http://wincoast.com/forum/ Area for discussion of global current events . en Tue, 07 Sep 2010 05:05:11 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.wincoast.com/forum/images/misc/rss.jpg http://wincoast.com/forum/ http://wincoast.com/forum/showthread.php?t=100263&goto=newpost Tue, 07 Sep 2010 04:13:08 GMT Enough of a Republican win to completely freeze up government from doing any further damage. Perhaps a Presidential win for them will also get health care repealed. Enough of a Republican win to completely freeze up government from doing any further damage. Perhaps a Presidential win for them will also get health care repealed. ]]> Phuct http://wincoast.com/forum/showthread.php?t=100263 http://wincoast.com/forum/showthread.php?t=100262&goto=newpost Tue, 07 Sep 2010 04:00:18 GMT The Left Keeps Losing Everywhere
9/6/10

Many conservatives look at their first chance to defeat the left in six years when nervous Democrats try to explain away Obama's disastrous leftward lurch. Not only is the left looking at a big defeat in America in two months, but it has been getting slobber-knocked all over the modern industrialized world.


Five months ago, in the British General Election, the Labour Party, which had been in power since the early 1990s, suffered a devastating defeat, losing 91 seats in the House of Commons. Although David Cameron's Conservative Party had to form a coalition with the yuppie-ish Liberal Party, Conservatives are still the senior party in this government, and Cameron resonates well with British voters.


Last September, Angela Merkel's Christian Democrat Party soundly trounced the Social Democrats, and the Christian Democrats' traditional coalition ally, the Free Democrats, gained enough support so that Merkel could end the "grand coalition" of her center-right party with the socialist SDP and form a more natural governing alliance with the Free Democrats.


In October 2008, shortly before Obama would win the White House, the Conservative Party in Canada substantially increased its strength in the Canadian Parliament. Stephen Harper almost gained enough votes to govern outright with no support from any of the other major parties. The "Grits," or Liberal Party, his principal ideological opponents, suffered massive losses (that party went from almost equality with the Conservative Party to having barely half as many seats as the Conservatives).


The Italian general elections in May 2008 produced a smashing defeat for the left. The coalition of parties on the right, led by Silvio Berlusconi, won a strong majority in the Chamber of Deputies and also a majority in the Senate. What was striking about this election was that Walter Veltroni, the atheist leader of the Democratic Party in Italy, was being openly touted as Europe's Barack Obama.


In May of 2007, Nicholas Sarkozy defeated the Socialist Royale handily, putting the most pro-American and least leftist president that France has had, maybe in the history of the Fourth Republic. National legislative elections (less important in France than in other nations) also produced a solid defeat of the left in France.


General elections over the last four years -- except for in America -- have been a long ragged retreat for parties of the left in Germany, France, Italy, and Canada. Now it seems like Australia may join that company of nations. Political party names in other democracies sometimes do not convey what the parties would represent in America. The Liberal Party in Australia, for example, would be our Republican Party.


Julia Gillard, the current Prime Minister of Australia, led her left-of-center Labor Party in the August 21, 2010 general election. Gillard led it, to be more exact, into one of the lowest points in its 119-year history. As of this moment, we do not know if Gillard will be able to cobble together out of a handful of independent members of the House of Representatives -- the three independents have announced that they will make their position known by September 6 -- but her minority government, if she pulls it off, will be one of the weakest in Australian political history. The three independents are fairly conservative and used to belong to the major conservative party. Gillard's Labor Party not only did worse than in prior elections, but they did worse than polls had predicted.


The left, it seems, is everywhere finding itself very unpopular. The leaders of the left seem tired and uninspiring. If Walter Veltroni, Gordon Brown, and Julia Gillard are the best that the left has to offer voters in major democracies, then the left is in big trouble. But that does not mean that conservatives are winning. It is also vital to remember that "right" and "left" in other countries should all be shifted a little portside in our frame of reference: a strong conservative in Australia or Italy would be a RINO in America.


But the de-legitimization of the left and its separation from governance are one half of a vital victory for freedom, and that half of the war is being won. What conservatives need now is a resonant message that inspires confidence and brings hope to a global electorate increasingly frustrated with politics as usual. The other half of victory -- conservative leaders like Reagan and Thatcher and armies of conservative foot soldiers who will follow those leaders -- is still unfinished business.


The collapse of the left makes November 2010 doubly important for conservatives. If Marco Rubio wins in Florida, can he lead us to complete victory in two years? How about Michele Bachmann, who wins elections in the same state which elected Al Franken? Eric Cantor, an articulate and conservative Orthodox Jew, might carry our banner in two years. Or perhaps Senator Fiorina, if she can beat Ms. Boxer in big left California, can carry our ideals to the White House.


No one, much, believes in the tall tales of the left anymore. We do not need to convince them that monstrosities like ObamaCare are a bad idea. We need to enter the political battles with something worth fighting for and worth winning for America. That is our challenge, and we better not fail.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/..._everywhe.html ]]> American_Jihad http://wincoast.com/forum/showthread.php?t=100262 http://wincoast.com/forum/showthread.php?t=100261&goto=newpost Tue, 07 Sep 2010 01:23:16 GMT I'm trying to decide if I should go or not...
the only way I am going is if I get a lil help.....?
I will need a few people to guard THE REAL PROTEST....?
It will start by me discussing on camera the fact that Judaism, Islam, and Christianity are ALL based on texts NOT written by "GOD"
(bc "GOD" does NOT write books...."GOD" instead gave us REALITY!

I could talk about how the "Unifying Theory of "GOD" states that whatever great unknown thing, deity, or process it was that led to the existence of humans and everything that exists is what I call "GOD"! In other words, "GOD" gave US OUR LIVES & EVERYTHING THAT EXISTS! But "GOD" did NOT give us ANY BOOKS because "GOD" doesn't write books! HUMANS WRITE BOOKS!
The reason a REALITY based definition of "GOD" is important is because it is the one and only principle definition of "GOD" that all humans should be able to agree on GLOBALLY!

Anyway I will then take a bible, a quran, and a torah or whatever that lame Jewish book is called...

I will VERBALLY ABUSE all 3...LOL.....just for Harry Mangina Reid!

I will spit on ALL 3!

I will wipe my arse (through my pants) with all 3!

It will be filmed for later use!

I will not do it without someone to guard me bc I have been to ground zero on 091102, 091103, 091104, 091106, 091107, & 091109..

