The Council Has Spoken!! Our Watcher’s Council Results 03.20.15

The Council Has Spoken! The votes have been cast, and the results are in for this week’s Watcher’s Council match up.

“”You see, it’s been our misfortune to have the wrong religion. Why didn’t we have the religion of the Japanese, who regard sacrifice for the Fatherland as the highest good? The Mohammedan religion too would have been more compatible to us than Christianity. Why did it have to be Christianity with its meekness and flabbiness?” – Adolf Hitler

“I studied the Qu’ran a great deal. I came away from that study with the conviction that by and large there have been few religions in the world as deadly to men as that of Muhammad. As far as I can see, it is the principal cause of the decadence so visible today in the Muslim world and, though less absurd than the polytheism of old, its social and political tendencies are in my opinion more to be feared, and I therefore regard it as a form of decadence rather than a form of progress in relation to paganism itself” – Alexis de Tocqueville

“All this talk of people who burn the Koran and nothing about the people who reacted in such a stupid way. We are always blaming the victim and not holding them — not most Muslims, but at least a large part of Muslim culture that doesn’t condemn their people… There is one religion in the world that kills you when you disagree with them and they say ‘look, we are a religion of peace and if you disagree we’ll f**king cut your head off, and nobody calls them on it — there are very few people that will call them on it. It’s like if Dad is a violent drunk and beats his kids, you don’t blame the kid because he set Dad off. You blame Dad because he’s a violent drunk” - Bill Maher

This week’s winning essay, Joshuapundit’s The Chicken Or The Egg? looks at some elements of Islamic culture and asks: is it Islam that promotes the extreme violence and misogyny associated with Muslim societies? Or is that just [art of a tribal society that persists in spite of Islam? Here’s a slice:

Unless you’re in a coma, you’ve probably noticed that a great many of the violent and barbaric acts in our modern world can be attributed to followers of Islam.

In the Islamic world today, aside from homicide bombings, jihad and terrorism directed against dar harb ( the part of the world not ruled by Islam), honor killings, female genital circumcision and other forms of violence against women are commonplace, and homosexuals are routinely brutalized and murdered. Non-Muslims are treated as barely human in much of the Islamic world, if they’re allowed to exist at all. Warfare carried out by Muslims is done with modern tools of the trade provided by the despised infidels, but is a relic of the good ol’ primitive and tribal days. Hostages, beheadings and the deliberate killing of civilians are all fair game, and the language of jihad is essentially the same heady stuff used back in the 7th century against the infidel. And through it all, there remains the miasma of seething violent rage at things like the Danish cartoons that simply doesn’t exist in other religious groups.

The question nobody wants to ask keeps floating to the surface: Is Islam to blame? Or, to put it another way, are the perpetrators simply bad Muslims or are they actually good ones who are simply more in tune with Mohammed’s message than the majority? Does Islam itself promote violence? Or are the acts simply a product of primitive tribal society that persists in spite of Islam?

Actually, this is a trick question. I personally believe that Islam and the primitive tribal culture combined back in the day to sustain each other and can’t be separated by their very nature…even though some valiant attempts have been made in the past, and are being made today.

Let’s look at honor killings, for example. Probably the oldest recorded one is in Genesis 34, when Jacob’s daughter Dinah was seduced (or raped, depending on how you interpret the text) by a man from the town of Shechem (modern day Nablus). Afterwards, Jacob’s sons Simeon and Levi instigated the killing of the town’s men in revenge. But the Torah also tells us how Jacob denounced the killings and actually took the time to bad mouth his sons for the deed from his deathbed. Not only that, but you’ll notice a profound difference from the Islamic way of handling this – the onus of punishment fell on the male, not the female.

his isn’t the only honor killing mentioned in the Bible, but they were never condoned or part of Jewish law, just merely reported.

Islam, on the other hand, not only sanctions honor killings but is quite clear about its position in the matter. Killing or flogging an adulteress or a female that has relations with a non-Muslim male are part of sharia ( Qu’ran: 4:15, for example) – provided an Islamic court orders the punishment rather than an individual male family member going off on his own.

Even at that, Islamic courts today in the Muslim world frequently view male family members taking the law into their own hands fairly leniently. In Jordan, for example, many brutal honor killings have been punished by as little as a three month sentence under Jordanian Public Law 340. Moreover, in the context of Islamic society such murderers are often celebrated and held up as role models. Just as homicide bombers and terrorists who kill infidel civilians often are.

But what if a Muslim feels himself disrespected and lives in say, Britain or New Jersey? If no Islamic courts are available, is it permissible to take the law into one’s own hands? Probably. There’s not much in the way of Islamic rulings or commentary on that particular subject, but the near silence of most Muslim clergy in the West when it comes to denouncing honor killings speaks volumes…one of those little inconvenient truths Western apologists for multiculturalism and Islam constantly run up against when a number of Muslim clerics themselves insist that honor killing, female genital mutilation, and stoning of adulterers are mandated by Islam. And, as you’ve probably guessed by now , that’s one of the unspoken reasons behind the push among many Muslims in the West for sharia courts to handle those messy domestic problems that come up with uppity females from time to time.

Violent death penalties for women caught in adultery is fairly typical of a primitive society, but only Islam continues the practice into the present day. No Christian court has ever condemned a woman to death for adultery. And although the death penalty for adultery is found in the Book of Leviticus, there is no record of such a sentence ever carried out by any Jewish court. The same is true of homosexuality; while both Christianity and Judaism consider it ‘a sin and an abomination’ only Islam clearly mandates the death penalty for such activities and carries it out in our present day.

So why does Islamic society persist in these practices ?

Much more at the link.

In our non-Council category, the winner was Daniel Greenfield’s – Obama’s Treason Is The New Patriotism submitted by The Noisy Room. Daniel has some very hard hitting things to say about President Obama and a number of his questionable actions..and the tendency by the usual suspects to name anyone whom disagrees with the Regime a ‘traitor.’

