) to try to cover all aspects of the abortion controversy and its connection with the counterculture, both of which have long and complex histories, but I thought it was at least worth posting a window into these overlapping worlds on this day when I, a survivor (merely because I was wanted), and Roe v. Wade coincide in the length of our existence.
Check out the timeline I wrote last year on this day detailing my experiences with this issue since my birth.
January 22, 2005 at 04:31 PM in Abortion | Permalink
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/1712101
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference A Counterculture of Death:
» Let Us Mourn - 32 years of Death from ProLifeBlogs
In the United States, over 45 million pre-born boys and girls have been killed since the Jan. 22, 1973 Supreme Court Decision that legalized abortion. Each year, nearly 20,000 abortions are performed after the 21st week of pregnancy.
A few months after my birthday, Roe v. Wade turns another year older, making us the same age (now we're both 32). Legal executions in the womb began with the slaughter of my generation, known as "X," perhaps because so many of us were x'd out.
The masses who succeeded in securing abortion rights for the nation would not have existed if their own parents had believed so strongly in so-called "choice." Had the murder of the unborn been legalized one generation earlier, numerous defenders of reproductive freedom wouldn't have had any voice at all. I wonder if they ever think about it that way...
The baby boomers (I'm generalizing, I know) obviously didn't value the sacrifices their parents made to birth them and raise them because they weren't ready to make those same sacrifices for their own children. Instead, many chose to dwell on the dysfunctions and repressions of what they attributed to a "patriarchal" society.
The end result was that one of the biggest generations in our history (my parents') produced one of the smallest (mine). They boast of what their "revolution" accomplished and fret that we "slackers" aren't overthrowing the culture like they did. It takes numbers to start a movement...and to stop one.
That was all I had written from my time in the waiting room during my last pre-natal appointment, and I was hoping more would come to me for this momentous and tragic day, so that I could actually make some sort of meaningful point, but as it turns out, it had to come from my mother, herself a poster child in many ways for the 60s--Berkeley student, boyfriend one of the ringleaders of the Vietnam protest, Mario Savio groupee, and later...after I was born...a heroin addict who aborted my two younger siblings.
Her drug addiction was relatively brief (and induced by my now deceased stepdad), though she did almost die from an overdose (was brought back to life by a counter-injection), but her anguish over taking the lives of her children took many years of grieving and healing prayer. It was also bittersweet that when they did want another child, she couldn't conceive again. For anyone in her place, I suggest the novella Tilly which I haven't read in years but it comforted me when I mourned the absence of siblings in a home with a tyrannical parent where I longed for solace and comraderie.
But as I shared with my mom today about what I had sketched out for this post, she brought up something that hadn't occured me, but that her own life testifies too. The people from her generation weren't just out for themselves, but actually out to get themselves. So many of her peers kept on the path of self-destruction and ultimately took their own lives by their drug use, like my stepdad whose Hepatitis-C, transmitted via needle in the late 60s, and alcohol abuse destroyed his liver. My mom said it was like they had a deathwish. So many of her generation have died prematurely as a result of their choices.
It's also ironic that they were so impassioned about protecting the lives of invisible people half way across the world in Vietname, yet felt no sense of obligation to preserve the lives of invisible human beings within their own borders...and bodies. "A woman's right to her body" somehow extended to include her unborn baby's body as well, but it almost makes sense in a culture where those same bodies are being pumped full of drugs and alcohol and other toxic substances. And then we encounter yet another irony. The whole natural health movement initiated by hippies like my parents were. My stepdad died having taken several dozen different vitamins every day, a protein shake, wheatgrass juice, you name it...all while he was still taking methadone, a.k.a. legal heroin.
It's not realistic for me (or anyone) to try to cover all aspects of the abortion controversy and its connection with the counterculture, both of which have long and complex histories, but I thought it was at least worth posting a window into these overlapping worlds on this day when I, a survivor (merely because I was wanted), and Roe v. Wade coincide in the length of our existence.
Check out the timeline I wrote last year on this day detailing my experiences with this issue since my birth.
January 22, 2005 at 04:31 PM in Abortion | Permalink
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/1712101
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference A Counterculture of Death:
» Let Us Mourn - 32 years of Death from ProLifeBlogs
In the United States, over 45 million pre-born boys and girls have been killed since the Jan. 22, 1973 Supreme Court Decision that legalized abortion. Each year, nearly 20,000 abortions are performed after the 21st week of pregnancy.
Hal Lindsey: The ultimate tragedy
WorldNetDaily: The ultimate tragedyThe ultimate tragedy
Posted: January 13, 2005
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Hal Lindsey
© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com
The sheer enormity and scope of the Sumatra earthquake-tsunami catastrophe has dominated the thinking of people worldwide. It has caused almost everyone to confront the ultimate reality of the "fragility of life."
At least 150,000 lives were suddenly snuffed out. A shocking percentage of them were under the age of 12-years-old. This disaster has forced nearly everyone to confront the uncomfortable issue of sudden and unexpected death.
Yet there is one thing in life we must all face – we are all going to die. We may hurl charges against God that He has unfairly allowed such catastrophe to snuff out the lives of so many young people. But, in the end, death is a certainty to us all.
Because most people today act as though this life is all there is, death is viewed as the ultimate tragedy. Especially if those who die didn't have a chance "to get the most out of this life." To them, death is the ultimate tragedy that is to be avoided at all costs for as long as possible.
Interestingly, people who normally do not believe in God nevertheless pour out outrage at God for allowing such "unjust tragedy" to happen. God is brought in to blame when convenient. In one-way or another, most the world charges "Why does God allow such horrible things to happen to good people?"
In view of all this, I am going to present God's perspective to this question from the Bible.
First, God declares that He created all men to live forever. But because of mankind's rebellion against Him, man now has two destinations in eternity. Every person who does not restore his relationship with God will spend eternity away from God in a place of isolation, torment and outer darkness. This consequence is so great that God Himself stepped out of eternity into time in the person of Jesus Christ in order pay our penalty for rebellion. On that basis, God offers each person who will receive it a free gift of pardon and eternity with Him.
The most familiar verses in the Bible are based on this reality:
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged. He who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.
– John 3:16-19
You see, from God's perspective the ultimate tragedy is not the timing or nature of your death. The ultimate tragedy is for you to die without resolving where you will spend eternity.
Now I know that this is not a popular idea for the world to confront. But truth is truth no matter how much man chooses to deceive himself about it.
Second, when you look at life from the perspective of eternity, what may be considered a tragedy to the world may not be so at all. God says this world is only a preparation for eternity. Therefore if a person dies suddenly at a young age, it may be a blessing rather than a curse.
The Bible teaches that if a person dies before the age of accountability, he is automatically covered by the atonement of Jesus Christ because he didn't have the ability to make a decision. There are many people in Heaven from the tsunami that wouldn't have been if they had lived out their lives.
In great catastrophe, true believers in Jesus Christ are killed along with those who are not. However this is not a tragedy to the believer. God says, "Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints." (Psalm 116:15)
To the world, such a statement is incomprehensible. But the Bible teaches that every believer is a saint in the eyes of God. The word in its original language means "one set apart as God's possession." So when he dies, it is a homecoming. All pain, sorrows and tears are over. God says:
Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord – for we walk by faith, not by sight – we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home [literally, "face to face"] with the Lord.
– 2 Corinthians 5:6-8
Third, the one who understands life in view of eternity lives with a different purpose. He realizes that there is no guarantee on the length and condition of this life. He agrees with God's assessment:
Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, "If the Lord wills ... we will live and also do this or that."
– James 4:14-15
Each one of us is blazing a vapor trail across the sky of time. God tells us that the only things we can take with us into eternity are the good things we do for others out of thanksgiving to God. God will remember all of our acts of kindness we do by faith in Him – and He will reward us for them.
Such catastrophes as the Sumatran earthquake-tsunami should be viewed with humility and compassion. Apart from God's intervening grace, we could all fall victims to "natural disasters." The Bible teaches that such catastrophes are the result of an Earth that is living under a curse resulting from man's fall.
We live in "Cosmos Diabolicus." The Bible says, "We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the Evil One." Jesus warned that Satan is "The Ruler of this world." (John 5:19 and John 14:30)
The book of Job reveals that Satan has the authority and power to unleash great "natural disasters." Jesus also warned that as the time for His return draws near, natural catastrophes would increase in frequency and destructive power. He particularly mentioned great earthquakes and paralyzing fear because of the "roaring of the waves of the sea." We live in the time of these signs that Jesus called "birth pains."
Therefore the greatest priority is to win as many people to faith in Christ as possible and to grow in faith so as to be able to face the crises that surely are coming. The time is at hand. Make sure that you have accepted God's free gift of pardon through Christ's death in your place. Pray right now and receive Him. Tell Him you want Him to come in and change your life to His will. Your eternal destiny depends upon your decision. If you miss it, that will be the ultimate tragedy.
Hal Lindsey is the best-selling author of 20 books, including "Late Great Planet Earth." He writes this weekly column exclusively for WorldNetDaily.
Posted: January 13, 2005
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Hal Lindsey
© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com
The sheer enormity and scope of the Sumatra earthquake-tsunami catastrophe has dominated the thinking of people worldwide. It has caused almost everyone to confront the ultimate reality of the "fragility of life."
At least 150,000 lives were suddenly snuffed out. A shocking percentage of them were under the age of 12-years-old. This disaster has forced nearly everyone to confront the uncomfortable issue of sudden and unexpected death.
Yet there is one thing in life we must all face – we are all going to die. We may hurl charges against God that He has unfairly allowed such catastrophe to snuff out the lives of so many young people. But, in the end, death is a certainty to us all.
