In your 20s, it is time to claim your adulthood.

On YouTube:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Published on May 13, 2013 by TEDtalksDirector

Clinical psychologist Meg Jay has a bold message for twentysomethings: Contrary to popular belief, your 20s are not a throwaway decade. In this provocative talk, Jay says that just because marriage, work and kids are happening later in life, doesn’t mean you can’t start planning now. She gives 3 pieces of advice for how twentysomethings can re-claim adulthood in the defining decade of their lives.

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world’s leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design — plus science, business, global issues, the arts and much more.

Find closed captions and translated subtitles in many languages at http://www.ted.com/translate
Follow TED news on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/tednews
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The Gun Wire: VIDEO: Pro-2A speaker at New Jersey hearing hits home run!

Anyone that can forward me a copy of the email that brought them here, I would be quite grateful. Send to: thegunwire @ gmail.com

Thanks for visiting!

“The picture itself is horrible…” Desiree’s Story

Click here to view the embedded video.

Published on May 14, 2013 by 3801lancaster

When Desiree Hawkins was 16 years old, a reputable abortion clinic in Maryland referred her to Kermit Gosnell’s clinic in Philadelphia. This is Desiree’s story…

On YouTube:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Published on Apr 17, 2013 by 3801lancaster

Margo Davidson tells the story of her cousin Semika Shaw, a 22 year old woman who died as a result of a botched abortion at Kermit Gosnell’s clinic.

From Twitter:

#WhatArentTheyTellingObama You’re a huge laughingstock on Twitter! shar.es/ZwIvo via @1389 Please RT!

— 1389 (@1389) May 22, 2013

Apparently ANYTHING #WhatArentTheyTellingObama

— …—… (@JWahd) May 20, 2013

A majority of the public still hates Obamacare. #WhatArentTheyTellingObama

— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) May 20, 2013

#WhatArentTheyTellingObama – Premiums aren’t going down.

— 82Brew (@rodgers_jeff) May 20, 2013

Bush is no longer president. #WhatArentTheyTellingObama

— Tom Reynolds (@Beregond) May 20, 2013

#whatarenttheytellingobama @iammgraham “Kenya hopes he was born in the US.”

— Carl (@SpartacusI) May 21, 2013

#WhatArentTheyTellingObama Mr President you don’t have to learn everything from the news reports. You can find stuff out from your staff.

— Kelly Dunnahoo (@KellyDunnahoo) May 21, 2013

Remember that Trillion dollars we spent a few years ago, we apparently failed to create any jobs #WhatArentTheyTellingObama

— joe (@ramadiroach) May 21, 2013

Government doesn’t create jobs #WhatArentTheyTellingObama

— Stuart(@Ringo6) May 21, 2013

You shouldn’t have called Chris Stevens a bump in the road #WhatArentTheyTellingObama

— Stuart(@Ringo6) May 21, 2013

That he didn’t deserve his Nobel Peace Prize#WhatArentTheyTellingObama

— Sam Valley (@SamValley) May 21, 2013

Please don’t eat the dog #WhatArentTheyTellingObama

— Stuart(@Ringo6) May 21, 2013

#WhatArentTheyTellingObama going to Harvard really doesnt mean you are all that smart

— Sadie (@sadiegirl64) May 21, 2013

#WhatArentTheyTellingObama That Biden may actually be smarter than him.

— Charlotte Whitaker (@ChaWhitaker) May 20, 2013

#WhatArentTheyTellingObama ‘There has been a marked increase in pitch fork sales in largely democratic states’

— GovtFool (@GovtFool) May 21, 2013

Those gun toting Bible thumpers are called voters. #WhatArentTheyTellingObama

— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) May 20, 2013

#WhatArentTheyTellingObama If the political winds shift in an ugly direction he’s suppose to stand w/Americans not Muslims

— Stacey Cripe (@StaceyCripe) May 20, 2013

#WhatArentTheyTellingObama That you have to hold your own umbrella. The U.S. Marine Corp. is not your own personal Praetorian Guard.

— Tim Marriott (@TimMarriott3) May 20, 2013

#WhatArentTheyTellingObama What comes after a trillion

— Katherine Cudney (@kbcudney) May 21, 2013

#WhatArentTheyTellingObama Better to be impeached now, then when Dems lose the Senate.

— swimmomjj (@swimmomjj) May 20, 2013

#WhatArentTheyTellingObama Nixon called, He wants his “crook” label back

— Jim Morgan (@napsi1) May 20, 2013

#WhatArentTheyTellingObamathat he picked his jeans from the ladies section

— tistimetopart (@MS70Life) May 20, 2013

#WhatArentTheyTellingObama Coal makes electricity to run the electric cars.

— Peter Cobb (@PeterCWI) May 20, 2013

#WhatArentTheyTellingObama Motorized vehicles still run on fossil fuels and there’s no rational alternative to that.

— Fishing With Fredo (@FishingwFredo) May 21, 2013

Babies are NOT “punishment” #WhatArentTheyTellingObama

— Erick Brockway (@erickbrockway) May 20, 2013

#WhatArentTheyTellingObama There was a God before you and there will be one after you. You ain’t him

— Gavin S (@Gavin_Sub) May 20, 2013

#WhatArentTheyTellingObama The buck stops with YOU twitter.com/1389/status/33…

— 1389 (@1389) May 22, 2013

#WhatArentTheyTellingObama A man is known by the company he keeps twitter.com/1389/status/33…

— 1389 (@1389) May 22, 2013

#WhatArentTheyTellingObama You’re ALL hat – and NO cattle! twitter.com/VRWCTexan/stat…

— Tom T. (@VRWCTexan) May 20, 2013

On YouTube:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Published on Oct 29, 2012 by PolitiZoid
While asking for another 4 years as president, Obama has to pretend like the last 4 years didn’t happen. Take a musical behind the scenes look at the Obama White House!

