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While the Christian faith is denigrated in the West, and Christians are persecuted in the rest of the world (see the earlier post), still, the Faith is on the march. Good people worldwide see the evil that is Islam, Communism, Secularism, etc., and search for the Truth. And, they are finding it.
From Malaysia:
Hundreds of thousands of Malay Muslims have filed for apostasyTue | Feb 14, 06 | 06:15:44 PM
Oleh Ekmal Yusof IPOH, 14 Feb (Hrkh)
Head of the Malaysian State of Perak Mufti (religious head) Dato' Seri Haji Harussani Haji Zakaria announced that there are close to 250,000 Muslim apostates in Malaysia .
This figure includes about 100,000 Malay Muslims who have declared themselves Christians.
This announcement was made on a TV Forum entitled "Pekerti Islam" in the Malaysian State of Kedah recently which was aired by RTM (Malaysian TV & Radio Department) at 2 pm this evening.
Another 100,000 Muslims are in the process of filing for apostasy while the rest are filing to have their Muslim name changed to "other religion name"
"This figure does not include individuals who don't do salat, doesn't fast and breaks all the tenets of Islam" he said.
According to the Perak Mufti he has personally received a letter from the American Christian Missionary Association which accuses the Malaysian (?) / Perak (?) religious authorities of being cruel (or mean) for not allowing about 30,000 Malay Muslims to convert out to Christianity.
Even in a religion where the penalty for apostasy is death, and in a predominately Muslim country where one must publicly file with the government to apostasize, Christianity is growing.
Islam is evil. It cannot prevail.
North Korea, The Worst Violator Of Religious Rights In The World
This speaks for itself, requiring no further comment from me.A call to prayer for North Korea
'Subversive, threat to the position of the Great Leader' - these words do not refer to dangerous villains, but to Christians in North Korea who are not considered as normal people.
"In North Korea, Christians are regarded as political criminals and in the prison camps, they are treated as political prisoners," according to the refugee Soon Ok Lee and author of the book Eyes of the Tailless Animals.
Kang Chol Hwan, a North Korean defector, was imprisoned in North Korea at the age of 10 because his grandfather was branded a political dissident, Often the North Korean government will try to purge three generations of a religious or political dissident's family. He describes the conditions he experienced:
"At the camp I witnessed public executions, forced labour and other inhumane atrocities. New prisoners in the North Korean political prison camps are taught not to consider themselves as human beings. The prisoners cannot complain of beatings or even murders.
"Even the children are subject to forced labour, and about a third of them die of malnutrition and from heavy labour. I also suffered from malnutrition three months after being imprisoned, lacking even the strength to walk.
"Because we were not given any source of protein, we would catch and eat snakes, frogs or even worms in order to survive. At first, I did not want to taste these things. One day my friends caught some rats while working in the fields and roasted them on an open fire.
"That was the first time I tasted rat meat, and that one piece of rat meat sustained me. From then on I ate anything to survive: rats, frogs, snakes and worms. Prisoners who do not do this could die in less than a year. People like me who are able to eat anything can survive longer."
It is estimated that 200,000 are suffering in North Korean prison camps where they face cruel abuses. According to a contact, Brother Peter*, an estimated 50,000-70,000 are Christians. Some think the hermit regime has detained more political and religious prisoners than any other country in the world.
For the fourth year in a row, Open Doors' World Watch List ranked North Korea as the worst violator of religious rights in the world. Christianity is treated as one of the greatest threats to the regime's power.
Go read the whole thing.
The migration from Mexico to the United States is now constitutes the largest diaspora in the history of humankind. The numbers are staggering, and Mexico needs it. A nearly failed country, mired in corruption and political incompetence, Mexico's economy is now based on the few dollar each of her citizens sends from the United States. This is one reason why the Mexican government has such open contempt for our border.
Give and take across the border - 1 in 7 Mexican workers migratesWashington -- The current migration of Mexicans and Central Americans to the United States is one of the largest diasporas in modern history, experts say.
Roughly 10 percent of Mexico's population of about 107 million is now living in the United States, estimates show. About 15 percent of Mexico's labor force is working in the United States. One in every 7 Mexican workers migrates to the United States.
