Update 7/5/2008:

embedded by Embedded Video

From DefenseLink:

More Than 1,100 Troops in Iraq to Re-enlist in Independence Day Ceremony
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, July 3, 2008 – More than 1,100 servicemembers stationed in Iraq will celebrate the nation’s birthday tomorrow by re-enlisting, the senior enlisted leader for Multinational Force Iraq said today.

Army Command Sgt. Maj. Marvin L. Hill said 1,157 soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines will re-enlist at the Al Faw Palace at Camp Victory, in Baghdad. This may be the largest re-enlistment ceremony since the all-volunteer force began in 1973, Hill said via phone from Baghdad.

This is becoming an annual blockbuster event for the command. Last year, 588 servicemembers re-enlisted.

“We are extremely proud of the accomplishments we have made in security on the ground as well as proud of all of our great warriors for the work they are doing since they arrived in theater,” Hill said. “We recognize the sacrifices they make and the sacrifices their families and communities make as they serve in Iraq.”

These servicemembers know the cost of war and they are still re-enlisting, Hill said. Some serve in “the most austere conditions — meaning they are in patrol bases and combat outposts,” he noted. Some of the re-enlisting servicemembers are in places where the troops “hot-bunk it” — that is, they take turns using limited sleeping space — and burn human waste because they lack plumbing. Others are based in more comfortable surroundings.

The vast majority of the servicemembers tell Hill and others that they are re-enlisting because “they are doing what they joined the military to do,” he said.

“If they joined to be a rifleman, they’re doing it in combat,” the sergeant major said. “If they joined to fix helicopters, they’re doing it and doing it in combat.”

Often in years past, he said, some warriors probably felt they weren’t doing what they joined the military to do, he said.

“Now, since we’ve been fighting this global war on terrorism … these warriors are doing what they joined to do,” he explained. “They can see the fruit of their labor and see the fruit of the sacrifices of those who have gone before them. It makes them feel good about what they are doing.”

The ceremony will be broadcast on the Pentagon Channel, Hill said. Multinational Force Iraq Commander Army Gen. David H. Petraeus will preside. Hill and Petraeus will speak at the ceremony, then Petraeus will administer the oath of enlistment.

A 50-gun salute will honor of the nation’s birthday, and then all will sing “God Bless America.” The ceremony will end with a medley of service songs.

All components of the military are represented in the ceremony. Officials said 738 active-duty soldiers, 188 National Guard soldiers, and 122 Army Reserve soldiers are re-enlisting, along with 54 Marines, 39 sailors and 16 airmen.

“…to support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America…”

Commitment in capital letters, with 1,100 raised right hands taking an solemn oath.

Update 7/4/2008 later in the day: Early this AM, when posted, this was what was to be. Today, it is now part of history and 115 more service members came to the event, for a total 0f 1215 re-enlistees in the combat zone, while the Nation is at war, while many of use are preparing for friends and family to come over and sit without worry, to watch fireworks displays. Wow…just wow. How can we thank them?

On the 4th of July, 2008, a ceremony will be held at 2PM at the Navy Memorial to honor our independence. The Memorial’s bell will be stuck 13 times.

But…the commemoration is actually larger than that.   On every Naval and Coast Guard vessel, their Ship’s Bells will also be struck 13 times.

One strike for each of the original states.

The Official Announcement from the website:

 

CALENDAR ANNOUNCEMENT

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

                                                                                                     

Contacts:        Taylor Kiland                                                      Lisa Zusman

                        [email protected]                            [email protected]

                        The United States Navy Memorial                    Linda Roth Associates, LLC

                        (202) 380-0718                                                     (703) 417-2700

                                                                                                     

U. S. Navy Memorial Lets Freedom Ring

Bell Ceremony and Film screenings Mark Fourth of July

                       

WHAT:          “Let Freedom Ring,” an Independence Day Bell Ringing Ceremony.  “Let Freedom Ring” is a nationwide program in which bells across the country are rung thirteen times at exactly 2:00 PM in honor of the thirteen original states that approved the Declaration of Independence.

                        Bobby dvd

Every Independence Day, at the appointed hour, four young descendants of the signers of the Declaration of Independence will tap Philadelphia‘s famous Liberty Bell, setting off the chimes of freedom from bells throughout the country.  The “Let Freedom Ring” event has grown nationwide, and participating bells now include Independence Hall in Philadelphia, the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor, Arlington National Cemetery, and thousands of churches, synagogues, state capitals, and government institutions across the country.  In addition, every ship of the U.S. Navy, Coast Guard, and Merchant Marine participates.

