'The Exorcist's' Secret Message

That I am regularly hauled out of my burrow every Halloween like some furless and demonic “Punxsatawney Phil” always brings a rueful smile of bemusement to my lips as I lower my gaze and shake my head, for the humiliating God’s-honest truth of the matter is that while I was working on "The Exorcist," what I thought I was writing was a novel of faith in the popular dress of a thrilling and suspenseful detective story – in other words, a sermon that no one could possibly sleep through -- and to this day I haven’t the faintest recollection of any intention to frighten the reader, which many will take, I suppose, as an admission of failure on an almost stupefying, scale.

But it’s true!

Before "The Exorcist," I was a comic novelist ("Which Way to Mecca, Jack?") and writer of motion picture comedies like the Inspector Clouseau farce, "A Shot in the Dark." Who knew from scary?

When I saw the novel’s early reviews (Newsday: “One of the most terrifying stories since 'Dracula!'”), for a time I found myself prematurely in that unbalanced and “tricky age” for writers of comedy described by the great James Thurber in his rollicking "A Preface to My Life," as a period “when they take to calling their office from their home, or their home from their office, asking for themselves, and then collapsing in hard-breathing relief upon being told they ‘were not in.’”

Yes. Confusion had made its masterpiece!

Oh well, sure: every year on the date I put out the pumpkin with the cutout eyes and nose and face and the basket full of Snickers and Mars Bars beside it; but I do keep wishing – oh, ever so wistfully and – let’s face it, hopelessly – that "The Exorcist" be remembered at this time of the year for being not about shivers but rather about souls, for then it would indeed be in the real and true spirit of Halloween, which is short for the eve of All Hallows or All Saints Day.

When I first heard, in 1949, of an actual case of demonic possession and an exorcism going on nearby while I was a junior at Georgetown University, I remember thinking, “Someday, somebody’s got to write about this, because if an investigation were to prove that possession is real, what a help it would be to the struggling faith of possibly millions, for if there were demons, I reasoned, then why not angels? Why not God?"

While there was one particularly striking and constantly repeated paranormal phenomenon in the 1949 case, plus a letter from the exorcist in the case assuring me that the case “was the real thing; I had no doubt about it then and I have no doubt about it now,” I in fact did not base my novel on the 1949 case, but rather what my research made clear; namely, that in every period of recorded history, and in every culture and part of the world, there have been consistent accounts of possession and its symptoms going all the way back to ancient Egyptian chronicles, and where there is that much smoke, my reason told me, there is probably fire – and a lot of it, if you get my meaning. Do you? My faith is strong.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/10/28/exorcists-secret-message/#ixzz1cI7Os5Yp

By William Peter Blatty

Published October 28, 2011

| FoxNews.com

Muslims File Complaint over Christian Symbols at Catholic University

The Washington, D.C. Office of Human Rights confirmed that it is investigating allegations that Catholic University violated the human rights of Muslim students by not allowing them to form a Muslim student group and by not providing them rooms without Christian symbols for their daily prayers.

The investigation alleges that Muslim students “must perform their prayers surrounded by symbols of Catholicism – e.g., a wooden crucifix, paintings of Jesus, pictures of priests and theologians which many Muslim students find inappropriate.”

A spokesperson for the Office of Human Rights told Fox News they had received a 60-page complaint against the private university. The investigation, they said, could take as long a six months.

The complaint was filed by John Banzhaf, an attorney and professor at George Washington University Law School. Banzhaf has been involved in previous litigation against the school involving the same-sex residence halls. He also alleged in his complaint involving Muslim students that women at the university were being discriminated against. You can read more on those allegations by clicking here.

Banzhaf said some Muslim students were particularly offended because they had to meditate in the school’s chapels “and at the cathedral that looms over the entire campus – the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.”

“It shouldn’t be too difficult somewhere on the campus for the university to set aside a small room where Muslims can pray without having to stare up and be looked down upon by a cross of Jesus,” he told Fox News.

A spokesman for Catholic University released a statement to Fox News indicating they had not seen any legal filings — but would respond once they do.

“Our faithfulness to our Catholic tradition has also made us a welcome home to students of other religions,” said Victor Nakas, associate vice president for public affairs. “No students have registered complaints about the exercise of their religions on our campus.”

In a 2010 interview with National Public Radio, university president John Garvey acknowledged that they don’t set aside prayer rooms for Muslim students.

