Random Reflections Pt10

36. Argh. I hate to keep going on religion like this, but there’s something I must comment on in the news today.The pope recently did a speech, like he usually does, the theme this time being that violence was incompatible with God, and quoted an old Byzantine guy’s comments that at that time, Islam had been spread by the sword.

Whereupon radical Muslims across the world call Islam a religion of peace and further call for the killing of the pope, the bombing of the Vatican, and the killing of even more Christians. Whereupon Muslim leaders explained that Muslims take their religion very seriously and we have to be sensitive to that.

Is it any wonder that Muslims think there’s a war on against their religion? Like it or not, the vast majority of people who commit terrorist acts are Muslims, and they’re using religious excuses to call for our deaths.

Not that all Muslims do that – but the vast majority of people who do that are Muslims. There’s a fine line there. It’s just as reasonable to say that the majority of people who commit crimes are black, but the majority of black people aren’t criminals.

The Muslim community has been sadly lacking in the spinal area when it comes to the more crazed members of their faith. We hear lots of “Islam is a religion of peace” but very little “Those who pervert our faith for an excuse to kill people are insane dogs.”

What you don’t punish, you subsidize. What you subsidize, you encourage.

Again, it’s no wonder they think we hate their religion – like it or not, their religion only receives airtime whenever a believer picks up a sword or a gun or a block of C4, kills some people who were just minding their own business, and then issues a statement that everyone who’s not Muslim should die. That’s the “brand” we’re seeing advertised right now. You don’t like it – rebrand your product.

37. I’d just like to state, for the record, that I hate Bush. He signed the McCain-Feingold bill into law, which prevents me speaking my mind about a candidate in the paper or on tv or on my own website. I am currently a criminal for doing just that. He banned the importation of FAL and AK47 kits, and has not rolled back ANY of the +25,000 laws illegally restricting my right to keep and carry anything I want for my own protection against thugs of the common or jackbooted variety. He signed into law the Patriot Act, which grievously violates the 4th Amendment among others. He has had American citizens held in prison without cause, without notification of the charges against him, without the notification of their families. And those are just the examples I can come up with at the moment that can affect ME. He’s invaded a country for bad reasons, without a declaration of war. He’s had foreigners tortured by other foreigners for suspected links to terrorism.

There’s one punishment for treason on a scale that grand, and folks, it ain’t a slap on the wrist.

However: I am perfectly willing to acknowledge the good things he has done. He has, in a faltering and somewhat wrongheaded manner prosecuted those who would attack America throughout the world, as he should. He has, in a faltering and somewhat wrongheaded manner attempted to secure the American nation and economy from the wave of invaders (their reasons for invasion mean not a thing) pouring over our southern border.

He’s done a few good things, for which he deserves credit. The majority of the country would just rather focus on the bad things he’s done, of which there are many. Yes, he’s done bad things – we know already! It’s not being a jingo-istic, right-wing chickenhawk to admit the man has done some good things.

This is what’s known as Bush-Derangement syndrome online: Previously rational human beings driven to a fit of frothing anger any time George Bush Jr.’s name is mentioned. He is not the font of all that is evil in the world. His successes deserve proportional airtime with his failures.

I’m absolutely sick of hearing EVERY-BLOODY-WHERE on tv, radio, internet, and carrier pidgeon how Bush personally thanked the 9/11 hijackers and that Michael Moore snuck into his secret mountaintop headquarters to film his meetings with the Zionist cabal of Haliburton and that he cut a few dollars from the massively inflated and ineffectual education budget so minorities won’t get a good education and that he wants to conquer the world with his moon based Laser Of Death. GROW UP!

38. People don’t understand something about war. I have to thank U. S. Grant, evil though he may be, for giving me this understanding. What they don’t understand is this – it’s hell. I mean that, and not in the trite, sound-byte way. War is the sum of all evils in the world. It is the highest sacrament we can pay to the devil.

You see, war isn’t about right and wrong – it’s about winning or dying. It’s about killing the enemy until they can’t fight anymore. And to so completely devastate the enemy that they can’t hurt you, you have to go all out – you have to attack and attack and attack without ANY regard for any life, enemy or civilian. You have to fight a war like an animal, or you will lose, because all the other guy has to do is outlast you (and if you’re not willing to commit to a war, it won’t take long). We can clear Baghdad of jihadists, all we need to do is firebomb it like we did the large cities in Japan. But we’re not willing to do that.

And if you’re not willing to go whole hog, to destroy and kill everything, then you’re doing nothing but encouraging your enemies. They will grow stronger despite your minor victories. It is absolutely fatal to engage in war without the will to do anything to win it.This is why war must be avoided if at all possible. Because it is every horrible thing human beings can do to each others, the sum of all evil. Because to win a war, you have to make good people suffer, you have drive good people to do things they should never have to do, you have to put good people in situations where it is kill others or die themselves, or allow others to die so that others may live.

War IS hell.

39. No matter the good it does, I have come to the realization that the Christian religion will never be able to live down the Crusades. Criticize the violence some might say is inherent to another’s religion (and we all know which religion that is) and point out that most places as practice it are roughly 1000 years behind in the development of civilization – you hear about the Crusades and you’re hypocrites. Stand up against the invasion of Iraq for religious reasons – you hear about the Crusades and you’re hypocrites. Good God, we know about that already, get over it!

The crusaders and their kin have been dead a thousand years, their actions in no way taint what we do today.

40. Wow, I didn’t think I’d get to 40. Just think how big a milestone 50 will be.

There are multiple levels of programming in a computer. There’s the stuff you see and interact with. There’s the operating system that runs behind it. And behind that, there’s the BIOS and all the hard-coded code that keeps all the chips and parts in synch with each other and running without tripping over their feet.

You can change the visible stuff with relative ease. The operating system…a little harder, but it can be done. But the stuff you REALLY don’t want to screw with is the code behind that. Mess with the BIOS and hard-coded instructions at your own risk – like as not you’ll crash the computer, and it’ll be “lights on, nobody home.”

People are just the same. You can force a change in their visible behavior with relative ease. For a little more effort, you can change what they believe. But deep down, we’re still all animals. We’re just animals who can choose. And when you screw with the animal instincts and impulses and behavior, you’re begging for trouble.

You can attempt to change the programming that runs behind our conciousness – but you will affect absolutely no change whatsoever and will do unimaginable worlds of destruction.