Everyone involved with the Flight 93 Memorial knows that the Crescent of Embrace points to Mecca

In 2007, Flight 93 Advisory Commission member Tim Baird told Alec Rawls (the author of these blogburst posts) that everyone at the meetings he attended is fully aware that the giant crescent, originally named the Crescent of Embrace, really does point almost exactly at Mecca. Professor Baird says they all just assume (himself included) that the Mecca orientation must be an innocent coincidence.

Pretty crazy, when they have also been told the meaning of a crescent that Muslims face into to face Mecca. Every mosque is built around a Mecca-direction indicator called a mihrab, and the classic mihrab is crescent shaped. Geometrically, the Crescent of Embrace is the world’s largest mihrab.

However honestly Project Partners believe that the Mecca orientation of the crescent must be a coincidence, this is not what they tell the public. When reporters asked Memorial Project Superintendent Joanne Hanley about the Mecca orientation, she denied it:

"The only thing that orients the memorial is the crash site," she said.

Thinking that the Mecca orientation of the crescent must be a coincidence in no way justifies lying to the public about this explosive information. If Baird’s account is accurate—that the dozens of Memorial Project Partners all know that the giant crescent actually does point to Mecca—then the Memorial Project has a lot of explaining to do. Now an overlooked article from 2007 corroborates Professor Baird’s information.

Dr. Glenn Kashurba

It turns out that a Pennsylvania psychiatrist who has been intimately involved with the memorialization of Flight 93 (writing two books on the subject) argued to a reporter before the July 2007 Memorial Project meeting that the Mecca-orientation of the giant crescent (which he took as a given) should be seen as coincidental:

“When you calculate angles to Mecca - I'm going to be in Washington, D.C., this week, and I'm sure if I calculate angles of the monuments, at least one points to Mecca,” Kashurba said. “I don't know if it will be the White House or the Lincoln Memorial, but at least one will. People looking for a way to support their way of looking at things will look at this in this way for ever and ever.”

If Dr. Kashurba was getting his information from the Memorial Project’s public statements, he would have denied that the crescent points to Mecca. Here is what Memorial Project Partner Patrick White told the press 9 days before the Kashurba story:

Rawls, of Palo Alto, Calif., contends that the centerpiece of the design points toward Mecca.

Rawls’ claims are untrue and “preposterous,” according to Patrick White, Families of Flight 93 vice president. “We went through in detail all his original claims and came away with nothing.”

Kashurba knew better, as did Patrick White himself. The week after his public denial, a local woman asked White how he could be okay with the Mecca orientation of the giant crescent. This time White did not deny the Mecca orientation, but argued that it cannot be seen as honoring Islam because the inexactness of the Mecca orientation would be "disrespectful" to Islam.

Mecca orientation takes literally 2 minutes to verify, starting from source documents

It is not surprising that these Memorial Project insiders would know that the giant crescent does in fact point almost exactly at Mecca (1.8° north of Mecca to be precise, ± 0.1°). After all, they had by the summer of 2007 been examining Rawls’ report, and answering questions from the press about it, for over a year, and the near Mecca orientation of the Crescent of Embrace is trivially easy to verify.

Just use any of the online Islamic prayer-direction calculators to print out the direction to Mecca from Somerset PA. Place this graphic over the Crescent site-plan on your computer screen, and you will see that the Mecca-direction line (which Muslims call “qibla”) almost exactly bisects the crescent:



The green circle in this image is from the qibla calculator at Islam.com (down at the moment, but you can use the one at Qibla.com, or QiblaLocator.com). A person standing between the tips of the giant crescent and facing into the center of the crescent will be facing almost exactly at Mecca.

Patrick White knows this and deceives the press and the public about it. Dr. Kashurba knows it and stands by as White and others deceive the press and the public about it. These deceptions have been blatant.

Everything points to Mecca?

