Happy New Year!

I wish all of my faithful readers a happy and prosperous 2006 and all of the years after that.

+Photi

Slavery Is Not Just for Home

The murderers who run the most oppressive country in the world, North Korea, have figured out how to enslave their "citizens" even when they are outside of the DPRK. How? Sell your "citizens" as slaves, that's how.

The Seattle Times: Nation & World: North Korea exporting workers into lives of slavery

ZELEZNA, Czech Republic -— The old schoolhouse stands alone at the end of a quiet country road flanked by snow-flecked wheat fields. From behind the locked door, opaque with smoked glass, come the clatter of sewing machines and, improbably, the babble of young female voices speaking Korean.

The schoolhouse, which closed long ago for lack of students in this village of 200, is now a factory producing uniforms. Almost all the workers are North Korean, and the women initially looked delighted to see visitors. It gets lonely working out here, thousands of miles from home. They crowded around to chat.

"I'm not so happy here. There is nobody who speaks my language. I'm so far from home," volunteered a tentative young woman in a T-shirt and sweatpants who said she was from Pyongyang, the North Korean capital.

But as she spoke, an older woman with stern posture and an expressionless face - a North Korean security official - passed by in the corridor. The young women scattered wordlessly and disappeared into another room, closing and bolting the door behind them.

Hundreds of young North Korean women are working in garment and leather factories like this one, easing a labor shortage in small Czech towns. Their presence in this new member of the European Union is an echo of North Korea's former alliance with other Communist countries.

The North Korean government keeps most of the earnings, apparently one of the few legal sources of hard currency for an isolated and impoverished regime living off counterfeiting, drug trading and weapons sales.

Experts estimate 10,000 to 15,000 North Koreans are working abroad on behalf of their government in jobs ranging from nursing to construction work. North Korea has sent workers to Russia, Libya, Bulgaria, Saudi Arabia and Angola, in addition to the Czech Republic, defectors say.

Government account

Almost the entire monthly salaries of the women here, about $260, the Czech minimum wage, are deposited directly in an account controlled by the North Korean government, which gives them only a fraction of the money.

To the extent that they are allowed outside in this village 20 miles west of Prague, they go only in groups. Often they are accompanied by a guard from the North Korean Embassy who is referred to as their "interpreter." They live under strict surveillance in dormitories with photographs of North Korea's late founder Kim Il Sung and current leader Kim Jong Il gracing the walls. Their only entertainment is propaganda films and newspapers sent from North Korea, and occasional exercise in the yard outside.

Slaves living in a prison. The government of the Czech Republic has closed its eyes to the problem. According to them, all of the paperwork for these women is in order and no laws are being broken, so there is no problem.

And, it's not just the Czech Republic.

Many in Russia

By far the largest number of North Koreans working outside their country are in Russia, where they do mostly logging and construction in military-style camps run by the North Korean government.

When the camps were set up in the early 1970s, the workers were North Korean prisoners. But as the North Korean economy disintegrated in the late 1980s, doing hard labor in Siberia came to be seen as a reward because at least it meant getting adequate food.

That's right, the advantage of being a slave, for a North Korean, is the ability to get sufficient food.

Having just so recently experienced Communist slavery themselves, these governments should be ashamed.

USS Ohio Completes Sea Trials (Sort Of)

Here is the long awaited USS Ohio (SSGN 726) Sea Trials post.

First, in answer to bubblehead's question, I don't know. I was still busy wrapping up a test form and didn't even know they put that broom up until I read his post. I am guessing that his first initial is "C" and his last one is "O".

Were I crewmember I would be mighty embarassed. And, no, there was not a "clean sweep of the testing". Some tests remain outstanding. In fact, I think that I am either the only, or one of very few, test engineers who did complete all assigned tests.

For the most part everything works well. The boat itself is as safe as a submarine can be, having successfully completed all of the propulsion and hull integrity test (speed runs, crash backs, deep dives, etc.). Navigation systems work as advertised. The torpedo and sonar systems work too. Other weapons systems look good so far, but there is still a modernization period to get through.

Those racks in SOF berthing in Missile Compartment, 2nd platform, port, are terrible. The inboard racks are not too bad, but the outboard ones are completely closed off. To get into one you have to hoist yourself in the end feet first (if in the lower or middile racks), or head first (if in the top rack). There are no handholds to lift yourself up with. The middle rack guy has it the worst, not high enough to climb up to, to high to raise both feet into simultaneously. And then the coefficient of friction between clothing and bed linen (serious wedgie problem). Seeing a 250 - 300 pound Navy SEAL do this is going to be fun (need to get video).

There are still a few rough edges to work out. The new variable ballast capability is not working quite as planned and will need adjustment. This is nothing like a show stopper. This fix will be plenty doable.

Other capabilities await testing as development continues. SACS technology will continue to advance. It works perfectly now. I was a crewmember of USS Georgia (SSGN 729) during Silent Hammer and have video of a SACS being successfully released. It hasn't been released from a post-conversion ship yet, but there will be no problem. These are released from flexible payload modules that are inserted into the missile tube and capable of carrying more than one SACS at a time. The tomahawks are in removable cannisters in many of the tubes. The result is a massively reconfigurable ship (yes, ship). The payloads for the SACS are still to be refined.

The time is coming soon when we will have this ship actually going out on missions. While there is still Trident weeniehood onboard, it will decline quickly under pressure of actual missions. How that will affect Trident weaniehood at Squadron is anybody's guess.

At $440 million per copy, you the taxpayer are getting what is probably the most important addition to our defense capability in several decades, and a good deal.

The ship has been delivered to the Navy.

Presbyterians Enable Jihadis

Cedarkirk Camp and Conference Center is a part of, and the responsibility of the Presbyterian Church (USA).

Cedarkirk is a year round camp and conference center owned by the Presbyteries of Tampa Bay and Peace River. It is located on the Alafia River within 170 acres of woodlands, wetlands, and uplands. Cedarkirk is dedicated to providing a place for individuals and groups to have the opportunity for spiritual renewal and growth in a natural environment.

FrontPage Magazine has a little about the kind of "spiritual renewal and growth", being offered; A New Year’s Jihad Retreat

Watching the ball drop, twirling a noisemaker, kissing your sweetheart, and making a resolution that rarely comes to pass -- everyone looks forward to the memory of a new year. But one group will be ringing in the New Year a little differently…through a children’s jihad retreat, with a guest speaker who exalts terrorists and another who is linked to al-Qaeda.

The majority of Islamic organizations within the United States have, at one time or another, been cited for their connections to terrorism, whether by support of terror groups or through actual terrorist activity carried out by its members. Two of those organizations, the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) and the Muslim American Society (MAS) have been working together putting on joint conferences. As stated in the New York Daily News (January 30, 2004), the organizations "have held conferences featuring speakers accused of terror ties and have published material supporting suicide bombings against Israel."

Both ICNA and MAS stress the need for providing forums for Muslim youth. ICNA, in order to address this "need," has created an apparatus called Young Muslims (YM). Likewise, MAS has established its own Youth Division. Through the two groups, children can learn the tenets of radical Islam by attending winter and summer camps.

Prior to 9/11, the camps would be referred to as "Jihad Camps," but given the greater meaning of the term (holy war), why attract more attention than what’s necessary? Today, though, while the name has changed, the same radical message is taught. In YM Newsletter Issue 3 (2002/2003), Young Muslims extols the virtues of the works of Osama bin Laden’s mentor, Abdullah Azzam. According to YM Newsletter Issue 4 (2003), one of its goals is to assist in outreach "designed to call people to Islam, strengthen their belief in it, and organize them to work and to wage jihad in its cause."

From December 31st of this year through January 2nd, the Tampa chapter of MAS will be launching a new camp, or as they put it, an 'ILM & TARBIYAH RETREAT. Taking place in Lithia, Florida, at the Cedarkirk Camp & Conference Center, the theme of the event is "A Generation with a Mission." That title is a little more subdued than the YM August 2002 "Planning for Our Akhira (afterlife)," but make no mistake, the speakers are just as extreme.

