Isaac Schrödinger

Incompetent Technician

I hate it when that happens.

The Meaning of Peace

The largest Muslim nation on Earth embraces intolerance at the state level:

The Indonesian government has halted all religious activities of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community, handing a victory to Islamic extremists and tarnishing Indonesia's reputation as a moderate, pluralistic Muslim nation.

The decree, approved June 10 by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, falls short of an outright ban on Ahmadis, but orders them to stop practicing their faith and "return to mainstream Islam." Ahmadis now face arrest for practicing their beliefs.

Ahmadis have been openly discriminated against in Pakistan. For instance, one has to officially state that they don't prescribe to Ahmadi beliefs on passport and national ID applications. Otherwise, one gets marked for discrimination.

Now, in Indonesia it's open season on Ahmadis -- a tiny group numbering 200,000 in a nation with over 200 million people.

Muslim countries truly excel at thuggery.

Link via IBA.

Certain Death

The Scotsman via Dhimmi Watch:

A PAKISTANI family who sought asylum in Scotland because they received death threats over their religious beliefs are hoping that a last-minute appeal will stop their deportation tomorrow.

The head of the family lost his asylum case. As a result

his five-year-old daughter, Miriam, was taken from her P1 class at school, and his wife, Gull, and other two children, Abishir, two, and Nadab, three, were all put in confinement awaiting deportation on Tuesday.

A Stranger Passing By

Izzy Mo:

300 was awful. I just had to say that. The film 300 was terrible. I couldn’t get through 30 minutes without pointing out the historical and cultural inaccuracies. I just couldn’t do it.

Poor soul.

Why are all the bad guys non Caucasian? So the all white, oops I mean, Spartan army is good but the multi-culti Persian army of Indians, Africans, Arabs and Persians is bad?

Yeah, it would have been certainly historical to have a multi-racial Spartan army.

This asinine critique always amuses me. Reverse the situation. Imagine a movie about the Germans losses in North Africa and a reviewer who complains that the movie made the white guys look bad and that the multi-culti army of Brits, South Africans, Indians and Australians were made to look good.

As though it would have been prudent or historically accurate to add a little color to the Wehrmacht. You know, just so that whites don't feel bad.

Married to Darth Vader

Weasal Zippers: Confirmed: Ahmadinejad's Wife is a Babe!.....

In the comments: She's pretty tall for a nine-year-old.

Ouch!

First link via Instapundit.

What It Takes to Insult Muslims

Reason #72359423 why Islamic teachings are idiotic.

It's a devil! Hey, Muhammad said so and he's never! wrong.

The Definition of Courage

Koonj:

As my brother in Pakistan tells me, Pakistanis are talking about Pakistani Harvard student Samad Khurram, who declined to receive an award at Roots Academy from U.S. Ambassador Anne Patterson in protest of US policies and actions, such as the bombing in Mohmand Agency.

This Pakistani student, who is living in one of the richest places in the world (in America) and attending the most prestigious university of them all (also in America), protests American foreign policy by refusing to accept an award from his Pakistani high school.

The fellow sure has principles.

I believe, however, that gestures such as these may vent some of the great frustration that the less powerful in the world feel toward US imperialistic policies. Such gestures enable them to hold their heads up high again for a bit, and, - well, - keep the peace a bit longer.

Peace has never been kept by dim, idealistic and gutless students.

To Be a Hero

A review of The Dark Knight:

It isn't an overstatement to call The Dark Knight the most sophisticated and ambitious work of its kind. Superior to all three Spider-Man installments and even its amazing predecessor in terms of conceptualization, writing, acting, and direction, Nolan's follow-up to Batman Begins is a dark, complex and disturbing film, not the least of which because it grafts its heroics onto the blueprint of actual reality rather than that of spandex-clad supermen. And while such a distinction may make little difference to those already eagerly anticipating the return of the caped crusader, suffice it to say that The Dark Knight qualifies as the first official comic book adaptation that truly succeeds in being a great artistic achievement in its own right.

That's just the first paragraph.

I'm planning to watch it on IMAX.

Mesmerized by the Mirror

You have to admit; it is pretty.

What Can't the Neocons Do?

They is everywhere I tell you!

Glorious Light

Rick Lee: Horse Farm.

Read the comments there for good advice about the time of day.

Respect the Sign

Otherwise, it'll beat you up.

We Are The Sinners

Bruce Bawer: The Times, It Ain’t a-Changin’.

Routinely, news organizations suppress, downplay, or misrepresent developments that reflect badly on Islam; they go out of their way to find stories that reflect (or that can be spun in such a way as to reflect) positively on it; and they publish professors and intellectuals and “experts” like Feldman, who share the media’s determination to obscure the central role of jihadist ideology in the current clash between Islam and Western democracy and to point the finger instead (as Feldman does) at European racism.

This is a particular Western disease that I don't fully understand. It's easy to see why vast majorities in Muslim nations blame the Jews and the West for their failures because they don't want to even remotely equate Islam with disaster. But why do so many Westerners blame themselves for being the innocent recipients of copious amounts of halaal loathing?

