"Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a (Muslim) match..."

Front Page Magazine has an article exposing Islam, like the titles listed below, at least once a day.

• Islam's Universal Blasphemy Fatwa • The Holy Land's Christian Targets • A Small Victory Over Shari'a • Jihad and Jew-Hatred • Horror Under the Hijab • CAIR's Spin Guide• Saudis Give Big to U.S. Colleges to Fund Islamic Studies .......

That’s fine. It’s a conservative site and a lot of people there are amazing patriots of Jewish or Christian faith, and most of the people there see a problem fitting Islam into the American landscape. There's one Muslim at FPM who posts every day, he calls himself Abdullah and he's an American ex Navy vet who fights his good Muslim fight reminding FPM readers that it's a peaceful religion, that CAIR means no harm, that Hamas isn't a terror group. Get the picture? In spite of him, suffice it to say that FPM is a site which highlights a lot more ‘beware of Islam’ articles than it publishes articles that say anything resembling ‘Muslims were only kidding on 9/11’.

Here’s the rub; FPM has only recently started cluttering itself up with pop up ads on articles…their readership has gone down something near 30% lately and they’re hurting for cash, apparently. SO, they’ve got a lot more advertisting now and one ad caught my eye.

FPM has a fairly large ad for a muslim dating service off to the side of some of the articles now…a beautiful, sweet faced woman in headscarf and a quite handsome, kind looking young man with a knit cap. “singlemuslim.com”, if you’re interested.

Imagine the conversation over at the advertising department of ‘singlemuslim’.

“I know! Let’s advertise at that site that can’t stand muslims…that’s the ticket”

Or might it be

“Look, they seem to hate us, but we have the money and they’ll have to take it, that'll show 'em..” sort of like what the Saudis who just bought the Chelsea Marketplace development in London might have said, or the other huge development they bought in England a month ago, or what Saudis said when they bought into FOX, ..well, we could all go on listing these purchases, right?

Deep pockets to have us in their pockets, huh? I just couldn’t help but see a metaphor here…..how much will we sell because we need the money and they have it? Any end to it?

Well, heck, maybe there's nothing sinister going on here and this dating sevice just figured we had the perfect demographics at FPM.......one muslim. Maybe it pays? Maybe I’m just reading more into this than I ought, right?

Hopefully?

EVIL AMERICAN SOLDIERS.....

Would this guy call the enemy "EVIL"? Or is that too harsh a term for terrorists?

Abu Ghraib prison turned soldiers evil by design: researcher
by Glenn Chapman Thu Feb 28, 9:14 PM ET

Here are the 'lowlights' from the article you can read all of if you click on the link above.

MONTEREY, California (AFP) - The very design of Abu Ghraib in Iraq turned good soldiers into evil tormentors that humiliated and brutalized prisoners, a famed social psychologist said Thursday.

Stanford University professor Philip Zimbardo described a "Lucifer effect" as he flashed shocking images of Abu Ghraib horrors for those at an elite Technology, Entertainment and Design conference in California.

"If you give people power without oversight it is a formula for abuse," Zimbardo said to a stunned audience the included famous actors, entrepreneurs and politicians.

"Abu Ghraib abuses went on for three months ... Who was watching the store? Nobody, and it was on purpose."

Zimbardo, wearing a black T-shirt with a picture of a devil flanked by two angels, paced the stage as images of horrors flashed on large screens. He lays out his conclusions in a recently released book titled "The Lucifer Effect."

"There is an infinite capacity to make us behave kind or cruel, or make some of us heroes," Zimbardo said, convinced that environment dictates the outcome far more than people's characters or personalities.

Photos showed naked and hooded prisoners beaten bloody and being made to commit humiliating acts such as human pyramids or simulating homosexual sex. Soldiers posed proudly with battered corpses and nude, injured prisoners.

A "hero" at Abu Ghraib turned out to be a lowly private that called for abuses there to be stopped, according to the professor.

"Heroism is the antidote to evil," Zimbardo said. "Let's focus on justice and peace, which sadly our administration has not been doing."

Z: You know, nobody should be "posing proudly with battered corpses and nude, injured prisoners", but I'm thinking that the "justice and peace" Zimbardo hopes for might not be accorded to our soldiers as they're beheaded, not 'humiliated'. Do we stand a chance when people look at US as the monsters?

