18 posts tagged “truth”

Please forgive any sloppiness in this post, I've only got an hour to punch this one out but I felt it too important to let pass unaddressed.

I collect analogies.  They help me reveal truth by slightly adjusting perspective.  A new friend on Stumble Upon had this one on her home page.  Its new to me and I thought I would share it with you.  Hope you enjoy.

A preacher and an atheistic barber were once walking through the city slums. Said the barber to the preacher: "This is why I cannot believe in a God of love. If God was as kind as you say, He would not permit all this poverty, disease, and squalor. He would not allow these poor bums to be addicted to dope and other character-destroying habits. No, I cannot believe in a God who permits these things."

The minister was silent until they met a man who was especially unkempt and filthy. His hair was hanging down his neck and he had a half-inch of stubble on his face. Said the minister: "You must not be a very good barber because you wouldn't permit a man like that to continue living in this neighborhood without a haircut and shave." Indignantly the barber answered: "Why blame me for that man's condition? I can't help it that he is like that. He has never come in my shop; I could fix him up and make him look like a gentleman!"

Giving the barber a penetrating look, the minister said: "Then don't blame God for allowing the people to continue in their evil ways, when He is constantly inviting them to come and be saved."

On the same site is this little jewel.  This is why we must use our judgment.  You are going to find good information and bad information mixed together in this life.  You have to use wisdom to discern what is good from what sounds good.

Conservatives have been exercising this foolish principal for decades and look where its gotten us.  I now know this to be a foolish notion because when truth and reason is not explained, the enemy can make false charges against your character and the friend can be convinced your motives are not right.  Worse, the bystanders get only the false impression left by the false charges.  Not only do you have to stand for what you believe in, you have to explain why you believe it, and you'd better do it in a way that makes knowledge desirable.  Whether my enemy believes me is not the point.  That his charges against me are accepted by others is the point.  That was George Bush's greatest failing as president of the United States of America, not torture, not the national security initiative, not even the spending, but explaining to the nation and the world why these were necessary actions and demonstrating our judicious military restraint.

My friend's page is choc full of really good stuff, so I am not knocking her at all.  I'm just saying the best pages, minds, and messages can have some bad stuff mixed in.  We have to be vigilant about what we take to be good every minute.

Here's one more from her page that is new to me and useful.

Our youth are asking a fatal question.  Fatal, because they are not being answered responsibly.  That question is critically important in the formative years to maintain the society our forefathers handed us.  The answer they are being given by many of the authorities in their lives is false and confusing.  Truth is not relative.  Your truth is not different from anyone else.  Opinions do not justify falsehood.  Neither do they justify prejudices, preferences, or abuse when they interfere with the success of our culture of liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  Please pay attention to how I worded that.  I referred to the CULTURE of liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  Individual rights to lifestyle choices are our goal, but not at the expense of truth.  You may choose to disregard truth, but your right to your preferences stops where that preference overrules the evidence and denies the truth.  I will not call your relationship with a same-sex partner a marriage because that relationship is not and cannot be a marriage in the thousands of years history of our understanding of what marriage is.  I don't care how committed you are to emulating a marriage.   I don't care how much you desire that title.  Calling your relationship a marriage cannot do our society any good because to do so would be a denial of the fundamental understanding of the marriage relationship.  In the same way, I don't care how much you hate war.  I don't care that you have a Utopian vision for a war-free world.  Enemies of liberty and the freedom to pursue happiness will continue to kill innocents in their endeavor to rule over freedom desiring cultures.  They are evil.  They must be resisted with overwhelming force including death dealing war.  I care that our culture continues to exist in its ideal seeking form to provide the maximum degree of liberty to each individual while simultaneously providing the maximum degree of security.  We may argue over the proper balance of policies to provide security as opposed to liberty, but we may not deny truth to extol our preferences.

http://www.bornagainamerican.org/
http://www.myspace.com/truthsoularmor

Of course we desire to avoid war and of course we seek as much personal liberty as is possible, but we will lose all our security and liberty if we fall into the trap of denying truth in their pursuit.

In our society, the tendency to approach intellectual conflict with prejudices and with strategic attack and defense mechanisms makes open dialogue dishonest at worst and closed minded at best while providing the incentive and venue for the destruction of moral ideals.  It is a real struggle to put these 'tools' aside to find the kernels of truth in the oppositions' arguments.  If you manage to do this, you are a rare commodity.  What is required is a deep and thorough research into the topic and wading through all the discourse which has already occurred.  Assuming your opposition is ignorant, bigoted, prejudiced, and hate filled whether they are or not, closes your opportunities to discern and glean the merits of their arguments.  If there is ever to be any progress in understanding and agreement, it begins with an open mind and most importantly, a love for the truth.

The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters.

Contempt prior to investigation is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep man in everlasting ignorance..  William Paley 1794 

The higher goal must be to acknowledge facts and truth.  This is a difficult point for our youth today due entirely to the fact that so many of our schools are promulgating another anti-wisdom mantra.  This one is known as subjective truth.  "What's true for you isn't necessarily true for me and what's true for me isn't necessarily true for you."  In point of fact, there is only and can only be one truth.  "Healthy grass is green" is not subjective.   Either its a true statement or its a false one.  Opinions are not truth.  Opinions are built on false conclusions and limited knowledge more easily than truth can be discerned from the observable facts.  However, that mantra encourages the holders of opinions built on preference rather than fact to feel as obligated to express their biased by preference opinions as readily as those who've actually dug through the evidence and thoroughly investigated the truth to gain authority on the topic.  In the interest of wisdom and good judgment, we must put aside our preferences and allow our bias to be subjected to criticism on the merits of the evidence.
 
Finally, we have to acknowledge that no one person can grasp all the facts in macro-complexity, but the best minds establish which facts give the greatest indicators of trends we may observe on a consistent basis.  This is where studies performed by professionals and scientist achieve their value.  Researchers dig up the best available information while scientist do the work of testing and observation to refute or confirm our assumptions.  On the micro scale of interpersonal relationships, we observe the behaviors of those we have relationships with and how they react to our behavior.  We lean on traditions and laws to establish which behaviors are acceptable versus repugnant.  These traditions and laws are malleable to some extent, but if we are applying micro sensibilities to macro issues, we begin to see a breakdown of traditions and laws that have proven their worth to the society as a whole.  Similarly, if we apply the macro sensibilities to our micro relationships, we act in bigoted and damaging ways to those who are nearest to us.  One wrecks society the other wrecks individuals.  Neither is acceptable.  We have to begin to train our young people in the difference between macro benefiting decisions with and micro benefiting decisions in our interpersonal relationships. 

In this endeavor, I welcome the examining and challenging of my positions so we can ascertain what is right, good and true.  Be forewarned however, I will simultaneously be evaluating your grasp of the truth.  Due to the aforementioned tactics, each of us must guard against the immoral influence of personal preference held by our opposition as readily as we guard against our own preferences and temptations to influence others with strategic tactics when our preferential and comfortable positions are untenable.  These tactical methods of argument are as natural to us as breathing.  We are raised by people and people have been arguing since the beginning of time.  So, our parents and our siblings and our neighbors are all teaching us how to 'win' an argument from the time we begin to speak.  What they aren't able to do, even if they utilize proper methods of argument is to teach us the advanced disciplined methods of keeping an open mind while simultaneously guarding against the influential strategic tactics of argumentation.  This takes discipline, this takes commitment, this takes a love of truth and places it above the justification of our preferences..

In this video we see an old discussion on the real effects of social welfare programs.  I chose this one for the stark representation of style and content of the discussion not because of political views.  Well, in complete disclosure it is in part due to my views as I have placed this video in my online library.  But that's completely beside the point.  First, we note that everybody is spouting percentages and study results, but one is presenting a defensive position not based on effect, but based on desire or motivation, the other is presenting the results of the programs and advocating either totally abolishing the programs or as I would suggest, putting them into local authority and governance.  The more local the better due to the immediate accountability of the receiving parties to the giving parties.  Again, that is beside the point.  The point of this article is to demonstrate rejection of criticism or closed mindedness.  From the outside (that is from a perspective of not having any knowledge of the issue) it appears to be like any ordinary hot debate.  Nobody is winning, everybody is disagreeing and Washington remains in permanent deadlock.  However, if we dig in to the conversation and pull apart the defense and attack mechanisms and just look at the approaches each party has taken to the problem, one identifies the errors in applied intelligence to make a bad problem much bigger and worse.