I personally believe this 911 will be the WORST by far with respect to VIOLENCE! I want to get in and get out of the area very quickly....videotaping it then hauling ass..... Because mine eyes have seen that 091102 was like a respectful wake....people of all races and religions truly honored the victims and their families! But by 091109 it was like a riot....this year I'm betting TEAR GAS will be used! People will be pepper sprayed, tazed, clubbed, perhaps shot at? The Islamics will almost certainly stage some JIHADI bullshit via stabbing someone,or throw ACID in someone's face, bomb,or who knows what? we know they are crazy & common sense says some of them might have slipped through our porous borders....Anyway if I decide to go to NYC on 091110 I only want to prove a point...I do NOT want to get arrested! And I am considering going to PEACEFULLY prove a point regarding my RIGHTS AS AN AMERICAN CITIZEN! I do NOT want some Islamic fuckhead trying to stab me or something! And so if nobody has a ball sack to help then I am not going to desecrate all 3 major religions (which are based on texts NOT written by GOD) by myself! Why dear "GOD" is it that nobody else will take a stand for REALITY? I just might have to move....Outer Space is the only safe place I know of to get away from the non-reality based religious extremists! Or maybe Australia? 091110 could be a great day in history or a horrible day in history.... or even a mediocre day...I'm just sayin ]]> Dubya Gump http://wincoast.com/forum/showthread.php?t=100261 http://wincoast.com/forum/showthread.php?t=100260&goto=newpost Mon, 06 Sep 2010 21:09:09 GMT :happy_11: :happy_11: ]]> Dubya Gump http://wincoast.com/forum/showthread.php?t=100260 http://wincoast.com/forum/showthread.php?t=100259&goto=newpost Mon, 06 Sep 2010 21:06:14 GMT
"I promise you more cloward & piven pork"

Evaluating Obama's 'Second Stimulus' Proposals
9/6/10

As the job market and housing sector continue to suffer, the White House is seeking initiatives meant to re-stimulate the economy, following the first stimulus efforts of 2009. According to Time magazine, "most nonpartisan economists agree" that the first stimulus was successful in the short-term but did not go far enough. The "second stimulus" proposals are a $100 billion tax credit for businesses and $50 billion on infrastructure spending. Any such measures must still be improved by an increasingly partisan Congress that is expected to shift heavily Republican in November.

•Showing Economic Control For Midterm Elections The Washington Post's Anne Kornblut says the move comes "Under mounting pressure to intensify his focus on the economy ahead of the midterm elections." The measure is to be "paid for by closing other corporate tax loopholes ... This is not the first time Obama has called for making the credit permanent. But with the economic recovery moving more slowly than the administration had hoped - and Democratic candidates nationwide panicking as the issue threatens their majorities in the House and Senate on Nov. 2 - he is increasingly eager to show he understands the depth of the problem and is trying to act."

•About White House vs Republicans The Los Angeles Times' Christi Parsons writes, "Republicans oppose Obama's economic policy, making more sweeping proposals politically untenable for the Democratic president. Obama chose the Cuyahoga Community College as the site of his announcement partly to contrast his own plans with those of House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R- Ohio), who offered his own thoughts on the economy during a recent address nearby. Boehner stands to become Speaker of the House if the Democrats lose control of the chamber in November's congressional elections. Obama also intends to present listeners with a choice between his own ideas on the economy and the GOP's 'failed policies and failed philosophy,' White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer said."

•Infrastructure Spending Unlikely To Pass The Associated Press says of the "$50 billion in long-term investments in the nation's roads, railways and runways" planned by Obama, "The proposals would require congressional approval, which is highly uncertain at a time when many legislators and voters are worried about adding to federal deficits that are already sky-high. Even if lawmakers could pass a bill in the short window between their return to Capitol Hill in mid-September and the elections, it's unlikely the spending would give the economy a significant boost by the time voters head to the polls."

•Good For Obama Liberal blogger Matthew Yglesias approves. "I don’t think that presidential 'messaging' has much power to alter the outcome at the midterms, but that’s all the more reason the White House may as well propose ideas that make sense on the merits and then hope for the best," he writes. "It’s foolish for the White House to constrain itself to only proposing ideas congress is likely to approve. This new approach is the right way to go."

•How It Cold Pass Conservative blogger Ed Morrissey rejects the near-consensus that the spending has no chance of passing. "Don’t be too sure it won’t pass Congress before November. Transportation bills like this give Capitol Hill denizens plenty of opportunity to get pork for their home districts and states. In this election cycle, pork may be all Democrats can use as an argument for re-election. They certainly larded the first stimulus bill with plenty of home-town pork, and with $50 billion more in borrowed cash, don’t expect them to be shy the second time around."

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/opini...roposals-4928/ ]]> American_Jihad http://wincoast.com/forum/showthread.php?t=100259 http://wincoast.com/forum/showthread.php?t=100258&goto=newpost Mon, 06 Sep 2010 19:44:06 GMT *Obama’s Remarks at Labor Rally in Wisconsin* 9/6/10 Bla bla bla yada yada doo http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2010/09/06/obamas-remarks-at-labor-rally-in-wisconsin/ Image: http://img826.imageshack.us/img826/9241/seiumeeting01.jpg (http://img826.imageshack.us/i/seiumeeting01.jpg/) Obama’s Remarks at Labor Rally in Wisconsin
9/6/10

Bla bla bla yada yada doo

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2010/0...-in-wisconsin/

]]> American_Jihad http://wincoast.com/forum/showthread.php?t=100258 http://wincoast.com/forum/showthread.php?t=100257&goto=newpost Mon, 06 Sep 2010 18:30:47 GMT the last thing we need is these idiots getting indoctrinated by religious whackjobs the last thing we need is these idiots getting indoctrinated by religious whackjobs ]]> Dubya Gump http://wincoast.com/forum/showthread.php?t=100257 http://wincoast.com/forum/showthread.php?t=100256&goto=newpost Mon, 06 Sep 2010 18:10:49 GMT Converts to terror
September 2, 2010

Reporting on the terrorism trial now under way in fed eral district court in Man hattan is focusing on defense attorneys' "entrapment" claim. But to me, the more interesting question is how the four accused were radicalized to the point where they'd even consider plotting to bomb synagogues in The Bronx and shoot down aircraft with missiles.

What stands out is the prison connection.

All four defendants were former inmates. More important, all three imams at the mosque in Newburgh that the defendants attended after being released from prison had a connection with the prison system.

Imams Salahuddin Muhammad, Hamin Rashada and Melody Rashada worked for the Department of Correctional Services. All had been hired by Warith Deen Umar -- who for years headed ministerial services for the New York state prison system.

Umar stated in a 2003 Wall Street Journal interview that prisons were a prime place to recruit homegrown terrorists. As recently as last year, at an Islamic Society of North American convention, he made disparaging remarks about Israel and Jews in 2009. He's an an avowed Salafist.

The Wahabbi/Salafist sect of Islam adheres to a strict interpretation of the Koran and aims to restore the caliphate form of government, functioning under Sharia law. It views Jews and other groups of nonbelievers as infidels and enemies of Islam.

And it has been the dominant Islamic theology in the prison Muslim community for decades -- thanks to generous Saudi funding for literature and training for the chaplains. It's been so dominant that Shia Muslim inmates in New York filed a class-action lawsuit against the prison administrators, claiming religious persecution, threats and overt acts of intimidation by other Muslim inmates at the behest of the civil-service chaplains.

