Thank You Newsweek

And the rest of the MSM. It is NOT George Bush's or America's fault.

The Pakistan Observer reports, Anti-US rallies to protest against Quran desecration - Qazi, Fazl address rallies at Islamabad, Peshawar;

islamabad—President Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) Qazi Hussain Ahmed MNA said that the Islamic movements cannot be stopped by the nefarious designs of the anti Islamic forces by killing 17 and injuring scores innocent devotees in the blast at the Shrine of Bari Imam, on a day when millions of Muslims are demonstrating world over to condemn the sacrilege of the Holy Quran by the US army personnel at Guantanamo Bay.

He said this while addressing a big rally at Constitution Avenue before Parliament House organized by MMA here Friday.

Qazi Hussain Ahmed said that they made a call to observe a protest day internationally. Such rallies are also being held in Washington, London, Cairo, Indonesia, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, and in rest of the world where Muslims are living. He said that the incident of Guantanamo Bay is in fact a warning for the Muslim Ummah to rise and protect the Islamic Shuair-i-Islam. There was test case for the entire Muslim world.

He observed that it was heinous crime committed by the enemy in which our rulers are equally responsible who in the name of terrorism handed over the people to them. He said that now the Islamic revolution is unavoidable.

Qazi Hussain Ahmed was very optimistic and said that Muslims are united, while pointing out to the rally that all the people gathered here under one banner and one slogan to protect the sanctity of the Holy Book. We have witnessed the destruction of one super power and Insha-Ullah will see the destruction of the other in near future. There is only one super power that is God Almighty. He said such a rally could be held only for the common cause of Islam, as there is no sectarian problem in the ranks of Muslim community. He recalled that the shocking incident demands that the alleged criminals must be handed over to us for their fair trial under Islamic law.

He said that the government is determined to hand over all the wealthy national assets like PTCL, airports and others to the multinationals for easy access by the anti-Islamic forces to grab national wealth, but we will not allow this to happen. Qazi Hussain Ahmed assured the minorities that they enjoy equal rights under the banner of Islam and guaranteed them protection of life and property.

With its tradition of fair trials and equal rights for minorities, how could anyone think that Islam could be acting unreasonably?

Addressing the workers, various religious and political leaders demanded Islamabad to cut off diplomatic ties with Washington and send back US ambassador besides cancelling the forthcoming visit of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

They vowed to continue protests until US President George W Bush apologized to entire Muslim world and handed over the culprit soldiers for publicly hanging which is the punishment of the crime, they committed.

Severely condemning the blast at a shrine in Islamabad killing dozens of people, the speakers termed it a move of Washington carried out by its agents sitting in Islamabad to counter the global movement against the desecration of Quran and creating rifts among the Muslim unity.

Yes! The explosion was the result of a conspiracy after all. Muslims don't explode bombs on innocent people, don't ya know.

Addressing the participants, Liaquat Baloch held the agents of Washington, Islamabad and the secular lobby sitting in the power corridors responsible for Islamabad blast.

He said US was attacking Muslims’ belief and civilization to usurp their freedom through its agents like Gen Musharraf. He expressed hopes that mounting agitation against Musharraf would force him to step down very soon.

With the government of General Musharraf to be replaced by that aforementioned fair and beneficent Islamic State.

Fazl demanded that the culprits involved in these sacrilegious acts should be handed over to Pakistan in order to penalize and hang them publicly so that in future nobody could dare to make joke of Islamic rituals and obligations.

After that fair trail, of course (Channeling Sheriff Cobb in Silverado).

The MMA leader said that till date the USA failed to give a single solid reason that could justify its naked aggression against Afghanistan and Iraq. He elaborated that in fact America was not against terrorism rather it was against the Muslims and engaged itself in a war against the Muslim countries.

Of course there was no reason at all.

Golden Age for Women is Ended

The golden age of women's rights in Iraq under Saddam Hussein is over, and of course the villain is the United States. This is found at a wildly moonbatty rag, the Washington Free Press.

WOMEN IN IRAQ FACE MANY THREATS (scroll down past the other moonbattish junk)

A little known piece of the Iraqi puzzle is that Iraqi women are in serious danger of losing rights they have enjoyed throughout their lives and being marginalized in their new democracy by secular extremists. An Iraqi woman in her 50s n 60s would have been born in a country that held the most advanced family civil code of any Arab nation. Under Hussein, her rights were actually expanded to include sex discrimination, free higher education and maternity leave. These rights deteriorated as the United States instigated the Iran/Iraq war, and further deteriorated during the first Gulf War and the next ten years of economic sanctions. During this period women became jobless, lost their ability to choose their partner in marriage as well as their ability to travel freely. [all the fault of the U.S. - ed.]

Their present predicament is extremely severe. Women in Iraq are facing a threefold danger from US troops and prisons, Islamic fundamentalists and international sex traffickers. Photos of women brutalized in Abu Ghraib briefly appeared on the internet and then disappeared, but this sort of barbarism is widely known in the Middle East and is being reported on by International Operation Watch, the Iraqi Union of Detainees and Prisoners, OWFI, the British Guardian, and the French Agence France Press. Many of these victims have been rounded up and used as hostages to force male relatives to surrender, and have ended up brutalized and raped by Iraqi and US jailers. Women are disappearing off the streets in Iraq, never to be seen again. Many who are rediscovered by their families after being violated by their kidnappers are later murdered by their family members to protect the family honor.

Amazingly, amidst this hostile environment, the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq (OWFI) is bravely standing out and standing up for individual and collective women's' and human rights in Iraq. It is openly feminist, runs two women's shelters, publishes a newspaper called Equality both in English and Arabic, has organized numerous demonstrations and has worked with the Union of Unemployed Workers to demand housing for displaced workers and safe streets. Many of their leaders have received death threats, but they continue on none the less. OWFI is calling for international support, hoping that now the elections are over the US anti-war movement will spark to life to help defend the Iraqi people from its government. (Freedom Socialist, December 2004-January 2005)

Ah, for the good old days of expanded rights and freedoms under Saddam - probably as good for women's rights as it is in North Korea now.

