Right Truth

Air Force Removes “Inspirational” Painting - someone was offended

Fox News:

An inspirational painting that referenced a Bible verse has been removed from a dining hall at Mountain Home Air Force Base after an anti-religion group filed a complaint, Fox News has learned.

The painting featured a medieval crusader and referenced Matthew 5:9, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation called the painting “repugnant” and an “overt display of Christian nationalism.”

They allegedly received a complaint from someone at the base who said the picture made “me feel terribly uncomfortable, disheartened and disappointed.” (click image to enlarge)

“I have been extremely disturbed and shocked by a clearly Christian picture of religious supremacy very prominently hanging in the dining facility of our Air Force Base, the unidentified complainant state in an email. “I and countless other Airmen were forced to look at this ‘Crusader/USAF’ painting while we ate.”

The unidentified complainant said 21 other individuals also took issue with the painting. None were identified by the MRFF.

MRFF founder Mikey Weinstein called the Pentagon Friday morning to complain about the painting and gave them one hour to comply with his demands to remove the painting. Less than an hour later the picture was removed.

Col. Christopher Short, the commander of the 366th Fighter Wing told Fox News the art work was removed as soon as he was made aware.

“We make reasonable accommodations for all religions and celebrate the religious diversity of our Airmen,” Short said.

Sort said the picture was removed to remain in compliance with the Air Force’s position outlined in the Revised Interim Guidelines Concerning Free Exercise of Religion in the Air Force.

“The document states that we will remain officially neutral regarding religious beliefs — either officially endorsing nor disapproving any faith belief or absence of belief,” Short said.

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation touted Weinstein’s influence within the military in a column titled “The Pentagon Most Certainly Is Listening to Mikey Weinstein.”

Chris Rodda, senior research director for the MRFF wrote that the wing commander told Weinstein “that he will be ordering another inspection to rid his base of anything else like what had been hanging in the dining hall.”

Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin (Ret.), vice president of the Family Research Council, told Fox News the removal of the picture raises serious questions about Weinstein’s influence within the military.

“This is clearly more evidence of anti-Christian activity in the military,” Boykin told Fox News.

(continue at Fox News)

 

Related:

See Like A Prayer at Democracy in America.

 

Benghazi

Drudge is on top of things as always with the following headlines concerning Benghazi:

   State Dept Report Lists 6 Terror Attacks Last Year in Benghazi Before 9/11 Strike...

Also noted are five terrorism-related attacks in Benghazi following the 9/11 attack.

The State Department released its annual Country Reports on Terrorism 2012 survey on Thursday. The section on the Middle East and North Africa includes a report on terror attacks in Libya.  All told, there were eleven terrorism-related attacks last year in Libya prior to the 9/11 attack in Benghazi that took the life of Ambassador Christopher Stevens, Sean Smith, Glen Doherty, and Tyrone Woods. Six of those eleven attacks took place in Benghazi

 

US officials instructed hospital to list dead ambassador as 'John Doe'...

Why would this be done?  To try and hide the fact that Obama allowed Americans, including an ambassador, to be killed without sending any help?

 
WH Releases Situation Room Photo -- 'On Hurricane Preparedness'....

 Still no situation room photo of events on 9/11/12 because Muslim terrorists attacking an American embassy over seven hours did not merit any attention from Obama. 

 

Hillary's approval ratings plummets....

 

While her favorability rating in February was 61 percent, a new Quinnipiac University poll out Friday had it cobbled down to 52 percent and her once double-digit lead over potential GOP presidential challengers Jeb Bush and Sen. Rand Paul has been cut to less than 10 percent.

"Her score is down substantially from her all-time high score in February. The drop in her favorability is substantial among men, Republicans and independent voters. One reason for her drop may be that 48 percent of voters blame her either a little or a lot for the death of the American ambassador in Benghazi," said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University polling Institute.

 

At PJMedia on all the scandals, via Doug Ross who provides the image:   "Why Benghazi Is A Crime More Evil Than Anything A President Has Done In Our Lifetimes… In 60 Seconds".

 

Just Thinking Number 58

Frederick William Dame

(Exercising freedom of speech … as long as it still exists.)