Featured at the "retreat" is the former President of MAS-Chicago, Chantal Carnes. Carnes is well known in the radical Islamist American community; she has given speeches at such venues as ICNA, MAS and Muslim Students Association (MSA) conventions. In addition to being a lecturer, she has also hosted a radio program for the Islamic Broadcasting Network (IBN). Each half-hour program was spent reviewing a different book.

On the occasion of July 22, 2003, Carnes and a guest had reviewed the title 'Imam Shaheed Hassan Al-Banna - From Birth to Martyrdom.' During the show, she lathered Al-Banna, the founder of the violent Muslim Brotherhood, with praise. She stated, "Every movement I can think of – every organization I can think of – in a way or another, is tracing back to what he started." She said he had "inspired" her, and that "His life was captivating." She said she liked "the fact that he was a shaheed (martyr)," and that she was going to model Al-Banna’s "personal development" with that of her own.

According to former federal prosecutor John Loftus, "Al Banna was a devout admirer of Adolph Hitler and wrote to him frequently. So persistent was he in his admiration of the new Nazi Party that in the 1930’s, Al-Banna and the Muslim Brotherhood became a secret arm of Nazi intelligence."

Liberal Protestant "Christianity" has gone completely off of the rails. After years of openly expressed Judenhass, now we have open support of Islamic jihad and the murder of Americans and Jews. Of course, the Presbyterians will not say those words, but if they think that they can permit the teaching of jihad without teaching the murder of innocents, they are very wrong.

Why is a suppossedly Christian Church (I am a FORMER member and now deny that they are indeed Christians) teaching Islamic jihad?

Liberal hatred of Americans and Jews, that's why.

President Bush Caused Earthquake in Iran

Once again the liberals are on to us.

Could US have caused the Iran earthquake?

Read and enjoy.

Another Fundraiser?

The kidnapping of Giuliana Sgrena is now strongly believed to have been set up to raise money for Iraqi terrorists. Many at commenters at LGF believe the same about the four "Christian" hostages still in being "held".

The Great Michelle Malkin writes of German Moonbat Susanne Ostroff, who thanks her "kidnappers" and does not hold them to be criminal. Having been released after getting the terror-supporting German government to pay "ransom" she is returning to her "captors".

This was just another fundraiser for the terrorists.

Kim Jong Il Losing Control - News is Leaking In

The Murderer-Freak of North Korea and his misnamed Worker's Party seem to be having a little trouble keeping information out of the prison camp country. He and his equally murderous father have, for decades, been trying to convince the inmates that they are living in a prosperity that no other country in the world has, this while living in famine that has killed millions. Kim is now finding it difficult to maintain this lie.

North Korea fights to stop spread of outside influences

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA - Watching foreign movies clouds the mental and ideological health of the people.

Foreign hairstyles and clothing are signs of the "utterly rotten bourgeois lifestyle."

Shaking hands should be avoided in favor of bowing, as it is more hygienic and a part of the national culture.

It might sound like a cross between Miss Manners and a political screed, but this is the advice recently crafted by North Korea's ruling Workers' Party for indoctrination lectures at factories, collective farms and other workplaces.

For decades, North Koreans have been forced to attend such sessions to reinforce the national doctrine that they are lucky to live under the wise leadership of Kim Il Sung, the nation's founder, and his son, Kim Jong Il, who inherited power after his father's death in 1994.

More than 100 pages of written lectures smuggled out of North Korea this year reveal that the leadership is in a state of near-hysteria about outside influences seeping across the nation's once hermetically sealed borders. The spread of "unusual lifestyles," the lectures warn listeners, could render them "incapable of following revolutionary thoughts and sacrificing their lives" for Kim.

So, what has caused this crack in the wall?

But in the past several years, trade between North Korea and China has surged, much of it not approved by North Korea's leaders. Along with food and consumer goods, traders smuggle in DVDs, tapes, books and Bibles, radios and mobile phones. Once taboo, T-shirts with English lettering are pouring into North Korean markets from Chinese garment factories.

The regime fears not only material critical of the nation but depictions of other countries that would make North Koreans realize how poor they are in comparison.

The people are beginning to protest. The penalty for this is the firing squad. [includes a video link]

About "Munich"

The plaque (note the pebbles on top in a traditional sign of mourning) at the door to the apartment building where the Israeli Olympic team lived reads:

The Israeli team lived in this building during the 20th Olympic games from 21st August until 5th September 1972. On 5th September the following were brutally killed...

David Berger, Seew Friedman, Josef Gutfreund, Elieser Halfin, Josef Romano, Amizur Shapira, Kehat Shorr, Mark Slavin, Andre Spitzer, Jaakow Springer, Mosche Weinberger

To their remembrance.

Judith Weiss has been collecting information and writing about Steven Spielberg's new movie. Her collection includes this Washington Post piece. The effort at moral equivalence could not be more clearly stated:

McCurry met with Spielberg in early 2004, and outlined the issues. "Anytime you're dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian question, it tends to be a zero-sum game. People believe if one side wins, the other side loses." The movie, he told producers, required "unique positioning and a nontraditional launch." [In order to avoid saying that the terrorists are bad and the Israelis are good, both must be good. - ed.]

To that end, McCurry recruited Middle East peace negotiator Dennis Ross for a series of high-brow advance screenings and panel discussions in New York and Washington for leading policy experts, academics, diplomats, politicians and press. The goal: to drive home the point that Spielberg didn't try to spin the story in favor of one side or the other, and to inject the film into the current debate about the appropriate response to terrorism.

There is hope that Spielberg's Leftism™™ will produce a beneficial reaction as people begin to look into it themselves. Judith writes:

What I do hope is that the film will be a catalyst for the kind of fact-gathering I've tried to do here, so that more people will learn the true story, how reprehensible the Palestinian terrorists and their European enablers were and are, and how the decades of global rationalizing of terrorism set the stage for 9-11 and Iran's nuclear threat.

I hope so too. Go read Judith's piece.

Also, I would surely hate to see any of my hard-earned money contribute to Mr. Spielberg's inability to see the difference between killing athletes and killing terrorists, so I don't think I'll be wasting any on this self-aggandizement movie.

Happy Hanukkah

For all of my Jewish friends, I hope that you have a blessed Hanukkah.

For all of my friends who know nothing of Hanukkah, it started last night. Here are some links that explain the holiday.

How We Celebrate Hanukkah (remember to click the links in the sidebar)

The History of Hanukkah from The History Channel

Or search Google with Hanukkah

For Unto Us a Child is Born...

The Nativity of Jesus the Christ

¹In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be enrolled. ²This was the first enrollment, when Quirin'ius was governor of Syria. ³And all went to be enrolled, each to his own city. ⁴And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David,
⁵to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. ⁶And while they were there, the time came for her to be delivered. ⁷And she gave birth to her first-born son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

⁸And in that region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. ⁹And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. ¹⁰And the angel said to them, "Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people; ¹¹for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. ¹²And this will be a sign for you: you will find a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger." ¹³And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,
¹⁴"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased!"

¹⁵When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us." ¹⁶And they went with haste, and found Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. ¹⁷And when they saw it they made known the saying which had been told them concerning this child; ¹⁸and all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them.
¹⁹But Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart. ²⁰And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.



Encyclical of Archbishop Demetrios for the Feast of the Nativity 2005

To all of my dear and faithful readers, I wish you a very merry Christmas and the happiest and most prosperous of new years.

Universal Greetings

I promised a submarine sea trials post, and you shall have one. But first I wanted to share this delightful holiday greeting that I received in my email at work.

For Our Liberal Friends:

"Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all.

I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2006, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great. Not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere. And without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee.

By accepting these greetings you are accepting these terms. This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for herself or himself or others, and is void where prohibited by law and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher.

This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher."

