ALL EUROPEAN LIFE DIED IN AUSCHWITZ

The following is a copy of an article written by Spanish writer Sebastian Vilar Rodrigez and published in a Spanish newspaper on 5-22-07. It doesn't take much imagination to extrapolate the message to the rest of Europe - and
possibly to the rest of the world.

REMEMBER AS YOU READ -- THIS WAS IN A SPANISH PAPER.
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ALL EUROPEAN LIFE DIED IN AUSCHWITZ

By Sebastian Vilar Rodrigez(*)

I walked down the street in Barcelona, and suddenly discovered a terrible truth - Europe died in Auschwitz . We killed six million Jews and replaced them with 20 million Muslims. In Auschwitz we burned a culture, thought, creativity, talent. We destroyed the chosen people, truly chosen, because they produced great and wonderful people who changed the world.

The contribution of this people is felt in all areas of life: science, art, international trade, and above all, as the conscience of the world. These are the people we burned.

And under the pretense of tolerance, and because we wanted to prove to ourselves that we were cured of the disease of racism, we opened our gates to 20 million Muslims, who brought us stupidity and ignorance, religious extremism and lack of tolerance, crime and poverty, due to an unwillingness to work and support their families with pride.

They have blown up our trains and turned our beautiful Spanish cities into the third world, drowning in filth and crime.

Shut up in the apartments they receive free from the government, they plan the murder and destruction of their naive hosts.

And thus, in our misery, we have exchanged culture for fanatical hatred, creative skill for destructive skill, intelligence for backwardness and superstition.

We have exchanged the pursuit of peace of the Jews of Europe and their talent for hoping for a better future for their children, their determined clinging to life because life is holy, for those who pursue death, for people consumed by the desire for death for themselves and others, for our children and theirs.

What a terrible mistake was made by miserable Europe.

Free men should not fear the moon-god-crowd oppressor nor choose any of his ways.

I read this in the comments section to an article about the war in Iraq.

Jim Baxter: Every September, I recall that is more than half a century (62 years) since I landed at Nagasaki with the 2nd Marine Division in the original occupation of Japan following World War II. This time every year, I have watched and listened to the light-hearted "peaceniks" and their light-headed symbolism-without-substance of ringing bells, flying pigeons, floating candles, and sonorous chanting and I recall again that "Peace is not a cause - it is an effect."In July, 1945, my fellow 8th RCT Marines [I was a BARman] and I returned to Saipan following the successful conclusion of the Battle of Okinawa. We were issued new equipment and replacements joined each outfit in preparation for our coming amphibious assault on the home islands of Japan. B-29 bombing had leveled the major cities of Japan, including Kobe, Osaka, Nagoya, Yokohama, Yokosuka, and Tokyo. We were informed we would land three Marine divisions and six Army divisions, perhaps abreast, with large reserves following us in. It was estimated that it would cost half a million casualties to subdue the Japanese homeland. In August, the A-bomb was dropped on Hiroshima but the Japanese government refused to surrender. Three days later a second A-bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki. The Imperial Japanese government finally surrendered. Following the 1941 sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, a Japanese admiral said, "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant..." Indeed, they had. Not surprisingly, the atomic bomb was produced by a free people functioning in a free environment. Not surprisingly because the creative process is a natural human choice-making process and inventiveness occurs most readily where choice-making opportunities abound. America! Tamper with a giant, indeed! Tyrants, beware: Free men are nature's pit bulls of Liberty! The Japanese learned the hard way what tyrants of any generation should know: Never start a war with a free people - you never know what they may invent! As a newly assigned member of a U.S. Marine intelligence section, I had a unique opportunity to visit many major cities of Japan, including Tokyo and Hiroshima, within weeks of their destruction. For a full year I observed the beaches, weapons, and troops we would have assaulted had the A-bombs not been dropped. Yes, it would have been very destructive for all, but especially for the people of Japan. When we landed in Japan, for what came to be the finest and most humane occupation of a defeated enemy in recorded history, it was with great appreciation, thanksgiving, and praise for the atomic bomb team, including the aircrew of the Enola Gay. A half million American homes had been spared the Gold Star flag, including, I'm sure, my own.Whenever I hear the apologists expressing guilt and shame for A-bombing and ending the war Japan had started (they ignore the cause-effect relation between Pearl Harbor and Nagasaki), I have noted that neither the effete critics nor the puff-adder politicians are among us in the assault landing-craft or the stinking rice paddies of their suggested alternative, "conventional" warfare. Stammering reluctance is obvious and continuous, but they do love to pontificate about the Rights that others, and the Bomb, have bought and preserved for them. The vanities of ignorance and camouflaged cowardice abound as license for the assertion of virtuous "rights" purchased by the blood of others - those others who have borne the burden and physical expense of Rights whining apologists so casually and self-righteously claim. At best, these fakers manifest a profound and cryptic ignorance of causal relations, myopic perception, and dull I.Q. At worst, there is a word and description in The Constitution defining those who love the enemy more than they love their own countrymen and their own posterity. Every Yankee Doodle Dandy knows what that word is. In 1945, America was the only nation in the world with the Bomb and it behaved responsibly and respectfully. It remained so until two among us betrayed it to the Kremlin. Still, this American weapon system has been the prime deterrent to earth's latest model world- tyranny: Seventy years of Soviet collectivist definition, coercion, and domination of individual human beings. The message is this: Trust Freedom. Remember, tyrants never learn. The restriction of Freedom is the limitation of human choice, and choice is the fulcrum-point of the creative process in human affairs. As earth's choicemaker, it is our human identity on nature's beautiful blue planet and the natural premise of man's free institutions, environments, and respectful relations with one another. Made in the image of our Creator, free men choose, create, and progress - or die.Free men should not fear the moon-god-crowd oppressor nor choose any of his ways. Recall with a confident Job and a victorious David, "Know ye not that you are in league with the stones of the field?" Semper Fidelis Jim Baxter Sgt. USMC WW II and Korean WarJob 5:23 Proverbs 3:31 I Samuel 17:40

