Saturday, March 26, 2011

'Tricycle' can get up to 18.6 miles an hour — as you stare straight at the road

 If you’re a bicycle  enthusiast, this model ought to get your attention.

I was thinking of McKinleyville Press Publisher, Jack Durham, when I posted this. Jack rides bikes whenever he can and even has a collection of them. What do you think about this one Jack?

It's like something straight out of the mind of Tim "The Toolman" Taylor ... but German.

Dreamed up by four German design students and built like a cross between a Tron Light Cycle and our childhood tricycle, it accelerates to 18.6 miles per hour, powered by nothing but a pair of Bosch 18-volt screwdrivers. Story Here

Buy a truck, get a free Ak-47 – get cable TV and a shotgun for free!

Dealer offers free AK-47 for truck buyers

I can remember the days when gas stations passed out free plates, cups, and other household items to entice customers.

Welcome to the 21st century where free weapons are handed out to get your business. It’s a damning statement about the society we live in today.

Dealer offers free AK-47 for truck buyers

SANFORD, Fla. — “A Florida car dealership trying to drum up business is offering an unusual perk for potential used-truck buyers: A free AK-47 assault rifle.

General sales manager Nick Ginetta says that since the promotion was announced on Veterans Day, business has more than doubled at Nations Trucks in Sanford.”  Story here.

Buy a cable dish, get a free gun

“A Radio Shack in Montana is offering would-be satellite television customers a bit more bang for their buck.

The Ravalli Republic reports customers who sign up for some Dish Network packages at Radio Shack in Hamilton will be rewarded with a pistol or shotgun. Those not interested in the gun offer can pick a $50 Pizza Hut gift card.” Story here

True Americana: offbeat roadside attractions wow visitors

(Clockwise from top) Ventriloquist dummies at Vent Haven Museum, Mark Cline with 'Bigfoot' & cars at Cadillac Ranch (© Edward Rothstein/The New York Times; Enchanted Castle Studios; Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images)They're weird, they're the world's largest, and they're off the next exit.

How can you pass them up? Whether oddities from a time gone by or just a way get tourist dollars for a tiny town, you'll want a snapshot with these roadside attractions.

Skip ahead to read about:

Creepy dolls in Kentucky -- Cadillac Ranch --

Hunting Bigfoot in Virginia --

The Corn Palace --  World's Largest Pistachio Nut

Cockroach Hall of Fame Museum -–The Big Blue Bug

And more here

Friday, March 25, 2011

Congress Making Themselves and Friends Richer, While Everyone Else Struggles to Make Ends Meet

It’s my honor every Sunday, to share space in the Times-Standard Opinion section with Jim Hightower.

I haven’t seen this column in the T-S, so I’d like to share it with you:

The great majority of Americans make about $30K a year. Incoming lawmakers, however? Extensive personal investments in Wall St. banks, oil giants and drug makers.

“Change is not the same thing as progress. In fact, change can be the exact opposite. It can be regressive, as we're now learning from -- where else? -- Congress.

A flock of tea party-infused Republicans has certainly changed the political dynamic there, and exultant GOP leaders are claiming that they are now the voice of "The People." But most people won't find themselves represented by this change, much less see it as progress.

That's because the newcomers in Congress, whether Republican or Democrat, tend to live high up the economic ladder, way out of touch with the people they're representing. Indeed, 40 percent of newly elected house members are millionaires, as are 60 percent of new senators.

Their wealth and financial ties might help explain the rush by the new Republican House majority to coddle these very same corporate powers. From gutting EPA's anti-pollution restrictions on Big Oil to undoing the restraints on Wall Street greed, they're pushing for a return to the same laissez-fairyland ideology of the past 20 years that got our country in massive messes.

At the same time, they're out to kill a green-jobs program, bust unions, cut Social Security, defund Head Start and generally stomp on the fingers of working families trying to hold onto the middle class rungs of the economic ladder.

The change in Congress is taking America backward, not forward, for the new majority literally is the voice of millionaires. That's not progress.

