links for 2009-10-21

links for 2009-10-15

links for 2009-10-12

The Complete Infidel's Guide to the Koran

Jamie Glazov interviews Robert Spencer for FrontPage Magazine, on Spencer's new book, The Complete Infidel's Guide to the Koran (Amazon link). Money quotes:

Spencer: Political correctness would have us believe that the Koran is a book of peace, and that anyone who says otherwise is "bigoted," "hateful," and "Islamophobic." But is it, really? What the Koran really says can easily be verified. If the Koran really curses Jews and Christians (9:30) and calls for warfare against them in order to bring about their subjugation (9:29), it is not "Islamophobic" to forewarn Infidels by pointing this out. It is simply a fact. And it should go without saying that it is not a fact that should move any reader of my book to hate anyone. The fact that the Koran counsels warfare against unbelievers should move readers to act in defense of freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the legal equality of all people, before it is too late.

[...]

But most government and media analysts dare not even question the assumption that the Koran is peaceful, for they believe that any insinuation to the contrary is racist, bigoted, and effectively brands all Muslims as terrorists. In other words, they think the implications of the possibility that the Koran teaches warfare against unbelievers are too terrible to even contemplate. Thus, many policymakers simply assume the Koran teaches peace without bothering to study the text. They do this to their own peril -- and ours.

links for 2009-10-11

  • The Weekly Standard - Meet the People Who Were Passed Over for Obama
    The Nobel Committee could have given the Peace Prize to: an Afghan women's rights activist who opposed the Taliban during its rule; a former hostage held for six year; a Congolese doctor who founded a hospital and has dedicated his life to helping women and girls who are victims of rape and other sexual violence; an organization dedicated to clearing land mines; or two Chinese activists, each imprisoned for their outspokenness on the need for reform in China.

    But let's roll with the done-nothing empty suit instead...

    (tags: nobel obama politics)

Seven

Wow. Seven years as of yesterday. Seven years ago, I had a great job. A career in IT. Seven years ago, we hadn't been in our new house even a full year. Seven years ago, we were churchless. Seven years ago, we were childless. Now, I do not have a career in IT, but I do have a job: being a stay-at-home dad. And it's awesome. Now, we've been in the house nearly eight years. Now, not only do we have a church, but that church has given me my best friend, and yet another purpose: leading some of our collegians in Bible study. Now, we have two wonderful boys, six and thirteen months. They are absolute joys. I'm blogging less. Twittering more. Chasing a little guy all around the house. Having fun. It's not all a bed of roses, but there are more ups than downs, and I thank God for all of these blessings.

Disastrously bad, ridicule-inviting choices

Tony Woodlief:

It seems to me that if you’re going to be in the business of making disastrously bad, ridicule-inviting choices, you need to select people with a long track record of feckless, reckless, irrelevant, crowd-pleasing stupidity on an international scale. People like Jimmy Carter, in other words.

Seriously, couldn’t the committee find a murderous thug who, seeing that his bread might be buttered on the side of temporary peace, recently signed some meaningless treaty? And if they wanted an American, couldn’t they find someone with a solid history of lecturing his countrymen about our moral failings?

What’s missing this year, in other words, is outrage. There’s just nothing to be incensed about. Obama certainly shows plenty of promise of becoming Carteresque, what with looming inflation and a seeming inability to make decisions about the military, but he needs time to stumble into that role. Giving him the award now just makes everyone go “Huh?” And I think what the committee is really looking for is “Ack!”

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can...



So back on the first of September, a mere week after the boy started full-blown walking, I find Samuel attempting to climb atop the ottoman. So I grabbed my camera and started shooting. So far as we know, this was his first summit attempt and success.

We need a bigger House?

Jonah Goldberg, National Review Online :

Beyond principle, there are practical reasons to expand Congress. For decades, presidential candidates have promised to change the "way Washington works." But once elected, they're soon captured by their own congressional parties, which are in turn beholden to the "old bulls" and constituencies rooted in interests outside their districts.

A Congress of, say, 5,000 citizen-legislators would change that overnight. Would it cost more money? Yes. But today's huge staffs could be cut, and perks and pork might even be curtailed by using the old chewing gum rule: If there's not enough for everyone, nobody can have any.

Term-limit activists have the right idea -- getting new blood in Washington -- but their remedy is anti-democratic. The trick is to swamp Congress with new blood and new ideas. Want more minorities in Congress? Done. Want more libertarians? More socialists? More blue-collar workers? Done, done, done.

