Martyr v Fatwa?

I read the headline 'Christian Freed' and my first thought was that some sanity had prevailed, my second thought was no, only typical political sneakiness - in reality they would turn the poor sod over to his family and let them do the killing.

I then found a more detailed news item which explained that he'd be freed for lack of evidence. Oh, one has to love that, since when did evidence matter when religion is involved? It might legally satisfy the forces stationed in Afghanistan and the simple minded of the world but but I was right in my second thought almost hit the nail on the head.

Old Pontius Pilot couldn't have handled it much better himself - let him go and tell the fanatics when and where.

Now that that is off my chest, I have to have my two cents worth on the freed CPT men who took their time saying thank you to the security forces in Iran who rescued them. These people head into a war zone to do 'good'. I presume that is their misguided intention although I fail so see what good they have accomplished unless converting more Muslims to Christianity so that they too can become victims is supposed to be good.

More of them are headed that way and my advice to the security forces is to ignore them entirely. Let them get kidnapped - if they want to be martyrs, let them. Here's a sample of their attitude culled from the BBC:

Campaign continues

Despite the kidnappings, another CPT member, Jan Benvie has told BBC News she intends to go to Iraq in July.

She said she did not accept her presence should mean an extra responsibility for the security forces.My italics

She's right. It shouldn't be.

21st Century Martyrs?

Seems that converting to Christianity is considered an Attack on Islam and poor Afghan citizen Abdul Rahman has the paranoid branch of Islam howling for his death.

Pity the poor man - if I had a family who'd turn me in knowing I was likely to get the fatal chop, I'd probably convert too, hopefully to something far, far away. His mistake was not dumping his rabid family and leaving them to rot in their own little bit of Hell on Earth. I suppose that is where the Christian bit comes in. He can't have met too many of them, other than missionaries, or he'd know only the lunatic fringe is into the forgiveness, turn the other cheek thing Christians are supposed to be famous for.

I thought I'd have a look and see how much of this is going on. In less time than it takes to type this I found a nice little selection. I was expecting the attack from Islam so Hindus and Buddhists came as a surprise. I imagine if I bothered to look deeper the list would expand but three major world religions are enough to make a point.

Mohammedans;

ABUJA, 20 February (IRIN) - At least 17 people, including a Catholic priest, were killed and 30 churches burned in the northeast Nigerian city of Maiduguri when Muslims protesting cartoons caricaturing the Prophet Muhammad turned on local Christians, police said.

The above were simply rampaging and killing for the love of it. I don't for the life of me believe they could possibly blame the local Christians for the Danish cartoons. The only good Christian is a dead Christian?

Buddhists:

The Buddhists are getting uptight as well. Can't blame them - I'd be annoyed if someone came poaching on my patch too. In July the Sri Lanka's Supreme Court declared that Christian groups could not register as social charities. The court said their proselytizing work contravenes the Sri Lankan constitution.

Hindus:

Rajasthan maltreating Christians: Raj Babbar

JAIPUR: Terming the deregistration of the Emmanuel Mission and the freezing of its accounts by the Rajasthan government as "illegal", cine actor and expelled Samajwadi Party leader Raj Babbar on Tuesday criticised the state government for its "treatment" of Christians.

The lesson for Christians is clear. Stop poaching other faith's faithful. OK? This of course goes for the followers of Mohammad too - they boast the fastest growing religion on earth so killing the few who fall by the wayside seems a trifle harsh.

Killing Christians might turn out counterproductive. Forcing them to choose between Christ and Oil could just tip them over the edge causing them to become a tad vengeful.

We wouldn't want a Crusades type scenario developing now would we?

DIVERSITY FATIGUE

Yesterday I had to wait in the car, not something I score very high points on, when the infernal chat on the radio started penetrating. Diversity Fatigue. I hadn't heard that one before so I re-routed the sound from straight through to stop a while. The interviewer had a guest, presumably an expert in this exciting, to me new, field of human endeavor. The expert would just be reaching an interesting point when the interviewer would cut him off in mid sentence to introduce the next caller.

