' The course of the Empire destruction' by Thomas Cole.Take back America
Take back America
None dare call it treason
Monday, August 31, 2009
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Freedom comes from God not Government
How free Americans became pigs at a troughPosted: August 29, 20091:00 am Eastern© 2009
By: Patrice Lewis
I frequently receive e-mails from readers professing admiration for our (ahem) "simple" life. (For those unfamiliar with our lifestyle, we have a homestead farm, a home business, and we homeschool our kids.) What many people don't understand is the sheer hard work the "simple" life entails. Difficult? Undoubtedly. Worth it? Unquestionably.
We live this way because we're big believers in personal responsibility. We try to be responsible for every major aspect of our lives – our jobs, finances, health care, food and children's education. To us, it's simply what grown-ups do.
Apparently, that's what makes us different. It's not that we live rural or milk a cow – it's that we're independent.
Do you have any idea – any inkling at all – how much more streamlined our nation would be if everyone preferred independence and refused to allow others, especially the government, to be our mommies and daddies?
Thomas Sowell had a superb article this week on the issue of personal responsibility. "Whether the particular issue is education, economics or medical care," he wrote, "the preferred explanation tends to be an external explanation – that is, something outside the control of the individuals directly involved."
External. That means you've shoved the responsibility for your education, your income or your medical care onto someone else.
What will it take to restore common sense and rein in out-of-control government? Get Glenn Beck's latest book, inspired by Founding Father Thomas Paine
Our government now encourages the removal of responsibility for our actions. If you take away the consequences of bad behavior, the incentive to improve is also gone. If a woman is given money, housing, medical care and (worst of all) accolades for having a baby out of wedlock, why should she stop having babies out of wedlock? More babies equal more goodies and more praise for the "difficulties" she "overcomes."
Low-income people are seen as a problem for society to "solve" without considering that – get ready to rain insults upon my head – most people are low-income because of their personal choices. (Not all, but most.) Having kids out of wedlock, refusing to take advantage of educational opportunities, having bad habits, engaging in risky behavior, refusing to work … it all adds up to a life of poverty by choice.
My husband and I also chose to embark on a life of near-poverty. In our case, though, we made the decision to sacrifice financial gain and nine-to-five gridlock for living closer to the land and closer to home. We aren't looking for others – or the government – to alleviate our low-income status.
Sowell points out that "Americans can have the best medical care in the world without having the best health or longevity because so many people choose to live in ways that shorten their lives." [Emphasis added.] In other words, people refuse to take personal responsibility for the fact that they overeat, under-exercise, smoke, drink, do drugs, engage in risky behavior and otherwise act like idiots … and then complain they're not living to be a hundred years old. "Americans can end up ruining the best medical care in the world," says Sowell, "in the vain hope that a government takeover will give us better health." HellOOO??
Every time the government provides us with goodies – Social Security, education, medical care, welfare – it further enslaves us with golden shackles. The government wants us to be dependent on it because that's the only way it can increase its power and reach. But benefits come with expenses – and those expenses are forcibly funded by people at the point of a gun.
So quit being lazy, folks. If you want your children educated, stop asking the government to do it for you (they do a lousy job anyway). If you want medical care, stop demanding the government provide it (they'll screw it up, guaranteed). If you want a car, a job, a vacation … start looking at your own resources, ingenuity, creativity and personal support system to provide it. It's not my responsibility to give you these things; nor is it your responsibility to give them to me. Government largesse forcibly removes my money to give it to you and vice versa. "Force" is the operative word.
Every time the government passes legislation to provide a benefit, be wary. It means the incentive to provide that thing for yourself is proportionately reduced … and you become a slave to the government for that item. It's a vicious spiral. Lack of incentive creates a crisis for the government to solve, which it then solves by providing more goodies and taking away more incentives. When will it end? Not until we've become the U.S.S.A. instead of the U.S.A.
We're well on our way to that extra "S." Even the words of our founding documents (which were written to insure our freedom to be self-sufficient) have been bastardized and twisted to justify a nanny state. The "promotion" clause in the Preamble to our Constitution – which says the government will promote the general welfare – is probably the single most misused phrase. Promote does not mean "provide." "Promote" means the government will get the hell out of the way so people can provide these things for themselves.
In other words, if it's not laid out in the Constitution or Bill of Rights, it's not (or shouldn't be) the federal government's job to do it for you. Unfortunately, our government has convinced us that it's supposed to "do it" for you – and greedy, lazy people welcome it. What used to be free and independent citizens are now pigs at the trough, gobbling up every benefit the government can offer in exchange, apparently, for their immortal souls.
That's what this nation has become: Greedy pigs at the trough, not the free and independent citizens we were meant to be.
Our wise Founding Fathers, who get wiser every time I read their writing, were well familiar with the pitfalls of socialism. The American colonies had already tried and discarded that experiment. They knew the dangers of asking the government to provide everything because of the incentives (and freedoms) it took away. This isn't rocket science, people. It's just common sense.
Uh-oh … unless common sense isn't common anymore.
On second thought, we're in trouble.
We live this way because we're big believers in personal responsibility. We try to be responsible for every major aspect of our lives – our jobs, finances, health care, food and children's education. To us, it's simply what grown-ups do.
Apparently, that's what makes us different. It's not that we live rural or milk a cow – it's that we're independent.
Do you have any idea – any inkling at all – how much more streamlined our nation would be if everyone preferred independence and refused to allow others, especially the government, to be our mommies and daddies?
Thomas Sowell had a superb article this week on the issue of personal responsibility. "Whether the particular issue is education, economics or medical care," he wrote, "the preferred explanation tends to be an external explanation – that is, something outside the control of the individuals directly involved."
External. That means you've shoved the responsibility for your education, your income or your medical care onto someone else.
What will it take to restore common sense and rein in out-of-control government? Get Glenn Beck's latest book, inspired by Founding Father Thomas Paine
Our government now encourages the removal of responsibility for our actions. If you take away the consequences of bad behavior, the incentive to improve is also gone. If a woman is given money, housing, medical care and (worst of all) accolades for having a baby out of wedlock, why should she stop having babies out of wedlock? More babies equal more goodies and more praise for the "difficulties" she "overcomes."
Low-income people are seen as a problem for society to "solve" without considering that – get ready to rain insults upon my head – most people are low-income because of their personal choices. (Not all, but most.) Having kids out of wedlock, refusing to take advantage of educational opportunities, having bad habits, engaging in risky behavior, refusing to work … it all adds up to a life of poverty by choice.
My husband and I also chose to embark on a life of near-poverty. In our case, though, we made the decision to sacrifice financial gain and nine-to-five gridlock for living closer to the land and closer to home. We aren't looking for others – or the government – to alleviate our low-income status.
