THE CHIEF DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CHRISTIANITY AND ISLAM

Michael Brown looks at religions' founders, writings, levels of tolerance  "The essential difference between Christianity and Islam is the difference between Jesus and Muhammad. Jesus was a spiritual leader who laid down His life to save the world. Muhammad was a spiritual leader who became a political leader, then a violent military leader. Jesus accomplished His mission by dying on the cross. Muhammad accomplished his mission (at least in large part) by ruling by the sword.

"There are, of course, great similarities between the world’s two largest religions. Both point to a holy book, allegedly inspired by God, for faith and practice. Both call for high moral standards and serious personal commitment. Both share common traditions, since Muhammad learned from Jews as well as Christians. And both have a vision to spread their faith around the world.

"But this is where the two faiths diverge. One follows the example of a crucified and risen Savior. The other follows the example of a prophet and military leader.

"And so, the biblical verses of violence (as in, “Kill the Canaanites”) were limited to a specific place and time, and no such commands are found on Jesus’ lips. The Quranic verses of violence (as in, “Kill the unbelievers wherever you find them”) do not have such obvious limitations. And so, while many Quranic interpreters and Islamic jurists claim that those verses cannot be applied indiscriminately today, others differ, proudly citing them in their jihadi manuals.

"Again, the difference is that of the cross vs. the sword. That’s why Jesus and His followers never established the death penalty for leaving the faith. Muhammad established it once he assumed military dominance. And the death penalty for apostasy from Islam remains in force in a number Islamic countries today.

"In the same spirit, Muhammad beheaded some of his enemies. Jesus forbade His followers from taking up the sword in His defense. The differences are glaring and clear.

American Silliness June 20, 2017

Dennis Rodman: ‘People Don’t See … The Good Side’ Of North Korea   "Former professional basketball player Dennis Rodman spoke out in an exclusive interview with ABC News about his recent trip to North Korea, suggesting that he is partly responsible for the reclusive nation’s release of American college student Otto Warmbier, who died last Monday, just days after being medically evacuated from a North Korean prison."

New Oakland Police Commission being created: 'Formerly incarcerated individuals encouraged to apply'   . . . "Those who seek to hobble police saw their opportunity and took it, capitalizing on voter hostility to the police at the moment and using ballot wording that obscured the worst aspects of their plan.

"Now it will become tougher to recruit cops for the Oakland P.D., and the officers on the street will hesitate more often, aware that people hostile to them may sit in judgment."

Pelosi Gives Incoherent Response To Trump Saying Her Being Dem Leader Helps GOP   . . . "Some Republican members have said that it would be good for their party if Pelosi remains the top Democrat in the House. These remarks followed heavy criticism from Democratic lawmakers of Pelosi’s leadership following Tuesday’s special election losses in Georgia and South Carolina." . . .

A Democratic Party official was booted after he allegedly wished Scalise dead

I'm glad he got shot. I'm not f**king saying that in public. I wish he was f**king dead.
—Phil Montag, former co-chair of tech committee

 

University of Georgia Socialist Group Calls for GOP Lawmakers to Be 'Guillotined'  . . . "Campus newspaper The Red & Black notes that the organization's former leader claims the tweet was a joke (because the only jokes anyone can make today must come at the expense of conservatives):" . . .

NJ Yearbook Advisor Suspended for Altering Photos of Kids Wearing Trump Shirts

NFL’s Kaepernick Compares Cops to Fugitive Slave Patrols

Everything That's Wrong With American Culture, Encapsulated in One Five Minute Music Video

On Mueller investigation, Trump should fight fire with fire

Karin McQuillan  "John Eastman, law professor at Chapman University, writes in American Greatness this week that the powers invested in Special Counsel Mueller to investigate "Russian hacking/collusion/obstruction poses grave dangers to our body politic and our liberty."  His advice to President Trump: Fight fire with fire.  Turn the law and the courts back on your opponents.  Trump is being investigated without any probable cause of a crime.  The Obama administration, in contrast, is a target-rich arena of criminal activity.

