Isaac Schrödinger

West Not 100% Angelic

Kashmiri Nomad:

The common perception amongst a quite few in the western non-Muslim world is that when a Muslim is not trying to murder all the infidels in the world he spends the rest of his time beating seven bells out of his wife.

It's true!

The point of this post is not deny that some Muslims do indeed beat their wives it is however to expose the hypocrisy of those who wish to point the finger of accusation from a position of racial and moral superiority at Muslims while at the same time forgetting the position of spousal abuse in their own societies. A case of the pot calling the kettle black.

The point is asinine.

The core difference between the West and the Islamic world isn't that women aren't abused in the West but that the modern Western state upholds their individual rights. Ergo, if a man is found guilty of abusing a woman, he is punished.

Some husbands do beat their wives in the West, though their vileness isn't sanctioned by the majority religion. Some men do rape women in the West, though local councils don't order that they be raped. And, oddly enough, some women in the West die in a fire, though the police don't push them into it.

Nomad elaborates further in the comments there:

What I am saying is that you do not [have] countries like Egypt or Bangladesh lecturing the world on how to be civlised while their own citizen's are knocking their women black and blue.

We have never had, and we never will have, perfect nations. The conclusion is simple: All you Westerners, just shut up.

By the way, the Nomad comes up with the cutest post titles.

Valid Bias?

Ummah Pulse:

74% of Muslims in Britain are Asian and a report by the Metropolitan Police Authority in London titled Counter Terrorism: The London Debate reveals that a disproportionate number of Asian men are stopped and searched, particularly on London's underground.

As a percentage of London's total population, Asians constitute 12% and Muslims, of all nationalities, constitute 8.5%. If there was no bias against Asians then we would see only around 12% of those being stopped being Asian but instead the figures are between 16% and 21%.

Two questions:

1. Is this shocking?
2. Should people be stopped and checked randomly?

Religion of Peace Strikes Again

And remember, they respect women.

Muslim Libertarians Still Missing

Mahmud: Limits of Satire.

The author deals with the firing of a cartoonist over a piece that ran in a Bangladeshi newspaper. He correctly points out, "It's not about Islam or Mohammed." I made a similar point a few days ago:

Muhammad and Islam are outside the bounds of criticism and satire -- even when they are not the intended target of such sport.

Back to Mahmud:

Is the belief of the faithful so weak that this cartoon poking fun at a kind of murkho believer can shake it? If so, the faithful should be advised to not read satirical magazines. Or newspapers. They are bound to find many things there that might disturb their faith.

Reality disturbs their faith. Period.

No Burqa, No Doctor.

Manchester Evening News via Dhimmi Watch:

A MUSLIM dentist has admitted reducing his fees to encourage female patients to wear the Islamic headscarf.

Dr Omer Butt, from Prestwich, told a disciplinary hearing he would ask Muslim women to cover up in observance of Islamic law before he treated them.

What harm is a little bribe?

But he denied refusing to treat a nurse because she would not follow his rules.

The nurse, known as Patient A, told the hearing she was left `humiliated and upset' when she went to Dr Butt's Unsworth Smile clinic in Bury, in April 2005.

The nurse, a non-practising Muslim, claimed Dr Butt said she would have to find another dentist because she wouldn't wear a headscarf.

Every dentist is going to have some kind of dress code. A woman can't show up naked and expect to be treated. So, it's revealing to see what proper clothing means to this doctor. Apparently, the hair on a woman's head is, somehow, indecent. This is only the tip of the iceberg, for fanatical men like him think that a woman is purely and only a sexual object in need of a 100% covering.

Infidels can argue about proper attire for men and women but who really thinks that the mere showcasing of hair is beyond the pale?

Proof of Jews Controlling the US Government!

Israel National News via Michelle Malkin:

A U.S. State Department-funded University of California program which provides business training for residents of the Middle East specifically excluded Israeli Jews - until Jewish journalists protested.