Here are this week’s full results. GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD and Rhymes With Right were unable to vote this week, but were not subject to the usual 2/3 vote penalty for not voting:

Council Winners

• *First place with 2 1/3 votes! – Joshuapundit - The Chicken Or The Egg?
• Second place with 2 votes – Bookworm Room – Trevor Loudon tells enthralled Marin County audience that victory in 2016 requires uniting and inspiring conservative base
• Third place with 1 1/3 votes – VA Right! - Is the Location of Hillary Clinton’s Email Server 75 Broad St New York, NY 10004?
• Fourth place *t* with 1 vote – Nice Deb – President Bystander Blames Bush For ISIS – Even Though He Funded Them and They Metastasized On His Watch
• Fourth place *t* with 1 vote – Ask Marion – Beating The Odds
• Fourth place *t* with 1 vote – Don Surber – Prime Minister: “Australians are sick of being lectured to by the United Nations”
• Fourth place *t* with 1 vote – The Right Planet – The Silencers
• Fifth place with 2/3 votes – The Noisy Room – The Faustian Pact Between Obama And Iran
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 votes – The Glittering Eye - The History of ‘Advice and Consent’
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 votes – Rhymes With Right – But The Obama Administration Assured Us These Folks Were Poor People Who Just Needed Jobs!

Non-Council Winners

• First place with 3 votes! – Daniel Greenfield/FrontPage Mag – Obama’s Treason Is The New Patriotism submitted by The Noisy Room
• Second place with 2 1/3 votes – Michael Totten – Let Iraq Die: A Case for Partition submitted by Joshuapundit
• Third place with 2 votes – James Rosen/Playboy – Dick Cheney Interview: ‘Obama is The Worst President Of My Lifetime’ submitted by The Watcher
• Fourth place with 1 vote – Walter Russell Mead – The Way Forward on Iran submitted by The Glittering Eye
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 votes -Michael Douglas/LA Times – Michael Douglas finds Judaism and faces anti-Semitism submitted by Don Surber
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 votes -Richard Epstein/Hoover Institution - Race Baiting And Ferguson submitted by Nice Deb
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote -Veronique de Rugy/The Daily Beast – On Ex-Im Bank, the Democrats Are the Real Corporate Shills submitted by The Razor
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote -Victor Davis Hanson/PJ Media - A Tale of Four Droughts submitted by Bookworm Room

See you next week!

Make sure to tune in every Monday for the Watcher’s Forum. and every  Tuesday morning, when we reveal the weeks’ nominees for Weasel of the Week!

And remember, every Wednesday, the Council has its weekly contest with the members nominating two posts each, one written by themselves and one written by someone from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council. The votes are cast by the Council, and the results are posted on Friday morning.

It’s a weekly magazine of some of the best stuff written in the blogosphere, and you won’t want to miss it...or any of the other fantabulous Watcher’s Council content.

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Happy Easter 2014

AP Photo

Over 2 billion people are celebrating Easter today, April 20, as the calendars of Western and Eastern churches coincide this year, and these billions of faithful people are celebrating HOPE

But not only have the calendars of the Eastern and Western Christian Churches coincided but this week has also been a celebration of hope and freedom, with Passover starting last Monday night and continuing through the weekend until next Tuesday. Which of course also coincides with Holy Week, which culminates this weekend with Easter Sunday. This linkage is entirely appropriate, since Jesus had come to Jerusalem for the Passover ceremonies and the famous Last Supper was a Passover Seder… the ritual meal where Jews all over the world retell the story of the Exodus, celebrate their God-given freedom and eat the unleavened bread, matzoh, to commemorate their ancestor’s journey and deliverance from bondage and slavery.

The story of the Resurrection is a story of freedom too… freedom of the soul and a promise of eternal life to believing Christians who understand what the rolling away of the stones means for them.

Both holidays change their dates on our calendar from year to year, Passover or Pessah in Hebrew, because it is based on the centuries old Hebrew calendar and Easter because the early Church fathers determined that Easter is always celebrated on the Sunday immediately following the Paschal Full Moon date of the year, which always occurs after Passover.

However, it’s rare that the two holidays occur this close together and in this momentous year, when Judeo-Christian values seem to be under siege, I likewise see in that a sign of hope for the future.

I and my friends here at the Daily Thought Pad and on the Watcher’s Council wish you and yours Chag Pessach Sameach and a Blessed Easter.

 

Video: Calvary – Hillsong Live – Lyrics – Easter Single 2014

 

The meaning of Easter is HOPE, and we, all of us, need and deserve hope.

Technorati Tags: Christianity,Easter,fun,God,holidays,Holy Week,Hope,Jesus,Judaism,Passover,Pope,religion,Salvation

28 Pages Later: Shrouding an Act of War

By: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton -  Cross-Posted at Right Side News

A scandal that spans three presidencies and more is coming to light. In a non-defined conflict against terrorism, we have lost over 6,750 U.S. service members who have died in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. American blood spilled in wars that do not attack those who attacked us on 9-11. To put this in perspective, fewer died in Pearl Harbor and we nuked the Japanese. We were told after 9-11, that it was al Qaeda, with no other state sponsors. If the allegations prove accurate, 9-11 was nothing less than an act of war by Saudi Arabia.

“It’s classified because if it were released, the people would demand war against Saudi Arabia, and the entire US policy of having the Sunni Arabs price their oil in US dollars in exchange for supporting their dictatorships would fall apart.”
– Comment left at Hot Air (Hat Tip: The Radio Patriot)

According to the New York Post, Democratic Rep. Stephen Lynch and Republican Rep. Walter Jones have come forward with solid accusations claiming that 28 pages from the 2002 report on 9-11, were not only redacted, they were blank except for an on-going ellipsis. The 28 pages were purportedly removed by President Bush when the report was released, but are now leaking out 12 years later:

President Bush inexplicably censored 28 full pages of the 800-page report. Text isn’t just blacked-out here and there in this critical-yet-missing middle section. The pages are completely blank, except for dotted lines where an estimated 7,200 words once stood (this story by comparison is about 1,000 words).

A pair of lawmakers who recently read the redacted portion say they are “absolutely shocked” at the level of foreign state involvement in the attacks.

Reps. Walter Jones (R-NC) and Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.) can’t reveal the nation identified by it without violating federal law. So they’ve proposed Congress pass a resolution asking President Obama to declassify the entire 2002 report, “Joint Inquiry Into Intelligence Community Activities Before and After the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001.”

Some information already has leaked from the classified section, which is based on both CIA and FBI documents, and it points back to Saudi Arabia, a presumed ally.

