Target Centermass

Category: Politics

  • Keeping with the Theme o’ the Day

    Religion. Religion. Religion.

    Air Force Cadets See Religious Harassment

    Less than two years after it was plunged into a rape scandal, the Air Force Academy is scrambling to address complaints that evangelical Christians wield so much influence at the school that anti-Semitism and other forms of religious harassment have become pervasive.

    There have been 55 complaints of religious discrimination at the academy in the past four years, including cases in which a Jewish cadet was told the Holocaust was revenge for the death of Jesus and another was called a Christ killer by a fellow cadet.

    The 4,300-student school recently started requiring staff members and cadets to take a 50-minute religious-tolerance class.

    “There are things that have happened that have been inappropriate. And they have been addressed and resolved,” said Col. Michael Whittington, the academy’s chief chaplain.

    More than 90 percent of the cadets identify themselves as Christian. A cadet survey in 2003 found that half had heard religious slurs and jokes, and that many non-Christians believed Christians get special treatment.

    […]

    Critics of the academy say the sometimes-public endorsement of Christianity by high-ranking staff has contributed to a climate of fear and violates the constitutional separation of church and state at a taxpayer-supported school whose mission is to produce Air Force leaders.
    […]

    “They are deliberately trivializing the problem so that we don’t have another situation the magnitude of the sex assault scandal. It is inextricably intertwined in every aspect of the academy,” said Mikey Weinstein of Albuquerque, N.M., a 1977 graduate who has sent two sons to the school. He said the younger, Curtis, has been called a “filthy Jew” many times.

    There’s more examples of complaints, both vague and specific, in the story. Even those of a religious bent who boisterously proclaim, “There’s no atheists in a foxhole” have to admit that any foxholes around Colorado Springs are relatively safe. The military has an obligation to respect and protect the individual religious beliefs or non-beliefs of its personnel, as long as they do not interfere with the mission.

    I do recommend that, during the initial weeks of basic training, atheists joining the Army may do well to become religious. That treasured hour or two on Sunday morning may be your only break from the drill sergeants for a while.

    China Calls for New Pope to Break Taiwan Ties

    Beijing called on new Pope Benedict XVI to break ties with Taiwan and stay out of China’s internal affairs to create the conditions for better Sino-Vatican relations.

    “We are willing to improve the relationship between China and the Vatican on the basis of two principles,” said foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang of ties that were ruptured in 1951 when China expelled the Vatican’s ambassador.

    “One is that Joseph Ratzinger should break off the so-called diplomatic relationship with Taiwan and recognise that the government of the People’s Republic of China is the only legitimate government which represents China and that Taiwan is an inseparable part of China.

    “The second is that Ratzinger should not interfere in internal Chinese affairs, including in the name of religion.

    “We hope that with a new Pope, the Vatican can create conditions to improve China-Vatican relations.”

    Despite not recognizing the authority of the Pope, the official Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association had sent a congratulatory telegram “in the name of the Bishops and believers of the whole country,” the ministry said.

    It added that congregations had been told to pray for Pope Benedict XVI.

    China’s Roman Catholics are divided into two churches — the government-approved “patriotic” church which does not recognize the authority of the Pope, and the underground church where adherents accept the pontiff as leader.

    The government church has about four million worshippers, according to official figures, while the underground church has about 10 million, based on Vatican estimates.

    Breaking through half-a-century of enmity to re-establish relations with China may be the greatest diplomatic challenge facing Pope Benedict XVI as he takes on the mantle as leader of 1.1 billion Roman Catholics worldwide.

    Fixing broken ties with China would spread the new pontiff’s spiritual realm to the most populous nation on earth, home to 1.3 billion people. But it is precisely that global influence that scares Beijing.

    China sent no representative to Pope John Paul II’s funeral in Rome on April 8 to protest the presence of Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian at the event. Any hint of recognition of Taipei infuriates China, which considers the island a rebel province.

    The spat obscured mounting signs of an effort by the Vatican to crack China’s resistance to the Roman Catholic Church.

    Does anybody know how to say, “Um, yeah, right, whatever, talk to the ring” in Latin?

  • Faithful Flock to Chicago Overpass

    To honor the new pope, I’ll stick on the topic of religion for a bit. Is it a stain or a miracle?

    A steady stream of the faithful and the curious, many carrying flowers and candles, have flocked to an expressway underpass for a view of a yellow and white stain on a concrete wall that some believe is an image of the Virgin Mary.

    “We believe it’s a miracle,” said Elbia Tello, 42, of Chicago. “We have faith, and we can see her face.”

