Where is the Voice of America?

The Heritage Foundation's Helle C. Dale and Oliver L. Horn have written a compelling article, substantial excerpts of which I print below, dealing with the sad (and unnecessary) decline of the Voice of America's presence in Eastern Europe.

It is a very important matter, especially as it suggests the basic steps required to remedy this grave problem. Therefore, I'm forwarding it to my Congressman, Senators, and others with the request that they make a priority the restoration of the VoA's influence in Eastern Europe. There must be an increase in funding, a strengthening of purpose, and a radical reformation of the organization's governing board -- and very soon. I hope you will do the same.

Last week, an exhausted, retreating Georgian soldier was overheard asking, "Where are our friends?" Given that only days before the conflict--and for the first time in over 60 years of broadcasting--the Voice of America's (VOA) Russian-language radio programming fell silent, this was a legitimate question...

In recent years, the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) has slashed funding for programming in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia in favor of broadcasts in the Middle East and Asia. It has also outsourced broadcasting to semi-private entities with dubious track records. Additionally, the Russian government has pursued a campaign to eliminate U.S. broadcasts by intimidating and harassing VOA's local, private-sector partners. Consequently, America has--literally and figuratively--lost its voice in the region at a critical moment...

...funding for VOA broadcasts in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia has either flat-lined or declined. Take into account the massive devaluation of the dollar abroad (over 30 percent against some currencies) and there is little wonder why VOA is bleeding programs and personnel at a staggering pace. Over the past several years, VOA has ceased virtually all English broadcasts and cut programs in 21 other languages (mostly in the three aforementioned regions). This was after more than a third of VOA's employees signed a petition in 2004 protesting the "dismantling" of the agency.

Last month, Congress attempted to stop even more cuts. Citing concerns for the region's freedom of speech, the Senate Appropriations Committee condemned the BBG's latest budget request that would not only eliminate VOA Russian language programs, but also terminate broadcasts in Ukraine and significantly cut back those in Georgia, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan. The committee subsequently approved legislation explicitly funding programs in each of these countries. Yet without any public announcements, and on the eve of conflict between Russia and Georgia, the BBG ceased VOA's Russian-language programs anyway.

In its stead, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), a semi-private entity operating in the former Soviet Union, has been tasked with continuing radio broadcasts in Russian. While RFE/RL has a much better track record than Radio Sawa or Al-Hurra, the organization has proven uniquely vulnerable to the Kremlin's crackdown on independent media...

This environment has proven disastrous for RFE/RL, which depends on local partners to broadcast its programming. Citing license violations and unauthorized changes in programming format, Kremlin regulators have forced most of its local partners to stop broadcasts. One Russian station manager commented, "It's sad because the programs were very popular. ... The owners decided that they would rather have their license, because if they kept the programming they would have been in trouble." As a result, three-quarters of the radio outlets provided by private companies have terminated their partnership with U.S. broadcasting over the past two years alone...

Chicanery in China?

...When you mess with which child is singing Ode to the Motherland, offer up phantom fireworks and fake fans, have soldiers create your spectacles billed as volunteers and face allegations that some of your athletes are not eligible, it makes people wonder what is real and what is fake...

Joe Warmington, a columnist at the Toronto Sun, thinks that China owes the world an apology for what's been happening at the Olympics. Not having followed the games myself, I don't know but he makes a pretty strong case.

However, there are a whole lot of injustices more pressing and more pernicious for which the world deserves an apology from Communist China. Among them?

* Severe persecution of religious believers.

* Coercive abortion and sterilization policies.

* Harvesting and selling human body parts.

* Extensive use of slave labor and denial of worker's rights, safety and health concerns.

* A long list of other human rights abuses.

* Support of repressive governments in Burma, Belarus, and other places.

* Destruction of national economies (like our own) through cheap imports.

* Support of terrorists.

* Military aggression in Asia...and beyond.

* Extensive spy networks in their own country and many others.

* Theft of Western technology.

When you look at this list, the chicanery of underage gymnasts (though certainly an unfair ploy) seems rather tame. But it does reveal how brazenly unapologetic is China's attitude. Even when the world has come to town, even when the cameras are running, even when the coaches themselves have revealed the truth about their team breaking the rules, Communist China (and the Olympic committee too) simply shrug, smile -- and get ready for the next chicanery.