Because most people today act as though this life is all there is, death is viewed as the ultimate tragedy. Especially if those who die didn't have a chance "to get the most out of this life." To them, death is the ultimate tragedy that is to be avoided at all costs for as long as possible.
Interestingly, people who normally do not believe in God nevertheless pour out outrage at God for allowing such "unjust tragedy" to happen. God is brought in to blame when convenient. In one-way or another, most the world charges "Why does God allow such horrible things to happen to good people?"
In view of all this, I am going to present God's perspective to this question from the Bible.
First, God declares that He created all men to live forever. But because of mankind's rebellion against Him, man now has two destinations in eternity. Every person who does not restore his relationship with God will spend eternity away from God in a place of isolation, torment and outer darkness. This consequence is so great that God Himself stepped out of eternity into time in the person of Jesus Christ in order pay our penalty for rebellion. On that basis, God offers each person who will receive it a free gift of pardon and eternity with Him.
The most familiar verses in the Bible are based on this reality:
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged. He who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.
– John 3:16-19
You see, from God's perspective the ultimate tragedy is not the timing or nature of your death. The ultimate tragedy is for you to die without resolving where you will spend eternity.
Now I know that this is not a popular idea for the world to confront. But truth is truth no matter how much man chooses to deceive himself about it.
Second, when you look at life from the perspective of eternity, what may be considered a tragedy to the world may not be so at all. God says this world is only a preparation for eternity. Therefore if a person dies suddenly at a young age, it may be a blessing rather than a curse.
The Bible teaches that if a person dies before the age of accountability, he is automatically covered by the atonement of Jesus Christ because he didn't have the ability to make a decision. There are many people in Heaven from the tsunami that wouldn't have been if they had lived out their lives.
In great catastrophe, true believers in Jesus Christ are killed along with those who are not. However this is not a tragedy to the believer. God says, "Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints." (Psalm 116:15)
To the world, such a statement is incomprehensible. But the Bible teaches that every believer is a saint in the eyes of God. The word in its original language means "one set apart as God's possession." So when he dies, it is a homecoming. All pain, sorrows and tears are over. God says:
Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord – for we walk by faith, not by sight – we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home [literally, "face to face"] with the Lord.
– 2 Corinthians 5:6-8
Third, the one who understands life in view of eternity lives with a different purpose. He realizes that there is no guarantee on the length and condition of this life. He agrees with God's assessment:
Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, "If the Lord wills ... we will live and also do this or that."
– James 4:14-15
Each one of us is blazing a vapor trail across the sky of time. God tells us that the only things we can take with us into eternity are the good things we do for others out of thanksgiving to God. God will remember all of our acts of kindness we do by faith in Him – and He will reward us for them.
Such catastrophes as the Sumatran earthquake-tsunami should be viewed with humility and compassion. Apart from God's intervening grace, we could all fall victims to "natural disasters." The Bible teaches that such catastrophes are the result of an Earth that is living under a curse resulting from man's fall.
We live in "Cosmos Diabolicus." The Bible says, "We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the Evil One." Jesus warned that Satan is "The Ruler of this world." (John 5:19 and John 14:30)
The book of Job reveals that Satan has the authority and power to unleash great "natural disasters." Jesus also warned that as the time for His return draws near, natural catastrophes would increase in frequency and destructive power. He particularly mentioned great earthquakes and paralyzing fear because of the "roaring of the waves of the sea." We live in the time of these signs that Jesus called "birth pains."
Therefore the greatest priority is to win as many people to faith in Christ as possible and to grow in faith so as to be able to face the crises that surely are coming. The time is at hand. Make sure that you have accepted God's free gift of pardon through Christ's death in your place. Pray right now and receive Him. Tell Him you want Him to come in and change your life to His will. Your eternal destiny depends upon your decision. If you miss it, that will be the ultimate tragedy.
Hal Lindsey is the best-selling author of 20 books, including "Late Great Planet Earth." He writes this weekly column exclusively for WorldNetDaily.
Jumat, 21 Januari 2005
Mudville Gazette
Mudville Gazette: "The Washington Post:
An overwhelming majority of Iraqis continue to say they intend to vote on Jan. 30 even as insurgents press attacks aimed at rendering the elections a failure, according to a new public opinion survey. The poll, conducted in late December and early January for the International Republican Institute, found 80 percent of respondents saying they were likely to vote, a rate that has held roughly steady for months.
'Despite the efforts of the terrorists, Iraqis remain committed to casting their vote on election day,' IRI President Lorne Craner said in a statement. The organization, which is funded by Congress through the National Endowment for Democracy and the U.S. Agency for International Development, commissioned the poll, which surveyed 1,900 Iraqis in all but two of the country's 18 provinces. Poor security made two in the far north, Nineveh and Dohuk, inaccessible. The margin of error was plus or minus 3 percentage points."
An overwhelming majority of Iraqis continue to say they intend to vote on Jan. 30 even as insurgents press attacks aimed at rendering the elections a failure, according to a new public opinion survey. The poll, conducted in late December and early January for the International Republican Institute, found 80 percent of respondents saying they were likely to vote, a rate that has held roughly steady for months.
'Despite the efforts of the terrorists, Iraqis remain committed to casting their vote on election day,' IRI President Lorne Craner said in a statement. The organization, which is funded by Congress through the National Endowment for Democracy and the U.S. Agency for International Development, commissioned the poll, which surveyed 1,900 Iraqis in all but two of the country's 18 provinces. Poor security made two in the far north, Nineveh and Dohuk, inaccessible. The margin of error was plus or minus 3 percentage points."
Selasa, 18 Januari 2005
80 MM Christians in China?
Christianity Today, Week of February 16
The Dick Staub Interview: China's Christian Syndrome
David Aikman, author of Jesus in Beijing, says in 20 years Christians could have a major impact on China, and that could change the world.
posted 02/18/2004
David Aikman is former senior correspondent and bureau chief in Eastern Europe and Beijing for Time Magazine. His latest book is Jesus in Beijing, which discusses the rise of Christianity in China and what a Christian China might mean for global Christianity and world politics. Aikman is chairman and founder of Gegrapha, a fellowship of Christian journalists, and he contributes regularly to the to the American Spectator and the Weekly Standard.
Talk about how things have changed so dramatically since you were a bureau chief.
When I was in China in the 1980's it was just beginning to open up. The decisions by Deng Xiaoping in 1978-79 began to open China right after their hibernation during the cultural revolution. But it has taken two decades for the changes to shake down through society. Now, you still have very tight restrictions on religion and you still have persecution there, of course. But it's possible to get around China, to go to places without asking permission from the Foreign Ministry, and that was not the case two decades ago.
What are some of the dynamics that have meant that right now is a time where there can be some tremendous growth and opportunities for growth of the Church in China?
I think probably the most dramatic growth may be over. I would say that occurred in the '80s and '90s. Throughout the 1980s and then in the early '90s. Christianity is still growing a lot. I think the point is that there is a spiritual vacuum in China that for quite a long time nobody has believed in Marxism-Leninism, and people want to know what's life all about?
What is the Three Self Church.
The Three Self Patriotic Movement is an umbrella organization for Protestant churches in China, which was set up in the 1950s to enable the Communist Party, through Protestant clergy, to control Protestant Christianity. And it has, in many ways, affected the theology for a long time. In a Three Self church, if you were a pastor, even if you were an evangelical, and many of them are, you were not allowed to preach on the book of Daniel, you weren't allowed to preach on Genesis, you weren't allowed to speak about the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The Three Self churches claim these are the churches that are open and visible and operating on a weekly basis on Sunday.
How do we go about getting a number for the number of Christians in China?
The Three Self Church claims about 15 to 20 million people. And that's probably a fairly accurate assessment of church membership or church-going throughout China. The Christians in the House Church, or what is sometimes called the Unregistered Christian Communities are reckoned to be about three times as large as the Three Self Christians. So let's suppose you've got 15 million Protestant Christians attached to the Three Self. It's estimated that there may be as many as 45 million who attend House churches. So you were at about 50 million, and then maybe add on another 12 for the Catholics. So we're talking 70 to 80 million people here.
It is amazing when you consider that in 1949 there were only 3 million Catholics and fewer than one million Protestants.
When you try to understand the House Church movement and why it's grown rapidly, you talk about persecution, and you talk about genuine miraculous work of the Spirit of God. You feel like you're reading the book of Acts when you read some of these stories.
Certainly persecution has played a role in the growth of the Church. Christianity has flourished. It's certainly been in many ways as healthy as under persecution because they trimmed a lot of the excesses of life that's come by when things were too easy. But it's also true that for some reason which only the sovereignty of God can explain, many Chinese come into a faith experience of the Christian gospel through some form of miraculous healing, either in their own lives or in the lives of people they know well. And it is very striking. You don't have to spend much time in China to realize that lots and lots of people—far more I would say than you would find normally in the United States—have had first-hand experience of what seemed like miraculous healing.
There's another aspect of the House Church that was fascinating. And that is the degree to which they are a combination of fairly supportive of the United States, and also their call to the Islamic world. They feel the call to be part of what God might do with Muslims.
They do tend to be pro-American, obviously, because they know that in America Christians are free and they get a lot of help from the United States churches, so they're very grateful for that. And also they take a view of America as having had on the whole, a very good influence all over the world. Which countries are first always to provide emergency aid after earthquakes and volcanoes? It's always the Americans. So they appreciate that.
In the case of the Muslims as a movement in the Chinese churches, particularly the House Churches, it's called Back to Jerusalem. And essentially this is a sort of nation-wide concept that the destiny of the Chinese church is to complete the great commission insofar as reaching the Muslim world.
