Must Control Fist of Death sent me a link in an email the other day to a site called engrish.com

It's a site full of bad translations, similar to the famous All Your Base Are Belong To Us!!

Go waste some time. I have laundry to do.

Which is why last night saw me opening a bottle of white wine all to myself, and settling on the couch to watch The Way We Were. Yes, a Streisand movie. But a great chick flick. Years ago I had seen a clip of it, the part where she is crying and telling him that no one will ever love him like she does, and it spoke to the part of me that was going through some stuff with a guy... blah blah. Anyway, knowing nothing about the actual story, I stuck it on my list of films I would one day get around to renting.

Total typecasting - Babs plays a commie! But what really got me was when she's with Mr. All-American's friends, and they're all cracking jokes about this and that, especially the president's death (I'm all about gallows humor, so I know where they were coming from), she sat scowling and eventually had a temper tantrum. Throughout the movie, Hubbel is telling her she needs to lighten up and get a sense of humor, that her politics make her boring. True. Her politics do make her boring! The whole left takes themselves waaay too seriously, and never crack a smile at anything (unless it hurts someone else - they seem to like that).

But then I thought - eeek! She's me! Okay, me if I were a communist, but me nonetheless. I spend hour after hour, day after day emerged in my passion for politics, which totally bores the crap out of my darling husband. It was a wakeup call. Time to start having a life outside the realm of the 6 o'clock news.

Um, any suggestions? I think I've forgotten how to do that. But at least I still have a sense of humor.

In case you haven't been following the increasingly frothing-at-the-mouth comm\ents from my earlier post, Young Man!, here's a series of notes from one of my friendly readers:

i think you are a wrong girl you cant say this things to muslims.
büsi | 04.26.06 - 3:42 pm | #

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I can say anything I want to anyone I want on my own blog, asshole. If you don't like it, come fatwa me.

RG
RightGirl | Homepage | 04.26.06 - 9:54 pm | #

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you cant say all the thinks you want. you are not good in your head .
do you go to a doctor?? please go there .that will help you i am sure. why do you say these thinks to muslims. i am a german but i dont say this thinks. i have alot of muslim friends. i think you dont know what a muslim is and dont see a muslim .is that right???
busi | 04.27.06 - 1:03 pm | #

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asshole
asshole
asshole
asshole
are you!!!!!!!!!!
ulan pust lern erstmal english und da nn komm yanima what you say . you don t say good itoglu it..........and so on neyse....we can go together to fatwa and go not with busi....
jabbar | 04.27.06 - 4:51 pm | #

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why do you not right back.are you frighteened or what.you silly girl.i dont understand you.are you a monster ? for my you are a english monster. i think you and the other english people are asshole.you say it to muslims also i can say this to english people and you can say me nothing ok baby???and what did the doctor say ?what do you have?? he certain say that you are not good in your head right??? write back murder girl....be not anxious ok? for example i am not anxious i have written to you.do you see or are your eyes not so good right girl.excuse me.i wanted to say wrong girl or murder girl.you understand or is my english not so good????? write back.i want to kill you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
busi | 04.29.06 - 1:56 pm | #

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You want to kill me? Bring it on, motherfucker.

RG
RightGirl | Homepage | 04.29.06 - 2:59 pm | #

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Right Girl has every right to speak as she wants to - this is the United States of America, not Saudi Arabia!

be warned - Right Girl's friends are very good at shooting guns. Very good.
Beth | Homepage | 04.29.06 - 3:25 pm | #

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right girl and your friends are the best monsters i have hear.they must go to a doctor.in their head they have only the shooting not other thinks.i think shooting is theitr hobby.how many people have they shoot is the question.i havent shoot people but it is my first shooting that i want .and you can they nothing.beth you are a very very big monster i think.ohhhhhhh i am frighteened right.come and kill me i wait. your dream is finished big monster.i thought that there are saudi-arabia ok??english people are the bad people i see.you cant say me something ok babay and your friends ,too.be frighteened of me.i am a mafia ok?i know all the things about you and if i want i can come there and kill you. i am a murder ok??say tese terrible thinks further and i will kill you . i am very serious. if you cant understand i know what i will do . if you write another bad think to me your are dead.take it serious or....
busi | 04.30.06 - 9:28 am | #

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Busi, you aren't scaring anybody with your threats - just with your terrible english.

RG
RightGirl | Homepage | 04.30.06 - 11:28 am | #

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who have a terrible english i or you terrible monster. you should not write this sentence. wait i will do somethink. more another think you write... wait enlish monster.i will kill you.wait.my english is very terrible ha ha ha. my english is very correct but you dont understand my and write further. one more sentence .... please write!!!! i wait write your terrible thinks with your very very good english madame wrong.come on.frighteened girl. i say one think "BE CAREFUL".thats my last sentense ok??? english monster i will see you. but it will be too late because you become dead in one week. make good ok baby????????????? i wait write back......
busi | 04.30.06 - 1:58 pm | #

Heh. Oh well people, should your beloved RightGirl stop posting, you may want to check in with our new favorite warlord, busi. He claims to be mafia (hehe, do they have mafia in Germany?), so I should be really scared, huh?

He's from Herten, Nordrhein-Westfalen, uses Versanet, and his IP is 83.135.237.176. Good thing he wasn't using any kind of IP re-routing, or I never would have been able to report him at abuse@versatel.de

See, busi, if you want to kill somebody, or if you want to be a terrorist, you may want to learn to cloak yourself a little better. Idiot.

Ever since September 11th, we've heard the various Muslim groups and associations around the civilized world pleading to avoid a "backlash". Don't blame us, they say. Religion of peace, they say. We didn't do it, they whine. The fact is, there has been very little backlash for them to denounce. Sure, the occasional teenager has taken out his misdirected ire with some hateful grafitti, and was soon punished by his WASP school principal or somesuch, but for the most part, the hogwash of peace and tolerance has prevailed.

But 2006 is shaping up differently. For almost five years we've heard about the "backlash", despite the lack of evidence. We've heard the pleading, imams claiming to be peaceful, claiming that they are moderate and denounce terrorism. Yet the terror continues unabated. No one has walked away from the religion of Islam the way they did with the Catholic Church, because they were unhappy with the turn it was taking. Huge groups of people are not crying out for a reformation (although there are individuals, most under protection), the way the Protestants did. People are not escaping great cults of Islam the way they do with other death cults, and trying to help deprogram those still on the inside. And the terror continues. Millions of people around the world who come from Catholic backgrounds have chosen another form of Christianity - or no religion at all - to make up for the emptiness or even horror they feel against the teachings of the church of their forefathers. Great organized groups across North America yell and rant about women not being preists, about the lack of birth control and sexual liberation, blah blah blah. Where are the women of Islamic background doing the same?

The fact is, despite the claims of imams that the religion is peaceful, no one has said they will walk away if the violence continues. No Islamic group has openly denouced their own religion and said they will sever ties with the Ummah if the killing in the name of Allah doesn't come to an end. And not enough individuals have walked away from the mosques, causing the imams to wake up to the fact that people don't want the religion in its current form.

Because most of them do want it in its current form. President Bush said "If you are not with us, you are against us." The same can be said to any Muslim who claims his religion is being hijacked. Do you want to know what hijacking really looks like? Focus on the film footage of September 11th, 2001. That's hijacking, and no one could walk away. But a religion headed in the wrong direction can be turned around, if you're willing to fly it yourself.

The irreverant cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed which stirred so much controversy. The movie depicting the heroic efforts of those on board United 93, which has caused anger and outrage not just among people like me, but among civilized people the world over. Tolerance is coming to an end. The backlash cometh. All the CAIR press releases in the world mean nothing if you cannot put an end to the terror, if you cannot give an ultimatum to the ummah. We have waited five years for a mass denunciation of the tactics of Osama bin Laden, but instead we still see celebrations at the funerals of "martyrs", and hear statements from the president of Iran saying he wants an "infidel" country completely wiped off the map. Islam hasn't changed, because not enough people want it to change. And if they are not with us, they are against us.

The backlash cometh.

Hi, I'm Mr. Right.

