Bush Presidency to end...eventually!

In a dramatic and weighty statement today President GW Bush said that he would someday not be President. Congress, already struggling to justify the continued occupation of the White House by Bush, is trying to pass competing non-binding and unitelligable resolutions designed to mislead the public as to where they stand on the issue.
In the White House, the hired help says that they want the occupation to end now. However Bush says that he intends to hold the course, and stick to the plan. In a surprise move and with a complete inability to look facts in the face, Bush decided to leave the saftey of Crawford to visit the White House himself! Saying that he was the "Presidentator" whatever that means.
The interim government of emperor Cheney and chancellor Rove has said, in back channel conversations with Bush, that he is really not wanted there telling him that "we can rule the world ourselves"
Meanwhile the sectatrian violence continues unabated between the fiscal and social conservatives.
In a related story the Iraq War is still a giant stinking pile of crap.

Hard Cover books

There is something about a hard cover book.
It is has weight and not just physical proportion,
but in the murky connection to distant hands.
Muscles now turned to dust,
working presses,
stiching with needle and thread,
stif bindings of thick pages of laid paper
brining life to ancient thought
ancient even in ancient times
solemn rectangular perfection
transforming the gravity of thought into physical form.
Not flighty and transient like the pulp paper backs,
so much huried ramblings.
It matters how the message is packaged
It shouldn't matter but it does, to us, to me

Are pigs flying? Bush in Iraq?

After getting his head taken out of his ass, our so called leader, finally decided it would be a good idea to actually go to his war. Since the Iraqi leadership was given only five minutes warning before the big P walked into their office it is evident that the US administration doesn't trust anyone in the iraqi government to secure a meeting with Bush.

But hey finally the idiot shows up. Better late than never. Yesterday Bush said the stakes are worth it; regarding sticking it out in Iraq. Fat talk from a guy who has no clue what to do in Iraq other than mroe of the same. Our policy is "lets just keep going and maybe things will work out." How much money are we willing to shovel down the Iraqi hole? Bush talks like we have a bottomless pocket of cash to flush down his war hole.

We are not achieving anything in Iraq other than the burning of a gigantic wad of cash, getting the arabs to hate us more, and sending a lot of GI's home either dead, wounded, or otherwise screwed up. So what makes all this worth it? Democracy in Iraq? Well there isn't any, not yet. The government is using more and more dreconian police powers in an attempt to squash disent, limiting freedoms or the press and women, and not really be much different than the bathists under Sadam. So what makes all the sacrifice worth it? It is sooooo great that Bush is willing to spend the farm on Iraqi's but is unwilling to do jack for the average Joe in America, the country he was elected to represent.

Oops we got Zarqaui!

Darn! With him out of the way goes another useful tool the Bush administration can use to uphold the dubious claim that the insurgency is really jihadist in nature as opposed to what it really is, a civil war combined with a rebellion against an occupying power.

Cutting the head off of the snake would work great if it was a snake who was our enemy. Our enemy is not a snake. I could be dark and say that the enemy is us but that though that would sound poetic it is not the truth. It is a complicated foe. The US is besought on several fronts:

1: The current government is suffering from sectarian warfare of its own brought on by endemic coruption that has only multiplied since the Republicans have gained power.

2: Our high-wage economy is under assualt by corporate globalism and the lack of strong international unions.

3: No clear nuclear policy leading to the potential of terrible miscalculation.

4: Sciociopathic holy warriors (Muslim and Christian) who seek to destabilize the world to further their own religious ends.

5: Global environmental destructiton.

Those are the big dangers that face us, as I see it, and they are all pretty big. What makes them tough to fight is that they are so intertwined within our own nation and national identity. We are rushing to the point where we all will realize that we cannot have our cake and eat it to. I put the sectarianism as #1 for the US since in order to have a snow balls chance in hell of solving any of the other 4 problems #1 has to be tackled.

Somehow we will muddle through this situation but what the world will look like in a century is anyones guess. I have hope for humanity but little hope for the status quo or our current civilization. It looks to me to be headed toward collapse

BIG GOVERNEMT....hardly

According to the Congressional Budget Office the federal budget, under Clinton in 2000 as a percentage of GDP, was the same size it was in 1962. Today that is not the case.

Defend Marriage

The biggest threat to marriage in the US is the overwhelming financial burdens placed upon the average family. The stress of two incomes, no time for family time, running the eternal rat race to keep ahead of the Jones, and utter lack of governmental support for family health care are all prime reasons divorce is so prevalent. To alter our Constitution to discriminate against gay people will do nothing for marriage, and is a national and religious disgrace.

When all the bigots wake up in hell and start bitching to God about why they got the shaft I hope they will remember their scripture alittle more coherrently. Jesus Christ, (GOD), never really mentioned homosexuality at all. He did say that the judgement you pass on others is the judgement that awaits you. Then He tells us, in the Lords prayer, to ask God to judge us the way we judge others. So I am sure there will be lots of gnashing of teeth and wailing from the hell-bound right-wingers.

Reform your lives and return to God. You do not have to rot in hell for your hipocracy. Our God will redeem you if you let Him. God does not need you to defend him. Put your sword back in its scabbbard, for they that live by it are destroyed by it. Stop judging your world by human eyes. God does not see gay people the way you see them. And you cannot know the mind of God. And those that claim to know His will, are the most fallen of all men, for the snake of Eden is surely speaking to them even now, telling them that they can know the world and be Gods themselves.

The stink from the white-washed tombs continues.

National Emergency! Congress filled with crap. Need plumbers NOW!

War raging out of control in Iraq
8 trillion dollars in debt
45 million people without any healthcare
Gas at more than $3.00 a gallon
Tens of thousands of citizens still living in Fema trailors

So lets get to work and descriminate against gay people!

We need to turn away from the darkness!!!

It seems that we constantly have to relearn lessons that other soldiers and nations have learned in the past. Namely that war is dehumanising, brutal, imoral, and bloody. Anyone put into such an environment, given enough time and tension, will most likely end up being sociopathic if not psychopathic. Civilian murders at the hands of US troops should come as no surprise. Our soldiers are the best there is but they are not androids. War destroys soldiers whether they are shot, blown up, or become murderers. The sooner we are out of it the better for us all. The longer a war goes on the less noble it seems. The shame is not that civilians are dead, but that this war was allowed to happen at all. The men and women who defend us are owed more than an open ended war of attrition. Why do we fight? What are we defending? Democracy? What a load of crap. Our valient men and women are suffering the depravity of war so that the US doesn't look weak. What a rotten reason to kill soldiers and turn others into murderers.

Refuting the 911 Conspiracy idiots

Roswell, Dealy Plaza, and now the WTC. The conspiracy freaks have sunk their stinking, fetid, and neurotic minds into the 911 attack. There are lots of variations on the conspiracy. There is the Jews blowing up the towers, there is the Bush's blowing up the towers, and I am sure that the Roswell aliens are really to blame. Why is it so hard to believe in physics? There has to be some star-chamber B-moive plot to destroy the world, or kill a President. It couldn't be Oswald or a bunch of religious fanatics? There really was a conspiracy to bring down the WTC and the people responsible bought the islamic farm on each of the air liners. But I know that freaks will be freaks. So here goes my attempt to refute the dufus brigade.

The WTC is not a tree. If you cut a tree in half the top portion has enough molecular stabillity to allow it to thwart gravity and it will fall to one side or the other. However if you make the cut even slightly angled then the top portion of the tree will slide off the bottom and it will fall, as straight as it can, to the ground. Of course the other thing a tree has going for it is that it is not brittle but gumby and flexible. Far more so than a 110 story office building. Gravity dictates that all matter seeks the center of the earth. So given enough mass and instability you get the WTC collapse. Each building was 500,000 ton house of cards. Once the floor collapsed where the plane hit, the other 175,000 to 200,000 tons of steel and concrete were allowed to seek the center of the earth. If you take 200,000 tons of material and allow it to fall even a tiny bit you convert that into a gigantic amount of kinetic energy and that energy, contained within the moving mass of steel and concrete will pile-drive as straight as it can toward the center of the earth until it hits something that is rigid enough to stop it; say the surface of the earth.

The so called puffs of smoke that can be seen from lower floors are due to hurricane force winds, generated by the compression of the upper floors, blasting the windows out. Try sitting on a balloon and you'll see what I mean.
The buildings did not fall evenly to the ground either. The outer walls splayed out from the pile driving effect. The outer walls, avoiding the 200,00 ton pile driver flew outward in arcs away from the destruction. Ground zero looked nothing like a controled blast area. Furthermore the amount of damage inflicted on nearby buildings was in some cases catastrophic leading to further collapse. In a controled demolition the charges are timed and arranged to bring the center of the building down first and buildings walls back into each other to create the pile driver effect. Nothing about the collapse of the towers looked even remotely like that. The collapse for both towers began at the floors of impact.

In short conspiracy freaks should go F' them selves.

Refuting the weak God scenario

Evidently many conservatives believe in a weak and feable god. Their god is always lashing out and killing people who are simply in and around the area of the evil people he needs to smite. Also the conservative god cannot do much for himself. He is so weak as to need men like GW Bush to help him out in his plan to bring peace and happiness to the world. They also do not seem to belive in a monotheistic faith. Their faith is basically dualistic where you have the good god and the bad god and they are constantly duking it out for our soles. The pay lip to the whole "Omni Potens Deus" bit but only lip service. Lastly they have not faith in this weak and feable god. They constantly are worried about his kingdom being destroyed by the evil lefties and gay people.

