The Scriptorium

The State University College at Oneonta has booked a Fox News Channel military analyst to counter a lecture tonight by anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan.

Lt. Col. Scott Rutter, who retired from the Army in November 2003 after leading a mechanized infantry battalion into Baghdad, will give a presentation sponsored by the student-run College Union Activities Council at noon Friday in the Hunt Union Square. . . . .

Sheehan is getting paid $11,000 for the hour-long talk, while Rutter will receive his standard fee of $600 for his presentation, Dromgoole said.

Now that’s a wise use of university funds. The liberal, anti-Semitic, anti-American, war protester gets 11,000 and the retired army infantryman who’s actually been in Iraq and is an analyst for a major news organization gets 600. Sounds about right.

Hat tip Michelle Malkin

In the aftermath of the “unemployment riots” in France, the French government is vowing to reform immigration policies and tighten policies on plygamy, which is now being listed as a cause of the riots.

He also called for tight policing of polygamy, which is illegal in France but some center-right politicians say was one of the causes of the unrest because children from large polygamous families have problems integrating into society.

Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, who threatened to expel any foreigners involved in the riots, told parliament on Tuesday that France no longer wanted “those people that nobody else in the world wants.”

“I agree with what the prime minister said. We want selective immigration,” Sarkozy said.

Now, is that tolerant?

Catholic leaders are trying to track down evidence of a miracle performed by Pope John Paul the II so that he can qualify for sainthood. If they have to hunt for it, I’m thinking his miracle must not have been too miraculous.

Krakow’s Roman Catholic archbishop spoke Tuesday of a possible miracle performed by Pope John Paul II in France that a church tribunal will focus on as the Vatican pursues its case for beatification.

Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, who was personal secretary to John Paul, told reporters in Rome that “there are no problems with miracles because there are many, but they have picked one because they don’t need more.”

Pressed further, Dziwisz added: “Maybe this I can say: they have picked (one in) France.”

The Vatican needs proof of a miracle before it can proclaim John Paul eligible for sainthood, and a church tribunal from the archdiocese of Krakow, Poland, has been gathering evidence from witnesses.

Dziwisz said the process was “proceeding very well” and could be over as soon as March, the ANSA news agency reported.

“There are many testimonies, we must choose the most accurate ones to show the personality of John Paul II,” Dziwisz was quoted as saying.

Matthew 24:24 “For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect—if that were possible.”

II Thessalonians 2:9-10 “The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.”

In another article on the miracle hunt I found this:

Information will now be gathered on the former pope’s life and teachings, including all private writings from the period before he became pope, and checked for orthodoxy to ensure that he expressed no heretical views.

Now, why would they need to check his writings for heresy? The man is supposed to be infallible and Christ’s representative on earth. Surely they can trust his writings to be accurate on Catholic doctrine.

The liberal politicians in Canada are hosers, eh? The ouster of the current ultra liberal government by no means guarantees a new conservative government will take its place, but I have a few friends in Canada that are probably celebrating anyway. My friends tell me that in many areas of Canada people are just as fed up with liberal politics as we are in the U.S., if not more so. A few of them even believe some conservative parts of Canada will eventually break away from the mother country and either join the U.S. or form new countries (I suggested they just move to the U.S. and help us send our liberals to Canada).

The nanny state never works (see France), so rebellion against Canada’s socialist welfare policies, the “free” health care system that forces Canadians to come to the U.S. for health care, and a tax system that makes our taxes in the U.S. look like a refund, is inevitable. Add in the growing outrage over the governments policies of monitoring speech, pandering to Muslims, and forcing secularism down people’s throats, and you have the makings for a rebellion. Some people in Canada are even waking up to the fact that a military made up of one plane, a ship, and a guy to answer the phone is not a good idea in our post 9/11 world. I don’t think that rebellion is here yet, though. Like in the U.S., Christians and conservatives in Canada are still sleeping. As soon as Canadians and Americans realize that whining and getting mad about the left’s oppressive ideology doesn’t work, and no one is going to fix it for them, we might see some real change. Never the less, this has got to be encouraging to conservatives in a country that’s headed down the toilet even faster than we are.

Canadian politicians will hit the campaign trail this holiday season after opposition parties seized upon a corruption scandal to bring down the minority government of Prime Minister Paul Martin in a vote of no confidence.

Monday’s loss means an election for all 308 seats in the lower House of Commons, likely on Jan. 23. Martin and his Cabinet will continue to govern until then.

The Conservative Party teamed up with the New Democratic and Bloc Quebecois parties to bring down the government, claiming the ruling Liberal Party had lost its moral authority. Recent polls have given the Liberals a slight lead over the Conservatives, with the New Democrats in third place.

The same surveys suggest the Bloc Quebecois would sweep the French-speaking province of Quebec, making a majority government unlikely no matter which party wins the most seats.

For now, a majority of Canadians will probably be too scared of losing their government handouts to stand up to Socialism. Canada is one of the few things that makes me still appreciate our government in the U.S.

Four members of the anti-war group “Christian Peacemaker Teams” have been taken hostage in Iraq and are probably realizing about now that their captors are not freedom fighters and taking their side in the war was a very bad idea. The terrorists don’t appreciate their efforts to hurt the American military, they only see 4 infidels arrogant enough to walk into the middle of a war believing that peace will come if only they can start a discussion and get the military out of Iraq. While they brought this on themselves, I feel bad that, in all likelihood, they will lose their heads. They not only walked into the middle of a pack of terrorists, they did it while advertising the word Christian in their anti-war group’s name. They must have all been educated in a U.S. university.

While I hope these people are rescued (no one deserves decapitation), I’m also angered that our military may end up risking their lives to save these ungrateful jerks. That would be the true tragedy.

The Jawa Report has the scoop and video of the hostages. The terrorists holding them stated in video released by Al Jazera that they’ve determined their captives are spies. If only they knew the hostages were actually spies for their side. Never mind, they’d still kill them. An infidel is an infidel is an infidel, and a “Christian” infidel is worth 72 virgins.