The Project even went to far as to dig up an academic fraud from Texas, willing to deny that there is any such thing as the direction to Mecca:

Daniel Griffith, a geospatial information sciences professor at the University of Texas at Dallas, said anything can point toward Mecca, because the earth is round.

Was the reporter embarrassed to ask Muslims if they can really face any direction to face Mecca? Hard to blame her. Just to ask such a stupid question is to answer it, but the obviousness of the fraud is no excuse for letting it stand.

According to Professor Baird, every Memorial Project member who saw these denials knew that they were fraudulent, yet not one of them has tried to tell the public about the Project’s dishonest cover-up. When the truth does get out to the broader public, Project members are going to have a lot to answer for, which is presumably why they are keeping their mouths shut now. They have done a very bad thing and they don’t want it exposed.

What proves Islamic intent is the architect’s elaborate repetition of the Mecca orientation

No one ever claimed that the almost exact Mecca orientation of the Crescent of Embrace proves Islamic intent. Architect Paul Murdoch proves intent in a different way: by elaborate repetition of his Mecca orientations. His first confirmation of intent is to include an exact Mecca orientation.

In Murdoch’s explanation, the flight path breaks the circle, turning it into the giant crescent. To find this thematically defined crescent, remove those parts of the full Crescent of Embrace that extend out past the point where the flight path breaks the circle. The resulting true or thematic crescent points EXACTLY at Mecca:



At the upper tip of the crescent, the flight path comes down from the NNE and symbolically breaks the circle. What symbolically remains standing is the true or thematic Crescent of Embrace, pointing exactly at Mecca.

Murdoch’s next confirmation of intent is to exactly repeat this entire multi-Mecca oriented geometry in the vast array of crescents of trees that surround the Tower of Voices part of the memorial. Setting aside the chance that an architect could in the first place design a memorial to Flight 93 out of nothing but crescents just by innocent coincidence (which must be close to zero), the odds that these crescents would by random chance manifest Murdoch’s repeated Mecca orientations are 1 in 131 billion:

The only change was to include an explicitly broken off part of the circle

The original Crescent of Embrace design included the symbolically broken off parts at the upper crescent tip. When the bare naked Islamic-crescent shape caused a public uproar, the Memorial Project added another broken off part of the circle, floating out in front of the mouth of the original crescent.

They call it a broken circle now, but the unbroken part of the circle, the symbolic result of 9/11, is still a giant Islamic shaped crescent, still pointing EXACTLY at Mecca. That makes it a mihrab, the Mecca-direction indicator around which every mosque is built. The planned memorial is actually a terrorist memorial mosque.


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More Obama Broken Promises: Presidential Signing Statements

by Maggie at Maggie's Notebook

One thing I know is true (one of Obama's favorite transitions) is...the campaign trail is a lying, cheating road to the Oval Office for four more years of lying and cheating. Congress has rebuked President Obama's Presidential Signings.

Thanks to Stop the ACLU.

This was then...

Obama on Presidential Signing

“What George Bush has been trying to do as part of his effort to accumulate more power in the presidency is he’s been saying ‘well I can basically change what Congress passed by attaching a letter saying I don’t agree with this part or I don’t agree with that part,” Obama said last year during a campaign stop. “I’m gonna’ choose to interpret it this way or that way.’ That’s not part of his power. But this is part of the whole theory of George Bush that he can make laws as he’s going along. I disagree with that. I taught the constitution for 10 years. I believe in the constitution, and I will obey the Constitution of the United States.
“We’re not going to use signing statements as a way of doing an end-run around Congress.”

This is now:

The House rebuked President Obama for trying to ignore restrictions to international aid payments, voting overwhelmingly for an amendment forcing the administration to abide by its constraints.

House members approved an amendment by a 429-2 vote to have the Obama administration pressure the World Bank to strengthen labor and environmental standards and require a Treasury Department report on World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) activities. The amendment to a 2010 funding bill for the State Department and foreign operations was proposed by Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas), but it received broad bipartisan support.

