I’m going back now to the riots and burning buildings over political cartoon depictions of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad. Thousands of Muslims were ‘outraged’ over the cartoons printed in a Danish newspaper and rioted in various countries burning buildings, injuring (and in some cases causing the death of) people, and generally causing problems in several countries waving signs with such catchy slogans as ‘Freedom go to Hell’ and ‘Decapitate the Infidels’.
I am glad that Islam is such a tolerant and peace loving religion or things might have really gotten ugly….
Seriously though … I do understand that we are dealing with an extremist element within the Muslim religion … it just happens to be a very large group … and I also understand that there are extremist elements in other religions as well that do crazy and inhumane things in the name of their beliefs (Christians bombing abortion clinics for example) these people are just as much terrorists as the Muslims that flew planes into the twin towers in NYC on September the 11th.
But this goes beyond religious outrage … this is manipulation for political purposes and it is NOT helping the Muslim cause.
First off, Muslims claim that they are upset at being portrayed as crazy terrorists … so what do they do to express their outrage … riot, burn flags and buildings, and hurt and kill people … calling for decapitations and damaging property and lives. Yeah … good way to dispel the stereotype….
Thankfully some of the more mainstream and moderate Muslim clerics are starting to catch on to the problem … you see … it’s true of all stereotypes … they come from SOMEWHERE … people don’t just make them up … the ARE stereotypes because in MANY cases they are true. The goal is to show that you aren’t PART of that stereotype and that requires the work of a lot of people working in ways outside of that stereotype … but that isn’t what certain groups in the Muslim community wanted.
Why? Because the leaders of those groups ARE ‘crazy terrorists’ trying to impose Islamic law on the rest of the world.
Also, these cartoons are OLD news. This ‘outrage’ isn’t over cartoons printed in late January or early February …. They were RE-printed in an Egyptian newspaper in October of 2005 (Arab paper published cartoons 4 months ago). October is the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and yet that isn’t when the Muslims became ‘outraged’ and took to the streets with their signs calling for the decapitation of the artists and editors.
"The Egyptian paper criticized the bad taste of the cartoons but it did not incite hatred protests,"
In other words they did pretty much what most people with any sense would do … there may have been some that were upset at the caricatures or offended by the cartoons, but they didn’t run out into the streets and burn the embassy or wave signs calling for the murder of the artists.
But that didn’t suit the purposes of certain factions … Did they sit on it waiting for the right opportunity, or did they just miss it initially? Who knows. But ultimately it doesn’t matter … they wanted riots and by golly they got riots …. And it may be working ….
“European vice-commissioner Franco Frattini has said media should sign up to a voluntary code of conduct on reporting on Islam and other religions…” (Danish cartoon row renews EU push for media code)
Whoa now … I’ll grant that people need to be careful about their freedom of expression to a degree … but not to avoid offending people. The media should not incite riots it should not encourage violence … rather it should remain neutral (something it’s generally NOT good at) … certain people in authority should be mindful of what they say and its implications and effects in a global media as well …
However … these were printed as EDITORIAL cartoons … the editorial page of a newspaper or other such publication is an opinion piece … so is the EU suggesting that newspapers and other media should not express views or opinions that might upset people (particularly Muslims as they were the group specifically named in the quote, everyone else being relegated to ‘other religions’)?
Is Europe … which many consider to be the gold standard of tolerance … getting to the point where they are going to let the intolerant dictate what views and opinions can be publicly expressed for FEAR of OFFENDING someone?
And if Europe caves on this issue … what message does that send to the Muslims (and other groups)? Simple really … riot and burn buildings and you’ll get the more restrictive laws that you want. (Okay … the proposal is for a voluntary code, but that just opens up the newspaper that either doesn’t volunteer or who decides to publish something outside the guidelines to greater criticism and possibly other issues as well depending on the wording or restrictions within the ‘code’ … ‘I’m sorry, we can’t allow you to renew your press papers because you didn’t sign the code … you might offend someone.’ Or ‘no, I’m not talking to you, you write for the Non Code Times my quote could be next to something that Muslims find offensive!’)