No (Fashion) Sense

Yikes!

Drowning in Cash

Gateway Pundit posts about the benefits of oil revenue.

The second sentence of the first comment cracked me up.

Phantom Powers

Pejman Yousefzadeh writes about those nasty speculators.

Hilter Off the Hook

Michael C. Moynihan: Pat Buchanan Prevents the Holocaust.

Churchill was such a doofus for provoking Hilter.

Link via Daimnation.

Damian Penny has a one-sentence summation at the end here.

Nehalem News

Digitimes via Hardocp:

Intel plans to launch three Nehalem-based quad-core processors (Bloomfield) at the end of the fourth quarter this year targeting the company's new LGA1366 socket, according to sources at motherboard makers.

These will likely be the expensive models. The mainstream and budget versions won't make it to market till early 2009.

Jihadists in Canada

Christie Blatchford:

Mr. Heft appears to be, for lack of a better term, one of the good guys. He tried to counsel some of the accused, including the hysterical leader, and steer them away from extremism, at least on Canadian soil.

According to the CBC interview transcript, the leader once talked to him about the “martyrdom operation of Sept. 11,” so Mr. Heft said, “I was telling him that it hasn't even been proven that Sept. 11 was actually done by 19 hijackers. That was just the alleged story of the U.S. government. All I tried to explain to him is that whoever did it was wrong … And then I started to just talk to him about how we haven't even proven that the people who had actually did it were Muslims.”

Yes, that's the main difference between a bad Muslim and a good one: the bad fellow praises the 9/11 attacks, the "better" one thinks that Muslims didn't even carry out the evil deed.

Gentle Fascists

Instapundit:

When the stormtroopers wear clown shoes instead of jackboots, it's easy to forget that they're still stormtroopers.

It's sad and funny at the same time.

SILENCE!

A poor victim of premature detonation.

Bears Do What!?

Just wrong.

Those Tender Feelings

Indigo Jo Blogs:

The BBC have reported that a sister named Bushra Noah, who was refused a job as a hair stylist because the potential employer regarded her headscarf as being incompatible with the funky image of her salon and thought a hair stylist should have her own hair on display, has won £4,000 compensation. The compensation was for hurt feelings produced by a 15-minute interview

From now on, I'm sure, employers will have a greater incentive to hire headscraf-clad women.

The salon owner said she could not understand why someone who was against the display of hair would be in the hair industry, which strikes me as odd, because Muslims are not against the display of hair per se - just its public display.

Yeah, that would have satisfied the salon owner. "But my hair is so spectacularly beautiful ... in private."

A Depressing Collage

Observe. Link via Muslimah Media Watch.

I Didn't Know They Were Edible

But I'm convinced.

Blogging Overload

Hunh. I usually just write "< p >". It's neater than using line breaks.

The Land of the Pure

Tambi Dude emailed these two links.

1. 23 students suspended:

The Punjab Medical College (PMC), Faisalabad, through a notification issued on June 6, rusticated twenty-three medical students belonging to the Ahmadi sect for distributing hate material in the college. The rustication was reported in various sections of newspapers on Friday, but a formal notice was issued later that day.

PMC Principal Asghar Ali Randhawa told Daily Times that he had rusticated the students on the report of the disciplinary committee. He said that he had formed another committee to probe into the issue, and would accommodate the Ahmadi students if the committee found them innocent.

They weren't found guilty of anything. They were told to stay away because:

Asked if the rustication was a clear message to Ahmadi students were no longer welcome in the college, he said that the students had been suspended, and the word rustication had been used to cool down the students who did not want Ahmadis in the college.

Imagine the global outrage if Muslim students at a college in the US were suspended because most of the student body didn't want to be around Muslims.

2. Pakistani cops go after dangerous criminals:

Police in Khushab district have registered a case against five Ahmadis, including two pre-teens, for subscribing to the Jamaat-e-Ahmadiya’s monthly children’s magazine Tasheezul Azhan, Daily Times has learnt.

According to the first information report, the complainant, an officer of the Intelligence Bureau, submitted to the Khushab district police officer (DPO) that the magazine is “banned literature” and contains “hate material”. A brief study of the 50-page magazine showed no obvious “hate material” against any group, and the articles were restricted to discussions about Ahmadi beliefs.

Isn't that rich? A nation-state that explicitly discriminates against Ahmadis is charging Ahmadis for supposedly distributing "hate material". Perhaps the Pakistani authorities can direct their attention at the hundreds of madrassas across the country which poison young minds with hatred for the Jews and infidels in general.

Or they can continue to go after a tiny, peaceful minority.

Mini --

I didn't say it!

A Topic of Importance

The first dress ain't bad. The second, however, is quite hideous.

All The World Needs is a Little Honey

Holy pooh! It's spectacular self-parody.

Human Rights!

The Telegraph:

The UN Human Rights Council said the UK must "consider holding a referendum on the desirability or otherwise of a written constitution, preferably republican".

