Reader Max K. found another Islamic website with a Mecca-direction calculator. It can be used to construct yet another graphical demonstration that the Flight 93 memorial points to Mecca.

Muslims face Mecca for prayer, with the direction to Mecca calculated by the great circle method. Enter your street address into the search field at QiblaLocator.com and it brings up a Google map with a red line showing the Muslim prayer-direction (or “qibla”) from your home.

At the Flight 93 crash site, Skyline Road passes through the center of what is to become the giant central crescent of the planned memorial. Enter “Skyline Rd, Shanksville PA” into the QiblaLocator search box and it generates this map:

Red line points to Mecca. (Azimuth, also in red: 55.19° clockwise from north.)

To see how this direction to Mecca compares with the orientation of the planned memorial, first impose some orientation lines on the Crescent of Embrace design:

The Heartbreak Kid video

The short black line connects the two most protruding tips of the half-mile wide central crescent. The long black arrow shows the orientation of a person standing between the crescent tips and facing into the center of the crescent. (Every particle of this original design remains completely intact in the so-called redesign, which only disguises the giant crescent with a few additional trees.)

Next just lay the site-plan graphic on top of QiblaLocator’s Google map:

The red and black lines are almost parallel.

To be precise, the upper crescent tip is the end of the thousand foot long, fifty foot tall, Entry Portal Wall. The bottom crescent tip is the last pair of red maple trees at the bottom end of the crescent walkway. Connect these tips, and the perpendicular bisector (black arrow) points 53.5° clockwise from north (within two degrees of the exact direction to Mecca).

A crescent that Muslims face into to face Mecca is called a mihrab, and is the central feature around which every mosque is built. The Flight 93 Memorial will be the world’s largest mosque.

Earlier Mecca direction graphics

In 2005, Sarah Wells constructed a somewhat similar graphic. She used the Mecca direction calculator at Islam.com to get a qibla line that she superimposed onto the memorial site plan:

Green “qibla” circle shows direction to Mecca from nearby Pittsburgh. Again you can see that a person standing between the tips of the crescent and facing into the center of the crescent will be facing almost exactly at Mecca.

Sarah’s graphic and the QiblaLocator graphic both demonstrate that the giant crescent points to Mecca in the way that Muslims define the direction to Mecca (by the “great circle” or “shortest distance” method).

The first graphic to show the Mecca orientation of the crescent memorial was posted by the pseudonymous Eaotin Shrdlu on September 10, 2005, two days after the crescent design was unveiled:

The large map projection and the small site-plan inset both have north at the top. Etaoin’s graphic shows that direction to Mecca from crash site (green line) and direction of person facing into crescent (red line) are the same.

University of Pennsylvania Professor Tim Baird, a member of the Flight 93 Advisory Commission, says that everyone involved in the Memorial Project is fully aware of the factual accuracy of the Mecca direction claim. Nevertheless, they all stand by as Project spokesmen keep denying the Mecca orientation in the newspapers. The Project even found an academic fraud to tell the press that there is no such thing as the direction to Mecca:

Daniel Griffith, a geospatial information sciences professor at the University of Texas at Dallas, said anything can point toward Mecca, because the earth is round. (Pittsburgh Post Gazette, August 18, 2007.)

Any Muslim would have denied this absurdity, but the Post Gazette does not want Griffith’s fraud exposed, because the Gazette itself has been fully complicit in covering up the Mecca orientation of the memorial since 2005. Post Gazette reporter Paula Ward told Alec Rawls in 2006 (download 3, p. 108) that editors and reporters at the Post Gazette saw all of the demonstrations of the Mecca orientation of the giant crescent back in 2005 and made a top level editorial decision not to publish this explosive information. Editor Tom Birdsong thinks it would hurt the Democrats, so he is not going to publish it, and neither are other newspapers.

This shouldn’t be a right-left issue, but try telling our newspaper editors that. Which leaves it up to the rest of us to get the word out about Islamic and terrorist memorializing symbolism in the Flight 93 Memorial. This is going to have to be passed person to person.

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or…maybe better titled “Fallout of Technology Tuesday.”

