Use every piece of God's armor to resist the enemy in the time of evil, so that after the battle you will still be standing firm (Ephesians 6:13)

This website saved the fake video, check it out.......

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/32404_CNN_Says_the_Video_is_Genuine

Thanking the Pirates

There's something that has been horribly overlooked. We have so much to thank the pirates for. That's right, I said pirates. Not the Pittsburgh Pirates, not the Pirates of the Caribbean, I'm talking about the Barbary Pirates. The Barbary Pirates are the Muslim dudes that started hijacking ships in the 1700's and you guessed it, they were Muslims from North Africa. It's funny how nothing really changes huh? But we have good reasons to thank the pirates. Because of them we have a federal government, a Navy, and federal command of the armed forces. In the late 1700's pirates started hijacking American ships, of course European ships had been getting hijacked for dozens of years and they never did anything except pay the ransoms. The US decide to create a Navy for the purpose of fighting off these pirates and in order for a Navy to be created a more centralized government was needed and thus created. The Barbary pirates helped us establish the government that we have today. Here's the best part, the US Navy just created a task force to deal with the pirate problem that nobody else wants to deal with, world police to the rescue again!

The U.S. Navy has started a force to battle pirates attacking ships in and near the Gulf of Aden off Somalia's coast, the U.S. Fifth Fleet said Thursday.

The unit -- called Combined Task Force 151 -- is a spinoff of an existing force in the region that addressed a range of security issues, such as drug smuggling and weapons trafficking, as well as piracy.

The Gulf of Aden links the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea. About 20,000 oil tankers, freighters and merchant vessels pass along the crucial shipping route each year near largely lawless Somalia.

The United States is among at least 20 countries that are trying to combat piracy in the region, including Russia, India, Germany and Iran. In December, German sailors foiled an attempt by pirates to hijack an Egyptian cargo ship off the coast of Yemen, according to the German Defense Ministry, and the European Union launched its first naval operation to protect vessels. That came just days after China revealed its own plans to patrol the Horn of Africa's volatile coastline.

Task Force 151 will be devoted solely to counterpiracy efforts, said Lt. Stephanie Murdock, a Fifth Fleet spokeswoman. The United States anticipates other nations joining the force "in the near future."

"The problem of piracy is and continues to be a problem that begins ashore and is an international problem that requires an international solution," Vice Adm. Bill Gortney, commander of the Combined Maritime Forces, said in a news release from the Fifth Fleet in Manama, Bahrain. "We believe the establishment of CTF-151 is a significant step in the right direction. 

The financial and human costs of piracy are extensive. Ships ranging from luxury yachts to a Saudi supertanker have been held for ransom. At least one major company pulled its ships from the Gulf of Aden region in 2008, meaning cargo bound for Europe had to round the African continent rather than use the Suez Canal.

Pirates attacked nearly 100 vessels and hijacked as many as 40 in the waters off the coast of Somalia in 2008, according to the International Maritime Bureau. 

"The pirates are living between life and death," a pirate leader, identified by only one name, Boyah, told the Somali news organization Garowe Online late last year. CNN obtained the complete interview.

"Who can stop them?" Boyah said. "Americans and British all put together cannot do anything."

Boyah said that the piracy began because traditional coastal fishing became difficult after foreign fishing trawlers depleted local fish stocks. Traditional fishermen started attacking the trawlers until the trawler crews fought back with heavy weapons. The fishermen then turned to softer targets.

"We went into the deep ocean and hijacked the unarmed cargo ships," Boyah said. "For the past three years, we have not operated near the Somali coast. We have operated at least 80 miles [out], in international waters."

British journalist Colin Freeman and Spanish photojournalist Jose Cendon, both working for London's Daily Telegraph newspaper, were released Sunday after being held by pirates who abducted them November 26 in the Somali city of Bosasso. Two Somali journalists, who have not been heard from, were also taken, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

Task Force 151 is an outgrowth of Combined Task Force-150, which was created to conduct security operations at the beginning of Operation Enduring Freedom -- the U.S. effort in Afghanistan. The task forces are part of the Combined Maritime Forces, which includes naval ships and other assets from more than 20 nations.

"Some navies in our coalition did not have the authority to conduct counter-piracy missions," Gortney said. "The establishment of CTF-151 will allow those nations to operate under the auspices of CTF-150, while allowing other nations to join CTF-151 to support our goal of deterring, disrupting and eventually bringing to justice the maritime criminals involved in piracy events."