Several years ago, authorities recorded conversations of convicts in Imam Salahuddin Muhammad's congregation. One claimed that both the governor and the president of the United States were "Zionist puppets." Another called Jews "pigs and dogs."

Is it any wonder that one of the defendants, alleged ringleader James Cromitie, was recorded making anti-Semitic remarks and stating that he wanted to destroy the Jews, seeing them as enemies of Islam.

Where and when were these seeds of hatred planted -- and where was the prison chaplain when all this was going on?

In an interview with The New York Times after the arrest of the four suspects in May 2009, Imam Salahuddin Muhammad insisted he'd seen little evidence of radicalization in prison, claiming, "I don't hear any of that wild stuff," he said, "and if I did hear it, I would stomp it out. It's totally un-Islamic."

Yet, during his time as chaplain in the Fishkill State Prison, he hired several inmates with known radical Islamic ties as clerks in the chaplain's office. One was a Palestinian Hamas member; another was a Yemeni inmate with ties to the Lackawanna Six -- a US-grown terrorist cell that attended al Qaeda training camps in the Middle East. He even allowed the inmates to use his office phone to call the Middle East and North Africa.

One need only look at the amount of money from inmate funds that were sent to the Newburgh mosque over the years to see a well-established connection. Inmates from the chaplains' prison congregations have also sent thousands of dollars to pseudo-Islamic charities, such as the Holy Land Foundation and others, which in turn provided material support for terrorist organizations.

Radical Islamic recruitment in the prison system is a reality. Years of sowing seeds among a captive audience are bearing fruit.

It was no coincidence that the authorities focused on this particular congregation.

Patrick Dunleavy, a former dep uty inspector general of the state Department of Correctional Serv ices, spent more than 26 years working in law enforcement. As head of the Criminal Intelligence Division, he probed the radical Is lamic-recruitment movement in side and outside prison walls. A version of this article ran at inves tigativeproject.org.

http://www.nypost.com/f/print/news/o...gZxZDoVzcKdzaP ]]> American_Jihad http://wincoast.com/forum/showthread.php?t=100256 http://wincoast.com/forum/showthread.php?t=100255&goto=newpost Mon, 06 Sep 2010 18:09:58 GMT http://www.worldviewweekend.com/worl...pisodeid=17280

Brannon Howse: September 2, 2010
Topic One: "Mormonism, America's Islam" is a book written in 1912. What do Mormons and Muslims have in common? Similarities of Muhammad and Joseph Smith: - Visited by an angel. - Given visions. - Told that no true religion existed on the earth. - Was sent to restore the long lost faith as the one true religion. - A book produced from their teachings claimed to be “inspired by God.” - Each claimed to be illiterate or uneducated and used this as proof the book was inspired. - Each claimed the Bible was lost, altered, corrupted and unreliable. - Each claimed his new holy book was the most correct and perfect book on earth. - Each claimed to be a final prophet of God. - Each claimed he was persecuted because of his pure faith. - Was a polygamist who had many wives. - Immediately after his death a fight broke out from among the “faithful converts” as to who would succeed him. - Both religions have those who follow the “original doctrine” of the founding leaders and like these founding leaders, have been violent, polygamists, and have revelations justifying their evil actions. - Each has progressive revelation. (“New” revelation always replaces older revelation that became inconvenient to the prophet.)This list was compiled by Erick Barger. Here is the list compiled Ed Decker after his study of the two religions: Both belief systems teach that they have the only true and complete religion on face of the earth. Both reject Christianity as corrupted. Both taught the plurality of wives, both on earth and in here-after. Both teach that the Bible is corrupt and mistranslated. Both revealed God’s true scripture. Both reject original sin and the doctrine of the trinity. Both teach a salvation by good works. Both use a lay clergy. Both founded by a holy uneducated prophet. Both founding prophets had angelic visitations that they were to restore Adamic religion. Both prophets' words were above scripture or earlier prophets. Both teach a theocratic form of government. Both teach a here-after with graded rewards for works. Both claim to be the world’s fastest growing religion. Glenn Beck, a Mormon was able to get Christians to lock arms with Muslims in a spiritual endeavor that was looking to "one god". Topic Two: September 11, 1857, Mormons slaughter 120 men, women and children in the name of God and then years later the Mormons worked to build a Mormon memorial on the ground of the Mountain Meadow Massacre against the wishes of family members of the slain. On September 11, 2001, Islamic terrorists murdered American citizens in the name of God and now seek to build a memorial to their religion in the form of a Mosque only a stone throw from where the Twin Towers once stood. Topic Three: Hear the real story behind the Mormon War in Missouri in 1883. Topic Four: Biblically committed Christians must understand the spiritual deception of these last days and how Satan will move among false religions and cults to deceive Christians as well as non-Christians as he seeks to build his one-world religion. Satan is seeking to destroy Biblical Christianity for a humanistic Christianity. Satan wants to embarrass and compromise Christian pastors and leaders. Satan is seeking to infiltrate Bible based churches with false teaching and turn them toward his goal of pluralism in the name of tolerance and a social gospel. Satan will use that which has a form of godliness but denies the God of the Bible. Do not be shocked when most "Christians" do not see this and ridicule you. Topic Five: Southern Baptist leader Richard Land calls Mormonism the Fourth Abrahamic religion. Hey Richard, Mormonism does not believe in one god but millions of gods making them a polytheistic religion. The other three religions are monotheistic; meaning they only believe in one god. So how does that make Mormonism a fourth Abrahamic religion? Someone needs to send Land back to religion 101. But want do you really expect from a guy that sits on the Council for Foreign Relations, is pushing for Amnesty, sat on a commission to dialogue and build bridges to radical Muslims and the list could go on and on but we will stop here.
Download the MP3
Right click and select "Save Target As" ("Save Link As" in FireFox) ]]> purple unicorn http://wincoast.com/forum/showthread.php?t=100255 http://wincoast.com/forum/showthread.php?t=100254&goto=newpost Mon, 06 Sep 2010 17:39:56 GMT http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...WORDS=chaplain

* SEPTEMBER 4, 2010

A Chaplain and an Atheist Go to War


By MICHAEL M. PHILLIPS
[Chaplain] Michael M. Phillips/The Wall Street Journal

Religious Programs Specialist Philip Chute, left, keeps watch over Chaplain Terry Moran during patrol.

SANGIN, Afghanistan—They say there are no atheists in foxholes. There's one on the front lines here, though, and the chaplain isn't thrilled about it.

Navy Chaplain Terry Moran is steeped in the Bible and believes all of it. His assistant, Religious Programs Specialist 2nd Class Philip Chute, is steeped in the Bible and having none of it.

Together they roam this town in Taliban country, comforting the grunts while crossing swords with each other over everything from the power of angels to the wisdom of standing in clear view of enemy snipers. Lt. Moran, 48 years old, preaches about divine protection while 25-year-old RP2 Chute covers the chaplain's back and wishes he were more attentive to the dangers of the here and now.