Which of the Candidates "Gets It" About Russia's War on Georgia?

Jonah Goldberg's column in today's LA Times makes some profound points about Russia's grievously wicked acts of war against Georgia and about John McCain's correct response to the crisis. The latter, Goldberg explains, was clearly superior to that of his rival.

The Obama campaign has for months pursued the odd strategy of having the junior senator from Illinois act as if he were already kinda-sorta president of the United States. In June, it tried sticking a quasi-presidential seal on his lectern. Then in July, he conducted what seemed like official state visits with foreign leaders and delivered something like a "prenaugural" address in Berlin, inviting comparisons to JFK and Reagan...

Now fate has given Obama a chance to be presidential rather than pretend. Taking advantage of the Olympic distraction in Beijing, the Russians invaded South Ossetia, a territory on the north side of Georgia, a democratic U.S. ally. Out of the blocks, the Russians bombed civilians, rolled tanks across an internationally recognized border and threatened to launch an all-out, destabilizing war. Now it looks as if their army has cut Georgia in two.

Moreover, Russian bombs reportedly targeted the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, which runs through Georgia on its way to the Mediterranean -- the only oil pipeline in Central Asia not under Russian control. Russia is tightening its chokehold on oil and gas at precisely the moment energy costs have become the paramount domestic issue in the U.S. presidential campaign.

Obama's response?

First, late Thursday evening, he gave a conventional written statement calling for calm, U.N. action and "restraint" from both sides -- followed an hour later by a slightly stronger condemnation of Russian aggression and a call for a cease-fire.

The invasion of Georgia elicited a wan written communique instead of the sort of exciting rhetoric we've come to expect from his make-believe presidency. But he did make it in front of the cameras the next day for a rally celebrating his vacation in Hawaii. He promised "to go body surfing at some undisclosed location."

During Obama's make-believe presidency, we've heard about bold action, about the courage to talk to dictators. When faced with a real "3 a.m. moment," Obama -- who boasts about 200 foreign policy advisors, broken into 10 subgroups -- proclaims, "I'm going to get some shave ice."

Now, of course, this is a bit unfair in that Obama had planned his no doubt well-deserved vacation for a very long time. But presidential vacations are always well planned -- and often interrupted.

Indeed, President Bush's jaunt to the Olympics as a "sports fan" should also have been cut short the moment tanks started rolling over a country he'd proclaimed a "beacon of liberty" during his visit there in 2005. By Monday, both Bush and Obama were playing catch-up to Sen. John McCain, who seemed to have grasped the gravity from the get-go and whose support for Georgia is long-standing. He took the lead from the outset, demanding on Friday morning an emergency meeting of NATO and Western aid to the fledgling democracy.

The geopolitical significance of Russia's invasion of Georgia at this stage is hard to gauge. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin may not wish to revive the Soviet Union or the Cold War, but he clearly seeks to restore Russia's imperial stature. And Item One on that agenda is to crush Georgia's independence and smother hopes for NATO's expansion to Russia's "near abroad."

The campaign significance for Obama is easier to calculate. He has been playacting at being presidential in order to convince voters that we live in a "new moment" with "new challenges" -- and that he is the president we need for this new era.

This moment calls for more than playacting, yet Obama looks lost without a presidential script...

Getting Away with Murder: The Russian Attacks on Georgia

One of the warnings sounded here on Vital Signs throughout our tenure has been that the Russian bear, in truth, had never gone away. He was merely hibernating, awaiting his time to come back and maul whoever bothered him.

The old addictions to brute power and totalitarian control have remained strong among the Russian leadership. They still dream of the "glory days" of the Soviet Union, the domination of eastern Europe, and the Stalinized version of Communism.

But dreams haven't been enough and so they have clung to many of the vicious vices of their heritage: the financing and arming of other enemies of the West (including terrorist states); persecuting religious believers; continuing their partnership with Russia's high-powered criminal class; silencing political dissent through censorship, imprisonment and lethal violence -- and now this outrageous violence directed at the Georgians.

The New York Post's Ralph Peters nails it down tight in this excellent, not-to-missed article.

