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Feelings about Nancy Grace aside, this story of how an 11-year-old Wisconsin girl slipped into a diabetic coma and died because her parents sat around praying rather than seeking medical attention for her--as relatives had been begging them to do for weeks--is horrifying. Though the parents insist they don't regard themselves as religious, they also note that laying on of hands is their preferred method of healing in general. With apologies to similar believers everywhere, my first reaction to this is, Wow, these people are some kind of crazy. My second reaction: time to consider a little court-negotiated sterilization. Seriously....

Muslim extremists should be banned from handing out literature and prevented from sitting on public bodies, David Cameron has said. The Conservative leader has also accused ministers and councils of allowing fanatics to benefit from public grants to Muslim bodies. "The Government has allowed hundreds of thousands of pounds to local authorities to improve community cohesion, but there are worrying signs that ministers have taken their eye off the ball," he said. "I will be making proposals to isolate extremists and make certain they cannot obtain public grants or get invited to sit on public bodies. "That won't just apply...

Uncle beheads toddler in supermarket http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23316075-401,00.html A MAN beheaded his 15-month-old nephew in front of his mother in a supermarket in Saudi Arabia apparently after a family dispute, newspapers reported. The 25-year-old Syrian national picked up a knife from the store in the Red Sea city of Jeddah yesterday and decapitated the little boy in full view of shoppers, Arab News said. The man apparently killed the little boy following a dispute with the man's sister and brother-in-law, the English-language daily said. "He chopped off the boy's head in front of the mother to get back at her," a police...

Adolf Hitler was evil and perhaps a madman. But throughout history, there have been many evil madmen in many corners of the Earth. Few have attracted millions of passionate followers; fewer still have conquered Europe and committed genocide. So what made Hitler different and — for a time — effective? Start with this short list: He understood propaganda, the dynamics of public-opinion formation, what it takes to persuade; He comprehended the mechanics of mass movements, how to harness the dark desires of restive crowds; And there was nothing — no matter how vile or inhuman — he would not do...

Seattle - In an open letter to Santa last week and a speech to children at Seattle’s Annual Christmas tree lighting ceremony at Westlake Center, Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels last week offered a Grinch-like tone, grumbling about climate change threatening Santa, telling kids “I hope the reindeer can swim,” and blaming them and their energy-sucking video games for melting Arctic ice. As Nickels spoke, his assistants handed out stickers admonishing the crowd to “Save Santa.”

A fundamentalist Kansas “church” notorious for protesting at the funerals of troops killed in Iraq was ordered Wednesday to pay $10.9 million in damages to the father of a fallen Marine. The Westboro Baptist Church believes that U.S. deaths in the Iraq war are punishment for the nation's tolerance of homosexuality and appeared last year at the funeral for Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, bearing signs that read: "Thank God for dead soldiers" and "God hates fags.” A nine-member federal jury found members and three leaders of Westboro – Fred Phelps and his two daughters, Phelps-Roper and Rebekah Phelps-Davis –...

CBNNews.com - President Bush is hosting a controversial event at the White House Thursday evening, with an invitation to Muslim officials and clerics to join him for prayer and dinner in observance of the holy month of Ramadan. Many Christians question the president's decision to make the Islamic celebration of "iftar" into a standard religious observance for the White House. Iftar officially breaks Muslims' daytime fast. Islam, referred to by some politicians as a religion of peace, is viewed by many conservative Americans as a faith rooted in violence and hostility toward non-Muslims, collectively referred to as "infidels." One of...

Muslim medical students in Britain are refusing to learn about illnesses related to alcohol and sexually-transmitted diseases. Why?? Well, clearly, because it goes against their religious beliefs. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=486213&in_page_id=1770 Some of them are even refusing to examine patients of the opposite sex. They claim that this is forbidden by the Quran. Can you believe this nonsense? What the hell kind of doctors do we get when Muslims go to medical school? . The General Medical Council regulates doctors and maintains the medical register. They have, luckily, made it clear that doctors cannot opt out of any part of their training despite...

