Oliver North's Petro-Economics
An Opinion of America's Destruction and Our Support of Terrorism
Here at the U.S. Army’s biggest base on the east coast, soldiers and their dependents are eagerly awaiting the arrival of their "economic stimulus payments." It’s a good thing because, like most of us, these American heroes are going to need the extra money just to purchase their next tank of gas.
This week, the IRS begins mailing rebate checks to budget crunching taxpayers. Bush Administration officials hope the checks will be used for a citizen shopping spree to resuscitate the U.S. economy. But instead of getting that new patio grill, consumers are more likely to apply Uncle Sam’s payments to their next purchase of petrol.
When the price of oil hit $100 per barrel in January, I wrote in this column that, "those who wish to lead this nation in the future need to put more than hot air into solutions such as clean, safe nuclear energy for electricity and hydrogen fuel cell technology for propelling people and products around the planet.'
Unfortunately, few politicians seem to have given a second thought to the fact that this country hasn’t had an energy plan for the last thirty years, and it doesn’t look like we will have one anytime soon.
University Suspends Staffer Over View of Homosexuality The University of Toledo suspended an administrator for stating in a guest column in a local newspaper that choosing homosexual behavior is not the same as being black or handicapped.
Associate Vice President of Human Resources Crystal Dixon wrote in response to a newspaper editor's column criticizing a lack of equality for homosexuals that, "I take great umbrage at the notion that those choosing the homosexual lifestyle are 'civil rights victims.' Here's why. I cannot wake up tomorrow and not be a black woman.'"
Her piece in the Toledo Free Press quickly got her a suspension from officials at the University of Toledo, who condemned her beliefs, according to a report in the newspaper.
The newspaper said a spokesman for the college confirmed Dixon had been placed on paid leave but declined further comment. A WND request for comment elicited no response from the office of the president, Lloyd Jacobs.
The situation developed when Toledo Free Press Editor in Chief Michael S. Miller wrote a column boasting of his support for the "gay" community.
The University of Toledo suspended an administrator for stating in a guest column in a local newspaper that choosing homosexual behavior is not the same as being black or handicapped.
Associate Vice President of Human Resources Crystal Dixon wrote in response to a newspaper editor's column criticizing a lack of equality for homosexuals that, "I take great umbrage at the notion that those choosing the homosexual lifestyle are 'civil rights victims.' Here's why. I cannot wake up tomorrow and not be a black woman.'"
Her piece in the Toledo Free Press quickly got her a suspension from officials at the University of Toledo, who condemned her beliefs, according to a report in the newspaper.
The newspaper said a spokesman for the college confirmed Dixon had been placed on paid leave but declined further comment. A WND request for comment elicited no response from the office of the president, Lloyd Jacobs.
The situation developed when Toledo Free Press Editor in Chief Michael S. Miller wrote a column boasting of his support for the "gay" community.
"I have been tangentially immersed in the gay culture for so long, it's a natural and common aspect of life. Three decades of loving these friends and family and sharing their successes in managing careers and raising families has jaded me to the hatred and prejudice many people had against the gay community. … As a middle-aged, overweight white guy with graying facial hair, I am America's ruling demographic, so the gay rights struggle is something I experience secondhand, like my black friends' struggles and my wheelchair-bound friends' struggles," he wrote.
He also claimed credit for contributing "to the community's growth."
"At least three women I dated in college subsequently declared themselves gay," he said.
"There are people who are so strongly anti-gay rights, they lust for legislation to limit the gay community's freedoms. That makes no intellectual or moral sense to me. Some of this prejudice is based in religion. I find it confusing that people who believe in a savior who opens his arms to everyone think he'll draw those same arms shut to keep gay people away," he continued. "And do not tell me you are 'tolerant' or 'tolerate' gay people. Stop for a moment and think about how condescending and evil that attitude is."
He drew the school into the conversation by mentioning he moderated a town hall meeting sponsored by two homosexual activists groups.
It dealt "with issues of employment discrimination against gay people," he said. Acccording to the panelists, he contined, "UT has offered domestic partner benefits since then-president Dan Johnson signed them into effect. The Medical University of Ohio did not offer those benefits. When the institutions merged, UT employees retained the domestic-partner benefits, but MUO employees were not offered them. So, people working for the same employer do not have access to the same benefits."
Dixon then responded.
"I respectfully submit a different perspective for Miller and Toledo Free Press readers to consider. … First, human beings, regardless of their choices in life, are of ultimate value to God and should be viewed the same by others. At the same time, one's personal choices lead to outcomes either positive or negative," she said.
"As a black woman who happens to be an alumnus of the University of Toledo's Graduate School, an employee and business owner, I take great umbrage at the notion that those choosing the homosexual lifestyle are 'civil rights victims.' Here's why. I cannot wake up tomorrow and not be a black woman. I am genetically and biologically a black woman and very pleased to be so as my Creator intended. Daily, thousands of homosexuals make a life decision to leave the gay lifestyle evidenced by the growing population of PFOX (Parents and Friends of Ex Gays) and Exodus International just to name a few.
"Economic data is irrefutable: The normative statistics for a homosexual in the USA include a Bachelor's degree: For gay men, the median household income is $83,000/yr. (Gay singles $62,000; gay couples living together $130,000), almost 80% above the median U.S. household income of $46,326, per census data. For lesbians, the median household income is $80,000/yr. (Lesbian singles $52,000; Lesbian couples living together $96,000); 36% of lesbians reported household incomes in excess of $100,000/yr. Compare that to the median income of the non-college educated Black male of $30,539. The data speaks for itself," she said.
She said the alleged benefits disparity at the university, cited by Miller, came about simply because the employees of the two institutions were working under different contracts.
"The university is working diligently to address this issue in a reasonable and cost-efficient manner, for all employees, not just one segment," she said.
But she argued God created male and female, according to Genesis 1:27, and "there are consequences for each of our choices, including those who violate God's divine order."
"It is base human nature to revolt and become indignant when the world or even God Himself, disagrees with our choice that violates His divine order," Dixon said.
Then came the suspension announcement from the school, along with Jacobs' condemnation of Dixon's writings.
"Her comments do not accord with the values of the University of Toledo. It is necessary, therefore, for me to repudiate much of her writing," he said.
"Our Spectrum student group created the Safe Places Program to 'invite faculty, staff and graduate assistants and resident advisers to open their space as a Safe Place for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Questioning [LGBATQ] individuals.' I took this action because I believe it to be entirely consistent with the values system of the university. Indeed, there is a Safe Places sticker on the door of the president's office at the University of Toledo," Jacobs said.
"We will be taking certain internal actions in this instance to more fully align our utterances and actions with this value system," he said..
Miller said he disagreed with Dixon, but acknowledged she had the right to express her beliefs.
"The university operates in an atmosphere of idea exchange, and while I recognize the institution's desire to distance itself from her, this is a basic free speech issue and I am disappointed she has been punished for expressing her views,” he said.
An official with the pro-homosexual Equality Ohio said Dixon's ideas were "more appropriate for her place of worship" and didn't belong elsewhere.
The school's diversity program is set up "to attract and retain diverse faculty, staff, and students" by pledging "to respect and value personal uniqueness and differences."
A student senate leader at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point has told pro-life display supporters they have no right to express their opinion on the volatile issue of abortion.
"It's not your responsibility," Roderick King, a sophomore at the school and member of its student senate, shouted at activists who had assembled a display of white crosses in the campus lawn – with university permission.
