I wonder if my husband was not really lying when he blames all those electronic gadgets that appear mysteriously at our door step from ebay every month on our little one….hmmmm….
Toddler buys pink convertible on eBay | Tech News on ZDNetJack Neal briefly became the proud owner of a pink convertible car after he managed to buy it for 9,000 pounds ($17,000) on the Internet despite being only 3 years old. Jack’s mother told the BBC that she had left her password for the eBay auction site in her computer, and her son used the “Buy It Now” option to complete the purchase.
So, have you heard of the 35,000 people marching against Iran’s maniac of a President yet? Yourish.com � 35,000 at a pro-Israel rally is not news…..Thought so! Read more at the link above to see why people don’t trust the MSM to provide them any kind of objective information anymore. I am personally not surprised at all that the media chose not to highlight a bunch of Jews protesting a Jew-hater…yawn!
Man bites dog - Rights group says abuses common in Pakistani Kashmir -
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A U.S.-based human rights group on Thursday accused Pakistani security forces of using torture and other rights abuses in Pakistan’s part of Kashmir.“Most incidents of politically motivated torture recorded by Human Rights Watch involved the ISI, or the police acting on the military’s behalf,” Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report, referring to the military’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
[snip]
In the 71-page report on Pakistani Kashmir, HRW noted that there had been a reduction in infiltration of Islamist militants into Indian Kashmir, but it was still taking place.“Most of those interviewed were of the view that though the level of infiltration had decreased substantially since 2004, there have been no indications that the Pakistani military or militant groups had decided to abandon infiltration as policy.”
The report said the Pakistani military still maintained a close relationship with the militant groups in Kashmir.
Look at this - BBC NEWS | South Asia | Anger over Gujarat religion law - the morons in Gujarat are hell-bent on saving the poor downtrodden Dalits from themselves. Dude, if you guys really care about their plights so much, you give them stuff too. Don’t you think there is enough red-tape and delay in your courts without you making up more stupid laws to hold up the justice system?
Can you think of how many ways this law can be misused to harrass Christian and Muslim preachers? Now, I understand there are definitely problems about some of the methods being used by these preachers to earn converts. That doesn’t mean a law as stupid as this has to go into effect. What constitutes allurement? If a missionary helps a sick child and the family converts, is that allurement? What an insult it is for Buddhists and Jains to now label them simply Hindus? What about Sikhs? Why this? Why now?
I think the biggest problem is the politicos are more focused on dividing up an already divided electorate instead of working towards genuinely improving living conditions among the poor who are more likely to convert, allurement or not. If you treat someone as an outsider, why are you surprised when they choose to leave you? This law is particularly uncomfortable for me since it reminds me too much of the apostasy laws in Islamic countries. WTF, I thought we were supposed to be a “peaceful and enlightened” religion, unlike those “barbaric” Mussalmans! (that is sarcasm for the sarcastically-challenged)
So, the Pope says that your religion is associated with violence (broadly speaking….) - what do you do to refute him?
a. You ignore him
b. You calmly reason with him and put out a smart speech explaining the fallacies in such reasoning.
c. You threaten violence - Vatican tries to calm Pope row as militants vow war�
I mean how else would you explain to others how incredbly peaceful you are except by threatening to firebomb the crap out of anyone who disagrees? Simple, really!
update: Oh yeah, the Pope should die! We are really peaceful people….
A view from the other side - a lot of food for thought….
Well, I saw a bunch of breathlessly gushing emails on the Desicritics email list, here is a sample of reactions - “stunning indictment of American policy after 9/11” - “I got goosebumps after reading this” - “I might start watching TV again” - “It cured my blindness and ED” - “I saw a lame man walk after reading this” - “All Muslims are not terrorists, don’t paint with such a broad brush - it is all Americans that are dumb, ignorant and arrogant”….and so on, I had to find Keith Olbermann’s rant so my readers can feel the awesomeness that was his rant.
Ok, so what was Keith’s point again? He is pissed that there is no memorial built yet? It is somehow Bush’s fault? This gives people goosebumps? Please, please, please tell me that DC is not simply another echo chamber where a bunch of desi elitists can gather around and break their arms patting themselves on the backs while pontificating on the awesomeness that is America-bashing! I knew there was a reason why I don’t post there anymore - it was after all a place where the Muhammad cartoon-bashing was enthusiastically defended, while anything any country remotely resembling a democracy does is automatically condemned (the more democratic and free you are, the more you suck and we will curse you while we live among you), so I guess I don’t need no reinforcements for my beliefs. It is pretty sad, but predictable all the same.
I guess it was only a matter of time until Hollywood latched on to Idi Amin to fawn over after the awesome Ms. Frida who couldn’t stop loving Stalin - Film shows Idi Amin as monster, cruel and charming.
