"The clash between us and them is not a military clash. ... It is a cultural one, a religious one. ... The worst is still to come." ~ Oriana Fallaci; Truth fanatic. __________________ "Do unto Islam as Islam would do unto you." ~ Frank Laughter; Freedom fanatic. __________________ "It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it." ~ Gen. Douglas MacArthur; Victory fanatic. __________________ "We will never have peace until they love their children more than they hate us." ~ Golda Meir; Peace fanatic, Israeli PM, 1969-74 __________________
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Libertarianism -- Adolescent rebellion in nominal grown-ups is called libertarianism. ... You [They] don't know it yet, but human freedom died a couple of centuries ago when the government started carrying the mail.
. . . . Rick Darby, Reflecting Light

Video Of Dramatic Rescue

|   Sat, Jul 05, 2008 : 12:11 pm e   |   Frank :: News & Politics   |  

Video shows orderly hostage rescue become celebration

The 3½-minute video was shot by Colombian soldiers posing as a media crew during Wednesday’s operation. It was shown at Colombia’s military headquarters Friday.

It begins with the hostages being led across a field, heads bowed and their wrists in the plastic banding commonly used as handcuffs.

One of the Colombian hostages approached the camera. “I have been imprisoned for 10 years,” he said. “I am Lt. Malagon with the Colombian army. I have been here in captivity.”

[...]

The videotape does not include the moment when the two real FARC members aboard the helicopter were taken into custody, because the cameraman participated in that effort, Montoya said.

[...] Read the whole thing….

Related CNN story here »

Semper Fi, Carry On

|   Sat, Jul 05, 2008 : 11:10 am e   |   Frank :: News & Politics   |  

PLANTATION, Fla. — The family of one of the men who was shot by a retired United States Marine while they attempted to rob a Subway sandwich shop said the customer shouldn’t have pulled the trigger.

According to Plantation police, two armed men barged into the Subway at 1949 Pine Island Road shortly after 11 p.m. Wednesday, demanding money from the employee behind the counter. When they tried to force John Lovell into the bathroom, he pulled out a gun and shot both men, police said.

Donicio Arrindell, 22, was shot in the head and later died at the hospital. Fredrick Gadson, 21, was shot in the chest and ran from the Subway, but police found him in hiding in some bushes on the property of a nearby BankAtlantic.

[...] Read the whole thing….

But also see Morgan Freeberg’s reaction. He says what I had in mind but sorts it out better.

Is It Naivety Or Gullibility?

|   Sat, Jul 05, 2008 : 9:22 am e   |   Frank :: News & Politics   |  

This is the dumbest piece of crap I’ve read this year.

Bob Owens says “Don’t Hammer Obama for ‘Refining’ Iraq Stance” because the Obama flip-flop will benefit both countries.

By that logic we shouldn’t hammer him for flip-flopping on other issues either. After all, for anybody to the right of Ted Kennedy, any refinement Obama makes to his early campaign platform can be considered a plus for America; even though none of those refined promises will ever be considered in an Obama controlled White House.

I don’t know where Owens stands politically but he’s either dumber than dirt or he thinks his GOP readers are complete airheads.

Jesse Helms, R.I.P.

|   Fri, Jul 04, 2008 : 11:12 am e   |   Frank :: News & Politics   |  

The most stalwart (as in uncompromising) conservative to ever serve in the U.S. Senate.

Jesse Helms joins John Adams and Thomas Jefferson who also died on July 4th. Adams and Jefferson died in 1826.

Story in the Charlotte Observer

The best Jesse Helms online eulogy, Debbie Schlussel

Happy Birthday America

|   Fri, Jul 04, 2008 : 7:36 am e   |   Frank :: News & Politics   |  

“You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness. You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism.”
. . . . Erma Bombeck

“In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved.”
. . . . Franklin D. Roosevelt

“We on this continent should never forget that men first crossed the Atlantic not to find soil for their ploughs but to secure liberty for their souls.”
. . . . Robert J. McCracken

“Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.”
. . . . George Bernard Shaw

“My God! How little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of, and which no other people on earth enjoy!”
. . . . Thomas Jefferson

“Freedom is the oxygen of the soul.”
. . . . Moshe Dayan

Do Obama Worshipers Dig It?

|   Fri, Jul 04, 2008 : 7:32 am e   |   Frank :: News & Politics   |  

Barack Obama’s unsavory associations with Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn.

“Guilty as sin, free as a bird.”

h/t: American Thinker

Reminiscent Of WW II

|   Thu, Jul 03, 2008 : 4:29 pm e   |   Frank :: News & Politics   |  

In an effort that reminds old timers like me of how American industry can get it done when they put the pedal to the metal, the DOD has announced that the 10,000th MRAP has been delivered. This is a great 4th of July present to American warfighters. Hrrrggghhh!

The rapid response by the Department of Defense to protect the warfighters reached a major milestone today when the 10,000th Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle rolled off the assembly line and into government hands.

In February 2008 the MRAP program office, headed by Marine Corps Systems Command, recorded its 5,000th MRAP vehicle acceptance. That milestone was reached less than a year after the Secretary of Defense Robert Gates made MRAPs the DoD’s top acquisition priority. Since then, the program has advanced at near-unprecedented speed, doubling production of the life-saving vehicle in just over four months.

Gates said, “This is a significant achievement. This program has gone from zero to ten thousand in just about a year and a half. These vehicles have proven themselves on the battlefield and are saving lives.”

Read the whole thing….