It's a match made in, well, the Pentagon.

"He trusts God to keep him safe," says RP2 Chute. "And I'm here just in case that doesn't work out."
Prayer on Foot Patrol

View Slideshow
[SB10001424052748703946504575469971238198244]
Michael M. Phillips/The Wall Street Journal

Chaplain Terry Moran led a service for combat Marines in a bombed- out house in Sangin, Afghanistan.

* More photos and interactive graphics

The 460 Army, Navy and Air Force chaplains deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan are prohibited from carrying weapons, counting on their assistants and the troops around them for protection. It can be a perilous calling. On Monday, Chaplain Dale Goetz, 43, of White, S.D., and four other soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb near Kandahar. Capt. Goetz is the first Army chaplain killed in action since the Vietnam War.

Army chaplains represent 130 religions and denominations, including Catholicism, Judaism, Islam and Buddhism. The military says it's common for assistants to be of different faiths from the chaplains they support, or of no faith at all.

"They don't have to be religious," says retired Navy Capt. Randy Cash, who served 30 years in the Chaplain Corps and now is its historian. "They have to be able to shoot straight."

In the case of Chaplain Moran and RP2 Chute, their theological paths diverged long before their career paths joined. Terry Moran grew up in Spokane, Wash., a Seventh-Day Adventist, a denomination that believes the Sabbath should be on Saturday, not Sunday.

Though he admits to some youthful indiscretions and flirted briefly with the lure of dentistry, by the age of 15 he was feeling the pull of the ministry. A minister spoke at his high school and read a passage from the Book of Revelation: "Behold I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear My voice and open the door, I will come in to him and sup with him and he with Me."

In the audience, Lt. Moran "felt the spiritual become real." Two years later, in 1978, the same minister was back urging students to join the clergy. This time Lt. Moran took him up on it, becoming a student missionary in Indonesia, then studying theology at Walla Walla College. He preached at churches and counseled in hospitals. At the age of 39, just prior to the Sept. 11 attacks, he heard there was a shortage of Navy chaplains and signed up.
[chaplain]

After several noncombat jobs, he volunteered to minister to the Marine infantry, knowing that such an assignment would likely mean he'd end up in Iraq or Afghanistan. "I needed another deployment in order to stay competitive with my peers," he says.

He drew Third Battalion, Seventh Marine Regiment, a unit headed for Afghanistan's violent Helmand Province. The Marine Corps is a Naval service, and Navy chaplains minister to Marines.

Lt. Moran takes the Bible at its word, rejects the evolution of species and believes the Earth to be 6,000 years old. He carries a large Bible with him into the combat zone, while RP2 Chute totes writings of Richard Dawkins, the evolutionary biologist and fierce critic of the notion that God designed the universe.

Philip Chute was raised a devout Baptist in Nova Scotia and moved to Greenville, S.C., as a teen. His avid reading of the Bible, however, weakened his belief that fact lay behind faith. Soon he was a "full-blown atheist," he says.

He "wasted" a few years after graduating from high school, then joined the Navy. As a Canadian citizen at that time, he found the interesting career fields were closed to him, including his top choice of nuclear-submarine technician. (He became a U.S. citizen in 2009.)

Religious programs specialist sounded better than cook. He rose to the rank of RP2, the equivalent of an Army sergeant, and worked with three other chaplains before he was paired with Lt. Moran late last year.

Soon after they were assigned to work together, they had the inevitable discussion about RP2 Chute's beliefs.

At first the chaplain got the sense RP2 Chute was agnostic. "I can work with that," Lt. Moran recalls thinking.

But a few days later RP2 Chute dropped the A bomb: He was an atheist.

Appalled, Lt. Moran contacted his fellow chaplains. He says he was simply seeking counsel about whether atheists can really be chaplain's assistants. RP2 Chute is convinced Lt. Moran was trying to trade him in for a believer.

RP2 Chute was senior among Lt. Moran's possible assistants. More importantly, he already had two combat tours under his belt, while Lt. Moran hadn't yet seen a bullet fly. In the end, Lt. Moran says, he chose experience over faith.

"We're here for security," says RP2 Chute. "We're not junior chaplains."

The theological differences between Messrs. Moran and Chute have practical ramifications, though, visible during a recent foot patrol in Sangin, a farm town of 20,000 where the Musa Qala and Helmand rivers meet in the heart of Taliban country. The chaplain's aim was to link up with a platoon from Lima Co. that had been fighting for days and provide the Marines spiritual resupply.

Sangin is crisscrossed with irrigation ditches. At one wide canal, Marine engineers had erected a metal bridge to allow the troops to penetrate towards the Helmand River and slice through Taliban strongholds. The Taliban figured that out, though, and an insurgent sniper had recently wounded two Marines at the bridge.

It was a spot that made the Marines nervous.

"Hey, sir, don't get out of the vehicle until I lay down a sniper screen," Gunnery Sgt. Mark Shawhan, an agnostic with a suspicion of organized religion, instructed Chaplain Moran before the patrol. "That's where he's been getting us, and when you cross the bridge—RUN."

Lt. Moran wasn't troubled. "I believe the Lord is going to protect us," he said. But he wondered aloud whether to finish his Meal, Ready-to-Eat packaged lunch before heading to the armored vehicle.

Gunny Shawhan shook his head in disbelief.

When their turn came, the chaplain and his assistant bolted across the bridge and pivoted into a cornfield, where the minister stood upright. RP2 Chute shouted at Lt. Moran to get down. "Take a knee," he yelled.

The patrol zigzagged through fields and waded through ditches, the only sounds the rustling of corn leaves, the muted crackle of a radio and the distant thup-thup of a helicopter flying sentry above.

During a pause to allow the minesweepers to check for booby-traps on the path ahead, the chaplain, wearing his prescription eyeglasses instead of anti-shrapnel goggles, sat down on the bank of an irrigation ditch, dropped his backpack on the ground and snapped a few pictures. RP2 Chute grimaced when he noticed. Insurgents have seeded the entire town with powerful explosives, and Marines step in the exact footprints of the man ahead to minimize the risk.

Lt. Moran says he follows the Marines' safety instruction and wears a helmet, despite his confidence in the divine. But the way he glides blithely through battle is a constant source of worry for his assistant.

"All my training and experience doesn't always help when the man I'm protecting isn't afraid of being hurt," says RP2 Chute.

The patrol stopped at a bombed-out house, where the men from 2nd Platoon were camped out, their fingers black with dirt and faces etched with exhaustion. One Marine asked the chaplain if he'd offer a quick service.

Lt. Moran happily agreed and laid out napkin-sized squares of fabric decorated with the small red-and-blue handprints of children—"prayer squares" sent by a church in Louisa, Va. The children prayed over the fabric, the chaplain told the Marines. "You can put them on your head, and you'll know you've been prayed over," he said, flopping one onto his own head like a newspaper in the rain.

He laid out a selection of religious books: The New International Version of the Bible in desert camouflage. A book called Freedom from Fear. Two books promoted the protective powers of the 91st Psalm.

"Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday," the psalm tells believers. "A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee."

Lt. Moran told Bible stories about angels, but met with silence when he asked the Marines to relate their favorite angel stories. "Even now, where we are, I believe there are angels present," he said.

The chaplain tried to lead the men in a rousing rendition of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, but forgot the words after "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord," and had to resort to "lala-lala" to fill in the blanks.

But the men sang Amazing Grace enthusiastically and thanked the chaplain warmly for providing a few minutes of relief.

"Everybody made their deal with God before they came," said Lance Cpl. Justin Blaschke, a 21-year-old non-denominational Christian from Woodsboro, Texas.

RP2 Chute looked on, his impassiveness masking his disdain for talk of angels. "It's frustrating to listen to him tell people things I know not to be true, but I know it's not my place to get involved when people come to him for help," he said later.

There are times, however, when RP2 Chute feels he has to intervene and looses his own ample arsenal of biblical references, dredged up from his Baptist boyhood and doubting teenage years.

In August, the pair visited India Co. in dug-in positions on a ridge line overlooking the Helmand River. The company commander asked the chaplain to visit every foxhole. Lt. Moran did so, spending four hours in the mortar pit, fielding the Marines' questions about the End Times.

The chaplain was struck both by RP2 Chute's command of the Book of Revelation, and his refusal to take it seriously. "He's familiar with the Christian doctrine, but he chooses not to believe it," says the chaplain, a slender-faced, soft-spoken man with a fringe of gray in his black hair. "That's what I find puzzling."

On a visit to Kilo Co., a Marine asked for a biblical ruling on tattoos. Lt. Moran said the Book of Leviticus bans them. RP2 Chute disagreed. Leviticus, he said, says people shouldn't get tattoos to mourn the dead.

"I don't believe as Chaplain Moran believes," RP2 Chute often tells the Marines during these visits.

At the end of the foot patrol in Sangin, the Marines sprinted back over the metal bridge and jumped into the armored vehicles that waited on the far side. Lt. Moran crossed and then stood for many long seconds in the open, clearly visible from the compounds where the Marines suspected the insurgent sniper had his nest.

On the near side of the bridge, Gunny Shawhan got out of his own vehicle to yell at the chaplain to take cover, but Lt. Moran didn't seem to hear over the noise of the engines. "Tell the [expletive] chaplain to get behind the goddamn vehicle," Gunny Shawhan yelled into the radio.

"Like bullets aren't going to kill the goddamn chaplain," he muttered to the men near him.

RP2 Chute hustled Lt. Moran to safety behind the armor plating.

Later, Lt. Moran explained that he had been unsure which vehicle he was supposed to ride in. But his serenity had a deeper explanation.

"No matter what situation you find yourself in on planet Earth, God will protect you," he said after the patrol returned safely to base. "All He asks is that you trust and believe what He says. So, if I find myself in a combat situation, His promise of protection is still valid."

Write to Michael M. Phillips at michael.phillips@wsj.com ]]> purple unicorn http://wincoast.com/forum/showthread.php?t=100254 http://wincoast.com/forum/showthread.php?t=100253&goto=newpost Mon, 06 Sep 2010 17:39:14 GMT http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...090202938.html

Tourists: Take some tips from an always photo-ready first lady
Gallery
A Fashionable First Tourist
Michelle Obama's wardrobe from her vacation this summer provided us all with a high-profile lesson on how to be a well-dressed tourist, says Washington Post fashion critic Robin Givhan.

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By Robin Givhan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 2, 2010; 12:37 PM

First lady Michelle Obama returned to the White House last week after spending her summer vacation walking the fine fashion line between comfortably casual and utterly camera-ready. Her travel attire served as a wake-up call to all those American tourists who have blighted the national landscape with their ill-fitting shorts, sad-sack T-shirts and aggressively revealing tank tops: You can do better.

More than her cocktail dresses, evening gowns and the rest of her official wardrobe, which all draw boisterous analysis, Obama's vacation clothes are positioned to have the most widespread impact. Please, let it be so.

In a society where public attire has grown increasingly pajama-fied, the first lady offered proof that informal doesn't mean sloppy and pulled-together doesn't have to be stuffy.

The summertime challenge for the 46-year-old, athletic first lady and mother of two tweens was balancing the wardrobe requirements for biking, miniature golfing and beach lounging with the fact that all those images would be logged into the historical record. She could not remain placidly at rest while her children played hard. "Let's move," after all, is her battle cry. Still, she is the first lady. Vacation or not, public trip or private visit, with a security detail and local cops on call, she remains in the spotlight.

After all the criticizing that was done in this column over her unfortunate summer 2009 decision to disembark from Air Force One wearing mid-thigh hiking shorts for strolling -- not hiking, not rappelling, not running -- the Grand Canyon, it seems only fair to take note of this summer's wardrobe, which struck all the right chords.

Obama spent her month-long holiday wearing a mix of unfussy sundresses, feminine tank tops and sporty pedal pushers. For all the inferences read into the first couple's vacation destinations, from Panama City Beach, Fla. -- The beaches are safe! -- to Martha's Vineyard -- Isn't this where all the Democratic presidents go? -- there was also a take-away message from the first lady's wardrobe. Through her vacation apparel, with its mix of Banana Republic and Narciso Rodriguez, Obama threw down the gauntlet, providing folks with a high-profile lesson on how to be a well-dressed tourist who does not cause the locals to flinch in dismay. Yet she still managed to convey a middle-of-the-road Americanness. She represented the populace in a manner that was approachable but savvy.
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In the most prominent photograph from her trip to Spain, she was wearing a black and white one-shoulder top by designer Jean Paul Gaultier. Certainly, Gaultier doesn't come cheap, but the blouse wasn't ostentatious and, paired with black trousers, it was a fine example of how to be bare without baring all. During a game of miniature golf, she wore a Banana Republic tank top -- mass market but with a sophisticated sensibility. For dinners out with the president in Martha's Vineyard, she tucked black leggings under a Duro Olowu patchwork tunic, and she wore Rodriguez's black and white summer dress with a cropped black cardigan.

Nothing about her choices was particularly avant-garde. They weren't scorchingly highfalutin in their style. If one tried to dissect the selections as evidence of some political intent, the single most applicable word would be "global." Creativity is not limited by borders. With the Rodriguez dress, she again brought attention to classic American silhouettes. In Gaultier, she heralded a Frenchman known for his interest in outsiders, immigrant cultures and the unique beauty found in a multitude of ethnic backgrounds. And Olowu is a Nigerian-born designer now based in London. He is the rare prominent black designer with his name on his own label.

