Thursday, February 23, 2006

Waiting Patiently...
Concerning the exploding of a Shi'a mosque in Iraq, I'm waiting for all the morons who claim that simple cartoons of the "Prophet" are offensive and insensitive to come out in force and yell with the same ferocity about the desecration of of a holy shrine.

(Insert Cricket-chirping sound effect here)

Of course no one will come forward, hold a protest march, attack an embassy or behead anyone else over this. Why? Because there is no way in which to blame the West (especially America), no way to use the incident to incite hatred against the West (especially America), or use it as a pretext for prying anything from a Western government (especially America).

The violence is Muslim on Muslim, which is not supposed to happen, but which routinely does, and which can be excused according to your view of orthodoxy, as relates to Islam. For every verse in the Koran that extolls the nobler virtues of mankind, you'll find another that allows human nature to run rampant in the name of God. The only fig leaf you need to cover your activity is to be able to brand the target as a renegade or an apostate. Given the centuries long debate and violence between Sunni and Shi'a, that's an easy call to make - blow the apostate's mosque up, dammit!

I keep telling people; we're not dealing with a religion --- we're dealing with a mental illness that manifests itself in a personality disorder. On the one hand, Muslims shout about the denial of their humanity. On the other, they display no such trait. There ain't enough Zoloft on the planet to fix this.

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Correction...
In the rant the other day over the sale of American port operations to an Arab company, I mentioned that the deal involved two American ports. It actually involves SIX. Even more reason to torpedo the whole shebang.

Monday, February 20, 2006

Some Still Don't Get It...Even Those who Defined "It"...
You know, there were those (I can't count myself as one of them) who believed that the creation of the Department of Homeland Security was little more than a cosmetic change to an otherwise incorrrigible American bureaucracy, made in response to, rather than in spite of, the events of September 11th, 2001.

Government monstrosities do not usually develop overnight. They typically take years to make their toxic presance known to the general public. DHS just might possibly be the first to break the land-speed record.

Part of the reason why has to do with how DHS was created. The Congress simply shuffled agencies around, without regard to the logic or reason behind many of the moves, ignored bureaucratic imperatives and snobberies that originally hindered the intelligence community on 9/11 and merely wished that the requisite co-operation (sans turf battles, political imperatives, etc) would just materialize.

Voila! You get a DHS in which FEMA can't get relief supplies into a section of the ocuntry devestated by hurricanes. Heck, you're lucky to STILL HAVE FEMA at all, because DHS was, you know, created in response to TERRORISM. Duh!

You get intelligence agencies that leak like sieves. Had they operated that way prior to 9/11, perhaps the word would have been out on the nightly news to "be on the lookout for these 19 middle-eastern men, believed armed with plane tickets". Worse, they spring so many holes because each agency is steeped in political infighting. Such holes open for a variety of petty reasons: someone lost a job, someone doesn't agree with his bosses assesment, someone seeks a job elsewhere, someone seeks to impress the media with his knowledge and power. It's petty.

You get a department that's probably so stretched that it's more than happy to turn over security operations in two major American ports to a company base din the UNITED ARAB EMIRATES.

You read that right; the UAE. You know, wedged between Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran. You know, were there's like, a war on that's sorta-kinda related to the major religion practiced in the UAE? Like Islam, perhaps. You know, the creed that the 19 guys the NSA WASN'T wiretapping followed?

DHS has given it's "blessing" to this proposed takeover. Some in Congress are skeptical. The rest of the country is actually stunned (the part of the country able to understand that foolishness, that is. The part that votes democrat wouldn't know what we're talking about). The DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY which doesn't even bother to check every container entering an American port (it's too busy, you know), is absolutley CONVINCED that the important job of defending American ports can BE LEFT IN THE HANDS OF MUSLIM FOREIGNERS.

Paging President Bush: you'd better stop this shit. Like RIGHT NOW. Either that, or send Dick Cheney around to see Mr. Chertoff to discuss firearms safety. DHS is not doing what it's suppposed to be doing, and right now, it's looks to me like their even shirking whatever repsonsibility they have after that.

Economic considerations aside, DHS has signed off on this for it's own, selfish reasons. I can't prove it, but I damned well feel it. Relieved of the responsibility for operating security at two ports, DHS can concentrate on issues of more vital national interest: redesigning the departmental logo and blaming FEMA for Hurricane Katrina.