Now, this brings me to the conclusion I am trying to communicate.  Drawing from the video a demonstration of bias and commitment to the cause rather than the solution and love of truth prevents real progress.

Most people who visit this page will do so because the title will send them into orbit in offense against this volitile language of racism and bigotry and well they should feel offense, yet the vast majority of those same people will often defend and equate Islam and Muslims to Judaism and Christianity and the cultures which grew out of them.  The reason I titled this article as I have is because this is literally the exact language the Qu'ran and it's adherents are using toward Christians and Jews.  This hipycrisy is fueling most of the conflict in the Middle East and the conflicts between radical Muslims and every other culture in 44 countries experiencing Islamic aggression around the world right now.  In my last article I linked a video of Brigitte Gabrielle, author of "Because They Hate" and "They Must Be Stopped."  Today, I'm going to provide a complete transcript of that lecture and the question and answer period following.  This issue is too important to miss.  This is the fourth article in a series of Lying Without Lies and provides much of the information the media has been withholding from us and misleading us with.  Hear it from one who lived it throughout her life in Lebanon, Israel, and now here in America.  A testimony of personal cost in blood, wealth and freedom.  Everywhere Islam is, there is danger.  Here now is Brigitte Gabrielle at the Heritage Foundation just after the release of her second book about six months ago.

Beginning Transcrypt:

Good afternoon, welcome to the Heritage Foundation.  I'm John Hilbalt, director of lectures and seminars.  Its my privilege to welcome you to our Lehrman auditorium and of course, to welcome those joining us via the internet at our Heritage.org website.  We always remind our internet viewers that questions can be submitted simply by addressing an email to speaker@heritage.org.  speaker@heritage.org  and for those in house, you have that last minute duty to check that cell phones and pagers have been turned off, if you've not already done so, to avoid any interference here in the room. 

Heritage Foundation is interested in maintaining basic principals, the rule of law, private enterprise, limited government, and individual freedom.  The challenges we face in the world today are great for all of those principals.  We're pleased to have with us today, one individual who has had first hand experience with some of the political challenges we do face around the world.  Our featured speaker this morning is Brigitte Gabrielle.  A journalist and news producer, Mrs. Gabrielle began her career as the news anchor for World News, the evening news broadcast for Middle East television, seen weeknights throughout Israel, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Cypress, and Lebanon.  She reported on the Israeli security zone in Lebanon and the Palestinian uprising in the West Bank as they unfolded.  She is a former production coordinator for ARD, that's German television, in South Lebanon, Gaza, and the West Bank.  She is also the former satelite video distribution coordinator for World Wide Television News studios in London.  After relocating to the United States in 1989, she founded and entertainment company providing services to national and international media clients.  Then in 2002, she founded the American Congress for Truth, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supplying information about the ongoing Middle East conflict.  She appears often on news and information television shows and talk radio programs.  She is fluent in four languages, Arabic, French, English, and Hebrew.  Hers is a personal story, one I look forward to hearing, and one from which we can better understand the threats faced by the free world today.  Brigitte, welcome to Heritage.  (aplause)

Thank you.  Thank you.  I'm honored and delighted to be here today, and I thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to come here and hear me speak about the Middle East conflict from my own personal experience.  When people hear about the Middle East, they think all the countries in the Middle East are Muslim countries.  This was not the case 30 years ago.  Lebanon was the only majority Christian country in the Middle East.  Lebanon was the most westernized modern country in the Middle East.  When we got our independence from France in the early '40s, the majority of the population were Christian, the Muslims were the minority.  We prospered, we built the country, we are the descendants of the Phoniecians, we were good in commerce, and in a very short time, Lebanon became Paris of the Middle East.  The baking capitol of the Middle East.  We had the best universities in the Middle East, the best education centers, the best schools, the best theaters, we exported the theater and the art to the rest of the Arabic world.  That's why a lot of Arabic countries understand the Lebanese dialect, through our culture while we do not understand many of theirs.  We had open borders, we were a very multi-cultural society.  We allowed people to come into our country freely and study in our country.    They usually graduated and stayed there, because our country offered them the best economic prospect for a job in the Middle East, even though we didn't have any oil. 

That was Lebanon.  The situation began to change gradually, as the Muslims started growing and becoming more than 50% of society.  We the Christians do not multiply as much while the Muslims- not many but a lot of them are allowed to marry up to four wives at a time.  This is how they multiply.  We started shrinking, they started growing.  The most famous Muslim in the world today, is Osama bin Laden.  Osama bin Laden is one out of 53 children.  He, himself has 27 children.  Between father and son, they have produced 80 children.  How many people do you know, my dear friends sitting in this room, have produced 80 children?  If you're willing to confess.  and we're not talking about his other 52 brothers and sisters.  This is what tipped the scale, in the Middle East over the years.  We always had our problem controlled with the Muslims until the influx of the Palestinians out of Jordan- when King Hussein kicked them out of Jordan in Black September and actually, King Hussein killed more Palestinians in Black September than
the state of Israel has killed in all it's existence. 

Lebanon, not surprisingly being a country based on Judeo-Christian values with open borders and multi-cultural attitude, took the Palestinians in.  We were the only country in the Middle East who took the Palestinians in for the third wave of refugees in 1970.  Once they came in, they put their heads together with the radical Islamists in our country, and declared holy war on the Christians.   Yasser Arafat tried to establish with Lebanon a base from which to attack Israel, something he tried to do in Jordan and failed because of the Jordanian dictatorship by the king, yet he was able to do it in Lebanon using our laws, our multi-culturalism, our tolerance, and out open mindedness against us. 

The problem worsened by 1974.  Christians became prisoners to their homes and towns.  We stopped traveling.  I would ask my parents, "How come we're not going to Beruit this year for Christmas?"  Because the rest of my family lived in Beruit.  and my father would give me an excuse, "Well we decided to stay home this year."  which wasn't fun for a 10 year old child.  and you have to understand, I'm an only child to my parents.  My parents were married for over 20 years they could not have any children.  My mother was 55 years old and my father was 60 when I was born, so staying home with two elderly parents on Christmas, wasn't that exciting.  (laughter)  The reason why we stopped traveling is because the Muslims and the Palestinians would set up check points and would stop cars driving.  And they would look at the people's ID's, and in Lebanon as throughout the Middle East, our religion is identified on our ID.  Your are either a Christian, a Muslim or a Jew.  So when the Palestinians and the Muslims would stop the car and see that this family is a Christian family, they would get them out of the car and shoot them in cold blood.  It was called identity killing at that time.  We stopped traveling, that's why we became prisoners. 

By 1975, the Palestinians and the Muslims formed an army called (I have no idea how to spell it, but it sounded like) Jay'sheble'lemprobilon'omy.    The Arabic Lebanese Army.  They started taking over the military bases and destroying the Lebonese infrastructure and attacking the Lebonese government institutions.  The army base up above my house, was the last army base left in the country in the hands of the Lebanese army.    This was in 1975.  They grouped their people together, and in trying to take over the military base in my town, they bombed my home, bringing it down and burying me under the rubble.  This was in 1975.  I was wounded, I ended up in a hospital for 2 1/2 months and undergone surguries.  And I would ask my parents, "Why did they do this to us?"   and my father would tell me, "Because we are Christians, the Muslims consider us infidels."  So I learned at a very young age, at age 10 years old, that I am wanted dead simply because I was born into the Christian faith. 