Whom do you believe?

Obama and the IRS: The Smoking Gun?

(h/t: Weasel Zippers)

By Jeffrey Lord on 5.20.13 @ 6:11AM

President met with anti-Tea Party IRS union chief the day before agency targeted Tea Party.

“For me, it’s about collaboration.” — National Treasury Employees Union President Colleen Kelley on the relationship between the anti-Tea Party IRS union and the Obama White House

 Is President Obama directly implicated in the IRS scandal?

Is the White House Visitors Log the trail to the smoking gun?

The stunning questions are raised by the following set of new facts.

March 31, 2010.

According to the White House Visitors Log, provided here in searchable form by U.S. News and World Report, the president of the anti-Tea Party National Treasury Employees Union, Colleen Kelley, visited the White House at 12:30pm that Wednesday noon time of March 31st.

The White House lists the IRS union leader’s visit this way:

Kelley, Colleen Potus 03/31/2010 12:30

In White House language, “POTUS” stands for “President of the United States.”

The very next day after her White House meeting with the President, according to the Treasury Department’s Inspector General’s Report, IRS employees — the same employees who belong to the NTEU — set to work in earnest targeting the Tea Party and conservative groups around America. The IG report wrote it up this way:

April 1-2, 2010: The new Acting Manager, Technical Unit, suggested the need for a Sensitive Case Report on the Tea Party cases. The Determinations Unit Program Manager Agreed.

In short: the very day after the president of the quite publicly anti-Tea Party labor union — the union for IRS employees — met with President Obama, the manager of the IRS “Determinations Unit Program agreed” to open a “Sensitive Case report on the Tea party cases.” As stated by the IG report.

The NTEU is the 150,000 member union that represents IRS employees along with 30 other separate government agencies. Kelley herself is a 14-year IRS veteran agent. The union’s PAC endorsed President Obama in both 2008 and 2012, and gave hundreds of thousands of dollars in the 2010 and 2012 election cycles to anti-Tea Party candidates.
[...]
Read the rest.

http://tinyurl.com/jwanb7q

PLEASE CONSIDER SIGNING THE ONLINE PETITION TO PRESIDENT OBAMA by Monday 5/27/13

asking that the U.S. government get involved in the release of the two kidnapped bishops in Syria…

“Below is the link to an appeal to President Obama and his government for the release of two Orthodox Christian Metropolitans, namely Metropolitan Paul Yazigi (the brother of His Beatitude, Patriarch JOHN X) and Metropolitan Youhanna Ibrahim who were abducted by armed rebels on April 23, 2013 in the suburbs of Aleppo, Syria. The driver of the Archbishops was murdered and the Archbishops were forced by the rebels to go to an unknown location either in Syria or in Turkey.

We appeal to you beloved in Christ and peace loving people to sign this petition urgently asking the American administration to use all its influence for the release of these two Archbishops and to bring a peaceful settlement to this bloodletting Syrian conflict through a negotiated settlement.

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/appeal-president-obama-and-his-government-release-two-abducted-orthodox-christian-archbishops-syria/xNskxL1q

I urge all of you to not only sign this petition, but to forward this link to everyone you know so that we can show our unity in North America against such acts of violence especially in the murder of an innocent deacon and in keeping these two hierarchs away from their flocks during Great and Holy Week.”

(Message from Archbishop Joseph, Antiochian Diocese of Los Angeles & the West)

Posted by Jim Hoft on Sunday, May 19, 2013, 1:32 PM

PROTEST THE CORRUPTION – PROTEST THE CRIMINAL OBAMA IRS

Thanks to Barack Obama the Tea Party is once again outraged and motivated.

The Tea Party Patriots on behalf of Tea Party, Patriot groups, 9/12, liberty activists, and the American people, we are calling for anyone and everyone to protest the IRS’ complete abuse of power on Tuesday, May 21, 2013 at noon local time.

CLICK TO FIND A LOCATION NEAR YOU

NOW IS THE TIME TO STAND UP AGAINST THIS HORRIBLE ABUSE OF POWER!

Tuesday – May 21 – Noon – at Your Local IRS Office.

** And, here’s a link where people can tell us their stories, either individually being targeted or their groups being targeted.

PLEASE PASS THIS ON—
This is step one of our national assault to FIGHT BACK.

More here.

http://tinyurl.com/5-21-13-irs

On YouTube:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Published on Jun 5, 2012 by engineerguyvideo

Bill shows how the three key characteristics of laser light – single wavelength, narrow beam, and high intensity – are made. He explains the operation of a ruby laser – the first laser ever made – showing how electronic transitions create stimulated emission to give coherent light, and then how the ends of the ruby cavity create a narrow wavelength highly collimated beam. You can learn more about laser in the EngineerGuy team’s new book Eight Amazing Engineering Stories http://www.engineerguy.com/elements

Department for External Church Relations of the Russian Orthodox Church

On May 12, 2013, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia had a talk with Chinese believers at the Russian Embassy in Beijing.

The Primate of the Russian Church had met many of them before when he visited China as chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s department for external church relations. He reminded his audience of the words Matron Van Lin Ju had said as far back as 2001 about the need to resume church life.

Addressing the audience, His Holiness said:

‘I meet you, my dear ones, with a special feeling. All of you will be certainly mentioned in the history of the Church. You have performed a feat, having no priests and even sometimes having no hope. But still you have preserved the Orthodox faith. Today we are together witnesses to great changes in the life of China and in the life of Russia. It has led to the fact that for the first time in history, the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia could pray together with you in the very place where the Albazians used to live, in the territory of the Russian Orthodox Mission. Low bow to you for your efforts, faith and hope which you have preserved in your hearts.

