ARTICLES - HOT OFF THE FAGGOT

JESUIT EDUCATION





Por mucho tiempo se consideró como indiscutible la excelencia de la educación suministrada por los miembros de la Compañía, de modo que al censurar los defectos de las congregaciones docentes se establecía una excepción en favor de los jesuitas. It was long considered as indisputable excellence of the education provided by members of the Company, so that by criticizing the shortcomings of the teaching orders establishing an exception in favor of the Jesuits. Hoy mismo, algunos partidarios del laicismo y del externado quieren ver en la solidez de la enseñanza jesuítica una compensación a los inconvenientes del internado y de la educación religiosa. Today, some supporters of secularism and the externship want to see the strength of Jesuit education compensation to the disadvantages of boarding school and religious education.



Cierto, el jesuita prefiere los actos a las contemplaciones, no fomenta la exageración en el ascetismo y hasta parece relegar a segundo término las prácticas inconscientes y rutinarias; pero con su sistema esencialmente depresivo de la dignidad, con su doctrina de la obediencia pasiva, forma hombres sin verdadera voluntad ni verdadero carácter, déspotas hasta la autocracia cuando mandan, humildes hasta la bajeza cuando obedecen. True, the Jesuit prefers contemplations acts, does not encourage exaggerated asceticism and even seems to overshadow unconscious and routine practices, but essentially the system depressive dignity, with his doctrine of passive obedience, is Men with no real will and true character to autocracy when despots rule, humble to the baseness when they obey. Como los jesuitas reducen su ideal a convertir la Humanidad en un solo rebaño regido por un solo pastor, amputan cerebralmente a las muchedumbres para quitarles la posibilidad de erguirse y emanciparse. As the Jesuits reduce their ideal to convert humanity into one flock, one shepherd governed by, the crowds brain-amputated to remove the ability to stand up and emancipate themselves.



Con el jesuita reina la moral de apariencias, la moral que bajo una costra sana esconde un fondo enfermo, la moral de reticencias y duplicidades, la moral que se propone no tanto corregir las malas acciones como evitar o disminuir el escándalo. With the Jesuit moral reign of appearances, the moral in a healthy crust hides a sick fund, the moral of reticence and duplication, the proposed moral rather correct the wrongdoing and prevent or lessen the scandal. No importan mucho los actos de Caín, con tal de velarse con la sonrisa de Abel. Do not matter much acts of Cain, as long as ensured by the smile of Abel.



Si esto pasa en asuntos de moralidad o educación propiamente dicha: no sucede cosa mejor en materia de enseñanza. If this happens in matters of morality or proper education, no better thing happens in education. ¿Dónde los comprobantes de la proverbial y decantada solidez en la instrucción? Where proof of the proverbial and decanted strength in the instruction? ¿Dónde los textos luminosos? Where the word light? ¿Dónde los métodos infalibles? Where the methods infallible? Los jesuitas proceden hoy mismo como si viviéramos en el siglo XVII, y caracterizan su enseñanza por estas dos palabras; añeja y retrógrada. The Jesuits came today as if we lived in the seventeenth century, and characterized his teaching by these two words, stale and backward. Desde 1656 Pascal les aconsejaba "no echarla de maestros porque no tenían el carácter ni la suficiencia para tales". From 1656 Pascal advised them "do not miss her teachers because they had the character and sufficiency for such." Mas los padres desoyen el buen consejo y siguen dando a sus discípulos una instrucción incompleta y desproporcionada, donde fomentan unas facultades con detrimento de las otras, donde hacen predominar la sutileza en la argumentación a costa de la solidez en el juicio, donde favorecen la credulidad a expensas del discernimiento. But the parents ignored their good advice and continue to give instruction to his disciples incomplete and disproportionate, where powers foment the expense of the others, where they dominate the subtlety in the argument at the expense of strength in the trial, which favors credulity at the expense of understanding.



Y ¿qué decir de su Estética? And what about the aesthetics? El mal gusto de los jesuitas, así en las Bellas Letras como en las Bellas Artes, se ha vuelto proverbial: ellos cultivan con asiduidad de maníaco los hueros poemas en hexámetros latinos; ellos prefieren el santo polícromo y chillón a la estatua de mármol con su inmaculada blancura; ellos aglomeran en sus construcciones lo churrigueresco y lo Pompadour, lo grotesco y lo mignon: díganlo Lourdes y Montmartre. The bad taste of the Jesuits, and in belles lettres as in fine arts, has become proverbial: they assiduously cultivate the vacuous manic poems in Latin hexameters, they prefer the holy and bright polychrome marble statue to its immaculate whiteness, they crowd into their buildings so churrigueresco and Pompadour, the grotesque and mignon: Tell Lourdes and Montmartre. Nada tiene de raro que cerebros radicalmente falsos carezcan de concepción estética, dado que lo bello puede llamarse una cristalización de lo verdadero. Nothing unusual about brains radically false conception devoid of beauty, because beauty can be called a true crystallization.



