Shuttle lands in South land.

Did you hear the sonic boom today? I did! It actually made our windows shake a little! Welcome home astronauts!


Space Shuttle Atlantis Lands Safely in California
Friday , June 22, 2007

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. —

Space shuttle Atlantis and its seven astronauts returned to Earth safely Friday, ending a two-week mission to deliver an addition to the international space station and bring a crew member home from the outpost.

Atlantis crossed the Pacific and glided to a stop at 12:49 p.m. on a runway at Edwards Air Force Base in California. NASA managers had hoped to land the shuttle in Florida, but bad weather forced them to abandon that plan.

"Welcome back," Mission Control told Atlantis. "Congratulations on a great mission." Controllers praised the crew for providing a "stepping stone to the rest of NASA's exploration plan."

Atlantis' return from NASA's first manned flight of the year was marked by its trademark twin sonic booms, which were heard from San Diego to Los Angeles. After deploying its parachute, the shuttle came to rest on the concrete runway under mostly sunny skies.

Astronaut Sunita "Suni" Williams returned to Earth on Atlantis after spending more than six months at the space station.

She set an endurance record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman at 195 days. During her stay, she also set the record for most time spacewalking by a woman.

She told reporters two days before landing that she looked forward to a slice of pizza and walking on the beach with her husband and dog, Gorby. But she was going to miss the space station.

"When you've been somewhere for six months, it becomes your home and it's hard to leave," Williams said.

Returning with Williams were Atlantis commander Rick Sturckow, pilot Lee Archambault and mission specialists Patrick Forrester, James Reilly, Steven Swanson and Danny Olivas.

Atlantis delivered a 35,000-pound addition to the space station and Clay Anderson, who replaced Williams as the U.S. representative at the station. He will live with cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and Oleg Kotov for the next four months.

The last time a shuttle landed at Edwards Air Force Base was in 2005, the first flight after the Columbia disaster in 2003. Atlantis' landing was the 51st time a shuttle has touched down in the Mojave Desert.

NASA prefers to land at Kennedy because it is easier and far cheaper to get Atlantis to its nearby hangar to be prepared for its next mission in December.

It will cost $1.7 million and take up to 10 days to return the shuttle to Florida from California by piggybacking atop a specially fitted Boeing 747 jumbo jet.

While at the space station, the astronauts installed a new truss segment, unfurled a new pair of power-generating solar arrays and activated a rotating joint that allows the new solar arrays to track the sun.

The shuttle originally had been scheduled to launch in mid-March, but a hail storm a few weeks beforehand forced NASA to scrub that date. The shuttle was moved back to its hangar so that technicians could make repairs to thousands of dings on its external fuel tank.

Atlantis lifted off on June 8. NASA hopes to have three more launches this year.

Two days were added to the 11-day mission so that Olivas could staple up a thermal blanket that had peeled back during launch. An extra spacewalk — the fourth of the mission — was added to get the task done.

The mission was extended to 14 days after weather prevented Atlantis from landing on Thursday.

Computers that control orientation and oxygen production on the Russian side of the space station crashed while Atlantis was at the outpost, forcing NASA officials to talk publicly about the remote possibility that the station would have to be abandoned because of the problem.

Engineers in Houston and Moscow worked around the clock to come up with a fix.

Atlantis' thrusters helped maintain the station's orientation until the computers resumed operating last weekend.

Some lights, computers and cameras were turned off Atlantis to extend the power supply in case an extra day was needed at the station to give engineers on the ground more time to figure out what went wrong.

The station's computers were restored when Yurchikhin and Kotov used a cable to bypass a circuit board. The shuttle wasn't cleared to undock from the station until the computers had passed a test to control thrusters on the station's Russian side.

The political incorrectness of being American.

Since when is being an American such a bad thing. Check out this article I found on Michelle Malkin's blog from Mary Katharine Ham


The Politically Incorrect Americanism of Alba, Pacino, and Arnold

Hablas Espanol?

Jessica Alba doesn’t. Is there anything wrong with that? Apparently so.

