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May the New Year bring you Health, Wealth and Joy!

The Hypocrisy of Dianne Feinstein

Stolen From Holger Awakens




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Copy this, send this to Congress, send this to your family, your friends.  Make this video go viral!  Let her eat her own words.

"Guns for me, not for thee!"

What You’ll See In The Rebellion

Stolen From Holger Awakens who stole it from other sites

What You’ll See In The Rebellion

Let me explain, gun grabbers, how your confiscatory fantasy plays out. Let us imagine for a moment that a sweeping gun control bill similar to the one currently suggested is passed by the House and Senate, and signed into law by a contemptuous President.

Perhaps 50-100 million firearms currently owned by law-abiding citizens will become contraband with the stroke of a pen. Citizens will either register their firearms, or turn them in to agents of the federal government, or risk becoming criminals themselves. Faced with this choice, millions will indeed register their arms. Perhaps as many will claim they’ve sold their arms, or had them stolen. Suppose that as many as 200-250 million weapons of other types will go unregistered.

Tens of millions of Americans will refuse to comply with an order that is clearly a violation of the explicit intent of the Second Amendment. Among the most ardent opposing these measures will be military veterans, active duty servicemen, and local law enforcement officers. Many of these individuals will refuse to carry out what they view as Constitutionally illegal orders. Perhaps 40-50 million citizens will view such a law as treason. Perhaps ten percent of those, 4-5 million, would support a rebellion in some way, and maybe 40,000-100,000 Americans will form small independently-functioning active resistance cells, or become lone-wolves.

They will be leaderless, stateless, difficult to track, and considering the number of military veterans that would likely be among their number, extremely skilled at sabotage, assassination, and ambush.

After a number of carefully-planned, highly-publicized, and successful raids by the government, one or more will invariably end “badly.” Whether innocents are gunned down, a city block is burned to ash, or especially fierce resistance leads to a disastrously failed raid doesn’t particularly matter. What matters is that when illusion of the government’s invincibility and infallibility is broken, the hunters will become the hunted.

Unnamed citizens and federal agents will be the first to die, and they will die by the dozens and maybe hundreds, but famous politicians will soon join them in a spate of revenge killings, many of which will go unsolved.

Ironically, while the gun grab was intended to keep citizens from preserving their liberties with medium-powered weapons, it completely ignored the longer-ranged rifles perfect for shooting at ranges far beyond what a security detail can protect, and suppressed .22LR weapons proven deadly in urban sniping in Europe and Asia.

While the Secret Service will be able to protect the President in the White House, he will not dare leave his gilded cage except in carefully controlled circumstances. Even then he will be forced to move like a criminal. He will never be seen outdoors in public again. Not in this country.

The 535 members of the House and Senate in both parties that allowed such a law to pass would largely be on their own; the Secret Service is too small to protect all of them and their families, the Capitol Police too unskilled, and competent private security not particularly interested in working against their own best interests at any price. The elites will be steadily whittled down, and if they can not be reached directly, the targets will become their staffers, spouses, children, and grandchildren. Grandstanding media figures loyal to the regime would die in droves, executed as enemies of the Republic.

You can expect congressional staffs to disintegrate with just a few shootings, and expect elected officials themselves to resign well before a quarter of their number are eliminated, leaving us with a boxed-in executive, his cabinet loyalists trapped in the same win, die, or flee the country circumstance, military regime loyalists, and whatever State Governors who desire to risk their necks as well.

Here, the President will doubtlessly order the activation of National Guard units and the regular military to impose martial law, setting the largest and most powerful military in the world against its own people. Unfortunately, the tighter the President clinches his tyrannical fist, the more rebels he makes.

Military commands and federal agencies will be whittled down as servicemen and agents will desert or defect. Some may leave as individuals, others may join the Rebellion in squad and larger-sized units with all their weapons, tactics, skills, and insider intelligence. The regime will be unable to trust its own people, and because they cannot trust them, they will lose more in a vicious cycle of collapse.

Some of these defectors will be true “operators,” with the skills and background to turn ragtag militia cells into the kind of forces that decimate loyalist troops, allowing them no rest and no respite, striking them when they are away from their most potent weapons. Military vehicles are formidable, but they are thirsty beasts, in terms of fuel, ammo, time, and maintenance. Tanks and bombers are formidable only when they have gas, guns, and can be maintained. In a war without a front, logistics are incredibly easy to destroy, and mechanics and supply clerks are not particularly adept at defending themselves.

Eventually, the government will turn upon itself. The President will be captured or perhaps killed by his own protectors. A dictatorship will form in the vacuum.

If we’re lucky, the United States of America, or whatever amalgam results, will again try to rebuild. If we’re very lucky, the victors will reinstate the Constitution as the law of the land. Just as likely though, we’ll face fractious civil wars fought over issues we’ve not begun to fathom, and a much diminished state or states will result, perhaps guided by foreign interests.

It will not be pretty. There will be no “winners,” and perhaps hundreds of thousands to millions of dead.

Yet, this is the future we face if the power-mad among us are not soundly defeated at the ballot box before they affect more “change” than we, the People, are willing to surrender to would-be tyrants.

First They Came For The Guns...

And took them out of their hands in Great Britain.  They promised the population that they would be safe, that crime would reduce to almost nothing.  It didn't happen.  In fact, crime increased.  Crime with knives increased.  So now they will ban the knife.

The good news is that if we ever do get that assault rifle ban, followed by a handgun ban, followed by a ban of anything that can shoot bullets, the “Banners” will still have a banner year of banning all the other ways with which people kill other people.

Violent crimes haven’t gone away with the UK’s gun control. They’ve actually gone up.

Britons suffer 1,158,957 violent crimes per year, which works out at 2,034 per 100,000 residents. The U.S., meanwhile, has a rate of 466 crimes per 100,000 residents, which is lower than France’s, at 504.

Instead of gun crime, the UK worries about knife crime. And has been practicing knife control.

The UK outlawed the switchblade and gravity knife in 1959.

In 1988 possession of a pocket knife with a blade larger than 3 inches in public became illegal.

In 1996, it became illegal to sell a razor blade to anyone under the age of 16.

In 2007, you needed a license to be able to sell “non-domestic knives.”

Despite all that knifepoint robberies rose by 10 percent this year and there are some 60,000 stabbings each year. So the push is on to outlaw long kitchen knives. Once that’s done, surely utopia will be at hand.

A team from West Middlesex University Hospital said violent crime is on the increase – and kitchen knives are used in as many as half of all stabbings.

They argued many assaults are committed impulsively, prompted by alcohol and drugs, and a kitchen knife often makes an all too available weapon.

They consulted 10 top chefs from around the UK, and found such knives have little practical value in the kitchen.

None of the chefs felt such knives were essential, since the point of a short blade was just as useful when a sharp end was needed.

The researchers say legislation to ban the sale of long pointed knives would be a key step in the fight against violent crime.

“We suggest that banning the sale of long pointed knives is a sensible and practical measure that would have this effect.”

Certainly no law-abiding person needs a long blade kitchen knife. No one is talking about outlawing all kitchen knives. Just the ones with long blades. No reason for anyone to go beyond a paring knife anyway.

The chefs say so and what does Julia Child know anyway.

Take a good look America. This is where we’re headed under liberal dominion.

Source

What happens if you are a young girl and you need to shave your armpits? Or a boy age 15 and that peach fuzz is growing dark

I suppose the 10 top chefs they asked were vegans.  I need a long, sharp blade to filet fish.  Need a long, thick blade to butcher a kill.  Heck try to carve a roast or a turkey with a steak knife.  I need a very sharp long knife (and sharp fork) to do that too.

You cannot legislate safety for every situation.  You can kill with a steak knife, razor, heck a very sharp Swiss Army Knife.  Unless you have a cop following each and every person 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, you will never prevent murders.

I suggest every person who cooks, who carves, who loves their freedom to rise up and strike a blow for freedom and kill this stupidity before it gains any grounds with the ruling Elites.

Rest In Peace General Schwarzkopf

He led US troops to victory over Saddam Hussein in the Gulf War.  He risked his life for his men in Vietnam.  (He was wounded in the process.)  Authored It Doesn't Take A Hero.  This former military man stayed out of politics after retiring from the Army.

Americans mourned a military legend after retired Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf died Thursday at age 78, leaving behind a legacy that most famously included driving Saddam Hussein's forces out of Kuwait.

Schwarzkopf died, in Tampa, from complications from pneumonia. He was remembered not only for his impressive military record, but his intelligence, his modesty and his warmth and dedication to fellow service members.

"His epitaph should read that he was a soldier who loved solders," retired Gen. Bob Scales, who knew the late general, told Fox News.

Nicknamed "Stormin' Norman," Schwarzkopf went on after he retired to support various national causes and children's charities while eschewing the spotlight and resisting efforts to draft him to run for political office.

He lived out a quiet retirement in Tampa, where he'd served his last military assignment and where an elementary school bearing his name is testament to his standing in the community.

Schwarzkopf capped an illustrious military career by commanding the U.S.-led international coalition that drove Hussein's forces out of Kuwait in 1991 -- but he'd managed to keep a low profile in the public debate over the second Gulf War against Iraq, saying at one point that he doubted victory would be as easy as the White House and the Pentagon predicted.

