Irony, Truth, Whatever

Remember a while back when I wrote about Dwain Gullion and his creation of the "Support Our Troops" magnet as a school fundraiser?

Well, since then, I've seen a million of these magnets, give or take a billion, and most times I think about how if someone had sent that one or two or five dollars to the Red Cross or the USO, how the world would actually be better off.

Well, someone else realizes that the only people being supported by these ribbons are the Chinese.



Think if I had the bumper sticker on, the ribbon magnet people would get it?

FACT

OK, everyone needs to stop being so all-fired stupid. NOW.

Evolution is true. TRUE. Did some "god" set it in motion? Maybe. Why is this so unacceptable to people? Why do they refuse to even try to think?

Morality is subjective, but in the end can be whittled down to the golden rule - "do unto others as you would have them do unto you. REMEMBER THAT.

Math is NOT subjective. God did not invent special rules of geometry for Christians. The Arabs and Euclid knew what they were talking about long before the current giant sky-god came along to save the human race.

Being a member of a specific ethnic group does not make you a bad person automatically, even if there should be some very high-profile bad people who are members of that ethnic group. Conversely, simply being a member of a group does not make you a good person, either. These classifications are built on merit, not birth or inclusion in a race or religion.

Trying to point out that classifying all people in a group as being one particular way is wrong does not necessarily mean that you are a member of the group you're defending. It just means that you're a person who thinks.

Don't be stupid, be a person who thinks. See the facts. That's all I ask.

Loving a Cause More Than Life

Another suicide bomber in Israel. The article says the following:

It was the first such attack by Palestinian militants since Israel's historic pullout from Gaza and the West Bank.

I don't believe that. The first successful attack, maybe, but if you're telling me that no one else has tried this in a week, I'm telling you that you have some rose-tinted glasses on. There is something in the mindset of a militant Palestinian that I will never be able to comprehend - the concept that killing a group of civilians is the ultimate gift that you can give to the cause, and gift important enough that you'll end your own life to do it. When this kind of idea is common, then the idea of a cease-fire is, in my opinion, worthless. I don't know what it is that makes a person believe that suicide bombing is acceptable, but I do know that once the belief is in place, that negotiation becomes practically futile.

The phrase "global struggle against violent extremism" may have been put on the back shelf here in the US, pushed aside in favor of our leader's favorite "War on Terror", but it's a concept that has its roots in truth. Extremism describes exactly the level to which the devotion to a cause is elevated - extreme. Reasonable has long ago been left in its wake. Discussion and negotiation are our best tools of defense, simply because if extremism is met with extremism, then no one can ever actually win. But discussion and defense might not be the tools that do win. Perhaps extremism is stronger than reason. I prefer to think not, but I accept that sometimes in this world, the better of two options does not always come to pass. I do not want this to happen, I don't want the extremists to win, but I guess I'm just not the kind of person who has enough fate to believe that things will work out in the end.

I know that I believe in the cause of peace in the Middle East, but I also know that I believe in it on my terms - the terms where Israel remains a state, and retains control of Jerusalem. I guess that makes me basically unwilling to compromise. Still, I wouldn't walk into a crowd of people at a bus station or a vegetable market with dynamite strapped to my body. Losing Jerusalem would be preferable to losing people's lives.

I don't know why suicide bombing is an option for people. I don't know how a person has to be conditioned to accept that they'll do that. I do know that almost always there's a claim that an attack of this nature is "retaliation" for the death of Palestinians at the hands of the Israeli army. The most recent one is reported as Israeli soldiers receiving a tip about Islamic Jihad militants staying in a house on the West Bank, going to the house, being fired upon, and returning fire.

