I would like to report the following news to you, my dear readers, using the new protocol suggested by our government in referring to terror groups. That is, to avoid referring to al-Qaida and other terrorist groups as Islamic or Muslim, and not to use terms like jihad or mujaheddin. Basically, we should avoid using terms that we in the West consider to have negative connotations when they, the , consider those terms in a positive light.

EXCLUSIVE-Gaza headmaster was "rocket-maker"

By day, Awad al-Qiq was a respected science teacher and headmaster at a United Nations school in the Gaza Strip. By night, say, he built rockets for .

The Israeli air strike that killed the 33-year-old last week also laid bare his apparent double life and embarrassed a U.N. agency which has long had to rebuff Israeli accusations that it has aided and abetted fighting the Jewish state.

In interviews with Reuters, students and colleagues, as well as U.N. officials, denied any knowledge of Qiq's work with explosives. And his family denied he had any links at all, despite a profusion of posters at his home.

But leaders allied to the enclave's ruling Hamas group hailed him as a who led "engineering unit" -- its bomb makers. They fired a salvo of improvised rockets into Israel in response to his death.
...
Qiq's body was wrapped in an flag at his funeral, pictorial posters in his honour still bedeck his family home this week, and a handwritten notice posted on the metal gate at the entrance to the school declared that Qiq, "the chief leader of the engineering unit", would now find "paradise".
...
Qiq's sister said his wife and five children were worried by the lack of news on any pension payment: "Awad did a lot for UNRWA," she said. "The family hoped UNRWA would support them."

So it seems Israel was not far off all these years when they complained that that militants use UNRWA vehicles and facilities in its attacks against Israel. Who knew? Now the UN can't deny it. What's instructive is that this mild-mannered, model citizen was in fact a . As I've always said, we can't tell the from the moderate, peaceful Muslim and we shouldn't have to. If we don't deport them all now and keep out all new ones then one day we will be faced with a very, very horrible alternative.

[A tip of the turban to Infidels are Cool]

Although I enjoyed Failure to Launch (2006), I disagreed with the premise of the movie that there is something wrong with a thirty-something child who does not want to leave home. Children Should live with parents until they die. That's right; until they (the parents) die.

The trouble with American kids and here I speak of 20 and 30 year olds, is that the moment they graduate high school, get a job, or meet their 'true love,' they want to flee the nest. On this forum the question was asked, "What is the average age to move out?" and 66% responded with 20 years old or less with many posters suggesting that even 17 or 18 is a good age to leave home.

Annotico Report, 7 Oct 2007, Italy's Mamma's Boys Given Cash to Fly Nest

"Let's get these big babies out of the house," said Mr Padoa-Schioppa, who left home himself at the age of 19 to work in Germany.

"If young people stay with their parents, they do not get married or have any independence," he added.

Italian men make up the bulk of those staying at home, at around 67 per cent, and a mocking phrase has even been coined to describe them: "Mammoni" or "Big Mummy's boys".

Next year's budget will offer almost £700 [~$1400] in tax relief to Italians under 30 earning less than £10,500 [~$21,000] a year, and half that to those earning more.

In addition, the government will pay 19 per cent towards the cost of renting accommodation for university students if they study at least 65 miles away from their home.

Here is how it looks in Europe [Source: Datamonitor]:
Percentage of 18-24 year olds still living at home

• Italy 95%


• Spain 94%


• Germany 60%


• UK 57%


• France 57%


• Sweden 46%

I have two sons, two daughters-in-law, and two grandchildren living with my wife and me. My younger son had left a few years ago after he got married but after blowing $55,000 on rent, utilities, and food in two years he realized that it would take many years before he could save up to buy a decent home so he moved back in last year.

Three families can live cheaper than one. Think about it. Taxes on one large lot with a three family home are cheaper than for three separate one-family homes. Less food is wasted, certainly nothing is left long enough in the fridge to go bad. I pay the mortgage so my boys can save for their future. My housing costs are a lot less than three separate bills would have been for rent and utilities.

We all have cellphones but if we lived apart we each would have needed one land-line for emergencies or for billing purposes for DirecTV. Now we only need one. As for satellite TV, each additional DirecTV connection only costs $5.00. We have 8 DTRs and subscribe to the highest package you can possibly get and it still costs less than if we had 3 separate DirecTV accounts. Each grandchild has her own DTR or recorder so they can tape (that's an old word, no?) their favorite Hannah Montana shows without bothering mom or dad.

From May to September all of us enjoy a 28 foot in-ground pool in the backyard. It costs me the same amount of money to fill and heat the water whether I live alone or with my boys.