Today, together with the Russian Ambassador A. Denisov, we came up to the cross I consecrated in 2001 when we first met. And I said to Mr Ambassador that since that time the territory has changed. The trees have grown. And then I thought it was not only the trees that have grown but also many things have changed. The church of the Assumption has been restored. There are opportunities now for me to come to pray together with you. Today two Chinese students attend our theological schools, one in St. Petersburg and another in Moscow. They wish to become priests. I hope more people wishing to become priests will come. I very much hope that the parishes of the Chinese Orthodox Church will be granted registration, and at some moment there will be a Chinese bishop, so that the Chinese Orthodox Church could have a full life, could herself ordain her priests, organize places for worship and preach the gospel.

Well, for the present when there are still no such things, the Russian Church and the Patriarch personally are responsible before God and history and all of you for the fate of Chinese Orthodoxy. Therefore, all that happens in the life of Orthodox Chinese is very dear to my heart.

I was very happy today when I saw you all at the service and could pray together with you. I was glad I had an opportunity for lifting up prayers for the Chinese people and those who have been affected by the flood. I believe that the Lord helps those who suffer.

I also prayed for China and Russia and our relations, so that there could always be friendship, mutual aid and support between the two countries. Today, our friendship is of a global importance because the two great countries, China and Russia, are sovereign, independent and have their own position and support each other including in the international arena.

Chinese people keep appearing in Russia. Nowadays there are many of them as people come to work. And in China, too, there are many Russians. There are very intensive exchanges between the two countries. God willing, it all will promote the welfare of our peoples’.

Matron Van Lin Ju, in her turn, shared her memories of the meeting that took place in 2001. ‘I remember very well that on the 1^st of November, when over a hundred Chinese came to meet you, it was a cold day; it was snowing. And now, twelve years later, you have come here again, and we are very glad you did. We love China and Russia and, certainly we will preserve our Orthodox faith. Your Holiness, you have come to China; you have met the PRC’ Chairman Xi Jinping. It gives us a great hope for the bright future of Orthodoxy in China’. She quoted China’s Chairman’s words that every Chinese should have a Chinese dream. ‘And my dream as a Chinese Orthodox woman is that Beijing become a place where we could pray, celebrate the Orthodox liturgy, have our own Chinese clergy and normal religious life. It is my Chinese dream’.

Speaking in response, Patriarch Kirill said, ‘You spoke about the Orthodox Chinese dream. Everything begins with a dream and then people try to do something that will make this dream come true. It is called a project. And when a project is realized, the dream is manifested in reality. Your dream seems to reach the stage of project because there are very kind intentions shown by the Chinese authorities. The signs of this good attitude to the Chinese Orthodox Christians are my visit to China and the study of Chinese young people in Moscow. Therefore I believe we have a dream, on one hand, and have already begun creating a project of the bright future for the Chinese Orthodox Church’. His Holiness also noted that he was glad to see representatives of the younger generation of Chinese Orthodox Christians.

The Chinese who spoke at the meeting told that the history of their families was strongly intertwined with the history of Orthodoxy in China. Among them was the elder daughter of the last cleric of the Chinese Autonomous Orthodox Church, Archpriest Alexander De, who was ordained as priest by the head of the 20^th Russian Orthodox Mission in China, Archbishop Victor of Beijing and China in the early 1950s. She said how her father felt keenly for the fact that no priest would remain in China after him.

Patriarch Kirill underscored the importance of having Chinese clergy in the country. ‘Then it would be possible to obtain an official registration of the parishes, and they will exist officially. I very much hope that the number of Orthodox clergy will grow, thus normalizing the life of the Chinese Church’, he said.

His Holiness also expressed hope that a group of Chinese Orthodox Christians will soon be able to make a pilgrimage to Russia. ‘I will always be happy to meet with you’, he said.

 DECR Communication Service

• His Holiness Patriarch Kirill completes his visit to China
• Primate of Russian Orthodox Church meets with religious leaders of Shanghai
• His Holiness Patriarch Kirill: We are witnessing revival of Chinese Orthodox Church
• His Holiness Patriarch Kirill celebrates Divine Liturgy in Shanghai
• His Holiness Patriarch Kirill arrives in Shanghai
• Metropolitan Hilarion: There is every condition for the Orthodox Church in China to revive
• Patriarch Kirill meets with vice-governor of Chinese province of Heilongjiang
• Patriarch Kirill celebrated Divine Liturgy at Intercession Church in Harbin
• His Holiness Patriarch Kirill visits St. Sophia Cathedral in Harbin
• His Holiness Patriarch Kirill arrives in Harbin
• Primate of Russian Orthodox Church meets with religious figures of China
• His Holiness Patriarch Kirill: China came to the knowledge of Russia through Russian Orthodox Mission
• Patriarch Kirill: The dreams of the Chinese Orthodox Church’s bright future begins to come true
• Patriarch Kirill celebrates Divine Liturgy in Beijing
• Patriarch Kirill meets with director of Chinese State Administration for Religious Affairs
• Patriarch Kirill: The Church contributes to the strengthening of genuine friendship among nations
• Patriarch Kirill meets with Chairman of the People’s Republic of China, Mr. Xi Jinping

Photos here.

Interfax: Priests should return to Chinese Orthodox churches – Moscow Patriarchate

Moscow, May 16, Interfax – The recent visit to China by Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia has exceeded even the most ambitious expectations, Metropolitan Hilarion, head of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations, said.

