Perspective

Amid today's orgy of adulation over Michael Jackson, we should pause and remember real heroes--men and women who paid the ultimate price for this nation, but whose lives go uncelebrated.

U.S. Army Lieutenant Brian Bradshaw was one of individuals. He died on June 25th, the same day that Michael Jackson passed away. But Lieutenant Bradshaw didn't die in a Hollywood mansion from a drug-induced heart attack. He was killed on a road in Afghanistan, when his vehicle was targeted by an improvised explosive device.

 

Read the whole article here.

Unbelievable.

Get this: not only does the Iranian government crack down on pro-Democracy demonstrators by shooting into the crowd, but they now say that the family of an innocent bystander murdered by Iranian police must pay the government for the privilege of retrieving his body, so that the government’s cost for the bullet which took their son’s life can be recouped.

When Mr. Alipour didn't return home that night, his parents began to worry. All day, they had heard gunshots ringing in the distance. His father, Yousef, first called his fiancée and friends. No one had heard from him.

At the crack of dawn, his father began searching at police stations, then hospitals and then the morgue.

Upon learning of his son's death, the elder Mr. Alipour was told the family had to pay an equivalent of $3,000 as a "bullet fee"—a fee for the bullet used by security forces—before taking the body back, relatives said.

And still utter, absolute silence from the Obama administration.

Condemn Israel when she tries to defend herself, all the while bending over backwards to limit civilian casualties to the absolute minimum…but zip the lip in condemning a government run followers of the Religion of Peace.

Bush Part 2 was not a good president; under his watch, all the good done by the Reagan revolution was cheerfully dismantled, and we inherited an even more massive expansion of government than FDR ever could hope to achieve in his wildest dreams.  Even still, I’m quite certain that Bush wouldn’t be sitting very, very still over this, hoping the American public either ignored this whole ugly mess or ignored his utter inaction over it.  He at least had the guts to stand up to the Ayatollah and his guy Ahmadinejad.

What the Iranian government is doing is despicable. What our own government is doing (or, more to the point, very studiously not doing) is utterly unconscionable.

Excellent point…

From the article “Why Condemn Israel But Not Iranian Government Brutality?”

The European Left, the Democrats, the Liberals, the leaders of the West, all go rampant when Israel attacks the Gaza Strip. Where are they now? Why Obama, Blair, Sarkozy keep on sitting on the fence at the time that Iranian Regime is slaughtering protestors and crushing their basic right to be able to protest?

Tell me, where is everyone? To where have they vanished, all those who protested against Israel’s violence during Operation Cast, Lead or the Second Lebanon War, or Defense Shield or even the Hague when we were dragged there by our hair when we dared to try build a separation barrier between us and the suicide bomber? Here and there we see protests but they are mainly Iranian immigrants. In principle, Europe is calm and relaxed. Likewise, the USA. Here few dozens, there few thousands. What, they have vanished because it is Teheran, and not here?

Counterpoint

Interesting counterpoint here to the current leftist cause célèbre of decrying evil, racist Israel by spotlighting the plight of “Palestinian” Christians.

How wonderful.  But this ecumenical coalition has not expressed very much interest in any "dwindling" Christian population anywhere else in the Middle East, where in fact nearly every Christian population is "dwindling."  The "dwindling" Palestinian Christian population merits special concern because they are, sadly, useful props for bashing Israel.  "Dwindling" Christian populations in Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon, however tragic their plight, serve no utility for bishops, church bureaucrats, and professional Religious Left activists anxious for one more excuse to decouple the U.S. from Israel.

The article points out something that the Religious Left willfully forgets: Israel is not and has not been the aggressor.  Israel has been simply fighting for the right to exist, to not be gleefully butchered by her enemies, since day one.  As has been stated elsewhere, “If the Muslims stopped fighting, there would be peace in the Middle East.  If Israel stopped fighting, there would be no Israel.”

The organizer for this rather disingenuous plea was Churches for Middle East Peace, which thanks mostly to Roman Catholic participation, is not as hard-line anti-Israel as many of its Mainline Protestant and Evangelical Left supporters would prefer.  But its counsel and lobbying almost always, if in usually muted language, repeat the usual refrain that the U.S. must, through "hands on," "bold action," strong-arm Israel into concessions, while the victimized Palestinians and their Arab patrons simply wait patiently to achieve their demands. Arab intransigence never seems to merit "bold action" by the U.S., just endless accommodation. "Churches for Middle East Peace" indeed.

