Thursday, July 3, 2008

Reality check..Jews vs. Muslims

I have always been amazed at the disproportionate contributions to society by my Jewish brothers. I personally believe this is evidence that they continue to be a blessing to this earthly existence by the great I AM. He chose this people to be special messengers...He has chided them, nurtured them, punished them, loved them and I believe will protect them in spite of overwhelming odds.

But just look at this list and tell me there isn't something special here.


Copied from skepticforum.com:

Muslim vs. Jewish Contributions to the World

Muslim

The Global Islamic population is approximately 1,200,000,000, or 20% of
the world population.

They have received the following Nobel Prizes:

Literature:

1988 - Najib Mahfooz

Peace:

1978 - Mohamed Anwar El-Sadat
1994 - Yaser Arafat: Yeah I know.
1990 - Elias James Corey
1999 - Ahmed Zewa

Economics:

**(none)**

Medicine:

1960 - Peter Brian Medawar
1998 - Ferid Mourad

**************************************************************************

Jewish

The Global Jewish population is approximately 14,000,000, or about 0.02%
of the world population.

They have received the following Nobel Prizes:

Literature:

1910 - Paul Heyse
1927 - Henri Bergson
1958 - Boris Pasternak
1966 - Shmuel Yosef Agnon
1966 - Nelly Sachs
1976 - Saul Bellow
1978 - Isaac Bashevis Singer
1981 - Elias Canetti
1987 - Joseph Brodsky
1991 - Nadine Gordimer World

Peace:

1911 - Alfred Fried
1911 - Tobias Michael Carel Asser
1968 - Rene Cassin
1973 - Henry Kissinger
1978 - Menachem Begin
1986 - Elie Wiesel
1994 - Shimon Peres
1994 - Yitzhak Rabin

Physics:

1905 - Adolph Von Baeyer
1906 - Henri Moissan
1907 - Albert Abraham Michelson
1908 - Gabriel Lippmann
1910 - Otto Wallach
1915 - Richard Willstaetter
1918 - Fritz Haber
1921 - Albert Einstein
1922 - Niels Bohr
1925 - James Franck
1925 - Gustav Hertz
1943 - Gustav Stern
1943 - George Charles de Hevesy
1944 - Isidor Issac Rabi
1952 - Felix Bloc h
1954 - Max Born
1958 - Igor Tamm
1959 - Emilio Segre
1960 - Donald A. Glaser
1961 - Robert Hofstadter
1961 - Melvin Calvin
1962 - Lev Davidovich Landau
1962 - Max Ferdinand Perutz
1965 - Richard Phillips Feynman
1965 - Julian Schwinger
1969 - Murray Gell-Mann
1971 - Dennis Gabor
1972 - William Howard Stein
1973 - Brian David Josephson
1975 - Benjamin Mottleson
1976 - Burton Richter
1977 - Ilya Prigogine
1978 - Arno Allan Penzias
1978 - Peter L Kapitza
1979 - Stephen Weinberg
1979 - Sheldon Glashow
1979 - Herbert Charle s Brown
1980 - Paul Berg
1980 - Walter Gilbert
1981 - Roald Hoffmann
1982 - Aaron Klug
1985 - Albert A. Hauptman
1985 - Jerome Karle
1986 - Dudley R. Herschbach
1988 - Robert Huber
1988 - Leon Lederman
1988 - Melvin Schwartz
1988 - Jack Steinberger
1989 - Sidney Altman
1990 - Jerome Friedman
1992 - Rudolph Marcus
1995 - Martin Perl
2000 - Alan J. Heeger

Economics:

1970 - Paul Anthony Samuelson
1971 - Simon Kuznets
1972 - Kenneth Joseph Arrow
1975 - Leonid Kantorovich
1976 - Milton Friedman
1978 - Herbert A. Simon
1980 - Lawrence Robert Klein
1985 - Franco Modigliani
1987 - Robert M. Solow
1990 - Harry Markowitz
1990 - Merton Miller
1992 - Gary Becker
1993 - Robert Fogel

