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"I learned that in extreme situations when human lives and dignity are at state, neutrality is a sin. It helps the killers, not the victims." Elie Wiesel, Holocaust Survivor who lost his family in the Holocaust - Nobel Prize Author
Socialism - Liberalism Quotation
"The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism, but under the name of liberalism they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program until one day America will be a socialist nation without ever knowing how it happened." – Norman Thomas
American socialist, 1948
Showing posts with label UK/Britain/England. Show all posts
Showing posts with label UK/Britain/England. Show all posts
Google's Street View cars took emails and passwords from computer as they drove down streets in Britain. Google says the data was "mistakenly taken." See a video below.
Google Street View Grabs Emails and Passwords
Do you think this can or has happened in the U.S.? Source
Earlier this year the California-based firm admitted that the cars' antennae had also scanned for wireless networks, including home wi-fi, which connect millions of personal computers to the internet.
Google registered the location, name and identification code of millions of networks and entered them into a database to help it sell adverts.
The firm - which uses the slogan 'Don't be evil' - was able to record the location of every wireless router and network without alerting households because wi-fi signals are 'visible' to other internet devices, including the cars' antennae...
The information was only gathered from wireless networks which were not password-protected.
But it means the antennae potentially harvested millions of private emails and passwords around the country. It is not known how many householders have unprotected wireless networks.
You'll feel better that an investigation has been launched, right?
Google Street View Car
Posted by Maggie @ Maggie's Notebook
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Tony Blair's sister-in-law, Lauren Booth, converted to Islam after visiting the Fatima a-Masumeh shrine in Iran, where she experienced a "shot of spiritual morphine." Booth is a "journalist and broadcaster. Her husband Craig Darby has complained of the difficulties of being a kept man. Odd for the husband of a Muslim. I wonder how that's working out?
Lauren Booth and Craig Darby
Booth works for Press TV, the English language Iranian news channel. She is currently on page 60 of the Koran. Hilarious. How many imprisoned woman dying in Iranian prisons will she write about? She is, of course, a sympathizer and advocate for Palestine. She is hoping to change Tony Blair's mind about Islam. Did I mention she's up to page 60 in the Koran?
Booth may have had several shots of something. In May 2009 she "divorced" her husband on Facebook after a fight. She changed her marital status to "single" and FB sent a message out to her followers. Her husband learned of her action sometime later. She apologized to him, but the next day he had a motorcycle accident and was in a coma for two weeks.
Get this, her husband actually allowed the UK's MailOnline to publish this embarrassing interview about their marriage?
As she drums her fingers on the desk, I have only to close my eyes and I'm aged 11, hopping up and down on one foot, pleading with Mum for cash to buy a Beano comic and a packet of gobstoppers.
But Lauren isn't my mum: she's my wife. We're supposed to be equals. I'm 39 years old and, by rights, should be at the peak of my career, adored by my kids, admired and pampered by my grateful missus. Instead, I'm a househusband with not a penny to my name.
That's why I'm here, cap in hand, asking for £10 pocket money to buy a round of drinks. No wonder I feel humiliated.
Like any woman, Lauren is utterly unpredictable. She might be the main breadwinner but, safe to say, she has definitely not lost this particular feminine streak. Some days her pink purse (yes, really) snaps open and she hands over a wodge of cash with no questions asked and only a dismissive wave of her hand.
Other times, one eyebrow will shoot up quizzically and I know I'm in for the third degree: 'How much money exactly? What's it for? Don't I know she's not made of money?'
Darby says he is a beer-swilling ex-paratrooper, just bursting with testosterone. She wears a hijab when she leaves home to pray at her local mosque and he stays behind and does the laundry. Sometimes he fails to sort the colored from the whites, or Lauren's silk undies from their daughters pajamas. Do you believe the beer-swilling ex-paratrooper story? I don't. This pitiful person says he feels like a Geisha Guy.
There's not a Muslim man on the face of the earth that would live the life of Craig Darby.
So how is Lauren's local imam gonna look at this? Of course, she can't pray with Muslim men. The imam may not pay much attention to her. Afterall, she's not a man, but...judging from all the above, she will find a way to catch her imam's eye - or die trying...literally.
The video is Booth speaking to a group of Muslims. She says she always loved the "religion." She thanks Allah for the peace she feels. Her husband is nowhere around. Her daughter delivers a message for the crowd. The UK's Muslim demographics are soaring.
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A U.N. military camp is situated about 10 miles from the town of Luvungi in eastern Congo, where 200 women and several infant boys were raped, some repeatedly gang-raped, some taken deep into the forest, abused and left to die or crawl back home. Luvungi is a mineral rich mining town with gold, cassiterite and coltan, and every rebel in the Congo wants to control the riches.