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=27092_Yet_Another_Cartoon_of_Blasphemy_(Update_-_Meow-hammed!)&only ANOTHER MUSLIM CARTOON ARREST Sure is tough to be a cartoonist lately. The government of Bangladesh has ordered the arrest of another cartoonist for publishing a "blasphemous" caricature of the Prophet Muhammad. Muslim mobs publicly torched the paper, and, of course, you have the required protests. The angry Muslims want "exemplary punishment" for the cartoonist and the paper's editor. Want to see the "blasphemous" cartoon? Here it is, with a translation at the bottom. http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=27092_Yet_Another_Cartoon_of_Blasphemy_(Update_-_Meow-hammed!)&only It's totally innocuous. Too bad we can't say the same thing about radical Islamists. C

Wedge Issues Posted by: “Common Tator” in FreeRepublic.com April 16, 2002 The one thing that amazes me on this site is the belief by some that the conservative position is the majority position. Mostly people tend to believe it could be the majority position if the right candidate ran, or if it weren't for the media or RINOs or etc, etc. They really don't have a clue. Roughly 2/3 of the public has firm views. They have made up their minds and do not change them. This group is nearly equally split between the left and the right. There are...

July 20, 2007: Responding to protests from Christians in the Maluku islands, the government removed the senior military commander on the island. This time, it was because the military attacked and arrested local Christians who waved a separatist flag when the Indonesian president visited last month. The problem is that many Indonesians, including military and political leaders, are hostile to Christians, especially separatist Christians. Islamic radicals call for violence against non-Moslems, and the government does little to contradict such calls for "holy war." This hands off attitude helps keep the Islamic radicals in business. The government does not want to...

Sutton has said that the sentence may well be severe, but pointed out that Congress sets sentencing guidelines. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who initiated the hearings, has disputed that point in letters to the Justice Department asking why charges carrying such heavy sentences had to be brought. Sutton said, "It is the policy of the Department of Justice to bring the highest most readily provable charge against a defendant. We followed that policy in this case because what former agents Compean and Ramos did was a serious crime."

WASHINGTON – With his status growing as a national leader against global warming, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger yesterday said in a major speech that those who refuse to address climate change are “fanatics.” Schwarzenegger, the subject of recent environmental cover stories in Newsweek, Fortune and Outside magazines, said the movement to combat global warming has gone mainstream and those who oppose it are now on the fringes. “So who are the fanatics now?” Schwarzenegger asked during his address at Georgetown University's Gaston Hall, which was packed with young adults who twice gave him standing ovations. “They are the ones who are...

As a member of the Jewish ultra-Orthodox community, David wore a long black coat and a black hat covering his Jewish skullcap. He spent 10 hours a day studying the Torah, the Jewish holy book, and the Talmud, rabbinical discussions on Jewish law, ethics and customs. David says that he used to want to be a rabbi - but that was then. Now, David, 24, wears blue jeans and loose-fitting T-shirts. He no longer believes in religion, saying that he is completely secular. He is currently at university and hopes to become an engineer. David - who does not want...

Roman Catholics in the metropolis Friday called off their protest against the proposed screening of a controversial documentary on Jesus Christ after broadcaster Discovery Channel decided not to telecast the programme in India. The Catholics in the city had earlier sprung into action against the worldwide premiere 'The Lost Tomb of Jesus' that claims to show the burial place of Jesus challenging the basic tenets the Christian faith. 'The Lost Tomb of Jesus' is a feature documentary, directed by Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici and produced by Oscar-winning director James Cameron of the 'Titanic' fame, Flex Golubev and Ric...

You would think that a belief system where the most lauded members are those who blow themselves up would have some serious marketing problems.  I mean how exactly do you get rational post-secular westerners to buy into an idea like that?  But Islam is the world’s fastest growing religion none the less.  And much of it's growth is owed to its rapid conversion of certain segments of western society.   At a glance it defies all logic, but it's true.  It's a commonly held view that when a person stops believing in organized religion they don't then believe in nothing,...

THESE days everyone is an expert on Islam. All it takes is to reach for your Koran and find a Sura to prove that Islam is exactly what Bin Laden says it is. Even Pope Benedict XVI has recently taken to quoting the word of Mohammed to address the prophet’s legacy, as has the Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell, who discovered this line in his belated reading of the Koran: “Slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them, and confine them, and lie in wait for them at every place of ambush ...” And there you have...

