MORE DETAILS ON PIRACY

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Terrorists? Criminals? Both!

Rush in a Hurry -- Somali Pirates are Muslim Terrorists, Not Criminals
US officials: FBI begins criminal investigation into Somali pirates amid hostage standoff (??)
FBI to question US crew in criminal piracy probeCo-religionist in the

White House:

Let us thank the Somali pirates
Obama Team Mulls Aims Of Somali Extremists: Seeing Potential Terror Threat
The Pirates Challenge Obama's Pre-9/11 Mentality
Somali Pirates Tied To Jihad
Testing Obama (The Somali Pirates just add to the List )
Obama Team Mulls Aims Of Somali Extremists
White House says Obama getting updates on pirates ("aides met at 8 a.m. and at 2 p.m.")
DFU YouTube SING-ALONG: Barack Obama Pirate Song
There is nothing called the 'moderate Taliban'
Somalia: Islamist rebel leaders hail pirate attacks

Co-partisans outside the White House:

Ron Howard Yearns for Less Powerful America Not 'Driven by Militarism'
Schumer says "traditional values" "strong foreign policy" over, Obama "talks bipartisanship, but...

"MSM won't give party affiliation:

US won't give in to pirate blackmail: senator (Tom Coburn)

The denouement:

U.S. Navy Blocks Ships Coming to Aid Pirates in Standoff
Source: Pirates repel sailors attempting to reach captain
Negotiations Break Down in Standoff With Pirates
Kill the pirates: As the Marines demonstrated long ago, there's only one way to end piracy
Official: US sea captain freed in swift firefight
Official: US sea captain faced imminent danger
Captain jumps to freedom --

Capt. Phillips, who has been described by his crew as a hero for leaving with four pirates in a lifeboat to save his ship, the Maersk Alabama, escaped by jumping overboard. Before pirates could respond, U.S. forces killed three pirates still on the lifeboat and arrested a fourth pirate.

Pirate Lifeboat Drifts Toward Somalia - "We are not afraid of the Americans" [How about now?]
Official: Captain was in 'imminent danger' (Defense depart had to ask 0bama twice)

Other pirate activity:

Pirates Take German Ship Towards Comrades Off Somalia
Pirates Bring German Ship Into US Stand-Off ( off Somali Coast)
Pirates seize U.S.-owned, Italy-flagged tugboat
Pirates Hijack Second US Vessel
Sources: U.S. tugboat hijacked by pirates
Pirates seize 10 Italians in US - owned tugboat
Canadian warship thwarts pirates again
Rescued French yacht captain Florent Lemacon may have died in friendly fire PIRACY UPDATE
Death on the high seas French commando raid brought a five-day hostage crisis to a bloody end

MUCH TRUTH IS SAID IN JEST - OR SATIRE

Sad, but true. Hanson describes every leftist dictatorship (Hitler and Lenin included) in the history of the world. B



April 4, 2009

President Obama’s First 70 Days-- It really does all make sense.

by Victor Davis Hanson
National Review Online

In just the first 70 days of the new administration, a number of Obama supporters have expressed some dismay at their new president.

Some find his ethically challenged appointments at odds with his soaring moral rhetoric.

Others lament his apparent inability to stir up supporters in impromptu speeches, at least in the manner he did with set oratory on the campaign trail.

And they worry about his occasionally insensitive remarks. Many cannot quite figure out why, after lambasting George W. Bush for running a $500-billion deficit, Obama has outlined eight years of budgetary red ink that would nearly match the debt run up by all previous U.S.presidents combined.

But such disappointments should be tempered.

Not only is Obama simply drawing on his past 30 years of education, writing, work, and associations, but he is also properly reflecting the world view of many of those working for him.

What, then, is the mindset behind America’s new approach to domestic policy and foreign affairs?

If you believed that average Americans are not well educated, do not think in sophisticated and rational ways, and cannot be trusted to make good decisions, whether for themselves or for their nation, then you would expand the power of better-educated and wiser government overseers.

This would ensure that, instead of millions of private agendas that lead individuals improperly, and at times recklessly, to acquire and consume, we would have benevolent and far-sighted powers directing our lives in ways that benefit the environment, the economy — and themselves.

