Firefox Plugin from Google

If you use more than one computer, you may find it inconvenient to have bookmarks that are different on each machine. If you use the Firefox web browser, you may be interested in a new plugin for Firefox, that allows you to keep your bookmarks on your computers matching and up to date.

The plugin also works to update bookmarks for Firefox on computers with different operating systems as well. So if you are using Windows, Mac, BSD or Linux, you can keep the same bookmarks up to date and syncronized on all of them.

You can read more about it in this article by Steven Vaughan-Nichols here:

First impressions of Google Browser Sync

     

Zarqawi's death

Hat tip to Cox and Forkum for the cartoon. You can read their related commentary and links HERE.

The missile didn't just kill Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, but also his "spiritual advisor" and some other significant people too. Good.


Related links:



A Good Day's Work: Why Zarqawi's death matters An excerpt:

...Most fascinating of all is the suggestion that Zarqawi was all along receiving help from the mullahs in Iran. He certainly seems to have been able to transit their territory (Herat is on the Iranian border with Afghanistan) and to replenish his forces by the same route. If this suggestive connection is proved, as Weaver suggests it will be, then we have the Shiite fundamentalists in Iran directly sponsoring the murderer of their co-religionists in Iraq. This in turn would mean that the Iranian mullahs stood convicted of the most brutish and cynical irresponsibility, in front of their own people, even as they try to distract attention from their covert nuclear ambitions. That would be worth knowing. And it would become rather difficult to argue that Bush had made them do it, though no doubt the attempt will be made.

If we had withdrawn from Iraq already, as the "peace" movement has been demanding, then one of the most revolting criminals of all time would have been able to claim that he forced us to do it. That would have catapulted Iraq into Stone Age collapse and instated a psychopathic killer as the greatest Muslim soldier since Saladin...

(bold emphasis mine) Iran. Anyone suprised? It's worth reading the whole of this article by Christopher Hitchens, on SLATE, HERE.


Iraqi civilians and Jordan shopped Zarqawi

Zarqawi not a leader - just a psycho thug?
   
 

Islam and Terror too often go together

Hat tip to Cox and Forkum for the cartoon. You can read their related commentary and links, with UPDATES, HERE.

Discoveries like this one in Canada are cause for real concern. How many others are there that we don't know about yet? Some people have tried to downplay the religious connection, but their statements are unconvincing. The blinders of political correctness keep some people from seeing the obvious.

My blog was spammed recently by someone claiming to be a Muslim from Indonesia. The spam was posted on many bloggs that posted anything critical of Islam. The spammer claimed it was unfair to always mention Islam in connection with Muslims who commit terrorist acts; that the religious affiliation of other terrorists is not mentioned in the media, but only Islam.

Since Islamic terrorists take their inspiration for what they do from Islam, and much of the organizational activity and education takes place in and around mosques, it is clearly impossible to separate the two when talking about it; the political and religious are too intermixed. Not all Muslims are terrorists, but nearly all terrorists nowadays are Muslims, and that is no accident.

As for the religious affiliation of "other terrorists"; Islamism believes that anyone who does not to submit to Islam is an enemy. I have read Islamic blogs where the publishing of the innocous Danish cartoons is compaired in seriousness and severity to 9-11, and Isreal and America are considered terrorists, even as they defend themselves.

This is cult thinking at it's most dangerous. Judaism and Christianity both reformed - hundreds of years ago - and accept the right of other religions to exist, without any kind of dimmitude. The Islamic World is still struggling to allow reform; those who try are often slaughtered. But until it can reform, it will have no peace with the modern world.



I do believe that reform is possible, though not easy. I have heard it said that 9-11 was not just about attacking the US, but also about sending a message to reform-minded Muslims in the middle east. The message:

"If we can do THIS to the infidel in NYC, we can do even worse to YOU. Don't you even THINK about reform".

Ex-Muslim Wafa Sultan maintains that countries like her native Syria are filled with educated people who wish to embrace the modern world and join the community of nations. But they have no voice; they fear for their lives. Her own life is continually threatened now.

Ex-Muslim Hirsi Ali, who has suffered genital mutilation under Islam, talks about reforming Islam, not destroying it. The result: her life has been threatened, and she's been driven out of Holland to the USA.

Moderate Muslim Nasar Khader, a member of the Danish Parliament, began recieving death threats when he gave his daughter a christian name. The threats have only increased as he has opposed the radical imams in Denmark.

In San Francisco, when we owned a restaurant there, we often had educated, westernized Muslims as guests. They always struck me as being very moral, upright and BALANCED people. The women didn't dress in garment bags or wear hajibs, but did dress conservatively by western standards, as did the men. They would drink a little bit of wine, and were usually soft-spoken and well mannered. Are such people not an asset to any society?