"[Abortion] is a right. You don't have the right to challenge it. Write a paper. Do NOT! Do NOT put this in front of all of us. This is not your right," he hollered, grabbing crosses with both hands, yanking them from the ground and throwing them to the side.
The episode was captured on a YouTube video:
The campus group Pointers for Life put up the Cemetery of the Innocents display last week then spent the next morning repairing the damage from someone who had vandalized the rows of white crosses representing the victims of abortion.
Then the crosses were trashed a second time, only this time the pro-life campaigners were armed with a video camera.
As students looked on, King led a group of angry students who walked through the rows of crosses, plucked them from the ground and tossed them.
Campus security was summoned, and when an officer arrived, most of the students left. King did not.
"The freedom of speech does not cover these signs and symbols," he said, according to a report from Students for Life.
"If students had a problem with the display, they could exercise their freedom of speech maturely by protesting it peacefully, not by defacing our display," said Jackie Kryzkowski, president of the student pro-life organization.
Bob Tomlinson, vice chancellor of student affairs, apologized to the student group for the vandalism, which took place even though the Pointers for Life had reserved the space properly. The student group also submitted a request that King be asked to resign from the student senate for his behavior.
Stephen Ward, executive director of university relations and communications, today issued a statement that the school had received "several communications" regarding the incident.
"The university values free expression and the open exchange of ideas. Pointers for Life is a recognized student organization that followed university procedure in staging its event," he said.
"The student who disrupted the display not only exhibited inappropriate behavior, but demonstrated intolerance that is unacceptable on the UWSP campus," the statement continued. "University procedures are being followed. In accordance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, which protects our students from disclosure of their educational records, results of those procedures will not be made public."
The video shows King's confrontational attitude even with campus security.
"I don't care if they have the university's approval," he told the officer. "They're actually making the worst statement here. …"
He told the officer there could be students on campus planning abortions.
"You want this up in front of them? Are you crazy?" he shouted.
A senior on campus, Ryan Wrasse, told WND the campuswide reaction has been mostly supportive of the pro-life presentation.
"I've been on campus four years, and I've never seen anything like this before. We've had this display on campus, and have not had any problems," he said. "The hypocrisy is really overwhelming. [He was saying] 'My 1st Amendment right is more important than yours.'"
On her blog, WND columnist and pro-life activist Jill Stanek wrote that the incident simply "re-enforces the fact that the rule of law applies to all but the pro-aborts."
"Unbelievably, even after a university security guard showed up and told King to stop, he didn't, and the wimpy campus cop just let him continue ripping up crosses," she wrote. "King's illogical excuse was, 'If there is a student on this campus that has had an abortion or that might be having an abortion, might be going through this, you want this up in front of them? Are you crazy?'" she wrote. "Illogical because if abortion is such a great right and a win-win (a win for moms offing unwanted babies and a win for unwanted babies being rescued from mad moms by death), what awful thing is there to 'go through'? And if King actually believed that, was he not generating more abortion by trying to keep mothers ignorant of the ramifications?"
But worse, she said, is the fact that despite the students' complaint, the Student Government Association has declined to take action.
"So much for choice…" wrote a contributor on Stanek's forum page.
"Wow! All I can say is welcome to the abortion debate Canadian-style," wrote another. "We can't protest or debate abortion in Canada because it's considered a basic human right (since when?). Never mind that the human baby doesn't have even the basic human right to life. ... This man has serious anger problems. I wonder how many unborn baby skeletons he has in his closet…?"
Kristan Hawkins, a spokeswoman for Students for Life, said the scenario actually was a replay of a similar case in Kentucky, only there it was a professor leading the charge against the pro-lifers. The incident, however, was not captured on video.
"What's very scary, it totally goes against everything our country stands for," she told WND.
Solomonic Wisdom and Dividing of Israel
There is a Bible story familiar to practically everyone that relates directly to efforts by the international community to divide Israel for the purpose of creating a Palestinian state.
It can be found in 1 Kings 3.
The young king Solomon dreams of a conversation with the Lord in which he asks for wisdom to judge God's people. God grants the desires of Solomon's heart as well as bestowing upon him a long life, great riches and honor.
Immediately after Solomon claims this promise with sacrifices, peace offerings and a feast to all his servants, he gets to judge the most famous case of his life.
Two harlots come before him – each claiming a baby as their own.
"And the one woman said, O my lord, I and this woman dwell in one house; and I was delivered of a child with her in the house. And it came to pass the third day after that I was delivered, that this woman was delivered also: and we were together; there was no stranger with us in the house, save we two in the house. And this woman's child died in the night; because she overlaid it. And she arose at midnight, and took my son from beside me, while thine handmaid slept, and laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom. And when I rose in the morning to give my child suck, behold, it was dead: but when I had considered it in the morning, behold, it was not my son, which I did bear.
"And the other woman said, Nay; but the living is my son, and the dead is thy son. And this said, No; but the dead is thy son, and the living is my son. Thus they spake before the king.
"Then said the king, The one saith, This is my son that liveth, and thy son is the dead: and the other saith, Nay; but thy son is the dead, and my son is the living. And the king said, Bring me a sword. And they brought a sword before the king. And the king said, Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other.
"Then spake the woman whose the living child was unto the king, for her bowels yearned upon her son, and she said, O my lord, give her the living child, and in no wise slay it. But the other said, Let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it.
"Then the king answered and said, Give her the living child, and in no wise slay it: she is the mother thereof.
"And all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had judged; and they feared the king: for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him, to do judgment."
That's the story everyone knows. But is there special meaning for today in these words? Could this story relate directly to the two-state solution being planned by the internationalist busybodies who seek to split Israel in half? Is it possible that this familiar old Bible story actually contains a prophecy yet to be fulfilled?
Assume for the moment that King Solomon in this story represents the King of all creation, the Lord of the universe. The first woman in the story represents the Jewish people. Her baby represents Israel. Let's further assume the second mother represents the Arabs.
Notice the second woman had her baby three days after the first woman. The Jewish state was first created 3,000 years ago. The Arabs are trying, 3,000 years later, to create an Arab Palestinian state where none has previously existed.
The Bible tells us in both the Old Testament and the New Testament that one day is like a thousand years to God. There is the reference in Psalms 90:4: "For a thousand years in Thy sight are like yesterday when it passes by." And there is the reference in 2 Peter 3:8: "But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day."
So, three days, or 3,000 years, ago the Jewish people gave birth to the nation of Israel. Today, three days, or 3,000 years, later, Palestinian Arabs who are mostly recent migrants to the land with no established history there and no prior national claim arrive and try to steal the baby.
It's also worth noting that a tactic used by the Arabs is to sacrifice their own children as suicide bombers in their effort to "liberate" the land.
Further, did they not, perhaps even unknowingly, kill their own baby when they rejected a state of their own with the 1947 partition plan?
Like the first mother, haven't the Jewish people expressed a willingness to give up half the land in a division plan just to keep their precious baby alive?
And haven't the Arabs, like the bitter second mother, agreed to the division plan – the splitting of the child in two, knowing it would result only in the death of the baby.
If my analogy is true, though, it's not going to happen. The baby will not be killed. Because like King Solomon, God Almighty has already decided the baby belongs to the Jews.
Chinese Children Sold "like cabbages" into Slavery
Thousands of children in southwest China have been sold into slavery like "cabbages", to work as labourers in more prosperous areas such as the booming southern province of Guangdong, a newspaper said on Tuesday.