 

Directly across the street from the National Archives, the United States Navy Memorial’s bell is the closest one to the original signed copy of the Declaration of Independence.

                       

The Navy Memorial will also show high-definition episodes of Hero Ships, a series produced by Lou Reda Productions for History International, in the newly renovated Burke Theatre.

                       

WHO:             Thirteen young people will be chosen from among the Navy Memorial’s visitors to participate in this patriotic ceremony.  Each will strike the bell once to represent one of the original states.

                       

WHEN:          Friday, July 4

                        11:00 AM Screening of Hero Ship: USS Constitution

                        1:00 PM Screening of Hero Ship: USS Nautilus

                        2:00 PM Bell Ringing Ceremony                               

3:00 PM Screening of Hero Ship: USS Hornet

                       

WHERE:       United States Navy Memorial

A Fistful of Dollars ipod

                        701 Pennsylvania Ave., NW

                        Washington, DC 20004

                       

COST:            Free and open to the public

                       

CONTACT:

• Matilda film

  (202) 737-2300 or www.navymemorial.org.

                       

Lou Reda Productions is internationally recognized as one of the nation’s outstanding documentary filmmakers, producing programs of the highest quality for cable and network television. To learn more about Reda go to www.redafilms.com.  Executive Producers are Lou and Scott Reda.

                                                                                                     

History Channel International gives viewers a global perspective with original programming that makes a world of difference.  Executive Producer is Mike Stiller.

 

The United States Navy Memorial honors the men and women of the United States Navy – past, present and future.  The outdoor plaza features a “Granite Sea” map of the world, towering masts with signal flags, fountain pools and waterfalls and The Lone Sailor© statue.  Adjacent to the outdoor plaza is the Naval Heritage Center, where visitors can find educational displays about the contributions of the members of the Sea Services (Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard and Merchant Marine).  The Navy Memorial is celebrating the Year of Navy Medicine.

When the Crescent of Embrace memorial to Flight 93 was unveiled in September 2005, these six high profile conservative bloggers were instrumental in raising the public protest that forced the Memorial Project to agree to a redesign. Charles Johnson stayed with the story until the summer of 2006, and Ace has done two links since 2005, but for the most part, these conservative heroes seem to have decided that the “circle of embrace” redesign is okay.

It is NOT okay. Architect Paul Murdoch described his original Crescent of Embrace design as a broken circle. The redesign is still described as a broken circle, and the unbroken part of the circle (the crescent) remains exactly as it was in the original design.

In particular, the giant crescent still points to Mecca, and the repetition of this Mecca orientation in the crescents of trees that surround the Tower of Voices part of the memorial proves that the Mecca orientation is intentional. That makes the giant crescent a mihrab: the Mecca-direction indicator around which every mosque is built.

The planned memorial is a terrorist memorial mosque. This is an enemy plot, every bit as ambitious in its own way as the 9/11 attacks. To stop this re-hijacking of Flight 93, we need our frontline bloggers to rejoin the fray!

The only change: the design now includes a broken off part of the circle

The design drawings were recolored to make it look as if significant changes were made, the but only actual change was the inclusion of an additional arc of trees, said to represent a broken off part of the circle:

Crescent of Embrace left. Circle or Embrace right. The only actual change is the additional arc of trees on the west side of the memorial. (Click for larger image.)

Notice that this extra ark of trees sits to the rear of a person facing into the giant central crescent. That is the equivalent of laying down a Muslim prayer rug (called a small mosque) in front of some trees. The prayer rug is unchanged. You can plant as many trees around a mosque as you want to. It will still be a mosque.

“Broken circle” is Park Service’s official story

In the original design, the broken off part of the circle was removed entirely. Now, as Memorial Project Superintendent Joanne Hanley reiterated last week, a broken off part of the circle is included:

The trees surrounding this “circle of embrace” are missing, or broken, in two places; first, where the flight path of the plane came overhead (which is the location of the planned memorial overlook and visitor center) and second, where the plane crashed at the Sacred Ground (depicted by a ceremonial gate and pathway into the Sacred Ground).

She is describing the two ends of the additional arc of trees. It is broken at both ends.

Both the theme and the geometry of the original Crescent of Embrace design remain as they were. The terrorists still break our circle, and they still turn it into a giant Mecca oriented crescent.

Those who raised the hue and cry about the original design ought to be equally concerned that the original design remains completely intact in the phony redesign. Come on heroes. Your help is NEEDED!

Animation superimposes the redesign, then withdraws all but the changes. (Click for larger version.)

