Bydio

No, I’m not a timely blogger, so quit your internal bitching monologue.

Don Imus: douchebag whose rights weren’t abridged.  Can he be fired for being a dick?  Sure.  Can he be prosecuted?  No.  His freedom of speech is still intact, because freedom of speech is freedom from being prosecuted and jailed for offensive speech.  His employer doesn’t have to put up with that shit.

Don Imus has said far more offensive things on-air than “nappy-headed hos”, and I just don’t give a fuck.  I didn’t listen to him more than once in my life, and that was enough.  He was a shock-jock like Howard Stern, and the assholes who hate free expression got to them both.  If Imus has a decent audience, then he’ll be back on satellite radio where censorship isn’t in full effect… yet.

To sum up: Imus = Douche ::> freedom of speech not abridged ::> Nazi media censors suck ass ::> Imus = Satellite Radio.

Tom Freier, a spokesman for the North Dakota Family Alliance, which opposes Potter’s bill, said he believed the existing law had important symbolic value.

“I think when we stand up for our principles and our standards, I think that’s something to be admired, as opposed to being ridiculed,” Freier said.

And this is what a real dude says:

“We’re never going to get married — for what?” Vetter said. “You get married one year, and die the next.”

N.D. weighs repeal of cohabitation ban

Mexico: Jealous husbands may face trial in court

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican men who display extreme
jealousy or avoid sex with their wives could be tried in court
and punished under a new law, the special prosecutor for crimes
against women told a local newspaper on Friday….

So I’m reading an article at Dhimmi Watch originally from the UK Daily Mail, and one of the first paragraph makes some startling points about this woman’s views:

And despite her presentation by Channel 4 as a moderate, in the past the 38-year-old has described non-believers as “rats in cages going round on a treadmill” of consumerism, and declares she would like to see Britain’s pubs converted into mosques.

Pretty wild stuff.  So I read on, and see:

Atkinson went on, in an essay published on the Internet for fellow muslims: “When I see large numbers of non-believers I feel very sad for them as they remind me of rats or gerbils in cages going round and round on a treadmill, believing that they are fulfilling their sole purpose in life and reaching their true destiny (which is Argos).

“If only they could uncover their eyes and see the damage they cause themselves and to their children.

“I feel certain that if they were to have a tiny glimpse of what Islam could give them there would be Mosques on every corner instead of pubs.”

So that first interesting paragraph somewhat overstates this woman’s position.  Now I don’t agree with the woman — she’s a mixed-up radical searching for a cause greater than herself to justify her existence, and works for radicals with bully-tactic ethics — but the Daily Mail was stirring up some shit, so you know you can’t exactly trust what the Daily Mail reports because they like to overemphasize some points for sensationalism.

Further, I’d bet that some women do find freedom in being relieved of responsibility for certain things. It’s much easier to follow when you “know your place” as described by a book than it is to lead in a society where you have to make more decisions for yourself.

Freedom for some is slavery for others, but the ultimate freedom is being able to decide for yourself which to choose. That’s what I try to stand for; not freedom for freedom’s sake, but freedom to choose your own path, no matter if it’s making it in the world of business or becoming a veiled housewife.  The ability to choose your path is the real freedom.

From this article, complaining about a conservative site that highlights bias (sometimes wrongly, in my opinion), they do the old bait and switch at the end.

Laura Bush complains that the media isn’t talking about the schools being built.  The LA Times has a piece about how students in Iraq are being targeted by terrorists.  This kostard puts the two together as if it’s proof that the schools are  not being built.

Wait, that’s too logical.  The person who wrote this article says nothing about the schools being built or not.  He/She/It puts these two stories together for the sole purpose of making someone think that building schools in Iraq is a failure because the students can’t go to school.  I’m guessing that this kostard points this out as a reason why building schools shouldn’t be talked about.

So the U.S. builds schools in Iraq, and terrorists threaten and kidnap students, so the schools are a failure?  You must be joking.  Seriously, how stupid are you if you believe that line of reasoning?  If a school was built here, and the KKK started threatening and kidnapping students, would you honestly say the school shouldn’t have been built and it proves that the people who built it failed in their job?  Hell no!  You’d say, “Let’s lynch us some KKK fuckballs and let these kids get back to school!”

You really have to be deranged to blame the U.S. for terrorists acting like terrorists.  Remember, they’ve been doing this shit for centuries, even before the U.S. was created, so don’t even pretend we caused it.

And to go along with the image in this post, I offer a song:

Men Without Hats - Safety Dance

hy·poc·ri·sy

1. a pretense of having a virtuous character, moral or religious beliefs or principles, etc., that one does not really possess.

Okay, now to give an example of hypocrisy:

Muslim pilgrims urged to complain Washington Times

American Muslims making a religious pilgrimage to Mecca are being encouraged to file civil rights complaints if they feel discriminated against by airlines.

[...]

A guide issued by CAIR advises Muslims that “as an airline passenger, you are entitled to courteous, respectful and non-stigmatizing treatment by airline and security personnel.”

“You have the right to complain about treatment that you believe is discriminatory,” the guide says.

So what’s the hypocrisy, you ask?  From ReligionFacts.com:

Few non-Muslims have ever seen the rites and rituals of the Hajj, as non-Muslims are strictly prohibited from entering Mecca and Medina. Roadblocks are stationed along roads leading to the city.

