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Join the Victory Caucus

OK folks, it's time to let our "leaders" know that it's time to get busy in the War for Western Civilization.  Please join with Hugh Hewitt, Austin Bay, Dean Barnett, Frank Gaffney and myself in the Victory Caucus.  Please register today at:

http://victorycaucus.com/

We truly need your support!

Thanks,
RC
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Dungy Gives Glory to God

 SUPER BOWL XLI
Colts' coach more proud of Christ than 'blackness'
When asked about social significance for Dungy's victory, Jesus is answer

Posted: February 4, 2007
11:35 p.m. Eastern

By Joe Kovacs


© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com


Colts coach Tony Dungy

Super Bowl XLI had been hyped as a major social milestone in U.S. history, since for the time, the head coaches of both teams were black.

But when the game was over and the Indianapolis Colts had defeated the Chicago Bears 29-17, the winning coach said Jesus Christ was more important than any racial moment.

During the nationally televised post-game show on CBS, coach Tony Dungy was asked specifically about the "social significance."

Jim Nantz of CBS Sports: This is one of those moments, Tony, where there is also social significance in this victory, and to have your hands on the Vince Lombardi Trophy. Tell me what this means to you right now.

Tony Dungy: I'll tell you what. I'm proud to be representing African-American coaches, to be the first African-American to win this. It means an awful lot to our country; but again, more than anything, I've said it before, Lovie Smith and I, not only the first two African-Americans, but Christian coaches showing that you can win doing it the Lord's way, and we're more proud of that.

The Associated Press reported Dungy's comments about God in stories it moved on its wire service, but the Bloomberg News Service only published the portion regarding African-Americans, and edited out the mention of Christian coaches.

(Story continues below)

Colts' owner Jim Irsay credited God with the victory as held the sparkling Vince Lombardi trophy in his hands.

"Now there's an awful lot of shining glory, even more than last time up here," Irsay said. "But we're giving it all to God again because that's what got us here ... sticking together and believing that we could, and I know God has looked after us on this journey and bonded us into such a tight family."

Dungy has had a close relationship with Bears' head coach Lovie Smith since 1996, when Dungy hired Smith to coach linebackers for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

"My relationship, first, is with Jesus Christ, and he is the center of my life," said Smith when asked about his faith earlier this week. "I try to live a Christian life. I would like for players to know my faith based on what they see on a day-to-day basis."

CBS anchor James Brown, himself a strong believer in Jesus Christ, told the Baptist Press this year's Super Bowl could be a welcome change in a sport that hasn't had that many Christian players and announcers in the past.

"Personally, I'm gratified to see that change," Brown said. "I think their faith is a wonderful example to see and I think both men are sterling examples of what character coaches should be. That's what we should be promoting."

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Anglican Archbishop Speaks Out About Islam

This truth is spoken by a Bishop on the front lines.  We would be wise to heed his words.  RC
(HT: Baptist Press and World Net Daily) 

Ugandan archbishop: Militant Islam is century’s key challenge
Jan 31, 2007
By Gregory Tomlin
Baptist Press

NEW YORK (BP)--Much of the church is asleep or in “deep, dark denial” about Islam, Anglican Archbishop Henry Luke Orombi of Uganda said in New York City at the Kairos Journal Award dinner Jan. 26.

Orombi, named one of World magazine’s “Daniels of the Year” for 2006, has been at the forefront of the Anglican church’s controversy over the open acceptance and ordination of homosexual ministers, is one of Africa’s leading voices for biblical fidelity. He and Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria are under fire from European church leaders for offering assistance to Episcopal churches in the United States that have broken with the worldwide Anglican Communion since the consecration of openly homosexual New Hampshire Bishop Gene Robinson in 2003.

“The church’s one foundation has been torn asunder by heresy and distress,” Orombi said. “Since the beginning, the church has faced attacks from within and attacks from outside. This is nothing new.”

The inner attack on the church is the shifting of authority away from the Bible toward a “false gospel,” Orombi said. But from without, he said, the church’s most significant threat is Islam.

“As I look forward into the 21st century, it seems to me the great global conflict will be between Christianity and Islam,” the Ugandan leader said. “In the seventh and eighth centuries, the churches of North Africa and the Middle East did not acknowledge the theological and social economy and political traits of Islam and they were overrun. We must learn from those who have gone before us. Their blood cries out to us. Let them not have died in vain.”

Orombi said the global conquest of Islam is disguised in “subtle political maneuvers” like those that resulted in the conviction of Daniel Scot in Australia. The Assemblies of God pastor was indicted and convicted for “vilifying” Islam in 2002. Scot’s conviction began a four-year legal battle which ultimately resulted in the conviction being reversed, when the Supreme Court of Victoria ruled that Scot was offering fellow Christians insight into what the Koran said about salvation. His acquittal, however, came at a cost of nearly $500,000 in legal fees.

Scot received this year’s Kairos Journal Award, given annually by the journal and its founder Emmanuel Kampouris, former CEO of American Standard, to a pastor who displays courage and biblical fidelity, often in the face of persecution.

Orombi also said that in Uganda, Muslims are attempting to conquer “not so much by the sword but by the dollar.” There, Libyan dictator Muammar Gadafi built a national mosque as a “gift” to the people. Newly discovered oil resources in Uganda are finding their way into Muslim hands, and Muslim financiers are pouring money into the country -- despite the fact that only 12 percent of Uganda’s population is Muslim. Muslims also are offering vocal opposition to laws that protect women’s rights because, Orombi said, “these are not in the Koran.”