Michael Howlett, divisional director of the International Maritime Bureau, said attacks haven't stopped, but they have not been as successful recently. He cited the presence of navies in the gulf and the fact that merchant mariners are taking more appropriate measures to avert hijackings as reasons for the decline.

He welcomed the establishment of the task force.

"We strongly believe the navies are the only effective response against piracy," he said, adding that the navies in the region "are doing a great job."

The U.S. Navy praised merchant mariners' measures against pirate attacks, such as raising ladders, posting lookouts, speeding up, taking evasive maneuvers and using fire hoses.

"The most effective measures we've seen to defeat piracy are non-kinetic and defensive in nature," Gortney said. "The merchant ships have been doing a great job stepping up and utilizing these methods to defeat piracy attempts

Fake Video removed

Sorry about that, CNN came to it's senses and removed the video

Fake Video on CNN

Here is a video that is said to have been staged. I personally have performed chest compressions on people so I can tell you that those compressions are horribly faked.

<script src="http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/.element/js/2.0/video/evp/module.js?loc=dom&vid=/video/world/2009/01/07/holmes.gaza.boy.cnn" type="text/javascript"></script><noscript>Embedded video from <a href="http://www.cnn.com/video">CNN Video</a></noscript>

Uncle's article

This is an article that my uncle in law wrote for the washington post

JERUSALEM -- In its efforts to stop amateur rockets from nagging the residents of some of its southern cities, Israel appears to have given new life to the fledging Islamic movement in Palestine. For two years, the Islamic Resistance Movement (known by its Arabic acronym, Hamas) has been losing support internally and externally. This wasn't the case in the days after the party came to power democratically in early 2006; despite being unjustly ostracized by the international community for its anti-Israeli stance, Hamas enjoyed the backing of Palestinians and other Arabs. Having won a decisive parliamentary majority on an anti-corruption platform promising change and reform, Hamas worked hard to govern better than hadFatah, its rival and predecessor.

Things began to sour when Hamas violently seized control of Gaza, but even then, Hamas enjoyed considerable domestic support -- and much goodwill externally. Then the movement turned down every legitimate offer from its nationalist PLO rivals and Egyptian mediators to pursue reconciliation, and support for it began to slip. Things got worse in November when a carefully planned national unity effort from the Egyptians failed because, at the very last minute, Hamas's leaders refused to show up in Cairo. Failure to accept this roundtable invitation greatly upset the Egyptians, and they and other Arab leaders scolded Hamas publicly. Omar Suleiman, the head of the Egyptian intelligence service who was organizing the meeting, termed Hamas's reasons for rebuffing the invitation "unwarranted excuses." Hamas sought for its leader a seating position equivalent to the Palestinian president's, and it wanted Hamas security prisoners held in the West Bank to be released. Palestinian nationalists insist that Hamas's rejection of unity talks was solely to avoid the PLO's demand for new presidential and parliamentary elections.

A poll carried out afterward by the Jerusalem Media and Communications Center showed that most Palestinians blamed Hamas for the failure of the talks. The survey, which was sponsored by the German Fredrich Ebert Foundation, found that 35.3 percent of respondents believed Hamas bore more responsibility for the stalemate. Fatah was blamed by 17.9 percent, and 12.3 percent said both Fatah and Hamas were responsible.

The lack of international support since the 2006 elections, followed by this rebuff to Gaza's only Arab neighbor, Egypt, compounded the deterioration of Hamas's internal support. By November, the survey showed, only 16.6 percent of Palestinians supported Hamas, compared with nearly 40 percent favoring Fatah. The decline in support for Hamas has been steady: A year earlier, the same pollster showed that Hamas's support was at 19.7 percent; in August 2007, it was at 21.6 percent; in March 2007, it was at 25.2 percent; and in September 2006, backing for the Islamists stood at 29.7 percent.

That's why, as the six-month cease-fire with Israel came to an end, Hamas calculated -- it seems correctly -- that it had nothing to gain by continuing the truce; if it had, its credentials as a resistance movement would have been no different from those ofMahmoud Abbas's Fatah. Unable to secure an open border and an end to the Israeli siege, while refusing to share or give up power to Abbas, Hamas could have had no route to renewed public favor.

For different reasons, Hamas and Israel both gave up on the cease-fire, preferring instead to climb over corpses to reach their political goals. One side wants to resuscitate its public support by appearing to be a heroic resister, while the other, on the eve of elections, wants to show toughness to a public unhappy with the nuisance of the Qassam rockets.