China announced a nationwide crackdown on slavery and child labor last year after reports that hundreds of poor farmers, children and mentally disabled were forced to work in kilns and mines in Shanxi province and neighboring Henan.
"The bustling child labor market (in Sichuan province) was set up by the local chief foreman and his gang of 18 minor foremen, who each manage 50 to 100 child labourers," the Southern Metropolis Newspaper said.
"The children generally fall between the ages of 13 and 15, but many look under 10," it added.
The newspaper said 76 children from the same county, Liangshan, had been missing since the Chinese Lunar Year festival in February, 42 of whom had already left the region to work.
"The youngest kids found in the child labor market were only seven and nine years old," it said.
According to a contract exposed by an undercover reporter, a child laborer is paid 3.5 yuan ($0.50) an hour and must work at least 300 hours a month.
"These kids are robust and can do the toughest work," a foreman was quoted as saying, as he pulled a scrawny girl to stand beside him, the paper said.
Xinhua news agency said the county government had sent officials to rescue the children, but some were unwilling to leave, having been sold into slavery by their parents or volunteering to work themselves.
Hizbullah Celebrates Victory in Lebanon as Gov't Bows to Demands
The Hizbullah terrorist group celebrated victory over the Lebanese government as the weak US-backed coalition bowed to the Iran and Syria-backed group’s demands.
Nonetheless, Hizbullah men continued to clash with US-backed Lebanese government-supporters even after the Lebanese government authorized its army to backtrack on the state’s attempted assertion of sovereignty following a near-coup.
Clashes in Lebanon began three days earlier when the army was instructed to close down the Iran and Syria-backed group’s alternative communications network and depose the Hizbullah-affiliated head of security at Beirut’s airport. The decision was made by pro-independence factions of the ruling government coalition seeking to stem the influence of Syria and Iran in Lebanon.
Hizbullah blocked off access to the airport with bulldozers and Hizbullah Chief Hassan Nasrallah got on Hizbullah-run TV and instructed his followers: “We have said before that we will cut the hand that targets the weapons of the resistance. Today is the day to fulfill this promise.”
At least 20 people were killed in the ensuing street battles as Hizbullah seized entire neighborhoods and towns, battling Sunni Muslims and Druze, which are both loyal to the government. Government officials’ homes and offices were also surrounded as government-affiliated TV stations were burned. The Lebanese army stood down in fear of an all-out civil war.
A withdrawal from Beirut was agreed upon after the Lebanese Army gave in to the group’s demand to keep a Hizbullah loyalist in charge of the airport and continue to operate its own communications network. “As for the telecommunications network, the army will look into the issue in a manner that is not harmful to the public interest or the security of the resistance [against Israel],” an official statement from the army read.
Though Hizbullah officials promised Saturday that they would withdraw armed men from Beirut, they said they will continue a civil rebellion until the government gives in to the rest of their demands, which include the right to veto any decision made by the government. The announcement came after victory parades of armed men in pickup trucks firing their guns in the air made their way through Beirut.
Despite handing its positions over to the government in Beirut following its victory, Hizbullah terrorists continued to clash with Lebanese government loyalists in Tripoli Saturday night.
How Israel Fits In
Several elements in Lebanon attempted to call upon the various factions to unite around their enmity for the Jewish state – to no avail.
"We had thought that Israel is the source of the imminent threat to our country… but the present experience shows that our homes and democratic system are gripped by brethren who believe in armed violence,” said Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora. "We and the Lebanese People do not accept that Hizbullah and its weapons remain in the present status. None of us is neutral. The nation will not retain its normalcy until Hizbullah is convinced that only the Lebanese people can guarantee its security through the state.”
Meanwhile, anti-Israel columnist Robert Fisk wrote in the British Independent newspaper that the key issue surrounding the Beirut airport security debate was the placement of Hizbullah security cameras that he claims were meant to thwart a planned Israeli operation. He claims the operation was planned for April 28, using sea-born forces, which were to land at the Beirut Airport’s runway, now covered by Hizbullah’s surveillance cameras.
“From there the invading force would use local transportation to speed through the airport to attack Hizbullah positions on the other side of the facility with lightning force before withdrawing,” he wrote. “The plan was aborted after it mysteriously became known to Hizbullah. It is possible that a double agent was involved or that an Israeli agent had been captured in time.”
The attempts to shut down Hizbullah’s communications network and change the command structure of the Airport’s security were viewed by Hizbullah as hard evidence of complicity with Israel by elements of the Siniora Cabinet, he concludes.
Story Continued......
While Washington’s political elites in both parties have debated and dithered, the price of crude oil has risen to $123 per barrel – nearly double what it was at this time last year. The cost of a gallon of gas at the pump is approaching $4 per gallon. Some analysts are now predicting that the price of a barrel of oil could approach $200 in the next two years – and that gasoline could be $6.00 a gallon. An equal amount of diesel may cost truckers as much as $7.50.
Meantime, Middle Eastern governments are raking in the petrodollars. At least one despotic regime is using its plentiful petrol profits to kill American troops, erect nuclear facilities, fund global terrorism, and strategize about new and creative ways to make Israel’s 60th birthday its last as a nation.
Iran, just named by the State Department as "the most active state sponsor of terrorism," and "a threat to regional stability and U.S. interests in the Middle East," this week hardened its position with respect to going nuclear. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who outranks the Persian Napoleon – Iranian president Mahmoud Amadinejad – said this week that Iran would not give up its nuclear program.
Last week, delegates from the UN Security Council nations plus Germany met to discuss incentives that might convince Iran to cease its program of uranium enrichment. But Mr. Khamenei would have none of it, baldly stating that, "it is a national duty not to fear any sanction." And just in case anyone might misunderstand, the Tehran theocrat added, "we should not allow anybody to deprive Iran of its legitimate rights," and declared, "no world power can make Iran retreat from its path."
Now you don’t need to have a degree in economics to see what’s happening. The cost of crude oil is out of sight and climbing. Petrodollars are funding a radical Islamic jihad being waged against us. Here at home the cost of everything from fuel to food is going up and we’re sending out of the country capital needed to resuscitate an economy that is at best, “sluggish” and at worst, foundering.
The majority in Congress has responded by proposing tax increases for domestic energy production, suggesting new mandates on producers, demanding that coal-fired electric plants be shut down and whining that foreign governments need to increase oil production – while opposing exploitation of reserves here at home. In a press conference two weeks ago, President Bush criticized Congress for blocking efforts to expand domestic oil production in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). And this week, in a noteworthy understatement, White House spokesman Scott Stanzel observed, "We have here, in this nation, resources that we are not utilizing."
No, really? The "newest" oil refinery in the United States was built by Marathon in Garyville, Louisiana in 1976. Since then, every effort to construct new facilities has been thwarted by protests and lawsuits from "environmental" groups and government red tape. It has been 12 years since the last nuclear reactor came "on line" to generate electrical power in the United States.
Time, and money, are wasting. Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison has proposed a realistic solution: the Domestic Energy Production Act of 2008. Her bill would permit exploitation of more than a trillion barrels of U.S. territorial oil and nearly 600 trillion cubic feet of natural gas – more than the combined hydrocarbon reserves of Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Nigeria, Venezuela, Libya and Iran. The measure would also streamline the process for building new refineries and clean, safe nuclear power plants, as well as funding to develop alternative fuels.
