French Nuclear Weapons Upgrade

Strangely enough, it is the French who are most likely to use a nuclear weapon in warfare under current political conditions. Not the U.S., not the Russians. In an effort to meet the Iranian threat and provide deterrence against an attack by any Middle Eastern or Central Asian country, France has made her nuclear weapons strategy more realistically usable.

France secretly upgrades capacity of nuclear arsenal:

France has secretly modified its nuclear arsenal to increase the strike range and accuracy of its weapons. The move comes weeks after President Jacques Chirac warned that states which threatened the country could face the "ultimate warning" of a nuclear retaliation.

A military source quoted yesterday by the Libération newspaper claimed France had tinkered with its nuclear weapons to improve their strike capability and make this threat more credible.

The source said there had been two major changes: the bombs can now be fired at high altitude to create an "electromagnetic impulsion" to destroy the enemy's computer and communications systems; and the number of nuclear warheads has been reduced to increase the missiles' range and precision.

The missiles at issue here are the submarine launched M45 SLBM. France has 4 ballistic missile submarines, each of which carries 16 of these missiles. Each missile carries 6 warheads. Now they only carry one. This will increase the range and accuracy of the missile, and allow for targeting a single, remote site. With civilian populations not under significant threat, the use of this weapon becomes much more plausible.

In reducing the number of warheads, down to one per missile in some cases, the weapon is lighter and has a longer range. It can also be targeted more accurately.

Libération speculates that while potential targets are "secret", it is clear they include the Middle East or Asia, and that its military contacts suggest the changes are aimed at adding "flexibility" to France's nuclear deterrent.

"These evolutions are aimed at better taking into account the psychology of the enemy, defence minister Michèle Alliot-Marie said after President Chirac's warning in January.

In a speech to MPs, she added: "A potential enemy may think that France, given its principles, might hesitate to use the entire force of its nuclear arsenal against civilian populations.

"Our country has modified its capacity for action and from now on has the possibility to target the control centres of an eventual enemy."

This bears watching. If the Iranians think that they are not in a very seriously dangerous position, then they are very badly mistaken.

For more on French nuclear weapons see this at GlobalSecurity.org.

This is Funny

From the Sacramento Republicrat;

A Texas cowboy was tending to his herd in a remote pasture when suddenly a brand-new BMW advanced out of a dust cloud towards him. The driver, a young man in a Brioni suit, Gucci shoes, Ray Ban sunglasses and a YSL tie, leaned out the window and asked the cowboy... "If I tell you exactly how many cows and calves you have in your herd, will you give me a calf?" The cowboy looks at the man, obviously a yuppie, then looks at his peacefully grazing herd and calmly answers, "Sure, Why not?"

The yuppie parks his car, whips out his Dell notebook computer, connects it to his AT&T cell phone, and surfs to a NASA page on
the Internet, where he calls up a GPS satellite navigation system to get an exact fix on his location which he then feeds to another
NASA satellite that scans the area in an ultra-high-resolution photo.
The young man then opens the digital photo in Adobe Photoshop and exports it to an image processing facility in Hamburg, Germany.
Within seconds, he receives an email on his Palm Pilot that the image
has been processed and the data stored.

He then accesses a MS-SQL database through an ODBC connected Excel spreadsheet with hundreds of complex formulas. He uploads all of this data via an email on his Blackberry and after a few minutes, receives a response.

Finally, he prints out a full-color, 150-page report on his hi-tech, miniaturized HP LaserJet printer and finally turns to the cowboy and says, ''You have exactly 1586 cows and calves."

"That's right. Well, I guess you can take one of my calves," says the
cowboy. He watches the young man select one of the animals and looks on amused as the young man stuffs it into the trunk of his car.

Then the cowboy says to the young man, "Hey, if I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me back my calf?"

The young man thinks about it for a second and then says, "Okay, why not?"

"You're a consultant for the National Democratic Party," says the cowboy.

"Wow! That's correct," says the yuppie, "but how did you guess that?"

"No guessing required," answered the cowboy, "You showed up here even though nobody called you; you want to get paid for an answer I already knew, to a question I never asked; and you don't know anything about my business... Now give me back my dog."

Judge Says, "Let her die".

Why is our oligarchy so interested in seeing the innocent die and the guilty live? On the one hand we have Michael Morales, who (not having ensured that his victim was properly sedated first) strangled Terri Lynn Winchell with his leather belt so hard that the belt broke, then smashed her head in with 23 blows of a hammer, then dragged her body out of the car they were in and raped her, returning to the scene later to see if she was safely dead. In the view of our black-robed oligarchy this is not deserving of death. His just penalty has been suspended indefinitely because no one can be sure that he will feel no pain during his execution (like 23 hammer blows, for instance). This is an end-around to the death penalty. Oligarch Fogel wishes to see it ended, and since the law does not support him in this, he applies ever more difficult conditions in its execution with an eye to preventing it entirely. Apparently Michael Morales is worthy of life, in his view.