Let’s face it … that’s ultimately the goal of this ‘outrage’ I might say that it was an actual reaction to the cartoons if the reaction had started in Egypt during the month of Ramadan … I can understand Muslims being upset at the cartoons, and I would expect a MORE extreme reaction in the middle of a holy month (I still would not agree that the cartoons warranted this reaction, but I could understand some protests and political uproar demanding apologies) so had it happened then I might believe that it was genuine outrage. Several months after the fact, on the other hand, seems more calculated than outraged ….
Monday, February 13, 2006
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
Funeral of a Queen
[note – though I reference the funeral in the title it is only because listening to part of the funeral for Coretta Scott King is what started this particular ramble … my condolences go out to the King family and this is not about the funeral.]
I want to start by saying that I do not mean any disrespect to Mrs. King, her late husband Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., or their family. I won’t say that I have always agreed with their views on the role of government in social affairs, but I do have a great deal of respect for Dr. King and his wife for what they went through and what they achieved.
Dr. King shared an inspiring vision of this country and the world in which people shared freedom and opportunity regardless of race or religion. It was a vision that in many ways we have made great strides toward achieving. In other ways though, we are as far as ever from making it a reality.
Interestingly enough though, the reason that we are as far from that dream now as we are is in most ways because of those that picked up the mantle and took over in the wake of Dr. King’s assassination. In any such transition there is always a corresponding change to the vision … for the new leaders dreamed a slightly different dream. In my perception the change swung away from the goal of equality for everyone to entitlement to the minority.
“Any man who tries to excite class hatred, sectional hate, hate of creeds, any kind of hatred in our community, though he may affect to do it in the interest of the class he is addressing, is in the long run with absolute certainly that class's own worst enemy.”
-- Theodore Roosevelt, 26th president of US (1858 - 1919)
I want to see us move closer to true and lasting freedom and equality for all and away from the entitlement mentality that pervades this country now; away from decks stacked in favor of ANY group and back toward a ‘fair deal’.
The problem is … most people only consider the deal ‘fair’ if they win….
“When I say I believe in a square deal I do not mean ... to give every man the best hand. If the cards do not come to any man, or if they do come, and he has not got the power to play them, that is his affair. All I mean is that there shall be no crookedness in the dealing.”
-- Theodore Roosevelt, 26th president of US (1858 - 1919)
The idea of the ‘fair deal’, as President Roosevelt said, is not that everyone wins, rather that everyone has the opportunity to win or loose on their OWN merit.
Yes, it does mean that someone coming up from a poor family has to work harder … but they are also the ones that have the most to gain in the process, and therefore have the most incentive to work hard to get it. What we shouldn’t do is ruin that incentive by handing them everything …. There is a place for charity, but that place is not in the hands of government.
[Related rants Who’s holding who down and bring back the stigma]
I want to start by saying that I do not mean any disrespect to Mrs. King, her late husband Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., or their family. I won’t say that I have always agreed with their views on the role of government in social affairs, but I do have a great deal of respect for Dr. King and his wife for what they went through and what they achieved.
Dr. King shared an inspiring vision of this country and the world in which people shared freedom and opportunity regardless of race or religion. It was a vision that in many ways we have made great strides toward achieving. In other ways though, we are as far as ever from making it a reality.
Interestingly enough though, the reason that we are as far from that dream now as we are is in most ways because of those that picked up the mantle and took over in the wake of Dr. King’s assassination. In any such transition there is always a corresponding change to the vision … for the new leaders dreamed a slightly different dream. In my perception the change swung away from the goal of equality for everyone to entitlement to the minority.
“Any man who tries to excite class hatred, sectional hate, hate of creeds, any kind of hatred in our community, though he may affect to do it in the interest of the class he is addressing, is in the long run with absolute certainly that class's own worst enemy.”
-- Theodore Roosevelt, 26th president of US (1858 - 1919)
I want to see us move closer to true and lasting freedom and equality for all and away from the entitlement mentality that pervades this country now; away from decks stacked in favor of ANY group and back toward a ‘fair deal’.