So we see corporations and billionaires wallowing in fabulous new wealth, while productive workers fall out of the middle class. And our new congress-members are just fine with that, even pushing a program of more tax breaks and subsidies for the corporate elite, while vehemently opposing efforts to create jobs and advance the middle class. Making the richest people richer is not a recovery -- it's a robbery.”

Condensed columnsee Full Article Here.

- Jim Hightower is a national radio commentator, writer, public speaker, and author of the new book, "Swim Against the Current: Even a Dead Fish Can Go With the Flow." (Wiley, March 2008) He publishes the monthly "Hightower Lowdown," co-edited by Phillip Frazer

Crime gangs among first to deliver Japan earthquake aid

There’s a lot of reasons that I admire the Japanese. It’s inspirational watching the people stay orderly and not panic, despite the most devastating events that have hit their country since they were nuked in WWII.

What really blows my mind is how even the criminals in Japan pitch in and help when natural disasters happen.

Tons of relief goods have been delivered to victims of Japan's catastrophic earthquake and tsunami from a dark corner of society: the "yakuza" organized crime networks.

Yakuza groups have been sending trucks from the Tokyo and Kobe regions to deliver food, water, blankets and toiletries to evacuation centers in northeast Japan, the area devastated by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, which have left at least 27,000 dead and missing.”

Unlike here in America, where disasters like Katrina bring out the looters, the Yakuza have standards of conduct.

“Disasters bring out another side of yakuza, who move swiftly and quietly to provide aid to those most in need. The gangs' charity is rooted in their "ninkyo" code,which values justice and duty and forbids allowing others to suffer. In times such as earthquakes, they put their money where their mouths are.”

 Full Story

Skin cancer risk is higher for rich women than for poor women, study finds

Wealthy women are more likely to get skin cancer than poor women, according to a new study

The rich really are different from the rest of us – at least when it comes to skin cancer.

That’s the conclusion of a new study from Archives of Dermatology that examined the incidence of melanoma among younger women of various income levels. Not only were melanoma rates highest among those with the highest incomes, the number of new diagnoses also grew fastest in that group too. Full Story

The U.S. is engaged in Libya because of an abusive leader who is killing his own people, what about the Ivory Coast?

“While the world has been focused on airstrikes and dramatic developments on the ground in Libya, a string of Middle East uprisings and twin natural disasters and the fear of a nuclear meltdown in Japan, another serious crisis has been quietly brewing: a potential civil war in the Ivory Coast.”  Full Story

PHOTO - Charles Ble Goude, center, Ivory Coast's Minister of Youth and leader of the "Young Patriots" speaks as commander in chief of the army Phillipe Mangou, right, looks on in front of thousands of young supporters of Ivorian strongman Laurent Gbagbo on March 21 in Abidjan

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Assault on American middle class continues–this time on seniors

Another Republican governor attacking the middle class – this time seniors. Have they no shame at all?

I realize they have to answer to the tea baggers who put them there, but this is an all-out war on the middle class by special interests and corporations.

Republican Gov. Rick Snyder is drawing recall threats and angry protests over his attempt to tax the pension and 401(k) incomes of millions of retirees. He also wants to eliminate a $2,300-per-person tax break for those 65 and over and reduce the credit seniors get for property tax payments.

Just another example of efforts by Republican governors like Wisconsin's Scott Walker to attack the middle class and help the businesses that donated to their campaigns. And like many in that state, people are ready to rise up and demand that Michigan's governor back down.

 StoryMichigan wants to end tax break for seniors”

Dorothy Young: Last surviving Houdini stage assistant dies at 103

Dorothy Young, the last surviving stage assistant of illusionist Harry Houdini and also an accomplished dancer, died Sunday at her home in a retirement community in Tinton Falls, N.J. She was 103.

Young's death was announced by Drew University, where she was a prominent donor and patron of the arts.

Young joined Houdini's company as a teenager after attending an open casting call during a family trip to New York.

