Bacon-wrapped Koran?

September 11, 2010 — xanthippa

Breaking news:

Following a private meeting with Imam Fido Rowf, the Roverand Terry Bones held a press conference where he announced that he would continue with his plans to celebrate the Islamic feast of Eid by feasting on a Koran. “I’ve had a look at the Koran,” stated Bones, “and it appears kind of dry, so I figured I’d add some bacon or pork sausage. I mean, you can’t have a fatwa without ‘f-a-t’, right?” Jones continued, “I’m not against the Koran as a whole, in fact, I’ve book-marked some of my favorite parts…on a Persian rug!”

Well, what did they expect?

Humour IS the best medicine!

Posted in freedoms, Humour. Tags: , , , , . 1 Comment »

‘Moderate’ imam Musri: is he ‘al-Qaida in Armani’?

September 10, 2010 — xanthippa

Via  BCF:

Tom Trento from the FloridaSecurityCouncil.org makes an urgent appeal for information about imam Musri, the man who attempted to mediate between the ‘Koran-burning’ preacher Jones and the Park51 imam Rauf:

Update: here is one starting point to dig….with many links.

Posted in freedoms, religion, society. Tags: , , , , , , , . 4 Comments »

Thunderf00t: ‘The Real threat from Islam’

September 10, 2010 — xanthippa

Oooops!

It seems that, yet again, Thunderf00t needs to explain that by treating Islam exactly the same way he treats ALL religions and creeds, he is not a ‘bigot’ or a ‘racist’ who is  ‘picking’ on Islam:

Posted in religion, science, society. Tags: , , , , . Leave a Comment »

Was the ‘Koran-burning preacher’ Terry Jones duped by the moderate imam Musri?

September 9, 2010 — xanthippa

While checking out TheReligionOfPeace, I came across this story.

Instead of trying to simply retell what the article says, let me try to re-construct some plausible approximation of how it might possibly had happened.

First, we have the ‘Ground Zero Mosque’.  And, yes – the undercarriage of one of the airplanes that hit ‘The Towers’ on 11/09/2001 actually fell on top of this building and damaged it:  this makes the building ‘Ground Zero‘. Imam Rauf, who is building the Ground Zero Mosque  cannot, by any reasonable person, be called ‘moderate’ – not with what has been learned about him… and certainly not based on his behaviour.

Anyhow…

Yesterday (Wednesday), imam Rauf is quoted in the linked article as saying that

‘nothing is off the table’  when asked whether he would consider moving the site.

Today, (Thursday), Donald Trump is reported to have offered that he would buy the building from imam Rauf for 25% more than it had cost him:  not because he wants the building, but because he would like to end the controversy amicably.  Considering that imam Rauf and his gang had paid $4.8 million for the damaged building, Mr. Trump is truly putting his money where his mouth is.

So far so good.

But things go from good to bad rather fast.

A nutty and, by the sounds of it, somewhat unpopular preacher Terry Jones from Florida got annoyed by something and declared September 11th, 2010, to be ‘International Burn-the-Koran Day’.  (No, not a ‘Burn-an-imam Day’ – just destroying some inanimate objects he owns.)

Could it have been the very existence of the Mosque at Ground Zero?  Or, perhaps the speed with which it’s breezing through all the building permits while St. Nicholas Orthodox Church, the tiny little churched destroyed as the South Tower collapsed on top of it, appears to be fatally entangled in the red tape which denies its reconstruction?  Or was it hearing about the hundreds of bibles burned by Iran?

Perhaps he was expressing solidarity with the Muslims in Iran who have posted this video of themselves, burning the Koran, as a symbol of protest against the oppressive theocracy which is ruining their country? (Thanks, BCF, for digging this one up.)

Perhaps it was a little bit or everything.

Perhaps he was simply exercising his freedom of religion!

Whatever the cause, the fact remains that preacher Jones is well within his rights to destroy his own property, however he chooses to, and nobody has the right to meddle!

Of course, meddle they did.

And this is where it gets rather ugly…

‘Everyone’  has been meddling!

It was just ugly when it was just the usual media lackeys who condemned him.

It was emotional blackmail and just idiotic when people ‘all over’ tried to make him somehow responsible for the potential actions of other people.  Yet, that is exactly what happened!

But when General Petraeus, the American Troops top commander in Afghanistan, came out and started telling anyone who’d listen that how a specific citizen of the USA chooses to exercise his Constitutionally guaranteed rights, he’ll be guilty of putting American troops into danger – that is when it gets downright scary!

Since when do we live in a society which permits military generals to dictate who gets to exercise their Constitutional rights, and how?  Do we even WANT to live in such a society?

