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Mike S. Adams
townhall.com/columnists/mikeadams/ma20050531.shtml
May 31, 2005

University administrators, professors, and student newspapers are becoming so detached from reality that one can hardly write satire about university life. Nor can one muster the sarcasm necessary to give these people the ridicule they deserve.

For example, I recently mocked the editors of UNC-Wilmington’s student newspaper, The Seahawk, for wanting Christian organizations to sign a non-discrimination clause that would clearly trump constitutionally protected freedoms of religious expression. I jokingly suggested that the paper believes that “students who believe that rape and pedophilia are good must be allowed to join, vote, and hold office in a Christian fraternity.”

Unfortunately, The Seahawk missed the sarcasm and gave this serious two-word answer: “They should.” They even explained their position:

read more…

I received a letter from my senator, Ellie Kinnaird, in response to my recent letter to the editor.

Her letter was as follows:

Dear Mr. Weaks,

Perhaps you are not aware that the Red Cross reported the violation of the Koran in front of the prisoners to the pentagon. The Pentagon subsequently forbid the practice.

Sincerely,
Eleanor Kinnaird

The letter also including a printed copy of this NY Times’ article.

Here is my response to Ms. Kinnaird mailed on 5/26/05.

Dear Ms. Kinnaird,

Thank you for writing. I am quite aware of current events.

I am sure you must have a coherent point or a logical reason for writing to me, but I fail to grasp it. If you wish to enlighten me further, I will kindly listen.

Your claim that the Red Cross reported “violations of the koran” is misleading. What the Red Cross reported was that detainees at Guantanamo Bay complained about mishandling of the koran.

“The International Committee of the Red Cross told the Pentagon “multiple” times in 2002 and early 2003 prisoners at the base in Cuba alleged U.S. officials showed “disrespect” for the Muslim holy book, said Simon Schorno, an ICRC spokesman.

“The U.S. government took corrective measures and those allegations have not resurfaced,” Schorno said.

The ICRC spokesman declined to specify if the complaints included the flushing of the Koran down the toilet or if U.S. officials used the disrespect as part of interrogations. Members of the humanitarian organization, which is given access to the prison, did not witness any mishandling of the Koran.” (See Reuters article enclosed)

In January 2003 the U.S. military did indeed issue some guidelines at Guantanamo concerning the koran. Those guidelines may or may not have come as a result of the abuse reports. They may have come because something was happening or it may simply have been due diligence.

I trust the U.S. military more than the terrorists.

Your inclusion of the New York Times’ article baffled me as well. The article further demonstrates the point I was making about poor journalism.

A cynic would say that the Times ran the story with some kind of ulterior motive. The story first ran two months ago (Saturday, March 26), when the Army announced the investigations. The timing of its next appearance could be perceived as suspicious, but regardless there are multiple things suspect:

One, the cases the article reports occurred over two years ago and every fact in the story was uncovered and reported on by the U.S. military investigating itself. They brought criminal charges against seven soldiers. It’s an example of self-examination and responsibility that the military never seems to get the slightest credit.

Two, the article, taken from “leaked” confidential reports, cannot be contradicted at this time.

Three, the quotes throughout the article could easily be taken out of context, see point two.

Four, the Times states: “The Times obtained a copy of the file from a person involved in the investigation who was critical of the methods used at Bagram and the military’s response to the deaths.” So, the source has a bias and possibly an agenda. That does not mean the source is wrong, but the source would clearly want the report to be seen the way they see it.

In regards to the claims of terrorist detainees, it is entirely possible and reasonable to believe that Al Qaeda will play distortion games. (Reference: see the training manual uncovered in England and posted online by the U.S. Department of Justice: www.usdoj.gov/ag/trainingmanual.htm) That is not to say that all allegations of abuse are false.

Also, a related and under-reported issue is the fact that detainees have been deceptive about their motives and actions and when released have returned to their “jihad” and killed U.S. and coalition soldiers. (See Washington Post article enclosed)

What does this have to do with Newsweek’s sloppy work? Well… not much really. The Newsweek story was false and thankfully, although somewhat grudgingly, retracted. There is no evidence to support the story.

Even if the story were true it’s still an example of poor journalism. The point of my letter was not about the so-called “koran abuse,” but rather the shoddy nature of Newsweek’s reporting and especially the excuse makers who tried to justify it.

I don’t blame Newsweek for the deaths and riots associated with the story. That wasn’t the point either. The big issue is that we have some serious problems in our free press. Bias, shallowness and expediency are replacing truth, depth and accuracy. It does not bode well for the future of our republic.

