What happened at Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya? (The first coherent narrative I have seen . . .courtesy UK Telegraph )

I confess, I have not been obsessively following events in Kenya, no more than the bombings and attacks against Christians in Pakistan, Iraq, Syria and Egypt by similar Islamist extremists of various stripes. I just know that some awful things are going on that we had better be at least generally aware of.

However, I did notice how disparate the equipment and apparent behaviours of the responders seemed to be from the various photos. 

That has turned out to be a clue to what happened -- it seems, a chaos of uncoordinated responses that led to a friendly fire incident that seems to have cost a senior police officer his life, then led to a withdrawal from the Mall as a result, when at least a major group of the terrorists had been cornered. This probably was a major cause of the prolonged siege.

First, an overhead sat shot courtesy BBC:

Satellite overview of Westgate Mall, Kenya (BBC)

 The London Telegraph has a 10:00PM BST 28 Sep 2013 story that seems reasonably researched and coherent. The first such I have seen -- there is entirely too much human interest stuff in most reporting and it is hard to get an overall understanding from pictures. But, if we are to learn lessons we need a who, what, where, when, how timelined account.

Clipping:

It has emerged that:

- Armed private security agents and elite Kenyan police cornered the terrorists early on, but were forced to pull out in the confusion of a separate army assault
- Spies warned of a specific attack on the mall a year ago
- The attackers may have tried to flee via a services tunnel leading to a culvert in a nearby river . . . . 

[A year ago in Somalia] al-Shabaab, a Somali group linked to al-Qaeda, assembled a squad of international volunteers and provided them with detailed plans of the Westgate mall, possibly from blueprints acquired by colluders in Kenya. The team staged rehearsals and sourced weapons, while radical imams gave blessings for the attack. 

According to Kenyan security sources, the terrorists rented a nondescript apartment opposite Westgate and began a surveillance operation . . . .[Then on Sat. Sept 21 at lunch time] The attackers — between 10 and 15 of them — came in three waves. The first leapt from a silver saloon car and began spraying bullets along the front of the mall, where there is a smart outdoor café. The second group headed on foot for the basement car park. A third party drove a vehicle up the ramp at the side of the building, onto the rooftop car park, and right into the Junior Super Chef competition. 

When the attackers began separating out Muslims to spare them from the massacre that ensued, it was evident that this was not just armed robbery but terrorism. 

[NB: there are other reports of terrorists setting up a shop inside the Mall, so a group from inside is possible.]

The first armed responders to reach were "a small team of Kenyan-Indians from a local plain-clothes unit that acts as a kind of armed neighbourhood watch for the large local Asian community." 

They acted with armed Kenyan police, and helped hundreds escape before jointly cornering the terrorists into a corner on the ground floor near the supermarket. But unfortunately, after a four hour preparation . . . the delay being instructive, the Army launched an uncoordinated assault from top and ground floor, evidently not fully realising that there were other responders present in plain clothes. A friendly fire incident resulted and both groups of responders withdrew after a half hour. 

The terrorists took advantage to resume attacks against unarmed civilians. 

I suspect this would probably be when much of the reported mutilation and torture of hostages occurred. Clipping the UK Independent:

A police doctor scouring Nairobi’s Westgate mall for bodies after a four-day siege by Islamist gunmen that claimed dozens of lives has said victims were tortured before they died, according to a Kenyan newspaper.

“Those are not allegations. Those are [censored . . . ] truths,” the doctor, a forensics expert, told The Star newspaper. “They removed balls, eyes, ears, nose. They get your hand and sharpen it like a pencil then they tell you to write your name with the blood. They drive knives inside a child’s body. Actually, if you look at all the bodies, unless those ones that were escaping, fingers are cut by pliers, the noses are ripped by pliers.”

Horrific, and sadly consistent with what happened to hostages in Mumbai, India.

By dawn on Sunday, a widened security perimeter was set up. Between Monday and Tuesday, repeated army attempts to break back in were frustrated by a terrorist sniper on a balcony. 

It seems international advisors were not heeded. 

It seems that Monday evening, on the assumption that no hostages were left alive, an all up assault was launched. It seems the collapsed car park came from this as a support column was taken down with rocket propelled grenades.

By Tuesday evening, it was effectively over.

Though, it is feared that some attackers slipped out with escaping hostages.

So the first obvious lesson is inadequate security and the second is uncoordinated, late response.  We need to make sure coordinated command and communication are set up early on. Security groups should have a common frequency coordinated by mobile reserve police and hosted by Police High Command. The army should patch into that. And someone in the police unit should be tasked with an every five minutes update on a developing situation. If that worked for the Battle of Britain, it should still be valid.

Lessons all around, which we had better all heed. END

Rom 1 reply, 41: J Warner Wallace puts forward six reasons for an immaterial mind -- food for thought

In a podcast, J Warner Wallace argues for an immaterial mind:



In an era where naturalism dominates the academy, this is quite controversial at that level.

WK summarises the six main points in the context of an overarching case:

The case:

• The law of identity says that if A = B’ if A and B have the exact same properties
• If A = the mind and B = the brain, then is A identical to B?
• Wallace will present 6 arguments [--> forming a cumulative case] to show that A is not identical to B because they have different properties

Expanding, in excerpted form:

1) First-person access to mental properties

• Thought experiment: Imagine your dream car, and picture it clearly in your mind . . . .

