Fort Hood

The wife and I were traveling at the time of the Fort Hood shooting, and didn’t have a clue about it until we laid down at the hotel and turned on the TV. We tried to play catch-up for twenty minutes, but still didn’t have any information. It was as if the news channels were purposely omitting the alleged shooter’s name for long periods of time.

Finally, I got online and started reading about the day’s events and the soldier’s history. I also read about President Obama’s request for people to not “jump to conclusions.” What exactly does that mean?

What it means is that Major Nidal Malik Hasan was a disgruntled Muslim, but we shouldn’t take that into consideration. What it means is that Hasan made disturbing comments about the United States’ involvement in the Middle East to students, but we shouldn’t take that into consideration. What it means is that Hasan shouted “Allahu Akbar!” according to several witnesses, before he opened fire on his comrades, but we must not take that into consideration.

When a pastor came out in front of his congregation and said that he prayed for Obama’s death, I condemned his actions. When a Christian killed a doctor who performed abortions, I condemned his actions. When a “family values” Christian Republican politician is listed as having cheated on his wife with prostitutes, I condemned his actions.

When a Christian does something inherently un-Christian, I have no problem telling people, “He/she doesn’t reflect Christianity.”

Christianity is not, doctrinally, a violent religion. If you read Jesus’ teachings, He was stunningly anti-violence. He taught peace with other me. He taught us to turn the other cheek. He taught to love your enemies.

Does the teachings of Islam teach a love for your enemies?

You decide. Here are a few verses from the Qur’an:

9:5-6 – Kill those who join other gods with God wherever you may find them.

4:89 – They desire that you should disbelieve as they have disbelieved, so that you might be (all) alike; therefore take not from among them friends until they fly (their homes) in Allah’s way; but if they turn back, then seize them and kill them wherever you find them, and take not from among them a friend or a helper.

8:39-42 – Say to the Infidels: if they desist from their unbelief, what is now past shall be forgiven; but if they return to it, they have already before them the doom of the ancients! Fight then against them till strife be at an end, and the religion be all of it God’s.

2:191-193 – “And slay them wherever ye find them, and drive them out of the places whence they drove you out, for persecution [of Muslims] is worse than slaughter [of non-believers]…and fight them until persecution is no more, and religion is for Allah.”

5:33 – “The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His messenger and strive to make mischief in the land is only this, that they should be murdered or crucified or their hands and their feet should be cut off on opposite sides or they should be imprisoned; this shall be as a disgrace for them in this world, and in the hereafter they shall have a grievous chastisement”

8:12 – “I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them”

9:123 – “O you who believe! fight those of the unbelievers who are near to you and let them find in you hardness.”

48.29 – “Muhammad is the messenger of Allah. And those with him are hard (ruthless) against the disbelievers and merciful among themselves”

From the Hadith:

Bukhari (52:177) – Allah’s Apostle said, “The Hour will not be established until you fight with the Jews, and the stone behind which a Jew will be hiding will say. “O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him.”

Abu Dawud (14:2526) – The Prophet (peace_be_upon_him) said: Three things are the roots of faith: to refrain from (killing) a person who utters, “There is no god but Allah” and not to declare him unbeliever whatever sin he commits, and not to excommunicate him from Islam for his any action; and jihad will be performed continuously since the day Allah sent me as a prophet until the day the last member of my community will fight with the Dajjal (Antichrist)

Muslim (1:33) – the Messenger of Allah said: I have been commanded to fight against people till they testify that there is no god but Allah, that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah

Muslim (20:4645) – “…He (the Messenger of Allah) did that and said: There is another act which elevates the position of a man in Paradise to a grade one hundred (higher), and the elevation between one grade and the other is equal to the height of the heaven from the earth. He (Abu Sa’id) said: What is that act? He replied: Jihad in the way of Allah! Jihad in the way of Allah!”

Muslim (20:4696) – “the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) said: ‘One who died but did not fight in the way of Allah nor did he express any desire (or determination) for Jihid died the death of a hypocrite.’”

Tabari 9:69 “Killing Unbelievers is a small matter to us” The words of Muhammad, prophet of Islam.