An elderly nun was murdered, attacked from behind by gunmen who had a problem with Pope Benedict’s recent speech. Oh, excuse me, the press is only speculating on that connection, it’s not clear to them - they’re not sure this woman wasn’t simply cut down by her pimp, for holding out. Or, you know, maybe this was just a drug deal gone bad. They’ll get to the bottom of it, soon. The cowardly shooting-from-behind of a septegenarian nun might actually have something to do with Muslims rampaging because Benedict dared to address issues of faith and reason, and to suggest...

Manuel II Paleologus reigned as emperor of Byzantium from 1391, the year in which he is believed to have composed the text from which the Pope quoted last week, until his death in 1425. A brief overview of his experience of Islam: 1390: Manuel is sent as a hostage to the court of Sultan Bayezid I. As his writings demonstrate, he reads widely in Muslim texts and engages in repeated debates with Muslim scholars. He is also forced to participate in an attack on his own people, the siege of Philadelphia, which eliminated the last Byzantine settlement in Anatolia. 1394-1402:...

A HARDLINE cleric linked to Somalia's powerful Islamist movement has called for Muslims to "hunt down" and kill Pope Benedict XVI for his controversial comments about Islam. Sheikh Abubukar Hassan Malin urged Muslims to find the pontiff and punish him for insulting the Prophet Mohammed and Allah in a speech that he said was as offensive as author Salman Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses. "We urge you Muslims wherever you are to hunt down the Pope for his barbaric statements as you have pursued Salman Rushdie, the enemy of Allah who offended our religion," he said in Friday evening prayers....

I didn't know if there was a west coast version of this thread. It didn't make sense to post on thread for the show that was almost over on the East Coast.

Iraq War: Tom Hayden has a new war to undermine, a new enemy to succor and a new Jane Fonda to attract the cameras. His stepped-up activity represents a growing alliance of Islamofascists and the far left. It's not good news. Last weekend, the one-time Chicago Seven riot conspirator and radical Santa Monica state assemblyman paid a visit to Amman, Jordan, along with anti-war "peace mom" Cindy Sheehan and other fringe leftists, to meet anti-American Iraqi politicians. One is Sunni dead-ender Salman al-Jumaili, who seeks the expulsion of U.S. troops from Iraq. Others are radical Shiites. They've all found new...

(IsraelNN.com) Diplomats living in Gaza have stated that they have located the whereabouts of Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier kidnapped yesterday during the terror attack on Kerem Shalom. The prime minister has stated that Israel will not agree to the release of Arab prisoners, and Israel has threatened to strike at senior Hamas figures, including members of the PA government, if Shalit is not released. The diplomats, who are involved in negotiations for his release, told the Ha’aretz newspaper that Gilad is being treated well. Although he is injured, he is in a good state of health. They also expressed...

Demise of multiculturalism can help root out terrorism Jonathan Alter - For the Journal-Constitution Wednesday, June 28, 2006 Multiculturalism, rest in peace. There may have been no obituary for the notion that every group and every belief in a multiethnic society is deserving of mutual respect and tolerance. But thanks to jihadism, multiculturalism and moral relativism --- its necessary counterpart --- are now 6 feet under. Signs of multiculturalism's demise first began to appear in Holland, a nation that officially embraced its precepts in 1983. In theory, the Minderhedennota, or minorities policy, extended the Dutch tradition of tolerance to a...

I drove back from yesterday's news conference at the Islamic Foundation of Toronto in the northeastern part of the city, but honestly, I could have just as easily floated home in the sea of horse manure emanating from the building. So frequent were the bald reassurances that faith and religion had nothing -- nothing, you understand -- to do with the alleged homegrown terrorist plot recently busted open by Canadian police and security forces, that for a few minutes afterward, I wondered if perhaps it was a vile lie of the mainstream press or a fiction of my own demented...