The Obama-Rezko Partnership

|   Thu, Jul 03, 2008 : 2:30 pm e   |   Frank :: News & Politics   |  

If you’ve wondered why a conniving crook like Tony Rezko went out of his way to get close to a young man like Barack Obama, you need only look at two factors: Rezko was a real estate developer and Obama was a charismatic black with open access to the poor vulnerable minority populations of Chicago’s South Side.

Obama could use his activism with A.C.O.R.N. (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now — a Communist front) to build support for his political aspirations and Rezko could get an inside shot at lucrative housing projects.

Current pics show the aftermath of the Obama - Rezko “partnership.”

Doug Ross: — “If I didn’t know better, I’d think this was Beirut in the nineteen seventies. But, in reality, it’s the current state of the housing for which Barack Obama claims responsibility as a ‘community organizer.’ It turns out the developers enriched by his government-funded subsidies did a heck of a lot better than the folks who once lived here.”

Low cost housing in Chicago

Doug Ross @ Journal has the back story and full view photos…

LGF has more on the Obamaslum story.

Disgraceful Crescent of Embrace

|   Thu, Jul 03, 2008 : 12:32 pm e   |   Frank :: News & Politics   |  

Calling Michelle Malkin, Charles Johnson, A.J. Strata, Ed Morrissey, Richard Fernandez and Ace of Spades

Blogburst logo, August 2nd

When the Crescent of Embrace memorial to Flight 93 was unveiled in September 2005, these six high profile conservative bloggers were instrumental in raising the public protest that forced the Memorial Project to agree to a redesign. Charles Johnson stayed with the story until the summer of 2006, and Ace has done two links since 2005, but for the most part, these conservative heroes seem to have decided that the “circle of embrace” redesign is okay.

It is NOT okay. Architect Paul Murdoch described his original Crescent of Embrace design as a broken circle. The redesign is still described as a broken circle, and the unbroken part of the circle (the crescent) remains exactly as it was in the original design.

In particular, the giant crescent still points to Mecca, and the repetition of this Mecca orientation in the crescents of trees that surround the Tower of Voices part of the memorial proves that the Mecca orientation is intentional. That makes the giant crescent a mihrab: the Mecca-direction indicator around which every mosque is built.

The planned memorial is a terrorist memorial mosque. This is an enemy plot, every bit as ambitious in its own way as the 9/11 attacks. To stop this re-hijacking of Flight 93, we need our frontline bloggers to rejoin the fray!

The only change: the design now includes a broken off part of the circle

The design drawings were recolored to make it look as if significant changes were made, the but only actual change was the inclusion of an additional arc of trees, said to represent a broken off part of the circle:

Crescent Bowl35%

Crescent of Embrace left. Circle or Embrace right. The only actual change is the additional arc of trees on the west side of the memorial. (Click for larger image.)

Notice that this extra arc of trees sits to the rear of a person facing into the giant central crescent. That is the equivalent of laying down a Muslim prayer rug (called a small mosque) in front of some trees. The prayer rug is unchanged. You can plant as many trees around a mosque as you want to. It will still be a mosque.

“Broken circle” is Park Service’s official story

In the original design, the broken off part of the circle was removed entirely. Now, as Memorial Project Superintendent Joanne Hanley reiterated last week, a broken off part of the circle is included:

The trees surrounding this “circle of embrace” are missing, or broken, in two places; first, where the flight path of the plane came overhead (which is the location of the planned memorial overlook and visitor center) and second, where the plane crashed at the Sacred Ground (depicted by a ceremonial gate and pathway into the Sacred Ground).

She is describing the two ends of the additional arc of trees. It is broken at both ends.

Both the theme and the geometry of the original Crescent of Embrace design remain as they were. The terrorists still break our circle, and they still turn it into a giant Mecca oriented crescent.

Those who raised the hue and cry about the original design ought to be equally concerned that the original design remains completely intact in the phony redesign. Come on heroes. Your help is NEEDED!

Crescent-Bowl, site-plan animation, 300px

Animation superimposes the redesign, then withdraws all but the changes. (Click for larger version.)

Come to the August 2nd meeting

If you can make it to Somerset PA on Saturday August 2nd, come help Tom Burnett Sr. tackle the hijacker! (Mr. Burnett announced trip, and his willingness to go to jail if necessary, in this audio clip from the Mancow Muller radio show (25 seconds. And here is Tom talking about the heroism of his murdered son, Tom Jr. Audio 45 seconds).

To join our blogbursts, just send your blog’s url.

Flight 93 Memorial Blogroll of Defenders

On This Day In History

|   Thu, Jul 03, 2008 : 10:54 am e   |   Frank :: News & Politics   |  

A few historical events of Independence Day Eve:

1986 - US President Ronald Reagan presides over the relighting of the renovated Statue of Liberty.

1969 - The biggest explosion in the history of rocketry occurs when the Soviet N1 rocket explodes and subsequently destroys its launchpad.

1944 - World War II: Minsk was liberated from Nazi control by Soviet troops during Operation Bagration.

1898 - Spanish-American War: The Spanish fleet, led by Pascual Cervera y Topete, is destroyed by the U.S. Navy in Santiago, Cuba.

1890 - Idaho is admitted as the 43rd U.S. state.

1863
- U.S. Civil War: The final day of the Battle of Gettysburg culminates with Pickett’s Charge.

1778 - American Revolutionary War: British forces massacre 360 men, women and children in the Wyoming Valley massacre.

1775 - American Revolutionary War: George Washington takes command of the Continental Army at Cambridge, Massachusetts.