**********************************************************************

For Our Conservative Friends:

Here's wishing all of You a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

To all of you, my faithful readers, I wish you only the merriest of Christmasses and the happiest of holidays.

Sea Trials Are Done

Thank you for stopping by and reading while I was away. As you can see, I have returned home. I will post an unclassified report soon. All of you submariners out there know already that that means that I will not be able to say too much about the status of some of the news systems, but I'll give you what I am able.

Business Takes Me Away Again

I will be gone for a little over a week to complete USS Ohio's sea trials. I cannot tell you when exactly I am coming or going, but when I get back I will post an unclassified report.

In the meanwhile, remember those who love you and take care of them. You will not have them forever. See my previous post.

God bless all of you.

A Man and His Dog

A man and his dog were walking along a road. The man was enjoying the scenery, when it suddenly occurred to him that he was dead. He remembered dying, and that his faithful dog had been dead for many years. He wondered where the road was leading them. After a while, they came to a high, white stone wall along one side of the road. It looked like fine marble. As he reached the wall, he saw a magnificent gate in the arch, and the street that led to the gate made from pure gold. He and the dog walked toward the gate, and as he got closer, he saw a man at a desk to one side.

When he was close enough, he called out, "Excuse me, where are we?"

"This is heaven, sir," the man answered.

"Wow! Would you happen to have some water? We have traveled far," the man said.

"Of course, sir. Come right in, and I'll have some ice water brought right up."

The man gestured, and the gate began to open.

"Can my friend," gesturing toward his dog, "come in, too?" the traveler asked.

"I'm sorry, sir, but we don't accept pets."

The man thought a moment, remembering all the years this dog remained loyal to him and then turned back toward the road and continued the way he had been going. After another long walk he came to a plain dirt road, which led through a farm gate that looked as if it had never been closed. There was no fence. As he approached the gate, he saw a man inside, leaning against a tree and reading a book.

"Excuse me!" he called to the reader. "Do you have any water? We have traveled far."

"Yes, sure, there's a faucet over there." The man pointed to a place that couldn't be seen from outside the gate. "Come on in and help yourself."

"How about my friend here?" the traveler gestured to his dog.

"There should be a bowl by the faucet; he is welcome to share."

They went through the gate, and sure enough, there was an old-fashioned faucet with a bowl beside it. The traveler filled the bowl and took a long drink himself, then he gave some to the dog. When they were full, he and the dog walked back toward the man who was standing by the tree waiting for them.

"What do you call this place?" the traveler asked.

"This is heaven," was the answer.

"Well, that's confusing," the traveler said. "The man down the road said that was heaven, too."

"Oh, you mean the place with the gold street and pearly gates? Nope. That's hell."

"Doesn't it make you mad for them to use your name like that?"

"No. We're just happy that they screen out the folks who'd leave their best friends behind in exchange for material things."

Author Unknown

********************************************************

My best friend preceded me to Heaven this morning. Her name is Cocoa, and she was God's most perfect creature. She tried to be human and for the most part succeeded, I'll write some stories about that later. The first thing that comes to mind is her efforts to speak as a human speaks. I have never heard a dog do that before. Of course she couldn't do it, but her efforts were unmistakable.

During one of my deployments my wife became seriously ill. Cocoa knew this and took care of her while I was gone. I am convinced that she save my wife's life. Every morning she would ensure that my wife would wake up during a time when that may well have not happened. She was aggressive and would not let up until my wife was awake.

Everyone who ever met her loved her immediately. Even the emergency animal hospital, on one night two weeks ago when we had to rush her there stopped in the middle of the night to take a group picture with her. They had never seen her before and normally an animal's presence would have been just business. Not with Cocoa.

She was truly extraordinary.

As I write this we are having a wake for her at home while we wait to take her to the crematory. Our other dog, Niko, needs to know why she is now gone. This is not as silly as it may seem. Canine societies are well structured and dogs know, and, to some extent, mourn, when one of their members passes on. This according to the most recent animal psychological research.

Her body is in her bed at my feet, and I am weeping. She was God's most perfect creature and she was my daughter.

It was a privilege to have her live in my house for 11 years, since she was 8 weeks old, and proof that God loves me.

Playing With Wild Animals

Timothy Treadwell thought that grizzly and Alaskan brown bears are cute and cuddly. He took his girlfriend, Amie Huguenard, with him to Alaska to go play with them. They both learned that this is not a good idea. Wild animals are, after all, wild. When around wild animals one should not act irresponsibly.

Anti-American liberals are now learning the same thing. Dr. Rusty Shackleford has it at The Jawa Report.

Hostage Video Released, Hostages Identified

Breitbat.com has the news story, Video Shows Four Activists Held in Iraq;

Christian Peacemaker Teams issued a statement saying the four were working on behalf of Iraqi civilians. The group said it has had a team in Iraq since October 2002, working with U.S. and Iraqi detainees and training others in nonviolent intervention and human rights documentation.

Kember and another person were part of a visiting delegation, while two members of the group's Iraq-based staff also were taken, the statement said.

The group said on its Web site that it was founded in the mid-1980s and is supported by Mennonite Church USA, Mennonite Church Canada, Church of the Brethren and Friends United Meeting.

It places teams of trained peacemakers in crisis situations and militarized areas, and those teams work with civilians to document abuses and develop nonviolent alternatives to war.

The group said the team in Iraq was working on documenting detainee abuses, referring Iraqis to human rights organizations and accompanying Iraqi civilians as they interact with coalition troops and Iraqi government officials [no doubt to ensure that the evil Americans and their usurper puppets would not take them to a secret prison somewhere - ed.].

These leftists probably believed that because they hate the U.S. the terrorists freedom fighters would like them and leave them alone. While it does not lessen the tragedy of their impending deaths, they were acting irresponsibly.

UPDATE:
The commenters at Little Green Footballs think that, like the kidnapping of Giuliana Sgrena, this one is staged.

North Korea is Wronged?

It seems that the execution video shown on CNN, and posted on this blog, was fake (at least according to that highly honest and credible government of the DPRK and its Dear Freak).

N.Korea says CNN execution image fabricated

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea on Saturday called a recent CNN program depicting a public execution in the communist state a "sheer fabrication" and dismissed it as a ratings ploy by the U.S.-based broadcaster.

North Korea takes any criticism of its internal affairs sensitively and brands it a part of U.S. conspiracy to topple the government of its leader, Kim Jong-il.

CNN earlier this month broadcast a documentary, "Undercover in the Secret State," which among other images showed a grainy clip of what it called a public execution by firing squad of a man accused of helping a refugee cross into neighboring China.

The entire smuggled video does not seem to be on the internet any more, but I posted a link to a part of it that the AP streams here.

Here is a more complete version (the AP one was cut).

Then there is this, North Korean Escapees: Public Executions Routine in Stalinist Country:

YANJI, CHINA. Hungry and Stalinist North Korea keeps its' people under firm grip with public executions and a wide network of informants and prison camps, people who escaped from the country to China, human rights organizations and various news publications say. According to the interviews with nine North Korean escapees, the public executions have become routine in their country.

The North Koreans told in the Chinese city of Yanji, that the executed ones are often first beaten up to a near-dead condition, their elbows, knees and ankles are crushed, which after they are tied to a pole and shot before a firing squad.

"Their eyes, hands, middle bodies and feet are tied. Then they shoot them in every place," tells a teenager girl, who says that altogether ten shots are being fired. She estimates to have eye-witnessed 15 executions.

A 30-year-old man tells in another interview situation, that there are nine shots. International Herald Tribune interviewed one year ago a man, who said that for each person there are three soldiers, who all shoot three times - one in the head, the other one in the chest and third one in the stomach. That testimony is in line with the information gathered in Yanji.

All of the interviewed said they had seen several public executions. "At least twenty", a middle-aged woman says. Also children are invited to come and see the executions, the North Koreans say.

"For the first time, I saw the execution from far distance. I got nightmares. But I was told, that if I look nearer, it won't come to my dreams. So, next time I went very close and it helped. I don't see dreams about it any more," explains a woman in her thirties.

