November 22, 2005
"Deferred Success" is new term for failure -report
Fri Nov 18, 2005 LOS ANGELES - In 2005, some people wanted the word "brainstorming" replaced by "thought shower" so as not to offend people with brain disorders, and they also wanted "deferred success" to replace "failure" so as not to embarrass those who don't succeed..."deferred success" the euphemism for "fail" that the Professional Association of Teachers considered using to bolster students' "self-esteem."
Both phrases appear on a tongue-in-cheek list released on Thursday of the year's most politically correct words and phrases issued by Global Language Monitor, a nonprofit group that monitors language use.
The phrase that topped this year's list was "misguided criminals," one of several terms the BBC used so as not to use the word "terrorist" in describing those who carried out train and bus bombings in London that killed 52 people in July, according to Paul JJ Payack, the head of Global Language Monitor.
He added, "The BBC attempts to strip away all emotion by using what it considers 'neutral' descriptions when describing those who carried out the bombings in the London Tubes."
...words and phrases that either de-Christianise the Christian holidays or neuter their genders. For example "God Rest Ye Merry Persons" replaces "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" and "Seasons Greetings" replaces "Merry Christmas."
...a move aimed at the heart of Australian culture when security staff were banned from using the word "mate" to address members of parliament. The MPs rebelled and said not being called "mate" was unpatriotic...
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=2005-11-18T014425Z_01_MCC806199_RTRIDST_0_OUKOE-UK-WORDS.XML
Families of Beheaded Indonesian Girls Forgive Killers
POSO, Indonesia - The three families who suffered the loss of their young daughters when they were brutally murdered, are still in shock and grief, not only because they were too young to die -- Alfita was 19, Teressia was 18, and Yarni was 15 -- but because of the horrible way they were murdered.
Their bodies were found headless in a coconut field, while their heads were found in different parts of Poso, wrapped in black plastic bags.
...the three victims were very active Christian leaders in school prayer meetings and church. Pastor Mastin says the deaths of Alfita, Teressia, and Yarni are not in vain. She calls them martyrs because their deaths have brought unity to the Christian churches in Poso, and their lives encouraged them to be strong in the faith.
...Difficult as it is, Yarni's father and the parents of Alfita and Teressia have released forgiveness to the murderers of their daughters. They believe that it is God who will judge them.
Markus Sambuwe, the father of one of the girls, remarked," I am really angry, but the Holy Spirit touched my heart and changed me. I forgive them just as Jesus has forgiven my sins."
Several suspects have been arrested in the Christian school girl beheadings, but just a week after those brutal murders, two other Christian girls were shot by snipers.
While tensions remain high here, so far, Christians are remaining true to their faith. They are responding in a spirit of forgiveness and restraint, by turning the other cheek.
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/news/051118d.asp
Having Bible Still a Danger in N. Korea
November 19, 2005- SEOUL, South Korea ... "Once you read the Bible, you stop believing in Kim Il Sung," said Choi, who is now 19 and living in Seoul, the South Korean capital. (Like many defectors, she is living under an assumed name to protect relatives in North Korea.)
...In the study, released Tuesday, the commission found that the practice of religion is increasing inside North Korea, prompting a counterattack from the regime... "there is renewed government interest in ensuring that North Koreans coming back from China are not `infected' . . . by any form of religious belief."
...In 1996, five middle-aged men who were accused of running an illegal church were forced to lie on the ground and were crushed by a steam roller, according to a 30-year-old North Korean defector, who says he witnessed the incident while in the army.
Before the 1950-1953 Korean War, Christians were a powerful political force in North Korea and potentially a challenge to the ascent of Kim Il Sung. By some accounts, the population of Pyongyang was as much as 30 percent Christian, giving the city a nickname as the "Jerusalem of the East."
...The starkest lesson about religion was the execution that she and her friends witnessed in 1998. The accused, a woman in her 20s and her father, about 60, apparently had had their legs broken and had to be dragged out like dolls before they were tied to poles and shot. Choi said the pair had gotten in trouble when the daughter accidentally dropped a Bible with some laundry she was washing by the river.