This, and Mexico looks as if it may become unstable.What happens in Mexico, by turn, has a big effect on immigration flows to the United States. Those events include a hotly contested election six weeks away that pits a leftist populist against a market-oriented heir to President Vicente Fox.
"We want Mexico to look like Canada," said Stephen Haber, director of Stanford University's Social Science History Institute and a Latin America specialist at the Hoover Institution. "That's the optimal for the United States. We never talk about instability in Canada. We're never concerned about a Canadian security problem. Because Canada is wealthy and stable. It's so wealthy and stable we barely know it's there most of the time. That's the optimal for Mexico: a wealthy and stable country."
What isn't wanted, Haber said, "is an unstable country on your border, especially an unstable country that hates you."
Imagine Hugo Chavez on our southern border.
This migration is so large that areas of Mexico are being depopulated. Mexico's most important economic activity is the illegal migration of people that have no future in Mexico. This is a country that is so corrupt and managed with such complete incompetence that virtually the entire population of working people wants to leave, indeed must leave. What kind of country is this?Migration is profoundly altering Mexico and Central America. Entire rural communities are nearly bereft of working-age men. The town of Tendeparacua, in the Mexican state of Michoacan, had 6,000 residents in 1985, and now has 600, according to news reports. In five Mexican states, the money migrants send home exceeds locally generated income, one study found.
Read the entire article, it is a real eye-opener.
UPDATE:
It would be nice if our own government would get serious about this for a change;
Lawmakers call for border 'tipping' inquiry
As both of my faithful readers know, the Korean War has not yet ended. Hostilities came to an end in 1953 with the signing of an armistice between the United States (who sign on behalf of the now worse than worthless United Nations), North Korea, and China. The state of war between the United Nations (fought for them by the United States) and South Korea, and North Korea still exists.
It seems like someone the the US government thinks that it is a good idea to just go ahead and hand the victory to the DPRK.
U.S. Said to Weigh a New Approach on North KoreaWASHINGTON, May 17 - President Bush's top advisers have recommended a broad new approach to dealing with North Korea that would include beginning negotiations on a peace treaty, even while efforts to dismantle the country's nuclear program are still under way, senior administration officials and Asian diplomats say.
Aides say Mr. Bush is very likely to approve the new approach, which has been hotly debated among different factions within the administration. But he will not do so unless North Korea returns to multinational negotiations over its nuclear program. The talks have been stalled since September.
North Koreans have long demanded a peace treaty, which would replace the 1953 armistice ending the Korean War.
It is tempting to try anything that will end the current deadlock with North Korea and there is a recognition that dealing with them is too dangerous and difficult.Now, said one official who has participated in the recent internal debate, "I think it is fair to say that many in the administration have come to the conclusion that dealing head-on with the nuclear problem is simply too difficult."
The official added, "So the question is whether it would help to try to end the perpetual state of war" that has existed, at least on paper, for 53 years. "It may be another way to get there."
We have already seen in negotiations with other tyrannies (Iran or the Palestinian Authority for instance) that giving them what they want only validates their tactics. A peace treaty with North Korea will give them something that they dearly want, and that can only reinforce them in their behavior. They act the way that they do because it gets them what they want.
Still, As described by administration officials, none of whom would speak on the record about deliberations inside the White House, Mr. Bush's aides envision starting negotiations over a formal peace treaty that would include the original signatories of the armistice - China, North Korea and the United States, which signed on behalf of the United Nations. They would also add South Korea, now the world's 11th-largest economy, which declined to sign the original armistice.
Japan, Korea's colonial ruler in the first half of the 20th century, would be excluded, as would Russia.
And this at a time when North Korea may well be preparing to test a long range missle capable of striking all of the US.
North Korea missile site under observationSEOUL, South Korea (AP) - Activity detected this month at a North Korean missile site was being closely watched yesterday, but officials in northeast Asia expressed doubts that a test launch was imminent.
Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso said the North has transported a missile to the facility, without specifying what kind.
Media in Japan reported it was a ballistic type that some analysts believe could reach the United States.
"In fact, we understand that it (the missile) has been brought to the site," Aso said in Parliament. "But we are not sure about any subsequent moves."
While North Korea's intentions remained unclear, any test-firing would escalate tension in the region and could deal a blow to international efforts to get the communist state to disarm, analysts said [which is no doubt what they want. - ed.].