The Saudis deny any role in 9/11, but the CIA in one memo reportedly found “incontrovertible evidence” that Saudi government officials — not just wealthy Saudi hardliners, but high-level diplomats and intelligence officers employed by the kingdom — helped the hijackers both financially and logistically. The intelligence files cited in the report directly implicate the Saudi embassy in Washington and consulate in Los Angeles in the attacks, making 9/11 not just an act of terrorism, but an act of war.

As Ed Morrissey of Hot Air points out, the intel Sperry cites will eventually be discredited or the executive branch will be implicated in the interference with one or both reports.

Three Strikes And You Are Out

Buck Sexton at TheBlaze last night said that he thought that the redaction was either to cover embarrassment for incompetency on the part of our intelligence agencies (the fact that no one was minding the store), or that our government was complicit in aiding and abetting the Saudis. Here are some facts for you:

1. Clinton and his intelligence agencies knew full well what bin Laden intended. Bin Laden stated it in 1998 and carried it out in 2001. I see no way that our agencies didn’t know it was a grave possibility.

2. Bush put the Saudis on a plane right after 9-11 and sent them home. No questions asked, right after the murder of 3,000 Americans and the largest terrorist attack on US soil ever.

3. At least one Saudi was involved in the Boston bombing. He was hurt and hospitalized. Michelle Obama visited him in the hospital. He was given safe passage back to Saudi Arabia and he visited the White House afterwards.

Three strikes and you are out.

I believed in President Bush when 9-11 happened. He seemed a hero for his actions right after the attack. Now those actions are clouded and it would seem that those branded conspiracy nuts on both sides of the aisle, were in part right. I still don’t buy the wackier conspiracy theories that you will find out there and I will never be a Truther. But, I have for a long time pointed out the involvement of Saudi Arabia and Iran as well in the attacks. Now there seems to be strong evidence against Saudi Arabia who has denied their involvement since the beginning. Denials that were suspect to begin with since 15 of the 19 bombers were from Saudi Arabia.

The New York Post has laid out the now expanding evidence that Saudi agents, officials and operatives in several states, including Virginia, Florida, California and DC, gave funding and/or intelligence to the hijackers in 2001. If true, explain to me how that is not an act of war?

Karl Denninger put it better than I can and got right to the heart of the matter:

It’s obvious given what happened, the logistical and funding requirements and where the hijackers came from along with inexplicable actions immediately following the attacks – unless our government explicitly let certain people flee.

Yet we went to war in Iraq and Afghanistan while helping the Saudis — the very people who attacked us.

And Obama, to this day, kisses the Saudi King.

[...]

It makes a very convincing case that the Saudi Government was involved in an act of war against the United States. Not simply terrorism — remember, the Pentagon, a military target, was one of the locations hit. The other intended target for the plane that went down in PA was the Capitol.

You awake yet America?

You damn well should be.

It’s about damn time that the mainstream media started talking about this — you’re only a decade late, *******s. And no, people like myself who have been saying this all along are not nuts.

We’re right.

And American blood flows, while we protect those who kill us. Sheer insanity. Obama literally bows to the Saudi King and it would appear that Bush and Clinton did as well. I can’t get the image out of my head of Bush holding hands with the King of Saudi Arabia. That blood is as black as oil. No one has ever solved or revealed who made the killing in the stock market by shorting airline stocks during all this. That needs to be answered.

Eight Trillion has been spent on security since 9-11 and we are less secure now than we were then. Does anyone really believe this is not on purpose? Incompetency only goes so far; evil intent is forever. We have been lied to over and over and over again. We see it going on every day and feel helpless to stop it. We must put a stop to this. These elite Progressives are getting wealthy off the deaths of our people and are redistributing every last dime America has. By design, they are bringing us to our knees and forcing us into a dictatorship. They have no reverence for the Constitution, for our laws or our branches of government. Do you trust our government anymore? I don’t – not on either side of the political spectrum.

Inside The Saudi 9/11 Coverup

Read the New York Post’s investigative piece in its entirety: Inside the Saudi 9/11 coverup. I would very much like to know what is in those 28 pages. I want to know if this is another contrived attempt to smear Bush and Republicans, or if they were complicit in aiding the Saudis. I want the truth:

Democrat Bob Graham, the former Florida senator who chaired the Joint Inquiry, has asked the FBI for the Sarasota case files, but can’t get a single, even heavily redacted, page released. He says it’s a “cover-up.”

Is the federal government protecting the Saudis? Case agents tell me they were repeatedly called off pursuing 9/11 leads back to the Saudi Embassy, which had curious sway over White House and FBI responses to the attacks.

Just days after Bush met with the Saudi ambassador in the White House, the FBI evacuated from the United States dozens of Saudi officials, as well as Osama bin Laden family members. Bandar made the request for escorts directly to FBI headquarters on Sept. 13, 2001 — just hours after he met with the president. The two old family friends shared cigars on the Truman Balcony while discussing the attacks.

Bill Doyle, who lost his son in the World Trade Center attacks and heads the Coalition of 9/11 Families, calls the suppression of Saudi evidence a “cover-up beyond belief.” Last week, he sent out an e-mail to relatives urging them to phone their representatives in Congress to support the resolution and read for themselves the censored 28 pages.

Astonishing as that sounds, few lawmakers in fact have bothered to read the classified section of arguably the most important investigation in US history.

Granted, it’s not easy to do. It took a month-long letter-writing campaign by Jones and Lynch to convince the House intelligence panel to give them access to the material.

But it’s critical they take the time to read it and pressure the White House to let all Americans read it. This isn’t water under the bridge. The information is still relevant ­today. Pursuing leads further, getting to the bottom of the foreign support, could help head off another 9/11.

As the frustrated Joint Inquiry authors warned, in an overlooked addendum to their heavily redacted 2002 report, “State-sponsored terrorism substantially increases the likelihood of successful and more ­lethal attacks within the United States.”

Their findings must be released, even if they forever change US-Saudi relations. If an oil-rich foreign power was capable of orchestrating simultaneous bulls-eye hits on our centers of commerce and defense a dozen years ago, it may be able to pull off similarly devastating attacks today.

Members of Congress reluctant to read the full report ought to remember that the 9/11 assault missed its fourth target: them.