Of course, the media ignored the constitutional rights issue and instead of demanding that General Petraeus be stripped of his position and dishonourably discharged from the military (the minimum reasonable reaction to a general caught bullying civilians out of their civil rights) , they have given the military man a pass and continued to beat up on the nutty preacher.  Sad, even if predictable.

Of course, this is not where it ended.

US President Obama – the guy who found nothing offensive in decades of reverend Jeremiah Wright‘s ‘God Damn America’ sermons – condemned his own citizen for exercising his freedom of religion. In this abc piece, Obama is quoted as saying (regarding Terry Jones’s plan to exercise his freedom of religion):

“If he’s listening, I just hope he understands that what he’s proposing to do is completely contrary to our values … this country has been built on the notions of religious freedom and religious tolerance,”

In other words, Obama says that the USofA ‘has been built on the NOTIONS(?!?) of religious freedom’, but believes that exercising them is ‘completely contrary’ to American values.  (I am presuming here that when Obama says ‘ours’, he actually DOES mean ‘American’.)

Does Obama really not realize what is coming out of his mouth?!?!?

Last night, the internet provider pulled the plug on the prea

Today, when Secretary of Defense Gates did not only not fire Petraeus, but actually personally phoned Jones up and parroted Obama and the disgraceful general, preacher Jones began to show cracks.

So, let me recap.

So far, we have tons of pressure on preacher Jones to cancel his ‘Burn-a-Koran Day’ day, which he is ostensibly holding as an exercise of his freedom of religion, because he is so annoyed with imam Rauf’s arrogant project which has created so much discord in the American psyche.

We also have imam Rauf claiming ‘nothing is off the table’ when he was asked if he would be willing to move the mosque’s location to a less controversial spot.

Donald Trump takes imam Rauf seriously and offers to buy out the ‘Park 51’ property from him while giving imam Rauf a 25% return on his investment.

In comes the ‘moderate’ imam Musri,reportedly  an influential Muslim from Florida.

Preacher Jones meets with imam Musri and comes out of the meeting convinced (rightly or wrongly) that since the Ground Zero Mosque builders have agreed to move their project, he is calling off the ‘Burn-the-Koran Day’!

Yes, he has called the ‘Burn-the-Koran Day’ off!

But, he has done so in the honest belief that the reason for his decision to so publicly exercise his freedom of religion by burning the Koran was no longer there – that the thorn has been removed from his side!

Alas, not so!

Once the ‘Burn-a-Koran Day’ was called off, the ‘moderate’ imam Musri says that there must have been a misunderstanding:  he only promised that the two of them (Musri and Jones) would travel to New York to seek an audience with imam Rauf in order to ask him to, please, be so kind as to consider, may be, perhaps, moving his project elsewhere.

If he’d like to.

Pretty please.

Gee – how could such a misunderstanding have come about?!?!?

On a completely unrelated note – have you ever heard of the Islamic concept of  ‘taqiyya’?

Posted in corruption, debate, freedoms, politics, religion, society, war. Tags: , , , , , , , . 3 Comments »

A letter from Afghanistan to Dalton McGuinty’s EA

September 9, 2010 — xanthippa

First of all, I would like to thank this soldier – both for what he is doing for all of us in Afghanistan, putting himself in danger tto keep us and our kids are safe, and for taking time to write to Dalton McGuinty’s EA and asking for an explanation of how ‘freedom of speech and assembly’ became ‘privileges’.

Now, to explain…

There has been a series of recent protests against Dalton McGuinty, the Premier of Ontario, organized by two Ottawa taxpayers, Debbie Jodoin and Shirley Mosley.  Ms. Jodoin is so upset with Mr. McGuinty’s policies, she has decided to seek a nomination for the Conservative Party to run against Mr. McGuinty, in his riding, during next year’s Provincial election.

The protests have attracted some attention – and Mr. McGuinty’s ‘office’ began subtle intimidation tactics against the demonstration organizers, especially Ms. Jodoin.  This culminated in a letter Mr. McGuinty’s Exacutive Assistant, John Fraser, had written and emailed to Ms. Jodoin.

Not only did Mr. Fraser see fit to email it to Ms. Jodoin at work, he also emailed it to each and every one of her co-workers – and her boss.  In the email, Mr. Fraser admonishes Ms. Jodoin not to forget to obey the laws….  Yeah, employer’s just LOVE to get emails addressed to their employees which imply that without a ‘friendly reminder’ from the office of the Premier, this employee could not be counted on to obey the law of the land!

If the intimidation were not enough, Mr. Fraser’s letter (officially sent as coming from the Premier’s office) also included the following phrase:

“I think we can agree that free speech and the right to assemble are both a privilege and a cornerstone of our democracy.”