Ibn Ishaq: 992 – “Fight everyone in the way of Allah and kill those who disbelieve in Allah.” Muhammad’s instructions to his men prior to a military raid.

From The Religion of Peace (a web-site dedicated to the nature and origins of Islamic violence:

Other than the fact that Muslims haven’t killed every non-Muslim under their domain, there is very little else that they can point to as proof that theirs is a peaceful, tolerant religion. Few verses in the Qur’an can be construed to fit the contemporary virtues of religious tolerance and universal brotherhood, and those that do are earlier “Meccan” verses that are obviously abrogated by later ones. Small wonder that Muslim apologists spend a lot of time speaking of the “risks” of trying to interpret the Qur’an without their “assistance.”

Far from being mere history or theological construct, the violent verses of the Qur’an have played a key role in the many massacres in Muslim history, including the brutal slaughter of tens of millions of Hindus for five centuries beginning around 1000 AD with Mahmud of Ghazni’s bloody conquest, including the massacre of those who defending their temples from destruction. Buddhism was very nearly wiped off the Indian subcontinent. Judaism and Christianity met the same fate (albeit more slowly) in areas conquered by Muslim armies, including the Middle East, North Africa and parts of Europe, including today’s Turkey. Zoroastrianism, the ancient religion of a proud Persian people is despised by Muslims and barely survives in modern Iran.

So ingrained is violence in the religion that Islam has never really stopped being at war, either with other religions or with itself.

Muhammad was a military leader, laying siege to towns, massacring the men, raping their women, enslaving their children, and taking what was once the property of others for his own. On several occasions he rejected offers of surrender from the besieged inhabitants and killed those whom he could take prisoner. He inspired his followers to battle even when they did not feel it was right to fight, threatening them with Hell if they did not, promising them slaves and booty if they did. Muhammad allowed his men to rape traumatized women captured in battle.

It is important to emphasize that Muslim armies waged aggressive campaigns, and it was the companions of Muhammad who made the most dramatic military gains in the decades following his death. The principle set in motion early on was that the civilian population of a town was to be destroyed (ie. men executed, women and children taken as slaves) if they defended themselves. Although modern Muslim apologists often claim that Islam only attacked in self-defense, this is not only an oxymoron, but it is flatly contradicted by the accounts of Muslim historians and others going back to the time of Muhammad.

If I heard a massive outcry from the Muslim community every time something like this happened in the name of Islam, I would feel much better, but that’s not what I’m hearing. From the American Muslim community, I hear nothing but silence. From the Middle Eastern community, these actions are met with applause in the streets. What is the real Islam?

Hasan might not have been part of a terrorist organization, but he WAS, by definition, a terrorist.

The Lord’s Prayer – 2 Years Old

How many of you can quote the Lord’s prayer?

How many can sing it?

How many are willing to sing it in front of a camera?

Kanye West: Internet Meme

Kanye West himself is responsible for a new Internet meme.

Highly criticized for his interruption of Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech at the VMA awards (even President Obama got involved), Kanye’s bizarre behavior has created new fodder for the web’s useless content creators. Useless…but hilarious.

The following video was up and running within about an hour of the incident:

Thanks to the article at Comedy Central, linked to by Digg.com, for the material.

The Boys

I’ve been slaving away at edits for a while, but did get to go to Shannon & Charidy’s house to celebrate B.E. Stanley’s birthday. The boys were there, and as is their custom, providing us with some entertainment:

The Death of FOXNews.com

I like my news sites. CNN, BBC, ESPN.com, Kotaku…and of course, FOX News.

But FOX News is about to make a colossal mistake. Seen on MarketWatch.com’s article: News Corp. swings to loss on charges…

Murdoch, speaking to analysts and reporters during a conference call, said that advertising markets are showing “good signs of life” despite ongoing weakness in the automotive and financial categories.

Murdoch also said the company intends to charge for all of its news Web sites.

“Quality journalism is not cheap, and an industry that gives away its content is simply cannibalizing its ability to produce good reporting,” Murdoch said.

Okay, let’s get one thing straight: established media giants have no idea what to do with the Internet.

