Reflections From a Murky Pond

The Democratic majority in Congress are used a technicality to block the so-called John Doe amendment sponsored by Rep. Peter King (R-NY) from being included in the 9/11 security bill. The John Doe amendment is more formally called the Protecting Americans Fighting Terrorism Act. It specifically ensures that any person who voluntarily reports suspicious activity in good faith will be granted immunity from civil liability for the disclosure.

For some reason the Democrats have chosen to side with islamofascist terrorists and prevent US citizens any measure of legal protection for protecting themselves and this nation!

This all started because 6 Imams were removed from US Airways Flight 300 from Minneapolis to Phoenix. The reason for their removal was several reports from passengers regarding suspicious behavior. The suspicious behavior included, praying loudly in the concourse and repeatedly shouted “Allah” when passengers were called for boarding; switching from their assigned seats to a pattern associated with the September 11 terrorist attacks; and asking for seat belt extenders although none of the men appeared to be overweight.

The Imams, with the help of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), filed a federal lawsuit against US Airways, Metropolitan Airports Commission and the “John Doe” passengers who reported the Imams’ suspicious behavior.

Apparently the Democrats – latter day Janissaries – don’t want American citizens to be free to report criminal behavior. So I guess the new signs on trains and other transit systems will say If you see something Just Say Nothing!

Election Note: McCain and Clinton voted for the amendment; Obama abstained.

In OMAHA, Neb District Judge Kristine Cecava of Cheyenne County sentenced a convicted sex offender to 10 years probation instead of any prison time because he was short. Richard W. Thompson was convicted two counts of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl, yet the judge felt that prison would be too harsh for him because he stood only 5’1”.

So I’m sitting here thinking this guy has earned his way to prison, but then I look at you and I look at your physical size. I look at your basic ability to cope with people and, quite frankly, I shake to think what might happen to you in prison because I don’t think you’ll do well in prison.

— Judge Cecava
Court transcript of the hearing

What makes things even worse – and yes, sadly things do get worse than releasing pedophilic rapist into society – Judge Cecava used to be part of the Nebraska Commission for the Protection of Children! The Author wonders how much protection this woman provided for Nebraska’s children with her penchant for releasing dangerous sexual predators into society. She’s obviously more concerned with the safety and comfort of child molesters than she ever was with the safety of children.

Given the proven rate of recidivism among pedophiles and other sexual predators, Judge Kristine Cecava should not only be removed from the bench and disbarred, but held legally accountable as an accessory before the fact for any future crimes committed by Mr. Thompson.

On July 13th the Senate voted to increase the reward for the capture of Osama bin Laden. The measure, which doubled the reward offered from $25 million to $50 million, passed 97-1. Only Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY), voted against it.

The Author’s question is why did Sen. Bunning vote against this measure? Is the “Honorable” Jim Bunning a closet islamofascist? Is he a terrorist sympathizer? Is he Al Qaeda in America?

Admittedly doubling the reward for Osama bin Laden is probably useless, but voting to do so would have cost Sen. Bunning nothing. It seems that choosing not to vote against an enemy of America must have been based on some belief of the Senator’s. The Author would like to know what that belief is.

While it is a truism that a man without fear is a man without hope, it is a truth that a man without hope is a man without fear.

— jonolan

Hope is the belief or faith that an individual’s circumstances will improve, or at least not deteriorate further. This allows for the existence of the awareness of- and concern about consequence. A man who possesses some hope for his future is necessarily concerned about the potential negative impacts of his actions; he will not make a habit of engaging in potentially self damaging acts without at least some concern and trepidation. The lack of such hope removes the specter of negative consequence from a man’s mind and leaves him free to take such actions as he will without restraint.

Most men who lack hope are sunk in apathy; the lack of fear is concomitant with a lack of motivation, so that the individual tends to initiate few activities. These people are essentially passive, but may respond in unexpected and unrestrained manner to externally imposed stimuli. Some men however respond to the lack of hope with perilous vigor. They undertake courses of action that engender great change and greater danger to all those unlucky enough to surround them.

Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), spoke before a meeting of the Hampton University Ministers’ Conference at the school in Hampton, Va., on June 5, 2007. Sen. Obama, who is bidding to become the first black US president, took the stage after a succession of ministers repeatedly brought the crowd to its feet, singing, praying and swaying to music.

