An American diplomat in Iraq:

I don't know if this blog entry makes people more enthusiastic about joining the FS [Foreign Service] or coming to Iraq. At this point, it is just a lot less exciting in Iraq - and less dangerous - than people back home think, or than it was just a few months ago. Iraq is like any post or any place else. You can travel thousands of miles, but you always have to take yourself along. It is up to you to get a life and make it a good one not matter where you are. Living in the dust of Iraq just makes that clearer.

Mr. Matel has a nice article in the State Department's blog, Dipnote. But check out his personal blog, Matel-in-Iraq, for some fascinating accounts and neat photos. I particularly was taken by his delicate description of "breaking bread" in Iraq (Goat Grab), since, my experience has been that the eating process is reminiscent of another era.

Dipnote Matel Provincial Reconstruction Team Iraq

Italian Carabinieri train Iraqis at Camp Dublin:

Carabinieri Iraq training Camp Dublin

Does CAIR care? Where is the feminist outrage?

Bigotry "...a British schoolteacher gives the world a lesson on Western cowardice and Muslim intolerance and how Islamic fundamentalists who commit atrocities are afraid of teddy bears."

Sudan teddy bear Gibbons sharia

Global warming by the numbers...

A friend reports:

Dr. John Brignell, a British engineering professor, runs a website called numberwatch. He has compiled what has to be the most complete collection of links to media stories ascribing the cause of everything under the sun to global warming.

He has already posted more than six-hundred links. The site's stated mission is to expose all the "scares, scams, junk, panics and flummery cooked up by the media, politicians, bureaucrats and so-called scientists and others that try to confuse the public with wrong numbers"

For example, if you click on "rape wave" you discover that Sweden is undergoing the worst rape wave in Scandinavian history thanks to the weather!

John Brignell global warming numberwatch

Rule of law is beginning to take roots in Iraq...

From Reporters Without Borders: "Reporters Without Borders is astounded and angry to discover that a journalist’s claim that 11 of his close relatives were murdered last weekend is false. Amman-based Iraqi journalist Dia al-Kawwaz had claimed on 26 November that 11 members of his immediate family were shot by gunmen the previous day in Baghdad."

From Gateway Pundit: "Iraqi-American Haider Ajina informs me that according to Barutha News the Iraqi Government (Interior Ministry) has requested and recieved an arrest warrant for Dia al-Kawwaz (Dhia Alkoozi).

Haider adds: "What a change. What a change. All thanks to our men and women serving in Iraq and the Iraqis who are getting a taste of human dignity and human rights and the rule of law...." "

Dia al-Kawwaz Dhia Alkoozi Reporters Without Borders media lies

Muslim anti-terror rally in front of Saudi Arabian Embassy in Germany.

Hat Tip: Gateway Pundit.

For more photos of the event (and to read about it in Arabic), go here.

Muslims Germany anti-terror rally

Asi No!

"The student movement in Venezuela is today the Latin version of the Prague spring of 1968."



For the latest news on Venezuela's anti-Chavez march go to Venezuela Views and News.
anti-chavez asi no Venezuela student demonstrators por que no te callas

"We want you to stop destroying our neighborhood," he told the man...

"Do you know who you are talking to?" said the White Lion, getting out of his car. "I am Al Qaeda. I will destroy even your own houses!"

He pulled out his pistol and shot at Abul Abed. The gun jammed. He reloaded and fired again. Again, the gun jammed.

By this time, Abul Abed said, he had pulled his own gun. He fired once, killing the White Lion.

UPDATE: Shoot-out between Saddam’s spy and al-Qaeda brings life back to streets.

al qaeda Iraq

The dominance of the Western world can largely be attributed to the sexual revolution initiated by Judaism and later carried forward by Christianity.

Dennis Prager has a provocative article on Judaism, sexuality, and Western Civilization. Excerpt:

To a world which divided human sexuality between penetrator and penetrated, Judaism said, “You are wrong — sexuality is to be divided between male and female.” To a world which saw women as baby producers unworthy of romantic and sexual attention, Judaism said “You are wrong — women must be the sole focus of men's erotic love.” To a world which said that sensual feelings and physical beauty were life's supreme goods, Judaism said, “You are wrong — ethics and holiness are the supreme goods.” A thousand years before Roman emperors kept naked boys, Jewish kings were commanded to write and keep a sefer torah, a book of the Torah.