Medicine:

1908 - Elie Metchnikoff
1908 - Paul Erlich
1914 - Robert Barany
1922 - Otto Meyerhof
1930 - Karl Landsteiner
1931 - Otto Warburg
1936 - Otto Loewi
1944 - Joseph Erlanger
1944 - Herbert Spencer Gasser
1945 - Ernst Boris Chain
1946 - Hermann Joseph Muller
1950 - Tadeus Reichstein
1952 - Selman Abra ham Waksman
1953 - Hans Krebs
1953 - Fritz Albert Lipmann
1958 - Joshua Lederberg
1959 - Arthur Kornberg
1964 - Konrad Bloch
1965 - Francois Jaco b
1965 - Andre Lwoff
1967 - George Wald
1968 - Marshall W. Nirenberg
1969 - Salvador Luria
1970 - Julius Axelrod
1970 - Sir Bernard Katz
1972 - Gerald Maurice Edelman
1975 - Howard Martin Temin
1976 - Baruch S. Blumberg
1977 - Roselyn Sussman Yalow
1978 - Daniel Nathans
1980 - Baruj Benacerraf
1984 - Cesar Milstein
1985 - Michael Stuart Brown
1985 - Joseph L. Goldstein
1986 - Stanley Cohen [& Rita Levi-Montalcini]
1988 - Gertrude Elion
1989 - Harold Varmus
1991 - Erwin Neher
1991 - Bert Sakmann
1993 - Richard J. Roberts
1993 - Phillip Sharp
1994 - Alfred Gilman
1995 - Edward B. Lewis

The Jews are not promoting brain washing the children in military training camps, teaching them how to blow themselves up and cause maximum deaths of Jews and other non Muslims.

The Jews don’t hijack planes, nor kill athletes at the Olympics.

The Jews don’t traffic in slaves, nor have leaders calling for Jihad and death to all the Infidels.

Perhaps the world’s Muslims should consider investing more in standard education and less in blaming the Jews for all their problems.

Regardless of your feelings about the crisis between Israel and the Palestinians and Arab neighbors, even if you believe there is more culpability on Israel’s part, the following two sentences really say it all:

If the Arabs put down their weapons today, there would be no more violence.

If the Jews put down their weapons today, there would be no more Israel.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Evan Sayet on Liberal "Thought"

This comedian has a brilliantly eloquent decription of the genesis of distrous and immoral choices by modern liberals. I have spent considerable time trying to make sense of why seemingly normal, intelligent people can buy in to such obviously wrong-headed or just plain evil ideas in the name of being "progressive" or "open-minded."

Mr. Sayet provides that explaination. The occasion is his address to the Heritage Foundation. It's not short - but worth it.

Just click on the following link to go directly to the speech.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=eaE98w1KZ-c

Saturday, March 29, 2008

Civil and political effects of growing Muslim populations

Posted on NewEnglishReview
Friday, 21 March 2008
What Muslim Population Increase Brings

Don Morris writes at Doc's Talk (thanks to Janet Levy):



When Muslim population remains around 1% of any given country they will be regarded as a peace-loving minority and not as a threat to anyone:
United States -- Muslim 1.0%
Australia -- Muslim 1.5%
Canada -- Muslim 1.9%
China -- Muslim 1%-2%
Italy -- Muslim 1.5%
Norway -- Muslim 1.8%

At 2% and 3% they begin to proselytize from other ethnic minorities and disaffected groups with major recruiting from the jails and among street gangs:
Denmark -- Muslim 2%
Germany -- Muslim 3.7%
United Kingdom -- Muslim 2.7%
Spain -- Muslim 4%
Thailand -- Muslim 4.6%