2) Our experience of consciousness implies that we are not our bodies

• Common sense notion of personhood is that we own our bodies, but we are not our bodies

3) Persistent self-identity through time

• Thought experiment: replacing a new car with an old car one piece at a time [--> that is, a merely physical body does not endure such a change, but or selves are a distinct identity despite change. WK notes that it seems even brain cells continue to be replaced through adulthood] . . . . 

4) Mental properties [--> though a primary reality, e.g. consciousness without which you could neither read nor be aware that you understand this] cannot be measured like physical objects . . . . 
 
5) Intentionality or About-ness

• Mental entities can refer to realities that are physical, something outside of themselves
• A tree is not about anything, it just is a physical object
• But you can have thoughts about the tree out there in the garden that needs water

6) Free will and personal responsibility

• If humans are purely physical, then all our actions are determined by sensory inputs and genetic programming
• Biological determinism is not compatible with free will, and free will is required for personal responsibility
• Our experience of moral choices and moral responsibility requires free will, and free will requires minds/souls

To this, I would add the insight of the two-tier controller Smith cybernetic model :

Here, we see how the brain-body cybernetic loop interacts with and is supervised by a higher order controller. Perhaps through a process of quantum level influence and/or control, as has been suggested. That opens up conceptual space for thinking about a mind capable of interacting with matter.

Similarly, I would point out that so long as it is possible that the observable physical, contingent world we inhabit is a creation by a necessary, eternal -- thus necessarily material -- being, we should not dismiss out of hand that matter can be influenced by mind.

As far as the reality of consciousness -- a key "exhibit" -- goes, let us ponder:

This brings up a further point highlighted by Paul Copan in Part IV of a series of responses to Richard Dawkins, a cluster of significant challenges faced -- but often not acknowledged -- by evolutionary materialistic, naturalistic views:

Richard Dawkins is a four-point naturalist --> i.e. he believes a:  "nature" is all that exists, b:  reality is or is rooted in matter, c:  there is no supernatural, d:  "Science" is the only/unchallengeably "best"  means to  credible knowledge].  Such a position, however, defies our most basic intuitions and assumptions about human experience. Naturalism’s logically leads to:

• the impossibility of knowledge;
• the unreliability of reason;
• the denial of free will and personal responsibility;
• the undermining of human rights and dignity . . . .

[If] Dawkins is right—that we just dance to the music of our DNA—then he himself is dancing to his own DNA.  Dawkins has accidental true belief, but that’s not knowledge. If our beliefs are determined and we believe that determinism is true, then this is just a lucky coincidence—again, not knowledge.  Those who reject determinism are still determined to believe what they do . . . . If naturalistic evolution is interested in survival rather than truth, I may believe a lot of things that help me to survive—human dignity and worth, human rights. But these beliefs may be completely false.  On the other hand, if we are truth-seeking beings (a reflection of what the Bible calls “the image of God”), this makes a lot better sense if a rational, intelligent being created us to think or reason—to have genuine knowledge. Being made in the image of a rational God means we have good reason to trust our minds as generally reliable rather than malfunctioning or systematically misleading us . . . . 

If matter is all the reality there is, how could free will emerge?  Our beliefs are the necessary result of certain physical inputs.  It’s like a prism of colors that is inevitably formed when sunlight is refracted through mist or rain.  Certain physical inputs lead necessarily to certain outputs.

On naturalism, there is no self that makes decisions, and no “decisions” really matter.  The buck doesn’t stop with the agent since “no one” is making those decisions.  “Choices” are not up to me.  They are the product of material forces that impose themselves on each of us—forces over which we have no control.

In short, it is not just mind but knowledge, rationality, right and wrong, rights, responsible freedom and more that are at stake. If naturalism rooted in evolutionary materialism is right, man is dead.

But, the evidently absurd consequences -- e.g. the naturalist is in no position on his premises to reason and warrant the claim that he is correct and knows that naturalism is so -- allow us to see that maybe it is time to accept that the Emperor is leading the parade without a stitch of clothing on him, but stubbornly refuses to admit the fact.

And down that road, there is hope. END

"Enemies of humanity" -- a sobering sign of what we are up against, in the face of a radical secularist kulturkampf

Here.

Design thinkers, creationists and Christians have been slanderously branded: enemies of humanity. Some, primary as ringleaders, others secondary as dupes. and of course, the mere fact that we dare acknowledge living by faith ts the great proof of our utter, irretrievable irrationality, that cannot -- save by cowardice -- be trowelled over with arguments. So we are right wing bigots and theocratic totalitarian would be tyrants.

Bottomline, the slander game is again afoot: enemies of humanity.

Fire, Rome, 64 AD (Wiki)

Shades of Nero's suspicion-shifting false accusation that blamed Christians for the fire of Rome of 64 AD.

(I have therefore had to respond -- as linked -- to some slanders hosted at a blog ostensibly set up as a civil forum for discussion regarding design issues. De facto, on fair comment, it serves as a front and its owner as a face card for some pretty radical and ruthless ideologues who hang out in web fever swamps such as After the Bar Closes, Anti Evolution and the like. One of those swamps is the reason comments have been suspended here.)