Come to the August 2nd meeting

If you can make it to Somerset PA on Saturday August 2nd, come help Tom Burnett Sr. tackle the hijacker! (Mr. Burnett announced trip, and his willingness to go to jail if necessary, in this audio clip from the Mancow Muller radio show (25 seconds. And here is Tom talking about the heroism of his murdered son, Tom Jr. Audio 45 seconds).

To join our blogbursts, just send your blog’s url.
1389 Blog – Antijihadist Tech
A Defending Crusader
A Fine Line Between Stupid and Clever
A Liberal’s Worst Nightmare
Al Salibiyyah
All American Blogger
Almost Midnight in the West

And Rightly So
Anne Arundel Maryland Politics
apocryphal EVIDENCE !
ARRA News Service
Battle Dress U
Because I’m Right
Best Destiny
Big Dog’s Weblog
Big Sibling
Boston Maggie
Cao2’s Weblog
Cao’s Blog
Chaotic Synaptic Activity
Chester Street
Christmas Ghost
Common Sense Junction
Concrete Bob
Creeping Sharia
DC Protest Warrior
Democrat = Socialist
Dr. Bulldog and Ronin
Error Theory
EW1’s Intercept Log
Faultline USA
Flanders Fields
Flopping Aces All the Days Before Tomorrow rip
Four Pointer
Freedom’s Enemies
From My Position On the Way!
Ft. Hard Knox
Garbanzo Toons
GM’s Corner
Gunservatively
Haid Dasalami
Hoosier Army Mom
Ironic Surrealism II

Ivy League Conservatives
Jack Lewis
Jihad Press
Jim-Rose – the Libertarian Popinjay
Judge Right
Just Barking Mad
Kender’s Musings
Lemur King’s Folly
Monkey in the Middle
My Own Thoughts
Neoconstant
Nice Deb
No Compromises When It Comes To Being Right!
Ogre’s Politics and Views
Part-Time Pundit
Protest The Church
Protest The Left
Publius’ Forum
Rayra.net
Republican Attack Machine
Right on the Right
Right Truth
Ron’s Musings
Rosemary’s Thoughts
Seattle Express
Smooth Stone

• Dracula full movie

Space 4 Commerce by Brian Dunbar
Stix Blog
Stop the ACLU
the Avid Editor
The Great Lie of Islam
The Hinge of Fate
The Loyal Eagles
The Midnight Sun
The Paradigm Shift
The Renaissance Biologist
The Sisyphus Files
The Truth of Islam
The View From the Turret
The Wide Awakes
Thunder Run
Tizona’s Weblog
United Conservatives
War of 2 Worlds
We Have Some Planes
Yes, but can I dance to it?

A quite interesting lesson in history popped into view today, on the anniversary of the famous Battle at Little Big Horn. From the LA Times, an article about how the aftermath of that battle was one of, and still is Indians who have served in our military proudly:

[…]
What few Americans know is that the command of about 600 men Custer led into battle in 1876 included about 35 American Indians, mostly Arikaras but also six Crow and a few Santee Sioux. Some of the Indian scouts would die alongside the 7th Cavalry at Little Bighorn. Others would ride away as the fighting began and spend the rest of their lives recounting what little they saw of the battle. What almost no one knows is that men from the same tribes that fought against Custer would, one year later, be riding alongside the U.S. Army as scouts in the campaign against the Nez Perce — or that the Indian scouts who served the Army in the 19th century became one of the precursors to the Army Special Forces, also known as Green Berets.
[…]

More of the tapestry that has become the legacy of the intertwined people who comprise this great nation.

• The Little Kidnappers on dvd

Single Black Female video

The planned Flight 93 memorial is described as a circle “broken in two places,” with the unbroken part forming a giant Mecca-oriented crescent (originally called the Crescent of Embrace).

Since last week, the Park Service has been inundated with hundreds of emails, demanding to know WHO is being depicted as breaking the circle.

It can only be the terrorists. The circle is a symbol of peace, and only the terrorists can be charged with breaking the peace on 9/11.

Thus the planned memorial shows the terrorists breaking our peaceful circle and turning it into a giant Mecca oriented crescent (which remains completely intact in the so-called redesign). In other words, it’s one giant: “ALLAHU AKBAR!” (heard on Flight 93’s flight recorder as the doomed flight careened towards the ground).