FDLR Rebels - Congo
The small staff of about 25 U.N. "peacekeepers" knew the FDLR (Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda) and Congolese rebels were in Luvungi, but were outnumbered by the 200-400 attackers. . The attacks began on July 30th and continued until the rebels left of their own accord on August 4th.
A U.N. spokesman at the New York headquarters said he has verified 154 women were raped. International and local Congo health officials say they have treated 179 women but the numbers could soar as many are afraid to speak out and some women are still coming back into town from the forest.
Four young boys also were raped, said Dr. Kasimbo Charles Kacha, the district medical chief. Masudi said they were babies aged one month, six months, a year and 18 months.
"Many women said they were raped in their homes in front of their children and husbands, and many said they were raped repeatedly by three to six men," Cragin said. Others were dragged into the nearby forest.
Four young boys also were raped, said Dr. Kasimbo Charles Kacha, the district medical chief. Masudi said they were babies aged one month, six months, a year and 18 months.
Rape as a weapon of war has become shockingly commonplace in eastern Congo, where at least 8,300 rapes were reported last year, according to the United Nations. It is believed that many more rapes go unreported.
Some reports claim that during the time of the attacks, some "Indian" peacekeepers provided a military escort for a commercial shipment, bringing charges that goods, but not civilians were protected. I'm not sure where the "Indian" peacekeepers come into the picture.
About a year ago, the U.K.'s Mirror accused two British firms, Amalgamated Metals and Afrimex, of "buying minerals" and funding armed thugs.
The Congolese government has demanded that the U.N. mission in Congo withdraw, saying it has failed in its mission. The force of 20,000 U.N. soldiers are the largest peacekeeping mission in the world, at a cost of $1.35 billion annually. The U.N. cites the 20,000 troops are far too few for the size of the mission where rebels regularly use civilians as shields. In May, the U.N. agreed to withdraw "up to 2,000 troops." So, does this mean the U.N. is occupying Congo?
Many of you know Luton, England's Paul Rey, more commonly known on the InterWeb as Lionheart. Paul was persecuted by the Muslims in his hometown not far from London, for speaking out against the outrages in his beloved homeland. He has experienced Islam in a far too personal way. The video is a history of how Islam gains its foothold. It is a raw look at our future. It is a warning we must heed. At the end of the video Lionheart has a short and heartfelt tribute to Roger Gardner, the master blogger at Radarsite who lost his battle with leukemia almost a year ago. Roger was a daily warrior against the Islamification of the United States. He wrote with fierce strokes of his keyboard - an impassioned and public love for our country. His voice was a warning cry. We need it more than ever today.
This video is a fine and sobering work, to be added to the volumes of documentation of Islam produced by Lionheart. If you have a spare minute, go by his blog, Lionheart, browse through the archives where you will find the truth about Islam in Britain, what is coming to America, and leave a message of appreciation.
Bloggers, please feel free to help me send this video viral. If you use it, I ask that you link back to Lionheart.
4G Warfare: Ground Zero Mosque by Lionheart (video)
There is no way to explain this voice from this little girl, except to say that it is her real voice, there is no lip-synching. Two videos for your enjoyment.
We've mused about this. How involved was the White House in Abdelbaset Ali Mohamed al-Megrahi, the Lockerbie bomber's release from the Scottish prison? And was their involvement tied to the campaign donations from BP to Obama? A letter obtained by the UK Sunday Times reports to show that Obama preferred Abdelbaset be sent home to Libya, but not imprisoned there, and a letter from the US Embassy Deputy Head in London, Richard LeBaron has surfaced.
Pan Am 103 - Abdelbaset The Lockerbie Bomber
The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee has been investigating how Abdelbaset was released from the Scottish prison on compassionate grounds, sent home to Libya to die within three months, and is still alive one year later. At the time, it seemed the U.S. did not heartily oppose the release. I remember Obama telling Libya to quash any idea of a big reunion celebration on camera when the bomber arrived home. Of course the cameras rolled and the celebration was big.
Obama received a total of $77,051 leading up to his presidential race in November 2008, millions more went to Democrats. In the summer of 2008, BP was desperately trying to find a way to get their drilling operation off of Libya's coast operating. It appears Libya was holding those leases hostage to obtain Abdelbaset's freedom. By August, whatever deals were cut, the bomber was released and sent home. Rumors were ripe that Libya paid Scottish doctors to issue a terminal cancer diagnosis.
The Australian says the Deputy Head of the US Embassy in London, Richard LeBaron, rendered the letter to the Scots from Obama one week before Abdelbast's release:
The document, acquired by a well-placed US source, threatens to undermine US President Barack Obama's claim last week that all Americans were "surprised, disappointed and angry" to learn of Megrahi's release.
Scottish ministers viewed the level of US resistance to compassionate release as "half-hearted" and a sign it would be accepted.
The US has tried to keep the letter secret, refusing to give permission to the Scottish authorities to publish it on the grounds it would prevent future "frank and open communications" with other governments.
