Stop the Terrorist Memorial blogburst (1/30/2009)

Caught on video: shameful cover-up of the crescent-topped Tower of Voices




Background

For three years, the Flight 93 Memorial Project has been relentlessly dishonest, publicly denying damning facts like the Mecca orientation of the giant crescent while making excuses for these facts in private.

Example:

Before the 2007 Memorial Project meeting, Project Partner and Flight 93 family member Patrick White was asked by the press about claims that the giant Crescent of Embrace points to Mecca. He said that all of the claims about what is in the design had been thoroughly investigated and been found to be untrue and "preposterous."

In private conversation at the meeting itself, White acknowledged the Mecca-orientation of the crescent and made excuses for it, arguing that the almost-exact Mecca orientation cannot be seen as a tribute to Islam because the in-exactness of it would be "disrespectful to Islam."

It is difficult enough to comprehend how Flight 93 family members can know that the giant crescent does indeed point almost exactly at Mecca, as critics are claiming, and still be okay with it. But White and the other Project Partners are going even further. They are knowingly covering up this damning information, and even flat lying to the public about it.

Whatever the explanation, this is what we are up against. Memorial Project participants know that the press will only cover our denunciations of the crescent design in those rare instances where we are able to mount a substantial public protest. Since the press never checks the facts, Project partners just issue whatever denials will get them through that news cycle, no matter how dishonest.


The above video

An example of this shameless misdirection was caught on video at last summer's Memorial Project meeting. Alec Rawls, who made the trip to Somerset PA along with Tom Burnett Sr. (father of Flight 93 hero Tom Jr.), directed public attention to the crescent-topped Tower of Voices. A full-color advertisement in the Somerset newspaper showed the public what the Memorial Project and the press would not: that the Tower of Voices is topped with an Islamic shaped crescent, soaring in the sky above the symbolic lives of the 40 heroes:




At the meeting, Patrick White castigated Rawls for showing the meeting this artist's rendering of the crescent topped tower, even as this very same graphic was on display by the Memorial Project itself just outside of the courtroom where the meeting was taking place.

White angrily denounced any suggestion that the approved plans for the memorial were indicative of what would actually be built, clearly implying that the crescent topped tower is no longer part of the planned memorial. Yet White had asserted exactly the opposite just three months earlier, when he and other family members involved with the Memorial Project declared that they would fight to build the design as approved:

Commission Chairman John Reynolds said he anticipated that people who opposed the memorial design would present a petition to throw it out.

But family members yesterday said they will work tirelessly to have the monument completed according to the design by the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks.

"We're standing up and saying, 'Enough.' We're proponents of the winning design," said Patrick White, whose cousin, Louis "Joey" Nacke II, died on Flight 93.

...

Mr. White said his group rejected any wholesale change to the design but allowed that it would have to be modified as it shifts from paper to reality.

However, Mr. White added, "They're not going to be changed based upon the idea that someone sees crescents everywhere."

This was shortly after our blogburst group started hitting hard on the crescent-topped tower, which the Project Partners are known to have been angry about. In effect, White was directly insisting that the Tower would not be changed just because people were upset about its crescent shape.


The press ignored White's implied denial that the crescent shaped tower will be built

If the crescent shaped tower is actually to be removed, or changed to some other shape, that is a significant concession, and should have been widely reported, at least by the western Pennsylvania press, but it was not mentioned in any newspaper.

Has the blatant Islamic-Supremacist symbolism of the crescent-topped tower actually penetrated the thick skulls of Patrick White and his cohorts? That is doubtful. When they only faced blogosphere pressure over the crescent-topped tower, their response was angry insistence that the design would NOT be altered. The difference in August was that everyone they had to deal with face-to-face had just seen the crescent topped tower in the local newspaper. The difference was exposure.

Since the press went on to cover up what we worked so hard to expose, there is no reason to think that the Memorial Project will change the design at all. They managed to sneak their cover-up through one more news cycle, which is all they have ever cared about.

Not that any tweaking of the design could ever make it anything but a terrorist memorial mosque in any case. The Tower, for instance, will still be a year round accurate Islamic prayer-time sundial, regardless of any change to the Tower's profile. (The Memorial Project knows about this too, and makes utterly dishonest excuses for it.)

Better stand up and fight America, or there WILL be a terrorist memorial mosque on the Flight 93 crash site.