On the other hand we have Charlotte Wyatt, who is sick. She is 2 and 1/2 years old and has been struggling terribly for her entire life. Oligarch Hedley [Update: Hedley is a British Oligarch, not one of ours. - ed.] had, upon Charlotte's improvement (sufficient even to go home), ruled that she was worthy of life and that efforts to save her should continue. Shortly after, Charlotte suffered a dangerous infection, whereupon the Oligarch, in an emergency injunction, reversed his ruling and now says that she should die. She responds to treatment, yet that treatment is to be withheld. Apparently, in the view of the Oligarch, she is not worthy of life.

What is the matter with our judges? Why do they value the murderer and wish to see the innocent die? My contempt for the Bench at all levels grows daily. So to my contempt for "lawmakers" who fail to draft laws that prevent this kind of horror.

UPDATE:
This is a British case, I wrongly assumed it to be an American one. Still, liberal judges in the U.S. make these same kind of decisions. I will find them for you as they come up.

UPDATE and AMPLIFICATION:
The reason I leave this post up is because of the shared values of western liberalism in whatever countries it manifests itself. Our legal system in the United States is different that the one in the U.K. and an American Judge would have a bit more difficulty in achieving the result that Hedley did, but would still seek to do so.

Liberalism™ in Europe and in the U.S. values abortion on demand, euthanasia, assisted suicide, and the gradual expansion of all of those. Liberalism™ in both Europe and the U.S. seek to abolish the death penalty wherever it exists (in the West, they had no problem with Saddam) and preserve the lives of murderers while condemning the infirm to death. Liberal judges in the U.K. and the U.S. are of one mind in this.

Velvet Elvis, Jesus, and Muhammed

Yes, you've seen them at gas stations all over the United States. Painting on black velvet. Elvis is the most popular. In this spirit you can now get a Velvet Muhammed (click on the center thumbnail). From their press release:

With or without fluorescent paint, few things are as quintessentially kitschy as black velvet paintings. But many political leaders in Europe and the United States seem to agree with the Pope and the Islamic community that free speech is what's truly out of style. In response to this officially endorsed cultural intimidation, an international group of brave human rights activists, known as the Velvet Prophet People (www.velvetprophet.com), have created the Velvet Muhammad to demonstrate that "free speech is never in poor taste."

The Prophet, who shares a remarkable likeness to "the King," can be viewed in all his finery at www.velvetprophet.com - or soon, in the offices of several major Islamic organizations. The Velvet Prophet team is giving original, hand-painted Velvet Prophets to several of the groups inciting rage in Muslim communities. Gift recipients include Jamaí­a Islamiya, Arab European League, Muslim Council of Britain, Hizb-ut-Tahrir, Islamic Defenders Front, Islamic Circle of North America and the Organization of the Islamic Conference. These organizations, which were appalled by a few cartoons, will see for themselves that the Prophet looks much more dignified on black velvet.

The Velvet Prophet is also available to mere infidels. Global citizens who support freedom of expression and oppose the spread of culturally oppressive forms of Islam are hanging their very own Velvet Prophets in homes and businesses. If some true believers wish to murder us all for the sin of being human, we'll exercise our freedom to laugh about it.

All profits from the sale of Velvet Muhammad paintings, shirts and prints go to non-profit organizations that either support free speech or work against the growth of radical Islam.

A note on the website adds:

Please note that those organizations do not necessarily endorse the Velvet Prophet Protest. All death threats should be sent to Attn: Fatwa at Velvet Prophet People

This site has the Lizardoid Stamp of Blasphemy

I will be putting a button with a link to their sit in the sidebar.

Go there are read about the "Seven startling similarities between Elvis and Muhammad"

I just love the belt buckle.

Coming Genocide in Europe?

Cathedral of St. George in Prizren after Attack by Albanian Muslims

There is ethnic cleansing going on in Kosovo, and it is not what you think. The minority population there stands a good chance of being wiped out in a very short time (if it is not too late already).

Kosovo Bishop Warns Not to Hand Jihadists a Victory

(CNSNews.com) - A leading Serbian Orthodox bishop, visiting the U.S. on a mission of "peace and understanding," has warned the international community against granting independence to Kosovo, saying such a move would hand a victory to radical Muslims and their jihadist supporters.

Kosovo's independence from Serbia would also mean "a virtual sentence of extinction" for minority Serbs in the province, according to Dr. Artemije Radosavljevic, the bishop of the Serbian cities of Raska and Prizren.

He met with Cybercast News Service during a recent 20-day tour of the U.S. to discuss the fate of the troubled province, which is formally known as Kosovo and Metohija. This month, international talks are set to begin regarding Kosovo's final status.

Here is the News from Kosovo.

Of course these people are Orthodox Christian Serbs. Watch as the UN, the European "community", and the U.S. do nothing to help them. National independence for Kosovo is assured.