By discriminating against Jews ... um ... the Jew-dominated US wants us to think that they don't favor the Jews. When, in fact, they really do.

Those trixy Jews!

It Feels Good

Clayton Cramer writes about the "Two Americas":

All this faux populism by billionaires seems to fool some people, but it sure isn't fooling me.

Read it all.

Oxymoron of the Month

Austrolabe: Where are the Muslim libertarians?

They're hanging out with the cuddly Jihadists.

Sick.

Is it just me or does the jovial attitude in this post and in the comments not jive with the subject matter?

I doubt the same atmosphere would exist if the sexes were changed.

Please, Don't Insult Genocidal Tyrants

Amad:

Let me start off by saying that I am no fan of Ahmedinejad… in fact, I don’t particularly like him at all. But I support his right to speak to Americans… the last thing we want is to engage another country in war.

There are things worse than war.

So, when Columbia decided to host the Iranian President for a speech, I was proud of our academic institutions standing up in the face of the Israel Lobby and its supporters, to allow Americans the opportunity to hear directly from the person they have come to hate so much. It wasn’t surprising then that mostly Jewish students and groups lined up to protest against his arrival (this is a fact, not an opinion). The pressure mounted on Columbia’s President to disbar Ahmedinejad from speaking… apparently freedom of speech only applies to rants against Muslims and Islam.

It gets worse. I will deal with it later tonight.

Classical Liberal comments below: "As for Freedom of Speech, that refers to a restraint against government restraining speech. It has nothing to do with inviting people to speak someplace, or uninviting them, or telling the truth about a speaker as you introduce him."

Exactly. It's interesting that the author isn't satisfied with a mere invitation for a thug whose regime hangs gays, stones uppity women and finances terrorists. He wants the Americans to be polite towards this monster!

It was better, much better, that Columbia would have canceled the event than to show the world that the “American Hubris” is not just limited to our government, especially the Bush click.

Of course. Either be nice to immoral men or don't invite them at all. How arrogant of us to criticize evil! (Forget about actually fighting it in any way.)

Shameful is one word I would describe this situation with.

Indeed, this situation is shameful.

Read the comments there as well where practically everyone vomits out the same disgusting rhetoric.

Messages for Useful Infidels

Raymond Ibrahim: The Two Faces of Al Qaeda.

Soon after relocating to Washington in order to attend Georgetown, I landed an internship, which later evolved into a full-time position, at the Near East Section of the African and Middle Eastern Division of the Library of Congress, where thousands of new books, serials, and microfilms arrive yearly from the Arab world.

Numerous Arabic books dealing with Al Qaeda passed through my hands in this privileged position. A good number contained not only excerpts or quotes by Al Qaeda but entire treatises written by its members. Surprisingly, I came to discover that most of these had never been translated into English. Most significantly, however, the documents struck me as markedly different from the messages directed to the West, in both tone and (especially) content.

Why would Al Qaeda target the West and the umma in such a way?

They were theological treatises, revolving around what Islam commands Muslims to do vis-à-vis non-Muslims. The documents rarely made mention of all those things — Zionism, Bush's "Crusade," malnourished Iraqi children — that formed the core of Al Qaeda's messages to the West. Instead, they were filled with countless Koranic verses, hadiths (traditions attributed to the Prophet Muhammad), and the consensus and verdicts of Islam's most authoritative voices. The temporal and emotive language directed at the West was exchanged for the eternal language of Islam when directed at Muslims. Or, put another way, the language of "reciprocity" was exchanged for that of intolerant religious fanaticism. There was, in fact, scant mention of the words "West," "U.S.," or "Israel." All of those were encompassed by that one Arabic-Islamic word, "kufr" — "infidelity" — the regrettable state of being non-Muslim that must always be fought through "tongue and teeth."