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When preachers waste their pulpit

Excellent post by Dan Phillips at Pyromaniacs. A welcome warning for all the mealy-mouthed preachers whose sole aim is to make everyone within earshot confident that they are good and wonderful people who deserve to live a happy life, and that God accepts them just the way they are and has a wonderful plan for their lives--until, that is, they stand before Him and He tells them "Depart!"

This one guy — he tells jokes. Now, anyone who's heard me preach knows I've no problem with humor in the service of a Biblical message. The Bible does it, Spurgeon did it, I do it.

But that isn't the aim here. That isn't the purpose. No, these are jokes with the sole purpose of making the joker look cute and clever and witty. "Oh, please — like me," these jokes wail. "Love me. Think I'm cool!" The audience chuckles, and has a good time. Some of them go off to Hell chuckling. Others become a reproach to their professed Lord as they do what sheep characteristically do, without a shepherd.

Then there's this other guy, who gets up and chats. He shares, he randomly free-associates. Word flow, unfiltered, from imagination to mouth. He poses questions to which he offers no answer. Then he shrugs and wanders on. People leave with never a "Thus says the Lord" to challenge their thinking and point them to Christ.

Yet a third fellow tells stories, as if Garrison Keillor were his model for preaching rather than Isaiah or Paul, Wesley, Whitfield, Spurgeon, or Ryle. They are stories of which the only point is the story itself, or the cleverness of the storyteller. They serve the end of entertaining the audience, or provoking its admiration, or filling time inoffensively. They'll go off to Hell, or to shame Christ, with a nice story in their ears.

[...]

You can bet I'm sitting there fuming, and internally shouting these words: "You had that pulpit, these people, this opportunity — and you did that with it? What, in the name of all that's holy, were you thinking? You may never see these people again! Nobody may ever see them again! That may have been your one opportunity — and you do that with it? Why did you even get up there? Why are you even a pastor?"

President Obama makes good on his promise to Planned Parenthood

President Obama marked the 36th anniversary of the most bone-headed decision in Supreme Court history by confiscating more taxpayer dollars to send overseas in the fight to kill as many babies as possible. From FOXNews:

President Obama will issue an executive order on Thursday reversing the Bush administration policy that bans the use of federal dollars by non-govermental organizations that discuss or provide abortions outside of the United States.

Obama will sign the executive order on the 36th anniversary of the landmark Roe v. Wade Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion in all 50 states.

The policy, known in governmental circles as the "Mexico City policy," requires any non-governmental organization to agree before receiving U.S. funds that they will "neither perform nor actively promote abortion as a method of family planning in other nations."

The language was announced at the United Nations International Conference on Population in 1984, and was approved by President Reagan and originally drafted by his assistant secretary of state, Alan Keyes. Keyes ran unsuccessfully as the GOP nominee against Obama for the U.S. Senate in 2004.

President George Herbert Walker Bush continued Reagan's Mexico City policy.

President Bill Clinton issued an executive order lifting the ban on Jan. 22, 1993. President George W. Bush issued an executive order re-instating the ban on federal dollars for NGOs that discuss or provide abortions on Jan. 22, 2001.

Planned Butchery is hailing this decision, since it will drastically benefit their bottom line.

Mallard Fillmore on the "objective" liberal media

Stop the terrorist memorial blogburst (1/15/2009)

1 in 131 billion: the movie



Set to another Ennio Morricone masterpiece.


Synopsis

Architect Paul Murdoch split his giant Crescent of Embrace memorial to Flight 93 into two separate arcs at the top, in effect creating two separate crescents:



Detail view shows the pair of thousand foot long, fifty foot tall, Entry Portal walls. Both walls roughly follow the line of the circle that is symbolically broken by the flight path (seen coming down from the NNE).

The crescent defined by the end of the inner Entry Portal Wall points 1.8° north of Mecca, ± a tenth of a degree. The crescent defined by the end of the outer Entry Portal Wall points exactly at Mecca (± 0.1°):



The hidden exact Mecca orientation of the giant crescent is only one of the ways that Murdoch proves he pointed the crescent towards Mecca on purpose (making it a mihrab, the Mecca direction indicator around which every mosque is built). He also proves intent by exactly repeating both of the Mecca orientations of his giant central crescent in the crescents of trees that surround the Tower of Voices part of the memorial.

