Free In Idaho!

From the Seattle Times

SILVERDALE — A college student was arrested Sunday in the slashing of 42 tires on 13 government vehicles in an Army recruiting office parking lot, saying he was angry about the war in Iraq, authorities said.

Let’s see, college student acting out?  Check…

He told deputies he decided to slash the tires of Army recruiting vehicles because he “hated the military and the government and the war we were in.”

A crime, done while hating?  Check…

He was jailed for investigation of first-degree malicious mischief, a dangerous-weapon violation for the knife and being a minor in possession of alcohol, with bail set at $10,000.

Charged with two felony hate crimes and facing prison time?  Hey, wait a minute!  This is Washington State!  Give the poor hippie a break, man. 

Sunday music today is “You Were There”.  Enjoy.

If a picture really is worth a thousand words, Jihad Watch has an interesting take on one that Newsweek is using in an article about American opinions about Muslims.  Does this picture say more about Newsweek’s opinion about Americans?

I suppose he was supposed to stay down and give the guy what he wanted?

An elderly man beaten unconscious by an assailant wielding a soda can awoke and shot the man during an attempted robbery, police said.

Willie Lee Hill, 93, told police he saw the robber while in his bedroom Wednesday night. Hill confronted the man and was struck at least 50 times, police said. He was knocked unconscious.

Covered in blood, Hill regained consciousness a short time later and pulled a .38-caliber handgun on his attacker. The suspect, Douglas B. Williams Jr., saw the gun and charged the man, who fired a bullet that struck Williams in the throat, police said.

On second thought, that is precisely what he did.

“I got what I deserved,” Williams, 24, told police when they arrived, officers said. Investigators reported finding, among other items, a Craftsman drill bit set, three pocket knives and two hearing aids inside his pockets.

The thing that bothers me the most about this story is that the goblin is only going to be charged with burglary, theft, and “second degree battery”… a 24 year old man beating a 93 year old man unconscious is only “second degree battery”? Alright, then, I say that Willie was only getting “sighted in”. I think when he and the punk get out of hospital, we oughta let him take his shot for the score… eh?  Good job though Willie!

I’ve been to Springfield this morning… you can go too.  Get Simpsonized!

The next time you hear or read about “the Religion of Peace” being so tolerant of other religions, and how there is even a connection with “people of the Book” (Jews and Christians), I would ask you to remember this story from the Washington Times (hat tip Dhimmi Watch)

Iraq’s outnumbered Christians and other religious minority groups are targets of a terror campaign and are facing a dire situation where killings and rapes have become the norm, a panel of witnesses testified yesterday on Capitol Hill.
 

In a hearing convened by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, Canon Andrew White, vicar of St. George’s Anglican Church in Baghdad, and four other panelists unfolded tales of horrors overtaking Christians, Yezidis (angel worshippers) and Mandaeans, members of a pacifist faith that follows the teachings of John the Baptist.
 

“The situation is more than desperate,” said Mr. White, who described how Christians in Baghdad have been told to convert to Islam or be killed. Hundreds of those who could not afford to flee the country are living in churches without adequate food or water, he said.

Lest you think this is simply a problem in Iraq, remember the Malaysia article link I put in this previous post. The problem is not an Iraq war problem, it is an ISLAM problem, despite what some in our MSM and government might think

“The State Department just dismisses this as part of an overall conflict,” he said. “But Christians are being disproportionately targeted. The attacks are purely vindictive and vicious. They are meant to give a message.”

This is not a tolerant and peaceful religion

Pascale Warda, president of the Iraqi Women’s Center in Baghdad, said more than 30 churches have been destroyed; priests have been fatally shot, kidnapped and beheaded; a 14-year-old boy was crucified in Basra; and Baghdad’s once-famous Christian neighborhoods have been emptied of thousands of residents.

“That’s because of fatwas issued by Islamic fundamentalists who give them three choices,” she said. “Convert to Islam, pay the jizya [a tax imposed on non-Muslims] or leave with no personal possessions.”

You don’t need to be an “Islamic fundamentalist” in order to understand the plain meaning of the Koran in Sura 9:29

Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Apostle, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.

Pay attention. Don’t be fooled by what you wish they taught… “you will know them by their fruits”.