“We make classrooms available, or our chapels are places where they can pray,” he told NPR. “We don’t offer Halal meat, although there are always meals that conform to Halal regulations, that allow students to do what they want.”

Banzhaf said that it is technically not illegal for Catholic University to refuse to provide rooms devoid of religious icons.

“It may not be illegal, but it suggests they are acting improperly and probably with malice,” he said. “They do have to pray five times a day, they have to look around for empty classrooms and to be sitting there trying to do Muslim prayers with a big cross looking down or a picture of Jesus or a picture of the Pope is not very conductive to their religion.”

As for the creation of a Muslim student group, Banzhaf said the university has an association of Jewish students – so why not a Muslim group?

“I think they are entitled as a matter of law to be able to form a Muslim student association and to have the same privileges as associations,” he said. “I think that most of them would much prefer to have a place to pray – that they are not surrounded by various Catholic symbols – a place that is more conductive to their religious beliefs than being surrounded by pictures of Popes.”

Garvey, in his 2010 interview with NPR, addressed that issue.

“It’s just not something that we view as an activity that we want to sponsor because we’re a Catholic institution rather than Muslim,” he said.

Patrick Reilly, the president of the Cardinal Newman Society, an organization that promotes Catholic identity among Catholic schools, seemed stunned by the complaint.

“I don’t know what the attorney wants them to do – if he wants them to actually move the Basilica or if the Muslim students can find someplace where they don’t have to look at it,” he told Fox News.

Catholic University, he said, is a Catholic institution.

“One wouldn’t expect a Jewish institution to be responsible for providing liturgical opportunities for other faiths and I wouldn’t expect a Catholic institution to do that,” he said.

“This attorney is really turning civil rights on its head,” he said. “He’s using the law for his own discrimination against the Catholic institution and essentially saying Catholic University cannot operate according to Catholic principles.”

from: http://radio.foxnews.com/toddstarnes/top-stories/muslims-want-catholic-school-to-provide-room-without-crosses.html

Leaflets Dropped on Occupy Chicago

"We are Wall Street. It’s our job to make money. Whether it’s a commodity, stock, bond, or some hypothetical piece of fake paper, it doesn’t matter. We would trade baseball cards if it were profitable. I didn’t hear America complaining when the market was roaring to 14,000 and everyone’s 401k doubled every 3 years. Just like gambling, its not a problem until you lose. I’ve never heard of anyone going to Gamblers Anonymous because they won too much in Vegas.

Well now the market crapped out, & even though it has come back somewhat, the government and the average Joes are still looking for a scapegoat. God knows there has to be one for everything. Well, here we are.

Go ahead and continue to take us down, but you’re only going to hurt yourselves. What’s going to happen when we can’t find jobs on the Street anymore? Guess what: We’re going to take yours. We get up at 5am & work till 10pm or later. We’re used to not getting up to pee when we have a position. We don’t take an hour or more for a lunch break. We don’t demand a union. We don’t retire at 50 with a pension. We eat what we kill, and when the only thing left to eat is on your dinner plates, we’ll eat that.

For years teachers and other unionized labor have had us fooled. We were too busy working to notice. Do you really think that we are incapable of teaching 3rd graders and doing landscaping? We’re going to take your cushy jobs with tenure and 4 months off a year and whine just like you that we are so-o-o-o underpaid for building the youth of America. Say goodbye to your overtime and double time and a half. I’ll be hitting grounders to the high school baseball team for $5k extra a summer, thank you very much.

So now that we’re going to be making $85k a year without upside, Joe Mainstreet is going to have his revenge, right? Wrong! Guess what: we’re going to stop buying the new 80k car, we aren’t going to leave the 35 percent tip at our business dinners anymore. No more free rides on our backs. We’re going to landscape our own back yards, wash our cars with a garden hose in our driveways. Our money was your money. You spent it. When our money dries up, so does yours.

The difference is, you lived off of it, we rejoiced in it. The Obama administration and the Democratic National Committee might get their way and knock us off the top of the pyramid, but it’s really going to hurt like hell for them when our fat asses land directly on the middle class of America and knock them to the bottom.

We aren’t dinosaurs. We are smarter and more vicious than that, and we are going to survive. The question is, now that Obama & his administration are making Joe Mainstreet our food supply…will he? and will they?”

Tread on Him

from: http://wizbangblog.com/2011/10/17/sums-things-up-nicely/

Media Guide to Protestors

The Episcopal Church's Schism and Disputes over Properties

Mollie Ziegler Hemingway on the Episcopal Church's schism and its disputes with Anglicans over church property.


