Author: David

Over-educated Curmudgeon, Bit-Bucket Tuner and Budding Brewmeister.
Posted on

Professor 0!

Ralph Peters’ droll deconstruction of The 0!’s Middle East Tour is a not-to-be-missed piece of worthwhile snark. A sample:

Churches and synagogues are about to open in Saudi Arabia. Since “Islam has a proud tradition of tolerance” and there are “over 1,200 mosques within our borders,” I can’t wait for the first Baptist hymn-sing in Riyadh. Sign me up!

Behind closed doors with Saudi King Abdullah, our president must’ve mentioned the many hundreds of churches and synagogues that thrived on the Arabian Peninsula during the Prophet’s lifetime. Muslims zealots destroyed them. Time to get the bin Laden family’s construction firm on the job re-building!

And stoning converts who leave Islam to death is a no-no, right?

Yep. “Islam has a proud tradition of tolerance” MHWA. When flying pigs poop on The Black Stone of the Kaaba…

And don’t miss this priceless dissing of the “Islamic contributions to civilization” myth:

Islam’s been the source of real progress. Like “calligraphy.” Medieval Islam’s ballyhooed contributions actually were due to Greek-speaking Christians (including slaves) employed as court officials, to Armenian architects and Jewish physicians. But, yeah, Arabs had really good penmanship.

But really, Peters give Islam too much credit and touched on just a tad of the “contributions” Islamic culture is falsely credited with. BTW, Medieval European illuminated manuscripts are far more beautiful than Arabian penmanship. Hands down. It’s not that Islamic culture hasn’t tried over the centuries. It really has. Ideas stolen from the best of conquered and enslaved people, debased and hoarded for silly uses or used to falsely demonstrate Muslim superiority abound. But hey! Don’t let me rain on the myths. After paging through the thousands of hits of propaganda you’d get on Google, it’d take someone of more than average intellectual stamina to look for the truth… (Not me. I was introduced thirty-eight years ago to a genuine scholar–a Lebanese gentleman who, though he had multiple doctorates recognized in his own country was starting over again in the US ed system *spit*–who gave me a few pointers on where to look–all before the web. Took months of library searches, in what free time a po’ student could wrangle, to verify his astounding revelations… So, don’t expect me to do your homework for you :-))

Posted on

Evidence That “Moderate Muslims” Cannot Exist

Found here, all it takes is one paragraph to prove definitively that moderate Muslims cannot exist, only true believers, subjugated “believers” who practice Islam from fear, soi disant “moderates” practicing so-called “holy deception” of infidels, and heretics. I repeat: If this has any correlation to the real world (and it does), then there can truly be no “moderate” Muslims:

CORRECT DEFINITION OF A MODERATE MUSLIM
AL Aqidah ALTahawiyya

TAHAWI’S STATEMENT OF ISLAMIC DOCTRINE (AL-`AQIDA AL-TAHAWIYYA):

In the Name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate Praise be to Allah, Lord of all the worlds.

The great scholar Hujjat al-lslam Abu Ja’far al-Warraq al-Tahawi al-Misri, may Allah have mercy on him, said: This is a presentation of the beliefs of Ahl al-Sunna wa al-Jama`a, according to the school of the jurists of this religion, Abu Hanifa al-Nu`man ibn Thabit al-Kufi, Abu Yusuf Ya`qub ibn Ibrahim al-Ansari and Abu `Abdullah Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Shaybani, may Allah be pleased with them all, and what they believe regarding the fundamentals of the religion and their faith in the Lord of the worlds…

…The Qur’an is the word of Allah. It came from Him as speech without it being possible to say how. He sent it down on His Messenger as revelation. The believers accept it, as absolute truth. They are certain that it is, in truth, the word of Allah. It is not created as is the speech of human beings, and anyone who hears it and claims that it is human speech has become an unbeliever. Allah warns him and censures him and threatens him with Fire when He says, Exalted is He: “I will burn him in the Fire.” (al-Muddaththir 74:26) When Allah threatens with the Fire those who say “This is just human speech” (74:25) we know for certain that it is the speech of the Creator of mankind and that it is totally unlike the speech of mankind.