I'm not anti-Muslim; I'm just against people, Muslim and Infidel alike, being murdered because they don't conform to 7th century standards of religious fanaticism.



Hat tip to Cox and Forkum for the cartoon. You can read their related commentary and links HERE.

It sounds to me like they are just pretending that they "might" be willing to consider accepting the existance of the State of Isreal... if we give them more money. Then, they might think about it. Haven't we played this game long enough? Let's STOP it, already.

And are we starting to do this with Iran now? Let's NOT.

Bush, Borders and Globalization

Jerome Corsi has written an article for Human Events called "The Plan to Replace the Dollar With the 'Amero'". It is suggesting that George Bush is working to create a new political entity, almost a new country really, consisting of Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. Some excerpts:

...Following the March 2005 meeting in Waco, Tex., the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) published in May 2005 a task force report titled “Building a North American Community.” We have already documented that this CFR task force report calls for a plan to create by 2010 a redefinition of boundaries such that the primary immigration control will be around the three countries of the North American Union, not between the three countries. We have argued that a likely reason President Bush has not secured our border with Mexico is that the administration is pushing for the establishment of the North American Union.

The North American Union is envisioned to create a super-regional political authority that could override the sovereignty of the United States on immigration policy and trade issues. In his June 2005 testimony to the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Robert Pastor, the Director of the Center for North American Studies at American University, stated clearly the view that the North American Union would need a super-regional governance board to make sure the United States does not dominate the proposed North American Union once it is formed: ...

...Pastor’s 2001 book “Toward a North American Community” called for the creation of a North American Union that would perfect the defects Pastor believes limit the progress of the European Union. Much of Pastor’s thinking appears aimed at limiting the power and sovereignty of the United States as we enter this new super-regional entity. Pastor has also called for the creation of a new currency which he has coined the “Amero,” a currency that is proposed to replace the U.S. dollar, the Canadian dollar, and the Mexican peso...

(bold emphasis mine) I don't doubt that there could be numerous benefits in combining forces with our north and south neighbors... but to what extent? It's the loss of American Sovereignty that I find most disturbing. Also the loss of American identity, and the values that go with it.

It's often been said that when big corporations merge, the corporate identity of BOTH corporations is destroyed; a new identity emerges. Sometimes the identity of one company, the stronger one, retains a dominant influence, but is still changed, often dramatically.

I doubt that merging three countries, even in a limited way, would be very different. But with Canada's socialism and European political views, and Mexico's socialism, poverty and political turmoil, you have to wonder what that would do to our culture, identity and sovereignty. Add to that the American leftists, socialists and communists already in our country, and you have to wonder just how much the influence of OUR political ideals and culture would prevail, or even endure? America has always grown and changed throughout it's history; change is inevitable. But where would this plan take us? There are a lot of questions worth asking.

It makes for an interesting read. The article is filled with links to sources and references, it has a wealth of information. You can read the whole thing HERE. Hat tip to TammyBruce.com. Tammy had Jerome Corsi as a guest on her radio show to discuss the article.




Related link:

From Thomas Sowell: Birthright Sale

     

The smear campaign begins

Hat tip to Cox and Forkum for this cartoon, which is titled "Second Coat". You can read their related commentary and links (with recent updates) HERE.

I knew that when this war started, it was going to be difficult and messy, with all kinds of mistakes and terrible things occuring. That is what happens in war, no matter how much we try to limit it. I also knew the left would do everything they could to sandbag our efforts and make this a loss for our country.

Over the years, one of the things that really helped me question and move away from leftist thinking (and the Democratic Party), was observing how selective the left is with their indignation and condemnation. Rather than discuss it at length, I'll just sum it up with the observation that their beliefs run along the lines of this:

"Everything America does is evil, because it is a greedy capitalist country. Anyone who opposes it is therefore worthy of support. America isn't perfect, so it MUST be evil; governments who oppose America may also not be perfect, but their socialist/communist/totalitarian INTENTIONS are aimed towards perfection, therefore they must be supported against America".

These assumptions are so deeply ingrained that they are hardly even noticed conciously, much less questioned. Where did they learn to think like this? Our schools, all grades right through to college. Many people have bought into this kind of thinking without even realising they chose it. Perhaps it's not even fair to say "chose", as they often were not presented with any other views to consider.

I think it was Lenin who said that the best way to destroy a country is to first destroy it's sense of history and it's national identity. The best place to begin to do that is the schools.

When we owned a restaurant in San Francisco, we received a brochure from an organization in Berkeley, inviting us to participate in a "Multi-cultural Fair" that was supposed to celebrate the diversity of various cultures.

We served South African cuisine, and were listed in directories of African restaurants, which is probably why we recieved the invitation (too often we would get visted by leftists who assumed we were black Africans; when they saw that we weren't, they would become visibly upset, often even remarking on it distaste before leaving in a huff).