I recall a book store owner who claimed good diversity because the company had been founded by a lesbian or Fat Campaigner, I can't remember which, both featured along with a whole range of ethnic diversity. "Do you have a black employee?" Well, no, he didn't. This is not good, diversity is obviously not diversity without one. The book man had the right answer though. No blacks had ever applied for a job. He did, when pressed admit to carrying black authors and had had even had a few in doing the book signing thing. Whew. Off the hook, almost. Perhaps if he had more black authors he could interest more blacks in writing. Seeing as the store was a specialist science fiction outlet I wondered about that. The man himself wondered exactly how one knew when one was diverse enough. Is there a formula?

The discussion roved and the expert was back and made a valid point. How many diverse people are employed should depend on the demographics in the area. One black employee in a company in, say Steamboat Springs, would probably be enough. He suggested one look around and see who makes up the neighborhood. That made sense to me but I'm not too sure whether the interviewer was buying it or not. She seemed to be into Diversity Conventions in a big way and could always tell immediately which businessmen were not interested. I think she is confusing the 'deer in the headlights' expression on their faces with disinterest.

I am starting to see where the Diversity Fatigue starts setting in.

Equal opportunity has been around for ages so, educationally at least, all should have an equal chance to make it. I have never subscribed to the inane fiction that all men are born equal. Some are born athletes, some born geeks and some born totally unequipped for life while most of us are middle of the road. When hiring I want the person best equipped by nature for the job not someone who will round out the diversity scheme.

Of course, some people choose to make themselves unappetizing to an employer. Walk in and greet me with a "Yo Mama" and that is IT. No way you are getting the job however well qualified. Then there are the double negatives. Answer a question with "No ma'am, I didn't play no baseball at school." Well, you ain't getting no job from me no way - I don't care what color you are.

Anyone who has graduated high school let alone college knows, or should know, how to speak properly. If he/she has too little self respect to bother I am not interested in employing them.

Oh, I almost forgot, the whole radio discussion wound up discussing why a white man, made up to look black, experienced few of the 'normal' difficulties blacks experience.

The consensus seemed to be that he might have looked black but he ACTED WHITE. Dressed white. Talked white.

Oh boy! Now isn't that a can of worms to open? I don't know of any officially black or white state schools. I seem to remember integration was going to cure all those inequalities so if it isn't color what is it?

Attitude?

Some disconnected thoughts on medical science.

Last night I heard part of a report telling us the diabetes is now the number three killer in the United States which brought to mind that half the people I know seem to have it, OK, half the older people I know. This reminded me of a school friend, ten and already giving herself insulin shots. I am talking about my youth when I was on nodding terms with Noah, but back then the prognosis for a child was pretty grim. They just didn't survive and went through a pretty nasty time before they eventually died young. Another friend went blind and had trouble with his circulation.

Where all this is getting me is that just maybe all those miracle drugs keeping people alive, although a good thing, are probably allowing people to reproduce who wouldn't have survived to breed thus adding to a growing gene pool of people prone to diabetes.

I am not going anywhere with this, it was just a thought. Another thought is that people are living a lot longer, also thanks to miracle drugs and better health care. People used to die of old age before all these diseases of the elderly had a chance to attack. Which raises another thought. When last did you read of someone dying of old age? There is always a reason given even if the person in question lived to a hundred and twenty in perfect health before dropping dead in the middle of a volleyball game. Is it illegal to put 'old age' on a death certificate?

What probably prompted this is reading of the test subjects, all perfectly healthy, who "suffered multiple organ failure within hours of taking the TGN1412 drug at a research unit based at Northwick Park Hospital in north-west London." The company involved says all the correct procedures were followed.

As a long time opponent of excessive animal testing when other options exist, and often other options do exist, I would like to take this opportunity to suggest other options be used more often. Seems the test drug attacks a protein lacking in the test animals. Duh?

Dr Glover carried out a large number of studies into monoclonal antibodies in the 10 years he spent as chief medical officer at Cambridge Antibody Technology.

He said that, in this case, animal studies may have given falsely positive safety and effectiveness results prior to the human trial.

He told the BBC: "This is a novel target, an antibody against human CD28 on human white blood cells.

"Therefore, there may be differences in animals, and tests may be very difficult to do or interpret."