The problem is … most people only consider the deal ‘fair’ if they win….
“When I say I believe in a square deal I do not mean ... to give every man the best hand. If the cards do not come to any man, or if they do come, and he has not got the power to play them, that is his affair. All I mean is that there shall be no crookedness in the dealing.”
-- Theodore Roosevelt, 26th president of US (1858 - 1919)
The idea of the ‘fair deal’, as President Roosevelt said, is not that everyone wins, rather that everyone has the opportunity to win or loose on their OWN merit.
Yes, it does mean that someone coming up from a poor family has to work harder … but they are also the ones that have the most to gain in the process, and therefore have the most incentive to work hard to get it. What we shouldn’t do is ruin that incentive by handing them everything …. There is a place for charity, but that place is not in the hands of government.
[Related rants Who’s holding who down and bring back the stigma]
Friday, February 03, 2006
And now we send you
....back to your regularly expected blogging …
Or, if you’ve been going over to Incoming Stuff, more than your regularly expected blogging … my wife and I are almost convinced that this sudden bout of blogging on her part must be a sure sign that the apocalypse is very very near …
On to my blog today …
I have a link to the State of the Union speech, but I haven’t had a chance to sit down and read the whole thing yet … and in fact I’ve read very little about it other than Neal Boortz’ take on the whole thing. I, however, will wait till I’ve read (or heard) the speech before I go taking any shots at it though.
I have, however, heard that the democratic party made complete idiots out of themselves over a few points … primarily a statement made by President Bush that nothing had been done in regard to Social Security Reform (State of the Democratic party).
That is, however, all I’m going to say about the State of the Union Address today … maybe I’ll get a chance to read the speech tonight and I’ll make a few comments about it … but I’m not going to make any promises … I’m sure you can find enough articles out there bashing the speech, bashing the President, bashing the Democrats, and bashing the people bashing people…. Maybe I’ll just write my own State of the Union Ramble and leave it at that….
Right now however I wanted to rant about the Trial of Saddam …. Or should I call it the charade or joke of Saddam ….
I haven’t seen news of Yesterday’s hearing, but the last report I read was that Saddam’s (and some of the other defendants) lawyers were boycotting the proceeding saying that the Judge was not impartial and that he had a grudge against Saddam and the Bathist party.
As a result the Judge assigned court appointed defense lawyers to handle those defendants whose lawyers are going to want to be paid for not being there. Saddam and several of the other defendants refused to work with the court appointed lawyers and are, therefore, refusing to attend the hearings.
Oh boy! Isn’t this just fun. Let’s play the game called ‘pick your judge’ where you stonewall, complain, and boycott and yell ‘woe is me’ to the media until you get a judge that you think is going to let you off the hook.
This isn’t the way you conduct a trial … and I think that Saddam needs to pay for the contempt he is showing to the authority of the law. IF there is evidence that the judge in the case does, in fact, have a personal grudge against Saddam his lawyers should present EVIDENCE of this fact to the panel that is overseeing the hearings, but until they remove him the trail must continue. The panel must be impartial and must not base their decision in the matter on the stunts pulled by the defense teams (and in fact the stunts being pulled by the defense teams in order to draw media attention to the whole thing and thus give their stunts a perceived added ‘truth’ to them leads me to believe that they don’t find their evidence of the Judge’s bias to be convincing and are, therefore, trying to force the panel to a decision that they agree with.) and at this point even if the panel DOES order the Judge replaced they should fine Saddam (and any of his co-defendants) AND the defense teams a million dollars a day (or the local equivalent).
What they are doing is ridiculous, absurd, and is aimed, not at trying to get Saddam a fair trial, but trying to get him a trial that he can’t loose. I read an article several weeks ago that Saddam and his lawyers were saying that he never tortured nor had anyone tortured … yet one of the claims that Saddam’s defense team has supposedly made is that the Judge was Tortured under Saddam’s supervision (the article I was going to link to that has been edited down from a 2 page article (the link I mailed myself yesterday was to page 2) to a 1 page summery and no longer mentions most of the specifics of the complaints of the defense team … Defendants absent as Saddam trial resumes and I can’t find any other article that does.)