Obama also tapped into a fantasy that the fashion industry has been desperately selling for years. Designers have long imagined a world in which women and men are thoughtfully polished and even chic as they go about their daily activities. Stylists constantly counsel clients to keep aesthetics in mind, as well as comfort, when they choose their weekend wear. In fashion-land, no one ever wears skimpy jogging shorts when they bike; they wear charming clam diggers. They don't wear lumpy basketball shoes, instead they choose laceless, retro sneakers. The images of Obama cycling along the paths of Martha's Vineyard called these fantasies to mind. She proved that they can be made real. She reassured designers that no, they are not off their rocker. American vacation sloppiness is not inevitable; it's willful.

Of course, most women don't have the pressure of being constantly trailed by photographers to push them to take an extra peek in the mirror before heading out. They are not chauffeured hither and yon in a motorcade. No matter how hot the day, one never seems to see a giant sweat stain spreading across the first lady's back as she waves to a crowd. Is the atmosphere inside the security bubble magically air-conditioned? (One hopes average Janes are lucky enough, like the first lady, to have a gallant partner or friend who will helpfully hoist an umbrella up and over all obstacles to prevent them from getting soaked in a downpour. See POTUS: New Orleans.)

Unlike the first lady, everyday tourists are not the center of attention. Still, when regular folks travel abroad, they represent both themselves and the collective American identity. Must we continue to be perceived as the most poorly dressed of all tourists? And for those who remain in the States during the final long weekend of the summer, as you visit national parks and local beaches, remember: We are all part of the landscape. We are part of the postcard image, the memory that's tucked into a scrapbook. We should do our best not to mar this country's natural beauty. ]]> purple unicorn http://wincoast.com/forum/showthread.php?t=100253 http://wincoast.com/forum/showthread.php?t=100252&goto=newpost Mon, 06 Sep 2010 17:38:25 GMT http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/02/AR2010090203992.html?nav=emailpage The spoiled-brat American electorate By Eugene Robinson Friday, September 3, 2010 According to polls, Americans are in a mood to hold their breath until they turn blue. Voters appear to be... http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...?nav=emailpage

The spoiled-brat American electorate

By Eugene Robinson
Friday, September 3, 2010

According to polls, Americans are in a mood to hold their breath until they turn blue. Voters appear to be so fed up with the Democrats that they're ready to toss them out in favor of the Republicans -- for whom, according to those same polls, the nation has even greater contempt. This isn't an "electoral wave," it's a temper tantrum.

It's bad enough that the Democratic Party's "favorable" rating has fallen to an abysmal 33 percent, according to a recent NBC-Wall Street Journal poll. It's worse that the Republican Party's favorability has plunged to just 24 percent. But incredibly, according to Gallup, registered voters say they intend to vote for Republicans over Democrats by an astounding 10-point margin. Respected analysts reckon that the GOP has a chance of gaining 45 to 60 seats in the House, which would bring Minority Leader John Boehner into the speaker's office.

My guess is that with a decided advantage in campaign funds, along with the other advantages of incumbency, Democrats will be able to mitigate these prospective losses -- perhaps even relieving Nancy Pelosi of the hassles of moving. But there's no mistaking the public mood, and the truth is that it makes no sense.

In the punditry business, it's considered bad form to question the essential wisdom of the American people. But at this point, it's impossible to ignore the obvious: The American people are acting like a bunch of spoiled brats.

This is not, I repeat not, a partisan argument. My own political leanings are well-known, but the refusal of Americans to look seriously at the nation's situation -- and its prospects -- is an equal-opportunity scourge. Republicans got the back of the electorate's hand in 2006 and 2008; Democrats will feel the sting this November. By 2012, it will probably be the GOP's turn to get slapped around again.

The nation demands the impossible: quick, painless solutions to long-term, structural problems. While they're running for office, politicians of both parties encourage this kind of magical thinking. When they get into office, they're forced to try to explain that things aren't quite so simple -- that restructuring our economy, renewing the nation's increasingly rickety infrastructure, reforming an unsustainable system of entitlements, redefining America's position in the world and all the other massive challenges that face the country are going to require years of effort. But the American people don't want to hear any of this. They want somebody to make it all better. Now.

President Obama can point to any number of occasions on which he has told Americans that getting our nation back on track is a long-range project. But his campaign stump speech ended with the exhortation, "Let's go change the world" -- not, "Let's go change the world slowly and incrementally, waiting years before we see the fruits of our labor."
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And one thing he really hasn't done is frame the hard work that lies ahead as a national crusade that will require a degree of sacrifice from every one of us. It's obvious, for example, that the solution to our economic woes is not just to reinflate the housing bubble. New foundations have to be laid for a 21st-century economy, starting with weaning the nation off of its dependence on fossil fuels, which means there will have to be an increase in the price of oil. I don't want to pay more to fill my gas tank, but I know that it would be good for the nation if I did.

The richest Americans need to pay higher taxes -- not because they're bad people who deserve to be punished but because they earn a much bigger share of the nation's income and hold a bigger share of its overall wealth. If they don't pay more, there won't be enough revenue to maintain, much less improve, the kind of infrastructure that fosters economic growth. Think of what the interstate highway system has meant to this country. Now imagine trying to build it today.

Fixing Social Security for future generations, working steadily to improve the schools, charting a reasonable path on immigration -- none of this is what the American people want to hear. They're in the market for quick and easy solutions that won't hurt a bit. It's easy to blame politicians for selling a bunch of snake oil. But the truth is that all they're doing is offering what the public wants to buy.

eugenerobinson@washpost.com



http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/...led_brats.html



September 06, 2010
Just Spoiled Brats?
Henry Percy
A recent opinion piece by Eugene Robinson perfectly illustrates the hauteur, the contempt with which the elites survey the majority of us: "The American people are acting like a bunch of spoiled brats ... in a mood to hold their breath until they turn blue." Yes, "the nation demands the impossible: quick, painless solutions." Ah, the pesky, petulant electorate. Here we are, 19 months into the hoped-for change, trillions of dollars spent on stimuli, on bailouts, on government takeovers of businesses, pedal to the metal in President Obama's mad race to socialist nirvana, and all the public wants is for him to take us there-faster! Are we there yet, Daddy? How much longer now? When do we get there?

Can it really be but a year and a half since Mr. Robinson was dancing on the grave of the GOP, the demise of the party brought on by its "drunken-sailorish spending during most of George W. Bush's time in the White House" ("Obama's Mandate Could End the GOP"). That bit of gloating was followed in his next column with this stern advice: "Obama and the Democrats have public opinion on their side and the wolf at the door. Republicans need to get out of the way-or get run over." Then the majority that elected Barack Obama rode tall in the saddle, their will not to be gainsaid. Now the majority are vilified as small children-worse, "spoiled brats." What high regard you harbor for your countrymen, Mr. Robinson, what penetrating insight you bring to the punditry game.