The conditions on World Bank and IMF funding were part of the $106 billion war supplemental bill that was passed last month. Obama, in a statement made as he signed the bill, said that he would ignore the conditions. They would “interfere with my constitutional authority to conduct foreign relations by directing the Executive to take certain positions in negotiations or discussions with international organizations and foreign governments, or by requiring consultation with the Congress prior to such negotiations or discussions,” Obama said in the signing statement.

Hat tip: Hot Air

End Stop the ACLU

The Hill went on to report:

Senior Democrats and Republicans railed against the notion that the president could ignore a law they had passed and he had signed.

"We do this not just on behalf of this institution, but on behalf of this democracy," said Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.). "There's kind of a unilateralism, an undemocratic, unreachable way about these signing statements."

Frank and Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) said that one way they could get presidents to stop issuing signing statements casting aside laws would be to refuse to fund their priorities. The amendment passed Thursday seeks to nullify Obama's signing statement by withholding funds from any agreement involving the Treasury Department that doesn't follow the conditions set out in the supplemental bill.

"The signal we send to the Treasury is very clear: Ignore statute at your peril," Kirk said.

The Zimbabwean Trillion Dollar Campaign: Celebrating the Freedom of Speech

Hat tip to Crusader Rabbit

Imagine living in a country where the currency is so worthless that a trillion dollars doesn't even buy a loaf of bread, a dozen eggs, or even a piece of bubble gum.

Imagine living in that country and the press being silenced. Forced to follow the Party line or face punishment.

Imagine a courageous Newspaper publisher with limited funds and the advertising agency that takes on such a dictator.

This is the life for millions of citizens in Zimbabwe. Hyper-Inflation, loss of civil rights, and a dictator more concerned with his own self than his people.

The Zimbabwean Titanium Trillion Dollar Campaign



View at YouTube

The Zimbabwean Trillion Dollar Campaign celebrates the freedom of speech – and after winning the Grand Prix in the 2009 Disruption Awards the jury at the 2009 Cannes Lions honored the South African campaign with an unseen amount of Cannes Lions: so far three Gold, one Silver and one Grand Prix.

The campaign was designed to raise awareness regarding the plight of The Zimbabwean newspaper and consisted of various creative elements, including a billboard, all made up entirely of Zimbabwean Dollar bank notes. The newspaper, the brainchild of journalists driven into exile, is committed to providing independent and fair comment on Zimbabwe to Zimbabweans, and has had a ‘luxury’ import duty of over 55% added to it by the Mugabe government, thus making it unaffordable to the average Zimbabwean citizen.

Read the full story here.

Robert Gabriel Mugabe is a tyrant. Ruling the nation of Zimbabwe with an Iron Fist, squandering its resources on frivolities, his wife believes that the national treasury is her personal spending account and her shopping trips to Paris, London, Rome, and New York are infamous.

The Mugabes and their cronies live in splendor while their nation suffers. Drought, Cholera, Hunger stalk the nation.

How much longer does the people of Zimbabwe have to suffer at the hands of this tyrant before the International Community cries enough? How much longer do we have to wait before President Barack Obama says something? Or will Mugabe become just another dictator in a line of dictators around the world that Obama will embrace?

The people of Zimbabwe need our voices to be raised, for theirs have been silenced by their tyrant.

If you wish to read the truth from Zimbabwe, you have the opportunity and ability to read The Zimbabwean. It is on-line and free to you. Unlike the millions living in Zimbabwe, you are fortunate to have access to the internet.

Two Arabs Discuss the Worth of the Arab Civilization

by Maggie at Maggie's Notebook

This is a conversation you are likely never to hear again. Two Arab men discuss the worth of the Arab civilization.

Anwar Malek is the second man to speak. He is the Algerian author of "A Flood of Corruption and the Advance of bin Laden in Algeria. The book has been confiscated and disappeared from reality. His first mistake: using an Arab publisher. No...maybe his first mistake was not getting to safety before making the remarks you will hear in this video.

