A little known war situation – when some Muslim leaders unite with Christians

I have not made a lot of comment about the situation in Nigeria regarding Boko Haram. To say that the extremists are a pest is not really capturing what they are inflicting in terms of human suffering. It is not just Christians who have been suffering at the hands of Boko Haram, but it is also Muslim African villagers.

What to do? Nigeria is at a crisis point because of these Islamist extremists, and so the governors of the various districts recently had a meeting. Breibart news has a report on the meeting and a little bit more in the way of background.

It would be easy to side with the view that it is the Christians that are being persecuted, especially when more than 200 girls were recently kidnapped from their school. However, that would be an injustice to the moderate Muslims in that country who are not extremist and merely try to co-exist. What it really means is that the Muslims have been criticizing the Christian President of using Boko Haram, when it seems that Boko Haram are an independent group.

It is up to Nigeria to rid themselves of these pests, and they need to do that by getting tough. People are being killed or maimed for life in the various bombing attacks. Boko Haram is at war with anybody who does not follow their extremist version of Islam.

It should be pointed out that the extremism itself has spread from country to country. These extremists want more than just religion, they want world domination. This is the critical issue with regard to Al Qaeda and its offshoots. They also want world domination of Islam. They want all Christians to reject Jesus Christ and to accept the false prophet Mohammed (there you go, I said it!!). Their desire is that we should all be subjected to Sharia law. It is the way it has always been with Islam. Boko Haram has been waging a war against book learning. They detest that girls are going to school. This is the reason that they attack both Christian and Muslim girl schools. No one is safe from the extremism of Boko Haram.

These little known wars are being waged in a swag of countries. The Afghanistan Taliban is known to all of us, but how many know about the activities of the Pakistan Taliban, or the Indian version of the same thing? What about the activities of the Tamil Tigers? Islam is at the very root of all of these conflicts. The leaders want to subjugate the women, and sadly there are women who are willing to see themselves be subjugated in the name of a theological system by the use of terror.

Terrorism is just another way in which a war against Christians is being waged.

The war against Cliven Bundy

It is not my intention to take sides for or against Cliven Bundy. There are certainly some areas where I would instinctively disagree with the man – specifically I disagree with him not paying his grazing fees. However, I believe that there is something very sinister in the way in which the whole of the Bundy thing has been played out by the Bureau of Land Management. There is one very sinister figure… and his name is Harry Reid.

Various blogs have reported on the real reason for trying to dislodge Cliven Bundy from his land. From this aspect, of Big Government attempting to run roughshod over the ordinary citizen, then I have sympathy for the citizen not Big Government, especially when a particular person intends to use the land for the purpose of setting up either solar energy or bird smashers in what is nothing more than a failed project before it gets started.

Unfortunately for Mr. Bundy, at his ripe old age of 80, he has a way of expressing himself that has caused total and I believe unnecessary condemnation, with the accusation that he is a bigot. However, Mr. Cliven Bundy is not a bigot and he is most definitely less of a bigot than the blacks who are blackening his name at the beck and call of their “Master”, Senator Harry Reid… and ultimately the one who is also pulling a few strings. I do not intend referencing the CNN article that I read from one such Negro bigot, because the comments were gross because of the extremism that was expressed. I can only point out that the author is as much enslaved as those who were bought and sold in the slave market…. only he does his slavery for free.

The Conservative Treehouse has provided a full transcript of the Bundy Remarks. These were repeated at blog, Hyscience. It is worth taking the time to read exactly what Cliven Bundy said, before his comments were edited by someone who was doing the dirty work for Harry Reid. These are the remarks of a man full of compassion for those who have been downtrodden, rather than a man who is a bigot.

This is my own interpretation of what Cliven Bundy was trying to say:

First of all, are Negroes better off now than when they were under slavery? (this is a thorny issue)… and what Bundy sees when he goes to certain areas in Nevada is a group of people who have been given government houses, who are dependent entirely upon welfare, and who have nothing to do. Their children end up in jail, there is an increase in abortion etc. because the people have no occupation.  These are people who are not happy at all.

Second, when the Negro were slaves, they had the occupation of picking cotton. They were kept employed on the plantations and they had a family life. They were happy in that family life.