It's impossible to overstate the importance of what's unfolding as we watch. Russia's invasion of Georgia - a calculated, unprovoked aggression - is a crisis that may have more important strategic implications than Iraq and Afghanistan combined.

We're seeing the emergence of a rogue military power with a nuclear arsenal. The response of our own government has been pathetic - and our media's uncritical acceptance of Moscow's version of events is infuriating.

This is the "new" Russia announcing - in blood - that it won't tolerate freedom and self-determination along its borders. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is putting it bluntly: Today, Georgia, tomorrow Ukraine (and the Baltic states had better pay attention).

Georgia's affiliation with the European Union, its status as a would-be NATO member, its working democracy - none of it deterred Putin.

Nor does Putin's ambition stop with the former Soviet territories. His air force has been trying (unsuccessfully) to hit the new gas pipeline running from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean. The Kremlin is telling Europe: We not only have the power to turn off Siberian gas, we can turn off every tap in the region, any time we choose.

Let's be clear: For all that US commentators and diplomats are still chattering about Russia's "response" to Georgia's actions, the Kremlin spent months planning and preparing this operation. Any soldier above the grade of private can tell you that there's absolutely no way Moscow could've launched this huge ground, air and sea offensive in an instantaneous "response" to alleged Georgian actions...

This is the most cynical military operation by a "European" power since Moscow invaded Afghanistan in 1979. (Sad to say, President Bush seems as bewildered now as President Jimmy Carter did then.)

This attack's worse, though. Georgia is an independent, functioning democracy tied to the European Union and striving to join NATO. It also has backed our Iraq efforts with 2,000 troops. (We're airlifting them back home.)

This invasion recalls Hitler's march into Czechoslovakia - to protect ethnic Germans, he claimed, just as Putin claims to be protecting Russian citizens - complete BS.

It also resembles Hitler's invasion of Poland - with the difference that, in September '39, European democracies drew the line. (To France's credit, its leaders abandoned their August vacations to call Putin out - only Sen. Barack Obama remains on the beach.)

Yet our media give Putin the benefit of the doubt. Not one major news outlet even bothers to take issue with Putin's wild claim that the Georgians were engaged in genocide.

I lack sufficiently powerful words to express my outrage over Russia's bloody cynicism in attacking a small, free people, or to castigate our media for their inane coverage - or to condemn our own government's shameful flight from responsibility...

Latin America Needs a Solzhenitsyn Too

One of the most compelling tributes to Alexander Solzhenitsyn that I've read in recent days is one that not only honors how Solzhenitsyn's personal life and writings exposed the unjust barbarism of Communism in Russia, but also hopes that it will set an example to do the same for Latin America. Below are excerpts from Carlos Alberto Montaner's brief commentary in the Miami Herald. Very good stuff.

...Prison cleaned and cured Solzhenitzyn of communism. All his important works revolve around that experience: A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, The Cancer Ward, The First Circle, and, of course, his monumental The Gulag Archipelago. Prison turned him into a great man forged by his and other people's pain and into a renowned writer...

Of all the documents written against the Communist madness, the most demolishing is TheGulag Archipelago. It is not a great literary work. Because it is very long, it can even be tedious, but that enormous catalog of atrocities inflicted upon prisoners for so long, written down with notarial cold-bloodedness, wipes out any vestige of sympathy that a sensible and reasonable person might have for Marxism-Leninism.

Some months ago, someone wisely suggested that a group of historians write The Black Book of Latin American Communism. It would be a country-by-country account of the crimes and misdeeds committed in the name of Marxism by the gunmen who were seduced by that ideology. All of us democrats know about and repudiate the monstrous excesses of the right-wing dictatorships on the continent -- Somoza, Pinochet, the Argentine generals and a repugnant etcetera -- but what's needed is an orderly and detailed catalog of the barbarities committed by this frenzied sect of the rabid Left.

All the barbarities: from Trotsky's murder in Mexico, the genocide of the Misquitos in Nicaragua, the Cuban firing squads and the stories about the FARC narcoterrorists' cruelty, to the odious assassinations and kidnappings committed by the ERP in Argentina and the Tupamaros in Uruguay.