Superintendent Hanley’s reply

Our emailers are getting a lengthy response from Memorial Project Superintendent Joanne Hanley that fails to address the question of who broke the circle. She mentions the question, then heads off in another direction:

You also had questions about “who broke the circle.” The natural topography of the site upon which the memorial sits is in the shape of a bowl, or a circle. This “circle of embrace” follows the geography, and points your attention down to the Sacred Ground, the crash site where the 40 heroes of Flight 93 gave their lives combating the terrorists. The trees surrounding this “circle of embrace” are missing, or broken, in two places; first, where the flight path of the plane came overhead (which is the location of the planned memorial overlook and visitor center) and second, where the plane crashed at the Sacred Ground (depicted by a ceremonial gate and pathway into the Sacred Ground).

No, the topography is NOT a bowl. The upper arm of the crescent starts 100 vertical feet above the crash site while the lower arm circles 50 vertical feet below the crash site. Beyond misrepresenting the topography, all Hanley does is admit that the circle is broken at the point where the flight path crosses it, without ever addressing the simple question of WHO is being depicted as breaking the circle?

This circle-breaking theme is the Park Service’s OWN explanation for the crescent design (passed on from architect Paul Murdoch), and they refuse to even THINK about what it means.

Park Service Director Mary Bomar is even more oblivious

Director Bomar also received our emails. The response she is sending out does not even acknowledge the question of who breaks the circle:

Thank you for your e mail of June 24, 2008, concerning the Flight 93 National Memorial. The National Park Service (NPS) is aware of these concerns, and took steps in 2005 to investigate this issue. Please be assured that we are all committed to having a national memorial that conveys the full honor due to the heroes of Flight 93, not to the terrorists. Our priority now is to move forward with the building of the memorial, and to continue to commemorate those heroes who lost their lives on September 11, 2001.

You may want to visit the park’s website for more in-depth information
at:
www.nps.gov/flni.

Mary A. Bomar, Director, National Park Service

Actually it was in 2006 that the office of Mary Bomar herself (then a regional director of the Park Service)”took steps,” utterly fraudulent steps, “to investigate this issue.”

The Park Service’s own consulting expert, a professor of Sharia law at Indiana University named Kevin Jaques, admitted that the giant Mecca-oriented crescent is similar to the Mecca-direction indicator (called a mihrab) around which every mosque is built, but he assured the Park Service that there was no need to worry because no one has ever seen a mihrab anywhere near this BIG before:

Thirdly, most mihrabs are small, rarely larger than the figure of a man, although some of the more ornamental ones can be larger, but nothing as large at [sic] the crescent found in the site design. It is unlikely that most Muslims would walk into the area of the circle/crescent and see a mihrab because it is well beyond their limit of experience. Again, just because it is similar does not make it the same.

This is the information that Mary Bomar had in her hands TWO YEARS AGO: a blatantly dishonest excuse for not being concerned about what was admitted to be the geometric equivalent of the Mecca-direction indicator around which every mosque is built, only bigger than any ever seen before by a factor of a hundred. “Don’t worry. It might be recognizable as a mihrab to people on jetliners like Flight 93 flying overhead, but from the ground? Pshaw!”

Every iota of the Mary Bomar’s phony “investigation” was just as blatantly fraudulent. (Extended expose here.)

Another letter?

We can keep on dumping emails on the Memorial Project if we want. Our petition to stop the memorial asks if signatories want to join an email list for doing things like forwarding emails to targeted individuals. Most are clicking “yes,” and the present campaign has as yet only tapped the first few thousand signatories.

Perhaps it is time for another letter, pointing out that:

Misrepresenting the topography of the crash site to be a bowl does nothing to answer the question of WHO BROKE THE CIRCLE. (Press people can read about the non-answers from Superintendent Hanley and Director Bomar here.)

Go ahead if you have a mind to. (Email link here.)

UPDATE: I deleted a section of this post about a local reporter who told me she was marking our emails as spam and blocking the senders. Our flood of emails to the Memorial Project is NEWS, and a reporter out there should see it that way. Still, it was unfair of me to go reading things into this reporter’s anger at having her mailbox fill up with hundreds of emails. It is a natural reaction and I should cut her some slack.

To join our blogbursts, just send your blog’s url.