In the letter, sent on August 12 last year to Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond and justice officials, Mr LeBaron wrote that the US wanted Megrahi to remain imprisoned in view of the nature of the crime.
The note added: "Nevertheless, if Scottish authorities come to the conclusion that Megrahi must be released from Scottish custody, the US position is that conditional release on compassionate grounds would be a far preferable alternative to prisoner transfer, which we strongly oppose."...
The US administration lobbied the Scottish government more strongly against sending Megrahi home, under a prisoner transfer agreement signed by the British and Libyan governments, in a deal now known to have been linked to a pound stg. 550 million oil contract for BP.
Why would the White House strongly oppose Abdelbaset's imprisonment in Libya? The letter does say that Obama preferred leaving him in prison in Scotland, but if that was not going to happen, preferred the bomber go to his happy home in Libya and not to prison. It doesn't make any sense unless we see the donations going to Obama as conditional.
The Lockerbie bombing, also known as Pan Am 103, killed 190 Americans, 35 of whom were students of Syracuse University, 4 from Colgate University, 4 from Brown University, 2 from Seton Hill University and 2 from State University of New York at Oswego and 1 from Hampshire College. Ten on the flight were residents of Long Island. Justice for the 243 aboard and the 11 dead on the ground was stolen for a BP oil lease, some political donations and a favor to an Islamic nation. Just a few strong words from the Citizen President of the World, Barack Obama, saying Abdelbaset must not be realeased, would have kept him in prison. Obama hates drilling, but he loves campaign money, and he is a great respecter of Islam. What a terrible, terrible story.
Thanks to David Lemon for the heads up on this latest revelation.
Earlier today a report said Britain was turning control of a patient's health care back to local doctors. Another report just released says the Brits have "secret plans" to cut the most basic health care treatments, including knee and hip replacements.
Knee Replacement
Hospital beds will be reduced, including those for the mentally ill. Nursing homes are closing and thousands of jobs will be lost in NHS [National Health Service] hospitals:
Hundreds of thousands of pounds from budgets will be cut from the terminally ill, with dying cancer patients to b told to manage their own symptoms if their condition worsens at evenings or weekends....
The Sunday Telegraph found the details of hundreds of cuts buried in obscure appendices to lengthy policy and strategy documents published by trusts. In most cases, local communities appear to be unaware of the plans
Quality of life for those in need of hip and knee replacements will suffer. A spokesman for the Patients Association says the cuts are brutal. "We cannot return to the days of people waiting in pain for years for a hip operation or having to pay for operations privately." Looks like they will do exactly that. Why? Because the people bought into socialized medicine.
Their system is broken, yet this administration will emulate Britain's failure. We know what comes from backdoor deals. Without them, Obama's health care legislation would not have passed. He purchased the right to control our health. I won't forget.
Just as Donald Berwick is hired by the Administration to centralized Medicare and Medicaid, the UK announces their centralized health care has been a bad nightmare. Britain is putting the control of their health care back into the hands of the local doctor.
Practical details of the plan are still sketchy. But its aim is clear: to shift control of England's $160 billion annual health budget from a centralized bureaucracy to doctors at the local level. Under the plan, $100 billion to $125 billion a year would be meted out to general practitioners, who would use the money to buy services from hospitals and other health care providers.
The plan would also shrink the bureaucratic apparatus, in keeping with the government's goal to effect $30 billion in "efficiency savings" in the health budget by 2014 and to reduce administrative costs by 45 percent. Tens of thousands of jobs would be lost because layers of bureaucracy would be abolished.
Donald Berwick, Obama's czar of Medicare and Medicaid, can't wait to begin his rationing. He told an audience in Britain he is "romantic about the NHS [system of rationing.] Berwick has private health care for life for he and his wife through his non-profit health care charity. I'll repeat that, his non-profit health care charity has provided private health care for life for Berwick and his wife - the man who will tell you, you cannot have that knee replacement. Berwick also received $2.3 million, excluding his health care benefit, from his "non-profit charity."
After bloating the UK health care system with a monstrous management and employee hiring, many will now lose their jobs. Remember the graphic above of Obama's planned many-layered government departments of health care?
The Obama plan for socialized health care has failed everywhere something similar has been adopted. Obviously, local doctors can take better care of their patients. It is also obvious that Obama cannot sufficiently control us, unless he also has control of our health. Any Republican or Conservative on Capitol Hill who will not agree to repeal ObamaCare, must be sent home to pick up their law practice.
Canadian Air Force pilot Captain Brian Bews ejected safely from his CF-18 fighter jet just moments before it crashed during a practice flight on the eve of the annual event.
Bews escaped serious injury in the crash, which occurred during the noon-hour while he was attempting a slow-speed pass over the airport. After ejecting, he narrowly missed being hit by the plane as it plunged to the ground and exploded in flames near the junction of two runways, according to witnesses.