One has to admit that Osama is politically shrewd in this matter. He knows that ignorant Westerners will agree with him on the Kyoto treaty, the "victim" status of the "other", and all such grievances of the month. He's also fully aware that most Muslims don't give a fig about the environment. So, he reels them in with the vile theological core of Islam: Jihad is the glorious duty of the umma.

All one has to do is to carefully read what he has said and realize that they hate us for who we are -- not for something we might have done.

Link via Done with Mirrors.

The Battle of Iran Draws Near

MSNBC:

The question may not be whether America is ready to attack, but whether Israel is. The Jewish state has cause for worry. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vows regularly to destroy the country; former president Hashemi Rafsanjani, considered a moderate, warned in 2001 that Tehran could do away with Israel with just one nuclear bomb.

A demonic dictator threatens to kill millions of Jews. Some things never change.

In Tel Aviv last week, former deputy Defense minister Ephraim Sneh concurred. Sneh, a dovish member of Israel's Parliament and a retired brigadier general, took a NEWSWEEK reporter to the observation deck atop the 50-story Azrieli Center. "There is Haifa just over the horizon, Ben-Gurion airport over there, the Defense Ministry down below," he said, to show how small the country is. "You can see in this space the majority of our intellectual, economic, political assets are concentrated. One nuclear bomb is enough to wipe out Israel."

That is why Israel ought to take action. Though, ultimately, the US should deal with Iran -- for Iran promises to kill Israelis but is currently murdering hundreds of Americans in Iraq.

Put another way: if the US will not attack the number one American-killing terrorist regime in the world while practically surrounding the nation with 200,000 troops, then when exactly will it?

"No Homosexuals in Iran"

These Iranian teenagers were executed on July 19, 2005. Initial post here.

Charles links to a CBC documentary:

Here’s a video documentary in three parts from Canada’s CBC, on the Iranian gay scene and the appalling, barbaric treatment to which they are routinely subjected.

View the You Tube videos.

Next month we'll see a massive protest. (Via Junk Yard.)

During the week of October 22-26, 2007, the nation will be rocked by the biggest conservative campus protest ever – Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week, a wake-up call for Americans on 200 university and college campuses.

What the Right Hand Possesses

You've heard about a terrible aspect of Islam from some "Islamophobe". You're not really sure if it's true or not. So, you ask the experts.

Are sexual relations between a female slave and a male master are allowed in islam?

I dont think its true but please prove me right or wrong....

You would think that the 'correct' answer is No but then that would make you a baad Muslim. See, there's actually a lot of nuance to it.

There are a lot of special rules in Islam with regard to slaves, which are not relevent to anyone that is not a slave and does not have a slave. These rules protect the rights of slaves and safeguard their welfare.

So says dhakiyya.

Later, 'asiya follows with this gem:

As i have already explained the muslims captives are treated with dignity and respect, you have to remove all notions of western slavery and prisioners of war from your mind.

It helps if you remove rationality and morality as well.

Link via Jihad Watch.

Incredible Strength

MSNBC:

It has been nearly a year since James Bertakis was stabbed in the heart by a stingray, and the 82-year-old grandfather is almost well enough to go fishing again.

This is unbelievable.

He was taken to North Broward Hospital, where X-rays showed the barb in his chest. He was taken into surgery, but as doctors worked, the barb was literally pulled through his heart as it pumped. Without equipment to allow them to bypass the heart to repair it, surgeons closed the large holes in his heart with the barb still inside and airlifted him to Broward General Hospital.

Wow.

Yeah, Because You Killed Them All.

Charles quotes the Hitler of our time.

Line of the day: “In Iran, we don’t have homosexuals like you do in this country.”

Ingrateful and Disgraceful

From The University of Victoria via Small Dead Animals:

The Canadian Armed Forces are banned from recruiting in the Student Union Building (SUB).

UVic Students’ Society (UVSS) chairperson Tracy Ho broke a 6-6 deadlock at a Sept. 10 UVSS board meeting by voting that the military should be banned from the SUB.