Mr. Obama's only fault, mooted oh so gently, was not to "frame the hard work that lies ahead as a national crusade that will require a degree of sacrifice from every one of us." Crusade, Mr. Robinson? Crusade? Doesn't the Washington Post's style manual forbid use of that word, so hurtful to the sensitivities of Muslims worldwide? But on to your point: we understand perfectly well the "degree of sacrifice" we are being forced to bear, watching our health insurance premiums rise to pay for the "free" care that Obamacare is so generously spreading around, listening to the Democrats plan on budget deficits of $1.5 trillion per year as far as the eye can see, witnessing the takeover of GM and Chrysler to make whole the unions, and so on, ad nauseam. We can see all too clearly that these sacrifices are not being borne by "every one of us": the unions are getting preferential treatment under Obamacare, the citizens of Nebraska and Florida are not bearing the same burden of Obamacare as are those of the other 48 states are. And the beat goes on.

Mr. Robinson's peroration ends with that old rhetorical standby, the triad: "Fixing Social Security, working steadily to improve the schools, charting a reasonable path on immigration-none of this is what the American people want to hear." So those are the three items at the top of the Obama Administration's fix list? Who knew? If "fixing Social Security" is a priority, they're being awfully quiet about it.

As for "improving the schools," hasn't every president blathered about that for the past half century? Their solution has always been to spend more money on the schools as they continue to slide downhill: spending per pupil on education in America, after inflation, tripled between 1960 and 2000, we spend way more than the rest of the industrialized world, and still the Left's tired refrain is that education is underfunded. Now we learn that Americans are "in the market for quick and easy solutions that won't hurt a bit." Well, that particular solution has been anything but quick and easy, while it has hurt quite a bit.

And a "reasonable path on immigration"? President Obama's latest effort on the "reasonable path" is to drop deportation proceedings against thousands of illegals. We do want a "reasonable path on immigration"-- show us one. We're waiting.

So no, Mr. Robinson, we are not just "spoiled brats" threatening to hold our breath. The ad hominem attack is the fall-back position of the intellectually lazy, of those who have no arguments at all. Is the Left incapable of mounting a reasoned argument? Their modus operandi is that of the shyster lawyer: If you don't have the facts, argue the law. If you don't have the law, argue the facts. If you don't have either, attack your opponent.

Henry Percy is the nom de guerre for a technical writer living in Arizona. He may be reached at saler.50d@gmail.com. ]]> purple unicorn http://wincoast.com/forum/showthread.php?t=100252 http://wincoast.com/forum/showthread.php?t=100251&goto=newpost Mon, 06 Sep 2010 17:37:25 GMT http://www.jpost.com/ArtsAndCulture/...medium=twitter


Condoleezza Rice reveals chaos following 9/11 attacks
By JPOST.COM STAFF
09/06/2010 17:53

Ex-US national security adviser describes confusion, communication failures experienced by Bush administration on deadly day in British documentary.


Former US national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said that she had to yell at then President George Bush not to return to the White House, a potential terrorist target, following the 9/11 attacks, The Daily Mirror reported on Monday. Rice's comments came in a documentary film entitled 9/11: State of Emergency, which is scheduled to air on British television on Saturday, the nine year anniversary of the deadly attacks.

According to Rice, Bush insisted on returning to Washington from Florida following the attacks, prompting her to order him away from the White House.

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"I said, 'You cannot come back here. The United States of America is under attack, you have to go to safety. We don't know what is going on here.' He said, 'I'm coming back.' I said in a raised voice, and I had never raised my voice to the President before, I said, 'You cannot come back here.' I hung up."

Rice also discussed a bunker beneath the White House which "non-essential" people were forced to leave in the aftermath of the attacks because of overcrowding.

"There were so many people the oxygen levels started dropping and the secret service came in telling people they weren't essential and to leave."

Rice discussed the chaos and fear created by communications failures following the attacks. Bush gave an order commanding the air force to shoot down commercial airliners not responding to instructions. When flight United 93 crashed in rural Pennsylvania after passengers succeeded in wresting control of the plane from terrorists, Rice and her colleagues believed the air force may have shot it out of the sky. ]]> purple unicorn http://wincoast.com/forum/showthread.php?t=100251 http://wincoast.com/forum/showthread.php?t=100250&goto=newpost Mon, 06 Sep 2010 17:36:55 GMT http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...hjZJQD9I2ALSO0

Afghans protest US church's plans to burn Quran

By RAHIM FAIEZ (AP) – 8 hours ago

KABUL, Afghanistan — Hundreds of Afghans railed against the United States and called for President Barack Obama's death at a rally in the capital Monday to denounce an American church's plans to burn the Islamic holy book on 9/11.

The crowd in Kabul, numbering as many as 500, chanted "Long live Islam" and "Death to America" as they listened to fiery speeches from members of parliament, provincial council deputies, and Islamic clerics who criticized the U.S. and demanded the withdrawal of foreign troops from the country. Some threw rocks when a U.S. military convoy passed, but speakers shouted at them to stop and told police to arrest anyone who disobeyed.

The Gainesville, Florida-based Dove World Outreach Center announced plans to burn copies of the Quran on church grounds to mark the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, but has been denied a permit to set a bonfire. The church, which made headlines last year after distributing T-shirts that said "Islam is of the Devil," has vowed to proceed with the burning.

"We know this is not just the decision of a church. It is the decision of the president and the entire United States," said Abdul Shakoor, an 18-year-old high school student who said he joined the protest after hearing neighborhood gossip about the Quran burning.

The U.S. Embassy in Kabul issued a statement condemning Dove World Outreach Center's plans, saying Washington was "deeply concerned about deliberate attempts to offend members of religious or ethnic groups."

Protesters, who gathered in front of western Kabul's Milad ul-Nabi mosque, raised placards and flags emblazoned with slogans calling for the death of Obama, while police looked on. They also held up a cardboard effigy of Dove World Outreach Center's pastor Terry Jones.

Muslims consider the Quran to be the word of God and demand that it, along with any printed material containing its verses or the name of Allah or the Prophet Muhammad, be treated with the utmost respect. Any intentional damage or show of disrespect to the Quran is considered deeply offensive.

In 2005, 15 people died and scores were wounded in riots in Afghanistan sparked by a story in Newsweek magazine alleging that interrogators at the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay placed copies of the Quran in washrooms and had flushed one down the toilet to get inmates to talk. Newsweek later retracted the story.

Also Monday, NATO said an American service member was killed in fighting in the country's turbulent east on Sunday.

No other details were given in accordance with standard procedure. The death was the fifth among U.S. troops in Afghanistan in September, following the deaths of more than 220 American troops over the past three months.

This year is already the bloodiest for American forces in Afghanistan since the 2001 invasion, with at least 321 killed so far.

Violence is increasing with the infusion of 30,000 additional U.S. troops that brings the total number of foreign forces in Afghanistan to more than 140,000. Stepped-up operations ahead of next week's parliamentary elections and an ongoing campaign to drive the Taliban from its southern strongholds are also boosting the numbers of dead and wounded.

Taliban insurgents on Sunday vowed to attack polling places during the Sept. 18 vote and warned Afghans not to participate in what it called a sham election. The insurgency aims to topple the government in Kabul and drive foreign troops from the country, and has boycotted or tried to sabotage all aspects of the political process.