In all my research on this subject, nothing moved me more than the Talmudic law that Jews were forbidden to sell slaves or sheep to non-Jews, lest the non-Jews engage in homosexuality and bestiality. That was the world in which rabbis wrote the Talmud, and in which, earlier, the Bible was written. Asked what is the single greatest revelation I have derived from all my researches, I always respond, “That there had to have been divine revelation to produce the Torah.” The Torah was simply too different from the rest of the world, too against man's nature, to have been solely man-made.

The creation of Western civilization has been a terribly difficult and unique thing. It took a constant delaying of gratification, and a re-channeling of natural instincts; and these disciplines have not always been well received. There have been numerous attempts to undo Judeo-Christian civilization, not infrequently by Jews (through radical politics) and Christians (through anti-Semitism).

Western Civilization Judaism Christianity homosexuality sexual revolution gay marriage

The pathetic leader of the Anglican Church...

From historian Victor Davis Hanson:

I suggest that the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams read a little history about the British experience in India before he offers politically-correct but historically laughable sermons like the one he gave to a Muslim "lifestyle" magazine:

It is one thing to take over a territory and then pour energy and resources into administering it and normalising it. Rightly or wrongly, that's what the British Empire did - in India, for example. It is another thing to go in on the assumption that a quick burst of violent action will somehow clear the decks and that you can move on and other people will put it back together - Iraq, for example.
ONE, who is clearing the decks and moving on? And who are the "other people" putting Iraq back together? Iran? Saudi Arabia? China? The British in Basra? First, we read from the anti-war Left that the US is wasting a trillion dollars and thousands of its lives in Iraq, and yet now that we are clearing the decks and not putting it back together? Which is it?

Read it all here.

And for how some in the US feel about what he had to say, check out the comments in Free Republic.
RowanWilliams Anglican Church political correctness PC <

Christmas ideas for deployed soldiers...

don't know what to send? Then go to American Soldier and read about it here.
soldiers Christmas presents

Cool!

women in art

The Red Balloon.

I watched this beautiful and lyrical movie when I was 6.

This day, in history:

US President Kennedy was assassinated 44 years ago. Here's an interesting video clip of the news on that day, and the anchor's comments on hate ring true 44 years later...

John F. Kennedy Kennedy assassination this day in history JFK

"Man" never ceases to amaze...

The stunning temples secretly carved out below ground by 'paranormal' eccentric.

Temples of Damanhur Oberto Airaudi Italy

Giving Thanks to God for all our Blessings...

On this special day, I think of the Johnson Family, and their terribly trying times.

"Give thanks for noisy houses, healthy children and overflowing company. Give thanks for bounteous tables, rambunctious friends and neighbors, life and limb. And give thanks for those who give of themselves — in service to our nation, in civic duty and in answer to His call — all year ’round.

That is all."

Johnson family Thanksgiving Michelle Malkin

Abraham Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation.

Proclamation of Thanksgiving

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

A PROCLAMATION.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theater of military conflict; while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battlefield; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed,

Done at the city of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the Eighty-eighth

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

By the President:
WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State

Thanksgiving Proclamation

George Washington's Thanksgiving Proclamation - 1789.

Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor -- and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me "to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness."

Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be -- That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks -- for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation -- for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his Providence which we experienced in the tranquility [sic], union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed -- for the peaceable and rational manner, in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted -- for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed; and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us.

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions -- to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually -- to render our national government a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed -- to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shewn [sic] kindness onto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord -- To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the encrease [sic] of science among them and us -- and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.

Given under my hand at the City of New York
the third day of October in the year of our Lord 1789.

George Washington

Thanksgiving Proclamation

American Thanksgiving.

"On August 1, 1620, the Mayflower set sail. It carried a total of 102 passengers, including forty Pilgrims led by William Bradford. On the journey, Bradford set up an agreement, a contract, that established just and equal laws for all members of the new community, irrespective of their religious beliefs. Where did the revolutionary ideas expressed in the Mayflower Compact come from? From the Bible," and this is what's not taught. This is what's left out. "The Pilgrims were a people completely steeped in the lessons of the Old and New Testaments. They looked to the ancient Israelites for their example. And, because of the biblical precedents set forth in Scripture, they never doubted that their experiment would work. But this was no pleasure cruise, friends. The journey to the New World was a long and arduous one. And when the Pilgrims landed in New England in November, they found, according to Bradford's detailed journal, a cold, barren, desolate wilderness. There were no friends to greet them, he wrote. There were no houses to shelter them. There were no inns where they could refresh themselves. And the sacrifice they had made for freedom was just beginning. During the first winter, half the Pilgrims -- including Bradford's own wife -- died of either starvation, sickness, or exposure.

