I've Moved!

I've decided to stop blogging here and have moved to The Enduring Church blog. At this blog, I'll be devoted to making the world aware of the persecution that the Christian Church faces around the world. I hope to encourage fellow believers to support their brothers and sisters who are enduring threats, torture, and imprisonment. The most important form of support is prayer.

Also, I will cover stories of the increasing hostility that American Christians are experiencing, acknowledging, of course, that it is generally nothing compared to the suffering of Christians in other countries.

Please visit and leave a comment or two.

God Bless,

Mike

A Working Strategy

Clifford D. May writes on NRO.com about how General Petraeus' strategy is working in several ways, not the least of which is on a religious level.

The truth, he [Hassan Mneimneh, a scholar and director of the Iraq Memory Foundation] discovered is that most Iraqis, unlike so many Westerners, do blame al Qaeda for the carnage al Qaeda has carried out. And most Iraqis have not embraced al Qaeda’s brand of Islam, with its barbarism — e.g. the murder of children to teach their parents obedience — and ultra-fundamentalism.

What’s more, Iraqis were deeply offended by al Qaeda leaders — almost all of them foreigners — saying their interpretation of Islam is flawed and inadequate, as has been that of their families and clans for generations. Mneimneh reports that Iraqi clerics have responded by calling al Qaeda’s version of Islam “excessive and unfair.”

“Note that the troops taking part in the surge have not been attacked by the Iraqis who live in the neighborhoods where they are now posted,” Mneinmeh said. “On the contrary, those Iraqis have been bringing the troops the intelligence they need to succeed.” Accepting a tactical alliance with such people does not violate Islamic doctrine, Iraqi religious scholars are daring to assert.

“The longer this persists,” Mneinmeh said, “the more Iraqis’ views will be changed. As these new views are expressed, disseminated and reinforced, it becomes less likely that they will be abandoned later.”

Body Counts

Finally, U.S. leadership is announcing the numbers of terrorists killed in Iraq. Hugh Hewitt has the quote from President Bush's speech...

In Iraq, our troops are taking the fight to the extremists and radicals and murderers all throughout the country. Our troops have killed or captured an average of more than 1,500 al Qaeda terrorists and other extremists every month since January of this year. (Applause.) We're in the fight. Today our troops are carrying out a surge that is helping bring former Sunni insurgents into the fight against the extremists and radicals, into the fight against al Qaeda, into the fight against the enemy that would do us harm. They're clearing out the terrorists out of population centers, they're giving families in liberated Iraqi cities a look at a decent and hopeful life.

Doing the quick math, that comes to 10,500 dead terrorists since January (not counting any in August). If the Administration would continue to put these numbers out and if the media would publish them, there would be 2 effects: the American public would start to take heart that we're making progress and the surviving terrorists would become disheartened and lose hope (and maybe prospective terrorists would think twice when faced with the odds of quickly becoming part of the body count.

Newt on Illegal Immigrant Crime at Home

Newt on the failure of Congress and the President to take illegal immigration seriously, in the wake of the execution-style killing of 3 young people in Newark, New Jersey a few weeks ago by an illegal from Peru and the killing of 15-year-old Dani Countryman by 2 brothers illegally here from Mexico...

It’s time for the American people to present Congress and the president with a defining choice: Either Congress and the President want to defend innocent Americans from violent illegal aliens or they don’t.

Either Congress will pass a bill to establish a new system for winning the war here at home and protecting Americans from criminal illegal aliens or Congress will fail to act and we will know we need a new Congress.

Killing For Congress

Ralph Peters from the New York Post has an excellent column about how the latest massacres committed by the terrorists in Iraq are a sign that they're getting desperate and trying to send a message to Congress.

al Qaeda needs to portray Iraq as a continuing failure of U.S. policy. Those dead and maimed Yazidis were just props: The intended audience was Congress.

Al Qaeda has been badly battered. It's lost top leaders and thousands of cadres. Even more painful for the Islamists, they've lost ground among the people of Iraq, including former allies. Iraqis got a good taste of al Qaeda. Now they're spitting it out.

The foreign terrorists slaughtering the innocent recognize that their only remaining hope of pulling off a come-from-way-behind win is to convince your senator and your congressman or -woman that it's politically expedient to hand a default victory to a defeated al Qaeda.

Congress needs to see the big picture--and it's not about the election in 2008. It's about having the intestinal fortitude to finish what we started. To send a message to our allies and enemies that it is a mistake to mess with the U.S. And that we'll stick by our friends, that we can be trusted to stick it out.

Here's how Gen. Petraeus summed it up for The Post on Tuesday: "Right now, we're on the offensive, striving to build on the gains made in the past two months by conducting strike operations to retain the initiative against al-Qaeda-in-Iraq, to address the challenge of the Iranian-supported Shia extremists and to try to reduce further the level of ethno-sectarian violence in Baghdad and other fault line areas."

Al Qaeda down, Iran out and sectarian violence reduced. Sounds like a plan.

Amen, Brother!

One of my brothers-in-arms has created this video clip that is sure to get you fired up and proud to be an American. Hot Air is saying that this clip is 10 months old, but it just made it big today when it showed up on the homepage for Foxnews. God Bless the Marines.

A Good Baseball Story

Dean Barnett, who sometimes fills in for Hugh Hewitt on his radio show, has a great post, contrasting this past week's big story on Barry Bonds hitting number 756 with a story you might not have heard about.

BARRY BONDS, THE NEW HOME RUN KING! Zzzzzzzz. There are a few things that some people may have forgotten about Bonds, or that young people may be unaware of. Back in the early 90’s, Bonds was by consensus the best player in baseball. He could do it all. And even then, he was extremely unpopular. Why? Because he was an arrogant jerk. Back in the day, there was an extremely popular video of Pittsburg Pirate manager Jim Leyland getting in Bonds’ face during spring training because of Bonds’ hideous attitude. Sports fans everywhere enjoyed the image of a righteous manager letting an obnoxious superstar have it with both barrels.


Some players grow out of such immaturity. Bonds instead grew worse. As a young superstar, he was the most insufferable player in baseball. As an old superstar, he has solidified his grasp on that crown. Even if he had never taken a performance enhancing substance, no one would care about Barry Bonds supplanting Hank Aaron because no one feels like celebrating Barry Bonds.


If he had retired before his head swelled up like a beach ball, he would have gone down as one of the best players ever. And you know what? Still, no one would have missed him when he left. In time, people who didn’t have to endure his personality will marvel at Bonds’ incredible accomplishments on the field. I don’t think many baseball fans would mind taking a ride in a time machine to see the even viler Ty Cobb play a few games. But for the contemporary audience, Barry Bonds cannot leave the game soon enough.


NOW THE FEEL-GOOD STORY OF BASEBALL 2007.


Some call it going haywire. Others call it Steve Blass disease. The fashion obsessed and malaprop-prone call it Bill Blass disease. It happens when a major league baseball player or other athlete suddenly loses the ability to do a simple thing that he has done all his life. In pitcher Steve Blass’ case, he couldn’t throw the ball over the plate anymore. When it struck catcher Mackey Sasser, he couldn’t accurately throw the ball back to the pitcher. Second baseman Steve Sax, who had been a great player, could no longer make the short throw to first base.


In all these cases, some sort of mental block triggered the breakdown. When you go haywire, it’s virtually impossible to make it back to normal. Steve Sax once memorably said that people would tell him just not to think about it. He said that’s like telling someone, “Don’t think of an elephant!” When someone tells you not to think of an elephant, what do you do? You think of an elephant.


Perhaps the saddest case of going haywire is the one that hit St. Louis Cardinal pitcher Rick Ankiel. In 2000, Ankiel was a 20 year old prodigy. The St. Louis Cardinals had signed him to a contract that included a $2.5 million bonus a couple of years earlier. Just barely out his teens Ankiel racked up an 11-7 record in the big leagues. He was 9th in the league in E.R.A., and 7th in the league in strikeouts.


The Cardinals made the playoffs that year, and there things went tragically wrong for Ankiel. With the nation watching, Ankiel threw five wild-pitches while allowing four runs in the 3rd inning of the Cards’ first playoff game. The Cardinals nevertheless advanced to the National League Championship Series, and Ankiel’s wildness continued to plague him. He didn’t make it out of the first inning in Game 2; out of the 20 pitches he threw that night, 5 got past the catcher. Ankiel returned to face four batters in Game 5 of that series; he threw 2 more wild pitches and walked two men.


