Why Doesn’t CAIR Care?

Technorati Tags: CAIR,Islam,Afghani women,Iraqi gays

Well, Dear Gentle Reader(s), the Council on American-Islamic Relations hasn’t done it again…still…yet.

Over the past few days we learn that the Afghani government has signed a law reverting to the subjugation of women, and that in the Sadr City area of Baghdad six men have been shot to death because of their sexual orientation.

Not a word about these atrocities in the CAIR press releases listed on their web site today.

Yet CAIR insists that Islam is misunderstood or misrepresented. 

That may well be, but until moderate Muslims take strong stands against the Islamists who would return the followers of the religion to the 7th century, that misunderstanding will continue.  And since there is no evidence the stories have been fabricated, the religion can hardly be misrepresented.

Let’s have some strong condemnations of the misuse of your religion, gentlemen and gentlewomen.

And the rest of us, Trust, but verify.

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Centcom’s Side of the Story

Technorati Tags: Centcom,Iraq,Afghanistan War

The United States Central Command email today has 12 links to stories relating to Iraq and Afghanistan, ranging from the lingering troubles in Iraq to Afghani women making cultural progress.

Hie, thee, Dear Gentle Reader(s), to Centcom’s website, and earmark it, for the Army’s side of the discussion.

Trust, but verify.

 

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Are Cato’s tootsies cold?

Technorati Tags: Cato Institute,Global climate change,Oil

The Cato Institute, Dear Gentle Reader(s), has published an ad in many major newspapers which takes issue with President Obama’s November 19, 2008, statement, “Few challenges facing America and the world are more urgent than combating climate change. The science is beyond dispute and the facts are clear.”

Cato’s ad contains this response:

We, the undersigned scientists, maintain that the case for alarm regarding climate change is grossly overstated.  Surface temperature changes over the past century have been episodic and modest and there has been no net global warming for over a decade now.1,2 After controlling for population growth and property values, there has been no increase in damages from severe weather-related events.3 The computer models forecasting rapid temperature change abjectly fail to explain recent climate behavior.4 Mr. President, your characterization of the scientific facts regarding climate change and the degree of certainty informing the scientific debate is simply incorrect.*

115 names are appended to the statement in the full page ad.

The Cato Institute advertises itself as non-partisan, but there is a distinct right of center ambiance in its publications which should always give at least slight pause.

In particular, one wonders about the Institute’s position on oil.  How worried should we be?  A recent, 2007, paper on oil is entitled “Energy Alarmism: The Myths That Make Americans Worry about Oil.”

Let’s see.  1) Is the world’s oil reserve finite?  Yes.  There just aren’t enough dinosaurs to go around forever.  2) Is it more important for goods to be transported than for freeways to be clogged with oil burning individual automobiles?  Yes.  3)  In case of a state or national emergency, is it more important for us to have the ability to mobilize the national guard and the military than for us to be able to transport a little league baseball team in a private SUV?  Yes.

Perhaps our worry about oil is a bit alarmist, but we have good reason should we look beyond the immediate sport season.

The Cato Institute’s ad about the climate may be correct.  Too, it might not be.

Trust, but verify.

*1. Swanson, K.L., and A. A. Tsonis. Geophysical Research Letters, in press: DOI:10.1029/2008GL037022.
2. Brohan, P., et al. Journal of Geophysical Research, 2006: DOI: 10.1029/2005JD006548. Updates at http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/cru/data/temperature.
3. Pielke, R. A. Jr., et al. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 2005: DOI: 10.1175/BAMS-86-10-1481.
4. Douglass, D. H., et al. International Journal of Climatology, 2007: DOI: 10.1002/joc.1651.

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Still the silence deafens

Technorati Tags: CAIR,Islamists,Suicide Bombings,Religions

CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) is still silent on the issue of Muslim-on-Muslim killings.