“Even a year or two ago, only a few people could have imagined that Patriarch Kirill would visit China, that it would not be just a private visit, but it would be a semi-official visit, which would take place at such a high level – the highest state level,” the metropolitan told the Voice of Russia radio station.

Patriarch Kirill was the first Christian faith leader to meet with the head of China, he said.

“A year ago, no one could have thought that religious services would be conducted in Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai, especially in Shanghai’s Church of the Mother of God the Surety of Sinners, which had not been used for religious services for almost 50 years. In my opinion, this visit has exceeded even the most ambitious expectations in many ways,” Metropolitan Hilarion said.

However, there is still a great deal to do to bring the life of the Orthodox Church in China back to normal, he said.

The Russian Orthodox Church will conduct this work in close cooperation with the Chinese authorities and China’s State Administration for Religious Affairs.

Metropolitan Hilarion described the main task as securing the ordination of Chinese priests and resuming religious services at churches that still function as lay churches, he said.

“Our church is Orthodox. It must have priests. We will not be satisfied until all churches in China have priests,” Metropolitan Hilarion said.

The Chinese Orthodox Church is “not some foreign church structure, but it is a national church, which was established certainly with the help of Russian missionaries in the 18th and 19th centuries, and became a national church in the 18th century,” he said.

“The Orthodox Church of China is not some project imposed on us from outside. It was born in the depth of the Chinese Orthodox community, which is small, but is strongly committed to its faith. And I hope that this understanding will keep growing from now one,” the metropolitan said.

Text in red was edited out.

The Patriot News: Letters to the Editor

on May 05, 2013 at 10:04 AM, updated May 05, 2013 at 10:06 AM

A small but significant item on page A11 April 30 caught my eye: “Five convicted in Kosovo’s organ-trafficking ring.” As someone who has followed and written about the events in Kosovo since the war’s inception, there is more to this story which must also be told if the truth is to be known.

Carla del Ponte, former chief prosecutor at The Hague tribunal and author of, “The Hunt: Me and War Criminals,” states that Kosovo Albanians harvested organs of kidnapped ethnic Serbs after the armed conflict ended in 1999.

These allegations [of organ harvesting of Serbian soldiers] were made by several sources, one of whom “personally made an organ delivery” to an Albanian airport for transport abroad,” and “confirmed information directly gathered by the tribunal.”

Del Monte also writes that senior figures in the Kosovo Liberation Army were aware of the harvesting of the organ scheme in which hundreds of young Serbs were allegedly stripped of their organs.

In The Telegraph (UK) article of 2008 entitled, “Serb prisoners ‘were stripped of their organs in Kosovo war’,” del Ponte writes, “The victims, deprived of a kidney, were then locked up again, inside the barracks, until the moment they were killed for other vital organs. In this way, the other prisoners were aware of the fate that awaited them, and according to the source, pleaded, terrified, to be killed immediately.”

America was taken to war against the Serbian people in support of the Kosovo Albanians and the Kosovo Liberation Army, an army about which the U.S. Special Envoy to the Balkans, Robert Gelbard, said, “I know a terrorist when I see one, and these men are terrorists.” (BBC. 6/28/1998)

STELLA L. JATRAS, Camp Hill

(Note to the editors, FYI:: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1584751/Serb-prisoners-were-stripped-of-their-organs-in-Kosovo-war.html (Serb prisoners ‘were stripped of their organs in Kosovo war’ – The UK Telegraph)

CTV News: Croatia may give up its wine to join European Union

JELSA, Croatia — Does Croatia’s Prosek jeopardize Italy’s Prosecco?

Croatia is gearing up to celebrate its entry into the EU, but don’t pop the corks just yet. A heated trademark battle over the country’s beloved sweet dessert wine has some feeling less than bubbly, mirroring rapidly declining enthusiasm among Croats for membership in the economically battered bloc.

The EU has ruled that once the Balkan country becomes its 28th member on July 1, Prosek can no longer be sold under that name across the EU – even at home. It maintains that Prosek’s name is too similar to Prosecco, Italy’s sparkling beverage.

And, it’s not just Prosek that’s in trouble of disappearing. EU member Slovenia claims Croatia has no right to market Teran, a red wine made in the northern tip of the Adriatic shared by Italy, Slovenia and Croatia.

Croats are fiercely proud of their wine, a cherished product of the sunny, rocky Croatian islands on the aquamarine Adriatic sea. Many Croatians have sacrificed for EU membership, including losing jobs in unprofitable state-funded companies ordered shut by the bloc, and some see the wine ruling as adding insult to injury.

Joining the EU will give Croatia access to new markets and its citizens freedom to work in other countries, but some Croatians are beginning to agree with other EU residents who have chafed at what they consider interference by bureaucrats in Brussels. When Croatia gained independence from Yugoslavia in a bloody war some 20 years ago, about 75 percent of its population of 4.3 million wanted to be a part of the EU. The latest polls show the number has dropped to 45 percent.

Croatians point out that Prosek and Prosecco are different products, one sweet, the other bubbly. And the Croatian brand has a tradition dating back centuries, whereas Prosecco is a product of the latter half of the 20th century.

“Prosek is an established brand that has been produced in these areas for more than two thousand years,” Croatian winemaker Andro Tomic said at his Romanesque winery in Jelsa, a picturesque town on the Adriatic island of Hvar. “Prosek was made here long before the current Italian state started to exist.”

Prosecco, produced in Italy’s Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia wine regions, enjoys legal brand protection under EU rules that govern other wines like Champagne and Port.

Tomic, Croatia’s leading wine expert, said he is trying to help Croatian authorities in their race to protect the Prosek name before EU entry.

“I can’t even think what would happen if our Prosek disappears,” Tomic said. The wine has an ancient tradition in the Dalmatian culture of Croatia’s eastern coast, where parents make the drink when a child is born, and then put the bottles aside to be opened on their wedding day.