Interesting op-ed article worth reading.

Gaza

The world media – as usual – is again demonizing Israel for defending herself from unprovoked attack, even though the IDF (as always) went to herculean lengths to minimize civilian casualties.

A well-nigh impossible task, given that Israel’s enemies bravely hid themselves inside civilian populations and courageously fired at the Jews from behind the protection of women, children, and the infirm.

Again – as always.

Even so, the world media falls right into character and lambastes the Jews for defending themselves.  And they are all the more incensed because the Jews intentionally limited their response to Hamas’ attacks even to the point of taking fire from supposed civilians who carried RPGs and other weapons and fired into Jewish ranks, in an apparent attempt to provoke the IDF to return fire in self-defense so that the slavering, obsequious media mavens could jump in and pile on the Jews, proving to their uncritical audiences that yet again, Israel was the true impediment to peace (because the Jews continue to have the audacity to refuse to roll over and die when they are attacked).

Joshua Eastman, an oleh from Baltimore, fought in the recent Gaza conflict, and brings a bit of a reality check to the cacophonous chorus of media-driven world opinion on his blog, Through Josh-Colored Glasses.

The world is already trying to fault Israel, telling everyone that civilians died, and Israelis murdered. But I was there. My feet were on the ground and I saw the truth. I saw that warnings were given, I saw the enemy that fought us. I saw the twelve year olds with missiles and RPGs strapped to their backs. I saw that it was with sadness and great anger Israeli troops recognized the need to fire on people who crossed the red line, the danger zone which meant they saw us, and knew where we were. Old people mined with bombs, children armed with detonators, tunnels that opened in the ground to swallow our soldiers. I watched my commanders passing out all of our food to the children who were taken prisoner. I received the commands "closed to fire on the right" if our intelligence had reported civilians in the area. I watched us, more often then not, taking cover when supposed civilian positions fired on us from "the right|. Yet the world thinks it can bend the truth. We were not allowed to fire on schools. We were told not to loot. We watched in anger as our bombs, so as not to fall on large civilian centers, fell on our own troops, so that we could tell the world we were attempting to scare the enemy while limiting civilian losses.

Yet they won't say that in the press.

The full blogpost is a resounding counterpoint to the world media.

The French Connection

Notice, in this article, the difference between the Pro-Israeli demonstration and the Pro-“Palestinian” one.

True, dat...

From the Stand To Reason blog.

Farah-Hanegraaff celebrity death match

Joe Farah smacks back at Hanegraaff RE: the utterly insane contention that America's support of Israel causes terrorism.

Yeah.

And eating Reeses' Peanut Butter Cups (TM) causes global warming.

Anyway, good op-ed...

Israel Insider Article

Important article here, especially in light of the current political situation with Israel and her peace-loving neighbors...

Stuff of note...

I keep track of many streams of information via tools like Bloglines. I only get to really skim a lot of the stuff that I keep tabs on - it's a lot of information. Mostly blogs, some news sites...

Some of the webthings I've bookmarked in del.icio.us for more in-depth perusal when I have the time, and which I present here for y'all's consideration:

• Next-Wave
  
  • Online newszine for the Emerging/Emergent Church.
  
  
  • If you want a better understanding of the current thinking in the ECM, this is a tremendously good resource.
  
  
  • I've found that the contributors cover a good portion of the range of what is considered "Emerging," though in general sits right in the center (ever-shifting as that center might be).
  
  
  • Note: It's good to read stuff from dudes you might not agree with, as that serves the twin functions of keeping yourself sharp, and makes it more difficult for you to fall for mischaracterizations. The ECM is the "hot topic" du jour, so I make sure to read their stuff so that I really can say I understand it.
    
    • ...again, as much as something as fluid as the ECM can be understood...


• Open Source Theology
  
  • Another ECM site, and...
  
  
  • ...a more appropriately - and instructively - named blog I have never found.
  
  
  • Warning: This one leans waaaaaaaaaaaay over to the far left, theologically. One of the longer-running threads is titled (I kid you not) "Genesis as True Myth".
  
  
  • 'nuff said.
  
  
• Dan Kimball is one of the leading ECMmers that I actuallly appreciate. Theologically conservative to the core, and with a really wacked out hairdo, to boot. My kinda guy.
  
  • In this post, he lays out his "here's my non-negotiables" list and then pleads for more patience and charity in the whole... ah... "conversation" thing, there...
  