For just a taste of what's to come: The first interviewer says 73% of our viewers believe that Arabs constitute a great power and have the power to be influential, and so on. Malek responds that those viewers are afflicted with "fantasies and obsolete bravado." False and empty bravado. The Arabs invented or discovered the zero - but what did they do with it? Today the Arabs constitute nothing but thousands of zeros to the left....there is nothing to suggest that the Arabs can be relied upon to produce anything. It just gets better from there.


Thanks to Always On Watch who has some good commentary and additional sources.

Iran Portests Again! 10th Anniversary of Tehran University Murders

by Maggie at Maggie's Notebook

Today on the anniversary of the 1999 Iranian protests of the murders of Iranian students at Tehran University, renewed protests of the June 12 election are revived on the streets of Iran. After warnings from the government that any uprising prompted by the 1999 anniversary would be met with "crushing response," Iranians took to the street anyway.

Tehran University
(photo from December 2007 protest)

After 11 days of agitated calm, thousands of protesters massed in central Tehran at about 5 p.m. on Thursday evening, Tehran time. Police used batons and tear gas against the protesters. While the protest started peacefully:

...the effort to halt the protest quickly turned violent. A middle-age woman ran through the crowd, her coat covered with blood stains. Trash fires burned, cloaking the streets in black smoke, as protesters lobbed rocks at security forces. Two men held a huge floral arrangement of yellow and purple flowers on green leaves aloft through the smoke in commemoration of those killed in the last month and 1999, a witness said.

“Tell the world what is happening here,” one 26-year old engineering student demonstrator said. “This is our revolution. We will not give up.”

Asked what he wanted, he said: “We want democracy.”

For the most part, all journalism and communication has been shut down:

Cellphone messaging was down Thursday for a third straight day, apparently to prevent communication between protesters, while the government closed universities and declared an official holiday Tuesday and Wednesday, ostensibly because Tehran has been shrouded in a heavy dust and pollution cloud, The A.P. said.

Atlas Shrugs has insight about today's uprising and its connections to the 1999 uprising. See how the return of a former prisoner is making a difference in Iran today. Read it here.

What are we to think of the past 11 days of agitated calm? Via Hot Air, Michael Ladeen reports on July 8th, a day before today's protests:

Meanwhile, horribly maimed bodies have been showing up all over the country. Some of the gouging of the bodies seems to have been done to remove all evidence of bullet holes, but whatever the “explanation,” the bloody savagery is well documented.

If you want some detail about the horrors inside Iranian hospitals, have a look at Le Figaro’s account.

Over the objections of medical staff, bodies from the demonstrations were quickly moved elsewhere. “We believe they were transferred to the Baqiatollah military hospital or some other undisclosed location”, notes the doctor. Then, under the pretext of “organ donation”, all traces of bullets were removed from the bodies. “The parents were force to accept this if they wanted to retrieve the body for burial”.

Ladeen talks about the days of quiet:

And yet, the protest goes on. For the past three days, a general strike has been in effect, with significant results. Indeed, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei preemptively admitted defeat when government offices and factories were shut down in the name of a religious observance. But the strikers only expanded the range of their actions, notably by shutting down electrical grids in several cities, including parts of Tehran. Great swathes of the nation were plunged into darkness. This sort of thing is likely to continue, whatever happens on the 9th.

And on the free world and supporting tyrants:

...the so-called Western world, which apparently cannot even bring itself to punish the regime for violating all rules of civilized behavior. Obama, following his familiar pattern of allying himself with the tyrants rather than the democrats, doesn’t want new sanctions. I suppose he’s still hoping that the tyranny will prevail, and then he can make a wonderful deal with Khamenei pere. Or fils, as the case may be.

Read Ladeen's post for sharp insight and see how London's confiscation of $1 billion+ of Iranian money has affected the core of the murderous regime.

The following video is not the best quality but it certainly gives the spirit of the protest.

It Was Bound To Happen

Hat tip to Simply Jews

Men soon to become obsolete!

