Islam

Why is that most people do not understand, or even comprehend the problem with radical Islam?

If you go back in history about 1,200 years ( to 800 AD or so) you would find that Arabian mathematicians, philosophers, astrnomers and poets had produced many, many creative ideas. But what have they done since? Nothing.

The only scientists produced by the Islamic countries are all in the US. They don't want to go back where their research would be subjagated to fundamentalist Islamic law.

The rulers of these areas look around and what do they find? They have oil, which brings wealth, but not respect. They realize they are falling behind. Even India, which they despise, produces much more scientific work than all of the Islamic countries.

But, then, what can you expect from an area that ignores over 50% of their brain-power? They want their women to be veiled, fully covered in public, and to stay at home and have babies.

Their men can't compete with the rest of the world. They are too busy blowing themselves up.
Any country or region that considers memorizing the Koran as the epitome of education is doomed to eventual failure.

What we need to do is to seek out and kill all the hotheads now, and let the rest rot on the vine.

I'm back!

For better or worse, I can now return to my blog. A long bout of poor health has kept me off the airways. I'm now again ready to give The Resident Curmudgeon's view on about everything.

Is there anything dumber than the continuing posturing about stem cell research? I absolutely cannot understand the fundamentalist's position. Why is it OK to "discard" (that means do away with, or destroy them or trash them or whatever) embryos created in a fertility clinic, but not to destroy embryos created for stem cell research? In the one case it is OK, but in the other case it is abortion. BALDERDASH! Such embryos are no invivo, and in no way are human organisms at that stage.

More and more I am convinced our President is a total dunce, and should return to Texas where he can have tea with Molly Ivins, and try to raise cattle. He hasn't done anything else right.

Redundant objects

Here in the South, we often hear redundant objects used in everyday speech. For example, we will hear something like "I need to buy me some new shoes," or "I need to go out to the college and take me some courses." In both cases, the 'me' is totally unnecessary. The sentence makes sense without it.
This usage is rather comical. Would you take courses for some else or buy shoes for another person? It is just a little quirk of southern speech.

eBay Fraud

I get a lot of funny emails. But I just received one from eBay that really yanked my chain.
This message says that I have been on a super sales streak, and since I have done so well, I am being recognized as a PowerSeller Silver!!!!!

Supposedly this now gives me all sorts of goodies and freebies.

The only thing wrong with all this is that I have never sold anything on eBay. Do you suppose they are jsut shotgunning this to everybody? Really makes them look stupid!

Trucker Terrorism

One form of trucker terrorism I detest occurs on any interstate. You're cruising along, minding your business, and look in your rear view mirror. All you can see is the radiator of Mack truck about 3 feet behind your rear bumper. That's a 70,000 pound juggarnaut who can crush you like a tin can if you have to stop suddenly.

I have a great fantasy about this situation. I want to be cruising down the interstate, in the back seat of a convertable, with the top down. When a truck parks on my rear bumper, I will give him one signal to back off. When he doesn't, then I want to pick up a very large pistol, a 357 or 44 magnum, silver plated of course. In clear sight of the truck driver, I want to load that pistol, and then slowly and deliberately shoot a large hole in his radiator. I doubt the troopers would approve of this solution to the problem.

There are other alternatives.
When I was in my teens, several of my friends developed a type of flame thrower for their cars. The would replace the exhaust pipe with a length of cast iron pipe, drilled and tapped to mount a spark plug at the rear end, wired to a switch on the dash. When cruising down the road, they would turn the ignition off for a couple of seconds, which would allow gas to accumulate in the exhaust pipe. Hit the switch and BLAM! a sheet of flame would shoot out about 15 feet behind the car. This was most effective at night. The game was to pass a car, get about 30 feet ahead, and then fire the flame thrower. I don't know if this would work on modern cars with catalytic converters, but I have encountered several truckers I would love to try it on. The troopers probably wouldn't approve of this either.

A third alternative would be a small smoke generator mounter on the rear bumper. Blind the SOB the next time he parks on your rear bumper.

Take back the interstate highways. They have been captured by the trucks, but we outnumber them!