Sowell points out that "Americans can have the best medical care in the world without having the best health or longevity because so many people choose to live in ways that shorten their lives." [Emphasis added.] In other words, people refuse to take personal responsibility for the fact that they overeat, under-exercise, smoke, drink, do drugs, engage in risky behavior and otherwise act like idiots … and then complain they're not living to be a hundred years old. "Americans can end up ruining the best medical care in the world," says Sowell, "in the vain hope that a government takeover will give us better health." HellOOO??
Every time the government provides us with goodies – Social Security, education, medical care, welfare – it further enslaves us with golden shackles. The government wants us to be dependent on it because that's the only way it can increase its power and reach. But benefits come with expenses – and those expenses are forcibly funded by people at the point of a gun.
So quit being lazy, folks. If you want your children educated, stop asking the government to do it for you (they do a lousy job anyway). If you want medical care, stop demanding the government provide it (they'll screw it up, guaranteed). If you want a car, a job, a vacation … start looking at your own resources, ingenuity, creativity and personal support system to provide it. It's not my responsibility to give you these things; nor is it your responsibility to give them to me. Government largesse forcibly removes my money to give it to you and vice versa. "Force" is the operative word.
Every time the government passes legislation to provide a benefit, be wary. It means the incentive to provide that thing for yourself is proportionately reduced … and you become a slave to the government for that item. It's a vicious spiral. Lack of incentive creates a crisis for the government to solve, which it then solves by providing more goodies and taking away more incentives. When will it end? Not until we've become the U.S.S.A. instead of the U.S.A.
We're well on our way to that extra "S." Even the words of our founding documents (which were written to insure our freedom to be self-sufficient) have been bastardized and twisted to justify a nanny state. The "promotion" clause in the Preamble to our Constitution – which says the government will promote the general welfare – is probably the single most misused phrase. Promote does not mean "provide." "Promote" means the government will get the hell out of the way so people can provide these things for themselves.
In other words, if it's not laid out in the Constitution or Bill of Rights, it's not (or shouldn't be) the federal government's job to do it for you. Unfortunately, our government has convinced us that it's supposed to "do it" for you – and greedy, lazy people welcome it. What used to be free and independent citizens are now pigs at the trough, gobbling up every benefit the government can offer in exchange, apparently, for their immortal souls.
That's what this nation has become: Greedy pigs at the trough, not the free and independent citizens we were meant to be.
Our wise Founding Fathers, who get wiser every time I read their writing, were well familiar with the pitfalls of socialism. The American colonies had already tried and discarded that experiment. They knew the dangers of asking the government to provide everything because of the incentives (and freedoms) it took away. This isn't rocket science, people. It's just common sense.
Uh-oh … unless common sense isn't common anymore.
On second thought, we're in trouble.
Friday, August 28, 2009
Thursday, August 27, 2009
The Glory of the Roman Empire - Thomas Cole
Click on Image to enlarge
Thomas Cole (1801-1848)
See also: Hudson River School
VIEW IMAGE LIST
"Thomas Cole, born in Lancashire, England, was trained as an engraver of woodblocks used for printing calico. Because he did not have any formal education in art, his aesthetic ideas derived from poetry and literature, influences that were strongly to mark his paintings. The Cole family emigrated to America in 1818, but Thomas spent a year alone in Philadelphia before going on to Steubenville, Ohio, where his family had settled. He spent several years in Steubenville designing patterns and probably also engraving woodblocks for his father's wallpaper manufactory. He made his first attempts at landscape painting after learning the essentials of oil painting from a nebulous itinerant portraitist named Stein. In 1823, Cole followed his family to Pittsburgh and began to make detailed and systematic studies of that city's highly picturesque scenery, establishing a procedure of painstakingly detailed drawing that was to become the foundation of his landscape painting.
"During another stay in Philadelphia, from 1823 to 1824, Cole determined to become a painter and closely studied the landscapes of Thomas Doughty and Thomas Birch exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy, His technique improved greatly and his thinking on the special qualities of American scenery began to crystallize. Cole next moved to New York, where the series of works he produced following a sketching trip up the Hudson River in the summer of 1825 brought him to the attention of the city's most important artists and patrons. From then on, his future as a landscape painter was assured. By 1829, when he decided to go to Europe to study firsthand the great works of the past, he had become one of the founding members of the National Academy of Design and was generally recognized as America's leading landscape painter.
"In Europe, Cole's visits to the great galleries of London and Paris and, more important, his stay in Italy from 1831 to 1832, filled his imagination with high-minded themes and ideas. A true Romantic spirit, he sought to express in his painting the elevated moral tone and concern with lofty themes previously the province of history painting. When he returned to America, he found an enlightened patron in the New York merchant Luman Reed, who commissioned from him The Course of Empire (1836), a five-canvas extravaganza depicting the progress of a society from the savage state to an apogee of luxury and, finally, to dissolution and extinction. Most New York patrons, however, preferred recognizable American views, which Cole, his technique further improved by his European experience, was able to paint with increased authority. Although he frequently complained that he would prefer not to have to paint those so-called realistic views, Cole's best efforts in the landscape genre reveal the same high-principled, intellectual content that informs his religious and allegorical works. A second trip to Europe, in 1841-42, resulted in even greater advances in the mastery of his art: his use of color showed greater virtuosity and his representation of atmosphere, especially the sky, became almost palpably luminous.
"Cole's remarkable oeuvre, in addition to naturalistic American and European views, consisted of Gothic fantasies (The Departure and The Return, 1837), religious allegories (Tbe Voyage of Life, 1840), and classicized pastorals (Tbe Dream of Arcadia, 1838). He consistently recorded his thoughts in a formidable body of writing: detailed journals, many poems, and an influential essay on American scenery. Further, he encouraged and fostered the careers of Asher B. Durand and Frederic E. Church, two artists who would most ably continue the painting tradition he had established. Though Cole's unexpected death after a short illness sent a shock through the New York art world, the many achievements that were his legacy provided a firm ground for the continued growth of the school of American landscape."
See also: Hudson River School
VIEW IMAGE LIST
"Thomas Cole, born in Lancashire, England, was trained as an engraver of woodblocks used for printing calico. Because he did not have any formal education in art, his aesthetic ideas derived from poetry and literature, influences that were strongly to mark his paintings. The Cole family emigrated to America in 1818, but Thomas spent a year alone in Philadelphia before going on to Steubenville, Ohio, where his family had settled. He spent several years in Steubenville designing patterns and probably also engraving woodblocks for his father's wallpaper manufactory. He made his first attempts at landscape painting after learning the essentials of oil painting from a nebulous itinerant portraitist named Stein. In 1823, Cole followed his family to Pittsburgh and began to make detailed and systematic studies of that city's highly picturesque scenery, establishing a procedure of painstakingly detailed drawing that was to become the foundation of his landscape painting.
