Religion of peace? Ft. Hood is making me rethink my opinion

The events at Fort Hood this week have been very much in the fore of my mind. There was at least one LF forum member that was reported to be in that area, so the situation hit closer to home. Thankfully, he's been heard from since and was not involved. However, the reaction from the leaders of Islam are making me rethink what I thought about Muslims.

I used to believe, or at least want to believe, that there was a difference between Islam and Militant Islam. I don't know a lot of Muslims; being a Christian I don't have a lot of contact with them in my daily life, and certainly not in my spiritual life. So, what I know of Islam has been gleaned through my own limited research and what I have observed of it through the news.

Islam is called the Religion of Peace. That sounds great on the surface, but if the definition of peace I have been told is accurate, that becomes very troubling. According to what I've found, "peace", in terms of the Muslim definition of the word, means "the world under Islamic rule". Till then, there is no peace. We're certainly in the midst of that right now.

Because Islam doesn't come out against, and denounce as being against the teachings of Islam, fanatics like the murderer in Texas-I refuse to publish that waste of skin's name-makes me think they're in favor of it. Because they decry only Islam being painted in a bad light and not acts of murder and terrorism, I'm coming to the conclusion that there's no difference between Militant Islam and the rest of Islam. It appears they may be one and the same. I need to do more research, but as the Magic 8 Ball would say, "signs point to yes".

WTH?

Why am I still awake at 3:13 a.m.? I have a comp day today, but I think I'm gonna waste half of it sleeping! That's it; I'm off to bed!

Best and Brightest

Saw this pic in a thread of "fail" pics and posters on "my" forum, and couldn't stop chuckling. We're at war with the Best and the Brightest. If it weren't for their significant numbers, this conflict would have been over quite some time ago. I bet if he were able to legally vote, or in Chicago, he'd have voted Obama.

Awesome parody

For whatever reason, the kookiness of hippies has been on display in overwhelming force of late. The Earth First Kooks are pretty much the weirdest of the bunch. I heard about this video from the Glenn Beck Show (nothin' like good ol' hardcore Conservative radio at work), who called it "the funniest video ever". I think it probably is, but the other one I found while searching out this one takes the prize. Whoever you two comedic geniuses are, I salute you! We are in the presence of greatness.

Here's the original vid. Makes me wonder, though: what are the chances that the drumstick that one dude has, and perhaps the drum head itself, aren't made from trees and animals? Just sayin'...


Now, as great as that vid is, check this one out. You're gonna love this!

How cool was that?

The left is so odd

Every now and then, I plug a word or phrase into Google and see where it goes. Today, the term was "zombie". That lead me to Zombietimes.com's Hall of Shame. That's a collection of photos from the site. It appears that they have quite the collection of sought-after photos.

While looking through the photos of freaks on the left, I came across this one:

Now, one of two things is going on there. One, since this is a lefty freak, we may have the appearance of a bearded lady. The other option: he's too dumb to notice that the gummint can't be in his ovaries. This is the kind of thing that I find so hilarious about the hard left. I don't even know if they notice how flat stupid they make themselves appear, on a constant basis.

Here's another fave:

I think her sign was supposed to read "Kennedy", and she just got distracted by a shiny thing or more drugs and made a mistake. In the immortal words of Bugs Bunny "what a ma-roon".
And one last one:

Apparently, she's having a little trouble with her history...but what leftist whacko doesn't?

One last bit of advice for the nut jobs on the far left fringe: if you're gonna have a protest called "breasts not bombs", put the perky ones in front, and don't let the knee shooters have signs. Those of us that like boobs would really appreciate it. The way you did it 7/25/05 was rather hideous. Then again, hot girls with perkiness have no need of political exhibitionism. Quite a conundrum, isn't it?

Nazis? I hate Illinois Nazis!

So I'm watching The History Channel, AKA the War and Destruction Channel, AKA Among the Very Best Channels on TV, when The Secret History of the KKK comes on. Like everything on THC, production value was excellent, and it was very well done. I'm sure the snotzie's didn't like it, but it seemed to me that it was a solid depiction of the events of history. Sure, it had an anti-hate slant to it, but that's OK with me. It made more sense that way. I used to watch that encephalitic moron Tom Metzker's cable access show "Race and Reason" back in the day. That seems to be about the best the neo nazis can do, which was equal parts comedy, relief, and dismay for me. I'd have loved to see some choice bits of "Race and Reason" to have made it into the History Channel; anything that helps the skinhead movement look as ridiculous as they are is a good thing.

