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Examine the text (Muslims certainly do)

Cal Thomas on The Real Teachings of the Koran:

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)

Dangerously Adrift

Gerard Baker has a disturbing piece in the London Times in which he analyzes the current state of US foreign policy. In many many respects, it sums up my current thoughts on the leadership of the Bush administration. The administration's recent handling of the Israel-Lebanon war has led me to believe that unless it retools its foreign policy, Bush's presidency could well go down in history as a failure--not because of Iraq per se, but on account of his rendering America as a force to brazenly scoff at rather than as force to fear and respect. Baker ends his column thus:

Now we have the worst of all worlds. Not only is the US despised around the globe, it can’t even make its supposed hegemony work.

It’s one thing to be seen as the bully in the schoolyard; it’s quite another when people realise the bully is actually incapable of getting anybody else to do what he wants. It’s unpleasant when people stop respecting you, but it’s positively terrifying when they stop fearing you.

What we have now is a situation in which the world’s only superpower, with the largest economic and military advantage any country has ever enjoyed on Earth, is pinned down like Gulliver, tormented by an army of fundamentalist Lilliputians.

Some will say that the US’s ineffectiveness is a direct result of the loss of its “soft” power. Alienating the rest of the world has weakened its ability to achieve its objectives. Idiocies such as Abu Ghraib and the brief flirtation with torture as a legitimate instrument undoubtedly hurt America’s image. But I don’t truly see how the failings in the Middle East could have been avoided by Washington’s being nicer to foreigners. What’s been missing is resolute leadership.

It is hard for me to recall a time when the world was such a scary place. No one should rejoice at America’s weakness. The world is scarier still because of it.

The circle of strife

I found the following video posted at Little Green Footballs (the blog that recently broke the story of the photoshopped-pictures from the Israel-Lebanon war). The video has the first footage I've seen of Hitler meeting the Mufti of Jerusalem (the man who Yassar Arafat claims is his uncle). A lot of people have been making analogies between what's happening now in the Middle East and what happened in the 1930s. Usually, analogies are taken too far and made to quickly. But I believe that the more we learn about what's happening now, and the more we study the past, the more appropriate this particular analogy becomes. I hope our leaders don't forget the lessons of the past--just as I hope they don't turn a blind eye to the dire challenges we face today.

The war on terror is over

Caroline Glick of the Jerusalem post has a must-read breakdown of the UN backed cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah/Lebanon. In short, she argues passionately that this agreement (codified in the form of a UN resolution) represents a catastrophic loss for Israel and the US and a victory for Hezbollah. Sadly, she's right. The Bush administration has handed a terrorist organization a victory, and in doing so has effectively ended the war on terror. My faith in Bush's resolve and leadership with respect to the greatest threat our country now faces has been utterly shattered.

Why, why, why can't we learn from history? Diplomatic compromises with Hitler in the 1930s cost us dearly in the 1940s. The folly of attempting to broker a lasting peace with a bunch of Islamic terrorists who will stop at nothing to kill as many Jews and take as much land as they can should be even more apparent to us now than the futility of negotiating with Hitler was to the leaders of the day in the late 1930s. I fear that in the years to come, we too will pay dearly for our desire to appease the appeasors of the world.

Terrorist Tactics

Images of the suffering coming out of Lebanon are chilling and have a very predictable and powerful way of galvanizing world opinion against Israel. EU Referendum, however, has a post documenting the despicable extent to which many of these photos have been staged. It would appear that the only thing more valuable to these Islamic savages than a dead Jew is a dead Muslim child. Just one more example of the death cult of Islamic fascism finding greater value in death than in life.

On a related note, Naomi Regan makes the following point in a recent article:

Terrorists and their supporters have lost the right to complain about civilian casualties, since all they have done this entire war is target civilians. Every single one of the more than 2,500 rockets launched into Israel is launched into populated towns filled with women and children. Just today, another suicide belt meant to kill civilians in Israel was detonated harmlessly by our forces in Nablus.