Failed suicide bomber turns on al Qaeda

Original CNN Article

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- Ahmad al Shayea is the rarest of truck bombers -- he survived his suicide mission in Iraq even though the blast from his bomb was strong enough to kill 12 bystanders.

Al Shayea, who was disfigured during the attack, claims al Qaeda tricked him into becoming a bomber by asking him to deliver a tanker truck, which they had rigged with a bomb.

"They told me to take it to an address in Baghdad. As soon as I got there the truck exploded," said the native of Saudi Arabia. He survived by jumping out of the truck.

Al Shayea renounced terrorism and returned to Saudi Arabia, where he works to convince would-be insurgents and terrorists to give up their deadly ways.

"I think God took me out of death to show others what can happen," he told CNN. "If you join al Qaeda, they will use you, and maybe you will die."
Al Qaeda propaganda videos glorify so-called foreign fighters in Iraq like al Shayea. It has recruited them from countries all across the Middle East.

Some Iraqi officials say more Saudis than any other nationality have responded to al Qaeda's call. Saudi officials and the U.S. military deny that claim. But Saudi sources do admit that more than 800 young Saudis have gone to Iraq to fight. That's far more than the Saudi government has acknowledged until now.

Since 9/11, when 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudis, the oil rich kingdom has been accused of spreading radicalism. It's a claim that stings this longtime U.S. ally, which also finds itself in al Qaeda's cross hairs.

So now, Saudi officials say they are escalating their fight against homegrown al Qaeda militants. Former insurgents and terrorists like al Shayea are their chief weapon in the battle for the hearts and minds of young Saudis.

"The reality behind it is the religious misunderstanding of Islam, so we have to correct the ideas," said Dr. Turki Al-Otayan, a psychologist.

Al Shayea and hundreds of other Saudis who were aligned with terrorists are being re-educated in prisons and rehabilitation centers. They are taught that al Qaeda's emphasis on a violent approach to Islam is wrong.

The program offers early release from prison. It's available only to captured jihadis who demonstrate a willingness to change over the course of repeated interviews with specialists. Al Shayea said he was questioned by security forces, then clerics, then psychologists.

"They looked at my mood, listened to me. They were nice," he adds.

Al-Otayan said the review is thorough.

"We make sure he understands dialogue. We make sure he is not just lying. So it is not an easy job I can assure you," he said.

The Saudi government says more than 1,000 former al Qaeda recruits have been through the program. Seven hundred of them are now free. Critics, mainly from the country's security forces, fear mistakes could allow some al Qaeda fighters back on the street.

A native of Saudi Arabia, al Shayea was just 19 when he went to Iraq to fight for al Qaeda against American forces. He was angered, he said, by scenes of U.S. troops killings his fellow Muslims.

"I went to Iraq with Saudi men because jihad is a duty for every Muslim," he said. "I went to Iraq to fight the jihad and kill Americans."

He was hoping to take up arms against Americans, but said he never envisioned himself as a suicide bomber. After his truck bomb exploded, al Shayea was captured and paraded on Iraqi TV. Burned and bandaged, he was blamed for the death of 12 bystanders. He confessed.

Iraqi security officials deported him to Saudi Arabia. Today, with the backing of the Saudi government, al Shayea gets his anti-al Qaeda message out on fliers that include pictures of him before and after his bombing. He has become the anti-Al Qaeda example.

"I learned my lesson, and others will learn as well," he said.

Nebraska State Senator Sues God Over Natural Disasters

Come on ... everybody say it with me...WTF?

Original article at http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,297121,00.html

Nebraska Democratic State Senator Ernie Chambers has decided to go straight to the top in an effort to stop natural disasters from befalling the world.
Chambers filed a lawsuit against God in Douglas County Court Friday afternoon, KPTM Fox 42 reported.

The suit asks for a "permanent injunction ordering Defendant to cease certain harmful activities and the making of terroristic threats."
The lawsuit identifies the plaintiff as, "the duly elected and serving State Senator from the 11th Legislative District in Omaha, Nebraska."
Chambers also cites that the, "defendant directly and proximately has caused, inter alia, fearsome floods, egregious earthquakes, horrendous hurricanes, terrifying tornados, pestilential plagues..."
Chambers says he isn't suing God because he has any kind of beef with the deity. He says the suit is to fight possible laws restricting the filing of frivolous lawsuits. Chambers tells KPTM FOX 42 News that his lawsuit is in response to bills brought forth by other state senators to try and stop lawsuits from being filed.
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"The Constitution requires that the courthouse doors be open, so you cannot prohibit the filing of suits," Chambers says. "Anyone can sue anyone they choose, even God."
Chambers bases his ability to sue God, as, "that defendant, being omnipresent, is personally present in Douglas County."