We have a 10 TB media server with 1500 movies, thousands of recorded TV shows, videos, photos, etc. that would have been three times more expensive if we had to triplicate it. When we buy a Blu-ray disc we save a copy to the media server and store the disc for safekeeping. We share the cost of buying among us. Even when we rent a movie, there is anywhere from 1 to 3 families watching it.

None of my boys have any debt. With 6 adults we get by quite easily with 4 cars. Normally each family would have needed 2 cars for work, shopping, etc. Five of us work, but with car-pooling we get by with 3 cars and always have one extra as a spare. If we all want to eat out at the same place out of town, 2 cars are enough for the eight of us. Had we lived separately in different cities we would have met up at the appointed restaurant with three cars.

We could get by with one washer and dryer but we have 2 of each just in case. Again, if we lived separately there would have been 3 sets of washer/dryers.

We only need one vacuum cleaner, one set of tools such as a hammer, screwdriver, drill set. The three families share two refrigerators and when Costco has a sale on 5 pounds of grapes I don't have to worry that they'll spoil before they can all be eaten.

If my son and daughter-in-law want to go see a movie or dine out alone, there is no need to find a baby-sitter, grandma and pop-pop are there. Arrangements can always be made. If the grandparents are retired there is no need for daycare.

The immigrant families that live in my neighborhood are a lot smarter than the average native-born American: they tend to live with three generations in a household, grandparents, parents and grandchildren. They save their money, work together in a business, pool their energies, husband their resources, and succeed in America better than the average non-immigrant.

I know that for many young Americans there is a stigma attached to being a momma's boy, but my boys laugh at that notion all the way to the bank. I cannot tell you how many times whenever we have a party over at the house that my sons' friends come up to me and ask if I can "adopt" them.

It is not just my sons who enjoy more of the finer things in life, the fact is it applies to all those who live with their parents; let me give you for example, the study of college kids who live with their parents [Harris Interactive]:

In every instance, college kids who live with their parents have more TVs, computers, DVD players, games consoles and so on than their fellow students. In addition, students who stay at home spend thousands less on non-educational expenses [Statistics Canada]: "Not surprisingly, living with parents or guardians while attending school had a big impact on non-educational expenditures at all levels of education. The average full-time university student living with their parents spent $4,400 on non-educational items compared to just over $8,160 for those who did not live with their parents. Median costs for full-time college students living at home were $3,700 compared to $8,100 for those living away from home."

As for Europe, although young people there generally stay home more than their counterparts here in America, economic troubles in the past few years have caused more of them to say home even longer:

BBC News, 12 Mar 2003, Young 'cannot afford to leave home'

The rising costs of housing and further education together with a reduction in state support is making it increasingly hard for people in the 18-24 age group to strike out on their own.

The research, by independent market analyst Datamonitor, found that 67% of 18-24 year olds across Europe still relied on their parents for housing last year.

There is also an increasing likelihood that young people in Northern Europe return home having left, a phenomenon described as 'boomeranging'.

Here's a snapshot for the US of 1990: Age is the strongest predictor of leaving home. According to the U.S. Bureau of Census, 74% of 18-19 year olds in 1990 lived with parents, compared to 40% at ages 20-24 and 16% at ages 25-29.

By 2000, the figures barely changed. If there is a perception that more young adults live with their parents now than ever before, it is inaccurate, for more detail read Po Bronson, Failure to Launch -- or Failure to Respect the Facts?

Another predictor other than age in the US of how long an adult child will live with his parents is geographic; of U.S. 18-34-Year-Olds Living with Parents (2006): 35% live in the Northeast, 27% in the Midwest, 25.5% in the South, and 24.5% in the West.

I know I have not mentioned the cons, some parents can find the dress and living habits of their children intolerable. Adult children may bristle under some fuddy-duddy "rules" their parents may want them to adhere to. But if parents want to avoid the empty-nest syndrome and want their married children to stay home they must make accommodations; parents cannot treat their married children as if they were infants. The new son- or daughter-in-law will have a greater influence on their children than the parents used to and this must be accepted.

Living with anyone is difficult. The high divorce rates and the number of children living in broken homes is staggering. This is not the way for a society to flourish. There is obviously something wrong. Living in a larger family setting may help with finances and offer more free time for the just starting husband and wife. Certainly issues of money, careers, and sexual problems contribute to divorce. Living in a big home, women can more easily raise a child and still pursue a career. Having grandparents to help with the kids can give parents more free time for themselves.

Grandparents, instead of having useless lives with nothing to do can now have fun with their grand-kids instead of seeing them on two or three holidays a year. Once or twice a week my granddaughter comes to our bedroom to sleep with us. We watch her favorite Disney films until she falls asleep. The time this gives her parents to be alone is precious beyond measurement. Perhaps it's not so surprising that parents burn out, what with each having a job and trying to take care of home and child and no free time to snuggle and be with each other alone.