“At the same time, the church is generally ignorant about Islam, its doctrine, its ideology and its expansionist strategy, the Anglican leader said. Most churches have no plan or vision about reaching Muslims and even shy away from evangelism out of fear and the prospect of retaliatory violence.”

Orombi said Christian businessmen should make investments in Uganda and other “global south” countries where Islam is making gains in an effort to develop a countermeasure against it. But this will make little difference, he said, if there is no faithful proclamation of the Gospel first.

Mark Durie, vicar of St. Mary’s Anglican Church, Caulfield, in Melbourne, Australia, echoed that sentiment. Failure to address Islam with the Gospel will result in falling prey to it. At present, he said, the future of the world is less than certain.

“The religious future of India is up for grabs as the Dalits, the lower class, leave Hinduism. China has 90-100 million Christians. Will it be the next great Christian superpower at the end of the 21st century? Europe is gradually sinking under immigration. One in three babies born in France today is Muslim. Will France be a Sharia state with a nuclear bomb in this century?

“The 20th century was the century of humanism or humanistic ideologies, some of them quite perverse, whether it was fascism of different kinds or communism,” Durie said, noting, “I believe the capacity of those ideologies to shape the world is petering out.”

The century ahead, Durie predicted, will be a “century of faith.”

Baroness Caroline Cox, a conservative member of Britain’s House of Lords who has worked to alleviate the persecution of Christians in Muslim lands, said in a videotaped message to attendees at the Kairos dinner that the current religious and political climate is similar to the 1930s. Then, people were forced to choose between apathy and complacency and standing up for what is right. Today, Cox said, the world must choose between freedom and democracy and Islamic oppression.

“Are we going to be Chamberlains or Churchills?” she asked. “Militant Islam is the greatest threat to our social, political and cultural heritage.”

Islam is getting more aggressive by the day, using any means at their disposal.  We desperately need to prepare for the unavoidable escalation coming in this War for Western Civilization.

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Not a Turnip Truck Casualty

 

Here we go, kids! Have a look at this:

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070202/D8N1QQR02.html

Are these people sufficiently foolish or naïve to think that if our troops are pulled out of Iraq, this war will magically end? Or are they just stupid enough to think that the American people are gullible enough to believe them?

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Are We Prepared for Total War? (pt. 1)

 

As a clergyman, and especially as a Franciscan, this is an especially difficult post for me to write; but I’m also a realist. I hate war. I detest war. The pain and suffering caused by war, the loss of life, the loss of loved ones, of futures, of hopes and dreams cannot be calculated on any measurable scale. War is not merely an absence of peace; War is the culmination of all that is evil in the world.

Having said this, it also pains me to say that upon occasion, when events in the world are such that it becomes obvious that there is but one solution for survival of either a nation, or a culture or a civilization, war, as an extreme last resort, is sometimes necessary. It is never a desirable option.

On September 11, 2001, such an event happened, which left the United States, along with the rest of Western Civilization, in a position where but that one solution remained. If we, or any of the other nations which comprise the Western world, hope to survive in the midst of a world where people wish to destroy us simply because we don’t (or won’t) subscribe to their religion, or their form of social conduct, we have only one option. We must defend ourselves. War has become necessary.

And now that this loathsome conclusion has been reached, it begs more questions:

· Who are we fighting?

· What is the “best” way to proceed?

· How do we fight this war?

· What are our ultimate goals?

· How do we know when we have achieved victory?

Since the end of the Second World War, the United States and its allies seem to have forgotten the lessons learned from that great conflict, and why that particular war ended so successfully, while all other since then have received “mixed reviews”. I believe the greatest differences in the way we waged war then, as opposed to now, are:

· We knew who our enemies were, and fought them ruthlessly with the concept of Total War.

· Treason and Sedition were not tolerated, and those guilty were charged and tried.

· Certain civil liberties were curtailed, unfortunately but necessarily, for the duration of the conflict.

· The only goal was Unconditional Surrender of our enemies.

· We knew we had achieved complete victory when we had totally disabled the enemies’ ability to fight, when we controlled all their lands, assets, peoples, communications, and had utterly destroyed their will to proceed.

We have an enemy in this current war, which is somewhat difficult to identify, but not at all difficult to define (and I’m going to make some folks angry here): Islam.

Yes, Islam. Not terrorism, nor Islamo-fascism, nor Islamic extremism, nor any of the other euphemisms one wishes to employ. We are, and have been (since the Middle Ages), and will be, locked in this titanic struggle between Islam and Western Civilization until one, or the other, are destroyed. The two are incompatible; always have been, always will be. To those who don’t believe this, or have never studied the Quran or Hadith or Sunnah, take the time to read Religion of Peace: Islam’s War Against the World by Gregory M. Davis, or view Islam; What the World Needs to Know (DVD). Or take the time, and do a little research and investigation of your own.

We are locked in a religious war, a war not of our making, and not of our choosing. OBL declared war on us in 1998, claiming a religious “jihad”. In 1979, the Ayatollah Khomeini declared “jihad” on the “Great Satan” (US). Thus, we have had war declared on us by both Shia (Iran) and Sunni (Al-Qaeda) entities. It is also great foolishness, by the way, to conclude that only “fanatics” or “extremists” have chosen this path. They, including religious leaders, and even some internationally recognized governments, have declared religious war on us, and we cannot arrogantly choose to ignore that, except at our own peril.

If we are to meet this threat (and we must, if we are to survive as a nation and a civilization), we must fight this war, not as we fought in Vietnam, nor as we are now fighting in Iraq; we must be prepared to fight on the basis of total war, with all that entails. Am I suggesting that we immediately drop nuclear weapons on Mecca and Medina? Heavens, no! But we must take all necessary steps to fight this war to its only acceptable end; total victory.