“Every house here has been making Prosek,” Tomic said. “Taking Prosek away from Dalmatia would be like taking away the sea.”

Unfortunately for Croatia, its neighbor Slovenia also claims the country has no right to produce and market another famous wine, Teran, once it joins the EU. The EU has ruled that the name is protected and belongs to Slovenia.

‘Unfortunately for the truth’, Croatia does not have to account for its horrific WWII genocide, or a long standing, continuous nostalgia for Nazism.

Croatia and its neighbor have been at odds over a number of political and territorial issues since both split from Yugoslavia in the early 1990s and since Slovenia become an EU member in 2004. Croatian winemakers allege that the Slovenian wine ban is inspired by politics.
[...]
More here.

This is for those who may not have read the commentary I wrote in 2002 entitled Bitter Harvest in Croatia.

Bitter Harvest in Croatia

by Stella L. Jatras
16 February 2002

In a Washington Times article (30 Sep 00), “Croatians are doing just vine, thank you,” Linda Joyce Forristal paints a glowing portrait of a nation at peace and content with itself and the joys of growing grapes and making wine along the Dalmatian Coast. However, another article which appeared in The Washington Post on 31 September paints a different picture. “It was not unusual to see such chilling graffiti as:’We Croats do not drink wine, we drink the blood of Serbs from Knin,’ (which rhymes with “wine” in Serbo-Croatian – The Washington Post, 31 Sep 00. Croatian graffiti). It refers to the capital of the Krajina region of Croatia from which 250,000 Serbs were “ethnically cleansed” in 1995. Both articles clearly illustrate the way the American media tend to give legitimacy to Croatia while treating Serbia as a historical footnote.

In her article, Ms. Forristal gives the readers a “crash course” in the history of Croatia. She writes, “A thousand years ago, Croatia’s shape was round.” Although Croatia was, at that time, “The Kingdom of Croatia,” it should be noted that the Kingdom of Croatia was an independent nation for only a brief period after which it was swallowed up by the Kingdom of Hungary, which reduced Croatians to the status of vassals. After the fall of the Kingdom of Croatia, there was no independent Croatia from the Middle Ages until The Independent State of Croatia was established by Nazi Germany in 1941, a status which ended with the defeat of Hitler. On the other hand, Serbia has a continuous history of independence beginning in 850 and ending only in 1918 when the Serbs voluntarily gave up their separate kingdom to become part of Yugoslavia. Even under 500 years of rule by the Ottoman Empire, which began with battle of Kosovo Polje in 1389, Serbs maintained their national identity.

Ms. Forristal quotes the Albanian writer, Ismail Kadre, the author of “Three Elegies for Kosovo,” who writes that “Serbia’s invasion of modern-day Kosovo and other former Yugoslav republics occurred about the time of the 600th anniversary of the defeat in 1389.” In order to get a more balanced sense of Kosovo’s history, I would recommend that Ms. Forrestal also read the book, “Kosovo,” by William Dorich with illustrations of Serbia’s beautiful monasteries and churches. As though guided by the hand of God, Bill Dorich had a premonition that these churches and monasteries should be preserved in his 1992 book. It was as though he knew that many of Serbia’s holy sites in Kosovo, their Jerusalem, would be destroyed and desecrated. As a matter of record, more churches (thus far over 100) have been destroyed by Albanian hatred in the first two months since KFOR entered Kosovo than under 500 years of Ottoman rule. I would also like to point out at this time that the Serbs at one time had been the majority in Kosovo until being driven out by the Ottoman Turks, followed by Hitler, Tito (himself a Croat), and by the Kosovo Liberation Army and ethnic Albanians.

Considering there is only a handful of Serbs left, thanks to our misguided foreign policy of turning Kosovo over to the Kosovo Liberation Army, (now the Kosovo Protection Corps), this band of cutthroats is engaged in sex slavery (Washington Post, 24 April) and drugs (Kosovo Supplies 80% of Europe Heroin, The Guardian, 13 March) to name a few of their fine attributes which don’t seem to concern our leaders.

So who are the actual victims? Who have been ethnically cleansed from their own land? The period of Croatian subjugation under Hungary and later the Austro-Hungarian Empire lasted until the First World War, when Croatia fought on the side of Germany. When Croatians saw that Germany was going to lose the war, they fled to their Serbian enemies where they asked and became part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. From that period on, Croatians undermined the Yugoslav government by its effort to become an independent nation, including its collaboration with Nazi Germany in WWII. Croatia finally achieved its present-day status when recognized as an independent state in 1992, following the breakup of Yugoslavia. Since then, one of its final actions to form an ethnically pure state was the attack on the Krajina region in 1995 with U.S. military aid, technology and air support, during which over 250,000 Serbs were ethnically cleansed and thousands of Serbian men, women and children, were murdered. To facilitate this unpleasant task, “Croatian troops going into action were given hard drugs by their officers and doctors to overcome their fear,” and to “forget the horrors of battle” (The Guardian, 1995), and “to attack villages, to cut throats and to kill in cold blood you need a strong anesthetic-a shot of heroin or cocaine was ideal.” (Stated by a Croatian soldier identified only as Davor, The Washington Times, Sept. 5, 1995). Since 1992, over 650,000 Serbs have been ethnically cleansed from Croatia with little hope of returning to their ancestral homes.