Now, if you have a stomach strong enough, go read the “holy books” of Islam. The Koran alone is FULL of “absolute truth” enjoining Muslims to kill or enslave unbelievers in their cult and FULL of blessings promised for those who do so. If it is the teaching of Islam (and it is) that the Koran is “absolute truth” then Muslims who are in any way, shape, fashion or form in agreement with the Koran support–by direct action or inaction–the murder, rape, pillage, torture and subjugation the Koran dictates as the fate of unbelievers at the hand of those who are Muslims. Those who are not in agreement with the Koran but still claim to be Muslims are, of course, heretics.

The fact that the Koran itself claims the position of “absolute truth” makes it pretty black and white, folks: “moderate” Islam is a lie. All Muslims are either true believers who actively support following Mohamed’s own practice and teachings of mass murder, rape, pillage, torture and subjugation of unbelievers or submitting in fear to Islam or soi disant “moderates” practicing so-called “holy deception” of infidels or heretics falsely claiming to still practice Islam when they would have to sanitize Mohamed past recognition and delete 70% of their so-called holy books’ “absolute truth” in order to achieve their moderation of Islam (destroying the thing to create something civilized that falsely goes by the same name).

OTOH, anyone throughout history who has suggested that Christians engage in the normative behavior of the life and teachings of Mohamed has had to do so in direct contradiction to the life and teachings of Jesus. To put it another way, anyone claiming to be a Muslim who lives a life of peace and does not seek to force others to believe as he does is a heretic, whereas anyone claiming to be a Christian who lives a life of peace and does not seek to force others to believe as he does is orthodox.

Continue reading “Evidence That “Moderate Muslims” Cannot Exist”

Posted on

Thinking of Buying a New Computer?

Wait until Fall, if you want a Windows computer. Seriously. M$ has announced that Windows 7 will ship October 22 this year, and folks, if you must buy a Windows computer this year, you will benefit by waiting on Windows 7 as opposed to buying a Vista-based computer. Note: Vista has improved somewhat, but it’s still bloated, slower than XP or Windows 7 and far, far too resource-intensive, IMO.

So, if you are planning to buy a Windows computer this year, hold onto your computer dollars, if you can, until Fall and buy a Windows 7 based computer. When you do, think carefully about your intended use, though. There will be several consumer-oriented “flavors” of Windows 7 and you’d probably be better-served in the long run to buy the most advanced-featured version that will run well on the hardware you select.

OTOH, if you intend to run another OS on your new computer purchase (or build), Ubuntu 9.04 (in a fresh install only–an upgrade from 8.10 failed horribly for me), PCBSD 7.1 or any number of other OS offerings (I still very much like Puppy Linux for low-spec machines!) would do well on nearly any new computer. In fact, Ubuntu is offering a netbook-tailored version of Ubuntu 9.04 that could make such low-powered machines much more useful than the Windows 7 Starter Edition that M$ is authorizing for installation on netbooks.

Depending on the user’s needs, I could recommend Windows 7, Ubuntu 9.04, PCBSD 7.1 or Puppy Linux 4.2.1. It all depends on what YOU want to do with your computer, what its hardware is, etc.

Posted on

Tea With Obama

(With apologies to Bugs Bunny and Pete Puma)

Citizen: Well, I think I’ll have to be goin’ now.
The 0!: Oh, no, you can’t leave yet. You got to have a nice cup of tea with me.
[Drags Citizen to a table]
The 0!: Here we are.
[Serves tea]
The 0!: There’s nothing as sociable as a nice cup of tea, I always say. How many lumps do you want?
Citizen: Oh, three or four
The 0!: [The 0! bunny whacks Citizen on the head with a mallet 5 times and 5 lumps appear on his head] Oh dear, I gave you one too many. Well we can fix that.
[whacks the 5th lump back in his head]
The 0!: There, and here’s a cigar for you.
[The 0! shoves the cigar in Citizen’s mouth and lights it; The 0! runs away; 3 seconds later it explodes]

One election cycle later, if the sheeple are still playing stupid (*duh* Ya think?), this could be the nightmare…