...Human rights advocates suspect, however, that public executions are making a comeback. There are unconfirmed reports of 12 executions Oct. 25 in Onsong, another town just inside the border..."
http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051119/NEWS/511190316/1021
Granny deserves self-defense
Nov 16, 2005- ...last Wednesday when Susan Buxton realized all was not well in her Arlington, Texas home. The 66-year old was getting ready to let her dogs out before she went to bed when she noticed her 28-year old granddaughter was still awake. “I asked her, ‘What are you doing up?’ and she says, ‘Gigi, I heard glass breaking.’” ...armed with her .38 and a flashlight, Susan Buxton went through every room in her home...Pointing her pistol at the intruder, she told him to get down on the floor. Then she yelled for her granddaughter to call police. When Lessner tried to grab the gun, Susan Buxton shot him. He fled the home, bleeding from the leg...Police later found him cowering under a neighbor’s backyard deck.
...just twenty four hours later, 60-year old Thomas Morganstern woke up to noises in his Roselle, Delaware home...when he opened his eyes he saw two strange men in his bedroom. Morganstern grabbed a handgun and followed the pair as they ran down his stairs. In the living room, the two fired at Morganstern, missing him. He returned fire, and hit both assailants. They fled the house, and police found them hours later. One was hiding near Morganstern’s detatched garage. The other was lying under bushes across the street, dead.
Just a day after Thomas Morganstern saved his life,65-year old Roland Burns woke up to find a stranger in his home in Rush, Kentucky. He too grabbed a firearm. He too told the intruder to leave. And he too eventually had to defend himself when 32-year old Shannon Conley refused to obey that order. According to Kentucky State Police Trooper Ed Ginter, “"Mr. Burns ordered the man to leave the home. A struggle ensued, and Mr. Conley was fatally wounded."
What chance would a 66-year old grandmother have against a bigger, stronger, man a third of her age? What chance would a 60-year old man have against two men, armed and in their 20’s? And what chance would a 65-year old have against a man half his age? Without an equalizer, these individuals would have no chance. Because that equalizer was a firearm, all three are alive today.
...And yet, proponents of gun control continue to insist that these seniors are putting themselves more at risk by simply owning a gun.
...Appearing on Fox’s ‘Hannity and Colmes” last week, Michael Beard of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence said, “The privatization of public safety is a dangerous situation in our society.” He also revealed he doesn’t have a gun in home. Of course, he can’t legally own one. He lives in Washington, D.C., home to a firearms ban since 1976 and the nation’s murder capitol 14 of the last 15 years. Still, Beard says he doesn’t need a gun. He has a telephone.
89-year old Lois Cannady had a phone. She used it to call 911 in Durham County, North Carolina on June 5th, 2002 to report an intruder in her home. By the time police arrived, four minutes later, she had been murdered. Michael Beard can perhaps take comfort in the fact that he’s not an octogenarian, and could possibly fend off an attacker for four minutes. But the average response time in Washington, D.C. in 2004 was 8 minutes and 25 seconds. Are you prepared to go almost three rounds with a criminal who may be armed with a gun? http://townhall.com/opinion/columns/CamEdwards/2005/11/16/175857.html
Senate Bill would give Puerto Rican child-credit refunds
Nov. 21, 2005- In what critics could likely call a "vote-buying” move, Hillary Clinton has proposed a bill that would provide some Puerto Rico residents with child-credit refunds on their Social Security and Medicare taxes. Puerto Ricans pay no federal income tax.
The bill – sponsored solely by Clinton – could pay out more than $50 million over the next 10 years. the New York Post reports: "Puerto Rican support is crucial to her re-election – and a potential White House run in 2008…
http://newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/11/21/160848.shtml
FLIP
Speaking in Dubai and continuing his tradition of criticizing the United States while abroad, impeached former-president had this to say about the war in Iraq last week: "Saddam is gone. It's a good thing, but I don't agree with what was done. It was a big mistake.”
FLOP
Now that he's back in this country, Bill Clinton is waffling on the war in Iraq. He says it could still work. Last night however, he told an audience of 700 in Valhalla, New York 'It could still work'
[Hmmm... it was "a good thing... but it was a big mistake but now it could work" ?!? Has Willie been taking those John Kerry pills again?]
