Friday, December 07, 2007

Only to find Gideon's Bible. Gone.

"Are they now to look for salvation and solace from an iPod docking station or a goldfish?"

My buddy and I were desperate for money and we were hungry like only young guys can be. We'd spent the day and most of the evening trying to get some cash for food, and as the night began to close in for the final curtain we did manage to scrape up enough for pizza, which we had to take away because the joint was closing. We stood on the sidewalk resting our paper plates on a news kiosk, savoring the smell of garlic, looking at the loveliness of cheese and tomato sauce. But then there was a smacking sound across the street and a -- slapping-ripping, a thud, a sickening sound that drew our attention to the hotel across the street, to the mess that was the mortal remains of some guy who'd jumped and hit the metal bar in the hotel awning, cutting himself roughly in half before falling in pieces to the pavement to splash against the wall and window and the cars parked at the kerb. Pizza.

I've spent much of my life living in hotels. I've always considered it a good life with an end at the end of the road. Many times in my life I've witnessed those who have no home, or who have left their homes for rooms alone, and from them they jump.

CULTURE DIGEST: Hotels ban Gideon Bibles; some Christian groups oppose 'cable choice'

Posted on Dec 7, 2007 | by Erin Roach NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--

Each Bible placed in a hotel room has the potential to reach up to 2,300 people in its estimated six-year life span, and about 25 percent of travelers read the Bibles in their hotel rooms, according to The Gideons International, a group that has been placing Bibles in hotel rooms since 1908.

The Gideons say they receive testimonies almost daily of lives changed because of the Bibles they've placed, including one man who planned to commit suicide on Christmas Eve. The man said he threw the Bible onto the hotel room floor and it fell open to John 14, where Jesus says He gives peace. Now the man is a pastor and his family has been restored.

But a growing number of hotels are opting not to allow the placement of Gideon Bibles, according to an article in Newsweek magazine.

"In the rooms of Manhattan's trendy Soho Grand Hotel guests can enjoy an eclectic selection of underground music, iPod docking stations, flat-screen TVs and even the living company of a complimentary goldfish. But, alas, the word of God is nowhere to be found," the article begins.

Such hotels say society is evolving and a younger, hipper generation has no interest in the Bible. They also say they would have to cater to a variety of belief systems and could not single out Christianity.

R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, noted the tragedy that awaits if people aren't given the chance to encounter God's Word when they find themselves troubled in a hotel room.

"Are they now to look for salvation and solace from an iPod docking station or a goldfish?" Mohler wrote on his blog at albertmohler.com.

"... This development is another reminder that we are living in a time of tremendous cultural and moral change. The absence of Gideons Bibles from an increasing number of hotel rooms tells us something about the secularization, sexualization, and extreme sensitivities of our age," Mohler said.

"It also tells us that there will be no Bibles available in those hotel rooms when travelers need them, and that is a tragedy by any measure," he added. "Think of this the next time you are in a hotel room. Check the bedside table for a Gideons Bible. When you find one, thank the hotel management. And, when you have the opportunity, thank the Gideons."
http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=26993

The [Gideon Interational] Association began in a hotel room on September 14, 1898, in Boscobel, Wisconsin. The manager of the Central Hotel there asked traveling salesmen John H. Nicholson of Janesville, Wis., and Samuel E. Hill of Beloit, Wis., to share a room in a crowded hotel, which was hosting a lumbermen's convention. In Room 19, above the saloon, the men discovered that they were both Christians. They prayed and read the Bible together before settling down for the night. They talked about starting a Christian traveling men's association but parted ways the next morning without any definite plans. A chance meeting the following May rekindled the idea, and on July 1, 1899, the two salesmen, joined by a third, William J. Knights, met in Janesville and founded the Gideons. The name comes from the Old Testament book of Judges, and refers to a man who was willing to do whatever God asked of him. Today, the Boscobel Hotel, where the two founders met, is listed on the National Historical Register, and Room 19, where the idea of the Gideons was conceived, is marked with a special plaque.

The Gideons primary purpose has always been personal evangelization conducted by Christian business and professional men. As early as 1900, the organization considered putting Bibles at the front desk of the hotels its members stayed in, but it was not until 1908 that the association voted to place Bibles in all hotel rooms. Within 20 years of the first placement of a Gideon Bible in a hotel room, the association distributed one million Bibles....
http://ky.essortment.com/gideonbible_rcwz.htm

The ambulance came and the fire truck came. The pizza guy came out to see what the commotion was, saw the firemen hosing down the building and the sidewalk and the cars, looked at us like we were a couple of savages, and went into his shop, returning with the day's left-overs.

Suicide is common. More common is Human kindness. Hey, Mister. Thank you.

Hiding Gamil Gharby No More

Have you ever experienced (somene else) showing up at a party of people you don't know well but were hoping to meet and impress, only to find yourself-- I mean the other person-- showing up attired in something completely inappropriate? And the taxi is gone. And you brought a bottle of wine to a Temperance group? And you showed up at what is in fact not a party but a funeral? Yeah, sometimes all the clues just go straight over your head, all the information you thought you got is obviously wrong, and you show up looking like an utter fool. I mean, not you, someone else. Then imagine you're a Canadian 'feminist.' You show up with your picket sign, your India cotton dress and granny glasses with burning bra in hand to protest and emote in public about the constant and unrestrained rampage of indiscriminate murder of women in Canada-- to find out your at the wrong party. You're ten years too late. What were you thinking? I mean not you-- not you, that other person. Like the 22 year old, six foot, 200 pound kid in the line-up to buy a ticket to the concert of his favorite heavy metal rock band. He looks around to find all the others in the line-up are skinny 15 years olds. He can't believe the band has sold out to kids. He's loved that band for years. Now look! They play for 15 year olds. What an outrage they that they sold out. Check this out, this part by Tamara Cherry writing in the Toronto Sun. First some background.