I've been thinking about the Israeli/almost everyone else conflict a lot this weekend. Friday afternoon I was pointed at a post over on Badtux the Snarky Penguin, called Israel still living in 1967. I've pointed at the comments page, because I think that the comments are interesting. If you go there, you can see that I mount my argument that Badtux isn't seeing the picture the way that people who are living in it do. You'll also see how quickly a simple discussion by people not even involved in the conflict can turn into name-calling. The more time I spent thinking about this, the more I wondered how it's possible to make the point that armies are not the problem when government-sponsored armies hardly exist. Suicide bombing is not the same thing as volunteering for dangerous duty as a soldier. One joins an army hoping to help, and hoping to survive. I've mentioned previously that it's the duty of a leader to treat each soldier as a precious commodity, and not just cannon fodder. It's an important point. How do I express that there really are millions of people in the world who think that the only way to please their god is to push the Jews into the ocean, to wipe them off the face of the earth? How do I make people see that reasonable people want peace, and yet the reasonable people are up against a force so unreasonable that it may be insurmountable?

How can I ever understand being raised to love a cause so much that it's actually accepted to be more important than human life?

Carnival of the NJ Bloggers #15

This week's Carnival of the NJ Bloggers is up. It's maptatstic!

Friday Not-My-Pet Blogging Mark V

Ten of the Worst

Just go look. There's a line in there that made me laugh out loud.
Didn't I tell you that even bad art makes life better? It's all subjective, baby - that's my point.

No Shortage of Stupidity

Just in case you were thinking that all the stupidity in New Jersey was being monopolized by politicians, I'd like to call your attention to this story:

A STUDY IN CONFLICT

A girl in Monroe spent 4 months of her senior year painting a mural based on Dante's "Inferno". She had to read it for a class, and found the ultimate message of the poem to inspire hope, so she based her art work on it. Some people in the school found it too "dark", and complained to the point where she actually agreed to change it.

Note - if I conceived a vision for a mural in a school, got it approved, and then spent the time to actually paint it, the odds of *me* changing it after it's done are ZERO.

Back to my story - OK, so she changes it, tries to make it a bit "brighter" and more inspiring than scary, and in doing so, she created something that was over the principal's head.

The new look, however, was mistaken as vandalism by school officials, and the mural was whitewashed.

"There was paint thrown on it. It was a mess, so we decided to paint over it," said Goodall, who is now principal.

That's right, they whitewashed over her work. She went back to the high school she had just graduated from, went to look at the mural she spent much of her Senior year on, and it was g-o-n-e. Gone, and no one told her. She wants written apology and to be reimbursed the $400 she spent on art supplies. The new principal didn't comment.

So there you go. Some people are so thick-headed that they can't even be bothered to imagine that someone else's vision of art might not match their own.

Debra Sundstrom, Houle's former Language Arts 4 Senior Honors teacher, said it sounds like school administrators weren't counting on Houle to come back to the school.

Don't mess with art, people, it makes the world better. Even art you don't like, I swear.

So there you have it, my pick for "NJ Stupid Person of the Week". Congratulations, "now principal" Goodall.

He Said, She Said

Or, what's probably more like it, "Reader #1 said, Reader #18 said".

The final letter on the page (I've left out her last name, although it's printed in the paper):

To the Editor:

I am only one small voice in this country, but I feel confident that people want to be optimistic about their lives and their country.

As I watch this country become so divided over the war, I wonder why the news media will not come together and support what our country is doing for another country. How long will our young brave individuals in our military continue to volunteer for all of us, given the constant barrage of negative information?

I remember Sept. 11 so very well and feeling that if there was ever a time we could depend on our neighbors, it was after those attacks. It was one of the only times I truly felt that this country was united.

This is again a time we need to unite, regardless of our political preferences.

Cindy

Why can we not unite, Cindy? Answer me this, and I think you'll get it. Why is it that we all have to unite under the banner of *your* opinion, that we're doing something good for another country? Why can't we unite in the opinion that this war is helping no one and costing thousands of lives?

The news media cannot come together and support what our country is doing because members of the press hold different opinions of the worth and the effect of our actions.

Time to start thinking like a grown-up, sweetie. Acknowledge the shades of grey and live with a complicated world.

Goodbye, Fort Monmouth

Well, looks like Fort Monmouth is closing. If Bush approves the proposal, it will become law in 9 weeks, it says at the end of the article. 9 weeks more of 5000 jobs in NJ.