From Engadget:

Compulsive e-mailing, texting could be classified as bona fide illness

Posted Mar 17th 2008 8:11PM by Darren Murph
Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds
Considering the plethora of facilities that have opened just in the past few years to deal solely with individuals that have become undoubtedly addicted to video games, the internet and all things Hello Kitty (we jest, we jest), we’re not surprised one iota to hear that uncontrollably texting / e-mailing could soon become “classified as an official brain illness.”
[…]

Watch your usage….before your freinds and family show up for an “intervention.”

Required reading: Eagle1’s tale of the “MoBoard”

• Moondance Alexander dvd

The Brothers Solomon move

, the indispensable tools of officers and enlisted alike, who made a profession of handing ships at sea and Fred Fry’s Maritime Monday 102 @ the gCaptain Maritime site.
BT

Arthur J. Elliot was born April 9th, 1933 in Maine. The oldest of three boys in the family, and a sailor at heart, having grown up in and around the family owned shipyard Dunn and Elliot in Thomaston, ME. Completing his Bachelor’s degree in 1955, he applied several times to the Navy Officer Candidate Program and finally was accepted in 1956. Arthur was began his commissioned career in the Engineering Department of the USS LYMAN K. SWENSON (DD 729) in 1956, where he also served as Anti-Submarine Warfare Officer and Gunnery Officer. After this tour, he resigned from active duty, but retained his Naval Reserve commission, only to volunteer to return to active duty in 1960, when he was assigned to the USS LITTLE ROCK (CL-4). Other assignments followed as the Flag Aide for Commander, Service Forces, Pacific Fleet, and then Operations Officer aboard USS JOHN KING (DDG-3) (One of my sea stories about my interactions with USS JOHN KING (DDG-3) during my career is here). LCDR Elloit volunteered for duty in Vietnam and in 1968, was assigned as Commanding Officer of Patrol Boat Squadron 57. On December 29th, LCDR Arthur Elloit was killed in action in the operations in the Mekong River Delta area. He received the Bronze Star with Combat “V” for heroic achievement in coordinating suppressing fire and personally directing his patrol boat to provide covering fire for the other units during the action in which he was hit by enemy rocket fire. In honor of LCDR Elliot, the fifth ship of the SPRUANCE Class destroyers was put to sea: USS ELLIOT (DD-967).The USS ELLIOT was assigned to the Pacfic Fleet and conducted 12 forward deployments after her commissioning on January 22nd, 1977.One of the highlights of the ELLIOT’s service was the detection of the newly built Soviet aircraft carrier, the MINSK

in the Indian Ocean. In addition to just locating the ship, ELLIOT’s embarked SH-2F Sea Sprite helicopter was able to photograph the MINSK and a Soviet frigate conducting alongside underway refueling operations. The method of refueling while alongside and underway had long been the domain if the US and Allied Navies, but was still in it’s infancy in the Soviet Navy at that time, so this was quite an intelligence gathering opportunity. More details of that story in the Ship’s history are found here.The USS ELLIOT (DD-967) was decommissioned on December 2nd, 2003 and sunk in the Coral Sea as a target for US and allied forces on June 24th, 2005.Update 3/25/2008: RMCM Robert Grey, USN (Ret) left me a note about RIVDIV 572’s web site Just Buried ipod , where LCDR Elliot served as Commander of River Squadron 57. Get over there and read and see more about the Navy’s “River Rats” in Vietnam.

• Yes Man video

The current events continue to highlight the friendship and mentoring relationship between Barack Hussein Obama and Pastor Jeremiah Wright. One man tells us (the younger one) he wants us to live together in peace. His mentor tells us to divide ourselves and continue to remind each other of a struggle that has gone from horrific to uncomfortable, but to keep in mind the horrific of past centuries, as though it may re-occur at any minute.

I have had mentors in my life, at various stages, and for both professional and personal matters. I was in such relationships because their experience and their counsel had common ground with my life views and philosophies. most of those still in the immature stages of development in my life (which was why I was seeking assistance to grow). Yes, their words and direction have become part of me, and I have been blessed with opportunities to use their wisdom and help others as a result. The end game? Their ideas, logic and morals have guided me.