 

Just Thinking 

Number 58

 

NOTE:  This is somewhat out of sequence, but it is exceedingly important enough to appear at the beginning.

 

To prove that they are respectful and peaceful, two peaceful Muslims respectfully behead a British soldier on the peaceful streets of London’s peaceful Woolwich area. According to The Times of London, the peaceful attackers shout, “Allahu Akhbar” during the savage attack. One of the peaceful and respectful killers states, “We [Muslims] swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you [non-Muslims]. We must fight them as they fight us. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. I apologize that women have had to witness this today, but in our land our women have to see the same. You people will never be safe. Remove your government, they don’t care about you.”

 

JT:  AT http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2013/05/british-muslim-who-beheaded-soldier-on-public-street-many-many-suras-in-the-quran.html we read the following:

 

"The killer captured on video was referencing passages from Islamic sacred texts. "We must fight them as they fight us" is a reference to a phrase found repeatedly in the Koran:

 

"fight in the cause  of Allah those who fight you ... And slay them wherever ye catch them, and turn them out from where they have turned you out; for fitnah (oppression, persecution) is worse than slaughter; ...  if they fight you, slay them. Such is the reward of those who suppress faith. " (Sura 2:190-9)

"fight the polytheists all together as they fight you all together"  (Sura 9:36)

"Permission to fight (against disbelievers) is given to those (believers) who are fought against, because they have been wronged and surely, Allah is Able to give them (believers) victory" (Sura 22:39)

 

The Arabic word for 'fight' used in the Koran in these passages is qātilū which literally means fighting to kill.  (See here for an explanation of the meaning of Sura 2:190-91, a passage used by Muslim jurists to justify killing.)

The reference 'an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth' is also from the Koran (although ultimately borrowed from several passages in the Mosaic law):

 

And We prescribed for them therein: The life for the life, and the eye for the eye, and the nose for the nose, and the ear for the ear, and the tooth for the tooth, and for wounds retaliation. (Sura 5:54)

The Muslim killers here are invoking a religious ruling that it is permissible to fight and kill people who wage war against Muslims.  As Bin Ladin put it in his letter to the American people:

 

"It is commanded by our religion and intellect that the oppressed have a right to return the aggression. Do not await anything from us but Jihad, resistance and revenge."

 

The belief which seems to underly the Woolwich attack is that because the British government is fighting a war against Muslims in Muslim lands, it is therefore legitimate for Muslims to wage jihad against the British.  British people, who voted the government into power, are also considered to be personally culpable, which is why they 'will never be safe' and are told to 'remove your government'.

The killer's language is strikingly reminiscent of Bin Ladin's November 2002 letter to the American people, in which he not only spoke of 'removal' of governments (in Muslim lands), but also explained that it was legitimate to attack American civilians because they are the ones who voted their government into power:

 

"... the American people are the ones who choose their government by way of their own free will; a choice which stems from their agreement to its policies. ... The American people have the ability and choice to refuse the policies of their Government and even to change it if they want. ... the American army is part of the American people. ... This is why the American people cannot be not innocent of all the crimes committed by the Americans and Jews against us. ... Allah, the Almighty, legislated the permission and the option to take revenge. Thus, if we are attacked, then we have the right to attack back. ...  whoever has killed our civilians, then we have the right to kill theirs.

 

The phrase 'you people will never be safe' is reminiscent of Muhammad's instruction to his followers to invite non-Muslims to Islam by telling them aslim taslam "Accept Islam and you will be safe" (see here).  The implication is that non-Muslims are not safe because their blood and property can be taken until they convert.  Thus Muhammad said to his cousin Ali, on the eve of the attack against the Jews of Khaibar:

 

"Fight (qātilū) until they bear testimony to the fact that there is no god but Allah and Muhammad is His Messenger [i.e. until they convert to Islam] and when they do that, then their blood and their riches are inviolable [safe] from your hands." (Sahih Muslim. Book of the Merits of the Companions of the Holy Prophet 4:29:5917).

 

It seems  the killers desired martyrdom in accordance with their beliefs, because they asked bystanders to call the police and immediately moved to attack the police when they arrived on the scene.

