Taking Sides in the Middle East

I just enjoyed reading this great article, Taking Sides in the Middle East, by Burt Prelutsky, a humor columnist and a film critic in Los Angeles (and wrote scripts for many TV series, check out his bio).

Excerpt:

I want that to be perfectly clear so that when I declare my concern for Israel, nobody will simply assume it’s because I’m Jewish.  I am on the side of Israel because it’s a western democracy, an ally of America, and because I regard her enemies to be our enemies, people dedicated to our mutual annihilation.

Israel’s foes believe in targeting women and children just so long as they’re Jewish or Christian.  They are not only intolerant of the freedoms we take for granted — speech and religion — but they are polygamous, treat their women as chattel and encourage their children to achieve martyrdom as suicide bombers.  Moreover, so-called honor killings are part of what passes for their culture.

Please read it all.

Love that ender:

I understand that civilized societies are expected to worry about the deaths of women and children.  But in civilized societies, parents don’t raise their youngsters to be suicide bombers, they don’t elect their leaders from the ranks of a terrorist group and they certainly wouldn’t dance in the street when 3,000 innocent Americans were incinerated on 9/11.

One poster reminded us about King David nearly 3000 years ago:

Those who hate me without reason
outnumber the hairs of my head;
many are my enemies without cause,
those who seek to destroy me.
I am forced to restore
what I did not steal.
Psalm 69:4

You Like Samuel Adams?

I do. Cheers.

Enjoy the quote from a great American patriot and the man who inspired the famous Boston Tea Party, Samuel Adams himself:

If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.

Racist Brazil President Blame White People for Crisis

This is the most irresponsible, astonishingly moronic and racist statement from the leader of the world’s 10th largest GDP nation, via Financial Times.com article:

“This crisis was caused by the irrational behaviour of white people with blue eyes, who before the crisis appeared to know everything and now demonstrate that they know nothing.”

Screw you, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Blaming white people (with “blue eyes”) for all the woes in the world is absolutely short-sighted, rubbish and pathetic. History does not bear it 100% and no amount of white-guilt whitewashing (puns intended) and leftist revisionism are going to change all of that.

There are historical documentations and stories of indigenous peoples competing and fighting against each other in Africa, Asia, the Americas and the Middle East well before the advents of European powers in the 16th century all over the world. The Spaniards encountered rival tribes engaged in brutal, bloody warfare with each other while they were exploring Central America. The colonists in North America encountered some native tribes competing against each other, sometimes founding themselves caught up in some of their duels, thus forcing the rival tribes to come to peace terms by either warfare or negotiation.

The word to describe peoples of Caucasian origins in Europe is something of a “taboo” among white peoples, because it is too generic and broad. All because we have a common pale color with a variety of hair-colors and eye-colors, white peoples came from all over different places for different reasons or different circumstances, even they fought against each other for centuries. In Northern Ireland, you have white Irish Catholics and white Irish Protestants engage in a perpetual feud dating back centuries, while both sides waged bloody campaigns against white Britons occupying the country. There is also a lingering resentment between white Poles and white Russians, even white peoples in the Baltic states view white Russians with disdain and distrust.

To blame white people with blue eyes for the global economic crisis and woes upon black and indigenous peoples is 100% nonsense. We have bad or misguided people engaged in improper, immoral or illegal practices, white, black, brown, or indigenous kind, all the times. It’s human nature, not race. Peoples competed for resources and lands all over the world for centuries.

The problem with white-guilt syndrome stems from being told with all the wrong impressions and biased sources about the colonists’ roles and advents in the New World between the 15th and 18th centuries. The WGS-afflicted educators never bother to look very carefully and think logically, only relying on emotional sentiments, empathy, and misplaced anger while teaching children and young adults about the “evil, cruel advents” of white peoples. It’s grossly irresponsible and the damages are unfortunately long-term.

The Brazilian President’s remark is uncalled for and must be rejected. Period. Brazil is a very important country with a lot of political and economic leverages in the 21st century. Certainly, the country is a boon to the United States on some important issues and I hope it would serve as a counterweight to Chavez’s dictatorial Bolviarian revolution in South America.

To be cured of white-guilt syndrome (and political correctness) completely, I should point you to few noteworthy books: the Politically Incorrect Guide to Western Civilization, the Politically Incorrect Guide to American History, and the Politically Incorrect Guide to Capitalism. Also, “God and Gold: Britain, America and the Making of the Modern World” by Walter Russell Mead is a must-read.