If this story is just CNN's attempt to garner ratings, it seems a bit widespread.

Those of you who are regular readers know that public executions are not the worst of it. Read these posts;

North Korea's GULAG

North Korea's GULAG Pt. 2

Who is Ahn Chol?

Oppression of Christians in the DPRK

Yep, little murderer freak Kim and his misunderstood tyranny. There is a special place in Hell for him and all who give him aid and/or comfort.

UPDATE: The video links above no longer work. There is this on You Tube

Burmese Government Withdraws to Jungle

The Generals who run the government of Burma have, for various reasons which we can only guess, moved the capital of the country into the jungle. This is a central location which will enable them to better control the tribes further north.

Government on the run;

Burma's top generals have finally begun their planned move to the hills North of Rangoon. For months Rangoon had been rife with rumours that the country's military rulers were planning to retreat to the hills in central Burma because of fears of a foreign invasion from the sea. This week deputy ministers have begun the major shift to the new government centre at Pyinmana.

More than two weeks ago the deputy interior minister cleared his desk in the ministry building ready to move. He is now installed in his newly completed offices, according to Burmese government sources. The ministers apparently are remaining in Rangoon for the time being and are slated to move by the end of the year.

Ten ministries have been relocated this week, including the interior, agriculture, forestry and power ministries. The government's Central Bureau of Statistics is also being transferred out of Rangoon. The second phase will begin at the start of next month follow by a further move at the beginning of January.

This is the start of a mass relocation of the Burmese government and military headquarters out of Rangoon. According to the blue-prints for the new complex, it is actually going to replace Rangoon as the country's capital.

"This is typical of Than Shwe's pretensions to be the new Burmese monarch. Like all the Burmese kings before him he is building a new palace-capital for posterity," according to a senior Burmese analyst, Win Min based in Thailand.

Burma's military rulers are preparing to relocate the country's centre of government inland for safety reasons, according to diplomats and government officials in Rangoon.

The military's headquarters, government ministries and the new parliament are all scheduled to be moved to an inland location within the next twelve months in what many in Burma are now calling "Escape City".

I'm not sure it's all about safety, although when you're paranoid I suppose everything is about safety.

The US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 reinforced the top generals' fear that the US might attack Burma, according to analysts. Burma's military strategists have long argued that the country's defences were vulnerable to an attack from the sea. Burma's top generals have always suffered from a siege mentality. "Than Shwe has a bunker mentality, and when he's completely secure he'll launch his offensives," according to the Burmese analyst, Win Min. "But a key strategic drawback of the site is its lack of access to the sea, it is not close to a port," he added.

Many analysts believe that the move is also intended to give the regime better access to the frontier areas, especially the Chin, Karen, Kayah and Shan where most ethnic groups with ceasefire pacts with Rangoon are strong.

"Although the ethnic organisations have ceasefire agreements with the junta, the top generals remain highly suspicious of the ethnic groups and want to be in a better position to control them if they need to," said Win Min. [selection edited for punctuation only - ed.]

The Indians Spoke Arabic!

I arrived home early, but must leave again in several days. Anyway, just for Thanksgiving, here is this;

Lebanese Cleric Abd Al-Karim Fadhlallah: When Columbus Reached America, He Encountered Arabic-Speaking Natives

Fadhlallah: The Arabic language, 200 years ago, was a universal language. It's interesting to note that when Christopher Columbus went to America, in what language did he speak with the Indians? It is said that the language they spoke with the Indians – and I have indisputable documentation of this at home... The intellectuals among the Indians spoke Arabic. He took two Arabs with him, to serve as interpreters between the Spaniards and the Indians. He took two of them as translators. So you can imagine the historic and cultural value of Arabic. It's undoubtedly very important.

I'll bet you didn't know that.

Business Takes Me Away

But I'll be back in about two weeks.

NARKN

The National Association for the Rescue of Japanese Kidnapped by North Korea (NARKN) has a web site, the link to which I have added to the sidebar.

In their Updates section, they have this;

NARKN News 2005.11.09

As he promised to the AFVKN and NARKN delegation on 27th October, US Congressman Henry Hyde, Chairman of the House International Relations Committee, has just sent a following letter to Park Gil-Yon, North Korean Ambassador to the UN, urging immediate resolution of the abduction issue.

We appreciate this strong warning message from a leading political figure in the United States towards a tyrannical regime.


PDF file is here.

Good for the House International Relations Committe and Congressman Henry Hyde.

The Multi-Cultural DPRK

It seems that the North Korean government likes to kidnap people from all over the world. I have written many times in this blog about the abduction of Japanese nationals by agents of the DPRK. We have known for a long time about the kidnapping of hundreds, and possible thousands of South Korean nationals by North Korean agents. Know we have this; Evidence grows that Thai woman abducted to North Korea

Hong Kong (dpa) - The memoirs of a U.S. army deserter have added weight to the theory that three young women who went missing 27 years ago in Macau were spirited away to North Korea, a news report said Sunday.

The trio - Thai masseuse Anocha Panjoy and jewellery shop assistants Hong Leng-ieng and So Mio-chun - have not been seen since the evening July 2, 1978, after they accepted a dinner invitation from a wealthy Japanese man who called himself Mr Fukoda.

At the time it was thought the women could have been abducted and forced into prostitution or murdered on the high seas after being enticed on board ships.

However in his recently published memoirs, American Charles Jenkins, who spent 39 years in North Korea after deserting his unit in 1965, claimed to have met Thai national Anocha Panjoy during his time there.

Jenkins says he knew her well because she was married to fellow deserter Larry Abshier who died of a heart attack in 1983. He also produced a photograph of a beach scene with a woman in the background he claimed was Anocha.

In his book Kokuhaku (To Tell the Truth) he says he believed there were abductees from all over the world in North Korea.

The BBC has the news as well; N Korea 'kidnapped Thai woman'

Thailand's government is investigating claims that a Thai woman missing since 1978 was kidnapped by North Korean agents and is now living there.

Relatives of the woman, Anocha Panjoy, were alerted to her possible fate by an article written by a US man who recently left North Korea.

Pyongyang has already "informally denied" abducting the woman, said Thai Foreign Minister Kantathi Suphamongkon.

And this should be interesting;

The North Korean charge d'affaires to Thailand, Kim Chol-nam will discuss [lie about, ed.] the case with Nopadol Gunavibool, director general of the East Asia Department at the Foreign Ministry, later this week, according to the Bangkok Post.

It is unbelievable to me that there are Westerners, particularly Americans, who support this monsterous regime. See this, and this, and this.

Is It Possible to Lie More Openly?

Our Leftist Fifth Column wants to overthrow our Constitutionally elected government.

The World Can't Wait - Drive Out the Bush Regime

Every one of their basic statements is a lie.

Your government, on the basis of outrageous lies, is waging a murderous and utterly illegitimate war in Iraq, with other countries in their sights.
No one lied. There were many valid reasons to take Saddam down, WMD being only one. Everyone left™ and right thought he had them. To say that he never did, as the Left™ now does begs the question, what about Halabja? I suppose those thousands of people just had a bad mass allergy.

Your government is openly torturing people, and justifying it.
We are not openly torturing anyone. Sleep deprivation and loud music are not torture. Oh, and ripping up Korans is not torture either.

Your government puts people in jail on the merest suspicion, refusing them lawyers, and either holding them indefinitely or deporting them in the dead of night.
If this idiot is writing about capturing illegal combatants on the battlefield, or nabbing people as they are caught trying to carry out terrorist acts is not "the merest suspicion". People found to be arrested in error are released.

Your government is moving each day closer to a theocracy, where a narrow and hateful brand of Christian fundamentalism will rule.
Beneath discussion. And this idiot writes this in support of people who wish to impose a totalitarian Islamic Caliphate on all of us.