On weekends, I take the grand kids to the park or my wife will take them shopping. I know there are parents out there who would love to be able to enjoy a weekend afternoon doing absolutely nothing but relaxing or taking an afternoon nap. Say it. You want it.

Grandparents can enjoy shopping again. Last year I saw an old woman buying a small package of Corn Flakes and noted that the larger package would give her twice as much cereal for only a few pennies more. When I suggested this to her, she told me that it's wasteful to buy the larger version since she could hardly finish the size box she was buying before it goes stale.

You can tell who lives alone by observing the checkout at your supermarket. The single pork chop, the smallest container of milk, the half-loaf of bread. An entire life tallied on a shopping receipt.

Both of my sons are the most fierce, independent-minded individuals you will ever meet. But living with their parents does not mean they are dependent, helpless, vulnerable human beings. Some of the most fierce, independent-minded individuals who ever existed lived with their sons, daughters, nieces, nephews, cousins, uncles, aunts, parents, altogether in caves or tents or treetops. They shared resources, pooled their hunting, took mutual care of their young. That group grew and prospered until they took dominion over the Earth.

We've come a long way as a species, but in some regard we have lost family. Perhaps one day it will be a stigma to live away from family.

Related:
Causes of Divorce:

DivorceForm.org, What are the most common Causes of Divorce?

Time, sex, money biggest obstacles for young married Couples

A recent study by the Creighton University Center for Marriage and Family suggests that time, sex and money pose the three biggest obstacles to satisfaction in the lives of newly married couples. The study found that debt brought into marriage, the couples' financial situation, balancing job and family, and frequency of sexual relations were of greatest concern to those ages 29 and under. Those age 30 and over shared with their younger cohorts the concerns of balancing job and family and frequency of sexual relations, but also added as problem areas constant bickering and expectations about household tasks.

New grads find home is sweet, Excerpt: "63 percent of U.S. college students said they planned to live at home, according to an online poll by MonsterTRAK.com, a job search company."

Living with your grown children can also help keep grandparents married to each other:

About.com, The Empty Nest Syndrome in Your Marriage

The sad news is that there has been a steady increase in the number of divorces among couples married 30 or more years. Many long-term married couples divorce one another after the kids leave home.

They realize too late that their children kept them together. Other couples divorce during the empty nest years because they can't handle the health issues and the sense of an uncertain future along with being overwhelmed by too much togetherness.

The year was 1951 and I was only a few months past my 6th birthday when I fell in love with Disney's animated feature Alice in Wonderland. The previous year I had seen my first Disney film, Cinderella, and I thought that was the best thing I had ever seen in my 6 years of life, but now this Alice - this was mesmerizing.

The lunacy of Wonderland was intoxicating with characters and scenes popping up here and there with no sense or reason; I shivered as Alice struggled through the menacing forest; I couldn't take my ears off the mentholated purring of the Cheshire Cat; I strained to decipher the gibble-gabble of the Mad Hatter and his friends; I was a thrall to my seat throughout the film.

If you recall, the Queen summons the March Hare, the Mad Hatter and the Dormouse as witnesses against Alice and they end up holding an absurd, unbirthday party for her.

So now, whenever the UN demands, "Off with her head," in regard to Israel, no matter who's at fault, I am reminded of Alice in Wonderland.

The UN Human Rights Council was established on 15 Mar 2006. By April of 2007 the Council had passed nine resolutions condemning Israel and had been the only country the UN Human Rights Council had specifically condemned [Wiki].

Come on now, just on a practical level, more people die in Darfur in one month than Palestinians in the entire 8 years past, yet the Sudan, a country with egregious human rights abuses gets a pass from the Council with only an expressed "deep concern." Does that make any sense at all?

And it's not just the Sudan that is ignored by the HRC:

Washington Post, 25 Jun 2007, A Shadow on the Human Rights Movement

... the council chose to establish one permanent and special agenda item: the "human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories." In other words, Israel (or "Palestine," in the council's terminology), alone among the nations of the world, will be subjected to continual and open-ended examination. That's in keeping with the record of the council's first year: Eleven resolutions were directed at the Jewish state. None criticized any other government.

Genocide in Sudan, child slavery and religious persecution in China, mass repression in Zimbabwe and Burma, state-sponsored murder in Syria and Russia -- and, for that matter, suicide bombings by Arab terrorist movements -- will not receive systematic attention from the world body charged with monitoring human rights. That is reserved only for Israel, a democratic country that has been guilty of human rights violations but also has been under sustained assault from terrorists and governments openly committed to its extinction.