Katharine Jefferts Schori
Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Churh



When the Church of the Good Shepherd in Binghamton, N.Y., left the Episcopal Church over disagreements about what the Bible says about sexuality, the congregation offered to pay for the building in which it worshiped. In return the Episcopal Church sued to seize the building, then sold it for a fraction of the price to someone who turned it into a mosque.

The congregation is one of hundreds that split or altogether left the Episcopal Church—a member of the Anglican Communion found mostly in the United States—after a decades-long dispute over adherence to scripture erupted with the consecration of a partnered gay bishop in 2003. But negotiating who gets church buildings hasn't been easy. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said she'd rather have these properties become Baptist churches or even saloons than continue as sanctuaries for fellow Anglicans.

The Episcopalian congregations that want to break away are part of a larger movement of Anglicans world-wide who are concerned by the liberalism of the official New York-based Episcopal Church on sexuality and certain basic tenets such as Jesus' resurrection. Of the 38 provinces in the global Anglican Communion, 22 have declared themselves in "broken" or "impaired" fellowship with the more liberal American church.

In 2009, breakaway Episcopalians in the U.S. and Canada formed the Anglican Church in North America, which now reports 100,000 members in nearly 1,000 congregations. This group has been formally recognized by some Anglican primates outside of the United States.

Bishop Jefferts Schori says this new Anglican group is encroaching on her church's jurisdiction, and she has authorized dozens of lawsuits "to protect the assets of the Episcopal Church for the mission of the Episcopal Church." The Episcopal Church has dedicated $22 million to legal actions against departing clergy, congregations and dioceses, according to Allan Haley, a canon lawyer who has represented a diocese in one such case.

Now the Episcopal Church has upped the ante: It has declared that if congregations break away and buy their sanctuaries, they must disaffiliate from any group that professes to be Anglican.

Rather than agree to this demand to disaffiliate from Anglicanism, Pittsburgh's All Saints Episcopal Anglican Church last month walked away from the building it had inhabited since 1928. The congregation called the Episcopal Church's demand "mean-spirited" and an attempt to deny "the freedom of religious affiliation."

Some other Episcopalians have opted to disaffiliate rather than lose their buildings or spend years in expensive litigation. Two breakaway congregations in Pennsylvania and two in Virginia have promised they will not affiliate with other Anglicans for five years.

For Anglicans, affiliation with a bishop is essential to their identity and to being part of a church. A disaffiliation clause means that bishops can't make their annual congregational visits to perform baptisms, confirmations and other rites integral to the life of the church, and they can't encourage or discipline priests. The congregation meanwhile can't work with local and national church bodies on disaster relief, youth retreats or educational seminars. Clergy members' insurance and pensions are uncertain. And congregations can't advertise that they are Anglican or contribute the traditional 10% tithe to the local branch of their denomination.

"It's unconscionable for a Christian to impose such a condition on a fellow Christian, telling them who they can and can't worship with and who they can and can't affiliate with. That violates every Christian precept I know of," said Mr. Haley, citing St. Paul's admonition against Christians suing each other in secular courts.

"We can't sell to an organization that wants to put us out of business," said Bishop Jefferts Schori, who added that her job is to ensure that "no competing branch of the Anglican Communion impose on the mission strategy" of the Episcopal Church. Indeed she has no complaint with Muslims, Baptists or barkeepers buying Episcopal properties—only fellow Anglicans.

The archbishop of the break-away Anglican Church in North America, Robert Duncan, says his group has no interest in replacing the Episcopal Church. He says he has encouraged participation with Episcopal Dioceses and recently blessed a priest who wanted to return to the Episcopal Church.

Bishop Duncan says that while the ongoing litigation over property is "unseemly and scandalous," the new disaffiliation clauses are even worse: "You can ask me to give away what I have and I'll give it away. But don't demand of me that I abandon the tenets of my faith."

By MOLLIE ZIEGLER HEMINGWAY

Ms. Hemingway is a writer in Washington, D.C.