Marc Lépine (October 26, 1964 – December 6, 1989), born Gamil Gharbi, was a 25-year-old man from Montreal, Quebec, Canada who murdered fourteen women and wounded ten women and four men at the École Polytechnique, an engineering school affiliated with the Université de Montréal, in "the Montreal Massacre", also known as "the École Polytechnique massacre".[1]

[....]

Gamil's father had contempt for women and believed that they were only intended to serve men. [4]

[....]

Gharbi legally changed his name to Marc Lépine in 1982 at the age of 18.[8]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_L%C3%A9pine

****

Mark Steyn reprises Gamil Gharbi

M. Lepine was born Gamil Gharbi, the son of an Algerian Muslim wife-beater, whose brutalized spouse told the court at their divorce hearing that her husband "had a total disdain for women and believed they were intended only to serve men." At 18, young Gamil took his mother's maiden name. The Gazette in Montreal mentioned this in its immediate reports of the massacre. The name "Gamil Gharbi" has not sullied its pages in the 12 years since.

http://hallsofmacadamia.blogspot.com/2006/09/who-was-gamil-gharbi.html
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OK, knowing what you know now, here's the cynical view of what happened. This is the view of one who shows up and just doesn't get it. But that's just fine, because according to the writer below it's not really about the girls killed in Montreal. It's about the writer's emotional response, her outrage, and her pose. Maybe I'm the one who's clueless. Judge for yourself:

Violence against women 'pervades our whole society'
Toronto gathering commemorates Montreal Massacre

By Tamara Cherry, Sun Media

It's not just about the 14 women killed on that fateful day at Montreal's Ecole Polytechnique 18 years ago.

It's about the one or two women killed by their partners every week in Canada. The 50% of Canadian women over 16 years old who have been victimized by at least one act of physical or sexual violence.

It's about the 23 women and children murdered in Ontario as a result of domestic violence this year alone.

"Let's not kid ourselves," Lesley Parrott told a packed auditorium at Women's College Hospital today during a ceremony to commemorate the Montreal Massacre's 14 victims who were targeted Dec. 6, 1989 solely because of their gender. "A female baby born in this hospital today is already at risk just because she's a female."

Over the years, Dec. 6 has come to symbolize a day of empowerment for all women victimized by violence and abuse -- women like Parrott, whose 11-year-old daughter, Alison, was raped and murdered in July 1986.

"When so many women -- women like you, women like me -- are being affected, it pervades our whole society," After the ceremony, which saw 14 red roses placed in a vase, as well as one white rose symbolizing this year's women and children victimized by violence, Parrott said, "I think they (the Montreal victims) are the beacons that say, 'Look at this issue.'"

Lia Grimanis was physically abused by her father and uncle 18 years ago as a teenager. A year later, she sought help in a shelter.

She has since mended the relationships with her family and moved on to a successful career and life of philanthropy.

"Today symbolizes the empowerment of women," Grimanis said today. "We need to know that we can live with integrity and that the very fact of our sex will not put us in danger."

Today's event was one of several ceremonies, marches and vigils throughout the city and Canada to mark the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women.

At the Montreal school where Marc Lepine stalked the hallways, dividing men from women before unleashing a hail of bullets, a white rose was put on each of the 14 stainless steel monuments in the square named in the memory of his victims, while 14 white ribbons were tied around nearby trees.

Flags on all federal buildings were lowered to half-mast.

Dozens of women in Halifax held a moment of silence and unfurled a clothesline containing blue panels made by abused women. Many had messages about their experiences at the hands of their assailants, with one listing the grim emotions linked to their abuse: pain, guilt, confusion and isolation.

"We will not forget those 14 young women who were so tragically, so suddenly taken from this world, from their friends, from their families and from the bright futures that lay ahead for each one of them," Premier Dalton McGuinty said in Toronto. "We will not forget any of the women who are victimized by violence in this country everyday. And together, we vow to stop this terrible violence."

"It's not about today," said Parrott. "It's about what we do on an ongoing basis."
http://torontosun.com/News/TorontoAndGTA/2007/12/06/4711563.html

****

Below is a short excerpt from John Orth:


John Orth, "My Thoughts on the Montreal Massacre"

December 7, 2004 (Addendum, November 20, 2005)

It is time once again for our annual exercise in self flagellation - the Montreal massacre memorial. As the media suggests, this event does indeed reveal a great deal about Canadian society, but it is not what they are telling you....

[T]here is one critically important fact regarding the Ecole Polytechnique shooting that has been deliberately excluded from virtually every news report of the past fifteen years - the murderer's true name was Gamil Gharbi.

Mr. Gharbi was the son of an Algerian Muslim. His father was a convicted wife beater. His mother testified at their divorce hearing that he had "a total disdain for women, and believed they were only intended to serve men." Mr. Gharbi changed his name to Marc Lepine when he was eighteen. Of course, the liberal media does not want you to know this, because it would reveal that their entire analysis of the massacre is complete nonsense. For fifteen years we have been told Mr. Lepine was a product of North American culture, and this culture is to blame for his hatred of women. Mr. Lepine's violent misogyny was merely a more extreme manifestation of attitudes present in most Canadian males, so the feminist theory goes. The truth is, Mr. Lepine was a product of North African culture. Canadian males in general resemble Mr. Lepine about as closely as we do the September 11 terrorists.

