Saturday, February 10, 2007
Getting Our "Terms" Right
It bothers me when I read an article like World Net Daily's latest one which reveals the "bend over backwards" kind of PC that our security organizations are being led to adhere to in order to not "offend" anyone.
Since we do live in such a maniacal "politically correct" world, then make the terms extremely (no pun intended) accurate! But at the same time, we must not fall into the trap of downplaying them!
As the article in the link above points out, the term "extremists" can mean just about anyone, from any organization or cultic type religion.
In the past, such differentiation has not always been afforded towards true Christians vs. those who use the religion for radical purposes. We can think of several examples:
The Jim Jones cult.
The abortion clinic bombers.
The abortion doctor killers.
The Oklahoma City bombing killers.
Unfortunately, it is often pointed out that Christians were at fault for these terrible crimes. The truth is that the people who conducted such criminal activities were anything but true followers of Jesus Christ.
Because the religion that is being used to propagate terrorism around the world is mostly from Islam, then that term needs to be in the description of the terrorists. Call them something like "Distorted Islamic Terrorists" or, better yet, "Islamic Jihad Terrorists." Perhaps the best description could be taken from the name of the documentary that I have been urging people to see: "Radical Islamic Terrorists." These people, who have self-identified as being at war against the West in general, Jews and Christians in particular, definitely fit such a definition.
However, would this title pass muster with a group like CAIR? I think it should. I certainly think it should! It identifies the fact that these people who want to kill us are radicalized towards such a goal. It also identifies them as adhering to the religion of Islam, which is also true. As the documentaries that have been broadcast on T.V. lately have shown, much of the "kill the infidels" speech hails from imams in mosques, government leaders as well as brainwashed little school children (how awful and sad is that!!!). So, it is undeniable that the religion of Islam is being used to promote the kind of Jihad action that, when taken to its logical conclusion, would result in the deaths of those who do not embrace the religion of Islam. The term "terrorists" needs to be in there because that is their favored tool and mindset that is systematically and continually being used to wreak havoc, misery, fear and death around the world.
Our State Department and Homeland Security needs to get its act together and either use "Radical Islamic Terrorists" when describing these maniacs or come up with a different, but similar term that will accurately describe what we are facing here, in Israel, in Britain, in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Lebanon, in Mogadishu etc. and all the other areas where Radical Islamic Terrorists decide to target.
I would like to share this thought. I truly believe, that despite the problems we have in America and the unpopular position we may hold in the rest of the world because of the war in Iraq and/or U.S. foreign policies, that the God of the Universe has kept his protective hand over our country. We have not suffered a major attack on U.S. soil (thank God!) since 9/11, and many additional, major attacks have been stealthily thwarted by intelligence agencies which are doing a magnificient job of protecting our people.
I do not see this as a coincidence. I see it as Divine protection over our land. It's not that we deserve it, mind you, but I think that it is because so many Christians are praying for our President, our country, our soldiers bravely fighting for our freedoms and for the freedom of the Afghanistan and Iraq people.
9/11 drew our attention away from America's unfortunate, and oftentimes bad habit of selfishness, towards a kind of selflessness that our brave military is demonstrating to the world; despite the fact that many countries don't like it, or us.
I think that the Fox News Channel inadvertently clinched the reality of the situation we now face against radical islamic terrorism and the anti-war sentiments that tend to embolden them. The saying mentions our own individual problems here at home (and what society is completely free of problems?), as well as providing a succinct way of telling the America-hating world that they are unequivocally railing against the wrong entity.
"America has problems...America is not the problem."
That's a great saying. Yes. America is not perfect. No nation is. But America has done more for other nations than any other on the planet!
The do-nothing, crinimal and fraudulent United Nations has no where near the victories for freedom around the world that the U.S. has accomplished. It only seems to feed on scandals, unkept and un-acted upon resolutions, greed, distrust, financial waste, crazy appointments of dangerous countries to their "security" council, soldiers who rape women while carrying out their "peacekeeping" duties and the list could go on and on and on!
But what does the MSM continue to harp about? Abu Ghraib. One stain on the excellent work that our military is carrying out over in Iraq. Go ahead, blame the individuals who carried out that gross activity, but don't use it to smear all the rest of our troops!
Security, freedom for individual countries, and world protection is not for the weak at heart. Great missions for the sake of freeing people from tyranny is not done through popularity contests. It gets done when people find a cause, and despite the dangers to their own health, well-being, and the inevitability that some will end up "laying down their lives for their friends," they find the mission to be one that is greater than themselves . They willingly go into the "lions den" to rid the world of such radicalism. These men and women are the heroes of our world. They are the "Davids" who go out to defeat the "Goliaths" of our time in history. They deserve all the commendation, respect, and support that each of us can possibly give them.