Obviously this is very bad news to someone like me who thinks that 5000 people suddenly out of work in NJ might have a detrimental effect on the state. Maybe? You think? I was going to write a lot more about this, but then I popped over to Blanton's and Ashton's, and found that GD Frogsdong already did.

Frequent readers of this blog know that for every dollar New Jersey sends to Washington in the form of taxes, we get only %0.57 back. New Jersey is last in that statistic. Closing Fort Monmouth will lower our return even further. This is a matter that should be of concern to every citizen in this state. Our money is going out to support things like $230 million dollar bridges in Alaska that will connect a community of 700 people to the mainland or to keep Alabama from slipping from the 19th into the 18th century, but what about New Jersey?

We fight, but with losing numbers. We get less of the things that we want, and yet we seem to pay for more of them. We, as a state, need to band together to fight for our rights to the amount of government support that we actually deserve.

Everybody's Talking 'Bout...

Everybody's talking about Pat Robertson. For the record, yes, I think he's absolutely fucking insane. So out of his mind that others may have moved in, thinking it abandoned.

And yet, I'm writing about it, too.

We really ought to have two distinct designations of Christians.

1. Someone who follows the teachings of Jesus and the Christian "New Testament". They believe in turning the other cheek, forgiveness, peace and love.

2. Someone who lives the more traditional Christian life. They have statues of Jesus (and perhaps Mary) around decorating their stuff, and they wear big gold crosses around their neck. Mostly, however, they treat these idols only as logos of their team, spending most of their time actually sowing discontent and anger and promoting violence against others. Like members of gangs or practicers of organized crime or ... Pat Robertson:

"You know, I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it," Robertson said. "It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war ... and I don't think any oil shipments will stop."

Isn't ironic that people say "Hey, the Koran doesn't condone terrorism" as if Arab hypocrisy about the practice of their religion is some crazy thing, yet Pat Robertson is called a Christian minister, even after issuing this "fatwa." It makes you realize that we really are more similar to "them" than some would have you believe.

Do You Already Read The Opinion Mill?

Because I do, and there's a post today that I love, love, love.

What Lee, Longstreet and Pickett understood -- and what the little generals of wingerdom do not seem to grasp -- is that military service is a two-way commitment. The soldier offers his pledge of obedience; the officer, in turn, gives his promise not to treat the soldier like a bag of garbage to be thrown in the face of the approaching enemy. We know that during his tenure as governor of Texas, George W. Bush treated pleas for clemency from Death Row prisoners with all the care of a landscaper tossing twigs into a wood chipper. The same scrupulousness helped inform the decision to send in just enough troops to carry out a quick invasion that looked good on television, but not nearly enough to keep the peace and prevent another Pandora's Box from being blown open in the Middle East.

"...not to treat the soldier like a bag of garbage...". I *knew* we were missing something.

Good Morning, Blogtopia!

OK, I'm back from my second vacation in as many months, and I'm pretty surprised to see which people Jazz invited to come play with him over here. I didn't expect so many! I hope you all enjoyed the variety while it lasted, because now, of course, it's back to just me.

Yes, thank you, I had a *wonderful* time.

The Fall Of The Mall

It's amazing what you can find on the web. For instance, Ben over at South End Grounds points us in the direction of Deadmalls.com. That's right - a website dedicated to dead and dying shopping malls from around the United States.

What part of New York did you say you live in, Jazz?

Your Sunday "WTF?" moment

This wil be quick, but definitely worth a look.

First, take a look at this Chesterfield County GOP web site and scroll down to the bottom of the page. Take careful note of the ummm "interesting" cartoon character there.

Next, go read Jill's observations about this from Brilliant at Breakfast. The rest of the story will play out for you just fine from there.

Mark this date. Israel and Palestinian perspectives.

Why is this day special? Because I never thought I'd live to see the day when I agreed with a column by GOP spokesmodel Charles Krauthammer, but it's finally happened. In his column, Settling In for a Long Wait, he points out that while the Israeli pullout from Gaza may look like a defeat for the Jews, it just may be the only viable, long term solution.