Food for sobering thought.

Then, a point for determined, undaunted but honourable action.

This is an evil day, so let us stand. END

Matt 24 watch, 225: Sheriff Girgis at Campion College (Australia, not Jamaica!) on the core of marriage . . . a challenge to the "we're in/out of love" mentality

Sobering food for thought from the co-author of an important paper on marriage:



Note too the Q&A session (twice as long!):


(HT: MercatorNet.)

Let us ponder very carefully indeed where we are going with about the most fundamental institution in human society. END

Matt 24 watch, 224: Matthew Cook of MercatorNet on the Matthew Shepard case and manipulative public relations and court case lies used to build myths to create social revolutions

Michael Cook of MercatorNet writes:

"Very few things happen at the right time, and the rest do not happen at all,” Mark Twain wrote. “The conscientious historian will correct these defects". Which is exactly what activists for abortion right and gay rights have done. They drafted scripts of pathos and injustice and then did a talent search for actors to play the part. Convenient facts were highlighted; inconvenient ones were suppressed.
Does this make a difference? Even if the facts were massaged, the courts of law and public opinion had already reached a decision. Sooner or later a case would have emerged whose facts fit the ideology perfectly.
But it does make a difference. Only a cause which is not confident of its own righteousness needs to lie to prove its point. As the leading gay journalist in the US, Andrew Sullivan, comments about The Book of Matt, “No one should be afraid of the truth. Least of all gay people... Shouldn’t we understand better why and how?"
And worst of all, massaging and rearranging the facts makes it likely that you will omit facts that don’t fit into the myth. Perhaps that’s why “The Laramie Project” is opening in Ford Theater in Washington DC this month, while the 2002 murder of Mary Stachowicz, a housewife who was beaten, stabbed, strangled and killed by a gay co-worker because she questioned his lifestyle has been forgotten. She doesn’t fit into the myth of gay oppression.
- See more at: http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/three_lies_that_built_a_revolution#sthash.sUjBqMy4.dpuf

"Very few things happen at the right time, and the rest do not happen at all,” Mark Twain wrote. “The conscientious historian will correct these defects". Which is exactly what activists for abortion right and gay rights have done. They drafted scripts of pathos and injustice and then did a talent search for actors to play the part. Convenient facts were highlighted; inconvenient ones were suppressed.
Does this make a difference? Even if the facts were massaged, the courts of law and public opinion had already reached a decision. Sooner or later a case would have emerged whose facts fit the ideology perfectly.
But it does make a difference. Only a cause which is not confident of its own righteousness needs to lie to prove its point. As the leading gay journalist in the US, Andrew Sullivan, comments about The Book of Matt, “No one should be afraid of the truth. Least of all gay people... Shouldn’t we understand better why and how?"
And worst of all, massaging and rearranging the facts makes it likely that you will omit facts that don’t fit into the myth. Perhaps that’s why “The Laramie Project” is opening in Ford Theater in Washington DC this month, while the 2002 murder of Mary Stachowicz, a housewife who was beaten, stabbed, strangled and killed by a gay co-worker because she questioned his lifestyle has been forgotten. She doesn’t fit into the myth of gay oppression.
- See more at: http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/three_lies_that_built_a_revolution#sthash.sUjBqMy4.dpuf

 "Very few things happen at the right time, and the rest do not happen at all,” Mark Twain wrote. “The conscientious historian will correct these defects". Which is exactly what activists for abortion right and gay rights have done. They drafted scripts of pathos and injustice and then did a talent search for actors to play the part. Convenient facts were highlighted; inconvenient ones were suppressed.

Does this make a difference? Even if the facts were massaged, the courts of law and public opinion had already reached a decision. Sooner or later a case would have emerged whose facts fit the ideology perfectly.

But it does make a difference. Only a cause which is not confident of its own righteousness needs to lie to prove its point. As the leading gay journalist in the US, Andrew Sullivan, comments about The Book of Matt, “No one should be afraid of the truth. Least of all gay people... Shouldn’t we understand better why and how?"

Cook continues, tellingly:

And worst of all, massaging and rearranging the facts makes it likely that you will omit facts that don’t fit into the myth. Perhaps that’s why “The Laramie Project” is opening in Ford Theater in Washington DC this month, while the 2002 murder of Mary Stachowicz, a housewife who was beaten, stabbed, strangled and killed by a gay co-worker because she questioned his lifestyle has been forgotten. She doesn’t fit into the myth of gay oppression.

He is of course writing in the aftermath of revelations in a new book, The Book of Matt, by Steven Jiminez. based on his investigations -- including interviews with over a hundred people including the actual murderers,  it seems that:

Shepard was a regular crystal meth user and a meth dealer, that his killer, McKinney, had been on a meth bender, that McKinney and possibly Henderson dabbled in gay sex, that McKinney had partied with Shepard and had even had had sex with him. It is a seamy story, full of gut-wrenching violence. But it is not a story of homophobic rednecks torturing and murdering a refined, gentle gay activist.
Writing in The Advocate, the leading US gay paper, Aaron Hicklin asks, “did our need to make a symbol of Shepard blind us to a messy, complex story that is darker and more troubling than the established narrative?”
- See more at: http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/three_lies_that_built_a_revolution#sthash.KUSuiiN1.dpuf

Stephen Jimenez

Stephen Jimenez, a homosexual and journalist.

