A Little Edgy
May 22, 2007
Pedestrian Infidel: Is Islam a race?
Sick
May 21, 2007
Ssss
May 21, 2007
Fire Ant Gazette:
We drove out to look at an open house at Woodland Park this afternoon, and as we turned back onto "A" Street to head home, I spotted this fellow in the middle of the road. I did a quick u-turn, pulled off into the bar ditch, and grabbed my wife's phone to snap some photos.
The Price of a Girl in Afghanistan
May 20, 2007
Shabana, A pretty Afghan teenager with a modern haircut, was 12 years old when she was forced to marry a man 38 years her senior to settle her father's 600-dollar gambling debt. Two years later, she is unhappy and angry. She doesn't like her husband, 52-year-old farmer Mohammad Asef.
"He is wild - he destroyed my hopes," she said in their humble mudbrick home in the northern province of Balkh, speaking out only when Asef went into another room to take a call. She doesn't get on with her husband's first wife, who is aged 42 and lives with them. And she is disgusted with her father. "He sold me," she told AFP.
Later:
In Afghanistan, as in many Asian and African cultures, men pay the family of their wives-to-be an agreed sum, sometimes called the bride price, as well as the cost of the wedding which can also run into thousands of dollars - the average in Kabul is 4,000 dollars. This can be an enormous sum in one of the poorest countries in the world where a low-grade civil servant earns about 60 dollars a month.
To be able to afford his own wife, Abdul Raheem, also from Balkh province, says he wants to marry off his 12-year-old sister as soon as he can. The family of the woman he has set his heart on wants 6,000 dollars for her. Raheem, who earns 60 dollars a month as a cleaner in a police station in Mazar, has saved 2,000 dollars. "It's very difficult for me to find 4,000 dollars," he said. But if he could marry off his sister, "then I can marry my girlfriend," he told AFP.
What a sick and twisted culture: a man wants to eagerly sell his pre-teen sister so that he can purchase a girl who can satisfy his sexual desires.
Link via Dhimmi Watch.
The Price of Booze in Iran
May 20, 2007
Aftenposten:
Mamandy, a Kurd, explained that he was visiting his mother in Baneh, Iran in April when he was arrested by police.
"We were on an outing with family and friends, six or seven in the evening, and were having a barbecue and enjoying ourselves. Altogether I drank two beers. The police happened to drive by," Mamandy said.
Link via Serendip.
A Few Gems
May 19, 2007
Unrelated bonus: my favorite breed!
The Jews, Always.
May 18, 2007
LFG:
You’re not going to believe this one; video of an evil antisemitic rant by Amir Abdel Malik Ali, in a private room at the Muslim Students Union hatefest this week at University of California Irvine. Absolutely sickening, with paranoid conspiracy theories about the Mossad being behind 9/11, and claims that “Zionist Jews” are plotting around the world to make Muslims look bad.
No need to believe; it's a fact:
One day, I walked into the living room where two guys were watching some news channel. The program was about the merciless lampooning of Osama in every late night show. One of the guys was very agitated.
“I understand why he makes fun of Osama all the time. It’s because he’s a rotten stinking Jew. But I don’t get why Leno jokes about Osama so much?”
The other guy nodded. I was speechless. I don’t know to whom he charmingly referred to as “a rotten stinking Jew,” though, I was touched to hear him defend a mass-murdering psychopath. A few months later, I would find the same guy laughing heartily at the President Bush pretzel incident. It seemed that no amount of ridicule of the Chimp-in-Chief was too much.
I found out later still that the guy was a member of the Muslim Student Association.
Watch the video here.
Save Yourself!
May 18, 2007
Well, here’s another relevant subject forall of us living here in the West: for teenagers and young adults especially, there is sooooo much haraam going on around us… we have to struggle with such basic things as food, clothing, and entertainment. There is such a great deal of fitnah that sometimes it can be very hard to resist it all, and some of us even fall into the trap of giving in to Shaytaan and his whispers - may Allah protect us and strengthen us, ameen.
