Future Trip To DC

I'm squirreling away part of my larger-than-expected commission check this quarter so that in March of 2008, I can go to Washington DC to see Kiki and Herb's Year of Magical Drinking. I can't wait!

If you too would like to go to DC and see the funniest stage show in America, go ahead. See if I care. Would you drive me?

Screw the Kurds, Act IV

From Novak-


The morass in Iraq and deepening difficulties in Afghanistan have not deterred the Bush administration from taking on a dangerous and questionable new secret operation. At a high level, U.S. officials are working with their Turkish counterparts on a joint military operation to suppress Kurdish guerrillas and capture their leaders. Through covert activity, their goal is to forestall Turkey from invading Iraq.


Preventing an invasion by doing the invaders work for them. Nice

Hitchens Follow-up to god is Not Great

Anybody know about this? From the Wall Street Journal.............

.....A spin-off is already in the works. Rival publisher Da Capo Press, which is owned by Perseus Books LLC, got in touch with Mr. Hitchens and signed him up to edit, "The Portable Atheist," a compilation of essays by such writers as Mark Twain and Charles Darwin that will be published in the fall.

Sacrilicious Challenge

PZ Meyers has a story of some guy being charged of a hate crime for putting a Quran in a toilet. I'm not going into how this vindicates my position on hate crimes (unnecessary and Orwellian), but Meyers ends the post with a list of ways he could desecrate the Quran.

In that spirit, please offer up some ideas. Although I must admit, making a new cover out of bacon will be hard to beat.

I'll put mine in the comments later.

If You Missed It...

The first episode of Mind Control is here. You can also record it tonight at 11 pm.

Weirder And Weirder

The investigation into Pat Tillman's death turns up some very strange facts and several contradictory testimonies. Now a general may lose a star. One thing is for sure: some people are lying, and I'd bet good money they're church-goers.

You Mean I Have To Do It Again?

Richard Dawkins has started a new campaign for atheists. Looks like another t-shirt is in my future.

This Has Nothing To Do With The End Times, Wink

A shocking and sickening expose of John Hagee's Christians United For Israel is here. These precious lambs of god are...precious. Hateful, insular, childish, superstitious, transparently deceptive, self-righteous and proud of it, and gleefully ignorant (and seemingly prouder of that), one would think that no one of any authority would take them seriously. Wrong! Lookie at who shows up. It's the worst elements of fundamentalist Chritianity and Jewry, joined in the common goal of fulfilling their messianic dreams (and eagerly awaiting with sadistic delectations seeing those who stood against them tormented on an eternal pyre).

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

These hucksters would let their religious money-making scams scourge the earth before they would grow up and get a real job.

Protect Our Primate Cousins!

I feel very strongly about the following statement: advanced primates deserve special protections. This is just sick, and it breaks my heart.

Simply unbelievable.

This 'war on drugs' is one of the sinkholes that are destroying the 'modern world': In Florida a man was sentenced to 25 years for possessing 58 pills for which he had a legal prescription - in Reason. (The decision was reversed).

Fincher doesn't disappoint

We bought & watched David Fincher's Zodiac on Tuesday. It is brilliant- and, as GateTree pointed out, in keeping with the better character studies of the period the movie spans.

I read Graysmith's books (Zodiac & Zodiac Unmasked), so I will not spoil it for those who haven't. Suffice it to say that normally I do not like movies from source material I have already read. Zodiac is an exception.

(FYI: The best Zodiac site by far: zodiackiller.com.)

SciFi Slightly Redeems Itself

The alleged SciFi Channel, which has a series of "reality" shows featuring pseudoscientific drivel, finally did one right: Mind Control with Derren Brown. Derren shows how people can be manipulated to do or believe all sorts of weird things; I first read about him from Randi.