Anyhow, the Fair didn't sound so bad on the face of it, until you read further; it was stated that "maps, flags and symbols of nationalism are not permitted at the Fair". It went on to explain why, with some smarmy statement like "You see, the Muti-cultural Fair isn't just about learning, it's also about UN-learning".

Need I say that bit of patronizing twaddle went right into the trash where it belonged? I think that was my first big slap-in-the-face regarding what multi-culturalism was REALLY all about. Later on, I read Tammy Bruce's book, "The Death of Right and Wrong", where I had my worst fears about the agenda of the muti-culturalists confirmed. I highly recommend her book, she is a former leftist who was in the belly of the beast, and speaks from personal experience.


Related links:

UK TIMES SMEARS OUR MARINES (UPDATED WITH RESPONSE)

The Death of Right and Wrong

What does it mean to be Pro-Victory?
I really like the definition of "Pro-Victory". I just applied to join the blogroll, you may want to consider it, too.

UPDATE 06/06/06:

Letter from Iraq: They're not supporting the troops
   
 

Creepy interview with Ahmadinejad

National Review has an article by Michael Ledeen called "The Iranian Challenge", which looks at an interview Iranian President Ahmadinejad recently did for the German Magazine Der Spiegel. Reading Ahmadinejad's commentary is often disturbing, creepy really, because he talks like a cultist, and he has an air of confidence that maintains he really doesn't have to answer to anyone. Not elected, but chosen by the Mullahs whose hands he kisses. Some excerpts from Ledeen's article:

...He’s not at all interested in what we call “the pursuit of the truth,” so there is no real interview or dialogue (the crowd calling for negotiations with this regime ought to study this text, because if they do it seriously they will realize that you cannot negotiate with these people). He constantly projects Iranian political culture onto the rest of the world, which is what you would expect from an uncultured ideologue. And it’s astonishing to watch the Spiegel interviewer fall into one rhetorical trap after another. In many ways, the interview is noteworthy for its exposure of the fecklessness of a German interviewer facing an Iranian bully.

When Ahmadinejad says “I don’t know what all the excitement is about” concerning the possibility he would attend the World Cup in Germany this summer, he’s told that it’s because of his remarks about the Holocaust. “So you were surprised...?” the interviewer says. Uninterested in what he said a sentence before, Ahmadinejad tosses out a new version: “No, not at all, because the network of Zionism is very active...”

And that pretty much sets the tone for the rest of the interview. It’s always “heads I win, tails you lose.” Or rather, the Jews lose. Early on, he says “if (the Holocaust) did not occur, then the Jews have to go back to where they came from.” And a bit later he says “If there really had been a Holocaust, Israel ought to be located in Europe...” So he wants to ship the Jews to Europe, period. Talk about the Holocaust is neither here nor there.

When the Spiegel interviewer tries to suggest that there is abundant evidence for the Holocaust, Ahmadinejad first tosses off one of his great gag lines (“Normally, governments promote and support the work of researchers on historical events and do not put them in prison”), as if his regime had not arrested, tortured, and murdered thousands of Iranians who tried to tell the truth about the actions of the regime. Then he assaults the poor German: Why do you have to support the Zionists? Why do you Germans still feel guilty about the Holocaust? “Why must the German people be humiliated today because a group of people committed crimes in the name of the Germans during the course of history?” The Spiegel journalist doesn’t have the wit to ask Ahmadinejad why jihadis like him base their actions on events that took place centuries ago, and then have the chutzpah to condemn the Germans for feeling guilt about the actions of their parents.

The use of “humiliation” tells us a lot about the way the mullahs think about the world; they look at international events as a matter of domination or humiliation, and he hammers away at this theme: “Saying that we should accept the world as it is would mean that...the German people would be humiliated for another 1.000 years. Do you think that is the correct logic?”

You can be quite certain that the mullahs are not going to accept anything less than the humiliation of the West, and Ahmadinejad’s hatred for the Europeans oozes from every verbal exchange. When the Spiegel interviewer asks him whether he wants nuclear weapons, Ahmadinejad treats him with total contempt...

(bold emphasis mine) You can read the whole thing HERE.



Ahmadinejad has got this cult attitude; he knows how to blow smoke, how to say things that sound good, even though they aren't true. He is using a measuring stick, Fundamentalist Islam, which is his reference for everything; trying to talk to him in terms of Western thinking and viewpoints won't get you far. He won't entertain thoughts outside of the box of Islamic interpretation. It's a cult defense mechanism; as long as the ideology isn't threatened, he can continue entertaining whatever spooky thoughts he has in his head, believing he has a superior knowlege that outsiders don't understand, and justifies his actions and beliefs.