Al-Qaida Operative Nabbed Near Mexican Border
Nov. 20, 2005- An al-Qaida operative who was on the FBI's terrorist watch list was recently captured near the Mexican border, housed in a Texas jail and turned over to federal agents, Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas, said on Friday.
...Rep. Culberson said the detainee had been living in Mexico for up to a year, where the terrorist "was taking careful notes on the movement of people, police officers, wildlife, etc."
The Iraqi national "had apparently aggravated a neighbor in Mexico, who turned him in to Mexican authorities," he explained. Mexican officials then turned him over to the U.S. officials, who temporarily housed him in the Brewster County jail.
"And these are clearly Arab terrorists," Rep. Culberson added, "from countries like Yemen, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. They're crossing the border, pretending to be Hispanic immigrants, and then disappearing."
http://newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/11/20/151654.shtml
New Documents Reveal Saddam Hid WMD, Was Tied to Al Qaida
Nov. 16, 2005 -Recently discovered Iraqi documents now being translated by U.S. intelligence analysts indicate that Saddam Hussein's government made extensive plans to hide Iraq's weapons of mass destruction before the U.S. invasion in March 2003 - and had deep ties to al Qaida before the 9/11 attacks.
The evidence was discovered among "millions of pages of documents" unearthed by the Iraq Survey Group weapons search team, reports the Weekly Standard's Stephen Hayes.
Topics headlined in the still embargoed Iraqi documents include:
• Chemical Agent Purchase Orders (Dec. 2001)
• Formulas and information about Iraq's Chemical Weapons Agents
• Locations of Weapons/Ammunition Storage (with map)
• Denial and Deception of WMD and Killing of POWs
• Ricin research and improvement
• Chemical Gear for Fedayeen Saddam
• Memo from the [Iraqi Intelligence Service] to Hide Information from a U.N. Inspection team (1997)
• Iraq Ministry of Defense Calls for Investigation into why documents related to WMD were found by UN inspection team
• Correspondence between various Iraq organizations giving instructions to hide chemicals and equipment
• Correspondence from [Iraqi Intelligence Service] to [the Military Industrial Commission] regarding information gathered by foreign intelligence satellites on WMD (Dec. 2002)
• Cleaning chemical suits and how to hide chemicals
• [Iraqi Intelligence Service] plan of what to do during UNSCOM inspections (1996)
Still other reports suggest that Iraq's ties to al Qaida were far deeper than previously known, featuring headlines like:
• Secret Meeting with Taliban Group Member and Iraqi Government (Nov. 2000)
• Document from Uday Hussein regarding Taliban activity
• Possible al Qaeda Terror Members in Iraq
• Iraqi Effort to Cooperate with Saudi Opposition Groups and Individuals
• Iraqi Intel report on Kurdish Activities: Mention of Kurdish Report on al Qaeda - reference to al Qaeda presence in Salman Pak
• [Iraqi Intelligence Service] report on Taliban-Iraq Connections Claims
• Money Transfers from Iraq to Afghanistan
Hayes also notes that an additional treasure trove of evidence on Saddam Hussein's support for al Qaida may be lost forever.
"When David Kay ran the Iraq Survey Group searching for weapons of mass destruction, he instructed his team to ignore anything not directly related to the regime's WMD efforts," he reports.
"As a consequence, documents describing the regime's training and financing of terrorists were labeled 'No Intelligence Value' and often discarded, according to two sources."
http://newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/11/16/122915.shtml
Cal Thomas takes a look at the comparison of the war in Iraq with the war in Vietnam. He recalls an interview with a North Vietnamese General many years later...who admitted they couldn't beat the Americans without the media: Sounding the Trumpet of Retreat:
http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/calthomas/2005/11/21/176434.html
The drive to ban all torture in Congress exposes their all-or-nothing reasoning, says Thomas Sowell, reminding us that these terrorists may soon have nuclear weapons. Still want to ban torture? Read Tortured reasoning http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/thomassowell/2005/11/22/176427.html
Fri Nov 18, 2005 LOS ANGELES - In 2005, some people wanted the word "brainstorming" replaced by "thought shower" so as not to offend people with brain disorders, and they also wanted "deferred success" to replace "failure" so as not to embarrass those who don't succeed..."deferred success" the euphemism for "fail" that the Professional Association of Teachers considered using to bolster students' "self-esteem."