This slaughter on the streets of Woolwich has all the hallmarks of a theologically motivated attack, and keys to understand it can be found in the Qur'an and the teachings of Muhammad.

What does Prime Minister David Cameron say?  "There is nothing in Islam that justifies this truly dreadful act. 

(http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/video/2013/may/23/woolwich-murder-david-cameron-video at ca 1:45.)

 

MR. Cameron!  Read the above Islamic sources and teachings from so-called peaceful Islam!  You and all other European And American Islam-apologetic politicians: GET YOUR HEADS OUT OF THE SAND!!!

 

What does the London Islamic community say?  Islam is peace and the actions of the two men accused of the attack are not in any way part of the Islamic religion. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/video/2013/may/24/woolwich-muslim-reaction-video)

  

Remember, Islam and the Koran and Mohammed says that a Muslim can lie all s/he wants if it helps to further Islam. THEREFORE, DENY THE TRUTH MUSLIMS!  GET YOUR DAMN IDIOTIC HEADS OUT OF THE POSTERIORS OF MUHAMMAD, ALLAH-HUBAL, THE KORAN, AND YOUR IMMAMS! AND SEE THE LIGHT!!!

 

Read also:  http://sultanknish.blogspot.de/2013/05/friday-afternoon-roundup-orwell-lives.html.

 

PS:  And the onlookers to the slaughter were really brave!  Also, a soldier in Paris was attacked on May 26 in a similar manner, but survived.

***

(continue reading at The Obama Timeline here  http://www.colony14.net/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/justthinking058.pdf )

 

Guantanamo guard converts to Islam, demands release of detainees

In an article timed perfectly with President Barack Obama's new push to close the facillity at Guantanamo and a self-published book by Terry Holdbrooks Jr.,  the New York Daily News publishes this article about how Holdbrooks was touched by the faith of the detainees and converted to Islam.  The article says, As a teenager, Holdbrooks had searched for truths in several different religions. He came to Guantanamo convinced that all monotheistic religions were evil.

Some key quotes:

Despite the trying situations, Holdbrooks noticed that the men he talked to clung to their faith. He wondered how they could believe that there was a god who cared about them.

“I had all the freedom in the world,” he recalls. “But I was waking up unhappy while these men were in cages, smiling and praying five times a day.”

We see that Holdbrooks had no faith, no religion, was young, impressionable, and a perfect potential convert for the terrorists.

But over the course of several months, as Holdbrooks started speaking to the detainees and reading the Quran, he began to find some truth in Islam.

“The Quran is the simplest book in the world to read. It doesn’t have magic. It doesn’t contradict itself,” Holdbrooks said. “It’s simply an instruction manual for living.”

The faith lives of the detainees seemed to be proof that the instruction manual could work.

Holdbrooks took the leap in December 2003. In the presence of the prisoners, he read out a statement of faith that confirmed him as a Muslim.

His life changed drastically when he came back to America. He said he spent years trying to drink away memories of Guantanamo. He was honorably discharged from the Army in October 2005 for “generalized personality disorder.”

Yes, their lives were a fine example of what the Koran teaches.  Remember these fine Muslims were caught on the battle field with al-Qaeda or the Taliban either actively killing Americans or involved in plotting and/or assisting America's enemies.  Fine examples and someone Holdbrooks found as role models.

The ex-U.S. Army employee converted to Islam in 2003, inspired by the faith of the Guantanamo detainees he was charged with watching. Since then, he says he has lost his friends, received violent threats, and been labeled a “race traitor” online.

But he hasn’t gone quietly. The 29-year-old has done his fair share of media and has even signed on for a job as a speaker for the Muslim Legal Fund of America. Now the devout Muslim is racking up frequent flyer miles and touring the country with what he calls the “truth about Gitmo.”

“Gitmo was supposed to be a cushy deployment since we were just going to babysit detainees,” Holdbrooks said. “But it changed me.”

The Phoenix, Ariz., resident spent the year between 2003 and 2004 guarding U.S. military prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He was often given the job of escorting detainees to interrogation rooms. He says he witnessed atrocities committed by his fellow American soldiers that he never thought were possible.

