No Comment...(mostly)

As an 'infidel', I continue to be curious about Islamic rituals and how they may compare to the things we do. I'm not sure if we have any that compare. Certainly, I would hope any ritual wouldn't be quite as dangerous as this appears to be... Items in bold are of particular interest to me, but as I said, no comment.

Saudi Government Says 345 Killed in Hajj Stampede
Thursday, January 12, 2006

MINA, Saudi Arabia — Thousands of Muslim pilgrims rushing to complete a symbolic stoning ritual during the hajj tripped over luggage Thursday, causing a crush in which at least 345 people were killed, the Interior Ministry said.

The stampede occurred as tens of thousands of pilgrims headed toward al-Jamarat, a series of three pillars representing the devil that the faithful pelt with stones to purge themselves of sin.

A ministry spokesman, Maj. Gen. Mansour al-Turki, said the stampede happened as pilgrims were rushing to complete the last of three days of the stoning ritual before sunset. Some of the pilgrims began to trip over dropped luggage, causing a large pileup, al-Turki said.

Ambulances and police cars streamed into the area, and security forces tried to move pilgrims away from part of the site, though thousands continued with the ritual.

Saudi authorities replaced the small round pillars with short walls to allow more people to throw their stones without jostling for position. They also recently widened the bridge, built extra ramps and increased the time pilgrims can carry out the rite — which on the second and final days traditionally takes place from midday until sunset.

Shiite Muslim clerics have issued religious edicts allowing pilgrims to start the ritual in the morning, and many Shiites from Iraq, Iran, Bahrain, Lebanon and Pakistan took advantage to go early in the day.

"This is much better. We are now done with the stoning before the crowd gets larger," an Iranian pilgrim, Azghar Meshadi, said hours before the stampede.

But Saudi Arabia's Sunni Muslim clerics, who follow the fundamentalist Wahhabi interpretation of Islam, encouraged pilgrims to stick to the midday rule.

The stoning ritual is one of the last events of the hajj pilgrimage to Islam's holiest sites, which able-bodied Muslims with the financial means are required by their faith to do at least once.

Many pilgrims had already finished the stoning ritual Thursday and had gone back to Mecca to carry out a farewell circuit around the Kaaba, the black stone cube that Muslims face when they do their daily prayers.

One of the NSA 'leakers'?

Found this interview with Russell Tice, a former NSA/DIA guy that was fired in May of '05 thru Michelle Malkin, and "Democracy Now", with Amy Goodman doing the interview. If you haven't watched it on cable, Democracy Now thinks CNN is part of a GOP/corporate conspiracy. This is not the transcript in its entirety, but I lifted out some interesting comments. I'm not sure what to make of Mr. Tice. I'm not sure he does either...

He basically agrees that the NSA is supposed to be doing the things its doing and as Bush said, that it was a 'good thing to know if Al-Qaeda is dialing your number'. He was never asked to spy on Americans and doesn't know anyone that did. He got fired and doesn't indicate why.

Transcript(my edits) here...

AMY GOODMAN:… can you just describe for us what is the National Security Agency? How does it monitor these communications?

RUSSELL TICE: Well, the National Security Agency is an agency that deals with monitoring communications for the defense of the country.

AMY GOODMAN: Russell Tice, you have worked for the National Security Agency. Can you talk about your response to the revelations that the Times…the revelation of the wiretapping of American citizens?

RUSSELL TICE: Well, as far as an intelligence officer, especially a SIGINT (Signals Intelligence, rw) officer at N.S.A., we're taught from very early on in our careers that you just do not do this…Ultimately, so do the leaders of N.S.A., and apparently the leaders of N.S.A. have decided that they were just going to go against the tenets of something that’s a gospel to a SIGINT officer.

AMY GOODMAN: We talk to Russell Tice, former intelligence agent with the National Security Agency, formerly with the Defense Intelligence Agency, worked with the N.S.A. up until May 2005. Russell Tice, what happened then? What happened in May 2005?

RUSSELL TICE: Well, basically I was given my walking papers and told I was no longer a federal employee. So –

AMY GOODMAN: What would you say to those who say you are speaking out now simply because you are disgruntled?

RUSSELL TICE: Well, I guess that’s a valid argument. You know, I was fired.

AMY GOODMAN: What do you think of the Justice Department launching an investigation into the leak, who leaked the fact that President Bush was spying on American citizens?

RUSSELL TICE: Well, I think this is an attempt to make sure that no intelligence officer ever considers doing this.

