Saturday, July 30, 2005

There he goes again

In his typical America bashing way, former president Carter weighs in on club gitmo.
Former President Carter said Saturday the detention of terror suspects at the Guantanamo Bay Naval base was an embarrassment and had given extremists an excuse to attack the United States.

I guess the terrorist attacked the WTC in anticipation of the opening of club gitmo.

In case you think what Carter says has anything in common with truth of common sense.
Carter said of Kim Il Sung, a brutal Stalinist dictator, "I found him to be vigorous, intelligent, surprisingly well-informed about the technical issues and in charge of the decisions about this country." As for the North Koreans, Muravchik wrote, Carter said the "people were very friendly and open." The capital, Pyongyang, is a "bustling city," where customers "pack the department stores," which looked like "Wal-Mart in Americus, Georgia." North Korea, it should be noted, has suffered from such government-imposed mass-starvation that millions have been forced to live off grass.

Thursday, July 21, 2005

There is a God (round 3)

If you have ever been told that there are no ancient references to Christ or Christianity outside the Bible then you have been misled. There are many extra-biblical sources from ancient times that we can reference. These sources are both Christian and non-Christian. In this post I will mention a few non-Christian references.

In a first century account by Tacitus of the great fire of Rome during the reign of Emperor Nero, we find the following statement.
Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of the procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their center and become popular.

Two points to make note of:

1. Tacitus is a recognized accurate historian from the ancient world.
2. His reference to a "mischievous superstition" is generally accepted to be a reference to the resurrection of Christ.

In a letter to Emperor Trajan around A.D. 112 Pliny the younger discusses a Christian worship service.
They were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light, when they sang in alternate verses a hymn to Christ, as to a god, and bound themselves by a solemn oath, not to do any wicked deeds, but never to commit any fraud, theft or adultery, never to falsify their word, not deny a trust when they should be called upon to deliver it up; after which it was their custom to separate, and then reassemble to partake of food-but food of an ordinary and innocent kind.

We now move on to a controversial quote from the historian Flavius Josephus
Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews, and many of the Gentiles. He was the Christ, and when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men among us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again the third day; as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians so named from him are not extinct to this day.

This passage is referred to among scholars as the Testimonium. The italisized portions are suspected to have been added to the original writing. The debate among scholars comes down to three choices. Accept the passage entirely, reject the passage entirely or accept the passage partially. The third choice seems the most logical because there is another version of the testimonium from an Arabic manuscript that reads as follows.
At this time there was a wise man who was called Jesus. And his conduct was good, and [he] was known to be virtuous. And many people from among the Jews and the other nations became his disciples. Pilate condemned him to be crucified and to die. And those who had become his disciples did not abandon his discipleship. They reported that he had appeared to them three days after his crucifixion and that he was alive; accordingly, he was perhaps the Messiah concerning whom the prophets have recounted wonders.

There are numerous other references that I could quote but I think the point is made. There are legitimate, well known, thoroughly researched first and second century extra-biblical documents that support many of the gospel accounts and many of the practices of the early Christian church.

It should also be pointed out that these are writings from Authors unfriendly to Christianity. Their stories support, in a sometimes hostile tone, what Christians did and what they believed. Not once is evidence shown to counter the claims of the early Christian church.

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

Terrorist in Training

This is the Palestinian version of kids summer camp.

The PA has named a children's summer camp after Ayyat al-Akhras, a 17 year-old girl who murdered two Israelis in a Jerusalem supermarket on March 29, 2002. This continues the PA policy of naming summer camps, sporting events and schools, after prominent terrorists.


Check out the article and be sure to watch the slide show.

They start them off young in order to firmly establish the hatred.



It works.

Monday, July 18, 2005

Guilty or not Guilty

No doubt you have heard numerous stories from the MSM about Karl Rove, the slant being that Rove is guilty of "outing" a covert CIA agent.

Yet at the same time they are all in agreement that no crime was commited.

The story they're not telling is in a friend-of-the-court brief filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals on behalf of thirty-six news organizations including, but not limited to, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, AP, Newsweek, Reuters America, the Washington Post, the Los Angelas Times, the Baltimore Sun and the New York Times.

From Section B of the brief.

There Is Ample Evidence On The Public Record To Cast Considerable Doubt That A Crime Has Been Committed

1. The Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982 Was Narrowly Drafted To Ensure that Only Specific Actions Under Specific Circumstances Would Support a Finding of Criminality.