It is what people in cults do, to avoid dealing with inconvenient things like rationality and logic, that challenge the cherished beliefs. If they tell you their "truth", you either understand it or you don't; there is nothing to discuss. If you don't understand it, then you are the enemy... even if he doesn't say it. He can make all the politically correct statements he wants about wanting "peace", but he can't be trusted. People in cults think it's fine to lie to non-believers. Look at the promises that were made to the Iranian people, and what actually happened after the revolution took place.

That's what I sense from this guy, and I find it really creepy. Can you imagine him with nuclear weapons? How "reasonable" to you think he can or would be, once he has that kind of power?

You can read the whole creepy interview with Der Spiegel HERE. It also has a european flavor that I really don't care for at all.

Cockroach cartoon triggers protests in Iran

Hat tip to Cox and Forkum for the cartoon. You can read their related commentary and links HERE.

A cartoon that insulted the Azeri minority in Iran (about 25 percent of the population) by refering to them as cockroaches has triggered a wave of protests, not only about the cartoon, but other issues as well.

There are a lot of seething tensions due to internal problems in Iran. The country has high unemployment; half their population are young people in their 20's with no future job prospects. Iran also faces a serious drug abuse problem. The Iranian government insists on blaming foreign agitation for the unrest, even though it was a cartoon in a state-run newspaper that seems to have sparked the protests.

Ethnic minorities make up about half the population of Iran, and are increasingly expressing their opposition to the government. Here are some photos, you can see more via the links below:









Related Links:

Iran: Restive Provinces

Regime Commandos & Hezbollah Thugs Pound Iranian Protesters

Rare pictures of protests in Iran

Farm Report 05/28/06

Here is a photo of Pat sitting in the run. We have intergrated the pullets with the Bantams, and they seem to get along just fine. We have moved them all together in the largest run, and they seem to enjoy the extra space. In the forground is Bantam Bertie Rooster. In the background, sitting on Pat's arm, is the buff pullet "Runtie". She is slightly smaller than the others, very shy, and is often picked on. When ever Pat is in the run, she flies up to him.

There has been high drama in the coop this week:


The 3 stooges, the unsexed chickens our neighbors gave us, are not so funny anymore. They are acting very "cocky" these days. Here they are, going at it with each other:


They've started to do the flaring neck "jurassic park" thing. Dinosaurs with feathers!


They pick on the pullets, so they can't live with them. They pick on the Bantams; I caught one of them biting Bertie Rooster in the back of the neck in a firm grip, trying to kill him. So they have to live by themselves, and their names need to be changed to something like, breakfast, lunch and dinner. I'd call them Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years, but those are Turkey names ;-)

Alfie, Bettie and Cecil have also had to be kept separate, as they don't get along with the pullets, Bantams or stooges. No one has lost their heads... yet. But we are running out of space. It's easy to understand why people eat roosters.

And as if we don't have enough space problems, the population of Bantams continues to grow:


These ones in the picture are all hatched by Turendot. But now the Bantam renigades with their illegal nests UNDER the nesting box, have began hatching theirs... three so far. But I will have leave this story for the next Farm Report. I've got chicken coop "issues" I need to deal with today, now that the rain has stopped.

So I'll end this with the special report mentioned last week:


DEVIL DUCKIES
Everyone thinks they are so cute. Well o.k., I guess they ARE, especially when they are ducklings... but any parent should think twice before putting one of these MONSTERS in some unsuspecting kid's easter basket.

Why is it nobody ever talks about the CLAWS these things have? Look at these:


Andy is holding them the safe way; feet OUT. There is a claw on the end of each toe, and on the back heel. Those claws are there, and sharp, even when they are ducklings. As they get older, the claws just get bigger and sharper.


Because of the claws, you have to hold them feet out, or tuck them in close against your body. But they can still scratch you when they kick, so wear a thick shirt or a jacket. AND, something else no one talks about... those "cute" little webbed feet. As if the claws aren't bad enough... if they have been standing in duck poop, and you pick them up, they use their poopy feet like trowels and smear it all over your clothes. They are dirtly little devils! When I have to carry them both at the same time, one tucked under each arm, I make sure to wear my old beat up windbreaker or something that I won't mind getting soiled.

It almost seems unfair to call them dirty, because they love the water so much and are constantly grooming themselves:


They can rotate, angle and turn their heads in more directions than Linda Blair.

Here they are in their new plastic wading pool:



They prefer only an inch or two of water; they won't go into the pool if it's full. They love to forage for things in the water. Whenever I want them to try a new kind of food, I just drop it in water, and they go for it.


They are very fond of eating slugs, which is fortunate because we have a lot of them. They love to eat them in the pool, but will also forage them out of the grass.

I think they are a pair, male and female. She is slightly bigger, and doesn't quack but squeeks. She will eat out of my hand, is calmer, and doesn't kick as much when I hold her.