It's because they care^TM.

Director-at-large Christine Comrie said it was important to ban the military from recruiting because some students are ignorant about the issues.

“A lot of students don’t know about the issues and don’t know about the facts,” she said. “We have to make this decision for students.”

A learned fellow weighs in:

“I consider myself well read on the situation in Afghanistan,” said director-at-large Edward Pullman. “I believe that the Armed Forces in Afghanistan are operating to the detriment of the Afghani people.”

Let's look at a few "detrimental" statistics.

1. The World Bank: 40,000 fewer infant deaths per year compared to the Taliban rule.
2. The United Nations Girls' Education Initiative: Girls' school attendance doubles from 2004. Education for girls was banned under the Taliban.
3. Alastair McKechnie: “I think we will see the [Afghan] economy continue to grow at rapid rates, which in turn will lead to considerable improvements in people’s lives.”
4. So awful has been the Canadian and Allied presence in Afghanistan that more than 3.7 million Afghans have returned to their country since 2002.

I hope the sensible students of UVic and the Canadian Blogosphere rhetorically lash the dishonest, despicable clowns of the UVSS in the coming days.

Morally Blind

The Dean of Columbia would invite Hitler to speak.

Sadly, no follow-up question asking how he might react should der Fuhrer get a little tipsy at the post-speech cocktail party and order his band of traveling storm troopers to stuff a dozen or so gypsies, a gay couple, and 6 million Jews into one of the caterer’s mobile convection ovens.

I'm guessing the response will be, "Who are we to say that that's a bad thing?"

Dropping the Doe

Helicopter Ben cracked me up. The warning on the lower right is priceless.

Leftist Moron Loves the Religious Thug

Daimnation: Ahmadinebert.

Real Lunacy

Umar Lee:

With the arrival if the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to New York in order to address the United Nations and take his message to the people we have seen a manufactured scandal arise created by FOX News, conservative talk-radio, right-wing bloggers, and elements of the Pro-Israel community.

Why would "they" do that?

They are attempting to use this event as the latest PR stunt to get the American people to support an attack on Iran before Bush leaves the Oval Office and believe that if Bush does not stop Iran and a Democrat is elected the threat will not be dealt with. That is why you will see the almost daily reports on FOX News and other channels about Iranian funding of Shia militias and there “meddling in the affairs of Iraq” which, in fact, is their neighbor and they have far more of a right to meddle and be concerned about what is going on there than the United States does as our nation is half a world away and the average American has no cultural or historical ties to the people of the region unlike Iranians do.

How utterly demented. Umar doesn't deny that the Iranians are actually meddling in Iraq (read: murdering scores of Iraqis and Americans). Yet, somehow the scandal! is the fact that right wingers across America are reporting and discussing this evil.

On one side, we have a republic fighting for the safety of millions of Iraqis and their infant democracy. On the other side, we have a terror sponsoring state, ruled by theocrats; these wicked creatures hang homosexuals and beat women for showing a flock of hair. They want to bring the same hell to Iraq.

The choice is between something imperfect but definitely good and an unholy, dark web of sharia. How retarded does one have to be to support the worse option?

How The World Doesn't Work

Horinomics!?

It sounds ... naughty.

Ripples of Freedom

Perry de Havilland:

The First Amendment to the US Constitution is not the source of any right, it is just a legal tool used by Americans in America to secure the natural right all people have to express themselves. But in this networked world we have, it actually has the unlooked for effect of extending a significant degree of that protection to other people across the world who write from foreign keyboards about foreign things for foreign audiences, hosted on a server in the USA. I find that quite interesting.

Also read the neat comment by Sam Duncan there.

Inversion

Cox and Forkum: The Ahmadinejad Code.

Nanny State: No Donut For You!

MSNBC:

It was just another morning at the senior center: Women were sewing, men were playing pool — and seven demonstrators, average age 76, were picketing outside, demanding doughnuts.