Those who would mock, ridicule and show disdain for them should be ostracized by those who know better (which should be all of us)!!
Free speech does not give anyone the right to scream "fire" in a crowded theatre or spew horrible epithets against our men and women in uniform who are currently fighting in harm's way. People like that are truly despicable...in my book. They are obviously ignorant of not only the ideological nature of this fight, but also the spiritual nature of this battle which is going on behind the scenes in the heavens, too. I would recommend that they read from the prophets of old in the Bible to get a glimpse of how what the prophets foretold is resulting in the history that is unfolding right before our very eyes. Being on the wrong side of this fierce battle is not wise.
The noble fight that America has chosen to enter into is just that...a noble fight. Freeing millions of people from barbaric and cruel dictatorships and/or radical Islamic oppression are noble causes. That is undeniable. But those who would undermine such a cause for political advantage are, to me, examples of the bitter dregs of our society. It's another one of those "free speech" issues that rank as borderline treason, in my mind.
Some of you may want to protest against what I have written. Go right ahead. I've heard all of the cockamamie rationalizations of why so many are now against the war in Iraq. I realize that it is why many of the left (as Whoopie Goldberg stated on O'Reilly) "feel" revulsion about the situation. But feelings aren't the right tool to use in assessing the correct way forward.
Choosing any one of the Democratic candidates from the growing anti-war throng of people now running would be absolutely disasterous for our nation, Iraq, Afghanistan, and the global war against radical Islamic terrorists.
Currently, every single candidate on the left is against this war and appears to be for pulling our troops out, (no matter what the consequences would be) that we (and the Iraqi people) would face.
Democrats don't seem to learn from history. The Vietnam pull-out of troops resulted in over a million civilians dying over there.
When Jihad Jane was confronted by Bill O'Reilly's interviewer during the anti-war demonstration in Washington D.C., this fact of history was given to her and the question put forth to her was (paraphrased), "are you concerned about the bloodbath and deaths that would ensue in Iraq if we pull our troops out too soon?" Her answer was something like, "I'm concerned about the Iraqis now," and within her "number of deaths" response, obviously counted the terrorist deaths in with the total number of deaths. Does she not know that there is a huge difference between the insurgent deaths vs. civilian deaths? Does she not know that most of the civilian deaths have been done by Al Qaeda, former Saddam loyalists, and the Iranian insurgents ? Didn't seem like it to me. Her lack of knowledge about the extreme and dire circumstances surrounding this war was truly evident. Yet she marches, once again, in a creepy deja vu manner reminiscent of her Hanoi Jane Vietnam war antics. Lady, go back to your mansion, sit down and shut up...please!!
To further illustrate that many anti-war zealots are living in the land of Oz, Fonda's "assistant" showed the kind of "head in the sand" mentality that they have through her stupid, offhanded comment hurled towards the O'Reilly Factor interviewer. The young man asked if Fonda would be willing to appear on O'Reilly's show. The assistant said, "no" when Jihad Jane didn't respond to the question and also added that "he (meaning Bill) doesn't exist."
Yes. I know that this was just supposed to be a slam against O'Reilly as a person, as well as his views. But I think we could extrapolate a bit here. I think that the Hollyweird, anti-war leftists do not think that Radical Islamic Terrorism "exists," or is something that we need to vigorously confront and reckon with for the sakes of our children and grandchildren. They don't recognize the overarching reach and all encompassing goals of the enemy in the war that we are currently facing. They seem to have the mentality that whatever happens "over there" doesn't, and shouldn't, concern us here. There is an obvious disconnect to reality that these people have! We know the usual mantra that they spew so there is no need to repeat it here.
Like Whoopie Goldberg stated on O'Reilly, they think that we "stirred up the hornet's nest" when we went into Iraq. What goes on in the minds of Whoopie and those like her? Can they possibly be serious that the radical Islamic terrorists "hornet hive" had not already been stirred up into a frenzy well before we ever entered into Iraq? Are these people living in The Matrix or what?
Someone should gather them all together to sit down for a screening of Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West. These Hollywood type people are extremely ill-informed. Whoopie's comments cement that fact.
I am praying, each day, that a conservative Republican candidate would step up and run for president in 2008. The current group would not have my eager vote (except if Newt Gingrich has officially announced his candidacy). Rudy Guiliani would probably be my second choice, but I'm not pleased with several of his social positions.