To the best of my knowledge this information has been mentioned only four times in a Canadian newspaper - in the Montreal Gazette the day after the massacre, in a 1999 Toronto Star article, and twice in the National Post in 2002, in articles by Diane Francis and Mark Steyn.
http://vaxxine.com/scon/montreal.htm
****

Tamara Cherry missed the game by quite a few seasons and no one told her to find a new game. So she shows up in last year's ridiculous fashion while others look foolish in this year's fashion. Tamara, honey, this year it's all about Global Warming. Shed some baggage and get hip. Climate change. That's what it's all about. Dead girls? No, no, no. Climate change. Are you paying any attention at all?

Thursday, December 06, 2007

What does Col. David Hunt MEAN by: "Low-life, scum-sucking bottom-feeders"?

I just finished Colonel David Hunt, On the Hunt: How to Wake Up Washington and Win the War on Terror. I'm still laughing over the last book I read, Colonel David Hunt,They Just Don't Get It: How Washington Is Still Compromising Your Safety--and What You Can Do About It, in which he writes, "If bureaucracy is so good, then why doesn't the enemy have one?" I want this guy on my football team. He is a 'no bullshit' winner. Sophisticated? Not a chance. When he writes of some of America's top and most famous contemporary military leaders and Donald Rumsfeld he calls them "scum-sucking bottom-feeders." What's not to like? What's not to get? Well....

From Publishers Weekly
"Hang onto your ball caps and hairpieces, this is going to be monkey-butt ugly." Indeed. Delivering an account of the U.S.'s failures in combatting terror, Hunt, a Fox TV News military analyst and retired army colonel, depicts a world of gutless politicians, bungling bureaucrats, deceitful allies and bleeding-heart liberals. His solution is to expand the armed forces and vastly contract bureaucracy, especially the many intelligence agencies, which he proposes be combined into one central bureau with a single, long-term director who is exempt from testifying before congressional committees. Hunt hates congressional committees and admires elite military teams like the SEALs and Delta Force; he wants them turned loose. Merged into the "TKA" (Terrorist Killing Agency), they would receive intelligence from the now competent intelligence bureau, proceed to wherever terrorists operate and (with or without the host country's permission) kill them. The author considers Israel an ideal model; its forces, he says, respond viciously to every attack. Legal niceties and public relations take a back seat. Assassination teams travel the world to murder Israel's enemies. (Thoughtful readers may wonder why, after decades of slugging it out, Israel remains wracked with terrorism.) No group escapes the author's venom—or his praise.

Yes, P.W., thoughtful readers do wonder why Israel is still playing softball with killers. But I quibble.


Hunt is often funny, always honest, and a conversationalist writer. His theses are straightforward: Bad guys are attacking America? Kill them. I'm with you, Colonel. Anything more is along the same lines if not as terminal. And, to top it all, he's a dedicated supporter of American law and the Constitution, unlike so many of our judges and lawyers.

A citizen reviewer from Amazon.com writes this:


L. A. Kane
This book is an outstanding, albeit terrifying look into the war on terror and our will/ability to win it. Col. Hunt argues that three major inhibiters--apathy, bureaucracy, and a lack of political will stand in our way. A quick synopsis:

Apathy amongst the media, politicians, and the electorate is very dangerous because the bad guys are still out there and still trying their level best to do us in. Regardless, in the four years since 9/11 apathy has taken hold nearly everywhere. Fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan just don't seem real; terrorist actions in foreign countries (e.g., Bali nightclub bombing, Spanish train bombing) don't feel like a clear and present danger here.

Bureaucracy and status quo mentality have combined with this lack of urgency to stall essential change. For example, the Director of National Intelligence has neither the budgetary control nor the hire/fire authority to really control the various agencies that report to him. Intelligence officials spend too much time in congressional committees and not enough finding and fighting our enemies. The White House staff numbers in the thousands today while back in the Kennedy Administration it was less than a hundred...

Political will not only addresses the ability to make needed change but also the willingness to take action at all. For example, even though the pre-Iraq war WMD intelligence was totally inaccurate, no one was fired and essential organizational/cultural change has still not been made. The FBI's $100M computing sinkhole not only led to no working system but also no firings for those whose job it was to implement the project. And, we are, in Hunt's words, "still sleeping with the enemy." We have friendly relations with the Russians while they sell weapons to terrorists and unfriendly countries. We support Saudi Arabia even though their terrorist crackdowns are mostly just for show and they continue to fund extremist religious schools and institutions.

The first part of the book is designed to scare us into action. Not only does he point out the many problems, however, but he also offers a solution. This would include markedly expanding the military, untying the hands of our special forces, massively reducing the power of congressional committees, gutting the entrenched bureaucracy, and making select changes to the law, among other things. I somehow doubt any of these changes can take place unless, god forbid, there is another large scale terrorist attack on US soil, but I found the book illuminating nevertheless. You can certainly see Col. Hunt's military background and perspective shine through.