That’s the upside. In one particular case a few years back, a situation arose and it became clear that the common life view we had in common was tossed aside by my mentor and his help in making a decision ran counter to the teaching we had both accepted on faith. In my readings, he and his group were wrong, and, essentially admitted it, but…the bottom line was about a money issue, and therefore, they said the decision had to stand. I politely listened and since that day, have not revisited my relationship with that man. He also happened to be one of the organizations top leaders. Not only do I not meet with him, or correspond, I found another place to invest in relations in, but not before spending time to find out what the new organizations leadership subscribes to, to assure myself I wasn’t associating with others who did not read the same documents throughly and understood the philosophy contained therein.

The issues I left one group over pale in comparison to the hate filled sermons of Pastor Wright, yet to me, putting aside the Bible for money was sufficient to have me make my decision. Why? It was wrong, and there is specific scripture to point out the danger of placing monetary decisions ahead of all other factors, let alone the plethora of teachings, from the Old and New Testaments that would also indicate it was a bad decision. When man begins to limit access to spiritual growth, to keep the money in the building, I cannot understand how the leadership will profit in the larger world view they are directly charged with keeping true to.

For Barack Obama to continue a relationship, at any level with a man who would ask God to damn this nation, let alone speak the things he did about Hillary Clinton, indicates only one thing to me: He agrees with viewpoints presented at some significant level. Barack not repudiating Pastor Wright speaks more extensively of Barack’s “buy in” to the hate mongering of Jeremiah Wright. The word defined (from Dictionary.com: Colour Me Kubrick: A True…ish Story film :

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
re·pu·di·ate /rɪˈpyudiËŒeɪt/ Pronunciation Key – Show Spelled Pronunciation[ri-pyoo-dee-eyt] Pronunciation Key – Show IPA Pronunciation
–verb (used with object), -at·ed, -at·ing.
1. to reject as having no authority or binding force: to repudiate a claim.
2. to cast off or disown: to repudiate a son.
3. to reject with disapproval or condemnation: to repudiate a new doctrine.
4. to reject with denial: to repudiate a charge as untrue.
5. to refuse to acknowledge and pay (a debt), as a state, municipality, etc.
[Origin: 1535–45; < L repudiātus (ptp. of repudiāre to reject, refuse), equiv. to repudi(um) a casting off, divorce (re- re- + pud(ere) to make ashamed, feel shame (see pudendum) + -ium -ium) + -ātus -ate1]

I see definitions 2,3 and 4 would all help Barack understand why he must do so, or, if not, he is telling us he does not reject the teachings of Pastor Wright.

This case also helps me understand why Barack Obama does not place his hand over his heart at eh playing of the National Anthem, nor will he wear an American Flag lapel pin and he tells us why himself:

“The truth is that right after 9/11 I had a pin,” Obama said. “Shortly after 9/11, particularly because as we’re talking about the Iraq war, that became a substitute for I think true patriotism, which is speaking out on issues that are of importance to our national security.

“I decided I won’t wear that pin on my chest,” he said in the interview. “Instead, I’m going to try to tell the American people what I believe will make this country great, and hopefully that will be a testament to my patriotism.” (Fox News)

In reading those words from his own mouth, and putting in context of the present uproar, one might easily make the logical conclusion that Barack’s idea for America is to be punished and we should no longer be “patriotic” in the way we have. I suspect, after 20 years of close association with Pastor Wright, with no denouncement on record, Barack agrees all too much with the espouse positions.

Interesting, when we had a former governor in the race, who happened to have over a decade ago, had been a Baptist pastor, the left was unhinged and predicting a complete Christian theocracy if Governor Huckabee was elected. The media also continually reminded us that Governor Romney was a Mormon, strongly suggesting he would do the same as the Baptist Preacher he was running against. According to others, President Bush has let the “Right Wing Christians Conservatives” take over the country. Ron Paul was connected to Neo-Nazi groups, but that actually got very little play outside the conservative talk show circuit. No other candidates for office can come close to Obama’s supporters divisive viewpoints.

Here we have a Senator who has remained connected (and, as we all know, if there is a celebrity in the Church, they get some degree of special attention from “leadership,” whether they ask for it or not – they are known and they know the leadership well enough to know what underlying philosophy they hold), to a man who hates America. If Barack is so gullible as to have missed that message all these years, he had better be able to produce attendance records indicating he only set foot in the Church 3 times (a marriage and two baptisms), and only otherwise mailed in his checks for his offerings. He wants us to accept that he is smarter than GWB, yet, like Hillary’s “forgetfulness” spells over the Rose Law Firm, missing and Whitewater issues, that he honestly can’t recall such significant interactions with Pastor Wright.