CF-18 Crashes at Albeta Air Show
CF-18 Crashes
Follow the link above for photos of the aftermath of the CF-18 crash. View the extraordinary video at Chicago Ray's. I think you can see the pilot land just beyond the burning plane.
Katherine Herridge is on Fox reporting a possible second terrorist attack planned on Christmas Day to coincide with Underpants Bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab attack, which barely failed. An unnamed official said "[We] were aware of something for Christmas and didn't ring the bell...didn't warn the airlines, didn't warn everyone that, "hey, we were made aware of this so just tighten up. And look what happened. Obama is quoted saying we had information on Abdulmutallab's attack but "our intelligence community failed" to "connect the dots." Look how our government failed our soldiers at Ft. Hood. The trail to terrorism was hot and everyone had the actual messages from Nidal Hasan to Anwar al-Alwalki before he committed jihad. What's wrong with this miserable, irresponsible government?
Ft. Hood Massacre
An explosive devise was to be moved from East Africa to London to New York to be used perhaps in a restaurant or other busy venue bombing. The devise would have been assembled in New York City.
Someone named "Mohammed" is involved. Ya, sure! Fox News says "intelligence from overseas three weeks earlier indicating that a plot targeting New York City on the same day may have been in the works, according to an FBI report obtained by Fox News."
The final target of the attack was not known, but extremist members had allegedly discussed restaurants and night clubs located in New York City," the FBI's assistant legal attache in London wrote in a threat report dated Dec. 4, 2009. "The extremists allegedly discussed conducting the attack on 25 December, to coincide with the Christmas holiday."
The report, sent to U.S. and British counterterrorism officials, warned that "extremists allegedly planned to conduct a test run" that evening, hiding components for an improvised explosive device in a shipment of khat, a plant often chewed like tobacco that has become a tradition for many in East Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.
The FBI is warning these reports might be a "coincidence," and not to draw conclusions. "Hundreds" of threat reports come in for the month of December each year - 83,000 to the FBI each year. Obama said "The U.S. government had sufficient information to have uncovered this plot and potentially disrupt the Christmas Day attack. But our intelligence community failed to connect those dots."
Queen Elizabeth II has visited New York City two times prior to this visit tomorrow. As a newly-throned monarch, she came to the Big Apple in 1957, not again until 1976, and for the third and final time, perhaps on July 6th. Along with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Governor David Paterson, New Jersey's new Governor Chris Christie will meet the Queen at Ground Zero. See below a wonderful video of the Queen speaking about her life.
She was a vivacious young queen when she first saw New York City in 1957, regal in white gloves but as dazzled as any tourist taking in the Statue of Liberty and the skyline of Manhattan from the deck of a rumbling Staten Island ferry. She wanted her first sight of the magical city "as it should be approached," she said - from the harbor."
cheering throngs lined Broadway for miles, showering Queen Elizabeth II with affection as blizzards of ticker tape engulfed her entourage. She waved from President Dwight D. Eisenhower's bubble-top limousine, a tiny woman suspended in time...dined that evening at the Waldorf-Astoria in a diamond tiara....
This will be a short visit for the Queen, now 84-years-old, and husband, Prince Philip. They arrive from Canada in a private plane and fly back to Britain the same evening. She will first speak at the United Nations, visit Ground Zero, and then caravan to The British Garden in Hanover Square to memorialize the lives of 67 Brits murdered when the Twin Towers fell:
An elongated triangle in the rough shape of the British Isles, it is a landscaped version of a traditional British garden, planted with hydrangea, rhododendron, azalea, foxglove, holly and yew....
Queen Elizabeth was born Elizabeth Alexandra Mary. She took the throne on February 1952 at age 25, although her coronation did not happen until June of 1953. She has reigned for 58 years.
In this rare video, Queen Elizabeth speaks of her "job," and her commitment to it. She says she does wish that she could spend more time in the out-of-doors, and she seems to love her unique connection to "the people." Her resolve to keep the Monarchy alive, with the pomp and circumstance that goes with it, can be overwhelming, but this Queen says it is only overwhelming if you let it be so.
What on earth would make previously-thought conservative Brit, Daniel Hannan, burst our bubble and tell us he supported Barack Obama, or remind those who did know, more than a year later?
Daniel Hannan
Karen at The Lonely Conservative has a shorter and pithier rant than mine. I know, I do go on.
Hannan doesn't like Obama's foreign policy. He didn't like the offensive gifts to Queen Elizabeth or returning the historic bust of Winston Churchill on the second day Barack took office, but those were "minor irritants," he says. He didn't mention Michelle's inappropriate cardigan at Buckingham Palace, or her shocking (to Queen Elizabeth) hug of the reigning Royal.