New Senate hearings

I read that two different Senate committees now plan to hold hearings about the alleged unlawful wiretaps.

Why does it take two Senate comittees to discover something? Are they so incompetent and inept that one hearing cannot find out everything that needs to be known? Don't these committees talk to each other? What a god awful waste of time and money to have two hearings on the same subject!

Of course we know the answer. By having two hearings, that will allow more Senators to be on TV, and to make long pontificating statements (instead of asking questions), and to appear busily looking after the business of the US.

After the Alito hearings, I swore I would not watch any more. I'm tired of seeing so many arrogant, egotistical fluff-heads posturing about, and, in some cases, making fools of themselves. Seeing Senator Tubby Teddy mouthing pious platatudes about ethics and morality almost made me ill.

There is no escape from these masquerades. Elections keep coming up every so often.

The Alito Hearings

It is true that great minds think alike. I have been saying for several days that the Democrats really blew it during these hearings. Now, other national pundits are saying the same thing.

The Republican Party is in disarray, almost in panic mode as they seek any available shelter from the Abramoff fallout. The Democratic Party had the opportunity to appear statesmanlike; to be the loyal opposition; to show the world that they were above petty, partisan politics. They goofed! They just couldn't understand the situation. They appeared mean and hateful, constantly harping on inconsequental items. In the long run, they appeared stupid, out of touch and totally inept.

Where is that centerist party we need to provide a choice other than the two existing groups of idiots?

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Today is MLK day. Was there ever a man who could use his voice like a great pipe organ? O still love to hear the tapes of his speeches, to relish to hear how he used his speaking voice like a wonderful singer to portrey powerful emotions.

There just are not any great orators today. MLK was the last of the really gifted ones.

The War on Christmas

There are some people who own computers but should never be allowed to write letters, especially to newspapers. Doing so only publicly displays their ignorance.

A recent letter to the Asheville, NC Citizen-Times stated that the so-called "assault on Christmas" was actually a ploy on the part of the Republican party to divert attention from other problems the Republican Party was enduring. This is really stupid!

For one thing, the Republican Party is dependent on the "fundamentilist Christian right" for much of their support. An attack on Christmas is totally out of line.

Second, the Bush Republicans are just not smart enough to use such a ploy. Sure, there are many who just love to suspect a vile conspirary behind every bush and tree, but to deliberately use such a campaign is beyond the comprehension of the ruling cabal. That would require some reverse psychology, and this group has never shown itself capable of such deep thought. When the ruling Republican Party commit crimes, they do it in the open, arragantly assuming nobody will notice the discrepancies. The reverse is proving true, but I doubt they have noticed yet.

Judge Alito Confirmation

The confirmation hearings are finally over, I hope. In 3 1/2 days they have proved that the American political system has degraded into a mean, hateful, spiteful, tug-of-war among a group of ignorant, ill-informed, arrogant lunatics, while a very few sane people stand around and watch.

The Republican Party is in total disarray, and is quickly falling into a morass of corruption, lies and venality. The Democratic Party is too stupid and hung up on its own private agendas to take advantage of this. Who will manage the insane asylum when all the keepers are in jail?

If every Senator was required to justify, in public, every statement and campaign promise made over the past twenty years, then no Senator would ever be reelected.

The "WAR" on Christmas

The so-called war on Christmas is finally over. Who won?

To paraphrase Churchill, never in the field of human endeavor have so few made so much noise about so little.

From where I sit, it seems that too many of the religious fundamentalists are just not happy unless they feel they are being persecuted. If they can feel their persecution is the result of a sinister conspiracy, that is even better. I have read many letters and columns making preposterous claims about a vast, evil and most secret conspiracy to (take your pick) destroy Christmas; destroy Christianity or destroy the "American way of life" (whatever that is)

Most of these people don't have enough sense to come in out of the rain. Anyone with a modicum of intelligence knows that if more than 3 people are involved, then it is no longer a secret.

But, with the Christmas season over, I suppose we can go back to the hum-drum war on Christianity. If nothing else, it makes for some interesting reading (in the sense that most writings on the subject are so totally stupid they are funny.)