What were those atrocities?  Detainees were put in stress positions for eight hours until they defecated themselves; prisoners shackled to the ground with the air conditioner set high, then doused with cold water. He said that menstrual blood was smeared on their faces and that they were forced to hear the same music on repeat for hours.

Then, Holdbrooks decided to renew his commitment to Islam. He stopped drinking, smoking, and doing drugs. He put a stop to promiscuity and profanity. He found discipline in prayer.

And he started speaking out.

“Islam teaches you that if you see an injustice in the world, you should do anything within your power to stop it,” Holdbrooks said.

Read it all here.  I'm betting the detainees see him as yet another useful idiot for the cause.

Krauthammer: Obama Was Plotting Benghazi Cover Story Before Last Two Americans Were Dead

Via The Last Refuge

Well it appears we now have TWO people in the media asking the “right” question.  Last week Chris Wallace, now Charles Krauthammer:

“I think there is a bigger story here that will in time come out. The biggest scandal of all, the biggest question is what was the president doing in those eight hours. He had a routine meeting at five o’clock. He never after during the eight hours when our guys have their lives in danger, he never called the Secretary of Defense, he never calls the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, he never called the CIA Director, Who does he call? But five hours in he calls the Secretary of State. And after the phone call she releases a statement essentially about the video and how we denounce any intolerance. It looks as if the only phone call is to construct a cover story at a time when the last two Americans who died were still alive and fighting for their lives. There’s the scandal and that has to be uncovered.”  

Perhaps now the media has accepted the fact that the “talking points” were highly manipulated, they will turn their investigative eye onto the origin, and subsequently on to something we outlined earlier:

(continue reading at The Last Refuge)

 

A hybrid battle tank to replace the Abrams?

Via The Washington Post:

General Dynamics currently manufactures the army’s main battle tank, the Abrams, and BAE Systems builds the Bradley. Those two companies are now competing for the new contract, which the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) predicts will be worth approximately $29 billion.

The new tank will ideally seat nine passengers instead of the seven who can fit in a Bradley, and it will probably weigh around 70 tons. That’s about twice as much as the Bradley and around the same as the Abrams. BAE’s proposed vehicle, which it would build with help from Northrop Grumman, would be among the largest land vehicles ever constructed with an electric battery in a hybrid engine.  (image:  A handout illustration from BAE Systems of the company’s Hybrid Ground Combat Vehicle (GCV). BAE is teaming up with Northrop Grumman on a bid for a U.S. Army contract to construct the next generation Bradley tank. (BAE Systems)

For their part, representatives of General Dynamics are skeptical of the idea of equipping a large tank with a hybrid engine, but Venkat Srinivasan, a staff scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and an expert on energy storage, said there are reasons to think BAE’s approach might work. 

“I would argue that, in these sorts of heavy-gasoline-use applications, hybridizing things makes a lot of sense,” Srinivasan said. He noted that large, heavy vehicles use enough gasoline to justify the expense of a battery system, and that they have plenty of space as well as a need for power at low engine speeds, which an electric motor can provide.

Most of the time, the power in BAE’s tank would come from diesel generators that would deliver electricity to the motor and to the batteries. When extra power is needed, such as when the tank is accelerating, the batteries would engage. According to BAE, the tank would use 10 to 20 percent less fuel than a vehicle of the same size with a conventional engine. Because of its sheer mass, it would still be inefficient relative to other kinds of vehicles. Despite its hybrid engine and 255-gallon gas tank, the tank would be able to go no more than 186 miles without refueling, according to the company.  (continue reading at The Washington Post, more images)

 

First in London, now in France, knife attack on soldier

A knife attack on a French soldier in Paris a reflection of the attack on a British soldier on a London street?  Perhaps.

Police in Paris have obtained video footage of a bearded man "praying" shortly before he stabbed a French soldier in the neck, fuelling suspicions it was an Islamist terror attack.

The video appears to suggest that the Paris attack could be inspired by the Islamist murder of a British serviceman in London.