British researchers have developed human sperm from stem cells.

It is no joke. It is a breakthrough in reproductive science.

Scientists in Newcastle claim to have created human sperm in the laboratory in what they say is a world first.

The researchers believe the work could eventually help men with fertility problems to father a child.

But other experts say they are not convinced that fully developed sperm have been created.

Writing in the journal Stem Cells and Development, the Newcastle team say it will be at least five years before the technique is perfected.

They began with stem cell lines derived from human embryos donated following IVF treatment.

The stem cells had been removed when the embryo was a few days old and were stored in tanks of liquid nitrogen.

The stem cells were brought to body temperature and put in a chemical mixture to encourage them to grow. They were "tagged" with a genetic marker which enabled the scientists to identify and separate so-called "germline" stem cells from which eggs and sperm are developed.

The male, XY stem cells underwent the crucial process of "meiosis" - halving the number of chromosomes. The process over creating and developing the sperm took four to six weeks.

Read the full story here.

There you are Gentlemen. You have 5 years to make your case before the extreme feminists decide that you are no longer wanted or needed. And they will you know.

So give us 3 good reasons why women should keep you around.

Just 3.

It's A Simple Answer After All

Hat tip to Holger Awakens

Ronald Wilson Reagan spoke many times on the dangers of Appeasement and giving into the demands of foreign dictators for the promise of peace.

And although in the following video President Reagan is speaking about the former Soviet Union, his words still ring true for this day and the dictators of today.

"A nation which can prefer disgrace to danger is prepared for a master, and deserves one." Alexander Hamilton

Let's set the record straight. There is no argument over the choice between peace and war, but there is only one guaranteed way you can have peace--and you can have it in the next second--surrender.

It's A Simple Answer After All




View at YouTube

Take heed America, there is an Appeaser in the White House.

A Father's Cry To The World.

On July 6, 2009 Noam Shalit addressed the members of the United Nation fact-finding commission on Gaza headed by Judge Richard Goldstone. This commission was formed to lay all blame on Israel, not even considering that Hamas should bear blame too.

Noam Shalit is the father of Israeli POW Sgt. Gilad Shalit who has been illegally held in Gaz for 3 years. His words are painful and telling:

From UN Watch

My name is Noam Schalit and I am the father of the kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit.

Honorable members of the Mission - I thank you for giving me the opportunity to address you today. I thank you, also, for allowing me to make my testimony public. I know that this Mission is determined to give the victims of the recent conflict in Gaza an opportunity to make their voice heard. So - with your kind permission - I would like to use this distinguished forum - the United Nations - first to address you and then to address the people of Gaza and, in particular, the people holding my son Gilad.

Honorable Members of the Mission, a few weeks ago you were in Gaza. You met the Hamas hierarchy. According to the Ma’an news agency - Mr. Ismail Haniyya welcomed your mission deploring what he viewed as Israel’s grave violations of international law. The same news agency reported that the Mission thanked Mr. Haniyya for his cooperation in facilitating its work. Sirs and Madam, if this cooperation is indeed genuine then the same HAMAS hierarchy should honor your eventual findings - whatever they may be.

And I have no doubt that after you read my written submissions, you will determine that my son’s violent abduction and his continuing detention subject to extortion is, equally, a violation of international law. After you hear the cassette recording of my son’s voice - released on the first anniversary of his capture - you will be shocked by the callous cynicism of his captors and the grief that his words have caused me and my family. These are words that he was forced to read. You will also find, without a doubt, that the refusal to allow him access to the Red Cross, if not a war crime is, at least, a gross act of inhumanity and an aggravating circumstance.

Members of the Mission - The same Geneva Convention of 1949 which this Mission will use to judge the legality of the Israeli attack on Gaza forbids the holding to ransom of an individual - whether he be soldier or otherwise. The same Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court by which the Palestinian Authority seeks to charge the Israeli hierarchy condemns the HAMAS leadership no less for the crime of taking hostages - soldiers or otherwise. The same court in The Hague where the Palestinian Authority pursues Mr. Olmert may equally investigate Mr. Masha’al who - with his Jordanian nationality - falls squarely within the jurisdiction of this institution.