But none of that – and the consequent reduction in energy costs will ever benefit American consumers unless Congress acts. Until they do, we will have to plan on spending our “tax refund” checks – and a whole lot more – at the pump.
Chuck Norris tells Liberty University grads to follow God’s path
Saturday was the first time that television star Chuck Norris ever addressed a college graduation, but Liberty University Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr. said it wouldn’t be his last.
“I don’t do this very often,” Norris told a crowd of about 20,000 at Williams Stadium. “In fact, I don’t do this at all.”
Norris delivered the keynote address at Liberty’s 35th commencement, which featured the school’s largest graduating class yet of about 4,800 students.
“Chuck! Chuck! Chuck!” the graduates chanted as he walked on stage. They were the ones who convinced Falwell to request Norris as their speaker, Falwell said.
The six-time world karate champion, actor, Internet phenomenon and humanitarian offered a piece of his own life story and said that God brought happiness back into his life.
Norris was born into poverty in Oklahoma, he told the audience, and grew up “shy, introverted and non athletic.”
After graduating from high school, he joined the Air Force, went to Korea, and had his first introduction to martial arts.
He returned home with a black belt in Tae Kwon Do and carried that into more aspects of his life by starting a martial arts school in Los Angeles.
Not long later, he started racking up national and international martial arts titles, and then began acting.
He gained fame and fortune, he said, and became well known for his starring role in the long-running CBS television series “Walker, Texas Ranger.”
But other aspects of his life were lacking, he said.
“I got sucked into the entertainment world of Hollywood,” he said. “I didn’t have that joy and that happiness that I thought I should have in my life.”
That’s when a friend introduced Norris to the woman he later married, Gena, who read to him from the Bible.
“It’s like the Holy Spirit hit me and said, ‘Chuck it’s time to come home,’” he recalled. “I was hot for the Lord, and I still am to this day.”
He told the graduating class to allow God to lead their lives.
“I hope that you’ll let him direct your steps because if you do, you can’t go wrong,” he said.
In recent years, Norris has become an Internet phenomenon from a Web site called “Chuck Norris Facts,” which pokes fun at roles the actor has portrayed.
Norris also made news this year for endorsing former Republican presidential contender Mike Huckabee, who spoke at Liberty during his campaign.
Falwell called Norris “one of the few positive role models left in the entertainment business today.”
Provost Boyd Rist recognized that role by awarding Norris an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree from the school.
After Norris spoke, Falwell took note of the accomplishments of the class of 2008.
“The class of 2008 is the first to graduate from Liberty as a debt-free institution,” he said.
In August, the school announced that a portion of a $34 million life insurance payout on the late Rev. Jerry Falwell had paid off the school’s roughly $20 million debt and also started to build the school’s endowment.
Falwell Jr. said the school’s second generation would work to strengthen that endowment and continue the Christian school’s mission.
“You must be strong in what you do,” he said. “The sky is really the limit to all of you.”
From Pennsylvania to Nebraska and from Europe to New Zealand, there is growing and fierce opposition to plans to fluoridate public drinking water, fueled by a battery of shocking new studies that seriously question a practice routine among U.S. municipalities for nearly the last 50 years.
In Clearfield, Pa., the municipal authority asked the state Department of Environmental Protection for permission to stop adding fluoride to its water. But before city officials got an answer, they got a lawsuit threat from the Pennsylvania Dental Association, which promised not only an injunction against any plans to stop adding the chemical to drinking supplies but litigation against the individual board members who approved the action. The city backed down and continues to fluoridate water.
In Port Huron, Mich., officials are considering a halt to fluoridation that began in 1974, as residents have argued the treatment poses health risks to newborns and infants, those with thyroid conditions and others. Mayor Pro-Tem Jim Fisher said: "Fluoride is cumulative in your body. ... There's a fairly large body of scientists that believe it's not good for your health."
In South Blount, Tenn., it's the opponents of fluoride who are threatening to sue city officials planning to introduce the chemical into water supplies. They cite new studies suggesting fluoride leads to brittle bones, cancer, kidney disease, neurological problems and other ailments, including lower IQs.
In the Canadian community of Dryden, Ontario, residents voted against fluoridation of their water last month, ending a raging debate that has gone on for more than one year.
In Smithfield, Va., the fluoride problem is a little bit different. There the concern is too much naturally occurring fluoride in the town's supplies. The state's Department of Health has ordered those levels be reduced, but the state's Department of Environmental Quality is stopping action because the plan would draw too much water from a deep underground aquifer.
In England, where most public drinking is not artificially fluoridated, Prime Minister Gordon Brown is pushing the practice by municipalities such as Southampton. Pushing back, however, is a strong effort by the country's Green Party, which says adding the chemical to water supplies removes the people's freedom to choose. Eric Hyland of the party said: "Fluoride is toxic waste. It is more toxic than lead and marginally less so than arsenic. This is what the government wants to put in your drinking water. It is illegal under the Poisons Act to administer poisonous or noxious substances to anyone, and the Green Party will continue to campaign against it."
In the Canadian community of Drayton Valley in Alberta, where fluoride has been added to the tap water since the mid-1960s, the town council is considering backtracking. Last month, officials heard a presentation from water plant manager Bernie Berube, who urged them to abandon the process because of the inability to accurately measure amounts of fluoride in the water. He said it was a matter of health and safety for the community.
In Nebraska, the unicameral legislature overrode a gubernatorial veto of a bill mandating fluoridation of all water supplies serving 1,000 or more people, unless those communities hold referenda opting out before June 1, 2010. Communities like Chadron, which voted against fluoridation in 1978, would have to vote again before the new deadline to be eligible to maintain their fluoride-free status.
Quebec City discontinued water fluoridation treatments last month.
And in the Stuart, Fla., area, well owners are angry that they will be prohibited from using their own private wells in favor of the fluoridated water supplied by the city.
It all illustrates the once-contentious issue of fluoridation is back on the front burner. What's stirring the controversy? After all, fluoride proponents say, just look at the facts:
The American Dentistry Association calls fluoridation of community water supplies "the single most effective public health measure to prevent tooth decay" in its "Fluoridation Facts" brochure.
The Centers for Disease Control lists fluoridation as one of the 10 greatest public health achievements of the 20th century.
Approximately 170 million people in the U.S. drink water treated with fluoride. The ADA contends that community fluoridation reduces dental decay by 20-40 percent.
It has been going on throughout much of the United States for a half century, say proponents. So what's the problem?
Sweden's Dr. Arvid Carlsson, the 2000 Nobel Prize winner in physiology or medicine, objects to the practice, saying that everyone reacts differently to medication and what is beneficial for one person may be harmful for another. He calls community fluoridation "obsolete."
Opponents like Carlsson point out that each person drinks a different amount of water, meaning dosage cannot be controlled, and could become toxic for someone who drinks more water. Add to that variable the widespread use of fluoride toothpastes by the American public and the fact that much of the food supply is grown or raised using fluoridated water, and you can see the great potential for overdosing, they say.
A study released in February by the Collaborative on Health and the Environments Learning and Development Disabilities Initiative found excessive ingestion of fluoride can decrease thyroid hormone levels. It also cited a recent Chinese study that links lower IQ levels in children with fluoridated drinking water.
In 2006, the National Academy of Sciences found the Environmental Protection Agency's maximum standard for fluoride of 4 milligrams per liter could cause health problems such as dental fluorosis and weakened bones over a lifetime of consumption.
The EPA's Headquarters Professionals Union, made up of scientists, lawyers and other professionals, also now opposes community fluoridation.