Remarkably, Irwin Cotler, Canada's former Minister of Justice was similarly reminded of Alice in regard to the HRC:

Israpundit, Cotler attacks the United Nations

In one week, at a meeting of the Human Rights Council, it did the following; it replaced John Duggard, who is the special rappatuer for Israel human rights violations in the occupied territories. I am not saying that the UN shouldn’t investigate human rights violations in the occupied territories. I am saying that the mandate is only to look into violations by Israel in the occupied territories. At the same time there is a special permanent UN Agenda item called Human Rights Violations by Israel in the occupied territories, and another one for the rest of the world.

In other words only one country is singled out for an Alice in Wonderland condemnation before the hearing takes place, under the auspices of the UN. The special rappatuer, John Duggard, who likened Israel to an apartheid state. You may not appreciate the seriousness of likening Israel to an apartheid state, is the cognoscenti of the UN and you should know that these meetings are attended by all kinds of people who are all exposed to this denunciation. In the lexicon of the International Criminal Court Treaty, an apartheid state is a criminal state that warrants being dismantled. All those who support that state are also seen to be complicit in the commission of a crime against humanity.

Is there any country worse than Israel? Not to the UNHRC. The March Hare, the Mad Hatter and the Dormouse are now running the Human Rights Council. Perhaps it's time to host an unbirthday party for the United nations?

Cross-posted at Stop Raping Israel and Reject the UN and Jihadi Du Jour

Two years ago I noted that hundreds of blogs and websites mistakenly offer up the statistic that there are 10 or 11 Muslim Nobel Prize Laureates. Excluding the Nobel Peace Prize which does not reward intellectual achievement (after all, Yasser Arafat got one) I wrote that there were only three Muslims (out of 1.5 billion) who have won Nobel Prizes in Science or Literature: Naguib Mahfouz, Abdus Salam, and Ahmed Zewail.

Seven months after I wrote that article I should have updated the total to 4. So please add Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk, who won the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature. Pamuk, it should be mentioned, is hardly a Muslim having been brought up in a secular, westernized family. He is what I call a MINO, a Muslim in Name only.

If you're wondering about the strikes-out, Zewail recalls what happened to a fellow Egyptian Nobel Laureate, Naguib Mahfouz, who got himself stabbed in the neck with a kitchen knife by Egyptian Islamic militants, so Zawail knows to keep his name off a fatwa by not saying bad things about Islam.

Readers who read my article at the top of the fold know that Ahmed Hassan Zewail is an Egyptian American chemist, and the winner of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his pioneering work in femtochemistry. The operative word here is American.

Femtochemistry, in case you skipped your post doctorate at the University of California, Berkeley, is the study of chemical reactions across femtoseconds. That clear it up for you? Let me get to the politics here: I have no doubt that Arabs would have as many Nobel Prizes as Jews if only they were freed from the grip of Islam. Zewail, rather than an example of how Muslims can achieve scientific success is actually the opposite lesson.

Zewail succeeded in spite of being Muslim.

As I noted in How Many Muslims have won Nobel Prizes, anyway?:

So it becomes a bit clearer why most Muslims are so backward. It's their religion. As I've said all along, Islam keeps its subjects as backward as the religion itself. If Muslims in America seem educated, it is because Islam has less an influence on their lives than in Muslim countries. None of the Muslims who were Nobel Laureates lived under the stultifying cloud of Islam, except for the dead terrorist Yasser Arafat.

Bio:

• Ahmed Hassan Zewail was born on 26 Feb 1946 in Damanhur, Egypt. He has a wife, Dema and two daughters (Maha and Amani) and two sons (Nabeel and Hani).


• He graduated from the University of Alexandria (BS 1967, MS 1969) and University of Pennsylvania (PhD 1974).


• Wolf Prize in Chemistry 1993


• Guggenheim Fellowship 1987


• Naturalized US Citizen 1982


• American Physical Society 1982


• National Academy of Sciences 1989


• Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society 1992


• American Academy of Arts and Sciences 1993


• American Philosophical Society


• Egypt's highest state honour, the Grand Collar of the Nile 1999


• Cambridge University Honorary Doctorate in Science 2006


• Member of Pontifical Academy of Sciences



• ArabianBusiness, Power 100, The World's Most Influential Arabs, Rank List 2007

  56# Ahmed Hassan Zewail
  ...
  This key work has enabled scientists to analyse transition states in selected chemical reactions, as the technique allows the description of reactions on very short time scales.

  He received his first degree from the University of Alexandria, before moving from Egypt to the United States to complete his PhD at the University of Pennsylvania.

  After post doctorate work at the University of California, Berkeley, he was awarded a faculty appointment at Caltech in 1976, where he has remained ever since.