If you believed that highly educated and sometimes distracted liberals occasionally slip on rather mundane questions of taxes, lobbying, and conflict of interest — but not at all in the felonious, premeditated manner of the corporate hierarchy — then it would be necessary to overlook such minor lapses for the greater good of marshalling talented and well-disposed experts into progressive government.

If you believed that socially minded liberals are tolerant and extraordinarily empathetic, then their rather impolite speech is not at all offensive.

Constant disparagement of the previous administration, and jokes about fellow Americans — ranging from the physically or mentally impaired, to Nancy Reagan and her séances, to the stereotyped religion and culture of a clinging middle America, to the purported prejudices of a “typical white person” — are not insensitive, let alone callous.

No, the evocation of these occasional infelicities reflects the tally-sheet of nitpicking right-wing agitators, keen to bring down a hard-working progressive sacrificing for thepeople.

If you believed that compensation in this country was intrinsically unfair — that income is arbitrary and quite capriciously rewards some while unjustly shortchanging others — then you would wish to hike income and payroll taxes on high earners to reach confiscatory levels so that a fairer government could correct the errors of an unfair market for the benefit of the many.

Higher taxes on some, then, are not just a means of raising revenue, but an important redistributive tool of government to spread the wealth around.

If you believed that government does too little for the average citizen — that at present, with its unnecessary wars and perks for the wealthy, it cannot ensure everyone lifelong entitlement — then you would wish to double, even triple present federal expenditures.

The key would be to borrow enough now to provide relief to the people first, and only afterwards to worry how to pay off the resulting deficit of $1.7 trillion.

Once people are accustomed to the services they deserve, they will ensure that their representatives find the right revenue mechanisms to guarantee that such "necessary benefactions" continue.

If you build programs to help the people now, the necessary taxing and borrowing for a $3.6-trillion budget will come.

If you had little idea of how businesses are created, how they are run, and why they sometimes go broke, and if you thought that the truly talented and sophisticated never go into business but instead gravitate to the Ivy League to be trained as lawyers, professors, writers, and organizers, then youwould assume that our present problems are largely the fault of the former, and can best be addressed by putting as many of the latter in your government as possible.

If you believed that Main Street and Wall Street have little, if anything,to do with why publishers can afford to extend million-dollar book advances, or why the Ivy League has millions in scholarships for students, or why foundations, universities, and governments can afford to hire so many advisors, consultants, administrators, lawyers, and professors, then you would never really connect the conditions that promote good business with those that allow intellectuals, technocrats, and bureaucrats to thrive.

If you believed that those with capital have had an unfortunate head start, or have done dubious things that others less fortunate would not, then you would seek ways to forgive loans, to allow the indebted to start over with a clean slate, to ensure new borrowing with record-low interest rates, to lower or eliminate taxes on most people, and to expand in turn the financial help from the government — and not worry that stocks are down, dividends are nearly nonexistent, interest on deposits is at a record low, equity in real property has often disappeared, and accumulated capital is itself often diminished or insecure.

If you believed that the story of the United States is more a narrative of gender, race, and class oppression than of brave souls promoting liberty and trying to deify the promise of the Constitution, then you would have empathy for fellow victims of such endemic Western oppression.

The cries from the heart we are hearing from Bolivia and Cuba, from Iran, Syria, and the West Bank, are not anti-American, much less illiberal: they are efforts to articulate the oppression that the people in those places have suffered at the hands of others.

While in the short run the once-victimized may need to be deterred in their anger from harming the United States or themselves, in the long run their legitimate grievances must be addressed through a variety of concessions, apologies, or dialogues in order to promote the general peace.

That a Hugo Chávez calls Americans “gringos,” or Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula daSilva blames “white, blue-eyed” bankers for the financial mess, or that state-run Palestinian papers refer to Jews as “pigs and apes,” or that the Iranian president serially claims the Holocaust is a concoction of Zionists, is all an unfortunate rhetoric of the oppressed (in the same way Reverend Wright once referred to Italians as “garlic noses”), brought on by colonization and exploitation, rather than proof that a large portion of the world beyond our shores is run by racist — and rather loony — people.