As to the missile in question,NHK said if the missile is an advanced version of the Taepodong 2, it would have a firing range of 15,000 kilometres (9,300 miles) that could reach as far as the US mainland, [in fact it would cover all of the US. - ed.] citing unidentified US government officials. Japan's Kyodo News agency had a similar report.
An official at South Korea's Foreign Ministry said on condition of anonymity, citing ministry policy, that the government was "closely monitoring and making many-sided efforts to confirm, but (such signs) haven't reached a credible level."
I think that giving North Korea what they want, a peace treaty, is a huge mistake.
I received a very nice email from JamesoftheNorthwest. He is publishing an excellent blog, PARADOSIS, and an excellent web site, Paradosis. These are now listed in my sidebar.
See also the Chronicles of Mary by Dawn.
Go, read, and learn.
It is about time that the MSM has noticed this. A textbook case of failure, Politically driven adoption system yields shallow, misleading materials.
Although the author, Alex Johnson, disingenuously suggests that the forces politicizing school textbooks are as much the fault of the Right as the Left, he still points up a very serious problem and even offers a solution.At its core, the economic surge in India and China comes down to brains. The industries driving the region's challenge to American leadership - communications, information technology, biotech and the like - can't thrive without a steady supply of highly educated, intellectually flexible workers.
This is where the United States is falling behind. "“Most U.S. high school students don't take advanced science; they opt out, with only one-quarter enrolling in physics, one-half in chemistry,"” the National Science Foundation found. The National Commission on Mathematics and Science Teaching for the 21st Century concluded that U.S. students were "devastatingly far"” from leading the world in science and math.
...If America'’s textbooks were systematically graded, Wang and other scholars say, they would fail abysmally.
American textbooks are both grotesquely bloated (so much so that some state legislatures are considering mandating lighter books to save students from back injuries) and light as a feather intellectually, flitting briefly over too many topics without examining any of them in detail. Worse, too many of them are pedagogically dishonest, so thoroughly massaged to mollify competing political and identity-group interests as to paint a startlingly misleading picture of America and its history.
Textbooks have become so bland and watered-down that they are "“a scandal and an outrage," the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a nonprofit education think tank in Washington, charged in a scathing report issued a year and a half ago.
Read it all. This is very important.
From Electric Boat Public Affairs:The third ship of the Virginia class, Hawaii (SSN-776), will be christened at Electric Boat’s Groton shipyard Saturday, June 17, at 11 AM.
The ship sponsor is the Hon. Linda Lingle, governor of Hawaii.
It cannot be said more clearly that this:
Roots of the 'Roe Effect'
Commentary: Beauty and ControversySOMERVILLE, May 8 (UPI) -— During my junior year of college, a friend invited me over to her apartment to meet her visiting family. For reasons I never understood, she mentioned in casual conversation that I ran the university's pro-life group. A history of abortion existed in her family. She told me so, many times. I knew her stepmother aborted her sibling at her father's insistence. When my friend mentioned my pro-life views, her father reacted fiercely.
"A woman should have an abortion if she gets pregnant when she's not supposed to," he said. I sat dumbstruck.
"A woman should get an abortion if she gets pregnant when she shouldn't," he repeated. His wife silently slipped into the bathroom.
"I think abortion hurts women," I replied and awkwardly changed the topic. My friend's stepmother wiped away her tears before she returned, but the moisture and redness around her eyes were still visible.
...What Fran Dahl and so many other baby boomers fail to grasp is that post-Roe children are far more aware of the realities of abortion, legal or otherwise, than the generations before us. Recall the '70s episode of the television sitcom "Maude," in which the main character chooses an abortion. Her daughter actually compares the procedure to "going to the dentist." Nobody in their right mind would write such dialogue today. After 30 years of Roe, the legalization as liberation lie is lost in the image of women crying in the bathroom.
Read the whole thing and have compassion for the women who have been the victims of this insanity.
There are ongoing protests outside the London embassy in an effort to stop this;
North Korea Christian Faces Imminent ExecutionPYONGYANG/SEOUL (BosNewsLife) -- Family members and human rights activists urged the international community Saturday, April 22, to pressure North Korea not to execute a Christian man who has been accused of "betrayal" and "espionage" by the Communist government.