  He became a naturalised citizen of the United States in 1982, and in 1990, he was made the first Linus Pauling Chair in Chemical Physics.

  In 1999, Zewail became the third ethnic Egyptian to receive the Nobel Prize, following in the footsteps of Egyptians Anwar Sadat and Naguib Mahfouz.



• One of the original editors of the Encyclopedia of Analytical Chemistry



• Caltech Media Relations, Zewail wins Nobel Prize

  His international awards include the Welch Prize, King Faisal Prize, the Wolf Prize, the Carl Zeiss Award, the Leonardo da Vinci Award of Excellence, the Bonner Chemiepreis Award, and the Medal of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.

  Among his national prizes are many from the American Chemical Society, including the Harrison-Howe Award, the Peter Debye Award, the E. Bright Wilson Award, and the Buck-Whitney Award. The American Physical Society has honored Dr. Zewail with the Earle K. Plyler Prize and the Herbert P. Broida Prize. He has also received the Chemical Sciences Award from the National Academy of Sciences. In 1995, the president of Egypt, H. Mubarak, honored Dr. Zewail with the Order of Merit, First Class.T

As I said, a most busy scientist. Ahmed Zawail has an excellent Website.

Suppose we lived in a world where there was a religion that required the faithful to carry an AK-47 in public similar to the Sikh wearing of daggers (known as kirpans); would we bend over backwards to accommodate that religion even at the peril of our lives? It happens with Islam. The weapon: a mask to thwart identification and evade capture. In Islam the masks are called niqab and burqa.

Yesterday, the Gateway Pundit told us that Burka-Clad Bank Robbers Killed a Policeman in Philadelphia. We so cower before Muslim intimidation that we allow women, or it could be men, to cover themselves from head to toe in disguise.

Truth be told, it would be safer to allow AK-47s to be openly carried but ban the wearing of burqas. Here's why: If we ban the burqa but allow weapons then at least we have some warning that a person is entering the bank with a weapon and we have the advantage of being able to identify the culprits and cut short their bank robbing careers. If we ban weapons but allow Burqas then the robbers can conceal their weapons and their identity. Allowing burqas in public then is the same as allowing AK-47s and masks to be warn in public and how stupid is that? It should be noted that the police officer killed in the lead story was shot with a military assault rifle. Wonder how they hid that before they entered the bank?

This isn't the first time: Another Use for the Multi-Purpose Burqa, Missed a Bank Robber by 20 Minutes, Police seek burqa-wearing bank robber, Probe after second burka robbery, and so many more it's pointless to list.

Almost 16 months back Daniel Pipes chronicled dozens and dozens of criminal incidents involving Muslim garb in The Niqab and Burqa as Security Threats: the niqab and burqa should both be banned on security grounds, "as one cannot have faceless persons walking the streets, driving cars, or otherwise entering public spaces."

Burka Bandit Robs Bank
Officials aren't sure whether they are looking for a man or woman after a bank robbery.
Source: WSOC
October 19, 2007

As much as I want to see a ban on the wearing of a burqa in public there is one exception which we should allow, I am not, after all, a completely heartless person:

Photo: the only exception to ban on wearing burqa

I too, have taken up that habit and notwithstanding the attempt at humor in the photo above, I just finished for the third time in my life the Tales from 1001 Arabian Nights, which type of reading is perfect for the toilet since there are many chapters and each are unrelated to the others so that one can finish off a story rather quickly. Novels are not suitable for the purpose since you might sit too long trying to finish the book. Hemorrhoids are nature's way of telling you that you're squatting too long.

What do you read while taking care of business?

Related:
My readers may recall when Newsweek ran a fabricated story that an American guard at the Guantanamo Bay detention center ripped pages from a prisoner's Koran and flushed it down a toilet and Muslims got all bent out of shape world-wide. But the world and Newsweek didn't get excited back in 2002 when Palestinians used the Bible as toilet paper:

WND, 18 May 2005, FLUSH TO JUDGMENT

Catholic priests in the church marking the spot where Jesus was believed to have been born said that during the five-week siege, Palestinians tore up some Bibles for toilet paper and removed many valuable sacramental objects, according to a May 15, 2002, report by the Washington Times.

Meanwhile, insulting Islam will land you in the slammer in Europe.

The Conservative Voice, 23 Feb 2006,
German Who Created Koran Toilet Paper Convicted

A German citizen was convicted of insulting the Islamic holy book by printing the word "Koran" repeatedly along toilet paper. The man ended up with a suspended sentence of one year in prison and was ordered to perform 300 hours of community service.

I have explained previously in Why Dogs Bite their owners and this falls into that category. Why do owners humiliate their pets so?

