"Because They Hate"

Just finished Brigitte Gabriel's book "Because They Hate". I like collecting 'recommendations' which are usually at the back of the book. Here's hers:

"1. Close Our Borders

2. Reform the Immigration and Naturalization Process

3. Increase Human Intelligence

4. Profile

5. Control Education of Foreign Students of Hostile Countries (no science courses).

6. Develop Alternative Energy Sources

7. Silence Any Teaching of Hate and Intolerance Against Our Country

8. Contact Elected Officials:
- Pass laws that will publicly disclose which countries sponsor terror.
- Support the Patriot Act.
- Ensure wide presidential powers to protect us during this time of war.
- Restrict visas granted to Islamic foreign nationals each year.
- Provide for US energy security and reduce oil imports.
- Create legislation that will lead to alternative fuel sources.
- Pass laws that promote Western values and ideals, and dismiss PC.
- Secure the borders
- Fight legislation that empowers all tax-exempt religious organizations with increased abilities for political influence.
- Enact laws to discourage excessive foreign funding for religious groups in the US.
- With Islamic countries, insist on reciprocation or no deal. If they want to build a mosque here, we build a church there.
- Pursue all means available to uncover the plots of terror cell members.

9. Monitor Your Local College or Universities Middle Eastern studies programs for anti-semitic, anti-western proclivities.

10. Report Suspicious Activity or Behavior.

11. Join an Activist Organization Against Terror

12. Lobby for patriotic Education in America’s Schools

13. Stay Informed and Speak Out

14. Promote Western Values in Your Home

15. Important Things You Can Do:
- Divest your own portfolio of investments in companies that do business with terrorist-sponsoring states. Go to www.divestTerror.org.
- Learn which Muslim organizations have ties to terror.
- Learn about the electromagnetic pulse attacks and the EMP Threat Commission.
- Defend and support all movements toward personal freedom in the Middle East.
- Reduce your own fuel consumption.
- Support our troops."

An Old Indian Legend ~ by Klea V. Stilwell

There is an old, old legend,
Of how it came to be,
That dog forsook the wild to dwell,
With folks like you and me.

Now man and beast they lived on,
A common bit of earth.
Each specie thought the other,
Of very little worth.

One day there was a rumble,
The earth began to quake,
It gave a mighty shudder,
And then began to break.

A crack began to widen,
Between the beasts and man.
Some watched the crevasse deepen,
But most just turned and ran.

Now the dog surveyed the distance,
And Man beheld it too.
Between them sprang a yearning,
A feeling strange and new.

Then each one begged the other
To make the fateful leap,
Yet each one dreaded jumping
A crack so wide and deep.

So Dog compelled his courage
And told Man he would try.
He eyed the fatal distance,
For if he failed, he'd die.

Then Dog prepared to jump across
His courage had decided.
That if he could but make the jump,
They'd no more be divided.

His muscles bunched beneath him;
His body left the ground.
The wind raced past his muzzle;
His heart began to pound.

His senses sought the purchase
Of land beneath his feet.
At last his forepaws met the ground.
His mission was complete!

NO! His hind feet have slipped and
He's falling off the side!
His gallant farewell look said,
"At least, New Friend, I tried."

With disbelieving glance, Man
Beheld his falling friend.
He wouldn't let it happen;
It couldn't be the end!

Then flesh smote air in searching,
And hand met paw and fur.
Then Man pulled Dog to safety
As heart to heart they were.

Man called and Dog responded,
And though the gulf was wide,
Man gained the loyal canine
Forever by his side.

Middle Eastern Moms

Moms in Palestine pose for a group photo in Gaza. Lovely huh? While moms in America ponder their kids SAT scores, Palestinian moms ponder how to kill and be killed.

Hat tip LGF:

"Female Palestinian militants from the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, who claim they are willing to be suicide bombers, hold weapons during a news conference in Jebaliya, northern Gaza Strip, Monday, May 21, 2007.‘ (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)"

The Lost World ~ Michael Crichton

This is sort of a sequel to "Jurassic Park". People go to a nearby island to find the original dinosaur factory which provided the animals for Jurassic Park before it was destroyed. It was very similar to Jurassic Park. I did find this quote interesting though:

"But even more important, is the way complex systems seem to strike a balance between the need for order and the imperative to change. Complex systems tend to locate themselves at a place we call "the edge of chaos." We imagine the edge of chaos as a place where there is enough innovation to keep a living system vibrant, and enough stability to keep it from collapsing into anarchy. It is a zone of conflict and upheaval, where the old and the new are constantly at war. Finding the balance point must be a delicate matter - if a living system drifts too close, it risks falling over into incoherence and dissolution; but if the system moves too far away from the edge, it becomes rigid, frozen, totalitarian. Both conditions lead to extinction. Too much change is as destructive as too little. Only at the edge of chaos can complex systems flourish. And, by implication, extinction is the inevitable result of one or the other strategy - too much change, or too little."

My guess is this applies to political systems as well.

In the Center of Reflection Nebula NGC 1333

Credit & Copyright: T. Rector (U. Alaska Anchorage), H. Schweiker, WIYN, NOAO, AURA, NSF
Explanation: The dust is so thick in the center of NGC 1333 that you can hardly see the stars forming. Conversely, the very dust clouds that hide the stars also reflects their optical light, giving NGC 1333's predominantly blue glow the general designation of a reflection nebula. A highly detailed image of the nebula, shown above, was taken recently by the Mayall 4-meter telescope on Kitt Peak in Arizona, USA and released to honor astronomer Stephen Strom on his retirement. Visible near the image top are vast blue regions of dust predominantly reflecting the light from bright massive stars. Visible in the thick central dust are not only newly formed stars but red jets and red-glowing gas energized by the light and winds from recently formed young stars. The NGC 1333 nebula contains hundreds of newly formed stars that are less than one million years old. Reflection nebula NGC 1333 lies about 1,000 light years away toward the constellation of Perseus.

Matthew 7:15-23

" "Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'""


Hat tip: Farmer's Letters for the cool picture:>D

Dark Matter Ring Modeled around Galaxy Cluster CL0024+17

Credit: NASA, ESA, M. J. Jee & H. Ford et al. (Johns Hopkins U.)
Explanation: How do we know that dark matter isn't just normal matter exhibiting strange gravity? A new observation of gravitationally magnified faint galaxies far in the distance behind a massive cluster of galaxies is shedding new dark on the subject. The above detailed image from the Hubble Space Telescope indicates that a huge ring of dark matter likely exists surrounding the center of CL0024+17 that has no normal matter counterpart. What is visible in the above image, first and foremost, are many spectacular galaxies that are part of CL0024+17 itself, typically appearing tan in color. Next, a close inspection of the cluster center shows several unusual and repeated galaxy shapes, typically more blue. These are multiple images of a few distant galaxies, showing that the cluster is a strong gravitational lens. It is the relatively weak distortions of the many distant faint blue galaxies all over the image, however, that indicates the existence of the dark matter ring. The computationally modeled dark matter ring spans about five million light years and been digitally superimposed to the image in diffuse blue. A hypothesis for the formation of the huge dark matter ring holds that it is a transient feature formed when galaxy cluster CL0024+17 collided with another cluster of galaxies about one billion years ago, leaving a ring similar to when a rock is thrown in a pond.