A Bad Day at the Office

I received this in an email.

This is even funnier when you realize it's real!

The next time you have a bad day at work...think of this guy. Rob is a commercial saturation diver for Global Divers in Louisiana. He performs underwater repairs on offshore drilling rigs. Below is an e-mail he sent to his sister. She then sent it to radio station 103.2 on FM dial in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, who was sponsoring a worst job experience contest. Needless to say, she won.

Hi Sue:

Just another note from your bottom-dwelling brother. Last week I had a bad day at the office. I know you've been feeling down lately at work, so I thought I would share my dilemma with you to make you realize it's not so bad after all.

Before I can tell you what happened to me, I first must bore you with a few technicalities of my job. As you know, my office lies at the bottom of the sea. I wear a suit to the office. It's a wet suit. This time of year the water is quite cool. So what we do to keep warm is this: We have a diesel powered industrial water heater. This $20,000 piece of equipment sucks the water out of the sea. It heats it to a delightful temperature. It then pumps it down to the diver through a garden hose, which is taped to the air hose.

Now this sounds like a darn good plan, and I have used it several times with no complaints. What I do, when I get to the bottom and start working, is take the hose and stuff it down the back of my wet suit. This floods my whole suit with warm water. It's like working in a Jacuzzi.

Everything was going well until all of a sudden, my butt started to itch. So, of course, I scratched it. This only made things worse. Within a few seconds my butt started to burn. I pulled the hose out from my back, but the damage was done. In agony I realized what had happened. The hot water machine had sucked up a jellyfish and pumped it into my suit. Now, since I don't have any hair on my back, the jellyfish couldn't stick to it. However, the crack of my butt was not as fortunate. When I scratched what I thought was an itch, I was actually grinding the jellyfish into the crack of my butt.

I informed the dive supervisor of my dilemma over the communicator. His instructions were unclear due to the fact that he, along with five other divers were laughing hysterically.

Needless to say I aborted the dive. I was instructed to make three agonizing in-water decompression stops totaling thirty-five minutes before I could reach the surface to begin my chamber dry decompression. When I arrived at the surface, I was wearing nothing but my brass helmet. As I climbed out of the water, the medic, with tears of laughter running down his face, handed me a tube of cream and told me to rub it on my butt as soon as I got in the chamber. The cream put the fire out, but I couldn't poop for two days because my butt was swollen shut.

So, next time you're having a bad day at work, think about how much worse it would be if you had a jellyfish shoved up your butt. Now repeat to yourself, "I love my job, I love my job, I love my job".

Reaction to Eminent Domain Abuse

After the Supreme Court ruled in the Kelo v. City of New London decision that it is perfectly ok for the government to take your property and give it to someone with more money, a very healthy reaction has occurred.

States Curbing Right to Seize Private Homes

"It's open season on eminent domain," said Larry Morandi, a land-use specialist at the National Conference of State Legislatures. "Bills are being pushed by Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, and they're passing by huge margins."

Seldom has a Supreme Court decision sparked such an immediate legislative reaction, and one that scrambles the usual partisan lines. Condemnation of the ruling came from black lawmakers representing distressed urban districts, from suburbanites and from Western property-rights absolutists who rarely see eye to eye on anything. Lawmakers from Maine to California have introduced dozens of bills in reaction to the ruling, most of them saying that government should never seize private homes or businesses solely to benefit a private developer.

The Supreme Court seemed to invite such a response in its narrowly written ruling in the case, Kelo v. City of New London. Justice John Paul Stevens, writing for the majority, expressed sympathy for the displaced homeowners and said that the "necessity and wisdom" of the use of eminent domain were issues of legitimate debate. And, he added, "We emphasize that nothing in our opinion precludes any state from placing further restrictions on its exercise of the takings power."

Two months after the ruling, addressing a bar association meeting, Justice Stevens called it "unwise" and said he would have opposed it had he been a legislator and not a federal judge bound by precedent.

Plenty of legislators took the hint.

Good.

Islam - Religion of Intolerance

I have said many times that Christians are leaving the Middle East because of the tyranny of Islam. A quick Google search provides a large number of links to verify this.

Hamas, now the controlling political party in the West Bank and Gaza, has made their plans for the Jews, Christians, and Israel clear.

Gaza's Tiny Christian Community Threatened With Violence:

Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - Extremists are threatening to blow up the Palestinian Bible Society in the Gaza Strip if the people who work there do not close up shop and abandon their ministry by the end of February, a Christian source told Cybercast News Service.

The threat appears to be the work of Islamic extremists who are determined to drive Christians out of the area. Arab Christians are taking the threat very seriously, said a Palestinian Bible Society information officer who asked not to be named.

Stay tuned, there is a lot of Islamic persecution of Christians going on now all over the world, including in Europe. I will be posting on this often.

Please pray for our Christian brothers and sisters.