"During another stay in Philadelphia, from 1823 to 1824, Cole determined to become a painter and closely studied the landscapes of Thomas Doughty and Thomas Birch exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy, His technique improved greatly and his thinking on the special qualities of American scenery began to crystallize. Cole next moved to New York, where the series of works he produced following a sketching trip up the Hudson River in the summer of 1825 brought him to the attention of the city's most important artists and patrons. From then on, his future as a landscape painter was assured. By 1829, when he decided to go to Europe to study firsthand the great works of the past, he had become one of the founding members of the National Academy of Design and was generally recognized as America's leading landscape painter.
"In Europe, Cole's visits to the great galleries of London and Paris and, more important, his stay in Italy from 1831 to 1832, filled his imagination with high-minded themes and ideas. A true Romantic spirit, he sought to express in his painting the elevated moral tone and concern with lofty themes previously the province of history painting. When he returned to America, he found an enlightened patron in the New York merchant Luman Reed, who commissioned from him The Course of Empire (1836), a five-canvas extravaganza depicting the progress of a society from the savage state to an apogee of luxury and, finally, to dissolution and extinction. Most New York patrons, however, preferred recognizable American views, which Cole, his technique further improved by his European experience, was able to paint with increased authority. Although he frequently complained that he would prefer not to have to paint those so-called realistic views, Cole's best efforts in the landscape genre reveal the same high-principled, intellectual content that informs his religious and allegorical works. A second trip to Europe, in 1841-42, resulted in even greater advances in the mastery of his art: his use of color showed greater virtuosity and his representation of atmosphere, especially the sky, became almost palpably luminous.
"Cole's remarkable oeuvre, in addition to naturalistic American and European views, consisted of Gothic fantasies (The Departure and The Return, 1837), religious allegories (Tbe Voyage of Life, 1840), and classicized pastorals (Tbe Dream of Arcadia, 1838). He consistently recorded his thoughts in a formidable body of writing: detailed journals, many poems, and an influential essay on American scenery. Further, he encouraged and fostered the careers of Asher B. Durand and Frederic E. Church, two artists who would most ably continue the painting tradition he had established. Though Cole's unexpected death after a short illness sent a shock through the New York art world, the many achievements that were his legacy provided a firm ground for the continued growth of the school of American landscape."
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
The Apostle Paul's last letter
Paul preached everywhere he went. His last days were spent in a prison in Rome. But even in prison he continued to spread the word of God via letters to the Saints.
2 Timothy 3 (New American Standard Bible)
"Difficult Times Will Come" 1But realize this, that (A)in the last days difficult times will come.
2For men will be (B)lovers of self, (C)lovers of money, (D)boastful, (E)arrogant, (F)revilers, (G)disobedient to parents, (H)ungrateful, (I)unholy,
3(J)unloving, irreconcilable, (K)malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, (L)haters of good,
4(M)treacherous, (N)reckless, (O)conceited, (P)lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
5holding to a form of (Q)godliness, although they have (R)denied its power; (S)Avoid such men as these.
6For among them are those who (T)enter into households and captivate (U)weak women weighed down with sins, led on by (V)various impulses,
7always learning and never able to (W)come to the knowledge of the truth.
8Just as (X)Jannes and Jambres (Y)opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, (Z)men of depraved mind, rejected in regard to the faith.
9But they will not make further progress; for their (AA)folly will be obvious to all, just (AB)as Jannes's and Jambres's folly was also.
10Now you (AC)followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, (AD)love, perseverance,
11(AE)persecutions, and (AF)sufferings, such as happened to me at (AG)Antioch, at (AH)Iconium and at (AI)Lystra; what (AJ)persecutions I endured, and out of them all (AK)the Lord rescued me!
12Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus (AL)will be persecuted.
13But evil men and impostors (AM)will proceed from bad to worse, (AN)deceiving and being deceived.
14You, however, (AO)continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them,
15and that (AP)from childhood you have known (AQ)the sacred writings which are able to (AR)give you the wisdom that leads to (AS)salvation through faith which is in (AT)Christ Jesus.
16(AU)All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;
17so that (AV)the man of God may be adequate, (AW)equipped for every good work.
"Difficult Times Will Come" 1But realize this, that (A)in the last days difficult times will come.
2For men will be (B)lovers of self, (C)lovers of money, (D)boastful, (E)arrogant, (F)revilers, (G)disobedient to parents, (H)ungrateful, (I)unholy,
3(J)unloving, irreconcilable, (K)malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, (L)haters of good,
4(M)treacherous, (N)reckless, (O)conceited, (P)lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
5holding to a form of (Q)godliness, although they have (R)denied its power; (S)Avoid such men as these.
6For among them are those who (T)enter into households and captivate (U)weak women weighed down with sins, led on by (V)various impulses,
7always learning and never able to (W)come to the knowledge of the truth.
8Just as (X)Jannes and Jambres (Y)opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, (Z)men of depraved mind, rejected in regard to the faith.
9But they will not make further progress; for their (AA)folly will be obvious to all, just (AB)as Jannes's and Jambres's folly was also.
10Now you (AC)followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, (AD)love, perseverance,
11(AE)persecutions, and (AF)sufferings, such as happened to me at (AG)Antioch, at (AH)Iconium and at (AI)Lystra; what (AJ)persecutions I endured, and out of them all (AK)the Lord rescued me!
12Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus (AL)will be persecuted.
13But evil men and impostors (AM)will proceed from bad to worse, (AN)deceiving and being deceived.
14You, however, (AO)continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them,
15and that (AP)from childhood you have known (AQ)the sacred writings which are able to (AR)give you the wisdom that leads to (AS)salvation through faith which is in (AT)Christ Jesus.
16(AU)All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;
17so that (AV)the man of God may be adequate, (AW)equipped for every good work.
Saturday, August 1, 2009
The Third temple
64% of Israelis want Temple rebuiltEven half of secular Jews say time is right
Posted: August 01, 200912:40 am Eastern© 2009 WorldNetDaily
Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Nearly two-thirds of Israelis say the time is right to rebuild the Jerusalem Temple, according to a Ynet-Gesher survey.
Even half of non-religious Jews favor rebuilding the Holy Temple – an idea politically unthinkable in Israel just 10 or 20 years ago.
The poll was release on the saddest day on the Jewish calendar – the fasting day of Tisha B'Av, or the 9th day of the Hebrew month of Av. It commemorates a series of tragedies that befell the Jewish people all on the same day, most significantly the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem, which occurred about 656 years apart on the same day. Jewish tradition calls for the reading of Lamentations.
Aside from the destruction of the Jewish Temples, a remarkably large number of massive calamities befell the Jewish people on Tisha B'Av. Jewish rebellion leader Bar Kokhba's famous revolt against Rome failed in 135 B.C. Following the Roman siege of Jerusalem, the razing of Jerusalem occurred the next year. The first crusade pogrom against Jews in Palestine began on that date in A.D. 1096.