Here are a few snippets that made me simply shake my head in wonder -“I came away with a different understanding of him,” said star Forest Whitaker, already tipped for an Oscar for his role as Amin, where he alternates rants, cruelty and paranoia with affection for his entourage, and especially for the fictional Scottish doctor he befriends.“All I had before was this image of a dictator who was killing all these people, and it’s true,” Whitaker told Reuters in an interview. “All these people did die during his reign. But afterward, after doing all the research, I started to see something of the other things.”
[snip]
“A lot of the things he tried to do were very popular,” said Macdonald, highlighting even the expulsion of the Asian business leaders as something that had resonated with Ugandans who became shopkeepers and business owners for the first time.
The Asians, expelled in 1972, had formed the backbone of the Ugandan economy before Amin came to power.
“Amin made Ugandans feel proud to be African, and proud to be Ugandan. He was someone who tried to get rid of the colonial inferiority complex,” Macdonald said.
There is a big difference between trying to humanize a monster and acknowledging that monsters like Idi Amin, Stalin and Hitler also belonged to the human species and exhibited some of the species’ characteristics.
While it is OK to point out some policies were popular, there should be a point also made as to how the popular policies were ineherently extremely hurtful. People fall for populist policies since they don’t know any better - there is a reason why a governing body should take the advice of qualified economists and other specialists who know their stuff way better than the regular people who cannot see beyond their own threshold.
What ultimately made me really uncomfortable about the article and the interviews were the tone of awe and amazement over Idi Amin with absolutely no balance of condemnation that Hollywoodians generally seem to have such a talent for….
“Voting to Kill” by Jim Geraghty is a book that seeks to explain the transformation of the Democratic Party from the party of FDR, Truman and Kennedy to that of the perpetually anti-war party.
This book has been so engrossing so far (I am half-way through), I gotta say there have been very few non-fiction books that kept me turning the pages so fast. So far, Jim has covered Americans’ reaction to 9/11, Democrats and their actions on national security issues since 1968, Democrat and Republican reactions to 9/11, war in Afghanistan, elections in 2002, 2004 and the buildup to the war in Iraq. A pretty big list you say? It is and it is very well laid out with tons of cites that make me wish the book were in HTML format and I could simply click on the citations as links and read them.
I was really surprised as to how little I knew of American politics before the Clinton era. I am even more surprised as to how vividly I remember how disgusted I had felt at events like Cynthia McKinney’s shameless pandering to the Saudi Prince whose money Giuliani rightly rejected. There are numerous such instances mentioned in the book and each of them reminded me of my ill feelings towards the people who acted so obtusely those days. It almost makes me believe in Jim’s theory….that Democrats are digging their own graves as long as national security trumps all other issues for the general voting population.
Here is something that Ali Eteraz has blogged about that almost reinforces my previous opinion that NGOs are practically useless when it comes to reform in places that need the most. They are usually in the forefront protesting in places where reform has already taken place, but stay conspicuosly silent in others.
What Is Happening To Women’s Protection Bill (Pakistan) ? Eteraz
Most of us have heard of the rape laws in Pakistan, where a woman needs four male witnesses or is convicted of adultery and is victimized once more. There are currently efforts underway to reform those laws, but HRW and other NGOs are opposing the reforms because they are not reaching far enough. It is absolutely admirable that these liberal groups want the laws to change overnight to make everyone equal in the eyes of law, but something tells me that the Pakistani women are willing to take anything they can get right now and keep chipping away at the unfairness.
I can also understand why the reformers are not going to shove too many things down the public’s throats - for a conservative society like Pakistan to completely come out and change is not going to happen overnight. You don’t want to provoke the society so much that the backlash turns back the clock even more. Let’s support reforms in all forms and not oppose them just because they are not all we wanted. Check out Ali’s post for a lot more commentary on the subject and more links.
I received “Voting to Kill” by Jim Geraghty in the mail yesterday for review. It started off pretty interesting so far…I am still reading the chapter on 9/11 and the effects on the general population. Will keep you posted in this entry as I read more of it.
I almost debated putting this in the category of literature and media, but decided against it. Yes, I am reading this incredibly disgusting book that fills me with fear with every new line I read. For now, all I can see is how can a book so clearly convinced of the superiority of one race over all others still put “racism” in scary quotes - what believing your race is superior to all others to the point others’ lives are worth nothing is not racism? Why would someone who is clearly not afraid of airing his disgusting views on his race and others be so scared or concerned as to put the word racism in scare quotes throughout the book?
More as I read more….
Oh, one more thing - all through the book, the author is extremely sympathetic to the Palestinian cause - is it just a case of enemy’s enemy? Ultimately, isn’t the Palestinian just another brown mongrel who is a threat to the White race once the enemy (Jews) is eliminated?
Another interesting point is the total lack of any sense of responsibility - all Jews and black people commit crimes for the fun of it, while the White people are either forced to do so or are brainwashed into it. Why does that remind me so much of the apologists of a certain Religion of Peace and it’s Holy terrorists?