I am a lefty and my God, the rock eternal, ever living, ever loving, and all powerful God, is not some weak kneed fool on a cloud. He has stretched out his almighty hand to bring the cosmos about and needs not help from the likes of simplminded Fallwell or Pat Robertson to help him. We need God, while God does not need us. His kingdom is beyond the 2-dimensional imaginings of humanbeings. He does not need Christian soldiers to defend him. His merciful and compassionate power defends us. It amazes me how the silly and weak faithed conservatives keep demoting God to a celestial version of Terri Shaivo.

Why waste time praying to a god that needs Bush's help? Or our help?

Both Sides of the Story...

-From FactCheck.Org

"The business-backed Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) released two ads last week to "counter global warming alarmism."

One of the ads says research shows "The Antarctic ice sheet is getting thicker, not thinner. . . Why are they trying to scare us?" Actually, scientists say increased snowfall in Antarctica's interior is evidence that global warming is taking place. Scientists also say that the ice sheet is melting at the ocean's edge and a recent report says it is shrinking overall.

The ads drew a protest from a University of Missouri professor who says they are "a deliberate effort to confuse and mislead the public about the global warming debate." He said one of them misuses a study he published in Science magazine last year on the Antarctic ice sheet. An editor of Science also said the ads misrepresent the findings of that study as well as a second study on Greenland's glaciers.

The second CEI ad notes that carbon dioxide (CO2) is "essential to life," and says, "they call it pollution. We call it life." That ad fails to mention that too much CO2 can cause global temperatures to rise or that there is more of it in the atmosphere than any time during the last 420,000 years.

CEI, which gets just over 9 per cent of its budget from Exxon Mobil Corporation, said it was only trying to make sure the public hears "both sides of the story."

From Me -

The concept of hearing both sides to a story is heartwarming and seemingly democratic. But in certain circumstances this idea becomes so much clap-trap. If a guy breaks into your home and then trys to rape your wife does he really have a right to have his side heard about why he should be allowed to rape your wife? This is the basic argument being used by the industrial lobby.

We want to continue to pump chemistry into the air and poison your world, and we think it is okay. Others may disagree but we have a right to be heard!

Using the dickheaded argument by CEI the husband of the woman being raped would be labeled an "alarmist" since from the rapists point of view the woman was going to be "okay".

My birthday prayer

Heavenly Father, through whose power I have come to be, and in whose care I dwell, I give thanks for all those people around me who also have offered me comfort and happiness. They are gifts from you and a blessing from you to me. For the lives of my daughters I give you thanks now and forever. For the lives of my brother and mother, I give you thanks now and forever. For all the people who have touched me with love, freindship, compassion and mercy, I give you thanks now and forever. And even for those who have treated me unkindly, have mercy upon them, bless them ,and bring to them your holy and undying love to open their haerts so they too may revel in the glory of the Lord. Set me on straight paths and turn me away from anger, revenge, and selfishness. Thank you for 41 years of life on this beautiful world. Bless me that I may continue to cling to you, my salvation, my refuge, my shepard. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.

Triumph Loves You...Like a fire hydrant...I kid!

Blair In Iraq

Unlike a certain Texas cowheard I know, mr Blair is in Iraq again. Dispite the fact that his country only has a few thousands troops deployed, Blair seems to understand the nature of leadership. Whereas Bush seems to understand nothing of the sort. The US is led by a cowheard. He was affraid to serve in Vietnam and is affraid to go into the warzone he created in Iraq. He is a failure as a President, a national disgrace, and villain that has no business being anywhere near the reigns of power. The stink of this civil war has been brought about by his administrations gross incompitence and hauty disregard for common sense.

News Watch: Marathon not a Sprint

Lead National headline from Fox News.com (bastion of hardhitting journalism)
Your Pants Are on Fire In Science: People lie much more than they think they do, study shows

Cross Caught in Crossfire Video: Korean War memorial may be dismantled over church-and-state flap

Housing Bubble, Toil and Trouble In Business: Should you hold on or bail out if real estate market takes major hit?

It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint Soldier's Diary: Capt. Dan Sukman reflects on his eight months in Iraq

Hillary on Entitlement Grrr! Democratic frontrunner comes down hard on Generation Y slackers

Let's Get Medieval Out There: Nerdy fight club members duke it out with foam-padded weapons

These are in the "only on FOX" section at the top of the site. Oh thank God there is some institution out there daring to take on the big subject of foam padded weapons! After this section the readers are given even more abrasive in-your-face journalism in the "Today's Features"

Michael Jackson to deal with child-custody issue in NYC

New Moonshiners Equipment used to distill backwoods booze used to make cheap ethanol for cars

Hey Hey, My My...'Old wave' rockers like Pearl Jam and Red Hot Chili Peppers are revitalizing CD sales

Bet on Britney Novelty gambling catching on, especially with celebrity-obsessed women

Quote from this blogger: Operation Iraqi Freedom, or Operation Cobra, is not a marathon, it is a WAR!!!! It is not a game where people "fight" There is no fighting in Iraq. if you have ever been hit with a 5.56mm NATO round or a 7.62mm AK round you know that it is not fighting. If you have ever had your head blown off while standing in line to get a job as a cop or had your bowels blown out while driving a water truck to a forward observation point you know there is no fighting. There is only soldiers and people alive and soldiers and people dead and a lot of both that are in transtion from the former to the latter.

What the?

For decades Iran and the US have been name calling idiots toward one another. We call them evil doers and terrorists. They call us Satan. We sought their destruction by funding Sadam Hussain throughout the 1980's and helped him kill tens of thousands of Iranians. They, I am sure, were very happy when the towers fell.

So here we all are in 2006 and who is the first guy to speak? None other than the volatile Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Here is an section from his 18 page letter to Bush:

"I have been told that Your Excellency follows the teachings of Jesus (Peace be upon him) and believes in the divine promise of the rule of the righteous on Earth," Ahmadinejad wrote Bush, who has said that Christ is his favorite philosopher.

"If Prophet Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Ishamel, Joseph, or Jesus Christ (Peace Be Upon Him) were with us today, how would they have judged such behavior?"

Not that I am siding with this guy who I think is a bit unstable. However again here we have the "bad guys" looking far more statesman like than the "good guys" who simply ignore such overtures. The US looks weak when we ignore the words of our enemies. Jesus Christ would not support such actions. He engaged his foes at every turn. As the pharisees followed him around trying to trip him up by using scripture against him he never backed away from pointing out their hipocracy. Bush is obviously ignorant of the behavior of his so-called favorite philosopher. Christ lived a life of constant engagement with all who surrounded him, both the righteous and the wicked. A man of faith and love of the teachings of Christ would never shrink from discourse with the likes of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The White House should disclose the entire 18 page letter for the people to read for themselves. What is Bush afraid of? That Ahmadinejad is a better communicator than our own President? Or that the Iran leader has a more soundly based theological argument to his position than does Bush?

I want to find out NOW!

Check out the IAVA.org web site

"Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America is the nation's first and largest group dedicated to the Troops and Veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the civilian supporters of those Troops and Veterans." - IAVA Website 2006

So Long Mr. Galbraith

"If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error."
- John Kenneth Galbraith, economist

Poll Crunch becoming Poll Crushed

Approval: 34%
Disapprove: 58%
Duh: 8%

The Problem, for those of you who do not yet know the problem, is that W is simply not all that likeable. He is one of those people who you think you will like until you get to know him. Then he becomes one of those people that you would really like to avoid at the water cooler. The type who will button hole you and try to tell you all about the sexual exploits he wished he had with coworker X. And you just want to leave and pretend that people like him do not even work for the same company as you, but they do so you spend the rest of your day pissed at your lame job. Then you go home and turn the TV on and there his SOB is talking about the fact that he is "the decider" and you pick up your grandmothers antique sowing machine and hurl it through the TV set and go and get drunk. Then get pulled over for a DUI and end up with a suspended license and in the drunk tank. And as your head pounds and spins you realize that you are now behaving just like the SOB at the water cooler and the SOB in the White House.

Scrapping FEMA

This fits in quite well with Republican efforts to destroy the government (our ability to control our own destiny). Calls to scrap FEMA are really about the radical republican agenda of governmental destruction coupled with a desire to recreate a buraucracy that looks, on the surface, as a new agency to help people. In reality any new agency will be designed to funnel US tax payer dollars into the hands of corporations or NGO's answerable to no one. That is what will happen if FEMA goes away. They will attempt to subcontract it out (money launder) to the point where it will be impossible to know where all the money went. Just look at Iraq.

All that is needed for FEMA is to restore it to a cabinet level position and staff it with people who know what they are doing instead of political cronies.

I wish this were simply a conspiracy theory and nonsense. But saddly it is par for the course. Here is what Grover Norquist had to say about the American peoples ability to control their own destiny...

"My goal is to cut government in half in twenty-five years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.”