 During her year with Houdini's stage show in the mid-1920s, she played the role of "Radio Girl of 1950," (photo right) emerging from a large mock-up of a radio and performing a dance routine.

Young went on to become a professional dancer, performing in several movies. She also published a novel inspired by her career.

Story Source 

Right Photo source     Left photo source

Guest Op-Ed: the fight over collective bargaining is not just a labor dispute in a Midwestern state

Protesters, some in cow costumes, flood the streets around the Wisconsin State Capitol to protest Governor Scott Walker's elimination of union bargaining rights for state and public employees. . (Michael Sears/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel/MCT/March 12, 2011)

By Garret Keizer

For anyone who believes that the hard-won rights of organized labor constitute an American birthright, who would as soon see the flag burned as a picket line crossed (both acts disrespectful of blood shed in our "country's cause"), the decision of the Wisconsin Legislature to end most collective bargaining rights for public employees amounts to sacrilege. In effect, Wisconsin has become a pariah state. It ought to be treated as such.

The battle in Wisconsin, symbolically and in fact, is not a fight against a political party or a governor, much less against good people who made a horrendous electoral goof. It is a fight against what increasingly has come to feel like an American death wish, a mad potlatch of relinquishing every progressive gain of the last 100 years. We talk about "making cuts" in the tone of teenagers who cut themselves. A few billionaires and their proxies yell "jump," and we call it a sacrifice whose time has come. We need to start talking ourselves in from the ledge.”

The rest of the article is here

Medical marijuana sales surpass blockbuster drugs like Viagra

Image: Medical marijuana

Annual sales near $2 billion and rising in states with tolerant laws

There is a noticeable aroma wafting around the medical marijuana industry. It’s the smell of money — with a strong hint of entrepreneurial opportunity.

“Medical marijuana is now a $1.7 billion market, according to a report released Wednesday by See Change Strategy, an independent financial analysis firm that specializes in new and unique markets. The figure represents estimated sales of marijuana through dispensaries in states with medical marijuana laws. It is the first time a definitive dollar figure has been given to the emerging medical cannabis industry.

To put that number in perspective, sales of medical marijuana rival annual revenue generated by Viagra, a $1.9 billion business for Pfizer.”  Full story here.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Top 10 Logical Fallacies in Politics in no particular order

#9 ARGUMENTUM AD METUM

downloading mp3s = communism

The human brain is wired all wrong. Those not versed in logic are blissfully unaware of how much our brain messes up the most basic of arguments, leading to the mess of random thoughts, non-sequiturs, cognitive dissonance, white lies, misinformation, and syntax errors that we call consciousness. Luckily, there is one place where all of these logical missteps can be exemplified: politics. What follows is a crash course in some of the most prevalent fallacies we all make, as they appear in modern American politics. And though I consider these the "top 10" logical fallacies in politics, they are not in order, for reasons that should become clear rather quickly.


You aren't a communist, are you?

Whenever a politician appeals to your fears, insecurities, or paranoia, he or she is demonstrating the logical fallacy of the Argumentum ad Metum. This one is a combination of a bunch of the above fallacies, as it can be an irrelevant thesis, an falsifiable hypothesis, an appeal to motive, and a slippery slope straw man argument, as in the example, "If we don't do X, the terrorists win."

This is a common tactic throughout politics. Republicans want you to be afraid of socialism, terrorism, and a world on the verge of World War III. Democrats want you to be afraid of a global warming apocalypse, racism run amok, and Republicans. While all of these fears can in one way or another be justified, there shouldn't be any need to appeal to them when making an argument. President Bush didn't have to invoke the image of a mushroom cloud on American soil to explain the invasion of Iraq, and President Obama didn't have to invoke the image of poor mothers dying of starvation in the streets to sell his healthcare initiative.