When the project was proposed, someone asked to whom the book should be dedicated. No question about it: to Alexander Solzhenitzyn. He pointed the way.

Yet More Tributes to Alexander Solzhenitsyn

The Pearcey Report, one of the frequent stops in my cyberspace travels, links to several notable commentaries about Alexander Solzhenitsyn that, in addition to the ones I posted a few days ago, I encourage you to read.

Here's the Great News from Iraq that the MSM...Uh...Forgot to Report

Good news out of Iraq is becoming almost a daily event: In just the past week, we learned that U.S. combat fatalities (five) dropped in July to a low for the war, that key leaders of al Qaeda in Iraq have fled to the Pakistani hinterland, that troop deployments will soon be cut to 12 months from 15, and that Washington and Baghdad are close to concluding a status-of-forces agreement.

Now this: Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr plans to announce Friday that he will disarm his Mahdi Army, which was raining mortars on Baghdad's Green Zone as recently as April. Coupled with the near-total defeat of al Qaeda in Iraq, this means the U.S. no longer faces any significant organized military foe in the country. It also marks a major setback for Iran, which had used the Mahdi Army as one of its primary vehicles for extending its influence in Iraq...

Thus the Wall Street Journal opens up its latest report on the state of the Iraqi war. Lucianne.com, in its lovely, understated way, comments "Story too big to make the New York Times."

Australian Economists Warning: Too Many Babies Being Born

Australia seemed to be getting over the fear of children that so affected the Western world in the last few decades. Over 285,000 births were registered last year in the country, the highest level in 25 years. Much of that came from older moms deciding that they wanted to have babies after all -- the joys of the workplace turning out to be a bit less satisfactory than previously thought.

But ideologies die hard. Even when the facts are against them. And so, natural instincts and "biological clocks" aside, the bureaucrats of Australia's "Productivity Commission," seemingly clinging to the bizarre and monumentally discredited theories of Thomas Malthus (and later, Paul Erlich), are trying to put a stop to this "having babies" thing.

Their game? Juggle the figures, ignore the long term consequences, and appeal to the citizenry's immediate selfishness -- anything to keep us from having to share our toys with those new kids.

Here's the opening of the Daily Telegraph story:

Forget those plans to have a third child for the country because further increases in the birth rate could harm the economy, the nation's productivity watchdog has warned.

A major analysis of the nation's increasing fertility rate said it was at its highest level for 25 years - but the Productivity Commission yesterday warned further increases may aggravate rather than solve the problem of the ageing of the population.

This is because it will shift women out of the workforce while they care for babies, depressing labour supply and reducing the taxation base as our population ages, the Daily Telegraph reported.

The small number of extra babies born would make little difference to the rate of population ageing, the commission said.

And the women having the babies would be exacerbating the financial impacts on the government of the ageing of the population because the tax breaks offered to parents to have children occur up front, while the cost savings of a bigger working population and bigger tax base from extra children are deferred until they are of working age...

Leading Economists Suggest Putting People First, Not Global Warming. MSM Buries the Story.

Matthew Warren, "environment writer" for The Australian, finds the time to report on a major story that everyone else in the MSM is ignoring altogether. How come? After all, it involves several elements that the MSM usually loves: leading European intellectuals (including Nobel Prize winners), the impact of science on culture, and hot-button issues like women's rights and the environment.

Oh, I get it. It seems that the conclusions of the story turn out to be politically-incorrect. That's why it's been ignored. Except by The Australian-- so kudos to them for some fair and responsible reporting.

Expensive strategies to cut greenhouse emissions, such as Australia's proposed trading scheme, will do practically nothing to reduce the impact of climate change, and the money would be better used to address malnutrition, disease and the rights of women in developing countries, according to a review by leading economists.

The Copenhagen Consensus Centre co-ordinated by Danish economist Bjorn Lomborg has ranked the pursuit of deep cuts in emissions by countries such as Australia and Europe as one of the least-effective ways of advancing global welfare.

The findings contradict the analysis by Ross Garnaut and Nicholas Stern, who argue that the high cost of mitigating greenhouse gases now is much less than the risk of inaction on climate change.