Advocacy group Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), which has closely monitored the case, told BosNewsLife that the public execution of Son Jong Nam, 48, was imminent unless the world intervenes.
In a statement CSW and other activists said Son has been imprisoned in the basement of the National Security Agency in the North Korean capital Pyongyang and is "practically dead from horrible torture."
There is so much more. North Korean evil goes on and on;
Korean Reds Targeting ChristiansWASHINGTON - A woman in her 20s executed by a firing squad after being caught with a Bible. Five Christian church leaders punished by being run over by a steamroller before a crowd of spectators who "cried, screamed out, or fainted when the skulls made a popping sound as they were crushed."
These and other "horrifying" violations of human rights and religious freedom in North Korea are reported in a new study by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, titled "'Thank You, Father Kim Il Sung': Eyewitness Accounts of Severe Violations of Freedom of Thought, Conscience, and Religion in North Korea."
Yet, the American Left™ continues to support this evil regime.
N. Korea Freedom Day Rally Features Persecuted Church WASHINGTON -– As one of the most anticipated events planned for North Korea Freedom Week, the rally on Friday not only echoed the calls of abductees, defectors, human rights advocates, and congressmen to achieve human rights for North Koreans and return abductees, but it also spotlighted the issue of the persecuted church.
How bad is it?"It is believed that thousands of Christians are currently suffering in North Korean prison camps," said Moeller in the article On North Korea, a Country Spotlighted During the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church, handed out during the rally. "The country is suspected of detaining more political and religious prisoners than any other country in the world."
"The government will arrest not only the suspected dissident but also three generations of his or her family to root out the bad influence. Kim Jong Il is the 'Dear Leader' and has been exalted and revered as a god to be followed with unquestioned obedience."
Reports have indicated that Koreans and tourists are expected to bow to the portraits and statues of Kim Il Sung. Moreover, the Communist government has created its own "trinity" - Kim Il Sung (the father), Kim Jong Il (the son) and the Juche ideology, according to Open Doors USA.
In the 2006 Open Doors World Watch List, North Korea was ranked the country with the world'’s worst persecution of Christians for the fourth straight year.
Kim Jong-Il has long said that there is no persecution in North Korea, that they have no political prisoners, and that there are no executions. He is losing his ability to maintain these fictions. Knowing this, the murderous freaks who run the DPRK continue to hold themselves up as the paragon of human rights.
It is a tradition in the Orthodox Church that, beginning during the Resurrection Liturgy through Pentecost, we greet someone with the words, "Christ is Risen". When greeted in this way, we respond,"Truely He is Risen".
We do this in as many languages as possible.
Christos Anesti! Alithos Anesti!
Christos Voskrese! Voistinou Voskrese!
Al'Masiah qam! haqqan qam!
Here is a site where you, my beloved readers, can find the greeting in 250 languages.
Pascha polyglotta - Paschal Greetings in 250 Languages.
Having this blog, a web site, formerly having two Orthodox Groups, and having been in many other places on the internet, I have friends everywhere, including some in difficult circumstances. For those and everyone, have courage, hope, and faith.
Issah Ghi-yam kard! dar vagheh ou barkhasteh ast!
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.
I received this in my email;Humans existed as members of small bands of nomadic hunter/gatherers. They lived on deer in the mountains during the summer & would go to the coast and live on fish and lobster in winter.
The 2 most important events in all of history were the invention of beer and the invention of the wheel. The wheel was invented to get man to the beer. These were the foundation of modern civilization and together were the catalyst for the splitting of humanity into 2 distinct subgroups: Liberals and Conservatives.
Once beer was discovered it required grain and that was the beginning of agriculture. Neither the glass bottle nor aluminum can were invented yet, so while our early human ancestors were sitting around waiting for them to be invented, they just stayed close to the brewery. That's how villages were formed.
Some men spent their days tracking and killing animals to B-B-Q at night while they were drinking beer. This was the beginning of what is known as "the Conservative movement."
Other men who were weaker and less skilled at hunting learned to live off the conservatives by showing up for the nightly B-B-Q's and doing the sewing, fetching and hair dressing. This was the beginning of the Liberal movement. Some of these liberal men eventually evolved into women. The rest became known as 'girliemen.'
Some noteworthy liberal achievements include the domestication of cats, the invention of group therapy and group hugs and the concept of Democratic voting to decide how to divide the meat and beer that conservatives provided.