Former President H.W. Bush, who has been in an intensive care unit in Texas, called the general a "distinguished member of that Long Gray Line hailing from West Point."

"General Norm Schwarzkopf, to me, epitomized the 'duty, service, country' creed that has defended our freedom and seen this great Nation through our most trying international crises. More than that, he was a good and decent man -- and a dear friend," Bush said.

President Obama described Schwarzkopf as an "American original."

"From his decorated service in Vietnam to the historic liberation of Kuwait and his leadership of United States Central Command, General Schwarzkopf stood tall for the country and Army he loved," Obama said in a statement.

Schwarzkopf was named commander in chief of U.S. Central Command at Tampa's MacDill Air Force Base in 1988, overseeing the headquarters for U.S. military and security concerns in nearly two dozen countries stretching across the Middle East to Afghanistan and the rest of central Asia, plus Pakistan.

When Saddam invaded Kuwait two years later to punish it for allegedly stealing Iraqi oil reserves, Schwarzkopf commanded Operation Desert Storm, the coalition of some 30 countries organized by President George H.W. Bush that succeeded in driving the Iraqis out.

At the peak of his postwar national celebrity, Schwarzkopf -- a self-proclaimed political independent -- rejected suggestions that he run for office, and remained far more private than other generals, although he did serve briefly as a military commentator for NBC.

While focused primarily on charitable enterprises in his later years, he campaigned for President George W. Bush in 2000, but was ambivalent about the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In early 2003 he told The Washington Post that the outcome was an unknown: "What is postwar Iraq going to look like, with the Kurds and the Sunnis and the Shiites? That's a huge question, to my mind. It really should be part of the overall campaign plan."

Initially Schwarzkopf had endorsed the invasion, saying he was convinced that Secretary of State Colin Powell had given the United Nations powerful evidence of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. After that proved false, he said decisions to go to war should depend on what U.N. weapons inspectors found.

He seldom spoke up during the conflict, but in late 2004 he sharply criticized Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and the Pentagon for mistakes that included erroneous judgments about Iraq and inadequate training for Army reservists sent there.

"In the final analysis I think we are behind schedule. ... I don't think we counted on it turning into jihad (holy war)," he said in an NBC interview.

Schwarzkopf was born Aug. 24, 1934, in Trenton, N.J., where his father, Col. H. Norman Schwarzkopf Jr., founder and commander of the New Jersey State Police, was then leading the investigation of the Lindbergh kidnap case. That investigation ended with the arrest and 1936 execution of German-born carpenter Richard Hauptmann for murdering famed aviator Charles Lindbergh's infant son.

The elder Schwarzkopf was named Herbert, but when the son was asked what his "H" stood for, he would reply, "H."

As a teenager Norman accompanied his father to Iran, where the elder Schwarzkopf trained the Iran's national police force and was an adviser to Reza Pahlavi, the young Shah of Iran.

Young Norman studied there and in Switzerland, Germany and Italy, then followed in his father's footsteps to West Point, graduating in 1956 with an engineering degree. After stints in the U.S. and abroad, he earned a master's degree in engineering at the University of Southern California and later taught missile engineering at West Point.

In 1966 he volunteered for Vietnam and served two tours, first as a U.S. adviser to South Vietnamese paratroops and later as a battalion commander in the U.S. Army's Americal Division. He earned three Silver Stars for valor -- including one for saving troops from a minefield -- plus a Bronze Star, a Purple Heart and three Distinguished Service Medals.

While many career officers left military service embittered by Vietnam, Schwarzkopf was among those who opted to stay and help rebuild the tattered Army into a potent, modernized all-volunteer force.

After Saddam invaded Kuwait in August 1990, Schwarzkopf played a key diplomatic role by helping persuade Saudi Arabia's King Fahd to allow U.S. and other foreign troops to deploy on Saudi territory as a staging area for the war to come.

On Jan. 17, 1991, a five-month buildup called Desert Shield became Operation Desert Storm as allied aircraft attacked Iraqi bases and Baghdad government facilities. The six-week aerial campaign climaxed with a massive ground offensive on Feb. 24-28, routing the Iraqis from Kuwait in 100 hours before U.S. officials called a halt.

Schwarzkopf said afterward he agreed with Bush's decision to stop the war rather than drive to Baghdad to capture Saddam, as his mission had been only to oust the Iraqis from Kuwait.

But in a desert tent meeting with vanquished Iraqi generals, he allowed a key concession on Iraq's use of helicopters, which later backfired by enabling Saddam to crack down more easily on rebellious Shiites and Kurds.

After retiring from the Army in 1992, Schwarzkopf wrote a best-selling autobiography, "It Doesn't Take A Hero." He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II and honored with decorations from France, Britain, Belgium, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Bahrain.

Schwarzkopf was a national spokesman for prostate cancer awareness and for Recovery of the Grizzly Bear, served on the Nature Conservancy board of governors and was active in various charities for chronically ill children.

Schwarzkopf and his wife, Brenda, had three children: Cynthia, Jessica and Christian.

General Schwarzkopf was the type of officer his men would follow into Hell to tackle the Devil himself.  I fear that we will not see his like again for many years.

"Taps"


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We send our condolences to the family and friends of General Schwarzkopf.  May they find solace in their faith.

How Iran Celebrates Christmas

By throwing Pastor Yosef Nadarkahani back into  Lakan Prison in Rasht.

The Iranian Christian pastor who had been imprisoned in Iran for converting from Islam to Christianity was taken into custody again on Christmas Day, according to several Iranian media sources and individuals close to the pastor and his family.

Youcef Nadarkhani, 35, had been summoned to return back to Lakan Prison in Rasht, the facility where he served time and was then released, based on the charge that he must complete the remainder of his sentence, according to several reports and confirmed by those close to Nadarkhani in Iran.

In September, the pastor was acquitted of apostasy, but the court maintained his three-year sentence for evangelizing Muslims. As he had already served close to three years, the pastor was freed after posting bail.

The court had then stated that the remainder which equaled roughly 45 days, would be served in the form of probation.

Nadarkhani, married and father of two young children, came under the regime’s radar in 2006 when he applied for his church to be registered with the state. According to sources, he was arrested at that time and then soon released.

In 2009, Nadarkhani went to local officials to complain about Islamic indoctrination in his school district, arguing that his children should not be forced to learn about Islam.

He was subsequently arrested.

Since Nadarkhani's release in September, his attorney, Mohammed Ali Dadkhah has been imprisoned and remains in Iran's notoriously brutal Evin Prison where his health is rapidly deteriorating and is being denied proper dental care, according to his family. He has been incarcerated for advocating Nadarkhani's case and other human rights cases.

After his release, Nadarkhani wrote a public letter thanking all those who helped release him. In November, he traveled to London to speak at a national human rights conference thanking those who advocated on his behalf.

Source

This official persecution of Pastor Nadarkhani will not stop until he:

1. Returns to Islam
2. Leaves Iran permanently
3. Dies

Any of those "solutions" will please the corrupt government of Iran.  A government with no conscience and no morals.

The UN's Declaration of Human Rights gives every person on the planet the right to believe what they wish to, what their conscience leads them to, what they want.  The Islamic Republic of Iran demands that everyone worship the Moon god Allah.  No alternative to becoming a member of this cult.

Pray for the safety of Pastor Yosef Nadarkhani.  This is a true Man of G-d, whose love for G-d and his fellow man knows no bounds.

Maintaining Honor in the Middle East-and at Home

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com



Hat tip Al Jazeera

Yes, a tip of the hat to Al Jazeera for this report that Jordan is maintaining its honor in the matter of husbands killing their wives. It seems that Jordan's version of the OJ jury (its parliament) quashed a move by the senate to stiffen penalties for would-be OJs.

(Not that senate. It has no honor.)


http://www.aljazeera.com/archive/2003/09/2008410102158508644.html

But that's old news. More recent is the statement by Mahmoud Abbas, the guy Israel is supposed to negotiate with in the West Bank, that there are no plans to crack down on so-called honor killings in his neck of the woods either. The below report comes from Jihad Watch, which also makes the fantastic claim that 91% of honor-killings world-wide are carried out by Muslims.

http://www.jihadwatch.org/2012/12/moderate-palestinian-authority-no-plans-to-outlaw-honor-murders.html






(The other 9%)

Of course, there isn't much we can do about these things happening in places like Jordan or the West Bank; all we can do is enforce our own laws against murder here in the US (OJ notwithstanding). That means no court can entertain any argument of mitigating circumstances of "honor" due to any cultural or religious considerations.


Shaima Alawadi

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/08/us-crime-beheading-idUSTRE71703F20110208


Assiya Zubair Hassan

But there is, indeed, honor. Once again, I post the brave words of a young Pakistani-Muslim American woman from New York named Darakshan Raja at the MPAC convention in Pasadena on December 15 as she speaks about her professional specialty, domestic abuse.

http://garyfouse.blogspot.com/2012/12/darakshan-rajas-speech-at-mpac.html

That is honor.

The latest from “DHS Insider” (Part I & Part II)

Hat Tip to Texas Fred

If this doesn't scare you, then your dead.