If any of this is true, America will never be the same. Our leaders should be forewarned that the public will not be pleased – the woodshed will have a long line on this one and tar and feathers will be handed out judiciously. We always knew that Saudi Arabia was involved, but this takes it to a new level. When a country’s government sanctions and helps with a terrorist attack of another country, ally or not, it is an act of war. Thanks to Obama, we are too weak after gutting our military to go to war. But if Saudi Arabia’s government was involved, then America needs to clean out our government now, beef up our military and go on a road trip to the land of oil and do a smack down of epic proportions.

The enemies within and without seem to have been shrouding an act of war and Americans need to wrest control of our Republic back into the hands of patriots. As Judson Phillips says, we should remember there are certain crimes that have no statute of limitations.

Glenn Beck: What Do They Have On Us?

Technorati Tags: History,Military,Politics,Religion,Survival,Terrorism,Remembering,9/11,Saudis,Congressional Reports,Scandals,Cover-ups,CIA,FBI,Congressional Hearings,Crimes,Sexton,TheBlaze,Bush,Lies. War,Iraq

The Council Has Spoken!! This Weeks’ Watcher’s Council Results – 12/13/13

The House Passed the Ryan-Murray Budget, 332-94

The Budget Deal’s Sneaky Tax Increases

Boehner Attacks Conservative Groups

Boehner Declares War on the American People

It’s war! Senate gears up for epic battle as ZERO Republicans line up to support budget agreement (and Democrats need to find at least five) 

Breitbart Exclusive -- Palin: Read My Lipstick: No New Taxes

The Council has spoken, the votes have been cast and the results are in for this week’s Watcher’s Council match-up.

“The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.” – Shakespeare, “Julius Caesar”

“By the skillful and sustained use of propaganda, one can make a people see even heaven as hell or an extremely wretched life as paradise.” – Adolf Hitler on media

“What difference does it make?” – Hillary Rodham Clinton, Benghazi hearings

This week’s winner, Joshuapundit’s The Mixed Legacy Of Nelson Mandela, is my obituary for South African leader Nelson Mandela, whose death literally sparked an orgy of amnesia as both media and politicians rushed to worship at his altar. However, as I point out, his legacy was extremely mixed and comparisons to men like Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, were ludicrous. Here’s a slice:

Former South African leader Nelson Mandela has passed away at the age of 95, from complications resulting from a lung infection.

Since he was essentially a secular saint, the hagiographies, the emotional tributes and the kicky sound bites will be in abundance. His place in history is assured, because like other secular saints, burning incense and making offerings at his altar is seen to confer virtue on the worshiper, especially if they’re white.

Nelson Mandela was an important figure in contemporary history, no doubt. But who was Nelson Mandela really? What did he accomplish? What is his legacy?

That’s a more complicated and nuanced story that you’re unlikely to hear about much in the medias frenzy over the next week or so. Because it doesn’t quite fit the script for a secular saint. And the complexity can be imagined when you learn that Mandela was the proud recipient of both the U.S. Medal of Freedom awarded to him by President Obama and the Order of Lenin, given to him by the Soviet Union, hardly a bastion of freedom or even simple human decency.

Certainly, he looked and sounded like a secular saint. A member of a family of Xhosa royalty, his tall, dignified bearing and his measured speech could almost have been cooked up by a Hollywood casting agent.

Nelson Mandela was born in Mvezo, a small village in the eastern part of South Africa’s cape province. Coming from a prominent family , he received excellent schooling in South Africa’s best schools so he could work as a councilor for the the Xhosa’s Thembu royal house. He later attended University of Fort Hare, an elite black institution in Alice, Eastern Cape. There he first got his political indoctrination in anti-colonialism and his introduction to Marxism. Traveling to Johannesburg in 1941, he first ran into the African National Congress in the person of Walter Sisulu, then a member of the fledgling African National Congress (ANC) and the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA). In Johannesburg, Mandela was taken under the wing of Lazar Sidelsky, a Left wing Jewish lawyer sympathetic to the ANC and a partner in the law firm of Witkin, Sidelsky and Eidelman, who gave Nelson Mandela a job as a law clerk.

In those days,the ANC was essentially a non-violent social justice movement that lobbied for black rights and engaged in local politics. However, like many similar organizations in the West, it had been targeted by the Soviet Comintern and was already infiltrated by members of the CPSA as well as by actual Soviet agents.

While the evidence is mixed over whether Nelson Mandela ever joined the communist party, he frequently attended their meetings, and many of his closest associates, like Lionel ‘Rusty’ Bernstein, Joe Slovo, the long-time leader of the CPSA, his wife Ruth First, Gaur Redebe, Walter Sisulu and Nat Bregman definitely were, and some of them might have been actual Soviet agents. All of them were under ‘party discipline just as American communists were, which meant that their marching orders came directly from the Comintern and the Kremlin, no deviations allowed. Many members of CPSA became part of the ANC and the CPSA is still a part of the ANC’s political coalition today. Mandela’s openly expressed admiration and later friendship for communist dictators, his views on nationalization of South Africa’s major industries and government redistribution of wealth and his subsequently receiving the Order of Lenin from the Soviets shows that at best, he was a communist sympathizer.

After South Africa’s 1948 general election, the Afrikaner-led Herenigde Nasionale Party took power, uniting with the Afrikaner Party to form the National Party. They implemented the system of racial segregation known as apartheid. Mandela and his supporters were able to depose the existing ANC President Alfred Bitini Xuma at that time, who favored non-violence in seeking black civil rights and was an open anti-Communist. As Mandela wrote later in his memoirs, “We had now guided the ANC to a more radical and revolutionary path.”

In 1955, Mandela finally went fully over to the idea of using terrorism as as a political tool, or as he put it, the ANC “had no alternative to armed and violent resistance. ” In this, he was greatly influenced by his open admiration of the tactics of Mao Tse Tung and Fidel Castro.

In fact, the first ‘revolutionary’ act of Mandela’s was to send communist party apparatchnik and ANC member Walter Sisulu to the People’s Republic of China to obtain weapons. The PRC turned Mandela down, officially because they felt the ANC was not prepared for Mao-style guerilla warfare, but perhaps more likely because they were already deeply involved in arming and training the Viet Minh in their attempt to overthrow the Diem government in South Vietnam and similar operations with groups like the Pathet Lao elsewhere in South East Asia. They also likely underestimated Mandela and the ANC’s ability to win a war where resupply would be so difficult and no communist-controlled havens were nearby.