ACLU Kills Antioch, California Man

In it continuing effort to eliminate all effective law enforcement tools and protect criminals nationwide, the ACLU has made it difficult for police in California to use TASERs. As a result, they are left with only their sidearms (something that the Left™ has been unable to take away from them).

Police Shot Him, But ACLU Killed Him;

(CNSNews.com) - Police in Antioch, Calif., shot and killed a man this week when he allegedly advanced on them with a carving knife and a meat fork.

Although a bullet killed 27-year-old Scott Dittman, it might not have happened if police could have used a TASER instead of a gun, a law enforcement lobbying group said on Friday.

The Law Enforcement Alliance of America calls Dittman's shooting the nation's "first real TASER death," and it pins the blame on the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, which released a report in October, warning about the rise in Taser-related deaths.

Police went to Dittman's house around midnight Tuesday, after he called to complain about vampires prowling outside, press reports said.

Facing an armed and dangerous subject, police officers are entirely justified in using lethal force, the LEAA noted. But it called Dittman's death "exceptionally tragic" because police lacked less-lethal alternatives to subdue him.

Although the Antioch police department has TASERs, police officials apparently have suspended their use because of legal and political concerns.

In its October report, the ACLU of Northern California called for strong regulations on how police use the weapon.

Of course the ACLU has always relied on only the very best science in the studies that it uses to support its conclusions.

The report, "Stun Gun Fallacy: How the Lack of Taser Regulation Endangers Lives," was based on a survey of TASER policies and training in more than 50 police departments across central and northern California, the ACLU said.

The report said that since 1999, at least 148 people in the United States and Canada had died after police shocked them with TASERS. "More than half of those deaths occurred in the past year, of which 15 took place in northern and central California," the ACLU said in a press release.

The LEAA called the report "misleading and dangerous" and "junk science."

In its rebuttal, the LEAA said the study made "outrageous claims, unsubstantiated charges and ill-considered policy recommendations," including a recommendation that local governments adopt new, more restrictive policies regarding the use of TASERs by law enforcement officers.

"Sadly, the death of Scott Dittman was a predictable consequence of the dangers of letting the ACLU and politicians meddle with police safety and training," the LEAA said in a press release on Friday.

The LEAA warned several months ago that the ACLU study would "handcuff" police officers on the street by giving them fewer options for survival in potentially deadly confrontations. Fewer options lead to dangerous results for police, the public and suspects, the LEAA said at the time.

The ACLU could not possibly care less about public safety. They have an agenda that requires hobbling the police and other authorities, supporting and freeing the worst criminals whenever possible, the continual violation of our borders, an enforced lack of respect for our laws, and many other actions to harm the country that they hate the most of all, US.

Crowds Panic as Flooding Threatens Ireland!

I received this important news in my email.


I hope that the authorities and disaster relief agencies are able to get control of the situation.

Chinese Nuclear Weapons

This page is a couple of years old, but the information on it is still current.

DONG FENG/JULANG SERIES MISSILES

This site comes complete with photographs (very rare with respect to Chinese missile systems).

About the DF-31;

The new Dong Feng 31 (DF-31) missiles are attached to the 80304 Unit of the Second Artillery Corps. The 80304 Unit is headquartered in Luoyang, Henan province. The new Dong Feng (EAST WIND) 31 missile performed flawlessly during its test flights. The DF-31 can reach any city in America and is armed with three nuclear warheads. The DF-31 has Clinton-supplied guidance, nuclear warhead, nose cone and solid rocket engine technologies.

During the visit to China of General Henry Shelton, the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, and just a few days prior to the American presidential election, Beijing successfully flight tested its new DF-31 inter-continental ballistic missile, reports Bill Gertz in the Washington Times. Defense analysts say the timing of the test was a deliberate political signal to the United States and its allies. During Shelton's visit, Chinese officials repeated Beijing's opposition to US defensive arms sales to Taiwan. The DF-31 test missile utilized several decoy warheads, intended to defeat US missile defenses.

The DF-31 is equipped with many technologies stolen or bought from America during Clinton's term. The DF-31 success was so spectacular that the the PLA 2nd Artillery will deploy 24 missiles by the end of 2004.

The Chinese DF-31 is a road mobile, nuclear tipped SCUD like missile, that is nearly impossible to find, much less destroy. It is intended to counter the USAF B-2 bomber in a "limited" nuclear war scenario where China and the U.S. would only kill a few million people on each side. If deployed in large numbers, the DF-31 could pose a significant first strike theat (sic) against stationary military targets inside the U.S. homeland, such as the MX missile fields and the single B-2 bomber base.

Read all of it. These are some high quality missile systems. That is not good when it is in the hands of the enemy.

RoP in Afghanistan and Our Hollywood Heroes

The Taleban is not dead yet. They are still beheading anyone who opposes them.

Afghan TV screens gruesome Taleban video

Disturbing video footage of beheaded bodies being paraded through the streets of southern Pakistan, in front of powerless police, has been broadcast today in Afghanistan.

