Quick Hitts

A listener responding to the Healthy Kids episode of the Quick Hitts podcast mentioned kids getting eaten by bears. This inspired me to Google “Eaten By A Bear.” Here are a few amusing links I found.

eHow has instructions on how to avoid it.

This one is worth a click just for the headline.

And although I disagree with sanctimonious slogan of this blog, I thought this t-shirt was amusing.

New Quick Hitts Podcast: If I Were In Charge

Anyone intrested in politics has had a fantasy of what they would do if they were president. This is mine.

Cheye Calvo and his wife Trinity Tomsic lived in a nice suburban house with two black Labs. One of the reasons they chose their house was for the big back yard where the dogs could run.

They were relaxing in their home when armed thugs broke into their homes and shot their dogs. The thugs were not poorly dressed – they wore pretty blue uniforms. They were cops who had a standard warrant, not a no-knock warrant, but they weren’t about to be bothered by such a trivial concern. In Yet Another Drug raid they burst in and immediately shot and killed both dogs. One dog was running away when it was shot.

Link.

I have a mostly lab mutt. He’s very large and very friendly, and if you come to my house and I don’t have a chance to lock him away in another room he will jump on you, excited by the prospect of a new friend. You’d probably be annoyed. But I’m guessing you wouldn’t respond by blowing him away. But I’m convinced most cops would.

Judging from news reports, shooting dogs is standard procedure for most police departments. Google any variation of “cop shoot dog” and you’ll find hundreds of thousands of articles about these “peace” officers shooting dogs. A few of the stories will be about cops reacting to an attack, but most of them are about cops blasting away at the family pet just because they can. Dogs on chains, dogs fenced in a yard, dogs in cars – it doesn’t matter. Dog = Free Target Practice.

A few years ago, in my neck of the woods, the Schenectady cops during a drug raid (of course) shot a 13 year old Chihuahua that pissed itself before running to hide in the bathroom. The brave police officer followed the dog into the bathroom and shot it.

Yes, something should be done about this outrageous misuse of power. But in a country where cops are regularly acquitted for murdering citizens, what chance is there that they’ll be penalized for killing pets?

A good start would be to remove any pets they own from their home and place them in a less violent household. Let the ASPCA show up at their door, remove their pets, and explain to their crying kids that daddy is too much of a thug to be trusted with an animal. Of course, this would only work for cops who owned pets, but it would be a good start.

The Smoker’s Club has a great page that outlines exactly how nicotine nannies work. Check it out.

Chomsky has penned yet another analysis of the world situation, and as always, he betrays a deep ignorance of just about everything. Before continuing, please read it here.

Back so soon? Let’s review.

He’s upset that India isn’t getting the same flack as Iran over their nuclear program. Somehow, in all his study of geopolitics, he managed to miss the fact that Iran has consistently supported terrorism (for quite a while it was a line item in their national budget), while India hasn’t.

Bet you didn’t know that Israel has nukes to keep the US in line. But wait, did he really say that?

“US military analysts have recognized that, as Army Lt. Col. Warner Farr wrote in 1999, one “purpose of Israeli nuclear weapons, not often stated, but obvious, is their ‘use’ on the United States,” presumably to ensure consistent U.S. support for Israeli policies — or else.”

A quick reading of the article might leave us with the impression that this he stated it as a fact, but he never really does. It’s carefully weasel worded so that if anyone calls him on it he can squirm out from under it. It’s the trademark Chomsky technique of making a claim without really making it.

“Shortly after the 1982 invasion of Lebanon, which left some 15-20,000 killed in an unprovoked effort to secure Israel’s control of the occupied territories…”

The PLO was using southern Lebanon as to build terrorist camps and launch attacks against Israel. (Sound familiar?) There was nothing unprovoked about the attack. We can only conclude that Chomsky is unaware of the facts (unlikely), is being intentionally dishonest (more likely) or is so driven by ideology it has rendered him, for all practical purposes, anencephalic (biologically implausible).

“Joining the unpeople is the large majority of Americans, according to polls. The American unpeople not only endorse Iran’s right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes but also support the “Arab position” calling for a nuclear-weapons-free-zone in the entire region, a step that would sharply reduce major threats, but is also off the agenda of the powerful; unmentionable in electoral campaigns, for example.”

That is just stunning in it’s stupidity. Does anyone, besides Noam, believe that Iran is developing nukes for power? And asking everyone in the area to give up nukes (complete list: Israel) is as likely as Islam giving up terrorism.