In January, the New York State Dental Journal reported fluoride overexposure is resulting in children developing tooth disorders including white spots, brownish discoloration and pitting. It also warned children 6 months to 3 years should consume no more than ¼ of a gram of fluoride per day – the equivalent of one 8 ounce glass of water in a fluoridated community.
And, despite the CDC's conclusion that fluoridation is one of the greatest medical achievements of the 20th century, it recommends infant formulas should never be mixed with fluoridated water.
"The early studies that purported to show ingested fluoride reduced tooth decay were seriously flawed," says Dr. Paul Connett, emeritus professor of environmental chemistry at St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y., and executive director of Fluoride Action Network. "There is no significant difference in tooth decay between fluoridated and non-fluoridated industrialized countries. The vast majority of countries are not fluoridated."
Indeed, opposition to the kind of widespread fluoridation American communities launched in the 1960s is becoming an international movement.
"The days of wholesale deliberate fluoridation … are numbered," said Warren Bell, former head of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment.
The anti-fluoride activists make their case effectively by telling consumers to read the U.S. government's own warnings regarding toothpastes and mouthwashes containing fluoride. They include:
"Keep out of reach of children under 6 years of age."
"If you swallow more than used for brushing, get medical help or contact a Poison Control Center right away."
"If more than used for brushing is accidentally swallowed, get medical help or contact a Poison Control Centre right away."
"Never give fluoridated mouthwash or mouth rinses to children under six years of age, as they may swallow it."
"Use non-fluoridated toothpaste or no toothpaste for young children."
While few would argue that topical application of minute amounts of fluoride on teeth would reduce cavities, deliberately ingesting it – even in trace amounts – is risky.
The fluoride added to public drinking water is actually fluorosilic acid. It is described by critics as an industrial waste product. Supporters prefer to call it an industry byproduct. Most of it has come from Florida's phosphate fertilizer industry.
Florida's phosphate rock is about 3.5 percent fluorine. To make phosphoric acid for fertilizer, the rock is mixed with sulfuric acid. The mixture produces a gas called silicon tetrafluoride. The gas is sent through ductwork and a water scrubber to create fluorosilic acid, a clear liquid that in high concentrations is toxic. The acid is what fertilizer companies sell as a fluoride additive.
However, one of the little-known effects of Hurricane Katrina was to cripple the production of fluoride. Since then, more of America's supply of the controversial chemical is coming from China – a country not always known for the highest safety standards on exports.
Just because you live in a municipality that does not fluoridate doesn't mean you are safe from the effects of fluoridation, say critics. For instance, children in non-fluoridated communities consume sodas and beverages bottled in fluoridated localities using fluoridated water. This is known in fluoridation debate circles as "the halo effect." Grapes and grape products, teas and processed chicken can be high in fluoride because of water used in processing and preparation.
Fluoridation is not just a community issue. Some states – including big ones like California – mandate their towns and cities fluoridate their water supplies.
Another major source of fluoride intake for children is swallowed toothpaste. Fluoride toothpaste contains about 1000 ppm fluoride. While adults on average ingest 3 percent of the toothpaste they use for brushing, 2-year-old children, in one study, swallowed a mean of 65 percent of the toothpaste they brushed with. It was found that many small children don’t even rinse after brushing.
If you're not sure if this is truly a dangerous practice, just ask your vet about using fluoride treatments on your dog. You will be advised against it because dogs swallow the fluoride.
In 1965, a landmark year in the fluoridation debate, the federal government determined fluoride was safe in drinking water at levels as high as 4 ppm. Officially, that is still the government's threshold of safety on the high side. Yet, in 2006, the National Research Council determined 4 ppm was unsafe and couldn't assert with certitude that even half that level was safe.
On the basis of the NRC's review, the Georgia-based Lillie Center last year filed an ethics complaint against the CDC Division of Oral Health. In its complaint the center charged the CDC with "mislead[ing] the public concerning the results of studies about harm from ingesting fluoride," and "omit[ting] vital information in its information disseminated to the public concerning vulnerable population groups that are particularly susceptible to harm from fluoride."
Queen of Sheba's Palace Discovered in Ethiopia, University Says
A team of archaeologists from the University of Hamburg said they discovered the Queen of Sheba's palace and an altar that may have once held the Ark of the Covenant in Axum, Ethiopia.
A Christian king built a new palace over the 10th-century B.C. structure, which probably didn't survive for very long, the university said in a statement. The altar, oriented toward the star Sirius, has two columns and may have been where the Ark of the Covenant, the holiest treasure of early Judaism, was kept until the first temple was built in Axum, the researchers said.
``The special significance of this altar must have been handed down over centuries,'' the statement said. ``This is shown by the many sacrifices found around this spot.''
The Ark of the Covenant, featured in the Indiana Jones movie ``Raiders of the Lost Ark,'' was kept in Jerusalem for centuries, according to the Old Testament. After Jerusalem was conquered by the Babylonians in the 6th century B.C., the ark's fate isn't documented in the Bible and it entered the realm of legend.
Ethiopian Christians contend that the ark left Jerusalem much earlier -- during the realm of Solomon -- and was brought to Ethiopia, where it has long been enshrined in a church and is now accessible only to its guardian, a monk. This theory was explored by the British author Graham Hancock in ``The Sign and the Seal.''
Fate of the Ark
The Hamburg team led by Helmut Ziegert has for nine years been investigating the origins of the Ethiopian state and the Ethiopian orthodox church. The central purpose of the field trip was to find out how Judaism arrived in Ethiopia in the 10th century B.C., and to seek clues to the present location of the Ark of the Covenant, the university said.
The palace built over the Queen of Sheba's home was also aligned with the star Sirius, the statement said. The researchers conjecture that the second palace was built by Menelik, who, legend has it, was the son of Sheba and King Solomon.
The results of the Hamburg field trip suggest that together with Judaism and the Ark of the Covenant, a cult worshipping Sirius came to Ethiopia and practiced its religion until about 600 A.D., the university said.
According to the Old Testament, God ordered Moses to build the Ark of the Covenant, a box made of acacia wood and plated with gold. It is believed to have contained the tablets listing the Ten Commandments.
Obama: Endorsement by Hamas makes sense Sen. Barack Obama has harshly criticized Sen. John McCain for making an issue of an endorsement by Hamas, but the Democratic candidate said in a new interview he understands why the terrorist group supports his presidential bid.
"It's conceivable that there are those in the Arab world who say to themselves, 'This is a guy who spent some time in the Muslim world, has a middle name of Hussein and appears more worldly and has called for talks with people, and so he's not going to be engaging in the same sort of cowboy diplomacy as George Bush,'" Obama told the Atlantic magazine.
"That's a perfectly legitimate perception as long as they're not confused about my unyielding support for Israel's security," the Illinois senator said.
The controversy unfolded last month when Hamas political adviser Ahmed Yousef told WND and WABC radio his group hopes Obama will win the presidential election and change America's foreign policy.
McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, responded, prompting sharp exchanges between the two candidates and their campaigns.
"If Sen. Obama is favored by Hamas, I think people can make judgments accordingly," McCain said.
The U.S. State Department regards Hamas as a terrorist organization.
Last week, Obama severed ties with a Middle East policy adviser who acknowledged holding private meetings with Hamas. Robert Malley, who had advocated negotiations with Hamas, was sacked after disclosing to the Times of London he had been in regular contact with the group in conjunction with his work for a conflict resolution think tank.
