Islam The Religion of Peace

Here's a great website to go and check out. It has a list of Islamic terrorist attacks carried out over the past 12 months.

http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/default.htm#attacks

And for those of you who would say "Of course there are so many attacks it's all because we're in Iraq. So it's all about Iraq."

Here's their answer:
"Yep, It's All About Iraq and...
India and the Sudan and Algeria and Afghanistan and New York and Pakistan and Israel and Russia and Chechnya and the Philippines and Indonesia and Nigeria and Thailand and Spain and Egypt and Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia and Ingushetia and Dagestan and Britain and Turkey and Kabardino-Balkaria and Morocco and Yemen and Lebanon and France and Uzbekistan and Gaza and Tunisia and Kosovo and Bosnia and Mauritania and Kenya and Eritrea and Syria and Somalia and California and Kuwait and Virginia and Ethiopia and Iran and Jordan and United Arab Emirates and Louisiana and Texas and Tanzania and Sri Lanka and Pennsylvania and Belgium and Denmark and East Timor and Qatar and Maryland and the Netherlands and Scotland and...

...and pretty much wherever Muslims believe their religion tells them to:

"Fight and slay the Unbelievers wherever ye find them. Seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem of war."
Qur'an, Sura 9:5

Is There Anything We Can't Blame Bush For?

Apparently not. Earlier this week four individuals were taken hostage by the heretofore unknown terrorist group “The Swords of Righteousness Brigade”, all four belonged to a anti-war group called the "Christian Peacemaker Teams", a group that blames American foreign policy for 9/11, who served as human shields earlier in the war and who ran an "Adopt-a-Detainee" program for terrorist suspects held at Gitmo, and this group places the blame at the feet of President Bush.

Here's a little snipet from their official statement:

"We are angry because what has happened to our teammates is the result of the actions of the U.S. and U.K. governments due to the illegal attack on Iraq and the continuing occupation and oppression of its people. Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) has worked for the rights of Iraqi prisoners who have been illegally detained and abused by the U.S. government. We were the first people to publicly denounce the torture of Iraqi people at the hands of U.S. forces, long before the western media admitted what was happening at Abu Ghraib. We are some of the few internationals left in Iraq who are telling the truth about what is happening to the Iraqi people We hope that we can continue to do this work and we pray for the speedy release of our beloved teammates."

So it seems to me that the terrorists should love the CPT people and yet it appears they don't. Hmmm...go figure.

California public schools need change

My local paper (a silicon valley neighborhood rag) has a new education column written by a teacher and principle with 32 years experience. I'm sure most think that makes him an expert and worth listening to. Not me as his maiden column confirmed he's part of the problem with our public schools. The column was titled Report cards are overrated as an indicator of progress. You can guess the rest....Unbelievable...I wrote a response letter which the paper printed this week, it's title Indicator of progress falls back on schools.

Al-Jazeera, can we either blow it up or put them under surveillance?

Most reports in Iraq just hang out in the big cities waiting to report on the latest insurgent or terrorist bombing. There are very few venturing outside of a few cities to see what's going on around the country. There is apparently nothing good happening in Iraq. But worse than the regular MSM is Al-Jazeera who serves these vile criminals. It's amazing how quickly following an incident that Al-Jazeera will air the propaganda from the perpetrators. It's also ironic that the most recent kidnap victims are peace activists. As Glock26 commented "maybe they'll be able to hug their way of it".

I assume that the only reason not to bomb Al-Jazeera's operations into the nether world is to put their offices and people under surveillance! Another thing that ticks me off... the MSM (and of course the AP piece I link above) feels compelled to put total U.S. military deaths in each new story of this type...why? What's the point other than to editorialize within a news story. And for Christ sake why don't they also give the total number of innocent fellow Muslims the terrorists and insurgents kill in each of these incidents? Why? Isn't that also a very telling statistic? But of course they won't because that doesn't serve their agenda and bias.