To that end, we must:

· Allow our military forces to fight, without tying their hands behind their backs.

· Advise our allies (or what’s left of them) exactly what our intentions are, and attempt to secure their support.

· Prosecute and jail, if necessary, any person or entity (read Los Angeles and New York Times) that seeks to divulge, by any means, sensitive national security information.

· Prosecute and jail, if necessary, any person or entity that calls for or works toward the downfall or destruction of the United States or it's government.

· Prepare the American people for the necessary sacrifices which will be required.

· Place the United States on a “war footing”. (see Frank Gaffney’s book by the same name)

As I began this post, I mentioned how detestable I find war, and how ugly and painful I find war as a solution to human conflict. However, just the thought that the United States could be defeated, our freedoms lost, and further destruction (a la 9/11) to our home is more than I can bear. With faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and trust in the American people’s wisdom to do what needs to be done in times of great national stress, I believe we can, and will, eventually achieve total victory in this miserable war which has been declared against us.

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Romney '08? Not Just Yet, Thanks!

 
J. Matt Barber has written an excellent, thought provoking article in World Net Daily, which I link here:

http://wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=54077

Methinks Gov. Romney keeps his wetted finger in the air a little too frequently.  This is exactly the kind of thing I was addressing in my previous post; I don't dislike Gov. Romney, I just don't know whether I can trust him to be consistent on the issues.   RC
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Reviewing and Rethinking Certain Principles

 
Time to rethink those principles, Hugh
Hugh Hewitt says in his latest post:

"I have always been willing to support moderate and even liberal Republican incumbents over conservative challengers because of the benefits of being a majority party in Congress. I wrote at length about this in Painting The Map Red, and it still is a bedrock principle of mine..."

This is the biggest problem with being too much a "party man". It is these very same people (RINOS, if you will) that cannot be trusted when push comes to shove on the critical, life-and-death issues which we are increasingly facing today.

Look, it was the "party men" that returned Arlen Specter to the Senate when there was a strong and viable conservative alternative. When are we going to turn the Republican party into what it was meant to be? The no-nonsense, uncompromising, unapologetic Conservative party it was meant to be? We need to purge this party of all the wishy-washy, finger-in-the-air left-of center elements that have lead us to defeat, if not destruction.

You've made a good start, Hugh, with the NRSC pledge drive, but it's time to get with the TOTAL program...

RC
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Take the Pledge


 For all who are tired of spineless RINO Senators, and want to stop them from passing resolutions which are detrimental to the President and our troops, please click on the link and take a stand by signing the NRSC pledge:

http://truthlaidbear.com/thenrscpledge/
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A Rabbi's Warning

 A rabbi's warning to U.S. Christians

Posted: January 13, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern

By Rabbi Daniel Lapin

I am certainly not a Churchill. I am not even a Revel. I am having enough trouble just trying to be a Lapin. But I am issuing a very serious warning about deep consequences, just as they did. It is a warning about the earliest stages of what could become a cataract of disasters if not resisted now.

During the 1930s, Winston Churchill desperately tried to persuade the English people and their government to see that Hitler meant to end their way of life. The British ignored Churchill, which gave Hitler nearly 10 years to build up his military forces. It wasn't until Hitler actually drew blood that the British realized they had a war on their hands. It turned out to be a far longer and more destructive war than it needed to be had Churchill's early warning been heeded.

In 1983, a brave French writer, Jean-Francois Revel, wrote a book called "How Democracies Perish." In this remarkable volume, he described how communism's aim is world conquest. For decades he had been trying to warn of communism's very real threat. Yet in January 1982, a high State Department official said: "We Americans are not solving problems, we are the problem." (Some things never change.) A good portion of the planet fell to communism, which brought misery and death to millions because we failed to recognize in time that others meant to harm us.

Heaven knows there was enough warning during the 1980s of the intention of part of the Islamic world to take yet another crack at world domination. Yet instead of seeing each deadly assault on our interests around the world as a test of our resolve, we ignored it. We failed the test and lost 3,000 Americans in two unforgettable hours.

I am not going to argue that what is happening now is on the same scale as the examples I cite above, but a serious war is being waged against a group of Americans. I am certain that if we lose this war, the consequences for American civilization will be dire.

Phase one of this war I describe is a propaganda blitzkrieg that is eerily reminiscent of how effectively the Goebbels propaganda machine softened up the German people for what was to come.

There is no better term than propaganda blitzkrieg to describe what has been unleashed against Christian conservatives recently.

Consider the long list of anti-Christian books that have been published in recent months. Here are just a few samples of more than 30 similar titles, all from mainstream publishers:

"American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America"

"The Baptizing of America: The Religious Right's Plans for the Rest of Us"

"The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason"

"Piety & Politics: The Right-wing Assault on Religious Freedom"

"Atheist Universe: The Thinking Person's Answer to Christian Fundamentalism"

"Thy Kingdom Come: How the Religious Right Distorts the Faith and Threatens America"

"Religion Gone Bad: The Hidden Dangers of the Christian Right"

What is truly alarming is that there are more of these books for sale at your local large book store warning against the perils of fervent Christianity than those warning against the perils of fervent Islam. Does anyone seriously think America is more seriously jeopardized by Christian conservatives than by Islamic zealots? I fear that many Americans believe just that in the same way that many pre-World War II Westerners considered Churchill a bigger threat than Hitler.

Some may say that today's proliferation of anti-Christian print propaganda is nothing to become worried about. To them I ask two questions:

First, would you be so sanguine if the target of this loathsome library were Jewish? Just try changing the titles in some of the books I mention above to reflect anti-Semitism instead of rampant anti-Christianism and you'll see what I mean.