The 0!: Here we are. Tea’s on.
Citizen: But I don’t want no tea. It gives me a headache.
The 0!: Okay, well, what shall we have, then?
Citizen: [Takes out a coffee pot] Coffee! Eeeeee!
The 0!: Okay, we’ll have coffee. Eh, how many lumps do you want?
Citizen: Oh, three or four.
[The 0! hits him with mallet as before, but Citizen has an Acme stovelid on his head; The 0! takes out his Acme stovelid lifter to remove lid; lumps come out, Citizen faints]

*sigh* Stupid sheeple. Lumps are for losers. So later, following that election…

The 0!: …I just dropped by for a little social call, cuz. Say, mighty tender-looking little [child] you got there.
Citizen: Uh… yeah!
The 0!: Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s start the fire and fricassee him. You start the kindling and I’ll get the coal. Uh, by the way, how many lumps do you want?
Citizen: Oh, better get me a lot of lumps. A whole lotta lumps.
[Realizes it’s The 0!; grabs the mallet]
Citizen: Oh, no, you don’t! I’ll help myself.
[Starts hitting himself on head with mallet]

It could happen much that way…

Continue reading “Tea With Obama”

Posted on

Geriatrics for Dogs

Son&Heir’s dogs are 16 (or 17*) and 13 years old. The older one’s a medium sized mutt that looks like a Heinz 57 that’s predominantly some sort of herding dog and beagle. Weighs maybe 45 pounds. The younger is a German Shepherd/Yellow Lab mix. And there lies the tale…

Saw “young fella”–Leo–“rabbit hopping” when running the other day, and I’d already noticed that he’s become more clumsy on our vinyl tile floor in the kitchen (where we feed “the boys”). Yep. Weakened back legs, probable hip dysplasia exacerbated by arthritis. Immediately changed the boys’ diet. Since the older guy (Buttons) was still very energetic (I think “bouncy” is the word I’m looking for :-)) but just taking longer to start getting moving, after checking some dog health sites manned by veterinarians, I made up a batch of supplements for them to be fed in some canned food mixed with their dry. (Note: I know both dog foods we feed have some C, D and other supplementation but dogs do not synthesize D-3 and get it from prey in the wild, and C&D do work together in dogs, as in humans, in joint and bone maintenance, soooo… just keeping things within the general guidelines here )

  • some canine-allowed pain meds apportioned according to their weight/size
  • some glucosamine supplements for Leo
  • vitamin C (yeh, I checked to be sure it was a calcium ascorbate form and in very small amounts)
  • vitamin D (again, much smaller doses than for a human of their respective sizes)

So far–three days in, well before I could get a non-emergency vet appointment–I think the pain meds have had the most immediate effect. Leo’s pretty much stopped dragging his back legs and rabbit hopping. Buttons is just as energetic, but still takes about as much to get him started moving. We’ll see what the vet has to say as this progresses, but to this point I’m very pleased with Leo’s response. Oh, I also have started “brewing” some relatively weak decaffeinated green tea for their water dishes. COX2 inhibitors and anti-oxidants, you know. Weak as it is, even though “decaffeinated” does not mean “cafeine free” it doesn’t seem to have caused any problems in the last three days, and from mmy own joint pain experiences, I know the COX2 inhibitors aren’t hurting…

I just wonder if Leo could use a beer now and then… 🙂

Continue reading “Geriatrics for Dogs”

Posted on

Repost: Mending Walls: “holes and gaps, lacks and losses”

[N.B. I originally posted this in July of 2006 and reposted it about a year ago. Here it is again, with some minor redaction. And do note the reference to the fides covenant meme post below. It briefly outlines another portion of the wall that needs mending as well.]

In an earlier post I made allusion (allusion, heck: I linked the thing) to the (musical) Principles of Classicism in “Seven”. But first, for those who will not click the link, an excerpt from Principles of Classicism *heh*

One of the primary reasons I am a fan of Classical (and even much classical) music is not just because the music is complex, beautiful and compelling but because it is the expression of a particular ethos which our society sorely lacks.