In prioritising how best to spend $75billion over the next four years to deliver the greatest good to mankind, a panel of eight economists, including five Nobel laureates, did not feature any climate change spending among their 13 priority projects...

Government "Trash Bin Police" Pull Secret Raid on Posh Neighborhood

And this is what it comes to? The nanny state searching our trash bins to see what recyclable articles we may have missed?

Remember the Vital Signs Blog post from last April which alerted you to the city government of Islington (United Kingdom) fining a fellow and giving him a criminal record because he had overloaded his trash bin by 4 inches? A fellow, by the way, who has to try and store his 6-member family's refuse in the one receptacle the insufferable town fathers allow him?

Well, it turns out that the snobby snoops of Islington have committed even more sinister follies. And, if it can be imagined, actions that are even more intrusive, even more unreasonable, even more weird.

Here's the Daily Mail's story about secret raids conspired over and financed by the local city government of Islington, North London. Trash bins along 53 of Islington's streets were searched, extending into the neighborhoods wherein actors, judges and even London's mayor reside. In all, over a thousand homes had their trash pawed over by the council's rubbish spies. (No, that's not fair. The council refer to them, no joke, as "waste professionals.")

Naturally, people were incensed when they learned of this remarkable invasion of privacy.

For instance, TV star Linda Robson was quoted, "That is terrible. How dare they? I recycle but there may have been private things I was throwing away. It is really intrusive. Is nothing sacred?"

Labour MP for Islington South and Finsbury, Emily Thornberry, expressed worries that serious security issues could have been involved. "High Court judges and High Court appeal judges live in those streets,' she said. "I am sure they are careful but a sheet of paper can easily go amiss, and council officers could have seen them. My concerns are who authorised this and what they do with the stuff. They should have told people what they were going to do."

Su Pollard, another popular British actress lives along one of the raided streets. She was also disturbed by the unwarranted searches. "I am quite incensed. It smacks of Big Brother. One feels like a suspect in some way. There is nothing in my bins that would incriminate me in any way - it's mostly yoghurt pots - but I am terribly uneasy about it."

But the town council snobs? They merely exacerbated the controversy when they affirmed, "No permission was sought from residents as none is required."

Furthermore, it argued, "The operatives involved were waste professionals acting under a strict code of conduct which included the possibility of finding items of a personal nature such as confidential paperwork."

The above sentence is, in itself, so comical that I cant' think of anything with which to further satirize it. But it does leave one with the most vivid word picture, doesn't it?

Liberal Democrat councillor Greg Foxsmith said: 'This is not about snooping into households' bins or invading privacy. It was an investigation into rubbish to see what is being sent to landfill and how much more could be recycled. Rubbish is not looked at individually or records taken - confidentiality is taken very seriously."

Uh huh. What is obviously NOT taken seriously are such archaic ideas as privacy and freedom let alone a responsible philosophy which appreciates both the priorities of political office and the limitation of political powers.

Congressman Mike Pence on the "Police State" of Communist China, Forced Abortion, the Olympics and More

"It is important that we speak truth to power. And with the 2008 Olympics in Beijing about to begin, it is important that the people of the United States be heard on our ideals as athletes from around the world and global media descend on China.

"It is important that we say as the late Tom Lantos, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a hearing last year, a few months before his death: 'China is a police state.'

"I personally believe that the selection of China as the site of the 2008 Olympic Games was a historic error. The Olympics is a symbol of the human spirit and in that regard, a symbol of human freedom, and this police state therefore is precisely the wrong venue for a celebration of human dignity and the human spirit.

"And so I commend my colleagues' support for H. Res. 1370. I am particularly grateful for the call on the government of the People's Republic of China to end the abuses of human rights, to release those imprisoned for political and religious expression, and also challenging China to honor its commitment to freedom of the press of foreign reporters.

"While there is much talk in the media today about the cloud of smog hanging over Beijing as these Games approach, let me say from my heart: the real cloud over the Beijing Olympics is the horror of forced abortion. Therefore I am especially grateful to Congressman Chris Smith for adding an important amendment to this resolution noting that: 'Whereas the Chinese government limits most women to having one child and strictly controls the reproductive lives of Chinese citizens by systematic means that include mandatory monitoring of women's reproductive cycles, mandatory sterilization and contraception, mandatory birth permits, coercive fines for failure to comply,' and the like. This legislation will call on the People's Republic of China to immediately end the practice of forced abortion...