    Police have patrolled the emergency turnoff area under the Kennedy Expressway since Monday as hundreds of people have walked down to see the image and the growing memorial of flowers and candles that surround it. Beside the image is an artist’s rendering of the Virgin Mary embracing Pope John Paul II in a pose some see echoed in the stain.

    Tuesday morning, women knelt with rosary beads behind a police barricade while men in work shirts stood solemnly before the image, praying. A police officer kept the crowd of about three dozen from getting too close to the traffic but didn’t stop them gathering around the stain.

    The stain is likely the result of salt run-off, according to the Illinois Department of Transportation. The agency does not plan to scrub it off the wall.

    “We’re treating this just like we treat any type of roadside memorial,” said IDOT spokesman Mike Claffey. “We have no plans to clean this site.”

    The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago had not received any requests to authenticate the image as of Monday, spokesman Jim Dwyer said.

    “These things don’t happen every day,” Dwyer said. “Sometimes people ask us to look into it. Most of the time they don’t. (The meaning) depends on the individual who sees it. To them, it’s real. To them, it reaffirms their faith.”

    But onlooker Victor Robles, 36, said he was skeptical about the stain’s Virgin Mary resemblance.

    “I see just a concrete walk and an image that could happen anywhere,” Robles said. “If that image helps more people feel closer to God than maybe that is a good sign.”

    Well, at least it’s not a $28,000 piece of toast.

  • Today’s Big News and Some Frivolities

    I’m in a rather mellow mood right now, so let’s keep it light.

    The big story of the day went up in smoke — white smoke, that is, as a new pope has been elected. I’m not Catholic, or even religious for that matter, but I do recognize the importance of the position in international and American affairs. That said, I’ll leave it to someone much spiritually closer to the matter, Phil over at Shades of Gray (Umbrae Canarum), who seems quite excited about the choice of Germany’s Joseph Ratzinger as the man with the cool hats.

    Wow.

    I have to admit, I am very excited and happy by this turn of events. Cardinal Ratzinger is a brilliant man, and an ardent defender of the faith. The Church is in good hands with him in charge. I have about four of his books collecting dust on my shelf right now, so I best get about to looking at them again.

    Phil goes on to look in more depth at what the selection of Cardinal Ratzinger means, both to devout Catholics and to those who were hoping for a great change in Catholic orthodox.

    Now, on to those frivolities.

    Jeff at Protein Wisdom has the first Pope Benedict XVI joke.

    I posted before that Eric’s fine blog has a new site and new name. He now has a new look. Please feel free to drop by his new digs and make fun of the banners he’s added. Yes, I have a personal interest in this.

    Go pick a fight with the monster that is TexasBestGrok.

    Who needs Dances with Wolves when there’s Travels with Chicken?!

    Once again, Khan!!!

    And to bring it back full circle, Hog on Ice‘s Steve is pushing for a grass-roots campaign to have the pope recalled.

  • Grad Student Sentenced for SUV Arson

    Caltech — home of the fightin’ Radical Environuts.

    A graduate student was sentenced Monday to more than eight years in prison and ordered to pay millions of dollars in restitution for firebombing scores of sport utility vehicles.

    William Jensen Cottrell, 24, was convicted in November of conspiracy to commit arson and seven counts of arson for an August 2003 vandalism spree that damaged and destroyed about 125 SUVs.

    Prosecutors estimated the total damage was about $2.3 million.

    U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner sentenced Cottrell to 100 months and ordered him to pay $3.5 million in restitution. Cottrell hung his head upon hearing the sentence.

    Vandals who targeted dealerships and homes in the San Gabriel Valley east of Los Angeles set the vehicles on fire and used spray-paint to deface them with slogans such as “Fat, Lazy Americans,” “polluter,” “smog machine” and “ELF,” an acronym for the Earth Liberation Front, a radical environmental group.

    Cottrell, a doctoral candidate in the physics department at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, was acquitted of using a destructive device – Molotov cocktails – in a crime of violence. That was the most serious charge he faced and it carried a sentence of at least 30 years in prison.

    Defense lawyers argued that Cottrell had agreed with two friends to spray-paint vehicles, but was surprised when they began to hurl Molotov cocktails.

    Federal prosecutors have identified former Caltech students Tyler Johnson and Michie Oe as “fugitive co-conspirators” in the case. It is believed that both have fled the country.

    Prosecutors also alleged that Cottrell tried to minimize his role and place the blame on Johnson and Oe.

    Cottrell was arrested in March 2004 after authorities tracked e-mails that Cottrell, using an alias, sent to the Los Angeles Times. He told the newspaper in the e-mails that he was involved in the SUV attacks and affiliated with the Earth Liberation Front.