"Alba is my last name and I'm proud of that. But that's it. My grandparents were born in California, the same as my parents, and though I may be proud of my last name, I'm American. Throughout my whole life, I've never felt connected to one particular race or heritage, nor did I feel accepted by any. If you break it down, I'm less Latina than Cameron Diaz, whose father is Cuban. But people don't call her Latina because she's blonde…

My grandfather was the only Mexican at his college, the only Hispanic person at work and the only one at the all-white country club. He tried to forget his Mexican roots, because he never wanted his kids to be made to feel different in America. He and my grandmother didn't speak Spanish to their children. Now, as a third-generation American, I feel as if I have finally cut loose.

My whole life, when I was growing up, not one race has ever accepted me, ... So I never felt connected or attached to any race specifically. I had a very American upbringing, I feel American, and I don't speak Spanish. So, to say that I'm a Latin actress, OK, but it's not fitting; it would be insincere."


She never felt connected to any race, specifically, but she always felt American. That doesn’t sounds like a bad thing, does it? And yet, it is, in the eyes of many activists.

One blog post on the comments remarks, “Guess sell-outs come in all races and sizes.” Another calls it a “disturbing hoard of quotes.” Another claims she “hates Mexicans.”

Comments about Alba’s comments include, “F**K YOU THEN, JESSICA…VIVA LA RAZA!!!,” “She should just change her last name to White, then,” and “I thought she could be a good role model for Latinas, but she is a fake, tryin’ to be white.”

Alba wasn’t trying to make a political statement. Instead, she sounds like she was trying to avoid speaking for an entire ethnicity and many recent immigrants when she barely speaks Spanish, and identifies as an American first. But because she didn’t reflexively take upon herself her ethnic mantle and collective responsibility, she’s bashed as a traitor to her race.

Elsewhere, a phenomenally successful first-generation immigrant was sharing his secret to success in America, which was much the same as the approach Alba’s college-educated grandfather took. When addressing the national Association of Hispanic Journalists, and responding to question about how Hispanics can improve academically, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said:


"You've got to turn off the Spanish television set" and avoid Spanish-language television, books and newspapers, the Republican governor said Wednesday night…

"You're just forced to speak English, and that just makes you learn the language faster," Schwarzenegger said.

"I know this sounds odd and this is the politically incorrect thing to say, and I'm going to get myself in trouble," he said, noting that he rarely spoke German and was forced to learn English when he emigrated from Austria.


The response from those in attendance?


"I'm sitting shaking my head not believing that someone would be so naive and out of it that he would say something like that," said Alex Nogales, president and chief executive of the National Hispanic Media Coalition.

Naïve, out-of-it, hateful, traitorous. There is a large segment of the country that believes it’s somehow disrespectful to emphasize assimilation among new immigrants to the country.

And, it’s not just among leftist activists and left-coast gossip bloggers that this idea prevails. Just last year, Sen. Harry Reid called a proposal to make English the official language of America “racist,” despite the fact that a large majority of Americans support such a measure.

More recently, Barack Obama called the very discussion of English as an official language, “divisive” during a Democratic debate:


I have to say that this is the kind of question that is designed precisely to divide us. You know, you’re right: everybody is going to learn to speak English if they live in this country. The issue is not whether or not future generations of immigrants are going to learn English. The question is, how can we come up with both a legal and sensible immigration policy? And when we get distracted by those kinds of questions, I think we do a disservice to the American people.


But is everyone going to learn English, Sen. Obama? It seems that Schwarzenegger’s encouragement of English-language immersion for immigrants and Alba’s family’s decision to speak English only are put down in pretty harsh terms by folks on your own side of the aisle.

The movement to make English the official language of America is, in part, a response to the Left’s active discouragement of assimilation. Even the idea of the “melting pot” went out of style when I was in grade school, replaced in text books by the less offensive “mosaic.” You see, now we don’t do anything so gauche as melt into one, cohesive society. Instead, we are all obligated to hold onto our various ethnic and cultural identities and languages, building little barriers between communities, lest we be accused of “selling out” or trying to be too “white.”

There is certainly a way to assimilate without losing all touch with one’s culture. Being American does not mean being “white.” “American” is, by definition, many colors and characteristics. But the strength of America has always been in creating Americans of all colors and characteristics, not all colors and characters who happen to live in America.

The English language and cultural assimilation are unifying forces, economic passports, essential parts of preserving the American dream and all its blessings for everyone who comes to our shores.