Hasta en la enseñanza de las lenguas, donde pasan todavía por eximios y únicos, no hicieron más que valerse del latín y del griego para infundir una idea mezquina y engañosa de la Antigüedad. Even in the teaching of languages, where they go yet distinguished and unique, they merely make use of Latin and Greek to instill a petty and misleading idea of antiquity. Ellos figuran, si no como los inventores, al menos como los partidarios de las ediciones expurgadas. They are, if not the inventors, at least as supporters of the expurgated editions. Si en las controversias con sus adversarios citan pasajes de libros que no existen o mutilan y falsifican los textos, en las traducciones de los clásicos, tergiversan el sentido de las frases y adulteran la índole de los autores. If disputes with his opponents cite passages of books that do not exist or mutilate and falsify the texts, translations of the classics, distort the meaning of phrases and corrupt the nature of the authors.



En vez de considerar al hombre como un fino instrumento que para vibrar armoniosamente exige el ser templado por un afinador de buen oído, le manejan como un recipiente vacío que tanto vale llenar de agua tomada en una fuente como de fango recogido en un camino. Instead of regarding man as a fine instrument to vibrate harmoniously requires to be tempered by a good ear tuner, you drive like an empty vessel filled with water it therefore taken as a source of mud collected in a way. De ahí la abrumadora carga de asignaturas diversas e incongruentes en el año escolar. Hence the overwhelming burden of various and incongruous subjects in the school year. Desde que el programa estriba en llenar, los padres ingieren los conocimientos en la cabeza del alumno como el cebador de pavos introduce nueces y castañas en el buche de sus clientes. Since the program is to meet the parents eat the head knowledge of the student as the primer introduces turkey walnuts and chestnuts in the craw of his clients.



Eso sí, la operación debe realizarse pomposa y teatralmente. Of course, the operation must be pompous and theatrically. Los padres se lucen con los exámenes aparatosos; con las reparticiones de premios ante numerosos y escogidos espectadores; con las procesiones escolares a son de música y en medio de estandartes desplegados; con el interminable desfile de uniformados alumnos por las calles y plazas de las grandes ciudades; en resumen, con todas las manifestaciones que deslumbran los ojos de las muchedumbres y halagan la vanidad de los ricos. Parents look to the test apparatus; dealings with numerous awards to selected viewers, with processions of school children are in the midst of music and banners made, with the endless parade of uniformed students on the streets and squares of large cities, in short, all the manifestations that dazzle the eyes of the crowds and flatter the vanity of the rich. Los nobles y los ricos, señaladamente los ricos ansiosos de nobleza, forman en el mundo europeo la clientela preferida de los jesuitas, de esos buenos jesuitas que han tenido la feliz idea de popularizar estos dos axiomas: El Catolicisimo es aristocrático; y, educar a los hijos en los institutos de la Compañía es de buen tono. The nobles and the rich, notably the wealthy nobility eager to form in the European world preferred customers of the Jesuits, those good Jesuits who have had the happy idea of popularizing these two axioms: The Catolicisimo is aristocratic, and educate children in the institutes of the Company is in good taste.



La enseñanza extensa y no profunda, superficial y mundana de los jesuitas sigue llenando la Tierra de pedantes y eruditos a la violeta. Extensive education and shallow, superficial and mundane of the Jesuits continues to fill the earth of pedants and scholars to violet. No enseñan a ser sabio sino a manifestar sabiduría. Not taught to be wise but to manifest wisdom. Un joven atiborrado con la instrucción de semejantes maestros se parece a los enormes frascos verdes, azules y rojos que los farmacéuticos exponen en sus vidrieras: seducen la vista, y sólo contienen algunos litros de agua con unos cuantos miligramos de sustancia colorante. A young crammed with the instruction of such teachers is like the big green bottles, blue and red that pharmacists set out in their windows: seduce the eye, and only contain a few liters of water with a few milligrams of dye.



La educación jesuítica sigue también proveyéndonos de excelentes modelos en orden a la moralidad, Si en los países católicos nos remontamos al origen de los hombres públicos, veremos que los más embusteros y venales, los más hipócritas y sanguinarios, los verdaderos monstruos morales, recibieron su primera educación en algún instituto de la Compañía. Jesuit education is also providing us with excellent models in order to morality, in Catholic countries if we go back to the origin of public men, we see that the most mendacious and venal, the most hypocritical and bloodthirsty, true moral monsters, they received their early education at a college of the Company. En todo cerebro de circunvoluciones intrincadas, en todo corazón de repliegues tenebrosos, germina de seguro la simiente arrojada por la mano de un jesuita. In all brain intricate convolutions, in every heart of dark recesses, the seed germinates insurance dropped by the hand of a Jesuit. "Lo poco bueno que hay en mí -decía un gran pecador- se lo debo a mi madre; por el contrario, lo mucho malo que tengo, se lo debo a la Compañía de Jesús". "What little good in me," said a great sinner, I owe to my mother, by contrast, how much bad that I have, I owe to the Society of Jesus. "



Barniz de enseñanza, educación de casta y secta; formación no de hombres para la Humanidad, sino de sectarios para el Cristo: he aquí la esencia de toda la famosa labor docente de los jesuitas. Varnish of teaching, education of caste and sect, not of men training for Humanity, but sectarian for Christ: this is the essence of all the famous teaching of the Jesuits. Si puede tomarse por simple broma el dicho de Voltaire: "Los padres sólo me enseñaron bellaquerías y latín", no sucede lo mismo con la afirmación de Leibniz: "En materia de educación los jesuitas no llegaron ni a lo mediocre". If you can take a simple joke by Voltaire said: "The parents just taught me rascalities and Latin", not the case with Leibniz's statement: "In education, the Jesuits did not arrive or mediocre."