“It’s time to stop the madness!”
Create your very own Gun Free Zone (hat tip Oleg Volk)

It rained here yesterday evening… about the first we’ve seen since June.

At breakfast this morning, a friend told us they’d gotten a “3 inch rain” at their place.  Wow, we were inpressed.  “Yup.  Three drops, an inch apart.”  That’s about what it did at our house, although it rained twice as hard on Cathy as it did on me.  She got hit by two drops.

Sun is out again this morning…

One of the things I remember most about Reagan was the way he went directly to the people with what he was thinking.  It used to get the MSM so P.O.ed, but he would just go straight to the folks and tell ‘em what it was.  I think that served him very well, in most cases, and caused a lot of folks who would have dismissed him out of hand just for his party (or for the lies the MSM told about him) to really give what he had to say a chance.

I miss that with Mr Bush.  I thought for a time, directly after 9/11, that he might have “gotten it”, but time has proved that false.  One of the biggest problems he has is in not being able to get his message in front of the American people often enough and effectively enough.  Instead, the Surrender Party and the media keep him effectively muffled, and he can’t seem to get around them.

So it’s good to hear him get a little airtime this morning, and sounding good as he tells ‘em what it’s really all about in Iraq.

..There’s a debate in Washington about Iraq, and nothing wrong with a healthy debate. There’s also a debate about al Qaeda’s role in Iraq. Some say that Iraq is not part of the broader war on terror. They complain when I say that the al Qaeda terrorists we face in Iraq are part of the same enemy that attacked us on September the 11th, 2001. They claim that the organization called al Qaeda in Iraq is an Iraqi phenomenon, that it’s independent of Osama bin Laden and that it’s not interested in attacking America.

That would be news to Osama bin Laden. He’s proclaimed that the “third world war is raging in Iraq.” Osama bin Laden says, “The war is for you or for us to win. If we win it, it means your defeat and disgrace forever.” I say that there will be a big defeat in Iraq and it will be the defeat of al Qaeda.

He then lays it out, just who it is we face in Iraq… he begins with Zarqawi (a Jordanian), and gives a little history lesson

..In 2001, coalition forces destroyed Zarqawi’s Afghan training camp, and he fled the country and he went to Iraq, where he set up operations with terrorist associates long before the arrival of coalition forces. In the violence and instability following Saddam’s fall, Zarqawi was able to expand dramatically the size, scope, and lethality of his operation. In 2004, Zarqawi and his terrorist group formally joined al Qaida, pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden, and he promised to “follow his orders in jihad.”

Soon after, bin Laden publicly declared that Zarqawi was the “Prince of Al Qaida in Iraq” — and instructed terrorists in Iraq to “listen to him and obey him.” It’s hard to argue that al Qaida in Iraq is separate from bin Laden’s al Qaida, when the leader of al Qaida in Iraq took an oath of allegiance to Osama bin Laden.

That’s not a difficult concept, unless you have a political agenda that requires reality to be otherwise.  But he explains a bit more history, for those who seem determined to ignore it, and then he said this

..And most important for the people who wonder if the fight in Iraq is worth it, al Qaida in Iraq shares Osama bin Laden’s goal of making Iraq a base for its radical Islamic empire, and using it as a safe haven for attacks on America. That is why our intelligence community reports — and I quote — “compared with [other leading Sunni jihadist groups], al Qaida in Iraq stands out for its extremism, unmatched operational strength, foreign leadership, and determination to take the jihad beyond Iraq’s borders.”

Our top commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, has said that al Qaida is “public enemy number one” in Iraq. Fellow citizens, these people have sworn allegiance to the man who ordered the death of nearly 3,000 people on our soil. Al Qaida is public enemy number one for the Iraqi people; al Qaida is public enemy number one for the American people. And that is why, for the security of our country, we will stay on the hunt, we’ll deny them safe haven, and we will defeat them where they have made their stand.

BRAVO! To those who insist it’s all our fault for being over there (like that clueless loser Kerry)

..Some note that al Qaida in Iraq did not exist until the U.S. invasion — and argue that it is a problem of our own making. The argument follows the flawed logic that terrorism is caused by American actions. Iraq is not the reason that the terrorists are at war with us. We were not in Iraq when the terrorists bombed the World Trade Center in 1993. We were not in Iraq when they attacked our embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. We were not in Iraq when they attacked the USS Cole in 2000. And we were not in Iraq on September the 11th, 2001.