Rick Ankiel never got back to normal. He never even came close He tried for what had to be five painful years until finally surrendering before the 2005 season. But Rick Ankiel is a great athlete, and was determined to make it back to the Major Leagues. He decided to do so as an outfielder.


Having started over as a 26 year old, Ankiel improbably became a very successful minor league outfielder. Last year, Ankiel suffered another setback, missing the entire season due to a knee injury. This year, as a 28 year old, Ankiel led all Triple A players with 32 homeruns.


The St. Louis Cardinals once again brought Rick Ankiel up to the big leagues this week, this time as a power-hitting outfielder with a cannon for an arm. Ankiel made his return to the Cardinals’ lineup last night. Penning yet another unlikely chapter in the Rick Ankiel Story, Ankiel returned with a bang, hitting a homerun in the 7th inning. Cardinal manager Tony LaRussa said that except for winning the World Series, Ankiel’s homerun was the happiest moment he had ever had in uniform. Ankiel called the experience “unbelievable.”


"You almost can't put it into words,” he continued. “I couldn't have written that any better. No way. It felt so good I can't describe it. It's almost ... euphoric."


Ankiel’s homerun wasn’t his first in the big leagues. He hit others as a pitcher back in 2000. But he got the ball back from last night’s homerun, and he’s keeping it. As well he should - that ball didn’t come easy.

A Preventable Murder

This is infuriating. Michelle Malkin tells the story of Dani Countryman, a 15-year old girl who was sexually assaulted and killed by two men who admit that they entered the U.S. illegally about 6 months ago.

As 15-year-old Dani Countryman struggled beneath Gilberto Arellano Gamboa, pinned to the floor with her pants down, he called on his cousin to help subdue the girl. Alejandro Rivera Gamboa responded by stepping on Countryman’s throat until she stopped moving.
That’s how investigators described Countryman’s death in a court document released Tuesday. Evidence outlined in the document included statements by the defendants and a bloody shoe that matched an imprint on Countryman’s chest.
Gilberto Javier “Gabe” Arellano Gamboa, 23, who is also known as Rivera Gamboa, and Alejandro Emeterio “Alex” Rivera Gamboa, 24, were arraigned Tuesday in Clackamas County Circuit Court on charges of aggravated murder. Through a Spanish-speaking interpreter, they acknowledged the charges against them and asked for warmer jail clothes.

It's time to write and call your Congressman and Senators and let them know how sick and tired you are of seeing stories like this because they don't have the guts to get serious about closing our nation's borders to sick and twisted pieces of poo-poo (gotta keep it PG) like these scumbags who have nothing positive to offer our country. Whew, that was a long sentence...

CAIR doesn't care about freedom of speech

Mike S. Adams writes at Townhall.com about a harrassing letter his friend received from an attack dog lawyer representing CAIR--the Council on American-Islamic Relations. His friend, Ron Robinson, is the president of Young America's Foundation (YAF). YAF had invited Robert Spencer to speak at its National Conservative Student Conference. The lawyer, Joseph Sandler, demanded that YAF not allow Spencer to speak at its conference because he was a "purveyor of hatred and bigotry towards Muslims", but failed to back up this statement with any supporting evidence.

"...we demand that YAF cancel the subject session (at which Spencer is speaking), or else take steps to ensure that false and defamatory statements are not disseminated at that session. Our clients have instructed us to pursue every available and appropriate legal remedy to redress any false and defamatory statements that are
made at the session. Please let us know by the close of business today whether you intend to comply with these requests. Joseph E. Sandler, sandler@sandlerreiff.com, (202) 479-1111"


This notion of preventing “offense” by forcing people to relinquish their First Amendment Rights is itself offensive. Certainly, when one of my Muslim friends offends me - by forcing his wife to leave the room without speaking as soon as I come over - I just let it go. But maybe I shouldn’t. Maybe I should start my own organization called CAIRS, The Council Against Islamic Repression and Sexism.

Adams then provides a list of actions that we can take to help Mr. Sandler see the light, including faxing an image of our extended middle finger to the lawyer's firm.

Barry Bonds, please retire tomorrow

Well, Barry Bonds finally hit number 756, surpassing Hank Aaron on the all-time home run list. I must confess I missed it, but when we turned the TV on tonight, the DVR happened to be tuned to ESPN, so we were able to rewind about a half-hour to the moment he hit the homer. It was just a bit underwhelming. I've seen plenty of amazing sports moments that will be remembered for a long time, like Tiger Woods' amazing chip-in from off the green at Augusta, or Michael Jordan's numerous super-human efforts to win a handful of championships. Many of those moments have brought me to tears because I knew how hard those athletes had worked to get there and they were able to pull out a miracle when they had to. Hard work and amazing talent. Gets me every time.

Didn't feel that watching Barry hit 756. There's just something about his possible/probable cheating to get this far that really bugs me. The guy obviously has great talent. Even with extra, illegal power, it still takes skills to hit a little ball traveling 90 mph with a skinny stick. To me, it's a character flaw that he felt he needed to get a little boost to get the record. Cheapens the record in my mind.

This whole season for the Giants has been focused on Bonds breaking Aaron's record. In the meantime, the Giants are at the bottom of the NL West--by a whole lot o' games. Isn't that the story of Bonds' career? It's always been about him. But what has he done for his team? Not much this year.

So I wish Barry would retire tomorrow so the record would stop at 756 and give the next big slugger a better chance of breaking the record sooner. And then Barry could fade away.

We Just Might Win

You know something is going on when even the New York Times runs an opinion piece that doesn't spout the Democrat rallying cry--"We've Already Lost in Iraq!" Michael O'Hanlon and Kenneth Pollack recently visited Iraq and their opinion of the progress being made can be summed up quite nicely:

Here is the most important thing Americans need to understand: We are finally getting somewhere in Iraq, at least in military terms.

That sounds like the complete opposite of what the Democratic leadership is saying every time there's a camera and a microphone within reach. After unanimously confirming General Petraeus, they've done a complete flip-flop and undermined his leadership during the surge. Far from being demoralized as the anti-war portrays them, our armed forces are motivated, kicking butt, and taking names.

After the furnace-like heat, the first thing you notice when you land in Baghdad is the morale of our troops. In previous trips to Iraq we often found American troops angry and frustrated — many sensed they had the wrong strategy, were using the wrong tactics and were risking their lives in pursuit of an approach that could not work.

Today, morale is high. The soldiers and marines told us they feel that they now have a superb commander in Gen. David Petraeus; they are confident in his strategy, they see real results, and they feel now they have the numbers needed to make a real difference.

In summary...

Viewed from Iraq, where we just spent eight days meeting with American and Iraqi military and civilian personnel, the political debate in Washington is surreal. The Bush administration has over four years lost essentially all credibility. Yet now the administration’s critics, in part as a result, seem unaware of the significant changes taking place. . . .As two analysts who have harshly criticized the Bush administration’s miserable handling of Iraq, we were surprised by the gains we saw and the potential to produce not necessarily “victory” but a sustainable stability that both we and the Iraqis could live with.

Kerry Says Minimum Wage Hike Will Help Small Businesses

Tuesday, the federal minimum wage increased 70 cents to $5.85. It's scheduled to go up another 70 cents next year. And another 70 cents the following year. And John Kerry, the chairman of the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, says that small businesses will benefit from this increase. Huh? CNSNews.com tries to explain his logic.

"In order for America to remain truly competitive in a global economy, we must invest in our workforce to stimulate small business growth. Small businesses create two-thirds of all new jobs in this country, and the vast majority of them are paying their new workers higher than the minimum wage," Kerry said Thursday in a news release.

Huh? What point is he really trying to make? If the majority of small business owners are already paying their new workers higher than the minimum wage, why raise the minimum raise? This increase doesn't really help the workforce like he says it does. Why can't Kerry leave it up to the market to determine what wages should be? If an employer can't pay what his competitors pay, he's not going to last long in that market. Increasing the minimum wage decreases the amount that business owners can re-invest in their businesses. Walter Williams has a great column which has some more thoughts on the issue.