The key to the show: in the intro Derren clearly states that he has no supernatural powers. In the first episode, that premiered tonight, he got everyone in a mall to raise their hands simultaneously without their thinking about it. It was hilarious, especially since it was the same mall our group frequented during our training in New York. Later he payed for a $4500 ring with blank slips of paper. It's nice to see someone expose the techniques used to fleece the credulous.

Now if we can just get SciFi to stop making monster vs. cleavage movies unfit for MST3K...

GateTree Is Like Nostradamus And Shit

He predicted this just 3 weeks ago.

Caturday!

I can has aminulz!

What Happens When You Deny The Supremecy Of Zeus

Pastor dies of lightening strike. Maybe he was standing near some gays and Jesus has bad aim.

Sunday Fun

Patton Oswalt will be at The Bottle Tree Sunday.

If only people chose their vote with even this much reasoning

At this site you chose a position and rate the importance of issues and it's script tells you with whom you most agree. Uses info from www.2decide.com. Guess who I keep coming up with no matter how I fiddle with my answers. Oh well...

Be Happy!

Ahh, The Power Of Faith

No wonder Christers want government enforcement of their prudish, backwards moral codes: they sure as hell can't control themselves. Hey Coy, I don't think that's the kind of hanging out that Jesus did with prostitutes, but whatever. The "sins of the flesh" don't amuse me, but the dark choclatey crunchy layer of hypocrisy is just too rich.

That Bonaparte Is A Plain Monster!

Last week I saw an episode of Simon Schama's Power of Art. The show itself was breathtaking (since it concentrated on David's art). The editorializing from Schama was downright annoying. He was the quintessential example of the standard art world boilerplate on David (Oh, he did Marat but his other stuff is too gaudy) and classic British francophobia. Clyde, can you write about seeing Death of Socrates in NY?

Will Their Prefix Be 666?

Indonesians are considering putting microchips in HIV-infected people to "monitor" them. No word yet as to whether they plan to do something effectual to stop the infection's spread, such as sloughing off irrelevant pre-medieval taboos and educating their populace. Christ in a condom, they'll use the science of the microchip towards unknown, unproven, and--likely--unethical ends before they'll use the confirmed findings of modern epidemiology? And why? Ancient strictures concerning the vagina and anus? What religious tome proscribes latex again?

Remind me to slap anyone who asks me to appease religious moderates, as this is modern religious moderation at its greatest.

Shameless Self-Promotion Mk 2

Some of my grad school friends have set up a blog on which I am posting those things musical and cinematic that have recently interested me. You can find it here.

The title of the blog, Ray Bradbury's Love-Camel, comes from one of the band names from King Dork, by MTX's Dr. Frank. Check this out.

True-ly Inspirational

Chekov to join God's Army???

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Star Trek actor Walter Koenig urged fans of the iconic sci-fi series on Tuesday to turn their wrath on Myanmar's military junta, an earthly "outpost of tyranny."

Koenig, who battled alien Klingons and Romulans as an original member of the Starship Enterprise crew, said he hoped to mobilise Trekkies to join a campaign against the ruling generals blamed for human rights abuses in the former Burma.
"I can tell people what I experienced, meeting people without limbs, the ex-political prisoners, the squalor, all that I have seen in these brief days," Koenig, 70, told Reuters after visiting a refugee camp on the Thai-Myanmar border last week.

Thailand is home to around 140,000 long-term Burmese refugees, the U.N. refugee agency says, but a half million more have been internally displaced by attacks on villages in eastern Myanmar, home to one of the world's longest-running civil wars.
The United States has labeled Myanmar an outpost of tyranny and imposed economic sanctions, but the junta has avoided total isolation by using its vast natural gas reserves to befriend energy-hungry China and India.

