Fresh Tasty Ideas

Dick Cheney and his wife gave over 75% of their 2005 income to charity. These are the headlines that ran:

Cheney tops Bush in the battle of the bucks

Cheney’s income 10 times the Bushes

Bush pays taxes, Cheney awaits refund

Cheney await refund? Can’t you just see Mr. Cheney, shotgun in hand, salivating at the thought of his gigantic refund? Compare the Cheney’s $6.87 million donation to Al Gore’s $387 in 1997 — which not surprisingly wasn’t reported. That’s liberal bias.

Liberal Bias, Cheney, Charity, Income, Tax

So ever since my Technorati tags started working again, I’ve been inundated with spammers. Ideally Technorati sends over interested readers, but that’s not been the case yet. So I’m experimenting with different anti-spam tools. I hope real readers don’t have any problems with them.

Comments, Technorati, Spam

Democrats often lambaste Republicans for using 9/11 to scare up votes. And it’s certainly true that the GOP has made national security and the war against terrorism top priorities. But the Twin Towers were destroyed by Islamic terrorists, and there are more attacks being planned even as we speak that must be snuffed out.

So it is in that perspective of reality versus deranged fantasy that I choose to call Al Gore a shameless fear mongerer. Just watch this trailer for “An Inconvenient Truth” in which Mr. Gore does his best to scare you absolutely sh*tless over the environment:

IT WILL SHAKE YOU TO YOUR CORE

IF YOU LOVE YOUR PLANET…
IF YOU LOVE YOUR CHILDREN…
YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS FILM.

In perhaps the most disingenuous part of the trailer, Mr. Gore states that global warming can categorically be blamed upon human activity. He falsely claims that the scientific community is in consensus on the matter. The remaining time in the trailer is used to paint the most frightening and dysfunctional portrait of an earth that wouldn’t listen to Al Gore’s sacred revalations. “Thousands of refugees… HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF REFUGEES…” Yes, Katrina is exploited as well.

It’s absolutely disgusting to watch people swallow this tripe. Yet I think those who think similarly to Al Gore (God help them) will not have any qualms with this debased appeal to emotion. But Al Gore has shown us in the past just how low he will stoop to get his way. Let’s hope he fails once again.

Ex-Donkey made the most poignant observation to date. Gary is commenting on the promotional poster for the movie:

Does anyone else see the pack of penquins blindly following each other into a desert as a metaphor for the radical environmentalist movement?

I LOL’ed!

An Inconvenient Truth, Gore, Global Warming, Climate Change

Britain is busy remodeling their prison toilets so that incarcerated Muslims need not face the crapper when praying towards Mecca. Just who is who’s bitch here?

Update: Here’s how-to for our Muslims buddies who can’t crap facing Mecca (thanks to Fark):

Mecca, Muslims, Britain

I think that the word “Orwellian” is one of most overused adjectives of our time. Both sides of the political spectrum routinely bring it out to decry the person or issue they are currently in disagreement with. To me, the word is reminiscent of the discussions I’d have with my friends as a younger college student — discourses which were full of hyperbole and pretense.

So it isn’t with a flippant attitude I use the word Orwellian in my writing. And you knew this was coming: BUT today I came across an article that literally could have been delivered to Winston’s desk at the Ministry of Truth.

Twenty-five diplomats from around the EU are pushing for a change in the words and phrases that European news agencies are allowed to use when discussing Islamic terrorism and terror attacks. The phrase “Islamic terrorism” is too emotive and must be replaced by “terrorists who abusively invoke Islam.” Perhaps this whole proposal is best summed up as follows:

“The basic idea behind it is to avoid the use of improper words that would cause frustration among Muslims and increase the risk of radicalisation.”

Improper words! The government proposes to tell the European press which words are improper! Doesn’t this trod on the very nature of the free press? What’s next? A government-approved list of proper words? When the terrorist attacks continue, as they invariably will, I suppose the list of proper words will grow smaller and smaller. Doubleplusgood! This news article is a harbinger of the 1st Edition of the Newspeak dictionary.

I expect as much from this elitist European Union government. Reading the article, two things are immediately made clear with regards to their perception of Islam:

1. Islam is incapable of insipiring violence, atrocities commited in the name of Islam therefore must be a perversion of the religion
2. Improper words contribute to the “radicalisation” of Muslims

The second item can be deduced from the first; if Islam itself cannot cause Muslims to commit acts of violence, then, it must be partly our doing. Based on this faulty premise, they have drawn a faulty conclusion. Until these diplomats in the EU re-examine their deeply-held belief that Islam cannot inspire violence, we will suffer idiotic proposals such as this. That isn’t to say that they aren’t behaving consistently — they are. They place the lion’s share of the blame for the violence anywhere but within Islam itself.

Now, chop chop! I must get to work changing some headlines from past editions which contain improper wordings!

