Muhammad cartoons part 3

Intellectuals Speak out Against Islamic Totalitarianism
Good to see that writers, journalists, and thinkers are standing up for freedom in the way bombs and threats never can.

Some excerpts:
"After having overcome fascism, Nazism, and Stalinism, the world now faces a new global threat: Islamism," the manifesto says.

"We, writers, journalists, intellectuals, call for resistance to religious totalitarianism and for the promotion of freedom, equal opportunity and secular values for all."

[The clashes over the cartoons] "revealed the necessity of the struggle for these universal values," the statement continues.

The writers said they refused to accept that Muslim men and women "should be deprived of their rights to equality, liberty or secularity in the name of respect for culture or tradition".

"Islamism is a reactionary ideology which kills equality, freedom and secularism wherever it is present," the writers added, saying it is nurtured by fears and frustrations.

Intelligent Design

Religious fanatics in this country attacking science is unbelievably idiotic. To put things in perspective check out this article...Gravity vs Intelligent Weight. This reminds of what I learned during my EDUCATION (check out that radical concept) when the conservative catholic church refused to acknowledge that the Earth was not the center of the universe for over 400 years.

more Mohammed cartoons

Good to see others beat me to the punch and continued the trend to print further cartoons of Mohammed. you can find them here.

There is also a good article on a Dutch MP speaking in favor of western liberties (via the cartoons) and critical of strict islamic intolerances at the BBC.

Local desires vs the WTO

The US governed WTO recently ruled that the EU cannot stop the import of GM (genetically modified) foods into their markets, despite a nearly unanimous desire on the part of their electorate to prohibit such imports. Perhaps this is a sign of global federalism in the making, where a country (in this case, a collective of countries) cannot decide their own trading policy. We can only hope that the local vendors are at least required to let its customers know (in bold print) that the food they are buying is GM.

Muhammad cartoons again

The daily unfoldings of this story are simply too precious to leave alone. The BBC has a great page of comments on this whole fiasco, many are worth reading. One in particular caught my eye,

"the wanton destruction by the Taliban...of the historic Buddha images carved into the a cliff [in Afganistan]. Buddha is a prophet too, but I cannot recall any demonstrations of the Muslim world to protest this inane destruction. Double standards..."

How true. The slightest misstep by any non muslim is like kicking over a hornets nest. They begin with simple marches in the streets, but this soon leads to a mob mentality, with effigy burning, signs threatening suicide bombings, and the occasional invasion and burning of, guess what, non muslim buildings. Should any dissenters be the in the location, they will at least be beaten if not killed.

Where was the outrage when the massive, 15 story tall, ancient Buddha statues were blown up? Where was it when the synagogues were burnt in Gaza following the pullout? Where was it when more radical elements of the muslim world killed hundreds of people throughout the last 10 years in everyplace from Chechnya to Kosovo to the Phillipines to India to the Sudan?

But now the muslim world erupts because of...cartoons?

Muslim fanatacism rampant

It seems I may have not hit the issue directly on the head in my initial blog post. The firestorm of violence sweeping the muslim world should cause us all concern, because it directly challenges our sovereign freedoms, and as thus is an attack on free men everywhere.

Freedom of expression. Freedom of speech. Freedom in general. These words become meaningless as soon as we surrender our capacity to make decisions for ourselves to an aggressive monotheistic religion, or a dogma of any sort. The publication of cartoon depicting Islams 'prophet' mohammed is one of those freedoms. Would we all stop eating meat if it directly challenged some wacky religions notions about vegetarianism? What if the fanatics of this religion turned massively violent because of it, would we give up?

The freedom of the press is a basic liberty of our culture. If the muslims cannot accept this, then that is their problem. I see countless things everyday which I find deeply offensive, yet believe in freedom to the extent that I accept others misdeeds, transgressions, and outright insults. I expect others to honor this basic precept as well, even muslims.

So if I see an islamic protest burning an effigy of the Danish prime minister, I will speak up. All that is required for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. Oppose the radicals. Confront their ignorance. Be strong.

Prophet Muhammad cartoons

Muslims are so touchy. Islam is probably the strictest and most idiotic dogma ever allowed to fester in the history of manking. An example being how they consider any printed version of their holy text, the Kuran to be the literal body of their silly god, Allah. Another being their radical insistence that their "prophet", Muhammed not be portrayed by any drawings, which is a pure misconception of their own holy text.