Koenig, the son of persecuted Russian Jews who fled to the United States at the turn of the century, said the campaign against injustice in Myanmar would resonate with Star Trek fans.
The original television series was cancelled in the late 1960s after only three seasons, but it developed a strong cult following due partly to themes dealing with social justice, race relations and even Cold War tensions.
"Star Trek fans are very receptive to humanitarian causes. The stereotype is somebody who is into computers or sits at home and does nothing else," Koenig said.
"But there is an extraordinary sense of philanthropy and benevolence among people who watch a show in which there is a company of characters who embrace all ethnicities and all races.
"I think they would respond to real world circumstances as well and spread the word," said Koenig, who plans to write a blog about the trip on his website, http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/nm/tv_nm/storytext/myanmar_startrek_dc/23852571/SIG=11196p580/*http://www.walterkoenigsite.com.
The trip was organised by the U.S. Campaign for Burma, which is taking a page from other human rights campaigns by raising awareness through celebrities.

But the campaign is struggling to attract the same attention as similar efforts for the Darfur region of Sudan, which has drawn the likes of Hollywood big guns George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon.
"We feel the world has not woken up to how severe things are in eastern Burma," said Burma Campaign spokesman Jeremy Woodrum, whose group accuses the regime of destroying more than 3,000 ethnic Karen villages in eastern Myanmar, "twice that in Darfur."

Where Were Her Gays?

Seriously, where were they? She should find them and fire them.

Lohan doesn't need an intervention; she needs a trip to the Banana Republic to get new gays. Ones that can appropriately monitor and contain her partying. And when she gets caught, "Oh, it's their blow." That's what the gays are for; we're experts in that range of debauchery and a quick dip in prison can't be that bad, you know?

The one thing any good gays would have insisted on: get a driver and never drive. Never.

Ah, the 2nd Amendment

You can't just make up city ordinances that violate the Constitution. That war was lost quite some time ago.

Goodbye Dollar Menu

Minimum wage boost first in 10 years
I understand the desire to help people who actually work, but I'm guessing this wage increase goes largely to high school kids. Double cheeseburgers going up in price any day now.

The Smoking Gun Video

The "History 101" category has some great stuff.

For all your icon needs

The Iconfactory

Edited For "Perverse Sex" and "Cannibalism"

Dario is being forced to edit The Third Mother for the content listed in the post's title. If Italy's film industry can make him do it, they should make the Catholic Church do it; one is hard-pressed to find depictions more perverse and gory than the religious art of that cannibalistic zombie death cult. Since its inception the church has limned perverse demon sex and deity cannibalism. Do Italians ever go to their own cathedrals and art galleries?

Good news is that it will all be put back in for the DVD. And let's face it, that's probably the only way we're going to end up getting to see it anyway. Click on the pic to see an Italian teaser trailer.

Clear Your Calender Now!

Richard Dawkins in Birmingham October 3.

Cocktails at my place before and after.

I know now what to get C. Squid for Festivus...

... and where to get it.

Our man Steve

Stephen Pinker's intro to the next book I'm buying
- In defense of dangerous ideas
- from What is your dangerous idea?

I couldn't resist posting this one

The lessons of Darfur

While Muslims continue to murder their non-Muslim fellow countrymen in Sudan, the West still sits on its hands. Not only will the West (to our eternal shame) not help them, our leaders will not learn the important lessons to be found in Darfur.

"... Islam is a vehicle for Arab supremacism. Islam is the national religion of the Arabs, evolving initially out of pagan Arab lore, and a mishmash of appropriated, and much distorted, figures and stories taken from Judaism and Christianity. The final result was a "faith" that could be used to both justify and promote the conquest, by comparatively primitive Arabs, of much larger numbers of non-Arabs, chiefly Christians and Jews and Zoroastrians. A non-Arab Muslim, until recently and still ideally, reads the Qur'an only in Arabic. Non-Arab Muslim children memorize as much of it as possible -- in Arabic. Non-Arab Muslims take as their model a group of seventh-century Arabs and above all, Muhammad, the Perfect Man, al-insan al-kamil. The Sunna itself consists essentially of the ways, the customs and manners, of seventh-century Arabs. Muslims turn Meccatropically five times a day for the canonical prayers; they perform hajj to Mecca; Arabia is the center of their being. It is as if all those who were part of the British Empire, five times a day, turned and prostrated themselves toward London. It is as if every Indian, every black African in a British colony, took an English name, and took some Englishman (possibly someone a bit more modern than a woad-painted Pict from 700 A.D.) as a putative ancestor."