One of the most strategic forward-looking aspects of the book is the way it talks about a "Christianized China."
Well, I make it clear in the book that there's lots of things that could go wrong in China. You could have a sort of alpha-nationalist reaction against all of the Western contacts just as you did during the Boxer Rebellion in the year 1900. But at the present rate of growth in China, it's possible that within 20 to 30 years, 20 to 30 percent of the Chinese will be Christian, which would take place about the same time China is emerging as a number two superpower in the world.
When you have 20 to 30 percent of any country that are Christian believers, and not just nominal Christians but quite serious committed Christians, you find them showing up throughout society in places of influence, including eventually politics. And if that happened, then China as a major power would have the same kind of view of itself and its global responsibility that say Great Britain had in the 19th century and the United States—although it certainly made a few mistakes—has honestly tried to pursue in the 20th century and now in the 21st century.
We've been talking about how Christianity could change China. How might China change the movement of Christianity in the world?
Well, there's an interesting book by a scholar of missions, Philip Jenkins, called The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity, in which he shows that there is a shift in the center of gravity of Christianity from north to south because there are more and more Christians in the southern hemisphere, in South American and in Africa, and increasingly large numbers in Asia. Now, if that's happening, and if China is going to be emerging as a country with perhaps the largest number of Christians anywhere in the world, you can be quite sure that China's Christian presence is going to play an influence in the development of global Christianity.
The Dick Staub Interview: China's Christian Syndrome
David Aikman, author of Jesus in Beijing, says in 20 years Christians could have a major impact on China, and that could change the world.
posted 02/18/2004
David Aikman is former senior correspondent and bureau chief in Eastern Europe and Beijing for Time Magazine. His latest book is Jesus in Beijing, which discusses the rise of Christianity in China and what a Christian China might mean for global Christianity and world politics. Aikman is chairman and founder of Gegrapha, a fellowship of Christian journalists, and he contributes regularly to the to the American Spectator and the Weekly Standard.
Talk about how things have changed so dramatically since you were a bureau chief.
When I was in China in the 1980's it was just beginning to open up. The decisions by Deng Xiaoping in 1978-79 began to open China right after their hibernation during the cultural revolution. But it has taken two decades for the changes to shake down through society. Now, you still have very tight restrictions on religion and you still have persecution there, of course. But it's possible to get around China, to go to places without asking permission from the Foreign Ministry, and that was not the case two decades ago.
What are some of the dynamics that have meant that right now is a time where there can be some tremendous growth and opportunities for growth of the Church in China?
I think probably the most dramatic growth may be over. I would say that occurred in the '80s and '90s. Throughout the 1980s and then in the early '90s. Christianity is still growing a lot. I think the point is that there is a spiritual vacuum in China that for quite a long time nobody has believed in Marxism-Leninism, and people want to know what's life all about?
What is the Three Self Church.
The Three Self Patriotic Movement is an umbrella organization for Protestant churches in China, which was set up in the 1950s to enable the Communist Party, through Protestant clergy, to control Protestant Christianity. And it has, in many ways, affected the theology for a long time. In a Three Self church, if you were a pastor, even if you were an evangelical, and many of them are, you were not allowed to preach on the book of Daniel, you weren't allowed to preach on Genesis, you weren't allowed to speak about the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The Three Self churches claim these are the churches that are open and visible and operating on a weekly basis on Sunday.
How do we go about getting a number for the number of Christians in China?
The Three Self Church claims about 15 to 20 million people. And that's probably a fairly accurate assessment of church membership or church-going throughout China. The Christians in the House Church, or what is sometimes called the Unregistered Christian Communities are reckoned to be about three times as large as the Three Self Christians. So let's suppose you've got 15 million Protestant Christians attached to the Three Self. It's estimated that there may be as many as 45 million who attend House churches. So you were at about 50 million, and then maybe add on another 12 for the Catholics. So we're talking 70 to 80 million people here.
It is amazing when you consider that in 1949 there were only 3 million Catholics and fewer than one million Protestants.
When you try to understand the House Church movement and why it's grown rapidly, you talk about persecution, and you talk about genuine miraculous work of the Spirit of God. You feel like you're reading the book of Acts when you read some of these stories.
Certainly persecution has played a role in the growth of the Church. Christianity has flourished. It's certainly been in many ways as healthy as under persecution because they trimmed a lot of the excesses of life that's come by when things were too easy. But it's also true that for some reason which only the sovereignty of God can explain, many Chinese come into a faith experience of the Christian gospel through some form of miraculous healing, either in their own lives or in the lives of people they know well. And it is very striking. You don't have to spend much time in China to realize that lots and lots of people—far more I would say than you would find normally in the United States—have had first-hand experience of what seemed like miraculous healing.
There's another aspect of the House Church that was fascinating. And that is the degree to which they are a combination of fairly supportive of the United States, and also their call to the Islamic world. They feel the call to be part of what God might do with Muslims.
They do tend to be pro-American, obviously, because they know that in America Christians are free and they get a lot of help from the United States churches, so they're very grateful for that. And also they take a view of America as having had on the whole, a very good influence all over the world. Which countries are first always to provide emergency aid after earthquakes and volcanoes? It's always the Americans. So they appreciate that.
In the case of the Muslims as a movement in the Chinese churches, particularly the House Churches, it's called Back to Jerusalem. And essentially this is a sort of nation-wide concept that the destiny of the Chinese church is to complete the great commission insofar as reaching the Muslim world.
One of the most strategic forward-looking aspects of the book is the way it talks about a "Christianized China."
Well, I make it clear in the book that there's lots of things that could go wrong in China. You could have a sort of alpha-nationalist reaction against all of the Western contacts just as you did during the Boxer Rebellion in the year 1900. But at the present rate of growth in China, it's possible that within 20 to 30 years, 20 to 30 percent of the Chinese will be Christian, which would take place about the same time China is emerging as a number two superpower in the world.
When you have 20 to 30 percent of any country that are Christian believers, and not just nominal Christians but quite serious committed Christians, you find them showing up throughout society in places of influence, including eventually politics. And if that happened, then China as a major power would have the same kind of view of itself and its global responsibility that say Great Britain had in the 19th century and the United States—although it certainly made a few mistakes—has honestly tried to pursue in the 20th century and now in the 21st century.
We've been talking about how Christianity could change China. How might China change the movement of Christianity in the world?
Well, there's an interesting book by a scholar of missions, Philip Jenkins, called The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity, in which he shows that there is a shift in the center of gravity of Christianity from north to south because there are more and more Christians in the southern hemisphere, in South American and in Africa, and increasingly large numbers in Asia. Now, if that's happening, and if China is going to be emerging as a country with perhaps the largest number of Christians anywhere in the world, you can be quite sure that China's Christian presence is going to play an influence in the development of global Christianity.
C 130 Pilots Naration of an Adventure
C-130 Pilot's Story
***************************
I am forwarding this to you since it is a good story particularly if you lust over mixed metaphors. This is from a colorful writer from the 1st Marine Air Wing based at MCAS Miramar, (The guy ought to write for a living.....> This is my nominee for 'Best of the Month.)
8888888888888888888888888888
There I was at six thousand feet over central Iraq, two hundred eighty knots and we're dropping faster than Paris Hilton's panties. It's a typical September evening in the Persian Gulf; hotter than a rectal thermometer and I'm sweating like a priest at a Cub Scout meeting. But that's neither here nor there. The night is moonless over Baghdad tonight, and blacker than a Steven King novel. But it's 2004, folks, and I'm sporting the latest in night-combat technology - namely, hand-me-down night vision goggles(NVGs) thrown out by the fighter boys.
Additionally, my 1962 Lockheed C-130E Hercules is equipped with an obsolete, yet, semi-effective missile warning system (MWS). The MWS conveniently makes a nice soothing tone in your headset just bfore the missile explodes into your airplane. Who says you can't polish a turd?
At any rate, the NVGs are illuminating Baghdad International Airport like the Las Vegas Strip during a Mike Tyson fight. These NVGs are the cat's ass. But I've digressed.
The preferred method of approach tonight is the random shallow. This tactical maneuver allows the pilot to ingress the landing zone in an unpredictable manner, thus exploiting the supposedly secured perimeter of the airfield in an attempt to avoid enemy surface-to-air-missiles and small arms fire. Personally, I wouldn't bet my pink ass on that theory but the approach is fun as hell and that's the real reason we fly it.
We get a visual on the runway at three miles out, drop down to one thousand feet above the ground, still maintaining two hundred eighty knots. Now the fun starts. It's pilot appreciation time as I descend the mighty Herk to six hundred feet and smoothly, yet very deliberately, yank into a sixty degree left bank, turning the aircraft ninety degrees offset from runway heading. As soon as we roll out of the turn, I reverse turn to the right a full two hundred seventy degrees in order to roll out aligned with the runway.
Some aeronautical genius coined this maneuver the "Ninety/Two-Seventy."
Chopping the power during the turn, I pull back on the yoke just to the point my nether regions start to sag, bleeding off energy in order to configure the pig for landing.
"Flaps Fifty!, Landing Gear Down!, Before Landing Checklist!" I look over at the copilot and he's shaking like a cat shitting on a sheet of ice.
Looking further back at the navigator, and even through the NVGs, I can clearly see the wet spot spreading around his crotch. Finally, I glanc at my steely-eyed flight engineer. His eyebrows rise in unison as a grin form on his face. I can tell he's thinking the same thing I am.... "Where do we find such fine young men?"
"Flaps One Hundred!" I bark at the shaking cat. Now it's all aimpoint and airspeed. Aviation 101, with the exception there' are no lights, I'm on NVGs, it's Baghdad, and now tracers are starting to crisscross the black sky.
