
Iranian has the biggest Jewish community in the Middle East after Israel

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Tony Blair Praises the QuranTony Blair made some chilling comments about the Quran in a speech given to the Foreign Policy Centre and Reuters. I fear he will regret his words. Saying:
"The Qur’an "is practical and way ahead of its time". "The most remarkable thing about reading the Koran – in so far as it can be truly translated from the original Arabic - is to understand how progressive it is.
"I speak with great diffidence and humility as a member of another faith. I am not qualified to make any judgements. But as an outsider, the Koran strikes me as a reforming book, trying to return Judaism and Christianity to their origins, rather as reformers attempted with the Christian Church centuries later. It is inclusive. It extols science and knowledge and abhors superstition. It is practical and way ahead of its time in attitudes to marriage, women and governance," he said.
He added that under the guidance of the Qur’an, the spread of Islam and its dominance over previously Christian or pagan lands was "breathtaking".
"Over centuries it founded an Empire, leading the world in discovery, art and culture. We look back to the early Middle Ages, the standard bearers of tolerance at that time were far more likely to be found in Muslim lands than in Christian," he declared. source
What is Tony Blair thinking? He obviously has not read an ACCURATE translation of the Quran. Is he just trying to suck up to the enemy? Is he so afraid of the large number of muslims in his own country that he would make these obviously incorrect statements?
Mike Jericho at Adversus Monstrum says:
Incorrect in every meaningful sense. At the time of the Islamic invasions, non-Muslims were forced to convert or face death or enslavement. Those who eventually escaped enslavement either converted or were forced to pay the Jizyah (a form of religious tax which Muslims did not pay) and they were relegated to second-class citizens under the process of Islamic religious persecution known as Dhimmitude.
I cannot understand how Blair - himself allegedly a Christian - has the cojones to do this as in Afghanistan, a Christian convert is under sentence of death for the heinous crime of rejecting Islam.
But I can't say much. While I haven't heard President Bush mention the Quran, he always refers to Islam as the religion of peace. Our leaders, both US and British, need to see Islam and the Quran realilstically. I have a few books I would recommend they and everyone read.
Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis, Bat Ye'Or The Force of Reason, by The Force of Reason
The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (And the Crusades), by Robert Spencer
The Dawning of a New Dark Age: A Collection of Essays on Islam, by Mark Alexander
Here is a book review from Amazon.com on just one of the books, Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis:
Bat Ye'or is the world's preeminent historian of Islam, jihad and dhimmitude--the reduced state of non-Muslim peoples living under Islamic rule. Here, she has masterfully portrayed the means by which the Euro-Arab Dialogue (EAD) unfolded over the past 30-plus years, and how that process relates to the World War II Axis--as well as the historical, 1,400-year jihad. "There are three forms of jihad," says Bat Ye'or today, "the military jihad, the economic jihad and the cultural jihad." The EAD between the European Union and the Arab League has been a means of spreading the economic and cultural jihads from the Middle East to Europe.
The process outlined here began with Charles DeGualle's 1967 pronouncement that henceforward, France would assume a pro-Arab policy. In 1971, France began selling arms to Qaddafi, a step from which the EAD flowed as naturally as it did from DeGualle's policy initiative.
Another factor, according to Bat Ye'or, was the French desire to regain a leading role in European history; Georges Pompidou furthered the process in October 1973, following the Syrian and Egyptian Yom Kippur war with Israel.
At that time, the Arab world imposed an oil embargo on Denmark, Holland and the U.S., cut oil production and began to raise oil prices by five percent a month. These new global geopolitics terrified the leaders of Germany and France.
Before it agreed to establish the EAD, the Arab League had demanded that Europe establish pro-Arab and anti-American policies in all their united political, cultural and economic endeavors. The oil embargo was the catalyst which finally moved the European Economic Community to action. Now, writes Bat Ye'or, EEC ministers enacted resolutions that met the Arab demands, and which at the same time reversed the true intent of United Nations Resolution 242. Only then was the Arab oil embargo to Europe lifted.
Through this give and take, Europe was mostly on the losing end, for the EAD contained from the start a significant rider to its economic agreements concerning oil. Now, a process unfolded whereby Arab culture, politics and faith were imported into Europe along with a militant Muslim population that refused to assimilate into European culture. Arab culture did not change, while European universities and politics changed radically.
Bat Ye'or also shows how the EAD renewed and fostered Europe's Axis ties to the Middle East: In the late 1940s and 1950s war criminals fled Europe to Egypt, Syria and other Arab nations. Now, Axis links to Europe were rekindled through the Middle Eastern policies imported into Europe. The new Europe was built on a unified anti-Israel and anti-American policy.