NEVER FORGET!!

JOHN MCCAIN: COURAGEOUS SERVICE

McCain tool old to serve?

I HAVE NEVER FORGOTTEN YOU.

http://www.moriahfilms.com/site/pp.asp?c=brKMIZPIIuE&b=273989

The Long View | Advisory thoughts on the 43rd president. BY Karl Rove

An interesting article by the notorious "ARCHITECT" on GWB's prsidency.

_________________________________ http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZDBkZWQzNWM2ZDIwN2QyMTg4OTUzMjc1ZGFhOTc5OTM

The Long View
Advisory thoughts on the 43rd president.

By Karl Rove

The Washington Post scorned President Truman as a “spoilsman” who “underestimated the people’s intelligence.” New York Times columnist James Reston wrote off President Eisenhower as “a tired man in a period of turbulence.” At the end of President Reagan’s second term, the New York Times dismissed him as “simplistic” and a “lazy and inattentive man.”

These harsh judgments, made in the moment, have not weathered well over time. Fortunately, while contemporary observers have a habit of getting presidents wrong, history tends to be more accurate.

So how might history view the 43rd president? I can hardly be considered an objective observer, but in this highly polarized period, who is?

However, I believe history will provide a more clear-eyed verdict on this president’s leadership than the anger of current critics would suggest.

President Bush will be viewed as a far-sighted leader who confronted the key test of the 21st century.

He will be judged as a man of moral clarity who put America on wartime footing in the dangerous struggle against radical Islamic terrorism.

Following the horrors of 9/11, this president changed American foreign policy by declaring terror sponsors responsible for the deeds of those they shelter, train, and fund. America, he said, will not wait until dangers fully materialize with attacks on our homeland before confronting those threats.

The president gave the nation new tools to defeat terrorism abroad and protect our citizens at home with the Patriot Act, foreign surveillance that works in the wireless age, a transformed intelligence community, and the Department of Homeland Security.

And this president saw the wisdom of removing terrorism’s cause by advocating the spread of democracy, especially in the Muslim world, where authoritarianism and repression have provided a potent growth medium for despair and anger aimed at the West. He recognized that democracy there makes us safer here.

President Bush will be seen as a compassionate leader who used America’s power for good.

While the world dithered, America confronted HIV/AIDS in Africa with the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, which has supported treatment for more than 1.1 million people worldwide, over one million of them in Africa. While most of the globe ignored Sudan and Darfur or refused to act, this president labeled the violence there genocide — and pressed world leaders to take action.

A wide range of human-rights issues — from the repression in North Korea, Myanmar, and elsewhere to religious freedom to trafficking in persons — are kept on the international agenda in good part because of this president’s demands for action.

And President Bush met challenges with new institutions and methods. For example, the Proliferation Security Initiative confronts the transfer of dangerous material and information. And he has reformed America’s foreign aid to focus on results, accountability, transparency, and anti-corruption and pro-democracy requirements.

President Bush promotes economic growth and understands free markets provide the best path to a more hopeful tomorrow.

The president inherited an economy entering recession. It was further weakened by terrorist attacks, corporate scandals, natural disasters, and out-of-control spending with discretionary domestic spending increasing 16 percent in the last fiscal year of his predecessor. President Bush took decisive action, cutting taxes and ratcheting down this spending. The results? The net creation of 8.3 million new jobs since August 2003; higher after-tax income and greater incentives for firms to invest and expand; three years where America’s economic growth led the rest of the G7 economies; and a budget on path to surplus by 2012 — despite the increased spending invested in securing America’s safety by standing up the new Department of Homeland Security and fighting the Global War on Terror. In the four years since taxes were last cut in 2003, the U.S. economy has grown 13 percent in real dollars. The additional growth is larger than the entire size of the Canadian economy.

This president also understands our standard of living depends on selling to the globe. The 14 nations with which we have implemented free agreements represent 7.5 percent of the world’s GDP, but 43 percent of our exports. The growing number of free-trade agreements concluded and signed under this president helps explain why American exports have risen 27 percent between 2004 and 2006, creating jobs and prosperity here at home.

History will see President Bush as a reformer who focused on modernizing important institutions.

He is concerned with fundamental change that will — among other goals — strengthen the ways our children are educated and health care is provided.

In education, “No Child Left Behind” introduced accountability into our public-education system by ensuring every child’s progress is measured.

Parents now know whether or not their child is learning — in their own schools, and compared to other schools. This new focus on results helped lead to more improvement in reading scores in five years than in the previous 28 combined. This reform shows that measuring leads to results.

Medicare was modernized with a prescription-drug benefit, now used by 39 million seniors. Giving seniors the drugs they need helped them avoid expensive operations and long hospital stays. The result is better health care for seniors at a lower cost to them and at a lower cost than expected to taxpayers.

The president approached other tasks — such as legal reform, higher-education assistance, transportation, and conservation and forest policy — with the same reformist spirit. And he did so on issues which are controversial within his own party, such as comprehensive immigration reform, which he has championed since he first started running for governor of Texas in 1993.
He will be seen as an innovative conservative thinker with a positive, optimistic agenda for action.