When talking about comprehensive immigration reform, some have compared today’s illegal immigrants—the challenges and the prejudices they face—to legal immigration of Italians and Irishmen and others who came through Ellis Island just a few generations ago. But those same people conveniently overlook that anti-assimilation forces in America weren’t nearly so strong at that time.

Al Pacino is a second-generation American whose grandparents emigrated from Sicily, but despite living in his grandparents’ home, he speaks no Italian. Would anyone accuse that iconic Baby Boomer of being a traitor to his ethnicity? Well, he better watch out, if he keeps talking like this:

"Explain to me what Italian-American culture is. We've been here 100 years. Isn't Italian-American culture American culture? That's because we're so diverse, in terms of intermarriage. Most everybody who's Italian is half Italian. Except me. I'm all Italian. I'm mostly Sicilian, and I have a little bit of Neapolitan in me. You get your full dose with me.


Alba, Schwarzenegger and Pacino have got it right. Their concern is with becoming successful, individual Americans, not with specious collective responsibilities imparted to them by their skin colors, accents, or surnames. As a result, they have all done both America and their ancestors proud. They are all walking, talking, acting illustrations of the American dream in action.

When considering legalizing 12 million illegal immigrants, Congress should consider seriously the fact that the walking, talking American dream is now politically incorrect. That doesn’t bode well for its survival.

This is how you solve the immigration problem. period.

This is why I read Bill's books and watch his show. No non-sense. Check out his immigration plan. Our congress needs to read this and stop pussy-footing around the issue.

source
Fixing Immigration
By Bill O'Reilly for BillOReilly.com
Thursday, June 14, 2007

Here in the New York City area, where I am writing this, there could be as many as a million illegal aliens living in the region. Nobody really knows the exact number because the local authorities don't ask--they don't want to know.

What the authorities do know is that the city's economy would collapse if all the illegals were rounded up and taken away.

And, certainly, the powers-that-be in New York, in California, and everywhere else illegal labor is embedded don't want disruption. I mean, who's gonna drive the cabs and clean the dishes?

It is important to understand that mentality in deciding what to think about the illegal immigration mess. Business in America is solidly behind the chaos, and so are many politicians, although they'd never admit it. That's why nothing has been done to solve the illegal immigration problem for more than 20 years.

But many regular folks are angry about the immigration crisis. Neighborhoods are different, crimes are committed by foreign nationals who shouldn't be here, press one for English on your telephone, and so on. We are all impacted by this colossal mess, but divided as to how to deal with it.

The hard line anti-immigration people want the illegals out. They broke the law, they must go.

Many liberal Americans want compassion. The illegals are poor, let them stay.

And the great middle watches the ping-pong game of charges and counter-charges. The result: nothing is getting done.

So here is my no spin immigration plan which, I believe, is fair and would be acceptable to most Americans.

First, the southern border must be protected by at least 700 miles of barrier, backed up by a doubling of the Border Patrol. To assist those federal agents, ten thousand National Guardsmen would be stationed near the border.

That would effectively close the border to smugglers of humans and drugs. If you oppose that strategy, you do not want a secure border. Period.

Second, all illegal aliens currently in the USA must register with Homeland Security at their local post office. If they do not register, they would be subject to immediate deportation. After processing by the feds, the aliens would then receive a tamper-proof identification card, allowing them to temporarily work here.

Third, any business hiring aliens who do not have the government-issued ID would be criminally charged.

Fourth, all registered illegal aliens would be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. Those deemed by federal authorities to be self-sufficient, law-abiding people would receive the so called "Z-visas," giving them resident status, but not automatic citizenship. That would have to be earned over a number of years by complying with a set of obligations including paying fines, back taxes, learning English, and staying employed.

Any alien with a criminal record or who is unemployed would not be eligible for the Z-Visa.

That takes the blanket amnesty issue off the table and shifts responsibility to those who entered the USA illegally. They must prove they are responsible enough for citizenship.

Unfortunately, some on the left object to strenuous regulations for illegal aliens, but that point-of-view has no future. Most Americans, according the polls, will accept new compatriots provided the southern pipeline is shut down, and a fair penalty for illegal behavior is imposed.

My plan is just one page long, not 800 pages like the Senate madness. It can be done.

The 10 commandments of Driving.

