Should all the Quakers be forgot and never have anxiety ~

Guy Lombardo & The Royal Canadians
Auld Lang Syne

Many moons go I knew someone who thought the lyric was should all the Quakers be forgot and never have anxiety.... I still sing it like that every year.

I miss Guy Lombardo's New Years Eve. It was corny and everyone made fun of me, but I loved it. God Bless the Royal Canadians.

Happy New Year.

Israel: Do It Right Or Don't Do It At All

U2 ~ New Years Day

I'm running the party ~ so you won't see me till Thursday probably. By Friday things should return to abnormal around here. Till then I'll throw WFRL's out as needed to accommodate comments. In the meantime, pray for Israel, pray for us, pray for the destruction of our enemies and for the redemption of the righteous.
Am Yisrael Chai !

Psalm 83

A song. A psalm of Asaph.

1 O God, do not keep silent;
be not quiet, O God, be not still.

2 See how your enemies are astir,
how your foes rear their heads.

3 With cunning they conspire against your people;
they plot against those you cherish.

4 "Come," they say, "let us destroy them as a nation,
that the name of Israel be remembered no more."

5 With one mind they plot together;
they form an alliance against you-

6 the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites,
of Moab and the Hagrites,

7 Gebal, ^[a] Ammon and Amalek,
Philistia, with the people of Tyre.

8 Even Assyria has joined them
to lend strength to the descendants of Lot.
Selah

9 Do to them as you did to Midian,
as you did to Sisera and Jabin at the river Kishon,

10 who perished at Endor
and became like refuse on the ground.

11 Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb,
all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna,

12 who said, "Let us take possession
of the pasturelands of God."

13 Make them like tumbleweed, O my God,
like chaff before the wind.

14 As fire consumes the forest
or a flame sets the mountains ablaze,

15 so pursue them with your tempest
and terrify them with your storm.

16 Cover their faces with shame
so that men will seek your name, O LORD.

17 May they ever be ashamed and dismayed;
may they perish in disgrace.

18 Let them know that you, whose name is the LORD—
that you alone are the Most High over all the earth.

Israel: Do It Right Or Don't Do It At All
by Gerald A. Honigman

Figures...the one day I don't read the paper or check my computer for news first thing in the morning...

Ugh!

Turns out the Jews finally overdosed and moved on Gaza while I was in the very midst of writing this article. So now, after having to plead my case with publishers I already drive crazy, please check it out anyway. Let's see how good the Israelis do. And hopefully, I'll be proven wrong...on at last some counts.

One of the so-called "Arab World's" greatest scholars, Ibn Khaldun, singled out the Jews centuries ago when he wrote The Muqaddimah.

Writing of the rise and fall of civilizations, he stressed the overwhelming importance of 'asabiyah--unique group consciousness--to the overall fate of any nation.

While Ibn Khaldun noted that the Jews had one of the most "noble houses" in history, he explained that, as a result of losing their 'asabiyah, they had subsequently suffered constant humiliations as a result.

The Muqaddimah stressed that the Jews were forced to wander in the desert for forty years due to their "meekness." Ibn Khaldun held that this was necessary so that a new generation would arise with a new, more powerful 'asabiyah.

Prime Minister Olmert and his crew should pay close attention to this...Jews can't afford yet another of such wanderings.

After putting up with countless mortar and rocket terror launched from Gaza since it unitaterally withdrew from there years ago, it looks like Israel, under Olmert and Livni, has gotten a green light from Washington to do what should have been done long ago. Unfortunately, these are not the leaders to do it right.

Too many of Olmert's crew have much in common with the "post-Zionism" plaguing too much of Israel today.

Too many of Israel's teachers, especially at the higher levels, lack that 'asabiyah Ibn Khaldun stressed and have spread the disease to their students as well.

Israel's war against Hizbullah in Lebanon was a result of such new leaders. An Israel under Menachem Begin, David Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir, or Arik Sharon would not have fought Hizbullah largely by the Arabs' own game plan. Olmert's crew did--with disastrous results.

And now this same crew is telegraphing it's punch to do a virtual Lebanon II in Gaza.

More young Israelis will be sent on the ground into deadly booby traps set for human and tank alike.

Arabs like to joke about how Jews value life...

We'll, for starters, they don't believe that they'll have seventy-two virgins awaiting them in Heaven as a reward for blowing up Arab babes and other innocents the way Arabs see this picture for themselves. So, the Arabs are correct--for this many other reasons as well.