Let us all continue to pray for our nation, our troops, and for the noble cause of stamping out radical Islamic terrorism around the world. We are in for a long and difficult fight...there is no doubt about that. But we can win if we don't give up and are steadfast in our goals.
Hat tips:
World Net Daily
Fox News
Update: You must read this post over at LGF. It further illustrates the lunacy of the far left mentality.
Since we do live in such a maniacal "politically correct" world, then make the terms extremely (no pun intended) accurate! But at the same time, we must not fall into the trap of downplaying them!
As the article in the link above points out, the term "extremists" can mean just about anyone, from any organization or cultic type religion.
In the past, such differentiation has not always been afforded towards true Christians vs. those who use the religion for radical purposes. We can think of several examples:
The Jim Jones cult.
The abortion clinic bombers.
The abortion doctor killers.
The Oklahoma City bombing killers.
Unfortunately, it is often pointed out that Christians were at fault for these terrible crimes. The truth is that the people who conducted such criminal activities were anything but true followers of Jesus Christ.
Because the religion that is being used to propagate terrorism around the world is mostly from Islam, then that term needs to be in the description of the terrorists. Call them something like "Distorted Islamic Terrorists" or, better yet, "Islamic Jihad Terrorists." Perhaps the best description could be taken from the name of the documentary that I have been urging people to see: "Radical Islamic Terrorists." These people, who have self-identified as being at war against the West in general, Jews and Christians in particular, definitely fit such a definition.
However, would this title pass muster with a group like CAIR? I think it should. I certainly think it should! It identifies the fact that these people who want to kill us are radicalized towards such a goal. It also identifies them as adhering to the religion of Islam, which is also true. As the documentaries that have been broadcast on T.V. lately have shown, much of the "kill the infidels" speech hails from imams in mosques, government leaders as well as brainwashed little school children (how awful and sad is that!!!). So, it is undeniable that the religion of Islam is being used to promote the kind of Jihad action that, when taken to its logical conclusion, would result in the deaths of those who do not embrace the religion of Islam. The term "terrorists" needs to be in there because that is their favored tool and mindset that is systematically and continually being used to wreak havoc, misery, fear and death around the world.
Our State Department and Homeland Security needs to get its act together and either use "Radical Islamic Terrorists" when describing these maniacs or come up with a different, but similar term that will accurately describe what we are facing here, in Israel, in Britain, in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Lebanon, in Mogadishu etc. and all the other areas where Radical Islamic Terrorists decide to target.
I would like to share this thought. I truly believe, that despite the problems we have in America and the unpopular position we may hold in the rest of the world because of the war in Iraq and/or U.S. foreign policies, that the God of the Universe has kept his protective hand over our country. We have not suffered a major attack on U.S. soil (thank God!) since 9/11, and many additional, major attacks have been stealthily thwarted by intelligence agencies which are doing a magnificient job of protecting our people.
I do not see this as a coincidence. I see it as Divine protection over our land. It's not that we deserve it, mind you, but I think that it is because so many Christians are praying for our President, our country, our soldiers bravely fighting for our freedoms and for the freedom of the Afghanistan and Iraq people.
9/11 drew our attention away from America's unfortunate, and oftentimes bad habit of selfishness, towards a kind of selflessness that our brave military is demonstrating to the world; despite the fact that many countries don't like it, or us.
I think that the Fox News Channel inadvertently clinched the reality of the situation we now face against radical islamic terrorism and the anti-war sentiments that tend to embolden them. The saying mentions our own individual problems here at home (and what society is completely free of problems?), as well as providing a succinct way of telling the America-hating world that they are unequivocally railing against the wrong entity.
"America has problems...America is not the problem."
That's a great saying. Yes. America is not perfect. No nation is. But America has done more for other nations than any other on the planet!
The do-nothing, crinimal and fraudulent United Nations has no where near the victories for freedom around the world that the U.S. has accomplished. It only seems to feed on scandals, unkept and un-acted upon resolutions, greed, distrust, financial waste, crazy appointments of dangerous countries to their "security" council, soldiers who rape women while carrying out their "peacekeeping" duties and the list could go on and on and on!
But what does the MSM continue to harp about? Abu Ghraib. One stain on the excellent work that our military is carrying out over in Iraq. Go ahead, blame the individuals who carried out that gross activity, but don't use it to smear all the rest of our troops!
Security, freedom for individual countries, and world protection is not for the weak at heart. Great missions for the sake of freeing people from tyranny is not done through popularity contests. It gets done when people find a cause, and despite the dangers to their own health, well-being, and the inevitability that some will end up "laying down their lives for their friends," they find the mission to be one that is greater than themselves . They willingly go into the "lions den" to rid the world of such radicalism. These men and women are the heroes of our world. They are the "Davids" who go out to defeat the "Goliaths" of our time in history. They deserve all the commendation, respect, and support that each of us can possibly give them.