Um, yeah:

The council has 29 members including Saudi Arabia, Cuba and Sri Lanka.

Link via Daimnation:

the UN Human Rights Council includes the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, against whom I'm sure a similar resolution will be directed any day now.

Some monarchies are more equal than others.

Saving the Master

KETV via The Corner:

A Labrador retriever lived up to its name Friday when he plucked his 12-year-old owner out of the Platte River, near North Bend.

What an incredible creature.

Jake got a very big bone for efforts and was forgiven for every hole he dug and all the mud he tracked into the house, the Baileys said.

He should be forgiven for all the mud he'll bring in the future.

I Confess: I'm an Idiot

Larvatus Prodeo:

What it shows is that the majority of people don’t understand why cutting the petrol tax is a stupid idea.

Link via Tim Blair who comments:

They want – let’s get this straight – cheaper fuel? Why, Australians must be idiots.

Woofstock!

Four classic captures.

Light, Camera, Action

The Fire Ant Gazette:

my finger was on the shutter button at the right time

Indeed.

The King of Fruits is Pricey

Uber Desi writes about the high cost of bringing Indian mangoes to the American market. A mango from Mexico is around $1. That's how much they cost at my local grocery store.

The ones from India can be close to $3 each.

Link via Desi Pundit.

Hallowed Logic

Muslim Matters: What About Thy Hallowed Freedom of Speech?

Before I get too far and people wrongfully accuse me, I wish to be clear that I am indeed very much in favor of free speech and very thankful that I do not have to be afraid of what I say in this country. This though does not detract from what many people feel is an abuse of this great privilege of ours in America and elsewhere.

[Emphasis mine.]

Later on:

there were those in the non-Muslim world who defiantly proclaimed their right to depict the Prophet in any way they wished – insulting or not – as guaranteed by the freedom of speech. Again, to be fair though, a large number of other non-Muslim Westerners disagreed with this position as voiced to me by one airplane seat-mate of mine who was visiting the US from Denmark. She reported to me that on the contrary, a number of surveys in her country had shown a majority of Danes were unhappy with their government’s position and felt there was very much a difference between freedom of speech and respecting someone else’s feelings.

You are free to say or publish whatever you want as long as it doesn't hurt her feelings. How generous.

I was thus quite surprised two months ago to read about how a number of outraged Catholics in Austria succeeded in having a sacrilegious painting of the Last Supper removed from Vienna’s Roman Catholic St. Stephan’s Cathedral museum.

Why was that surprising?

Instead of invoking the almighty right of freedom of speech though, something amazing happened - the museum respectfully took down the painting at its Cardinal’s request just over a week after the ‘Religion, Flesh and Power’ exhibition had opened.

The concept of freedom of speech (and thus freedom from punishment) applies to the state -- not the Roman Catholic St. Stephan's Cathedral museum. Had the Austrian government stepped in and removed the paintings or jailed the artist, then the author would have had a point. This silly artist can continue to show his/her work elsewhere in the country and you won't see Christians all across the globe calling for his/her head and murdering over a 100 people in the process.

You know, just a small difference.

although it appears to me to be a double standard, I am very pleased to see that freedom of speech was not abused to keep such a piece of trash masquerading as art in the Cathedral museum. I also hope this will lead to further discussion and reflection in the Western world regarding a delineation between freedom of speech and “reverence for the sacred” so that we may truly become a global civilization that respects all of its members.

Awww, isn't that cute. I would have called for a big group hug but then I remembered that Muslims don't like to come in contact with, by nature dirty, infidels. So, out of "respect", I'll refrain.

What "No Compulsion" Means

Compass Direct News brings this story from Jordan:

The North Amman Sharia Court in April dissolved the marriage of Mohammad Abbad, on trial for apostasy, or leaving Islam.

Obviously, this Islamic court is misinterpreting the tolerant nature of Islam.

Abbad and his 10-year-old son were violently attacked in their home on March 23, when relatives of another convert, staying with Abbad, stormed the house. Abbad suffered injuries to his head and chest and bleeding in his right eye, according to medical reports from Jordan University Hospital.

Note this greater cruelty:

When Abbad went to the police station the same day to file a complaint he found his father there, demanding custody of Abbad’s son and 11-year-old daughter.

Abbad's father wants to take Abbad's own children away from him. This is the life of an honest apostate in an Islamic nation: the state and your own peaceful, Muslim family turn against you.

Testifying before Khreisat the next day (March 24), Abbad refused to convert back to Islam. According to court records, Khreisat ordered Abbad to be jailed in Amman’s Jweideh Prison for one week for “contempt of court.”

Due to his injuries Abbad fainted while on his way to the jail, prompting police to send him to a hospital where he spent the night handcuffed to his bed.

Can't have such a dangerous "criminal" escape.

The exact number of Muslim converts to Christianity in Jordan is unknown. Many choose to maintain a low profile in order to avoid harassment.

That's putting it mildly.

Link via Dhimmi Watch.

He Doesn't Like You

The lack of eye contact makes it very spooky.

That's Mean

Plus, who buys that on ebay!?