Category Archives: Religion

American Taliban Re-writing History Again

American Taliban, John Walker Lindh
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The American Taliban set out to remake the world 20 years ago. John Walker Lindh graduated from high school, converted to Islam and made his way to Afghanistan where he joined the Taliban. However, his adventure ended abruptly after 9/11/2001. U.S. forces captured him during fighting in a prison uprising near Mazar-e Sharif. The American Taliban then went on to serve another 17 years in an American prison.

In addition to harboring Osama Bin Laden, the Taliban was best known at the time for blowing up buddhist statues. Coming from Marin County, California, I would have figured Lindh to be more suited for the Buddhist side of things.

2002 Akron Beacon Journal

 

Authoritarian Itch Gets Scratched During Pandemic

Authoritarian itch, pandemic
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If you have an authoritarian itch, the Covid-19 pandemic provides a great opportunity to scratch it.

Andrew McCarthy and David Harsanyi write in National Review about authoritarian overreach.

A father in Colorado was briefly handcuffed for playing t-ball with his 6-year old daughter. Meanwhile, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer shut down the sale of fruit and vegetables at garden stores. And NYC Mayor de Blasio threatened to seize churches.

Shutting down church services was a big theme:

Two days before Easter, Louisville, Ky., mayor Greg Fischer attempted to unilaterally ban drive-in church services for the most holy day in Christianity.

David Harsanyi

But U.S. District Judge Justin Walker overruled the mayor. And maybe the judge was scratching that itch himself when he claimed,  “On Holy Thursday, an American mayor criminalized the communal celebration of Easter.”

 But, it’s still best to be king. As President Trump says:

When somebody’s the president of the United States, the authority is total.

Mayor Mike Milks Culture War

Bloomberg, chick-fil-a, social justice warriors, cancel culture
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President Obama warned Democrats that average Americans don’t want to tear down the system. But it seems some Democratic Primary candidates do. Michael Bloomberg figures he’s just the antidote for that problem. He’s no radical. In fact he was a Republican before he identified as a Democrat. Come to think of it, he was a Democrat before transitioning to Republican. And all without surgery. He’s his own bipartisan caucus. And he’s thinking about tossing his hat in the ring.

Mayor Mike

While Bloomberg was a Republican mayor of New York he supported the police Stop and Frisk program. And the murder rate plunged from 650 a year to 300 during his reign of terror. It’s true that most of those stopped and frisked were minorities, but then so were most of the murder victims. The murder decline could be a coincidence. But what politician wouldn’t take credit for it anyway? Um, Mayor Mike wouldn’t. He apologized for supporting Stop and Frisk.

As for Chick-fil-A, its CEO Dan Cathy is an evangelical Christian. And he tries to run his business by Christian principles. One of those principles was serving the poor through donations to the Salvation Army. But that upset culture warriors. That’s because the Salvation Army holds a traditional view of marriage. Like Obama sort of did, until he didn’t.

But Chick-fil-A needs to make money to do good. So, in an effort to get the world to eat more chicken, the company trimmed the Salvation Army from its Christmas list.

Hugs Not Stopping Bullets

hugs not bullets
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Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador won election on a campaign of retreat from the war on drug cartels. HIs campaign pitch was “hugs, not bullets:”

Operation Kayla Mueller

Kayla Mueller, Operation Kayla Mueller, al-Baghdadi in hell, rape, murder
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Kayla Mueller grew up in Prescott, Arizona as a Christian committed to helping others. So she traveled the world doing just that. She landed in southern Turkey working with the Danish Refugee Council helping Syrian refugees. But in 2013 she made an unexpected visit to a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Aleppo, Syria.

Aleppo

Aleppo was ground zero in a war involving the Syrian government, Syrian rebels, Kurds, Russians, ISIS and Iraq. And it was no place for an idealistic 26 year old American woman. So the doctors sent Kayla back over the border. But, on the way, ISIS kidnapped her.

Eventually the self-proclaimed caliph, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi “married” Kayla. Then the religious scholar proceeded to rape and torture her.

Her parents learned of Kayla’s death in 2015.

U.S. Special Forces hunted down Baghdadi and he paid for his brutality with his life. The U.S. Joint Chief of Staff named the operation in honor of Kayla.