Read more of Indiana's Mike Pence's bold remarks to the Congress here.

UN (Citing CEDAW) Pressures Northern Ireland on Abortion

For those skeptics who yet argue that CEDAW (the UN's Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women) will not be used as leverage to promote abortion, here's news of how the UN is pressuring Northern Ireland to that very end -- and, yes, doing so under the specific terms of CEDAW.

Having Babies Via Government-Run "Conveyor Belt"

Wesley J. Smith over at Secondhand Smoke draws our attention to this Telegraph (U.K.) article with its sad and scary report of Britain's maternity services. It is not only another glaring example of how miserable government controlled health care can get but also of the decreasing value a secular society puts upon human life.

Here's the opening paragraphs of the Telegraph story:

The Healthcare Commission report – the most detailed ever undertaken – has exposed a grim picture of women giving birth in units where there are not enough toilets or showers and women are rushed through so fast that more than one mother gives birth in each bed every day.

Consultants are not present on the wards enough of the time, midwives and doctors do not get on with each other and severe staff shortages mean women are left alone during the birth, the report found.

The investigation into every aspect of antenatal, labour, birth and postnatal care, was prompted after high death rates among new mothers were found in successive hospitals.

Labour Party Loses a Sure Thing; Anti-Life Legislation a Key Issue in the Contest

In a most interesting (and hopeful) development, one of the Labour Party's "safest seats" was just lost in a by-election to John Mason, an accountant/councilor who represents the Scottish National Party, in a contest where Parliament's atrocious embryo experimentation bill was a major issue.

Mason, a member of Easterhouse Baptist Church who describes his faith as being very important to him, opposes abortion on demand and so-called “social abortion” and is “extremely uncomfortable” with the unnatural and lethal experimentation to be performed on human embryos if Parliament's bill holds up.

The Christian Institute reports, "The Glasgow East constituency – which was one of Labour’s safest seats in the UK – has large numbers of Roman Catholics. Ahead of the vote, Roman Catholic Bishops strongly criticised the Government’s embryos Bill as 'monstrous' and a violation of 'moral law'. The embryos Bill was not the only issue during the by-election, but it played a significant role in the campaign."

What's Wrong with This Picture? An Abortion Enthusiast to Become UN High Commissioner for Human Rights?

Fresh from the "You Just Can't Make This Stuff Up" Department comes word that United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is expected to name as the UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights a woman who has throughout her career absolutely and vociferously denied human rights to unborn human children!

As LifeSiteNews reports, "Navanethem 'Navi' Pillay of South Africa is a founding member of the international non-governmental organization Equality Now, a group that has spearheaded campaigns for abortion access in Poland and Nepal. Pillay remains on the board of the organization which receives major funding from pro-abortion foundations, including George Soros' Open Society Institute and the Ford Foundation."

Furthermore, Pillay also supports the "Yogyakarta Principles," which insist that homosexual activities represent natural and binding human rights, including same-sex "marriage," adoption by homosexual couples and state-funded sex change operations.

Quick! The Planet Is Doomed Unless We Create New Taxes!

...Think about it.

Our politicians ask us to believe humanity is facing Armageddon from man-made global warming. That is, imminent, world-wide, climate catastrophe that will scorch the Earth, kill and displace hundreds of millions of people, drown cities and cause massive starvation and disease.

And what's their solution? It's to impose another tax on us or create another stock market, which is all a "cap and trade" system is.

Try not to laugh. Or cry...

Lorrie Goldstein, writing in the Toronto Sun, describes how the politicians are exploiting global warming (never mind the increasing scientific evidence against it) to expand governments' power over our lives, to further limit individual freedom, and to "make governments, energy corporations and stock market speculators richer than they already are, at our expense."

A good read.

Have Our Leaders Lost Their Minds?

That's the extremely pointed (but eminently pertinent) question asked by Newt Gingrich in this Human Events essay. In it he deals with Israel's and America's recent forays into the most irrational and dangerous appeasement policies.