From 5% on they exercise an inordinate influence in proportion to their percentage of the population.They will push for the introduction of halal (clean by Islamic standards) food, thereby securing food preparation jobs for Muslims. They will increase pressure on supermarket chains to feature it on their shelves -- along with threats for failure to comply. At this point, they will work to get the ruling government to allow them to rule themselves under Sharia, the Islamic Law.
France -- Muslim 8%
Philippines -- Muslim 5%
Sweden -- Muslim 5%
Switzerland -- Muslim 4.3%
The Netherlands -- Muslim 5.5%
Trinidad & Tobago -- Muslim 5.8%

When Muslims reach 10% of the population, they will increase lawlessness as a means of complaint about their conditions (Paris -- car-burnings) . Any non-Muslim action that offends Islam will result in uprisings and threats (Amsterdam -- Mohammed cartoons).
Guyana -- Muslim 10%
India -- Muslim 13.4%
Israel -- Muslim 16%
Kenya -- Muslim 10%
Russia -- Muslim 10-15%

After reaching 20% expect hair-trigger rioting, jihad militia formations, sporadic killings and church and synagogue burning:
Ethiopia -- Muslim 32.8%

At 40% you will find widespread massacres, chronic terror attacks and ongoing militia warfare:
Bosnia -- Muslim 40%
Chad -- Muslim 53.1%
Lebanon -- Muslim 59.7%

From 60% you may expect unfettered persecution of non-believers and other religions, sporadic ethnic cleansing (genocide), use of Sharia Law as a weapon and Jizya, the tax placed on infidels:
Albania -- Muslim 70%
Malaysia -- Muslim 60.4%
Qatar -- Muslim 77.5%
Sudan -- Muslim 70%

After 80% expect State run ethnic cleansing and genocide:
Bangladesh -- Muslim 83%
Egypt -- Muslim 90%
Gaza -- Muslim 98.7%
Indonesia -- Muslim 86.1%
Iran -- Muslim 98%
Iraq -- Muslim 97%
Jordan -- Muslim 92%
Morocco -- Muslim 98.7%
Pakistan -- Muslim 97%
Palestine -- Muslim 99%
Syria -- Muslim 90%
Tajikistan -- Muslim 90%
Turkey -- Muslim 99.8%

100% will usher in the peace of "Dar-es-Salaam" -- the Islamic House of Peace -- there's supposed to be peace because everybody is a Muslim:
Afghanistan -- Muslim 100%
Saudi Arabia -- Muslim 100%
Somalia -- Muslim 100%
Yemen -- Muslim 99.9%


Yea, right. Yemen is in a civil war, Somalia is in a civil war, Afghanistan is in a civil war, and the Saudi's are the world's leader in understanding and cooperation with other religions.

Saturday, March 8, 2008

War Declared 1400 Years Ago -- Wilders

Copied from SonsOfApesAndPigs ..
Sounds like somebody in Holland has a backbone! Wouldn't it be nice if we had some polititians in US like that? And while you're at it, stop using the feckless, moronic term "war on terror." This is a war with Islamists.

Geert Wilders: 1400 years ago war was declared on us by a barbarian who called himself the Prophet

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Can anyone deny these facts from the Koran. What Geert Wilders is saying for Holland, Is also true for every single western country. If western populations won't wake up and act to outlaw the Koran, only God knows the turmoil and chaos you'll bring on yourselves and your children. This is not being over reacting, exageration, sounding alarmist, or crying wolf. In case that's what you would say, then it's you that is not reading, not the writing on the wall, but the writing in the Koran. And it's not me threatening you with turmoil, death and destruction. It's the Koran, every Muslim believing in its commandments, Islam's history of terror, mosque's preachers, Muslim activists, the unending demands and threats of Muslims in every western country, the intelligence agencies of the western world, turmoil and chaos in the Islamic world, and the daily news.