Naturally, and not at all surprisingly, I grease the Goodyear's on brick-one of runway 33 left, bring the throttles to ground idle and then force the props to full reverse pitch. Tonight, the sound of freedom is my four Hamilton Standard propellers chewing through the thick, putrid Baghdad air. Thehuge,one hundred thirty thousand pound, lumbering whispe pig comes to a lurching stop in less than two thousand feet.
Let's see a Viper do that!
We exit the runway to a welcoming committee of government issued Army grunts. It's time to download their beans and bullets and letters from their sweethearts, look for war booty, and of course, urinate on Saddam's home. Walking down the crew entry steps with my lowest-bidder, Beretta 92F, 9 millimeter strapped smartly to my side, look around and thank God, not Allah, I'm an American and I'm on the winning team. Then I thank God I'm not in the Army.
Knowing once again I've cheated death, I ask myself, "What in the hell am I doing in this mess?" Is it Duty, Honor, and Country? You bet your ass.
Or could it possibly be for the glory, the swag, and not to mention chicks dig the Air Medal. There's probably some truth there too. But now is not the time to derive the complexities of the superior, cerebral properties of the human portion of the aviator-man-machine model. It is however, time to get out of this shit-hole. Hey copilot , clean yourself up! And how's
'bout the 'Before Starting Engines Checklist."
God, I love this job!"
***************************
I am forwarding this to you since it is a good story particularly if you lust over mixed metaphors. This is from a colorful writer from the 1st Marine Air Wing based at MCAS Miramar, (The guy ought to write for a living.....> This is my nominee for 'Best of the Month.)
8888888888888888888888888888
There I was at six thousand feet over central Iraq, two hundred eighty knots and we're dropping faster than Paris Hilton's panties. It's a typical September evening in the Persian Gulf; hotter than a rectal thermometer and I'm sweating like a priest at a Cub Scout meeting. But that's neither here nor there. The night is moonless over Baghdad tonight, and blacker than a Steven King novel. But it's 2004, folks, and I'm sporting the latest in night-combat technology - namely, hand-me-down night vision goggles(NVGs) thrown out by the fighter boys.
Additionally, my 1962 Lockheed C-130E Hercules is equipped with an obsolete, yet, semi-effective missile warning system (MWS). The MWS conveniently makes a nice soothing tone in your headset just bfore the missile explodes into your airplane. Who says you can't polish a turd?
At any rate, the NVGs are illuminating Baghdad International Airport like the Las Vegas Strip during a Mike Tyson fight. These NVGs are the cat's ass. But I've digressed.
The preferred method of approach tonight is the random shallow. This tactical maneuver allows the pilot to ingress the landing zone in an unpredictable manner, thus exploiting the supposedly secured perimeter of the airfield in an attempt to avoid enemy surface-to-air-missiles and small arms fire. Personally, I wouldn't bet my pink ass on that theory but the approach is fun as hell and that's the real reason we fly it.
We get a visual on the runway at three miles out, drop down to one thousand feet above the ground, still maintaining two hundred eighty knots. Now the fun starts. It's pilot appreciation time as I descend the mighty Herk to six hundred feet and smoothly, yet very deliberately, yank into a sixty degree left bank, turning the aircraft ninety degrees offset from runway heading. As soon as we roll out of the turn, I reverse turn to the right a full two hundred seventy degrees in order to roll out aligned with the runway.
Some aeronautical genius coined this maneuver the "Ninety/Two-Seventy."
Chopping the power during the turn, I pull back on the yoke just to the point my nether regions start to sag, bleeding off energy in order to configure the pig for landing.
"Flaps Fifty!, Landing Gear Down!, Before Landing Checklist!" I look over at the copilot and he's shaking like a cat shitting on a sheet of ice.
Looking further back at the navigator, and even through the NVGs, I can clearly see the wet spot spreading around his crotch. Finally, I glanc at my steely-eyed flight engineer. His eyebrows rise in unison as a grin form on his face. I can tell he's thinking the same thing I am.... "Where do we find such fine young men?"
"Flaps One Hundred!" I bark at the shaking cat. Now it's all aimpoint and airspeed. Aviation 101, with the exception there' are no lights, I'm on NVGs, it's Baghdad, and now tracers are starting to crisscross the black sky.
Naturally, and not at all surprisingly, I grease the Goodyear's on brick-one of runway 33 left, bring the throttles to ground idle and then force the props to full reverse pitch. Tonight, the sound of freedom is my four Hamilton Standard propellers chewing through the thick, putrid Baghdad air. Thehuge,one hundred thirty thousand pound, lumbering whispe pig comes to a lurching stop in less than two thousand feet.
Let's see a Viper do that!
We exit the runway to a welcoming committee of government issued Army grunts. It's time to download their beans and bullets and letters from their sweethearts, look for war booty, and of course, urinate on Saddam's home. Walking down the crew entry steps with my lowest-bidder, Beretta 92F, 9 millimeter strapped smartly to my side, look around and thank God, not Allah, I'm an American and I'm on the winning team. Then I thank God I'm not in the Army.
Knowing once again I've cheated death, I ask myself, "What in the hell am I doing in this mess?" Is it Duty, Honor, and Country? You bet your ass.
Or could it possibly be for the glory, the swag, and not to mention chicks dig the Air Medal. There's probably some truth there too. But now is not the time to derive the complexities of the superior, cerebral properties of the human portion of the aviator-man-machine model. It is however, time to get out of this shit-hole. Hey copilot , clean yourself up! And how's
'bout the 'Before Starting Engines Checklist."
God, I love this job!"
Ann Coulter- LIAR, LIAR, NOW YOU'RE FIRED
Yahoo! News - LIAR, LIAR, NOW YOU'RE FIRED
Ann C has got her facts all lined up on the Rather/Bush guard item. I Like It!!!
Ann C has got her facts all lined up on the Rather/Bush guard item. I Like It!!!
Senin, 17 Januari 2005
Power Line: President Bush's Second Term
Power Line: President Bush's Second Term
President Bush's Second Term
The London Times offers a balanced assessment of the prospects for President Bush's second term:
Most second-term presidencies are pale imitations of the first four years in power. They have, historically, been undercut by three factors: agenda exhaustion, personnel depletion and congressional erosion.
None of these constraints applies to this President. He still has plenty of proposals for domestic policy left in him. These range from making permanent tax cuts that were passed in his opening term and the partial privatisation of American pensions to his ambition to curtail the outrageous costs of the US legal system. His new Cabinet members are not noticeably weaker than his previous colleagues. His party runs each branch of Congress and, thanks to the November election results, with greater majorities. For the first time since 1937 a re-elected president who has been in Washington for four years starts again with congressional enhancement, not erosion.
This presidency will thus be different. Mr Bush will be more active at home than is typical of second-term chief executives. He will not be forced to immerse himself in foreign affairs and, when he does, the limitations on him will largely be practical (particularly the course of events in Iraq) and not political. He may also have a very distinct notion of what he wants his legacy to be than other presidents. Rather than engage in the implausible pursuit of the Nobel Peace Prize, he might aspire to be remembered as the man who won the War on Terror.
The wild card here is scandal. It has been the curse of second-term Administrations. It embarrassed Eisenhower, triggered the resignation of Nixon, shook the Reagan White House to its foundations and led Mr Clinton to be impeached by the House of Representatives before being acquitted in the Senate. If he can avoid such ethical quicksand, this President’s final few years in office could be surprisingly successful.
Mr Bush’s personal authority, at least until 2007, may be really exceptional. Only Franklin D. Roosevelt has been equivalently placed in the past 100 years.
I'm pretty sure that President Bush won't be brought low by scandal, although the Dems will promote every "scandal" they can get their hands on. Still, while the President looks very strong on paper, my guess is that predictions about his second term are nearly as likely to be off the mark as predictions about his first term were. Events are in the saddle, and most likely, events that we cannot now foresee will drive his administration in a direction we can't now predict.
Posted by Hindrocket at 09:37 AM
President Bush's Second Term
The London Times offers a balanced assessment of the prospects for President Bush's second term:
Most second-term presidencies are pale imitations of the first four years in power. They have, historically, been undercut by three factors: agenda exhaustion, personnel depletion and congressional erosion.
None of these constraints applies to this President. He still has plenty of proposals for domestic policy left in him. These range from making permanent tax cuts that were passed in his opening term and the partial privatisation of American pensions to his ambition to curtail the outrageous costs of the US legal system. His new Cabinet members are not noticeably weaker than his previous colleagues. His party runs each branch of Congress and, thanks to the November election results, with greater majorities. For the first time since 1937 a re-elected president who has been in Washington for four years starts again with congressional enhancement, not erosion.
This presidency will thus be different. Mr Bush will be more active at home than is typical of second-term chief executives. He will not be forced to immerse himself in foreign affairs and, when he does, the limitations on him will largely be practical (particularly the course of events in Iraq) and not political. He may also have a very distinct notion of what he wants his legacy to be than other presidents. Rather than engage in the implausible pursuit of the Nobel Peace Prize, he might aspire to be remembered as the man who won the War on Terror.
The wild card here is scandal. It has been the curse of second-term Administrations. It embarrassed Eisenhower, triggered the resignation of Nixon, shook the Reagan White House to its foundations and led Mr Clinton to be impeached by the House of Representatives before being acquitted in the Senate. If he can avoid such ethical quicksand, this President’s final few years in office could be surprisingly successful.
Mr Bush’s personal authority, at least until 2007, may be really exceptional. Only Franklin D. Roosevelt has been equivalently placed in the past 100 years.