This is amazing! When the MSM talks to it's audience, Karl Rove is cast as a criminal. But when they talk to the court, no crime was committed.

Sixteen Words and Joe Wilson

Sixteen famous words from President Bush's 2003 State of the Union speech:

The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.


From the Senate Intelligence Committees report.

The intelligence report based on the former ambassador's [Wilson's] trip was disseminated on March 8, 2002 ... The intelligence report indicated that former Nigerian Prime Minister Ibrahim Mayaki...said that in June 1999, [redacted] businessman, approached him and insisted that Mayaki meet with an Iraqi delegation to discuss "expanding commercial relations" between Niger and Iraq. The intelligence report said that Mayaki interpreted "expanding commercial relations" to mean that the delegation wanted to discuss uranium yellowcake sales.


What is the practical difference between Wilson's report and the statement made by Bush?

So, in Wilson's report he supports the President but to the New York Times he had this to say.

[I]n January, President Bush, citing the British dossier, repeated the charges about Iraqi efforts to buy uranium from Africa.

The next day, I reminded a friend at the State Department of my trip and suggested that if the president had been referring to Niger, then his conclusion was not borne out by the facts as I understood them.


President Bush never referred to Niger so my question still stands.

Another quesiton; When will NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, LA Times, NY Times or WA Post report this?

Don't hold your breath.

Sunday, July 17, 2005

Interview with Victor Davis Hanson

Just read a very informative interview of Victor Hansen. The interview was conducted by Hugh Hewitt.

They discussed a variety of issues:

Muslims position on terrorism.

If you go to a mosque, and somebody stands up and says Jews are apes and pigs, or the West should be destroyed, then you have a duty as a resident or a citizen in a Western country to oppose that. And if you don't do it, you're abetting it, and you're complicit in it.


That's a pretty strong stance but maybe one that is neccessary. I am often confused as to where the 'moderate' Muslim stands on the issue of terrorism. I here groups such as CAIR denounce violence but I don't here any criticism of the environment that spawns terrorism. CAIR never addresses the issue of a Middle East almost entirely governed by theocratic tyrannies. These tyrannies support terrorism through fake charities and payments to the families of suicide killers. And they intentionally breed new terrorist in their madrassas.

In responce to a question about the leftist anger in todays Democrat party:

There was a strain, the Henry Wallace Party. And a group of concerned, sophisticated Democrats decided that was not where to go, and got tough on the Soviet Union, were the architects of the Cold War, and produced people like Scoop Jackson, Harry Truman, JFK. And then Vietnam started that detour again, and we haven't really gone back yet. We've tried to, a little bit sometimes with Bill Clinton's middle course. But I think what's happened is they've come very close...they won the popular election in 2000. They came within three or four points in the last election. But they have no political power, in the sense of no majority in the House, none in the Senate, no presidency, no Supreme Court, no majority of state legislatures or governors. And that creates a frustration. And rather than to do the hard work of laying out an agenda, that would give the American people a clear-cut choice, they just look for an Abu Ghraib scandal, a Koran flushed at Guantanamo, a Karl Rove, any little scandal they think that can get them in power on the cheap. And it's not going to work. Not in a time of war.


There was also some discussion of our Southern border:

I'm afraid, some type of disaster before we wake up and realize we have a fifteen hundred mile border that's completely unguarded, and we have a government in Mexico that's not a friend of ours. And at best, is a neutral. If you read the Mexican newspapers, especially those in Mexico City, it's almost a belligerent.


I have no problem if Latin America and Mexico want to emulate the Anglo-Saxon classical traditions that created this country: the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, an open economony, the protection of private property. But if unity means that we're going to erode the core values, and resemble Mexico or Argentina or Peru or Venezuela, then I think that would be a disaster. We can be enriched in a multi-racial society by food, music, art, but that's very, very different than tampering with these core values. People are dying to come to the United States from Mexico, not because they want to emulate Mexican culture. They want to reject it and enjoy what we have to offer.



Very politically incorrect, but also very true.

On the direction of the EU:

I think what's going on in Europe has confused Americans, because they thought, you know, here's a very liberal Holland, and now they've not only stepped up to the plate, but they're going further to the right than we are, if you read what they're doing to a lot...in their immigration laws. France just cancelled the EU utopian borderless entry controls. And England is going that way.


And the future of America:

HH: I always hate to do this, because I never know what you're going to say, but do you ever worry that we've entered sort of the phase of the late Roman Republic when it comes to politics, Professor Hanson, when personal vendetta mattered more than the interest of Rome?