Ms. Forristal speaks of “Serbia’s invasion of modern-day Kosovo,” which is quite striking since Kosovo is a part of Serbia. To claim that Serbia invaded its own country is ludicrous. How does one invade that which belongs to them? In her brief history of Croatia, Ms. Forristal does not write of the dark side of Croatian history, especially during World War II when over one and a half million Serbs, Jews and Gypsies were exterminated in Croatia’s death camps so brutally that even the Germans were appalled. In his article, “Croatian-run death site remains dark secret,” Andrew Borowiec writes: “The ghosts of thousands of inmates slaughtered in a World War II Croatian concentration camp haunts former Yugoslavia and mar future relations among its ethnic groups.” During WWII, Andrija Artukovic, the Minister of the Interior in the “Independent State of Croatia” was quoted as saying, “Kill all Serbs and Jews including children so that not even the seeds of the beasts are left.” Truly a vintage year!

But what has changed? “Croatians greeted German troops with their right arms raised in a Nazi salute as they chanted ‘Heil Hitler.’ Mobs chase minorities from their homes, kicking them and pelting them with eggs as they flee into the woods. Europe in the 1940? No. Croatia in the 1990s.” (The Washington Times, June 15, 1997). And from Newsweek, 1996/1997, “Croatians greeted the Germans, an expression of solidarity dating back to the alliance between Croatia fascists and the Nazis,” with the “straight-armed fascist salute.” Where was the outrage from the media? Where was the outrage from our politicians? Croatia is once again flying the same fascist checkerboard flag that it flew in 1941 when Hitler recognized Croatia as an Independent nation. Streets have been renamed honoring their war criminal, such as Andrija Artukovic.” In other words, Croatia today has its pure Croatian state that Hitler could only promise. Furthermore the map of the Balkans drawn by Hitler in 1942 is almost identical to today’s map of the Balkans created by NATO.

What else was missing from Ms. Forristal’s brief and colorful history of Croatia? What about this account from a Canadian newspaper? “MPs listened in silence Monday as a colonel recounted the story of the Canadian army’s biggest firefight since Korea, the 1993 Battle of the Medak pocket, that left troops picking up 16 corpses of murdered [Serbian] civilians and nursing their own wounds.” (The Calgary Herald, 28 Apr 1998). Canadian forces were trying to stop the further slaughter of over 1,000 Serbian men, women and children by Croatian soldiers. It took over four years for the Canadian people to learn of Croatian troops, supposedly our allies, attacking Canada’s Princess Patricia Canadian Light Infantry. With friends like these, you don’t need enemies.

We were lead to believe that most of Dubrovnik had been destroyed by Serbian mortars, yet the photo in Ms. Forristal’s article shows a city intact, with its original tile roofs. J.P. Maher, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, Chicago, visited Dubrovnik to see for himself the truth about the war. He writes, “A few months earlier, the press was filled with stories that the Pearl of the Adriatic had been reduced to rubble. The stories were fakes.” He further writes, “The dramatic ‘Dubrovnik burning’ pictures were shot with long lenses. This compresses perspective making it look like there is no distance between objects that are quite separated in real space. Thus, columns of smoke billowing up are superimposed on the walled city. Dubrovnik’s Old City never burned and was never even targeted by the federal forces. To the contrary,” Professor Maher writes, “the only building in the Old City of Ragusa to be gutted by explosives and fire was the library and treasury of the Serbian Orthodox church, which housed a priceless collection of medieval manuscripts and icons. It was not navy guns that did the damage, but plastic and incendiary devices planted on the spot by Croatian forces.” Many of the precious icons stolen from the Serbian Orthodox church have appeared for sale in Germany and throughout Europe. Perhaps that is why the photo of Dubrovnik looks untouched by war – because it never was! Furthermore, I had received a call around the time of Croatia’s “Operation Storm” from a Sephardic Jew from New York (thousands of Jews having been exterminated in Croatia’s death camps) who was very concerned with what was happening in Croatia today and he told me that the FBI was reportedly investigating the “Buy a Tile Fund” to rebuild Dubrovnik for defrauding contributors out of millions of dollars.

I look at the photos presented in Ms. Forristal’s article, the smiling faces of Croatian maidens in native costumes, the beautiful, peaceful scene on the Adriatic harbor, and I think to myself, “compare this scene to the destruction, suffering and deaths as a result of 78 days of NATO’s U.S.-led unmerciful bombing, and it makes we wonder. What did these people, the Serbs, ever do to us that we should hate them so? What did they ever do than to be our allies in two world wars, who have never harmed the single hair of one American and who rescued over 500 downed American pilots at great sacrifice to themselves while Croatians were turning our airmen over to the Nazis for execution?”

So I leave Ms. Forristal and your readers with the following quotes:

“The gigantic campaign to brainwash America by our media against the Serbian people is just incredible, with its daily dose of one-sided information and outright lies…What is today’s reality? The murderers of Jews, Serbs and Gypsies are back (in Croatia) from the U.S., Canada, Argentina where they fled after World War II. The Serbs fought the Nazis, and they paid a terrible price for standing at the side of the allies against Hitler. Humanity owes them a debt of gratitude.” – John Ranz, Chairman of Survivors of Buchenwald Concentration Camp, USA.

“In World War II, Hitler had no executioners more willing, no ally more passionate than the Fascists of Croatia. They are returning, 50 years later, from what should have been their eternal grave, the defeat of Nazi Germany. The Western allies who dug that grave with the bodies of their servicemen have the power to stop them, but do not.” – A.M. Rosenthal, 15 April 1997.

“What worries us, is that those in power in Croatia are largely the same as in the Nazi era. In some cases, they are exactly the same people, now in their seventies and back from exile under Communists. In other cases, they are children of the Ustashi.” (Croatian Nazi Party). – Jewish leader, scholar and historian Dr. Klara Mandich, The London Independent.

“The HDZ (current ruling party of Croatia) adopted the old symbols of the fascist Ustasha regime from World War II. The new Croatian authorities have chosen as the state symbol the same checkered shield.” – Menchen Shelah, Israeli Historian, University of Haifa.