It is especially a shame that such good neighbors as Iran under the mullahs and Iraq under Saddam should be forced into a war with each other by the U.S. And of course everybody knows about the American soldiers raping their female prisoners.

Amazing that the Left™ is having trouble winning national elections.

To My Dear and Faithful Readers

You have not doubt noticed that I do not post as often as I used to. My new job requires many hours. For instance, I will work every day through the Memorial Day weekend. We are converting USS Ohio and USS Michigan from SSBN's to SSGN's with a surprisingly small team of workers (relative to the task).

I thank you for sticking with me. I will post as often as I can and, with luck, pick up the pace soon. In the meanwhile, please keep checking this site as I will continue to provide interesting things for you to read, even if at a somewhat slower rate.

+Photi

North Korea - No Use for Rules

zorkmidden over at discarded lies has this, Rogue Regime. This source is a New York Times book review for ROGUE REGIME, Kim Jong Il and the Looming Threat of North Korea by Jasper Becker. 300 pp. Oxford University Press. $28.

What to Do About a Country That Has a Nuclear Threat and No Use for Rules

Although a work of fiction (and apparently put together in a "slapdash" fashion), it is supported by solid journalism (rare now days). I have written on this before, but here are a few facts quoted from the review;

The facts almost defy belief. Years of malnutrition have produced a stunted people. The average North Korean is nearly eight inches shorter than his South Korean counterpart and weighs half as much. Under Kim Jong Il, the son of North Korea's first Communist leader, Kim Il Sung, the country's political prisons and re-education camps have multiplied, and now they contain as many as 300,000 prisoners, some arrested for crimes as petty as singing a South Korean pop song. Mr. Becker estimates that a million or more may have died in these camps under the two Kims.

In a country with a population of about 22 million, the security ministries employ 300,000 full-time officers who enforce discipline on a citizenry grouped, by loyalty, into three classes (core, wavering and hostile) and about 50 subclasses. Food rations, housing and other privileges are doled out according to class rank. What little wealth the economy produces goes straight to the leadership and the military. When famine struck in the late 1980's, ordinary North Koreans were urged to make noodles out of bark, seaweed and corncobs. Meanwhile, Kim Jong Il, "possibly the last fat man left in his country," enjoyed his 100 limousines and multiple palaces, staffed by 2,000 doctors, nurses, cooks, dancing troupes and other essential personnel.

Mr. Becker addresses the current situation and North Korean patterns of behavior.

In his later chapters, Mr. Becker goes over the recent history of diplomatic initiatives, and finds a common theme. Again and again, North Korea has encouraged overtures by hostile powers, either by implying that it might behave less aggressively and liberalize its economy, or by playing the military card, as it is doing now. After securing loans, food or industrial investment, it has pocketed its gains and reneged on its agreements.

Often, the North Koreans have redefined the word chutzpah, brazenly violating agreements and then demanding payment to desist. In August 1998, when American intelligence discovered that a large underground facility, capable of housing a nuclear reactor or reprocessing plant, was being built at Kumchangri, officials demanded an inspection, as called for under a 1994 agreement known as the Agreed Framework. The North Koreans agreed only after being promised 600,000 tons of food aid.

Mr. Becker has nothing but contempt for the so-called Sunshine Policy pursued by Kim Dae Jung of South Korea, which urged a nonaggressive, open-handed approach to North Korea, holding out the carrot of investment that would lead to the creation of export-oriented industries, which in turn would bring about deeper social and political change. One of the more bizarre results of this policy was the auto factory built in Nampo by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church. North Korea simply took delivery of the first 7,000 cars and never paid for them. The factory closed soon after.

This is a country destined to fail. Sadly, that may not be a peaceful event.

Amnesty International Report on Turkmenistan

Amnesty International was able to peel its eyes away from the United States and Israel long enough to produce a good report of human rights abuses in Turkmenistan.

The clampdown on dissent and religious freedom continues

This is actually quite a good report. There is too much here to quote. Go and read it. This is a huge future problem for the United States brewing right now.

Saudis Shred Bibles - Christians Fail to go Insane!

Saudi Arabia (an enemy) likes to tell us that they respect all religious expression, with a special place for Jews and Christians as "people of the book". Of course Jews are forbidden entry into Saudi Arabia and an ongoing campaign exists, conducted by Muslims with the support of the Saudis, to exterminate them. As for Christians, Saudis Shred Bibles, Rights Campaigners Claim

(CNSNews.com) - Bibles found in the possession of visitors to Saudi Arabia are routinely confiscated by customs officials, and in some cases copies allegedly have been put through a paper shredder, according to religious rights campaigners.

Reports from the Islamic world of the abuse of Bibles and other items important to Christians emerge from time to time, but generally have little impact - in contrast to the wave of Muslim anger sparked by a Newsweek report, since retracted, of Koran desecration by the U.S. military.

And it's not just shredding. Our "friends" the Saudis have much more in store for you if you should happen to have more than a single Bible with you.

"If you have more than one Bible you will be taken into custody, and if you have a quantity of Bibles you will be given 70 lashes for sure - you could even be executed."

If you should happen to be an person who is obviously a pious Christian, a monk or nun perhaps, then you get special treatment;

A friend of his, a fellow Christian in Saudi Arabia, told him of witnessing a particularly unpleasant incident involving a Catholic nun.

The man had been in the transit lounge at the airport in Jeddah - the gateway to Mecca, used by millions of Hajj pilgrims each year - when a nun arrived at the customs desk.

"Some fool [travel agent] had put her on a transit flight in Jeddah. You don't do that to a Catholic nun, because she's going to be tormented."