The Jews were expelled from Britain on Tisha B'Av in 1290 and were expelled from Spain that same day in 1492. The Warsaw Ghetto uprising was crushed by the Nazis on that day in May 1943, resulting in the slaughter of about 50,000 Jews.
Nationalists in Israel also mourn the removal of Jews from the Gaza Strip in 2005, which began the day after Tisha B'av.
The book of Lamentations, written in poetic verse, mourns the desolations brought on Jerusalem and the Holy Land by the Chaldeans.
The rebuilding of the Temple is an extremely controversial idea in Israel because currently Jewish access to the Temple Mount is restricted by the Muslim Waqf, which was granted administrative authority over the Jews' holiest sites, which are occupied by Muslim shrines.
Some Jewish leaders believe access to Jews should be restricted until the Third Temple is built.
Israel recaptured the Temple Mount during the 1967 Six Day War. Currently under Israeli control, Jews and Christians are barred from praying on the Mount.
The Temple Mount was opened to the general public until September 2000, when the Palestinians started their intifada by throwing stones at Jewish worshippers after then-candidate for prime minister Ariel Sharon visited the area.
Following the onset of violence, the new Sharon government closed the Mount to non-Muslims, using checkpoints to control all pedestrian traffic for fear of further clashes with the Palestinians.
The Temple Mount was reopened to non-Muslims in August 2003. It remains open, but only Sundays through Thursdays, 7:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m., and not on any Christian, Jewish or Muslim holidays or other days considered "sensitive" by the Waqf.
During "open" days, Jews and Christian are allowed to ascend the Mount, usually through organized tours and only if they conform first to a strict set of guidelines, which includes demands that they not pray or bring any "holy objects" to the site. Visitors are banned from entering any of the mosques without direct Waqf permission. Rules are enforced by Waqf agents, who watch tours closely and alert nearby Israeli police to any breaking of their guidelines.
During Tendler's visit to the mount, he can be heard in the video complaining about the Israeli rules.
"I'm little bit annoyed at the instructions that we get," he quipped, "as if we were aliens and have to be told how to behave on [the Temple Mount]."
King Solomon built the First Temple in the 10th century B.C. The Babylonians destroyed it in 586 B.C. The Jews built the Second Temple in 515 B.C. after Jerusalem was freed from Babylonian captivity. The Romans destroyed the Second Temple in A.D. 70.
The First Temple stood for about 400 years, the second for almost 600. Both Temples served as the center of religious worship for the whole Jewish nation. All Jewish holidays centered on worship at the Temple – the central location for the offering of sacrifices and the main gathering place for the Jewish people.
According to the Talmud, God created the world from the foundation stone of the Temple Mount.
The site is believed to be the biblical Mount Moriah, where Abraham fulfilled God's test of faith by demonstrating his willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac.
Jewish tradition also holds that Mashiach – literally "the anointed one," the Jewish Messiah – will come and rebuild the third and final temple on the Mount in Jerusalem and bring redemption to the entire world.
The Western Wall, called the Kotel in Hebrew, is the one part of the Temple Mount that survived the Roman destruction of the Second Temple and stands to this day in Jerusalem.
The Temple Mount has remained a focal point for Jewish services for thousands of years. Prayers for a return to Jerusalem and the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple have been uttered three times daily by religious Jews since the destruction of the Second Temple. Throughout all the centuries of Jewish exile from their land, thorough documentation shows the Jews never gave up their hope of returning to Jerusalem and reestablishing their Temple. To this day Jews worldwide pray facing the Western Wall, while Muslims turn their backs away from the Temple Mount and pray toward Mecca.
Muslims constructed the al-Aqsa Mosque around A.D. 709 to serve as a place of worship near a famous shrine, the gleaming Dome of the Rock, built by an Islamic caliph, or supreme ruler.
About 100 years ago, Muslims began to associate al‐-Aqsa in Jerusalem with the place Muhammad ascended to heaven. Islamic tradition states Muhammad took a journey in a single night from "a sacred mosque" – believed to be in Mecca in southern Saudi Arabia – to "the farthest mosque," and from a rock there ascended to heaven to receive revelations from Allah that became part of the Quran.
While Palestinians and many Muslim countries claim exclusivity over the Mount, and while their leaders strenuously deny the Jewish historic connection to the site, things weren't always this way. In fact, historically, Muslims never claimed the al-Aqsa Mosque as their "third holiest site" and always recognized the existence of the Jewish Temples.
According to an Israeli attorney, Shmuel Berkovits, Islamic tradition mostly disregarded Jerusalem. He points out in his book "How Dreadful is this Place!" that Muhammad was said to loathe Jerusalem and what it stood for to the other monotheistic faiths.
Muhammad also made a point of eliminating pagan sites of worship and sanctifying only one place – the Kaaba in Mecca – to signify the unity of Allah. As late as the 14th century, Islamic scholar Taqi al-Din Ibn Taymiyya, whose writings later influenced the strict Wahhabi movement in Arabia, ruled that sacred Islamic sites exist only on the Arabian Peninsula, and that "in Jerusalem, there is not a place one calls sacred, and the same holds true for the tombs of Hebron."
Not until the late 19th century – when Jews started immigrating to Palestine – did Muslim scholars claim that Muhammad tied his horse to the Western Wall and associate Muhammad's purported night journey with the Temple Mount.
Even half of non-religious Jews favor rebuilding the Holy Temple – an idea politically unthinkable in Israel just 10 or 20 years ago.
The poll was release on the saddest day on the Jewish calendar – the fasting day of Tisha B'Av, or the 9th day of the Hebrew month of Av. It commemorates a series of tragedies that befell the Jewish people all on the same day, most significantly the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem, which occurred about 656 years apart on the same day. Jewish tradition calls for the reading of Lamentations.
Aside from the destruction of the Jewish Temples, a remarkably large number of massive calamities befell the Jewish people on Tisha B'Av. Jewish rebellion leader Bar Kokhba's famous revolt against Rome failed in 135 B.C. Following the Roman siege of Jerusalem, the razing of Jerusalem occurred the next year. The first crusade pogrom against Jews in Palestine began on that date in A.D. 1096.
The Jews were expelled from Britain on Tisha B'Av in 1290 and were expelled from Spain that same day in 1492. The Warsaw Ghetto uprising was crushed by the Nazis on that day in May 1943, resulting in the slaughter of about 50,000 Jews.
Nationalists in Israel also mourn the removal of Jews from the Gaza Strip in 2005, which began the day after Tisha B'av.
The book of Lamentations, written in poetic verse, mourns the desolations brought on Jerusalem and the Holy Land by the Chaldeans.