I sold my soul to Shaytaan a long time ago but the rest of you still have a chance! Let's look at "proper" music:
Qur’aan and anasheed (without musical instruments).
That's quite funny. My favorite music composer is A. R. Rahman -- a Muslim -- who is famous for his splendid fusion of Western Classical and Indian sounds. According to Muslim Matters, the umma should not listen to his work.
How about makeup?
For sisters, please keep in mind that we’re only allowed to wear makeup in the home, in front of our mahrams. And y’know, makeup isn’t all that important anyway. One of the amazing benefits of hijaab is that it liberates us from the culture of cosmetic judgement, from people liking us based on our ability to look like Barbie dolls.
Yeah I know. When I look at Canada and Saudi Arabia, the big thing that jumps out is the culture of cosmetic oppression in Canada. It's a mystery how Western women cope with this terrible tyranny...have no fear! The solution is simple. An extra large garbage bag!
Update
Josh Scholar looks at Google images for Shaytaan.
The very first image is this:
They're red and they've got horns but they just don't look evil. They seem to be giving off a sleepy / bored / depressed vibe, really.
Can't believe I sold out to that.
ReadySlump?
May 18, 2007
Windows Vista's Windows ReadyBoost sounds too good to be true, and based on our extensive lab tests, it is. The technology promises to let you speed up Windows by plugging an inexpensive USB flash drive into your PC. But we found that while ReadyBoost may speed up Vista a tiny bit, it can also slow it down in some instances.
Oops.
Glorious
May 18, 2007
Rick Lee: Smokey Mountains!
The second photo is really cool. The last photo is really "warm".
Sigh. I miss America.
You Can Never Check Out
May 17, 2007
The good news from Pakistan just doesn't end:
The National Assembly on Tuesday [May 8] sent a bill called Apostasy Act 2006 to the standing committee concerned for consideration.
The MMA tabled the bill during Private Members’ Day in the assembly. The bill proposed sentencing to death male apostates and imprisonment till penitence or death for female apostates. The government did not oppose the bill and sent it to the standing committee concerned.
[Emphasis mine.]
The core of the bill:
Section 5 states that the court should give a proven apostate at least three days or a month at the maximum to return to Islam. If he refuses, he should be awarded the death sentence.
The Pakistanis are so generous!
Section 8 proposes suspending all rights of the accused over property. [...] Section 9 states that the apostates’ right to guardianship over minors will remain suspended till their death.
But always remember, Islam is, like totally, a Religion of PeaceTM.
The Perpetually Fuming Left
May 17, 2007
That people on the political left have a certain set of opinions, just as people do in other parts of the ideological spectrum, is not surprising. What is surprising, however, is how often the opinions of those on the left are accompanied by hostility and even hatred.
Particular issues can arouse passions here and there for anyone with any political views. But, for many on the left, indignation is not a sometime thing. It is a way of life.
It's all Bush's fault!
Link via Gus Van Horn. Also from there comes this link in which Thompson offers a way-too-brief smacking to Michael Moore.
The Plague of Jew-Hatred
May 17, 2007
Josh Scholar asks:
Here is the long shot of that.
The girl is in a line of people holding up a banner and a picture in front of home made American and Israeli flags being burned for the cameras. She's holding the picture.
Can you read the banner or figure out who is in the pictures?
I found a better photo here:
Note that there are three lines of text. The Urdu transliteration and the English translations follow.
1st row, top right
Islam ka dushman America: The enemy of Islam, America.
1st row, top left
Quran ka dushman America: The enemy of the Quran, America.
2nd row
16 May Yom murdabad America: May 16th anniversary, Death to America.
(Israel came into being on May 14, 1948. Why are they protesting on May 16? I really don't know.)
3rd row
Israel ka wajood alam-e-Islam kay kalab may khanjar ki manand hai: The existence of Israel is like a dagger in the body / world of Islam.
I can't make out the small text in the lower left corner.
Are they hoping that publicly demonstrating their hatred for the west will make them more popular with Sunnis? Is the message really, "We're all Muslims here. See, we even hate the right people, just like you do!"