It turns out that Shepard was a regular crystal meth user and a meth dealer, that his killer, McKinney, had been on a meth bender, that McKinney and possibly Henderson dabbled in gay sex, that McKinney had partied with Shepard and had even had had sex with him. It is a seamy story, full of gut-wrenching violence. But it is not a story of homophobic rednecks torturing and murdering a refined, gentle gay activist.
Writing in The Advocate, the leading US gay paper, Aaron Hicklin asks, “did our need to make a symbol of Shepard blind us to a messy, complex story that is darker and more troubling than the established narrative?”
- See more at: http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/three_lies_that_built_a_revolution#sthash.sUjBqMy4.dpuf

Shepard was a regular crystal meth user and a meth dealer, that his killer, McKinney, had been on a meth bender, that McKinney and possibly Henderson dabbled in gay sex, that McKinney had partied with Shepard and had even had had sex with him. It is a seamy story, full of gut-wrenching violence. But it is not a story of homophobic rednecks torturing and murdering a refined, gentle gay activist.
Writing in The Advocate, the leading US gay paper, Aaron Hicklin asks, “did our need to make a symbol of Shepard blind us to a messy, complex story that is darker and more troubling than the established narrative?”
- See more at: http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/three_lies_that_built_a_revolution#sthash.KUSuiiN1.dpuf

Shepard was a regular crystal meth user and a meth dealer, that his killer, McKinney, had been on a meth bender, that McKinney and possibly Henderson dabbled in gay sex, that McKinney had partied with Shepard and had even had had sex with him. It is a seamy story, full of gut-wrenching violence. But it is not a story of homophobic rednecks torturing and murdering a refined, gentle gay activist.
Writing in The Advocate, the leading US gay paper, Aaron Hicklin asks, “did our need to make a symbol of Shepard blind us to a messy, complex story that is darker and more troubling than the established narrative?”
- See more at: http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/three_lies_that_built_a_revolution#sthash.sUjBqMy4.dpuf

Shepard was a regular crystal meth user and a meth dealer, that his killer, McKinney, had been on a meth bender, that McKinney and possibly Henderson dabbled in gay sex, that McKinney had partied with Shepard and had even had had sex with him. It is a seamy story, full of gut-wrenching violence. But it is not a story of homophobic rednecks torturing and murdering a refined, gentle gay activist.
Writing in The Advocate, the leading US gay paper, Aaron Hicklin asks, “did our need to make a symbol of Shepard blind us to a messy, complex story that is darker and more troubling than the established narrative?”
- See more at: http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/three_lies_that_built_a_revolution#sthash.sUjBqMy4.dpuf

Shepard was a regular crystal meth user and a meth dealer, that his killer, McKinney, had been on a meth bender, that McKinney and possibly Henderson dabbled in gay sex, that McKinney had partied with Shepard and had even had had sex with him. It is a seamy story, full of gut-wrenching violence. But it is not a story of homophobic rednecks torturing and murdering a refined, gentle gay activist.
Writing in The Advocate, the leading US gay paper, Aaron Hicklin asks, “did our need to make a symbol of Shepard blind us to a messy, complex story that is darker and more troubling than the established narrative?”
- See more at: http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/three_lies_that_built_a_revolution#sthash.sUjBqMy4.dpuf

It turns out that Shepard was a regular crystal meth user and a meth dealer, that his killer, McKinney, had been on a meth bender, that McKinney and possibly Henderson dabbled in gay sex, that McKinney had partied with Shepard and had even had had sex with him. It is a seamy story, full of gut-wrenching violence. But it is not a story of homophobic rednecks torturing and murdering a refined, gentle gay activist.
Writing in The Advocate, the leading US gay paper, Aaron Hicklin asks, “did our need to make a symbol of Shepard blind us to a messy, complex story that is darker and more troubling than the established narrative?”
- See more at: http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/three_lies_that_built_a_revolution#sthash.sUjBqMy4.dpuf

 Shepard was a regular crystal meth user and a meth dealer, that his killer, McKinney, had been on a meth bender, that McKinney and possibly Henderson dabbled in gay sex, that McKinney had partied with Shepard and had even had had sex with him. It is a seamy story, full of gut-wrenching violence. But it is not a story of homophobic rednecks torturing and murdering a refined, gentle gay activist.

Writing in The Advocate, the leading US gay paper, Aaron Hicklin asks, “did our need to make a symbol of Shepard blind us to a messy, complex story that is darker and more troubling than the established narrative?”

Unfortunately, this is only the latest of a long string of cases and "narratives" used to push agendas by portraying sympathetic victims and benighted opponents, including major court cases.

Cook is right to highlight the issue of the taint and sign of deception as a mark of agendas that need to be far more closely assessed than they usually are once this sort of dominant narrative captures the popular mind. 

Or at least, the dominant media mind.

In context, we need to carefully reflect again at the problem of the perverse marketing of evil by desensitising us, jamming out objectors and converting a critical mass into supporters. All, in accord with the Marlboro Man advertising revolution: led by Leo Burnett, who:

concentrated on style, creating icons as a symbol of the product. He stressed that the creator of an ad needed to somehow capture and reflect what he called the "inherent drama" of the product.