No, he is troubled about the dangerous foreign policy, unknown in any other modern day American administration:
...the Obama administration is backing Peronist Argentina's claim to the Falkland Islands, or as Obama's people call them, "the Malvinas." British troops were the only sizable contingent to support the US in Iraq and Afghanistan. We have fought alongside America in most of the conflicts of the past hundred years. Yet when the chips are down, Obama lines up with Hugo Chavez and Daniel Ortega against us.
It has alienated Israel and India. It has even managed to fall out with Canada over its "Buy American" rules and its decision to drill in disputed Arctic waters. Never has there been a worse time to be a US ally.
No one denies that Obama was dealt a rotten economic hand; but he has played it ineptly. His policies are serving to make his country poorer, and less free and less respected. And that is a problem for all of us.
Well, yes, Mr. Hannan - he had no foreign policy experience. Running the streets of Chicago is a bit different than running the U.S. We conservatives knew it. We thought you were of similar mind.
Hot Air pointed out that Hannan feels good about Obama's commitment to school choice. I said "What?" Hot Air said," huh?" Now that's a stunner. Hannan didn't pay attention in 2008, and isn't paying attention now unless it affects his own country:
In February 2009, one month after infiltrating the Oval Office, the Wall Street Journal muses:
So we'll be curious to see how he handles the dismaying attempt by Democrats in Congress to crush education choice for 1,700 poor kids in the District of Columbia.
The answer came in May of the same year. Obama provided the vouchers for the 1,716 students already in the Washington D.C. program, and will allow them all to finish through graduation, but that's the end.
No more children in disadvantaged areas, attending miserable excuses for schools, will receive vouchers or grants as long as Barack Obama has a say - including the students wanting to enter his own daughters' school, the prestigeous Sidwell Friends. None of that riff-raff sitting side-by-side the Obama girls.
We can we forgive the New York Sun for believing Obama on the campaign trail in February 2008, even though he had already promised the National Education Association (NEA) he would not support vouchers. After all, BO was handsome, spoke so beautifully, had a mouthful of pearly whites, and a long history of lying through them - but in those early days, who knew?
He [Obama] said he was astonished to learn that a voucher program in Milwaukee had never been tested in a longitudinal study to find out whether it had helped children or not. "If there was any argument for vouchers it was, all right, let's see if this experiment works, and then if it does, whatever my preconceptions, my attitude is you do what works for the kids," Mr. Obama said.
Did Hannan know anything about Obama's failed leadership of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge? How he scammed millions, at least $50 million - maybe $110 million, from deserving schools and funneled it to Flag-stomping, Weather Underground terrorist, Bill Ayers?
Does he know that funds were used for ethnic studies, leaving white children to flounder, with grants going to the South Shore African Village Collaborative to celebrate Juneteenth, while The Chicago Algebra Project request for a grant was rejected. The District 5 Math Initiative request for a grant was also rejected. It goes on and on.
Daniel Hannan is a financial genius. He "gets" the pounds sterling and the U.S. dollars. He understands redistributing wealth, and sees it happening in his own country. He doesn't like it. He doesn't understand Obama's willingness to turn over the Falkland Islands to Argentina, even though the people are happy being a part of the U.K., and have been for over 175 years.
Now Hannan can understand how we feel. Obama doesn't discriminate. He takes land, including national forests, 80 miles from the U.S. Mexico border, and turns it over to Mexican drug thugs and smugglers, bandits, rapists, human traffickers, pedophiles and murders, as happened today, Hannan's disgust doesn't come close to mine/ours.
Today is Flag Day, a day we celebrate The Star Spangled Banner - not the Anthem, but the flag, as Francis Scott Key saw it in battle and penned it in 1814 at 35 years old. The morning after the bombardment of Ft. McHenry, our flag with 15 stars and 15 stripes represented a united 16 states. This is the flag that Key saw in the dawn of his morning:
The Star-Spangled Banner the morning of September 13, 1814
after the Ft. Henry, Maryland Bombardment
Please scroll down for current news
Some say the lyrics of the Star Spangled banner are out-dated - we need a new Anthem, they say, but the words are still as wonderfully expressive to me, as they surely were then to those who loved this country enough to risk all they had.
Perhaps we sing the song without thinking about the meaning behind the words. Think about it. Francis Scott Key looked for the flag from an anchored ship, in the breaking dawn of the battle for Fort McHenry.
...let's go back to the summer of 1813...At...Fort MHenry, the commander, Maj. George Armistead, asked for a flag so big that "the British would have no trouble seeing it from a distance." Two officers, a Commodore and a General, were sent to the Baltimore home of Mary Young Pickersgill, a "maker of colours," and commissioned the flag. Mary and her thirteen year old daughter Caroline, working in an upstairs front bedroom, used 400 yeards of best quality woold bunting. They cut 15 stars that measured two feet from point to point. Eight red and seven white stripes, each two feet wide, were cut. Laying out the material on the malthouse floor of Claggett's Brewery, a neighborhood establishment, the flag was sewn together....It measured 30 by 42 feet and cost $405.90.