That's part of it. Shias (or Muslims who belong to a small sect) are considered to be traitors. This can be very troubling: the last thing one wants is to be put in the same group as ex-Muslims. So, to convey their loyalty, they attack America and Israel with a vicious passion. (The Iranian regime has made this practice into an art form.)
For many, though, Jew-hatred is the norm.
I remember an online conversation I had with a cousin of mine few years ago. We hadn't seen each other since 1995. He and his younger sister are the brightest among all of my cousins. We initially talked about family, school and studies; later the talk shifted to politics. For some reason, he listed the most powerful nations in the world.
The number one country was Israel. Then came the US. Largest economy in history, having a veto at the UN and grinding two regimes into dust while spending 1% of GDP still didn't buy America the ultimate status in his eyes. For him, a nation which is barely holding on to a diminishing sliver of land in the Middle East rules the planet.
Because it's made up of Jews. How could an educated person think that? He wasn't a rabid Islamist. Hell, being an Ahmadi, he suffered because of the religious craziness in Pakistan. Yet, still, in his eyes, the monsters at the top are Jews.
It seems that Jew-hatred has become a litmus test for Muslims. The easiest way to accrue streed-cred in the Muslim community is by spewing venom at the Jews. Those who want to be in the corridors of power have a simple recipe: be pro-sharia and loath the Jews. The Muslim Brotherhood and, its demon-child, Hamas are the premier examples.
The Chosen Scapegoats
May 16, 2007
Obviously the cunning Jews placed this banner behind the innocent Pakistani girl TO MAKE HER RELIGION LOOK BAD!
Really, what other logical explanation can be there?
Another Day For Filbert
May 16, 2007
He seems to be enjoying his new home.
The Religion of Death and Carnage
May 15, 2007
Charles Johnson:
Here’s a clip that aired on CNN recently, with Peter Bergen interviewing a failed suicide bomber in Afghanistan. Mercifully free of the usual CNN PC baggage.
In the video, the last words of the failed bomber were quite simple: Haan, bilkul; he said without any hesitation, "Yes, of course."
The question was in essence: do you still hope to kill people?
Striking Strength and Agility
May 15, 2007
The Decay Reaches Cricket
May 14, 2007
Guy Herbert this morning posted a piece commenting on Australian Prime Minister John Howard's decision to "ban" the Australian cricket team from touring Zimbabwe later this year. I generally have little time for Mr Howard, but in this case I can't personally be very harsh on him. What clearly happened is that the Australian Cricket Board (which these days prefers to call itself "Cricket Australia" begged him at length the make such an announcement, and he eventually gave in despite considerable resistence, and because from his perspective the alternatives were probably worse.
Jennings talks about the political and economic reasons behind this decision. He also ties in the murder of Bob Woolmer (Pakistan's coach) and how the deterioration of society heavily affects the spirit of the sport.
Praise Be To Wasta!
May 14, 2007
An Englishman in Arabia:
I walk in and take a ticket from the machine. "Not bad", I think to myself, "only six customers to go." Really, I've lived here long enough. I should not be so naïve.
Time passes.
It becomes apparent why the only people sitting and waiting are all foreign workers. Anyone wearing a thobe and ghutra assumes that the ticket system is only for fools and foreigners. They all proceed to push in where ever they please.
Ah, the great Saudi system: queues and, in many fatal cases, traffic lights are for foreigners only.
On The Side Of Evil
May 14, 2007
The Zionists consider themselves to have the sovereign rights to oppress and vilify other people. - having had an enormous monopoly over the information services in the West. The Zionist have always manipulated their way to advantage - in promoting their version of the conquest of Palestine, and their wars against neighbouring Arab states, and the tales – the "history" of the Jewish people, especially concerning the WW2 - and the so-called "holocaust".