AMY GOODMAN: And what do you think of the news that the National Security Agency spying on American citizens without a court order and foreign nationals is now sharing this information with other agencies like, well, the other agency you worked for, the Defense Intelligence Agency?

RUSSELL TICE: …So it’s not unusual for the intelligence community to share information. But when we’re talking about information on the American public, which is a violation of the FISA law, then I think it's even something more to be concerned about.

AMY GOODMAN: Were you ever asked to engage in this?

RUSSELL TICE: No, no...

AMY GOODMAN: What about the telecoms, the telecommunications corporations working with the Bush administration to open up a back door to eavesdropping, to wiretapping?

RUSSELL TICE: If that was done and, you know, I use a big “if” here…

AMY GOODMAN: We're talking to Russell Tice, former intelligence agent with the National Security Agency, worked at the N.S.A. up until May of 2005. What is data mining?

RUSSELL TICE: Data mining is a means by which you -- you have information, and you go searching for all associated elements of that information in whatever sort of data banks or databases that you put together with information. So if you have a phone number and you want to associate it with, say, a terrorist or something, and you want to associate it with, you know, ‘Who is this terrorist talking to?’ you start doing data on what sort of information or what sort of numbers does that person call or the frequency of time, that sort of thing. And you start basically putting together a bubble chart of, you know, where everybody is.

AMY GOODMAN: Do you expect you are being monitored, surveilled, wiretapped right now?

RUSSELL TICE: Yes, I do.

AMY GOODMAN: President Bush. Russell Tice, you’re with the National Security Agency, or you were until May 2005. If al-Qaeda's calling, the U.S. government wants to know. Your response?

RUSSELL TICE: Well, that's probably a good thing to know.

AMY GOODMAN: Did you support the President, Russell Tice? Did you vote for President Bush?

RUSSELL TICE: I am a Republican. I voted for President Bush both in the last election and the first election where he was up for …it’s not like, you know -- I think you’re going to find a lot of folks that are in the Department of Defense and the intelligence community are apt to be on the conservative side of the fence.

AMY GOODMAN: Russell Tice, did you know anyone within the N.S.A. who refused to spy on Americans, who refused to follow orders?

RUSSELL TICE: No. No, I do not. As far as -- of course, I'm not witting of anyone that was told they will spy on an American...

Its the Constitution, after all

Ok, did alot of reading relative to the NSA's program of intercepting communications without warrants on behalf of the President. This is simple.

• The NSA obviously intercepts a lot of communications 'data', some of which makes it across the water to the US, or from here to there. That falls under Article II of the Constitution. The Executive Branch has the right ( and the requirement) to conduct this kind of 'warrantless' survellience against foreign entities, be they countries or terrorist organizations, outside and inside our borders.
  

• They may know who is sending or receiving the information (Al Qaeda operatives, etc.), but may not know initially who's on the other end, sending or receiving.

• If the initially unknown person winds up being a US person (citizen or resident alien), THEN we need to deal with the Fourth Amendment. If they're not a US person, all bets are off.
  

Unless and until the liberal element in this country understands that this is a war and not criminal activity that we're dealing with, they're going to continue with this unmitigated drivel.

Sleep in heavenly peace...

Well, there's your trouble, Mr. Osteen.

Was noodling around the net after my first post. Found this info from a Christianity Today review of Osteen's book (see below). Looks like Mrs. Osteen was just following her hubby's idea that, by golly, these airline people need to get with the program and show her the favor that God has given Joel to parking spaces, faster seating in restaurants, and bending airline baggage rules. I'm of the persuasion that Providence is the hand of God in the glove of Circumstance. Hence, I may well get the parking space by the entrance. By the same token, I should neither demand, expect, or be ungrateful for getting it, or pitch a fit if I don't. Tsk...

One of the finest chapters shows how Christians should aim for excellence and integrity. The book undercuts the emphasis on integrity, however, by suggesting trivial examples of God's favor to the faithful: faster seating in restaurants, a last-second opening of an excellent parking space, being upgraded to first class without seeking it, and enjoying a personal exemption from an airline's baggage policy.
Osteen tells of not wanting to check an expensive television camera on a flight to India. The counter clerk insists that the airline's policy strictly forbids him from it carrying on, and Osteen asks if he can talk to someone else. A pilot walks up and offers to stow the camera behind the cockpit.
"The woman behind the counter glared at me and shook her head, clearly aggravated," Osteen writes. "I just smiled and said, 'Sorry, ma'am; it's the favor of God.'" Or was it simply that an observant pilot intervened to prevent an unnecessary conflict (which some planning on Osteen's part could have prevented) from escalating?