Posted at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203476804576614932308302042.html?mod=djemEditorialPage_h

Muslim Jihad Killings in America

Religion of Peace has jihad attacks in American here;

Date	Country	City/State	Killed	Injured	Description
4/14/1972	USA	New York, NY	1	3	Ten members of a local mosque phone in a false alarm and then ambush responding officers, killing one.
1/19/1973	USA	Brooklyn, NY	1	1	Muslim extremists rob a sporting goods store for weapons, gunning down a police officer who responds to the alarm.
7/1/1973	USA	Bethesda, MD	1	0	An Israeli diplomat is gunned down in his driveway by Palestinian terrorists.
7/18/1973	USA	Washington, DC	8	2	Nation of Islam members shoot seven members of a family to death in cold blood, including four children. A defendant in the case is later murdered in prison on orders from Elijah Muhammad.
10/19/1973	USA	Oakland, CA	1	1	Nation of Islam terrorists kidnap a couple and nearly decapitate the man, while raping and leaving the woman for dead.
10/29/1973	USA	Berkeley, CA	1	0	A woman is shot repeatedly in the face by Nation of Islam terrorists.
11/25/1973	USA	Oakland, CA	1	0	A grocer is killed in his store by Nation of Islam terrorists.
12/11/1973	USA	Oakland, CA	1	0	A man is killed by Nation of Islam terrorists while using a phone booth.
12/13/1973	USA	Oakland, CA	1	0	A woman is shot to deah on the sidewalk by Nation of Islam terrorists.
12/20/1973	USA	Oakland, CA	1	0	Nation of Islam terrorists gun down an 81-year-old janitor.
12/22/1973	USA	Oakland, CA	2	0	Nation of Islam terrorist kills two people in separate attacks on the same day.
12/24/1973	USA	Oakland, CA	1	0	A man is kidnapped, tortured and decapitated by Nation of Islam terrorists.
1/24/1974	USA	Oakland, CA	4	1	Five vicious shooting attacks by Nation of Islam terrorists leave three people dead and one paralyzed for life. Three of the victims were women.
4/1/1974	USA	Oakland, CA	1	1	A Nation of Islam terrorist shoots at two Salvation Army members, killing a man and injuring a woman.
4/16/1974	USA	Ingleside, CA	1	0	A man is killed while helping a friend move by Nation of Islam terrorists.
3/9/1977	USA	Washington, DC	1	1	Hanifi Muslims storm three buildings including a B'nai B'rith to hold 134 people hostage. At least two innocents were shot and one died.
7/22/1980	USA	Bethesda, MD	1	0	A political dissident is shot and killed in front of his home by an Iranian agent who was an American convert to Islam.
8/31/1980	USA	Savou, IL	2	0	An Iranian student guns down his next-door neighbors, a husband and wife.
11/6/1989	USA	St. Louis, MO	1	0	A 17-year-old girl is stabbed to death by her parents for bringing 'dishonor' to their family by dating an 'infidel' African-American.
1/31/1990	USA	Tuscon, AZ	1	0	A Sunni cleric is assassinated in front of a Tuscon mosque after declaring that two verses of the Qur'an were invalid.
11/5/1990	USA	New York City, NY	1	0	An Israeli rabbi is shot to death by a Muslim attacker at a hotel.
1/25/1993	USA	Langley, VA	2	3	A Pakistani with Mujahideen ties guns down two CIA agents outside of the headquarters.
2/26/1993	USA	New York, NY	6	1040	Islamic terrorists detonate a massive truck bomb under the World Trade Center, killing six people and injuring over 1,000 in an effort to collapse the towers.
3/1/1994	USA	Brooklyn, NY	1	0	A Muslim fires on a vanload of Jewish boys, killing one.
3/23/1997	USA	New York, NY	1	6	A Palestinian leaves an anti-Jewish suicide note behind and travels to the top of the Empire State building where he shoot seven people in a Fedayeen attack.
4/3/1997	USA	Lompoc, CA	1	0	A prison guard is stabbed to death by a radical Muslim.
3/17/2000	USA	Atlanta, GA	1	1	A local imam and Muslim spiritual leader guns down a deputy sheriff and injures his partner.
9/11/2001	USA	Shanksville, PA	40	0	Forty passengers are killed after Islamic radicals hijack the plane in an attempt to steer it into the U.S. Capitol building.
9/11/2001	USA	New York, NY	2752	251	Islamic hijackers steer two planes packed with fuel and passengers into the World Trade Center, killing hundreds on impact and eventually killing thousands when the towers collapsed. At least 200 are seriously injured.