I originally had this all in the one post, but I thought it'd detract from what I'm saying about the film. However, these are my collected thoughts from the past few years, all poured out onto this screen tonight. It's now after 4:00am on Saturday, but I've finally had my say.

Here you go.


I'm not religious at all. My parents are of opposing faiths and they ceased practising to bring us children up free to make our own choices. We weren't indoctrinated into believing that we must behave a certain way on pain of death or to save our immortals souls. If we wanted to be religious, that was fine with them. They probably wanted us to be, we didn't lift that gauntlet. I've always been wary, or awkward, or maybe even pitying of those who practice religion. A skeptic, I don't believe completely in anything, so religious faith was never an option. As I got older, I came to regard Christians (I had little contact with any other faiths growing up) with a dismissive attitude, thinking the need to believe in something taking care of us and guiding us was the sign of a weak mind, a personality that needed a crutch to go on living. I held that mode of thought for many years, but over more recent years I've come to accept them and their beliefs. They're perfectly entitled to hold those beliefs, and if it makes their life better, that's great--just don't expect me to want to adopt them myself. You're imposing your will on me then, and no free-born Briton can accept that.

Oh, did anyone catch that one? Give yourself a cookie if you actually noticed that I said "accept" rather than "tolerate". Anyone care to make the distinction?

Yes, that's right. "Acceptance"--to my mind--is when you understand or it doesn't bother you with why a person is the way they are and what they believe. You're happy that them being that way makes them happy. "Tolerance"--which I now find to be a dirty word outside of technical specifications--means you understand nothing about what the other is like (or don't care to) or why they act the way they do, that what they're doing unsettles and possibly angers you, but you don't want to make a fuss about it. You don't want to cause a scene. You don't want to be seen to be "intolerant".
Who wants to be just tolerated?

Now that I've had experience with other faiths, I still find them all to be... unnecessary. My take on life was described to me as being like Buddism, with a core "belief", if you will, of Greek philosophy. I believe that all things must be a balance. If you swing to much the one way or the other, you start to become an extremist. No matter what you're extreme about, that's a bad thing. Of course, I'm a hypocrite in this just like everyone else, going to extremes in spending time on the computer, eating too much, not calling my parents or exercising often enough, but that's my goal. I'm a centrist by nature, although I would like to institute Martial Law in Britain to get rid of crime.
I also believe in karma, and that humans are essentially wired to be pleased when they do something nice for someone else, even if they get nothing out of it--the "warm fuzzy", the pay it forward, the you'll get yours. Even if its only holding open a door for someone so it doesn't close in their face, you've just made someone else's day better. They may not notice, or care, or even take it as their due, but you offered a kindness and you will get your reward at some point.

I believe that religion has outlived its usefulness, and it is time to consign it--all of it--to the rubbish bin of history. What makes a human being a good person? The fear of consequences. Up until the 1950s religion did its job of keeping humanity honest. There will of course always be those who are naturalluy good, and this is why we lionise them. They are the ideal, the goal to shoot for, the person to emulate. Just as surely, there will always be those of the black heart, the fiends, the people who go down in history as inherently evil. For these people, not much will change in their lives and they will live them out accordingly. But for the teeming masses of regular humanity, we need to fear the consequences of being bad, as being bad is just too easy. You usually get your comeuppance, but not until much later and humans live for the now.
What humanity needs is a new "consequence", a personal consequence that'll make you fear it enough to behave yourself.

I find the three main religions to be outdated, holding on to traditions that made sense for the time and region they were created in. But in this modern world, why continue to hold onto these traditions? What sense does it make to only walk 1,000 steps before the start of the new week? What sense does it make to cut off half your knob to prove yourself? What sense does it make to hold your knob in your left hand and eat with your right when we have indoor water plumbing? What sense does it make to interrupt your work day to pray five times, washing practically your entire body in the sink before you do it? (Please forgive the generalisations and lack of other examples, my wife is always explaining Jewish and Mohammedan practices but my Christian education is lacking. I'm not out to prove my research credentials, I'm trying to make a point and it's very late.)

All these and more rituals undoutably made sense when they were created. The Mohammedans come from desert regions where water is scarce but hygiene is still important. Sand was their usual cleansing method. But in this day and age of water plumbing, what is the point of holding to those desert rituals?
The Jews are some of the worlds best financial minds from time B.C. In this modern world of constant business, why hold to a tradition that limits the steps you can take on a certain day?

Traditions are traditions because history is important to us. But it is also the perogative of a free-thinking individual to break those traditions when they are no longer sensible. That is the mark of sentience. Knowing just what traditions to break, that is the mark of intelligence.

Religion is just like every other human invention: It is a tool, nothing more. It is completely neutral on its own, and we all create God in our own image. It is what people do with it that makes it good or bad. Fire well used warms, ill used burns. Nuclear power can destroy a city, or it can power a city. Religion in the hands of good people has done tremendous things to the benefit of humanity. Religion has also been the force behind the worst violence in humanity for millenia.

Humanity is moral. There's no denying it. But there are two types of morality: sentient and societal. Quick question: two morals, which is which?

Don't kill. Don't sleep with your sister.

In simplistic terms: sleeping with your sister is a societal moral. Actual procreation with a relative leads to genetic abnormalities. It's called inbreeding. The human genome needs diversity in its creation or it becomes flawed. Thus, society evolved the incest taboo. There are strong medical reasons for not doing it.
Abhorrance of killing is a sentient moral. It deprives a sentient of their right to live, and your rights should then be forfeit. Each sentient has a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, just as the Yank constitution states. If the pursuit of your happiness means a release from pain and life, then that's your choice too--but not someone else's.

The Yanks were mostly Brits, just trying to live their lives in peace, but a stupid King pushed them too far and made them ex-Brits. Along those lines, the apologists and appeasers would have you believe that America deserves whatever it gets because of their foreign policy for the last 100 years or so. In that case, all of America's "crimes" are actually Britain's fault, as British foreign policy (even though it was still domestic at the time) created America. But then all of Britain's "crimes" are actually the fault of Spain and France, for failing to stop Britain's rise to power in the first place.
Does this sound silly to you? At what point did it become so? Where do you draw the line? It should have been before "America deserves it".

Now, all the special treatment that the Mohammedans are getting, specifically in the workplace. Why are they getting it? I tell you (in a quote from a favourite porno film), "it beats the living shit outta me".
I worked with a lot of Mohammedans in my last job, and some were a really great bunch who laughed and joked and griped just like I did. They were real people, and they were friends.
Others seemed unaware of deoderant. Still others seemed to think that emptying a bottle of perfume over them made up for the fact that they hadn't washed themselves that week. And of course, my pet peeve, the arseholes who used a paper towel to hold their knob while they peed, then dropped the damn thing into the urinal. Now, I think it's fairly obvious that it ain't going to flush away, so some poor cleaning staff is going to have to pull it back out--at the end of the day when half the building has peed on it. Oh, joy. Now, I have no problem with you holding your knob with a towel, but for the love of Britannia throw it in the rubbish, or flush it down a toilet! Throwing it in the urinal is a discourtesty to everyone using the bogs after you. What, were you raised in a desert? How long have we had water plumbing? How long have you had water plumbing?
The Hindus and the Sikhs seem to have grasped the concept with the greatest of ease, not to mention the South Americans, Eastern Europeans and Orientals and everyone else in between. Whats your excuse? What's your problem?

Coming back to the special treament, why do Mohammedans get to take five breaks? Why do they get to dictate that break schedule? Why does the Mohammedan religion get to dictate to Western business culture when and where they'll work? The Jews and Christians don't get that privillege, why should you? Everyone from the Christians to the Hindus and back again have their religious holidays, but (from my experience working with them) they don't demand time off during each and every workday to go talk to God. Can you imagine if they did? Who'd be around to work? No wonder the Middle East hasn't gotten very far in technological terms.
What was the last thing you invented? My country shaped the modern world, inventing a lot of the concepts and actual tools. America, Russia, Japan, and no doubt many others are all contributing to the forward progress of humanity.
What the jolly fuck has yours done lately?