I say it’s time to declare defeat in the war for social justice. The forces of integration have lost, the forces of division are alive and well, but this time, on the opposite end of the spectrum. The Black Supremacists are being given a pass, because “change” is important to have. As long as Pastor Wright is involved in Barack’s life, he will be accepting those views.

Free advice to Barack: Walk away now and tell us what you think in counterpoint, otherwise, prepare to become relegated to a label as a left wing divider. Sir, you are no John F. Kennedy and Paster Wright is no Dr. King. Move forward now, knowing that.

It’s time to abandon the dream of Dr. Martin Luther King, and return to another time, but with an upending of the social order. I recall, many years ago, reading a scholarly study of the the Soviet Union and the quote something like “All the Russian Revolution did was put the top people on the bottom and the bottom people on the top.” Pastor Wright would most likely like to see that phenomena here…and it would be all about the money. How about Obama? Ah, the love of money is…..you fill in the blank.

Update:  It looks as if I was writing this, <a href=”http://therealrevo.com/blog/?p=596″>Barack Obama has done the politically expedient thing,</a> putting distance between himself and Pastor Wright…and claims he never heard him say any of these things.  See my note above about attendance records.  I’d love to cross reference them with the recorded sermons, you know…just to validate Senator Obama’s assertion.  Still, as the link asks:  Why did it take so long?  Momentum, it’s a real force in physics, and a “realer” one in politics.  Yep, I want that guy for my President…he sleeps through “meetings” and can’t read people, and then freezes when it’s decision time….

I found this chasing links via Little Green Footballs.

Not only does this man tell us something of the actuality of Al Qaeda in Iraq, before 2003, but also of how they are among us now, and others are being actively recruited as they arrive in the US. The oft asked question: Where are the moderate Muslims? Here he is, and he is not just saying it, he is engaged in helping in the hunt to track and contain the very real threat to our very safety while doing that for the sake of his family. His vision is a large one, which seeks to protect us all, in order to protect his family All I can think is how is he being selfish for us all and I’ll accept that any day from a fellow human being. He’s more than moderate, he’s a man we should one day be able to bring into public and award him for his courage and desire for real peace among humanity.

The “teaser,” but I’d recommend you sit and read the entire interview at FrontPage Magazine carefully. Sobering, insightful, myth destroying, and uplifting to know at least one man will take a stand, even if Harry Ried, Nancy Pelosi and their majority will not:

Al Qaeda in Iraq Under Saddam
By Jamie Glazov
FrontPageMagazine.com | Thursday, March 13, 2008

Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Osama al-Magid, a former police officer in Iraq (1992- 2003). He can be contacted at [email protected].

FP: Osama al-Magid, welcome to Frontpage Interview.

Al-Magid: Thank you Mr. Glazov. I hope to provide information to the American public that will help them understand that terrorism in the U.S. from Al Qaeda did not end on September 11th, 2001. There are currently supporters of Al Qaeda not only outside of the U.S. but also inside of it.

This is my first interview pertaining to many of the issues I am going to discuss with you. Right now I can provide some details, but as time goes by I will be providing the Americans with more about the truth in Iraq. There have been friends of mine who have tried to inform the American people about things in Iraq before 2003 and after the Americans came to Iraq, but for some reasons the information has not been widely publicized. I will tell the American people that a person who is like a brother to me has risked his life to tell people about many important issues in Iraq. I met Special Agent Dave Gaubatz in 2003 (Nasiriyah). Dave and I started working together to obtain intelligence about threats against the U.S. forces. We traveled in Nasiriyah and other cities. We protected one another and today in 2008 we are still working together. I can’t explain everything right now for security reasons, but we are traveling through America and trying to identify terrorists and their supporters who want to attack America like in 2001. We are trying to help law enforcement so they can protect America.

Both of us have families and we do not want the children in America, Iraq, or any country to suffer from terrorism.
[…]

A man for the times. A man who stands for a future of peace, exactly the left says they want. Will they acknowledge him and lend their support?

Update: Maybe we are witness to the dam breaking, first the article above, then about a Muslim who equates Islam with fascism. Brave men, these two, and needed urgently to stay strong.