However, Mandela and the ANC began to collect whatever weapons and explosives they could get hold of and prepare for armed struggle on their own,while continuing to work on political agitation against the apartheid regime.

It was at this time that Mandela, inspired by Castro’s guerilla groups like 26th of July Movement and the Viet Minh founded his own terrorist elite, Umkhonto we Sizwe (“Spear of the Nation”, abbreviated as MK) with communists Walter Sisulu and Joe Slovo. The MK made their debut with 57 bombings on Dingane’s Day (16 December) 1961, followed by further attacks on New Year’s Eve.MK killed civilians and military alike, and two of their more famous operations were the Church Street bombing and the Magoo’s Bar bombing, both of which targeted civilians and were designed for maximum carnage..

The MK and an ANC group run by Mandela’s wife Winnie called the “Mandela United Football Club” were also responsible for the murder, torture and kidnapping of both whites and black political opponents and their families who opposed ‘armed struggle’. Much of this came out through Mandela’s own Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which investigated crimes committed under apartheid by both the government and the ANC. The 1998 findings of that investigation were suppressed by President Mandela.

Winnie Mandela is credited with introducing the practice of using necklacing (see video), forcing a gas or oil soaked tire over the head and shoulders to pin the arms of the victim and then lighting it on fire.Her quote? “With our matches and our necklaces we will liberate this country.” She has never served a day in jail, and still sits on the ANC executive committee.

Bob Simon says Mandela was a "normal human being?" Since I, too, want to be normal, will have to brush up on "Necklacing."

It’s worth recalling that the ANC was officially named a terrorist group by the U.S. State Department and many other western nations. That designation wasn’t rescinded officially by the State Department until 1990.

Much more at the link.

In our non-Council category, the winner was The Babalu blog with Gone is Fidel’s greatest admirer, submitted by Joshuapundit. It’s a Cuban blogger’s view of Nelson Mandela and his love affair with Fidel Castor that is must reading.

Okay, here are this week’s full results:

Council Winners

• *First place with 5 2/3 votes! – Joshuapundit – The Mixed Legacy Of Nelson Mandela
• Second place *t* with 2 votes – Bookworm Room – Pope Francis’s Marxist economic analysis reflects the Left’’s long march through the Catholic Church
• Second place *t* with 2 votes – Liberty’s Spirit – Apparently Antisemitism Doesn’t Exist in Europe Anymore
• Third place with 1 2/3 vote – Nice Deb – Legal Expert At Today’s Judiciary Hearing: ‘The Check on Executive lawlessness is Impeachment’ (Video)
• Fourth place *t* with 1 vote – The Right Planet – Is the President a Malignant Narcissist?
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote – The Noisy Room – About One of My Articles and Allen West
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote – The Glittering Eye – What Should We Remember About December 7th?
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote – Simply Jews – Yousef Munayyer, Open Zion and Nelson Mandela
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote – VA Right! – Calibrating the Extremist Meter
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote – The Colossus of Rhodey – A waste of time and money
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote – The Razor – RIP Nelson Mandela

Non-Council Winners

• *First place with 3 votes! – Babalu Blog – Gone is Fidel’s greatest admirer. submitted by Joshuapundit
• Second place *t* with 2 1/3 votes – Victor Davis Hanson/NRO – The World’s New Outlaws submitted by The Noisy Room
• Second place *t* with 2 1/3 votes – Andrew McCarthy/NRO – Impeachment Lessons submitted by Nice Deb
• Third place with 2 votes – Mises Institute – The State Causes the Poverty It Later Claims to Solve submitted by The Political Commentator
• Fourth place with 1 1/3 votes – Alan Johnson – The slaughter and torture of Christians: not a priority for the Government, Labour or DfID submitted by Simply Jews
• Fifth place *t* with 1 vote – Ace of Spades – Almost Three Quarters of All US Military Deaths in Afghanistan Have Occurred During The Presidency of Nobel Peace Prize Winner Barack Obama submitted by Bookworm Room
• Fifth place *t* with 1 vote – The Independent Sentinel – Obama Has Taken To Robbing Banks submitted by The Watcher
• Sixth place with 2/3 vote – Brad DeLong/The Equitablog – Is Growth Getting Harder? If so, Why, and What Can We Do About It?: The Honest Broker for the Week of December 1, 2013 submitted by The Glittering Eye
• Seventh place *t* with 1/3 vote – Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion – Killer of British soldier Lee Rigby: “I am a soldier and this is war” submitted by The Mellow Jihadi
• Seventh place *t* with 1/3 vote – The Other McCain – Were Vassar Students Who Perpetrated Hate Hoax Linked to Another Injustice? submitted by Rhymes with Right
• Seventh place *t* with 1/3 vote – Daily Beast – Husain Haqqani – Pakistan’s Change of Guard and General Ashfaq Kayani’’s Legacy submitted by The Razor
• Seventh place *t* with 1/3 vote – Seymour M. Hersh – Who’s Sarin? submitted by The Right Planet
• Seventh place *t* with 1/3 vote – Bill Whittle – I can’t Believe They Let You Do That! submitted by The Watcher

Honorable Mentions

• Ask Marion – RNC Chairman Says Hillary 2016 Candidacy is Set… And Female Presidency Will be the Carrot
• The Pirate’s Cove – Know What’s Perfect For Christmas? Carbon Offsets

See you next week! Don’t forget to tune in on Monday AM for this week’s Watcher’s Forum, as the Council and their invited special guests take apart one of the provocative issues of the day with short takes and weigh in… don’t you dare miss it. And don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter… ’cause we’re cool like that!

God Rest Ye Merry Merchants – Christmas: An American Holiday and Tradition to Love and Preserve – WoC 2013

Christmas: An American Holiday to Love and Preserve…

The War on Christmas verses the Spirit of Christmas Series by Marion Algier - AskMarion – 4

Once upon a time not all that long ago – in fact, anyone over 50 will easily remember it – the word “Christmas” was everywhere during the month of December. Everywhere you looked – in stores, in town squares, in cities, in offices, and, of course, in private homes — there were Christmas trees, Christmas decorations, Christmas cards, Christmas gifts, Christmas parties, and Christmas vacations. Even Jews got into the act… Hanukkah Bushes, Christmas lights in blue and white and an embracement of all the festivities. Just ask Ben Stein.

