Special Guest This Friday, March 7: PASTORIUS!

Mark your calendars! On The Gathering Storm Radio Show, Friday, March 7, beginning at noon Pacific Time. Pastorius will be joining us at the top of the second hour. WOOT!

Non-Muslim Scientists & The Quran

This little item popped up in my Google alerts this morning. Excerpt from Dr. Keith L. Moore's testimonial:

“...For the past three years, I have worked with the Embryology Committee of King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, helping them to interpret the many statements in the Qur’an and Sunnah referring to human reproduction and prenatal development. At first I was astonished by the accuracy of the statements that were recorded in the 7th century AD, before the science of embryology was established. Although I was aware of the glorious history of Muslim scientists in the 10th century AD, and some of their contributions to Medicine, I knew nothing about the religious facts and beliefs contained in the Qur’an and Sunnah.”

Dr. Moore is Professor Emeritus, Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, University of Toronto.

The following, from Joe Leigh Simpson, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, is another testimonial:

“…these Hadiths (sayings of Muhammad) could not have been obtained on the basis of the scientific knowledge that was available at the time of the ‘writer’… It follows that not only is there no conflict between genetics and religion (Islam) but in fact religion (Islam) may guide science by adding revelation to some of the traditional scientific approaches…There exist statements in the Qur’an shown centuries later to be valid which support knowledge in the Qur’an having been derived from God.”

The glowing testimonials from several other professors and doctors are available at the above link.

I wonder if any of these erudite fellows have ever read the little comic book on the sidebar here at IBA? Check out all the "scientific facts" in Mohammed's Believe It Or Else! For example, there is this little "factual" gem:

"A believer eats in one intestine whereas a nonbeliever eats in seven intestines."

Yeah, right.

Received from an unknown sender at the US Embassy in Moscow, "Y"

Mr. President as you know, Al Qaeda, Hizballah, Iran and others cooperate more easily than not in confronting us worldwide, and especially in the M.E. Our efforts against them have only been spottily successful in terms of cutting off the oxygen to the recruitment of more and more 'footsoldiers' willing to blow themselves up. The local governments have been more or less against this, but as you well know, the local imams, mullahs and other lay educators have been too uniform in what they see as ensuring the glory and dominance of god spreads, voluntarily or by other means.

Complicating this at the strategic and immediate level however, is the patient, cash infused, oil powered resurgence of aggressive Russian military expansion, and the cash loaded, commercially powered rapid growth of Chinese military power. Simultaneous to this our economic well being has been undercut (severely in some eyes) by our balance of trade, cheap manufacturing labor overseas, huge debt of our consumers, foreign purchases of government debt, and yielding at this turn, a too small, highly trained military dependent on fewer and fewer implements (like the F-22) as budgets tighten due to our cyclic and worse downturns, and the need for ever larger portions of our budget for the military paying for gas, just like any other US citizen.

While we can deter an actual WAR with either or both of Russia and China, AS LONG AS WE HAVE SUFFICIENT, MODERN AND RELIABLE NUCLEAR WEAPONS, our position relative to both of them will deteriorate because of our perilous economic situation. Just as our advance in computers gave us an ever growing lead in technology, so now our lack of usable cheap and RELIABLE fossil resources, and refusal to have cheap labor will synergistically work against us and for others who mean us ill.

We cannot and should not expect our citizens to become 'cheap labor' in order to bring manufacturing back to the USA, however it is within, and has been within our power to roll back the advantages other have in terms of their good fortune in being atop ancient deposits of dead plants and animals, and in terms of a surplus of very cheap labor. By reversing this situation we will infuse cash into OUR growth, our research, our engineering, our balance of payments, our educational systems, and our security.

We can reverse this all by eliminating all dependence on first, foreign fossil fuels, and then FOSSIL FUELS themselves.

I therefore advise you in the midst of this WW IV, that a compulsory, and perhaps the major element of this SECOND multi-generational struggle will be to move the USA from the largest fossil energy user in the world, to the inventor, manufacturer, and exporter of non-fossil fuel energy technologies to the rest of the world.

