Nidal Malak Hasan

This is the name of the man who killed a dozen soldiers today at Ft. Hood. He injured 31 others. He was killed in the incident. It is an interesting name, Nidal Malak Hasan. We have been assured that this was not an act of political terrorism. Certainly they wouldn't lie to us. Would they? I hope not, but I know better. At least Nidal knew the difference between a combatant and a civilian.

My thoughts and prayers are with the families of those killed and injured in this attack. May God comfort them and bring healing. My thanks are extended to all who honorably serve our nation in the armed forces. Today's tragic events are a reminder that whether home or abroad these folks put their lives on the line for us every day. God bless and protect the people of our military.

No One To Defend The Helpless

I don't know if you heard about the Muslim girl who converted to Christianity who has been (somewhat) in the news lately. She ran away from home because she feared that her family would kill her. Today I was saddened to read the following headline:

Judge Orders Christian Convert Runaway to Return to Ohio

My sister in the Lord is being forced back into a situation where she had reason to believe that she would be murdered by her own family. Perhaps the judge is grossly ignorant of the practices of Islam. After all we've been told that Islam is a "peaceful religion." But I've heard too many stories of Muslim converts to Christianity who find themselves "resting in peace" at the hands of those who should have undying love for them.

I am curious what grounds the judge had for forcing this young woman to go back. She is 17 years old - only months from her 18th birthday. Hopefully, those few months will not be her last. I will have to do more research.

The law is to protect the helpless, but in this country it never seems to. Where is justice? Where is the protection for the widow and the orphan? I am convinced that the state of our justice system makes God want to vomit.

I will be praying for this sister. I have been praying - but perhaps not diligently enough. But one thing is sure: God - the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the Great I Am, The Sinner's Hope - will be glorified by this young woman's life.

Lord God,

I ask you to protect my sister's life. I ask you to give her courage and strength to face this unjust decision and to trust Your sovereignty and Your goodness. Defend her life, Lord, and soften the hearts of every lost soul that she knows to come to the knowledge of you.

Father, I know that this outcome does not surprise You, and I know that You have prepared her for this moment from before the foundation of time. Let Your Spirit hover close to her. Let her sense Your closeness and Your love. May Your angels encamp around her to keep her from even dashing her foot against a stone.

Fill her with Your word and help her to not worry about what to say or what to do, but to trust that You will give her the words to say and the courage to face whatever comes. Lord God, I place her into Your hands.

Amen.

God be with you, sister. I will be praying for you.

UPDATE:

In another article I read, the father says he loves his daughter and has no plans to harm her. I hope he is telling the truth.

But according to another article the young lady sure seems to think something else:

"If I had stayed in Ohio, I wouldn't be alive," she said. "In 150 generations in family, no one has known Jesus. I am the first — imagine the honor in killing me."

"There is great honor in that, because if they love Allah more than me, they have to do it. It's in the Koran,"

So who do you believe? I think you probably ought to err on the side of life. If it is possible that they may want to kill her then I think she should be allowed to protect her life. We'll see how it plays.

Congratulations!

A good friend of mine won the Guilford County Senior Spelling Bee. Congratulations, Kay! (Did I spell everything right?)



According to the article on digtriad.com:

Kay Setzer took the top spot by spelling "chouette." According to dictionary.com, it means "a variation of a two-handed game, as backgammon, allowing the participation of three or more persons, in which one player accepts the bets of all the others on the outcome of a game between that player and one other active player, who is permitted to receive advice from the nonplayers."

Perhaps her background as a French teacher helped out? Oui o no?

Check Out C-Span's Coverage

Last night I skipped the Republican National Convention because I frankly could not stomach the self-important pontification that goes on on the main news outlets - and that includes Fox News. I don't know about you, but I am sick and tired of the news treating me like some 3-year-old who needs to have everything explained. It is so bloody annoying. And Fox is one of the worst for interrupting what is going on so that its pundits can hear themselves talk.

Well, tonight I really wanted to hear Sarah Palin's talk, and decided that I would try to stomach it again, and when I was flipping through the channels I saw C-Span and remembered that they broadcast with no fluff. That got my vote.