The book is hard-hitting and very frank. Treated as an academic study it is comprehensive, well researched, interesting, and pretty well written. And, it forms the basis of a plan of action should our elected officials wish to step up the war on terror to the next level. If you want the inside scoop on the war on terror, you gotta read this book. Permalink
http://www.amazon.com/They-Just-Dont-Get-Safety/dp/140009741X/ref=pd_sim_b_title_1


I follow informally the careers of two men in Army and Naval Intelligence, one a sergeant completing his doctorate, the other already finished and moving on. Both are exceptionally intelligent and considerate writers of high style and depth of insight. One might not expect to find a sgt. completing a Ph.D. Why not? Because sgt.s are enlisted men, those Leftists refer to as too stupid to work in the "real world", losers who can't make a living on their own, and the usual crap.... Hunt is no intellectual. He's a high-ranking officer, a straight talking guy, and on the face of it one might think him a stereotypical Leftist-cliche sergeant rather than top brass. One never knows till one knows. Hunt is a talker. His books are transcriptions of a monologue. If you like what he's on about, then you'll find him well-informed and decent. Those biased against the military, against rational action, in favor of all things Left, they won't get through a page of this. I doubt a Leftist would even pick up a book like this to browse the blurb. Oh well.

Hunt is a commentator at Fox Television. That's about as much as I know of him outside the few personal details in his books. I don't know if, for example, he's a major shareholder in Blackwater security company. I raise the issue because every writer has in his mind an ideal reader, the one reader who understands it all, gets every joke, nods in appreciation of each insight, who really and truly gets it. My feeling is that Hunt is writing for the ideal reader who is a combat veteran spoiling for the good fight again in real circumstances, not the artificial nonsense of a bureaucratic military machine run by lawyers and politicians trying to win the next election. My feeling while reading these two works is that Hunt is calling upon such men reading with me to join up with private security firms to fight to win a just and real battle. He's not an intellectual. He's a fighter. His books are for such people.

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

The People's Cube on Muslim Grievance

Once again The People's Cube delivers the real truth, as it is today, to your doorstep, in part via this blog. Well, a bit of the real truth as it is today. Below are some bits from a longer analysis by the psychology dept. at The People's Cube (link at bottom.). How do they do it?!
****

Following the misery inflicted on Islam by a toy bear that ended up with calls for the execution of an English woman, more Muslims are stepping forward with stories of long-suppressed emotional trauma imposed on them by so-called reality. This has led to the creation of support groups and social networks that help followers of the Prophet Mohammed cope with the agony of learning about life outside of their immediate environment, offering assistance with technical resources, practical guidance, and strategies for early intervention and punishment of those who offend Islam.

"I have always been offended by rubber ducks," says Mahmud Said of Portland, Oregon. "For a long time I felt stigmatized and inadequate, until one day I decided to write about it on an Internet forum. I received hundreds of heart-felt emails - from Morocco to Indonesia. It turns out that thousands of Muslim men between the ages of 18 and 35 have had traumatic experiences with rubber ducks.
"We started a support group that has grown to 10,000 members. Not only do we share horrifying rubber duck stories, we also try to increase public awareness by sabotaging the world supply of rubber ducks, setting fire to factories, abducting rubber duck distributors, and intimidating retailers. These are building blocks for our healthy future. With Allah as my witness, our public awareness campaign will soon result in a completely rubber-duck-free world."

[....]

The World Health Organization (WHO) has called on national governments to provide financial backing for the network of Muslim self-help groups, twelve-step healing programs, and training camps, creating an environment that is more supportive and empowering for sufferers of Offended Muslim Syndrome (OMS).

"Being a Muslim today means to be always aware that something, somewhere, is somehow offensive to Islam," said a report issued by WHO, a specialized agency of the UN that acts as a coordinating authority on international public health. "It is a shame to see the wealthiest nations of the world stingily hold on to their pockets in the face of the largest epidemic of reality-induced psychological disorder in human history."

The WHO report provides a list of symptoms of the Offended Muslim Syndrome, suggesting that the condition be officially recognized as a disability, with the ensuing costs covered by Western governments. The report also includes advice and recommendations by leading UN-affiliated health professionals:

[....]

Symptoms of Offended Muslim Syndrome (OMS)

  • Irritability, agitation, anxiety at the sight of women who are not fully covered
  • Prolonged rage or unexplained killing sprees
  • Significant changes in immigration patterns
  • Brooding about the past glory of the Caliphate
  • Decreased effectiveness and minimal work productivity
  • Difficulty in understanding new information without a trial lawyer
  • Feelings of despair or hopelessness about the existence of Israel
  • Recurring thoughts of death to the infidels
http://www.thepeoplescube.com/red/viewtopic.php?t=1621
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I love this site. It's got lots of in-depth reporting and highly informed critical analysis not found anywhere else. If the State Department were required to read this on a daily basis the world would be a much safer place. Consider writing to your congressman demanding that be so. You owe it to yourself, to your family, hell, you owe it to the nation. The People's Cube. Go for it.

Monday, December 03, 2007

French Still Life with Running Commentary

From The Sunday Times
December 2, 2007

France stunned by rioters' savagery

Matthew Campbell, Villiers-le-Bel

IN retrospect, it was not a good idea to have left his pistol at home. Called to the scene of a traffic accident in the Paris suburbs last Sunday, Jean-François Illy, a regional police chief, came face to face with a mob of immigrant youths armed with baseball bats, iron bars and shotguns.

What happened next has sickened the nation. As Illy tried to reassure the gang that there would be an investigation into the deaths of two teenagers whose motorbike had just collided with a police car, he heard a voice shouting: "Somebody must pay for this. Some pigs must die tonight!"

The 43-year-old commissaire realised it was time to leave, but that was not possible: they set his car ablaze. He stood as the mob closed in on him, parrying the first few baseball bat blows with his arms. An iron bar in the face knocked him down.