Again who is he talking about? Well in the United States of America the Government is We The People. So when men like Norquist talk about making us less dependant on ourselves who are we being dependant on? Hmmm? Norquist, like most neo-cons, or simply cons, is basically an anarchist. He believes in the principle that he and his freinds should be left alone to do as they please. This is conservatism distilled down to its simplest form. His way of thinking is objectivist in the extreme and is unworkable in the real world. Like the lunatic Ayn Rand, in Norquists world, everyone is a worker or captain of industry. This is not the real word. There will always be millions of people either unable to be captains of industry or unable to work. Societies that ignore the millions that fall through the craks make the cracks bigger and bigger until you end up with a society akin to Somolia. The rich a terrified and armed to the teeth, the poor or terrified and armed to the teeth. There is no structure left to govern the baser nature of man, so the anarchic state devolves into a failed state. This is the end game for Norquist and the neocons. It is plain to see if you simply take their stated goals and think far enough down the line. Norquist and his ilk are an ill wind blowing up from a damned future.

Global Warming and how NOT to solve it

There are many issues in America and the world that need addressing. Global Warming being one of them. Like most issues it has become a political football. It has been mischaracterized by industry as a leftist agenda issue and it has been mishandled by the left as a political sledge hammer to hammer home the idea that the Republicans are evil. This is missing the point.

We are really screwing up a world where life is already pretty tough for humans. We live on a planet where 99% of the water is poison and where 80% of the atmosphere is unbreathable. 3/4's of the planet is unihabitable by humanity. So we are in a precarious position.

But instead of coming up with ways and arguments to sway industry and charm politicians, the issue is only a ball to be tossed about in the hands of right and left leaning political organizations. Instead of saying that the concerns of business over Kyoto are legitimate, the left argues that there is a conspiracy against the Earth. This is not helpful. The concerns over Kyoto are legit. However the arguments that need to be crafted go something like this:

In 1787 the US crafted a document that was far from perfect, as a Constitution. There was no Bill of Rights. There was no freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, petition, to bear arms, to keep troops from being quartered in your home, to have your property siezed, ban against cruel and unusual punishment, or prohibition against slavery. However it was a document that could get the votes to get ratified.

Kyoto needs to be seen in that light. It is anything but perfect. But it is a start and we have to start somewhere.

Planning the Iraq War

Captain Ahab of the elite "Dick" squad seen here, in an artists rendering, planning the early phases of his campaign.

"They think me mad--Starbuck does; but I'm demoniac, I am madness maddened! That wild madness that's only calm to comprehend itself!" - Cpt. Ahab

Eisenhower where are you now?

Mr. Chairman, Mr. Vice President, Mr. Chief Justice, Mr. Speaker, members of my family and friends, my countrymen, and the friends of my country, wherever they may be, we meet again, as upon a like moment four years ago, and again you have witnessed my solemn oath of service to you. I, too, am a witness, today testifying in your name to the principles and purposes to which we, as a people, are pledged.

Before all else, we seek, upon our common labor as a nation, the blessings of Almighty God. And the hopes in our hearts fashion the deepest prayers of our whole people.

May we pursue the right—without self-righteousness.
May we know unity—without conformity.
May we grow in strength—without pride in self.
May we, in our dealings with all peoples of the earth, ever speak truth and serve justice.

And so shall America—in the sight of all men of good will—prove true to the honorable purposes that bind and rule us as a people in all this time of trial through which we pass.

More arguments between the fallen and perfect world

I know that to be a Christian many have to accept that the world is some how fallen from Gods grace and that, because of our sin in Eden, we are struggling to get back to that perfection. However this view of our world presents a problem for me. In that God, the all powerful, must then choose to accept this fallen state.

How can you square the fallen world with a perfect God? In Genisis God seems not to know what happened to Able. If you read this litterally God seems oblivious to what Cane has done. Only after Abels blood calls out to God does he realize what Cane did. I would say that this is a story and not intended as a litterally transcribed interview between God and Cane. But I digress. God must have known exactly what mankind was going to do in Eden. If this is so then He has allowed things to deteriorate in Eden. But that does not bode well for God as creator since as soon as he makes his creation a lowly man screws it up, so much so that it takes the sacrifice of God himself to redeem the world. Free will you say? Ah but that is still saying that it is Gods plan that the world should fall.

Again in Job, there is a bet between God and Satan about Job. This seems to be, on the surface, running counter to the monothesim of Judaism. Here two supernatural powers argue about how much Job will take before he cracks. God lets Satan have free reign over the life of Job, killing his kids, destroying his house, and basically ruining him. Not a very nice God. You could blame Satan but the entity is only able to do to Job what he does because God allows it.

I could go on like this with biblical illustrations about how much God lets happen, or inflicts vicariously through others upon his chosen people. To me this picture of God needs to be rejected. This is the theology of pre-atheism. For there is no surer path to non-belief than to try and fit this kind of Don Corleone God with the world and a desire to worship. It destroys faith on several levels. Firstly it creates a God that does not care about his people. Secondly it limits his power and creates the neccessity of a preisthood to "help" build His kingdom thus creating an aristocracy of the religious where certain brothers or sisters are higher than others. Lastly its illogic drives the unconverted away like the plague.

Only by rejecting the fallen world scenario can we begin to accept the awsome all powerful, all loving, ever living, God for what God is. For rejoicing in the life we have in this perfect world, accepting the calamity not as a devine punshiment or trial, but as aspects of cause and effect, reveling in the little aspects of iintrinsic perfection all around us. Relinguishing our hauty claim to know absolutes in right and wrong, good and evil, and humbly accepting that only God can know this. Far from banishing God to a backwater diety that simply sits and watches creation. We accept his gentle breath moving upon the wates of creation, not creating a more perfect world, but simply changing the world making it neither more or less perfect.

Suffering is real as is joy but these are only responses to situations created by cause and effect. It can take a hammer and smash my thumb. It will hurt a plenty and it is not devine punishment or anything elese but the effect brought about by the causal hammer.

This means that we have to read Bible with an even more open mind and spirit than before. The God in Gensis is now nolonger really unaware of Cane killing Able. He is listening to Cane, knowing what has happened. Understanding all the motivations and consequences, before Cane does. He understands that pain, loss, and what we call evil, is all aportioned as they are in his perfect creation. Where no evil or good really exists at all.

Flip-flopping and war crimes

I used the term War Criminal about W a couple days ago. I thought long about that afterword. Had I used it in the heat of the moment? Perhaps it was just a knee jerk response? War is of course mass murder. All war is mass murder. Each side feels like it is right in killing people on the other. So is all war a crime? It sort of depends on your point of view. Instead of arguing about what constitutes a war crime let us look at how the Bush administration has dealt with the issue:

"In 1998 the UN General Assembly voted in favor of a treaty authorizing a permanent international court for war crimes. The United States, China, and five other nations opposed the treaty, and 21 nations abstained. The treaty has been signed by more than 130 nations (including the United States), and formally came into effect in July, 2002; the judges of the court were formally sworn in in 2003. Called the International Criminal Court and located at The Hague, it may prosecute war crimes, genocide, crimes of aggression, and crimes against humanity. Under the G. W. Bush administration, the United States opposed implementation of the treaty, out of fear that American officials or military personnel might be arrested abroad on baseless charges. In May, 2002, the United States repudiated its signing of the treaty and indicated that it would refuse to cooperate with the court. The U.S. government subsequently insisted (2002, 2003) that U.S. forces used as UN peacekeepers be exempted from prosecution by the court, and in 2003 it suspended military aid to nations that did not similarly exempt U.S. citizens serving within their borders. In 2004, following the Iraq prisoner abuse scandal, the United States was unable to secure a further exemption from the United Nations."

-The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-05.

Over and over again the current administration claims that it is adhearing to the rules of war while at the same time arguing that it can "do whatever it takes" to win. A year ago, back when Iraq was a mess like it is today, I wrote that the ends-justifying-the-means is not ethical, moral, Christian, or Constitutional, and will not bring about victory. The ends justifying the means, when it comes to war, I would argue, is a crime in and of itself. It is the basis for crime, all crime. Retaliatoin against such decision makers is ethical. Be that from the US invading Afghanistan while going after Bin Laden, or in IED attacks against US forces in Iraq. Being the aggrieved party does not remove the party from adherence to ethical behavior.

The last statements about Afghanistan and IED's may be too broad. In certain cases IED may be ethical and in other cases not; and clearly the invasion of Iraq was in many ways ethical and in many ways not.

So is Bush a war criminal? In many was not and in many ways he is. In the prosecution of a war the President does have to answer for the conduct of those under his command. However he is not ethically or morally responsible. Unless he has given orders to enable such behavior to occur. We simply do not have enough information to call him a war criminal. Look at the trouble with Sadam. Look how hard it is to get him convicted of crimes against humanity. Not that I seek Bush being convicted, unless he is guilty. And he is innocent unless something comes to light. Yet there seems to be much smoke. It would serve him better to be more open about his desicions and those around him. Secrets have a way of always getting out.

What to do about Rummy

Bush will NEVER ask the little man to leave since Rummy is part of W's vision team. It would be like asking Bush to have 1/4 of his brain removed. He simply could not function. The Bush administration is a house of carefully constructed cards that are irreplaceable. Cheny cannot leave, Rummy cannot leave, Rice cannot leave. Unfortunately for America we will have to wait to have Rumsfeld resign himself, and unlike many "resignation" it will have to be Rumsfeld that will want to do it. However I do not think this is likely to happen. The disdain that the current administration has for the press, and the general public is palpable now. They consider the 60% of America that cannot stand them as unimportant and not viral enough. They are still wishing to show the world how tough we are. Nevermind that the rest of the world is not impressed. It is good that so many generals want the guy to leave. Rumsfeld has tried to do an end around that too by appointing as many 3 -stars as he can. This way they owe him there careers instead of their peers.