“The government of Iran merits severe condemnation on many counts, but the Iranian threat remains a desperate construction of those who arrogate to themselves the right to rule the world, and consider any impediment to their just rule to be criminal aggression. That is the primary threat that should concern us, as it concerns saner minds in the West, and the unpeople of the rest of the world.”

Fact: Iran is developing nukes.

Fact: Iran’s President (Ima-nut-job) has repeatedly threatened to wipe Israel off the map, while displaying his smarmy, condescending smile.

Fact: There are still a few people alive today with numbers tattooed on their arms. Israel takes such threats very seriously, as they should.

Yes, we should be concerned with the misuse of American power. Under this administration it has been staggering. But that has little to do with the points he’s making: Israel is the bad guy, the US sucks and is evil (his favorite theme) and Iran only wants nukes for peaceful purposes like making candy and building shelters for puppies.

This is not garden variety stupidity. This is a very special kind of stupidity, one that can only be achieved by cultivating it for decades while being shielded from the real world by the ivory tower of academia. It needs to be fed by the left praising every one of his drooling proclamations as the holy saliva of the gods. It requires excellent writing skills to fool some of the lefties all of the time.

It takes a lot of effort to be this stupid, and Chomsky has done all the required work.

More Info: Check out this YouTube Video that exposes his ignorance and dishonesty.

In this article a fundy evangelist expresses the fear that Atheists are coming after his children. There’s no place on the site to add a comment, so I’ll do it here.

You think we want to convert your kids to atheism? Are you that afraid of us? Well, guess what, Sparky . . . you’re right. We want to convert your sons and your daughters. And your wives and your grandparents and yes, even you. (Insert evil laugh soundtrack.)

Your ilk has been using fear to spread your superstition all over the world, and you’ve been remarkably successful. We’re taking a page from your book. We’re proselytizing and making ourselves heard. There is a few big differences, though: We are not winning converts using the force of law, social pressure and the fear of a nasty skydaddy roasting people in hell. We’re not knocking on doors in a desperate search for converts. We’re simply using the mass media to spread reason and logic, and your superstitions just can’t stand up to such mighty weapons.

Some people might say to me, “But there’s no way Americans will go for atheism. Most people believe in God, even if they don’t take the Bible seriously as AiG does.” Think back to the 1950s. What if someone back then said to you, “Beware, the homosexual movement is on the march—if we don’t do something, ‘gay’ marriages will be legalized across the country.” Almost all of us at that time would have said that there’s no way Americans would ever accept this. Most people believe that marriage is one man for one woman, so, no, this will never happen in America.But as you know, it has happened—and continues to happen!

Because we’re not driven by hate or fear, we (and I’m speaking for most atheists here) think that’s a good thing. A significant portion of our population used to be hated and ridiculed and chastised and discriminated against, and now that’s being dealt with and slowing going away. Most of the push back is coming from your ilk, who demands we continue to hate gays as much as your god does. And most of us, atheists and Christians, are ignoring you, except when we take time out to heap some much deserved ridicule on your beliefs.

Interestingly, these new atheists liken their growing movement to that of the gay activists. One stated: “We’re in the same position the gay movement was in a few decades ago. There was need for people to come out. The more people who came out, the more people had the courage to come out. “That’s the case with atheists. They are more numerous than anybody realizes.

It’s a good analogy. One popular meme in the early days of the gay acceptance movement was “What if one day everyone gay turned purple? You’d see so many purple people that you’d have no choice but to learn to accept them.” Now atheists are coming out of the closet the same way gays have. We’re everywhere, and as more and more people realize that logic and reason provide a better life than superstition and fear, our numbers are growing. In the long run your fight against us will fail as badly as your war against homosexuals.

But no analogy is perfect, and there are big differences between the gay and atheist movements. Gays just want to be accepted. They’re not looking to convert other people to gayness. (I know that is the fear of many of your ilk, but it’s as irrational as most of your beliefs.) Many atheists, on the other hand, are looking to convince people that reality is a better lifestyle.

You have no cause for complaint. The very name “evangelical” comes from your annoying insistence on trying to convert everyone to your belief system. Why would you deny us the same privilege?

It prompts me to ask: “Why are atheists now getting so much publicity and gaining ground? What’s happened in the culture to allow this?” As we’ve been saying for years, there’s been a change in this culture—at a foundation level. Generations have been indoctrinated by the secular education system and media to build their thinking on human reason, not the Word of God. And at the base of this is the creation/evolution issue.

You are absolutely right. Without Adam and Eve there is no original sin. Without original sin there is no need for Christ’s sacrifice. And without that, Christianity falls apart. You need a 6,000 year old earth, which is nonsense, for your religion to have any chance of being remotely true. Reality is destroying your religion, and atheists are delighted to point that out and further the spread of  dangerous reality.