They wore sandwich boards proclaiming, "Give Us Our Just Desserts" and "They're Carbs, Not Contraband."

At issue is a decision to refuse free doughnuts, pies and breads that were being donated to senior centers around Putnam County, north of New York City. Officials were concerned that the county was setting a bad nutritional precedent by providing mounds of doughnuts and other sweets to seniors.

I couldn't come up with a better response:

C. Michael Sibilia said, "I'm 86, not 8."

Of course, there are always some who support the fascists.

Inside, some seniors said they missed the doughnuts but others said they were glad to see them go.

"It was disgusting the way people went after them," said 80-year-old Rita Jorgensen. "I think the senior center did them a favor by taking it away."

You see, it's for their own good!

[Long Silence]

Greg Cosby picks the Insensitive Jerk of the Month.

'Jerk' is too mild a word in this case.

Ice Cream in the Fast Lane

An adorable piece of writing by Lori Borgman.

Joining the Dark Side

A Battle of Faith and Life:

I do not see a place for organized religion in my life at this point, and I think it’s stupid and foolhardy for me to consider myself a “lapsed Muslim” or some other kind of cutesy less-threatening name. I’ve come to a realization that was there all along, but that I wanted so hard to deny.

Link via The Apostate.

Heavenly

Curious Expeditions via Known Unknowns:

Everyone has some kind of place that makes them feel transported to a magical realm. For some people it's castles with their noble history and crumbling towers. For others it's abandoned factories, ivy choked, a sense of foreboding around every corner. For us here at Curious Expeditions, there has always been something about libraries. Row after row, shelf after shelf, there is nothing more magical than a beautiful old library.

I like the Biblioteca Di Bella Arti from Milan, Italy the most. Its design is relatively simple and the lighting gives it a divine feel.

The Cartoons of Doom

Rezwan writes about the Muhammad cartoon from Bangladesh:

Alpin is one satirical cartoon supplement of the Daily Prothom Alo, which claims to be the most popular Bangla Newspaper in Bangladesh. In the 6th page of its 431th issue a cartoon titled ‘name' was published (on Monday, September 17, 2007) which created much controversy in Bangladesh.

He notes the apology by the newspaper:

We apologize and are extremely sorry:

…inadvertently an unedited, unapproved and unacceptable cartoon titled ‘name' was published…we are withdrawing the cartoon…and taking actions against the persons responsible for this.

Muhammad and Islam are outside the bounds of criticism and satire -- even when they are not the intended target of such sport. The wretched apology is a perfect example of this suffocating atmosphere in the Islamic world.

Link via DesiPundit.

World Cup Final of the Century

Pakistan vs. India in the first final of Twenty20 cricket in two days.

These Asian superpowers, shockingly, got knocked out in the first round of the ODI World Cup earlier this year. Oh, look at them now: they've made to the ultimate, explosive* showdown.

* Here's hoping that actual explosives are not involved.

Update
I can't help but steal this gif from Metroblogging Lahore.

The Evil Dwarf...

Welcomes you to a country of freedom.

Asinine Comparison

A reader emailed a few days ago to ask whether this ad is genuine.

I checked the Khaleej Times website but the archive doesn't seem to showcase the ads. So, I can't verify the authenticity.

For Freedom!

OPFOR:

Well, I guess a quick peek up her skirt wouldn't hurt anyone...

I'm sure she won't mind.

Fitna in Saudi Society

A reader emailed this article:

Carefully unbuttoning her black abaya, Mariam Bin Laden holds a lacy flesh-coloured bra against her chest to see whether it is the right fit. That simple act, taken for granted by women in most countries around the world, would once have been scandalous in Saudi Arabia.

What changed?

Up until last year, buying underwear revealed a strange contradiction in the tradition-bound kingdom: despite the fact that Saudi Arabia remains one of the few countries in the world where the sexes are officially segregated, women's goods such as underwear, cosmetics and perfumes were sold by men.