The disproportionate and heavy-handed Israeli attacks on Gaza have been a bonanza for Hamas. The movement has renewed its standing in the Arab world, secured international favor further afield and succeeded in scuttling indirect Israeli-Syrian talks and direct Palestinian-Israeli negotiations. It has also greatly embarrassed Israel's strongest Arab neighbors, Egypt and Jordan.

While it is not apparent how this violent confrontation will end, it is abundantly clear that the Islamic Hamas movement has been brought back from near political defeat while moderate Arab leaders have been forced to back away from their support for any reconciliation with Israel.

By choosing the waning days of the Bush administration to attack Gaza, the Israelis knew they would face no opposition from the leader of the so-called war on terrorism. Just as George W. Bush's misadventure in Iraq played into the hands of radicals and terrorists, this Israeli action will produce nothing less than that in Palestine. Let us hope that the Obama administration will see the consequences of what is not only a crime of war but also a move whose results are exactly the opposite of its publicly proclaimed purposes.

A few rockets fired from Gaza to Egypt would evoke a response even more brutal. Egyptians even opened fire upon Palestinian civilians trying to force themselves across the border but the Israelis are the brutal ones for being fed up with the rockets. Of course, it's always the fault of the Jews, whether Israel defends itself or stays idle, they're still responsible for the actions of Islamic militants. 

Here's a few questions to ask yourself.....

At what point is Islam to blame? 

What would happen to Syria if it started launching rockets at Jordan? 

Would we be just as upset if Jordan retaliated? 

Where was the world reaction to Israelis being killed last week?

The real shame in this is that no Arabs, Muslim or Christian, have enough courage to stand up to Islamic terrorism.

Trujillo: The Death of a Dictator

I finished reading this book about a week ago. This is a subject that I've been wanting to read for a while. This story is kind of personal to me. Trujillo was a dictator that ruled my home country, Dominican Republic, for 31 years. Trujillo brought, prosperity, safety, stability, respect, and power to Dominican Republic, he also brought terror. As dictators do, he ruled with an iron fist. During Trujillo's reign, the Dominican Intelligence Agency was one of the best in the world and Dominican prosperity was second only to the United States. Both of my grandfathers proudly served in this dictatorship so growing up I never heard one negative comment about Trujillo. I knew of his infamous reputation but today even non-Trujillo Dominicans reminisce about the Trujillo days. The days when people prospered and you can walk around town without fear of being robbed, those days are gone. My dad's dad was a diplomat and knew Trujillo very well, my mom's dad was an up and coming young Army officer and was under Trujillo's command. I had great uncles and distant family members who faithfully served Trujillo. It was interesting to read a little bit about my roots and see my last name in the book. I frequently called my dad or my mom to ask about some of these characters. If you're interested in Dominican history then this is a great book. It was over 200 pages but I sped right through it. 

Wifey quote of the day

As we're sitting down watching tv, my wife snaps and in a fit of rage screams out...

"CHANGE THAT!! I HATE WATCHING THE O'REILLY FACTOR WHEN THERE'S NO O'REILLY!!!!"

Cow Economics

FINALLY- a clear explanation about economic systems, I thought I would never understand.

Economic Models explained with Cows - 2008 update

 SOCIALISM
 You have 2 cows.
 You give one to your neighbor.

 COMMUNISM
 You have 2 cows.
 The State takes both and gives you some milk.

 FASCISM

You have 2 cows.

The State takes both and sells you some milk.

 NAZISM

 You have 2 cows.
 The State takes both and shoots you.

 BUREAUCRATISM
 You have 2 cows.
 The State takes both, shoots one, milks the other, and then throws the milk away...

 TRADITIONAL CAPITALISM
 You have two cows.
 You sell one and buy a bull.
 Your herd multiplies, and the economy grows.
 You sell them and retire on the income.

 SURREALISM
 You have two giraffes.
 The government requires you to take harmonica lessons

 AN AMERICAN CORPORATION
 You have two cows.
 You sell one, and force the other to produce the milk of four cows.
 Later, you hire a consultant to analyze why the cow has dropped dead.

 ENRON VENTURE CAPITALISM
 You have two cows.
 You sell three of them to your publicly listed company, using letters of credit opened by your brother-in-law at the bank, then execute a debt/equity swap with an associated general offer so that you get all four cows back, with a tax exemption for five cows.

The milk rights of the six cows are transferred via an intermediary to a Cayman Island Company secretly owned by the majority shareholder who sells the rights to all seven cows back to your listed company.