Second, major movements that changed the way Americans felt and acted came about through books, often only one book. Think of Rachel Carson's 1962 error-filled "Silent Spring" that resulted in the pointless banning of the insecticide DDT and many unnecessary deaths. Other books that caused upheavals in our nation were Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle," many of Ayn Rand's books and of course "Uncle Tom's Cabin."

No, I would advise you not to underestimate the power of books to alter the behavior of the American public, and I fear for an America influenced to detest Christianity by this hate-filled catalog.

It is not just books but popular entertainment also that beams the most lurid anti-Christian propaganda into the hearts and minds of viewers. One need only think of who the real targets of the recent hit movie "Borat" are. The brilliant Jewish moviemaker Sacha Baron Cohen, as his title character, using borderline dishonest wiles, lures some innocent but unsophisticated country folk, obviously Christians, to join him in his outrageously anti-Semitic antics. Cohen then triumphantly claims to have exposed anti-Semitism. In fact, he has revealed nothing other than the latent anti-Christianism of America's social, economic and academic secular elites.

Even the recent PBS documentary, "Anti-Semitism in the 21st Century: The Resurgence," managed to do more attacking Christianity than defending Judaism.

Richard Dawkins, an Oxford University professor, is one of the generals in the anti-Christian army of the secular left. American academia treats him with reverence and hangs on his every word when he insists that "religious myths ought not to be tolerated."

For those with a slightly more tolerant outlook, he asks, "It's one thing to say people should be free to believe whatever they like, but should they be free impose their beliefs on their children?" He suggests that the state should intervene to protect children from their parents' religious beliefs. Needless to say, he means Christian beliefs, of course. Muslim beliefs add to England's charmingly diverse cultural landscape.

The war is against those who regard the Bible to be God's revelation to humanity and the Ten Commandments to be His set of rules for all time. Phase one in this war is to make Christianity, well, sort of socially unacceptable. Something only foolish, poor and ugly people could turn to.

We have seen how a carefully constructed campaign pretty much made it socially unacceptable to drink and drive. For years, there had been stringent laws against drunk driving. They achieved little. In the end, the practice was all but eliminated by groups allied with Mothers Against Drunk Driving and their effective ways of changing the way Americans thought about it.

We have seen how a carefully constructed campaign has pretty much made it socially unacceptable to smoke. In the face of a relentless campaign (dare one call it propaganda?), Americans became docile and forfeited the right to make their own decisions. Nobody was willing to stand up to the no-smoking tyrants. Nobody even asked whether health was sufficient grounds for freedom to be reduced. Now, entire cities and even states have banned smoking, not only in public places but even in privately owned restaurants.

Tyranny comes when citizens are seduced into trading freedom for the promise of safety and security.

Considerably more intellectual energy is being pumped into the propaganda campaign against Christianity than was ever delivered to the anti-smoking or anti-drunk-driving campaigns. Fervent zealots of secularism are flinging themselves into this anti-Christian war with enormous fanaticism.

If they succeed, Christianity will be driven underground, and its benign influence on the character of America will be lost. In its place we shall see a sinister secularism that menaces Bible believers of all faiths. Once the voice of the Bible has been silenced, the war on Western Civilization can begin and we shall see a long night of barbarism descend on the West.

Without a vibrant and vital Christianity, America is doomed, and without America, the West is doomed.

Which is why I, an Orthodox Jewish rabbi, devoted to Jewish survival, the Torah and Israel am so terrified of American Christianity caving in.

Many of us Jews are ready to stand with you. But you must lead. You must replace your timidity with nerve and your diffidence with daring and determination. You are under attack. Now is the time to resist it.
 

I couldn't agree more with Rabbi Lapin.  As a clergyman, I can verify this article is accurate.  Christians, especially clergymen, MUST stand against the relentless anti-Christian propaganda which is poisoning the hearts and minds of many in the West.     St. Matthew 10:32-33 (HT World Net Daily)R.C.

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A Christmas Message

 

Christmas Eve

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counseller, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6)

+

As we gather here tonight, awaiting the coming of the Prince of Peace, many of us feel peace has indeed, eluded us. Over the course of the last five years, our nation has been attacked and is at war, with no apparent end in sight, against an enemy that wishes not only to defeat us militarily, but is intent on destroying America, this seemingly last great bastion of Christianity.

Domestically, Christianity is under attack as never before. Our enemies wish to destroy all public profession of Christianity. Our children are not allowed to pray or carry a bible in schools, The Cross and the crèche are outlawed from all public property, and any mention of Jesus in the public square meets with a stern rebuke, if not a severe lawsuit. Our public airways are filled with every type of filth and blasphemy imaginable, and we feel increasingly helpless in our attempts to stop its spread. Yesterday, I read a headline on the Drudge report informing me that according to a poll, “Most Britons believe religion does more harm than good”. I didn’t need to read the rest of the story; I’m sure that in that particular piece, “religion” means Christianity. The Enemy has done a masterful job in convincing western society that Christianity is “evil”. And it has all happened in such a short time!

Here, closer to home, many of us have had setbacks in the last five years. Some of us have lost husbands or wives or other loved ones. Some of us have lost children. Many of us are aging. We’re not able to do some of the things we’ve become accustomed to doing. Many of us have had health problems, or financial problems, creating greater stress in our lives.

Right here, in our Holy Catholic Church, we have seen bitter divisions. Some have left us, for “reasons” which hurt and baffle us. Friendships have been lost, and there is an undercurrent of dismay and concern as to what may happen next. Some of us fear that in the next five to ten years, we may not even exist anymore as a part of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.