In free-speech debates, it's often said that the cure for bad speech is more speech. Well, the cure for a calcified Congress just might be more members; the remedy for an undemocratic system, more democracy. It's certainly interesting to think about. Be sure to read the whole thing. The representation of Montana versus Rhode Island should immediately show you something's wrong.

links for 2009-10-04

links for 2009-09-30

Left-footed

Last evening, after arriving home from dinner, our family decided to take a walk. Our neighborhood has a small green belt with a walking/biking trail through it, the air was cool, but not too cool, and it just seemed like the right thing to do. Our six-year-old, Davis, wanted to ride his Razor scooter. Donning his bike helmet, he did so, coasting ahead or behind us, as his pushing and balancing allowed. At one point, while he was ahead of us, I noted his problem keeping the scooter fully upright while pushing. I thought it might have something to do with the fact that our normally right-handed son was using his left leg and foot to push the scooter along. I verbally made note of this observation, and suggested he try switching his feet, placing the left on the scooter and pushing with his right. He tried this for a few moments, felt it was worse than before, and switched back. My wife, thinking along the same lines as I, remarked that he hadn't really given the right-foot push enough of a try. His reply? "I'm just left-footed."

Appreciating our own

"[W]e ought to deprecate the hazard attending ardent and susceptible minds, from being too strongly, and too early prepossessed in favor of other political systems, before they are capable of appreciating their own." --George Washington, letter to the Commissioners of the District of Columbia, 1795

links for 2009-09-12

What we're lacking

"Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who have a right, from the frame of their nature, to knowledge, as their great Creator, who does nothing in vain, has given them understandings, and a desire to know; but besides this, they have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge; I mean, of the characters and conduct of their rulers." --John Adams, Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law, 1756

It's Time To See Religion Die

Brian "Head" Welch, Save Me From Myself:

All of the man-made religion crap in this world has to die. Whether it's Christian man-made religion crap or some other man-made religion crap, it all has to die. It must grieve God's heart when he sees Christians fighting about whose doctrine is right; he doesn't see denominations, he sees one big glorious bride. When Christians argue about doctrinal issues, all he sees is carnal people acting like children. All that prideful, controlling religious crap is what drives young people away from churches, and it has to go. Much of the world's population is under the age of eighteen, and we have to bring the love of Christ to them without all this controlling crap going on. Because, where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom."

Because it'll make you smile



ATPM 15.09

After a couple-month hiatus from my usual blog posting announcing publication, I'm pleased to note the September issue of About This Particular Macintosh is now available for your reading pleasure. After more than twenty years of self-employment, Mark finds himself in the company of, well, a company, and is exasperated by the many instances of "anti-time" he is encountering. Oh, and he misses his Mac. (Who wouldn't?) Angus performs some fortune-telling as he gazes out over the technology sector. Back in July, Lee took a 10-day excursion to merry ol' England. (Technically it was the United Kingdom, as Wales and Scotland were visited too, but "merry ol' United Kingdom" just doesn't have the same ring to it.) While on his journey, he chose to forego taking along his trusted MacBook Pro, winging it solely with his jailbroken (ahem) iPhone. In addition to providing us with his Mac-less trip experience, Lee also shares with readers this month's desktop pictures. My favorites include Becky Falls, Big Ben, and Westminster Abbey 1. Matt showers another array of his new cartoon, Out at Five upon us; I really like "Difficult Printer" and "Get to the point". Chris finds a simple and inexpensive iPhone stand, while Linus wonders if Cram is the learning tool it's cracked up to be. Chris also puts the In Your Face "flexible holder" for one's iPhone through its paces. It's always handy to be able to power up one's iPhone after a busy day of texting, mapping, web surfing, e-mailing, oh, and using that voice thingy that comes with it. No, not the Skype app. That thing that says Phone. Thus, Lee is pleased he can do so thanks to Griffin's PowerBlock Reserve. Finally, Ellyn takes control of Safari 4 thanks to, um, Take Control of Safari 4, one of the latest titles from TidBITS Publishing's Take Control e-book series. As always, About This Particular Macintosh is available in a variety of formats for your reading enjoyment: + Online + Offline Webzine + Print-optimized PDF + Screen-optimized PDF

links for 2009-08-25

"I am on a mission"

The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs:

Will you write on a tablet, or just read from it? Or will you just buy it and put it on your desk and look at it a lot and never use it at all? Or will you maybe carry it around and put on the table in restaurants to show the other humanoids in your tribe that you are more advanced and wealthy than they are, and they should fear you because you have powerful magic that they do not understand? You see what I mean? What is the anthropology here? And what about the ergonomics? Can you mount it on a wall? Will it have a shiny surface so that Macolytes can adore themselves as they use it in public? (Yes. It must.) The tablet must look and feel not like something that was made by man -- it must feel otherworldly, as if God himself made it and handed it to you. I'm so glad Fake Steve came back.