My daughter-in-law, being a rather insecure person who didn't get the proper amount of love from her mother, had to go out and buy 2 of these yapping beasts from a puppy mill at a cost of about $1500 each. There was no explaining to her that it is immoral to go out and buy a dog when there are tens of millions of dogs in the US abandoned each year, aside from the stupidity of paying more than 50 bucks for a dog. She was also made aware that most of the puppy mills in this country produce animals that have genetic defects and health problems because they are raised in filthy cages, are infested with all kinds of diseases, and are heavily inbred. So what happens to people who do not listen to my warnings? Two years after she bought the little pest, the poor puppy had a back-problem which the veterinarian blamed on a genetic defect that left her paralyzed in her back legs even after a $5,000 operation.

I have to tell you, five grand for a dog that's going to end up paralyzed anyway is just too steep for me, sorry. Now it happens I can afford to pay $50,000 to have my toenail polished if I wanted, but I would never ever consider paying more for an operation than I paid for the dog.

My daughter-in-law could have paid off some of her credit card bills but instead put herself and my son further into debt. And to what end? The dog has no decent life, has to have its urine squeezed out manually, cannot poop normally, and can only walk on two legs. She's considering putting the dog down for mercy sake.

The story doesn't end there. What's worse is that she hasn't learned her lesson, and has informed us that she'll buy another dog soon after this one is gone. I know what you are thinking - she has a right to get whatever she wants, it's her money and her life.

I'm not disputing that. People have a right to stick pencils deep into their ear to scrape the wax out, but that does not mean I shouldn't warn members of my family who may not realize that what they are doing is not good for them.

Here, under great danger to myself, I have collected 13 secret Muslim slogans imprinted on Islamic tee-shirts that dirty kaffirs like you and me never see.

1
Hijab is Our Right
and Our Men will
Kill us to defend
that right

3
Dear Daughter:
See it from my point of view
- or Die!

4
Join al Qaeda
Travel the World
Meet Interesting People
and Kill Them

5
The Hijab
Helping ugly women get laid since 642 A.D.

6
Death to Those who call us violent!

7
Brains aren't everything

8
Welcome to Islam
1400 Years of History
Unimpeded by Progress

9
If life serves you lemons
make improvised lemon explosives.

10
If at First you Don't Succeed
Blame the Jews

11
Welcome to Saudi Arabia
Set Your Watch Back 1400 years.

12
Allah grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can, and
the wisdom to hide the bodies of those who have dishonored me.

Photo Muslim in love

13
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Clicking on the button above will open a list of others with Thursday 13 posts today. The purpose of the meme is to get to know other Thursday 13 contributors. Visit them and leave a link to your Thursday 13 post either in a trackback or comment. I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted.

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13 Stupid Warning Labels by I'm A Drama Mama
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Becky over at Just a Girl in short shorts talking about whatever was only half-right about the Hannah Montana/Vanity Fair pics:

With the Iraq War dragging on forever, the economy in the tank, record high oil company profits—how do people have the energy to get outraged over an artsy fartsy Vanity Fair portrait of the bare back of a popular tween, or a prom invitation scrawled on the bare butts of some high school lacrosse players?

Becky's right that there are more important things to worry about than teen photos and moonings. However, the Iraq War is not a war, it's an occupation much like the half-century occupation of Germany and Japan where we still have more troops than in Iraq. It's not really a war because we lost more troops during Clinton's peace years than all the time we've been in Iraq. A little perspective please.

The Mortgage crisis? It's the fault of government interference in our economy, and is a minor concern but we're talking about 1 or 2 million homes going into default out of more than a hundred million. Not really a catastrophe unless you are the idiot bank who gave a loan to people who could not pay it back on a house worth less than the loan and all because of ACORN and the bleeding heart promise of ending discrimination. Notwithstanding all that more people own homes, even after discounting defaults and foreclosures, than ever in our history so pardon me while I don't cry over our "recession."

As for record high oil company profits, the millions of people whose pensions are invested in these oil companies will now do well in their retirement thank you very much, or shouldn't we be concerned with retirees? High fuel prices? This is what Americans want. We buy SUV's, we don't cut back on traveling, we want everything delivered to our door, we don't want nuclear power plants, we don't demand fuel efficient cars from Detroit, we don't want oil drilling in America. We got what we asked for.

Otherwise I agree with Becky, let kids be kids.

When you are wrong, the best thing to do is not flaunt it, but the Rev. Jeremiah Wright defiantly defended his outrageous views which has been seen repeatedly on TV and in the blogosphere the past few days. But his Unyielding and remorseless defense was not outrageous enough, he had to add insult to injury:

ABC News,
Obama Rejects Wright, Repudiates 'Outrageous' Behavior

Wright vigorously defended himself against accusations he is unpatriotic, but in Washington he went on to compare U.S. troops to the Roman legions that killed Christ, to praise Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, and to suggest that the AIDS epidemic was a racist plot.

