Does this mean that the whole “border thing” is starting to work?
Help Wanted Ads Go Unanswered in West (from ABC News.)
“Now, workers with more options in some places are unwilling to take $12-an-hour jobs.”
Too bad about the whole economy thing…
What are we going to do about it? For starters, how about resisting the MSM’s pessimism with actual facts?
8/25/07
8/17/07
Counterjihad in the Philippines
The Armed Forces of the Philippines, aided by an “unknown number of American military advisors,” recently launched a military campaign against radical Muslim terrorist groups. There is some concern that the fighting could spread and escalate, if “less radical” groups who have formerly signed ceasefire agreements are drawn back into the fray.
Read the article in the Asia Times.
Read the article in the Asia Times.
8/14/07
Fundamentalism
Short Interview: Robert Spencer on Fox & Friends Aug 14 2007
Robert Spencer, of JihadWatch.org, explains (in almost sound-byte form) the difference between moderate Muslims and violent extremists: the moderates are “bad” Muslims, in the sense that they don’t follow what the Qur’an actually teaches. The extremists, on the other hand, actually pay attention to what the Qur’an tells them to do and then do it ― things like engaging in violent “struggle” against those who “threaten” Islam by believing other creeds and killing Christians who “dishonor” Allah by worshipping Jesus.
In much the same way as many liberal Christians have drifted far afield from what the Bible actually teaches, and yet still call themselves Christians, many Muslims have chosen to ignore vast swaths of Islamic teaching and ideology yet still call themselves Muslims. This makes them “bad” Muslims in the sense that they’re unfaithful to the literal teaching of Mohammed and the Qur’an, but “good” Muslims in the sense that they have no interest in killing your children.
Which is a good thing.
The problem is that the extremists can come into a moderate area and tell the people there how they are not following the teachings of the Qur’an and are not being faithful to Allah. And according to the Qur’an, they’re right. It doesn’t take a university-educated professor of Arabic and Islamic theology to see that the literal reading of the Qur’an supports the jihadi ideology, and it seems that an unfortunate number of previously-moderate (i.e., not-very-Qur’an-following) Muslims end up becoming radicalized. Or should I say “literalized.”
Anyway, watch the video, and read more of Spencer’s stuff on the true, literal, fundamentalist nature of Islam. Then help me decide what we’re going to do about it.
Robert Spencer, of JihadWatch.org, explains (in almost sound-byte form) the difference between moderate Muslims and violent extremists: the moderates are “bad” Muslims, in the sense that they don’t follow what the Qur’an actually teaches. The extremists, on the other hand, actually pay attention to what the Qur’an tells them to do and then do it ― things like engaging in violent “struggle” against those who “threaten” Islam by believing other creeds and killing Christians who “dishonor” Allah by worshipping Jesus.
In much the same way as many liberal Christians have drifted far afield from what the Bible actually teaches, and yet still call themselves Christians, many Muslims have chosen to ignore vast swaths of Islamic teaching and ideology yet still call themselves Muslims. This makes them “bad” Muslims in the sense that they’re unfaithful to the literal teaching of Mohammed and the Qur’an, but “good” Muslims in the sense that they have no interest in killing your children.
Which is a good thing.
The problem is that the extremists can come into a moderate area and tell the people there how they are not following the teachings of the Qur’an and are not being faithful to Allah. And according to the Qur’an, they’re right. It doesn’t take a university-educated professor of Arabic and Islamic theology to see that the literal reading of the Qur’an supports the jihadi ideology, and it seems that an unfortunate number of previously-moderate (i.e., not-very-Qur’an-following) Muslims end up becoming radicalized. Or should I say “literalized.”
Anyway, watch the video, and read more of Spencer’s stuff on the true, literal, fundamentalist nature of Islam. Then help me decide what we’re going to do about it.
8/7/07
The Seed of the Church
In 2005, Gene Veith wrote an amazing article in WORLD Magazine entitled Praying for Persecution. In it, he quotes a leader of a Chinese Christian house-church movement who asked that the world, “Stop praying for persecution in China to end.” The house-church leader then added, “It is through persecution that the church has grown.”
Now, in 2007, that growth is being made public to the world. An article today in Asia Times Online, Christianity Finds a Fulcrum in Asia, reports that “Ten thousand Chinese become Christians each day…and 200 million Chinese may comprise the world's largest concentration of Christians by mid-century.”
Ten thousand a day. Amazing. The article, of course, focuses more on the political and demographic changes that this growth brings with it ― including making China a “replacement” for an increasingly secularized and Islamicized Europe ― but the spiritual ramifications are breathtaking. (Democracy would be good, too, no doubt...)
Read this article. Thank God for the spread of his Word, and pray that many more people, of every nation, race, tribe and language, would be taken into the fold of the Good Shepherd.
And, if you’re brave, join that Chinese house-church leader, who said, “We, in fact, are praying that the American church might taste the same persecution so revival would come to the American church like we have seen in China.”
Soli Deo Gloria.
Now, in 2007, that growth is being made public to the world. An article today in Asia Times Online, Christianity Finds a Fulcrum in Asia, reports that “Ten thousand Chinese become Christians each day…and 200 million Chinese may comprise the world's largest concentration of Christians by mid-century.”
Ten thousand a day. Amazing. The article, of course, focuses more on the political and demographic changes that this growth brings with it ― including making China a “replacement” for an increasingly secularized and Islamicized Europe ― but the spiritual ramifications are breathtaking. (Democracy would be good, too, no doubt...)
Read this article. Thank God for the spread of his Word, and pray that many more people, of every nation, race, tribe and language, would be taken into the fold of the Good Shepherd.
And, if you’re brave, join that Chinese house-church leader, who said, “We, in fact, are praying that the American church might taste the same persecution so revival would come to the American church like we have seen in China.”
Soli Deo Gloria.
8/3/07
Iraq Weekly Briefing
Check out the Iraq Weekly Briefing on Small Wars Journal:
From the intro:
"Paul Brinkley, Deputy Under Secretary of Defense, and Philip Reeker, US Embassy, Baghdad, join BG Kevin Bergner, Multi-National Force-Iraq spokesman, in an expansion of the normal weekly Iraq update. Bergner starts off with a security update then turns over to Reeker and Brinkley who discuss reconstruction, economic and political efforts underway to assist the government of Iraq. Of note - Brinkley provides a detailed update on Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs). Q&A follows the formal brief."
I haven’t watched it all yet (it’s almost an hour long), but even the briefing notes give you a lot better picture of what’s going on than the sound-byte approach to news that we usually get.
Warming, Schwarming?
This report from Fox News’ “Junk Science” section reveals an interesting new study on the effect of aerosols in the atmosphere and challenges some of the more sweeping claims of the Global-Warming-Catastrophe-Hype in a simple and understandable way. Check it out:
How Now Brown Cloud?
A sample quote:
“At the very moment that Congress considers enacting energy-price-raising and economy-killing legislation to regulate greenhouse gases based on the idea that human activity is harming global climate, the new aerosol study underscores (again) how little we understand whether and how human activities actually impact global climate.”
How Now Brown Cloud?
A sample quote:
“At the very moment that Congress considers enacting energy-price-raising and economy-killing legislation to regulate greenhouse gases based on the idea that human activity is harming global climate, the new aerosol study underscores (again) how little we understand whether and how human activities actually impact global climate.”
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