It's a particularly sleazy way to make a point, and it is fallacious in multiple ways. Still, it is dramatic and effective, and thus all politicians and pundits use the Argumentum ad Metum on a regular basis. It works because it is an "us vs. them" form of argument, and it bypasses a certain degree of critical thinking by playing to people's emotions. Whenever you allow an argument like this to work on you, you bring the country one step closer to a bloody civil war.


GO HERE TO READ THE REST

Illegal immigrants disguised as U.S. Marines fail to get through border checkpoint

Photo: Illegal Immigrants posing as US Marines arrested at border checkpoint. Credit: Department of Homeland Security

I guess I would have been suspicious too if I saw ALL of their name tags said “Perez.”

The odds of one entire family of Perez’s in military uniforms are astronomical. I wonder if it was this little slip-up that got them caught?

“Thirteen illegal immigrants disguised themselves as U.S. Marines –- donning battle dress uniforms and caps -- in a failed attempt to get through a  U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint last week east of San Diego, authorities said.

The driver of the white van carrying the immigrants and another man, both U.S. citizens, were arrested  March 14 at the I-8 checkpoint near Campo and charged with alien smuggling, according to U.S. Border Patrol officials.”

Story Here

Pizza pugs, Gay cures, DUI checkpoint alerts, obnoxious apps

Animals doing people things equals comedy. This pug who really, really wants a slice of pizza proves the rule.

Apple finally pulled that "Gay Cure" app after 146,000 signed a petition protesting it.

Senators want Apple to pull DUI checkpoint alert apps, for the obvious reasons.

And Apple is threatening a legal smackdown on "adult" app store MiKandi for using the term "app store."

Meanwhile, radar detection is coming to Android.

Amazon is now OK with the Kindle-lending startup it stomped on yesterday.

The 2010 elections made your parents join Twitter and Facebook, apparently.

Still, Mom and Dad are no doubt psyched to hear that Zynga's rolling out the "English Countryside" FarmVille expansion.

Lady Gaga told Google about how she's always longed to be "searchable."

An Etsy artist so pleased to be included in Urlesque's awesome gallery of "Sad Etsy Boyfriends," showed her appreciation via a "LULZ" beanie.

Article & Photo source

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Did President Obama violate the Constitution or federal law when he ordered the U.S. military to take part in coalition attacks on forces loyal to Moammar Khaddafy in Libya?

Congress raises and supports the military, but the president is the commander. Declaring war and making war are two different functions. There's no question President Obama has the authority to do what he did (via First Read):

Because…

“Mr. Obama's actions are consistent with the way every president since Richard Nixon has treated the War Powers Act, choosing to notify Congress only after a decision has been made to sign orders authorizing military operations.”

A point to consider…

“His actions do, however, appear to contradict the view he expressed as a candidate. In December 2007, he told Charlie Savage, then of the Boston Globe that a president "does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation."

What next?

“So who's right? Constitutional questions, and legal battles over violations of federal laws, are normally resolved by judges. But this is an area where the courts have been reluctant to tread, unwilling to referee what they see as disputes between the political branches of the government.”

So where does that leave us?

This has to be one of the coolest treehouses I’ve ever seen!

The most luxurious tree houseGo Here to see how this amazing

 Tree House

is delivered,

set up,

and what it looks like inside.

You’ll be surprised. Great photography too.

Enjoy.

Looking for a job? Are you annoying? Aflac needs new duck voice

Wow! Here’s a great chance for someone like me, whose been called annoying many times in my life!

But, can I hit a high note screech like Gilbert Gottfried? Might be a problem there.

“Aflac is opening the field to people who want to take a quack at doing the new voice of the insurer's ever-abrasive duck mascot.

Aflac Inc. will begin accepting submissions on Wednesday in the search for someone to replace Gilbert Gottfried, who was ousted last week after voicing the duck for more than 10 years because he made insensitive remarks on Twitter about the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

Rather than hire another celebrity voice right away, Aflac decided solicit submissions from the general public, said Chief Marketing Officer Michael Zuna.”  More Here.    photo source

Kucinich fundraising appeal takes aim at Obama on Libya

Gotta love these politicos who use anything to further their own career. Kucinich is looking ahead to 2012 – instead of focusing on the here and now.