So, don't cry to me about civilian casualties. Cry to those using your babies and wives and mothers; cry to those who store weapons in mosques, ambulances, hospitals and private homes. Cry to those launching deadly rockets from the backyards of your kindergartens and schools. Cry to the heartless men who love death, and who, however many of their troops or civilians die, consider themselves victorious as long as they can keep on firing rockets at our women and children.

Lesson learned the hard way

Click here to read how this excerpt from a story applies nicely to the Israel-Hezbollah situation.

Each punch opened a cut on the Marine's startled face and by the time he had been backed completely into the corner he was blubbering for someone to stop the fight. He invoked his split lips and chipped teeth as reasons to stop the fight. He begged us to stop the fight because he could barely see through the river of blood that was pouring out of his split and swollen brows.

Nobody moved. Not one person.

Good article

So much writing is out there on the war Israel is rightly waging against the terrorist group Hezbollah. But I thought this piece, more than most, is right on the mark: Patience is Wearing Thin

A few excerpts:

Finally, the world is accepting that the Middle East problem was never about so-called occupied land -- but only about the existence of Israel itself. Hezbollah and Hamas, and those in their midst who tolerate them (or vote for them), didn't so much want Israel out of Lebanon and Gaza as pushed into the Mediterranean altogether. And since there will be no second Holocaust, the Israelis may well soon transform a perennial terrorist war that they can't easily win into a conventional aerial one against a terrorist-sponsoring Syria that they can...

What then would be the new Western approach to terrorism? Hard and quick retaliation -- but without our past concern for nation-building, or offering a democratic alternative to theocracy and autocracy, or even worrying about whether other Muslims are unfairly lumped in with Islamists who operate freely in their midst.

Any new policy of retaliation -- in light both of Sept. 11 and the messy efforts to birth democracies in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon and the West Bank -- would be something of an exasperated return to the old cruise-missile payback. Yet in the new world of Iranian nukes and Hezbollah missiles, the West would hit back with something far greater than a cruise missile.

If they are not careful, a Syria or Iran really will earn a conventional war -- not more futile diplomacy or limited responses to terrorism. And history shows that massive attacks from the air are something that the West does well.

So in the meantime, let us hope that democracy prevails in Iraq, that our massive aid is actually appreciated by the Middle East, that diplomacy ultimately works with Iran, that Syria quits supporting terrorists, and that Hamas and Hezbollah cease their rocket attacks against Israel -- more for all their sakes than ours.

Snapshot of tyranny

North Korea has been in the news a good bit recently for their missle launches. No doubt, the North Korean government is going to regret its ill-thought provocations. However, in all the international bravado, one can quickly forget about just how bad it is for the citizens of North Korea. They live under the brutal control and oppression of a truly evil regime. Given the situation in North Korea, these pictures are probably as close as I'll ever get to having an idea of what it's like over there.

Discovery

The above is a photo I took of Shuttle Discovery from the town of Titusville--about 11 miles from the launch pad. Sadly, after waiting over 4 hours, NASA scrubbed the launch with only 9 minutes to go in the countdown. They'll try again tomorrow (Sunday), and we'll be there hoping will beat the odds (60%) that bad weather will delay it further. Whether there's a launch or not, I'm thrilled to be here--to see the Shuttle in person and see the thousands of other people from all over the world who've come to watch something truly spectacular.

Ohio

A couple of weeks ago I spent the weekend visiting a friend (JD) in Ohio. I'd never been to Ohio before, and I must say that I had a great time. My first full day there we went to Cedar Point--the worlds largest amusement park as I understand it. The rides were incredible. One ride in particular was thrilling: in 4 seconds it propelled you to 120 m.p.h. which allowed you to shoot up to a height of 420 feet. From that height, you had a few split seconds to take in the gorgeous view of Lake Erie before you plummeted straight down to the ground. Pure Bliss. Sadly I didn't take any pictures because I didn't want to keep up with my camera. But check out the link above and you'll get an idea as to why you too should go to Cedar Point.