Besides, I thought you came to this Western, predominantly Judeo-Christian country to make a better life for yourself. To get away from the bad things in your home country. See, this thing is kinda like a club. You are joining our club. Women going to your country have to be covered in a potato sack or the men will rape them for "temping" them with a glimpse of a square millimeter of bare skin. Over here, women get to wear whatever they want. So, like a good Western husband--which you've now decided to become after leaving your home country for something better--hand over your cash or credit card and let her go shopping! If you don't like these rules, go the fuck home, back to where you are lord and master. This is (supposed to be) our own country. It was built by hard-working Catholics, Protestants and Jews. Of course we're going to have laws that reflect that. I used to be a big fan of Arabian-style justice. Our horribly weak justice system needs to have the deterrent put back in. Stealing? Chop off their hands. Rapist? Castrate him. Defrauder? Confiscate all their money and any that they make in the future goes to the defrauded. However, Sharia law is a bad idea. Honour killing your daughter because another man raped her? Just whose honour has been hurt again?

You cannot have this both ways! At least, you shouldn't be able to, but with the panderers, apologists, lobbiests, special interests & religious groups, you are. Oh, the joys of Democracy. Bring back the British Empire, I say.
(Hmmm... The United Earth Republic of the British Commonwealth and America. I like the sound of that...)

A society is a constantly changing thing. Each new immigrant brings something new, something from home, something of the old country they'd like to see here in their new one.
You are supposed to adapt to the society you move to, not the other way around. The society you move to may expand to encompass some of your cultural elements, but this isn't a "we'll meet you half-way" thing. This is a "hmmm, that actually sounds like a good idea, we'll alter a law to include that, welcome to ". This is most definitely not a "hmm, our population of 65 million people will of course love to have our whole system of law and rights turned upside-down just to suit the obviously supremely important needs of you 1.5 million immigrants".

Get over yourselves. You are not "all that".

Treason: No one uses this word anymore. That's sad, but not unsurprising. It means the death penalty. What is treason? My wife and I had this conversation. Let me tell you what treason is, to me.

Treason is burning the Flag. What ever country you come from is irrelevant. The Flag does not represent your current Administration. The burning the Flag is not a sign of teenage rebellion, striking a blow against "the man", or a proper statement of your opinion of your current government's policies.

The Flag is a carefully-chosen symbol of your country. Not only that, but the entire history and ideals of your country. That Flag is a symbol of the construction of your country by decades, centuries, millenia of your countrymen and women struggling to build a brighter future for themselves and their decendants. When you spit on, tear, burn or otherwise desecrate the Flag, you are spitting on the memory of the people who (in the easy case of the Americans) freed you from oppressive British taxes and rule, freed the slaves of the south, welcomed the teeming multitudes of displaced and oppressed peoples from other parts of the world, and defended you from the tyranny of Hitler and Soviet Russia. You are displaying your contempt for the the achievement of thousands of scientists through the centuries who created the world you live in now, and you are giving propoganda victories to the enemies of your country. You are, in other words, either an empty-headed fool out for some publicity, not knowing what you're really saying with your "grand gesture", or a true traitor. Take your pick.

Burn effigies of your most hated politicians all you want, but take some pride in the history of your country, and the symbol of that history: the Flag.

If you burn the Flag I will gladly come over there and shoot you myself, you traitorous scum.

posted by Mr. Right  # 4:03 AM

Hi, I'm Mr. Right.

I had tears in my eyes. I cried. It was a good film, and I hear that the families involved gave it their approval. That's good enough for me to believe it's pretty accurate in its depiction of events. For the things they couldn't know, the dramatisation was no over-schmaltzy, Oprah/TV-movie "moment", which endeared it to me even more.

My wife is scared for the future, that the rising tide of Mohammedans will take away our way of life and no one will be able to stop it because of the apologists and appeasers. The evidence is all around, and her pessimistic nature does get the better of her.

It'll never happen. This film proves it.

It's not because there is no danger. It's not because the danger will magically disappear. I just tell her she must have more faith. I tell her that it reinforced my faith in the future, even as it crumbled hers. Now, I'm not religious in the slightest, but I still have faith. I have faith in humanity. I have faith, not in some mythical being promising everlasting salvation, but in the undaunted human spirit that, when it comes down to it, says "This far, and no further." In the final scenes of the film where the passengers reclaim their plane, there is my hope for the future. In those scenes are all we'll ever need to beat this threat. These people were not soldiers, police, politicians, lobbiests, special interest groups, committies, or any so-called great institution.

These were ordinary people, who, with great courage and determination, defeated their enemy. These were ordinary people who recognised when they weren't going to get anywhere by standing idly by and trusting to the good intentions of their foes. These were ordinary people who realised that they might have to sacrifice some of their lives if any of them were to survive, and made the decision to do it. These were ordinary people who may have been scared, terrified even, but still they stood up and were counted that day.

There will come a time when all the people who realise that their way of life, and maybe even their lives themselves, are being threatened by an outside influence that also seeks to encroach and dissaffect from within. There will come a time when these people, no matter their faith, creed, colour, or shoe size will stand up and recognise the danger and will push back. It may come too late to save all of us from tyranny, but history shows us no tyrannical state has ever lasted, and all are toppled from within.

These ordinary people will be our saviours, and I can only hope to Britannia that when that time comes, I might find the courage within myself to be one of those people.

Those people of United 93.

They made me sick, praying in the cockpit, waiting for martyrdom. Allahu Akbar over and over, till I thought my head would explode or my stomach would empty. That monster, that myth - that's not God. Not since Ares has there been such a bloodthirsty god, wishing destruction on whoever crossed his path. Thousands of years later, though, we refer to the period of the ancient Greeks as "mythology". And so it will come to pass with Islam. The devil they call god will fail them, because not even God can have such a contradicting nature - Religion of Peace/death and destruction.

I have always been a highly strung person, quick to anger, with a foul temper (maybe I should have been a Muslim myself). But through my life, I have only ever truly hated three people - all with good reason. My friend's mother, who used to beat him and his brother. The boyfriend who raped me when I was 14. The friend who betrayed me. That's it. Three people. Until that day.

No, I shouldn't say that - it's incorrect. The understading of what we were up against did not suddenly come to me on September 11th. It took months - probably till around the time of Bali, before I truly realized the evil we faced, and the direction it came from. But once I did, the seed began to grow. Some days I wonder how I have the strength to stand, the will to smile, the ability to carry on - when the hatred inside me burns to hot and so strong. Hatred. Unlike any I have known before. Hating three people is nothing compared to loathing an entire culture, religion, way of life. I tried to stop it. I tried to center myself, bring myself back from the edge. But I can't. And now I no longer want to. If the hatred is what will keep me focused on the defeat of those who wish to destroy the life we know, then that hatred is more than necessary.

As I watched the images on the screen, the repetition of Allahu Akbar - over and over - I became angry. I wanted to cover my ears. I wanted to scream out how that is not God, it is the devil!!! But when it was over, and I had walked a few minutes in the chilly midnight air, I became glad of that repetitive praying. I hope everyone sees the film and hears the calls to Allah. I hope that it grates on their nerves, too. I hope that each person who sees and hears the film is reminded why 3000 people died. Not because of US foreign policy, not because of oil or the decadence of Brittney Spears.

Three thousand people were murdered because of Allah.

So what are we going to do about it?

Let's roll.

Tonight I'm off to see United 93. Some people say it's too soon, that the wounds haven't healed. I know mine haven't. I didn't lose anyone I knew that day, except maybe the me I had always been. I still cry out in the night, trapped in some Islam-induced nightmare of fire and fear. But I don't want my wounds to heal. I am stronger broken than I ever was whole. I am more resolute. I am angry.

I hurt, but that hurt keeps me from forgetting what was done to us - what is being done to us. As much as I wish I could have a moment's peace from it, I never want to lose that initial feeling of shock and horror. I never want to let my guard down against our enemies.

I think perhaps it should be required watching for those who have forgotten. Take the left and trap them in a darkened theatre with images of heroes flashing before them. I like to believe it would make a difference. I'm sure I'm only fooling myself.

Tomorrow my eyes will be puffy and red, and my nose will be raw. But I will be stronger, and ready to stand up and fight.