1389 Blog – Antijihadist Tech
A Defending Crusader
A Fine Line Between Stupid and Clever
A Liberal’s Worst Nightmare
Al Salibiyyah
All American Blogger
Almost Midnight in the West
And Rightly So
Anne Arundel Maryland Politics
apocryphal EVIDENCE !
ARRA News Service
Battle Dress U
Because I’m Right
Big Dog’s Weblog
Big Sibling
Boston Maggie
Cao2’s Weblog
Cao’s Blog
Chaotic Synaptic Activity
Chester Street
Christmas Ghost
Common Sense Junction
Concrete Bob
Creeping Sharia
DC Protest Warrior
Democrat = Socialist
Dr. Bulldog and Ronin
Error Theory
EW1’s Intercept Log
Faultline USA
Flanders Fields
Flopping Aces

Four Pointer
Freedom’s Enemies
From My Position On the Way!
Ft. Hard Knox
Garbanzo Toons
GM’s Corner
Gunservatively
Haid Dasalami
Hoosier Army Mom
Ironic Surrealism II
Ivy League Conservatives
Jack Lewis
Jihad Press
Jim-Rose – the Libertarian Popinjay
Judge Right
Just Barking Mad
Kender’s Musings
Lemur King’s Folly
Monkey in the Middle
My Own Thoughts
Neoconstant
Nice Deb
No Compromises When It Comes To Being Right!
Ogre’s Politics and Views
Part-Time Pundit
Protest The Church
Protest The Left
Publius’ Forum
Rayra.net
Republican Attack Machine
Right on the Right
Right Truth
Ron’s Musings
Rosemary’s Thoughts
Seattle Express
Smooth Stone
Space 4 Commerce by Brian Dunbar
Stix Blog
Stop the ACLU
the Avid Editor
The Great Lie of Islam
The Hinge of Fate
The Loyal Eagles
The Midnight Sun
The Paradigm Shift
The Renaissance Biologist
The Truth of Islam
The View From the Turret
The Wide Awakes
Thunder Run buy Last Man Standing
Tizona’s Weblog Seraphim Falls dvd
United Conservatives
War of 2 Worlds
We Have Some Planes
Yes, but can I dance to it?

Eagle Speak seems to have moved about when some of us (or maybe just me) weren’t looking.

Update your blogrolls…or…if there’s no need to update, then add his blog to your blogroll!

Great Navy, naval history, pirates and stuff over his way, if you haven’t found him yet.One Hour Photo video

Required reading: Fred Fry’s Maritime Monday 116 and Eagle1’s “How to aim ship’s guns (Part III).”
BT

Not all who make contributions wear a uniform. Today, my thanks to a Department of the Navy civil servant who labored long into the nights and on weekends, so sailors could better prepare for battles at sea.

Allen Stennett was his name. I belive I have the name right phonetically, but I may not have it spelled correctly. Allan worked for “Code 2” at Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC), Pt Hueneme Division (PHD), Fleet Combat Direction Systems Support Activity (FCDSSA) on the Fleet Combat Training Center, Atlantic (FCTCL), Code 2 was the Programming Department, largely composed of civilian personnel. Allen was assigned to the Battle Force Tactical Trainer (BFTT) project in the 1993 – 1995 time frame whan I walked the halls of FCDSSA. At the time, the project had stretched the limits of the workforce, for it was not merely a programming challenge, but a systems design project, using some of the then newest off the shelf technology of the VME card chassis and single board computers. In addition to absorbing that challenge and attacking it with an aggressive approach, the BFTT Team, added a digital voice capability (we now have it on our desktops called VOIP) to simulate radio circuits, within the program. In addition to being “interesting” at those levels, Capt Kahler, the program manager, had managed to convince many other program managers that much of what was needed for the project already existed in developed work, and this project could knit together all that software to the financial benefit of the taxpayers. That, of course, was an unheard of practice, beacuse it would require the sharing of the rice in each bowl in DC for he projects affected, and therefore sharing power.

Allen was a major playing, under the radar, in the early stages of the develpment of BFTT. He worked on the database issues and on more than one occasion, his name came up for developing some software tools to manage the inputs from other commands and agencies, that helped the project make the rapid advancements it did under the program management of Capt Herb Kahler, USN.

It was often I would be walking the halls at the end of the day to catch up on last minute things before getting my last things done, that Allen would still be at his desk. I would check in with him regulalry, and finally one late day, I told him how much I appreciated his extra efforts and how he needed to get home to his family, for his committment to the taxpayers was a regular working schedule, not the 24/7 I had. Besides, I told him his work was being tracked like a regular schedule, and future progam managers would wonder why they couldn’t attain the same production rates as BFTT demonstrated, because he was skewing the numbers.

I just wanted to put the name of a hard working, dedicated Civil Servant on the record, as a counter to the numerous slights, slams, not so complimentary names and jokes about those who’s pay check come from the US Treasury, but don’t wear the uniform. They, too, are part of the success of the US Military, and in this case, the US Navy.Fried Green Tomatoes on dvd

• Flesh for Frankenstein dvd

The Memorial Project claims to have an innocent explanation for why the central feature of the Flight 93 memorial is a giant Islamic shaped crescent. As architect Paul Murdoch has been saying since September 2005, the flight path breaks the circle, turning it into what was originally called the Crescent of Embrace.