The next day JD, his dad, and I visited the Air Force musem in Dayton. I took most of my pictures there. The museum consists of three monsterous hangers which, displayed chronologically, contain aviations finest aircraft. Here's a Wright Flyer (can't remember if it's an origional or model):


And, fastforwarding several decades, here's a Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird:


And here's my favorite: the Apollo 15 Command Module. So cool to think that this thing orbited the moon and reentered earth at 25,000 m.p.h.


After the Air Force museum, JD and I attended a Reds game in Cincinnati. The Reds, hosting the Cubs, lost, but I had a blast anyway. I saw the Cubs hit a grand slam (my first MLB grand slam to watch in person) and Griffey hit his 547th home run.


All in all, a great trip.

For a United Georgia

Yo, vote 4 Miss Angela

Btw, turn the speakers up. Then turn them off.

Christians and the "Code"

A friend of mine gave me a copy of The Da Vinci Code. So, in light of all the (now bad) press for the movie and the fact that it's the best selling work of fiction ever (and no, Sir Ian McKellen, I'm not referring to the Bible), I read it, hoping to understand why it's such a phenomenon and what all the fuss is about. And by the way, I took this picture last year completely unaware that just a few yards in front of me lay buried the Holy Grail. What was I thinking...had I simply realized the great pyramid in front of me contained 666 pieces of glass and that Mitterand was in a secret society that protected, well, secrets, and that the curator of the Louvre was really good at anagrams. . .

But back to real reality. Having read it, I very much understand at one level why it would cause a fuss. I still, though, don't understand why it's the hit that it is. Sure, it's page-turning suspensful, but so are a lot of other airport books. There's hardly any character development, no psychological intrigue, and the plot is too predictable. Dan Brown occasionally bores the reader by needlessly explaining tid bits like the Fibinocci sequence. It's as though he's assuming the reader lacks a certain modicum of intelligence (and given the 40 plus million who've bought the book, maybe he's on to something). I have no interest or intention of ever paying to see the movie.

As to the fuss, I understand it. Of course it's a work of fiction. But in the fictional reality of this novel, Christ was but a man who, although lived a profoundly moral life, was nevertheless not divine. He died and to this day remains dead. Furthermore, the Bible itself is spoken of as nothing more than a collection of false tales and myths hand picked by "the pagan Roman emperor Constantine the Great."

Chills should run through any Christian when the divinty of Chirst or the authority of the Bible is questioned or denied--regardless of the genre or medium. So, yeah, I understand the fuss. To counter by saying that it's just a work of fiction, that Christians should be strong enough in their faith so as not to be upset by a novel completely misses the point. The issue isn't so much the impact the book has on the life or faith of a believer in Christ. What's so important is the influence the book may have (recall again it's massive worldwide appeal) on those who don't associate themselve with Christianity or those who nominally call themselves Christian but for all practical purposes are completely secular (think Europe). For these people, such an appealing work of modern culture is in a prime position to influence their thoughts on Christianity.

I write all this to say this: I believe that the Christian's response to this book and movie should not be shrill or bombastic. Nor should the Christian be unconcerned about the popularity of the book or the book's anti-Christian premise. To state it in the positive, a Christian must be prepared to declare the truth about the gospel of Christ and the real hope that is Christianity. This must be done, though, with humility and respect. In other words, I Peter 3:15. That's my hope anyway--that all the hullabaloo surrounding The Da Vinci Code will prompt the Church to shore up on apologetics and to pursue all the open doors of dialogue this cultural sensation will produce. And, Lord willing, the church will be larger and stronger for it.