With Ms. Jodoin’s permission, I posted the full letter, along with the context (Mr. Fraser thought it necessary to come up to Ms. Jodoin just prior to the demonstration and ensure she agrees to follow the laws – the Ottawa Police were there in force, and even brought along a paddy-vagon…you know, just in case!)

Well, a few other blogs picked up on this, thanks to a great deal to MooseAnd Squirrel, BlazingCatfur and all the rest of the bloggers who picked up the story.  The story made it around the world.  Yesterday, BlazingCatfur posted a letter which a soldier, serving in Afghanistan as a member of Canadian Armed Forces, had sent to Mr. Fraser in response to the Jodoin letter.

He writes:

“One can not even imagine the sheer delight, as I try in many ways to convey to my troops that free speech and the right to assemble are a privilege.”

Read the full letter here.

And, if I ever have the honour to shake this person’s hand, the beverages will be on me!

Posted in corruption, freedoms, opression, religion, society. Tags: , , , , , , , , , . 1 Comment »

‘Religions’ do not have ‘rights’ – only PEOPLE have rights!

September 8, 2010 — xanthippa

Let’s get this straight, once and for all:  INDIVIDUALS have rights – groups do not!

Each and every individual within any and every group has rights.

The group – as a whole – does not.

This is a fundamental distinction.

We must NEVER permit anyone to ‘fudge’ or sweep this distinction away.

If we do, if we permit a group of 10 people, 100 people, a million people, to have rights different from simply the rights of the individuals who make up the group, make no mistake about it:  we are endorsing a tyranny of the majority, which is not substantially different from simple ‘mob rule’!

Coming up on the anniversary of the 11/09 attacks on the Twin Towers in New York, some obscure priest in the US has announced that he’ll burn the Koran as his expression of freedom of religion.

This has generated huge publicity all over the world – quite out of proportion to the act itself.

Now, don’t get me wrong:  I do not like book-burnings.  It is too Jesuit-like…  (Except that the Jesuits would traditionally shut the whole family, including the kids, in the house in which they found books, before burning the whole structure down.  To the best of my knowledge, this preacher does not plan to burn any people – just paper on which some words are printed.)

Now, the Vatican has issued a statement that:

“every religion has the right to expect that its sacred books, places of worship and symbols will be respected and protected”

OH, NO, IT DOESN’T!!!

No ‘religion’ has ‘rights’!

Only individuals have rights!

And YOUR right to religious freedom stops where MY actions begin!

Let’s stop paying lip service to faux rights.

Let’s stop cowering in fear of reprisal for exercising our fundamental rights and freedoms!

I urge each and every one of you to take some ‘holy book’ – does not matter which one, as long as it is considered ‘holy’ by someone… or, even better, one of each of them – and burn them.  At least in effigy…

Not because you disrespect them.

But because you have the right to do so!

Because our fundamental rights and freedoms are above any creed or faith or doctorine!

If you don’t use it – you WILL loose it.

Freedom is to important for such a gamble.  Don’t loose it – USE IT!

On September 11th, go and burn some ‘holy’ books!

Posted in freedoms, religion. Tags: , , , . 4 Comments »

Mosque being built on top of Christian cemetery – and NOT in New York

September 3, 2010 — xanthippa

Have you ever heard of a Muslim cleric named Mirza Abdul Ghani?

When India and Pakistan were partitioned in 1947, some provisions were made for ‘hallow’ land (like, say, cemeteries) of religious minorities.  This was the case with a Christian cemetery off New Rasool Road in Mandi Bhawaldin, Pakistan.

16 years ago, Mirza Abdul Ghani, the above mentioned Muslim cleric, decided to build a Mosque on the land legally set aside for the local Christian cemetery.  The local Christians were not particularly thrilled with this interfaith outreach – but they were intimidated into silence with threats.

So, the mosque was built.  The constitution of Pakistan forbids the demolition of places of worship, so the mosque has stood there ever since.

Three months ago, Mr. Ghani began building an addition to the  mosque – complete, with basement.  The addition is reported to also include ‘shops’.

When the local Christians realized what was happening and that more graves were being desecrated and destroyed, they sought and received a legal injunction which ordered that all work be stopped.  The cleric and his crew have ignored the injunction and the project is reportedly nearly complete; they are at the ‘plastering stage’.

Of course, once built – there is nothing anyone can do…

Next time you have musings about the tack record on the levels of sensitivity to desecrating hallow ground of other people by Muslim clerics intent on building mosques – think of the town of Mandi Bhawaldin and Mr. Ghani’s  little mosque on the cemetery!