  
• A good blogpost by Stand To Reason regarding public prayer

And in the "not-directly-theology-related" category, I have bookmarked:

• Ubuntu vs. Vista
  
  • Okay. I admit it. I'm a geek.


• Quantum Physics Says Goodbye to Reality
  
  • Great stuff on how "reality" isn't quite as concrete as many naturalistic/materialistic scientists would love for us to believe...


• Kryptonite Discovered in a Mine
  
  • ...just 'cause it's cool...


• An article going into the inner workings of the relationship between Bush and Blair...


• ...and finally an article that is breathtakingly infuriating - not because of the kids involved, which is heartbreaking enough, but because of the parents.

Martyrs

Another exmaple of the practice of the religion of peace - as the mainstream news media and politicos here in the U.S. (especially the party currently in power in the House of Representatives) continue to insist Islam really is.

I can't help but notice that whenever a Christian looks cross-eyed at a Qur'an or doesn't show proper deference to Mohammad, or whenever someone in a free press environment draws a clever cartoon lampooning the reality of Mohammadism, the Islamic world erupts into a furor of rioting and protest.

...but as long as it's just three Christians who are slowly, grotesquely butchered (in the name of Allah), all is well.

The double-standard is glaring.

I predict that no prominent Muslim will loudly decry this atrocity. I further predict that the Christian world will not riot, burn cars, threaten to blow up Mosques, etc., etc., etc.

The three men who died for trying to share Jesus with their fellow man are martyrs, heroes of the faith, and examples of giving the last full measure. They are to be honored, their widows and orphaned children are to be prayed for and supported in any way we as their brothers and sisters in Christ can. The wife of one of the martyrs has called for forgiveness for the men who vivisected her husband - echoing the words that Jesus spoke as the Roman soldiers were in the process of driving cruel spikes into His wrists as they crucified Him - "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."

The men who perpetrated this unspeakably wicked, overtly demonic atrocity in the name of Allah are to be prayed for. May God grant them repentance.

ARUTZ SHEVA: Memo to BBC

Oh, this is good. Exposes the stunningly brash double-standard that the MSM displays toward the Jewish State, especially RE: the recent abduction of BBC reporter Alan Johnston and the inexplicable desire of the MSM to not offend Islamists by applying the standards of rational discourse to them, while bending over backwards to lambaste Israel.

The first two paragraphs:

f this was the plan - to remove the Jews from Gaza in order to create a paradise for all the world's trash - why then, this plan is operating wonderfully.

Theft, arson, murder, rape, blood-sucking, head-hunting, honor-killing, kidnapping - it's all there in Gaza, where once, thousands of Israelis thrived peacefully and productively. Suddenly, these Israelis were told that it's time to pack up and go to make room for a generation that murders and abducts for fun and for profit.

Devils on Horseback

Important article here from Koinonia House regarding the Darfur crisis.

The first paragraph reads:

In a recent press conference State Department spokesman Sean McCormack commented on the situation in Darfur by saying, "The Sudanese Government needs to understand something and they need to understand that the world is not going to stand by and watch the continued humanitarian suffering…" However the truth of the matter is that the world has stood by and watched for the past four years while the Darfur region of western Sudan has been ravaged by violence. For four years we have watched as politicians have pounded their podiums and proclaimed that "something must be done!" Yet if actions speak louder than words, then their inaction screams volumes.

More on the "Tomb of Jesus"

More helpful stuff from Johnny Mac on the "Tomb of Jesus" here.

Mondok on the Christianity Today debacle

This blogpost by Bryon Mondok brings another good balanced perspective to the Christianity Today mess...

Christianity Today hack journalism

Probably the single worst mistake a hack journalist can make is to report on real, verifiable events. Rob Moll of Christianity Today wrote a breathtakingly poorly researched article, "Day of Reckoning." In it he makes several very serious accusations against several Calvary Chapel pastors and ministries.

In and of itself, I wouldn't think much of the article - there are 1300+ CC's worldwide, several thousand pastors and ministry leaders, and hundreds of thousands of Calvary Chapel churchgoers. You would expect there to be problems when you have that many humans involved in anything.

However, Rob (who based on previous CT articles has an apparent axe to grind against CC) made the spectacularly bad mistake of commenting on a situation I happen to be very familiar with.