"They opened her bag, went through her prayer book, put the prayer book through the shredder ... took the crucifix off her neck and smashed it, tormented her for many minutes."

It is not just the Saudis, it is Islam.

Some of the more notorious reported incidents of Muslims abusing Christian symbols implicate Palestinian radicals, including the trashing of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem in 2002; and the desecration of Maronite churches in Damour, Lebanon in 1976.

In the Damour episode, Yasser Arafat's PLO killed more than 500 of the Christian town's inhabitants before turning it into a stronghold, and used the interior of the St. Elias church for a shooting range, according to published accounts.

Islam is the problem. It is the greatest threat to civilized humanity on the planet today.

Artificial Intelligence?

If you take a look at my sidebar you will see, just beneath my LGF Lizardroid Operative Moonbat Control Officer badge a new feature, the Autorantic Virtual Moonbat. If it has been a while since your last "conversation" with that moonbat friend of yours you can get all of the subtlety of that last "discussion" simply by clicking on the Rant button of the Autorantic Virtual Moonbat.

To get one for your blog, click on the About button.

Kim Jong Il Looks for Excuse to Explode the Bomb

The little murderer-freak Kim Jong Il, leader of the world's largest concentration camp the DPRK is looking for an excuse to explode an atomic bomb. Of course, with his psychotic way of twisting and inverting reality, The Freak sees Japan as being the one moving in a dangerous direction.

NKorea says Japan ties inch toward "dangerous phase"

TOKYO (Reuters) - North Korea said on Friday that its relations with Japan were inching toward a "dangerous phase of explosion" and reiterated that Tokyo imposing economic sanctions would be tantamount to a declaration of war.

Public anger in Japan over Pyongyang's abduction of Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s combined with concern over its nuclear arms programmes have led to calls for sanctions against the reclusive communist state.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, however, has been cautious about Tokyo taking that step unless the United States and other countries also act.

"The DPRK (North Korea) clearly stated more than once that it would regard any sanctions against it as a declaration of war," said a commentary in the official Rodong Sinmun newspaper carried by Pyongyang's KCNA news agency.

"Nevertheless, the Japanese reactionaries are contemplating the application of economic sanctions against the DPRK," the commentary said.

"The hostile relations between the two countries are now inching close to the dangerous phase of explosion.

"Under this situation the DPRK is left with no option but to take a decisive counter-measure. The army and the people of the DPRK value its sovereignty as their life and soul and will never allow anyone to infringe upon it," [no one has challenged North Korea's sovereignty - ed.] it added.

The Proximity of Japan, the Koreas, Russia, and China

If the DPRK explodes a nuclear weapon, there is no way that nuclear weapons can be denied to South Korea, Japan, or Taiwan. This is a situation that will be tolerated by neither China nor anyone else.

Restore Senate Tradition

The great Charles Krauthammer clarifies the issues surrounding the Democratic Party's postion with respect to the Senate filibuster of President Bush's judicial nominees.

The Democrats are afraid that they are playing a weak hand, and they are. Most Americans understand that the Constitution requires a majority vote in the Senate to confirm a judge, and we also understand that the effort by the Democrats to overlay a 60% requirement for judicial confirmation is not in accordance with the Constitutional requirement. The Republicans will restore the Constitutional requirement and face little or no punishment from the voters. The Democrats, on the other hand, have promised their voters that they will stop all Senate business if their "right" to filibuster judicial nominees is taken away. They will be sorely punished for that. They will try to blame the Republicans, but they will fail.

The great Charles Krauthammer spells it all out.

Nuclear? No, Restoration

There has certainly never been a successful filibuster in the case of a judicial nominee who clearly had the approval of a majority of the Senate. And there has surely never been a campaign like the one undertaken by the Democrats since 2001 to systematically deny judicial appointment by means of the filibuster.

Two hundred years of tradition have been radically and unilaterally changed by the minority. Why? The reason is obvious. Democrats have not had a very good run recently in the popularly elected branches. Since choosing the wrong side of the counterculture wars of the 1960s, they have won only three of the last 10 presidential elections. A decade ago they lost control of the House for the first time in 40 years, and now have lost all the elected branches. They are in a panic that they will lose their one remaining ability to legislate -- through the courts.

It is the Democrats who are trying to change the way things are done.

Democrats are calling Frist's maneuver an assault on the very essence of the Senate, a body distinguished by its insistence on tradition, custom and unwritten rules.

This claim is a comical inversion of the facts. One of the great traditions, customs and unwritten rules of the Senate is that you do not filibuster judicial nominees. You certainly do not filibuster judicial nominees who would otherwise win an up-or-down vote. And you surely do not filibuster judicial nominees in a systematic campaign to deny a president and a majority of the Senate their choice of judges. That is historically unprecedented.

The Democrats have unilaterally shattered one of the longest running traditions in parliamentary history worldwide. They are not to be rewarded with a deal. They must either stop or be stopped by a simple change of Senate procedure that would do nothing more than take a 200-year-old unwritten rule and make it written.

It is time for Senator Frisk to pull the trigger.

Liberal Judenhass Watch - Pt. 2

The folks at HonestReporting.com point out how casual judenhass has become so common and comfortable that it even finds its way into a simple Mother's Day column by a New Age liberal.

Mother's Day 'Greetings'

Her apparently heartfelt apology actually further points up the problem. She did not even realize that these words were in any way wrong or anti-semitic (they are both);

Most people get stuck in the victim role, however. On the global scale, for example, Zionist Jews in Israel have occupied Palestinian land in the name of God and victimhood. If anyone criticizes Israel for their terrorist attacks and slaughter of the Palestinians, they are immediately labeled "anti-Semitic" and guilt-inflicted for the Holocaust without any regard for Palestinian suffering. In response, the United States and United Nations fall into a co-dependent behavior of acquiescence and collusion.

But for that one paragraph the entire column consists of her congratulating herself on what a perfect touchy-feely lefty™ she is.