A home for wayward links is now available here.

Sea Stories delayed due to work assignments…Secondhand Lions hd

Interstate 60: Episodes of the Road move

Alec Rawls did a 45 minute interview with Washington D.C talk-radio host Joe Ardinger Saturday night (3-8-08, Segment 3).

“It rips,” says Alec. “We exposed a lot of the terrorist memorializing parts of the Flight 93 Memorial, and went over the clear proofs of intent that architect Paul Murdoch included in the design.”

Joe’s interests: “Ghosts, UFO’s, The Lizard People from The Hollow Earth, Politics, True Crime, Conspiracies, you get the idea…” If he wants outlandish, the truth about the Flight 93 Memorial is tops, which could just make Joe the man for the Job.

Alec knows nothing about the Lizard People, or Joe’s politics, but this issue ought to transcend all domestic divides, and for Joe it certainly does. “Very fun interview,” says Alec: “Joe is a great host, and he says he wants to keep after this.”

That’s excellent. Thank you Joemericans!

(If Joe’s 3-8-08 Segment 3 link ever disappears, there is a backup copy here.)

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buy Adventure

It seems some senior citizens have found a way to help out where they could: Clipping coupons and sending them to families deployed overseas to help stretch their military paychecks:

Elderly enlist as coupon clippers to aid military
Small army of old ladies is determined to do its part in the war on terror

By William Wan
updated 2:29 p.m. ET, Tues., March. 11, 2008

GREENBELT, Md. – Some are frail, their bodies riddled with arthritis. Others are confined to walkers or wheelchairs.

Spread out across the country is a small army of old ladies determined to do their part in the war on terror. Their weapons of choice: scissors and coupons.

They cut out a couple hundred each day, a few thousand a week, and send them to military families in the Middle East and elsewhere overseas, who redeem them at commissaries. It may not seem like much, the ladies say, but every little bit counts.
[…]

Ingenious and very helpful. BZ to these women who would devote their time to save money, and a BZ to the Washington Post for highlighting this work done by these women.

• Clambake divx

The Military Cross, no less.

The whole article is here.

Brave man, desperate times, and victory…

Required reading: Maritime Monday 101 by Fred Fry posted at gCaptain Blog and a story of the lowly barrage balloons download Bathory from Eagle 1.
BT

Admiral Paul Foster was born in March 25th, 1889 in Wichita, KS. He attended the University of Idaho, and later was accepted to the Naval Academy, graduating in 1911. Initially assigned to the surface navy aboard the USS WASHINGTON (CA-11) and the newly commissioned USS UTAH (BB-31). The USS UTAH participated in the Mexican Campaigns and Ens Foster went ashore with a landing party at some point and demonstrated a significant amount of courage on the 21st and 22nd of April, 1914, for which he was awarded the Medal of Honor.ADM Foster then transitioned to the “Silent Service,” taking command of the G-4 in February of 1916. Folling that tour, he had command of the USS AL-2 (SS-41), and, while operating in Bantry Bay, was credited with the sinking of German U-Boat UB-65 on 10 July, 1918. The UB-65 was one of three enemy subs sunk by the US Navy in WWI.
In 1924, ADM Foster was assigned as the commissioning Engineer Officer aboard USS TRENTON (CL-11). In January, 1927, he was awarded the Navy Cross for his efforts in a gun turret explosion aboard TRENTON. At this point in his career, then LCDR Foster became the first man to be awarded all three of the top awards for his service time; The Medal of Honor, the Navy Cross and the Distinguished Service Medal.Resigning his commission in 1927, ADM Foster left the service, but was recalled in 1941, where he went to work on the staff of the Navy Inspector General, conducting three inspecptions at the personal direction of the President.ADM Foster served until 1961. He passed away in 1972. To honor this man, the USS PAUL F FOSTER (DD-964), the second ship of the SPRUANCE Class destroyers.

Spun the movie

was commissioned February 21st, 1976.Assigned to the Pacific Fleet, FOSTER conducted 13 deployments to the Western Pacific, the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf. She supported both Desert Storm and Desert Shield in 1990/91. She was decommissioned in March 27th, 2003, and now serves as the Self Defense Test Ship for the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme, CA.