On March 27, a young boy, sitting in the midst of Friday prayers, stood up, shouted “Allahu Akbar,” and blew himself up, killing at least 48 and virtually destroying the mosque.

A search of the CAIR website finds no mention of this atrocity.  There are press releases, but they concern themselves primarily with the events of 9/11.

Before CAIR can expect to be successful with convincing others that Islam is a religion of peace, it will have to take a leadership role in reforming the religion to strip Islamist extremists of the claim that Koranic verses allow, if not demand, killing in the name of the deity.

This blasphemy must be condemned, loudly and persistently.

It is to be hoped that CAIR will rise to the occasion.  Soon.  And be successful on both counts.

Trust, but verify.

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Quivering

Technorati Tags: Religions,Christianists,Islamists,Quiverfull Movement

Dear Gentle Reader(s), yesterday, NPR’s “Morning Edition” featured a story about the Quiverfull Movement, which calls for “Christian” women to have as many children as possible, for Jesus.

There’s a lengthy quote from a leader of the group; here’s a cut from the transcript available on line:

[Children who “spread the message of Christ is] also the hope of Nancy Campbell, a leader of the Quiverfull movement and author of Be Fruitful and Multiply.

"The womb is such a powerful weapon; it's a weapon against the enemy," Campbell says.

Campbell has 35 grandchildren. She and her husband stopped at six kids, and it is her great regret.

"I think, help! Imagine if we had had more of these children!" Campbell says, adding, "My greatest impact is through my children. The more children I have, the more ability I have to impact the world for God."

A Christian God, that is. Campbell says if believers don't starting reproducing in large numbers, biblical Christianity will lose its voice.

"We look across the Islamic world and we see that they are outnumbering us in their family size, and they are in many places and many countries taking over those nations, without a jihad, just by multiplication," Campbell says.

The evangelical movement’s sect, one is to believe, is in a breeding contest with members of another religion?  That’s scary.

One wonders if these good people, and the good breeders of Islam, have no recollection of Nazi Germany in the 1930s and their plan to breed a master race.

Hard to trust, easy to verify.

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Professional Gamblers? One hopes not.

NPR,Wall Street Journal,Morning Edition,Gamblers

Caution, Dear Gentle Reader(s), is in order.  The following is based on something thought to have been heard on NPR’s “Morning Edition” last week, but a search of the NPR web site, proved futile.

The quote, spoken, possibly, by a representative of a Wall Street Journal’s blog, went something like this—referring to AIG personnel who made those bad decisions—“They’re professional gamblers who…”

And that’s the problem.  Professional gamblers?  Doesn’t the image of a professional gambler include the distinct inevitability of a loser?  In a professional gambling situation, someone has to lose.  Is this the mindset we want to have when discussing mortgages?  If business journalists think this way, when did that happen? 

Aren’t mortgages supposedly intended to end up in a win-win situation?  The lender gets interest on an investment; the mortgagee receives, eventually, clear title to a house.

If the professional gambler metaphor is the guiding principal behind the A.I.G. boondoggle, then, of course, we’ve been snookered.  If those persons now facing eviction were supposed to “lose” to the “professional gamblers,” then we’ve been engaging in a fixed game.  How could the mortgagee have won?  These guys were dealing from the bottom of the deck and had aces up their sleeves.

There should be a concerted effort to watch our language.

Words have meaning and consequences. 

We shouldn’t have to worry when we walk into a bank that those professional gamblers are going to make certain they win the game.  We should only be concerned with trust and mutual benefit.

All this time we thought we were entering into business transactions. 

Instead we’ve been playing poker and told the rules after the pot was taken.

Trust but verify.

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…by any other name…

Technorati Tags: Blackwater,Xe,NPR

NPR’s Morning Edition just reported that Blackwater, of Iraqi war fame, has changed its name to Xe.

Do they think that changing the name will clear their reputation? 

Probably.

Look for it.  Don’t let them get away with it.

Trust, but verify.

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