But this isn’t a memorial to an airliner. It is a memorial to human beings. So just who is it that architect Paul Murdoch is depicting as breaking the circle?

As a secular symbol, the circle signifies peace and harmony. There is no way that the heroic passengers and crew can be charged with breaking the circle. It is the terrorists who broke the peace.

Think what that means thematically. The terrorists broke our peaceful circle and turned it into a giant Islamic shaped crescent that just happens to point to Mecca. You could not come up with a more blatant depiction of al Qaeda victory.

This is what the Park Service is claiming as an innocent explanation: that they are depicting a circle-breaking crescent-creating action that logically can only be attributed to the terrorists. Are they really too dumb to figure out what that means?

Take action

How about a couple hundred of us call up the Memorial Project (814 443-4557) and ask them just who is being depicted as “breaking the circle”? If they try to say “Flight 93 broke it,” we can ask for clarification. Do they really mean to include our forty heroes amongst those who broke the peace?

They might even admit that it can only be the terrorists who are depicted as turning the circle into a crescent, and they might even realize: “oops.”

Maybe we should send a few emails as well, and cc the local press, who might be prompted to ask Memorial Project spokesmen how they are answering our pointed questions. (Click link for addressed email form. Feel free to cut and paste text from above. Sincerely, your name and state.)

The circle is a Christian symbol

In addition to being a secular symbol of harmony, the circle is also a Christian symbol, as referenced in the country-gospel line: “may the circle be unbroken, bye and bye, Lord bye and bye.” (Hat tip, No Compromise

.)

The origin of the circle as a Christian symbol is the rising sun, which is today seen as the primary reason why many Christian churches conduct their liturgies facing east. (For some early churches, this was also the direction to Jerusalem.)

As Pope Benedict explained (back when he was Cardinal Ratzinger):

The cosmic symbol of the rising sun expresses the universality of God above all particular places and yet maintains the concreteness of Divine Revelation.

The circle and cross are seen together in the Celtic cross, thought to have been introduced to Ireland by Saint Patrick in the 5th century:

Nobody knows exactly what Saint Patrick had in mind, but the circle is thought to represent the sun.

Given that architect Paul Murdoch clearly has religious symbolism in mind (the repeated Mecca orientations in his design prove that), it is reasonable to infer that he is aware that the circle is a Christian symbol, and that the circle remaining unbroken is a Christian ideal.

Thus the Islamic victory symbolized in the crescent memorial is not just over the secular west, but in particular signifies the smashing of Christianity, and the triumph of Islam in its stead.

Just the fact that the crescent design CAN be interpreted in these ways is enough to make the design inappropriate, but these are not just POSSIBLE interpretations. They are the only logical interpretations. The breaking of the circle can only be attributed to the terrorists.

The drag lines were removed because they did not fit with Paul Murdoch’s circle-breaking, crescent-creating theme

Last week’s blogburst explained why architect Paul Murdoch was determined to get rid of the gigantic strip-mining derricks that were just up the slope from the impact crater. They were infidel artifacts, obstructing the view towards Mecca from within Murdoch’s giant Mecca pointing crescent:

Can’t have that majestic American flag interrupting the view towards Mecca!

Amazingly, the Park Service’s official explanation for the removal of the drag lines is that they don’t fit with Paul Murdoch’s circle-breaking theme:

National Park Service Deputy General Superintendent Keith Newlin said the National Park Service has a tendency to preserve landscapes and key elements of memorial sites if it will help people understand what happened there. The draglines weren’t in the airplane’s flight path, though they have been used as a reference point to explain the plane’s trajectory to first-time visitors.

“The draglines didn’t contribute to the overall understanding of Flight 93,” he said. “We heard comments that we should keep one as a flagpole, but when we weighed everything, we decided against it.”

The pair of giant cranes didn’t mark the flight path? They marked its termination! To everybody in the area, these WERE the marker: “Up by the drag lines!”

Where did Newlin ever get the idea that the direction of the flight path somehow trumps the point of impact? He got it from Paul Murdoch, whose design is all about orientations. He positions his circle just right so that a “break” at the point where the flight path crosses the circle (together with another break 2/3rds of the way around the circle) will create the giant Mecca oriented crescent.

Now here we have Newlin asserting that it isn’t the crash site that matters, but these Mecca orienting angles!

For the memorialization of OUR heroes, the drag lines were an ideal marker: an actual manifestation of the dramatic achievements of ordinary citizens, saluting the towering achievement of the citizens of Flight 93.

