Urgent prayer from Iran...

For two Christians who are in prison for converting to Christianity from Islam. They may receive the court's decision on their fate Sunday morning.

Click here to read the full story.

What torture really looks like...

...in case anyone was wondering...




(H/T: Gateway Pundit blog)

Obama cares deeply for a child--or a fetus--or whatever...

From Jill Stanek. More stuff on Obama's pretty radical views about abortion. This is from 2001, when the Born Alive Infant Protection Act was being debate in the Illinois State Senate:



So basically, Obama trusts that a doctor who was trying to kill a baby would then turn around and give that baby medical care if the baby survived the abortion? Either he is very naive, or he wants to protect abortionists more than he wants to protect babies.

Either way, I don't want him running the country...

Making infanticide safe, legal, and rare...

This video was produced by Students for Life of America. In it, a Planned Parenthood nurse is very clear about one thing: sometimes babies are born alive after abortions. The solution? According to this nurse, “They wouldn’t be able to live on its own. So, eventually, the baby does die.” Eventually.



I can't believe we're about to elect a president who supports letting babies die...

(H/T: Hot Air)

The fine line between abortion and infanticide...

So far, I've stayed out of politics for the last few months. Mostly that's because I'm not thrilled with either major-party candidate. But there are a few issues I care deeply about. One of them is abortion. It seems like one area where there is a clear distinction between McCain and Obama.

I'm not sure how McCain would affect the abortion debate . But I'm convinced that Obama is pretty radical on this issue, even though he gives lip service to reducing the number of abortions.

Personally, I'd rather look at what someone does, rather than what they say. When Obama had a chance to vote on a bill that would ensure that babies who survive abortions got medical care, he voted against it. 4 times.

To me, that's not pro-abortion. That's pro-infanticide. Finally a group is bringing his votes to public attention. The group is called bornalivetruth.org, and the ad is pretty effective.

Here it is:



The reason the ad is effective is that it puts a human face on this issue. These aren't nameless, faceless blobs. They are real, actual human babies who are being killed. I hope that this group can run the ad all over the country...

The world's silence on the Georgia invasion is deafening...

Does anybody else wonder about this? When the US invaded Iraq, hundreds of thousands of protesters marched in cities all over the world, denouncing our country's actions. The protesters claimed our actions were a naked power grab. One of the slogans that was chanted constantly was, "No blood for oil!"

My, how things have changed! Russia invades Georgia under the pretext of protecting ethnic Russians who live in a Georgian province. Then the Russian troops kept pressing on, and now they control a large portion of Georgia.

Why is Russia doing this? Well, they certainly want to assert their control over the states that used to be in the Soviet Union. Russian prime minister has said that the breakup of the Soviet Union was the worst mistake of the 20th century.

But this is also about oil. There are oil pipelines that go through Georgia that lead to Turkey and to the Black Sea. Russia would love to get control of those pipelines so they could control even more of the oil that goes to Europe. (Russia already supplies much of the natural gas that Europe uses.)

So it seems pretty clear that this is a war for oil. Where are the protesters? Where are the people comparing Putin to Hitler, like they did to Bush? Where is the outrage over Russia's actions? I haven't heard a peep out of the usual suspects.

I know a lot of Europeans are scared of Russia, and they don't want to say anything to upset Putin. But the hypocrisy is overwhelming. Will anyone hold Russia to account? I'm not holding my breath...

The price of not being able to judge a leader's character...

"I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straight forward and trustworthy and we had a very good dialogue.

"I was able to get a sense of his soul."

--George W. Bush, talking about Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, June 16, 2001.



"I got the impression that here was a man who could be relied upon when he had given his word."

--Neville Chamberlain, talking about Adolph Hitler, September, 1938.


When you aren't able to discern someone's true character, all kinds of bad things can happen...

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, R.I.P.

One of the greatest writers of the 20th century died this week. (OK, not as great as this guy, but great nonetheless.) Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was an author who really opened my eyes to the reality of communism and totalitarianism.

I don't remember why I picked up his book, The Gulag Archipelago, in the mid 1980's. It was based partly on his own experience of being a political prisoner in the Soviet prison system after World War 2. He told the story of what the Soviet Union was really like in a way that was beautiful, terrifying, inspiring, and sickening, all at the same time. Later I read The First Circle, A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, and a bunch of his speeches and essays.

Solzhenitsyn was a true intellectual heavyweight who understood the evil threat that communism presented to the world. But he also saw that the West was suffering from moral and spiritual decline, which he said were caused by our materialism, reckless individualism, and lack of courage.

I was a little disappointed by Solzhenitsyn's willingness in his later years to embrace Vladimir Putin. Solzhenitsyn's desire to see a strong Russia rise from the ashes of the Soviet Union blinded him somewhat to the excesses of Putin's regime. But that doesn't do anything to lessen Solzhenitsyn's impact on the 20th century. And his insight into the nature of evil still can instruct us today.

In fact, if you read his speeches, and replace "communism" and "Soviet Union" with "Islamic extremism", much of what he said then still applies to the threats we face today.

Solzhenitsyn was unafraid to call communism for what it is: evil. He also wasn't afraid to condemn the evils of secular Western culture.

The lesson I learn from his life? One person who dares to speak the truth with passion, and without compromise, really can make a difference in the world.

Thanks, Mr. Solzhenitsyn. R.I.P.

China welcomes dissidents for Olympics...

When China was given the right to host the 2008 summer Olympics, they promised the International Olympic Committee that they would start allowing more freedom to Chinese citizens, and free access for foreign reporters covering the Olympics.

Shockingly, it turns out that China may not be keeping its word.

According to this story from an Australian paper, China is shipping off people who come to Beijing to protest government corruption. On the morning that the reporter was on hand, they had already sent six busloads of troublemakers off to who-knows-where.

Also, the reporters were questioned and hassled, and their interpreter was taken into a security guard office to be questioned. So much for letting the press do its job.

The article also talks about the crackdowns that are happening in other provinces, all because China is determined to present a "perfect" country to the world. And they don't care who needs to be crushed to do it.

I really have trouble understanding how US media can go over and report on all the greatest of the Olympics, with hardly a mention of the oppression by the Chinese government.

Most of all, I don't get where President Bush is in all this. I mean, doesn't he say he's committed to spreading freedom throughout the world? Isn't that one reason we went into Iraq (supposedly)? Yet, not a peep from him when it comes to China's human rights abuses. In fact, he'll be right there at the Olympic opening ceremonies, celebrating while his fellow Christians are rotting in Chinese prisons for their faith.

Why won't he boycott the opening ceremonies? He doesn't want to insult the Chinese government. I guess I shouldn't expect our president to side with people being oppressed by an evil Chinese government. But I'm still disappointed...

The cost of illegal immigration...

This is a tough video to watch, but get through it if you can. It's a poor woman whose husband and 2 of her sons were gunned down in San Francisco by some monster.

The worst part: the killer is an illegal alien gang member who was convicted of a couple of violent crimes. But he was never deported, because San Francisco is a "sanctuary city" that refuses to alert the federal authorities when they have illegals in custody. Because of this policy, this woman is left without a husband and two sons, and she has another son and a daughter that will grow up without a father, or their brothers.


This is the real cost of illegal immigration. When we don't control who comes into our country, scum like this murderer are going to come in and destroy innocents. That's not to say that every illegal immigrant is a killer. Of course that's not true.

But the inescapable fact is this: if this guy had been deported and not allowed to return, these people would be alive today. And this family would not be paying for our unwillingness to secure our border...

More news to make your day...

This is the last story today about evil people doing evil things to kids, I promise.

There's so much wrong here. I don't know what to say...