Rob attacks Roger Ulman, pastor of Calvary Chapel Kalamazoo Valley. I am very familiar with CCKV, Roger Ulman, and the "scandal" that Rob reports on. Let's just say that Rob's article presents a view of reality that's so stupendously skewed from actual reality as to be a complete inversion of actual events.

Several articles over at simplemindedpreacher have been dealing with this issue, and I've commented on the whole thing there:

• Christianity Today Article


• Christianity Today Article II


• Responding With Rebellious Sanity


• The Two Sides of the Issue

I will say this: Because of the galactically poor fact-checking of Rob's CT article RE: Roger and CCKV, I can say I have precisely ZERO confidence that any of the other facts cited or quotes quoted are any more accurate.

For the record: I have watched Roger Ulman try to reach out to and minister to Holt over the last few years, and watched him get stabbed in the gut and back multiple times over it. Roger has been the example of sacrificial servant leadership through the whole Living Stone fiasco, and to watch the truth of the situation be completely inverted and Holt presented as the innocent victim and Roger as the evil perpetrator makes me furious and sick to my stomach.

I would expect this kind of hack journalism from the secular media.

That Christianity Today is engaged in it is vastly more than simply reprehensible.

"...Rosie who...?"

Apparently, in a fit of - well, complete honesty, Rosie O'Donnell let her moral equivalency slip show in equating Christian fundamentalists with "fundamentalist" practitioners of the religion of peace (...that'd be "Islam," for those of you in Rio Linda and Miami-Dade County).

One of her more lucid nuggets of wisdom was:

Just a minute, radical Christianity is just as threatening as radical Islam in a country like America where we have separation of church and state."

...and it is so simply because Rosie says it is so. Don't bother confusing the issue with facts; the Hollywood glitterati have long lost the capacity to honestly deal with minor annoyances like "facts" or "reality."

One of the things that Rosiegate brings up for me, however, is something that I've long wondered about; why are we in an uproar about her statement? She's a comedian, not an intellectual or a competent social commentator. It's simply her (arguably) celebrity status which affords her even a place at the table (literally; the "The View" chicks do their thang around a table... tres domestique, no?). She's certainly entitled to her opinion, and we're certainly entitled to analyze and comment on it... but to take it seriously...?

I mean, a simple analysis of actual reality lends the lie to her assertion.

After all: how many stark-raving fundamentalist Baptists have comandeered jetliners into buildings lately? In the last ten years? Twenty? Thirty? ...ah... none. They may be charmingly goofy when it comes to short hair on a gal or the KJV or tongues or any of a plethora of subjects, but they're hardly the looming threat that Rosie believes them to be (remember: she said "radical Christianity is just as threatening as radical Islam." Her words).

How many funeral-picketing fundie wingnuts have beheaded anyone slowly with knives crying the funeral-picketing fundie wingnut version of "Allahu akbar!" in recent memory? ...none.

How many stark-raving, frothing-at-the-mouth evangelicals have gathered at soccer stadiums and lined up blindfolded women whose only crime was putting on makeup or refusing to wear a burkha and shoot them unceremoniously in the head with military-grade firepower? ...oh, right, none.

To be sure, we can point to the really sick sickos who misappropriate the name of Christ and blow up abortuaries, or kill abortionists, or bomb those of a differing theological persuasion (a la those zany Irish over yonder, still arguing about whether one should wear green or orange on St. Patty's Day...). But that only proves the point - they are very obviously the horrific exception to the rule which serve quite well to starkly illustrate that very rule: that Christians - radical or otherwise - aren't "just as threatening as radical Islam". Not by an interfaith dialog mile.

Rosie is obviously not commenting on anything even remotely approaching reality. Well, not our reality, anyway.

But she's entitled to spout off about whatever her little misandrist heart desires; that's the beauty of a free country.

But why get upset at it? Or to view her pontifications as anything beyond the mildly amusing oddities that they are, to garner a good, jolly chuckle, and then move on to other, vastly more important things? Please let me reiterate: she's a comedian. Okay, technically, "comedienne," but you get the point.

This illustrates a greater problem that I've been seeing in America for some time now; our elites are those who know the least about anything, but who amuse us the most - actors, singers, entertainers. Our heroes are no longer... well, heroes. They just pretend to be.

It's indicative of the deeper "form-over-substance" cultural shift that many have observed, where we've become as a people far more concerned with how things appear than we are with how things are.