It's not on the front page of any newspaper on my desk this morning. It's not in the entire Toronto-area Metro commuter paper. It's not on Google News's front page. But in case it slipped your mind, today is Holocaust Remembrance Day.

As the world becomes more violent, we see many of the same patterns emerging as had done during the 30's, leading up to WWII. Poverty, discontent - all caused by the Jews, so they say. Only this time, "they" are not the Germans. They are Iran, Turkey, Iraq, the Palestinians, Saudi Arabia, and Muslims the world over. Everything is the fault of the Jews. And if you didn't know that, it's because the Jews control the media, the banks, the markets, history, and the government. Don't you see? It's a vast Zionist conspiracy to rule the world!

For those of us with our feet firmly planted on this planet, we know what the above sentiments can lead to. We know it can happen again, and it scares many of us into submission. But submission isn't going to help anyone. Turning a blind eye - like Europe, America, Britain under Chamberlain, and the Vatican did in the years leading up to the extermination of 6 million Jews - is likely to bring an end to civilization as we know it.

So unless you want your daughters in burkhas and your sons fighting Jihad, it's time to learn the lessons of the past, and open your eyes.

Remember.

I don't know how our friend Cevriye will feel about this article, but I think it pretty much sums up the mentality of Muslims who come to the West and take advantage of our (often ridiculous) human rights laws and ideals.

JAIL bosses are rebuilding toilets so Muslim inmates don't have to use them while facing Mecca.

Thousands of pounds of taxpayers money are being spent to ensure lags are not offended.

The Islamic religion prohibits Muslims from facing or turning their backs on the Kiblah - the direction of prayer - when they visit the lav.

The religion that is so full of shit, they need their toilets moved!

One Muslim former inmate said: "The least the Prison Service can do is make sure people can practise their religion correctly in prison."

But a Brixton jail officer said: "If they didn't get locked up for committing crime they would not have this problem. Yet we have to sort out their loos. If we weren't paying for it as taxpayers I'd laugh my socks off."

Around a quarter of prisoners at the Category B jail are Muslims.

Labour MP Khalid Mahmood said: "As far as I understand this rule only applies in a place of worship."

Perhaps that is a place of worship, Khalid.

All jokes aside, this sets a rather expensive precedent, and I don't think the Home Office has quite thought it out. Thousands of council flats are handed out to low income families, refugees, and new immigrants across Britain every year. What if this accommodation - already being provided at the expense of the working population - is handed to Muslims who decide the loo is facing the wrong way? Based on the precedent set by the Home Office in the jail, the individual councils (some of whom have already banned poor Piglet so they don't offend their testy Muslim coworkers) will have to bear the expense to remodel the bathrooms of all these flats and houses. For what? So someone dosn't take a shit facing Mecca? Pretty hypocritical for the many people who have just claimed refugee status after escaping countries that don't even have indoor tiolets.

I'm glad I am no longer paying taxes in the UK, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time before Canada does something equally stupid in the name of inclusion.

Hat tip: Kathy

Young man, there's no need to feel down.
I said, young man, pick yourself off the ground.
I said, young man, 'cause you're in a new town
There's no need to be unhappy.

Young man, there's a place you can go.
I said, young man, when you're short on your dough.
You can stay there, and I'm sure you will find
Many ways to have a good time.

It's fun to stay at the y-m-c-a.
It's fun to stay at the y-m-c-a.

But not in the Palestinian territories...

The leadership of a West Bank Palestinian city now controlled by Hamas has warned a local Young Men's Christian Association to close its offices and leave town or face likely Muslim violence, WorldNetDaily has learned.

The move highlighted long-standing fears Hamas would use its win in last January's Palestinian parliamentary elections to impose an anti-Christian, anti-Jewish hard-line Islamist regime in the West Bank and Gaza.

"The face of the new Hamas government is coming to the forefront now that they finally took over and have a lot more confidence. They want to create a territory free of Christians and Jews," said a Christian leader associated with the YMCA in Qalqiliya, a West Bank town under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority.

They don't want no stinking Christians! Ah, the Religion of Peace(tm) is making friends with local businesses. That's nice. Their reasons (other than being stark raving mad) are that they don't want a Christian organization attempting to convert Muslims to Christianity. I used to hang at the Y when I was a teenager, and I assure you, they never bothered with all that. It was a place to go swimming, and nothing more. My theory is that they are worried that a place with running water might give the Abduls and Muhammeds a chance to take a damn shower.

"There was a coordination among the mosques to speak about the YMCA Friday night. One major imam, for example, warned if the YMCA doesn't close down it will lead to 'acts that no one would like to see,'" said one political source.

Acts that no one would like to see... yes, that's what happened in America, too. The YMCA opened, and the next thing you knew, we had the Village People. I guess the Muftis are worried about a new act that might spring up: The Umma People.

From the Canadian files of Everyone's a Victim, comes the case of Unnamed Brat who murdered a Vancouver-area gas station attendant by dragging him to his death after he gave chase to Unnamed Brat for stealing $12 worth of gas.

The young man who pleaded guilty to dragging gas-station attendant Grant De Patie to death after stealing $12 worth of gas apologized to his victim's family yesterday in court, saying he knows he can do nothing to lessen their loss.

***

The youth was 16 when he was arrested days after Mr. De Patie, working the overnight shift alone at a Maple Ridge Esso station, was dragged more than seven kilometres.

The youth had stolen a truck earlier that evening of March 8, 2005, and fled the gas station after stealing gas and hitting Mr. De Patie, 24, who was about to report the theft.

Seven kilometres! Seven!! That's no accident - that's deliberate. But hey - the killer was a victim, too. Just ask his defence attorney:

But Phil Riddell, the accused's lawyer, said a sentence of four years with a five-year driving prohibition is more appropriate.

"You look at a young 16-year-old man with little family support who has a substance-abuse problem. He goes out on a joyride with tragic consequences," Mr. Riddell said. "One has to separate the tragic circumstances [from] Mr. De Patie and what led to the circumstances."

***

Court heard that the youth did not have a driver's licence when he stole the truck after an all-day drinking binge with friends in the community of Haney in the district of Maple Ridge.

He frequently skipped school, and though living with a foster family, the youth, who had grown up in an abusive home, often slept at his grandmother's house.

On the night the youth stole $12 worth of gas, his lawyer said he was extremely intoxicated and had no intention of hurting anyone.

"There was no plan or deliberation to hurt anyone. It was a tremendous set of circumstances," Mr. Riddell said.

"A second either way and he would not be here. A young man -- intoxicated -- panicked."

So a drunk kids steals a truck, steals gasoline, and kills a young man in the process. But the drunk Brat is the victim? No. He's an irresponsible killer. He took a mother's son's life because he was drunk and stupid. There's no excuse for that. Lock him up.

Osama bin Laden says we're waging war on Islam. Uh, is it inappropriate to address the world's most notorious terrorist with a resounding "DUH!"?

In his first new message in three months, bin Laden said in the audiotape that the West's cut off of aid to the Palestinian Hamas-led government proved Washington and Europe were conducting "a Zionist (Jewish) crusaders (Christian) war on Islam."

Yeah, that sounds about right. We're at war against people who want to kill us and our friends. Perhaps if they stopped wanting to kill us, we might be a little less agressive. Just sayin'.

Not that that's likely to happen:

"I call on Mujahedin and their supporters, especially in Sudan and the Arab peninsula, to prepare for long war again the crusader plunderers in Western Sudan. Our goal is not defending the Khartoum government but to defend Islam, its land and its people," he said.

"I urge holy warriors to be acquainted with the land and the tribes in Darfur." They should know the rainy season approaches and that will hamper their movement, he said.

So now the poor bastards in the Sudan, who have really been through enough thanks to the Religion of Peace(tm), are going to get it even worse.

Behead those who insult Havarti!!

He said the artists who drew the offending cartoons should be handed over to him for trial and punishment.

I like how he added "trial" to his statement. I'm sure the cartoonists would get a fair trial in a Sharia court. No doubt.

Britain honored it's oldest WWI veteran - Henry Allingham, age 109 - on Friday. Says Allingham:

Allingham accepted the "freedom of Eastbourne" badge of honor and thanked "cigarettes, whisky and wild, wild women - and a good sense of humor" for his long life.