I remember reading comments and letters in the Naval Institutes Proceedings Magazine back in 2004 that Rummy's vision of force transformation was outdated, would put us at a disadvantage in large-threat environments. So much for all that nonsense. Since every instance of Rumsfelds work smells like roses we all should shut up and thank the SOB. Of course all his decisions do not smell like roses. Rumsfelds decisions, coupled with the White House desire for secrecy, coupled with the White House disdain for most of America's laws, has brought about a catastrophic loss of American prestige, influence, and power. In the future it will be a question as to what hurt America more, 9/11 or Rumsfeld. He is certainly responible for a greater loss of life and treasure.

When will the tipping point come? There won't be any. The only way these people will leave is when they are forced out.

Rumsfeld and Limbaugh at GOP function

The other side of the stupidity of Millenarianism

" There will be wars and rumors of wars, but that has always been the case." Jesus.

In otherwords nobody knows when the world is going to end, right? Well not exactly. Anyone who bothers to read any amount of scientific research can tell you what is the likely future of Earth. In about 900 million years the sun will have used up so much fusiable material that its chemical composition will begin to change. It will begin to sluff off its outer atmosphere. This will spell the doom for all life on Earth. At least the bits of life that cannot adapt to high temperatures. The Earth will spend another billion years getting roasted until it resembles Venus. Its mass will keep a lot of atmosphere around it but there won't be a chance in hell that anything that hasn't evolved the ability to live in extreme heat will be able to survive. Evolutin being what it is, and the long time period involved, may allow some organisms to adapt. But in the long run they will be barking up a dead tree. Since after the other billion years the sun will sputter out into a dwarf star and earth will be so cold that any decomposiiton gasses like methane will be in a liquid state.

So we have a long time to screw up the Earth. Or we have a long time to make it better. Hopefully our little spiecies will have figured out how to leave well before the day of reckoning. Since we live in the perfect universe, according to me, then even the destruction of the Earth by a giant sun will occur within the parameters of perfection. Again I hope that our survival is also within the parameters of universal perfection. Yet bodily death seems like it occurs despite all the hullabalu so I see no evidence that humanity is slated not to bite it at some point.

Of course this would not mean much to people who, like the dispensationalists of today or the millenarianists of the centeral Middle ages are followers of the cult of final destruction. This cult has been morphing from age to age and, like the ficticous Priory of Scion in the Da Vinci Code, it has kept its membership alive and well while garding the centeral theme of the cult. The centeral theme is the final Good vs. Evil battle where it all comes to a conclusion and the goodguys win and the badguys lose. This cult has continued undeterred by social, scientific, religous, and political progress. Each catastrophe that naturally befalls a society is a "sign" There is truth to this. The Tsunami that killed 200,000 people last year is a sign that we live on a thin crust of congealed lava floating on a liquid stone ocean thousands of miles deep. HIV is a sign that there are all sorts of bugs out there that can get us. Terrorism is a sign that mankind is still stupid.

The cult of destruction is a manifestation of Satan (total self absorbtioin). The idea that we are all bit players in a movie; Gods movie. How rediculous is that. This only works if we are a fallen people. If we have fallen away from perfection. If we are a manifestation of Gods perfect world than we are not fallen away from God. Our actions, even though they are to us evil, are expected and tolerated by God since they all act in accordance with the perfect creation.

Example in non-human terms:
If you accept that God made carnivors then you accept that God created an animal that survives by killing another animal. This is not done in a kind way. A pack of lions hunts down a wildabeast and rips it to pieces while it struggles to escape. This is how God made things. There is nothing in the Bible that says otherwise. So has the wildabeast been wronged by the lions? We would say no. It is the nature of lions and wildabeasts to interact in such a manner. So to, I would argue, does man have a nature and it is in his nature to lash out to survive and in so doing will perpetrate "evil" against his fellow man. However it is only evil from mans perspective. This is horribly hard for us to accept. Particularly when we are talking about things like the holocaust or a murder.

Doest accepting that Gods view of good and evil is not ours cloud our ability to worship? Well it verywell might depending on our view of God. If God is an avenging God then yes it would really shake our faith since He would be letting all sorts of stuff happen before he comes in and saves the day. To explain this laziness you have to accept that God is using the evil for his own hidden purposes. Clearly if there is a God behind the scenes then free will does not exist and we are either puppets or potential puppets. Eiteher way what kind of entity would wished to be worshipped by action-figures or dolls? No if we have free will then it is total. And if all of us have total free will, within the physical parameters of creation, then all the things that we consider good or bad are our own doing and the doings of other people but not God.

I do not think that there is going to be any end times non-sense. At least nothing done by God. We may end our existance on the planet Earth but it will be our own stupid affair and God will let it happen since we have he free will to do it and it too would be part of the perfect universe.

Oh yes. How can I prove that the universe is perfect? Is this a literary contrivance? Not to me. To me it is logical. Compare the universe, creatioin, the cosmos, whatever you want to call it, to anything. Can you? Compare it to another universe. You can't there is nothing to copare it to. There may be dimensions in this universe we cannot percieve but there is still only one. So I dare you to compare it to another. You cannot say it is imperfect since to do so you would have to show it next to another univrese and show the differences and why ours is flawed. You can't do it.

Heinrich Himmler found Guilty...again

It was a hard faught case. My daughter was the lead defense attorney for Mr. Himmler. However after long trial, the Reichsfurher SS was found guilty of genocide and scentenced to death by fireing squad.

I was eating lunch a couple weeks ago and out of the blue my daughter asked me about what I thought about an insanity defense for Heinrich Himmler. After further prodding she told me that her history class was doing a mock trial of the war criminal and she had to defend him. I told her that if she could get Heinrich off she should go to law school. Her argument was that Himmler suffered from a personality disorder and also that he was under tremendous strain being the Reichsfurher SS and was woried about being killed himself by Hitler. I told her that the "I was just following orders" defense didn't fly at Nuremburg.

The defense team went with the insanity defense. That didn't work either. On the good side my daughter learned a lot about a scummy person she had never even heard of.

April Poll Crunch

Hurray for Bush! 100% of the Bushleague loves him!!!! Hurray for ol W. However that translates into the following:

The Bushleague Supporters 37%
Can't Stand the SOB 57%
Are too stupid to know who Bush is 6%

Ivey 2ndShift support for bush: 0%

Will the President fire those responsible?

According to recently released court documents, Scooter Libby has fingered VP Cheney as ordering him to leak intel to the press. According to Libby Cheney told him that he had the Presidents approval. This is not to say that the VP or the big P ordered the leaking of Plame's name. However it did come out with the other intel.

So my question is simple. Will Bush do what he said he was going to do last year and fire those responsible for leaking classified info? Lets see who would end up being President? The Speaker of the House, Denis Hastert, would be incharge.

So is this all another liberal attempt to melt Bush with water like Dorothy did to the Wicked witch of the west? Well I have downloaded and read a bunch of court docs. Specifically: page 19-20 from Document 80 from Case NO05-394(RBW) United States of America vs. Lewis Libby Here is what is said. It starts near the bottom of page 19 and runs on into the middle of page 20.

"Defendants's participation in a critical conversation with Judith Miller on July 8, (discussed further below) occured only after the Vice President advised defendant that the President specifically had authorized defendant to disclose certain information in the NIE (National Intelligence Estimate ( added by me)) Defendant testified that the circumstances for his conversation with reporter Miller -getting approval fro mthe President through the Vice President to discuss material that would be classified but the that approval - were unique in his recollection. Defendant further testified that on July 12,2003, he was specifically directed by the Vice President to speak to the press in place of Cathie Martin (then the communications person for the Vice President) regarding the NIE and Wilson."

It goes on to say that Cheney told Libby to go "on the record" and provide "deep background" regarding Wilson's Niger. This is as close to a smoking gun as you can get without getting powder burns from the muzzle flash.

Angry Left?

I hear, in many conservative circles, the term angry left. Huh? If anything the left in America is bemused, sick of the self righteous failure of Washington, and in some states giddy with delight in the downfall of self-serving conservative hypocrites. Angry is not in the leftist lexicon. The people who are angry are as much republican as democrat. The people who are pissed off are all the people who put their faith in Bush only to have the rug pulled out from underneath them. Leftists put no faith in the little SOB so ergo we are not angry with him. We are sick of him, disgusted by him, but not angry. We feel vindicated. We told you so. The middle-of-the-roader's should have listened to us a bit more. Leftists do not have all the answers. Lefty's have always said that Bush is a hopeless case. His team is out to serve themselves and their buddies and not you. So be angry if you must. Just don't talk about the angry left. The left isn't angry its right.

Dear Tom Delay,

So long you worthless, carpet bagging, wolf-in-sheeps-clothing-we'll-know-you-by-your-deeds, crook. We're all better off without you. Don't let the door to DC hit your fat ass on the way out!

A Citizen

More common ground between us Christians and our Muslim brothers and sisters

There is a "book of Maryam" (which is perhaps closer to the proper pronounciation of her Aramaic name), in the Holy Koran, and the passage known as Sura 3, "The Amramites (Ali-'Imran)" tells a tale very like Luke 1:26-35

The angel said: "O Maryam, surely Allah gives you good news; a message from Him of one whose name is the Messiah, Isa [Jesus], son of Maryam, worthy of regard in this world and the hereafter and of those who are made near to Allah.
He shall speak to the people when in the cradle and when of old age, and he shall be one of the holy ones."