The annual report says the company owns eight cows, with an option on one more. You sell one cow to buy a new president of the United States, leaving you with nine cows. No balance sheet provided with the release. The public then buys your bull.

 A FRENCH CORPORATION
 You have two cows.
 You go on strike, organize a riot, and block the roads, because you want three cows.

 A JAPANESE CORPORATION

 You have two cows.
 You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk.
You then create a clever cow cartoon image called 'Cowkimon' and market it worldwide.

 A GERMAN CORPORATION
 You have two cows.
 You re-engineer them so they live for 100 years, eat once a month, and milk themselves.

 AN ITALIAN CORPORATION
 You have two cows, but you don't know where they are.
 You decide to have lunch.

 A RUSSIAN CORPORATION
 You have two cows.
 You count them and learn you have five cows.
 You count them again and learn you have 42 cows.
 You count them again and learn you have 2 cows.
 You stop counting cows and open another bottle of vodka.

 A SWISS CORPORATION
 You have 5000 cows. None of them belong to you.
 You charge the owners for storing them.

 A CHINESE CORPORATION
 You have two cows.
 You have 300 people milking them.
 You claim that you have full employment, and high bovine productivity.
 You arrest the newsman who reported the real situation.

 AN INDIAN CORPORATION
 You have two cows.
 You worship them.

 A BRITISH CORPORATION
 You have two cows.
 Both are mad.

 AN IRAQI CORPORATION
 Everyone thinks you have lots of cows.
 You tell them that you have none.
 No-one believes you, so they bomb the **** out of you and invade your country.
 You still have no cows, but at least now you are part of a Democracy....

 AN AUSTRALIAN CORPORATION
 You have two cows.
 Business seems pretty good.
 You close the office and go for a few beers to celebrate

 A NEW ZEALAND CORPORATION
 You have two cows. You sell them and buy seven sheep.
 The one in the middle looks rather attractive
 

Fox News Quote

This quote comes from the Fox News Red Eye program.

"Muslims say they have an image problem. I would say they have an I can't stop blowing up stuff problem. Take care of that and the image problem goes away instantly. Just my opinion."

Kids Camp Out

We just finished our annual kids camp out here at CCK. We had an awesome time, 11 kids gave their lives to the Lord and nobody was injured during the activities. There was only one problem, the girls won the tug of war.

Palestinian Memories

Palestinian Memories is a book written by a friend of my wife's family. Alex Awad tells the story of his family beginning in the war of 1948 which is called by Israel as the War of Independence, this same war is described by the entire Arab world as the day of the catastrophe. During this war Alex's father was shot and killed right outside of his own home as he was venturing out to get some food during break in the shooting. Although Alex openly blames Jews for shooting his father he does admit that Christian Arabs were targeted by Jordanian Soldiers for their "Western and Jewish" style clothes, and that no one is sure who killed his father. His mother was left a widow along with seven children. The first part of this book is the life testimony of his mother and an incredible testimony it is. The second and much larger part of this book is a history of Israel as told by someone who thinks Israel should be pushed into the Mediterranean and replaced by another Muslim country. His problem is one that plagues the Christians in the Middle East. Arab Christians have been economically plundered by the Israeli Government, they're entrapped in their towns, and humiliated by Israeli Soldiers. On top of all of this they're culturally oppressed and persecuted by the Muslims surrounding them. While Alex Awad has no problem detailing many instances of injustice committed by Israelis against Christians, he completely denies that there are any injustices committed by Muslims. Alex Awad has allowed his hate of Israelis to affect biblical worldview. He denies a millenial kingdom, he denies any form of dispensationalism, and he denies any problems that come with Islam. He has cowardly denied recent persecution of Palestinian Christians because he's afraid of Muslim reprisals against the Bible College he works at. His Bible College, located in Bethlehem, is surrounded by two Palestinian Refugee camps. Toward the end of the book he attempts to confront dispensationalist Christianity and Zionism. While I'm against overly political movements within Christianity such as Zionism, I do take the Bible literally, especially concerning end times. Alex Awad does a horrible job of trying to disprove any end times prophecies and trying to nullify the promises made by God. Overall this book was an interesting read even though it frequently left my wife and I wondering, "what the heck is wrong with this guy?"