That two different crescent structures would by chance turn out to have this exact same multi-Mecca oriented geometry is 1 in 131 billion. Just run the numbers (with some help from Mr. Morricone):




The previous two parts of this video series here and here.


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The Israel-Hamas conflict: What you won't hear from CNN

My dear brother in Christ (and fellow DefCon blogger) The Desert Pastor has posted a rather lengthy piece exposing some facts about the "Israeli attack on a Palestinian school"--which was NOT an attack on a school, but rather an attack on Hamas, which was firing at Israleli troops from outside of a school, and using the school to house their ammunition. Here is an excerpt:

As reported in our previous bulletin, an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) unit was attacked on Tuesday, Jan. 6th by mortar fire from or near the perimeter wall of the Fakhura Elementary School run by UNWRA near the Jabalya refugee camp. Photographic evidence of the attack is available. The armed bodies of two well known Hamas operatives were later found in the school. Hamas knew that civilians, including children, were sheltering there. This did not dissuade them from making use of the UN facility, or of the shelter of its perimeter wall. Significant stocks of mortar shells and other explosive devices were stored on site.

Contrary to the information on hand yesterday, only two afore-mentioned attackers were killed when Israeli soldiers responded. Most of the civilian casualties were incurred by secondary explosions of the military stocks held in the school, which led to the collapse of a portion of the building where the civilians were sheltered. Israel expressed regret over the civilian casualties. Israel had warned residents to leave the area because it was a battle zone. Some chose to remain, assuming the UNWRA facility would provide sufficient shelter, which it would have done had not Hamas abused UNWRA’s privileged status. Others remained due to Hamas insistence.

Think Wolf Blitzer will give you that kind of info? Yeah, right.

You can read the whole thing at The Desert Pastor.

Verse by verse through Philippians (1:23-1:26)

Last week we looked at one of the most comforting verses in Scripture. So many of us when we think of death, it frightens us. And it shouldn’t. If we know Christ, we should not be afraid of death. Because death is not the end. It is an end, but not the end. Think of it this way: If I leave the Knoxville/Knox County courthouse and head west on Main street, and cross Henley Street, it becomes Cumberland Avenue. Then if I stay on Cumberland and dodge all the crazy UT students running out in front of me, I go past Alcoa Hwy, go under the bridge, and keep going I will be on Kingston Pike. And if I stay on Kingston Pike, it will become Kingston Hwy once I cross Rte 95 the other side of Dixie-Lee Junction. And after that if I go through Crab Orchard and Midway it is the Avery Trace. So, you get the picture. It’s all the same road, but it does have distinct spots where it takes different shapes and different names. That’s the way our lives are.

We are born—and in case any Mormons ever talk to you, and try and tell you that “In our pre-existence…” No. We did not exist before we were born. When we are born, that is when we begin. And our lives progress. We are infants and then children then adolescents and young adults and eventually, if we live long enough we are called senior citizens. But one day we will die. There’s no way around it. We are going to die. But does that mean that we cease to be? What dies? It’s our body that dies. The rest of us goes on. Just like when we cross Henley Street and Main Street becomes Cumberland Avenue—the road itself does not stop, it simply takes on new characteristics.

Another illustration. Let’s say somebody jumps off the Henley Street Bridge, hits the water, dead on impact. KFD sends out the rescue squad, what do we always say they found, what do we say they fished out of the river? The body! They don’t fish the person out of the river. They only find the body. But the person still exists. Their spirit is in one of two places—in the presence of God in Heaven, or in the torment of Hell. There’s no Purgatory. There’s no second chance. There’s no nothing. When we die—that is, when these bodies give out and go to sleep—our sentence is read, and we await one of two resurrections. The “first resurrection” which is when we get our new bodies and we walk into the city of New Jerusalem. The second resurrection is when the lost receive a new body and are cast into the Lake of Fire for eternity.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we got saved and WHOOOSH! Raptured out of here? But we’re not. After we know and confess that Jesus is Lord, and we are saved by the gift of His grace and mercy and by the gift of our faith, which comes from God, we are still bound in these bodies of flesh. And we have to stay cooped up in these things until we die. And speaking of death, many many people fear death. They don’t know what’s on the other side. Or, maybe they do know what’s on the other side. But, if we know Christ we have no reason to fear death. If you ever read 1st Corinthians 15, read it from verse 1 to verse 58, it talks about the resurrection of Christ, and how He was our “firstfruits” and that if Christ was risen from the dead, He is our firstfruits—our guarantee that we also will be raised up together with Him. And 1st Corinthians 15:52-57—we will be changed…in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality….then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: Death is swallowed up in victory. O Death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