Let me shock you further and illustrate how some of these God-haters think.

Ah, you were doing so well, but now you’ve blown it. How can you hate something that doesn’t exist? We don’t hate Santa or Thor or Zeus, because it’s impossible. Likewise, we don’t hate your imaginary friend.

One of Dawkins’ recent “evangelistic” talks was actually given in a packed church (the First Parish church in Cambridge, Massachusetts)! What times we live in! A news report stated:“At first his [Dawkins] words are greeted with laughter, and then with resounding applause … .” The words he preached were from his book:

The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.

Friend, all I can say is that I praise the Lord that He has raised up ministries like AiG to engage the culture and the church to return to the authority of God’s Word. With these militant atheists more and more on the march, you can be assured that AiG needs your prayer support more than ever. In fact, with the opening of the Creation Museum this year, the attacks on AiG will probably escalate.

Interesting. You don’t counter a single point Dawkins made. Not one. Instead, you are delighted to serve your “petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.”

Oh goody, another fact free creation museum to justify the superstitions of the gullible and provide amusement for rational people. Attacked? More likely, ridiculed. Your beliefs deserve to be mocked and laughed at. They are stupid.

And you close the article begging for money. Gee, what a surprise.

With the blessing of the churches racism once was the norm. Now it’s unacceptable in polite society, and ridiculed wherever it’s pops up. Women used to be considered lesser creatures than men, largely as a result of church doctrine. We don’t tolerate that any longer. (Much of the backlash against Islam is the result of the despicable way they treat women.) Gays were once hated and feared. Now the only people who hate and fear them are people like you.  As mankind continues to grow up, reason, logic and reality are slowly, very slowly, too slowly, elbowing their way to the front of the line.

Yes, Ken, we are coming for your children. Your only defense against us is to keep them stupid. Keep them believing that despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary the earth is 6,000 years old. Send them to special schools that teach them science is evil. Tell them they must believe that all the species of the world, including a half million separate and distinct species of beetles, lived within walking distance of Noah’s house. Sometimes it will work. But if they grow a brain when they leave the nest, watch out. If they are the slightest bit susceptible to logic, reason and common sense, we’re going to “convert” them. And you’ll be powerless to stop us.

Muslims are taking time out from murdering their daughters and raping women for reading the bible to attack one of our most cherished principles: Free Speech.

In 2006 Mark Steyn published an article pointing out that while civilized people are breeding at less than the replacement rate, fundy Muslims are breeding like hamsters. His conclusion: The future belongs to Islam.

As a result he faced two trials for “hate speech.”

The first one, brought up with the Ontario Human Rights Commission, was thrown out on narrow technical grounds, so the complainants shopped it to the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal. There Steyn was put on trial for having an opinion and daring to express it.

The trial was a sham, and Steyn refused to cooperate and defend himself. The judges allowed things written by other people to be introduced into evidence. They whined that he hadn’t included opposing points of view in his article.

Surprisingly, he was acquitted.

The real result of this kind of injustice is the chilling effect it has on writers. If I were living in Canada I would think twice about publishing this blog post. With legal fees, winning such a case could be almost as disastrous as losing it.

This kind of injustice is becoming prevalent in the Western world. In France former sex kitten Brigitte Bardot was recently fined 15,000 euros ($23,760) for stating the fact that the the resident Muslim community was “destroying our country and imposing its acts.” It was so nice of the French government to prove her point for her.

I’ve given up trying to distinguish between so-called moderate Muslims and the fundies. It is quite evident that the fundies are driving the religion, and they are not a tiny minority, as the left would have us believe. In a recent study of British Muslim students a third of them espoused violence to support Islam, and forty percent want to force all of us to live under sharia law.

The more I see of Islam in action, the more it becomes apparent that it’s incompatible with everything we consider important. It is incompatible with free speech. It is incompatible with women’s rights. It is incompatible with racial harmony. It is incompatible with democracy. It is incompatible with tolerance of different beliefs. It is incompatible with civil rights. It is incompatible with human rights. It is incompatible with civilization.

Barbarians have taken down civilizations before. They can do it from the outside, with violence and threats, and they can do it from the inside using our own laws and tolerance against us. We need to wake up fast and stop giving into them on everything, even things that may seem trivial. Every time we acquiesce we come one step closer to their goal of shira law for us all.

Further Reading:

The Wall Street Journal on Islam and Free Speech.

Mark’s Website.