We want and desire peace! Above all else we need peace! We are hurting. We are in pain. We are afraid of what the future will bring. O Lord, bring us blessed peace!

Yes, these last five years have been painful. They’ve been stressful. But I’m here to bring you a message of good news! Just as the angel said to the Blessed Virgin at the Annunciation, and to the shepherds at the Nativity; “Fear Not!” “Fear Not, for unto you is born this day in the City of David a savior, which is Christ the Lord!” “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counseller, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”

The Prince of Peace! Imagine! Think back to your bible studies. Look at what the people of Judea and Israel were dealing with; Roman occupation, poverty, Corruption of their civil and religious institutions. Can we possibly imagine that we are in worse shape?

But look at what God did. In the midst of their misery, God so loved them, that he gave his only-begotten Son, to the end that all that believe in Him should not perish, but have life everlasting.” And He still does the same for us, right now; right here. He offers us that Peace which passes all understanding. Yes, peace. Blessed peace. That is the promise of the Nativity! Our God will never abandon us or forsake us. Yes, we will still have problems here and tribulations; we will not be immune from heartache or sorrow. But, in the end, Our Lord will grant us that peace.

And just as God gives us peace, so we must do for each other. It is our Christian duty to be Christ-like; to live in imitation of Christ. We must all stand together for each other. When any of us are in pain, the rest of us must reach out a helping hand in Christian mercy, and do what we can to bring peace, for as our lord said, “blessed are the peace-makers”.

It’s time for our own individual nativity. Just as the baby Jesus was born in that stable over two thousand years ago, we can give birth to Jesus in our own hearts and minds today, right now. Let’s let Him live in each and every one of us, from this day forward. Let us go forth to love and serve the Lord with love and joy and singleness of heart, always remembering the words of Blessed Francis of Assisi:

Lord make me
an instrument of your peace

Where there is hatred,
Let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
And where there is sadness, Joy.

O Divine Master grant that I may
Not so much seek to be consoled
As to console;
To be understood,
As to understand;
To be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned.
And it is in dying that we are
Born to eternal life.

Amen

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How do we wage War on the News Media?

Please read this article carefully;  I could not agree more with Craig Smith.  I have also posted my email to Mr. Smith in response.  My questions to him are valid for everyone who reads this.  Please let me know what you think.  Thanks!

Time to declare war on the media

Posted: September 4, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern

By Craig R. Smith


© 2006 

What threat would be sufficient for the country as a whole to finally come together and present a united front? Will it take another 9/11? We all remember the day the president stood on the pile of rumble once known as the World Trade Center and addressed the nation. We were ready to do whatever it took to punish the attackers and send a signal to the world that we would not sit back and allow anyone or any government to threaten our safety. So much has changed in five years.

Of course, those five years have been chock full of relentless criticism of the leader of the free world. Thousands of news stories on how he is a liar and a warmonger. How he lives to destroy everything – from our all volunteer Army to the environment. How he conspired to out CIA operative Valerie Plame for a negative report her husband brought back from Niger. How he ''proved'' to be a racist leader when he ignored the plight of the underprivileged in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. How he was set on removing Saddam Hussein before he even started his run for the White House. The leader who allowed Korans to be flushed down toilets at Gitmo and allowed ''torture'' at Abu Ghraib. Shall I go on?

Only one problem with all of this. All we know about Bush has been run through a media filter that hates him and hates this country. Good, I said it and I mean it. The media is, without question, unpatriotic and every day more and more Americans know it to be the case. Yet, while the media and the liberal left do all they can to undermine the president and this administration, there is a real and present danger. A movement that thrives on death. They will stop at nothing to force submission to their religion.

Members of the media recently got a taste of their futures if this movement is successful. Steve Centanni and his cameraman were given a choice. Confess Allah as god or die. And yet the left claims Bush and Rumsfeld are the enemy, not the Islamic fascists that kill. I have no clue why the media are doing what they are doing, although I have my suspicions. There's one thing I know for sure; they are playing a very dangerous game.

For more than a year, Chris Matthews began his MSNBC program ''Hardball'' each night with the latest on the ''Plame Gate'' conspiracy. How the president and the vice president conspired to out Valerie Plame in order to punish her husband Joe Wilson. Only one problem Chris: There was no conspiracy. It is now known that Richard Armitage inadvertently leaked the name to Novak and the administration was never involved with a plot. That is why Fitzgerald never indicted Karl Rove or even Scooter Libby for the crime. Libby was indicted for lying and that is yet to be proven. Fitzgerald knew within months that Armitage was their guy, yet the investigation went on for two years. Matthews continued to do all he could to undermine the president and suggest that he lied to further his warmongering. He continued on this rant while 140,000 U.S. troops were in harm’s way in Iraq and Afghanistan. Why? Even if the president had been guilty, what was Matthews trying to accomplish? I think you know the answer. He hates the president and the country. By the way, I have yet to hear Matthews apologize for getting the story wrong or costing Libby, Rove and the others millions in legal bills.

What about the media reports that U.S. soldiers at Gitmo were flushing Korans down toilets? The Arab community was in full outrage. The president was relentlessly attacked about allowing it to happen. Only one problem again. There was never a single Koran flushed. Michael Isikoff, Mr. patriotic American, got the story wrong. Again, no apology for the damage done.

And now the most recent media distortion came during the reporting of the Israeli-Hezbollah war. Countless photos were taken and then doctored to promote utter lies to the American people. Yet apparently the American people still want to believe the media and not the president. President Bush says Iraq is a major front in the war on terror. The media says that is another lie. They take a poll and the poll shows less Americans believe Iraq is fighting the war on terror. Overnight the media is believed and they start up again with the ''Bush is lying'' rhetoric. Funny how the truth of the rampant terrorism in Iraq they show on their own newscasts doesn’t get in their way.