The rebuilding of the Temple is an extremely controversial idea in Israel because currently Jewish access to the Temple Mount is restricted by the Muslim Waqf, which was granted administrative authority over the Jews' holiest sites, which are occupied by Muslim shrines.
Some Jewish leaders believe access to Jews should be restricted until the Third Temple is built.
Israel recaptured the Temple Mount during the 1967 Six Day War. Currently under Israeli control, Jews and Christians are barred from praying on the Mount.
The Temple Mount was opened to the general public until September 2000, when the Palestinians started their intifada by throwing stones at Jewish worshippers after then-candidate for prime minister Ariel Sharon visited the area.
Following the onset of violence, the new Sharon government closed the Mount to non-Muslims, using checkpoints to control all pedestrian traffic for fear of further clashes with the Palestinians.
The Temple Mount was reopened to non-Muslims in August 2003. It remains open, but only Sundays through Thursdays, 7:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m., and not on any Christian, Jewish or Muslim holidays or other days considered "sensitive" by the Waqf.
During "open" days, Jews and Christian are allowed to ascend the Mount, usually through organized tours and only if they conform first to a strict set of guidelines, which includes demands that they not pray or bring any "holy objects" to the site. Visitors are banned from entering any of the mosques without direct Waqf permission. Rules are enforced by Waqf agents, who watch tours closely and alert nearby Israeli police to any breaking of their guidelines.
During Tendler's visit to the mount, he can be heard in the video complaining about the Israeli rules.
"I'm little bit annoyed at the instructions that we get," he quipped, "as if we were aliens and have to be told how to behave on [the Temple Mount]."
King Solomon built the First Temple in the 10th century B.C. The Babylonians destroyed it in 586 B.C. The Jews built the Second Temple in 515 B.C. after Jerusalem was freed from Babylonian captivity. The Romans destroyed the Second Temple in A.D. 70.
The First Temple stood for about 400 years, the second for almost 600. Both Temples served as the center of religious worship for the whole Jewish nation. All Jewish holidays centered on worship at the Temple – the central location for the offering of sacrifices and the main gathering place for the Jewish people.
According to the Talmud, God created the world from the foundation stone of the Temple Mount.
The site is believed to be the biblical Mount Moriah, where Abraham fulfilled God's test of faith by demonstrating his willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac.
Jewish tradition also holds that Mashiach – literally "the anointed one," the Jewish Messiah – will come and rebuild the third and final temple on the Mount in Jerusalem and bring redemption to the entire world.
The Western Wall, called the Kotel in Hebrew, is the one part of the Temple Mount that survived the Roman destruction of the Second Temple and stands to this day in Jerusalem.
The Temple Mount has remained a focal point for Jewish services for thousands of years. Prayers for a return to Jerusalem and the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple have been uttered three times daily by religious Jews since the destruction of the Second Temple. Throughout all the centuries of Jewish exile from their land, thorough documentation shows the Jews never gave up their hope of returning to Jerusalem and reestablishing their Temple. To this day Jews worldwide pray facing the Western Wall, while Muslims turn their backs away from the Temple Mount and pray toward Mecca.
Muslims constructed the al-Aqsa Mosque around A.D. 709 to serve as a place of worship near a famous shrine, the gleaming Dome of the Rock, built by an Islamic caliph, or supreme ruler.
About 100 years ago, Muslims began to associate al‐-Aqsa in Jerusalem with the place Muhammad ascended to heaven. Islamic tradition states Muhammad took a journey in a single night from "a sacred mosque" – believed to be in Mecca in southern Saudi Arabia – to "the farthest mosque," and from a rock there ascended to heaven to receive revelations from Allah that became part of the Quran.
While Palestinians and many Muslim countries claim exclusivity over the Mount, and while their leaders strenuously deny the Jewish historic connection to the site, things weren't always this way. In fact, historically, Muslims never claimed the al-Aqsa Mosque as their "third holiest site" and always recognized the existence of the Jewish Temples.
According to an Israeli attorney, Shmuel Berkovits, Islamic tradition mostly disregarded Jerusalem. He points out in his book "How Dreadful is this Place!" that Muhammad was said to loathe Jerusalem and what it stood for to the other monotheistic faiths.
Muhammad also made a point of eliminating pagan sites of worship and sanctifying only one place – the Kaaba in Mecca – to signify the unity of Allah. As late as the 14th century, Islamic scholar Taqi al-Din Ibn Taymiyya, whose writings later influenced the strict Wahhabi movement in Arabia, ruled that sacred Islamic sites exist only on the Arabian Peninsula, and that "in Jerusalem, there is not a place one calls sacred, and the same holds true for the tombs of Hebron."
Not until the late 19th century – when Jews started immigrating to Palestine – did Muslim scholars claim that Muhammad tied his horse to the Western Wall and associate Muhammad's purported night journey with the Temple Mount.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Trying to prove God doesn't exist
CERN, a 17 mile long super collider located on the border of France and Switzerland. The latest in a series of projects covering the last 50 years and costing over 10 trillion dollars so far. This super collider is a consortium of European and Asian countries. Whats it all about? They are trying to prove how life began. Just like the space program, in which all the money is being spent in hope of finding life on another planet so they can say that thru a natural process life began. Then they can say, " You see, the Bible is wrong. Life is everywhere and it's a natural process. It has nothing to do with God." They are now in the process of starting it up. So far, even though they claim freedom of information about the project, things have been pretty quite. I guess God still has them stumped.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Democrats have always taken care of us
http://thomasgalvin.blogspot.com/2005/09/forgotten-national-tragedy-bill.htmlUPDATED: FORGOTTEN NATIONAL TRAGEDY: BILL CLINTON AND 738 DEATHS IN THE "CHICAGO HEAT WAVE" OF 1995. Hillary Clinton has called for a "Katrina Commission." How come she never called for a commission to investigate why at least 738 Americans died in a 1995 heat wave when her husband was president? The "Chicago heat wave" killed more people than Hurricane Andrew, TWA Flight 800, the Oklahoma City bombing and the Northridge, CA earthquake, combined. Victims of the Chicago Heave Wave were buried in mass graves. (picture, Slate) Hillary Clinton made sure she did the rounds of the morning network chat shows on Wednesday. She told ABC, CBS and NBC that "FEMA worked very well during the Clinton administration." And, criticizing FEMA director Michael Brown she said, "I would never have appointed such a person", a statement that sounds to me like it was the first salvo in the 2008 presidential election. Curiously, Hillary Clinton did not point out what her husband and administration did to prevent widespread suffering as a result of the massive heat wave that struck the Midwest in 1995 and was particularly devastating to the city of Chicago. For one terrible week in July 1995, daytime temperatures in Chicago soared above 100 degrees; even at night the mercury barely dipped below that. Public-health officials knew the prolonged heat would be deadly, especially for frail seniors, but they were stunned by the final death toll. Altogether, the heat wave killed more than 700 Chicagoans, more than double the number who died in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. As New York University sociologist Eric Klinenberg writes in Heat Wave, his