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Texan declared innocent after 30 years in prison

Amplify’d from www.inyork.com

Texan declared innocent after 30 years in prison

By JEFF CARLTON Associated Press
Cornelius Dupree Jr., center, smiles while attorney Barry Scheck,... ((AP Photo/Mike Fuentes) )
DALLAS—A Texas man declared innocent Tuesday after 30 years in prison had at least two chances to make parole and be set free—if only he would admit he was a sex offender. But Cornelius Dupree Jr. refused to do so, doggedly maintaining his innocence in a 1979 rape and robbery, in the process serving more time for a crime he didn't commit than any other Texas inmate exonerated by DNA evidence.

"Whatever your truth is, you have to stick with it," Dupree, 51, said Tuesday, minutes after a Dallas judge overturned his conviction.

Nationally, only two others exonerated by DNA evidence spent more time in prison, according to the Innocence Project, a New York legal center that specializes in wrongful conviction cases and represented Dupree. James Bain was wrongly imprisoned for 35 years in Florida, and Lawrence McKinney spent more than 31 years in a Tennessee prison.

Dupree was sentenced to 75 years in prison in 1980 for the rape and robbery of a 26-year-old Dallas woman a year earlier. He was released in July on mandatory supervision, and lived under house arrest until October. About a week after his release, DNA test results came back proving his innocence in the sexual assault.

A day after his release, Dupree married his fiancee, Selma. The couple met two decades ago while he was in prison.

His exoneration hearing was delayed until Tuesday while authorities retested the DNA and made sure it was a match to the victim. Dallas County

District Attorney Craig Watkins supported Dupree's innocence claim.

Looking fit and trim in a dark suit, Dupree stood through most of the short hearing, until state district Judge Don Adams told him, "You're free to go." One of Dupree's lawyers, Innocence Project Co-Director Barry Scheck, called it "a glorious day."

"It's a joy to be free again," Dupree said.

This latest wait was nothing for Dupree, who was up for parole as recently as 2004. He was set to be released and thought he was going home, until he learned he first would have to attend a sex offender treatment program.

Those in the program had to go through what is known as the "four R's." They are recognition, remorse, restitution and resolution, said Jim Shoemaker, who served two years with Dupree in the Boyd Unit south of Dallas.

"He couldn't get past the first part," said Shoemaker, who drove up from Houston to attend Dupree's hearing.

Shoemaker said he spent years talking to Dupree in the prison recreation yard, and always believed his innocence.

"I got a lot of flak from the guys on the block," Shoemaker said. "But I always believed him. He has a quiet, peaceful demeanor."

Under Texas compensation laws for the wrongly imprisoned, Dupree is eligible for $80,000 for each year he was behind bars, plus a lifetime annuity. He could receive $2.4 million in a lump sum that is not subject to federal income tax.

The compensation law, the nation's most generous, was passed in 2009 by the Texas Legislature after dozens of wrongly convicted men were released from prison. Texas has freed 41 wrongly convicted inmates through DNA since 2001—more than any other state.

Dallas County's record of DNA exonerations—Dupree is No. 21—is unmatched nationally because the county crime lab maintains biological evidence even decades after a conviction, leaving samples available to test. In addition, Watkins, the DA, has cooperated with innocence groups in reviewing hundreds of requests by inmates for DNA testing.

Watkins, the first black district attorney in Texas history, has also pointed to what he calls "a convict-at-all-costs mentality" that he says permeated his office before he arrived in 2007.

At least a dozen other exonerated former inmates from the Dallas area who collectively served more than 100 years in prison upheld a local tradition by attending the hearing and welcoming the newest member of their unfortunate fraternity. One of them, James Giles, presented Dupree with a $100 bill as a way to get his life restarted.

At one point, Scheck pointed out that eyewitness misidentification—the most common cause of wrongful convictions—was the key factor that sent Dupree to prison. The attorney then asked how many of the others were wrongly imprisoned because an eyewitness mistakenly identified them. A dozen hands went in the air.

Not in attendance Tuesday was Dupree's accused accomplice, Anthony Massingill, who was convicted in the same case and sentenced to life in prison on another sexual assault. The same DNA testing that cleared Dupree also cleared Massingill. He says he is innocent, but remains behind bars while authorities test DNA in the second case.

Dupree was 20 when he was arrested in December 1979 while walking to a party with Massingill. Authorities said they matched the description of a different rape and robbery that had occurred the previous day.

Police presented their pictures in a photo array to the victim. She picked out Massingill and Dupree. Her male companion, who also was robbed, did not pick out either man when showed the same photo lineup.

Dupree was convicted of aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon. According to court documents, the woman and her male companion stopped at a Dallas liquor store in November 1979 to buy cigarettes and use a payphone. As they returned to their car, two men, at least one of whom was armed, forced their way into the vehicle and ordered them to drive. They also demanded money from the two victims.