Death Penalty for “Offensive” Bloggers…in Iran?

This is very wrong on all levels: Iran is considering a new law to impose death penalty on Iranian bloggers for “offensive” (read: dissenting or criticizing) materials posted on the Web, according to MyDD and Think Progress. This is viewed as a clear violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, something that the Islamic Republic of Iran strongly objected for 3 decades.

Obama’s videoed message to the Iranian leadership last week was just really dumb and short-sighted. Who the hell put up that nonsense in Obama’s head to deliver that “overture” dreck? The Iranian leadership and the Ayatollah himself laughed it off.

Ryan Maura has a noteworthy article about Iranians sending messages to him about the Persian New Year celebration and the crazy mullahs’ efforts to crackdown “unIslamic” celebrations.

The fact Iran is proposing a death penalty law for bloggers is worrisome, it could inspire other repressive states to do the same against bloggers for “offensive” dissent or criticism against the regimes and tyrants. It could inspire the United Nations to abandon the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and embrace the Islamic version of human rights entirely based on the Qu’ran.

Still wrong on all levels. Freedom prevails.

The “O” Failing Badly in Foreign Affairs

I say that President Obama Teleprompter has not earn my support so far when it comes to foreign affairs, as well as the dismal state of the U.S. economy, thanks to his Democratic cronies in Congress responsible for the mess in the first place. If anyone tell me or you otherwise, they are “lying liars”. His primetime press conference Tuesday night (yeah, I watched the whole thing) was boring, uninspiring and disappointing. He did not lift my spirits and confidence. His attitude was defeatist and passive.

Since being sworn in as President on Jan. 21st, Obama has been very busy being an incompetent nerd on foreign affairs, he put a “Kick me” sign on America’s back and snubbed America’s good allies. The well-regarded Ralph Peters reinforced that in his op-ed piece from New York Post: “O’s Foreign Failures – New Prez flunking global tests”.

Excerpt:

All new administrations stumble a bit as they seek their footing. But President Obama’s foreign-policy botches have set new records for instant incompetence.

Contrary to left-wing myths, I wasn’t a fan of the Bush administration. (I called for Donald Rumsfeld to get the boot in mid-2001.) But fair’s fair. Despite his many faults, Bush sought to do good. Obama just wants to look good.

Vice President Dick Cheney was arrogant. Vice President Joe Biden is arrogant and stupid. Take your pick.

Don’t worry about the new administration’s ideology. Worry about its terrifying naivete.

Read it all please (two short pages listing of Obama’s foreign blunders). I wonder how Obama would respond to North Korea’s attempting to launch a long-range missile soon? Send a strongly worded message via his teleprompter on TV?

It will be very interesting next week to see how Obama interact with the world leaders in the G20 summit in London. Snubfest, anyone?

Love that ender from Peters:

Apart from Iraq a success Sen. Obama did all he could to prevent his foreign policy’s an instant wasteland. By comparison, the Carter administration is starting to look like a model of manly strength, courage and patriotism.

Gratuitous use of “F”-word unacceptable

UPDATE: Ben Vess is a liar. I never demand that his blog be removed. That was not the whole point of my blog. I left my comment refuting Ben’s lie at his “news worthy” blog.

I am absolutely appalled by the gratuitous and abusive usage of the “f”-word in Ben Vess’ blog. The other posters thought it’s humorous and playful. I digress. Ben, et all, has it occurred to you there are children and young teenagers who browse around DeafRead blogs or vlogs?

You could only say it out of anger, frustration, or sheer disdain, but not out of flippant or gratuitous utterance, just because the word itself is more impacting on people’s sensibility that way. There are some people who are actually sensitive about the word, specifically for its overt sexual connotation. Worse, young children could read or hear the f-word, without ever thinking of the consequences (or its actual meaning) for saying it casually to other people, prompting them to look at the parents with disapproving or embarrassing glares.

Furthermore, the deliverance and shock (and, in some cases, the sexually connotative) values of the f-word, when uttered too casually or gratuitously in public, would lessen over the time, even its very meaning would become more meaningless or ambiguous. The line between obscene words and words we use daily get blurred that way. I cannot think of any other 4-letter word that offered more of a greater shock value than the f-word. In Battlestar Galactica TV show (both old and new series), the characters used the word “frak” as a very clever substitute for the f-word and it has less shock value due to its little usage by the public (except for the fans of the show).