Obviously, we are being routinely led by the nose, through the technique of creating iconic images made to look sufficiently real to be vivid and arresting, and stories meant to capture our visual memory and seem plausibly true. Never mind that they may be full of half truths and perhaps outright fabrications (as in some of those court cases).

I therefore call our attention back to the straight vs spin grid as an antidote to such manipulative idolatry in our time, whether used to sell cigarettes, beans, cynical and devious politicians or rank perverted agendas:

(I) The "Straight or Spin?" News, Education & Views Evaluation Grid:

We may begin by giving a description of what news at its best "should" be like if it is to be a "rough, first draft of History":

. . . a well-informed, easily readable report on a noticeable and significant current event; presented in an accurate, fair, balanced, factually based fashion; and, with enough background context to give the viewer a basis to make up his or her own mind.

In that light, I believe the following analytical "straight or spin" grid will be helpful in assessing the quality of news, commentary and education we are exposed to in our region:

STORY ELEMENTS:	(a) Headline & Lead	(b) Story &/or Views presented	(c) Characterisation of People &/or Institutions	(d) Context: underlying Issues, Alternatives and Historical Setting
(1) Factually Accurate?	Y/N	Y/N	Y/N	Y/N
(2) Fair, or Just?	Y/N	Y/N	Y/N	Y/N
(3) Kind or Gracious?	Y/N	Y/N	Y/N	Y/N
(4) Balanced, or provides a Counter - balance?	Y/N	Y/N	Y/N	Y/N

Fig. 1: News, Education and Views: "Straight or Spin?" [Key: Y, "yes" = 1; N, "no" = 0]

---

(II) Using the "Straight or Spin?" Grid:

As can be seen, the straight or spin grid gives four main facets of a typical item of news or commentary, or a lesson/lecture (or even a textbook chapter): (a) the head and lead, (b) the story proper, (c) characterisation, and (d) context. It then asks a basic question:

Is the presented information: (1) accurate, (2) fair, (3) kind and (4) balanced?

It is a reasonable expectation that, consistently, the answer should be YES, for all components of a news, educational or commentary item, or a presentation or even a sermon. However, to err is human, so there might be an occasional slip that requires minor correction. So, we can now grade the quality of our news, education and commentary services:

• B to A: Consistent Score 13 - 16: a reasonably good to excellent service, but if errors keep on cropping up in any one square (e.g. cells 1a, 2c, 3b or 4d), there is a systematic problem (e.g.; 1a: inaccurate headings and leads, 2c: unfair or unjust characterisations of people or institutions, 3b: unkind (say, through sensationalism that exploits people's pain) presentation of stories, 4d: biased context), and corrective action is obviously needed. [The examples make the "structured common-sense" approach plain: do you wish to consume information from sources that are consistently inaccurate in how they headline and lead stories on issues and news? Or, from one that often slanders people or institutions it does not like? Or, tries to make money off sensationalising the suffering of others? Or, tells only half the story through suppressing materially relevant context? Etc.?]
  
  
• D to C: Consistent Score 8 - 12: This source has a major, systematic problem with at least one of the four requirements of sound, straight information, and is probably pushing an agenda counter to the interests of the people of God and the wider community. The source and the editorial policy require major reformation.
  
  
• F: Consistent Score 7 or less: Do not trust this source, period. Warn others about the evident distortion, bias, deception and agenda. If the source has significant institutional power and is unwilling to be corrected, make the creation of an alternative that will consistently correct and expose the errors and agenda a top priority.

Unfortunately, for far too many local, regional and international sources of news, entertainment, commentary and even education available in or to the Caribbean, the proper assessment in this post-modern relativistic age is: F.

_________

It is time to wake up and turn away from cleverly invented myths designed to tickle our itching ears with what we want to hear and twist our hearts and minds to accept what evidently cannot pass the basic test of truthfulness. END

ery few things happen at the right time, and the rest do not happen at all,” Mark Twain wrote. “The conscientious historian will correct these defects". Which is exactly what activists for abortion right and gay rights have done. They drafted scripts of pathos and injustice and then did a talent search for actors to play the part. Convenient facts were highlighted; inconvenient ones were suppressed.
Does this make a difference? Even if the facts were massaged, the courts of law and public opinion had already reached a decision. Sooner or later a case would have emerged whose facts fit the ideology perfectly.
But it does make a difference. Only a cause which is not confident of its own righteousness needs to lie to prove its point. As the leading gay journalist in the US, Andrew Sullivan, comments about The Book of Matt, “No one should be afraid of the truth. Least of all gay people... Shouldn’t we understand better why and how?"
And worst of all, massaging and rearranging the facts makes it likely that you will omit facts that don’t fit into the myth. Perhaps that’s why “The Laramie Project” is opening in Ford Theater in Washington DC this month, while the 2002 murder of Mary Stachowicz, a housewife who was beaten, stabbed, strangled and killed by a gay co-worker because she questioned his lifestyle has been forgotten. She doesn’t fit into the myth of gay oppression.
- See more at: http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/three_lies_that_built_a_revolution#sthash.sUjBqMy4.dpuf