To another great Conservative.......LEFT COAST CHUCK

A Tribute

Front Page Magazine is where I started getting interested in politics while living in Paris, France. The internet was a great way to stay in touch with America and internet politics most captured my attention. It hadn’t before, I’d always figured we had a great country and would always have a great country. Today, I know we have a great country…….to save.

9/11 happened while I lived in Paris. Over night, I went from pleasantly coasting through Politics 101 to a crash (you should pardon the expression) course in Advanced Politics with a double major in Islamofascism. 9/11 drew me with more interest to FPM and to where I met a lot of great people. This is how I got to know a fellow with the screen name of Left Coast Chuck.

Chuck was a mild mannered gentleman who told me how much he liked my posts and often responded to them, as I did to his. He was a staunch conservative, free market, America-loving, wonderfully sweet man of faith; nothing worn on his sleeve, but you felt it. He had values which echoed those of our forefathers; he was a flag waving, gun totin’ patriot. He and I had a nice cozy situation with another great conservative poster, Lorena Meadows. The three of us hit it off and posted to each other a lot.

Then, one day, Lorena wrote me asking if I’d seen any postings from Chuck and I told her I hadn’t. I reminded her that, months before, he’d said he was very ill. She reminded me then that he’d come back recently, after a week off, saying he’d been taken ill again. So, we worried. But, there was a country to save and there are probably 15 posters I enjoyed and bantered with on a regular basis. Life went on at FPM, but I would occasionally scan the screen names for Left Coast Chuck and wouldn’t see him.

One day, I got this post from the screen name “Left Coast kid”.

“To ZinLA and Lorena Meadows, Left Coast Chuck was my dad, and as you know he has been ill recently. My dad had asked me to tell you if anything were to happen to him, and unfortunately I have to tell you that he has passed away, on Nov. 4. unexpectedly. We were told that he would have up to 2 years left so we were not prepared for this. Forgive me for waiting to notify you, but things have been very difficult with dealing with this through his birthday NOV. 19 and the holidays. He considered you his friends and admired you, and I would like to thank you for all your kindness, and prayers, and friendship you showed him. It meant more than you know! He was a great man, my hero, and I miss him more than words can say. Thank you again, Jamie”

I have an FPM file I’ve kept over the years of kind, crazy, or otherwise meaningful posts I’ve had written to me. There are only about twenty, but they’re important to me. This one certainly is.

We’d never met, never spoken on the telephone, but Chuck couldn’t leave without Lorena and me knowing that he’d not be coming back. A man who was a stranger for all intents and purposes wanted to thank us for our friendship. This man with such great values and such kindness imposed it on his child to tell his closest pals at FPM he was gone and wouldn’t be coming back. He didn’t want us to worry.

I was very fond of Left Coast Chuck. I’ll never forget him. It’s fine to write about politics, get upset about what’s going on, hate the Left, call Islam for what it is, complain, whine and rant and rave; this is fun and keeps the heart pumping. But, it didn’t work for Chuck. And no post I ever get will top his kid Jamie’s. Not because he told us his dad had died, but that his dad had wanted him to tell us goodbye and thanks. He wanted us to know why we wouldn’t hear from him again.

I still post a lot at FPM, and I still think of Left Coast Chuck, and I remind myself that it’s men like him who made this country great and it’s men like him for whom we have to save it. Get busy. For my friend, Mr. Left Coast Chuck.
Z

WILLIAM F. BUCKLEY, May he rest in peace........

William Frank "Bill" Buckley, Jr. (November 24, 1925 - February 27, 2008) was an American author and conservative commentator. He founded the political magazine National Review in 1955, hosted the television show Firing Line from 1966 until 1999, and is a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist. His writing style is famed for its eloquence, wit, and use of uncommon words.

"I am, I fully grant, a phenomenon, but not because of any speed in composition," he wrote in The New York Times Book Review in 1986. "I asked myself the other day, `Who else, on so many issues, has been so right so much of the time?' I couldn't think of anyone."

How would the conservative movement been different had he never lived, never written?

Could it be his death parallels the death of conservatism as we know it? Just thinking......

Priorities, priorities.................and the winner IS........

By Mr.Bob Shank
The MASTER'S PROGRAM

February 26, 3008

(thanks to my dear friend, Ron)

Talk about relief. Now that we've got the big story behind us, we can get down to the day-to-day minutia of life. I mean, with the massive decisions behind us, the diminutive details calling for our attention. The cliffhanger tension has approached medication necessity; frankly, I don't know how emotionally fragile people have been able to function as the attention of the most powerful nation in the modern era has had life on-hold awaiting the counting of the ballots and the naming of the winners...