You may wish to read it if you can choke it down.

Muslim Respect for Holy Books, etc.

In the unlikely event that any of you, my faithful readers, are not also readers of Charles Johnson's (the Blogfather) great weblog Little Green Footballs, he has pointed out Muslim respect for Holy books, places and things.

The Other Side of the Story

NOTE: Charles takes no responsibility for posts in the Comments section, although many are very good (and a few not).

Interpretation of Icons - Events

Many of my Christian friends who are not Orthodox have asked me about why we use icons, what they mean, and sometimes how is it not worshipping an image.

In the case of icons of the Saints, they allow us to have something of that person's presence, just as a sailor may take a photo of his wife or sweetheart to sea for the same reason. The Saints are not dead and are considered to still be members of the Church.

In ancient times, most people were illiterate. They needed to have icons as aids to learn and remember the Gospel stories, events in the lives of the Saints, and events in the history of the Church. In the case of the lives of the Saints, an icon of a Saint may be surrounded (framed) by smaller images depicting events in the life of that Saint.

The Holy Myrrhbearing Women

In the icon shown above, we see an event associated with the Resurrection of Christ. The Resurrection was discovered by the women who came to annoint Jesus' body with myrrh. They were the Theotokos (His Mother Mary), St. Joanna, St. Mary Clopas (the mother of James the Less). St. Mark also reports that Salome, the mother of James and John (the sons of Zebedee) was there.

The story is of the arrival of the myrrhbearing women to the tomb of Christ with the intention of anointing his body with oil and spices. This icons shows the women at the tomb

"and entering the tomb, they saw a young man [an angel - ed.] sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe; and they were amazed" (St. Mark, 16.5)

This Sunday was the Sunday of the Myrrhbearing Women in the Orthodox calendar.

Read the wonderful story of the discovery of the Resurrection of Christ according to St. Mark in his Gospel, Chapter 16;

¹ And when the sabbath was past, Mary Mag'dalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salo'me, bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. ² And very early on the first day of the week they went to the tomb when the sun had risen. ³ And they were saying to one another, "Who will roll away the stone for us from the door of the tomb?" ⁴ And looking up, they saw that the stone was rolled back; -- it was very large. ⁵ And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe; and they were amazed. ⁶ And he said to them, "Do not be amazed; you seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen, he is not here; see the place where they laid him. ⁷ But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him, as he told you." ⁸ And they went out and fled from the tomb; for trembling and astonishment had come upon them; and they said nothing to any one, for they were afraid.

⁹ Now when he rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons. ¹⁰ She went and told those who had been with him, as they mourned and wept. ¹¹ But when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it.
¹² After this he appeared in another form to two of them, as they were walking into the country. ¹³ And they went back and told the rest, but they did not believe them.
14: Afterward he appeared to the eleven themselves as they sat at table; and he upbraided them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen. ¹⁵ And he said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation. ¹⁶ He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. ¹⁷ And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; ¹⁸ they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover."
¹⁹ So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. ²⁰ And they went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that attended it. Amen.

Inverted Reality

Kim Jong Il and the monsters that run North Korea are engaging in a serious case of projection, U.S. Denounced for Taking Issue with DPRK's Penal System

Pyongyang, May 13 (KCNA) -- The United States has shouted itself hoarse over the "human rights issue" of the DPRK and, as if it were not enough, is now peddling a ware taking issue even with its penal system under the national law, thus misleading public opinion. Commenting on this a Rodong Sinmun analyst Friday says:

This does not deserve even a passing note, being intended to besmear the international image of the DPRK and topple its system.

What matters is that the U.S., the worst human rights buser in the world which has the most nefarious penal system and engages itself in aggression,murder and interference in others' internal affairs every where in the world, is overreaching itself in talking rubbish about other's penal system. The U.S. is not in a position to wag its tongue about others' penal system.

Truth to tell, the U.S. is an empire of devils with the most pernicious and brutal penal system where murder and looting are a part and parcel of culture. It was the first in the world to enforce and maintain the punishing method of binding the limbs of prisoners to electric chairs to torture and kill them. This method has a history of one hundred and scores of years since it was effected in the U.S. in 1890.

It is the height of sarcasm that the U.S. is crying for "human rights" and "democracy" while covering up its crimes and true colors as the hideous kingpin of human rights abuses. This is an insult to and mockery of true human rights and democracy.

The U.S. criticism of the DPRK's national law, which entirely agrees with its conditions and the interests and demand of its people, can never be tolerated as it is an act to vilify and pull down Korean-style socialism.

The U.S. should not distort and decry and point an accusing finger at the national laws pertaining to the sovereignty of other countries, but abolish,first of all, its most cruel and brutal penal system and methods and stop aggression, human rights abuses and interference in others' internal affairs.

For the U.S. to seek the "overthrow" of the DPRK's system by despicable and malicious means is a daydream of an idiot as foolish as attempting to cover the sun with a palm.

I think Soon Ok Lee would beg to differ. Read her story if you can stand it.

I have to express this in words that I witnessed such an inhumane hell (crying). I was captured in October ’86, and I was imprisoned in ’87 and in May 1988. I cannot forget about this. The guards kicked me with their boots, and I was forced to do work that I never had done before.

Once they picked out 50 persons from our group, and they put them in the auditorium and gave them a piece of boiled Korean cabbage, and then as soon as they ate it, blood came out from their mouth and anus. And they died. I saw that in 20 or 30 minutes they died like this in that place.

Looking at that scene, I lost my mind. Was this reality or a nightmare? And then I screamed and was sent out of the auditorium. It was biochemical testing, using just a bit, the substance just 1/10,000. I cannot forget that image. I wonder how a human being can kill another healthy human being like that.

Read it all.

Judicial Oligarchy Watch - Pt. 2

In Nebraska a lone judge overturns the very clear will of the people. It is not a case of the people acting in some sort of mass hysteria or wanting to riot in the streets. It is a case of the people wanting to safeguard something understood by all of humanity for 10,000 until now. An understanding that one judge does not have.