"When he states and then amplifies such ridiculous propositions such as the U.S. government somehow being involved in AIDS; when he suggests that Minister Farrakahn somehow represents one of the greatest voices of the 20th and 21st century; when he equates the U.S. wartime efforts with terrorism, then there are no excuses. They offend me, they rightly offend all Americans and they should be denounced," Obama said.

Related:

Reverse_Vampyr,
The wheels on the bus go "thump thump thump" over Rev. Wright.

This whole situation with Rev. Wright is an inadvertent glimpse at Obama's judge of character. If Wright is the kind of friend and confidant that Barack has embraced for the past two decades, one can only imagine an Obama cabinet would look like.

Suppose Muslims buy Rite-Aid, will all medicines that contain alcohol be banned?

Suppose Muslims buy up the only Driving School in your town and deny lessons to females since women are not allowed to drive cars? How will the women get to the nearest town that does not have a Muslim-owned driving school, drive?

Consider what happened to Marcus and Denise Beasley: (a tip of the turban to Kathy at Five Feet of Fury)

NewsBusters,
2007,
Muslim Banking in America

... a black couple in Baltimore ... had contracted with the Church's Chicken restaurant chain to open a new outlet in Baltimore. Unfortunately for the entrepreneurial couple, as they were investing in their chicken outlet, Church's Chicken was purchased by Crescent Capital Investments Inc., the US affiliate of the Bahrain-based First Islamic Investment Bank BSC. And, upon the restaurant chain's purchase, these new Islamic corporate owners decided to institute Shari'ah laws upon their investments.

This caught the Beasleys new restaurant in a tough spot because pork products were on the morning breakfast menu for the Church's Chicken chain. Because Shari'ah law principles had been imposed on the Beasleys' new restaurant, they would be barred from serving their breakfast menu items, their corporate owners informed them. This barring from being able to serve their breakfast items, the couple maintains, contributed to the restaurant's failure and their eventual bankruptcy.
...
The real issue is that a Muslim owned investment banking concern unfairly instituted Shari'ah laws on its American borrowers without due consideration. I should point out here, that I am on record as saying that Shari’ah based investing in the U.S. is not necessarily a bad thing. As long as the lender and borrower both agree to the terms of Shari'ah based investing and money lending, then what is the harm? If this new style of lending and banking operates in accordance with the religious tenets of both parties and both parties are in full agreement, we have no need to become alarmed. But, when an investment bank that takes possession of American companies begins to impose Shari'ah laws on its American customers, then we have a major problem.

Although the author above discounts any racism in the case, Debbie Schlussel offers some background on Arcapita and on the normal Muslim dislike of blacks in Racist Sharia Bankrupts Black Maryland Couple, Shuts Down Their Restaurant. Taking into account that the Beasleys started the process before the buyout, it could very well be that if the couple were white, Arcapita might not have enforced its Shariah rules; but since they were only dumb kaffirs the bank figured they could get away with it. I wouldn't be so quick as to discount the race angle especially when it concerns Muslims who are the largest owners of black slaves in the world.

Other places where Muslims plan on taking over the world (using the name "Texas Chicken" since Church is a dirty word):
Russia-

Moscow News Weekly,
31 May 2007,
Fast Food Giant Enters Russia

Church's Chicken, the American fried-chicken restaurant chain, is going to open up to 30 restaurants over the next three years in Russia.

The first restaurant is scheduled to open in Moscow in August, while a second one will open in St. Petersburg in September, Zack Kollias, Church's vice president for international development, told journalists....

Founded 52 years ago, Church's Chicken changed hands several times and was bought in 2004 by Bahrain based Arcapita Bank BSC.

Since Arcapita is based in an Arab country, it has removed pork from its menu. In Russia, Church's is going to offer fish items, Kollias said, since fish is very popular in Russia.

The restaurants will be run under the Texas Chicken brand, Kollias said, as this would be easier for Russians to pronounce.

The UK-

Cox News,
2007,
8 Apr 2008,
Atlanta-Based Church's Chicken Tackles British Market

LONDON — Britons' taste for roasted lamb, kidney pie, and Yorkshire pudding is giving way to a fondness for good old-fashioned, finger-lickin'-good fried chicken.

The capital is festooned with chicken outlets bearing names such as Southern Fried Chicken, Tennessee Fried Chicken, Chicken Cottage and Cut-Price Chicken, often with garish signage portraying a colorful chicken gnawing on a chicken leg.