Later in the same report, Professor David Isenberg explained animal testing and that a drug had to be successfully tested on two species of animals before human testing is allowed. He stressed the advantages of many of the drugs now in use and went on to add:

But, of course, there are thousands of potential drugs that were tested on animals, and never got to humans because their potential toxicity effects were recognised."

Anyone thought what benefits to humans might have resulted from any one of those animal test failures? Just another stray thought.

I believe toxicity can be tested for on cultured cells. How many millions of animals die a painful, often lingering, death because available tests are not performed before using live animals? I agree that animal testing is usually essential but believe that other methods should be routine before the animal testing phase begins.

In my hot headed youth I'd dream of testing some substances on pharmaceutical company bosses, filming them to screen to a selected group of their employees who are, we are often told, really bothered by what they do to animals, then testing them as well because being bothered just wasn't good enough.

Of course, back then I believed in Christmas, little green men and world peace.

BBC

Developing a List?

This morning, very early, I was watching the BBC World News and the breaking story of the Israeli raid on the prison in Jericho. What struck me was the interviewer's blatant leading questions. If the answer didn't suit him he rephrased the question in such a way as to put the answer into the mouth of the person being interviewed. Not once, every time. He simply had to get each one to agree that the whole exercise was a vote getting ploy by the wicked Israelis before an election.

The fact that the prisoner, Ahmed Saadat, in jail for planning the assassination of an Israeli minister, was about to be released by the new Palestinian authorities could not possibly have anything to do with it. The interviewer went on to imply collusion by the Brits and Americans. All I heard was anti semitism, pure and simple.

The poor Palestinians. He'd finally found a perfect interviewee, one he didn't have to spoon-feed the answers. Hammas was being so reasonable, had planned no terror etc. Israel was trying to derail their goodness of heart and force them back to terrorism. Bulldust. Bombings are almost a daily occurrence inside Israel. Hammas has not yet agreed that Israel has a right to exist. Until they do, and the bombings stop, their words mean nothing.

He managed to bring Milosevic's death into it. Implying impropriety. All I can say about that murderer's death is that the only person it benefitted was Milosevic himself. Now his funeral is going to cause a hullaballoo instead of his body being shoveled quietly into a prison grave somewhere far from causing trouble.

Even Saddam Hussein and his farcical trial were dragged in. Seems Milosevic at least had been getting a fair trial. By implication Saddam isn't. Saddam is getting exactly the trial he wants, given any trial at all - he'd much rather be doing the trying. He has a perfect stage on which to grandstand to the world. Why is he being tried at all? There is enough evidence against him to sink a small battleship. He should have had his crimes read out to him then been taken off and executed. All this trial is doing is costing a lot of money and more lives. He was The Leader and no one did anything Saddam didn't approve of. Well, not twice anyway.

If the bleeding hearts have anything to do with it, he'll walk away with a huge settlement and an apology from Bush for being so mean to him.

I'm surprised the reporter didn't drag the trial of the 9-11 pilot, Zacarias Moussaoui, into it. Maybe he did but only after I decided to go for a walk to cool off.

E-Mail Hoaxes

For years I have been getting hoaxes in the mail. They can be very entertaining but unfortunately too many otherwise sensible people believe the most incredible rubbish. What is worrying is some of their reactions when told they have been taken in by a hoax. I have a niece who stopped communications when I told her the bonsai kittens that so horrified her were a load of nonsense created on a computer and not to worry about them. Perhaps I was not tactful but it was difficult to accept a member of my family could be quite so gullible.

Lately I have been a member of an international e-mail group most of whom are lovely people full of humor and kindness but here too the hoax seems to reign supreme. One can tell which party they support by the hoaxes they forward, sometimes indignantly, sometimes gleefully as the gospel truth. Some have even been adapted to local politics but fortunately the adaptor forgets to change the language sufficiently to disguise the origin of the scurrilous or inflammatory nonsense.

I love seeing my pet hates trashed as much as anyone but honesty forbids. I check the information before sending it on. So far the score is about ninety five to one against the letter/article being the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Seeing as I live here in the US the local nonsense is the most obvious to me. The Right and Left Wings of both parties seem to have a busy little cottage industry going in the twist and distort business. These articles get forwarded around the world, how stupid do these people really want to look to the outside world? On the other hand do they really want the world to believe the worst of their country? Are they so blinded by hate they don't care?