"When spring finally came, Indians taught the settlers how to plant corn, fish for cod and skin beavers for coats. Life improved for the Pilgrims, but they did not yet prosper! This is important to understand because this is where modern American history lessons often end. Thanksgiving is actually explained in some textbooks as a holiday for which the Pilgrims gave thanks to the Indians for saving their lives, rather than as a devout expression of gratitude grounded in the tradition of both the Old and New Testaments. Here is the part that has been omitted: The original contract the Pilgrims had entered into with their merchant-sponsors in London called for everything they produced to go into a common store, and each member of the community was entitled to one common share. All of the land they cleared and the houses they built belong to the community as well." They were collectivists! Now, "Bradford, who had become the new governor of the colony, recognized that this form of collectivism was as costly and destructive to the Pilgrims as that first harsh winter, which had taken so many lives.

"He decided to take bold action. Bradford assigned a plot of land to each family to work and manage, thus turning loose the power of the marketplace. ... Long before Karl Marx was even born, the Pilgrims had discovered and experimented with what could only be described as socialism. And what happened? It didn't work! Surprise, surprise, huh? What Bradford and his community found was that the most creative and industrious people had no incentive to work any harder than anyone else, unless they could utilize the power of personal motivation! But while most of the rest of the world has been experimenting with socialism for well over a hundred years -- trying to refine it, perfect it, and re-invent it -- the Pilgrims decided early on to scrap it permanently. What Bradford wrote about this social experiment should be in every schoolchild's history lesson," every kid gets. "If it were, we might prevent much needless suffering in the future." Here's what he wrote: "'The experience that we had in this common course and condition, tried sundry years...that by taking away property, and bringing community into a common wealth, would make them happy and flourishing -- as if they were wiser than God,' Bradford wrote.

"'For this community [so far as it was] was found to breed much confusion and discontent, and retard much employment that would have been to their benefit and comfort. For young men that were most able and fit for labor and service did repine that they should spend their time and strength to work for other men's wives and children without any recompense...that was thought injustice.'" That was thought injustice. "Do you hear what he was saying, ladies and gentlemen? The Pilgrims found that people could not be expected to do their best work without incentive. So what did Bradford's community try next? They unharnessed the power of good old free enterprise by invoking the undergirding capitalistic principle of private property. Every family was assigned its own plot of land to work and permitted to market its own crops and products. And what was the result?" 'This had very good success,' wrote Bradford, "for it made all hands industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been." Bradford doesn't sound like much of a Clintonite, does he? Is it possible that supply-side economics could have existed before the 1980s? ... In no time, the Pilgrims found they had more food than they could eat themselves. ... So they set up trading posts and exchanged goods with the Indians.

"The profits allowed them to pay off their debts to the merchants in London. And the success and prosperity of the Plymouth settlement attracted more Europeans and began what came to be known as the 'Great Puritan Migration.'"

Source: Rush Limbaugh.

Thanksgiving real story

The lost lesson of Thanksgiving.

In The Tragedy of the Commons, John Stossel writes

Every year around this time, schoolchildren are taught about that wonderful day when Pilgrims and Native Americans shared the fruits of the harvest. "Isn't sharing wonderful?" say the teachers.

They miss the point.

Because of sharing, the first Thanksgiving in 1623 almost didn't happen.
***************
When the Pilgrims first settled the Plymouth Colony, they organized their farm economy along communal lines. The goal was to share everything equally, work and produce.

They nearly all starved.

Why? When people can get the same return with a small amount of effort as with a large amount, most people will make little effort. Plymouth settlers faked illness rather than working the common property. Some even stole, despite their Puritan convictions. Total production was too meager to support the population, and famine resulted. Some ate rats, dogs, horses and cats. This went on for two years.
***************
The people of Plymouth moved from socialism to private farming. The results were dramatic.