In the Atlantic interview, Obama was asked what he thought of the Hamas leader's praise.
"My position on Hamas is indistinguishable from the position of Hillary Clinton or John McCain," he responded. "I said they are a terrorist organization, and I've repeatedly condemned them. I've repeatedly said, and I mean what I say: Since they are a terrorist organization, we should not be dealing with them until they recognize Israel, renounce terrorism, and abide by previous agreements."
Obama insisted he has been "very adamant about Israel's right to defend itself" and vowed to maintain America's strong ties to the Jewish state, if elected.
The senator said he welcomed "the Muslim world's accurate perception that I am interested in opening up dialogue and interested in moving away from the unilateral policies of George Bush, but nobody should mistake that for a softer stance when it comes to terrorism or when it comes to protecting Israel's security or making sure that the alliance is strong and firm. You will not see, under my presidency, any slackening in commitment to Israel's security."
The Atlantic asked Obama to respond to former President Jimmy Carter's suggestion that Israel resembles an apartheid state.
"I strongly reject the characterization," the Illinois Democrat said. "Israel is a vibrant democracy, the only one in the Middle East, and there's no doubt that Israel and the Palestinians have tough issues to work out to get to the goal of two states living side by side in peace and security, but injecting a term like apartheid into the discussion doesn't advance that goal. It's emotionally loaded, historically inaccurate, and it's not what I believe."
Last week, in an interview with CNN, Obama reacted to McCain's focus on the Hamas endorsement.
"This is offensive and I think it's disappointing, because John McCain always says, well, I'm not going to run that kind of politics and that engages in that kind of smear I think is unfortunate, particularly since my policy toward Hamas has been no different than his," Obama said.
"For him to toss out comments like that I think is an example of him losing his bearings as he pursues this nomination," he added. "We don't need name-calling in this debate."
The "losing his bearings" comment stirred its own controversy as some critics perceived it as a dig at McCain's age. The Arizona senator, if elected, would be the oldest first-term president, taking the oath at age 72.
UN Gaza Boys' School Headmaster Made Terrorist Bombs
Reuters reports that a terrorist killed in an IAF air strike last week, Awad al-Qiq, actually lived a double life: By day, he was a respected headmaster and science teacher at a United Nations school, but during the night, he built rockets for Islamic Jihad.
The news agency reports that Israel's air strike in southern Gaza last Wednesday not only revealed Al-Qiq's double life, but also "embarrassed a U.N. agency which has long had to rebuff Israeli accusations that it has aided and abetted guerrillas fighting the Jewish state."
Though his family, students, colleagues, and U.N. officials denied knowledge of Qiq's work with explosives, Hamas terrorists hailed him as a martyr who led Islamic Jihad's bomb-making unit. They fired a barrage of Kassam rockets into Israel in response to his death.
A spokesman for UNRWA - the UN Relief and Works Agency, which runs the school in which Qiq taught - told Reuters that it was looking into the matter. "We have a zero-tolerance policy towards politics and militant activities in our schools," he said. "Obviously, we are not the thought police and we cannot police people's minds."
Air Force Eliminates Gaza Terrorist
Arabs from Gaza report that a member of the Hamas military wing, Hisham Shomar, was killed in an Israel Air Force strike early Tuesday morning. Three terrorists were reported wounded. The IDF confirmed the attack on armed terrorists, part of a cell that fired mortar shells at Israel from northern Gaza.
Israel on the Alert: 11 Specific Warnings In honor of Memorial Day and Independence Day, which fall on Wednesday and Thursday this week, the Defense Ministry has imposed a full closure on the Arabs of Judea and Samaria. The checkpoints will be opened for humanitarian cases.
Israeli intelligence has received 11 specific warnings of intended terrorist attacks, and is on the alert in light of the terrorists' desire to carry out a major attack on Independence Day. The specific warnings cover suicide attacks, shootings, attempted kidnappings, and rocket firings, chiefly from northern Shomron and Gaza. Dozens of "general terrorist warnings" have been received as well.
Kassams Hit Israel Terrorists from Gaza fired one or two Kassam rockets at Israel on Tuesday, hitting open areas in the Negev.
Irena Sendler, a Polish social worker who organized the rescue of some 2,500 Jewish children from the Nazis and was later honored by Israel's Yad Vashem memorial, has died.
Sendler's daughter, Janina Zgrzembska, told The Associated Press her mother died at a Warsaw hospital Monday morning. She was 98.
Sendler had lived at a Warsaw nursing home run by the Catholic Brothers of St. John of God since 2003, but had been in the hospital since last month with pneumonia.
Sendler was born Irena Krzyzanowska in Warsaw on Feb. 15, 1910. As a social worker with Warsaw's welfare department, Sendler masterminded risky rescue operations of Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto during Nazi Germany's brutal World War II occupation.
Records show Sendler's team of some 20 people saved almost 2,500 children from the Warsaw Ghetto between October 1940 and April 1943, when the Nazis burned the ghetto, shooting the residents or sending them to death camps.
Under the pretext of inspecting the ghetto's sanitary conditions during a typhoid outbreak, Sendler and her assistants entered in search of children who could be smuggled out and be given a chance to survive by living as Catholics.
Babies and small children were smuggled out in ambulances and in trams, sometimes wrapped up as packages. Teenagers escaped by joining teams of workers forced to labor outside the ghetto. They were placed in families, orphanages, hospitals or convents.
In hopes of one day uniting the children with their families — most of whom perished in the Nazis' death camps — Sendler wrote the children's real names on slips of paper that she kept at home.
When German police came to arrest her in 1943, an assistant managed to hide the slips — which Sendler later buried in a jar under an apple tree in an associate's yard. Some 2,500 names were recorded.
"It took a true miracle to save a Jewish child," Elzbieta Ficowska, who was saved by Sendler's team as a baby in 1942, recalled in an interview with The Associated Press in 2007. "Mrs. Sendler saved not only us, but also our children and grandchildren and the generations to come."
After World War II, Sendler worked as a social welfare official and director of vocational schools, continuing to assist some of the children she rescued.
In 1965, Sendler became one of the first so-called Righteous Gentiles that the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem honored for wartime heroics. Poland's communist leaders at that time would not allow her to travel to Israel, and she collected the award only in 1983.
Despite the Yad Vashem honor, Sendler largely remained forgotten in her homeland. Only in her final years, confined to a nursing home, did she finally become one of Poland's most respected figures, with President Lech Kaczynski and other politicians backing a campaign that put her name forward for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Sendler is survived by her daughter and a granddaughter.
Ex-Obama adviser's pro-Hamas views 'well known'
An adviser to Sen. Barack Obama who quit after it was reported he held talks with Hamas was a well-known supporter of negotiations with Hamas and providing international assistance to the terrorist group.
Robert Malley, an employee of the International Crisis Group, said he served as an "informal" Middle East advisor to Obama. He told NBC News this past weekend he decided to step down after the Times of London inquired about whether he had contacts with Hamas.
"I decided based on the fact that this was becoming a distraction that it was best that I remove myself from any association with the campaign," Malley told NBC.
Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt issued a statement to the Times: "Malley has, like hundreds of other experts, provided informal advice to the campaign in the past. He has no formal role in the campaign and he will not play any role in the future."
Malley's pro-Hamas views, though, were no secret.
WND reported in January Malley has penned numerous opinion articles, many of them co-written with a former adviser to the late Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, petitioning for dialogue with Hamas and blasting Israel for numerous policies he says harm the Palestinian cause.
In February 2006, after Hamas won a majority of seats in the Palestinian parliament and amid a U.S. and Israeli attempt to isolate the Hamas-run Palestinian Authority, Malley wrote an op-ed for the Baltimore Sun advocating international aid to the terror group's newly formed government.
"The Islamists (Hamas) ran on a campaign of effective government and promised to improve Palestinians' lives; they cannot do that if the international community turns its back," wrote Malley in a piece entitled, "Making the Best of Hamas' Victory."
Malley contended the election of Hamas expressed Palestinian "anger at years of humiliation and loss of self-respect because of Israeli settlement expansion, Arafat's imprisonment, Israel's incursions, Western lecturing and, most recently and tellingly, the threat of an aid cut off in the event of an Islamist success."
Malley said the U.S. should not "discourage third-party unofficial contacts with [Hamas] in an attempt to moderate it."
In an op-ed in the Washington Post in January coauthored by Arafat adviser Hussein Agha, Malley – using could be perceived as anti-Israel language – urged Israel's negotiating partner Abbas to reunite with Hamas.
"A renewed national compact and the return of Hamas to the political fold would upset Israel's strategy of perpetuating Palestinian geographic and political division," wrote Malley.
He further petitioned Israel to hold talks with Hamas.
"An arrangement between Israel and Hamas could advance both sides' interests," he wrote.
In numerous other op-eds, Malley advocates a policy of engagement with Hamas.
Hamas is responsible for scores of deadly shootings, suicide bombings and rocket attacks aimed at Jewish civilian population centers. The past few weeks alone, Hamas militants took credit for firing more than 200 rockets into Israel.
Hamas' official charter calls for the murder of Jews and destruction of Israel.
Hamas maintained a national unity government with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas until the Palestinian leader dissolved the agreement and deposed the Hamas prime minister last year.
Hamas in recent days has become a campaign issue for Obama, who has repeatedly called Hamas a terror group that should be isolated.
Last week, Obama and Sen. John McCain traded barbs about a Hamas endorsement that came during an interview with WND and with WABC Radio.
Ahmed Yousuf, Hamas' top political adviser in the Gaza Strip, expressed "hope" Obama will win the presidential elections and he compared the Illinois senator to John F. Kennedy.
McCain mentioned Hamas' praise of Obama during several national interviews.
Obama claimed McCain's statements were a "smear."
Obama also came under fire after it was reported his Trinity United Church of Christ newsletter reprinted an opinion piece by a top Hamas official that defended terrorism as legitimate resistance, refused to recognize the right of Israel to exist and compared the terror group's official charter – which calls for the murder of Jews – to America's Declaration of Independence.
The Hamas piece was published on Rev. Jeremiah Wright's "Pastor's Page," which later printed an open letter by a pro-Palestinian activist that labeled Israel an "apartheid" regime and claimed the Jewish state worked on an "ethnic bomb" that kills "blacks and Arabs."
Retired Jockey Pat Day on a Mission to Spread God's Message
Nearly three years after retiring as one of the most successful and popular jockeys in racing history, Pat Day sees it as his God-given responsibility to use his reputation to reach audiences with his evangelistic message.
"I really see everybody I meet as one of two groups of people: saved and unsaved," he said. "Those who know and love and trust the Lord Jesus Christ, and those who need to hear about the awesome love of God."
The Hall of Fame jockey has preached that message part-time since a personal conversion in 1984, but since he retired 2005, he has been evangelizing almost full-time at racetracks, chapels and other venues from Kentucky to South Korea.
Working with the Race Track Chaplaincy of America, "Pat has been as valuable to ministry outside of the racing limelight as he has been inside," said the Rev. Ken Boehm, the chaplaincy's representative at Churchill Downs.
Pat Day still on track,pursuing new mission
Last month, he spoke at a Bullitt County church decorated like a hunting lodge with trophies of geese and deer for a Sportsman's Ministry night.
"It's my heart's desire that we would spend eternity together," he said to the hundreds who had gathered in camouflage and hunter's orange after live country music and a dinner of barbecued venison at First Baptist Church in Mount Washington.
"The only way that I can know that is if I know that you've accepted Christ into your heart," he said.
Speaking about his ministry recently, Day said his evangelistic zeal never seemed to put off those in the racing industry who didn't share his beliefs.
"I've not tried to be boisterous with it or pushy," he said. "I've not tried to hide it either. I've made it very clear where I stand. I think they've grown to respect that."
His former agent, Fred Aime, said he "couldn't ask for a better rider and a more likable and respected person. With his ability and his good nature, it made my job a lot easier."
Day, who grew up in the Colorado ranching town of Eagle, said he was confirmed in the Lutheran church as a child, but concluded religion was for "women and children and wimps." As a rising star on the track, he found he could "ride races all afternoon, win several races and I could run all night and drink and party and carry on."
He recalled going on a two-week bender of alcohol and cocaine after becoming the top rider of the year in 1982, then sobering up to the realization even that achievement had failed to bring him contentment.
He continued abusing alcohol until Jan. 27, 1984.
The night the superstarjockey saw the light
Alone that night in a Florida hotel room, Day said he woke up with a powerful spiritual sensation.
He turned on the television to a program hosted by evangelist Jimmy Swaggart, and responded to an appeal to accept Jesus as his savior.
He said he immediately considered going into the ministry full time, partly out of concerns over the role gambling plays in the racing industry. But after consulting with a racetrack chaplain in Hot Springs, Ark., where he was scheduled to ride, "the Lord revealed to me that he had, in fact, saved me to work within the racetrack industry, not to leave it."
Day retired in 2005 with 8,803 wins and nearly $298 million in earnings, a record.
Day's religious conviction was famously demonstrated after his only Kentucky Derby win, in 1992 aboard Lil E. Tee, when he was photographed with arms raised, his beaming face looking skyward.
The image -- the basis for a bronze statue at Churchill Downs -- captures Day giving thanks to God for his elusive Derby win after several tries. Despite all his other accomplishments, that win had eluded him for so long Day said racetrack reporters had gotten used to his oft-repeated citation of the Bible verse Romans 8:28 whenever he lost -- that "in all things God works for the good of those who love him."
Day has spent much of the past few months preaching at a series of "faith festivals," which feature music and evangelism, at racetracks across the country.
He recalled one night in particular at Fair Grounds in New Orleans when virtually the entire crowd of more than 200 responded to his invitation to accept Jesus.
"I just broke down in tears," he said. "It's just a joy."
Day, 54, isn't the only one in the family with a ministry.
His wife, Sheila, operates Mom's Closet Resource Center, which provides aid and life-skills training to single mothers.
The couple, who have one adult daughter, live in eastern Jefferson County.
Pat Day says he is able to donate his time to the chaplaincy.
"I'm not Rockefeller, but I'm financially secure," he said. "My payment is the joy in sharing."
Day gets speaking invitations of all kinds, and one such invitation brought him to the Christian Sportsman's dinner in Mount Washington, where he was greeted with a standing ovation.
"He's so sincere, he talks so much from his heart, it's just amazing," said Donnie Poole, of Taylorsville, who was among those Day won over. "Everybody's for Pat Day, in Kentucky anyway."
Day said he still rides "every opportunity I get" at places ranging from a friend's farm in Oldham County to his native Colorado.