Tolo TV, a private Afghan network, said that the men were killed a month ago in the tribal district of South Waziristan as a punishment for their opposition to the Taleban and al-Qaeda militias.

It would not reveal the source of the footage, whose authenticity has not been verified.

In one segment of the film, three decapitated heads are held up to cheers from a gathered crowd. Later, a number of bodies are seen being dragged behind a pick-up truck.

Crowds are heard chanting "long live Osama bin Laden" and "long live Mullah Omar", respectively the leaders of al-Qaeda and the Taleban.

They have been busy.

Last week, in a show of strength, 200 Taleban militants surrounded provincial government offices in the area killing more than 20 people in a failed attempt to capture the deputy governor. The beheaded bodies of two Afghan intellingence agents were found two days ago in a desert near the border with Iran.

The Taleban, toppled from power in a US-led military campaign in late 2001, regrouped on the border of Aghanistan and Pakistan was last year blamed for the deaths of 1,700 people in the area.

Of course, those who are Very Wise™ would have us understand that modern forces beyond our control, particularly rapid global communications and a commercial Fifth Column Press manipulate us into fighting wars in both Afghanistan and Iraq that we should never have started. [of couse WE did NOT start it at all, but liberals cannot see this - ed.], and because we are there, the President should be impeached.

Here is what one of the Very Wise™, in the person of Richard Dreyfuss, has to say:

On impeachment;

"There are causes worth fighting for even if you know that you will lose," Dreyfuss said during a speech at the National Press Club. "Unless you are willing to accept torture as part of a normal American political lexicon, unless you are willing to accept that leaving the Geneva Convention is fine and dandy, if you accept the expansion of wiretapping as business as usual, the only way to express this now is to embrace the difficult and perhaps embarrassing process of impeachment."

On the Media and the reaction to 9/11;

Nevertheless, Dreyfuss charged that "people can sometimes be pretty thoughtless, pretty terrified and do some pretty impressive damage" when they are wrong or "are the victims of political hypnosis." [That's right, wrong and hypnotised - ed.]

In the past, "time and distance played an amazing part in keeping the human race from killing itself," the actor noted. The need for revenge after an attack "inevitably weakened because it took a lot of time to get men into ships and move them to the right battlefield. Only those truly staunch of heart and truly zealous could keep up that hatred.

"But now, people in Kansas see the [Twin] Towers fall at the exact instant as people in Nigeria or Cairo," he said. "Instantaneous knowledge leads to instantaneous reaction, which creates a demand for an instantaneous, reflexive response."

Dreyfuss blamed part of that reaction on television newscasters, who "fill the air with the same terrible clips, the same blaring intro music, the same screaming fonts, and then the same clips again and the same screaming fonts again and again to fill up these news cycles."

"Television did this. Television created the sound bite and then shrunk it," the actor said. "Television replaced words with images so that people make extraordinary decisions based not on prose or any attempt at analysis," but on pictures instead.

The implication being that we should never have gone to war with anyone, even though Afganistan supported and protected Ossama bin Laden and his camps even after 9/11. In fact, al Qaeda constituted, de facto, the Afgani Armed Forces. In fact the Taleban fully supported terror attacks on the United States, but the Hollywood Very Wise™ would have us leave them alone.

I suppose that we are just supposed to embrace those who wish to kill us, and then die.

Thank for the advice, Dick.

Hamas Video - We will Drink the Blood of Jews

Jimmy Carter, Norway, and the UN wants us to continue sending these savages money.

Hamas Video: We will drink the blood of the Jews

The Hamas website this week presented the parting video messages of two Hamas suicide terrorists. One message was for Jews, whose blood Hamas promises to drink until Jews "leave the Muslim countries," and the second to a mother, as she helps dress her son for battle prior to his suicide terror mission.

One of the terrorists (liberals would have me call him a "freedom fighter") says;

"My message to the loathed Jews is that there is no god but Allah, we will chase you everywhere! We are a nation that drinks blood, and we know that there is no blood better than the blood of Jews. We will not leave you alone until we have quenched our thirst with your blood, and our children's thirst with your blood. We will not leave until you leave the Muslim countries."

The other said;

"In the name of Allah, we will destroy you, blow you up, take revenge against you, [and] purify the land of you, pigs that have defiled our country... This operation is revenge against the sons of monkeys and pigs."

And their loving mothers were supportive, and joyous at the prospect of their beloved sons weddings with the "Maidens of Paradise" (I know that my Mother would not be happy with my having an orgy with 72 celestial whores).

Imagine their surprise when they arrive in Hell and are given 72 white raisins.

An Email from a Friend

A friend with whom I work is a regular reader of this blog. She read my Religion of Mercy post and sent an email to me in response. She is a lovely and gentle young lady, I was shocked to read this;

Hello Michael,

I just read your "Religion of Mercy" post and felt compelled to comment. The picture says it all. I suppose I read this post more thoroughly because I have a relationship with Persians. Half of my family is from Iran. I bet you didn't know that. Most of them truly are merciless and think there is nothing wrong with torture. In fact, the man I know as my (step) father has said "I would have made a better Hitler. I would not have been caught and I would have got rid of all the Jews, blacks, and homeless people". That's compassion for you.