He has two daughters, five grandchildren and 12 great grandchildren.

I love hearing stories like this.

Canada lost four brave young men yesterday in Afghanistan:

Cpl. Matthew Dinning of Richmond Hill, Ont., a member of 2 Mechanized Brigade Group in Petawawa, Ont.;

Bombardier Myles Mansell, a native of Victoria and a member of the Victoria's 5th Field Regiment;

Lt. William Turner, a native of Toronto. Turner, a reservist and an employee at Canada Post's Edmonton mail sorting plant, recently served on the staff of Edmonton's Land Force Western Headquarters;

Cpl. Randy Payne of CFB Wainwright, Alta.

The usual anti-war complainers will wail and moan, without sparing a thought for the actual individuals fighting in hostile territory to bring peace and democracy to one country while attempting to rid the world of a force beyond evil. Now is not the time for their diatribes. Now is the time to feel honored that these four young men had the guts to do what so many will not, and how they died with faith that they are doing the right thing.

They were riding in a G-Wagon that had a machine gun turret mounted on the roof when a massive explosion lifted the vehicle into the air, shattered its armoured compartment and pitched it on its side, instantly killing three of the four men inside. The fourth the driver was transported by helicopter to the massive Kandahar military base and died following surgery.

May God bless and keep these four beautiful brave boys.

Paiderasia in Absentia.

Go drop them a note and tell them how the civilized world feels about fucking little kids.

The CBC is cutting 79 design staffers and outsourcing their set design and other production work. This is hot on the heels of cutting their communications department and hiring outside PR firms to do the work.

As someone who has seen all sides of outsourcing deals, I believe this is one I can stand behind. Few private companies could get away with charging their clients the kind of money the CBC - a government entity - would have paid their employees in salary and benefits, especially when the union issue is taken into account.

While the ideal for me would be to have the entire station privatized, this is definitely a step in the right direction.

Thanks to Kathy Shaidle, I came across this story at LifeSite.

One of Canada's largest unions is refusing to recognize a member's right to freedom of conscience, when that freedom involves opposition to same-sex marriage.

The Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) has denied the request of Treasury Board employee Susan Comstock to divert her dues to a charity, a request she made on the grounds that PSAC's open support of Bill C-38, the bill to legalize gay marriage, went against Ms. Comstock's personal beliefs.

Although PSAC's collective agreement contains a clause allowing a member to divert their dues to charity for reasons of religious or conscience, the union refused to grant Ms. Comstocks' request, saying the clause did not apply to her.

The thought police at work. Comstock is Catholic, so gay marriage is a sin to her. Instead of redirecting the money as requested, they are labelling her "heterosexist" (how the libs love their labels - so long as they're applied to US and not THEM), and they want to re-educate her. Get those nasty heterosexist thoughts out of her head.

"Since by their definition I would be considered heterosexist, they were using my union dues to discriminate against me and had a policy to re-educate me," Ms. Comstock told CCN in a phone interview from Toronto April 12.

"The policy is wrong," she said. "In advocating for the rights of one group in union membership, they are discriminating against another group."

LifeSite has the contact details for the union, if you're in the mood for a little activism on this sunny Thursday morning.

Some days the sky is a certain shade of blue, and it brings images flooding back. I never thought I would remember the color of the sky so distinctly. The sun shines a certain way, and it's picture perfect. So picture perfect in fact, that thousands of pictures were taken of just that color of sky - thousands of hours of video, for posterity.

This evening on my way home, as I stepped out of the subway and looked up, the sky was that perfect blue.

September 11th Blue. It should have its own Pantone assigned to it.

So it's okay to wander into the United States if you are an undocumented, un-educated, non-english-speaking Mexican, and you can bring your wife and 9 hungry children, too. You can apply to be a citizen, you can live off the taxpayer's dime, have your healthcare paid for, have your kids' education provided, and then you can stomp all over the American flag and hold up banners with Che Guevara's face on them.

But I need a special idenity card to visit America?

Mr. President, Mr. Chertoff, and Dr. Rice: Can I ask you to look once more to the North? Can I ask you to to consider RightGirl, who works hard, thrills to the idea of shopping around for health insurance, always pays her taxes, supports the economy by eating out at least twice a week (lunches not included), actually knows all the words to the Star Spangled Banner, and supports the troops via Soldier's Angels and Angels'n'Camouflage? Don't I sound like a better investment? I'll even play by the rules to get in.

The entire immigration debate is summed up nicely in a letter to the President over at MY Vast Right Wing Conspiracy.

Dear President Bush:

I'm about to plan a little trip with my family and extended family and I would like to ask you to assist me. I'm going to walk across the border from the U.S. into Mexico, and I need to make a few arrangements. I know you can help with this. I plan to skip all the legal stuff like visas, passports, immigration quotas and laws. Imm sure they handle those things the same way you do here. So, would you mind telling your buddy, President Vicente Fox, that I'm on my way over? Please let him know that I will be expecting the following:

1. Free medical care for my entire family.

2. English-speaking government bureaucrats for all services I might need, whether I use them or not .

3. All government forms need to be printed in English.

Go read the whole thing. It's funny, but in a poignantly true kind of way.

Katie's a Scientologist, Too

Forget the Silent Birth - let's just have a silent relationship instead, m'kay?

Sami Hammad said in his farewell video that he carried out the bombing as a gesture for thousands of Palestinians held in Israeli jails. Monday was marked as Prisoners Day in the Palestinian areas.

"I carry out this operation in response to the massacres committed by the Zionist enemy against our people and brothers in the West Bank and Gaza," Sami Hammad said in the video.

"There will be more such operations with the will of God. I dedicate this operation to prisoners." [emphasis mine]

Nine were killed.

I just finished reading The Great Divide: The Failure of Islam and the Triumph of the West by Alvin J. Schmidt. That subtitle is a bit misleading, actually. In the eyes of God, Islam is a definite failure, but throughout history, they have succeeded at so many of their bloody goals, and they will continue to do so if we do not stop them.

The book is a point by point comparison of Islam and Christianity, with subjects like war, women, Jesus vs. Mohammed, and slavery, to name a few.

My blood ran cold at the descriptions of the massacre of Armenians at the hands of Muslim Turks throughout the ages. From page 54:

Thus, of the almost 1.9 million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire before World War I, about one million were killed (half of them women and children); some 250,000 escaped to Russia; and about 200,000 were forcibly Islamized.

Jihad being split into Greater (inner) and Lesser (war) is bull, as most of us long ago realized. The idea that jihad is an internal struggle to follow the path to Allah was cleverly concocted by apologists and spin doctors in the wake of atrocities like September 11th. Jihad meant war against the infidels in the time of Mohammed, and that's still what it means today. Don't let yourself be lulled into a false sense of security that the "extremists" are part of a fringe minority. Any minority that numbers over 10 million is still a threat. Why, just look at Iran, having signed up 40,000 would-be suicide bombers, ready to do Allah's bidding against the U.S. and all the West if Iran continues to be hounded by nuclear watchdogs. The Koran does not allow for moderation. A devout Muslim is a threat, plain and simple. Mohammed was a warrior and a murderer - and Muslims around the world are guided by his words. How many people did Jesus butcher?

The Crusades? Defensive acts against Islamic threat, or to reclaim lands that the Muslims had conquered. Sure, there were those that took it a step too far, what with the raping and pillaging and all, but there would have been no army were it not for the threat posed by Islam. And they did not have the backing of the Bible - the New Testament allows for a "sword of Spirit", but no actual violence. Christianity itself would not have allowed for the Crusades, had Pope Urbain not usurped the power of the state to begin this war of defense and reclaimation. The Koran, on the other hand, preaches acts of violence from beginning to end.

I would strongly recommend this book to anyone who feels the information they are receiving is either not enough, or is flawed. CNN and CBC can run their pro-islamic documentaries all they want, but when you look at the stark comparisons between Islam and the civilized world, you will be shocked stupid. Shake off the shock, and get ready for the coming jihad. It has barely begun.

TB outbreak hits Manitoba reserve

Residents from a reserve in northern Manitoba are blaming health officials for not doing enough to stop the spread of a tuberculosis outbreak in their community.