Finally, I have hope that someone in the local media “gets it.” See Herald-Sun editor Bob Ashley’s article, enclosed. That is an example of the proper response and not the “blame Bush” mentality exhibited in Mr. Schram’s guest column.

I wish you peace and may God bless.

Sincerely,
James A. Weaks

Yeah it’s weird, but funny…

3dweb.no/galleri/stuestolbm/bilder/anim1.swf

Hat tip:
paulmccain.worldmagblog.com/paulmccain/

Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 29, 2005; Page C01

College faculties, long assumed to be a liberal bastion, lean further to the left than even the most conspiratorial conservatives might have imagined, a new study says.

By their own description, 72 percent of those teaching at American universities and colleges are liberal and 15 percent are conservative, says the study being published this week. The imbalance is almost as striking in partisan terms, with 50 percent of the faculty members surveyed identifying themselves as Democrats and 11 percent as Republicans.

The disparity is even more pronounced at the most elite schools, where, according to the study, 87 percent of faculty are liberal and 13 percent are conservative.

Here:
washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8427-2005Mar28.html

A Young Marine Restores My Faith

Ann Baker
Sunday, June 30, 2002
Orange County, California
blessthetroops.com

It was our normal Thursday morning business meeting at our real-estate office. No big deal. Before the meeting we hung around the bagel table, as usual, with our coffee. He stood aside, looking a little shy and awkward and very young, a new face in a room full of extroverted salespeople. An average looking guy, maybe 5 feet 8 inches. A clean-cut, sweet-faced kid. I went over to chat with him. Maybe he was a new salesman?

He said he was just back from Kabul, Afghanistan. A Marine. Our office (and a local school) had been supportive by sending letters to him and other troops, which he had posted on the American Embassy door in Kabul. He stood guard there for four months and was shot at daily.

He had come to our office to thank us for our support, for all the letters during those scary times. I couldn’t believe my ears. He wanted to thank us? We should be thanking him. But how? How can I ever show him my appreciation?

read more…

“A Whiter Shade of Pale”: Sense and Nonsense - The Pursuit of Perfection in Law and Politics
Speech of Janice Rogers Brown, Associate Justice, California Supreme Court
at The Federalist Society
University of Chicago Law School
April 20, 2000

Thank you. I want to thank Mr. Schlangen (fondly known as Charlie to my secretary) for extending the invitation and the Federalist Society both for giving me my first opportunity to visit the City of Chicago and for being, as Mr. Schlangen assured me in his letter of invitation, “a rare bastion (nay beacon) of conservative and libertarian thought.” That latter notion made your invitation well-nigh irresistible. There are so few true conservatives left in America that we probably should be included on the endangered species list. That would serve two purposes: Demonstrating the great compassion of our government and relegating us to some remote wetlands habitat where — out of sight and out of mind — we will cease being a dissonance in collectivist concerto of the liberal body politic.

In truth, they need not banish us to the gulag. We are not much of a threat, lacking even a coherent language in which to state our premise. [I should pause here to explain the source of the title to this discussion. Unless you are a very old law student, you probably never heard of "A Whiter Shade of Pale."] “A Whiter Shade of Pale” is an old (circa 1967) Procol Harum song, full of nonsensical lyrics, but powerfully evocative nonetheless. Here’s a sample:

read more…

Submitted to the Chapel Hill Herald
18 May 2005

In reference to:
shns.com/shns/g_index2.cfm?action=detail&pk=SCHRAM-05-17-05

Editor:

The recent performance of Newsweek should be bad enough, but large portions of the media continue to demonstrate
systemic faults. Case in point, the Chapel Hill Herald guest article by Martin Schram on May 18th. Mr. Schram’s point, in summary, is that it’s all the fault of the Bush administration. Can we please give Mr. Schram a collective “huh, say what?”

No, no, not our fault. It’s that awful administration. They didn’t stop us. They didn’t investigate. They didn’t comment. They didn’t do our job for us! (At the same time another portion of the media is accusing and condemning the administration on the exact opposite charges.)

There is a word for such behavior: juvenile. It’s long past time for the media and journalism in general to take an introspective look. In this information age, errant news reporting will seldom stand unopposed. The bar has been raised.

-jweaks

Wednesday, October 20th 2004
George J. Esseff, Sr.
an advertisement in the Washington Post

You’re a Republican???