Mr Wilders contribution to the parliamentary debate on Islamic activism (thanks to Louis)
Thumbnail image for GeertWilders.jpg
Madam Speaker, allow me, first, to express my sincere thanks to you personally for having planned a debate on Islam on the very day of my birthday. I could not have wished for a nicer present! Madam Speaker, approximately 1400 years ago war was declared on us by an ideology of hate and violence which arose at the time and was proclaimed by a barbarian who called himself the Prophet Mohammed. I am referring to Islam.

Madam Speaker, let me start with the foundation of the Islamic faith, the Koran. The Koran’s core theme is about the duty of all Muslims to fight non-Muslims; an Islamic Mein Kampf, in which fight means war, jihad. The Koran is above all a book of war – a call to butcher non-Muslims (2:191, 3:141, 4:91, 5:3), to roast them (4:56, 69:30-69:32), and to cause bloodbaths amongst them (47:4). Jews are compared to monkeys and pigs (2:65, 5:60, 7:166), while people who believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God must according to the Koran be fought (9:30).

Madam Speaker, the West has no problems with Jews or Christians, but it does have problems with Islam. It is still possible, even today, for Muslims to view the Koran, which they regard as valid for all time, as a licence to kill. And that is exactly what happens. The Koran is worded in such a way that its instructions are addressed to Muslims for eternity, which includes today’s Muslims. This in contrast to texts in the Bible, which is formulated as a number of historical narratives, placing events in a distant past. Let us remind ourselves that it was Muslims, not Jews or Christians, who committed the catastrophic terrorist attacks in New York, Madrid and London; and that it was no coincidence that Theo van Gogh was brutally murdered by a Muslim, Mohammed Bouyeri.

Madam Speaker, I acknowledge that there are people who call themselves Muslims and who respect our laws. My party, the Freedom Party, has nothing against such people, of course. However, the Koran does have something against them. For it is stated in the Koran in Sura 2, verse 85, that those believers who do not believe in everything the Koran states will be humiliated and receive the severest punishment; which means that they will roast in Hell. In other words, people who call themselves Muslims but who do not believe, for example, in Sura 9, verse 30, which states that Jews and Christians must be fought, or, for example, in Sura 5, verse 38, which states that the hand of a thief must be cut off, such people will be humiliated and roast in Hell. Note that it is not me who is making this up. All this can be found in the Koran. The Koran also states that Muslims who believe in only part of the Koran are in fact apostates, and we know what has to happen to apostates. They have to be killed.

Madam Speaker, the Koran is a book that incites to violence. I remind the House that the distribution of such texts is unlawful according to Article 132 of our Penal Code. In addition, the Koran incites to hatred and calls for murder and mayhem. The distribution of such texts is made punishable by Article 137(e). The Koran is therefore a highly dangerous book; a book which is completely against our legal order and our democratic institutions. In this light, it is an absolute necessity that the Koran be banned for the defence and reinforcement of our civilisation and our constitutional state. I shall propose a second-reading motion to that effect.

Madam Speaker, there is no such thing as “moderate Islam”. As Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan said the other day, and I quote, “There is no moderate or immoderate Islam. Islam is Islam and that’s it”. Islam is in pursuit of dominance. It wishes to exact its imperialist agenda by force on a worldwide scale (8:39). This is clear from European history. Fortunately, the first Islamic invasion of Europe was stopped at Poitiers in 732; the second in Vienna in 1683. Madam Speaker, let us ensure that the third Islamic invasion, which is currently in full spate, will be stopped too in spite of its insidious nature and notwithstanding the fact that, in contrast to the 8th and 17th centuries, it has no need for an Islamic army because the scared “dhimmis” in the West, also those in Dutch politics, have left their doors wide open to Islam and Muslims.
Apart from conquest, Madam Speaker, Islam is also bent on installing a totally different form of law and order, namely Sharia law. This makes Islam, apart from a religion for hundreds of millions of Muslims also, and in particular, a political ideology (with political/constitutional/Islamic basic values, etc). Islam is an ideology without any respect for others; not for Christians, not for Jews, not for non‑believers and not for apostates. Islam aims to dominate, subject, kill and wage war.