The show brought up a couple questions in my mind, though. First and foremost, how is it that the snotzies were called the National Socialist German Workers' Party, and yet their ideology was anti-communist? I can see them hating Russians, I guess, but communism is just socialism without the intellectual honesty. There is no way to get to commie-ism without going through the Democratic Party...I mean...socialism. The Third Reich was clearly a socialist state, with a dicktaster...uh...dictator as its head. And yet the snotzis proclaimed that communism was not their friend. Current snotzies look at Hitler's administration at a model. Its no wonder it only worked one time in one particular place in the world: even the snotzies didn't have a grasp on what their ideology really was. Nice job picking your role models, guys. Great choice.

The second question that came to mind is this: what happens when you get your way? Say we end up segregated, Whites over here, Blacks over there, Hispanics over there someplace, and the Orientals happily living where they already do for the most part. The Orientals may have it right: islands have that whole beach thing going on, and I suspect that rum would be available ;). So there's this perfect separation of races; Cletus doesn't have to have niggers, kikes, zipperheads, or anyone other than his airian brothers in his neighborhood. The perfect race utopia, right? I guess so; since I'm white and I'll be living there, theoretically, I'm gonna need somebody to sweep the streets, wash my truck when I don't want to, and fill all those undesirable positions that are shown on Dirty Jobs. See where this is going yet? My education, skills, and talents will put me further up the ladder than ol' Cletus will be, and he'll be in the same position he always was.

Lemme spell it out for the thicker ones amongst us: your hate is nothing but a crutch. You complain about the Jews taking over everything and suppressing you, the proud white man that can only get a job where he has his name on his shirt. You complain about the black man getting preferential treatment through affirmative action and getting ahead of you. All you've done is let your hate get in the way of your progress. Ever wonder why the depictions of race haters are generally done with teeth missing, bad haircuts, and stained T-shirts? Because there's truth to it. Sure, you have that "uniform" of the tight jeans and suspenders that we all suspect was borrowed from Steve Urkel. Its obvious that there's not an educated person among you.

So you have hate. How has any of that made your life better? How has the quality of your life improved from this? What's been made better by all this? You spend so much time whining about other races not giving you your due that you've become exactly the same as generations of people on welfare. You spend all your time worrying about everybody else when you should be worrying about making yourself better. And ya know what? It works exactly the same with haters from every other race, too. You'll never amount to much of anything believing what you do. You'll never get over, never have more than you do. That's sad; you're so worried about somebody else that you're sacrificing your life to it.

What's worst of all? For most haters, nothing will change. That being said, I guess that gives me license to use you guys as a source of comedy whenever it suits my purposes.

What would happen if Carrie Underwood really did

Carrie Underwood has this real catchy tune out called "before he cheats". I kinda like the song; the hook is strong and her performance on that track is very solid, and emotionally powerful. The thing is, and this is what drives the people that work with me a little nutty, is that I pay attention to lyrics. In "Big Black Horse and a Cherry Tree", by KT Tunstall, I was the one who realized that the horse was the one who was doing the proposing, which freaked out my coworkers and caused them to dislike what we've come to call "the woo-hoo song". Besides how goofy the lyrics are, hearing it five times a day, 40 + hours a week is too much anyway.

So, when Officer Timmy came over to the shop today, I asked him what Carrie would be looking at for charges if she were to do what was claimed in the chorus. So you don't have to go look it up, being the kind and benevolent dictator of this blog that I am, I'm going to quote it for you:

That I dug my key into the side of his pretty little souped up 4 wheel drive,
carved my name into his leather seats...
I took a Louisville slugger to both headlights,
slashed a hole in all 4 tires...

Turns out that in Kentucky, that's called Felony Criminal Mischief. OT said that's what's typically charged when stuff like vandalism of more than a thousand dollars is involved. What you're looking at is five years in Federal Pound You in the Ass Prison. Typically, what happens is the charge will get plead down, and would normally end up with a couple years probation, and she'd have to either pay the deductible and and difference in the coverage to get the truck repaired, or she'd have to go out of pocket for the whole thing. If she fought it and lost, she'd be looking at max penalties, because her response was so far out of proportion to what he did to her.

I'm not in any way advocating cheating on your significant other. Doing that makes you pretty much a dirtbag, and there's no two ways about it, whether you cheat on her, or she cheats on you. If you're gonna cheat on 'em, just man up and break up with the chick. Sure its difficult, but it beats having to deal with a bunny boiler. I know some dudes on the Intarweb-not to name Wild Mustang's name, though-that have been there. Its endlessly entertaining for us, but its unnecessarily...griefy for you, and her.