If you believed that the traditions and customs of the United States are largely a story of the oppressed overcoming the perniciousness of the privileged, rather than the collective efforts of the many to stop tyranny, then you would talk about past oppression, past victimization, and past unfairness far more than you would evoke Shiloh, the Meuse-Argonne, or Iwo Jima.

If you believed that the United States is hardly exceptional, but merely one nation not all that different from others, then you would have confidence in the aggregate wisdom of the United Nations, and the cultural and economic paradigms provided by the nations of the European Union.

If you believed that wars, crises, and international tensions are brought about by miscommunications, misunderstandings, and Western insensitivity, rather than by despots trying to advance illiberal agendas whenever and wherever they sense an opening, then you would blame past administrations for our present ills, with all their bellicose and retrograde talk of preparedness, deterrence, and pre-emption.

You would grandly proclaim a new age of harmonious relations, and count on your rhetorical abilities and charisma to persuade past rivals and mischaracterized enemies that, at this rare but opportune moment, there are no real differences between us — and thus no reasons for future disputes.

In other words, if you believed as President Obama and many of his advisors do, then you would do what Obama and his advisors are now doing.

(Dismantling American sovereignty and survival)

http://www.victorhanson.com/articles/hanson040409.html

ALTERNATIVE BUDGET SAVES $4.8 TRILLION

Contact: Sergio Gor
April, 1, 2009 Phone: (703) 383-0880

April 1th, 2009, Fairfax, VA— House Republican members today unveiled an alternative proposal to the Democrat budget, calling for $4.8 trillion less spending over the next decade and an immediate freeze on non-defense discretionary spending.

Speaking exclusively to ALG News Bureau, Senator Mike Enzi (R-WY) elaborated, on why it was necessary for the House of Representatives to introduce an alternative Budget.

“On the Senate side, we are not introducing an alternative budget; the House only gets four hours to do a debate, so they have to do it in a comprehensive way. On the Senate side, we get 50 hours of debate – so we are taking each item of the budget and putting in a substitute for that item. If just half of the things that the Republicans in the Senate are introducing are accepted, it would be an acceptable budget. It would drive down those costs and debt and taxes!”

(See Video Below)

Senator Enzi, added that it is important to get “back to basics” and attempt to halt a massive train wreck of spending. The alternative budget also includes proposal to make the President Bush's 2001 and 2003 taxes permanent.

Congressman Louie Gohmert, detailed on the importance of an alternative budget that places emphasis on restructuring our capitalist economy and avoiding the rapid move towards Socialism, telling ALG News.

“…We are moving rapidly [towards socialism], in three month time we have moved so far, that its just unbelievable, who would have ever thought that we own the current interest in AIG, and in Wall Street and in the Big banks of America, and in the Big car companies….People are saying we are moving toward a European style Socialism, we are moving more towards a pilgrim style socialism, because half of them nearly starved that first winter…the answer is not more socialism, its going back to basic that made us the greatest country in the history of the world, before its too late.”

(See Video Below)

The Republican proposal comes on the heels of one of the largest budgets proposed by Democrats in the nation's history. According to Republicans, at the Alternative Budget unveiling, Obama's 3.7 Trillion is simply “Unacceptable”. With limited numbers in both the House and Senate, the Republicans are not likely to pass their version, unless they are able to pressure moderate Democrats into a deal.

The GOP proposal also includes measures to assist businesses by cutting the corporate income tax from a record 35% to 25% and cutting the capitol gains tax in 2009 and 2010. Speaking to ALG News, Congressman Robert Adelhort (R-AL) predicted the astonishing tax rates that will be implemented on the public, if the current spending levels continue at this rate.

“…the tax rates, the lowest will be about 25%, the middle will be at about 65% and the highest for small business will be 88%, and so with those numbers, when people see those numbers, and see what that does to their children and grandchildren, I think that they will fall behind what the Republican alternative will be.” (See Video Below)
The Alternative Budget bill is expected to come to the house floor this afternoon.