LOWER BURRELL, Pa. -- A Lower Burrell school student is facing a three-day suspension for sharing gum with a classmate. Jolt chewing gum has caffeine and ginseng. The Lower Burrell school superintendent said consuming and passing out the gum violates the school's drug awareness policy. That's because caffeine is considered a stimulant. Parents told Channel 11 they did not understand the suspension. Resident Elizabeth Grombacher said, "I think it's stupid. Everything's getting too politically correct it's so wrong." "It's probably just like Mountain Dew or something like that. If it's got a lot of caffeine in it and they probably...

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab government on Thursday banned the screening of controversial film Da Vinci Code across the state. Punjab's decision came a day after the government of predominantly Christian Nagaland banned sale of the novel and screening of the film based on it, saying the content was blasphemous. "The book is blasphemous. It has portrayed Christ and the Christian faith in a highly objectionable manner," Nagaland education minister Imkong Imchen said. However, Punjab government decided to ban its release in the state quoting "intelligence inputs", which predicted violence in case the movie was shown in the state. Though so far,...

We are urged on all sides to appease Muslims. Why? Well, because they get angry and kill people. Not all of them, of course, just some of them. But, enough of them to matter.

Nothing in world intolerance quite prepares you for the adherents of fanatical Islam. Just when you least expect it, they will continually shock you by once again doing the very same thing. You know the drill. Everyone does. Those, particularly in Europe, who have been lucky enough or snooty enough or apathetic enough or doctrinaire leftist enough to have avoided it thus far, are now having their noses rubbed in it.

An interesting development in the cartoon war. Sandmonkey points out that Al Fagr newpaper in Cairo published the cartoons in October 2005 - and there were no riots.

Let’s start with al-Reuters’ thoughtful contribution to the well-being of the Western world. One of their star reporters finds a new way to bash the United States: We’re not paying off the crystal-ball operators. RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil, Oct 6 (Reuters) — A Brazilian court will consider a psychic's claim that the U.S. government owes him a $25 million reward for information he says he provided on the hiding place of ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Brazil's second-highest court, the Superior Court of Justice, decided on Thursday the Brazilian justice system could rule on the matter and told a court...

Besides the PC crowd, pro-Islamic groups like CAIR are quick to pounce on any non-Muslim sources of information about Islam as hate speech or racism. We took this into consideration as we worded the list of danger signs. We consulted various scholars to make sure we got this right. This is why we are taking the first step in saying, "OK, we believe you, here is a list of danger signs to help everyone." As you read through the list, ask yourself what type of person would disagree with any one of the danger signs. As for me and everyone...

Arab lying racists (still) criticize beautiful democratic Israel? What happens when the Atlas (Arab) of Racism invents-lies libel "racism" on a remarkable democracy? Ignoring Israel's reality First, the Arab Islamic hate media Golitah is systematically ingnoring or lying openly about the fact that Israel's Arabs are not only equal, but giving opportunities & rights without demanding of them the natural obligation that exists on all Israelis to serve in it's service, moreover they're often first class citizens in courts etc. even ahead of Israeli Jews. Remarkable! Israel's free, democratic status should be held especially remarkable giving the fact of...

‘Israel will lose to a billion angry Muslims’ Sheikh Kamel Khatib, the deputy chairman of the Islamic Movement's northern Israel branch, says following Friday’s incident in which a pig’s head was thrown into a Tel Aviv mosque, “future holds an escalation of the rift beyond political boundaries. It may become a religious struggle emanating from the Israeli establishment and right-wing; Jews will find themselves facing not only five million angry Palestinians, but more than a billion angry Muslims all over the world By Ali Waked 8/21/05 Should the Israeli-Arab strife become more and more religious in nature, Israel and the...

WILL SUICIDE BOMBERS OBTAIN HEAVEN? Those who seek to terrorize others by killing themselves along with innocent people can never be assured of reaching Heaven. Among those in the Sacred Scriptures who committed suicide is Judas. And through the Word of God we know he lost his soul: “And Satan entered into Judas, who was surnamed Iscariot, one of the twelve” (Luke 22:3). “And he indeed hath possessed a field of the reward of iniquity, and being hanged (Judas hung himself), burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out....So that the field is called....’The field of blood‘”...