He is smaller, has a white spot on the back of his head, quacks a lot and likes to make a fuss whenever I pick him up. He is excitable and bold. I'm not positive about their sex, but that is the way it seems to me. We call him Daffy, and her Dilly.



Digby watches over them from a safe distance. The ducks often like to be near him, they will follow him around the yard, but at the same time, they don't like him to get too close, and will snap at him if he comes too near. When I guide the ducks back to their pen with a stick, Digby likes to follow; I think he wants to herd them.

And that's it for this weeks Farm Report!
   
 

$100 laptop prototype is here

From the article "First pictures of the $100 laptop", some excerpts:

...Nicholas Negroponte heads up the One Laptop Per Child organisation which hopes to get massive orders from third world governments in order to put the devices into production. The idea is to provide every child in some developing countries with one of the machines...



...The machines look like rubberised children's toys and include covers which swing over connection plugs. The three designs are slightly different - some include speakers and four-way controllers around the screen and some do not...



...But will they ever be anything more than working prototypes? For OLPC's calculations on the bill of materials to add up, production has to kick off with a minimum run of five million units. Until this target has been achieved, manufacturing won't begin. OLPC is pinning its hopes on massive orders - up to a million units a pop from the big economies of the emerging world - Brazil, India, China, Nigeria. And it needs for these countries to pay for the units in advance.

As the head of one NGO told us: "To achieve this production run elected politicians in China, Brazil, India, Nigeria etc. will need to put their reputations and political careers on the line and gamble millions of dollars from already over-stretched education budgets on an unproven, Beta Ver 1.0, non-standard technology being produced by an outfit with no prior track record. I don't really expect experienced politicians to do this."

While the concept is great and the product possibly worthwhile, I think it's unrealistic to expect massive orders for a beta product that is untested, with no track record.



I couldn't agree more with that assesment. IMO, this project needs some BUSINESS people involved. There has been a great deal of interest from individuals who are interested in purchasing these, so why not sell them first in more affluent countries, and TEST market them? Also test them out in American Schools. Even American schools need to save money, and even American kids don't need really fancy and expensive laptops for schoolwork; in fact, many can't afford regular laptops. A computer like this would likely be the only laptop option available to American kids from low income families.

When the devices have the bugs worked out, and a proven track record, THEN approach poorer nations and try to sell them something that is actually known to work.



What is the $100 Laptop, really?

The proposed $100 machine will be a Linux-based, with a dual-mode display—both a full-color, transmissive DVD mode, and a second display option that is black and white reflective and sunlight-readable at 3× the resolution. The laptop will have a 500MHz processor and 128MB of DRAM, with 500MB of Flash memory; it will not have a hard disk, but it will have four USB ports. The laptops will have wireless broadband that, among other things, allows them to work as a mesh network; each laptop will be able to talk to its nearest neighbors, creating an ad hoc, local area network. The laptops will use innovative power (including wind-up) and will be able to do most everything except store huge amounts of data.

Source: OLPC Frequently Asked Questions

Also, I see that these prototypes are running an altered version of Linux Fedora Core as their operating system. That might be fine, but there is already a free Linux operating system with a small memory footprint, that would be perfect for running on these machines. It's called Puppy Linux:





The whole operating system is only 60 megs! It can be launched from a USB storage chip, and run entirely in RAM, it doesn't require a hard drive. It's very capable, and can even handle multimedia functions. And it's free to download and use.





It can be configured in any number of ways, extra programs are available, most of them free of cost. It's ideally suited for a computer like the $100 laptop, but is also well suited for running on older PC's that don't have a lot of memory. It can be run off a portable USB chip, which is very convenient for people who travel a lot but don't want to lug a laptop with them. You can plug the USB chip into any computer with a USB port, and run the whole thing in RAM, without touching the host computer's hard drive. You save your work to the chip, just like you would with a hard drive.

I hope the $100 laptop and Puppy Linux will join forces one day. There is already talk that it may happen, I read somewhere that Puppy Linux has approached the OLPC project about the possibility.


Related links:

One Laptop Per Child Homepage

More photos of the $100 laptop

More photos of Puppy Linux

     

Should congress members be exempt from search laws that apply to the rest of us?

Hat tip to Cox and Forkum for the cartoon. You can read their related commentary and links HERE.

William F. Buckley, in his article "Cold Cash", maintains that assertions by Pelosi and Hastert that the search of Rep. William Jefferson's office was unconstitutional are a real stretch. An excerpt:

...stare down hard at the language. The Constitution holds that lawmakers are "privileged from arrest during their attendance at the session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same."

That provision was intended to protect legislators from arrest for statements made in the course of their legislative duties. This has nothing to do with Mr. Jefferson's case. Which means that those who say that the FBI should not have had access to the congressman's home or office are extending that constitutional provision to the point of immunity from search.