To watch the exclusive interviews from today, please follow the link below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOl_f6Kkup0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r49GIDBqEAI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLpQdeo_jtY

###

Americans for Limited Government is a non- partisan, nationwide network committed to advancing free market reforms,private property rights and core American liberties. For more information on ALG please call us at 703-383-0880 or visit our website at www.GetLiberty.org.

SHARIA INFESTING AMERICA TOO

By David Lewkowict

As America's Muslim population grows, so too does the influence of Islamic law, or Shariah, in daily life in the U.S.
"Shariah Law is the totality of the Muslim's obligation," said Abdullahi An-Na'im, a professor of law at Emory University in Atlanta.

According to An-Na'im, Shariah is similar to Jewish Talmudic Law or Catholic Canon Law in that it guides an adherent's moral conduct.

"As a citizen, I am a subject of the United States," An-Na'im said. "I owe allegiance to the United States, to the Constitution of the United States. That is not inconsistent with observing a religious code in terms of my own personal behavior."

While many view this as a testament to the "great American melting pot," others see Islamic law's growing influence as a threat.

Shariah's critics point to cases such as the airport in Minneapolis, where some Shariah-adherent taxi drivers made headlines in 2006 for refusing to pick up passengers they suspected of carrying liquor.

The drivers' aversion to alcohol stemmed from a verse in the Qur'an that describes "intoxicants and gambling" as "an abomination of Satan's handiwork."

Last year, a Tyson Foods plant in Shelbyville, Tenn. replaced its traditional Labor Day holiday with paid time off on Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim festival — marking the end of fasting during Ramadan.

A labor union had requested the change on behalf of hundreds of Muslim employees— many of them were immigrants from Somalia.

But public outcry over the decision to dismiss Labor Day quickly prompted the company and union to negotiate a new contract that makes accommodations for both holidays.

In 2007, the University of Michigan installed ritual foot baths to accommodate Islamic tradition. "These things are beginning to percolate up as Shariah-adherent Muslims insist that their preferences and practices be accommodated by the rest of the population," said Frank Gaffney, founder and president of the Center for Security Policy — a Washington think tank.

Gaffney predicted the U.S. could soon face problems similar to some Western European countries, where the religious values of Muslim immigrants sometimes clash with their highly secular host cultures.

But Professor An-Na'im believes it will be different in America. "The variety of American secularism — which is much more receptive of public displays of religion and a public role for religion — is, in fact, more conducive for Muslims to be citizens and to be comfortable with their religious values and citizenship than European countries," An-Na'im said.

GEORGE CARLIN WISDOM

Isn't it amazing that George Carlin - comedian of the 70's and 80's - could write something so very eloquent...and so very appropriate.

by George Carlin:

The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider Freeways , but narrower viewpoints.

We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less.

We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time.

We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.

We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values.

We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.

We've learned how to make a living, but not a life.

We've added years to life not life to years.

We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor.

We conquered outer space but not inner space.

We've done larger things, but not better things.

We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul.

We've conquered the atom, but not our prejudice.

We write more, but learn less.

We plan more, but accomplish less.

We've learned to rush, but not to wait.

We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less.

These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships.

These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes.

These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill.

It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom.

A time when technology can bring this letter to you, and a time when you can choose either to share this insight, or to just hit delete...

Remember; spend some time with your loved ones, because they are not going to be around forever.

Remember, say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe, because that little person soon will grow up and leave your side.

Remember, to give a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is the only treasure you can give with your heart and it doesn't cost a cent.

Remember, to say, 'I love you' to your partner and your loved ones, but most of all mean it.

A kiss and an embrace will mend hurt when it comes from deep inside of you.

Remember to hold hands and cherish the moment for someday that person will not be there again.

Give time to love, give time to speak! And give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind.

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER: Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

George Carlin

MORE PRO-ISLAMIC IRAN OBA-HUSSEIN POLICY GOING INTO PLACE

WASHINGTON — A candidate for a top nonproliferation post in the Obama administration played down today the threat from Iran’s long-range missile program as a reason to build a European missile defense system.

Democratic Rep. Ellen Tauscher is under consideration to be undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, a position that has involved shaping policy on U.S. missile defense plans in Poland and the Czech Republic. As chair of a congressional military appropriations panel, she has been a critic of U.S. long-range missile defense systems.