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For those that haven’t seen it, aren’t on the mailing list or what have you, I have been getting messages from these folks and their Department of Homeland Security *mole* for quite some time now. In light of recent events I am sharing this story, Parts I and II, in their entirety. From the folks at Northeast Intelligence Network I give you this.

The latest from “DHS Insider” (Part I)

By Douglas J. Hagmann


Introduction

23 December 2012: After a lengthy, self-imposed informational black-out, my high-level DHS contact known as “Rosebud” emerged with new, non-public information about plans being discussed and prepared for implementation by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in the near future. It is important to note that this black-out was directly related to the aggressive federal initiative of identifying and prosecuting “leakers,” at least those leaks and leakers not sanctioned by the executive office – the latter of which there are many.

Due to those circumstances, my source exercised an abundance of caution to avoid compromising a valuable line of communication until he had information he felt was significant enough to risk external contact. The following information is the result of an in-person contact between this author and “Rosebud” within the last 48 hours. With his permission, the interview was digitally recorded and the relevant portions of the contact are provided in a conversational format for easier reading. The original recording was copied onto multiple discs and are maintained in secure locations for historical and insurance purposes.

Meeting

The following began after an exchange of pleasantries and other unrelated discussion:

DH: Do I have your permission to record this conversation?

RB: You do.

DH: I’ve received a lot of e-mail from people wondering where you went and why you’ve been so quiet.

RB: As I told you earlier, things are very dicey. Weird things began to happen before the election and have continued since. Odd things, a clampdown of sorts. I started looking and I found [REDACTED AT THE REQUEST OF THIS SOURCE], and that shook me up. I’m not the only one, though, that found a [REDACTED], so this means there’s surveillance of people within DHS by DHS. So, that explains this cloak and dagger stuff for this meeting.

DH: I understand. What about the others?

RB: They are handling it the same way.

DH: I’ve received many e-mails asking if you are the same person giving information to Ulsterman. Are you?

RB: No, but I think I know at least one of his insiders.

DH: Care to elaborate?

RB: Sorry, no.

DH: Do you trust him or her. I mean, the Ulsterman source?

RB: Yes.

DH: Okay, so last August, you said things were “going hot.” I printed what you said, and things did not seem to happen as you said.

RB: You’d better recheck your notes and compare [them] with some of the events leading up to the election. I think you’ll find that a full blown campaign of deception took place to make certain Obama got back into office. The polls, the media, and a few incidents that happened in the two months before the election. I guess if people are looking for some big event they can point to and say “aha” for verification, well then I overestimated people’s ability to tell when they are being lied to.

DH: What specific incidents are you referring to?

RB: Look at the threats to Obama. Start there. The accusations of racism. Then look at the polls, and especially the judicial decisions about voter ID laws. Bought and paid for, or where there was any potential for problems, the judges got the message, loud and clear. Then look at the voter fraud. And not a peep from the Republicans. Nothing. His second term was a done deal in September. This was planned. Frankly, the Obama team knew they had it sewn up long before election day. Benghazi could have derailed them, but the fix was in there, so I never saw anything on my end to suggest a ready-made solution had to be implemented.

DH: What’s going on now?

RB: People better pay close attention over the next few months. First, there won’t be any meaningful deal about the fiscal crisis. This is planned, I mean, the lack of deal is planned. In fact, it’s necessary to pave the way for what is in the short term agenda.

DH: Wait, you’re DHS – not some Wall Street insider.

RB: So you think they are separate agendas? That’s funny. The coming collapse of the U.S. dollar is a done deal. It’s been in the works for years – decades, and this is one of the most important cataclysmic events that DHS is preparing for. I almost think that DHS was created for that purpose alone, to fight Americans, not protect them, right here in America. But that’s not the only reason. There’s the gun issue too.

DH: So, what are you seeing at DHS?

RB: We don’t have a lot of time, tonight – our meeting – as well as a country. I mean I have heard – with my own ears – plans being made that originate from the White House that involve the hierarchy of DHS. You gotta know how DHS works at the highest of levels. It’s Jarrett and Napolitano, with Jarrett organizing all of the plans and approaches. She’s the one in charge, at least from my point of view, from what I am seeing. Obama knows that’s going on and has say, but it seems that Jarrett has the final say, not the other way around. It’s [screwed] up. This really went into high gear since the election.

But it’s a train wreck at mid management, but is more effective at the lower levels. A lot of police departments are being gifted with federal funds with strings attached. That money is flowing out to municipal police departments faster than it can be counted. They are using this money to buy tanks, well, not real tanks, but you know what I mean. DHS is turning the police into soldiers.

By the way, there has been a lot of communication recently between Napolitano and Pistole [TSA head]. They are planning to use TSA agents in tandem with local police for certain operations that are being planned right now. This is so [deleted] important that you cannot even begin to imagine. If you get nothing else out of this, please, please make sure you tell people to watch the TSA and their increasing involvement against the American public. They are the stooges who will be the ones to carry out certain plans when the dollar collapses and the gun confiscation begins.

DH: Whoa, wait a minute. You just said a mouthful. What’s the agenda here?

RB: Your intelligence insider – he knows that we are facing a planned economic collapse. You wrote about this in your articles about Benghazi, or at least that’s what I got out of the later articles. So why the surprise?

DH: There’s a lot here. Let’s take it step by step if you don’t mind.

RB: Okay, but I’m not going to give it to you in baby steps. Big boy steps. This is what I am hearing. Life for the average American is going to change significantly, and not the change people expect. First, DHS is preparing to work with police departments and the TSA to respond to civil uprisings that will happen when there is a financial panic. And there will be one, maybe as early as this spring, when the dollar won’t get you a gumball. I’m not sure what the catalyst will be, but I’ve heard rumblings about a derivatives crisis as well as an oil embargo. I don’t know, that’s not my department. But something is going to happen to collapse the dollar, which has been in the works since the 1990′s. Now if it does not happen as soon as this, it’s because there are people, real patriots, who are working to prevent this, so it’s a fluid dynamic. But that doesn’t change the preparations.

And the preparations are these: DHS is prepositioning assets in strategic areas near urban centers all across the country. Storage depots. Armories. And even detainment facilities, known as FEMA camps. FEMA does not even know that the facilities are earmarked for detainment by executive orders, at least not in the traditional sense they were intended. By the way, people drive by some of these armories everyday without even giving them a second look. Commercial and business real estate across the country are being bought up or leased for storage purposes. Very low profile.

Anyway, I am hearing that the plan from on high is to let the chaos play out for a while, making ordinary citizens beg for troops to be deployed to restore order. but it’s all organized to make them appear as good guys. That’s when the real head knocking will take place. We’re talking travel restrictions, which should not be a problem because gas will be rationed or unavailable. The TSA will be in charge of travel, or at least be a big part of it. They will be commissioned, upgraded from their current status.

They, I mean Jarrett and Obama as well as a few others in government, are working to create a perfect storm too. This is being timed to coincide with new gun laws.

DH: New federal gun laws?

RB: Yes. Count on the criminalization to possess just about every gun you can think of. Not only restrictions, but actual criminalization of possessing a banned firearm. I heard this directly from the highest of my sources. Plans were made in the 90′s but were withheld. Now, it’s a new day, a new time, and they are riding the wave of emotion from Sandy Hook., which, by the way and as tragic as it was, well, it stinks to high heaven. I mean there are many things wrong there, and first reports are fast disappearing. The narrative is being changed. Look, there is something wrong with Sandy Hook, but if you write it, you’ll be called a kook or worse.

DH: Sure

RB: But Sandy Hook, there’s something very wrong there. But I am hearing that won’t be the final straw. There will be another if they think it’s necessary.

DH: Another shooting?

RB: Yes.

DH: That would mean they are at least complicit.

RB: Well, that’s one way of looking at it.

DH: Are they? Were they?

RB: Do your own research. Nothing I say, short of bringing you photographs and documents will convince anyone, and even then, it’s like [DELETED] in the wind.

DH: So…

RB: So what I’m telling you is that DHS, the TSA and certain, but not all, law enforcement agencies are going to be elbow deep in riot control in response to an economic incident. At the same time or close to it, gun confiscation will start. It will start on a voluntary basis using federal registration forms, then an amnesty, then the kicking-in of doors start.

Before or at the same time, you know all the talk of lists, you know, the red and blue lists that everyone made fun of? Well they exist, although I don’t know about their colors. But there are lists of political dissidents maintained by DHS. Names are coordinated with the executive branch, but you know what? They did not start with Obama. They’ve been around in one form or another for years. The difference though is that today, they are much more organized. And I’ll tell you that the vocal opponents of the politics of the global elite, the bankers, and the opponents of anything standing in their way, well, they are on the top of the list of people to be handled.

DH: Handled?

RB: As the situations worsen, some might be given a chance to stop their vocal opposition. Some will, others won’t. I suppose they are on different lists. Others won’t have that chance. By that time, though, it will be chaos and people will be in full defensive mode. They will be hungry, real hunger like we’ve never experienced before. They will use our hunger as leverage. They will use medical care as leverage.

DH: Will this happen all at once?

RB: They hope to make it happen at the same time. Big cities first, with sections being set apart from the rest of the country. Then the rural areas. There are two different plans for geographical considerations. But it will all come together.