Aside from technical matters of form, the principles of Classicism as found in Classical Music were

  • balance
  • clarity
  • accessibility
  • expressiveness
  • edification

Although two of these principles are still found in abundance in contemporary music (though not in contemporary “serious” or “academic” music, IMO) it is the lack of the others, especially the last, that has seriously harmful effects upon our society.

The email exchange that led to this post included an excerpt from William Blake’s Laocoön that I think points up several “holes and gaps, lacks and losses” in our society today:

A Poet a Painter a Musician an Architect: the Man Or Woman who is not one of these is not a Christian

Caveat: Blake’s view of Christianity was idiosyncratic. If we take not only the rest of his Laocoön inscriptions but the whole of his body of work into account, what Blake seems to mean when he refers non-ironically to a “Christian” is more in line with his thinking on “true” or “whole, complete, authentic” man (which to Blake in this sort of context meant simply human, male and female).

Strangely, for Blake, his thought in this and other of his Laocoön inscriptions (viz., “The Unproductive Man is not a Christian, much less the Destroyer” et al) are quite closely aligned with traditional Christian theology as it relates to the concept of imago dei.

Think for a few secs: the traditional Christian view of the imago dei (loosely, the image of God in man) includes the expression of God’s eternally creative nature in mankind. Thus in this model, all human acts of creative nature are indicative of God’s continuing creation… and all destructive or harmful acts are indicative of a marred, damaged, imperfect mankind.

Understanding this fundamental principle as embedded in Western Civilization (and lacking almost entirely in other so-called civilizations–and I use “so-called” in a deliberately challenging tone) leads us to see some of the critical elements that are fading from today’s society, elements we sorely need in abundance to prevail in The War Against the West being waged on many fronts both at home and abroad.

Look, folks, once the fides covenant meme began to fade in our society, many of the other foundation stones supporting our society began to crumble as well. The idea that creation is better than destruction came under assault as soon as good and evil were dismissed as culturally relativistic phenomena. I’ll not continue the litany of woes perpetrated by postmodernism and post-postmodernism *sigh* and their progeny in the multiculturalists and others. Dig for a few on your own.

Suffice it for this relatively short post to simply point out: absent the values derived just from the Creator/imago dei meme alone, we have scant chance of turning the tide of barbarism that has resulted in the Academia Nut Fruitcake Bakeries, the Mass Media Podpeople Hivemind and the Loony Left Moonbat Brigade steadily chipping away at our society’s foundations.

Continue reading “Repost: Mending Walls: “holes and gaps, lacks and losses””

Posted on

Now, I Wouldn’t Go This Far, But…

I saw an anonymous comment at CPSIA – Comments & Observations and felt a twinge of agreement:

“I think we need to update the dat[a] on lethal dosages for lead and other toxins by force feeding them to congress until they all die. We will then have useful data, and end the harmful effect of congress.”

While I wouldn’t go that far, I do feel that Congress might find a collective interview with Dr. Tarr and Mr. Fether to be enlightening…

THIS is an open trackbacks post. Link to THIS post and track back. 🙂

If you have a linkfest/open trackback post to promote OR if you simply want to promote a post via the linkfests/open trackback posts others are offering, GO TO LINKFEST HAVEN DELUXE! Just CLICK the link above or the graphic immediately below.

Linkfest Haven, the Blogger's Oasis

Posted on

We Don’t Need an Open Racist on the SCOTUS

I’ve heard all the bluster about the 0!’s nomination of Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. Believes judges “make policy”–the Constitution says that’s the job of the legislature–believes discrimination against whites is “justice” and etc. All that is moot in the face of her membership in the latino (no, I will NOT capitalize “latino”–not when using the word in reference to La Raza) KKK, La Raza. No one–and I do mean NO ONE–who is a member of that organization or in any way, shape, fashion or form supports it belongs in office, on the bench or in the employ of ANY government agency able to affect policy in any way.

Sotomayor: racist bigot. That’s enough to disqualify her. I’d as soon have an open member of the Nazi party or a KKK member as anyone associated with La Raza. There’s no substantive difference among the three, IMO.

Trackposted to The Pink Flamingo, Rosemary’s Thoughts, Gulf Coast Hurricane Tracker, and DragonLady’s World, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.