I'm pretty sure that President Bush won't be brought low by scandal, although the Dems will promote every "scandal" they can get their hands on. Still, while the President looks very strong on paper, my guess is that predictions about his second term are nearly as likely to be off the mark as predictions about his first term were. Events are in the saddle, and most likely, events that we cannot now foresee will drive his administration in a direction we can't now predict.
Posted by Hindrocket at 09:37 AM
Power Line: What "gets overlooked if not ignored" in Iraq
Power Line: What "gets overlooked if not ignored" in Iraq: "What 'gets overlooked if not ignored' in Iraq
Chrenkoff has his latest installment of 'Good news from Iraq.' He prefaces this edition with a quote from Marine Cpl. Issac D. Pacheco:
[M]any service members shake their heads in frustration each time they see their daily rebuilding efforts ignored by the media in favor of the more 'sensational' car bomb and rocket attack stories. Not to say that tragedies don't happen - Iraq is a war zone - but there is so much more happening that gets overlooked if not ignored.
Chrenkoff adds:
It has been a mission of this fortnightly column, now in its nineteenth edition, to bring to readers' attention all that 'gets overlooked if not ignored' in Iraq: the advancements of the political and civil society, the rebirth of freedom, economic growth and reconstruction progress, generosity of foreigners and positive role played by the Coalition troops in rebuilding the country, and unremarked upon security successes. Contrary to some critics, the intention has never been to whitewash the situation in Iraq or to downplay the negative; the violence, bloodshed, disappointments and frustrations are all there for everyone to see and read about in the mainstream media on a daily basis. But to point out positive developments is not to deny the bad news, merely to provide a more complete picture. As voters faced with the defining foreign policy issue of the new millennium we owe it to ourselves to be fully informed about the state of affairs in Iraq. And that means both the car bombs and rebuilt hospitals.
Among the highlights: (1) the transformation of Sadr City from an insurgents' nest to a peaceful hotbed of political activity (and thus a place overlooked if not ignored by the MSM) and (2) the overwhelming support by Iraqi women for both the elections and the general American effort to create a more free socieity (a phenomenon overlooked if not ignored by most American feminists).
In addition, Chrenkoff provides the useful perspective of Carlos Valenzuela, a U.N. representative from Columbia, who knows a thing or two about holding elections in a difficult and violent envirionment.
Belmont Club has more on the Iraqi elections. The picture it presents is mixed, and identifies Mosul as the primary election-day battleground."
Chrenkoff has his latest installment of 'Good news from Iraq.' He prefaces this edition with a quote from Marine Cpl. Issac D. Pacheco:
[M]any service members shake their heads in frustration each time they see their daily rebuilding efforts ignored by the media in favor of the more 'sensational' car bomb and rocket attack stories. Not to say that tragedies don't happen - Iraq is a war zone - but there is so much more happening that gets overlooked if not ignored.
Chrenkoff adds:
It has been a mission of this fortnightly column, now in its nineteenth edition, to bring to readers' attention all that 'gets overlooked if not ignored' in Iraq: the advancements of the political and civil society, the rebirth of freedom, economic growth and reconstruction progress, generosity of foreigners and positive role played by the Coalition troops in rebuilding the country, and unremarked upon security successes. Contrary to some critics, the intention has never been to whitewash the situation in Iraq or to downplay the negative; the violence, bloodshed, disappointments and frustrations are all there for everyone to see and read about in the mainstream media on a daily basis. But to point out positive developments is not to deny the bad news, merely to provide a more complete picture. As voters faced with the defining foreign policy issue of the new millennium we owe it to ourselves to be fully informed about the state of affairs in Iraq. And that means both the car bombs and rebuilt hospitals.
Among the highlights: (1) the transformation of Sadr City from an insurgents' nest to a peaceful hotbed of political activity (and thus a place overlooked if not ignored by the MSM) and (2) the overwhelming support by Iraqi women for both the elections and the general American effort to create a more free socieity (a phenomenon overlooked if not ignored by most American feminists).
In addition, Chrenkoff provides the useful perspective of Carlos Valenzuela, a U.N. representative from Columbia, who knows a thing or two about holding elections in a difficult and violent envirionment.
Belmont Club has more on the Iraqi elections. The picture it presents is mixed, and identifies Mosul as the primary election-day battleground."
Minggu, 16 Januari 2005
Power Line: Islamist Murder In Jersey City?
Power Line: Islamist Murder In Jersey City?: "The brutal murder of a family of Coptic Christians in Jersey City, New Jersey may have been carried out by Muslim fanatics in retaliation for the expression of 'anti-Muslim' views on the internet. The New York Post reports:"
Power Line: The crisis that wasn't
Power Line: The crisis that wasn't: "Remeber all those stories about the Bush spending spree and the huge deficit crisis it was creating? Well, that deficit is now shrinking rapidly. And, while you're not likely to find out about this from the MSM, Lawrence Kudlow has the story in the Washington Times.
Kudlow points out that since the end of last September, tax collections have grown at 10.5 percent, while federal cash outlays have risen only 6.1 percent. At this rate, the 2005 deficit would drop to $355 billion from $413 in 2004. As a fraction of projected gross domestic product the deficit would fall to 2.9 percent from last year's 3.6 percent.
It appears, then, that the Bush deficits were product of the recession he inhertied and the slowdown caused by 9/11. Similarly, it appears that the Bush tax cuts, by stimulating the economy, has produced an explosion in tax revenues that is causing the deficit to narrow significantly. But, again, don't expect to hear this from the MSM.
In a sense, it isn't news that tax cuts have led to growth, which has produced revenue, which has shrunk the deficit. This is how it always seems to work. Still, it would be nice if the MSM briefly acknowledged the recurrence of this phenomenon before turning to the latest 'crises' of Bush economics -- the trade deficit and the decline of the dollar."
Kudlow points out that since the end of last September, tax collections have grown at 10.5 percent, while federal cash outlays have risen only 6.1 percent. At this rate, the 2005 deficit would drop to $355 billion from $413 in 2004. As a fraction of projected gross domestic product the deficit would fall to 2.9 percent from last year's 3.6 percent.
It appears, then, that the Bush deficits were product of the recession he inhertied and the slowdown caused by 9/11. Similarly, it appears that the Bush tax cuts, by stimulating the economy, has produced an explosion in tax revenues that is causing the deficit to narrow significantly. But, again, don't expect to hear this from the MSM.
In a sense, it isn't news that tax cuts have led to growth, which has produced revenue, which has shrunk the deficit. This is how it always seems to work. Still, it would be nice if the MSM briefly acknowledged the recurrence of this phenomenon before turning to the latest 'crises' of Bush economics -- the trade deficit and the decline of the dollar."
Sabtu, 15 Januari 2005
Things are going pretty well in Iraq
Power Line: "Aiding and Abetting the Enemy": "January 15, 2005
'Aiding and Abetting the Enemy'
That's what the press is doing in Iraq, according to this superb piece by Lt. Col. Tim Ryan at Blackfive. You should read it all, but here are a few excerpts:
I just read yet another distorted and grossly exaggerated story from a major news organization about the 'failures' in the war in Iraq. Print and video journalists are covering only a small fraction of the events in Iraq and more often than not, the events they cover are only the bad ones. Many of the journalists making public assessments about the progress of the war in Iraq are unqualified to do so, given their training and experience. The inaccurate picture they paint has distorted the world view of the daily realities in Iraq. The result is a further erosion of international public support for the United States' efforts there, and a strengthening of the insurgents' resolve and recruiting efforts while weakening our own. Through their incomplete, uninformed and unbalanced reporting, many members of the media covering the war in Iraq are aiding and abetting the enemy.
Much of the problem is about perspective, putting things in scale and balance. From where I sit in my command post at Camp Fallujah, Iraq, things are not all bad right now. In fact, they are going quite well. We are not under attack by the enemy; on the contrary, we are taking the fight to him daily and have him on the ropes. In the distance, I can hear the repeated impacts of heavy artillery and five hundred-pound bombs hitting their targets in the city. The occasional tank main gun report and the staccato rhythm of a Marine Corps LAV or Army Bradley Fighting Vehicle's 25-millimeter cannon provide the bass line for a symphony of destruction. Right now, as elements from all four services complete the absolute annihilation of the insurgent forces remaining in Fallujah, the area around the former stronghold is more peaceful than it has been for more than a year. The number of attacks in the greater Al Anbar Province is down by at least 70-80% from late October -- before Operation Al Fajar began. The enemy in this area is completely defeated, but not completely gone. Final eradication of the pockets of insurgents will take some time, as it always does, but the fact remains that the central geographic stronghold of the insurgents is now under friendly control. That sounds a lot like success to me. Given all of this, why don't the papers lead with 'Coalition Crushes Remaining Pockets of Insurgents' or 'Enemy Forces Resort to Suicide Bombings of Civilians'? This would paint a far more accurate picture of the enemy's predicament over here. Instead, headlines focus almost exclusively on our hardships.
The scene is repeated all too often: an attack takes place in Baghdad and the morning sounds are punctuated by a large explosion and a rising cloud of smoke. Sirens wail in the distance and photographers dash to the scene a few miles away. Within the hour, stern-faced reporters confidently stare into the camera while standing on the balcony of their tenth-floor Baghdad hotel room, their back to the city and a distant smoke plume rising behind them. More mayhem in Gotham City they intone, and just in time for the morning news. There is a transparent reason why the majority of car bombings and other major events take place before noon Baghdad-time; any later and the event would miss the start of the morning news cycle on the U.S. east coast. These terrorists aren't stupid; they know just what to do to scare the masses and when to do it. An important key to their plan is manipulation of the news media. But, at least the reporters in Iraq are gathering information and filing their stories, regardless of whether or the stories are in perspective. Much worse are the 'talking heads' who sit in studios or offices back home and pontificate about how badly things are going when they never have been to Iraq and only occasionally leave Manhattan.
