Excellent article on Islam and the Crusades on a Catholic website:
by Joe Hargrave
One of the memes – the unconscious, uncritical, lazy thoughts that spreads from person to person like a virus – that has been particularly virulent during this ground-zero mosque controversy is that Christians have no standing to criticize the violence of Islam, given a supposedly violent Christian history. And no one event is more often invoked as an example of Christian hypocrisy than the so-called “Crusades” (so-called, because no one who fought in them called them that).
The latest and most appalling example appears in the NY Times, courtesy of a Nicholas D. Kristof. Among the many absurdities one can find in this column, including definitive claims as to the intentions and desires of Osama bin Laden, Kristof writes,
Remember also that historically, some of the most shocking brutality in the region was justified by the Bible, not the Koran. Crusaders massacred so many men, women and children in parts of Jerusalem that a Christian chronicler, Fulcher of Chartres, described an area ankle-deep in blood. While burning Jews alive, the crusaders sang, “Christ, We Adore Thee.”
What could be more logical, more pertinent, more relevant, than to invoke thousand-year old wartime excesses as proof that Christians have no grounds to criticize Islam?
Read it all
Monday, August 30, 2010
Saturday, August 21, 2010
It takes a Brit to put into words what Americans should be saying. Wow...this is good.
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Friday, August 20, 2010
God Bless You Charlie Daniels for Speaking Out!!
Par For The Course
Now that Barack Hussein Obama has given his support for the building of the mosque near the site of the 9/11 massacre in New York I only have one question.
What did you expect? Is there anybody naïve enough to think that this president would stand up for the American side for once? To take into consideration the raw feelings of families who are still suffering over the loss of loved ones at the hands of Muslim murderers.
Did you expect him to abandon for once his self righteous mantle of political correctness and say that the area around the Trade Towers is too sensitive to allow the very religion whose followers were dancing in the street while New York City and the Pentagon were in flames to build a monument to their sordid triumph a stone’s throw from the big hole in the ground here these two magnificent buildings once stood.
The building of the mosque in this part of Manhattan has little to do with religion and a whole lot to do with the Muslim tradition of building mosques and shrines in places where they have conquered or struck a serious blow for jihad. A good example is the temple mount in Jerusalem where the Dome of the Rock and the al Aqsa mosque stand on Temple Mount, the most holy site in all of Israel.
These people don’t want a house of worship, they want to make a political statement and Mayor Bloomberg, President Obama and all the rest of the “America last” clabber heads just can’t wait to show the world just how fair minded and enlightened they are by signing off on the project.
They should have asked for a missile base, I’m sure Obama could have found a way to rationalize it.
That mosque will be one of the most important recruiting tools al-Qaeda could ever have. What it says is, “see we’re winning, the Americans are weak, they play right into our hands, come and join the cause and we’ll take this stupid country right under their noses.”
There is no practical reason to build a mosque in the middle of Manhattan Island where the traffic is a nightmare and there is so much animosity against it.
The imam who wants to build the mosque claims he wants to build it as a sign of peace and understanding between Islam and America.
That has got to be an out and out lie. If they really wanted to promote understanding they would not insist on rubbing the faces of hurting Americans in the dirt of their treachery.
Most of the people in this country don’t have any idea what is taught in a lot of the Islamic mosques around the world, hatred for the Jews and the "Great Satan," America. It is the duty of every Muslim male to kill the infidels and to recruit young innocents who they convince that their reward for murdering women and children is actually going to be an eternity in a male dominated paradise with beautiful virgins at their beck and call..
Middle eastern television openly declares their hatred for Jews and openly advocates their destruction.
And here we sit, the land of the free and the home of the brave, with a president, who is literally destroying the greatest economy the world has ever known, can’t bring himself to say, ”War on Terror,” has surrounded himself with enough collage degrees to paper the south wall of the Grand Canyon but not enough common sense to tell the difference between a cartwheel and a cow pie.