Nineteen people have been diagnosed with tuberculosis in Garden Hill First Nation reserve with more possible cases to come, forcing the community to close two schools and a daycare.

Chief David Harper said that he is frustrated with Health Canada because even with the high number of people diagnosed, not everyone in the community has been tested yet.

Did you spot the problem with these three paragraphs? A lot of blame being placed on Health Canada and the government, and no responsibility at all for the reserves themselves.

Like most bacteria, the spread of TB could be reduced through proper hygeine. Some of the triggers of TB are malnutrition and alcoholism - that's why it's a risk in homeless shelters. And on reservations. The cliche of the drunken Indian is a cliche for a reason - alcoholism is rife among the native population.

A study in Ontario... found that alcohol consumption was as much as 35 per cent higher in counties that have native reserves than those that don't.

Until the natives begin to take some responsibility for washing their own hands and putting down their whiskey bottles, diseases like tuberculosis will continue to plague the reservations. And no amount of nurses or doctors can help those who will not help themselves.

Great news! Paiderastia, the pedophile grooming site I wrote about last week is gone. Did Blogger pull it, or did the owners decide it was too much trouble amid the threats? Who cares - it's gone.

Sadly, like the mythical hydra, you cut one head off and another sprouts back in its place. But for now, it's a small victory.

Cyber-bullying. I just don't get it.

What is this new form of bullying? Bullying itself is intentional repeated aggressive behavior that involves an imbalance of power or strength between those involved. Cyber-bullying is repeated aggression and tormenting through e-mail, instant messaging, Internet chat rooms, and electronic gadgets like camera cell phones where bullies forward and spread hurtful images and messages. Bullies use this technology to harass victims at all hours, in wide circles, and at warp speed. The anonymity offered by this technology encourages some children to say things on the computer that they would never say face-to-face. Cyber-bullies feel removed from their actions and without tangible feedback (hurt feelings, tears) there is no remorse or empathy. This behavior peaks in middle school when adolescents are figuring out who their friends are and whether they fit in. Both boys and girls bully, and both get bullied.

I was badly bullied when I was a kid, so I certainly don't mean to belittle the kids going through this now. But I don't think I understand how it's even possible. You have little choice but to go to school. And at school, there will be bullies. In some cases, there will be bullies on the way to and from school, too. But when I was getting bullied, I didn't give them my phone number. And if it were today instead of 20 years ago, I wouldn't give them my email or MSN address, either. Heck, I'll block you from reaching me on MSN now if you don't clearly identify yourself! So not to blame the victims, but aren't they bringing it on themselves?

You can't stop others from talking about you behind your back, be it in the girls washroom, behind the benches, or in a chat room. But you can certainly stay out of harms way on line in a way that you can't in the fact-to-face environment of school. Remember, folks: the Internet was invented by the geeky kids who needed an outlet that was a safe distance from the cool kids. Just don't let the bullies know where you are, and then they can't hurt you.

Cyber-bullying: another non-story.

Celine Dion is more evil than a thousand titty shows and naked Cirque du Soleils.

EM Zanotti

Mr. Right and I went to see The Notorious Bettie Page this afternoon. A fun movie about a beautiful woman who never lost her faith. It's funny how when she was in New York, going to her acting classes, she would mention Jesus, and get blank stares as if she were from another planet. Acting and Christ have obviously never gone together.

One thing I do not understand is how this movie was rated PG. A story of a girl who made her living taking off her clothes and/or tying people up in pictures is not the kind of thing one would take one's ten year old to see. It's great that she was a Christian who became an evangelical, but I would hardly say that in the span of a two hour movie that would make up for all the beaver shots.

Not that it mattered - the theatre was full of people who remembered the lovely Bettie in her prime. Mr. Right and I were the youngest ones there.

Mr. Right and I just took a walk through our little corner of town, enjoying the lovely spring night. We're both happy to have a long weekend.

I want to wish everyone a wonderful Easter. Blogging will be light this long weekend - not because I'll be very busy, but because you will be. So enjoy this time with your families and your churches. Check back on Monday, when I have a day off to sit in Starbucks with the laptop.

This afternoon, I had very important work to do. I had to sit in a swanky restaurant and taste wines for a corporate event next week. Didn't cost me a penny and I was paid for my time.

It truly is a charmed life.

The perceived backlash toward, and open distrust of, the Muslim community has been caused by... Muslims. I don't go out of my way to despise people who mean me no harm, but if I know someone wants to kill me, I tend to be less friendly toward them. I don't trust them.

From MEMRI:

"Osama bin Laden didn't force anyone to go to Iraq, murder its people and destroy its institutions. He didn't force anyone to murder innocent people in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, America and Europe. Bin-Laden did not tell the Muslims in the West: 'Hate the country that gave you shelter when you fled [from your homelands], made you rich when you were poor, fed you when you were hungry, gave you freedom after the bondage you suffered in your Muslim countries, and educated you when you were ignorant.'

"You caused all these catastrophes out of your own choice and your own free will... and failed to repay the kindness [shown to you]. So what do you expect the West [to do] when it sees its citizens being murdered in the name of religion, when it [experiences] hatred in the name of religion and suffers the damages of terrorism [perpetrated] in the name of religion? It is only natural that the West should hate you and tighten the rope around your necks, so you do not 'invade it from within' as you declare in your announcements and sermons...

"The truth that we must deal with today is that people in the West no longer trust Muslims in general. The Muslims in the West must therefore sever their ties with the Muslims in the east, and repair their relations with the Western societies by announcing that they accept the humane values on the basis of which they were received in the West. They must also sever their ties with the religious clerics and their fatwas...

LaShawn Barber nails victimhood right on the head:

You know what? I'd probably be more successful as a writer if I joined the victim horde. I could blame my former drinking habit on the chains that bound my dead ancestors. To excuse my previously promiscuous ways, I could point to the paucity of black faces on the idiot box. I could call the EEOC and file a race discrimination claim because my white competitor has more clients than I do. Or I could sue my favorite clothing store because the last time I was there, the saleswoman kept eyeing me and following me around. Oh…wait a second…she's black.

This might work: I could sue the corporation and claim that since we're both suffering from the "legacy of slavery," we should both be compensated for racist store policies that force her to eye other black women who shop at the store.

It's hard to care. Live in violence, die in violence. No better than you deserve.

Stop the ACLU reports of a Blogger-hosted pedophilia site called Paiderastia.

I took a look at the site, and I am not pleased. I've found over the past couple of years that there are porn sites hosted on Blogger, and I'm not bothered by it. But when children are involved, it's just not acceptable. Paiderastia does not have explicit content, which in a way makes it worse - they are attempting to normalize sexual relationships between grown men and little boys.

From one of their posts:

In other words, just because we have a sexual attraction to boys (that we did not choose to have) does not mean that we have the right to pursue a sexual relationship with a boy. That isn't to say that the sexual relationship in itself is wrong.

that we did not choose to have... Come on. You like buggering kids. Maybe it's an impulse you have trouble controlling, but join a support group or something. Leave the kids out of it. Someone in Alcoholics Anonymous doesn't get a job in a bar, ya know what I'm sayin'? The relationship is wrong. If you don't believe me, ask a victim's parents. See what mom and dad think of you sodomizing their son. You may realize that you do not have the right to pursue a sexual relationship with a child, but that won't stop you from grooming them and filling their heads with all kinds of nonsense until they become willing victims of your sick disease.

Sometimes, I think blatant child pornography would be less offensive - at least everyone knows the kind of people they're dealing with, and the laws can easily be used to prosecute. But this subversive grooming of children for sexual gratification by pedophiles is so insidious, and so hard to nail down. How can a prosecutor go to court based on "I am not pursuing a sexual relationship with that boy - I just want one is all"?

From another post:

As long as pedophilia is depersonalized, it will never be accepted. As long as the pedophile is the man in the trench coat with pockets brimming with sweets you hear about in urban legends, no one is going to pay their feelings any mind. We debunk the monster by showing our faces. We banish the lies with the truth we live every day.

