April 23, 2005

IRAQ THUGS KILL PILOT ON VIDEO

In a video showing the murder of the sole survivor of a downed helicopter in Iraq, a gunman orders, "Carry out God's verdict," and his colleagues open fire, riddling the man with bullets as they shriek "Allahu akbar!" — or "God is great!"

The video was posted on an Internet forum used by Islamic fanatics and was accompanied by a written statement from a terror group identifying itself as the Islamic Army in Iraq.
[...]
The video begins with an unseen cameraman running toward burning wreckage. Two bodies are visible, one of them severely charred.

"Look at that filth," someone says in Arabic.

The scene moves to tall grass, where Kostov, wearing a blue flight suit, is lying on his back, his head bloody.

"Stand up! Stand up!" the cameraman shouts to Kostov in English.

"I can't, it's broken. Give me a hand," he says in English, raising his hands for help. It appears the thugs help pull Kostov to his feet. The cameraman tells Kostov to step back.

Kostov then tries to walk, limping with his back to the guerrillas, who say something that makes him turn around. Kostov raises his hands as if gesturing for someone to stop.

"Carry out God's verdict," someone says, and the assassins shoot Kostov at point-blank range, continuing even after he falls.

Here we were worried about the "abuses" at Abu Ghraib while our enemies have no such concerns.
They had no mercy for this man, did not tend to him as wounded (even if an "enemy" wounded) and did not scruple to brutally take his life when he was unarmed, injured and defenseless...
God rest this "filth's" soul.
Lord knows these Islamists didn't.

April 20, 2005

There's been much thoughtful commentary on the election of the world's newest, and Rome's 265th, Pope (and there's been more than a bit thoughtless and irresponsible criticism from the Leftist MSM, too), but Canadian Catholic thinker David Warren has one of the better responses to welcome Pope Benedict XVI:
Jubilate Deo
I knew virtually nothing about Cardinal Ratzinger until I watched him conduct Pope JPII's funeral mass on TV.
I like his face and he conducted that mass, even though it was going out live all over the world to 2 billion people or more, such that it was a moving, spiritual and even intimate experience--no small thing to accomplish, especially given the fact that he was stepping into John Paul's giant shadow quite literally.
I've since learned of his early history as a teenage boy growing up in Nazi Germany--joining the Hitler Youth by force, being made to join the Reich's Army by force, which he deserted.
As a priest and Vatican official, he's written some important works on the Faith on his own and he contributed significantly to many works issued by Pope John Paul, with whom he was also a close friend.
As far as I can tell, he is a pious, godly and prayerful man and as President Bush remarked, " a servant of God."
Even though I'm a Protestant--although I'm taking a serious look at the Church of Rome these days, particularly since the Episcopal Church chose to make itself irrelevant of late--Pope Benedict is a wonderful choice who will work to promote the Culture of Life and who will indeed be a stalwart Defender of the Faith.
I love it that he's pretty tough on Islam.
And I also love it that he's German;
his visibility, work and moral force as Pope may be the last great hope for Western Europe's Christian salvation before it helplessly succumbs to being EUrabia, a cheerless world without hope in which the whites will be agnostics or atheists and the citizens of color will all be Muslim.
God works in mysterious ways and He is still at work in the 21st Century and in His one, holy and catholic [Note: lower case "c"] Church.
This is true for us all, but not the least for whom it is true than Pope Benedict and the cardinals who elected him.
Let's continue to pray for the Holy Father and for all us wretched sinners saved by Grace!

DeLay Calls Justice Kennedy 'Outrageous'

The House Judiciary Committee is reviewing the activities of justices on the Supreme Court and in other circuits to determine whether they have overstepped their authority and must be reined in, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay told FOX News Radio's Tony Snow on Tuesday.

On that list for review is Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, DeLay said, calling the judge's written decisions "outrageous."

"We've got Justice Kennedy writing decisions based upon international law, not the Constitution of the United States. That's just outrageous, and not only that, he said in session that he does his own research on the Internet. That is just incredibly outrageous," DeLay said in the interview.