9/11/2001	USA	Washington, DC	184	53	Nearly 200 people are killed when Islamic hijackers steer a plane full of people into the Pentagon.
3/19/2002	USA	Tuscon, AZ	1	0	A 60-year-old man is gunned down by Muslim snipers on a golf course.
5/27/2002	USA	Denton, TX	1	0	Muslim snipers kill a man as he works in his yard.
7/4/2002	USA	Los Angeles, CA	2	0	Muslim man pulls out a gun at the counter of an Israeli airline and kills two people.
9/5/2002	USA	Clinton, MD	1	0	A 55-year-old pizzaria owner is shot six times in the back by Muslims at close range.
9/21/2002	USA	Montgomery, AL	1	1	Muslim snipers shoot two women, killing one.
9/23/2002	USA	Baton Rouge, LA	1	0	A Korean mother is shot in the back by Muslim snipers.
10/2/2002	USA	Wheaton, MD	1	0	Muslim snipers gun down a program analyst in a store parking lot.
10/3/2002	USA	Montgomery County, MD	5	0	Muslim snipers kill three men and two women in separate attacks over a 15-hour period.
10/9/2002	USA	Manassas, VA	1	1	A man is killed by Muslim snipers while pumping gas two days after a 13-year-old is wounded by the same team.
10/11/2002	USA	Fredericksburg, VA	1	0	Another man is killed by Muslim snipers while pumping gas.
10/14/2002	USA	Arlington, VA	1	0	A woman is killed by Muslim snipers in a Home Depot parking lot.
10/22/2002	USA	Aspen Hill, MD	1	0	A bus driver is killed by Muslim snipers.
8/6/2003	USA	Houston, TX	1	0	After undergoing a religious revival, a Saudi college student slashes the throat of a Jewish student with a 4" butterfly knife, nearly decapitating the young man.
12/2/2003	USA	Chicago, IL	1	0	A Muslim doctor deliberately allows a Jewish patient to die from an easily treatable condition.
4/13/2004	USA	Raleigh, NC	1	4	A Muslim man runs down five strangers with a car.
4/15/2004	USA	Scottsville, NY	1	2	In an honor killing, a Muslim father kills his wife and attacks his two daughters with a knife and hammer because he feared that they had been sexually molested.
6/16/2006	USA	Baltimore, MD	1	0	A 62-year-old Jewish moviegoer is shot to death by a Muslim gunman in an unprovoked terror attack.
6/25/2006	USA	Denver, CO	1	5	Saying that it was 'Allah's choice', a Muslim shoots four of his co-workers and a police officer.
7/28/2006	USA	Seattle, WA	1	5	An 'angry' Muslim-American uses a young girl as hostage to enter a local Jewish center, where he shoots six women, one of whom dies.
2/13/2007	USA	Salt Lake City, UT	5	4	A Muslim immigrant goes on a shooting rampage at a mall, targeting people buying Valentine's Day cards at a gift shop and killing five.
1/1/2008	USA	Irving, TX	2	0	A Muslim immigrant shoots his two daughters to death on concerns about their 'Western' lifestyle.
7/6/2008	USA	Jonesboro, GA	1	0	A devout Muslim strangles his 25-year-old daughter in an honor killing.
2/12/2009	USA	Buffalo, NY	1	0	The founder of a Muslim TV station beheads his wife in the hallway for seeking a divorce.
6/1/2009	USA	Little Rock, AR	1	1	A Muslim shoots a local soldier to death inside a recruiting center explicitly in the name of Allah.
11/2/2009	USA	Glendale, AZ	1	1	A woman dies from injuries suffered when her father runs her down with a car for being too 'Westernized.' (10-20-09)
11/5/2009	USA	Ft. Hood, TX	13	31	A Muslim psychiatrist guns down thirteen unarmed soldiers while yelling praises to Allah.
12/4/2009	USA	Binghamton, NY	1	0	A non-Muslim Islamic studies professor is stabbed to death by a Muslim grad student in revenge for 'persecuted' Muslims.
4/14/2010	USA	Marquette Park, IL	5	2	After quarrelling with his wife over Islamic dress, a Muslim convert shoots his family members to 'take them back to Allah' and out of the 'world of sinners'.
4/30/2011	USA	Warren, MI	1	0	A 20-year-old woman is shot in the head by her stepfather for not adhering to Islamic practices.

(3,094 killed by Muslims in America in 66 terror attacks)

from: http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2011/09/soros-funded-group-behind-course-for-journalists-that-whitewashes-jihad-blames-right-wing-activists.html