But what is the purpose of this honorable Mission? Is it really to lay the basis for a future criminal prosecution? Or is it, perhaps, to effect reconciliation? Know that the minds and hearts of the Israeli people are with my son on a daily basis. His release - which it is within your power to promote - will bring about such reconciliation.

And now, with you permission, I would like to address the Palestinian victims of Operation Cast Lead.

People of Gaza, I do not come before this Mission as a representative of the Israeli State. I come neither to condemn nor to justify the recent Israeli operations in Gaza. I am not a politician nor do I care for politics. I am a civilian and the father of three.

I last saw my son Gilad on Wednesday 21 June 2006 when he returned to the military service which his country obliged him to perform by law. A few days later, his patrol was sabotaged by armed Palestinians, two of his fellow soldiers were killed before his very eyes and he was abducted. He was nineteen years old at the time. A shy boy with a nervous smile and a studious disposition. Like many his age, all that occupied him were his studies and sport. To all those who know him, he is gentle and sensitive to the suffering of others - a trait he has shown from an early age. At the age of 11, his teacher asked him to write a fable. His drawings and narrative have now been published. I am giving the Mission a copy of this book. You can read it if you wish. The story of a shark and a fish who became friends against all the odds. Need I say more? Suffice to say that the will for peace and security can overcome fear and distrust.

People of Gaza - Do not overlook the circumstances of my son’s service nor of his capture. He was not attacking your territory. He was not even in your territory. He was operating within the sovereign territory of the State of Israel - protecting the integrity of what was supposed to be a border of peace after a complete Israeli withdrawal.

Your leaders say Gilad is a prisoner of war. I say he is an abductee. The difference is in the interpretation of the law. But even if your leaders hold my son as a prisoner of war - why will they not allow him the privileges which attach to such a status ? Gilad has no contact with the outside world. Your leaders refuse him access to the International Committee of the Red Cross - the same Red Cross which regularly visits your people held captive in Israeli prisons. The same Red Cross which protests the violations of their rights to the Israeli Government.

People of Gaza, your leaders are fighting to return your sons and daughters from captivity. This is an understandable desire. You may agree with such a policy. Many of you, however, will realize that the fate of an entire prison population cannot depend on the ransom of one young man.

Your leaders have committed a crime with respect to my son. They hold him to ransom and, by the same token, they hold all of you to ransom. For three years now, you have been held hostage to the inflexible demands of your leaders and their unwillingness to compromise. They issue demands which, I fear, the Israeli Government will never meet. My son’s fate is the means through which your leaders distract your attention from the destruction they have brought upon you. Is this humane? Are these the acts of an honorable regime?

People of Gaza - Do not ignore the root cause of our mutual suffering. You know that the injustice done to my son was the trigger for war. You also know that the release of my son is the key to peace and the lifting of the Israeli commercial blockade. A small gesture and a little effort on both sides can relieve the misery of many.

President Sarkozy of France recently told Prime Minister Netanyahu that your leaders would not release Gilad until Israel freed prisoners. I am not a party to talks on prisoner release. I am not consulted on numbers and I have no say in the conduct of negotiations. Like many of you, all that concerns me is that the one I love returns home. Do those of you who are waiting for the return of those close to you care for the politics? Do you care for the posturing of your leaders? Or do you - like me - wish that this war and what caused it would never have happened?

But if a prisoner exchange need be the course we are forced to adopt, let reason and moderation overcome excessive demands. Let not a stalemate in the negotiations prevail over the will of the people. Let not stubbornness triumph over compassion.