VDH: Yeah, I think so. And it's not just Rome. It's late 18th Century French politics, or Athenian politics in the 4th Century B.C. And that's a dangerous time. And I think that the Democrats have to, as I said earlier, lay out an agenda. We're in a war, and any time you see an article in the New York Times by Thomas Friedman, The Washington Times and The London Times, three Times articles that are never on the same page, today they were all about the dangers of Islamic fundamentalism. It tells you from left to right to center, not just in the United States, but the West is very concerned about this issue. They don't really care about Karl Rove's phone calls. They don't care about a Koran in Guantanamo. They don't care about these trivia that keep coming up on the part of the Democrats.


If you have the time or the inclination read the entire interview.

Pacifist Nonsense

This post from the Corner is an excellent example of the depravity and nonsense of moral equivalency and pacifism.

There is a God (round 2)

Before we can determine if what is said in the Christian bible corresponds to reality we must first determine if what we have in the Bible is in fact what was said. If the modern Bible does not reflect the original writings then a corresponding reality would be impossible.

Back in my elementary school days we used to play a game called telephone. (I don't know why it was called telephone, but that's another story.) The game starts with the first person thinking of a word or statement and whispering it to the next person. This process continues until the last person gets the message and it is compared to the original. Almost as a rule the message has changed to some degree.

For Christians there is a situation that appears to parallel the kids game on a much larger scale. We have a Bible that has been copied and translated numerous times over a span of thousands of years. Plus we have the additional inconvenience of not having the original for comparison. How can we make any claim to the authenticity of the Bible?

We can make that claim by objectively comparing the Bible to the existing ancient manuscripts. This is the way all ancient documents are verified. As mentioned previously, I am not a scholar and I haven't the time or expertise to verify the authenticity of the Bible. But that's OK because proffesionals have already done the hard work. All I have to do is relay the information.

Scholars have a generally accepted method for the study of ancient manuscripts. Chauncy Sanders in Introduction to Research in English Literary History gives us three basic test in the study of ancient text. First is the bibliographical test, then the external evidence test and finally the internal evidence test.

In the bibliographical area we start by noting the number of New Testament materials available for research. If we include all manuscripts from ancient Greek, Latin Vulgate, old Latin, and others we find that there are almost 25,000 manuscript pieces of the New Testament (NT). This is the largest number of manuscripts available for any ancient work. Homers Iliad is second with 643 known manuscripts in existence. With so many NT manuscripts available it is possible for scholars to cross-check and determine the accuracy of our modern translation.

With few exceptions scholars agree that the original New Testament documents were written before the close of the 1st Century AD. What follows is a sample listing of some of the more important manuscripts available.

Codex Sinaiticus (A.D. 350) British Museum contains almost all of the New Testament.

Codex Vaticanus (A.D. 325) Vatican Library contains almost all of the New Testament.

Chester Beatty Papyri (A.D. 200) C. Beatty Museum contains major portions of the New Testament.

Bodmer Papyrus II (A.D. 150-200) Bodmer Library of World Literature contains most of Johns Gospel.

John Ryland's MS (A.D. 130) John Rylands Library of Manchester, England contains several verses from Johns Gospel.

John Ryland's MS is the oldest known manuscript fragment of the NT. It's discovery location, Egypt, was some distance from the traditionally accepted location of the original. This evidence helps to confirm the date of the original at the end of the first century.

Because of the overwhelming number of ancient sources available most biblical scholars agree that the modern bible is almost 100% accurate. There is also agreement that newer translations are even closer to the original text because of the continued discovery of new evidence.

Based on the work of experts we can safely conclude that most modern translations of the Bible do in fact reflect the original writings.

Saturday, July 16, 2005

Margin of Error

A forum paper by Christopher A. Davey and Roger A. Pielke Sr. of Colorado State call into question the accuracy of temperature measurements in Eastern Colorado.

Stations are selected for the USHCN dataset based on the length of period of record, the percentage of missing data in the station’s record, the total number of station moves and other station changes that may affect the homogeneity of the site’s data, and, finally, how the site contributes to the spatial coverage of the USHCN network.


The measurement stations must meet criteria established by the National Weather Service. According to Davey/Pielke most stations fail to meet the criteria.

The USHCN sites with good temperature exposure characteristics (i.e., meet all or almost all of the WMO standards) are in the minority in the set discussed in this paper. If the majority of observing sites elsewhere have similar problems to those in eastern Colorado, a significant number will have nonrepresentative exposure features.