For example, his proposals to reform health care are drawn from his understanding of the values of competition and markets. A standard tax deduction for health care — similar to the deduction homeowners get for mortgage interest — would level the playing field between those who get their health insurance from employers and those who pay for it out of their own pockets and expand the number of families with coverage.

People should be able to save tax-free for out-of-pocket health costs. The Health Savings Accounts the president signed into law are the first step toward this. HSAs will help move health care toward a consumer-driven model and away from a single-payer system. More than 4.5 million American families are benefiting from HSAs today.

More competition would be created by allowing insurance to be sold across state lines or small businesses to pool risk and would lower costs and increase access.

The president has a similar focus on bold changes when it comes to opportunity and poverty. He emphasizes policies, such as welfare reform, that promote ownership and encourage personal responsibility rather than dependence on government.

His faith- and community-based initiative is encouraging social entrepreneurship to confront poverty and suffering. Billions of federal dollars can now be accessed by such groups eager to serve a neighbor in need. Already, 34 Democrat and Republican governors and more than 100 mayors of all stripes have created faith- and community-based offices to build on the federal initiative.

On energy, the environment, and climate change, he is developing a new paradigm. Emphasizing technology, increased energy-efficiency partnerships, and resource diversification, his policies are improving energy security and slowing the growth of greenhouse gases without economy-breaking mandates and regulation. The president who won criticism by rejecting the failed approach of Kyoto has implemented policies that enabled the United States to grow its economy by 3.1 percent and reduce the absolute amount of CO2 emissions (by 1.3 percent).

In these and other areas, history will see President Bush drove policy in new directions, based on conservative principles.

He will be recognized as a strong advocate of traditional values.

He advanced a culture of life where every child is protected and welcomed.

He supported traditional marriage when it came under attack from the courts. He sought to strengthen families and encourage personal responsibility. And he understood the necessity of appointing judges who know the proper and limited role of courts and will provide impartial justice and faithful application of the Constitution.

President Bush had the political courage to confront the biggest economic challenge America faces.

The looming fiscal crises in Medicare and Social Security will result in either the impoverishment of the American people through higher taxes and lower growth or through the inability of government to deliver on its promises.

This president has worked to restrain the spending growth of entitlements, and to modernize Social Security and Medicare by injecting market forces and competition into their operation. He proposed Social Security reform that would solve the system’s long-term financial shortfall while giving younger workers the choice to put some of their own money into conservative stock-market investments.

He has made it impossible for future presidents and future Congresses to ignore this challenge. The president’s proposal will be the starting point for reform when it happens. When it does, Americans will be grateful President Bush made entitlement reform an issue and will be aware that valuable time was lost because of the obstructionism of his critics.

The outcome in Iraq and Afghanistan will color how history views the president.

History’s concern is with final outcomes, not the missteps or advances of the moment. History will render a favorable verdict if the outcome in the Middle East is similar to what America saw after World War II.

America’s persistence in Europe and Asia after that war helped Germany and Japan become democracies and allies in the struggle against Communism. If something similar happens in Iraq and Afghanistan, it will change the region and the world. For the first time, millions of citizens across the Middle East will see a working model of freedom in their region — and it will give them hope for a better future for their children by making America safer for them.

If the outcome there is like what happened in Vietnam after America abandoned our allies and the region descended into chaos, violence, and danger, history’s judgment will be harsh. History will see President Bush as right, and the opponents of his policy as mistaken — as George McGovern was in his time.

Beyond his policies and actions, history will take the measure of the man.

I have known George W. Bush for nearly 34 years and have had the privilege of watching from nearby as history has placed its demands on him and our country. I know his humility and decency, his intelligence and thoughtfulness, his respect for every person he comes in contact with, his unwavering commitment to principle-based decision-making, and the quiet and compassionate hearts of the man and his graceful wife, Laura.

I have come to understand true leadership leans into the wind. It tackles big challenges with uncertain outcomes rather than taking on simple, sure tasks. It does what is right, regardless of what the latest poll or focus group says. History demands much of America and its leaders and I am confident it will judge the 43rd president as a man more than worthy of the great office the American people twice entrusted to him.

Great Joke!! : )

Iranian president Mahmud Ahmadinejad calls President Bush and tells him, "George, I had a wonderful dream last night. I could see America, the whole beautiful country, and on each house I saw a banner."

"What did it say on the banners?" Bush asks. Mahmud replies, "ALLAH IS GOD, ALLAH IS GREAT."

Bush says, "You know, Mahmud, I am really happy you called. Last night I had a similar dream. I could see all of Tehran, and it was more beautiful than ever. It had been rebuilt completely, and on each house flew an enormous banner."

"What could you see on the banners?" Mahmud says.

Bush replies, "I don't know, I can't read Hebrew."

Today's New York Times in 1943

Click on image for larger version.