On the whole, I think Col. Ryan is too kind to the American press. I think that the press's undermining of our war effort is, in many instances, deliberate. It appears to me that many, if not most, American reporters, editors and news executives want to make it impossible for America ever to fight a war. To further this goal, I think they use their reporting to undermine our effort in Iraq. The idea is that if we are defeated in Iraq, it will be difficult, if not impossible, for us to fight another war anywhere for a generation. Is this assessment too harsh? I don't think so."
'Aiding and Abetting the Enemy'
That's what the press is doing in Iraq, according to this superb piece by Lt. Col. Tim Ryan at Blackfive. You should read it all, but here are a few excerpts:
I just read yet another distorted and grossly exaggerated story from a major news organization about the 'failures' in the war in Iraq. Print and video journalists are covering only a small fraction of the events in Iraq and more often than not, the events they cover are only the bad ones. Many of the journalists making public assessments about the progress of the war in Iraq are unqualified to do so, given their training and experience. The inaccurate picture they paint has distorted the world view of the daily realities in Iraq. The result is a further erosion of international public support for the United States' efforts there, and a strengthening of the insurgents' resolve and recruiting efforts while weakening our own. Through their incomplete, uninformed and unbalanced reporting, many members of the media covering the war in Iraq are aiding and abetting the enemy.
Much of the problem is about perspective, putting things in scale and balance. From where I sit in my command post at Camp Fallujah, Iraq, things are not all bad right now. In fact, they are going quite well. We are not under attack by the enemy; on the contrary, we are taking the fight to him daily and have him on the ropes. In the distance, I can hear the repeated impacts of heavy artillery and five hundred-pound bombs hitting their targets in the city. The occasional tank main gun report and the staccato rhythm of a Marine Corps LAV or Army Bradley Fighting Vehicle's 25-millimeter cannon provide the bass line for a symphony of destruction. Right now, as elements from all four services complete the absolute annihilation of the insurgent forces remaining in Fallujah, the area around the former stronghold is more peaceful than it has been for more than a year. The number of attacks in the greater Al Anbar Province is down by at least 70-80% from late October -- before Operation Al Fajar began. The enemy in this area is completely defeated, but not completely gone. Final eradication of the pockets of insurgents will take some time, as it always does, but the fact remains that the central geographic stronghold of the insurgents is now under friendly control. That sounds a lot like success to me. Given all of this, why don't the papers lead with 'Coalition Crushes Remaining Pockets of Insurgents' or 'Enemy Forces Resort to Suicide Bombings of Civilians'? This would paint a far more accurate picture of the enemy's predicament over here. Instead, headlines focus almost exclusively on our hardships.
The scene is repeated all too often: an attack takes place in Baghdad and the morning sounds are punctuated by a large explosion and a rising cloud of smoke. Sirens wail in the distance and photographers dash to the scene a few miles away. Within the hour, stern-faced reporters confidently stare into the camera while standing on the balcony of their tenth-floor Baghdad hotel room, their back to the city and a distant smoke plume rising behind them. More mayhem in Gotham City they intone, and just in time for the morning news. There is a transparent reason why the majority of car bombings and other major events take place before noon Baghdad-time; any later and the event would miss the start of the morning news cycle on the U.S. east coast. These terrorists aren't stupid; they know just what to do to scare the masses and when to do it. An important key to their plan is manipulation of the news media. But, at least the reporters in Iraq are gathering information and filing their stories, regardless of whether or the stories are in perspective. Much worse are the 'talking heads' who sit in studios or offices back home and pontificate about how badly things are going when they never have been to Iraq and only occasionally leave Manhattan.
On the whole, I think Col. Ryan is too kind to the American press. I think that the press's undermining of our war effort is, in many instances, deliberate. It appears to me that many, if not most, American reporters, editors and news executives want to make it impossible for America ever to fight a war. To further this goal, I think they use their reporting to undermine our effort in Iraq. The idea is that if we are defeated in Iraq, it will be difficult, if not impossible, for us to fight another war anywhere for a generation. Is this assessment too harsh? I don't think so."
Indonesia/ No thanks
baldilocks: "Go to Hell With Your Aid!" She says, among other things:
Over the last 40 years the Indonesians have used both Russian and American war materiel; the Air Force currently is flying US-made Douglas A-4 Skyhawk aircraft from the 1960s, which are overdue for replacement. The Northrop F-5 Tiger IIs from the 1970s are looking pretty long in the tooth, too; and even the newer F-16s have issues with spare parts. While most of its major weapons systems are US-made, Indonesia is under a US embargo, thanks to US disapproval of Indonesian suppression of East Timorese separatists. Even if the embargo was lifted, any arms supplied by the US would probably have strings attached limiting their utility against other separatist movements --which is the primary reason the Indonesians, beset by several such movements, want modern weapons. One Indonesian politician's response to the US embargo, in mid-December before the tidal wave brought American aid en masse, was succinct: "Go to Hell with your aid!" [bold mine]
Over the last 40 years the Indonesians have used both Russian and American war materiel; the Air Force currently is flying US-made Douglas A-4 Skyhawk aircraft from the 1960s, which are overdue for replacement. The Northrop F-5 Tiger IIs from the 1970s are looking pretty long in the tooth, too; and even the newer F-16s have issues with spare parts. While most of its major weapons systems are US-made, Indonesia is under a US embargo, thanks to US disapproval of Indonesian suppression of East Timorese separatists. Even if the embargo was lifted, any arms supplied by the US would probably have strings attached limiting their utility against other separatist movements --which is the primary reason the Indonesians, beset by several such movements, want modern weapons. One Indonesian politician's response to the US embargo, in mid-December before the tidal wave brought American aid en masse, was succinct: "Go to Hell with your aid!" [bold mine]
Kamis, 13 Januari 2005
Great personal account from Afganista by a US soldier!
Chrenkoff
From a reader, CSM Tim Green at the Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan:
"I have been in the Army over 27 years and have been here 15 months. My tour was a year and I extended it because I knew my first week here one year wouldn't be enough for all the work that needed to be done. Though many people here would rather be home, I have never met a troop of any service or any coalition partner who doesn't feel they are contributing something positive to the cause. I love the attitude of the troops over here.
"[We have] the pack of regular kids... that hang out at the front gate everyday. They sell their trinkets, junk, cigarettes, DVDs (bootleg), etc, to our guards and the Pakistani truck drivers bivouacking outside awaiting entrance onto the base... Last November I gave base ID cards to seven boys. The group is up to 18 boys ranging from six to about 14, and two girls, both about 12 maybe, one city slick and the other not too shy herself. It's a program to teach kids all the boy and girl scout virtues, allow them on the base to hang out and learn from Americans, pick up trash at the Friday bazaar in return for a share of the money we collect from the vendors to clean up afterwards, and recover something of a fun childhood the last few generations never knew...
"The luckiest boys in Afghanistan took tae kwon do with the Koreans and got their own uniforms, they have the biggest wardrobes of any 10 kids in Afghanistan. We pay for them to go to winter school (they take winters off since they can't heat the classrooms. We pay for three teachers and bought space heaters for three classrooms), they get to go to the dining facility every Friday before cleanup, and went on Thanksgiving and Christmas. [These kids also] act as translators for the guards, MP, and truck drivers as their English is coming alone fantastically...
Tae Kwno Do graduation Posted by Hello
"We have a mission to help the country and many of us with the time and desire get personally involved. My goal was to take a few kids and develop them into clean, healthy, educated kids that have a great hope to be influential adults in the reconstruction of Afghanistan. I take them to the doctor when they're sick; I teach them proper nutrition when we go to the dining facility, and the danger of all the damn candy people give them; they have appropriate seasonal clothing, we teach them personal hygiene... One boy in particular shows great maturity for his age and I tell him my goal for him is to become the president of Afghanistan in 30 years.
Mobarez - the future president Posted by Hello
"For the girls I bought their mothers all new kitchen ware. I set them up with a female soldier who had girls day with them every Tuesday until she left herself. Now they have two new American girl friend. They go to the recreation facility and play games or watch movies, go eat lunch, come hang out with me for a while, go shopping at the PX. And they aren't dumb, either. I took them to the PX and let them select some things they wanted or needed: new scarves, hair brush, shampoo, hair bands, t-shirt, Vaseline. My bill came to $62.00!!!!!"
As Sergeant Major Green writes, these kids - like most of their peers throughout the country - haven't had a great childhood. While it's not part of their mission, don't you wish there were enough servicemen and women over there to extend friendship to every Afghan child?
From a reader, CSM Tim Green at the Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan:
"I have been in the Army over 27 years and have been here 15 months. My tour was a year and I extended it because I knew my first week here one year wouldn't be enough for all the work that needed to be done. Though many people here would rather be home, I have never met a troop of any service or any coalition partner who doesn't feel they are contributing something positive to the cause. I love the attitude of the troops over here.
"[We have] the pack of regular kids... that hang out at the front gate everyday. They sell their trinkets, junk, cigarettes, DVDs (bootleg), etc, to our guards and the Pakistani truck drivers bivouacking outside awaiting entrance onto the base... Last November I gave base ID cards to seven boys. The group is up to 18 boys ranging from six to about 14, and two girls, both about 12 maybe, one city slick and the other not too shy herself. It's a program to teach kids all the boy and girl scout virtues, allow them on the base to hang out and learn from Americans, pick up trash at the Friday bazaar in return for a share of the money we collect from the vendors to clean up afterwards, and recover something of a fun childhood the last few generations never knew...