"Can you imagine standing there completely covered in your abaya and have a strange man guess your cup size?" Ms. Bin Laden asked.

Why that little Caligula!

Last year, a government edict broke with Saudi tradition and ordered lingerie stores in mixed-sex shopping areas to replace their salesmen with saleswomen across the kingdom, as part of a national drive to empower Saudi women.

OMG. What next? Allowing women to drive. Allah forbid!

Later on from the story:

"I want something transparent," said one of the customers, covered from head to toe.

Whore!

America Relieves the Pressure

CTV.ca:

Liberal MP Belinda Stronach, who is battling breast cancer, travelled to California last June for an operation that was recommended as part of her treatment, says a report.

Clayton Cramer:

Some of the comments on the Canadian Television story from Canadians are very revealing. A lot of the liberals are basically saying that it is an invasion of Stronach's privacy to discuss what seems to be a failure of the Canadian health care system. Other comments by Canadians reveal some deep disgust with what is going on.

Click here to read them.

Violating Common Sense

AKI via Dhimmi Watch:

Jordan has forced several restaurants with international links to close for Ramadan because it would "violate the sanctity" of the month.

Authorities said serving daily meals is contrary to a directive from the interior ministry that has blocked the opening of restaurants during daylight hours during the month of fasting.

Even though Jordan has a Christian minority of around 5 per cent and Ramadan coincides with the beginning of the autumn tourism season, the interior ministry has decided to close restaurants such as McDonald's and Burger King.

They just can't accept the fact that infidels have it good. The kafir has to share the collective misery.

No, He Cant

Umar Lee: Cant a Brother Just Pay Some Respect?

The Corrupting of the American Mind

Michael Barone emails Prof. Reynolds:

Just a random thought on Ahmedinejad speaking at Columbia.

Columbia doesn't host ROTC or (I think) military recruiters on campus, because it would be just too offensive to do so, because the military obeys the law passed by a Democratic Congress and signed by Bill Clinton which bars open homosexuals from serving in the military. OK.

But Columbia does host Ahmedinejad who heads a government which executes homosexuals for the crime of being homosexuals.

So it's obnoxious beyond belief to exclude homosexuals from military service, but it's not obnoxious beyond belief to hang them from the neck until dead.

I'm inclined to think that Congress and the military should rethink their policy of barring homosexuals from military service. It's a long argument, which I'll omit from this post. But I don't have any trouble joining the 99.99% of Americans who oppose execution of homosexuals for homosexual acts. And who think it's a barbaric act, incapable of being supported by any decent argument.

Why does Lee Bollinger think a man who heads a regime that executes homosexuals--not just excludes them from military service, but hangs them by the neck until dead, in public ceremony--should be honored with an invitation to speak at Columbia?

Columbia has no morals, being anti-Bush is all that matters. Can you imagine an American university inviting Mussolini in the late 1930s or early 40s?

Note that on July 19, 2005, the Iranian regime executed two teenagers for the mentioned "crime".

Surfing Feels So Good

[H] Enthusiast:

If you have a choice between having sex and surfing the web and surfing the web wins...something is seriously wrong.

Keyword: If.

Mideast Current Events

Wow, that must be for $2000.

Feeling the Heat

David Session deserves the post title here.

In Saudi Arabia, the temperature often reaches 50C in the summer. Given the information about the 8th of July 2003, we can calculate that the heat index hit -- I'm not kidding -- 64C or 148F.

That's just the heat index. For soldiers add armor, ammo, rifle ... it's beyond comprehension. These guys aren't exaggerating when they mention feeling 55C or 130F in Iraq during the summer.

By the way, I've been to the hottest place in Asia! (Read the first link to see where that is.)

No Car For You!