I don’t care what side of the aisle they’re from, these pathetic politic animals always show their stripes when it comes to staying in office.

“Days after saying that President Obama’s authorization of U.S. intervention in Libya is an “impeachable offense,” Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) is now using his criticism of the president in a fundraising appeal.”

Can you spare a dime for this guy?

Read story here.

CNN calls Fox's human shield accusation ‘nuts’, reporter admits lying about not covering the trip

A CNN correspondent has angrily denied a Fox News report that he and other journalists were used by the Libyan government as human shields against an attack on Moammar Gadhafi's compound.

Fox News' Jennifer Griffin reported Monday that the British military had to call off a mission on the Libyan ruler's  compound because journalists had been taken there on a trip to view earlier bomb damage. CNN's Nick Robertson, who was part of the CNN crew cited in the Fox story, shot back on the air Monday night, calling the allegation "outrageous and absolutely hypocritical."

"To say it was a human shield is nuts," Robertson said on Wolf Blitzer's primetime CNN show. "This allegation is outrageous and it's absolutely hypocritical. You know, when you come to somewhere like Libya, you expect lies and deceit from the dictatorship here. You don't expect it from the other journalists." In addition, Robertson said, Fox sent a security guard with a camera on the same tripa detail that was omitted from the Fox report.”

Oops! Fox News filed a false report. That’s not the first time that’s happened, nor will it be the last.

“Fox reporter Griffin admitted later to incorrectly having written that no Fox News representatives had gone on the reporting trip.”

Fox’s war correspondent isn’t exactly making his presence known while covering the crisis.

“As for Harrigan, Fox's war correspondent in Libya, Robertson said he has rarely seen him leave his hotel room.

"I don't know who he's talking to here to pick up and find out what the story is," Robertson said. "I see him more times at breakfast than I see him out on trips with government officials here."

One last thought, it’s not the best arrangement to have the bad guys give you a tour, but it’s better than having them hand over a propaganda film and scripts to read. At least, the reporters can see what’s happening on the ground. Beats sitting in a motel room.

Go here for more on this story.  Image source

 

Monday, March 21, 2011

400 LB. Sumo wrestler finishes LA Marathon, sets world record

Photo: Kelly Gneiting crosses the finish line. Credit: Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times

Kelly Gneiting, a 400-pound sumo wrestler, set a Guinness World Record as the heaviest man to complete a marathon, after finishing on Sunday in 9 hours 48 minutes 52 seconds.

 I’m in awe of this guy. I don’t know if I could have finished a 26.2-mile race in bad weather (it rained like hell throughout). I’m almost inspired enough to call my good friend, and long-distance runner, Woody Woodburn, and see if he’ll train me for a marathon!

On second thought, maybe I won’t. I’ll just stay in awe of Mr. Gneiting’s accomplishment and walk my mile a day! Go here for the full story. 

White supremacist threat overshadowed by Muslim paranoia perpetrated by chairman of Homeland Security committee

White supremacist threat overshadowed by Muslim fears

Rep. Peter King has chosen to be the America’s leading crusader against American Muslims. He claims not to be on a witch hunt, but his actions speak otherwise.

Right now he’s playing chief inquisitor of national profiling, and is throwing out mistruths about Muslims to make his feeble points. When you read below you’ll see what I mean.

Like the article points out, White Supremacists have been around for a lot longer than the Muslims in this country. Look at our history. Whose done the most damage? The answer is far and away – White Supremacists. (Please note that those who did the 911 bombing weren’t American Muslims) White Supremacists don’t even rate a glance in King’s book of terrorist profiling. It’s obvious he’s hoping to play on enough baseless fears against Muslims to make life miserable for them in the land of the free! Pathetic…look at his picture above. Can you say “Zealot?”