I watched tonight without anyone blathering on and on about what the Obama campaign has had to say today or about the latest dust bunny that the Democrats have dug up. I didn't have to listen to someone try to spin what I had just heard straight from the horse's mouth.

IT WAS SO AWESOME!!!

Now if I could only get the news the same way.

Seriously. If you want a totally different way to watch the convention, blow off the main networks and watch on C-Span. It was channel 350 on Direct TV in my market.

There was so much that I'd love to comment on from the convention tonight, but there is no time nor energy. You will have to wait. Perhaps by that time some of the best parts will be available on YouTube. I will say that I heard some great speeches tonight - mostly by the folks who ran for the Republican nomination. I loved Giuliani's speech. But they definitely saved the best for last. Sarah Palin knocked it out of the park. But more on that tomorrow.

PS C-Span is also a great outlet for Presidential speeches like the State of the Union.

Iranian Concern

In a news article that I just read I discovered that Iran is claiming to be able to launch satellites into space for its friendly muslim neighbors.

Iran said on Monday it was ready to help fellow Muslim states launch satellites into orbit after it successfully put a dummy satellite into orbit -- a move that may increase Western suspicions over its atomic ambitions.

Iran said on Sunday it had put the home-grown dummy satellite into orbit on a domestically made rocket for the first time. The long-range ballistic technology used to put satellites into space can also be used for launching weapons.

No need to worry, though. Iran has no intention of doing that. Nooooooooo.

Now I wonder where a backwards-thinking country like Iran managed to get such technology? The list of possibilities is pretty short.

Western experts say Iran rarely provides enough details for them to determine the extent of its technological advances, but that much Iranian technology consists of modifications of equipment supplied by China, North Korea and other countries.

I am so hoping that I don't have a reason to say, "I told you so."

UPDATE: August 20, 2008

Apparently the Iranian launch was more of a lurch.

Amazing Miracle!

In Galilee an infant born prematurely was declared dead and placed in the morgue. Five hours later the mother asked to see her baby one more time and was shocked to find that the child was alive and breathing! According to the article:

"When we unwrapped the baby to see her, she realized it was moving. I began screaming and ran with it toward the doctors," he (the father) said.

She was then rushed to the neonatal intensive care unit,
where doctors are fighting for her life.

"I was in shock," the mother told Channel 2 last night. "I thought I wasn't hearing it right when they said she was still alive."

Dr. Moshe Daniel, the hospital's deputy director, said that in his 35 years as a physician, he had "never heard of such a case. It was like a medical miracle."

Like a medical miracle? Moshe! Come one, man. Get a little faith! For crying out loud, you are named after Moses! Let's not qualify, OK? Number one it isn't like a medical miracle. It IS a miracle. And two, there is no need to qualify it as a "medical miracle." Medicine had nothing to do with it. Even if there was gross negligence on the attending physician's part, a baby that was mostly dead isn't likely to have survived 5 hours in a morgue refrigerator.

Chalk this one up to God.

Check This Out

This is the second video that I have found in less than a month of someone who has figured out how to use water as fuel - and it didn't take a multi-billion dollar budget to do it either.

Is it possible that too many of the professional research organizations out there are less interested in true innovation and discovery than they are the grants that keep paying them? For all of the billions spent, it seems that we should have a few more solutions than we do.

Now let's make sure that the automobile companies are forced to take advantage of this technology and not shelve it.

New Partner In The Axis Of Evil...

Hugo Chavez and his puppets are laying siege to Columbia. I saw this coming. Hugo Chavez plans to rule all of South and Central America either directly or indirectly. All of his actions have pointed to this.

A few months ago Chavez sent "aid" to the victims of an earthquake in Peru. Printed on the packaging of this aid was propaganda about how the government of Peru had failed the people and how much better Chavez could do. Chavez has also been cozy with Nicaragua, Cuba, and Ecuador.

Several months ago Chavez "magnanimously" offered to help try to negotiate a truce between the terrorist organization FARC and the Columbian government. I knew that it was a mistake for President Uribe to allow that to happen. That agreement was eventually cut short when Chavez overstepped the bounds of his authority in dealing with FARC.