Shehzad Tanweer was the bright, Muslim son of a first-generation Pakistani immigrant into Britain. His father owned a fish-and-chips shop, and Shehzad, at 22, was a university student headed for a profession--the kind of story of immigrant assimilation that is so familiar in America. Instead, Tanweer became a murderer, killing himself and other fellow travelers in the morning rush hour on London's Underground.Muhammad Bouyeri, born in the Netherlands, shot Theo Van Gogh, a Dutch filmmaker and a descendant of the painter, six times while Van Gogh was bicycling in Amsterdam. Then he cut Van Gogh's throat and, with his knife,...

Is there something wrong with saying "You've gone too far"? It occurred to me this week, while observing a group of religious fanatics putting on a public demonstration of embarrassing, excessive religious behavior, that I would be considered way out of line if I told the fanatics to cut it out and calm down. Such is the equation of fanaticism with the genuine work of God, that I would be proving to my peers that I was totally insensitive to the Holy Spirit if I questioned the behavior of fanatics in any way. The American Heritage Dictionary defines a fanatic...

To their credit, Muslim organizations are swift to condemn each new terrorist attack. They also are quick to point out that fanatics are a tiny minority and account for only about 1 percent of Muslims worldwide. These are comforting thoughts unless you happen to be riding the bus with a constituent of that 1 percent. Or unless you're mathematically inclined, in which case you see that 1 percent of the world's estimated 1.2 billion Muslims is 12 million Muslim fanatics who consider the U.S. and other Westerners operatives of Satan. That's roughly the population of Ohio. If everyone in Ohio...

Last week, The Sun, a British tabloid, published a front-page photo of imprisoned former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in his underwear. Predictably, this became news and just as predictably, there were howls of protest that Saddam’s rights were violated and that the photos would further inflame anti-U.S. sentiment in the Middle East. A USA Today report on the incident suggested that the release of the photos “… were certain to offend Arab sensibilities and heap more scorn on an American image already tarnished. . . .” By contrast, a Fox News report indicated that The Sun said that the unidentified...

Islamist groups in Zanzibar are worried by what they see as increasingly inappropriate behaviour by Western tourists, saying their actions offend the Indian Ocean islands' conservative Muslim culture. The organisations are also concerned about the spread of bars on the islands off mainland Tanzania, whose beaches and coral reefs make it a haven for honeymooners. "Tourists should not indulge in sex acts or kiss openly, this is not something that people can accept," Farid Hadi, chairman of the Zanzibar Imams' Association (Jumaza), said on Wednesday. "Every society has norms to be respected. We want a law that stipulates that while...

The parents of Terri Schiavo/Schindler just made an impassioned appeal to Florida Governor Jeb Bush to save their dying daughter. Mrs. Schiavo was obviously tired and spoke in a restrained manner, but her husband, Robert, although looking terribly fatigued, used very strong language and placed much of the blame for his daughter's seven days of "torture" directly on Jeb Bush, blaming him for the inaction that is letting Terri be murdered by a "tyrannical" judiciary. Mr.Schindler says that the Governor has the power to end their ordeal with a "stroke of the pen" and if he had courage he would...

The Forbidden Side of Scientology By the Reverend Murray Luther, Feb 23, 2005 No Laughing Matter     One of the more curious paradoxes you'll find within Scientology organizations is how they deal with humor. L. Ron Hubbard must have had some degree of understanding on the subject, since as a writer of science fiction, he most certainly dealt with the elements of humor more than a few times. In his ten-volume sci-fi series Mission Earth he notes in the introduction, ". . . there is another aspect to science fiction: by its nature most of it has an element of...

The Forbidden Side of Scientology By the Reverend Murray Luther, Feb 15, 05 Organizational Delusions "I have always thought it was a most valuable trait to recognize reality and not to pursue delusions. But when I now think over my life up to and including the years of imprisonment, there was no period in which I was free of delusory notions."     That's a quote by Albert Speer, from his 1970 publication of his memoirs, Inside the Third Reich. It took him 20 years of reflection in Spandau prison to come to that unfortunate conclusion. Not only is his account...