The men eventually ordered the car to the side of the road and forced the male driver out of the car. The woman attempted to flee but was pulled back inside.

The perpetrators drove the woman to a nearby park, where they raped her at gunpoint. They debated killing her but eventually let her live, keeping her rabbit-fur coat and her driver's license and warning her they would kill her if she reported the assault to police. The victim ran to the nearest highway and collapsed unconscious by the side of the road, where she was discovered.

Dupree was convicted and spent the next three decades appealing. The Court of Criminal Appeals turned him down three times.

Read more at www.inyork.com
 

Cops: Former Bush Official Killed, Found in Landfill

Amplify’d from www.hapblog.com


Cops: Former Bush Official Killed, Found in Landfill

John P. Wheeler III

foxnews
Delaware Police are investigating the apparent murder of a former Bush official who also championed the fund-raising effort to build the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the Mall in Washington, D.C.

John P. Wheeler III, 66, was found dead in a Delaware landfill, and his death has been ruled a homicide by Newark, Del., police. They are asking the public for leads in the case
.

Wheeler’s body was found in Wilmington on Friday. According to police, somebody initially reported that the body was dumped out of a refuse truck, which would have been coming from Newark, onto the landfill. Newark Police spokesman Lt. Mark Farrall told Fox News that nobody had reported Wheeler missing before he was found.

The Wilmington News Journal reported that Wheeler was last seen riding an Amtrak train from Washington to Wilmington, Del., last Tuesday.

The death has shocked those who knew him. Former Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne, for whom Wheeler worked as a special assistant during the last four years of the George W. Bush administration, told Fox News he was "stunned" to learn of Wheeler's death. He called Wheeler a "patriot to the first order," saying, "he's the most unlikely candidate for someone to do this to."
Read more at www.hapblog.com
 

Executive Director of the Havre De Grace Housing Authority Pleads Guilty to Bribery

Amplify’d from baltimore.fbi.gov

Executive Director of the Havre De Grace Housing Authority Pleads Guilty to Bribery

Crossed a “Bright Line” by Taking Payments from a Government Contractor

BALTIMORE, MD—George R. Robinson, age 61, of Bel Air, Maryland, pleaded guilty today to bribery of a public official.


The guilty plea was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Special Agent in Charge Richard A. McFeely of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and Special Agent in Charge Ken Taylor of the Housing and Urban Development Office of Inspector General - Office of Investigations.


“A ‘pay to play’ culture diminishes public confidence in government and harms honest businesspeople who refuse to pay bribes,” said U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein. “Government employees cross a bright line when they take money in return for government business.”


According to his guilty plea, Robinson has been Executive Director of the Havre de Grace Housing Authority (HDGHA) since 2002, and was responsible for its day-to-day operations, including the management of Somerset Manor, a 60 unit public housing project in Havre de Grace. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) provided rental subsidies which paid for the housing project’s capital expenditures and monthly operating expenses. Robinson was responsible for overseeing the spending of the rental subsidies, including obtaining bids and awarding contracts for improvements to the housing project.


According to the statement of facts, on May 28, 2009, Robinson had a meeting at the housing project with a contractor to discuss replacing the kitchen faucets in all of the units. During the conversation, which was recorded by the FBI and HUD-Office of Inspector General (OIG), Robinson asked the contractor for a kickback of $1,200 from the $4,000 set aside for the project, which Robinson subsequently awarded to the contractor. On June 11, 2009, at a meeting that was videotaped, the contractor met Robinson at the housing project and gave Robinson a bank envelope containing $1,200 in cash. While counting the money Robinson made light of the fact that the contractor had shorted him by $100 on a prior occasion. The contractor advised authorities that


there were other occasions when Robinson had asked for and received kickbacks as a precondition to allowing the contractor to make improvements at the housing project.


Robinson faces a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 or three times the amount of money accepted, which ever is greater. U.S. District Judge Williams D. Quarles, Jr., has scheduled sentencing for April 26, 2011 at 1:00 p.m.


United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein commended the FBI and HUD-Office of Inspector General for their work in the investigation. Mr. Rosenstein thanked Assistant United States Attorney Martin J. Clarke, who is prosecuting the case.

Read more at baltimore.fbi.gov
 

No Tears for Egypt’s Coptic Christians

Amplify’d from www.debbieschlussel.com

Many readers have contacted me over the weekend about the Islamic terrorist bombing of Coptic Christian churches in Egypt.  And, sorry, but, as I’ve noted before, you’ll get no tears from me over the Copts.  Unlike morons and ignoramuses like Scamela Geller, the car loan fraud scamming (using Muslim straw buyers) multi-millionairess dilettante, I am educated and actually know a lot about the Copts . . . a lot about Copt anti-Semitism and pogroms that this group led against the Jews of Egypt.  I’ve addressed the topic before, and it’s unfortunate that I must re-visit it again because there are so many ignorant people.  And people never learn.

popeshenouda
Coptic Pope Shenouda III:
No Different Than the Most Extremist, Anti-Semitic Muslim Clerics

The bombing of the Copts, as well as many attacks on Copts in Egypt by Muslims over the years, are a great example of how Muslims cannot live in peace with Christians.  But they are also a great example of karma.  It’s a bitch, and over the weekend, the bitch was Muslim.  And what goes around definitely comes around in the case of the Copts. In the case of the Copts versus the Muslims, I view it as I did the Iran-Iraq war and the larger feud between Shi’ite and Sunni Muslims.  I wish it could go on forever and that both sides would lose.