At 7 a.m. in the morning of September 13, 1814, the British bombardment began, and the flag was ready to meet the enemy. The bombardment continued for 25 hours....The Americans had sunk 22 vessels so a close approach by the British was no possible. That evening the connonading stopped, but at about 1 a.m. on the 14th, the British fleet roared to life, lighting the rainy night sky with grotesque fireworks.
Waiting in the predawn darkness, Key waited for the sight that would end his anxiety; the joyous sight of Gen. Armistead's great flag blowing in the breeze. When at last daylight came, the flag was still there!
Bombardment of Ft. McHenry
At dawn, Key anxiously peers into the distance to see if the flag still waves, proving the battle for God and country has not been lost. And indeed it was waving. Could there be more poignant words to describe our flag than "a star-spangled banner?"
He sees her broad stripes and bright stars, still waving over a perilous battle.
At twilight, the bombs are still raining down, the glare of the bursts again show proof that the symbol of freedom, the Star Spangled Banner, is still waving over the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.
Ronald Reagan once said we should always ask: "Oh say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave, o'er the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave?"
As long as we are remembering to ask, perhaps the answer will never be "No."
You might be interested in this essay written in March 2010 by a college student whose school decided to ban the National Anthem. The decision was overturned, but the writer reminds the school of "the back story" of the Anthem and titles the essay "A History Lesson for the President of Goshen College."
In the video below, a beautiful, and unknown voice to me (maybe Jordin Sparks) sings The Star Spangled banner. The lyrics are on the screen, and if you haven't done it recently, take a moment on Flag Day to sing along and think about the men in battle, the families under seige, the enemy on our shores, and celebrate our star-spangled banner. Today, still protecting the star-spangled, is the U.S. Army, celebrating a 235th Birthday on June 14th.
The Star-Spangled Banner (video)
Others Celebrating Flag Day: The Conservative Lady feeling patriotic. See a rousing video of Gene Simmons leading the trips of the anthems of each branch of our military. What a great video!
Amusing Bunni who on Flag Day, gives us a gift. She has a video of college kids, who probably voted for Obama...have seen the light, have accepted it, and now send him a message. It will make you smile.
Odie at Woodsterman has a big, waving flag, not as big as Gen. Armistead's 42' flag, yet a big, spirited and waving Old Glory.
If this isn't the most appalling bit of news to come out of the U.K., I don't know what could top it. The future King of England, Prince Charles believes the world should follow Islamic 'spiritual principles." By doing so, the environment will be protected. No surprise Queen Elizabeth is keeping her throne, perhaps gauging Prince William's ability to succeed her.
Prince Charles - Prince of Wales - Prince of Islam
I cut Charles a little slack because the only job the poor man is trusted with, besides hunting quail, is promoting the dire mess our environment is in, even though it is all a big lie, courtesy of Britain East Anglia University's Climate Research Unit. It was this distinguished institute that lied, manipulated and hid "the decline" in actual temperatures.
As to Islam's theory and practice of protecting the environment, it is mostly theory. Obviously, water is revered in the many desert environments of many Islamic countries. Charles can spin it, but really, it's a matter of having water available, or not having water available, rather than anything to do with Islamic Spiritual principles.
While Islam as a religion has a deep sense of respect and consideration for the natural environment (Izzi Dien, 1990), the current status quo in Muslim countries is not noticeably different to that in the rest of the world.
In a speech some years ago:
the Prince of Wales referred to the Islamic "sense of the sacred" as having an important role in the rediscovery of our human responsibilities of which the environment is but one. The Quranic verse "whithersoever you turn, there is the face of God" was apparently understood by the Prince as a manifestation of a "profound sense of the sacred and the spiritual".
Do those following the tenants of Islam and beheading their wives and daughters, see the face of God as they look down on the separated body parts of those they vowed to protect, or as they clean their bloody swords?
In 2007, England was still considering Charles as an expected King. This very confused country across the pond, can't decide whether a King Charles would be, as has always been the custom, The Defender of The Faith, or The Defender of Faiths.
Should the cross on top the crown be accompanied by a crescent and star, hastily welded on? And if it is Charles making the vows, should he not pray his own prayers?
The progression of Islam in the U.K. is a huge problem. When his Mother is beheaded and him right behind her, I doubt Charles will have Islam's 'spiritual principles' on his mind.
That deep religious nature of Islam is showing itself once again. Afghanistan Taliban are planting HIV infected needles with their IED's. Think about it, where are they getting the HIV virus to dirty-up the needles? You can't place an order for a quantity of HIV virus. There are also warnings about hepatitis, and infected razor blades. See a video below.