We only have a couple more passages to look at in Philippians 1, then we will take a break, look at how we got what we call “the Bible,” how it was written, and why and who wrote the different books, and when, and to whom. We’re not going to get super-technical because we could talk about this manuscript and that fragment and this ridiculous idea that some of the writers of the gospel copied off each other, like it a chemistry final. “Ooh, what’d you get for when Jesus walked on water?” And we’ll take a week or two and talk about the fellow—our dear brother in Christ, the apostle Paul, who wrote almost half of the books that we call the New Testament. Again, we’re not going to get real detailed because I could put y’all to sleep with some of the information—not that I haven’t caused one or two to nod off already. So, today we are going to read from verses 21-26, specifically verses 23-26.

Philippians 1:21-26—21 For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22 But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor; yet what I shall choose I cannot tell. 23 For I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. 24 Nevertheless to remain in the flesh is more needful for you. 25 And being confident of this, I know that I shall remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy of faith, 26 that your rejoicing for me may be more abundant in Jesus Christ by my coming to you again.

What was the number one goal of the apostle Paul? After Christ appeared to him in Acts 9, what did Paul devote his time, his life, his body to doing? Bringing glory to God. Yes, he spent all of his time preaching and teaching and planting churches and writing letters—but these were simply the means to an end. These were simply the ways God used Paul to bring glory to Himself. That’s what Paul meant when he wrote in verse 21, For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain. In the verses we will look at today, he says “If God gives me another day, I'll produce fruit for Him. And if I die, I'll go to be with Him. I’m good with that.”

For I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. I mentioned at the beginning, wouldn’t it be great if we got saved and WHOOOSH! We’re outta here. And that will happen one day. One day, somebody’s gonna get saved, and 5 seconds later, POOF! The Rapture. But for now, it’s a little different. We have to stick around and glorify God here on the earth. I mean, it would be real easy for us to not sin and not be tempted—in Heaven. But on earth, it’s a different story. We need people to teach us and guide us in studying the word of God so that we can please Him and glorify Him.

And this was what Paul was struggling with here. He wanted nothing more than to leave this horrible planet, and be with the Lord Jesus Christ. But God had other plans for him. God said, “No, I need you to finish the work I've given you.” So He left Paul here to finish that work.

Nevertheless to remain in the flesh is more needful for you. I'm not a pastor; I may never be a pastor. But I think that one of the hardest decisions a pastor has to make must be when he feels like God is calling him to a different congregation. He spends years with these people, is leading and guiding them, and then he has to tell them he’s leaving. It can be kinda scary for the congregation because they’ve grown accustomed to—if he’s doing his job correctly—they get used to being fed the word, and then now someone else is going to come in, and that new person may be good. They may not be. I talk about the little church I went to when I was a kid. The pastor moved on, the guy that replaced him was…eh. And it’s also heart-breaking for the pastor, because he knows that if the man who comes behind him doesn’t lead the way he’s supposed to, that can unravel all the years he spent laboring for the Lord. And that’s why he needs to continually pray over those people.

And I believe that Paul probably went through that very thing. He had spent years praying and serving and suffering to impart the truth of Christ to the Corinthians and the Ephesians, and the Colossians, and these Philippians. And he knew that someone was going to come in behind him. King Solomon in Ecclesiastes 2:18-19—Yea, I hated all my labour which I had taken under the sun: because I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me. And who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool? Yet shall he have rule over all my labor wherein I have laboured, and wherein I have shewed myself wise under the sun. Solomon knew that the man that came behind him might squander everything that he had built. Paul knew that the man who came behind him might squander everything that God had used him to build. That’s what he said in verse 23 that he was hard-pressed between the two—he wanted to go home—like the opening words of Beulah Land, I'm kinda homesick for a country where I've never been before—but he knew that it was better for the Philippians that he should remain.

