THE SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTER AND THE GOVERNMENT OF ISRAEL ARE BUILDING A “MUSEUM OF TOLERANCE” ON CENTURIES-OLD MUSLIM GRAVES.
Nothing good can come of this.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
Monday, March 08, 2010
The Very Definition of Irony
Sunday, March 07, 2010
It's Sunday
The American Taliban in Texas:
An evangelical Christian hate group called “Repent Amarillo” is reportedly terrorizing the town of Amarillo, Texas. Repent fashions itself as a sort of militia and targets a wide range of community members they deem offensive to their theology: gays, liberal Christians, Muslims, environmentalists, breast cancer events that do not highlight abortion, Halloween, “spring break events,” and pornography shops. On its website, Repent has posted a “Warfare Map” of its enemies in town.[...]
The group, which is associated with Raven Ministries, collaborates with other Christian groups as well as forced pregnancy advocacy associations like “Bound 4 Life.”
It's Sunday
A settlement clears the way to put a 77-foot cross on a hilltop near Interstate 10 in the Kerrville area.An agreement was reached Monday, the day that a trial was to have begun, to allow the metal sculpture by artist Max Greiner Jr. as part of a planned religious garden.
Some neighbors, in a 2008 lawsuit, raised subdivision rules to block the cross.
The Coming King Foundation has agreed to pay for construction of a fence to obstruct the residential view of the cross.
What? An 80' high fence?
"The Coming King." But I'm not going to make any rude comment.
It's Sunday
[Evolutionary scientist Gregory S. Paul at Creighton University's Center for the Study of Religion] ranked societies based on the percentage of their population expressing absolute belief in God, the frequency of prayer reported by their citizens and their frequency of attendance at religious services. He then correlated this with data on rates of homicide, sexually transmitted disease, teen pregnancy, abortion and child mortality.He found that the most religious democracies exhibited substantially higher degrees of social dysfunction than societies with larger percentages of atheists and agnostics. Of the nations studied, the U.S. -- which has by far the largest percentage of people who take the Bible literally and express absolute belief in God (and the lowest percentage of atheists and agnostics) -- also has by far the highest levels of homicide, abortion, teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.
[...]
When it comes to "values," if you look at facts rather than mere rhetoric, the substantially more secular blue states routinely leave the Bible Belt red states in the dust.
[...]
Six of the seven states with the highest 2003 homicide rates were "red" in the 2004 elections (Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, Arizona, Georgia, South Carolina), while the deep blue Northeastern states had murder rates well below the national average. [...]Marriages break up far more in red states than in blue. Teen pregnancy rates? The same.
[...]
Although correlation is not causation, Paul's study offers much food for thought. At a minimum, his findings suggest that contrary to popular belief, lack of religiosity does societies no particular harm. [...] It should also give a boost to critics of "faith-based" social services and abstinence-only disease and pregnancy prevention programs.
Yeah, it should.
According to the study, belief in and worship of God are not only unnecessary for a healthy society but may actually contribute to social problems.[...]
The study concluded that the US was the world’s only prosperous democracy where murder rates were still high, and that the least devout nations were the least dysfunctional. Mr Paul said that rates of gonorrhoea in adolescents in the US were up to 300 times higher than in less devout democratic countries. The US also suffered from “ uniquely high” adolescent and adult syphilis infection rates, and adolescent abortion rates, the study suggested.
[...]
“The United States is almost always the most dysfunctional of the developing democracies, sometimes spectacularly so.”
Gregory S. Paul
Baltimore, MarylandAbstract:
Large-scale surveys show dramatic declines in religiosity in favor of secularization in the developed democracies. Popular acceptance of evolutionary science correlates negatively with levels of religiosity, and the United States is the only prosperous nation where the majority absolutely believes in a creator and evolutionary science is unpopular. Abundant data is available on rates of societal dysfunction and health in the first world. Cross-national comparisons of highly differing rates of religiosity and societal conditions form a mass epidemiological experiment that can be used to test whether high rates of belief in and worship of a creator are necessary for high levels of social health. Data correlations show that in almost all regards the highly secular democracies consistently enjoy low rates of societal dysfunction, while pro-religious and anti-evolution America performs poorly.
[...]
