Christopher Johnson illustrates what some American Christian organizations are spending most of their time and money on.

The Jerusalem Post notes that some on the Christian left would like Europe and the United States not to cut off funds to the Palestinian entity now that Hamas, a group dedicated to Israel’s destruction, has been elected to power there. Samuel Kobia, head of the World Council of Churches Nobody Goes To Anymore, hopes the West will keep scratching checks.

In the meantime, Muslims are murdering Christians in Egypt during Holy Week. Although this has been happening for months, the PC-USA website has no news whatsoever about the persecution of Christians in Muslim lands. They do, however, have lots of information about the “oppression” of the palestinians.

On the other hand, the Pope has been having a lot of conferences lately dealing with exactly that issue: Muslim persecution of Christians in Muslim lands. He has said a few things that Muslim leaders don’t want to hear, and his Cardinals are putting out position papers as well (I forgot to note where I found the link; if anyone knows what I’m talking about, it’s a lengthy paper detailing the Church’s unhappiness with radical Islam).

If one had to make a guess as to why so many Christians are blind to the problems their coreligionists are suffering at the hands of Muslim, instead preferring to focus on the problems of the palestinians, one would have to wonder, indeed. Because of course they will tell you that it has nothing to do with the fact that Israelis are Jews. No, no, it isn’t that. It’s the occupation, you see.

Meantime, Coptic Christians are dying, and it is illegal to be a worshipping Christian in Saudi Arabia. But yes, go ahead, blame it all on the Israeli treatment of palestinians. Because that’s going to stop Muslims from persecuting Christians.

Shyeah.

Note: Grouchy Old Yorkie Lady has some good points in her comment. I thought that adding the modifier “some” would be enough, but I’m afraid I have to agree that it seems to be mostly the left-leaning Christian groups that are ignoring Muslim persecution of Christians, and concentrating instead on the Israel/palestinian situation.

Or at least, some kind of stock-related knowledge?

Here’s the thing. I bought Compaq ages ago, then kept it when the Internet bubble burst. I had 200 shares. When Compaq merged with HP, I wound up with 129 shares of HPQ. But I can’t figure out my current cost basis for my taxes. How do I take my original share price for Compaq ($21.50) and translate it to what it would be as an HPQ share? I need to know because I know I lost money. I think I once figured out that HPQ needed to climb to $31 in order for me to make my money back. I sold it at far less than that, and want to claim the loss.

Anyone know the math behind this? I was on the phone with my brother for a while, and thought I had it, but I didn’t. I just checked my figures on the tax form, and man, are they wrong.

I like The Replacements, but I never understood why the cheerleaders went on strike along with the players.

Why did they have to recruit a new set of cheerleaders, anyway?

Happy Easter to all my Christian readers.

Say, do you guys actually eat all those hardboiled eggs, or do they get thrown away? Because personally, I like two hardboiled eggs in my lunch salad.

The latest edition of Shire Network News is up. My contribution discusses the Passover Seder and its meanings for today. The feature interview is with one of the Right Brothers, who put out the new “Bush Was Right” song. I wonder if he asked them if they’re worried about being sued by Billy Joel for having a tune that’s awfully close to “We Didn’t Start the Fire.”

If you think you need an iPod to listen to a podcast, you don’t. All you need is a computer with a speaker that plays mp3 files. Windows generally runs them via Windows Media Player, something you probably all have if you have a Windows-based machine.

Two days after Hamas’ foreign minister said, once again, that Hamas will never recognize Israel, there is still no news story in any major Western media outlet that acknowledges this latest pronouncement. However, there are pieces like this drek in Time Magazine that claim the opposite.

According to Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza, Hamas as an organization will not recognize Israel, and would seek only an “interim solution” to the current impasse, but government spokesmen as well as some Palestinian officials have suggested that almost all options could be on the table — including, perhaps, recognition in some roundabout form — if in return Israel would withdraw to the 1967 borders and close all settlements in the West Bank. “Hamas has made significant strides to evolve, which have so far not been internationally acknowledged,” says Nicolas Pelham, senior analyst with the International Crisis Group.

Sure, and pigs are going to fly, too. But the article ends on a hopeful note:

At a rally in Jabalya refugee camp on Friday, Haniya addressed a crowd of thousands, making no policy statements but instead trying to gird them for future struggles. “We are facing an unholy alliance led by the American Administration to cut aid to the poor and oppressed Palestinian people,” he said. “We will not give in, and attempts to isolate the government will fail.” After he finished speaking, a throng surrounded his car. He drove slowly away, supported, exalted, but with his thoughts and plans, much like Hamas’, still a mystery.

No, his thoughts are not a mystery. He has been quite plain in his thoughts on Israel: An Islamic state, from the river to the sea. He last said it on April 7, which, hm, let me count… oh yeah, that was nine days ago.

Apparently, though, when the leaders of Hamas say, “We will never recognize Israel,” the world needs an interpreter to understand what they are saying.