Anti-terrorism investigators now say they have "high quality images" of a "tall, athletic bearded man" aged about 30, possibly of North African origin, praying near the spot where he attacked the 23-year-old soldier from behind with a knife or a box-cutter on Saturday. He then fled into a crowded train station and is still at large.

"He was filmed praying near where the attack took place. After the attack he can be seen leaving the shopping centre of La Défense (business district)," a source close the investigation told Le Parisien.

The soldier, Cédric Cordiez, survived the midafternoon attack and was discharged from hospital this morning but is said to be "traumatised" by the stabbing. It was carried out three days after a British soldier was murdered on a busy London street by two men shouting Islamist slogans.

Manuel Valls, the French interior minister, said there are "elements that lead us to believe it (the French attack) could be an act of terrorism" and that police are now pursuing "serious leads".  (continue reading at The Telegraph UK)

 

City cancels Memorial Day parade because not enough veterans are alive and able to march in parade

Does this strike anyone but me as just plain stupid?  They can't have a parade because veterans can't march and perform for the public?  How about honoring the veterans by setting up a special viewing station for them, where they can sit their weary bones, their injured bodies, and let them be entertained and honored by others?  This is about honoring those who have served and remembering those who have not.  In the city of Beverly, Mass:

“Most of us, like myself, either have some knee issues or foot issues or whatever,” explains Jerry Guilebbe, the city’s Director of Veterans’ Services. “Just getting down the street to march” can be difficult if not impossible, he says.

Innocenti agrees. “We try and try,” he says. “When we were younger we used to march everywhere, but we can’t do it anymore.”

As for younger veterans – like the men and women who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan – they are often too busy to take part.

“I’ve found just talking with them,” explains Guilebbe , “they’re emergency medical technicians, firefighters, police. They’re first responders, so traditionally that’s their day to work so it’s hard to get them to come out and actually participate.”  (CBSBoston)

.

MEMORIAL DAY 2013

 

 

FREDERICK WILLIAM DAME

MEMORIAL DAY 2013

Source: http://www.publiusnm.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Memorial-Day-Meme1-1024x768.jpg

The Day

Memorial Day, formerly known as Decoration Day, is an American holiday that occurs each year on the last Monday in the month of May. Its purpose is to honor those Americans who gave their lives in war for their country.

The first declaration of this holiday was on 30 May 1868 by Major General John Alexander Logan (1826-1886). The intention was to honor American Union and Confederate soldiers who were killed in the Civil War (1861-1865). After World War I Memorial Day was extended to include all American military personnel who have died in wars in which America participated to guarantee its freedoms to the present and following generations.

Although this primary purpose is still observed, the memory and honor of America's fallen are gradually being eclipsed by going on a picnic, the opening of the summer bathing season, a long weekend that is devoted to national media events, family gatherings (often without observing the purpose of the day), rock concerts, shopping, and fireworks, and POLDS – Progressives, Obots, Liberals, Dumbed-Downers – conducting anti-American demonstrations.

In conservative America that still holds on to traditions and virtues, the family graveyard is visited and those buried there are remembered with stories from their lives. This is an opportunity when there can be an extended family reunion, many family members travelling hundreds of miles to be present to honor the deceased family veterans. In some small, conservative towns there is a religious service, followed by a potluck church meal.

The Etymological Meaning

In the adjective word memorial there is a special meaning that has come into present-day English from the proto-Indo-European word root (s)mer as it came out of the ancient language of India, Old Indian, smárati. It is the meaning to mourn, to remember, and to commemorate in one word.¹

The Floral Flag

What a beautiful tribute to our nation, our military, and the freedoms we have been enjoying in America!

Source: http://www.sjcaravello.com/floralflag.jpg

In 2002 the Floral Flag was planted by the Bodger Seed Company, Lompoc, California as a tribute after the September 11, 2001 tragedy. A ten-second video is at http://www.cityoflompoc.com/government/flag/video.htm. The Floral Flag fully blossomed in 2002, when Bill Morson took the photograph. The flowers were harvested for seeds in 2003.