I left the hospital and I came home and the home was no longer the home I left.  I ended up living in a bomb shelter underground with no electricity, no water and very little food.  To get some water, we would crawl to a nearby spring under snipers' bullets, my mother and I, in a ditch, and we would get to the spring, and my mother would have to use a stocking on top of the bottle to catch all the worms and all the rocks and all the maggots so we can drink the water.  And then we would crawl back to the bomb shelter.  Before we left, everytime we would say our last goodbyes, because we did not know if we were going to come back alive or dead.  We didn't have any food.  My mother finally crawled up to our storage place and brought down white rice and white lentils and white chickpeas and she would soak them overnight so we could eat, and this was the food we lived on.  The only greenery we had to eat was the grass that grew around our bomb shelter.  I would crawl out under the bombs, and I would dig grass out, and I learned how to peel the thorn so I could eat the stalk with my ripe hands of 12 years old, so I could eat the green stalk inside the thorn.  That was the only greenery we ate.  We had no heat, we would freeze.  We are in the mountains, we are next to the border of Israel.  My father had to break twigs from trees and pour kerosene and benzyne on them in the bomb shelter, our 8 by 10 room where we lived under ground.  And many times we cuddled around the fire and many times we would fall asleep and we had an agreement.  Whoever woke up first would drag the other two outside and slap them on their face to wake up because of carbon monoxide poisoning, we would pass out. 

This was my life, meanwhile we were surrounded by the Palestinians and the Muslims who want to slaughter us.  And we knew what our fate was going to be, becuase we knew what they were doing to the Christian towns in Lebanon as they were overtaking the country.  People that had fled from the rest of Lebanon, who came to our area would tell us what they were doing in the other parts of Lebanon.  One of the main things-massacres is the massacre of Demor.  They massacred many Christians.  They would walk into a bomb shelter, meaning the Islamists and the Palestinians, they would find a family hiding in a bomb shelter, they would find a mother and a father with a little baby.  They would take the baby, tie one leg of the baby to the mother and the one leg to the father and pull the parents apart splitting the child in half.  They would walk into our churches, urinate and deficate on the alter using the Bibles as toilet paper.  The last lady that worked for me was completely mentally disturbed.  I hired her so I could take care of her and her family.  They tied her to a chair, they tied her 16 year old son on her lap, held the knife to her hand and made her behead him before they raped her two daughters in front of her. 

I think the biggest disservice the American media did to the American public is not show them the beheading of Daniel Pearl and Nick Berg.   I think we in America as a civilization, need to understand the barbaric nature of the enemy we are facing that's heading our way.  Few people from our town, knowing what our fate was going to be, went to Israel- who was supposedly the enemy at the time, Israel was supposedly Lebanon's enemy according to the government controlled media.  But we as Christians, our back was to the Jews/Israel, our front was to the Palestinians and the Muslims, and we knew of the two evils, of the two devils, the Jews are not going to slaughter us, because we had more shared values with them than we had with the radical Islamists and the Palestinians.  Few people from my town went to Israel and begged for help.  And Israel started coming in, in the middle of the night from 1976 to 1978 bringing food for the children, bringing bomb shelters for the people who didn't have a bomb shelter, bringing blankets to the family, bringing medication, bringing food for the military, bringing ammunition to the Christians and teaching them how to fight, taking them into Israel to be trained because the Christian Lebonese had college degrees, had education, they were not street gangs.  And you can have all the college degrees on your wall behind you, your doctorates, your law degrees, and everything else, it doesn't do you squat when you are faced with an enemy who believes that beheading you is an order from Allah. 

And this is how we stayed alive for another two years until 1978.  One day one of our militia members, the Christian militia in the South, came to us and he said, "I just want to let you know that tonight we are going to be attacked and we may die because we've lost so many people, I don't think we can fight, and I just want to wish you a merciful death."   And I remember dressing in my burial clothes at age 13 because I did not want to look ugly when I am dead because I wanted to look pretty.   And I remember putting on my Easter dress that my mother had made for me.  And we had a two hour cease fire.  And my mother was combing my long hair and tying a white ribbon in it that matched the white flowers on my dress.  And I stood there looking at the little mirror in the bomb shelter, crying begging her, I don't want to die, I'm only 13 years old.  The only reason I didn't die that night is because that night is when Israel came physically into Lebanon and pushed the Palestinians and the Muslims away from our area.  That was Operation Laytanni.  We've been hearing a lot about the Laytanni for the last month or two because of what's been happening with Hezbollah.  And Israel set up check points around our areas.  And this is what kept us alive for another four years until Israel invaded Lebanon all the way to Beruit in 1982.  And the reason why Israel entered Lebanon in 1982, because Israel was working with the Christians in Lebanon to liberate Lebanon from the radical Islamic element, supported by Syria, protected by Iran, financed by the petro-dollars pouring in from all around the Arabic countries, to help Yasser Arafat create a base to terrorize Israel.  They wanted to destroy the only Arabic democracy that existed in the Middle East.  The Christian Lebanese were working with Israel, the Christian Lebanese from Beruit were being trained in Israel and in Tel Aviv just as well as the Christians in South Lebanon.   Israel came in and the only reason Israel came in was because Syria who was financing the radical Islamists and supporting them and protecting them and supplying them with weaponry were shelling the Northern towns of Israel to the point the Northern towns of Israel, their lives ceased to exist, they lived in bomb shelters just like us.  And this didn't go on for a month or two, this went on for a year before Israel invaded Lebanon.  And Israel entered all the way to Beruit to push the Syrian cannons and the artillery and the machine guns so their guns would not reach Northern Israel.  And they were working with the Christians hopefully to expel Yasser Arafat and the PLO out of Lebanon and control the radical element that had taken hold of the country.

Nobody in the world understood what was happening because the Palestinian propaganda machine and the Muslim radical propaganda machine which was well financed and oiled by petro-dollars was well at work while the West was asleep.   During that time, my mother became wounded and we had to take her to an Israeli hospital for treatment because Israel was our only lifeline.  She was wounded by Islamic shells falling in front of our bomb shelter as the Muslims were retreating when Israel was advancing into Lebanon.  And I'm going to tell you a little story that changed my outlook and changed my life.  Before we left the bomb shelter to take my mother to the hospital, my father handed $60. He said, "Here's $60 in case you need it since you're going to be taking your mother to Israel.  And I remember touching money for the first time in my life, because when you live in a bomb shelter, you don't go shopping.  And I took the money and we went up to the Lebonese hospital that Israel has fixed, Israel had fixed up the room, put Israeli soldier on duty and two Israeli nurses who give my mother first aid.  They give her first aid, put her in an Israeli donated ambulance, drove us to the border which was a ten minute drive.  The driver was a Lebonese driver, actually an acquintance of the family.  We got to the border, they took my mother out of the ambulance in Lebanon and put her inside Israel into another ambulance to drive us an hour.  The Lebonese driver walks around to me and asks me if I had any money for the fee for the ambulance.    And like an innocent teenager I pulled the money out of my pocket and I hand it to him and I said, "How much do I owe you?"  And he looks at it and he said, "Give me $30" which was half the money I had.  So I handed him $30 and I thanked him very much.   And I sat in the Israeli ambulance which was inside Israel which was to drive us to the hospital which was an hour away.  The Israeli driver treated me like his own daughter.  He could see a teenager who was uncertain of what was going to happen.  My mother was laid unconcious on the back stretcher of that ambulance.  He treated me like his own daughter with such respect and such compassion.  We got to the emergency room at the Israeli hospital Oveetz Phaht.  We got out of the ambulance and I remember taking the money out of my pocket and handing it to the Israeli driver thinking to myself, "My God, if the ten minute drive cost me $30, I'm sure this is not going to be enough."  And I handed him my money.  And he looked at the money and he said, "What is this for?"  and I said, "This is for the hospital-for the ambulance ride."  And he said, "No, this is a free service from us to you.  Keep your money and take care of your mother, I wish her a speedy recovery."  And I could not believe my eyes and ears.  I thought to myself, "What an ethical man.  What an honest man.  This man could have taken my money and partied all night and I would not have known the difference."  Yet, he didn't.  And I became very angry because I realized the Lebonese driver basicly robbed me, he stole my money.  And he was an acquaintance of the family. 