"Very few things happen at the right time, and the rest do not happen at all,” Mark Twain wrote. “The conscientious historian will correct these defects". Which is exactly what activists for abortion right and gay rights have done. They drafted scripts of pathos and injustice and then did a talent search for actors to play the part. Convenient facts were highlighted; inconvenient ones were suppressed.
Does this make a difference? Even if the facts were massaged, the courts of law and public opinion had already reached a decision. Sooner or later a case would have emerged whose facts fit the ideology perfectly.
But it does make a difference. Only a cause which is not confident of its own righteousness needs to lie to prove its point. As the leading gay journalist in the US, Andrew Sullivan, comments about The Book of Matt, “No one should be afraid of the truth. Least of all gay people... Shouldn’t we understand better why and how?"
And worst of all, massaging and rearranging the facts makes it likely that you will omit facts that don’t fit into the myth. Perhaps that’s why “The Laramie Project” is opening in Ford Theater in Washington DC this month, while the 2002 murder of Mary Stachowicz, a housewife who was beaten, stabbed, strangled and killed by a gay co-worker because she questioned his lifestyle has been forgotten. She doesn’t fit into the myth of gay oppression.
- See more at: http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/three_lies_that_built_a_revolution#sthash.sUjBqMy4.dpuf

"Very few things happen at the right time, and the rest do not happen at all,” Mark Twain wrote. “The conscientious historian will correct these defects". Which is exactly what activists for abortion right and gay rights have done. They drafted scripts of pathos and injustice and then did a talent search for actors to play the part. Convenient facts were highlighted; inconvenient ones were suppressed.
Does this make a difference? Even if the facts were massaged, the courts of law and public opinion had already reached a decision. Sooner or later a case would have emerged whose facts fit the ideology perfectly.
But it does make a difference. Only a cause which is not confident of its own righteousness needs to lie to prove its point. As the leading gay journalist in the US, Andrew Sullivan, comments about The Book of Matt, “No one should be afraid of the truth. Least of all gay people... Shouldn’t we understand better why and how?"
And worst of all, massaging and rearranging the facts makes it likely that you will omit facts that don’t fit into the myth. Perhaps that’s why “The Laramie Project” is opening in Ford Theater in Washington DC this month, while the 2002 murder of Mary Stachowicz, a housewife who was beaten, stabbed, strangled and killed by a gay co-worker because she questioned his lifestyle has been forgotten. She doesn’t fit into the myth of gay oppression.
- See more at: http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/three_lies_that_built_a_revolution#sthash.sUjBqMy4.dpuf

"Very few things happen at the right time, and the rest do not happen at all,” Mark Twain wrote. “The conscientious historian will correct these defects". Which is exactly what activists for abortion right and gay rights have done. They drafted scripts of pathos and injustice and then did a talent search for actors to play the part. Convenient facts were highlighted; inconvenient ones were suppressed.
Does this make a difference? Even if the facts were massaged, the courts of law and public opinion had already reached a decision. Sooner or later a case would have emerged whose facts fit the ideology perfectly.
But it does make a difference. Only a cause which is not confident of its own righteousness needs to lie to prove its point. As the leading gay journalist in the US, Andrew Sullivan, comments about The Book of Matt, “No one should be afraid of the truth. Least of all gay people... Shouldn’t we understand better why and how?"
And worst of all, massaging and rearranging the facts makes it likely that you will omit facts that don’t fit into the myth. Perhaps that’s why “The Laramie Project” is opening in Ford Theater in Washington DC this month, while the 2002 murder of Mary Stachowicz, a housewife who was beaten, stabbed, strangled and killed by a gay co-worker because she questioned his lifestyle has been forgotten. She doesn’t fit into the myth of gay oppression.
- See more at: http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/three_lies_that_built_a_revolution#sthash.sUjBqMy4.dpuf

"Very few things happen at the right time, and the rest do not happen at all,” Mark Twain wrote. “The conscientious historian will correct these defects". Which is exactly what activists for abortion right and gay rights have done. They drafted scripts of pathos and injustice and then did a talent search for actors to play the part. Convenient facts were highlighted; inconvenient ones were suppressed.
Does this make a difference? Even if the facts were massaged, the courts of law and public opinion had already reached a decision. Sooner or later a case would have emerged whose facts fit the ideology perfectly.
But it does make a difference. Only a cause which is not confident of its own righteousness needs to lie to prove its point. As the leading gay journalist in the US, Andrew Sullivan, comments about The Book of Matt, “No one should be afraid of the truth. Least of all gay people... Shouldn’t we understand better why and how?"
And worst of all, massaging and rearranging the facts makes it likely that you will omit facts that don’t fit into the myth. Perhaps that’s why “The Laramie Project” is opening in Ford Theater in Washington DC this month, while the 2002 murder of Mary Stachowicz, a housewife who was beaten, stabbed, strangled and killed by a gay co-worker because she questioned his lifestyle has been forgotten. She doesn’t fit into the myth of gay oppression.
- See more at: http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/three_lies_that_built_a_revolution#sthash.sUjBqMy4.dpuf