Maryam said: "My Lord! How shall a son be born to I me, since man has not touched me?" The angel replied: "Nevertheless, Allah creates what He pleases; when He has decreed a matter, He only says to it, 'Be," and it is.

And He will teach him the Book and the wisdom and all the Scriptures.

And make him an apostle to the children of Israel"

Evil?

So according to Einstein, back when he was a lusty youth, evil is the absense of God the same as darkness is the absense of light. Evil is not a thing anymore than darkness is a thing. It is the absense of a thing.

Okay Einstein, if you are correct in your suposition that evil is the absense of God, then it follows that there are locatioins in the universe where God is absent. And if there are places where God is absent then there are limits to God. And if there are limits of any kind to God then he is not omnipotent.

Lets look at the term Omnipotens Deus. All Powerful God. Okay that litterally means there are no limits to his power. He is capable of anything. There is nothing God cannot do. If this is so then evil is something God can do since to limit him to only good is to limit his power. Can you, as Einstein, solve this problem? You haven't thought far enough down the equation. If God is simply all pwoerful, with no limits placed upon him, then adoration of him becomes less wholesome. Since to adore something that is as ready to do you evil as good is a pretty sad state of affairs for you.

For now let us assume God is all powerful. So all aspects of the universe, including all the evil in it, are property of God and subject to, or more properly manifestations of, his divine will. Where does that leave a being like a devil? Well it leaves them nowhere. There is no point to having a devil since all the evil in the universe, like all the good, is a manifestation of the will of God. Why would God need another being to help him out with evil? Indeed why would God need anyhelp from anything for any reason? Why help build his kingdom on earth? Can't the omnipotent God do that for himself?

If God is wanting a creation unspoiled and perfect then why not, like nike says, just do it? Why all the cerimonial mumbo jumbo? Why priests and churches and doctrines of the faith? Why have all this messy confusion about what God wants? It seems to me that if God wished creation that is different than the one we call home then he would have made it different. He would not be waiting for us to figure it out, or have us wait for him to let us make a mess of things then come in and break up the fight.

I believe that we live in the perfect universe. A universe where nothing is either created nor destroyed. A universe that is neither good or evil, where there is no place for evil or good to exist. A place where all action causes equal and opposing reaction. A universe where certain actions are deemed evil and certain actions are deemed good by certain speices at certain times because the actions lead to the propegation of the spieces. Trust, justice, equal treatment, kindness, charity, etc. are all benificial to a cohesive society. Genicide, murder, theft, lying, etc are all damaging to a cohesive society.

Clearly there are laws that we have uncovered that govern all the actions in the universe. It is only a mater of time before all of them are laid out for us to understand. So getting back to the nature of God. By removing the aspect of good and evil there is also removed a stumbling block for the acceptance of an omnipotent God. God is all powerful. And the universe is perfect. There is no need for intervention in such a perfect universe even by a perfect God. We too are perfect. Our perfection will continue to evolve, in a million years our perfection will be different than it is now. But it will be no less perfect or more perfect than it is right now.

I know lots of people will talk about all the evil that seems pointless and done for only evil's sake. However that is meledramatic. All evil is done for reasons beyond simply acting evil. Even if it is done by those who think they are doing it to act evil, since they too are simply part of creation and reacting to actions upon them etc. This is also true for good.

How about God adjusting his creation? If it is perfect then God would not need to adjust it. Remember that we are part of the creation so if he has to come down and adjust things after seeing a problem arising then he has not created a perfect thing. Can a perfect being create an imperfect thing? Yes. To say no would place a limit on his power. There is nothing he cannot do. So he can create an imperfect universe. But this leads to probelms as mentioned above.

Does calling on God make a difference in a perfect universe? The answer, puzzeling though it is to me, is yes. The perfect creation can call on the perfect being to act upon the perfect creation to make a change. This is not creating a more perfect creation, it is not fixing something. There is nothing to fix in the perfect creation. There is only a change desired and done by God if he so chooses and he can choose to act or not as he wishes.

The perspective on perfection is Gods alone. We in it can either accept the perfection or deny it and even if we do this it is only because we have come into actions and interactions that cause us to deny it, or accept it. All our actions within the perfect creation are perfectly atuned to the it at all times. Even when we percieve ourselves to fail. This should lead us all to complete humility since there is no triumph that is ours nor any tragedy. We have complete freedom within the perameters of, by Gods definition, the perfect creation.

Augustine says, Not because they are, does God know all creatures spiritual and temporal, but because he knows them, therefore they are.

The Rumsfeld Doctrine according to Thomas Freedman

"Just enough troops to lose."

The da Vinci Code review...

An exciting book. But nothing to write home about. What bugs me about this book is that it is so filled with cliches. I guess for people who are totally ignorant of history it may seem spell-binding. For me it is the Forrest Gump of religious thrillers. The signs of the Holy Grail are litterally everywhere. I was eating a pizza and realized that the pie was round and cut into sentions with five cuts, signifying the "sacred feminine" a term used adnauseum in the book. The second thing that really bugged me about this book is the cliche' use of the Catholic Church. Is there no other sect of Christianity that an author of fiction can use? Also the rediculous, and again totally cliche, bit about how women had to be demonized by the church. Crapola! Has mr. Brown ever heard of the cult of the virgin? Of all the saints to be venerated from the early times until today there is no saint so venerated in Catholicism as Saint Mary. So much so that almost every grand gothic cathedral built in Europe is dedicated to Our Lady (Notre Dame) each adorned with the Rose Window. These grand multimedia extravaganzas were not only venerating Mary but also the seats of Church power for over a thousands years. Hardly banishing women, or the "sacred feminine" to hell.

The author writes in a way and uses "facts" or "informatioin" in much the same way conspiracy freaks use information in the Kennedy Assasination. I am surprised that the author did not try to implicate Oswald in the Grail myth. Like the movie JFK it feeds the white-noise machine of psudo-history, mythmaking, while telling an admittedly great story. I have no problem with the story itself. I love a good mystery told well. However I feel that the melding of fact, fiction, and suposition based on dubius facts or plain whole-cloth begs for a forward by the author explaining that the work is one of fiction.

So long Cap!

Good by to Casper Weinburger. We got to ride on a plane with him for a while back in the late 80's. He was a really tiny guy. The conservatives are saying of him, like all the other dead Reganites, how he won the cold war. Again I never saw him in the Streets of Moscow the day the Parliment surendered to the people. But then again he was really tiny and he might have been there.

October 1942

"In October 1942, ten months after entering World War II, America was preparing its first assault against Nazi military forces. Prescott Bush was managing partner of Brown Brothers Harriman. His 18-year-old son George, the future U.S. President, had just begun training to become a naval pilot. On Oct. 20, 1942, the U.S. government ordered the seizure of Nazi German banking operations in New York City which were being conducted by Prescott Bush."

A no win situation or a New World of hope

The BIG problem with Iraq is thqt it presents a no win situation for us. The attack on the 25th that left loads dead in Sadre city is anothe example of the no-victory scenario. It makes no difference whether the site attacked was an insurgent stronghold or not. The perception is that of the US attacking a mosque and killing men praying. This is only the latest example of how our very presense in Iraq is the problem. There is no solution grand enough for us to look like anything other than the problem. We have enmeshed oursleves in such a complicated problem that we may be unable to simply walk away. This situation is actually worse than Vietnam in that in Vietnam there was, since 1945, an ongoing civil war not of our making. We went in to try and save the nationalist south but we were not the instigators of the mess. So we could, with some justification, claim that we tried our best but the Vietnamese simply had to fight "Their War" themselves.

Iraq is totally different. There was no war in Iraq before we went in there. We started this madness. We instigated it. And so there is far more pressure on us to solve it. I fear we are stuck there no matter what. Bush and his subordinates need to be imprisoned for this huge mistake.

Or...

Not to take away from the demonstratable failure that is US~Iraq policy but there is another way of looking at this situation. As an American it might not be a happy way of looking at the situation but it may be, in the long run, a breakthrough in world affairs.

Since the fall of the Nazi's the world has been really a one-power world. Despite the belicose rumblings of the now-defunct USSR, for the past 60 years the world has pretty much been run by the USA. Its economy has been the engine that powered the entire world vehicle. Its agenda was, for good or bad, the worlds agenda, either in walking in lock step with America like NATO, or in constantly having to react to it like the USSR. Either way America was the mover and shaker of the world.

Iraq is proving to be a defining moment for the USA. It has taken the spotlight but unlike the first gulf-war what the world has been shown is a super-power that is not really so super. The last 6 years have shown America to be just another nation. Capable of doing good and bad. Capable of suffering like the rest of the world. Now before all the red-blooded America lovers get all PO'd I want to say that this is not a bad position to be in.

In the 1980's America got the hell kicked out of it by Japan in the form of manufacturing, technology, and business organization. This did not lead to the destruction of the USA. It led to the the boom of the 1990's in America and the bust of the 1990's in Japan. The Vietnam war, being totally lost by the mighty Americans, did not lead to the overthrough of the USA either. It lead to a series of breakthroughs with China and the USSR that made for a more stable and secure world. So having a super-power lowered back to the status of ordinary nation, something America will never really be, is not so bad. The checks on American power have been a benefit to America more than a hinderance.

Iraq shows that the world is a very complicated place where the desires of one nation, even a strong one like America, are never assured. We are in the process of being put back in our place. We do not like it but in the long run it will be better for the world and better for America.

