Wonderful Post

As always, Seth has an insightful post on terrorism, in response to my most recent one about terrorists lacking hearts and minds. Go check it out now!

BlogBurst: The Liberation of Auschwitz

The Holocaust, symbolized by Auschwitz, the worst of the death camps, occurred in the wake of consistent, systematic, unrelenting anti-Jewish propaganda campaign. As a result, the elimination of the Jews from German society was accepted as axiomatic, leaving open only two questions: when and how.

As Germany expanded its domination and occupation of Austria, Czechoslovakia, France, the Low Countries, Yugoslavia, Poland, parts of the USSR, Greece, Romania, Hungary, Italy and others countries, the way was open for Hitler to realize his well-publicized plan of destroying the Jewish people.

After experimentation, the use of Zyklon B on unsuspecting victim was adopted by the Nazis as the means of choice, and Auschwitz was selected as the main factory of death (more accurately, one should refer to the “Auschwitz-Birkenau complex”). The green light for mass annihilation was given at the Wannsee Conference, January 20, 1942, and the mass gassings took place in Auschwitz between 1942 and the end of 1944, when the Nazis retreated before the advancing Red Army. Jews were transported to Auschwitz from all over Nazi-occupied or Nazi-dominated Europe and most were slaughtered in Auschwitz upon arrival, sometimes as many as 12,000 in one day. Some victims were selected for slave labour or “medical” experimentation. All were subject to brutal treatment.

In all, between three and four million people, mostly Jews, but also Poles and Red Army POWs, were slaughtered in Auschwitz alone (though some authors put the number at 1.3 million). Other death camps were located at Sobibor, Chelmno, Belzec (Belzek), Majdanek and Treblinka.

Auschwitz was liberated by the Red Army on 27 January 1945, sixty years ago, after most of the prisoners were forced into a Death March westwards. The Red Army found in Auschwitz about 7,600 survivors, but not all could be saved.

For a long time, the Allies were well aware of the mass murder, but deliberately refused to bomb the camp or the railways leading to it. Ironically, during the Polish uprising, the Allies had no hesitation in flying aid to Warsaw, sometimes flying right over Auschwitz.

There are troubling parallels between the systematic vilification of Jews before the Holocaust and the current vilification of the Jewish people and Israel. Suffice it to note the annual flood of anti-Israel resolutions at the UN; or the public opinion polls taken in Europe, which single out Israel as a danger to world peace; or the divestment campaigns being waged in the US against Israel; or the attempts to delegitimize Israel’s very existence. The complicity of the Allies in WW II is mirrored by the support the PLO has been receiving from Europe, China and Russia to this very day.

If remembering Auschwitz should teach us anything, it is that we must all support Israel and the Jewish people against the vilification and the complicity we are witnessing, knowing where it inevitably leads.



Important Links:

IsraPundit

BlogBurst Participant List

BlogBurst Info

Another Blogthings quiz...

Your Dominant Intelligence is Linguistic Intelligence

You are excellent with words and language. You explain yourself well. An elegant speaker, you can converse well with anyone on the fly. You are also good at remembering information and convicing someone of your point of view. A master of creative phrasing and unique words, you enjoy expanding your vocabulary. You would make a fantastic poet, journalist, writer, teacher, lawyer, politician, or translator.

What Kind of Intelligence Do You Have?

A Step In the Right Direction

You can't possibly fathom how happy I am right now... According to Worldmagblog, Republicans are finally fighting back against the Senate Democrats' obstuctionist filibusters of Bush's judicial nominees!

It's so close, I can nearly taste the democracy...

Just one question, though... what's to stop the Dems from filibustering the change in Senate rules?

How Sad

I was reading over the front page of my blog, and I realized that I haven't written anything of substance in quite a while! I feel so sad.

Okay, enough fluff. I'm going to write a good post soon. Maybe I'll rewrite that post on gay marriage...

In the meantime, here's a little something to chew on...

Over and over and over again, the left-wing crowd refers to the "hatemongering" conservatives, who are standing in the way of equal rights for homosexuals. But who's hating? Conservatives see homosexuality as a deviant behavior (one that does not have any positive effects on society), and they decide they won't sanction it with marriage. We're not "cussing out" the homosexuals. We're not killing them. We're not attacking them. We're not even saying that we hate them. We're just denying them the government sanction of a deviant behavior.

My, we're just a MURDEROUS lot, aren't we?

Also, what's this about "equal rights?" Gays already have equal rights. One of those rights is the right to get married... to someone of the opposite sex. That's the right we're dealing with. Marriage in and of itself is not a right; it must two people of the opposite sex to be marriage. Therefore, homosexuals are not fighting for "equal rights"; they're fighting for extended rights.

Here's a Thread I'm Debating In...

I've been involved in a debate over on Worldmagblog, and I thought I'd provide a link to it. It's quite interesting...

It starts out with a post called "Honk If the SpongeBob Video Bothers You," but the debate got started on a follow-up post, "SpongeBob Revisited."

I Got Your Number...