But, following up on this observation, Israel thus needs to play a very different game in Gaza.

Hamas and the Gazan Arabs who elected it to office know that Israel can't lay low forever. It has deliberately been trying to bait Israel into fighting at this time. But I suspect that Hamas expects Israel to follow a game plan approved by Washington--especially the State Department--which will not allow it to do what really needs to be done here...actually win.

Israel will be allowed to punish Foggy Bottom's bad cop terrorists for the sake of the alleged latter-day Arafatian good cop ones of its darling, Mahmud Abbas. In reality, both have the same long-term goal for the Jewish State. But there's billions of dollars at stake for the winners. Recall Arafat's legendary Swiss bank accounts and so forth.

Israel must indeed answer terror, but at minimum cost to itself. Every soldier Israel loses is like America losing abot sixty.

No matter how "good" it tries to be here, it will be condemned anyway...So, do it as best as possible.

Those who deliberately set up terror shops amidst their own civilian human shields will be responsible for the deaths of innocents (and keep in mind that those "innocents" gladly elected the leaders they now have). The Geneva Conventions condemn such cowardice and further state that it will not prevent retribution. See the Perfidy Clause and so forth.

So, here's the real plan...

Bombers, not helicopters, will take the lead here.

Israel has already telegraphed its punch loudly and clearly in the aftermath of all Gaza singing Hamas's praises for hundreds of mortars and rockets fired at Israel in just the past few weeks. Newspaper articles all over the world have reported of Israel's upcoming invasion.

Massive, quick retaliation, following America's own Powell Doctrine for war, must be the guideline. If having death and destruction fired non-stop at your towns by folks who don't recognize your very right to exist is not war, then what is?

Bombers will need to seek out major groupings of armed fighters. So, the time for the strike should be set for when Hamas is having another of its major rallies or parades. Hopefully, Israeli intelligence can redeem itself here a bit. Hundreds must be sent to Paradise at one time--enough so that there will be a shortage of virgins.

Qassam rockets and such must be answered by artillery. Forget the tit-for-tat manure that Arabs only laugh at... Massive barrages must target sites from which terror is launched. Prospective mine fields and booby traps must be blasted as well.

Any suspected hideouts of Hamas leadership must be taken out. Israel had opportunities in earlier decades to do this and refused because of the human shield thing. Not this time...

Hide with them, die with them. President Bush almost said those exact words himself.

Many underground bunkers as well as tunnels have likely been constructed by Arabs in preparation for Gaza's virtual Lebanon II. This is a good time to test those bunker-busters, assuming Israel has gotten some decent intelligence here before it uses those expensive bombs.

Israeli teens and others should not be sent in on the ground until everything has been done to reduce their casualties. To Hell with those "innocents" who'd slit Jews's throats in an instant given the chance.

It's time for Israel to fight to win...like any other country would. So...

I don't recommend hitting Gaza now.

Conventional wisdom states that Israel should attack before President Obama takes office along with his list of anti-Israel advisers.

While this is a consideration, it is trumped by the make-up of Israel's current leaders and the wisdom of Ibn Khaldun.

Israel has waited this long to strike. It must wait a bit longer...until new elections produce leaders for whom the Jews's Zionist 'asabiyah is once more calling both the political and military shots.

At that time, it will be able to fight to win, not merely play the game that others have in store for it.

ADDITIONAL GAZA ARTICLES & PHOTOS

Monday Morning Cartoon

Pluto's Christmas Tree
1952

RIP Eartha Kitt

Eartha Kitt
Santa Baby

Eartha Kitt, a sultry singer, dancer and actress who rose from South Carolina cotton fields to become an international symbol of elegance and sensuality, has died, a family spokesman said. She was 81.

Andrew Freedman said Kitt, who was recently treated at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, died Thursday in Connecticut of colon cancer.

Eartha Kitt
C'est Si Bon
Live Kaskad 1962

As "Catwoman"

WFRL: Pa Rum Pum Pum Pum

Bing Crosby & David Bowie
The Little Drummer Boy

WFRL: Chestnuts Roasting

Nat KingCole
The Christmas Song

WFRL: And So This is Christmas ~

John Lennon
And So This is Christmas

WFRL WISHES FERALMANITY A JOYOUS NOEL

WFRL: Fall On Your Knees

Nat King Cole
Oh Holy Night

It's the Jihad, Charlie Brown!