Her comments come as the Obama administration is reviewing the European missile defense plans and has signaled to Russia that it is willing to reconsider them, if the threat from Iran recedes. Russia has adamantly opposed the European plans, which it believes would undermine its nuclear deterrent and encroach on its interests.

Advocates of the U.S. plans in Europe argue that missile defense systems should be urgently deployed to counter Iran, which the United States has estimated could have missiles capable of reaching Europe or America within a decade. Tauscher said that the threat has been exaggerated.

She told a conference on missile defense that the United States and allies should first develop and field short range missile defense systems that could protect forces deployed in combat operations. She said that advocates of the European plans "have been running around with their hair on fire."

"The argument that the U.S. would be naked against an Iranian threat unless we deploy the GMD system in Europe is simply not right," she said, referring to the long range system.

OBAMA TRYING TO STRIP MILITARY OF PRIVATE WEAPONS

Military demands details on soldiers' private guns

Fort Campbell command reversed under pressure

Posted: March 21, 200912:15 am Eastern
By Bob Unruh© 2009 WorldNetDaily

A military commander at Fort Campbell in Kentucky demanded his soldiers give him the registration numbers of any guns they own privately and then reveal where they are stored.

The order was stopped, according to base officials, when it was discovered the commander was not "acting within his authority."

The original order was issued on the letterhead of Charlie Company, 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment and said effective March 11, any soldier with a "privately owned weapon" was required to submit the information, along with any information about any concealed carry permit the soldier may have, and what state issued the permit.

Further, the rule warned, "If any soldier comes into possession of a Privately Owned Weapon following the effective date of this memorandum, he is required to inform the Chain of Command of the above information."

One soldier who objected to the demands circulated the memo, commenting that he lives off post.

"It just seems a little coincidental to me that within 90 days the most anti-firearm president in history is inaugurated, some of the nastiest anti-firearm laws are put on the table in Washington, and then the Army comes around wanting what amounts to a registration on all firearms, even if they are off post, and doesn't provide any reason or purpose as to why," the soldier said.

Base spokeswoman Cathy Gramling told WND the letter apparently was a mistake. She said the base requires anyone bringing a privately owned weapon onto the installation to register it.

"As a response to a number of negligent discharges of privately owned weapons, the command decided to explore how to implement a training program for soldiers with privately owned weapons.

Their goal is to identify soldiers with firearms and provide additional safety training to them, much like our motorcycle and driver safety classes," she said.

"Our soldiers train and operate in combat with M-4 carbines and various other military weapons, but not all who purchase their own weapons are properly trained to handle them. Determining which soldiers possess weapons will allow the command to identify the soldiers who may require additional training on them," she said.

Learn here why it's your right – and duty – to be armed.

Gramling said the memo was "from a subordinate unit commander who, at the time, believed he was acting within his authority." She said requiring the information was halted when it was discovered the commander was not within his authority.

The process has been suspended pending a full review, she said.

"This is not an effort to infringe on soldiers' rights to own firearms," Gramling told WND.

Mistake or not, the commander's order comes on the heels of a Department of Defense policy that limited the supply of ammunition available to the private gun owners by requiring destruction of fired military cartridge brass.

That policy already had been implemented and had taken a bite out of the nation's stressed ammunition supply before it was reversed this week.

Mark Cunningham, a legislative affairs representative with the Defense Logistics Agency, explained in an e-mail to the office of Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., that the Department of Defense had placed small arms cartridge cases on its list of sensitive munitions items as part of an overall effort to ensure national security is not jeopardized in the sale of any Defense property.

"Upon review, the Defense Logistics Agency has determined the cartridge cases could be appropriately placed in a category of government property allowing for their release for sale," Cunningham wrote.

ISLAM IN ACTION IN LONDONISTAN - Coming to your neighborhood in the USA

Another lesson for Great Britain AND WAKE UP CALL FOR THE AMERICAN LIBS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Solution: On the basis of hate crime penalties, add lifelong deportation/ "exile" to country of ethnic origin as part of sentencing guidelines and get the vicious, fanatical Muslims out so Britain can remain a free society. And out of America, too!