I watched some of the stoning video and couldn't help but get a little nauseous not only for the act they were performing but also from what they were shouting: Allah oh Achbad which means Praise be to (their) God. All in the name of religion and culture. Sickening. I thought I had it bad as a child but I am quickly humbled by realizing it could have been much worse...I could have been brought up in Iran.

You post mentions that the woman is being punished for adultery but in the Islam religion if a woman is raped it is also adultery and in most cases the woman will be stoned anyway. After all, under the direction of Allah the compassionate and merciful, woman are lower than dirt and children were made to serve their parents.

The last paragraph of her email has been deleted to conceal her identity.

This just makes my blood boil.

Historic Islamic Images of Muhammed

It is not true that images are forbidden in Islam. Here are a few. These are centuries old images made by Muslims. This is a sample.

The Birth of Muhammed, painted in Istanbul in 1594.

Muhammad and his companions
advancing on Mecca. The angels Gabriel,
Michael, Israfil and Azrail, are also in the painting.
From Siyer-i Nebi: The Life of the Prophet 1595.

Muhammed, sitting on the Buraq
(a deer with the face of a woman) visiting Hell.
Note, his face is not veiled.

This is a Persian miniature painted by the Sultan Muhammed
in 1550 AD. It shows the "Prophet" Muhammed
ascending into the Heavens on the Buraq.
This is known as the Miraj.

The Death of Muhammed, Istanbul, 1595

These images, and many more like them, can be found at the following sites;
Wikimedia Commons

Islamic and Middle Eastern Art during the Middle Ages. See Page 3.

Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey has a page of Ottoman religious miniatures.

zombie's Mohammed Image Archive

It is also interesting to read about the creation of Siyer-i Nebi: The Life of the Prophet and how the images in that volume came to be.

A Christian and True Martyr

St. Stephen, the First Martyr

We have been seeing a lot of "martyrdom" Islamic style. This involves strapping a bomb belt onto yourself and, as you blow yourself up (suicide), you kill Jews or Americans at the same time.

The Christian way to martyrdom is significantly different.

A Christian Martyr in Iran

He was a Christian priest and his crime was changing his religion from Islam to Christianity. Dibaji had not only changed his religion, but as a clergy, he had tried to invite others to his religion. He had worked in places like north and west of Iran and even he had made travels to Afghanistan for preaching.

He was not one of my cellmates, and I noticed him because he was walking as person who was very satisfied and content. He was telling things slowly to himself that I could not understand at first. Later I came to know that he was reciting Christian hymns in Farsi and English. I asked him "why are you so joyful?" He said I am praying to God that has made this beautiful day possible for me. Look around you isn't it beautiful? The flowers, the sight of mountains and the huge trees are around us, and I am in the company of nice people. I am thankful to God.

His body was later found tortured and murdered in a forest near Tehran.

RoPMA

Chinese Try to Smother Islam

Of course I cannot approve of the way that China governs herself, but until they threaten the U.S. or one of our allies, I don't care. That is the business of the Chinese people. We must remain vigilant that we do not get caught by surprise.

That said, it is a good thing for them that they are able to take action like this;

China Bans Officials, State Employees, Children from Mosques

HONG KONG—Chinese authorities have tightened curbs on minority Muslims in the northwestern region of Xinjiang, banning any government officials, state employees, Party members, and in some cases women from entering mosques.

A photo sent to RFA’s Uyghur service shows a sign above the gate of a mosque in the poorer southern part of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, forbidding Muslims to attend for worship—as they are supposed to do five times a day.

“The following people are prohibited from entering the mosque and conducting religious activities,” reads the sign, written in the language of the main Muslim ethnic group, Uyghur, which uses the Arabic alphabet.

The following people are prohibited from entering the mosque and conducting religious activities:

1) Communist Party members and Communist Youth members.
2) State employees, workers and retirees.
3) Youth under the age of 18.
4) Prefecture employees.
5) Women.

Sign outside mosque in southern Xinjiang

“1) Communist Party members and Communist Youth members. 2) State employees, workers, and retirees. 3) Youths under the age of 18,” it says. Categories four and five are local government employees and women, the first time such gender restrictions have been alluded to.

While it is a shame that a peaceful faith like Orthodox Christianity is supressed in the same manner as Islam, it is good that the Chinese people have a government, however flawed in other ways, that will protect them from Islamic encroachment.

Carter Authorized Warrantless Wiretaps

In 1977 President Jimmy Carter authorized, without any warrant or supporting legislation, the wiretapping of two people thought to be spying for the government of Vietnam. He did this based only on the authority granted to the President under Article 2 of the U.S. Constitution. Of course this did not prevent Mr. Carter from publically and personally attacking President Bush during Coretta Scott King's funeral (how classy).