Charlie Brown's Jihad Christmas

A Fatwa on Santa!

WFRL: Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

Judy Garland (& Margaret O'Brien)
From "Meet Me in St. Louis"
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

WFRL: White Christmas

Bing Crosby
White Christmas

WFRL: It just ain't Christmas without this album ~

A Christmas Gift For You - Phil Spector's Christmas Album

Starring:
Darlene Love
Bob E. Soxx & the Blue Jeans
The Crystals
The Ronettes

Personnel:
Jack Nitzsche – arrangements, percussion
Louis Blackburn – horns
Hal Blaine - drums
Sonny Bono - percussion
Leon Russell - piano
Roy Caton - trumpet
Steve Douglas - saxophone
Frank Capp - percussion
Barney Kessel - guitar
Jay Migliori - saxophone
Bill Pitman - guitar
Ray Pohlman - bass
Irv Rubins - guitar
Tommy Tedesco - guitar
Nino Tempo - guitar
Johnny Vidor - strings
Larry Levine - engineer

They tried to make me go to gulag, I say no no no ~

Mojo Nixon
You Can't Kill Me

(hat tip Mikael)

EXIGENT! If you recall I have been telling you about this in dribs and drabs since early September....

Understand This Feralmanity: Obama inherits this power in a matter of days ~ which is why I didn't give a rats ass about the stories about the "civilian task force" crap and didn't cover it...

WTF he needs that for when Comrade Bushki HANDS HIM THIS?

Far as I was concerned, that was diversionary info so all you good conservatives would not speak about or notice this shit.

MPH & ETA, Purple Proles ~

Bush administration claims U.S. military can police American citizens
BY MICHAEL WEBSTER

The Bush administration claims that the use of the military to support civil authorities stems from core national values as expressed in the Constitution. Article I, Section 8. It states, "Congress shall have power... to provide for calling forth the Militia to execute laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections, and repel invasions."

Article II, Section 3 states the President, "...shall take care that the Laws be faithfully executed." The 10th Amendment reads, "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it, are reserved to the States respectively...," providing the basis that Federal government support, including DoD assistance, is provided in support of State and local authorities.

According to Gerry J. Gilmore of "Family Security Matters reports that Pentagon officials have established a new rapid-response joint task force and plan to create two more in coming years to bolster assistance to civil authorities following potential chemical, biological or nuclear attacks or natural disasters, a senior U.S. official said. These new units will team with other federal agencies in support of local responders following chemical, biological or nuclear terror attacks on the homeland or during natural disasters, Paul McHale, assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense and Americas' security affairs, told reporters recently.

The establishment of the new units "builds upon a decade of improving [Defense Department] capabilities to deal with a domestic terrorist attack involving a weapon of mass destruction," McHale said. The first new 4,700-member task force was assigned to a component of U.S. Northern Command on Oct. 1, 2008 McHale said. The new unit, he said, is built around a core of active-duty soldiers from the U.S. Army 3rd Infantry Division's 1st Brigade Combat Team based at Fort Stewart, Ga.

This task force, he said, falls under the control of Northcom's Joint Force Land Component Command, U.S. Army North, in San Antonio. Plans are to stand up the other two new joint task forces in 2010 and 2011, respectively, McHale said. These units, he said, mostly will comprise reserve component personnel from all the military services. Each task force will be capable of performing tasks such as medical response, decontamination, technical rescue, patient evacuation, and communications and logistics support, to include air and land transportation assets for transport of supplies, people and equipment, according to U.S. Army North documents.

The task forces would be ordered into action by the president, McHale said, following requests for disaster-relief assistance from state governors. The Bush administration indicates that the President is authorized by the Constitution and Title 10 (10 USC 331–334) to suppress insurrections, rebellions, and domestic violence. After issuing a Cease and Desist Order, the President issues an executive order that directs the Attorney General and the SECDEF to take appropriate steps to disperse insurgents and restore law and order.

The Attorney General is then responsible to coordinate the federal response to domestic civil disturbances. The restrictions of the Posse Comitatus Act no longer apply to federal troops executing the orders of the President to quell the disturbance in accordance with Rules of the Use of Force (RUF) approved by the DoD General Counsel and the Attorney General. Even though McHale said, the new units do not conduct law-enforcement missions. And further stated in the event of civil disturbances and some other types of national emergencies, other designated U.S. military units could be ordered by the president to help civil authorities establish order as part of the Garden Plot domestic security plan.