Where is the bigotry in those remarks? Dependence upon government welfare is in fact a form of slavery. Cliven Bundy has that correct. The blacks who place their trust in the Democrats have in fact found themselves on a new form of plantation, only this time there is no work to keep them occupied. This is the point that was being made about the plight of the Negro in Nevada, that they are no better off sitting in their government homes with nothing to keep them occupied than if they were still on a slave plantation where at least they had some form of employment.

Bundy also made remarks about the Mexicans that cross the border. There is no doubt that his remarks contain an element of truth because a lot of Mexicans have happy loving families and they do have a strong work ethic…. at least in a traditional family (for the record, my uncle John joined the US Marines during World War 11, and he was a Mexican-American. He met my aunty Doreen here in Australia and she became a war bride. They had 7 children, my cousins, and they are a very close knit family. They have been the embodiment of this ethic that one finds amongst the Mexican-Americans, which is very family oriented.) He did not as far as I could see refer to the illegal immigrants with these remarks, but certainly he referred to those Mexican-Americans that he had met and worked alongside over a long period of time.

Should Cliven Bundy be pilloried for making remarks that point out the obvious? That African-Americans today are no better off than their ancestors because they remain like slaves on the plantation of welfare dependence. Why should he be considered a bigot by pointing out what is so obvious to one and all?

Thirty Pieces of Silver

Have you ever thought about the way in which Judas was prepared to betray Jesus? This is more than just a theological question because Judas represents a lot of people who are in government or positions of trust today. The USA has issues with “pay to play” and that goes all the way to the White House (I am looking at you, Barry Soetoro). Australia has very similar issues relating to politicians who have been crooked in one way or another. Even Public Servants are susceptible to the bribe culture. In countries such as India, Indonesia, Malaysia etc. bribery and corruption are simply part of the way that you do business. If you really think about it, there is no difference between the 30 pieces of silver offered to Judas, and the gifts that are given to public officials in order to buy people off, or to have some other influence over government. The bribery itself is a part of the desire to have control over the governance of others, and ultimately to exert influence over people in positions of power.

It is very difficult to understand why Judas chose to betray Jesus. It has always struck me that the 30 pieces of silver was a rather paltry amount for the life of Jesus. It is St. John who tells us a little bit about the background of Judas – he is a thief who was in charge of the common purse. The short sentence does not tells us much about the motivation of Judas, but I think that a bit of historical research might help to place the whole story in perspective.

The historical perspective is centred around the beliefs of the Jews at the time that Jesus walked upon the earth. It was a time of high expectation yet the Jews themselves failed to recognize that Jesus was the one who had come to save them. Why was that? I think that the answer to this question is actually more simple than we might be prepared to admit. The Jews were expecting someone who would be a “leader”.  The fact that an inscription was placed on the cross that read : “This is Jesus, King of the Jews” is an indication of the expectations that existed at the time.  Throughout the Gospels there is mention of how the disciples, and the Apostles in particular did not truly understand the real mission of Jesus. When Jesus told Peter “Get behind me, Satan”, this was due to Peter remonstrating when Jesus mentioned His expected fate – and there was temptation for Jesus in those words of remonstration from Jesus.  The Apostles and disciples recognized that Jesus was the Messiah, but they did not truly understand Messiaship until after the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is at the heart of the behaviour of Judas, and it is at the heart of why Judas decided to betray his Master.

Since Judas had a worldly view of Jesus, and thought that Jesus was going to seize control of the government of Jerusalem, and then drive out the Romans, he was no doubt dismayed when Jesus went around performing miracles and “saving” people. The worldly Judas wanted to be one of the new “Ministers” of a new government. When he realized that was not going to happen, he was very disappointed. Thus, Judas was turned,  and he became the Betrayer of Jesus. In other words, discovering the motivations of Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, is the means of understanding why it was that he became the betrayer. There is no doubt in my mind that Judas committed many other sins, thus Judas, even though he was in the presence of God, did not have God with Him, and he was blind to the presence of God in his life.

Now, the question here is: how does this relate to modern day betrayals of trust? The answer to that question is very simple: it is the motivation of greed that leads people to betray the trust of others. Greed is the prime motivator of those who seek to influence others via bribery and corruption.

In each of our countries we discover that government is wracked by scandals involving bribery and corruption. Those scandals occur because people are being tempted all the time to accept a “gift”, or to give a gift with the purpose of influencing the outcome of a process. There are of course other scandals, and I make mention here of the AWU-WRA scandal, which is still being investigated by Victorian Police. The motivation of those involved was definitely greed and a desire to be rich (stay tuned for more information on this and other scandals involving union officials, lawyers and their ilk).