Christmas was arguably the most beloved of American holidays. Independence Day, Memorial Day, and Thanksgiving were important too; but Christmas was something more. It gave rise to a whole “Christmas season” during which people got into the “Christmas spirit.” The first words of a popular song, recorded by Johnny Mathis as a platinum hit, summed it up perfectly: “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas / Everywhere you go…”

Then something strange began to happen. The very thing that made the “season” special started to disappear from the public arena. Stores no longer held “Christmas sales.” Businesses, and soon after, individuals, ceased to hold “Christmas parties.” And on and on. “Christmas” became a dirty word, and was replaced by “holiday.” The War on Christmas had begun.

We’ve grown so accustomed to the change that we’ve lost sight of just how significant it is. “Christmas” is loaded with meaning and rich in spirit. It imparts rich feelings unlike anything else. “Holiday,” by contrast, is a bland word that can signify anything from Independence Day to Labor Day to “Sweetest Day.” At most, it means a day that you might get off from work if you’re lucky. And nothing else. Saying “holiday” and meaning Christmas is like saying “a long dead politician” (Kindle) and meaning Abraham Lincoln (Kindle). Technically, it’s not wrong. But the whole significance is lost.

Of course, this didn’t happen by accident. Ask most people how it happened, and they’ll just shrug and say, “political correctness.” And in fact, “PC” is a cruel master, uncaring about what it destroys, and swift to punish those who violate it. So most choose to bow and submit.

But not here. We are part of the The Battle for Christmas. We hope to reclaim the richness and beauty of Christmas. But it’s more. Christmas is a treasure and and part of our heritage that we all should be actively working to preserve our traditional American culture in any and all forms. Because that culture is worth keeping. It’s part of what holds us together and makes us American… including those of us who are not Christians.

So let’s fight back in the war on Christmas. And to all who feel the same we do… happy holidays and Merry Christmas!: Celebrating America’s Greatest Holiday (Kindle).

God Rest Ye Merry Merchants

“The Celebration of Christmas in America is not Just a Christian Holiday, but a Celebration of our National Past and Our Collective Wishes and Psyche as a Nation!”

In his mawkish 1942 hit "White Christmas," Bing Crosby yearned for a holiday "just like the one I used to know." The extraordinary popularity of Crosby’s nostalgic longing (the all-time top-selling single until it was eclipsed by "Candle in the Wind 1997," Elton John’s mawkish tribute to Princess Diana) suggests the holiday’s tremendous power to revive memories–perhaps only imaginary, idealized memories–of childhood and Christmases past. According to Karal Ann Marling, "Christmas is the universal memory" for contemporary Americans (whether they’re Christian or not), an event in which "virtually everybody has played a part." By telling the story of Americans’ celebration of Christmas, she promises to uncover a surprisingly neglected piece of not only our national past, but our collective wishes and psyche.

Marling, a prolific and inventive cultural historian at the University of Minnesota who has written books on topics ranging from George Washington (George Washington Slept Here: Colonial Revivals and American Culture, 1876-1986) and Norman Rockwell to Disneyland (Designing Disney’s Theme Parks: The Architecture of Reassurance) and Graceland (Graceland: Going Home with Elvis) and As Seen on TV: The Visual Culture of Everyday Life in the 1950s, now turns her attention to the history of America’s most lavishly celebrated holiday. Marling has a keen eye for offbeat topics, arresting detail and original interpretations, and refuses "to plug the contents of the national Christmas stocking into the socket of orthodox historical discourse" (certainly that sounds unadvisable). She insists instead that her goal is to unwrap the hidden meaning of quotidian, but telling objects and practices to reveal the holiday’s deeper significance.

Myriad "scraps of Christmas detritus"–and Christmas generates loads of detritus–supply Marling with ample material: Shortly after Halloween, America’s shopping malls and stores are festooned with red and green and stocked from floor to ceiling with Christmas gifts. In the days after Christmas, discarded trees, still dangling tinsel, lie amid trash bags stuffed with discarded wrapping paper and packaging on curbs across the nation. Somewhere in between the shopping bags and the trash bags, millions of Americans attend their annual office party, endure children’s pageants, spend billions of dollars buying presents, cook traditional feasts, and gather with family and friends to exchange gifts and celebrate the nation’s most extravagant holiday. Wrapping paper, lights, ornaments, store window displays, trees, cards, Santas and cookies fill the thematic chapters of Merry Christmas! The history of Christmas, as Marling observes promisingly, is in the details.

Americans commonly assume that Christmas endured for centuries as a solemn religious holiday, before being corrupted by consumer capitalism. As early as the 1870s, critics of Christmas were engaging in "breast-beating over soulless American materialism." In 1949, opponents of the holiday’s excess launched a crusade to "restore" its "original" character. Billboards, posters and bumper stickers urging Americans to "Put Christ Back into Christmas" were a common sight during the holiday season throughout the 1950s. Like many tales of decline, this Christmas story proves a fable. In colonial America, Christmas was either not celebrated at all (it was actually illegal to celebrate the holiday in many Puritan communities), or an occasion for boisterous, drunken revelry.

In fact nearly all of Americans’ Christmas rituals and icons are 19th-century inventions, created to venerate home and family, not the birth of Jesus. Christmas trees, artfully bedecked with ornaments, became the focal point of Americans’ Christmas celebrations in the 1850s. Santa Claus became an icon in the 1860s and 1870s, springing from the pen of cartoonist Thomas Nast. Gift-giving became commonplace in the 1870s and 1880s, as more Americans adopted the practice of purchasing inexpensive, factory-made trinkets–"gewgaws" and "gimcracks"–and wrapping the presents to produce surprise. By century’s end, Christmas had become a legal holiday in every state, and the year’s most eagerly anticipated holiday for millions. In the 1920s, advertisers transformed Santa into a jovial salesman, whose girth and cheerfulness embodied consumer abundance: According to Marling, St. Nick, not that gangly, gaunt Uncle Sam, best personifies America.

As Marling observes, Americans’ celebration of Christmas grew along with material abundance and consumer culture, and the department store window, not the Nativity scene, has always furnished the holiday’s central icon. "Christmas," she writes, "is all about stores and shopping." Conversely, stores and shopping rely heavily on Christmas. Last year, Americans spent a record $184 billion during the Christmas shopping season (officially, the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas), and many retailers depend on Christmas sales for one quarter of their annual revenue.