“Thank God my wife is neither a Serb nor a Jew.” – Dearly departed Croatian President Franjo Tudjman, quoted in The British Guardian.

“This organized anti-Serb and pro-Muslim propaganda should cause anyone believing in democracy and free speech serious concerns. It recalls Hitler’s propaganda against the allies in World War II. Facts are twisted and, when convenient, disregarded.” – Yohanan Ramati, Director of the Jerusalem Institute for Western Defense.

“Croats will ‘kill people for the color of their skins’.” – U.S. Colonel Fontenot, Commander of NATO forces in Northeastern Bosnia.

“The Big Lie” technique is alive and well. Croatia has used the media and skillful image manipulation to hide its renewed genocide against the Serbs while at the same time ensuring that Serbs themselves are wrongly accused of the same type of crime and more.” – Gregory Copley, Editor-in-Chief, Defense & Foreign Affairs Strategic Policy,
London.

“But you can understand Croatia best by saying flatly that if there is one place in the world where a statue of Adolph Hitler would be revered, it would be in Zagreb.” – Edward Pearce, The (London) Evening Standard, 7 August 1995, “Victory smiles that hide the roots of evil.”

I’ll drink to that.

Postscript:

During the early morning hours, between August 8 and 9, 1996, the Serbian Orthodox Church in Phoenix, Arizona was vulgarly defaced by graffiti and urination. The desecration of this house of worship was the act of a Croat Fascist USTASE group in the U.S.A. “Here, I find the same guys who killed by my father, my brother, my uncle, 45 of my relatives, are desecrating my church,” said Vlado Brodich, president of the church board of directors.”

…no arrests were ever made.

This material presents a completely false picture of Islam, concealing the violent, expansionist, totalitarian agenda inherent in Muslim doctrine. It also is intended to fool vulnerable people into converting to Islam.

Says Mark Harding:

Money is the only reasonable solution that I can think of, or perhaps someone did not do any research on the true Islam. If these books sell Islam as a peaceful religion without making great strides to change its core teachings, then more lies and deceptions should be expected. We look at the English translations of the Quran and we see words changed to calm the non Arabic speaking communities to the real dangers of Islamic teachings. Words like “kill” have been translated “fight” which washes down the true meaning of the teachings. However in Arabic the meaning is crystal clear, kill means kill, Kill those who believe not in Allah. Fight has been used to calm us down. As is Jihad. Jihad is war against the Christians and Jews and all non Muslims, kill those who believe not in Allah until they are subdued into submission. But the way a Muslim may tell another non Muslim when describing Jihad is, Jihad can mean many ways of fighting. Fighting against ones sin to do better, fighting those who believe not in Allah with books and peaceful means. I believe if anyone would take the time to see the extreme persecution (subdued into submission) against Christians in all Islamic societies around the world today one would better understand the real teachings behind Islam.

See: IslamWatch: Aunt Agatha’s Advice on Islam

Creeping Sharia has the story:

As we noted yesterday, this is in conjunction with the American Library Association and is aimed at indoctrinating Americans, often unsuspecting youth whose parents may have no idea what is being pushed at the local taxpayer funded library. No doubt cleansed of any realistic discussion of what Islam is and how it has spread.

Not only is the Islamic propaganda infiltrating libraries, but there are dozens, possibly hundreds, of articles in newspapers across the U.S. announcing the arrival of these books, often under the guise of op-eds or user submitted articles. It is a well-coordinated and funded effort.

via NEH Bridging Cultures: Muslim Journeys Bookshelves arrive in 800 libraries:

The Muslim Journeys Bookshelf, a set of twenty-five books and three films about Muslim cultures and history, arrived in 800 libraries across the United States last month, serving as the centerpiece for discussion programs and talks in every state and dozens of communities.

“What we hear in the media about Muslims and their faith and culture is incomplete,” said Paula McGrew, a librarian at West Virginia Wesleyan College.  “This could potentially change that perception.”  Amanda Mohl, a Glen Carbon Centennial librarian in Illinois, said that library programs have the potential to emphasize common human experiences: “Through shared personal stories, we are able to see the world through someone else’s eyes, making the often abstract concept of the Muslim world less foreign and, in some cases, frightening.”

The National Endowment for the Humanities, using grants from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and others,  enlisted scholars and librarians in a collaboration to select books and films that introduce the diverse cultures of the Muslim world to interested library patrons.  The bookshelf, which was offered free to interested libraries and humanities councils, has been delivered to rural and urban communities from Hawaii to Maine.  The bookshelf is part of NEH’s Bridging Cultures initiative.

Recipient libraries are hosting local events with film screenings, lectures and panels aimed at engaging people in learning something new about Muslims around the globe and in America.   One of the scholars who helped choose the books for the project, Reed College professor Kambiz GhaneaBassiri,  told an audience at Portland State University that “our goal was to emphasize the pluralities of Islam, including the histories, the perspectives, the peoples, places and journeys of Islam.”

Retired US Army Colonel Lawrence H. Saul, invited to give a talk about the role of Islam in today’s world at the Oconee County Library in Watkinsville, Georgia, spoke about his interactions with Muslim communities during his years of military service.  “The attendees at the program were engaged and ready with intelligent questions,” said Jessica Jenkins, Adult Services Coordinator at Oconee.

After the event, she said, patrons checked out nearly all twenty-five books in the Muslim Journeys set.

Hannah Schell, facilitating an “Islam 101” program at Monmouth College in Illinois, noted that “at one level the program was a very basic introduction to the five pillars of Islam. But the stories and anecdotes shared by the panelists were the highlight of the evening – the real life stories and struggles, poignant and sometimes humorous, of Muslims negotiating their identities in Cairo, Stuttgart, and Lahore, offered an element of rich, human detail to the basic outline.”