So Muslims are encouraged to file anti-discrimination lawsuits against airlines while traveling on a religious journey to a destination that, for centuries, has specifically discriminated against non-Muslims.

Where’s our right to complain about THEIR discrimination against non-Muslims?

What if the Ku Klux Klan made a similar statement, saying “file an anti-discrimination lawsuit against the airline if they don’t treat you like the master race while flying to a Klan rally.”  People would go apeshit over that.  Neither Christians, Jews, Hindus, nor Buddhists do this shit, so Muslims shouldn’t be able to get away with this kind of manipulation.

If they want religiously segregated cities in their own countries, fine, that’s their prerogative (even if it is retarded), but playing this hypocritical politically-correct game is bullshit and they should be called out for it.

Update 20061214: Others have picked up on this.

CAIR Sets Up Grievance Theater Hotline
CAIR urges Muslims making pilgrimage to Mecca to file civil rights complaints against airlines

From ynetnews.com (the source is Palestinian, so I question its veracity, but if true…):

The Palestinian news agency Maan, quoting a senior member of the Palestinian government, reported Wednesday that “ministers of the Hamas-led government recently held talks with European countries and with a delegation of the American Democratic Party.

The Palestinian official said that Hamas representatives held meeting in European countries and even succeeded in convincing the Europeans to accept the movement’s stance (click for their stance).

The Palestinian official expressed his hope that the recent talks would lead to positive developments, especially in light of “Hamas’ flexibility in its diplomatic stances.”

He refused to elaborate on the meeting and where it took place, claiming that Hamas is not interested in harming the Democrats’ chances to win the 2008 elections.

If this is true (and it’s not verified yet), then if you vote Democrat, you get “leaders” who work with Hamas.  Never.

American Thinker reports, Transatlantic Intelligencer translates, World Politics Watch publishes:

Do you mean
to say that if Israel did not exist, there would suddenly be democracy
in Egypt, that the schools in Morocco would be better, that the public
clinics in Jordan would function better?

I think so.

In the end, is it a matter of feelings of self-esteem?

Exactly. It’s because we always lose to Israel. It gnaws at the people
in the Middle East that such a small country as Israel, with only about
7 million inhabitants, can defeat the Arab nation with its 350 million.
That hurts our collective ego. The Palestinian problem is in the genes of every Arab. The West’s problem is that it does not understand this. [emphasis added]

So if we let Israel crush this preposterous land-for-peace myth and integrate the Palestinian Arabs, can we finally end this shit once and for all?  Please?

Did you know that oil is traded in U.S. dollars and no other currency?  I didn’t until a few months ago.  I was reminded of it from this article at lindasog.com.

I found that oil was only traded in U.S. dollars kinda odd.  Why is it only traded in dollars, not euros or shekels or rupees?  My brain couldn’t comprehend, so I let it slide.  It became more trivia in my addled brain.

Come to find out Iran is planning to trade oil for euros now.  Okay, so what’s the big deal?

Well, it seems the dollar is propped up by oil.  I don’t think this is some conspiracy thing, but please correct me if I’m wrong.  We went off the gold standard in 1972, but oil backed the dollar, basically keeping our monetary system stable and prosperous.  After all, if you can only buy oil in dollars, then you have to have dollars to buy oil.  Every country on earth would need U.S. dollars to buy their oil.  In 1972 they may’ve been thinking, “It’s highly unlikely people won’t need oil anytime soon, so there’s plenty of time to figure out another way to back the dollar and keep it strong.”

Well, no one was going to fuck with the U.S. in any major way back in the 70s.  Viet Nam, the Cold War, re-election of Tricky Dick… shiiiit, we looked like we were militarily ready and willing to fuck with anyone.

But now, we’re kinda looking like the big dude who cries when we get into a real fight.  Yes, we look like pussies.

What better time to undermine the big pussies, right?  The E.U. can get Iran to trade oil in euros in exchange for allowing Iran to do some heinous shit, but then THEIR currency is backed by oil, making it much stronger and propped up by the most-used energy source in the world.  Iran gets a pass at the U.N. if the U.S. starts to get crabby, and the E.U. becomes more secure with oil backing its fiat currency.  Win-win, right?

We all know the capricious nature of international politics, and I’m betting the E.U. is selling its soul for this deal, but now maybe you can see why the E.U. fucks with us at the U.N.

The full implications range much farther than this, but this was a question I’d asked myself before, and now I think this is the answer.  Either that or I’m on crack.  You decide.

This is all just a guess, mind you, but it seems to fit.  I’m no economist.

Update 20061212: More on how Oil Producing Countries own dollars, and how they’re getting rid of them.

Yup, they’re annoying, they’re long, they run up your bill… they’re cell phone voicemail messages.  David Pogue of the New York Times found out how to get around the messages and get right to the *beep*:

Verizon: press *

Sprint: press 1

T-Mobile or Cingular: press #

But you have to know which carrier the person you’re calling is using.  Well, he has a solution for that, too:

Just add the instruction in your greeting! That’s the best of all worlds: your callers hear your voice but not the recorded lady’s, and they don’t have to remember what the keystroke is.

So in your cell phone greeting, tell people they can press “X” to go right to the beep.  Simple.

Just so you know, I’m on T-Mobile.

David Pogue, rock on!