In other words, we're just like you. Uh huh. How long before NAMBLA and groups like them have enough of a voice behind them to get laws changed and start allowing these relationships? Remember, we have statutory laws for a reason - children's minds are not developed enough to make these decisions on their own. It's too easy for them to be swayed into believing that something so wrong is no big deal. Why do you think peer pressure is so prevelent. Kids just want to be noticed. They want to be loved. That's why they have parents in the first place. I only hope that parents continue to speak out against groups like NAMBLA and sites like Paiderastia. Bottom line: Fucking kids is wrong. There's really little else that needs to be said on the matter.

So far, Blogger doesn't seem to ahve a problem with the site, despite complaints. Personally I've flagged it, and I'm sure many others have done the same. Any site that promotes child abuse should be reported and shut down. If Blogger doesn't happen to agree, then I may have to find a new place to hang my hat.

Where were you three years ago today, when the U.S. took Iraq? What were you doing when the statue of Saddam came down? Did you watch it on TV? I remember watching it on the evening news when I got home from work in Glasgow.

That was when we thought we had won the war. It was as easy as Desert Storm had been. A few weeks more and we could go home. Another war won live on television. How wrong we were. Here we are, three years later, still waiting. I remarked to my husband this morning that all these "insurgents" (read: murdering swine) are not Baathists - hell, half of them aren't even Iraqi. They were just looking for an excuse to kill, and the chaos that ensued after the fall of Saddam gave them the cover they needed. They are no more saddened over his toppling than I am. They just want to kill people. And that is the very reason why we can't give up. We can't let them win. We have to stay for as long as it takes - it's not America's style - nor Britain's - to just give up when things get hard. And they are hard now.

In our culture, as it is today, we are not really accustomed to not getting our own way. We have services, pills, regulations etc that see to it that our every whim is fulfilled without too much resistance. Your butt sags? Well, you could work out on the stair master, or you could just go get liposuction. Your kid is rowdy? Don't bother with discipline - just give him Ritalin. Nextdoor neighbor's tree hanging over your fence? Well, you could try making friends with the guy and then asking nicely, but isn't it faster to just take him to court? We have dishwashers to take care of the after dinner mess, concierge services to pick up our dry cleaning, dog walkers so we don't have to worry about Fido - we are spoiled rotten. We are completely unaccustomed to waiting for anything, or trying too hard. Heck - who still even has dial-up in this day and age?? And having 24 hour news services doesn't exactly help. We get bored watching the same part of the story over and over, waiting for something new to happen. Well, right now nothing new is happening. So you might as well take a walk (or drive your SUV) up to Starbucks and grab a latte. It's going to be a long wait. Having to wait is about the only thing that might be different for some.

A mother charged with murder for cutting off her baby daughter's arms in what her lawyers portrayed as a religious frenzy was found not guilty by reason of insanity Friday by a judge.

Dena Schlosser, 38, will be sent to a state mental hospital and held until she is no longer deemed a threat to herself or others.

"My own expectation is that she will remain at the hospital for many, many years," defense attorney David Haynes said.

Police arrested Schlosser in 2004 after she told a 911 operator she had severed her baby's arms. Officers found the 10-month-old baby, Margaret, near death in her crib and Schlosser covered in blood, holding a knife and listening to a hymn.

Great. Another religious nutjob. So much for taking the higher ground against the Religion of Death. But what's going on in Texas? Is it something in the drinking water? Or does it have something to do with the chemicals involved in the refining of oil (which would also explain the aforementioned Religion of Death)? People are murdering their babies left and right in the Lone Star State. No point in having the death penalty in effect, either, if they're all getting off on the insanity defence.

In another similar Texas case, a jury rejected an insanity defense in 2002 from Andrea Yates, the Houston mother who drowned her five children in the bathtub. She won a new trial on appeal and will again use an insanity defense in June.

In 2004 in East Texas, Deanna Laney was acquitted by reason of insanity after killing her 6- and 8-year-old sons by bashing their skulls with rocks.

Maybe licensing people to have kids would be a good way to go... at least in the State of Texas.

Another example of equality being taken too far, from Townhall:

The Oregon State University athletic department has decided to ground the cheerleading squad, prohibiting high-flying stunts - and any excitement or athleticism. Tryouts for next year's team have been cancelled. A message (now removed) on the team’s web site said that "there will be a Spirit Squad that will wear khakis and polos and lead the crowd in place of the traditional cheerleaders." The athletic department has also announced plans to eliminate Mom and Apple Pie.

Great - so cheerleading is being replaced with a Gap commercial.

After safety, the reasons offered for the change migrate from illogic to the realm of gibbering lunacy. They want to create a more "inclusive" and "diverse" team, and are concerned over issues of body image, saying that a 180-pound girl has a right to be on the cheer squad and that weight requirements are discriminatory. In short, since only allowing pretty, athletic girls onto the cheerleading squad makes ugly, overweight girls feel bad, cheerleading as we know it has to go.

As someone who has struggled with my weight my whole life, can I just say, if I was at all interested in athletics, perhaps I would have stayed thin. Think about it. Chances are overweight kids don't have that much interest in sports or dance, because if they did, they wouldn't be sitting at home eating potato chips with their noses buried in a good book, which is what I was doing. We are all equal in the eyes of God, and we are all equal under the law, but for heaven's sake, get a grip! We are not mass-produced in a factory just outside of Tai Pei. Everyone has a purpose in life, and it's not that we're all supposed to be cheerleaders, nor are we all to be writers or doctors. Let the awkward kids do their thing, and let the cheerleaders do theirs.

It's Friday, I'm bored, and I have Lou Reed in my head singing Take a Walk on the Wild Side. Do do do do do......

It's driving me nuts. So a thoughtful coworker suggested Yellow Rose of Texas, instead. Apparently it's a tried and true way of getting rid of an earworm. Well, it worked. Then he made another suggestion, one he read about in Box Socials by WP Kinsella: any Emily Dickinson poem can be sugn to the tune of Yellow Rose of Texas! Don't believe me? Try it!

Because I could not stop for Death -
He kindly stopped for me -
The Carriage held but just Ourselves -
And Immortality.

We slowly drove - He knew no haste
And I had put away
My labor and my leisure too,
For His Civility -

We passed the School, where Children strove
At Recess - in the Ring -
We passed the fields of Gazing Grain -
We passed the Setting Sun -

Or rather - He passed Us -
The Dews drew quivering and chill -
For only Gossamer, my Gown -
My Tippet - only Tulle -

We paused before a House that seemed
A Swelling of the Ground -
The Roof was scarcely visible -
The Cornice - in the Ground -

Since then - 'tis Centuries - and yet
Feels shorter than the Day
I first surmised the Horses' Heads
Were toward Eternity -

We like to believe that the people we put in power are above making foolish and harmful mistakes in their personal lives. Time and again we've been disappointed. Whether you're a Democrat who was disillisioned when Clinton nailed an intern, or a Republican faced with this, in addition to the outrage, there is also a sense of betrayal.

A deputy press secretary for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security was charged with using a computer to seduce a child after authorities said he struck up sexual conversations with an undercover detective posing as a 14-year-old girl.

Brian J. Doyle, 55, the fourth-ranking official in the department's public affairs office, was expected to appear in court Wednesday afternoon in Maryland and also to be placed on administrative leave.

Disgusting. If he is guilty of this, he should be drawn and quartered - just to make an example. You are no more above the law than me, the guy next door, or Cynthia McKinney.

Finally, someone is saying what we've all been thinking:

The British Defence Secretary John Reid has called for changes in the rules of war in the face of "a deliberate regression towards barbaric terrorism by our opponents."

We are not fighting a war between states. Look at Iraq - the official "war" ended in April of 2003. Our enemies are not sporting the uniforms and stripes of state military. They do not hesitate to kill medical officers, women, children, Padres. They take hostages, not prisoners. They murder innocents.

They are handsome well-groomed young men in clothing from Gap who fly planes into boardrooms.

This is not war in the way we have been taught it.

The Geneva Conventions, he said, were created more than half a century ago, when the world was almost unrecognisable to today's citizens.

"Those conventions dealt with important aspects of the conduct of war - how the sick and injured, and prisoners of war are treated; and the obligations on states during their military occupation of another state.