That was my first lesson in the difference in culture and values between the Arabic culture and the Israeli culture.  We got into the hospital and there were hundreds of people wounded on the floor.  There were Lebanese broughti in from Lebanon, there were Palestinian wounded militia brought in from Lebanon.  There were Lebonese Christians brought in, Lebonese Muslims brought in, Israeli soldiers brought in.  And I could not believe my eyes.  The doctors treated everyone according to their injury.  They did not see religion, they did not see political affiliation, they did not see nationality, they saw people in need and they helped.  I could not believe my eyes, the doctor treated my mother before he treated the Israeli soldier laying next to her.  They took my mother to the fourth floor of the hospital where two other Muslim ladies were brought in earlier that morning.   And we were not in the room but maybe five minutes when I heard all this commotion outside our window, outside our balcony.  And people were running through our room, out to the balcony to see what was happening.  And I walked out to look what was happening.  And two Israeli helicopters had just landed, taking out Israeli wounded soldiers brought in from Lebanon.. And I stood at that balcony feeling sick to my stomach.  I felt ashamed, I felt humiliated.  Afterall, these people are wounded becuase of the war with my country.  I didn't know how the people standing next to me are going to react to me.  I didn't make eye contact with anyone.  And then I felt this tap on my shoulder.  And I looked to my side and there was an Israeli nurse standing next to me.  And she said, "You are new here, aren't you?"  And I said, "Yes I am, as a matter of fact, they just brought in my mother to this room."  And she put her arm around me and she said, "Don't worry, we'll take good care of her, everything will be just fine."  And I started crying.  I started sobbing, because for the first time in my life, I experienced compassion.  I experienced a human quality that I knew my culture would not be able to show their enemy in their time of need.  I knew if I was a Jew standing on the fourth floor or any hospital in the Middle East, I would be lynched and thrown down to my death, as shouts of joy of Allahu ackbar would echo through the hospital and down the surrounding streets.  I spent 22 days in the hospital in Israel.  Those days changed my life, changed the way I believe information, changed the way I listen to the radio.  I learned I was sold a lie by my government about the Israeli people and the Jewish people that was so far from reality.  It was amazing.  One of the Muslim ladies in the same room,  she was there for over ten days.  And when the Israeli soldiers would come and take care of her wound and change her wound in the morning, the minute they would leave, she would look at them and she would say, "I wish you were all dead, I hate you."   And if you could see evil, I saw evil.  Because when you hate so deep that you are unable to be grateful to people that save your life, you have crossed a fine line between humanity and something very ugly on the other side. 

I vowed that one day I would return to Israel because these were the type of people I want to live amongst.  This was the type of culture I want to adopt.  A culture of cvilized people who respect all others, who shows compassion to others.  You want to know real people?  The time you know the true face of a person is when they are in a trajedy.  That's when their true colors shine.  And the colors of the Israelis were respect, compassion, and love.  While all the Israelis from Israel heard that there were Lebanese people living in the Israeli hospitals and came to visit bringing in chocolates, bringing in baklava, telling people, "Our homes are your homes if you need any help, just come let us help you out."    It was an amazing scene.  And all you heard the Lebanese television, "The barbaric Israeli enemy invading Lebanon and torturing Lebanon and destroying the Lebanese infrastructure."  Nobody destroyed the Lebanese infrastructure but the radical Islamists and the PLO who ravaged Lebanon and this is exactly what we're seeing today.

I ended up moving to Israel when I was 20 years old to become news anchor for World News in the Middle East where I covered world event and reported on world news.    And I saw the same pattern being repeated.  What I used to think was original problem between radical Islamists and Christian Lebanese, was becoming a world problem.  The Ahkiginlabro, the Pan Am flight, TWA flight, the killing the hihacking.   It was the same Muslims names perpetrating it, Achmed, Hussein, Muhammad, Ali.  The same of the victims, Terry Anderson, Terry Waite, Gerald Higgins, all American Western names, Jews or Christians.  

And now I am in the United States.  And people today have such misinformation in our country, it is mind boggling.  I realized that the same enemy that Israel has been fighting for over 50 years are the same enmey today who are fighting Western civilization.  No one paid attention then, but now we better pay attention.  Great example is Hamas, the terrorist organization Hamas.  When people hear Hamas, they think Hamas is an 8,000 miles away problem.  Hamas is an Israel problem.  Hamas is here in the United States.  Hamas of all the terrorist organizations in America, that have set up shop in America, and the top three are al Qaida, Islamic Jihad, and Hamas.  Hamas has the largest infrastructure on American soil.  Hamas has cells in over 40 states in the United States.  They have cells in - I'm only going to name you a few cities that might interest you - Boston Massechussetts, New York New York, Laurelle Maryland, Potomac Maryland, Washington DC, Henrington Virginia, Springfield Virginia, Rally North Carolina, Boca Roton Florida, Fort Lauderdale Florida, Philadelphia Pennsylvania, Cleveland Ohio, Charmin North Carolina, Orlando Florida, Tampa Florida, Seattle Washington, San Francisco California, Santa Clara California - You get the idea.  In over 40 states.  This is the problem we're facing today. 

Many people who turned a blind eye and did not pay attention to what was happening are now paying the price.  In the Hamas charter, article 22 of the Hamas charter which was published and made public in 1988, states the organizations of the enemy.  I'll quote you verbatim.  Article 22, quote, "With their money, they created secret organizations" -talking about the enemy- "  that spread around the world in order to destroy societies and carry out Zionist interests.  Such organizations are the Free Masons, Rotary clubs, Lions clubs, Negbriks and the likes.  All of them are destructive espionage organizations to be destroyed.  You tell me my fellow Americans, and those of you watching on television, how many of you know Lions club members, Rotary club members, Free Masons, who get up early in the morning in their communities to raise money and better their communities?  No, they are mentioned as enemies of Hamas' organization, the terrorist organization that has the largest infrastructure on American soil.  We need to take political correctness and throw it in the garbage where it belongs and start educating our people.   (aplause) Thank you.

Not only we have a problem with Hamas, we have a problem with radical Islam being spread here through the mosques in the United States, financed by so called, our ally Saudi Arabia.  Thank God for private organizations which can go under cover into these mosques.  One of these great organizations, are Freedom House, the Center for Religious Studies.  They went under cover into the top mosques in the United States, and collected over two hundred books and publications from Islamic institutions and mosques and some of the most prominent mosques are in Dallas, in Houston, in Chicago, New York, Washington DC, Los Angeles, and Oakland.   And they took a sample of all these books and translated them.   And these books are supplied directly by the government of Saudi Arabia and its to teach Muslims living in infidel lands, like our land - not Islamic land - how to live and how to deal with non-Muslims.  In relations with all non-Muslims, these Saudi books and publications repeatedly exhort Muslims to, quote "Hate them for their religion" - meaning us and you and everybody else watching - "to hate for Allah's sake.  Always oppose them in every way.  Maintain a wall of resentment against them."  They say that democracy is responsible for all the horrible wars of the 20th century and that attractive names like democracy, justice, freedom, brotherhood, and equality cause all of the world's problems.   This is what's being taught right here in American mosques.  they say that all religions but Islam are false and that it is the religious duty of every Muslim to impose, quote "functionally Islamic goverment on every country in the world."  This religious duty is binding in principal, in law, in self defense, in community, and as a sacred obligation of jihad, in order to fill the sacred obligation of jihad they must, quote "invade its Western heartland and struggle to overcome it until all the world shouts by the name of the prophet Muhammad and the teachings of Islam spread throughout the world.   Only then will Muslim achive their fundamental goal, all religion will be exclusively for Allah.  This is what Muslims young and old are learning in American mosques in the United States today.   And if I may add, they are teaching in Islamic madrassas in the United States as you and I are meeting in this room.  They are teaching young American Muslim students that Christians and Jews are apes and pigs because we are cursed by Allah.  This is what they're learning.  Now you tell me my fellow Americans, can we dare say this type of verbage against - let's say blacks are monkeys and gays are pigs?  This type of education is not permissable.  This type of verbage is not allowed to be taught against any group of people in any religion in any color.  This is hate education.  We have seen the result of this kind of hate education in the Palestinian territiories, the unleashing of suicide bombing into Israel.  And this is what's being prepared right now in America today unless we wake up and identify the problem. 