They can't stand good news

The MSM editors are not happy. They are surely grumpy that there is any good news that can in any way be linked to the Bush Administration. While they did their best to lie about the post Thanksgiving holiday shopping results when another good financial story follows so closely it's hard for them to continue the negativity. But don't worry, few are making this good Consumer Confidence news a top story and many will manage to add negativity in moronic fashion. Take CNN for example. They report the good new home sales news, but then add "Most real estate economists have said that those readings all suggest the housing market has peaked", really which experts? Are they the experts who have been saying this for the last 2-3 years? Or "There were some signs of cooling in new home prices in the report." but then they site that in the West and Northeast (which probably is about half the total market) are up 40%, the South (in spite of hurricanes) was up 1.9%, and only the Midwest had a drop of 9.5%. Then CNN uses the famous "some" when they say "Some question whether the latest report isn't either an anomaly or even an example of sampling error." These are the same "some" who just can't stand that there is good news, they desperately want news under a Republican administration to be bad to the point of disbelief...good god, America hater's just leave the country would you!

Biased, politicizing naysayers on Iraq in the minority!

On Taranto's WSJ Opinion Journal blog today the first post is about some polling that finds the general public still bullish on the ability to succeed in Iraq. It's interesting that a poll by the Pew Research Center found that a majority of the public (of course the largest group represented in the poll) and those who carry out the Iraqi mission (the military) believe efforts to establish a stable democracy will succeed. The lopsided opposite view comes from groups (what Pew calls opinion leaders) that are known to be liberal and anti-Bush (so anti-America-succeeds at anything while under Dubya's watch).

Democrat's New Iraq Plan or Bandwagon?

Have you noticed all the Democrat politicians or liberal pundits who are talking about training Iraqi security forces to take over so that we can reduce US military in Iraq? I know this was what the Bush administration was talking about long ago. Suddenly though the MSM covers this revelation by liberals as if they have a new plan for Iraq. The QandO Blog has a nice summary of the strategy our President had as far back as August 2003. It's funny, I immediately thought of the Fedex commercial set in a business meeting, the boss says "we have to cut costs people, ideas?"....a dork says they could sign up for Fedex online shipping, blah, blah....silence, then the boss says the same thing but making hand gestures and all the sheep in the room compliment the idea. Too funny, check out the new but stolen great idea ad!

Lonely Cindy

Apparently Cindy Sheehan has a book? And clearly the book singing this weekend was a big hit!

Update: Oh, my mistake.....Cindy and her book are very popular!

Holiday Retail Sales - who wants you to feel bad, feel good?

Clearly the MSM doesn't want you to feel good about the economy. Many economic indicators show we have a strong economy. Sure, there are always price fluctuations (oil, gas, homes, etc.) but employment, the big economic indicators and the markets are in great shape. The MSM likes to do stories that would make you believe otherwise. You will see stories about the house price bubble, or big companies with multi-thousand person layoffs, and so on. They don't give the perspective of the overall economic picture...they like to focus on just a small dent in an otherwise cherry classic automobile! The post Thanksgiving holiday shopping picture is no exception. Most of the stories below take what are in fact positive results (22% increase for the weekend total retail take according to the National Retail Federation, NRF) and spin it to sound ok or even bad. Amazing because most even quote the NRF figure with words like "dramatic" to describe the increase over last year. So why are the headlines or commentary always framed in a negative way?

Negative Spin

ABC calls it a modest start

CBS quotes economist who says a lot of hype but luke warm

NBC says spending modest, AP says the same thing

Positive Spin

Reuters (go figure) says Robust!

Mixed, admit the postive but temper it!

USA Today, some crazy, some keep it simple

NPR audio clip "so far, no drop in Holiday Shopping

Rapid Fire Blogging

misleading headline "Vatican gay document prompts criticism", after all when 2 gay groups criticize you it's not as if it's real criticism, it's more like a badge of honor!

How you define "More than a dozen"? Gee, is that 13, 14, oh maybe as many as 15!...what a joke and what a non-story that some idiots are at the roadside near Bush's ranch again!

Bush ranch update: and now they're arrested. Funny that Vietnam era loon Daniel Ellsberg boasts that this is his 70th arrest in various protests since Vietnam. He surely believes in every case his side was bolstered by his sign holding, sitting and arrest. It doesn't take a genius to know that these protesters have an adverse affect on the side of the argument they sit on. Most don't identify with people who do this, most think they're fringe hippy wannabees. Most wonder why they don't do something more concrete for their cause (run for office, get signatures for a ballet initiative, etc.) instead just mugging for a photo opp.

