Another Man of the Year

The readers of Beliefnet.com have voted the late Liviu Librescu the most inspiring person of the year:

This year Beliefnet’s Most Inspiring Person Award goes to Dr. Liviu Librescu. This Romanian-born, Israeli-American scientist and educator was an engineering professor at Virginia Tech, before a gunman, student Seung-Hui Cho, killed him–and 31 others–during a shooting spree at the school last April. A Holocaust survivor, Librescu had barricaded the door of his classroom with his body and told his students to jump out of windows when he saw Cho was trying to make his way in. Because of his actions, all but one of his students survived the attack. Beliefnet readers overwhelmingly voted for Librescu, amazed by his heroic actions that fateful day.

In an interview with Beliefnet, Librescu’s widow, Marilena said, “I was not surprised. I know Liviu very well, and I understand his last decisions. He cannot jump first and leave the young students there in the classroom.” According to Marilena, many of the students Librescu saved emailed her to let them know of his actions that day, writing, “We did not lose only a teacher, a mentor, but also our second father.”

One of Librescu’s students, Andrey Andreyev, tried to get him to flee with the rest of the class, but the 76-year-old professor refused. As Andreyev made his way out of the window, he turned and saw Librescu still blocking the door.

In a recent interview with Beliefnet, Andreyev, 20, says he plans to follow in his research advisor’s footsteps by becoming a professor himself. “What he did was an unbelievable thing,” said Andreyev. “But, what he did, to me, has always been just a final proof of what he was like as a person. He would always do anything for his students.”

Behold Our God-like Powers!

All right, I admit it: I’m a sucker for nutcases. I’ve long been fascinated by the weird, bizarre, and downright loony things of which people convince themselves: that men didn’t land on the moon, that the government brought down the Twin Towers, that the Mafia killed John Kennedy, that “Church of Scientology” is not an oxymoron. This one, from the Middle East Media Research Institute, is a classic:

Interviewer [from Hamas' Al Aqsa TV]: Some geologists and environmental scientists say that the earthquakes that recently struck Jerusalem and the Dead Sea are artificial earthquakes, caused by the occupation forces, in an effort to destroy the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque. Is there any evidence of this?

Ahmad Abu Halabiya [Hamas member of Palestinian Authority Parliament]: The truth is that some of these earthquakes may be artificial, while others are natural. What is dangerous is the excavations underneath Al-Aqsa Mosque and the network of tunnels that was built. These have begun to threaten the foundations of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Therefore, any earthquake – whether natural of artificial – measuring more than 5.5 or 6 on the Richter Scale will definitely have an impact, unless Allah decrees otherwise. This will have an impact on the foundations of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. This is where the danger lies, whether the earthquake is artificial or natural. In any case, it is not impossible for the Jews to generate an artificial earthquake one way or another, in order to accomplish their goal of destroying the foundations of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, as a step towards the construction of their false temple, God forbid. [Emphasis added.]

Those Jews! You never know what they’ll think of next!

(Via LGF.)

Man of the Year

Time magazine’s Man (Woman, Person, Machine, Planet, Baked Good, Whatever) of the Year award has lost a lot of luster in recent years as it has descended into silliness (do you recall that last year YOU were the Person of the Year, because, as we all know it’s all about YOU!). This year, Time has an opportunity to bring seriousness back to the designation by making General David Petraeus its Man of the Year. Consider this a formal nomination.

The thing about Petraeus is not just that he was the commander in charge of the “surge” in Iraq. The fact is that sending an additional 30,000 American troops to Iraq would have been pointless unless they were used in the right way, at the right places, at the right times. Previous commanders had had at least as many troops as Petraeus now has, and were unable to do what was necessary to reduce the violence. Petraeus, on the other hand, has demonstrated an understanding of the enormous military/political complexities of the conflict, and used the forces under his command to bring about a situation where victory–defined as bringing order and safety to the streets and creating the necessary security conditions for political stability and progress to be made–is now within our grasp. The general has also shown great grace under fire from the surrender-mongering far left, and acquitted himself well in his appearance before Congress back in September.

At this point, even the New York Times has been forced to admit that significant progress has been made in Iraq, and that progress has been largely due to the visionary leadership of the commander of American forces there. For that service to America, and to the Iraqi people, David Petraeus ought to be Time’s Man of the Year. We’ll find out on Monday if the editors have the acumen to make the right choice.