Ilhan Omar's Sharia Bypass

One is a Tragedy: 10,000, a Statistic

Thousands are dead in Muslim-led violence against Christians in Bangui last summer and it's started up again.

C. Africa Crowd Lynches Fleeing Muslim

What the headline does not say is that all this comes on the heels of a wave of horrific Muslim violence against Christians after last year's coup which replaced the elected president with a Muslim usurper.  Except in that bit of violence, it wasn't the death of a single guy who fell off a bus fleeing from angry people that the Muslim para-militaries had been persecuting. 

The anti-Christian violence last year resulted in thousands killed or wounded for no greater crime than being Christian or living in a Christian village. The difference is that along with the rest of the world, Christians are appalled at the brutal death of the Muslim man, but for the death of the many Christians last year, news outlets were virtually silent and unsympathetic. It is said that one death is a tragedy, tens of thousands of deaths is a statistic. This fact makes those who restrain themselves and their fellow believers from murdering wholesale, vulnerable to being cast as monsters in the "if it bleeds, it leads" modern media. The media excels at wringing public tears from personal tragedies. They are utterly hopeless at making people feel the same pitch of emotion over the systematic murder thousands. The violence does get reported but in sweeping general terms. Strangely, or perhaps not so strangely, the individualized pathos has been missing - until now.

No doubt someone in the media will use this story to gin up sympathy for persecuted Muslims and try to pin it on Christian hate-mongers. The story does make a last minute mention of the fact that the Muslims were doing far worse to Christians last summer. It also hints that not all of the participants or even the persecuted were, in fact, Christian. Other media outlets will not be even close to that accurate when they tell the story.

To be fair the media has semi-consistently reported  on the violence against Christians (back on page 10 or 12), but it's all seemed rather without any real enthusiasm. There's an almost embarrassed tone some journalist get when they're talking about Christians who have been wronged, but then they get downright teary-eyed over an Israeli missile attack on a Palestinian village/terrorist missile launching base or a Muslim beaten to death by a mob, some of whom come from Christian villages. The media may appear to give coverage to both sides of the story, but reporters learn in journalism school, just how to tune the data to fit the story in your head and just who they ought to tune out. It would be nice if we could get as much outrage out of the Muslim media over the persecution of Christians as you get from Christian media over persecution of Muslims.

Jesus said that if they persecuted Him, we could expect they would persecute us. All that we really can do about that is pray for them that persecute us. We're under orders to do so from our Commander.

© 2014 by Tom King

Russians Squeeze NASA for More Bucks

(c) 2013 by Tom King

Dragon X Commercial Space Vehicle
successfully docks with Space Station

The price just went up on the cost of getting American astronauts into space.  The price of shipping our astronauts to the space station via Russia's "spam in a can" Soyuz capsule just increased from 62.3 million per seat to 70 million per seat.  

Thanks to this brilliant move, NASA is stuck hitching rides with the Russkies until at least 2017 - a deal which puts American astronauts in the hands of 1970s Russian technology in order to reach the space station. 

And the left is, of course, still blaming it on George Bush.

 I had intended to make some comment about how the Obama Administration's new goals for NASA had switched from space exploration to making Muslim nations feel good about themselves and their contribution to science, but let's let the president's choice for NASA head honcho speak for himself:




Note that none of the three initiatives the president charged Bolden with has anything to do directly with space exploration. It's all about political agenda.  The first thing NASA did under the Obama Administration in 2009 was cut the Orion crew size and delay the project for years, guaranteeing we continue to rely on the Russians to get our guys into space for close to a decade.

Notice that the evil commercial sector which is busily "lining its pockets", has already launched freight carrying space vehicles that cost NASA half what it's own rockets cost, delivering bigger and bigger payloads.  The Dragon X manned capsule will be ready long before Orion is. Space planes and inflatable hotels in space are already in the offing. 




And care to guess which president pushed hardest for NASA to open the doors to commercial space flight?

Meanwhile Obama's NASA will be busily "inspiring" children to "get into" science rather like they get into video games and rap music.  And the boss, Director Bolden, will be wandering around the middle east looking for ways to make the Muslims feel good about their contributions to science (his words).