Then comes the explicit and euphoric support for Farfur and this:
No film mainstream makers of TV program or other media dares to be critical of the Jews, "Israel" or Zionism - a Jewish male must be referred to as 'a nice Jewish boy. a young girl is a Jewish Princess. Jew musicians are always 'talented," writers " are gifted," painters very "sensitive," the Jewish doctors are "brilliant." The Jew millionaires are "philanthropic and visionary. What a big lie and conspiracy Lastly - millions of innocent Christians have been victimized by pro-Zionist film and TV propaganda. They do not realize the Jew "name changers" have used subtle and very sophisticated stories - to manipulate the minds of other people. - No nation or people can long remain free - while such a medium is totally controlled by venomous alien Jews - whose loyalty is to Zionism first!
Link via Elder of Ziyon.
Pregnant Teenager Murdered
May 14, 2007
A woman has become the third person to be arrested over the fatal stabbing of a pregnant woman. Sana Ali, 17, and her unborn child both died after what was described as a "violent" knife attack at her home in Bury, Greater Manchester.
Later:
Ms Ali, who was originally from Pakistan, moved to the UK five years ago and married a British Muslim man.
Did she get married at age 12?
I wonder if this has anything to do with the murder:
She had began a childcare course at Ridge Danyers College in Cheadle Hulme in September 2006 but had left a short time later. She had intended to return to college after she had had her baby.
Link via Clarity and Resolve.
Within The Fortress
May 14, 2007
Mark Steyn talks about a most uneasy trend:
[...] the young Duka brothers are "radical Muslim" sons in a family of otherwise "moderate Muslim" oldsters. That, too, fits a pattern of de-assimilation, of young Western Muslims far more implacable and hostile than their parents and grandparents. The London bombers were British subjects born and bred, radicalized in the vacuum of contemporary multiculturalism. One of the Toronto plotters had a father-in-law who was the pharmacist at the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry base. The Princess Pats have done sterling work in Afghanistan, and pop supports their mission. But his daughter doesn't, and she named his grandchild after a Chechen terrorist killed by the Russians.
A Storm is Coming
May 14, 2007
Air-Conditioned Exploitation!
May 13, 2007
Those vicious capitalists; how dare they improve everything!
It Is Forbidden!
May 13, 2007
John Hawkins: Five Things You Can't Say In America.
Political Mayhem in Pakistan
May 13, 2007
Pro-government and opposition groups traded accusations Sunday over who was to blame for the worst political violence to grip Pakistan in years, as the toll from a day of gunbattles and rioting in Karachi rose to 36 dead and more than 150 wounded.
A nation with nuclear weapons is reduced to this:
Newspaper editorials on Sunday lamented the descent into chaos and violence. "It appeared at times as if there was no government in Karachi and it was gunmen who ruled the nation's biggest city," said the respected Dawn daily.
AP Photo:
Dead bodies, blocked roads, burnt vehicles, bullet marks on buildings, gun-shots; This was what we all witnessed happening in Karachi throughout the day, real and live on TV.
Pakistan has yet to have a democratic transfer of power from one elected government to another. Death and chaos have ruled for a long and depressing 60 years -- a theme which, sadly, has no intention of disappearing in the foreseeable future.
Update
Reuters:
A Pakistani opposition supporter was killed in Karachi on Sunday during a protest against violence the previous day in which 34 people were killed in clashes between pro-government and opposition activists.
Unhinged
May 13, 2007
Crusade Watcher: Hamas's Mouse Is Right.
The stinking kuffar expect the Muslims to just allow themselves to be slaughtered without even exercising their God given survival instincts. What the zionist are hoping is that the younger generations don't know any better and that the despair and hopelessness they were born into is normal, that all humans live that way. They absolutely don't want them to be taught the truth.
Yeah, that's why people are upset over this.
The venom-spewing doesn't end there:
Forget about talks, negotiations, and kufr democracy. They've been talking for decades. Talking talking and more talking. What has the talking done besides make their situation worse with every passing month? The zionist want the Palestinians to talk while they continue their land grabs and murdering sprees. All of the illegal immigrants from Russia, america, and Europe need to be sent back to where they came from or driven into the Mediterranean. GO HOME already. InshaAllah, one of these days the Muslims are going to wake up and get their act together, and Jerusalem along with the rest of Palestine will be liberated just as it was before even if it takes 100's of years just as before.