The Coptic Pope Shenouda III continues to regularly deliver anti-Semitic sermons and calls Jews “Christ-killers.”  And, in July 2008, he told Egypt’s Al-Ahram newspaper:

Jews are a cursed people who have their hands indulged in the blood of Palestinians.

He also forbade all Copts from visiting Jerusalem as long as it “remains occupied,” meaning as long as there are Jews there.

But he is not the first to incite Coptic violence against Jews.  In fact, the Copts were not only extremely anti-Semitic (as they continue to be), but they often led the Muslims in pogroms against the Jews of Egypt.  There are almost no Jews left in Egypt, and the Copts joined the Muslims in calling for the Jews’ expulsion.  Many Jewish homes and property were taken not by Muslims, but by Copts.

As in the case of many Christian groups in the Middle East, the Copts sided with Muslims in their persecution of the Jews.  And they bet on the wrong side.  Now that bet is coming back to bite them in the ass.  And you’ll see no tears or sympathy from me.  The Coptic Church was one of the most anti-Semitic churches in the Middle East and the most anti-Israel.  It’s not new.  And it hasn’t changed.

For instance, Severus Ibn Al-Muqaffa, a layman who became a top Coptic Bishop (the Bishop of Al-Ashmunein) one of the revered figures in Coptic Church history, viciously attacked the Jews and Judaism in his writings. While he often grouped the Jews with Muslims, whom he also hated, he often singled the Jews out for even more extreme hatred. That was in the 900s. And while hatred of the Jews has lessened in many Christian churches in contemporary times, the hatred of Jews in the Coptic church remains strong to date. Most Copts will not openly denounce or disagree with Pope Shenouda’s anti-Semitic incitement.  Most of them support Muslim calls for Israel’s destruction.

And, therefore, I couldn’t care less about what the Muslims do to the Copts. Like I said, it’s about evil fighting evil. Let G-d sort it out. I refuse to pick a side in this pit bull fight.

When I wrote about this, last year, Joseph, a 78-year-old Egyptian Jew who was expelled from the country, wrote to congratulate me for getting it right, while so many ignorant Jews and Christians get it wrong because they are so desperate for even the most questionable allies against Muslims and Islam, they refuse to get a clue:

Dear Debbie!

I read your article about Muslims killing Copts in Egypt….as i was born in that country…78 years ago…and lived there 26 years…i know enough the attitude of Copts about Jews!

Copts were the one that introduced virulent antisemite in Egypt…. becoming more effective when Christians came to that country from Syria and Levanon

I dont pretend that Muslims were not antijews…but not so much as they are today!

Please excuse my english… I write much better in french…and in hebrew!

I wanted to congratulate you and to wish you all the best!

Continue!

You are a light for the Jews!

all the best

joseph

If you side with the Copts, it’s no different than siding with Muslims. It’s a “distinction” without a difference.

To those of you who blindly and eagerly seize the moment to cry over the Copts, I dare you to ask your Coptic friends why they embrace a Pope who espouses such vehement anti-Jewish hate.

But even more, I dare them to answer. There simply isn’t an answer. As they say in Latin, “Res Ipsa Loquitur.”

The thing speaks for itself.

And one more thing: the protests, today, by Egypt’s Copts, against the attacks, still embrace the Muslims. Check out what Copts were shouting, as they marched:

A Muslim and a Copt hand in hand to create a new dawn.

Yup, a “new” dawn, where both sides still hate the Jews and want Israel eliminated. Message received … at least by me.

When will the other blind supporters of the Copts, who tolerate their and their Pope’s anti-Semitism, wake up?

Read more at www.debbieschlussel.com
 

Pakistani Governor Who Opposed Blasphemy Law Is Killed

Amplify’d from www.cnsnews.com
Pakistani Governor Who Opposed Blasphemy Law Is Killed
By Asif Shahzad, Associated Press

Islamabad (AP) - The governor of Pakistan's powerful Punjab province was shot dead in the capital Tuesday by one of his own guards, who later told interrogators that he was angry about the politician's stance against the country's blasphemy law, officials said.

The killing of Salman Taseer was the most high-profile assassination of a political figure in Pakistan since former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in December 2007, and it rattled a country already dealing with crises ranging from a potential collapse of the government to a virulent Islamist insurgency.

The killing could also add to concerns about inroads by Islamist extremists and fundamentalists into Pakistan's security establishment and represented another blow to the country's Pakistan's embattled secular movement.

Taseer was a member of Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party and a close associate of President Asif Ali Zardari, Bhutto's widower. The governor was vocal on a range of subjects, even using Twitter to get across his views.

Taseer, whose black sunglasses were one of his most recognizable features, was a business and media tycoon who was appointed to the ceremonial position of Punjab governor in May 2008.

