Tuesday, May 05, 2015
Why throw rocks at a junkyard dog?
The Garland TX Mohammed cartoon shootings, our little version of Charlie Hebdo - ISIS is now claiming responsibility which even if true you'd think they'd be a bit hesitant as it hardly came off in their favor, not their best work you could say. Pamela Geller of her American Freedom Defense Initiative coordinated this event in TX and from what I understand it was some sort of cartoon contest for who could come up with the best sketch of the Prophet Mohammed I guess. I might be in the minority but her subway ads in NYC which the MTA had a huge problem with I don't find them the least bit offensive. I'm sure you've heard of them and they always have the angle of radical Islamists are anti-Semitic which they are so it's kind of hard for me to unravel just why the MTA has their collective knickers in a twist. However having said that what was the point of this little sketchathon in Garland TX? Are they suddenly interested in this particular faith system? Are they contributing to global culture? Was the whole affair designed to be provocative? (x) I'm thinking we have enough to worry about. Thanks guys and gals and all you Bob Ross wannabes.
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Maybe the idea was to incite... and thus give them more ammo, so to speak, to raise funds to battle the coming turn of our country into a bastion of Sharia Law...
ReplyDeleteI agree Dave, and note others share that opinion-
Delete"“As a Muslim community we need to acknowledge hate groups and not get baited,” said Imam Zia ul-Haque Sheikh, the leader of one of North Texas’ largest mosques. “They are trying to provoke the Muslims into doing something wrong.” I'm still trying to figure out how a single traffic cop withstood a hail of .223 bullets and shot both (who were wearing body armor). Also, at least one of the assailants had been being watched by
officials... the problem with the 'lone wolf' paradigm is figuring out if they
will act, how they will act and when they will act. Ms. Gellar has succeeded,
IMO, in getting her name more widely known outside of bloggerville and Far
Rightville.
Maybe Allah was on the side of the cop. Did they ever think of that one?
DeleteMs. Geller had my full support with those subway ads but now she's going the extra mile. To stretch it you might even say she's endangering the rest of us. On the other side the actions of the two shooters kind of proves her point.
DeleteWell I finally finished "Dianetics." I gave it two stars out of five (I had to give it something). Must be my prenatal engrams at work.
ReplyDeleteYou'd better read Steinbeck before it's banned in Yonkers, too.
ReplyDeleteAlternative Steinbeck classic w/o all the cussin' - "The Winter of Our Discontent" although there is a strong sexual undercurrent here.
DeleteCan't imagine an over protective mommy protecting her kid from written
Deleteprofanity sending him off to military basic training. Those sergeants wrote
the text on the subject.
Early in my life I was clean-mouthed myself then I started driving and before you know it I developed my cursing skills. Cathartic and I'll even hybridize them and make up my own like the time I was driving with my friend and my coffee wouldn't stay in the cup and out rolled "son of a cock." Now what does that even mean?
DeleteWhat does that mean? Either a literal baby male chick- or more likely,
Delete"Son of a %^#& coffee *^@# cup...spilled all *^&$ over my *$#damn lap,
*%^# cock su....er. Cathartic, yes. Classic literature, probably not.
One day the meat woman at work who's known for her crusty manner encounters a U-boat in the basement full of meat products and something must have pissed her off because she starts going "fucking motherfucker" over and over again. I felt the words were redundant, one f-bomb would've made the point. So how do we shield the yoot of this country from all that? If Steinbeck doesn't get them the meatwrapper will.
DeleteAs you move on from Dianetics to something by Kierkegaard, I'd suggest the BBC Cultural article. In particular, in Para 5,
Deletethe always informative fuzzy haired polymath Steven Pinker notes lists
five ways in which the F-word may be used: descriptive, idiomatic, abusive, emphatic and cathartic (using it in illustrative short sentences.
It would seem your meat woman by use of the adjective and subject wrapped in 'mother' in staccato repetition managed to go through all
five. Don't inform her though, you might learn a new word or two.
Geller complained to Hannity that the FBI and Homeland Security haven't returned her calls. Maybe they don't appreciate the extra work.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the Simpson fellow- been on the watchlist and even called in for questioning, etc. So where does a guy like that get his AK-47? Street sales,
ReplyDeletethe markup about 1000%. Sort of like an NRA hedge fund if you are a gunrunner.