At 70, McCain Takes On Talk of His Age

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/25/us/politics/25mccain.html

August 25, 2007
At 70, McCain Takes On Talk of His Age
By MICHAEL COOPER
Senator John McCain was fielding questions at a town-hall-style meeting earlier this month in Ankeny, Iowa, when a woman raised her hand and asked him, “from one white head to another white head,” why he wanted to be president in such troubled times.
“You’re getting pretty old!” she said, after praising his long service to the country. “And it’s such a hard job!”
Mr. McCain deadpanned, to laughter, “I’m sorry I called on you.”
Mr. McCain, Republican of Arizona, who will turn 71 on Wednesday, is hoping to become the oldest person ever elected to a first term as president. So on the stump, he makes his experience a central theme of his campaign, while keeping up a grueling campaign schedule and showing his not-inconsiderable store of energy, despite injuries he sustained as a prisoner of war that limit his mobility and a bout with melanoma that left his face scarred.
Mr. McCain has recently been bombarded with questions about the viability of his campaign because of its fund-raising troubles. But on the campaign trail, his age is a subtler issue that could affect his candidacy. Persuading voters to hand one of the most difficult jobs in the world to someone at an age when most people are retiring, or at least cutting back, can be a challenge. Ronald Reagan did it, winning his first term at 69 and re-election at 73. But some political analysts said that Bob Dole’s age might have hurt him in 1996 when he ran at age 73 and against the much younger Bill Clinton.
But as people live longer, and work later, the definition of what it means to be old is changing.
Less than 1 percent of the people surveyed in a New York Times/CBS News poll in March said that the 70s were the best age for a president, while 52 percent said the 50s were the best age. And this time around, the field contains a leading candidate in his 40s (Senator Barack Obama) and several in their 50s, like Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, who will be 60 in October. Among leading Republicans, Mitt Romney turned 60 in March, and Rudolph W. Giuliani is 63. Mr. McCain said this spring that reporters seemed to show more interest in his age than the voters did, and he used his trademark humor to try to defuse the issue.
“Usually, people watch my performance to see if I need a drool cup, or stumble around, or anything like that,” he said at a stop in Palm Beach, Fla. “Usually, people just come and watch me, and I try to show them the energy and vigor that I’m capable of.”
To that end, Mr. McCain keeps up a busy travel schedule, crisscrossing the country for fund-raisers and campaign stops, and packing lots of events into campaign days. He is not one to take a lot of downtime on the trail — he is more likely to spend plane rides chatting with campaign aides or reporters than napping, and he fills in the gaps in his schedule with interviews and conference calls and other work. He has been known to pepper his conversation with youthful expressions — “um, duh!” is a favorite expression of sarcasm — and he has appeared on “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart,” which is popular with younger audiences, 10 times, more than any other presidential candidate.
Mr. McCain has a scarred, puffy left cheek from surgery that he had in 2000 after doctors discovered his third melanoma, and it is plainly visible on television. His pale skin sometimes looks even whiter than it really is, thanks to the powerful sunblock he uses. And his war wounds — he broke both arms and his right knee when his plane was shot down over North Vietnam, and suffered more injuries at the hands of his captors during five and a half years as a prisoner of war — have left him with stiffness in his knee, and arms that he cannot raise without difficulty.
But he still has a trim, fit bearing on the campaign trail. He stays in motion at the town-hall-style events he favors, pacing back and forth with a microphone in hand while parrying questions.
Sometimes he can come across on television as subdued, or old-looking, analysts said. Frank Luntz, a Republican strategist who once worked for Rudolph W. Giuliani, a McCain rival for the nomination, has conducted Fox News focus groups gauging people’s reactions to the debates. Some people in his groups used words like “tired” and “old” to describe Mr. McCain, Mr. Luntz said.
Age and health have surfaced as an issue in past presidential elections, and political consultants and analysts warned that the McCain campaign must handle the topics sensitively. The risk, they said, is that any gaffe by Mr. McCain could get chalked up to age.
“Any misstep, you don’t get the benefits of the doubt: people start looking at you and start thinking of you as a 70-year-old,” said Ed Rollins, the Republican strategist who managed Reagan’s 1984 re-election campaign.
Mr. Rollins said that age “was the major issue we worried about in ’84.” It grew in importance after Reagan gave some faltering answers in his first debate with Walter F. Mondale, the Democratic nominee.
Scott Reed, who managed Mr. Dole’s 1996 presidential campaign, said he thought that health was a more important issue than age these days.
“You have to take health head on, and be aggressive about promoting your health records, showing a campaign style that has vigor, and most importantly not over-scheduling the candidate,” said Mr. Reed, a McCain supporter. “I think McCain has done a very good job in his addressing the issue by playing the experience card.”
When the subject of age arose for Mr. McCain on the campaign trail in Ankeny, he delivered a couple of anecdotes he often tells when he is asked about it. First he spoke about how his 95-year-old mother, Roberta, drove herself around France last year, buying a car after a rental company turned her down for one. (“I have great genes,” he told the crowd.)
And then he talked about hiking the Grand Canyon “from rim to rim” with his son Jack last August — joking that, “in full disclosure,” the trek nearly killed him.
In 1999, in Mr. McCain’s first race for president, he released 1,500 pages of his medical and psychiatric records, providing the broadest look ever given the public about the psychological profile of a presidential candidate.
The records detailed what Mr. McCain had told his doctors after his release, including how he had tried to keep his mind occupied during long periods of solitary confinement by recalling details of movies, books and philosophy. They described the extensive injuries to his shoulders, his right knee and his hip. And the records mentioned that in 1968, after he received some particularly brutal beatings from his North Vietnamese captors, Mr. McCain attempted suicide, trying to hang himself by his shirt — something that Mr. McCain seemed to allude to this spring in a speech on immigration.
“I know why people want to come here,” he said in the speech, in which he described the risks that some immigrants take to come to the United States. “I once thought I would rather die than be denied my country for one more day.”
The records that he released included a battery of the standard psychological evaluations given to prisoners of the Vietnam War after their release. Dr. Michael M. Ambrose, director of the Robert E. Mitchell Center for Prisoner of War Studies in Pensacola, Fla., and Dr. Jeffrey L. Moore, a clinical neuropsychologist at the center, wrote in a statement at the time that “Senator McCain has never been diagnosed with or treated at the center for a psychological or psychiatric disorder."
Mr. McCain also takes care to avoid the sun because he had had skin cancer — three melanomas from 1993 to 2000. So on the campaign trail he sometimes wears baseball caps at outdoor events, or seeks out shade.
He has released little medical information since his surgery for melanoma in 2000. His campaign has said that it will release more detailed updated medical information at some point.
So, faced with rivals who are younger, but also have put in far less time in elected office, Mr. McCain tries to make a virtue of his age. “I’m not the youngest candidate,” he said in his campaign-kickoff speech. “But I am the most experienced.”

World's oldest father has 21st child at 90!

CAN YOU DO THIS WHEN YOU ARE 90?
________________________________
Original article maybe foun at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=476980&in_page_id=1811
_________________________________

The world's oldest father has done it again, fathering a child for at least the 21st time, at the age of 90.

Indian farmer Nanu Ram Jogi, who is married to his fourth wife, boasts he does not want to stop, and plans to continue producing children until he is 100.

Mr Jogi admits he is not certain how many children his series of four wives have borne him - but counts at least 12 sons and nine daughters and 20 grandchildren.

Two-week-old daughter Girija Rajkumari is the latest addition to the proud father's family.

"Women love me," Mr Jogi said. "I want to have more children. I can survive another few decades and want to have children till I am 100 - then maybe I will stop."

Mr Jogi, who attributes his remarkable virility to daily walks and plenty of meat, said: "I eat all kinds of meat - rabbits, lamb, chicken and wild animals."

Mr Jogi fathered his eldest daughter, Sita Devi, in 1943. His latest wife, Saburi, who has given him seven children, was first married to his eldest son Shiv Lal, who died 10 years ago.

Speaking from the family home in a remote village in Rajasthan, she said:

"At first I didn't want to stay here after my husband died. But Nanu promised to look after me and now we have seven children."

Mr Jogi's children and grandchildren live in six houses attached to his two-storey family home.

He said: "I have a perfect life - with so many children and grandchildren all around me, it keeps me young."

It is 1938, and Iran is Germany!

Scientists hail ‘frozen smoke’ as material that will change world

"A MIRACLE material for the 21st century could protect your home against bomb blasts, mop up oil spillages and even help man to fly to Mars.
Aerogel, one of the world’s lightest solids, can withstand a direct blast of 1kg of dynamite and protect against heat from a blowtorch at more than 1,300C.
Scientists are working to discover new applications for the substance, ranging from the next generation of tennis rackets to super-insulated space suits for a manned mission to Mars."

Full article at http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article2284349.ece

A Time for Choosing (Ronald Reagan on APPEASEMENT!!)

The video speaks for itself.

Or (Light) Alon DeLoco and Gad Elbaz

This brought a tear to my eyes.

Ha, the hope to continue
the joy that is needed
shock that passes through the body
the beat that beats in the heart
you are everything
(I scream out) light
yes you're the light
you're the power, you're everything
I scream out
my light my light light

Yes you're the light, you're the power, you're all
Now I know that God hears me, he sent a queen that touches me, he gave me the light, nothing will stop me, won’t break or make me fall....
Yes, you are the light, the strength, the all

OMG!! Arnold doesn't dance!

OK, this made me laugh out loud, so it's worthy of a place on this blog....even though it made me briefly question my own masculinity....for a microsecond, mind you.

The Sephardi Perspective: The "other" Jews

Is it "netiquette" to quote another blog?!
This was posted by Ashley Perry on Jerusalem Post's blog site. It is obviously written with her tongue firmly placed in her cheek, and at times it would read as a childish rant, but I found it an interesting read and somewhat entertaining, nevertheless. Original post can be found at http://blogcentral.jpost.com/index.php?cat_id=4&blog_id=80&blog_post_id=1411.
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August 16 2007; 10:08AM
The Sephardi Perspective: The "other" Jews
Posted by Ashley Perry (Perez)
Do you have many cousins all with the same name as you, and no one seems to be able to pronounce your last name? Do you clap weirdly, ululate and do this strange dance with your arms at weddings? Do you have more carpets on your walls than on your floors at home?
If the answer to all these questions is yes, then chances are you're a Sephardi, Oriental, or Eastern Jew. As one Jewish political expert once put it, you are one of those "other Jews". As Sephardim we have to put up with a lot, we are a minority within a minority and have to fight for any sort of acknowledgement. Most people don't know who we are but they will always know who we are not, Ashkenazim.
We are from such places as India, Morocco, Iraq, Spain and the UK. The UK, you say? "If you are from the UK you must be Ashkenazi," I am constantly being told. When I tell these people not only am I from the UK but my family had been living in London centuries before any meaningful Ashkenazi community emerged, they are astonished. The same can be said for the US and Australia.
Yes, the English-speaking Sephardi is a curious creature to those who meet him or her. We did not grow up eating gefilte fish, knowing the odd word in Yiddish and klezmer music seemed like a screeching drowned rat to our ears. We did not know there was a Reform, Conservative or Haredi 'Shul' to go to; we just went to the Bet Knesset or Esnoga with our fellow Jews.
Today Sephardim make up about 10% of English speaking Jewry, but for all purposes we may as well be negligible. We are ignored when it comes to our culture, our history and politics. Our food is passed off as 'Israeli' when in fact our ancestors had been making Bourekas, Humous and Koube for generations. I have heard people say that they are a fan of Sephardi culture because they like Sarit Hadad, Eyal Golan or whatever bubble-gum Mizrahi pop is big at the time.
We Sephardim feel our roles in Jewish history have been expunged or deleted from classrooms or the textbooks. Jewish history seems to jump from one European disaster to another, the European enlightenment, Chasidut, the Holocaust and then the State of Israel. How many people can tell me one event that took place in the Sephardi World other than the Spanish Inquisition and Expulsion? How many people know that the Holocaust wiped out 90% of the Ladino-speaking World and that there even concentration camps in North Africa.
How many people know that Theodore Herzl's grandfather was a student of Rav Yehuda Alkalai, one of the leading Sephardi Rabbis of his generation and the first modern Zionist political thinker? We know for a fact that Herzl was close with his grandfather, so it is very possible that the Zionist foundations came from a religious Sephardi Rabbi.
As a regular reader of the English news in Israel it would seem in a nation where almost every other Jew is a Sephardi, we are again subject to a downgrade. Yes, we all hear the 'crazy' pronouncements of a Shas politician and are amused by the wild gesticulations of the 'Amami' but there it ends.
Sephardim in this country are looked down on by some of the English-speaking public in Israel. We want to instill 'western values' in Israel and bring those Jews into the 21st century. What they may not be aware of his while Eastern European Jewry were stuck in the ghetto, many of the Sephardim could speak five languages and were versed in such disciplines as philosophy and sociology.
This all sounds like a bit of a rant, much of it tongue-in-cheek, but important nonetheless. This blog will seek to put a Sephardi perspective on events where none existed. It is to give a voice to English-speaking Sephardim, introduce ourselves to Ashkenazim and provide context to the many Sephardim in Israel who don't speak English.
So pull up a chair, pour yourself some Arak and enjoy the ride into the world of the "other Jews".

Should Jews build the Third Temple? | A Jerusalem post Article

The article is quoted in its entirety. It caught my interest becasue of the historical background it represents. I do not agree with some of the opinions expressed.

Original article may be found at http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?apage=2&cid=1184766045650&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
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Should Jews build the Third Temple?


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STEPHEN GABRIEL ROSENBERG, THE JERUSALEM POST Jul. 24, 2007

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Traditionally the Temple Mount Faithful attempt to set up a foundation stone for the Third Temple on Tisha Be'av, and the police routinely prevent them from doing so. The occasion for this street theater is the anniversary of the destruction of the First Temple in 586 BCE and that of the Second Temple in 70 CE, both said to have occurred on the same calendar date.

It is certainly right that the date be commemorated; but would rebuilding the Temple be an appropriate act for the State of Israel today?

Assuming there were no Dome of the Rock and no Muslim presence on the Temple Mount, no Wakf and no Aksa Mosque, the pressure to rebuild the Temple would be enormous - but would it, in historical terms, be sound?

The last time such an opportunity occurred was in the time of Julian the Apostate, in 362 CE. That Roman Emperor, who succeeded Constantine, reversed his predecessor's decision to turn the empire into a Christian state and returned to the former pagan religions, which were permissive of other cults, including the Jewish one. It seems that he gave permission for the Temple to be rebuilt, and then went off to fight his enemies.

In Jerusalem work commenced on reconstructing the altar, but hardly had a few stones been put one on another, when a massive earthquake hit the area and the work collapsed. Worse still, Julian was killed in Persia and his place was taken by the Emperor Jovian, who reinstalled Christianity as the official religion. Any hope of rebuilding the Temple ceased, never to return.

IN 638 CE, the hordes of Islam conquered Jerusalem and by 692 the Caliph Abd al-Malik had completed the Dome of the Rock, which stood on the mountain inviolate for the following 1,315 years.

During the Crusader years it was converted to Christian use, and most Crusaders thought it had been built originally as the Temple of Solomon, but it was not changed structurally and returned to the Muslims on expulsion of the Crusaders in 1187. However, it did not return as a mosque, as it had never been one.

As the Dome was not a mosque, why did Abd al-Malik build it? It may be that he was attempting to set up a place of pilgrimage in competition to Mecca, which was controlled by his rival, Ibn al-Zubayr, but it seems more likely that, probably advised by an ex-Jewish companion, he recognized the historic significance of the site and in particular of the rock, the foundation stone, the even shetiya, that carried so much religious baggage. It was the scene of the Mihrab of Dawood (shrine of David) and the Bayit al-Makdis of Sulayman (Temple of Solomon) so al-Malik may have selected the site as a kind of location of ultimate holiness, maybe even for the Day of the Last Judgement.
The unique design of the building, a circular dome over an octagonal base, emphasized its concentration on the central feature, the Rock. Unlike any mosque, the building had no directional focus and was entered by four doorways, one to each of the cardinal points, as if to encourage access to persons or, indeed, their souls coming from the four corners of the earth.