Our action to remove Saddam Hussein did not start the terrorist violence — and America withdrawal from Iraq would not end it. The al Qaida terrorists now blowing themselves up in Iraq are dedicated extremists who have made killing the innocent the calling of their lives. They are part of a network that has murdered men, women, and children in London and Madrid; slaughtered fellow Muslims in Istanbul and Casablanca, Riyadh, Jakarta, and elsewhere around the world. If we were not fighting these al Qaida extremists and terrorists in Iraq, they would not be leading productive lives of service and charity. Most would be trying to kill Americans and other civilians elsewhere — in Afghanistan, or other foreign capitals, or on the streets of our own cities.

The emphasis is mine, for the benefit of the “Religion of Peace” ostriches…

I would have loved to see GW take this speech before the American people, the way Reagan used to do, instead of mid-morning at an airbase in South Carolina, giving the MSM and the Surrender Party plenty of time to spin and soundbite it away.  John Kerry reacted by calling Bush’s remarks

..”a phony argument,” Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) said that “the principal threat” in Iraq is not Al Qaeda but a civil war that pits Sunni against Shiite and an Iraqi government that is not joining the fight.

“All of us are committed to destroying Al Qaeda,” Kerry said, adding that “if we reduce our footprint (in Iraq) Al Qaeda will reduce its footprint.”

Where in the world did he get THAT nonsense?  Which goes to show why he remains as totally unfit for duty today as he was during the election, as do the rest of the Surrender Party candidates.  Moron…

I find it interesting that so many people, including the President, will jump on an idea that sounds kinda good, and they will ride that hobby horse off into the sunset, looking for all the world more like Don Quizote than the Lone Ranger.

Do they ever look at what the actual numbers are on some of the proposals they make?  I’m not even talking about the costs… I’m all for paying the price when it makes sense.  But you have to ask “does it make sense?” first.  Lately it seems we get the band playing loudly before anyone asks that question.

Take ethanol, for example.  Here are some numbers for ethanol production that make me question why so many people think that corn ethanol is such a great America saving idea

…”Look at the numbers: Americans use 150 billion gallons of gasoline [a year] … we make six billion gallons of ethanol,” said Durante. “What rational person could say that next 144 billion gallons is no problem for us? Nobody is saying that.”

Durante is Doug Durante, executive director of the ethanol advocacy group “Ethanol Across America”.  He was responding to a report from a liberal environmental group that was critical of ethanol as the energy alternative answer.  It’s just a guess, but could their criticism be because Bush seems to be for it?  I’m critical of it as well, but for different reasons.

…Yet Durante, with Ethanol Across America, said the industry as a whole and the corn ethanol industry in particular are fulfilling their intended mission — to provide an alternative to foreign-produced oil.

“There are lots of reasons to support domestic renewable fuels … what if we got to 10 percent [of domestic consumption]? That’s 15 billion gallons times three bucks [a gallon saved over the price of regular gas],” said Durante. “We’re going to spend that here and create roads and schools and jobs.”

Let’s see, to go from 6 billion gallons to 15 billion, is two and a half times the corn production we have now.  What does that translate to in acreage?  What effect would that have on the food industry?  And what happens the next time we have a drought year in the corn belt?  Just askin’… I don’t remember the answers to those questions coming up when the politicians were touting ethanol as the next big idea.  And it completely ignores the fact that ethanol doesn’t address the other things our petroleum based economy uses oil for (textiles, paint and other coatings, roads, plastics, etc).

It reminds me a bit of the compact flourescent bulb, which was not only going to save energy, it was going to stop global warming to boot.  I’m all for new ideas, and for saving energy, and if something I’m doing is really causing the earth to get warmer (which I doubt, but for the sake of discussion I’ll concede for now) I’d love to change it, but you know what?  Compact flourescents are a bad joke.  The light they make is still poor quality, they don’t last as long as they first told us they would, and if you break one your home becomes the next superfund site.  Did anyone estimate the effect on landfills?  At the same time they’re trying to ban plastic grocery bags, they’re also trying to get everyone to switch to these little mercury bombs (which, by the way, take more energy to make as well).  And I’ll believe in LEDs when they actually deliver a home product that works.  In the meantime, I’ve got a good mind to head down to Lowe’s and buy a lifetime supply of NORMAL bulbs and hide them in my crawlspace.  And on the way home I think I’ll stop at Freddie’s and get a couple steaks and some corn on the cob for the BBQ.