"I tried to roll myself into a ball on the ground," said Illy from his hospital bed. He was breathing with difficulty because several of his ribs had been broken and one had punctured his lung.

His bruised and bloodied face signalled a worrying new level of barbarity in the mainly Muslim banlieues, where organised gangs of rioters used guns against police in a two-day rampage of looting and burning last week.

Wow. The Americans on this board seem to have no idea of the racial / religious makeup of Europe. To say that "whites" will be the minority by 2050 is so far off the mark it's hilarious. The riots in France are not linked to religion. Its to do with the fact that France did not assimalate immigrates into their society. This is something that has happened in the UK, hence we do not have these issues. That is a testament to the British way of life. A tolerant society that is inclusive.... JJ, London, UK

Not far from where Illy was lying was a policeman who lost his right eye after being hit by pellets from a shotgun. Another policeman displayed a hole the size of a 10p coin in his shoulder where a bullet had passed through his body armour.

The flipside of the coin, of course, is the unspeakable barbarity, racism and viciousness of the French police. France is a notably racist country. In many small corners of the country shopkeeper will refuse to even serve black people, and the police have inflicted untold horrors on black and arab men and women in cells across the country. France is not a liberal society under attack from the beast within, it is a truly savage and bigoted one reaping its own personal whirlwind. John Ngobu, Paris

Altogether 130 policemen were injured, dozens by shotgun pellets and shells packed with nails that were fired from a homemade bazooka. It prompted talk of urban "guerrilla warfare" being waged on French streets against the forces of law and order.

[....]

Things were so tense in the suburbs, however, that the riots could easily erupt again with the prospect of deaths on either side setting off a much greater explosion and, conceivably, the deployment of the army to keep peace.

"Given the weapons being used, it was lucky that nobody was killed," said a policeman. Nearby were the charred remains of the local constabulary. The nursery school was burnt down. So was the library.

What is wrong with you people on here? The blatant, unashamed racism is absolutely disgusting. Hanging on to the one, hardly necessary and inflamatory, phrase "mainly Muslim banlieues" and ignoring the social problems in French society due to the employment situation. Has anyone even read about how grim life is in the bad banlieues?

So to just hang on to the religion aspect of it and blame everything on them because they are Muslim is ignorant. It is also ignorant to assume they must be there because they are new immigrants, or much be French citizens because they naturalised. I know it must be terribly shocking but Muslims can actually be born in Western countries!! I know this will also come as a shock, but people who identify as other religions as well as those obviously intellectually superior secularists also committ horrible crimes and riot!! Mindblowing isn't it. Lindsay, Lincoln, England

Rioting two years ago was widely regarded as a protest against poor housing, racial discrimination and unemployment of up to 40% in the grim housing estates surrounding most big French cities. But "Sarko" dismissed suggestions that nothing had been done to improve the situation, referring to the "Marshall plan" for the banlieues being drawn up by Fadela Amara, his urban development minister. At the same time he argued that, far from reflecting difficult living conditions, the violence was a result of the "thugocracy" of the suburbs, where drug-trafficking criminals held sway. "We shouldn't try to excuse the inexcusable," said the president in a television address to an anxious nation on Thursday, ridiculing the left's vision of rioters as "victims of social injustice". He pledged that those who fired at police would be tracked down, one by one, and tried on charges of attempted murder.

if anyone had had a fleeting glance at french history, they would know that the people living in these suburbs are mainly descendents of algerians and other french colonies brought over by the french to rebuild the country. Algeria was considered to be a french 'departement', just like normandy or britany, and its citizens french. I think i would be pretty annoyed if i was sidelined to some run-down banlieue, and it's very easy for the relatively well-off who have no idea what it is to live in these conditions, myself included, to class these rioters as 'savages'. Violence should never be condoned, but how are these people, neglected by the french education and social system, meant to have the capability for an alternative method of showing their contempt? natasha, brighton

[....]

"It felt like they were out to kill us," said one of the officers in Villiers-le-Bel last week. "We knew that there were weapons in the suburbs, but they have never been turned against us like that. The kids were shooting at us at close range, loading and reloading their weapons. I've never seen anything like it."

What extraordinary ignorance and complete incomprehension from the majority of commentators here. Keep reading Mark Steyn and stocking up on guns, guys. The boogyman's comin' to getcha !

I guess all the riots in America and elsewhere were "evil Muslims that hate your freedom" too ? No ?

The root causes are NOT religion or immigration, but because they don't sell headlines as well as the "fearrorism" that so many of the more right-wing leaning "Law und Order" papers rush to sell to a fearrorised public, they get ignored. Shame, really. Pierre, Nimes, France

[....]

As for Illy, he says he is not feeling vengeful but has identified one of his attackers from police photographs. He is certain to be able to pinpoint the rest. "Fortunately," he said, "I've got a very good memory."

Click here for a video of the Paris riots

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article2983714.ece


Sunday, December 02, 2007

Long Live Toilets!