Alameda Free Library in California kicked off a four-part cultural event series, “Muslim Journeys: An exploration and celebration of the intertwined histories of Islam and the West” with a screening of “Koran by Heart,” one of the bookshelf films.   Afterwards, librarian Cosette Ratliff said, “Many people, customers and staff, told me how happy they were that the Library would present an event of this type” which was co-sponsored by the Alameda Multicultural Community Center and the Islamic Center of Alameda. “They have asked for more programming that focuses on the different cultural groups that make up our Alameda community.”

Visit your local library today and see what you find. Request some of Robert Spencer, Nonie Darwish, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Oriana Fallaci and other books be carried and on display as well.

Note:
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency created in 1965. It is one of the largest funders of humanities programs in the United States.
[...]
More here.

The Trumpet has the story:

By Richard Palmer

On Friday, April 19, Serbia finally stopped fighting and surrendered to Germany. It’s hard to blame it. Attacked by its historical allies and demonized in the public press the world over, Serbia had no hope of winning. Rather than defying the rest of the world, it decided to submit to Germany on the best terms it could get. This was the pragmatic path. Now Serbia is on its way to joining the European Union and being welcomed back into the fold of Western democracy.

The negotiations centered on northern Kosovo, which is mostly inhabited by Serbs who refused to submit to the breakaway government of Kosovo. These areas are currently under Serbia’s control, but the agreement reached on Friday turned control of these Serbian regions over to Kosovo. In return, the areas will be given a lot of self-government. For example, their police and judiciary would be made up mostly of ethnic Serbs, although they must still come under Kosovar structures.

The implications, however, reach far beyond Kosovo. As Toby Vogel of the European Voice put it, this “historic” agreement “grants ethnic Serbs sweeping autonomy within Kosovo in exchange for Serbia’s de facto recognition of Kosovo’s independence.” The Associated Press wrote, “In what would be an extraordinary change, the deal appeared to recognize the authority of the Kosovo government over the north of the country, which is inhabited predominantly by ethnic Serbs.”
[...]
Many in Serbia, and many Serbs in Kosovo, are completely against this. In northern Kosovo, up to 10,000 took to the streets of Mitrovica on April 22, saying that the Serbs that signed the deal were “traitors.” Thousands more protested in Belgrade. The Serbian Orthodox Church strongly condemned it, calling it a “clear surrender” of “our most important territory.”

But the deal seems likely to be approved by Serbia’s parliament later this week. It has already been approved in Kosovo. The resistance of the Serbs in Kosovo might prevent it from going into effect, but that doesn’t change the fundamental point: The Serbian government is willing to compromise with Germany.

Why sign the deal? Serbia gets nothing from Kosovo—it’s just giving up control of its territory. This concession is only slightly mitigated by the Serbs in Kosovo getting self-government.

The answer lies with Germany and the European Union. The EU channels a lot of money into its poorer eastern members. Even before officially joining, candidate countries get money from the EU to help them get ready for membership. Serbia already gets some money from the EU, but to move further toward EU membership—and the money and help it needs to rebuild its economy—Serbia needs Germany’s approval.

Just a few days earlier, on April 16, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle gave Serbia a blunt ultimatum: “An agreement on starting negotiations on Serbia joining the EU, which it would like to see this summer, will be significantly delayed if it does not reach a deal with Kosovo.” Instead, Westerwelle threatened to allow Kosovo to progress toward EU membership without Serbia. He held Serbia fully responsible for the fact that a deal had not been negotiated already, and gave Kosovo a free pass.

Just three days later, Serbia gave Germany the deal Westerwelle wanted.
[...]
As the Trumpet has written often, Germany was behind NATO’s takeover of the Balkans from the very beginning. Germany triggered the break-up of Yugoslavia. In a war like this, both sides do horrible things. Describing the behavior of both the Axis and the Allies, Winston Churchill wrote, “When all was over, torture and cannibalism were the only two expedients that the civilized, scientific, Christian states had been able to deny themselves: and they were of doubtful utility.”

Horrible things did happen in the Balkan wars. But the Western media focused only on the actions of the Serbs. nato bombed Kosovo in 1999, claiming to respond to Serbian genocide. Yet when Serbs were the victims of genocide and ethnic cleansing, the West remained silent. It was the Croats, not the Serbs, who were responsible for the largest ethnic cleansing of the Balkan wars, which occurred in Krajina in 1995. “Krajina,” wrote Charles Krauthammer, “was Kosovo writ large.” (For more on how the media demonized Serbia, see our article “What Really Happened in Bosnia.”)

Germany has won completely in the Balkans. There is no Yugoslavia—no risk of a united power that could challenge Germany in Eastern Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean. Instead, the area is divided and subject to the EU. Slovenia is already a part of the EU and Croatia is set to join in July. After Serbia bowed to Germany’s will, the European Commission recommended that the EU begin negotiations for Serbia’s membership on April 22. All the parts of what used to be Yugoslavia are on their way to being absorbed into the EU.

Just a few weeks ago, Germany got its way in Cyprus. Now the same thing is happening in Serbia. The means are very different. Their situations are very different. But Germany’s assertiveness and success are constant.
[...]
Read it here.

Also see:

• InSerbia: Southern Kosovo accepts,but northern Kosovo rejects Brussels agreement
  [What? Are there any Serbs still existing in ‘Southern Kosovo’, other than a smattering of older Serbs, and a few clergy? Where?]
• Crime without punishment / Zločin bez kazne: Kosovar Albanian pogrom against Serbs 17.03.2004.