Read Darfur and Islam as a vehicle for Arab supremacism at Dhimmi Watch.

Requiescat In Pace, Cool Cody Car

As you may know, the Explorer has gone to the junkyard. However, its successor, a 2008 Ford Escape, has now found a home at GateTree Manor. Get ready Bromide 1701 & Clyde Squid, as shakedown cruises will be coming to Tuscaloosa & to Birmingham soon.

I give you The Cooler King....

This - we understand.

xkcd is a fine geeky webcomic.
I was entertained by this one recently.
So were these people, it seems.

Diplomats Out, Bears In. It's the Polonium Two-Step

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-expel17jul17,1,4441861.story?coll=la-headlines-world

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/07/19/wrussia419.xml

Someone we should know about.

Norman Borlaug
- He was just awarded the Congressional Gold Medal and has already received the Nobel Peace Prize and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, one of only five people to receive all three honors.
- It appears that he is the man who brought scientific farming to the third world and put the lie to all those 'the world will run out of food' people.
- News, Commentary, Wiki

Christer Dominionists Are A Bunch Of Tone-deaf Crybabies

I watched Jesus Camp last night. Even for a seasoned TBN viewer like me, watching the movie was equal parts disturbing and embarrassing: I was disturbed to see these kids being brainwashed, and I was embarrassed for their foolishness.

But the crying...Christ on the cross on the hill, the crying! Apparently, evangelicals really do take the bible literally, because the kids--aping their parents--cry and cry and cry. Then they cry some more. When they're done crying they cry about it. What's that girl on the cover doing? CRYING. Hell, this movie had more fucking crying than Michael Bay movies have CGI. There was less fucking crying at Princess Dianna's funeral, for Christ's sake! These emotionally retarded sectarians should have a charity called "Weep-off for Jesus"; I bet it would last for months. But then again, Jesus was a sissy.

It's so transparent (to borrow the word from Tobermory) how ridiculous and false these beliefs are. God will end abortion and put prayer in school if you break cups with the word "government" written on it. Come on. If some backwater shaman did this in the third world, they would call it voodoo. Heaven was changed by Jesus Camp, because "God listens to the cries of his children." I thought they cried* because their god inspired them to. Let that swim in your brain for a second, and you'll come to the same conclusion I did: their god talks to himself through credulous pre-teens. Sign me up to worship that sick weirdo!

And it goes on. America went to hell when they took prayer out of our schools (using the same faulty "reasoning," I can show how it happened when they let those curs-ed Negroes use the Whites' water fountains). Fetuses are people, the gays aren't. America was founded on "Judeo-Christian values." This latter assertion is so laughable, yet they just keep saying it. Pop quiz: name the book and chapter of their bible in which Yahweh demands all nations be democratic republics, have a bicameral legislature, and maintain an independent judiciary? Where is the Bill of Rights in the bible? How many of the 10 commandments does the First Amendment break? And of course, the Constitution originally counted slaves as 3/5 of a person, which is, anybody? Anybody? YES, exactly 3/5 more than what they counted to the old testament's patriarchs.

While most of the movie made me frightened for my life, liberty, and pursuit of alcohol, I must admit the Ted Haggard part was pretty funny. What a fag.

*More with the crying...in this case the implication was "crying out" during which they blubber and sob while blathering nonsense. Perhaps that's just their brains leaking out...

Mommy, Mommy! I Had The 'Nam Dream Again!

Where I will be Wednesday night.

Who says Birmingham isn't fun?

Worth every cent of boosters' money he'll get.