Yes, here we sit with a president who had a mandate to do just about anything he wanted to, who has control of both houses of Congress, who has appointed two supreme court justices, and things just keep getting worse.
Well let me tell you something America, and you can believe it now or believe it later.
Things are going to continue to get worse because we’ve got a bunch of crooks in Congress and a dangerous ideologue in the White House and if they’re not stopped they’re going to bring America to her knees, and getting back up is going to be a booger..
And another thing, just because somebody wears the label of Republican doesn’t mean that they’ll do any better. We need to get our minds off political parties and on good people, whatever party they belong to.
The situation has reached critical mass and still all Obama can do is blame all our troubles on George Bush, which in my book, is a sign of a petulant, petty man seems to think he’s playing some kind of game.
Even though the cards seem stacked against them, I know there are a lot of people who are just as determined that the mosque will not be built as Obama, Bloomberg and company are that it will be built.
Fight on my brothers and sisters. Never give up.
Note to cherry pickers--let me say it in my own words before you try to make something out of this column that it isn’t intended to say.
I know that all Muslims and all mosques are not like the ones I described above. This is not an indictment of any decent peace loving human being regardless of their race or religion.
But for the ones who want to destroy my country take it for what it’s worth. You’ve got a whole lot of enemies out here and they’re not all limp-wristed, intellectual milksops like most of the ones who are supporting the mosque.
Me and Bubba don’t like it, and we ain’t afraid to say so.
What do you think?
Pray for our troops, and for our country.
God Bless America
Charlie Daniels
Now that Barack Hussein Obama has given his support for the building of the mosque near the site of the 9/11 massacre in New York I only have one question.
What did you expect? Is there anybody naïve enough to think that this president would stand up for the American side for once? To take into consideration the raw feelings of families who are still suffering over the loss of loved ones at the hands of Muslim murderers.
Did you expect him to abandon for once his self righteous mantle of political correctness and say that the area around the Trade Towers is too sensitive to allow the very religion whose followers were dancing in the street while New York City and the Pentagon were in flames to build a monument to their sordid triumph a stone’s throw from the big hole in the ground here these two magnificent buildings once stood.
The building of the mosque in this part of Manhattan has little to do with religion and a whole lot to do with the Muslim tradition of building mosques and shrines in places where they have conquered or struck a serious blow for jihad. A good example is the temple mount in Jerusalem where the Dome of the Rock and the al Aqsa mosque stand on Temple Mount, the most holy site in all of Israel.
These people don’t want a house of worship, they want to make a political statement and Mayor Bloomberg, President Obama and all the rest of the “America last” clabber heads just can’t wait to show the world just how fair minded and enlightened they are by signing off on the project.
They should have asked for a missile base, I’m sure Obama could have found a way to rationalize it.
That mosque will be one of the most important recruiting tools al-Qaeda could ever have. What it says is, “see we’re winning, the Americans are weak, they play right into our hands, come and join the cause and we’ll take this stupid country right under their noses.”
There is no practical reason to build a mosque in the middle of Manhattan Island where the traffic is a nightmare and there is so much animosity against it.
The imam who wants to build the mosque claims he wants to build it as a sign of peace and understanding between Islam and America.
That has got to be an out and out lie. If they really wanted to promote understanding they would not insist on rubbing the faces of hurting Americans in the dirt of their treachery.
Most of the people in this country don’t have any idea what is taught in a lot of the Islamic mosques around the world, hatred for the Jews and the "Great Satan," America. It is the duty of every Muslim male to kill the infidels and to recruit young innocents who they convince that their reward for murdering women and children is actually going to be an eternity in a male dominated paradise with beautiful virgins at their beck and call..
Middle eastern television openly declares their hatred for Jews and openly advocates their destruction.
And here we sit, the land of the free and the home of the brave, with a president, who is literally destroying the greatest economy the world has ever known, can’t bring himself to say, ”War on Terror,” has surrounded himself with enough collage degrees to paper the south wall of the Grand Canyon but not enough common sense to tell the difference between a cartwheel and a cow pie.