Liberation = Holocaust of the 21st century.
Speaking of truth: giving back the Sinai, leaving Southern Lebanon and moving out of the Gaza Strip does not come under the heading of "land grabs". Had the Palestinians let go of their genocidal dreams and not started the two murderous intifadas then they could have had their own wretched state. The Palestinians are the architects of their own misery.
He Might Be Slow...
May 13, 2007
...but eventually he'll get you! Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Link via this totally haram website.
Someone Has Been Naughty
May 12, 2007
The Truth Shall, Er, Offend the Muslims
May 12, 2007
Michelle Malkin: Church sign about Islam offends Muslims.
It's offensive because it's not sugarcoated, i.e., it's true!
The Truth Shall, Er, Get You Convicted
May 12, 2007
When he began testifying at his own trial this week, a Florida doctor accused of pledging to support al-Qaida hoped to convince a jury that the FBI had it all wrong: He was a man of peace.
If that was the plan, then Rafiq Abdus Sabir had a disastrous day on the witness stand Friday.
This is like something out of The Onion:
Sabir, a polygamist who has had four wives (though never more than two at once), also appeared unapologetic as he talked about a domestic dispute in 2002. He was accused of disappearing with his two young children on a trip to Pennsylvania without telling their distraught mother.
When she found him, they got into a tug-of-war over their four-year-old, and the wife wound up with a cracked tooth. Sabir fled with the kids, and, after an interstate manhunt, landed in jail. His wife refused to press charges.
"I don't need her permission to take my children," Sabir said. "I don't need to tell her where I'm going."
Yeah, the bitch! She's only the mother of your children. The hell with her!
He reacted defiantly again as he was questioned about a time he slapped a daughter and handcuffed her to a radiator for failing to dress quickly enough for school. "She punched me in my face!" Sabir said, saying that was why he slapped her.
Not buying it.
Link via Dan Riehl.
Gearing Up For Open War
May 11, 2007
Christopher Hitchens: Londonistan Calling.
A very detailed column that should be read in its entirety. A small excerpt:
In the 1960s, many Asians moved to Britain in quest of employment and education. They worked hard, were law-abiding, and spent much of their time combating prejudice. Their mosques were more like social centers. But their children, now grown, are frequently contemptuous of what they see as their parents' passivity. Often stirred by Internet accounts of jihadists in faraway countries like Chechnya or Kashmir, they perhaps also feel the urge to prove that they have not "sold out" by living in the comfortable, consumerist West. A recent poll by the Policy Exchange think tank captures the problem in one finding: 59 percent of British Muslims would prefer to live under British law rather than Shari'a; 28 percent would choose Shari'a. But among those 55 and older, only 17 percent prefer Shari'a, whereas in the 16-to-24 age group the figure rises to 37 percent. Almost exactly the same proportions apply when the question is whether or not a Muslim who converts to another faith should be put to death …
This is what many Westerners don't get. They think that as time passes the upcoming generation will be less extreme and more like us. Instead we are witnessing the horrifying opposite reality. The young generation of Muslims is increasingly rejecting Western ideals and finding comfort (and a sense of retarded superiority) in the hideous arms of Islam, sharia and jihad.
Also read this Q&A with Hitchens.
Allah Have Mercy!
May 11, 2007
The justice system in a moderate Arab nation.
Sugarcoating Filth
May 11, 2007
Raymond Ibrahim spanks Karen Armstrong:
Having distorted history, she next goes on to distort Islamic theology:
Until the 1950s, no major Muslim thinker had made holy war a central pillar of Islam. The Muslim ideologues Abu ala Mawdudi (1903-79) and Sayyid Qutb (1906-66), among the first to do so, knew they were proposing a controversial innovation. They believed it was justified by the current political emergency [emphasis added].