The Internet has changed the modern consumer. Everything is free, and is expected to stay free. Things that aren’t free are ignored and destroyed. The way to make money on the Internet is to increase traffic. Increased traffic turns into advertising opportunities. Get even more traffic, and the advertising dollars go up.

Think about the most popular sites out there: Google, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Digg…ALL FREE!

Today’s generation doesn’t think that you need to pay for music. First they had Napster. Napster was killed by the RIAA and that whole crew. Did that stop people from stealing music? Of course not; in came Limewire, Pirate Bay, and Mininova.

They don’t just steal music. Now it’s movies, applications, TV shows, ebooks, and anything else that exists digitally.

And you think they’re going to pay for news? Why do these people think that the newspaper and magazine industries are dying rapidly? You have to pay for the paper. You have to pay for magazines. Additionally, why read yesterday’s news when you can read today’s news online 2 minutes after it happens?

Oh, yeah…and it’s free.

Or at least it was. What is going to happen to FOX News' online site is that it's going to push traffic to their competitors. As soon as that happens, their competitors are going to cash in on their increased traffic and increase their advertising revenues.

Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid.

It’s amazing just how little such powerful, rich figures in the entertainment and news industries actually understand about this new digital age in which we’re engulfed. The future belongs to the young men and women who understand it because they live in it, not to the RIAA and news conglomerates who are expecting methods from the past to transfer seamlessly to the Internet.

For you FOXNews.com fans, if you need to know where to go for your news after they shut you out and die a speedy death, just visit the Drudge Report. They’ll link to free sites that aren’t run by morons.

(((And if you get there quickly enough, you’ll see where I got the link to this story.)))

Say it Ain’t So, Papi…Say it Ain’t So…

I became a Boston Red Sox fan during the late 90s. I wasn’t much of a baseball fan growing up; all I cared about was the NBA when I was young. I cheered for MJ up until about 1994, then started pulling for the Utah Jazz during the last two Bulls championship years. Baseball? Nowhere near my mind.

Then I started taking an interest in it for some odd reason, and one thing became absolutely clear: I hated the New York Yankees.

The Yankees won everything. They were clean-shaven and cocky. They had history. They had the biggest payroll in baseball. They had it all. And yes, they had the typical New York fan base: loud, obnoxious, arrogant, and generally disgusting.

Then there were the Red Sox. The Curse of the Bambino. Eighty-six eventual years without a title. Bad luck case after bad luck case. Bill Buckner. Rough guys with facial hair. Decades of underachieving. These guys were the David to the Yankee’s Goliath (even though they also had a huge payroll).

I saw a few games between the two teams, and I was sold. My family’s American League team was the Rangers, but I was a Red Sox fan. At first I liked them because they were the Yankees’ arch-rival, but then I loved them because they were the “SAWX.” Out in the NL, I was still a regional supporter of the Astros, but when it came to the AL, it was nothing but Sox.

Then it happened. The “Idiots” brought a title to Boston after 86 years. 2004 is a year that will forever bring a smile to every Red Sox fan’s face. They came back from 3-0 down in the playoffs to beat the Yankees in 7 games. It was the stuff from which legends are made.

Then today happened. Two of the biggest stars for the Sox in 2004, Manny Ramirez (already outed) and David Ortiz were revealed to having been using performance-enhancing drugs during that stretch.

2004 has now become 2004*.

Big Papi, a crucial piece of the puzzle in bringing Boston back to the top after most of a century of losing was a user. What made it worse is that he has spent years denying allegations that he was a user. “Me? Big Papi? Noooo…”

Actually…yes. Yes, Papi, you cheated. Hundreds of players in the Major Leagues were using as well, but you were part of the problem. And worst of all for every Boston fan out there, we BELIEVED that you were clean. When you told us you weren’t cheating like the rest, we believed you. We loved you. You were our big, home run-smacking teddy bear. BIG PAPI!

Today Big Papi seemed a little smaller. 2004* isn’t quite as endearing of a memory. And it all serves as a reminder that roughly the past 20 years of baseball will be a painful, dark time in the sport’s history.

Creativity

The Internet has brought a lot of bad into the world and caused billions of hours of lost productivity, but without it, we would miss the opportunity to experience some incredibly creative work from very talented people out there. Case in point: Keith Loutit.