Still, we all know what really happened in the story that the song presents: she goes to jail overnight (at least; that's assuming somebody makes bail for her) he knows she's gone for at least the night, and he ends up doing the horizontal mambo with her best friend and her other best friend, while her other best friend mans the video camera. We all know Carrie's best friend in this scenario is a hose beast who couldn't be trusted to stay out of anybody's pants. I'm sure she's a bleached blonde, too. We know how they are.

Leave the truck alone and just leave. How hard is that?

Non News Non Stories are abound tonight

OK, so its not exactly the hottest of the non-news regarding the VT shooter, but this story is the just about the height of the idiocy. Talk about trying to make something out of nothing. I suppose that blame must be laid somewhere other than with the dirtbag loser geek that committed the crime.

Wow, ten round magazines for his Walther P22. That's preposterous! Those are only for killing people. They have no sporting purpose whatsoever! They can carry those hollow point cop killer bullets, too! I gotta get me some rolly-eye emoticons if I'm gonna keep writing that sort of stuff. I guess I just wanted to stay in the same theme as the major papers have.

The only problem is, those magazines (at least the Chic Trib didn't call 'em "clips" for a change) are legal just about everywhere, including California. They're against EBay's policy, too, which is retarded...but that will have to wait as its a separate topic of its own. Bottom line is, this is a non-story.

The news is clearly looking everywhere other than where the blame truly lies. By omission, they're blaming both the EBay seller and EBay themselves. They're blaming his upbringing. They're blaming his personality; his taciturnity. Don't worry about not knowing that word, I had to go look it up, too. It means quietness, introversion. More specifically, it means being taciturn to the point of being a jerk; only volunteering the bare minimum of information (which will usually have to be pried out of the subject through repeated questioning) and being difficult to communicate with.

I'm somewhat of an introvert. I don't have much trouble talking to people I don't know, but I don't go looking for people to meet, either. Even so, one must learn to have at least a little bit of socialization skills to get by in the world anymore. I mean, this kid went from a country where family communication is paramount, and then went to a huge university. How can ya not at least come out of the shell a little bit? I'll call it like I see it: he's a jerk.

Here's the bottom line here: Dude was an ass. He did this. It all ends with him. Its all on his shoulders. The students there apparently made it easy for him, but its still all on him. Let's quit trying to blame everyone and everything else and put that blame where it belongs.

One last point, since I probably won't be on this subject again unless I get disgustipated and post about that. One of my friends, who's an SF Weapons Sergeant, made a good point yesterday. If I saw this skinny little twit come into a classroom, line everyone up and then shooting that first person, I'd have reacted like my bro. His comment was "...I'd be thinkin' 'what have I got to loose?' and get up and throw a fist at that punk" he then went on to pantomime pummeling him with fists and then giving him the boots and a good monkey stomping. Some of these kids at VT talked about "waiting to die, I guess". I can't even fathom that kind of thinking. I have a gun with me most days. It would be pretty clear that this guy had no training. The body count was so high not because he was so skilled, but because so many allowed it to happen. Unbelievable.

Maybe this will cause people to take their own safety seriously. Wow! You could get expelled for having the tools to defend yourself? Yeah, that sure pales in comparison to getting dead. I'm sure VT is the only school to go to, as well. Am I advocating the ignoring of school policy? Not as much as I am advocating being thoughtful about your own well being. I'd rather there would have been one guy there who chose to ignore policy and save the lives of a couple dozen people, including himself. Or herself.

Why is Anna Nicole such a big deal?

In between Jericho, an online quiz for my Scientific Models of Origins class, and Personal Defense TV, I did a bit of channel surfing. I noticed a trend that goes back all the way to last week, and possibly even further back than that. Its a disturbing trend, and one that I certainly don't understand. Seems to be very little call for it, but its there nonetheless.

What is it(?), I hear you asking. What is it that vexes Haji so? What could it be, this heinous thing that permeates cable TV?

I saw, yet again, another show about Anna Nicole Smith. I don't understand what the reasoning is. What did she do that made her worth being a celebrity that must be memorialized for weeks on end? Was she a helper of people like Mother Theresa? Was she a philanthropist as Bill Gates has become? Was she an artist, a poet, a thespian (that's an actor, not a chick that digs chicks...in case you were confused) , a world leader? Ummm...no, not quite. Let's do a quick recap:

• Playboy model, and an exotic dancer, if I recall correctly
• Marrier of almost dead multi-millionaires
• mother of a kid who died under mysterious circumstances
• Certified, Grade A, First Class Trainwreck

So what is it about her that's so compelling? I can't think of a thing. Presidents have died and had less fuss made about them. People with a lifelong body of incredible work in a plethora of fields of endeavor pass without even a note in the newspaper...which is hard to believe, given how little newspapers are read anymore, and how news starved they seem to be.