And yet another Liberal gets schooled by a Conservative!

The presidential pardoning of a Turkey each year is idiotic...we should change this tradition to the president goes on a turkey hunt using a high end 12 gauge over-under shotgun that would then be auctioned off for charity after the pres bagged his bird. Some would have us eat tofu!

The anti-business climate continues in Santa Cruz where a group is trying to make the minimum wage for any worker within the city limits $9.25 an hour. By comparison the kid at the Baskin Robbin's ice cream parlor is San Jose would make the state minimum of $6.75. So in S.Cruz a kid scooping ice cream could make just under $20k a year. This is of course not a good move since you pay too much for zero skilled jobs making them attractive for grown ups! The jobs that high school kids can do well shouldn't be attractive for people who should be trying to move upstream!

It's about time and can we do this at all our borders!

Tom Cruise not only knows the history of psychiatry but apparently is also an expert in obstetrics!

Cool Xmas gift #2 & #3

While I'm not a "gamer" I did recently buy a large HDTV and like most who have done so I crave more high def content. Both MSFT's new Xbox 360 and Sony's PS3 will bring to HDTV what are already pretty amazing graphics and animation. The Xbox 360 is out now, in the $400 range if you can find one that isn't bundled with games. And I say buy one! I also say buy the PS3 when is available here which is likely March 2006, it's only money! I say give the Xbox 360 to your kid or friend when you get the PS3, the reason...I want the Sony to blow away the Xbox in the market. Turns out this is likely since, unbeknownst to me and likely you, Sony has one the war so far with 90 million PlayStations sold since its introduction versus 25 million for the Xbox. But the real reason I want Sony to win is I want to see HD DVD's on the market sooner and not later. Its Betamax vs. VHS all over again! Sony developed an HD DVD standard called Blu-ray and they put a Blu-ray player in the PS3. The first stand alone Sony Blu-ray DVD players are said to retail for $1k or more so given the PS3 will be about $350 your getting a HD DVD player for free. I predict Sony, whose scars from loosing the Betamax battle still linger, lower the PS2 price to the $100 range so as to keep some buyers from buying the Xbox 360 now. They have already said they will sell the PS3 at a loss just for the purpose of getting millions of Blu-ray players in the market so that movie studios are compelled to produce HD content in that format. I hope they win, not because I love Sony, but because they can drive high def DVD content into the market faster than the rival standard called HD-DVD.

Cool Xmas gift #1

How about a 1Gb MP3 player so small the ear bud connector is longer than the player itself. Well here it is, the mobiBLU DAH-1500i available at Walmart for $129. It's less than 1" in each dimension and weighs 0.63 ounces....oh it has an AM/FM tuner as well!!!!

It's good to be the king

Oracle chief Larry Ellison settled a law suit brought against him because of a $900M gain (that's gain!) he realized just shortly before ORCL went down considerably in 2001. Without admitting any wrong doing he agreed to pay $100M to a charity (of his choice). Pretty nice since I would think a charitable donation is deductible even if a law suit (not a government order) required you to make the donation. Then today it was decided he also needed to pay the legal fees involved in the suit, so an additional $22M. In case you were worried about how poor Larry would come up with the $122M, don't fret he has 5 yrs and various places to draw from (that we know about).

1. Direct shares of ORCL held 1,300,00,000 shares...that's billion! At today's price that's $16B
2. Cash from sales of ORCL stock for just 2004, $1.1B
3. Extremely large Bay Area home (that looks something like the Royal Palace in Tokyo) with lakes and traditional Japanese wood boats), approx. $50M
4. Various large and small business jets, fighter jets, misc. planes $300M
5. Various sail and motor yachts, and frequent participant in trying to own the worlds largest private yacht (or really ship)....approx. $500M

You get the idea...this is like a parking ticket!

The word on the "Arab street"

From Mark Steyn of the U.K.'s Daily Telegraph today....I especially like:

Happily for Mr Zarqawi, no matter how desperate the head-hackers get, the Western defeatists can always top them. A Democrat Congressman, Jack Murtha, has called for immediate US withdrawal from Iraq. He's a Vietnam veteran, so naturally the media are insisting that his views warrant special deference, military experience in a war America lost being the only military experience the Democrats and the press value these days. Hence, the demand for the President to come up with an "exit strategy".