As Bat Ye'or also suggests, America is the last frontier, and the American people should take it as their duty to avoid Europe's fate.
Read this book for the depressing details.
--Alyssa A. Lappen, Amazon.com
If that doesn't go against what Tony Blair said, I don't know what would.
So for those who are sitting in their soon-to-be-foreclosed-on homes financed with FHA or subprime mortgages, a little bit of righteous indignation seems to be in order over therejection of The Bush Bailout Plan by Congress. That was your ticket out, right? Big deal if you bought a house you knew you couldn’t afford with taxpayer subsidies! You’re entitled to a rescue! Well, you might want to keep your shirt on for the moment, unless that was purchased with make-believe credit, too. The bailout plan put before Congress isn’t exactly something that would’ve been good for America. The plan contained a very sly stipulation that would’ve given Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson more power than God.
At face value, “bailout plan” sounds well and good to those who have no objections to socialist economic policies. Ah, but the plan was not so benign. The law contained the following insidious and downright frightening provision: “Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.” Translation: Henry Paulson can do whatever the hell he wants. To a lesser extent, so can his agency at its “discretion.” But beware-discretion is soon to be the new fascism.
Under the bailout plan that Congress had the good sense to shut down, Henry Paulson would have basically been allowed to make unilateral decisions, all while enjoying the unparalleled pleasure of an accountability-free reign. He could rule with an iron fist, toying with the nation’s economic equilibrium, and no one would be able to say a word. So let’s recap how this kind of dictatorial strategy has fared throughout history. Consider the following rip-roaring success stories and all-around just nice guys:
Sometimes “crises” force politicians to do foolish things. Even more so than usual. For example, 9/11 was the impetus for the Patriot Act, which also managed to completely circumvent court oversight. Abuses of power and a sort of extreme-sports eavesdropping went down, and the bill managed to totally buck any kind of judicial review. Thus, the scuttlebutt has pegged the defeated bailout plan as the Patriot Act of finances. And, really, who could argue? This moment calls for a cliché: absolute power corrupts absolutely.
The government is an easy whipping boy when economic hard time strike. The media creates what I like to call a CINO (a crisis in name only), people panic, causing the market to take a dive, and, because it’s an election year, suddenly politicians are in a feverish frenzy to “fix” the alleged crisis. But, honestly, has the government ever really fixed anything?! Government attempts to correct the market always fail miserably, as do most government plans to remedy situations. It’s like when the dishwasher would break in your house, and your dad, eager to demonstrate his mechanical prowess, would refuse to call a professional and instead try to fix it himself. Before you know it, you’re sleeping on a mattress of dirty dinner plates, the kitchen’s on fire, you can’t find the dog, and the whole fiasco ends up costing you more, in stress, money, and time, than it would’ve if your dad had just stayed out of it.
Like it or not, we’re sticking with the dishwasher analogy. In the case of our economic “crisis,” the professional dishwasher repair man is what the father of modern economics, Adam Smith, called “the invisible hand.” Notice that he did not say the very visible hand (or iron fist) of Henry Paulson, Barack Obama, or Dubya (God love him). The market naturally goes through vicissitudes-ups and downs that are part of the economic cycle. What really screws the economy up is when Dad, representing almost any politician today, comes along and tries to fix something he’s incapable of fixing and probably had a role in breaking in the first place. A Henry Paulson dictatorship is not going to fix the economy. Remember “laissez-faire,” that vaguely familiar term from high school econ and the cornerstone of capitalism? Literally, it means, “let do.” In other words, leave it alone, Henry Paulson. Leave it alone, George W. Bush. Leave it alone, two buffoons who are running for president.
The current administration has taken its best shot at the economic crisis, and I use the term loosely, and failed. Congress rejected the plan, thankfully, but, had the bill passed, the equivalent of the Patriot Act of finances would have been upon us. I’m going out on a limb here, but Henry Paulson dictating monetary policy with unbridled power may not be the answer. So what IS the answer?? New leadership? Doubt it. Let’s evaluate John Sidney McCain III and Barack Hussein Obama II on this issue.
John McCain has entered Congress in 1982. His career in the Senate began in 1987. Age-wise, John is in his early hundreds. The point: McCain has had ample time to “fix” and perhaps even foresee this crisis, but he has seen fit to do so only in the month before a presidential election in which he is the Republican nominee. Something smacks of political expediency, wouldn’t you say? You have to remember when politicians throw around phrases like “suspending my campaign to fix the economic crisis,” this really can just be summed up in one word: gimmick.