H/T:  The Religion of Peace

Posted in human nature. 1 Comment »

More abuse of copyright laws…

September 1, 2010 — xanthippa

Each and every law, by-law and rule WILL eventually be stretched way beyond its intended purpose – so much so, its intended purpose may be completely obscured or even lost.  (I like to call that Xanthippa’s first law of human dynamics.)

And, it is to be expected – this is part of human nature.

As long as we are trying to just sort of get along, we talk and argue, win some and loose some, but, usually, over the long time, things usually even out.  Not all people are nice and fair – but, the vast majority of humans are at least somewhat empathetic and when they are ‘getting along’ with each other, one-on-one, most of the time, most people will be mostly fair.

That is how communities are built. And if there is one thing we, humans, do, it is building communities!

This all changes once we get ‘rules’ and ‘laws’ written down.

Why?

Because now, it is no longer about ‘getting along with other people’.  Now it is about ‘maximizing advantages’.

Being survivors,  we humans are excellent at ‘maximizing advantages’!

It’s one of our survivor skills – it’s one of the traits which makes us, humans, such a successful species.

Just as we are likely to be ‘fair’ when dealing with other individuals, we are certainly going to try our best to ‘maximize our advantage’ when dealing with ‘external circumstances’.

And make no mistakes about it:  once something is codified into a rule or a law, it becomes an abstract thing.  It is no longer about ‘getting along with another person’ – it becomes an external limiting factor to be defeated.  Deep within our psyches, these are very different concepts and it is not surprising that we do not treat them similarly.

(Just consider the changes in the ‘driving culture’ as towns in Europe are removing all traffic signs and signals – rule-based behaviour was replaced by social behaviour, leading to fewer accidents.)

This is why it is essential that before we make a rule or pass a law or by-law, we examine all possible ways it could be abused in – it is certain that, eventually,  it will be.

This includes  copyright laws.

Like traffic laws, copyright laws affect just about everyone – so it is important to get it right.

At ‘The Propagandist’, Walker Morrow points out how these poorly thought-out copyright laws are being abused by a predatory company, stifling the flow of information – all for a monetary gain.

If that weren’t enough, here is a piece by Thunderf00t about a Viacom, ordering its employees to go down to Kinkos to upload Viacom copyrighted videos onto YouTube – then suing YouTube for copyright violation…

Perhaps we need a to re-think our whole approach to copyright laws, like those towns in Europe changed their approach to traffic management!

Posted in freedoms, human nature, society. Tags: , , , , , , . 2 Comments »

Thunderf00t: ‘Tolerance’ and the ‘Ground Zero Mosque’

August 31, 2010 — xanthippa

This is brilliant!

I love Thunderf00t’s videos – OK, most of Thunderfoot’s videos.

He is really intelligent and articulate.  And, he has a large following of really intelligent and  articulate people who watch his videos on YouTube.  His YouTube -and, I am sure, non-online achievements (he is, after all, a scientist) – have earned him the opportunity to interview Richard Dawkins.

Disclosure:  I like Thunderf00t and what he says WAY more than I like Richard Dawkins and his message.   Still, we are talking ‘celebrity access’ here – earned in the best way possible.

Which is why I was happy to see Thunderf00t post a video about ‘Tolerance and the ‘Ground Zero Mosque’.

What made me even happier was to see that he had felt obliged to put up ‘Part 2’ to it – so many of those who love and respect Thunderf00t (and follow him in his fight for freedom of speech) simply missed the salient and important points in the original video.  OK – it’s not that they ‘missed’ the point that is so great:  what IS awesome is that someone as intelligent and eloquent as Thunderf00t explained it to them.

It is this explanation that completely and clearly explains the reasoning behind the opposition to this ‘we-have-conquered-America’ landmark which is something every single person who thinks (or says – those are not necessarily congruent) that those who are opposeing the ‘Ground Zero Mosque’ are intolerant bigots or some such thing ought to see and listen – really listen – to!

First, the original message:

And then, the explanation:

If you still have any questions, ask yourself:  what would George Carlin say?

Posted in debate, freedoms, opression, politics, religion, society. Tags: , , , , , . 6 Comments »

Photos from August 28th at Dalton McGuinty’s constituency office – part 2

August 31, 2010 — xanthippa

The August 28th protest in front of Premier Dalton McGuinty’s office drew quite a crowd – as well as relatively heavy police presence.

At the first protest, held July 17th (photos here), there were 2 squad cars, with 2 cops each.

At the second protest, which was not held at Dalton’s McGuinty’s constituency office but at Bob Chiarelli’s (he is the Ontario Government’s Minister of Communications), there was no visible police presence at all.  (Photos/write-up are here and here.)