DeLay said he and other members of Congress have just begun using the long-held authority vested in them by the Constitution to conduct judicial review.
[...]
The House has no authority to determine which judges are confirmed for lifetime appointments to the federal bench. But impeachment proceedings do begin in the House.

DeLay said the Judiciary Committee will hold hearings on the clause in the Constitution that says "judges can serve as long as they serve with good behavior."

(Note, there's no Constitutional provision for life terms!)
Whoo-ee! Tom DeLay rocks!
He takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin'!
He's exactly right, too, and I think impeachment proceedings should go forward on Justice Kennedy for his application of "foreign laws."
Ruth Bader Ginsburgh should be monitored, as she, too, has publicly endorsed the use of foreign law to decide American cases.
(Can we look at the rolling back of Marbury vs. Madison, which gives the USSC its Constitutional purview, while we're at it?)
There are some today who think the charge that Kennedy is doing his legal research on the net No Big Deal, but it's not worthy of one of our nation's highest jurists;
he has plenty of legal clerks for that and what's he doing, Googling for those foreign cases?
It also depends on whether he's doing Lexis/Nexis searches or hanging out in chat rooms like DUh.com and Smirking Chimp!
Perhaps, like the College of Cardinals during their papal conclave, he and all the other SCOTUS justices should be barred from using all communication devices like computers while they decide cases.

Arnold: 'Close the Borders'

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Tuesday the nation's policy on preventing illegal immigration is too lax, telling a group of newspaper publishers the United States needs to "close the borders."

"Close the borders in California and all across Mexico and in the United States," Schwarzenegger said at the annual meeting of the Newspaper Association of America. "Because I think it is just unfair to have all those people coming across, have the borders open the way it is, and have this kind of lax situation."

Quite right, Gov. Terminator!
"Arnold" (BTW, it's disappointing that Fox News uses the governor's familiar first name in an important news story.) recognizes that our porous borders are not only a huge security risk during the War on Terror, but that he cannot rein in California's budget, which provides for all kinds of services for illegals at ruinous expense to the citizens of that state, while this chaotic state of affairs continues.
Illegals have become a "luxury" that we can no longer afford.
Now if only the Governator would convince Texas Governor Rick Perry, too.

April 19, 2005

Black Smoke Signals No Decision on Pope

Black smoke poured from the Sistine Chapel's chimney in the Vatican Monday evening, signaling that the cardinals meeting in secret inside have not yet chosen the next pope to lead the world's 1.1 billion Roman Catholics.

The black smoke meant the 115 voting cardinal "princes" of the church would retire for the night and return to the chapel Tuesday morning for more balloting in their search for a successor to Pope John Paul II. If two morning ballots fail to produce a pope, the cardinals could hold two more votes Tuesday afternoon.
[JP the Great wasn't elected until the 8th vote, ya know...--Jen]
[...]
"I slept well, and now my ideas are clear," French Cardinal Paul Poupard said as he headed into the Mass on Monday. "I have realized the seriousness of the election. The Holy Spirit will do the rest."
[Even though he's French, Cardinal Poupard sounds like a good prelate and he's right.
The MSM is treating this like an American election--too, too tacky!--proving beyond a doubt that nothing is truly sacred to them.
(Live Chimney Cams are the order of the day.)
I'm not a Catholic, but I am an ecumenical Christian and therefore I hope you'll join me in praying that the Holy Spirit indeed will lead the College of Cardinals to pick as holy, pious and loving a pontiff as Pope John Paul II was.--Jen]
[...]
[Cardinal Joseph] Ratzinger drew applause as he asked God to give the church a "a pastor according to his own heart, a pastor who guides us to knowledge in Christ, to his love and to true joy."

Amen, Cardinal Ratzinger!



(The art historian in me can't help but be enraptured by Michaelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling over the place where the College of Cardinals are meeting to vote.
At great expense, which was footed by the Japanese, these frescoes were cleaned a few years ago, revealing the true, gorgeous palate of the Master with shimmering shades of purple, pink, green and orange that had been hidden by centuries of candle smoke soot.)