Your government suppresses the science that doesn't fit its religious, political and economic agenda, forcing present and future generations to pay a terrible price.
When?, Where?

Your government is moving to deny women here, and all over the world, the right to birth control and abortion.
How is this happening? Oh, it's not. Actually this would be impossible. Even assuming that we could get soft-headed American judges to rule against abortion, it is so popular in Europe that NO WESTERN EUROPEAN COUNTRY IS REPRODUCING AT REPLACEMENT LEVELS.

Your government enforces a culture of greed, bigotry, intolerance and ignorance.
Opinion, and an idiotic one at that.

People look at all this and think of Hitler and they are right to do so. The Bush regime is setting out to radically remake society very quickly, in a fascist way, and for generations to come. We must act now; the future is in the balance.

It is interesting that, in the cause of "freedom" they have no respect for elections. They accuse the President of wishing to set up a fascistic dictatorship when, in fact, it is they who wish to overturn an election and impose some other government. They are hypocrites and worse than despicable.

Read the list of endorsers. It is very interesting.

Anti-Americanism in South Korea

My hatred for the government of North Korea does not translate to support of an American military presence in South Korea. That force is so small that it would be little more than a speed bump during a North Korean invasion of South Korea, and they know that. While it would be exceptionally tragic for South Korea to be defeated in war and be governed by the murderers of North Korea, it would be better to preserve our forces in Japan to be used later, after the initial thrust of the DPRK, rather than lose them in a diplomatic and political exercise. As it stands now, our troops are there as an act of generosity to the people and government of South Korea. In fact, they are a hindrance to our ability to negotiate freely with the North Korean government because they are basically hostages to the murderer freak-boy Kim Jong-Il. The only benefit to the South Koreans is business. Most of which still want our money.

It is time for us to go. Perhaps the world will learn something by watching what happens to South Korea once we leave. Western liberals and their leftist™ fellow travelers will celebrate, but their cruelty will be fully revealed. Ironically the defeat of South Korea would aid in the struggle against them elsewhere.

joshua has the story and pictures at onefreekorea

Signs of the Times: So This Is Why I Spent Four Years in Korea

The (now former) Korean Ambassador to the U.S., Hong Seok-hyun, disputes this.

Hong attributed such conceptions to an insufficient under- standing of changes sweeping Korea and the world at large, and to excessive focus on trivial incidents.

One major change in Korean society was that the decision-making process has become more complex, Hong said. Now dissenters need to be convinced, and the process takes longer as the democratization of Korean society progresses.

I have to say that that is pretty lame. The people in joshua's photos were not waiting for the opportunity to be convinced of anything.

Perhaps he fears the weakening of American support for our presence there, and rightfully so.

Shiokaze

While the Japanese Government negotiates with madmen and mass murderers, a group of Japanese citizens take matters into their own hands.

Japanese to radio abductees in N. Korea

TOKYO, Oct. 27 (UPI) -- A Japanese citizens group will soon begin broadcast of a short-wave radio program for Japanese abductees living in North Korea.

The 30-minute Japanese-language program, "Shiokaze (Sea Breeze)," which will include messages from family members of abductees, will be broadcast daily at 11:30 p.m. starting in late November, the Asahi Shimbun reported Thursday.

The program will start with such messages as: "It won't be long. We will rescue you without fail." About 50 names of those believed to be held in North Korea will be announced each day.

With about 270 names on the list, the announcement of names will loop every five days.

The program also will tell listeners that many people in Japan are trying to rescue those snatched by North Korea, and that abductees should try -- with caution -- to send information to the outside world.

It is good to see the people acting independently of their government. This is a great American tradition and can only be done by people living in a free country.

More to follow on the story of Japanese (and others) abducted by North Korean agents.

It's Not Their Fault!

That's what the liberals say. From the Independent Media Center; Paris is Burning: Racism and Repression Explode in Week of Uprisings

Africans living and working in Paris have been pushed into ghettoized suburbs of Paris (banlieue), where the state has withdrawn education, health, and other services, while increasing police presence, checkpoints, raids on sans-papiers and levels of oppression in general. This week the suburbs have exploded.

The trigger came on Thursday, October 27th, 2005, as a group of 10 highschool kids were playing soccer in the Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois. When police arrived to do ID checks, the kids ran away and hid, because some of them had no ID. Three of the children hid in an electrical transformer building of EDF and were electrocuted. Two of them, Ziad Benn (17) and Banou Traoré (15), died; the third, Metin (21), was severely injured.

There it is, the fictitious "oppression" in a socialist country that does whatever it can to appease her Muslims - oh, wait! Who said they were Muslims? They are African high school kids.

On Sunday, however, provocation turned into outrage as the women's prayer room at de Bousquets mosque was teargassed by police. As people stumbled out gasping for air, the policemen called the women "whores", "bitches" and other insults.

That's right. Women peacefully at prayer (just happens to be at a mosque) were teargassed by the police for absolutely no reason at all.

Yep, just like that.

The Left™ is a Fifth Column.

European Civil War?

Charles had this yesterday from Mark Steyn's new column. I want to make one additional observation.

Ever since 9/11, I've been gloomily predicting the European powder keg's about to go up. "By 2010 we'll be watching burning buildings, street riots and assassinations on the news every night," I wrote in Canada's Western Standard back in February.

Silly me. The Eurabian civil war appears to have started some years ahead of my optimistic schedule. As Thursday's edition of the Guardian reported in London: "French youths fired at police and burned over 300 cars last night as towns around Paris experienced their worst night of violence in a week of urban unrest."

"French youths," huh? You mean Pierre and Jacques and Marcel and Alphonse? Granted that most of the "youths" are technically citizens of the French Republic, it doesn't take much time in les banlieus of Paris to discover that the rioters do not think of their primary identity as "French": They're young men from North Africa growing ever more estranged from the broader community with each passing year and wedded ever more intensely to an assertive Muslim identity more implacable than anything you're likely to find in the Middle East. After four somnolent years, it turns out finally that there really is an explosive "Arab street," but it's in Clichy-sous-Bois.

The notion that Texas neocon arrogance was responsible for frosting up trans-Atlantic relations was always preposterous, even for someone as complacent and blinkered as John Kerry. If you had millions of seething unassimilated Muslim youths in lawless suburbs ringing every major city, would you be so eager to send your troops into an Arab country fighting alongside the Americans? For half a decade, French Arabs have been carrying on a low-level intifada against synagogues, kosher butchers, Jewish schools, etc. The concern of the political class has been to prevent the spread of these attacks to targets of more, ah, general interest. They seem to have lost that battle. Unlike America's Europhiles, France's Arab street correctly identified Chirac's opposition to the Iraq war for what it was: a sign of weakness.

Liberal appeasers in the United States would have the same thing occur here.

News Blackout in Europe

NOTE: I wrote this post a couple of days ago hoping that something would change. Silly me.

The riots in France are now well covered by the MSM (for my new readers that's MainStream Media) although you may notice that they avoid a certain fact, knowledge of which is not permitted under current thought control laws.

There is other news that you are not permitted to know. The American Thinker has it.

It'’s not just Paris. Successive nights of riots have rocked parts of Århus, the second largest city in Denmark. Little to nothing has appeared in the English language press about the second front in the Eurabian intifada. Århus is home to an excellent Danish university, and is a place where I have spent some time. It is usually spelled "Aarhus" in English.

Fortunately, Hendrik, The Viking Observer, has translated in his blog a press account from Jyllands-Posten, a Danish newspaper which has been the target of Muslim protests for publishing drawings of the prophet Muhammad.. A few excerpts:

Rosenhøj Mall has several nights in a row been the scene of the worst riots in Århus for years. "This area belongs to us", the youths proclaim. Sunday evening saw a new arson attack. Their words sound like a clear declaration of war on the Danish society. Police must stay out. The area belongs to immigrants....

He calls himself 100 percent Palestinian, born in a refugee camp in Lebanon 19 years ago, and now out of work in Denmark. "The police has to stay away. This is our area. We decide what goes down here".