The people of Nebraska want, by greater that 70%, a marriage to be between a man and a woman. Knowing that judges who have no checks or balences against them would be likely to impose on them something that they do not want, the amended their constitution. That was not enough.

Judge Rules Nebraska’s Marriage Amendment Unconstitutional

A federal district court judge struck down Nebraska’s marriage amendment on Thursday - ruling that the amendment was unconstitutional. Pro-family groups say this decision will spur the movement for a federal marriage amendment.

Nebraska voters passed a state constitutional amendment in 2000, defining marriage as the union between one man and one woman. The amendment also prohibited other same-sex unions, including civil unions and domestic partnerships.

Judge Joseph Bataillon ruled that the amendment violated the First Amendment, because it prohibits the formation of groups or associations to lobby for same-sex constituents.

“Any blanket prohibition on any type of legal recognition of a same-sex relationship not only denies the benefits of favorable legislation to these groups, it prohibits them from even asking for such benefits,” stated the court decision.

This same arguement could be made to require that pedophiles be allowed to marry their 12 year old victims.

My main issue is the effort by a single judge with the support of the anti-American, anti-moral ACLU to overturn the moral teaching of virtually all of humankind to validate a lifestyle choice (and yes, I mean choice) that is rejected by a clear and large majority of the people. Whatever one may feel about the issues, this is a case of rule by judicial diktat.

Mathew D. Staver, President and General Counsel of Liberty Counsel, a pro-family group, stated that this ruling will push the need for a federal marriage amendment.

“A single judge has overturned the vote of the people in Nebraska, essentially holding that any amendment that seeks to do anything more than define marriage as the union of a man and a woman is unconstitutional,” commented Staver.

“This decision is the catalyst the United States Congress was looking for as an example of why this country needs a federal marriage amendment,” said Staver. “Since some of our judges do not understand common sense, it’s time for the people to spell it out in our United States Constitution – marriage is the union of only one man and one woman.”

Ed posted an interesting item with regard to this. He links to a post at Free Republic, Communist Goals - 1963 Congressional Record

Communist Goals (1963)

Congressional Record--Appendix, pp. A34-A35

January 10, 1963

Current Communist Goals

EXTENSION OF REMARKS OF HON. A. S. HERLONG, JR. OF FLORIDA

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Thursday, January 10, 1963

Mr. HERLONG. Mr. Speaker, Mrs. Patricia Nordman of De Land, Fla., is an ardent and articulate opponent of communism, and until recently published the De Land Courier, which she dedicated to the purpose of alerting the public to the dangers of communism in America.

At Mrs. Nordman's request, I include in the RECORD, under unanimous consent, the following "Current Communist Goals," which she identifies as an excerpt from "The Naked Communist," by Cleon Skousen:

[From "The Naked Communist," by Cleon Skousen]

CURRENT COMMUNIST GOALS

1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.

2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.

3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament of the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.

4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.

5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.

6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.

7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.

8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.

9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.

10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.

11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)

12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.

13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.

14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.

15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.

16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.

17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.

18. Gain control of all student newspapers.

19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.

20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.

21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.

22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."

23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."

24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.

25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.

26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy."

27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch."

28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."

29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.

30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."

31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.

32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture--education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.

33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.

34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.

36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.

37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.

38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand.

39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.

40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.

41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.

42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use united force to solve economic, political or social problems.

43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.

44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.

45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction over nations and individuals alike.

Interesting to note that a fair number of these things have been done by the disloyal liberals.

List of Proposed Military Base Closings

Here is the complete Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) list.

Fri May 13, 3:59 PM ET

WASHINGTON - A list of military facilities the Defense Department recommended for closure Friday:

Alabama:

Abbott U.S. Army Reserve Center, Tuskegee
Anderson U.S. Army Reserve Center, Troy
Armed Forces Reserve Center, Mobile
BG William P. Screws U.S. Army Reserve Center, Montgomery
Fort Ganey Army National Guard Reserve Center, Mobile
Fort Hanna Army National Guard Reserve Center, Birmingham
Gary U.S. Army Reserve Center, Enterprise
Navy Recruiting District Headquarters, Montgomery
Navy Reserve Center, Tuscaloosa
The Adjutant General Building, AL Army National Guard, Montgomery
Wright U.S. Army Reserve Center

Alaska:

Kulis Air Guard Station

Arizona:

Air Force Research Lab, Mesa
Allen Hall Armed Forces Reserve Center, Tucson

Arkansas:

El Dorado Armed Forces Reserve Center
Stone U.S. Army Reserve Center, Pine Bluff

California:

Armed Forces Reserve Center Bell
Defense Finance and Accounting Service, Oakland
Defense Finance and Accounting Service, San Bernardino
Defense Finance and Accounting Service, San Diego
Defense Finance and Accounting Service, Seaside
Naval Support Activity Corona
Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach, Detachment Concord
Navy-Marine Corps Reserve Center, Encino
Navy-Marine Corps Reserve Center, Los Angeles
Onizuka Air Force Station
Riverbank Army Ammunition Plant

Connecticut:

Sgt. Libby U.S. Army Reserve Center, New Haven
Submarine Base New London
Turner U.S. Army Reserve Center, Fairfield
U.S. Army Reserve Center Maintenance Support Facility, Middletown

Delaware:

Kirkwood U.S. Army Reserve Center, Newark

Florida:

Defense Finance and Accounting Service, Orlando
Navy Reserve Center, St. Petersburg

Georgia:

Fort Gillem
Fort McPherson
Inspector/Instructor, Rome
Naval Air Station Atlanta
Naval Supply Corps School, Athens
U.S. Army Reserve Center, Columbus

Hawaii:

Army Reserve Center, Hilo

Idaho:

Navy Reserve Center, Pocatello

Illinois:

Armed Forces Reserve Center, Carbondale
Navy Reserve Center, Forest Park

Indiana:

Navy Marine Corps Reserve Center, Grissom Air Reserve Base, Bunker Hill
Navy Recruiting District Headquarters, Indianapolis
Navy Reserve Center, Evansville
Newport Chemical Depot
U.S. Army Reserve Center, Lafayette
U.S. Army Reserve Center, Seston

Iowa:

Navy Reserve Center, Cedar Rapids
Navy Reserve Center, Sioux City
Navy-Marine Corps Reserve Center, Dubuque

Kansas:

Kansas Army Ammunition Plant

Kentucky:

Army National Guard Reserve Center, Paducah
Defense Finance and Accounting Service, Lexington
Navy Reserve Center, Lexington
U.S. Army Reserve Center, Louisville
U.S. Army Reserve Center, Maysville

Louisiana:

Baton Rouge Army National Guard Reserve Center
Naval Support Activity, New Orleans
Navy-Marine Corps Reserve Center, Baton Rouge
Roberts U.S. Army Reserve Center, Baton Rouge

Maine:

Defense Finance and Accounting Service, Limestone
Naval Reserve Center, Bangor
Naval Shipyard Portsmouth, Kittery

Maryland:

Defense Finance and Accounting Service, Patuxent River
Navy Reserve Center, Adelphi
Pfc. Flair U.S. Army Reserve Center, Frederick

Massachusetts:

Malony U.S. Army Reserve Center
Otis Air Guard Base
Westover U.S. Army Reserve Center, Citopee

Michigan:

Navy Reserve Center Marquette
Parisian U.S. Army Reserve Center, Lansing
Selfridge Army Activity
W.K. Kellogg Airport Air Guard Station

Minnesota:

Navy Reserve Center Duluth

Mississippi:

Mississippi Army Ammunition Plant
Naval Station, Pascagoula
U.S. Army Reserve Center, Vicksburg

Missouri:

Army National Guard Reserve Center, Jefferson Barracks
Defense Finance and Accounting Service, Kansas City
Defense Finance and Accounting Service, St. Louis
Marine Corps Support Center, Kansas City
Navy Recruiting District Headquarters, Kansas City
Navy Reserve Center, Cape Girardeau

Montana:

Galt Hall U.S. Army Reserve Center, Great Falls

Nebraska:

Army National Guard Reserve Center, Columbus
Army National Guard Reserve Center, Grand Island
Army National Guard Reserve Center, Kearny
Naval Recruiting District Headquarters, Omaha
Navy Reserve Center, Lincoln

Nevada:

Hawthorne Army Depot

New Hampshire:

Doble U.S. Army Reserve Center, Portsmouth

New Jersey:

Fort Monmouth
Inspector/Instructor Center, West Trenton
Kilmer U.S. Army Reserve Center, Edison
SFC Nelson V. Brittin U.S. Army Reserve Center

New Mexico:

Cannon Air Force Base
Jenkins Armed Forces Reserve Center, Albuquerque

New York:

Armed Forces Reserve Center, Amityville
Army National Guard Reserve Center, Niagara Falls
Carpenter U.S. Army Reserve Center, Poughkeepsie
Defense Finance and Accounting Service, Rome
Navy Recruiting District Headquarters, Buffalo
Navy Reserve Center Glenn Falls
Navy Reserve Center Horsehead
Navy Reserve Center Watertown
Niagara Falls International Airport Air Guard Station

North Carolina:

Navy Reserve Center, Asheville
Niven U.S. Army Reserve Center, Albemarle

Ohio:

Army National Guard Reserve Center, Mansfield
Army National Guard Reserve Center, Westerville
Defense Finance and Accounting Service, Dayton
Mansfield Lahm Municipal Airport Air Guard Station
Navy-Marine Corps Reserve Center, Akron
Navy-Marine Corps Reserve Center, Cleveland
Parrott U.S. Army Reserve Center, Kenton
U.S. Army Reserve Center, Whitehall

Oklahoma:

Armed Forces Reserve Center Broken Arrow
Armed Forces Reserve Center Muskogee
Army National Guard Reserve Center Tishomingo
Krowse U.S. Army Reserve Center, Oklahoma City
Navy-Marine Corps Reserve Center, Tulsa
Oklahoma City (95th)

Oregon:

Navy Reserve Center Central Point
Umatilla Army Depot

Pennsylvania:

Bristol
Engineering Field Activity Northeast
Kelly Support Center
Naval Air Station Willow Grove
Navy Crane Center Lester
Navy-Marine Corps Reserve Center, Reading
North Penn U.S. Army Reserve Center, Norristown
Pittsburgh International Airport Air Reserve Station
Serrenti U.S. Army Reserve Center, Scranton
U.S. Army Reserve Center Bloomsburg
U.S. Army Reserve Center Lewisburg
U.S. Army Reserve Center Williamsport
W. Reese U.S. Army Reserve Center/OMS, Chester

Puerto Rico:

Army National Guard Reserve Center, Humacao
Lavergne U.S. Army Reserve Center, Bayamon

Rhode Island:

Harwood U.S. Army Reserve Center, Providence
USARC Bristol

South Carolina:

Defense Finance and Accounting Service, Charleston
South Naval Facilities Engineering Command

South Dakota:

Ellsworth Air Force Base

Tennessee:

U.S. Army Reserve Area Maintenance Support Facility, Kingsport

Texas:

Army National Guard Reserve Center No. 2, Dallas
Army National Guard Reserve Center (Hondo Pass), El Paso
Army National Guard Reserve Center, California Crossing
Army National Guard Reserve Center, Ellington
Army National Guard Reserve Center, Lufkin
Army National Guard Reserve Center, Marshall
Army National Guard Reserve Center, New Braunfels
Brooks City Base
Defense Finance and Accounting Service, San Antonio
Lone Star Army Ammunition Plant
Naval Station, Ingleside
Navy Reserve Center, Lubbock
Navy Reserve Center, Orange
Red River Army Depot
U.S. Army Reserve Center No. 2, Houston