The other night was the final straw for me as I watched Alan Colmes suggest that Iran's Ahmadinejad should be assumed honest until they find him to be otherwise. The IAEA inspectors can’t verify whether or not his country is pursuing a nuclear weapon, so Alan wants to believe a man who has called the Holocaust a hoax and wants to wipe Israel off of the Earth. A man who leads a country whose budget has a line item for terrorism. A country that has spent hundreds of millions funding terrorist activities around the world. A country that took America hostage in 1979. Alan wants to believe Ahmadinejad before he believes President Bush. This is getting pretty sick in my book. In Alan’s mind Saddam was contained, Ahmadinejad is a fine fella and the only bad guys in this world are George Bush, Rummy and a hand full of bad American soldiers who sit in the brig in Pendleton awaiting trial for murder. Why? Because a ''truth-teller,'' a journalist from Time magazine, reported our soldiers dragged an innocent Iraqi civilian into the streets and killed him in cold blood. Must be true. Time magazine said so. Of course, Time also said the world may come to an end soon if one of those nasty black holes swallow planet Earth. You know how the truth works don't you? If it is in print it must be real.

As I asked earlier, is there anything or anyone who presents enough of a threat, other than George Bush, that America should collectively challenge? Yes. I say it’s the media themselves. They are now in the business of shaping public opinion and not reporting the news. Journalists no longer journal the events. They offer their opinions on events. Will Osama bin Laden have to attack the U.S. again with even more horrific results before we take his threat seriously or do we believe the media that Bush is way more dangerous? Will we wake up when Iran has nukes and Tel Aviv is attacked or will we still listen to the media reports that Israel deserves to be attacked as payment for years of ''harsh Israeli occupation?''

Mr. Bush, I have made a decision to believe you. Not because I approve of all you have done or how you have handled all of your responsibilities. But because I believe you have the best interest of this country at heart when it comes to terrorism. You see Mr. President, you say terrorists present the greatest threat of our day and I completely agree. Terrorists live to undermine the confidence the American people have in our safety. The media lives to undermine the confidence the American people have in their leader. To me, both are equally dangerous. Our unpatriotic media is so bent on your demise they are willing to fight everything or anything you do or say. I remember 9/11, Mr. President and I for one want you to defeat the terrorists and keep us safe. For in doing so you will silence your critics who care more about power than truth. I know that is not your motivation but that will be the result. Good always triumphs over evil when men take a stand and do what is right.

Make no mistake about it. We are in a battle for the free world. I don’t care what MSNBC or Time magazine say. Our future will be Sharia law or Democratic law depending on how we handle it. The war is on. We have been attacked on multiple occasions. Our enemy will not stop until we submit or we are dead. So what will it take for you to stop listening to unpatriotic haters of this country and rally behind the cause of freedom? The enemy has made its intentions clear. Their press will not undermine their leaders. Will we continue to allow our media to undermine ours?  (H/T World Net Daily) 

Dear Mr. Smith,
 
You have said everything I've wanted to say for a long time.  I couldn't agree with you more emphatically!  The question is:  what is your plan of action?  What can we do to "liberate" the newsrooms of America (and those of our allies)?  Boycotts never seem to work, and with the Left's stranglehold on academia just as severe as the one they have on the media, we'll never have enough conservative leaning journalists to take over.  Do you truly think talk radio and the blogosphere are enough?
 
Believe me, I'm not playing the cynical "devil's advocate" here...I'm truly looking for solutions;  I'm listening for any ideas you, or anyone else has, to fix this enormous problem.

Thanks, Rubberduck Crusader 
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A Truly Despicable Film

And these are our friends?

The Toronto International Film Festival will be screening a film, written and directed by British filmmaker Gabriel Range, called "The Death of a President", which depicts the assassination of not some fictional president a la "24", but of our own President George W. Bush.  This is not only in the worst of taste, but in light of the state of affairs in the world at present, an unspeakably irresponsible, despicable and stupid thing to do.

What possesses an otherwise semi-intelligent being to produce such a piece of garbage?  I suspect this fool secretly (or not so secretly) wishes for life to imitate "art" in this instance.  There are plenty of "nutters" out there who would love to become famous, and film is a powerful medium that can be a motivating factor in emboldening the "unbalanced" among us to act.

Shame on you Toronto Film Festival, for allowing this garbage to be screened!  Shame on you Channel4 (Britain) for picking this up for airing on mass media!  But most of all, Shame on you, Gabriel Range, you stupid, stupid man!

The New Britain never fails to remind us of why our ancestors left the Old Britain! 
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September Fool's Day?

I don't think this was meant to be a joke...read on! 

Annan says Syria to enforce Hizbollah arms embargo

Kofi Annan speaks during a news conference at Damascus Airport - Reuters

Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general, says Israeli forces should fully withdraw from Lebanon

September 01, 2006, 21:30

Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general, said today that Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, had promised to enforce an arms embargo on Hizbollah under a UN resolution that halted Israel's war with the Lebanese group.

"The president informed me that Syria supports the Security Council Resolution 1701 and will help in its implementation," Annan told reporters after talks with Assad in Damascus.

"While stating Syrian objections to the presence of foreign forces along the Syrian-Lebanese border, the president committed to me that Syria will take all necessary measures to implement in full paragraph 15 of the resolution," Annan added, referring to a provision that bans illegal arms shipments to Lebanon.

Syrian leaders have been angered by an Israeli demand for international troops to deploy on the Lebanese-Syrian border, the main conduit in the past for Hizbollah weapons supplies.