But Marling is most interesting when she discusses the holiday’s paradoxes, which mingle materialism and generosity. Retailers and advertisers deliberately have exploited holidays to encourage consumption, but they have by no means stripped these "holy days" of their deeper meaning altogether. Marling notes that our most materialistic holiday is also ironically "the primary occasion for considering the harsh realities of the world, and those who have no trees and puddings."

As a result, charitable giving to the poor has accompanied the holiday since the 19th century. Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol (Kindle), which has ranked among Americans’ most beloved Christmas stories since its publication in 1843, offers a largely secular plea on behalf of the less fortunate. Funding charity dinners for the poor at Christmas time became an annual ritual of penance for the well-to-do in American cities in the late 19th century. Wealthy benefactors congratulated themselves for bestowing feasts and presents on their less fortunate neighbors, but could not have failed to recognize the troubling gulf, let alone the connection, between their abundance and others’ privation. Christmas’ mixture of materialism and charity remains paradoxical to our own day: Each December, as it has since 1912, the New York Times juxtaposes full-page advertisements for luxury gifts with small-font reminders urging readers to "Remember the Neediest."

If Christmas provides a "universal memory" for Americans, it is in large part because advertising and celebrating the holiday are so ubiquitous; even Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, railing against the evils on modern technology in his Montana cabin, took time to write Christmas cards to his neighbors each December. Christmas is so omnipresent that many nonbelievers celebrate the holiday, and even members of other faiths cannot altogether ignore it, try as they might. Stephen Nissenbaum, for example, prefaces his own history of the holiday, The Battle for Christmas (Kindle), with a touching reminiscence of his boyhood memories of Christmas as an outsider growing up in an Orthodox Jewish household.

But surely different groups of Americans have distinct recollections of the holiday. Protestants and Catholics, rich and poor, white, Asian, black and Latino–all have celebrated on December 25, but they have not celebrated alike. Marling’s attempt to delineate the diversity of Christmas traditions, a grab-bag chapter on "Somebody Else’s Christmas," lumps together Christmas in warm climes, white Northerners’ sentimental but patronizing fascination with black Southerners’ humble Christmas celebrations in the 19th century, immigrants’ Christmas traditions, even Kwanzaa. A more systematic discussion would fulfill Marling’s ambition of recasting our understanding of the holiday. And yet, though Merry Christmas! does not completely transform our view of the Christmas we "used to know," it does detail the little gestures and objects that supply the stuff of which Christmases are made.

Chris Rasmussen teaches American history at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. During this holiday season, he urges Americans of all faiths to "Put the Christ Back into Christmas."It is part of American heritage and tradition! (Originally Posted in December 2009)

By Karal Ann Marling – Author of Merry Christmas! : Celebrating America’s Greatest Holiday (Kindle)

On Glenn Beck’s 2010 Post-Thanksgiving Review Program Rabbi Daniel Lapin (who founded the American Alliance of Christians and Jews) said: Although I am Jewish and do not celebrate Christmas I respect the traditions and the holiday and like the holiday for two good reasons: It helps the economy and it makes people better… (95% of the money spent at Christmastime is for others… rather than for ourselves).

Lapin has spoken against the secularization of Christmas, saying that "We see obsequious regard for faiths like Judaism and even Islam, while Christianity is treated with contempt". He is opposed to replacing the "Merry Christmas" greeting with "Happy Holidays", saying instead "Let us all go out of our way to wish our many wonderful Christian friends a very merry Christmas… Nationwide, Christmas Nativity Scenes are banned from city halls and shopping malls but Chanukah/Hannukah menorahs are permitted.  One of the latest incidents: School Administrators Reportedly Instruct Teachers to Remove Christmas Cards From Hallways.

Merry Christmas!: Celebrating America’s Greatest Holiday (Kindle)

A great book on Losing Our Religion(Kindle) by atheist S. E. Cupp, who says she is he perfect person for this book because she has no dog in the hunt, takes on the all too often avoided question and discussion of religion in America…

The Battle for Christmas (Kindle)

Related:

Where Does the War on Christmas Come From? A Worthwhile Read – WoC 2013

The War on Christmas verses the Spirit of Christmas Series 2013 at AskMarion – WoC 2013

ANOTHER FAILED IDEA: Woman gets laughed at after bringing up Obamacare at Thanksgiving…

The Twelve Days of ObamaCare

Disney scores big with biblical values

Advent – The Season of Anticipation and Hope – WoC 2013

The Thanksgiving Illusion

Obama Thanksgiving and Christmas Disgrace

Keeping Pets Safe for the Holidays: The “Not So Safe” or No-No Pet Food List

Sarah Palin on Politics and Religion • 11/10/13 With Susan Page

The Cross – Billy Graham’s Message To America

Best Holiday Movie Classics – A Merry Christmas From Hollywood

Two great new books for the holidays: ‘Good Tidings and Great Joy: Protecting the Heart of Christmas’ (Kindle) and The Romney Family Table: Sharing Home-Cooked Recipes & Favorite Traditions (Kindle)

The War on Christmas verses the Spirit of Christmas Series 2013 at AskMarion - WoC 2013

One of the best things we can do as parents, grandparents, members of the religious community and patriots is to share the values and traditions we hold dear as individuals, families, churches and concerned citizens by teaching the histories and details of each to the next generation as well as standing up against those who would try to steal them from us and from future generations.

For several years now, we here at AskMarion have taken up the War on the War on Christmas, running a Christmas, Hannukah or related article daily from December 1st through the Epiphany on January 6th.  We began this year’s (2013) series yesterday with the start of Advent.

Once upon a time not all that long ago – in fact, anyone over 50 will easily remember it – the word “Christmas” was everywhere during the month of December. Everywhere you looked – in stores, in town squares, in cities, in offices, and of course… in private homes — there were Christmas trees, Christmas decorations, Christmas cards, Christmas gifts, Christmas parties, Christmas vacations and yes… Nativity Scenes. Even non-religious folks and Jews happily joined in with Hannukah Bushes, Christmas lights in blue and white and an embracement of all the festivities. One of the best Christmas cards I ever got was from my Jewish friend, Cheryl… On the cover:  From Naomi and Abe to Biff and Muffy with related sketches… when people were allowed to have a sense of humor instead of being politically correct. It still makes me smile 40-years later.