The Punjab is Pakistan's most populous and wealthiest province, and the provincial government is run by the People's Party's chief rival party, the Pakistan Muslim League-N.

The province is a major base and recruiting ground for Pakistan's powerful military and security establishment. As religious fundamentalism has grown in Pakistan, concerns have arisen about its influence on Pakistan's soldiers, police and other armed forces.

Some analysts have suggested that fundamentalist members of the security establishment pose a greater threat of Pakistan nuclear proliferation than militant groups such as the Taliban.

In recent days, as the People's Party has faced the loss of its coalition partners, the 56-year-old Taseer had insisted that the government will survive. But it was his very public stance against the blasphemy law that apparently led to his killing.

Pakistan's blasphemy law has come under greater scrutiny in recent weeks after a Christian woman, Asia Bibi, was sentenced to death for allegedly insulting Islam's Prophet Muhammad. The law effectively orders death for anyone convicted of insulting Islam.

Taseer had said Bibi should be granted a pardon, a stance that earned him opprobrium from Islamist groups across the country as well as threats, according to Shahbaz Bhatti, the minister for minorities.

"I was under huge pressure sure 2 cow down b4 rightest pressure on blasphemy. Refused. Even if I'm the last man standing," Taseer wrote on Twitter on Dec. 31.

"He was the most courageous voice after Benazir Bhutto on the rights of women and religious minorities," said a crying Farahnaz Ispahani, an aide to Zardari and friend of Taseer. "God, we will miss him."

An intelligence official interrogating the suspect, identified as Mumtaz Qadri, told The Associated Press that the bearded elite force police commando was boasting about the assassination, saying he was proud to have killed a blasphemer.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media on the record.

Qadri is 26 and from Barakhao, a neighborhood on the outskirts of Islamabad, said Interior Minister Rehman Malik.

Dozens of Pakistanis are sentenced to death each year under the blasphemy law, which dates back to the 1980s military rule of Gen. Mohammad Zia ul-Haq. Most cases are thrown out by higher courts and no executions have been carried out, but human rights activists have long complained that the law is used to settle rivalries and persecute religious minorities.

Under pressure from Islamist parties, the People's Party said recently it would not pursue changes to the law.

Bhatti, the minorities minister, said Pakistan's religious minorities would join the People's Party in its plans to have a two-week mourning period for Taseer. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani also announced a three-day period of national mourning and ordered flags lowered to half-mast.

Police official Mohammad Iftikhar said Taseer was gunned down after he reached Kohsar Market, a shopping center in Islamabad popular with Westerners and wealthy Pakistanis. Five other people were wounded as other security personnel responded to the attack.

"It was one shot first and then a burst. I think nine or 10 shots," said R.A. Khan, a witness who was drinking coffee at the time. "I rushed and saw policemen over another police commando, who was lying on road with his face down."

Taseer was believed to be on his way to see someone for a meal, Malik said. Other members of his security detail were being questioned, Malik said, who added that the security for Taseer was provided by the Punjab government.

"We will see whether it was an individual act or someone had asked him" to do it, Malik said of the attacker.

Bullet casings and blood covered much of the scene at the market, and police quickly cordoned off the area. At the hospital, People's Party supporters wept and beat their heads after the news.

Outside his residence in the eastern city of Lahore, hundreds of supporters chanted slogans on his behalf, while in the central city of Multan dozens of People's Party supporters burned tires and demanded the attackers be punished.

Human rights activists were dismayed at Taseer's death, especially considering the difficulties the People's Party has had in advancing any legislation on human rights because of its alliances with Islamist parties.

"Taseer showed himself to be a rare politician, willing to risk his life in espousing an unambiguous position against discrimination and abuse," said Ali Dayan Hasan, senior South Asia researcher for Human Rights Watch.

After Taseer was nominated for the governor's post in Punjab, the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-N expressed reservations, and he frequently clashed with that party. PML-N leader Shahbaz Sharif visited the hospital where Taseer's body was taken and promised an inquiry into the death.

Associated Press writers Munir Ahmed and B.K. Bangash contributed to this report.

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DHS--Which Has Failed to Secure U.S.-Mexico Border--to Help Secure Afghan-Pakistan Border

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Obama Is Sending Border Officers from DHS--Which Has Failed to Secure U.S.-Mexico Border--to Help Secure Afghan-Pakistan Border
Napolitano in Afghanistan

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano rang in the New Year with a visit to Afghanistan. (Photo courtesy of U.S. Embassy in Kabul)

(CNSNews.com) – The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which by its own admission has thus far failed to control even half of America's nearly 2,000-mile-long border with Mexico, is now sending personnel to Afghanistan to help that country secure its border with Pakistan.

On a New Year’s visit to Afghanistan, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said there are now 25 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CPB) personnel on the ground in Afghanistan. That number could reach 65 or more by the end of 2011, she said.

“We’re going to contribute numbers,” Napolitano said, in explaining her department’s role in helping Afghanistan transition from military to civilian control.

Napolitano said she hoped to leave Afghanistan with an appreciation of what “skill sets” are most needed there – “and to make sure that’s included in the next wave of individuals that we (Department of Homeland Security) send over.”

