Speaking of Bombs....

Were you aware that a series of small bombs have been detonated in NY? Neither was I...

Small Bomb Goes Off Outside Upper East Side Starbucks
New York Daily News ^ | Barry Paddock and Jonathan Lemire

A small improvised explosive device detonated outside an Upper East Side Starbucks early Monday morning, shattering the coffee shop's windows and raising fears of terrorism.

The bomb tore a hole in a wooden bench outside the coffee chain's outpost at Third Ave. and E. 92nd St. when it exploded at 3:30 a.m.

No one was injured in the blast, but it terrified residents who had been fast asleep early on Memorial Day.

"I heard a giant noise -- a big, giant noise, like a crash -- and there was a flash," said Jordan Kovnot, 26, a law student who lives above the Starbucks. "It made me jump up."

"It felt like an earthquake," said Adrianna Ebans, 28, who was among more than a dozen residents evacuated from the apartments above the Starbucks. "We were all really scared."

Scores of detectives are crawling over the blast site, looking for surveillance video and trying to determine the nature of the low-grade explosive device, which investigators believe was either placed on or taped to the bench.

"We don't know the motive. Obviously it's a cause for concern," said Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. "We're going to do an in-depth investigation."

No one had claimed credit for the blast, nor was it called in ahead of time, said Kelly.

Kelly -- who noted that Starbucks branches have been victimized in other cities by protestors angry at the chain's global reach -- said investigators were also exploring whether this morning's blast was connected to other previous small explosions in the city.

Click on the title....

Move along folks, nothing to see here....

---Katie

Homegrown Islamic Jihad in the Bronx: Now We Are All Israelis

From the Chesler Chronicles:

Riverdale, in the Bronx, is a gloriously leafy, hilly, and peaceful suburb. I have visited its extraordinary gardens and gracious homes which overlook the Hudson river. More often, I’ve visited a close friend and her family who live there. I have studied, dined, and prayed with them. I have attended lectures at Riverdale synagogues. Riverdale is as close to me, both personally, psychologically, and geographically, as was the World Trade Center.

In response to a gruesome series of Islamic-Palestinian synagogue bombings in Europe, police officers guarded Europe’s synagogues and Jewish Centers. Now, synagogues all over New York City, tend to have barricades or some kind of police presence outside. We are now all Israelis: Not just the Jews, but the world’s civilians.

And thus, four African-American converts to Islam, all of whom converted to Islam in prison, have been arrested by the FBI just as they attempted to bomb two Riverdale synagogues, (the Riverdale Jewish Center and the Riverdale Temple), in the Bronx and a New York National Guard air base in Newburgh, New York where they lived and attended a mosque.

Click on the title to read the rest of the article by Phyllis Chesler.
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This is pretty ominous. African-Americans who converted to Islam in prison plotted to bomb synagogues in New York. Most media reports of this incident did not include the race or religion of the suspects. The article goes on to quote statistics of prison conversions to Islam, to note that the funding for this recruitment comes from the Saudis, and to suggest that we "reform our prison system, including a reform of our drug laws, so that we jail fewer inmates and do not provide such a fertile breeding ground for anti-American and anti-Jewish Islamic terrorism."

One item I found interesting is that Islam is possibly presented to inmates as a "religion of many colors, as especially friendly to men of African descent with jihad presented as a way to overcome oppression." It is probably not presented that Islamic leaders were instrumentally involved in the African slave trade to America and even today keep slaves and persecute black Africans (Christians and Animists?) in Darfur.

Quite an informative article.

---Katie

Switched at Birth

How weird would this be....

HEPPNER, Ore. — Two baby girls switched at birth 56 years ago have finally found out about the mistake.

DeeAnn Angell of Fossil and Kay Rene Reed of Condon learned about the mistake from an 86-year-old woman who was a former neighbor.

The former neighbor said that one of the girls' mothers, Marjorie Angell, insisted back in 1953 that she had been given the wrong baby after nurses returned from bathing them.

But her concerns were brushed off.

With both sets of parents dead, the Reed and Angell siblings compared notes and family stories, learning that rumors of a mix-up had been around for years.

Kay Rene Reed decided to get some DNA testing done, and that confirmed the mistake.

But she and DeeAnn say there just have to move forward with their lives now, and they celebrated their latest birthday together earlier this month.

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Wow.

---Katie

Charlie Crist for Senate?

I sure hope not, but it looks like he is running. Conservatives need to get behind someone else, perhaps former House Speaker Marco Rubio who looks like he will be Crist's conservative challenger for the nomination. It is still early in the game, but we don't need another RINO representing Florida! Crist is not a real conservative and does not support limiting government power and spending. Please note that he campaigned in FL for passage of Obama's stimulus package. Enough said.

Massacre Prevented by Armed Citizen

Wonder how much press this will get - not nearly as much as it would have if the thugs had not been prevented from proceeding with what they apparently intended to do!

Click on the title for the entire article.

A group of college students were in an apartment when two armed intruders burst in through a patio door, separated the men and women, and demanded everyone's cell phones and wallets. They they started counting bullets (cartridges for the gun informed). One thug asked the other how many bullets he had - the answer was he had enough.

At that point, one of the students grabbed a gun out of his backpack and shot at the thug who was watching the men, who then ran out of the apartment. The student then ran to the room where the other thug was preparing to rape the student's girlfriend. He told the girls to get down and started shooting. The thug jumped out the window and expired shortly thereafter, near his own apartment.

We have had several tragedies recently where multiple people were killed by a gunman. Here we have a massacre prevented by an armed citizen. I wish this would get as much press as the other incidents, but since it advances the idea that people can and should be able to defend themselves with deadly force, we probably won't hear much about it.

Perhaps 20/20 could do an expose on everything that this young man did wrong and why he should not have been armed....

---Katie

How Others Think.... (ELCA)

There are some interesting insights in this piece for anyone who has ever asked, "How can these people think this is a good idea?"

How others think . . .

by Rev. Frederick W. Baltz, WordAlone board member, Galena, Ill.

When people in the churches hear what is coming before the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Churchwide Assembly in August they often ask: "How can anyone believe we should make such a change when the Bible is clear?"

Allow me to offer an opinion about that, after wondering myself for a long time now.

First, if we assume those who would change our ministry standards are completely unbiblical in their approach, we are mistaken. Listen and you will often hear them talk about being prophetic, and about "justice issues." Their biblical platform is to a large extent the Old Testament prophets. Not the Isaiahs or Jeremiahs as much as the Amoses and the Hoseas. Making the huge mistake of believing anyone can be called to the prophetic ministry by desire, rather than by call, they have set out to be prophets, and prophets as they understand them must have someone evil to oppose. That would be us.

There is another understanding of the prophetic ministry that makes it above all the proclamation of the Gospel. In that respect we are all prophets, as Joel 2:28-32 put it, followed by Peter in Acts 2:17-21, "I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy."(Acts 2.18b) But "the prophetic" for many in the ELCA now seems to mean "the political."

Another biblical contact point for those who would change the ministry standards is their criticism of Pharisees. Pharisees are understood by them as any people who quote some tradition of the elders and oppose the changes Jesus would surely want to make. Pharisees are said to be hypocritical and not to be respected for their different points of view. They would say that you can spot Pharisees; they are always the ones against change. Again, that would be us.

Why do I so often sense a judgmental anger among people whom I know want the ministry standards changed? How do people who are at least nominally Lutherans have such little difficulty condemning others as sinners whose beliefs about homosexuality don't match their own? I truly believe a substantial number of people in ELCA leadership circles believe the denomination would be far better off without its conservatives, or, to them, Pharisees. If so, they are not particularly concerned that the ELCA might split this summer. In fact, they may hope it does! The Pharisees would be gone!

It is important to try to understand how others think. Only in that way can we work out differences and reach agreement. If others in the ELCA think about us as I'm afraid they do, reaching agreement doesn't look promising.

(This came from the Word Alone Network mailing list. For more information and articles on ELCA topics, click on the title!)

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Hmmm. I think I remember being called a Pharisee from the pulpit once...or twice.

---Katie