This week the Vatican released a set of commandments for drivers. They want to help decrease the number of deaths caused by car accidents. Around the world 1.2 million people die in car accidents each year! That's a huge number that could easily be reduced if people started paying attention to the road. The vatican said the commandments are also needed because people use thier cars to show off and driving can reduce people to primitive behavior.
These are the commandements release from the vatican;

The "Drivers' Ten Commandments,"are:

1. You shall not kill.

2. The road shall be for you a means of communion between people and not of mortal harm.

3. Courtesy, uprightness and prudence will help you deal with unforeseen events.

4. Be charitable and help your neighbor in need, especially victims of accidents.

5. Cars shall not be for you an expression of power and domination, and an occasion of sin.

6. Charitably convince the young and not so young not to drive when they are not in a fitting condition to do so.

7. Support the families of accident victims.

8. Bring guilty motorists and their victims together, at the appropriate time, so that they can undergo the liberating experience of forgiveness.

9. On the road, protect the more vulnerable party.

10. Feel responsible toward others.

and let me add a few of my own here;

11. Get off your cell phone and drive.

12. A green light is not the start of a race, there is no need to speed off to the next red light. All your doing anyway by racing off the green light is costing your self more in gas and you'll also have to replace your brakes and tires more frequently.

13. Drive the freaking speed limit.

14. Do not tailgate.

15. Keep the hand signals to your self, try using your turn signal instead.

16. There is no excuse for drunk driving.

17. A stop sign means stop, and so does a red light.

18. Don't try and beat the train you idiot.

19. Don't stop traffic just becuase you want to see what that accident was all about. Enough rubber necking already.

20. You are not above the law. Don't fool yourself into thinking you only have to follow the law when the cops are around.


There are some real idiots on the road. They used to make me so frustrated, now I just laugh at them. I'm saving my gas because I don't feel the need to be the fastest off the green light, and I get to my destination just fine by driving the speed limit, and hey I don't have to be on a paraniod look out for cops because I don't give them a reason to pull me over. Why is it people feel they don't have to go the speed limit. What really makes me laugh is when I drive the speed limit in the fast lane (which isn't actually the fast lane - there's no such thing in Ca) and they get mad becuase they have to go around me... They actually think they are above the law and have some right to get mad because I'm not breaking the law too. I'll drive the speed limit in any lane I'd like thank you. Oh man and I got really mad at a lady this weekend.. I had to get out of the car pool lane so I could get off at my exit, So when the lane opened up I signaled, and there was a car just behind me that was going faster than I was so I was letting her pass but once she got next to me she slowed down and I couldn't get around her, and of course she's on her stupid cell phone not paying attention to anything except the person on the other line. So of course thanks to that idiot, I passed my exit and had to get off somewhere else and find my way back (thank God for my navigation system). People need to start paying attention. I mean you wouldn't cut someone off walking down a sidewalk, get right next to them and give them the bird becuase they weren't walking fast enough so why do that on the road. Have some respect people.

Anyways, the document that the vatican release is supposed to be talked about at some bishop gatherings and then hopefully at Mass too... Maybe they can help get the message out there that people need to start acting like people while on the road, not like animals fighting to make it to thier destination first.

And P.S. It really drives me crazy when you see a car zoom by weaving in and out of traffic and it has a "Jesus loves me" sticker on it. Oh the irony.


Read the full news story here

Its a big day in Nascar history....

Dale Jr is joing the Hendricks team! As anyone who knows anything about nascar knows, Jr and his step mom have been at odds about reaching a deal for Jr to remain on the DEI team and he announced a couple months back that he's in the market for a new team! Today he announced that he will be joining Jeff Gordon and Jimmy Johnson to race for Rick Hendrick! I'm super excited about this becuase I'm a Hendricks fan and I think Jr will be a great addition to the team!!!

Check out the story here

What is wrong with Georgia?!

About 4 years ago a 17 year old kid, Genarlow Wilson, was sentenced to 10 years in prision for having oral sex with his 15 year old girl friend. This whole situation is driving me crazy. Why was this kid ever put in jail in the first place?! He was only 2 years older than his Girlfriend, he wasn't 18 he was still a minor, the oral sex was consensual, he never forced anything and yet he is sentenced to 10 years in prision for child molestation! But get this, had he and his girlfriend actually had sex he would have been protected by the law and never would have had to do time. Does this make any sense to you because it sure doesn't make sense to me!