We always get what we ask for

Why did Hamas do so well in the recent elections? They capitalised on rampent anti-Americanism along with the standard anit-Zionism. Our own actions in the region have so destroyed our image that even terrorist organization now have legitimate ability to actually win democratic elections. I was listening to NPR talk about how surprised everyone was at the Hamas victory. I do not think most people who studied the middle east were surprised. The Bush Administration was surprised. Their standard response to all their f'ups is to say how "nobody ever thought X could happen." X could be any one of a number of blunders. I couldn't really care less what they think, they are so lame.

I would say that we get what we ask for. How could anyone believe that a huge military adventure in Iraq create anything else? All the military adventures, while they are going on, are disasters for the regions inwhich they are taking place. There is no such thing as a good war. That is why all the millions of people at the end of WWII were cheering. They were cheering the fact that the war was over. In the war zone people were depressed, starved, and shell shocked. There were millions of soldiers encamped and the balance of power quickly shifted, over ten years, toward a east vs west nuclear stalemate. The forces at play enforced peace on both sides of the iron curtain.

Currently we have further destablized a region that was already unstable. Regional powers, other than Isreal, are week and ineffective. So the level of anarchy in disputed regions such as Gaza, the West Bank, or Iraq is high. In some ways it would be better to have a nuclear Iran. That would force Isreals hand to declare itself as an active nuclear state. It would create a dynamic that would remove US unilateralism in the region. It would not make Iran any more powerful than it is. But it would create a balance of power in a region that is like the wild west now. besides we have gone out of our way to ask for a nuclear Iran. I am amazed that we don't have it yet.

Wolves in sheeps clothing

Okay all you hyper-Christians. How is your boy doing in the White House? lets look at Afgahnistan. There is a guy who may get the death penalty for converting from islam to Christianity. Does your boy jump to the guys defense? Only after lots of bitching from the Christian establishment. If no one bitched at Bush he'd have let the man get killed.

Understand that Bush and his administration DO NOT CARE ABOUT CHRIST. They only care enough to get you to vote for them. They have sold their souls to altogether darker powers. I am not talking about Satan either. They'd be Satan worshipers if they thought that would get them votes. Basically they only believe in the god MONEY. If you think they wouldn't sell Christ out for 30 pieces of silver, or a stock option, you are fooling yourself, or letting yourself be fooled by them.

So where does a Christian turn to? Well for starters Christians should not expect political parties to be anything more than political parties. They are of the City of the Earth, while followers of Christ are dwellers in the City of God. Asking political parties to act in accordance with Christ is like asking the mayor and city council of one city to be the mayor and city council of yours. They will spend all their time with their own city while ignoring you.

So where does a Christian turn? To CHRIST!!!!!!!!!!! There is no power on this earth worthy of helping God. Does God need help? If God needs help why worship Him? Why worship a god that needs the help of a man? We need His help but he does not need ours. So stop turning to Washington to forward Gods kingdom. Do you need to ask Satan to help God? Well when we seek answers for expansion of our faith in the halls of the city of the Earth we are doing just that.

Happy Anniversary Iraqi Freedom

Happy birthday Iraqi Freedom.
Happy birthday to the 2317 families of those killed fighting on "our side"
Happy birthday to the 30,000+ families of those who were fighting on "the other side"
Happy birthday to the millions of refugees, the brutalised, the shell shocked, the depressed
Happy birthday to all the congressmen who never went to Iraq after sending others to fight and die
Happy birthday to Bush for spending 20 minutes in an Iraqi airport with a turkeyleg in his hand a couple years ago and not going to Iraq once since then (Texas Cowheard)
Happy birthday to all the pundits who lied to us and those that still lie to us.
Happy birthday to all the terrorists that flooded into Iraq after we flooded in.
Happy birthday to all the Americans still dumb enough to think that this war was justified.
And happy birthday to all the American taxpayers who willing spent 260 billion of their own dollars to topple one man and create anarchy. But don't ask them to spend money on national health.
Happy birthday to all the kids overthere that get to be blown up while going with them mom to the market or their father to prayer.
Happy brithday to all the saps and finks and fat-headed idiots who got us into this big stinking mess

Wayne Clark

Wayne Clark, business owner, entrepreneur, renaisance man, father of 5, grand father of 3, friend to many, and enemy to himself, died on Saturday. He fell to his death at the Grotto. I had the had the good fortune for working for him and the misfortune for working for him. Wayne was a madman and a very good person. He treated his employees as equals and never once raised his voice in anger to any of them. He was the most charismatic man I have ever known. I know this sound like I am simply trying to remember the good and forget the bad. There is probably some truth to that. However what made Wayne Clark a great leader, and superb thinker, and man of action, also set him on a course for potential ruin. The candle that burns twice as bright burns half as long. He was addicted to meth and that addiction, destroyed his business, and took his life. Wayne had just turned 45 this month.

Wayne will be missed.

The 9 Trillion Dollar Man

In an effort to continue informing the United States citizenry as the true nature of Republican fiscal incompitence, the Senate, along party lines, raised the debt cieling by 781 billion to almost 9 trillion dollars. Distributed equally among all 300 million residents we all get a $30,000 bill to pay.

The Bush Administration is applauding this bold move. Without this move our country would begin to default on its current debt obligatioins. Basically it is taking Pay-Day loans to pay its bills. And since sooooo much of the world economy is tied into the worlds largest economy, everyone buys in to keep it afloat and keep their other investments afloat. What is good for the old USA is good for the world. But as markets in other regions mature and nations like India and China come on line as super powers, the leverage the US has had to strong arm its trading partners as the only game in town will decrease. And that might prove catastrophic for us.

To put this into context, and it is pretty hard to do with numbers like this, the US economy generates about 16 trillion dollars of economic activity each year. Yet thanks to Bush's tax cuts and giveaways our government is spedning 2 thousand million dollars a day more than it takes in. 2 billion a day in extra debt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Japan is the biggest creditor, at $668 billion. China, the second-biggest, recently increased its stake by $40 billion to $263 billion. " - source London Times

How do you plan to win the war?

I listen to CentCom's head of strategic planning for the war on Terrorism give an interview to NPR's The World. First he said that Bin Laden et all were only one part of the war. To capture or illimanate them would not bring victory. Then he said there were 4 strategic objectives.

1: Get the terrorists

2: Get rid of their safe havens

3: Keep them on the run

4: Harts and Minds

He said that the enemy is extrimism. Then he clarified by saying Islamic Extremism. Then he further clarified saying that they all want to bring the world back to the 7th century, blah, blah, blah... He said we need to partner with our allies in the region (who Saudi Arabia and Pakistan?) and give them "resources" (guns and bombs) to help them fight the terrorists. Holy shit isn't that what we ended up doing in centeral America and South East Asia? Enough of this "fight our war ourselves" BS, lets get some programed dictators to do it for us. Oh boy that'll end the whole terrorim concept. Centeral America and Southeast Asia are bastions of law and liberty thanks to that concept. As a citizen of America I can at long last go to sleep, resting assured that the men in uniform will save the day.

And this guy is the head of what? CentCom's stragic planning for the war on terrorism?

I am sorry but we are so Fucked!

Democrats...we want to lose and we want to lose bad!

With the presidency of W in the toilet and a majority of Americans thinking that the Dems are better at war fighting and the economy where are the F'ing turd sandwiches (the Democrats) ? Dispite leaders like Feingold who seem to be willing to actually fight the lame-duck bushleague, many other non-leaders are simply limping along tryingnot to look liberal. They are fighting last years war. Screw that shit. My advice to the Democrats is: Get up you stupid bastards and fight! Or get out of the way.

Former Justice O"Connor speaks out agains t Republicans

Expert from an NPR report this morning:

In an unusually forceful and forthright speech, O’Connor said that attacks on the judiciary by some Republican leaders pose a direct threat to our constitutional freedoms. O’Connor began by conceding that courts do have the power to make presidents or the Congress or governors, as she put it “really, really angry.” But, she continued, if we don’t make them mad some of the time we probably aren’t doing our jobs as judges, and our effectiveness, she said, is premised on the notion that we won’t be subject to retaliation for our judicial acts. The nation’s founders wrote repeatedly, she said, that without an independent judiciary to protect individual rights from the other branches of government those rights and privileges would amount to nothing. But, said O’Connor, as the founding fathers knew statutes and constitutions don’t protect judicial independence, people do.

And then she took aim at former House GOP leader Tom DeLay. She didn’t name him, but she quoted his attacks on the courts at a meeting of the conservative Christian group Justice Sunday last year when DeLay took out after the courts for rulings on abortions, prayer and the Terri Schiavo case. This, said O’Connor, was after the federal courts had applied Congress’ onetime only statute about Schiavo as it was written. Not, said O’Connor, as the congressman might have wished it were written. This response to this flagrant display of judicial restraint, said O’Connor, her voice dripping with sarcasm, was that the congressman blasted the courts.

It gets worse, she said, noting that death threats against judges are increasing. It doesn’t help, she said, when a high-profile senator suggests there may be a connection between violence against judges and decisions that the senator disagrees with. She didn’t name him, but it was Texas senator John Cornyn who made that statement, after a Georgia judge was murdered in the courtroom and the family of a federal judge in Illinois murdered in the judge’s home. O’Connor observed that there have been a lot of suggestions lately for so-called judicial reforms, recommendations for the massive impeachment of judges, stripping the courts of jurisdiction and cutting judicial budgets to punish offending judges. Any of these might be debatable, she said, as long as they are not retaliation for decisions that political leaders disagree with.