Only massive public investment in this effort would be worth the risk of fewer F-22's, delayed aircraft carriers, and a continuing with a small, undermanned army and marines corp. By enlisting the support of the people in this long effort a bell will ring everywhere people mean us ill.

By simply undertaking this effort in a visible and serious manner, the world will both be reassured about the USA, and put on notice, just as it was in 1948-49 when NATO was formed at the birth of the cold war, and when Harry Truman decided on a massive expansion of America's nuclear and conventional arsenal since he was convinced by events the USSR would embark upon just such an effort no matter what the USA did.

By successfully executing this plan we get a large positive balance of payments, scientific and energy advantages of immense proportions, cash to execute our plans, and economic stability for as much as a century. This will eliminate all causes for contention and price over oil from the free world, and cause the ME kingdoms to recognize their best course of action is not cartel protection, but wealth preservation, and long term quiescence, and cooperation in world of rapidly diminishing importance of, by and large, their only product, their only export and their only means of rewarding their own peoples.

Russia's wealth will be cut back or off, starving the oxygen from their military and classically Russian approach to foreign affairs (please see the analysis papers on missile defense in europe, and on energy blackmail in eastern and western europe). Chinese military expansion and large parts of their plans for Taiwan will suddenly look very different to a Chinese leadership confronted by American cash, and technology which can also rescue them from oil.

This also deals with Islamofascism. It deals with the ability of others to build and support extremist madrassahs, buy and transport men and supplies, and execute plans inimical to American citizens. From 1973 until 2001 the oil money of the Al Saud and the ME, the oil of Iran built the structure of extremist religious murder and chaos.

By executing this plan, in the same kind of time frame from its success point , or somewhat longer we can remove from ourselves and others this kind of threat.

Flush with the cash from this effort, we can then be ready for the next emerging threat, whatever that may be.

Please Hugo, DO IT

Wash Times:

South America on brink of war

By Martin Arostegui
March 3, 2008

SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia -- South America was on the brink of war yesterday as Venezuela and Ecuador amassed troops on the Colombian border in response to the killing of a Marxist rebel leader.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez threatened to join the rebels in a war to overthrow hard-line Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, a key ally of the United States, deploying tanks, fighter jets and thousands of troops along the Colombian border.

Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa also ordered troops to the border, expelled Colombia's ambassador and recalled its ambassador to Bogota, but left its embassy open. Venezuela closed its embassy in Colombia and ordered all diplomats home.

I pray...PRAY.. that he gives us an excuse to come to Columbia's aid.

Blasphemy Now a Crime in America

The multicultural commissars and their Islamist allies must be giddy over the codification of blasphemy against Islam enacted into New York law today. Although Stanislav Shmulevich was railroaded on a lessor charge, the enemies of the separation of Mosque and state have much to celebrate:

NEW YORK (AP) -- A former Pace University student who twice threw copies of the Koran into a toilet at the school after disputes with Muslims pleaded guilty Monday to disorderly conduct in connection with the incidents.

Stanislav Shmulevich, 24, pleaded guilty as part of a deal in which he must do 300 hours of community service. He has completed about 80 hours of the service at a hospital, his lawyer said.

Shmulevich, a business major and immigrant from the former Soviet Union [he must have thought he had moved to a free country], initially was charged with two counts of criminal mischief as a hate crime. The charge is a felony punishable by up to four years in prison.

If the library books tossed into the commode were copies of Hunkleberry Fin, it is obvious that the only charges that would have been brought would have been petty property damage, if that (and assuming Pace University Library has a copy of Hunkleberry Fin). It is amazing just how gutless today's liberals are in the face of demands religious zealots. Sharia may still be creeping in the United States, but not if academia has anything to do about it.

Hat tip: Weasel Zippers

Crossposted at The Dougout

Calling Walmart shoppers ...DUNCAN HUNTER:U.S. trade surplus financing PRC's military buildup

A senior Republican House member said last week that U.S. trade dollars are helping underwrite China's aggressive military buildup.

Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) said in a statement that the cash provided by the U.S. trade surplus with China is being used to buy foreign weaponry and technology for use in ships, aircraft and missiles.