Shortly after his imprisionment a new law was passed that would have protected him from prosecution but the state won't allow the law to become retroactive to allow Wilson's release from prison. So basically this now 21 year old young man has been sitting in jail for 28 month for something that now listed as a misdemeanor!

Yesterday a judge ordered his release from prison siting that the punishment is to harsh for the crime and 90 minutes after the release was ordered the state's attorney general appealed the ruling. Attorney General Thurbert Baker doesn't feel that this 21 year old has served enough time, he wants Wilson to serve his entire 10 year sentence! What an ass. Read the story for more info....

Man Who Received Consensual Oral Sex as Teen Has July 5 Bond Hearing
Tuesday , June 12, 2007
Genarlow Wilson's joy was short-lived.

One minute, a judge ordered him released from prison, saying the young man's 10-year sentence for consensual sex between teens was a "grave miscarriage of justice." Ninety minutes later, Georgia's attorney general said Wilson wasn't going anywhere — the state had appealed.

On Tuesday, Wilson's attorney was fighting to at least get him released on bond during the appeal process. He is now 21 and has been behind bars for more than 28 months.

"Yesterday, they did not consent to a bond," attorney B.J. Bernstein said Tuesday in a cable news interview. "We are hopeful to hurry up and get in front of a judge — one, to get him out pending an appeal, but even more importantly, to get this madness over with."

Bernstein sought a hearing Tuesday in Douglas County court, where Wilson was convicted, even though the district attorney there opposes his release. Douglas County Superior Court Judge David Emerson set the bond hearing for July 5, another three weeks away.

Wilson became a symbol for extreme cases of getting tough on sex offenders when he was sentenced to the mandatory 10-year sentence for having consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old girl in 2003, when Wilson was 17.

If he had instead had sexual intercourse with the teen, he would have fallen under Georgia's "Romeo and Juliet" exception. But under the law in 2003, oral sex for teens still constituted aggravated child molestation and carried a mandatory sentence, plus listing on the sex offender registry.

Lawmakers last year voted to close that loophole, but the state's top court said the new law could not be applied retroactively to Wilson's case.

"As far as I'm concerned, this case is a throwback to Southern justice," said state Sen. Vincent Fort, an Atlanta Democrat and one of several prominent supporters who have rallied to Wilson's cause.

Opponents of Wilson's release said it could lead to similar legal challenges. Georgia prisons currently hold 189 inmates who were sentenced for aggravated child molestation when they were 21 or younger.

In his ruling Monday, Judge Thomas H. Wilson, no relation to Genarlow Wilson, amended that sentence to misdemeanor aggravated child molestation with a 12-month term, plus credit for time served. The habeas corpus hearing was held in his Monroe County court because Genarlow Wilson is imprisoned in Monroe County.

"The fact that Genarlow Wilson has spent two years in prison for what is now classified as a misdemeanor, and without assistance from this Court, will spend eight more years in prison, is a grave miscarriage of justice," the judge wrote. "If this court or any court cannot recognize the injustice of what has occurred here, then our court system has lost sight of the goal our judicial system has always strived to accomplish ... justice being served in a fair and equal manner."

In his notice of appeal, Attorney General Thurbert Baker argued that Georgia law does not give a judge authority to reduce or modify the sentence imposed by the trial court.

He said he would seek an expedited ruling from the Georgia Supreme Court. And he noted that a plea deal is on the table that would spring Wilson in a maximum of five years and also remove him from the sex offender registry.

That isn't good enough, Bernstein says.

"It is really ridiculous when you consider that we had a judge that just said it is a misdemeanor that carries no sex offender registration," she said. "It is extremely, extremely disturbing that the attorney general would take this action now."

A jury in 2005 found Wilson guilty of aggravated child molestation for having oral sex with a 15-year-old girl during a 2003 New Year's Eve party involving alcohol and marijuana. Although the sex act was consensual, it was illegal under Georgia law.

Wilson also was charged with rape for being one of several male partygoers at the Douglas County hotel to have sex with another 17-year-old girl, but was acquitted. The party was captured on a videotape that was played for the jury. Five other male partygoers took plea deals in the case. One has been released from prison and is now in college.

"I think he's certainly going to be changed," Bernstein said of her client Tuesday. "But fortunately, Genarlow has been taking this time in prison and reading like crazy.