Carter allowed surveillance in 1977

"Under the Bush administration, there's been a disgraceful and illegal decision -- we're not going to the sic let the judges or the Congress or anyone else know that we're spying on the American people," Mr. Carter said Monday in Nevada when his son Jack announced his Senate campaign.

"And no one knows how many innocent Americans have had their privacy violated under this secret act," he said.

The next day at Mrs. King's high-profile funeral, Mr. Carter evoked a comparison to the Bush policy when referring to the "secret government wiretapping" of civil rights leader Martin Luther King.

But in 1977, Mr. Carter and his attorney general, Griffin B. Bell, authorized warrantless electronic surveillance used in the conviction of two men for spying on behalf of Vietnam.

The men, Truong Dinh Hung and Ronald Louis Humphrey, challenged their espionage convictions to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, which unanimously ruled that the warrantless searches did not violate the men's rights.

In its opinion, the court said the executive branch has the "inherent authority" to wiretap enemies such as terror plotters and is excused from obtaining warrants when surveillance is "conducted 'primarily' for foreign intelligence reasons."

That description, some Republicans say, perfectly fits the Bush administration's program to monitor calls from terror-linked people to the U.S.

The Truong case, however, involved surveillance that began in 1977, before the enactment of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which established a secret court for granting foreign intelligence warrants.

And, on the administration's (Mr. Bush's and Mr. Carter's) view to the legality of this both before and after the passing of FISA?

Administration officials say the president has constitutional authority to conduct surveillance without warrants in the name of national security. The only way Congress could legitimately curtail that authority, they argue, is through an amendment to the Constitution.

The administration's view has been shared by previous Democrat administrations, including Mr. Carter's.

When Mr. Bell testified in favor of FISA, he told Congress that while the measure doesn't explicitly acknowledge the "inherent power of the president to conduct electronic surveillance," it "does not take away the power of the president under the Constitution."

Jamie S. Gorelick, deputy attorney general in the Clinton administration, agreed. In 1994 testimony before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Miss Gorelick said case law supports the presidential authority to conduct warrantless searches and electronic surveillance for foreign intelligence purposes.

Earlier this week, however, Mr. Carter said it was "ridiculous" for Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales to say the spying is justified by Article II of the Constitution.

His he shameless, stupid, senile?

I think he is shameless.

Until the Democrats stop playing politics with our national security they should not be permitted to hold executive power again. I just hope that the Republicans make these issues clear to the population in a more effective way than they did the need to go to war in Iraq.

UPDATE: Power Line has more legal info.

North Korea's Covert War

South Korea's passivity in the face of aggressive politics by North Korea are by the design of Kim Jong Il and his father, Kim Il Sung. The DPRK has been conducting a war of infiltration and subversion for decades.

Korea in Crisis: North Korea's covert war

"One day, Kim Jong Il asked an aide, 'How many provinces are there in the North?' The aide answered, 'There are nine.' Kim Jong Il responded, saying, 'that is not correct. We have one more. Our tenth province is called, 'Republic of Korea.'" [the Republic of Korea is South Korea (the ROK) - ed.]

Although the official section of anti-South covert operation of North Korea is the Unified Front Department, there are other sections in the party including the External Liaison Department, Operations Department and the External Information Research Department, referred to as "Room 35."

While the Unified Front Department is involved in open propaganda, the other three departments have agents directly infiltrate into South Korea and engage in illegal activities, including reconnaissance and terrorism as their main missions. They are under the direct command of Kim Jong Il and are active in covert operations even today, according to South Korean security sources.

The article discusses how this infiltration was accomplished. How successful has it been?

This information suggested the possibility that North Korea's anti-South covert operations have reached the upper echelons of the current Seoul government.

As if to verify the fact that North Korea's anti-South operation is steadily progressing, agents who had remained underground have recently begun coming to the surface, according to experts on North Korean affairs.

Former Secretary of the North Korean Workers' Party Hwang Jang Yeob, who defected to South Korea in 1997, has expressed frustration with the situation. He recently severely criticized South Korean youth who are deeply influenced by North Korea's anti-South operations.

"If the Leader [Kim Jong Il] says something is imperialism they unconditionally believe it is imperialism," he said. "How can we say that South Korean youth who have become mental slaves to the Leader are sane?"

How indeed. One result is this.

Is it possible that they do not understand what would happen to them were Freak-boy Kim to succeed in taking over the Peninsula, as he clearly intends to do? More likely, they know what will happen, but expect to be in such "good" political positions that they believe that they will not be harmed.

They are wrong, and we should leave them to suffer the consequences of their error.

Liberal Judenhass Watch - Anglican Church

The Anglican Church has voted to disinvest from all companies whose products are used by the Israeli government in the territories.