A Sovremenny Class destroyer.

"China is buying Russian-made Sovremenny II guided missile destroyers fitted with anti-ship cruise missiles -- providing China with a capability to challenge American aircraft carriers; submarines, such as the Kilo-class diesel submarine; a battalion of S-300PMU-2 surface-to-air missile systems with an intercept range of 200 kilometers; AWACS aircraft with air-to-air refueling capability; and sophisticated communications equipment," he said.

Still want those cheap shoes than make you feet sweat?

China is also building a new attack helicopter called the Z-10, its first domestically produced attack helicopter. And the Su-27SMK/Flanker is being built through a co-production agreement with Russia. It is a high-performance aircraft capable of effective warfare against America's top-line fighters.

You know, the ones that fall apart under training stress in mid air since they are so old, but Asst SecDef Gordon England won't allow even a 1 for 1 replacement?

Beijing also is building second-generation nuclear submarines, such as the JIN-class nuclear-powered ballistic submarine; the LUYANG II class destroyer with a vertical launch air defense system; the JL-2 submarine-launched ballistic missile; and the road-mobile DF-31A intercontinental-range ballistic missile. China also continues to show interest in developing an indigenous aircraft carrier capability.

The U.S. trade deficit with China for 2007 was $256 billion, Hunter said.

It's the 16th century ..wars over resources...Iran is considering a request by China to establish a military presence in the Persian Gulf.

Beijing's request for a Persian Gulf naval base debated in Iran

East-Asia-Intel.com, February 28, 2008

LONDON -- Iran is considering a request by China to establish a military presence in the Persian Gulf.

Western intelligence sources said China has requested the right to establish a naval presence at an Iranian port in the Gulf. The sources said Beijing relayed the request last year as part of a strategic dialogue with Teheran.

And when our patrolling destroyers find this, with J-10's overhead ...then what?

"There is a serious debate within Iran over whether to allow the Chinese to establish a presence in the Gulf," an intelligence source said. "The feeling is that a Chinese presence could help deter a U.S. attack."

Wouldn't the right piece of diplomacy right now be proper ... like Condi telling Hu Jintao that if we decide we need to strike Iran, all the Chinese PLAN can do is get killed, and cause a confrontation? That in no circumstances will it be a deterrent.

The sources said Teheran has been dismayed by the expanding Western presence in the Gulf. They cited the January 2008 agreement by the United Arab Emirates to allow France to establish a naval presence.

Kaveh Afrasiabi, a leading analyst on Iran, said China wants a naval presence in the Gulf to ensure energy imports from such suppliers as Iran and Saudi Arabia. China already has a naval presence in Pakistan.

"In the tight interplay of geopolitics and geo-economics, with China heavily dependent on energy imports from Iran and other Persian Gulf states, the trend is definitely toward China's naval complement of its flurry of energy deals in order to secure its precious oil and [liquefied] gas cargo ships exiting through the narrow corridors of the Strait of Hormuz," Afrasiabi wrote in a recent analysis.

China has become Iran's leading trade partner.

In 2007, China's largest oil refiner, Sinopec, completed a multi-billion dollar deal to develop the giant Yadavaran oil field.

At the same time, Chinese contractors have been constructing oil terminals for Iran in the Caspian Sea. The sources said Beijing has also provided radar and missile technology to Teheran.

Until every family has its own nation

Now Kosovo is headed for defacto partition?

Church, rail workers join Serb boycott in Kosovo
Mon Mar 3, 2008 7:47am EST
By Matt Robinson

PRISTINA, March 3 (Reuters) - The influential Orthodox Church and
railway workers on Monday joined a widening Serb boycott of Kosovo
following its declaration of independence from Serbia last month.

The Church instructed all priests in the Albanian majority territory
to end all contact with the capital Pristina, the European Union
mission taking over supervision of Kosovo and representatives of
countries that have recognised its secession on Feb 17.

The Church should "not have contact or hold any kind of discussion
with representatives of these institutions or countries, nor receive
them or respond to their invitations," Bishop Artemije wrote, state
news agency Tanjug reported.