Brit Captain Wayne Owers Dismantles Bomb in Helmand Province
This report is coming from The Sun UK and speaks of British soldiers finding these bombs, but it surely also affects U.S. soldiers. God bless these men and women doing this terrifying work:
Hypodermic syringes are hidden below the surface pointing upwards to prick bomb squad experts as they hunt for devices.
The heroin needles are feared to be contaminated with hepatitis and HIV. And if the bomb goes off, the needles become deadly flying shrapnel.
Apparently we have a cadre of sick and HIV infected Taliban, or are towns people showing up to donate their dirty heroin needles?
There is this report also coming via the UK's Independent, dateline May 25th, 2010, saying Taliban bombs are now being detonated, rather than dismantled.
The move represents a shift in policy to try to alleviate the pressure on operatives...four of whom have been Killed in just over a year in Helmand.
Infected needles are not mentioned in the Independent report.
A British judge has ruled a 55-year-old woman does not have the right to decide for or against cancer surgery. She will have the surgery, and will be sedated in her own home if necessary, to get her to the hospital for the procedure.
The woman previously decided to have the surgery, then changed her mind. The article claims she has learning disabilities. Just my opinion here, but a person with learning disabilities has the right to determine the care of her health. If family cannot change her mind, if she does not have family, if she does not have a guardian - she should have the right to decide, even if her decision is the wrong one - and how can anyone else know what is right and what is wrong for another human?
This is a living example of Big Brother deciding your fate for you. Free will, assuming your will is not harming another living being, is no longer a right across the pond, and we are heading for the same consequences with Obama healthcare, although it is likely you will lose your right to surgery, rather than being forced to have it. Read the appalling story here.
Amnesty International reprimanded and suspended Gita Sahgal, Amnesty International's "gender unit" director for admitting that support of Moazzam Begg is support for the Taliban. Lashing back at Sahgal supporters who have a petitition going on her behalf, AI actually issued a letter in defense of 'self-defense-jihad.' This what it's like in Britain these days friends - unabashed support for global terrorism.
Former Gitmo detainee Moazzam Begg is a committed jihadist and unabashed supporter of the Taliban. (See this Weekly Standard essay by Tom Joscelyn, which collects other Begg links.) In the fashion of CAIR — a creation of the Muslim Brotherhood formed to support its causes, such as Hamas, in the camouflage of a "civil rights" organization — Begg shrewdly realized he could win fawning admirers and allies on the Left by posing as a human rights activist. So he formed a group in Britain, Cageprisoners, which claims to be a civil rights organization whle promoting the Islamist agenda — and aligning with such other anti-American jihadist terrorists as would-be Christmas bomber Umar Abdulmutallab and Anwar al-Awlaki (an imam to some of the 9/11 hijackers and an inspiration to both Abdulmutallab and Fort Hood mass-murderer Nidal Hasan).
Moazzam Begg is a British/Pakistani Muslim. He was held at Gitmo for almost three years. Begg admits to spending time at two Islamic militant training camps in Afghanistan, but he doesn't expect us to think that he is a terrorist or supports terrorism. President Bush released Begg from Guantanamo Bay over objections from the Pentagon, FBI and CIA.
Moazzam Begg's organization, Cageprisoners, has never met a Gitmo detainee it deemed guilty of terrorism. One laugh-outloud headline: Gitmo Detainees Collecting Food Donations for Haiti
Gitmo detainees have been collecting unopened containers of food and beverages to give to victims of Haiti's earthquake, according to a lawyer for one of the detainees.
Lawyer Allison Lefrak told Time Magazine's Swampland blog what her client, detainee Ravil Mingazov, told her about the detainees' efforts.
"What our client was telling us is it seems so wasteful for all this food to be thrown away and with the Haiti relief mission next door it was common sense to ask to give it to them," Lefrak told me in a phone call today. Apparently, even unopened food and beverages are discarded. So far the camp guards have not been facilitating the donations, so they're starting to pile up, she added.
Can you imagine the outcry if the U.S. Military cut the food supply at Gitmo by a tenth and sent it to Haiti? And how do these donations make it to the Haitian people, of whom the majority are infidels?
Amnesty International is far-Left and dangerous and now it is confirmed that they view jihad as simple self-defense.
Dr. Phil Jones, the head perpetrator in the ClimateGate scandal made his first public appearance since we learned that he had manipulated climate change data and he admitted that 40 percent of his warming data from the last 60 years was due to urban influences. If he admits to 40 percent, the reality is the percentage is probably much higher.
Phil Jones
The fragile and contentious house of climate change came tumbling down when citizens began to exercise their "right to know" on both sides of the Atlantic through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Jones refused to comply, directed those under him to ignore the requests, while at the same time he directed them to change some data, and eventually, his emails were hacked and placed on line.