A civil war is coming to France, and will eventually burn across all of Europe.

Carlo Maria Giulini - Rest in Peace

This news did not get much play in the U.S., so I missed it.

Carlo Maria Maria Giulini

This man was one of the very great conductors of the 20^th Century and a huge influence on me. As child and later as a music student at Illinois Wesleyan University and then Southern Methodist University I studied his recordings to learn how to clearly interpret symphonic music.

As I hadn't heard any news of him for some time, I did an internet search on his name and discovered the above listed article.

This is a man whose musical skills dwarfed virtually all others. It is impossible to say too much about him.

When I was a First Class Petty Officer on USS Florida I had a very hard time establishing myself as a leader in my Division. I ultimately succeeded. During that time I received great solace from his recording of Beethoven's Missa Solemnis (the greatest work of music ever written). I still have memorized every tempo and every balance of every voice, even in the most densely contrapuntal sections of his recording of that very complex work. His Mahler Symphony Number 1 in D Major is my paradigm of how Mahler is to be played. There is too much to write about here. His musical thinking was formative for me.

May he rest in very well deserved peace.

Hu's On First

I don't go with the "Bush is Stupid" meme, but this arrived in my email, and it's funny.



George: Condi! Nice to see you. What's happening?

Condi: Sir, I have the report here about the new leader of China.

George: Great. Lay it on me.

Condi: Hu is the new leader of China.

George: That's what I want to know.

Condi: That's what I'm telling you.

George: That's what I'm asking you. Who is the new leader of China?

Condi: Yes.

George: I mean the fellow's name.

Condi: Hu.

George: The guy in China.

Condi: Hu.

George: The new leader of China.

Condi: Hu.

George: The main man in China!

Condi: Hu is leading China.

George: Now whaddya' asking me for?

Condi: I'm telling you, Hu is leading China.

George: Well, I'm asking you. Who is leading China?

Condi: That's the man's name.

George: That's who's name?

Condi: Yes.

George: Will you, or will you not, tell me the name of the new leader of China?

Condi: Yes, sir.

George: Yassir? Yassir Arafat is in China? I thought he's dead in the Middle East.

Condi: That's correct.

George: Then who is in China?

Condi: Yes, sir.

George: Yassir is in China?

Condi: No, sir.

George: Then who is?

Condi: Yes, sir.

George: Yassir?

Condi: No, sir.

George: Look Condi. I need to know the name of the new leader of China. Get me the Secretary General of the U.N. on the phone.

Condi: Kofi?

George: No, thanks.

Condi: You want Kofi?

George: No.

Condi: You don't want Kofi.

George: No. But now that you mention it, I could use a glass of milk. And then get me the U.N.

Condi: Yes, sir.

George: Not Yassir! The guy at the U.N.

Condi: Kofi?

George: Milk! Will you please make the call?

Condi: And call who?

George: Who is the guy at the U.N?

Condi: Hu is the guy in China.

George: Will you stay out of China?!

Condi: Yes, sir.

George: And stay out of the Middle East! Just get me the guy at the U.N.

Condi: Kofi.

George: All right! With cream and two sugars. Now get on the phone.

Europe Died in Auschwitz

The Anchoress has this as does Cartago Delenda Est. I also found this on the USENET in a post by drahcir. The original, in Spanish, is from Sebastian Vivar Rodri­guez at Gentiuno - gente del siglo XXI. The translator is unidentified.

CAUTION: The idea expressed here is illegal under current speech and thought control laws in most western countries.

Europe died in Auschwitz

I was walking along Raval (Barcelona) when all of a sudden I understood that Europe died with Auschwitz. We assassinated 6 million Jews in order to end up bringing in 20 million Muslims!

We burnt in Auschwitz the culture, intelligence and power to create. We burnt the people of the world, the one who is proclaimed the chosen people of God. Because it is the people who gave to humanity the symbolic figures who were capable of changing history (Christ, Marx, Einstein, Freud...) and who is the origin of progress and wellbeing.

We must admit that Europe, by relaxing its borders and giving in under the pretext of tolerance to the values of a fallacious cultural relativism, opened it's doors to 20 million Muslims, often illiterates and fanatics that we could meet, at best, in places such as Raval, the poorest of the nations and of the ghettos, and who are preparing the worst, such as the 9/11 and the Madrid bombing and who are lodged in apartment blocs provided by the social welfare.

We also have exchanged culture with fanaticism, the capacity to create with the will to destroy, the wisdom with the superstition. We have exchanged the transcendental instinct of the Jews, who even under the worst possible conditions have always looked for a better peaceful world, for the suicide bomber. We have exchanged the pride of life for the fanatic obsession of death. Our death and that of our children.

What a grave mistake that we made!!!

I cannot agree more.

That's Some Civil Disturbance You've Got There

For the BBC this is simply the result of an ongoing civil disturbance. "Militants" did this.

Via Little Green Footballs,

Three Indonesian girls beheaded

Three girls have been beheaded and another badly injured as they walked to a Christian school in Indonesia.

They were walking through a cocoa plantation near the city of Poso in central Sulawesi province when they were attacked.

This is an area that has a long history of religious violence between Muslims and Christians.

A government-brokered truce has only partially succeeded in reducing the number of incidents in recent years.

Police say the heads were found some distance from the bodies.

It is unclear what was behind the attack, but the girls attended a private Christian school and one of the heads was left outside a church leading to speculation that it might have had a religious motive.

For liberals and the Left™ this is merely a local disturbance. The killing of Christians for the simple fact that they are Christians is perfectly understandable to them, even if the victims (true martyrs, no bomb vests required) are schoolgirls. According to the BBC and liberals in both Europe and America, the evils ones are those such as myself who would call this what it is, Islamic terrorism and part of an Islamic movement to exterminate Christians and Jews (and Hindus - Buddhists just have to wait for a few years, but they are on the list too).

European Anti-Americanism Explained

The sea trials for USS Ohio have not occurred yet, so I have time for another post or two. I ran across this in the comments section at Little Green Footballs and thought I'd share it with you. Thanks go to Yank in the EU.

Paul Johnson nails it at Forbes.com. Anti-Americanism Is Racist Envy

Anti-Americanism is the prevailing disease of intellectuals today. Like other diseases, it doesn't have to be logical or rational. But, like other diseases, it has a syndrome--a concurrent set of underlying symptoms that are also causes.

• First, an unadmitted contempt for democracy. The U.S. is the world's most successful democracy. The right of voters to elect more than 80,000 public officials, the length and thoroughness of electoral campaigns, the pervasiveness of the media and the almost daily reports by opinion polls ensure that government and electorate do not diverge for long and that Washington generally reflects the majority opinion in its actions.

It is this feature that intellectuals--especially in Europe--find embittering. They know they must genuflect to democracy as a system. They cannot openly admit that an entire people--especially one comprising nearly 300 million, who enjoy all the freedoms--can be mistaken. But in their hearts these intellectuals do not accept the principle of one person, one vote. They scornfully, if privately, reject the notion that a farmer in Kansas, a miner in Pennsylvania or an auto assembler in Michigan can carry as much social and moral weight as they do. In fact, they have a special derogatory word for anyone who acts on this assumption: "populist." A populist is someone who accepts the people's verdict, even--and especially--when it runs counter to the intellectual consensus (as with capital punishment, for example). In the jargon of intellectual persiflage, populism is almost as bad as fascism--indeed, it's a step toward it. Hence, the argument goes, the U.S. is not so much an "educated democracy" as it is a media-swayed and interest-group-controlled populist regime.

The truth is, on the European Continent there is little experience of working democracy. Italy and Germany have had democracy only since the late 1940s; Spain, since the 1960s. France is not a democracy; it is a republic run by bureaucratic and party elites, whose errors are dealt with by strikes, street riots and blockades instead of by votes. Elements of the French system are being imposed throughout the EU, even in countries such as Denmark and Sweden that have long practiced democracy with success. In a French-style pseudodemocracy, intellectuals have considerable influence, at both government and street levels. In a true democracy, intellectuals are no more powerful than their arguments.