You Are the Investigator

5 You're independent - and a logical analytical thinker. You love learning and ideas... and know things no one else does. Bored by small talk, you refuse to participate in boring conversations. You are open minded. A visionary. You understand the world and may change it.

What number are you?

Pray For Candice

Early last year, in my town, there was a horrible traffic accident. On February 17, 2004 A suspected drunk driver hit Candice Wilson Bendek's SUV and sent it flying 91 feet!

Candice wasn't supposed to live, but she did. There has been a very active prayer campaign in my town over the last year. Bumper stickers, signs and billboards all with the message "Pray for Candice." Candice is no longer in a coma, but she needs prayer.

Please visit the website here (warning: image of post-accident Candice), and pray for Candice's full recovery.

Other links:

Town's support
Bryan's testimony

Socializing Teens

Which is socially better for kids, public/private schooling or homeschooling? Weigh in here on Ignite the Fire blog.

I Am DEFINITELY Not Happy About This...

Uncle Rico(Please rate my quiz)

Which Napoleon Dynamite character are you?
brought to you by

Don't Mess With Him!

W. Virginia Governor earns Tae Kwon Do Black Belt

OC Supertones: Prince of Peace

Prince of Peace (by the OC Supertones)
From the album "Revenge of the O. C. Supertones"

Does the world ever seem like a nightmare?
Some suffer but the other ones don't care.
It doesn't matter if it's goin' on elsewhere,
Like it doesn't happen if it's not happening here.

There's a girl with only a mother,
And a dad who won't seem to bother:
No love so she finds a lover,
Now she has a child who doesn't have a father.

I hope the Prince of Peace is coming soon.
Yeah, I hope the Prince of peace is coming soon.
We'll learn to make a plowshare from a gun,
'Cause we won't need them when the Kingdom comes.

When the Communists turn into the terrorists,
But the Axis came before the soviets,
And before that came the Confederates,
We'll always have a war to fight, you can count on this.

With every cure, there comes another sickness.
The earth dies with every bit of progress.
We've gone deaf to the cries of the oppressed;
What we need is Jesus to redeem us.

I hope the Prince of Peace is coming soon.
Yeah, I hope the Prince of peace is coming soon.
We'll learn to make a plowshare from a gun,
'Cause we won't need them when the Kingdom comes.

Now the world doesn't work 'cause we've broken it
And we need dope and Prozac just to cope with it.
Now the Beast speaks his piece to the Congress:
Plans to propagate Proposition 666.
Hitler's still alive in the knives of abortionists,
And the news twists the truth like contortionists,
And I wonder what happened to humanity;
We say peace, but we're headin' for calamity!

I hope the Prince of Peace is coming soon.
Yeah, I hope the Prince of peace is coming soon.
We'll learn to make a plowshare from a gun,
'Cause we won't need them when the Kingdom comes.

We long for the day when we will see
The heavens and the earth as they should be.

Hiatus

Hey everybody!

I just wanted to let you know that I'm not going to be able to blog for the next few days. I will be at my grandparents' house, and I don't have internet access there. Never fear, though; I'll be back soon (probably Friday).

While I'm gone, check out these cool blogs I've discovered:

Numchuckskills

Jokers To The Right

View of the Republic

American Lady

Also, I found an interesting article on Yahoo! News: California Principle Bans "Freak Dancing"

I think this is interesting. Certainly, a lot of the dancing that goes on today is more provocative than in the past. Is it possible that kids could learn to bust some slightly more tasteful moves?

Please, tell me what you think.

And with that, I'm out. See you in a few days!

Be blessed!
Neo

Thoughts on Winning Hearts and Minds

As a Conservative, I have heard this argument so many times:

"To win the war on Terror, we should focus on winning their hearts and minds."

Hey, there's less bloodshed that way! It's true, that is a much nicer way than war to settle conflicts. Because of this, Conservatives are often blasted by the Left, because they would rather engage in a War on Terror than a Courtship of Terror. The thing is, Conservatives realize something crucial about fighting terrorists:

It's impossible to win the hearts and minds of people who have no hearts and minds.

Terrorists by definition try to inflict terror on their victims. Terrorists blow up and decapitate innocent civilians, and then broadcast it on television. Terrorists freely gun down the innocent, crying "Allah akbar." They seek sensual pleasures in heaven by murdering those around them. They murder those who have done them no harm. They intentionally take innocent life. They help no one. Terrorists have no hearts to win.

Likewise, terrorists have been brainwashed. They have been indoctrinated since they were young children to hate America and Israel, and they are fully under the conviction that the USA/Israel is the Great Satan. They believe that it is their job to destroy the Great Satan. Terrorists, because of their indoctrination, have no capacity for free or rational thought. They know only their mission on this earth, and their reward in heaven for the atrocities. Terrorists have no minds to win.

The terrorists' lack of winnable hearts and minds is exactly what brings about the necessity to defeat them in battle. We must eliminate the threat that they pose, and we can't convince them to leave us alone (unless we cease to exist). All we can do is defeat them. We can't woo them, and hope they fall in love with us; they lack hearts. We can't convince them of our goodwill; they lack rational minds.

