http://www.dailystar.com.lb/30_10_03/art23.asp

Some Iraqis are blaming foreign Arabs extremists for the recent string of bombing over there. This is a BIG step! Finally we ahve Arabs who live in the middle east rightly blaming other Arabs for problems, and not blindly saying everything is the U.S.'s fault. I believe Bush's plan is to fix Iraq, and then the rest of the non-extremists in the other parts of the middle east will hopefully see how good the Iraqis have it, and start condemning the extremists for causing so much trouble. Once they start acknowledging that the root cause of their societies problems is not the U.S., but their own leaders, both secular and religious, change will accelerate and maybe peace will be in sight. This is, in my opinion, a HUGE step, and a step the liberal media will probably not mention much, if at all. FoxNews, on the other hand, will probably jump on this.

Some radical Muslim group has taken responsibility for some major denial of service attacks on a lot of right wing blogs which are pro-Iraq war. In a way this is the beginning of cyberwar. Granted, these aren't computer systems that are particularly important the the war effort, but at the same time their influence reaches far beyond what you would think. Blogs like Insta-Pundit are read across the world and frequently quoted. I know I was very frustrated when I couldn't get the latest from Insta-Pundit because some jerks shut it down. It was only later that I found out it was related to a Muslim group. Cyberterrorism by stifling influential voices.

Obviously my blog is small and not very well read. There are a lot really interesting ones out there in the blogosphere, and it is fascinating to follow the trails of information from to another. I think mine would be a lot better were a little more educated on how to make it look pretty. I might even start linking to some bigger blogs to try to improve my readership. But right now I'm just having fun writing, and don't much care how many people read it.

Great article!

http://www.city-journal.org/html/13_4_were_not_losing.html

I was just reading more reaction to the anti-semetic comments made last week by the Prime Minister of Malaysia at a meeting of Muslim leaders. He remarked, among other things, that Jews rule the world by proxy, and that the Islamic world must become smarter so that they can defeat such a menace. This strikes me as similar to the way that Hitler convinced Germany that all its problems were caused by Jews. Back then it took years of mass murder before the rest of the world would admit to the horrors the Germans were committing. This time is a bit different. Now the Jewish people have a homeland and their own army. This time much of the world seems to think Israel is at fault for their problems with the Muslim world. When Israel tries to defend their people, they are said to be oppressors. When Israelis are murdered, it is by militants, not terrorists. While leaders of major segments of the Muslim world publicly agree with the remarks of the Malaysian Prime Minister, U.S. officials say that the remarks do not reflect the views of most of the Muslim world. Israel is surrounded by 1.6 billion people who, for the msot part, would like to see the Jews wiped off the face of the middle east, if not the world, yet the world condemns Israel for building a fence to protect its people.

Did you knwo that there is a growing movement in Germany in which the Germans feel that they were the victims of WWII? It is almost as if they are saying that if they had been allowed to succeed with killing all of the Jews, then they would have come out smelling like roses. Its part and parcel with the Jews rule the world thing. They seem to be saying that the only reason that the Nazi's are looked back on as evil is because Jews survived and convinced the world that the Nazis were bad, as opposed to doing the world a service.

Did you know that Al Sharpton, praised for being a great civil rights leader and a hero of minorities everywhere, is on film at a protest screaming about kikes? Yet people listen to him when he decries George Bush's efforts at racial equality.

All of this disturbs me. Anti-Semitism seems to be on the rise again worldwide, and many people seem to act like its ok. It's almost as if it's the last politically correct racism. Islamist terrorists kill thousands in many seperate incidents, but we can't say anything bad against Muslims. Almost all major terrorist incidents in the world over the past few years were commited by Muslims, but it's evil to be more suspicious that a Muslim getting on a plane might be a terrorist than an old white woman in a wheelchair. It's ok to blame the Jews, though. They are, after all, the ones who used remote control devices to fly those planes into the World Trade Center Towers, right?

This may offend some people, though my intention is not to offend, but to make people think. Not that this caveat will keep people from being offended, but part of what I'm talking about is the ease with which people become offended about things.

I think it may be time to rethink Christianity. This is a religion that has caused more death than just about any organization in history. The Crusades, witch hunts, etc... Now we have Catholic priests molesting children, so-called fundamentalists beating gay people, and priests being censured for writing their opinion after being asked to wrtie their opinion. This happened at Darlington College in Georgia. The school asked a priest that worked for them to write his opinion on the election of that homosexual priest to the bishophric (is that the word?), and he did so. Unfortunately for him, his opinion differed with a few of the readers, so he was asked to publicy apologize. He correctly felt that showed academic and religious dishonesty, and refused, and was forced to resign from his position. One of the disgruntled parties said that he had always thought that the Bible was exact, and not subject to interpretation, whereas the priest felt God was more into spirituality, not sexuality. This sort of intolerance is ridiculous. Islam, despite its recent problems with extremist terrorists, is more tolerant than a lot of the Christian world seems to be. I don't understand how some of these people can follow Jesus and his message of compassion, and be such intolerant bastards at the same time.