***************
Because of the change, the first Thanksgiving could be held in November 1623.

What Plymouth suffered under communalism was what economists today call the tragedy of the commons. But the problem has been known since ancient Greece. As Aristotle noted, "That which is common to the greatest number has the least care bestowed upon it."
*********************
What private property does -- as the Pilgrims discovered -- is connect effort to reward, creating an incentive for people to produce far more. Then, if there's a free market, people will trade their surpluses to others for the things they lack. Mutual exchange for mutual benefit makes the community richer.

Secure property rights are the key. When producers know that their future products are safe from confiscation, they will take risks and invest. But when they fear they will be deprived of the fruits of their labor, they will do as little as possible.

That's the lost lesson of Thanksgiving.

Read the whole article here.

tragedy of the commons Thanksgiving

More on the Iraqi refugees coming home...

Read more about it here.

Iraqi refugees coming home

Iraqi refugees are coming home...

a sign that not only has the violence in Iraq decreased dramatically, but refugees are betting on Iraq's economic and political future.

Iraqi refugees are returning home in dramatic numbers, concluding that security in Baghdad has been transformed. Thousands have left their refuge in Syria in recent months, according to some estimates.

The Iraqi Embassy is organising a secure mass convoy from Damascus to Baghdad on Monday for refugees who want to drive back. Embassy notices went up around the Syrian capital yesterday, offering free bus and train rides home.

Saida Zaynab, the Damascus neighbourhoods once dominated by many of the 1.5 million Iraqi refugees, is almost deserted. Apartment prices are plummeting and once-crowded shops and buses are half empty.

The UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) was scrambling to assess the transformation last night. An interim report is expected today. “There is a large movement of people going back to Iraq. We are doing rapid research on this,” a spokesman said.

Read more about this here and here.

Iraq refugees returning home

48,000 Send Thanksgiving Text Messages To Troops [Please read and pass on]

US Military ^ November 22, 2007 Pacific Stars and Stripes Jeff Schogol

ARLINGTON, Va. — More than 48,000 people have sent text messages since Saturday as part of an effort to show their support for U.S. troops this Thanksgiving, said Allison Barber, deputy assistant secretary of Defense for internal communications and public liaison.

The effort is run by America Supports You, a Defense Department program that gives publicity to nonprofit groups that support U.S. troops, which falls under Barber’s purview.

Under the “Giving Thanks” campaign, people can send their text messages thanking the troops by texting 89279, she said.

The messages will be tallied on the America Supports You Web site and shown on a crawl on the Pentagon Channel on Thanksgiving, Barber said.

Beginning on Thanksgiving and running through the Monday football games, American Forces Network also will run commercials saying how many text messages have been sent, she said.

The program is not a joint effort with Stars and Stripes, but it is covered under an America Supports You contract that is held by Stars and Stripes.

The Defense Department Inspector General’s Office is conducting an audit of Stripes expenditures for America Supports You.

The newspaper was not involved with funding the “Giving Thanks” campaign, Barber said Tuesday.

For more information on the "Giving Thanks" campaign, go to: www.americasupportsyou.mil.

America Supports You Thanksgiving Giving Thanks Iraq Afghanistan

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) explained.

I just read the best explanation for PTSD from someone who has experienced it himself. It's a "must read", especially if you know someone who has returned from a place of conflict. Here's an excerpt:

What you need to know, first and last, is that so-called PTSD is not an illness. It is a normal condition for people who have been through what you have been through. The instinct to kill and war is native to humanity. It is very deeply rooted in me, as it is in you. We have rules and customs to restrain it, so that sometimes we may have peace. What you are experiencing is not an illness, but the awareness of what human nature is like deep down. It is the awareness of what life is like without the walls that protect civilization.

Those who have never been outside those walls don't know: they can't see. The walls form their horizon. You know what lays beyond them, and can't forget it. What we're going to talk about today is how to come home, back inside those walls: how to learn to trust them again.

There is a sense that combat changes people, but it really doesn't. It brings out parts of yourself that were always there, but that you hadn't encountered directly. Those parts are in everyone else as well. No one has clean hands. No one is different from you. That is important, so let me repeat it. Everyone around you is just like you. They don't know it, but they are. You are not sick; you are not broken. Everyone else is just the same.

Read it all.

PTSD posttraumatic stress disorder war Iraq

Pistol-toting Pope!

That is, Pius XI. Check it out here.

gun control right to bear arms Pope Pius XI