Modern liberals like imported beer (with lime added), but most prefer white wine or imported bottled water. They eat raw fish but like their beef well done. Sushi, tofu, and French food are standard liberal fare.
Another interesting revolutionary side note: most of their women have higher testosterone levels than their men. Most social workers, personal injury attorneys, journalists, dreamers in Hollywood and group therapists are liberals. Liberals invented the designated hitter rule because it wasn't "fair" to make the pitcher also bat.
Conservatives drink domestic beer. They eat red meat and still provide for their women. Conservatives are big-game hunters, rodeo cowboys, lumberjacks, construction workers, firemen, medical doctors, police officers, corporate executives, Marines, athletes and generally anyone who works productively. Conservatives who own companies hire other conservatives who want to work for a living.
Liberals produce little or nothing. They like to "govern" the producers and decide what to do with the production. Liberals believe Europeans are more enlightened than Americans. That is why most of the liberals remained in Europe when conservatives were coming to America. They crept in after the Wild West was tame and created a business of trying to get MORE for nothing.
Here ends today's lesson in world history:
It should be noted that a Liberal may have a momentary urge to respond to the above before simply laughing and forwarding it. A Conservative will be so convinced of the absolute truth of this history that it will be forwarded immediately.
Cindy Sheehan, the hate-America-first "Peace Mom" uses her own heroic son's death to tell despicable lies.
Charles has the story over at Little Green Footballs.
The Lies of a Peace Mom
Read it. He does it much better that I can, and this is stunning.
Islamists Post Hit List of 'Apostates';An Egyptian group calling itself the "al-Jama’ah Consultative Council" has sent an e-mail hit list to people deemed 'apostates' yesterday. The group warned that those people on the list who had left the faith would have three days (as of yesterday) to repent or they would be killed. The group also warned that the wives and children of the Muslim apostates were being followed & would be killed.
Under Islamic Law, the maximum penalty for apostasy is death.
The list includes prominent Muslims living in the West who have spoken out against violent Islamic extremism and intolerance, some still living in Muslim countries, as well as Coptic Christians who have advocated equal treatment in Egypt.
I have a friend in Egypt, a Coptic Christian, who may be on that list.
Hillary goes conservative on immigration In an interview last month on Fox News, Mrs. Clinton said she does not "think that we have protected our borders or our ports or provided our first responders with the resources they need, so we can do more and we can do better."
In an interview on WABC radio, she said: "I am, you know, adamantly against illegal immigrants."
Her view is much softer now. From her own Senate web page, IMMIGRATIONThis administration has failed to provide the resources to protect our borders, or a better system to keep track of entrants to this country. I welcome the addition of more border security, particularly on the Northern Border, with passage of the Intelligence Reform bill in December of 2004 – but it should not have taken more than 3 years after 9/11 to make this needed change, and there is still much more that must be done to keep America safe, including stronger inspection of cargo on ships and airplanes. Moreover, just two months after signing the Intelligence Reform bill with great fanfare, President Bush refused to provide the necessary funding in his Fiscal Year 2006 proposed budget sufficient to hire all of the border patrol agents that had been authorized. Fortunately, during the Senate’s debate on the budget in March of 2005, we passed an amendment to provide increased funding for border patrol agents. I hope the Republican leadership will support the maintenance of this funding, to provide the resources necessary to properly protect our borders.
So, how about the Southern Border, Hillary?
There IS a problem with global warming... it stopped in 1998For many years now, human-caused climate change has been viewed as a large and urgent problem. In truth, however, the biggest part of the problem is neither environmental nor scientific, but a self-created political fiasco. Consider the simple fact, drawn from the official temperature records of the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, that for the years 1998-2005 global average temperature did not increase (there was actually a slight decrease, though not at a rate that differs significantly from zero).
Yes, you did read that right. And also, yes, this eight-year period of temperature stasis did coincide with society's continued power station and SUV-inspired pumping of yet more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
In response to these facts, a global warming devotee will chuckle and say "how silly to judge climate change over such a short period". Yet in the next breath, the same person will assure you that the 28-year-long period of warming which occurred between 1970 and 1998 constitutes a dangerous (and man-made) warming. Tosh. Our devotee will also pass by the curious additional facts that a period of similar warming occurred between 1918 and 1940, well prior to the greatest phase of world industrialisation, and that cooling occurred between 1940 and 1965, at precisely the time that human emissions were increasing at their greatest rate.
