The comedian, Lewis Black, has a wonderful routine on his latest cd (The Carnegie Hall Performance) called "Dead President". The premiss of it is ...we are fighting an enemy that is psychotic. An enemy without an ideology. An enemy that will kill anyone or anything. It's an enemy that wants to die and is happy doing so. The only way to beat anybody who is truly psychotic, is, you have to be even more psychotic. That's where electing a dead President comes into play. To quote, "This is an enemy that is not affraid of our weaponry, but, I guarantee, they will be affraid of a psychosis... especially a psychosis that produces a dead President". His choice? Ronald Reagan. Why? "Because he scares every country in the world, dead or alive". I'm usually not big on comedy cd's, but, this one is worth a listen.

OK, a little bit of levity, yet a serious situation. You can't negotiate with these lunatics. They never learned how, thanks to an upbringing that had them wielding a gun by the age of 4 and pointing at a map of the United States yelling, "KILL!!!".

This has very little to do with Islam. They're simply thugs.

Posted by Crazy Guitarist, 8/11/2006 12:30:10 AM

They're thugs, but they're Islamic thugs.

Hooray for one peace-loving Muslim:

It all began with a tip: In the aftermath of the July 7, 2005, suicide bombings on London's transit system, British authorities received a call from a worried member of the Muslim community, reporting general suspicions about an acquaintance.

From that vague but vital piece of information, according to a senior European intelligence official, British authorities opened the investigation into what they said turned out to be a well-coordinated and long-planned plot to bomb multiple transatlantic flights heading toward the United States -- an assault designed to rival the scope and lethality of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackings.

Posted by Brett Rogers (http://www.beatcanvas.com), 8/11/2006 7:45:52 AM

There are far more than one peace loving Muslim out there, but I'm happy you actually acknowledged this guy. And crazy guitarist is right, in the big picture, it's has little to do with Islam. Terrorism is a symptom of a bigger disease, and the disease is not Islam. Islam is an excuse and recruiting tool. It's like saying, "The Nazis were racist freaks." Well, yeah, of course, they were, but not all of Germany was, despite living under the regime. But the racism provided a recruiting tool to those who feared what was different by playing to their weakness, fear and desparation. The radicals of Islam who are recruiting suicide bombers are doing the exact same thing. It's hate crime on a global, massive scale. They say it's done for Allah, but really, it's done because they are bullies who feel killing is the path to empowerment.

While I don't feel comparing a terrorist to our guys in the trenches is appropriate in the least, our President is not short of a bullying attitude.

Why do I try? The definition of insanity is making the same arguement again and again, and expecting a different outcome. :-)

Posted by Bella, 8/11/2006 9:33:55 AM

The most effective soldiers are those who think they're already dead. They reach goals few could attain because it doesn't matter to them if it costs them their life.

You can't remove Islam from the equation in this. It's part of it because these people aren't afraid to murder people at the expense of their own life because their read of Islam promises them great reward for doing so.

I've said before and completely agree - the vast majority of Islam is peaceful. Superb! That's as it should be. But when I look at terrorism worlwide, Islamic Jihadists are the great practioners of this and folks like those at CAIR tend to blast those pointing out this fact more than they blast the murderers. When that switches, I'll cheer, as I did for this brave guy.

Posted by Brett Rogers (http://www.beatcanvas.com), 8/11/2006 11:19:12 AM

I find it interesting that those who know that the Bible is not to be taken literally choose to take the Koran literally.

And if you look at terrorism historically worldwide, Christianity is probably the greatest practitioner of it. The Crusades. The Inquisition. The Aryan nation was to be Christian one. Northern Ireland.

Look, I'm not saying that we should sympathize with the terrorists or that what they are doing is justified. What I'm saying is that if we would look at the real causes of the terrorism, we can build a better foundation for eliminating it from our future. Most of the people of Iraq think Americans are all rich, and have huge homes, and have lush lives. And, relatively speaking, that's probably true. But say you are a poor Iraqi kid who sees freakin' Paris Hilton on TV feeding her dog better than your family eats, and you only happen to catch Paris during the three hours a day you have electricity, despite the promises of the American president to help you nation build, you are going to develop a certain amount of resentment. The reasonable person, in fact most people, deal with that resentment in a rational way. He practices Islam and finds the peace and comfort in it rather than revenge. The thug, the bully, the sociopath, finds the "punish the infidel" and bombs a plane so he can find a better world in the afterlife.

So...here's an idea. Develop some fuel alternatives so we don't need to exploit the middle east for oil. Great, got rid of Saddam--that was helpful. Now treat the Iraqis like adults and let them run their own country without killing more of our soldiers. If you really want to be helpful, build a freakin' infrastructure before you worry about setting up a government...then the people might be more likely to build up a government that will cooperate with everybody else rather than a theocracy. And while we're looking at infrastructure, put some damn roads in Africa to spur it's the economies of it's dying nations. It's only a matter of time before those countries start developing terrorists in mass quantities as well... Open the borders so people can see how great America is for themselves, and understand that we are fundamentally good people just trying to get through life like everybody else. (Okay, I understand that the last two have nothing to do with Iraq, really, but they do have to do with the world view of the United States.

Okay...I got off topic. Apologies. I really have to stop reading anything you write about Iraq and Islam. It can only lead to my madness. :-)

Posted by Bella, 8/11/2006 12:00:33 PM

what is up with the faith picture i dont get it?

Posted by Heather, 8/18/2006 11:22:38 AM