In any case the Iraqi courts can not allow Saddam or anyone else to make such a mockery of the process … if they do then it will forever mar their judicial system and EVERY person put on trial will try to use the same tactics. Either the Judge or the panel overseeing the trial need to put their foot down and put it down HARD. There are going to be liberal bleeding hearts out there that if Saddam is convicted of anything, or given any sentence beyond a slap on the wrist, will say that he wasn’t treated fairly, or that the court was too harsh, or some other such nonsense. The Iraqi courts need to put that aside and ignore it … the world is full of idiots that think that any punishment beyond a stern look and a sharp ‘no! Bad!!’ is too harsh …
I have some things to say as well about the ‘Muslim outrage’ over the political cartoons … but I’ll have to get to that later … right now I’ve got to get to work.
Or, if you’ve been going over to Incoming Stuff, more than your regularly expected blogging … my wife and I are almost convinced that this sudden bout of blogging on her part must be a sure sign that the apocalypse is very very near …
On to my blog today …
I have a link to the State of the Union speech, but I haven’t had a chance to sit down and read the whole thing yet … and in fact I’ve read very little about it other than Neal Boortz’ take on the whole thing. I, however, will wait till I’ve read (or heard) the speech before I go taking any shots at it though.
I have, however, heard that the democratic party made complete idiots out of themselves over a few points … primarily a statement made by President Bush that nothing had been done in regard to Social Security Reform (State of the Democratic party).
That is, however, all I’m going to say about the State of the Union Address today … maybe I’ll get a chance to read the speech tonight and I’ll make a few comments about it … but I’m not going to make any promises … I’m sure you can find enough articles out there bashing the speech, bashing the President, bashing the Democrats, and bashing the people bashing people…. Maybe I’ll just write my own State of the Union Ramble and leave it at that….
Right now however I wanted to rant about the Trial of Saddam …. Or should I call it the charade or joke of Saddam ….
I haven’t seen news of Yesterday’s hearing, but the last report I read was that Saddam’s (and some of the other defendants) lawyers were boycotting the proceeding saying that the Judge was not impartial and that he had a grudge against Saddam and the Bathist party.
As a result the Judge assigned court appointed defense lawyers to handle those defendants whose lawyers are going to want to be paid for not being there. Saddam and several of the other defendants refused to work with the court appointed lawyers and are, therefore, refusing to attend the hearings.
Oh boy! Isn’t this just fun. Let’s play the game called ‘pick your judge’ where you stonewall, complain, and boycott and yell ‘woe is me’ to the media until you get a judge that you think is going to let you off the hook.
This isn’t the way you conduct a trial … and I think that Saddam needs to pay for the contempt he is showing to the authority of the law. IF there is evidence that the judge in the case does, in fact, have a personal grudge against Saddam his lawyers should present EVIDENCE of this fact to the panel that is overseeing the hearings, but until they remove him the trail must continue. The panel must be impartial and must not base their decision in the matter on the stunts pulled by the defense teams (and in fact the stunts being pulled by the defense teams in order to draw media attention to the whole thing and thus give their stunts a perceived added ‘truth’ to them leads me to believe that they don’t find their evidence of the Judge’s bias to be convincing and are, therefore, trying to force the panel to a decision that they agree with.) and at this point even if the panel DOES order the Judge replaced they should fine Saddam (and any of his co-defendants) AND the defense teams a million dollars a day (or the local equivalent).
What they are doing is ridiculous, absurd, and is aimed, not at trying to get Saddam a fair trial, but trying to get him a trial that he can’t loose. I read an article several weeks ago that Saddam and his lawyers were saying that he never tortured nor had anyone tortured … yet one of the claims that Saddam’s defense team has supposedly made is that the Judge was Tortured under Saddam’s supervision (the article I was going to link to that has been edited down from a 2 page article (the link I mailed myself yesterday was to page 2) to a 1 page summery and no longer mentions most of the specifics of the complaints of the defense team … Defendants absent as Saddam trial resumes and I can’t find any other article that does.)