Orwell, 1984, Newspeak, EU, Islam, Terrorism, Blair, Brussels

I’m gonna ask all of you to dig back into your memories for a second — see if you can pull up one Cindy Sheehan. Remember her? She was the one who walked all over her dead son to promote her own far leftist agenda? She was always decrying the Bush regime, how the US of A had become a dictatorship under Bush McHilter, yada yada yada.

Isn’t ironic then, that one of Cindy’s best pals (united in hatred over Mr. Bush I’m quite certain), actually is a terrible and corrupt dictator? But we heard nary a peep from Ms. Sheehan about the real despot. It was a friendship of convenience, and not principle. It seems that Hugo Chavez has a nasty habit of silencing his political opponents with various forms of intimidation. For instance, he denies government jobs to the thousands of Venezuelans who dared to sign a petition asking for a recall election. Chavez seizes private farmland because it is “underutilized” and stacks his government with yes men who ensure he remains in power.

It’s funny because the far left has many legitimate criticisms of Bush. Problems with the Iraq war and immigration are only two of many policy issues that come to mind. Yet the same faction within the political left continues to embrace political figures and ideologies which makes Bush’s presidency seem like a dream come true by comparison. I think Americans are reaching their limit of how much hamfistedness they can tolerate from the Bush administration; but then, in time to save the day for Republicans, the left embraces something so utterly un-Amerian and downright stupid that most Americans have little choice but to vote for the GOP.

Chavez, Bush, Venezuela, Sheehan, Leftists

On Monday, Hamas began the process of diplomatic negotiations with Israel by sending a suicide bomber to kill nine Israelis at a restaurant. The Palestinian government called the murders of innocent civilians a legitimate response to Israeli aggression. The group that claimed responsibility for the terrorist attack, Islamic Jihad, is funded in part by the government of Iran.
Here’s where international aid for Palestine goes. It feeds, clothes, and shelters the next generation of crazed suicide bombers. I couldn’t be happier about the US and EU cutting all “huminatarian” aid for this nation of barbarians. They should be forced to live with the consequences of openly electing a terrorist government — that means being deprived of all assistance from the international community, and harsh military rejoinders from the nation of Israel.

Tel Aviv, Israel, Hammad, Terrorism, Palestine

Here’s a story about the Islamic Center of Raleigh, and how its leaders send different messages about America and terrorism, depending on who’s listening. The Center has been trying to promote a positive and peaceful image after Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar tried to run over a crowd of people in his rented SUV for Allah. That tends to make people think badly of the religion for some reason.

The center fits a well-defined pattern for many American Islamic organizations. As another example, the Council for Islamic-American Relations comes to mind. They promote themselves as moderates, but have a history of supporting terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah and Hamas.

Chapel Hill, Islam, Raleigh, CAIR, Moderate

After the Beslan school massacre in September of 2004, I had high hopes that Russia would partner with the US, UK, and Australia in the global war against Islamic terrorism. Surely the loss of so many innocent lives at such a young age would galvanize the Russian peoples against the evil men and ideologies which attacked them. After all, Russia has suffered heavily at the hands of Chechyn rebels who also attacked a theatre in Moscow back in 2002.

That was a foolish hope, it turned out. Not only has Russia failed to make itself a prominent player in the war on terrorism, but it has seriously impeded the efforts of the US and other nations. Take for instance the recent revalation that Russia was giving classified American military information to Iraq’s government when the war began. Prior to that, Russia was bought off by Saddam in order to ensure a UN Security Council defeat for any measures against Iraq.

And now, Russia has promised to continue providing aid to Palestinians. This comes at a time when nations such as the United States and Canada are suspending aid due to an open support of Hamas — a terrorist regime. And Russia is also blocking the efforts of UN members to bring sanctions against Iran for pursuing nuclear weaponry.

It’s disheartening to see a country that could be a force for good instead selling itself and the world short for temporary gains. But money talks, and I think that’s what Russia is hearing.

Terrorism, Putin, Russia, UN

CBS put out an interesting poll a couple days ago which states that Americans know more about Islam than they did five years ago. The poll also shows that more and more Americans are have an “unfavorable” impression of the religion since 2001:

Forty-five percent of respondents queried April 6 - 9 said they have an unfavorable view of Islam, a rise from 36 percent in February. And the public’s impression of Islam has diminished even more compared with four years ago. In February 2002 – less than six months after the terrorist attacks of September 11 – the country was evenly divided in its impression of Islam.

Could it be the endless parade of bloodshed and violence from around the globe committed in the name of Allah? Could it be the myriad sura and ahadith which not only fail to condemn violence against non-Muslims but that encourage it?

The poll affirms my underlying theory about Islam — the more you actually know about Mohammed and Islam, the less you like either of them.

Mohammed, Islam, Violence, Americans