Place yourself in the position of an employer and ask: If a worker costs me, say, $7 in wages, plus mandated fringes such as Social Security, unemployment compensation, sick and vacation leave, making the true hourly cost of hiring a worker $9 an hour, does it pay me to hire a worker who's so unfortunate to have skills that enable him to produce only $5 or $6 worth of value per hour? Most employers would conclude that doing so would be a losing economic proposition.
There are a couple other villains in the piece that force employers to respond to increases in wages that exceed a worker's productivity. If he did hire such workers, he would earn lower profits. Soon, investors would abandon him and put their money where returns are higher.
There's another villain -- the customer. If the employer retained workers whose wages exceeded their productivity, to cover his costs he would have to charge you and me higher product or service prices. I don't know about you, but I prefer lower prices to higher prices, and I'd switch my patronage to those firms who adjusted to the higher labor cost.
Congress can easily mandate higher wages, but they cannot mandate higher worker productivity or that employers hire a particular worker in the first place. Those of us who truly care about the welfare of low-skilled workers should focus our energies on helping them to become more productive, and a good start would be to do something about the rotten education that many receive.

A Return to Modesty?

UPDATE: Mona Charen also wrote about Wendy's new book at National Review Online.

The good news is that a small but significant backlash is underway. Eleven-year-old Ella Gunderson became a minor celebrity when she wrote to Nordstrom complaining that she could not find a pair of jeans that didn’t show her underwear. Sixteen-year-old Taylor Moore travels the country advising girls to follow their dreams. She tells them, “There’s nothing wrong with being a good girl . . . . You put yourself in a position of being a girl who’s classy and having dignity, and eventually people will treat you as such.” The “Girlcotters,” a group of Pennsylvania teens, pressured Abercrombie & Fitch to pull T-shirts with sayings like, “Who needs brains when you have these?”

You wouldn't know it living out here in Southern California, with the motto of the beaches being "Less is More" and all the fuss over Brittany, Paris, and Lindsay, but seems there might be a trend towards more modesty in our culture. At least that's what Chuck Colson said in today's Breakpoint Commentary.

Eight years ago, a young writer named Wendy Shalit took the culture by storm with a radical book called A Return to Modesty: Discovering the Lost Virtue. While many people embraced the idea of a return to modesty—especially the young women whose struggles and aspirations Shalit wrote about—others were appalled. “I knew that my arguments . . . might be challenged,” Shalit recalls now, “but nothing prepared me for the tongue-lashings I would receive from my elders. . . . [Feminist writer] Katha Pollitt called me a ‘twit.’ . . . The Nation solemnly foretold that I would ‘certainly be embarrassed’ and regret my stance ‘in a few years.’”

Well, it’s now been a few years, and Wendy regrets nothing. On the contrary, she has a new book out, Girls Gone Mild: Young Women Reclaim Self-Respect and Find It’s Not Bad to Be Good. As the title proclaims, Shalit is still convinced that true strength and happiness come not from deadening one’s emotions and having sex for fun, but from practicing modesty and self-restraint.

AND

As Shalit studied trends like modest fashion shows and boycotts of sexually explicit T-shirts, she discovered that for every girl who’s bought into the cultural myths about sexuality, there’s another who is refusing to go along. While acknowledging the negative, anti-woman forces in this sex-obsessed culture, she focuses refreshingly on the women who choose to protect their own “dignity” and “vulnerability.”

Let's work to encourage our daughters to exhibit their modesty for the world to see, not their bodies.

IOC siding with China on protests

Looks like China's continuing to prepare the world for its lack of respect for human rights, including the right to protest. The Australian Broadcasting Company is reporting that political groups will not be welcome at the Beijing Olympics next year. And the IOC is China's messenger.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has warned political groups not to use next year's Bejiing Olympics as a vehicle to promote their various causes.

The IOCs Hein Verbruggen has warned that political groups are already using the Beijing Olympics to promote their causes.

He said Beijing's Olympic organisers, must "take steps to negate these agendas".

Human rights groups have threatened to use the Games to protest against China's detention without trial, political imprisonments and widespread use of the death penalty.

Happy Belated Birthday!

Happy Independence Day!!!

In honor of the 4th of July, let's read through the Declaration of Independence:

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776.
THE UNANIMOUS
DECLARATION
OF THE
THIRTEEN UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
WHEN, in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's GOD entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the Causes which impel them to the Separation.
We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their CREATOR, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate, that Governments long established, should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security. Such has been the patient Sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the Necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The History of the present King of Great-Britain is a History of repeated Injuries and Usurpations, all having in direct Object the Establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid World.
HE has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public Good.
HE has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing Importance, unless suspended in their Operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
HE has refused to pass other Laws for the Accommodation of large Districts of People, unless those People would relinquish the Right of Representation in the Legislature, a Right inestimable to them, and formidable to Tyranny only.
HE has called together Legislative Bodies at Places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the Depository of their public Records, for the sole Purpose of fatiguing them into Compliance with his Measures.
HE has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly Firmness his Invasions on the Rights of the People.
HE has refused for a long Time, after such Dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining, in the mean Time, exposed to all the Dangers of Invasion from without, and Convulsions within.
HE has endeavoured to prevent the Population of these States; for that Purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their Migrations hither, and raising the Conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
HE has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
HE has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the Tenure of their Offices, and the Amount and Payment of their Salaries.
HE has erected a Multitude of new Offices, and sent hither Swarms of Officers to harrass our People, and eat out their Substance.
HE has kept among us, in Times of Peace, Standing Armies, without the Consent of our Legislatures.
HE has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
HE has combined with others to subject us to a Jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution, and unacknowledged by our Laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
FOR quartering large Bodies of Armed Troops among us:
FOR protecting them, by a mock Trial, from Punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
FOR cutting off our Trade with all Parts of the World:
FOR imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
FOR depriving us, in many Cases, of the Benefits of Trial by Jury:
FOR transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended Offences:
FOR abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an arbitrary Government, and enlarging its Boundaries, so as to render it at once an Example and fit Instrument for introducing the same absolute Rule into these Colonies:
FOR taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
FOR suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with Power to legislate for us in all Cases whatsoever.
HE has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection, and waging War against us.
HE has plundered our Seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our Towns, and destroyed the Lives of our People.
HE is, at this Time, transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to complete the Works of Death, Desolation, and Tyranny, already begun with Circumstances of Cruelty and Perfidy, scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous Ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized Nation.
HE has constrained our Fellow-Citizens, taken Captive on the high Seas, to bear Arms against their Country, to become the Executioners of their Friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
HE has excited domestic Insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the Inhabitants of our Frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known Rule of Warfare, is an undistinguished Destruction, of all Ages, Sexes, and Conditions.
IN every Stage of these Oppressions we have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble Terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated Injury. A Prince, whose Character is thus marked by every Act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the Ruler of a free People.
NOR have we been wanting in Attentions to our British Brethren. We have warned them, from Time to Time, of Attempts by their Legislature to extend an unwarrantable Jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the Circumstances of our Emigration and Settlement here. We have appealed to their native Justice and Magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the Ties of our common Kindred to disavow these Usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our Connexions and Correspondence. They too have been deaf to the Voice of Justice and of Consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the Necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the Rest of Mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
WE, therefore, the Representatives of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, in GENERAL CONGRESS Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the Rectitude of our Intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly Publish and Declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be, FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES; that they are absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political Connexion between them and the State of Great-Britain, is, and ought to be, totally dissolved; and that as FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which INDEPENDENT STATES may of Right do. And for the Support of this Declaration, with a firm Reliance on the Protection of DIVINE PROVIDENCE, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honour.
John Hancock.
GEORGIA, Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, Geo. Walton.
NORTH-CAROLINA, Wm. Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn.
SOUTH-CAROLINA, Edward Rutledge, Thos Heyward, junr. Thomas Lynch, junr. Arthur Middleton.
MARYLAND, Samuel Chase, Wm. Paca, Thos. Stone, Charles Carroll, of Carrollton.
VIRGINIA, George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Ths. Jefferson, Benja. Harrison, Thos. Nelson, jr. Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton.
PENNSYLVANIA, Robt. Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benja. Franklin, John Morton, Geo. Clymer, Jas. Smith, Geo. Taylor, James Wilson, Geo. Ross.
DELAWARE, Caesar Rodney, Geo. Read.
NEW-YORK, Wm. Floyd, Phil. Livingston, Frank Lewis, Lewis Morris.
NEW-JERSEY, Richd. Stockton, Jno. Witherspoon, Fras. Hopkinson, John Hart, Abra. Clark.
NEW-HAMPSHIRE, Josiah Bartlett, Wm. Whipple, Matthew Thornton.
MASSACHUSETTS-BAY, Saml. Adams, John Adams, Robt. Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry.
RHODE-ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE, &c. Step. Hopkins, William Ellery.
CONNECTICUT, Roger Sherman, Saml. Huntington, Wm. Williams, Oliver Wolcott.
IN CONGRESS, JANUARY 18, 1777.
ORDERED,
THAT an authenticated Copy of the DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCY, with the Names of the MEMBERS of CONGRESS, subscribing the same, be sent to each of the UNITED STATES, and that they be desired to have the same put on RECORD.
By Order of CONGRESS,
JOHN HANCOCK, President.
BALTIMORE, in MARYLAND: Printed by MARY KATHARINE GODDARD.