We provide them freedom of speech, which they abuse, but this does not include freedom to suppress our speech and do bodily harm, which crosses the line of terrorist threats and actions. And should be dealt with accordingly.

Currently the 57 major global islamists have a motion on record at the United Nations that would make it a human rights violation and a crime to CRITICIZE islam. The motion tries to disguise this by stating criticizing RELIGION would be a crime THEN stating that islam is the ONLY recognized, acceptable religion, according to this motion! And saying that all other religions are blasphemy and are not covered by this proposition.

Two rounds of voting have come close to passing the Resolution and it may pass the next time! So saying anything a Moslem does not like would become a CRIME!

==================

Christian Minister beaten after clashing with Muslims on his TV show

By Jonathan Petre

A Christian minister who has had heated arguments with Muslims on his TV Gospel show has been brutally attacked by three men who ripped off his cross and warned: ‘If you go back to the studio, we’ll break your legs.’

The Reverend Noble Samuel was driving to the studio when a car pulled over in front of him. A man got out and came over to ask him directions in Urdu. ("Pakistani")

Mr Samuel, based at Heston United Reformed Church, West London, said: ‘He put his hand into my window, which was half open, and grabbed my hair and opened the door.

Frightened: TV minister Noble Samuel

He started slapping my face and punching my neck. He was trying to smash my head on the steering wheel.Then he grabbed my cross and pulled it off and it fell on the floor.

He was swearing. The other two men came from the car and took my laptop and Bible.’

The Metropolitan Police are treating it as a ‘faith hate’ assault and are hunting three Asian men.

In spite of the attack, Mr Samuel went ahead with his hour-long live Asian Gospel Show on the Venus satellite channel from studios in Wembley, North London.

During the show the Muslim station owner Tahir Ali came on air to condemn the attack.

Pakistan-born Mr Samuel, 48, who was educated by Christian missionaries and moved to Britain 15 years ago, said that over the past few weeks he has received phone-in calls from people identifying themselves as Muslims whochallenged his views.

'They were having an argument with me,’ he said. ‘They were very aggressive in saying they did not agree with me. I said those are your views and these are my views.’

He said that he, his wife Louisa, 48, and his son Naveed, 19, now fear for their safety, and police have given them panic alarms. ‘I am frightened and depressed,’ he said. ‘My show is not confrontational.’

TIME TO FOLLOW DENMARK'S EXAMPLE AND GET OUR COUNTRIES BACK

Subject: A Serious Warning from Denmark....

When reading this, don’t just think of Muslims, also consider our Mexican Problem.

Douglas Schulz
Susan MacAllen is a contributing editor for (FamilySecurityMatters.org)

Salute the Danish Flag - it's a Symbol of Western Freedom By Susan MacAllen

In 1978-9 I was living and studying in Denmark . But in 1978 - even in Copenhagen, one didn't see Muslim immigrants.

The Danish population embraced visitors, celebrated the exotic, went out of its way to protect each of its citizens. It was proud of its new brand of socialist liberalism one in development since the conservatives had lost power in 1929 - a system where no worker had to struggle to survive, where one ultimately could count upon the state as in, perhaps, no other western nation at the time.

The rest of Europe saw the Scandinavians as free-thinking, progressive and infinitely generous in their welfare policies.

Denmark boasted low crime rates, devotion to the environment, a superior educational system and a history of humanitarianism.Denmark was also most generous in its immigration policies – it offered the best welcome in Europe to the new immigrant: generous welfare payments from first arrival plus additional perks in transportation, housing and education.

It was determined to set a world example for inclusiveness and multiculturalism. How could it have predicted that one day in 2005 a series of political cartoons in a newspaper would spark violence that would leave dozens dead in the streets - all because its commitment to multiculturalism would come back to bite?

By the 1990's the growing urban Muslim population was obvious – and its unwillingness to integrate into Danish society was obvious. Years of immigrants had settled into Muslim-exclusive enclaves.