This is only one of three arguments that Mr. Johnson presents and really explains why the U. S. is the greatest country in the world. Go read the rest of the article for more.

I thank God that I was blessed to be born an American.

USS Ohio Sea Trials

I will not be posting for a couple of weeks. I will be leaving soon to ride USS Ohio's (SSGN 726) sea trials. Of course I cannot say when they are, but we will leave soon.

+Photi

Mission Impossible

From Mission Network News (old news, but I just found it), Faith-based groups urge the United Nations to fight bias against all faiths.

International (MNN)--It began as a quiet campaign from the Vatican, but grew to a clamor that has been picked up by Non-Government Organizations, human rights groups and Christians.

Church leaders are pushing the United Nations to recognize 'Christianophobia' as an evil equal to anti-Semitism or 'Islamophobia'. Persecution of Christians may have been heightened because of the war on terrorism, however, it has always existed.

Documentation from human rights watchdog groups details a fervent campaign in many countries to stamp out Christianity.

Baptist World Alliance's Wendy Ryan wants believers in the West to pay attention, saying it's more than a human rights issue. "If there's a lack of religious freedom in any one place, it has an impact on every place. The person in the local pew should be really concerned that if freedoms are lacking in other parts of the world, who knows? There could come a day where we might have to fight for our freedoms."
Ryan explains religious freedom, which includes the right to evangelize, is deteriorating. Take, for example, believers in places like Saudi Arabia. The Christians there are free to meet, but not to share what they believe. A similar scenario repeats itself in countries like China, Indonesia and Eritrea.

"We are mindful," Ryan says, "that there are restraints and the question then comes, if you are in a position where you are free to meet, but you are not free to openly share the Gospel, what do you do? That is a part of religious freedom, and that's something for which we also fight."

I'll write later about how some of these groups "evangelize" in countries that are already Christian (Protestant evangelizing in Russia and Eastern Europe is a sore spot with me), but any effort to fight anti-Christian (and anti-Jewish) persecution is good and very much needed. Helping in that effort is something that the United Nations will not do.

Dangerous Waters

Piracy has never gone away. Indonesian waters have long been the most pirate infested waters in the world. Now the coast of Somalia has joined Indonesia as a region for mariners to avoid. Pirates are not like the cute Jack Sparrow character played by Johnny Depp. These are human scum who know no law or morality. They usually kill everyone they come across.

There is only one cure for piracy. Every Navy in the world should be involved in killing pirates.

Pirates hijack ship off Somalia.

Pirates have seized a cargo ship off the coast of Somalia, local officials have confirmed.

They said the Maltese-registered ship, Pagania, was attacked late on Wednesday as it sailed from South Africa to Europe with a cargo of iron ore.

The hijackers are reportedly demanding a $700,000 (£394,000) ransom for the release of the ship and its crew, all believed to be Ukrainian.

More than 20 ships have been seized or attacked in the area since March.

The International Maritime Bureau - which records such attacks - has recently advised ships "to keep as far away as possible from the Somali coast".

A UN-chartered ship carrying food aid to tsunami victims in northern Somalia, the MV Semlow, was released this month, after being held by hijackers for 100 days.

See the related linked included with the article.

See also;
Murders by pirates 'on the rise'

Rise in Murders, Kidnappings at Sea Makes Piracy a Top Naval Priority Worldwide

The Nigerian naval escorts were of no help to Americans Ryne Hathaway or Denny Fowler. The pirates who attacked their boat on the Olero Creek in Nigeria's Western Delta State April 23 gunned them down, along with five Nigerians.

Armed with Kalashnikov rifles, the pirates had drawn near the Americans'’ vessel -- possibly using military-style dress as a ruse -- and demanded that the escorts throw down their arms. The escorts refused and the pirates opened fire. Hathaway and Fowler, both Texans, had gone to Nigeria in April as contractors for ChevronTexaco Corp. to assess the feasibility of resuming drilling operations that had been shut down due to escalating tribal violence.

Weeks later in the Strait of Malacca, a narrow channel between Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula notorious for violent attacks on shipping, the Indonesian transport Ikan Murni was boarded by two dozen pirates armed with automatic weapons. Waiting near Berhala Island, the pirates fired on the ship and boarded. Twelve crewmembers jumped overboard and were later picked up by local fisherman.

The pirates, believed to be Aceh separatists [who want an Islamist state, btw - ed.] in Indonesia, kidnapped the ship'’s master and another crewmember, and abandoned the ship. They demanded a substantial ransom for crewmembers'’ release, but authorities decline to say whether a ransom was paid. The owners of the Ikan Murni hired a tugboat to bring the ship back to shore, according to an account in "Tale of a Modern Pirate Gang" by piracy expert Mark Bruyneel.

Lawlessness on the High Seas

These incidents, and hundreds more like them each year, help explain why international piracy has become a top priority for military and police officials from Southeast Asia to Africa and the United States.

"The seas are unpoliced and unregulated and, therefore, attractive to those who want to exploit or abuse them," said U.S. Navy Secretary Gordon R. England. Speaking in July at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., England said, "On average, more than one ship each day is attacked, robbed, hijacked or sunk."

The effort to kill all pirates should be global. In fact there is significant international cooperation in this mission, mostly by the Americans, the Australians, the British, and others who have not given up on themselves (count the French out).

Of course, the UN in its effort to support all that is evil, covers for the pirates in the MV Semlow case, Somali pirates 'not looting aid'

The UN has denied reports from local residents that pirates who seized a ship carrying tsunami aid to Somalia have started looting the food.

"Our contacts in the region assure us that the vast bulk... of rice aboard the MV Semlow has not been taken ashore," the UN's Robert Hausser said.

Weeks of talks have failed to secure the release of the ship and its crew.

Of course, the piece quoted at the top of this post reports that they have been released. Sadly, no pirates were killed.

Push-ups for the Brain

In addition to my degrees in music, I decided in the late 1980's to pursue a degree in electronics engineering. While I had to abandon that program as Uncle Sam decided to send my back to sea, I did finish all of the "flunk-out" courses. These generally had a 55-65% attrition rate. These are the calculus, physics, statics, and dynamics courses. I did well, with a B+ to A average, but in the 15 years since then, I have forgotten it all. This has been bothering me for some time. I took, and did well at, four semesters of calculus up to and including multi-variable calculus, differential equations with complex variables, linear algebra, advanced engineering mathematics (which by then was easy), and much more. I worked very hard and learned to enjoyed working out the problems as puzzles.

I am starting again. What got me going was actually a series of equipment failures. My trusty old HP 32S calculator died on me a few months ago and I had to replace it with an HP 33S. Probably the best "basic" calculator in the world.

I also had an advanced calculator that I used after I completed the calculus courses. This got me through the calculus-based physics courses. It was the HP 48SX. It is now gone, and I had to replace it with an HP 49g+, which is the most powerful calculator in the world.

The plan is, use only a No.2 Mirado, a legal pad, and the HP 33S for the numeric stuff for now. As I get back into the calculus, I'll use the HP 49g+ to check my answers. Then, when I get into the statics, dynamics, physics, and circuit theory the 49g+ will be fully employed.

One of my mathematics professors called me a "mathematical pit bull" then. I plan on getting that back.

Yes, It's Ramadan

It's easy to tell that we are in that happy season celebrated by Muslims worldwide. Charles Johnson has a whole series of stories on these celebrations.

RoP Strikes in Thailand

Holland Fears RoP

Death Cult Child Abuse

Danish Muslims Seethe, Protest, Threaten

The Palestinian Peace Process

Nothing like celebrating the one's most holy season by killing Jews, Americans, and other infidels more than one would during the rest of the year.

Our enemies on the Left™ like to accuse Charles and others (such as myself) of being Islamophobes (whatever the hell that is). We just report news, we don't make it. It would be nice if the MSM would report the news too.