My heart absolutely bleeds for these poor, little kids who after all simply think they are so much better than everyone else. Being so superior is not a sin, no?
For Conservative Muslims, Goal of Isolation a Challenge
The seventh- and eighth-graders were competing in a debate on this question: Is a segregated, all-Islamic upbringing key to protecting your Muslim identity? Eight of the dozen argued yes, using variants of the theme offered by Fatimah Waseem. Young Muslims “join with the non-Muslims, copy them and look up to them. This is hurting our identity… . Sometimes, we turn way from Islam,” she said. “In conclusion, … we cannot sway in the wind and become weak. We need to be protected … by segregation.”
I mean, who cares about integrating with a society that is just so much beneath them? After all, it isn’t like anybody here ever fought to be integrated with the normal society, right?
But the discovery that 15 of the 19 Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers were Saudi and that their violent al-Qaeda ideology was rooted in Wahhabism had a particularly deep impact on Salafis, whose theology and practices were suddenly suspect. The attacks “shook the foundations of anyone affiliated with Wahhabism or Salafism,” said Chris Khalil Moore, 31, of Annandale, a convert who became immersed in Wahhabism while studying in Saudi Arabia before abandoning that approach to Islam. “Because they were fingered, pointed at, as being the ideology that helped foster the mentality of those hijackers,” he said, “I think a lot of people got scared.”
Well, said! I know it is obviously not my place as an unbeliever woman to say anything about you in public, brother, but how dare anyone be scared of a group that only managed to kill a few thousands of people and believes unbelievers like me and that too women are not worth the air we breathe? It is obviously not because of incidents like this…..right?
One of the area’s most prominent Salafi preachers, Ali al-Timimi, is in prison, convicted on charges that he incited young Muslims to wage war against the United States.How exactly do you reconcile this lament -
Salafi teachings begin to be more attractive to more Muslims as a defensive response,” said Peter Mandaville, an assistant professor in George Mason University’s Public and International Affairs Department. “In the face of this new global war on Islam, they are saying, we will hold fast and emphasize anew the fundamental tenets of our faith.
-with this from the same article -
For many years, the Saudis distributed a widely used English edition of the Koran with commentary by Abdullah Yusuf Ali. But in the late 1990s, they began giving out a new edition called “The Noble Koran,” with commentary that reflected the Wahhabi outlook of two scholars at the University of Medina.
Dude, they don’t hate you - you are the ones who hate everything that is not you!
I also found this paragraph quite interesting - especially the parts I highlighted -In mid-2004, federal agents raided the institute, confiscating computers and documents. But no one closely associated with the facility has ever been charged with a terrorism-related crime.(I was right, brothers! Look at this - a terror conviction for an Al Huda teacher!)
Many local Muslims were particularly embarrassed by commentary that disparaged Jews and Christians even though neither group is mentioned in the original Arabic.”
It is very interesting that this article dwells adoringly on the strict gender-separation between the people -A sign in a corner of the parking lot underscores its strict gender segregation.It reminded me of this tidbit from another very interesting article I read this morning -“Sisters Only,” it reads.
Inside is the congregation’s prayer room — divided by a tall barrier so men and women cannot see one another during worship — and classrooms for Al-Huda School’s 300 to 400 students in kindergarten through eighth grade. Here, too, is Muslim Link, a community newspaper published by Dar-us-Salaam.
Hordes of horny men will wreak havoc across much of the world, according to a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Key reason: systematic abortion of female fetuses. Current result: “an estimated 80 million missing females in India and China alone,” plus imbalances elsewhere in Asia and North Africa. Future result: 12 to 15 percent more men than women in parts of the world over the next two decades. Implications: 1) “The growing number of young men with a lack of family prospects will have little outlet for sexual energy.” 2) “This trend would lead to increased levels of anti-social behavior and violence.” 3) “When single young men congregate, the potential for more organised aggression is likely to increase substantially and this has worrying implications for organized crime and terrorism.”
I seriously don’t understand what the article’s point was - are they saying that Salafism sucks or that it is increasing in popularity only because we are scared of it? (this was just a rhetorical question, btw). I find a lot of white-washing in here and excuse-making with absolutely no facts are no responsibility assignment. Everybody says that American Muslims are being discriminated against without once mentioning the reasons why or even mentioning the actual facts that prove if there is really discrimination. If 90% of terrorists fit a profile and people are worried youa re pretty close to the profile already is it really a good idea to get yourself closer to a self-destructive ideology? If a Muslim fell in a forest and hurt his little toe, are Jews still sons of apes and pigs? What hogwash!
Why not present the full facts about Wahabism and Salafism - you know, actual facts about what the preachers are preaching in the mosques and not what they say they are preaching? How about some actual freaking journalism from our journalists instead of stories that make my mind and not my heart bleed?