People of Gaza - like many of you, we are suffering the consequences of the decisions and failures of others. Like many of you, my family and I have been caught up in a web of violence. Like many of you, I pay a heavy price on a daily basis. I know that you are short of food. Some of your loved ones have been killed - women and children, young and innocent. I understand your distress and sympathize with your grief. I have visited your wounded from Beit Hanoun and, have witnessed, at first hand, the unnecessary suffering and the unspeakable atrocity of war. But even so, I do not compare suffering. As a parent speaking to a multitude of parents - I ask you to understand my family’s anguish. As the days go by, we begin to despair. We despair of the day when we will see our son again. I know neither where he is held nor how he fares. Whether he is injured or whether he is even alive.

And finally to the people holding my son: I urge you to release my son. You have the power to act with grace. Do it for the respectability that you wish the international community to accord you. Do it because you see yourselves as statesmen acting with humane intent. Do it for the sake of the respect you say you show this Mission. Do it not for gain but do it, I beg you, because it is the just and right thing to do. But most important of all, do it for the peace and welfare of your own people.

The Geneva Conventions of War has the following on the treatment of prisoners:

Article 3

In the case of armed conflict not of an international character occurring in the territory of one of the High Contracting Parties, each party to the conflict shall be bound to apply, as a minimum, the following provisions:

To this end the following acts are and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever with respect to the above-mentioned persons:

(a) Violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture;

(b) Taking of hostages;

(c) Outrages upon personal dignity, in particular, humiliating and degrading treatment;

2. The wounded and sick shall be collected and cared for.

An impartial humanitarian body, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, may offer its services to the Parties to the conflict.

The Parties to the conflict should further endeavour to bring into force, by means of special agreements, all or part of the other provisions of the present Convention.

The application of the preceding provisions shall not affect the legal status of the Parties to the conflict.

Hamas is in clear violation of this article.

The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court has the following:

Article 8 War crimes

1. The Court shall have jurisdiction in respect of war crimes in particular when committed as part of a plan or policy or as part of a large-scale commission of such crimes.

2. For the purpose of this Statute, "war crimes" means:

(a) Grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, namely, any of the following acts against persons or property protected under the provisions of the relevant Geneva Convention:

(vi) Willfully depriving a prisoner of war or other protected person of the rights of fair and regular trial;

(vii) Unlawful deportation or transfer or unlawful confinement;

(viii) Taking of hostages.

While International Law is clear, I fear that Noam Shalit's words have fallen on deaf ears. The world doesn't want to hear how Hamas uses civilians to hide behind (in total violation of International Law). Or how they and their Muslim allies have lied to the UN and the press for the last 20 years, crying victim when they are the victimizer. Goldstone's commission has already come to their conclusion, regardless of what the Law affirms. That conclusion will condemn Israel and praise Hamas.

In a sane world, the world would have condemned Hamas, imposed sanctions and raised a fuss until Gilad was returned and all attacks on Israel stopped. but this is not a sane world. No one cares about a lone Israeli POW except Israel. The world stays silent, a father worries about his son, and Hamas is praised by all for their actions.

Pentagon Refuses Military FlyOver: Christianity the Problem

by Maggie at Maggie’s Notebook

An organization in Idaho filed for permits for a military flyover, as they have done for 42 years. For 42 years the request was approved. In The Time of Obama, however, the Pentagon denied the God and Country Family Festival their ceremonial flyover.

Military FlyOver

Nampa, Idaho’s 43rd Annual Treasure Valley God and Country Festival applied for the FAA permit, which was approved. The next step was the Pentagon application, which was denied. The denial came because the event was “Christian in nature,” said the Pentagon, according to Reverend Patrick Mahoney on FOX News this morning, with Gretchen Carlson.

Spokespersons for the God and Country Family Festival say while their organization is definitely “Christian in nature,” but the flyover is a tribute “to the military and the freedoms that they stand for.

…we’re honoring the military when we do that flyover, and that’s why we do it. I think they made a bad decision.