"It is unconstitutional to issue a search warrant when there has been no crime and there is no probable cause.  But that is exactly what President Trump's DOJ has inflicted on the president and his team with Mueller's special investigation.  It was not just cowardice, but folly for the DOJ to buckle to the left-wing media's hysterical insistence to investigate our president's alleged collusion with the FSB.  . . . 

"President Obama and his leftist minions spat on our constitution  and flouted the rule of law for eight long years.  Google "Obama flouts constitution," or see here and here and here and here and here.  Their abuse of power was ignored by the media and our partisan courts, but it has not been forgotten by conservatives. 

"President Trump's voters would like to see equality before the law upheld once again in America.  It is bad for our country that rich and powerful Democrat politicians and bureaucrats harm our national security and ruin other people's lives, in flagrant violation of the law, and are never held to account for their crimes." . . .  

Our friends and allies, the Saudis

'In their eyes the attackers are martyrs': Islamic sheikh claims Saudi Arabian team refused minute's silence for London terror victims because under Sharia law 'it's not a sin for a Muslim to kill a non-believer'

"An Islamic imam has suggested the Saudi Arabian team refused to take part in a minute's silence for the London terror victims because they believe 'it is not a sin for a Muslim to kill a non-believer'.

"Sheikh Mohammad Tawhidi says it is a 'lie' to say the Muslim culture does not remember the dead with a moment of silence, and instead argues the football team did not partake in the mourning because they stand with the jihadist men.

"'They did not stop for a moment of silence because according to Wahhabi Islam - which governs Saudi Arabia - it is not wrong or a sin for a Muslim to kill a non-Muslim,' he told Daily Mail Australia." . . .

Who says the Democrats have no message?

The message of the left   "The left does indeed have a message.  It is based in intimidation and guilt.

"In the wake of the Georgia election, the left cannot understand or explain its rejection by the electorate.  Some Democrats blame their fall out of favor on Nancy Pelosi.  Increasing numbers opine that the left has no real message to tell.  But liberalism does have a message.  It is strong, clear, and quintessentially left-wing.  Its message is the widespread projection of intimidation and assignment of guilt via self-righteous, sanctimonious activism. "

"If you happen to be Caucasian, an inherited trait over which you have no control, you are guilty of white supremacy.  America is guilty of being a war-mongering, imperialistic international bully driven by capitalistic greed.  The Constitution is obsolete, penned by illegitimate slave-owning Founding Fathers.  America was built on slavery.  Religious tenets (save Islam's) are oppressive fantasies.  Atheism and science will set you free.  You are responsible for global warming, which definitely, truly exists.  The Second Amendment needs to be repealed, although if a man of the left shoots Republicans, there is no need to bring it up.  Police officers are the rebirth of the KKK.  If you question the consequences of open immigration, you are not "who we are."  Etc.

"If you are hesitant to embark upon a program of self-flagellation in response to any of the above, you are a hateful, obstructive, unenlightened, racist, sexist, homophobic xenophobe belonging to a clan of Neanderthal bigots.  You should go to your room and remain silent.  You are deplorable.

"This is the message of the left – the message of those seeking tolerance, co-existence and brotherhood, of those who want to "have a conversation" and then not allow it." . . .

Wonder Woman and her "Lasso of Truth"

American Thinker

This Criticism of GOP Health Reform Is Revealing

The American Interest

 

"The emerging Democratic attack against the GOP’s health bill, unveiled today in the Senate goes something like this: This is not a healthcare bill but a reverse class warfare bill—a tax cut for the rich financed by Medicaid cuts for the poor.

"This argument is powerful because there is a good deal of truth to it. The Senate bill would cut taxes deeply, including by repealing an Obamacare tax on investment income for high-earners. The bill remains revenue neutral in part by cutting Medicaid spending in ways that conservatives say would make the program work better, but that would also leave more low-income people without coverage.