About Keith (in his own words):

I am a Sydney based photographer. These photographs and short films were made in ordinary places, probably not too unlike where you live. Combining a variety of techniques, I aim to help people take a second look at places that are familiar to them.

That’s a modest way to describe his own work. What Keith does is take a Nikon camera, a tilt-shift lens, stop-motion photography, and his talents to create some of the most unique videos I’ve seen on the web. I’ll say no more, but just to clarify…THESE ARE REAL. Keith takes thousands of photos, stitches them together in a video-editing program, adds in some sweet music, and then proceeds to blow peoples’ minds.

Enjoy.

Bathtub IV from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

Origin II from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

The North Wind Blew South from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

See all ten of Keith’s videos by CLICKING HERE.

“God Awful”

The CEO of the Black Chamber of Commerce RIPPED Barbara Boxer for injecting race into an argument simply to gain his favor.

I’ll be honest…I got tickled.

Escape from New York

This is what happens when liberals get in control of government.

From the New York Post article – Dem Health RX a Poison Pill in NY:

Congressional plans to fund a massive health-care overhaul could have a job-killing effect on New York, creating a tax rate of nearly 60 percent for the state’s top earners and possibly pressuring small-business owners to shed workers.

New York’s top income bracket could reach as high as 57 percent — rates not seen in three decades — to pay for the massive health coverage proposed by House Democrats this week.

So in an economy that is still trying to recover from a recession, they’re hoping to raise taxes to 57% in order to pay for their sacred healthcare plan, failing to understand that the multitudes of millionaires who live in New York will eventually depart for greener pastures, laying off workers in the process.

Does that sound good for the economy?

Also, while I’m here…

SIMPLIFY THE U.S. TAX SYSTEM AND STIMULATE THE ECONOMY – SUPPORT THE FAIRTAX

Kobe’s New Face

The Lakers are up 3-1 in their 2009 NBA Finals against the Orlando Magic. Game 5 takes place tonight in Orlando at 8:00 ET. The Lakers have either out-skilled the Magic or reaped the benefits of Stan Van Gundy doing just as sloppy of a job coaching his team as he does dressing himself before games.

None of that is surprising. The Lakers are the favorites, and SVG is easy to make fun of. What is surprising, however, is Kobe Bryant’s new face:

Frightened? Confused? Laughing? Trying to replicate the expression in the mirror?

I wasn’t able to see games 2, 3, or 4, but I did manage to catch game 1, in which the Lakers completely demoralized the Magic, and Kobe went into hit-man mode in the third quarter. He was busting one contested, inadvisable shot after another; it was pretty darn impressive, actually. Then his face started twisting…his jaw began protruding…and he suddenly looked a lot like this:

I’m guessing Kobe has been practicing his “scowl” for months, maybe even years. He has probably stared into the mirror, tried the tongue wag (been done), the nonchalant stare (also done), and the bumbling doofus (I couldn’t resist), but never found one that worked.

Then he watched some of the Celtic’s games in the playoffs. KG, sitting on the bench with a suit on (custom-made suits that fit a 7-footer…probably unbelievably expensive), jutting out his bottom jaw, and making everyone around him either petrified or perplexed.

Kobe: “Heyyyy…yeahhh…that’s cool. KG has street cred. KG won a ring last year.”

Kobe juts out his own bottom jaw.

Kobe: “No, too close to KG’s. I don’t need it to look identical…”

The Laker’s captain then stumbles into an epiphany and opens his mouth. His teeth are so menacing, so fearless, so…gerbil-like. This is the look!

This is clearly yet another case of Kobe trying to cultivate his image. He is the Alex Rodriguez of basketball, carefully crafting his persona. At first he wanted to be Michael Jordan: no tattoos, well-spoken, and classy. Then he decided he needed street cred, got himself inked up, and pulled the spoiled diva move where he asked to be traded out of L.A. despite being treated like a god there.

And now…the scowl. Every superstar has something, right? Magic was smiling. Jordan was tongue-flapping. Bird was…just staring. All the time. Kobe is an unbelievable talent, but he’s not distinctive. He’s not even remotely likable.

But this? Kobe…c’mon. Seriously.

Again, just for emphasis: