Collected in my tab-bar since I started feeling cruddy<\/strong> \u2013 might as well share with you all the things I have either read or \u201cbeen meaning to get to reading\u2026<\/em>\u201d All submitted mostly without comment, because I\u2019m still not 100%.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are at war\u2026\u201d<\/a>:<\/p>\n The president went on to say that while America will strengthen its defenses, \u201cwe will not succumb to a siege mentality that sacrifices the open society and liberties and values that we cherish as Americans, because great and proud nations don\u2019t hunker down and hide behind walls of suspicion and mistrust.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat is exactly what our adversaries want,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd so long as I am president, we will never hand them that victory.\u201d <\/p><\/blockquote>\n Yeah\u2026that\u2019s one of the reasons Bush said, after 9\/11, \u201cgo shopping, go on vacation.\u201d And it\u2019s one of the reasons Bush put into place all those \u201cImperialist\u201d and \u201cconstitution-shredding\u201d measures that Obama has kept in place.<\/p>\n Who is the Real Enemy?<\/a><\/p>\n Apparently, the Obama administration came into office in January 2009 thinking that the notion of a \u201cwar on terror\u201d was archaic and largely had been an excuse for the Bush-Cheney nexus to scare the nation for partisan political purposes. Given the long period of calm after 9\/11, the somnolent \u201cgood\u201d war in Afghanistan, and the sudden quiet in the \u201cbad\u201d Iraq theater, Obama preferred to focus on Bush\u2019s constitution-shredding rather than on national security. What vestigial danger remained could be changed by the charisma of Barack Obama, the obvious appeal of his ancestry to the Muslim world, and the ritual demonization of George Bush.<\/p>\n But Obama has discovered that there really are radical Islamic threats; that Bush\u2019s record of seven years of security was no accident; and that the \u201cgood\u201d war is heating up. Obama has been forced by events to quietly find ways of emulating Bush\u2019s successful anti-terrorism formula, while making loud but empty declarations to mollify his liberal base (which so far seems pacified that Guantanamo is \u201cvirtually\u201d closed, and that KSM is \u201cvirtually\u201d facing an ACLU dream trial).<\/p>\n Radical Islamists sense, fairly or not, that this administration is angrier at prior officials who kept us safe than it is at those who wish to destroy us for who we are. Given his adoption of the Bush protocols, Obama might show the same magnanimity toward his predecessor that he does toward the Muslim world.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The Message Filters Down<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cWe are at war; we are at war against Al Qaeda\u2026\u201d Reality Strikes Home<\/a>.<\/p>\n Live Blogged Excerpts<\/a>.<\/p>\n Drew wonders<\/a>: \u201c. . .if we are at war with al Qaeda as Obama just said, why are we sending them to civilian courts?\u201d<\/em> I\u2019m glad the president is \u201cless interested in passing out blame\u2026\u201d Perhaps, a year into his presidency, the daily Bush-blaming will end.<\/p>\n No Specific Mention of \u201cTerrorism\u201d in Undie-bomber Indictment<\/a><\/p>\n Further Limitations on Civil Liberties<\/a>:<\/p>\n Many of us said during the days of the Bush administration that restrictions on civil liberties motivated by the conflict with Al Qaeda would be maintained during any subsequent administration, whether Democratic or Republican, as long as the terrorist threat remained. This prediction has been amply confirmed. The most recent example is the implementation of an explicit profiling program for airline passengers. The ACLU aside, there has not been much criticism of this initiative. (Maybe because some of the most prominent critics of the Bush administration\u2019s counterterror policies are now members of the Obama administration.)<\/p>\n The persistence of policies across ideologically divided administrations is good evidence that those policies are now mainstream rather than partisan and ideological. Of course, many people will continue to disagree with them, just as many people continue to object to a standing army and a central bank; but these people are now officially on the fringes. There will also continue to be arguments about interrogation practices and the like, but a wide range of Bush administration policies\u2014indefinite detention without charges, trials by military commission, the use of military force against suspected terrorists in foreign countries, secrecy privileges that undermine litigation against government officials responsible for terrorism policies, profiling on the basis of nationality, and much else\u2014are now politically entrenched.