100 Million and Counting?

The Heritage Foundation released a study that should give every American pause. Here's the first paragraph:

If enacted, the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act (CIRA, S.2611) would be the most dramatic change in immigration law in 80 years, allowing an estimated 103 million persons to legally immigrate to the U.S. over the next 20 years—fully one-third of the current population of the United States.

The Politics of Right and Wrong

In a recent essay, Time's Andrew Sullivan had the following to say:

So let me suggest that we take back the word Christian while giving the religious right a new adjective: Christianist. Christianity, in this view, is simply a faith. Christianism is an ideology, politics, an ism. The distinction between Christian and Christianist echoes the distinction we make between Muslim and Islamist. Muslims are those who follow Islam. Islamists are those who want to wield Islam as a political force and conflate state and mosque. Not all Islamists are violent. Only a tiny few are terrorists. And I should underline that the term Christianist is in no way designed to label people on the religious right as favoring any violence at all. I mean merely by the term Christianist the view that religious faith is so important that it must also have a precise political agenda. It is the belief that religion dictates politics and that politics should dictate the laws for everyone, Christian and non-Christian alike.

That's what I dissent from, and I dissent from it as a Christian. I dissent from the political pollution of sincere, personal faith. I dissent most strongly from the attempt to argue that one party represents God and that the other doesn't. I dissent from having my faith co-opted and wielded by people whose politics I do not share and whose intolerance I abhor. The word Christian belongs to no political party. It's time the quiet majority of believers took it back.

I agree with Mr. Sullivan that the word Christian belongs to no political party (as if a word could belong to anyone). But I couldn't disagree more with his underlying thesis, namely that one should keep his religion seperated from his politics. It's not surprising, then, that I can't agree more with my brother-in-law's response to Sullivan's essay:

I am appalled at Andrew Sullivan’s subtle attempt to compare the Christian Right with Islamic extremists in his article “My Problem with Christianism.” Christianity and Islam are two separate religions with a separate set of beliefs and ways to respond to the world. It was a lowball and unfair move by Sullivan to make that comparison. With that said, Sullivan falls into the same trap he preaches against with his incorrect categorization of the majority of Christians. He describes Christians based on his own views of religion and politics. It is obvious Sullivan is no student of church history and the Bible, which is our objective standard for how we interact in this world.

The Bible tells us as Christians we are Christ’s ambassadors. This means there should be no separation between our religious life and our public life. Jesus and our early church founders (Peter, James, John, Paul etc.) are perfect examples. Their public life was a living mirror of their inner religious life, so much so that the governments of their time persecuted and killed them out of fear of what they were doing to public opinion. Church history is filled with examples of Christians whose religion “dictated their politics.” And what were those counter cultural issues they took a stand on in their public lives? The same moral issues that many in the Christian Right represent today. I believe Sullivan’s assessment of today’s evangelicals is wrong. As one of the thousands of evangelical Christians in America I am glad to carry on the tradition of our fathers in having my faith dictate my political views.

Joel M. Borkert

Well said. I recently had a conversation with a 1L in lawschool. The subject eventually turned to politics and this individual said, "I just can't believe how President Bush tries to impose his morality on everybody. Don't you find that wrong?" My response went something like this: I don't think the issue is George Bush imposing his morality. I don't see how any politician (or anyone for that matter) can come to any political conclusion without moral considerations guiding him. Republicans AND Democrats base all their decisions to some degree or another on their moral framework. It's just that different moral paradigms are at play. Our politics reflect our values, and our values are formed by our moral considerations. Those moral considerations are ultimately going to be consistent with and dependent upon our religious faith, whatever it may be.

This student I talked with and Mr. Sullivan both suffer from the same self-righteous illusion that they are the objective, enlightend ones, capable of divorcing their personal, private faith from their public political positions. The fact of the matter, though, is that if we're to be spiritually and intellectually honest, we can't simultaneously believe in the virtue of our faith if we advocate political positions that run counter to it. Such a truth respects no party line.