God Bless America!

The Immigration Bill is Dead!

CNSNews.com reports on how grassroots organizations are claiming the credit for influencing 18 senators to switch and vote against cloture on the Senate's immigration bill.

"The days of shoving legislation down the throats of the American people are over," Jessica Echard, executive director of the conservative Eagle Forum, said in a release. "Grassroots America, talk radio and a handful of senators stood toe to toe with our nation's elite power class, and we won!

"It's time for our elected officials to drop this push for amnesty, once and for all," Echard said. "America would be better served if senators used their August recess to travel down to the border and help build the fence they passed last year."

In the nearly 48 hours between the Tuesday cloture vote and the vote Thursday morning, opponents of the bill inundated Senate offices with phone calls, faxes and email encouraging senators to vote against cloture. The Senate's chief information officer announced that the "moderate increase in call volume" caused the office phone system to fail.

Michael Yon--Drilling for Justice

Michael Yon gives a great update on the progress of Arrowhead Ripper, the operation to free Baquba of the presence of Al Qaeda of Iraq (AQI).

For security reasons, the Iraqi Army (IA) was not included in the initial planning of Arrowhead Ripper, yet with each succeeding day the IA has taken a larger role in the unfolding attack. The Fifth Iraqi Army Division is considered an increasingly competent group of fighters, and from the limited scope of 5th IA that I personally witnessed, that judgment seems correct. The 5th is committed to battle. Whereas the Iraqi Army is coming into the fight, and playing increasingly critical roles, the local police force is less impressive.

Yon provides a great example of why AQI is failing in Iraq.

Other AQI edicts included beatings for men who refused to grow beards, and corporal punishments for obscene sexual suggestiveness, defined by such “loose” behavior as carrying tomatoes and cucumbers in the same bag. These fatwas were not eagerly embraced by most Iraqis, and the taint traveled back to the Muftis who sat in supreme judgment. Locals, who are increasingly helpful in pointing out and celebrating the downfall of AQI here, said that during the initial Arrowhead Ripper attack the morning of the 19th, AQI murdered five men. Townsend’s men found the buried corpses behind an AQI prison, exactly where they’d been told to look for the group grave. Locals also directed Townsend’s men to a torture house. Peering through a window, American soldiers saw knives, swords, bindings and drills. AQI is well-known for its macabre eagerness to drill into kneecaps, elbows, ribs, skulls, and other parts of victims.

Terror Suspect on the Loose!

Authorities are on the lookout for a terrorist who has served as al Qaeda's spokesman for the past few years. Incredibly, this person has been living in the United States the entire time and was last seen terrorizing a small handful of women who normally just get together to gossip. Authorities say this person should be considered loud and obnoxious. If spotted, you are urged to run away or you might get hit by a Tickle Me Elmo doll.

Tribal Leaders Turning on Al Qaeda

Eli Lake, reporting in The New York Sun, tells of how tribes that had previously allowed Al Qaeda to operate in their area are now beginning to turn on the terrorist group.

For those officers overseeing the new tribal diplomacy, signs are emerging that Iraq's deepest social networks — its tribes — are withdrawing their tacit acceptance of Al Qaeda and are becoming more willing to cooperate with American authorities to combat the terror network.

The plan is inspired by some successes that the Marines and the Army had with tribes in Anbar province, but it is still in the early stages. While the military and CIA have tried to reach out to Iraq's tribes since before the war, those efforts yielded mixed results. The majority of Sunni tribes cut deals with Al Qaeda for cash — between $30,000 and $40,000, according to sheiks here — to turn a blind eye to Al Qaeda's activities. That arrangement is starting to fall away.

"I see what I think is becoming a national trend, especially in areas influenced by Al Qaeda, where they have made inroads, and even in places where you see other forms of religious extremism, such as Jaish al-Mahdi, you have it from the South. It's coming, it's there," Lieutenant Colonel Richard Welch said in an interview. Colonel Welch, a public prosecutor in Ohio, spends his days meeting Iraqi tribal chiefs as he oversees tribal and religious outreach for the Multi-National Force in Baghdad.

Sheikh Hussein al-Tamimi, whose tribe has been friendly to American forces since the invasion, agrees that many of his fellow chieftains have changed their position on Al Qaeda in recent months. "I think the motivation behind the change is to protect their interests," he said in an interview. "They lose business."

Sheikh Hussein, as well as other sheikhs interviewed for this piece, said the turning point for the tribes was in September when Al Qaeda in Iraq declared the formation of the Islamic State of Iraq, a shadow state that in pockets of the country has established Islamic sharia courts and tried to provide some social services. The declaration was a direct challenge to the centuries-old tribal system that has prevailed in most of Iraq. As a result, the terrorists once seen as allies against the American invaders have also come to be seen as invaders.

The entire article is well worth the read.

Airpower Summary--10 May

Here's the latest wrapup of the Air Force's contribution to the war.

Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs dropped 500-pound bombs on insurgents firing on a coalition convoy near Sangin. The attack by the A-10s was confirmed a success by an on-scene joint terminal attack controller.

Air Force F-15E Strike Eagles provided shows of force to deter enemy activity around a coalition convoy near Sangin. The aircrews also provided reconnaissance information of a possible insurgent compound and watched over a second convoy in the area that had received small-arms fire.

In total, 39 close-air-support missions were flown in support of ISAF and Afghan security forces, reconstruction activities and route patrols.

n Iraq, an Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon dropped a guided bomb unit-38 on a building near Baquba from which coalition forces had been receiving small-arms fire. The bomb drop resulted in the destruction of the building and no further small-arms firing was reported.

Other F-16s provided successful shows of force supporting ground forces in Balad hit by an improvised explosive device and receiving small-arms fire. The enemy fire stopped after the F-16s flew by. The F-16s also supported Iraqi Army forces who were under small-arms attack.

Near Baghdad, F-16s provided a show of force for convoy members after a rocket-propelled grenade attack. They also watched over a suspicious compound and passed the information gathered to a JTAC.

Also near Baghdad, F-16s provided armed overwatch during two coalition raids. Insurgents were captured and detained during the raids.

Over Muqdadiyah, RAF GR-4 Tornados provided shows of force and overwatch for coalition forces receiving small-arms fire in the area. The small-arms fire stopped after the shows of force. The Tornado crews also searched for mortar positions and watched over a coalition convoy.

In total, coalition aircraft flew 46 close-air-support missions for Operation Iraqi Freedom. These missions supported coalition ground forces, protected key infrastructure, provided overwatch for reconstruction activities and helped to deter and disrupt terrorist activities.

Democrats Try to Act Human

Ann Coulter had a great piece after the Democrat presidential debate (I use the term "presidential" loosely). Thanks to Marcus for the heads-up.

Someone needs to tell the Democrats to stop talking about their families. I know they're trying to demonstrate their "family values," but using actual, live human beings to illustrate the freakish ideas of the Democratic base just makes normal people uncomfortable.

When Chris Dodd was asked about gay marriage, he said he always thinks of his little daughters — aged 2 and 5 — and imagines them turning out to be lesbians, saying he would want them treated equally.

To prove his bona fides to the environmentalist nuts, Obama said: "We've also been working to install lightbulbs that last longer and save energy. And that's something that I'm trying to teach my daughters, 8-year-old Malia and 5-year-old Sasha."

So we finally have an answer to the question: What do Democrats teach their daughters? Is it:

(a) integrity
(b) character
(c) the importance of always telling the truth

No! The answer is: (d) They teach their daughters to use low-energy lightbulbs. This is so important that it apparently bears mentioning during a debate under high-intensity TV studio lights.