Conclusion
The United States’ deep social problems are all the more disturbing because the nation enjoys exceptional per capita wealth among the major western nations (Barro and McCleary; Kasman; PEW; UN Development Programme, 2000, 2004). Spending on health care is much higher as a portion of the GDP and per capita, by a factor of a third to two or more, than in any other developed democracy (UN Development Programme, 2000, 2004). The U.S. is therefore the least efficient western nation in terms of converting wealth into cultural and physical health. Understanding the reasons for this failure is urgent, and doing so requires considering the degree to which cause versus effect is responsible for the observed correlations between social conditions and religiosity versus secularism. It is therefore hoped that this initial look at a subject of pressing importance will inspire more extensive research on the subject. Pressing questions include the reasons, whether theistic or non-theistic, that the exceptionally wealthy U.S. is so inefficient that it is experiencing a much higher degree of societal distress than are less religious, less wealthy prosperous democracies. Conversely, how do the latter achieve superior societal health while having little in the way of the religious values or institutions? There is evidence that within the U.S. strong disparities in religious belief versus acceptance of evolution are correlated with similarly varying rates of societal dysfunction, the strongly theistic, anti-evolution south and mid-west having markedly worse homicide, mortality, STD, youth pregnancy, marital and related problems than the northeast where societal conditions, secularization, and acceptance of evolution approach European norms (Aral and Holmes; Beeghley, Doyle, 2002).
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
Saturday, March 06, 2010
Our Man in Marja
The newly appointed top official in Marja, Abdul Zahir Aryan, is the Afghan face of the American-led military offensive.[...]
Zahir, who goes by Haji Zahir, arrived at this position after a tumultuous personal history that American and Afghan officials have not publicly disclosed. During more than a decade living inGermany, Zahir, 60, served four years in prison for attempted murder after stabbing his stepson, according to U.S. officials.
And so, of course, he is the perfect choice. The Marja public will have to respect him if he attempted to murder his own kin.
Three top U.S. officials in Afghanistan and one senior administration official in Washington confirmed his German conviction, though none would speak on the record. They did not say if the Afghan or U.S. government had known of his criminal conviction before Afghan officials appointed him to his post.
Okay, yes, there is a certain amount of failure to properly investigate and plan in our activities.
Of course not. As I said.U.S. officials in Afghanistan said Zahir's criminal conviction did not undermine their confidence in his ability to govern.
U.S. Marines and civilian advisers in Marja have given him money and protection in an attempt to persuade a wary population to follow him."We want to ensure that Haji Zahir's face is on everything we do," said one official who works with him in Marja.
Just in case somebody has to take the blame.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
The Public Option
The public option deserves an up or down vote in a national advisory referendum on Nov. 2 in the midterm elections. Why are congressional Democrats averse to letting the American people decide this issue? Is it because they want to ram through Congress a bill the people hate before they all get booted out of office? Why won’t the Democrats let the people vote on health care?
The Public Option is the Sirens song of the far left-wing, extremist -- titillating in its allure, hard to resist, difficult, if not impossible to secure, always just a few moves out of reach, seductive, yet guaranteeing a bad end to all who vote for it. The president, long ago, gave up on the public option; the Senate has given up on the public option and the American people (through thousands of letters and lively town hall meetings) have clearly indicated that they do not support the public option. The resounding “no” to the public option has been clearly heard, several times, if only the majority in Congress would listen.
I would like Lurita Doan (and anyone else, for that matter) to "prove" that a majority of the American public do not support the public option. I would also like to see proven that a majority of the American people support the current rip off of sick and dying people by the health insurance industry in this country.[...]
While "letters and lively town meetings" are dramatic, they do not necessarily represent a "majority" of the American people, since they often express the views of "extremists" who are so moved by their passion as to write letters or scream at a meeting. In fact, the majority in this debate has allowed itself (and President Obama has allowed it by not managing the public debate effectively) to be pushed around by a minority that equates paying high insurance rates to the health insurance industry with "freedom."
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
And I expect President Irrelevant has a good deal of insurance company money in his coffers that keeps him from pushing for a public option. When he is absolutely certain beyond a doubt that there's no hope for it, maybe he'll make a little "last ditch" push.
Yes, I'm just speculating.
A New Strategy for the Dems
For sure, the endless year of the health care debate has had more twists and turns than Elvis Presley riding a surf board on roller skates during an earthquake. Rep. Massa's resignation and the fact that it now will be "easier" to pass health care in the House because it'll only take 216 Democrats might lead to an interesting albeit crazy strategy: The Democratic leadership might ask other anti-health care Democrats to resign, lowering the "passes" threshold even more. I wonder if Rep. Stupak would take one for the team?
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
Iraq Election
Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, leader of the Sadr Movement within the National Iraqi Alliance, issued a fatwa or religious legal ruling on Friday insisting that believers must vote in Sunday's election and terming going to vote "political resistance," which produces success when a group is united, and ordering his adherents to unite.
Why that dirty, rotten terrorist!
Al-Maliki better pull out his best vote rigging. We can help.
Friday, March 05, 2010
Trying to Get Justice
A federal judge refused Friday to dismiss a civil lawsuit accusing former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld of responsibility for the alleged torture by U.S. forces of two Americans who worked for an Iraqi contracting firm.[...]
Andersen did throw out two of the lawsuit's three counts but gave former contractors Donald Vance and Nathan Ertel the green light to go forward with a third count alleging they were unconstitutionally tortured under procedures personally approved by Rumsfeld.