Backed by Russia, Serbia rejects Kosovo's secession and is instructing
the new country's 120,000 remaining Serbs to do the same, worsening
the ethnic divide and raising fears Kosovo is heading for de facto
partition.

Over 200 Serb police officers have been suspended and handed in their
weapons, badges and radios after refusing to take orders from the
Kosovo Police Service command in Pristina and demanding they report
only to the United Nations police.

Border posts in the Serb-dominated north have been attacked,
preventing the collection of customs taxes, and Serbs are bidding to
take control of the main U.N. court in the north by preventing its
Albanian staff from travelling to work.

The EU's Kosovo envoy, Dutch diplomat Pieter Feith, accused Serbia on
Friday of trying to sever ties between the 90-percent Albanian
majority and minority Serbs, a move he said was "coming very close" to
a bid for partition.



RAIL WORKERS

Early on Monday, the train travelling from Kosovo Polje in central
Kosovo to Lesak in the far north was stopped at the northern Zvecan
station as soon as it had crossed into Serb-dominated territory.

Around 50 Serb workers in the Kosovo Railway said they had "separated"
from the Pristina headquarters.

"We have decided, as the northern department, to separate from the
Kosovo Railway in Pristina because, for us, Zvecan is still Serbia,
and will remain Serbia," said railway worker Ivan Konstadinov.

Branislav Ristivojevic, head of the state Serbian Railway company and
an adviser to Serb Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, said the company
would "take over responsibility" for the railway infrastructure north
of Zvecan.

Serbia lost control over its then southern province in 1999, after
NATO bombed to halt the killing and ethnic cleansing of Albanian
civilians by Serb forces in a two-year war against separatist guerrillas.

Serbia cherishes Kosovo as the cradle of the nation, where Serb
history and myth dates back 1,000 years and old monasteries dot the land.

The European Union is taking over policing and supervision of the new
country, but faces a challenge to impose its rule in Serb areas,
notably the north where Serbs dominate.

Serbia is promising to rule parts of Kosovo where "loyal citizens"
continue to look to Belgrade for government. (Additional reporting by
Branislav Krstic; editing by Keith Weir)

A Superior Civilisation

Westerners are not supposed to recognise that they are living in a civilisation that is superior to other civilisations. But the smarter ones have trouble not seeing it, and in their more honest moments they admit the superiority of western civilisation, at least to themselves.

The great ideas of the West—rationalism, self-criticism, the disinterested search for truth, the separation of church and state, the rule of law and equality under the law, freedom of thought and expression, human rights, and liberal democracy—are superior to any others devised by humankind. It was the West that took steps to abolish slavery; the calls for abolition did not resonate even in Africa, where rival tribes sold black prisoners into slavery. The West has secured freedoms for women and racial and other minorities to an extent unimaginable 60 years ago. The West recognizes and defends the rights of the individual: we are free to think what we want, to read what we want, to practice our religion, to live lives of our choosing.___CityJournal

One could characterize the difference between the West and the Rest as a difference in epistemological principles. The desire for knowledge, no matter where it leads, inherited from the Greeks, has led to an institution unequaled—or very rarely equaled—outside the West: the university. Along with research institutes and libraries, universities are, at least ideally, independent academies that enshrine these epistemological norms, where we can pursue truth in a spirit of disinterested inquiry, free from political pressures. In other words, behind the success of modern Western societies, with their science and technology and open institutions, lies a distinct way of looking at the world, interpreting it, and recognizing and rectifying problems.

...A culture that gave the world the novel; the music of Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert; and the paintings of Michelangelo, da Vinci, and Rembrandt does not need lessons from societies whose idea of heaven, peopled with female virgins, resembles a cosmic brothel. Nor does the West need lectures on the superior virtue of societies in which women are kept in subjection under sharia, endure genital mutilation, are stoned to death for alleged adultery, and are married off against their will at the age of nine; societies that deny the rights of supposedly lower castes; societies that execute homosexuals and apostates. The West has no use for sanctimonious homilies from societies that cannot provide clean drinking water or sewage systems, that make no provisions for the handicapped, and that leave 40 to 50 percent of their citizens illiterate.