Thanksgiving Break

The last two weeks have been kind of a madhouse at church. First was the NASCAR outreach, Cross Country rocked the house as usual and we saw many people dedicate their lives to the Lord. Then, we had the privilege of having Ken Ham, from Answers in Genesis come speak at our church last weekend. We were over capacity for all of our regular services plus two special Sunday night services. Hundreds of people decided to take it a step further and they bought resources to better inform themselves on Creation. Now, after 2 weeks of nonstop TCB'ing I'm going to have a great Thanksgiving break. Priscilla and I are driving up to North Carolina to visit her aunt and uncle this week. I'm planning on good arabic food, good southern food, fun with family, and hopefully some decent skiing. Pray for us as we leave early Tuesday morning to make the long 12 hour drive.

Ivory Towers on Sand

This book was written to emphasize the failures of the Middle East Studies Centers across the academic United States. Time and time again they've served as "experts" in the field and time and time again they've failed miserably. This book was only 130 pages long but it served as an acute and rapid succession of attacks against the status quo of Middle East/Near East scholars. Unless you're interested in Mid-East affairs then you'll find this book boring. I'll admit it, parts of this book went right over my head since most of the people spoken about are not leaders, presidents, or kings, but the majority of people spoken of in this book are professors and intellectuals. Overall, I can't recommend this book if you have to pay for it, but fortunately for me I downloaded it for free online.

50 things you may not know about Obama

• He collects Spider-Man and Conan the Barbarian comics

• He was known as "O'Bomber" at high school for his skill at basketball

• His name means "one who is blessed" in Swahili (it is actually an Arabic name)

• His favourite meal is wife Michelle's shrimp linguini

• He won a Grammy in 2006 for the audio version of his memoir, Dreams From My Father

• He is left-handed – the sixth post-war president to be left-handed

• He has read every Harry Potter book

• He owns a set of red boxing gloves autographed by Muhammad Ali

• He worked in a Baskin-Robbins ice cream shop as a teenager and now can't stand ice cream

• His favourite snacks are chocolate-peanut protein bars

• He ate dog meat, snake meat, and roasted grasshopper while living in Indonesia

• He can speak Spanish (I've heard conflicting accounts about this)

• While on the campaign trail he refused to watch CNN and had sports channels on instead

• His favourite drink is black forest berry iced tea

• He promised Michelle he would quit smoking before running for president – he didn't

• He kept a pet ape called Tata while in Indonesia

• He can bench press an impressive 200lbs

• He was known as Barry until university when he asked to be addressed by his full name

• His favourite book is Moby-Dick by Herman Melville

• He visited Wokingham, Berks, in 1996 for the stag party of his half-sister's fiancé, but left when a stripper arrived

• His desk in his Senate office once belonged to Robert Kennedy

• He and Michelle made $4.2 million (£2.7 million) last year, with much coming from sales of his books

• His favourite films are Casablanca and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

• He carries a tiny Madonna and child statue and a bracelet belonging to a soldier in Iraq for good luck

• He applied to appear in a black pin-up calendar while at Harvard but was rejected by the all-female committee.

• His favourite music includes Miles Davis, Bob Dylan, Bach and The Fugees

• He took Michelle to see the Spike Lee film Do The Right Thing on their first date

• He enjoys playing Scrabble and poker

• He doesn't drink coffee and rarely drinks alcohol

• He would have liked to have been an architect if he were not a politician

• As a teenager he took drugs including marijuana and cocaine

• His daughters' ambitions are to go to Yale before becoming an actress (Malia, 10) and to sing and dance (Sasha, 7)

• He hates the youth trend for trousers which sag beneath the backside

• He repaid his student loan only four years ago after signing his book deal

• His house in Chicago has four fire places

• Daughter Malia's godmother is Jesse Jackson's daughter Santita

• He says his worst habit is constantly checking his BlackBerry

• He uses an Apple Mac laptop

• He drives a Ford Escape Hybrid, having ditched his gas-guzzling Chrysler 300

• He wears $1,500 (£952) Hart Schaffner Marx suits

• He owns four identical pairs of black size 11 shoes

• He has his hair cut once a week by his Chicago barber, Zariff, who charges $21 (£13)

• His favourite fictional television programmes are Mash and The Wire

• He was given the code name "Renegade" by his Secret Service handlers

• He was nicknamed "Bear" by his late grandmother

• He plans to install a basketball court in the White House grounds

• His favourite artist is Pablo Picasso

• His speciality as a cook is chilli

• He has said many of his friends in Indonesia were "street urchins"

• He keeps on his desk a carving of a wooden hand holding an egg, a Kenyan symbol of the fragility of life

• His late father was a senior economist for the Kenyan government

How can you not love this guy?