"I miss the camaraderie of the jockey's room and the daily interaction with the people, but I don't miss the competitive aspect of it, and that surprised me," he said.
He believes it's because God replaced that passion "with renewed enthusiasm … to win but not to win races, to win souls for the kingdom of heaven."
How ‘nakba’ proves the fiction of a Palestinian Nation
A primer on propaganda
Over the past few years, the term nakba (also spelled naqba) has become the favorite nonsense word of the Anti-Israel Lobby. Meaning "catastrophe" or "tragedy" in Arabic, it has been embraced by anti-Semites all over the planet to refer to Israel's creation, which supposedly imposed a "catastrophe" upon the "disenfranchised Palestinian Arabs."
Of course, the real catastrophe that befell the Arabs in 1948-49 was that they failed in their attempt to annihilate Israel and exterminate its population, and for that they paid a price.
Meanwhile, nakba Nonsense has been spreading. Google finds over 85,000 web pages referring to Israel's creation as a "nakba," and a Yahoo search finds even more than that. The anti-Israel web magazine Counterpunch cannot mention Israel without using the term. Even Israel's leftist minister of education, Yuli Tamir, has orderedthat the nakba be taught as partof the curriculum in Israeli schools, where Israel's schoolchildren can be taught to mourn their own country's existence.
(Tamir, who was previously a professor of education at Tel Aviv University, is so bizarre that in the summer of 1996 she published an article in the Boston Review defending female circumcision in the Third World and denouncing those who expressed disgust at the practice — see http://bostonreview.net/BR21.3/Tamir.html.)
Nakba ceremonies are now held each year by leftist professors at Israeli universities who mourn the very creation and existence of their country.
The nakba of the late 1940's and 1950's that befell large numbers of Jews living in Arab countries who were suddenly expelled, persecuted, and stripped of their property does not interest such people. Those Jewish refugees made new homes in Israel and actually outnumbered the Palestinians who fled.
Meanwhile, an urban legend has been fabricated about the origin of the term "nakba" — a fairy tale that claims the word was a banner waved by Palestinians starting in 1948, and that its very use shows how deep the roots of "Palestinian nationality" go.
So here is a little current events quiz: What is the real origin of the term "nakba" and what is its original meaning?
If you get the answer to the quiz wrong — in other words, if you say it refers to the events of 1948 — you are in very good company. I myself would have flunked the quiz up until a few days ago, when I stumbled on the correct answer. Not only does the bandying about of the "nakba" nonsense word not point to any "depths of roots of Palestinian nationality," it proves the very opposite: namely, that there is no such thing as a Palestinian nation or nationality at all.
The authoritative source on the origin of "nakba" is none other than George Antonius, supposedly the first "official historian of Palestinian nationalism." Like so many "Palestinians," he actually wasn't — Palestinian, that is. He was a Christian Lebanese-Egyptian who lived for a while in Jerusalem, where he composed his official advocacy/history of Arab nationalism. The Arab Awakening, a highly biased book, was published in 1938 and for years afterward was the official text used at British universities.
Antonius was an "official Palestinian representative" to Britain, trying to argue the cause for creating an Arab state in place of any prospective homeland promised the Jews under the Balfour Declaration of 1917. By the 1930's Antonius was an active anti-Zionist propagandist, and as such was offered a job at Columbia University (where some things don't seem to change much).
He served as an academic fig leaf for xenophobic Arab nationalists seeking to deny Jews any right to self-determination in or migration to the Land of Israel. And he was closely associated with the Grand Mufti, Hitler's main Islamic ally, and also with the pro-German regime in Iraq in the early 1940's.
Antonius was so passionately anti-Zionist that he continues to serve as the hero and mentor of Jewish leftist anti-Zionists everywhere. For example, the late Hebrew University sociology professor Baruch Kimmerling relied on Antonius at length in his own pseudo-history, Palestinians: The Making of a People (Free Press, 1993).
So how does Antonius provide us with the answer to the current-events quiz concerning the origin of "nakba"? The term was not invented in 1948 but rather in 1920. And it was coined not because of Palestinians suddenly getting nationalistic but because Arabs living in Palestine regarded themselves as Syrian and were enraged at being cut off from their Syrian homeland.
Before World War I, the entire Levant — including what is now Israel, the "occupied territories," Jordan, Lebanon and Syria — was comprised of Ottoman Turkish colonies. When Allied forces drove the Turks out of the Levant, the two main powers, Britain and France, divided the spoils between them. Britain got Palestine, including what is now Jordan, while France got Lebanon and Syria.
The problem was that the Palestinian Arabs saw themselves as Syrians and were seen as such by other Syrians. The Palestinian Arabs were enraged that an artificial barrier was being erected within their Syrian homeland by the infidel colonial powers — one that would divide northern Syrian Arabs from southern Syrian Arabs, the latter being those who were later misnamed "Palestinians."
The bulk of the Palestinian Arabs had in fact migrated to Palestine from Syria and Lebanon during the previous two generations, largely to benefit from the improving conditions and job opportunities afforded by Zionist immigration and capital flowing into the area. In 1920, both sets of Syrian Arabs, those in Syria and those in Palestine, rioted violently and murderously.
On page 312 of The Arab Awakening, Antonius writes, "The year 1920 has an evil name in Arab annals: it is referred to as the Year of the Catastrophe (Am al-nakba). It saw the first armed risings that occurred in protest against the post-War settlement imposed by the Allies on the Arab countries. In that year, serious outbreaks took place in Syria, Palestine, and Iraq."
Yes, the answer to our little quiz is 1920, not 1948. That's 1920 — when there was no Zionist state, no Jewish sovereignty, no "settlements" in "occupied territories," no Israel Defense Forces, no Israeli missiles and choppers targeting terror leaders, and no Jewish control over Jerusalem (which had a Jewish demographic majority going back at least to 1850).
The original "nakba" had nothing to do with Jews, and nothing to do with demands by Palestinian Arabs for self-determination, independence and statehood. To the contrary, it had everything to do with the fact that the Palestinian Arabs saw themselves as Syrians. They rioted at this nakba — at this catastrophe— because they found deeply offensive the very idea that they should be independent from Syria and Syrians.
In the 1920's, the very suggestion that Palestinian Arabs constituted a separate ethnic nationality was enough to send those same Arabs out into the streets to murder and plunder violently in outrage. If they themselves insisted they were simply Syrians who had migrated to the Land of Israel, by what logic are the Palestinian Arabs deemed entitled to their own state today?
Palestinian Arabs are no more a nation and no more entitled to their own state than are the Arabs of Detroit or of Paris. They certainly are not entitled to four different states: Jordan, Hamastan in Gaza, a PLO state in the West Bank, and Israel converted into yet another Arab state via the granting of a "right of return" to Arab refugees.
Speaking of Palestinians as Syrians, it is worth noting what one of the early Syrian nationalists had to say. The following quote comes from the great-grandfather of the current Syrian dictator, Bashar Assad:
"Those good Jews brought civilization and peace to the Arab Muslims, and they dispersed gold and prosperity over Palestine without damage to anyone or taking anything by force. Despite this, the Muslims declared holy war against them and did not hesitate to massacre their children and women…. Thus a black fate awaits the Jews and other minorities in case the Mandates are cancelled and Muslim Syria is united with Muslim Palestine."
That statement is from a letter sent to the French prime minister in June 1936 by six Syrian Alawi notables (the Alawis are the ruling class in Syria today) in support of Zionism. Bashar's great-grandfather was one of them.