A few days ago, we had a report come out that said that our being in Iraq just increased a little bit the terrorist attack, that its because we are there that they are angry with us.  Well I've got a little piece of news for everyone.  Under the banner of lai e lai elahulah Muhammad suru Allah, "There is no god greater than Allah and Muhammad is his prophet."  they killed Jewish children in Israel, they massacred Christians in Lebanon - meaning the Muslims - they killed Hindus in India, Copts in Egypt, Assyrians in Syria, Armenians in Turkey, and expelled over 900,000 Jews out of Arab land.   That has nothing to do with us being in Iraq, being in Afghanistan, and has absolutely nothing to do with America.  This is the time America needs to wake up and realize what is coming her way.  And I'm going to end on this note before I open it for questions.  So many times over the last 100 years, people have stood by and done nothing allowing evil to prevail.  As America stood up against and defeated communism, this is the time when America needs to come together and defend our Western democracy and defeat Islamo-Fascism and radicalism because in our country and in our freedom, we do not stand and do not agree with religious hatred, bigotry and intolerance.    And I urge you to act today and wake up.  I thank you.  (Aplause)

John- For some reason I suspect there are few questions from the audience.  And I'll start here on the back, just wait for the microphone and please do us the favor of giving your name and affiliation. 

Hi; my name is Brian Beary, I'm a journalist for Europolitics Magazine.  Just when you were talking about  the Muslims, you seemed to sort of imply there was a monolith with everybody holding these radical views.  Do you not think there's a large majority of Muslims that are much more moderate and that the challenge is to work with them to pursuade, to force them, the moderates to achieve victory over the radicals?

Brigitte-  Exactly, this is exactly what we need, we need to challenge the moderate Muslims all throughout the world.  You know there are  1.2 billion Muslims in the world today.  Not all of them are radicals, but in the intelligence community, we estimate there are between 15 to 25% who have been radicalized.  That translate to 180 to 300 million people.  That's almost as big as the population of the United States.  So we do have Muslims living in the United States.  Where are their voices?  This is the only country in the world where Muslims can demonstrate, where Muslims can march in the streets, where Muslims can speak without being intimidated by the radicals.  I can understand why they cannot do it in Libya, in Saudi Arabia, in Aman, in Jordan, in Syria, in Lebanon, but there is no excuse why the Muslims in the United States  cannot take to the streets and rally and send a message to the radicals in the Middle East that we are Americans first, you kill one of us, you kill all of us, we condemn Hamas, we condemn al Qaida, we condemn Jama Islamiya, we condemn Hezbollah.  We haven't heard a blurb.  Talk is cheap.  Having had talking on television screens is empty verbage, hot air just coming out.  Actions speak louder than words.  This is the time we need to challenge our Islamic community to take to the streets.  Of all the Mullahs in the United States, of all the members of mosques in the United States, since September 11, have you seen a million man march on the Capitol?  Have you seen people come to the streets with the same passion as the radicals have and have taken to the streets in any other street in any other country?  Let's talk about the passion of the Hezbollah supporters in Deerbornistan, Michigan right here in our country.  They were free to demonstrate in support of Hezbollah, in the United States of America, yet we haven't seen this passion and these numbers coming out to the streets to defend America?  Just last month, two reporters in the United States, Fox News reporters, Sentanni and Wigg were forced at gunpoint in Gaza to convert to Islam and that was the only way they were able to survive.  Now, a lot of Muslims tell us, this is not what Islam stands for.  If this is not what Islam stands for and the whole world went up against the Pope, have we seen condemnation and demonstrations in the streets on any street USA, condemning this barbaric behavior, 7th century behavior?  Actions, my friends, speak louder than words.  Our civilization is at stake and this is the time.  We need to see people act, not talk.   (aplause)

Alan Nichols, Washington Diplomat Magazine.  We've got to get to the media because you mentioned media and they are the problem.   The Left wing media in this country.  They're almost against everything that we stand for in this country.  I can't understand the Liberal media.  How are you going to get through your message- we can do our part as individuals.  How do you reach the news organizations to change the tenor and the content of the news that's coming out? 

Brigitte-  You know, a lot of people in the liberal press say, "I already have my mind made up, don't confuse me with the facts."  This is the problem we are facing, but we are seeing a decline in the mass media and we are seeing a lot of people are using alternative media sources, such as the internet, such as publications on the internet, such as talk radio, which we have seen an incredible increase on talk radio.  And this is how we get the message out.  Every individual can get involved.  I founded an organization in 2002 called American Congress for Truth.com because I'm sick and tired of political officials who make it to Washington DC, get up there and forget the voices of the people who elected them.  But lining their pockets with money becomes more important than protecting our borders, tightening our immigration, screening students who want to come and study in our country from hostile countries.  So we started an organization, we have thousands of members in all 50 states in the United States and countries outside of America, people who want to know what they can do to make a difference.  There's a lot of things, we send action alerts on a daily basis, I encourage everyone to sign up to our website.  American Congress for Truth dot Org or dot Com.  And sign up to receive our emails.   And we give people tips.  For example, if you live in Smalltown USA, you notice the mosque being built and you notice radical behavior, people dressed more radically, behaving more radically, keeping to themselves, your antenae go up.  Go down, take an afternoon and go to city hall, find out who owns the deed to that mosque.  That's public information.  Is it a Saudi Foundation?  Is it some Muslims from foreign countries who's name is on the deed?  Write those names down, come back to your home, call your local FBI office.  Turn [in] the names to them.  We are the eyes and ears of our government.  Our government is not in every Smalltown USA, but we are and we can open our eyes and we can play a part in protecting our nation.  I also tell people, you can call your elected officials.  Every phone call represents 1000 voters.    And I talk to the officials and I say, "How manypeople do you need to hear from on a national level in order for you to make an issue an issue?"   And they say, "All we need to hear from is 40 to 50 people."  That's it!  The average American thinks, "What's my voice going to do?  They need to hear from a 100,000 people."  But here's the reason behind the numbers, if one person calls, he or she is representing 1000 voters because he is willing to get up and make the phone call and he represents 1000 couch potatoes who may think the same way but are too lazy to make the phone call even though they do vote on election day.  That translates to 40 to 50,000 voters on election day.  Stop buying the mass media, the New York Times, stop buying the L.A. Times, stop buying the newspapers that are spreading lies.  Start supporting organizations that support the truth and gets this type of truth, this politically incorrect truth to you and to the American public.  And this is how the mass people, mass Americans can make a difference.

Another question, I'm going to take this lady first, she raised her hand first.

Lady- Two quick questions, one is; Why are the Muslims, the moderates not speaking out? and secondly, What is your opinion of the president of Palestine saying he would be able to go with two individual states? and what is your opinion on those things?

Brigitte- Well, I'm going to start with the moderates in this country who are not speaking out.  We have very few moderates who are speaking out and I can count them on less than five fingers.  One of them is a colleague of mine, Kamelle Lueje, the president of Free Coalition of Muslims Against Terrorism.  Kamelle tried to organize a rally in Washington DC by the Free Coalition Against Terrorism to show their support to America against terrorism.  The top three Muslim organizations in America not only boycotted the rally, not only put down the rally, refused to advertise the rally,  but went on the attack against Kamelle Lueje, saying that he does not represent the voice of the main stream Muslim community.  Fifty people showed up to Kamelle Lueje's Free Coalition Against Terrorism rally, most of them were Christians and Jews.  Actions speak louder than words and we need to start listening and watching what's happening in our country and translate what they are telling us, not what we are processing in our mind and hoping they would be saying.  Reality is reality.

Another question.

Abe Powers is my name.  You had mentioned something like 15% or so of the 1.2 billion Muslims in the world have potentially been radicalized.  In this country, I would suspect that percentage is far lower and that the potential is still for many thousands to be radicalized.  The concern that I have in taking on the campaign that your talking about, even though I think there is a lot of merit to it, is possible over-reaction in this country to a minority population.  Just a half century ago, during WWII, we locked up hundreds of thousands of Japanese Americans because we feared they were in cahouts with the enemy.  How do you prevent something like this from happening in this country, to the overwhelming majority of law abiding American citizens?