Modernity has it's advantages, in spite of what one might hear from the ecology fanatics worrying about global warming and holes in the ozone layer due to industry, machinery, and technology. Next time you use the toilet try thinking what you'd do if your home didn't have one. Imagine how you'd live if no one in your whole city had one. What would you do? And what would others in your city do around you? Now, dear reader, close your eyes and pray for forgiveness for any time in your life that you have cursed the Modern world.

sewer graphic

I've written recently about toilets and sewers, many times recently, and many times over the course of the years this blog has been in existence. Based on that you'd be surprised to find out just how seldom I think of toilets and sewers. Then today in the local paper I saw an article part of which is below. None of this is about toilets per se. All of it is about Modernity and respect for the Human. I hate ecology. I do not care a whit for Mother Nature. I might be the writer of the essay so pithily entitled, "Mother Nature: Rape That Bitch-- With a Chainsaw!" People count. We can mine the Earth till it looks like an apple core hanging in space for all I care, and we can move on to do the same to Mars and the Moon. But first we had better take care of people. And the way to do so is to keep them clean and healthy. That will never come about by allowing vain and silly hippies to control our attitudes toward the valuable: not Mother Nature but Mom and the kids in the Third World, for a late start. You want to do good deeds in the world? Then forget about pot in every chicken, like some idiot hippie: a pot for every butt! No, it's not romantic. You won't impress your friends at cocktail parties. But if you never do anything else, don't stand silent when a fool talks about the joys of simple living, not when he's referring to people who don't live in the Modern world. Sentimentalizing people who don't have toilets should be a capital offense. At least tell people who do so to shut their filthy mouths. Why be so blunt? Read on:

How not to sh-- in the woods
The UN just declared 2008 the International Year of Sanitation. Funny perhaps until you consider that 2.6 billion people in the world lack access to a basic toilet. As Chris Cobb reports, it's a difficult problem to fix... because the worst-off countries won't acknowledge the problem. ...

Chris Cobb
The Ottawa Citizen

Sunday, November 25, 2007

George Yap [in] Kampala's slum neighbourhoods. 'I was walking with the children doing a sanitation survey and here we had to jump over an open ditch/sewer,' he explains. 'It was full of oil, garbage, flies and excrement. A nearby latrine likely empties its contents into this ditch. During the rainy season it overflows, flooding nearby homes.' Many poor neighborhoods are located on low-lying flood-prone area, he says. This coupled with the lack of proper drainage networks means this is a very common problem in Kampala's slums.

[….]

Enter Zakir Khandker.

[….]

Khandker helps to co-ordinate Bangladeshi community sanitation for WaterAid, a British aid agency. It's his job to convince people to practise safe sanitation. Lesson One: "The fecal-oral contamination chain."

[….]

"We ask men whether they want to expose their women to others," Khandker explains. "With open defecation, that's what happens." When talk turns to handwashing, he points an accusatory finger: "Are you interested in eating the shit of others?" The question may get a laugh, "but eventually they take it seriously." Despite piling evidence, governments in the worst affected countries often refuse to acknowledge the ravages of poor sanitation. Aid workers say such denial is reminiscent of the early days of HIV-AIDS.

If the comparison sounds overblown, consider that the UN estimates 6,000 children die every day from such diseases as chronic diarrhea associated with unsafe drinking water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene. Eighty per cent of illnesses in developing countries are linked to the same conditions.

In Ethiopia, one of the worst affected sub-Saharan African countries, only six per cent of the population has access to safe sanitation. The child mortality rate -- children under five years old -- is 169 deaths per 1,000 live births. In Kenya, one of the region's better off countries, the figure is 123. In Canada, it is six.

Canadian Clarissa Brocklehurst heads a UN task force on water and sanitation. The water supply and sanitation engineer calls safe sanitation the "poor cousin" of water supply.

"It's the last taboo," she says. "People get all shy and tipsy when sanitation comes up. We need to work on changing behaviour. We need to sell sanitation like products are sold and convince people of the dangers of open defecation -- shitting in the bush, basically." The key is to get communities and governments to acknowledge the need for proper sanitation. The type of toilets is almost irrelevant as long as they get used and can be maintained.

[….]

"It's puzzling," says George Yap, program director for WaterCan, the Ottawa-based aid group. "I guess it's an indication of the relative importance the government puts on it." Yap argues that water and sanitation should be a priority. "The current government is looking to get more bang for its aid bucks. We would argue that if you're looking for the greatest bang for the buck, water and sanitation will give you a concrete result. That's not to say it will be easy." The UN's Millennium Development Goals include improving sanitation facilities to half of the 2.6 billion people in need by 2015. By its own estimates, they will miss that target by half a billion people.

"It's mind-boggling," says Alan Etherington. The Ottawa sanitation specialist, who has worked worldwide, says the challenge of providing cheap sanitation to the world's poorest people is daunting.

"Can you imagine the anxiety of defecating in a plastic bag and when it's full throwing it over your fence onto a neighbour's roof or a communal pathway? Or imagine defecating into a smelly open pit where there are insects or snakes? Or lining up with your neighbours at a community toilet to use a disgusting, smelly space?" He adds that in many societies, women and girls can only use washrooms before dawn or after dusk. "Women don't defecate outside in daylight," he explains. "So they have to manage their bowels and bladder to control when they defecate. They get constipated and they get urinary tract infections.

"It's a huge daily stress for most poor people in the world and with increased urbanization and growing slums, it is only getting worse." Getting communities in the developing world to buy into the concept of safe sanitation is complex, he adds. "Africans and Asians don't buy toilets for health reasons," he explains. "They buy them for all the other reasons: status, convenience and privacy." Aid programs must understand these motivations, he says. "We have to work with local tradespeople to help them build better, affordable toilets. It might only be a crude $5 toilet that won't last a year, but at least it gets people into the habit of defecating in a safe, hygienic manner." In densely populated slums, the problem is complicated by the fact there are no sewers. Homes are often one-room shacks constructed from discarded materials. So installing toilets is not an option.