However the USNORTHCOM Concept Plan (CONPLAN) 2502 (Civil Disturbance Operations), is the plan for supporting state and local authorities during civil disturbances. This plan serves as the foundation for any CDO operation and standardizes most activities and command relationships. Tasks performed by military forces may include joint patrolling with law enforcement officers; securing key buildings, memorials, intersections and bridges; and acting as a quick reaction force.

The JTF commander, a general officer, coordinates all DoD support with the Senior Civilian Representative of the Attorney General (SCRAG). DoD will usually establish a JTF headquarters near where the Attorney General's local representative is based. Garden Plot is the DoD Civil Disturbance Plan, the generic Operations Plan [OPLAN] for military support related to domestic civil disturbances. The department of the Army Civil Disturbance Plan (DA GARDEN PLOT), is the governing publication for planning, deployment, employment, and redeployment of federal military resources involved in countering domestic civil disturbances. Military assistance to Federal, State, and local government (including government of U.S. territories) and their law enforcement agencies for civil disturbances and civil disturbance operations, including response to terrorist incidents, are referred to cumulatively as "Military Assistance for Civil Disturbances (MACDIS)."

The DoD Strategy for Homeland Defense and Civil Support (2005) defines Defense Support of Civil Authorities (DSCA) as, "DoD support, including federal military forces, the Department's career civilian and contractor personnel, and DoD agency and component assets, for domestic emergencies and for designated law enforcement and other activities." It notes that DSCA is also often referred to as Civil Support. There has been discussion in some DoD offices of distinguishing between the two terms: Civil Support as a total force construct with DSCA involving Federal support only and not include the National Guard in Title 32 or State Active Duty status. But as of 2008 they remained essentially synonymous.

Civil disturbances are riots, acts of violence, insurrections, unlawful obstructions or assemblages, or other disorders prejudicial to public law and order. The term civil disturbance includes all domestic conditions requiring or likely to require the use of Federal Armed Forces pursuant to the provisions of Chapter 15 of Title 10, United States Code.

The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 (PCA), subsequent amendments and policy decisions prohibits the use of federal military forces (to include Reserve forces) to perform internal police functions. PCA thus restricts the type of support DoD can provide domestic law enforcement organizations. There are a wide variety of exceptions to the PCA and the law essentially gives the President all the authority he needs to employ DoD forces inside the U.S. although there may appropriately be political consequence that would inhibit such employment.

The term posse comitatus [po.si komitei.tAs, -tius , [med. (Anglo) L., force of the county: see prec. and county.] applies to the 'The force of the county'; the body of men above the age of fifteen in a county (exclusive of peers, clergymen, and infirm persons), whom the sheriff may summon or 'raise' to repress a riot or for other purposes; also, a body of men actually so raised and commanded by the sheriff. In the United States the posse comitatus was perhaps most important on the Western frontier (there known as a posse), but it has been preserved as an institution in many states. Sheriffs and other peace officers have the authority to summon the power of the county.

In some counties it is a crime to refuse assistance. In general, members of a posse comitatus have been permitted to use force if necessary to achieve a posse's legitimate ends, but state laws differ as to the legal liability of one who in good faith aids an officer himself acting beyond his authority. Congress sought to terminate the prevalent use of federal soldiers in civilian law enforcement roles in the South during the Reconstruction Period following the Civil War. The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 created general prohibition against use of military personnel in civilian law enforcement. The most renowned statutory exception has been traditionally referred to as The Insurrection Acts (10 USC 331–334) that were modified and renamed to Enforcement of the Laws to Restore Public Order by the 2007 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

The new language clarifies Presidential authority to invoke the acts for situations resulting from natural disasters and other emergencies. Military resources may be employed in support of civilian law enforcement operations in the 50 States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the U.S. territories and possessions only in the parameters of the Constitution and laws of the United States and the authority of the President and the Secretary of Defense, including delegations of that authority through this Directive or other means.

The primary responsibility for protecting life and property and maintaining law and order in the civilian community is vested in the State and local governments. Supplementary responsibility is vested by statute in specific Agencies of the Federal Government other than the Department of Defense. The President has additional powers and responsibilities under the Constitution of the United States to ensure that law and order are maintained.