"I think it's a work in progress," Saban said. "We've made a lot of progress. I don't think we are where we want to be. You know, what's the amazing thing to me is how we can have so many people that think about what the result can be, the result that they would like for it to be, and the expectation of that result, and talk about winning championships and all that kind of stuff, when the thing we need to be doing is figuring out what we need to do to do it.

"And we have too many people that think that way and not enough people that think about what do I need to do every day to be as good as I can be so we have the best chance to do that, and we don't quite get that. And there's too many people that are comfortable and satisfied, and not hungry enough to do what they've got to do to do it, because they hear too much about all this stuff all the time around here, and that's got to change and we've got to change it and we're going to change it. You've got to be process oriented. You don't talk about winning championships -- you go do what you've got to do to do it.

"Every time [the media] interview a player what do they talk about? Whether you get them to say it or they say it on their own, I don't know. And my question is, let's quit talking about it and let's go do what we've got to do to do it, because that is what we can control. You can't always control the outcome, but you can control what you do to get ready to do it, and that's what we should be doing as football players. That's what we should be doing as a football program and that's what we should do as an organization." (Link).

About Time.

MIT team designs sleek, skintight spacesuit.

Same tired old "Hitler card" ... & Robert Spenser's reply

Bush like Hitler, says first Muslim in Congress

'America's first Muslim congressman has provoked outrage by apparently comparing President George W Bush to Adolf Hitler and hinting that he might have been responsible for the September 11 attacks.

Addressing a gathering of atheists in his home state of Minnesota, Keith Ellison, a Democrat, compared the 9/11 atrocities to the destruction of the Reichstag, the German parliament, in 1933. This was probably burned down by the Nazis in order to justify Hitler's later seizure of emergency powers.

"It's almost like the Reichstag fire, kind of reminds me of that," Mr Ellison said. "After the Reichstag was burned, they blamed the Communists for it, and it put the leader [Hitler] of that country in a position where he could basically have authority to do whatever he wanted."'

Read it all at Telegraph.co.uk.

Spencer: Keith Ellison and the "Reichstag"

"....as someone who has sworn to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic,” Ellison has more to answer for than just hysterical anti-Bush rhetoric. Ellison has taken money from the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), a group that has been named as an unindicted co-conspirator in a case involving funding of the terrorist group Hamas. The mainstream media has been silent on this; would treat the specter of a congressman taking money from the Ku Klux Klan with similar indifference? CAIR co-founder Nihad Awad has declared his support for Hamas in the past, although he now disavows the group. And as for the Constitution, CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper has said: “I wouldn’t want to create the impression that I wouldn’t like the government of the United States to be Islamic sometime in the future.” And Omar Ahmad, co-founder of CAIR with Awad, has declared that “Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant,” with the Qur’an “the highest authority in America.” Ahmad now denies having said this, but the original reporter of his remarks stands by her story.

Such statements don’t require forced and hysterical comparisons with Hitler to be recognized as explicit threats to the U.S. Constitution. Will Ellison, now that he has sworn to defend that document and appears so solicitous to fend off threats to it, now disavow CAIR, return the money he has received from that organization, and repudiate any attempt by Muslims in the United States to impose Islamic Sharia law here?

When Ellison was elected, some of his supporters shouted “Allahu akbar!” at his victory party, while the victor himself looked on with obvious embarrassment. But he had no need to be concerned. In a gushing piece on his victory, the New York Times never mentioned CAIR once – and dismissed concerns about his record as coming from “Muslim-bashers in the blogosphere.”

Read it all at Jihad Watch.

Creepy Fundie Mormon Indicted, Praise The Saints!

Warren Jeffs, leader of the Fundamentalist Mormon sect that totally controls Colorado City, AZ, is indicted for sex with minors and incest. Warren, for those who haven't read Under the Banner of Heaven, took over after the immortal Uncle Rulon--Warren's father shown here with two of his "spiritual" wives--fell inexplicably mortal (Uncle Rulon had taken over after another immortal Uncle defied his own prophesy and went ambient). Warren has been on the run much of the time ever since, and was alleged to be building Federali-proof compounds.