The only “understanding” they didn’t fit was the narrative of Islamic victory that architect Paul Murdoch is trying to impose, where our American circle gets supplanted by a giant Islamic crescent.

To join our blogbursts, just send your blog’s url.

1389 Blog – Antijihadist Tech
A Defending Crusader
A Fine Line Between Stupid and Clever
A Liberal’s Worst Nightmare
Al Salibiyyah
All American Blogger
Almost Midnight in the West
And Rightly So
Anne Arundel Maryland Politics
apocryphal EVIDENCE !
ARRA News Service
Battle Dress U
Because I’m Right
Big Dog’s Weblog
Big Sibling
Boston Maggie
Cao2’s Weblog
Cao’s Blog
Chaotic Synaptic Activity
Chester Street
Christmas Ghost
Common Sense Junction
Concrete Bob
Creeping Sharia
DC Protest Warrior
Democrat = Socialist
Dr. Bulldog and Ronin
Error Theory
EW1’s Intercept Log
Faultline USA
Flanders Fields
Flopping Aces
Four Pointer
Freedom’s Enemies
From My Position On the Way!
Ft. Hard Knox
Garbanzo Toons
GM’s Corner
Gunservatively
Hoosier Army Mom
Ironic Surrealism II
Ivy League Conservatives
Jack Lewis
Jihad Press
Jim-Rose – the Libertarian Popinjay
Judge Right
Just Barking Mad
Kender’s Musings
Lemur King’s Folly
Monkey in the Middle
My Own Thoughts
Neoconstant
Nice Deb
No Compromises When It Comes To Being Right!
Ogre’s Politics and Views
Papa Mike’s Blog
Part-Time Pundit
Protest The Church
Protest The Left
Publius’ Forum
Rayra.net
Republican Attack Machine
Right on the Right
Right Truth
Ron’s Musings
Rosemary’s Thoughts
Seattle Express
Smooth Stone
Space 4 Commerce by Brian Dunbar
Stix Blog
Stop the ACLU
the Avid Editor
The Great Lie of Islam
The Hinge of Fate
The Loyal Eagles
The Midnight Sun
The Renaissance Biologist
The Truth of Islam
The View From the Turret
The Wide Awakes
Thunder Run
Tizona’s Weblog
United Conservatives
War of 2 Worlds
We Have Some Planes
Yes, but can I dance to it?

When the passengers and crew of flight 93 smashed their murderers to nothing on an open expanse of western Pennsylvania coal country, two towering sentinels stood silent witness to the heroic tragedy.

“Up on Skyline Rd.,” the news shot around Shanksville and Somerset, “up by the drag lines”:

The drag lines, as seen from what will be the center of the giant Mecca-oriented crescent that is to be planted on the flight 93 crash site. (Photo by Alec Rawls, 2006.)

It is hard to imagine a more fitting marker than these twin colossi. Before the hijackers could send Flight 93 into the White House or the Capitol building, a random draw of forty of our fellow countrymen massed a towering determination to fight back. Their effort to save their own lives ended beneath those artifacts of Pennsylvania’s own native grit and ingenuity, but their success in defending their country will live forever.

Those silent sentinels could and should have endured as well, and they would have, if not for one man who was determined to see them go: architect Paul Murdoch, the designer of the terrorist memorializing Crescent of Embrace design. As the press reported at the unveiling of the crescent design:

The Flight 93 temporary memorial, the draglines and Skyline Drive will be removed to leave the landscape as natural as possible, Murdoch wrote in a narrative that accompanied the design.

The drag lines were supposed to stay

The presumption from the beginning was that the drag lines would stay. They were actually the first items of property purchased for the new national park.

Support for keeping the drag lines, whatever memorial design was chosen for the crash site itself, was virtually universal. The local historical society was for keeping the drag lines:

Several draglines still stand there, idled since the crash interrupted the mine work. Randy Cooley, director of the Southwest Pennsylvania Heritage Preservation Commission, said that equipment should stay, as part of the story the memorial will tell.The excavating machines often are the first things visitors to the memorial site see, he said. The booms rise high over the field. They cast shadows, and show what the land once was.

“They’re touchstones,” Cooley said. “For many of the people on that plane, that may well have been the last thing they saw.” [2003]

They were also meaningful to the local population:

The cranes, which served as drag lines for a long-idled strip mining operation, are synonymous with the area, residents said.”When I think of (Skyline Drive), I think of those drag lines,” said Erica Zeigler, president of Shanksville Borough Council. “They’re something everybody around here associated with that road.” [2005

28 Days Later… download

]

Memorial Project manager Jeff Reinbold acknowledged the hard feelings about the removal of the drag lines:

“You wish you didn’t have to do it. But this was a celebration of the process,” he said. [ibid.]