Forget Barack and Hillary; that's a school yard scuffle. The real deal was settled last night - at the Kodak Theatre. The nod went to "No Country for Old Men" (doesn't bode well for John McCain). The boys' and girls' divisions were swept by Daniel Day-Lewis (I thought hyphenated last names were for women who didn't want to give up their identity when they got married?) from "There Will Be Blood" (I guess the 2008 Democratic National Convention documentary will be "There Will Be Blood II") and Marion Cotillard from "La Vie en Rose" (the French should accept our olive branch; best actress for a film with English subtitles).

At the Academy Awards - the 80th Annual - the Super Delegates were all over the house. Everybody has an opinion, but only members of "The Academy" get to vote. It isn't helter-skelter; there are more rules governing the awards process than Paris Hilton's attorney studied for his bar exam. The folks who left with one of those little statues convinced somebody that they deserved their moment in the lights.

Funny, though: Sunday night's drama had two parts. The first part was outside the Kodak Theatre, on what's called "The Red Carpet." In the hour leading up to the 5:00 PST kickoff, the A-Listers strutted their stuff from the curb to the door. Dresses, hair and escorts all strove for the "look," and the catty commentators gave their expert opinions on who had it (the look) and who didn't. Instant mortification: wear the same designer gown sported by another A-Lister. The unpardonable sin...

Once inside, once the cameras were rolling and Jon Stewart seized control, all of the pomp of the Carpet had no more circumstance. From that point forward, life - for everyone inside - was all about the results, tucked inside 24 envelopes that had been "audited by the firm of Price Waterhouse Coopers." Nail biting was unavoidable during the three hour spectacle, the centerpiece of The Day the Earth Stood Still.

One thing's for sure: Hollywood may fall in-and-out of love with America (so many stars seem to rethink whether they plan to live here or not, based on the presidential election outcomes every four years), but they're always in love with themselves. On Oscar night, attendance at the gala is mandatory: anyone who is somebody - or, is dating a somebody, or wants to someday be a somebody - will either be "in the house," or at one of the after parties. No excuses offered, or accepted. Failure to Appear carries a mandatory sentence of one year on an infomercial with Chuck Norris or Kirstie Alley.

Actors and Actresses, Directors and Producers: they may say that they live for the box office results, but it's more often their investors - the folks with the money at risk - who sweat that financial measurement. The real artist types tolerate the sounds of the cash register, but their hearts are really in the words that follow the opening of those envelopes. "And the Oscar for Actor in a Leading Role/Actress in a Leading Role/etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. goes to..."

At least they know what they're working toward. I wonder how many Christians are coming onto the set of life every day looking past their Box Office (the pay window at work) and their Red Carpet (the snitty comments they get from the world around them about how they look, who they're with, what they're wearing) to their upcoming Awards Ceremony: "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad."(2 Corinthians 5:10)

That's a ceremony worth living for. Oscars come and go, elections are unrelenting, and the red carpet is bloodstained from the wounds of insensitive people. The recognition of the God who is our only audience that matters is waiting for us, just through that door...

I'll be taking that picture of Mr. Obama down soon...

...it's hard to go to your own blog and see that SMILE.

but, for now..............I wish I'd written that!

A Paid Political Announcement

BY SEN. BARACK Hussein OBAMA (D- ILL)

My fellow Hyphenated-Americans:

As your future president I want to thank my supporters, for their ... well, their support.I do thank you for your mindless support of me, despite my nearly complete lack of legislative achievement, my pastor's cordial relations with Louis Farrakhan and Libyan dictator Mohmar Kadaffi, or my voting record as the most liberal congressman in either house, while I present myself as some sort of Bi-partisan Agent of Change and your new Messiah.I also appreciate my supporters claim that my youthful drug use and criminal behavior somehow qualifies me for the presidency after eight years of telling everyone within earshot that Bush's youthful drinking disqualified him. Your hypocrisy is a shining beacon of hope over a sea of political shameless posturing.I would like also to thank the Kennedys for coming out in support of me. There's a lot of glamour behind the Kennedy name, even though JFK started the Vietnam War, his brother Robert illegally wiretapped Martin Luther King Jr. and Teddy is a drunk who once killed a young woman with whom he was having an illicit affair ...... and I'm not going anywhere near the cousins either literally or figuratively.I want to thank Oprah Winfrey too for her unstinting support. Her love of vacuous, sweet-sounding platitudes will be the force that propels me to the White House.Americans should vote for me, not because of my lack of experience or achievement, but because I make people feel good. Voting for me causes some white folk to feel relieved of their imaginary racist guilt.I say things that sound earnest and meaningful, but don't really mean anything, because Americans are tired of things that have meaning. If things have meaning, then that means you have to think about them.Americans are tired of thinking. It's time to shut down the brain, and open up the heart. So when you go to vote in the primaries, remember don't think, just do.And do it for me .....