I don't give a damn about polygamy. Knock yourself out. But it should be between consenting adults. This guy, like so many Fundie Saints, married girls in their early teens, arrangements that those girls' sick fathers happily endorsed and even sought out. These polygamists then list their "spiritual" wives' and their children as jobless single mothers and milk the government for welfare. Don't expect any local or state investigations though; the FLDS' control of Colorado City is frightening in its totality. It's the stinky bathroom of the American West: you do not want to go in there.

Oh Dear

Who Doesn't [Heart] Thomas Jefferson?

From his autobiography:

The bill for establishing religious freedom, the principles of which had, to a certain degree, been enacted before, I had drawn in all the latitude of reason and right. It still met with opposition; but, with some mutilations in the preamble, it was finally passed; and a singular proposition proved that its protection of opinion was meant to be universal. Where the preamble declares, that coercion is a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, an amendment was proposed, by inserting the word "Jesus Christ," so that it should read, "a departure from the plan of Jesus Christ, the holy author of our religion;" the insertion was rejected by a great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mahometan, the Hindoo, and Infidel of every denomination.

I guess some people don't read. I include myself as an Infidel, as do the multitudes of "religions of peace"--including the one of gentle Jesus meek and mild--that would have my godless gay libertine ass murdered in some horrible fashion.

Our Beloved Fourth Column Holds Its Own

From CNN:

Report: Al Qaeda renewing efforts to sneak terror plotters into U.S.

In other news, I took a shit this morning. More to follow...

The Dark Knight

Spoiler pictures are out for The Dark Knight, Christopher Nolan's follow-up to the great Batman Begins.

Where does he get those wonderful toys?


The Joker ain't Brokeback Mountain pretty, but he does have Bette Davis' What Ever Happened To Baby Jane lipstick and Sharon Stone-esque plastic surgery going for him!

As this movie is supposed to be more of a crime drama than the first, it should be insanely, creepily delicious.

Courtroom Foolishness Gets A Documentary

Nova is doing a special on the ID Dover trial.

You gotta love this quote of a quote by Judge Jones:

“It was a science class that everybody wished they’d been able to take when they were in school.”

Which is why ID lost.

Ms. Fred Is A Whore

While I was vacationing last week at the GateTree/Tobermory abode, I got to see, for the second time, Ms. Fred bear the shameful fruit of her wicked turtle passions (Merkavah told me she was asking for it).

Other events of interest:

• I bought old copies of Larrouse's Gastronomique and The Joy of Cooking (1953 no less, back when the recipes included some "unique" culinary suggestions).
• We watched one of the funniest movies ever, Idiocracy. My new nickname is Formica.
• I reconsidered my position on The Prestige. I must have been grumpy when I watched it first, because the second time convinced me that it is a totally underrated movie. And it has David Bowie.
• I drank a lot (surprise).
• GateTree grilled some amazing ribs on Independence Day, while we watched The Revolution on the History Channel.
• I read Under the Banner of Heaven. Frightening.
• We pontificated on everything and nothing (again, surprise). The cats and dogs agreed with us. The turtles were--as always--obstinate. Especially that whore...
  

Gods Bless America? Hell No!

Ed Brayton has a fantastically hilarious post covering the uproar over a Hindu's prayer that opened a recent session of Congress. What did Jefferson say about the number of gods his neighbor worshiped as it related to his finances and femurs? Aren't these people always getting their chastity panties in a wad over "religious freedom in America?"

I want to see an atheist give a short speech (in lieu of a prayer) at the beginning of Congress. It can extol the virtues of the Enlightenment and thank the United States for upholding them, however poorly, for over 200 years. Much better than asking false deities for protection and guidance.