Granted, I said the f-word often in the past, but not being gratuitous, flippant and casual with it. There is a fine line between using it as a matter of seriously expressing your anger or scornfulness in words and use it in a casual or gratuitous manner of anything goes, just because others say or write it too liberally and more than often. Do not blur that fine line, otherwise the f-word would literally lose its values over the time and no one may take it too seriously. That’s a good reason for it.

Ben Vess think it’s all funny and entertaining to use it liberally in his blog, only because he is too childish and intellectually immature to understand its real expressive context and nature, as in when one use the f-word out of anger, disdain or frustration in serious or difficult situations. Unless you’re a professional stand-up comedian speaking to an audience full of grown adults who wanted to laugh and be entertained without being offended for one night, that’s your business. Ben Vess, you’re no George Carlin. Not even close.

Not, for example, when you could casually walk around at your workplace, saying, “Good f–king morning, everyone! Hey, boss! What the f–k up?  Got you a f–king new joke for you. A f–king rabbit walk into a f–king bar…”

Everyone would look at you and wonder why you are losing all your marbles and your job in the process?

So frak the gratuitous and casual usage of a sexually connotative f-word!

When in Rome, avoid Alitalia!

What an amazing horror story from Michael J. Totten: The Worst Airline Company in the World!

After spending several weeks each in Iraq and Lebanon at the end of 2008, I bought a plane ticket to the U.S. from Beirut on December 22 and figured I had plenty of time to get home for Christmas. I had no idea, though, that I had purchased my ticket from the worst airline company in the world – Italy’s national carrier Alitalia – and that a two-hour layover in Rome would turn into an ordeal that lasted longer than a week.

I placed my most critical and expensive items in my carry-on bag so they wouldn’t get damaged or lost. Yet the woman at the Alitalia check-in counter in Beirut’s international airport said my bag was too large and would have to be checked. I wasn’t happy about that, but I did as I was told and surrendered my luggage. She neglected to tell me that Alitalia’s baggage handlers were on strike and that it would be a very long time before I would see my property again – if I ever would see it again.

My flight left Beirut on time, and I had no idea what I was in for in Italy.

After I landed in Rome, the Departures board said my flight to Chicago was delayed two hours. I didn’t mind. I had a 24-hour layover there, so I could wait patiently. But an angry stirring of passengers at the flight counter caught my attention.

“What’s going on?” I asked an American woman who looked concerned yet approachable.

“I’m not sure,” she said. “But somebody told me the baggage handlers on are strike and that we might not be going anywhere.”

Please read it all, if you’re traveling to or from Rome, Italy by airline in the future. Especially by Alitalia. Consider yourself forewarned.

Just freaking unbelievable. Though no one dies!

Durban II is deceitful and racist

Robrief no. 1: Ann Bayefsky of Forbes stated that Obama should denounce Durban II. I agree, the language in Durban II conference on racism has actually nothing to do with racism, but rather a political vehicle for the Islamic states for two things: to cast Israel as an apartheid state in the eyes of the world and to threaten freedom of speech by outlawing “defamation of religion” (another way of banning any criticism of Islam, in a nutshell). The Durban conference is wholly deceitful and racist in a manner of speaking.

This “new and improved” document, therefore, breaches President Obama’s key conditions. It “reaffirms in toto the flawed 2001 Durban Declaration.” In so doing, it does not satisfy the demand that no country or conflict be singled out. Unsurprisingly, behind the scenes, Palestinian negotiators in Geneva are expressing satisfaction with today’s result.

For Americans, to reaffirm the Durban Declaration is to affirm precisely what our government rejected on Sept. 4, 2001, when the United States–led by Congressman and Holocaust survivor Tom Lantos–walked out from Durban I in disgust.

The new draft is a textbook example of diplomatic double-talk. Diplomats often couch objectionable outcomes in superficially unobjectionable language, using a tool that lawyers call “incorporation by reference.” Don’t repeat the offensive words in the new document; just include them by referring to another document where they can be found–and which most people won’t bother to read.

Ms. Bayefsky has a great background and history of the Durban conferences. Read the whole thing please. Do not let this fraudulent and racist UN policy on racism become law!