Madam Speaker, the Islamic incursion must be stopped. Islam is the Trojan Horse in Europe. If we do not stop Islamification now, Eurabia and Netherabia will just be a matter of time. One century ago, there were approximately 50 Muslims in the Netherlands. Today, there are about 1 million Muslims in this country. Where will it end? We are heading for the end of European and Dutch civilisation as we know it. Where is our Prime Minister in all this? In reply to my questions in the House he said, without batting an eyelid, that there is no question of our country being Islamified. Now, this reply constituted a historical error as soon as it was uttered. Very many Dutch citizens, Madam Speaker, experience the presence of Islam around them. And I can report that they have had enough of burkas, headscarves, the ritual slaughter of animals, so‑called honour revenge, blaring minarets, female circumcision, hymen restoration operations, abuse of homosexuals, Turkish and Arabic on the buses and trains as well as on town hall leaflets, halal meat at grocery shops and department stores, Sharia exams, the Finance Minister’s Sharia mortgages, and the enormous overrepresentation of Muslims in the area of crime, including Moroccan street terrorists.
In spite of all this, Madam Speaker, there is hope. Fortunately. The majority of Dutch citizens have become fully aware of the danger, and regard Islam as a threat to our culture. My party, the Freedom Party, takes those citizens seriously and comes to their defence.
Many Dutch citizens are fed up to the back teeth and yearn for action. However, their representatives in The Hague are doing precisely nothing. They are held back by fear, political correctness or simply electoral motives. This is particularly clear in the case of PvdA, the Dutch Labour Party, which is afraid of losing Muslim voters. The Prime Minister said in Indonesia the other day that Islam does not pose any danger. Minister Donner believes that Sharia law should be capable of being introduced in the Netherlands if the majority want it. Minister Vogelaar babbles about the future Netherlands as a country with a Judeo‑Christian‑Islamic tradition, and that she aims to help Islam take root in Dutch society. In saying this, the Minister shows that she has obviously gone stark raving mad. She is betraying Dutch culture and insulting Dutch citizens. Madam Speaker, my party, the Freedom Party, demands that Minister Vogelaar retract her statement. If the Minister fails to do so, the Freedom Party parliamentary group will withdraw its support for her. No Islamic tradition must ever be established in the Netherlands: not now and also not in a few centuries’ time.
Madam Speaker, let me briefly touch on the government’s response to the WRR [Netherlands Scientific Council for Government Policy] report. On page 12 of its response, the government states that Islam is not contrary to democracy or human rights. All I can say to that is that things can’t get much more idiotic than this.

Madam Speaker, it is a few minutes to twelve. If we go on like this, Islam will herald the end of our Western civilisation as well as Dutch culture.
I would like to round off my first-reading contribution with a personal appeal to the Prime Minister on behalf of a great many Dutch citizens: stop the Islamification of the Netherlands!
Mr Balkenende, a historic task rests on your shoulders. Be courageous. Do what many Dutch citizens are screaming out for. Do what the country needs. Stop all immigration from Muslim countries, ban all building of new mosques, close all Islamic schools, ban burkas and the Koran. Expel all criminal Muslims from the country, including those Moroccan street terrorists that drive people mad. Accept your responsibility! Stop Islamification!
Enough is enough, Mr Balkenende. Enough is enough.

Friday, March 7, 2008

HIstory of the Arab Israeli hostilities

This is an excellent paper about the real history of the warfare in Middle East:...which is engulfing the world.

...

To better understand the hate fueling modern day Islamicism,2 one must first look back to its roots. From Ishmael, whose birthright was denied, to Esau and Jacob - rivaling twins, the seed of hate was sewn. What evolved thereafter was a bitter, jealousy that has been passed down to every Arab generation since. By the 7th century, this ancient hatred made its way into the heart and mind of a common-criminal named Mohammed - an Arab and descendant of Ishmael, who founded a religion and used it to justify his countless, criminal acts of rape and murder.