Most Americans believe profoundly in extending to reasonable lengths the ancient premise that one's home is one's castle. For that reason the executive branch is prohibited from searching an individual's premises except when authorized to do so by a judge. Needed for success here is persuasive evidence that the citizen being searched has committed a crime. There seems to have been no question that the FBI persuasively made its case for proceeding to conduct the searches. And of course, retrospectively, the FBI's suspicions were validated...

(Bold emphasis mine) You can read the entire article HERE.
     

Thomas Sowell on illegal immigration, our borders and our politicians

Hat tip to Cox and Forkum for the cartoon (published March 28th). You can read their related commentary and links HERE.

Thomas Sowell points out how the debate about immigration legislation is not being talked about honestly. An excerpt:

...Let's return to the question of what would happen if border control legislation were to be voted on separately from amnesty legislation, instead of in the current package deal.

First of all, we would find out who is serious about border control, especially if the question of amnesty (by whatever name) is postponed for some definite period of time, in order to first see what happens at the border before taking that irrevocable step.

Who would lose anything by this separate consideration of the two pieces of legislation? The country would not lose anything. Neither would the illegal aliens already in the country.

The biggest losers would be politicians. They could no longer be on both sides of the issue by voting for a package deal but would have to stand up and be counted on border control.

Some say that the Democrats would filibuster a bill that offered border control separately. Fine. Let them!

Let them show their true colors in an election year and then go face the voters in the fall.

Of course, those Republicans who are either weak-kneed or who share the Democrats' views would also lose the political cover of being able to vote on both sides of the immigration issue.

But the country would be better off not to commit itself to guaranteeing the permanence of millions of illegal aliens and all their descendants thereafter without getting anything more than pious hopes about controlling the border...

(bold emphasis mine) Excerpt is from part II, but all three articles in the series are well worth reading. Very clear thinking, which is much needed in this debate.


May 23, 2006 : Bordering on fraud
The immigration bill before Congress has some of the most serious consequences for the future of this country. Yet it is not being discussed seriously by most politicians or most of the media. Instead, it is being discussed in a series of glib talking points that insult our intelligence.

May 24, 2006 : Bordering on fraud: Part II
Of all the insults to our intelligence in the current discussions of immigration legislation, the biggest insult is the claim that border control legislation and legislation on the illegal immigrants already in the country must go together.

May 25, 2006 : Bordering on fraud, part III
Some people are worried that amnesty will give illegal aliens the same rights that American citizens have. In reality, it will give the illegals more rights than the average American citizen.
   
 

Saudi Wahhabi education in the USA

Hat tip to Cox and Forkum for the cartoon. You can read their related commentary and links HERE.

I had made a post about this just recently. The teachings of the Saudi Wahhabi cult of Islam are not limited to Saudi Arabia, but are actively exported worldwide, even to schools here in the United States.

One writer, Laura Mansfield, has written a series of articles about what is being taught in American Muslim schools. She is an ex-Muslim who speaks fluent Arabic. While visiting a school in the USA, she heard a talk given in arabic. They assumed she couldn't speak arabic. She heard the following:

...I checked the mosque schedule on the web, and discovered that there was going to be an Arabic language session an hour before. So I showed up an hour early. The imam met me at the door, and told me that the presentation didn’t start for an hour, and suggested I come back in an hour. Fortunately I had anticipated this. I explained that since I had quite a bit of reading to do for a class I was taking. “Can I just sit here and read?”

He hesitated a moment, then agreed. I sat in the back of the room, with my book open, and made a mental note to remember to turn the pages every so often, as I listened to the speakers in Arabic...

...At that point another student took the podium. His name was Khaled, and he began to recount his recent trip to New York City. Khaled and three of his companions had gone to New York for several days in January. He told of how uncomfortable his trip up to NYC had been. He felt like he was being watched, and thought he was the victim of racial profiling.

Khaled and his friends were pretty unhappy about it, and while in New York, they came up with a plan to “teach a lesson” to the passengers and crew. You can imagine the story Khaled told. He described how he and his friends whispered to each other on the flight, made simultaneous visits to the restroom, and generally tried to “spook” the other passengers. He laughed when he described how several women were in tears, and one man sitting near him was praying.

The others in the room thought the story was quite amusing, judging from the laughter. The Imam stood up and told the group that this was a kind of peaceful civil disobedience that should be encouraged, and commended Khaled and his friends for their efforts.

He pointed out that it was through this kind of civil disobedience that ethnic profiling would fail...

(bold emphasis mine)Is this kind of behavior actually being taught and encouraged for political ends? Laura Mansfield also stayed for the 2nd session, in English, which was very different from the first, in Arabic. The same Imam spoke in both sessions, and completely contradicted himself. The English session was a recruiting session, meant to draw people in. You can read the whole thing HERE.