He declared that the Bush administration has done nothing to defuse a “quiet riot” among blacks that threatens to erupt just as riots in Los Angeles did 15 years ago. The Illinois senator said that with black people from New Orleans and the Gulf Coast still displaced 20 months after Hurricane Katrina, frustration and resentments are building explosively as they did before the 1992 riots.

Those quiet riots that take place every day are born from the same place as the fires and the destruction and the police decked out in riot gear and the deaths. They happen when a sense of disconnect settles in and hope dissipates. Despair takes hold and young people all across this country look at the way the world is and believe that things
are never going to get any better.

– Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill)

Sen. Obama’s criticism of Bush prompted ovation after ovation from the nearly 8,000 people gathered in Hampton University’s Convocation Center. He repeatedly referred to the riots that erupted in Los Angeles after a jury acquitted four police officers of assault charges in the 1991 beating of Rodney King, a black motorist, after a high speed chase. Fifty-five people died and 2,000 were injured as a result of the six days of riots in the city’s black neighborhoods.

The author thought nothing about this at first; it is normal for politicians and even more so for political candidates to speak boldly and in grand or grim terms when denouncing the behavior of their opposition. Repeatedly reinforcing the idea that the US is on the verge of Race Riots seemed a bit extreme and using the fact that during the 1992 riots a bullet pierced the abdomen of a pregnant woman, lodging in the elbow of her fetus and that later the baby was delivered by Cesarean section at which point the bullet was removed successfully as a metaphor for society’s problems was in extremely poor taste, but again such behavior is normal if not completely palatable on the part of any politician.

…in too many places across the country, we have not even bothered to take the bullet out.

– Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill)

The author’s opinion changed after Sen. Obama introduced his pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright of Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ as “Unashamedly Black and Apologetically Christian.” Research into Sen. Obama’s chosen place and community of worship uncovered some facts that are disturbing to the author.

Trinity United appears to be rather racially divisive in nature. They herald themselves as a Black Church and appear to be veryAfrocentric – not just Black, but actually self identifying as African as opposed to American or even African-American. Trinity United also indoctrinates its congregation in Dr. Manford Byrd’s The Black Value System (PDF).

This Black Value System is the crux of the Author’s concern. It seems blatantly separatist and uses a theological format to espouse specific insular and elitist attitudes. Certain passages especially made the author uncomfortable. Those sections are detailed below – but the reader should use the link above to read the full original text and make their own opinion:

• Commitment to the Black Community:
  The highest level of achievement for any Black person must be a contribution of substance to the strength and continuity of the Black of the Black Community.
  
• Commitment to the Black Family:
  The Black family circle must generate strength, stability, and love despite the uncertainty of externals, because these characteristics are required if the developing person is to withstand warping by our racist competitive society.
  
• Disavowal of the Pursuit of ‘Middleclassness’:
  Classic methodology on control of captives teaches that captors must keep the captive ignorant educationally, but trained sufficiently well to serve the system. Also, the captors must be able to identify the ‘talented tenth’ of those subjugated, especially those who show promise of providing the kind of leadership that might threaten the captor’s control.
  
• Pledge to Make the Fruits of All Developing and Acquired Skills
  Available to the Black community:
  • Pledge to Allocate Regularly, a Portion of Personal Resources for Strengthening and Supporting Black Institutions.
  • Pledge Allegiance to all Black Leadership Who Espouse and Embrace The Black Value System.
  • Personal Commitment to Embracement of the Black Value System – to Measure the Worth and Validity of All Activity in Terms of Positive Contributions to the General Welfare of the Black Community and the advancement of Black People towards Freedom.

Personally the Author finds the ethnocentrism of the tenants of this church with its “non-negotiable COMMITMENT TO AFRICA” rather repugnant. If an expressly – or even implicitly White congregation – published a similar manifesto, they would would be branded as the worst sort of racists and with good reason. Racism, whether it advocates active abuse or isolationism or separatism, taught through the vehicle of religion is shameful at the very least.

Sen. Obama has been part of this African congregation for many years. Now he wishes to be President of the United States. The Author is unsure – just that, nothing more – if it’s appropriate for there to be a “Black President” or an “African President of the US. Obama’s fervor in detailing the incidents in the LA Riots and his racial fearmongering take on a whole new and disturbing tenor when added to his religion and his candidacy.