Have your read about that girl in Fulton County who got expelled (since temporarily un-expelled due to public outcry) for writing a story in a personal journal about a girl who dreams about shooting her teacher? Yes, it's ridiculous. She is getting off, but there are a lot of cases similar to this in which the writer does not get off. It;s funny, in our world, how if you actually commit a crime politicians will go out of their to make excuses for you, but if you all you do is write about a crime, you get severly penalized.

There are plenty of years when I don't really care for the teams in the World Series, but this year really takes the cake. After watching the Braves, then the Cubs, then the Red Sox lose, all my enthusiasm for baseball has been worn away for the year. This may just be the lowest rated series since they started showing it in prime time.

What I really don't understand is why Grady Little left Pedro Martinez in after the end of the 7th inning. He had enough trouble getting out of that one, and my thought was that if he got out of the 7th, that was going to be it for him, time to put in Timlin or Wakefield. But no, they kept in an already tiring pitcher, and he gave up 3 runs in the bottom of the 8th, allowing the game to be tied up. That, to me, is the most important decision made in the post-season, and Little made the wrong one.

I finally made up my mind on the whole homosexual marriage issue. We aren't supposed to discriminate based on sex, thus the law has to recognize same-sex marriages, or the whole system becomes hypocritical. If a religious institution decides not recognize it, that's fine, they have that right, but the government does not. Marriage used to be a strictly religious thing, now it's not.

Is there really a way to win the "War on Terrorism?" We can destroy Osama Bin Laden, the Israeli's could make peace with the Palestinians, and there would still be groups out there with grievences and a psychopathic attitude. This really isn't a war that will ever be won, but it's still a war that must be fought. My greatest fear, and what I also consider the most likely scenario, is that we'll be facing the same dangers 20 years from now, but from another group. Maybe the Maori will get uppity, or some group from South America will decide they have a bone to pick with the United States, and suddenly we lost another skyscraper to five guys in a plane. In one sense terrorism is just a drive-by shooting on a larger scale, and no war on drive-bys is ever going to end that sort of destruction.

The only way I see to EVER end this sort of thing is to discover faster-than-light travel and let the human race spread out so much that every group will have a place to do what they want. I hate to get all science-fictiony, but I don't think the human race will ever be free from the fear of one pissed off man or woman ruining it for the rest of us until we are too great for one event to make a difference.

Just for the record, I do not know what Courtney or Lane voted in the recall election, or fi they even voted at all. For all I know they aren't even registered California voters. Of course if they ahd come to California illegally from Mexico then they wouldn't have too much trouble being able to vote. Too bad they're already citizens, you get no rights in Cali if you're a US citizen. I wonder how much cheaper Courtney's tuition would be if she had run over the border to San Diego?

Since my sister nevers read this blog, I thought I would put a quote in here to make fun of her a bit. Why? The reason she won't read it is because I'm too conservative. This is all taken directly from an article that you can find at http://www.townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/ts20031011.shtml by Thomas Sowell.

"In San Mateo County, where the average home costs more than half a million dollars and the environmentalists reign supreme, keeping the vast majority of the land off-limits to building, 63 percent of the voters wanted Gray Davis to remain in office. In even more upscale Marin County, 68 percent of the voters were for Gray Davis. And in San Francisco, the furthest left of them all, no less than 80 percent voted to keep Gray Davis as governor.

"There is a certain irony here, since the Democrats like to portray themselves as the party of the working people, with special solicitude for "the children" and for minorities. But working people, families with children and blacks are precisely the kinds of people who have been forced out of these three affluent and politically correct counties."

Good thing for C that her husband is doing well, because I doubt you can live very well in San Fran on an art student's income. I do love my sister very much, and yesterday was her and Lane's one year anniversary. Congratulations, Courtney!

I had a thought today. What if Israel capitulated? What if they pulled out of the settlements, they acknowledged Palestine as an independent state, they pull out all troops, end the roadblocks, stop building the fence, and say, "Fine, you wanted a state, it's yours, have at it" and give them everything they've been demanding (except the ruins of the Temple, which would be a worldwide travesty to give up). What if they do all this to the satisfaction of the E.U., the U.N., and all the naysayers everywhere that say it's all Israel's fault?