Cool Comet

I haven't had a chance to spot Comet Schwassmann-Wachmann 3, but I'm hoping the sky cooperates tonight. I thought the above photo of the comet is stunning.

Sick Elephant

Peggy Noonan argues that it may take a GOP defeat in November to remind the Republican's of what the voters really want. I think she's right. It's also possible that two years of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi might be enough to ensure that a majority of American's won't even think about voting for a Democrat in the 2008 Presidential election.

Shame on US

It looks like the US is going to soften its stand and, in conjunction with the EU and Russia, cave in and allow money to be channeled to the terrorist run Palestinian government. Stupid stupid stupid. You'd think after 9/11 we'd learn that giving money to a state of blood thirsty self combusting savages who's stated goal is the elimination of the state of Israel is a bad idea.

Of course, knee-jerk reaction aside, the concern is that but for the foreign aid to the Hamas led government, civil war will break out in the West Bank and Gaza and that this would be bad for, well, everyone. Maybe so. But as long as the US and the rest of the world holds the hands of the Palestinians, they are never going to learn responsible government. Elections have consequences, we're fond of saying. The Palestinians elected a terrorist organization to run their government. I think, practically speaking, (admittedly not politically speaking) the best thing to do is let them reach a breaking point--a point where they realize their real problems aren't Israel and the US but their own leaders who use Islam, corruption, and popular ignorance to divert attention away from themeselves and on to easier, more convenient scapegoats. Why take responsibility when they can rewrite history, play the helpless victim card and demand that they be taken seriously while plotting to blow up malls and pizza parlors?

It's worked so far. And we're not any closer to making them realize it's not a prudent course of action.

Here's Big Lizard's take on things...

87% was a B- in grade school...

One more reason why 60-plus Republican Senators would be nice: What's Behind the New Fight over Judges

The title says it all

A country with no future destroys its past

A looming crisis?

The Fall of France and the Multi-Cultural World War

Newt on Iraq

In a recent speech, Speaker Newt--whose opinions I lend a good deal of credence to--called the US occupation in Iraq an enourmous mistake. I'm not sure yet if I agree with him or not, but I certainly have become less enthusiastic about our chances of getting a worthwhile return on our investment of time, blood, and dollars. Only time (and a lot of it) will tell for sure. But I'm becoming more worried that our quagmire in Iraq will discourage us from taking the proper actions with respect to Iran.

Cups

What is it about coffee shops and liberals? I'm in Cups--you know, a trendy kind of coffe place with something sounding like Radiohead playing in the background--a place where you bring your laptop or your New York Times and pass the time away sipping some excessively hyphenated named latte with a nice plate of sliced fruit on the side. It's not that I don't like places like this--I do. I mean, they have free wireless, good tasting coffee, and the people, as far as I can tell, are nice. But I can't help but think that these types of places are Meccas for liberals.

"Ha! Major League Baseball is launching a steriods probe. I'll be believe that the day I believe Bush." So says the chap who just sat next to me. I wonder if he realizes that a former Democratic majority leader is heading up the investigation in the baseball probe...

Skylines

Here's someone's list of the top 15 skylines in the world. Obviously this is subjective, but it's still good overview of some beautiful urban landscapes.

The first little bit of the school...

For Thomas and Mollie:

I haven't a lot of time (nor have I the last few days). But before we hit the town this afternoon I wanted to at least post a picture of Vienna Christian School. We took a ton of pictures of just about everything we saw. This picture is what you see when you walk through the front entrance. We arrived just as a class was let out.

Mollie, this is a picture (obviously) of the music room at the school. There was a young couple there named Lance and Mindy. Mindy was sitting at the piano. She reminded me a lot of you--I think because she was sitting at the piano wearing glasses kinda like yours.

I wish I had more time but we have to go. We're going explore Budapest a bit this afternoon and tonight, we're going to a performance of Rachmaninov's Second Concerto. I'm, in a word, ecstatic.