remarkable book about the tragedy, "The proportional death toll ... in Chicago has no equal in the record of U.S. heat disasters." -The American Prospect Online Maybe Hillary feels that her husband is above blame because local and state officials are responsible for taking care of people during a widespread natural disaster. During July 12-16, 1995, Chicago experienced unusually high maximum daily temperatures, ranging from 93 F to 104 F (33.9C to 40.0C). On July 13, the heat index* peaked at 119 F (48.3C) -- a record high for the city. -CDC Report However, a five day period of an unfolding natural disaster was not enough to merit any federal attention or direct help from President Clinton. Perhaps it is necessary for the federal government to step in the aftermath of a hurricane but not a widespread heat wave? The [NOAA] report also recommends that emergency response organizations at the federal, state and local levels recognize severe heat waves as potential natural disasters, and that areas at risk should be prompted to develop emergency response plans for severe heat waves. - NOAA press release Okay, so there was a call for better federal help in the future when it comes to helping local authorities deal with heat waves. After all, it should very easy for the federal government, "the cavalry", to come in because there are no physical limitations in entering a stricken city. The city of Chicago was not flooded, buildings were not destroyed, bridges were not taken out, and trees were not blocking roads. How hard was it for Bill Clinton to make sure that FEMA was rushed to Chicago to prevent thousands of poor and urban residents from dying of heat stroke? That's a question that could have been answered by a "Heat Wave Commission." It was no secret that Chicago was suffering. Eric Klinenberg wrote the definitive book on the disaster, "Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago." This is what he had to say in an interview with the University of Chicago Press: On the first day of the heat wave, Thursday, July 13, the temperature hit 106 degrees, and the heat index - a combination of heat and humidity that measures the temperature a typical person would feel - rose above 120. For a week, the heat persisted, running between the 90s and low 100s... [...] The heat made the city's roads buckle. Train rails warped, causing long commuter and freight delays. City workers watered bridges to prevent them from locking when the plates expanded. Children riding in school buses became so dehydrated and nauseous that they had to be hosed down by the Fire Department. Hundreds of young people were hospitalized with heat-related illnesses. But the elderly, and especially the elderly who lived alone, were most vulnerable to the heat wave. Where was the federal government, Hillary? After about forty-eight hours of continuous exposure to heat, the body's defenses begin to fail. So by Friday, July 14, thousands of Chicagoans had developed severe heat-related illnesses. Paramedics couldn't keep up with emergency calls, and city hospitals were overwhelmed. Twenty-three hospitals - most on the South and Southwest Sides - went on bypass status, closing the doors of their emergency rooms to new patients. Some ambulance crews drove around the city for miles looking for an open bed. Forty-eight hours?! Where was your husband, Hillary? Hundreds of victims never made it to a hospital. The most overcrowded place in the city was the Cook County Medical Examiners Office, where police transported hundreds of bodies for autopsies. The morgue typically receives about 17 bodies a day and has a total of 222 bays. By Saturday - just three days into the heat wave - its capacity was exceeded by hundreds, and the county had to bring in a fleet of refrigerated trucks to store the bodies. Police officers had to wait as long as three hours for a worker to receive the body. It was gruesome and incredible for this to be happening in the middle of a modern American city. In reaction to Katrina, the media asked, "how could this happen in an American city?" Curiously, none of them were so angered and full of shock and awe in 1995. By the way, Hillary, where was the cavalry? The media was notified but the heat wave warning was met with a yawn: Macko said that he was surprised that the ERRI warnings received very little attention from the national press, and that ERRI didn't receive any inquiries about the heat emergency, or the Institute's recommendations, until late Saturday. By then, he said that the heat emergency had turned into a "full blown disaster". -Emergency.com Klinenberg describes how the government of Chicago mayor Richard Daley was caught flat-footed by the growing crisis. Sound familiar? Yet there is no question that the city government did not do everything it could to prevent the catastrophe. The city failed to implement its own heat emergency plan, waiting until Saturday, July 15, after hundreds of bodies had already been delivered to the county morgue, to declare an official emergency. -University of Chicago Press Curiously, the role of the federal government never came up in the University of Chicago Press's interview with Mr. Klinenberg. FEMA and Bill Clinton were never mentioned in the interview.
Sixty some people were never claimed. They were buried in a mass grave. How about the Community Organizer, Obama? Where was he in July 1995? I guess he wasn't in Chicago. Surely he could have prevented this. We know the streets were not flooded; you didn't need a boat or a helo to reach the people. As you can see, massive death toll under Democrat administrations are never question. Most of the deaths were African-Americans. People too poor to afford a fan, and too afraid to leave their homes for fear of the violence outside their front doors, literally baked to death inside. Some were too afraid to even open a window. Others refused to accept air conditioning units given out of charity because they couldn't afford the electricity bill. Historically, Democrat have caused most of the deaths of African-Americans in this Nation.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Community Organizers are card carrying communist
Socialist America sinkingWND Posted: July 16, 20098:41 pm Eastern© 2009
After half a century of fighting encroachments upon freedom in America, journalist Garet Garrett published "The People's Pottage." A year later, in 1954, he died. "The People's Pottage" opens thus:
"There are those who still think they are holding the pass against a revolution that may be coming up the road. But they are gazing in the wrong direction. The revolution is behind them. It went by in the Night of Depression, singing songs to freedom."
Garrett wrote of a revolution within the form. While outwardly America appeared the same, a revolution within had taken place that was now irreversible. One need only glance at where we were before the New Deal, where we are and where we are headed to see how far we are off the course the Founding Fathers set for our republic.
Taxes drove the American Revolution, for we were a taxaphobic, liberty-loving people. That government is best that governs least is an Americanism. When "Silent Cal" Coolidge went home in 1929, the U.S. government was spending 3 percent of gross domestic product.
And today? Obama's first budget will consume 28 percent of the entire GDP; state and local governments another 15 percent. While there is some overlap, in 2009, government will consume 40 percent of GDP, approaching the peak of World War II.
The deficit for 2009 is $1.8 trillion, 13 percent of the whole economy. Obama is pushing a cap-and-trade bill to cut carbon emissions that will impose huge costs on energy production, spike consumer prices and drive production offshore to China, which is opting out of Kyoto II. The Chinese are not fools.
Obama plans to repeal the Bush tax cuts and take the income tax rate to near 40 percent. Combined state and local income tax rates can run to 10 percent. For the self-employed, payroll taxes add up to 15.2 percent on the first $106,800 for all wages of all workers. Medicare takes 2.9 percent of all wages above that. Then there are the state sales taxes that can run to 8 percent, property taxes, gas taxes, excise taxes and "sin taxes" on booze, cigarettes and, soon, hot dogs and soft drinks.