As the Muslim leadership became more vocal about what they considered the decadence of Denmark 's liberal way of life, the Danes - once so welcoming - began to feel slighted. Many Danes had begun to see Islam as incompatible with their long-standing values:

belief in personal liberty and free speech, in equality for women, in tolerance for other ethnic groups, and a deep pride in Danish heritage and history.

An article by Daniel Pipes and Lars Hedegaard, in which they forecasted accurately that the growing immigrant problem in Denmark would explode.

In the article they reported:

'Muslim immigrants constitute 5 percent of the population but consume upwards of 40 percent of the welfare spending.'

'Muslims are only 4 percent of Denmark's 5.4 million people but make up a majority of the country's convicted rapists, an especially combustible issue given that practically all the female victims are non-Muslim.

Similar, if lesser, disproportions are found in other crimes.

''Over time, as Muslim immigrants increase in numbers, they wish less to mix with the indigenous population. A recent survey finds that only 5 percent of young Muslim immigrants would readily marry a Dane.''

Forced marriages - promising a newborn daughter in Denmark to a male cousin in the home country, then compelling her to marry him, sometimes on pain of death - are one problem''

Muslim leaders openly declare their goal of introducing Islamic law once Denmark's Muslim population grows large enough – a not-that-remote prospect.

If present trends persist, one sociologist estimates, every third inhabitant of Denmark in 40 years will be Muslim.

'It is easy to understand why a growing number of Danes would feel that Muslim immigrants show little respect for Danish values and laws.

An example is the phenomenon common to other European countries and Canada. Some Muslims in Denmark who opted to leave the Muslim faith have been murdered in the name of Islam, while others hide in fear for their lives.

Jews are also threatened and harassed openly by Muslim leaders in Denmark, a country where once Christian citizens worked to smuggle out nearly all of their 7,000 Jews by night to Sweden - before the Nazis could invade.

I think of my Danish friend Elsa - who as a teenager had dreaded crossing the street to the bakery every morning under the eyes of occupying Nazi soldiers – and I wonder what she would say today.

In 2001, Denmark elected the most conservative government in some 70 years - one that had some decidedly non-generous ideas about liberal unfettered immigration.

Today Denmark has the strictest immigration policies in Europe. (Its effort to protect itself has been met with accusations of 'racism' by liberal media across Europe - even as other governments struggle to right the social problems wrought by years of too-lax immigration.)

If you wish to become Danish, you must attend three years of language classes. You must pass a test on Denmark's history, culture, and a Danish language test.

You must live in Denmark for 7 years before applying for citizenship.

You must demonstrate an intent to work, and have a job waiting.

If you wish to bring a spouse into Denmark, you must both be over 24 years of age, and you won't find it so easy anymore to move your friends and family to Denmark with you.

You will not be allowed to build a mosque in Copenhagen.

Although your children have a choice of some 30 Arabic culture and language schools in Denmark, they will be strongly encouraged to assimilate to Danish society in ways that past immigrants weren't.

In 2006, the Danish minister for employment, Claus Hjort Frederiksen, spoke publicly of the burden of Muslim immigrants on the Danish welfare system, and it was horrifying:

the government's welfare committee had calculated that if immigration from Third World countries were blocked, 75 percent of the cuts needed to sustain the huge welfare system in coming decades would be unnecessary.

In other words, the welfare system as it existed was being exploited by immigrants to the point of eventually bankrupting the government. 'We are simply forced to adopt a new policy on immigration.

The calculations of the welfare committee are terrifying and show how unsuccessful the integration of immigrants has been up to now,' he said.

A large thorn in the side of Denmark 's imams is the Minister of Immigration and Integration, Rikke Hvilshoj. She makes no bones about the new policy toward immigration, 'The number of foreigners coming to the country makes a difference,' Hvilshøj says.

'There is an inverse correlation between how many come here and how well we can receive the foreigners that come.' And on Muslim immigrants needing to demonstrate a willingness to blend in.

'In my view, Denmark should be a country with room for different cultures and religions. Some values, however, are more important than others.

We refuse to question democracy, equal rights, and freedom of speech.'Hvilshoj has paid a price for her show of backbone.

