Defense Department and the Evangelical Crusades

The OSU (Operation Straight Up) is an evangelical entertainment group whose goal is to entertain active duty soldiers with their beliefs. They are planning, according to AlterNet, "to mail copies of the controversial apocalyptic video game, Left Behind: Eternal Forces to soldiers serving in Iraq. OSU is also scheduled to embark on a Military Crusade in Iraq in the near future."

"We feel the forces of heaven have encouraged us to perform multiple crusades that will sweep through this war torn region," OSU declares on its website about its planned trip to Iraq. "We'll hold the only religious crusade of its size in the dangerous land of Iraq."

Now, OSU is an official affiliate of Defense Department's 'America Supports You' program. I, as many others, ask what kind of separation of church and state is this? To send apocalyptic messages to the brave U.S. soldiers in Iraq. Isn't Iraq in such a state because of people's beliefs being forced on others? "The constitution has been assaulted and brutalized," Mikey Weinstein, former Reagan Administration White House counsel, ex-Air Force judge advocate (JAG), and founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, told me, [Max Blumenthal, TheNation.com]. "Thanks to the influence of extreme Christian fundamentalism, the wall separating church and state is nothing but smoke and debris. And OSU is the IED that exploded the wall separating church and state in the Pentagon and throughout our military." Weinstein continued: "The fact that they would even consider taking their crusade to a Muslim country shows the threat to our national security and to the constitution and everyone that loves it."

A good thing coming from the OSU is the fact that the are sending Freedom Packages to the soldiers in Iraq. In these packages there are socks, and baby wipes, and Left Behind: Eternal Forces the video game! WOW! According to Max Blumenthal of The Nation, "The game is inspired by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins' bestselling pulp fiction series about a blood-soaked Battle of Armageddon pitting born-again Christians against anybody who does not adhere to their particular theology. In LaHaye's and Jenkins' books, the non-believers are ultimately condemned to "everlasting punishment" while the evangelicals are "raptured" up to heaven."

I would assume that the soldiers in Iraq would love to play a video game that requires them to kill people of unlike faith, kind of a reflection of the Iraqi's, is it not?

Monkey Smuggles

We've been led to believe that there is a thing called homeland security. Well, apparently there is. With security measures that include harassing senior citizens and the shoe elves the average business traveler carries with them (in their shoes, naturally), but monkeys can now get onto planes, wearing nothing but a hat!

MSNBC reports that on Tuesday, a monkey had traveled from Lima, Peru all the way to LaGuardia NY airport. According to Spirit Airlines spokeswoman Alison Russell, passengers on the flight had noticed the little monkey emerging from the man's hat and asked him if he knew he had a monkey on him. "The monkey spent the remainder of the flight in the man’s seat and behaved well, said Russell, who didn’t know how it skirted customs and security."

Naturally, police were waiting for them man when he arrived in LaGuardia, confiscated the little marmoset and took it for questioning. The monkey rather. No-the monkeys didn't take the police for questioning, the police took the man for questioning, and threw the little monkey in quarantine. Charges have yet to be filed.

U.S. troops in Iraq reach record high, still having a hell of a time

With around 162,000 U.S. troops in Iraq now, this is the most ever since the beginning of the war. Will even the most troops we ever had there, partly due to the 30,000 surge, have any impact. The answer is no. It wouldn't even matter if there were double that. It's just going to be more American soldiers who die from a disgusting guerrilla war and the incompetence of out leaders who have destroyed and let Iraq go to shit.

And even with this new record high, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said, "There is no change to the level of effort and the combat power that we are projecting into Iraq." So what now there are people just sitting around doing nothing? Reuters