Now onto the political Messiah, Barack Obama. First, recall that one of the biggest disasters that kick-started this economic panic was the failure of the Lehman Brothers, whose collapse was traced to corruption and abject stupidity at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. These two massive mortgage banks continued to survive, doling out loans to deadbeats who were clearly terrible credit risks to begin with, but how could any business manage that? The answer: political contributions. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were bedfellows with a number of senators in order to keep their unsound and floundering business afloat. Now guess the politician who received the second-largest amount of political donations from these banks, despite having only been in the Senate for four years. None other than Barack Obama.
Bottom line, we don’t need Dad, Obama, Bush, Paulson, or any other politician fixing our economic dishwasher. We have one Patriot Act, and that’s plenty.
Published words and the NZRU explanation
"Kapa o Pango"
Kapa o Pango kia whakawhenua au i ahau!
All Blacks, let me become one with the land
Hī aue, hī!
Ko Aotearoa e ngunguru nei!
This is our land that rumbles
Au, au, aue hā!
It’s my time! It’s my moment!
Ko Kapa o Pango e ngunguru nei!
This defines us as the All Blacks
Au, au, aue hā!
It’s my time! It’s my moment!
I āhahā!
Ka tū te ihiihi
Our dominance
Ka tū te wanawana
Our supremacy will triumph
Ki runga ki te rangi e tū iho nei, tū iho nei, hī!
And be placed on high
Ponga rā!
Silver fern!
Kapa o Pango, aue hī!
All Blacks!
Ponga rā!
Silver fern!
Kapa o Pango, aue hī, hā!
All Blacks!
Words chanted on field, and their literal interpretation
Taringa whakarongo!
Let your ears listen
Kia rite! Kia rite! Kia mau! Hī!
Get ready...! Line up...! Steady...! Yeah!
Kia whakawhenua au i ahau!
Let me become one with the land
Hī aue, hī!
(assertive sounds to raise adrenaline levels)
Ko Aotearoa e ngunguru nei!
New Zealand is rumbling here
Ko Kapa o Pango e ngunguru nei!
The Team in Black is rumbling here
Au, au, aue hā!
I āhahā!
Ka tū te ihiihi
Stand up to the fear
Ka tū te wanawana
Stand up to the terror
Ki runga ki te rangi,
To the sky above,!
E tū iho nei, tū iho nei, hī!
Fight up there, high up there. Yeah!
Ponga rā!
The shadows fall!
Kapa o Pango, aue hī!
Team in Black, yeah!
Ponga rā!
Darkness falls!
Kapa o Pango, aue hī, hā!
Team in Black, Yeah, Ha!
The words of both 'Kapa o Pango' and 'Ko Niu Tireni' are taken from the haka of the earthquake god Ruaumoko, Ko Ruaumoko e ngunguru nei. The lines beginning Ka tū te ihi-ihi... are found in many old haka.Ponga ra, ponga ra is the opening line of 'Te Kiri Ngutu,' an 1880s lament for stolen territory.
The Da Vinci Code is a controversial mystery/detective novel by US author Dan Brown, published in 2003 by Doubleday. It follows symbologistRobert Langdon as he investigates a murder in the Louvre, and discovers a battle between the Priory of Sion and Opus Dei over the possibility ofJesus having been married to and fathering children with Mary Magdalene.
This novel has provoked a popular interest in speculation concerning the Holy Grail legend and the role of Mary Magdalene in the history of Christianity. The novel has been extensively criticized by Catholics and other Christians as a dishonest attack on the Church. It has also been criticized for historical inaccuracy.
Dan Brown's novel was a major success in 2004 and at times it was outsold only by the highly popular Harry Potter series.[1] It spawned a number of offspring books and drew glowing reviews from the New York Times, People Magazine and the Washington Post.[2] It also re-ignited interest in the history of the Roman Catholic Church. Additionally, The Da Vinci Code, itself preceded by other Grail books such as The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail by Michael Baigent and others, and Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum, has inspired a number of novels very similar to it, including Raymond Khoury's The Last Templar, and The Templar Legacy by Steve Berry.
It is a worldwide bestseller which had 60.5 million copies in print by May 2006 and has been translated into 44 languages. It is thought to be the 19th best-selling book of all time. Combining the detective, thriller and conspiracy fiction genres, the book is the second book by Dan Brown to include the character Robert Langdon, the first being his 2000 novel Angels and Demons. In November 2004 Random House published a "Special Illustrated Edition" with 160 illustrations.
In 2006, a film adaptation, The Da Vinci Code, was released by Columbia Pictures.