End of Part I

Source: The latest from “DHS Insider” (Part I) « Northeast Intelligence Network

Merry Christmas

To all the readers of Monkey in the Middle

From our houses to yours:

Merry Christmas

Barking Dogs - Jingle Bells

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In The Beginning...

I originally wrote this post for Christmas Eve 2008 the 40th anniversary of the flight of Apollo 8. I repost it for tonight to remind us of that mission and of a time in which Americans were more appreciative of G-d.

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Three words read by William Anders aboard the Apollo 8 mission on Christmas Eve 1968.

1968 was our Annus horribilis. It was a year of unrest at the Democratic National Convention. It was the year that saw the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. It was a year in which riots and protests were the daily fare on the nightly newscasts. It was a year in which America felt at its lowest point. And America needed a boost.

When the Apollo 8 mission was originally planned the mission was not suppose to go to the moon. It was suppose to be in a low Earth orbit checking out the systems on the Command module and possibly the lunar module if one had been ready by then. Instead the mission was changed and Apollo 8 would be the first manned mission to go to the moon. In itself it would be a very dangerous mission, the first of anything is alway a dangerous mission to accomplish. Because of the nature of the mission and the decision to change it, the true mission was kept a secret from the public until the official announcement on 12 November 1968, less than 40 days before the scheduled launch.

Apollo 8 launched at 7:51:00 a.m. on December 21, 1968. During the flight, three fellow astronauts served on the ground as capsule communicators (usually referred to as "CAPCOMs") on a rotating schedule. The CAPCOMs were the only people who regularly communicated with the crew. Michael Collins was the first CAPCOM on duty and at 2 hours, 27 minutes and 22 seconds after launch radioed, "Apollo 8. You are Go for TLI". This communication signified that Mission Control had given official permission for Apollo 8 to go to the moon. Over the next twelve minutes before the TLI burn, the Apollo 8 crew continued to monitor the spacecraft and the rocket. The S-IVB third stage rocket ignited on time and burned perfectly for 5 minutes and 17 seconds. The burn increased the velocity of Apollo 8 to 35,505 feet per second (10,822 m/s) and the spacecraft's altitude at the end of the burn was 215.4 miles (346.7 km). At this time, the crew also set the record for the highest speed humans had ever traveled.

Five hours after launch, Mission Control sent a command to the S-IVB booster to vent its remaining fuel through its engine bell to change the booster's trajectory. This S-IVB would then pass the Moon and enter into a solar orbit, posing no further hazard to Apollo 8. The S-IVB subsequently went into a 0.99 by 0.92 AU solar orbit with an inclination of 23.47° and a period of 340.80 days.

The Apollo 8 crew were the first humans to pass through the Van Allen radiation belts, which extend up to 15,000 miles (25,000 km) from Earth. Scientists predicted that passing through the belts quickly at the spacecraft's high speed would cause a radiation dosage of no more than a chest X-ray, or 1 milligray (during the course of a year, the average human receives a dose of 2 to 3 mGy). To record the actual radiation dosages, each crew member wore a Personal Radiation Dosimeter that transmitted data to Earth as well as three passive film dosimeters that showed the cumulative radiation experienced by the crew. By the end of the mission, the crew experienced an average radiation dose of 1.6 mGy.

At about 55 hours and 40 minutes into the flight, the crew of Apollo 8 became the first humans to enter the gravitational sphere of influence of another celestial body. At 64 hours into the flight, the crew began to prepare for Lunar Orbit Insertion-1 (LOI-1). This maneuver had to be performed perfectly, and due to orbital mechanics had to be on the far side of the Moon, out of contact with the Earth. After Mission Control was polled for a Go/No Go decision, the crew was told at 68 hours, they were Go and "riding the best bird we can find". At 68 hours and 58 minutes, the spacecraft went behind the Moon and out of radio contact with the Earth.

When the spacecraft came out from behind the Moon for its fourth pass across the front, the crew witnessed an event no one had ever seen — Earthrise. Borman saw the Earth emerging from behind the lunar horizon and called in excitement to the others, taking a black-and-white photo as he did so: Earthrise, seen for the first time by human eyes. In the ensuing scramble Anders took the more famous color photo, later picked by Life magazine as one of its hundred photos of the century.



As they rounded the Moon for the ninth time, the second television transmission began. Borman introduced the crew, followed by each man giving his impression of the lunar surface and what it was like to be orbiting the Moon. Borman described it as being "a vast, lonely, forbidding expanse of nothing." Then, after talking about what they were flying over, Anders said that the crew had a message for all those on Earth. Each man on board read the story of creation from Book of Genesis. Borman finished the broadcast by wishing a Merry Christmas to everyone on Earth. His message appeared to sum up the feelings that all three crewmen had from their vantage point in lunar orbit. Borman said, "And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, and a Merry Christmas to all of you, all of you on the good Earth"

After 10 lunar orbit, Apollo 8 returned to Earth on 27 December 1968. A successful and historic mission.

So on this Christmas Eve, we should remember a historic moment in Human history that took place 40 years ago.


William Anders

"We are now approaching lunar sunrise and, for all the people back on Earth, the crew of Apollo 8 has a message that we would like to send to you.

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.

And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

Jim Lovell

"And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.

And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.

And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

Frank Borman

"And God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.

And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.

And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas – and God bless all of you, all of you on the good Earth."

View at YouTube

On this Christmas Eve I wish to again recall the words of Apollo 8 in wishing you a Merry Christmas.

And God bless all of you, all of you on the good Earth.

What Happened When Guns Banned in Australia

Stolen From Hate Tip Faultline USA

After Australia banned and confiscated guns from their citizens, promising them safety in return for their weapons, violent crime dramatically increased:

Armed robbery +69%
Assault with guns +28%
Gun murders +19%
Home invasions +21%

Americans should never relinquish their weapons.  The right to bear arms as written in theSecond Amendment has three main purposes:

1. to allow our citizens to protect themselves, their families, and their property
2. to allow our citizens to protect themselves from a tyrannical government
3. to allow our citizens to resist foreign attack/invasion

Watch what happens when Guns are banned in Australia


Click here if the video doesn't load.

Be forewarned!  If your guns are taken from you once, they will take all your other freedoms away.  Never assume that the government can keep you safe.  In Australia they were promised safety if they gave up their guns.  It was the opposite.  Same is true in Great Britain, and every other place that the guns have been taken from the citizen.

Just A Thought

For the last week I have heard

We must rid the nation of semi-automatic guns!

from the left.  These idiots imbeciles don't even know what a semi-automatic gun is.  In fact they see what a gun looks like and declare it to be banned.  Here is a definition of what a semi-automatic gun actually is.

From Wikipedia:

A semi-automatic, or self-loading, firearm is a weapon that performs all steps necessary to prepare the weapon to fire again after firing—assuming cartridges remain in the weapon's feed device or magazine. Typically, this includes extracting and ejecting the spent cartridge case from the weapon's firing chamber, re-cocking the firing mechanism, and loading a new cartridge into the firing chamber. Although automatic weapons and selective fire firearms do the same tasks, semi-automatic firearms do not automatically fire an additional round until the trigger is released and re-pressed by the person firing the weapon.

While all basic firearm actions require the action to be cycled manually before the first shot, semi-automatic as well as automatic and selective fire actions are differentiated from other forms such as single-action or double-action revolvers, pump-action, bolt-action, or lever-action firearms by eliminating the need to manually cycle the weapon after each shot. For example, to fire ten rounds from a semi-automatic firearm or a selective fire weapon set to fire semi-automatically, the action would initially be cycled to load the first round and the trigger would need to be pulled ten times (once for each round fired). For the other forms, the weapon's mechanism would require cycling manually prior to firing the next round. An automatic or a selective fire weapon set to fire automatically would be able to fire continuously as long as the trigger is held until the magazine or feed device runs out of ammunition.

In other words.  A semi-automatic gun loads the guns without the aid of the shooter.  But for the round to be shot, unlike the automatic gun, the shooter has to pull the trigger each time.

The usage of the term automatic may vary according to context. Gun specialists point out that the word automatic is sometimes misunderstood to mean fully automatic fire when used to refer to a self-loading, semi-automatic firearm not capable of fully automatic fire. In this case, automatic refers to the loading mechanism, not the firing capability.

The term "automatic pistol" almost exclusively refers to a semi-automatic (i.e. not fully automatic) pistol. With handguns, the term "automatic" is commonly used to distinguish semi-automatic pistols from revolvers. The term "auto-loader" may also be used to describe a semi-automatic handgun. However, the term "automatic rifle" may mean a rifle capable of fully automatic fire. Both uses of the term "automatic" can be found; the exact meaning must be determined from context.

In layman's terms we are not talking about a machine gun type of weapon.  On these weapons you do not hold the trigger down (so to speak), but have to pull the trigger each time one wants to fire.

Adam Lanza pulled the trigger each time he fired.  That meant he aimed and fired at every person he shot.  And you have to wonder what sick, perverted mind would shoot a child in cold-blood.

Darakshan Raja's Speech at MPAC Convention

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com



Hat tip to Joseph for the video.