A watchlist is just a piece of paper, doesn't seem to do much good.
DeleteOkay, so here's what I am struggling with.
ReplyDeleteI am generally a guy that sees the glass as maybe even more than half full. So that means, in this context, that I tend to give Islam, as it is practiced by most of its adherents some grace and latitude.
I understand that Pam Geller had a right to blaspheme in any way she chose Muhammad. Just as people can chose to blaspheme Jesus, Moses, Buddha, or any other religious figure.
Now I think people are getting lost in the weeds here. The focus seems to be on why, Geller, knowing what might happen, chose to act as she did.
Yet that is obscuring what I feel is a central question, that does not negate her responsibility to act responsibly... Why does Islam seem to be the only religion of peace, as we are told and taught, that kills when they are satirized or made the butt of jokes?
Shouldn't that be the question, as opposed to attacking provocateurs like Geller?
And then, maybe we should be asking if a significant percentage of the true believers of a certain religion cannot demonstrate an ability to live peacefully, and within the laws of our society, whether we should sanction and give approval to that religion.
Dave you hit the nail on the head for me. Geller is a kind of side issue although not unimportant. I am very very slowly and reluctantly coming to the conclusion that as Islam now stands maybe we need to declare it an invalid faith system unless it reforms itself and that doesn't seem likely at this point.
DeleteZ... there are reformers, and even moderates, but they don't get a lot of attention. Maybe that is their preference. I'd prefer to have them speaking out loudly and often not just saying Islam is about peace, but condemning violence, and the perpetrators as soon as it happens.
ReplyDeleteLike when this happened, where were the leaders of Islam, both here in the US and in the Middle East, saying "This type of response is against everything Islam stands for"? Where were the leaders saying that no devout Muslim can engage in this type of behavior and is not called for in the Koran? Why are those voices either non existent, or not being publicized?
I find it perplexing...
Publicity trumps reality .
DeleteYet again.
Let's accept BB's point but those are academic condemnations by some mainstream Islamic groups although they are indeed welcome. Maybe it can be rephrased why aren't the rank-and-file Muslims out there massively protesting the latest IS atrocities??? Take a page from all those anti-police shootings of unarmed black men protests, would have more of an impact.
DeleteBB, I saw that article too, which is why I am open to the "not being publicized article."
ReplyDeleteI am troubled by the lack of response from the heart of the Islamic world.
It's like this... Catholics in the US are much more liberal than many of their Vatican counterparts.
I suspect, and have heard the reformers say that Islam here is seen essentially as apostate by many in the Middle East.
Unless I'm mistaken, a distinct possibility, I don't recall a great number of Middle Eastern Islamic leaders of note condemning terrorism or the celebrations of Muslims following terrorist attacks on innocent people or attacks on Israel.
Catholicism is a big tent: a smorgasbord all the way from the Berrigan brothers to Bill Donahue. I suspect there may be a progressive somewhere
Deletein the fundamentalist evangelical literalist front as well.
& who would that person be? Nearest we have right now is Pat Robertson who recently kinda came out for pot.
DeleteMeanwhile the third Bangladeshi blogger has been hacked to death in broad daylight by Islamic extremists.
DeleteThe there is the NRA poster boy ..the gift that keeps on giving.
ReplyDeleteBB... he's an amazing guy isn't he?
ReplyDeleteWhat's interesting for all the talk from Obama about feeling blacks' pain the Eric Holder DOJ recently totally cleared Zimm in the Trayvon Martin death. Now if the Loretta Lynch DOJ clears the officer in the Eric Garner case I'm gonna think Obama is really a closet white guy.
DeleteZ-man... I have no doubt Obama feels the pain, but he, like many is not calling folks out. To date, only Bill Clinton had the, ahem, cajones, to do that in the famous Sista Souljah moment.
ReplyDeleteHe's had the platform, but like many, is seen as a turn coat because of his education.
I've seen this in my wifes family also. They are no fans of Rev Al, or Jesse for that matter, but are reluctant to be openly critical, not wanting to give "ammo" to others who would also be critical maliciously.
So, as they are all Ivy League educated, it comes across as I got mine, you get yours... if you can.
