Christians Are Persecuted

Copts Riot in Egypt After Church Destroyed. I have quoted Conrad Black before. His latest column is on persecution of Christians in the world:

It is not generally appreciated that over 100,000 Christians a year are murdered because of their faith. Because Christianity is, by a wide margin, the world’s largest religion, the leading religion in the traditionally most advanced areas of the world, and, despite its many fissures, the best organized, largely because of the relatively tight and authoritarian structure of the Roman Catholic Church, the West is not accustomed to thinking of Christians as a minority, much less a persecuted one.

All though out the Middle East, Christian are under extreme pressure. Communities that have lasted thousands of years are being destroyed. The secular governments, like Saddam Hussein, had protected them. The new governments of Islamic fundamentalists are trying to drive them out. 

Conrad commented on the situation in the above photo. 

The recent Muslim attacks on Egypt’s Christian Copts caused the military to intervene against the Christians, killing dozens of them, which action the military government then blamed on the “inexperience” of the soldiers involved. (Unlimited experience is not required to foretell the consequences of firing automatic weapons and rifles at unarmed demonstrators at point-blank range.)

The direct result of American foreign policy is the destruction of Christian communities that have lasted for centuries. This will continue. 

Are You Unemployed?

People tend to focus on the wrong numbers. Here is an example of a number that one should be considered:

There are currently 132,409,000 nonfarm employees. In December of 2000 there were 132,481,000 employees. How's that for job growth? -- Michael Shedlock, Global Economic Trend Analysis blog

The chart tells us of a great change in the American work force-women entering it in record numbers. Right now we have a different factor going on the gentrification of America as the Baby Boomers age. We have returned to the workforce participation of 1982. Of course there are temporary factors like the person who realizes that there are no jobs to be had and they quit looking. Maybe they could make this into a game show? 

Here is the number you should focus on, the true unemployment rate:

The true unemployment rate is 15.1%. 

Propaganda

A good student produced video about the techniques of propaganda. 

Discrimination?

Last week was an interesting week for me on Facebook and here on the blog. Last Saturday when I stated my opposition to gay marriage, I got a comment, very nice and civil by the way, that disagreed with me. I like such comments. 

On Facebook however I pointed out that the incident where Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed was not about homosexuality, but violence. I was immediately accused of being homosexual. The word “fag” was used, but not in reference to me. The thread was eventually deleted as was only proper.

I decided to talk about these issues a little more. First we have this episode:

A restaurant in Knoxville, Tennessee refused to serve state Sen. Stacey Campfield, the man who sponsored the state’s “don’t say gay” bill, compared homosexuality to bestiality, and most recently told Michelangelo Signorile that it’s virtually impossible to spread HIV/AIDS through heterosexual sex. “I hope that Stacy Campfield now knows what if feels like to be unfairly discriminated against,” the Bistro at the Bijou wrote on its Facebook wall on Sunday. The restaurant has received an overwhelmingly positive response.

I found this amusing on several levels. It was not unfair for the restaurant to do this. It is their right, or at least it should be. Another thing I found amusing was that it is not a good business model for 1 to 2 % of the population to discriminate against 98% of the population. The potential customers who do not show up are not going to say anything. 

It is also amusing to me that I wish to give the right to refuse service to them, but they are often unwilling to do the same for others. Even more amusing is the fact that the person they “discriminated” against does not discriminate and rents his rental property to homosexuals. 

Maybe I am easy to amuse. 

As for it being nearly impossible to get AIDS through heterosexual relations, this is clearly wrong. 

Transmission route                        Male                               Female

Male-to-male sexual contact          24,132                                -

Injection drug use                        2,652                                1,520

Male-to-male sexual contact

and injection drug use                    1,157                                    -

Heterosexual contact                     4,551                                8,706

Other                                            47                                     29

Total*                                           32,538                            10,255

* Because totals are calculated independently of the subpopulations, the values in each column may not sum exactly to the figure in the ‘Total’ row

 I took this chart from here. 