Robrief 2: Twenty-five years old Iranian blogger jailed for Ayatollah Khamenei insult died in prison. Many bloggers around the world are being jailed, tortured or dying for the right to speak out against government policies or political/religious leaders. China, Iran, Egypt, Cuba, North Korea, Russia, and few other Islamic states are notoriously bad or worst for bloggers and press freedom.

Robrief 3: I think either Japan or the United States should shoot down that “rocket” from North Korea, slated to be launched around April 2nd. See why. It can reach or hit Hawaii, Alaska and the western part of the United States. Japan has valid reasons to shoot down any “rocket” from North Korea over Japan: North Korea has all the materials to readily construct a nuclear weapon and, given the centuries-long enmity between Japan and Korea, North Korea is viewed as a much bigger threat to Japan than to the USA. Japan is fearful that South Korea may fall easily to N.K. if war break out and an unified Korean state under the communist leadership can lead to the ditching of Japan’s pacifist constitution and a massive Japanese military build-up unseen since its Imperialist heydays in the 1930s.

Robrief 4: Today is the 6th anniversary of the start of the U.S. invasion of Iraq to topple Saddam Hussein. However, the Iraqi war is over as of last year, long before the conclusion of the U.S. Election. We won.

President Teleprompter Thanked Himself!

*Rolling on the floor laughing my ass off*

President Obama Teleprompter in St. Patrick’s Day Teleprompt Blunder.

Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen was just a few paragraphs into an address in Washington when he realised it all sounded a bit too familiar.

It was. He was repeating the speech President Barack Obama had just read from the same teleprompter.

Mr Cowen stopped, turned to the president and said: “That’s your speech.”

A laughing Mr Obama returned to the podium to take over but it seems the script had finally been switched and the US president ended up thanking himself for inviting everyone to the party.

My! What an eloquent orator Obama is!

Hey, Barry, call up your old friend, the Teleprompter, vacationing in the Bahamas. That current official White House teleprompter is toasted.

Patrick: From Sinner to Saint

Happy St. Patrick’s Day to y’all.

Patrick was not even an Irish (he was either a Gaul, Briton or Welsh), he didn’t drive away actual snakes because there was never snake in Ireland in all of its known history, didn’t even invent green beer and didn’t turn the Trinity into a shamrock (he was using a shamrock to explain the concept of the Trinity to the uninitiated). Patrick wasn’t even canonized by Rome long after his death, so he became a Saint in the eyes of Irish Catholics and Protestants who venerated him for centuries after his death.

Most importantly, he converted most, if not all, of Ireland to Christianity without ever using violence, the only country in Europe that became Christian without resorting to violence or forced conversion. Although, he had difficulties due to his limited knowledge and language with the Irish, he was able to laid the foundation of Christianity in Ireland and, henceforth, Christianity flourished. March 17th is the feast day for Saint Patrick, but for only two reasons: the day was supposedly the date of his death, and, in the 19th century Ireland, planting potatoes began on that day.

And lastly, for centuries, St. Patrick’s Day was always celebrated in blue.

From The Confession of Saint Patrick:

I, Patrick, a sinner, a most simple countryman, the least of all the faithful and most contemptible to many, had for father the deacon Calpurnius, son of the late Potitus, a priest, of the settlement [vicus] of Bannavem Taburniae; he had a small villa nearby where I was taken captive. I was at that time about sixteen years of age. I did not, indeed, know the true God; and I was taken into captivity in Ireland with many thousands of people, according to our deserts, for quite drawn away from God, we did not keep his precepts, nor were we obedient to our priests who used to remind us of our salvation. And the Lord brought down on us the fury of his being and scattered us among many nations, even to the ends of the earth, where I, in my smallness, am now to be found among foreigners.

And there the Lord opened my mind to an awareness of my unbelief, in order that, even so late, I might remember my transgressions and turn with all my heart to the Lord my God, who had regard for my insignificance and pitied my youth and ignorance. And he watched over me before I knew him, and before I learned sense or even distinguished between good and evil, and he protected me, and consoled me as a father would his son.

Therefore, indeed, I cannot keep silent, nor would it be proper, so many favours and graces has the Lord deigned to bestow on me in the land of my captivity. For after chastisement from God, and recognizing him, our way to repay him is to exalt him and confess his wonders before every nation under heaven.

Read it all if you like to.

Honor St. Patrick. Please drink responsibly and do not drive home drunk. Designate a friend and save a life.