Don't get me wrong. I do appreciate Arab contributions to science like unpronounceable names for constellation and that whole Arabic numerals thing.  Technically though they should be called "Hindu-Arabic numerals" because the Persians and Arabs borrowed them from their Hindu inventors (rather before any of your actual Arabs and Persians actually became your actual Muslims).  We are grateful that the Arabs, by then Muslim, passed Arab numerals along to the west no matter that they were misnamed.

Westerners grabbed onto the new number system instantly - probably because they were stuck trying to multiply CMLXXXVII times MDCLXXVIII  (the answer has something like 1,656 "M's" in it).  So let me formally thank the Middle East for 0 through 9.  Right handy it's been all in all. Without it we'd have had a right job of it to figure out which shuttle mission was STS-CXXXV.  And think of all the money NASA has saved on hiring the guys that paint the lettering on the spaceships, not to mention the cranes, the vehicle assembly building and the catering trucks. 859 takes a lot less paint than does DCCCLIX. 

At the rate things are going, I fully expect the greedy capitalists to be back on the moon long before NASA can figure out which Middle-Eastern leader most needs to be reassured that Islam has contributed to "science".  I'm sure, however, that millions of children will be "inspired" to "go into" science by NASA's new propaganda mission.  When NASA finally finds its way to Mars, they'll be able to land their one way space pod full of "inspired" kids in the parking lot of a Martian McDonald's right between a Ford orbital shuttle and a BMW interplanetary cruiser. 

Good plan, Big "O".  Really great plan.

I'm just saying.

Tom King

* Don't get me wrong. I think the Arabic numeral system was a peachy idea, but that predated Islam and actually they should be called Hindu-Arabic numerals because the whole idea originally came from India and was borrowed by the Arabs who lent it to people whose brains were fried from trying to multiply MCLXXXVII times MDCLXXVIII. 

Ron Paul Openly Courting the Muslim Vote

Photoshopped caricature*

Ron Paul has for some time been rolling up the anti-Semitic vote with his libertarian flavored stance on Israel. Dr. Paul states clearly that he is not anti-Semitic and I believe him, even though he has done a fairly poor job of distancing himself from his overtly anti-Semitic supporters. I don't think he's an actual anti-Semitic. I just think he's wrong on Israel.  Dr. Paul has kept his chastisement of his lunatic fringe following to the gentle side. He is careful not to offend the conspiracy theorists and anti-Semitic in his legions lest his poll numbers drop by half. What politician would bite the hand that feeds him after all?

And Dr. Paul is, after all, a politician. Paul's actual vote-getting numbers in the primaries so far have puttered along in the 9% range no matter what the polls or Paulestinians might say. He's done better than Newt Gingrich in a few places, but unlike Gingrich has not won a single state.

Now Ron Paul supporters are actively courting the Muslim vote.  The talking points to Muslim Voters are:

1. Ron Paul supports a non-interventionist stance in the Middle East
2. Ron Paul wants to remove US support for Israel

I am puzzled as to why this makes sense to ANYBODY, but then, I have a bad habit of reading history. The wave of Muslim immigration to this country has been largely from areas threatened, not by evil western imperialists, but by brutal middle-eastern regimes like those of such lovable tyrants as Assad, Quaddafi, Saddam Hussein, the Taliban and their ilk. It really doesn't make sense for a refugee, after he or she escapes persecution, poverty or whatever else drove them to leave their homeland, to come to the US and then turn around and oppose efforts by the United States and its allies to stop the very people who committed violence and oppression against them in the first place. It seems illogical at the very least and wondrously selfish at worst to say, "I got out, but screw the rest of you people back home."

If the Ron Paul people are counting on some level of Muslim antisemitism to drive the Muslim vote to Dr. Paul, that's just shameful.  Ronald Reagan showed that you win presidential elections by appealing to the best in people and not the worst. Unfortunately, that's precisely what some Paulestinians are doing in the Muslim community - poking the antisemitism beast hoping to garner votes for their boy and again confirming my opinion that there are a lot of folk in the Ron Paul camp who are only in it for the legalized pot.

Me, I'm looking for a candidate that would like to see a peace in the middle-east that doesn't involve one side killing everybody on the other side. That does NOT look very much like the Ron Paul plan to me. I don't think stepping back and letting radical Muslim nations drive Israelis into the sea is going to give us peace - only a little quiet before the storm.