"He wants to speak out to young people about realizing that when you party and carry on, you've got consequences sometimes grater than you realize. I think because of his extraordinary personality, he'll be OK, but I don't want this to happen to any other kid. It's crazy."

A real life pirate story.....

...I'm sure they've got nothing on Captian Jack Sparrow....


U.S. Warship Fires Warning Shots Over Vessel Boarded by Pirates Off Somali Coast
Tuesday , June 05, 2007

The U.S. Navy has fired warning shots across the bow of a Dutch ship that has been boarded by armed pirates off the coast of Somalia, FOX News has learned.

The USS Carter Hall also fired on three small boats that surrounded the commercial ship, the "Danica White," after her crew messaged for assistance after being boarded by pirates, the Navy said.

The incident began Saturday and as of Monday the Dutch ship's crew was still believed to be held at gunpoint by an unknown number of pirates who forced the vessel into Somalia's territorial waters. There have been no reports of casualties.

The USS Carter Hall remains nearby in international waters, monitoring the situation. The Dutch ship, which the Associated Press reported was owned by H. Folmer & Co. of Copenhagen, has not requested further assistance.

On Saturday, Jorgen Folmer, a spokesman for the Danish shipping company, said a French naval vessel in the area had confirmed the ship and its crew of five was hijacked but was unable to intervene because it could not enter Somali waters.

A maritime official said Monday that Somali pirates who have been holding a Taiwan-flagged fishing vessel since mid-May killed one of the 16 crew members because the ship's owners have not paid a ransom.

The pirates threatened to kill other crew members if their demands are not met, said Andrew Mwangura, head of the Kenyan chapter of the Seafarers Assistance Program.

He cited a relative of one of the captives, who was allowed to call his family.

"The gunmen have established contact with the owner of the ship but it appears that he was giving them empty promises," Mwangura said.

The ship — Ching Fong Hwa 168 — had two Taiwanese and 12 Chinese crew members on board when it was hijacked 137 miles northeast of the Somali capital, Mogadishu. Mwangura did not know the nationality of the victim.

Somalia does not have a coast guard or navy after more than a decade of anarchy. The current government was formed in 2004 but has struggled to assert any real control throughout the country.

Somali pirates are trained fighters, often dressed in military fatigues, using speedboats equipped with satellite phones and Global Positioning System equipment. They are typically armed with automatic weapons, anti-tank rocket launchers and various types of grenades, according to the U.N. Monitoring Group on Somalia.

Although piracy is rampant off Somalia's lawless coast, killing crew members is relatively rare, Mwangura said. He said pirates have killed four crew members in the past 10 years.

"Normally they don't kill crew members if they cooperate," he said.

Since February, pirates have hijacked 10 ships — five have been released and five are still being held, according to the Seafarers Assistance Program.

FOX News' Nick Simeone and Jennifer Griffin, FOXNews.com's Sara Bonisteel and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
source

Killing in the Name of Religion.

We've all heard the claims that more people are killed in the name of religion than from any other froce or cause, and with the current conflict in the middle east it's all too easy to believe. But looking at history we find that in fact more people have been killed in the name of athiesm than in the name of any religion. Why then do we always hear that religion kills so many? The far left in this country want to do away with religion because religion interfears with their secular progressive agenda so they use propaganda like this to try and convince people that religion is bad.... If you want to know more about Secular Progresivism left me know and I'll start working on another blog... But in the mean time Check out this article from New York Times best selling author, Dinesh D'Souza, Atheism, not religion, is the real force behind the mass murders of history


Atheism, not religion, is the real force behind the mass murders of history.

By Dinesh D'Souza
RANCHO SANTA FE, CALIF.

In recent months, a spate of atheist books have argued that religion represents, as "End of Faith" author Sam Harris puts it, "the most potent source of human conflict, past and present."

Columnist Robert Kuttner gives the familiar litany. "The Crusades slaughtered millions in the name of Jesus. The Inquisition brought the torture and murder of millions more. After Martin Luther, Christians did bloody battle with other Christians for another three centuries."

In his bestseller "The God Delusion," Richard Dawkins contends that most of the world's recent conflicts - in the Middle East, in the Balkans, in Northern Ireland, in Kashmir, and in Sri Lanka - show the vitality of religion's murderous impulse.