The mission at NORTHCOM is to anticipate events in the homeland and to be prepared to respond, to either prevent the attacks or defeat them if they occur and then to mitigate the consequences of those attacks should they occur. In addition, NORTHCOM has a secondary mission to provide defense support to civil authorities. It's an old mission that the Army used to lump together under the Garden Plot scenario, in that there was always a brigade that was prepared to respond to civil disturbances.

"Our job at NORTHCOM is to ensure that if there's a seam or a gap there that we're thinking of how we could fill that with some other capability out of" the Defense Department "What that has forced us to do it is think about, 'How do you solve that time/distance problem, even on a short-notice event. And so I have access to capabilities now that I didn't have a year or two ago that I can move very quickly to fill that need. said Gen. Victor E. Renuart Jr., commander of United States Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Commander. "For example, if there were something that occurred in the El Paso area that the Texas National Guard might not have a capability immediately available to respond, but Fort Bliss did in an active-duty unit, then I would pull that active-duty unit out and make that available to the state to assist."

They are being staged and immediately available as emergency "on call" units for use against terrorist threats on the nation's border and local disasters, said Gen. Renuart Jr. Possibly the greatest challenge will be to support National Guard and reserve forces feeling the strain of repeated deployments that also have depleted equipment supplies. Guard units respond to natural disasters as well as bridge collapses and other human-caused incidents Renuart said. The Coast Guard, as well as the other Services, is required to maintain support plans. GARDEN PLOT is the name applicable to such service plans. Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) of operational commanders should reflect guidance herein. Military assistance to civil authorities is a peacetime matter, not to be confused with military support of civil defense (MSCD), which is a wartime function.

DOD task force operations to quell civil disturbances off military property can be initiated only by Presidential order. Cases of such initiation in the past occurred during the urban political and racial unrest in the Vietnam era when federal troops were deployed on a number of occasions. GARDEN PLOT operations may include terrorist incidents, though the FBI, not the Army, will then be the lead agent. In the event of civil unrest upon the high seas and waters subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, where in the Coast Guard has standing statutory responsibility, Coast Guard units will in all likelihood be legitimately involved in law enforcement operations well before any Presidential invocation of civil disturbance plans.

The Coast Guard character for law enforcement and cooperation with civil authorities is much broader than that of DOD services. DOD services are subject to law enforcement restrictions that are not applicable to the Coast Guard. Cooperation with other services in GARDEN PLOT operations is paramount and requires particular understanding of task force constitution and chains of command.

Civil disturbance planning cannot be deliberate in that force mix and locales are obviously indeterminate. Guidance herein will provide a basis for Coast Guard participation and related area and district supplemental instructions or other directives. Actual Coast Guard participation will in all likelihood be the logical extension of traditional law enforcement functions.

The Insurrection Act permitted the President to call the militia into Federal service to suppress insurrections and to enforce the law, including when State authorities were unable or unwilling to secure the Constitutional rights of their citizens. Rarely in U.S. history has this authority been employed. In fact, the National Guard has been federalized under the provisions of the Insurrection Act only ten (10) times since World War II. It is believed by critic's and other patriots that the U.S. Government plans to exercise these options and imprison citizen decedents.

Amy Winehouse
Rehab

WFRL: ALGORE YOU IGNORANT SLUT!

It's 11 degrees here and I have a foot and a half of snow....

LL Cool J
Mama Said Knock You Out

Kurds, Jews, And Shi'a Shoes

Those Shoes
The Eagles

Kurds, Jews, And Shi'a Shoes

by Gerald A. Honigman

As I'm sure you've heard by now, on a recent surprise visit to Iraq, President Bush had to duck when a Shi'a Arab journalist threw shoes at him in protest of American policies and presence in Iraq. During a news conference, Muntadhar al-Zaidi yelled out, "this is a gift from the Iraqis, a farewell kiss, you dog" and fired away.

Thrown shoes and dogs are about as low as you go in the Arab world. Forget about Marley and Me, Rin Tin Tin, or Old Yeller. I wish I could say that I was shocked by this disrespect usually reserved for such folks as the tolerant Arabs' kilab yahud—Jew dogs. I wasn't. Polls show that most Arab Iraqis—especially Shi'a—supported both al-Zaidi. While he was roughed up by those with a stake in the current regime, those later reports reveal the pulse of the nation.

While the Sunni have no love for America either—they were Saddam's folks—they now fear what's in store for themselves later on. While estimates of the dead vary (some hundreds of thousands), the 60% of Iraq who are Shi'a had their own aspirations suppressed only via the iron fist of the Sunni Arabs' Saddam. He employed the same murderous tactics against them as he did with non-Arab Kurds in the north.