Comes now national health insurance from Nancy Pelosi's House. A surtax that runs to 5.4 percent of all earnings of the top 1 percent of Americans, who already pay 40 percent of all federal income taxes, has been sent to the Senate. Included also is an 8 percent tax on the entire payroll of small businesses that fail to provide health insurance for employees.
Other ideas on the table include taxing the health benefits that businesses provide their employees.
The D.C.-based Tax Foundation says New Yorkers could face a combined income tax rate of near 60 percent.
In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson called George III a tyrant for having "erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people and eat out their substance."
What did George III do with his Stamp Act, Townshend Acts or tea tax to compare with what is being done to this generation of Americans by their own government?
While the hardest-working and most productive are bled, a third of all wage-earners pay no U.S. income tax, and Obama plans to free almost half of all wage-earners of all income taxes. Yet, tens of millions get Medicaid, rent supplements, free education, food stamps, welfare and an annual check from Uncle Sam called an Earned Income Tax Credit, though they never paid a nickel in income taxes.
Oh, yes. Obama also promises everybody a college education.
Coming to America to feast on this cornucopia of freebies is the world. One million to 2 million immigrants, legal and illegal, arrive every year. They come with fewer skills and less education than Americans, and consume more tax dollars than they contribute by three to one.
Wise Latina women have more babies north of the border than they do in Mexico and twice as many here as American women.
As almost all immigrants are now Third World people of color, they qualify for ethnic preferences in hiring and promotions and admissions to college over the children of Americans.
All of this would have astounded and appalled the Founding Fathers, who after all, created America – as they declared loud and clear in the Constitution – "for ourselves and our posterity."
China saves, invests and grows at 8 percent. America, awash in debt, has a shrinking economy, a huge trade deficit, a gutted industrial base, an unemployment rate surging toward 10 percent and a money supply that's swollen to double its size in a year. The 20th century may have been the American Century. The 21st shows another pattern.
"The United States is declining as a nation and a world power with mostly sighs and shrugs to mark this seismic event," writes Les Gelb, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, in CFR's Foreign Affairs magazine. "Astonishingly, some people do not appear to realize that the situation is all that serious."
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Congressional Politburo
During the Clinton regime, the Senate voted in a known communist, Ruth Darth Vader Ginsberg by a vote of 98 to 3. If our Government back then was that much a Socialist in hiding Gov. then you can be sure that today, Sotomayer; another known Socialist is a shoe in.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Hot enough for you today?
A reprint. A Diary Review: Moving South, 2007 May 30, 2007 :Just moved to Atlanta, Georgia from Chicago, Illinois. Now, this is a city that knows how to live! Beautiful sunny days and warm balmy evenings. What a place! I watched the sunset from a park while lying on a blanket. It was beautiful. I've finally found my home. I love it here.June 14, 2007 :Really heating up. Got to 95 degrees today. Not a problem. Live in an air-conditioned home, drive an air-conditioned car. What a pleasure to see the sun everyday like this. I'm turning into a sun worshipper.June 30, 2007:Had the backyard landscaped with western plants today.Lots of cactus and rocks. The yard is a breeze to maintain! No more mowing the lawn for me. Another scorcher today, but I love living in Atlanta.July 10, 2007 :The temperature hasn't been below 97 degrees all week.How do people get used to this kind of heat? At least it's kind of windy, but getting used to the heat and humidity is taking longer that I expected.July 15, 2007:Fell asleep by the pool.(Got 3rd degree burns over 60% of my body.) Missed 3 days of work. What a dumb thing to do.I learned my lesson, though.Got to respect the ol' sun in a climate like this.July 20, 2007:Morgan (our cat) snuck into the car before I left this morning.By the time I got to the hot car for lunch, Morgan had died and swollen up to the size of a shopping bag and stank up the $2,000 leather upholstery.I told the kids that she ran away. The car now smells like Kibbles and shits.I learned my lesson, though. No more cats in this heat.July 25, 2007:The wind sucks.It feels like a giant freaking blow dryer!And it's hot as hell!The home air-conditioner is on the fritz,and the AC repairman charged $200 just to drive by and tell me he needed to order the parts.July 30, 2007:Been sleeping outside by the pool for 3 nights now. The monthly house payment is $1,500 and I can't even go inside. Why did I ever come here?August 4, 2007:It's 105 degrees...again! Finally got the air-conditioner fixed todayfor a cost of $900.The temperature gets down to 78 degrees, but this freaking humidity makes the house feel like it's about 95 degrees.I hate this stupid city.August 8, 2007:If another wise ass person cracks, "Hot enough for you today?" I'm going to choke him to death. Damn heat; 107 today.By the time I get to work, the radiator is boiling over, my clothes are soaking wet, and I smell like baked cat!August 9, 2007:Tried to run some errands after work.Wore shorts and sat on the black leather seats in the ol' car.I thought my rear end was on fire.I lost two layers of flesh and all the hair on the back of my legs and rear.Now my car smells like burnt hair, fried ass, and baked cat.August 10, 2007:The weather report might as well be a damn recording. Hot and sunny. Hot and sunny. Hot and sunny. It's been too hot to do anything for two damn months,and the weatherman says it might really warm up next week.Doesn't it ever rain in this damn desert?Water rationing will be next, so I might as well watch $1,700 worth of cactus just dry up and blow into the damn pool. Not even cactus can live in this damn heat.August 14, 2007:Welcome to HELL!!! The temperature got to 111 degrees today. Forgot to crack the window and blew the windshield out of the car.The installer came to fix it and said, "Hot enough for you today?"My wife had to spend the $1,500 house payment to bail me out of jail. Freaking South. What kind of a sick demented idiot would want to live here?
Friday, July 3, 2009
Global warming
Al Gore shows more evidence of global warming. The first picture was taken in 2004, the second in 2009. What was the opinion of the penguins? Well, they found out that it was a lot easier to raise babies at 34 degrees than at 70 below zero.Friday, June 26, 2009
Where's the Birth Certificate
Obama, who are you and where were you born? Inquiring minds want to know.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
The Shuttle's Replacement
That's right, it's back to the Capsule for re-entry. This time the re-entry speed will be greater and landings will be made on land. The reason; I'd say the deciding factor is cost.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Words of wisdom
"I think the reason General Motors is bankrupt is because in all of their years of manufacturing cars, they have never been able to successfully design a cup holder that holds a drink in place when you turn a corner.""The best way to wean ourselves off of imported oil is to use more of our own, which we have plenty, and not rely on this pie-in-the-sky 'alternative energy' scam. Drill domestically."
"The man who killed the pregnant woman in Puerto Rico should be given five minutes to accept Jesus into his life and then be executed."