Brigitte-  Absolutely, and we are never going to allow to happen what happened back in WWII.  But we can be wise in the way we conduct our intelligence.  For example, our governemnt wanted to monitor certain mosques last year, for radio active material.    Radio active matieral, now you tell me how many temples and churches that you heard of that we are intereste in monitoring them for radio active material?   And why should CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, oppose us to monitoring something, where we know there are radio active material, to protect ourselves and our country?  There are certain laws where we can put pressure on our elected officials to do where we're not endangering the majority of the Muslims.  Obviously, we are not closing the mosques, obviously, we are not locking them up, obviously, we're letting the terrorists play in our ground.  Look at September 11, the biggest joke on America.  The biggest terrorist act to ever happen on American soil, happened by Muslims living in America, came to America either legally or illegally, holding American ID's, using American money, going to American flight schools, training in American flight schools to fly American airliners into American buildings to kill Americans.   the whole job was done from within, not outside.  So you do not need to lock [up] the 3 to 6 million Muslims that live in this country, but you can certainly encourage our government to eavesdrop, there's been a lot of terrorist attacks that have been foiled since September 11 because of the eavesdropping program.  Just because you don't hear about it, or because it doesn't materialize into a big terrorist act doesn't mean that these programs are not working.  The Patriot Act- you know I come from a Lebanese heritage.  I have no problem if the FBI wants to monitor any conversation I have.  All they [will] get is [a] few laughs.  I have no problem, they want to search my house, give me five minutes, I'll have my teenagers pick up their bedrooms and there you go.  And anybody that doesn't sound the way I do, you better watch out.  We are fighting a war for our survival, and this is the time the Islamic community needs to be challenged to turn the radicals within it, into us and start working with our government.  When you see one individual committing a terrorist act, like the 19 hijackers who like any terrorists-  A terrorist doesn't work independantly.  A terrorist is part of a community.  He is protected by a community, financed by a community, supported by a community, defended by a commmunity, hidden in a community, nurtured in a mosque in the community.  There is no vacuum in Middle East communities throughout the United States.  I come from the Middle East.  Middle Eastern communities who come here basically just change geography, change territories.  Everybody knows everybody's business.  Walk into any neighborhood USA, walk into the Arabic grocery store, tell them "Mohammad Ali, do you know where he lives?" they can tell you where he lives, how old he is, when was his birthday, if his mother is visiting in town, what business he has opened since he came to the United States, any details that Americans would be stunned to know.  An American Islamic communities need to be challenged to turn [in] the terrorists within it and needs to be more active and needs to voice their opinion like Kamelle Lueje, like the few people who I know who are speaking out.  Those voices need to come forward, they are already forward, we just need the rest of the Islamic community to stand behind them against those who are wishing to do us harm.

Hi, my name is Ernie Rosenblum but I'm here in my own private capacity.  Two things, one is; Even with the minimul things that we've done, the ineffective and inadequate things we've done, in Europe, the U.S. and Israel are considered more of a threat to peace than the Islamists and if we were to pursue a course like yours, how do we avoid being completely isolated?    That's the first question, the second is;  I keep hearing about the overwhelming majority of peaceful Muslims.  And my question is; Where's the evidence that they exist? 

Brigitte-   What a great question!  Thank yo so much.  I love the way you put that answer in your question. If they exist, this is a call to all Muslims living in the United States, if those of you moderates exist, and I'm talking directly to the camera,  we want to see you in the streets of America demonstrating, sending a very clear message to the radical barbarians that live in the third world countries in the Middle East, to condemn the barbaric acts that have been done in the name of Islam, your religion that has been supposedly, hijacked.   Because in our beliefs, if something has been stolen or hijacked, we would scream to high heaven that it has been stolen.  And we need to hear your voices if you're really upset that your religion has been stolen.  Thank you.  (aplause)  Oh, the U.S. and Israel.  Yes, the U.S. and Israel are considered the Great Satan [and the Little Satan.]  And many people do not realize, let me tell you, America is the Great Satan, Israel is just the Little Satan tagging along with America.  Keep that in mind.  Whatever happens to Israel, happens to us.  There is a saying in Arabic, "al wenyet isebbit, wah babah edhalud."   "First comes Saturday, then comes Sunday."  "First we kill the Jews, then we come to the Christians."  You ask anyone in the Middle East that saying, they'll know exactly what you're talking about.  The Muslims have been raised with it, we the Christians, have been raised with it.  So, do we care what Europe thinks?  Europe right now, is Eurabia.  It is no longer Europe.  [The Europe we used to know] has died or its on its dying bed. You go down the streets of the Jeans se LeSie in Paris, and what do you see?  You see women in Burkha, you see more men dressed in turbans than dressed in Christian djour attire and cotiere.  You walk in London, I mean, unbelivable, in Denmark, in the year 2000, before 2001, the mullahs in Denmark were declaring from their mosques, that by the year 2050, they will declare Denmark an Islamic state.  That was 2000, before the cartoon bruhauhau.  We were not paying attention, and we better start paying attention.  And people better pay attention to people who are likely, who came to this country, who escaped Islamic persecution who are speaking up, and saying, "Wake up America!  Wake up the West!"  We're going to be the next Eurabia unless we act now and defend our civilization.    We're fighting Islamic totalitarianism. 

I'm going to let you ask that question.  Did you ask a question yet?

My name's Kevin Rooney, I'm a reporter with Cypercast News Service.  I have a question about the controversy with the Pope.  Is there anything the news media hasn't reported in that controversy that you would like to see get a little more air time, a little more play?

Brigitte-  Oh, the news and the Pope, and by the way, the Pope was quoting a 17th century Byzantine Emperor, taking about a 7th century religion, Islam, about violence in Islam and Islam being spread through the sword and through violence.  And what do the Muslims do?  Burning churches, killing the nun.  What the Pope was talking about is what we sit around the dinner table and talk about what we watch on the news and the evening new, its what we hear on the new all day long, not only in America, but all throughout the world.  And I mentioned earlier, Santanni and Wigg, the perfect example of the two Fox reporters.  This forced conversion just happened last month.  This is the 21st century.  Nothing has changed.  Except now, they have sophisticated Western technology called guns, instead of the swords.  Swords!  My husband told me, "You need to say swords instead of sWords." (laughter)

Hello; my name is Madelin and I am an American.  And my question is; I've heard a lot about a documentary called 'Obsession.'    What is your opinion of that?

Brigitte-  Well, what can I say?  I'm in the documentary, so I love the documentary.  Obsession is an incredible documentary.  Its a wake up call about the threat of radical Islam to the Western civilization.  And I urge everyone to get that documentary and get it, see it, feature it in your community.

John- Watch for a future program at Heritage, we're working on that.

Brigitte- That's right, and its a great documentary and we need the support of people like you, of concerned Americans who are going to support production of documentaries like these.  Speaking engagements for people like me to go out and spread the word.  We need to come together and work together to expose the truth.  Not many people are willing to do that, sadly.  And that's why our work is most important.  Yes.

I'm Faith McDonnell from the Institute of Religion and Democracy.  Thank you so much.  One thing, I recently saw Obsession and something that I felt was left out, was the connection with Sudan and I know you mentioned Sudan in your book.    I think we need to connect the dots all around the world.  And I just wondered if you had any contact with Southern Sudanese or Sudanese from the Nuba Mountains?    The Muslims in the Nuba Mountains are the kind of Muslims you're talking about.  They're the peaceful ones and they want a secular democracy, but they would be a good contact for you and for all of us to want to work on stopping this.