Both the western media and the Arab press routinely offer biased, politicized answers to what they believe drives this Islamic hatred for the west. From 'US support for Israel' to 'US secularism,' we've heard them all, and despite attempts to justify their inhumane acts, the truth is, Muslims have been committing terrorist acts for some 1,300 years - long before 'western culturalism' or 'US support for Israel' ever existed. And despite such history, we continue to ignorantly look elsewhere for the reasons.

From the early days of Islam to today's globally televised beheadings, Muslims are simply acting-out what Mohammed believed, and what the Qur'an teaches. And when Qur'anic Law was given the opportunity to govern, its violent, 7th century intolerance was seen through the eyes of Afghanistan's Taliban - a view of converting and uniting the Arab world under Islamic Law by sword first, and everyone else second.

What truly is at the heart of the Islamists hatred today is no different than that which fueled Mohammed's hatred as he wrote the Qur'an. It is the belief and goal of a one-world, global Islamic empire run by Qur'anic Law whereby everyone must, in the end, convert to their fundamentalist ideology or face beheading. The hatred that fuels this theocracy dates back to Ishmael and his son-in-law Esau, and from there, compounded to form the foundations of Islamicism which is the reason why most of the world conflicts today involve Muslims....



Read the entire article here.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Islamo-Fascism Petition

David Horowitz has a new approach at his Terrorism Awarness Project ... see the site HERE.

It is an important time for Muslims who actually do not embrace sharia, islamofascism, and seventh-century barbarianism to say so. Here is the base of the petition.


Islamo-Fascism Petition

Islamic Jihadists around the world have declared war on America, Israel and the West and have made clear that:

  • The goal of the Islamo-Fascist jihad is world domination
  • The Islamo-Fasacist Jihad demands the suppression of all Infidels
  • The Islamo-Fascist Jihad is a war against Women
  • The Islamo-Fascist Jihad is a war against Gays
  • The Islamo-Fascist Jihad is a war against Christians
  • The Islamo-Fascist Jihad is a war against Jews
  • The Islamo-Fasacist Jihad is a war against non-religious people

In opposition to this, we affirm four key principles denied by the jihadists and threatened by them:

  • The right of all people to live in freedom and dignity
  • The freedom of the individual conscience: to change religions or have no religion at all
  • The equality of dignity of women and men
  • The right of all people to live free from violence, intimidation, and coercion

We call upon all campus political, cultural, ethnic and religious groups to stand with us in opposing all forms of religious supremacism, violence and intimidation.

Friday, January 11, 2008

The Shameful Racist Party

Why so many of our citizens who happen to have dark colored skin consider themselves Democrats is mind-boggeling. Democrats have been and continue to be overt racists! Check out this well spoken comment:

An excerpt from Peter Kirsanow:

In terms of sheer historical hostility toward minorities, the Republican party fares a bit better than the competition. For example, it wasn’t the GOP that opposed the Emancipation Proclamation. Nor was it the GOP that opposed the Thirteenth Amendment prohibiting slavery, the Fourteenth Amendment guaranteeing equal protection, or the Fifteenth Amendment guaranteeing voting rights. (In fact, Republicans voted for the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act in greater percentages than did Democrats.)

Moreover, it wasn’t the Republican party that opposed Teddy Roosevelt’s anti-lynching legislation or that filibustered or otherwise opposed more than a dozen other anti-lynching provisions during the 20th century.

Republicans didn’t institutionalize Jim Crow, implement school segregation, or establish poll taxes and literacy tests to keep non-whites from voting. Bull Connor, George Wallace, Lester Maddox, and Orval Faubus weren’t Republicans.

It wasn’t a Republican who ordered the internment of Japanese-American citizens (or Italians or Germans) during World War II. Nor were Republicans behind the Chinese exclusion acts or licensing requirements that discriminated against non-white businesses and tradesmen.