"Very few things happen at the right time, and the rest do not happen at all,” Mark Twain wrote. “The conscientious historian will correct these defects". Which is exactly what activists for abortion right and gay rights have done. They drafted scripts of pathos and injustice and then did a talent search for actors to play the part. Convenient facts were highlighted; inconvenient ones were suppressed.
Does this make a difference? Even if the facts were massaged, the courts of law and public opinion had already reached a decision. Sooner or later a case would have emerged whose facts fit the ideology perfectly.
But it does make a difference. Only a cause which is not confident of its own righteousness needs to lie to prove its point. As the leading gay journalist in the US, Andrew Sullivan, comments about The Book of Matt, “No one should be afraid of the truth. Least of all gay people... Shouldn’t we understand better why and how?"
And worst of all, massaging and rearranging the facts makes it likely that you will omit facts that don’t fit into the myth. Perhaps that’s why “The Laramie Project” is opening in Ford Theater in Washington DC this month, while the 2002 murder of Mary Stachowicz, a housewife who was beaten, stabbed, strangled and killed by a gay co-worker because she questioned his lifestyle has been forgotten. She doesn’t fit into the myth of gay oppression.
- See more at: http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/three_lies_that_built_a_revolution#sthash.sUjBqMy4.dpuf

"Very few things happen at the right time, and the rest do not happen at all,” Mark Twain wrote. “The conscientious historian will correct these defects". Which is exactly what activists for abortion right and gay rights have done. They drafted scripts of pathos and injustice and then did a talent search for actors to play the part. Convenient facts were highlighted; inconvenient ones were suppressed.
Does this make a difference? Even if the facts were massaged, the courts of law and public opinion had already reached a decision. Sooner or later a case would have emerged whose facts fit the ideology perfectly.
But it does make a difference. Only a cause which is not confident of its own righteousness needs to lie to prove its point. As the leading gay journalist in the US, Andrew Sullivan, comments about The Book of Matt, “No one should be afraid of the truth. Least of all gay people... Shouldn’t we understand better why and how?"
And worst of all, massaging and rearranging the facts makes it likely that you will omit facts that don’t fit into the myth. Perhaps that’s why “The Laramie Project” is opening in Ford Theater in Washington DC this month, while the 2002 murder of Mary Stachowicz, a housewife who was beaten, stabbed, strangled and killed by a gay co-worker because she questioned his lifestyle has been forgotten. She doesn’t fit into the myth of gay oppression.
- See more at: http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/three_lies_that_built_a_revolution#sthash.sUjBqMy4.dpuf

Today, Sept 15 is the 73rd anniversary of Battle of Britain Day . . .

Hurricane, showing the characteristic
humpback and the fabric on stringer
construction in the rear of the fuselage
-- yes, WW I tech but it meant  easier
repair (Cr: Stephen Fox)

Today is also -- IIRC -- a Sunday, Battle of Britain day. 

The day commemorating when The Few in their Hurricanes (mostly!) and Spitfires stood between civilisation, however flawed, and a nightmare of aggressive barbarism.








Let us remember by watching:



(In watching, while the broadening attempted is important, never forget that if Fighter Command had been knocked out, all would have been lost, as the air would dominate all else. As happened with the Blitz in the West . . . yes, even the tank was secondary to the impact of the air.)

Churchill's speech:




Then, let us take heart and courage, learning to stand in an evil day against all odds.

In that context, I call on Paul's counsel:

Eph 5:⁸ . . . Walk as children of light ⁹ (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), ¹⁰ and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. ¹¹ Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. ¹² For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. ¹³ But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, ¹⁴ for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says,

“Awake, O sleeper,
    and arise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.”

¹⁵ Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, ¹⁶ making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. ¹⁷ Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. ¹⁸ And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, ¹⁹ addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, ²⁰ giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, ²¹ submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. [ESV]

Let us move ahead, having learned. END

Matt 24 watch, 223: Ben Birnbaum -- Flip-flopping by the Obama administration on Syria makes an Israeli strike against Iran far more likely (and it is US pressue that has stopped such a strike from having already happened)

From The New Republic, over Ben Birnbaum's by-line, we read:

[T]he White House’s indecisiveness of the last few weeks will cast a long shadow. Israel has kept a low profile in the Syrian civil war, launching anonymous strikes periodically to prevent the transfer of weapons to Hezbollah, but otherwise keeping mum—and with good reason. A collapse of the Syrian state and the rise of jihadist groups would threaten the long-standing calm along the Golan Heights and is no less distasteful to Israel than Assad’s continuation in power. Israel certainly has a vital stake in the destruction of Syria’s chemical arsenal (Assad has missiles that can reach Tel Aviv; so does Hezbollah), but Benjamin Netanyahu still sees the issue through the same prism he sees all issues these days: As he said Wednesday, “the message Syria receives will resonate very strongly in Iran.” It will resonate very strongly in Israel as well.

The Obama administration (and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee) has argued to Congress that a failure to enforce the president’s red line on chemical weapons would embolden the Iranian leadership to test his red line on nuclear weapons. And, indeed, a no vote on the Syria resolution would devastate American credibility in Tehran. But Iran has shown few signs of being deterred even in the face of crippling sanctions and an American threat of military action, so the more salient question is how the handwringing in Washington will affect the calculus in Jerusalem as Israel continues to debate military action.

Birnbaum notes:

conversations over the past two years with individuals who have been directly involved in the decision-making process have convinced me that Netanyahu is quite serious about striking Iran and would have done so by now had it not been for intense American pressure . . . . 