I, said O’Connor, am against judicial reforms driven by nakedly partisan reasoning. Pointing to the experiences of developing countries and former communist countries where interference with an independent judiciary has allowed dictatorship to flourish, O’Connor said we must be ever-vigilant against those who would strongarm the judiciary into adopting their preferred policies. It takes a lot of degeneration before a country falls into dictatorship, she said, but we should avoid these ends by avoiding these beginnings.

Nina Totenberg, NPR News, Washington.

Battle at the Sink

 

King Henry V and his loyal knights banded together at the kitchen sink to fend off another assualt by the French. This time the french King Charles VI led his army against the English. But again Henry won the day. 

Review of Flightplan and 40year old Virgin

Flight Plan

Before I review this movie I have to review the DVD case. For a living I do retouching and color correction of images. So I am an EXPERT in what is good and bad retouching. On the bad side are the Oprah covers where they have literally painted every pixel of the big O so that she looks illustrated rather than photographed. Most magazine covers blow chunks with crappy non-real images. But I digress. The DVD cover image for Flight plan has Jody Foster looking like she did on the Courtship of Eddy's Father. She does not even appear to be human. And I have never seen an iris of any eye that is 98% cyan, 30% Magenta and no yellow. In the movie she looks haggard, stressed out, and old. The DVD cover looks silly.

Anyway the movie is mildly interesting and Jody Foster is always good even in lame movies. I am not sure what it is about Foster, and other actors of her like, that can punch through the utter crap that they are staring in to give good performances. I guess it is because they know what they are doing. Anyhow this movie gets a big fat 5.


40 year old virgin:

A one trick pony that I litterally gave up on. Though it could be because his appartment and mine looked a little too similar (action figure wise) It had funny bits here and there but the yuck factor overshadowed everything else and so I give it a solid 3.

Who came to the west coast of the US by the thousands in the mid 70's?

Refugees fleeing the collapsing nationalist government of Vietnam. So get ready for all the Iraqi's wanting asylum from the self-destructing nation of Iraq. Since the Samara boming, only 13days ago, 400 people have died and many more wounded. Refugees are just one more thing, in a long list of things, that we failed to expect. They are not here yet but they will be. Already 4,500 have fled the hottest areas in Bhagdad to Sadre City where they are being looked after by that pillar of sanity Moqtada Sadr (sarcasm). Sunni's are fleeing as well to safer climbs in Iraq. But if the situation deteriorates into a bloodier civil war then we should not expect Iraqis to simply sit at home and wait to die. They will leave. Some will go to Iran, some to Syria (The ones that want to kill Americans) The rest, who merely hate us, will come here and expect, with much justifiction, to be supported by the country that did such a lousy job defending them. Iraq is the big stink that just keeps on stining. So as the wallet of the taxpayer starts to close when the last troops leave Iraq it will be pried back open again to help support all the poor Iraqi's fleeing their dead homeland. Greaat Job Bush! You rock dude! To look for a unified message from Washington here is what you get:

US Ambassador to Iraq:

The US ambassador in Baghdad, Zalmay Khalilzad, interviewed by the Los Angeles Times, said that "the potential is there" for sectarian violence to become full-blown civil war in Iraq.
While he believed the country had pulled back from the brink, "if another incident [occurs], Iraq is really vulnerable to it at this time, in my judgment."
"We have opened the Pandora's box and the question is, what is the way forward?" Mr Khalilzad said.

General Pace:

said on Sunday that things in Iraq were going "very, very well, from everything you look at".

Lent 1

We are all on the road to Calvery. There is not a single human being that will not, in time, be taken and handed over to death. On this short little jaunt to our physical ruin we must act to better our world. There will be no end credits or large orchestral musical score to the end of our lives. It only matter what we do while we yet live. So today, in the spirit of Jesus who poored out his blood for our salvation, I did my part and poured out a pint to the American Red Cross. They were in dire need of it and I was only too happy to oblige. This does not mean that I hold myself up as an example. I am also a selfish pig, who has not fasted one bit. The truth is that the Red Cross asked me if I would donate and I said yes. It was only while reclinging on the bed, my blood flowing into a bag, that God woke me up to what I was doing and why. We only get a trifling few years to make the world a better, more peaceful, more just, and more spiritually awake place. God will take us to our work even if we don't realise what it is we are doing.

Rev. Phelps another great American...(not)

Here is a self described "old-time" gospel preacher who says, "You can't preach the Bible without preaching the hatred of God." He shows up at the funerals of GI's who got killed in Iraq with signs saying "God Hates Your Tears" or "Thank God for IEDs" The reason for this stupid behavior is that Phelps hates gay people and wants to show his hatred of gays by bashing soldiers who fight for a nation that accepts gay people. I really hope Rolling Thunder does a large storm all over Phelps shanty religion so that the rain come and the winds blow and his lousy house of nothing is completely destroyed along with his brood of vipers. However in the spirit of Christ I forgive him for he knows not what he does.

Henry at the table lamp

 

And so did the Warlike Henry meet the overlusty French at the table lamp and faught them there. Brining ruin upon their entire host, King Henry lost no time in securing the entire desk from the table lamp to the computer monitor. Yet worse fighting was yet to come.  

Poll Crunch Time! Insulated and damn proud of it!

Does the nation approve of W's job?

Approve: 40%
Disapprove: 55%
Duh..I..duno: 5%

There is a big price to be paid by politicians like W that allow their handlers to strictly control the kind of people they see. bush never sees a crowd that isn't 100% pro-Bush. He never gets to listen to people who think he is wrong. It looks like the only info he gets about people that do not like him or his policies is vetted and processed through his handlers in such a way as water it down. He seems so disconnected from the pulse of America as to be on a different planet. The hardcore cadre of Bushleaguers is shrinking by the day. Yet he still meanders on in the fog of "mandate" as if he had one to begin with. I think at some point in the future it is going to come out that he is off the wagon and really off the seat of power. He does not even seem to be President anymore. This would be fine with me but for the fact of all the misanthrops that surround him who wield enormous power like 3 year olds who found their dads 357.

Why conservatism is a mental disease

American conservatism is not so much a political philosophy as a neo-fascist religion, similar to Nazism. It is not based in any kind of empirical reality but in a set of apriori dogmas designed to scapegoat the all of the nations ills on a single set of people. Like the Nazis before them the modern American conservative blames, the liberal intelligency for all the nations ills. Unlike the liberal community that is always reevaluating itself and wrestling with moral and ethical dilemas, the conservative see no need to question him/her self. To question someone elses morals is the only requirment, never their own.
I am, of course, not really serious about the whole "mental disease" bit. That is hyperboli and a homage to MS. American neo-conservatism does not rise tø the level of a disease. It is an induced set of behaviors concocked by the elites that run the country to get a certain segment to vote their way at all times. The behavoir is continously reinforced by dozens of magazines, hundreds of radio stations, thousands of books, and most television networks.
Their dogma is perfect and the best a conservative can hope to accomplish is perfect adherence to the dogma. That is why, to those who do not live in la-la-land, conservatives never reallly are able to solve problems. They spew rage and self-righteous indignation aplenty but when push comes to shove they can't actually consumate. That is why all that is great about America is traced back to progressive politics, not conservative politics. The sad fact is that if the people of America, in 1776 had listened to the conservatives of their day, we would be sining God Save the Queen at football games and the damn ball would be black and white and round.
The modern American conservative expends most of his energy in adherence to dogma. He feels he has accomplished something since he sees adherence as a worthy goal. Where progressives see strengthening of nationhood through cooperative acction (government). The conservative is at a loss to understand why a nation should even exist. All he needs is a flag to wave and a drum to beat and the liberals to hate and he is fine. This is, the the enlightened human, perfectly obvious and desired by the power-elite. The powerful want a populace to give their rights away and freedom away, while "privatising" government; taking the power from the hands of the people and giving it to a very small oligarchy to control.
The modern conservative has a mental blockage that prevents them from appreciating the truth. They will watch FOX news and rail against the liberal media all the while watching a media empire that, in London, publishes full frontal nudity in its papers as a way to sell them. They will go bankrupt with healthcare bills, dutifully giving thousands of dollars a year to insurance companies, yet with bloody eyes rail against any attempt to put the control of our nations health into the hands of the people. What is worse is that they see themselves as perfect so that their actions, though anything but in the eyes of the reality based community, are perfect too. They are a sick lot and need a cure. They have been programmed and brainwashed to monkishly spout the latest radio induced diatribe and dogma at every problem, while beinig blind to the fact that their dogma is useless, unworkable, and based on lies.
While the liberal or progressive sees people as their country, the conservative has been brainwashed to see only himself. They cannot see beyond their own self or family. It is ironic that conservatives rail against liberals for being pleasure seaking hedonists. The truth is that the selfish people, who put their own desires and needs over anyone else are the conservatives. By being brainwashed into fearing cooperative action for the common good. They will cooperate to help remove freedom from the hands of the people, because they have been trained to do so.
Progressives have always faught to make this country better, while conservatives have always faught to keep things the same or move them back to some utopia that never existed. That is their mental disease. Unlike most organisms that strive to be the fittest to servive, they seek to retrograde, to devolve to a lower lifeform. The modern conservative movement is a movement to oblivion. I only wish they would hurry up and get back to the ooz and then maybe even back to carbon.