Now, what does this verse mean for us? Well, if we were just WHOOOSH! taken up when we get saved, we could not declare God to others. We could not impart the word of God to others. Psalm 71:18—Now also when I am old and grayheaded, O God, forsake me not; until I have shewed thy strength unto this generation, and thy power to every one that is to come. Isaiah 38:18-19—For the grave cannot praise thee, death can not celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth. The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day: the father to the children shall make known thy truth. If we’re not here, we can't tell anybody the truth. God leaves us here so that we can declare His strength to our generation. We can show His power to the generation to come. We can praise Him in this corrupt world and be like what Jesus called a city on a hill, a light that cannot be hidden under a basket.

Verse 25. And being confident of this, I know that I shall remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy of faith… There’s that word “confident” again. If you read enough of what Paul wrote, in the books between Romans and Philemon, you will not find words like “I think” or “You know, it just might be OK” or anything like that. When Paul wrote these letters, these epistles, these books, we need to remember one thing—these were not just his own personal feelings, although you can definitely see that his heart is in each one of these. These were words that were spoken to him by the Holy Spirit. These words come from God Himself. And if God thought enough of these words to command Paul to write them, then they must be pretty important. And if the Holy Spirit was telling Paul to be confident in anything—then you can pretty much guarantee that we can be confident in these words.

Paul knew that he would remain with the Philippians. Not, maybe, in the body, not that he would be physically present in their sight, but he would definitely remain with them in heart and in letter. When he was in prison. When he was travelling. When he was hundreds of miles away. Whenever he was writing to one of the churches it was not to be some overbearing ogre. Paul wrote all of his letters out of a love for the people he was writing to, and he wrote as if he were there himself—because, in his heart, he was. 2nd Corinthians 2:4—For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you, with many tears, not that you should be grieved, but that you might know the love which I have so abundantly for you. Colossians 2:4-5—And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words. For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the stedfastness of your faith in Christ. 1st Thessalonians 2:17—But we, brethren, having been taken away from you for a short time in presence, not in heart, endeavored more eagerly to see your face with great desire. The Holy Spirit used Paul to write words like these and many others to show us how to act and think toward one another. That even though we may not see someone face-to-face, we are to always have one another in our hearts. The phrase “Out of sight—out of mind” was not in Paul’s vocabulary. And it shouldn’t be in our vocabulary either.

Many times—in fact, at the beginning of nearly every one of his letters to the churches—Paul says something to the effect of I thank my God for you all. He says it at the beginning of Philippians, in verse 3. And keep in mind, when he wrote a letter to a certain church, he was not usually in that city when he wrote it. So when he did write, he was doing it out of a love for the people, so that they could know the truth and be well-pleasing to God.

Verses 25-26. 25 And being confident of this, I know that I shall remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy of faith, 26 that your rejoicing for me may be more abundant in Jesus Christ by my coming to you again. I believe the ESV translates this verse a little better. It reads, Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith, so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again. Paul was not trying to say that the people should boast about Paul. He would never, never say that. Paul’s one and only goal was to glorify God. And what he was telling the people was that when he did come to them again, that he would come to them because of the supply of the Spirit of Christ, and that is what they should glory in—Christ Jesus.

Voice of the Martyrs is an international ministry that seeks to glorify God by spotlighting how He gives strength to those who are in jail and who are awaiting execution simply because they worship Christ. Voice of the Martyrs is not glorifying those in chains—they are glorifying the one who gives these saints the strength and the courage to stand firm in their confession of Jesus Christ as Lord. That’s why God does not just zap us up out of this world when we get saved. Is He glorified when we stand before Him and He declares us “Not Guilty” by the blood of Christ? Yes. Would He be glorified if He just took us out of this world when He saved us? Yes. God will be glorified in everything He does. But He receives even more glory when we remain blameless in this world of sin and corruption.

In chapter 2, verses 14-16, Paul writes, Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain. Basically, he’s saying, “Live Christ.”

It’s easy to remain blameless in Heaven, because there is no sin there. But when we remain steadfast and unmoveable in the middle of a world that hates God and everything about God—then we show who we belong to. Every single person is guaranteed an eternal existence. Once these bodies give out, our spirit goes on. This is just a shell. If they fished this out of the river, that’s all it would be—a hunk of flesh. I would still exist. And I thank my God that I will exist with Him. Because those who do not know Christ will exist forever. Death is not the end of the road—it’s just Henley Street. The road doesn’t stop—it just changes.