Things have not been good for the disgraced Jones lately, who admitted yet another astonishing piece information when asked how often scientists asked to see his "raw data, methodology and computer codes." He replied "NEVER." Remarkable when you realize that climate change is about funding projects from the pockets of taxpayers, directly to the Al Gores and Phil Joneses of the world community.
Appearing before the U.K.'s Science and Technology Committee, onlookers say Jones' hands were trembling and he was pale. Appropriate for a man who used broad strokes to impose daunting climate change technology not only on his country, but on all the industrialized world.
Today, the UK Guardian said Jones admitted that "radically different finding" in his research, which Jones said showed "a slightly different conclusion" proved that urban influences played a big part in global warming:
But for the first time he did concede publicly that when he tried to
repeat the 1990 study in 2008, he came up with radically different
findings. Or, as he put it, "a slightly different conclusion". Fully 40%
of warming there in the past 60 years was due to urban influences.
"It's something we need to consider," he said.
Jones said he ignored the FOIA's because among climate scientists, it was not "standard practice" to release information and the data was "publicly available from American websites.
Watts Up With That says huh uh. Jones' claim that it was "not standard practice" to release data is not truthful, and prints documents proving Jones shared information when the requester was known not to be a skeptic, and kept information from those who were.
The Institute of Physics lashed out against Jones in the hearing, and had already submitted a 13-paragraph document to Parliament concerning the impropriety of Jones' actions. The following are some telling snippets of that document:
1) unless the disclosed e-mails are proved to be
forgeries or adaptations, worrying implications arise for the integrity
of
scientific research in this field and for the credibility of the
scientific
method as practised in this context.
2) The CRU e-mails as published on the internet provide prima facie
evidence of determined and co-ordinated refusals to comply with
honourable
scientific traditions and freedom of information law.
4) Published reconstructions may represent only a part of the raw data
available
and may be sensitive to the choices made and the statistical techniques
used.
Different choices, omissions or statistical processes may lead to
different
conclusions. This possibility was evidently the reason behind some of
the
(rejected) requests for further information.
5) The e-mails reveal doubts as to the reliability of some of the
reconstructions
and raise questions as to the way in which they have been represented;
for
example, the apparent suppression, in graphics widely used by the IPCC, of proxy results for recent decades
that do
not agree with contemporary instrumental temperature measurements.
6) There is also reason for concern at the intolerance to challenge
displayed in
the e-mails.
This impedes the process of scientific 'self correction', which is vital
to the
integrity of the scientific process...
7) ...The e-mails illustrate the
possibility of networks of like-minded researchers effectively excluding
newcomers. Requiring data to be electronically accessible to all, at the
time
of publication, would remove this possibility.
10) ...most of the e-mails were exchanged with researchers in
a number of other leading institutions involved in the formulation of
the IPCC's conclusions on
climate change. In so far as
those scientists were complicit in the alleged scientific malpractices,
there
is need for a wider inquiry into the integrity of the scientific process
in
this field.
Dr. Phil Jones was forced to step down as the head of the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit for at least the duration of the investigation.
Nothing surprises me anymore, especially when it come to global warming declarations. An Australian "weather expert" Professor Neville Nicholls says according to satellite data, January 2010 is the hottest ever.
Jonathan Powell, a UK forecaster, says it was the coldest in the UK in 30 years.
I won’t be sold on climate change at all. The data
is either faulty or manufactured to make it look like it shouldn’t.”
It gets more ridiculous every day as climate scammers try to keep the money flowing.
Scientists
advancing claims of man-made climate change were humiliated when emails
emerged suggesting researchers at the University of East Anglia had
been selective with weather data.
The
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change also wrongly claimed the
Himalayan glaciers could melt away in 25 years. Most scientists have
said it will take 300 years for the glaciers to disappear.
Following
the embarrassing revelations, the Daily Express published a dossier of
100 reasons why the rise in world temperatures is natural and not
caused by man.
The report,
by the European
Foundation, dismissed suggestions that raised levels of carbon dioxide
would bring difficulties, saying it would encourage crop yields and
support food production.
Now
the Met Office has pledged to go back as far as 1850 to check its
statistics.
Yesterday the
IPCC and the University of East Anglia were also preparing to defend
their research.
Dr
Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the IPCC, flew to Bali to try to
convince the UN to back the troubled organisation. Climate Change
Secretary Ed Miliband urged Dr Pachauri to make sure no future mistakes
were made.
He said: “There
have been mistakes made, clearly. It’s important that those mistakes
are looked at.
“I’ve
written to Dr Pachauri to emphasise our support but also our wish that
they look at their procedures to try to eliminate these sorts of
errors. But the overall picture is very clear, which is that climate
change is happening, it is real, it is man-made.”
In
the Commons, Ann Winterton, Tory MP for Congleton, asked: “Will the
Government change its mind about the huge subsidies to land-based wind
farms, which are not only ineffective but also despoil the countryside?”
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