Along for the ride

Is it just me or is the US looking more like it is just along for the wild ride in Iraq? Our Ambassador, when lecturing the Iraqi's about the dangers of sectarian violence, sounds a bit odd since it was our intervention that has caused this mess to begin with. If he wants to lecture somebody about the dangers of stirring up sectarian violence he should start with the gang in the White House.
When I was a kid we took a trip to the beach and my brother and I were playing around in the sand when we noticed a bit of seaweed sticking up out of the sand. There was a tiny trickle of water aroundt the little weed. I pulled on the seaweed. Within a few minutes there was a gorge 5 feet deep with a torrent of rushing water. I had unwittingly openned the floodgate to a stuffed drain. There are so many life lessons that one can learn from childhood and then apply to your adult life. Such as when you see an iregularity in the sand, you might do well to leave it alone. When hiking in the the high desert of Oregon you would be stupid to stick your arm under every rock since you would probably get bitten by a rattle snake. Or if you are climbing Mount Everest you would be seen a fool to go up in only your long underwear and bunny slippers.
We went into Iraq with, depending on your point of view, with good intentions. However the road to hell is paved with many of those. It is a mark of how obtuse we rich fat people are that we thought we could make a happy land out of a dictatorship. General George Marshal would have really cautioned against getting our hopes up with Iraq. History is filled with failed attempts at nation building, the vast majority of such attempts colapse. Assemblies of millions of people are just too complex to make such affairs work out. The only reason it worked out with Germany and Japan was that both naitons had the gun of Soviet Russia pointed at their heads. They simply had no good alternative to us. Iraq has no such gun. On the contrary the population is given pause to trust us, and given reasons to believe in those who fight against us. Suni and Shiite have lots of reason to kill each other. Regligion is always a good reason to butcher your fellow humans. The land of Europe is filled with the bones of Catholics, Cathars, Franciscans, Calvinists, Lutherans, Baptists, and a whole host of other sects that cut each other to peices over religious differences. Us going into Iraq and trying to make a democracy is like us going into a time machine and trying to hammer out a democracy out of the insane Holy Roman Empire of the 15th century.

What does he think he is doing?

I am trying to be less partisan toward the current occupent of the White House but he is really making it hard for me not to think of him as a lame-assed dumbshit who cares more for his foreign terrorist-funding buddies than he does for his nation or the poor slobs he has bravely sent dies or get maimed in Iraq. As an American I am pretty sick of this SOB. Giving control to 6 of the nations largest ports to a company that is owned by the royal house of the United Arab Emirates is NUTS! But in Bushland this all makes sense. Since his family has been buddy buddy with the terrorist funders for years he really doesn't see much of a contradictioin. Bush makes it soooooooooooooo easy to be a Democrat. I was so pissed at Clinton for his lack of morals but at least he stuck up for his country most of the time. This little texas cow pie isn't worth the pennys his body would be worth if it were turned into fertalizer or, dare I say, Bio-diesel.

My Castle circa 1984

  

A great Mass

I just finished to listening to the Messe De'Notre Dame by Guillaume de Machaut 1300-1377. I do not like all medieval polyphony, it gets on my nerves, but there is something about the Messe De'Notre Dame that grabs me by my...well it grabs me... and doesn't let go until the end. It is a complex and difficult piece of music to listen to and unless you are willing to be patient and listen to it five or six times you will fail to appreciate all the levels of polyphonic, isorythmic detail. Machaut was not known as a religious composer so much as a composer of poetry and secular songs to punctuate the high art of courtly love. The music is large, complete, and done by one man. It gives you a window into the grand religious life of the 14th century. Probably performed at the new cathedral of Notre Dame of Rheims, this must have been shocker. There had never been anything like this before in the presentation of liturgical music. Machaut seems to have wanted to use the Mass itself as a kind of musical stage. Anyhow he rocks and the Messe D'Notre Dame is a great work that is like a very complex dish of food that takes time to enjoy.

Review of Crash and VP marksmanship

I want to really unload on a crappy movie and rip it to shreds but I cannot do this for this film. Crash is awsome and I highly recomend it. Superb all the way around. It paints a pretty complex picture of race relations and nobody comes out looking good, well almost nobody. It gets a 9.

Cheney's little incident:

Snickering, followed by giggling, followed by laughing, followed by a sense of pitty for such a bunch of pathetic turds occupying positions of power, followed by sense of impending doom because the turds on in power in my country.

"Why is Iraq war only getting bad press?" and other stupid questions

The answer is that IT IS A WAR! Wars are usually 100% bad news until the very end when the good news of peace comes about. So people that like to beat war drums and are all cranky about bad press should not be so clueless about the reality of a real war.

Here is a little ditty from Herman Goering doing an interview before he killed himself at Nuremberg:

"Why, of course, the people don't want war. Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece. Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship."

"There is one difference," I pointed out. "In a democracy the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the United States only Congress can declare wars."

"Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."

Brownie is giving wedgy to Bushy

Today the former director of FEMA, the infamous Mr. Brown, told a congressional subcommittee that he had actually told the White House to prepare for the worst two days prior to the disasterous hurricane Katrina. We also learn that the levy breaches were known the very day that they happened practically while they were happening. Ouch! I cannot blame Bush for the weatherm however if this is true then it really makes this lackluster and incompitent administration look even more lackluster and incompitent.

A long time ago I said that this administrations worst enemies are its former employees since it garners absolutely no loyalty. So Michael Brown is squealing on them and also we have Scooter Libby now saying that his "superiors" told him to leach classifeid info to the press. This of course leads into the POLL CRUNCH!!!!!! These numbers are before you add in the current revelations.

Approve: 41%
Disapprove: 53%
Duh I Duno: 6%

Still W is plugging along like he has a mandate for something other than resignation. Whats more is that the administration is going out of its way to appear pushy and tightlipped. Instead of Clintonian humility, even false humility, we have eitehr bravado, or stupifying silence. The administration seems paralyzed by the world situation and the domestic situation. Their warfare is only making matters worse at home and abroad and they have no idea how to either win the war, or even know what the war is really about. The mighty ship of SS Bush, its hull scrapping along the bottom, is slowly coming to an unglamorous stop to be buffeted by the waves of fate until it is beaten to pieces.

How to tolerate the intolerable

I cannot speak for people who are upset about the insulting cartoons of the prophet Mohammed peace be upon him. As a Christian I have seen all manner of views of Jesus from The Passion of the Christ to Monty Python's Life of Brian. And of course there is no good protrait. How can there be a good protrait of the Divine? God, exaulted his He, is not some bearded old foggy sitting on a cloud. But we are visual creatures so we like to give that which is without form a form for us to recognize. As there is no good form there is no bad form. All the good and righteousness that the prophet represents cannot be defamed by any silly cartoon. Just as all the good and righteousness that Jesus represents cannot be defamed by movies or books. If I let my absolute faith, and love, for God, exaulted his He, be hurt by books or angry words, then it is weak and needs to be strengthened for that which we believe in, both Muslim and Christian, is the rock eternal, the maker of all the is seen and unseen, and He cannot be assailed by anyone.

My new little Scion xA

 
 

Chemical Jihad

I am using the word Jihad in hopes of the Bush Administration reading my Blog.

The chemical Jihad I am referring to is the holy war against depression. Depression is the great satan, moo-hoo-ha-ha, and I will use any and all means, including underhanded chemical attacks, to fight it. Enter Fluoxetine, aka Prozac. This little guy goes into your synaptic connections and blocks the re-uptake of serotonin so that more of it can be transfered from one nero-transmitter to another. So how does it feel? Well it feels okay. It does not make you feel happy go-lucky, or stoned, or anything like that. All it seems to do, at least for me, is even out the ups and downs, particularly the downs. The problem with depressive illnesses is that they cut your abiliy to function. It is harder to concentrate, to remember stuff, and it becomes a self reinforcing problem that spirals downward. The chemical Jihadist is able to get back to normality while still dealing with the issues that bring about the depression. Prozac, for me, is not a substitute for counseling and other mental healthcare but is just another part of it.

Interesting Historical Mumbo Jumbo

In AD 874 king Burhred of Mercia abdicated in the face of overwhelming Danish raids into his kingdom. So he split to Rome where he lived out his life and finally was burried in the church of Sancta Maria Antiqua. I decided to find out more about this church, if it still existed etc.

It does not really exist as a functioning church anymore. It was built in the 5th Century near the Roman Forum and was the seat of the Bishop of Rome. It's ruins are part of the Forum tour today. It was buried under tons of rubble when the Forum was burned in 1084 when the Normans set fire to the city. In 1902 it was excavated and there are many 7th and 8th century frescos still on it's walls. There is still one sarcophagus present in the church. Maybe its king Burhred?

I find your lack of faith disturbing..Part MXCVLM

I am an American and a Christian. Every once in a while South Park has Jesus (peace be upon him) appear in a totally religiously incorrect episode. But I have never thought about launching a Crusade against Comedy Central. So I ask muslims to "give it a rest" as far as their overreaction to the whole mohammed cartoon deal. I think Mohammed (peace be upon him) is probably too cool to bother with such stuff. Both gentlemen are way beyond wasting their imortality on getting pissed at being profaned. As a Christian I would not insult a fellow believer even though he or she may not recognize Jesus (peace be upon him) as the Christ. However our faith should be strong enough to insight us to be conduits of mercy to our brothers and sisters dispite the insults.