Keeping in mind the Imam's comments about undermining ethnic profiling, consider this story on Michelle Malkin's site:

SOMETHING DOESN'T SEEM RIGHT...
...with the story of the two lying Saudi men who boarded a school bus in Florida. And it is not racist to say so.

An excerpt:

...Two men from Saudi Arabia were arrested today after they boarded a public school bus taking students to Wharton High School, the sheriff's office reported.

Mana Saleh Almanajam, 23, and Shaker Mohsen Alsidran, 20, both of Tampa, were charged with trespassing on school grounds as unlawful riders on a school bus.

Deputies say the two boarded the bus at a regular bus stop at Fletcher Avenue and 42nd street. Deputies said the bus driver and the students saw them and became concerned by their presence. The driver notified her supervisors who, in turn, called authorities.

A sheriff's deputy met then at Wharton High school and charged with them with trespassing.

The two men "initially told deputies they were from Morocco, but later admitted to being from Saudi Arabia," the sheriff's office said. "They told authorities they are enrolled at the English Language Institute at the University of South Florida. The defendants gave several versions of the reason they took a school bus to a high school, among those being they wanted to enroll in easier English language classes."

Investigators say the two arrived in the United States about six months ago and are required to be enrolled at the English Language Institute.

A sheriff's spokesman say they are registered students at the university.

Local, state and federal agents searched the residences of the two men and found nothing of concern...

(bold emphasis mine) I'm just waiting for CAIR to call this racism. So what is this all about? Could this be an example of a kind of "civil disobedience" meant to undermind any kind of ethnic profiling, making it easier for terrorists to move about in our country?

You can read the whole thing HERE. Next time you hear and odd story like this, remember what the Imam said about undermining ethnic profiling.


Islamic Schools in our own country aren't the only ones we should be concerned about. Look what is happening in many of our public schools, where you aren't allowed to express the Christian religion, but Allah and Islam are more than just fine:


Teaching Johnny About Islam
Some excerpts:

...In a recent federal decision that got surprisingly little press, even from conservative talk radio, California's 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled it's OK to put public-school kids through Muslim role-playing exercises, including:

Reciting aloud Muslim prayers that begin with "In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful . . . ."

Memorizing the Muslim profession of faith: "Allah is the only true God and Muhammad is his messenger."

Chanting "Praise be to Allah" in response to teacher prompts.

Professing as "true" the Muslim belief that "The Holy Quran is God's word."

Giving up candy and TV to demonstrate Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting.

Designing prayer rugs, taking an Arabic name and essentially "becoming a Muslim" for two full weeks.

Parents of seventh-graders, who after 9-11 were taught the pro-Islamic lessons as part of California's world history curriculum, sued under the First Amendment ban on religious establishment. They argued, reasonably, that the government was promoting Islam...

...In the California course on world religions, Christianity is not presented equally. It's covered in just two days and doesn't involve kids in any role-playing activities. But kids do get a good dose of skepticism about the Christian faith, including a biting history of its persecution of other peoples. In contrast, Islam gets a pass from critical review. Even jihad is presented as an "internal personal struggle to do one's best to resist temptation," and not holy war.

The ed consultant's name is Susan L. Douglass. No, she's not a Christian scholar. She's a devout Muslim activist on the Saudi government payroll, according to an investigation by Paul Sperry, author of "Infiltration: How Muslim Spies and Subversives Have Penetrated Washington." He found that for years Douglass taught social studies at the Islamic Saudi Academy just outside Washington, D.C. Her husband still teaches there.

(bold emphasis mine) So what? By infiltrating our public school system, the Saudis hope to make Islam more widely accepted while converting impressionable American youth to their radical cause. Recall that John Walker Lindh, the "American Taliban," was a product of the California school system. What's next, field trips to Mecca?...

You can read the whole article HERE.


Related Link:

GOD - NO; ALLAH - YES
     

Iran teaches the EU appeasement...

Hat tip to Cox and Forkum for the cartoon. You can read their related commentary and links HERE.

Saudi Education Reforms... NOT

Looks like more two-faced tricks from the Wahhabi cultists. The textbooks used in Saudi government schools were filled with hateful anti-western propaganda. We complained, and now, the Saudi's assure us, this situation has been corrected. From and article in the Washington Post called "This is a Saudi textbook. (After the intolerance was removed.)", here are some excerpts:

...A 2004 Saudi royal study group recognized the need for reform after finding that the kingdom's religious studies curriculum "encourages violence toward others, and misguides the pupils into believing that in order to safeguard their own religion, they must violently repress and even physically eliminate the 'other.' " Since then, the Saudi government has claimed repeatedly that it has revised its educational texts.

Prince Turki al-Faisal, the Saudi ambassador to the United States, has worked aggressively to spread this message. "The kingdom has reviewed all of its education practices and materials, and has removed any element that is inconsistent with the needs of a modern education," he said on a recent speaking tour to several U.S. cities. "Not only have we eliminated what might be perceived as intolerance from old textbooks that were in our system, we have implemented a comprehensive internal revision and modernization plan." ...