At this third protest, the police were highly visible.  Like at the first one, there were 2 squad cars with 2 officers each.  However, in addition to these, there was also a paddy-wagon – just in case any protesters did not obey the rules and regulations….

Perhaps the presence of the paddy-wagon was anticipated, because this crowd is so very disruptive and destructive….  Leaving the last protest, I actually saw one of the protesters stop and pick up pieces of trash (an old pop-can, I think) which he saw on the ground on his way back to his car – oh, yes, these people are a menace to a neighbourhood!

Suzanne, from BigBlueWave, was at the protest and kindly sent me a link to the video she took of Debbie Jodoin speaking about the intimidation:

Permit me to put this into context:

Imagine that the Prime Minster’s Executive Assistant took it upon himself to send an email to your work – yourself, your co-workers and your employer(!), directed to you, advising you to remember the parking bylaws on your street…and even admonishing you to to ‘be mindful of your neighbours and their inconvenience, if you park in a way that might inconvenience them!

Then, that same Exacutive Assistant from the Prime Minister’s office went door-to-door, talking to your neighbours, asking them if you and your parking habits are inconveniencing them.

And to top it off, when you got home, imagine that there were a couple of cops – with a paddy-wagon ready to drag you off in, watching all your moves, where you parked, how you parked, how long you parked for….

Would that not be intimidating?

Well, Dalton McGuinty and his EA have about as much jurisdiction over this protest as  the Prime Minister and his EA have over parking bylaws:  neither the leader of the Provincial Government nor the leader of the Federal Government have any jurisdiction over municipal bylaws!

They are not responsible for them to be enforced – and it is certainly not their place to ‘remind’ law-abiding citizens to be good little slaves and obey them!

If the above comparison does not demonstrate just how intimidating this action is, think about it in these terms:

WHEN is it not intimidating for a political leader (or his EA, with the official ‘from the office of’ thingy) to send your employer an email in which he admonishes you not to break the law?

And that does not even address the content of the letter…which demands that we all agree that our unalienable right to free speech is a ‘privilege’!

But, I have already ranted on that…

One more thing:  the ‘request’ from ‘above’ was that we do not go on the road (duh!), or the lane in front of the mall, or any of the sidewalks – because that would ‘block traffic’ and interfere with the businesses livelihood.  In other words, we were to stand on the ‘lawn’.

Do you know what the ‘lawn’ at Dalton McGuinty’s office is composed of?

100% RAGWEED!

He bloody told us to go stand in ragweed! (I still have the blisters on my feet to prove it – oh, and this picture of the ‘lawn’.)

Because, this is how much the businesses were ‘blocked’ and ‘inconvenienced’ by the protesters:

I actually went into that little corner store to buy a bottle of water – it was hot!  The lady at the cash did not bother to get off the phone while serving me….and made it a point NOT to meet my eyes.  I am an Aspie – and rather aware of these things (as they are not ‘natural’ to me and I do not want to give offense – so I try WAY harder at them than most people – she had to work very hard indeed to avoid meeting my eyes).  But, she made up for it in rude brusqueness, tossing my change onto the counter contemptuously and turning her back to me.

If this is how they treat their paying customers, no wonder this business is not seeing much traffic.

At least the water was nice!

As you see – people tried their best not to stand on the pavement.

Shirley Mosley

Nick Vandergragt spoke well and pationately:

He pointed out how wonderful and tolerant a country we live in – even though this is a protest against Premier McGuinty and his policies, the young man sent from his office to monitor and record us was given the best, front-row spot and could record unmolested:  and so it SHOULD be!

That is what our veterans like Bert fought for!

But, Mr. Vandergragt had a very important point:  the problem with the McGuinty Government (or, as some people call it, the McGuilty Gang) and their ilk is not just the individual scandals – it is their whole mindset t hat is deeply flawed!  And, put into practice, their ideas are destructive beyond imagination!

I concur.

Perhaps you would like to ear the words of Bert, a 94-year-old veteran who tells it like it is (as recorded by VideoManOttawa):

The cops remained vigilant:

But the firefighters driving by gave us a thumbs up!  (I do not use the term ‘firefighter’ because I am politically correct, but because to me ‘fireman’ will always be someone who burns books – blame Ray Bradbury!)

VideoManOttawa was there with his trusty video camera and he has posted the videos on YouTube.  They are here, here, here, here, here,here, here,also here and here (including speeches by the municipal election candidates), here (Nick Vandergragt), here,here, and here.

.

Posted in freedoms, opression, politics, society. Tags: , , , , , . 2 Comments »
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