A Nation of Morons

I found these examples of idiotic product labeling in Catherine Crier's book, The Case Against Lawyers:

The label on a handheld massager reads: "Do not use while sleeping or unconscious."

A label on a public toilet says: "Recycled flush-water unsafe for drinking." Golly, do I feel sheepish after reading that one.

A warning on a laser-printer cartridge: "Do not eat toner."

Bicycle shin-guards warn us: "Pads do not protect parts of the body that they do not cover."

A household iron says: "Do not iron clothing while wearing them."

And a baby stroller's warning sticker pleads: "Remove child before folding."

Just think, our society is so litigious--and some of its members are so irredeemably stupid--that such boneheaded messages are necessary.

Sad, isn't it?

Howdy All

I realize it's been several days since I last posted. Sorry about that. I'm pretty sure that the modem is damaged in my pc, since I'm having no computer problems outside of connecting to the internet. I haven't had the time or the funds, lately, to correct this situation. But I will, eventually--hopefully soon. Anyway, I just wanted to update everyone on what's going on. I hope all is well with my readers and commenters. Thanks for sticking with me.

HAL 9000

Folks, I'm sorry I haven't been updating the blog with my usual frequency. I'm having difficulties with the evil computer, so expect updates, here, on a once -or- twice- weekly basis, instead of daily. This is a temporary situation, so I appreciate all of you who hang with me, until it's over. This, too, shall pass, and all that. I apologize to all my loyal readers and commenters who are wondering what the heck happened to me. Fortunately, I wasn't abducted by aliens, or sucked into a black hole. I hope most of you consider that a positive development.

Anyway, I'm sure I'll be back to posting my rants and gripes with all the usual train-wreck subtleties and sandpaper delicacies pretty soon.

I've posted two new entries, below, which I'd been saving. Hope y'all enjoy 'em.

God bless each and every one of you. Take care of yourselves, until I return.

Violence Has a Purpose

"People...love to say that 'Violence never solved anything.' But what solved Hitler? Was it a team of social workers? Was it putting daisies into the gun barrels of Nazi Panzer divisions? Was it a commission that tried to understand what made Hitler so angry? No. What solved Hitler was violence." --Michael Medved

This is what drives me nuts about pacifism. It's a desire for peace taken to its most deranged extreme. Pacifism means submission to death. . .or worse. That's it, in a nutshell. History's pages are rife with examples of violence solving problems and ridding people of evils. Betimes, violence begets violence, I'm aware, and the Law of Unintended Consequences always is in effect. But situations occur in which violence is the only solution allowed by the opposing party. Some people understand and respect nothing but brute force.

Violence stemmed the tide of the Hunnish invasion; it ended Moorish usurper rule in Spain; it halted the Jihad at Poitiers, and grievously injured the Ottoman Empire's imperialist goals at Lepanto; it prevented the annihilation of Israel in several wars, and the engulfment of Kuwait and South Korea. I could go on and on.

Pacifism assumes a basic, inherent goodness within the hearts of ones supposed foes. As history and the local nightly news tells us, this is a specious assumption, a flight from reality. Covering one's eyes does not bring salvation from the pouncing lion. There are times when fire must be fought with fire, claw with claw, fang with fang. Circumstances arise in which we have no other choice.

If someone breaches my home's locked doors at night, with intent to harm, pacifism would see to it that I stand by and do nothing, while my family is assaulted and possibly killed. I can assure you, that ain't gonna happen.

Ever wonder why we don't hear the lamentations of pacifists from deep within war-torn territories? It's because they're cut-off early on, buried somewhere in a mass grave with all the other "peace-at-any-price" dreamers.