In some cases, there are communal sanitation areas, perhaps 20 units used by 50 people every day. "That's 1,000 uses," Etherington explains. "That's 400 kilos of fecal matter a day, every day that has to be disposed of." The sanitation block could be linked to a sewer, if one were available, or to a septic tank. "How do you empty the septic tank that gets full so quickly?" asks Etherington, who also has the answer: "In some parts of the world they are emptied by removing the cover when it rains and allowing a portion of the contents to be washed away and flood into the community." Dirty habits are hard to change -- especially when people don't understand that open defecation can spread deadly diseases. …

Etherington says the introduction of composting toilets -- "the recycling of fecal matter" -- has been a breakthrough.

[….]

One of the less obvious ramifications of poor sanitation is the devastating affect it can have on the lives of adolescent girls. Many abandon their education at the onset of their periods rather than deal with the embarrassment of sharing school facilities with boys.

"Leading agencies around the world now realize there has to be separate toilets for boys and girls," says Etherington.

And then there are the many social and cultural quirks that aid groups must acknowledge. For example, one agency in western Kenya was shocked to learn it is taboo for families to share a toilet with their in-laws.

... Talking about toilets was a disaster, says George Yap.

"Pooping in the fields is a common and ingrained practice," he explains. "If you tell a Maasai herdsman to poop in the same spot all the time, they respond by saying they have all this land, why would we want to put ourselves into a little outhouse that stinks when we can poop under the stars.

"Maasai sleep with their cattle who pee and defecate right next to them. It's awfully difficult to deal with hygiene promotion in that context. You learn from your mistakes, Sanitation is about behaviour change." …no system could work because of widespread ignorance about hygiene.

From these early errors, a strategy evolved that incorporates clean water, practical toilets and hygiene campaigns.

Last week UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon declared 2008 the International Year of Sanitation. Perhaps it is to make up for its shortsightedness in 2000 when the UN announced its millennium goals without a mention of sanitation. (It was included two years later in response to vigorous lobbying led by the British agency WaterAid.) Since then, there has been much talk. …

"Sanitation often involves several departments (of government) but not to the extent that one department takes charge," Yap explains. "If one department doesn't take charge, nothing gets done." By some calculations, every dollar spent to improve sanitation creates a $9 economic benefit for communities. A small investment yields great rewards, Yap says.

"You build one toilet and health will improve," he says. It makes sense, but governments are not convinced.

"We've got to talk about it. If you don't talk about it, how can you do anything to solve the problem? Sanitation is the elephant in the room. You can't ignore it."

1.1 billion people, about 20 per cent of the world's population, lack access to safe drinking water

2.6 billion people, about 40 per cent of the world's population, have no access to sanitation facilities

2.2 million people, mostly children under five, die every year from problems associated with the lack of water and sanitation

At any one time, half of the world's hospital beds are occupied by patients suffering from water-borne diseases
One litre of water weighs one kilogram.

In developing countries, it is common for water collectors, usually women and girls, to walk several kilometres every day to fetch water.

Filled pots and jerry cans weigh as much as 20 kilograms

More than 6,000 children die every day from diseases associated with lack of access to safe drinking water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene

In developing countries, about 80 per cent of illnesses are linked to poor water and sanitation conditions


A person in sub-Saharan Africa uses 10 to 20 litres of water a day; on average, a Canadian uses 326 litres a day
© The Ottawa Citizen 2007
You don't have to do anything about the story above. You might like to think about it. it won't cost you any money. You need expend no effort. What matters? It's a matter of attitude in the West that glorifies the primitive and excuses all manner of evil in the name of philobarbarism. So long as we tolerate this kind of sentimentalizing of people in primitive conditoins, so longas we romaticize their lives for our own vanity, they will never have our advantages because we'll forever deny it to them for their own supposed good. Stand up for Modernity. Stand up for colonialism. Shout "Hurrah! for Imperialism." When you hear some simpering hippie talk about the oneness of Third World peasants living in harmony with Mother Nature, think about this story above. In the quiet of your own mind, if nowhere else, shout: Long live toilets!

Muslims threaten West over "insult" to Mohammed rodent.

There are still people in positions of responsibility in government and society in the West who argue in favor of the Muslim world. One can only wonder how these people manage to tie their own shoe laces, let alone act as leaders of public employee unions and so-called mainstream churches and government departments. One would have thought ages ago that most if not every normal person on Earth would have sickened of the so-called Palestinians and the general Muslim world. But no, there are still the dhimmis and bootlicks of Islam in our midsts who cry the blues about the Jews and the Americans and the Western world picking on the Muslims. Incredible, shameful, and just the nature of things. History is chock-a-block with stories of sick people doing obviously vile and hateful and stupid things and getting away with them. We have our own today doing nothing worse than the usual band of scum-bags throughout history. Yes, once in a while one sees a man do something different. One must wonder why the vast and aggressive majority aren't fully behind such people. They aren't.

GLOBAL JIHAD
U.S. evangelist launches swine attack on Muslims
Outraged by Muhammad teddy bear flap, minister names pig after Islamic prophet
______________________________
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Posted: December 2, 2007

By Joe Kovacs
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

An American evangelist has jumped into the fray over the fate of a British teacher facing calls for death over a teddy bear named "Muhammad."

Bill Keller, host of LivePrayer, has posted a video on YouTube featuring a pink pig named Muhammad after the Muslim prophet. [Photo]


Bill Keller, host of LivePrayer, has posted a video on YouTube featuring a pink pig named Muhammad after the Muslim prophet.