What most don't realize is that the margin of error in global tempurature measurement is actually larger that any global variances measured. Ever!

According to Davey/Pielke it is very possible that "a significant number will have nonrepresentative exposure features". Based on this I submit that the margin of error is even higher than previously thought.

Friday, July 15, 2005

Good vs Evil

If this story from Michael Yon doesn't break heart, then you have no heart.



Here is his complete blog entry.

Mosul

Major Mark Bieger found this little girl after the car bomb that attacked our guys while kids were crowding around. The soldiers here have been angry and sad for two days. They are angry because the terrorists could just as easily have waited a block or two and attacked the patrol away from the kids. Instead, the suicide bomber drove his car and hit the Stryker when about twenty children were jumping up and down and waving at the soldiers. Major Bieger, I had seen him help rescue some of our guys a week earlier during another big attack, took some of our soldiers and rushed this little girl to our hospital. He wanted her to have American surgeons and not to go to the Iraqi hospital. She didn't make it. I snapped this picture when Major Bieger ran to take her away. He kept stopping to talk with her and hug her.

The soldiers went back to that neighborhood the next day to ask what they could do. The people were very warming and welcomed us into their homes, and many kids were actually running up to say hello and to ask soldiers to shake hands.

Eventually, some insurgents must have realized we were back and started shooting at us. The American soldiers and Iraqi police started engaging the enemy and there was a running gun battle. I saw at least one IP who was shot, but he looked okay and actually smiled at me despite the big bullet hole in his leg. I smiled back.

One thing seems certain; the people in that neighborhood share our feelings about the terrorists. We are going to go back there, and if any terrorists come out, the soldiers hope to find them. Everybody is still very angry that the insurgents attacked us when the kids were around. Their day will come.



Michael Yon


Be sure to check out Michell Malkins blog. She has some info on Michael Yon.

Terrorist screening luggage

The Drudge Report is carrying this story.

When Bassam Khalaf raps, he's the Arabic Assassin. His unreleased CD, "Terror Alert," includes rhymes about flying a plane into a building and descriptions of himself as a "crazy, suicidal Arabic ... equipped with bombs."

Until last week, Khalaf also worked as a baggage screener at George Bush Intercontinental Airport.


Bassam's profile is very similar to the London bombers.

Stay alert!

Thursday, July 14, 2005

City at Sea

Would you like to live aboard the Freedom Ship?

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

What goes round

Josias Kumpf has been keeping a secret for a long time.
Yes, he had been a "soldier for Hitler." Yes, he had served in the feared Nazi SS corps and stood sentry over Jewish prisoners as an SS Death's Head guard in concentration camps in Poland.

Josias is now 80 years old and faces deportation.
A federal judge in Milwaukee ordered his citizenship revoked and, should his appeals fail, Kumpf will be deported.

I find it difficult to be sympathetic.
This much is known: Jewish prisoners had been forced to dig a network of trenches and then lie down in them, naked. Guards machine-gunned them, a hundred at a time, until thousands filled the earth. Nazis blared music from the camp loudspeakers to drown out the cries all that morning, noon and night. When it was over, up to 10,000 corpses were set ablaze.

Some might think it harsh to punish an old man. I don't have a problem with it and neither do some of his former victims.
Chakin, like Kumpf, immigrated to this country; she too became a U.S. citizen and raised a family here. But she lost her parents and her only brother in the camps. She wants Kumpf gone.

"He had a good life. He had a family," said Chakin, 78. "That's what all my people never had. That's what my brother never had. So why not let him feel a little bit of the suffering? Shouldn't he be punished at last?"

Indeed he should be.

Of course Josias maintians his innocense.
When government lawyers deposed Kumpf in Milwaukee, he insisted he was not a killer. "I was a good boy before and I'm still a good boy now," he said. "I don't hurt nobody, and I don't even hurt the flies if they're behaving."

Other former guards have similar claims.
Prosecutors already had reviewed interviews of other SS guards taken by German authorities in the 1960s, when that country was beginning to confront its past.

"The whole business was the most gruesome thing I have ever seen in my life," recalled one guard, Martin Diekmann. "I often saw that, after a salvo was fired, Jews were only wounded and were buried still more or less alive together with the corpses of other victims, without the wounded receiving a so-called coup de grace."

Diekmann added, "I myself did not shoot."

Aleksandr Kurisa, an SS officer from Ukraine, said: "You could hear the moans, crying, and screams of those doomed to death. All Jews in Trawniki were exterminated."