AND

The not-visibly-insane Democrats all claim they'll get rough with the terrorists, but they can't even face Brit Hume.

In case you missed this profile in Democrat machismo, the Democratic presidential candidates are refusing to participate in a debate hosted by Fox News Channel because the hosts are "biased." But they'll face down Mahmoud Ahmadinejad!

At this, even Hillary Clinton was thinking, "Come on, guys — let's grow a pair."

King Herod's Tomb Found

Foxnews.com is reporting that archeologists have found what they believe is the tomb of King Herod.

Herod became the ruler of the Holy Land under the Romans around 74 B.C. The wall he built around the Old City of Jerusalem still stands, and he also ordered big construction projects in Caesaria, Jericho, the hilltop fortress of Massada and other sites.

It has long been assumed Herod was buried at Herodium, but decades of excavations had failed to turn up the site. The 1st century historian Josephus Flavius described the tomb and Herod's funeral procession.

Does God Exist?

CNSNews.com is reporting that ABC will air a debate between evangelists Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron and two atheists from a group called the "Rational Response Squad". The debate will be about the existence of God.

"We are excited that the network has decided to do this because we have something very relevant to present," Cameron stated in the news release. "Most people think that belief in God is simply a matter of blind faith and that His existence can't be proven.

"We will not only prove that God exists, but as an ex-atheist, I'll show that the issue keeping so many people from believing in God -- Darwinian evolution -- is completely unscientific," he added. "It's a fairy tale for grownups."

The Awakening

Bill Roggio does his usual job of excellent reporting from Iraq in The Roggio Report. His latest report begins with the effort to stem car bombings by placing barriers up to segment the city.

These barriers stem the flow of traffic through checkpoints and prevent the infiltration of death squads through back alleys and side streets. The news of the creation of the "Adhamiya Wall" sparked protests and the temporary halting of the barrier's construction. Opportunists likened the barrier to the fence separating Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank.

But, as Omar Fadhil noted early last week, "Work to construct similar walls started weeks ago in the Amiriya and Ghazaliyah districts. The 'news' went utterly unnoticed then." Mr. Fadhil noted the barrier has had some effect in Amiriya and Ghazaliyah, and speculated that insurgents might have stirred up the local protests in an attempt to halt the building of the wall.

Dave Kilcullen, the Senior Counter-Insurgency Advisor for Multi-National Force Iraq, explained that Prime Minister Maliki restarted the project after he was briefed on the need for the barrier and how the protests had come about. "As I understand it, once the reasons for the project and the likely benefits in terms of lives saved were explained to the PM, he was happy for it to continue. I understand that the evidence of extremist manipulation was also a factor." Kilcullen likened the barrier to an "urban tourniquet," and explained that the propaganda campaign to disrupt its construction came from none other than al Qaeda in Iraq.

Roggio also tells of how Anbar, once the deadliest city in Iraq, has become much safer. Last summer, there were 50 attacks happening per day. Now, it is just down to 2 a day.

Markets are reopening, children are returning to school and Iraqi and American security forces are conducting patrols throughout the most dangerous neighborhoods in the city.

Part of the success of the Anbar Salvation Council is that it provides the Sunnis in Anbar with a political voice as well as security against al Qaeda. The Anbar Salvation Council's political component is the Anbar Awakening. Seven new tribes have just joined the political party. The Awakening is now expanding beyond Anbar province, and is becoming a national movement. The Anbar Awakening is facilitating the creation of the Iraq Awakening, a national political party which would "oppose insurgents such as Al Qaeda in Iraq and reengage with Iraq's political process." The Iraq Awakening is scheduled to meet in May, and will be the first Sunni political party to openly oppose al Qaeda in Iraq.
Sensing that the Awakening movement was gaining steam in Iraq--branches are said to be forming in Salahadin and Diyala--I asked Omar Fadhil, and Iraqi blogger living in Baghdad, about the perception of the movement inside Baghdad and prospects of the Awakening expanding into the capital. Omar responded that the tribal dynamics were different, and that it was difficult to draw conclusions about Baghdad based on trends in Ramadi.

The following day, Omar noted a report in As Sabah on the creation of the Adhamiya Awakening. "Some community leaders in Adhamiya are working on forming a salvation council for their own district they will be calling The Adhamiya Awakening," reported Omar. "Sources close to the leaders said they [the leaders] have managed to win the support of some hundred people who agree with the new position. The sources asserted that the goal of the Awakening is to rid Adhamiya of the terrorists."

Read the entire post for even more reason for optimism. In the wake of Congress's passing of the foolish funding bill which would set a timetable for a hasty exit from Iraq, it is a good time to write your Congressman and Senator to let them know how upset you are with the Democrats' shameful conduct. They have no idea how idiotic they are appearing to the American public. Read this story about Senator Biden's latest exhibition of his mental prowess.

Bible Publishers in Turkey Killed

Foxnews.com is reporting that three persons who worked at a publishing house in Malatya, Turkey, that distributed Bibles were killed.

Attackers killed three people Wednesday at a publishing house that had been the subject of protests for distributing Bibles in Turkey, the government-run Anatolia news agency reported.

One person who had his throat cut inside the publishing house and another who jumped from the third floor to escape were taken to local hospitals for treatment, the private Dogan news agency said. Anatolia said one of those taken to the hospital later died.

Nationalists previously had protested outside the Zirve publishing house in the city of Malatya, accusing it of proselytizing, Dogan reported.

Video footage broadcast on private NTV news channel showed one man being tackled by police outside of the building, and another in a neck brace being loaded into a stretcher.

Malatya is known as a hotbed of nationalists and is the hometown of Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turkish man who shot Pope John Paul II in 1981.

More on Evil

The Sun Times of Chicago echoes my last post about how the presence of evil in man is to blame for the massacre at Virginia Tech and the debate that will begin about allowing students and faculty to carry concealed weapons on campus.

In 2002, according to a report on CNSNews.com, a disgruntled student at the Appalachian Law School, Peter Odighizuwa, allegedly shot and killed the school's dean, a professor, and a student on campus. He was subdued, CNSNews.comreported, only when two students reportedly ran to their cars to fetch their own guns and returned to confront the killer, who surrendered.

This led the president of the Second Amendment group at another school, George Mason University, to start looking into reforming bans on weapons on campus. That issue, already alive on campuses across the country, will grow only larger in the wake of the tragedy at Virginia Tech. It will be an important debate. We don't believe any public policy will be able to expunge from society the kind of insanity or evil that leads to the kinds of acts witnessed yesterday. But we do believe that Americans have the capacity to reason out their own choices about how to defend themselves. And to reach out in their thoughts and prayers to the families who lost loved ones on the campus of Virginia Tech.

Virginia Tech continued

I spent a lot of time in the car yesterday, so all of the info about the shooting that I received during the day came from the local AM news station. They played a lot of interviews of students and teachers, both from Virginia Tech and Southern Cal (the local reaction). I remember hearing one female student say that there had to be mental illness involved. Sadly, this has become the normal reaction to senseless events like this. Either there was something wrong with the perpetrator's brain or that person (or group in the case of Islamists) has been so mistreated by family, peers, society, or the United States, that it's no wonder that they did what they did. How can we blame them? I don't remember hearing one mention of the word "evil" during all of yesterday's coverage. That's because in our secular society, we've been taught that man is basically good inside. If one of us loses it and guns down dozens of people around us, it must be the fault of said gunned-down people. Let's study the shooter and figure out what kind of victim he was. To think of it in any other way means that we have to admit that the shooter was wrong in his action. Which means that there is a right and wrong. Which means that there is a standard for us. Which means we are responsible for our actions. No, that can't be right.

Shooting at Virginia Tech

The worst campus shooting in U.S. history occurred today at Virginia Tech University, apparently by a lone individual. Here's the latest. How long do you think before the gun-control freaks start to use this event as more evidence of the need for ridding the population of all firearms? If anything, this incident makes a good argument for allowing teachers to carry concealed weapons. These students that died today were sitting ducks.

Would you stop to listen?

Just found this great article, thanks to The Evangelical Outpost. The Washington Post has an excellent story about what happened when a world class musician started playing outside a Washington DC metro station. I've ridden on the metro and heard musicians playing as I left the stations. I wonder if I would have stopped to listen and appreciated what I was hearing...