According to the BBC, "There is no specific, or explicit ban on images of Allah or the Prophet Muhammad - be they carved, painted or drawn. However, chapter 42, verse 11 of the Koran does say: "[Allah is] the originator of the heavens and the earth... [there is] nothing like a likeness of Him."

Now the fanatics (and yes, they even more fanatical than even southern Baptists here in the US) are freaking out over some cartoon depictions from a Danish Publisher of mohammed, not only boycotting Danish goods, but having violent protests, and worse, threatening violence against Europeans for reprinting it.

Evil must be opposed, and organized religion is dangerous. As a proud member of the free world, I hereby give you, the prophet they speak of in all his glory.

Be Careful What You Wish For: Democracy and Hamas

It has been a key focus of our republic since its inception over 2 centuries ago to foster democracy around the world. Though a noble and revolutionary idea at heart, this pursuit has its dangers. Case in point, the Islamic world. Muslims are like Southern Baptists on steroids, with an uncompromising fanatacism that is ruthless. Not all muslims of course, there is a small percentage of 'secular' muslims that know a greater disdain than those of us who are secular here in the US.

Never the less, the Palestinian territories just had their first truly democratic election in history. Big surprise to the international media, but no surprise to those of us who have been there and seen the situation first hand, Hamas won by a landslide (76/132 seats) and will now govern.

Hamas is a wolf in sheeps clothing, cloaking the repeated mass murder of Israelis by building hospitals for Palestinians. They accept zero dissent in their ranks and will likely make a hard push to instate Sharia (Islamic Law) in the West Bank and Gaza. They are a terrorist organization who has been legitimately elected. Congratulations, democracy at work in the Islamic world.

If little bush has his way, Egypt will be next, as Mubaraks rule is resented by the masses there, his party is seen as widely corrupt, and the islamists have the hearts and minds of a majority of the populace. Further, look at the debacle of an election in Iraq, where the strictest form of Islam, the Shia, have a solid majority and may push for an Iranian style theocracy in time. Thrusting the gift of democracy on a people not ready for it is a disaster, and will ultimately lead to exponentially greater turmoil in the long run.

Let us not forget what makes democracy work, a large and well educated middle class (obviously among other things). Without this dynamic social component, it either turns into a tyrrany of the majority or a corrupt falacy of democracy (which is the direction our own democracy is heading).

Canada going the wrong direction

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4643882.stm
It appears that Canadians are just as suceptible to the old dirty tricks of politics as those of us in the USA are. After masterfully hiding information about some undoubtedly shady kickbacks by some minor members of the Canadian liberal party, the conseratives wouldn't let the issue rest, and stoked the flames of anger as hard as they could. Cause and effect, the voters get disgruntled, feel like this needs to go away, voilah, a change in leadership.

Its the same old snafu that the shameful ultra-conservatives south of the border have been pulling for generations down here, from McCarthyism to Reagan to Schwarzenegger. Welcome to the modern age. Innocence begone my northern friends.

Your country is now ruled by decree from the White House, who no doubt offered extensive logistical support and intel towards this end. Prepare to send your boys to Iraq, and as a consequence have somefuckingthing blow up in your country by some dumbass jihadists. Next step will be acts of government to restrict civil liberties, and a further entrenching of your military forces overseas, under the watchful eyes of your southern masters.

Dark days indeed. This election has disappointed me almost as much as John F. Kerrys smearing by the right here. Watch out.

Pat Robertson at it again

This guy is just way too easy to dislike, and further exposes what neoconservatives are really thinking in a clear, undeniable way. In his most recent lunatic rant, Pat Robertson cursed a Pennsylvania town of Gods Wrath, stating that by voting out the radical school board that was trying to ram "intelligent design" down the schools throat, they were in fact "rejecting god" and could expect a natural disaster to strike the town. I think this is along parallel lines to some ultra conservative and religious right thought and statements about New Orleans getting what it deserved for its "sinful ways", like sodom and gomorrah. What a pile of vomit they spew from their mouths. How can anyone be stupid enough to take this garbage seriously?