Even better than a “major Muslim thinker,” Allah himself proclaims: “Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor forbid what has been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger [i.e., uphold sharia], nor embrace the true faith, [even if they are] from among the People of the Book [Jews and Christians], until they pay tribute with willing submission, and feel themselves utterly subdued” (Koran 9:29). Mohammed confirms: “I have been commanded [by Allah] to fight against mankind until they testify that none but Allah is to be worshipped and that Muhammad is Allah’s Messenger” (Bukhari B2N24; next to the Koran, the second most authoritative text in Islam).
This and countless other Koranic verses and oral traditions of Mohammed, not to mention the course of conquest the first “rightly-guided” caliphs followed, have given Islam’s jurists and theologians cause throughout the ages to reach the consensus — binding on the entire Muslim community — that whenever the Muslim world is militarily capable, it must go on the offensive until it subsumes the entire world. Moreover, this world-view was postulated well before Armstrong’s blame-all — the Crusades — ever took place.
Precisely. This is exactly why tweaking our infidel ways to appease Islamists will have absolutely zero effect on their war against us. As long as they are breathing, they'll launch assaults on the rest of the world. War is a given -- regardless of whether we fight or not.
Quote of the Day
May 10, 2007
At Serendip.
Let's Boogy With DCE!
May 10, 2007
The Common Denominator
May 10, 2007
MSNBC:
One was a shy, slender young woman who spoke no English when she was brought from Pakistan to enter an arranged marriage with a stranger in Virginia. The other was a self-confident professional, born in Turkey but raised in the United States, who thought she knew what she was doing when she married an educated Muslim man in Maryland.
Yet both women fell under the sway of the same powerful pressures that sometimes reach around the globe to keep Muslim wives in the Washington region imprisoned in abusive marriages, unable to fight the gossip and shame that come with defying their culture and religion, isolated from help that is just a three-digit phone number away.
About the second women who is educated in the US:
"I was perfectly happy living alone, but the family kept pushing me to marry. I wanted to show them I was a good Muslim girl," said Shireen, now 37 and divorced. When her husband became abusive, she said, relatives told her to be a better wife. When she took him to court, she said, "everyone abandoned me. I was the one who had done something wrong."
[Emphasis mine.]
The article goes in deeper:
A major obstacle to recognizing and fighting abuse, experts said, can be Islam itself. The religion prizes female modesty and fidelity while allowing men to divorce at will and have several wives at once. Many Muslims also believe that men have the right to beat their wives. An often-quoted verse in the Koran says a husband may chastise a disobedient wife, but the phrasing in Arabic is open to several interpretations.
Yeah, when Muslims want to put a smiley face on the situation, the "several interpretations" ploy comes in.
Another detail that one doesn't see often:
Another powerful barrier to change can be the grip of Muslim culture, with its gossip among extended families and its tradition of arranged marriages, in which brides often are sent to live with their in-laws. Immigrant brides are frequently cut off from their families and isolated in new households, where they occupy the lowest social rung and might be forced to act as servants.
Another one:
A cudgel often wielded by abusive Muslim husbands in the United States is their power over the legal immigration status of their wives. Many brides arrive with temporary "marriage" visas obtained through husbands who are U.S. residents or citizens. Lawyers and social workers say an angry or demanding husband might threaten to "call immigration" and have the wife deported, raising the horrifying specter of her returning home in shame.
Read the whole thing. The MSM ought to do more stories of this nature.
An Issue With Killing Jews
May 10, 2007
LFG:
The outrage of the day is the way CNN tried to cover up the Hamas Mickey Mouse story; Glenn Beck was played for a fool by his CNN producers, and he talked about it on his radio show today.
Persian Defence
May 09, 2007
A really bad day is coming up for some thug in Iran.
Careful Readings of Jihad for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Caliphate
May 09, 2007
Starring the sixth most famous person in Egypt.
Spying on Muslims
May 09, 2007
The FBI and CIA are not that smart.
Also read the first surreal comment.
I'm Mean
May 09, 2007
Teaching Filth
May 08, 2007
Many Muslims engage in furious criticism of people with whom they disagree or whom they see as the foes of Islam – progressive Muslims, Jews, the far right, the media – and if you stop to think about it maybe our contempt is wrong.