Here's what would happen. A Palestinian terrorists would suicide bomb a cafe in Israel, because all they say they want to do is kill Jews. Then Israel declares war on Palestine as an enemy state, and they basically reduce the country to rubble. And the U.N. and everyone else would be wrong. They'll never admit, but they're wrong now, and they'll be wrong then, and they always be wrong unless they admit that the true goal of Palestinian terrorists is the destruction of Israel, not the creation of Palestine.

I don't think Israel should expand settlements now. I don't have a problem with the attack on Syria. I think this is the beginning of the road to all out war. It's inevitable, and I'd rather it happens on Israel's terms.

It's recall day in California. Should be interesting. Between Davis pandering to every special interest group that might get him another vote, the media ignoring or playing down Bustamonte's association with a racially prejudiced group, and the LA Times attacking Schwarzeneggar for some T&A fondling, this will be a vote to remember. As it turns out, the LA Times admits that it had reporters cold calling women listed in the credits on Schwarzenegger movies and asking them if they had any less than savory experiences with him. None of them came forward on their own. What that tells me is that most of them, when whatever happened happened, were probably somewhat flattered that a big movie star touched them. Does that excuse his behavior? No. But I know I've touched a butt or two I shouldn't have (never in a a work setting, mind you). But I also realize that if I had Arnold's mystique, there would probably be a lot of women doing their best to show off their butts to me, and the temptation to touch would be hard to resist. Also, the NY Times retracted its article about Arnold and Hitler. Apparantely when they actually checked the transcripts fromt he outtakes to Pumping Iron, the place those quotes came from, they found that what he really said was that he admired Hitler for his public speaking skills, but did not admire what he did with them.

From watching Pumping Iron, I know that Arnold has a world class ego, and an arrogance to match. Unlike most people with swelled heads, he's actually backed most of it up. All those Mr. Universe wins combined with his movie career, a marriage to a Kennedy, and one of the msot reconizable names in the US gives some credence to his arrogance. That said, I think he will do a good job as governor, because I don't see him getting into something without working his butt off to make it a success. Thus I formally throw my support to Arnold. I'm sure with my large readership base, my influence will swing things his way.

Actually I'd like to support McClintock, but he doesn't have a chance in hell, and I am socially liberal, as is Arnold, whereas McClintock is socially conservative. The most important thing in this election, to me, is to get a fiscal conservative in, and Arnold fits the bill. Just watch Pumping Iron and see him in his Milton Freedman t-shirt. BTW, if you've never read "Free to Choose" by Milton Freedman, I highly recommend it. It's a good primer on libertarian economics by one of the pre-eminent economists of our time.

This is a test. This is ONLY a test.

What do you think about tying HOPE to the SAT? This wouldn't be neccesary if not for the advent of grade inflation, but if teachers continue to give B's when a C was deserved, then students who don't test well but work really hard are gonna get screwed, because I think this idea is gonna happen. The ACLU will probably sue, saying that the SAT is racist. That is total BS. I've taken it, and there is nothing on the SAT that has anything to do with race. A lot of it had to do with actual thinking, so to say that the SAT is racist is basically to say that one race is dumber than another. I don't believe that, but I do believe that some races, in general, not in totality, put less emphasis on schoolastic education. That's why tying the SAT to HOPE will change the racial makeup of recipients. The ACLU will point to this and say that it's obvious that HOPE is racially favored towards whites, but it simply wouldn't be true. I bet they win that lawsuit. Give Perdue about 2 years to get the SAT approved as a HOPE requirement, then give it 2 more years, and the ACLU will get it changed.

I just read more about France, and the suspicion by many of their intellectuals (and remember, Frech intellectuals are held to be the smartest intellectuals for no other reason than that they are French) that France is in decline. One went so far as to claim that France was trying to drag Russia into the anti-Iraq war thing in order to help set up another multi-polar system in which the world is divided between the United States' influence, and the influence of Russia, which would basically follow the French. This would allow the French to remain influential but not have to actually contribute anything substantial to anyone else, a long-time feature of French policy. There are a few problems that will keep something like this from happening. First off, the Russians aren't that dumb. Second, the rest of Europe isn't that dumb, and the EU and euro have tied France to a Europe they thought they would lead, but now are finding that the rest have their own ideas. Third, and the major reason, is military power. The fact is, in any sort of conventional warfare, the United States could probably take on the combined might of just about every other country in the world put together and come out on top. And anything other than conventional warfare, meaning WMD's, would condemn the user in the eyes of everyone else. Basically France has been making a play to gain undeserved influence over world affairs, and the United States ignored them. Now thy ahve even less influence than before, and much of America, one fo their primary trading partners, sneers in their general direction.