Yes, here we sit with a president who had a mandate to do just about anything he wanted to, who has control of both houses of Congress, who has appointed two supreme court justices, and things just keep getting worse.
Well let me tell you something America, and you can believe it now or believe it later.
Things are going to continue to get worse because we’ve got a bunch of crooks in Congress and a dangerous ideologue in the White House and if they’re not stopped they’re going to bring America to her knees, and getting back up is going to be a booger..
And another thing, just because somebody wears the label of Republican doesn’t mean that they’ll do any better. We need to get our minds off political parties and on good people, whatever party they belong to.
The situation has reached critical mass and still all Obama can do is blame all our troubles on George Bush, which in my book, is a sign of a petulant, petty man seems to think he’s playing some kind of game.
Even though the cards seem stacked against them, I know there are a lot of people who are just as determined that the mosque will not be built as Obama, Bloomberg and company are that it will be built.
Fight on my brothers and sisters. Never give up.
Note to cherry pickers--let me say it in my own words before you try to make something out of this column that it isn’t intended to say.
I know that all Muslims and all mosques are not like the ones I described above. This is not an indictment of any decent peace loving human being regardless of their race or religion.
But for the ones who want to destroy my country take it for what it’s worth. You’ve got a whole lot of enemies out here and they’re not all limp-wristed, intellectual milksops like most of the ones who are supporting the mosque.
Me and Bubba don’t like it, and we ain’t afraid to say so.
What do you think?
Pray for our troops, and for our country.
God Bless America
Charlie Daniels
Saturday, August 14, 2010
What to Expect When Bush's Tax Cuts Expire
Six Months to Go Until
The Largest Tax Hikes in History
From Ryan Ellis on Wednesday, July 7, 2010 5:27 PM 
In just six months, the largest tax hikes in the history of America will take effect. They will hit families and small businesses in three great waves on January 1, 2011:
(N.B. This version of the document contains even more tax hikes than the original version did)
First Wave: Expiration of 2001 and 2003 Tax Relief
In 2001 and 2003, the GOP Congress enacted several tax cuts for investors, small business owners, and families. These will all expire on January 1, 2011:
Personal income tax rates will rise. The top income tax rate will rise from 35 to 39.6 percent (this is also the rate at which two-thirds of small business profits are taxed). The lowest rate will rise from 10 to 15 percent. All the rates in between will also rise. Itemized deductions and personal exemptions will again phase out, which has the same mathematical effect as higher marginal tax rates. The full list of marginal rate hikes is below:
- The 10% bracket rises to an expanded 15%
- The 25% bracket rises to 28%
- The 28% bracket rises to 31%
- The 33% bracket rises to 36%
- The 35% bracket rises to 39.6%
Higher taxes on marriage and family. The “marriage penalty” (narrower tax brackets for married couples) will return from the first dollar of income. The child tax credit will be cut in half from $1000 to $500 per child. The standard deduction will no longer be doubled for married couples relative to the single level. The dependent care and adoption tax credits will be cut.
The return of the Death Tax. This year, there is no death tax. For those dying on or after January 1 2011, there is a 55 percent top death tax rate on estates over $1 million. A person leaving behind two homes and a retirement account could easily pass along a death tax bill to their loved ones.
Higher tax rates on savers and investors. The capital gains tax will rise from 15 percent this year to 20 percent in 2011. The dividends tax will rise from 15 percent this year to 39.6 percent in 2011. These rates will rise another 3.8 percent in 2013.
Second Wave: Obamacare
There are over twenty new or higher taxes in Obamacare. Several will first go into effect on January 1, 2011. They include:
The Tanning Tax. This went into effect on July 1st of this year. It imposes a new, 10% excise tax on getting a tan at a tanning salon. There is no exemption for tanners making less than $250,000 per year.