Secularism Reigns...But Not Well

Following up on a post from several days ago, here's a few more alarming items regarding England's youth. Both reports demonstrate the sad consequences of a comprehensive secularism.

* Knife crime continued to make the headlines in Britain as fatal stabbings continued. Police recorded 22,151 knife crimes in England and Wales in a year. The British Crime Survey showed 130,000 knife attacks a year. The Daily Mail said the actual figure was probably 80 per cent higher. It said the majority of people found carrying knives were let off with a caution, and of 6,314 convicted of carrying a knife in 2006, only nine were given a maximum sentence. If offenders were sent to jail at the same rate as in Spain, it said, the UK would have 369,000 in prison instead of 80,000.

* Figures for sexually transmitted diseases in Britain in 2007 were six per cent up on the previous year and the highest since current records began. Although the 16-to-24 age group comprises only one-eighth of the population, it accounted for 65 per cent of new cases of chlamydia, 55 per cent of new cases of genital warts and 50 per cent of new cases of gonorrhoea. Professor Peter Borriello, of the Health Protection Agency, said casual sex is now ‘part of the territory, part of life’ for young people.

(Source: If you would like to receive e-mails with the Prayer Digest reports, just, send your e-mail address to prayerdigest@uwclub.net, and it will be e-mailed to you.)

Colombians Really Have Something to Celebrate

"For the first time in my lifetime we are really starting to believe that peace is possible."

Contrary to the opinions of the leftist politicians, journalists and judges who coddle criminals (even murdering terrorists), it is only when governments get tough on the bad guys that freedom and justice have a genuine chance to flourish. Note this story from the International Herald Tribune about the huge Independence Day rallies in Colombia -- rallies involving more than a million people who were celebrating, more than anything else, President Alvaro Uribe's determination to triumph in the 44-year old guerrilla war with the thugs of FARC.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia pose as a socialist people's army but are merely an anarchistic gang of murderers, terrorists, bombers, kidnappers, extortionists, drug dealers, and...you get the idea. But until Uribe, no one has dared to take them on with a practical view to beat them.

And so the people are happy, hopeful and joining in his resolve. That's the spirit of true independence.

Here is a related story from MSNBC that details correlating events occurring in some 40 other cities around the world.

Facing the "New Realities" in Iraq

Peter Ferrara gives us a review of recent history that is "just a tad different" from what we've been getting from Katie and company. Below is a portion of that National Review Online report:

Barack Obama continues his overseas trip today in the Middle East, where the facts on the ground have recently been moving so fast hardly anyone in the U.S. has really kept up. But unheralded press reports in recent weeks establish this new reality.

The war in Iraq is over. America and her allies won. Sorry, Barack, but it is too late for you and your misguided, uninformed, anti-American netroots to surrender.

The surge that Obama opposed and said would fail has succeeded spectacularly. McCain was right about that from the beginning.

General Petraeus, leading American and Iraqi troops, has smashed al-Qaeda, which has now basically withdrawn and fled to remote hideouts in lawless, ungoverned, western Pakistan. The Sunni Awakening is now over a year old and has been widely reported. The Shia majority government of elected Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has moved brilliantly in recent months to rout the Shia militias as well, creating a broad, popular base of support for him. The Kurds continue to prosper in peace and harmony.

American troops are already coming home. As McCain reported weeks ago, the surge itself is now basically over, with the additional troops all now on their way out. This fall, more American troops will be coming home. By January, still more will have returned.

The only real question now is which U.S. forces will be stationed in long term bases in Iraq. American and Iraqi government officials are even now negotiating a permanent status of forces agreement to take effect next year that will resolve that question. The plan is for Iraqi forces to take over responsibility for all remaining Iraqi provinces by then, with American troops out of all Iraqi cities. Probably less than half of the full complement of American forces will remain in Iraq long term to back up the Iraqi military, and keep tabs on Iran.

One big remaining fly in the ointment is that Iraq continues to be under attack by Iranian special forces — which may attempt intensified attacks this fall. Iran remains unfinished business. But the brutal defeat that al Qaeda suffered in Iraq discredited it in the Arab world. As Osama bin Laden himself has said, people will follow the strong horse. It is America, not al Qaeda, that is now that strong horse...