    Methinks Cottrell will quickly develop a new respect for private property rights when his ass goes up on the prison commodity market.

    For some reason, this story brings to mind the opening lines of my favorite poem, W.B. Yeats’ The Second Coming.

    Turning and turning in the widening gyre
    The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
    Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
    Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
    The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
    The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
    The best lack all conviction, while the worst
    Are full of passionate intensity.

    I expect more such occurences, as the radical, overly-passionate leftist groups like ELF spiral ever more towards extremism, letting slip any last tenuous hold on the realities of society.

  • Shareholders Vote Down Bulldozer Resolution

    Well, this is an abrupt end to an attempt to have far-left politics intrude on a business.

    Caterpillar Incorporated officials say their shareholders have soundly rejected a resolution that would have directed the company to investigate the use of its bulldozers by the Israeli army.
    The resolution was defeated today at the heavy equipment manufacturer’s annual meeting 97 percent to three percent.

    It stated that Israel has used Caterpillar equipment to destroy more than three-thousand Palestinian homes in the West Bank and Gaza Strip since 2000.

    The fact the the vote was such an overwhelming landslide merely demonstrates it wasn’t a matter of bottom line vs. social justice, but rather a case of rationality vs. lunacy.

  • U.S. Denies U.N. Claim Iraqis Malnourished

    Though the conditions of the Iraqi populace certainly are a concern, doubly so for the children, the U.S. has reacted to United Nations’ claims of increasing child malnutrition by calling them questionable and political.

    The U.S. human rights delegation Thursday rejected a U.N. monitor’s claim that child malnutrition had risen in Iraq and said, if anything, health conditions have improved since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.

    Jean Ziegler, the U.N. Human Right Commission’s expert on the right to food, cited U.S. and European studies Wednesday in telling the commission that acute malnutrition rates among Iraqi children under 5 rose late last year to 7.7 percent from 4 percent after Saddam’s ouster in April 2003. Ziegler blamed the war for the situation.

    “First, he has not been to Iraq, and second, he is wrong,” said Kevin E. Moley, U.S. ambassador to U.N. organizations in Geneva and a member of the American delegation to the 53-nation U.N. Human Rights Commission.

    “He’s taking some information that is in itself difficult to validate and juxtaposing his own views — which are widely known,” Moley said, referring to Ziegler’s opposition to the U.S. military intervention in the country.

    Moley rejected the rate cited by Ziegler and said malnutrition in Iraq was notoriously difficult to gauge. He noted that some estimates had put it at 11 percent in 1996 and 7.8 percent in 2000, while Saddam was still in power.

    “The surveys that have been taken … have indicated that the recent rise in malnutrition rates began between 2002 and 2003 under the regime of Saddam Hussein,” Moley said.

    “If anything, vaccination, food aid … has improved dramatically since the fall of Saddam Hussein,” he added.

    Also taking the UN claims to task is Captain Ed at Captain’s Quarters, who uses the UN’s own figures against them.

    The report obviously aims itself at Washington, as the BBC reports. What the BBC fails to mention is that the report is dishonest, mathematically illiterate, historically inaccurate, and a terrific demonstration why the UN cannot be trusted with money or policy. Its timing appears to have been strategized to take the heat off of Kofi Annan and the massive and grotesque scandals wracking the United Nations.

    Okay, a show of hands if you’re not sick of the UN. Anyone? Anyone?

  • When MilBloggers Blog

    The rhymes they will log.

    See Eric, and here he will plug.
    See how he plugs a harbor that’s Snugg.

    On this very important matter concerning Terri Shiavo,
    I haven’t blogged, staying well clear of the beehive-o.

    [Fine, I ain’t the next coming of freakin’ Dr. Seuss, but I like Snugg Harbor‘s treatment of the importance of rule of law by GuyS. I may not be in complete agreement, but it’s closer to my beliefs than most on my blogroll have come in this fiasco. As for Eric, he put some good points here before sailing into Snugg Harbor]

    I also would like y’all to take a look at another GuyS post, first referring to an excellent column about how our military always is declared to be wrong but ends up doing right and then to a vet commenter’s putting the notion to rhyme.

    While I’m at it, thanks to Eric and Guy. Thank you for serving and thank you for blogging.

  • Is Kofi Considering Quitting?

    It is often said that it’s lonely at the top. Apparently, it’s depressing at the top of a trash dump of corruption and international impotence.

    Kofi Annan, the United Nations secretary-general, is said to be struggling with depression and considering his future. Colleagues have reported concerns about Annan ahead of an official report this week that will examine his son Kojo’s connection to the controversial Iraqi oil for food scheme.