What about apostates!? Two years of slamming Islam and this is the recognition that I get. Towelie damn it!
I once heard an imam from the pulpit call Jews “the filthiest people on earth.” Is such loathing productive? Or does it cut us off from solutions and activism?
That's a tough one. Here's a clue: if anyone in a position of authority in the West called Muslims "the filthiest people on earth", then what would the glorious umma say to that?
A. Most productive, mashallah.
B. Unproductive; Islamophobic; racist; infidel; Jooo; JIHAD.
Take your time.
A Non-nation
May 08, 2007
Jane Novak:
The probelm with incorporating tribesmen into the military as independent units is there is little command and control, and you get behavior like looting and plundering.
No wonder Yemen has trouble functioning as a peaceful country.
Immature Disagreement
May 08, 2007
Clayton Cramer: Ways To Get Fired From a College.
Crumbling Finland
May 08, 2007
Gates of Vienna: Mikko Ellilä Responds.
Mikko “Big Brother” Puumalainen [the Ombudsman for minorities] has said in numerous press statements and interviews that all opinions that help maintain the current anti-immigrationist political atmosphere in Finland ought to be totally criminalised. In other words, he wants to change the political climate of the country by banning all opinions that are not in line with the multiculti teletubby utopian view of immigrants.
We inevitably get this scenario:
With the recent very large increase in the number of rapes, the police should allocate more resources to try to catch those rapists, but no, Puumalainen wants the cops to spend time chatting with me instead.
The Purpose of Public Education
May 08, 2007
Cato at Liberty via Pejman:
Jay Mathews, ed-beat superstar for the Washington Post, has story today that perfectly sums up the government school response to involved parents; leave it to the professionals, stupid.
Across the country, parents hit a solid wall of silence when they question the actions of school administrators. But these same administrators have the gall to blame uninvolved parents for the sorry state of our government schools.
Of course. The school officials are never to blame. (Thank you, union!) Just give them more money and everything will be dandy.
Inside the Muslim Community
May 08, 2007
I've not come across many Muslims willing to actually excuse the large-scale terrorist actions associated with al-Qa'ida; a common reaction is disbelief, which is often interpreted as denial or as being "in denial" and thus unwilling to co-operate. This does not mean Muslims approve; it means that many of us cannot fathom why Muslims would want to do such a thing, hence the tendency to attribute actions like 9/11 and the July 2005 bombings to some conspiracy originating, or wholly existing, outside the Muslim community. They do not just say this to the media or to hostile non-Muslim questioners. By contrast, I have never heard Muslims attributing Hamas suicide bombings to a Jewish conspiracy to make the Palestinians look bad. There are some who approve and some who don't, but the reason why Palestinians would want to kill Israelis is well-understood.
Charming.
Here's more of that "understanding".
Insulting Islam
May 08, 2007
Caroline Glick via The Belmont Club:
Sunday Muslims shot up the Omariyah elementary school in Gaza. One man was killed and six were wounded in the onslaught. The murderers attacked because the UN-run school in Rafah had organized a sports day for the children, in which little boys would be playing with little girls.
The idea that that boys and girls might play sports together was too much for the righteous believers. It was an insult to Islam, they said. And so they decided to kill the little boys and girls.
On May 3, in Gujrat, Pakistan, Muslims detonated a bomb at the gate of a girls' school. Their righteous wrath was raised by the notion that girls would learn to read and write. That too, they felt, is an insult to Islam.
On April 28, US soldiers in Iraq discovered detonation wires across the street from the newly built Huda Girls' school in Tarmiya, north of Baghdad. They followed the wire to its source and discovered the school had been built as a deathtrap. The pious Muslims who constructed the school had filled propane tanks with explosives and buried them beneath the floor. They built artillery shells into the ceiling and the floor. To save the world for Allah, they decided to butcher little girls.
Of course.
Boy Scout Feeling Down
May 08, 2007
You Tube: Hi, I'm a Marvel...and I'm a DC.
The ending had me in stitches!