In any case the Iraqi courts can not allow Saddam or anyone else to make such a mockery of the process … if they do then it will forever mar their judicial system and EVERY person put on trial will try to use the same tactics. Either the Judge or the panel overseeing the trial need to put their foot down and put it down HARD. There are going to be liberal bleeding hearts out there that if Saddam is convicted of anything, or given any sentence beyond a slap on the wrist, will say that he wasn’t treated fairly, or that the court was too harsh, or some other such nonsense. The Iraqi courts need to put that aside and ignore it … the world is full of idiots that think that any punishment beyond a stern look and a sharp ‘no! Bad!!’ is too harsh …
I have some things to say as well about the ‘Muslim outrage’ over the political cartoons … but I’ll have to get to that later … right now I’ve got to get to work.
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
Done
Well, at midnight last night (technically I guess ‘this morning’ but midnight this morning never sounds right) I typed the last two words on my novel … ‘the’ and ‘end’ to be specific. More specifically they were words 50,562 and 50,563 …
In other words (pun intended … as bad as it is) I ‘won’. Though of course you could argue that 12:00am was Feb 1st and not Jan 31st anymore in which case I’ll stick my tongue out at you and say ‘nanernanernana I can’t hear you.’
I’m not sure exactly when I crossed 50,000 words … I know at 11:45 I had a little over 50,100 so I’d guess around 11:40 … but when I realized I was over the 50k mark I should have just outlined the rest out from there but I wanted to get as many of the words in my head out as I could …. They’d been crowding up and had started pushing and shoving to get out … I was afraid that there was going to be a fight and some of them might get hurt or worse.
Tonight will be the first night in a month that I’m going to come home and not type … in fact I’m going to purposefully not type tonight … a good game of Dawn of War: Winter Assault, or Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, or maybe I’ll go down stairs and play Need For Speed Underground 2 on the Xbox for a while …
I plan to, over the next couple weeks, flesh out the last paragraphs a bit more to make sure that I don’t forget what I had in mind there, but not today … today is ‘ME’ day both because I won and because, well, it’s my Birthday and damnit I’m going to enjoy it …
After I go to work ….. unfortunately, after I go to work ….
Which … is what I’ve got to go do now so this is all you’re getting today. If, you’re lucky I’ll see if I can find a transcript of the State of the Union from last night and see if I’ve got anything to say about that, or maybe something else will strike my fancy during the day and you’ll get it tomorrow.
Have a good day everyone … I plan to.
In other words (pun intended … as bad as it is) I ‘won’. Though of course you could argue that 12:00am was Feb 1st and not Jan 31st anymore in which case I’ll stick my tongue out at you and say ‘nanernanernana I can’t hear you.’
I’m not sure exactly when I crossed 50,000 words … I know at 11:45 I had a little over 50,100 so I’d guess around 11:40 … but when I realized I was over the 50k mark I should have just outlined the rest out from there but I wanted to get as many of the words in my head out as I could …. They’d been crowding up and had started pushing and shoving to get out … I was afraid that there was going to be a fight and some of them might get hurt or worse.
Tonight will be the first night in a month that I’m going to come home and not type … in fact I’m going to purposefully not type tonight … a good game of Dawn of War: Winter Assault, or Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, or maybe I’ll go down stairs and play Need For Speed Underground 2 on the Xbox for a while …
I plan to, over the next couple weeks, flesh out the last paragraphs a bit more to make sure that I don’t forget what I had in mind there, but not today … today is ‘ME’ day both because I won and because, well, it’s my Birthday and damnit I’m going to enjoy it …
After I go to work ….. unfortunately, after I go to work ….
Which … is what I’ve got to go do now so this is all you’re getting today. If, you’re lucky I’ll see if I can find a transcript of the State of the Union from last night and see if I’ve got anything to say about that, or maybe something else will strike my fancy during the day and you’ll get it tomorrow.
Have a good day everyone … I plan to.
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