    Depending on the findings of the report, by a team led by the former US Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, Annan may have to choose between the secretary-generalship and loyalty to his son.

    American congressional critics of the UN are already pressing him to resign over the mismanagement of the oil for food programme, and even his supporters have been dismayed by the scandals on his watch, including the sexual abuse of children by UN peacekeepers in Congo.

    One close observer at the UN said Annan’s moods were like a “sine curve” and that he appeared near the bottom of the trough.

    Kojo, 29, was employed by a Swiss company, Cotecna, but left before it won one of the contracts under the oil for food programme. Last week it emerged he received up to $400,000 from the company. The UN confirmed that Kofi Annan three times met executives of the firm, twice before the award of the oil for food contract and once afterwards.

    Mark Malloch Brown, Annan’s British chief-of-staff, said the meetings were brief and had nothing to do with Cotecna’s contract. If some of the allegations against Kojo were confirmed, that would create “a very different situation, but for Kojo — not the secretary-general”.

    Kojo and Cotecna insist he had no part in securing the oil for food contract and that his work related to activities in Nigeria and Ghana.

    New scandals continue to erupt, however. One revelation last week was that the UN had agreed to pay legal fees for Benon Sevan, the disgraced head of the oil for food programme, out of the funds raised from the Iraqi oil sales.

    “Kofi Annan is going to find his position increasingly untenable,” said Nile Gardiner, an expert on the UN at the conservative Heritage Foundation. “There is a strong possibility he will resign voluntarily because of his declining credibility.”

    In the end Annan’s feelings may be more decisive than the facts.

    No loss at all, and I really hope he does blaze town.

    I wanted a snappier headline but had to settle for some weak alliteration. Where’s Boutros Boutros-Ghali when you really need him?

  • U.N. Reaches out to Middle America

    The United Nations has an image problem among many Americans.

    Surprised? Of course you’re not. Despite its success as a political arena during the Cold War, a Coliseum for the diplomatic gladiators of the U.S. and the Soviets, the UN has long since strayed from its hopeful origins and purposes. At its best, it is bungling. At its worst, it is incredibly corrupt. In between lies the norm — spineless token gestures, misguided and half-hearted forays, hollow words and resolutions.

    Now, the UN wants to correct its image in the eyes of Americans with a planned revamping of the UN Human Rights Commission.

    The United Nations is out of touch with most Americans, who think the beleaguered organization has abandoned its mission to keep peace and protect human rights around the world, says U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s chief of staff.

    “In a very real way, we seem to have lost touch with the great middle in America, a middle which very much believes in the aspirational ideas of the U.N. … and who feel that we’ve drifted away from a commitment to human rights, a commitment to help the poor of the world,” Mark Malloch Brown said yesterday.

    The United Nations is under fire for several scandals including the oil-for-food program, charges of sexual abuse by U.N. peacekeeping forces and the resignation of a top official accused of sexual harassment, which Mr. Malloch Brown addressed in an exclusive interview with “Fox News Sunday.”

    The organization will propose changes in the coming weeks to begin repairing its reputation by revamping its “human rights machinery” to keep dictator nations off the U.N. Human Rights Commission.

    Governments making up the current membership include Cuba, Sudan, Zimbabwe and Saudi Arabia. Libya is the outgoing chair of the committee.

    The plan would “try and restore the credibility of this and have people on that commission who really are people of stature and reputation and record and come from countries of the same thing, with real human rights standing in the world,” Mr. Malloch Brown said.

    Go give it a read, as it does a good job of listing the current hot-button problems — chiefly, the oil-for-food scandal, subsequent investigations, and the allegations of atrocities by UN peacekeepers. Noticably absent is any mention of the organization’s horrible track record of its treatment of Israel vis-a-vis the surrounding despotic Arab states, but that would require too much honesty in the face of too much hatred and opportunism.

    How far has the UN fallen? They know they have a problem that they plan to address, and still I am sadly confident that they will fail to do anything more than change some window dressing.

  • White House Admits 1st Blogger to Briefing

    A first for the blogosphere, and a major coup for blogger Garrett M. Graff.

    With an official credential hanging from his neck, a young man stepped into the White House briefing room Monday as perhaps the first blogger to cover the daily press briefings. He found the surroundings to be dilapidated and cramped and concluded that his morning at the White House was “remarkably uneventful.”

    Graff’s site, fishbowlDC, labels itself a “gossip blog about Washington, D.C. media” and has the seemingly standard list of left-wing links, right down to the obligatory Instapundit link for an illusion of balance. Still, that said, hats off to Graff for his pioneering accomplishment.