One of the most interesting speakers at last Saturday's MPAC convention in Pasadena was a young lady named Darakshan Raja, who works with victims of domestic abuse in New York. Why was it interesting? It was interesting because this young lady exposed the problem of domestic abuse within the Muslim community in America, which she called "the number one problem in the community". She also called out the clerical leadership to address the problem as well as their own attitudes toward women in the mosque-especially those like herself who did not wear hijabs. On the screen she showed images of Shaima Alawadi and Abdifatah Mohammud, both fatal victims of domestic abuse. She is introduced to the audience by Haris Tarin, who moderated this particular session of the convention.

* Note: The heading above the video calls Raja "A victimology specialist". That is the label attached by the person who took the video. Yes, Ms Raja spoke of certain attitudes on the part of non-Muslims toward abuse in the Muslim community, but that was not the main thrust of her talk. I have a suspicion she made many in the audience uncomfortable and sorry that they invited her. For me, her appearance was the highlight of the day.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/p1n3922gt8441w7/Darakshan%20Raja%20Speech%20-%20A%20Victimology%20Specialist.mp4

I salute you, Ms Raja. We may disagree on certain things, but you showed true courage. Hopefully, there are more out there like you.

Why Can't US Muslim Leaders Take a Stand Against Violence on Apostates?

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com



Last Saturday, I attended the 12th annual Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) convention, which was held at All Saints Episcopalian Church in Pasadena. This church is an activist church under the leadership of Pastor Ed Bacon, who made a couple of curious comments about Christians as hateful people.

http://garyfouse.blogspot.com/2012/12/mpac-convention-at-all-saints-church-in.html

As also reported in the above link, I took advantage of the occasion to speak with MPAC leaders Salam Al Marayati and Maher Hathout about the question of apostasy within Islam. Both of these gentlemen are recipients of the Freedom Pledge Letter, sent out to approximately 200 of the top Muslim leaders in America in 2009 and again this year asking them to sign a statement that Americans who had left Islam should not be harmed. The video of myself with Hathout is on the above link and the one with Marayati is pending. In essence, both told me that they would not sign the letter and that they did not subscribe to the idea of death for those who leave Islam. If you go to the below link, you can see the video of Hathout receiving  the letter from me back in June and his statement about it.

http://garyfouse.blogspot.com/2012/07/maher-hathout-appearance-at-guibord.html

So if you compare Hathout's two statements, first, he said he never received the letter, but he would read it, and if it was serious and didn't insult Islam, he would sign it; then last week, he said he didn't sign it because nobody is going to tell him what to sign.

In addition, I have spoken twice about the letter to another recipient, Muzammil Siddiqi of the Islamic Center of Orange County, who is arguably the most influential Muslim leader in America. The first link is from last April, when I met Siddiqi at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles and asked him if he had received the letter (which he denied).

http://garyfouse.blogspot.com/2012/04/muzammil-siddiqi-and-freedom-pledge.html

The below link is from November at Cerritos College in Norwalk, California when I reminded him of the letter and gave him his copy.

http://garyfouse.blogspot.com/2012/11/muzammil-siddiqi-promotes-sharia-at.html

Clearly, there is a disconnect here. Of all the Muslim leaders in America, people who go around proclaiming that they are bridge builders and men of peace, only two have signed the letter, Zuhdi Jasser and Ali Ayami. Why is it that so many others cannot bring themselves to sign a simple statement that Americans who have left the Islamic faith should not be harmed (since they are indeed living under the threat of death)?

In trying to sort out the answers, at least the ones I have received from the men I have spoken to in the above reports, it seems that there may be a distinction in the minds of some of them between private apostates (those who quietly leave the religion and say nothing) and public apostates (those who proclaim their apostasy and publicly criticize Islam). There may or may not be disagreement among Islamic jurists as to the former, but as to the latter, there is really none. The latter is considered treason. (I even managed to get that much out of Siddiqi though he did not explicitly say that the latter should be put to death.)

One of the scheduled speakers at the Pasadena event (who did not show) was a young man named Shaykh Abdullah Adhami. Prior to the convention, I had posted a video of Adhami trying to answer a question about apostates during a previous speaking appearance. He spoke of private apostates and public apostates, but never really answered the crucial question as to what should be done with them (if anything).

http://garyfouse.blogspot.com/2012/12/apostasy-as-explained-sort-of-by-shaykh.html

So the issue of death for apostates is clearly a ticklish one for those who profess that Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance especially given all the intolerance, hate and mayhem being conducted around the world in the name of Islam. It is indisputable that in many Muslim-majority countries, apostates are being murdered.

That brings us to the issue of people like Pastor Ed Bacon, who made such a big issue of the people who expressed disapproval of his invitation to MPAC to hold their annual convention at his church. There are many like him, Christians and Jews who don't want to hear any bad news about Islam. It is laudable that they may want to find moderate, peaceful Muslims with whom to hold inter-faith events. But at what point do they recognize that they are being used by the wrong people? In the days leading up to the convention many tried to educate Bacon and the church as to what MPAC was really all about. Bacon reacted indignantly, calling them bigots and Islamophobes and talking about the "vile hate mail" he had received. Whether some messages may have used inappropriate language, I don't know; I have not seen them. I have already said that the three guys who showed up to protest the event acted like idiots, but that was it.

The fact is that if Bacon believes so strongly in MPAC, maybe he should ask Marayati and Hathout why they could not bring themselves to sign a simple letter that says that people who leave Islam should not be harmed. Maybe Bacon should ask himself why out of some 200 American Islamic leaders, only two men could bring themselves to sign such a letter. Here is the reason why:

They can't.

G-d Rest Ye Merry Anti-Semites

There is an old hatred returning to the Christian community.  A hatred of Jews and Judaism.  It is especially vicious this time of year.  A new call for the blood of Jews to run through out the streets of the world.  A vicious cry led by the Church of England, Roman Catholic Church, Presbyterian Church (USA) and Evangelical Lutheran Church.

A new report from NGO Monitor reveals that several Christian organizations that support the Palestinian Authority are using Christmas to attack Israel. Holiday propaganda ranged from half-truths aimed at portraying Israel as oppressive to “crude anti-Semitism” based on historic Christian accusations of Jews being prophet-killers, the group said.

The report, titled, “O Boycott All ye Faithful,” criticized groups including Christian Aid, Sabeel, Kairos Palestine, and Israel Palestine Mission Network, Presbyterian Church (USA).

The latter group has published a daily advent devotional headed by a picture in which Mary and Joseph, parents of Jesus, are trapped behind a wall styled on Israel’s security barrier between Bethlehem and Jerusalem. The first entry compares Israel to the Romans who once brutally oppressed the Jewish people.

“Jesus lived when the Roman empire had recently come to his land and made it part of the empire. The Romans were very cruel to any of those who dared to resist the occupation… As we look at the complexity of the Palestine/Israel issues today, I am struck by a sense of déjà vu,” wrote Reverend Richard Toll.

His message also included a warning to “collaborators,” whom he said Christians must expose. The PA considers “collaboration” with Israel in fighting terrorism a death penalty offense.

Further writings continue the trend of extreme criticism of Israel, with some hinting that modern-day Palestinian Authority Arabs are like Jesus, while Israel is like the Romans who killed him.

The annual Christmas message from Sabeel compares Israel to the Roman Empire as well, as does a video message posted by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Groups based in England and Ireland – Amos Trust, Christian Aid, and the Ireland Palestinian Solidarity Campaign – used images or writings that targeted Israel’s security barrier by comparing PA residents to figures in early Christianity. Amos Trust, for example, wrote, “If Jesus were born today in Bethlehem, the Wise Men would spend several hours queuing to enter the town.”

The security barrier was built following a brutal wave of suicide attacks targeting Israeli civilians. Jerusalem, just minutes from Bethlehem, was hit by dozens of attacks murdering hundreds of people. Several of the attackers were from Bethlehem, among them a bomber who targeted high school students on their way to school, killing and wounding several dozen.

Unsurprisingly, the issue of terrorism in Bethlehem was not mentioned by any of the organizations.

“NGOs and well-known charities are exploiting the 2012 Christmas season with anti-Israel campaigns… The repeated emphasis on Bethlehem highlights the dark theological messaging,” warned NGO monitor.

“With this abuse of holiday and religious symbols, these NGOs and charities that claim to promote moral agendas are not offering messages of peace and good cheer. Rather, their intolerant and theologically charged messages exacerbate an already polarized and violent conflict,” the group charged.

Many of the offending groups are funded by the European Union and European governments. Sabeel is funded by Sweden, and Christian Aid by the UK, Ireland, Norway and the EU.

“As funders, these governments are enablers and share the moral responsibility for the actions of the NGOs,” NGO Monitor declared.

Source

A new Christmas Carol is being taught to Christian children all over the world:

Deck the streets with the Blood of Jews,
Fa la la la la la la la la.
Tis the season to hate Jews,
Fa la la la la la la la la.
Blame them for the death of Christ,
That way the PA will let us stay,
Fa la la la la la la la la.

I wonder how long it will be until this becomes a prophecy and not a song?

Latest member of the Zionist Attack Zoo: Super-Rhinoceroses

Stolen From Hat Tip Elder of Ziyon

The newest member of the Mossad Animal Agent Squad is a Rhinoceroses.  Not just any Rhino, but a Super-Rhino.  A genetically modified member of that species.