Brigitte-  Yes, we are working with different groups and that's a great point and I mentioned it in my book.  Sudan, Indonesia, all around the world-  Right now as I'm speaking to you, there are conflicts in 44 counrtries around the world between Muslims and non-Muslims.  Where is the voice of the moderates?  We are not hearing it.  All we are hearing about is the terrible acts committed in the name of Islam, but you don't hear the voices of the moderate.  And the moderates are being silent just like in Lebanon with this last war with Hezbollah and Israel.  The Sunnis and the Christians are adamant against Hezbollah.  They want the same old Lebanon back.  Prime Minister Saniora, who is a Sunni, who absolutely hate Sheik Nazrallah, who's out of Hezbollah, in the first two days of the war, Prime Minister Saniora said, "How dare Hezbollah start a war without consulting the Lebanese government, they had no right to abduct Israeli soldiers."  Within [a] few days, you saw the Prime Minister change his song and dance.  The reason why?  Because Hezbollah sent death threats to members of Lebanese parliament that if you say anything against Hezbollah, that makes Hezbollah look bad, you will face the same fate like Prime Minister Hariri.  You will be killed.  And this is why you started seeing more people in the Lebanese government be intimidated and talk about, "Israel is the enemy, Hezbollah is our hero." and by them appeasing the enemy and talking like this, look what Nazrallah did with Lebanon [a] few days ago, with the rally they held in Lebanon.   We're going to overthrow the government of Lebanon and we're going to make the government.  Appeasement doesn't work.  Its like feeding the crocodile hoping you will be the last person to be eaten.  And you will be the last person to be eaten.  You've got to kill that crocodile in order to ensure your survival.  And this is what we're seeing all around the world today, and it needs to stop.

One more question.

Frederick Peterson, US Freedom Foundation.  I have first a brief comment and then a question for you.  The comment is in response to the question previously given in concern for internment camps and dramatic response to the threat within.  Perhaps the primary question that must be answered for all of those who worry about excessive response is, are we or are we not at war?  And the answer to that question will elicit the correct response, presuming we have a correct answer.  Secondly, I'm concerned with Iran and Ahmadenijad.   And I would like your comment and observation of what degree of credibility do you give to him, how much is act and how much is reality?  And what would be the threat of a nuclear armed Iran and the consequences of that to us?  Thank you.

Brigitte-  Iran is the biggest danger we are facing right now.   Ahmandenijad is credible, credible, credible.  Listen to every word he is saying, he is going to follow through on every word he is uttering.  The minute Iran finishes their nuclear reactor or nuclear bomb, they will use it against Israel and wipe Israel off the map.  And that doesn't only stop with Israel, their eyes are going to be next on the United States.  The same thing happened to Hitler.  When Hitler even wrote a book called Mein Kampf, "My Struggle."  That's what, you know,  Mein Kampf means.  And he said exactly how much he hated the Jews and what he wants to do with the Jews.  People said "Oh, this guy is a lunatic, this guy is a mad man."  Well guess what?  Listen to what the mad man in saying, because he is going to follow through on his threat.  While we are wasting time, beating around the bush, you know, talking about U.N. sanctions-  Sanctions, smanctions.  I mean, these people could care less about sanctions.  Face reality, you can have sanctions from now until the sun comes down, it doesn't affect them one bit.  Remember, these people are used to living in poverty.  They can very easily live on a bowl of rice.  They do not need to go furniture shopping or clothes shopping.  They can survive.  Don't look at their standards and compare to the standards of the United States.  Sactions are not going to affect them.  Not to mention, we're going to have our enemies helping them, smuggling to them whatever we cut off from them.  So, he will follow through, he is not going to respect anything that you have to say, because look what happened with Saddam Hussein.  So, what's going to change.  He's got another 12 years to go.  Only in two years, he's going to finish his nuclear bomb.  And this is why it is so important to act.  And we need to realize that Ahmadenijad is driven by an ideology of bringing back the 12th Imam, the hidden 12th Imam.  What makes Ahmadenijad much more dangerous than Hitler is that Ahmadenijad believes that the 12th Imam who disappeared in a well, the only way he is going to come back is by creating chaos and catastrophe to bring about the Mahadee where Islam's going to bring about the Supreme.  Even though Christians and Jews believe in the coming of the Messiah, the Jews believe that Messiah's going to come and then we're going to have peace on earth, the Christians believe that Jesus is going to return and that we're going to have peace on earth, but as Christians and Jews there is nothing we can do as people to ensure what time or how we can bring them back.  In Islam, especially in the Shiite religion with the 12th Imam, the Bandi, you can actually participate as a believer in bringing about this catastrophe to bring in the savior and this is where Iran is heading.  And one of the Homeinis was speaking to high school students two months ago, and addressing the conflict with Israel he said, "Even when we bomb Israel" -he didn't say 'if' he said-" 'when' we bomb Israel and wipe Israel off the map, its a win-win victory for us, because not only have we killed all the Jews according to Allah, but even if they bomb us back and even if we lose millions, we will die as martyrs and go straight to heaven sit on the right arm of God.  So its a win-win situation for us no matter what happens."  See, this is an ideolog of death, that we as a civilized nation have no point of reference to.  We cannot relate, but we need to understand.  We don't have to relate or have a point of reference with what he is talking about.  But we need to understand as civilized educated people, where he is coming from and where he wants to go.  And just be prepared, and fight to stop him before he gets there.  I thank you, my book is Because They Hate, A Survivor of Islamic Terror Warns America.  And I urge everyone to visit my website at americancongressfortruth.org or americancongressfortruth.com   Sign up to receive our action alerts and emails and join us in defending America.  Thank you.  (aplause)

John-  And we do have copies of the book here if you would like to spend a little time with Brigitte or have them autographed.  I'm sure  you can also find it on Amazon.com at your leisure, unsigned of course.  Thank you for coming to see us.  Thank you for your kind attention.

In this video, Charles Wiley explains the important role the media plays in our society to a student audience at UC Berkley.  I think its important enough to know how important that I'm going to transcribe his description word for word so those who cannot view the video can get that message.  Wiley- "The news media is the most powerful organization in our society  The news media is more powerful than the president or Congress or anybody else.  The news media decides what you think about.  They decide what you think about, what you talk to your friends, your fellow workers, your fellow students about.  The news media decide what problems we're going to try to solve, the order in which we try to solve them.  Not only do they decide the agenda and the priorities, but they decide, to a great extent also what is the framework to work within which we're going to hold the public discussion about the problems."

He goes on to define two kinds of reporters.  The Objective reporter and the Advocate journalist.  The objective reporter is trying to inform you.  The advocate journalist is trying to influence you.  There is a tremendous amount of advocacy reporting going on in the United States.

I have struggled with honesty.  I had such a secretive life prior to becoming a Christian that lies were first nature to me.  I would avoid blame at all costs and seek any avenue of convenience as long as I could avoid blame and condemnation.  Suffice it to say, I know the subtleties of lying.  It was a hard job overcoming this practice and once I learned the cost vs. benefit, I concluded the benefit far outweighs the cost.  But it required work.  I had to break patterns and habits and face consequences at the same time.  Through commitment to God, I did break them but it wasn't until the hardest part was done that I began to see the benefits.
 
A long term study was done with a class of kindergartners where the kids were all given cookies and told they could eat them now but if they waited a while they would get another cookie.  Of those who held out, the study concludes, as adults they proved to be more integritous and honest and had achieved much higher goals and many were known for their philanthropy.  On the other hand, those who held out less than a few minutes turned out to be criminals and very dishonest.  The study goes on to explain the consistent gradations between the two extremes.  So in psychological terms, I was getting negative feedback in the form of consequences immediately like the kindergarten kid in the psychology study was suffering the unmet desire but the promised extra cookie for me was the benefit of social trust if I waited. 

The last vestige of those habits and patterns was the practice of lying by omission.  You can speak a lie designed to misinform.  Everybody recognizes this as a lie.  While everybody recognizes and condemns it, many still continue the practice.  That is hipocrisy but we know how to deal with that.  You can also withhold all or portions of the storyline which allow the uninformed to draw the wrong conclusions.  The intent is the same and the results are often far more effective in convincing your audience but many do not consider this lying.  Its still a lie, you just didn't have to form the new story.  Well you do, but its a convoluted means of getting the recipient to invent for themselves a storyline or conclusion you desire them to believe.  In advocate journalism, there is a slight bend in this practice.  The self aware advocate uses this practice in full awareness that he is attempting to mislead his audience.  These are more and more numerous today.  But there is another kind of advocate I call the believer.  He is purposeful in his use of this tactic, but he doesn't believe he is misleading his audience and the result is often far subtler.  He believes he is telling them the truth without the muddling details which confuse the important conclusions we need to draw from his story.  This is the same means by which we dillude ourselves.  We begin to internally 'edit' what we observe.  Part of this process includes assuming excuses for your favored subject and assuming evil motivations for your disfavored subject, 'writing' them into the narrative. 