Perhaps to test her resolve, the leading radical imam in Denmark, Ahmed Abdel Rahman Abu Laban, demanded that the government pay blood money to the family of a Muslim who was murdered in a suburb of Copenhagen, stating that the family's thirst for revenge could be thwarted for money.

When Hvilshoj dismissed his demand, he argued that in Muslim culture the payment of retribution money was common, to which Hvilshoj replied that what is done in a Muslim country is not necessarily what is done in Denmark.

The Muslim reply came soon after: her house was torched while she, her husband and children slept. All managed to escape unharmed, but she and her family were moved to a secret location and she and other ministers were assigned bodyguards for the first time - in a country where such murderous violence was once so scarce.

Her government has slid to the right, and her borders have tightened. Many believe that what happens in the next decade will determine whether Denmark survives as a bastion of good living, humane thinking and social responsibility, or whether it becomes a nation at civil war with supporters of Sharia law.

And meanwhile, Canadians clamor for stricter immigration policies, and demand an end to state welfare programs that allow many immigrants to live on the public dole. As we in Canada look at the enclaves of Muslims amongst us, and see those who enter our shores too easily, dare live on our taxes, yet refuse to embrace our culture, respect our traditions, participate in our legal system, obey our laws, speak our language, appreciate our history.. . we would do well to look to Denmark , and say a prayer for her future and for our own..

USA TO COLLAPSE NEXT YEAR - OR IS IT RUSSIA?

By MIKE ECKEL

MOSCOW (AP) - If you're inclined to believe Igor Panarin, and the Kremlin wouldn't mind if you did, then President Barack Obama will order martial law this year, the U.S. will split into six rump-states before 2011, and Russia and China will become the backbones of a new world order.

Panarin might be easy to ignore but for the fact that he is a dean at the Foreign Ministry's school for future diplomats and a regular on Russia's state-guided TV channels. And his predictions fit into the anti-American story line of the Kremlin leadership.

"There is a high probability that the collapse of the United States will occur by 2010," Panarin told dozens of students, professors and diplomats Tuesday at the Diplomatic Academy—a lecture the ministry pointedly invited The Associated Press and other foreign media to attend.

The prediction from Panarin, a former spokesman for Russia's Federal Space Agency and reportedly an ex-KGB analyst, meshes with the negative view of the U.S. that has been flowing from the Kremlin in recent years, in particular from Vladimir Putin.

Putin, the former president who is now prime minister, has likened the United States to Nazi Germany's Third Reich and blames Washington for the global financial crisis that has pounded the Russian economy.

Panarin didn't give many specifics on what underlies his analysis, mostly citing newspapers, magazines and other open sources.

He also noted he had been predicting the demise of the world's wealthiest country for more than a decade now.

But he said the recent economic turmoil in the U.S. and other "social and cultural phenomena" led him to nail down a specific timeframe for "The End"—when the United States will break up into six autonomous regions and Alaska will revert to Russian control.

Panarin argued that Americans are in moral decline, saying their great psychological stress is evident from school shootings, the size of the prison population and the number of gay men.

Turning to economic woes, he cited the slide in major stock indexes, the decline in U.S. gross domestic product and Washington's bailout of banking giant Citigroup as evidence that American dominance of global markets has collapsed.
"I was there recently and things are far from good," he said.

"What's happened is the collapse of the American dream."

Panarin insisted he didn't wish for a U.S. collapse, but he predicted Russia and China would emerge from the economic turmoil stronger and said the two nations should work together, even to create a new currency to replace the U.S. dollar.

Asked for comment on how the Foreign Ministry views Panarin's theories, a spokesman said all questions had to be submitted in writing and no answers were likely before Wednesday.

It wasn't clear how persuasive the 20-minute lecture was. One instructor asked Panarin whether his predictions more accurately describe Russia, which is undergoing its worst economic crisis in a decade as well as a demographic collapse that has led some scholars to predict the country's demise.
Panarin dismissed that idea: "The collapse of Russia will not occur."

But Alexei Malashenko, a scholar-in-residence at the Carnegie Moscow Center who did not attend the lecture, sided with the skeptical instructor, saying Russia is the country that is on the verge of disintegration.