Tag Archives: Military

CAIR, the KKK, and Michael Weinstein

The Council on Islamic-American Relations (CAIR) recently called the group “ACT! For America” the equivalent of the KKK and demanded a speaker not be allowed to use county property.

Hassan Shibly, an attorney and executive director of CAIR of Tampa, said he supports freedom of speech.

But this individual makes statements to incite violence against the Muslim community, so I think that the line has been crossed,” Shibly said. “ACT! is an extremist group no different than the KKK. And if the KKK wanted to use that room, there would be a protest…”

CAIR relies upon the “KKK” line frequently.  The speaker in question, UCF Professor Jonathan Matusitz, sounded a calm tone:  Read more

Attack Pilots Save Ambushed Soldiers

A Bagram Air Base press release highlights the derring-do of two A-10 pilots who “save[d] 60 Soldiers during [a] convoy ambush.”

The pilots continued to fire 30 mm rounds, but the enemy force refused to fall back. …The convoy’s commander approved the pilots to engage “danger-close.” The term is meant to clearly communicate to the ground and air forces that the need for support is so grave the ground commander is willing to accept the potential risk to the friendly unit Read more

Update: Weinstein Blames Harmful Christians for Air Force Reversal

After weeks of stewing, Michael Weinstein finally responded to Col Brian Duffy’s decision to re-post Chaplain (LtCol) Kenneth Reyes’ once-banned article on the base website, over Weinstein’s objections.

Michael Weinstein’s response was predictable, though it went counter to his public face of supporting “religious freedom.”

Weinstein blamed bad Christians for the Air Force reversal.  Weinstein said:

This was the Air Force caving in to pernicious, fundamentalist Christian pressure…

So much for supporting “military religious freedom,” eh?

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Marines and Challenge Coins

A US Marine article covers the tradition of military “challenge coins.”  The article acknowledges the origin of the tradition has been lost to time, though he repeats one possibility from the World War I fighter pilot story (the same story told here).

As with many traditions, even if they were “fighter pilot traditions,” they tend to cross functional and even Service lines.

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Chaplain Highlights Shortage of Catholic Priests

Chaplain (Capt) Joel Panzer, a Catholic priest who has served in the US Army for the past five years, recently made a push with fellow Catholic leaders to encourage priests to become military chaplains:

By doing so, he hopes to reverse a rising shortage of priests in the military.

About a quarter of the soldiers in the Army are Catholic, but only about 6% of the Army’s chaplains are Catholic priests.

All military branches combined have just Read more

Predator Flies in USAFA Dining Hall

This is actually old news, but it is somewhat an urban legend, as well.

A General Atomics MQ-1 Predator has been hung from the ceiling of Mitchell Hall at the US Air Force Academy.  Mitchell Hall is the huge dining facility that seats every cadet for every (mandatory) meal.

While static displays of aircraft have long been used to highlight the Air Force mission and inspire others to serve, this is probably the most Read more

Atheists Appeal Victory of Big Mountain Jesus

The Freedom From Religion Foundation has filed an appeal after a court recently ruled that the Jesus statue on Big Mountain ski resort could remain standing.  The statue is on public land, and

The group argues the statue violates the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution’s prohibition on Congress making any law regarding an establishment of religion.

The original court ruling had cited the historic value of the statue, and even made a point of saying the statue was more of a tourist attraction than religious monument.  The FFRF apparently thinks that’s all part of a conspiracy:  Read more

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