Similar bloody actions against others in neighboring Iran by the majority non-Arab, Persian Shi'a are probably not a bad model for what to expect after America leaves a Shi'a-dominated Iraq as well …Payback time, so to speak. And don't expect a President Obama to move back in.

Unfortunately, the Kurds will also be caught up in this murderous, age old Arab feud. The one thing both Shi'a and Sunni Arabs can agree on (just like with Israel, the black African Sudan, Berber North Africa, and elsewhere) is that Kurds should have no claims on alleged "purely Arab patrimony." Having supported America's move against Saddam, decades of intense study, publication in academic journals and elsewhere, and involvement with the region still made me very wary.

While the Arabs owed Great Britain a huge debt for the very creation of a united, Arab-ruled Iraq out of the post-World War I Mandate of Mesopotamia, this didn't stop them not long afterwards from rising up against what they only saw as British imperialism. No giving the devil his due here…Use him then lose him. I can understand that. Too bad Arabs can't grant this same understanding to others though.

Imperialism is only nasty when it's not Arabs dishing it out. How do you think the region became "purely Arab patrimony" in too many an Arab mind? Without the Brits' involvement, the Turkish phoenix rising under Ataturk from the ruins of the centuries' old Ottoman Empire would have surely grabbed the oil-rich region around Mosul (which it formerly ruled) and probably would have extended its claim to the black gold of Kirkuk as well.

To make the new prospective Arab state viable (the British navy had recently switched from coal to oil and was the main arm of the British Empire), the Brits had to attach the oil of the Kurdish north to the Sunni Arab center and Shi'a Arab oil of the south. In the process of siring the Middle East's version of Yugoslavia, London thus shafted Kurds out of the best chance they ever had at regaining their own independence…something the Brits had promised them earlier as well.

After having their very country created and handed to them by the Brits (who also supplied aircraft and such to fight the Kurds), the Arabs soon revolted to try to drive the Brits out. Granted, imperialism has its nasty side, and the Brits created an Arab Iraq for their own reasons, yet still…

So, the point here is that America should have known not to expect any gratitude from most Iraqi Arabs either. Hence the thrown shoes, the thrower now a national hero, and so forth. There's yet another angle to this…

Think of all the American blood, lives, money, and other aid which have been spent for the sake of Arabs in Iraq, giving them new freedoms which they have never had. Trillions of American dollars will be spent before it's over, billions each month. Visit a local VA hospital to see just some of the other tragic, lasting costs…

That shoe-thrower who called President Bush a dog would have literally been fed to the dogs if he tried that trick with the man America freed him from. The innocents who died whom the shoe thrower complained about mostly died because of the same cowardly Arab trick Israel deals with daily. Arabs love to use their non-combatants as human shields…against the Geneva Conventions, and so forth. They shoot and then run behind the skirts of their women and toys of their kids.

Was/is America hoping to get something positive for itself as a result of its Iraq expenditures? Sure…But does that erase the above truisms? Think about those anti-Israel voices quick to protest about two billion dollars in aid sent to Israel each year…an investment whose return comes back to us positively in many ways. The current war in Iraq costs America more (for the sake of Arabs who mostly hate us as "infidels" in a context of a war for their Dar ul-Islam) in one week than Israel gets in foreign assistance in one year.

And, in exchange for that assistance, the State Department feels it has the right to pressure Jews into suicidal concessions. America has already spent about $500 billion dollars for Iraq, with much more set to come. It would take Israel centuries to get this much aid from America. And Israel doesn't ask for American blood to be shed on its behalf or to be bribed to display America's own values and democratic inclinations.

How long will the latter last among Arabs after America's exit from Iraq? Ironically, the one people in Iraq who better share our values--the Kurds--are the folks the Arabist James Baker types in the State Department are determined to shaft yet again on behalf of Arabs who want to be sure that oil in Kurdish lands remains part of the "purely Arab patrimony."

Sound familiar?

Same shafting game you read above…just different shafters.

While I didn't vote for the Obama-Biden ticket largely because of the long list of known anti-Semitic and anti-Israel friends and advisors Obama has aligned himself with (he's already brought several into his future Administration), Senator Joe Biden has a better understanding of the Yugoslavian nature of Iraqi demographics than most politicians.