Dean may honestly believe that his party is “more welcoming to different folks,” but tell that to Clarence Thomas, Miguel Estrada, or Janice Rogers Brown, each of whom was vilified in explicitly racial terms during their respective confirmation processes by members of Dean’s party.

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Spotted in Anchorage: The Nutty Professor

Here is a copy of a page from Alaska Pacific University...I can hardly believe the blindness these people stumble around in....worse yet they are teaching with this mindset. My editorial comments are in blue.


Engaging Muslims: Religion, Cultures, Politics

A Community Education Project
Sponsored by the Cardinal Newman Chair of Catholic Theology at Alaska Pacific University

Global issues mandate that Americans gain a better understanding of Islam. This is especially true as we face the upcoming national presidential election. Islam is now the second largest religious community in the United States. Anchorage is now home to over 2000 Muslims.

Yes, Americans should gain a better understanding of Islam. We should understand that Islam is violent, dominating and incompatible with our understanding of freedom. Second largest religious community in the US?? You must be smoking something funny. There are 2 million Muslims in America. Less than 1 percent of our population. Doesn't sound like a major movement.

Under the direction of the Cardinal Newman Chair, Alaska Pacific University is spearheading a project to foster a respectful understanding of Islam that recognizes the diversity in Islamic cultures as well as internal struggle within the contemporary Muslim world.

I have an idea. Let's spearhead a project to get adherents of Islam to respect our culture. I'm growing weary of Muslims whining about Islamophobia when Americans choose not to be intimidated.

While this engagement will not solve world problems, it is our hope that we will all grow beyond the distortions and phobia promoted in much of the public media and come to grow in friendship with our Muslim neighbors. We certainly can expect to ask better questions and to address these to candidates for public office.

Exactly what 'distortions and phobia' might be the point here. Might you be referring to the following: Islam calls for the death of apostates, the subjugation or death of non-Muslims, the killing of homosexuals, the amputation of hands and feet for thieves, the beating or stoning of adulterers. Oh golly, that isn't a distortion, that's fact,

So what better questions would you like to address candidates for office with?

What our politicians need to do is call a spade a spade. While many Muslims may be disengaged from their religious doctrine or just choose to ignore the unpleasant side of it, there are way too many who are happy with the fundamentalism of the Islamists. Islamo-fascism has declared war on civilization and we need to combat it. How are you going to do that Mr. President-elect?

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

The Bucket List


I have been seeing trailers for the new flick, The Bucket List, with Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson. While the story might be kinda sappy (Rottentomatoes.com gives it a 46% approval rating) most folks would pay to see two venerable actors in such a flick.

What struck me though, it the underlying message. Two older men upon being diagnosed with fast moving cancer decide to go out and do all those things they failed to do as young men. Important things. Meaningful acts. Something that will make a difference for humanity.

Something like skydiving.

Is it just me? Or does this seem ridiculously shallow and sadly sophomoric?

Am I just taking up space on the planet to accumulate as much pleasure and excitement as I can before I kick the bucket? Is there no other reason to my life? That kind of existentialism is pretty bleak--you might as well just end it all right now.

Actually, I believe there is a very good reason I am here. The Creator of the universe has a plan for me...He wants me to graduate from the University of Earthly Life with several classes in compassion, love, sacrifice and humility. I hope to get at least a passing grade, but I'm pretty sure my time at "school" will be wasted if I concentrate on what a lot of vapid, narcissistic college students tend towards (I know, I was one of them).

What has this got to do with a dumb movie? Movies are made to make money. If you write a screenplay about a subject most people are going to agree with, chances are you will do pretty good. So, most often movies mirror society rather than guide it. The writers and producers must have thought Americans are shallow and childish -- maybe they're right.

The good news is that even with two great actors, the movie isn't much of a hit. It opened with gross receipts of only $161,000.

The big hit of the holiday was "National Treasure: Book of Secrets" grossing $65 million. A fun family movie with (shock) a patriotic theme.