I remember a scene from the film Mars Attacks!; it's a silly movie, but one segment stands out in my mind as a great explanation of where pacifism takes people. In this scene, a ship lands in the desert and is surrounded by anxious humans, waiting in breathless anticipation for someone--or something--to emerge. A ramp extends, and little, harmless-looking Martians appear. An on-site hippie is overcome with emotion, at which point he releases a dove into the air. As it soars overhead, a Martian shoots it out of the sky, and everyone watches as it lands in a sizzling, featherless heap. The aliens then proceed to exterminate everyone in the vicinity--man, woman, and child. It never even occurs to most of these people that the immense alien buildup is a preliminary to an all-out assault on the human race. I'm not expecting extraterrestrial conquerors any time soon. We have enough problems and enough invaders to worry about, right here on the ground.

Don't be that dove.

No Kidding

I saw this in The Federalist Patriot. It's a real headline:

"Report: Muslim World Largely Anti-American" --Associated Press

Gee, really? Talkin' 'bout a statement of the obvious. That's kinda like saying, "Report: Bill Clinton Like Crazed Rabbit on Viagra."

File this under the "DUH" heading.

Quotes from the Ivory Tower

"I think it has clearly done some temporary damage. It's thrown us off our game for a little bit. I think this will end up being a blip." --Michael Isikoff, author of the "Operation: Flush Your Credibility" scandal at Newsweek.

"CBS News has a culture, has a history that those of us who work here, it's very real -- that we see it as a sort of magical mystical kingdom of journalistic knights."--Sir Dan Rather

Let's see, arrogance, disdain for the truth, flippancy, delusions of grandeur, a severance from reality: What more could you ask for in a "journalist?"

Like a Broken Clock. . .

“It becomes clear now that the whole justification of Jesus’ life and death is predicated on the existence of Adam and the forbidden fruit he and Eve ate. Without the original sin, who needs to be redeemed? Without Adam’s fall into a life of constant sin terminated by death, what purpose is there to Christianity? None.”–- G. Richard Bozarth, "The Meaning of Evolution," American Atheist, p. 30, September 20, 1979.

During rare phases of the moon, under aberrant planetary conjunctions, or eccentric alignments of the stars--even atheists sometimes get it right.

The Evolution of Diversity

From Answers in Genesis: We received a letter from a person who’d been named the editor for a geologic society. He was asked to provide articles of substance for their newsletter. In his first issue he included articles that questioned established evolutionary geologic principles. In less than two weeks, members of the society demanded his resignation and the return of all the materials that he had, even when these actions were in violation of the society’s constitution.

These so-called "scientists" really get on my nerves. I recommend that they have t-shirts made, with this logo: "Keeping the Evolutionary Paradigm Alive, One Lie at a Time." Just march in lock-step toward the precipice with a smile. Submit to groupthink. But if you decide to think outside the box, or follow facts wherever they lead, you can take a hike.

Founding Quotes of Note XXX

"Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition." --Thomas Jefferson

I'd get a kick out of hanging a sign with these words in the nearest welfare office.

A Poem

After that last post, I thought I'd offer something somewhat more uplifting. Here's a poem I wrote a couple of years ago. I hope y'all enjoy it:


Mary's Pledge


Hush, now, my darling, rest in sleep,
until the morning gleams.
Lay your head on my gladdened breast.
Find solace in your dreams.
Our Maker's plans and hopes for us
lie bundled in your form--
the quenching of our spirits' thirst,
the calming of life's storm.
Please know that I will keep the charge
God gave me in my youth--
to help you grow in righteousness
and watch you live His truth.
So all this heart I give to you,
my balm to soothe your strife,
milk for your sustenance,
my every breath, my life.
I rub your little head, so soft
and rock you with my songs.
No matter how our roads diverge,
with you my soul belongs.
Let me now wipe your tear-streaked eyes.
Oh, may my love suffice!
For someday you shall dry mine, too,
at home, in Paradise.

Bombs-for-Tots

Reed this and weep.