Kurisa added, "I did not directly participate."

All the guards were good guys who had nothing do to with the brutal murders. I suppose all those poor victims voluntarily dug the trenches, stripped naked and shot themselves.

Brain Pill

Sometimes I think I could use some of this.

Modafinil, a drug developed to treat narcolepsy, has been shown to reduce impulsiveness and help people focus on problems.

How to tell?

The Dailymail has a story on one of the London terrorist. Reading the story brought home a question that I and others have asked before.

How can one tell a peaceful Muslim from an Islamist terrorist?
Knowing that her son was on a trip to London "with his mates", his mother Maniza had no idea that he might have actually caused one of the blasts.
When she did not hear from her son all day, mother-of-four Mrs Hussain reported him missing to the central casualty bureau at around 10pm.

His mother didn't even know.

We really need a sure way to spot a terrorist before the bombs go off.

Perhaps this is a clue.
A friend of the family said: "His older brother was worried because Hasib seemed to be getting into some kind of gang and started wearing white robes but he decided there was no harm in him becoming religious. He didn't realise that there might have been something more sinister to it."

Beware the white robes.

Tuesday, July 12, 2005

Reparations

The Washington Times is reporting that the NAACP will continue to target private business for slavery reparations.

The NAACP will target private companies as part of its economic agenda, seeking reparations from corporations with historical ties to slavery and boycotting companies that refuse to participate in its annual business diversity report card.


NAACP interim president Dennis C. Hayes says "Absolutely, we will be pursuing reparations from companies that have historical ties to slavery and engaging all parties to come to the table,".

Mr. Hays also said "Many of the problems we have now including poverty, disparities in health care and incarcerations can be directly tied to slavery."

That's a stretch. As a matter of fact it's pure malarky. None of the specified problems have anything to do with slavery and they certainly don't have anything to do with private corporations today. As far as I'm concerned the reparations were paid in blood by over 300,000 Union Soldiers.

Apparently that doesn't satisfy the NAACP.

Monday, July 11, 2005

Post Secret

Got a secret to tell or want to know someone else's secret?

Go to POST SECRETS.

Warning! Some of these are very disturbing.

They hate us?

QandO has an interesting post about villagers in Afghanistan helping rescue a Navy Seal from the Taliban.

Afghan villagers sheltered a U.S. Navy SEAL wounded in a battle last month with the Taliban until they could get word to American forces to rescue him, a military official said Monday.


This can't be! I thought they all hated us. Could Durbin have been wrong?

What is Conservatism

Russell Kirk (RIP) explains The Essence of Conservatism.

Homeland Insecurity

LA Times is reporting on two recent converts to Islam targeting U.S. military installations.

Images from Iraq

These images from Iraq are so shocking that the MSM would not dare show them.





Sunday, July 10, 2005

Dr. Tuxedo


This is a story written by my son.

Dr. Tuxedo

My Penguins name is Dr. Tuxedo. He's a criminal, but he's sort of like an Antarctic Robin Hood. He steals fish from the Eskimos who have a lot of them, and give them to hungry Eskimos, who don't have food. Why does he do this? One day while at Igloo Christian School, he saw the movie Robin Penguin. He was inspired, and became like him. He went by the name Dr. Tuxedo, stealing fishes everywhere.


My unbiased opinion is that this is a fantastic story from a perfect 10 yr old kid. He also did the artwork.

The Kids

This is why I go to work everyday.

London Bombings

John Derbyshire at National Review Online has some interesting comments about the terrorist attacks in London.

Since the existence of the nation does not appear to be at stake, citizens, and their alert representatives, are free to ponder, with a clear and patriotic conscience, where their self-interest lies. In a whole-hearted cooperation with America in the war on terror? Or in accommodation with the terrorists? What are the pros and cons, from the point of view of an ordinary British citizen who does not give a fig about America, or Israel, or Iraq? Who just wants a quiet life? To ask the question is to answer it. There have been no IRA bombs in London since Gerry Adams got his government limousine; there have been none in Madrid since the Spaniards kicked out the Aznar government, and pulled their troops out of Iraq.

Saturday, July 09, 2005

First Entry

This is my first ever blog and also my first entry. Are you as thrilled as I am?

I created this blog simply because the tools were available and it didn't cost a thing. It was a spur of the moment decision with no planned objectives.

Perhaps it will come to something. Perhaps not. We shall see.

Till next time.

Regards,
Toastymoe