What Is This World Coming To?

Russia continues its push well beyond the borders of South Ossetia and into Georgia itself. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin says that all Russia is trying to do is bring its ‘peacekeeping mission to its logical conclusion.” Whether that logical conclusion includes the existence of an independent state called Georgia remains to be seen.

Noted one blogger, Georgia certainly identifies with — and considered itself an ally of — the West. After fighting broke out, Georgian state television even switched from the national news to the anti-Russian, Cold War classic flick “Red Dawn.” So it’s understandable that the people there are begging for Western help — they’re even looking for Israel to pressure Russia. But despite strong words from U.S. bigwigs, it’s become increasingly clear that nobody is coming to Georgia’s aid. “Georgians are wondering, where is NATO? NATO isn’t coming. Deal with it. Saakashvilli staked his presidency on it and failed.”

If Russia goes through with the sale of its most advanced anti-aircraft missile system to Iran, Israel will use an electronic warfare device now under development to neutralize it and as a result present Russia as vulnerable to air infiltrations, a top defense official has told The Jerusalem Post.

The Russian system, called the S-300, is one of the most advanced multi-target anti-aircraft-missile systems in the world today and has a reported ability to track up to 100 targets simultaneously while engaging up to 12 at the same time. It has a range of about 200 kilometers and can hit targets at altitudes of 27,000 meters. Read the rest of this entry »

Russian tanks rolled towards the capital of South Ossetia and fighters bombed Georgian air bases after Georgia launched attacks on rebels in the Georgian province of South Ossetia. Russian forces suffered about a dozen dead and 150 wounded, according to Russian news agencies, but the civilian toll of dead and wounded is currently numbered in the thousands.

South Ossetia is primarily inhabited by ethnic Ossetians whose native language is related to Farsi, or ethnic Persian.

By tradition, the Ossetians have had good relations with Russians and were regarded as loyal citizens, first of the Russian empire and later of the Soviet Union. They sided with the Kremlin when Bolshevik forces occupied Georgia in the early 1920s and, as part of the carve-up which followed, the South Ossetian Autonomous Region was created in Georgia and North Ossetia was formed in Russia. Read the rest of this entry »

WorldNetDaily is reporting that a Canadian human rights tribunal ordered a Christian pastor to renounce his faith and never again express moral opposition to homosexuality:

In a decision dated May 30 in the penalty phase of the quasi-judicial proceedings run by the Alberta Human Rights Tribunal, evangelical pastor Stephen Boisson was banned from expressing his biblical perspective of homosexuality and ordered to pay $5,000 for “damages for pain and suffering” as well as apologize to the activist who complained of being hurt.

Boisson wrote a letter to the editor of his local Red Deer, Alberta, newspaper in 2002 denouncing the advance of homosexual activism as “wicked” and stating: “Children as young as five and six years of age are being subjected to psychologically and physiologically damaging pro-homosexual literature and guidance in the public school system; all under the fraudulent guise of equal rights.”

The activist, local teacher Darren Lund, filed a complaint, and the guilty verdict from Lori G. Andreachuk, a lawyer, was handed down Nov. 30, 2007. The latest decision involved the penalty phase of the trial.

“While agreeing that Boisson’s letter was not a criminal act, the government tribunal nevertheless ordered the Christian pastor to [stop expressing his opinion],” Vere reported.

Andreachuk noted that Lund, who brought the complaint, wasn’t, in fact, injured.

“In this case there is no specific individual who can be compensated as there is no direct victim who has come forward,” she wrote.

However, that did not stop her from ordering the payment anyway.

And as for the future, she wrote:

“Mr. Boissoin and The Concerned Christian Coalition Inc. shall cease publishing in newspapers, by e-mail, on the radio, in public speeches, or on the Internet, in future, disparaging remarks about gays and homosexuals. Further, they shall not and are prohibited from making disparaging remarks in the future about … Lund or … Lund’s witnesses relating to their involvement in this complaint. Further, all disparaging remarks versus homosexuals are directed to be removed from current Web sites and publications of Mr. Boissoin and The Concerned Christian Coalition Inc.,” the lawyer opined.

Andreachuk also ordered Boissoin to apologize for the original letter in the Red Deer Advocate and told the two “offenders” to pay $5,000.

The apology letter, Vere said, “threatens civil liberties in Canada, according to Ezra Levant, an author and lawyer who himself was targeted by an HRC attack.”

“[The] government now believes that if it can’t convince a Christian pastor that he’s wrong, it will just order him to condemn himself?” Levant wrote on his blog. “Other than tribunals in Stalin’s Soviet Union and Mao’s China, where is this Orwellian ‘order’ considered to be justice?”

“This is like a Third World jail-house confession – where accused criminals are forced to sign false statements of guilt,” Levant wrote. “We don’t even ‘order’ murderers to apologize to their victims’ families. Because we know that a forced apology is meaningless. But not if your point is to degrade Christian pastors.”

“In essence, the Alberta Human Rights Tribunal is ordering to the minister to renounce his Christian faith, since his opposition to homosexuality is based upon the Judeo-Christian Bible,” Vere wrote.

It would be nice to simply speak something into the air and, by virtue of your ‘positive confession’ for that ’something’ to become the truth.

Former president Jimmy Carter spoke into the air that he could accomplish what no sitting president could, and bring peace between Israel and her enemies.

Carter was SO certain that only he could bring this off that he traveled to Damascus, in defiance of both the State Department and Israeli Foreign Ministry. Read the rest of this entry »

China’s rise is posing serious challenges and its military buildup and international behavior could produce an “adversarial” relationship with the world, CIA Director Michael V. Hayden said last week.

“After two centuries of perceived Western hegemony, China seems to be determined to flex its muscles,” Hayden said.

China and India will affect strategic planning, he said. “Competition for influence will characterize the relationships between China, India, Japan and other emerging powers,” Hayden said during a speech at Kansas State University.

“But China, a communist-led nuclear state that aspires to and will likely achieve great power status during this century, will be the focus of American attention in that region of the world.”

Hayden said there are differing views about China’s rise and its motivations. His view is that China is an economic competitor and increasingly becoming a “geopolitical” competitor.

“But China is not an inevitable enemy of the United States of America. There are good policy choices available to both Washington and Beijing that can keep us on the largely peaceful, constructive path that we’ve both been on now for about 40 years,” he said.

China’s military buildup is the most significant aspect of Beijing’s growth, Hayden said, noting that the PLA has integrated the U.S. conflict lessons learned in both Persian Gulf wars. “They’ve developed an integrated advanced weaponry into a modern military force,” he said.

The new Chinese military power could pose a risk to U.S. forces and interest in the region, and the military buildup is also about projecting the image of strength, he said.

“It sees an advanced military force as an essential element of great power status, and it is the intelligence community’s view that any Chinese government, even a democratic one, would have similar nationalist goals.”

Only hours after reporting 107 deaths from a 7.8 earthquake in Sichuan province, authorities revised the figure upwards — to three to five thousand and is expected to rise as the extent of the damage is known. The quake was centered in western China, but was so powerful that it could be felt as far away as Hanoi and Bangkok.

Read the rest of this entry »