Netanyahu draws the Red Line at the UN
Iran is now dangerously close

Virtually all top Israeli officials agree that given the choice between “bomb or bombing,” bombing is the lesser of two evils. The debate instead has been over whether Israel has more time to wait for other measures to take their toll or whether, by waiting too long, it risks allowing Iran to enter what former defense minister Ehud Barak called the “zone of immunity,” when the Iranian nuclear program would be beyond Israel’s military reach [--> i.e. with conventional weapons] . . . the major question before Israel has always been whether it could trust the U.S.—with its superior military capabilities—to strike in the event that its own window of military opportunity closes.

Until now, a number of senior Israelis have believed it could. “I heard very carefully what President Obama said,” former Mossad chief Meir Dagan told "60 Minutes" last year. “And he said openly that the military option is on the table, and he is not going to let Iran become a nuclear state.” Current president Shimon Peres was even more emphatic in an interview with The New York Times Magazine, arguing that Israel should give the U.S. more time to pursue sanctions and diplomacy. “If none of this works, then President Obama will use military power against Iran,” he said. “I am sure of it.”

 He then chillingly notes: "Netanyahu is, well, less sure."

He explains:

Netanyahu had a fellow skeptic in Barak, who with him lobbied fellow members of Israel’s security cabinet in support of a strike before last year’s U.S. presidential election. While the details remain murky, all indications are that Barak changed his mind in the final weeks after receiving American assurances. The question in the wake of the great Syria zig-zag is what an American assurance is worth. If Syria is a test case for American reliability, it hasn’t been an encouraging one for Israelis.

This of course chillingly corroborates my thoughts in an earlier post of Sept 1st,  here at KF blog.

There is a lot more at stake in the Middle East's ever boiling pot than we may want to think.

And, we in the Caribbean need to be prepared for predictable implications of such a strike, destabilisation of the global energy markets leading to surging fuel prices and massive economic dislocation.

We need to be thinking survival mode in a time when import prices would surge (including FOOD) -- if we can get them at all. Sobering. END

Today is Sept 11, 2013, lest we forget . . .

Twelve years ago today, courtesy CNN and YouTube -- the unedited footage:



 (This carries on to 9 pm, from the time of the Pentagon attack.)

And, the story of the firemen.

We simply must not allow ourselves to forget. END

Matt 24 watch, 222: "Your soul or your head" in Syria -- the extremist rebels in action

According to a Sept 8, 2013 UK Daily Mail report:

Terrified Christians claim Syrian rebels ordered them to convert to Islam on pain of death when they ‘liberated’ their ancient village [later, DM notes: "The beautiful mountain village, 25 miles from Damascus, is one of the few places in the world where residents still use the ancient language of Aramaic, which was spoken by Jesus and his disciples."].

Opposition forces, including fighters linked to Al Qaeda, gained temporary control of the Christian village of Maaloula after fighting with regime forces.

The reports have reignited fears about western support for the rebel groups, which are increasingly being infiltrated by Islamic extremists. [--> or should that be, increasingly dominated by Islamist extremists?]

One Maaloula resident said the rebels, many of whom had beards and shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ (God is great), attacked Christian homes and churches shortly after moving into the village.

‘They shot and killed people. I heard gunshots and then I saw three bodies lying in the middle of a street in the old quarters of the village. Where is President Obama to see what has befallen us?’

Another Christian resident said: ‘I saw the militants grabbing five villagers and threatening them and saying, “Either you convert to Islam, or you will be beheaded”.’ ["Syrian village is 'liberated' by rebels... who then forced Christians to convert to Islam," Daily Mail, Sept 8, 2013.]

This disturbing report underscores the basic problem with the Syria situation. As time has gone on, the rebels are increasingly dominated by Islamist extremists -- many linked to Al Qaeda or its affiliates. At the same time the government is an odious dictatorship and client of Iran. So much is this the case that Iran has sent its "foreign legion" branch of its Revolutionary Guards, Hezbollah, to stiffen the Government forces.

The dilemmas faced by long oppressed Middle Eastern Christians, Jews and other minorities can only be imagined.

This situation is rather like the common dilemma in the cold war era where the state was often an authoritarian dictatorship and kleptocracy, and the rebels blood-thirsty communists.

In the short term, the answer is to break the fighting and bring all stakeholders to the table, backed up by enough will and force to get a reasonably civilised compromise.

Unfortunately, will is plainly lacking, and we need to realise that Syria reportedly disposes of the largest stockpile of chemical weapons left in the world.

Longer term, Islamist extremism needs to be exposed, shamed and decisively defeated ideologically, leading to collapse.

That means, scream, menace and worse, they must be exposed. 

And, refuted. 

And then, again and again, for years. 

Until they break.

Then we need to hammer the proverbial stake through the heart and mount a guard on the grave.

That is what happened with Communism. 

So, we know the approach works. 

All that is needed is the will to stand in the face of every attempt to distract, discredit the bearer of unwelcome truth, or even murder attempts and terrorist attacks.

If we do not lance the boil, blood poisoning lurks.

And, as our Lord tells us, the spiritual strong man must be bound and stripped of his armour and arms, if those he holds captive are to be set free. END