Anyway, the absolute best response to Rosiegate that I'd read in the article was from an internet contributor identified as "LJS":

"Rosie who????"

Franklin Graham was right...

Egyptian Cleric Sheik Muhammad Nassar Tells a Group of Children about Child Martyrdom in the Early Days of Islam

Shalom from Jerusalem (a reserve IDF officer's POV RE: the Lebanon crisis)

The following is an e-mail a few pastors received from a reserve IDF officer
in Israel giving a vastly different spin on the ongoing crisis with the
Hizb'Allah practitioners of the religion of peace and Israel... thought it was
very well worth passing on...

Shalom from Jerusalem.

Thank you all for your concern and e-mails of support.

These are hard times in Israel. It is not the first time and unfortunately might not be the last time. While the majority of the people carry on with their daily lives, a million people on the northern part of the country, Galilee, Haifa and the Golan heights are spending most of their time in bomb shelters.

Some short history to explain how we got to the present situation. In May 24, 2000, the Israeli forces that were deployed in Southern Lebanon had pulled back to Israel. That was to comply with a Security Council resolution calling on all foreign forces to evacuate Lebanese territory. The Syrian army and its thousands of soldiers did not remove its forces from Lebanon and the country was held captive by the Syrian dictatorship. Lebanon was only independent by name. The decisions for Lebanon's future were taken in Damascus. When the withdrawal was completed, the U.N. with Israel's approval had sent over a party to make sure that Israel had pulled back to the international border and that there are no territorial issues between the two countries. Israel's hope that the Lebanese army will deploy its forces along the border as the resolution dictated, were in vain. The Lebanese army never stood to the mission because Syria would not allow that. Instead, the Hezbollah, with Lebanese consent and over a $100 million annual support from Iran started to build a terror infrastructure. More than 12 thousand rockets were hidden in bonkers all over south Lebanon. In the same time the Iranian government was building Hezbollah a fortified quarter in the southern part of Beirut.

That's where the headquarters and the logistical center were. Israel was watching frustrated how the world was ignoring what was going on and doing nothing to stop Iran and its armed militia Hezbollah. Only when the American French pressure on Syria increased, the Syrian army had left Lebanon leaving behind thousands of intelligence officers still holding Lebanon by its throat.

Resolution 1559 from 2004, had called specifically on the disarrangement of Hezbollah and the Lebanese army's deployment in south Lebanon. That resolution was totally ignored. With Iran behind the scene and the massive support it was giving Hezbollah, the provocations from their side were growing. In October 2000, three Israeli soldiers were killed and their bodies kidnapped into Lebanon. The Israeli retaliation was minor and Hezbollah's confidence as a result, sky high. From time to time, the terrorists would open fire on Israeli army posts along the border. Several attempts that were made by them to take more hostages, soldiers and civilians, had failed. As a result of the threat of abducting Israelis, farmers by the Lebanese border were ordered by the army not to farm their land too close to the border. In a well anticipated routine, before the tourist season, before the Jewish high holydays when hundreds of thousands were suppose to stay in hotels and B&B all over the area, Hezbollah would fire a few rockets and the tourist season was ruined. Ever since 2000, Israel had not initiated a single assault or attack on Hezbollah. That had two main reasons:

1. Israel was occupied with the Palestinians.


2. The world was asking to give diplomacy a chance.

Well, as always in the Middle East, diplomacy had failed. Accustomed to the mailed Israeli retaliation, in July 12, Hezbollah tried again. This time two soldiers were abducted and 8 others killed in an attack in Israel's territory while hundreds of rockets were launched at Israeli towns along the border. That was the trigger or the excuse we needed to take severe measures to remove Hezbollah from our borders. It is the same old story. In 1982 we occupied south Lebanon because of the P.L.O. and now, 24 years later because of Hezbollah. The only difference is the name of the enemy. When this is all over, who will guarantee it will not happen again? Who will monitor the border crossings into Lebanon from Syria and Turkey?

Who will check the cargo brought in by air or by sea?

And the main thing and the most frustrating one is that as these words are written, weapons of many kinds are flowing un noticed into Gaza for the Hamas also supplied by Iran. In a few years, there will be another Israeli attack this time into Gaza to remove the threat. However by then, Iran will probably have an Atomic bomb.

The media's collective skirt is showing RE: the "Qana Incident"

Great set of posts here regarding media corruption RE: Israel vs. the Hizb'Allah practicioners of the religion of peace...