In what might sound as something out of a fantasy video-game or Nordic mythology, sources close to TX revealed on Sunday evening via email that Israel is working on a heavily-funded bio-engineering program which is funded by a select group of retired elites within the Israel Defense Forces on 'hybrid animals'.

The source, who is a retired security official from a Gulf country, made the claims while referring to one of his junior comrades who was tasked with undercover information gathering in the illegitimate state more than 7 years ago.

"He described a large, underground laboratory adjacent to the Negev desert where a highly-secured bunker was located, guarded by about two dozen troops of the elite Sayaret Matkal commandos and Military Intelligence units".

"He observed various visits to the facility by then Military Intelligence chief Aharon Zeevi-Farkash accompanied by a panel of scientists who changed on rotation every other day. Although he wasn't able to capture any footage owing to the high security and sensors in the area, he was able to have several glances from very narrow openings".

The retired officer described how the underground bunker had another sub-station inside it which had no window at all:

"He recalls those Zionists (Israelis) talking of 'super beasts' equipped with improvised weapons".

Did the said spy who claims to have found such a facility actually see any such 'mutated beasts'? This question was posed to the source:

"Once, he shared details of a group of bizarre rhinoceroses and canines but never spoke on the subject again. Our superiors thought we had been feeding on telltale rumors hence that chapter was closed once and for all".

At the end, the source said that he, along with his subordinate, retired early from service.

Source

First there were 14 squirrels that the Iranians still claim to be Mossad agents.  Then Sammy the Shark, Vinnie the Vulture, etc...   I am sure glad that these idiots still haven't discovered the flies and fleas that have had electronics embedded in them.

Let us welcome the newest member of Mossad's Animal Agent Squad:

Reuben the Rhino

It's The End Of The World!

Or maybe not.  According to the Mayan calendar today is the end of the world.  According to Baseball prophecy:  The world will not end until the Cubs win the World Series.  (We will never see the end then.)

If the world does end today this will be my last post.  if it doesn't then have a laugh and enjoy the video below:


R.E.M. - It's The End Of The World


Click here if the video doesn't load.

Another Christian Minister Imprisoned In Iran

Born in Iran as a Muslim, converted to Christianity, Fled to the United States, became a Minister then a citizen, but returns to Iran to see his parents and thrown into prison in Iran.

A 32-year-old Iranian who is a U.S. citizen and a Christian convert has been imprisoned without notice of any formal charges while visiting his family in Iran, according to his wife and attorneys in the U.S., who are now hoping that a media campaign will help set him free.

The Rev. Saeed Abedini, who lives in the U.S. with his wife and two young children, was making one of his frequent visits to see his parents and the rest of his family in Iran, his country of origin and where he spent many years as a Christian leader and community organizer developing Iran's underground home church communities for Christian converts.

On this last trip, the Iranian government pulled him off a bus and said he must face a penalty for his previous work as a Christian leader in Iran.

He is currently awaiting trial at Iran's notoriously brutal Evin Prison, where he has been incarcerated since late September.

"When he became a Christian, he became a criminal in his own country. His passion was to reach the people of Iran," Naghmeh, his wife, said in an exclusive interview with Fox News.

"He comes from a very close-knit family, and he loved evangelizing and passing out Bibles on the streets of Tehran. This was his passion," she said.

In July, Abedini left his wife and kids to go to Iran to visit family and continue a humanitarian effort he began years ago to build an orphanage.

After a short visit to a nearby country, Abedini was traveling back into Iran to catch his flight back to the U.S. when members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard stopped his bus near the Turkey-Iran border and pulled Abedini from the bus, confiscating his passports and subjecting him to intense interrogation, according to his wife.

After weeks under house arrest and many calls to Iran's passport control office about the status of his confiscated passport, Abedini was told that his case has been referred to the Revolutionary Guard, the Iranian government's elite military force.

On Sept. 26, five men kicked open the door of Abedini's parents' residence in Tehran where they collected all communications devices and arrested him while placing the rest of his family members, who are also Christians converts from Islam, under house arrest.

The family remains under house arrest, according to Naghmeh.

Two days before the home raid, Naghmeh reports getting a call to her cellphone in the U.S., from someone she thinks was an Iranian government agent threatening that she would "never see him again."

Abedini is the father of a house church movement in Iran, a community of underground places of worship for former Muslims who convert to Christianity and are not allowed to formally pray in recognized churches.

Over the course of his involvement, his home church movement had about 100 churches in 30 Iranian cities with more than 2,000 members.

"It was just growing so fast. They see the underground churches as a threat and they see Christianity as a tool from the West to undermine them," Naghmeh said. "They think if the country becomes more Christian, they are no longer under Islamic authority. That's why it's a threat."

But "Christianity saved his life," Naghmeh says of her husband, who converted at the age of 20, after becoming severely depressed from undergoing suicide bomber training by a radical Muslim group.

Abedini was recruited in high school and taken to the mosque to be trained, she says. The more he sought to be a devout Muslim and the deeper he went into training, the more depressed he became.

Under Shariah, or Islamic law, a Muslim who converts to Christianity is on a par with someone waging war against Islam. Death sentences for such individuals are prescribed by fatwas, or legal decrees, and reinforced by Iran’s Constitution, which allows judges to rely on fatwas for determining charges and sentencing on crimes not addressed in the Iranian penal code.

All religious minorities in Iran, including Bahais, Zoroastrians, Jews and Christians, have faced various forms of persecution and political and social marginalization throughout the regime’s 30-year reign. But the government saves its harshest retribution for those who have abandoned Islam.

During the many rounds of interrogations, Abedini has informally been told he will be charged for threatening the national security of Iran and espionage, due to his involvement with Christian house churches and foreign Christian satellite TV ministries.

The Iranian government offered bail in the amount of 500 million toman, or roughly $410,000. Abedini's family has prepared the bail documents many times already but have not been successful in having it accepted or approved, they say.

Just this week they prepared yet again the bail documents but were told they were not going to be accepted. When they inquired, they were told, "Boro Gomsho!" or get lost.

"It's hardest on the kids," Naghmeh said. "Saeed was a stay-at-home dad. My daughter said she is forgetting Daddy's voice and she asked me, 'Do you think he has a beard now?' I didn't even think of that. She keeps playing the home videos over and over. It's the hardest at night because he had a night routine with them when he would read them books and tuck them in. They miss that the most."

Abedini and his wife had met in Iran in 2002, while she was there working for Iranian relatives, and were married shortly thereafter. Together, they worked as Christian leaders in the underground house churches. After facing persecution for these activities, in 2005, they moved to the U.S. together.

His first trip back to Iran was in 2009 with his wife and two children to visit his family when he came under government scrutiny. As the family attempted to catch their flight back to the U.S., Abedini was detained and told he would have to stay in the country for further questioning. His wife and children were put on a plane bound for the U.S., separated from their husband and father.

After the arrest and rounds of intense interrogation, in which the interrogators threatened Abedini with death for his conversion to Christianity, they agreed to release him, according to his attorneys, but only after he signed a written agreement in which the government would not charge him for his Christian activities, and he would be allowed to enter and exit the country so long as he ceased all official house church activities.

According to his attorneys, he had honored this agreement. "He thought if he honored his part, they would honor theirs. He was transparent about his humanitarian work there," said Tiffany Barrans, International Legal Director at the American Center for Law and Justice based in Washington D.C, the organization representing Abedini’s U.S.-based family.

This was ninth trip since 2009 to visit family and to continue his humanitarian work on developing a non-sectarian orphanage in the city of Rasht on a family-owned land plot.

"You have a situation of arbitrary detention here. Iran is violating its own constitution and its international obligations. As citizens of the world, we need to wake up to these violations. Iran needs to be exposed for its violation of these laws," said Barrans, who has been working very closely with Naghmeh to push for her husband's release.

The American Center for Law and Justice is providing legal support to Naghmeh by working through the US government, members of Congress, various governments around the world, and with leaders in the United Nations to help release Pastor Saeed.

The ACLJ previously played an integral role in reaching various government representatives in the case of imprisoned minister Youcef Nadarkhani, who was freed from an Iranian prison after nearly three years following a tremendous international outcry demanding his release.

Despite the fact that Abedini was arrested Sept. 26, the family elected to work through different private means to get him released. In that time, however, he was denied access to an attorney and was badly been beaten by prison guards. According to his wife, Abedini is also being severely beaten by his cell mates who self-identify as members of Al Qaeda. The family is greatly concerned for his health and well being.

The U.S. has not had formal diplomatic ties with the Iranian government since 1980 and relies on alternative efforts in such instances.

Fox News reached out to the State Department for comment on Abedini's case but has not received a call back yet.

"We were hopeful that the Iranian government would have released him by now and that private efforts would have been more successful. Also, as Saeed has family in Iran, we had to be mindful of the fact that any public action taken could put his family at risk," said Barrans.

"They see that the house church culture is alive and thriving. They believe that making an example out of their former leader will deter others from practicing and converting to Christianity."

Several house church members, friends and distant relatives of Abedini have had to flee the country in recent months after being summoned by the government to collect evidence against him.

As a convert away from Islam, worshippers are not permitted to attend services at official churches. Underground house churches became a popular way to get around this restriction.