“Shahids” (Martyrs for Allah)

Preaching before an audience that included Abbas, Sheikh Yusuf Jumma Salmah said in a recent Friday sermon on PA TV that the ideal Palestinian woman is like “Al Khansah,” the heroine of Islamic tradition who celebrated her four sons’ death in battle by thanking God for the honor…This portrayal of the ideal Palestinian woman as one who willingly sacrifices her sons as Shahids, therefore, continues to represent official PA ideology— especially since this sermon was delivered in the presence of Abbas…

Interview with the mother of two killed terrorists:

Host: “They (the Israelis) accuse the Palestinian mother of hating her sons and of encouraging them to die.”

Mother: “No. We do not encourage our sons to die. We encourage them to ‘shahada’ (death for Allah), for the homeland, for Allah. We don’t say to the mothers of the Shahids, ‘We come to comfort you,’ rather, ‘We come to bless you on your son’s wedding, on your son’s shahada. Congratulations to you on the shahada.’ For us the mourning is a joyous wedding. We give out drinks, we give out sweets. Praise to Allah, our mourning is a joyous wedding.” (Palestinian Authority TV, November 17, 2004)

A Letter from a Shahid to his Mother/ By Abdul Badi Iraq:

My Dear Mother

…I wrapped my body with determination, with hopes and with bombs

I asked (reaching) toward Allah and the fighting homeland

The explosive belt makes me fly, strengthens me to make haste

I calm it (the explosive), we should stay steadfast, we have not yet reached

I launched myself, I launched myself, like lava burning old legends and vanity

I launched my body, all my pains and oppression towards the packs of beasts

I launched, oh mother, freed the chains and the shackles.

And you found me rising and rising like a candle that was lit with precious olive oil

And you saw me sending a loving kiss above the mosques and the churches, the houses and the roads

Flocks of pigeons flew above the porches

And Al-Aqsa smiled and gave me a sign that will not sleep

Dawn is close, oh mother, and it shall rise from guns, from shining spears

It will be lit from a bloody wound…

The wedding is the wedding of the land

Sound a cry of joy, oh mother, I am the groom…”

(The official Palestinian daily Al Hayat Al Jadida, Feb. 27, 2003)

This has got to be the sickest, worst distortion of all that is holy that I've ever seen. A religion and an ideology such as this must have found its putrid origin in the bowels of hell, right from the Devil's darkest imaginings. It's like embracing darkness as light; and seeing light, and denouncing it as darkness.

Bill Press: Genius of the Left

Leftist theologian Bill Press says: "If Jesus cured people of leprosy, dropsy and palsy, is there any doubt that He would embrace today's efforts to find a cure for Parkinson's or heart disease using embryonic stem-cell research? I think not."

Someone needs to do some brain-cell research on this guy. Even setting aside religious beliefs, there's not a whit of logic in his statement. Let's reword this for its true meaning: "If Jesus cured people of leprosy, dropsy and palsy, is there any doubt that He would embrace today's efforts to find a cure for Parkinson's or heart disease using the tiny bodies of ex utero babies? I think not."

See? Taken for what it is, this utterance is asinine in the extreme. First-off, Bill, Jesus didn't use the discarded corpuses of partly-formed human beings to heal people. Nor did He condone it. He used the miraculous and awesome power of God. We have no reason to believe that he approves such research. Second, medical research (which you have placed on a pedestal) has shown that the positive effects of embryonic stem-cell research are dubious, at best. That's putting a nice spin on it. Adult stem-cell research has met with far more success. Third, if God will allow the curing and eradication of these horrific diseases, don't you think He might provide a way of going about this without mining human embryos? Since you find the great superiority of adult stem-cell research unworthy of even the merest mention in your article, I must conclude that not only are you illogical and unChristian in your thought process, but also dishonest.

His reasoning, in a nutshell: Jesus cured people. Embryonic stem-cell research cures people. Ergo, Jesus would've danced a jig over its prospects. Ignoring the lies implicit in this, that's a leap of logic that would cause Darwin to fall flat on his face in the evolutionary soup.