Excerpts:    

The way they both happened together, at what felt like the same moment, seems like something out of a script: On March 9, Kevin William Harpham was arrested in the town of Addy, Wash., suspected of the attempted Jan. 17 bombing of a Martin Luther King unity rally in Spokane, 55 miles south of Addy. Harpham, a known white supremacist with past and possibly current ties to the neo-Nazi National Alliance, was charged by federal agents of building a "weapon of mass destruction" -- the bomb found in his backpack -- and planting it on the rally route hours before it started.

The next day, Rep. Peter King, the new chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, convened the first of his congressional hearings on the radicalization of Muslim Americans and the potential for domestic terrorism. In his opening statement, King stated that "not one terror-related case in the United States in the last two years involved neo-Nazis."

That disconnect between fact and assertion highlights a more troubling one: the congressman's high-profile attention to one form of American terrorism at the expense of exposing the dangers in another.”

AND

“In a December 2010 op-ed in Newsday, King wrote that "Federal and local law enforcement officials throughout the country told me they received little or -- in most cases -- no cooperation from Muslim leaders and imams."

Yet when time came to walk the walk with that broad assertion last week, King couldn't produce a single member of law enforcement who would testify as to the validity of that claim.

Nowhere, it seems, is there room for a hearing that airs concerns about radicalization of Americans into the neo-Nazi, nativist, anti-government and white supremacist movements that have been more insidious and invisible in the national landscape, and for a lot longer than any Islamic threat.”

Read the whole article here

Smoking statistics Batman! How prevasive is pot in the USA today?

If legal, marijuana would be a $40-billion-a-year industry in the U.S.

Though not nearly as popular as alcohol or tobacco, marijuana has become part of the nation's social fabric.

 Some 30 million Americans consume cannabis in the average year.

Decriminalized in 11 states and legal for medical purposes in 14, marijuana is no longer considered an enemy of the people in many quarters.
GO HERE to see how marijuana stacks up across the country.
Source: Federal and state agencies.

Genius at work: 12-year-old Jacob is studying at IUPUI

Inline

“When Jacob Barnett first learned about the Schrödinger equation for quantum mechanics, he could hardly contain himself.

For three straight days, his little brain buzzed with mathematical functions.

From within his 12-year-old, mildly autistic mind, there gradually flowed long strings of pluses, minuses, funky letters and upside-down triangles -- a tapestry of complicated symbols that few can understand”"

HOW SMART IS JACOB?

“In fact, his work is so strong that he's being courted by a top-notch East Coast research center. IUPUI is interested in him moving from the classroom into a funded researcher's position.”

 To read more on this little genius go here.

3-D display for interaction: How to build a "magic" window

Microsoft Research is creating key components for the ultimate interactive display
Microsoft Research is working on the technologies necessary to create the ultimate 3-D display, one you gaze through to see and interact with people or locations on the other side of the planet that seem only just beyond your reach.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

As It Stands: American pastor promotes 'International Judge the Koran Day' today

imagesCA48PPCF

By Dave Stancliff/For the Times-Standard

Posted: 03/20/2011 01:27:26 AM PDT

Have you ever wondered how many people have died in the name of religion? How many were tortured by “God fearing” men? How many millions were demonized because they didn't practice certain religions? I have.

Before you decide I'm about to indulge in religion bashing, and the hair on your neck stands up, please read on. For the record, I believe all religions are right for those who choose to follow them. There are many positive things about religion that can't be ignored.

Some would argue that civilization bloomed because of religious influence upon governments. Religion is often the basis for laws and rules of behavior. Nearly all religions promote love, in one form or another. To each his own, I always say. imagesCAC21PV4

Now, I'll go right to my real bone of contention. That's the intolerance shown by some who claim to be peaceful followers of God. Case in point; the Christian extremists who are trying to sell the lie that Muslim “Sharia Law” is being forced upon people in the USA.

The poster boy for this attack on Islam is Pastor Terry Jones, the controversial Gainesville, Florida, pastor who made world headlines when he threatened to burn the Koran. He's at it again, folks.