New South Wales has what is known as the Independent Commission against Corruption or ICAC. This Commission has had some astounding results. For one Vietnamese-Australian family who lived in Castle Hill, this Commission brought heartache when their father was caught accepting bribes (I knew the family because they were a part of my parish). The 30 pieces of silver aka the bribe was not worth it in the end.

Things have changed very little since the time of Judas. People continue to betray others for the payment of a small amount of money or for some other form of enrichment. The culture behind such corruption goes back for thousands of years. We are the ones who keep reverting to the behaviours that are attested to in the Bible. This is why we need to understand the motivations of Judas Iscariot. His motivations were not pure.

On Illegal Campaign Donations

New South Wales has a new Premier. What has this to do with campaign donations? That is a good question. I am not going to write about the $3000 bottle of wine that brought down the former Premier, Barry O’Farrell, since this post is not about the scandal that erupted via the NSW ICAC. That story is ongoing anyway, and more people are going to feel the heat. This post is in fact about a campaign contributer to Hillary Clinton.

The ABC (USA) news has a story about a Democrat campaign fundraiser who has been found guilty of funneling more than $180,000 of illegal donations to 3 unnamed candidates. I wonder why those candidates are unnamed?

In that story what struck me was the reason as to why this individual had done this illegal activity:

An informant caught Sant Singh Chatwal on tape in 2010 explaining that he believed his illegal fundraising bought him access to people in power.

Without the contributions “nobody will even talk to you,” Chatwal said. “That’s the only way to buy them, get into the system.”

Chatwal entered the plea to evading contribution limits and witness tampering in federal court in Brooklyn as part of a plea deal. He faces a maximum of nearly six years in prison at sentencing on July 31 and must forfeit $1 million. He free on $750,000 bond secured by property in Manhattan.

Chatwal, 70, was not required to describe his crimes in court. After the plea, his spokesman passed out a written statement saying he “deeply regrets his actions and accepts full responsibility for the consequences.”

U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch said in a statement that Chatwal “sought to buy access to power through unlimited and illegal campaign contributions, funneling money from the shadows of straw donors.”

I am amazed by the boldness of his statement. Actually, I think that he is being very honest and what he said is in fact the truth, especially where the Clintons and Obama are concerned. Raise the money and you get the benefits.

The article itself names some of the people who got funds from Chatwal, including one of the most repugnant Democrats in the Senate: Harry Reid.  I could go further, but… I would not want to get sued for expressing my thoughts about Harry Reid. Maybe Chatwal was exposed because he did not do enough fund raising for the most corrupt of all people who have resided in the White House… Barry Soetoro.

The Heat is On

The heading sounds like the title of a song…hey and I like that song too!!

This post is about Lois Lerner and Eric Holder because the latest revelations mean that Eric Holder and his Justice Department are in big doo doo. It has been decided that Lois Lerner should face criminal prosecution. The case has been sent to the Justice Department. However, it has been revealed that the Justice Department was working in cahoots with Lerner in an effort to prosecute conservative groups for what is claimed to be lies. This attempted action smacks of anti-liberty and it flies in the face of the right to free speech. (In my view, the political activity of those groups is entirely based upon the right to the freedom of speech).

Breitbart has an item regarding the meltdown of Eric Holder when he last appeared before Congress. Eric Holder is facing a contempt of Congress charge, and what I do not understand is why the Congress have not proceeded any further with the charge. The article is worth a read. Here is an excerpt from the article:

And Eric Holder has much to hide.

Holder is at the center of one of the most serious scandals of the Obama administration, “Operation Fast and Furious,” where weapons were allowed to “walk” across the border by our government and into the hands of Mexican drug cartel members. One of those weapons wound up at the crime scene of murdered Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, precipitating public outrage and congressional investigations. Countless Mexican citizens, by Holder’s own admission, will also be shot and killed by weapons supplied by his Justice Department’s gun-running operation.

Holder’s attempts to obstruct justice in the investigation of Fast and Furious were the reason for the attorney general’s contempt citation and for his embarrassing exchange with Rep. Gohmert. (Holder continued his political haranguing at a conference run by the infamous race-hustler Al Sharpton the day after his testimony.)

As Rep. Gohmert pointed out, if Holder had any respect at all for the institution of Congress, or any sincere regret over the contempt citation, he would begin cooperating and release the records that will help us to unravel one of the most shameful chapters of Holder’s tenure. 