So all of this drama on the border of Columbia all came about because Columbia performed a military action inside of Ecuador against FARC without the permission of the Ecuadorian government. I'm wondering what this has to do with Chavez... oh yes, Ecuador is Chavez's lap dog. So Hugo Chavez, messiah of the downtrodden has rushed to the border with his troops.

I was originally very concerned about this and was hoping that the US was going to back Columbia. I mean, two countries against one (Ecuador and Venezuela vs Columbia) hardly seemed like good odds. According to an article that I read on My Way News the army of Columbia significantly larger than both of these armies combined.

Venezuela and Ecuador have about 172,000 active military troops between them. Colombia's U.S.-equipped, trained and advised military has more than 250,000.

Still, I am a little concerned about who else may be around. I know that Venezuela has been receiving military assistance from China. There is also the FARC to consider.

President Bush has backed President Uribe in this crisis. I am glad to see that. I would hate for us to have to become militarily-involved in South America on a large scale. I am concerned, though, that if something isn't done about Chavez soon, it may be too late to avoid a very costly war with dire consequences.

Since the raid, evidence has been discovered that all but proves that Chavez has been allied with FARC for as long as 10 years. There were also documents that seem to point to some sort of CIA overtures to the terrorists.

References to U.S. diplomatic overtures are scintillating, if vague.

In a Dec. 11 message to the secretariat, Marquez writes: "If you are in agreement, I can receive Jim and Tucker to hear the proposal of the gringos." ...

Writing two days before his death, Reyes tells his secretariat comrades that "the gringos," working through Ecuador's government, are interested "in talking to us on various issues."

"They say the new president of their country will be (Barack) Obama," noting that Obama rejects both the Bush administration's free trade agreement with Colombia and the current military aid program.

Reyes said the response he relayed is that the United States would have to publicly express that desire.

This quote is disturbing to me on so many levels.

First of all, I feel confident that these spooks are not operating under the authority of President Bush. If this supposition is true, then I think that the organization is in dire need of a shake-up. It will probably never happen. There are things you find out sometimes that it would just be better if you didn't know - especially when you have no power to change things. A little ignorance goes a long way to a better night's sleep.

Secondly, the spooks seemed awful confident that Obama will not only win his party's nomination but will also win the general election. Perhaps they were only saying what they thought these terrorists wanted to hear. I hope so. I would really like to believe that it matters who I vote for in November. (And I REALLY hope they are wrong regardless of their motive.)

We live in a very dangerous world.

Update: March 7, 2008 21:50

Apparently the conflict is over - for now.

Update On the Wal-Mart Bomb Incident

Well, since no one got blown up yesterday, there was almost no coverage of "the rest of the story" on the bomb threat at the Kannapolis Wal-Mart. However, I finally did manage to find an article in today's Salisbury Post that rounded out the details.

It turns out that the two men arrested for the incident were trying to carry a tool box into the store when they were stopped and told that they would have to leave it at the Customer Support desk. When asked what was in the toolbox one of the men replied, "a bomb."

Not the smartest response in our post 9/11 world. Especially when you have an outstanding warrant for your arrest and when your companion has crack cocaine in his pocket. Now it becomes even clearer why a "C" is considered "average." Very, very, scary.

When I saw the two men's pictures in the news article, I realized that I had actually seen them in the store when I was there. They had walked right past me and my niece before we got ready to leave.

The article estimated that there were about 200 people in the store. That was a pretty gross underestimation. If there were 10 people in the store there were 400. I have often wondered where they all come from. It seems that nobody in my area has a day job. The parking lot at Wal-Mart and Jake Alexander Boulevard are always packed with cars all day long.

So, the long and the short of it is that my brush with excitement yesterday was all over someone being a smart Aleck. The moral of the story is: if you look like a thug, have an outstanding warrant for your arrest, and have crack cocaine in your pocket, it is probably not a good idea to make a false bomb report. It turns out that is a felony too. (Makes you wonder what he would have been charged with if it really HAD been a bomb.)

"Now you know the REST of the story. Good DAY!"

Not Your Every Day Occurrence

Today I was at the Wal-Mart off of Dale Earnhardt Boulevard in Kannapolis getting my some new frames for my glasses and helping my niece spend her Tooth Fairy money. As we were headed to the check out area, someone told us that they were evacuating the store.