Close to Vandenberg Air Force Base, the Floral Flag was 740 feet long and 390 feet wide and maintained the proper Flag dimensions, as described in the provisions of Executive Order 10834 of August 21, 1959, signed by the President of The United States, Dwight David Eisenhower (1890-1969, President 1953-1961).

This Flag was 6.65 acres and was the first Floral Flag to be planted with 5 pointed Stars, comprised of White Larkspur. Each Star was 24 feet in diameter; each Stripe was 30 feet wide. This Flag was estimated to contain more than 400,000 Larkspur plants, with 4-5 flower stems each, for a total of more than 2 million flowers. The Floral Flag no longer exists. Memorial Day does. Memorial Day is the day when the men and women who died while serving America are honored. Veterans Day honors the service of all United States military veterans, whether living or dead.

In our minds and in our hearts we can interpret the Floral Flag as symbolizing the lives given for freedom since the American Revolutionary War in 1776.

According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_military_casualties_of_war we have the following statistics of American deaths in wars for freedom since the American Revolution in 1776, including Iraq and Afghanistan as of May 2013:

Total American Combat Deaths in Wars for Freedom since 1776:            848,163

Other American Deaths in Wars for Freedom since 1776:                        433,161

Total American Deaths in Wars for Freedom since 1776:                       1,321,612

Total Americans Wounded in Wars for Freedom since 1776:                  1,531,036

Total Americans Dead and Wounded in Wars for Freedom since 1776:   2,717,991

Total Americans Missing in Wars for Freedom since 1776:                           8,159

We must cast forth anti-American ideologies and those who are
America's freedoms! We must abide by our Declaration of Independence and the Constitution for the United States of America.

We must not forget that our once world-leading, productive industries are being socialized and exploited to be caged in an anti-human economic system; that our cherished freedoms are slowly but surely being guillotined; that our military – the once most powerful military in the world – is commanded by a most inept dilettante with his peacock generals and admirals; that America's national security and sovereignty are slowly being placed under the auspices of the paper tiger the United Nations, which is dominated by Islamic countries; that America's state and federal relationships are becoming extinct and being replaced by a dictatorship; that America's reputation, morals, and traditions are in the jaws of death.

Because of these facts, on Memorial Day we must never forget those American Military Service Members who paid for America's freedoms with their lives!

Frederick William Dame

Patriotic, Steadfast, and True

May 22, 2013.

1 Julius Pokorny, Indogermanisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, Francke Verlag, Tübingen und Basel: 2005, p. 969.

 

 

Exiled cleric who taught UK knifeman praises 'courage'

This is an amazing interview with Omar Bakri, founder of banned British Islamist group Al Muhajiroun,  in Tripoli, northern Lebanon, where he has lived since being banished from Britain in 2005, according to the article.  Bakri said he knew suspect Michael Adebolajo from his lectures a decade ago and he said he is still in daily contact with students in Britain.

"When I saw the footage I recognized the face immediately," Bakri told Reuters. "I used to know him. A quiet man, very shy, asking lots of questions about Islam."

"What surprised me (is) the quiet man, the man who is very shy, decided to carry out an attack against a British soldier in the middle of the day in the middle of a street in the UK. In east London. It's incredible.

"When I saw that, honestly I was very surprised - standing firm, courageous, brave. Not running away. Rather, he said why he carried (it out) and he wanted the whole world to hear it."

The attack has been vociferously condemned by Muslim organizations across Britain.

Adebolajo, 28, a British-born convert from a Christian Nigerian immigrant family, went by the nickname Mujahid - warrior - after taking up Islam as a teenager in a suburb on the northeast outskirts of London.  [snip]

Bakri said his organization Al Muhajiroun had nothing to do with the attack because members had not seen Adebolajo since 2005. However, Anjem Choudary, who took over the leadership of Al Muhajiroun when Bakri was exiled from Britain, has told Reuters Adebolajo attended the group's events until about two years ago.

"Maybe Michael, in the eyes of many people in Britain, Muslim and non-Muslim, they don't condone what he did. They condemn it. But in the eyes of Muslims around the world they don't see him the same way. The Muslims in this country, they are so happy, proud of him. They see him as a freedom fighter attacking a military target."

Read it all here.