Just ask Ben Stein:

“The More We Enjoy Each Other’s Holidays and Traditions, the More Beautiful the World Looks!”

“I am a Jew and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish, and it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautifully lit-up, bejeweled trees ‘Christmas trees’.” …Ben Stein

Confessions for the Holidays by Ben Stein

*The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary, December 18, 2005.

Here at this happy time of year, a few confessions from my beating heart:

I have no freaking clue who Nick and Jessica are.

I see them on the cover of People and Us constantly when I’m buying my dog biscuits. I still don’t know. I often ask the checkers at the grocery stores who they are. They don’t know who Nick and Jessica are, either. Who are they? Will it change my life if I know who they are and why they’ve broken up? Why are they so darned important?

I don’t know who Lindsay Lohan is either, and I don’t care at all about Tom Cruise’s baby.

Am I going to be called before a Senate committee and asked if I’m a subversive? Maybe. But I just have no clue who Nick and Jessica are. Is this what it means to be no longer young? Hm, not so bad.

Next confession: I am a Jew and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish, and it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautifully lit-up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees.

I don’t feel threatened. I don’t feel discriminated against. That’s what they are — Christmas trees. It doesn’t bother me a bit when people say ‘Merry Christmas’ to me. I don’t think they’re slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we’re all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year.

It doesn’t bother me one bit that there’s a manger scene on display at a key intersection at my beach house in Malibu.

If people want a creche, fine. The menorah a few hundred yards away is fine, too. I do not like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don’t think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can’t find it in the Constitution and I don’t like it being shoved down my throat. Or maybe I can put it another way. Where did the idea come from that we should worship Nick and Jessica and aren’t allowed to worship God as we understand him? I guess that’s a sign that I’m getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where Nick and Jessica came from and where the America we used to know went to.

— by Ben Stein: "Confessions for the Holidays." CBS News Transcripts. 18 December 2005.

So let’s take a quick look at where many these traditions came from… that the Atheists and secularists now both fear and fight.

Video: CHRISTMAS – History Channel [ Part 1 of 5 ]

Video: CHRISTMAS – History Channel [ Part 2 of 5 ]

Video: CHRISTMAS – History Channel [ Part 3 of 5 ]

Video: CHRISTMAS – History Channel [ Part 4 of 5 ]

Video: CHRISTMAS – History Channel [ Part 5 of 5 ]

How to Build a Christmas Photo Collage Using Wondershare Photo Collage Studio

A great read: Losing Our Religion: The Liberal Media’s Attack on Christianity written by an atheist

Related:

ANOTHER FAILED IDEA: Woman gets laughed at after bringing up Obamacare at Thanksgiving…

The Twelve Days of ObamaCare

Advent – The Season of Anticipation and Hope – WoC 2013

The Thanksgiving Illusion

Obama Thanksgiving and Christmas Disgrace

Keeping Pets Safe for Thanksgiving: The “Not So Safe” or No-No Pet Food List

Sarah Palin on Politics and Religion • 11/10/13 With Susan Page

The Cross – Billy Graham’s Message To America

Two great new books for the holidays: ‘Good Tidings and Great Joy: Protecting the Heart of Christmas’ (Kindle) and The Romney Family Table: Sharing Home-Cooked Recipes & Favorite Traditions (Kindle).

PBS runs Rick Steve’s Christmas in Europe throughout the Season as well which is a great watch!

We welcome you to join us daily for our  War on the War on Christmas… on Religious Freedom post from now through January 6th 2014

The Cross - Billy Graham's Message To America

Evangelist Billy Graham delivered what is being dubbed his final “sermon” to America on Thursday night. Through a special video broadcast called “My Hope America,” Graham warned that the nation is in “great need of a spiritual awakening” and that he has wept over how far the nation has moved away from God.

Evangelist Billy Graham (Credit: AP Photo/Nell Redmond, File)

The video, which is available online and through select broadcast networks across the nation (it will air on TheBlaze TV this weekend), was released today on Graham’s 95th birthday.

“I want to tell people about the meaning of the cross … the real cross of Christ,” a passionate Graham proclaimed in the video. ”I know that many will react to this message, but it is the truth and with all my heart, I want to leave you with the truth.”

Graham then went on to discuss his view on the importance of accepting Jesus Christ and following the Christian savior.

His pre-recorded message was interspersed with fiery selections from the preacher’s past sermons as well as personal testimony from musicians Lacey Sturm and Lecrae Moore.

“People don’t want to hear that they’re sinners. To many people it’s an offense,” Graham proclaimed. “The cross is offensive, because it directly confronts the evils that dominate so much of this world.”

He went on to explain that the Christian message demands that believers embrace a new lifestyle — one that directly confronts mankind’s sinful nature.

“Sin is a disease in the human heart. If affects the mind and the will and the emotions. Every part of our being is affected by this disease,” Graham said.

The evangelist told viewers, though, that God can renew their spirits and that “there is no other way of salvation except through the cross of Christ.”

Graham also warned of a cultural slide in American society — one that he is clearly worried about. He said that the nation is in great need of “a spiritual awakening.”

“There’ve been times I’ve wept as I’ve gone city to city and I’ve seen how far people have wandered from God,” he told viewers.

At the end of the broadcast, Graham invited viewers to become followers of Jesus.

“Today, I’m asking you to put your trust in Christ,” he said, offering a prayer that would invite prospective believers into the faith.

Watch Graham’s message below:

Video: The Cross - Billy Graham's Message To America

Part of "My Hope America With Billy Graham" - an urgent new message of Hope from Billy Graham, featuring Lacey Sturm and Lecrae 

Video: Party in NC to Mark Billy Graham's 95th Birthday

Among the hundreds of guests, approximately 800, were North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, New York real-estate magnate Donald Trump, Founder of The Blaze Glenn Beck and former President Bill Clinton. Singers Ricky Skaggs and Michael W. Smith were set to lead the audience in a refrain of Happy Birthday as 1,000 cupcakes were served.

Glenn Beck tweeted… They only gave me one cupcake… My wife Tania must have phoned ahead.

The Palins Arrive for Billy Graham’s 95th Birthday Event

  Happy 95th Birthday Billy Graham!!!