"I believe we need now to consider whether we - the international community in its widest sense - need to re-examine these conventions. If we do not, we risk continuing to fight a 21st Century conflict with 20th Century rules."

Not to say that we should stoop to their level of debauchery, but we should certainly be willing to accept places like Guantanamo, and not get our panties in a twist if naked men are piled into pyramids. Remember, the inmates at Guantanamo eat better than you and I.

Do we kill him, or let him live?

If Zacarias Moussaoui is given life in prison instead of death, he may do a good deal of harm with the time he has left. It's obvious that prison inmates are apt to make poor choices, or they wouldn't be in prison in the first place. So a connected terrorist could recruit like a fox in a henhouse. He would have his pick of dangerous criminals to convert to the service of Allah and the cause of jihad.

I did a fast Google of prison converts to Islam, and found several interesting articles. The only one that lists numbers is the Washington Post from August 2005:

What's more, the group within the African American Muslim community that is experiencing the most explosive growth is probably the least assimilated: black inmates. Good statistics are hard to come by, but one estimate places the number of Muslim converts in prison above 250,000. (emphasis mine)

It's not the only article I found. From ReligionLink, October 2003:

Now, although blacks still predominate, more Hispanics and whites are converting, too. Experts say the Nation’s influence is waning, and Sunni and Shiite traditions are gaining ground.

Charles Colson writes in 2002:

Jose Padilla, now known as Abdullah al-Muhajir, the man accused of plotting to build a "dirty bomb," had been in and out of America's prison system, where he was influenced by Islamic inmates. Richard Reid, the failed "shoe bomber," was converted to Islam in a British prison by a radical imam—one who was later suspended by British authorities for "inappropriate conduct."

Both are chilling reminders of the on-going threat of terrorism. If not for the good work of our intelligence officers (and the alertness of the airline passengers who subdued Reid) we might now be adding hundreds more names to the list of American terror victims. Both cases are reminders, as well, of what fertile fields prisons are for cultivating terrorists.

So the idea of giving Moussaoui a lifetime pass at recruitment and indoctrination may wind up harming far more people than he could have if he had been allowed to fly on September 11th. Fly, and perish.

If he had died on September 11th, or if he is condemned by an American court (an infidel court), in his zealous, addled mind he would be entitled to receive a reward of 72 virgins in heaven. It's what has drawn so many frustrated young men to make martyrs of themselves. Those of us who live in the rational world can be fairly safe in the assumption that there are no virgins awaiting Mohammed's warriors, but then again - who are we to say?

Back in November I had written an off-the-cuff email to a friend which I later turned into this post (extreme caution). Thinking back on it, perhaps a more humane and medical version of my suggestion would be in order. Something that would take the sting out of his martyrdom, so to speak. It might be the only way to solve a problem like Moussaoui.

From Michelle Malkin:

Fox News producer Mike Levine was in the courtroom and reports that Moussaoui had another Islamo-hissy fit, screaming, "God curse you all! You will never get my blood" and "Allah Akbar!"

He is eligible to receive death.

Part of me really feels for Julia Farquharson, Toronto anti-gun advocate. She lost one son in 2001, and now another has been arrested on - you guessed it - weapons charges. I'm sure that as a mother, it must be hard to watch your baby get carted away by police, no matter the crime. So I will acknowledge that she's gotten a bum deal. But to give too much sympathy is to play into her own victim mentality.

Farquharson says the drugs and guns might belong to one of her son's friends, or to one of the neighbourhood kids she's taken under her wing. She says she won't accept that the guns belonged to her son until she hears it proven in court.

While the ownership of the weapons is in question, what's clear is that Kadfi is a troubled young man. According to Farquharson, he's been depressed since his brother Segun was murdered in 2001. Kadfi was 18 at the time. Segun was beaten in the back of a car, then shot when he tried to escape. The sickening ordeal was recorded on Segun's cell phone. The murder is unsolved.

"He's been depressed because of the death of his brother and the fact that nothing's been done about it," his mother says. "He heard the sounds of his brother's murder."

There've been other problems. Kadfi told his mother that he'd recently been roughed up by someone who had a gun. Farquharson pleaded with Kadfi to tell her more about the harassment so that she could protect him, but he wouldn't elaborate. He didn't want the attention.

So the kid has been bullied. Fair enough. Let's say he carried a gun for protection, perhaps having no intention of using it ( a stretch of the imagination, to be sure, and still against the law). But the cocaine? Sorry, Julia, but that's gang behavior. Guns and drugs. Gang behavior.

"He thought he was going to die," Farquharson said. "He even wrote it down on paper. He cries all the time ... he says, `Mom, I don't feel like living.'"

"This is the country we're supposed to love so much?" she asked, crying. "This is what I get to be a citizen of this country? I tried to be good ... I'm here trying to end the violence that's destroying our lives, trying to do every that I can, and this is what I get in return? (The police) are doing their job, but do they have to do their job like this?"

Farquharson says that when her son is released, she's going to ask him some tough questions. In the meantime, she's holding public officials responsible for a greater crime: the inability to get guns off the streets.

"If there weren't guns on the street, there wouldn't be guns in my home," she says. "The system failed me and it failed my son. I'm angry at everybody who has the authority to stop gun violence and the proliferation of guns."

So your son isn't responsible because he's depressed? And the cops taking away a criminal (ostensibly the very point of your UMOVE campaign, by the way) is fine so long as the criminal in question isn't your son? And insult to injury - you blame Canada and the "system"?

I blame the kids with the guns, Julia. Whoever they might be.

Muslims in Albania's northern city of Shkoder are opposing plans to erect a statue to Mother Teresa, the ethnic Albanian Catholic nun in line for elevation to sainthood by the Vatican.

It's just another reason for them to bitch, and to try to intimidate people into abiding by their rules. Here's a great punchline for any story:

But men in one Shkoder bar said they would prefer a monument to an Albanian fighter who blew himself up in order to avoid being captured by enemy Serbs

Because that's waaaay better than Mother Teresa, right? That's the kind of guy a Muslim can really relate to.

I'm torn on this immigration thing in the US right now. All this waving of Mexican flags and the banning of the American flag in a Colorado school really gets my blood boiling, and makes me want to stand with the Minutemen on the Arizona border.

However, I also see this as the moment I might have been waiting for all my life. Is this the moment that the United States will finally relax their stringent laws enough to let me in, and let me make a home for myself? Well, maybe. But is that what I really want?

Do I want to live in an America overwhelmed by Mexican immigrants? Do I want to live in an America that is no longer an exclusive club, but a place just anyone can wander into? Yes and no.

Back in the day, in my grandparents' generation and before, all you needed to come to America was the a boat ticket and to be able to prove you didn't have smallpox or TB. Maybe you spent a week or a month on Ellis Island, cleaning up. But then you were free to seek your fortune in the land of promise. You were free to dream the American dream. Perhaps you started off stocking shelves or working on the docks while your english improved. Maybe then you opened a little pizza shop or sold tomatoes from a cart. Eventually, either you or your progeny were able to aspire to more. A chain of restaurants or groceries; a college education... the options were limitless. Anyone could wander into America - and anyone could become someone.

This immigration bill is being sold on the premise that "guest workers" will be allowed in to do the jobs Americans don't want to do. What are those jobs? Well, I assume they're things like garbage collector, warehouse worker, Taco Bell employee. But think about the words the jobs Americans don't want to do... Like picking cotton, growing rice, cutting sugar cane...? This bill is advocating having foreigners come into the United States to become the new slave population. Instead of letting the market dictate that if no one wants to be a garbage collector for $6 and hour, maybe you could find someone if you offered him $10. Instead of letting employers and business owners come to the obvious conclusion that there is no longer any such thing in America as cheap labor, they are instead importing people from an impoverished country like Mexico, and expecting that they will never want anything better for themselves and their families. The short-sightedness of this plan is in the fact that sooner or later, these Mexicans will want their own tomato carts, their own pizza shops, their own college educations.

And then who will collect the garbage?

Heh. I think we confused more than a few people, including ourselves? Happy April Fool's Day, everyone, especially Night Rider, whoever you are.