I keep hearing that we shouldn't be the world's policemen. Is that so? Well then tell me. Who SHOULD be the world's policemen?  Somebody's going to do it if we don't and I can tell you a couple of groups that would like the job that I'd rather not hand it over to.

How about you?  Scream at me from the comments box.  I can take it.

Tom King

(that's my real name and I don't care who knows it)

* The photo above is a Photoshopped caricature (I can't draw worth shucks) - as far as I know Dr. Paul never wears a turban, even while campaigning in Detroit!

Why do Christians Hate Muslims?

I found this question on a Yahoo forum.  It was asked, apparently sincerely, by someone in Iran, who says she does not understand why Christians hate Muslims.  She says, " We respect all religions. All divine religions.Including Christianism.We don't want to kill you or anything ! Where did you get this rubbish from?"

Sadly we get it from Muslims.  Muslims on television, Muslims on radio in their own country, Muslim terrorists who blow themselves up on the outside chance they'll take a few of us with them and Muslims on the Internet who broadcast the beheading of a young American engineer live and in color and shouted "Death to America!"

Here is my answer to her question:

First, your question assumes a falsehood.  Christians do not hate Muslims. God forbids us to. Here's the problem.

Your faith seems to many Christian observers to have been co-opted by the Mullahs, fanatics and terrorists in your ranks. They have done a systematic and thorough public relations job over the past two decades to convince others that we must needs fear the wrath of Islam and have proclaimed "Jihad" against us.  It has, unfortunately, achieved its purpose. We fear Islam.  If by Christians you are talking about American Christians, we really don't hate the Muslim people. Our country is open to Muslims and they are allowed to worship as they see fit.  In the wake of 9/11, it was the main body of Christians who called for calm and asked people not to persecute Muslims in our midst. But there is a disconnect here.  There doesn't appear to be a corresponding call for tolerance from the Muslim community.  Terror and horror by Islamic fanatics is greeted with a resounding silence from the Muslim community, other than a few scattered spokesmen for Islamic "protection" organizations who seemed more frightened than outraged by the 9/11 attacks.

Were we not at risk of our very lives just by traveling to the Middle East, most of us would love to travel in the part of the world that was the cradle of Western Civilization. I'd love to see the pyramids, but I'd rather not be blown up or beheaded for my troubles.

As the bully on the playground soon discovers, if you make people fear you, they will not like you for it. I had a child in counseling once at a children's mental health center who wanted to be elected dorm captain by his peers.  He came to me complaining because nobody would vote for him. "I've beat up everyone in the dorm," he explained, "And they still won't make me captain." 

That's what the fanatic element of Islam has done. They want to be leaders of the Muslim world apparently (we've read about the Caliphate) and they go around blowing people up to prove their worth as leaders. Then, they cannot seem to understand why nobody, even their own people, like them very much. I know that ordinary Muslims deplore the violence and bloodshed.  So do Christians.

Unfortunately, we have members of the Christian community who are just as fanatic as your own terrorists. One blew up a building in Oklahoma and killed a bunch of people.  Isn't it odd how these folks do more killing of their own people than they do of the "infidels" and "pagans" they oppose?

Ultimately, no decent Christian hates Muslims, whatever we think of Islam as a religion. Christ forbids us to do so.  We disagree among ourselves as a faith and have fractured into dozens of denominations, as a result, so we can obey Christ's command and worship according to the dictates of our own consciences without fighting amongst ourselves.  We'd rather be smaller and peaceful than to have a massively large and powerful church that is at war with itself.  The opposite seems to be the case with Islam.

We, Christians, actually love peace.  It takes a whole lot of provocation to get us into a war most of the time - like attacking Pearl Harbor without warning or blowing up the World Trade Center (and even then we didn't start anything till the second attempt succeeded).  We got into it with Saddam Hussein because he attacked and conquered Kuwait, a sovereign nation and even then we restrained our hand from finishing Saddam once we liberated Kuwait, which is again a sovereign nation. If we hadn't feared he was trying to get weapons of mass destruction, we'd have probably let things go. Despite propaganda to the contrary, his unwillingness to let us freely examine his weapons programs was what led us to the second Iraq war. You don't walk around with your hand in your bulging pocket threatening people, unless you expect them to think you've got a gun. And you shouldn't be surprised if someone shoots you because they are afraid of you.  It's a lesson Iranian leaders should have learned.  Nuclear weapons in the hands of terrorists could start a nuclear holocaust and Iran's willingness to supply arms to terrorists gives us more cause to fear.