In July 2002, when the George W. Bush White House released the first national strategy for the Department of Homeland Security, it identified the new agency’s three objectives as preventing terrorist attacks within the United States; reducing America’s vulnerability to terrorism; and minimizing the damage from attacks that do occur.

When asked by CNSNews.com if ICE and CBP personnel have been deployed elsewhere in the world to help secure borders, a DHS spokesperson said that they had, but that security issues prevented the department from providing details on those deployments. Such secrecy apparently does not extend to the deployments of CPB and ICE personnel to Afghanistan, however.

The DHS spokesperson did not respond to questions about what posts CBP and ICE personnel would be pulled from in order to go to Afghanistan. Nor did the spokesperson say what expertise the Homeland Security Department could provide that NATO and U.S. military forces could not provide.  

At her Jan. 1 news conference, however, Napolitano said that some of the advice provided by U.S. border security and customs personnel is “very practical in nature.” She gave some examples: “How do you arrange in-bound versus out-bound lanes?  How do you make sure that you can check trucks?  How do you employ the right kind of equipment in the right way?”

Napolitano said U.S. civilians also are working to prevent “criminal activity in general, not just insurgency.” She mentioned drug smuggling and “bulk cash” smuggling and said the goal is to “intervene and disrupt.”

Napolitano said border protection in any country demands specific skills. “Policing at a border, border protection, is not the same as being say an inner-city police officer,” Napolitano said. “There are obviously different techniques involved, different tactics, different laws oftentimes, and so I think being able to participate and help design that training for this border (Afghanistan) is very important.”

Napolitano said border protection is crucial to establishing “legitimate trade” – and revenue -- which “needs to happen” in Afghanistan.

Napolitano visited the Torkham border crossing with Pakistan, where a number of American border security and customs civilians are serving as advisers. She indicated that in general, she is satisfied with what she saw.  “So I would say that there is a perception that real progress is being made here and has been made in the last nine months.”

However, the commander of a U.S. Army Brigade assigned to the Afghan-Pakistan border told reporters in late December that even the U.S. military has trouble controlling the Afghan-Pakistan border.

“As far as the border itself, you know, I think it’s naive to say that we can stop, you know, forces coming through the border,” Col. Viet Luong told a press conference in Afghanistan on Dec. 28. Luong and his troops are in charge of 162 miles of the Afghan border.

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Wildlife Experts Probe Mass Death of Blackbirds in Arkansas

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Wildlife Experts Probe Mass Death of Blackbirds in Arkansas
By Jeannie Nuss, Associated Press
dead blackbirds

A private contractor picks up dead blackbirds in Beebe, Ark. on Saturday, Jan. 1, 2011. (AP Photo/The Daily Citizen, Warren Watkins)

Beebe, Ark. (AP) - Celebratory fireworks likely sent thousands of discombobulated blackbirds into such a tizzy that they crashed into homes, cars and each other before plummeting to their deaths in central Arkansas, scientists say. Still, officials acknowledge it's unlikely they'll ever pinpoint a cause with certainty.

So for the small town of Beebe, Ark., where New Year's revelers spent the holiday weekend cleaning up more than 3,000 dead red-winged blackbirds, The Mystery of Why the Birds Fell Out of the Sky remains unsolved.

Some speculated Monday that a bout of bad weather was to blame. Others said one confused bird could have led the group in a fatal plunge. A few spooked schoolkids even guessed that the birds had committed mass suicide.

"There was probably some physical reason, but I doubt anyone will ever know what it was," said Thurman Booth, the state's wildlife services director.

The birds were the second mass wildlife death in Arkansas in recent days. Last week, about 83,000 dead and dying drum fish washed up along a 20-mile stretch of the Arkansas River, about 100 miles west of Beebe. Wildlife officials say the fish deaths are not related to the dead birds, and that because mainly one species of fish was affected, it is likely they were stricken by an illness. Full test results could take up to a month.

While officials examine bird carcasses for signs of disease and labs test the contents of their stomachs for toxins, the tale of the blackbirds' tumble is quickly turning into the stuff of local legend.

The blackbirds rained onto rooftops and sidewalks and into fields. One struck a woman walking her dog. Another hit a police cruiser. Some say an umbrella was one resident's only protection from the falling birds.

Birds were "littering the streets, the yards, the driveways, everywhere," said Robby King, a county wildlife officer in Beebe, a community of 5,000 northeast of Little Rock. "It was hard to drive down the street in some places without running over them."

A few stunned survivors stumbled around like drunken partiers.

dead blackbirds

Assistant State Veterinarian Dr. Brandon Doss examines dead red-winged blackbirds at the Arkansas Livestock and Poultry Commission Diagnostic Laboratory in Little Rock, Ark., on Monday, Jan. 3, 2011. (AP Photo/Danny Johnston)

There was little light across the countryside at the time, save for the glimmer of fireworks and some lightning on the horizon. In the tumult, many birds probably lost their bearings.

"The blackbirds were flying at rooftop level instead of treetop level" to avoid explosions above, said Karen Rowe, an ornithologist with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. "Blackbirds have poor eyesight, and they started colliding with things."