Western civilisation has worked its way through periods of monarchy, world colonialism, battles of totalitarian ideologies that took themselves too seriously--and has mostly come out on the side of facilitating the healing of the world's sick, feeding of the world's hungry, and helping to enable the impoverished of the world to acquire a measure of comfort. All of that, and much more typifies the prevailing spirit of the achieving west.

The suicidal west is another matter, but I suspect we can deal with them. All the doomseekers, holy warmers, lefty dieoff.orgies, and the like. But we cannot allow the suicidal insiders to sabotage us in our resistance to the bloody outsiders who would take our freedom and our lives.

5000 Missiles hitting Israel not worth defending - UN..How about AZTLAN 'militants' sending 5000 missiles into San Diego?

ASHKELON, Israel (AP) - Residents of this beachside city are still coming to terms with being on the front lines of Israel's battle against Hamas militants.

A dozen long-range rockets slammed into Ashkelon over the weekend, marking a significant turning point in the conflict and compelling Israel to strike back hard.

"Until yesterday, I never would have believed that I would see the things I saw," said Rachel Shimoni, 66, as she stood amid shards of glass, blown out of the front window of her clothing store. "All of a sudden, the reality has changed."

Palestinian militants fire rockets nearly daily at Sderot and other Israeli border towns near Gaza. But by reaching Ashkelon, a city of 120,000 people about 11 miles north of Gaza, Hamas raised the stakes considerably. It is one of the largest cities in southern Israel, home to Mediterranean beaches, a college and strategic installations like an electric plant and a water purification plant.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
GAZA (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned Israel for using

"excessive" force in the Gaza Strip and demanded a halt to its offensive after troops killed 61 people on the bloodiest day for Palestinians since the 1980s.

Addressing an emergency session of the Security Council in New York after four days of fighting in which 96 Palestinians have been killed, many of them civilians, Ban also called on Gaza's Islamist militants to stop firing rockets.

After voluntarily leaving Gaza to the Palestinians, dismantling all settlements, and forcibly removing the settlers, which as we all know, the Palestinians claimed was the entire reason (illegal settlements and occupation) for violence, it's hysterically obvious with 5000+ missiels since pounding into pre-1967 Israel what it has always been about. It's about removing non dhimmi jews from life, and frmo the waqf. The rest of the world in the form of the UN is in favor of simply removing this problem, and is clearly readying itself to adapt to what it perceives to te the most difficult group to deal with, and satisfying them, so it can get back to its third world corruption and lunch at Lutece, expensed of course. Thus, the world is prepared to scold the palestinians and the arabs whose leaders backing them with money, smuggling and weapons, but they are not prepared to see the jews DEFEND THE NATION being attacked.

They never will be.

That is why the UN is useless and belongs somewhere else, where it's nature is fitting.

Dubai.

Good bye.

Pay the parking fines up and be on your way.

I disagree with Bolton on this one, the UN can NEVER be an instrument or advance and protect American interests. It is a mutant cancer. It is not what FDR, and Truman dreamed of.

Cowardly Dutch Government Considers Banning Geert Wilders’ Anti-Koran Film

THE GUARDIAN: The Dutch government was today examining the legality of banning a film attacking Islam amid fears that it would fan sentiment against the Netherlands in Muslim countries.

The Telegraaf newspaper reported that the coalition government was divided on the film, with the Christian Democrats leaning towards a ban but Labour favouring freedom of expression and calling on Muslim countries to prevent violence against the Netherlands.

The 15-minute film, called Fitna - an Arabic term used in the Qur'an and sometimes translated as "strife" - was made by Geert Wilders, a rightwing politician who leads the nine-member PVV (Freedom) party.

Wilders has argued that there is no such thing as moderate Islam, and has called for a ban of the Qur'an, which he compares to Hitler's Mein Kampf.

"The core of the problem is fascistic Islam, the sick ideology of Allah and Muhammad as it is set out in the Islamic Mein Kampf: the Koran," he wrote in a comment piece for the Volksrant newspaper last year.

Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, the Nato secretary general, has expressed concern about the safety of Nato troops after protests against the film in Afghanistan.