Progress in Iraq

Although he's not my first choice for President, John McCain would be a much better leader than anyone the Democrats can offer. Sunday, Senator McCain wrote a great piece in the Washington Post about his recent trip to Iraq. Thanks to Marcus for the heads-up.

I just returned from my fifth visit to Iraq since 2003 -- and my first since Gen. David Petraeus's new strategy has started taking effect. For the first time, our delegation was able to drive, not use helicopters, from the airport to downtown Baghdad. For the first time, we met with Sunni tribal leaders in Anbar province who are working with American and Iraqi forces to combat al-Qaeda. For the first time, we visited Iraqi and American forces deployed in a joint security station in Baghdad -- an integral part of the new strategy. We held a news conference to discuss what we saw: positive signs, underreported in the United States, that are reason for cautious optimism. . .The new political-military strategy is beginning to show results. But most Americans are not aware because much of the media are not reporting it or devote far more attention to car bombs and mortar attacks that reveal little about the strategic direction of the war. I am not saying that bad news should not be reported or that horrific terrorist attacks are not newsworthy. But news coverage should also include evidence of progress. Whether Americans choose to support or oppose our efforts in Iraq, I hope they could make their decision based on as complete a picture of the situation in Iraq as is possible to report.

McCain goes on to give some examples of the progress actually being made. It's well worth the read. We need to start writing the mainstream sources of news and begin demanding that they start doing exactly as McCain suggests: stop focusing solely on the negative incidents that are more anecdotal and begin reporting on the big picture.

Bill Roggio, of The Roggio Report, validates and expands on the progress being made in Iraq.

Drama for Air Force's next season

David Ramsey at The Gazetteof Colorado Springs has a great column this week about the drama that could unfold next season. But first, in case you haven't been following this story, here's the quick version: Air Force's basketball coach of 2 years, Jeff Bzdelik, just left Air Force to coach at Colorado University, which Air Force demolished this season. The two teams have a 2-year contract, which means that CU is supposed to come play at Clune Arena. Well, here's his column. I think he's got something...

Betrayal has long served as a gripping plot device, most notably the day Judas sold his friend, a man named Jesus, for 30 pieces of silver.

Betrayal is why the Air Force Academy cannot — under any circumstance — allow the University of Colorado to wriggle out of its commitment to a basketball clash next season.

Think of it. Jeff Bzdelik will walk into Clune Arena to face the players, fans, athletic director and, most delicious of all, the Section Eight he abandoned.

His return is priceless. Air Force athletic director Hans Mueh must refuse to allow the school that stole his coach to escape its contract.

If the Buffaloes seek a release, which would cost them $50,000, Mueh should call them cowards. He should roar to the heavens about the absolute requirement that these teams meet. He should refuse to go quietly.

Colorado — the state, not the school — needs this game. This is hardly the center of the basketball universe, and games this juicy come along, oh, once every century.

Colorado athletic director Mike Bohn chuckled when asked about Colorado’s plans.

“Yes, of course we’re coming,” Bohn said. “We have an agreement with them.”

Great to hear, Mike, but I still have doubts.

There have been rumblings at the academy that the Buffaloes won’t make the trip. When the Falcons annihilated lame-duck coach Ricardo Patton’s team in November at the Coors Events Center, the Buffaloes looked helpless, clueless and lazy.

That was just in the first five minutes.

After the game, Bzdelik told academy confidants he expected the Buffaloes to refuse the return trip to Clune. Consecutive losses were too risky for Colorado, he reasoned.

Don’t let the man become a prophet.

Trust me, the next meeting will not be another comedyfilled rout. Bzdelik will bring an enraged bunch of Buffaloes to Clune. He’ll shout at them about last season’s slaughter. He’ll thirst for this win like a man who’s wandered without water in the desert for 40 days.

The Buffaloes don’t have much, but they do have Richard Roby. Sure, Roby all but took a nap during last season’s mismatch, but he’s a major talent. If he doesn’t play with a surging fire against the Falcons, Bzdelik might make him run to Cheyenne and back.

To add to the fun, Bzdelik will be joined by freshman guard Levi Knutson, who was Air Force’s top recruit last fall. Knutson decided he wasn’t interested in the rigors of a military education and instead chose Colorado. Now, in a strange twist, Bzdelik and Knutson will travel together to the arena they rejected.

Here’s one more multiplier to the drama: The Falcons will desire to crush the coach who deserted them.

On Tuesday evening, Bzdelik motored down Interstate 25 to meet with the Falcons. Don’t let him fool you. He knew he would be introduced the next morning as Colorado’s new coach, but he lacked the courage to speak clear truth to his soon-to-be former players.

He claims he told the Falcons he was “leaning heavily” toward Colorado. Air Force teammates Andrew Henke and Matt McCraw politely disagree. Both say Bzdelik said it was “50-50” between the Falcons and Buffaloes.

That night, Bzdelik called only a few of the Falcons to say he was leaving. He declined to take an extra 30 minutes to speak to each of his players man-to-man. Remember, he frequently told these same players he “loved” them. This will be their chance to deliver a harsh, and deserved, payback.

Air Force fans should remind Bzdelik of his faithlessness. They should shout and wave signs — no obscene words, please — and stomp.

The betrayer’s return will be loud. It will offer stupendous basketball theater.

It must happen.

KFC--The Hillary Special

Air Force goes to the Elite Eight in the NIT

Air Force continues to show that it should have gone to the Big Dance, this time knocking off Georgia by 31. Chip Towers from the Atlanta Journal Constitution tells about the game.

Dennis Felton knew it. He just couldn't say it. Air Force was the worst of all possible draws for Georgia in the NIT. For anybody, really.

Monday night, the Falcons (25-8) were obliged to show the world why.

Playing in their packed little arena on the side of a mountain (elevation 7,100 feet), they used guile, hustle and 3-point accuracy to run the Bulldogs out of the gym, 83-52. Air Force was up 23 points in less than 13 minutes, then just did what it had to do from there to advance to the third round of NIT.

The Falcons, once considered shoo-ins for the NCAA tournament, will face DePaul. Again, it will be at Clune Arena.

The only solace for Air Force opponents is that four of its five starters are seniors and coach Jeff Bzdelik is the leading candidate at Colorado.

Against the nation's No. 2 scoring defense, the Bulldogs shot 36 percent and never really figured out the Falcons' matchup zone.

Meanwhile, Air Force put on a clinic for running the Princeton motion offense. The Falcons produced lay-ups galore and mixed in nine 3-pointers to boot. Jacob Burtschi led the way with 21 points and 10 rebounds, and Dan Nwaelele added 19 as they shot 55 percent from the field and 10 players scored.

Romney over Rudy

John Mark Reynolds (an evangelical Christian, by the way) has written a great piece about why Mit Romney is the man that conservatives should be supporting at this point in the race.

Far from worrying about our prodigal Romney who has come home to social conservative values . . . I worry about him least on these issues.

Why? Romney has over time come to traditional points of view on culture of life and family issues. This is not surprising given his religious and social background. Romney is a man of profound faith (though it is not my own) and of deep and abiding traditional values in his personal life. As he has grown older, it is no surprise that a maturing statesman would bring his personal life into closer consistency with his political life.

Romney has the zeal of a new covert tempered by the pragmatic wisdom of one who knows the strengths and weaknesses of his old views.

Even on pragmatic grounds, the convert can be trusted more than the older member. He cannot afford to switch again without looking like a disaster and will work hard to keep his new allies.

The prodigal Romney has come back to his conservative roots having tried to eat the pig food of Harvard and the secular left.

AND

I like Rudy . . . and admire him on many levels. I would love to see him as an attorney general chasing the Mob or Terrorists. He is a liberal of the old school . . . willing to work with conservatives for the good of the nation. We need more liberals like him, but he is a liberal and the Republican party is the conservative party in America.

Rudy is a friend of the conservative movement . . . and an ally, but he should not lead that movement. The Romans were finished when they picked Germans to lead them . . . and the Republicans do not need a friendly foe to head their cause.

Law and Order in the White House?

Foxnews.com is reporting that former Tennessee senator and current Law and Order star Fred Thompson is considering a run for the White House.

"I'm going to wait and see what happens," Thompson said. "I want to see my colleagues on the campaign trial, what they say, what they emphasize, whether they can carry the ball next November."

Thompson, 64, who plays district attorney Arthur Branch on NBC's drama, said he was pondering a run after former Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker and other Tennessee Republicans began drumming up support for his possible Republican candidacy, citing his conservative credentials.