Now frankly, it would have been easy to not believe the the lady that was telling us to do this. It wasn't even clear that she was a Wal-Mart employee; she was just saying it conversationally. There was no announcement or anything over the PA system in the store.

Well, we went ahead and left our merchandise at the front of the store and got the heck out of Dodge. A lot of people were just milling around the front of the store, and one of the stylists working in the hair salon wasn't even aware that they were evacuating.

When we got outside, one fire truck was arriving, but it really wasn't clear what was going on. We asked one guy in the parking lot if he was coming or going so that we could let him know that it was no use going in the store. He told us that it was a bomb threat and that he had seen the guy that brought it in.

Well, how is that for freaky? My niece was a little scared, but we were able to show her how God had helped us by getting us out of the store safely.

WBTV, out of Charlotte, has a report about the event on their website. It turns out that no bomb was found, but the police have two men in custody for questioning.

Anyway, looking back on the event makes me think that the store wasn't ready for this kind of event. There were a lot of things that just didn't seem to be handled well. Of course, there are a lot of things that I don't know.

I wonder if the store had somehow confined the suspects before they began evacuating the store? It seems to me that if they hadn't, the suspects may have figured out that they had been discovered when the store started emptying of people and potentially detonated up the bomb (which doesn't appear to have existed in the first place) or just melted into the crowd and out of the store in the midst of the evacuation. It would also seem reasonable that Wal-Mart employees would have been moving people away from the building. Sometimes people are kind of dumb.

This event makes me realize just how easy it would be for someone to perpetrate this kind of activity for real. We really take a lot for granted in this country - especially God's protection. I, for one, am glad that I have so little to tell of this story. How differently things could have ended up.

Robert Craig 'Evel' Knievel October 17, 1938 - November 30, 2007

"If you don't know about pain and trouble, you're in sad shape. They make you appreciate life."
- Robert Craig 'Evel' Knievel

Yet One More Reason I Don't Want To Live In Massachusetts

"Lawmakers To Consider Spanking Ban - Boston News Story - WCVB Boston"

Click HERE for the story.

According to the article a Massachusetts nurse has decided that the practice of spanking should be outlawed. I sure hope this misguided piece of legislation doesn't pass. I am sure that the intent was good. This nurse is most likely trying to prevent child abuse and save someone's life. But the problem is that banning spanking isn't the answer. (Besides the fact that such a law would be a gross violation of parental rights.) The physical discipline of a child is a very useful tool in the behavioral development of that child.

I have seen this play out in both my niece and my nephew. When my niece was little she was just plain mean, but as spanking was applied not only did she become more obedient, she also became sweeter. My nephew learned to obey through the discipline he received.

Following are several Scriptures about spanking:

He who withholds his rod hates his son, But he who loves him disciplines him diligently. Proverbs 13:24


Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; The rod of discipline will remove it far from him. Proverbs 22:15

Don’t fail to discipline your children. They won’t die if you spank them. Physical discipline may well save them from death. Proverbs 23:13-14

The rod and reproof give wisdom, But a child who gets his own way brings shame to his mother. Proverbs 29:15

You KNOW that last one is true. I can't tell you how many times I have seen a child acting out somewhere and the mother is the one who gets the blame for that child's misbehavior. There was one child at one of my Thanksgiving celebrations that needed a spanking some kind of bad.

Spanking works. Spanking helps a child to realize that there are consequences for his actions. Spanking helps to establish who is in authority when a child inevitably challenges that authority - and through that establishment of authority the child is made more secure because he knows that there are boundaries that are defended by his parents, the ones that he is counting on to protect him. When spanking is used, the effectiveness of less stringent forms of discipline increase many fold.

Many people are afraid of the potential for abuse with spanking. Well, the potential for abuse is even greater from people who yell at their children and belittle them. That abuse is FAR worse than the momentary pain a child will feel when being spanked. Many people who would never DREAM of spanking a child will crush that same child's self image with their words.