Utah:

Deseret Chemical Depot

Virginia:

Fort Monroe

Washington:

1LT Richard H. Walker U.S. Army Reserve Center
Army National Guard Reserve Center, Everett
Navy-Marine Corps Reserve Center, Tacoma
U.S. Army Reserve Center, Fort Lawton
Vancouver Barracks

West Virginia:

Bias U.S. Army Reserve Center, Huntington
Fairmont U.S. Army Reserve Center
Navy-Marine Corps Reserve Center, Moundsville

Wisconsin:

Gen. Mitchell International Airport ARS
Navy Reserve Center, La Crosse
Navy-Marine Corps Reserve Center, Madison
Olson U.S. Army Reserve Center, Madison
U.S. Army Reserve Center, O'Connell

Wyoming:

Army Aviation Support Facility, Cheyenne
Army National Guard Reserve Center, Thermopolis

Of course, not everyone is happy about it.

I am surprised at some of the listings, particularly Naval Submarine Base, New London, CT. That base is the navel of the submarine universe.

Freak Watch - Saparmurat Niyazov - Part 3

It is a characteristic of totalitarian countries to destroy books that do not have the approval of the regime. In Turkmenistan that apparently includes all books, with the exception of the Rukhnama.

IFLA Blasts Turkmenistan Library Closings and Rights Violations

The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) called on the government of Turkmenistan April 29 to rescind an order by President Saparmurat Niyazov to close the country’s libraries. The controversial leader declared that libraries are pointless because villagers don’t read, the Prima news agency reported February 11. “Nobody reads books, people don’t go to libraries,” he concluded. “Central and student libraries will remain; the remainder need to close.” Niyazov has also closed down all hospitals outside the capital of Ashgabat, as well as all national parks.

Why? Well we wouldn't want to interfere people's study of Turkmenbashi's own "Holy Book", would we.

The destruction of books and closing of libraries is apparently a part of Niyazov’s promotion of his own book of moral and philosophical musings, the Rukhnama. The Washington Post reported February 23 that the book is at the center of the president’s cult of personality, and everyone in the country who can read has been ordered to study it and pass examinations on it.

“If the Rukhnama were a benign text, like the memoirs of a U.S. president, this would be harmless,” Open Society Institute Specialist Erika Dailey told the Post, “but the Rukhnama is the principal instrument for indoctrination and brainwashing in Turkmenistan.”

I have added the Rukhnama to my "Voice of the Enemy" links.

Neat Trick for Blogger Bloggers on Haloscan

evariste at Discarded Lies found this trackback autodiscovery code by the Ogre. It is a bit of code to add to your template that will automatically send you a trackback ping if someone links to you from a Movable Type or WordPress blog. If you use Blogger and want to help your friends who use Movable Type or WordPress, give this a try. You will see no effect on your blog, but your friends at those other blogs will have an easier time sending you trackbacks.

You can test it by asking one of those other bloggers for a link, but do it for a post that you put up after you add the code to your template. Blogger, at least in my case, does not update the template for old posts.

You will also not make zorkmidden grumpy or contribute to evariste's suffering.

Frigate Bird

Lubber's Line posts on the 43^rd anniversary of the Frigate Bird test. This was the only live test of a submarine launched nuclear weapon. The USS Ethan Allen (SSBN 608) was the platform for the test, conducted on May 6, 1962.

The Department of Energy has the video.

St. Nikolai of Japan

Maria Junko Matsushima wrote an excellent article about the work of St. Nikolai of Japan with respect to Japanese Orthodox Church singing. She also touched on his biography and his other translation work. She wrote the piece in Japanese for Seikyo Jiho, the official magazine of the Orthodox Church in Japan. It appeared serially from February to June 2002. It has been translated into English.

ST. NIKOLAI of JAPAN and the Japanese Church Singing

An interesting detail;

Nikolai said in his letter to Bishop Innokenti[1] in October 1868 that he had translated “Gospels,” “Acts,” “Epistles,” “Brief Church History,” “Teaching,” “Q & A on Dogma,” and “Morning and Evening Prayer Handbook” from the Chinese version, and “Liturgy of Catechumen” and “Baptism” [2]from the Slavic ( op.cit..) [see link for footnotes - ed.]

The Bishop Innokenti she refers to is also known as St. Innocent of Alaska, one of our American Saints. St. Nikolai and St. Innocent knew each other well.

Slave State

The Korean Peninsula at Night

Christopher Hitchens, at Slate Magazine, writes, Worse Than 1984 (thanks to Lee Keller King for the tip);

In North Korea, every person is property and is owned by a small and mad family with hereditary power. Every minute of every day, as far as regimentation can assure the fact, is spent in absolute subjection and serfdom. The private life has been entirely abolished. One tries to avoid cliché, and I did my best on a visit to this terrifying country in the year 2000, but George Orwell's 1984 was published at about the time that Kim Il Sung set up his system, and it really is as if he got hold of an early copy of the novel and used it as a blueprint. ("Hmmm … good book. Let's see if we can make it work.")

Actually, North Korea is rather worse than Orwell's dystopia. There would be no way, in the capital city of Pyongyang, to wander off and get lost in the slums, let alone to rent an off-the-record love nest in a room over a shop. Everybody in the city has to be at home and in bed by curfew time, when all the lights go off (if they haven't already failed). A recent nighttime photograph of the Korean peninsula from outer space shows something that no "free-world" propaganda could invent: a blaze of electric light all over the southern half, stopping exactly at the demilitarized zone and becoming an area of darkness in the north.