"The luckiest boys in Afghanistan took tae kwon do with the Koreans and got their own uniforms, they have the biggest wardrobes of any 10 kids in Afghanistan. We pay for them to go to winter school (they take winters off since they can't heat the classrooms. We pay for three teachers and bought space heaters for three classrooms), they get to go to the dining facility every Friday before cleanup, and went on Thanksgiving and Christmas. [These kids also] act as translators for the guards, MP, and truck drivers as their English is coming alone fantastically...
Tae Kwno Do graduation Posted by Hello
"We have a mission to help the country and many of us with the time and desire get personally involved. My goal was to take a few kids and develop them into clean, healthy, educated kids that have a great hope to be influential adults in the reconstruction of Afghanistan. I take them to the doctor when they're sick; I teach them proper nutrition when we go to the dining facility, and the danger of all the damn candy people give them; they have appropriate seasonal clothing, we teach them personal hygiene... One boy in particular shows great maturity for his age and I tell him my goal for him is to become the president of Afghanistan in 30 years.
Mobarez - the future president Posted by Hello
"For the girls I bought their mothers all new kitchen ware. I set them up with a female soldier who had girls day with them every Tuesday until she left herself. Now they have two new American girl friend. They go to the recreation facility and play games or watch movies, go eat lunch, come hang out with me for a while, go shopping at the PX. And they aren't dumb, either. I took them to the PX and let them select some things they wanted or needed: new scarves, hair brush, shampoo, hair bands, t-shirt, Vaseline. My bill came to $62.00!!!!!"
As Sergeant Major Green writes, these kids - like most of their peers throughout the country - haven't had a great childhood. While it's not part of their mission, don't you wish there were enough servicemen and women over there to extend friendship to every Afghan child?
Selasa, 11 Januari 2005
RWN's 2nd Victor Davis Hanson Interview - Right Wing News (Conservative News and Views)
RWN's 2nd Victor Davis Hanson Interview - Right Wing News (Conservative News and Views) John Hawkins of Right Wing News interviews Victor Davis Hanson on Iraq, Fallujah, Iran, Syria, Vietnam, illegal immigration and many other topics. VDH always has interesting things to say. Good!_Joe
Shocking info on Cost of Torts
Redstate || Collaborative Republicanism for the Masses: "In 2003, according to Tillinghast, the tort system cost $246 billion -- meaning that the average American paid $845 for it via more expensive goods and services. But the really shocking thing is where the billions went. Injured plaintiffs -- the fabled little guys for whom the system is supposedly designed -- got less than half the money. According to Tillinghast's 2002 data, plaintiffs' lawyers swallowed 19 percent of the $233 billion. Defense lawyers pocketed an additional 14 percent, and other administrative costs, mainly at insurance firms, accounted for a further 21 percent. The legal-administrative complex thus guzzled fully 54 percent of the money in the tort system, or $126 billion. That's 43 times as much as the federal government has budgeted this year to combat the global AIDS pandemic."
Sabtu, 08 Januari 2005
Letter from Iraq
This post is an excellent write telling a little of how it is from a soldier's point of view._Joe
One of the most important documents of this Christmas Season...
I know the Christmas season is over, but this email touched me and several others in such a way that I felt it must be posted. I am glad to say that the man who wrote this is a great friend and a true Christian. I have removed the last names for obvious security reasons.
manteca
All,
Merry Christmas from the other side of the world. Did a little map research the other day and discovered that I'm only 527 miles from Bethlehem (as the crow flies). This is probably the closest I will be to the holy land, at least planned. Of course I should be considerably close to where we all began, the Garden of Eden. Who knows, I may be sitting in it. I can tell you that if I am, the Lord has definitely hid it from our eyes well.
All that being said I would like to share a couple of thoughts with you because I feel everyone I'm sending this to will understand the incredibly complex situation that is unfolding here in Iraq.
On the day before Thanksgiving I was invited to a special lunch in our interpreter building. We have a nice building where our linguists hang out until we need them for a mission. These are all Iraqi nationals who risk their lives to accompany us on dangerous missions and also get threatened when they return home because they work with the American "Jews"....
This particular lunch was in memory of a very dear man who had worked with 1st Armored Division as an interpreter and also worked with us for over 8 months. He also dabbled in some contracting work. His name was Dr. Fike as we called him. He taught at Baghdad University and also did an outstanding job of writing articles for the local newspapers to inform Iraqis about the Transitional Authoritative Law. I ate dinner and visited with Dr. Fike on many different occasions. He was definitely a mover and a shaker, full of energy, loved to converse about numerous things, and very entertaining to share time with. His English was very good and like many other linguists had been to the US and other parts of the world. It's amazing that the Iraqis trying to solve problems here have been OUTSIDE of Iraq and understand what there is to gain with a democracy here.
Dr. Fike was reported kidnapped back in late September. We are unsure if he was kidnapped just for money or because he was working with Americans. Probably a combination of both. He was held for ransom, but after the ransom was paid he was shot and killed. We received news of his death about mid November.
It was decided to have a special meal in memory of Dr Fike. The meal was a wonderfully interesting selection of Iraqi cuisine. We had kabobs of beef, grilled tomatoes and cucumbers, ground lamb roasted over an open fire, fresh flatbread, and some very interesting pickles. Dessert was a variety of pastry sweets that were very unusual but very delicious. We finished the meal with tea served in the traditional Iraqi way. It comes in small tea cups, served hot, and fairly strong. As if the meal wasn't good enough the conversation afterwards was even better.
Major Andy and I stayed for the tea while some other officers who attended dismissed themselves. The organizer of the meal was a shop owner that comes in and sells various things outside the interpreter building. We call him Habibi, which is Iraqi for friend. He offered us some cigars and I accepted which provided a little entertainment for the room as they watched a novice puff on snort on a big Cuban cigar.
Our discussions led us to remember what a good man and good friend Dr. Fike was. We eventually started to discuss the tougher issues on as to how and why things like this happen. We contemplated what else could be done to help Iraq get above this type of violence. One of the other Iraqi shop owners said a prayer in Arabic over us all during this time. They all agreed that even though times are tough, it is much better to be rid of Saddam.
Andy and I shared with them the significance and celebration of Thanksgiving in our country. We explained that it was very fitting to have shared a wonderful meal with our friends in this country during the Thanksgiving time of year. They were very interested in the holiday. I also explained to them how recently on leave I shared the plight of the Iraqi people with my church. I told them how concerned and hurt that Americans are for the sufferings of Iraqis. I also explained how people in my church are praying for them everyday to have a safer and freer Iraq for them and their children. There was silence in the room after an interpreter translated what I had shared. One of the Iraqis said God Bless You, and then Habibi, with a tear in his eye, said "we thank you and your church for loving us and praying for us."
It's hard for me to describe the feeling of that afternoon. I never felt so close to people who were from such a different culture than me. I never felt more compassion for a people who have never experienced the kind of blessings and freedoms we enjoy in the US. I have never felt such love for my brothers here on earth was we struggle through our existence and through our shared pains of life.
I stayed in the tactical operations center (TOC) all day Thanksgiving prepared for an attack by rockets or mortars. We felt that because the enemy knew we would be celebrating Thanksgiving lunch that he might try to capitalize on large groups of soldiers with an attack. We were ready and waiting. I had a plan together with hundreds of soldiers and aircraft scanning areas that I knew were possible and past firing points for them. It was an honor for me to stay ready to shoot back and guard our post while others celebrated. I'm not a big crowd kind of guy anyway. Luckily that was a quiet day.
Today I played Taps for another memorial service for a great young soldier who lost his life serving his country and making Iraq a better place for it's people. I did not know the soldier, but his commander and platoon leader gave a very good glimpse of this commendable young man. He was simple, short on words, always ready for a mission, not known to gripe, and when attacked by the enemy had the reputation of being first to lay down suppressive fire and maintain a calm demeanor in danger. Not unlike many other great soldiers in our nation's history, he will be sorely missed by those who knew him, and he will be missed in a society that desperately needs more people that have such an unselfish attitude towards serving a greater good.
This soldier was killed when an improvised explosive device (IED) ripped his humvee in half throwing him out into the road. He was then hit by some heavy trucks hauling captured enemy equipment that his unit was escorting. He was still alive when medevaced and it was hopeful that he might pull through. Unfortunately, he passed away later at the hospital due to complications.
I didn't tell that story just to gross anyone out or shock them. I feel it is important to share that so that the next statement is brought more into perspective. His fellow soldiers who treated him on site said his last words were "I love you guys!" Funny how just a few words can say so much.
I suppose what I'm trying to share is that I feel these two events a very symbolic of our struggle here in Iraq and on earth. Jesus came and laid down his life for our sins. We continue to struggle in this world to live up to that gift and charge. The two men I mentioned have reminded me to live up to the sacrifice that Christ made for us over 2,000 years ago. He did so knowingly and freely for our sake. What a wonderful time of year to reflect on and celebrate that gift given to us, and one that we hope to share with others.
Soldiers in Iraq are not perfect, but we continually strive in the face of danger to maintain the moral high ground. Detainees ask to be turned over to Americans from the Iraqis because they know we will treat them more humanely. We are criticized by Iraqis for being too soft often times and that we should make more examples out of some. We strike with incredible lethality and force when need be but we continually strive to solve problems through rebuilding infrastructure and provide security for a new government constantly attacked by terrorists.
I certainly would like nothing more than to be with my family this Christmas, but I'm proud to be here serving a higher purpose. Thank you to everyone back home, who prays, sends packages, mails letters, and continues to support our soldiers. Don't forget about the police and emergency personnel in our own country who maintain our laws and protect us from harm at home. I am constantly comforted by the support of the American public and even feel guilty that the Veterans of Vietnam weren't as fortunate as I. We should remember that our country is full of people who served our great nation even when it wasn't popular and wasn't very easy. Thank you Dad for what you sacrificed when I was Sam's age. Your sacrifice and service have always been an inspiration in my life.
