Inspiring! This little league coach has some wonderful real life advice for his team – and everyone else ~
After his Rhode Island team, Cumberland American, was eliminated from the Little League World Series Monday night (8-18-14), Dave Belisle delivered a welcome dose of perspective and encouragement to his teary-eyed troops in an impassioned postgame speech.
The ongoing Ferguson demonstration has long ceased to be about “justice” for the death of one young black man. It’s now been officially hijacked by the grievance-mongers.
The latest miscreants to join the parade?
Communists and the New Black Panthers Gin Up Violence and Racial Conflict in Ferguson ~
New Black Panther radicals have been joined in Missouri by Revolution Club Chicago, a Communist group that calls for a global revolution in order to bring down capitalism.
Even worse ~
The DOJ is in the thick of all this. Within the group chanting for death to the aforementioned officer, is none other than the Civil Rights Division group known as the Community Relations Service. Think about that long and hard. They are calling for the death of an officer and inciting riots and violence. They are from our government and are here to help. I’ve actually seen pictures of Chief Jackson working with the New Black Panthers during all of this. I mean, what is he thinking? […]
So, you’ve got white Chicago Communists and the uber racist New Black Panthers fomenting chaos, violence and rioting. You’ve got the DOJ on the ground and in the mix and praying for an excuse to declare martial law.
Not wanting to miss out on the anarchy, the Islamists have inserted themselves in the mix ~
Hamas – note the “Palestinian” flag ~
and ISIS sign ~
I bet the residents of Ferguson wish these ill-intentioned thugs would stop peddling their hate, find another municipality to converge on and give the town a chance to heal before any more damage is done.
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Related:
From the Blaze ~ See Who’s Been Spotted in Ferguson Trying to ‘Incite’ Riots and Mingling Among Group Armed With Molotov Cocktails
The Real Villain of Ferguson (?) = The Great Society ~ Roger L. Smith explains why at PJMedia
Good grief! Is there really not enough evil present in the world already?
Let’s see…
• ISIS is imposing a reign of terror in Iraq and adjacent countries
• Hamas is continually lobbing rockets at Israel trying to kill as many civilians as possible
• Russia seems intent on stealing back Ukraine and subjugating her people
• Ebola is threatening to reach epidemic proportions
• Anti-Semitism is on the rise worldwide
• Our southern border is being overrun, in large part by teenage MS13 gang members, now headed for cities all over America, courtesy of our tyrannical federal government
• Ferguson, MO is overrun with lawlessness…
I could go on and on. But the point is, do we really need any more darkness?
Apparently Oklahoma City thinks so: Civic Center OKs Satanic Black Mass Despite Mass Protest ~
The longstanding notion that America is “one nation under God” is under attack in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, after city officials gave the OK for a satanic black mass at the Civic Center on Sept. 21 […]
“The black mass is an attempt to rip God out of the fabric of our nation. That’s why more and more people are joining the protest,” says TFP (American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property) Student Action Director John Ritchie. “The sole purpose of the black mass is to attack God, the Catholic Mass and the Holy Eucharist in a most obscene, indecent and hateful manner. Satanists typically steal a consecrated Host from a Church to desecrate in unspeakable ways.
This outrage is made possible by moral relativists among us. Jennifer Lindsey-McClintock, the music hall’s public information manager, invokes their signature admonition is her pathetic defense of the event ~
… she is not in a position to say “whether it is appropriate or not.”
“That’s not for us to judge,” she told CNA July 3, citing the music hall’s neutrality policy.Source: Catholic News Agency
And yet, our progressive friends do judge. Of course they do. John Ritchie challenges their stark duplicity ~
Although Civic Center manager Jim Brown claims the “Black Mass” is part of free speech, Ritchie disagrees: “Don’t fall for it—sacrilege is not free speech. And I find it so strange how children in America can’t pray to God in school, but satanists are apparently free to attack God in this government-run venue.
“It’s also highly unlikely that the Civic Center would rent space for events that might feature, for example, the burning of a Koran,” he continued. “You think the Civic Center would welcome the likes of Hitler, or host a production that extols Nazi gas chambers? I really don’t think so.”
Please register your righteous indignation over this travesty by signing this petition ➡ Against the Satanic Black Mass in Oklahoma City.
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Related:
Archbishop Condemns Satanic ‘Black Mass’ at Okla. City Civic Center as ‘Sacrilegious’
“The Satanic ritual that is scheduled to be performed at our Civic Center is to invoke those dark powers, which I believe are very real and call them into our city, into our community.” […]
“I call on all Catholics in central and western Oklahoma – as well as all men and women of good will – to pray for a renewed sense of the sacred and, in particular, to pray that the Lord might change the hearts and minds of the organizers of this event.”
~ Archbishop Paul Coakley, head of the Catholic archdiocese of Oklahoma City.
OK Gov. Fallin: ‘Black Mass is a disgusting mockery of the Catholic faith’ ~ from KFOR – NewsChannel 4, Oklahoma City (with video)
Random links of interest, concern or curiosity from the past week or so, that deserve at least a SHORT mention:
British Smokers Being Denied Treatment by State-Run Healthcare Service ~ Seriously? So are they going to treat – make that non-treat – the health consequences of all risky behaviors the same? Alcoholism? Drug addiction? Homosexual sex? Obesity? Sky diving?
On the Loneliness of the Sexual Revolution as noted in a wonderful new book ~ “Our culture has gotten very sick, very quickly.” So sad- because it’s so true. The demise of traditional courtship rituals has left us socially impoverished.
And ubiquitous pornography is making things much worse ~ Think on these things before you go to that porn site: An Appeal to Count the Personal Cost of Porn ~
Those who would victimize others or “consume” them like a product must first dehumanize them. And that is where reductionism comes in. The consumer of pornography must reduce the woman, whom he is actually consuming and using, to a body, to an image or picture. But she is not merely a body or a picture. She is a woman, a daughter, a sister; she is loved by God and something tragically awful has occurred in her life to cause her to take a turn down a very long and dark back alley.
Porn is everywhere, but Jesus has to go ~
U.S. Navy booting Bibles from base lodges ~ I was getting ready to go on a rant about this but then saw another headline two days later ~ Navy reverses course, puts Bibles back in hotels during policy review… only after an outcry from faith-based organizations. Need to keep the pressure on.
“God grants liberty only to those who love it,
and are always ready to guard and defend it.”– Daniel Webster
End Third-Party Conception Arrangements; Regulations can’t solve the tangle of moral wrongs that beset surrogate motherhood ~ Just because we can “play God,” doesn’t mean we should ~
…humanity would be better served by stopping these third-party reproduction practices now. We should do it for all of humanity but especially for the sake of the women — and for the children who bear the brunt of adult desires that trump their rights to bodily integrity, knowledge of their origins, and connection to their biological kin.
Hillary Clinton — a woman of no convictions ~ Ya think? Being a typical ruling-class socialist however, she’s counting on voter ignorance to get elected anyway. Because after all – “what difference does it make?”
If you live in Malaysia, you can’t “like” Israel ~
Malaysian Teen Investigated for ‘Liking’ Israel on Facebook ~
The crackdown on the student comes as inaccurate reporting over Operation Protective Edge in Gaza has led to a dramatic increase in anti-Semitism worldwide, with anti-Semitic incidents in July rising 383% compared to the same month last year according to a recent study […]
Malaysia, which has no diplomatic relations with Israel, has a record of prohibiting free speech; just recently the country banned the usage of the word “Allah,” which is simply the equivalent of “G-d” in the Malay language, for all non-Muslims.
Sexual Left Shocked by Organized Pro-Lifers in Europe ~ An encouraging development; a growing conservative movement in Europe is actually pushing back on issues like abortion and same-sex marriage ~
The European sexual left is obviously worried. They are busy issuing research papers and sounding the general quarters, all hands on deck, to defeat the rabble they thought existed only in the puritanical New World.
American Pastor facing death threats from ISIS prisoners in Iranian prison ~ As Pastor Saeed approaches two years of wrongful imprisonment in Iran (September 26th) – for failure to renounce Islam – he has essentially become a a prisoner inside the prison ~
Pastor Saeed is now facing grave new death threats – not from the Iranians who are holding him captive, but from the radical ISIS terrorists who are conducting a campaign of genocide against Christians in Iraq […]
Now more than ever, with Pastor Saeed’s life hanging in the balance, the president and State Department must intervene immediately to secure Pastor Saeed’s release and to ensure that he is protected during this transfer to freedom.
PLEASE PRAY!
Sifting through all the bandwidth, newsprint and air time that’s been devoted to every last detail of Robin William’s death – and on depression and suicide in general – I believe I’ve found that one article that’s more worthwhile than all the other coverage put together: “Angel of the Gap” by Dr. Benjamin Wiker, at To the Source.
“The Gap” in this story is located at the tip of the South Head peninsula at the far eastern edge of Sydney Harbor, New South Wales. It’s a huge cliff looming over the Pacific Ocean that for years has been an unfortunate magnet for despairing souls seeking to end their lives.
But the good news is that many of those who arrived at that precipice over the last several decades didn’t make that tragically final leap as planned. Not after they encountered an angel anyway. An angel named Don Ritchie ~
He died in 2012. For the last fifty years he lived just a few yards from the Gap, or more accurately, from the notorious Watson’s Bay Cliff. For fifty years he’s saved lives, not ten or twenty, but hundreds.
Since 1964, when he moved into his house on Old South Head Road, he’s been watching out his window. At the beginning, he’d run out and physically hold them back—one time, even tackling someone—while his wife Moya called in the police. But then later he started inviting them into his house to talk—”for tea,” as the Australians say.
[Video via: Australian of the year Awards (2011)
Missing from the video, and other secular accounts of Don’s story, is really the most important element; his faith.
As Dr. Wiker relates, most versions of Ritchie’s life-saving experiences fail to mention – or even wonder about – the man’s motivation.
But why did he do it—he and his wife Moya? Fifty years of watching.
The press didn’t say. Nothing they quoted from the Angel of the Gap gave much of a clue. It was just as if he was a regular guy, giving jumpers a reason to live by giving them a cup of tea.
How nice.
But people don’t jump for lack of tea, and people don’t spend fifty years saving others, hovering over the Gap, due to a slight excess of niceness. The press also skipped over the fact that he very often risked his own life, climbing over the safety fence so he could get to them.
The secular press accounts lacked depth—the real depth of the despair of those who wanted to jump, and the real depth of the Angel standing at the Gap for half a century and snatching them.
What was Don Ritchie saying to those who, crushed by blackness within, were about to jump into the blackness below?
What would Don Ritchie have said to Robin Williams?
The more I read, the less I knew.
Here’s what Dr. Wiker discovered about Don and his wonderful life story – so much more inspiring than anything our celebrity-obsessed culture has to offer ~
I finally came across a clue. Witness the words of Father Tony Doherty:
“I met him forty years ago. It was at Watsons Bay, I was driving home at about 1am. There were a group of guys at the Gap. I edged my way in tentatively… Here’s a figure who was lying down on his stomach, talking to a terrified little Vietnamese chap, who was just over the edge and threatening to jump. I watched this figure gradually encourage him to come back to the safety of the cliff. He has this wonderful soft, appealing voice that encouraged this little fellow not to jump, it turned out to be Don.”
Hanging over the edge of a cliff at 1 a.m., slowly, carefully, sweating every second.
What the press didn’t mention was that the Angel of the Gap was a Christian.
I wondered if the secular press avoided this at all costs? Perhaps they didn’t want to let it be known that just perhaps, the Angel of the Gap was motivated not by the limpid deity of niceness, but the God of Abraham, the God of David, the God made flesh in Jesus Christ.
“Aha!” I thought. Now I believe I know why he did it, and what he was so gently saying at the edge of the cliff, and during tea at his house. He knew there was something more than mere comfort, mere pleasure, fame and fortune—something deeper, something better.
But if you take that something out, there’s only a voracious black depth beyond the shimmering promise on the surface.
We don’t want to admit that despair can be so black and so deep, that only God can lift us out, because that would be to admit that modern secular life, which would seem to offer every physical benefit, every pleasure, every intoxicating fantasy, leaves us in the end writhing in agony in a darkness that all too often engulfs precisely those who, like Robin Williams, seem to have it all.
If money and material success and fame cannot make us happy and keep us happy, as the secular gospel proclaims, then maybe we just might be open to listening to a wonderful, soft appealing voice, a still small voice like Don Ritchie’s.
Check out the latest in a series of videos from LiveAction.org. It shows Planned Parenthood counseling kids that there’s nothing at all wrong with a little S & M ~
Anything in the sexual world is “normal” as long as it’s consensual.
If it’s consensual, it’s not abuse.
If you’re OK with pain, that’s OK. As long as you’re having “safe” sex, it’s cool.
Never mind that it’s totally sick psychologically. Or that dabbling in sadomasochism will almost certainly ruin the chances of a young woman (or young man) ever having a healthy, loving, monogamous relationship later in life. And forget that common sense has determined that 15 year-old children are not yet mature or responsible enough to even be issued a drivers’ license…
No kids, all you need to remember is the new Planned Parenthood mantra: “If it’s consensual, it’s OK.”
Dear Lord. What a horrible time to be a teenager in America 🙁
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Related:
Can we defund Planned Parenthood yet? ~ At least they should change that outdated name to Planned Perversion. “Parenthood” is the last thing they’re concerned with.
Progressive types always want to be perceived as compassionate, as so very solicitous of the poor, underprivileged and disadvantaged – or at least much more so than the evil, cold-hearted conservatives. And of course it’s because they’re so very concerned about the future of humanity, that they feel compelled to save the planet from the looming specter of climate change.
Yes, our friends on the Left seem so well-intentioned, so very noble (Especially crawling around in a bio-hazard suit 😀 ). But every once in a while, a member of the ruling class slips up, and unwittingly exposes the glaring hypocrisy behind their appealing-but-empty rhetoric. Like, for instance, our I-married-an-heiress Secretary of State:
The U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit in DC had its moments, but perhaps none was more idiotic than John Kerry’s “contribution” to ending starvation and malnutrition in Africa […]
… (during a meeting of the) “Resilience and Food Security in a Changing Climate” panel, Secretary of State John Kerry told an audience that “8,000 children die every day” and in sub-Sahara Africa, one in four suffer from chronic hunger.
Then a few minutes later, he stressed how creating new farms would cause too much carbon pollution so they need to discourage more farm land.
😯
In other words, it’s unfortunate, but those poor kids will just have to starve because we have to save the planet (from a faux threat!)! Although they’re usually not quite so transparent as Kerry was last week, the Left arrogantly believes it’s perfectly acceptable to retard economic growth and limit civilizational advances in developing countries in the name of pseudo-science.
Paul Driessen discusses this nefarious phenomenon in his book “Eco-Imperialism: Green Power Black Death,” revealing the dark secret of the ideological environmental movement ~
The movement imposes the views of mostly wealthy, comfortable Americans and Europeans on mostly poor, desperate Africans, Asians and Latin Americans. It violates these people’s most basic human rights, denying them economic opportunities, the chance for better lives, the right to rid their countries of diseases that were vanquished long ago in Europe and the United States.
Incredibly, these first world elitists have deemed the third world unworthy of improving their standard of living, reducing disease or extending life spans. Those modest goals must be sacrificed on the altar of Climatism, to atone for “carbon pollution.”
Steve Gorham coined that term for climate alarmists, in “The Mad, Mad, Mad World of Climatism.” His book relates how the U.S. is a prime offender when it comes to denying developing nations the means to improve their standards of living.
For example, in April 2010 the World Bank approved a $3.9 billion loan to South Africa for the proposed Medupi power station – which would be the fourth largest coal-fired power station in the world. The U.S., a voting member of the World Bank, abstained from approving that loan. Why? Ostensibly, they had ~
… concerns about the climate impact of the project and its compatibility with the World Bank’s commitment to be a leader in climate change mitigation and adaptation.
The UK and three other arrogant, first-worlder Euro-Nations abstained as well; we got ours – too bad about you peons. Or, as Gorham puts it ~
It’s the sorry position of our governments that Africans should not have electricity for refrigerators to reduce food-spoilage disease, for hospitals to improve health, and for factories to build economic growth and reduce poverty, if such electricity is produced by hydrocarbon power plants.
(Luckily for the people of South Africa, the power station project was approved – no thanks to their high-minded first-world friends.)
Ultimately, for progressives, it’s about power – not people. Their priorities are upside-down. And if these enviro-elitists aren’t thwarted, in their zeal to save the earth from a bogus threat they’ll “condemn billions of people to continued poverty and disease – and millions to premature death.” (Paul Driessen ~ “Eco-Imperialism”)
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Related:
Unmasking the Greens’ Anti-Human Agenda
Water is Life ~ Just to provide a welcome contrast, here is what a conservative Christian group (Samaritan’s Purse) is doing to help improve the lives of those in developing nations ~
It is estimated that 1.58 million people die each year from diarrheal diseases caused by unclean water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene habits. This is equivalent to one person dying every 20 seconds. The majority of these are children in developing countries.
Providing clean water, coupled with health and hygiene education, is perhaps the most preventative measure we can take in keeping our world from infectious disease.
Up-date 8-14-14:
Kerry: Climate Change is ‘The Biggest Challenge of All That We Face Right Now’ ~ Seriously?! Is Lurch living in an alternative universe? Let’s see; the Middle East is on fire, our country has been invaded by illegal aliens, Ferguson, Missouri is imploding… and the Secretary of State is in Hawaii peddling a big lie called climate change.
When an agenda is being driven this relentlessly, you’ve got to wonder; what is their end game?!
I fear that the anarchy we’ve seen unfold in downtown Ferguson, Missouri over the last couple of days really does represent the demise of civility in America. The situation there – after an unarmed black man was fatally shot by police – is starting to resemble the mindless violence we see in some third world countries:
Ferguson, Missouri Unrest Enters Second Night: Police Confront Angry Mob with Tear Gas, Tanks ~
Unrest continued for a second night in a St. Louis suburb where rioting, looting, arson and vandalism marked a hellish night Sunday […]
Authorities blocked off access to Ferguson on Monday night and KTVI-TV reported that police in riot gear were using tear gas to disperse a crowd of protesters. It said there were reports of rubber bullets being fired. KMOV-TV said the tear gas was being fired at people gathering near a major intersection.
Ben Shapiro at Breitbart notes the growing frequency of these troubling outbreaks of violence ~
When Obama was elected in 2008, many Americans hoped that racial conflict in the country would calm. Instead, precisely the reverse seems to have occurred […]
… with every controversial police shooting of a minority victim, the possibility of riots looms these days. That’s been true since well before President Obama took office, thanks to a racial grievance industry based on the tacit threat of violence. But President Obama has done little to tamp down that industry and much to energize it.
Exactly. And again – with this latest incident of mob violence – notably absent is any effort on the part of our executive-in-chief to call for restraint, patience, and personal responsibility from the protestors. Instead, by implication (sending the FBI in to investigate the cops), the president seems to actually approve of the riots.
Real leaders are supposed to inspire, to appeal to our better natures. Yet all the former community organizer seems inclined to do is instigate further discord.
No good can come to America from these continual uprisings.
But maybe “no good” is exactly what Obama is looking for….
… Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
William Butler Yeats ~ The Second Coming
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Related:
Rabbi in Miami Murdered, Jihad against Jews has come to America? ~
There was no theft of property from the Rabbi’s person, then what was the motive? This was most probably an act of hate, few weeks before a synagogue was daubed with swastika and Hamas graffiti. It is time for Jewish leaders to unite to demand that so called “moderate” muslims not just speak out but route out the bad guys. Further that we as country need to survey Mosques that preach hate i.e. advancement of “killing the Jews” which is not free speech but incitement to murder.
This was almost certainly a “hate-crime.” So where are the riots in Florida?
Oh yeah. Different strokes for different folks.
James O’Keefe (Project Veritas) disguised himself as the former Al-Qaeda terrorist to expose our nonexistent southern border ~
Random links of interest, concern or curiosity from the past week or so, that deserve at least a SHORT mention:
No, it’s not just our imagination. All told – In 2014, Obama has been late by more than 35 hours ~ Detailed study on the president’s tardiness. On average, he’s kept others waiting 11 minutes. Yes, it’s good to be king.
US is Bankrupt: $89.5 Trillion in US Liabilities vs. $82 Trillion in Household Net Worth & The Gap is Growing ~
If you add it all up…
Liabilities include: Treasury debt held by the public or more broadly total Treasury debt outstanding. There’s unfunded liabilities like Medicare and Social Security.
And then the assets: all the real estate, all the equities, all the bonds, all the deposits…all at today’s valuations…
… it ain’t pretty.
‘Unending stream of mindless bile’: James Woods retweets liberal followers ~ The actor shared a slew of venomous tweets he recently received from angry anti-Semites. Illustrative of the ignorant profanity fostered by radical Leftist indoctrination.
Hamas’ disturbing ‘human shields’ manual ~
The Israeli military said it has captured a Hamas manual on urban warfare — called “Introduction to the City War” — that extols the benefits of civilian deaths and openly admits that Israel tries to avoid them […]
“The destruction of civilian homes: This increases the hatred of the citizens toward the attackers and increases their gathering around [to support] the city defenders,” the manual said, according to the IDF.
And yet, there are many voices of sanity among the terror-state (unfortunately, not the loudest ones) who recognize true evil when they see it ~ ‘Allah Curse Them!’ Gazans’ Harsh Words for Hamas ~
A poll taken days before the conflict started found that 70 percent of Gazans supported better relations with the Jewish state […]
“The government in Gaza doesn’t do anything. Even on the radio, they don’t talk about how we are suffering. May Allah curse them!”
“We need peace with the Jewish people, good relations, not war.”
The Truth about Gaza ~ Charles Krauthammer provides a refreshing dose of Middle East reality.
Vietnam Communists call for democracy, shift away from China ~ At first I thought this was an Onion (satirical) article – but no – it’s legit ~
Sixty-one prominent members of Vietnam’s Communist Party, including a former ambassador to Beijing, urged Vietnam’s leadership in an open letter to change its political system, “develop a truly democratic, law-abiding state,” allow for greater freedom of political speech and “escape” from its reliance on China.
Wow. If only they had figured this out decades ago. The American blood and treasure we could have saved…
Libertarian Folly: Why Everybody is a Social-issues Voter ~ Still think it’s possible to exist intellectually with two separate sets of values? Excellent article by Selwyn Duke at American Thinker succinctly explains the fallacies behind that concept ~
…the way to determine if one’s principles are sound is by seeing if they can be consistently applied. For instance, if someone claims he never judges others, it’s legitimate to ask whether he remains uncritical even of Nazis and KKK members; that puts the lie to his self-image. And any thinking person lives an examined life and tries to hone his principles […]
After all, what are “social issues”? What are we actually talking about? We’re speaking of moral issues, which, again, thoroughly modern millie would say should be kept out of politics. But this is impossible. For the truth is that every just law is an imposition of morality or a corollary thereof — every one.
“We have staked the whole of all our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.”
~ James Madison, Father of the Constitution
[And we wonder why the country’s going to hell in a hand-basket?]