LATER THE Muslims observed that the Rock was the mythical arrival and departure point of Mohammed on his white steed Buraq, but Abd al-Malik had recognized the precedence of Solomon and even Abraham on the site.

This makes it clear that the sanctity of the site stems from its Jewish origins, though the Muslims, of course, claim Abraham as one of their own, and venerate Solomon as divine. Now, even if the Muslim attitude would be to allow a Jewish presence, and even a rebuilding on the site, would it be in the Jewish interest to proceed with a third Temple?

WHEN HEROD decided to rebuild the Temple in 19 BCE, 18 years after having been handed the throne by the Romans, there must have been much trepidation among the population, the priests and others, about his intentions. He managed to calm their fears by employing only priests on the Temple itself and by enabling the Korban Tamid, the daily sacrifices, to continue without interruption.

The resources that he used were vast and would have pleased the local craftsmen, who were provided with employment for many years. The end result pleased even his rabbinic critics, though well after the event: "Whoever has not seen Herod's building has never seen anything beautiful," they crowed.

This was a surprising reaction, as very few rabbis were yet around to see the Temple in its glory. Additionally, modern reconstructions show a rather high, lopsided building with an overblown classical front sitting on a vast platform that completely ignores the beautiful mountain it covered. Such an oversize terrace must have intimidated anyone venturing on to it.

The huge expanse of uncovered space would not be conducive to our weather, be it sunshine or rain. For all its glory, the structure was not completed until 60 CE, well after the death of Herod, and it only stood another six years before its service was embroiled in the revolt against the Romans.

So what did Herod's great work really achieve? Did it achieve unity among the Jewish people? Did it achieve harmony between our different factions? Did it achieve reconciliation with our governors, the Romans, who admired the structure built on classical lines by their favorite Jewish ruler? Did its presence give us protection against our enemies or absolution for our sins?

QUITE THE contrary. The daily sacrifices were used by the zealots to exclude the offering of the Roman emperor, which led to reprisals and insults by the occupying army. Different parties saw different ways of resolving the crisis, but could find no unanimity among themselves. The High Priest, who might have been a potential leader, was just another political appointment, as he had been under the Seleucids; even his sacred clothing was held hostage in the hands of the Roman governor. The priests were divided in their loyalties and unable to conduct the divine service in a dignified manner.

When it came to the actual revolt in Jerusalem, things turned perilous, and civil war reigned. The zealots, led by John of Gischala, got the upper hand and the peace party was unable to stop them. Another zealot leader, Simon bar Giora, was welcomed into the city to oppose Gischala, but the two soon joined together against the moderates. That union did not last and within a short time there were three "gangster" parties (in the words of Josephus) who burnt each other's grain supplies, not realizing that they would all suffer in the end.

Only the Romans could benefit from the chaos, and so they did, in spite of the brave efforts put up by the separate parties, one of whom used the Temple precinct for a heroic, if vain, last stand. The magnificent Herodian Temple, as finally completed, had stood for only 10 years.

THIS WAS not so different from the vicissitudes of the First Temple. Solomon completed it with forced labor shifts, directed by his chief taskmaster, Adoniram. On Solomon's death, the majority of the tribes revolted against his successor Rehoboam, put the hated Adoniram to death by stoning, and set up the Northern Kingdom, which had no use for the Temple.

In the south, the Temple was sacked by Pharaoh Shishak in about 925 BCE, and all its gold was stripped away and taken to Egypt. Rehoboam was forced to present to the people shields of polished brass to simulate the looted metal. The golden glory of Solomon's Temple had lasted for just 40 years.

Not long after, king Asa had to use the replaced Temple treasures to bribe Ben-Hadad of Aram (Syria) to help him fight against Baasa, king of Northern Israel. Worse than all that loss of treasure was the fact that the First Temple, as described in our sacred books, became the focus of idol worship in the reigns of the Judahite kings Asa, Jehoram, Amaziah and the queen Athaliah, who gave its treasures to the House of Baal.

The timely restoration under Hezekiah was undermined by his son Manasseh, and the renaissance initiated by Josiah was sabotaged by the desecration of his successors that culminated in defeat by the Babylonians in 597 BCE, followed by destruction 11 years later.

What happened to the glory of the First Temple? It lasted 40 years. The Second Temple never achieved glory until its rebuilding by Herod, and that lasted 10 years.

Will a Third Temple fare any better? The records of history are against it.

The writer is a Fellow of the Albright Institute of Archaeological Research, Jerusalem.

Bad Ass Marine

Video footage shows Old City Attack

From Jerusalem Post:
Closed circuit video footage from the scene of Friday's shooting in Jerusalem's Old City shows the Israeli Arab assailant grabbing a security guard's pistol and shooting him repeatedly at close range.

The footage, which was released on Sunday by Jerusalem police, belies claims by the attacker's family that he was shot by the security guard's partner without cause.

For full article got to