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Is Obama raising a mustache?<\/p>\n \u201cBuck Stops With Me\u201d; Ace Not Having It<\/a><\/p>\n What Does the Detroit Bomber Know<\/a> and is the US interested in finding out?<\/p>\n Year One W\/ President at War with Reality<\/a><\/p>\n Profiles of the CIA\u2019s Dead<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cAll Major Taliban Leaders are Former Gitmo Prisoners\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n Gitmo Prisoners want to stay in Cuba<\/a>. Damn straight. It\u2019s warmer,<\/em> there.<\/p>\n Christian Conservatism as Myth<\/a><\/p>\n Waking Up God<\/a><\/p>\n Here is What Really Worries the Pentagon<\/a><\/p>\n Spending is Up Over 23% Under Obama<\/a><\/p>\n A Pop Quiz<\/a><\/p>\n Threats Watch Daily Briefings<\/a><\/p>\n Terror Recruiting Tools?<\/a><\/p>\n Connecting Really Big Dots<\/a><\/p>\n Mass in Slow Motion<\/a>:<\/p>\n \u2026it always ends in this or a similar manner: and so with angels and archangels and the whole company of heaven we sing the unending hymn of your praise: Holy, Holy, Holy\u2026.<\/em> And thus we are reminded that our worship is caught up into the heavenly liturgy where our voices join innumerable angels and saints in the glorious act of praise. We are in heaven! Our hearts (our very selves) are aloft! . . . Until recently Churches were designed to remind us that we were entering heaven. As we walk into older churches we are surrounded by windows and paintings that depict the angels and saints. Christ is at the center in the tabernacle. And all the elements that scripture speaks of as in the heavenly liturgy are on display not only in the building but in the celebration of the liturgy: Candles, incense, an altar, the hymns that are sung, the Holy Holy Holy, the scroll is brought forward in the Book of Gospels, the lamb on the throne-like altar, , the prostrations and kneelings of the saints before the Lord. All these things are described in the Book of Revelation descriptions of the heavenly liturgy. None of these things are in our churches or the liturgy for arbitrary reasons. We are in the heavenly realms and the heavenly liturgy and so we see and experience heavenly things. Hearts aloft!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n 400 Years Ago Today<\/a><\/p>\n 2009 Study Confirms Abortion\/Breast Cancer Link<\/a>. Wrote about this from an intuitive standpoint<\/a>, ages ago.<\/p>\n Behind Closed Doors<\/a><\/p>\n A Surge of Air Marshalls<\/a><\/p>\n Geithners Fed Told AIG to Limit Swaps Disclosure<\/a><\/p>\n Obama Used Us as A Political Football!<\/a><\/p>\n Why Are Empires Buried Under Afghanistan?<\/a><\/p>\n Newtie Not Lovin\u2019 the Obama Machine<\/a><\/p>\n Letterman Offends Gays, Transgendered<\/a>. Hmmm, that reminds me of this anecdote<\/a>:<\/p>\n Louise Casselman, who was at that White House Yale reunion with her husband, Kirk Casselman and a Bay Area contingent, says that although Yale was still all-male in 1968, one alum has since had a sex-change operation. \u201cYou might remember me as Peter when we left Yale,\u201d said the woman upon coming face to face with the president. George W. didn\u2019t pause for a moment, reports Casselman, grabbed the alumna\u2019s hand, and said \u201cNow you\u2019ve come back as yourself.\u201d <\/p><\/blockquote>\n Who are the intolerant morons, again?<\/p>\n The Social Security Deficit<\/a>.<\/p>\n Britain faces coldest night yet<\/a> and The UK Has 8 Days of Gas Left<\/a>. Better be nice to Putin.<\/p>\n Worldwide Cold Not Seen since \u201970\u2019s Ice Age Scare<\/a><\/p>\n Climategate and the Migrating Arctic Tree Line<\/a><\/p>\n What Happened to the Republicans I used to Know?<\/a><\/p>\n Michael Totten Excellent Interview w\/ Christopher Hitchens<\/a><\/p>\n Alicia Colon:<\/strong> Compares her chest pains to Rush Limbaugh\u2019s<\/a><\/p>\n WH: Hey, we told our counterterror chief to keep skiing after the Christmas bomber\u2026<\/a>. Panetta stayed on vacation too<\/a>. Come on! Terrorism was not supposed to be real or serious, anymore!<\/p>\n One Hour of Obamacare Negotiations<\/a><\/p>\n Constitutional Crisis and Security Crisis<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cA Triumph for Al Qaeda\u201d?<\/a><\/p>\n All 3 Domestic Terror Attacks of 2009 were Enabled by WH Reverse Profiling Orders\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n King James Bible, Catholic Edition<\/a><\/p>\n Do Only Radical Pacifists Oppose Torture?<\/a><\/p>\n Pro-Abortion Women and the US Army<\/a><\/p>\n The Ongoing Evolution of Secular Messianic Jesus<\/a><\/p>\n An anti-inflammatory drug that can prevent skin cancer?<\/a><\/p>\n