Thank you.



Barack Obama

"I pledge allegiance to the flag..........while I'm in the Senate.." WHAT???

From this article:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/obama_attack_fodder

by Nedra Pickler

Here's my favorite part of Nedra's opine-ion:

"Obama already is the subject of a shadowy smear campaign based on the Internet that falsely suggests he's a Muslim intent on destroying the United States. Obama is a Christian and has been fighting the e-mail hoax, which also claims he doesn't put his hand over his heart during the Pledge of Allegiance, and he's been trying to correct the misinformation.

"Whenever I'm in the United States Senate, I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America," Obama frequently tells voters.

Z: Are we facing an even SLICKER willy? We lived through "I did not have sex with that woman" and now Obama DOES say the pledge...that is, when he's "in the United States Senate". Great, Obama. Just GREAT. And, otherwise......................?

file this under: BITE MEEEEEEEE

La Raza (The Race) Calls for Speech Restriction

The National Council of La Raza (NCLR) is a leading organization in the fight for open borders, non-enforcement of immigration laws, and rights for illegal aliens. NCLR styles itself as a "civil rights" organization, but its name La Raza (The Race) suggests its real purpose. The black civil rights movement affirmed the importance of citizenship and the rule of law. NCLR undermines both, with the consequence of increasing clout of La Raza at the expense of other groups.

Recently, due to the defeat of amnesty and its other goals, the NCLR has stridently attacked immigration reformers as purveyors of "hate speech." Leading the charge is the organization's president, Janet Murguia. "Ms. Murguia," reported News York Times blogger Ariel Alexovich (2/1/08) "[argues] that hate speech should not be tolerated, even if such censorship were a violation of First Amendment rights. Said Murguia herself, "Everybody knows there is a line that can be crossed when it comes to free speech. And when free speech transforms to hate speech, we've got to cross that line."

In pursuit of her objectives, Murguia said she would call on the management of CNN to restrict the commentary of Lou Dobbs and Glenn Beck on illegal immigration. Both men are credited with raising public opposition to the illegal alien amnesty bill last summer.

Comment: "Hate speech" is a term intolerant people often use to discredit and silence speech that they hate. Ms. Murguia and people like her don't like free speech because their self-seeking agendas are difficult to justify.

Defend the free speech of Dobbs and Beck by contacting CNN and expressing support for their commentary.
Via Mail:CNNOne CNN CenterBox 105366Atlanta, GA 30303-5366
Via Phone: (404) 827-1500
Via e-mail: www.CNN.com/feedback/

Z: and, by the way, while you're on with CNN, tell them it's not usually quite 'support' you feel for them? thanks! *Thanks to my friend, Dick, for alerting me to this.

HEY EUROPE? Listen up, please.........

I've been wanting to tell you something for a while:

France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Belgium, England, Hungary, Finland, Poland, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, …..etc., I’m getting a bit tired of the insults and name calling and the incredibly patronizing suggestion that some of you should pick our president for us.

We have Liberals* over here bemoaning the fact that you don’t “like us”. Sorry, but not all of us do feel that way. We like to be liked, but not as much as we did.
Those days are over, especially after your treatment of us since this war we’re waging for ourselves…and you…in Iraq, to keep the world a safer place. Sorry you don’t “like us” for that.

For those of you who are willing to hear the truth, please pay close attention to why I think so many of you have a low opinion of this country. You don’t “like us” because of who’s telling you about us:

The biggest English language newspaper you read there is the International Herald Tribune. Do you know it is now wholly owned by the New York Times? Do you know that the New York Times is a very liberal (far more left than your definition for liberal) newspaper in America? Or do you believe it when you hear it’s the newspaper “of record” here? It is not. It is a large newspaper with some well known writers, famous because of the city it’s in. That’s it.

The New York Times might not say it’s against our country, but the evidence is pretty clear; newspapers which champion their country don’t call administrations names, don’t reveal top secret information, don’t celebrate our enemies, and don’t undermine wars we’re still fighting. The New York Times does. The New York Times, to some of us, hates America.