Good Sunday morning to you all.  God  bless you this Lord’s Day.

Above All

Can we stop with the “Religion of Peace” nonsense?  Here is a report of Christian persecution in Iraq, from a Dutch source to World Net Daily

…Christians in Iraq, including converts from Islam and people involved in mixed-faith marriages, are being crucified by Muslim terrorists, according to a Dutch member of Parliament studying the war-torn country.

Several Iraqi Christians “are nailed to a cross and their arms are tied up with ropes. The ropes are put on fire,” Joel Voordewind told BosNewsLife, an online news agency focusing on Christians and Jews in difficult circumstances.

Converting to Christianity from Islam is a major offense for a Muslim.  You no doubt remember the concern surrounding Abdul Rahman, the Afghan who converted and had such problems a year or so ago, finally fleeing to Italy.  It is not just the Middle East though.  Look at this article from Malaysia

…Malaysia’s highest court ruled today in a split decision that a Kuala Lumpur woman who renamed herself Lina Joy has lost her 12-year fight to legally become a Christian. According to Malaysian law, Joy will remain a Muslim whether she wants to or not, and her religious status will remain on her identity card.  Justice Richard Malanjun, a Christian, dissented in the ruling.

The outcome of the case was hardly unexpected, given Malaysia’s religious and ethnic history. A crowd of about 300 Muslims waited outside, reading the Koran and chanting as Federal Court Chief Justice Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim delivered the judgment to a packed courtroom in the administrative capital Putrajaya, saying that jurisdiction over Joy’s case remains with Malaysia’s syariah, or religious court. As the decision was being read, the shout “Allahu Akhbar” resounded through the Palace of Justice.

60 percent of Malaysia is Muslim, and on the surface their constitution provides for freedom of religion.  But in Islam, sharia law supercedes civil law.  For those of you not aware of the demands sharia law places on a government, read this carefully

…Although the case was decided nearly a year ago, the federal court delayed its public ruling, partly because of the thorny legal issues and the question of whether the country’s federal courts should defer to syariah law.

…Authorities earlier this week were urging calm, as were Muslim religious leaders. The victory in court should defuse any further concerns, although Christian opponents were expected to be holding silent vigils and issuing statements.  The reform organization Aliran issued a statement saying that:  “The freedom of religion guaranteed by the Federal Constitution under Article 11 comes across as hollow and meaningless. This decision has totally rendered null and void the freedom of religion guaranteed by the Federal Constitution. Under the circumstances, the Federal Court’s decision has a devastating effect on issues of fairness and justice. Concerned citizens will rightly wonder whether the judiciary is capable of delivering justice for those who turn to it. They will be turned away from the judicial system of the country thinking that the judges who are sworn to uphold the Federal Constitution in the course of their duty are not living up to their oath of office.”

And if you are convinced by the MSM that sharia law only applies to Muslims, remember that this case was brought by a Christian.  But in Islam “once a Muslim, ALWAYS a Muslim”

…It is not possible to be an ethnic Malay in Malaysia without being a Muslim. Apostasy or conversion is a punishable offence in most states, either with a fine or a jail sentence or both.

The same thinking is seen in the UK and other parts of Europe with large Muslim populations, where persecution of “apostates” is widespread and seemingly winked at by government.  Islam is not simply a “religion”, it is a complete spiritual and political way of life, intended to be the ONLY way of life. “Moderate Muslim” and “Religion of Peace” are constructs of those who refuse to what Islam says about itself. It isn’t the same as a John Kerry or Teddy Kennedy Catholic. If you want to know what Catholics are about, you listen to the Pope, not Kennedy, not Kerry, and you find out that those two aren’t close to what their religion is about. Similarly, if you want to know what Islam is about, DON’T listen to what the MSM says about it, or Bush, or Tony Blair. Watch, and listen to what the “true believers” tell you about it.    Pay attention here.