Dispatch from the religion of Peace: Disproportionate Response

Talk about disproportionate response, in Seattle yesterday at a Jewish Organization that was holding a Pro-Israel rally a man opened fire wounding five and killing one.

Now was this a neo-Nazi skinhead or some other fringe group?

Nope it was an angry Muslim, as a matter of fact, those were close to his own words via Reuters:

"Police would not disclose the content of the conversation, but Amy Wasser-Simpson, the federation's vice president, told the Seattle Times in a story on its Web site the man got past security at the building and shouted, "I'm a Muslim American; I'm angry at Israel," before he began shooting."

Now the police are describing this with that most ridiculously redundant of terms "hate crime," but I won't get into that bit of semantics beyond the fact that this is not mere hate. We have been in the midst of a clash of civilizations that began with the Israeli War of Independence in 1948 and has nipped at the boundaries of the USA throughout the years until it erupted with full force on September 11, 2001.

And this hasn't been the only incident of a peaceful rally turned violent.

When will the activist Muslims learn violence will not help their cause, especially not in this country?

Well, credit the chutzpah anyway

Hillary Clinton is promising to deliver not only a chicken in every pot, but the entire American Dream! (whatever that is)

"A lot of Americans can't work any harder, borrow any more or save any less," she said in unveiling the group's "American Dream Initiative," a package of proposals to make college and home ownership more affordable, help small businesses, improve retirement savings and expand health insurance coverage.

Wow, that's impressive. Hillary has discovered how to pay for your college education, business expenses, buy you a house, and pay for your retirement and health insurance! Now if she could supply me a business manager for that small business she is funding, I could sit on the porch she bought me and sip iced tea all day long. Even more incredibly, she proposes to do all this and simultaneously reduce spending!

It also includes a commission to evaluate corporate subsidies and new rules to rein in federal spending.

Man I don't know what economy classes Hillary attended, but they didn't teach the same things I learned in college econ! Mostly, though, I am reminded of this CS Lewis quote:

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

Lurch speaks. Somebody, please, make him stop.

John Kerry has weighed in on the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict. And it wouldn't have happened if he were President Kerry instead of Senator Kerry.

"If I was president, this wouldn't have happened," said Kerry during a noon stop at Honest John's bar and grill in Detroit's Cass Corridor.

Honest, John? And what has President Bush been doing to precipitate the crisis?

Bush has been so concentrated on the war in Iraq that other Middle East tension arose as a result, he said.

"The president has been so absent on diplomacy when it comes to issues affecting the Middle East," Kerry said.

Oh, it's a matter of diplomacy. I see now. If you were President Kerry, your mad diplomatic skilz would have made members of Hezbollah take up gardening as opposed to launching missiles by the thousands. Heck, they probably would have melted those missiles down and turned them into knitting needles, right Honest John? Kerry goes on to describe how his diplomacy would work:

Hezbollah guerillas should have been targeted with other terrorist organizations, such as al-Qaida and the Taliban, which operate in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Kerry said. However, Bush, has focused military strength on Iraq.

"This is about American security and Bush has failed. He has made it so much worse because of his lack of reality in going into Iraq.…We have to destroy Hezbollah," he said.

Whaa??? I thought the present situation was due to an absence of diplomacy, not an absence of destruction. Now Honest John seems to think Bush failed for not targeting and destroying Hezbollah. Imagine if you will the reaction from the Democrats in general, and Kerry in particular, if Bush were to propose destroying Hezbollah. First they would scream "cowboy," then they would gravely bemoan our "go it alone" attitude and demand countless UN resolutions (so we don't piss off the French, dontcha know?), decry that Hezbollah has "no connection to 9-11," then they would claim we were violating the human rights of the Hezbollites, and start a body count of both Americans and civilians. I for one, am happy to let the Israelis take the lead on this front.

It's no wonder this guy wasn't elected. He makes no sense.

Jersey Guy reviews Jersey Guy

I saw Clerks II this weekend, and I laughed, I cried, it was much better than Cats, I'd see it again and again.

Bad misquotes from Saturday Night Live aside, this movie is by Kevin Smith from Red Bank, NJ. Robert Holtzman, the Production Designer , for the movie, is even from my hometown in NJ. Since Kurt and I are both Jersey born and raised I figure I should review this movie.

Needless to say Kevin Smith's movies usually hit close to home in a very amusing way and Clerks II is no exception. Albeit hard to top the vulgarity of the original, this one manages to do it. I didn't get quite as many laughs as in the first one, but that's probably because I've seen the first one so many times I could practically predict the punch lines in the sequel.

So if you can leave your moral compass at home (unlike Joel Siegel), and want to laugh more than a few times, check out Clerks II, and beware of mouth trolls.

Fundraiser for family of Capt. Richard Gannon, USMC

I've posted before about Rick, and for the third year in a row, Rick's friends and fraternity brothers are hosting a golf tournament to help raise money for his widow and children.