Minutemen pronounce border vigil a success

Minuteman Project organizers yesterday declared victory after shutting down a 20-mile stretch of the Arizona border to illegal aliens, but promised to rally "tens of thousands" of new volunteers for a blockade this fall on the U.S.-Mexico border from California to Texas.

Hurry up, fellas, and man the Texas border (not to mention California's--I hear it's outrageous)!
We've got illegals by the hundreds coming in every day.

"This has been a successful and bloodless effort, proving without a doubt that the physical presence of additional bodies along the border deters illegal immigration," he[Minutemen founder James T. Gilchrist] said.
[...]
A number of grass-roots civilian patrols have sprung up in other border states from California to Texas in response to the Minuteman Project here. Mr. Gilchrist said he hopes to rally the new patrols into a network of volunteers spreading from Brownsville, Texas, to San Diego, beginning as early as October.
    Mr. Gilchrist, a retired California certified public accountant and combat-wounded Vietnam veteran, said he plans to stay in Arizona through the end of the month, but will appear with Mr. Simcox next week before the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus in Washington.
    
He said he would detail the success of the Minuteman Project to the committee, including the fact that increased border enforcement resulted in decreased illegal immigration and that the Mexican government -- which moved illegals around the Minuteman-patrolled areas -- can control immigration on its side of the border "if it wants to."

It seems that either the U.S. or Mexico or both, in the best of all possible worlds, must work to control the problem and we know that Mexico won't, so that leaves us.
These fine, patriotic men are doing the Lord's work and are a worthy namesake of our early Minutemen who formed citizen militia to fight the redcoats, even though the modern counterparts have fought peaceably here and within the limits of our laws, this despite the fact that the MSM tried to paint them as "radical right wing vigilantes."
People power is the greatest, particularly in the land of the Free and the home of the Brave!

April 18, 2005

I took a spring break last week (doubtful if anyone missed me or noticed...) because all of the "news" was ridiculously trivial noise!
(Oh, and the weather here was lovely, too!)
Between the Dems hopping up and down over the "obvious corruption" of Tom Delay, the "folly" of President Bush's plans to reform Social Security, the empty threats--on both sides of the aisle, I'm sorry to say--about using the "nuclear option" to end the atrocious faux filibustering by the Dems to get a straight up-or-down vote on Bush's judicial nominees and the ludicrous carping about John Bolton's "fitness" to be our representative to the UN ("One world under a felony"), it just wasn't worth blogging about!
But, who else but Mark Steyn could put this in its proper perspective?
Behold, his most hilarious column to date about the Bolton flapdoodle:
Bolton's just too hip for scaredy-cat Dems

Not content with criticizing Bolton for "putting his hands on his hips" and (perhaps) "raising his voice" when a subordinate screwed up data in a presentation Bolton made about Cuba having WMDs, the MSM, led by the WashedUpPost, are still trying to whip up a frenzied mob against him with this today:
Bolton Often Blocked Information, Officials Say
Oh, no!
Bolton "blocked information!"
Clearly, he's gotta go.
While the U.N. helped Saddam steal millions from the Iraqi people and has turned a blind eye to sex crimes by its soldiers in Rwanda and is trying its best to ignore an Islamist genocide in Darfur, we can't get Bolton in there to help clean up these messes because the MSM/DNC has reason to believe he "doesn't play well with others."
Sheesh.
Sometimes, blogging this cr*p is a pain in the b*tt!
When middle-aged and elderly U.S. Senators behave like PMS-ing students at a Catholic girls' school, it makes me both fear and feel disgusted about my country and my government.
The Congress took a full day to walllow in the abuse of steroids by baseball players, but what with the Bolton hearings, the b*tching about SS reform and the whining about "getting" Delay, our Congresspersons and Senators are getting absolutely nothing done!
And the summer recess isn't far away...
Gas on, Washington!
It's not like we're at war or have any pressing business to take of.