Bonsai kittens, hairy fish and little green men are fine. They mostly raise a laugh and are forgotten but the lies achieve a life of their own and only add to the divisions which exist and hamper the country.

Please, before forwarding some scurrilous rubbish and adding to the hate and distrust take the the time to check the facts.

The businesses who get targeted, usually as unpatriotic or purveying some hidden/harmful substance in their food, should go to the trouble of finding the origin of the slander and damned well sue the originator. Of course, if their product really does what is claimed......

To those starting hate mail, chain letters etc. you should know you can be traced if anyone cares enough to do so.

Here are a few resources: Once at one of these sites you can spend hours reading some of the nonsense that has been published on the internet or see the cost of useless useless chain letters.

Stop That Hoax

Truth or Fiction

Hoax Busters

Snopes

Union of Concerned Scientists

Q. What do Nigeria and Louisiana have in common?

A. A delta, oil and corruption on a grand scale.

Those people of the Niger delta who are taking oil company workers and executives hostages have a point. 49 years of oil extraction and exploration and all they have to show for it is pollution and loss of livelihood.

I is not easy to put the finger on anyone in particular to apportion blame but the fact remains that the locals are short-changed and tired of it.

In the riverine areas of Niger Delta, you do not have to look far to see why there is conflict.
In sight of oil terminals, many communities lack the basics of clean water and electricity.
They complain their land and their fishing grounds have been polluted by the oil industry.
In the riverside village of Escravos, the huts of wood and thatched palm fronds are built on swampy ground.
The villagers had placed logs amongst the black, sulphurous-smelling mud to help get around.

The mud was stained with the colours of the rainbow, the colours of crude oil glistening on the surface.
In a complaint heard around the villages, people said their livelihoods were destroyed by oil and they had received no benefits from the industry which dominates their land.

The masked commander of a militant group warned of more attacks:-

"Let Britain and the US know, the Niger Delta is not Iraq. Let them know it is not Afghanistan, but we are determined to stop the oil from flowing," he said.

"If, after 49 years of oil exploration we have not seen anything from the oil, we will stop it from flowing. That is our resolution."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4767260.stm

And who can blame them?

I have another question. How do all these very poor communities in Africa manage get be armed to the teeth? How can these villagers, who can't afford the basics Westerners consider absolute necessities, manage to toss grenades around like confetti, buy balaclavas in a steamy climate and drive big speedboats. Who is financing them? Follow the money and root them out.

Silencing Cell Phones

I am probably in a large minority but cell phones annoy me immensely. Not their existence, I'm quite happy with people having the things, walking around looking silly with a fist stuck to their ears, the shopping trolley out of control and their lips flapping. Some of them can even be amusing. What eats my tiny soul is the ringing in inappropriate places like theaters, public meetings and motor cars.

Tests have shown that driver ability declines dramatically when the subject is chatting on a cell. This result was not significantly affected by the device being hands free as one might have thought. Seems people can drive single handedly but but not with divided attention. The twenty to thirty age group's ability to drive aged by almost forty years.

So, cell phone addict, no more rude remarks about old drivers - you are a temporary member every time you pick up that phone and start chatting.

Now for some good news: A Coat of Silence

The intrusion of cellular phone rings into theaters, schools and nearly every other nook and cranny of modern life may soon hit a wall.

Playing to the backlash against ubiquitous communication, a company called NaturalNano is developing a special high-tech paint that relies on the wizardry of nanotechnology to create a system that locks out unwanted cell phone signals on demand.

The paint represents a dream to those who seek a distraction-free movie or concert experience, and a nightmare to those who compulsively monitor their BlackBerry phones.

By Jon Van Chicago Tribune

I suppose car interiors will miss out. One can't have everything.

Naturally the wireless industry is upset.

"We oppose any kind of blocking technology," said Joe Farren, spokesman for The Wireless Association, the leading cell phone trade group. "What about the young parents whose baby-sitter is trying to call them, or the brain surgeon who needs notification of emergency surgery? These calls need to get through."

DUH

Do what people did before there was wireless or have those microwaves completely addled your brains? Call the theater, or whatever - they still have landlines, you know, and will deliver emergency messages.