I am often accused of this in the commentary on my articles, but guess who makes these charges.  There is a verse in the Bible which explains who is able to correct this assumption narrative.  The blows of a friend are more faithful the the kisses of an enemy.  So let me encourage my 'friends' to please deliver blows to my articles and especially my dialogue in the comments.  I am not likely to accept the criticism of my enemies unless the criticism points to a glaring inaccuracy.  I mean, I try but the hardest part of recovering from a lying habit is this tendency to dillude one's own narrative.  (How's that for brutal honesty?  I'm sure I've just opened myself to being dismissed out of hand by my opponents.  But then, any use of this will only point to their denial of their own self dellusions.  Folks, everybody has them because everybody lies, but as a recovering liar I am accutely aware of this in myself)

These days, I am passionate about the consequences of lies.  I understand there is evil in the world and in no way do I expect this world to suddenly eliminate the evil of dishonesty and thereby usher in an utopia.  However, an industry we rely on more than any other has been largely taken over by lying advocates and the document which governs us all protects their abuse as one of our highest ideals.  This is a conundrum.  How do we protect the Constitution from the Constitution.  The only answer is personal integrity and responsibility to be informed.  Each of us have to be concerned about the power of this industry and each individual hold them accountable by rejecting their influence.  This is a difficult task and not one to be taken lightly.  Unfortunately, its not likely to be taken at all by the majority of our citizens and that means we are doomed as a culture and a nation.  Freedom is not free and every citizen must pay the price of eternal vigilance in order to maintain it.

I'm writing this on inauguration day because of my observation of the information industry and their performance over the course of the presidential election.  At no point through the entire cycle did the press perform their self described 'watchdog' service with regard to our current president.  Instead, they acted to counter the criticism of their candidate in the new media upstart on the internet.  Some of the old media's strongest critics began to refer to them as the right arm of the Democrat National Committee.  Their reporting of the 'dirt' on President Obama was naught unless that dirt had already made it into the national discourse via the new media and then we of the opposition were left perplexed with all the techniques I've described above and more, much of it glaring advocacy.  We were not perplexed by their efforts for long, but we were, and are perplexed even now at the absolute ignorance of the general populace.  Intelligent, learned people could not identify the vice presidential candidate for the Democrats.  They could not name a single accomplishment or identify one promise aside from the campaign slogan for 'change' in their candidate.  Most telling, they could not identify any of the controversial figures in their candidate's past.  This in no way reflects on President Obama but it is an indictment against the voters of our Democratic Republic who are passionately, emotionally invested but do not care enough to know what matters.  The habit of relying on the news industry for their information has created a vacuum for responsible Democratic elections which advocates have joyously filled with irresponsible Democratic influence.

Caution:  Graphic gore in the video and adult language in the commentary.

From LiveLeak

One of my StumbleUpon friends sent me an article from Little Green Footballs.  This is the propaganda we are getting from Hamas out of Gaza Strip.  It is a video displaying the aftermath of an explosion in a crowd aired on Palestinian TV.  It is described as an IDF attack on civilians on Palestinian TV then gets spread around the web.  The problem is, the video was originally recorded in 2005 from a weapons parade accident.  The Palestinians did this to themselves.  3 years later it is edited and rebroadcast as a current attack by the IDF.  On Reddit Politics there is a link with the following title and description.

1 day after it is linked on this site, it is answered by an adept debunker.

So, that should be the end of that, right?  Wrong, enter the disinformation crew online.  The guy that posted the video lets it stay though he concedes it is propaganda.  Its too late anyway.  The damage is done.  Its all over the net and getting thousands of hits in each location.

The video has gone viral and the vast majority of people who will view it will now believe the propaganda.  Most of the following comments were made after the correction was made on Reddit.  With the proof staring them in the face, they still believe this crap because they WANT to.  Its a blind spot most of the world is willingly contributing to and participating in. 

One of my old singles group friends called me the other night which I was unable to answer, but I called her back tonight and we had a discussion on Israel and Palestine.  She wanted to know what I thought about Barak Obama, but the conversation quickly turned and went for about a half hour.  Our singles group was based in my home church and all the members were Christians and most of us were really dedicated to reading, knowing and employing the scriptures in our lives, including this lady.  Our politics have always been at odds so we weren't agreeing on anything.  As we were going through our talking points, she recommended a book of the works of the Jewish historian Josephus from around 70 AD.  "It will shift your paradyme."

I'm supposed to believe, as she apparently does, that the horrible way the Jews treated the Arabs in their midst 600 years before Muhammad is why Israel can't get along with their neighbors today.  Scales!!  When Saul, a Pharisee was riding around the country looking for Christians to put in jail where they would be tried and stoned to death, he had an encounter with Jesus.  The same Jesus who'd been hung on the cross and buried.  God directed another man to come and pray for him because he was struck blind and when that man had prayed for him, something like "scales" came off of his eyes.  Muhatma Ghandi famously said, "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."  Dear sir, they already are blind and willfully so.  Some are blinded by hate and the rest are blinded by political correctness equating all religions and all societies and all cultures.  One can't be better than the others because THAT makes war.  BULLSHIT!!  Pulling down the best and giving excuse and credence to the worst makes the bad ever more capable of perpetrating evil.  Evil makes war and if you're not willing to even name evil, much less fight evil, then evil will prevail.  In the name of Allah, directed by the Qu'ran, Islam is militantly expanding its bloodthirsty culture into their neighbors' territory, into host nations of immigrants, and onto the world stage.  Islam is evil.  Not every individual Muslim, but the theopolitical culture and ideology and it must be defeated.  It can't be just disarmed or the world will become like Israel, subject to daily attacks against civilians.  It must be so soundly dessimated that the Muslims never want to see Muslim aggression in their own ranks, ever again.

Just a sample.

In Christendom we have a saying.  Know Jesus, know peace..... no Jesus, no peace.  Radical Islam is, and always has proven just the opposite for its faith.  This study is historically and empirically supported.  

It is a shame on Islam that the house of war knows more peace than the house of peace where Muslim upon Muslim violence claims more Muslim lives and stifles economic success than all the Crusades and the military actions of the last century in Muslim lands, combined.  You are following liars, your media and your scholars and your clerics are propagating a massive conspiracy of hatred and blame on the West for the evils perpetrated on your people by your people.  Break the stranglehold of fundamentalism and Sharia and call into accountability your leaders and informers.  Some of you have access to the same information I do, and it is your responsibility to make the truth known to your people just as it is mine to my people.

These facts are opening the eyes of the peace activists and moderate factions in the West and their hatred and prejudice currently set squarely on the religions of the West will be redirected toward Islam and will be far greater than the so called 'crusaders' at work in Muslim majority lands today.  Lies from Western and Eastern political leaders, Islamic religious leaders, news agencies, and embedded Muslim scholars in our institutions of higher learning are being revealed with the advent of the internet where people can now have information within minutes of events.  The more 'in the news' violent Islam makes itself in current events, the more the public educates itself in the history of Islam and begin to shout down the ignorance of our so called tolerant and their sources of false information. 

These revelations source anger and hatred toward beneficiaries of the lies which cause great personal and financial cost to the formerly ignorant West.  Brothers, fathers, and sons are dying needlessly, economic malaise for tax dollars and corporate profit results in funded Muslim aggression toward the rest of the world needlessly.  The end result will be a world wide movement to eradicate Islam and in that day, the farce of the 'house of peace' will pop and the resonance will be heard till the end of time just as the farce of Hitler's super race resounds to this day.