The problem that most parents run into with any form of discipline is that they are not consistent with the administration of that discipline. Since the child is going to try to find and test the boundary for his own security (and to satisfy his own fallen nature,) inconsistent parents find that they are pushed beyond the point of their ability to render a calm and impartial judgment and become angry or even enraged at the behavior of their child.

I once heard a pastor describe this as the difference between godly discipline and worldly spanking.

Godly discipline helps a child to recognize that disobedience and misbehavior leads to negative consequences. This is a good lesson that our culture seems to have rejected. Disobedience = punishment without any 2nd or 22nd chances that end up leading to the parent's loss of temper. This allows the parent to spank the child without any anger or malice built up by the child's rebellion. They can truly punish and instantly restore the relationship.

On the other hand worldly spanking allows disobedience to continue to the point that the parent's temper is lost and the child is spanked in anger. The anger causes a separation between the parent and the child, and the child is left with the fear of witnessing the parent's loss of control exacerbated by the distance felt between the two. Reconciliation is difficult.

While I do not have children of my own, as I have helped to raise my niece and nephew I have witnessed first hand how spanking helps a child to modify his behavior for the better, and if applied correctly, it doesn't instill an unhealthy fear for the disciplinarian in the child. I have found it to be quite the contrary. A child who knows that a parent loves them enough to punish them when they need it is far more affectionate, trusting and respectful of the parent than the child that is allowed to have his own way.

Back In The USSR...

It looks like Putin is playing things "old school" over in Russia:

Bush 'Deeply Concerned' About Russian Political Arrests

Apparently they arrest you in Russia if you campaign against the incumbent. It's a good thing that it hasn't gotten that bad here. I'd NEVER get out of jail with all the stuff I have posted here! Putin has been warning President Bush to not interfere in their "elections." Ah, 'democracy' at work!

Dude, This Just LOOKS Wicked

The Navy is testing a new weapons technology that is astounding.

Metal Storm Reaches Navy Test Range

Brisbane, Australia-based Metal Storm has delivered a four-barrel weapon to the Naval Surface Warfare Center for testing that uses a small electrical current instead a conventional firing pin to deliver stacked rounds at an astounding rate.

How astounding? Try 1 million rounds per minute. That's the rate, by the way, not the volume; still, there's no way you want to be anywhere near the wrong end of one of these puppies.

…The projectiles are stacked in-line in the barrel--nose to tail--so there are no magazines, no shell casings and no mechanical components.

There is footage of some of the testing embedded in the linked article. You really ought to watch it. It is mind blowing. It would be a bad day indeed to be downrange from this weapon. I would think that they would eventually be able to fire on simultaneous targets. The thought of being downrange is not pleasant at all.

US Pilots Forced To Undergo Hideous Genetic Experiments!!!!

No, not really. What you see above is not a minotaur recruited by the US Air Force (although that is exactly what it looks like to me.) It is a picture of a cool new helmet that could be gracing the heads of our pilots in the near future. The new helmet has some pretty cool features: it replaces the heads up display that has been in US fighter aircraft since WWII, it allows the pilot to "see" through the floor of the plane just by looking down, and it has infrared vision, and I think that it can read minds too... Maybe not, but you can read about it HERE.

Quote of The Day

If the United States and its coalition forces finish on top by achieving most, if not all, of their objectives in Iraq, what can the Democrats say? “We were secretly in support of the war all the way”? Not even Hillary Clinton could get away with such a whopper. The Republican campaign commercials would pound away with the hundreds (thousands?) of quotes from people they will label as “defeatist Democrats.” As this week’s lead editorial in The Weekly Standard asks, “Are the American people likely to elect the candidate of a party that has tried its best to lose a winnable war?”

The answer is no. And the answer to Charles Gibson’s assertion that no news is not news is that no violence is news and, indeed, is very good news for Iraq and for America. It is very bad news, however, for the leadership of the Democratic Party, because their investment in defeat may be about to prove itself the political equivalent of the dot-com bubble burst earlier this decade.

- Cal Thomas

Keep Your Money, Boys. The South's Gonna Rise Again!

And now for something completely different...

Southern and Northern Secessionists Meeting In Tennessee

Well, that's something that I wasn't expecting to read. I'll admit that it might be easier if all of the little groups would stake out their piece of America and set the laws the way they want to!