The problem with this critique is that it exaggerates the crimes attributed to religion, while ignoring the greater crimes of secular fanaticism. The best example of religious persecution in America is the Salem witch trials. How many people were killed in those trials? Thousands? Hundreds? Actually, fewer than 25. Yet the event still haunts the liberal imagination.

It is strange to witness the passion with which some secular figures rail against the misdeeds of the Crusaders and Inquisitors more than 500 years ago. The number sentenced to death by the Spanish Inquisition appears to be about 10,000. Some historians contend that an additional 100,000 died in jail due to malnutrition or illness.

These figures are tragic, and of course population levels were much lower at the time. But even so, they are minuscule compared with the death tolls produced by the atheist despotisms of the 20th century. In the name of creating their version of a religion-free utopia, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Mao Zedong produced the kind of mass slaughter that no Inquisitor could possibly match. Collectively these atheist tyrants murdered more than 100 million people.

Moreover, many of the conflicts that are counted as "religious wars" were not fought over religion. They were mainly fought over rival claims to territory and power. Can the wars between England and France be called religious wars because the English were Protestants and the French were Catholics? Hardly.

The same is true today. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not, at its core, a religious one. It arises out of a dispute over self-determination and land. Hamas and the extreme orthodox parties in Israel may advance theological claims - "God gave us this land" and so forth - but the conflict would remain essentially the same even without these religious motives. Ethnic rivalry, not religion, is the source of the tension in Northern Ireland and the Balkans.

Blindly blaming religion for conflict
Yet today's atheists insist on making religion the culprit. Consider Mr. Harris's analysis of the conflict in Sri Lanka. "While the motivations of the Tamil Tigers are not explicitly religious," he informs us, "they are Hindus who undoubtedly believe many improbable things about the nature of life and death." In other words, while the Tigers see themselves as combatants in a secular political struggle, Harris detects a religious motive because these people happen to be Hindu and surely there must be some underlying religious craziness that explains their fanaticism.

Harris can go on forever in this vein. Seeking to exonerate secularism and atheism from the horrors perpetrated in their name, he argues that Stalinism and Maoism were in reality "little more than a political religion." As for Nazism, "while the hatred of Jews in Germany expressed itself in a predominantly secular way, it was a direct inheritance from medieval Christianity." Indeed, "The holocaust marked the culmination of ... two thousand years of Christian fulminating against the Jews."

One finds the same inanities in Mr. Dawkins's work. Don't be fooled by this rhetorical legerdemain. Dawkins and Harris cannot explain why, if Nazism was directly descended from medieval Christianity, medieval Christianity did not produce a Hitler. How can a self-proclaimed atheist ideology, advanced by Hitler as a repudiation of Christianity, be a "culmination" of 2,000 years of Christianity? Dawkins and Harris are employing a transparent sleight of hand that holds Christianity responsible for the crimes committed in its name, while exonerating secularism and atheism for the greater crimes committed in their name.

Religious fanatics have done things that are impossible to defend, and some of them, mostly in the Muslim world, are still performing horrors in the name of their creed. But if religion sometimes disposes people to self-righteousness and absolutism, it also provides a moral code that condemns the slaughter of innocents. In particular, the moral teachings of Jesus provide no support for - indeed they stand as a stern rebuke to - the historical injustices perpetrated in the name of Christianity.

Atheist hubris
The crimes of atheism have generally been perpetrated through a hubristic ideology that sees man, not God, as the creator of values. Using the latest techniques of science and technology, man seeks to displace God and create a secular utopia here on earth. Of course if some people - the Jews, the landowners, the unfit, or the handicapped - have to be eliminated in order to achieve this utopia, this is a price the atheist tyrants and their apologists have shown themselves quite willing to pay. Thus they confirm the truth of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's dictum, "If God is not, everything is permitted."

Whatever the motives for atheist bloodthirstiness, the indisputable fact is that all the religions of the world put together have in 2,000 years not managed to kill as many people as have been killed in the name of atheism in the past few decades.

It's time to abandon the mindlessly repeated mantra that religious belief has been the greatest source of human conflict and violence. Atheism, not religion, is the real force behind the mass murders of history.

• Dinesh D'Souza is the Rishwain Fellow at the Hoover Institution. Check out hinew book, "The Enemy at Home: The Cultural Left and Its Responsibility for 9/11."