MSNBC:

For the first time ever, a group of women in the only country that bans female drivers have formed a committee to lobby for the right to get behind the wheel, and they plan to petition King Abdullah in the next few days for the privilege.

Good luck.

The government is unlikely to respond because the issue remains so highly sensitive and divisive.

Yes, allowing women to drive is a "divisive" issue.

Conservatives, who believe women should be shielded from male strangers, say women in the driver’s seat will be free to leave home alone and go when and where they please. They also will unduly expose their eyes while driving and interact with male strangers, such as traffic police and mechanics.

Why those wannabe whores!

Recently, a sitcom tried to put some light on the issue:

In the serial, “Amsha bint Ammash,” the main character, Amsha, loses her father and is forced to relocate from her village to Jiddah. After an unsuccessful round of job searching, she decides to become a taxi driver — a job open only to men.

Oops.

When the program was first advertised, some reacted with shock that a Saudi woman was not only portraying a man, but also one who drives. Conservatives say women should not emulate men in behavior or dress.

The controversy has forced the serial’s writer, Abdullah Abdul-Amer, to issue a statement stressing the goal of the program, aired on the Lebanese satellite channel LBC, “is not to incite women to drive.”

Thank goodness. We don't want any incitement in the Islamic world, now do we?

Understand the Threat

Infidel Bloggers Alliance:

We received an email from an ex-Muslim, and he gave us permission to reprint it. Here's what he wrote.

Go read it all.

Helpful Tips for Programmers

"10 Ways a Programmer Can Improve His or Her Sex Life".

This surprised me:

8. Publicize how erotically charged you get every time you unwrap a new piece of software or computer accessory.

I thought I was the only one!

A New Era?

Sambit Bal:

Pakistan have almost qualified for the semi-final, and it came on the back of a performance so controlled and clinical that it could have belonged to the team they beat. Australia, judging from what Adam Gilchrist had to say at the post-match press conference, are yet to embrace this format wholeheartedly and they are far from invincible in this form, but there was nothing remotely flukeish about Pakistan's win. They out-bowled, out-batted, and would you believe it, out-fielded Australia.

They played so .... well, I'll let Bal articulate it:

There was a coolness to their victory which was almost un-Pakistani.

That says quite a lot.

The Way the World Works

Amir talks about cheap labor and sweat shops. He quickly makes the point:

[...] the sad reality is that if people — without physical coercion — enter into a contract to work in a sweatshop then that means that they are deriving some benefit from that transaction; ergo, working in a sweatshop is preferable to not working in a sweatshop (being unemployed, starving, or turning to crime to earn a living).

Precisely.

Also read this post from last year, "Exploiting the Poor".

Conroe to Penryn

TG Daily: Intel to launch Penryn on Nov. 12.

AMD is so screwed, again.

Showing Apostates Some Peace

Little Green Footballs:

British Muslims who want to leave Islam have serious problems—their former friends now want to kill them.

Yeah, that could be a cause for a little headache.

View the video.

Piffle from Aquavelvajihad

Kamangir:

Ahmadinejad is going to New York, for attending a UN meeting. Before the trip, he answered to a handful of questions in the state-run television channel Jam-e Jam [Persian], which targets outside Iran. These are some of his sentences,

1- I have never been involved in a fight…I am not either a dictator or a violent person.

2- In Iran, there is no chance of dictatorship, because everything belongs to the people and people decide about everything….Americans have killed many people in Latin America, Africa and Iraq and must be tried for that.

People power in graphic detail. Apparently the women were asking for it.

Is Cricket Getting Sexier?

It seems like it:

In order to cater for the need to globalise the game, the next ICC World Twenty20 should be expanded from 12 to 16 teams. Because the games are so condensed, even an expanded Twenty20 competition with a best-of-three final series could be completed in around two and a half weeks, a far cry from the nearly two-month long World Cup that everyone had to endure in the Caribbean.

Twenty20 is here to stay.

Muslims Misunderstand Islam

Tambi Dude emails this link.