The Israeli abandonment of Gaza is a withdrawal of despair. Unlike the Oslo concessions of 1993, there is not even the pretense of getting anything in return from the Palestinians. Nonetheless, unilateralism is both correct and necessary. Israel has no peace partner -- Mahmoud Abbas has nothing to offer and has offered nothing -- and in the absence of a partner, there is only one logical policy: Rationalize your defensive lines and prepare for a long wait.

Gaza was simply a bridge too far: settlements too far-flung and small to justify the huge psychological and material cost of defending them. Pulling out of Gaza leaves behind the first truly independent Palestinian state -- uncontrolled and highly militant, but one from which Israel is fenced off.

Krauthammer points out, and I have to agree, that isolationism is probably the only solution, and I feel it would certainly help the United States to get the heck out of the region both physically and politically. (Which can only help our own situation with international terrorism.) But he also understands that a simple wall can't stop all forms of aggression from Hamas. What to do?

The first problem is that while the fences do prevent terrorist infiltration, they do nothing about rockets. For months Palestinians have been firing rockets from Gaza into towns within Israel proper. The attacks are momentarily in suspension, but with the enhanced ability to smuggle in weapons from Egypt, and with no Israeli patrols looking for them, the attacks will resume and get far worse.

What to do? Something Israel should have done long ago: active and relentless deterrence. Israel should announce that henceforth any rocket launched from Palestinian territory will immediately trigger a mechanically automatic response in which five Israeli rockets will be fired back. There will be no human intervention in the loop. Every Palestinian rocket landing in Israel will instantly trigger sensors and preset counter-launchers. Any Palestinian terrorist firing up a rocket will know that he is triggering six: one Palestinian and five Israeli.

Do you think the "automagic rocket response" sounds irrational? It's an easy knee-jerk reaction to have. But on further examination, it may be the only reliable one with any promise. And it's not like we haven't given Israel plenty of rockets to work with already.

Every President and chief presidential advisor that I can remember in my adult life, dating back to Nixon and Kissinger all the way up to Dubya and Condi today, seemed to think that if we just kept meddling in the affairs of Israel and the Palestinians long enough, it would all somehow work out. Some magical switch would turn on (or off) and the Israelis and their enemies would ride off happily into the sunset mounted on white ponies singing Kum Bay Ya together, as two flowering democracies bloomed side by side and trade flourished. I'd really like to be more professional about this, but I'm sorry... that's just retarded.

While many accuse me of being "anti-Israel" for advocating a U.S. policy of getting the hell out of that region, I'm no fan of the Palestinians either. When you're dealing with people like those in Hamas, Krauthammer is, I think, on the right track. You're not going to get peace in the form of love and flowers. The best you're going to get is a wall that actually keeps people out and stops the combatants from fighting. And as for Palestinian missiles? I hate to advocate violence as an answer, but seriously now - sometimes the only way to get through to people who live by the sword is with a bigger sword. Or maybe five of them. Israel doesn't need to "defeat" the Palestinians in battle after they are separated. They don't need to "win more land." They just need a solution that will convince Hamas to STOP SHOOTING. If you can accomplish that, you've come as close to a perfect solution as anything I can imagine.

Man on Dog hitting new lows

... in popularity, that is. This just in from the Huffington Post about one of our favorite right wing, radical Senators, Rick Santorum. (R - Pa).

Santorum has lowest rating of any US Senator

Rick Santorum has the lowest net approval rating of any U.S. Senator, according to a poll by Survey USA. The survey reveals 42% approve of the job Santorum is doing, while 46% disapprove. The difference gives Santorum a –4% approval rating.

Survey USA collected results of fifty separate public opinion polls for Senators in all fifty states. The average approval rating was 56% and the disapproval rating was 32%.

I'm not going to take off on some endless screed this morning against Santorum. I think everyone knows his story pretty well by now. All I can say is that the Dems need to take back a number of Senate seats in order to stem the tide of madness sweeping our government at the moment. Some PA bloggers need to be getting organized well ahead of time and working on this campaign. If you can't dislodge Santorum, you've got problems.