Both phrases appear on a tongue-in-cheek list released on Thursday of the year's most politically correct words and phrases issued by Global Language Monitor, a nonprofit group that monitors language use.
The phrase that topped this year's list was "misguided criminals," one of several terms the BBC used so as not to use the word "terrorist" in describing those who carried out train and bus bombings in London that killed 52 people in July, according to Paul JJ Payack, the head of Global Language Monitor.
He added, "The BBC attempts to strip away all emotion by using what it considers 'neutral' descriptions when describing those who carried out the bombings in the London Tubes."
...words and phrases that either de-Christianise the Christian holidays or neuter their genders. For example "God Rest Ye Merry Persons" replaces "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" and "Seasons Greetings" replaces "Merry Christmas."
...a move aimed at the heart of Australian culture when security staff were banned from using the word "mate" to address members of parliament. The MPs rebelled and said not being called "mate" was unpatriotic...
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=2005-11-18T014425Z_01_MCC806199_RTRIDST_0_OUKOE-UK-WORDS.XML
Families of Beheaded Indonesian Girls Forgive Killers
POSO, Indonesia - The three families who suffered the loss of their young daughters when they were brutally murdered, are still in shock and grief, not only because they were too young to die -- Alfita was 19, Teressia was 18, and Yarni was 15 -- but because of the horrible way they were murdered.
Their bodies were found headless in a coconut field, while their heads were found in different parts of Poso, wrapped in black plastic bags.
...the three victims were very active Christian leaders in school prayer meetings and church. Pastor Mastin says the deaths of Alfita, Teressia, and Yarni are not in vain. She calls them martyrs because their deaths have brought unity to the Christian churches in Poso, and their lives encouraged them to be strong in the faith.
...Difficult as it is, Yarni's father and the parents of Alfita and Teressia have released forgiveness to the murderers of their daughters. They believe that it is God who will judge them.
Markus Sambuwe, the father of one of the girls, remarked," I am really angry, but the Holy Spirit touched my heart and changed me. I forgive them just as Jesus has forgiven my sins."
Several suspects have been arrested in the Christian school girl beheadings, but just a week after those brutal murders, two other Christian girls were shot by snipers.
While tensions remain high here, so far, Christians are remaining true to their faith. They are responding in a spirit of forgiveness and restraint, by turning the other cheek.
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/news/051118d.asp
Having Bible Still a Danger in N. Korea
November 19, 2005- SEOUL, South Korea ... "Once you read the Bible, you stop believing in Kim Il Sung," said Choi, who is now 19 and living in Seoul, the South Korean capital. (Like many defectors, she is living under an assumed name to protect relatives in North Korea.)
...In the study, released Tuesday, the commission found that the practice of religion is increasing inside North Korea, prompting a counterattack from the regime... "there is renewed government interest in ensuring that North Koreans coming back from China are not `infected' . . . by any form of religious belief."
...In 1996, five middle-aged men who were accused of running an illegal church were forced to lie on the ground and were crushed by a steam roller, according to a 30-year-old North Korean defector, who says he witnessed the incident while in the army.
Before the 1950-1953 Korean War, Christians were a powerful political force in North Korea and potentially a challenge to the ascent of Kim Il Sung. By some accounts, the population of Pyongyang was as much as 30 percent Christian, giving the city a nickname as the "Jerusalem of the East."
...The starkest lesson about religion was the execution that she and her friends witnessed in 1998. The accused, a woman in her 20s and her father, about 60, apparently had had their legs broken and had to be dragged out like dolls before they were tied to poles and shot. Choi said the pair had gotten in trouble when the daughter accidentally dropped a Bible with some laundry she was washing by the river.