Culture of Death in Europe

Modern bioethics is probably the area in which the liberal culture of death is most clear. I have posted on the before in posts about Peter Singer here and here.

Medical Ethicist Describes Holland's Inevitable Progress from Mercy Killing to Murder:

(AgapePress) - Burke Balch, director of the Robert Powell Center for Medical Ethics of the National Right to Life Committee, says the Netherlands is no longer sliding down a slippery slope, but rather has fallen off a moral cliff as the medical community in that nation expands its euthanasia practices. He notes that the Dutch government intends to expand its euthanasia guidelines to include so-called "mercy killing" of children with spina bifida or other disabilities, as long as the parents consent.

This development is horrifying, though not surprising, Balch contends, because once a price is placed on human life, the price goes down. "In the Netherlands, although they started with purely voluntary euthanasia for people who were dying," he says, "they moved very rapidly to individuals who were not dying but were disabled."

Soon after that, the head of the Powell Center says, doctors in the Netherlands started euthanizing "individuals who were neither dying nor disabled but who were simply old and, in fact, lonely. They moved on to depressed patients, then they moved into cases where the patient hadn't given consent at all."

For instance, Balch asserts, the pro-euthanasia doctors in the Netherlands have now moved on to euthanizing the elderly in nursing homes and even killing children without parental consent. He says it is obvious that arguments about physician-assisted death being the patient's choice are no longer relevant. Instead, he insists, it has come to be about a determination of who is fit to live.

This is not only a European issue. This debate is occurring in the U.S. also, and those of us who love life are losing.

Islamic Soccer and the Authority of Fatwas

Islam has a problem with soccer and anything identifiably Western.

Fatwa from 2003: Soccer is Forbidden Except When Played as Training for Jihad [footnotes removed, see original article - ed.]

"One of the anti-soccer fatwas was published in full in Al-Watan on August 25, 2005. According to other sources it had been issued by Sheikh 'Abdallah Al-Najdi.

The fatwa declared that it is only permissible to play soccer when its rules are different than the accepted international rules. This was based on a hadith [Prophetic tradition] which forbids Muslims to imitate Christians and Jews. The fatwa read:

"1. Don't play soccer with four lines [surrounding the field], since this is the way of the non-believers, and the international soccer rules require drawing [these lines] before playing.

"2. One should not use the terminology established by the non-believers and the polytheists, like: 'foul,' 'penalty kick,' 'corner kick,' 'goal,' and 'out of bounds.' Whoever pronounces these terms should be punished, reprimanded, kicked out of the game, and should even be told in public: 'You have come to resemble the non-believers and the polytheists, and this has been forbidden.'

"3. If one of you falls during the game and breaks his hand or his foot, or if the ball hits his hand, he shall not say 'foul' and shall not stop playing because of his injury. The one who caused his injury shall not receive a yellow or a red card, but rather the case shall be judged according to Muslim law in the case of a broken bone or an injury. The injured player shall exercise his rights according to the shari'a, as [is stated] in the Koran, and you must testify together with him that so-and-so tripped him up intentionally.

"4. Do not set the number [of players] according to the number of players used by the non-believers, the Jews, the Christians, and especially the vile America. In other words, 11 players shall not play together. Make it a larger or a smaller number.

"5. Play in your normal clothing, or in pajamas, or something like that, but not in colorful pants and numbered jerseys. Pants and jerseys are not appropriate clothing for Muslims. They are the clothing of the non-believers and of the West, and therefore you must be careful not to wear them.

"6. Once you have fulfilled [these] conditions and rules, you must play the entire game with the intention of improving your physical fitness for the purpose of fighting Jihad for Allah's sake and preparing for the time when jihad is needed. One should not waste time in celebrating a false victory.

"7. Do not play for 45 minutes, as is the practice among the Jews, the Christians, and in all of the countries of non-belief and atheism. This is also the length of time that is accepted in the soccer clubs of those who have strayed from the righteous path. You must be different than the non-believers, depart from their path, and not imitate them in anything.

"8. Do not play in two parts [i.e. halves], but rather in one part or in three parts, so as to be different than the sinful and rebellious, the non-believers and the polytheists.

"9. If neither side has defeated the other and neither side has inserted the ball between the posts, do not waste further time [in an extension] or in 'penalty kicks' until someone has won, but rather leave [the field] immediately, since this kind of victory is precisely an imitation of the non-believers and [adoption] of the international soccer rules.

"10. Do not appoint someone who follows the players around and is called 'a referee', since, after canceling the international rules such as 'foul,' 'penalty kick,' 'corner kick' and so on, there is no need for his presence. Moreover, his presence is an imitation of non-believers, Jews and Christians, and constitutes adoption of the international [soccer] rules.

"11. In the course of the game it is forbidden for groups of youth to gather and watch, since if you are gathering for the sake of sports activity and physical fitness, as you claim, why should they be looking at you? You must make them participate [in order to improve] their physical fitness and prepare for jihad; or else say to them, 'Go propagate Islam and seek out moral corruption in the marketplaces and in the press [in order to correct it], and leave us to improve our physical fitness.'

"12. When you finish playing, be careful not to talk about the game, and not to say 'we play better than the opponent,' or 'so-and-so is a good player,' etc. Moreover, you should speak about your body, its strength and its muscles, and about the fact that you are playing as [a means of] training to run, attack, and retreat in preparation for [waging] jihad for Allah's sake.

"13. If one of you inserts the ball between the posts and then starts to run so that his companions will run after him and hug him, like the players in America and France do, you should spit in his face, punish him, and reprimand him, for what do joy, hugging, and kissing have to do with sports?

"14. You must take the three posts or iron rods which you use to construct [the goal], and into which the ball is kicked, and replace them with just two instead of three. In other words, take out the cross-post or rod… so that [the goal] will not be similar to what is customary among the non-believers, and in order to violate the despotic international soccer rules.

"15. Do not do what is known as 'substitution' – that is, putting in a player in place of a player who has been disqualified – since this the custom of the non-believers in America and elsewhere."

The good news is, Saudi authorities and the Press are now telling their citizens that not all fatwas are issued by people qualified or knowledgeable enough to do so. In fact, this fatwa is criticized as unIslamic (a common fig leaf) and dangerous to youth for both religious and non religious reasons.

In this article the discussion of this fatwa follows. Go and read the entire thing. Perhaps the Saudis are finally getting a clue (but I doubt it).

And, read footnote [4].

The Church Cannot be a Democracy

St. Photios the Great

This is something that liberal westerners have serious trouble understanding.

From the First Congregational Church of Rome:

It seems a papal commission reached a result that Pope Paul VI did not desire,

"--so the Pope simply overruled the experts who were qualified on this subject [artificial contraception] . . . . . This is not the only way Vatican methods run parallel with those of Washington. Rome too is now ruled from the margins. Most Catholics hold views different from the Pope’s on many matters."

Er, come again? When the Vatican is being run by the Pope it is being ruled "from the margins"? At the Roman "center," then, would be papal commissions endorsing the majority will?

One wonders how many readers—how many Catholic readers, forsooth--skim over flabbergasting stuff like this and think, "Yeah—right! What makes the Pope think he has the right to run the Church?" Apparently the author expects it.

What is obvious to Orthodox Christians is sadly lost in this liberal, godless culture. The Orthodox Church and, for the most part, the Roman Catholic Church are the preservers of the original faith, having defended it against the many terrible heresies of the first four centuries. We have the witness of the early Saints and Holy Fathers to teach us, and our Priests and Bishops to transmit that teaching to us. The Church teaches us how to live a holy life. Secular liberalism cannot.

God doesn't change. He is what he is, and the way to personal sanctification is what it is, regardless of how a democratically conducted poll would have it.

We learn from our Bishops, our Priests, our monastics, and other holy people how to be holy. How to stengthen our spiritual lives (this has nothing to do with any kind of emotionalism). How to be closer to God.