Victoria's not too secret, secret.

According to various news reports, it seems the wife of famed Houston evangelist Joel Osteen, Victoria Osteen, got sideways with a stewardess on a Continental Airlines flight. Seems that Mrs. Osteen refused to follow the stewardess' instructions prior to take-off and the Osteen family, on its way to a ski vacation in Vail, was asked to leave the plane. Something about a 'spill' on the tray table on Mrs. Osteen's seat in First Class. Interestingly, part of the article included a statement from the FBI. Evidently, they were called as a result of what all happened on the plane. The plane remained grounded for about an hour or so while the Osteen's luggage was retrieved for a later flight to Vail. Not a whole lot of other details, as everyone seems to have kissed and made up, and are now shutting up, but what in the world is going on here?

• You have to be pretty out-of-control to be asked to leave a plane. What, did she rush the cockpit?
• The FBI was involved?
• All those other poor folks had to sit for over an hour while the airline de-planed the luggage?

Something ain't right here, and it doesn't speak well for Mr. Osteen. House is worth 2.2MM, just recently stopped taking his $220,000 (how much?) annual salary only because his book sales have topped 3 million units, and if you look at his website, he's a 'health and wealth, name it and claim it' industry unto himself, replete with a hip "J" logo (oh, the irony!). Tsk...

Ya gotta love Chris Muir

In case you weren't aware, Senator Joe Biden, part of the 'if its Bush, its got to be bad' crowd was in Iraq for some photo ops, replete with purple finger. Talk about shameless political opportunism...guess he'll have this as part of his 2008 presidential run, and hope folks have forgotten his opposition to the war by then...

Take your Pick

By all accounts, all is going well in Iraq on the elections. Now, you can have the Iraqi perspective here...purple finger, Middle Eastern woman with the right to vote, hand raised in V for Victory salute, or...




You can take the Liberal view of Janeane Garofalo...no purple finger, arm raised in a 'Heil Hitler' salute (hey Janeane, the Nazi salute is the right hand, OK?), reflecting her perception that conservatives that support the war in Iraq are all Nazis. Take your pick.

Hey all you Secularists and assorted Christmas haters: we give up!

The AP has been reporting that several "mega" churches are closing the doors on Sunday, December 25th. Why, you might ask? Because its Christmas, of course! Here's the part that gets me the most. Read the following statement from the spokeswoman for WCCC. Do you find it odd that a church has a "spokeswoman"? How big is the PR department for this place? Where the heck is the pastor? Getting his travel plans together to be out of town for Christmas perhaps?

Cally Parkinson, a spokeswoman for Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Ill., said church leaders decided that organizing services on a Christmas Sunday would not be the most effective use of staff and volunteer resources. The last time Christmas fell on a Sunday was 1994, and only a small number of people showed up to pray, she said.

"If our target and our mission is to reach the unchurched, basically the people who don't go to church, how likely is it that they'll be going to church on Christmas morning?" she said.

Hey Cally, its a dead cinch that no one will come on Christmas if the doors are closed. Maybe, just maybe, there might be someone out there that DOESN'T have any family to spend Christmas with, and a church with open doors might be a place of comfort to them. It beats going to a bar. You can bet they'll be going full blast for all those folks. Sheesh...Christmas has left the building!

They're right: Iraq is becoming another Vietnam...

So, what does that mean? The Wall Street Journal published an article recently describing the perspective of Communist North Vietnam leaders during that war. From a military standpoint (see Tet Offensive) the war was going disasterously for them. To their estimation, it took a full two years to recover from that setback. Where they were making real progress was here on the home front. They even mentioned Ramsey Clark, current Saddam advocate, as part of all that. It was a matter of waiting for public opinion here at home to force the USA out of the war, which it did.

We're getting the same thing now from Howard Dean (we can't win), John Kerry (our soldiers are terrorizing women and children in Iraq in the dead of night), Nancy Pelosi (we need out in six months), John Murtha (the army is broken down), Ramsey Clark (defending Saddam), and on down the line. You combine all of those folks with a media that supports the "I hate George Bush, therefore I must hate the war" line of thinking, and we're fighting on two fronts...there, and here at home. Might as well get Jane Fonda posing with an IED....(sigh)