...Human rights advocates suspect, however, that public executions are making a comeback. There are unconfirmed reports of 12 executions Oct. 25 in Onsong, another town just inside the border..."
http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051119/NEWS/511190316/1021
Granny deserves self-defense
Nov 16, 2005- ...last Wednesday when Susan Buxton realized all was not well in her Arlington, Texas home. The 66-year old was getting ready to let her dogs out before she went to bed when she noticed her 28-year old granddaughter was still awake. “I asked her, ‘What are you doing up?’ and she says, ‘Gigi, I heard glass breaking.’” ...armed with her .38 and a flashlight, Susan Buxton went through every room in her home...Pointing her pistol at the intruder, she told him to get down on the floor. Then she yelled for her granddaughter to call police. When Lessner tried to grab the gun, Susan Buxton shot him. He fled the home, bleeding from the leg...Police later found him cowering under a neighbor’s backyard deck.
...just twenty four hours later, 60-year old Thomas Morganstern woke up to noises in his Roselle, Delaware home...when he opened his eyes he saw two strange men in his bedroom. Morganstern grabbed a handgun and followed the pair as they ran down his stairs. In the living room, the two fired at Morganstern, missing him. He returned fire, and hit both assailants. They fled the house, and police found them hours later. One was hiding near Morganstern’s detatched garage. The other was lying under bushes across the street, dead.
Just a day after Thomas Morganstern saved his life,65-year old Roland Burns woke up to find a stranger in his home in Rush, Kentucky. He too grabbed a firearm. He too told the intruder to leave. And he too eventually had to defend himself when 32-year old Shannon Conley refused to obey that order. According to Kentucky State Police Trooper Ed Ginter, “"Mr. Burns ordered the man to leave the home. A struggle ensued, and Mr. Conley was fatally wounded."
What chance would a 66-year old grandmother have against a bigger, stronger, man a third of her age? What chance would a 60-year old man have against two men, armed and in their 20’s? And what chance would a 65-year old have against a man half his age? Without an equalizer, these individuals would have no chance. Because that equalizer was a firearm, all three are alive today.
...And yet, proponents of gun control continue to insist that these seniors are putting themselves more at risk by simply owning a gun.
...Appearing on Fox’s ‘Hannity and Colmes” last week, Michael Beard of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence said, “The privatization of public safety is a dangerous situation in our society.” He also revealed he doesn’t have a gun in home. Of course, he can’t legally own one. He lives in Washington, D.C., home to a firearms ban since 1976 and the nation’s murder capitol 14 of the last 15 years. Still, Beard says he doesn’t need a gun. He has a telephone.
89-year old Lois Cannady had a phone. She used it to call 911 in Durham County, North Carolina on June 5th, 2002 to report an intruder in her home. By the time police arrived, four minutes later, she had been murdered. Michael Beard can perhaps take comfort in the fact that he’s not an octogenarian, and could possibly fend off an attacker for four minutes. But the average response time in Washington, D.C. in 2004 was 8 minutes and 25 seconds. Are you prepared to go almost three rounds with a criminal who may be armed with a gun? http://townhall.com/opinion/columns/CamEdwards/2005/11/16/175857.html
Senate Bill would give Puerto Rican child-credit refunds
Nov. 21, 2005- In what critics could likely call a "vote-buying” move, Hillary Clinton has proposed a bill that would provide some Puerto Rico residents with child-credit refunds on their Social Security and Medicare taxes. Puerto Ricans pay no federal income tax.
The bill – sponsored solely by Clinton – could pay out more than $50 million over the next 10 years. the New York Post reports: "Puerto Rican support is crucial to her re-election – and a potential White House run in 2008…
http://newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/11/21/160848.shtml
FLIP
Speaking in Dubai and continuing his tradition of criticizing the United States while abroad, impeached former-president had this to say about the war in Iraq last week: "Saddam is gone. It's a good thing, but I don't agree with what was done. It was a big mistake.”
FLOP
Now that he's back in this country, Bill Clinton is waffling on the war in Iraq. He says it could still work. Last night however, he told an audience of 700 in Valhalla, New York 'It could still work'
[Hmmm... it was "a good thing... but it was a big mistake but now it could work" ?!? Has Willie been taking those John Kerry pills again?]
Al-Qaida Operative Nabbed Near Mexican Border
Nov. 20, 2005- An al-Qaida operative who was on the FBI's terrorist watch list was recently captured near the Mexican border, housed in a Texas jail and turned over to federal agents, Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas, said on Friday.
...Rep. Culberson said the detainee had been living in Mexico for up to a year, where the terrorist "was taking careful notes on the movement of people, police officers, wildlife, etc."
The Iraqi national "had apparently aggravated a neighbor in Mexico, who turned him in to Mexican authorities," he explained. Mexican officials then turned him over to the U.S. officials, who temporarily housed him in the Brewster County jail.
"And these are clearly Arab terrorists," Rep. Culberson added, "from countries like Yemen, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. They're crossing the border, pretending to be Hispanic immigrants, and then disappearing."
http://newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/11/20/151654.shtml
New Documents Reveal Saddam Hid WMD, Was Tied to Al Qaida
Nov. 16, 2005 -Recently discovered Iraqi documents now being translated by U.S. intelligence analysts indicate that Saddam Hussein's government made extensive plans to hide Iraq's weapons of mass destruction before the U.S. invasion in March 2003 - and had deep ties to al Qaida before the 9/11 attacks.
The evidence was discovered among "millions of pages of documents" unearthed by the Iraq Survey Group weapons search team, reports the Weekly Standard's Stephen Hayes.
Topics headlined in the still embargoed Iraqi documents include:
• Chemical Agent Purchase Orders (Dec. 2001)
• Formulas and information about Iraq's Chemical Weapons Agents
• Locations of Weapons/Ammunition Storage (with map)
• Denial and Deception of WMD and Killing of POWs
• Ricin research and improvement
• Chemical Gear for Fedayeen Saddam
• Memo from the [Iraqi Intelligence Service] to Hide Information from a U.N. Inspection team (1997)
• Iraq Ministry of Defense Calls for Investigation into why documents related to WMD were found by UN inspection team
• Correspondence between various Iraq organizations giving instructions to hide chemicals and equipment
• Correspondence from [Iraqi Intelligence Service] to [the Military Industrial Commission] regarding information gathered by foreign intelligence satellites on WMD (Dec. 2002)
• Cleaning chemical suits and how to hide chemicals
• [Iraqi Intelligence Service] plan of what to do during UNSCOM inspections (1996)
Still other reports suggest that Iraq's ties to al Qaida were far deeper than previously known, featuring headlines like:
• Secret Meeting with Taliban Group Member and Iraqi Government (Nov. 2000)
• Document from Uday Hussein regarding Taliban activity
• Possible al Qaeda Terror Members in Iraq
• Iraqi Effort to Cooperate with Saudi Opposition Groups and Individuals
• Iraqi Intel report on Kurdish Activities: Mention of Kurdish Report on al Qaeda - reference to al Qaeda presence in Salman Pak
• [Iraqi Intelligence Service] report on Taliban-Iraq Connections Claims
• Money Transfers from Iraq to Afghanistan
Hayes also notes that an additional treasure trove of evidence on Saddam Hussein's support for al Qaida may be lost forever.
"When David Kay ran the Iraq Survey Group searching for weapons of mass destruction, he instructed his team to ignore anything not directly related to the regime's WMD efforts," he reports.
"As a consequence, documents describing the regime's training and financing of terrorists were labeled 'No Intelligence Value' and often discarded, according to two sources."
http://newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/11/16/122915.shtml
Cal Thomas takes a look at the comparison of the war in Iraq with the war in Vietnam. He recalls an interview with a North Vietnamese General many years later...who admitted they couldn't beat the Americans without the media: Sounding the Trumpet of Retreat:
http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/calthomas/2005/11/21/176434.html
The drive to ban all torture in Congress exposes their all-or-nothing reasoning, says Thomas Sowell, reminding us that these terrorists may soon have nuclear weapons. Still want to ban torture? Read Tortured reasoning http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/thomassowell/2005/11/22/176427.html
posted by David Bennett | 9:00 AM
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