"If the [troops] find themselves in the line of fire because of the film, then I am worried about it and I am expressing that concern," he said in a television interview.

Yesterday, around 1,000 Afghans protested against the republication of a cartoon of the prophet Muhammad in Danish newspapers and Wilders' plan to air the film.

The protesters, mostly religious clerics in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif, demanded the withdrawal of Danish and Dutch troops from Afghanistan.

The Dutch prime minister, Jan Peter Balkenende, warned last week that the Netherlands risked economic sanctions and attacks against its troops because of the film. He stopped short, however, of saying that it should not be broadcast. Dutch government could ban anti-Islam film >>> By Mark Tran and agencies

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

Storm Track Appeasement: Neurotics of Europe

So. Quo Vadis Muslim Assimilation?

Here’s what Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, had to say on the subject – and on German soil!

Read the rest at The Gathering Storm.

A Vote Against the Enemy

In The Week magazine, this column prompted me to want to put it here on the IBA and see what kind of conversation it created. What do you think of this, Pastorius? AOW? Christine? WC? Epaminondas? Talk to me, Goose!

Radical Islam takes a beating from voters

Amir Taheri
New York Post

President Pervez Musharraf was not the only loser in Pakistan’s elections, said Amir Taheri. After millions of Pakistanis voted last week, the most significant development was the trouncing of the militant Islamists. Prior to the election, al Qaida and its Taliban allies waged a campaign of intimidation, killing dozens of candidates and election officers and destroying at least 12 polling stations. But Pakistanis voted nonetheless—and the extremist Islamic coalition saw its vote share drop to just 3 percent from 11 percent five years ago. The Islamists also lost control of the only province they’d governed. In short, the Pakistani people faced down extremism and embraced “pluralism and the rule of law.” This could provide a tremendous boost to the war on terror. Musharraf’s military-backed government had never enjoyed broad popular support, so out of fear of alienating Islamic extremists, it “largely restricted itself to shadow-boxing” the jihadists who had established a new base of operations near the Afghan border. If the U.S. continues to provide the new, democratically elected government with strong economic and military support, we might finally persuade Pakistan to conduct its own war on terrorism.

Obama defends his Christian religion, denies apostasy

So today, Obama defends his religion.

AP: The Democratic presidential candidate told a town hall meeting Sunday in Nelsonvile, Ohio, in the state's rural southeast, that he is a devout Christian who prays to Jesus every night.
......
Obama said misinformation — including long-standing suggestions that he is a Muslim — is being spread by his opponents.
.....

But, based on the following information from Daniel Pipes:

* "Interviews with dozens of former classmates, teachers, neighbors and friends show that Obama was not a regular practicing Muslim when he was in Indonesia" – implying he was an irregularly practicing Muslim.

* "Obama occasionally followed his stepfather to the mosque for Friday prayers, a few neighbors said" – confirming that he did pray in the mosque.

* "Obama's 3rd-grade teacher at the Catholic school, who lived near the family [said that] ‘Rarely, Barry went to the mosque with Lolo'" – confirming that Obama attended mosque services.

All this matters, for if Obama once was a Muslim, he is now what Islamic law calls a murtadd (apostate), an ex-Muslim converted to another religion who must be executed.

Were he elected president of the United States, this status, clearly, would have large potential implications for his relationship with the Muslim world.

Obama has a much bigger issue to address. Does he deny that it exists?

Not all Muslims are "sweetness and light". Not all Muslims accept Christianity. In particular, a "Muslim" practicing Christianity AND leading "The Great Satan"

Obama needs to come to reality with regards to this issue. Brushing it under his "Christianity Rug", will not make it go away.

The ‘Charming’ Burka

I really don’t know what to make of this or how the 7^th century civilization of Islam will deal with a 21^st century invention. Women who would rather not wear a burqa can now slip around it electronically.

Well, that’s the idea. Muslim men can not control their actions so they must control a woman’s. But not for long. This will keep the imams up at night.

A Berlin-based artist has invented a digitally-enabled robe that will send an image of a woman's face -- or anything else -- via Bluetooth.

Read the rest at The Gathering Storm.