Lebanon, which has sent 8 600 soldiers to patrol the frontier, says it has no plans to ask UN troops to join them. Walid al-Moualem, the Syrian foreign minister, told reporters later that no weapons were crossing from his country to the guerrillas in Lebanon. "No arms are being smuggled to the resistance (Hizbollah) from Syria," he said.

Israel rebuffs Syrian peace offer talks
On the sidelines of a conference in Italy, Shimon Peres, the Israeli deputy prime minister, repeated Israel's demand for UN verification of procedures on the Syrian-Lebanese border. "There must be a way to verify, now if this would be solved, and I think the secretary-general of the UN is looking for ways and means to assure it, then Israel will believe it," he told a news conference in Cernobbio.

The party of Walid Jumblatt, the Lebanese Druze leader, said in a statement today that last Saturday night Lebanese security officials allowed arms and ammunition to enter the country from Syria at the main Masnaa crossing point.

Israel has rebuffed repeated Syrian offers to renew talks on peace in return for the Golan and other occupied Arab land. The first contingent of 880 Italian troops will land in Lebanon tomorrow to join 2 300 UNIFIL peacekeepers already policing the fragile truce between Israel and Hizbollah.

The Spanish government said today it planned to send 1 100 troops to Lebanon as part of a UN peacekeeping force. France, Belgium and Poland are also offering extra troops to the expanded UN force for south Lebanon.

Germany is considering sending up to 2 000 troops, mainly navy personnel, to join the UN mission, media reported. Annan has said Israeli forces should withdraw fully from Lebanon as soon as 5 000 UN troops have arrived in the south. – Reuters

OK, folks!  This has gone from the sublime to the crazy!  We can no longer take the UN seriously, ever again.

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Why Not Border-Wide?

 

Border Agents Make Zero-Tolerance Zone

By ALICIA A. CALDWELL
Associated Press Writer

August 24, 2006, 3:52 PM EDT

DEL RIO, Texas -- Standing in a cramped federal courtroom last month, illegal immigrant Walter Oscar Portillo-Machado pleaded with a judge for mercy. But he came to the wrong place for that.

The Salvadoran man was caught along a 210-mile stretch of the Texas-Mexico border that has been set up as zero-tolerance zone for illegal immigration. Instead of merely getting sent back home, immigrants here are arrested, prosecuted, and sometimes sentenced to prison before they are formally kicked out of the country.

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The effort began late last year along a border area that includes the Rio Grande border towns of Del Rio and Eagle Pass. It has been hailed by federal officials as a creative use of local and federal resources to tighten the border.

While other border sectors avoided strict enforcement because they did not have enough jail space or prosecutors, authorities in the Del Rio area found bed space elsewhere in the region, assigned federal agents to help prosecute cases and began running illegal immigrants through a courtroom at a rate of one case per minute.

Immigration advocates have criticized the practice, saying it only moves the problem elsewhere along the border and may sacrifice civil liberties for the sake of efficiency.

"There's nothing we're doing that wasn't already on the books," said Hilario Leal Jr., a supervisory Border Patrol agent in the Del Rio sector. "It's nothing new. We just started enforcing the law."

The Del Rio sector also ended the widespread practice of "catch-and-release" that freed most non-Mexican immigrants with a piece of paper ordering them to show up in federal immigration court a month later -- and almost no one did.

Most Mexican citizens with no criminal record who cross outside the Del Rio sector are still escorted back shortly after their arrest. Those from other countries are held in a detention center -- not as criminals serving time -- while the paperwork is being completed to return them to their home countries.

But in the Del Rio sector, every adult illegal immigrant, regardless of their home country, is criminally prosecuted and removed from the country after they have served his sentence.

"They know if they come (to Del Rio) they are going home, they are going to jail," Leal said.

Before the effort began, illegal immigrants came across the river near Del Rio in droves, with Central and South American citizens often surrendering to agents because they knew they would be let go -- after receiving food, water, medical care and sometimes a ride to a bus station, along with their notice to appear in court.

In recent years, the situation had become so hectic that Del Rio sector agents were lucky if they patrolled the border for two hours during an eight or 10-hour shift, Agent Cynthia Bilyk said. The rest of their time was spent processing the immigrants.

Agents in the sector were averaging about 500 arrests a day, Leal said. Now there are fewer than 100 daily arrests, and the reforms are credited with reducing arrests by about 29 percent so far this fiscal year.

While the changes have curbed arrests, freed up agents and other resources, they have not slowed the traffic at the federal courthouse.

The day Portillo-Machado stood shackled and handcuffed in the courtroom, he was surrounded by more than 30 defendants facing the same charge. The judge handled about one guilty plea a minute.

When his name was called, Portillo-Machado said "Cupable," which means guilty in Spanish. He then asked the judge for forgiveness and was later sentenced to 120 days in jail.

Court staff said the day's docket was light in comparison with the average crowd of would-be immigrants that often overflows the courtroom.

Magistrate Judge Dennis Green said the cases are heard quickly, but each defendant meets with a court-appointed lawyer before going to court. If there is any question about an immigrant's potential defense, that person's case is heard separately, the judge said.

The federal court's two Del Rio magistrate judges are hearing about 2,100 cases a month. Their counterparts farther from the border in West Texas are averaging about 140.

Opponents say the process just pushes the problem to other sectors.

"The border is like a balloon," said El Paso immigration lawyer Felipe D.J. Millan. "If it expands in one area, guess what? It still comes in from another area."

Millan also worries that the reforms in the Del Rio sector and a similar plan in southern New Mexico are simply backdoor efforts to criminalize immigrants.