One of the Church of England's most senior bishops is warning that people will die unless Muslim leaders in Britain speak out in defence of the right to change faith.

I wouldn't hold my breath.

In 2004, Prince Charles asked British Muslim leaders to renounce laws of apostasy and the death sentence for converts in Islamic countries, but no public statement was ever made.

Dispatches obtained Islamic texts sold in Britain that say the punishment for apostasy is death - according to all four schools of Islamic jurisprudence. One text called for Muslims to cut off the head of those who reject Islam.

Of course, they would only cut it off in a most elegant, peaceful manner.

A poll of more than 1,000 British Muslims, conducted by the Policy Exchange think-tank this year, found that 36 per cent of Muslims aged between 16 and 24 believe those who convert to another faith should be punished by death.

Wow, the number is that low!

One convert interviewed for the programme told how his local Muslim community in Bradford closed ranks against him after he switched to Christianity. 'They told me categorically had I been in an Islamic country - Pakistan, Middle East - that they would actually be the first to chop off my head,' he said.

The sure-fire way to get into heaven: kill an uppity infidel.

Totally Haram Links!

Warning: Not for Muslims. Might cause an itchy need to take a bath and an impulse to wash the computer seven times with water and then once with earth.

• Amy.
• Dixie.
• Shana.
• Roxi meets Deca.

Stupid Women

Greg Mankiw, an economics professor from Harvard University:

If there is any place that should be open to a wide range of views, it is a university. To bar a scholar as prominent as Larry from talking simply because you disagree with him is despicable.

Keyword: should.

The Raging Sequels...

Are coming strong.

Oddly enough, their local clothing doesn't have zippers...

Two Thumb Up!

Er, two paws up.

Arresting the Impure in Iran

One can't make up stuff like this.

I remember hearing a short while ago that the Islamic Republic Police had “arrested” dogs, as a part of their “fight against immodesty”. Today, a very good friend sent a set of pictures of the arrested dogs.

View them here. My initial thoughts were put into words immediately:

Clearly, these dogs are not meant to live in the conditions they are being kept, but, anyways, they do not treat human beings anything better.

Exactly.

This irrational hatred goes a long way back.

First link via Serendip.

Jihad in Arabic

A reader asked me to translate the Arabic text here:

(Image taken from Michelle Malkin's site.)

I took Arabic over ten years ago. So, I don't know what that says there.

Anyone in the audience familiar with Arabic?

Afghanistan 2001. Iraq 2003. Iran 2008?

It can't happen soon enough. The following from Fox News:

The discussions are now focused on two basic options: less invasive scenarios under which the U.S. might blockade Iranian imports of gasoline or exports of oil, actions generally thought to exact too high a cost on the Iranian people but not enough on the regime in Tehran; and full-scale aerial bombardment.

On the latter course, active consideration is being given as to how long it would take to degrade Iranian air defenses before American air superiority could be established and U.S. fighter jets could then begin a systematic attack on Iran's known nuclear targets.

Most relevant parties have concluded such a comprehensive attack plan would require at least a week of sustained bombing runs, and would at best set the Iranian nuclear program back a number of years — but not destroy it forever. Other considerations include the likelihood of Iranian reprisals against Tel Aviv and other Israeli population centers; and the effects on American troops in Iraq. There, officials have concluded that the Iranians are unlikely to do much more damage than they already have been able to inflict through their supply of explosives and training of insurgents in Iraq.

They should have planned this a long time ago. That way, right after the Iraq campaign, the logistical side of the Iran battle would have been taken care of.

The US must be always on the offensive in this war; a defensive posture is more deadly to the military in the long run. During the time when the Americans scaled down their operations in Iraq, a lot more in the military were being killed every month. Now, that the surge -- with more soldiers -- is fully under way, monthly American deaths have declined. The Islamist monsters in Iraq don't have the time and breathing space to plan