They Will Pay For Their Lack Of Vision

Rumor has it that Walt Disney World, in response to Universal's announced Harry Potter Land, will be turning a large chunk of it's unimpressive Florida studio theme park into a Lucas Films area (another large chunk will become Pixar-Land). It already has a rather boring Indiana Jones stunt show and a dated, but fucking fun, Star Wars simulator ride. Apparently, the Star Wars ride is getting a major overhaul (simulator meets 3-D and IMAX), and more is to come...by 2009.

Let's see if Lucas-Disney can fuck this one up. I'm betting yes, since both Disney and Lucas are involved. I doubt either is willing to expend the fiscal and imaginative resources to make a true Indiana Jones/ Star Wars theme work.

Target Number One

I Guess Some Clams Aren't Happy

Scientology is grotesque.

Clyde, you been 'xperimenting again?

Octosquid Discovered, a Cross Between an Octopus and a Squid
A strange cephalopod has been found near Keahole Point on the big island of Hawaii. It appears to be a cross between an octopus and a squid.
Hmmm...

I've been predicting this for years

The Microsoft exodus has begun - eventually they will move to a man-made island in the North Pacific in international waters to get away from our government all together. I love evil geniuses.

"Microsoft Corp. plans to set up house in the Vancouver area this fall with a new software development centre that would attract talent without encountering U.S. immigration issues." (link)

Okay, so it doesn't completely follow, but it will happen, damn it.

Kick Ass Article

Ten Politically Incorrect Truths About Human Nature in Psychology Today.

Bombing Follow Up

ABC News: U.K. Terror Plot -- Why the Bombs Failed

From Dhimmi Watch

San Diego: Debate over Muslim prayer in public school

"One would think the ACLU would be all over this, after aggressively going after the minutest manifestation of Christian prayer in public schools for decades. Think again.

"Muslim prayers in school debated: S.D. elementary at center of dispute," by Helen Gao in the San Diego Union-Tribune (thanks to all who sent this in):

A San Diego public school has become part of a national debate over religion in schools ever since a substitute teacher publicly condemned an Arabic language program that gives Muslim students time for prayer during school hours.

Carver Elementary in Oak Park added Arabic to its curriculum in September when it suddenly absorbed more than 100 students from a defunct charter school that had served mostly Somali Muslims.

After subbing at Carver, the teacher claimed that religious indoctrination was taking place and said that a school aide had led Muslim students in prayer.

An investigation by the San Diego Unified School District failed to substantiate the allegations. But critics continue to assail Carver for providing a 15-minute break in the classroom each afternoon to accommodate Muslim students who wish to pray. (Those who don't pray can read or write during that non-instructional time.)

Some say the arrangement at Carver constitutes special treatment for a specific religion that is not extended to other faiths. Others believe it crosses the line into endorsement of religion.

Yep."

Make sure to read the San Diego Union-Tribune article for some more eyebrow-raisers about this story.

"UK Terror Plot Investigation - News Roundup - July 3"

July 3 news roundup of UK terror plot investigation activities:

-- Terror Attacks: 'All Key Suspects Held'. Sky News reports "Police investigating the failed terror attacks on London and Glasgow believe they now have their key suspects in custody. But they stress their inquiries are far from over and say Britain is likely to remain on a critical level of terror alert for some time."

-- 'Same Men Behind Attacks'. Sky News is reporting that sources say the same men were behind both the London and Glasgow attacks. In addition, Sky News is reporting the name of the second Jihadist arrested in Glasgow as "Dr Khalid Ahmed". Sky News is also stating now that that destination of the Australian doctor fleeing Australia when he was arrested - was headed to Pakistan.

-- Two Additional Arrests in Blackburn (northwest UK). Sky News reports that "Two men have been arrested on suspicion of terror offences after they apparently tried to collect a delivery of large gas canisters at an industrial estate in Blackburn."

-- CBS News reports this morning that "Intelligence sources tell CBS News that the people behind the attempts were directly recruited by Abu Hamza al-Muhajir," the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq. See Evan Kohlmann's May 1 post on al-Muhajir and see other CT Blog posts on him.