Pam Baldwin, the executive director of The Interfaith Alliance of Idaho weighed in:

Everything is not about whether folks are Jews or Christians or Muslims,” she said. “If people are saying that, they’re probably looking for media attention or looking to disparage other faiths.”Baldwin questioned whether a flyover of the event would have been a prudent use of public resources, especially in light of the deep recession.

You know America, we must deal with this issue. The Constitution guarantees all Americans the freedom of religion, not freedom from religion. Non-believers and believers in other faiths are not free to take Christianity from us, or free to remove or deny the Christian principals that were integral to the founding of the United States and all of the history that brings us to today.

The mountain of evidence cannot be shoved under the rug, or worse yet, be overturned (amended) within our founding documents unless we allow it. This is not the time and place to reiterate such evidence, but perhaps we should define just what being a Christian nation means, since President Obama has denied our Christianity as he has traveled around the world. I’ll quote a Supreme Court justice from the best essay I have found on America’s “Christian nature.” The quote from WallBuilders is just a snippet of the documentation. I urge you to read the entire article, bookmark it for future reference and quote from it often:

Contemporary post-modern critics (including President Obama) who assert that America is not a Christian nation always refrain from offering any definition of what the term “Christian nation” means. So what is an accurate definition of that term as demonstrated by the American experience?

Contrary to what critics imply, a Christian nation is not one in which all citizens are Christians, or the laws require everyone to adhere to Christian theology, or all leaders are Christians, or any other such superficial measurement. As Supreme Court Justice David Brewer (1837-1910) explained:

[I]n what sense can [America] be called a Christian nation? Not in the sense that Christianity is the established religion or that the people are in any manner compelled to support it. On the contrary, the Constitution specifically provides that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Neither is it Christian in the sense that all its citizens are either in fact or name Christians. On the contrary, all religions have free scope within our borders. Numbers of our people profess other religions, and many reject all. Nor is it Christian in the sense that a profession of Christianity is a condition of holding office or otherwise engaging in public service, or essential to recognition either politically or socially. In fact, the government as a legal organization is independent of all religions. Nevertheless, we constantly speak of this republic as a Christian nation – in fact, as the leading Christian nation of the world. ⁸

So, if being a Christian nation is not based on any of the above criterion, then what makes America a Christian nation? According to Justice Brewer, America was “of all the nations in the world . . . most justly called a Christian nation” because Christianity “has so largely shaped and molded it.” ⁹

Back to the Treasure Valley God and Country Family Festival, no doubt we will begin hearing that the Pentagon doesn’t have the funds for the flyovers. Since Pentagon flyovers are always intended to salute our military and patriotism, and are usually accompanied by the National Anthem, I suggest we pull all the pork necessary from earmarks out of the budget and the stimulus to fund legitimate flyovers. Or cancel the Obama’s Wednesday night cocktail parties.

A Shinning Beacon Of Freedom To The World!

On this date in 1776 a new nation was formed. A child of compromise and much promise. It was not even certain that this new nation would even gain its independence from Great Britain. But with luck, the help of the French and the Grace of G-d, it survived and thrived.

This nation has seen good times and bad. War and peace. Economic prosperity and depressions. It nearly tore itself apart not once but a few times. Yet it has managed to remain true to its ideals.

Like all nations, this one has made mistakes. The horror of slavery was permitted at its founding. The treatment of its minorities was not always according to the ideals its founders had in mind. One half of this nation was denied the right to vote for over 100 years. But even these mistakes were dealt with and are still being dealt with.

For all of its flaws, this nation has become:

A Shinning Beacon Of Freedom To The World!

That is the true nature of America. Not our politics, sports stars, military might, cities or monuments. But the Freedoms that we have and enjoy.

No other nation on Earth guarantees its people this level of freedom. That is the reason we are the Leader of the Free World, and not Europe.

On this day that we celebrate the formation of this great union, take a moment with your family and friends to remember those Founding Fathers and the ideals of Liberty and Freedom they bestowed upon this land. And thank G-d that we have had, and still have the strength to keep the dream of freedom alive.

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