"They have denied converts the opportunity to worship in an official place of worship. Then they tell them they can't practice their faith underground, and doing so is a crime against Iran’s national security interests. How is this not a violation of religious freedom?" Barrans said.

Source

I remember the trials of Youcef Nadarkhani and how his faith was strengthened by his ordeal.  And I pray that Rev. Saeed Abedini will not endure such an ordeal, but will be freed from this prison immediately and sent back to his wife and children.

I ask all readers to pray for this man, his family and for his safety.  He will be under a death sentence soon and will need all the prayers that we can send.  He does have a facebook page but it has reached his limit of friends.

One day I pray that Iran will be a free nation allowing freedom of conscience for all of its citizens.  But this won't happen until the Mullahs are out of power, and that won't be any time soon.

MPAC Convention at All Saints Episcopalian Church in Pasadena

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com

MPAC President Salaam Marayati- Pastor Ed Bacon



On December 15, the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) held their 12th annual convention at the All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, California. All in all, I would guess there were about 500 people attending. It was advertised as the first time a Muslim organization had held a convention at a Christian church, a point MPAC speakers made repeatedly during the day. I was also in attendance for the convention as well as the evening banquet.

The host for the convention was Pastor Ed Bacon, who has worked on interfaith issues with MPAC for several years now. In the days prior to the event, the church received several e-mails protesting the church's invitation to MPAC, which many consider linked to the Muslim Brotherhood. The church and MPAC held a press conference complaining of "vile" e-mails and "threats".

I arrived an hour before the event in order to register. On the sidewalk outside the church were about three people holding anti-Islam posters. One man was in a wheel chair. Two others were alternating speaking while about a dozen church supporters lined up on the church lawn facing them (lower photo). The two speakers, who looked like Hulk Hogan look-a-likes, were making insulting comments about Islam, the Prophet Muhammad, and the church for hosting  the event. Eventually, an atheist guy joined them and much of the debate was between these three guys doing all the talking. Private security and police were on hand, there were no incidents, and the protesters left once the event began.

(Hat tip Chris)



The opening remarks were made by Salaam Marayati, the director of MPAC. A moment of silence was held for the victims of  the massacre in Connecticut this week.

Bacon, in his opening remarks referred to the negative feedback from his co-religionists, and said, "Christians can be very hateful". He also quoted his friend, Maher Hathout of MPAC, who reportedly had stated, "Peacemaking for Muslims is not an option. It is an imperative."

Bacon also spoke of his "heart breaking visit" to Gaza a few years back. When visiting a Red  Crescent office, he asked an official what the central mission of Islam was and was told, "Without a doubt-justice".

The event then went on to the first of three sessions. The first was a panel discussion moderated by local news reporter Beverly White, joined by Maher Hathout and Nayyer Ali of MPAC. White proceeded to lob up one softball question after another to the panelists.

"What does this day mean?"

White, Hathout, Ali

Hathout, as he always does, wins his audience with humorous quips. In one remark, he asked, "What is all the fuss about?" He referred to extremists who cannot see Muslims as normal people. "When they see normal people like us, they don't know what to do with us. He also referred to people who want to know if "we pass their litmus test on the Palestinian-Israeli issue". " He divided Americans into two groups-"us" (referring to those in the room) and those who don't want us at the table due to racial-religious bias (I am paraphrasing.)

Hathout also referred to criticism that the Islamic Center of California (Los Angeles) had books authored by Islamic cleric  Yusuf al Qaradawi. He noted that universities have books about Hitler and Marx. Yet, he ignored the reason why such books are in libraries for historical research. Most people who read Qaradawi do so to apply his words to their own lives.

White also asked Hathout about the claims of protesters that he had ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. Hathout stated that many decades previous when he was in Egypt as a young man, he was associated with the Brotherhood in opposing the British occupation of Egypt and trying to keep (Gamal) Nasser from becoming a dictator. He stated that he has lived in the US for 40 years and has had no ties (to the Brotherhood).

In response to a question from White about the events in the Middle East, Ali addressed concerns about Islamist movements being involved in politics. He explained that for 200 years, the Middle East was under colonialism and there was no discussion about religion and state. After de-colonization, there were dictatorships and now comes democracy. He added that countries are trying to find their way to democracy. These are the first steps. He added that he felt the new constitution was flawed, that he wouldn't vote for it, but it was for the Egyptians to decide.

After this session, a letter was read to the attendees by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) congratulating them for the event. At that point, the Muslim guests adjourned to a separate room for prayers.

The second session featured a series of 10-minute talks by young Muslim activists. The moderator was Haris Tarin of the MPAC ofice in Washington DC.  During his remarks he stated, "We have made a church our home" and talked about "Fast Forward" they way young Muslims see America two decades from now.

The first speaker introduced by Tarin was Yusuf Abdul-Qadir. This young man from the Bronx talked of his growing up there and the contrast between midtown Manhattan and the Bronx. He attended Syracuse University and is involved in various community causes. During his slide presentation he showed associations with Siraj Wahhaj and Daisy Khan, the latter of whom is the wife of Faisel Abdul Rauf, the would be leader of the Ground Zero mosque in New York. Qadir made no mention of having been contacted by the FBI for an interview, a subject that he has previously been vocal on.

The next speaker was a young lady from Houston named Wardah Khalid. She is a blogger and is involved with a local radio show. For visual aids, she showed two pictures used by Pamela Geller.


Speaking of the controversy over the word, "jihad", she stated that  "some folks want you to believe jihad means conducting acts of terror, and that is not all jihad means (Italics mine). That is not what Jihad means".

As to the second picture above, Khalid stated "That is not the case" and said that the (Koranic) phrase refers to "not being with God" as she spoke of Muslims' belief in a monotheistic God. She referred to critics as
"spreading a message about Islam that is not entirely true" (Italics mine). Left unexplained is who "We" refers to in the second ad. Perhaps, the above two quotes from Khalid were innocent slips of the tongue.

Khalid went on to refer to the Peter King hearings (who was often singled out for attack during the day), as well as anti-Sharia legislation which "would make it impossible for Muslims to practice their religion". She mentioned the National Defense Authorization Act and the New York Police Department "spying on Muslims simply because of their faith". "Jihad means struggle", she said and encouraged Muslims to get involved with blogs and other activities and "redefine the narrative". Below is her presentation: (Hat tip Joseph)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/vxtsi1ciemxvnox/Wardah%20Khalid%20Speech%20at%20the%2012th%20Annual%20MPAC%20Convention%20-%20Author%20of%20Young%20American%20Muslim%20blog%20for%20the%20Houston%20Chronicle.mp4


The next speaker was Alejando Beutel, a convert to Islam from a Catholic/Jewish home. Beutel spoke of the year 2050 in America and the changing demographics to a majority-minority population. He emphasized the importance of research and told of a project he was involved in at Missouri State University on the identity of Muslims as Americans.

The next speaker and the most interesting one was a young lady named Darakshan Raja from New York, who is involved in family abuse work. As she opened her talk a picture of murder victim Shaima Alawadi flashed on the screen. Raja talked of how the community came together when it was thought that Alawadi was the victim of a hate crime. But when it turned out to be a case of domestic abuse, "we withdrew".

Raja went on to call domestic abuse the number one problem in the community.

She then showed a picture on the screen of a ten year old boy named Abdifatah Mohammud, and told how he was abused by his step-father for 9 months and nobody did anything. Then in 2012, the boy ran away from home but was returned to his family by someone in the community. The step-father then tied the boy to a chair stuffed a sock in his mouth then used a rolling pin to beat him to death separating his scull from his spinal column.



http://buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20121018/CITYANDREGION/121019187/1109

"How many people in our community protested this?' she asked. "When an imam tells a woman to go back to her abusive husband, nobody hears from them again."

Raja also  said, "I can count the number of shelters for Muslims on my hand."

She also blamed the legal system for being indifferent to cases of Muslim abuse. She said when Muslims call 911, there is no response. She referred to judges who don't give protective orders because "Islam permits it." (in their view).

Raja added that the Muslim community has to address this and that the imams need to be trained.

Dustin Craun, another convert to Islam and community organizer was next. Among his memorable quotes was a tribute to the Dreamers. Thanks to them and our present administration, "we are about to give amnesty to 11 million people."

Craun also talked of the influence of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King on his life. He also said that after his conversion, he became temporarily disillusioned and left his original mosque (not named) because it was intolerant. He eventually moved to the Bay Area to be mentored by Zaid Shakir. He also mentioned his involvement with the PICO National Network.

White racism seems to be a big issue for Craun (who is also white). He seems to be a classic product of that anti-Western civilization, post colonial education that dominates in our universities. If he wants to link white racism to Islamophobia, there are millions of non-white people he can talk to around the world who have been victims of persecution by Muslims or even ex-Muslims like Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

Craun was followed by two high schoolers, one a Muslim and the other a Catholic. They did a school project on attitudes of Islamophobia and said that MPAC helped prepare brochures for them to hand out.

After this, Tarin posed questions to the speakers as a panel. (The audience was able to write questions and pass them to the front.)

l-r; Khalid, Craun, Qadir, Raja, Beutel (Hat tip Chris)


During this session, Craun referred to "mass incarceration" and said that there were 350,000 Muslims in prison. He also said we cannot accept one trillion dollars of our money going to the military. He also mentioned the use of drones and the possibility that they may be used by US police forces.