"This critique may be enough to kill the bill. And maybe the bill deserves to be killed. But it also inadvertently highlights Obamacare’s underperformance.

"When Obamacare was pitched, its champions promised a sweeping, root-and-branch reform that would foster competition and bring down premiums and change the way insurance was purchased and care was delivered. David Brooks, writing last year, recalled the heady mood perfectly: “The supporters argued that the system would help Americans purchase health insurance through carefully regulated state exchanges. President Obama envisioned a day when consumers could shop for health coverage ‘the same way you’d shop for a plane ticket on Kayak or a TV on Amazon.'”

"As it turns out, the bill has fallen far short of those expectations. " . . .

California invested heavily in solar power. Now there's so much that other states are sometimes paid to take it

LA Times

"On 14 days during March, Arizona utilities got a gift from California: free solar power. 

"Well, actually better than free. California produced so much solar power on those days that it paid Arizona to take excess electricity its residents weren’t using to avoid overloading its own power lines.

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"It happened on eight days in January and nine in February as well. All told, those transactions helped save Arizona electricity customers millions of dollars this year, though grid operators declined to say exactly how much.And California also has paid other states to take power.

"The number of days that California dumped its unused solar electricity would have been even higher if the state hadn’t ordered some solar plants to reduce production — even as natural gas power plants, which contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, continued generating electricity.

"Solar and wind power production was curtailed a relatively small amount — about 3% in the first quarter of 2017 — but that’s more than double the same period last year. And the surge in solar power could push the number even higher in the future.

"Why doesn’t California, a champion of renewable energy, use all the solar power it can generate?" . . .

Johnny Depp Jokes About A Trump Assassination: 'Maybe It's Time'

INQUISITR  . . . "Perhaps what’s even in more bad taste, the hipsters in the audience cheered what the Pirates of the Caribbean star had to say, according to British media reports. . . . "When someone in the audience apparently asked him about Trump, Johnny Depp reportedly had this to say, according to the Guardian and the Telegraph.“ 'I think he needs help and there are a lot of wonderful dark, dark places he could go. It is just a question — I’m not insinuating anything. By the way, this is going to be in the press. It will be horrible. I like that you are all a part of it. When was the last time an actor assassinated a president? I want to qualify, I am not an actor. I lie for a living. However, it has been a while, and maybe it is time.' ”

Rick Moran comments on this in American Thinker:   . . . "Depp, like other celebrities seeking attention, knows the quickest way to gain tons of media exposure is to advocate the assassination of the president of the United States. His "qualifiers" notwithstanding, Depp knew that the assembled press would eat up his John Wilkes Booth reference and blast it all over the world.

"It's pathetic. Johnny Depp's descent will not be stopped by his gaining cheap headlines or calculated PR moves. They used to say that there's no such thing as bad publicity as long as they spell your name correctly. Only in the Hollywood cocoon is that still true."

Why don't we tire of Hollywood?  . . . "Pop pioneer Madonna, for example, celebrated the so-called “Women’s March” following Trump’s inauguration by telling crowds she “thought an awful lot about blowing up the White House.”

Comedian Kathy Griffin found herself in serious career trouble, losing tour dates and endorsement deals after she staged a bloody mock decapitation of the President last month."

The great Muslim civil war — and us

Russia has, for the first time in decades, an open door to the Middle East, all enabled and virtually welcomed by the feckless, docile Obama-Kerry-Clinton triad.  TD

Charles Krauthammer

An Iraqi Popular Mobilization Front fighter on the Iraq-Syria border

"The U.S. shoots down a Syrian fighter-bomber. Iran launches missiles into eastern Syria. Russia threatens to attack coalition aircraft west of the Euphrates. What is going on?