-- Seven Doctors Held in UK Terror Plot. The Daily Telegraph is reporting that, of the total of 8 suspects currently arrested, "Seven doctors held over al-Qa'eda bomb plot" and that "five of the seven suspects held by British police are young Middle Eastern men employed at British hospitals". This includes a Dr. Mohammed Asha from Jordan, and Dr. Bilal Abdulla from Iraq. The Daily Mail is also reporting that two of the doctors are Saudi. An increasing focus is on suspects employed at the Royal Alexandra Hospital, Paisley, Renfrewshire. Sky News has provided a brief summary of the 8 suspects arrested thus far. Daily Telegraph has provided a high level timeline of the Jihadist car bomb efforts.

Read it all at Counterterrorism Blog.

From Jihad Watch

"July 4: What are we fighting for

1. Equality of rights before the law:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." — Declaration of Independence

"Thus if [a] Muslim commits adultery his punishment is 100 lashes, the shaving of his head, and one year of banishment. But if the man is not a Muslim and commits adultery with a Muslim woman his penalty is execution...Similarly if a Muslim deliberately murders another Muslim he falls under the law of retaliation and must by law be put to death by the next of kin. But if a non-Muslim who dies at the hand of a Muslim has by lifelong habit been a non-Muslim, the penalty of death is not valid. Instead the Muslim murderer must pay a fine and be punished with the lash....Since Islam regards non-Muslims as on a lower level of belief and conviction, if a Muslim kills a non-Muslim…then his punishment must not be the retaliatory death, since the faith and conviction he possesses is loftier than that of the man slain...Again, the penalties of a non-Muslim guilty of fornication with a Muslim woman are augmented because, in addition to the crime against morality, social duty and religion, he has committed sacrilege, in that he has disgraced a Muslim and thereby cast scorn upon the Muslims in general, and so must be executed....Islam and its peoples must be above the infidels, and never permit non-Muslims to acquire lordship over them." — Sultanhussein Tabandeh, A Muslim Commentary on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, F. J. Goulding, translator, London, 1970.

2. Governments deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed:

"That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed..." — Declaration of Independence

Non-Muslims have "absolutely no right to seize the reins of power in any part of God’s earth nor to direct the collective affairs of human beings according to their own misconceived doctrines." If they do, "the believers would be under an obligation to do their utmost to dislodge them from political power and to make them live in subservience to the Islamic way of life." — Syed Abul Ala Maududi, founder of the Pakistani political party Jamaat-e-Islami."

Neville Brown

Brown: Don't say terrorists are Muslims

"They are Muslims, of course, and they use core Islamic texts and teachings to justify their actions, but never mind that. We wouldn't want to hurt anyone's feelings. Let's just pretend that isn't happening, and maybe it will go away. The "war on terror" is over too. We're just dealing with a few bad apples, that's all. Nothing to be concerned about.

Gordon Brown's tenure as British Prime Minister is certainly off to an auspicious beginning. His people will remember him in the same breath with...no, not that Churchill fellow with his awful cigars. But certainly with Churchill's illustrious predecessor, who brought Peace In Our Time.

By Macer Hall for the Daily Express (thanks to Twostellas):

Gordon Brown has banned ministers from using the word “Muslim” in ­connection with the ­terrorism crisis.

The Prime Minister has also instructed his team – including new Home Secretary Jacqui Smith – that the phrase “war on ­terror” is to be dropped.

The shake-up is part of a fresh attempt to improve community relations and avoid offending Muslims, adopting a more “consensual” tone than existed under Tony Blair....

Mr Brown’s spokesman acknowledged yesterday that ministers had been given specific guidelines to avoid inflammatory language."

Read it all at Dhimmi Watch.

Summer means geeky Xmas ornaments

Hallmark 2007

R2-D2 and Jawa: $15.00


Tusken Raider in limited quantities: July 14-15, 2007: $15.00


A Jedi Legacy Revealed: $28.00


30th anniversary Millennium Falcon: $32.00