Those who would mock, ridicule and show disdain for them should be ostracized by those who know better (which should be all of us)!!
Free speech does not give anyone the right to scream "fire" in a crowded theatre or spew horrible epithets against our men and women in uniform who are currently fighting in harm's way. People like that are truly despicable...in my book. They are obviously ignorant of not only the ideological nature of this fight, but also the spiritual nature of this battle which is going on behind the scenes in the heavens, too. I would recommend that they read from the prophets of old in the Bible to get a glimpse of how what the prophets foretold is resulting in the history that is unfolding right before our very eyes. Being on the wrong side of this fierce battle is not wise.
The noble fight that America has chosen to enter into is just that...a noble fight. Freeing millions of people from barbaric and cruel dictatorships and/or radical Islamic oppression are noble causes. That is undeniable. But those who would undermine such a cause for political advantage are, to me, examples of the bitter dregs of our society. It's another one of those "free speech" issues that rank as borderline treason, in my mind.
Some of you may want to protest against what I have written. Go right ahead. I've heard all of the cockamamie rationalizations of why so many are now against the war in Iraq. I realize that it is why many of the left (as Whoopie Goldberg stated on O'Reilly) "feel" revulsion about the situation. But feelings aren't the right tool to use in assessing the correct way forward.
Choosing any one of the Democratic candidates from the growing anti-war throng of people now running would be absolutely disasterous for our nation, Iraq, Afghanistan, and the global war against radical Islamic terrorists.
Currently, every single candidate on the left is against this war and appears to be for pulling our troops out, (no matter what the consequences would be) that we (and the Iraqi people) would face.
Democrats don't seem to learn from history. The Vietnam pull-out of troops resulted in over a million civilians dying over there.
When Jihad Jane was confronted by Bill O'Reilly's interviewer during the anti-war demonstration in Washington D.C., this fact of history was given to her and the question put forth to her was (paraphrased), "are you concerned about the bloodbath and deaths that would ensue in Iraq if we pull our troops out too soon?" Her answer was something like, "I'm concerned about the Iraqis now," and within her "number of deaths" response, obviously counted the terrorist deaths in with the total number of deaths. Does she not know that there is a huge difference between the insurgent deaths vs. civilian deaths? Does she not know that most of the civilian deaths have been done by Al Qaeda, former Saddam loyalists, and the Iranian insurgents ? Didn't seem like it to me. Her lack of knowledge about the extreme and dire circumstances surrounding this war was truly evident. Yet she marches, once again, in a creepy deja vu manner reminiscent of her Hanoi Jane Vietnam war antics. Lady, go back to your mansion, sit down and shut up...please!!
To further illustrate that many anti-war zealots are living in the land of Oz, Fonda's "assistant" showed the kind of "head in the sand" mentality that they have through her stupid, offhanded comment hurled towards the O'Reilly Factor interviewer. The young man asked if Fonda would be willing to appear on O'Reilly's show. The assistant said, "no" when Jihad Jane didn't respond to the question and also added that "he (meaning Bill) doesn't exist."
Yes. I know that this was just supposed to be a slam against O'Reilly as a person, as well as his views. But I think we could extrapolate a bit here. I think that the Hollyweird, anti-war leftists do not think that Radical Islamic Terrorism "exists," or is something that we need to vigorously confront and reckon with for the sakes of our children and grandchildren. They don't recognize the overarching reach and all encompassing goals of the enemy in the war that we are currently facing. They seem to have the mentality that whatever happens "over there" doesn't, and shouldn't, concern us here. There is an obvious disconnect to reality that these people have! We know the usual mantra that they spew so there is no need to repeat it here.
Like Whoopie Goldberg stated on O'Reilly, they think that we "stirred up the hornet's nest" when we went into Iraq. What goes on in the minds of Whoopie and those like her? Can they possibly be serious that the radical Islamic terrorists "hornet hive" had not already been stirred up into a frenzy well before we ever entered into Iraq? Are these people living in The Matrix or what?
Someone should gather them all together to sit down for a screening of Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West. These Hollywood type people are extremely ill-informed. Whoopie's comments cement that fact.
I am praying, each day, that a conservative Republican candidate would step up and run for president in 2008. The current group would not have my eager vote (except if Newt Gingrich has officially announced his candidacy). Rudy Guiliani would probably be my second choice, but I'm not pleased with several of his social positions.
