Islamists have threatened a Christian Bishop in the Philippines… (H/T: UP Pompeii)

Philippine bishop reports receiving threat to convert to Islam

MANILA, Philippines (CNS) — A bishop in the southern Philippines reported receiving a letter threatening him with harm if he does not convert to Islam or pay “Islamic taxes.”

Such brazenness in a country where over 86% of the population is Christian, 9% is Muslim and the remaining 5% is divided among various groups such as: Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, animists and non-believers.

Even if those who sent these letters are no more than common criminals who use religion as a mere tool, the fact that they chose to represent themselves as Muslims is in itself significant. But Muslim brazenness does not stop there, unfortunately, this one is far from an isolated case! Remember the kidnapped and murdered Chaldean archbishop of Mosul, Mgr Faraj Rahho? What about the plight of Assyrian Christians in Iraq? What about the Sabian Mandaeans? Or the plight of Christians girls kidnapped in Nigeria by practitioners of the Religion of Peace? What about the treatment of Christian Copts in Egypt? Ot the threats against Western politicians like Geert Wilders or Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi? The list, gentle reader, goes on and on ad nauseum…

You may read the rest at: Freedom’s Cost

At Slate, Ron Rosenbaum says that it’s not wrong to vote for Barack Obama because of his race.  This is an assertion I’m highly resistant to.  I believe my vote ought to be for the candidate who is most likely to do the things I believe are right for the nation - the candidate who earns my vote, in other words.

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My favorite writer at The Moderate Voice is Polimom and it’s good to see that she’s back and blogging again! Today she writes that the Houston Chronicle’s policy of using “racial or ethnic identification only when it is clearly pertinent” went too far by failing to include important information about the at-large suspect: (more…)

Via Power Line comes the news that US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice commented on the issue of race in America last week in her meeting with the Washington Times editorial board. She had quite some interesting things to say: she speaks about this difficult subject, and the role race played in her life, in quite a moving manner. (more…)

Today Barack Obama delivered a strong speech about race and how, in his opinion, this country needs to reconcile its color issues. The man is an inspiring speaker, no doubt. But what of his substance? Do his ideas represent what is best for the future of this country? In some respects, perhaps.

In my mind today’s speech was most notable for what Obama said about American Christianity:

“that anger in some of Reverend Wright’s sermons simply reminds us of the old truism that the most segregated hour in American life occurs on Sunday morning”

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Hillary Clinton is looking to secure a victory in Florida this Tuesday. Florida, like Michigan, was punished by the DNC for placing their primary too early. Tueday’s primary will award no delegates, but a symbolic victory for Clinton, especially if it’s by a wide margin, would be significant because it would serve to soften the blow of Obama’s huge victory in South Carolina. Of course, Clinton, who won Michigan by virtue of being the only one on the ballot and is ahead in the polls in Florida by virtue of campaigning there (despite agreeing initially with the DNC decision) is now calling for Michigan and Florida delegates to be seated. In the interest of fairness, of course!

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The Obama victory Speech:

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It’s about 4:30am here in Madrid, and I just got home. I hesitated before looking at the news, afraid I might ruin my good mood. When I saw the results of the primary….

I could pretend I’m indifferent. This is, after all, supposed to be a moderate site, and I do try to keep myself reasonable. Sadly, that’s not to be tonight. I’m thrilled by the results. I’m also surprised. Obama didn’t just win, he won by a HUGE margin. He got over DOUBLE the votes Clinton did. Clinton was actually closer in numbers to Edwards than Obama.

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The Washington Post reports:

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) is delivering pointed critiques of the African American community as he campaigns for its votes, lamenting that many of his generation are “disenfranchising” themselves because they don’t vote, taking rappers to task for their language, and decrying “anti-intellectualism” in the black community, including black children telling peers who get good grades that they are “acting white.”

As he travels around the country in his effort to become the nation’s first black president, Obama has engaged in an intense competition for black voters — a crucial Democratic Party constituency that accounts for as much as half the electorate in some key primary states such as South Carolina. But the first-term senator, who has sought to present himself as an agent of change eager to challenge political convention, has taken the unusual route of publicly criticizing his own community.

In a brief interview, Obama said he is simply giving broader exposure to the problems that African Americans discuss with great frankness in private. “It’s what we talk about in the barbershops in the South Side of Chicago,” Obama said, adding that he talks about these problems more in the black community because they are more pronounced there. “There’s an old saying that if America has a cold, we have pneumonia,” he said.

Aides say there is no specific strategy to target black voters by injecting these themes into the race and note that Obama speaks to white audiences about the importance of parents turning off their kids’ televisions and demanding that they finish their homework. Obama says he is echoing the concerns he hears from and shares with other African Americans.

“In Chicago, sometimes when I talk to the black chambers of commerce, I say, ‘You know what would be a good economic development plan for our community would be if we make sure folks weren’t throwing their garbage out of their cars,’ ” Obama told a group of black state legislators in a speech in South Carolina last month.

Perhaps risky, on the other hand, it is probably easier for blacks to deal with this criticism coming from a fellow black, then coming from a white person: a white politician who would say something like this would most likely instantly be accused of being (a) “racist!”

When Americans first told me that African-American youths who perform well at school are often ‘accused’ of acting white by fellow blacks, I was greatly amazed: if blacks want to exchange the gettos of America’s biggest cities for good homes in the suburbs, they’d better teach their chidren that education has nothing to do with race; it is not about race, it is about having a bright future; it is not about being black or white, it is about improving one’s life.