However these statistics must be tempered with the fact that many homosexuals will not admit their lifestyle. Nor will many drug users admit to drug use. Avoidance of prostitutes, bi-sexual men, and intravenous drug users as sexual partners will reduce the risk to very low levels, but not to the “virtually impossible” level. 

The CDC estimated that a man having vaginal sex with an HIV infected women has a 1 in 1000 chance of being infected. This is every time it happens, so over the years the odds increase. I was not able to find a reference on the CDC site, but this paper on why AIDS is so prevalent in Africa and on the effects of circumcision on aids transmission (it halves the risk) references it. 

Years ago I saw a skit on the comedy show “Living Color.” Two people were about to have sexual relations. They talked about their previous liaisons. Suddenly every person either had ever had sex with appeared in the room. The woman was clearly upset that some of the man’s previous partners looked better than she did. The man that appeared in his group was explained by the man saying “I was in jail once.” The skit never did explain the white (both actors in the skit were black) meek accountant that appeared on the woman’s side of the bed. 

Often comedy can bring forward important points in a memorable way. When you sleep with someone you are also sleeping with every person they ever slept with. 

I Corinthians 6 talks about this issue:

¹² ”I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but I will not be mastered by anything. ¹³ You say, “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy them both.” The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. ¹⁴ By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. ¹⁵ Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! ¹⁶Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.” ¹⁷ But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit.

 ¹⁸ Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body.¹⁹ Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; ²⁰ you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.

So to answer the now deleted Facebook thread, yes sexual immorality is wrong. This includes homosexual acts. 

I will talk about Sodom and Gomorrah later as their fate relates to the theme I am developing on war.  

Remember The Maine. The Hell With Spain

Spanish CartoonOne of the better examples of a false flag operation is the sinking of the Maine in Havana harbor on February 15, 1898. The Spanish were immediately blamed after the explosion. No one knows what happened. The most likely explanation is that coal dust ignited. This caused a fire that exploded the munitions in the ship. The Spanish had zero reason to get the US more heavily involved in the Cuban revolt.  

Admiral Hyman G. Rickover investigated the explosion years later:  

Admiral Hyman G. Rickover became intrigued with the disaster and began a private investigation in 1974. Using information from the two official inquiries, newspapers, personal papers and information on the construction and ammunition of Maine it was concluded that the explosion was not caused by a mine. Instead spontaneous combustion of coal in the bunker next to magazine was speculated to be the most likely cause. The Admiral published a book about this investigation, How the Battleship Maine Was Destroyed, in 1976.

The Wreckage of the MaineThe first official Navy report blamed a mine. A second report, done after the war when no propaganda was needed, concluded that it was an internal explosion. Oops. 

As with 9-11, some concluded that the US Government sank its own ship. No one knows what happened. 

The explosion provided the needed slogan and propaganda for war. It does not matter how the explosion occurred. It served the purpose of justifying the war. (I have blogged about the Spanish American War before.)

The Media frenzy was manipulated: 

One of Remington's More Well Known WorksFrederic Remington, an artist hired by Hearst to provide illustrations to accompany a series of articles on the Cuban Revolution, soon became bored with seemingly peaceful Cuba and wired Hearst on January 1897:

"Everything is quiet. There is no trouble. There will be no war. I wish to return." To which Hearst's reply was: "Please remain. You furnish the pictures and I'll furnish the war."

I had heard this story before but did not realize it was the famous artist Remington that Hearst hired. Propaganda is the purpose of Media, owned then as now by the wealthy. 

The war was very popular among Protestants in America—just as war is popular among evangelicals today. The Spanish being Catholic made them suspect in the popular prejudice. Islam being opposed to Israel is the current template by which everything is viewed and justified. To oppose Israel is to oppose God, they say. 

So here is the pattern we will see in the justification of war. An event is staged, or occurs and its importance exaggerated, and this is used to justify the desired war. The incident is used to inspire the patriotism of the masses, who will be needed to fight the war. This pattern will continue in the other incidents I will discuss.

The Front Page Of Hearst's New York Journal