Lord Carey 'ashamed to be an Anglican'

The former archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday he was "ashamed to be an Anglican" following Monday's vote by the Church of England to disinvest from companies whose products are used by the Israeli government in the territories.

The February 6 divestment vote, which was backed by current Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, was "a most regrettable and one-sided statement," Lord Carey said, and one that "ignores the trauma of ordinary Jewish people" in Israel subjected to terrorist attacks.

Lord Carey joined Jewish leaders protesting the vote by the General Synod, the church's legislature, to adopt a "morally responsible investment in the Palestinian occupied territories and, in particular, to disinvest from companies profiting from the illegal occupation, such as Caterpillar Inc., until they change their policies."

And, as always, Israel is the problem. Not the mindless terrorist drones of Hamas, the PLO, Hizbollah, Islamic Jihad, etc. No, not them.

During the one-hour debate that preceded the vote, a letter from the Anglican bishop in Jerusalem, the Rt. Rev. Riah Abu al-Assal, condemning the Israeli government's use of Caterpillar tractors to demolish Palestinian homes was read to the synod.

The bishop of Chelmsford, the Rt. Rev. John Gladwin, said he held Israel responsible for the worsening plight of Palestinian Christians, telling the synod, "Caterpillar may be a company being used for dreadful purposes across the world, but the problem is not Caterpillar. The problem is the situation in the Middle East and the government of Israel."

As a personal note, I have known Orthodox Christians from Palestine who have come the the U.S. and all except one came here fleeing the Palestinian Authority and the thugs of Yasser Arafat, not the Israeli government.

If liberals would have us believe that Palestinian Christians are fleeing the Israelis, then what do they make of this?

Terrorists plant group's flag on parliament, declare beginning of hard-line Islamic rule

JERUSALEM – Moments after official election results this afternoon certified a large Hamas victory in Palestinian ballots, members of the terror group planted their green flags on the main parliament building in Ramallah, with some Hamas gunmen declaring hard-line Islamic law will soon be imposed in the West Bank and Gaza, Palestinian security sources in the area told WorldNetDaily.

But it's ok, these are cute and cuddley Palestinian Arabs who are just terribly misunderstood.

Christianity Banned in NYC Schools

Van Helsing at Moonbattery has this story.

Christianity Banned, Islam Okay in NYC Schools

Our black-robed oligarcy has determined that the Islamic Cresent and the Jewish Menorah are both secular symbols and the Christian nativity scene is religious. This absurd view by the NYC School Distrit, supported by softheaded judges on two federal benches shows a preference for Islam and Judaism.

In a dissent;

Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel of the Thomas More Law Center, called the decision another outrageous example of federal courts discriminating against Christians. "This should be a wake-up call for Christians across this nation," he said.

Thompson accused judges of imposing their ideological views under the pretext of constitutional interpretation.

In his dissenting opinion, appeals court Judge Chester Straub said it is clear to him that New York City's current policy violates the Establishment Clause "by sending the message that Judaism and Islam are favored while Christianity is disfavored."

He said the city was wrong to define the menorah and the star and crescent as secular and a creche as "purely religious."

Go to Moonbattery for the comments. They are good, and he deserves the traffic.

An American Hero

Yes, a real one, not like the ones the MSM create out of political thin air. A big "Thank You" to Sgt. Lori for this one.

Gunnery Sgt Michael Burghardt

Where do we get men like this?

Savages?

That is the only word that describes the people who do this.

Danish embassy in Beirut torched

Lebanese demonstrators have set the Danish embassy in Beirut on fire in protest at the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.

Thousands of people attended a rally and clashes broke out with security forces sent to protect the building.

Denmark urged its citizens to leave the country as soon as possible.

The violence came a day after mobs in neighbouring Syria torched the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus in anger at the pictures.

So this is not the first embassy to be burned over the pulication of cartoons in a distant, non-Islamic, country [non-Islamic for the next few years anyway - ed.].

The cartoons first appeared in a Danish newspaper in September and caused outrage among Muslims, who consider any images of Muhammad offensive.

One of the cartoons shows Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban.

Gosh, I wonder why anyone would caricature Muhammed like that?


It seems apt to me. Here are all of the cartoons published by Jyllands-Posten.

And how about those cute and cuddly Palestinan Arabs who are busy tryng to build a country of their own?

Muslim anger on cartoons spreads

Early Friday, Palestinian militants threw a bomb at a French cultural center in Gaza City, and many Palestinians began boycotting European goods, especially those from Denmark.

"Whoever defames our prophet should be executed," said Ismail Hassan, 37, a tailor who marched through the pouring rain along with hundreds of others in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

"Bin Laden our beloved, Denmark must be blown up," protesters in Ramallah chanted.

An imam at the Omari Mosque in Gaza City told 9,000 worshippers that those behind them should have their heads cut off.

"If they want a war of religions, we are ready," Hassan Sharaf, an imam in Nablus, said in his sermon.

This speaks for itself. This is not the fringe. This is Islam