Let us all continue to pray for our nation, our troops, and for the noble cause of stamping out radical Islamic terrorism around the world. We are in for a long and difficult fight...there is no doubt about that. But we can win if we don't give up and are steadfast in our goals.
Hat tips:
World Net Daily
Fox News
Update: You must read this post over at LGF. It further illustrates the lunacy of the far left mentality.
Labels:
anti-war zealots,
Iraq war,
Radical Islam
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4 comments:
I can't agree with you about supporting Newt. I think he's as far out of touch with reality as most politicians. Politicians will say what they think the voting public wants to hear... they use religion just like some extremists do. The pull out the Christian card if it will get them elected. Look at their actions and you'll see that many who claim to be conservative Christians are really part of the big business that is our government. Money is the religion of government.
I think perhaps we should start saying that the extremists among us are carrying out their acts of terrorism "in the name of" religion, whether it be Christianity, Islam of any other religion. Certainly, no true Christian would bomb an abortion clinic and murder those inside, but people do it "in the name of" Christianity. The world then gets a distorted perception of what Christianity really is. I think the same must be true for Muslims, because my next door neighbors are Muslim, and they are as troubled by what is being done in the name of their religion as we are.
I also think the most liberal among us are very short sighted. They jump on whatever bandwagon is passing by with out any regard to the reality of things. I've seen any number of self-proclaimed conservatives do the same thing, however. I'll never understand how celebrities became the voice of all that is political in our nation. The majority of those who scream the loudest aren't educated beyond high school, and many didn't even get THAT much education. To say that we stirred up the hornets nest is unbelievable to me because these same terrorists came into our country and slaughtered thousands in cold blood on 9/11. They were able to do that because for the previous 8 years, the liberal President largely ignored the situation in the Middle East, adopting the liberal philosophy that if we just leave them alone, they'll go away. They won't. They don't care whether we're liberal, conservative etc. All they care about is that we're not radical Muslims, who believe exactly what they believe. The idea that if we just give them a coke and a smile with a "sorry, my bad," they'll stop trying to destroy this country is so far out of touch with reality that it's frightening.
I try not to use the term evil very lightly, because evil is a real thing that exists. I do have the sick feeling that this radical movement of Islam is truly evil.
Has the ultimate battle between good and evil already begun? I wonder...
My husband doesn't think that Newt is electable just because he has been such a polarizing politician in the past. But from what I have heard from him, and read about him, he is the real deal when it comes to conservative views and issues.
Since most of the public has a habit of going for the more "celebrity" type candidates, I think that Rudy Guiliani will probably win the Republican nomination. His positive points are that he is strong on homeland security (I sincerely hope that he will do more to stop illegal immigration than Bush has done!), he would be steadfast and strong when it comes to the war in Iraq, in particular, and the war on terror, in general. He did a lot to clean up corruption, greatly lessen crime, and generally clean up New York.
I have misgivings about his stand on abortion, approval of the gay agenda, and I hear that he might make bad decisions regarding gun ownership.
I heard that Clinton actually had 11 chances to get Bin Laden and didn't do so. The T.V. movie about 9/11 (based on the 9/11 report and other info) actually showed one chance that they had when Bin Laden was in Afghanistan, and in the direct sight of intelligence operatives who had weapons ready to get him. All they needed was the O.K. from Washington and the limp guts in charge refused to give the order to carry out the assassination.
My question is, why hasn't Sandy Berger been arrested and jailed for stuffing classified documents down his pants that may have helped the 9/11 commission examination even further? Why does he get a pass on this?? I'm appalled!
Jaded: "I try not to use the term evil very lightly, because evil is a real thing that exists. I do have the sick feeling that this radical movement of Islam is truly evil.
Has the ultimate battle between good and evil already begun? I wonder..."
Yes! On both accounts!
Christine, it's rather refreshing that you and I have been in agreement on so many things lately... wonder what's going on? LOL!
Jaded,
I know!
Perhaps we originally agreed on a lot of things, but the "bad start" we had over at that "other blog" way back when didn't allow us to see it.
I think that the people over there riled us both up, at times. You were just more able to keep your cool better than I was with that crowd! LOL!
It seems that the longer I'm in the blogging world, the more people I find and enjoy connecting with who agree with the Christian Biblical worldview. None of us have personally "met", but it's God's Word that brings us together. I love it!
But then...there are the occasional visitors who hold a completely opposite worldview...like that "Limpy" guy. (Just teasing...Limpy!) Well...on second thought...maybe it's really true! His photo has a cartoon character and it says "go to hell" on it. Now that's as opposite as you can get to a Christian conversation blog!
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