In today’s America, ask a growing number of high school and college students; their teachers and professors; the self-anointed media elite and/or hard working men and women of all ethnicities, the question, “What is a Republican?”, and you’ll be told “… a rich, greedy, egotistical individual, motivated only by money and the desire to accumulate more and more of it, at the expense of the environment … the working poor ….and all whom they exploit…”

I am a Republican … I am none of those things… and I don’t know any Republicans who are.

read more…

Bible Illiteracy in America
by David Gelernter
The Weekly Standard
05/23/2005, Volume 010, Issue 34

A REPORT JUST ISSUED BY the Bible Literacy Project (more on this later) suggests that young Americans know very little about the Bible. The report is important, but first things first: A fair number of Americans don’t see why teenagers should know anything at all about the Bible.

Scripture begins with God creating the world, but there is something these verses don’t tell you: The Bible has itself created worlds. Wherever you stand on the spectrum from devout to atheist, you must acknowledge that the Bible has been a creative force without parallel in history.

The rest of the story:
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/005/606lxblg.asp

The Bible Literacy Project’s full report on this topic can be downloaded for free at:
http://www.bibleliteracy.org/Login/LoginGeneral_Form.cfm

“…What is worth doing even if you can’t succeed? Is there a mountain worth climbing even if there’s no hope of ever reaching the top? Think about it. Standing on the top of the mountain is a moment, supposedly the moment “that makes it worth it all.” Makes it worth all what? A lifetime of disconnection, alienation and misplaced priorities? The world’s saddest person is that tragic has-been who speaks incessantly about his or her shining moment long ago. Do you really want to be the woman who “used to be” Miss America? Or the man who “used to play” professional sports?

No mountain climber ever stays long on the summit. But the brevity of these visits isn’t because someone drove them off to take their place. They leave because there is nothing more to do. The movie is over. The credits are rolling. Holding an empty popcorn bucket and a soft-drink cup, they go looking for a trash can and a bathroom.

Susan Ertz once wrote, “Millions long for immortality who don’t know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon.” Life, if you will, is that rainy Sunday afternoon. What are you going to do with it?

I’m talking about embracing a commitment to something far bigger than your own small and petty desires.

Commitment is not to be found in brave talk, bold resolution, or dramatic gesture. And she will not be measured quickly. Strong and silent, Commitment steps into the light only in those dark and quiet moments when it would be easier to creep, unseen, away.

How deep is your Commitment to what you’re doing with your life?…”

Roy H. Williams

More/From here:
http://www.wizardacademy.com/showmemo.asp?id=223

News from the battlefield was not always good, but sad mail was better than none

Last of a series.

By Deangelo McDaniel
DAILY Staff Writer
From here:
http://www.decaturdaily.com/decaturdaily/news/050415/letters.shtml

With a heavy heart, Col. Columbus Sykes sat near a tree in Aberdeen, Miss., and wrote a letter to his niece and nephew.

“You are yet young, very young,” he wrote, “one just emerged from his mother’s arms; the other an infant, whose age is numbered only by months.”

Less than a month earlier on Oct. 26, 1864, Sykes had held his brother, Dr. William E. Sykes, in his arms as he was dying in a home at Decatur.

In the Nov. 18, 1864, letter, Sykes is telling his brother’s young children about their “devoted father” and his “noble brother” who joined the Confederate Army.

“Though suffering excruciating agony, he calmly surveyed his wound and pronounced it inevitably mortal,” Sykes wrote.

“And, then with a courage that was sublime in its exhibition, he prepared for the last struggle with the great monster: death.”

The letters and telegrams that reached the Tennessee Valley from the battlefield did not always bring good news.

read more…

Posted for future reference.

THE TRUE CHURCH, by J.C. Ryle, Bishop of Liverpool

I want you to belong to the one true Church: to the Church outside of which there is no salvation. I do not ask where you go on a Sunday; I only ask, “Do you belong to the one true Church?” Where is this one true Church? What is this one true Church like? What are the marks by which this one true Church may be known? You may well ask such questions. Give me your attention, and I will provide you with some answers.

The one true Church is *composed of all believers in the Lord Jesus*. It is made up of all God’s elect of all converted men and women of all true Christians. In whomsoever we can discern the election of God the Father, the sprinkling of the blood of God the Son, the sanctifying work of God the Spirit, in that person we see a member of Christ’s true Church.

It is a Church of which *all the members have the same marks*. They are all born again of the Spirit; they all possess “repentance towards God, faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ,” and holiness of life and conversation. They all hate sin, and they all love Christ. They worship differently, and after various fashions; some worship with a form of prayer, and some with none; some worship kneeling, and some standing; but they all worship with one heart. They are all led by one Spirit; they all build upon one foundation; they all draw their religion from one single book, that is the Bible. They are all joined to one great center, that is Jesus Christ. They all even now can say with one heart, “Hallelujah”; and they can all respond with one heart and voice, “Amen and Amen.”

read more…