I'm hoping against the odds that he'll pull more weight than the shaft the Jews and Kurds Arabists who are all-too-common in the State Department (and among Obama's buddies) which Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton will soon be leading.

~ Gerald A. Honigman

Megadeth
These Boots Are Made For Walking

Name Your Poison

The Return of Captain Invincible ~ 1983
Name Your Poison
Alan Arkin & Christopher Lee
(hat tip JamesT Kirk)

WFRL: Three is a Magic Number

Schoolhouse Rock
Three is a Magic Number

Happy Chanukah!

Star of David ~ Hebrew Letters
(hat tip: Pastorius)

One of the mysteries of the Star of David:
All of the Hebrew alphabet can be found within it.

The History of Chanukah



Adam Sandler
The Chanukah Song

CANDLE LIGHTING INSTRUCTONS

Rare first century half shekel coin found in Temple Mount dirt

The half shekel coin was first minted during the Great Revolt against the Romans. The face of the coin is decorated with a branch of three pomegranates and ancient Hebrew letters reading "holy Jerusalem." On the flip side, the letters say "half shekel".

Saturday Night Cartoon

Santa's Workshop ~ 1935

Saturday Morning Cartoon

JACK FROST ~ 1934

Corrie Ten Boom: ESCAPE TRIBULATION? WRONG!

Corrie Ten Boom's House - The Hiding Place

"There are some among us teaching there will be no tribulation, that the Christians will be able to escape all this. These are the false teachers that Jesus was warning us to expect in the latter days."
~ Corrie Ten Boom

This excerpt was sent to me by many people today, apparently one of the internet ministries had run it in an e-mail flyer. Miss Corrie Ten Boom happens to be a very famous name among the Christians, and for good reason. She is a holocaust survivor. Her story can be found here. What follows below is excerpted from a letter she wrote in 1974:


ESCAPE TRIBULATION? WRONG!
~Corrie Ten Boom, 1974

"The world is deathly ill. It is dying. The Great Physician has already signed the death certificate. Yet there is still a great work for Christians to do. They are to be streams of living water, channels of mercy to those who are still in the world. It is possible
for them to do this because they are overcomers.

Christians are ambassadors for Christ. They are representatives from Heaven to this dying world. And because of our presence here, things will change.

My sister, Betsy, and I were in the Nazi concentration camp at Ravensbruck because we committed the crime of loving Jews. Seven hundred of us from Holland, France, Russia, Poland and Belgium were herded into a room built for two hundred. As far as I knew, Betsy and I were the only two representatives of Heaven in that room.

We may have been the Lord's only representatives in that place of hatred, yet because of our presence there, things changed. Jesus said, "In the world you shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." We too, are to be overcomers - bringing the light of Jesus into a world filled with darkness and hate.

Sometimes I get frightened as I read the Bible, and as I look in this world and see all of the tribulation and persecution promised by the Bible coming true. Now I can tell you, though, if you too are afraid, that I have just read the last pages. I can now come to shouting "Hallelujah! Hallelujah!" for I have found where it is written that Jesus said, "He that overcometh shall inherit all things: and I will be His God, and he shall be My son." This is the future and hope of this world. Not that the world will survive - but that we shall be overcomers in the midst of a dying world.

Betsy and I, in the concentration camp, prayed that God would heal Betsy who was so weak and sick. "Yes, the Lord will heal me,", Betsy said with confidence. She died the next day and I vould not understand it. They laid her thin body on the concrete floor along with all the other corpses of the women who died that day.

It was hard for me to understand, to believe that God had a purpose for all that. Yet because of Betsy's death, today I am traveling all over the world telling people about Jesus.

There are some among us teaching there will be no tribulation, that the Christians will be able to escape all this. These are the false teachers that Jesus was warning us to expect in the latter days. Most of them have little knowledge of what is already going on across the world. I have been in countries where the saints are already suffering terrible persecution.

In China, the Christians were told, "Don't worry, before the tribulation comes you will be translated - raptured." Then came a terrible persecution. Millions of Christians were tortured to death. Later I heard a Bishop from China say, sadly, "We have failed. We should have made the people strong for persecution rather than telling them Jesus would come first. Tell the people how to be strong in times of persecution, how to stand when the tribulation comes - to stand and not faint."

I feel I have a divine mandate to go and tell the people of this world that it is possible to be strong in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are in training for the tribulation, but more than sixty percent of the Body of Christ across the world has already entered into the tribulation.