In war, there are usually only two exit strategies: victory or defeat. The latter's easier. Just say, whoa, we're the world's pre-eminent power but we can't handle an unprecedently low level of casualties, so if you don't mind we'd just as soon get off at the next stop.

Demonstrating the will to lose as clearly as America did in Vietnam wasn't such a smart move, but since the media can't seem to get beyond this ancient jungle war it may be worth underlining the principal difference: Osama is not Ho Chi Minh, and al-Qa'eda are not the Viet Cong. If you exit, they'll follow. And Americans will die - in foreign embassies, barracks, warships, as they did through the Nineties, and eventually on the streets of US cities, too.

Saudi's and a chicken shit US bureaucrat

From Littlegreenfootballs....you gotta watch the entire video!

Obama-fo-fama-fee-fy-fo-foma

The Democrats put yet another military, national security and global policy expert out there who "called for" (is that like demanding or suggesting? :)) troop reduction in Iraq. Maybe they think he's an appropriate new torch bearer for not finishing the job in Iraq (and not finishing the job on a time table...that's always a nice touch) because of Obama's first name Barrack (def: A building or group of buildings used to house military personnel.).

Do your homework!

I have, for the most part, never just believe something I hear or read. Sure, if the source is known to me then the face value of the information in question is considerable. Unfortunately I believe most people are easily impressed by credentials, and position, and so no further back up is required. This free pass extends to the media as well. Most will see something on tv, read it in a paper or a book, and truth is assumed. I believe it is critical we teach our children to question, inquire, probe and challenge things. There is a logical approach to determining the validity of something and it is called deduction. Deduction can be defined as reasoning from the general to specific and "induction" as reasoning from the specific to the general. To present an argument using induction is often easier.

For example, your doctor tells you the dark spot on your skin is nothing to worry about. The conclusion here is that the dark spot is in fact not a problem. Is that reasonable? NO, it's not! While this example might seem like it moves from general to specific it is in fact induction and flawed. In induction the premises of a conclusion (or argument) if true make the truth of the conclusion probable. In this case the premise is the person that said the spot is not a problem is a doctor so it is probable his opinion is correct. But, since this dark spot could be a serious health issue (the conclusion matters) deduction should be applied. In deduction the truth of the premises are thought to guarantee the conclusion. Applying deduction you would want to know things like: Is your doctor an oncologist or dermatologist? Has the spot changed color over time? Has the spot grown or changed shape over time? At this point I would still call this case inductive, but what would flip it to deductive, all on it's own, would be lab results from a biopsy of the spot.

So, why do most people just take the word of their doctor, auto mechanic, building contractor, or a politician? Of course the ramifications of being wrong must be considered and when the stakes aren't high induction is perfectly suited. However, the stakes are not always obvious when the topic is political and the source is a politician.

Let's look at another example. The Democrats come up with their own Small Business Index and this month they use it to say that the small business outlook is the worst it has been in 8 yrs. Many will read this and assume it is so. The result could be hundreds or thousands who read it decide to not buy that franchise they were considering, or not to start their dream to open a restaurant. Others may think this is systemic to the entire economy so they will pass on that new car or tv purchase. It could, in fact, have a tremendous effect by paralyzing individuals whose participation in the economy is in fact what makes it bad or good. So if we do a little homework, we can try to achieve a deductive conclusion on the state of the small business outlook. My attempt at that started with a good blogger source on the topic The Entrepreneurial Mind. But, you should do your own homework until induction supports a conclusion, or better yet deduction makes it a guarantee. As an aside...why does a political party need their own business index? Purely to slant the conclusion since its out of their field of expertise!