I always heard that a lot of folks consider all Southerners to be inbred, ignorant, bigots, but I thought that things were perhaps getting a little better. I guess not. Here's a quote from the article that struck me as particularly arrogant and stereotyping of the South:

The League of the South says it is not racist, but proudly displays a Confederate Battle Flag on its banner.

Um. A Confederate battle flag does not a racist make. Many Southerners are proud of their heritage. They are proud that their ancestors fought under great men like General Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson. These were men of very high standard, integrity and honor. For many in the south, the Civil War wasn't about slavery. It was about defending their country. For many it was about states' rights - something that we are seeing eroded every day with the debates about abortion, homosexual marriage, and gun control.

These people don't even try to hide their contempt of these folks:

Mark Potok, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Project, which monitors hate groups, said the League of the South "has been on our list close to a decade."

"What is remarkable and really astounding about this situation is we see people and institutions who are supposedly on the progressive left rubbing shoulders with bona fide white supremacists," Potok said.

Sale said the League of the South "has not done or said anything racist in its 14 years of existence," and that the Southern Poverty Law Center is not credible.

"They call everybody racists," Sale said. "There are, no doubt, racists in the League of the South, and there are, no doubt, racists everywhere."

Harry Watson, director of the Center For the Study of the American South and a history professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said it was a surprise to see The Middlebury Institute conferring with the League of the South, "an organization that's associated with a cause that many of us associate with the preservation of slavery."

Leave it to a UNC professor to take that stance. I don't know if the League of the South is a racist organization or not. I hope not - racism is abhorrent, but I am ruffled that the assumption is made that they are racists simply because they have chosen to use the Stars and Bars as a part of their banner. Southerners have a right to celebrate their heritage just like everyone else.

Sad Day Indeed...

Cox and Forkum have decided to leave editorial cartooning in the past. It's too bad, because I really liked their work. There just aren't that many conservative political cartoonists.


You can check out their work here.


The team cited several reasons for their departure. Family interests, professional interests, financial interests, and a general weariness with the ugliness of daily political foolishness all played into their decision. I can certainly understand. you can only drink from a polluted fountain so long before you start to feel sick.


I didn't always agree with everything that they said, but they said it in an excellent way. I always appreciated you guys, and wish you all the best.

So Busted...

Well, I guess I owe the guys in security at LAX an apology. Norman Hsu didn't head for Hong Kong. Instead he flew to Colorado where he was arrested by the FBI.

Disgraced Dem Donor Arrested in Colorado

Good job, boys.

Now if someone will only bust the Democrats' chops for their fundraising practices. No wonder they out-earn the Republicans - they break the law!

I'm Shocked - Really.

As I was checking Drudge tonight I was floored when I saw this headline:

Couric: 'Real Progress' In Iraq

I'm not often shocked by the headlines I read - often sickened, but rarely shocked. This one really got me. I knew Katie was headed over to Iraq, but just never thought that she would admit that real progress had been made. On top of that she said some other things that I just didn't expect out of the mouths of anyone in the media with the exception of a couple of folks over at Fox News.

Here are some excerpts from the article:

(CBS) BAGHDAD, Iraq One week before Gen. David Petraeus is expected to give his report on U.S. progress in Iraq, CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric says she has already seen dramatic improvements in the country.

"We hear so much about things going bad, but real progress has been made there in terms of security and stability," Couric said Tuesday. "I mean, obviously, infrastructure problems abound, but Sunnis and U.S. forces are working together. They banded together because they had a common enemy: al Qaeda."

Now Fallujah is "considered a real role model of something working right in Iraq," Couric said.

Security and stability have improved in Iraq, but basic services remain in disrepair.

"I think everyone I talk to agrees that restoring basic services is really an imperative step in bringing stability and some kind of sense of society to Iraq," Couric said.

Now, what I am really wondering about is whether she will be attacked like all of the other folks who have truthfully reported that the President's troop build up plan actually worked. I guess Michelle Malkin called it right in not giving her a hard time when she told everyone that she was going over there. Even though I didn't slam her, I really didn't expect this kind of report from her in the news. Wow. I hope this is a trend that continues. Truth in reporting, weird!