You read the product of that hate. And you think that must be what all Americans think. You couldn’t be farther from the truth. Most of us don’t want an “all Conservative” paper; we just want one which tells the truth, at least on the first six pages. We like opinion sections to be edgy but we want the truth on the front pages. You have that there, congratulations, but we do not. Don’t confuse the two situations. What you see on our front pages is mostly not an unbiased truth.

Did you know that your big name journalists are paid the big bucks to come to America to give you the news here but, instead, in many cases, translate, word for word, the articles in the New York Times and other liberal newspapers? Yes, we see it every day in your more famous foreign papers on the internet; my husband and I. My husband laughs as he sees that the big German papers are carrying more and more articles translated by Germans from American authors. Do not think these are opinions of Germans coming here and reporting what they see. No, these are mostly disgruntled liberal American opinions you are getting. You’d be ill advised to base your information on these. No wonder you don’t like us. The liberal papers themselves don’t like us.

CNN International is about the only American television news you will get. Most Americans don’t know that what you see in Europe is different and even more liberally biased than our CNN here. Yes, what you see every day and night is American news through the filter of liberals. And you base your attitudes about us on that. Why would you “like us”?! They don’t like us, either.

Our celebrities might excite you and you might think all Americans think like they do when they come to your countries and insult us and our government. You’re wrong. Some of us have stopped going to movies in which those who hate America star. We still like their acting; we just can’t see spending money on their films, supporting them so they can fly back to Europe first class and do another round of America bashing.

You might not “like us”, but at least consider what I’m saying, consider the source of your dislike. While you’re busy hating America, remember which way the immigration is going, too…I haven’t any friends migrating to Sweden lately, nobody’s fighting to get into Hungary or England, either. Especially England.

As England slips into an Islamic abyss of minarets, shish kebab and calls for Sharia Law, keep laughing at America as she tries to prevent that from happening to us…and YOU. Does that make sense?

Listen to the Conservative media, read the internet. I don’t ask you to believe everything Conservatives are saying, I only ask you to consider two sides to every question. We don’t think monolithically here any more than you do in your countries, believe it or not.

I’ll say goodbye now, auf Wiedersehen, au revoir, ciao, etc. Stop believing all the bad you hear about America and we promise we won’t believe all the wild stuff we hear about you! By the way, there is plenty of good coming from Iraq…have YOU heard it??

*I use the term “liberal” for Europeans in the way Americans use the term. Please, Europe, substitute the term for “Left” as I know the “liberal” there is more centrist than we define it here.

ADDENDUM: I was just sent the following email...(Thanks, Pat).. Any more questions, Europe?

Media Ignore Saddam's WMD Intent

Wednesday, February 13, 2008 9:33 AMBy: Ronald Kessler

When FBI agent George Piro recently described debriefing Saddam Hussein for seven months after his capture, he disclosed that the Iraqi dictator admitted his intention to re-start his weapons of mass destruction program within a year.
That plan included developing nuclear weapons capability, according to Saddam.
The revelation should have hit Page One of every newspaper.
It would have further justified President Bush’s decision to invade Iraq, a key issue in the coming presidential election. But many in the mainstream media could not bear to hear that Bush may have done something right.
When Piro’s interview came out in my book, "The Terrorist Watch: Inside the Desperate Race to Stop the Next Attack," NBC Nightly News, Fox News, and Newsmax ran the news of Saddam’s admission, but few newspapers published a story. CNN ran a story on the debriefing of Saddam but made no mention of Saddam’s plans to resume his weapons of mass destruction program, including developing nuclear capability. Instead, CNN said that what Saddam told Piro “throws more cold water on the justification for war” because Saddam admitted he was bluffing about having weapons of mass destruction.
Two and a half months later, "60 Minutes" ran the first television interview with Piro. The interview buried the reference to Saddam’s WMD and nuclear plans, as did the press release on the CBS Web site. Likewise, an AP story on the interview mentioned Saddam’s plans in the 11th paragraph. Only four U.S. newspapers ran a story referring to Saddam’s WMD and nuclear plans.
The Washington Post ran a 542-word story on the interview leaving out any mention of Saddam’s avowed intentions. The New York Times ran no story at all.
Today, we have press censorship similar to what existed in the old Soviet Union, except the censors are journalists themselves, and it’s in reverse: News favorable to the government is suppressed.

I rest my case. z