In answer to a question about women in mosques, Raja  stated that men are taken more seriously, and  when she enters a mosque not wearing a hijab, she is not taken seriously as a Muslim. (Raja was not wearing a hijab when she spoke.) She also complained about the Violence Against Women Act not being re-authorized. there was an oblique reference to Congress since 1994 and "If you are not a white woman, you are not protected."

Craun, who has a Masters degree in Ethnic Studies, talked about "whiteness", and people who don't want to discuss race. He said that "White supremacist Christianity is on the rise."

Lunch was from 3-4. During the break, I approached Marayati and asked him about the subject of apostasy. I also mentioned the Freedom Pledge letter, which he and many other Muslim leaders in the US had received from Former Muslims United asking them to sign a pledge that American apostates not be harmed. He told me he vaguely remembered seeing the letter a couple of months previous but had not signed it. The reason he gave is that Nonie Darwish (the head of FMU) had a political agenda while MPAC had made its views known, that there is no punishment for leaving Islam, and there is nothing about that in the Koran. I asked him specifically if that also pertained to public apostates who spoke out critically against the religion as well as those who quietly left. Marayati reiterated there was no punishment for leaving Islam for either group. I then gave him another copy of the letter addressed to him, thanked him, shook hands and left.

In addition, during the morning, I also spoke with Hathout and asked him if he had signed the same letter, which I had given him in June. He said he had not because nobody is going to tell him what to sign and that he had already said he did not believe in death for apostates. The below video shows Hathout being interviewed by a local NBC reporter,  myself, and two other private citizens.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xwqqkgjcxr14ofd/Channel%204%20News%2C%20Gary%20Fouse%2C%20and%20Joseph%20Interview%20with%20Dr.%20Maher%20Hathout%20at%2012th%20Annual%20MPAC%20Lower%20Resolution%20Version.mp4


From 4-5:30, a panel discussion was held in the sanctuary moderated by Edina Lekovic of MPAC. The panel members were Bacon, Hathout, Narinjan Singh Khalsa, a Sikh minister and member of the LA Human Relations Commission, and Rabbi Sarah Bassin of New Ground-A Muslim-Jewish Partnership for Change.

Rabbi Bassin is involved in a group devoted to interfaith dialogue between Jews and Muslims. She made a reference to the relationship between the Jews in the diaspora (US) and Orthodox Jews who, according to her,  should not get to say who is a Jew and who isn't. She told of a visit to Israel years back when she saw the grave of the young Israeli who had opened fire in a mosque killing several Muslims. She was outraged that the gravestone was covered with pebbles-a Jewish tradition to honor the dead.  She also said that as Jewish numbers decline, they must engage in interfaith activities with other faiths.

Mr Khalsa spoke of the challenges facing Sikhs in America from those too ignorant to know that they are not Muslims. He also said that Sikhs were mandated to dress in traditional garb and this was a hindrance to getting a job. He, of course, spoke of his recollections of the shooting at the Sikh temple in Wisconsin.

When Lekovic asked why Muslims have problems getting mosques built, referring to the Murfreesboro, Tennessee mosque, Hathout said that the other is afraid of us, but added certain Muslims don't represent Islam well.

Lekovic asked Pastor Bacon for his reaction that he was under fire from "right-wing Christians". He said that after the election, he flipped to Fox News ('which I don't watch") to see what (Bill) O'Reilly said. Bacon quoted O'Reilly as saying, "the white establishment is over". "It was news to him", said Bacon. He then referred to the handful of protesters who had been outside the church in the morning, and said they were "asleep" referring to a "revolution of compassion".

Bacon also stressed the importance of religions being politically involved for justice. He used the term "justice" more than once. One might wonder if his concept of justice is based on the Bill of Rights and if he sees that justice based on sharia might be something much different.

Lekovic then raised the issue of freedom of speech and the video controversy over, "The Innocence of Muslims". She asked Bassin where was the line between freedom of speech and hate speech?

Bassin told of her reaction as a child to the Skokie, Illinois march by Neo-Nazis. Looking back, she thought it was correct to allow the march due to "American exceptualism". She referred to the "3 protesters" earlier in the day and said that people can rise up and reject it.

Lekovic then referred to the effort by the Organization of Islamic Conference to get legislation passed through the UN to outlaw "defamation of religions" "What is the Koranic take?" she asked Hathout.

Hathout replied that he had criticized the fatwa against Salmon Rushdie (over "The Satanic Verses"). He  added that we should consider all the complexities and all the poor masses who don't have the sophistication (my word) we do, and we ought not to provoke these people to respond. ("Low expectations, Sir?)

In another question, Lekovic asked Hathout if he agreed with the death sentences hounded down by Egyptian courts to those in the US involved in the production of the above-mentioned video. Hathout said he opposed the sentences and hoped that higher courts would overturn them.

Then Lekovic asked if there was a double standard when it came down to Islamophobia vs anti-Semitism. She referred to weapons being sent to Israel by the US funded by US taxpayers.

Bacon responded that the history of the (Christian) church was "littered with evil"  listing the Crusades, slavery, the Holocaust, and "evangelical Zionism" He then condemned a comment just made by Mike Huckabee in response to the killings in Connecticut.

Bassin told of an experience when she was working with the Jewish Federation and there was a protest outside their hqs by pro-Palestinians. People were urged to go outside and support the Jews/Israelis.

"We can't stand on opposite sides of the street shouting at each other."

In response to a question about sharia law in America, Hathout said that "we abide by the Constitution and the law, and we don't want to deviate from it. We don't want to enforce sharia in the US or anywhere".

That ended the conference. The last event was the dinner banquet, which I also attended. The moderator was again Lekovic. At one point, she read a letter from Thomas Perez, head of the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department to MPAC congratulating them on their event. Perez apparently had spoken at the 2010 convention and said that his office proudly displayed a certificate of appreciation from MPAC on the wall at Justice hqs.

Among the attendees at the banquet were LA Sheriff Lee Baca, Michael Downing chief of LAPD's Counter Terror squad, at least one of his officers,  as well as some of Baca's deputies from LASD's corresponding unit. (No, they were not there covertly. They were honored guests.) The principal speakers were Congresswoman Judy Chu (D-CA), whose district includes Pasadena, Pakistani Consul General Riffat Massod, who received an award, and Congressman Mike Honda (D-CA). Both Chu and Honda got their political shots in and bitterly attacked Congressman Peter King (R-NY) over the recent hearings he held on radicalization within the US Muslim community. Honda, who spent his earliest years in a WW II relocation camp for Japanese-Americans, told the audience that had there been an MPAC in 1942, Japanese-Americans never would have been interned.

 After Honda's speech, I left missing a talk by a couple of brothers playing in the NFL who had taken the 2012 season off to go on the Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca).

Impressions

 The above-mentioned younger speakers were impressive and will be heard from in the future. (I don't mean that necessarily in a negative sense.) The ordinary Muslim people who attended were nice, and I assume they are decent people. I had a chance to chat with some of them.  It is their leadership I worry about. Once again, MPAC played the victim card complaining of Islamophobia. Pastor Bacon is clearly an activist cleric who gave away his animus toward Israel with his comment about "evangelical Zionism", whatever that means. All Saints Church has a long history of political involvement in various issues, both laudable and maybe not-so-laudable.

Here is what was missing; while several speakers distanced themselves from Islamist extremism, there was no mention of Islamic intolerance throughout the outside world toward non-Muslims, whether it be Copts in Egypt, Christians in Pakistan, Iraq, Nigeria, Syria, Sudan, Baha'i in Iran, Jews in Europe and on and on. It was the proverbial gorilla in the back of the room. Ultimately, MPAC would have us believe that it is all a big misunderstanding or a figment of our imagination. The most courageous speaker was Ms Raja, who, with emotion in her voice, called out the Muslim community and its male leadership when it comes to domestic violence. For me, it was the highlight of a long day. In contrast, the Rabbi Bassin had not one word to say about Islamic anti-Semitism, nor did Pastor Bacon have one word to say about the Islamic intolerance and persecution directed towards Christians and other non-Muslims in the Islamic-majority world.

Ms. Khalid's statements about jihad were to me disingenuous. Her two slips of the tongue may have been innocent, but jihad in part means to go to war against infidels to establish the religion. There may have been truth to what Muhammad is reported upon returning from a battle to have referred to as the "greater jihad" of becoming a better Muslim, but if that statement is true, he also referred to the "lesser jihad" (of battle against infidels).

As for the assurances that there is no death penalty for apostates under sharia from Messers Marayati and Hathout, I am sorry, but it is a part of (Hudud) sharia law as "punishments for crimes against God".  It is especially universally recognized  when one talks about an apostate who publicly criticizes the religion. These men both recognize that such a penalty is illegal in America and that they are bound to obey American laws where they live. However, speaking theoretically, were this to become an Islamic nation under sharia law, that is what we would live under.

As for the Hulk Hogan type protesters, in my view, they acted like idiots. The LA Times and  Channel 4 (NBC) were covering the event, and it is these guys they will base their reporting on. It is this handful of people who will make the headlines. How unfortunate.