Democrats loose at patriotism and politics

Democrats in the House have been playing a loosing battle. I truly question the patriotism of those that would at every opportunity feed the press fabricated POLITICAL propaganda that attempts to invalidate, undermine, and lesson public resolve on finishing the job in Iraq. Not to mention implying severe character issues with our comander and cheif. The Democrats tomfoolery puts our military at greater risk and affects individual soldiers will. No evidence has ever been presented to support the claim that Bush, or his administration, lied or inflating pre-war intelligence. In fact 3 separate bipartisan reviews concluded that the intelligence was just faulty. In fact one review found some of the intelligence the White House held back promoted the case for war. So, not only is all this lying by Democrats at a time of war unpatriotic it is POLITICALLY MOTIVATED.

Then moron John Murtha opens his stupid mouth to suggest we cut and run from Iraq...even with some set time frame or the "as soon as possible" phrase this is idiotic. Please one of you brain damaged liberals explain to me the logic behind Bush wanting to keep troops there any longer than necessary!

The stupid suggestion by Murtha was pounced on by the GOP leadership who forced an immediate vote in the House on the idea. The big mouth Democrats were made to put up or shut up and they largely shut up with a vote of 403 to 3. Three Democrats, Jose Serrano of New York, Robert Wexler of Florida and Cynthia McKinney of Georgia, voted for withdrawal. Was this political? Of course it was....you leftist fools just got schooled!

Note the AP story called the vote "hastily arranged by the GOP", no bias there....guess the AP doesn't think an immediate pull-out of Iraq would be hasty!!!!

Media uses senile source for attack on Bush

I started my first professional job one year after Stansfield Turner retired as the Director of the CIA in 1981. He apparently likes to be called Admiral Turner...well, while I think Turner had an impressive career, much of it in the military, however when you leave the Navy in 1977 it's probably a good idea to stop using the moniker in 2005! So here comes ITV, the largest commercial television network in the UK. They need (because they hadn't done one in several hours) to run an anti-Bush piece. So they're happy to enlist the 82 year old Admiral that retired from a position to have a clue about what a president thinks 24 years ago. ITV of course doesn't question that, they believe this is a solidly researched piece, which says:

The former spymaster claims President Bush is not telling the truth when he says that torture is not a method used by the US. Speaking of Bush's claims that the US does not use torture, Admiral Turner, who ran the CIA from 1977 to 1981, said: "I do not believe him".

On Dick Cheney he said "I'm embarrassed the United States has a vice president for torture. "He condones torture, what else is he?".

Gee, so I guess having run the CIA 24 years ago gives you the ability to read minds (a common skill among the no-facts liberals) since the suggestion is that this is in fact true based on our geriatric Admiral's belief? Ya, nice vetting of this story! Grandpa also apparently is up to speed on the other leak of the day of supposed "black sites"...I suppose the Admiral knew back in the 1970's that someday we would need these in Afghanistan and Pakistan so he setup them up. How else would he know and speak about these unless it's true?

Ok, I don't know if sailer boy is senile (and sorry to my dad for all the old guy jokes) but I'm pretty sure that since Turner has been no friend of the Bush Whitehouse he has no inside track. And if there is someone still alive in the CIA he knows and they're leaking evidence of Bush and Cheney condoning anything that is really considered torture of prisoners that communication would be a crime. So should some prosecutor have a talk with the Admiral?

Hypocrite squared!

The word hypocrite just isn't strong enough to describe liberals these days. So I think level of hypocrisy obtained when the standard hypocrite label is multiplied by itself is an appropriate description of the moonbats among us. There are so many examples, daily, of the hypocrite^2 and most have a similar root cause. Liberals can't stand freedom of speech when that speech is in direct opposition to their superior enlightened position, and especially when that speech is heard by millions. It's amazing that both ends of the liberal spectrum, from spike inserting tree huggers to your Prius driver, partake in the hypocrite^2 free speech ridiculousness. The various from-another-planet political waste of time that went on in my neighboring San Francisco recently has presented a nice example. Bill O'Reilly should be fired for his exercising free speech! Funny how liberals can (without evidence...oh wait, well I have no evidence but I just know if we had the real Bush NGuard memos it would be true) can make outlandish claims about Bush and his administration with vitriol and profanity and there is no outrage. You can ask for an apology when it might be over the top, but a topical talk/tv hosts job is in fact to use their speech to ask tough questions, to offer up their and differing opinions, to enable a good (and for ratings) and interesting debate. Just as long as everyone likes vanilla!