Taliban threats and intimidation drove down voter turnout in last year's fraud-marred presidential election, especially in rural areas where security is harder to ensure, and many Afghans this time say they won't vote for fear of attacks.

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.


http://www.voanews.com/english/news/...102250384.html

Indonesian Muslims Protest Plans to Burn Koran on September 11

Sara Schonhardt | Jakarta 05 September 2010
A group of Indonesian demonstrators belonging to the Hizbut Tahrir, an Islamist organization, rally outside the US embassy in Jakarta on 4 Sept 2010.
Photo: AFP

A group of Indonesian demonstrators belonging to the Hizbut Tahrir, an Islamist organization, rally outside the US embassy in Jakarta on 4 Sept 2010.

Thousands of mostly Muslim protesters rallied around Indonesia Saturday in opposition to an American church's plan to burn copies of the Koran on September 11.

During the weekend rallies in Indonesia, cities protested an event planned by a small Florida church to mark the ninth anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks in the United States.

Religious leaders of all denominations have condemned the plan by the Dove World Outreach center in Gainesville, Florida, whose pastor, Terry Jones, has written a book called Islam is of the Devil. The phrase also appears on t-shirts and a Facebook page promoting the event at the church estimated to have about 50 members.

The chairman of the Islamic group Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia that planned the protests, Rokhmat Labib, says the plan to burn the Islamic holy book is a provocation.

He says if the event happens Muslims will certainly fight back, and he cannot predict what form the retaliation will take.

Relations between Christians and Muslims are generally peaceful in secular Indonesia. But in recent months hardline groups have staged attacks against churches, stirring concerns of escalating conflict that would damage relations between Christians and Muslims in the world's most populous Muslim nation.

The Pluralism Care Movement, a group comprising interfaith organizations and representatives from moderate Christian and Muslim centers, has called for the U.S. government to prevent the burning. It says the reaction from Indonesia should be one that shows the country's tolerance for religious differences.

Labib sees it differently. He says Muslims must not stay silent when their faith is threatened.

He says Hizbut Tahrir does not accept the argument that the reason for burning the Koran is because it is the source of Islamist violence.

Labib says Muslims do not have any problem with Christians as long as they do not spread their beliefs in Muslim areas. And since Muslims are not forcing their beliefs on Christians, he says there is no reason why they should feel threatened. ]]> purple unicorn http://wincoast.com/forum/showthread.php?t=100250 http://wincoast.com/forum/showthread.php?t=100249&goto=newpost Mon, 06 Sep 2010 17:34:36 GMT http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la...0,719678.story

Los Angeles school named after Al Gore
He's the first vice president to have an L.A. school named after him, sharing the honor with author Rachel Carson. Fittingly, the campus will be devoted to environmental themes. But there's a catch.
A campus' green theme

First-grade teacher Yolanda Alcala, left, and plant manager Gary Cabiness bring in supplies to the new Carson-Gore Academy of Environmental Sciences, scheduled to open Sept. 13. The campus was built atop contaminated land. (Irfan Khan, Los Angeles Times / September 6, 2010)

By Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times

September 5, 2010



Al Gore has had some tough breaks — like losing the presidency after getting more votes than the other guy — but the noted environmentalist achieved a singular honor last week, becoming the first vice president to have a Los Angeles school named after him.

And, fittingly, the school will be devoted to environmental themes.

But as in the 2000 election, there's a catch. Critics say the campus' location poses a long-term health risk to students and staff.

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School district officials insist that the Arlington Heights property is clean and safe. And they've pledged to check vapor monitors and groundwater wells to make sure.

The $75.5-million Carson-Gore Academy of Environmental Sciences will open Sept. 13 for about 675 students. As he was with Bill Clinton (who has an L.A. middle school named after him), Gore is second on the ticket to Rachel Carson, the late author credited with helping launch the modern environmental movement.

"Renaming this terribly contaminated school after famous environmental advocates is an affront to the great work that these individuals have done to protect the public's health from harm," an environmental coalition wrote in a letter to the Los Angeles Unified School District. Making sure the school is safe "would be an even better way to honor their contribution to society."

Construction crews were working at the campus up to the Labor Day weekend, replacing toxic soil with clean fill. All told, workers removed dirt from two 3,800-square-foot plots to a depth of 45 feet, space enough to hold a four-story building. The soil had contained more than a dozen underground storage tanks serving light industrial businesses.

Additional contamination may have come from the underground tanks of an adjacent gas station. A barrier will stretch 45 feet down from ground level to limit future possible fuel leakage.

An oil well operates across the street, but officials said they've found no associated risks. Like many local campuses, this school also sits above an oil field, but no oil field-related methane has been detected.

Groundwater about 45 feet below the surface remains contaminated but also poses no risk, officials said.

Because the district imported clean dirt, the school is probably safe at the moment, said Jane Williams, executive director of the Kern County-based California Communities Against Toxics. But she and other critics, including Robina Suwol, who heads the locally based California Safe Schools coalition, worry that the pollution sources have not been adequately identified and that the dirty groundwater could recontaminate the soil.

Everything's under control after the $4-million cleanup, said John Sterritt, the school system's chief safety officer.

"There's no doubt in my mind that the site is safe, and if there are any changes, our monitoring or our existing processes will detect it and we'll react to that," Sterritt said. "We really go out of our way to make sure these properties are safe."

Officials contend the district has made huge strides since environmental concerns stalled the Belmont Learning Complex, which has since opened as the Roybal Learning Center. In addition, new schools now fall under the review of the state Department of Toxic Substances Control.

In the spring, a school-naming committee received six options, including Pete Seeger Community School. A representative from school board member Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte suggested that the folk singer's "affiliation with the Communist Party," among other factors, made that choice inappropriate, two in attendance recalled.

Three meetings later, the consensus was Carson-Gore.

At last week's school board meeting, district officials said Gore had never been contacted regarding the naming or the contamination concerns. Board member Nury Martinez speculated that, under the circumstances, Gore might decline the honor.

But school Principal Kurt Lowry pointed out that no one obtained Barack Obama's permission before naming a middle school (also opening this fall) after the president. Lowry intends to invite Gore and members of Carson's family to the school's October ribbon-cutting.

Gore is on vacation and unreachable, said spokesman Mike Feldman. But his staff is not aware of another school named after the former vice president, who raised awareness about global warming in the film "An Inconvenient Truth."

Lowry said the school's environmental emphasis will do Gore proud, including recycling projects and research and beach cleanups. Cross-curriculum efforts will include environmental speeches and presentations in English, topsoil measurements in math and climate study in science.

The principal also envisions an organic garden that could produce a student-led farmer's market.

Suwol said Lowry sounds "incredibly wonderful," but added that she'd feel better if the vegetables were grown in planters above the ground.

howard.blume@latimes.com

Copyright © 2010, Los Angeles Times ]]> purple unicorn http://wincoast.com/forum/showthread.php?t=100249