This penchant for poultry has caught the attention of Atlanta-based Church's Chicken, which has just entered the market in the United Kingdom. The company plans to open 50 restaurants by the end of the year under its international brand name, Texas Chicken.

Photo: Haifa Wehbe

Let's hope Muslims don't buy any music companies in America:

The Earth Times,
28 Apr 2008,
Enraged by sexy Lebanese singer, Bahrain's Islamists call for ban

Bahrain's Islamist lawmakers are campaigning for a ban on a planned show by Haifa Wahbe, a Lebanese singer known for her suggestive moves and tight dresses in music videos, the website of al-Arabiya television said Monday. The lawmakers from the Islamist Asala bloc said they would work with other parliamentary blocs to scrap Wahbe's show planned for Wednesday, according to the website.

Wahbe is one of a crop of new female Arab singers perceived as sexually provocative in the largely conservative Arab world.

In their Western-style music videos watched by huge audiences on popular satellite television channels, sultry female singers perform suggestive dances, wear revealing clothes and stage trysts with good- looking men with bare chests.

For the record, I don't care if the Japanese, Germans or Swiss buy American companies. I grew up not knowing that Nestle's Chocolate was Swiss-owned nor did I care since the Nestlé company did not require that I yodel or wear lederhosen when eating their products. Muslims would do well to emulate Nestlé's.

I suppose what Islam cannot do with the sword it will try to do with the petro-dollar.

In an effort to safeguard "Islamic culture and revolutionary values" from gharbzadegi or Westoxification, Iran's prosecutor general, Ghorban-Ali Dorri Najafabadi, warned in a letter to Iranian Vice-President Parviz Davoudi, against the invasion of Barbie, Batman, Spider-Man and Harry Potter and demanded that the country's young be protected against them.

Iran Focus,
27 Apr 2008,
Iran must fight Barbie doll invasion: prosecutor

Two years ago, police raided toy shops to put black stickers on the packaging of Barbie dolls to hide their bodies. In public in Iran, women must cover all bodily contours, a rule that Barbie conspicuously fails to obey.

Iran has already launched its answer to Barbie and her partner Ken -- Sara and Dara, who show full respect for the country's Islamic rules. But they have not succeeded in countering the popularity of Barbie.

It has been over six years (March 6, 2002) since Iran introduced twin dolls Dara and Sara, see photo above. As you see, Sara is rather pathetic-looking, much like all Muslim women who wear the veil and it's easy to see why no Iranian wants to buy her or her village-idiot-looking twin brother Dara. And besides, what kind of stories can you possibly tell about them? In America, Barbie's popularity is due to her glamour and extensive wardrobe. What does Sara have, one chador? And when you play with Sara and Dara each of them must be in separate rooms, even though they are brother and sister, or there will be an Honor Killing by Angry-Daddy Doll.

Barbie, made by Mattel Inc, is a best seller despite the cost: about 320,000 rials ($35) in a nation where the average monthly salary is about 1,800,000 rials ($200). Sara and Dara go for about 125,000 rial ($14) each.

As I pointed out in my article Indian man held for stealing frozen sperm: "In the end, the world will speak American, act American, be American. Those that try to be bizarro-American, that is, the opposite of our culture, as Hugo Chavez is doing, and as Castro has done, are doomed to failed societies." Iran is also doomed, without coercion, people will always choose to be like Americans. If Muslims were free to abandon their faith without fear of being whipped, tortured, burned and killed, and were exposed to American culture, in short order, Islam would cease to exist.

Pacific News,
26 Nov 2002,
Barbie in Iran -- Has the Revolution Become Skin Deep?

Fifty percent of the population is under 25. The upper-class youth, the enfants dores of this town, spend most of their evenings going to private parties, drinking, doing drugs and dancing to the latest Western electronica music. Rave parties equipped with DJs of the moment are held in secret corners of the Caspian and the Alborz Mountains above Tehran.

From time to time, these parties are raided. Many claim to have been whipped, beaten up, humiliated and mentally abused by the Special Forces (Bassijis), whose job it is to stop this un-Islamic behavior. But most go back to their partying, sometimes within days of coming out of prison. They boast about these experiences with the youthful zeal of someone having returned from an Outward Bound trip.

These youths are no revolutionaries. They desire freedom, but lack ideology. Having had religion shoved down their throats, they have become nihilists. Often I hear, when people speak about American foreign policy, an outright desire to be attacked by the West. "God willing, they will bomb us too and end our misery," is a common refrain.

Very sad to see young boys and girls who, if they cannot be like us, wish to be bombed by us. This is life under Islam.

Related:
Angel at Woman Honor Thyself wonders why they don't dispense free Hitler dolls for all the kiddioes.