But he won’t. Because he can’t. To release those records is to prove his guilt. He knows it. We know it. Congress knows it. And so does the president, who made a desperate effort to protect Holder by claiming Fast and Furious records were protected by executive privilege, which they are not.

Will the location of the missing plane be revealed?

There are media reports hyping up the detection of a signal in the Indian ocean off the coast of Australia. The signal could be from a black box. There have been 3 reports of signals – two from a Chinese ship and one from the Australian ship the HMAS Ocean Shield, about 90 kms from the Chinese site.

However, a word of caution from retired Air Chief Marshall Angus Houston is very appropriate. The signals need to be fully investigated. The HMAS Ocean Shield has a black box ping detector on board. The Chinese ship has something similar on board. The location is roughly where it has been suggested that the aircraft might have crashed into the ocean. Until there has been verification that the signal is from the black box, we simply cannot say for certain that the location has been found….

However, it has also been noted that within the new zone more white objects have been spotted. There is a need for ships to go to this location and fetch those objects out of the sea to see if anything can be identified as debris associated with the missing airliner.

Now is not the time to give up hope, but it is also not the time to start with the conspiracy theories. We simply have to wait and see if the black box of the aircraft can be located and then wait for an analysis of the recordings to find out what might have happened. The whole investigation could take years to complete.

Up until now the disappearance of this Malaysian Airlines flight has been a complete mystery. Nothing makes any sense. There is always the remote possibility that the hunt for the aircraft has been in the wrong place. For example, I keep thinking that they should be hunting closer to the Maldives (but what would I know!).

This is the first time that I have felt hopeful that something has been found. The Chinese are pulling out all of the stops to find the missing aircraft. They are co-ordinating their efforts with the Australians. It is to be noted that the British and Canadians have provided aircrew to help in the search. That is very thoughtful because such a search is very exhausting work.

Air Chief Marshall Angus Houston is a very experienced RAAF pilot. As such, he is very experienced in the field of search and rescue. On top of that, as a former Chief of the Australian Defence Forces, Air Chief Marshall Angus Houston has the diplomatic experience required to co-ordinate the search and recovery of the missing airliner. Angus is my former neighbour.

UPDATE

It has been revealed that the Ocean Shield picked up signals that could be from the black box of the missing aircraft. Today could be the day that the submarine “Bluefin 21” is deployed and that it will continue the search on the ocean floor.

The signals that the Ocean Shield picked up are the most positive signs to date in regard to where the most likely resting place of the airliner could be.

I am personally hoping and praying that this is in fact the crash site and that the families of those on board the airliner will finally get to learn the truth about what took place.

For the moment it is best to disregard some of the sensationalist reports from the media, including the latest one regarding the alleged effort to avoid detection in Indonesia air space. We cannot know for certain what was or was not deliberate on that flight. There are simply other possibilities and until the plane is found there is no way of knowing the truth.

Fort Hood shooting

There has been another incident at Fort Hood in Texas.  According to news reports there are injuries.

Rather than speculate about the possible perpetrator (I think I know who this individual might be because his name cropped up on the MyPet Jawa site), I will wait until further details are given. From what I have seen on one news site the perpetrator is dead.

I will update this post when more information is available.

UPDATE: via The Jawa Report – the shooter has been identified as Spc Ivan Lopez. I have seen conflicting reports on the number of dead, Jawa Report says 4 but others are reporting as many as 8 or even 14. I think this is the usual misinformation at work.

According to Howie, this time terrorism has not been ruled out. Lopez worked as a truck driver in the army and was being treated for depression at Fort Worth. This could be chalked up to PTSD, but he was not diagnosed as such at the time that he went on a shooting rampage. I think a family background check is needed before anyone can guess or comment as to why Lopez decided to kill other soldiers.

Depression is a very strange thing because for many being depressed means feeling sad all the time. Some people end up feeling suicidal. In some instances a background check will reveal drug use, including marijuahna that might have caused the depression to take hold. There are several forms of depression including what is known as clinical depression as well as manic-depression or what is commonly called bi-polar disorder.  There are many variables to consider in such situations.

Something else to consider is that sometimes people behave in a certain way with the express intention of ending up dead, but not at their own hands. These are the people who are the most likely to initiate a suicidal rampage and seem determined to take out as many other people as they can before dying.