Our country has made mistakes in the Middle-East, no question, but that's our nation, not our faith. Nations are run by men and men make mistakes. Our faith says treat all men as you would have them treat you and the majority of Christians do that.  Please do not blame the hate speech that gets reported on endlessly by the media on all Christians. These people are our particular fanatics and we oppose them up front and loudly.

If Islam would proclaim that we have the right to live and worship as we see fit, I promise you Christian America will support the same for you - in fact, WE ALREADY DO.  If we were to stop having to rescue Arab Christian converts from Middle-Eastern countries who have a death sentence on them for converting, maybe we wouldn't be so afraid of Muslims. We grant Muslims freedom to worship in our own homeland even to the extent that nobody really wants to force the Imam in New York to move the mosque elsewhere - we'd rather he just respect our feelings and move it voluntarily. When is Christianity and Judaism ever going to be tolerated to the same extent by Islam?

We do not pretend to understand the endless squabbles you guys get into over patches of dirt, holy and otherwise.  We do not understand why so many Muslims want the Jews dead and pushed into the sea and the nation of Israel eliminated from the face of the Earth. Christians have not demanded that you to return all the ancient Christian and Jewish holy sites over which your faith has built mosques (St. Sophia, The Church of Job and the temple mound in Jerusalem are all Christian holy sites where conquering Islamic nations have erected mosques to celebrate victory over the infidels. The Christian faith sprang from the Middle-East. We count Abraham as our father just as Jews and Muslims do. Why can we not share access to the holy ground we all share in common?

I will tell you why.

Islamic leaders call us infidels and deny us access for that reason alone. According to even tolerant Muslims, a Christian or Jew would, by mere presence, pollute those holy places.  Now, a Muslim could freely walk into almost any Christian church or cathedral in the world so long as he or she is respectful without fear.  You cannot say that is true for any mosque - at least that is not the impression I have been given by your leaders, apologists and by tourist guidebooks which warn Christians sternly against "violating" Muslim sacred sites.

If you treat people like they are unclean, how can you expect them to love you for it? There are certain Christian churches I have no patience for because of attitudes like that.  I stay away from them. I publicly disagree with them if they spew such venom in the press or on-line.

The only hope of friendship between Christian and Muslim is for the mass of believers to come together to oppose evil on both sides.  As a Christian I do. When a terrorist claims to be a Christian, the true Christian community rises up and denounces their evil deeds.  We do that because in our country, we will not lose our heads for doing so.

One of the things we Christians do not understand is why Muslims do not publicly oppose the fanatics that you claim are not true Muslims, but some kind of fringe group that we should not judge you by.  And yet the silence from the Muslim community in the wake of their continued outrages is deafening.

Why is that, if I may ask a question myself? If it is fear of terrorists? Your leaders? The disapproval of your neighbors?  I do not understand why the body of Islam remains silent and the mullahs do not speak against such evil-doings. In my country and in my faith, we believe that to see injustice in your own house and in your own neighborhood and to remain silent is to condone that injustice.

There are plenty of times that Christians have remained silent because of fear. We think it's shameful when they do.  There are also plenty of Christians who have died or suffered persecution for standing against evil too.  It's a hard world and not one in which you can have principles without risk.

Maybe if Muslims and Christians who believe every man has a right to worship as he pleases were to join forces, we could stop some of the foolishness.  We shouted down the misguided Preacher who wants to burn the Koran - Christians did that!  We do not believe it is right to intentionally offend people of other faiths.

So when do we hear outrage from Muslims about the proposed Mosque that overlooks the site of the World Trade Center?  It offends many Americans, Christians or otherwise, not because we hate Muslims, but because, like the construction of the Mosques at the Dome of the Rock, St. Sophia and the Church of Job, this Mosque cannot help but look like another incidence of Islam celebrating a victory over the infidel (us) - especially when so many Muslims danced in the street throughout the Middle-East in celebration on 9/11.  How can it hurt to move the site as a gesture of peace to Americans whose lives and families were shattered by a group of madmen flying the flag of Islam?  Out of respect.....

We went first and raised our voices against the Koran burning and persecution of Muslims.  It's your turn. We love you guys.  It's what Christians do.

Tom King - Tyler, Texas