The good news is that blocking technology is completely legal.

TO HOPE - LET GOOD SENSE PREVAIL.

To every man upon this earth,
Death cometh sooner or late.
And how can man die better,
Than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers
And the temple of his gods?

Thomas Babington Macaulay

I can think of a great many ways to die better. The first that comes to mind is at home, surrounded by my family after a reasonably long and healthy life. We seldom get what we want but is it necessary to fling good men away on the alter of someone else's god? Let them squabble over the ashes of their father's and temples of their gods to kingdom come, as far as I'm concerned. They have been at it for centuries, they are not going to stop now.

What makes Albania, Armenia, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, El Salvador, Estonia, Georgia, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, South Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Mongolia, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, United Kingdom, United States and Ukraine think they can change anything? Is it worth the cost of trying to?

To get back to old Horatio and facing fearful odds. I don't think there's a canny gambler on earth who'd give decent odds on a happy outcome in Iraq.

I'd leave Saddam and his murderous mates rotting in prison, throw the keys in the moat, and let whosoever gets there first deal with him, Iraqi Style, while I pulled every soldier, adviser, diplomat and civilian contractor out. Being a totally bloody minded realist, I'd leave any missionaries behind to reap their just reward from whichever god they think they're serving.

It is time to admit not everyone wants democracy which is an anathema in the Temples of their God anyway. Let someone try again once evolution has caught up to and tamed the savages.

My Personal Stupid Awards

I was going to hand out a stupidity award today but found there is already an organization doing so on an annual basis.*

For plain stupidity can anyone beat the Italian reform minister Roberto Calderoli who had a T-shirt made with killer cartoons printed on it.

Another award has to go to all those rioting fanatics destroying their own towns and killing their own people over a bunch of cartoons published in a foreign country. What have shopping areas to do with it? A spot of loot? Simple minded blood lust? Sticking it to free speech in some obscure way only they understand? Nicely disguised sabotage of a competitor?

Those thoughts led to a search for the fundamental beliefs of the three religions who believe in the same ONE GOD. I found a BBC site that had already done the spade work. **

In his final sermon Muhammad summarized the heart of Islam:

Belief in One God without images or symbols,

Equality of all the Believers without distinction of race or class, the superiority of individuals being based solely on piety;

Sanctity of life, property and honour;

Abolition of interest, and of vendettas and private justice;

Better treatment of women;

Obligatory inheritance and distribution of the property of deceased persons among near relatives of both sexes, and removal of the possibility of the accumulation of wealth in the hands of the few."

Sounds good, doesn't it? I'd go for it if they didn't happily ignore most of Mohammed's strictures except the one dealing with images.


The great Jewish scholar Hillel (70 BCE-CE 10) was asked to
summarize the essence of Judaism. He put it like this:

"What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour: this is this is the whole of Jewish Law; the rest is mere commentary"

That I like. If we all lived by that the world would be a happy place. Of course, there are all those laws and tabu's that come attached.

Basic Christianity: I couldn't find a concise summary but this from the same site as the other two so obviously their compiler did no better than I did seeking the 'heart' of Christianity.

• There is only one god.

• God has created the world distinct from himself but is believed to be active within it. ·

• Humans are created at a distance from God and are responsible for their own lives. God is judge of all that they do, but also seeks to help them when they go wrong. ·

• God reveals himself in three 'persons': Father, Son (Jesus Christ) and Holy Spirit. However, these three persons are regarded as a unity, sharing one 'substance'.

WELL! That doesn't say much, does it? Of course, how could it say anything to encapsulate the heart of a religion which is made of more splinters than solid substance.

Years ago a young boy told me "I am NOT a Christian, I'm a Baptist!"

A couple of weeks ago another young man said to me "I am not a Christian, I'm a Catholic". Two examples of splinterhood.

All three claim descent from Adam, created by The Almighty God whom, they individually believe is watching out for them. All I can ask is, if he's all that Almighty does He want't a Third World War? Has He watched all the previous wars fought in His name with so much pleasure he's become an addict?

A stupidity award to God? It is less nasty than a Plain Bloody Minded Evil award.

* http://www.stupidityawards.com

** http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/people/features/world_religions/