Maybe John Grisham Will Write About You

Non-profits are always looking for unique ways to raise money, and it looks like the folks at the First Amendment Project have found a winner -

Michael Chabon and 16 of America's most prominent authors, including John Grisham, Rick Moody, Nora Roberts, Stephen King and Amy Tan have banded together to raise money for the First Amendment Project (FAP) through eBay Giving Works, the dedicated program for charity listings, starting on September 1st and running through September 25th, 2005. The authors will list for bid the chance to name a character in their upcoming books, and donate the proceeds to the FAP, a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to protecting and promoting freedom of information, expression, and petition.

You can go here to see a list of authors, what they're offering, and when their auctions will be held. I'm guessing that Stephen King will have one of the more popular auctions -

"One (and only one) character name in a novel called CELL, which is now in work and which will appear in either 2006 or 2007. Buyer should be aware that CELL is a violent piece of work, which comes complete with zombies set in motion by bad cell phone signals that destroy the human brain. Like cheap whiskey, it's very nasty and extremely satisfying. Character can be male or female, but a buyer who wants to die must in this case be female. In any case, I'll require physical description of auction winner, including any nickname (can be made up, I don't give a rip)."

I, on the other hand, will be bidding on a chance to be in the last of Lemony Snicket's A Series Of Unfortunate Events tales -

"An utterance by Sunny Baudelaire in Book the Thirteenth. Pronunciation and/or spelling may be slightly 'mutilated.' An example of this is in The Grim Grotto when Sunny utters 'Bushcheney.' Target publication date is Fall 2006."

Sound Advice for England

The other day I posted a story at Middle Earth Journal about the continually unfolding and evolving details surrounding the tragic police shooting of Jean de Menezes at the London Tube station. (If you're not familiar with that story, or how details have come out indicating that the facts are VERY different from the version originally given by the police, please follow that link to catch yourself up.) Well, not only was the "official version" apparently a load of hogwash, but it seems that the commissioner of Scotland Yard himself tried to block an internal investigation into the details of the shooting, citing "national security" as the reason.

Before getting into my rant on this and my associated advice for the good people of England, please stop by the Sideshow and read Avedon Carol's latest takedown of this truly sad story. It's been covered there in detail since it all began.

Now look, guys. If, by some miracle, you wind up reading this, I have some advice for everyone in Britain who is involved in the government, the police, or the military. Stop trying to imitate the United States. Seriously... just stop it. There's still a whole bunch of really wonderful things about this country, have no doubt about that. But the way we're currently operating our Federal Government, our "Intelligence" agencies, and our law enforcement (where it comes to terror investigations, I mean) is really not our Sunday Best garments, if you catch my meaning. We're not always like this, but we're going through a bit of a rough patch right now, and you really don't want to go around acting like us.

When you do something wrong, no matter how awfully, horribly wrong it may be, particularly when it's an accident, just own up to it and move on. People will forgive you. Your first play should not be to attempt a coverup. That's not only wrong, it's stupid. Criminally stupid, in fact, as Armed Liberal pointed out earlier. Besides, (and quite fortunately for everyone I might add) you don't seem to be very good at it. Bush and his cronies are experts. They can lock up dirty secrets and, in most cases, they'll take them to the grave with them. They run a tight ship when it comes to scamming the public. You lot, however... well, it's not really your strong suit. I mean, the Downing Street Memos and the rest of the associated documents (oh, and we do want to thank you for those again, by the way) are pretty solid proof that your skeletons tend to come strolling out of the closets fairly easily in England. So just come clean with your citizens in cases like this. It's really for the best.