Well that SOUNDS good, doesn't it. But like so many things involving the Saudis, you have to ask, "Is it true?" Read on:

...A review of a sample of official Saudi textbooks for Islamic studies used during the current academic year reveals that, despite the Saudi government's statements to the contrary, an ideology of hatred toward Christians and Jews and Muslims who do not follow Wahhabi doctrine remains in this area of the public school system. The texts teach a dualistic vision, dividing the world into true believers of Islam (the "monotheists") and unbelievers (the "polytheists" and "infidels").

This indoctrination begins in a first-grade text and is reinforced and expanded each year, culminating in a 12th-grade text instructing students that their religious obligation includes waging jihad against the infidel to "spread the faith."

Freedom House knows this because Ali al-Ahmed, a Saudi dissident who runs the Washington-based Institute for Gulf Affairs , gave us a dozen of the current, purportedly cleaned-up Saudi Ministry of Education religion textbooks. The copies he obtained were not provided by the government, but by teachers, administrators and families with children in Saudi schools, who slipped them out one by one.

Some of our sources are Shiites and Sunnis from non-Wahhabi traditions -- people condemned as "polytheistic" or "deviant" or "bad" in these texts -- others are simply frustrated that these books do so little to prepare young students for the modern world.

We then had the texts translated separately by two independent, fluent Arabic speakers...

(bold emphasis mine) The Saudi public school system totals 25,000 schools, educating as many as 5 million students. These books are not only used there, but in also world wide in "acadamies" sponsored by the Saudi government. How these books are used and what they contain is appalling:

...Saudi Arabia also distributes its religion texts worldwide to numerous Islamic schools and madrassas that it does not directly operate. Undeterred by Wahhabism's historically fringe status, Saudi Arabia is trying to assert itself as the world's authoritative voice on Islam -- a sort of "Vatican" for Islam, as several Saudi officials have stated-- and these textbooks are integral to this effort. As the report of the commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks observed, "Even in affluent countries, Saudi-funded Wahhabi schools are often the only Islamic schools" available.

Education is at the core of the debate over freedom in the Muslim world. Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden understands this well; in a recent audiotape he railed against those who would "interfere with school curricula."

The passages below -- drawn from the same set of Saudi texts proudly cited in the new 74-page review of curriculum reform now being distributed by the Saudi Embassy -- are shaping the views of the next generation of Saudis and Muslims worldwide. Unchanged, they will only harden and deepen hatred, intolerance and violence toward other faiths and cultures. Is this what Riyadh calls reform?

religion@freedomhouse.org

FIRST GRADE

" Every religion other than Islam is false."

"Fill in the blanks with the appropriate words (Islam, hellfire): Every religion other than ______________ is false. Whoever dies outside of Islam enters ____________."

FOURTH GRADE

"True belief means . . . that you hate the polytheists and infidels but do not treat them unjustly."

FIFTH GRADE

"Whoever obeys the Prophet and accepts the oneness of God cannot maintain a loyal friendship with those who oppose God and His Prophet, even if they are his closest relatives."

"It is forbidden for a Muslim to be a loyal friend to someone who does not believe in God and His Prophet, or someone who fights the religion of Islam."

"A Muslim, even if he lives far away, is your brother in religion. Someone who opposes God, even if he is your brother by family tie, is your enemy in religion."

SIXTH GRADE

"Just as Muslims were successful in the past when they came together in a sincere endeavor to evict the Christian crusaders from Palestine, so will the Arabs and Muslims emerge victorious, God willing, against the Jews and their allies if they stand together and fight a true jihad for God, for this is within God's power."

EIGHTH GRADE

"As cited in Ibn Abbas: The apes are Jews, the people of the Sabbath; while the swine are the Christians, the infidels of the communion of Jesus."

As it goes on, it gets worse. What it says about blood money and the value of women... has no place in this century. If this is from "reformed" textbooks, can you imagine what the old texts must have said? Of course, you have to ask if our "friends" the Saudis even reformed anything at all. It would not be the first time they told us one thing publicly, while they did something else entirely. These "lessons" lead up to fully endorsing Jihad. Is it any wonder that the majority of 9-11 terrorists were Saudis? What else could come from such an "education"?

It's worth reading the whole article, which you can do HERE.


Related Links:

Saudi Virtue and Vice

Saudi Religious Police

WAHHABISM; the form of Islam
that tolerates no other
   
 

Sunday Funnies 05/21/06

Hat tip to Cox and Forkum for the cartoon. You can read their related commentary and links HERE.


Hat tip to Cox and Forkum for the cartoon. You can read their related commentary and links HERE.









Hat tip to Cox and Forkum for the cartoons.