Officially it was the U.S.–Africa Leaders Summit Dinner. The UK Daily Mail dubbed it Obama’s monsters ball. I prefer Dining with Dictators.
Call it what you will, it was truly an unprecedented event. Never before has such a miserable collection of the world’s authoritarian rulers been assembled together and “honored” with a White House dinner.
The Thursday night event was attended by more than 50 African-nation dignitaries and their spouses. “Esteemed” guests included:
EQUATORIAL GUINEA PRESIDENT TEODORO OBIANG NGUEMA MBASOGO ~
• Shoots or jails virtually all political opponents and rules the country with an iron fist
• Lives in luxury while the average income of the country’s citizens is only $2 a day
BURKINA FASO PRESIDENT BLAISE COMPAORE ~
• Seized power by bloody coup
• In 2011 he watched as protests gave way to calls for his resignation over claims of police brutality and government corruption
CAMEROON PRESIDENT PAUL BIYA ~
• Master of election fraud (no doubt he’s giving Obama some tips)
• State security forces have been accused of a host of heinous acts, including the killing of as many as 100 protesters in 2009 and the use of violence, arbitrary arrests and unlawful detentions to prevent opposition political activists from holding meetings [Source: CBS News]
ANGOLAN PRESIDENT JOSE EDUARDO DO SANTOS ~
• Has murdered many, consolidating all political power in the diamond- and oil-rich country under his control
• Torture and repression of ethnic minorities continue to be reported on in Angola [Source: CBS News]
KENYAN PRESIDENT UHURU KENYATTA ~
• Pled innocent to murder and other charges for an alleged role in organizing violence that left more than 1,000 people dead after Kenya’s 2007 elections
• #43 on Open Doors World Watch list of nations where Christians face persecution
GAMBIA PRESIDENT YAHYA JAMMEH ~
• Accused of countless breaches of human rights
• In 2009 it was reported that up to 1,000 Gambians were abducted by the government on charges of witchcraft – they were taken to prisons and forced to drink poison
RWANDA PRESIDENT PAUL KAGAME ~
• Autocratic government overregulation keeps the downtrodden down
• Auspicious number of public and political opponents have been harassed, disappeared, or have died in increasingly suspicious circumstances.
The government’s commanding presence in Rwandan lives is aggressively maintained by Kagame and a clique of other former Tutsi refugees from Uganda[…]
While government officials are expected to implement policies that cannot be enacted and dissent is out of the question, people are being forced to follow a blizzard of regulations.
[Source: New York Times]
NIGERIAN PRESIDENT GOODLUCK JONATHAN ~
(Although the Left loves a dictator, you’d think they’d shun this guy…)
• Signed harsh anti-gay laws this year – dozens of homosexuals already jailed
• Accused of pardoning corrupt politicians
• #14 on Open Doors World Watch list of nations where Christians face persecution
To be more fair than the administration deserves, the worst of the African tyrants were left off the guest list ~
Four leaders of the continent’s most notorious autocracies — Sudan’s Omar al-Bashir, Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe, Eritrea’s Isaias Afewerki and the Central African Republic’s interim President Catherine Samba-Panza — were barred from the summit.
Source: NY Daily News
But far too many of those who did attend are Fidel Castro wannabees. And the unfortunate people of the African nations subjected to these “leaders” share the common woes of despotic rule:
• Elections are only held for a pretense of democracy; dictators are inevitably re-elected with 99% of the vote
• Laws serve only to tighten the screws, or preserve the status quo
• A small ruling elite rules over an impoverished underclass; the average citizen never benefits from the fruits of any of their country’s natural resources
• Feigning empathy while living in the lap of luxury, the demagogues have no sincere humanitarian concern for the underprivileged
(What’s not to love? You can certainly see why Barack Obama seems to feel such an affinity with these thugs!)
This travesty was an affront to America’s founding principles and to her people. Let’s hope that this was not only the first – but the last – of such outrageous events.
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Related:
U.S.-Africa summit did not address human rights violations committed by some of the continent’s leaders: advocates
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