Shane Roberts said it sounded like hail pelting his house.

"I turn and look across my yard, and there's all these lumps," Roberts said.

His 16-year-old daughter, Alex, spent Saturday morning picking them up with her bare hands. "Their legs are really squishy," she said.

For some people, the scene unfolding shortly before midnight evoked images of the apocalypse and cut short New Year's celebrations. Many families phoned police instead of popping champagne.

"I think the switchboard lit up pretty good," said Beebe police Capt. Eddie Cullum. "For all the doomsdayers, that was definitely the end of the world."

Paul Duke filled three five-gallon buckets with dead birds on New Year's Day. "They were on the roof of the house, in the yard, on the sidewalks, in the street," said Duke, a suspension supervisor at a nearby school. A few dead birds still littered town streets Monday.

The birds will not be missed. Large roosts like the one at Beebe can have thousands of birds in one tree that leave ankle- to knee-deep piles of droppings in places.

"The whole sky turns black every morning and every night," Roberts said, as a few live birds chirped and hopped from tree to tree behind his home.

Red-winged blackbirds are the among North America's most abundant birds, with somewhere between 100 million and 200 million nationwide, according to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, N.Y. Rowe put the number of dead in Beebe at "easily 3,000."

The Game and Fish Commission shipped carcasses to the Arkansas Livestock and Poultry Commission and the National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wis. Researchers at the University of Georgia's wildlife disease study group also asked for a set of birds.

A few grackles and a couple of starlings also were among the dead. Those species roost with blackbirds, particularly in winter.

"They died from massive trauma," said Game and Fish Commission spokesman Keith Stephens, citing a report from the state poultry lab where the birds were examined.

Residents heard loud fireworks just before the birds started hitting the ground.

"They started going crazy, flying into one another," Stephens said.

The area where the birds fell is too large to determine if any specific blast rousted the birds, Police Chief Wayne Ballew said.

"It was New Year's Eve night. Everybody and their brother was shooting fireworks," the chief said. The city allows fireworks only on New Year's Eve and Independence Day.

Bad weather has been blamed for earlier bird kills in Arkansas.

In 2001, lightning killed dozens of mallards at Hot Springs, and a flock of dead pelicans was found in the woods about 10 years ago, Rowe said. Lab tests showed they, too, had been hit by lightning.

In 1973, hail knocked birds from the sky at Stuttgart, Ark., on the day before hunting season. Some of the birds were caught in a violent storm's updrafts and became encased in ice before falling from the sky. Some were described as bowling balls with feathers.

Earlier Friday, a tornado had killed three people in Cincinnati, Ark., about 150 miles away, but most of the bad weather had passed Beebe when the birds died.

Rowe initially said poisoning was possible, but unlikely. Birds of prey and other animals, including dogs and cats, ate several of the dead birds and suffered no ill effects.

"Every dog and cat in the neighborhood that night was able to get a fresh snack," Rowe said.

Associated Press writers Kelly P. Kissel and Chuck Bartels in Little Rock and Science Writer Seth Borenstein in Washington contributed to this report.

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Martyrs in a Modern World

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Martyrs in a Modern World

Christians — especially those enjoying the safety of the West — often think of martyrdom as a part of the distant Christian past. But a recent barrage of headlines dispels that notion in a hurry. Over the past several weeks, Christians in Iraq suffered a series of church bombings, and experts in the region predicted a virtual evacuation of that nation’s Christian population. Approximately half of all Iraqi Christians have already fled the country. That represents a failure of the American ambition to leave Iraq with a government that would protect basic human rights and liberties. The murderous terrorism against Christians in Iraq amounts to a form of religious cleansing.

Meanwhile, oppression of Christians in Egypt, the most populous Arab nation, intensified with a January 1 bombing of the Saints Church in Alexandria. Twenty-one worshipers were killed and another 100 were injured. Analysts predicted a rise in the scale of these attacks, since many Muslims seem intent on eliminating Egypt’s approximately 10 million Christians.

In Pakistan, rioters took to the streets to insist that the nation’s draconian blasphemy laws stay in place — effectively allowing only Muslim practice and preaching. As The New York Times reported, “A crippling strike by Islamist parties brought Pakistan to a standstill on Friday as thousands of people took to the streets, and forced businesses to close, to head off any change in the country’s blasphemy law, which rights groups say has been used to persecute minorities, especially Christians.”

There is no way we can determine the exact theological beliefs of these worshipers in Egypt, Iraq, and Pakistan, but there can be no question that they are suffering and dying in the name of Jesus Christ. They deserve our earnest prayers and advocacy. They also remind us by their witness that Christ has enemies — and so do His followers. The blood of the martyrs does indeed cry out their witness for Christ.

We must pray for persecuted Christians everywhere around the world.

“Through prayer we can be saved because of our Lord Jesus Christ, even after we have been punished. This will become salvation and confidence to us at the much more fearful and universal judgment of our Lord and Savior.” Justin Martyr

Salman Masood, “Pakistanis Rally in Support of Blasphemy Law,” The New York Times, Friday, December 31, 2010.

Sarah A. Topol, “In Egypt, a Widening Sectarian Divide,” Newsweek, Monday, January 3, 2011.

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