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools
Who's your daddy? Evolution over Creation, I just don't see it. Talking about faith, which is easier to believe? Romans 1:22
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Horseshoe Canyon 1279 AD
Geologic changes to the planet happens faster than you think. 1279 AD - 2009 AD
Friday, June 5, 2009
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Governments think they own everything
Judge: U.S. Deep-Sea Explorers Must Return Shipwreck Treasure to SpainThursday, June 04, 2009
TAMPA, Fla. — A federal judge says deep-sea explorers based in Florida should give 17 tons of shipwreck treasure back to Spain.
Odyssey Marine Exploration said Thursday it will fight a federal magistrate judge's recommendation that the estimated $500 million in silver coins and other 19th century artifacts go to the Spanish government.
Another federal judge will consider the recommendation and decide.
Tampa-based Odyssey has been locked in a court battle with Spain over the ownership of the treasure since announcing the find in May 2007.
Federal magistrate judge Mark Pizzo wrote in an order Wednesday that Spain is the rightful owner of the treasure, which was being carried by a Spanish navy galleon when it sank southwest of Portugal in 1804.
After a tense standoff, the Odyssey Explorer was led to port by a Spanish government vessel.
Back in May, Odyssey Marine Exploration counted the reasons why its latest treasure — an estimated $500 million in silver in a shipwreck — was theirs for the keeping, since the coins recovered “beyond the territorial waters or legal jurisdiction of any country.”
This week, we learned that Spain strongly disagrees. An incensed senior official summed it up to Agence France-Press:
Spanish Culture Minister Antonio Molina said Florida-based Odyssey Marine Exploration was made up of “modern pirates” and he warned that “against pirates, there have always been navies, laws and the state of law.”
“We will pursue them wherever they are. It is a question of national pride and patriotism,” he told reporters, adding the Nasdaq-listed firm “will not escape unharmed for what it has done”.
And those words were preceded with military muscle. On its way out of the Straits of Gibraltar, Odyssey’s Explorer found itself eye-to-eye with a Spanish warship backed by other vessels. The standoff lasted 4 hours before Captain Sterling Vorus agreed to head to port under the “threat of deadly force,” he told Britain’s Telegraph. He was briefly detained.
The episode has left Greg Stemm, Odyssey’s chief executive, expressing confusion with Spain’s intentions. “We’re not sure what the inspection of the Explorer is meant to accomplish,” he said, according to The Tampa Tribune. “We had again invited Spanish officials to inspect the Explorer in advance of our departure and they chose not to take us up on it.”
The coins themselves were brought to “a secure, undisclosed location” before the May announcement and neither side disputes that they are of Spanish origin. Indeed, Odyssey disclosed that fact “when it completed customs forms in Gibraltar on April 10 and May 16,” El Pais reported.
Mr. Stemm refused to respond to reports cited by The Associated Press saying that the captain delayed the search so that “high-tech equipment” could be removed. But two keys to establishing Spain’s claim remain in his grip.
The origin of the shipwreck remains a mystery, the company says, leaving open the possibility that another nation owned the coins. And no one else can investigate further, since Odyssey refuses to reveal anything about the site except that it is “code-named ‘Black Swan’ in an undisclosed location in the Atlantic Ocean.”
And Odyssey is showing no signs of fessing up. Until then, Spanish politicians will be left howling at a secretive American company holding a treasure that has “entered into Spanish lore as the world’s greatest sunken booty.”
Back in May, Odyssey Marine Exploration counted the reasons why its latest treasure — an estimated $500 million in silver in a shipwreck — was theirs for the keeping, since the coins recovered “beyond the territorial waters or legal jurisdiction of any country.”
This week, we learned that Spain strongly disagrees. An incensed senior official summed it up to Agence France-Press:
Spanish Culture Minister Antonio Molina said Florida-based Odyssey Marine Exploration was made up of “modern pirates” and he warned that “against pirates, there have always been navies, laws and the state of law.”
“We will pursue them wherever they are. It is a question of national pride and patriotism,” he told reporters, adding the Nasdaq-listed firm “will not escape unharmed for what it has done”.
And those words were preceded with military muscle. On its way out of the Straits of Gibraltar, Odyssey’s Explorer found itself eye-to-eye with a Spanish warship backed by other vessels. The standoff lasted 4 hours before Captain Sterling Vorus agreed to head to port under the “threat of deadly force,” he told Britain’s Telegraph. He was briefly detained.
The episode has left Greg Stemm, Odyssey’s chief executive, expressing confusion with Spain’s intentions. “We’re not sure what the inspection of the Explorer is meant to accomplish,” he said, according to The Tampa Tribune. “We had again invited Spanish officials to inspect the Explorer in advance of our departure and they chose not to take us up on it.”
The coins themselves were brought to “a secure, undisclosed location” before the May announcement and neither side disputes that they are of Spanish origin. Indeed, Odyssey disclosed that fact “when it completed customs forms in Gibraltar on April 10 and May 16,” El Pais reported.
Mr. Stemm refused to respond to reports cited by The Associated Press saying that the captain delayed the search so that “high-tech equipment” could be removed. But two keys to establishing Spain’s claim remain in his grip.
The origin of the shipwreck remains a mystery, the company says, leaving open the possibility that another nation owned the coins. And no one else can investigate further, since Odyssey refuses to reveal anything about the site except that it is “code-named ‘Black Swan’ in an undisclosed location in the Atlantic Ocean.”
And Odyssey is showing no signs of fessing up. Until then, Spanish politicians will be left howling at a secretive American company holding a treasure that has “entered into Spanish lore as the world’s greatest sunken booty.”
Governments don't go after treasures until they have been found by private individuals. Treasure hunters invested the time and money to find treasures and should have the right to keep all of it.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Go Green - Oh say can you see----forever
One day soon, socialist liberals in America will change the dating system of how we keep time. The plan calls for beginning on Jan. 1, 2012 the date will read 2012 AC. Any date before 2012, like 2004 or 1978 will be 2004 BCE or 1978 BCE. What will cause this historical event? It will be the results of their 50 year effort to rid the world of cars. AC denotes 'After Cars'; BCE is 'Before Cars Eliminated'. Rising gas prices, no drilling, environmental rules, stupid laws and regulations have seceded in the elimination of the automobile. From now on citizens will walk and Government officials will fly to where ever they need to go. The National Anthem, "Oh say can you see----" wording will be change to reflect the new vision for America, an unlimited vision at that.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
End of the gas guzzlers
U. S. auto makers answer to Obama's mandate for a car that gets 40 miles per gallon.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Monday, May 18, 2009
Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness
America as the Founding Fathers envision does not exist anymore. It's freedom and greatness has been buried in Socialism. The symbol of America searches again for the "Home of the Brave and the Land of the Free".
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Sick Cat
My cat wasn't feeling good so I took her to the vet. The first thing he did was give her a cat scan.
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