There is no way to escape it. We are next.

Since I have already gone through prison for Jesus' sake, and since I met the Bishop in China, now every time I read a good Bible text I think, "Hey, I can use that in the time of tribulation."
Then I write it down and learn it by heart.

When I was in the concentration camp, a camp where only twenty percent of the women came out alive, we tried to cheer each other up by saying, "Nothing could be any worse than today." But we would find the next day was even worse. During this time a Bible verse that I had committed to memory gave me great hope and joy.

"If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye;
for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you;
on their part evil is spoken of,
but on your part He is glorified."
(I Peter 3:14)

I found myself saying, "Hallelujah! Because I am suffering, Jesus is glorified!"

In America, the churches sing, "Let the congregation escape tribulation", but in China and Africa the tribulation has already arrived. This last year alone more than two hundred thousand
Christians were martyred in Africa. Now things like that never get into the newspapers because they cause bad political relations. But I know. I have been there. We need to think about that when we sit down in our nice houses with our nice clothes to eat our steak dinners. Many, many members of the Body of Christ are being tortured to death at this very moment, yet we continue right on as though we are all going to escape the tribulation.

Several years ago I was in Africa in a nation where a new government had come into power. The first night I was there some of the Christians were commanded to come to the police station to register. When they arrived they were arrested and that same night they were executed. The next day the same thing happened with other Christians. The third day it was the same. All the Christians in the district were being systematically murdered.

The fourth day I was to speak in a little church. The people came, but they were filled with fear and tension. All during the service they were looking at each other, their eyes asking, "Will this one I am sitting beside be the next one killed? Will I be the next one?"

The room was hot and stuffy with insects that came through the screenless windows and swirled around the naked bulbs over the bare wooden benches. I told them a story out of my childhood. "When I was a little girl, " I said, "I went to my father and said, 'Daddy, I am afraid that I will never be strong enough to be a martyr for Jesus Christ."

"Tell me," said Father, "When you take a train trip to Amsterdam, when do I give you the money for the ticket? Three weeks before?"

"No, Daddy, you give me the money for the ticket just before we get on the train."

"That is right," my father said, "and so it is with God's strength. Our Father in Heaven knows when you will need the strength to be a martyr for Jesus Christ. He will supply all you need - just in time."

My African friends were nodding and smiling. Suddenly a spirit of joy descended upon that church and the people began singing, "In the sweet, by and by, we shall meet on that beautiful shore."

Later that week, half the congregation of that church was executed. I heard later that the other half was killed some months ago. But I must tell you something. I was so happy that the Lord used me to encourage these people, for unlike many of their leaders, I had the word of God. I had been to the Bible and discovered that Jesus said He had not only overcome the world, but to all those who remained faithful to the end, He would give a crown of life.

How can we get ready for the persecution? First we need to feed on the word of God, digest it, make it a part of our being. This will mean disciplined Bible study each day as we not only memorize long passages of scripture, but put the principles to work in our lives.

Next we need to develop a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Not just the Jesus of yesterday, the Jesus of History, but the life-changing Jesus of today who is still alive and sitting at the right hand of God.

We must be filled with the Holy Spirit. This is no optional command of the Bible, it is absolutely necessary.

Those earthly disciples could never have stood up under the persecution of the Jews and Romans had they not waited for Pentecost. Each of us needs our own personal Pentecost, the baptism of the Holy Spirit. We will never be able to stand in the tribulation without it.

In the coming persecution we must be ready to help each other and encourage each other. But we must not wait until the tribulation comes before starting. The fruit of the Spirit should be
the dominant force of every Christian's life. Many are fearful of the coming tribulation, they want to run. I, too, am a little bit afraid when I think that after all my eighty years,
including the horrible Nazi concentration camp, that I might have to go through the tribulation also. But then I read the Bible and I am glad.

When I am weak, then I shall be strong, the Bible says. Betsy and I were prisoners for the Lord, we were so weak, but we got power because the Holy Spirit was on us. That mighty inner
strengthening of the Holy Spirit helped us through. No, you will not be strong in yourself when the tribulation comes. Rather, you will be strong in the power of Him who will not forsake you. For seventy-six years I have known the Lord Jesus and not once has He ever left me, or let me down.

"Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him", for I know that to all who overcome, He shall give the crown of life. Hallelujah!
~ Corrie Ten Boom

Matisyahu
Lord, Raise Me Up