Here's the bottom line for me: she made a mess of her life. She died tragically, but likely of her own carelessness. I feel for her daughter and her uncertain future. That truely is a tragedy. Her life, though, isn't even good spectacle. She should be lamented, not celebrated. Kinda makes me a little bit sick to think that she has this kind of impact. America is becoming a weird, weird place.

Wrecked!

Found out a couple days ago that a good friend of mine got wrecked by some crazy lady on his brand new motor-sickle. Not even 600 miles on his bike yet. Crazy lady was behind him, then went to pass him, made eye contact with him as she was going by, and then cut in front of him and hit her brakes.
The good news is that my bro is fine, except for some bruises. He went OTB, and the bike landed on him, which is where the bruises came from. He jacked up his helmet and jacket in addition to probably totalling his scooter. The Crazy Lady pretty well copped to causing it in the Police report. Of course, it apparently didn't do all that much damage to her rig. Ain't it the way? Seems my bro's insurance company is going after everything on this one, and he's got gap insurance in case they don't. He'll end up with a new bike out this, more than likely.
Wanna guess where he was coming from when this happened? Think about it...what would be the most ironic thing you can think of? That's right: motorcyle riding school. Since he's fine, that's funny!

voting

I just re-read a story that re-blows my mind. An elected "official", Rep. Cynthia McKinney, D of GA, threw a hissy fit when stopped by Capitol Police for not following the rules at a security checkpoint . She threw her cell phone at a law enforcement officer, and then cried foul, claiming "inappropriate touching" when they detained her. She wasn't wearing her congressional pin, which is a sort of ID badge (not enough of one, in my opinion). I suppose she expected the Police to remember what she looks like and just let her through, because she's been elected, after all. Now, if she looks like this all the time, I gotta say she'd be pretty memorable, in that crazy-lady-with-200-cats sort of way.
But the bigger question here isn't Rep. McKinney's obviously detached perception of reality. It isn't even her "I'm above everything because I'm a congress-person" attitude, exhibited by her claims of being assaulted when, in point of fact, she could have (and probably should have) been arrested for battery of a law enforcement officer. The bigger question has less to do with the representative and her kind. It rests with the people.
Why is it that so many people around the world can see her as a caricature of a lawmaker, a political whacko (its a technical term) and someone that most of us wouldn't be represented by, when she repeatedly wins elections? What do people see in these fringe candidates that gets them elected? Are there really that many nut jobs in America?
Here's a less extreme example. When I lived in deepest, darkest southern California (the border was a mere 15 minute drive away) I was represented at the Federal level by Barbara Boxer. She's far more liberal than I am, but that's not really why I disliked her representation.
I disagree with the rules of the game as they are at this time. Representatives are in Washington DC to get money for the states. I don't like the way it works, but until that changes, those are the rules that govern. Barbara has failed in that job, getting California less and less funding every time around. Diane Feinstein has garnered more funding for San Francisco's alleged illegal immigration problem (must be importing hippies from somewhere) than the rest of California gets. That's just not right, and it points directly to a failure in representation.
Which really just means that an innefective employee has the job. OK, then, vote her out and replace her. Californians of various political stripes have voiced their displeasure; its not just us whacky kill-em-all-for-oil neo-cons. She's been eminently beatable for the past couple elections. But what do the people do? The reelect her.
I suspect that this phenomena (and I'm not speaking strictly of female elected officials, those are just two of the plethora of examples I could use, from both genders and all political affiliations) rests with the fact that Americans have grown lazy. I started voting when I came of age, and haven't ever missed voting in an election that I was eligible to vote in. But there are family members, friends, and aquaintances of mine that can't be bothered to vote. At all. Many that do don't put in serious study into their candidates because of busy schedules. I've taken the easy road from time to time and voted the party line, but I've been far less disappointed when I have, compared to "if I hadn't". In those cases, I had a pretty good idea of what I was getting; the candidates were known entities.
What happens now, it seems, is that when there are new candidates, such as presidential hopefuls, we the people vote more on appearances than policies. Once they're in office, the easy way is to keep them there. More's the pity.
In the end, regardless of what political stripe one wears, one gets the government one votes for. Sort of a political "you get what you pay for." When people get elected and they do something rash, foolish, illegal, immoral, or criminal, the finger of guilt, at the end of the day, points to the people that put them there.