"It's a wasted resource," Millan said. "It's a way of criminalizing someone who just wants to come here and work."

This seems to be a perfect model for what should be done all along BOTH borders!  This is proof that we CAN control our borders.  For us not to do so now, with people out there that want to kill us, is national suicide.
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The Real Teachings of the Koran

 
Another spot-on article from Cal Thomas, from real clear politics.com:

The Real Teachings of the Koran

By Cal Thomas

During the Cold War, American intelligence loved getting its hands on defectors from communism. The reasoning was that these people had the best information about the plans of the other side, information that would help America defeat them.

In the present war against what President Bush has properly labeled "Islamic fascism," defectors are just as valuable.

The Israel Project, an international nonprofit organization devoted to educating the press and the public about Israel, recently made a former leading imam and radical Islam expert available for media interviews and I had a chance to speak with him. He goes by the name of Sam Soloman because of death threats from those not happy with the information he has about their plans to dominate the world.

Soloman was brought up in the Islamic tradition and became a "recruiter," which he says is something like an assistant teacher. One of his responsibilities was "brainwashing people in the Koran." He tells me "The suicide bombers go through stages, and the most important stage is not when they blow themselves up. The most important stage is conforming them to the (Muslim) ideology. Once they are conformed to the ideology, the rest is easy. That is the role I had."

Soloman is in double trouble. Not only did he abandon Islam and the terrorists' objectives, he has also become a Christian, which has marked him for death. Born in the Middle East, he visited Washington from his adopted country, which he declines to name to protect his family.

Soloman speaks with knowledge, credibility and conviction. He has memorized large sections of the Koran and tells me, "There's not a single verse in the Koran talking about peace with a non-Muslim, with the Jews and the Christians. Islam means submission. Islam means surrender. It means you surrender and accept Islamic hegemony over yourselves..."

I ask him about the best strategy for fighting it: "It cannot be combated simply by force. It needs to be combated ideologically, spiritually (as well as) through arms."

Soloman says the outlets for Islamic ideology are religious - seminaries, the madrassas (Koranic schools) and especially the mosques. "From the beginning, Mohammed used the mosque to propagate this ideology. It was in the mosque that jihad was declared (and) that troops were sent to conquer the rest of the world. The mosque was the seat of government and Americans are right to be concerned about (their growth)."

He asks Americans to inform themselves about the real teachings of Islam and not to fall for what various Islamic groups say it teaches. Soloman says, "The simplest Islamic book you open" teaches that all unbelievers (in Islam) are profane people. "Because of the (Koranic) text and what it says, it incites violence." He begins quoting verses from memory, too quickly to write them all down. One is, "Slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them captives and besiege them and lie in wait for them in every ambush." (Surah 9:5)

"This kind of tactic of taking verses out of context can be used against any religious faith," says Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for Washington, D.C.-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, an Islamic civil rights and advocacy group. "It can and has been used against the Bible and has been used against the Quran."

"These verses deal with the real experience of the Muslim community at the time when they were under attack. It's not a general injunction to go out and harm people. The only people who take it that way are those who want to promote hostility toward Islam and Muslims. They would object if the same thing were done to their faith."

Yes, but virtually all Christians and Jews denounce the infinitesimal few who claim to be Jewish or Christian and use their "holy books" to justify violence against others as a direct command from God.

Asked whether the Koran commands the killing of or violence against all nonbelievers, Ali Khan, national director of the Chicago-based American Muslim Council, replied: "No. (That's) far from the truth. There's nothing in the Koran, no verse that I'm aware of, that advocates the killing of nonbelievers."

The terrorists and those who preach from mosques throughout the Middle East must be reading a different version, then, because virtually all of their sermons that I've read claim their God wants them to kill all "infidels."

Soloman says Americans must demand from the leading Islamic hierarchy, such as the Muslim World League and the Union of Imams, a fatwa that makes it clear "that this is not what the text means and that these texts are no longer effective. They have passed their date. But if they remain effective and eternally valid, then in America we have a serious problem."

How serious? He says "They are infiltrating and undermining every part of this society. We are promoting Islamic mortgages, Islamic insurance companies. There are 29 banks in the United States promoting Islamic banking. Since 1999, Dow Jones has launched Dow Jones Islamic Index and has subjected itself to be governed by an international Sharia board." (Sharia is the religious law of Islam outlined in the Koran.)

Soloman adds, "The Islamic organizations have their missionaries and there are active or sleeping cells in this country." He mentions one, Tablighi Jamaat, "a Pakistani organization that is hand-in-glove with the Wahaabis, strong Muslim sects known for their strict observance of the Koran, and a strong facilitator of al-Qaida and other factions of terrorism. They alone have 1,000 missionaries in New York, 50,000 across the United States. This is only one organization. In 1994, I took a map and started putting pins in it. I found there is not a single state without a mosque. Since then (the number) has increased."

Americans must see past their natural reluctance to paint all members of a group with a broad brush and realize our failure to act now against this clear and present danger in the ways Sam Soloman recommends will lead to a disaster for us that is far worse than our Cold War enemies had envisaged.

Cal@CalThomas.com

©2006 Tribune Media Services

Page Printed from: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2006/08/the_convert.html at August 19, 2006 - 11:59:32 PM CDT

When are people going to realize that we as Americans, Christians and Jews are all in the crosshairs of this "religion of peace"?  As much as I love and respect President Bush, I believe the biggest disservice he has done the nation is to mis-characterize what Islam is, and what a vast number of Muslims believe.  I truly believe this is why so many Americans just don't take this "War on Terror" seriously.  Our complacency will be our undoing! 
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