Tag: World News

Margaret Thatcher has died

Outside of Ronald Reagan, she was a pillar of Conservativism.

Some videos, via Fox News:

The Story:

Britain’s first and only female prime minister Baroness Thatcher has died at the age of 87 after suffering a stroke. Lady Thatcher’s children Mark and Carol said their mother, who suffered bouts of ill health in recent years, died peacefully on Monday morning. Downing Street, which joined Buckingham Palace in flying its flags at half mast, said the politician would be given a full ceremonial funeral with honours at St Paul’s Cathedral. Prime Minister David Cameron led tributes from around the world, calling the former Tory leader “a great prime minister, a great leader, a great Briton”. —- Margaret Thatcher Dies After Stroke

The usual roundup of opinion and stupidity is found here. 

She was an icon of the 1980’s. I lived through her era. We were a better people for it. Reagan held down the fort here in America and cleaned up after socialism’s failures. Thatcher did the same in England. 

She will be missed, by this child of the 1980’s. May she rest in peace, God knows, she has earned it.

It Begins: Evangelical Christians and the Catholic Church listed in Army training slide as extremists

This is something to put everyone on alert:

A U.S. Army training instructor listed Evangelical Christianity and Catholicism as examples of religious extremism along with Al Qaeda and Hamas during a briefing with an Army Reserve unit based in Pennsylvania, Fox News has learned.

“We find this offensive to have Evangelical Christians and the Catholic Church to be listed among known terrorist groups,” said Ron Crews, executive director of the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty. “It is dishonorable for any U.S. military entity to allow this type of wrongheaded characterization.”

Material presented to soldiers at training session.

The incident occurred during an Army Reserve Equal Opportunity training brief on extremism. Topping the list is Evangelical Christianity. Other organizations listed included Catholicism, Al Qaeda, Hamas, the Ku Klux Klan, Sunni Muslims, and Nation of Islam.

The military also listed “Islamophobia” as a form of religious extremism.

via Army Labeled Evangelicals as Religious Extremists | FOX News & Commentary: Todd Starnes.

Of course, when caught, the Army quickly raced to cover its butt:

Army spokesman George Wright told Fox News that this was an “isolated incident not condoned by the Dept. of the Army.”

“This slide was not produced by the Army and certainly does not reflect our policy or doctrine,” he said. “It was produced by an individual without anyone in the chain of command’s knowledge or permission.”

Wright said after the complaint was lodged, the presenter deleted the slide, and apologized.

“We consider the matter closed,” he said.

The incident was made public by a soldier who attended the briefing. He asked for copies of the presentation and sent them to the Chaplain Alliance.

“He considers himself an evangelical Christian and did not appreciate being classified with terrorists,” Crews told Fox News. “There was a pervasive attitude in the presentation that anything associated with religion is an extremist.”

Which is the story they always tell the public, when they do something and get caught doing it. I just wonder how long it will be, if the Lord tarries; before the United States Government will begin rounding up those who dare to read from the King James Version of the Bible and start imprisoning those Pastors who dare to preach that homosexuality is a sin and that abortion is murder. I think it will happen, before the Lord’s return myself. Why with the Anti-Defamation League — a leftist Jew-run organization; doing the bidding of the Obama Administration, it is a wonder now that Fundamentalists like myself are not in prison.

It goes without saying that we are in the last days. Things like this, are going to become more and more prevalent and will the norm eventually. As Jesus said, “Watch ye and Pray.” and that my friends, is all that we can really do. Watch and pray and be about our Father’s business; and wait for his blessed return.

Others: Atlas Shrugs, Jihad Watch and Weasel Zippers

Taking Religion out of the Military?

I have mixed feelings about this one:

“Soldiers with minority religious beliefs and atheists often feel like second-class citizens when Christianity is seemingly officially endorsed by their own base,” American Atheists president David Silverman told Fox News. “We are very happy the Pentagon and the Army decided to do the right thing.” A military spokesman told Fox News the cross was literally dismantled and will be removed from the base to be in “compliance with Army regulations and to avoid any misconception of religious favoritism or disrespect.” “After a Christian prayer, the cross was removed from the roof of the chapel,” the spokesman said. “During the removal, the cross was dismantled; however the cross was reassembled and currently awaits transportation to a larger operational base.” The military told Fox News the cross will only be brought out during Christian services and will be designated as a “non-permanent religious symbol.” Silverman said a Christian chapel on an Army base in Afghanistan could have put American troops in danger. “It inflames this Muslim versus Christian mentality,” he said. “This is not a Muslim versus Christian war — but if the Army base has a large chapel on it that has been converted to Christian-only, it sends a message that could be interpreted as hostile to Islam.” An Army spokesman said all chapels must be religiously neutral. “The primary purpose of making a chapel a neutral, multi-use facility is to accommodate the free exercise of religion for all faith groups using it,” he said. “We take the spiritual fitness of our Soldiers seriously and encourage them to practice their faith and exercise their beliefs however they choose.” Retired Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin, of the Family Research Council, told Fox News a Christian cleansing of the military is under way. “I don’t think you can categorize it any other way,” he said. “There is a strong effort, led partially by the Administration as well as by atheist groups to destroy the identity of who we are as a nation and that means robbing us of our history.” —- Military: Crosses Removed ‘Out of Respect for Other Faiths’ | FOX News & Commentary: Todd Starnes

On one hand, I would hate to think that having Christian symbols on a battle front could be putting our Military at risk. On the other hand, I would hate to see Christianity being removed from the Military entirely. However, we are in a Muslim Nation is Afghan region; one would think that the Military would want to be respectful of those people and their culture.

It is a mixed bag, and all the more reason why we really need to get out of that Country. Our mission is done there; we killed Osama and we need to leave. We do not want to make the same mistake the Russians made there. Besides all that, Al-Qaeda has moved into other regions and is much more a threat to other interests in other parts for the world now.

So, to this Independent, the quicker we leave, the better.

Iraq descends into chaos again

Even more residual effects from a ill-thought invasion of a sovereign Country:

BAGHDAD — It was just the sort of episode that observers have long worried could provoke a serious conflict: when federal police agents sought to arrest a Kurdish man last month in the city of Tuz Khurmato in the Kurdish north of the country, a gunfight ensued with security men loyal to the Kurdish regional government.

When the bullets stopped flying, a civilian bystander was dead and at least eight others were wounded.

In response, the Iraqi prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, rushed troop reinforcements to the area, and Masoud Barzani, the president of Iraq’s semiautonomous northern Kurdish region, dispatched his own soldiers, known as the Peshmerga, and the forces remain there in a tense standoff.

Almost a year after the departure of the United States military closed a painful chapter in the histories of both nations, Iraq finds itself in a familiar position: full-blown crisis mode, this time with two standing armies, one loyal to the central government in Baghdad and the other commanded by the Kurdish regional government in the north, staring at each other through gun sights, as officials in Baghdad, including American diplomats and an American general, try to mediate.

via Iraq’s Latest Crisis Is a Standoff With Northern Kurds – NYTimes.com.

My Mother was right, she always is. In 2003, when United States announced that we were invading the Country of Iraq, my Mother, the eternal Democrat that she is, told me that President George W. Bush was simply wrong in his assumptions that invading that Country was necessary.  Turns out, she and many others were correct, and people like me; someone who watched 9/11 happen on live TV, were wrong.

To be clear, I supported invading Iraq and the United States presence in the Country of Iraq until it became very clear that there were no weapons of mass destruction in that Country. This was around 2006, and when the War in Iraq turned into a meat grinder. This is also when I began my career as a blogger.  (Please Note: That archive linked, only shows from 2007, which is when I bought my domain. I previously blogged at Blogspot/Blogger)

Like another well-known so-called Conservative blogger, who I will not link to, because of her stupidity towards me — said; invading Iraq was nothing more than a present to the Iranians. Furthermore, it was destabilizing factor in the region and this story above is proof of that.

I think America needs to think very hard and very long before attempting to play the World’s policeman again.

 

 

Audio: Radio Derb: Turkey, Turkey, and Eternal Recurrence in the Middle East

[podcast]http://takimag.com/audio/derbradio121124.mp3[/podcast]

Transcript here

In this Podcast:

  • Turkey news
  • Another great Arab victory
  • Eternal recurrence in the Middle East
  • A song for the season
  • Jesse Jackson, Jr. jettisons job
  • The ultimate insomnia cure
  • The nation that once terrified the world

Hey, Hey! Cut it out!

Some rather funny stuff in the blogosphere today.

Bill Quick reacting to InstaPundit’s mail from a reader on this story here:

Glenn, If I had this teacher in high school I would have worked myself blind to get an A.

Remember when “working yourself” was supposed to cause blindness?

Hey, Hey! Cut that stuff out! Surprise

You’re fogging up my laptop screen here and I cannot see how to write! Nerd