Concealed in that pitch-black night is an imploding state where the only things that work are the police and the armed forces. The situation is actually slightly worse than indentured servitude. The slave owner historically promises, in effect, at least to keep his slaves fed. In North Korea, this compact has been broken. It is a famine state as well as a slave state. Partly because of the end of favorable trade relations with, and subsidies from, the former USSR, but mainly because of the lunacy of its command economy, North Korea broke down in the 1990s and lost an unguessable number of people to sheer starvation. The survivors, especially the children, have been stunted and malformed. Even on a tightly controlled tour of the place—North Korea is almost as hard to visit as it is to leave—my robotic guides couldn't prevent me from seeing people drinking from sewers and picking up individual grains of food from barren fields. (I was reduced to eating a dog, and I was a privileged "guest.") Film shot from over the Chinese border shows whole towns ruined and abandoned, with their few factories idle and cannibalized. It seems that the mines in the north of the country have been flooded beyond repair.

Christopher Hitchens goes on to say that the international human rights movement should step up and encourage an underground railway (or overground one) to assist the inmates citizens of North Korea to escape to China and eventually other countries including the U.S. (a high quality immigration for us). Sadly, I don't think it will.

Mr. Hitchens concludes;

Kim Jong-il and his fellow slave masters are trying to dictate the pace of events by setting a timetable of nuclearization, based on a crash program wrung from their human property. But why should it be assumed that their failed state and society are permanent? Another timeline, oriented to liberation and regime change, is what the dynasty most fears. It should start to fear it more. Bravo to President Bush, anyway, for his bluntness.

Indeed, bravo to the POTUS and Mr. Hitchens for his work.

ACLU Supports Child Rape Advocacy

I was wandering aroung Mere Comments when I found this with a link to Remembering Jeffrey Curley at Crux Magazine. The actions of the ACLU are disgusting beyond belief.

You see, the ACLU has taken up the defense of the North American Man-Boy Love Association (NAMBLA) in a civil suit filed by Mr. and Mrs. Robert Curley. The Curleys claim that the murderer of their son, Charles Jaynes, was driven by NAMBLA materials to murder, and the Curleys claim that NAMBLA bears at least some responsibility for his action.

According to the Curley’s attorney, Larry Frisoli, NAMBLA is not merely a group lobbying Congress for legal change (a perfectly Constitutional act), or printing fictional accounts of man-boy love—they are actively training their members to rape and abuse young boys.

In an interview with DeRoy Murdock, Frisoli explained that pamphlets like NAMBLA’s “The Survival Manual: The Man’s Guide to Staying Alive in Man-Boy Sexual Relationships” aid and abet felonious conduct, telling members “where to go to have sex with children . . . when to leave America [if one gets caught] and how to rip off credit card companies to get cash to finance your flight.” Materials such as these were found in Jaynes’ possession; his diary noted that they were influential in his decision to molest children, and the Curley’s believe NAMBLA should be held accountable for their perverse willingness to promote such conduct.

The ACLU disagrees. They claim NAMBLA’s pamphlets are free speech.

This is not civil liberties advocacy, it is insanity. Just as I cannot post web materials like “Bombs Away: A User's Guide to Firebombing the ACLU’s Massachusetts Headquarters,” the men at NAMBLA have no Constitutional right to post online descriptions of juvenile abduction and molestation techniques, and assuredly have no amnesty in relation to civil, as opposed to criminal, claims. The fact that the ACLU is wasting money on such a defense while real First Amendment violations occur every day should be an offense to its members and a sign of the organization's growing superfluity and hypocrisy.

Go read it all. John Coleman is touching and sensitive in his portrayal of young Jeffrey Curley

He is also rightly condemnatory of the evil ACLU.

The Easter Sermon of St. John Chrysostom

The Easter Sermon of John Chrysostom

If any be pious and a lover of God, let him rejoice in this fair and radiant festival.
If any be a faithful servant let him enter into the joy of his Lord.
If any be weary with fasting, let him now enjoy his payment.

If anyone has labored from the first hour, let him receive today his just reward.
If anyone has come after the third hour, let him now be thankful that the feast is at hand,
If anyone has waited until after the sixth hour, let him not be anxious, no loss shall be his own.
If anyone has tarried until the ninth hour, let him draw near also, shedding all his doubts.
If anyone has come only at the eleventh hour, let him not be fearful because of his delay.

For the Master is bountiful and receives the last even as the first.
He gives repose to him who came at the eleventh hour just as to one who labored from the first.
The tardy are shown mercy and the timely are made whole.
To the one he gives, on the other he bestows.
He honors the deed and praises the intention.

Let all therefore enter into the joy of our Lord, (let both the first and those who came later receive their wages)
Let rich and poor dance with one another. You sober and you heedless celebrate the day.
You who have fasted and you who have not rejoice in this occasion.

The table is full-laden let all enjoy the feast.
The calf is fatted, let no one go forth hungry.
Let all partake of the banquet of faith, let all partake of the riches of goodness.

Let none mourn his poverty, for the kingdom stands before us.
Let none lament his failings, forgiveness has risen from the tomb.
Let none fear death, for the death of the Savior has set us free.

He quenched death when it had tasted his flesh.
He despoiled Hades when he descended thereto
Foreseeing this, Isaiah cried:
'Hell was embittered when it met you face to face.'

It was embittered for it was made void,
It was embittered for it was mocked,
It was embittered for it was slain,
It was embittered for it was despoiled.
It was embittered for it was led off in chains.

It received a body and encountered God,
It received earth and came face to face with heaven.
It received what it saw and fell where it could not see.

Death where is thy sting,
Hades where is thy victory?

Christ is risen and you are cast down,
Christ is risen and the demons are fallen,
Christ is risen and the angels rejoice,
Christ is risen and life is made free.
Christ is risen and there is none dead in the tomb.

For Christ is risen from the dead as the first fruits of those that fell asleep.

To him be glory and power forever and ever, Amen.


Translated by Frank Dobbs

God bless all of you, my dear readers.