"Indeed Muhammad was a man of murder," the pig, voiced by Keller himself, states in the video. "He was a pedophile, having a wife at the age of six. And I came to find out that the Quran really is nothing more than a book of fairy tales."

Story continues at World Net Daily: http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58996
****
It's amazing that so many in the West still not only tolerate the Muslims but grovel before them, betray Humanity generally, and scream insults at the passive world sitting stupidly on the side-lines fearful of more berating, more screaming, more accusations of whatever the day finds trendy.

GLOBAL JIHAD
'Don't let teddy bear b-tch see light of day'
Mideast terror leaders tell Sudan: 'She must be stoned or fired on'
________________________________
Posted: December 2, 2007
7:30 p.m. Eastern
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

Mideast terrorist leaders are threatening to kill a British teacher imprisoned in Sudan for allowing her students to name a teddy bear Muhammad, accusing the teacher of engaging in missionary activity in interviews with WND Jerusalem bureau chief Aaron Klein.

Some terror leaders warned of retaliatory attacks against U.S. and British targets.

During today's interviews, Klein petitioned the Islamic terrorists to respond to recent notorious Muslim desecration of other religions' holy sites and asked them whether they considered it hypocritical they are currently protesting the teddy bear report.

While the teacher, Gillian Gibbons, has been the target of violent street protests in Sudan, the jihadi leaders' threats mark the first time Mideast terror groups responded to the high-profile case.

"We call on our Sudanese brothers to prepare themselves with explosive belts and not allow this bitch to see the light of day," said Muhammad Abdel-Al, spokesman and a senior leader of the Gaza-based Popular Resistance Committees terror group.

"I pray to Allah that I could have the opportunity to go to Sudan with my brothers to slaughter this unbeliever Christian. We ask the Sudanese to execute her in hardest way. Any execution must be public, she must be stoned or fired on and the punishment must be harsh," Abdel-Al told Klein.

More at: http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=59000

"Some terror leaders warned of retaliatory attacks against U.S. and British targets."

Wait a minute. What retaliation? Who the fuck are these fucking idiot scums?
Why are we playing this game?

Scooped by the Punch

When I was a boy I wanted to be a pitcher for the New York Yankees. In college, I decided that I'd become instead a reporter for the New York Times. After traveling around the world I decided instead that I wanted to be a real Human being with an honest job. But when I lie in bed at night sometimes I still dream of being a Bronx Bomber. Star reporter for the New York Times? Not so much.

New York Times Taking a Beating
Thursday, November 29, 2007 1:09 PM
By: Jim Meyers

There's trouble all around for the New York Times. The paper has announced a hiring freeze and has cut staffers while its stock takes a beating on Wall Street.

In a memo sent to employees on Wednesday, the Times' Executive Editor Bill Keller stated: "As we approach 2008, it is clear that the newsroom is going to have to do even more to tighten spending, and to help the publisher and the Times Company meet the difficult financial challenges facing our industry.

The paper is eliminating about a dozen support positions and trimming "a number of" clerical and secretarial jobs, according to the memo obtained by Reuters.

Keller also told employees: "We put into place a hiring freeze several weeks ago, and except for those jobs that are critically important to our future ambitions, we will be trying to fill [the fired workers�] positions internally."

Also on Wednesday, an analyst with Banc of America Securities downgraded shares of the newspaper's parent, the New York Times Co., lowering its rating from 'neutral' to 'sell.'

Analyst Joe Arns said the company is his least favorite in the newspaper publishing sector, and lowered his target price on the stock from $21 to $14.

In addition to the Times, the company also publishes the Boston Globe, the International Herald Tribune and 15 other dailies.

Arns estimated that ad revenue in the newspaper industry will likely drop 9 percent next year as a collapse in the housing market and a hiring slowdown reduce the demand for classified advertising.

He also stated that luxury advertising, which accounts for almost a third of the Times' national ad revenue, could drop if the U.S. experiences a recession.

A slowdown in financial services spending could hurt the company as well, according to Arns, because about half of its revenue comes from business centers New York and Boston.

Shares of the company have fallen 31 percent this year, and dropped to as low as $16.02 on Wednesday morning.

But New York Times Co. Chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr. managed to sell 4,500 shares of his common stock in the firm before the latest drop in price.

He sold the shares on Nov. 20 and 21 for $17.70 and $17.75 a share, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A Times spokesperson said the sales were routine sales made every year for philanthropic purposes.

© 2007 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

How things change over the course of a life-time. I often try to recall the one thing of the thousand things I did that that pissed off my wife so badly that she filed for divorce. I think, "Ah, I know what it is," but then later I realize it wasn't that, couldn't have been that, because I recall some other thing that was even more outrageous than the one before. But there had to have been that one thing out of thousands of things that finally did it, and I want to avoid that again if I can. This time I think I have it.

I told her once, "Listen, sweet-hot, if OI doi befo-ah youse, which I coitenly hope ain't gonna be so," I told her to take my urn to Yankee Stadium and drop in a pretzel and a glass of beer. I told her that every time the Yankees hit the ball she had to shake the urn and yell on my behalf. Yeah, that's what did it. She wasn't a Yankees fan.

I figure Punch is going to call me up any day now and ask me to come in to keep the Grey Lady from departing, and that's because I have experience now in thinking about what I did to piss off my own gal so much, me being moody and introspective and actually caring about my relationships. I'm sure if Punch cares about it, he'll be calling. I certainly know more about fixing bad relationships than he does. Is that him now? Hey. That was quick.