He's promoting “International Judge the Koran Day,” today. Jones says the Koran will be judged, and he believes Muslims have to prove the book is a peaceful one.

Apparently Pastor Jones doesn't believe in the Christian admonition “Judge not, least ye be judged.” And who put him in charge of which religion is OK in America? Perhaps Pastor Jones should pay more attention to our Constitution. It guarantees freedom of religion.

During an appimagesCA8LMCTDearance on CNN in July 2010, Pastor Jones was asked how he would feel if he was a Muslim, and there were plans to burn his holy text:

He said, “I would not like it, but it's our right. We live in America. It is time to stand up and speak out on what we believe in. We believe that Islam is of the devil and is causing millions of people to go to hell. It is a deceptive religion. It is a violent religion. That has been proven many times.”

His reply clearly shows how screwed up he is. His hateful rhetoric would be laughable, if it didn't have such deadly overtones. No one in America is forced to practice Sharia Law, regardless of his baseless claims.

“Their (Muslims) desire is to disobey the laws of the land and institute Sharia Law instead,imagesCAHR72QJ” Pastor Jones says on his Facebook page.

What's Pastor Jones and his followers biggest beef with Islam? It's really quite simple; “The Koran does not accept a normal Christian doctrine as presented by the Bible. It denies the crucifixion, resurrection, the existence of the Holy Trinity and the fact that Jesus died for our sins and was resurrected.” They believe this is totally wrong.

 Heavens! Can you imagine? Because another religion doesn't believe in your religion, they must be evil and out to destroy the world. Where do you think that kind of mindset will lead?

“We will be setting up a structured court session, including a judge, a jury, witnesses and representatives for both sides of the debate. We have issued pleas for Islam's best defense lawyers and attorneys to attend the event and make their case on behalf of all these so-called peaceful Muslims,” PimagesCASB931Xastor Jones told CNN last week.

Did you catch the part about “so-called peaceful Muslims” like such a thing is impossible? That tells you that no matter what argument is made for Islam, Pastor Jones and his prejudiced flock will find the religion guilty. Then what? Threaten to burn the Koran again and incite every devout Muslim in the world?

Perhaps the most troubling aspect of this attack on Muslims is how many Americans are willing to believe the worst about Islam. I've heard people who normally don't strike me as extreme rant about the threat American Muslims present to our society. It's disheartening to say the least.

As It Stands, demonizing a religion out of mindless fear of a different doctrine will only lead to a societal breakdown and senseless prosecution of innocent people.

Early Feedback:

there’s been several positive emails, and this interesting one from the Council on American-Islamic Relations:  

As-salaamu alaikum (peace be upon you),

Someone, possibly you or a friend, wanted to join our e-mail list to receive pertinent information regarding news and events in the Muslim community.

We have upgraded our e-mail system and would like to offer you a choice for how CAIR press releases, action alerts and news updates can best serve you.

  • Daily News Briefs: A bulletin of important news and information concerning the American Muslim community.
  • Weekly Newsletter: A once-a-week newsletter that highlights the most significant items in one convenient email.
  • Action Alerts: Alerts on an as-needed basis to mobilize and unify the American Muslim voice to respond to critical issues.
  • News Releases: News items about the American Muslim community designed for media professionals.

If you’re interested in what this group does go to info@cair.com.

WEBSITES THAT HAVE PICKED THIS COLUMN UP THUS FAR

World Focus News The World’s latest news updates.

NEWSVINE.COM – Newsvine is continuously updated by citizens like you, NewsVine is an instant reflection of what the world is talking about at any given moment.

TOPIX NEWS FORUM – Linked to the Times-Standard

Christian Books – online shopping site for all things Christian

Article Newsvine – a website that generates news items from around the world

Genesis Christian Book Store – another online shopping site for Christian material.  

 

It's Time to Pay Up Donnie!

It's looks like there will be some prime real estate going on the market soon in New York City. Convicted rapist and former president ...