Third Annual Rick Gannon Memorial Golf Tournament will be held on Saturday, September 30th, 2006 in Ithaca, NY at the Trumansburg Golf Course www.trumansburggolf.com. It is a scramble style tournament and there are usually a few beers involved to steady the putter and loosen the swing.

If any readers are interested in participating let me know, and I'll forward an entry form.

If you are interested in donating, donations can be sent to:

Brother Rick Gannon Memorial Fund
c/o Brian Drumm
47 Pier 7
Charlestown, Massachusetts 02129

From "Young Widows Guide to Grieving"

I found this post on the blog of a fellow widow, and thought it very perceptive. An excerpt:

There was a post on the Young Widow's Bulletin Board the other day, where the author referred to all the other people as "normals". All those who continue on in their daily lives, blissfully unaware of how quickly and easily the things that matter can be ripped away from you. It's like a twisted version of the Sixth Sense: "I see normal people...". Grief and loss change so much, so fast - both in our outer lives and within ourselves - that you can't help but view everyone else as living in some rarified world of ignorance. So when they stare at you like that, like there's something wrong with you that they wish they could fix, it can't help but make you feel like an outsider. I imagine that's why veterans rarely care to talk about the horrors of war to anyone except other veterans: you can't possibly understand unless you've been there.

That's pretty sharp stuff. Even more impressive that the author is all of 25 years. At her age, I was still looking for cheap pitchers of beer. She is blogging profound. Keep it up Tamsen, you are inspiring!

no further comment required

From the Virginian-Pilot, my local newspaper:

Police arrest naked man after he flails car with a stolen pigeon

SUFFOLK — A naked man clutching a pigeon was arrested over the weekend after beating the bird against a car.

Two Whaleyville residents had just pulled into their driveway Friday night when Juan Lopez, 30, of Kellam Road in Virginia Beach came up and repeatedly pounded the pigeon on the car, police said. The people got out of the car and went to a neighbor’s house where they called the police. After a short chase, police caught Lopez in nearby woods.

“I’m not sure whether he’s mentally disturbed or under the influence of narcotics, but he was obviously having some sort of issue that night,” said Lt. Debbie George, Suffolk Police Department spokeswoman.
Police discovered that Lopez had destroyed two of the homeowners’ bird cages, freeing 15 small chickens and four pigeons. He killed four birds, George said.

Lopez was treated at Sentara Obici Hospital for cuts and scratches. He’s charged with burglary, destruction of property and larceny of poultry.

Larceny of poultry???

Situational Awareness Scenario

You are driving in a car at a constant speed.

On your left side is an abrupt drop and on your right side is a Fire Engine traveling at the same speed as you.

In front of you is a galloping pig which is the same size as your car and you cannot overtake it. Behind you is a helicopter flying at ground level.

Both the giant pig and the helicopter are also traveling at the same speed as you.

What must you do to safely get out of this highly dangerous situation?

Solution Below






Get off the children's Merry-Go-Round, you're drunk.

My weekend in Baltimore

So I spent the weekend at a widows social. Rather than write about it, I thought I would post 1000 words. These are my new best friends Deanna, Karen, and Tanja. Yeah, it was a good weekend. Note the empty glasses in the foreground for context.

"I discovered religion watching Luke Skywalker"

I heard a song by Guy Forsyth the other day called Long Long Time.

And while I enjoyed the lyrics about Skywalker and comic books and the like. I could help but wonder how old is this guy and doesn't he remember how much the 1970's sucked.

Well, it turns out Guy's about 37, around my age. But it seems Guy's sentiments are alot different than mine.

I remember gas lines, our great country reeling from the Vietnam debacle and Watergate (Guy Forsyth does name check Nixon), President Jimmy Carter being made to look like a fool by a bunch of Iranian college students, and a stinky filthy New York City. And I remember plenty of gas guzzling station wagons and Cadillacs and Seven-Elevens all over the place in the seventies.

It took almost a decade to repair the damage done to the country and New York didn't get cleaned up for almost two decades.

People like Ronald Reagan and Rudy Guliani helped repair the mess, and for awhile the country ran well. But one Democrat and two Republican Presidents later, and the parallels to the Seventies are starting to be eerie. Once again we have a war that a large part of the country is against, gas shortages, a president the press keeps thinking is the enemy, and a grown up Iranian hostage taker and a midget in North Korea trying to make us look like a fool.

BBC Climate Change or SETI

I didn't know about this until recently, but I guess the British Broadcasting Company now considers themselves a Scientific Think-Tank. The Beeb is conducting massive computer simulations to help save the world from Global Warming.

Much like the SETI at home (that's Search for Extra-Terrestial Intelligence for non-Trekkies/X-filers) computer program that was started several years ago, the simulation runs on a network of computers connected by the Internet. Everyday tree huggers download the software to their laptops or desktops so it can run on its own, presumably while the owners of said laptops are out and about busily sitting in a redwood, chaining themselves to bulldozers, or torching the local GMC/Hummer Dealership.

Well, it looks like the BBC has goofed. Here's a kinder, gentler spin on the error. Perhaps, they should stick to the telly biz, old chap.