"I think people are somewhat disillusioned. A lot of people are cynical out there. They're looking for something different," he said.

On the issues, Thompson said he:

—Is "pro-life," and believes federal judges should reexamine the Supreme Court's landmark Roe v. Wade decision of 1973 which established a woman's right to an abortion.

—Opposes gay marriage, but would let states decide whether to allow civil unions. "Marriage is between a man and a woman, and judges shouldn't be allowed to change that."

—Supports President George W. Bush's decision to increase troops in Iraq. "Wars are full of mistakes. You rectify them. I think we are doing that now," he said. "We've got to give it a chance to work."

—Would pardon former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's conviction for perjury and obstruction of justice now, rather than waiting until all his appeals are exhausted. Libby was found guilty of perjury and obstruction in the investigation into the 2003 leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity.

Libby is "bearing the political brunt of something that should've never come about," Thompson said, noting that "practically every witness at trial had inconsistent statements."

Thompson said he was not setting a deadline to make a decision and believes he will not be at a disadvantage if he waited until summer. "The lay of the land will be different in a couple of months than it is today, one way or another," he said in an interview on "Fox News Sunday."

I like what I see so far. Very interesting...

Hoops stars to officers

Robert Sanchez from the Denver Post has written a great article about the Air Force men's basketball team. Four of the starters are seniors and are now months away from being commissioned as officers in the US Air Force. Sanchez does a great job of contrasting the difference between these young men and their counterparts at "normal" universities, and then describing what they have waiting for them after graduation.

They expected to play basketball somewhere, but their talents were more suited for Division II ball, or the Ivy League, where several of them had offers.
Still, in their minds, they imagined sinking the game-winning shot in front of thousands of screaming fans on national television. They imagined they could someday have their own sliver of March Madness.
But they never imagined the opportunity would come on a hillside in Colorado, where the iron gates around the campus are as much about keeping people in as they are about keeping others out.
"One of the most common sayings around is that this is a great place to be from, but not be at," says Eric Kenzik, a 22-year-old junior from Florida who wants to fly Air Force transport planes or bombers upon his graduation next year - a decision his parents support.
"It's one of those things where you can't explain it if you're in it, and you can't understand it unless you're part of it," senior center Nick Welch says. "Survive this, and then you'll know."
It's hard to call the academy a college because it is unlike any collegiate experience.
You're told when to wake up, when to eat, when to go to class, when to study and when to go to bed.
Academy life means basic training before you step inside a classroom. It means being told your zipper has been pulled too low on your military issued jacket. It means averaging 18 credit hours a semester when a five-year player at another college might take only 24 an entire year. It means calculus and aerodynamics classes even though you're an English major who has no interest in calculus or aerodynamics. It means eating with 4,000 other cadets at the same time every day while your buddy at the University of Utah grabs a Big Mac at midnight.
But for the players who took the challenge, for them, it means the opportunity to become a better person.
"Every day of my life here, I'm being challenged to be better than I was the day before," Welch says. "By going through this, I'm developing into a leader."
At most college programs, basketball is the most rigorous and scheduled part of an athlete's life. At the academy, it's just another thing to add to the pile.
"Sometimes I'll see the look on their faces that says, 'I was up until 5 a.m. studying, I've got practice and exams and someone chewed me out this morning,"' coach Jeff Bzdelik says. "I know then that I should ease my foot off the gas."

The Falcons will be hoping against hope this afternoon to see if they make it to the Big Dance. If they don't, it won't be the end of the world. Their life is just beginning.

On running a Bed and Breakfast

Well, we just got back from a seminar in Camden, Maine, on how to start and run a bed & breakfast. We had a great time. We stayed at the Timbercliffe Cottage B&B, along with 4 other couples. The seminar was called Inn Your Dreams and was conducted by Don Johnson, a veteran in the Maine B&B scene, having owned and run his own inns for 12 years and now in the brokerage business.

Since we're thinking of running our own B&B when we retire in seven years, we thought it would be a good idea to find out more about the whole business and see if it's what we really want to do. Inn Your Dreams was a great way to do that. Don began by giving us a quiz to see if we've got the right temperament and personalities to be innkeepers, and took us through the whole process, including finding the right B&B, buying it, shopping for supplies, pricing the rooms, and then the daily demands of running it. In the afternoons, we went on tours of the local B&Bs to get ideas to use in our own inns. Overall, Inn Your Dreams was a great investment for our future career. Don was thorough in his training and brought in a few experts in various fields, such as financing and webpage design, to enhance the experience. We'd highly suggest the seminar for anyone interested in running their own inn someday.

Another facet to Inn Your Dreams that made it very rewarding was the fact that we actually stayed in a local B&B. In this case, our hosts were Karen and Dave Kallstrand at the Timbercliffe Cottage (as mentioned above). We stayed in the Chauncey Keep Chamber, the best room in the inn. The room had a beautiful view of Penobscot Bay and felt very cozy with a warm fireplace. Karen was an excellent cook, providing delicious gourmet breakfasts every morning. Dave and Karen went out of their way to provide that "home away from home" experience. And of course, Caffrey, the Kallstrand's golden retriever, offered her own hospitality by greeting everyone by the dining room. Timbercliffe's common areas offered a great place for guests to sit and visit with each other, drinking coffee or wine by the fire.

Christine and I were very glad that we took this opportunity to learn more about innkeeping. It made us even more eager to start on the next stage in our lives after the Air Force.

Amazing Grace

Not sure if you noticed, but there was a movie that opened this past weekend that actually has a great message, as opposed to most of the movies that were celebrating at the Oscars last night. "Amazing Grace" is a movie you can take the kids to, a movie that will teach you some history, and a movie that is trying to make a change right now.

"Amazing Grace", by Walden Media, opened to just 791 screens, yet finished the weekend with the 3rd highest take per screen. On the Hugh Hewitt show, producer Ken Wales said that at a screening in Washington, D.C. on the National Day of Prayer, viewers were in tears at the end of the movie. Viewers at a screening in New York were moved to give a 4-minute standing ovation at the end.

Alex Field at Relevant Magazine has a great review of the movie. He also tells about a movement called The Amazing Change Campaign, which aims to fight against modern-day slavery. One interesting fact you might not know is that more people are in slavery today than at any other time in history. Field writes...

. . .less than two years ago the International Labor Organization, an agency charged by the United Nations to address labor standards and social protection, estimated that there were 12.3 million people enslaved through forced labor, bonded labor, forced child labor, sexual servitude and other forms of involuntary servitude. The ILO also reported data showing that roughly 600,000 to 800,000 men, women and children are trafficked across international borders each year, 80 percent of whom are women and girls.

Even more recently, Kevin Bales, the president of an organization called Free the Slaves, conducted a study at the University of Roehampton, the findings of which say that there are actually about 27 million people enslaved around the world today.

This is a movie you can take your family or a friend to, with plenty of things to talk about afterward. And plenty of things to do to help fight slavery today.

A religion of peace?

Grant Swank has a great commentary at The Conservative Voice about how Christians are increasingly being attacked in Muslim countries, with authorities turning a blind eye, passing on the story of a 78-year-old Christian man in Egypt who was killed while at church. A Muslim stormed into the church with two long knives and stabbed several people, shouting "god is great!"

When these atrocities occur, little if nothing is done by the authorities. They too are extremist Muslim. They too read the Koran and its demands that non-Muslims be put out. Therefore, why should Christians be guarded when they are to be extinguished?

What free nations need to realize is that Christians living in these conditions elsewhere put up with this murderous threat every day of their lives. It is not just an occasional trap. It could happen any day, any hour, any time. Christian children are brought up to be on the watch for fear of their lives.

Again, in free countries Muslims demand freedom of religion. They expect freedom to erect their mosques, have their clerics teach whatever they want to preach, hold their secret meetings, run their propaganda-filled web sites and see through the eventual Islam World Rule.

On Muslim web sites, for instance there are stark warnings to Muslims to watch out for persecution in free nations. They are instructed step by step how to report any discrimination and then press for immediate, accurate action.

However, when Christians are slain in a Muslim country such as Egypt, it’s over and out for the Christians. Another life lost. So it goes. It’s just another "Christian story."

Swank goes on to describe the dangers that women, both Muslim and non-Muslim, face in Islamic countries.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan in a recent report said that violence against women had increased alarmingly, with some of the incidents incited by Mullahs opposed to women’s emancipation.