Today I wiki'd the case of the then 15-yr. old girl out West, a Jeanna Giese, who survived a rabies infection with full-blown symptoms. Pioneering doctors followed an experimental treatment known as the Milwaukee Protocol. I just wanna get BB all jazzed up.
ReplyDeleteHere I thought the Milwaukee Protocol was a secret German brewing method used by all the Milwaukee breweries. I see Ms. Giese just graduated from college, one of the very few the Protocol has worked on.
DeleteImmediate vaccination is much more effective (unless you are in the growing population of vaccine deniers) and they are even planting edible
vaccine packets to immunize bat populations, successfully in targeted areas.
I always avoid suspicious drooling staggering dogs...and pitbulls.
Drooling dogs, probably why I never got a St. Bernard.
DeleteIn other news Kim Jong Un may have had an aunt poisoned.
ReplyDeleteOn his Mom's or Dad's side? Polonium in the Pajeon , ricin in the rice,
Deleteanthrax in the andong jjimdak or
strychnine in
the samgyeopsal? My guess- she got a peek at Rodman and suffered
immediate apoplexy. not sure.
Dunno which side of the family the aunt was on. Didn't he also do in an uncle not that long ago? Makes those occasional and obligatory family get-togethers that much more stressful.
DeleteDon't know if you saw that the dear leader of North Korea had his Sec Def killed for treason. At least one report said he was executed by an anti aircraft gun. This is Austin Powers Dr Strangelove stuff if true.
ReplyDeleteI did read that yesterday but I was so disturbed by the aunt. Is the Worm still hanging with him and how do they feel about crossdressers over there?
DeleteMeanwhile the bottled water scam has hit a new low. The expensive stuff is taken
ReplyDeletedirectly from California municipal water supplies: not only is CA is the drought of the century, the local taxpayers subsidize the purification process. And I bet there are
some in that city that pay big$$$ for their pure bottled water, rather than getting it
from their tap. My guess? CA will be fracking for water before long.
BB... let's inject oil at high pressures to force long neglected water deposits to the surface. Yeah, that's the ticket...
ReplyDeleteBTW John Tesh is with you on tap vs. bottled water. Me? I like my Voss.
ReplyDeleteI almost never drink bottled water. Unless I am in a country, like Mexico, where the tap is less than safe. My wife though... she loves the bottled stuff. And apparently the upcharge to get it...
ReplyDeleteI go both ways. Of course the conspiracists have had a field day with fluoride.
ReplyDeleteWater is water. We note:
Delete"Coca Cola and Pepsi charge more for bottled water than soda simply because they can: consumers are willing to pay more for water than carbonated drinks." Given that water is free, the mark-up must be terrific.
We further note: Evian spelled backward is Naïve.
BB, since when did you become a conspiracy guy?
ReplyDeleteConspiracy- what's the deal with an apparently competent RR engineer going over
ReplyDelete100 mph in Philly? Had a call this AM from some guy that said in a thick Brooklyn
accent, "How ya doin' grandpa? He continued, "ya know who dis is?" I said I was fine and no, I had no idea of "who dis is". He announced, "Dis is yer oldest grandson" Informed him he had the wrong number. Conspiracy: did he indeed
have the wrong number, or is the mob in Brooklyn after me? :)
On a related note, some folks are seeing this guy was a gay activist and are wondering if that was a factor in the crash.
ReplyDeleteI'm struggling to see how that us relevant at all to anyone other than folks who believe gays have no business in society.
To me there was nothing subversive at work in this derailment since the engineer made the decision to apply the emergency braking system at the last minute although too late. Heavily reminds me of that other major derailment still within recent memory, the one that occured around the Spuyten Duyvil area in NYC. The culprit then - lack of sleep.
ReplyDelete"At least nine people are dead and an unspecified number injured after rival biker gangs did battle at the Twin Peaks Restaurant at the Central Texas Marketplace in Waco, Texas." What is it about Waco?
ReplyDeleteI just loved when they called Twin Peaks, a Hooters style restaurant a sports bar. I wonder what sport they were thinking of?
ReplyDeleteI'm always reminded of the David Lynch tv series called "Twin Peaks."
ReplyDelete