Oh, and while you're at it, try to do something about that Blair fellow, would you? He's marching around like a little miniature version of Bush these days, and that's not good. He's making you a laughing stock in the eyes of the world and getting you in more trouble than you can imagine. Come on now... do you really think that the terrorists are blowing up London because of some seething, deep seated hatred of tea, crumpets and spotted dick? (Ok, the spotted dick is pretty repulsive, I'll grant you, but I don't think anyone's about to start lobbing explosives at you over it.) No. Tony Blair may as well have invited those bombers in personally, and it was because he's been in league with Bush. We haven't been able to get rid of our idiot on this side of the pond, but I was really hoping that you Brits would show some of your legendary sensibility and dump that clod. Try to get to work on that, would you? Thanks a bunch. Oh, and good luck with the Cricket this season.

By the way, if that's not enough blogging for you for one day, swing by my home blog and read a really wonderful story about two ordinary citizens who saved a little girl from being abducted by a pervert. It will give you a warm, happy smile for the day, I assure you.

Bits and Pieces

This was a tough blogging day for me. I saw an ad for a Live Chat with Joe Piscopo on NJ.com and was going to do a screed on what an untalented hack Piscopo is, but frankly he is so uninteresting that I couldn't get up the energy to talk about it.

The big story today on NJ.com is the mob bust that I blogged yesterday. At this point it is just reporters chewing on the scraps. The main story is over until the actual trial, which is when we'll hear about the murders the arrestees committed...which is when some of this blog's readers will find out why they haven't seen Cousin Fredo for three years ("Every time you put your line in the water you say a 'Hail Mary' and you'll catch a really big fish"). There's nothing that interesting about the reporter scraps (some residents who lived near the social club were surprised that mobsters used it and some residents weren't, and still other residents couldn't believe the amount of stuff they could pick out of their ears while sitting on the stoop).

Then I checked the Yahoo news "Odd News" tab. Oh, baby, have we got stuff going on these days!

"Oil workers trade in marriages for a job" says one headline. A state-run oil company in northern China is giving laid-off workers their jobs back if they are divorced, so some married, laid-off workers are getting divorced to get their jobs back. If it were only that easy.

The lead in another story is: "Russia's long winter will just fly by for a herd of Russian cows which, a newspaper reported on Tuesday, will be fed confiscated marijuana over the cold months."

Moo? Moooooooooooooooooooooooo.

Or should I say, "Mooooooooo-sky!"

But my favorite story of the day is this: "Yachts a sign of economic strength for Berlusconi" The Prime Minister of Italy can see lots of yachts from the window of his luxury villa, and to him that means the entire country is doing well because there are a lot of rich people with yachts around. So you see, Bush isn't the only leader who is completely disconnected from reality.

We Lack Llamas

This here's the story of a New Jersey man who loves animals. Yes, he seems very gentle and treats animals all stripes very well. What's not to love? So he tried helping a snake cross the road, which sounds like the beginning of a joke.

Q: Why did the snake cross the road?
A: Jusssssssssssssst becausssssssssssssssssse!

Right, it's kind of limp. Lots of people love animals. Jazz and Georg love animals and have taken in many special needs strays. Their dog Kenya tried to herd me once. Apparently, I'd strayed from the flock.

Anyway, it's early and the coffee hasn't kicked in, so I had to re-read this a few times:

Not too long ago, he tried to revive a bumblebee, keeping it in the palm of his hand with some water until it buzzed away two hours later, said John Bross, a friend and neighbor.

Strangely, it sounds as if he succeeded. He revived a bee. The snake however was less appreciative and bit him.

While he's in Intensive Care, I sincerely hope someone's feeding his cat.

NJ Mob Bust

Hey, now here's some good news, campers.

Authorities swept up more than a dozen reputed members and associates of the Genovese crime family this morning, capping a four-year investigation of mob operations in New Jersey.

Don't know about you folks, but I am not especially proud to have New Jersey known for The Sopranos, and I never found mobsters to be glamorous people. From all accounts, they are just thugs and low-lifes, people who would rather steal than work at an honest job, scammers with no conscience or ethics who look for the easy buck and don't care how they get it or who gets hurt. So good on the feds. I hope they get the convictions, too. If they could round up all the organized crime clowns and get legitimate convictions they would certainly have my blessings and approval. Of course, they have to be legitimate arrests and convictions, and that isn't always something I take at face value.