"It might appear a mindless mess, but the outlines are clear. The great Muslim civil war, centered in Syria, is approaching its post-Islamic State phase. It’s the end of the beginning. The parties are maneuvering to shape what comes next.

"It’s Europe, 1945, when the war was still raging against Nazi Germany, but everyone already knew the outcome. The maneuvering was largely between the approaching victors — the Soviet Union and the Western democracies — to determine postwar boundaries and spheres of influence. 

. . . 

"Much of the fighting today is about who inherits. Take the Syrian jet the United States shot down. It had been attacking a pro-Western Kurdish and Arab force (the Syrian Democratic Forces) not far from Islamic State territory.

"Why? Because the Bashar al-Assad regime, backed by Iran, Hezbollah and Russia, having gained the upper hand on the non-jihadist rebels in the Syrian heartland (most notably in Aleppo), feels secure enough to set its sights on eastern Syria. If it hopes to restore its authority over the whole country, it will need to control Raqqa and surrounding Islamic State areas. But the forces near Raqqa are pro-Western and anti-regime. Hence the Syrian fighter-bomber attack."

Why Democrats keep losing

comicallyincorrect

American Thinker  "They have gone 0-4 in the last special elections, and they keep blaming the wrong people and coming up with the wrong reasons for their losses.

"Here are ten reasons why they keep losing.

1. They have broken the federal budget.

We're still $19.8 trillion in debt, and this makes people nervous.  We have to be patient for the GOP to fix the problem.  The Dems don't even seem to believe that there is a problem.

2. They keep promoting the multiplier effect.

That is, if the government gets bigger and bigger and keeps spending money, then the economy will prosper, because for every one dollar the government spends, the expenditure puts at least $1.50 to $2.50 back into the economy.  They say this to promote big government.  Of course, this is nonsense, no matter how many line graphs they produce to prove their theory.  If there really is a multiplier effect, let it happen in the private sector.

3. Obamacare is still a disaster.

Dems and their fact-checkers keep telling us it is not in free fall, but more and more insurance companies are leaving the exchanges.

. . . 

. . . "All in all, the Dems are pushing too hard.  It's so odd that otherwise intelligent people can advocate such silliness that destroys themselves and stalls and hinders our country.

"It's clear enough that if Trump can do two things, he'll win re-election: simplify the tax code, and roll back the gigantic regulation bureaucracy.  Dems either adjust their views, which doesn't seem "imminent," or they'll keep losing the country.  And I say the country will be better off with more of their losses."

When A Free Press Opposes Free Speech

Mike Adams

"If you are a conservative or an honest liberal you know there is a free speech problem on college campuses. Obviously, there are no conservatives or honest liberals working on the editorial board of The Charlotte Observer."

"The Charlotte Observer recently ran an editorial, which seeks to intentionally misinform the public about HB527 – a bill to restore free speech on campuses in the UNC system. Let me be as clear as I possibly can: The editors who wrote this piece are not confused about what HB527 says. They are intentionally misrepresenting what it says because they oppose free speech. That’s a bold statement, which I intend to back by reprinting the worst parts of their editorial followed by my own observations: "…

"(T)he move by North Carolina and a handful of other states to enact laws that enhance punishment for students who disrupt speeches is a solution that would be worse than the problem. Despite what happened to (Ann) Coulter and the likes of Tom Tancredo over his immigration views, UNC Wilmington Professor Mike Adams and his conservatism, and Spike Lee, who faced death and bomb threats when he spoke in North Carolina years ago, free speech is well­protected on college campuses. The proposed law, which passed the House in Raleigh late last week, may end up undercutting some forms of free expression to purportedly enhance the protection of other forms." 

"The editors have managed to put three unsupported assertions into the same paragraph. They twice assert that HB527 may hurt free speech but they don’t tell us how. As bad as that is, it pales by comparison to the utterly absurd assertion that “free speech is well­ protected on college campuses.' ”  . . .