The Forbidden Side of ScientologyBy the Reverend Murray Luther, Feb 9, 2005Kook Appeal        L. Ron Hubbard was never shy about discussing his version of the history of Earth-a scenario that falls somewhere between Star Wars and Star Trek. In a lecture he gave in November of 1959, Hubbard gave an out-of-this-world account of ancient Egypt, stating that at that time, Earth was under attack between two forces. One was the Space Command and one was the Martian Command. Although most Scientologists would avoid admitting it, they believe this completely and without reservation. Well trained Scientologists not only believe this, but...

The Forbidden Side of ScientologyBy the Reverend Murray Luther, Jan 28, 2005Religious Hard-Sell        A while back, I received a mailer from the Church of Scientology's Citizens Commission on Human Rights. The mailer offered, "You are invited to a CONFIDENTIAL closed-door Briefing and Dinner." I've been a Scientologist long enough to know that what they were really saying. Essentially, the message was "Come to our dinner and give us the opportunity to brow-beat you into giving us thousands of dollars."        L. Ron Hubbard describes this approach as "come-on promotion." The words confidential and closed-door are meant to induce, allure and attract...

The Forbidden Side of ScientologyBy the Reverend Murray Luther, Jan 24, 05Totalitarian Religion        In 2001, following the September 11 attacks, Church of Scientology Chairman of the Board David Miscavige promptly issued Inspector General Network Bulletin No. 44, titled "Wake-up Call." The Church's official position, although not exactly a denial of the facts, completely avoided one issue worth noting. Miscavige made absolutely no mention of the terrorists' radical religious extremism. I suspect that for most Scientologists, extremism is a concept that probably hits too uncomfortably close to home. Your average dedicated Scientologist, while able to perhaps recognize the dangers of suicide...

The Forbidden Side of Scientology By the Reverend Murray Luther, Jan 18, 2005 Unauthorized Correspondent for The Church of ScientologyIndoctrinated Tyranny    One of the first things a new Scientologist encounters when studying Dianetics and Scientology is the absolute authority of L. Ron Hubbard. There's a gradual indoctrination process that takes place in which the Scientologist eventually comes to the realization that everything Hubbard says is absolutely true and completely correct. Sooner or later every Scientologist arrives at a point where Hubbard's word becomes law, not to be questioned.     Every course begins with the same Hubbard Policy Letter, Keeping Scientology...

The Forbidden Side of Scientology By the Reverend Murray Luther, Jan 13, 2005 An Ex-Fanatic Speaks Out     This is the first entry in a series of reports and commentary on the ever controversial Church of Scientology. I've been a member for roughly thirty years, and as of this writing I still remain in good standing. I've received hundreds of hours of Scientology counseling, and have attained some of the highest spiritual levels that it offers. I've also done significant amounts of training in the delivery of Scientology counseling, as well as courses in the administration of Church management policies....

Thje mullahs are real nervious thus they stage more Armed basijis, women volunteers wearing black chadors, attend a rally by 100,000 paramilitary forces in a show of strength in the southern suburbs of the Iranian capital Tehran, on Wednesday Nov. 24, 2004. A member of Iran's basij militia force stands behind a Dushka anti-aircraft gun during a military parade south of Tehran November 24th, 2004. To the shouts of 'No compromise,' Iran's basij militia on Wednesday put on a show of strength in Tehran, one day before U.N. nuclear watchdog's meeting on Iran's atomic program. REUTERS/Raheb Homavandi Those who are...

Islam's Terrorist Dogma in Muhammed's Own Words Islam rises and falls on Muhammad. He is the religion's sole prophet, Islam’s solitary example, Allah’s lone conduit. Without Muhammad, Allah, the Qur’an, and Islam would be unknown. Yet the picture the Islamic scriptures paint of this man is not flattering; his words aren’t believable. According to the Qur’an and Hadith, Muhammad was a thief, rapist, and terrorist. It’s hardly the example you’d want your neighbor to emulate. Muhammad, Allah, Mecca, and the formation of Islam are completely unknown to secular history. All we know of them is derived from the Qur’an and...