The “Medicine Cabinet Tax” Thanks to Obamacare, Americans will no longer be able to use health savings account (HSA), flexible spending account (FSA), or health reimbursement (HRA) pre-tax dollars to purchase non-prescription, over-the-counter medicines (except insulin).
The HSA Withdrawal Tax Hike. This provision of Obamacare increases the additional tax on non-medical early withdrawals from an HSA from 10 to 20 percent, disadvantaging them relative to IRAs and other tax-advantaged accounts, which remain at 10 percent.
Brand Name Drug Tax. Starting next year, there will be a multi-billion dollar tax assessment imposed on name-brand drug manufacturers. This tax, like all excise taxes, will raise the price of medicine, hurting everyone.
Economic Substance Doctrine. The IRS is now empowered to disallow perfectly-legal tax deductions and maneuvers merely because it judges that the deduction or action lacks “economic substance.” This is obviously an arbitrary empowerment of IRS agents.
Employer Reporting of Health Insurance Costs on a W-2. This will start for W-2s in the 2011 tax year. While not a tax increase in itself, it makes it very easy for Congress to tax employer-provided healthcare benefits later.
Third Wave: The Alternative Minimum Tax and Employer Tax Hikes
When Americans prepare to file their tax returns in January of 2011, they’ll be in for a nasty surprise—the AMT won’t be held harmless, and many tax relief provisions will have expired. These major items include:
The AMT will ensnare over 28 million families, up from 4 million last year. According to the left-leaning Tax Policy Center, Congress’ failure to index the AMT will lead to an explosion of AMT taxpaying families—rising from 4 million last year to 28.5 million. These families will have to calculate their tax burdens twice, and pay taxes at the higher level. The AMT was created in 1969 to ensnare a handful of taxpayers.
Small business expensing will be slashed and 50% expensing will disappear. Small businesses can normally expense (rather than slowly-deduct, or “depreciate”) equipment purchases up to $250,000. This will be cut all the way down to $25,000. Larger businesses can expense half of their purchases of equipment. In January of 2011, all of it will have to be “depreciated.”
Taxes will be raised on all types of businesses. There are literally scores of tax hikes on business that will take place. The biggest is the loss of the “research and experimentation tax credit,” but there are many, many others. Combining high marginal tax rates with the loss of this tax relief will cost jobs.
Tax Benefits for Education and Teaching Reduced. The deduction for tuition and fees will not be available. Tax credits for education will be limited. Teachers will no longer be able to deduct classroom expenses. Coverdell Education Savings Accounts will be cut. Employer-provided educational assistance is curtailed. The student loan interest deduction will be disallowed for hundreds of thousands of families.
Charitable Contributions from IRAs no longer allowed. Under current law, a retired person with an IRA can contribute up to $100,000 per year directly to a charity from their IRA. This contribution also counts toward an annual “required minimum distribution.” This ability will no longer be there.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Ted Nugent's Barebone Analysis of the State of the Union
NUGENT: Extermination crew to the rescue
Time to fumigate the Washington pest haven
By Ted Nugent
-
The Washington Times
6:32 p.m., Wednesday, August 11, 2010
As leftists gain confidence with their stranglehold on Congress, the media and the White House, it is getting easier all the time to identify their suicidal tendencies. Common-sense Americans are increasingly waking up to the Obama fan club that hates entrepreneurialism, capitalism and the American Dream of excellence. Listen to Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Howard Dean, Bill Maher, Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow, Joy Behar or President Obama, et al. for but a few moments, if you can stomach them, and their mantra is nothing less than putridly anti-individualism, anti-independence, anti-productivity, anti-logic and anti-common sense. I'm surprised Hugo Chavez hasn't invited them to move in yet.
Thank God for the First Amendment, for the freedom to express oneself is the freedom to know where they stand, and the clear and present platform of the left is contrary to everything that made this country great.