Why was Murdoch determined to have the drag lines gone?

Because a crescent that Muslims face into to face Mecca is called a mihrab, and is the central feature around which every mosque is built. (Some mihrabs are pointed-arch shape, but the prototypical mihrab is crescent shaped.)

Very simply, Murdoch could not allow his terrorist memorial mosque to be tainted by extraneous infidel artifacts. Those drag lines would have risen up right behind the giant mihrab, disturbing what is supposed to be an undisturbed space within which the Muslim believer can turn face his god for prayer.

Perhaps worst of all from Murdoch’s perspective was the huge American flag that coal miners attached to one of the booms the week after 9/11:

This flag was history. If Murdoch did not get rid of the drag lines, he could not get rid of the American flag, rising up 180 feet behind his giant mihrab. (Photo by Alec Rawls, 2006.)

Unacceptable: the jihadists turn to face their god, and see… an American flag?

This mosque interpretation is no stretch. Murdoch provides endless redundant proof of intent, as when he repeats the Mecca orientation of his giant crescent in the crescents of trees that surround the Tower of Voices part of the memorial.

Still hoisting a flag

When the hijacker is finally tackled and we have a chance to turn to less critical matters, like how to design a proper memorial to OUR heroes instead of to Paul Murdoch’s heroes, one of the costs to be accounted will be the loss of the iconic drag lines. At least Murdoch was not able to destroy them entirely, as 22 tons of steel from the scrapped machinery is being used in the construction of the USS Somerset:

The USS Somerset will be a sister ship of the USS San Antonio (seen here), so the drag lines will still be hoisting a flag.

Interestingly, the single physical requirement set down for design competition entries was that they should respect the rural landscape and leave it as it was. Paul Murdoch’s crescent design is the only one of a thousand entries that violates this lone rule, first by building a raised causeway across the wetlands (necessary to extend his crescent to the full typical Islamic crescent shape, covering 2/3rds of a circle of arc), and then by excising the drag lines, which everyone agreed were central to the historic nature of the site.

To join our blogbursts, just send your blog’s url.

1389 Blog – Antijihadist Tech
A Defending Crusader
A Fine Line Between Stupid and Clever
A Liberal’s Worst Nightmare
Al Salibiyyah
All American Blogger
Almost Midnight in the West
And Rightly So
Anne Arundel Maryland Politics
apocryphal EVIDENCE !
ARRA News Service
Battle Dress U
Because I’m Right
Big Dog’s Weblog
Big Sibling
Boston Maggie
Cao2’s Weblog
Cao’s Blog
Chaotic Synaptic Activity
Chester Street
Christmas Ghost
Common Sense Junction
Creeping Sharia
Democrat = Socialist
Dr. Bulldog and Ronin
Error Theory
EW1’s Intercept Log
Faultline USA
Flanders Fields
Flopping Aces
Four Pointer
Freedom’s Enemies
From My Position On the Way!
Ft. Hard Knox
Garbanzo Toons
GM’s Corner
Hoosier Army Mom
Ironic Surrealism II
Ivy League Conservatives
Jack Lewis
Jihad Press
Jim-Rose – the Libertarian Popinjay
Judge Right
Kender’s Musings
Lemur King’s Folly
Monkey in the Middle
My Own Thoughts
Neoconstant
Nice Deb
No Compromises When It Comes To Being Right!
Ogre’s Politics and Views
Papa Mike’s Blog
Part-Time Pundit
Protest The Church
Protest The Left
Publius’ Forum
Right on the Right
Right Truth
Ron’s Musings
Rosemary’s Thoughts
Seattle Express
Smooth Stone
Space 4 Commerce by Brian Dunbar
Stix Blog
Stop the ACLU
the Avid Editor
The Great Lie of Islam
The Hinge of Fate
The Loyal Eagles
The Midnight Sun
The Renaissance Biologist
The Truth of Islam
The View From the Turret
The Wide Awakes
Thunder Run
Tizona’s Weblog
We Have Some Planes
Yes, but can I dance to it?

“Meep! Meep!” is all the competition hears now….The US Military has the fastest supercomputer now

…
And guess what? THe CPUs began their design life destined for gaming computers.

This isn’t the first time the gaming industry and the US Military has put it’s heads together Seraphim Falls dvdrip A Sex, Liesnd Videotape ipod to do something amazing, either.

So, now “Road Runner” leads the supercomputer pack.Hollywoodland trailer Chemical Wedding divx