If we are going to stay secure as a nation, we can't be distracted by trying to win hearts and minds that don't exist.

Peace (through strength),
Neo

Movie Review: Napoleon Dynamite

The day finally came when I watched the movie Napoleon Dynamite. Then many days passed. And then I decided to review it (which brings us to the present).

Ah... Napoleon. I must say, Napoleon Dynamite was the quirkiest movie I've seen in a long time. It seemed to have almost zero as far as a plot goes... and yet, it was definitely worth seeing. Since there's not much plot to review (the movie was more of a character study), I'll try to focus on the characters.

The movie follows a high-school zombie (Napoleon Dynamite by name) through, essentially, a few days of his existence in high school. He's not stupid. He's not brilliant. He's just Napoleon (and he's a bit socially awkward). He's the lonely guy who plays himself at tetherball every day. The guy who, though he's not in any way a bad person, just doesn't seem to fit in.

Napoleon lives with his brother and grandmother. His brother Kip is a thirty-something, pale chat-room-a-holic. He spends his days going to chat room "meetings, " speaking to his beloved internet-girlfriend, LaFawnduh. He's a piteous character, to say the least.

When the grandmother leaves the house for a few days, she asks Napoleon's uncle Rico to come and watch the boys. Uncle Rico lives out of a van, and exists for only two purposes: to hatch hair-brained get-rich-quick schemes, and to relive his highschool football "glory days." When he arrives, Uncle Rico and Kip hatch a scheme to make loads of cash... In between Kip's chat room meetings, of course. Just so you know, somewhere along the line, a time machine comes into play...

Other characters include Pedro, Napoleon's nearly unintelligible Hispanic friend (who, by the way, runs for class president)and Summer, the cheerleader type girl who is running against Pedro in the class elections. There are loads of other characters too, many of whom would be far too absurd to be credible if it weren't for the fact that we all know people just like them.

This movie shows the plight of the little guy. That weird kid with the weird family. That guy with different interests from everyone else. That dude with the glasses and funny hair.

There's something odd about Napoleon. Something that we all recognize. More importantly, though, it's something that's painfully familiar; something that we can all identify with.

The movie elicits a feeling that everyone feels at one time or another; that feeling that no matter what you do, it's going to be clumsy and it's going to look stupid. It reminds you of how you felt when you acquired that painful knowledge that no matter how hard or how little you try, you're not going to fit in, you're not going to be accepted, and whatever you do or say WILL be stupid.

In seeing Napoleon in these embarrassing and painful situations, we tend to feel what he's feeling. This is compounded, I think, by his utter lack of response to the situations he's in. The only time we can see his emotional reaction to a situation is when he'd occasionally snap at one of his oppressors (which, by the way, always comes out sounding stupid).

Napoleon Dynamite is a movie without a significant plot line. However, it proves that a movie does not need a significant plot line in order to be significant itself. It's not a movie that you'll remember for its moving love story, its suspense, or it's spectacular action and special effects. It's a movie that you'll remember because of how it made you feel, and what it made you think. It forces empathy upon you for the poor, numb Napoleon, making you see and feel what he is now accustomed to.

When you watch Napoleon, don't expect it to be laugh-out-loud funny. It has some funny parts to it, but often you'll feel ashamed to laugh because of the situation that Napoleon is in. Instead, expect to identify with something about Napoleon, and laugh out of recognition.

I feel that this movie deserves a 7.5 out of 10. I recommend that everyone see this movie once. If you don't like it, don't watch it again. I may not watch it again, but it's a worthy movie nonetheless, and it tells a story that needs to be told.

It's Weak... Should We Really Make It Weaker?

This post is being revised due to bad writing. You may continue discussion in the comments section, if you wish (anonymous posters, please sign your comments).

Until this post is revised, please go to Seth's blog, Standing Up for Nothing.

Be sure to cruise through the links on my sidebar as well (I've updated it).

HAPPY NEW YEARS!!!

Well, it's a new year. 2005. And amazingly, I'm still alive.

It's been an eventful year, and not one without its lessons. Instead of making New Year's resolutions (which nobody keeps anyway), I think it's a better idea to reflect on some of the things I have learned over the past year.

1. Smart people can do really dumb things.
2. Talking to your parents might not always be pleasant, but it makes things a WHOLE lot easier.
3. Keeping your mouth shut can save your skin at times.
4. Not keeping your mouth shut can ruin you.
5. I may not really hate my brother as much as I thought I did.
6. Don't say "Aw, that's easy" before you've actually done it.
7. I love my friends dearly, and I don't know what I'd do without them.
8. There is such a thing as too much food.
9. No matter what anyone says, these are NOT the best years of my life.
10. Even though these aren't the best years of my life, I can still make the best of things.
11. It doesn't hurt to be a leader and take a stand sometimes.
12. I think I might be indecisive... or I may not... I'm not sure...
13. Girls are more trouble than they're worth.
14. I'm never going to remember that when it counts.
15. I'm a sucker. Big time.
16. Try to be as clear as possible; misunderstandings are not fun.
17. As much as I may try, I'm never going to be like everyone else... Thank God!