Thank you to all the people who make sure my family is taken care of in Hope. I am comforted knowing that I have wonderful neighbors and friends that will do anything at anytime to help out Janis. I know many of you have come even in the middle of the night to help Janis. I even have great band students like Zach and his father come and take care of my yard, it's so incredible to have such great friends help out. Thank you all for supporting the fight to help Iraq through your support of me and my family.
Thank you Mom and Janis for being military wives who hold down the home front and sacrifice so much to raise children and take care of everything while your husbands are gone. I can't imagine having to be the one on the other end waiting and praying and doing so much on your own. I am comforted to know that I have a wife that I fully trust to take care of my children, home, and finances. I love you Janis.
Just as Thanksgiving I plan on staying in the TOC with my section again through the days around Christmas. Watching vigilantly for someone to try and get a shot off at us and hopefully putting together a plan that inhibits them from being able to do so. I'll do it in honor of my fellow soldiers and do it proudly thinking of the people I love back home who have done so much for me and my family. Lastly, I'll do it to make Iraq a better place for people like Dr. Fike and Habibi who are desperate for a better place to raise their families and live in freedom.
I promise all my emails won't be this sappy in the future. Just had to share some things in my head with people I feel would get something out of it. I love you guys.
Merry Christmas,
Major Michael
One of the most important documents of this Christmas Season...
I know the Christmas season is over, but this email touched me and several others in such a way that I felt it must be posted. I am glad to say that the man who wrote this is a great friend and a true Christian. I have removed the last names for obvious security reasons.
manteca
All,
Merry Christmas from the other side of the world. Did a little map research the other day and discovered that I'm only 527 miles from Bethlehem (as the crow flies). This is probably the closest I will be to the holy land, at least planned. Of course I should be considerably close to where we all began, the Garden of Eden. Who knows, I may be sitting in it. I can tell you that if I am, the Lord has definitely hid it from our eyes well.
All that being said I would like to share a couple of thoughts with you because I feel everyone I'm sending this to will understand the incredibly complex situation that is unfolding here in Iraq.
On the day before Thanksgiving I was invited to a special lunch in our interpreter building. We have a nice building where our linguists hang out until we need them for a mission. These are all Iraqi nationals who risk their lives to accompany us on dangerous missions and also get threatened when they return home because they work with the American "Jews"....
This particular lunch was in memory of a very dear man who had worked with 1st Armored Division as an interpreter and also worked with us for over 8 months. He also dabbled in some contracting work. His name was Dr. Fike as we called him. He taught at Baghdad University and also did an outstanding job of writing articles for the local newspapers to inform Iraqis about the Transitional Authoritative Law. I ate dinner and visited with Dr. Fike on many different occasions. He was definitely a mover and a shaker, full of energy, loved to converse about numerous things, and very entertaining to share time with. His English was very good and like many other linguists had been to the US and other parts of the world. It's amazing that the Iraqis trying to solve problems here have been OUTSIDE of Iraq and understand what there is to gain with a democracy here.
Dr. Fike was reported kidnapped back in late September. We are unsure if he was kidnapped just for money or because he was working with Americans. Probably a combination of both. He was held for ransom, but after the ransom was paid he was shot and killed. We received news of his death about mid November.
It was decided to have a special meal in memory of Dr Fike. The meal was a wonderfully interesting selection of Iraqi cuisine. We had kabobs of beef, grilled tomatoes and cucumbers, ground lamb roasted over an open fire, fresh flatbread, and some very interesting pickles. Dessert was a variety of pastry sweets that were very unusual but very delicious. We finished the meal with tea served in the traditional Iraqi way. It comes in small tea cups, served hot, and fairly strong. As if the meal wasn't good enough the conversation afterwards was even better.
Major Andy and I stayed for the tea while some other officers who attended dismissed themselves. The organizer of the meal was a shop owner that comes in and sells various things outside the interpreter building. We call him Habibi, which is Iraqi for friend. He offered us some cigars and I accepted which provided a little entertainment for the room as they watched a novice puff on snort on a big Cuban cigar.
Our discussions led us to remember what a good man and good friend Dr. Fike was. We eventually started to discuss the tougher issues on as to how and why things like this happen. We contemplated what else could be done to help Iraq get above this type of violence. One of the other Iraqi shop owners said a prayer in Arabic over us all during this time. They all agreed that even though times are tough, it is much better to be rid of Saddam.
Andy and I shared with them the significance and celebration of Thanksgiving in our country. We explained that it was very fitting to have shared a wonderful meal with our friends in this country during the Thanksgiving time of year. They were very interested in the holiday. I also explained to them how recently on leave I shared the plight of the Iraqi people with my church. I told them how concerned and hurt that Americans are for the sufferings of Iraqis. I also explained how people in my church are praying for them everyday to have a safer and freer Iraq for them and their children. There was silence in the room after an interpreter translated what I had shared. One of the Iraqis said God Bless You, and then Habibi, with a tear in his eye, said "we thank you and your church for loving us and praying for us."
It's hard for me to describe the feeling of that afternoon. I never felt so close to people who were from such a different culture than me. I never felt more compassion for a people who have never experienced the kind of blessings and freedoms we enjoy in the US. I have never felt such love for my brothers here on earth was we struggle through our existence and through our shared pains of life.
I stayed in the tactical operations center (TOC) all day Thanksgiving prepared for an attack by rockets or mortars. We felt that because the enemy knew we would be celebrating Thanksgiving lunch that he might try to capitalize on large groups of soldiers with an attack. We were ready and waiting. I had a plan together with hundreds of soldiers and aircraft scanning areas that I knew were possible and past firing points for them. It was an honor for me to stay ready to shoot back and guard our post while others celebrated. I'm not a big crowd kind of guy anyway. Luckily that was a quiet day.
Today I played Taps for another memorial service for a great young soldier who lost his life serving his country and making Iraq a better place for it's people. I did not know the soldier, but his commander and platoon leader gave a very good glimpse of this commendable young man. He was simple, short on words, always ready for a mission, not known to gripe, and when attacked by the enemy had the reputation of being first to lay down suppressive fire and maintain a calm demeanor in danger. Not unlike many other great soldiers in our nation's history, he will be sorely missed by those who knew him, and he will be missed in a society that desperately needs more people that have such an unselfish attitude towards serving a greater good.
This soldier was killed when an improvised explosive device (IED) ripped his humvee in half throwing him out into the road. He was then hit by some heavy trucks hauling captured enemy equipment that his unit was escorting. He was still alive when medevaced and it was hopeful that he might pull through. Unfortunately, he passed away later at the hospital due to complications.
I didn't tell that story just to gross anyone out or shock them. I feel it is important to share that so that the next statement is brought more into perspective. His fellow soldiers who treated him on site said his last words were "I love you guys!" Funny how just a few words can say so much.
I suppose what I'm trying to share is that I feel these two events a very symbolic of our struggle here in Iraq and on earth. Jesus came and laid down his life for our sins. We continue to struggle in this world to live up to that gift and charge. The two men I mentioned have reminded me to live up to the sacrifice that Christ made for us over 2,000 years ago. He did so knowingly and freely for our sake. What a wonderful time of year to reflect on and celebrate that gift given to us, and one that we hope to share with others.
Soldiers in Iraq are not perfect, but we continually strive in the face of danger to maintain the moral high ground. Detainees ask to be turned over to Americans from the Iraqis because they know we will treat them more humanely. We are criticized by Iraqis for being too soft often times and that we should make more examples out of some. We strike with incredible lethality and force when need be but we continually strive to solve problems through rebuilding infrastructure and provide security for a new government constantly attacked by terrorists.
I certainly would like nothing more than to be with my family this Christmas, but I'm proud to be here serving a higher purpose. Thank you to everyone back home, who prays, sends packages, mails letters, and continues to support our soldiers. Don't forget about the police and emergency personnel in our own country who maintain our laws and protect us from harm at home. I am constantly comforted by the support of the American public and even feel guilty that the Veterans of Vietnam weren't as fortunate as I. We should remember that our country is full of people who served our great nation even when it wasn't popular and wasn't very easy. Thank you Dad for what you sacrificed when I was Sam's age. Your sacrifice and service have always been an inspiration in my life.
Thank you to all the people who make sure my family is taken care of in Hope. I am comforted knowing that I have wonderful neighbors and friends that will do anything at anytime to help out Janis. I know many of you have come even in the middle of the night to help Janis. I even have great band students like Zach and his father come and take care of my yard, it's so incredible to have such great friends help out. Thank you all for supporting the fight to help Iraq through your support of me and my family.
Thank you Mom and Janis for being military wives who hold down the home front and sacrifice so much to raise children and take care of everything while your husbands are gone. I can't imagine having to be the one on the other end waiting and praying and doing so much on your own. I am comforted to know that I have a wife that I fully trust to take care of my children, home, and finances. I love you Janis.
Just as Thanksgiving I plan on staying in the TOC with my section again through the days around Christmas. Watching vigilantly for someone to try and get a shot off at us and hopefully putting together a plan that inhibits them from being able to do so. I'll do it in honor of my fellow soldiers and do it proudly thinking of the people I love back home who have done so much for me and my family. Lastly, I'll do it to make Iraq a better place for people like Dr. Fike and Habibi who are desperate for a better place to raise their families and live in freedom.
I promise all my emails won't be this sappy in the future. Just had to share some things in my head with people I feel would get something out of it. I love you guys.
Merry Christmas,
Major Michael
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