I find it painfully disheartening that the United States of America voted for Barack Hussein Obama, the leftist community organizer, in a time following the horrors of Sept. 11, 2001. Would America have voted for a clueless, inexperienced man with an anti-American voting record with the name Adolf, Eichmann or Stalin following World War II? I think not.
It is unfathomable to me that such support exists for a man who was raised and abandoned by avowed Marxist parents, whose mentor was a self-avowed Marxist, who studied and preached Marxism and communism, who attended a radical, America-hating church led by a radical America-hating pastor, who had this radical, America-hating pastor baptize his children and marry him and his wife, who has appointed as czars a gang of flagrant communists, Marxists, socialists and America-hating, capitalism-hating, U.S. Constitution-hating radicals, who associated regularly with convicted homegrown terrorists and 1960s radicals and other such egregious violations. I ask, how can this be?
The left cannot get it right and has never gotten it right. Their war on poverty is a dismal failure, succeeding only in enslaving an entire subclass of hopeless whiners who think that bling-bling, dope and booze are the three food groups.
Their mindless shoveling of massive barges overflowing with cash at the American education system has produced the dumbest group of dropouts in the history of mankind who can neither read, write, talk, spell or groom themselves. Motor City Breakdown, anyone?
When you listen to their ravings about what the government must do for the poor and helpless among us, virtually guaranteeing poverty and helplessness forever, the corrupt, arrogant bureaucrats cannot fathom why anyone would want to know where the money will come from or where it will be spent. As House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is so famous for saying, we don't need to know what is in the bill, just sign it and we might tell you later. Unbelievable.
Everyone knows that Charlie Rangel - like Tom Daschle, John Kerry and Tim Geithner, et al. - should be in jail, yet like so many of Mr. Obama's cronies, his known violations are being swept under the carpet by a viciously corrupt system that feeds upon itself and spits in the face of "we the people." The emperor has no clothes and he needs to be hung out to dry, ASAP.
All across America, the flagrant abuse of power, like what we are witnessing from the bureaucrats of Bell, Calif., is widespread, entrenched and pandemic. The vulgar superiority in government today is beyond the pale. The feds are so cocksure of their immunity that they are virtually unafraid to shove it into the faces of American families day in and day out.
Ultimately, this is good. Our Founding Fathers warned of such corruption, and it has come to be. The embarrassing naivete that has metastasized across America is now morphing into meaningful anger and boiling-point frustration. Sometimes, it takes a really stinky, nasty rat to move into our home before we admit we have a rat problem. Mr. Obama is the rat that freedom has been waiting for. The Tea Party exterminators have finally admitted to a dangerous rat problem.We are so very thankful that you thought you could just mosey into our living room and be so damned sure we wouldn't notice.
Well, we notice, Mr. President, and your time is up. We will pull the de-rat lever at the voting booth this November, and I pray to God in every election forever to be sure we stop all future rats before they get into our American house.
The good news for all you America-hating, communist-loving, social-justice engineers is that your dream is still available to you, but it is not here in America. You should go to those countries where there is no confounding U.S. Constitution, where the nanny state can treat everyone equally, no matter what level of effort you put forth, where the Lenin dream of sheeplike sub-existence is alive and well. I'm sure Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro, Vladimir Putin or Osama bin Laden can find a place for your special talents and destructive ways.
Meanwhile, I'm with Glenn Beck and the Tea Party and hardworking, hard-playing Americans who still know that the American Dream is all about excellence and heart-and-soul effort. Where intelligent prioritization and a herculean work ethic can accomplish anything and everything you want. Where excuses are not tolerated, where rugged individualism and true independence is the core of the American Way. Where "can't" doesn't exist and miracles happen for those who believe and try.
Ted Nugent is an unstoppable American rock 'n' roll, sporting and political activist icon. He is author of "Ted, White & Blue: The Nugent Manifesto" and "God, Guns and Rock 'N' Roll" (Regnery Publishing).
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