This is controversial because what should be science is actually politics.Since the early 1990s, the columns of many leading newspapers and magazines, worldwide, have carried an increasing stream of alarmist letters and articles on hypothetical, human-caused climate change. Each such alarmist article is larded with words such as "if", "might", "could", "probably", "perhaps", "expected", "projected" or "modelled" - and many involve such deep dreaming, or ignorance of scientific facts and principles, that they are akin to nonsense.
The problem here is not that of climate change per se, but rather that of the sophisticated scientific brainwashing that has been inflicted on the public, bureaucrats and politicians alike. Governments generally choose not to receive policy advice on climate from independent scientists. Rather, they seek guidance from their own self-interested science bureaucracies and senior advisers, or from the IPCC itself. No matter how accurate it may be, cautious and politically non-correct science advice is not welcomed in Westminster [or in Washington D.C. - ed.], and nor is it widely reported.
This is an excellent piece by Bob Carter, who provides good support for his thesis. Go and read the whole thing.
Looking out of the window by my desk on Pier 4 at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard I saw a barge slip by with a cylindrical canister on in. This canister was 32 feet in diameter and just slightly longer than that.
Dry Dock 2 is flooded and otherwise empty.
Its previous occupant exists now only in the memory of her heroic crew.
In another fit of liberal™ idiocy and America-hatred the liberal™ members of Congress have decided that, if you are in the United States illegally, then you should be able to get in-state tuition at every public college and university in the country. Of course, U.S. citizens can't do that.
Immigration bill proposes in-state tuition for illegals"This means that while American citizens from Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina, Massachusetts have to pay out-of-state tuition rates if they send their kids to the University of Virginia or the University of Alabama, people who have illegally immigrated into the country do not," Mr. Sessions said. "How much sense does that make, to have people here illegally and they have more benefits than those who are here legally?"
Despite the National Leadership's effort to jam this down the national throat, the people do not like it.But voters, even in liberal states such as Massachusetts, overwhelmingly oppose providing in-state tuition rates to illegal aliens. Earlier this year, the Massachusetts legislature was poised to approve such a measure. But after a statewide groundswell of opposition from both Democrats and Republicans, the state House voted it down by a 96-57 vote.
The bill in the Senate, Mr. Session said, also would make illegals eligible for financial aid.
The financial-aid provision has been removed.
It's a good thing that this bill is failing. Bad legislation is worse than no legislation at all.
EU hears the plight of North Korea's refugeesBRUSSELS -- The European Parliament held its first public hearing on the North Korean human rights issue in Brussels, Belgium on March 23. About 100 participants including European Parliament members, NGO representatives and journalists attended the hearing. Three defectors from North Korea also attended, and their stark testimonies shocked the participants.
Istvan Szent-Ivany, a Hungarian member of the European Parliament who presided over the hearing, emphasized that "human rights are universal rights," and passionately requested North Korea to respect these rights.
Murderous tyrannical regimes have always responded well to begging, and that is good because that is all that the UN, the EU and other liberal western European organizations do.
In an even more amazing development, the EU members seems puzzled at liberal self destructive self loathing.Meanwhile, some 100 South Korean civil activists and students held demonstrations and rallies in Brussels fiercely criticizing the hearing for "assisting the United States in using the human rights issue as mean to gain hegemony."
Some puzzled members of the European Parliament who attended the hearing asked, "Why do South Koreans oppose the hearing, rather than criticizing North Koreans for committing human rights violations?" Professor Yoo Sae Hee, who attended the hearing as a South Korean representative said, "I feel ashamed as a South Korean. Those who are demonstrating against the hearing are not representatives of South Korea."
Read the whole thing. There is some interesting political interplay described there. Sadly, the upshot of the whole thing is that, although shocked, the EU wants more conferences, discussion, etc.
While the Christian faith is denigrated in the West, and Christians are persecuted in the rest of the world (see the earlier post), still, the Faith is on the march. Good people worldwide see the evil that is Islam, Communism, Secularism, etc., and search for the Truth. And, they are finding it.