Let's see how long it takes the DOJ to stymie this one.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
It's Not Quite Sunday, But...
The Vatican has been thrown into chaos by reports that one of the Pope's ceremonial ushers, as well as a member of the elite Vatican choir, were involved in a homosexual prostitution ring.The allegations came to light after Italian newspapers published transcripts of phone calls recorded by police, who had been conducting an unrelated corruption investigation.
In the immortal words of Condi Rice, I don't think anyone would have imagined….
The tapes appear to record Angelo Balducci, a Gentleman of His Holiness, negotiating with Thomas Chinedu Ehiem, a 29-year-old Nigerian Vatican chorister, about men he wanted brought to him for sexual purposes.
Are we sure he was buying them for himself?
He has now lost his position as a Gentleman of the Holiness.
Wednesday, March 03, 2010
How Goes Marja?
“There are still pockets where we believe there to be some Taliban hiding out. Perhaps lying in wait,” Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell told reporters. “We expect the fighting will remain with us for weeks as we go about clearing those hold outs.”Morrell stressed that although the U.S. is prepared for additional combat, the military has moved from the clearing phase of the operation to holding and building.
“Things are trending in the right direction there,” Morrell added.
Not everyone agrees.
The war in Afghanistan [...] is indeed a near replication of the Vietnam War, including the assault on the strategically meaningless village of Marjah, which is itself a perfect re-enactment of Operation Meade River in 1968. But the callous cynicism of this war [...] and the mainstream media's brainless reporting on it, have descended past these sane parallels. We have now gone down the rabbit hole.
Oh, I think we went down the rabbit hole a long, long time ago.
Two months ago, the collection of mud-brick hovels known as Marjah might have been mistaken for a flyspeck on maps of Afghanistan. Today the media has nearly doubled its population from less than 50,000 to 80,000 [...] and portrays the offensive there as the equivalent of the Normandy invasion, and the beginning of the end for the Taliban.In fact, however, the entire district of Nad Ali, which contains Marjah, represents about 2 percent of Regional Command (RC) South, the U.S. military's operational area that encompasses Helmand, Kandahar, Uruzgan, Zabul, Nimruz, and Daikundi provinces. RC South by itself is larger than all of South Vietnam, and the Taliban controls virtually all of it. This appears to have occurred to no one in the media.
[...]
The possibility that wasting massive amounts of U.S. and British blood, treasure, and time just to establish an Afghan Potemkin village with a "government in a box" might be exactly what the Taliban wants the coalition to do has apparently not occurred to either the press or to the generals who designed this operation.
[...]
Yet the media is breathlessly regurgitating Pentagon pronouncements that we have "turned the corner" and "reversed the momentum" in Afghanistan with fewer than 45,000 men under arms in all of RC South (including the Afghan army and police) by fighting for a month to secure a single hamlet.
[...]
For his part, as the Economist noted this week, Karzai has made fools of all the Western officials who sternly admonished him to begin a new era of transparent democracy, seizing control of the Electoral Complaints Commission to dismiss its independent members.
The most pressing problem is displaced civilians.[...]
[Aid] workers say that the families cannot find temporary housing or medical assistance either in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand Province, or Kabul. Many hundreds of other residents have had their homes and livelihoods destroyed in the fighting.
[...]
Depending on which official is speaking, Marja is either a teeming “population center” of 85,000 residents or an isolated farming town of about 50,000 or a district with about 125,000 people. But if Marja is a district, it is unrecognized by the Afghan Interior Ministry. And if Marja is a town, then it needs to hold a constitutionally mandated election to choose a mayor, and not face a governor forced upon it by Kabul.
Regardless of Marja’s status, the choice of new “district governor,” Haji Abdul Zahir, does not make sense. Mr. Zahir has lived in Germany for the last 15 years and had never set foot in Marja until two weeks ago.
Good government will matter little, though, if the local economy is in a shambles. Marja’s agricultural base relies primarily on opium, and any new counternarcotics policies will wreak havoc; arresting or killing the drug traffickers will ultimately be the same as attacking local farmers. The timing of the offensive could not be more damaging: opium is planted in the winter and harvested in the spring, which means those who planted last year cannot recoup their investment.
[...]
If they cannot harvest their opium, they are in danger of defaulting on their [loans from narcotics smugglers or Taliban officials] — a very dangerous proposition.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
As Mark Twain Said...
"Often it does seem a pity that Noah and his party did not miss the boat."
A Sheriff down in Louisiana has set up his own militia to do battle with terrorists and unspecified other "enemies" during periods of political unrest. [...] Sheriff Larry Deen plans to arm the volunteers with shotguns, riot shields, batons, and a 50-caliber machine gun mounted on a "war wagon," as part of "Operation Exodus."
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