"Islamists also campaigned against the Women Protection Bill which was recently passed by parliament, which seeks to provide protection to women who have suffered discrimination under Islamic Sharia laws.

"Women make up just over 20 per cent of the lower house of parliament, according to the country’s main human rights group, and there are three women ministers in the cabinet of the federal government. But widespread discrimination against females continues to be a problem in what remains a male-dominated society, particularly in the countryside, where most Pakistanis live."

It is time for "moderate" Muslims to step up in countries where they can speak freely and speak out against the atrocities that so-called extremist Muslims are committing against mankind. If they don't speak out soon, there will be no need to use the word "extremist" when describing these terrorists.

The Striptease of William and Mary

A few months ago, I posted an article about the College of William and Mary removing the cross from their chapel so that all students of every religious persuasion would feel welcome in the building. Well, the college is in the headlines again. CNSNews.com tellsof how they recently welcomed "The Sex Workers' Art Show" to campus.

The show is described as "an eye-popping evening of visual and performance art created by people in the sex industry to dispel the myth that they are anything short of artists, innovators, and geniuses."

When college President Gene Nichol was confronted by students and alumni over his decision to allow the show, he was quoted as saying, "I don't like this kind of show, but it is not the practice ... of universities to censor or cancel performances because they are controversial."

But critics of Nichol's decision late last year to remove from the university's Wren Chapel a cross that had been located there since 1940 called his latest stance hypocritical.

He can't stop this so-called art show, but he can censor Christians' displays. Wonder how this latest action (or lack of action on the president's part) will affect alumni donations.

Photo of the Week

You gotta start training them early...

The New Devil

When I was growing up, my father, a minister, would preach about the need for taking personal responsibility for sins that we commit. He would talk about how people loved to blame something or someone else for the mistakes they made, citing the song lyrics, "The Devil made me do it."

In a recent "Breakpoint" article, Charles Colson discusses the new "Devil". Now, our society blames their failings on a variety of causes--alcohol, stress, racism, sexual abuse by priests, a bad childhood--everything but ourselves.

If you ever doubted the complete triumph of the therapeutic culture in America, look no further than this week’s news. Take NASA for example. How did it respond to the sad and bizarre story involving a love triangle and an astronaut charged with attempted murder? It wants to tighten psychological screening procedures for astronauts! Now, I find it hard to imagine more rigorous screenings than those already given to naval aviators and astronauts.

How about sin? It doesn’t take rocket science to figure out what happens when you crowd attractive men and women into a space capsule.

Or take the recent case of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. Following his election in 2003, Newsom was considered a rising political star. Times have changed: Now, he’s the butt of late-night comedians’ jokes, and his political future is, at best, uncertain.

A few weeks ago, Newsom confirmed reports that he was involved in an affair with his campaign manager’s wife. He claimed that he was “deeply sorry about that,” but then announced that he was “seeking counseling for alcohol abuse.”

“Upon reflection” he told reporters, “I have come to the conclusion that I will be a better person without alcohol in my life.”

His three key words: How about sin? In today's postmodernism, where right and wrong are in the eye of the beholder, sin has no place in the discussion. The concept of sin implies a standard. A standard implies an authority that is higher than ourselves. And man's nature is to rebel against authority.

Here's an ironic thought: all of the daytime talkshows like to urge us to just look within ourselves for strength during adversity. No need to appeal to a higher power for help. It's right there inside of us. But yet when we fall short and just plain screw up, it is no longer ourself that is to blame. It's [fill in your excuse here] that's to blame. In the end, though, we will all be held responsible for our own actions. God help us all.

Now that's a model airplane!

Got this in an email from an Air Force friend of mine. Not sure who the guys in the photo and video are, but they sure do take their hobby seriously. From the text of the email...

A B-52 flying model with 22 foot wingspan! Actually has 8 "real turbines" at about $1500 each! Took over 2 years to build. Takes multiple pilots, as there are so many things to control.

Click HERE to see the video of its first flight. It's 8 minutes long, but pretty cool.

The inconvenient truth

After all the publicity that the recently released Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change summary of its upcoming report on how man is causing global warming, you'd think that the sky is falling. However, in it's most recent editorial, National Review Online has actually done a little research and comparison with the last such report released by the IPCC in 2001. NRO's take on it is quite a bit different than what the media frenzy this past week would have you believe.

The shock, however, is that the latest summary contains very little that was not in the IPCC’s last report, in 2001. Moreover, what is new represents a pullback from the gloomier claims of 2001. Notwithstanding the authors’ bold assertion of 95-percent confidence that human activity influences global warming, it appears from this short summary of the full 1,400-page report — which, inexplicably, the IPCC won’t release until May — that there has been only slight progress over the past five years in refining our climate models and resolving key uncertainties acknowledged in the last report.

Gone from the latest summary is the infamous “hockey stick” of the 2001 report. This was a graphic purporting to show that the planet is warmer today than at any time in the last thousand years, a demonstration which required erasing the inconvenient medieval warm period and the little ice age. The new IPCC report has also reduced its estimate of the human influence on warming by one-third (though this change was not flagged for the media, so few if any news accounts took notice of it). That reduction is one reason the IPCC narrowed the range of predicted future warming, and lowered the new midpoint — i.e., the most likely prediction of temperature increase — by a half degree, from 3.5 degrees Celsius in 2001 to 3 degrees in this report. The new assessment also cuts in half the range of predicted sea-level rise over the next century. Now the maximum prediction is about 17 inches, as compared with the 20 to 30 feet Al Gore dramatizes in his horror film. (Which truths are inconvenient now?) There are murmurs from the green warriors that the new report is a disappointment, and no wonder.

Interesting that the IPCC released the summary so far ahead of releasing the actual report. Call me cynical, but methinks that by releasing the summary with such Chicken Little drama, the IPCC is hoping that no one will actually pay attention to what the report says. The IPCC has achieved its desired effect, which is to put politics in front of science in an attempt to get politicians to make a knee-jerk, shallow-minded reaction in their never-ending quest to appease the voting masses.

GO BEARS!!!

BEARS 31 COLTS 21

Black History Month

LaShawn Barber has a great column at The Examiner.com which suggests that instead of focusing on the past and the wrongs that were committed against blacks, let's look at the state of blacks now and work to strengthen the black family. Barber examines the life of the man who began the observance of Black History Month, Carter G. Woodson. And then she asks what he'd think if he saw the state of black society today.

First, I believe Woodson would be appalled by the rate of black-on-black crime. Black men kill other black men at disproportionate rates. At 13 percent of the U.S. population, blacks commit more than half the reported murders. White lynch mobs from back in the day have got nothing on modern day black thugs, who make sport out of preying on their own people.

Second, Woodson would shake his head in disbelief at the devastating collapse of the black family, caused by immorality, not white racism. In 1963, more than 70 percent of black families were headed by married couples. In 2005, 35 percent of black children were living with two parents, compared to 84 percent of Asian children, 76 percent of white children, and 65 percent of Hispanic children.

Seventy percent of black boys in the criminal justice system come from single-parent homes. Fatherlessness is correlated with criminality, poverty and low academic achievement. Fatherless children are more likely to beget fatherless children — and the cycle continues.

Third, the institutionalized and deeply ingrained system of government-mandated lowered standards for blacks would infuriate Woodson. Born in 1875 during Reconstruction to a poor family with nine children, Woodson couldn’t attend school regularly because he had to work to help support the family.

After years of working and going to school when he could, the son of former slaves received a B.A. in literature and became a teacher. He studied at the Sorbonne University in Paris, received a master’s from the University of Chicago in 1908, and a Ph.D. in history from Harvard University in 1912 — all accomplished without race preferences.

Woodson would be ashamed, I’d imagine, to see blacks advocating race preferences and fighting to maintain the position that blacks cannot be expected to compete with people of other races.

He would be deeply disappointed to hear them tell the world that blacks living in the greatest country in the world are the weakest people in the world, unable to achieve anything without the help of a patronizingly paternal central government.

The key phrase was that the collapse of the black family has been caused by "immorality, not white racism." By saying that, Barber forces blacks to take responsibility for their own failings and doesn't let them blame someone else. It's always easier to blame someone else for your own screwups. But in the end, God calls each of us to account for our own lives and won't accept "but look at what they did to me" as an answer.